These days, the few major infrastructure projects that California undertakes routinely run behind schedule and over budget. Seventeen years after the establishment of the California High-Speed Rail Authority, not a foot of track has been laid, thanks to lawsuits over eminent domain, environmental concerns, and labor practices. The official price tag of the proposed rail system reads $68.4 billion, but most observers, remembering the San FranciscoOakland Bay Bridges massive cost overruns, expect the bill to top $100 billion. Its essentially the same story with the states effort to restore the SacramentoSan Joaquin Delta. After decades of bickering and delays, Governor Jerry Brown is pushing a $24.5 billion plan to flood the delta (in order to preserve some 50 threatened or endangered species) and to build tunnels underneath it to ensure that Central Valley farmers and homeowners continue getting northern California water. The plan would require at least a decade to complete under the best of circumstances; opposition from environmentalists, farmers, local residents, and taxpayer groups would almost certainly delay things further.

Envision a California infrastructure project that put tens of thousands of people to work and finished ahead of schedule while using private financing. Suppose that it made a profit without government guarantees or taxpayer liabilities. Imagine, moreover, that this project did little harm to the environment while producing massive quantities of renewable energy. Almost all the projects machinery would be hidden underground or housed in elegant classical buildings. It would radically reengineer nature, yes, but the most obvious evidence of change would be scenic alpine lakes where dry canyons had previously stood. And instead of facing endless lawsuits from aggrieved parties, the project would enjoy nearly unanimous support.

More than 100 years ago, California entrepreneur Henry Huntington accomplished all that with his Big Creek Hydroelectric Project on the San Joaquin River, high in the central Sierra Nevada Mountains. Today, the projects six man-made reservoirs, 27 dams, and nine powerhouses generate 1,000 megawatts of clean hydroelectric power for about 11 million southern Californians; provide late-summer irrigation to more than 1 million acres of farmland; and prevent the San Joaquin River from flooding northeast Fresno in the spring. In symphonic fashion, through dams, reservoirs, penstocks, and tunnels, the rivers descent is regulated, stored, divided, and recombined. To the casual observer, the process is imperceptible.

Big Creek is a classic story of American (and Californian) ingenuity and drive, as well as a reminder of a time when political leaders agreed that the needs of humanity trumped the needs of, say, fish. Unfortunately, the projects bounty has helped create a complacency that not only disallows successor developments but threatens the original purpose of Big Creek itself.

By 1900, Los Angeles was expanding to new suburbs both inland and along the coast. Also growing was its demand for electricity to fuel everything from modern commuter trolleys to such novel household appliances as heaters and washing machines. Without plentiful and affordable electricity, Los Angeles couldnt growa fact not lost on the citys premier residential developer, Henry Huntington. Henry was the nephew of Collis Huntington, an industrialist who had consolidated the Southern Pacific Railroad Corporation, and he inherited much of his money from his childless uncle. (He even left his wife and four children and married Colliss widow.)

In the early twentieth century, the best way for Henry Huntington to generate the electricity he wanted was to use the force of water falling through massive turbinesa method that would soon provide almost half of early industrial Americas electrical power. By 1900, a nationwide scramble was under way to dam rivers and install turbines. (Today, the Chinese are doing the same thing, building a vast array of new dams to produce thousands of megawatts of clean hydroelectric power.) Yet southern California had few rivers with strong enough flows to generate electricity economically. The Sacramento and American River systems to the north were already mostly claimed for hydroelectric power and flood control. Nearer to Los Angeles were the smaller Kern, Kaweah, and Kings Rivers, but they would be hard to dam, and they lacked the volume of the San Joaquin River watershed to the north, the largest in California.

Huntington set his sights on the San Joaquin, but that river presented daunting challenges. The proposed transmission route from the upper river to Los Angeles spanned some 250 miles. To cover the distance, Huntington would use a largely untested system of high-voltage, alternating-current wiresthe longest in the country at that time. No federal grants or loans existed to subsidize such innovative and untried technology. Further, large cattle and farming companies that had done business in the San Joaquin Valley since the late 1850s held water rights to the 350-mile-long river, and some of them boasted political connections equal to Huntingtons. To grant him rights to divert and redirect the river, they would have to be convinced that dams would allow them more water for irrigation than they had already.

Most daunting of all was that at the turn of the century, the high country at 7,000 feet was uninhabited, largely unknown, and nearly inaccessible. To build the first powerhouses at Big Creek, Huntington would first need to spend tens of millions of dollars to establish a veritable city of some 40,000 workers in the Sierra Nevada and keep them alive during the frigid winters. But how to transport all these workers and the machinery they would use? Neither a passable road nor a rail line was available, and engineers had already discovered that the central Sierras steep terrain and heavy winter snowfalls made the construction of all-weather roads virtually impossible.

Here, Huntingtons transportation experience proved invaluable. He was a railroad magnate, after all. Now he founded the San Joaquin and Eastern Railroad Company, which laid 56 miles of narrow-gauge track in a little more than five months, stretching up into the mountains and arriving at the projects two major work sites. Speed was of the essence: because of the absence of public funding, the unproved hydroelectric technology, and the huge start-up construction costs, the project had to start generating and selling electricity before the companys capital was depleted. Huntingtons crews would have to work double shifts, year-round, to capture the spring snowmelt as quickly as possible.

The Granger Collection, NYC

What had convinced Huntington to confront the projects technical challenges was the brilliant work of an iconoclastic Fresno-based engineer, John S. Eastwood. Employing his own mule teams, Eastwood had crisscrossed and mapped the upper San Joaquin River and fashioned a visionary blueprint of a system of dams, lakes, penstocks, and powerhouses. Before he met Huntington, his main obstacles were financial, not scientific or technical: the company that he cofounded, the San Joaquin Electric Company, lacked sufficient capital to proceed. Then Huntington hired him to file claims to the watershed, survey the vast area, and provide a cost estimate. To lure Eastwood, Huntington granted him 5,400 shares of stock in the newly formed Pacific Light and Power Corporation.

By 1907, Eastwood had finished detailed construction blueprints for what was now called the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project. But Huntingtons financial fortunes took a hit in the economic panic of that year, and the project had to wait for more than three years. Then, in 1910, just as Huntington was gearing up to begin at last, he fired Eastwood for reasons that have never been fully explained. Their falling-out apparently had something to do with the amount of controland profitthat Eastwood expected. The men also disagreed over Eastwoods innovative methods of dam construction.

In 1912, with construction well under way, Huntington, the corporations majority stockholder, rammed through an assessment of $5 a share on all stockholders to pay for the ongoing projecta ploy to reconsolidate the company in his hands. Unlike Huntington and his wealthy associates, Eastwood couldnt afford to pay $5 for every one of his 5,400 sharesessentially a $27,000 fee. At 53, Big Creeks designer had been forced out of its construction and was nearly broke as well. Eastwood would eventually recover, planning numerous dams in the American West and becoming legendary in engineering circles for his multiple-arch design, which reduced construction costs. Yet he is barely remembered today; the Eastwood Powerhouse at Shaver Lake, part of the Big Creek system, stands as his only public monument.

Eastwoods plan to harness the San Joaquin would result in the largest hydroelectric project in the world at the time. The plans genius lay in its subtlety. The Sierras western slopes were so steep that the river system fell almost 7,000 vertical feet in less than 70 horizontal miles. A series of small dams would modulate the river (soon to be known as the hardest-working water in the world), collect it into lakes, and release the lake water precisely to meet demand. Eastwood saw his river dams and lake bypasses as a series of stepping-stones, each reservoir storing water that, when released, would spin generators and then proceed to the next powerhouse below.

Unlike the engineers of Hoover Dam and Lake Mead, Eastwood didnt envision a single colossal barrier spanning the steep walls of a river gorge to form an enormous lake behind it. He realized that he could achieve the same storage and power by transforming the canyons and gorges parallel to the rivers course into a second flow undergrounda solution that didnt merely preserve the scenery but improved it. These subterranean flows emerge aboveground only at powerhouses and lakes. Two of these lakes, Huntington and Shaver, look as though they formed naturally from runoff from the surrounding peaks; indeed, in some ways, Eastwoods second course is more beautiful than the San Joaquins main and original route nearby. Eventually, the two courses rejoin each other below the Big Creek powerhouses.

Key to Eastwoods vision was its modularity. His design allowed for additional dams and small reservoirs at junctures above and below the projects first phase. Through the ensuing decades, as engineers became increasingly familiar with the regions snowmelt variance, they added these dams and reservoirs at places in the watershed that maximized water storage and hydroelectric generation.

Big Creek wasnt perfect. At one point, workers went on strike, halting the project. At another, a typhoid outbreak sickened hundreds. Throughout construction, Chinese laundrymen and cooks were treated as third-class workers, and there was no competitive bidding on the project. But Big Creek was sending power to Los Angeles in less than three years. A huge additional generating plant, added in 1921, was completed and producing electricity just 100 days after construction began.

Big Creeks original purpose was to power Los Angeless trolleys. But the discovery in the early 1920s of large oil reserves near Huntington Beach (named, as it happened, for the same Henry Huntington) doomed electric mass transit. Cheap local gas let the automobileand, eventually, a labyrinth of freewaysconnect the southern California suburbs better than trolleys could. Big Creeks power, freed from its original purpose, now granted L.A.s early automobile commuters cheap electricity at work and at home.

Over the last half-century, I have often watched the annual Huntington Lake regatta, in which hundreds of sailboats race about on an idyllic Sierra Nevada lake. Boaters from all over California haul their craft up to the high mountains, eager to sail in one of the worlds few alpine lakes that is relatively accessible, warm by spring, windy, and unspoiled. They come for the sport and the beautyoblivious of the fact that the scenic water stealthily leaves the artificial lake through subterranean penstocks to ensure the prosperity of one of the worlds largest economies.

Could this project have been completed as quickly and competently today? Its doubtful, even with twenty-first-century computerized technology, sophisticated GPS surveying, and enormous earth-moving machines to help. Environmental-impact studies, discovering a threatened foothill lizard or mountain newt, would call for rerouting or canceling the penstocksjust as recent concern for a baitfish in the San Francisco Bay Delta wound up cutting off irrigation water to nearly a quarter-million acres of Central Valley farmland. Unions and the state would demand a maze of work regulations, delaying the project for decadesjust as authorities are now proposing that the labor force for the high-speed rail project include the homeless, high school dropouts, and convicted felons. Safety regulators would balk at the dangerous drills and bores; archaeologists would be appalled at the trampling of Native American burial sites; residents would complain of noise and discomfort.

Today, we seem to believe that in the era before our protective regulatory state arrived, construction projects always exploited someone or something. We overlook the intelligence and good sense of Big Creeks engineers and workers, who struck reasonable compromises between progress and conservation. Almost every element of the project was green: the narrow-gauge train used to haul thousands of workers up and down the canyon; the placement of infrastructure underground; the carbon-free generation of electricity; Los Angeless efforts to use an electrified trolley system.

Maybe a better question than whether Big Creek could be built today is whether it can survive a second century. So well built were the dams, powerhouses, and penstocks, and so brilliantly engineered were the lakes and tunnels, that Big Creek should endure forever, at least in theory. Yet environmentalists have recently prevailed in court to divert some of the systems water flows from irrigation and electricity production in order to restore the rivers salmon population. The irony is that in dry years, the San Joaquin can flow to the seain theory, allowing some salmon runsonly because of the water stored in dams and reservoirs, both in the original Big Creek lakes and in lower reservoirs, such as Millerton Lake, that were built later. The salmon didnt have it so good when droughts occurred during the millennia before the Big Creek Hydroelectric Project came along. For the time being, environmentalists desire for a vibrant river year-round saves Huntingtons unnatural creations, along with other dams farther down the river, from calls to dismantle them.

Opposition to Big Creek is just part of Californias infatuation with the premodern. Environmentalists are keen to wipe out much of the infrastructure in the Yosemite Valley, letting the Merced River return to its nineteenth-century wildness and beauty. That would entail not just periodic flooding of the valley floor but also the destruction of three bridges that the National Trust for Historic Preservation lists as endangered treasures. Also targeted for destruction are historic roads, paths, and much of the infrastructure that lets millions each year enjoy the scenery. Not far away, more radical environmentalists are focusing on the historic OShaughnessy Dam, which forms the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite National Park. The early-twentieth-century water-and-power project supplies the San Francisco Bay Area with as much as 85 percent of its water, in addition to 400 megawatts of clean electrical power, all while ensuring irrigation and flood control for Central Valley farms and towns. The dream of the radical green outfit Restore Hetch Hetchy, which calls itself a Sierra Club spinoff, is to return the reservoir to its pristine natural state. That would leave San Francisco without adequate power and water and eventually destroy billions of dollars worth of agricultural commerce.

In short, twenty-first-century environmentalists would have the state tear down the twentieth-century engineering marvels that gave California the wealth and leisure to ponder their expendability. So brilliantly productive were the projects of California visionaries like Henry Huntington and John Eastwood that their well-fed, well-protected, and well-powered successors have the luxury of dreaming about how to destroy their very inheritance.

Top Photo: akrassel/iStock
H.L. Mencken described the secret of successful demagoguery as keep[ing] the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary. Mencken was referring to practical politics, but his insight is equally applicable to public relations and fundraising campaigns trafficking in extravagant claims. For the past 40 years, a self-styled watchdog group, the Southern Poverty Law Center, has excelled in promoting such unwarranted alarm, with a politicized series of hobgoblins, in the process amassing a fortune from its credulous donors.

According to the SPLC, America is rife with dangerous hate groups: the Ku Klux Klan, neo-Nazis, racist skinheads, anti-government militia groups, radical-right terrorists, and many more. Were currently tracking more than 1,600 extremist groups operating across the country, the SPLCs website claims. Readers of SPLCs press releases, reports, andimportantlydirect-mail solicitations would be justified in imagining an America teeming with smoldering churches and synagogues, cross burnings, storm troopers bearing swastikas, and even lynchings.

Reality is different. In fact, racial tolerance is at an all-time high, diversity is universally promoted as a civic virtue, and hate crimes, as defined and reported by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, have declined over the past decade to fewer than 6,000 incidents a year, a modest number in a country with 326 million people. The principal threats of radical extremism in the United States today are jihadist attacks (radical Islam), militant anti-police rioters (such as Black Lives Matter), and masked Antifa (so-called anti-fascist) mobs shutting down free speech on college campuses and violently protesting the election of President Donald J. Trump, while the greatest perpetrators of violence in America are criminal street gangsincluding the deadly MS-13that have turned some of our inner cities into war zones.

The virulently anti-Trump Resistance movement has fueled partisan acrimony with poisonous rhetoric, to the extent of condoningand in some cases even encouragingphysical attacks against political opponents. Yet the SPLC largely ignores such groups, focusing instead on the moribund KKK (many of whose estimated 2,000 members are thought to be FBI informants) and similar relics from the Jim Crow era. The SPLC myopically focuses on white racism directed at minority groups, especially African-Americans. A former SPLC lawyer, Gloria Browne, charged that SPLC programs were calculated to cash in on black pain and white guilt. Racism undoubtedly exists, but it is neither pervasive nor exclusively practiced by whites.

Ironically, the SPLC not only overlooks most of the real hate groups in operation today, along with overtly race-based organizations, such as the pro-Latino National Council of La Raza and MEChA, but also labels moderates with whom it disagrees extremists if they deviate from its rigid political agenda, which embraces open borders, LGBT rights, and other left-wing totems. The SPLC has branded Somali-born reformer Ayaan Hirsi Ali an anti-Muslin extremist for her opposition to female genital mutilation and other oppressive Islamic practices, and designated the respected Family Research Council as a hate group for its opposition to same-sex marriage. Likewise, the organization deems mainstream immigration-reform advocates such as the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) and Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) as hate groups. British Muslim activist Maajid Nawazregarded by most observers as a human rights leaderis suing the SPLC for listing him as an extremist.

Critics of the SPLC accuse the lavishly funded organization of peddling fear and smearing political opponentsmostly conservativesas bigots. Its Hatewatch list is avowedly ideological, acknowledging that it monitors and exposes the activities of the American radical right. Few left-wing organizationsand no Islamist groupsare branded in this way by the SPLC. Nevertheless, the SPLC, founded in 1971, has burrowed itself into the civil rights movement, the organized bar, the cloistered culture of large law firms, the education system, and even law enforcement as a champion for the exploited, the powerless and the forgotten. Its executives are richly compensated, some in excess of $400,000 annually. Operating from palatial six-story quarters in Montgomery, Alabama (sometimes called the Poverty Palace), it enjoys a $300 million endowment, including more than $23 million in cash. It fundraises ceaselessly. Its no coincidence that SPLC co-founder Morris S. Dees Jr. has been inducted into the Direct Marketing Associations Hall of Fame.

Despite numerous exposes over the years in publications spanning the political spectrumincluding Harpers, The Progressive, The Weekly Standard, Reason, the Baltimore Sun, and even the SPLCs hometown newspaper, the Montgomery Advertiserthe liberal establishment continues to treat the group as credible, largely because its preoccupation with right-wing bigotry aligns with the stereotypical view of liberals who dominate newspapers like the Washington Post and New York Times. In our polarized culture, the epithet hate group is the ultimate slander of political opponents. The SPLCs spurious imprimatur gives mere calumny gravitas, allowing liberal journalists to wield its highly charged judgments as a weapon, citing it as if it were a dispassionate authority. Many liberal (or merely lazy) journalists discredit conservative organizations by noting that they are listed by the SPLC as a hate group, treating its often dubious designations as gospel truth.

One would expect an organization that holds itself out as an expert on hate groups to have a consistent definition of that term, but in Humpty-Dumpty fashion, it turns out that a hate group is whatever the SPLC decides it is. The SPLC claims that 917 Hate Groups are currently operating in the U.S., but offers only vague guidelines for what qualifies: groups hav[ing] beliefs or practices that attack or malign an entire class of people, typically for their immutable characteristics. Despite its insinuations that hate groups are inherently violent, the SPLC casts a much broader net: Hate group activities can include criminal acts, marches, rallies, speeches, meetings, leafletting or publishing (emphasis added). Indeed, some of the SPLCs hate groups are merely websites or publicationseven record labels and religious sects.

This fluid and subjective definition allows the SPLC to lump togetheralong with the KKK, neo-Nazis, and racist skinheadssuch varied groups as religious-liberty advocates Alliance Defending Freedom and Liberty Counsel; pro-family groups such as the World Congress of Families; Frank Gaffneys Center for Security Policy; the David Horowitz Freedom Center and, separately, its Jihad Watch program; Ann Corcorans Refugee Resettlement Watch; and many immigration-reform groups, including CIS and FAIR. Without irony, SPLC president Richard Cohen has defended designating the Family Research Council as a hate group because it traffics in incendiary name-calling. To the SPLCs credit, it also classifies the Nation of Islam, the New Black Panther Party, and a few other black separatist groups as hate groups, though these organizations are seldom mentioned in its stream of emails and bulletins.

In addition to hate groups, SPLC tracks a broader category of extremist groups, with an equally amorphous definition; apparently all hate groups qualify as extremist, but not vice versa. The SPLC considers as extremist eminent political scientist Charles Murray, evangelical historian David Barton (of WallBuilders), author Peter Brimelow, the Social Contract Press, Joseph Farahs WorldNetDaily, and many other proponents of traditional marriage, border security, and immigration restrictionsviews held by millions of Americans. This is not to suggest that all groups and persons labeled by the SPLC as extremist are necessarily laudable, but reasoned discourse requires that disagreement be expressed through facts and argument, not pejorative name-calling, innuendo, and guilt by association. The SPLC deliberately blurs the distinction between true hate groups, peaceful activists, and reputable organizations with which it disagrees.

The SPLC frequently rails against public figures as enablers not technically designated as hate groups or extremists, such as Texas governor Greg Abbott, former congressman and presidential candidate Ron Paul, radio talk show host Glenn Beck, Fox News commentator Judge Andrew Napolitano, and Kentucky senator Rand Paul. Rush Limbaugh, the Breitbart News Network, the Boy Scouts of America, and Focus on the Family (founded by psychologist, broadcaster, and best-selling author James Dobson) have also earned the SPLCs wrath. The term extremist connotes an outlier: marginal, on the fringe, out of the mainstream. Yet the SPLC uses the termand enablerto denigrate elected officials, public figures, and organizations with considerable popular support, solely because of their views on specific issues. As a definitional matter, how extremist can these positions be if they command widespread (and even majority) support?

What many of the individuals and groups condemned by the SPLC have in common is a conservative orientation. Favoring traditional marriage becomes the moral equivalent of cross-burning; opposing illegal immigration or amnesty for illegal immigrants equates to advocating genocide; resisting the spread of radical Islam invokes Timothy McVeigh; and anti-tax Tea Party groups are now indistinguishable from armed militias or Holocaust deniers. Thus, dissent is de-legitimatized, and political foes are demonized. All those who oppose the Left are, by definition, fascists, white nationalists, Islamophobes, hate groups, or extremists. SPLC senior fellow Mark Potok, a 20-year veteran of the organization and editor of its hate lista quarterly publicationhas admitted that our aim in life is to destroy these groups, to completely destroy them.

SPLC co-founder Dees, an Alabama native, has an unconventional background for a self-styled civil rights icon. The son of a cotton farmer, his childhood nickname was Bubba. As a young man, Dees supported politicians such as future Alabama governor George C. Wallace (whom Dees calls my onetime hero) and even served as state campaign manager for segregationist attorney general candidate MacDonald Gallion.

Dees graduated from the University of Alabama law school in 1960. The next year, he defended a Klan member, Claude Henley, accused of attacking Freedom Riders. The case was heard in federal court before Judge Frank M. Johnson, the famed civil rights pioneer. Dees says that he managed to get his client off, for a fee of $5,000 (paid by the Klan and the White Citizens Council), though a Life photo showed Henley beating up a television reporter during the incident in question. In his vainglorious 1991 memoir, A Season for Justice (reissued in 2001 as A Lawyers Journey), Dees described the Henley case as a personal epiphany regarding civil rights, though a decade passed before he helped found the SPLC. Dees primary contribution to civil rights was suing to force the Birmingham YMCAa private organizationto desegregate in 1969.

During the 1960s, Dees veered left, got involved with the American Civil Liberties Union, and helped finance the presidential campaigns of George McGovern, Jimmy Carter, and Ted Kennedy. Though he has long promoted himself as a successful trial lawyer, Dees made his fortune in publishing.

Deess original business partner, Millard Fuller, recalls that Morris and I . . . shared the overriding purpose of making a pile of money. We were not particular about how we did it; we just wanted to be independently rich. Their path to prosperity was marketing cookbooks and similar fare. Dees then used his direct-mail expertise to help raise money for McGoverns presidential campaign. When the South Dakota senator was defeated, Dees brought to the SPLC a donor list containing the names of nearly 700,000 McGovern supporters, providing the basis for the organizations lucrative direct-mail program.

In its early years, SPLC focused on issues relevant to Southern poverty, primarily performing pro bono legal services, such as death-penalty appeals and suing to desegregate the all-white Alabama State Troopers. By the 1980s, the SPLCs focus had shifted to fighting easily sensationalized bogeymen such as the KKK and neo-Nazi groups, despite those groups dwindling membership and scant political influence.

In 1984, Dees brought a highly publicized lawsuit against the United Klans of America (UKA) in Mobile, Alabama on behalf of Beulah Mae Donald, whose son had been murdered in 1981 by two UKA thugs. In 1987, years after the perpetrators were convicted and sentenced, Dees obtained a much-hyped $7 million judgment against the UKA, downplaying the fact that the actual recovery against the impecunious group amounted only to about $50,000. The UKA case proved a fundraising goldmine, though: the SPLC raked in $9 million from direct-mail solicitations.

The die was cast; henceforth, the SPLC would pursue essentially meaningless but headline-grabbing cases, exploiting its uncollectible verdicts through sensational fundraising appeals that generated massive donations. One disgruntled former SPLC attorney complained that [Dees] was on the Klan kick because it was such an easy targeteasy to beat in court, easy to raise big money on. The SPLCs legal staff was appalled by the cynical change of direction. Journalist Ken Silverstein reported in Harpers that in 1986, the Centers entire legal staff quit in protest of Deess refusal to address issuessuch as homelessness, voter registration, and affirmative actionthat they considered far more pertinent to poor minorities, if far less marketable to affluent benefactors, than fighting the KKK.

In a replay of the civil case against the UKA, the SPLC would go on to bring high-profile lawsuits against other Klan groups and similar fringe organizations, such as the White Aryan Resistance (WAR) in Portland, Oregon, and the Aryan Nations in Idaho, typically in cases alleging that associates of the organizations who committed violent acts were operating directly as representatives of the racist groups. These grandstanding lawsuits were mismatches, and the cash-strapped associationslacking resources to defend themselveswere routinely routed by the SPLCs well-funded legal team. In his memoir, Dees gloats that, when the SPLC sued WAR, its president, Tom Metzgera TV repairmanchose to represent himself at trial, with predictable results. The SPLC won a $12.5 million jury verdict against WAR, and against Metzger personally. Dees boasts that We took away Metzgers house. . . . Back home we call that cleaning somebodys plow.

The 80-year-old Dees, who still serves as the SPLCs chief trial counsel, presents himself as a courtroom champion for the downtrodden, in the image of his personal hero, Clarence Darrow. Revealingly, Dees opens and closes A Season for Justice with quotations from Darrow, and claims that reading Darrows autobiography in 1968 changed his life forever: I was reading my own thoughts and feelings, he recalls. Darrow, however, fought formidable opponents and never crowed about dispossessing outmatched adversaries who couldnt even afford an attorney.

Supporting the SPLC satisfies a deeply held yearning of the legal profession, which is broadly left of center politically, to believe in its own virtue and importance. Its not surprising, then, that legal groups have been drawn to Dees carefully cultivated mythology. Even Deess critics concede, as Charlotte Allen puts it, that he is an indisputable genius at self-promotion. Among the many awards Dees has received are the Martin Luther King, Jr. Nonviolent Peace Prize from the King Center for Nonviolent Social Change in 2016, the ABA Medal from the American Bar Association in 2012 (the organizations highest honor), and the Roger Baldwin Award from the ACLU in 1990.

In 2006, the prestigious international law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom created the annual Morris Dees Justice Award at Deess alma mater, the University of Alabama law school, to honor lawyers devoted to public service. Atlanta-based civil rights lawyer Stephen B. Bright, president of the Southern Center for Human Rights and longtime lecturer at Yale Law School, declined to accept the award in 2007 because he saw Dees as a con man and fraud. The award was discontinued in 2010, but it is still featured prominently on the law schools website, along with a list of past recipients. Such awards, along with a hagiographic TV movie, Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story (1991), andmost importantlyadulatory coverage by the liberal press corps, give SPLC an undeserved aura of authority, which the organization exploits to promote its leftist agenda.

The SPLCs investment portfolio (which it justifies as a contingency for the day when nonprofits like SPLC can no longer afford to solicit support through the mail because of rising postage and printing costs) has steadily grown to over $300 million, and includes offshore accounts in the Cayman Islands. As Charlotte Allen drolly noted in The Weekly Standard, SPLC is probably the richest poverty organization in the history of the world. In the philanthropic world, nonprofit organizations such as SPLC are expected to use donors funds to provide services consistent with their charitable mission. Hoarding of cash is discouraged.

Accordingly, the nonprofit rating group CharityWatch (formerly known as the American Institute of Philanthropy) gives SPLC an F rating, its lowest grade, downgrading the group for having seven years worth of available assets in reserve. (By contrast, the ACLU Foundation earned an A rating.) In CharityWatchs view, its reasonable for a nonprofit to have up to three years of operating expenses in reserve, but accumulating a financial cushion for longer than that indicates that a group places a higher priority on fundraising than on charitable programming. The near-namesake of Deess former business partner, noted anti-death-penalty lawyer Millard Farmer, described Dees as the nonprofit equivalent of a televangelist, exploiting faithful believers with incessant fundraising appeals: Hes the Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker of the civil rights movement.

Another monitor of nonprofits, Philanthropy Roundtable, is also critical of the SPLC, calling it a notoriously partisan attack group, tendentious, irresponsible, and a cash-collecting machine. In a recent report, Philanthropy Roundtable concluded:

[t]hough it styles itself as a public-interest law firm, the Southern Poverty Law Center does shockingly little litigation, and only small amounts of that on behalf of any aggrieved individuals. Its two largest expenses are propaganda operations: creating its annual lists of haters and extremists, and running a big effort that pushes tolerance education through more than 400,000 public-school teachers. And the single biggest effort undertaken by the SPLC? Fundraising. On the organizations 2015 IRS 990 form it declared $10 million of direct fundraising expenses, far more than it has ever spent on legal services.

The favorable press that the SPLC garners tends to obscure its glaring blunders, of which there have been many. Any one of these missteps would have been fatal to the credibility of an organization operating in the typical media fishbowl, but reporters enamored with the groups message look the other way.

In an irony for an organization dedicated to fighting hate and extremism, the SPLC has long promoted Bill Ayers, the unrepentant domestic terrorist of the 1970s and founder of the radical Weather Underground, as an education activist and exemplar of tolerance. The SPLCs education project, Teaching Tolerance, and its companion website, tolerance.org, market Ayerss books and describe him as a highly respected figure in the field of multicultural education. Failing to mention that Ayers dedicated the Weather Undergrounds 1974 revolutionary manifesto, Prairie Fire, to Robert F. Kennedys assassin, Sirhan Sirhan, the SPLC lauds Ayers for his rich vision of teaching that interweaves passion, responsibility and self-reflection.

Conversely, the SPLC has been quick to condemn honorable men and women without justification. For example, in 2014, the SPLC listed Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, a retired pediatric brain surgeon now serving as HUD secretary, as an extremist due to his opposition to same-sex marriage. Following a public furor over the designation, he SPLC had to remove the mild-mannered Carson from the list and publicly apologize. Similarly, the SPLC has defamed Murraywho has two Asian childrenas a white nationalist. Murray addressed the genetic components of human intelligencea taboo to the Leftin his 1994 best-seller, The Bell Curve, coauthored with Richard Herrnstein. A single deviation from liberal orthodoxy is sufficient to negate a distinguished record of scholarship.

Shortly after the SPLC labeled the Family Research Council as a hate group in 2012a designation that even Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank condemned as recklessa deranged SPLC follower, Floyd Lee Corkins, made an armed attack on FRCs Washington headquarters. Corkins acknowledged that he was able to locate the building with the help of the Hate Map provided on the SPLCs website. Fortunately, no one was killed. Prompted by the FRC shooting, in 2014 the FBI removed SPLC from the resources page of its website.

The SPLCs latest campaign is to seek the removal of more than 700 Confederate-themed statues and monuments from public areas and to eliminate all publicly sponsored symbols of Confederate leaders. The effort would include renaming at least 1,500 schools, highways, parks, bridges, counties, cities, lakes, dams, roads, military bases, and other public works in 41 states, as well as eliminating official holidays or observances in six states. The justification for expunging markers of consequential historical events? Prior to murdering nine people attending Bible study at the Emanuel A.M.E. church in Charleston, South Carolina, in June 2015, disturbed lone wolf Dylann Roof was photographed holding a Confederate battle flag. In the SPLCs logic, Confederate symbols foster violence because they represent, not American history, but merely a hateful legacy of slavery and white supremacy. (The SPLC is currently willing to leave untouched the thousands of Civil War battlefields, cemeteries, markers, plaques, and similar symbols, because they merely reflect historical events.) This breathtaking initiative entails the classic elements of the SPLCs finely honed demagoguery: false association of a repugnant killer with the SPLCs target, in this case, Confederate symbols; raising the specter of racism to suppress dissent; and exploiting a divisive issue for fundraising purposes.

The long-simmering controversy over SPLC tactics boiled over in July, when ABC News reported that Attorney General Jeff Sessions had delivered a speech in California to an anti-LGBT hate group the religious-liberty advocacy group Alliance Defending Freedombased solely on the SPLCs designation. Many conservative publications criticized ABC and other news outlets for repeating the SPLCs slur of a respected nonprofit that has litigatedand wonnumerous cases before the Supreme Court. ADF is a legal organization, no different from the American Civil Liberties Union, except that it defends traditional Christian beliefs shared by millions of Americans. The outpouring of commentary regarding Sessionss address to the ADF focused on the SPLCs partisan mission, aggressive tactics, and cozy relationship with likeminded reporters.

The SPLCs authority derives from its presumed occupation of a moral high ground, which is belied by its record of character assassination, questionable fundraising practices, excessive salaries, and poor ratings from philanthropic monitors. Ive long regarded Morris Dees and his Southern Poverty Law Center as collectively one of the greatest frauds in American life, wrote the late progressive journalist Alexander Cockburn in 2007.

Unlike when the SPLC was created in 1971, many organizations today provide legal services to needy people: local legal aid groups, law school clinical programs, and law firm pro bono programs. The SPLC delivers little in the way of legal representation to indigent clients. For decades, the name Southern Poverty Law Center has not accurately described the SPLCs mission.

The SPLCs principal function currently is to provide an aura of respectability to liberal journalists wishing to disparage conservative groups and to provide cover for political battles, such as the removal of Confederate symbols. By unfairly applying the labels hate, extremism, and racism, SPLC seeks to stifle the type of robust public debate necessary for democracy to flourish. Cornell University law professor William Jacobson maintains that the SPLC, by equating legitimate political opposition with criminal violence, is doing substantial damage to our national fabric.

The cumulative weight of the SPLCs excesses may be turning the tide against it, however. Conservatives have intensified their criticism of the group recently, with Jeryl Bier and former attorney general Edwin Meese in the Wall Street Journal, Stella Morabito in The Federalist, and David French in National Review all calling out the organizations polarizing tactics and fraudulent moral authority. Even left-leaning Politico has become skeptical; Ben Schreckingers recent article Has a Civil Rights Stalwart Lost Its Way? notes longstanding charges that the SPLC is overplaying its hand, becoming more of a partisan progressive hit operation than a civil rights watchdog.

The SPLC is entitled to advocate its positions, of course, but it does not deserve to be regarded as a dispassionate authorityand certainly should not be cited as such. Yes, there are some repugnant groups in America, of a variety of persuasions. Fortunately, state and local law enforcement agencies, the Department of Homeland Security, and the FBI stand ready to intervene if and when such groups threaten or engage in actual violence. The SPLCs efforts are not neededthough it sure is good at raising money.

Morris Dees (center); Photo by Amanda Edwards/Getty Images
Anyone concerned about Washingtons power to affect ones choice of where to live should breathe a sigh of relief now that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has finally, under Trump administration direction, declared New Yorks Westchester County compliant with housing-discrimination regulation. Under a federal consent decree, Westchesterthe archetypal New York City suburbhelped finance 750 units of subsidized housing, scattered throughout well-off municipalities. Westchesters sin was not that it countenanced discriminatory housing policiessuch as restrictive covenants against selling real estate to black people, for instancebut for having, in HUDs view, failed to file an adequate assessment of whether local land-use regulations might potentially have discriminatory consequences.

In HUDs vision, and that of the Anti-Discrimination Center of Metro New York, which filed the original suit, the concentration of poor, minority residents within a jurisdiction is de facto evidence of ongoing racial discrimination. Non-discriminatory housing policies, the argument goes, should promote dispersion of racial and economic minorities throughout a given area. But this view ignores virtually everything about how housing patterns and preferences actually work in the United States.

In that real-world America, neighborhoods and municipalities are arrayed on what Ive called a housing ladder, with rungs determined by socioeconomic status. Across America, where you live is determined by what you can afford to pay. As Ive written previously, thats exactly how things work in Westchester, too, where even affluent enclaves such as Scarsdale have black populations in proportion to the number of blacks with incomes high enough to buy homes there. Americans recognize that working and saving to move up the ladder reflects a system that rewards effortand leads to neighborhoods where residents feel common bonds.

The Westchester case is important to communities around the country because of HUDs enormous leverage: the department administers community-development block grants (CDBGs) that provide funding for thousands of local jurisdictions. HUD, with the approval of the federal courts, views acceptance of such funds as contingent upon taking proactive steps to engineer housing patterns that fit a vision for Americacalled affirmatively furthering fair housingdeveloped by the Obama administration.

That vision overlooks the extent to which racial and ethnic clustering can reflect preferences, not discrimination. The New York Times, no less, has published two articles reflecting that perspective. An essay by an African-American New York woman discussed her consideration of a move to Atlanta, which she saw as a place where affluent blacks dont feel out of place. Similarly, an article about the historically black section of Sag Harbor, an affluent Long Island town, reported on residents desire to maintain that historic character, where they have summered. As the Times noted, Colson Whitehead, writing about the summers of the black elite in his novel Sag Harbor, described an oasis apart from his white prep school. We fit in there, he wrote. Anyone who knows Westchester County also knows well that many neighborhoods there have their own religious and ethnic characterJewish, Catholic, Italian, and Irish.

In what might at first appear to be an unrelated initiative, HUD, in addition to calling its dogs off Westchester, has also proposed, in its 2018 budget, to eliminate the CDBG program. Democrats have howled that doing so would eliminate programs like Meals on Wheels, but these initiatives draw only minimal funding from CDBG and could easily be supplemented through private charity. As the Westchester case shows, the block grants enable Washington to intervene in policies that should remain within the purview of localities and their zoning and development boards. If CDBG is not zeroed out, local leaders should refuse the funding outright.

That said, its valuable for communities to include a range of neighborhood and housing typesand income groups, too. In nineteenth-century America, even rich towns had less well-off districts. Today, wealthy enclaves would be well-advised to adopt zoning that allows for smaller homes in denser neighborhoods: doing so would allow children to grow up and live in the community where they came of age, and teachers and police to reside in the communities they serve. But this is a long way from subsidizing the poorest Americans to live nearby the richesta form of social-engineering that can only deform markets and create friction. Let localities devise the best approach to housing affordability on their own, instead of forcing them to heel before HUDs bureaucrats.

Photo by Daniel Lobo/Getty Images
Fergus Burnett

The Charity Commission has criticised trustees of the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses after victims of sexual abuse were made to attend a hearing where they were questioned by the abuser.

In an inquiry report, published yesterday, the regulator said trustees did not adequately handle misconduct allegations or adequately deal with a misconduct appeal hearing.

It also criticised trustees for failing to co-operate with the regulator and said they did not provide accurate and complete answers.

The Commission has been engaging with the charity since 2012 when concerns were first raised about Jonathan Rose, who was at the time a trustee.

The regulator launched an inquiry in May 2014 into two charities, the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain - the umbrella body for Jehovah's Witnesses in the UK - and the Manchester New Moston Congregation of Jehovahs Witnesses. The investigation looked at whether adequate safeguarding procedures were in place, following revelations that trustees of the charity had allowed a convicted child abuser to question his victims.

Jonathan Rose was jailed for nine months for abusing two women when they were young girls. When he was released, a series of disfellowship meetings were held to decide whether Rose should remain a member of the organisation, and the women were asked to recount their ordeal. At one meeting, Rose was allowed to ask the women questions.

The trustees said that they were not responsible as they did not take part in the hearing where the victims were questioned by the abuser, but the Commission said trustees were ultimately responsible. The charity has now improved its safeguarding procedures.

'Falls short of public expectations'

Harvey Grenville, head of investigations and enforcement at the Charity Commission, said: The victims of abuse were badly let down by the charity. The trustees should have made the victims welfare their first priority. Instead, their actions and omissions, both in response to allegations of abuse, and in their attitude towards our investigation, fell short of what the public would expect of those running a charity in a modern society.



"Our report rightly holds the trustees of the Manchester New Moston congregation to account. I hope that it therefore provides some comfort and reassurance to those affected by the circumstances we have investigated.



Our investigation has helped ensure that the charity has improved its procedures around the handling of child safeguarding concerns and its internal disciplinary process. Most importantly, the charitys policy and procedures now make clear that victims of child sexual abuse are not required to make their allegations in the presence of the alleged abuser. They also state that protective restrictions must be put in place to protect the charitys members from people found guilty of child sexual abuse by the criminal courts. We welcome these changes.



I would like to thank all those who came forward to provide us with information and intelligence throughout the investigation.

Length of the inquiry

The Commission said that litigation initiated by the trustees is the reason the inquiry took three years.

The conduct and length of the inquiry has been significantly affected by litigation initiated by the charitys trustees, the inquiry report said.

Trustees applied to the Charity Tribunal to review the Commissions decision to open the statutory inquiry in 2014 and then appealed the tribunal's decision. The appeal was dismissed earlier this year.

The Commission still has an open inquiry into the Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Britain. This inquiry is examining the child safeguarding policy and procedures further, as they are common to all Jehovahs Witnesses congregations in England and Wales.
Steve Bannon, Kellyanne Conway, Sarah Sanders, and now Anthony Scaramucci. These are a few of the names that dominate headlines around the Trump administration. And thats before we get to the president, himself. With the White House bouncing from Twitter-induced crisis to rumored staff shake-up to campaign-style rally, the cacophony of noise out of the West Wing often threatens to overwhelm any other news about the workings of government.

The government employs more than two million federal workers, the vast majority of whom never walk through the gates of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The agencies they work for impact the quality of the air we breathe, the types of schools our children attend, how we manage public lands, and much more. When Donald Trump and his coterie of advisors and spokespeople constantly garner air time and page space, its tempting to lament: Why isnt the media covering the agencies? When we hear from readers, thats a common refrain. But the reporting is out there; its often just tougher to find.

Thats why it was heartening to see Michael Lewis take a big swing at a story on an agency few peopleincluding, until recently, its directorunderstand. The author of Moneyball and The Big Short dropped nearly 13,000 words on a Vanity Fair feature about the Department of Energy. Titled, Why the Scariest Nuclear Threat May Be Coming From Inside the White House, it is, to be clear, not reassuring. Lewis speaks with dozens of current and former DOE staffers about the new administrations approach to its work, but the piece also reads as a primer on what the agency really controls.

What the alphabet soup of the federal bureaucracies actually do can be maddeningly complex, and policy decisions made at the highest levels often take awhile to trickle down to daily life. The job of explaining those policy decisions and how they will affect American lives falls to reporters whose work rarely leads news broadcasts or dominates political conversation. The work, however, is being done. Below, some help on finding it.

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Pete Vernon is a former CJR staff writer. Follow him on Twitter @ByPeteVernon.
Dril-Quip, Inc., together with its subsidiaries, designs, manufactures, sells, and services engineered drilling and production equipment for use in deepwater, harsh environment, and severe service applications worldwide. The company's principal products include subsea and surface wellheads, subsea and surface production trees, mudline hanger systems, specialty connectors and associated pipes, drilling and production riser systems, liner hangers, wellhead connectors, diverters, and safety valves, as well as downhole tools. It also provides technical advisory services, and rework and reconditioning services, as well as rental and purchase of running tools for use in the installation and retrieval of its products; and downhole tools comprise of liner hangers, production packers, safety valves, and specialty downhole tools that are used to hang-off and seal casing into a previously installed casing string in the well bore. The company's products are used to explore for oil and gas from offshore drilling rigs, such as floating rigs and jack-up rigs; and for drilling and production of oil and gas wells on offshore platforms, tension leg platforms, and Spars, as well as moored vessels, such as floating production, storage, and offloading monohull moored vessels. It sells its products directly through its sales personnel, independent sales agents, and representatives to integrated, independent, and foreign national oil and gas companies, as well as drilling contractors, and engineering and construction companies. The company was founded in 1981 and is headquartered in Houston, Texas.
Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. owns and operates utilities, transport, midstream, and data businesses in North and South America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. The company's Utilities segment operates approximately 61,000 kilometers (km) of operational electricity transmission and distribution lines; 5,300 km of electricity transmission lines; 4,200 km of natural gas pipelines; 7.3 million electricity and natural gas connections; and 360,000 long-term contracted sub-metering services. This segment also offers heating and cooling solutions; gas distribution; water heaters; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioner rental, as well as other home services. Its Transport segment offers transportation, storage, and handling services for merchandise goods, commodities, and passengers through a network of approximately 22,000 km of track; 5,500 km of track network; 4,800 km of rail; 3,800 km of motorways; and 13 port terminals. The company's Midstream segment offers natural gas transmission, gathering and processing, and storage services through approximately 15,000 km of natural gas transmission pipelines; 600 billion cubic feet of natural gas storage; 17 natural gas processing plants; and 3,900 km of gas gathering pipelines, as well as one petrochemical processing complex. Its Data segment operates approximately 148,000 operational telecom towers; 8,000 multi-purpose towers and active rooftop sites; 10,000 km of fiber backbone; 1,600 cell sites and approximately 12,000 km of fiber optic cable; and 2,100 active telecom towers and 70 distributed antenna systems, as well as 50 data centers and 200 megawatts of critical load capacity. The company was founded in 2007 and is based in Hamilton, Bermuda. Brookfield Infrastructure Partners L.P. is a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management Inc.
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Xylem Inc., together with its subsidiaries, engages in the design, manufacture, and servicing of engineered products and solutions for the water and wastewater applications in the United States, Europe, the Asia Pacific, and internationally. It operates through three segments: Water Infrastructure, Applied Water, and Measurement & Control Solutions. The Water Infrastructure segment offers various products, including water, storm water, and wastewater pumps; controls and systems; filtration, disinfection, and biological treatment equipment; and mobile dewatering equipment under the Flygt, Godwin, Wedeco, Sanitaire, Leopold, Wedeco, and Xylem Vue brand names for the transportation and treatment of water. The Applied Water segment provides pumps, valves, heat exchangers, controls, and dispensing equipment systems under the Goulds Water Technology, Bell & Gossett, A-C Fire Pump, Standard Xchange, Lowara, Jabsco, Xylem Vue and Flojet brand names for residential and commercial building services, and industrial water applications. The Measurement & Control Solutions segment provides smart meters, networked communication devices, and measurement and control technologies, as well as critical infrastructure technologies. It also offers software and services, including cloud-based analytics, remote monitoring and data management, leak detection, condition assessment, asset management, and pressure monitoring solutions, as well as testing equipment and managed services. This segment sells its products under the Pure, Sensus, Smith Blair, WTW, Xylem Vue, and YSI brand names. The company markets and sells its products through a network of direct sales force, resellers, distributors, and value-added solution providers. Xylem Inc. was formerly known as ITT WCO, Inc. and changed its name to Xylem Inc. in May 2011. The company. was incorporated in 2011 and is headquartered in Rye Brook, New York.
Brian Macdowall is Director of the Alliance of British Drivers.

Last year Sadiq Khan was elected Mayor of London on a bland manifesto pledging to tackle congestion through harmless-sounding measures like encouraging car clubs and managing road works. He also promised to maintain the Congestion Charge at its current level.

He would not have been elected if he had come out with blatantly anti-driver proposals. However, his recent Mayors Transport Strategy consultation paper does precisely this.

The under-publicised proposals seek new ways of paying for road use, hinting at pay-per-mile road pricing, coincidentally on the EU blueprint released just weeks before. This could see the Congestion Charge extended across Greater London, with councils asked to consider it as part of a package of blunt traffic reduction measures. They could also be asked to bring in Workplace Parking Levies  effectively a tax on going to work.

Britains drivers pay roughly five times over to use the road. Yet the Mayor feels that London pays too little, without giving any figures to support this. It is worrying that he wants to take over collection of VED (road tax) and set the rate. Part of the reason might be his management of Londons finances, which has been criticised for extravagance and waste.

He seeks to discourage car ownership, using a reduction in the availability of private parking and discriminatory parking charges against some vehicles. This is simply absurd, as any vehicle parked with its engine turned off will not have any emissions

Khans proposed repressive measures against drivers on air quality grounds are sheer hypocrisy when you realise that he lays on large firework displays such as for New Year (repeatedly!) and promotes them at the Thames Festival.

Despite paying lip service to the principles of robust and compelling evidence, the consultation paper proposes draconian measures on environmental grounds, sidestepping the GLAs own evidence on figures for premature deaths linked to nitrogen dioxide (NO2). The publication Better Environment, Better Health, A GLA guide for Londons Boroughs admits they are just a statistical manipulation  they do not relate to real individuals. Transport Watchs The Great Dirty Diesel Scare also exposes a lack of confidence in the figures.

The legality of the entire consultation is suspect. A Supreme Court case (UKSC56, Moseley v Haringey) established some principles. A fair consultation should ensure that those being consulted receive all relevant information  note in particular Khans lack of costings for what he hopes Londoners will nod through and then have to pay for.

A fair consultation should also set out alternative approaches. Yet Khan effectively presents a package of measures to rubber-stamp rather than discussing any real alternative approaches, at least those that would not involve a heavy-handed crackdown on drivers.

Others have managed to come up with proposals for environmental improvements without the same drastic impact. The publications Urban Air Quality and Public Health, A Breath of Fresh Air and some suggestions by Fair Fuel UK are worth a read.

Khan also proposes reallocating road space away from drivers, even though the reduction in space has been a key factor in increasing congestion. His aides in Transport for London seem to have learned nothing from the disastrous pedestrianisation of Trafalgar Square which increased congestion for miles around.

It is strange that demand management measures are aimed at cracking down on those who need to drive in the interest of conserving road space, while at the same time pushing more people onto already overcrowded public transport. The overall plan seems to be to support and even encourage large-scale population growth in London  even though it increases demand  pressure on resources like road space.

Other petty proposals are for mandatory car-free and car-lite housing developments, more road closures and car-free days in high streets and town centres. He even hints at car parking at stations being made less convenient or spaces being removed.

Overall, he shows very little appreciation of how car use benefits families daily lives.

We have until 2 October to object to the proposals. More information here.
Garvan Walshe is a former National and International Security Policy Adviser to the Conservative Party. He runs Brexit Analytics.

In the Wests civil war of ideas the front has shifted to Warsaw. There, the government run by a party that calls itself Law and Justice has launched an all out assault on both. It relies on the cynical argument that unelected judges represent an elite and a bare parliamentary majority, obtained on a minority of the vote, the authentic voice of the real people.

Applying iron party discipline, that is centralist without being democratic, it has rammed laws through the parliament that give the justice minister the power to dismiss Supreme Court judges and appoint the presiding judges of lower courts. This flagrantly unconstitutional legislation would normally have been struck down by the Constitutional Tribunal (a separate body from the Supreme Court) but the ruling party, known as PiS after its initials in Polish, had previously exploited a loophole in the constitution to change its procedures so they have become almost impossible to use.

All this has driven hundreds of thousands of Poles onto the streets in protest. Yet state television, which has been purged of independent journalists, has denounced this peaceful exercise of the right to assemble as a coup.

It is not, of course, the citizens of Poland who are mounting a coup, but the ruling party, having won under 38 per cent of the vote, on the orders of a man who holds no public office, the former prime minister Jaroslaw Kaczinski.

The president, Andrzej Duda, previously thought just to be a figurehead for the ruling party, has now vetoed two of the three laws. The third, which would allow the justice minister to appoint the presiding judge on all lower courts, is set to be approved.

Despite those vetoes, Polish democracy is still at risk from anti-legal populists. The proximate cause is Kaczinskis power grab. The enabling factors are that Viktor Orban has done the same in Hungary, and Trump wishes he could do the same in America. But PiSs attacks gain legitimacy from a global anti-judicial populism that has spread from the left to the right. It begins with a superficially attractive slogan: laws should be made by the peoples representatives, not unelected judges, but is inadequate to the complexity of the modern state, and gives far too much power to unelected powers behind the throne, whether party leaders like Kaczynski, or unelected advisers in Number 10.

If the UK or Poland still retained a legislature like Britain had in the 18th and 19th centuries, where MPs, though forming political blocs, were mainly independent persons accountable primarily to the voters in their constituencies there would be a case for the populists theory. Then, parliamentarians were free think for themselves and had to present arguments on the floor of the House to which their colleagues would listen. Laws were fewer but more thoroughly debated. They didnt nod them through because a party leader told them to.

This isnt how any modern system works. A contemporary parliament is a place where parties, not individuals, compete. An administration, commanding the confidence of the parliament proposes laws, and the opposition usually opposes them to build its case for the next election. If the electoral system leads to coalitions, laws are negotiated between governing parties, and then pushed through.

I dont mean this as an attack on representative government. A political market where different parties compete for votes and approval like firms competing for market share has worked tolerably well, at least compared to other systems, but it deviates too far from democratic principle to derive moral legitimacy from election rather than performance.

And, like a real market, it relies on strong competition to ensure high quality service. The public dont design their own cars or administer their own healthcare. They trust the implementation to experts, only making judgements about their effects. It would be absurd to specify the design of, say, a fuel injection system or cancer drug by majority vote, but isnt impossible to allow people to choose between car manufacturers (or, in Poland at least, competing health insurance providers).

But political markets, like all markets, are liable to abuse by monopolists. As Volkswagen falsified its diesel tests, governments try to get away with abuses of power. The political market can provide overall checks, but this control on complex modern governments needs to be supplemented by legal controls on the details of public administration. We need much more administrative law because we have a much more administrative state.

Potential monopolists of course resent these restraints on their power. Thats why PiS asserted direct control over state media and has attacked the judiciary. It is also why the British government, then possessed of a majority in the House of Commons, instructed their lawyer in the Article 50 case to argue that a resolution of the House of Commons, and not an Act of Parliament, would be enough to extinguish rights that the European Communities Act had conferred on British citizens.

Had either constitution worked as the theory suggested, those blatant assertions of executive power would never even have been considered. But party leaderships, elected at most by party members, exercise power over the careers and in an age of professional politicians, the financial futures, of MPs. In these circumstances legislators arent independent. Far from representing the will of the people, they are required to represent the will of the party chiefs and their appointed servants.

The populist argument against judicial law-making  whether made by the Daily Mail describing the English High Court as Enemies of the People, the Polish state media describing the Polish demonstrators as conducting a coup, or even in high intellectual form by Professor John Finnis  relies on imagining an independent legislature outside party control that no Western democracy actually has. In these last few weeks, anti-legal populists came very close to extinguishing freedoms that the Polish people had finally won fewer than 30 years ago. Whether the product of cynical lying or innocent self deception by people who ought to know better, theirs is a dangerous argument. Anyone who believes that democracy is based on the rule of laws, and not men, must expose it for the cant that it is.
Tim Philpott acts as researcher and coordinator for The Red Cell. His new report on Euroquangos is published by The Red Cell think tank today.

As part of the Take Back Control slogan, Vote Leave listed numerous things they wanted to take back control of, including money, borders and laws.

Conspicuously absent from this list, though probably only for syntax reasons, was taking back control of powers held by EU quangos.

The quango has had a rough history in the UK. Its key selling point, from inception, also been its main drawback: distance from the government machine and normal electoral processes. Its board of technocratic experts were able to carry on the task of assigning driving licenses, arbitrating banking or inspecting food standards, safe in the knowledge that their salaries were automatically paid and their positions secure, despite the rough and tumble of everyday party politics.

This apolitical nature has been the double edge that has led so many of the public becoming disillusioned with the whole idea. Now take this idea, up the budget by fifty million and increase the staff roster by a hundred, and you have the euroquango, created by the European Commission.

Given the Commissions inherent lack of accountability many would think this a quite impressive feat of silo-creation  the euroquango is in many ways, a quango borne of a quango. And there are 53 of them, with a collective budget amounting to around 10.1 billion and employing over 15,000 people.

The euroquangos generally supersede national quangos in order to promote common EU rules and pursue integration and a convergence of governance of specific sectors. In many instances this is worthwhile, but in others not so much.

For a start, because of their aloofness from political or market accountability, quangos tend to form their own agendas alongside that of their official mission. This is magnified in euroquangos, where every decision is informed by the concept of ever closer union. In some extreme cases, consultations on new rules are botched or simply ignored before they become law.

Earlier this year EASA, the euroquango for air safety, decided that because of air traffic congestion over central Europe, it would mandate the switching of aircraft radio frequencies to a better type, the so-called 8.33kHz, to allow better allocation of radio space.

For the general aviation and recreational flying community in the UK, this caused uproar. Many general aviation aircraft in the UK (unlike in Central Europe) rarely cross the UKs borders, let alone travel to the congested zone over Europe, so they dont need precision radios. In addition, costs of upgrading are extreme, and within months of the announcement there was a shortage of supply. No less than 80 per cent of light aircraft run the risk of being grounded unless an extension or exemption is appealed for.

While this example is quite a niche one, it is a demonstrative example of the problems inherent when a euroquango assuming legal responsibility for the entire EU area, regardless of the divergent circumstances of the nations within it.

The UKs decision to leave the EU now means that many of these euroquangos, which were of limited use to the UK already, threaten to increasingly act against the UKs wider interests if we remain signed up to them. This will be particularly evident once power has been restored but regulatory divergence occurs.

Leaving offers an opportunity, not just to repatriate powers over certain areas to domestic bodies, but also to take things much further. Restoring some of these powers to central departments, to ministers beholden to a sovereign Parliament, and then devolving where appropriate to the regions and beyond, could be one of the biggest potential benefits of Brexit as yet unrealised.

However, that can only be achieved if the UK actively decides to administratively separate itself from the EU. The closer the UK is to the working parts of the machinery of EU governance, the more likely it is that our tie will get caught in the gears.

Recently, ConservativeHome explored the advantages of the UK reaching an augmented Most Favoured Nation (MFN) deal as a default, while aspiring to a free trade deal. Either end result will be badly stymied if Britain remains enmeshed with the budgets, political aspirations, and legal baggage of the euroquangos.

In a new paper for The Red Cell, I explore some of the background to this, including the duplication, staffing, and costs of the existing institutions, and then recommend dividing future levels of association into two types.

For a number of bodies of minimal relevance we might as well just follow their output online, and put their phone number on a post-it in the Whitehall fridge door; with a number of others, a more formal but still minimalist liaison mechanism seems more useful. As precedent shows the sort of issues that need to be covered legally in any deal, its even possible to generate an outline draft agreement.

There are two exceptions where we recommend a more engaged level of cooperation. One is nuclear collaboration, because a nuclear reactor which cant jut be put on the back of a lorry in 2019 and because they are already semi-intergovernmental anyway. The Euratomists were right to raise this point, but they focused on the wrong end of the stick. They also risked setting a far wider precedent (though that, in some cases, was probably precisely the point.)

The UK cant disengage if we are paying into a central budget, so we must aim for an intergovernmental structure with payments based on the otherwise standard approach of juste retour (fair share). It most certainly does not mean not talking to anyone, or encouraging barriers. It does though mean that, if we are to diverge in certain regulatory areas over time, we need to diverge on the oversight and advisory side too.

Happily, there are pre-existing models to follow: non-EU countries such as Ukraine and Israel are able to cooperate where it is mutually useful. We can do the same. As ConservativeHomes MFN study week showed, the UK is already legally and administratively compliant with the prerequisites of future cooperation with Brussels.

The operational mechanics of taking back control begins with understanding, and accepting, the how the EU works and the risks that arise from it. The hidden euroquangocracy forms a key part of that equation.

Just as we have nothing to fear from stepping away from the Customs Union and Single Market, so too should we move away with confidence from the backdoor administrative machines that feed them.
France appears to be backing down on its deal to sell 66.66 percent of STX France to Fincantieri. Instead, it is offering to split the ownership with the Italian shipbuilding company equally, and has threatened to nationalize the company if Fincantieri does not accept its offer.

Fincantieri has previously agreed to pay 79.5 million euro for 66.66 percent of STX France, which is being sold following the collapse of its parent company, South Korean STX. But now there seem to be concerns in France that it they lose control of the yard, jobs may be lost in Saint Nazaire.

French government officials have been cited that nationalization will give them more time to find a better shareholder deal.

Fincantieri signed the deal under the former French government of President Francois Hollande and this is now the first industrial action taken by the new government of President Emmanual Macron.

France allowed the Korean company to hold majority ownership, and Fincantieri CEP Giuseppe Bono has been quoted to say that he sees no reasons why Italians should be treated any lesser than Koreans. At this, point Fincantieri appears poised to walk away from the deal unless it obtains control of the French company.
Aetna Inc. operates as a health care benefits company in the United States. It operates through three segments: Health Care, Group Insurance, and Large Case Pensions. The Health Care segment offers medical, pharmacy benefit management service, dental, behavioral health, and vision plans on an insured and employer-funded basis. It also provides point-of-service, preferred provider organization, health maintenance organization, and indemnity benefit plans, as well as health savings accounts and consumer-directed health plans. In addition, this segment offers Medicare and Medicaid products and services, as well as other medical products, such as medical management and data analytics services, medical stop loss insurance, workers' compensation administrative services, and products that provide access to its provider networks in select geographies. The Group Insurance segment offers life insurance products, including group term life insurance, voluntary spouse and dependent term life insurance, group universal life insurance, and accidental death and dismemberment insurance; disability insurance products; and long-term care insurance products, which provide the benefits to cover the cost of care in private home settings, adult day care, assisted living, or nursing facilities. The Large Case Pensions segment manages various retirement products comprising pension and annuity products primarily for tax-qualified pension plans. The company provides its products and services to employer groups, individuals, college students, part-time and hourly workers, health plans, health care providers, governmental units, government-sponsored plans, labor groups, and expatriates. Aetna Inc. was founded in 1853 and is based in Hartford, Connecticut.
United Parcel Service, Inc. provides letter and package delivery, transportation, logistics, and related services. It operates through two segments, U.S. Domestic Package and International Package. The U.S. Domestic Package segment offers time-definite delivery of letters, documents, small packages, and palletized freight through air and ground services in the United States. The International Package segment provides guaranteed day and time-definite international shipping services in Europe, the Asia Pacific, Canada and Latin America, the Indian sub-continent, the Middle East, and Africa. This segment offers guaranteed time-definite express options. The company also provides international air and ocean freight forwarding, customs brokerage, distribution and post-sales, and mail and consulting services in approximately 200 countries and territories. In addition, it offers truckload brokerage services; supply chain solutions to the healthcare and life sciences industry; shipping, visibility, and billing technologies; and financial and insurance services. The company operates a fleet of approximately 121,000 package cars, vans, tractors, and motorcycles; and owns 59,000 containers that are used to transport cargo in its aircraft. United Parcel Service, Inc. was founded in 1907 and is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia.
Rogers Communications Inc. operates as a communications and media company in Canada. It operates through three segments: Wireless, Cable, and Media. The company offers mobile Internet access, wireless voice and enhanced voice, device and accessory financing, wireless home phone, device protection, e-mail, global voice and data roaming, bridging landline, machine-to-machine and Internet of Things solutions, and advanced wireless solutions for businesses, as well as device delivery services; and postpaid and prepaid services under the Rogers, Fido, and chatr brands to approximately 11.3 million subscribers. It also provides Internet and WiFi services; smart home monitoring services, such as monitoring, security, automation, energy efficiency, and smart control through a smartphone app. In addition, the company offers local and network TV; on-demand television; cloud-based digital video recorders; voice-activated remote controls, and integrated apps; personal video recorders; linear and time-shifted programming; digital specialty channels; 4K television programming; and televised content on smartphones, tablets, and personal computers, as well as operates Ignite TV and Ignite TV app. Further, it provides residential and small business local telephony services; calling features, such as voicemail, call waiting, and long distance; voice, data networking, Internet protocol, and Ethernet services; private networking, Internet, IP voice, and cloud solutions; optical wave and multi-protocol label switching services; IT and network technologies; and cable access network services. The company also owns Toronto Blue Jays and the Rogers Centre event venue; and operates Sportsnet ONE, Sportsnet 360, Sportsnet World, Citytv, OMNI, FX (Canada), FXX (Canada), and OLN television networks, as well as 55 AM and FM radio stations. The company was founded in 1960 and is headquartered in Toronto, Canada.
Liquid biopsy company Angle reported a rise in revenues but widening losses in its unaudited on Thursday, as well as publishing positive results from studies which it said indicated its Parsortix system could potentially detect ovarian cancer.

Revenues improves to 0.5m from 0.4m year-on-year in the 12 months to 30 April, with the companys cash balance rising to 5.5m from 3.8m.

The board said fundraising from a number of major institutional investors also helped to raise 10.2m.

It did see losses widen, however, to 6.4m from 5.1m in the prior year, which the board put down to investment into clinical evidence through patent studies, as well as the costs of FDA clearance in the US and investment into marketing Parsortix.

Angle also reported that it had received positive results from studies on 400 patients in the US and Europe, indicating the potential for a test, based on Parsortix, to detect ovarian cancer in a pre-surgery setting in women with high-risk pelvic masses.

Angle has made significant progress in its strategy towards commercialisation of Parsortix, said the companys non-executive chairman Garth Selvey.

Importantly, it recently announced positive results from two independent studies that highlighted the potential of the Parsortix system to facilitate the detection of ovarian cancer pre-surgery in women with high risk pelvic masses.
London's iconic Walkie Talkie building has been sold to Hong Kong's LKK Health Products Group by Land Securities and Canary Wharf Group for 1.28bn, marking the largest ever transaction in the UK for a standalone office building.

LKK said the acquisition will enable it to achieve a reasonable return from rental income and extend its property portfolio to major overseas financial centres for sustainable and stable capital appreciation. The 37-storey, 713,000 square ft commercial complex will be held by the group as a long-term investment.

Chairman Sammy Lee said: "We are delighted to acquire 20 Fenchurch Street in Central London to expand our global presence through strategic investments by the Groups Infinitus Property Investment arm.

Completed in 2014, the Walkie Talkie building is situated in the financial district, with 360 degree views across Central London. It is currently fully let to a number of investment grade tenants with a weighted average unexpired lease term of around 13 years.

The deal comes just months after London's 'Cheesegrater' - officially named the Leadenhall Building - was sold to Chinese investors for 1.15bn.
Acacia Mining 's Canadian parent company Barrick Gold Corporation has confirmed that it has begun talks with the Tanzanian government over its five-month-long dispute.

Acacia noted that Barrick management had said on a conference call that discussions with the Government of Tanzania are just getting underway with respect to the issues impacting Acacias operations in Tanzania.

Earlier this week Acacia Mining was slapped with an astonishing $190bn tax bill from Tanzanian tax authorities in respect of what it said were unpaid tax and penalties from the London-listed company's Bulyanhulu and Buzwagi mines in the country, which the London-listed company disputes.

The Tanzania Revenue Authority sent a demand for close to $40bn of alleged unpaid taxes and roughly $150bn of penalties and interest owed over what it alleges are under-declared export revenues.

After imposing an export ban in March on Acacia's gold and copper concentrates, June saw the FTSE 250-listed miner accused of operating in the country illegally, with two presidential mining committee reports claimed the company had been understating its level of exports for several years.

Analysts noted that the $40bn tax bill is more than twice what all top five global gold miners combined have paid in taxes since 2000.

Acacia, which said it disputed these assessments, is considering all of its options and rights and will provide a further update in due course, but has already begun paying higher royalites to the Tanzanian government after new mining laws were hurried through parliament.

Barrick, the owner of 63.9% of Acacia's shares, has agreed to compensate the government of Tanzania to try and resolve an export dispute and following talks.

Tanzanian President John Magufuli has said Barrick had "repented" and would "repay all the losses that we as a country incurred".




In the first set of results since returning to full private ownership, Lloyds Banking Group reported underlying first-half profits ahead of forecasts, hiked the dividend and upped its net interest margin guidance for the full year.

Total income in the first six months of the year of 9.3bn was up 4% year on year, with net interest income of up 2% to 5.9bn at an improved NIM of 2.82% up from 2.8% in the first quarter and 2.74% a year ago.

With operating costs trimmed 1% and impairment charges of 268m, underlying profits swelled 8% to 4.5bn, up 8% and ahead of the 4.4bn expected by analysts.

Pleasing its legion of investors, the bank lifted the interim dividend 18% to 1.0p per share.

A 1bn charge against the misselling of personal protection insurance plus 540m of other misconduct charges, meant that statutory profits were only up 3.7% year on year, while a higher effective tax rate reflecting restrictions on deductibility of conduct provisions and the banking surcharge meant the profit for the period was down 12% to 1.6bn.

"Following the successful transformation of the group to become a simple, low risk, UK focused retail and commercial bank, we have delivered another strong set of results with increased underlying and statutory profit and strong capital generation, whilst completing the acquisition of MBNA and returning to full private ownership," said chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio.

Although the Bank of England has grown increasingly concerned about mushrooming levels of consumer credit, Horta-Osorio hailed the acquisition of credit card business MBNA as allowing the Consumer Finance part of the business to "significantly increase our participation in the UK prime credit card market within our prudent risk appetite", also growing motor finance and credit card portfolios organically during the period.

The Spaniard increased NIM guidance for the full year now to "close to 2.85%" including MBNA up from 2.8% flagged after the first quarter pre-MBNA, and for asset quality ratio for the full year to less than 20 basis points, including MBNA, having previously guided to "inside existing 25 basis points guidance" before the acquisition.

Capital generation is still expected to be at the top end of the 170-200 basis points ongoing guidance range, with all other longer term guidance remaining unchanged.

"Our differentiated UK focused business model continues to deliver with our cost leadership and lower risk positioning providing competitive advantage, and our updated financial targets reflect our confidence in the future prospects of the group."

PPI AND OTHER CHARGES

PPI provision were increased in the period because Lloyds is receiving more complaints than it had anticipated, currently averaging 9,000 a week.

The total PPI warchest has now been bumped up to 2.6bn, which management hopes will see it through to the claims deadline in August 2019.

Charges also included the costs of a new redress scheme for 590,000 mortgage customers who fell into arrears, announced alongside these results.

A further 155m provision for rectifying arrears management fees takes the total provision to 552m including the new mortgage compensation scheme, with a cost of 283m in compensation payments.

Lloyds shares were down more than 2% to 67.57p by just after 1000 BST on Thursday.

Analyst Laith Khalaf at Hargreaves Lansdown said it was a sign of Lloyds strength that it can shrug off 1.6bn of misconduct charges to post a strong rise in profits - though he noted that the bank has chosen not to increase the 100m provision made in the first quarter for compensating victims of the HBOS Reading fraud, despite TV host Noel Edmonds reportedly increasing his claim to 300m.

"Growing revenues at the bank were driven by a good showing from its commercial banking division, and with costs heading downwards, that spells good news for profits, dividends and shareholders," he said.

"Lloyds has two more years of the PPI storm to weather, after which a significant headwind to profitability will have dissipated. The board will be hoping that the provisions it has now made will see the bank through to the end of the claims period in 2019, while prudently expecting that there will still be some incremental charges along the way."

On the BoE worries about credit, he noted that loan impairments remain low, "which suggests that the current inflationary squeeze on consumers has not yet manifested itself in borrowers defaulting on their debts. However the real litmus test for consumer loans will be when interest rates rise, because at current levels there is little pressure on affordability."

In conclusion Khalaf had this caution: "The banks fortunes are heavily reliant on the UK economy, which still hangs in the balance as we leave the European Union, though even if we are entering a period of economic weakness, Lloyds is at least doing so from a position of strength."

Rebecca O'Keeffe, head of investment at Interactive Investor, said: With over two million retail investors, Lloyds is consistently one of the most actively traded stocks on the market, but investors will be slightly disappointed by todays results.

"Top line results showed increased profits generated from rising income and lower costs, but higher than expected provisions for PPI and other conduct issues have weighed on sentiment and seen the share price fall."

She said the dividend was a ray of sunshine for investors and showed Lloyds was "firmly back to being an income investor favourite".
Dutch-based educational institute IHE Delft will lead a project to improve the flood resilience of the Egyptian coastal city of Alexandria.

A new approach, the Anticipatory Flood Management (AFMA), will be used to make the city better prepared for severe flooding.

The project will serve as an example for many other cities in the Arab region to make the switch from responding to anticipating to a disastrous flood.

Severe rainfall event

On October 25 and November 4 of 2015, Alexandria City and the neighboring region of Egypt experienced an unexpected severe rainfall event causing severe flooding.

This devastating flood has been described as the worst flooding of Alexandria City over the past decades in terms of the number of people affected and the amount of economic damage.

It is anticipated that these exceptional rainfall events will happen more often in this region in the future.

Archives of weather forecasts

The Anticipatory Flood Management (AFMA) uses weather forecasts and water system simulation models to take operational water management actions before an event occurs.

Important for a reliable use of the models is a verification analysis with continuous simulation spanning multiple years.

Archives of weather forecasts of multiple years are necessary, because of the low frequency of critical events.

General process of anticipatory water management.

Soft and hard measures

AFMA will include a range of solutions, ranging from (soft) flood emergency measures including flood forecasting and warning, evacuation and recovery plans, to hard measures and land use planning controls such as flood mitigation works, including capacity increase of drainage systems, and zoning requirements.

Flood protection such as minimum flood levels and flood-proofing building controls are also part of the project.

Over 500 water ambassadors will be trained in the scope of the project, and a Flood Management Unit will be established to ensure long term flood resilience.

Public-private partnership

AFMA is a public-private partnership that aims to connect engineers, planners, architects, designers and other experts to community members, companies and local government to propose new solutions that will strengthen the citys resilience to severe rain storms.

The partners are IHE Delft (lead), Alexandria University, Montaser (General Contracting Company), Group of Integrated Design, Alexandria Business Association. Associated partners are HKV, Regional water authority Delfland, City of Rotterdam.

The project has been awarded a grant from the Sustainable Water Fund of the Netherlands.

This news item was originally published on the website of IHE Delft.

Read also on this website

 Adaptation Futures 2016: Twelve nations launch coalition to safeguard vulnerable river deltas against climate change, 11 May 2016

 Unesco-IHE signs MoU with Hong Kong Drainage Services on storm water management, 24 November 2014

 Egypt and the Netherlands sign MoU for five year cooperation on water resource management, 3 November 2014

 Country: Egypt



More information

IHE Delft

Delft, the Netherlands

+31 15 2152321

www.un-ihe.org
As harmful algal blooms become more widespread, its important to understand the dangerous impacts these toxic organisms can have on people, planet and even your pets.

Algal blooms often resemble foamy mats, floating on the water. They can look like pea soup or spilled paint, often green, or blue-green in color. Without analyzing the water sample in a lab, it is impossible to know whether or not the bloom is harmful. To ensure the safety for yourself and your pets, it is best to avoid water that appears to have any blooms.

One unfortunate example is when 16-month-old black lab, Alex, was swimming in a reservoir that, unbeknownst to his owner, had an outbreak of harmful algae. Alex later collapsed and was immediately rushed to the vet. Unfortunately, despite treatment, he died five hours later from cyanobacteria neurotoxins, one of the toxins found in algal blooms.

Dogs can be particularly susceptible to the effects of [harmful algal blooms] because of their behavior, sometimes drinking water from ponds, lakes and streams; cleaning their wet fur; and consuming algal mats or scum with attractive odors, N.Y. Sea Grant Fisheries and Ecosystem Health Specialist, Jesse Lepak told Great Lakes Today.

Toxic algal blooms can be found in more than 20 states. Beaches in South Florida were covered last summer by a toxic algae sludge, prompting Florida Gov. Rick Scott to declare local states of emergency. California and Utah were heavily affected last year as well, and the Great Lakes region is known to have an over abundance of harmful blooms. In 2014, the Western Lake Erie Basin had its most intense bloom of toxic algae ever recorded, which shut down water supplies for nearly half a million people in Toledo, Ohio.

The Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory and the Cooperative Institute for Great Lakes Research are working to identify factors that influence toxic algal blooms, as well as developing methods to forecast outbreaks. So, while there are steps being taken to resolve this issue, it is important that people are aware of the problem.

NOAA suggests to keep your dog on a leash to prevent them from swimming in or drinking potentially dangerous water. However, if your dog does come into contact with potentially toxic water, be sure to keep an eye out for the following symptoms:
By Joe McCarthy

Tony Maphosa, a Zimbabwean poacher, is accused of putting cyanide in watering holes and salt pans used by elephants numerous times over several years.

All told, his poisoning spree is said to have killed more than 100 elephants, according to Zimbabwean authorities who have been searching for Maphosa for four years.

[Maphosa] has been on the wanted list in connection poisoning elephants in 2013 and is also linked to the death of eight elephants this year, a police source told the Zimbabwe Chronicle.

He was arrested last week in Hwange National Park following the recent deaths of two elephants from cyanide poisoning, a common tactic used by poachers to remove the ivory tusks of elephants, which can then be sold for a high price internationally. Two tusks were found on him when he was detained.

He could face 15 or more years in prison and more than $1 million in fines, based on past punishments of poachers and guidelines set by the government.

In recent years, some poachers have switched tactics, choosing to poison elephants rather than shoot them because its stealthier. This arrest brings down a prominent poacher, but the problem in Zimbabwe is far wider than a single individual.

Each year, dozens of elephants are killed in this park alone, which is also where Cecil the Lion was killed, despite there being an active anti-poaching team on duty, according to The Independent.

Lack of funding for park resources, the relentlessness of poachers, and the continued demand for ivory on the global black market keeps this number from falling.

All throughout Africa, poaching undermines efforts at conservation.

Poachers killed 100,000 African elephants in just three years, according to a 2014 study. In central Africa, the total elephant population declined by 64 percent during one decade.

Progress has been made in recent years, however.

China, which consumes an estimated 70 percent of the worlds ivory, banned its sale at the start of 2017. The second biggest market for ivory, the U.S., outlawed the resale of ivory within the country in 2016.

More than 180 other countries agreed to ban the sale of ivory in 2016.

Black market sales of ivory could remain unaffected by these bans, but advocates hope that law enforcement will turn their attention to closing ivory corridors and that consumers will begin to lose their appetite for ivory.

Ending demand is the ultimate goal, because if elephant tusks no longer generate income, then poaching will cease.

Reposted with permission from our media associate Global Citizen.
The Bioscience Resource Project and the Center for Media and Democracy released a trove of rediscovered and newly digitized chemical industry and regulatory agency documents Wednesday stretching back to the 1920s. The documents are available here.

Together, the papers show that both industry and regulators understood the extraordinary toxicity of many chemical products and worked together to conceal this information from the public and the press. These papers will transform our understanding of the hazards posed by certain chemicals on the market and the fraudulence of some of the regulatory processes relied upon to protect human health and the environment.

These documents represent a tremendous trove of previously hidden or lost evidence on chemical regulatory activity and chemical safety. What is most striking about these documents is their heavy focus on the activities of regulators, Dr. Jonathan Latham, executive director of the Bioscience Resource Project, said. Time and time again regulators went to the extreme lengths of setting up secret committees, deceiving the media and the public, and covering up evidence of human exposure and human harm. These secret activities extended and increased human exposure to chemicals they knew to be toxic.

The Poison Papers are a compilation of more than 20,000 documents obtained from federal agencies and chemical manufacturers via open records requests and public interest litigation. They include scientific studies and summaries of studies, internal memos and reports, meeting minutes, strategic discussions and sworn testimonies.

The majority of these documents have been scanned and digitized for the first time and represent nearly three tons of material. The regulatory agency sources of these documents include: the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, the Veterans Administration and the Department of Defense. Chemical manufacturers referenced in the documents include: Dow, Monsanto, DuPont and Union Carbide, as well as many smaller manufacturers and the commercial testing companies who worked for them.

The Poison Papers catalogue the secret concerns of industry and regulators over the hazards of pesticides and other chemicals and their efforts to conceal those concerns.

Most of the Poison Papers were collected by author and activist Carol Van Strum.

In total, the stark truth revealed by these 50 years of documents is that the entire pesticide industry could not exist without lies, coverups, rampant fraud, and government enablers, said Van Strum, who authored the 1983 book Bitter Fog: Herbicides and Human Rights.

Corporate concealment is not a new story. What is novel in the Poison Papers is the abundant evidence that EPA and other regulators were often knowing participants or even primary instigators of these cover-ups. These regulators failed to inform the public of the hazards of dioxins and other chemicals; of evidence of fraudulent independent testing; and of widespread human exposure. The papers thus reveal, in the often-incriminating words of the participants themselves, an elaborate universe of deception and deceit surrounding many pesticides and synthetic chemicals.

The chemicals most often discussed in the documents include dioxins, herbicides and pesticides (such as 2,4-D, Dicamba, Permethrin, Atrazine and Agent Orange) and PCBs. Some of these chemicals are among the most toxic and persistent ever manufactured. Except for PCBs, almost every chemical discussed in the Poison Papers is still manufactured and sold today, either as products or as product contaminants.

The Poison Papers will be a tremendous resource for researchers, the media, and everyday Americans worried about many of the chemicals used on farm fields and in common consumer products, said Mary Bottari of the Center for Media and Democracy.

Explore: Some of the 20,000+ documents in this repository have surfaced over the years. Many have never been seen online or publicly written about. The Poison Papers therefore offer a unique opportunity for researchers, the public and the media to discover much more about what was known about chemical toxicity, when and by whom.

Access: You can access the papers at PoisonPapers.org. Important instructions on how best to search these old documents are also available here and on the website.

Poison Papers Reveal:

Secrecy  They disclose EPA meeting minutes of a secret high-level dioxins working group that admitted dioxins are extraordinarily poisonous chemicals. Internal minutes contradict the agencys longstanding refusal to regulate dioxins or set legal limits.

Collusion  They demonstrate EPA collusion with the pulp and paper industry to suppress, modify or delay the results of the congressionally-mandated National Dioxin Study, which found high levels of dioxins in everyday products, such as baby diapers and coffee filters, as well as pulp and paper mill effluents.

Deception  They provide important new data on the infamous Industrial Bio-Test (IBT) scandal. By the late 1970s, it was known that more than 800 safety studies performed by IBT on 140 chemicals produced by 38 chemical manufacturers were nonexistent, fraudulent, or invalid. The Poison Papers, however, show that EPA and its Canadian counterpart, the Health Protection Branch (HPB), colluded with pesticide manufacturers, to keep invalidly registered products on the market and covered up massive problems with many IBT tests.

Cover-up  The papers also show that EPA staff had evidence that this IBT scandal involved more independent testing companies and more products than ever officially acknowledged.

Concealment Show that EPA concealed and falsely its own studies finding high levels of dioxin2,3,7,8-TCDDin environmental samples and human breast milk following routine use of 2,4-D and 2,4,5-T (Agent Orange) by the federal Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management.

Intent  Show that Monsanto chief medical officer George Roush admitted under oath to knowing that Monsanto studies into the health effects of dioxins on workers were written up untruthfully for the scientific literature such as to obscure health effects. These fraudulent studies were heavily relied upon by EPA to avoid regulating dioxins. They also were relied upon to defend manufacturers in lawsuits brought by veterans claiming damages from exposure to Agent Orange.
New data reveal an unprecedented depiction of a region of partially molten rock deep within the Earth, which appears to be feeding material in the form of a plume to the surface, where Iceland is located. The finding, in combination with evidence from previous studies, suggests that these molten regions deep below, near the core-mantle boundary of the Earth, may cause basaltic ocean island chains to form along the surface. Around the Earth's core-mantle boundary are regions called ultralow-velocity zones (ULVZs), which are characterized by liquid rock with velocities up to 30% lower than surrounding material. However, depicting ULVZs has been particularly difficult given their extreme depths. ULVZs have been detected below the Polynesian country of Samoa and the Hawaiian islands, yet a clear depiction of their shape has eluded scientists. The proximity of these ULVZs below volcanic island chains has prompted theories suggesting that the giant reservoirs of molten rock feed the mantle plumes that create the islands on Earth's surface. Here, Kaiqing Yuan and Barbara Romanowicz used seismic tomography, which constructs an x-ray-like picture of the Earth's interior using seismic waves, to probe a ULVZ below Iceland. Based on their results, there appears to be a massive circular blob of partially molten rock, approximately 800 kilometers in diameter and 15 kilometers in height, along the core-mantle boundary, feeding the plume directly below the basaltic island. The authors note that this ULVZ's location, shape and large diameter, which is proportionate with the width of the plume higher up in the lower mantle, suggests a close link between the ULVZ and the rising plume above it. These new data, in combination with the known presence of ULVZs below Samoa and Hawaii, led the authors to propose that a specific class of large ULVZs form at the roots of broad plumes that feed active hotspots.

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Every day, enough sunlight hits the Earth to power the planet many times over -- if only we could more efficiently capture all the energy.

With today's solar panels limited by their efficiency (currently, more than 80 percent of available solar energy is lost as heat), scientists have been looking into nature as inspiration to better understanding the way photosynthetic plants and bacteria capture sunlight.

"Nature's invention of photosynthesis is the single most important energy conversion process driving the biosphere, and photosynthesis forever changed the Earth's atmosphere," said Raimund Fromme, an associate research professor at the ASU Biodesign Institute's Center for Applied Structural Biology and in the School of Molecular Sciences.

More than 3 billion years ago our planet had an atmosphere without oxygen. At this time, nature figured out a way to capture the sunlight and convert it food to take advantage of this everlasting energy source.

Now, a research group led by Fromme has gained important new insights by resolving with near-atomic clarity, the very first core membrane protein structure in the simplest known photosynthetic bacterium, called Heliobacterium modesticaldum (Helios was the Greek sun god).

By solving the heart of photosynthesis in this sun-loving, soil-dwelling bacterium, Fromme's research team has gained a fundamental new understanding of the early evolution of photosynthesis, and how this vital process differs between plants systems.

Their discovery provides scientists with a brand new template for laying the groundwork for organic-based solar panel design, known as "artificial leaves" for solar energy, or possible renewable biofuel applications.

The findings appear in today's issue of Science.

Nature knows best

ASU has long been a long-standing research leader in photosynthesis, going back to its first decade as a research university in the 1970s. It was a natural fit for scientists drawn to the unique beauty of the Sonoran Desert that, with its 300-plus days of annual sunshine, is simply the best spot in the nation to capture solar energy.

Life's solar panels, which scientists call photosystems, are used by plants, algae and photosynthetic bacteria as an incredibly efficient system for capturing almost every available photon of light to grow and thrive, filling almost every nook and cranny on earth.

Fromme is part of a large structural biology research group at ASU, who are steadily gaining a better understanding by taking pictures of the key proteins that work within the photosynthesis reaction centers to help turn light into energy.

"To truly and fully understand photosynthesis, one has to follow the process of converting light into chemical energy," said Fromme. "This is one of the fastest chemical reactions ever studied, which is part of what makes it so hard to study and understand."

The timescales of photosynthesis turn a bolt of lightning into a snail-like pace by comparison. Photosynthesis reactions occur at the scale of picoseconds, which is one-trillionth of a second. A picosecond is to one second as one second is to 37,000 years.

But the ASU structural biologists are using ever more powerful x-ray technology to one day catch up to the light by capturing freeze-frame images of crystallized proteins throughout the whole process.

Lightning in a bottle

In an effort to study photosynthesis, Fromme explored photosynthesis in its simplest form, in heliobacteria, which were first found in muddy soils near hot springs.

Single-celled heliobacteria are simpler, yet fundamentally different than plants. For instance, during photosynthesis, instead of using water like plants, heliobacteria use hydrogen sulfide. They grow without oxygen, and after photosynthesis, give off a rotten-egg smelling sulfur gas in place of oxygen.

Heliobacteria have used their unique place to successfully carve out their own ecological niche because they use a near-infrared wavelength of light for photosynthesis, which is perfect for low light conditions found in places like Iceland or muddy water rice paddies. Plants simply can't compete.

Scientists have wanted to understand how heliobacteria accomplish this.

Reaction to action

At the heart of photosynthesis is a reaction center; it's an elaborate complex of pigments and proteins that turn light into electrons to power the cell.

Chlorophyll is the pigment that makes plants green. In plants, chlorophyll captures the sun's energy and uses it to make sugars out of carbon dioxide from the air and water.

Oxygenic photosynthesis in higher plants, green algae and cyanobacteria make use of Photosystem I (PSI), which is a Type I RC, and Photosystem II (PSII), which is a Type II RC. These work together to extract electrons from water to ferredoxin and finally reduce an energy carrier NADP+ to NADPH.

In contrast, anoxygenic phototrophic bacteria, such as Heliobacterium modesticaldum, use a single RC to drive a cyclic electron transfer (ET) pathway that creates a proton-motive force across the membrane, which is used to drive energy production and metabolism by ATP synthesis.

The reaction centers enclose these participants like a cage to efficiently capture all the available energy and photons of light by bringing all the elements together in the same vicinity.

Reaction centers (RC) come in two main flavors of cofactors: iron (Type I) or quinone (Type II).

Heliobacteria have the simplest known reaction center and use unique chlorophylls.

The discovery of heliobacteria led to the identification of unique characteristics for its RC (in the 1990s, former ASU chemistry chair Robert Blankenship first led a group to help sequence and characterize heliobacteria RCs).

The heliobacteria RC has been proposed to be the closest thing alive to the earliest common ancestor of all photosynthetic reaction centers, when, around 3 billion years ago, the early Earth contained sulfur rich seas and little oxygen.

But successfully purifying an RC protein and growing crystals needed for X-ray experiments can be a lengthy, difficult process.

In particular, Fromme's research project was started seven years ago as postdoctoral researcher Iosifina Sarrou first improved the preparation of the heliobacterial reaction center. After many initial trials of crystallization, an X-ray diffracting crystal charge was found.

"This is the moment a crystallographer is waiting for," said Fromme, explaining the years it can take to grow the perfect protein crystal suitable for X-ray studies.

Two to tango

Short after these encouraging results, Christopher Gisriel joined the team and improved the diffraction quality to the final quality of 2.2 Angstroms.

Still, the research team could not solve a crystallographic structure.

This hiatus took two years until August 2016. Then, finally, a breakthrough came.

At this point "a thrilling discovery on unchartered territory began, as each new chlorophyll was cheered," Fromme remembered, and "proved everyone's initial prediction on the heliobacteria's RC was wrong."

Using X-ray light at the Advanced Light Source in Berkeley, CA, and a beamline at Advanced Photon Source at Argonne National Lab, IL., Fromme's group has now visualized the heliobacteria RCs for the very first time at near-atomic, 2.2-angstrom resolution (an angstrom is the width of a hydrogen atom).

They found an almost perfect symmetry in the heliobacter RC.

First, the amino acid composition of a pair of proteins was identical, called a homodimer.

This was the very first time that a RC was found to contain just a single pair of protein homodimers to drive photosynthesis.

Finally, they mapped about 60 chlorophylls onto the RC protein complex, which was finally a way higher number than his colleague John Golbeck from Pennstate University who was part of the study predicted.

The core polypeptide dimer and two small subunits coordinate 54 (bacterio)chlorophylls and 2 carotenoids that capture and transfer energy to the core at the reaction center, which performs charge separation, stabilization and electron transfer it consists of 6 (bacterio)chlorophylls and an iron-sulfur cluster; unlike other reaction centers, it lacks a bound quinone.

Thus, the structure supports the hypothesis that electron transport in the HbRC does not require an intermediate cofactor.

"High-resolution structures have been obtained from multiple heterodimeric (more than one protein) RCs (Purple bacteria RC, PSI, and PSII), but no homodimeric RC structure have been solved until now," said Fromme.

The ancient origins of photosynthesis

Furthermore, with the explosion of DNA sequencing technology, and with the potential ability to understand all of the genes and proteins across life, they also traced the evolution of the photosynthesis RCs.

Could this reaction center have spawned all others, leading to greater complexity over the eons?

In evolutionary terms, this means that the heliobacteria RC may have first come from a single gene.

"This structure preserves characteristics of the ancestral reaction center, providing insight into the evolution of photosynthesis," explains Fromme's colleague Kevin Redding. "From the new structures we have, it would certainly make sense for a compelling case."

Then, the gene may have been duplicated to increase the evolutionary complexity.

"A homodimeric RC almost certainly preceded heterodimeric RCs in evolution," said Fromme. Duplication of the core RC subunit gene followed by divergence of the two genes would allow for the conversion of a homodimeric to a heterodimeric RC. This likely occurred on at least three separate occasions, leading to the creation of all the different and more complex reactions center found in other photosynthetic bacteria and plants."

The sun will rise again

Fromme's group is excited about the potential of the new results. Such an understanding could one-day help research groups around the world build an artificial photosynthesis center that could help develop next-generation hybrid organic solar panels, possibly using the heliobacter to boost light absorption and begin to boost solar energy efficiency or drive solar-based renewable biofuel technology.

After all, the sun will rise again tomorrow, awaiting more and more clever technologies scientists can dream up to capture the full potential of solar.

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Paper: STRUCTURE OF A SYMMETRIC PHOTOSYNTHETIC REACTION CENTER/PHOTOSYSTEM

The structure of a reaction center from an anaerobic phototroph provides insights into the early evolution of photosynthesis.

Christopher Gisriel1, Iosifina Sarrou2, Bryan Ferlez3, John H. Golbeck3,4, Kevin E. Redding1,5, Raimund Fromme1,6*

1School of Molecular Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe AZ 85287, 2Center for Free- Electron Laser Science, DESY, 22607 Hamburg, Germany, 3Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, 4Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, 5Center for Bioenergy & Photosynthesis, Arizona State University, 6Center of Applied Structural Discovery, Biodesign Institute, Tempe AZ 85287

This work was funded by the Division of Chemical Sciences, Geosciences, and Biosciences, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy through Grant (DE- SC0010575 to KR, RF, and JHG) and supported by X-ray crystallographic equipment and infrastructure provided by Petra Fromme of the Biodesign Center for Applied Structural Discovery at Arizona State University.

The Berkeley Center for Structural Biology is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health, National Institute of General Medical Sciences, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. The Advanced Light Source is supported by the Director, Office of Science, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02- 05CH11231. Results shown in this report are derived from work performed at Argonne National Laboratory, Structural Biology Center at the Advanced Photon Source. Argonne is operated by U. Chicago Argonne, LLC, for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Biological and Environmental Research under Contract DE-AC02-06CH11357.
The UK's proposed withdrawal from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) would threaten the supply of essential medical isotopes (essential for some types of cancer treatment and medical imaging) putting patients at risk, argues an expert in The BMJ today.

Professor Martin McKee at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, points out that Euratom "barely featured in the Brexit referendum campaign" and that government ministers have repeatedly dismissed concerns.

Euratom regulates the nuclear industry across Europe, safeguarding the transport of nuclear materials, disposing of waste, and carrying out research. It also supports the secure and safe supply and use of medical radioisotopes, that cannot be stockpiled because they decay quickly.

The Royal College of Radiologists and the British Nuclear Medicine Society have already expressed grave concerns about the supply of medical isotopes, following Brexit, and the clear risk to patients should supplies be interrupted.

While it may be possible for the UK to remain within existing arrangements, "it will be exceptionally complicated and the UK's position will inevitably be weakened," writes McKee.

Crucially, the government has offered no real clarity as to how any agreement might be achieved, he adds. The position paper on Euratom published by the UK government in July 2017 contained little detail even on nuclear power and made no mention of medical isotopes.

"Ministers have no excuse for failing to anticipate this controversy," he says. "The problems were highlighted clearly in an article in the Financial Times in February 2017 and in briefings by nuclear industry experts. Yet, as with all aspects of the Brexit negotiations, there is no evidence of any serious planning."

McKee calls for action on two fronts. First, the Department of Health must be brought into the Brexit negotiating team, as recommended by the Commons Health Committee. Second, the Department for Exiting the EU must urgently appoint a chief scientific advisor, as recommended by the Commons Science and Technology Committee.

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The recent rise in e-cigarette use among US adult smokers is associated with a significant increase in smoking cessation, finds a study published in The BMJ.

This study, based on the largest representative sample of e-cigarette users to date, provides a strong case that e-cigarettes have helped to increase smoking cessation at the population level.

Currently, the scientific community is divided over whether e-cigarettes are an aid to quitting smoking. Some suggest that e-cigarettes will have a positive impact on smoking rates by acting as a nicotine replacement therapy, while others argue that they could reduce the urgency to quit smoking.

So a team of researchers, led by Professor Shu-Hong Zhu at the University of California, set out to examine whether the increase in use of e-cigarettes in the USA, was associated with a change in overall smoking cessation rate at the population level.

They base their findings on five population surveys dating from 2001 to 2015. E-cigarette users were identified from the most recent survey (2014-15) and smoking cessation rates were obtained from those who reported smoking cigarettes 12 months before the survey. Rates from this survey were then compared to four earlier surveys.

Of 161,054 respondents to the 2014-15 survey, 22,548 were current smokers and 2,136 recent quitters. Among them, 38.2% of current smokers and 49.3% of recent quitters had tried e-cigarettes.

The results show that e-cigarette users were more likely than non-users to make a quit attempt (65% v 40%) and more likely to succeed in quitting for at least 3 months (8.2% v 4.8%).

The overall population quit rate for 2014-15 was significantly higher (from 4.5% to 5.6%) than that for 2010-11, and higher than those for all other survey years.

Although the 1.1 percentage point increase in cessation rate might appear small, the researchers point out that it represents approximately 350,000 additional US smokers who quit in 2014-15.

This study has certain limitations, which is common for population surveys. For example, survey questions were limited, which prevented detailed analysis of the quitting process and lack of information on the type of e-cigarette product used. The main strength is use of the largest representative sample of e-cigarette users among the US population.

Nevertheless, the study has two key findings. First, in 2014-15, e-cigarette users attempted to quit cigarette smoking and succeeded in quitting smoking at higher rates than non-users. Second, the overall smoking cessation rate in 2014-15 increased significantly from that of 2010-11.

"Other interventions that occurred concurrently, such as a national campaign showing evocative ads that highlight the serious health consequences of tobacco use, most likely played a role in increasing the cessation rate," say the researchers.

"But this analysis presents a strong case that e-cigarette use also played an important role. These findings need to be weighed carefully in regulatory policy making and in the planning of tobacco control interventions," they add.

In an accompanying editorial, Christopher Bullen, Professor of Public Health at the University of Auckland, says this study raises important points.

He questions whether other tobacco control interventions operating at the same time may have been key triggers to the observed step change, but says Zhu and colleagues "mount a convincing case for why the two most likely candidates - a large federal tobacco tax increase in 2009 and a nationwide mass media campaign - could not be stand-alone reasons for the change in cessation rates."

Bullen also points out that the data came from populations in countries with liberal regulatory approaches towards e-cigarettes, enabling substantial numbers of smokers to make the transition away from smoking.

"In light of this evidence, policymakers in countries contemplating a more restrictive approach to the regulation of e-cigarettes should pause to consider if pursuing such a course of action is the right thing to do for population health," he concludes.

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This week, The BMJ looks at the issue of working hours and burnout among doctors.

An editorial warns burnout rates among doctors have reached an "epidemic level" And one doctor argues that willingness to work extra hours is affecting doctors' health

In the first article, experts debate whether doctors should work 24 hour shifts, following a recent decision to allow trainee doctors (residents) in the US to increase their maximum limit of hours on duty from 16 to 24 hours.

Steven Stain, a surgeon at Albany Medical College in the US argues that longer shifts are not harmful to patients but encourage professionalism. There is no conclusive evidence indicates that working 24 hour shifts negatively impacts patient care, he writes, and it is important for residents to train in a supervised environment to prepare them for independent practice.

But Michael Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at Evelina London Children's Hospital, emphasises the debilitating impact of sleep deprivation on patient care and safety. "Our systems must support us as functioning human beings," he writes. "We must acknowledge sleep deprivation and fatigue have profound effects, on us, and the care we deliver to our patients, and encourage better strategies to address it."

An editorial argues that burnout rates among doctors have reached an "epidemic level." Jane Lemaire and Jean Wallace at the University of Calgary say the medical profession "must change its culture to tackle the toxic aspects of medicine that cause and sustain burnout."

They propose several changes to help drive this transformation, including viewing doctors' wellbeing as central to patient care, and research to identify evidence based strategies to reverse the rising tide of burnout globally.

"Human resources are the most important asset of any organisation," they write. "As doctors continue to grapple with staying well, it is imperative that they have the support of their profession and their healthcare organisations to maximise their ability to care for themselves and their patients safely and effectively."

Finally, Jan Wise, medicolegal committee chair at the British Medical Association, warns that doctors' willingness to work beyond their contracted hours is affecting their own health and causing wider problems for the health service.

"People are burning out," he says. And by "going the extra mile" doctors are helping to obscure gaps in service provision from those responsible for managing workforce numbers, he argues.

Wise believes that there needs to a shift in the medical profession's attitude to taking on unpaid additional work - and that doctors need to reassert their rights to work the hours stated in their NHS contracts.

Without a shift in attitudes, the failure to tackle staffing shortages could have a major impact "which may quite possibly precipitate a failure or a downsizing of the NHS," he says.

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In the United States, more children are lost to cancer than any other disease, and one in 285 children will be diagnosed before they turn 20. As one of the nation's leading pediatric cancer researchers, Alex Huang, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics with secondary appointments in pathology, biomedical engineering and general medical sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, focuses on strategies to activate the immune system to fight the disease.

To help advance his pathfinding research, Huang has been awarded a $150,000 St. Baldrick's Foundation Innovation Award. This award provides critical and significant funding to experienced investigators who are developing promising approaches to find causes and cures for childhood cancer.

"There is an urgent need for more effective pediatric cancer treatments," said Huang. "My goal is to continue fighting to find a cure for these children each day."

Huang, who is also the Theresia G. & Stuart F. Kline Family Foundation chair in pediatric oncology and the associate director of pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship program at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, recently conducted a breakthrough study that pinpointed a cell-cycle checkpoint protein which allowed individual brain tumor cells to avoid the immune system. Tumors often mimic healthy cells which allows them to grow undetected, so understanding the mechanism of how tumors evade the immune system is imperative for successful treatment.

Additionally, Huang was selected as a working group member advising the National Cancer Institute on the "moonshot" initiative to cure cancer in May of 2016. The initiative aims to speed current cancer research efforts while improving cancer prevention and early detection. The group developed recommendations for major opportunities in hopes of leading to significant breakthroughs in the fight against cancer, particularly pediatric and adolescent cancers.

The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-powered charity committed to funding research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long, healthy lives. The Foundation is the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants and awarded 90 new grants totaling $23.5 million in its summer grant cycle to support the brightest minds in the pediatric cancer field. Since 2008, the Foundation has provided more than $2 million in funding for researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals.

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For more information about Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, please visit: .

For more information about St. Baldrick's Foundation, please visit: stbaldricks.org.

For more information about University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, please visit rainbow.org
Researchers have found a surprisingly versatile workaround to create chemical compounds that could prove useful for medical imaging and drug development.

The chemical mechanism, discovered by scientists at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) and UC Berkeley, could also broaden our understanding of basic chemical reaction processes involving common helpers, called catalysts, like copper and gold.

Unexpected chemistry

While studying chemical reactions of a gold-containing molecule, the research team happened upon a chemical mechanism that can be used to form trifluoromethyl (CF3) compounds and attach them to other chemical compounds.

Their discovery could aid in the synthesis of new "radiotracers" - chemical compounds that contain a radioactive form, or isotope, of an element - for use with a noninvasive, high-resolution 3-D medical imaging technology known as PET (positron emission tomography) scanning.

Drug companies have shown an increasing interest in incorporating CF3 compounds - which contain carbon and fluorine - in a range of pharmaceuticals. These compounds can make drugs more selective, effective, or potent. The antidepressant Prozac, HIV drug Sustiva, and anti-inflammatory Celebrex are among the examples of drugs containing CF3 compounds.

So in testing the biological uptake of drugs that incorporate CF3 compounds, it's useful to incorporate fluorine-18 (18F), a radioactive isotope of fluorine in the CF3 compound as a sort of label or "tracer" that can be detected by PET scanners.

Creating 'tracers' for PET scans

"This research allows us to make new classes of radioactive tracers that had been too difficult, or even impossible, to prepare previously," said Mark D. Levin, who served as the lead author in the study, published in Science. He participated in the study as a UC Berkeley graduate student working as an affiliate researcher at the Biomedical Isotope Facility at Berkeley Lab.

"These CF3 groups have long been known as medicinal chemistry boons, but they were traditionally very difficult to install," he added. "We've developed a chemical technique, based on a new discovery in gold chemistry, that lets us attach a radioactive fluorine atom to a specific class of molecule that was previously challenging to do," Levin said.

There are about 2,500 PET scanners in hospitals across the U.S. that collectively perform about 2 million scans per year. PET scans are commonly used to detect, map, and monitor internal cancers. They also can produce detailed images of the brain and other organs, help drug developers trace the biological pathways, concentration, and better understand the dispersal of new drugs in animal studies, among other uses.

The research team tapped the mechanism to incorporate fluorine-18 in CF3 compounds they created. Fluorine-18 is a popular tracer for revealing cancers and other biological targets in PET scans. Other researchers in Berkeley Lab's Chemical Sciences Division and Biomedical Isotope Facility, and in UC Berkeley's Department of Chemistry also participated in the study.

Flourine-18 has a half-life of about 110 minutes, which means its radioactive output is halved every 110 minutes, and the chemical processes incorporating it as a label must be designed to rapidly attach it to compounds of interest.

Discovery leads team to isotope-making machine

In work at the UC Berkeley campus, Levin and other researchers had been pursuing a chemical process to produce a fluorine-containing compound called hexafluoroethane, used to etch silicon for computer chips, associated with a gold-containing molecule. In this effort, they enlisted a boron-containing compound.

Unexpectedly, they found a mechanism by which the boron compound acts on a CF3 compound to produce a CF2 fragment associated with the gold catalyst. This fragment, they observed, can then bond with other chemical compounds and in a next step form a new CF3-containing compound.

They describe in the Science article how they manipulated this mechanism to derive drug compounds including leflunomide, a drug that is used to reduce swelling and inflammation in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, for example, and also a painkiller known as BAY 59-3074.

"When we got the first inkling that our new mechanism might be useful for developing radioactive tracers, we started looking at Berkeley Lab and its Biomedical Isotope Facility, which was really central to this work," Levin said.

Berkeley Lab, considered the birthplace of nuclear medicine for its pioneering work in the discovery and application of radioactive isotopes for medical uses, maintains a type of accelerator known as a cyclotron that produces the short-lived radioactive isotopes used to make the compounds for medical studies and other research.

Jim O'Neil, a Berkeley Lab staff scientist who is group leader for the Lab's Biomedical Isotope Facility, worked with Levin and other members of the research team to give them more insight about the chemical mechanism involving CF3 compounds.

"They saw an application of their work for radioactive drugs," O'Neil said.

"The pharmaceutical field and the diagnostic medicine field has been very limited in getting compounds that have been labeled with radioactive CF3 and yet there are a lot of drugs that have these CF3 groups in them. We produced the (fluorine-18) isotope for them and provided the facilities and training for the collaboration," he added.

Levin said that the research team learned how to incorporate the fluorine-18 marker atoms into the chemical mechanism they used to create new compounds.

A call-out for drug candidates

"We think these gold compounds will be a powerful platform to prepare new tracers, and we're working to improve the system and to identify promising, clinically-relevant drug targets," he said.

"Ideally, we'd partner with a group that has a specific biological target or drug candidate of interest that contains a CF3," and work to adapt the gold complex his team used in the latest study to the specific application, he added. Then, the team could work to develop radioactive tracer incorporating that compound.

"Also, the new mechanism may shed light on broader problems" in chemistry, he said, by providing a deeper understanding fundamental reaction processes for gold and other catalysts.

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This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of General Medical Sciences, the ARCS Foundation, and Swiss National Science Foundation.

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory addresses the world's most urgent scientific challenges by advancing sustainable energy, protecting human health, creating new materials, and revealing the origin and fate of the universe. Founded in 1931, Berkeley Lab's scientific expertise has been recognized with 13 Nobel Prizes. The University of California manages Berkeley Lab for the U.S. Department of Energy's Office of Science. For more, visit http://www.lbl.gov.

DOE's Office of Science is the single largest supporter of basic research in the physical sciences in the United States, and is working to address some of the most pressing challenges of our time. For more information, please visit science.energy.gov (http://science.energy.gov).
OmegaCAM -- the wide-field optical camera on ESO's VLT Survey Telescope (VST) -- has captured the spectacular Orion Nebula and its associated cluster of young stars in great detail, producing a beautiful new image. This object is one of the closest stellar nurseries for both low and high-mass stars, at a distance of about 1350 light-years [1].

But this is more than just a pretty picture. A team led by ESO astronomer Giacomo Beccari has used these data of unparallelled quality to precisely measure the brightness and colours of all the stars in the Orion Nebula Cluster. These measurements allowed the astronomers to determine the mass and ages of the stars. To their surprise, the data revealed three different sequences of potentially different ages.

"Looking at the data for the first time was one of those 'Wow!' moments that happen only once or twice in an astronomer's lifetime," says Beccari, lead author of the paper presenting the results. "The incredible quality of the OmegaCAM images revealed without any doubt that we were seeing three distinct populations of stars in the central parts of Orion."

Monika Petr-Gotzens, co-author and also based at ESO Garching, continues, "This is highly significant. What we are witnessing is that the stars of a cluster at the beginning of their lives didn't form altogether simultaneously. This may mean that our understanding of how stars form in clusters needs to be modified."

The astronomers looked carefully at the possibility that instead of indicating different ages, the different brightnesses and colours of some of the stars were due to hidden companion stars, which would make the stars appear brighter and redder than they really were. But this idea would imply quite unusual properties of the pairs, which have never before been observed. Other measurements of the stars, such as their rotation speeds and spectra, also indicated that they must have different ages [2].

"Although we cannot yet formally disprove the possibility that these stars are binaries, it seems much more natural to accept that what we see are three generations of stars that formed in succession, within less than three million years," concludes Beccari.

The new results strongly suggest that star formation in the Orion Nebula Cluster is proceeding in bursts, and more quickly than had been previously thought.

Notes

[1] The Orion Nebula has been studied by many of ESO's telescopes, including images in visible light from the MPG/ESO 2.2-metre telescope ( eso1103) and infrared images from VISTA (eso1701 ) and the HAWK-I instrument on the Very Large Telescope (eso1625).

[2] The group also found that each of the three different generations rotate at different speeds -- the youngest stars rotate the fastest, and the oldest stars rotate the slowest. In this scenario, the stars would have formed in quick succession, within a time frame of three million years.

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More information

This research was presented in a paper entitled "A Tale of Three Cities: OmegaCAM discovers multiple sequences in the color magnitude diagram of the Orion Nebula Cluster," by G. Beccari and colleagues, to appear in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.

The team is composed of G. Beccari, M.G. Petr-Gotzens and H.M.J. Boffin (ESO, Garching bei Munchen, Germany), M. Romaniello (ESO; Excellence Cluster Universe, Garching bei Munchen, Germany), D. Fedele (INAF-Osservatorio Astrofisico di Arcetri, Firenze, Italy), G. Carraro (Dipartimento di Fisica e Astronomia Galileo Galilei, Padova, Italy), G. De Marchi (Science Support Office, European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESA/ESTEC), The Netherlands), W.J. de Wit (ESO, Santiago, Chile), J.E. Drew (School of Physics, University of Hertfordshire, UK), V.M. Kalari (Departamento de Astronomia, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile), C.F. Manara (ESA/ESTEC), E.L. Martin (Centro de Astrobiologia (CSIC-INTA), Madrid, Spain), S. Mieske (ESO, Chile), N. Panagia (Space Telescope Science Institute, USA); L. Testi (ESO, Garching); J.S. Vink (Armagh Observatory, UK); J.R. Walsh (ESO, Garching); and N.J. Wright (School of Physics, University of Hertfordshire; Astrophysics Group, Keele University, UK).

ESO is the foremost intergovernmental astronomy organisation in Europe and the world's most productive ground-based astronomical observatory by far. It is supported by 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Brazil, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, along with the host state of Chile. ESO carries out an ambitious programme focused on the design, construction and operation of powerful ground-based observing facilities enabling astronomers to make important scientific discoveries. ESO also plays a leading role in promoting and organising cooperation in astronomical research. ESO operates three unique world-class observing sites in Chile: La Silla, Paranal and Chajnantor. At Paranal, ESO operates the Very Large Telescope and its world-leading Very Large Telescope Interferometer as well as two survey telescopes, VISTA working in the infrared and the visible-light VLT Survey Telescope. ESO is also a major partner in two facilities on Chajnantor, APEX and ALMA, the largest astronomical project in existence. And on Cerro Armazones, close to Paranal, ESO is building the 39-metre Extremely Large Telescope, the ELT, which will become "the world's biggest eye on the sky".

Links

Research paper - https://www.eso.org/public/archives/releases/sciencepapers/eso1723/eso1723a.pdf

Photos of the VLT Survey Telescope - http://www.eso.org/public/images/archive/search/?adv=&subject_name=VLT%20Survey%20Telescope

Contacts

Giacomo Beccari

ESO

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: 49-89-3200-6195

Email: gbeccari@eso.org

Richard Hook

ESO Public Information Officer

Garching bei Munchen, Germany

Tel: 49-89-3200-6655

Cell: 49-151-1537-3591

Email: rhook@eso.org
WASHINGTON, DC -- Awards for the year's best mathematics writing were given on July 27 in Chicago by the Mathematical Association of America at MAA MathFest, one of the largest gathering of mathematicians in the country.

"These award winners represent the best in mathematical writing, and we are proud that they are choosing to publish their work with the Mathematical Association of America," said Michael Pearson, executive director of the MAA. "Clear and effective writing is the foundation of the mathematical community and the wider scientific community."

Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards

Seven mathematicians are recipients of the Carl B. Allendoerfer Awards, which is given to authors for excellent mathematical writing published in the Mathematics Magazine, a journal of the MAA.

The authors of "Intransitive Dice" are recognized for their work: Brian Conrey and Kent Morrison of the American Institute of Mathematics, and undergraduate students James Gabbard, University of Southern California; Katie Grant, University of California San Diego; and Shang-Chi Andrew Liu, University of California Los Angeles.

Vladimir Pozdnyakov and Michael Steele, from the University of Pennsylvania, are honored for their publication "Buses, Bullies, and Bijections."

Trevor Evans Award:

Each year an author is recognized for their excellent writing for an undergraduate audience, published in MAA's magazine Math Horizons. This year's recipient of the Trevor Evans Award is Cornelia A. Van Cott, University of San Francisco, for her article "A Pi Day of the Century Every Year."

The Paul R. Halmos-Lester R. Ford Award:

This award recognizes exceptional authors that have published in The American Mathematical Monthly, the MAA's flagship journal. This year's winners are:

Harold P. Boas, Texas A&M University, "Mocposite Functions"

Adrien Kassel, Ecole Normale Superieure, and David B. Wilson, Microsoft Research, "The Looping Rate and Sandpile Density of Planar Graphs" Deborah Kent, Drake University, and David Muraki, Simon Fraser University, "A Geometric Solution of a Cubic by Omar Khayyam ... in Which Colored Diagrams Are Used Instead of Letters for the Greater Ease of Learners"

Lawrence Zalcman, Bar-Ilan University, "A Tale of Three Theorems"

George Polya Awards:

This award recognizes the exceptional papers published in The College Mathematics Journal, a publication of the MAA. Winners Viktor Blasjo of the Mathematical Institute of Utrecht University wrote "How to Find the Logarithm of Any Number Using Nothing But a Piece of String," and Travis Kowalski, South Dakota School of Mines and Technology, published "The Sine of a Single Degree."

Merten M. Hasse Prize:

Co-authors Lasse Rempe-Gillen, University of Liverpool, and Zhaiming Shen, a graduate student at the University of Pennsylvania, are the recipients of the Merten M. Hasse Prize, which is given to a noteworthy paper published by the MAA. In particular, this prize recognizes works where at least one of the authors is a younger mathematician. They are honored for their paper "The Exponential Map is Chaotic: An Invitation to Transcendental Dynamics" published in The American Mathematical Monthly.

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About MAA

The Mathematical Association of America is the world's largest community of mathematicians, students, and enthusiasts. We accelerate the understanding of our world through mathematics because mathematics drives society and shapes our lives. Learn more at maa.org.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Researchers have taken an important step toward the long-sought goal of a quantum computer, which in theory should be capable of vastly faster computations than conventional computers, for certain kinds of problems. The new work shows that collections of ultracold molecules can retain the information stored in them, for hundreds of times longer than researchers have previously achieved in these materials.

These two-atom molecules are made of sodium and potassium and were cooled to temperatures just a few ten-millionths of a degree above absolute zero (measured in hundreds of nanokelvins, or nK). The results are described in a report this week in Science, by Martin Zwierlein, an MIT professor of physics; Jee Woo Park, a former MIT graduate student; Sebastian Will, a former research scientist at MIT and now an assistant professor at Columbia University, and two others, all at the MIT-Harvard Center for Ultracold Atoms.

Many different approaches are being studied as possible ways of creating qubits, the basic building blocks of long-theorized but not yet fully realized quantum computers. Researchers have tried using superconducting materials, ions held in ion traps, or individual neutral atoms, as well as molecules of varying complexity. The new approach uses a cluster of very simple molecules made of just two atoms.

"Molecules have more 'handles' than atoms," Zwierlein says, meaning more ways to interact with each other and with outside influences. "They can vibrate, they can rotate, and in fact they can strongly interact with each other, which atoms have a hard time doing. Typically, atoms have to really meet each other, be on top of each other almost, before they see that there's another atom there to interact with, whereas molecules can see each other" over relatively long ranges. "In order to make these qubits talk to each other and perform calculations, using molecules is a much better idea than using atoms," he says.

Using this kind of two-atom molecules for quantum information processing "had been suggested some time ago," says Park, "and this work demonstrates the first experimental step toward realizing this new platform, which is that quantum information can be stored in dipolar molecules for extended times."

"The most amazing thing is that [these] molecules are a system which may allow realizing both storage and processing of quantum information, using the very same physical system," Will says. "That is actually a pretty rare feature that is not typical at all among the qubit systems that are mostly considered today."

In the team's initial proof-of-principle lab tests, a few thousand of the simple molecules were contained in a microscopic puff of gas, trapped at the intersection of two laser beams and cooled to ultracold temperatures of about 300 nanokelvins. "The more atoms you have in a molecule the harder it gets to cool them," Zwierlein says, so they chose this simple two-atom structure.

The molecules have three key characteristics: rotation, vibration, and the spin direction of the nuclei of the two individual atoms. For these experiments, the researchers got the molecules under perfect control in terms of all three characteristics -- that is, into the lowest state of vibration, rotation, and nuclear spin alignment.

"We have been able to trap molecules for a long time, and also demonstrate that they can carry quantum information and hold onto it for a long time," Zwierlein says. And that, he says, is "one of the key breakthroughs or milestones one has to have before hoping to build a quantum computer, which is a much more complicated endeavor."

The use of sodium-potassium molecules provides a number of advantages, Zwierlein says. For one thing, "the molecule is chemically stable, so if one of these molecules meets another one they don't break apart."

In the context of quantum computing, the "long time" Zwierlein refers to is one second -- which is "in fact on the order of a thousand times longer than a comparable experiment that has been done" using rotation to encode the qubit, he says. "Without additional measures, that experiment gave a millisecond, but this was great already." With this team's method, the system's inherent stability means "you get a full second for free."

That suggests, though it remains to be proven, that such a system would be able to carry out thousands of quantum computations, known as gates, in sequence within that second of coherence. The final results could then be "read" optically through a microscope, revealing the final state of the molecules.

"We have strong hopes that we can do one so-called gate -- that's an operation between two of these qubits, like addition, subtraction, or that sort of equivalent -- in a fraction of a millisecond," Zwierlein says. "If you look at the ratio, you could hope to do 10,000 to 100,000 gate operations in the time that we have the coherence in the sample. That has been stated as one of the requirements for a quantum computer, to have that sort of ratio of gate operations to coherence times."

"The next great goal will be to 'talk' to individual molecules. Then we are really talking quantum information," Will says. "If we can trap one molecule, we can trap two. And then we can think about implementing a 'quantum gate operation' -- an elementary calculation -- between two molecular qubits that sit next to each other," he says.

Using an array of perhaps 1,000 such molecules, Zwierlein says, would make it possible to carry out calculations so complex that no existing computer could even begin to check the possibilities. Though he stresses that this is still an early step and that such computers could be a decade or more away, in principle such a device could quickly solve currently intractable problems such as factoring very large numbers -- a process whose difficulty forms the basis of today's best encryption systems for financial transactions.

Besides quantum computing, the new system also offers the potential for a new way of carrying out precision measurements and quantum chemistry, Zwierlein says.

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The team also included MIT graduate student Zoe Yan and postdoc Huanqian Loh. The work was supported by the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research, the U.S. Army Research Office, and the David and Lucile Packard Foundation.

ADDITIONAL BACKGROUND:

ARCHIVE: MIT team creates ultracold molecules http://news.mit.edu/2015/ultracold-molecules-0610

ARCHIVE: For first time, researchers see individual atoms keep away from each other or bunch up as pairs http://news.mit.edu/2016/atomic-interactions-room-temperature-superconductors-0915
Vinegar and heat are found to be the best treatment of stings from lion's mane jellyfish

New research from NUI Galway and the University of Hawaii at Manoa has identified the best way to treat a sting from the lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). The lions mane jellyfish is the most problematic jellyfish in Ireland and the UK with 1000s of bathers being badly stung each year. With over a 1,000 tentacles that can stretch up to four or five metres in length, a bad sting from a lions mane jellyfish can cause severe local reactions and extreme pain.

The research, published in the international journal Toxins shows that the best first aid for a lions mane sting is to rinse with vinegar (or the commercial product Sting No More Spray) to remove tentacles, and then immerse in 45C (113F) hot water (or apply a heat pack) for 40 minutes. The results mirror a recent NUI Galway and University of Hawaii study on stings from the Portuguese man o war and previous work on box jellyfish stings.

Dr Tom Doyle, lead author of the study and Lecturer in Zoology from the School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway, said: "What most people don't understand is that these jellyfish -- the lions mane, the Portuguese man o war and a box jellyfish, are as different from each other as a dog and a snake.

"Therefore when developing first aid treatment for a jellyfish sting it is very important to test different treatments on these very different types of jellyfish. Now that we have shown that vinegar and hot water work on these three jellyfish species, it will be much easier to standardise and simplify first aid for jellyfish stings where many different types of jellyfish occur."

In Ireland and the UK, current best practices recommend using sea water and cold packs, which is not the correct action for treating these jellyfish stings as it induces significant increases in venom delivery, while rinsing with vinegar or Sting No More Spray did not.

Dr Doyle now hopes to bring together members of the Jellyfish Advisory Group in Ireland to discuss his latest findings. However, it is important to remember that most jellyfish stings in Ireland and the UK are no worse than a nettle sting.

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To support research on the distribution and abundance of jellyfish in Ireland, members of the public can record any sightings at: http://records.biodiversityireland.ie/record/jellyfish

To read the full study in Toxins, visit: http://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/9/7/215

Video of lions mane jellyfish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9bzjAWtNgI&feature=youtu.be

For more information about the study contact Dr Tom Doyle, School of Natural Sciences, NUI Galway at tom.doyle@nuigalway.ie or 091 493744.

For Press contact Gwen O Sullivan, Press & Information Executive, NUI Galway at gwen.osullivan@nuigalway.ie or 091 495695.

Photo NMDH_Lion's Mane.jpg: Lions mane jellyfish in Dingle harbour. Photo: Nuala Moore

Photo DSC_1794.jpg: Lion's mane jellyfish in Dublin bay. Photo: Nigel Motyer

About NUI Galway

The University was established in the heart of Galway City, on the west coast of Ireland, in 1845. Since then it has advanced knowledge teaching and learning, through research and innovation, and community engagement.

Over 18,000 students study at NUI Galway, where 2,600 staff provide the very best in research-led education.

NUI Galway's teaching and research is recognised through its consistent rise in international rankings. The University is placed in the Top 250 of both the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings 2016/2017 and the QS World University Rankings 2016/17.

With an extensive network of industry, community and academic collaborators around the world, NUI Galway researchers are tackling some of the most pressing issues of our times. Internationally renowned research centres based here include CURAM Centre for Research in Medical Devices, Insight Centre for Data Analytics, Moore Institute, Institute for Life course and Society and The Ryan Institute for Environmental, Marine and Energy.

NUI Galway has been listed as one of the most beautiful universities in Europe according to Business Insider. For more information visit http://www.nuigalway.ie or view all NUI Galway news here.

*The University's official title is National University of Ireland Galway. Please note that the only official abbreviation is NUI Galway.

Visit: http://www.nuigalway.ie
The genomes of individuals who lived on the Iberian Peninsula in the Bronze Age had minor genetic input from Steppe invaders, suggesting that these migrations played a smaller role in the genetic makeup and culture of Iberian people, compared to other parts of Europe. Daniel Bradley and Rui Martiniano of Trinity College Dublin, in Ireland, and Ana Maria Silva of University of Coimbra, Portugal, report these findings July 27, 2017 in PLOS Genetics.

Between the Middle Neolithic (4200-3500 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (1740-1430 BC), Central and Northern Europe received a massive influx of people from the Steppe regions of Eastern Europe and Asia. Archaeological digs in Iberia have uncovered changes in culture and funeral rituals during this time, but no one had looked at the genetic impact of these migrations in this part of Europe. Researchers sequenced the genomes of 14 individuals who lived in Portugal during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages and compared them to other ancient and modern genomes. In contrast with other parts of Europe, they detected only subtle genetic changes between the Portuguese Neolithic and Bronze Age samples resulting from small-scale migration. However, these changes are more pronounced on the paternal lineage. "It was surprising to observe such a striking Y chromosome discontinuity between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, such as would be consistent with a predominantly male-mediated genetic influx" says first author Rui Martiniano. Researchers also estimated height from the samples, based on relevant DNA sequences, and found that genetic input from Neolithic migrants decreased the height of Europeans, which subsequently increased steadily through later generations.

The study finds that migration into the Iberian Peninsula occurred on a much smaller scale compared to the Steppe invasions in Northern, Central and Northwestern Europe, which likely has implications for the spread of language, culture and technology. These findings may provide an explanation for why Iberia harbors a pre-Indo-European language, called Euskera, spoken in the Basque region along the border of Spain and France. It has been suggested that Indo-European spread with migrations through Europe from the Steppe heartland; a model that fits these results.

Daniel Bradley says "Unlike further north, a mix of earlier tongues and Indo-European languages persist until the dawn of Iberian history, a pattern that resonates with the real but limited influx of migrants around the Bronze Age."

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In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Genetics:

http://journals.plos.org/plosgenetics/article?id=10.1371/journal.pgen.1006852

Citation: Martiniano R, Cassidy LM, O'Maolduin R, McLaughlin R, Silva NM, Manco L, et al. (2017) The population genomics of archaeological transition in west Iberia: Investigation of ancient substructure using imputation and haplotype-based methods. PLoS Genet 13(7): e1006852. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pgen.1006852

Image Credit: Rui Parreira

Image Caption: Archaeological remains of individual MC337 excavated from the site of Hipogeu de Monte Canelas I, Portugal, and analysed by the archaeologist Rui Parreira and the anthropologist Ana Maria Silva.

Funding: This study has been financed by the BEAN project of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network (grant number 289966). LMC is funded by the Irish Research Council Government of Ireland Scholarship Scheme (GOIPG/2013/1219). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
A detailed, QUT-led study examining the tweets of US President Donald Trump reveal an 'emotionally unstable innovator' using social media as a political tool

Very successful entrepreneurs and CEO's are often regarded as superstars in modern society because they generate jobs, introduce groundbreaking innovations, and thus change the world.

Examples include Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch, Oprah Winfrey and President of the United States, Donald J. Trump. Something else they have in common is that they use Twitter and two ground-breaking QUT-led studies analysed their tweets to better understand what makes them tick.

In the case of President Trump, researchers conclude he is an 'emotionally unstable innovator'.

The personalities of these sort of people of great global influence generates a great deal of debate but has previously been difficult to measure. An international research team, led by QUT's Associate Professor Martin Obschonka from the Australian Centre for Entrepreneurship Research, employed a revolutionary new, computerised scientific method of analysing digital footprints to decrypt the personality profiles of 106 superstar business leaders.

"Our aim was to better understand their business mindsets, how they approach work and how they have achieved their success," said Professor Obschonka, who conducted the research with Dr Christian Fisch, from Trier University in Germany, and Ryan Boyd, from the University of Texas at Austin.

"We looked at Twitter tweets and employed a new method that uses machine learning and other computer science methods to analyse characteristic language styles, contents, and patterns that together can reveal remarkably valid information on a person's personality profile."

In the first study, Using digital footprints in entrepreneurship research: A Twitter-based personality analysis of superstar entrepreneurs and managers, which was recently published by the Journal of Business Venturing Insights, the researchers compared the online personalities of the wealthiest entrepreneurs with those of the most powerful CEOs.

"We used the Forbes 400 and the Fortune 500 lists to pinpoint our targets. Then we analysed more than 215,000 words posted by these individuals on Twitter to estimate their personality profile," Professor Obschonka said.

Surprisingly the research found superstar CEOs showed a more entrepreneurial personality profile than the actual superstar entrepreneurs in that they were more conscientious, more power driven, and less insecure. The authors attribute this to the fact that there is a very close link between the CEO and the company he or she reflects.

However, the team also found the superstar entrepreneurs showed aspects of an innovator personality, in that they are higher in openness to new experiences and independence.

In their second paper, Entrepreneurial personalities in political leadership, which has just been published by the scientific journal Small Business Economics, the researchers took a closer look on probably the most prominent and powerful person in their sample, Donald Trump.

We conducted our study before Trump was elected President but now with him as former business leader in such a powerful position, his entrepreneurial personality character is of very particular interest to the wider public," Professor Obschonka said.

"Probably no other politician or businessperson in the world is currently so strongly associated with Twitter tweets like Trump. His online personality really matters in his approach to political leadership as he makes world policy via his tweets almost every day," Dr Fisch added. The researchers therefore re-analysed Trump's tweets and compared his personality profile, derived from his Tweets, with the personality profile of the superstar entrepreneurs and CEOs. The results indicate his personality is unique.

They found Trump shows stronger features of an innovator personality than the other influential business leaders - he scored higher in openness to new experience (being high in this trait means listening to new ideas and being open for unconventional solutions) and, at the same time, lower in agreeableness (being low in this trait means a strong focus on competition, social distinction, and Machiavellism).

This reflects a character prototypical for a classic 'Schumpeterian' entrepreneur, epitomising what 20th Century entrepreneurship researcher Joseph Schumpeter called 'creative destruction'.

"We can now ask what such an apparent 'creative destructor' personality means for his policy that is influenced by his personality," said Professor Obschonka.

"Schumpeterian personalities might be on the rise in political leadership in today's entrepreneurial societies dealing with and proactively responding to rapid change as well as valuing disruptive innovations."

"We also found Trump scored relatively high in neuroticism. Being high in this trait means being emotionally unstable and having trouble controlling urges," Dr Fisch added.

"So in the end, it seems that we could identify a personality pattern in Trump that makes him so distinct from the superstar entrepreneurs and CEO's in that he really seems to resemble a type of an emotionally unstable innovator," Professor Obschonka concluded.

"Being a single-minded, independent and creative rule-breaker can be good traits for entrepreneurs but they are probably more unusual in high-level politicians, particularly when coupled with high neuroticism.

"Such a personality pattern could be something like a double-edged sword: more entrepreneurial thinking and acting in high-level politicians could boost an entrepreneurial economy, but such entrepreneurial personalities could also show an unconventional political leadership style that is highly successful in the business world but maybe not so successful in the political realm that requires careful diplomacy instead of risky entrepreneurial thirst for action.

"However, our analysis should not be confused with a proper clinical analysis of the characters of these powerful individuals. This would require their active and willing participation."

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Media contact:

Amanda Weaver, QUT Media, 07 3138 9449, amanda.weaver@qut.edu.au

After hours: Rose Trapnell, 0407 585 901, media@qut.edu.au
Biochar from recycled waste may both enhance crop growth and save health costs by helping clear the air of pollutants, according to Rice University researchers.

Rice researchers in Earth science, economics and environmental engineering have determined that widespread use of biochar in agriculture could reduce health care costs, especially for those who live in urban areas close to farmland.

Biochar is ground charcoal produced from waste wood, manure or leaves. Added to soil, the porous carbon has been shown to boost crop yields, lessen the need for fertilizer and reduce pollutants by storing nitrogen that would otherwise be released to the atmosphere.

The study led by Ghasideh Pourhashem, a postdoctoral fellow at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy, appears in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science and Technology.

Pourhashem worked with environmental engineering graduate student Quazi Rasool and postdoc Rui Zhang, Rice Earth scientist Caroline Masiello, energy economist Ken Medlock and environmental scientist Daniel Cohan to show that urban dwellers in the American Midwest and Southwest would gain the greatest benefits in air quality and health from greater use of biochar.

They said the U.S. counties that would stand to save the most in health care costs from reduced smog are Will, La Salle and Livingston counties in Illinois; San Joaquin, San Diego, Fresno and Riverside counties in California; Weld County in Colorado; Maricopa County in Arizona; and Fort Bend County in Texas.

"Our model projections show health care cost savings could be on the order of millions of dollars per year for some urban counties next to farmland," Pourhashem said. "These results are now ready to be tested by measuring changes in air pollutants from specific agricultural regions."

Pourhashem noted the key measurements needed are the rate of soil emission of nitric oxide (NO), which is a smog precursor, after biochar is applied to fields. Many studies have already shown that biochar reduces the emissions of a related compound, nitrous oxide, but few have measured NO.

"We know that biochar impacts the soil nitrogen cycle, and that's how it reduces nitrous oxide," said Masiello, a professor of Earth, environmental and planetary science. "It likely reduces NO in the same way. We think the local impact of biochar-driven NO reductions could be very important."

NO contributes to urban smog and acid rain. NO also is produced by cars and power plants, but the Rice study focused on its emission from fertilized soils.

The Rice team used data from three studies of NO emissions from soil in Indonesia and Zambia, Europe and China. The data revealed a wide range of NO emission curtailment -- from 0 percent to 67 percent -- depending on soil type, meteorological conditions and the chemical properties of biochar used.

Using the higher figure in their calculations, they determined that a 67 percent reduction in NO emissions in the United States could reduce annual health impacts of agricultural air pollution by up to $660 million. Savings through the reduction of airborne particulate matter -- to which NO contributes -- could be 10 times larger than those from ozone reduction, they wrote.

"Agriculture rarely gets considered for air pollution control strategies," said Cohan, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering. "Our work shows that modest changes to farming practices can benefit the air and soil too."

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Medlock is the James A. Baker III and Susan G. Baker Fellow in Energy and Resource Economics and senior director of the Center for Energy Studies at Rice's Baker Institute for Public Policy and lecturer of economics.

The research was supported by the NASA Air Quality Applied Sciences Team, Rice's Shell Center for Sustainability and the Baker Institute.

Read the abstract at http://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.7b00748

This news release can be found online at http://news.rice.edu/2017/07/26/biochar-could-clear-the-air-in-more-ways-than-one-2/

Follow Rice News and Media Relations via Twitter @RiceUNews

Related materials:

Study: Biochar alters water flow to improve sand and clay: http://news.rice.edu/2014/09/24/study-biochar-alters-water-flow-to-improve-sand-and-clay/

Biochar quiets microbes, including some plant pathogens: http://news.rice.edu/2013/09/30/biochar-quiets-microbes-including-some-plant-pathogens/

Ken Medlock bio: http://www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/kenneth-b-medlock-iii/

Cohan Research Group: https://cohan.rice.edu

Baker Institute Center for Energy Studies: http://www.bakerinstitute.org/center-for-energy-studies/

Located on a 300-acre forested campus in Houston, Rice University is consistently ranked among the nation's top 20 universities by U.S. News & World Report. Rice has highly respected schools of Architecture, Business, Continuing Studies, Engineering, Humanities, Music, Natural Sciences and Social Sciences and is home to the Baker Institute for Public Policy. With 3,879 undergraduates and 2,861 graduate students, Rice's undergraduate student-to-faculty ratio is 6-to-1. Its residential college system builds close-knit communities and lifelong friendships, just one reason why Rice is ranked No. 1 for happiest students and for lots of race/class interaction by the Princeton Review. Rice is also rated as a best value among private universities by Kiplinger's Personal Finance. To read "What they're saying about Rice," go to http://tinyurl.com/RiceUniversityoverview.
A coastal zone management plan designed to safeguard Belize's natural assets has produced a win-win opportunity for people and the environment, providing a valuable framework for other coastal nations around the world where overfishing, development, and habitat degradation are increasingly serious problems.

The new research, published in the International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management, is both community-driven and science-based and serves as a revolutionary example showcasing how integrated planning can be beneficial for both nature and people.

Belize's coral reefs, mangrove forests, and seagrass meadows support a high diversity of marine species, and are also critical to the economy, with more than 60% of the population depending on ecosystem services such as tourism, food, and coastal protection. Ecosystem services are the benefits people can obtain from nature. Unchecked development, overfishing, and offshore oil exploration have put these ecosystems and the benefits they provide at unprecedented risk and in 2009, the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System was added to UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

This study documents how researchers from the Coastal Zone Management Authority & Institute and Natural Capital Project developed Belize's first integrated coastal management plan (officially approved by the Government in August 2016). Their approach was based on (1) spatial planning, (2) involving a wide range of stakeholders, and (3) modelling the flow of benefits from nature to people. By bringing together science, policy, and a diversity of voices, Belizeans endorsed a practical, evidence-based approach to protect ecosystems that provide long-term benefits to people and their economy.

The research team spent 5 years assessing risk to three different habitats (corals, mangroves, and seagrasses) posed by eight human activities (e.g., dredging, fishing, pollution). They also quantified and mapped the range of future benefits to people from three ecosystem services -- protection from storms (5.5 to 8.3B BZ$), lobster harvest (3 to 21M BZ$), and tourism revenues (320 to 710M BZ$)--to protect values expressed by local communities and highlight the trade-offs between alternative coastal plans.

Ultimately, the preferred zoning plan balanced development and conservation objectives by strategically locating human activities to reduce areas of ecosystems at high risk, while allowing for the sustainable expansion of several ocean sectors of economic and traditional importance. This plan was described as 'visionary' by UNESCO in 2016.

The article's lead author Gregg Verutes said, "Our work in Belize shows how to use science about the ways in which nature benefits people to effectively and transparently inform coastal and ocean planning decisions around the world."

"It's a powerful example from the Government of Belize where ecosystem services and stakeholder involvement were used to overcome common barriers to sustainable development planning. Our community-driven process garnered local knowledge; Belizeans seized the opportunity to express diverse opinions, build important relationships and a shared vision for the future management and monitoring of their valued coastal zone."

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Current methods of capturing mixed race/ethnicity populations in global censuses are unreliable, and must be reviewed to ensure increasingly diverse populations are effectively reported, a study published today in Ethnic and Racial Studies suggests.

The study investigated three current methods of mixed population capture: 'exact combinations' of interest (used in England and Wales), 'open response' (Scotland and Northern Ireland), and 'multi-ticking' across population categories (the USA and Canada), to assess the optimal approach.

Analyzing the effectiveness of each method in terms of its stated aims, consistency of findings in the same subjects across censuses, and overall capture of mixed races and ethnicities, the study reveals serious quality problems with all three approaches.

The considerable variation between countries' demography and measurement methods led the author to urge caution in proposing one overall 'gold standard' method of capture. Instead, it was suggested that 'multi-ticking' should be continued in the US and Canada, with clearer instructions for respondents, and extensively trialled as a potential alternative to the 'exact combinations' method in England and Wales, given its effectiveness in capturing racial/ethnic variation.

The mixed racial/ethnic group is one of the fastest growing in both the UK and North America. In the 2011 England and Wales Census, for example, 1.2 million persons of 'mixed/multiple' ethnicity were recorded, up from around 670,000 in 2001. With experts widely expecting substantial increases in the size of the mixed population in western countries in the coming years, the need for reliable, accurate data is of growing significance.

As the author of the study, Peter J. Aspinall, commented: "The presence of a growing mixed population in most countries is a recent phenomenon or one made more visible through measurement. This raises challenges for the capture of this population in censuses and surveys.

"The methods used in many of these censuses have, to date, failed to reliably do so. With the next round of global censuses fast approaching, the need to identify the best methods for capturing what are increasingly complex mixes is all the more pressing."

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For more information, please contact:

Daniel Pullin, Press & Media Relations Executive

Email: newsroom@taylorandfrancis.com

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PHILADELPHIA  Researchers at Jeffersons Maternal Addiction Treatment Education & Research (MATER) program found significant improvement in the quality of parenting among mothers who participated in a trauma-informed, mindfulness-based parenting intervention while also in medication-assisted treatment for opioid use disorder. Results of the study, the first to scientifically test a mindfulness-based parenting intervention with this population, were published July 27 in the Journal of Addiction Medicine.

Our results validate a powerful intervention when it is needed most, said senior author Diane Abatemarco, Ph.D., MSW, principal investigator, Director of MATER and Associate Professor of OB/GYN and Pediatrics in the Sidney Kimmel Medical College at Thomas Jefferson University. By improving parenting through mindfulness, we may be able to change the intergenerational trajectory of trauma and improve childrens and families lives.

A total of 160 women participated in a 12-week mindful parenting intervention at Jeffersons Family Center, an outpatient and intensive outpatient treatment center that cares for women who are pregnant, parenting or working toward reuniting with their child. The mindfulness-based program included mother/baby education and practice, education on the impact of trauma, and mindfulness meditation. Themes included non-judgment, full attention and compassion.

We designed the mindfulness-based parenting program to give women the resources and tools to be great parents. Our program supports moms, building their self-efficacy and self-confidence, said Abatemarco.

The research team conducted pre- and post-tests with the women using three validated instruments to measure observed parenting quality, the mothers childhood trauma exposure and self-reported mindful parenting. Women who participated in the mindfulness-based parenting program experienced a clinically significant increase in parenting quality, from low at baseline to moderate at completion.

We also found that attendance matters, said Meghan Gannon, Ph.D., MSPH, first author and research project manager at MATER. For women who experienced high levels of childhood trauma, attendance was key to improving parenting.

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Study limitations include self-report bias, self-selection bias and outside factors such as the natural trajectory of recovery.

The work was supported by the Childrens Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, US Department of Health and Human Services, grant number 90CB0190. The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Citation: Gannon, et al. Impact of Mindfulness-Based Parenting on Women in Treatment for Opioid Use Disorder. J Addict Med, 2017. DOI: 10.1097/ADM.0000000000000336.

About Jefferson

Jefferson, through its academic and clinical entities of Thomas Jefferson University and Jefferson Health, including Abington Health and Aria Health, is reimagining health care for the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Jefferson has 23,000 people dedicated to providing the highest-quality, compassionate clinical care for patients, educating the health professionals of tomorrow, and discovering new treatments and therapies to define the future of care. With a university and hospital that date back to 1824, today Jefferson is comprised of nine colleges, four schools, nine hospitals, 35 outpatient and urgent care locations, and a multitude of physician practices throughout the region, serving more than 100,000 inpatients, 373,000 emergency patients and 2.2 million outpatients annually.
University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center researchers performed a population-level analysis of national surveys conducted from 2001 to 2015 and found that in the United States the smoking cessation rate increased for the first time in 15 years. The study suggests e-cigarettes helped users of the electronic devices to quit smoking traditional cigarettes.

The annual rate of people who quit smoking has hovered around 4.5 percent for years but in the 2014-15 Current Population Survey-Tobacco Use Supplement (CPS-TUS) survey the smoking cessation rate increased to 5.6. The 1.1 percentage point increase is statistically significant, representing approximately 350,000 additional smokers who quit in a 12-month period.

Shu-Hong Zhu, PhD, UC San Diego professor of Family Medicine and Public Health and director of the Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control, and team published their findings in the British Medical Journal on July 26, 2017. Zhu attributes the increased cessation rate, in part, to national tobacco control media campaigns that began airing in 2012 and an increase in the popularity of e-cigarettes that spiked around 2014.

"Our analysis of the population survey data indicated that smokers who also used e-cigarettes were more likely to attempt to quit smoking, and more likely to succeed," said Zhu. "Use of e-cigarettes was associated both with a higher quit rate for individuals as well as at the population level; driving an increase in the overall number of people quitting."

Zhu and team examined the relationship between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation using data collected by the US Census CPS-TUS, a national survey of adults 18 years or older conducted to obtain information about changes in the country's use of tobacco products. It is based on the largest representative sample of smokers and e-cigarette users available, although it is not a randomized trial.

Survey participants were asked about their use of traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes over a 12-month period. Researchers found that 65 percent of smokers who used e-cigarettes within the previous 12 months had attempted to quit smoking traditional cigarettes, compared to 40 percent of smokers who did not use e-cigarettes. Overall, 8.2 percent of smokers who used e-cigarettes successfully quit smoking traditional cigarettes, while 4.8 percent of smokers who did not use e-cigarettes were successful.

"The cessation rate among those who did not use e-cigarettes remained the same compared to previous years," said Zhu. "These data suggest that e-cigarettes play the role of a cessation tool."

Earlier studies have also looked at e-cigarettes as a cessation tool, and some have concluded that e-cigarette use did not aid smokers in quitting. A key finding in this analysis, said Zhu, is that in 2014-15 more people using e-cigarettes were doing so intensively. In fact, more than 70 percent of people who had successfully quit smoking recently were still using e-cigarettes daily, which may help prevent relapse, wrote researchers.

"People who use e-cigarettes are a self-selected group," said Zhu. "They may do better with e-cigarettes because they may already be motivated to quit. It is important to look at the entire population including users and nonusers to determine if the overall cessation rate went up or down."

This study did not address the long-term health effects of e-cigarette use. Rather, the study focused on whether e-cigarettes contributed to people's ability to quit smoking. The survey did not provide details about the type of e-cigarettes used nor if other smoking cessation tools, such as medications or pharmacotherapy, were simultaneously used. Clinical trials have shown that pharmacotherapy does help some individuals to quit smoking. However, in the years before e-cigarette use became widespread, the rates of smoking cessation among the entire population did not change significantly despite the promotion of pharmacotherapy, according to Zhu.

This study did not investigate if the use of e-cigarettes leads people to start smoking. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report recently reported that tobacco use among youth continues to decline rapidly while e-cigarette use increased during the same time period. The UC San Diego study focused on adults. It revealed that most e-cigarette users were already smoking cigarettes. Two percent of people who reported that they have never smoked cigarettes have tried e-cigarettes at some point.

"Other interventions that occurred concurrently, such as a national campaign showing evocative ads that highlight the serious health consequences of tobacco use and state tobacco control efforts, no doubt played a role," said Zhu. "But analysis of the CPS-TUS' most recent data presents a strong case that e-cigarette use contributed to an increase in smoking cessation at the population level."

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Co-authors include Yue-Lin Zhuang, Shiushing Wong, Sharon E. Cummins, Gary J. Tedeschi, UC San Diego

This research was funded, in part, by the National Institutes of Health under the State and Community Tobacco Control (SCTC) Initiative (U01CA154280).

Full study: http://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3262
URBANA, Ill. - Many images of rural America are food-related -- a freshly-baked apple pie cooling on the windowsill, a roadside produce stand brimming with sweet corn and tomatoes, or a Norman Rockwell print showing a family sitting down to dinner. But the reality is that many people in rural America face hunger and don't always know where their next meal is coming from.

"Just because rural communities are surrounded by fields of corn and soybeans, it doesn't mean residents can walk by and eat it. It's not available in that sense. It would be like saying that people living in Silicon Valley must have really great cell phones or that cars are cheaper in Detroit," says University of Illinois economist Craig Gundersen who studies food insecurity. "We find that food insecurity exists in rural areas just like it does in urban areas."

Gundersen's recent research on the subject sheds some light on hunger-relief efforts in rural America. According to his research, Feeding America has a substantial presence in rural communities, providing food assistance through member food banks and the food pantries with which they partner.

"There has been a perception that food pantries are mainly located in urban settings, while rural communities are isolated places where food assistance is not being provided to people in need. We didn't find that to be true. In fact, we find that, based on certain measures, food banks are doing a great job at reaching rural areas," Gundersen says.

This research combined data from two of Feeding America's studies: county-level food-insecurity rates from Map the Meal Gap, and information about the programs that provide charitable food assistance across the country from Hunger in America.

"Due to the work of Map the Meal Gap, many food banks have become more cognizant of needs in their area and have been reaching out to fill the need. Hunger in America helps tell the story of that reach. They've been doing a lot of novel things with mobile food pantries, for example," he says.

Does this report mean we can sit back and relax knowing that people in rural America are getting what they need? Gundersen says, "No." Meeting the need is not as easy as simply making food available, especially in rural areas where long distances and transportation barriers can keep some from accessing such services. He also stresses the continued need for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program).

"This is still an urgent situation. The most critical social safety net against hunger in the United States continues to be SNAP. We need to maintain its effectiveness. Another key component of our safety net is the work done by Feeding America. They have a limited amount of food and face challenges. We did this study to better understand the need in rural counties and the extent to which services are offered in rural areas.

"Federal programs like SNAP and charitable programs like those operated across the Feeding America network provide critical resources to food-insecure people in rural areas," Gundersen says, "Despite this, the social and economic conditions in these areas have not improved as much as they have in other parts of the country. If they were, we wouldn't have, by the most recent count, more than 42 million people who are food insecure nationwide."

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The study, "Food insecurity across the rural-urban divide: Are counties in need being reached by charitable food assistance?" is written by Craig Gundersen, Adam Dewey, Monica Hake, Emily Engelhard, and Amy S. Crumbaugh. It is published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science.

Gundersen is the Soybean Industry Endowed Professor in Agricultural Strategy and professor in the College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics at the University of Illinois.
Researchers have identified a new cell mechanism that could lead to a fundamental change in the diagnosis and treatment of leukaemia.

A team in the University of Kent's pharmacy school conducted a study that discovered that leukaemia cells release a protein, known as galctin-9, that prevents a patient's own immune system from killing cancerous blood cells.

Acute Myeloid Leukaemia (AML) -- a type of blood cancer that affects over 250,000 people every year worldwide -- progresses rapidly because its cells are capable of avoiding the patient's immune surveillance. It does this by inactivating the body's immune cells, cytotoxic T lymphocytes and natural killer (NK) cells.

Existing treatment strategies consist of aggressive chemotherapy and stem cell transplantation, which often do not result in effective remission of the disease. This is because of a lack of understanding of the molecular mechanisms that allow malignant cells to escape attack by the body's immune cells.

Now the researchers at the Medway School of Pharmacy, led by Dr Vadim Sumbayev, Dr Bernhard Gibbs and Professor Yuri Ushkaryov, have found that leukaemia cells -- but not healthy blood cells -- express a receptor called latrophilin 1 (LPHN1). Stimulation of this receptor causes these cancer cells to release galectin-9, which then prevents the patient's immune system from fighting the cancer cells.

The discovery of this cell mechanism paves the way for new 'biomarkers' for AML diagnosis, as well as potential targets for AML immune therapy, say the researchers.

'Targeting this pathway will crucially enhance patients own immune defences, helping them to eliminate leukaemia cells', said Dr Sumbayev. He added that the discovery has the potential to also be beneficial in the treatment of other cancers.

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The research, entitled The Tim-3-galectin-9 Secretory Pathway is Involved in the Immune Escape of Human Acute Myeloid Leukemia Cells (Goncalves Silva, I., et al.) is published in the journal EBioMedicine. See: http://www.ebiomedicine.com/article/S2352-3964(17)30291-8/fulltext

Dr Sumbayev worked with colleagues Isabel Goncalves Silva, Inna M. Yasinska (joint first authors) Svetlana S. Sakhnevych, Yuri A. Ushkaryov and Bernhard F. Gibbs at the Medway School of Pharmacy, University of Kent, as well as other researchers from: Hubertus Wald University Cancer Center, University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany; Universita' della Svizzera italiana (USI) Bellinzona, Switzerland; Diamond Light Source, Didcot, UK; European Commission Joint Research Centre, Ispra, Italy; University of Bern, Switzerland; University of Oldenburg, Germany; University of Basel, Switzerland.
LOWELL, Mass. - Americans are willing to sacrifice their support for basic Constitutional rights - including freedoms of speech, assembly and the press - when such beliefs are tested by people with opposing political views, according to a new national poll from the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion.

"No aspect of our democracy has not been touched by motivated partisan reasoning. We live in a world where even adherence to basic democratic principles is seen by the public through partisan frames. These are challenging times we live in," said Joshua Dyck, co-director of the Center for Public Opinion and political science faculty member, who oversaw the poll and analyzed the results.

The survey of 1,000 American adults found broad support for core values of democracy. For example, 78 percent of respondents said they believe in free speech, 75 percent said the media should be able to report the news without government censorship and 89 percent agreed that no matter what a person's political views are, they are entitled to legal protection. The poll also found that support for American democratic principles such as these is strongest among those with a college education.

But when the poll tested support using examples involving opposing viewpoints, respondents demonstrated that their conviction to those values could be swayed. Poll participants were asked about situations involving four key components of democracy: freedom of speech, assembly and the press, and the independent judicial branch portion of the balance of powers. Respondents were presented with liberal and conservative scenarios for each of the four. Similar but nonpartisan situations were presented to a control group for their responses.

Freedom of speech - The control group was asked, "Do you think that controversial figures should be allowed to speak on college campuses or are there legitimate reasons why they might be prohibited from speaking?" Fifty-three percent of Republicans and 49 percent of Democrats in the control group supported allowing the controversial speaker.

When the actual survey group was asked the same question with the example of liberal activist Michael Moore as the controversial figure, Democratic support for free speech increased 10 percent to 59 percent and Republican support dropped to 50 percent.

When conservative activist Ann Coulter was used as the controversial figure, Republican support for free speech increased by 19 points to 72 percent and Democratic support dropped to 44 percent.

Right to free assembly - The control group was asked if members of a group hold a rally to protest and some participants chant derogatory terms, whether they think the group has forfeited its right to hold future rallies. Seventy-three percent of Democrats and 54 percent of the Republicans in the control group supported the group's right to free assembly.

When the survey group was asked about the same type of situation, but with the Black Lives Matter movement protesting violence involving police and chanting of derogatory terms for law enforcement, Democratic support increased to 83 percent and Republicans' support declined to 49 percent.

When the survey group was asked about the same scenario involving Alt-Right demonstrators chanting derogatory terms for minorities, Republican support increased to 65 percent and Democratic support dropped to 66 percent.

Freedom of the press - The control group was asked if a journalist runs a story with unnamed sources criticizing a well-known elected official, whether the official be able to force the journalist to name the sources or if their identities be protected. Seventy-one percent of Democrats and 52 percent of Republicans supported freedom of the press.

When the survey group was asked about a story with unnamed sources stating that the Trump administration colluded with Russia to influence the 2016 election, Democratic support increased to 87 percent and Republican support decreased to 48 percent.

When asked the same question about a story with unnamed sources stating that the Obama administration ordered intelligence gathered on U.S. citizens, Republican support increased to 81 percent and Democratic support was nearly flat at 70 percent.

Independent judiciary - The control group was asked whether it is appropriate or inappropriate for a sitting president to openly criticize members of the judicial branch of government. Seventy-eight percent of Democrats and 38 percent of Republicans said it is not appropriate, supporting an independent judiciary.

When the question was asked using President Donald Trump's criticism of a federal judge for blocking his executive order on immigration, Democrats in the survey group increased their support for an independent judiciary to 88 percent and Republicans increased their support by 15 percent, one of the surprises of the survey.

When former president Barack Obama's criticism of the Supreme Court decision on campaign-finance reform was used as an example, Democratic support dropped to 26 percent and Republican support increased to 70 percent.

"While it is no secret that there is a deep divide among Democrats and Republicans, the results seem to indicate that people see their political counterparts as threats to our democracy," said Patrick Martin of Lowell, who, along with fellow political science majors Hannah Daly of Franklin and Jasmine Polanco of Lawrence, wrote the questionnaire that was used for the poll through UMass Lowell's Survey Research course, which annually presents undergraduates with the opportunity to develop the questions for a national poll.

"The results support the idea that partisanship often decides issue preferences rather than issue preferences deciding partisanship. It points to a weakness in our democracy where party preference almost always decides how one feels on an issue and it creates a blindness through which people support their party on issues that they might not otherwise," said Daly, adding that the poll also offers a powerful illustration of the climate for lawmakers who want to work across the aisle with members of the other party.

Survey: Opposition will not defend key freedoms

The poll found that Democrats and Republicans do not believe members of the opposite party will defend democratic values if they counter their own interests. When asked if the other party would support such values no matter what, the results were:

44 percent of Republicans and 33 percent of Democrats believe the other would not support freedom of assembly;

41 percent of Democrats and 37 percent of Republicans believe the other party would not defend freedom of speech;

39 percent of Republicans and 31 percent of Democrats said they believed the other party would not support freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures.

The poll was independently conducted by the University of Massachusetts Lowell, designed and analyzed by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion and fielded by YouGov. Data was collected online from June 27 through July 6; YouGov interviewed 1,057 respondents who were then matched down to a sample of 1,000 to produce the final data set. The sample is representative of the U.S. population with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.3 percent when adjusted for weighting. Full survey methodology is available at http://www.uml.edu/polls.

UMass Lowell is a national research university located on a high-energy campus in the heart of a global community. The university offers its more than 17,750 students bachelor's, master's and doctoral degrees in business, education, engineering, fine arts, health, humanities, sciences and social sciences. UMass Lowell delivers high-quality educational programs, vigorous hands-on learning and personal attention from leading faculty and staff, all of which prepare graduates to be ready for work, for life and for all the world offers. http://www.uml.edu

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MADISON, Wis. -- The smile may be the most common and flexible expression, used to reveal some emotions, cover others and manage social interactions that have kept communities secure and organized for millennia.

But how do we tell one kind of smile from another?

"When distinguishing among smiles, both scientists and laypeople have tended to focus on true and false smiles. The belief is that if you smile when you're not happy, the smile is false," says Paula Niedenthal, a psychology professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. "But people smile in many different circumstances and during many emotional states. So asserting that only smiles that result from states of happiness are 'true' smiles limits our understanding of this important facial expression."

Niedenthal and colleagues from Cardiff University and the University of Glasgow published a set of experiments that seek to expand our understanding of the human smile this week in the journal Psychological Science, showing three distinct, reliably recognized expressions -- smiles of reward, affiliation and dominance -- and describing the facial muscle combinations that make them.

Each smile hinges on an anatomical feature known as the zygomaticus major, straps of facial muscle below the cheekbones that pull up the corners of the mouth. But it's not the only muscle at work.

Participants in the study looked at thousands of computer-generated expressions with random combinations of facial muscles activated -- with one exception.

"We varied everything that could be varied in an expression, but our stimuli included some action from the smile muscle, the zygomaticus," says Magdalena Rychlowska, a postdoctoral researcher at Cardiff. "We asked participants to tell us when they see a reward or affiliative or a dominance smile, and when the expression is not a smile."

The researchers turned their participant-sorted smiles back on two more sets of observers, checking recognition and social messages until they had recipes for each smile.

For example, a reward smile -- "probably the most intuitive," Niedenthal says, "the kind of smile you would use with a baby, so he will smile back or do things you like" -- is a symmetrical hoist of zygomaticus muscles plus a dash of eyebrow lift and some sharp lip pulling.

Affiliative smiles -- used to communicate tolerance, acknowledgment, or a bond, and show that you're not a threat -- come with a similar symmetrical upturn to the mouth, but spread wider and thinner with pressed lips and no exposed teeth.

Dominance smiles are used to signify status and manage social hierarchies. They dispense with the symmetry, pairing a bit of lopsided sneer with the raised brows and lifted cheeks typically associated with expressing enjoyment.

"This facial expression has evolved to solve basic tasks of human living in social groups: Thanks, I like this. Don't worry, I'm not going to hurt you. Hey, I'm in charge here," Niedenthal says. "There are so many words people use to describe different smiles, but we see them as describing subtypes of a reward situation or an affiliative situation or a situation of negotiating hierarchy and having disdain for someone else."

With precise physical descriptions of smile types, researchers can better classify subtypes and study the use and effects of smiles in pivotal human interactions.

"We now know which movements we should look for when we describe smiles from real life," says Rychlowska. "We can treat smiles as a set of mathematical parameters, create models of people using different types of smiles, and use them in new studies."

Rychlowska and collaborators are already digging into the way affiliative and dominance smiles can shift the outcome of games and negotiations. Niedenthal is working with surgeons who repair and reconstruct facial bones and muscles.

"They may have to make choices that will affect a patient's expression for the rest of their life," Niedenthal says. "It's useful for them to know how different kinds of smiles are used in the world, and which muscles are involved in making them."

Better definitions of smile types should also help people navigate intercultural communication. Previous research has shown Niedenthal that while the types of smiles used vary from country to country, there is plenty of variation in how often they are used.

"Americans smile so much that people from other countries are taught to smile more when they interact with us," she says. "The problem is, they're almost always taught one kind of smile, and that can cause confusion. "Simply teaching people about the existence of different types of 'true' smiles can help people pay more attention and avoid some of those misunderstandings."

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The research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant T32-MH018931-26), the National Science Foundation (grant BVS-1251101), the Wellcome Trust, Multidisciplinary University Research Initiative/Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (grant EP/N019261/1) and the United States-Israel Binational Science Foundation (grant 2013205). Chris Barncard, 608-890-0465, barncard@wisc.edu
July 27, 2017 (Grand Rapids, Mich.) -- A team spearheaded by Van Andel Research Institute scientists has answered a long-standing question that may lead to more effective drugs with fewer side effects for diseases ranging from heart failure to cancer.

The findings, published today in Cell, reveal for the first time components of a G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) named rhodopsin bound to a signaling molecule called arrestin, both crucial pieces of the body's intricate cellular communication network. The new discovery further refines a landmark 2015 Nature article that first described the structure of the two molecules in complex together.

"Our revised structure is like a roadmap with additional details and geographic features filled in," said VARI Professor H. Eric Xu, Ph.D., the lead author of the new study as well as the 2015 article. "For years, the field has sought to answer exactly how arrestins interact with GPCRs. We hope the answer provided by our work, in the context of rhodopsin, will fuel new research and the design of better medications, to the ultimate benefit of patients around the world."

GPCRs are the largest group of cell surface receptors, and act as information clearinghouses by linking up with either arrestins or other signaling molecules called G proteins to relay critical instructions for countless biological functions, including growth and hormone regulation. These characteristics, coupled with their location on the surface of the cell, make them attractive targets for drug therapy. An estimated 30 percent of all medications currently on the market target GPCRs.

"Since arrestins and G proteins mediate different cellular responses, developing drugs that activate only one of these two pathways may produce fewer side-effects for patients," said Karsten Melcher, Ph.D., a senior author on the paper and associate professor at VARI. "The insight provided by our expanded structure could go a long way in guiding the design of these therapies."

To determine their augmented structure, Xu Lab Senior Research Scientist Edward Zhou, Ph.D., reanalyzed more than 22,000 individual images collected for the original 2015 study using a new version of CrystFEL software not available at the time. It revealed three previously hidden molecular components called phosphoryl groups on rhodopsin and three corresponding pockets on arrestin that act as docking stations. The specific arrangement of these phosphoryl groupsknown as phosphorylation codesare required for rhodopsin to bind to arrestin, much like the combination to a safe. Once complete, this interaction initiates one branch of a complex cellular communication network that regulates functions throughout the body.

"The big question then became, 'If this is happening with rhodopsin and arrestin, does it happen in all GPCRs?'" said Parker de Waal, a Van Andel Institute Graduate School student and member of Xu's lab. "Our results indicate that these codes -- these specific sequences of phosphoryl groups -- are found in whole or in part in most GPCRs. The findings help elegantly address a longstanding question within our field; why certain GPCRs bind arrestins better than others can now be explained by the existence of phosphorylation codes."

A tool to explore the prevalence of these codes across annotated GPCR data didn't exist, so de Waal created one. Part web GUI and part Python-based command line tool, PhosCoFinder allowed the team to rapidly search through the total set of all known GPCRs and predict potential phosphorylation codes.

As expected, more than half of the 825 GPCRs scanned by PhosCoFinder were found to contain phosphorylation codes within their C-terminal tail, a part of the GPCR that helps transfer information from the cell's environment to the inside of the cell. Most of the remaining GPCRs also were found to have codes; however, they were located in areas other than their C-terminal tails, possibly affecting the way they bind to arrestins. The next steps, Xu says, are to investigate whether these findings hold true across all GPCRs and other cell surface proteins that interact with arrestin.

"With biology, there's always more than one way of doing things," Xu said. "We want to follow those other avenues too in the hope that they help us further understand these critical mechanisms."

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PhosCoFinder is available to the scientific community by visiting http://tools.vai.org/phoscofinder.

The data for today's report was originally collected using the Linac Coherent Light Source, the world's first X-ray free electron laser, housed at the Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Library at Stanford University. The findings were reported in Nature in 2015.

Study authors include X. Edward Zhou, Yuanzheng He, Parker W. de Waal, Xiang Gao, Yanyong Kang, Yanting Yin, Kuntal Pal, all of VARI (Zhou, He, de Waal and Gao also are affiliated with the Van Andel Research Institute -Shanghai Institute of Materia Medica); Ned Van Eps and Oliver P. Ernst of the University of Toronto; Devrishi Goswami and Patrick R. Griffin of The Scripps Insitute; Thomas A. White, Anton Barty and Henry N. Chapman of the Center for Free Electron Laser Science, Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron DESY; Naomi R. Latorraca and Ron O. Dror of Stanford University; Wayne L. Hubbell of University of California, Los Angeles; Raymond C. Stevens and Vadim Cherezov of University of Southern California; and Vsevolod V. Gurevich of Vanderbilt University. and Stevens also is affiliated with ShanghaiTech University.

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health award DK071662, the American Asthma Foundation, Van Andel Research Institute and Ministry of Science and Technology (China) grants 2012ZX09301001, 2012CB910403, XDB08020303 and 2013ZX09507001 for Xu; the Canada Excellence Research Chairs Program, the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and the Anne and Max Tanenbaum Chair in Neuroscience for Ernst; NIH PO1 GM108635 for Cherezov; NIH RO1 EY011500 and R35 GM122491 for Gurevich; and the Jules Stein Professorship Endowment for Hubbell.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institutes of Health under award numbers DK071662, EY011500 and GM122491. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

ABOUT VAN ANDEL RESEARCH INSTITUTE

Van Andel Institute (VAI) is an independent nonprofit biomedical research and science education organization committed to improving the health and enhancing the lives of current and future generations. Established by Jay and Betty Van Andel in 1996 in Grand Rapids, Michigan, VAI has grown into a premier research and educational institution that supports the work of more than 360 scientists, educators and staff. Van Andel Research Institute (VARI), VAI's research division, is dedicated to determining the epigenetic, genetic, molecular and cellular origins of cancer, Parkinson's and other diseases and translating those findings into effective therapies. The Institute's scientists work in onsite laboratories and participate in collaborative partnerships that span the globe. Learn more about Van Andel Institute or donate by visiting http://www.vai.org. 100% To Research, Discovery & Hope
Using the gene editing technology CRISPR, scientists have shed light on a rare, sometimes fatal syndrome that causes children to gradually lose the ability to manufacture vital blood cells.

The research, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests new lines of investigation into how to treat this condition -- dyskeratosis congenita -- which is characterized by shortened telomeres. Telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, help maintain DNA stability. Short telomeres lead to progressive DNA damage that accumulates over time.

The study appears July 27 in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

"Lengthening telomeres seems like a logical way to help these patients, but it could possibly come with its own set of problems," said senior author Luis F.Z. Batista, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine. "We would worry about encouraging cancer formation, for example, as high levels of the protein that lengthens telomeres -- telomerase -- are commonly found with cancer. But if we could find a way to block the signaling pathways that short telomeres activate -- that specifically lead to the problems in blood cell formation -- it could allow these patients to continue making blood cells."

Children with dyskeratosis congenita experience progressive bone marrow failure, eventually losing the ability to make red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. They are also at high risk of leukemia. Severity of the condition varies widely, but those with severe forms often die of bone marrow failure in young adulthood. The damage of short telomeres is most apparent in rapidly dividing cell types, such as those in the skin, nail beds, mucous membranes and blood. Early signs of the disease include misshapen fingernails, abnormal skin pigmentation and white patches in the mouth.

Because the disease is challenging to study in mice -- as mice deficient in telomerase don't fully experience bone marrow failure -- the researchers used CRISPR to edit into human embryonic stem cells two mutations associated with the disease. The researchers then showed that these cells reproduced the telomere-shortening defect seen in patients with the disorder. Batista and co-senior author Christopher M. Sturgeon, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine, observed that these methods represent a novel and accurate human model of the disorder.

With this model, the scientists further showed how the telomere defect leads to the gradual loss of blood cell formation from human embryonic stem cells and, importantly, how blocking the downstream effects of the defect can reverse this loss, leading to normal production of blood cells. Blocking this signaling pathway did not lengthen telomeres or stop their shortening, but allowed the manufacturing of different types of blood cells to continue, according to the study.

The researchers also teased out an important nuance in the detrimental effect of short telomeres during early development. Using an approach that mimics early embryonic development, they found that the defect did not prevent the formation and function of blood cells produced during the first month of gestation that allow an embryo to fuel its rapidly growing oxygen needs. Rather, the defect arrested the production of adult-like blood cell progenitors, such as red blood cells that carry oxygen or white blood cells that fight infection.

"This was tremendously interesting from a developmental biology perspective as well as from a disease modeling perspective," Sturgeon said. "We now have a platform to really dig deeper into understanding the mechanisms behind some forms of bone marrow failure."

Interestingly, the researchers implicated high levels of a protein called p53 as one of the signals that leads to the drop in adult-like blood cell formation. The p53 protein is usually considered protective of DNA.

"P53 is thought of as a guardian of the genome," Batista said. "Mutations that disable p53 are associated with different types of cancer. Because of this we would not consider directly trying to block p53 in these patients. But what this study provides is proof-of-concept that this pathway is involved in this response. So we now are looking for ways to block the pathway further downstream without necessarily blocking p53 directly."

Batista and Sturgeon recently received a grant from the Department of Defense to investigate these pathways. The strategy used in this study could be relevant for other bone marrow failure syndromes, such as Fanconi anemia and aplastic anemia, which also involve DNA damage accrual caused by different mutations.

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This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), grant numbers T32HL007088-41, 4R00HL114732-03 and P30DK052574; the CNPq, Brazil; the National Fellowship Foundation; the V Foundation for Cancer Research; the Edward Mallinckrodt Jr. Foundation; and the AA&MDS International Foundation.

Fok WC, de Oliveira Niero EL, Dege C, Brenner KA, Sturgeon CM, Batista LFZ. p53 mediates failure of human definitive hematopoiesis in dyskeratosis congenita. Stem Cell Reports. July 27, 2017.

Washington University School of Medicine's 2,100 employed and volunteer faculty physicians also are the medical staff of Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals. The School of Medicine is one of the leading medical research, teaching and patient-care institutions in the nation, currently ranked seventh in the nation by U.S. News & World Report. Through its affiliations with Barnes-Jewish and St. Louis Children's hospitals, the School of Medicine is linked to BJC HealthCare.
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

After losing my publically traded company, I returned to a university to obtain a graduate degree in Organization Development. One of the first questions posed to us students (most of us out of undergraduate school for at least 10 years) was, Let me assist you by sharing my own path of discovery.

At times, to my chagrin and resignation, Lord Tennysons mandate, Change is the great certainty, became my baseline philosophy pertaining to transformational change. It was my starting point and, admittedly, with occasional adjournments and abjections, rings true to this day. From a literary perspective, I gained temperamental insights throughout the years. For instance, in a state of futility and humor, author Thomas McGuane admits,  I consider the wonder of the things that befall me, convinced that my life was the best omelet you can make with a chain saw. Also, personally and spiritually, I have been counseled and mentored to embrace change. The corn parable espoused by Jesus Christ, that a seed must fall into the ground and die in order to bring forth fruit, and the Buddha koan, die before you die, resonate and encourage me.

I realized there is deeper meaning and purpose to transformation. There is an end game, both for oneself and ones organization. Psychologically, I was grounded by behavioral science and personality theory, in order to receive a Master of Science degree. Psychologist Alfred Adler said, Our behavior is determined by our perception of what we hope to achieve in the future, not what we have done  or what has been done to us in the past. Also, over the years I gradually discovered that most individuals committed to personal growth realize there is a decrease in their own egocentricity. Usually, humility and vulnerability are evidenced  attributes of servant leadership.

Shifting to a business paradigm, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch and business author Noel M. Tichy exclaimed with deliberation, control your destiny or someone else will. Adapt or die is another battle cry purported by strategy experts, leveraging off the fearful consequences of doing nothing as opposed to calculated risk-taking.

PricewaterhouseCoopers annually publishes business survey results, predictably concluding that CEOs continue to struggle at balancing long- and short-term priorities. Usually, long-term planning/visioning gets the short end of the stick.

As a change consultant, once fully engaged, I assist the CEO in sorting out priorities and timelines. Focusing on the long term, invariably a change strategy is discussed, framed and adopted. I share a simple yet powerful formula created by David Gleicher and simplified by Kathleen Dannemiller and slightly modified and interpreted by myself. Kathie was the sponsor for my masters degree at the American University, Washington, DC, and became a mentor and friend.

Gleicher  Dannemiller  Quinlan Change Framework: C=DxVxF>R

C= Change (Transformation: To replace one thing with another)

D= Dissatisfaction with the current state (discomfort, pain, crisis)

V= Vision for the future (what is preferred as opposed to predicted)

F= First steps (deliberate/cognitive actions to obtain the vision)

R= Resistance to change (obstacles, restraints, personal and organizational defensive routines)

Multiplying the three variables DxVxF creates the critical mass and momentum greater than (>) the resistance (R), propelling the organization to a new state or level (C). The art form is to utilize the variables (levers) deftly and with integrity. When and how to use them takes practice. Also required is incorporating external factors, such as industry trends, competitor analysis, and customers expectations, to combat insular thinking.

Going on three decades, I have found most CEOs and organizations are nudged or forced to change because of dissatisfaction (D). Also, I have learned to overcome personal and organizational resistance to change (R), the CEO has to be willing to move out of invincibility and a fixed mindset and into vulnerability and a growth mindset. In doing so, he or she becomes a co-learner  open to ideas and feedback  owns mistakes, and dialogues for betterment. Such behaviors begin to erode defensive routines and dilute the fear of failure. I have further concluded that a strong bias to forward prospective thinking (V) is a vital antidote to the resistance (R) and to change (C).

Many attempt first steps (F) and short-term fixes but these initiatives die out and usually go to the flavor of the month graveyard. Some companies are galvanized by a strategic vision (V) yet have not fully integrated dissatisfaction (D) and first steps (F).

When I was invited up to the remote Managalas Plateau of Oro Province, Papua New Guinea, the farmers were burning their coffee beans, protesting exorbitantly low or no payments received for their work. They demonstrated this not only in a fire but also a staged drama theater where the women were weeping for their husbands. So began a seven-year foray to help those 2,400 farmers. That dissatisfaction (D) brought them much pain. Integrating vision (V) and first steps (F) led them to changes (C), resulting in extraordinary increases in farm-gate prices for their coffee beans, besides creating brand awareness in the global marketplace. Ultimately, the inertia (loss of hope), obstacles (no vehicles and pulping machines) and restraints (corrupt politicians and terrible roads) comprising this Gordian knot, labeled resistance (R), were overcome. https://vimeo.com/taubada/review/221130722/29adf9af22

What variable today is the driving force to propel change for you? What variable moves your organization off the status quo and propels itself to change? What would be the sequence of the variables for effective change to take place for yourself and your organization?

Take some time to think through your answers. Jot them down, and then predict what the responses would be for your executive team before you solicit their input. How accurate will you be? What is the formula for change for yourself and for your company today? Such a theory may expose your own personal and organizational blind spots.

Remember, transformational change is largely imperceptible when you are in it. Ask any caterpillar. A change theory could be the compass you need to guide you to the future and be a light on your path of discovery.

About John Quinlan

Management consultant John Quinlan, founder and president of Growth Strategies Global, provides leading-edge strategic planning and growth consulting services integrating Family Firm Advisory Services; Executive Development; Organizational Change Management, and Strategic Planning.

Quinlan operates from a unique philosophy that balances his broad range of experiences in upper management with tested management consulting practices underpinned by behavioral science knowledge.

In his debut book, Tau Bada: The Quest and Memoir of a Vulnerable Man, he takes the reader on an extraordinary adventure promulgated by one motorcycle ride through a remote mountain valley in Colorado. It led to living in a secluded village nestled in the rainforests of Papua New Guinea and building a certified organic coffee business with over 2,400 tribal farmers.

Learn more about Quinlans consulting approach at www.GrowthStrategiesGlobal.com, contact him at johnquinlan@growthstrategiesglobal.com or 313-704-0059, follow him on @johnequinlan and check his blog at http://www.taubada.com/blog/.

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British dairy farmers have said they have suffered a blow today after the Advertising Standards Agency approved a vegan campaign which describes milk production as 'inhumane'.

The ASA received seven complaints, many from those working in the dairy industry.

Farmers, including NFU's national dairy board chairman Michael Oakes, said they were 'angry and disappointed' with the ruling.

The campaign, which was launched by the organisation Go Vegan World, said drinking milk is cruel to cattle as production separates calves from their mothers 'fresh from their wombs.'

Sandra Higgins, director of the group which is based in Ireland, said the dairy industry had been trying to 'silence' the group.

"We have been having this debate for hundreds of years on how to improve the conditions of those animals we use and it hasn't been effective. We wouldn't swap places with them," she said.

'Demoralising'

NFU dairy board chairman Mr Oakes told The Times: "Our members, who are constantly looking to improve welfare standards, found it upsetting and demoralising.

"Animal welfare standards in the UKs dairy industry are the highest possible.

"I am a dairy farmer and what I do all day is look after animals who in turn look after me. Their wellbeing is my priority."

When the advertisement was launched, appearing in the Sunday Telegraph, the advertising agency received seven complaints from people working in the dairy industry.

But those complaints were rejected by the ASA as they said, despite it being 'emotional and hard-hitting' it did not mislead.
A report from three European health agencies presents new data on antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance and reflects improved surveillance across Europe.

The European Food Safety Authority, the European Medicines Agency and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control are concerned about the impact of use of antibiotics on the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Vytenis Andriukaitis, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, said: "To contain antibiotic resistance we need to fight on three fronts at the same time: human, animal and the environment.

"This is exactly what we are trying to achieve in the EU and globally with our recently launched EU Action Plan on antimicrobial resistance.

"This new report confirms the link between antibiotic consumption and antibiotic resistance in both humans and food-producing animals."

The report is released at a time when a UK antibiotic pressure group has called on the government to make sure the Great Repeal Bill protects EU standards on farm antibiotic use.

A diverse picture

The report highlights that there are still important differences across the EU in the use of antibiotics in animals and humans.

It said that reducing their unnecessary use will have an impact on the occurrence of resistance.

Overall antibiotic use is higher in food-producing animals than in humans, but the situation varies across countries and according to the antibiotics.

In particular, a class of antibiotics called polymyxins, which includes colistin, is used widely in the veterinary sector.

It is also increasingly used in hospitals to treat multidrug-resistant infections.

Other antibiotics are more often used in humans than in animals.

The report notes that resistance to quinolones, used to treat salmonellosis and campylobacteriosis in humans, is associated with use of antibiotics in animals.
The future of the Welsh food and drink industry will be the subject of a new inquiry by a National Assembly committee.

The inquiry by the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee, is set against a background of concern that many Welsh food and drinks producers will suffer as a result of Brexit.

The main concern is the potential loss of the unfettered access to a major export market, the EU.

A leading figure in the meat body Hybu Cig Cymru  Meat Promotion Wales (HCC) warned that Welsh farmers must be guaranteed this 'unfettered access'.

The inquiry aims to look at how Wales can develop an affordable, accessible local food culture, making Wales an international destination for food and drink.

There are many wonderful examples of high quality food and drink products from sea salt to chocolate to Welsh sparkling wine, not to mention our vital farming industry, said Mike Hedges AM, Chair of the Climate Change, Environment and Rural Affairs Committee.

We intend to look at how we can rethink the industry in Wales to make it more sustainable, more competitive in a crowded market, and how it can be better promoted to the world.

We would like to hear from farmers, food producers, restauranteurs, and shop owners. Everyone connected with getting food from the field to the fridge.

Questions to be asked include what the future for food and drink in Wales could be, and how to rethink food in Wales.

A consultation will be open for people to submit their own ideas and suggestions. The deadline is 14 September 2017.
Searches for a missing 19-year-old teenager who visited the Royal Welsh Show on Monday (24 July) are set to resume today.

James Corfield, a farmer's son from Montgomeryshire, has not been seen since he left the White Horse pub in Builth Wells, Powys, early Tuesday morning.

He had been due to meet family at the Royal Welsh showground where he was camping with friends later, but never arrived.

Speaking on behalf of his family, James' aunt Gill made an emotional plea: "We are desperate as a family for any small piece of information that anyone may have regarding his whereabouts.

"We are beside ourselves as a family and are desperate for news. We love you James, please come back safe."

Hundreds in search

Dyfed-Powys Police has thanked hundreds of people who have been helping in the search.

A post on Dyfed-Powys Police's Twitter page says: "We are concerned for 19 year old James Corfield, missing from the YPV at the Royal Welsh Show. Please contact us on 101 with any information."

Cffi Maldwyn Montgomery Yfc said on a Facebook post: "James Corfield has not been seen at Royal Welsh since last night. The police have been informed.

"If anyone has had any sight of him or spoken to him at all in the last 24 hours please call his Mum on 07740 202254."

James is 6ft 2in tall, of slim build, with short brown hair. He was last seen wearing a royal blue Abercrombie polo shirt with a white logo.
Two sheep have been savaged to death by an out-of-control dog in a country park in Torquay, Devon.

Cockington Country Park has a flock of sheep grazing on Dew Park field. On Tuesday (July 25), they were attacked by a dog.

One sheep died due to the severe attacks and another had to be put down due to the severity of the injuries.

A fence leading to the field was badly damaged as a result of the attack.

The country park is managed by the Countryside Trust, they're appealing for anyone with information to come forward and speak.

A spokesman from the wildlife trust said: "We were concerned to discover this morning (25th July) that our flock of sheep grazing Dew Park field in Cockington Country Park were attacked by a dog since they were last checked late yesterday.

"From what we can ascertain, the sheep flock was attacked by an out-of-control dog and panicked into breaking down a fence to escape from the park. The flock then fled on to the Old Totnes Road and down towards Warren Barn.

"So far we have discovered one sheep dead in the stream below Manscombe Woods, one so seriously injured that it will have to be put down and another single animal loose but unharmed.

"Since the attack, the rest of the flock somehow returned safely to the paddocks at Occombe Farm; either finding their own way or with someones help.

"We are asking anyone who has any information about this incident to contact the Trust as soon as possible, so we can try to prevent any more animals being harmed or killed."
How This Rumour Started

A report in Deccan Chronicle had stated, "Ranbir is very fond of Mahira. He talks about her very warmly and affectionately."

He Proudly Shows His Friends Mahira's Pictures

''The actor proudly shows off her pictures on his phone to his close friends."

Recommended Video Ranbir Kapoor - Mahira Khan CLOSENESS is creating BUZZ in B-Town ! | FilmiBeat

Are They More Than Friends?

''This is building into something more than just a casual friendship."

Ranbir & Mahira's First Meeting

Ranbir and Mahira had met during the Global Teacher Prize event in Dubai in March this year and were also seen bonding pretty well.

How Mahira Reacted To These Link-up Rumours

A friend close to Mahira said, "Mahira is mighty pissed with the reports.''

They Met But This Does Not Mean That They Are Dating

''Just because she and Ranbir met for a couple of times and are still in touch with each other through common friends doesn't mean they are dating!"

So, Is Ranbir Single?

Does that mean that after his break-up with Katrina Kaif Ranbir wants to remain single?

Well, Affair Or No Affair, We Would...

Well, we would love to see Ranbir Kapoor and Mahira Khan romancing each other on the big screen. What about you guys?
Who doesn't like to hit the beach and soak in the sun? And if the beach is Miami, then there's nothing like it! Jacqueline Fernandez has shared a snippet from the song 'Baat Ban Jaye' from her upcoming film A Gentleman and it looks so bright, calm and cool. The song will be out tomorrow and we just can't wait to see how awesome it would be.

Check out the snippet below! It's Miami at it's best.

The song 'Baat Ban Jaye' is a remix version of the superhit song 'Aap Jaisa Koi' from the movie Qurbani which released in 1980 and was sung by Nazia Hassan. The old version was shot in a club and the new version will be on the beaches of Miami.

A Gentleman starring Sidharth Malhotra and Jacqueline Fernandez is all set to hit the theatres on August 25, 2017.

Recommended Video

Jacqueline Fernandez shares $exy POLE WORKOUT video on World Health's Day | FilmiBeat

Bollywood Stars Turned Into Game Of Thrones Characters! Which One Do You Like The Most?
Farhan Plays A Small Town Guy

Farhan Akhtar plays a Moradabad boy, Kishan Mohan Girhotra, who is an aspiring musician and dreams of creating his own music band.

But, Fate Has Different Plans

However, fate has different plans in store for Kishan as he gets wrongly charged up for murder. He ends up landing in the dreaded Lucknow Central Jail where he's awaiting his High Court trial for a death penalty. Meanwhile, a diligent NGO worker Gayatri Kashyap, is compelled to form a Band of Prisoners for the band competition which is to be held in the dreaded jail.

Music Or Freedom

What will this kaidi no. 1821' choose - music or freedom?

A Promising Trailer

Going by the looks of this trailer, one must say that it does make a compelling watch and keeps you glued till the last frame.

The Cast

Lucknow Central also stars Deepak Dobriyal, Diana Penty, Ronit Roy and Ravi Kishen.

Kaawan Recreated

If you folks must have realized, at the end of the trailer, you must have heard some familiar musical piece. Well, the film would also see the comeback of the very popular Kaawan Kaawan number from Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding in the voice of Divya Kumar.

Producer Nikkhil Advani told Mumbai Mirror in an interview that the number works as an "anthem" and has "panned out really well". Well, we just can't wait to hear it.

The First Look Posters

Have you guys checked out these first look posters?
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCAU) said its second-quarter operating profit rose 15% to 1.87 billion euros ($2.19 billion) on improved margins in North America and strong results for its luxury Maserati brand. But its still-high debt fell less than analysts had expected.

All financial numbers are shown in euros. As of July 27, 1 euro = about $1.17.

FCA earnings: The raw numbers

Metric Q2 2017 Q2 2016 Change Revenue 27.92 billion 27.89 billion 0% Shipments (rounded to nearest thousand) 1,225,000 1,233,000 (0.6)% Adjusted EBIT 1.867 billion 1.628 billion 14.7% Net profit 1.155 billion 321 million 260%

Metric As of 6/30/2017 As of 12/31/2016 Debt 19.14 billion 24.05 billion Available liquidity 19.95 billion 23.80 billion Net industrial debt 4.23 billion 4.59 billion

FCA's second quarter: The nutshell summary

FCA's overall shipments were down slightly from a year ago, but profit increased on a much-improved mix of products sold. Maserati shipments nearly doubled on strong sales of its new Levante SUV, driving big gains in profit and margin. In addition, FCA was able to raise its margin in North America to 8.4%, from 7.9% a year ago, after discontinuing lower-profit sedan models to focus on trucks, SUVs, and higher-profit performance vehicles.

FCA's net industrial debt, a widely watched number, fell to 4.2 billion euros ($4.9 billion) as of the end of the quarter. That was short of expectations: Wall Street analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected a larger decline, to 3.9 billion euros.

How FCA's business units performed in the second quarter

All of the profit numbers for FCA's regions and business units are presented as FCA reports them, on an "adjusted EBIT" basis. "Adjusted EBIT" is earnings before interest and tax, "adjusted" to eliminate the effects of one-time items.

Profit in FCA's NAFTA region fell 2% to 1.35 billion euros, on 16.08 billion euros in revenue (down 8%). Shipments fell 14% to about 576,000 vehicles, in part because of some factory shuffling and in part because of the discontinuance of three lower-profit models from a year ago (the Chrysler 200, Dodge Dart, and Jeep Patriot). NAFTA's adjusted-EBIT margin was 8.4%, up 0.5 percentage points from a year ago.

Profit in FCA's Latin America (LATAM) region rose to 60 million euros from a break-even result a year ago. Revenue rose 37% to 2.01 billion euros, for a profit margin of 3%. Shipments rose 18% to about 132,000 vehicles on improving economic conditions in key markets (Brazil and Argentina).

Profit in FCA's APAC (Asia Pacific, Africa, and China) region rose 5% to 44 million euros, on a 2% increase in revenue (to 976 million euros). Shipments rose 43% to about 80,000, driven largely by a ramp-up in production of Jeeps in China. APAC's adjusted-EBIT margin was 4.5%, up 0.1 percentage point from a year ago.

Profit in FCA's EMEA (Europe, Middle East, and Africa) region rose 40% to 200 million euros. Revenue rose 4% to 6.01 billion euros on an 8% increase in shipments (to about 395,000). Margin of 3.3% was up 0.8 percentage points from a year ago.

Maserati's profit more than tripled to 152 million euros, as revenue rose 85% (to 1.07 billion euros) on a 91% increase in shipments (to about 13,200). Margin jumped to an impressive 14.2% from just 6.2% a year ago. The story here is simple: Strong global demand for the all-new Levante SUV drove the gains.

FCA's Components unit includes suppliers Magneti Marelli, Comau, and Teksid. The unit earned 130 million euros, up 17%. Revenue increased 9% to 2.65 billion euros. Margin of 4.9% was up 0.3 percentage points from a year ago. Higher sales volumes across all three businesses accounted for the increase.

Looking ahead: FCA's guidance

FCA confirmed its prior guidance for the full year. It still expects:
It was pretty much a foregone conclusion that eventually, oil and gas companies were going to start spending more money on exploration and development of new sources. The amount of underinvestment is going to start affecting production levels, and new investments are cheap thanks to lower oil services costs. The company that can capitalize on this market dynamic early has an opportunity to make a lot of money, and Total's (TTE 2.99%) management plans to do just that.

One reason Total will be able to is because the company's results have improved to the point that it can spend more money. Here's a look at the company's most recent earnings and why management thinks now is the time to spend.

Total's results: The raw numbers

Metric Q2 2017 Q1 2017 Q2 2016 Revenue $39.915 billion $41.183 billion $37.215 billion Net income $2.027 billion $2.779 billion $2.118 billion EPS $0.79 $1.14 $0.86 Cash flow from operations $4.64 billion $4.701 billion $2.882 billion

It's a bit surprising to see Total's net income for the quarter end up lower than the same time last year, especially when oil prices, natural gas prices, and European refining margins were all higher this quarter compared to Q2 2016. It appears that the difference between the two came down to accounting. Between inventory value adjustments, asset sales, and other impairments, the company had $437 million in charges this past quarter. Looking at adjusted net income, Total's $2.75 billion result is much more in line with the prior quarter's result.

The same can be said for the company's cash flow results as well. While $4.6 billion in operating cash flow is nothing to scoff at, cash flow was $5.3 billion before those working capital adjustments. Chances are we will see that adjustment work in Total's favor in future quarters.

The strength of this quarter came from exploration and production as well as high margins for its marketing and services business. The refining and chemicals business suffered a bit, but that was due in large part to elevated levels of maintenance at its refineries. Refinery throughput for the entire company dropped 7% as Total shut down its Antwerp refinery for a new expansion project there. Gas, renewables, and power continues to be a nascent part of the business but should grow over time, as management has committed to $500 million in capital spending annually in renewable projects.

What happened with Total this quarter?

Production grew 3% year over year to 2.5 million barrels of oil equivalent per day (BOE/D). The largest driver of those gains was in its Americas business, which saw a 37% year-over-year increase. This is mostly tied to a deal last year where it bought the remaining 75% interest in its Barnett shale assets from Chesapeake Energy. Also, project ramp-ups from several other major projects have helped to offset the impact of field decline and the impact of OPEC quotas.

Unlike prior quarters where management was active with acquisitions and sales, this quarter was more about execution. Total started up operations at the Al-Shaheen field in Qatar, the Badamyar gas project in Myanmar, and began work to upgrade its Antwerp and Dasean refining and petrochemical complexes. It also started development of phase 3 for the Halfaya project in Iraq.

The one deal that the company did sign this quarter was a big one, though. It announced that it would be the operator to develop phase 11 of the South Pars gas field in Iran. The development project will increase Total's production by 200,000 BOE/D and will start up in 2021.

The company won bids for offshore exploration blocks in Mauritania, Senegal, Gabon, and Ireland, as well as increased its working interest in a license in the Vaca Muerta shale reservoir in Argentina.

Total's cash pile continues to grow from operational cash and limited spending, which is lowering its net debt metrics. At the end of the second quarter, the company was sitting on $28.7 billion. Combined with a $1 billion reduction in short and long term borrowings, Total ended the quarter with a net-debt-to-capital ratio of 20.3%.

What management had to say

CEO Patrick Pouyanne's comments on Total's most recent results suggested that he had a lot of confidence in the company's work over the past couple of years. He also stressed that it remains in a position to pounce on any opportunities that may arise with the market for oil and gas remaining weak.

The Group is also continuing to prepare for the future, with the signing of a contract related to the development of Phase 11 of the giant South Pars gas field in Iran, the start-up of operations on the giant Al-Shaheen field in Qatar and the final investment decision for Phase 3 of the Halfaya project in Iraq. Total has a stronger balance sheet having reduced gearing to 20%. As a result, in line with its strategy, the Group has the flexibility to take advantage of the low-cost environment by being able to launch profitable projects and acquire resources under attractive conditions.

Investor takeaway

If Total's management wants to get aggressive and invest in the business, it certainly has the financial foundation to do it now. With that much cash sitting in its war chest and cash flows that more than support its current spending plan, Total is in an ideal position to grow the business.

How many more projects it can take on, though, is a little less clear. Developing South Pars, Halfaya, Vaca Muerta, and Al Shaheen at the same time will cost a big chunk of change, and that doesn't even include the recent agreements with Algeria's national oil company to boost gas production there, or its agreement with Petrobras to take over operations at several offshore exploration blocks. There is no doubt that the global oil market isn't spending enough right now, but Total can't take on too much with oil and gas prices remaining as low as they are.
Kasperskys free version of antivirus software launched for global users News oi -Abhinaya Prabhu Are you going to try this free antivirus software?

Kaspersky Lab has announced a free version of the antivirus software to the worldwide users. This product is aimed at preventing the increasing cyber crime issues.

Kaspersky Free is already available in select regions such as the United States, Canada, and many Asia Pacific countries. The users in the other global markets will also get the free version of the antivirus software in the coming months.

Kaspersky's blog post has revealed that the free version of the software is not meant to replace the paid versions of the antivirus software. It is said so as this free software will not include all the features those are bundled in the paid versions. However, it provides the base essential features including email and web antivirus protection, firewalls for filtering network activity, monitoring activity of the applications, and automatic updates.

The free version of Kaspersky will definitely benefit all the customers by enhancing the machine learning across the products, claims Eugene Kaspersky, the Founder of the company in the official blog post. The company has been prepping the Kaspersky Free for around 18 months. In the development phase, there were pilot versions in regions such as China, Russia, Ukraine, and Scandinavia.

Antivirus can make online transactions less safe

Most free antivirus software versions available in the market are filled with advertisements or expire in a month or two. This is where the Kaspersky Free is different as it uses the data it collects from the free users to enhance the machine learning process across the products and platforms.

The catch with Kaspersky Free is that the company is based in Moscow and has been accused of working along with the Russian government. Kaspersky is repeatedly denying these claims and there is no evidence proving the ties between Kaspersky and the Federal Security Service of Russia.

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International Moto Z2 Force to come with 6GB RAM, 3.5mm audio jack News oi -Chandrika Motorola yesterday announced its much-anticipated flagship phone Moto Z2 Force.

Yesterday, Motorola announced its much-anticipated flagship Moto Z2 Force. The second generation Moto Z2 Force comes with the same durability as the original one and the company assures that the display will never shatter.

While there are some new features like the rear dual camera setup, the pill-shaped fingerprint scanner, the Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor and 64GB of default storage space, one of the things that remain unchanged is the absence of a 3.5mm audio jack. As most of you know, there is a recent trend among smartphone manufacturers to ditch the headphone jack on their high-end/flagship phones.

However, a significant percentage of people prefer to have the 3.5mm audio jack on their smartphones. If you are one of them, we have some good news for you. According to a tweet made by renowned leakster Andri Yatim, the international version of the Motorola Moto Z2 Force will arrive with the headphone jack that is not included in the US model.

The leakster further reveals the international version of the smartphone will feature 6GB of RAM and 128GB of inbuilt storage capacity. However, we already knew that the Moto Z2 Force will be offered in three variants; 4GB+64GB, 6GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB depending on the market. Unfortunately, you should know that the 6GB RAM and 128GB ROM version will not be officially available in the US.

Going by his tweet, the US model of the Moto Z2 Force will sport a slimmer body as compared to that of the overseas model. That being said, since we can't guarantee you the authenticity of this information, you are ought to take it with a grain of salt.

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Zoning board narrowly upholds event barn permit

Stan Shelley argues in favor of revoking a permit for an event barn on Bradley Road at N.C. 191.

Residents wearing stickers that read "Revoke!" fell silent and supporters of event barn owners Bill and Tamra Crane clapped and cheered after the Henderson County Zoning Board of Adjustment voted 3-2 to uphold a permit for the facility, which has sparked a bitter neighborhood dispute and triggered a broader discussion of commercial uses in residential zones.

Related Stories

The Zoning Board of Adjustment decision Wednesday lets the Cranes move ahead with plans to operate the 3,500-square-foot event space, which is under construction and expected to be finished by October. But there is no sign that next-door neighbors Stan Shelley and dozens of allies will drop their effort to derail the facility.

Shelley and his neighbors on Country Road and their supporters, many of whom live far from the site, argue that noise alone would be disruptive enough to cause significant depreciation in their homes' values. They also say traffic and light would disrupt the otherwise quiet area on N.C. 191 across from Rugby Middle School. The Zoning Board of Adjustment ignored all these factors, the Shelleys argue, when it issued a special-use permit for the event barn in an R-2 residential zone in 2015. Attorney Robert Oast urged the board to revoke the permit.

Attorney Chris Stepp argued on behalf of the Cranes that the couple followed every rule and procedure and should not be denied the use that the county initially granted in October 2015. The Shelleys challenged the order in Superior Court and in the N.C. Court of Appeals, losing both times.

After an hourlong hearing and board discussion, the Zoning Board voted to uphold the permit. County Attorney Russ Burrell warned the board that it would be on precarious legal ground if it revoked the permit on the grounds of noise, since there is no noise until the facility opens. That left the issue of whether a 400-square-foot discrepancy in the size of the facility was enough to warrant revocation. The Cranes initially filed a site plan showing a 3,072-square-foot barn; the final plans showed a 3,472-square-foot building.

Under questioning from Stepp, Zoning Administrator Toby Linville said the Cranes had told him of the dimensions of 72x48 feet when they received a building permit.

"Did you have any problem with that?" Stepp asked.

"I did not," Linville said, "because the larger size of the building does not encroach into any setbacks or the buffer. To us, the size did not matter, 8 feet, 10 feet."

"My personal loss of property value  I'm one neighbor  my loss is nearly $100,000," Shelley said. "The loss to the neighbors is vastly superior to what the loss the Cranes would have."

Asked to explain his statement, Shelley said he and his wife, Jane, spent $65,000 on a swimming pool and a screened porch two years ago. "No one buying our home now with an event barn right across the fence is going to pay a penny for that," he said. "I have been told by real estate appraisers that I could get nothing for the pool and the screened-in porch."

Tamra Crane testified that the family has spent $60,000 so far (the amount is not larger because her husband, a contractor, is building the barn himself).

To Shelley's comments about noise, Stepp said the Zoning Board of Adjustment had issued the special use permit "despite having heard those arguments. ... I oppose you reconsidering this. I oppose you relitigating the issue of whether or not this meets the requirements for a special-use permit, because it has already been granted."

Board members debated whether the 400-square-foot difference should trigger revocation.

"At this point I don't see any violation of the permit as it has been issued," said Hilliard Staton.

"I don't think that the noise issue is before us, although there's been discussion of it," said David Sandler. "Are we only dealing with the 400 square feet or are we dealing with other issues apart from that?"

"If they haven't had an event, I don't know what the noise level is," said Chairman Ron Kauffman.

"All of this under discussion today was addressed during that 20-hour hearing they had in the first place," Staton said. "The permit was granted. It was then appealed before two different courts, which upheld the decision, and that's where my sticking point comes in. We're still looking at the same thing."

Kauffman and Jim Hysong voted to revoke the special use permit.

"Whatever the perception was initially, when they first met, I have a feeling from what I've read and what I've seen that the party barn is a bigger intrusion into that established neighborhood than was perceived originally," Hysong said.

The zoning board can only revoke the permit, said Burrell, the county attorney, if the Cranes had violated conditions in the permit. Noise "may be a problem later on" but it is not a condition that the facility violates "because it hasn't happened yet."
The village council asked a man to rape a 16-year-old girl in front of her family as punishment after her brother was accused of raping the mans sister in Pakistans Punjab province, police said on Wednesday.

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

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

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

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

Younis said the police sprang into action when the girls family reported the matter two days ago.

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

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

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

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

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

It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances, she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.

Source : Hindustan TImes
Starwood Capital Group Acquires The Jeremy West Hollywood Hotel

Starwood Capital Group today announced that it has acquired, through a controlled affiliate, the newly constructed 286-key The Jeremy West Hollywood hotel property in West Hollywood, Ca. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Designed by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the property will open in August as The Jeremy Hotel. Located on the corner of La Cienega and Sunset Boulevard, the hotel presents a very distinctive metal cladding in its exterior with its prominent hilltop location allowing for unobstructed breathtaking views from most rooms, ranging from Santa Monica to Downtown LA. The 286 room hotel features 50 suites, including two Penthouse Suites, a pool, fitness center, two large conference rooms and meetings and event space (totaling approximately 10,000 sq. ft.), a spectacular rooftop bar and lounge with 360 views, a cafe, restaurant and lobby bar.

Over the course of the next year, The Jeremy will be transformed into the 1 West Hollywood and will become the fourth property in the award-winning eco conscious luxury sustainable brand created by Starwood Capital. When 1 West Hollywood opens it will join sister hotels in Manhattan, Brooklyn and Miami Beach. Other 1 Hotels under developmentinclude Cabo San Lucas, Mexico (fall 2019), Sunnyvale, California (late 2019) and Sanya, China (late 2018). As a testament to the brand's strong offerings, 1 Hotel Central Park was voted "Best Urban Hotel" in the world by Wallpaper Magazine earlier this year. Starwood Capital Group is expected to relaunch The Jeremy as the 1 West Hollywood towards the end of 2018.

"We are excited to acquire this amazing asset in the vibrant West Hollywood market and add it to our rapid growing 1 Hotels brand portfolio," said Starwood Capital Group Chairman Barry Sternlicht. "The opportunity to acquire this new extraordinarily located real estate in such an important destination with all of its amenities was extremely compelling to our brand and team. We can't wait to launch The Jeremy and later bring our award-winning luxury sustainability focused brand to a city and state that cares so much about the environment," Sternlicht concluded.

The Jeremy and the 1 West Hollywood will be managed by SH Group, Starwood Capital's in-house hotel management company, which manages the 1 Hotels brand and Baccarat hotel in Midtown Manhattan. The 1 West Hollywood will provide a world-class destination to Los Angeles while welcoming guests to the city's most beloved neighborhood, West Hollywood.
The Californian city of Santa Cruz is famous for its moderate climate, redwood forests and beautiful coastline. Sitting just below San Francisco, on the scenic Pacific Coast Highway, the sunshine city is a beach goers paradise.

Things to do in Santa Cruz

Santa Cruz is home to one of the oldest beachfront amusement parks on the west coast, located on the Beach Boardwalk. After loading up on sugar-coated doughnuts, take a ride on the Giant Dipper for an old-school American adrenaline rush.

For an action-packed day of sun, sand and sports, head to Twin Lakes State Beach where you can enjoy surfing, kayaking and sunset stand-up paddleboard classes. Afterwards, retire to the Crows Nest Restaurant to dine on fresh seafood fettuccine and delicious grilled dishes.

Downtown Santa Cruz is perfect for strolling around at a leisurely place. Hop from boutique shop to quirky cafe in search of the perfect souvenir or hire a bike to zip around the area like a local. For a sweet treat, head to the Santa Cruz Farmers Market to pick up some baked goods.

Seymour Marine Discovery Centre is an educational centre located next to Natural Bridges State Beach. Children and adults alike can wander around the interactive science exhibits and dip an arm into the aquariums touch pools. Make sure to get a picture in front of the large blue whale skeleton outside.

Getting around Santa Cruz

Mineta San Jose International Airport is under one hour north of Santa Cruz, and Monterey Regional Airport is the same distance to the south. Once in town, the downtown district is pedestrian-friendly, though the metro bus service runs regularly for longer trips.
On July 16, 2017, four terrorists of the Neo-Jama'atul Mujahideen Bangladesh (Neo-JMB) surrendered 12 hours after Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) personnel cordoned off a tin-shed dwelling in Ashulia, a suburban area near the capital, Dhaka. The four arrested were Mozammel Huq, Rashedul Nabi, Ifranul Islam and Alamgir Hossain. Two pistols, a laptop, and some books and pamphlets were recovered from the house.

On July 12, 2017, Police arrested three Neo-JMB terrorists in Chapainawabganj District: Abdul Malek aka Alam (46), Al Amin aka Lutu (25) and Mohammad Mithun (25). 19 kilograms of explosive materials were recovered from them.

On July 7, 2017, the Counter-Terrorism and Transnational Crime (CTTC) unit of Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested Hatkata Mahfuz, one of the planners of the Holey Artisan attack , and also the top explosives specialist of Neo-JMB, along with three accomplices, from an orchard in the Kansat area of Chapainawabganj District.

On July 5, 2017, RAB personnel arrested three JMB terrorists from a house in the Master Bari area of Gazipur District while they were planning to carry out terrorist activities. RAB officials disclosed that there were allegations of their involvement in the2005 serial bomb blasts.

On July 1, 2017, the CTTC unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested three female Neo-JMB terrorists, including Tithi Khatun (32), wife of Neo-JMB 'chief' Ayub Bachchu; Sumaiya Akter (26), wife of the outfit's 'second-in-command' Abzar; and Toly Khatun, wife of JMB terrorist Arman Ali, after raiding a hideout in Kushtia District's Bheramara area. The hideout was neutralized in a drive codenamed "Tepid Punch", targeting safe havens of top leaders, including the Ameer (Chief) and Shura (Committee) members of the banned terrorist outfit. Police also recovered a bomb weighing around three kilograms, two suicide vests, 10 small bombs, a pistol, 12 bullets and 10 kilograms of bomb-making materials, in the raid.

On June 12, 2017, the CTTC unit of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police arrested six Neo-JMB terrorists in the New Market area of Dhaka city. The group was planning to carry out attacks during Ramadan to mark the anniversary of the deadly Gulshan Cafe attack.

According to partial data compiled by the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), since theGulshan Cafe attack on July 1, 2016, 1,197 Islamist terrorists have been arrested and another 93 killed across Bangladesh. Prominent among those killed were the Neo-JMB leader and mastermind of the Gulshan Cafe attack, Tamim Ahmed Chowdhury akaShaykh Abu Ibrahim Al Hanif aka Amir (30); the JMB 'military commander' for the northern region Khaled Hasan aka Badar Mama (30); Neo-JMB 'military commander' Murad aka Jahangir Alam aka Omar; JMB 'regional commander' Tulu Mollah (33); JMB 'regional coordinator' Abu Musa aka Abujar; Neo-JMB 'military chief' Aminur Islam akaAlam (23); Harkat-ul-Jihad-al Islami Bangladesh (HuJI-B) 'chief' Mufti Abdul Hannan; and HUJI-B 'regional commander' Tajul Islam Mahmud aka Mama Hujur (46) (data till July 23, 2017).

To continue the relentless action against the terrorist formations, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal told Parliament on June 30, 2017, the Government has decided to create 50,000 additional posts with the Bangladesh Police. The Home Minister added further, "There is no alternative to ensuring people-friendly Police forces to develop law and order throughout the country. Industrial police, naval police, tourism police, Special Security and Protection Battalion (SBPN), Police Bureau of Investigation (PBI), were added to the organizational structure of Bangladesh Police."

Earlier, at a meeting chaired by Finance Minister AMA Muhith at the Secretariat on June 18, 2017, to stop terror suspects from getting bail and to make stronger prosecution to fight terrorism, a 16-member taskforce - the National Coordination Committee on Anti-Money Laundering and Combating Financing of Terrorism - under the Finance Ministry asked the Government to introduce a permanent Attorney service to engage competent lawyers. The taskforce is tasked with overseeing the Government's initiatives to prevent terror financing and money laundering. Raising concerns over the release of a number of terrorist suspects on bail in recent times due to weaknesses of the prosecution, several officials who attended the meeting asserted that, when a suspected terrorist gets bail, it is the prosecutors' duty to inform the Attorney General's Office about this, but they failed to do so in most cases. Disturbingly, The Daily Star, the largest circulating daily English-language newspaper in Bangladesh, reported on June 20, 2017, that around 150 suspected terrorists secured bail over the preceding six months, mainly because the prosecutors failed to build up strong cases due to their lack of competence and efficiency.

Significantly, on July 19, 2017, after detecting unusual transactions, the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) brought the overall activities of 17 foreign non-government development organizations (NGOs) under intense surveillance. Officials disclosed that most of these NGOs were under the control of or affiliated with Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) and were based in Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and other Middle East countries. Major NGOs of the list, which include Bangladesh Krishi Kalyan Samity, Muslim Aid Bangladesh, Rabeta Al-Alam al-Islami, Qatar Charitable Society, Islamic Relief Agency, Al-Furkan Foundation, Kuwait Joint Relief Committee, International Islamic Relief Organization, Hayatul Ighachha, Revival of Islamic Heritage Society, Tawhidi Noor and Al-Muntada al-Islami.

Claiming that terrorists no longer possessed the capacities to carry out attacks like the one at Gulshan Cafe, as their 'backbones had been broken' during anti-terrorist drives across the country, Monirul Islam, the CTTC chief, noted, on June 30, 2017, "They may try to get reorganized again but we'll hunt down the absconding terrorists, too. So far, eight terrorists who were involved in planning and coordination in the (Gulshan Cafe) attack have already been killed in different places across the country during anti-terrorist operations in the last one year." Similarly, Inspector General of Police (IGP) AKM Shahidul Hoque talking to reporters at Police Headquarters on July 2, 2017, noted, "We do not think the terrorists have the strength. Those who are on the run will be captured, no matter how big a leader they are. We are expecting the top absconding Neo-JMB leader to be arrested soon."

Observing that Bangladesh has set an example for the world with its success in curbing terrorism and extremism, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed stated, on July 5, 2017, "Law enforcement agencies and the Armed Forces together with a cross-section of people have made this possible, and this trend should continue so that terrorists get no place of terrorism and militancy on Bangladesh soil." Earlier, urging the country's Muslim population to come forward to check the spread of extremism with a rational approach, Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal noted, on June 10, 2017, "At first, a vested quarter carried out extremist activities in the country, and propagated thatQoumi madrassah students are the perpetrators. Later, the quarter targeted the students of universities and English medium schools, and used them to spread extremism across the country, misguiding their young minds. This vested quarter is trying to defame both the country and its Muslim population. You have to come forward to solve your own problem. There's no scope of ignoring this issue. You have to preach the Islam and its holy messages truthfully.''

Worryingly, however, on July 9, 2017, bomb experts noted that the deadly explosive Triacetone Triperoxide (TATP), used by terrorists in Paris, Brussels and London attacks, had, of late become Neo-JMB's explosive of choice in Bangladesh. The experts claimed that they had found evidence of its use in terrorist dens in Rajshahi, Jhenidah and Moulvibazar Districts. Traces of the easy-to-make TATP, known as "the mother of Satan", was found in surgical belts terrorists use these days instead of suicide belts, and in other bombs. An official of the CTTC bomb disposal team noted, "Only 300 grams of TATP can kill everyone in a 10-meter radius." Revealing another trend, on July 19, 2017, CTTC unit Deputy Police Commissioner Abdul Mannan disclosed, "Terrorists have begun using encryption to foil efforts by law enforcement to understand their plans. They regularly change the coding language that they use. They use them to encrypt messages sent across messaging apps. We have been able to decipher some of their messages after interrogating captured terrorists."

Bangladesh has taken giant strides against terrorism and Islamist extremism. Recent proposal to establish a permanent Attorney service with competent lawyers to fight terrorism is a welcome development. However, the recovery of new weapons, explosives and resources during recent raids suggest that flows of material aid to these groups remains significant. Moreover, the continuous involvement of women as combatants has grave implications and potential for the abrupt augmentation of the threat. Bangladesh's struggle against Islamist extremism and terrorism is far from over and the latent threat persists.
On July 17, 2017, four civilians and one Assam Rifles (AR) trooper were injured when a powerful Improvised Explosive Device (IED) exploded at Khurai Ahongei in Imphal East District.

On July 10, 2017, a civilian, identified as Ranjan Das (42), was shot dead by United Tribal Liberation Army (UTLA) militants at his residence at Chhata Bekra village in Jiribam District situated near the Assam-Manipur interstate boundary. UTLA later alleged that the person as an AR 'informer'.

On the same day, one Army trooper, identified as Moirangthem Herachandra Singh (37), was found dead at Nachou Kwak Siphai area in Bishnupur District. According to reports, unidentified militants had killed the trooper and dumped his body in a canal.

On June 30, 2017, an AR trooper was killed and another two were injured in an IED explosion at Lambui village in Ukhrul District.

On June 15, 2017, People's Liberation Army (PLA) militants exploded an IED killing an AR trooper and injuring three in the Chassad area of Ukhrul District.

According to South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP), Manipur has recorded at least 35 insurgency-linked fatalities, including 16 civilians, six Security Force (SF) personnel, and 13 militants, in the current year so far (data till July 23, 2017). During the corresponding period of 2016, the State had registered 23 such fatalities, including nine civilians, eight SF personnel and six militants.

Worryingly, fatalities in the first six months and 23 days of the current year have already crossed the total fatalities recorded through 2016, at 33 - the lowest since 1992. Worse, civilian fatalities - one of the most vital indicators of the security situation in a region - after registering continuous and significant declines since 2008, began to rise in the current year. According to the SATP database, civilian fatalities stood at 150 in 2007; declined to 131 in 2008; 77 in 2009; 26 in 2010; 25 each in 2011 and 2012; 21 in 2013; 20 in 2014; 17 in 2015; and 14 in 2016. 2017 has already recorded 16 civilian fatalities.

Moreover, the State has registered 14 attacks on SFs by militants, resulting in six fatalities and 14 injured among the SFs in the current year; as compared to eight such attacks and eight fatalities and 12 injured during the corresponding period of 2016. On the other hand, SFs have managed to eliminate only two militants out of the 13 militants killed so far in the current year, as compared to three out of six killed in the corresponding period of 2016. The remaining 11 militants in 2017 and three in 2016 were either killed in internecine clashes or were eliminated by their parent groups.

The total number of incidents of killing also increased from 16 in 2016 to 28 in 2017 (data till July 23, for both years). However, no major incident (involving three or more fatalities) has been reported in the current year, thus far, as compared to two during the corresponding period of 2016. Further, in 2017, fatalities were reported from nine out of a total of 16 districts in Manipur. These included Tegnoupal (six fatalities), Kamjong (four), Ukhrul (five), Kangpokpi (five), Noney (four), Churachandpur (three), all of which are Hill Districts; Imphal West (two fatalities), Bishnupur and Jiribam (one) each, among Valley Districts. The place of killing in the remaining four fatalities could not be ascertained. During the corresponding period of 2016, fatalities were reported from eight out of a total of nine districts in Manipur. These included Chandel (seven fatalities), Ukhrul (two), Senapati (two), Tamenglong (two), Churachandpur (one), all of which are Hill Districts; Imphal East (four), Thoubal (three) and Imphal West (two), among Valley Districts. On December 8, 2016, the number of districts in Manipur was increased from existing nine to 16 Districts.

Extortion remains an issue of concern. Significantly, on June 18, 2017, the Kangpokpi Women's Welfare Organization held a 'Toumun Kiphin' (sit-in-protest) at the Kangpokpi District headquarters, holding placards which read "Stop Extortion, Live and Let Live". The reason for the protest was that a banned outfit (name not disclosed) has served monetary demands to Forest and Power departments, some individuals, highway maintenance agencies and shop vendors. The monetary demand ranged from INR two million each to the Forest and Power department to INR 1,500 to 4,000 for shop vendors. An unnamed businessman told the media: "Militants are threatening us all the time. We can't live in peace. We are hiding most of the time. We are suffering immensely at their hands. Living a normal life is difficult for us." There were a total of three reported incidents of extortion. Further, the abduction of 22 persons (in 12 incidents) had also been reported in the current year, till July 23. However, actual incidence of both extortion and abduction is likely to be very much higher, as an overwhelming proportion of cases are settled without being reported.

The surge in insurgency-linked violence in the current year is in spite of the fact that a total of 23 insurgent groups under two conglomerates are currently under Suspension of Operation (SoO) agreements with the Government: eight under the United Progressive Front (UPF) and 15 under the Kuki National Organisation (KNO). The SoO agreement with KNO exists since August 2008 and was valid upto July 21, 2017 [no further updates available]; while the SoO agreement with UPF was valid up to June 8, 2017 [no further updates available]. Political dialogue with these groups commenced on June 15, 2016.

This raises question over the implementation part of the SoOs. News reports indicate that the newly elected Manipur Government raised the issue of SoO violations with Union Government on June 12, 2017. An unnamed source close to Manipur Chief Minister (CM) N. Biren Singh informed the media, "The Chief Minister will raise the issue of ground rules violations by the cadres of militant groups that have tripartite Suspension of Operation agreement with the State and the Centre."

Moreover, militant groups such as the Coordination Committee (CorCom) of six Imphal Valley-based groups, the Manipur Naga Revolutionary Front (MNRF), the Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF), besides the Nagaland-based Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak Muivah (NSCN-IM) and the Khaplang faction of NSCN (NSCN-K), continue to operate in Manipur. CorCom comprises the Revolutionary People's Front (RPF, the political wing of the People's Liberation Army, PLA), United National Liberation Front (UNLF), People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), Kanglei Yowel Kanna Lup (KYKL), Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP) and the progressive faction of PREPAK (PREPAK-Pro). CorCom supports the Myanmar based militant conglomerate, the United National Liberation Front of West East South Asia (UNLFWESA) .

SFs had undeniably done remarkably well to restore relative order in Manipur in recent years, providing a more secure environment for the civilian population. The recent surge, though not alarming, is nevertheless worrying, more so in the present context. Manipur Chief Minister N. Biren Singh observed, on May 23, 2017, "The series of violent incidents in Moreh may be related with an intentional attempt to sabotage the Act East Policy." Significantly, so far, at least five violent incidents have been reported from Moreh in Tegnoupal District in 2017, in which one civilian was killed and another three persons (all SF personnel) were injured. A 'sanitized' Asian Highway No. 01 (AH01), that will start from Moreh in Manipur and terminate at Maesot in Thailand, is intended to provide the necessary physical connectivity for fulfilling India's 'Act East' (earlier, 'Look East') Policy, enhancing trade links with South East Asia.

As the Government continues efforts to further strengthen and improve its security apparatus, it is vital to ensure that the ground rules for the militants in talks with the state should be strictly enforced in toto. Robust law and order is the principle prerequisite for the development of the landlocked State, and will be the lynchpin on which the success of the Act East Policy hinges.
Patna, July 27 (IBNS): After a brief meeting with Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi over the recent political crisis in the state, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said the former must give them the opportunity to form the government first.

Tejashwi said since RJD is the largest political party in Bihar, they must be invited first to form the government as per rules.

"The Governor said he has already given a letter for the government formation but he has a historic chance to reverse that and earn the respect of the people of Bihar and India," said the Yadav scion.

In a new turn in the unfolding political drama in Bihar, RJD leader and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday marched to Raj Bhavan after former Chief Minister of the state Nitish Kumar stitched an alliance with the BJP to form the government.

Tejashwi was accompanied by large number of RJD (Rashtriya Janata Dal) leaders as well as Congress members.

The RJD leader referred to Nitish's stepping down as the CM and stitching an alliance with the BJP as "preplanned".

"I was being used as a tool by Nitish ji (Nitish Kumar) to strike an alliance with the BJP" the former Deputy CM said.

Within few hours of stepping down as the Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar stitched an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday late evening.

Reports suggested that BJP will extend their support to Nitish-led JD(U) to form the government in the state.

Nitish Kumar stepped down from the position after he met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in the evening.

His resignation ended the grand alliance which had formed the government in the state after winning the 2015 Assembly polls.

Kumar said he was resigning as the Bihar CM in the interest of the state.

The rift between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of RJD had reached a flashpoint over corruption issue and earlier deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and his father Lalu Yadav had ruled out resignation of Tejashwi over a CBI probe arguing that a fake case was filed against him.

The move of Nitish came at a time when the state government was facing tremendous challenges with the ruling RJD and JD(U) locked in a conflict over the issue of Tejashwi Yadav's resignation.

Attacking the former Bihar CM, Tejashwi said: "Nitish ji (Nitish Kumar) betrayed the mandate of the people. He must apologise to them."

In 2015, the grand alliance formed by JD(U), RJD and Congress was voted to power in the state.

Meanwhile, the swearing-in ceremony of the CM has been preponed to 10 am on Thursday, which was earlier scheduled at 5 pm.

Along with Nitish, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi will take oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday morning.

Image: Official Facebook page of Tejashwi Yadav.
Kendallville, IN (46755)

Today

Snow this morning will transition to snow showers this afternoon. High 39F. Winds WNW at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of snow 100%. About one inch of snow expected..

Tonight

Snow flurries and snow showers. Low 28F. Winds WNW at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of snow 40%. Snow accumulations less than one inch.
Patna, July 27 (IBNS): Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday morning.

Nitish Kumar, who severed his ties with RJD over corruption issue, formed the new government with the support of the BJP.

Along with Nitish, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

Kumar stepped down from the position after he met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi last evening.

Meanwhile, after a meeting with Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi last night, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said RJD being the largest political party in the Assembly, the former must give them the opportunity to form the government first.

The rift between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of RJD had reached a flashpoint over corruption issue when deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and his father Lalu Yadav had ruled out resignation of Tejashwi over a CBI probe arguing that a fake case was filed against him.

His resignation ended the grand alliance which formed the government in the state after winning the 2015 Assembly polls.

The Bihar CM will have to prove his majority on Friday.

Nitish became the CM of the state for the sixth time.

Image: Official Facebook page of Nitish Kumar.
Patna, July 27 (IBNS): After taking an oath as the Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar said the decision of forming the government in an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was taken for the interest of the people in the state.

Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday morning.

Kumar, who severed his ties with RJD over corruption issue, formed the new government with the support of the BJP.

Along with Nitish, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

Speaking about the mission of the new government, Nitish said: "We will continue to work for the people of Bihar with honesty."

While reacting to Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi's remark of 'betrayal', Nitish skipped the question and said will answer at the right time.

The Congress VP said Nitish has betrayed the people of Bihar by moving out from the grand alliance which was voted to power in 2015.

Kumar stepped down from the position after he met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi last evening.

Meanwhile, after a meeting with Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi last night, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav said RJD being the largest political party in the Assembly, the former must give them the opportunity to form the government first.

The rift between Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad of RJD had reached a flashpoint over corruption issue when deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and his father Lalu Yadav had ruled out resignation of Tejashwi over a CBI probe arguing that a fake case was filed against him.

The Bihar CM will have to appear for the floor test in the Assembly on Friday.

Image: Official Facebook page of Nitish Kumar.
Rameswaram, Jul 27 (IBNS): Indian Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, on Thursday, inaugurated the Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam memorial at Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu.

The memorial is located at Pei Karumbu, Rameswaram.

Governor of Tamil Nadu, C. Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Edappadi K. Palaniswami, Minister of State for Commerce & Industry (I/C), Nirmala Sitharaman, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways and Shipping, P. Radhakrishnan and other dignitaries were also present.

He unveiled a statue of Dr. Kalam, and offered floral tributes at Kalam Sthal. The Prime Minister also briefly interacted with the family members of Dr. Kalam.

The Prime Minister flagged off the Kalam Sandesh Vahini, an exhibition bus which will travel across various states and reach Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 15, which marks the birth anniversary of the former President.

At a public meeting, the Prime Minister distributed sanction letters to select beneficiaries of Long Line Trawlers under the Blue Revolution Scheme.

He flagged off a new Express train from Rameswaram to Ayodhya - named Shraddha Setu - via video conference.

He released the synopsis of the Green Rameswaram Project; and unveiled a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of a 9.5 km Link Road on NH-87, between Mukundarayar Chathiram, and Arichalmunai.

Addressing the gathering, the Prime Minister said Rameswaram has been a beacon of spirituality for the entire nation; and is now also known as the place closely associated with Dr. Kalam. He said Dr. Kalam reflected the simplicity, depth and calmness of Rameswaram.

The Prime Minister said Dr. Kalam inspired the youth of India. He said that today's youth wants to scale heights of progress, and become job creators.

The memorial for Dr. Kalam showcases his life and times in a remarkable manner, the Prime Minister said.

Paying rich tributes to Dr. J. Jayalalithaa, former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, the Prime Minister said she is a leader we all remember. He added that she would have been very happy and would have extended her good wishes.

The Prime Minister said a transformation in the ports and logistics sectors can contribute immensely to India's growth. He mentioned that there is a healthy competition among states as far as the Swachh Bharat Mission is concerned.

Images: PIB
Patna, Jul 27 (IBNS) : Hours after Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time after dumping RJD and Congress for a renewed alliance with the BJP, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday filed a fresh case against Lalu Yadav and his family over money laundering in railway hotel tender case, reports said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation is already investigating the case.

The alleged money laundering dates back to the UPA time when Lalu Prasad was Railway Minister.

The development comes weeks after the CBI had registered an FIR on July seven against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav and five others, which include a former IRCTC managing director, in a case of alleged corruption linked to a grant of tenders for the maintenance of BNR hotels to Sujata Hotels.

According to reports, the investigative agency alleged in the FIR that Lalu Prasad Yadav and family received a plot of land in Patna in return for awarding tenders to the company run by two businessmen Vijay Kochhar and Vinay Kochhar. Lalu Prasad and son Tejashwi Yadav have however denied the charges.

JDU chief Kumar, who was getting closer to the BJP over the past few months on Wednesday broke the Grand Alliance with RJD citing corruption cases against its leaders including Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwai Yadav. He stepped down as the chief minister. However, with the support of the old ally BJP, Kumar again was sworn in as the chief minister
Kolkata, July 27 (IBNS): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday visited few submerged areas in Udainarayanpur and Amta-II blocks in Howrah district and in Khanakul block in neighbouring Hooghly district, which are facing flood-like situation presently.

"It's a man-made flood. Our administration is always with the flood-affected people and our officials are trying their best to handle the situation," Banerjee said.

She also held an administrative meeting at Amta in Howrah district, following her visit to flood-hit areas.

Till 3 pm. on Thursday, the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) has released 2,49,950 cusec water from its Durgapur dam in West Bengal and 2,25,052 cusec, 1,56,367 cusec and 14,949 cusec water from Panchet, Galudih and Chandil dams respectively in neighbouring Jharkhand district, leaving several villages in 104 development blocks in as many as 19 district submerged.

According to officials, at least 162 relief camps have been opened at the affected areas and nearly 50,000 people have taken shelter there.

Over 15 lakh people have been affected in the flood-like situation in Bengal.

According to officials, at least 16 deaths have been reported so far from several districts.

Disaster Management Group (DMG) personnel and 44 medical teams as well as National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams from the Centre are currently continuing rescue operations at the affected zones.

Nearly 2,03,017 hectare crop areas are reeling under water, resulting a price-hike of vegetables in the market.

Several villages and development blocks in Howrah, Hooghly, East Medinipur, Birbhum, East Burdwan, Birbhum, Bankura, Purulia and Murshidabad districts have been submerged.

A state official told IBNS that as many as 7868 residential properties have been inundated due to the flood-water while at least 64,361 houses have been damaged in the flood-hit zones.
Patna, July 27 (TheBiharPost/IBNS): The battle for the Bihar throne reached court on Thursday shortly after JD-U leader Nitish Kumar was invited to form government with the support of the BJP against which the party had got the mandate in the last 2015 assembly elections.

As per media reports, two separate petitions were filed in the Patna high court on Thursday against the unconstitutional move to allow Nitish Kumar form government despite the RJD being the single largest party.

The first petition was filed by one Jitendra Kumar while another was filed by RJD lawmaker Saroj Yadav and Chandan Kumar Verma.

In the petition, it has been said the grand alliance was given the mandate for five year and it was against the BJP.

It added the RJD being the single largest should have been invited to form government in the state but the governor in total violation of constitutional norms invited the JD-U to form government.

Hence, the new government is illegal and must be dismissed, it said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad too raised similar question while talking to the media in Ranchi today.

The RJD being the single largest party should have been invited first by the governor to form government in the state. If we have failed, the other party should have been given the chance and if they too had failed then the Presidents rule should have been clamped but this established precedent was not followed in this case, alleged RJD president Lalu Prasad.

thebiharpost.com
Guwahati, July 27 (IBNS): The Assam Rilfes , HQ IGAR (North) organised a solemn ceremony on Wednesday to commemorate the supreme sacrifice of all martyrs who laid down their life during Kargil War 1999 (Operation VIJAY).

The function was organised at the Memorial of Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse, the brave officer who laid down his life in the line of duty for the Nation for which he was awarded the Mahavir Chakra, posthumously.



Major General Sanjay Gupta , Inspector General Assam Rifles (North), all ranks of the formation, villagers and family members of Captain Neikezhakuo Kengurusue, MVC (Posthumous) alongwith ex-servicemen and many school children paid homage at his memorial at Pheza, which is located near his native village Nerhema in Nagaland.



The function organised by 9 Assam Rifles was attended by various civil dignitaries, Lt Colonel Amitabh Sharma, PRO, HQ IGAR (North) Assam Rifles said.



Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse, MVC, of Nerhema village was born on 15 July 1974. He did his schooling at St Xavier School, Jalukie and graduated from Kohima Science College. He served as a teacher at Govt High School, Kohima from 1994 to 1997. He was later commissioned into the Indian Army on 12 Dec 1998. He attained martyrdom during Kargil War on 28 Jun 1999 while destroying enemy bunker and killing four enemy soldiers, Lt Colonel Amitabh Sharma said.



The ceremony included wreath laying by Neiselie Kenguruse, father of Late Captain N Kenguruse, MVC, IGAR (North) and other officials.



It was followed by a prayer ceremony conducted by Pastor Vinanyli. Subsequently, the audience was addressed by Neiselie Kenguruse, father of Late Captain Neikezhakuo Kenguruse who conveyed that the whole family is very proud of their Son.



The MLA and Parliamentary Secretary Dr. Neiphrezo Keditsu lauded valour of the brave martyr from his constituency, exhorted the youth to follow his footsteps and serve the nation with pride and honour.



Saluting the martyr for his exceptional act of bravery Major General Sanjay Gupta said that Late Captain N Kenguruse, MVC, is a source of motivation and inspiration to all ranks of the Armed forces and exhorted the youth of Nagaland to follow the motivation level of this great Son of Nagaland and work hard to achieve their destiny to lead a life of honour, pride, dignity and contribute to the growth of society, state and our Nation.



(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)
Srinagar, July 27 (IBNS): The Army on Thursday claimed that it gunned down three militants when they were trying to infiltrate into this parts of Kashmir in Gurez Valley of North Kashmiras Bandipora district.

A Srinagar-based defence spokesman, Col. Rajesh Kalia said three militants were killed after army foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez.

He said the operation was in progress.

An official said that a group of 3-6 militants tried to sneak into this side of LoC last night.

Army's 13 Sikh regiment guarding the LoC near Bagtore area of Gurez noticed their movement. The militants opened fire after they were challenged. During the operation, three militants were killed," he said.



(Reporting by Saleem Iqbal Qadri)
Mumbai, July 27 (IBNS): Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that actor Sanjay Dutt should return to jail if his release was not as per law, media reports said.

Dutt, who was convicted by the Supreme Court in arms possession case four years ago, got release from the prison in 2016.

He was released prior to the completion of the term of his imprisonment considering his good conduct.

However, the Bombay HC asked the Maharashtra government to clarify the reason behind Dutt's release prior to the completion of his five years jail term.

The 57-year-old actor was convicted for acquiring illegal guns from those men who were behind the 1993 Mumbai serial bombings that killed many people.

The actor had the opportunity to leave the jail and stay with family even during his jail term.

The actor is widely known for his role played in Munnabhai MBBS which released in 2003.

Image: Creative Commons.
Image: www.YouTube.com

Kolkata, Jul 27 (IBNS): Armed dacoits stormed a jewellery store in southern Kolkata's Jodhpur Park area on Thursday afternoon, reports said.

According to reports, at least four unidentified miscreants, armed with guns, attacked the showroom of Chandrani Jewellers at Gariahat Road under Lake Police Station limits and robbed jewellery worth lakhs from the store.

"After beating our showroom's security guard, 4-5 dacoits entered the shop at around 2:30 pm. and completed the operation in just 10 minutes. They soon fled with jewellery worth lakhs," a staffer of the jewellery shop told IBNS.

"As their faces were covered with masks and they wore raincoats, we could not recognize any of them," the staffer added.

Local police, however, started investigation into the case while no arrest been reported yet.

"As all CCTV cameras of the store are inoperative, we did not get any footage of the incident," an official of local police station told IBNS. "We are taking footage from nearby shops, offices and road-crossings and quizzing the eyewitnesses to get a fair idea of the incident."

(Reporting by Deepayan Sinha)


Guwahati, July 27 (IBNS): The Assam government faced a severe fund crunch as several development schemes in the state halted for fund crisis.

A top source said that, while the current wave flood damaged over 600 numbers roads and bridges across the state, the state finance department hasn't released fund to the state Public Works Department to repair the damaging infrastructure.

"The Public Works Department has requested the finance department to release fund for repairing the damage infrastructure, but the finance department hasn't taken any appropriate measures," the top source said.

Meanwhile, Assam PWD minister Parimal Suklabaidya said that, a total of 504 kms National Highway, 572 numbers state highways, major roads and district roads were damaged in the devastating flood.

"The flood waters also washed away two bridges, damaging 60 bridges and 86 approach roads in the state," Suklabaidya said.

The department needs around Rs 300 crore to repair the damaged infrastructure, but the department is facing trouble for fund crisis.

Union minister of Road Transport and Highways Nitin Gadkari on Wednesday sanctioned Rs 200 crore for immediate repair of national highways ravaged by flood in Assam.

"But it is not sufficient to repair all damaged infrastructure. The state has over 48,000 km roads and around 36,000 kms are rural roads," the source said.

Recently, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and state finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that, the state has sufficient fund to tackle flood damages and relief.

"Still around Rs 400 crore are lying in the state coffers," Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

(Reporting by Hemanta Kumar Nath)


New York, July 27(Just Earth News): The United Nations human rights chief on Wednesday named three international experts to investigate reports of killings, mutilations, rapes and other abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) restive Kasai provinces.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein named Bacre Ndiaye, a Senegal national, to lead a team of experts that includes Luc Cote, a Canadian who has worked on human rights violations in the DRC, and Mauritania's Fatimata M'Baye.

The team of experts is expected to collect and preserve information, to determine the facts and circumstances in accordance with international standards and practice, and while ensuring the protection of all persons who will cooperate with the team, in cooperation with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as stipulated in a mandate by the UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted on 22 June 2017.

The cooperation with the Government includes facilitating visits and access to the country, sites and persons, concerning alleged human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law in the Kasai regions, according to the Council.

The resolution refers to reports of the recruitment and use of child soldiers, sexual and gender-based violence, destruction of houses, schools, places of worship, and State infrastructure by local militias, as well as of mass graves.

The team's findings are due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2018.

Ahead of the report, the High Commissioner is scheduled to present an oral update on the situation in the Kasais to the Human Rights Council in March of next year.

Violence flared up in the DRC's Kasai regions in August 2016, when a customary chief was killed by Forces armees de la Republique democratique du Congo (FARDC), as DRC's armed forces are known. The Kamuina Nsapu militia (named after the chief) then set about avenging the killing, committing widespread atrocities as well as recruiting children into its ranks.

The gravity of the situation was further underscored by the discovery (in April, this year) of forty-two mass graves by OHCHR and the UN mission (known by its French acronym, MONUSCO).

More than 1.3 million people have since been displaced within the country as well as thousands forced to flee across its borders.

Security Council urges progress on political agreement

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Wednesday warned that unless politicians in DRC demonstrate renewed efforts to deliver on an agreement to hold elections by the end of this year, the country and the wider region faces an increased risk of instability.

The Security Council further calls upon all political parties, their supporters, and other political actors to remain calm and refrain from violence of any kind, according to the statement signed by Ambassador Liu Jieyi, who holds the rotating presidency for the month of July.

The presidential statement  which has a tone similar to a Security Council resolution but is not legally binding  expresses concern about the slow implementation of the 31 December agreement.

The agreement  facilitated by Conference Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO) mediators, and reached in DRC's capital, Kinshasa, on 31 December 2016  allowed President Joseph Kabila to stay in power beyond the end of his term.

In on Wednesday's statement, the Council also welcomed progress made in the voter registration process led by the National Electoral Commission (CENI), and called for continued efforts to ensure that voters throughout the country, including in the Kasai provinces, are duly registered.

The Council also called on the Government to set aside a budget for the elections and come up with a timetable for preparations.

In the same agreement, the Council reiterated its condemnation of the violence in the Kasai region and expressed serious concern about cases of sexual violence and recent reports of more alleged mass graves.

The Security Council underscores the primary responsibility of the DRC Government for ensuring security in its territory and protecting its population, with respect for the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law, the statement said, cautioning that some of the reported violations could constitute war crimes under international law.

Credit: OCHA/Ivo Brandau

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 27(Just Earth News): Secretary-General AntAnio Guterres and the United Nations Security Council have condemned yesterday's killing of two peacekeepers in the Central African Republic's (CAR) south-eastern city of Bangassou.

This incident brings to nine the number of peacekeepers killed in service in Bangassou since the beginning of the year, said a statement issued this morning by Farhan Haq, Deputy Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

According to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), two of its Moroccan peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in Bangassou by suspected anti-Balaka fighters, while another peacekeeper was slightly injured. The incident followed the killing of a Moroccan peacekeeper on Sunday.

In the statement, the Secretary-General offered his condolences and sympathy to the bereaved families and to the Government of Morocco, and urged the Central African authorities to swiftly investigate this incident and all previous killings without delay and bring the perpetrators to justice.

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at the fighting in the country's southeast, heightened inter-ethnic tensions and efforts by spoilers to derail the stabilization process.

If allowed to continue, the prevailing situation risks undermining the hard-won gains achieved towards lasting peace. The Secretary-General calls on all parties to cease violence and to take action to avoid a further deterioration of the fragile security situation in the country, the statement added.

The UN Security Council also joined in the condemnation of the attack. In a press statement, the Council expressed its readiness to apply sanctions against individuals and groups responsible for acts of undermining peace, stability or security in the country, including attacks against MINUSCA peacekeepers.

The 15-member body also called on all parties to cease violence immediately, and underlined the need for the Central African authorities, the sub-region and the international community to work in a concerted manner to avoid a further deterioration of the situation.

Photo: MINUSCA

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 27(Just Earth News): The United Nations Special Envoy to Burundi on Wednesday urged African leaders, in solidarity with the UN, to support an inclusive dialogue between the Government and the opposition in a country where political upheaval has resulted in insecurity since April 2015.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Michel Kafando, recounted his recent efforts to support the inter-Burundian dialogue, including through a visit to President Pierre Nkurunziza last month.

We would like to see an atmosphere of peace in Burundi. But under what conditions and at what price can this be achieved? he asked the Council in New York.

The first requirement is to give priority to inclusive dialogue, a prerequisite for any resolution of the crisis. It becomes imperative that the Government of Burundi accedes to the request of the countries in the sub-region and the African Union, supported by the United Nations, to engage in an inclusive dialogue; that means involving the exiled opposition as well as the opposition in the country.

He underscored the importance of regional efforts, in particular by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, the East African Community's mediator heading the inter-Burundian dialogue.

Mkapa was due to brief the Council alongside Kafando but was unable to due to health reasons, the UN official said.

Kafando noted that authorities in Burundi and the opposition have diverging views on the political situation in the country, in a difficult socio-economic context, but consider the situation calm and seek to preserve their national sovereignty in managing internal affairs.

He did note, however, that representatives of the political opposition and some of the civil society are concerned about what they call authoritarian moves by the Government.

Kafando had met with civil society leaders and political parties during his second recent visit to Burundi, from 7 to 13 July.

Highlighting his discussions during that visit, Kafando reiterated calls for greater involvement of the regional and the international community in favor of an inclusive dialogue, without preconditions, and with the participation of all Burundians.

I deeply believe in the sub-region's commitment to work for peace in Burundi with the support of the African Union and I strongly recommend that the United Nations accompany them and resolutely support these efforts. In the end, even if we still need a little patience, we will certainly arrive at a dynamic compromise, the Special Envoy said.

In late June, Assistant Secretary-General Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the Council that the security situation in the country was fragile and noted a series of grenade attacks in the capital, Bujumbura.

Insecurity has been a concern in the country since 2015, when violence emerged around the President's decision to run for a third consecutive term. Some three million people are in need of humanitarian aid, with some 2.6 million others hungry, and more than 600,000 displaced from their homes.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 27(Just Earth News): Witnessing acomplete devastationa in districts of Mosul, a senior United Nations relief official visiting Iraq lauded the massive humanitarian effort under way while indicating that the crisis is afar from over,a including for millions of Iraqis displaced throughout the country.

I commend the achievements of the humanitarian operation in Iraq and wish to highlight the impressive national response, said Ursula Mueller, Assistant Secretary-General and Deputy Emergency Relief Coordinator in a press statement.

One of the things that impressed me the most was the exceptional level of cooperation between national counterparts, UN agencies and front-line NGOs [non-governmental organizations], she added.

From 24 and 26 July, Mueller met with senior officials and ministers from the Iraqi Government and the Kurdistan Regional Government, as well as members of the international and humanitarian communities.

She saw first-hand the complete devastation of districts in western Mosul's old city. I saw homes and entire neighbourhoods destroyed; no doubt, countless tragedies remain untold among the rubble, she explained.

With almost one million people fleeing Mosul, humanitarians' worst-case estimates were surpassed.

Despite escalating needs, humanitarians adjusted their response and kept pace  with emergency sites and camps built in record time; over 18,000 people treated at trauma stabilization points near the front lines; and a quarter of a million adults and children received psychological first aid and psychosocial support.

The deputy UN relief coordinator also pointed out that beyond Mosul, sustained efforts are also needed to support the millions of Iraqis displaced across the country.

Hundreds of thousands of people will try to return home in the coming months, and must do so in a safe, voluntary and dignified manner, she emphasized. Others will be unable to return home for some time due to the levels of destruction and contamination by explosive hazards in their communities.

Mueller also met with representatives from the Yazidi community and visited displaced communities.

Protection remains a top priority for minority groups in Iraq. The targeting of women  regardless of ethnic or religious affiliation  with rape, enslavement and other forms of violence, is a particularly disturbing feature of this crisis, asserted Mueller.

A key take-away from the visit was that the humanitarian crisis there is far from over.

Families lost loved ones, homes and livelihoods, she continued. I urge the international community to maintain its full commitment to supporting humanitarian assistance in Iraq, and I pledge that the United Nations will continue to stand with and support the Iraqi people.

While Mueller thanked the international community and donors for generously providing 3.5 million highly vulnerable Iraqis with assistance so far this year, she emphasized that the $985 million funding requirement for Iraq's 2017 humanitarian operations is not yet half met.

Photo: OCHA/Themba Linden

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 27(Just Earth News): The proposed resumption of dialogue between the two Koreas is an opportunity to discuss and improve the human rights situation in the North, a United Nations expert has said at the end of his second visit to the South.

The Republic of Korea's new President has proposed the resumption of dialogue with the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) on military and humanitarian issues.

While I welcome the initiative by the administration of President Moon Jae-in to resume dialogue, it is important that that engagement serves as a platform for North Korea to discuss ways to improve human rights, said Tomas Ojea Quintana, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in DPRK.

During his five-day mission to Seoul, from 17 to 21 July, the Special Rapporteur met senior Government officials as well as representatives of civil society and other groups. His requests for access to the North have not been granted.

The Special Rapporteur reiterated his deep concern about human rights violations in the North, including allegations of arbitrary detention, human trafficking and enforced disappearances, as well as sexual and gender-based violence against women detained in holding centres in the border areas.

The information I have been receiving points to different violations that continue to affect the lives of ordinary North Koreans and even foreigners, he said.

Pyongyang has recently rejected a call by Seoul to resume family reunions, which have not been held for two years, after DPRK resumed nuclear tests and long-range missile launches.

The Special Rapporteur met with a man who wishes to return to DPRK where his wife and son live, despite the risk of being punished for leaving for ROK three years ago.

If anything, these cases highlight the complexity of the family separation issue that started 70 years ago, and the fact that it continues to take new forms and affect people in the Korean peninsula in profound ways, he said.

The expert highlighted a surge in the number of Koreans from the North caught in China. They are detained or sent back. Usually harsh labour sentences await them upon their return.

North Koreans who leave their country are caught in a horrendous cycle of physical and psychological violence, and I received information that some take their own lives when they find out that they are scheduled for repatriation, said Ojea Quintana.

The expert noted that China has a responsibility to abide by the principle of non-refoulement in international law. I appeal to the Government of China to halt the policy, protect those in custody and engage with my mandate and with relevant UN agencies to think of alternatives, he stressed.

The Special Rapporteur will report his findings and recommendations to the UN General Assembly in October 2017.

Special Rapporteurs and independent experts are appointed by the Geneva-based UN Human Rights Council to examine and report back on a specific human rights theme or a country situation. The positions are honorary and the experts are not UN staff, nor are they paid for their work.

Photo: OHCHR

Source: www.justearthnews.com
New York, July 27(Just Earth News): The Security Council on Thursday renewed the mandate of the United Nations peacekeeping mission in Cyprus for six months, until 31 January 2018, following the recent failure to reach a settlement to the longstanding conflict between Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots on the Mediterranean island.

In a resolution adopted unanimously, the 15-member body also requested the Secretary-General to conduct a strategic review of the UN Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (-) and report back within four months.

Welcoming the progress made in the peace process since February 2014 and noting the outcome of the recent Conference on Cyprus, the Council encouraged the two sides and all involved participants to sustain their commitment to a settlement under UN auspices.

Despite hopes for a comprehensive settlement, the UN-facilitated conference held from 28 June to 7 July in the Swiss town of Crans-Montana concluded without an agreement. Despite his disappointment, Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that initiatives can still be pursued and developed in order to address the outstanding issues.

Further in the resolution, the Council urged the two sides to implement confidence-building measures that can contribute to a conducive environment for a settlement.

UNFICYP was originally set up by the Council in 1964 to prevent further fighting between the Greek Cypriots and Turkish Cypriots.

UN Photo/Manuel Elias

Source: www.justearthnews.com
Kabul, Jull 27 (IBNS) : Dozens of insurgents including several Pakistani militia forces were killed during the clashes with the security forces in southeastern Paktia province of Afghanistan, state-run Khaama Press reported.

Quoting the local security officials, the reports said that the militants and Pakistani militias were killed during the clashes in Jani Khel district.

Provincial police spokesman Sardar Wali Tabasoom confirmed the report and said more than 50 insurgents were killed during the clashes which started four days ago.

He said at least sixteen Pakistani militia forces are among those killed and at least 25 insurgents were also wounded.

The anti-government armed militant groups including the Taliban insurgents have not commented regarding the report so far.

Paktia is located along the Durand Line close to the tribal regions of Pakistan which is home to several Taliban insurgents and the notorious Haqqani terrorist network.
Culture Influential Artist Honored 70 Years After Death

A Buddhist monastery.

Western drawing techniques came to Myanmar late in the Konbaung Dynasty (1752-1885), and artist U Ba Nyan later played a key role in sharing these techniques with Myanmar artists.

Born in 1897 in Irrawaddy Divisions Pantanaw Township, U Ba Nyan was the first Myanmar artist to go to the Royal College of Art in London in 1921, during the colonial period. He had drawn the portraits of the King George V and colonial governors such as Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler, Sir Reginald Hugh Dorman-Smith, and Sir J.A Maung Gyi.

Though U Ba Nyan had drawn many paintings depicting the landscapes and lifestyles of Myanmar, most of them were bought by the British and lost during World War II. Few of his paintings can be found today.

Luckily, there are still six paintings which will be hung at the National Museum at a commemorative art exhibition from July 26-30 to mark the 120th anniversary of U Ba Nyans life.

During the exhibition, more than 500 paintings by at least 300 artists will grace the national museum to commemorate U Ba Nyan, who is regarded as influential in the countrys art history.

It was U Ba Nyan who brought Western techniques to Myanmar. Our masters and Myanmars legendary artists such as U Ngwe Gaing, U Ba Kyi, U Thein Han and U Aung Khin were U Ba Nyans students. So, it is undeniable that U Ba Nyan is the master of entire Myanmar art world, academy-winning director and artist Soe Moe said.

Artist Ni Po Oo, secretary of the committee organizing the exhibition, said: The academic painting technique which is commonly used by Myanmar artists today was systematically brought by U Ba Nyan from London. Though we could not learn directly from him, we inherited his techniques from his students, passed down from generation to generation.

U Ba Nyan also drew portraits of influential figures such as Sir Paw Htun, Sir Ba Oo and Shan saophas.

He died in 1945 in the village of Ka Toe in Mon States Moulmein while fleeing World War II, and his death went unnoticed.

Though U Ba Nyan is a significant figure in Myanmars art history, many argue that he did not get the honor he deserved. His name was resurrected again only after some local artists in Moulmein came to the village of Ka Toe to repair U Ba Nyans tomb in a small graveyard a few years ago.

The ongoing art exhibition is the first of its kind to be held on a grand scale in his remembrance, more than 70 years after his death.

His six paintings have been kept at the National Museum and are now on display with the permission of the Ministry of Culture. Among the paintings are a European landscape, a portrait of his father U Ba Oo, his self-portrait, a Buddhist monastery, an individual known simply as the chubby man, and an officers wife, Daw Mya May.

His oil painting of his father U Ba Oo (1933), done with heavy use of chiaroscuro and impasto techniques, is regarded as one of his masterpieces.

Director Soe Moe is however not satisfied with the frames of some of the paintings. To be frank, the frames spoil the splendor of the paintings. The frames should be better. And the canvas is loose in the frame, and in that case the paint might chip. The way the paintings are fixed into the frames is risky, and parts of the paintings are mildewed.

Other paintings will be on sale for prices ranging between US$100 and US$1,500. More than half of the proceeds will be donated to the funds for casting bronze statues of U Ba Nyan to be put respectively in Ka Toe village, the National Museum and the National University of Arts and Culture.

His artistic career spanned just 15 years, from 1930 when he came back from London to Myanmar, until his death in 1945. But during this short time, U Ba Nyan was able to revolutionize Myanmars artistic sphere.

His paintings, now more than 80 years old, will be hanging at the National Museum until Sunday.
Burma Girl, 14, Escapes From Kidnap, Rape Ordeal

The 14-year-old former housemaid was abducted in Yangon. / May Sitt Paing / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  A 14-year-old former housemaid visiting Yangon to testify against the family who allegedly tortured her has escaped a 20-day ordeal of kidnap and rape to return to her home in Mandalay.

The girl from Myittha Township worked at the house of a retired lieutenant colonel of the Myanmar Army in Yangons Mayangon Township for more than one year.

She is suing the lieutenant colonel and his family for allegedly abusing and torturing her. The court heard how she was sent back to her home in Mandalay after the wife of the lieutenant colonel forced another housemaid to knock six of her teeth out with a pestle.

I have had my four upper teeth and two lower teeth knocked out by another housemaid. The wife of the house owner asked her to hit me with a pestle. Her husband also kicked me in the face. I was also hit with pans in my back, and slapped as well, the girl told The Irrawaddy.

On discovering her injuries, the girls parents worked with human rights activists to file a complaint at Bayintnaung police station in Yangon in January.

On July 4, the girl returned to Yangon to testify against her former employers. Accompanied by her grandmother, she arrived at the Aung Mingalar Express Bus Terminal, and the pair spent the night at a nearby monastery.

When the grandmother woke up, the girl was missing. A man in his 20s had abducted her at knifepoint, said the girl, and held her for 20 days.

He threatened to kill me. He took me to a room in a house in Pale Township. I was raped. I can identify him, she told The Irrawaddy.

She managed to leave the house, she explained, and worked at a local eatery until she had enough money to return to Mandalay on July 25.

Lawyer U Robert San Aung of the Myanmar Lawyers Network said lieutenant colonel U Myint Htwe of Yangon Region Police Force would investigate the abduction and rape, adding that the network would cooperate with the police to find the rapist.

Bayintnaung police station has opened a case against the retired lieutenant colonel and his family for the torture of their former housemaid.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko
Burma Myanmar Asks WHO to Help Fight H1N1 Virus

A men wearing a mask to protect him against H1N1 influenza rides a bike in Yangon. / Thet Htun Naing / The Irrawaddy

NAYPYITAW  Myanmars government requested help from the World Health Organization (WHO) on Wednesday after the H1N1 influenza killed six out of 20 confirmed cases in the country, according to the Ministry of Health and Sports.

The ministry sent an official report to the WHO, outlining its needs to help control the virus, said deputy director general of the Public Health Department Dr. Than Tun Aung.

We asked WHO to provide medicatios as well as vaccines and funds for medical services if possible. We also asked for diagnostic tools and preventative things. They will give us these, and they wont neglect us, he told The Irrawaddy.

The deputy director general also said that the government would seek international assistance, including from the UN, China and the United States.

Union health minister Dr. Myint Htwe will hold a national level meeting on prevention and treatment of H1N1 influenza fluoften referred to as swine fluwith international medical experts and local and foreign physicians at the Nursing University in Yangon on Sunday in order to adopt short- and long-term plans.

Weve not yet decided whether or not to conduct vaccinations. The prevention rate of the vaccine is no more than 60 percent. And the government is short on its budget to buy and provide vaccines, said a health officer from Naypyitaw who asked for anonymity.

He said the meeting on Sunday would perhaps decide whether or not to conduct a vaccination campaign.

So far, 20 H1N1 cases have been confirmedeight in Yangon, one in Irrawaddy Regions Pyapon Township, one in Pegu Region, and 10 in Chin States Matupi Township.

Of them, five in Yangon and one in Matupi have died. Two children were admitted to Yankin Childrens Hospital in Yangon on Wednesday after being suspected of contracting H1N1.

One of them was H1N1 positive and another was suffering from H3N2 seasonal flu, according to the health ministry.

Countries in the region including China and the Philippines have enquired about the H1N1 outbreak in Myanmar, stated the ministry, adding that it is carrying out checks at airports, seaports, and border gates to ensure the virus does not spread outside the country.

Dr. Than Tun Aung said the health ministry is working its hardest to prevent the virus from growing into a public health emergency.

Whether the disease will become worrying depends on the people. If the people follow our instructions, it will have the least impact. But if they dont, it may spread more easily. If they go to crowded places like parties, they are more likely to contract the virus, he said.

The health ministry has also dispatched public response teams to places where H1N1 was discovered, and is keeping the hospital staff and patients under surveillance. It has also prepared to send the infected patients to a specialized hospital in Yangons North Okkalapa Township.

In case the patient dies, we prohibit those who had lived together with him or her from travelling. And we have to keep them under home medical surveillance. They also need to take care of themselves, said Dr. Than Tun Aung.

Translated from Burmese by Thet Ko Ko.
Burma New Chair for UN Fact-finding Mission

Marzuki Darusman, in his position as UN human rights investigator for North Korea, in Geneva, Switzerland in March, 2016. / Reuters

YANGON  The UN Human Rights Council has replaced the chairwoman of a team investigating allegations of killings and rape by Myanmars security forces, it said on Thursday, amid concerns over her perceived bias.

Indian Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaising was initially named to chair the fact-finding mission, which has a focus on the western state of Rakhine that is home to the stateless Rohingya Muslim minority.

Council president Joaquin Alexander Maza Martelli had decided to replace Jaising with Marzuki Darusman, a former attorney-general of Indonesia who has previously conducted rights investigations on North Korea, the council said in a statement from its headquarters in Geneva.

Jaising was appointed to lead the panel in May, after a resolution passed by the Human Rights Council in March calling for a team to be sent to look into the abuse claims.

The panels two other members, Harvard-trained Sri Lankan lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy and Australian consultant Christopher Dominic Sidoti, remain in place.

Myanmar has said it will refuse visas to the commissioners, arguing the mission would aggravate tension in Rakhine.

As in all such cases, the mission will make it a priority to reach out to and engage constructively with the government and other relevant interlocutors, the council said.

The Human Rights Council reiterates its hope that the government of Myanmar will grant the mission unfettered access to affected areas.

The statement did not give any reason for the change of personnel, but a UN official told Reuters Jaising agreed to step down after the council president raised concerns about public comments she made that could be seen as indicating bias.

The official requested anonymity, in the absence of authorization to speak to reporters.

The panel was formed after the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights said Myanmar security forces probably committed crimes against humanity, and possibly, ethnic cleansing of Rohingya civilians.

Rohingya militants killed nine border guards in October, sparking a response in which the army was accused of raping Rohingya women, shooting villagers on sight and burning down homes, sending an estimated 75,000 people fleeing to Bangladesh.

Many in Myanmar see the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, although about 1.1 million of them live in Rakhine and say their roots in the region go back generations.

Perceived Bias

The UN official and a human rights advocate familiar with discussions around the mission told Reuters that Jaisings comments had stirred concern among UN officials in Geneva that she would not be considered impartial.

After her appointment, Jaising was quoted by broadcaster Al Jazeera as saying the Rohingyas situation in Myanmar is especially deplorable because they face the risk of genocide.

If theres any perceived biasit undermines the credibility of the mission before it has started, said the UN official.

Jaising declined to comment when contacted by telephone on Thursday.

The panel will meet in Geneva in August, the statement said, and is expected to give a verbal update on its progress to the Human Rights Council in September before a final report in March.

Darusman is a veteran UN human rights investigator, having served as special rapporteur on human rights in North Korea and taken part in a landmark Commission of Inquiry on the North.

He also chaired a UN panel of experts on war crimes committed in the final months of Sri Lankas long civil war.
Burma News Analysis: Critical Shifts in Rakhine Politics

ANP chairperson Dr. Aye Maung (left) and ALD co-founder U Myo Kyaw (right). / Myo Min Soe / The Irrawaddy

YANGON  In early 2016, the Arakan National Party (ANP) expelled six senior members for opposing its party nominee for Rakhine States chief minister, but the dust seemed to have settled until the deputy speaker U Phoe Min died of gastric cancer on June 17.

The vacant position looked destined to be filled by the ANPwhich won 23 of the 47 state parliament seatsbut by exactly whom became the source of tense competition, resulting in party rifts and the dismissal of the victor.

Surprise Candidate

On July 13, the ANP steering committee listed criteria for possible candidates: a central executive committee (CEC) member with a reasonable level of education who was faithful to the party and would follow its policies.

Eventually, the contest dwindled from four hopefuls to the winner, U Aung Win of Myebon Township, who stood against the National League for Democracy (NLD) candidate U Boe Nwe of Munaung Township and, unexpectedly, ANP lawmaker U Mya Than.

U Mya Than told The Irrawaddy over the phone that independent regional minister for agriculture and livestock U Kyaw Lwin recommended him on the basis of his legal acumen and experience. He served as a director in the attorney generals office for decades before entering politics, and currently assists the state House Speaker U Kyaw Zan Hla on legal matters. Four lawmakers told The Irrawaddy they felt he was the most appropriate person for the position.

But U Mya Than was barred from contesting on behalf of his own party as he is not a CEC member. Regional minister U Kyaw Lwin surprised parliamentarians, too, as he endorsed a candidate from the party that fired him in early 2016, when he accepted the role of regional minister from the NLD. The sacking was reportedly in response to the NLD refusing to appoint an ANP member as chief minister.

U Mya Than told The Irrawaddy every lawmaker has the right to compete for a seat, adding that his party did not directly tell MPs to avoid the contest. With those convictions, he ran for deputy speaker.

Cracks Appear Between Lawmakers

Before July 17, the Rakhine parliament was comprised of nine NLD seats, three Union Solidarity and Development Party (USDP) seats, one independent seat, 12 seats reserved for the military, and 21 ANP seatsdown from 23 after the death of Phoe Min and the dismissal of U Kyaw Lwin. Naturally, the presumption was that U Mya Than would vote for himself.

On July 14, 45 votes were cast, with one legislator on leave, according to lawmakers. In a result that astounded many in the parliament, U Mya Than won with 19 votes, while ANP nominee U Aung Win got 17, NLD nominee U Boe Nwe got six, and three were invalida deliberate act of abstention, according to several lawmakers.

ANP secretary U Tun Aung Kyaw supposed some ANP legislators voted for U Mya Than.

It would not have happened if U Mya Than stepped aside from the contest, he said. We are now facing strong criticism from people saying we are a party of disharmony such a result is quite embarrassing.

U Tun Aung Kyaw conceded that some ballots from the USDP and NLD also favored U Mya Than. He considered that U Mya Than, whose son is a captain in the military, may have attracted votes from the entire bloc of army representatives.

Regional minister U Kyaw Lwin said some ANP lawmakers told him to nominate U Mya Than, who got four USDP and NLD votes, six from the military representatives, and nine ANP votes, according to a Facebook post from the minister. Sources inside the parliament supported the claim that ANP legislators voted against their partys candidate.

Other candidates also got army representatives secret votes. I dont want to write this down on Facebook, said U Kyaw Lwin.

Dismissal and Resignation

The ANP expelled U Mya Than on July 17, accusing him of violating party regulations and disrupting party unity, said U Tun Aung Kyaw. But the dismissal stirred arguments among the 30 CEC members, including 13 Union lawmakers in Naypyitaw.

Lower House ANP legislator U Pe Than of Myebon Township vented his disagreement with the dismissal on Facebook. Banishing U Mya Than, he wrote, was not in line with party principles, and chastised the party board for executing the decision without seeking the advice of its Union lawmakers. He said the party could have penalized U Mya Than in accordance with its code.

If similar cases happen in the future, it could be lead to a big problem, he said.

Adding to the turmoil, Upper House ANP lawmaker Daw Htoot May posted her resignation letter on Facebook on July 24, admitting she had become unsatisfied with ANP policies.

She has since joined the Arakan League for Democracy (ALD), a party that disbanded before the 2015 election to help form the ANP and now aims to battle against it in the 2020 election.

Observers from the Rakhine community, including Thailand-based political analyst U Wong Aung are predicting that the ANP will have problems in the 2020 general election if it cannot resolve its current infighting.

Driving out party members based on emotion is deeply concerning, said U Wong Aung.

With the election in mind, the Union Election Commission (UEC) officially recognized the ALD as a political party on July 18. The ANP argued to the UEC that the ALD flag and logo were too similar to their own and could confuse voters, but their objection was rejected.

Return of the ALD

The ALD and Rakhine Nationalities Development Party (RNDP) merged into the ANP in order to prevent vote splitting in the 2015 electiona gambit that paid off, as it won 45 out of 77 seats it contested. But the new incarnation strained after the formation of its CEC.

To the chagrin of some of its members, the ANP released a statement in January 2016 refusing to join any government organization but to stand as an opposition party for the interests of Arakan people after the NLD chose one of its own for the state minister post. Six former ALD members were then expelled for holding a press conference protesting the announcement.

Soon after, the ANP released a second statement warning that any of its MPs-elect who accepted an offer from another party to serve in a ministerial post or other leadership position without informing the party would be expelled.

In September 2016, former ALD members announced they were leaving the ANP and the merger dissolved.

Prominent ALD member U Myo Kyaw said the purpose of his partys reemergence is to restore the pride of the Arakanese within the region and before the international community because, he said, the current actions of the ANP are shaping the Arakanese people into a villain on the international stage.

We just want to prevent Rakhine from going into the wrong political direction, he said. For example, there were a lot of protests instead of seeking options to solve the problems [in the state]. Eventually, the international community thought of us as barbaric.

U Myo Kyaw explained that his party is focused on achieving a democratic federal Union, regional stability, security in border affairs, collaboration with the NLD, resource sharing with the Union government, and gaining a reasonable percentage of youth representatives in the executive committee of the party.

We are rich in resources and sell exports everyday but we have no idea how much income we get daily, said U Myo Kyaw, referring to the Union governments control of the regional budget.

Tougher Than 2015

The ANP will not repeat its 2015 electoral success in 2020, especially in southern Rakhine, according to Kyaukphyu Rural Development Association (KRDA)s coordinator U Tun Kyi.

The ALD has a strong foothold in the southern townships of Myebon and Ramree, he said, and its headquarters is based in the northern township of Kyauktaw. Other seats such as Thandwe, Taungup and Gwa are strong constituencies of the NLD, he added.

U Myo Kyaw said it was premature to reveal his partys strategy, but he did suggest it would target its strongest areas.

ANP lawmaker U Pe Than forecasted vote splitting for the 2020 election, expressing concerns that even the NLD could possibly steal some seats in prominent ANP constituencies.

But U Tun Aung Kyaw, the ANP secretary, was confident for his party, saying that as an established party, it would echo the NLDs robust performance in 2015, when it won many Union and regional seats.

The 2020 election will be a tug of war between maturity and political enthusiasm, said U Wong Aung. His statement reflects a common battle among Arakanese voters between that of nationalism against a more flexible, liberal approach.

KRDA coordinator U Tun Kyi said the young, educated Arakanese of today would see how the opposing policies of the ANP would turn out over the decade. He added that many voters do not comprehend ANPs policies but balloted for the party on nationalist sentiments.

ANP can win, but it will be tougher than the 2015 election in the southern constituencies, he said.

U Wong Aung believes the ANP should make reforms during the coming party conference, including the development of precise policies and the involvement of the younger generation in leadership roles. He added that if the party drags its feet, it would face greater challenges.
Burma Press Council Says Military Will Not Pressure Judge in Detained Journalists Case

Detained journalists talk to the media outside the Hsipaw courthouse on July 18. / DVB

YANGON  The Myanmar Army affirmed that it would not put pressure on judges handling the case of three journalists detained in Shan State and facing charges under the Unlawful Associations Act, according to a Myanmar Press Council member who met with military personnel on Thursday.

Myanmar Journalism Institutes Executive Director, U Thiha Sawwho is also a member of the Myanmar Press Council, the body tasked with negotiating with the authoritiesdescribed his discussions with army officials to The Irrawaddy.

What they told me is, the army has specifically learned that the case was not carried out aggressively. At the moment, the cases are already handled by the courts and the police. So, the army will not pressure or weigh in on the judiciarys role. The judiciary will decide on what they think is justifiable, regarding the case, he said.

U Thiha Saw said the army typically opens a court case if they feel that an individuals conduct violates the existing laws, and therefore, they [the army] will not drop the charges against the three journalists.

The Irrawaddys Lawi Weng, also known as U Thein Zaw, and U Aye Nai and Pyae Bone Aung from the Democratic Voice of Burma, were arrested on June 26 in Namhsan Township on their way back from covering a drug-burning ceremony held by the ethnic armed group the Taang National Liberation Army (TNLA) to mark the United Nations International Day Against Drug Abuse.

The trioand three men who drove them through the TNLA areawere charged under Article 17(1) of the colonial-era Unlawful Associations Act for contacting the TNLA and were placed in detention in Hsipaw prison.

Free speech advocates, press members and rights groups have denounced the move by the military and cited it as a threat to press freedom and an attempt to intimidate journalists for doing their jobs.

On Thursday, one day before the reporters court hearing was scheduled to take place at the Hsipaw Township Court in northern Shan State, Amnesty International called for the immediate release of the three journalists.

In the statement, Amnesty International accused the Myanmar authorities of using a slew of draconian laws to intimidate, harass, arrest and imprison critics and media workers, for years.

This is a clear attempt by the authorities to intimidate journalists and silence their critical coverage, the statement said. It is exactly in northern Shan State and the other ethnic areas wracked by conflict, where appalling human rights abuses are rife, that independent journalism is needed the most, it added.

James Gomez, Amnesty Internationals Director for Southeast Asia and the Pacific said that the current authorities have been using the same patterns of repression for which Myanmar was notorious in the past, and that many hoped the days of repressive legal barriers to silence criticism had ended.

The farcical charges against these journalists must be dropped immediately, Gomez said in the statement. They have done nothing but carry out their work peacefully.

Htet Naing Zaw contributed to this report from Naypyidaw.
Apple has been ordered to pay US$506 million to the University of Wisconsin-Madison's patent licensing arm for patent infringements for its A7, A8 and A8X processors used in relevant iPhone, iPad Mini, and iPad Air models.

It has been a two-year suit where Apple continually maintained its innocence and claimed that it had its own patent for the technology in question. But it has continued to use the technology in its A9 and A9X chips, which are also subject to a separate lawsuit that is still under consideration.

The initial findings brought down in October 2015 ordered it to pay US$234 million, but Apple appealed and lost again only to be hit with the additional punishment for Apples continual infringement of the patent following the 2015 ruling, said district judge William Conley.

Of course, Apple will appeal this ruling too and the next level is US$862.4 million in damages.

The patent dates to 1996 and is owned by Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF).

WARF believes Apple has incorporated WARF technology's '752 LSD Predictor patent into the A series of processors (up to V9) to achieve enhanced speed, efficiency and performance in its products.

In simple English, the technology makes the chips go faster and the two court rulings have found Apple in breach. Interestingly, the patent pre-dates Apples first iPhone in June 2007 and the penalty is seen as fairly insignificant for the worlds largest tech company.

Apple apparently owns more than 20,000 current patents with a further 10,000 pending. In the US it is rated at number 11 in terms of patents held  IBM, Samsung, Canon, Qualcomm, Google, Intel, LG, Microsoft, TSMC and Sony have more, but it should be noted that Apples patents are for a relatively limited number of product lines.

But in any case, Apple has a policy of fighting any and all actions against it. Apple has stated that, It is the policy of the company not to accept or consider proposals regarding licensing from outside entities for any purpose, making the initiation of this lawsuit a necessity".
The openSUSE community GNU/Linux project has released version 42.3 of its distribution which is known as Leap, aligning it more closely with SUSE Linux Enterprise (SLE) 12 Service Pack 3, the distribution for businesses.

openSUSE is supported by SUSE Linux, the Germany-based Linux pioneer, but has its own board and governance structure. The project also puts out Tumbleweed, a rolling distribution which contains the very latest software backed by a comprehensive quality assurance initiative.

Leap 42.3 uses the long-term support version of KDE (5.8) as its default desktop environment and also includes GNOME 3.20, which comes with the enterprise version.

However it is also well-suited for servers with a fully-featured text-mode installer that has all the features of the graphical install tool YaST.

Use of the back-up solution Borg has been made easier with a wrapper known as Borgmatic that makes automatic back-up a service under the init system systemd.

Sambas System Security Services Daemon has been integrated with Active Directory.

Users who want an "Exchange-like" service can use the latest version of the Kopano collaboration platform, which includes support for Thunderbird, Outlook and mobile mail clients.

Leap 42.3 also provides tools, languages and libraries for software development and engineering with enterprise-ready versions of Python, Ruby, Perl, Go, Rust, Haskell and PHP all available.

The release has more than 10,000 packages and offers stability-minded users a refresh and hardware enablement release and is powered by the same Linux 4.4 long-term support kernel found in version 42.2.

openSUSE Leap release manager Ludwig Nussel said of the release: By avoiding major version updates in the base system as well as the desktops, the upgrade to Leap 42.3 is a rather unadventurous matter.

Richard Brown, chair main of the openSUSE project said: "Leap 42.3 is the culmination of several years of effort integrating SUSE's Enterprise codebase with the exceptional high-quality work of the

openSUSE community. I'm exceptionally proud of what the openSUSE Project has achieved with Leap 42.3 and hope our users appreciate this stable, yet innovative, approach to community Linux, which can really be relied upon to work."

open SUSE spokesman Douglas DeMaio said: "openSUSE proves how community and enterprise distributions can find mutual benefits together. openSUSE Leap 42.3 is even more closely aligned with SUSE Linux Enterprise and offers a replica of an enterprise distribution with thousands of additional community packages; this has helped propel community innovation to be adapted at the enterprise level; Package Hub is a prime example for how Leap has empowered the community to advance utilisation of their projects.

"A lot of credit goes toward the contributions of the open-source community. A total of 10,000 packages makes Leap 42.3 a colossal Linux distribution for all types of users.
The new website will be built using the open source content management system Drupal 8. A customised version of Drupal, dubbed govCMS, has been used to build about 450 Australian Government sites.

Drupal expert partner Technocrat will provide technical delivery of the BAC site.

The project will be implemented in two phases with the first being one that will provide an interface for people to check flights, retail, dining and other airport facilities.

A second phase will target partner and investor audiences and focus on improved navigation and communications.

An aerial view of Brisbane airport. Courtesy: Brisbane Airport Corporation.

BAC head of ICT and Business Solutions Mansoor Karatela said the new website would provide travellers with improved communications and simplified processes.

"The enhanced offering is part of a phased digital rollout that continues to build upon digital innovation and our on-going commitment to deliver great customer experience at Brisbane Airport," he said.



Technocrat chief executive Anand Vasan said: Brisbane Airport is already Australasias leading airport for service and quality, but were always looking for ways to further improve the passenger experience and this project will replicate online the sophisticated and multi-award winning experience we already offer in our terminals.

From speed, to innovation and the million strong community, Drupal 8 represents the future for the best digital customer experience. It absolutely supports the vision that BAC has for its online and offline presence, and our team is looking forward to working with BAC in this high profile project.



Acquia general manager of Asia Pacific and Japan Graham Sowden said the company shares BACs vision for going places.

"(We) are proud to enable the digital version of what it will become  a truly global-standard airport in Queensland. Indeed, we are delighted to deliver an exceptional experience for the first point of the customer journey, he said.
Presumably foreshadowing an official launch of the Amazon Echo in this part of the world, Amazon is looking to hire a linguist with an Australian background and excellent proficiency in Australian English.

That's probably a good idea, because Google Home  the equivalent product from the Alphabet company  already knows Australian English, so Amazon would start from a bad position if it started selling Echo here without a similar capability.

Amazon Echo uses the company's Alexa voice technology.

According to the job ad, "This role focuses on speech and language data, primarily in the areas of transcription, text annotation, and general data analysis deliverables."

There's a lot of HR-speak in the ad: "deliverables," "data customers," "passion," "proactive" and so on. And what's with using the vague term "associate" if you really mean "employee" or "the successful candidate"?

In addition to being a linguist, applicants must have worked as a transcriber or annotator, preferably using the X-SAMPA system for phonemic transcription.

The job is based in the Boston area. You could be forgiven for thinking it would make more sense to use someone living in Australia and therefore in close touch with changes in the way we speak

Amazon currently has offices in Boston's Back Bay district, as well as in the Kendall Square area of neighbouring Cambridge. The company recently announced that its new offices in the Fort Point neighbourhood  expected to open next northern spring  will be occupied partly by employees working on voice technology.
Kogan is moving further away from its primary roots as a discount online electronics retailer with the launch of a new business selling insurance policies under a partnership with global insurer The Hollard Insurance Group.

The initial three-year agreement with Hollard's Australian arm allows Kogan.com to market a range of insurance offerings under a new brand  Kogan Insurance.

The Hollard Group is a privately owned insurance company headquartered in South Africa that operates under two insurance licences  short term and life. According to a footnote in Kogan's statement on the deal, the Hollard Insurance Company is a "leading A-rated Australian insurer, with over one million policy holders".

Under the agreement, Kogan will initially offer home, contents, landlord, car and travel insurance, with Hollard underwriting the insurance and Kogan.com earning commissions on sales of all policies.

Announcement of the move into insurance by Kogan, with policies to be offered for the first time sometime before the end of this year, follows hard on the heels of the recent announcement of the planned launch of a competitive NBN offering in partnership with Vodafone in 2018.

According to David Shafer, executive director of Kogan.com, its brand is synonymous with value for money and the company has demonstrated success in its portfolio of businesses, including Kogan Mobile and Kogan Travel.

Shafer says the alliance with Hollard was another opportunity to delight Kogans large and growing customer-base by offering more competition on services used by almost all Aussie households.

The Kogan Community continues to grow, with one in every six Australians subscribing to our offers. We're excited about bringing great value insurance offerings to our loyal members. We will continue to look for opportunities to deliver more value to our customers in our existing portfolio of businesses, and in new businesses.

We understand that buying insurance may not be exciting or glamorous  it's simply about ensuring that youre covered when something unfortunate happens. We know that Aussies want a way to get premium insurance coverage on a budget, so they can sleep well at night knowing that they're protected without paying more than they must. That's why we've partnered with a trusted global insurance leader to bring Aussie consumers premium protection without the premium pricetag.

We are excited to partner with Hollard to launch Kogan Insurance. Hollard operates at the cutting edge of insurance services - insuring close to $100 bilion of assets with over one million policy holders, and is part of a global financial services group that operates across 20 countries.

Hollard chief executive Richard Enthoven said that Kogan and Hollard share values of innovation and entrepreneurship  the launch of Kogan Insurance represents a great opportunity to deliver more value to Kogan customers.

Kogan Insurance is expecting to launch its insurance offering to the Kogan.com Community in 2017."
New Zealands largest telco Spark has completed an upgrade to the Nelson-Levin inter-island cable link across the Cook Strait which it says provides improved resiliency.

The Nelson-to-Levin link is one of New Zealands three marine cables carrying data traffic between the North and South Islands; two of the cables are part of Sparks Network.

The link between Levin and Nelson, installed by Spark in 2001, is 237 km and includes a 212 km submarine section from Nelsons Cable Bay to Hokio Beach in Levin  and Cable Bay was the landing site of New Zealands very first international telegraph cable to Sydney, built in 1876.

Spark general manager Technology Infrastructure Campbell Fraser says the upgrade involved installing the latest optical transport technology at the landing point in Nelsons Cable Bay and means that traffic can now be re-routed to the cable in the event that one or both of the other inter-island cables fail  securing critical connectivity between the two islands.

According to Fraser, the upgrade offers connectivity benefits to New Zealand.

The completion of this upgrade improves the resiliency of our network particularly between the North and South Islands, as the Nelson-to-Levin cable is shallow buried rather than laid on the surface of the sea floor, and is away from known fault lines. In emergency situations it gives us more options for routing traffic and keeping people connected.
An academic who was closely associated with the NBN project at its outset claims that the original fibre-to-the-premises proposal would have stimulated "an active competitive retail marketplace that would have forced RSPs to purchase adequate CVC".

Rod Tucker, Laureate Emeritus Professor at the University of Melbourne and a member of Labor's Expert Panel that advised on the NBN, told iTWire that because of the problems and limitations with fibre-to-the-node technology, that competitive retail market has been destroyed.

An opposing view came from Robin Eckermann, adjunct professor at the Canberra University, who said the proposition did not withstand scrutiny.

Prof Eckermann told iTWire that the pressure to keep the cost of the NBN off the budget books by "clinging to the illusion that it will be a profitable investment has created a massive problem that will sooner or later have to be addressed".

The original Labor plan, which was put in place in 2009, envisioned rolling out FttP to 93% of premises, with the remainder to be served by wireless or satellite. Four years later, when a Coalition Government was elected, the plan was changed with FttN becoming the option for a majority of premises and HFC cable also added to the mix. Later, FttK has been adopted for some residences.

Prof Tucker said the NBN Co had attempted to sidestep the problem of slow speeds on the FttN network by arguing that customers should ask retail service providers about the kind of service they should expect and choose a provider accordingly.

A technician working on an FttN cabinet. Courtesy: NBN Co.

"But how can the average retail customer be expected to know what questions to ask?" he asked. "And even if the RSP has technically-proficient people on their help desks, who can expect the general public understand this level of technical detail?"

A review of the wholesale pricing model was unlikely to find who was to blame for customers' woes, he said, adding that a lowering of the CVC price could encourage RSPs to buy more access bandwidth.

But Prof Tucker (left) advised caution on this front. "In an apparent attempt to ease the situation NBN Co has announced a review of their wholesale pricing model and has signalled the possibly enforcing minimum service standards on RSPs for various services provided to retail customers," he said. "It is not clear how tweaking the wholesale pricing model will resolve the issue of who is to blame, although a further reduction in the CVC charge might encourage RSPs to buy more access bandwidth.

"And while very few details have been released by NBN Co, great caution needs to be exercised about such a move. It could cause many more problems than it solves. It would be a substantial mission creep for NBN Co to be intervening between RSPs and customers over service standards."

Had the NBN Co been rolling out a predominantly FttP network, then the question of bandwidth would not arise and any shortfall would be easily identifiable as the fault of the RSP. And any RSPs who were found lacking, would have been forced out of the market by "good old-fashioned retail competition forces".

"This concept of an active and competitive retail market place was built into the planning of Labors original FttP network," Prof Tucker said. "In those original plans it was correctly assumed that a competitive retail marketplace would resolve bandwidth shortfall issues, and customers would churn to those RSPs with good reputations for delivering the bandwidth they promise."

But he said, unfortunately NBN Co was rolling out a slower-speed FttN network. "And in this FttN network, it is not clear whether shortcomings in bandwidth are due to the RSP or the FttN connection. Unfortunately, the performance of FttN depends on a number of factors, including the distance between the node and the customer, the quality of the copper, rainwater in cables (etc)."

Prof Tucker said NBN Co needed to devise a method to invigorate real retail competition, which he said was more important that tweaking the CVC charges.

Prof Eckermann said the original Labor plan was based on "an unrealistic budget" of $43 billion. This was later cut to "an even less realistic $37.4 billion - with an expectation of a 7.1% return.

"As someone still wearing the scars of the biggest advanced broadband rollout prior to the NBN, I can assure you that neither the capital cost nor the expectation of a 7.1% return were realistic," he said.

"However, these assumptions set the scene for the pricing structures we see today. Of course, it would be nice to see FttP and FttK (aka FttDP) maximised  but the mixture of delivery technologies (satellite, fixed wireless, FttN, FttK, HFC and FttP) isn't at the heart of the problem. Rather, the pressure to keep the NBN "off the books" by clinging to the illusion that it will be a profitable investment has created a massive problem that will sooner or later have to be addressed."

Prof Eckermann, who led the development of TransACT through its incubation phase, said it was an unfortunate reality that fixed broadband costs were becoming increasingly unaffordable for many Australians - and CVC pricing was one contributing factor.

"The TransACT experience highlighted the lesson that at least 80% of Australians are driven by their hip pocket nerve, choosing the lowest cost service that meets their needs - and today, the majority of consumer needs are quite happily met with a 'last mile' connection speed of 25 Mbps (which can be delivered by any of the access network technologies)," he pointed out.

"They would all welcome faster connection speeds, but turbo-charging the few kilometres that the NBN provides is academic if either the costs go up substantially, or the end-to-end performance experience isn't significantly and consistently improved."

He said he was not ducking away from the fact that CVC pricing was constraining the potential of the NBN to achieve its full transformative potential.

"In a competitive world, RSPs have to manage costs very carefully in order to create offerings that the public would buy while still leaving them a profit margin," he said. "At current CVC pricing, this dictates operating at contention ratios that regularly impact on the customer's end-to-end performance experience (irrespective of the technology)."

But Prof Eckermann (right) hastened to add that CVC pricing was not the only constraint. "For example, competition is weak on some backhaul routes connecting NBN points of presence to major centres (such as between the mainland and Tasmania) and there can be many other bottlenecks between a user and the destinations they visit."

He said he would like to see the debate shift away from a singular ideological or political focus on access technology and address much broader questions.

Some of these questions were:

"Should the NBN continue to be viewed as an aspiring profit-making business, or rather as a publicly subsidised asset used for national advantage?

"With the dramatic shift towards mobile connectivity, has Australia got the right balance between the billions it is pouring into the NBN and the comparatively small investment it is making to improve mobile coverage?

"Are appropriate efforts being made to promote vital change in every sector (health, education, transport, agriculture etc) in order to exploit the opportunities being unlocked by improved fixed and mobile communications?

"Are current efforts to shield the NBN from free market competition with levies etc in the long-term interests of users, or a recipe for creating a new, ugly monopoly?

"Is it sensible for the NBN to be wasting time and money overbuilding advanced broadband infrastructure owned by third parties when so many areas continue to languish with truly sub-standard broadband (often less than 5 Mbps)? And so on."

Prof Eckermann said that was not the extent of the issues that needed to be examined.

"On the more narrow access technology front, it would be good to see a stronger evidence base being assembled to address the relevant questions," he said. "For example, how will average need-for-speed grow over time? Rather than an average speed being delivered over copper (biased by fibre-to-the-building and VDSL2 technology), what is the average speed achieved over distance, and what proportion of premises lie at each point on this curve? What proportion of FttN-connected premises can be expected to find themselves constrained by speed limitations as needs grow? What developments can be anticipated on the xDSL technology front to boost speeds without recabling? What are the realistic costs of upgrading FttN to FttK or FttP?"

He ended on a gloomy note, saying that if a broader perspective was not adopted, then "I predict a growing number of Australians will conclude that they cannot afford both fixed and mobile broadband, and if one of them has to go, it's likely to be the fixed broadband because of its inferior utility for everything except video-streaming".

"This would see the cost recovery burden falling on a diminishing number of connected users, and exacerbate the financial crunch that is looming."
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TeleSur |  

Arab nation is said to be on the brink of famine after almost 2 years of war and disease.

In Yemen, the worlds worst cholera outbreak is unfolding amid the largest global humanitarian crisis, crippling health, water and sanitation facilities.

Three United Nations agencies say the conditions are now ideal for more diseases to spread.

The country is on the brink of famine, with over 60 per cent of the population not knowing where their next meal will come from, according to the UN Childrens Fund, the World Food Programme and the World Health Organization.

At the end of a joint visit to the crisis-torn nation, the agencies chiefs issued a warning that almost two million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, and malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera; diseases create more malnutrition a vicious combination.

They said they had witnessed the scale of the humanitarian crisis, observing that over the last three months, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded.

At one hospital, we visited children who can barely gather the strength to breathe. We spoke with families overcome with sorrow for their ill loved ones and struggling to feed their families, they added.

And they also saw how vital infrastructure, such as health and water facilities, have been damaged or destroyed.

A Saudi-led multinational coalition, backed by the U.S. and U.K., launched a military campaign in support of the Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi in March 2015 after he was ousted by Houthi rebels.

Since then, the fighting has left at least 8,050 people dead and 45,100 others injured.

Despite the risk of disease and the ongoing conflict, some 16,000 volunteers go from house to house, educating families on how to protect themselves from diarrhoea and cholera while doctors, nurses and other health staff work around the clock to save lives.

Many of the 30,000 health workers have not been paid for 10 months but they continue to help others.

While the UN officials also offered hope  noting that more than 99 per cent of cholera-infected people with access to health services are surviving and the number of children afflicted with severe acute malnutrition this year was estimated to be 385,000  they maintained that as thousands fall sick every day, the situation remains dire.

They flagged that nearly 80 per cent of Yemens children need immediate humanitarian assistance, underlining the importance of sustained efforts to stop the spread of disease.

Drawing attention to their meeting with Yemeni leaders in Aden and Sanaa, the UN officials pressed for humanitarian access to fighting-affected areas and urged all sides to work towards a peaceful political solution.

Via TeleSur



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Inside Yemen (full film) | FRONTLINE
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By Juan Cole | (Informed Comment) |  

Trump has his Twitter. Apparently far right wing Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu has his Facebook. In a Facebook posting, Netanyahu vowed to close the Jerusalem office of the Qatar-backed Al Jazeera satellite news station. Failing that, he said, he would introduce legislation to ban Al Jazeera in Israel (presumably Israel/ Palestine, since Israel keeps 4.5 million Palestinians under siege or direct military rule).

Netanyahu accuses Al Jazeera of incitement, which in the right wing Israeli lexicon means reporting news about how the Israelis are militarily occupying and gradually expropriating the Palestinians.

Netanyahu is widely seen to be blaming Al Jazeera for his own poor judgment, inasmuch has he put metal detectors in the al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, provoking demonstrations in Jerusalem and Jordan. Netanyahu was forced into a humiliating retreat, and the Israeli public thinks he should have had better sense in the first place.

Al Jazeera itself reported on this story, writing that Netanyahu held a cabinet meeting with high Israeli intelligence and security heads on June 12 to discuss shuttering Al Jazeeras Jerusalem office. The channel alleged that Netanyahu wanted to take advantage of the closing of Al Jazeera in Saudi Arabia and some other Gulf countries, as part of their campaign against Qatar for its support of the Muslim Brotherhood and for various forms of political openness and free discussion.

It alleged that Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Al Jazeera not only of instigation but also of being Nazis. Lieberman, a former club bouncer from Moldova, once spoke of how it would be possible for Israel to blow up Egypts Aswan Dam and wash 90 million Egyptians into the Mediterranean, so I dont think he is exactly James Madison. Likewise Al Jazeera says that in June, far far right Israelis demonstrated against the channel, demanding it be closed in Israel just as it was being closed in Saudi Arabia.

The right wing of hard line Jewish nationalism (such as the Likud Party from which Neanyahu springs) has no respect whatsoever for freedom of speech or the free flow of information which is why an Israel under a Lukud government is not actually fully a democracy (there is military censorship and there is no freedom at all in the Occupied territories that comprise about 1/3 of the population ruled by the Israeli government).

In fact, theyre trying as hard as they can to have Congress get rid of the US First Amendment and make it a felony to criticize them and advocate boycotting them in the United States.

Al Jazeera has been banned from lots of countries. It deals with that problem by phoning interviewees in those countries. Unless Netanyahu wants to make phone calls illegal, too, he cant stop Al Jazeera putting critical voices on the air.

Not sure it is a good look for Netanyahu to ape Saudi Arabias media and foreign policies.

Or for his agents in AIPAC on the Hill to try to turn America into Saudi Arabia, either.

-

Related video:

TYT: Will Senate Amend Law Criminalizing Israel Boycotters?
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By H. Patricia Hynes | (Informed Comment) |  

Against all odds, 122 countries agreed on July 7 to ban nuclear weapons. At the heart of the United Nations treaty is an explicit ethical goal: to protect peoples of the world from the humanitarian catastrophe that would ensue if nuclear weapons were employed. Once 50 states ratify the treaty, it will enter into international law.

The United States lobbied hardest against this treaty, contending that these weapons of mass destruction keep us secure. Despite this morbid logic, we learned recently that our governments leaders have a set of fortified sites constructed to save themselves in the event of nuclear catastrophe while the rest of us fend for ourselves. (See Garrett Graffs book, Raven Rock: The Story of the Governments Secret Plan to Save itself While the Rest of US Die).

But the US leaders who would know best about weapons and national securitygenerals and weapons scientistshave had a different take on the security and morality of nuclear weapons, from their first use in 1945 through today. American leaders from all branches of the armed forces, among them Generals Eisenhower, Arnold, Marshall and MacArthur; and Admirals Leahy, Nimitz, and Halsey strongly dissented from the decision to use the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki for both military and moral reasons. Japan was already defeated and in peace negotiations with the Soviet Union; surrender was imminent. Bombing dense human settlements was barbarous and would shock world opinion; and a demonstration bombing away from residential areas (also suggested by many atomic bomb scientists) could be used instead to force immediate surrender.

The top military commanders concurred that the decision to use the atomic bomb was political, not military. The US wanted to demonstrate the new atomic weapon that only we possessed to intimidate the Soviet Union. The opposite happened: an arms race between the US and Soviet Union ensued. Today seven other countries also possess nuclear weapons (Britain, France, China, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea), with the ever-present specter of their use, an accident, or their theft by terrorists. (Two countries, South Africa and Iran have relinquished their programs and signed the new nuclear weapons ban treaty).

On February 2, 1998 retired General George Butler, former Commander of US Strategic Air Command statement spoke to the National Press Club: The likely consequences of nuclear weapons have no politically, militarily, or morally acceptable justificationThe unbounded wantonness of their effectstranscend time and space, poisoning the earth and deforming its inhabitants for generation after generation. Theyexpunge all hope for meaningful survival. They hold in their sway not just the fate of nations but the very meaning of civilization. He joined 60 other retired generals and admirals calling for nuclear weapons abolition.

At their fortieth anniversary reunion in Los Alamos, New Mexico, 70 of 110 physicists who had worked on the atomic bomb signed a statement in support of nuclear disarmament.

A word about Korea, given the nuclear tensions between that country and the US. In 2013, former President and Korean War veteran Jimmy Carter spoke at Lafayette College about the US policy towards North Korea. He traced the current crisis to the Bush administrations repeal of a 1994 agreement with North Korea that assured North Korea would not develop nuclear weapons in exchange for energy and economic aid.

In the early 1990s, Carter was asked by the North Korean leader Kim II Sung to come to North Korea because, he said, no one in the US government would talk to the North Koreans. After persuading the adverse Clinton administration for permission, he met with Kim II Sung who expressed the desire for a peace treaty with the United States and to have the economic embargo lifted against his country. The result of their talks was a successful diplomatic agreement that ended the Korean nuclear weapons program in exchange for lifting an economic embargo and allowing Americans to search for the remains of Korean War veterans.

The Bush administration dismantled that agreement and included North Korea in the Axis of Evil countries, making it an explicit target of regime change. North Korea responded by re-starting a nuclear weapons program, weapons testing and chest-beating war rhetoric. The Obama administration (and, in lockstep, the Trump administration) ratcheted up war games with South Korea, including a simulated nuclear attack on North Korea. Thus, a small, poor country wasted by its own militarization and the worlds militarized superpower are locked in an asymmetric nuclear standoff.

Carter concluded his address at Lafayette College: Ive been there two or three times since the 1994 agreement, and I can tell you what the North Koreans want is a peace treaty with the United States and they want the 60-year economic embargo lifted against their people, so they can have an equal chance to trade and commerce. Its a very paranoid country. They are honestly convinced that the United States wants to attack them and destroy their country, to eliminate the Communist regime. They make a lot of mistakes, but if the United States would just talk to the North KoreansI believewe could have peace, and the United States would be a lot better off in the long run.

Pat Hynes, a retired environmental engineer and Professor of Environmental Health, directs the Traprock Center for Peace and Justice in western Massachusetts .



Related video added by Juan Cole:

Al Jazeera English: The Stream  Will a nuclear weapons ban make the world safer?
Abidjan, July 27, 2017 - Endeavour Mining (TSX:EDV) (OTCQX:EDVMF) is pleased to announce that its exploration program at its Ity CIL Project, in Cote d'Ivoire, has increased the Indicated Resource by 1.0 million ounces since the beginning of the year, to reach 3.8 million ounces.

As illustrated in Table 1, this marks a 1.5 million ounce increase in the Indicated Resource base since the publication of the November 2016 Feasibility Study ("FS"), representing a 65% increase. An updated reserve estimate is expected to be published in September as part of an Optimization Study ("OS") which is expected to be based on a circa 4.0Mtpa gravity circuit/Carbon-In-Leach ("CIL") plant, an increase from the previously contemplated 3.0Mtpa plant, to better capture the value created from recent exploration success.

Table 1: Summarized Resource Evolution Following Publication of 2016 CIL Feasibility Study

(On a 100% basis) 2017 OPTIMIZATION STUDY INVENTORY YEAR-END 2016

INVENTORY 2016 FEASIBILITY

STUDY INVENTORY VARIANCE

(OS VS. FS) P&P Reserves (only CIL) update in progress 1.9 Moz 1.9 Moz n/a M&I Resources

(inclusive of Reserves) 3.8 Moz 2.8 Moz 2.3 Moz +1.5 Moz Inferred Resources 0.8 Moz 1.4 Moz 1.3 Moz (0.5 Moz)

Reserves shown exclude the Heap Leach operation Reserves. Resource estimated to the Indicated status, as such no Measured Resources available. Mineral Reserve estimates follow the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") definitions standards for mineral resources and reserves and have been completed in accordance with the Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Notes for the 2017 Optimization Study Inventory Mineral Resource estimate are provided in Section "About the Mineral Resources" of this Press Release, with effective date May 31, 2017. Full details on the Year-End 2016 Inventory and the 2016 Feasibility Study Inventory are available in the Company's published press releases dated respectively March 7, 2017 and November 10, 2016.

Patrick Bouisset, Executive Vice-President Exploration and Growth at Endeavour, said: "Our exploration team has done exceptional work over the past months which has led to a significant increase in the resource base at Ity ahead of the Optimization Study. These results and the numerous other identified targets, on which initial drilling reconnaissance is currently being conducted, further demonstrate the prospective nature of the greater Ity area and our confidence in delivering against our 5-year exploration strategy disclosed last November. We believe that the 80km Ity corridor which we control is among the most prospective areas in West Africa and we look forward to building on our exploration success."

Sebastien de Montessus, President & CEO, stated: "Under Patrick's leadership, Ity has been transformed from a 20-year operation nearing the end of its life into an asset that now has the potential to be one of our flagship operations. Our ability to quickly grow the Indicated Resource demonstrates the robustness of Ity, as well as the quality of our exploration team. We now look forward to announcing the results of the Optimisation Study and making a formal investment decision in September, following which we will transition the construction team from Hounde to Ity later this year."

EXPLORATION EFFORTS

Ahead of the Optimization Study, exploration efforts since the beginning of the year have been mainly directed at increasing Indicated Resources on known deposits through in-fill, delineation, and extension drilling, with up to eight rigs deployed. As shown in Figure 1 below, more than 31,000 meters of diamond drilling were conducted, with efforts mainly focused on Daapleu, Bakatouo, Verse Ouest, Colline Sud and Mont Ity/Ity Flat deposits.

In parallel, initial drilling also took place on several other exploration targets in the vicinity of the Ity mine and the Le Plaque discovery, which was announced earlier this year. This exploration program will be pursued during the second half of 2017, following the integration of pending analysis results.

Figure 1: Ity Mining Complex H1-2017 Exploration Drilling Focus





Compared to the resource inventory used to build the 2016 Feasibility Study, a total of 1.5Moz of Indicated Resources were added, with the main increases coming from the discovery of Bakatouo (+704koz), and additional Indicated resources outlined at Daapleu (+384koz), Mont Ity / Flat (+189koz), and Verse Ouest (+187koz), as shown Table 2 below.

Table 2: Resource Evolution Following Publication of 2016 CIL Feasibility Study

2017 OPTIMIZATION STUDY INVENTORY 2016 FEASIBILITY STUDY INVENTORY Deposits

on a 100% basis Indicated Resources Inferred Resources Indicated Resources Inferred Resources Tonnage

(Mt) Grade

(Au g/t) Content

(Au koz) Tonnage

(Mt) Grade

(Au g/t) Content

(Au koz) Tonnage

(Mt) Grade

(Au g/t) Content

(Au koz) Tonnage

(Mt) Grade

(Au g/t) Content

(Au koz) Open Pits Daapleu 28.1 1.50 1,349 0.7 0.92 22 19.9 1.51 965 4.3 1.15 160 Mont Ity / Flat 10.1 2.20 716 9.7 1.40 436 7.5 2.19 527 11.1 1.92 684 Gbeitouo 2.9 1.35 124 0.3 1.48 13 2.9 1.35 124 0.3 1.48 13 Walter 1.6 1.23 65 0.6 1.35 26 2.1 1.21 81 0.7 1.32 28 Zia NE 6.7 1.28 274 4.0 1.40 178 7.7 1.31 325 4.0 1.39 179 Bakatouo 10.2 2.14 704 0.6 2.27 44 - - - - - - Colline Sud 1.0 2.14 66 0.4 2.11 28 - - - - - - Sub-total 60.6 1.69 3,298 16.3 1.43 747 40.1 1.57 2,022 20.4 1.62 1,064 Existing Stockpiles Aires 5.8 1.09 202 0.2 0.78 6 5.8 1.09 202 0.2 0.78 6 Teckraie 2.8 1.07 97 0.1 0.55 2 2.8 1.07 97 0.1 0.55 2 Verse Ouest 5.9 0.99 187 2.3 0.50 37 - - - 8.4 0.85 230 Sub-total 14.5 1.04 486 2.6 0.54 45 8.6 1.08 300 8.7 0.85 238 Total 75.1 1.57 3,784 18.9 1.30 792 48.7 1.48 2,322 29.1 1.39 1,302

Resource estimated to the Indicated status, as such no Measured Resources available. Mineral Reserve estimates follow the Canadian Institute of Mining, Metallurgy and Petroleum ("CIM") definitions standards for mineral resources and reserves and have been completed in accordance with the Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects as defined by National Instrument 43-101. Notes for the 2017 Optimization Study Inventory Mineral Resource estimate are provided in Section "About the Mineral Resources" of this Press Release, with effective date April 30, 2017. Full details on the Year-End 2016 Inventory and the 2016 Feasibility Study Inventory are available in the Company's published press releases dated respectively March 7, 2017 and November 10, 2016.

BAKATOUO DEPOSIT

A total of 4,700 meters comprising 30 holes were drilled on the Bakatouo deposit following the publication of its maiden resource in late 2016, with both infill and extension drilling done as shown in Figure 2 below.

Figure 2: Bakatouo Drill Area



Drilling conducted during the first half of 2017 has identified additional mineralization within the previous resource envelope and at depth, as well as through some extensions which remain partially open to the southeast, southwest, northwest and northeast of the deposit. Additional drilling is planned in the second half of the year to test these extensions, with the priority being the northeast extension.

Figure 3: Bakatouo Cross-Section





As shown in the table below, the H1-2017 program added 229koz of Indicated Resources while the average grade decreased as ounces added through the defined extensions were of lower grade than the central part of the deposit. The Indicated resource however remains very robust with more than 35% of its Indicated Resource grading above 4.5 g/t and 50% grading above 3.0 g/t. Due to its higher-grade nature, the Optimization Study envisages Bakatouo to be mined in the first years of the CIL production.

Table 3: Bakatouo Resource Evolution

AS AT APRIL 30, 2017 AS AT DEC 31, 2016 Indicated

Resource Tonnage (Mt) 10.2 4.8 Grade (Au g/t) 2.14 3.07 Content (Au koz) 704 475 Inferred

Resource Tonnage (Mt) 0.6 0.8 Grade (Au g/t) 2.27 2.86 Content (Au koz) 44 70

DAAPLEU DEPOSIT

A total of over 14,860 meters, comprising 77 holes, were drilled on the Daapleu deposit consisting of both infill drilling and resource delineation outside of and as an extension of the down dip of the 2016 resource boundary, as illustrated in Figure 4 below, increasing the Daapleu Indicated Resource by 384koz to 1,349koz.

Figure 4: Daapleu Drill Area





The H1-2017 program has demonstrated the high continuity of mineralization (Fluidized Rhyolite and high grade shear zone) within the Daapleu deposit, which remains fully open at depth towards the northwest as illustrated in Figure 5 below.

Figure 5: Daapleu Cross-Section





MONT ITY/ITY FLAT DEPOSIT

A total of over 8,300 meters, comprising 77 holes, were drilled at the Mont Ity /Ity Flat deposits during the first half of 2017, concentrating on the northeast high grade zone which was not previously accessible for drilling due to ongoing mining activities. This drill campaign confirmed the continuity of mineralization between the two areas, which are now considered to be a single deposit, and added 189koz of Indicated Resources. An additional drilling program is ongoing on the central part of the Mont Ity deposit in order to convert additional Inferred Resources into Indicated status before year-end.

The results demonstrate the very high grade mineralization in this area of the deposit, as shown in selected intercepts illustrated in Figure 6 below.

Figure 6: Mont Drill Area



Within the drilled area, mineralization remains clearly open at depth, as shown in Figure 7 below.

Figure 7: Mont Ity/Flat Cross-Section





OTHER NEARBY TARGETS

In H1-2017, initial exploration drilling, for which the results are still pending, also took place on several other exploration targets in the vicinity of the Ity mine (as per the blue dashed area in the Figure 8 below) and on the Le Plaque discovery which was announced earlier this year. This area, located within 5km from the current Ity mining complex, represents a small portion of the 80km corridor controlled by Endeavour.

This exploration program will be pursued in Q4-2017, after the end of the rainy season and the integration of pending analysis results, with the main focus on delineating a maiden Inferred Resource at the Le Plaque discovery.

Figure 8: Ity Mine Area and Surrounding Exploration Targets





NEXT STEPS

Follow-up drilling on the Bakatouo extensions

Drilling campaign on Le Plaque to delineate the extent of mineralized potential and aim for Inferred status by year-end

Follow-up drilling on other exploration targets in the vicinity of the Ity mining complex

Follow-up on the airborne geophysical survey, soil geochemistry, and auger drill results obtained in H1-2017 on the Greater Ity regional area

QUALIFIED PERSONS

The scientific and technical content of this news release has been reviewed, verified and compiled by Gerard de Hert, EurGeol, Senior VP West Africa Exploration for Endeavour Mining. Gerard de Hert has more than 19 years of mineral exploration and mining experience, and is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

ASSAYS AND QUALITY ASSURANCE/QUALITY CONTROL

All the related drill samples were prepared in accordance with National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects. All samples were diamond drill core (HQ and NQ size at Daapleu and Bakatouo, HQ and NTW at Ity-Ity FLat). After photography, and geologic and geotechnical logging, the core was marked up for sampling via approved procedures and was cut in half with electric saw and diamond impregnated core blades. Sampling involved collecting the left-hand side at designated sampling intervals for processing and analysis, and leaving the right-hand side in core boxes for reference.

Samples were dried, crushed and pulverized on site at the SMI Ity exploration mechanical preparation facilities. The facilities were constructed and commissioned with Bureau Veritas Laboratories (Abidjan), an independent laboratory services provider, whom also designed and implemented site procedures and protocols and supervised training. In January 2017, SGS Laboratories (SGS Cote D'Ivoire SA) took over the management and running of the preparation facilities, as part of a new contract with SGS to build and run an onsite laboratory to process present and future exploration and mine sample processing requirements. The new laboratory maintains separate dedicated preparation equipment for both exploration and mine samples.

The pulverized samples (pulps) were stored in 200g kraft paper packets and shipped to SGS Burkina SA in Ouagadougou for gold analysis. Samples were analyzed using a standard 50-gram gold fire assay with an Atomic Absorption finish (FAA505); above detection limit samples were re-analyzed via gravimetric procedure (FAG505).

Sampling and assay data were monitored through a quality assurance/quality control program designed to follow NI 43-101 and industry best practice. Certified reference materials were sourced from Geostats Pty Ltd Australia. Standards (oxide and sulphide at different grades) duplicate and blank control samples were inserted at a rate of 18 in every batch of 100 samples submitted to SGS. Results are loaded electronically into the company's Acquire database.

ABOUT THE MINERAL RESOURCE

The insitu Mineral Resources, which include Daapleu, Mont Ity / Ity Flat, Bakatouo, Gbeitouo, Walter, Zia NE and Colline Sud, have been reported inside optimised pit shells and above a 0.5 g/t Au cut-off. Reporting within an optimised pit shell satisfies the requirement for the Mineral Resource to have reasonable prospects for future economic extraction. The pit optimisation assumes a US$1,500/oz Au price.

The Mineral Resource for the rock dumps, which include the Teckraie and Verse Ouest Mineral Resources and also the Aires heap leach pad, have not been reported inside an optimised pit shell. These deposits have been built up above the existing topography and the associated shallow laterite located directly below, therefore satisfying the requirement for the Mineral Resource to have reasonable prospects for future economic extraction. The Teckraie and Verse Ouest rock dump Mineral Resources and Aires leach pad Mineral Resources have been reported above 0.0 g/t Au because there is unlikely to be any grade selectivity during mining. The underlying laterite Mineral Resources for each of the deposits has been reported above 0.5 g/t Au given the possibility for some mining selectivity. All Mineral Resources are current as at April 30, 2017. Mineral resources which are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.

Reported tonnage and grade figures have been rounded from raw estimates to reflect the relative accuracy of the estimate. Minor variations may occur during the addition of rounded numbers.

The statistical analysis, geological modelling and resource estimation for Colline Sud were prepared by Kevin Harris, CPG. Mr. Harris is Endeavour Mining's Group Resource Manager and is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

The statistical analysis, geological modelling and resource estimation for Bakatouo, Mt Ity/Ity flat, Daapleu and Verse Ouest were prepared by Mark Zammit, CPG. Mr. Zammit is a principal consultant geologist with Cube Consulting Pty Ltd and is a "Qualified Person" as defined by National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").
LONGUEUIL, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - July 27, 2017) - Reunion Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE:RGD) (the "Company" or "Reunion") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a three-year option agreement to acquire from Compagnie Miniere de Boulanger ("CMB"), an arm's length private company, a 100% interest in certain mineral properties located in French Guiana. The CMB properties include the Boulanger, Central Brief, Devez North, and Devez South mineral concessions along with the Carapa (formerly known as Ste Marie) exploration permit.

On closing, Reunion made an initial payment of EUR500,000. An additional payment of EUR500,000 will be payable on the first anniversary of the initial payment. As a condition to exercise the option, Reunion is required to (1) have spent at least US$4,000,000 on exploration and development on the properties and (2) pay EUR1,000,000 to CMB. Reunion will have to pay an additional EUR1,000,000 following approval of the transfer to Reunion of the concessions and exploration permit by the French regulatory authorities. Upon exercise of the option by Reunion, CMB will retain a 2% net smelter returns royalty on the properties. The option can be exercised any time between January 1, 2019 and three years from closing. Reunion can terminate the option agreement at any time upon a 30-day notice to CMB, provided that the first anniversary payment of EUR500,000 has been paid.

The CMB properties consists of a 78.2 km2 of mineral concessions and a 24 km2 exploration permit located in the north-central part of French Guiana, approximately 40 km south of the capital Cayenne. The CMB properties are easily accessible by National Road No. 2 and a network of gravel roads. The CMB land holdings are underlain by a Proterozoic greenstone belt formed by the Armina and Paramaca Formations, composed by volcanic and sedimentary rocks, intruded by granites. This greenstone belt extends westwards and hosts most of the known gold mineralization and operating mines in French Guiana and Surinam. The BRGM (French geological survey) and previous property titleholders conducted extensive geological mapping, soil geochemistry, trenching and diamond drilling, confirming the presence of several gold occurrences related to shear zones and hydrothermal alteration. Numerous geochemical anomalies remain unexplored. Portions of the CMB properties were explored by ASARCO in the 1990's, followed by Cambior and IAMGOLD. The properties host numerous artisanal alluvial and primary gold workings. CMB has been conducting small-scale alluvial gold mining operations on the mining concessions that produced around 200,000 ounces of gold between 1994 and 2016.

The four concessions were originally granted to CMB by the French government in the late 1880s and early 1920s. Due to recent amendments to the French mining code, all concessions will expire on December 31, 2018. CMB has filed applications to renew the concessions for a period of 15 years.

Reunion intends to begin an exploration program on the CMB properties this fall. This program will follow-up previous work and include geological mapping, trenching and systematic surface sampling to confirm the continuity and geometry of the mineralized quartz veining on the property. The program will initially be focused on the Carapa and Doyle prospect areas, where artisanal mining occurred in the past. The program will define the relationship between these two mineralized areas and identify targets for a diamond drill program to commence in 2018.

French Guiana is an overseas department of France located in northern South America. Geologically, it is part of the Guiana Shield of South America, which encompasses Guyana and Suriname, as well as parts of Venezuela and northeastern Brazil. The Guiana Shield hosts a number of substantial gold deposits and has produced gold for more than 300 years.

Reunion is assembling a portfolio of gold prospects in the Guiana Shield. In addition to the option to acquire the CMB properties, Reunion has entered into option agreements to acquire a 75% interest in the Dorlin gold project and an 80% interest in the Haute Mana gold project, both projects in French Guiana. All three projects are located within zones where mining activities are allowed under certain guidelines, conditions and restrictions described in the Schema Departemental d'Orientation Miniere of French Guiana. In addition, Reunion has entered into agreements to acquire options on small scale, early stage projects in Guyana.

Carlos Bertoni, P. Geo., a consultant to Reunion and a qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical data contained in this press release.
VANCOUVER, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ - Lucky Minerals Inc. (TSX.V: LJ) (OTCQB: LKMNF) (the "Company") has received approval from Montana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) to conduct drilling exploration on its wholly-owned Julian Claim Block located within the Company's Emigrant Creek Project in Montana.

"This is an important step forward for the Emigrant Creek Project," stated Robert Rosner, newly appointed Chief Executive Officer of Lucky Minerals. "It's an opportunity to prove the value of our project to the surrounding communities and our worth as a community partner as well as a good steward of Montana's natural resources."

Montana DEQ released a Final Environmental Assessment (EA) and approved an exploration license on July 26, 2017 for the Company's proposed mineral exploration project 12 miles southeast of Emigrant in a historic mining district. The EA analyzed potential environmental impacts from exploration activity on the Company's patented mining claims in the Absaroka Mountains.

In DEQ correspondence regarding the matter of exploration at Emigrant Creek, the department states, "DEQ has applied the significance criteria set forth in the Administrative Rules of Montana in determining the significance of impacts on the human environment."

Lucky Minerals has proposed to obtain core samples from up to 46 drill holes located on 23 drill pads. The proposed drill pads would be located within the existing road network on the St. Julian Claim Block.

The project received a robust analysis that included an extended 80-day scoping period to identify issues of concern to the public. The Environmental Assessment includes an in-depth analysis of potential impacts to wildlife, soils, vegetation, cultural and historical properties, water quality, geothermal impacts, transportation, socioeconomics, noise and other impacts to land use and recreation, including cumulative impacts.

Department of Environmental Quality Director Tom Livers stated, "We took a hard look at the comments received and the issues identified. Ultimately, the company (Lucky Minerals) has agreed to mitigations beyond what is required in statute."

These mitigations include water quality and wildlife monitoring plans and an alternate access route around the Chico Hot Springs Resort. Additionally, DEQ added analysis of socioeconomic impacts and expanded the noise, wildlife and visual analysis.

This approval marks a significant turning point in the Company's ongoing development of the Emigrant Creek Project of what could very well be a world-class size porphyry deposit that could exceed 1 billion+ tonnes.

About Lucky Minerals:

Lucky Minerals Inc.'s Emigrant Creek Project is focused on the exploration and development of several targets located in the core of the mineralized and intensely altered Emigrant Mining District, South-central Montana. Lucky Minerals shares trade on the TSX Venture Exchange under the trading symbol LJ and through the OTCQB under the symbol LKMNF.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scorpio Gold Corporation (Scorpio Gold or the Company) (TSX-V:SGN) is pleased to report final results from its 2017 Phase I exploration drilling program at the Goldwedge project, located in Manhattan, Nevada.

The drill program was designed to target the extension of the favorable lithologic unit in the Goldwedge Mine, specifically the Zanzibar limestone bound within the Reliance Fault Zone. This zone plunges northward into the Manhattan caldera margin. Seven RC holes totaling 7,530 ft (2,295 m) were drilled from 5 pad locations.

Significant mineralization was encountered in 3 of the holes (GW17024, GW17026 and GW17029) that intercepted the targeted Zanzibar limestone within the Reliance Fault Zone. GW17029 targeted an area near elevated underground rib samples west of the Reliance Fault Zone, and intersected significant mineralization within 65 feet of the mineralized rib and above the lowest working underground level.

Table 1. 2017 Goldwedge Surface RC Drilling - Significant Results (>0.1 oz/t)

Hole

No. Azm

(deg) Dip

(deg) From

(ft) To

(ft) Width

(ft) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) Gold

(oz/t) Gold

(g/t) GW17024 192 90 725 730 5 221.00 222.50 1.52 0.274 9.39 GW17026 225 55 460 470 10 140.21 143.26 3.05 0.324 11.11 GW17029 040 55 265 280 15 80.77 85.34 4.57 0.325 11.14 620 625 5 188.98 190.50 1.52 0.157 5.38

Three of the 7 holes (GW17027, GW17028, and GW17030) deviated and stayed in the Tertiary volcanic rock and did not drill the intended target. A fourth hole (GW17025) was drilled to intercept the Zanzibar limestone outside of the Reliance Fault Zone. No significant mineralization was encountered in these four holes.

Figure 1. Drill Hole Plan





Figure 2. Drill Hole Cross Section





All holes presented in Table 1 were completed by reverse circulation (RC) drilling. Widths are presented as down hole lengths; true widths are unknown at this time. Analytical results were performed by ALS Minerals in Reno, Nevada, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited facility. Further details are presented in the Companys quality assurance and quality control program for the Goldwedge project available at: GW QAQC.

About Scorpio Gold

Scorpio Gold holds a 70% interest in the producing Mineral Ridge gold mining operation located in Esmeralda County, Nevada with joint venture partner Elevon, LLC (30%). Mineral Ridge is a conventional open pit mining and heap leach operation. The Mineral Ridge property is host to multiple gold-bearing structures, veins and lenses at exploration, development and production stages. Scorpio Gold also holds a 100% interest in the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge property in Manhattan, Nevada, with a fully permitted underground mine and 400 ton per day mill facility. The Goldwedge mill facility has been placed on a care and maintenance basis and can be restarted immediately when needed.

Scorpio Golds Chairman, Peter J. Hawley, PGeo, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this release.
MELBOURNE, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ - OceanaGold Corporation (TSX/ASX: OGC) (the "Company") is pleased to release its financial and operational results for the quarter ended 30 June 2017. Details of the consolidated financial statements and the Management Discussion and Analysis ("MD&A") are available on the Company's website at www.oceanagold.com

Key Highlights

Consolidated production of 272,352 ounces of gold and 10,277 tonnes of copper in the first half of 2017, including 124,396 ounces of gold and 4,322 tonnes of copper in the second quarter.

Consolidated year-to-date All-In Sustaining Costs of $599 per ounce on sales of 228,214 ounces of gold (excluding Haile) and 9,976 tonnes of copper.

per ounce on sales of 228,214 ounces of gold (excluding Haile) and 9,976 tonnes of copper. Consolidated second quarter All-In Sustaining Costs of $681 per ounce on sales of 114,192 ounces of gold (excluding Haile) and 5,828 tonnes of copper.

per ounce on sales of 114,192 ounces of gold (excluding Haile) and 5,828 tonnes of copper. First half revenue of $333.5 million with EBITDA of $186.4 million and a net profit of $61.4 million .

with EBITDA of and a net profit of . Second quarter revenue of $171.7 million with an EBITDA of $84.7 million and a net profit of $25.4 million .

with an EBITDA of and a net profit of . Completed the Haile Optimisation Study which demonstrated significant value enhancement through increased production and cash flows over a longer mine life and a 70% increase in total reserves.

Immediate liquidity of $126.8 million including $81.6 million in cash, excluding $71.6 million of marketable securities held in strategic investments.

including in cash, excluding of marketable securities held in strategic investments. Continued encouraging exploration results.

Mick Wilkes, President and CEO of OceanaGold said, "The first half of the year yielded strong financial and operating results from our diversified portfolio of assets. The Didipio operation continued its strong performance delivering strong cash flows and high-margin ounces to offset weaker production from Haile where production is improving as we rectify the commissioning issues previously flagged."

He added, "Although commissioning of the Haile process plant has taken longer than expected, it is still a top-tier asset as reflected by the results of the optimisation study. Over the next 18 years or more we expect the Haile Gold Mine to deliver significant cash flows and remain excited about the long term exploration potential of the district. We plan to be operating there for a very long time."

Table 1  Production and Cost Results Summary Didipio Waihi Macraes Haile (2) Consolidated Second Quarter 2017 Results Q2 2017 Q1 2017 Gold Produced ounces 42,899 25,559 39,778 16,160 124,396 147,956 Copper Produced tonnes 4,322 - - - 4,322 5,955 Gold Sales ounces 47,185 24,743 42,264 15,558 129,750 (3) 126,225 (3) Copper Sales tonnes 5,828 - - - 5,828 4,148 All-In Sustaining Costs (1) $ per ounce 147 913 1,140 - 681 521 YTD June 30 2017 YTD Jun 30

2017 YTD Jun 30

2016 Gold Produced ounces 105,647 51,419 78,328 36,958 272,352 225,339 Copper Produced tonnes 10,277 - - - 10,277 12,244 Gold Sales ounces 98,652 51,500 78,062 27,761 255,975 (3) 233,293 Copper Sales tonnes 9,976 - - - 9,976 10,858 All-In Sustaining Costs (1) $ per ounce 15 876 1,154 - 599 722

Notes: 1. In this second quarter 2017 MD&A, all revenue and costs reported do not include the Haile operations as these have been capitalised as commercial production is yet to be declared. 2. Haile gold mine commenced selling gold in February 2017. Revenue from the sale of gold is treated as pre-production income. 3. Consolidated 2017 gold sales include gold sales from Haile.

Table 2  Consolidated Financial Summary* $'000 Q2

Jun 30

2017 Q1

Mar 31

2017 Q2

Jun 30

2016 YTD

Jun 30

2017 YTD

Jun 30

2016 Revenue 171,650 161,800 169,763 333,450 330,814 Cost of sales, excluding depreciation and

amortisation (73,767) (56,834) (79,642) (130,601) (151,531) General & administration  other (14,513) (8,950) (15,565) (23,463) (27,933) Foreign currency exchange gain/(loss) 647 (221) 2,543 426 3,268 Gain on sale of available-for-sale assets - 5,314 - 5,314 - Other income/(expense) 728 562 187 1,290 541 Earnings before interest, tax,

depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA)

(excluding gain/(loss) on undesignated

hedges and impairment charge) 84,745 101,671 77,286 186,416 155,159 Depreciation and amortisation (51,171) (36,403) (28,015) (87,574) (61,784) Net interest expense and finance costs (4,292) (4,557) (2,536) (8,848) (4,724) Earnings before income tax and

gain/(loss) on undesignated hedges and

impairment charge 29,282 60,711 46,735 89,994 88,651 Tax (expense) / benefit on earnings (4,538) (1,318) (5,599) (5,857) (10,806) Earnings/(loss) after income tax and

before gain/(loss) on undesignated

hedges and impairment charge 24,744 59,393 41,136 84,137 77,845 Impairment charge - (17,654) - (17,654) - Gain/(loss) on fair value of undesignated

hedges 1,075 (7,874) (1,828) (6,799) (20,132) Tax (expense)/benefit on gain/loss on

undesignated hedges (301) 2,205 511 1,904 5,637 Share of profit/(loss) from equity accounted

associates (161) (65) (164) (226) (164) Net Profit 25,357 36,005 39,655 61,362 63,186 Basic earnings per share $0.04 $0.06 $0.07 $0.10 $0.10 CASH FLOWS Cash flows from Operating Activities 88,391 52,343 91,486 140,734 123,159 Cash flows used in Investing Activities (71,696) (65,910) (122,496) (137,606) (226,236) Cash flows (used in) / from Financing

Activities (6,635) 10,545 12,827 3,910 14,860

Note:

In this second quarter 2017 MD&A, all revenue and costs reported do not include the Haile operations as these have been capitalised as commercial production is yet to be declared.

On a consolidated basis, during the first half of 2017 the Company achieved production of 272,352 ounces of gold and 10,277 tonnes of copper, including 124,396 ounces of gold and 4,322 tonnes of copper in the second quarter. The quarter-on-quarter decrease in consolidated gold production was expected and previously forecast and due primarily to lower production from the Didipio operation. In the second quarter. the Didipio head grade decreased following the cessation of open pit mining resulting in a higher proportion of lower grade stockpiled ore processed. Decreased production was also due to lower production from Haile where issues related to the commissioning of the Carbon-in-Leach ("CIL") circuit along with load imbalances in the milling circuit led to lower throughputs and recoveries.

On a consolidated basis, and excluding Haile gold sales, during the first half of 2017, the Company recorded an AISC of $599 per ounce on sales of 228,214 ounces of gold and 9,976 tonnes of copper. During the second quarter, on a consolidated basis and excluding Haile gold sales, the Company recorded an AISC of $681 per ounce on sales of 114,192 ounces of gold and 5,828 tonnes of copper.

During the first half, the Company achieved revenue of $333.5 million including second quarter revenue of $171.7 million.

EBITDA in the first half of 2017 was $186.4 million including second quarter EBITDA of $84.7 million, which was lower quarter-on-quarter due to increased operating and general and administrative ("G&A") costs, partially offset by higher revenue.

For the first half of 2017, the Company achieved a net profit of $61.4 million and a second quarter net profit of $25.4 million. The quarter-on-quarter decrease in net profit was a result of lower EBITDA, higher depreciation and amortisation costs and tax expense, which were partially offset by a gain on the fair value of undesignated hedges.

Operating cash flow for the first half of the year was $140.7 million including $88.4 million in the second quarter. The increase in operating cash flow from the first quarter was primarily due to higher revenues and favorable working capital movements at Didipio following the reduction of gold-copper concentrate inventories and decrease in trade debtors.

At the end of the second quarter of 2017, the Company had immediate available liquidity of $126.8 million which included a cash balance of $81.6 million, excluding $71.6 million in marketable securities from strategic investments. During the quarter, the Company increased its revolving credit facilities to $330 million of which $284.8 million was drawn.

Second Quarter 2017 Results Webcast

The Company will host a conference call / webcast to discuss the results at 7:30 am on Friday 28 July 2017 (Melbourne, Australian Eastern Standard Time) / 5:30 pm on Thursday 27 July 2017 (Toronto, Eastern Daylight Time).

Webcast Participants

To register, please copy and paste the link below into your browser:

Click Here

Teleconference Participants (required for those who wish to ask questions)

Local (toll free) dial in numbers are:

Australia: 1 800 076 068

New Zealand: 0 800 453 421

Canada & North America: 1 888 390 0605

All other countries (toll): + 1 416 764 8609

Playback of Webcast

If you are unable to attend the call, a recording will be available for viewing on the Company's website.

About OceanaGold

OceanaGold Corporation is a mid-tier, high-margin, multinational gold producer with assets located in the Philippines, New Zealand and the United States. The Company's assets encompass its flagship operation, the Didipio Gold-Copper Mine located on the island of Luzon in the Philippines. On the North Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the high-grade Waihi Gold Mine while on the South Island of New Zealand, the Company operates the largest gold mine in the country at the Macraes Goldfield which is made up of a series of open pit mines and the Frasers underground mine. In the United States, the Company is currently commissioning the Haile Gold Mine, a top-tier asset located in South Carolina. OceanaGold also has a significant pipeline of organic growth and exploration opportunities in the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions.

OceanaGold has operated sustainably over the past 27 years with a proven track-record for environmental management and community and social engagement. The Company has a strong social license to operate and works collaboratively with its valued stakeholders to identify and invest in social programs that are designed to build capacity and not dependency.

In 2017, the Company expects to produce 550,000 to 600,000 ounces of gold and 18,000 to 19,000 tonnes of copper with sector leading All-In Sustaining Costs that range from $600 to $650 per ounce sold.
Rural Development Administration Director General Lee Kyu-seong, third from left, presides over a meeting with agricultural officials from African countries in Dakar, Senegal, July 11. The state-run agricultural research institute has pledged to share more know-how with its African counterparts. / Courtesy of RDA



By Lee Hyo-sik

The Rural Development Administration (RDA), the state-run agricultural research institute, has been sharing its state-of-the-art agricultural knowledge with developing nations in Africa to help them boost production, control pests and diversify farm products.

Early this month, the institute held a meeting in Senegal, inviting agricultural officials from dozens of African countries, to find effective ways to strengthen the partnership and offer more tailored, field-oriented support to farmers there.

The RDA also opened a research center in the western African nation to develop rice seeds that can yield a larger harvest and are more resistant to pests. It also donated thousands of agriculture-related books to its counterpart.

From July 10 to 13, the RDA organized the Fourth Korea-Africa Food & Agriculture Cooperation Initiative (KAFACI) general assembly in Dakar, Senegal, to discuss issues such as Africa's food security amid global warming, and sustainable agricultural practices.

The gathering drew about 100 government officials and researchers from 20 KAFACI member nations and from agricultural research institutes across the continent. The participants also discussed ways to develop high-yield rice plants and nurture agricultural researchers.

RDA Director General Lee Kyu-seong, who presided over the meeting, said the institute will work harder to form a win-win partnership with its counterparts in Africa.

"We will pass our technical know-how and expertise on to our partners here and more closely cooperate with agriculture institutes," Lee said. "The RDA will introduce more cooperation programs to help boost Africa's agricultural productivity and improve the livelihoods of African farmers. Hopefully, our efforts also will improve Korea's image across the continent."

Since July 2010, the RDA has been offering support to African nations through KAFACI, including Ethiopia, Cameroon, Angola and Uganda. By admitting Tanzania to the multilateral body this year, membership rose to 21.

It has provided information on how to cope effectively with diseases and pests affecting rice and other crops, as well as transferring a wide range of agricultural techniques to increase production, develop disease-resistant crops and operate farm machinery.

After chairing the KAFACI meeting, Lee met the heads of the Korea Project on International Agriculture (KOPIA) centers, set up to implement the KAFACI initiatives.

The RDA operates six KOPIA centers in Africa, eight in Asia and six in South America. They provide practical, field-oriented support to local farmers.

"The centers have been playing an important role in enabling African farmers to engage in modern agricultural practices and earn more income," Lee said.

The institute also opened a research lab in Senegal to develop rice seeds that produce more crops and are more resistant to pests in Africa. It will be a training facility for agricultural researchers and students.

The RDA plans to increase the continent's rice production by more than 25 percent by 2025 through the KAFACI initiatives, according to the director general. He said it will develop rice plants more suitable for the African environment and transfer advanced cultivation techniques.

On July 12, the institute donated 2,300 agriculture books to the Senegalese Institute for Agricultural Research to help its researchers broaden their knowledge.

The RDA, founded in 1906, has its headquarters in Jeonju, North Jeolla Province, and operates four research affiliates specializing in crops, horticulture, herbs and livestock.
Although La Crescent-Hokah Elementary Principal Jay Woller will leave the district before the 2017-18 school year begins, the principals positive attitude will remain.

My recommendation to the next person is to continue building those connections and relationships with students and family, Woller said. La Crescent is truly a great place to live and work. I give my best to the next principal.

Wollerwho was hired at La Crescent-Hokah Elementary in 2013accepted a position in July as elementary principal at East Union Elementary School in the Eastern Carver County Schools based out of Chaska, Minnesota.

Although Woller previously worked in the Eastern Carver County Schools district as an assistant principal, the decision to leave La Crescent was not taken lightly.

The position came up quickly, he said. Due to health concerns for my own parents, my wife and I decided that we cant replace the time and connections with our own family. The move will get us closer to family and it will connect us with a lot of people that we already had relationships with.

While working in the apple capital, Woller made a point to provide positive academic opportunities for students.

We have focused on continuing to provide opportunities for students to be successful at their own level and creating a culture that supports students, he said.

Woller focused on the implementation of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, a program added to the elementary school last year that focuses on positive reinforcement to improve student behavior.

Students are given Lancer Shield Cards that help recognize students for being positive citizens. The main focus of the program is creating a respectful, positive and safe school environment.

Some of the programs Woller spearheaded will be implemented after he is gone.

One of the new things this next year is Project Lead the Way which focuses on science curriculum, integrating more technology in the classroom and problem solving, Woller said. It will help students boost their technical experiences. There is also new math curriculum.

Life at La Crescent-Hokah Elementary School has not always been easy. Due to the failed operating levy last November, the school district had to cut at least $300,000 out of its budget in the past school year$100,000 of which was targeted at the elementary school.

The people at the elementary school really banded together to do the very best for students. I was encouraged by the community support that has swelled. The district will have some great opportunity with that, he said.

La Crescent-Hokah Superintendent Kevin Cardille will miss Wollers energy.

Hes a very personable principal. He took a genuine interest in the students, he said. As we look for a new principal that is a strength we will be looking for. The students were comfortable with Jay.

Cardille is confident that a new elementary school principal will be hired before the 2017-18 school year.

La Crescent-Hokah Early Childhood Coordinator and Parent Teacher Organization secretary Karen Schwartzhoff will miss Wollers humility.

Jay is a humble leader. When he doesnt know an answer, he tells you and then makes a point of learning...He is a student-first administrator, she said. He holds himself to the highest standards of integrity and respect that serve as daily models for all children and adults. Hes made a very positive impact on our educational community and everyone associated with it.

Although Woller, his wife, Heidi, and his two sons, are excited to join their new school district, La Crescent-Hokah will be missed.

Both my sons attended the elementary school while we were here. Theyre sad to be leaving behind their friends, Woller said. I thoroughly enjoyed my time in the schools. I appreciated that the community welcomed us to townI cant put a price tag on that type of support and the community connections. I will always consider part of me to be a Lancer.
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Angelina Jolie developed a condition called Bell's palsy in 2016, the actress recently told Vanity Fair. What is Bell's palsy?

Bell's palsy is a form of temporary facial paralysis, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). This paralysis usually affects only one side of a person's face, and so it can make the affected side of the face look like it is drooping. About 40,000 Americans get Bell's palsy each year, the NINDS says.

The condition is caused by damage to a facial nerve, according to the NINDS. There are two facial nerves, each of which controls the muscles on one side of the face. Which side of the face is affected depends on which nerve is affected. [10 Celebrities with Chronic Illnesses]

Scientists don't know for sure what causes this nerve damage, but they generally think that it's caused by a viral infection, according to the National Library of Medicine.

When the facial nerve is damaged  for example, it can be swollen, inflamed or compressed  it's unable to carry messages from the brain to the facial muscles as well as it normally can, which is what leads to the muscle weakness, paralysis or twitching, according to the NINDS. In addition, damage to the nerve can cause the eyelid and the corner of a person's mouth to droop.

The facial nerve also carries signals to the tear glands, salivary glands and the muscles of a small bone in the middle of the ear, according to the NINDS. This means that symptoms can also include drooling, excessive tearing, dryness of the eye or mouth, and ringing in the ear.

These symptoms appear suddenly and are at their worst about 48 hours after they begin, according to the National Library of Medicine.

For most people who develop Bell's palsy, the condition is temporary, and symptoms normally start to improve within a few weeks, according to the Mayo Clinic. By six months, the symptoms should be completely gone.

Three out of four patients will get better without any type of treatment, according to the National Library of Medicine.

Doctors may prescribe certain medicines, such as corticosteroids, to treat Bell's palsy, according to the Mayo Clinic. In addition, over-the-counter pain relievers may help with any pain from the condition, as can applying warm compresses to the face. Doctors may also recommend physical therapy to help relax the facial muscles.

Some people try alternative-medicine approaches, such as acupuncture and relaxation techniques, to treat Bell's palsy, according to the Mayo Clinic, but there is little scientific evidence that these therapies work.

Jolie said that she credits acupuncture for her recovery from the condition, according to Vanity Fair.

Originally published on Live Science.
If you have ever taken an antibiotic, you likely know the drill: Finish the entire course of treatment, even if you are feeling better, or else you risk a relapse.

Worse, by not finishing, you might contribute to the dangerous rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

The advice to always finish your antibiotics has long been considered medical dogma, and can be seen today on the websites of the World Health Organization, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and other leading health authorities. [7 Medical Myths Even Doctors Believe]

But the advice is wrong, according to an opinion article published today (July 26) in the journal The BMJ.

"'Complete the course' is taught very widely, but it's been known to be wrong for quite a while," said Dr. Martin Llewelyn, a professor of infectious diseases at Brighton and Sussex Medical School in the U.K. and the lead author on the opinion piece.

Llewelyn said the advice is, at best, overly simplistic. The idea that stopping an antibiotic treatment early encourages antibiotic resistance is not supported by scientific evidence, he said.

Moreover, having everyone finish their antibiotics all the time may actually be increasing antibiotic resistance worldwide, because it's the taking of antibiotics for longer than absolutely necessary that increases the risk of resistance, Llewelyn said.

The original theory was this: Treating bacterial infections with an antibiotic kills those bacteria, but this may take a week or more to accomplish. If you stop treatment early, you have only killed the weaker of the bacteria, those bugs most readily wiped out by the antibiotic. The ones leftover are the tougher bacteria, which would have been killed if the treatment continued but now, in the absence of antibiotics, have room to multiply and pass their genetic-based resilience to their progeny. Next time around, the infection is that much tougher.

On one level, the theory made sense. Bacteria that do survive an onslaught of antibiotics do indeed reproduce quickly and pass along those traits that made them resistant to the antibiotics.

Yet infectious disease experts have known for at least two decades that this theory is flawed. The British microbial specialist Harold Lambert wrote in a 1999 Lancet journal article that antibacterial resistance rarely arises in one patient from one treatment. Rather, it is a populationwide phenomenon in which bacteria spread from host to host, acquire all kinds of genetic traits, and may be resistant to a particular antibiotic before the bacteria even enter your body.

Most experts agree that the widespread use of antibiotics  both in humans and in animals raised for food  has placed increased evolutionary pressure on bacteria to adapt and become resistant to the antibiotic. [6 Superbugs to Watch Out For]

"It's a hot topic; everyone is interested in using less," said Dr. Helen Boucher, an infectious disease physician and director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, who was not part of the BMJ opinion article.

Boucher said she agrees with the BMJ authors' stance that "completing the course" merely for the sake of lowering the risk of antibacterial resistance is not based on solid scientific evidence. She added, however, that doctors don't often know when a shorter course of antibiotics is as effective as a longer one.

As an example, she said that recent studies have shown that a six-day regimen of antibiotics is as effective as 10 days for people with skin infections, as originally prescribed; and a five-day regimen is as effective as 10 days for people with pneumonia. But shorter durations did not prove as effective for ear infections in very young children, she said.

The length of the antibiotic regimen for any given case is not arbitrary. Regimens are based on clinical studies done when the drugs were first tested, Boucher said. Newer, more refined studies often reveal more effective lengths that strike the balance between killing the bacteria causing an infection and not flooding the environment with more antibiotics.

Boucher is also involved in the leadership of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and she noted that this professional society of more than 10,000 health specialists has a strong interest in conducting studies to understand the best minimal dose of antibiotic regimens.

Both Boucher and Llewelyn said patients should not "self-medicate" with antibiotics, or simply stop when they are feeling better. Rather, they should follow their doctor's instructions about when to stop.

The opinion piece stated that some health authorities have recently replaced the phrase "complete the course" with messages advocating taking antibiotics "exactly as prescribed."

"'Exactly as prescribed' is OK and at least it gives flexibility in the discussion between doctor and patient about when to stop  perhaps when [the patients] have been reviewed, or have a certain test result, or have been better for a certain period of time," Llewelyn told Live Science.

Follow Christopher Wanjek @wanjek for daily tweets on health and science with a humorous edge. Wanjek is the author of "Food at Work" and "Bad Medicine." His column, Bad Medicine, appears regularly on Live Science.
An instrument aboard NASA's Terra satellite captured this image of a curl of moist air licking the coast of Portugal on July 16, 2017.

A curling tongue of clouds reaches out to taste the Iberian Peninsula in a new satellite image.

The striking shot comes courtesy the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite and NASA's Earth Observatory, which released the image Tuesday (July 25). It shows a cyclone, or low-pressure system, off the coast of Portugal. The system produced little to no rain, but pulled dry air from over the land into an atmospheric dance with moist ocean air, forming a spiral, Peter Knippertz, a meteorologist at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology in Germany, told the Earth Observatory.

Knippertz told the Earth Observatory that this weather pattern on July 16 occurred during a heat wave, when Portugal and Spain were experiencing temperatures above 100 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius). The heat contributed to the temperature difference between the continent and the ocean.

The conjunction of land and water often gives rise to strange and beautiful cloud formations. In 2015, the MODIS instrument on NASA's Aqua satellite (Terra's sister satellite) captured sweeping cirrus clouds off the coast of Chile, sculpted by swift winds in the upper atmosphere. Gravity wave clouds often form off coastlines, as in this 2016 shot off of West Africa; in this instance, dry, cool nighttime air from the desert buoyed moist ocean air upward into the atmosphere, where it condensed, dropped under the influence of gravity, hit the rising dry air and rose again, creating the wave-like pattern.

Off Alaska, ocean winds sometimes sculpt clouds into parallel "streets." And marine upwelling that brings frigid water from deep in the Pacific Ocean up to the surface causes frequent bumpy fog off the coast of Peru when water vapor in the air condenses on contact with the cold ocean surface.

Original article on Live Science.
The notorious "Sourtoe Cocktail"  a shot of alcohol containing a dehydrated human toe  is a bizarre tradition at the Downtown Hotel's Sourdough Saloon, in Dawson City, Yukon Territory. The cocktail craze kicked off in 1973, after riverboat Capt. Dick Stevenson found a preserved toe in an abandoned Yukon cabin; the toe was thought to belong to a 1920s-era bootlegger named Louie Linken, the Sourtoe Cocktail Club website says.

According to local legend, Linken's brother amputated the toe with an ax  the digit had frozen while the pair were on the lam from the law  and preserved it in alcohol while they were hiding out in the cabin. Stevenson established an exclusive drinking club at the Sourdough Saloon based around the toe, with one qualification for admission: Would-be members had to quaff a drink with the toe in it.

Once an intrepid patron has committed to tossing back a drink garnished with a preserved toe, the alcohol choice almost seems irrelevant. Obligingly, the bar serves up the Sourtoe Cocktail with your tipple of choice, but many opt to drink their toe doused in a shot of Yukon Jack  an 80-proof liquor made from Canadian whisky and honey, according to the Sourdough Saloon website. A saloon-designated "toe captain" drops a mummified human toe in the brimming shot glass, and the Sourtoe Cocktail is ready. But the drinker must follow a key Sourdough Saloon rule: "You can drink it fast, you can drink it slow, but your lips must touch the toe." [The 10 Weirdest Ways We Deal with the Dead]

Whether the original toe truly belonged to a notorious Prohibition-era rumrunner is anyone's guess. Nonetheless, the original toe was retired long ago  but the bar has always managed to find replacement toes, the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. (CBC) reported in 2013.

To date, 71,468 people have downed the drink and tasted the toe, toe captain Terry Lee recently told NPR. Lee maintains the mummified toe at the bar, where it is kept stored in salt that he changes once a week, NPR reported.

Currently, the toe is ceremoniously offered to prospective customers between the hours of 9 p.m. and 11 p.m. local time, a Downtown Hotel representative told Live Science. After downing the shot, the drinker receives an official certificate from toe captain Lee. A photo of the document shared on Instagram on June 13 by user @culinarystudio stated that the drinker had proved "to be a person capable of almost anything," as witnessed by "Capt. River Rat."

(opens in new tab) A photo posted by on

The certificate is generally enough of a souvenir for most of the cocktail's imbibers. But some Sourtoe sippers want a more substantial memento and thus take matters  and the toe  into their own hands.

Here today, gone toe-morrow

In 2013, a patron deliberately swallowed the toe  the first such incident in the cocktail's history  paying the bar's fine of $500 and prompting the staff to raise the toe-swallowing penalty to $2,500, the CBC reported.

Unfortunately, that deprived the bar of its last big toe, leaving only "what we call the secondary toes next to the big toe," Lee told NPR.

More recently, on June 17, the saloon again found itself one toe short, after a late-night customer ran off with the grisly severed digit, the Toronto Sun reported. Luckily, the bar had "other toes to tide us over," a Downtown Hotel representative said in a Facebook post. But that didn't stop them from putting out a call on social media for "toenations," offering a free Yukon vacation to one lucky winner willing to post a photo of their toes under #MakeAToenation, for consideration as a replacement, according to the contest website.

(opens in new tab) A photo posted by on

Meanwhile, the Yukon Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) were hot on the alleged suspect's trail. The toe-napper called the RCMP on June 20 to say that he had mailed the toe back to the hotel, RCMP representatives said in a statement. On June 22, the toe arrived at the bar, along with a handwritten apology that read, "I'm deeply sorry. I was way to [sic] drunk and lost my mind celebrating a special Yukon date," and was signed "Sincerely, A Drunken Fool," the Yukon News reported.

"At the time that the package was opened, the toe was believed to be in good condition," according to the RCMP. [Photos of the Best Preserved Bog People]

A customer at the Sourdough Saloon considers throwing away her shot. (Image credit: PR Services)

In the spirit of "toenation," the contest for a replacement toe went ahead anyway, and on July 10, Travel Yukon chose one winner from over 300 entries that made the cut, with a representative writing on Instagram, "Your toe now belongs to us. Dust that thing off and get it ready to be marinated in our famous Sourtoe Cocktail."

The winner, Kelly Green  a kayak instructor from British Columbia  will receive a weeklong vacation across the Yukon, during which she'll visit the Sourdough Saloon to sign a contract making her "toenation" official, the Vancouver Sun reported.

And the trip won't cost her an arm and a leg  just her big toe, which she will donate posthumously at some undisclosed point in the future, Green told the Vancouver Sun.

"I won't need it anymore, and my grandkids are going to be able to tell a really good story," Green said.

Original article on Live Science.
A Chinese farmer has discovered the remains of a dinosaur that could have passed for the ostrich-like cassowary in its day, sporting the flightless bird's head crest and long thunder thighs, indicating it could run quickly, just like its modern-day lookalike, a new study finds.

The newfound dinosaur's 6-inch-tall (15 centimeters) head crest is uncannily similar to the cassowary's headpiece, known as a casque, the researchers said. In fact, the crests have such similar shapes, the cassowary's may provide clues about how the dinosaur used its crest more than 66 million years ago, they said.

The findings suggest that the dinosaur, which would have towered at 5.5 feet (1.6 meters), may have had a similar lifestyle to the modern cassowary bird (Casuarius unappendiculatus), which is native to Australia and New Guinea, the study's lead researcher, Junchang Lu, a professor at the Institute of Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, told Live Science in an email. [Photos: Fossilized Dino Embryo Is New Oviraptorosaur Species]

Researchers found the oviraptorid  a type of giant, bird-like dinosaur  in Ganzhou, a city in southern China, in 2013. The specimen was in remarkable shape: The paleontologists found an almost complete skeleton, including the skull and lower jaw, which helped them estimate that the creature was likely a young adult, or at least 8 years of age, when it died.

A (a) fossil, (b) drawing) and (c) illustration of the head crest on Corythoraptor jacobsi. (Image credit: Lu, J et al/Scientific Reports 2017)

The long-necked and crested dinosaur lived from about 100 million to 66 million years ago during the late Cretaceous period, and likely used its clawed hands to hunt lizards and other small dinosaurs, Lu added.

The research team named the unique beast Corythoraptor jacobsi. Its genus name refers to the raptor's cassowary-like crest, and the species name honors Louis Jacobs, a vertebrate paleontologist at Southern Methodist University who mentored three of the study's researchers.

The researchers think the crest likely served the dinosaur in different ways, they said, including in display, communication and perhaps even as an indication of the dinosaur's fitness during the mating season.

The fossilized remains (a) of Corythoraptor jacobsi that was discovered in 2013, next to an illustration (b) of the specimen. A close-up (c) of the skull, lower jaw and cassowary-like crest. A skeletal reconstruction (d) of the dinosaur, with the missing parts in grey. (Image credit: Lu, J et al/Scientific Reports 2017)

The investigation sheds light on this extraordinary new species, said Darla Zelenitsky, an assistant professor of paleontology at the University of Calgary in Alberta, Canada, who was not involved with the study.

"It is nice to see that detailed comparisons with a modern species was done in this study in order to help understand the role or function of such a crest in an extinct species," Zelenitsky told Live Science in an email.

Moreover, the C. jacobsi finding gives more evidence that this region of China was flush with different oviraptorid species during the age of dinosaurs, as this is the seventh oviraptorosaurian dinosaur to be named from Ganzhou. "The oviraptorid specimens that have been recovered from this region of China in recent years are beautifully preserved," Zelenitsky said.

C. jacobsi isn't the only oviraptorid with a head crest: Others in the oviraptorosaur group are known to sport this type of head crest, she said. In addition, some non-avian dinosaurs, including the duck-billed dinosaurs, had crests atop their heads, but "the duckbill's crest differs in form and structure from the more cassowary-like crest of Corythoraptor and other oviraptorosaurs," Zelenitsky said.

The specimen is now housed at the Jinzhou Paleontological Museum in China's Liaoning province. The study was published online today (July 27) in the journal Scientific Reports (opens in new tab).

The modern cassowary bird (Casuarius unappendiculatus) is native to Australia and New Guinea. (Image credit: Kevin Schafer/Evolve/Photoshot/Zuma)

Original article on Live Science.
Eclipse models suggest that the sun's photosphere is slightly larger than the value commonly used. Eclipse measurements could help determine for sure. Here, an annular eclipse is visible.

A growing number of researchers think that the sun is actually larger than commonly thought.

Scientists don't know the sun's size as precisely as the details of the Earth and moon, making it a sticking point for perplexed eclipse modelers.

Xavier Jubier creates detailed models of solar and lunar eclipses that work with Google Maps to show precisely where the shadow of the sun will fall on the Earth, and what the eclipse will look like at each point. He came to realize there was something off about the sun's measurements as he matched his eclipse simulations with actual photos. The photos helped him identify exactly where an observer had been for historical eclipses  but those precise eclipse shapes only made sense if he scaled up the sun's radius by a few hundred kilometers. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

"For me, something was wrong somewhere, but that's all I could say," Jubier told Space.com.

Scientists' knowledge of the Earth's and moon's contours weren't exact enough to highlight this discrepancy until about 10 years ago  the same time that modern eclipse simulations became possible through computer power and precision mapping. So it was around then that Jubier began to realize something was amiss.

Xavier Jubier simulated an annular eclipse that occurred March 29, 1987, matching his results to photos taken at the time of the eclipse. His results are able to precisely match when he combines incredibly precise data about the moon's contours and Earth's topography with a slightly larger solar radius. (Image credit: Xavier Jubier/Hugette Guertin)

NASA researcher Ernie Wright came to a similar conclusion as he began to create increasingly precise models of solar eclipses, starting about two years ago. He, too, had to scale up the sun slightly from the traditional size for his calculations to match reality.

"How can you not know this?" Wright recalls thinking. "You just hold a ruler up to the sky, and you say it's this big."

But as it turns out, it's not that simple, Wright told Space.com.

Where did it come from?

Historically, researchers have used the value 696,000 km as the radius of the sun's photosphere  the body of the sun whose wavelengths are visible to the naked eye on Earth. The value was first published in 1891 by the German astronomer Arthur Auwers, Wright said, and it was taken as a standard value for quite some time. In 2015, the International Astronomical Union defined a "unit" based on the sun's radius as a similar 695,700 km, based on a 2008 study, so researchers can use that value to compare the sizes of other stars in the universe.

But efforts to measure the sun's radius have never been accurate enough to match our knowledge of the moon's and the Earth's contours, the researchers said. Scientists have tried measuring it through transits of Mercury and Venus  when those planets cross the face of the sun  and through images taken from sun-observing satellites like the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Each pixel on SDO's higher resolution images covers about 270 miles (435 km), Wright said, which means there's a limit to how precisely the size of the photosphere can be measured with this method. In addition, orbiting solar telescopes like SDO generally collect wavelengths of light emitted deeper inside or further outside the sun, rather than its visible photosphere.

"It's harder than you think just to put a ruler on these images and figure out how big the sun is  [SDO] doesn't have enough precision to nail this down," Wright said. "Similarly, with the Mercury and Venus transits, it turns out [a measurement based on those is] not quite as precise as you'd like it to be."

Different papers trying to pin down the sun's radius, using planet transits, space-based sensors as well as ground observations, have produced results that differ by as many as 930 miles (1,500 km), and can't seem to be reconciled with one another, Wright said. And for eclipse modelers, it's a critical and irritating problem.

Eclipse viewers might find the uncertainty of interest, as well, as they plot out where they'll be in the path of totality. A slightly larger sun means the period of total blackout can be a few seconds shorter in the center of the path, and the path itself would warp, as well.

"For most people, yes, it doesn't really matter; it won't change everything," Jubier said. "But the closer you get to the edge of the [eclipse] path, the more risk you take." If the sun is indeed bigger, the path is narrower than projections made with the usual value would suggest. So those chasing the effects on the eclipse's edge could be in trouble if they're not using a large enough value for their calculations.

Few people do eclipse predictions, Jubier added, and the precise value isn't necessary to a lot of researchers. Because of that, definitions can vary and it's hard to compare different values to one another, including the original 1891 value. It can be hard to tell for a given study what assumptions went into their answer for the sun's diameter, and so they can't be adapted easily to match each other or the eclipse. Any discrepancies in eclipse measurements can be attributed to not fully understanding the values, Jubier added.

"It is definitely still an area of ongoing research, and something that the field itself is interested in getting a better handle on," C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told Space.com. "Probably a little esoteric for many people, and I would say that the calculation is not as important for a lot of areas, for example in solar physics, in terms of the accuracy needed. But especially the eclipse community is very interested in the accuracy."

Figure it out

Michael Kentrianakis, an avid eclipse chaser and a member of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force, learned about the confusion over the sun's size from his colleague Luca Quaglia, a physicist and eclipse researcher.

"The straw that broke the camel's back," Kentrianakis said, came during an expedition to Argentina in February, where he positioned himself outside what should have been the edge of an annular eclipse  where the moon is circled by a bright "ring of fire." A larger sun would make the "ring of fire" effect visible to a wider area.

"Technically, I should have been outside of annularity, [but the unfiltered photographs show] we were still in the path of annularity, and we have this beautiful chromosphere circling around at the edge," Kentrianakis said. That experience fully convinced him the sun was larger than generally thought.

This upcoming eclipse  which will very likely be the most-watched total solar eclipse in history, NASA officials have said  will provide a chance for others inside and outside the path of totality to help verify its size.

While researchers would ordinarily use the radius of the sun to compute exactly when the moon will cover and uncover the sun for a given location, called contact times, the opposite strategy is required here, Quaglia told Space.com. "If we can measure contact times accurately, everything else being the same, the only thing that can change is the solar radius. We can actually compute the solar radius that way," he said.

Kentrianakis, Jubier, Quaglia and others want to pin it down by positioning researchers inside and outside where totality should be, armed with the equipment for what's called a "flash spectrum" photograph. The process uses a textured grating over a camera, which splits incoming light into component wavelengths  making it easy to determine precisely when the entire photosphere has been covered by the moon, revealing a more limited set of wavelengths emitted by the chromosphere. Combined with accurate timestamps, that process would provide strong evidence for the sun's size. (Such a process has been used before, but on a limited scale, Quaglia said.)

This flash spectrum was taken in Gabon during an eclipse Nov. 3, 2013. On the left, a photo of the eclipse is visible, and the right shows the varying spectra released by the eclipse at that moment the sun's photosphere creates the smooth spectrum of color, and the chromosphere above it releases the distinct arcs of color. This setup can let researchers pinpoint the instant the photosphere is covered, and thus determine its size. (Image credit: Constantine Emmanouilidi, used with permission)

Such measurements would also provide another benefit, Jubier said  investigating what some think is a thin layer in between the photosphere and chromosphere called the mesosphere. That thin layer can be visible for a moment after the photosphere is blotted out during an eclipse, which means observers may make measurements that confuse the mesosphere for more of the photosphere. A flash spectrum can help distinguish between the two, although it must be a high enough resolution so the signals from each can be clearly separated.

A group involving Quaglia, Kentrianakis and Jubier was unable to get funding for as broad a flash-spectrum experiment as they would have liked  something like 30 separate measurement stations arrayed just inside and just outside the predicted eclipse path. But researchers could still use crowdsourced data and measurements during the eclipse to learn more.

"The more observations we have the better even if they are not providing the kind of quality we expected to get from the cinematographic spectroscopy," Jubier said. "Time will tell what we can make of all this."

Jubier said that flash spectrum measurements would be most useful, but so would (safely!) unfiltered views of the eclipse. Most filters cut out details of the images, making it much more difficult to determine precisely when the sun fully covers the moon.

Other groups will also be using the eclipse to try and measure the sun's diameter, Quaglia said, including the International Occulting Timing Association, which will analyze smartphone videos taken at intervals perpendicular to the eclipse path in Nebraska.

"The more people, the more techniques, the more teams involved will get us there as a whole," Quaglia said. "If, then, the International Astronomical Union makes the decision to change the value, they will probably not change the value lightly."

Understanding the visible sun's exact size will be possible only by combining careful solar measurements with the simulations and precise understanding of the moon's and Earth's elevations that exist now, Jubier said. But the pieces are in place to make that determination, if enough people get on board to measure the most common sight in the sky during those uncommon moments of eclipse.

"It's big, and it will take many eclipses  it may take until 2024  but at least we're starting it now," Kentrianakis said.

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple (opens in new tab) and Android, and you can view it on the web. We also updated this article to clarify the resolution of Solar Dynamics Observatory images.

Email Sarah Lewin at slewin@space.com or follow her @SarahExplains. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook and Google+. Original article on Space.com.
A killer whale named Kyara, shown here with her mom Takara, died on July 24, 2017, at SeaWorld San Antonio. She was just 3 months old.

A 3-month-old orca calf named Kyara died this past weekend, possibly from pneumonia, at SeaWorld San Antonio. This isn't the first occasion of a killer whale dying in captivity.

Dozens of other captive killer whales, including the SeaWorld orca named Tilikum, who was made famous in the documentary "Blackfish," have also died from bacterial infections.

According to SeaWorlds press statement, Kyara's death, which is still being investigated, was not the result of living in captivity. But some experts in marine mammal research say that the living conditions contribute to disease. [Photos: Orcas Are Chowing Down on Great-White-Shark Organs]

"I think pneumonia is a fairly common cause of death because they are living in a constant state of low-level stress," Naomi Rose, a marine mammal scientist at the advocacy organization Animal Welfare Institute in Washington, D.C., told Live Science.

Stress in captivity

Captive killer whales are held in concrete tanks about 1/10,000th of 1 percent the size of their natural habitat and mothers give birth without their crucial social network  situations that can cause low levels of stress and make them susceptible to disease, she said.

"It's harder to be a mother orca in captivity," Rose told Live Science.

In the wild, orca calves are raised by not just the mother, but also by others in the pod. In captivity, killer whales are rarely with other family members. Nursing is also an issue, said Rose. Orca calves don't suckle like other mammals, but rather hold their mouths over the mother's teat while she squirts milk as she swims. The small tank makes swimming and nursing difficult for both mother and calf, said Rose, and that can cause stress. [How Tilikum the Orca Changed the Conversation About Animals in Captivity]

According to Whales and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), which has been tracking captive killer whale births and deaths for 30 years, at least 164 killer whales have died in captivity worldwide, 46 of those deaths occurring at SeaWorld-owned facilities  a number that doesn't include at least 30 miscarried and still-born calvesin captivity.

"Pneumonia, along with septicemia are the two most common causes of death in captive orcas," Rob Lott, policy manager at WDC, told Live Science.

Septicemia is a bacterial infection that enters the bloodstream and can affect the lungs or skin.

In 2015, marine biologist John Jett, a former SeaWorld trainer, who is now a visiting research professor at Stetson University, and Jeff Ventre, a board certified physiatrist, published a paper showing that captive orcas in the United States survived about 12 years.

But there are no specific research studies that say why, said Rose. "There is a paucity of research on cetaceans in captivity."

According to Rose, if scientists at SeaWorld are studying the effects of captivity on killer whales, they are not making the research available for review by other scientists. They also do not allow outside researchers to study why the marine mammals grow ill.

"Access to the animals is on guard," she said.

After Kyara's death, SeaWorld said in its press statement that, "pneumonia has been identified as the most common cause of mortality and illness in whales and dolphins, both in the wild and in zoological facilities."

How wild orcas fare

Whether this is the case for wild orcas is not certain, said Joseph Gaydos, science director of SeaDoc Society in Eastsound, Washington, and a veterinarian at the University of California Davis School of Veterinary Medicine, who studies diseases in wildlife, including orca. Not much is known about the diseases that occur in wild killer whales and whether or not pneumonia is the most common cause of death, he told Live Science. Few, if any, dead killer whales wash up on shore, he said.

Only about about one in five dead orca from the endangered southern resident killer whales, which live off the coast of Oregon, Washington and Vancouver Island, wash up on shore. Of the northern resident killer whales, which live in the Pacific from mid-Vancouver Island to Southeastern Alaska up through the Queen Charlotte Islands, researchers might find one in a 100 dead bodies.

Scientists are still in the early days of trying to figure out what types of diseases hit wild killer whales and what causes them, Gaydos said. So far, he and his team have found orcas can contract bacteria such as species in the Brucellagenus transmitted by ingesting contaminated food; Edwardsiella tarda, which can lead to Edwardsiella septicemia; cetacean pox virus, a skin disease; salmonella; and pneumonia.

Gaydos and his team are currently working on describing research on the prevalence of these diseases in wild orcas.

But there is much more to learn. Scientists do not understand how killer whale health is impacted by human contaminants, such as plastics or persistent organic pollutantsthat remain in the marine ecosystem for years.

Gaydos said he is also collaborating with Hendrik Nollens, senior staff veterinarian at SeaWorld San Diego, to better understand the skin diseases found in killer whales and to develop a medical response for any sick killer whales found in the wild.

There are only 78 members left in the southern resident killer whale population and keeping them healthy may require medical interventions in the future.

Kyara was the last killer whale born into captivity, since SeaWorld announced in March 2016, that it would end its captive breeding program.

Of the 61 killer whales in captivity around the world, SeaWorld currently has 22, according to WDC. Kyara's grandmother, Kasatka, was captured from the wild in Iceland on Oct. 26, 1978, at under 2 years of age, and is also being treated for a chronic bacterial respiratory infection, according to SeaWorld (opens in new tab).

Editor's Note: This article was updated to correct the size of the concrete tanks where captive orcas are typically held.

Original article on Live Science.
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Principe, Democratic Republic of Saudi Arabia, Kingdom of Senegal, Republic of Serbia and Montenegro Seychelles, Republic of Sierra Leone, Republic of Singapore, Republic of Slovakia (Slovak Republic) Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia, Somali Republic South Africa, Republic of South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands Spain, Spanish State Sri Lanka, Democratic Socialist Republic of St. Helena St. Kitts and Nevis St. Lucia St. Pierre and Miquelon St. Vincent and the Grenadines Sudan, Democratic Republic of the Suriname, Republic of Svalbard & Jan Mayen Islands Swaziland, Kingdom of Sweden, Kingdom of Switzerland, Swiss Confederation Syrian Arab Republic Taiwan, Province of China Tajikistan Tanzania, United Republic of Thailand, Kingdom of Timor-Leste, Democratic Republic of Togo, Togolese Republic Tokelau (Tokelau Islands) Tonga, Kingdom of Trinidad and Tobago, Republic of Tunisia, Republic of Turkey, Republic of Turkmenistan Turks and Caicos Islands Tuvalu Uganda, Republic of Ukraine 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More than a dozen residents of Shoreline Acres gathered in the La Crescent Council chambers Monday to hear Police Chief Doug Stavenau and Houston County Sherriff Mark Inglett address noise and damage complaints stemming from wakes allegedly caused by speeding boaters.

While some residents saw the bass tournaments as the major offenders, others blamed rude boaters who sped through the west channel too close to shore. Both Stavenau and Inglett spent time on the river last weekend but did not observe any reckless traffic, they said.

But both officers acknowledged it was a problem. Ive heard about it for several years, said Stavenau.

Stavenau also told the crowd that from his perspective, it was a multi-faceted problem that no single government agency could solve alone.

He went on to say that multiple government agencies with interests in the river complicate the picture-the Coast Guard, both the Wisconsin and Minnesota Departments of Natural Resourcess, the Houston County Sheriffs Office and the La Crosse Harbor Commission. Stavenau suggested that they should start with the Harbor Commission, and explain, that their no-wake zone is creating a hardship for residents.

Six residents, however, had filed speaking requests on the agenda and some expressed skepticism with working with La Crosse, while others offered solutions of their own like a noise ordinance or stringing buoys and creating a no wake zone on the Minnesota side.

Jack Miller, who chairs the Houston County Board of Commissioners, told the council hed been having difficulty contacting La Crosse Mayor Tim Kabat, but likewise wanted to discuss removing the no-wake zone.

If we put a no-wake on the Minnesota side, it would be a long process and an issue of enforcement, he said. However, he added, the county board would be supportive, were willing to do whatever we can do.

Don Smith expressed further skepticism about working with La Crosse.

I wouldnt want for someone else to solve our problems, he said.

With that, the discussion swung back to creating a Minnesota ordinance.

Inglett suggested other options like asking La Crosse to modify its restrictions during bass tournaments.

If La Crosse removed their no-wake zone, would you still want a no-wake zone? he asked the audience. Some heads nodded. Both Inglett and Stavenau responded that staffing would be an issue.

As the discussion wound down, Jack Miller suggested that a good starting point would be for him to raise the issue with the Minnesota DNR. Mayor Mike Poellinger responded that he would support him.

Thank you for expressing your concerns, Poellinger said to the audience. Well see what we can get worked out.

After the meeting Stavenau said the city would adapt if a no-wake ordinance was established.

I think we can deal with it, he replied. Im happy that the residents came together, instead of me speculating on what they would want.
Spectranetics, based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, won FDA approval to bring to the U.S. market its Stellarex drug-coated balloon catheter. The device is designed and indicated for helping to restore and keep open the lumen of superficial femoral and popliteal arteries in patients with peripheral artery disease.

The device features the companys EnduraCoat Technology that gradually releases paclitaxel, an antiproliferative for the prevention of buildup at the treatment site, while keeping it from shedding from the balloon during delivery of the device. Moreover, it seems to work well while actually releasing a smaller dose of paclitaxel than comparable devices.

The Stellarex DCB has shown safety and efficacy in a cohort of patients which included a higher preponderance of diabetics and core-lab defined severely calcified lesions in the US IDE trial. These results, in combination with the cohort of patients studied in the European Randomized Controlled Trial, demonstrate the Stellarex DCB is safe and effective in diverse patient populations when addressing symptomatic femoropopliteal disease, in a statement said Dr. Prakash Krishnan, ILLUMENATE Pivotal Trials Co-Principal Investigator, Mount Sinai in New York.

From Spectranetics:

Throughout the ILLUMENATE Trial Series, Stellarex DCBs EnduraCoat Technology demonstrates both safety and efficacy with consistently high patency rates and low clinically driven target lesion revascularization rates in a range of lesion complexities and patient co-morbidities. The device offers both hybrid paclitaxel crystallinity and a durable excipient to provide efficient drug transfer, effective drug residency with high coating durability and minimal particulate loss.

Heres Spectranetics showing off how well its Stellarex holds on to the drug coating:

Product page: Stellarex

Via: Spectranetics
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 26, 2017

Privacy compliance company Evidon has been sold to technology company CrownPeak, MediaPost has learned. The deal is believed to be worth an estimated $50 million.

CrownPeak, which says it offers "web content management solutions," boasts of a client roster including including Toyota, American Express and HP.

Evidon is expected to continue to operate independently.

The deal comes six months after Evidon sold its ad blocker, Ghostery, to the search engine and browser developer Cliqz GmbH, a German company owned by Hubert Burda Media and Mozilla.

Evidon is one of the companies that licenses the Digital Advertising Alliance's AdChoices icon -- the centerpiece of the industry's self-regulatory privacy program. The AdChoices licenses accounted for around 45% of Evidon's current enterprise business, CEO Scott Meyer told MediaPost earlier this year.

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Evidon's business-to-business enterprise services, including helping advertisers comply with global privacy rules, accounts for the other 55%.

News of the sale comes at a time of increased interest in so-called "reg-tech" companies -- meaning companies offering technology aimed at helping businesses to comply with government regulations -- according to Jules Polonetsky, CEO of the industry-funded think tank Future of Privacy Forum. For instance, the UK startup Privitar -- which develops tools to de-identify data -- recently obtained $16 million in funding.

Polonetsky says the interest is driven by new regulations in Europe, which are fueling the need for international compliance tools. "There's been a real turn towards trying to use technology to handle and manage some of the more complex pieces that can be built into a platform," Polonetsky says.
by Steve McClellan @mp_mcclellan, July 27, 2017

Columbia, MD-based Marriner Marketing Communications has been selected as the new agency of record for the Maryland Office Of Tourism after a formal review.

The agencys new 5-year contract runs through May 2022 and specifies that it will be responsible for both creative and media placement, the latter having a value of at least $17 million according to the offices tourism marketing and development plan for its fiscal year 2018.

Marriner noted that Spurrier Media Group, with which it frequently partners on projects, will provide support and additional insights for media strategy.

Marriners strategic approach outlined a clear road map for how to generate more customers, jobs and revenue in Maryland, stated Liz Fitzsimmons, managing director of the Division of Tourism, Film and the Arts. We have great chemistry with the Marriner team and look forward to working together to champion the state and build destination awareness.



Plans call for a new marketing communications strategy, including a new campaign, which will highlight the states attractions, accommodations and services.

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Marriner Vice President of Strategic Partnerships David Melnick stated, Our team is a great blend of Maryland natives and residents from other states. This combination of knowledge and perspective will help us showcase all the reasons that Maryland is a must-visit destination.
It could be a couple of weeks before the courts decide if Ho-Chunk Nation President Wilfrid Cleveland was convicted of a felony in 1972, putting his political career in the hands of a judge.

On May 2, Gary Funmaker filed a lawsuit against Cleveland and the Wisconsin Department of Justice to get a declaratory judgement on whether Cleveland was convicted of a felony or misdemeanor in 1972.

On Jan. 23, 1972, Cleveland struck a cop in the nose and broke the cops glasses trying to flee after getting into the passenger seat of a stolen cop car. He was convicted of battery two weeks later, according to records.

For 35 years, the severity of his conviction was listed as unspecified and not recorded as a misdemeanor or felony.

This case now has widespread implications for Cleveland since the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation cannot be convicted of a felony per the Ho-Chunk Nation Constitution, which states, No person convicted of a felony shall serve as president unless pardoned.

If Cleveland is found to have been convicted of a felony in 1972, he could be impeached as the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation.

Funmaker and several other tribal members have been working since 2007, when Cleveland first ran for president, to get this issue resolved.

We are thinking this is the only way we can put this to rest, Funmaker said. It is not just me, but there are a lot of people wondering if he is a felon.

The question of whether Cleveland is a felon has been slogged through many Ho-Chunk Nation legal actions including a Ho-Chunk Nation trial in 2007 that determined Cleveland was fit to run for president and impeachment proceedings that have taken place three times including last fall when Cleveland was reaffirmed as president after a 405 to 1,386 vote of the General Council.

Funmaker points to the Ho-Chunk Constitution for why he is pursuing Cleveland so vigorously, Either we are going to be a tribe of law, or we are all just going to be out in the field and fight it out.

Attorney Michelle Greendeer was one of the tribal members who spoke in support of Cleveland in the Fall General Council meeting after she talked to Jackson County District Attorney Gerald Fox and researched past impeachments of Ho-Chunk Nation officials.

On top of a letter she received from Fox stating that Cleveland is not a felon, Greendeer points to the three impeachments of presidents since 1997 as one of the main reasons she stood behind Cleveland at the 2016 General Council Meeting.

If you have ever been around when we remove a president, it is rather horrific on a macro scale because not only does a tribal president become ousted, but the vice president seat isnt with the president, so the vice president sits at the Legislature and the Legislature then sends him or her up to the presidential seat for three months or up to a year and that creates an unbalanced government of power, Greendeer said as she concluded that the new president could fire all of the directors, which has happened in the past, and cause morale problems in the Nation.

It was for these reasons and the fact that she felt people deserved to get a review of the facts and not the politics that Greendeer spoke up during the Ho-Chunk Nation General Council meeting last Fall. This is why I thought it was important to look at when people were ousted for president, what were they really ousted for. Was it just because they didnt like the president and they feel he or she has done something wrong or is there a greater influence that can maybe line their personal pockets.

In the end, Greendeer hopes that the presidential removal actions cease so the tribe can more forward. I think at some point in time as this tribe matures like any other country like Honduras or Libya or any of those states, they have to come to a resolution that is best for the people instead of this yo-yo behavior.

How it got here

Funmaker points to a letter from Fox sent May 31, 2007 that states Cleveland was a felon after looking at the 1972 records. Cleveland was charged in a criminal complaint with one count of battery to a police officer, which was characterized as feloniously cause bodily harm contrary to statutes, according to the letter. At the time, Fox argued that offense is unarguably a felony, as the maximum penalty prescribed for this offense was two years imprisonment, as reflected on the face of the complaint, and in the criminal code then in effect, according to the letter.

Fox went on to infer that this conviction had not been reversed, set aside or pardoned. After making this determination, Fox changed Clevelands record to show that he was convicted of a felony in 1972.

Even with this letter by Fox, Cleveland was able to run for president because of a decision made by the Ho-Chunk Nation court in Mike Sallaway v. HCN Election Board, which was heard on May 24, 2007.

Even though he was cleared by the Ho-Chunk Nation courts, Cleveland set out to clear his name since his official record at the time reported him as a felon. He filed an application for executive clemency to be pardoned for his crime on July 20, 2010, which was at the end of Gov. Jim Doyles term.

Clevelands application included more than 10 letters of support from community members including several Native American tribe presidents, past Jackson County officials and some lawyers from across the state.

Clevelands application was not approved by Doyle before he left office and hasnt been approved by Gov. Scott Walker, according to a letter sent by Walkers office in 2017.

In his lawsuit, Funmaker takes aim at several things in Clevelands application for clemency including Clevelands claim that he uses firearms and that he was allowed to supervise felons while they were on parole, both of which would not be allowed if Cleveland was convicted of a felony. Funmaker also points to the fact that Cleveland filed for clemency as proof that Cleveland knows he was convicted of a felony.

The case took another turn on July 30, 2013, when Fox sent a new letter claiming that he had made a mistake when claiming Cleveland had a felony from the 1972 incident.

The import of all of this is that I cannot say that Mr. Cleveland was convicted of a felony offense after all, according to the letter. True, the same statute number is reflected on the JOC, but the literal charge was changed to battery, without the enhancer, and none of the procedural steps, such as either the courts probable cause finding after a preliminary hearing, or a waiver of the preliminary hearing, then the filing of an Information, or waiver of said filing, appear to have taken place.

In this statement, Fox referenced the judgement of conviction, which contradicts itself because it states that Cleveland was convicted for the crime of battery in violation of statute 940.205. The statute number does not reflect the crime because statute 940.205 was battery to a police officer/firemen in 1972, which is what the original complaint was for. At the time, battery was a misdemeanor, while battery to a police officer/firemen was a felony.

These new findings caused Fox to change Clevelands record again, this time changing the severity of the crime to a misdemeanor.

Following further inquiries made over the last month in response to renewed interest in the story because of Funmakers request for a declaratory judgement, Fox wrote another letter on July 19 that gave further proof that Cleveland was not convicted of a felony. Yesterday, however, I realized that the judgement of conviction itself provides conclusively that he was only convicted of a misdemeanor, in that the JOC was entered by the county court of Jackson County, Hon. Louis Drecktrah presiding, and not the circuit court which included Jackson County.

This is a critical distinction, and one which did not dawn on me until I looked at the JOC again yesterday afternoon. You see, prior to the merger of the county and circuit courts by the enactment of the court system reorganization bill in 1977 (effective in 1978), county courts had no power to adjudicate felonies.

Fox believes he has provided enough evidence that shows Cleveland was charged with a misdemeanor, The only thing Im certain about is that he was not convicted of a felony in that 1972 case.

Some members of the Ho-Chunk Nation have accepted Foxs mistake and are moving forward. I think mistakes happen in the human world and if the DA made a mistake and he owns it, which he did, then that is good enough for me, Greendeer said.

Where the case stands now

Funmakers request for a declaratory judgement was made in Jackson County, but will instead be heard by the Monroe County Judge J. David Rice because Funmaker and his legal team feel they would not get a fair trial in Jackson County.

Cleveland and the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ) have provided notice and a motion to dismiss the claims.

Cleveland and his attorneys argue that Rice should dismiss the claim for several reasons including:

The court has a lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter because this matter has been litigated in Ho-Chunk Nation courts;

Fox has already corrected Clevelands official conviction record; and

Funmaker has a lack of standing to sue Cleveland because they claim Funmaker has no personal right to know if Cleveland was convicted of a felony.

In Clevelands motion to dismiss, he also claims that Funmaker has personal interest in this case because he would like to run for president of the Ho-Chunk Nation, which is something Funmaker doesnt deny and said openly that he would like to be the president of the Ho-Chunk Nation. However, he said that is not his motive for pursing a lawsuit against Cleveland saying, We have to stand for our Constitution. Laws are laws and we have to make a stand.

The DOJ has also filed to dismiss the claim against themselves because the DOJ does not feel Funmaker has alleged a dispute with the DOJ, and that Funmakers only dispute is with Cleveland.

In a statement to the Chronicle, Johnny Koremenos, director of communications and public affairs for the DOJ, said, Funmakers allegations against DOJ are not entirely clear. He seems to have some complaint about how DOJ is reporting Clevelands conviction on the Wisconsin Criminal History Database. Initially, DOJ reported the offense as unspecified. Then it was changed to felony and later changed to misdemeanor based on information provided by the Jackson County DA. DOJ does not independently decide how a conviction is classified; it simply reports information provided by law enforcement, prosecutors, courts and the Department of Corrections.

Rice has requested Funmakers attorney to file information to oppose the motions within two weeks and for the parties to file any reply to the opposition two weeks after that.

Rice would then decide the motions based on the written submissions, or if he felt a hearing was necessary, call a hearing.

If the motions to dismiss are denied, it is expected that Rice will hold a hearing on the matter later in the year.

If the declaratory judgement does not go in Funmakers favor, he said he would be happy that this issue is over, If it works in his favor (Clevelands), god bless him, we dont have to talk about it anymore  were done.

The Chronicle made several attempts to talk with Cleveland but he did not return calls for comment.
by Sara Guaglione , July 27, 2017

The New York Times Company revealed strong digital growth, thanks to increases in digital advertising revenue and online subscriptions, in its 2017 second-quarter earnings report released today.

Total advertising revenue grew slightly by $1 million, from the second-quarter in 2016, to $132 million. That marks the first time this category has grown since the third quarter of 2014.

Digital advertising revenue increased 22.5% to $55.2 million. It represents almost 42% of NYTCOs total advertising revenue.

The increase is a result of successful smartphone and programmatic advertising, as well as branded content. It was partially offset by a decrease in traditional website display advertising, according to a statement.

However, NYTCOs second-quarter print advertising revenue decreased 10.5% to $77 million, due primarily to a decline in the luxury, real estate, technology, telecommunications and travel categories.

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As for subscriptions, this was the first time digital-only subscription revenue ($83 million, including NYTCO's Crossword product subscriptions) exceeded print advertising revenue ($77 million).

NYTCO added 93,000 net digital-only subscriptions for its news products in the second quarter of this year. The New York Times now has over 2 million digital-only news subscribers, doubling its digital subscriber base over a two-year period.

Mark Thompson, CEO of the NYT, stated: We believe that more and more people are prepared to pay for high-quality, in-depth journalism that helps them make sense of the world.

Print subscription revenues increased 13.9%. NYTCO credits its decision to raise its home-delivery prices for The New York Times newspaper this year, which offset a decline in the number of print copies sold.

The company brought in $407 million in revenue for the quarter, an increase of 9.2% over the same period in 2016.

Thompson said during an earnings call the newspaper is on track to reach its goal of doubling its digital revenue, to $800 million by 2020.

The NYT has undergone many changes in the second quarter, which ended in late June. It announced it would eliminate its copy desks to streamline the editing process, sparking a protest outside the companys Times Square headquarters.
by Wayne Friedman , July 27, 2017

Discovery Communications is nearing a deal for at least $90 a share to acquire Scripps Networks Interactive, after Viacom's all-cash bid was rejected, according to multiple reports.

The deal would be valued at little more than $12 billion and could be completed next week.

The mid-day Thursday stock price of Scripps Networks was up 2.7% to $86.37. Discovery Communications was virtually flat at $26.49, while Viacom was 3.1% higher to $35.45.

The Scripps family, which controls Scripps Networks, has been looking for a deal with at least 50% or more coming from cash. Sources are saying Discovery is now offering a deal that is 70% cash and 30% Discovery Communications stock.

Media analysts are still mixed in their views on the buy.

Todd Juenger, media analyst for Bernstein Research, wrote on Wednesday: We think Discovery's affiliate fee bargaining power is harmed, not helped, by adding more networks to its portfolio. Discovery will now be coming to the table with 20 networks.

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He adds: To the extent Discovery argues for higher prices at its best networks, including the SNI flagships, we believe MVPDs [multichannel video program distributors] will have full license to offset that with declines (in distribution and/or pricing) at Discovery's weakest networks.

Representatives at Discovery and Scripps did not respond for comment by press time.
by Jess Nelson , July 27, 2017

Smart Reply on both iOS and Android devices will soon support the Spanish language, according to a social media post published by Google.

Spanish compatibility will roll out across Googles entire product line of email applications, including Gmail and Allo.

Powered by artificial intelligence, Smart Reply helps email users quickly reply to incoming messages. The tool provides three possible responses at the bottom of every email received with the phrases tailored to an email user's writing style. Email users can simply select a response, or edit the suggested phrase, before sending mail.

Smart Reply first appeared in Googles Inbox email application in 2015, and has since spread to the technology giants additional email products. In May 2017, Google released the AI-generated response feature to Gmail and Allo as well.

The tool requires users permission for Google to read their email so the technology can suggest appropriate and contextual responses. The more often Smart Reply is used, the better Googles suggested replies become.

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Facing a privacy backlash, Google announced last month that it would no longer be reading users emails for ad targeting. It will continue, however, to scan the content of emails to personalize the Smart Reply feature if the tool is turned on.

In the companys social media post announcing the news, social media users were quick to point out the companys misspelling of the Spanish word for restaurant  restaurante.
by Wendy Davis @wendyndavis, July 27, 2017

In a decision that could affect a lawsuit over President Donald Trump's blocking of Twitter users, a federal judge has ruled that a county official in Virginia violated the First Amendment rights of a local citizen by briefly blocking him on Facebook.

The ruling stems from a lawsuit dating to July of 2016, when Loudoun County, Virginia resident Brian Davison alleged that he was banned from posting on a Facebook page created by Phyllis Randall, chair of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors.

Randall did so after Davison left a post on Randall's Facebook page that included allegations regarding corruption and conflicts of interests at the local school board, according to court documents. Randall later said she did so because she was offended by Davison's criticisms. The ban only lasted for one night, after which Randall lifted it.

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U.S. District Court Judge James C. Cacheris in Alexandria found that Randall violated Davison's free speech rights with the ban.

"By prohibiting plaintiff from participating in her online forum because she took offense at his claim that her colleagues in the county government had acted unethically, defendant committed a cardinal sin under the First Amendment," Cacheris wrote in a decision issued Tuesday.

In the ruling, Cacheris specifically found that Randall's Facebook page served as a "public forum" -- meaning that it was comparable to a park or city streets.

"When one creates a Facebook page, one generally opens a digital space for the exchange of ideas and information," Cacheris wrote. "Defendant did so here, deliberately permitting public comment on her Chair Phyllis J. Randall Facebook page."

The judge added that Randall explicitly encouraged residents to submit comments, including criticisms, to her Facebook page.

While Cacheris found that Randall violated Davison's rights, the judge declined to issue an injunction against Randall, noting that she had already reversed the ban.

Internet law expert Venkat Balasubramani, who called attention to the case in a blog post, wrote that the judge's reasoning "is equally applicable" to Trump's Twitter account.

"What started off looking like a lark of a case could turn into consequential precedent for constraints on the ability of politicians, including President Trump, to block members of the public," he writes.

Earlier this month, seven Twitter users sued Trump for allegedly violating their First Amendment rights by blocking them on the service. That case is pending in federal court in Manhattan.
In the late 1960's when Egbert Adjesu and the Ghana Film Corporation decided to adapt one of the late Bob Cole's concert party plays to screen, little did they know that they were creating a time capsule of nostalgia, wits and immortal characters brought to life by an assembly of talented actors and actresses.

The result was the 1970 Ghanaian classic film, I TOLD YOU SO. For those of us that were born many years after this iconic time in the Ghanaian artscape, we were privy to yearly screenings during Independence Day celebrations in March and Republic Day celebrations in July.

It was during these celebrations that we fell in love with the iconic actress and comedienne, 'Araba Stamp' who melted our hearts and carried us along on her journey of humor and naivete. We never stopped singing along to Kwesi Twii's melodious solos backed by raw yet truthful voices.

Araba Stamp

In our own version of a super-hero, Akonta Esuo Abrobour gifted us with the now popular line, I don't fear huu many days before he would seek shelter in a water barrel known in Asante Twi as 'ankora', which became the visual connection to the film watched by anyone.

On Sunday 6th August, 2017, the Accra International Conference Center, will open its doors to the world for a magical night and awe-inspiring evening of original Ghanaian music, culture, fashion and style from the 70's, and stellar acting prowess in the return of I TOLD YOU SO.

The Global Arts and Development Center (GADEC), creatively helmed by Abdul Karim Hakib (Vagina Monologues, 2015) in partnership with and The Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ghana will take us back in time, to more than 40 years ago, re-creating every single detail and keeping to the accuracy of the time in reconstructing the drama that became a sensation.

I TOLD YOU SO is the story of a fathers' (Kwasi Twii) objection to his daughter's (Rosina) marriage to a rich man (Kwabena Jones). When his wife (Araba Stamp) and her cunning brother (Akonta Esuo Abrobour) defy his wishes, they go ahead to marry Rosina off to Kwabena Jones. Kobina Jones, the said rich man, is not well known by either Araba Stamp or her brother Akonta but his constant display of money and affluence further blinds his victims.

At the wedding ceremony in her father's absence, the police raid the grounds in search of Kobina Jones who it is later revealed, stole some diamonds from the mines and absconded to Nigeria. When the wedding is marred, Kwesi Twii has just returned from an errand to find a group of well-dressed people sitting in sadness, upon hearing the news he utters the now famous words to his daughter 'I TOLD YOU SO. The story chronicles the conflict between families in post-colonial Ghana as they struggle to choose between money and love.

GADEC presents an original stage presentation and fully crafted musical version of the Ghanaian Classic film I TOLD YOU SO opening on Sunday, 6th August 2017 and showing twice at 4pm and 8pm. Tickets are available at Star FM, Batsoona Total Filling Station, Airport Shell, Osu Koala, the Department of Theatre Arts, University of Ghana and at the gates of the Accra International Conference Centre. Tickets start at Ghc60 for singles and Ghc100 for couples.

Previews begin at the end of July to select audiences and the press across the country. This adaptation will feature live vocal performances from the cast backed by a range of talented instrumentalists and musicians in their own right, fashion and style carefully curated, crafted and modelled after those of the era which is being presented, among other surprises.

This production is sponsored by GTP, Uber Ghana, Peak Milk and Other 1 Recording Studios and supported by Ghana Tourism Authority, Globe Productions, Bambu Center, Ghana Culture Forum and Kofas Media. For any enquiry on this event, contact the following numbers; 0209021991 or 074053681.
Minister for Tourism, Culture & Arts, Madam Catherine Afeku, has applauded Ghanaian beauty queen, Rebecca Asamoah, for her recent performance at the 2017 edition of Miss United Nations pageant in Kingston, Jamaica.

The 25-year-old queen, who made her country proud at the world pageant, placed second after beating several other contestants from over 80 countries to come close to winning the ultimate crown. Olga Makhlevskaia from Russia was the overall winner, while Rebecca and Mexican queen, Irais Carbajal, took the first and second runners-up respectively.

It is the Ghanaian's third win in three years after she was crowned Miss Ghana 2015 runner-up and winner of Miss Africa Continent in South Africa.

She paid a courtesy call on the Ministry for Tourism, Culture & Creative Arts last week to present the crown to Madam Catherine Afeku, who disclosed that she was impressed with her performance which, indeed, raised the flag of Ghana high out there.

According to her, Rebecca portrayed and represented Ghana very well and as a result, Ghanaians should celebrate and support her efforts.

She also pledged her ministry's support to any social responsibility project that she would embark on to better and help change lives of people from various communities.

The Miss UN grand finale was held on July 8 in Jamaica. It is a humanitarian pageant which helps to better the lives of persons around the world. It identifies and showcases world's best tourism cause ambassadors, those who have the skills, talents and personalities best suited to promote their respective countries in furtherance of tourism, international goodwill and cultural harmony. Apart from a strong emphasis on goodwill tourism protection programmes and destinations promotion, the pageant also supports environmental protection via strategised programmes.

Rebecca is the first Ghanaian queen to take part in the pageant.

By Francis Addo (Twitter: @fdee50 Email: [email protected] )
The junior high school graduate from Berekum, whose explicit video has topped social media trends for almost a week now, has threatened to sue her critics if they continue to insult her.

Rashia Muhammed, popularly known as Rashida Black Beauty, became the talk of the town last week when a video showing her stark nakedness started to circulate on social media sites.

The video sparked an uproar, with several persons passing rather unprintable insults on the lady. Some have called for her arrest, while others have suggested she needs some urgent psychological attention.

Apparently unsettled by the continuous insults, Rashida has put out another video on social media in which she described half of Ghanaians as fools who are in a haste to criticise before they investigate.

You're here in Ghana fooling, even people in US and UK are calling me and you in Ghana. Almost half of Ghanaians are fools. When something happens instead of you to find out the cause, all you do is to start insulting the personIf you joke with me, what I'll do to you, I'll let the law deal with you. If you are foolish then keep on insulting me, she said in the video.

In the same video, Rashida was heard asking her critics whether they did not come from the female organ and why they were overly-excited after seeing her organ.

This outburst is in sharp contrast to a rather sober apology Rashida first put out not long after the naked video started making rounds.

Her first response on July 21 and posted on her Facebook wall at 2:29pm read: Hello Ghana, I am sorry and I regret my actions, there is a lot of explanation to this video but I guess the harm has already been done so no one will be willing to hear what I have to say or tell them. All I want to say is I regret my actions and I hope Ghanaians do forgive me  Thank You!

Then on July 22 at 7:59am, Rashida, again, posted another apology on Facebook:

Good morning people of Ghana. Well, I took time to read all the comments that came in on my apology post yesterday as well as comments circulating on social media about the video and I realised that majority of the comments were all insults and just filthy talks about me which I wont say I dont deserve, yes I know that for my actions I do deserve all those things said about me.

But let me make this clear: If you are a lady here and you have sent a nude of yourself to your guy before and if you are a guy and you have also received a nude from your girlfriend before, I will say you are no better person than I am. I admit I have made a very big mistake with some even thinking that I made that video on purpose just for fame and exposure, which I know is false, I wasnt the one who released the video as well. Thanks to friends and sympathisers who called to console me, I really do appreciate it.

And as I said in my previous post, trying to explain will make things worse so I will just repeat what I said yesterday one more time  Yes I know the harm has already been done but I have learnt my lessons and I do promise to never repeat this, may the Good Lord and Ghanaians forgive me.
27.07.2017 LISTEN

Today I should not have published. Spending several days in Kumasi, conducting interviews in English and expecting my respondents to answer me in English, do you get the trouble? Then later I ended up eating what looked like a fermented okro stew. Yester night, it was not easy at all oo, come and see me and myself, battling it out somewhere, and holding myself together.

But reading the revelations, and the counter revelations, from Ghanas Electoral Commissioners was even more annoying. It made me feel like I should have remained in that bush, it would have served me better, than getting to know who in the Electoral Commission stole the most money.

Today I vowed to conclude my series on the University of Education. But Charlotte Osei and her friends have ensured that I have a divided attention; currently I am writing on the issue of the university while thinking about the thieves within the Electoral Commission. This is exactly what Simpa Panyin hates; adults who steal, and blame it on others when they are caught, and find reasons why they are being witch-hunted, and we find our politicians jumping to their defense.

These are some of the instances that make me wish the Sharia Law, whatever it looks like, was introduced in Ghana. There are too many polished faces who are simply rotten within, all taking public salute, and being celebrated in our churches and mosques. All these have made going to church and mosques an ordeal, the church, a center for the celebration of God, or a center for the celebration of thieves?

Anyway, I will not allow Charlotte Osei and her seeming brigade of thieves to deprive me of concluding my series on the University of Education. I will not be distracted, even if the final product is not as good as Simpa Panyin has been known for, I will still resist the temptation presented to me presently.

So I returned from Kumasi yesterday, after leaving that bush. As I drove pass Bekwai, through Yamoransa, where I bought some great fante kenkey and some fresh fried fish, I kept thinking to myself; what is it that can be done to turn the University of Education around? What could my role be in getting this piece of institution match the world with its existence?

The University recently put itself to test; expired governing council, alleged unchecked administration, legal suits, shut down, re-opened, suspension of principal officers, all bordering on accountability, and the soul of the university.

I have received several scores of messages, and calls, and delegations, and visitors, from all manner of people, students, alumni members, staff, lecturers, those for and against, all have shared their stories. I have received each person with fair mind, the neutral, the worried, and all.

I am happy that finally we have a breather; last week a new Governing Council of the University was established, and inaugurated, with an Acting Vice Chancellor, Reverend Father Professor Anthony Afful Broni, sworn in. The new Council, Chaired by Professor Abakah, a former Pro Vice Chancellor of the University, has held its first council meeting, and, at least, we now have some stability, after nearly eight weeks of solid storm.

I am a firm believer in the fact that nothing gets better if it does not initially get rotten. When you sow maize, it will have to rot, before it germinates to give you corn. Yam will first rot before it sprouts, and cassava will do same before it grows its stems. That is why the temporary turbulence that the University of Education is going through may as well be the treatment that is necessary for its health.

Nearly all the universities in Ghana have had their share of storms, but they have all come out solid. The Methodist University College was nearly lynched for their indebtedness to a bank. As members of the Methodist Church, we were called upon to contribute to redeem the school. Just when we thought the storm was over, the school was again hit with a scandal, over one hundred students threatened to sue the university because of accreditation issues.

The story is not different from those of UCC, KNUST, UG, UDS, and many others. They have all gone through their storms, with many still managing the remnant thereof.

Many of us have been alumni members of other universities, beside the University of Education, and, I dare say that UEW is still in the top five universities in the country.

In September 2001, I had the honor of organizing the Congress of the National Union of Ghanaian Students (NUGS) in Cape Coast. I was then the National Programs Officer of the union, and my cohort was ending its term, so this congress was to elect a new cohort to take over the affairs of the union.

Contesting for the Presidency of the Union, at the time, were Dr. Edward Omane Boamah (the immediate past Communications Minister under President John Mahama), and Honorable Edward Bawa (the current MP for Bongo). Omane Boamah was then a medical student at Korle Bu, while Edward Bawa was a level 300 student at the University of Education, Winneba; essentially a Legon versus Winneba affair. The contest ended with Edward Bawa beating Omane Boamah to become the President of the union.

In the year 2013, a lecturer friend of mine, Professor Yaw Sakyi Baidoo, introduced a young lady, Juanita Sallah, to me in my office. Juanita had developed interest in human trafficking, and therefore was exploring opportunities to create awareness on the issue. As we sat in my office listening to Juanita, I kept murmuring in my head, wow...! Wow! I could not help but to admire the strings of new words, beautifully crafted and spoken, and the attendant flow of confidence that made me wonder if Juanita schooled in Ghana. Juanita later went on to work with Radio XYZ, a stint with Citi FM, and lately GHone Television, and now runs her own organization, Quest GH Network.

Both Juanita and Edward Bawa are alumni members of the University of Education, and both of them are competing in their own worlds, one in politics, and the other in the media.

There are several hundreds of thousands of Bawas and Juanitas out there in the world who graduated from the University of Education that we must be proud of. The University of Ghana, and many of the other public universities, have been able to successfully market themselves, better than the University of Education, and that has made a lot of difference for them.

Our students are taught by similarly qualified lecturers. Professor Ansah Koi for instance taught me Political Science when I was studying in Legon. That was even before he became a lawyer, and a professor. Today Professor Ansah Koi teaches MPhil Human Rights at the University of Education, even more qualified than when he was teaching me in Legon.

Brew Riverson Jr was once the face of Ghanas film industry, starring in sold-out films that greeted our screens. Today he teaches Theatre Arts at the University of Education. Dr. Andy Birikorang is one of a very few Development Communication scholars in the country, having earned his PhD in Ohio. He elected to join the Communication and Media Studies Department of the University of Education, in the face of several competing interests for his services.

If you are a corporate entity, and you have engaged any Communications Studies graduate from the University of Education, you should stand proud, that you have hired a communications specialist who passed through the hands of persons such as Yaw Boadu Ayeboafo, Tim Acquah-Hayford, and Joseph Allotey Pappoe, these are part of the cream in Ghanas communications space.

UEW is one Ghanaian university that has gone through the most changes, and transitions, and this speaks for its internal resilience. One campus started off as Kwame Nkrumah Ideological Institute, to train international activists in Pan African politics, and thinking, and we are proud that President Robert Mugabe, the bravest African President, is an alumnus of this institution.

We stand proud that change has been part of us every step of the way. We hold ourselves as the center of knowledge, teaching and practice. This is the only public university in the country that makes six months industrial practice come naturally to its first degree students.

So, yes, what the University of Education is going through might have been the rotten period, discovering for itself the bottled potential, the eruption of truth, and of a period in history, a period which will allow all of us to reflect, a test of the true colors of an institution that faces the wind, blue and red, adorned in our hearts, and we know that once all the dry leaves are shed, we shall match on, and shall be counted as thorough bred products of Winneba, and all the saints shall say...
Accra, July 25, GNA - The Coalition of CSO has called on the Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Constitutional, Legal and Parliamentary Affairs to exercise discretion under the Constitution to allow for broad consultation on the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill.

The Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 was laid before Parliament.

A statement issued in Accra by Nana Osei-Bonsu, Chairman Ghana Anti-Corruption Coalition (GACC), said the Coalition was concerned with the manner in which the Bill was laid before Parliament: under a Certificate of Urgency, and the expectation that the Bill would be passed before Parliament rises in the first week of August 2017.

It said the Coalition shares the same desire with the President to see the Office established as soon as possible, that desire should not undermine the need for broad public consultation and thorough review of the Bill.

'Besides, a key objective of the Bill is to establish an independent office that will be able to deal with corruption involving political exposed persons and to avoid accusations of 'witch hunting',' it added.

The statement said to accomplish that objective required that opportunity was provided for groups and interested citizens to make inputs into the legislation and this would ensure the legitimacy of the office and needed public support.

The Coalition will use the opportunity during the recess to engage with the Committee, Leadership of House and the general public to ensure a credible Bill is passed with the full support of the public.

It said fortunately for Ghana, the creation of an office of special prosecutor was one subject matter that both the New Patriotic Party (NPP) and the National Democracy Congress (NDC) agree and ably captured in their 2016 manifestoes.

'We also wish to commend the effort of the NDC led 6th Parliament for adopting the National Anti-Corruption Action Plan (NACAP) in 2014 as well as the 7th Parliament led by the NPP for committing to implement the NACAP, which provides for the establishment of an Independent Prosecution Authority under its Strategic Objective 4 (13),' it said.

The Coalition has, therefore, called on the Speaker of Parliament and the Leadership of Parliament to reduce partisan bickering on an idea that both sides of Parliament fully endorsed under the NACAP and focus on the serious challenge of tackling corruption in Ghana, an agenda that Ghanaians overwhelmingly support.

GNA
The Directors of Education (CODE)-Ghana has launched their 2017 Annual Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) at the Auditorium of University of Energy and Natural Resources (UENR) in Sunyani, aimed to chart the way forward in addressing challenges confronting the education sector.

The 24th Annual Conference of Directors of Education (CODE) which will take place in Sunyani from August 12th to 19th, is under the theme: Providing Inclusive and Equitable Education for the youth: The Gateway to Lifelong Opportunities.

Speaking in an interview with Sunyani based radio Metro 90.5FM, during the launch of the programme, the National President of COD, Mrs. Margaret Frempong Kore, said there is renewed awareness among policy makers in the country about the critical role that District Directors play in shaping the youth in accordance with the way to administer and manage pre tertiary education to help implementation of the educational policies for national development.

Mrs. Margaret Frempong Kore, speaking on the theme said, inclusivity and equitability would guarantee lifelong opportunities for teeming youth who are suffering from unemployment in a country that abound with many opportunities.

It is not my intention to bore you with these roles Directors have to play so as to achieve quality, inclusive and equitable education for the youth. It is only education that can catapult the youth for the competitive job market.

She called on all the Municipal and District Directors of education to step up their monitoring, supervision and evaluation roles and further appealed to major stakeholders such as political heads including parents to take key interest in how to help achieve quality education in the country.

If all of us as stakeholders play our various roles very well, quality education could be achieved and that would also help the country acquire good human resource for effective development and growth, the National President stressed.

I wish to admonish us to take TVET seriously for one of the most important features of TVET is its orientation towards the world of work and the emphasis of the curriculum on the acquisition of employable skills she stated.

According to Mrs. Margaret Frempong Kore, Directors are prepared to work for the success of the free SHS, when resource is provided and in good time.

She therefore appealed to the security agencies and Nananom in the region to give them the necessary assistance and protection when the actual conference comes off from Sunday 13th to Saturday, 19th of August, 2017.

Meanwhile, Hon. Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, the Sunyani Municipal Chief executive (MCE), who launched the occasion, said the Conference will provide the platform for decisive and pragmatic discourse which will advance pursuit for quality education for young ones more importantly, I cannot help but say that I know that your conference is poised for the smooth takeoff of one of the NPP Governments flagship programmes, Free SHS she added.

Hon. Evelyn Ama Kumi-Richardson, said education improves the well-being of individuals and the economic and social development of societies.

She also said NPP Government has not reneged on its promise to improve the status of education in Ghana.

NPP government commitment to the improvement of education in the country, the government, under the leadership of H.E the President of the Republic of Ghana, Nana AddoDankwaAkufo-Addo, will roll out the much anticipated Free Senior High School (SHS) programme in September, 2017, in keeping to its Manifesto promise of ensuring that quality education is brought to the doorsteps of every Ghanaian child.

The MCE said the aim for programme is to shift the structure and content of education system from merely passing examinations to build character, nurturing values, and raising literate, confident, and engaged citizens who can think critically.

As Directors of Education, your role in ensuring the success of this programme cannot be overemphasized. Your leadership skills as well as your monitoring machinery and systems will determine how well or not this programme would go to better the lives of our youth who are our future leaders she added.
Ive never been a Birkenstock boy  not only because of the cost for the fancy-schmancy sandals but also because I didnt inhale pot, and everybody knew that Birkenstockers did.

(Along those lines, I believe that Puff the Magic Dragon remains one of Peter Paul and Marys greatest hits.)

I didnt even wear sandals until Kate wedged me into a pair only after I consented to try the off brand, on clearance. Of course, then I had to put up with her constant yammerin that youre not supposed to wear socks with sandals.

Truth be told, Ive found sources that not only dispute that fact but also have tips on how to wear socks with Birkenstocks. (Cool, then a guy could even go to a sock hop in his Birkenstocks without having to stop and take off the Birkes to put on his sockies.)

BTW, the top urban dictionary definition of Birkenstocks is: Sandals worn by liberals, women in Vermont, and for some unknown reason, evangelical youth pastors trying to appeal to young adherents of Christianity.

Im not sure how the women in Vermont are that much different from those in Minnesota, and the youth pastor angle spawned a variety of references to and jokes about the pothead-for-Jesus look.

At any rate, the countercultural symbol eventually morphed into the trademark look of the well-heeled.

But now, the German company that produces Birkenstocks has come up with a way to knock anybodys socks off: a $799 pair of sandals with a nautical theme.

The new offering, which the company describes as featuring the finest imbued and oiled natural leather in navy blue is festooned with sterling-silver buckles in your choice of nautical knots or anchors.

If youre hankerin for a pair, youd better get your boots scootin to snag them, because these sticker-shockers are strictly a limited edition. And Id wager you wont find any leftover markdowns at Kates home-away-from-home, aka T.J. Maxx.

Land sakes! These Birkes not only are way above my pay grade but also far removed from my status in life. I cant imagine who would pay so much, or why. On the other foot, maybe folks with unlimited amounts of money burning holes in their Gucci jeans have to spend it somehow, somewhere.

OK, I sound like a whiner. On the other hand, I hurt because I stubbed my toe when I tripped over a slew of expensive sandals and  believe it or else  outrageously priced flip-flops while researching this topic.

Im not making that up: A pair of Bottega-Veneta-Crocodile Flip-Flop Sandals at Needless Mark-Ups, aka, Neiman Marcus, cost an eye-popping $620.

DO YOU REALIZE that a minimum-wage worker would have to labor more than two weeks to be able to afford a pair of those  and that would be before taxes. Not that a minimum-wage worker would want them.

That rivals the average monthly rent in La Crosse, stands a couple of hundred bucks higher than the national average car payment and  yipes  matches almost to the penny what I paid for my first car, a 1963 Volkswagen bug.

And heres the rub: The $620 flip-flops dont look one iota different from those you can snag at a Dollar Store for, well, a buck.

Birkenstocks have come, as they used to say, a long way, baby, since German shoemaker Konrad Birkenstock came up with the no-brainer idea that shoes would be more comfortable with soles contoured like the bottom of a foot, according to encyclopedia.com.

In 1897, Birkenstock invented a flexible insole to increase comfort, and he obtained a toehold on the European market. Nearly seven decades later, his grandson Karl ratcheted up the idea to invent a shoe with a cork sole shaped like a footprint, according to encyclopedia.com.

Birkenstocks debuted in the United States in 1966, after Margo Fraser, a German native who had immigrated to the United States, visited her homeland and tried a pair.

She found them to be the most comfortable shoes she had ever worn, ending the foot pain she had experienced for years, encyclopedia.com notes. She brought them back to the United States and began to sell them from her home.

When she pitched the product to store owners, they laughed their socks off and said American women never would buy the boxy, plain shoes.

Opting to approach less conventional customers, Fraser began hawking the shoes in health food stores, meeting with such success that specialty shoe stores also began selling them.

The Birkes became popular in the late 1960s and 1970s, mainly among the hippie set, but their popularity waned when society took a conservative tilt in the 1980s.

They made a yuge comeback in the late 1990s and early in this century, with styles expanding to mens and womens formal shoes and hiking boots.

Fueling the revival were aging baby boomers who had grown fond of Birkenstocks during their salad days, according to the fundinguniverse.com website.

Birkenstocks still are made in Germany and sold through the companys American arm, but their success generated dozens of knock-offs, including some made in the good old U.S. of A.

Aficionados of the style are slavishly devoted, and I dare not knock their preferences, leaving each to his own.

With all due respect, I just dont see Birkenstock sandals and other shoes of that ilk as my solemates  even if offered for free.
27.07.2017 LISTEN

The Open Arms Ministries/Jesus Chapel, in Kumasi has marked the second anniversary of the selection of its General Overseer, Apostle Kofi Nkansah-Sarkodie, as a representative of Jesus in Ghana.

It follows the choice and declaration of Ghana and Kumasi as the nation and headquarters of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on Earth.

Two years ago, Apostle Kofi Nkansah-Sarkodie announced that Ghana has been chosen as the nation of Church of the Lord Jesus Christ on Earth with Kumasi as the headquarters meaning blessings have been bestowed on Ghana and that every Ghanaian living in Ghana and elsewhere will receive abundant blessing and Gods favour on condition that he or she becomes a Christian and worships the Lord in spirit and truth.

By the declaration, the territorial boundaries of Kumasi were demarcated in the spiritual realm to comprise the areas from the outskirts of Besease near Ejisu through the outskirts Lake District, Anhwiankwanta, Toase, Akropong Ashanti, Akom on the Offinso Road, Kona on the Ashanti Mampong Road and the outskirts of Bonwire and back to Besease.

The coronation is said to have happened in heaven on July 12, 2015 and has since July 19, 2015 been announced during a church service at North Suntreso in Kumasi to the church, the nation and the world at large.

Following the designation of Ghana as chosen nation of the church, the territorial land, air, sea and under the earth areas of Ghana is said to be enjoying immunity from satanic activities.

Addressing a section of the media and his congregation in Kumasi on Thursday (July 19) to mark the occasion, Apostle Nkansah-Sarkodie alias Saint Sark said the NDC dug its own grave by allowing the NPP to outwit them with their campaign messages.

Apostle Nkansah-Sarkodie said at the at the meeting dubbed Ghanas special independence day, that besides the One district, one factory policy, the NPP also endeared itself to the electorate with the promises of fighting corruption, free Senior High School education, health insurance and unemployment, Saint Sark indicated

According to the Man of God, the NDCs biggest mistake was complacency premised on the numerous projects scattered across the country which importance and essence they failed to explain in the face of economic hardships.

He said even though the NPP and NDC are the same, the NDC failed to see through the NPPs campaign strategy and allowed it to score political points when they could have deflated them and cited an instance that even though both NPP and NDC benefited from the Woyome cash, the NDC sat aloof for the NPP to use the corruption mantra and the promise of retrieving the money from the NDC financier.

The General Overseer of the Open Arms Ministries/Jesus Chapel further pointed out that the last straw that broke the camels back was the Rawlings factor emphasizing that 70% of NDC membership depended on the founder and that any attempt to discard and ignore him was as good as forming a new party altogether.

According to him, there are NDC members who did not know John Dramani Mahama but the party failed to educate its following on seeing NDC in the Umbrella as the NPP made the Elephant known to its supporters and continued to project JDM as a person.

In all sincerity, the rejection of Mr. Rawlings by the NDC, who by all standards is the most popular living Ghanaian politician in Ghana cost the party in the elections, he said.
Bamako (AFP) - Two German UN peacekeepers were killed Wednesday when their helicopter crashed as they were monitoring clashes in northern Mali, German and UN officials said.

UN diplomats confirmed that the attack helicopter and the crew had been supplied by Germany to MINUSMA, the UN mission in Mali.

"Sadly we now know that two Bundeswehr (German army) soldiers have given their lives for our country," German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said in Berlin late Wednesday.

According to German army Vice Admiral Joachim Georg Ruehle, standing beside her, the helicopter crew did not issue any distress calls and there were no firm indications as to the cause of the crash which happened at around 1220 GMT, 70 kilometres (40 miles) north of the city of Gao.

The army believes the helicopter was the victim of "a massive technical failure," the German magazine Der Spiegel reported.

MINUSMA in a statement confirmed the two UN peacekeepers had been killed and that the crash was thought to have been the result of a mechanical failure.

A UN source in Gao said earlier that nothing at this stage would suggest the aircraft was hit or shot at as it monitored fighting in the area.

The United Nations operation, launched in 2013, is considered the UN's most dangerous peacekeeping mission, with dozens of its staff killed over the last four years.

Helicopter operations suspended

Germany has reinforced its presence in Mali this year, deploying several Tiger combat helicopters and raising the number of Germans serving in MINUSMA to 639 as of June, the army's largest presence overseas.

France has expressed hope its European neighbour will do more in the poor and insecure Sahel region.

Following Wednesday's crash all helicopter operations have been suspended, Von der Leyen said.

The crash comes two years after two Dutch UN peacekeepers died when their Apache attack helicopter crashed in northern Mali.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

Fighting between the Gatia pro-government group and the CMA former rebel alliance close to the city of Kidal claimed numerous victims on Wednesday, a military source within the UN mission said, separate to the clashes near Gao.

A local official accused the rebels of using "jihadist back-up" to gain an advantage over the pro-government fighters.

The groups' disputes threaten the future of a peace deal they signed in 2015 aimed at curbing northern uprisings and keeping the jihadists in check, according to the UN.

'Supreme sacrifice'

MINUSMA chief Mahamat Saleh Annadif said Wednesday his staff were "devastated by the crash".

"All MINUSMA personnel and myself salute the supreme sacrifice made by peacekeepers," he said in a statement posted on the mission's Facebook page.

In 2012, key cities in Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.

Germany has supplied both NH90 Caiman transport and Tiger attack helicopters to the UN force in Mali, MINUSMA

Former rebels still control the northern city of Kidal, and fighting between groups previously loyal to the Tuareg rebellion and pro-government militia is common, in violation of a ceasefire.

The United Nations has condemned such violations by the combatants, but the state is absent from much of Mali's northern territory and its terrain is very difficult to traverse.
Pretoria (AFP) - Police brutality, "fake news" propaganda and official cover-ups at the height of apartheid have been laid bare in a South African court probing the death of a communist activist 46 years ago.

Ahmed Timol, a 29-year-old anti-apartheid volunteer, was arrested in Johannesburg in October 1971 and after five days in detention he died after plummeting from the city's police headquarters.

Officers at the time said he took his own life -- a verdict endorsed by an inquest -- but his family fought the ruling and campaigned hard to secure a review that finally began on June 26.

A former officer in the feared security branch which held Timol and was involved in sabotaging anti-apartheid groups, has spoken out about his squad's brutal techniques in court.

"(I saw) a man's testicles being crushed like pepper," said Paul Erasmus, now 61, who joined the unit after Timol's death.

"Electric shocks were used very widely... as all the detectives had little shock machines (adapted) from the old telephone system."

Officers referred to the boxes as "Radio Moscow" because of the leftist leanings of many of the detainees, he said.

'Physical assault in custody'

Pathologist Shakeera Holland told the hearing in Pretoria that Timol's body, including his face, was covered in bruises and scratches.

"Most of the bruises... were not consistent with a fall from a height," said Holland. "(He) sustained physical assault while in police custody."

Erasmus told AFP he had personally beaten several detainees during his career.

Significantly for Timol's family, who are convinced he was pushed from the 10th floor window, Erasmus revealed that a brigadier known as "the sweeper" was responsible for covering up police crimes.

This picture taken on June 12, 2017 shows a general view of the Johannesburg Central Police Station, formerly known as John Vorster Square which was the site of the death of political activist and detainee Ahmed Timol

"They'd sweep up the bits and sort it out," said Erasmus, who kept diaries of his 17 year-long service and admitted he was attracted to the work by "the James Bond secret agent thing".

Stephanie Kemp, a communist anti-apartheid fighter, told the court that one of the party's pamphlets appeared to have been doctored following Timol's death to apparently endorse suicide in detention as a resistance tactic.

Erasmus also disclosed that the police investigations branch was headed by a man considered by his colleagues so brutal and anti-semitic that he was given the moniker "Little Hitler".

He then told the court how he became an expert at forging struggle icon Desmond Tutu's signature, using it to reply to a wealthy US heiress who had offered him funds, declining the money.

In his role in the police's psychological warfare unit, Erasmus said he also produced propaganda to persuade foreign leaders to cut ties to the banned African National Congress (ANC) party.

"People call it 'fake news' today. Sometimes to stir the pot, sometimes to create false impressions -- but the heart of it was to sow disunity in the liberation movement," he said.

Erasmus appeared in court with wiry shoulder-length grey hair, carrying a dog-eared year book and wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket.

Former anti-apartheid activist Mohamed Timol, brother of the late Ahmed Timol, who died in police custody in October 1971, shows the Order Of Luthuli Award bestowed posthumously on his brother

His evidence has included some of the most significant disclosures about the apartheid system since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which concluded in 1998.

Erasmus, granted partial amnesty at the TRC, also revealed that he was involved in efforts to make another activist who died in police custody appear to have been suicidal.

"We were told that Neil Aggett hung himself and told to prove he was suicidal from the day he was born," Erasmus said.

A subsequent inquest found that the white anti-apartheid activist died by hanging and that police were not to blame. But human rights lawyer George Bizos argued at the time that his suicide was induced.

'History is on our side'

Marjorie Jobson of the Khulumani apartheid victim support group described the claim as a major development for the family of Aggett who died in 1982.

The revelation visibly affected Jobson, who was in court, prompting her to describe the review as a "second wave of testimonies".

Bizos, also present for the review, said that criminal charges could still be brought against those implicated in the Timol case.

"The people whose loved ones were killed by the regime want to come to terms with themselves," he said. "They want an acknowledgement that their lives counted."

Bizos, one of Nelson Mandela's closest personal confidants, said that the review could have far-reaching consequences.

"Truth has a way of floating to the top. We are pleased to also reinforce this for people who were in favour of apartheid -- and we encourage them to come forward," he said.

Bizos said that he expected more case reviews, adding "history is on our side."

The court plans to hear evidence next week from policemen present at the scene of Timol's death.
The Member of Parliament for Krowor who doubles as the Minister for Fisheries and Aquaculture Development Elizabeth Afolley Quaye over the weekend partnered with Mandogue Foundation to de-worm over thousand residents of Krowor constituency.

The program dubbed Free Homowo Deworming Exercise forms part of the activities earmarked by the MP and Mandoque Foundation for this year's Homowo celebration.

Speaking at the program, the founder of Mandoque Foundation and Assembly Member for Ofankor Electoral Area, Humu Dilly Saeed reiterated that her foundation will partner stakeholders to roll out pro-poor and humanitarian services to the vulnerable in society.

In society, one cannot wait to become a president or minister before you give back to society, on your own little way, you can touch somebody, she said

She added that, though her outfit has been in existence for less than a year, they have embarked upon numerous projects in the areas of human resource building, sanitation, education sensitization.

Humu seized the opportunity to extend gratitude to Samuel Amo Tobbin Foundation and the Member of Parliament for Krowor for supporting a worthy course and called on cooperate organisations to assist in their impending program of free National Health Insurance Registration

On her part, the Member of Parliament Elizabeth Afolley Quaye pledged to work unremittingly to enhance the livelihood of her constituents.

The Krowor lawmaker applauded partners of the program and also emphasised the need and importance of regular de-worming.

This is a way of educating the people on their health and the need to de-worm themselves and bringing to their doorsteps free de-worming she added

She used the opportunity highlight some key developmental interventions she intends to bring to the constituency.

The minister also expressed her willingness to lend a hand to development agencies like Mandoque foundation to develop the area.



By: Seidu Shieba Anass/Citifmonline/Ghana
Minister of Communications, Ursula Owusu has said the Electoral Commission's (EC) figures representing monies it accrued from accreditation fees issued for the 2016 December elections do not add up.

The Chairperson of the Commission, appeared before Parliament on Wednesday to brief the house on how much the commission made from the controversial fees it charged journalists for accreditation ahead of the 2016 general elections.

Making a case for her submission, Madam Owusu said : When the Chairperson was making her presentation, she indicated that 4,271 applications were received for media persons and they charged them 10 cedis each for the accreditation in addition to that 273 media persons were accredited without any charge because they were at the national collation centre and they paid the centre a total of 42,713 cedis for all these cards that they processed so if you add 4,271 to 273 you get 4, ,544 . Now by my calculation she said the printer charged them 8 cedi per card without the fee. Multiplying the 8 by the 4,544 will give you 36, 352. She further indicated that they paid 10 cedi because they added VAT to the 8 cedi charge which will be two additional fees and that will bring the total to 45,440 and yet she told us that they paid a total of 42,113 so it does not add up.

She added that Now in her response she[Charlotte Osei] indicated that they were not actual figures..She said they just extracted figures based on the amount in their coffers as against the amount they paidshe said she was not the one who actually paid those monies and these were the figures that she quoted from the records and it just did not add up because going by her own calculation, they either paid too little or too much to the printers and where did the rest of the money go?

Meanwhile Charlotte Osei has said that that commission has not spent monies it accrued from the replacement of voter IDs for Ghanaians ahead of the 2016 December elections.

According to her, the EC made GH2.5 million from the replacement process.

Answering an urgent question filed by the Member of Parliament for Subin, Eugene Antwi on how much the Commission accrued from the process and how it expended it, Charlotte Osei said all monies were currently in the Commission's account at GCB Bank.

This is despite a regulation that demands that the money was added to the consolidated funds.

Charlotte Osei said it was an oversight that the money was not transferred to the consolidated funds.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
27.07.2017 LISTEN

Outspoken former Attorney General, Martin Amidu feels the Minority in Parliament's reaction to the CIDs Monday raid on the residence of former Power Minister, Dr. Kwabena Donkor, as part of investigations into the controversial AMERI deal, was a slap in the face of the values of the National Democratic Congress (NDC), of which it represents.

Mr. Amidu, also an NDC member, in reaction to the Minority's comments on the raid, said he felt ashamed that legislators from his own political party had called the raid, which was backed by a search warrant, unjustified.

He expressed further reservations saying he felt strongly that the Minoritys actions were against the founding values and principles of the NDC rooted in probity and accountability, adding that the Minority were creating the impression former ministers were entitled to some insurance against the commission or suspected commission of crimes for which they voted us [the NDC] out of office.

[AD]I feel ashamed that my own political party that is now recognized under the 1992 Constitution, as the official opposition in the current Parliament charged with making laws and being a watch dog for the citizens will call a search warrant issued by a lower court with constitutional and statutory powers to do so as an inadequate defence for searching a citizen of Ghana's residence simply because he is a fellow Member of Parliament.

Mr. Amidu also expressed contempt for what he called the double standards exhibited by the Minority.

I hate the hypocrisy, double standards and audacity of the Minority in Parliament to unlawfully and unconstitutionally impede the police in the performance of their duties contrary to their very oaths of office as Members of Parliament, simply because of their colleague, Hon. Dr. Kwabena Donkor, is now under suspicion of crime in relation to the stinking AMERI contracts.

Dr. Kwabena Donkor

The Minority, in its condemnation of the raid on the residence of Dr. Donkor alleged that the move was carefully engineered by the Akufo-Addo administration to silence opposition critics.

The CID was searching for evidence implicating the former minister in financial loss to the State, as a result of his involvement in the AMERI deal.

The cost of the AMERI deal was $510m and received Parliamentary approval on March 20, 2015. However, it emerged that the country had been shortchanged by the company, according to the current government.

[AD]The reports said the Mahama government had paid in excess of $150m, but State officials of that government disagreed.

The Minority had reservations with the fact the warrant for the raid on Dr. Kwabenas residence was based on the order of a lower court, whilst contending that the integrity of citizen's private communication was safeguarded per law.

The Minority also expressed displeasure with the fact Dr. Donkor was apparently unaware he was the subject of any investigation until he was shown the court order that he is a suspect in any investigation.

Aside from this, the Minority said the CID's actions were impeding the work of a sitting member of Parliament, amounting to contempt of Parliament under article 122 of the Constitution.

Mr. Amidu's had some responses to some of the concerns in his reaction, which came via an article on his website, rubbishing among others, concerns a lower court could not have adequately issued the warrant.

Find below a section of Mr. Amidu's article. The full article can be viewed here .

First, it is untrue to say that because the suspected offender is a Member of Parliament a lower court could not have adequately issued the warrant for the search of his residence.

[AD]Second, it is also untrue that because the suspected offender is a Member of Parliament, his residence could not be searched early in the morning because it cannot be said that the search was executed while he is on his way to, attending at or returning from, any proceedings of Parliament.

Third, the Minority knew that article 18 of the 1992 Constitution dealing with the protection of privacy of home and other property of their colleague Member of Parliament was not infringed by the police acting under the exception in article 18(2) in accordance with a warrant validly issued by a court of competent jurisdiction for the purpose.

Fourth, the Minority knew that in executing a search warrant the police may take possession of items they suspect to have been used in or to facilitate the commission of the offense, to aid in their investigations.

Fifth, the Minority could not have been ignorant of the fact that laptops, documents, pen drives, and other items of interest for the investigation can be taken by the police in as long as they make an inventory of the items and give the suspect a copy.

[AD]Sixth, the Minority will be strangers to the truth in their contention that a lawful search and seizure of items likely to be exhibited in an ongoing criminal investigation from a suspected criminal sleeping in his residence at dawn can constitute impeding the work of a sitting Member of Parliament and be tantamount to contempt under article 122 of the Constitution.

Seven, it is an exhibition of outright naivety and unpardonable ignorance unbefitting any Member of Parliament to demand of seasoned and experienced police criminal investigators to forewarn a suspected criminal before executing a search warrant on his residence.

And Eight, it is cowardly and unbecoming for Members of Parliament, whom we have elected to represent us, to intimidate and threaten not only law abiding citizens in their exercise of their right to freedom of expression, speech, conscience and thought; but even law enforcement agencies, the police in this case, lawfully executing the law with being charged before Parliament for contempt. Respect must be earned not coerced!



By: Delali Adogla-Bessa/citifmonline.com/Ghana
An old student of Accra Academy, Bleoobii Kenneth Kofi Anim, has donated books of various subjects wealth thousands of Ghana Cedis to the School.

The book includes English, Mathematics, Science, and many other learning materials.

Speaking at a short ceremony held at the Headmasters office, Mr. Anim explained that the donations was to give back to the school what the school gave him.

I cannot have expressed my gratitude to this great school in any way better than this and I must say that I am very grateful to my Alma-Mater, especially the quality training I had during my three years stay in the confines of the four wells of the School he reiterated.

Mr Anim has however, assured the School of other support including materials on Information Communication Technology (ICT), laptops, come next year, so as to advance the teaching and learning ICT course in Accra Academy.

On his part the headmaster of school, Mr. Samuel Ofori Adjei, thanked Mr Anim for his kind gesture and asked other old students to emulate shining example of the donor.

The Headmaster of Accra Academy also appealed to the Ministry of Education to consider the combination of a three year and four-year Senior High School (SHS) system where students will have the option to choose to write in their third year or the four years.

With this module both fast and slow learners can get good grade at the end of their final WACE in order to further their education into the tertiary level he explained.
27.07.2017 LISTEN

It is said that the price of freedon is eternal vigilance. It ought to be obvious to all those in Ghana who are discerning and can think for themselves that our nation's vampire-elites, actually seek to mentally enslave ordinary Ghanaians - as that is the only way they can successfully transfer assets that belong to all Ghanaians to a powerful few with greedy ambitions - to paraphrase President Kwame Nkrumah.

In light of the exposure of the potential effects of the latest actions and inactions of our vampire-elites - regarding the attempt to insert Clause 3 sub-clause 4 into the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 - our nation owes a large debt of gratitude to Hon. Martin Amidu.

As many Ghanaians are aware, Hon. Martin Amidu is that rare thing in our national life today - a truly principled gentleman in the upper reaches of Ghanaian society: who is prepared to take the system on to expose acts of egregious high-level corruption.

Over the years he has shown clearly that he genuinely abhors corruption - and is prepared to go to great lengths to fight it regardless of the cost to him personally: both emotionally and financially.

By alerting the world about the insertion of the pernicious Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 that literally negates the whole purpose for which President Akufo-Addo promised to establish a dedicated office, which will be an independent body clothed with the power to investigate and prosecute all acts of corruption in Ghana - which is precisely what then candidate Akufo-Addo promised voters during the 2016 presidential election campaign - Hon. Martin Amidu has shown once again that he actually cares about the plight of ordinary Ghanaians and is a well-intentioned politician who seeks the well-being of our nation at all material times.

Discerning and independent-minded Ghanaians who care about good governance - and therfore demand accountability from our ruling elites - ought to thank Martin Amidu for exposing the unpardonable attempt to turn the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor (OSPP) into a toothless bulldog that will not be able to prosecute certain categories of acts of corruption in Ghana.

For the benefit of this blog's many readers we are publishing the said public statement issued by Hon. Martin Amidu below, to enable them see what is at stake and how passage of the bill into law as it now stands - with the abominable Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Bill - will end up making the Office of the Independent Special Public Prosecutor a mere paper tiger.

We must all make sure - at the stage when stakeholder contributions are elicited again from the general public - that that does not happen: by demanding and ensuring that Clause 3 is removed and the original draft bill restored for passage into law.

Please read on:

"LETS NOT UNDERMINE THE PRESIDENTS FIGHT AGAINST CORRUPTION IN THE SPECIAL PROSECUTORS BILL: BY MARTIN A. B. K. AMIDU

When it became clear to me that We the People might not be allowed our democratic right to participate in the discourse leading to the enactment of the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor Bill, 2017 I raced against time to hurriedly research and write a lengthy constitutional and legal critique of the Bill. Now that Parliament has vetoed taking the Bill through a certificate of urgency I will publish my views at the appropriate time when the parliamentary time table for public input is known. I was, however, shocked particularly by Clause 3 sub-clause 4 of the Bill which makes the whole Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 a waste of public resources and everybodys time.

Clause 3(4) undermines the Presidents exemplary rhetoric since his assumption of office to relentlessly fight against all forms of corruption. Somebody must be sabotaging the Presidents fight against corruption. What you will read hereunder relates only to Clause 3 which deals with the functions of the office. It demonstrates what has happened to Presidents who intend the good of their people and nations but were led astray by minders and appointees with clearly different and opposite criminal objectives. My purpose of publishing this out of my critique of the Bill as a whole is to alert the public to take a keen interest in the passage of the Bill through Parliament so that Ghanaians are not shortchanged in the actualization of the promise by the President to fight corruption as corruption and crime as crime.

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE OFFICE  CLAUSE 3 OF THE BILL

The original draft Bill submitted for discussions at the Stakeholders Meeting of 27-28th June 2017 did not include the new Clause 3 (3) and (4). Sub-clause (3) that was added to the Bill before Parliament is with respect unnecessary, it will be a waste of public funds during the gestation period particularly and it is too populist to be enshrined in the law.

Clause 3(4) which was also not part of the original draft of the Bill, negates the whole promise that the President made during his campaign and after his assumption of office to fight corruption, if as it states the Special Prosecutor is not to investigate and prosecute corruption offences relating to the Public Procurement Act, 2003 and the Criminal Offences Act, 1960 ....specified under paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of subsection (1) unless the commission of the offence is in respect of a vast quantity of assets that (a) constitute a substantial proportion of the resources of the country; (b) threaten the political stability of the country; or (c) threaten the sustainable development of the country.

First and foremost, sub-clause 4 of Clause 3 of the Bill before Parliament lays down vague and ambiguous exceptions for the purposes of determining which corruption offences will meet those standards for investigations to begin within the first place. Secondly, the vagueness and ambiguity of the exceptions made, provide an argument to be overcome by the Special Prosecutor when the objection is raised in Court that his decision to prosecute a corruption offence does not meet the threshold standard stipulated in the Bill.

Thirdly, the attempt to distinguish the types of corruption offences that may be investigated and prosecuted by the Special Prosecutor sends the clear message to Ghanaians that the President and his Government now accept certain types of corruption offences as not serious for prosecution, or at least to be prosecuted by the Special Prosecutor. Fourth, the question may be asked, who will be responsible for investigating and prosecuting categories of corruption offences by the same public officers and politically exposed persons not meeting the standards in Clause 3(4). Or are they then immune from prosecution for such corruption offences? And fifth, there is no rational reason for having two types of prosecutors for the same corruption offence when committed by the same public officers. I will return to this in due course to show that the exemption grants immunity to public officers from being prosecuted for committing the exempted corruption offences.

The President has been clear throughout his campaign and on assumption of office that the canker of corruption must be fought and uprooted through a Special Public Prosecutor. He has said time without number that crime is the crime and therefore corruption is corruption. So how come the Bill that was submitted to the Stakeholders Meeting on 27-28th June 2017 did not contain this exception, but the exception found its way into the Bill after it apparently returned from the Cabinet to Parliament? The Stakeholders Meeting of anti-corruption organizations and civil society, I am reliably informed, did not insert sub-clauses 3 and 4 of Clause 3 now appearing in the Bill before Parliament. The original draft Bill, after taking into account the suggestions of the stakeholders was approved by the Cabinet. Was it, therefore, the Cabinet who sought to nullify the fight against corruption by inserting this negation of the purpose of the Bill?

Whosoever inserted sub-clause 4 of Clause 3 thought they were being ingenuous as we the foolish people of Ghana will not notice that the definition of corruption and corruption related offence ceded to the Special Prosecutor in the interpretation at Clause 77 of the Bill includes all corruption offences without exception or degree of seriousness. Therefore to exclude a species of corruption offences as they sought to do simply means that there would be no institution responsible for the prosecution of the so-called corruption offences that do not fall under the sub- clause 4 exceptions. It follows that the Cabinet or whosoever inserted the sub-clause is legalizing an undefined species of corruption as not being serious corruption - namely constituting a substantial portion of national resources, threatening the stability of the country, or threatening the sustainable development of the country - to warrant prosecution ever or at all.

We are doing no honour to our obligations as a nation under the United Nations Convention against Corruption (UNCAC) and the African Union Convention on Prevention and Combating Corruption (AUC).

The serious reader will notice from the Bill before Parliament that the consequential amendments in Clause 78 (1) also remove the offence of corruption from the jurisdiction of the Economic and Organised Crime Office when it states that: The Economic and Organised Crime Office Act, 2010 (Act 804) is amended in section 74 by the deletion the words corruption and bribery in paragraph (a) of the definition of serious offence. Who then will investigate the species of corruption the Government has removed from the Special Prosecutors functions by the insertion in Clause 3(4) of the Bill before Parliament? This whole exception is a negation of the Presidents fight against all forms of corruption in the body politic by using public office holders and politically exposed persons as an example. Will somebody call the Presidents attention to read Clause 3 of the Bill before Parliament and confirm whether he endorsed the exception in sub-clause 4 for submission to Parliament? The retention of sub-clause 4 of Clause 3 of the Bill makes it unnecessary to enact any Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill into law.

CONCLUSIONS

I have no doubt that the insertion of Clause 3(4) that negates the whole Bill before Parliament was done to enable those proponents to harvest their shameless perceived share of the proceeds of corruption that dishonest appointees criminally exploit in public office. These may be men and women who might have wormed their way into public office by deceiving the President about their credentials of integrity and honour to render loyal service to him and the Republic of Ghana.

The insertion of Clause 3(4) in the Bill should therefore be a wake-up call for the President to watch his incorruptible appointees, because as the saying goes, it is not all that glitters which is gold. I am of the strong conviction that the attempt to pull a fast one on Ghanaians by the insertion of Clause 3(4) into the Bill to negate the fight against corruption is the work of a strong and powerful cabal within the government because they even succeeded in ensuring that the memorandum to the Bill was silent on this important insertion so that it will not catch the eye of the casual Ghanaian reading public. Bribery and corruption is bribery and corruption.

We cannot justify any form of corruption. The 1992 Constitution did not make any exception when it prohibited corruption and enjoined every citizen to fight corruption. The exceptions in Clause 3(4) of the Bill are consequently unconstitutional.

Somebody should have known or realized that those insertions would embarrass the President in the promises he made to Ghanaians to fight corruption and prevented their insertion in the Bill."

End of culled public statement on the Office of the Special Public Prosecutor Bill, 2017, laid before Parliament and later withdrawn, which was issued recently by Hon. Martin Amidu.
Rabat (AFP) - Moroccan police have arrested a British dealer in virtual currency Bitcoin wanted on fraud charges in the United States, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Thursday.

Police said only that a 49-year-old Briton had been detained in the northern city of Tangiers on Wednesday in response to a notice issued by Interpol on July 17 and that his extradition would be considered by the Court of Cassation.

But the source identified him as British businessman Renwick Haddow, a former New York resident who was charged with securities fraud in the United states on June 30 for allegedly bilking investors in what turned out to be a fake Bitcoin trading platform.

He appeared before the public prosecutor in Tangiers on Wednesday before being transferred to prison in Sale, near the capital Rabat, the source said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged last month "the clandestine" Haddow, who is alleged to have diverted funds invested in a phony Bitcoin site as well as from flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totalling $5 million.

He touted experienced senior executives as running the operations, who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies, the SEC alleged.

"Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly-qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability," said Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office.

"In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable."

Bitcoin Store claimed to be "an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin" and had generated several million dollars in gross sales.

The SEC alleges that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.

In 2015, Bitcoin Store's bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.

Haddow's investors pumped more than $37 million into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact "primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes," the SEC said in a statement.

And the SEC said throughout he was "hiding his connection" to the companies, given his past with regulators in Britain, where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.

According to a report in Crain's, 27 investors from China filed suit in the New York State Supreme Court on June 16 seeking repayment of more than $3 million invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.

Another investment group filed a similar case against Bar Works in Florida.
Victor Wumbor-Apin Kumbol (2nd left) with dignitaries after receiving his prize for winning the John Ocran Award

Deputy Health Minister Tina Mensah has urged pharmacists to practise their profession in line with government's policy direction for the vocation.

According to the deputy minister, ensuring equitable and sustainable access to priority, efficacious and safe medicines and other health technologies of acceptable quality for the benefit of citizens in the country must be incorporated into the daily activities of the pharmacists.

These must be factored into your professional assignments as you take off as pharmacists and critical members of the healthcare team, she said.

She was speaking at the induction of newly-qualified and registered pharmacists in Accra on the theme: 'mobilising human capital for advancement of pharmaceutical care in Ghana'.

Giving the keynote address, Ms Mensah explained that in line with government policy, the ministry has instructed the Pharmacy Council to design processes to identify ineffective workflows, structures or systems, and redesign them to fit current business needs and develop plans to implement the new changes.

This builds a strong sense of commitment in mobilising the human capital for development of pharmaceutical care in Ghana, she stated.

The deputy minister, therefore, reiterated her earlier call for the newly-inducted pharmacists to live up to their professional calling as captured by the motto of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSG), 'amicus humani generis', meaning 'friends of the human race'.

Induction Ceremony

Rev Prof Charles Ansah, Pro Vice Chancellor, KNUST, led the pharmacists to swear the Apothecrary's Oath.

Two hundred and thirty-one out of the 283 candidates who passed the October 2016 Ghana Pharmacy Professional Qualifying Examinations (GPPQE) and 50 out of the expected 70 who also passed the examination in April 2017 were inducted to be full pharmacists at the ceremony.

In all, 281 candidates passed, of which 144 (51.2%) were males and 137 (48.8%) females, with 171 of the newly-qualified and registered pharmacists being trained at KNUST, Kumasi, 29 from the University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, 72 from Central University, Miotso and eight from different universities abroad.

The universities include Massachusetts University of Pharmacy and Health Science, USA, University of Georgia, USA, Mohammed V University, Morroco, Kingston University, UK, National University of Pharmacy, Ukraine, Northeastern University, Boston, USA and Robert Gordon University, UK.

Three awards were presented to deserving pharmacists who excelled in the GPPQE.

Victor Wumbor-Apin Kumbol won the John Ocran Award for being the overall best candidate in the 2016 examinations and was presented with a certificate and an amount of GH2000.

Moses Baafi Acheampong also won the Law & Ethics Award, while Stephen Afrane won the Pharmacy Practice Award.

Professional Development

Pharm. Thomas Boateng Appiagyei, President, PSG, in his address as the special guest, advised the new pharmacists to make hard work a fundamental pillar in their profession as they are entering one of the most difficult, diverse and demanding professions.

While working hard you must continue to work on your person. Pharmacy is a profession of trust, your competence will always earn you an entry into the job space but it will take your character to sustain and rise through the job. Develop your character and competence, he said.

Pharm. Appiagyei also encouraged the new pharmacists to maintain strong professional values like selflessness, empathy, integrity and truth if they are going to be prosperous in their profession.

It is not enough to be rich, reputed or respected if you do not affect this profession, the nation, its health system and your individual families and communities, he said.

The PSG president also urged them to participate actively in continuous professional development programmes, post graduate programmes and specialisation.

By Jamila Akweley Okertchiri & Abigial Owiredu Boateng
Sometimes Louie Ferris visits the Korean War Memorial he established at Veterans Freedom Park on the northside of La Crosse, enjoying a cup of coffee with his cronies, as he lovingly calls them.

On a recent visit, he saw a car pull up and park at the memorial for a while. Suddenly a woman got out, scurried with a walker to the passenger-side door and took a walk with her husband up to the memorial, taking in its modest presence but significant impact.

And thats all Ferris has ever wanted.

That alone is worth it, he said. Its almost like youre back in the military again. Its so wonderful, so healing.

Ferris mission toward healing has most recently been focused on establishing a World War I Memorial in the same park next to the Korean War Memorial, and his goal has finally been reached thanks to a donation of about $15,000 from River Bank in La Crosse.

The donation, Ferris said, will cover the cost of getting the statue built by Sparta sculptor Dave Oswald this fall and will be dedicated on Oct. 21.

Other than his ever-present need to honor and help veterans, Ferris motivation to get the statue built is rooted in family history. His father, an immigrant from Syria, was called to serve his country in World War I, a commonality for immigrants at that time, Ferris said.

For now, Ferris said he can breathe a sigh of relief knowing veterans like his father will be honored with the bronze statue that will stand 10 feet, four inches high depicting a soldier from World War I, surrounded by flowers and a walking path.

I knew I would get it eventually, Ferris said. I would go door to door if I had to.

Luckily for Ferris, River Bank and its owners, the Schams family, stepped in.

The banks decision to make a donation was an easy one, president and CEO Brian Voelker said.

I would just encourage people to just get involved with these people, Voelker, a veteran of the Marine Corps, said. These people sacrificed a lot, probably more so than weve ever been asked to.

Alyce Osterhout, the banks assistant vice president, has also been involved in helping Ferris get the money he needs for the statue, something Voelker knows is near to her heart because her husband is a veteran of the Navy.

After a short celebration period, Ferris is already planning his next project: getting a memorial for the Vietnam War built in the same park.

Ferris said he sees the similarities between veterans of World War I and the Vietnam War, as both groups had to fight for rights and opportunities after the war.

For this next project, Ferris said he believes finding a group to help him will be easier, since most of the veterans from Vietnam are younger than the other veterans he has helped memorialize in the park.

Encouraged by support from La Crosses Board of Parks commissioner, Ferris said he is hopeful the park will some day be filled with memorial monuments for veterans  especially if he has any pull in making it happen.

I have to do something, and I felt I was directed toward this, Ferris said. I was meant to do this.
The Court of Appeal has dismissed an application filed by lawyers of suspended Human rights lawyer, Francis-Xavier Sosu seeking to overturn his three-year suspension by the General Legal Council (GLC).

According to the court, it was not clothed with the jurisdiction to entertain the application.

According to the judge, Justice Henry Anthony Kwofie, the jurisdiction of the court had been improperly invoked by the applicant.

He said the court's jurisdiction to hear the case had been provided by statute.

Justice Kwofie explained that the application for appeal ought to have been filed at the registry of the GLC as prescribed by law.

The Appeal Court of Judge noted that although he sympathizes with Sosu, the applicant had no right to be heard by the court, adding that justice to be dispensed is one within the law but not out of sympathy.

As a result, Justice Kwofie said that the court was unable to grant the two applications filed by the applicant.

Sosu hauled GLC before the Court of Appeal seeking to overturn a three-year suspension imposed on him.

The lawyer, in a notice of appeal filed at the court date June 7, 2017, stated that GLC erred in convicting him because there is no law specifically making overestimation of legal fees a grave misconduct in a professional respect.

The Human Rights Lawyer argued that the sentences imposed on him were harsh and excessive.

The lawyer was found guilty of an alleged professional misconduct by GLC.

A statement issued by the GLC said, The disciplinary committee of the General legal Council formally charged Lawyer Sosu under Rule 2(4) of the legal profession (professional conduct and etiquette) Rules, 1969 L.I. 613 and that he, while acting as Council for Torgbui Afede XIV, in a matter between Torgbui Afede and the Chief of Defense Staff, Minister of Interior, Attorney General and another took to Facebook with pictures of the parties and comments on the case to the public with his firm's name, address and telephone numbers attached, with the primary motive of personal advertisement and touting.

It further stated: He was further charged under Rule 2 (4) of the legal profession (Professional conduct and etiquette) Rule, 1996 L.I 613 that he, while acting as Counsel for Reynolds Yeboah, in the matter between Patrick Reynolds Yeboah and M.DEX Company Limited in Accra, Ledzokuku-Krowor Municipal Assembly, Accra, took to Facebook posting the writ of summons in the said case and made comments to the public with the firm's name, address and telephone numbers attached, with the primary motive of personal advertisement.

In another case, Mr Sosu was said to have charged one Francis Agyare GH20,000 extra in legal fees.

The statement noted that Lawyer Sosu was convicted on his own plea of guilty on both counts and was sentenced to a period of three years' suspension commencing June 2, 2017 and ending 1st day of June, 2020.

[email protected]

By Jeffrey De-Graft Johnson
The Volta Regional Police Command has apprehended 13 suspects believed to be engaged in various criminal acts in Aflao and its environs in the Ketu South Municipality of the Volta Region.

The suspects who are made up of eleven males and two females and aged between 18 and 50 years were picked up at different points Tuesday dawn in a raid conducted by the regional police command.

The swoop was part of a grand operation of the regional police command to clamp down on criminal activities in the border town.

Some of the suspects were arrested in 'ghettoes', slums and other secluded areas where they mostly use as their hideouts and resting places.

Most of the arrested suspected were in possession of substances suspected to Indian hemp (wee) while others were picked up at the Aflao 'Low Cost area' with a whitish substance believed to be cocaine.

The Volta Regional Police Commander, ACP Nana Asomah Hinneh briefing the media after the arrest indicated that the suspects were arrested following intelligence gathered by the police about criminals robbing and attacking travellers at Aflao, Ghana's main eastern border with neighbouring Togo and its environs.

He said, some of the suspects often posed as immigration officers and other security personnel and harass unsuspecting travellers from other parts of the country, especially people coming from Kumasi who want to cross into Togo for business activities.

By so doing they just take their cash and other valuables from them (travellers) and run away. So, when we went there today around 4am, we saw some of them in the act and they have all been picked up, he said.

ACP Asomah added that the 13 suspects will be screened and any of them found culpable will be put before court.

He said the regional police command will not rest on its oars as it will intensify the fight against crimes and other illegalities in Aflao and the region at large to provide the needed security for citizens to go about their activities without fear.

Gibril Abdul Razak, Ho. ( [email protected] )
London (AFP) - Sound batting from veteran Alastair Cook and debutant Tom Westley saw England to 62 for one on the first morning of the third Test against South Africa at The Oval on Thursday.

When rain stopped play some 10 minutes before the scheduled interval, Cook was 34 not out and Westley 24 not out.

The Essex duo had put on exactly 50 for the second wicket after South Africa-born opener Keaton Jennings was out for a duck.

It was just the sort of 'correct' top-order Test-match display England's critics, including several former captains, had called for after the hosts were twice bowled out cheaply in a huge 340-run defeat at Trent Bridge that saw South Africa level the four-match series at 1-1 last week.

Left-hander Cook had batted for 82 minutes, facing 77 balls, including five fours, with Westley so far having struck five fours in 47 balls faced during 87 minute at the crease.

England had a setback soon after captain Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat despite the overcast conditions and green-tinged pitch that promised to assist a Proteas' pace attack bolstered by the return of Kagiso Rabada.

The under-pressure Jennings was repeatedly beaten outside off stump by Vernon Philander and it was no surprise when he eventually edged the seamer low to Dean Elgar at third slip for a nine-ball nought.

Westley, one of three debutants in England's XI for what is the 100th Test at The Oval, walked out to bat with England 12 for one.

But he immediately looked far more certain of where his off stump was then Jennings.

Westley confidently left his first two deliveries from Philander, whose opening spell of one wicket for two runs in four overs, including three maidens, was testament to accuracy.

The 28-year-old right-hander, given his chance after a finger injury saw the struggling Gary Ballance ruled out, got off the mark with a minimal risk legside four off Morkel.

Westley, who earlier this season scored a hundred against South Africa for the second-string England Lions, then cover-drove and on-drove Keshav Maharaj for two well struck boundaries in the left-arm spinner's lone over before lunch.

Cook had made 28 when South Africa thought he might be lbw to paceman Chris Morris but a review of umpire Joel Wilson's not out decision showed the former captain, England's all-time leading Test run-scorer, had got an edge.
A California man was arrested after a package addressed to him was found with three live king cobras hidden inside potato chip cans, US officials said.

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was arrested in Los Angeles and charged with illegally importing merchandise.

Customs officials discovered the snakes, about two-feet long, while inspecting a package that was mailed to Mr Fanco from Hong Kong in March.

The shipment also contained three albino Chinese soft-shelled turtles.

Federal agents seized the snakes for safety purposes but the turtles were delivered to Mr Franco at his home in Monterey Park, California.

The agents served Mr Franco with a search warrant and found inside a children's bedroom at his home tanks containing a live baby Morelet's crocodile, alligator snapping turtles, a common snapping turtle and five diamond back terrapins, all of which are protected under US law, prosecutors said.

Mr Franco had allegedly exchanged text messages with an individual in Asia about shipping the turtles between Hong Kong and the US, according to authorities.

In those text messages, found during the search, Mr Franco also said he had previously received live cobras and planned to give five of them to the individual's relative in Virginia, according to court papers.

He also admitted to a US Fish and Wildlife Service agent that he had previously imported 20 king cobras in two other shipments, but all had died in transit, court documents show.

It is unclear if some of those live cobras are among those he said he would give to a relative.

Two of the three cobras seized in March were receiving care at the San Diego Zoo while the third died for unknown reasons, officials told the Los Angeles Times.

If convicted, Mr Franco could face up to 20 years in prison.
Education Minister Dr Mathew Opoku Prempeh and colleague Minister of Information, Mustapha Hamid, have said Ghana is a difficult country to govern.

They made the comments separately at Thursdays Meet The Press event at which Dr Prempeh briefed journalists about the progress of the Free Senior High School policy.

Answering a question from a journalist concerning a school with deplorable ICT facilities, Dr Prempeh said: There is a programme to equip, where we build schools, to equip them with ICT labs. I dont know how you can equip ICT labs without furniture, but it just happened that we are the same Ghanaians who are given the contracts to equip the schools and we are the same Ghanaians who will take the money and never do the work.

We are the same Ghanaians who will rush to the minister for more contracts but dont want to be punished.

The president visited Okuapeman Senior High School and the headmasters plea was to have a science laboratory refitted. When we came to check, the contractor had been paid 100 per cent of the money. When the contractor was called, he said they took the money and went to do another school.

Ghanaians are very difficult to govern. If you touch that contractor now, you will see a line of people in the office pleading on his behalf, the Manhyia South MP said.

Mr Hamid also made the comment it is a very difficult country to run as he struggled to coordinate the Q&A session of the Meet The Press event.
Teen actor Abraham Atta volunteered to become ambassador for governments Free Senior High School programme at no cost to the state, Minister of Education Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh has said.

The Ministry of Education and Dr Prempeh came under harsh criticism from some Ghanaians on social media after announcing Atta, who is schooling in the United States, as the face of the major government policy.

Groups like the National Union of Ghana Students (NUGS) also expressed reservations and argued that Atta is known for his work in showbiz rather than in education and suggested that an ambassador could have been selected from the winners of this years National Science and Maths Quiz.

But explaining the rational for Attas selection for the first time at the Meet The Press series in Accra on Thursday, 27 July 2017, Dr Prempeh said the Beast of No Nation actor walked into his office to volunteer for the role.

Abraham Atta is a young street kid in Ghana who has benefitted by fortune or good luck. He just went to America two years ago and his fortunes have blossomed to become a star. I havent seen any good will ambassador of any cause in this world who is not famous.

People came to my office with their children who had seen Abraham Atta and were keen to go to school. He doesnt live in my generation so I didnt even know him, I hadnt even met him. Abraham Atta wasnt paid a [penny] to come and campaign for Free SHS. He thought that if God has put him where he is, he should come and support a noble cause. He walked into my office and declared to be a Free SHS ambassador for free. Besides that, he donated nearly a 1,000 pairs of sandals for fellow kids who are vulnerable just like when he was vulnerable in Ghana and we are saying I should throw him out? Dr Prempeh asked.

Abraham Attah, 15, became a household name after he was featured in his debut film Beasts of No Nation (2015). He played the lead role of a child soldier. The film starred international movie star Idris Elba.

Atta went on to win the Marcello Mastroiannis Best Young Actor Award at the 72nd Venice International Film Festival.
The New Patriotic Party (NPP) has rejected accusations the party is scheming to remove the Electoral Commission, Charlotte Osei for their political advantage.

President Akufo-Addo On Wednesday referred the petition demanding Madam Osei's removal, to the Chief Justice.

The NDC had stated previously that the NPP was behind the petition but speaking to Citi News Duke Mensah Opoku, Deputy General Secretary of the NPP, Nana Obiri Boahen refuted these claims , insisting the NPP has got nothing to do with what is going on.

He therefore called on Ghanaians to dismiss that notion and rather observe closely, the outcome of the development.

A petition has been sent to the President and forwarded to the Chief Justice period. Let's end it there and watch with eagle eyes the unfolding drama.Why should people be drawing conclusions. The petition has been referred to the President. Constitutionally, that is the proper tenure. Constitutionally, the President has handed it over to the Chief Justice. Constitutionally, the Chief Justice will consider whether a prima facie case has been made. Why are we treading on dangerous grounds? Put NPP out of this internal brouhaha out of this issue. For goodness sake, those who perhaps might have benefited from these fraudulent activities are making the ugly noise. They should leave us in peace, Obiri Boahen added.

Charlotte Osei, EC Chairperson

Background

Some aggrieved employees had petitioned the President to impeach Charlotte Osei over what they described as cronyism and financial malfeasance among others at the EC.

They are believed to have made the petition through their Lawyer, Maxwell Opoku Agyemang.

Charlotte Osei, in response demanded the list of the names of workers who had made the claims for her removal.

She also threatened to sue the petitioners for making unsubstantiated claims intended to damage her reputation.

Charlotte Osei said the suit was to enable she and her lawyer commence legal action against them [petitioners] for the defamatory statements contained in their petition

Mr. Agyemang subsequently called the bluff of Charlotte Osei, saying his clients were ready to face her in court.

I'll be very glad to meet them in court. If anybody suggests that there has been defamation, it will make my day. I'm not the type of person who will be intimidated by the use these words which would not even intimidate a fly. A petition has been sent and we will follow through the petition. We will make sure that that petition is proceeded with as required by law, he said.



By: Marian Ansah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
A new report by the Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) shows that majority of Ghanaian voters want Members of Parliament who have tertiary education.

According to the voters, the education level of their parliamentarians of great priority to them.

The report was based on a survey conducted by the Institute between November and December 2015 across all 10 regions of the country.

83.7 percent of respondents said the education level of their Members of Parliament was most important to them.

The 1992 Constitution is loudly silent on the level of education one must attain before contesting to be a Member of Parliament.

In recent years, many have had cause to worry about the kind of arguments and submissions made by some Members of Parliament on the floor of the House.

It is believed that the lack of confidence to express ones self on the floor of Parliament and the lack of understanding of issues discussed has caused some MPs to remain silent throughout debates.

Some have said that the lack of tertiary education by some MPs is affecting the work of the House.

Director of Advocacy and Programmes at the IEA, Dr. Frankie Asare Donkor in an interview with Citi News said majority of Ghanaians are worried their MPs do not speak in Parliament.

A report by a civil society organization focused on activities of the legislature, Odekro, identified 19 members of Parliament who had not made any comment on the floor of the house throughout the 4-year sitting of the 6th Parliament.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Lome (AFP) - Diplomatic talks and visits by experts are gathering pace in Togo as the former French colony looks to follow another Francophone nation and join the Commonwealth.

Rwanda joined the 52-member bloc in 2009, 14 years after Portuguese-speaking Mozambique became the first member never to have had a past link to Britain.

Togo, which is home to some seven million people, first began the process of applying for Commonwealth membership in 2014.

In February and June this year, experts met members of institutions including the constitutional court, electoral commission and human rights body to evaluate Togo's bid.

They also met members of political parties, civil society, women and youth groups to assess levels of democracy and development.

"Togo's bid is on the right track and we are optimistic for the next stage of the process," Foreign Minister Robert Dussey said after the latest visit.

"Togo's bid is on the right track and we are optimistic for the next stage of the process.

"Togo is a politically stable country where there is peace and democracy," he told AFP.

"Geographically, our country is in a strategic position with enormous assets, including a deep water port... which opens up countries in the hinterland (Burkina Faso, Niger, Mali)."

Togo is already part of the Economic Organisation of West African States (ECOWAS) and the International Organisation of La Francophonie, bringing together French-speaking nations.

Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, whose dictatorial rule lasted 38 years

Like Rwanda, Togo fell under German rule in 1884 when European nations carved up Africa, but Berlin lost both countries in 1916 during World War I. Belgian forces took Rwanda, while Togo was divided into French and British zones.

British Togoland chose in 1957 to become part of newborn independent Ghana and thus joined the Commonwealth six decades ago.

Dussey said Commonwealth membership would help diversify Togo "by making new friends and moving a bit closer to old friends" such as Britain, Australia and New Zealand.

Two visits in March and mid-July by Britain's former prime minister Tony Blair were seen in Togo as linked to the bid for Commonwealth membership.

Sources close to the presidency said Blair and Togo's President Faure Gnassingbe discussed the issue earlier this month.

But a Commonwealth spokesman said Blair is not involved in negotiations.

A decision on membership is expected to be taken at the next Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Britain next April, he added.

Confirming Togo's bid in March, the body said that the decisions "are made by the 52 heads of governments, who have laid out clear criteria for any country wishing to join.

'Inappropriate step'

"This includes an acceptance of Commonwealth fundamental values and principles, such as a commitment to democracy, the rule of law and independence of the judiciary, the protection of human rights, and equality of opportunity."

Togo's political opposition and human rights campaigners have expressed concerns about the bid for membership.

"It's an inappropriate step. It's just a song and dance for the international community," said Eric Dupuy, spokesman for the main opposition National Alliance for Change Party.

"We have other priorities, particularly constitutional and institutional reform... which the current regime refuses to implement.

"These reforms will allow us to have transparent elections acceptable for everyone."

Togo's constitution was amended in 2002 but since then the opposition has been pressing for it to be revised further.

In particular it wants the reintroduction of a 10-year limit on presidential mandates.

It also wants two-round elections, a restructuring of the constitutional court and the independent national electoral commission, which organises and oversees elections.

Gnassingbe came to power in 2005 after the death of his father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, whose dictatorial rule lasted 38 years.

Gnassingbe won elections in 2005, 2010 and 2015, but the opposition rejected the results.

Human rights groups say arbitrary arrests, detentions, torture and other ill-treatment are commonplace in Togo, as are impunity and restriction on free speech.

Some 500 people are said to have been killed in violence linked to the 2005 vote.

Reporters Without Borders ranked Togo 88th in its press freedom index last year and said the government controlled information through dominant state media.

Amnesty International's Togo director, Aime Adi, said the human rights situation "remained fragile".

"We still see the use of the army to police peaceful demonstrations with deaths of protesters... intimidation of opposition figures and banning activities of opposition parties," he said.
Rome (AFP) - An Italian government plan to deploy vessels in Libyan territorial waters to help fight human trafficking will be presented to parliament early next week, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday.

He said the cabinet was "discussing the details" of a request from Tripoli for help and "will present them on Tuesday", adding that he was "sure parliament will vote in favour".

Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has appealed to Italy to send ships into Libyan waters to help combat a phenomenon which has seen thousands of migrants set sail across the Mediterranean to Europe.

The European Union has an anti-trafficking operation dubbed "Sophia" that was launched in 2015, but its vessels have not been permitted to enter Libyan waters, severely complicating their task.

Traffickers have been known to accompany migrant boats some way out to sea, but they stop within Libyan waters.

A flagship Italian command ship, at least five smaller vessels and up to 1,000 soldiers could be dispatched to help support the Libyan coastguard in the battle against smugglers, the Corriere della Sera reported Thursday.

Italy is also considering using planes, helicopters and drones, it said.

Close to 94,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy so far this year, according to Italy's interior ministry, an increase of more than five percent compared to the same period last year.

More than 2,370 people have died since January attempting the perilous crossing, the UN refugee agency said.
Vicki Markussen, executive director of the La Crosse Area Chamber of Commerce, said the Foxconn announcement is good news for La Crosse and the rest of Wisconsin.

The impact of the Foxconn announcement will ripple to La Crosse, she said. Even indirectly for Wisconsin to be chosen as the first North American location for Foxconn shines a spotlight on our state that will cause other site selectors to stop and take a look the many wonderful assets our state offers to businesses.

She said La Crosse area businesses need to learn how to tie into the supply chain for Foxconn. A key to their competitiveness is finding local suppliers. We hope some of those suppliers are La Crosse companies.

The Foxconn jobs are the type of jobs we need in Wisconsin to raise our quality of life and our talent attraction to the next level, she said.
The Minority in Parliament will Thursday make a formal demand to the Speaker to strike out a motion seeking a rescission of approval for the controversial AMERI power deal.

Member of Parliament for Adanso Asokwa Constituency, K. T. Hammond has filed an urgent motion asking that the House rescind it decision passed in March 2016 for the $510 million deal.

According to Mr Hammond, the deal was inflated but Minority Spokesperson on Finance, Cassiel Ato Forson said it was not grounded in law and they will draw the speakers attention to that.

The AMERI recently became a topical issue after the homes of former Power Minister, Kwabena Donkor and his Technical Advisor, Francis Dzatta were searched by the security under a court warrant, for their alleged roles in causing financial loss to the state.

The AMERI deal was signed as an emergency power agreement in February 2015, between government represented by the Minister of Power and AMERI Energy, to ameliorate the countrys power challenges at the time.

Related: We only went to search, not to raid Dr Donkor's house - Police

But media reports indicated the cost of the project was outrageously high. The Nana Akufo-Addo government, therefore, set up a committee to look into the deal.

K. T. Hammond

The Committee, led by a private legal practitioner, Phillip Addison in its report disclosed that it found technical and financial lapses in the contract.

On the financial side, the committee found out that although AMERI secured the deal, the developer that built and financed the plant charged $360million yet AMERI charged $510million for the plant.

Dr Kwabena Donkor at a press conference in April this year stated that due diligence was done in the purchasing of the plant and does not understand how the previous government is being accused of wrong doing.

The Majority has called for the deal to be rescinded arguing it was a bad deal in which the country lost lots of money.

Related: Cancellation of Ameri deal can bring back dumsor - Minority

But quoting Article 108 of the 1992 Constitution which states that:

Parliament shall not, unless the bill is introduced or the motion is introduced by, or on behalf of, the President -

(a) proceed upon a bill including an amendment to a bill, that, in the opinion of the person presiding, makes provision for any of the following -

(i) the imposition of taxation or the alteration of taxation otherwise than by reduction; or

(ii) the imposition of a charge on the Consolidated Fund or other public funds of Ghana or the alteration of any such charge otherwise than by reduction; or

(iii) the payment, issue or withdrawal from the Consolidated Fund or other public funds of Ghana of any moneys not charged on the Consolidated Fund or any increase in the amount of that payment, issue or withdrawal; or

(iv) the composition or remission of any debt due to the Government of Ghana; or

(b) proceed upon a motion, including an amendment to a motion, the effect of which, in the opinion of the person presiding, would be to make provision for any of the purpose specified in paragraph (a) of this article.

Mr Forson argues that it is clear that no Parliamentarians shall bring a motion that will bring a financial liability to the government.

He said the government itself can only do it or a public official, adding, in the AMERI deal, it is possible that the company could go to court and seek judgment debt on it.

Mr Forson making a point on the floor of Parliament

The Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam MP said it is one of those deals that are exempted in terms of any MP going ahead to put such a motion before the Speaker.

However, Mr Hammond disagrees saying his motion would rather earn the country money and there is nothing wrong with that as far as the procedures of Parliament are concerned.

I am looking for money for the country, so how does that impose financial liability on the country, regarding Article 108?

He argued that the country was shortchanged and it is time to take the balance back.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Abubakar Ibrahim |[email protected]
The Education Minister says the state of Ghanas economy will not delay the implementation of governments free senior high school programme.

Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh said bad economy has been part of the countrys governance since independence.

At the Information Ministrys first Meet-the-Press encounter Thursday, he said even years which were touted as Ghanas best years ever were not good enough.

Related Article: World Bank, Saudi Arabia join gov't free SHS bandwagon

Ghana has not been the best of economies since independence but we have had one way or the other free SHS in one form or the other, he said.

The governing New Patriotic Party (NPP)s flagship campaign promise, free SHS has been criticized by political critics and some economists, who said it will drain the countrys resources.

Critics claim the economy is not in the best shape to cushion the programme which will need an estimated 3.6 million yearly.

Related Article: Addo-Kufour cautions against hasty implementation of free SHS policy

Former Defense Minister, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor

Former Defense Minister and leading member of the NPP, Dr Kwame Addo Kufuor has also cautioned government to close the loopholes in the areas of finance and quality before implementing the programme.

Although he admitted the policy is good, he said it will require a year or two incubation period before rolling it out.

The government has allocated the amount of 400 million for the implementation of the programme in its 2017 budget.

Unfazed by voices of critics, the Education Minister said free SHS will start in September 2017 as scheduled.

For those who dont believe or do say we should wait or anybody who has any information that the President has not got about the economy can submit it to the President, he said.

Story by Ghana | Myjoyonline.com | Austin Brakopowers | [email protected] | Instagram: @realbrakopowers
27.07.2017 LISTEN

There have been hues and cries, spread of misleading information on social media and wilful demonization of the administration of Governor Abdullahi Umar Ganduje on the decision of the Kano State Government to return 37 nursing students of Mansourah University in Egypt due to poor performance.

It is therefore important to point out some facts as regards to the issue.

First of all, in November 2016 Governor Ganduje visited the 2 universities  Mansourah and October 5th  both in Egypt, where Kano state has some students undergoing programmes on scholarship. Being part of the entourage, I remember when Governor Ganduje visited the students in Mansourah, the school authority and the agent handling their affairs complained bitterly to the governor about the low performance of these students. They specifically mentioned the bad behaviour of some of them, including one with a theft case with the Egyptian police, some caught in gross misconduct, examination malpractices and one harassing the female dean of their faculty.

Governor Ganduje and the Nigerian Ambassador to Egypt both took time to advise the students improve on their performance and be good ambassadors. Given the fact that it was increasingly becoming difficult for the state to keep up with their school fees and upkeep allowances due to economic downturn bedevilling the state and nation at large, the students were urged to justify governments commitment on their studies amid competing demands at home.

Upon our return to Nigeria, Mansourah University sent a letter in January 2017 (two months after the governors visit) through their agent warning that the students were still lagging behind in their performances and this will ultimately lead to their withdrawal. This was the last official communication between the university and the state government.

The issue was then deliberated upon extensively at the state Executive Council meeting, at the end of which the council came to the conclusion that the students had demonstrated no capacity to improve and so there was no justification to continue keeping them in Egypt despite the several warnings issued to them by both the school authorities and the state government to improve.

It is worthy of mention that Governor Ganduje inherited over 2,000 of these foreign students in several countries across the world and has expended billions to pay for their outstanding fees and allowances (most of which had not been paid since 2014), and majority of them have so far concluded their studies and returned home. There was no single student that was prematurely returned back to Nigeria for any reason whatsoever except these 37 students.

It is also important to note that states like Sokoto and Rivers have both returned ALL their students but Kano reasoned that allowing them to continue was the best option. This should be commended by all Kanawa. Moreover, in Mansourah University there are 154 students being sponsored by the Kano State Government, why didnt the governor decide to return them all back to Kano, if it were because of any reason other than their very poor performances? Why is it that their colleagues also in Egypt at the October 5th University are still undergoing their studies without any complaints? The governor has even gone further to promise them automatic employment at both Giginyu and Zoo Road Hospitals upon the successful completion of their programmes. These are some of the questions we need to ask for the sake of objectivity in order not to let sentiments becloud our judgement.

Additionally, the alleged letter showing their improvement circulating online was not written by the management of Mansourah University (unlike the one in January 2017). It was written by the agent on the 15th July 2017 (months after the decision to return them back to the country had been taken by the State Executive Council and Airline tickets issued to those students for their return) and was not communicated to the government. Why should government be found guilty to a charge that was not addressed to it and without taking its plea?

May I also remind us all that on issues like these that involve committing part of the meagre state resources to execute, a thorough selection process should have been administered in the selection of these students by the past administration in order to ensure that only those that are brilliant and qualified enough merit the sponsorship. It is paramount that we put sentiments aside and look at the issues objectively.

Ive personally seen instances where parents who sponsored their children for studies abroad had to return them home due to poor performance, and I see no reason why this case should be treated differently.

Mr Yakasai is the DG Media & Communications, Government House Kano
Abidjan, Cote dIvoire, 27 July 2017- The President of the African Development Bank (AfDB), Akinwumi Adesina, will visit Ghana from 1-4 August 2017 as part of efforts to strengthen cooperation.

The Presidents visit to Ghana will provide an opportunity to engage with the President of Ghana, Nana Akufo-Addo, key cabinet members and other development partners on the Banks partnership with the country, and visit key projects financed by the Bank.

AfDBs portfolio in Ghana as at June 2017 is composed of 22 operations with an overall commitment of UA 683.34 million (about US$ 950,319,370)

The Bank is finalizing a new Country Strategy Paper (CSP) for Ghana for the period 2017-2021. The Strategy will support Ghanas efforts to transform the economy through three of AfDBs High 5s (Light Up and Power Africa, Industrialize Africa and Feed Africa). The High 5s are the five areas in which the Bank is focusing on to help accelerate Africa's economic transformation.

This will be done through support to private sector development in particular the energy sector to facilitate industrialization, and agriculture development to transform the rural economy and improve food security.

The draft strategy is expected to be presented for Board consideration during the 3rd Quarter of 2017.

Recent road projects supported by the Bank include rural, urban and regional trade corridors. The support goes beyond road construction. It includes the integration of community infrastructure development through rehabilitation and reconstruction of schools, health, water and sanitation facilities as well as markets along the road corridors to support trade and integration as well as boost economic activities of the local communities.

Similarly, Ghanas aviation industry has witnessed a significant growth in the past decade due to the discovery of petroleum and gas reserves in the country, sustained domestic demand, and increase in the tourism sector.

The Ghana Airports Company Limited (GACL), which is responsible for the development and management of airports in the country, has prepared a capital expenditure programme to build new airport infrastructure and rehabilitate or modernize the existing airports.

The AfDB is supporting the airport expansion program through a $120 million loan from its private sector financing facility. Construction of a new terminal at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) and rehabilitation of existing airport facilities are among key projects designed to improve air transport in the country. The programme will also help to boost the countrys economy, reducing the cost of doing business and improving competitiveness.

AfDB is also exploring the funding of two separate interventions at Takoradi port through its private sector financing window.

The Bank plays a lead role in infrastructure development in Ghana and in transportation in particular. The transport sector is the second largest share of the countrys portfolio (26%). Since 1981, the Bank has financed 10 road projects, 1 railway project, 4 road studies, and 1 multinational project in addition to supplementary loans totaling UA258 million (US$ 358,978,620). The projects financed by the Bank have made significant contribution towards improving mobility, providing access to socio-economic opportunities for millions of people and facilitating regional integration.

In 2016, the Bank successfully closed two projects: The Fufulso-Salwa and Awoshie-Pokuase Road and Community Development Projects and begun the implementation of the Accra Urban Transport Project (AUTP) and preparation of the Eastern Corridor project. The Fufulso-Sawla Project received a Bank Award in May 2017 for contributing towards regional integration.

The Banks current intervention in Ghana under the Development of Skills for Industry Project is tailored to address a key issue of human capital development through increasing the capacity of the country to produce high calibre technical skills. This project also dovetails with the Jobs for Youth in Africa (JFYA) strategy. The JFYA directly supports SDG8 on inclusive growth, productive employment and decent work for all, SDG 4 on equitable education and skills development, and SDG1 on ending poverty.
Harare (AFP) - President Robert Mugabe's wife Thursday urged her 93-year-old husband to name his chosen successor, fuelling renewed speculation about the race to take over from the world's oldest national leader.

Mugabe has always refused to publicly reveal his favoured heir, but 52-year-old Grace Mugabe -- who is seen by some as a potential candidate -- called for an end to the uncertainty.

"President, don't be afraid. Tell us who is your choice, which horse we should back," she told a meeting of the women's league of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

"If you tell us the horse to back, we will rise in our numbers and openly support that horse. Why should our horse be concealed?" she said in a speech switching between English and local language Shona.

"I live with this elder. He has wisdom. He is not talkative but he knows what he wants," she said, adding "Mark my words, his word will be final."

Mugabe appears to be in increasingly fragile health, but has said he will stand in elections next year that could see him remain in power until aged nearly 100.

He has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.

The succession race is seen as between Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group called "Generation 40" or "G40" because its members are generally younger, which reportedly has Grace's backing.

Mugabe has repeatedly denounced indiscipline among party members who are bitterly divided over who should succeed him and whether he should retire.

Grace has previously denied harbouring ambitions to succeed her husband, but at other times has said she would be prepared to serve in any political position.

She has taken on a larger public role in recent years, speaking regularly at meetings and heading the ZANU-PF women's league.

In 2014, she led a campaign to expel former vice-president Joice Mujuru who had been seen as a possible successor to Mugabe.

Mugabe returned two weeks ago from a trip to Singapore for medical treatment.
The General Transport, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union of the Trades Union Congress is asking its members at the Metro Mass Transport in Kumasi to withdraw services for security reasons.

The directive follows the invasion of the Abrepo Junction Depot by some supporters of New Patriotic Party over the appointment of the Regional Depot Manager.

Supporters of Deputy Ashanti Regional Organizer of the NPP, Agyenim Boateng besieged the premises of the MMT Thursday morning in protest over the withdrawal of Mr. Boatengs appointment.

The move was to prevent the newly appointed Regional Manager, Nicholas Oduro from resuming work in that capacity.

Angry supporters of Mr. Boateng led by the chairman of the NPP Constituency Organizers, Kingsley Addo, accused a founding member of the party, Dr. Amoako Tufuor for being behind the confusion.

Though the reasons for the withdrawal of Mr. Boatengs appointment are not known, a new Regional Manager, Nicholas Oduro was appointed few days after Boateng's appointment was revoked.

The swift response from the police prevented the angry supporters from entering the main yard of the Metro Mass Transit.

But General Secretary of the General Transit, Petroleum and Chemical Workers Union, Fuseinin Iddrisu says workers of MMT are frightened by the situation.

Our members who are staff of Metro Mass Transit in Kumasi are afraid for their lives and their security cannot be guaranteed.

The statement continued: We have therefore advised them to remove themselves from the insecure office environment while the situation is brought to normalcy.

Police have since taken over security at the MMT premises to prevent escalation of the confrontation.

The situation has caused some commuters to be stranded following the directive.
Some aggrieved members of the New Patriotic Party in the Ashanti Region earlier today stormed the premises of the Metro Mass Transit Bus terminal in the region to stop one Nicholas Oduro from holding himself as the Regional Depot Manager.

According to them, Mr Oduro cannot claim to be the head when a Daniel Agyenim Boateng, the Deputy Regional Organizer of the party has already been appointed as the Manager.

The youth, who vowed to ensure that Mr Oduro does not occupy any office at the premises of the company claimed a leading member of the NPP, Mr Amoako Tuffour was behind the illegal appointment of Nicholas Oduro.

About 20 police officers were deployed to ensure calm and avert any disturbances.

According to the Suame Divisional Police Commander, DSP D. O. Lomotey, the police will ensure maximum security to ensure calm.

Kingsley Addo, the Chairperson of the Ashanti Regional NPP Organizers Association told Citi News that the association did not endorse the unilateral decision by Dr. Tuffuor.

We the organizers in the Ashanti Region, we do not support any decision by Dr. Amoako Tuffuor so we appeal to Nana Akufo-Addo to help us keep Daniel for us as a Depot Manager. Daniel has been a hard-working organizer. He has done a marvelous job for us and that is why were are supporting him. What Dr. Amoako Tuffuor is rather doing is illegal. One position cannot go to two people, he said.

He further threatened that the association will do whatever it takes to ensure that Daniel Agyenim Boateng retains the position.

Daniel had the appointment first, so we dont know what has changed now.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Some Members of Parliament are divided over a proposal calling for removal of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission and her two deputies for investigations into their activities at the Commission to begin.

The Institute of Democratic Governance, (IDEG), mooted the proposal and said, an acting commissioner should be appointed during the period but some members of Parliament are divided on the matter.

Richard Quashigah

The MP for Keta, Richard Quarshigah believes IDEG's proposal is unnecessary.

I think it is unnecessary and premature. A petition was sent to the President and the President is required by law to forward that to the Chief Justice so the law should take its course. For the suggestion that the Commissioner and her deputies to step aside, you have not actually firmed up any conclusive issues against them. Most of the things we are hearing are largely rumours and it will not be proper to just say on rumours that they should step aside. We must have solid evidence before we ask them to step aside, he said.

The Member of Parliament for Kpandai in the Northern Region, Matthew Nyindam is however backing the proposal.

He believes the move will prevent the Commissioners from interfering with investigations.

I would not say it is not a good course. It is laudable looking at the kind of allegations they have thrown against each others. They are accusing each other and they are all sitting on the same desk and if the President has forwarded the application or the petition to the Chief Justice and there will be investigations I think that it is a good cause for them to step aside because if they are sitting on it , it may be assumed that they will tamper with evidence that may be available to whoever will conduct investigations 

Madam Charlotte Osei and her deputies have come under intense pressure to resign, following allegations of corruption made against her by employees of the Commission in a petition and her response, which highlighted corrupt practices at the Commission.

Tensions at the EC became public after employees of the Commission petitioned President Akufo-Addo to dismiss Charlotte Osei for alleged financial malfeasance.

The aggrieved employees claimed among others that Mrs. Osei awarded a GHc 3.9 million contract for work on an office complex without consulting the Commission.

Mrs. Osei however rubbished the allegations in her response to the employees, and fired some accusations at the Deputy Commissioner in-charge of Operations at the EC, Amadu Sulley.

She has sued the employees for making what she described as unsubstantiated allegations against her.

Meanwhile the said petition has been forwarded to the Chief Justice.



By: Marian Ansah & Franklin Badu Jnr/citifmonline.com/Ghana
27.07.2017 LISTEN

A 20-year-old, Mathew Opoku was yesterday [Wednesday] stabbed to death by his classmate, Elijah Namon.

The deceased was stabbed in the chest. The two are JHS 1 students at the WESCO Demonstration Junior High School at Suame in Kumasi.

The incident happened on the schools premises.

It is unclear what may have led to the action of the suspect, Elijah Namon.

Police in the Ashanti Region have arrested the suspect who is currently assisting in investigations.

Meanwhile, the body of the deceased has been deposited at Komfo Anokye Teaching Hospitals mortuary for autopsy.



By: Lauretta Timah/citifmonline.com/Ghana
The Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu, has expressed disappointment with Speaker of Parliament Prof Mike Aaron Oquaye for limiting him to just one question when the Minister of Food and Agriculture (MoFA) appeared before parliament on Thursday.

Dr Owusu Afriyie Akoto was on the floor of parliament to answer questions relating to governments Planting for Food and Jobs programme.

Accra100.5FMs parliamentary correspondent Richard Appiah Sarpong said Mr Iddrisu appeared infuriated about the turn of events and accused the Speaker of bias.

Mr Iddrisu said: "You know the essence of parliamentary questions is significant and integral to the exercise of oversight. Your refusal to allow me even as Minority Leader to proceed can only be an effort to cripple us.

"We respect you as chair of this house; we have a responsibility as leadership to support you in maintaining order in this house" Mr Iddrisu added.

The Speaker, however, responded that: I have consistently made it clear to both sides of the House  Majority and Minority  that no one will be allowed a double bite as I said on many occasions to both the Minority and the Majority. In all honesty you all know that.

Let me make it clear that this argument was most unnecessary and that in future what is going to happen is no leader shall have double bite at the chamber, Prof Oquaye added.
27.07.2017 LISTEN

Prophet Ebenezer Dabedwa Bossman of the Ebenezer Trumpet Ministry at Esaase near Ashanti Akropong has indicated that the criticisms against the Nana Akufo-Addo presidency by the NDC notwithstanding, Nana Akufo-Addo would succeed as president.

Nana Akufo-Addo will emerged as one of the best and most successful president of Ghana, Prophet Bossman has emphasized.

Commonly known as Prophet Macho alias Macho One, Prophet Bossman, who predicted victory for Nana Akufo-Addo six clear months before the 2016 elections said the criticisms are only stepping stones and source of fortification for the president to consolidate political power.

He explained then that his (Nana Akufo-Addos) election is divine and it is to cause the needed change Ghana has yearned over the years.

The young prophet had emphasized that winning power was a done deal because "It is signed, stamped and sealed and not reversible and bound to manifest ".

In a post-election interview in Kumasi Prophet Bossman affirmed that Nana Akufo-Addo is anointed by God to deliver Ghanaians from the myriad of hardships.

The Ebenezer Trumpet Ministry founder and leader, said no matter how long it takes Ghana was bound to experience tremendous transformation under Nana Akufo-Addos administration.

According to him, the numerous initiatives and interventions introduced by the government since it assumed office the last six months would soon yield positive results and urged Ghanaians to be patient as the government rolls out policies and programmes for the benefit of the good people of Ghana.

Macho One assured that very soon Ghanaians would be smiling as the Free SHS policy, One district, One factory, One constituency, One million dollars programmes begin to yield results as the fight against illegal mining has already began clearing our water bodies from pollution.

The pastor has therefore urged the new President to make critical decisions that will impact on the lives of not only Ghanaians but mankind as a universal family around the globe which position is already manifesting in efforts by the President to unite Africa with foreign trips lately.

The Kumasi-based pastor said Ghanaians who massively voted for Nana Akufo-Addo would have to support him with prayers without ceasing since that is the only way the people would also benefit form the favour bestowed on the president.

His (Nana Addos) is a calling and needs the prayers of all to succeed in his calling, he said.

Prophet Bossman, admonished the President to always trust in the Lord evidenced in his proclamation that the battle is the Lord's. Always turn to God and look up to him and he (God) will not look down on you (Nana Addo), he advised.

He also reminded Nana Akufo-Addo to see Ghana as one constituency and advised the president to be humble and always let God be his main focus in the discharge of his mandate as President of the nation while committing himself to his role as the father of the nation and treat all Ghanaians as a universal family with dignity and respect.

Prophet Macho further told the media that he expects to see a real change as revealed to him under an Akufo-Addo government so long as he (Nana Akufo-Addo) remains faithful to God in order for God who appointed him to be faithful to him as President and, by extension, to the good people of Ghana.

The pastor has therefore called for the support of the media for the effective implementation of Nana Akufo-Addos agenda of positive change and urged the president to stay focused on his agenda and redeem his election promises without bias while avoiding the temptation of corruption.
The President in accordance with Article 146, received and forwarded a petition forwarded to his outfit by lawyer Maxwell Opoku-Agyemang to the Chief Justice for the CJ to decide whether there is a prima facie case.

The constitution in Article 44(2), states "The Chairman of the Electoral Commission shall have the same terms and conditions of service as a Justice of the Court of Appeal". Article 146 spelts out procedures for removal of justices of superior courts and chairmen of regional tribunals, and grounds for their removal. What the failed to capture explicitly, is specific procedure for removal of a EC boss. The constitution in Article 125 mentions the Judiciary and (126) states composition and mode or exercise of power of judiciary.Article (136 1- 5) states composition of court of appeal and qualification of its justices. Article (137 1-3) states explicitly jurisdiction of court of appeal.

The constitution imposes special duties and responsibilities on the ELECTORAL COMMISSIONER which are sharply different from what the constitution states as jurisdiction of court of appeal. The EC boss and the electoral commission's functions are captured in Article (45). Its independence is also captured in Article (46) which states explicitly that " Except as provided in this constitution or in any other law not inconsistent with the constitution, in the performance of its functions, the Electoral Commission, shall not be subject to the direction or control of any person or authority".

The constitution does not confer same space and independence on judges of appeal courts. The Electoral Commissioner, presides over an institution that has its own budget, regulations etc and has offices across the country. In India Article 342(2) of its constitution states explicitly that the Chief Election Commissioner is a must.

However, the number of other Election Commissioners may be optional. The constitution of India grants the Election Commissioner in Ghana, the EC boss, the power to recommend the removal of other EC officers and apart from the Election Commissioner, nobody can remove the deputies. This was captured in their constitution to ensure that the Chief Electoral Commissioner and the deputies are not at the mercy of political or executive bosses of the day.Clause (5) of Article 324,safeguards the independence of not only the functionaries but the whole commission. The conditions and service of the Chief Election Officer, is captured in Article 324 of the India constitution which states that they have to be determined by the President unless determined by law made by its parliament and States that they cannot be varied to the advantage of the CEC after his appointment.

REMOVABILITY-

In the case of the CEC (India), he can be removed from office in like manner and on the like ground as a judge of the supreme court whereas his deputies can be removed on the recommendation of the Chief Election Officer or commissioner. This procedure procedure is explicitly captured in their [India] constitution. India had to amend its constitution to cure the problem I have raised to state clearly,how the Commissioner could be removed and to cure the problem of restraining removal of EC bosses.

Article 146(1) mentions misbehaviour or incompetence or inability to perform the function of his office arising from infirmity of body or mind, as grounds upon which mentioned in 146 could (can) be removed. What constitute incompetence. An appeal court can be described as incompetent if he shows lack of understanding of the law, passes bad judgement or,can be said to have misbehaved if he receives bribe allow his personal interest to influence his judgement or work.

The case of the Electoral Commissioner, is somewhat different because of his job jurisdiction. At the palace, the Dabrehene who is the special aide to the chief, and the Gyasehene, the in- charge of the palace, are place within the same status in terms of operation but are not the same when it comes to our traditional arrangement. In the UK for instance they have introduced the performance standard regime for electoral services.

The political parties and Election Act 2009 grants the Electoral Commission a variety of new supervisory and investigatory powers. Parliament and other bodies felt, it was necessary they help fill the significant gap in the commission's powers, and the new Act also provides new range of flexible civil sanctions, both financial and non financial were concurrently proposed to regulate donees as well as political parties.

When similar allegations were levelled against the UK electoral commission, Parliament and other stakeholders focused more on promulgation of policies to improve the integrity of the commission and transparency of party and election finance.

I am just expressing my kindergarten understanding of the points raised, ready for more education. But my sincerest position is that, this constitution needs serious overhaul. If we take the issue of conditions and service, I don't think the conditions and services of our appeal court judges and the EC are truly the same. The respect and recognition we accord our appeal court judges and the EC boss must be the same that's all the constitution says. The rest of the matter bothers on serious legal technicalities.
27.07.2017 LISTEN

It is often said that a child is the reflection of its father. Even though there are exceptions to almost every rule, the idiom stands uncontested in this case I write about. The whole nation made fun of the deputy secretary of the NDC, KokoonAnyidoho, when he described the most brilliant economist, DrMahamouduBawumia, as useless, during the campaign towards the general elections of 2016. His party, subsequently, was vanquished in a most humiliating manner.

As a reminder the results of the elections were: NDC (useless) 4,701,162  44.40%; NPP (useful) 5,687,092  53.80%

Lately, he made similar utterances, this time describing the President as such. I am bamboozled by the husky utterances of this buffoon. Who better does the word useless describe, him or the President?

For starters, the President is acknowledged the whole world over as one of the most astute diplomats and patriotic leaders in Africa, and the most popular in Ghana by all means and measures.

Kokoon on the other hand is a charlatan of the most extreme descriptions. Let me tell you why! He has forsaken his dying father at East Legon and turned to the cream of the crop in our society to throw his rubbish at. Fortunately, there is not enough vim in him for the trash to go far as it lands directly at his feet to forewarn all those that wish to wade these murky waters that their fate would be just as filthy as the rubbish that litters this freaks mind.

I say to you Kokoon, Go and help your dying father to at least redeem a bit of the lost image that you have thrown to the dogs. But do you have a face to do that at all?

If Kokoons father had served his life better, his child would not have mirrored such an ugly personality.

So, Kokoon, who is useless? You the barracks boy known for your impishness since the Burma camp days cannot be more than a comedian as your senior, former pantang inmate AsieduNtetia, especially that you are certified by the university in this field of lackadaisical waste of time. I am happy that six months into opposition has turned you into the extreme case of idiotic psychosis that you are, but what will happen to you after ten years in opposition, which can only be one fifth of the time that your NDC will be there?

Those that GOD has declared useless can only exhibit same in disposition and discourse.

I suggest that Kokoon seeks the autopsy report of his late godfather, John Evan Atta Mills from John Mahama. After all, the last two Presidents before Akufo-Addo were truly the useless ones. If late Atta Mills wasnt useless, he couldnt have appointed him as the press secretary to his Presidency, which ended with his corpse bundled up in a taxi and sent to the maternity ward of the 37 Military Hospital with blood oozing out of his nose and the unmentionable place.
London (AFP) - Vernon Philander again proved a thorn in England's side as Alastair Cook held firm against South Africa in the third Test at The Oval on Thursday.

England were 171 for four at stumps, having won the toss, with 31 of the scheduled 90 overs lost to bad weather on the opening day of the 100th Test at The Oval.

Pace bowling all-rounder Philander had superb figures of two wickets for 17 runs in 12 overs, including five maidens, despite a stomach bug.

That followed his man-of-the-match display with both bat and ball in South Africa's crushing 340-run victory in the second Test at Trent Bridge last week -- a result that left the four-match series level at 1-1.

But former England captain Cook was 82 not out at Thursday's close.

Already England's leading Test run-scorer, the left-handed opener spent more than four-and-a-half hours at the crease to be in sight of his 31st century at this level.

Ben Stokes was unbeaten on 21.

England had been heavily criticised by several former captains for an inability to bat time and wear down the Proteas at Trent Bridge, where they were twice bowled out cheaply and folded for just 133 in their second innings.

Although the overcast conditions and green-tinged pitch promised to assist pace bowlers, England captain Joe Root opted to bat first after winning the toss, just as South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had done in a similar situation in Nottingham.

Jennings duck

Root clearly hoped England could come through some early adverse circumstances and may also have wanted to show confidence in his under-fire batsmen.

But it was not long before England lost their first wicket.

Keaton Jennings, battling to retain his place, was repeatedly beaten outside off stump by Philander and it was no surprise when the South Africa-born opener eventually edged the seamer low to Dean Elgar at third slip for a nine-ball nought.

Tom Westley, one of three England debutants, joined Essex team-mate and mentor Cook with the hosts 12 for one.

The 28-year-old right-hander, selected after a finger injury ruled out the struggling Gary Ballance, got off the mark with a composed legside four off fast bowler Morne Morkel.

Westley, who earlier this season scored a hundred against South Africa for the second-string England Lions, then cover-drove and on-drove left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj for two well struck boundaries in an over.

Cook had made 28 when South Africa quick Chris Morris appealed for lbw, but a review of umpire Joel Wilson's not out decision showed the batsman had got an edge.

England were 62 for one at lunch, with Cook 34 not out.

Westley, however, had added just one to his interval score when, four balls after the break, he nicked a Morris delivery that curved away to du Plessis at second slip.

It was the end of a promising innings of 25 and a second-wicket stand of 52 with Cook.

Star batsman Root then made 29 before he edged an excellent Philander ball that moved away off the seam and was brilliantly caught one-handed by wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock, diving across first slip.

Kagiso Rabada, returning after being banned from the second Test for swearing at Stokes in the series opener at Lord's, then got in on the act.

The fast bowler produced a superb inswinging yorker that knocked Dawid Malan, another of England's debutants, off his feet before crashing into middle stump.

Middlesex left-hander Malan, born in London but brought up in South Africa, was out for one and England were 120 for four, with the Proteas hoping Rabada's joyful celebrations did not contain any obscene words on this occasion.
The Majority leader, Osei Kyei-Mensah Bonsu has alleged that the former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho is manipulating members of the Minority to take certain decisions that do not inure to the benefit of the country.

According to him, the former speaker among his instructions to the minority was to kick against the presence of the press in yesterday's engagement with the Electoral Commissioner, Charlotte Osei.

Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu made the comments in reaction to claims by the minority that the new speaker, Prof. Aaron Mike Oquaye was being unfair to them and stifling them in the House.

Parliament was thrown into near chaos when Minority Leader Haruna Iddrisu express his displeasure over how the speaker had deliberately ensured that they do not thoroughly probe the governments 'Planting for food and jobs' programme.

The Minority Chief Whip, Alhaji Muntaka Mubarak who spoke to Citi News after the session said Prof. Oquaye has through various actions since his appointment acted against the Minority in the House.

Minority Chief Whip, Muntaka Mubarak

It is out of frustration. the minority, we have lost all the opportunity to vent our frustration so we have to, unfortunately, burst in anger which may not be called for but our patient is running out, he said.

We in the minority are really disappointed in the manner in which the speaker has been handling affairs in the how since his appointment. Since this speaker came, we've been treated with a lot of disrespect, he added.

But the Majority Leader says the claims are false.

According to him, the former Speaker of Parliament, who is a member of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) was more bias when the NDC MPs were in the majority in Parliament.

Doe Adjaho while speaker on several occasions deliberately refused to grant audience to the minority in the House when it came to making a submission on the floor.

Former Speaker of Parliament, Edward Doe Adjaho

He also added that Doe Adjaho, despite being out of the seat as speaker, thinks he is still in control.

The man [Doe Adjaho] is behind the scenes, he still wants to control Parliament. Yesterday, he even called them and was telling them that, they should not agree for us in committee to allow you the press to be present. The man thinks he is still in control.

On the reaction of the minority in Parliament's chamber, Osei Kyei Mensah Bonsu said, If on an occasion you don't fund the ruling or direction of Mr. Speaker favourable, there are avenues open to you. You don't get raucous in the chamber, you don't riotous.



By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Experienced clinical pharmacologist, Professor Alexander Nii Oto Dodoo has been appointed as the new head of the Ghana Standards Authority (GSA).

The drug safety expert's appointment was announced in a letter written by President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo.

He is expected to assume office in June, 2017.

As an Associate Professor, Centre for Tropical Clinical Pharmacology & University of Ghana School of Medicine and Dentistry and the Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) Collaborating Centre for Advocacy and Training in Pharmacovigilance, Prof Dodoo brings a wealth of diverse experience to his new role, he told the Ghana News Agency in Accra.

He has served for many years in leadership positions in a number of organisations and committees.

He is a member of WHOs Advisory Committee on the Safety of Medicinal Products as well as the immediate Chairperson of its Global Vaccine Safety Initiative.

He is a member of the Expert Committee on Drug Dependency Disorders and has been supporting regional efforts in harmonisation.

Prof Dodoo has been to a number of African countries to assist their Ministries of Health in the setting up of safety surveillance infrastructure.

He works closely with the African Union and the African Medicines Harmonisation Initiative and currently heads a NEPAD/AU designated Regional Centre for Regulatory Excellence.

Prof Dodoo served for two terms as the President of the Pharmaceutical Society of Ghana (PSGH) and for three years as the President of the International Society of Pharmacovigilance, the leading global international scientific organisation for drug and vaccine safety.

Prof Dodoo holds MSc (Biopharmacy) and PhD (Pharmacy) degrees from King College London, University of London, UK and University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana.

He also spent a year working as a Research Assistant at the University of Edmonton, Alberta, Canada from 1991-1992.

He has a proven record of facilitating long term professional, scientific, technical, and business relationships with both customers and industry luminaries.

He is a Fellow, Ghana College of Pharmacists, Fellow, PSGH, Fellow, West African Postgraduate College of Pharmacy, a Registered Pharmacist with the General Pharmaceutical Council of the UK and a Member, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain.

By his new position he will be responsible for the leadership of driving GSAs vision to become a Model of Excellence in Standardisation in Africa and its mission to promote Standardisation for the improvement of the Quality of Goods, Services and Sound Management practice in Industries and Public Institutions.

Commenting on his appointment, Prof Dodoo says his main aim is to build a world class organisation that is customer-focused.

I am humbled to be appointed by the President to undertake this critically important role that has the potential to transform industry and commerce in Ghana.

I want the GSA to be the leading organisation in facilitating trade and improving business practices in Ghana. I want to champion the Presidents call for us to expand intra-ECOWAS trade and create jobs in Ghana by making Made in Ghana goods the natural choice for everyone, he said.

Prof Dodoo says he wants the citizenry to patronise Made in Ghana products not just because they are Made in Ghana but because they are of excellent quality and represent value for money.

He said the GSA would work with industry to make this possible in the shortest possible time, adding: The GSA will also work in improving practices in Ghana so that Ministries, Departments and Agencies will have ISO-certification for their practices and procedures.

"I am thrilled to be part of the GSA team. We have work to do. We have contributions to make in all sectors of the economy including mining, agriculture, oil and gas, construction and aviation.

We have a key role to play in modernising agriculture and commerce. We have a responsibility to protect the health, safety, and wellbeing of Ghanaians. We have so much to do so the hard work starts now.

GSA is an Agency that regulates standards in the country and ensures that products and services are safe, reliable and are of good quality.
Senior minister Yaw Osafo Maafo has testified to late President John Evans Atta Mills as a man of conviction.

The minister at the 5th memorial lecture to commemorate the passing of the late president remembered his student days with Mills at Achimota School where he taught his friend Maths while Mills taught him Latin.

He said Mills' entry into politics came as a surprise to most people including him because even in school Mills would not go so far as to even vote in student elections.

"None of us thought he would get into politics. There was nothing political about Fiifi", the former Akim Oda MP said.

But Prof. Mills, then Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service was handpicked by President Jerry John Rawlings to become Vice-President in 1996 after Kow Nkensen Arkaah resigned.

Prof. Mills contested in the presidential elections in 2000 and lost, suffered a same fate in 2004 but was triumphant in 2008. He served for three years and died while in office on 24 July 2012 three days after his 68th birthday.

Commemorating his life, Yaw Osafo Maafo fondly remembered that his friend was a man of conviction.

Prof. Evans Atta Mills was not afraid to publicly state that he would make Yaw Osafo Maafo his Finance minister if he won the 2004 presidential elections. Osafo Maafo was then serving as President Kufuor's Finance minister in the NPP government.

He said he tried to talk to Mills to avoid using such a rhetoric because it may create disaffection for him within his party.

The former Finance minister Osafo Maafo acknowledged Prof. Mills deep knowledge of taxation and said he followed Mills' policies he put in place when his political rival was the Commissioner at IRS from 1988 to 1996.

Story by Ghana|myjoyonline.com|Edwin Appiah|[email protected]
OrlAans (France) (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday unveiled plans to set up migrant registration centres in Libya to help stem an influx that has sparked a crisis in Europe, although his aides said the scheme could not be implemented there immediately for security reasons.

A presidency official said the plan -- for which Macron set the goal of becoming operational "this summer" -- "was not possible at the moment" because of security in Libya.

Instead, France would study the feasibility of setting up migrant "hotspot" centres in Niger and Chad, and aim to open similar sites in Libya "in the short term".

Macron had said earlier Thursday that he wanted to set up processing centres in Libya "to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum".

Speaking during a visit to a refugee shelter in Orleans in central France, Macron said the plan would be put in place "this summer", with or without other EU countries.

Libya is the main launchpad for African migrants trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean in boats operated by smugglers, rickety vessels that frequently sink.

"We have between 800,000 and a million people in Libya -- in camps, hangars, there's not even a minimum of humanity," Macron said.

He said other European countries were "very reticent" to set up registration centres, adding: "We'll try to do it with Europe but we in France will do it."

But his announcement seemed to take the European Commission by surprise and Human Rights Watch expressed serious concerns about the plan.

Judith Sunderland, HRW's Associate Director for Europe, said: "It carries the risk of human rights abuses and loss of dignity for the people involved."

Hours after the original announcement, a French presidency official explained that "Libya is not possible at the moment, but it could be possible in the short term. Does that remove the ambition to create this sort of centre in Libya? No.

"The important thing is to ensure the security of people who will work there and of the migrants," the official added.

Libya is rife with lawlessness since the 2011 uprising ousted longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi and created a power vacuum.

Macron's announcement came two days after he brokered talks in Paris between the leaders of the two rival authorities in Libya.

He said then that he hoped the ceasefire deal between the UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the remote east, would stem the outflow of migrants from Libya.

Since January, more than 100,000 people have made the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Over 2,300 have drowned in the attempt.

The vast majority land in Italy, which has complained of a lack of solidarity from its neighbours in dealing with the influx.

Macron on Thursday phoned Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to discuss events, a presidential aide said.

The two "shared a certain degree of optimism after the (Paris meeting), reaching very similar conclusions," the source said, adding that Macron also briefed Gentiloni on his plans for registration centres.

More shelters in France

France's new leader has taken an ambivalent line on migration.

More than 100,000 people have made the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean this year

During his campaign he was fulsome in his praise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy but his government has taken a hard line with young migrants sleeping rough on the streets of the northern French port of Calais.

But in a speech on Thursday at a citizenship ceremony for families in the central city of Orleans, Macron adopted a more compassionate tone.

"I want no one in the streets or in the forests by the end of the year," he said, promising "dignified" accommodation for all those who made it to France while their cases were assessed.

He reiterated a pledge to slash the average processing time for an asylum claim from 18 months to six.

But he also warned that those who were fleeing poverty, rather than war or persecution, faced disappointment.

"No country can take all the economic migrants," he said.
Accra, July 27, GNA - Vice President Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, has called for a strong, thriving and mutually beneficial collaboration between Ghanaian and Maltese businesses to take advantage of opportunities in each other's countries.

The Vice President who was speaking at the Ghana-Malta Business Forum to engage entrepreneurs in Accra on Thursday said the government was confident that Maltese investors would find Ghana a welcoming home and a place to do business and especially as a base to invest in the rest of Africa.

'The Government under President Nana Akufo- Addo has declared that we want to make Ghana not only the most people friendly country in Africa but the most business friendly country in Africa,' he added.

He said government had moved quickly, since it came into power six months ago to putting flesh to the idea of making Ghana the most business friendly country in Africa so that 'we can get the private sector moving'.

He said one of the key areas in making Ghana the most business friendly country in Africa was to ensure and sustain macro-economic stability and without macro-economic stability the country would not go far.

'We also want to make very clear that the era of reckless borrowing is over and with this tight fiscal discipline, government borrowing will reduce and that means we will create the space for the private sector to be crowded in and get more access to finance,' he said.

Vice President Bawumia said government was moving away from the focus on taxation to production, hence the removal of about 15 nuisance taxes in the 2017 budget.

'We do like tax revenue but we want the businesses to make the revenue first before we tax them. We do not want to tax them before they make the revenue. So it is a philosophical change and I think we are moving in the right direction in this issue,' he added.

He said government had embarked on extensive investment investments in hard and soft infrastructure that placed Ghana at the heart of trade and investment flows in the region with the view of making Ghana the hub of logistics transportation, financial industrial, oil and gas and trade hub in the West African sub- region.

The visiting Maltese President, Mrs Marie-Louise Coleiro Preca, said like Ghana, Malta was politically stable and registering significant progress over the years.

She said her presence with the Maltese Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade Promotions beared witness to the strong and growing bilateral relations.

She said it was also evidence of Malta's willingness to enhance the friendship that existed between the two countries.

'We come to Ghana with a message of friendship with the political will and with the determination to transform our excellent diplomatic relations into effective business collaborations and partnerships for the benefit of our respective business communities and for the prosperity of our two nations,' she added.

She said the growing relationship between the two countries across social, economic and political spheres of influence was now even stronger with the opening of the high commission for Ghana in Malta with a resident high commissioner.

The President said the establishment of a Malta Ghana joint technical commission was another important development in the relations of the two countries.

She said both countries were committed in the areas of human resource development, education and Ghana's health sector provided an opportunity for the Maltese government to take advantage of.

She called on stakeholders from both countries to exchange ideas in a way to continue to provide development to their various countries to better the lives of their people.

'We must continue to strengthen culture and economic ties and values that bring the two countries together,' she added.

Meanwhile, the Ghana Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the Association of Ghana Industries signed separate Memorandum of Understanding with their Maltese counterparts.

The Maltese President is in the country for a three-day State visit and is leading a delegation of business people looking to explore opportunities for investment in Africa.

She and her spouse would also visit Kumasi on Thursday, July 27, where she is expected to pay a call on the Asantehene, Otumfuo Osei Tutu II, at the Manhyia Palace, and the Hope X Change Medical Centre, an 80-bed hospital initiated by Malta.

President Preca would also visit Cape Coast, the Osu Children's Home and take part in a business forum also in Accra.

GNA

By Morkporkpor Anku, GNA
Patience Gbeze, GNA

Akosombo (E/R), July 27, GNA - The Institute for Environment and Sanitation Studies (IESS) of the University of Ghana is hosting partner institutions for a five-day Annual meeting of the Adaptation at Scale in Semi-Arid Regions (ASSAR) project at Akosombo.

The meeting is Research into-Use (RiU) focused and intended among others to devise effective ways of ensuring research results and findings are shared with key stakeholders for uptake in policy and decision making processes as part of the third and final stage of the project.

The agenda of the five-day meeting is therefore focused on issues such as research into-use updates from the regional (East Africa, West Africa, Southern Africa and South Asia) research programmes.

It also involves intersection of research streams for high level and cross regional synthesis products as well as the implications of the research results for learning, collaboration and the achievement of impact in the area of climate change adaptation impact specifically in semi-arid regions.

The ASSAR project is jointly funded by the UKAid and the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada through the Collaborative Research Initiative in Africa and Asia, to improve understanding of the underlying drivers and determinants of vulnerability of livelihood systems.

The project also seeks to assess the strengths and weaknesses of current adaptation practices and policies and advance understanding of the constraining and enabling factors that determine successful adaptation.

The five-year project focuses on improving the understanding of the barriers, enablers and limits to climate change adaptation in semi-arid regions until 2030.

Professor Chris Gordon, Director of IESS, said the project was to enable proactive, longer-term approaches to climate change adaptation in semi-arid regions, while supporting the management of current risks.

He said the project, which began in 2014 also aimed to meet the needs of government and practitioner stakeholders, to help shape more effective policy frameworks, and to develop more lasting adaptation responses.

The entire ASSAR project is in three phases including regional diagnostic study (RDS), Research and Research into Use(RiU).

Prof Gordon, who is also the main lead for ASSAR project in Ghana, said there were main research focus areas for the ASSAR project namely social differentiation, governance, knowledge systems and use and dynamic ecosystem services.

He said in Ghana, the project was focused on agriculture intensification in the semi-arid areas of northern Ghana using the Lawra and Nandom Districts of the Upper West Region as a case study.

'During the first phase of the project, the team initiated a Regional Diagnostic Study consisting of collating information and evidence of climate change impacts and vulnerabilities from three districts in the Upper West region.

'As part of the processes of preparing the RDS, the project team held a national and district level expert meetings to introduce stakeholders to the ASSAR project as well as solicit their opinions on climate change adaptation at the national and local level.

'The ongoing research phase of the project is further examining the information obtained from the RDS in order to explore strategies for developing adaptive capacity at multiple scales, thus from individuals to business and government within the region.

'The RiU phase will be informing adaptation practices at multiple scales, and in different contexts, and enabling take-up of research insights in policy and practice interventions,' he added.

Consortium teams and experts from the Indian Institute for Human Settlement, the International START Secretariat, US, UK,OXFAM (UK), ICRISAT Mali and Universities of East Anglia, Cape Town, Botswana and Namibia and other partner institutions are attending the meeting.

GNA
27.07.2017 LISTEN

Accra, July 27, GNA - President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo would before this year ends, meet his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, to discuss opportunities for strengthening the development cooperation and friendly ties in the interest of their peoples.

The French Ambassador to Ghana, Francois Pujolas, who told the Ghana News Agency in an interview, on Thursday, said the maiden meeting would cover a wide range of issues, including trade and socio-cultural affairs.

Ambassador Pujolas explained that the meeting could take place in either Ghana or France.

'What is very interesting about this high-level meeting is that it would be in the 60th year of Ghana - France relations, and Ghana's Golden Jubilee Celebration; both nations have new presidents with Ghana's assuming office in January, while France's President took office in May.'

Mr Pujolas said the bilateral relations would be geared towards better facing the challenges of the day and preparing for a better future; which means the sustainable future of both countries; and for Europe and Africa.

'That is basically what we want to achieve through cooperation in peace and stability, economic development and cultural diversity,' he stated.

According to information on the official site of the French Embassy in Accra, the value of French foreign direct investments in Ghana in 2014 was a107M for a stock amounting to a851M.

There are more than 60 French companies in Ghana in a large range of sectors such as agriculture, banking, insurance, construction, logistics, oil and gas, hotel and restaurants.

Forty-six of them have been established as subsidiaries, while 15 are on their own.

They include SociAtA GAnArale, Total, Technip, Pernod Ricard, Alstom, BollorA, CMA-CGM, Air Liquide, and L'OrAal. Companies like Golden Exotics (La Compagnie FruitiAre) or GREL, who are major employers, providing about 20,000 direct and indirect jobs.

The amount of bilateral trade was 1 billion a in 2015 with Ghana mainly supplying oil to France, and also some agricultural products and food.

France exports mainly metallurgical products, refined petroleum products, food products and engineering equipment to Ghana.

GNA

By Iddi Yire, GNA
A 13-year-old boy has died in what is suspected to be a suicide at Adukrom in the Asokore Mampong Municipality of the Ashanti Region.

The class five pupil of the local Municipal Assembly Basic School, Denis Ali, is believed to have hanged himself at home after school in the absence of his parents.

Relatives and neighbours were thrown into shock when they discovered his lifeless body hanging on a manila rope on the ceiling of the familys one bedroom wooden structure.

The incident happened immediately after the deceased returned from school, Thursday marking the end of the academic year.

Though the deceased's motive is unknown, there is speculation he may have been repeated in his class for poor performance in the promotion examination.

Coming on the day of school vacated, authorities who visited the family to confirm the news will not comment on the speculation.

The family is also unable to speak to the incident since it happened in their absence.

Neighbors had to help the family convey the deceased to the hospital after several attempts to reach police proved futile.

The shocked residents were seen in groups pondering over the incidence.
It finally happened. The big bad Securities and Exchange Commission finally took aim at the crypto marketsexcept it was more of a warning shot.

The SEC decided to address the recent spate of new digital tokens flooding the market. These initial coin offerings (ICOs) have been making quite the splash lately. But not everyone is happy with them.

The problem is, theyre lawless. Which is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, its a great way to secure funding in a timely fashion. But it also leads to money-grabbing scams.

Were big supporters of ICOs here at Money Morning, but only when done right.

Cryptocurrencies good or bad?

For most investors, cryptos are too daunting to even warrant thinking about. Throw in the potential to be scammed of your hard earned cash and, well, we can see why some people are wary.

But huzzah, the SEC is here to save us  or, rather, Americans  from digital highway robbery. Well maybe.

The SEC concluded that some ICOs will be considered securities. Circumstances will decide whether an ICO should be classified as a security, but on a case by case basis.

Coin Telegraph believes that this could result in increased legal input.

Token issuers may now have to turn to lawyers to confirm that the token they intend to issue does not qualify as a security under federal security laws.

SEC warning on cryptos..

All in all, it feels like this is leading down a path of increased red tape and bureaucracy.

Furthermore, the SEC put out an Investor Bulletin on ICOs. Which actually gives a neat little summary of blockchain, cryptocurrencies and more. But also came with heavy handed warnings, such as:

Investing in an ICO may limit your recovery in the event of fraud or theft. While you may have rights under the federal securities law, your ability to recover may be significantly limited.

So what does it all mean? Well, potentially not much. New ICOs are facing classification, and thats about it.

So what does a security classification mean? Well then theyre going to incur compliance costs, whether it be time, money or both.

All up it will likely mean we see fewer ICOs, but most likely fewer dodgy ICOs. If a company really does believe in their vision and is seriously devoted to their project, we cant see this ruling having much impact.

Were hopeful its a good thing. For now it appears to be that way.

It certainly didnt seem to impact the market that hard. Bitcoin has dropped 10% since the announcement, while Ether is down 12%. Which sounds oxymoronic, I know. If we were talking about Commonwealth Bank of Australia [ASX:CBA] shares wed be more concerned. But youve got to remember just how volatile cryptos are. This is a market that swings harder than anything youve ever seen.

In fact both coins are actually up over the past 10 days. Bitcoin is up 26%, while Ether is up 25%. Remember this is very much the wild west of investing.

If youre still erring on the side of caution we think you might regret it. Even investing a small amount in cryptos could see huge returns in a couple of years.

If you want to learn more and get involved, we can get you started. Sam Volkering has been covering cryptos for years now, and his Secret Crypto Network is here to help. Theres never been a better time to start investing in Cryptos. To read more, click here.

Regards,

Ryan Clarkson-Ledward,

Junior Analyst, Money Morning

Why Ethereum Could Be the One Coin to Rule Them All..find out here
NWS-Sacramento Hot Weather Trend, July 26, 2017 View Photos

Sonora, CA  If it seems like a really hot summer so far, it turns out that, for much of California and the Western US, temperatures are trending much warmer than normal.

Today, the National Weather Service/Sacramento publicly noted what it is describing as a weather anomaly. From the auspices of his office, meteorologist Corey Mueller shares, So far we have seen an above average start to the summertemperatures running about one to three degrees above the norm.

Reviewing Sonora temperatures, Mueller comments, Your highs are running about three to four [degrees] above average with lows very similarand quite a few days in June and July with temperatures above 100.

Looking into the days ahead, The forecast is definitely looking warm for this week heading into the weekend  and it looks to stay hot next week, running around 100.

As we previously reported here, while Sonora might be headed into another stretch of century-mark hitting heat, as we wind down July we will have to hit at least 107 before it is worth bothering to check whether we have tied a high temperature. The highest temperature recorded in the area is 113 degrees, which was noted only once before in July and once in June as well.

The heat will hardly help firefighting efforts and will likely trigger heat advisories. Mueller advises, We want people to practice heat safety and make sure they stay hydrated. For tips on how best to do that, click here.
- Joachim Iroko, the man who named his dog Buhari has been released

- The court said the prosecutor did not substantiate his case against him

- The defence expressed delight at the judgement of the court

Joachim Iroko who caused controversy when he named his dog Buhari has been set free by a Chief Magistrates Court in Sango-Otta on Tuesday, July 25.

The 41-year old Nigerian was reported to the police by one Haliru Umar from Sokoto state in August 2016 for breach of peace after he named his dog Buhari.

READ ALSO: I am making progress - Buhari writes AU from London about his ailment

He was accused of harbouring hatred for President Muhammadu Buhari but his arrest sparked nationwide criticism.

Premium Times reports that the magistrate, O.O. Adebo ruled that the prosecutor failed to substantiate its case against Iroko and thus struck out all the charges against him.

Irokos lawyer expressed delight over the judgement and praised the court for its ruling.

It will be recalled that Iroko raised alarm about threat to his life.

Iroko and his wife observed strange individuals lurking within the precinct of their residential apartment in Sango Ota, Ogun state.

On noticing the suspicious movements, he took his wife and two children to where they could get a vehicle to convey them to a relation's house to pass the night.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Nigerians speaking about President Buhari:

Source: Legit.ng
- 10 NNPC workers were rescued by soldiers after they were kidnapped

- Some terrorists were also killed in the operation

- Nine soldiers lost their lives in the rescue mission

Nine soldiers have lost their lives during a daring mission to rescue oil workers of the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) kidnapped by Boko Haram terrorists.

This was confirmed by Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman who is the spokesperson of the army on Wednesday, July 26.

READ ALSO: Governors speak after meeting with President Buhari

The army said a civilian also died in the confrontation with the terrorists and their bodies have been recovered and taken to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.

The oil workers were on an exploration mission in Borno state when they were ambushed by the terrorists.

The army spokesperson said: On receipt of the information, the Brigade mobilised and sent reinforcement, search and rescue party that include the Armed Forces Special Forces and guides that worked and pursued the terrorists throughout the night.

So far, they have rescued all the NNPC staff and recovered the corpses of the Officer, eight soldiers and a civilian who have been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.

The team recovered 4 vehicles one of which include a gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun, two white Hilux taken away from NNPC staff and one blue Hilux belonging to CJTF.

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The team also recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition, several spare tyres, many jerry cans containing Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant, assorted drugs, Improvised Explosive Device making materials, reflective jackets and a Motorola handheld radio, among others.

The team also neutralised many of the terrorists.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that seven of the abducted persons were freed after a rescue-mission embarked upon by a joint force of soldiers and local security personnel.

Zanna Modu, the council chairman of Magumeri local government area of Borno state, told newsmen that the rescue mission was effected on Wednesday July 26.

According to him, the troops rescued four Civilian-JTF members, two NNPC personnel and a staff of the University of Maiduguri.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of the operation of the air force against Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
Sheri Swokowski of DeForest remembers how hard it was keeping her true self secret while serving as an infantry colonel in the decades before the Pentagons 2016 decision to lift its prohibition on transgender service members.

It was a rough road to do that and still remain viable and focused on your job, Swokowski said in an interview Wednesday after President Donald Trump announced he was reinstating the ban. I would have lost my job if I had transitioned.

Swokowski said duty always came first during her long career, but it was painful to hide her identity. She waited until after she retired from the military 13 years ago before making her gender transition.

Im very disappointed and surprised that the leader of our military would say that transgender military personnel were not capable of defending this country, something theyve been doing since the 1700s, Swokowski said.

The Manitowoc native accomplished much in her nearly 35 years as a full-time officer in the Wisconsin National Guard, but she wondered if she would have achieved even more without the burden of deeply suppressing the truth about herself.

A post-retirement job as a civilian contractor teaching courses at the Army Force Management School at Fort Belvoir, Va., ended abruptly in 2007 when she made her change.

I decided I needed to live authentically, so it got toward the end of the year and I took six weeks off, came back physically as Sheri, and was immediately fired for my efforts, Swokowski said.

The next year, the Pentagon hired her as a civilian senior analyst. She said many people would assume it would have been a conservative workplace that posed difficulties, but she said she had a very rewarding two years there.

If we can do that on the civilian side of the house, it can be done on the military side, too, Skowkowski said.

Darla Lannert, of Oregon, was a Navy gunners mate on a guided missile destroyer that was hit by artillery fire that killed one shipmate and wounded several others in Haiphong Harbor during the Vietnam war.

We went dead in the water and it was really scary, said Lannert, who said she had been transitioning all her life. She left the Navy in 1973, worked as a truck driver for many years, and changed her name in 2014.

Her 114 days of combat also included a harrowing mission up the Cua Viet river to rescue dozens of besieged Marines.

The fear foremost on her mind Wednesday, though, was over the prospect that Trumps ban could be a first step toward harsher measures aimed at transgender people, including military personnel and veterans.

Despite a widely cited RAND Corp. study last year that found transgender military personnel serving openly would have little or no impact on readiness or medical costs, Trump said he was acting to prevent disruption and tremendous medical costs.

With the decisions that were made today were not progressing as a country, were going backward, Lannert said. Its just pure discrimination and certainly doesnt have anything to do with cost.

Lannert said she began receiving hormone replacement therapy at a Veterans Administration facility in 2009. The cost was minuscule compared to treatment she received this year after suffering a heart attack, which involved two weeks in the hospital and open heart surgery through the VA, she said.

Steve Starkey, executive director of OutReach in Madison, said multiple studies indicate there is no downside to the military accepting gay and transgender people.

Trump campaigned on being an LGBT-friendly president, Starkey said. He stood on stage with a big rainbow flag and vowed to be an LGBT-friendly president, and hes done exactly the opposite.
- Ahmed Makarfi stated that in order to revive and reinvigorate the party, the PDP leadership would need to put in great effort to reconcile with those who had left the party

- The PDP chairman also noted that the opposition party needs to embark on a strong membership drive in order to attract more people to the party

- Makarfi also lauded the recent Supreme Court judgement that cemented his leadership, describing it as a landmark judgement which helped cool tempers

Senator Ahmed Makarfi, the chairman of the National Caretaker Committee of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has revealed how the former ruling party will recapture power in 2019.

According to reports, the PDP chairman made his comments at the partys national secretariat in Abuja on Wednesday July 26, as he received members of the Forum of Former Presiding Officers of State Houses of Assembly, and the PDP Womens Forum.

Outlining the strategy, Makarfi stated that once the opposition party was able to reconcile its aggrieved members, recruit news ones and build a vast war chest, it would recover power from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

READ ALSO: Osinbajo deserves commendation - PDP chieftain declares

While acknowledging the importance of reconciliation in the party, Makarfi stated that the process would not just cover those who were involved in the leadership crisis that engulfed the party, but also those that had left the PDP.

He stated: Its a work in progress. This is the time to join hands and build the party, to reconcile. Reconciling with members is not limited to those we went to court with us of recent.

Since PDP was formed, a number of members have left; some are doing siddon look and not active.

We need to make every effort to reconcile with them so that we revive the party and reinvigorate it.

Beyond reconciling with all members of PDP, we need to do membership drive and bring in more members.

So, it requires a lot of efforts and sacrifice on our part. It requires accommodation.

Accommodation does not mean surrendering a hundred per cent what you have. If somebody cannot be accommodated, you have no reason to say he is reconciling.

And if we cant reconcile and be stronger, we can as well forget about getting back to government.

The more the merrier. Its when you build a big war chest that you can have a good chance of winning any battle.

Weve gone through a long avoidable hard struggle. It was not a struggle over PDP leadership. It was a struggle for democracy.

It was a landmark judgement that touches on every political party you can think of. Its a landmark judgment that has stabilized the polity.

We know there is hunger; we know that there are difficulties, all kinds of problems in the country. But as soon as this judgment came, it seemed to have brought down tempers.

Why tempers have gone down is that people have seen the alternative they have been waiting for.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that the 30 senators who make up the PDP caucus in the upper legislative chamber, resolved to oust the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) from power by 2019.

Their resolution followed the Supreme Court ruling in favor of Senator Ahmed Makarfi.

Speaking on the victory, Godswill Akpabio, Senate minority leader and chairman of the caucus said with the ruling, the coast had now been cleared to remove the APC from power come 2019.

Watch this Legit.ng of GEJ saying that Nigerians want the PDP back, at the opposition party's caucus meeting:

Source: Legit.ng
- A United States of American rights group has arrived Nigeria

- The group came to Nigeria on a fact-finding mission on the failure of the Nigerian Senate to swear in the Senator representing Akwa Ibom North Senatorial District Bassey Etim as ordered by a court

- The group also accused the Senate President Bukola Saraki of committing 'blatant abuse of power'

Some members of a rights group stationed in the United States has arrived Nigeria over growing calls for the ban of the Senate President Bukola Saraki and 10 other lawmakers from entering the US.

The rights group US Centre for Justice in Politics' arrival is sequel to the failure of the Nigeria Senate to swear in a Senator representing Akwa Ibom North Senatorial District Bassey Etim as ordered by a court.

This also comes weeks after a United Nations rights group, the Peoples Right to Life Development Foundation (PELDEF) urged the congressional Black Caucus of the US congress to ban Saraki and 10 other lawmakers from gaining access into the US.

READ ALSO: Nigerians should continue to pray for the president - PDP governor speaks after meeting with Buhari in London

Legit.ng gathered that the group is in Nigeria on a fact-finding mission of the failure of the Senate to swear in the duly elected Senator.

In a letter addressed to the national secretary of PELDEF, the US centre for justice expressed shock that the Nigerian Senate despite court rulings have failed to swear in Etim.

The rights group's letter dated July 17, reads in part: As you may know, our organization, The Center For Justice In Politics (Center4JIP), is a non-profit organization based in the Atlanta area of the USA. We are primarily engaged in legislative procedures training, fighting for political justice and political consulting, in developing countries.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Governors speak about Buharis health after meeting in London (photos)

This is to first acknowledge receipt of your letter, dated July 7, 2017, with the accompanying supporting documents.

Secondly, we want to inform you that after reviewing all the supporting documents and confirming the authenticity of the High Court ruling in Uyo and the Certificate of Return issued to Mr. Bassey Etim by Nigerias Independent National Electoral Commission, we agree that the failure to swear in Mr. Etim to the Senate is unjust and a blatant abuse of power on the part of Nigerias Senate President, Mr. Saraki.

Consequently and as contained in your letter to the Black Congressional Caucus, we will disseminate this information to other like entities to secure a ban on Mr. Saraki and others from entering the USA," the letter said.

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The group further added that it will take necessary steps to ensure a redress for "this abnormally"

Legit.ng earlier reported that a UN review group called for the ban of Saraki and other principal officers of the Senate.

The group in the petition said Saraki and these Senators should be banned from entering the US due to their refusal to swear in Etim according to court's order.

The group also claimed that the Senate President and the principal officers were violating the law by discriminating against the Senator-elect.

You can watch this Legit.ng video of Nigerians reacting to scrapping of the Senate:

Source: Legit.ng
- Governor Dave Umahi has urged Nigerians to continue to pray for President Buhari

- The Ebonyi state governor who was among those who visited Buhari in London said the president was recovering well

- He advised the president to heed to the advice of his doctors

Governor Dave Umahi of Ebonyi state has described President Muhammadu Buharis recovery as a miracle saying he was in cheerful spirit.

Umahi was one of the seven governors who paid a visit to President Buhari in London on Wednesday, July 26 and The Punch reports that he expressed delight over his recovery.

READ ALSO: President Buhari receives governors in London (photos)

He said: We met a cheerful President whose level of recovery is a miracle. We know he will soon return home as soon as his doctors certify him to do so. What hes treating is not mere malaria that we can say he will return today or tomorrow.

However, we are happy and we thank God for what we saw. It is contrary to the pictures people are painting on the social media. The President we saw is recuperating well and we are happy for that.

It is even better that, we as members of the opposition party, are among the entourage. Nigerians should continue to pray for the President.

On whether the president should be expected back in the country soon, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor said the acting president was doing a good job and the president should return when his doctors certify him well enough.

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We dont need to panic because we have a hardworking acting President who is doing a fantastic job. All we need to do as Nigerians is to continue to pray for the President, he said.

Legit.ng had reported that Governor Umar Ganduje of Kano expressed delight over President Buharis better health condition shortly after he and six other governors met with him.

The governors who were selected to represent the six geo-political zones were led by Governor Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara who is the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.

Watch a Legit.ng TV video below of Nigerians giving their opinion about President Buhari:

Source: Legit.ng
- Some Nigerians have voluntarily returned from Libya

- These Nigerians were back to Nigeria aboard a chartered Libyan Airlines aircraft with registration number 5A-LAR

- They arrived at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos at 10 pm on Wednesday, July 26

Two hundred and sixty-two more Nigerians voluntarily returned home from Libya on Wednesday July 26 with the help of the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the returnees arrived aboard a chartered Libyan Airlines aircraft with registration number 5A-LAR, which landed at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos at 10 pm.

The returnees, who had been stranded in Libya, were made up of of 108 males, 135 females, eight children and 11 infants.

READ ALSO: Nigerians should continue to pray for the president - PDP governor speaks after meeting with Buhari in London

They were received by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.

Also on ground to receive them were officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Addressing newsmen, Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, the Director General, NEMA, said the agency in collaboration with the IOM was working to ensure that Nigerians stranded in Libya are brought back home.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Governors speak about Buharis health after meeting in London (photos)

The director general who was represented by Mr Suleiman Yakubu, Zonal Coordinator, South West, NEMA, said both the federal government and state governments had initiated various programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees into the society.

He further advised Nigerians, especially the youth, to take advantage of the enormous opportunities available in the country.

NAN reports that thousands of Nigerians have been flown back home from the North African country with the help of the IOM.

READ ALSO: PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

Legit.ng earlier reported that 1,268 Nigerians voluntarily returned to Nigeria from Libya.

The returnees, the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) said returned between December 16, 2016 and May 16, 2017.

The director of the agency Mustapha Maihaja also said a fresh batch of 258 Nigerian arrived the Lagos airport in a charted Libya Airline Airbus.

Source: NAN

You can watch this video of ex-prisoner becoming an advocate for former inmates in China Prison:

Source: Legit.ng
- Dr. Chinedu Nneji, the Commandant General of the National Unity and Peace Corps (NUPEC), has reacted to the passage of the Nigerian Peace Corps bill

- Nneji assured Nigerians that in three months the Nigerian Peace Corps will end Boko Haram insurgency and secession agitations in Nigeria

- The Nigerian Senate on Tuesday, July 25, finally passed the Peace (establishment) Corps bill

Dr. Chinedu Nneji, the Commandant General of the National Unity and Peace Corps (NUPEC), has assured Nigerians that the Nigerian Peace Corps (NPC) will end Boko Haram and secession agitations within three months, Daily Trust reports.

Legit.ng gathered that Nneji stated this in reaction to the passage of the Nigerian Peace Corps bill by the Senate. The NPC is an offshoot of NUPEC and Peace Corps of Nigeria.

READ ALSO: Governor Umahi describes Buhari's recovery as a miracle

He said: "We have studied the problems of the country and as I speak with you, we have already prepared our officers and men to be able to launch into the society and restore total peace," he said.

"I assure you, three months after the assent of Mr. President, you will see that the entire country will come to normalcy. Agitation of secession by the Biafrans, the quit notice from the Northern youths and all other agitations in the country now, all will be stopped."

He added that: "We will also dialogue with Boko Haram to make sure that they stop all bombings."

Nneji while expressing optimism that the president will assent the bill when he returned from his medical trip, said Peace Corps will compliment their efforts through mediation.

In a previous report by Legit.ng, the Nigerian Senate passed the Peace (establishment) Corps bill with Bukola Saraki declaring that it was a long journey that finally led the country to the promise land.

"One long journey, we finally got to the Promise land. Thank you all," Saraki said after the bill was passed on Tuesday, July 25, 2017.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 new app

In a motion moved by the deputy chairman, Senate committee on interior, Senator Bayero Nafada, the Senate resolved that the federal government of Nigeria should give statutory backing to the existing Peace Corps of Nigeria.

Watch how a member of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) made an impact in the town she was posted to:

Source: Legit.ng
- The charges against the Kwara civil servant by Bukola Saraki has been withdrawn

- Biodun Baba was earlier sacked for criticizing the Senate President Bukola Saraki on his Facebook page

- He was arraigned before a court in Ilorin today July 27

The charges against a Kwara state civil servant before a court in Ilorin has been withdrawn.

Biodun Baba was earlier arraigned for criticizing the Senate President Bukola Saraki on Facebook.

He was also sacked by the Kwara state's civil service commission after he a made a post about the Senate President on Facebook, Sahara reporters reports.

Baba allegedly referred to the Senate President as 'bastarrd' on a post he made on his Facebook page.

Baba, Legit.ng gathered, was arraigned today, July 27, before a court in Ilorin.

Biodun Baba criticized Saraki on his Facebook page. Source: Twitter, Sahara Reporters

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Governors speak about Buharis health after meeting in London (photos)

Biodun Baba criticized Saraki on his Facebook page. Source: Twitter, Sahara Reporters

Legit.ng earlier reported that a similar incident occurred when a secondary school teacher criticized a former governor of Yobe state Bukar Abba over a viral video of him and some girls.

The teacher Muhammed Kime in a Facebook post said since his election into power as a Senator, Abba has not sponsored any bill at the National Assembly.

Biodun Baba criticized Saraki on his Facebook page. Source: Twitter, Sahara Reporters

READ ALSO: Nigerians should continue to pray for the president - PDP governor speaks after meeting with Buhari in London

Kime also accused a former minister of police affairs Maina Waziri of being a known drunk in the state.

Meanwhile, the Senate President had earlier said that the National Assembly is committed to the social media bill.

PAY ATTENTION: Read the news on Nigerias #1 news app

Saraki while speaking at the Lagos Social Media Week said the anti-social media bill is dead on arrival.

The Senate President also said without social media there is no way Nigeria would have moved from a non-performing government to what it is now.

You can watch this Legit.ng video of Nigerian criticizing leaders:

Source: Legit.ng
- The Muhammadu Buhari administration is working on strengthening the defence potential of Nigeria

- The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) which has since keyed into this project recently established new units in Katsina state

- The new units were commissioned by the state governor, Aminu Bello Masari

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) on Wednesday, July 26, commissioned the 213 Forward Operating Base (FOB) and the Quick Response Wing (QRW) in Katsina state, thus formally marking the beginning of operations in the 2 units.

A statement by the NAF's director of public relations and information, Air Commodore Olatokunbo Adesanya stated that the idea behind the establishment of the new units is to extend the reach of the NAF to the North-west geopolitical zone, having already made appreciable contributions in different theatres of operations across the country.

The 213 FOB is thus structured to shorten NAFs response time while extending its reach in supporting air operations to deal with threats to Nigerians.

Katsina state governor, Aminu Masari commissioning on of the buildings. Photo credit: NAF

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While commissioning the new units, Katsina state governor, Aminu Bello Masari, lauded the decision of the federal government in establishing the NAF units in Katsina. He stated that NAFs presence in Katsina was long overdue considering its strategic importance, being a border state.

He expressed his belief that the presence of the NAF in Katsina would go a long way in complementing the efforts of the Nigerian Army troops in boosting security in the state. He therefore requested members of the NAFs host communities to give maximum support to the NAF.

The governor hailed the NAF for their achievements under CAS Abubakar. Photo credit: NAF

Governor Masari was also full of praises for the Chief of the Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who he acknowledged had done so much to reposition the NAF as one of the best air forces in Africa.

He particularly commended the standard of buildings on the NAF bases, saying that they indicated a leader that cares for the welfare of his personnel, adding, the other arms of the Armed Forces should emulate the NAF.

The event was attended by dignatires from all works of life. Photo credit: NAF

In his remarks at the occasion, the CAS stated that the 213 FOB would accommodate some platforms and specialized equipment whenever the need arises.

He added that the regiment wings in Katsina and Daura, with their specially trained personnel, would provide the necessary protection for NAF personnel and equipment, in addition to responding in aid to civil authority, when called upon to do so.

One of the buildings in a unit. Photo credit: NAF

He then charged the NAF personnel to conduct themselves professionally and treat all citizens with respect and dignity.

The event happened on the same day the NAF deployed one of its armed helicopters to Takum in Taraba state to give support to the ground forces in the effort to maintain peace in the area.

Legit.ng gathered that the deployment of the helicopter was also to deter warring communities within the area from further engaging in violent activities.

The helicopter is already carrying out armed reconnaissance missions within the Mambilla Plateau and environs.

READ ALSO: Meet beautiful Nigerian soldier who is also a rice farmer

Watch the Legit.ng TV video report of the newly reopened Nyanya bus station in Abuja after it was bombed by Boko Haram:

Source: Legit.ng
Scouting  both Cub and Boy  provided some of my best memories from my childhood, into my teen years and as a parent of a scout myself.

The Boy Scouts of America, based on a 107-year-old foundation of admirable traits and sacred vows, is well known for molding boys into men.

As a Cub, I promised to do my best. To do my duty to God and my country, to help other people and to obey the law of the pack.

Unbeknownst to me until the other day, the BSA retired that promise and its companion law on June 1, 2015, opting instead to use the Boy Scout versions for all scouts under the sun:

The Boy Scout Oath, as I learned it and as it remains today: On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my country and to obey the Scout Law; to help other people at all times; to keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight.

The Boy Scout Law also stands tall, with 12 simple bywords for scouts to aspire, being Trustworthy, Loyal, Helpful, Friendly, Courteous, Kind, Obedient, Cheerful, Thrifty, Brave, Clean and Reverent.

As a Cub Scout, I learned the value of friendship in my den, as well as practical applications for the 11 other words in the credo, with team activities and individual endeavors, among other lessons.

I learned the ups and downs of commerce, trudging door-to-door during frigid winter weekends to hawk tickets to the annual Scout-O-Rama fundraiser and celebration of scouting skills.

That was back in the day before parents whose offspring were selling tickets, candy, wrapping paper and other items just took them to work and twisted co-workers arms to buy the stuff to ease pressure on the kids.

Of course, that also was a more innocent time, when youngsters actually could venture out safely, knocking on strangers doors and toting a bag of money, with little fear of becoming victims of theft or other mischief.

Selling tickets helped me learn about humanitys various personalities: Some people slammed doors without even a polite No thank you, while others murmured with a smile Thanks, but not today and still others welcomed this lad in to wait in a warm entryway while they fetched a few bucks  even though they might not go to the Scout-O-Rama but wanted to be kind and encouraging.

I advanced through the Webelos rank to become a Boy Scout, although I faltered in the Bigs, achieving only the Star rank two pegs short of Eagle status.

As an adult with a son of scouting age, I became a cub master, where I learned how much patience is needed to herd the equivalent of a swarm of mosquitoes.

I always wanted to go to a National Scout Jamboree but didnt have the dough, as a poor drycleaners son.

I wasnt as lucky as President Donald Trump, who not only got to attend the jamboree in Beaver, W.Va., Monday night but also was the featured speaker.

In advance, the Jamboree blogs writer posted a caution to the scouts, leaders and parents, saying, Chants of certain phrases heard during the campaign (e.g. build the wall, lock her up) are considered divisive by many members of our audience, and may cause unnecessary friction.

Some heeded the advice, while others did not, prompting a mixed response to Trump as he turned what normally is a nonpartisan stage into a political campaign soapbox, as he is wont to do, delivering a diatribe with vitriolic jabs at former President Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and fellow Republicans (assuming hes a member of the Grand Old Party).

Of course, the president continued his virtual assault on the fake media and denounced Washington, D.C., as a cesspool, with the presumed implication that politicians are denizens in the excrement.

It was a deplorable civics lesson, especially for an audience of 8- to 18-year-olds.

Trump tested the lads, saying, By the way, just a question: Did President Obama ever come to a jamboree? Trump (who was not a Boy Scout as a youngster) answered his own rhetorical question with a no and whipped them into a burst of boos for his predecessor (who actually had been a scout).

He ignored the fact that, even though President Obama didnt attend a Jamboree in the flesh because of schedule conflicts, he sent a video message in 2010. Whats more, 44 invited groups of scouts to the White House every year of his presidency.

Trumps 35-minute barrage continued unabated as he recounted for the bazillionth time how he had won an improbable victory, yada, yada, yada.

His message was not one of inspiration and patriotism, as other presidents have delivered at jamborees during the past 80 years, but rather, one of self-aggrandizement and braggadocio  a plea for allegiance and loyalty to him and only 45.

As Trump listed his campaign and presidential accomplishments  a few real, most imagined and all dripping with cruel sarcasm  one couldnt help of think of the anthem in the Cabaret movie in which the blond German youth rises to sing Der morgige Tag ist mein (Tomorrow Belongs to Me).

As a scout who didnt soar with the Eagles, I still was disappointed that so many scouts, parents and leaders cheered for Trumps endless pejorative remarks.

Thank God, the BSA distanced itself from the Trump tirade in a statement on its Facebook page after the address, saying, The Boy Scouts of America is wholly non-partisan and does not promote any one political position, candidate or philosophy.

The invitation for the sitting U.S. President to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition dating back to President Franklin Roosevelt in 1937. ... This 80-year-old custom of inviting Presidents to speak to Scouts is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies. Rather, the speaking invitation is based on our Duty to Country from the Scout Oath and out of respect for the Office of the President of the United States.

As one of Americas largest youth-serving organizations, the Boy Scouts of America reflects a number of cultures and beliefs. We will continue to be respectful of the wide variety of viewpoints in this country.

Faster than an Eagle scout can spark a blaze with a chunk of flint and a pile of kindling, Trump had ignited a firestorm of reactions among parents and others on the BSAs Facebook page. Most blistered his behavior, while some defended it.

The more than 7,600 Facebook reactions to the Boy Scout statement as of noon Wednesday included more than 4,300 thumbs ups, 2,500 angry faces and 360 hearts. The statement propelled more than 2,525 shares and 6,100 comments, including sentiments such as the following:

Done with scouts after you felt the need to have my kid listen to a liar stroke his ego.

I understand that you could not know what 45 was going to say but smiling and nodding in agreement, applauding and encouraging the scouts to boo is unacceptable. Someone should have stepped up.

His speech was weird and not on target for his intended audience  so a normal Trump speech  but i think everyone is allowing their personal bias to color what was actually said.

Did half the people commenting on this thread even listen to his speech? I did, from beginning to end. I have two teen boys who are at jamboree right now. I didnt find anything offensive or inappropriate about his speech. Both my young men so excited that they got to see and hear the POTUS!

This is not about being bipartisan, or taking sides. This is about allowing Trump, a man who opposes most elements of the Boy Scout law, to have a platform, and to use it to turn it into a political rally for himself and speak inappropriately to children. I expect a stronger stance against this. This response is weak and tepid. Signed, an ashamed Eagle Scout.
- The undetonated bomb was found by the police at a farmland called Amaetiti in Oji River local government area of the state

- Ebere Amaraizu, the police spokesman, advised the public not to tamper with any of such objects whenever they are seen or discovered

- Members of the public were urged instead, to report promptly to the nearest police station or to call the commands control room numbers, if they came across such objects

An unexploded high caliber bomb used during the civil war was successfully evacuated by officers of the Nigerian Police on Thursday July 27.

According to reports, the unusual development was made public in a statement signed by Ebere Amaraizu, the public relations officer of the police command.

READ ALSO: Yemi Osinbajo commissions road projects during Port Harcourt visit

Legit.ng gathers that Amaraizu disclosed that the object was found at a farmland called Amaetiti in Oji River local government area of the state, on the morning of July 21.

An expert analysis indicates that the civil war bomb leftover has not been detonated and is of a high calibre

It had been discovered on the property during farming, and eventually evacuated by the Explosive Ordinance Unit of the command

The PRO also revealed that the bomb has not been detonated, and is of high caliber.

He stated further: The command to this end is advising members of the public not to tamper with any of such objects whenever they are seen or discovered either during farming, building or road constructions; but to report promptly to the nearest police station or to call the commands control room number on 08032003702, 08075390883,08086671202 and 08098880172 for prompt and necessary action.

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Meanwhile, Legit.ng previously reported that a CIA report revealed the reason France backed Biafra during Nigerian civil war which took place from 1967 to 1970.

According to the report, despite its humanitarian appeal, France supported Biafra in efforts to have access to the region's oil.

A recently-declassified war-time memo compiled by the U.S. Central Investigation Agency (CIA), disclosed these facts.

Watch this Legit.ng TV video of Ojukwu's bunker during the Civil War:

Source: Legit.ng
The old advice still applies: If youre in a hole, stop digging. Wisconsin lawmakers working on the budget are hearing again from profit-driven consultants whose recommendations would further hollow out responsible transportation spending.

Waste results whenever lawmakers choose to spend more tax dollars than necessary to fulfill acknowledged needs. The most recent state Senate proposal includes cutting 200 engineering positions at the Department of Transportation, a demonstrably counterproductive measure. Lawmakers instead should swear off this new round of outsourcing state work to pricey highway consultants.

Along with similar language in the state budget, a so-called reform bill would direct the DOT onto a policy roundabout, revisiting past outsourcing mistakes. The most recent DOT state audit reported that consultants already handle an astounding 67 percent of highway engineering work.

Multiple state audits and independent studies have shown that past outsourcing has come at a premium. Recent analysis showed that outsourcing transportation design work cost state taxpayers $15 to $42 per hour more than using DOT staff  whose wages and compensation in the past decade have declined overall.

Pending budget language would make wasteful outsourcing worse, slashing engineering staff while requiring DOT to increase its reliance on those pricey consulting firms to 80 percent.

This proposal is backed by one dubious, arms-length, out-of-state study, commissioned by folks who have political motives for increasing use of consultants at the expense of lean government. That lone study does not trump the long-term record showing this move would only add more bad fuel to the DOTs budget gas tank.

Lawmakers sometimes seem wedded to the demonstrably untrue idea that consultants always outperform public employees. How can that be true, when those private consulting firms increasingly employ former state engineers who left government for higher pay? Did their work in a for-profit shop suddenly improve or get more efficient as a result?

Meanwhile, many of those consultants are more or less permanently housed in state government office buildings, using taxpayer-supplied space vacated by the shrinking DOT engineering staff. Computers, phones and parking spaces for these consultants represent hidden costs on top of their higher compensation rates.

Worse, this latest policy cruise down the wrong road paves over the fact that the state once had a vigorous performance-review law in 2005 Act 89, which required DOT and other state agencies to perform prior, cost-benefit analyses most anytime they considered contracting out. Act 89 reports showed that outsourcing work often was not cost-effective but overused because the DOTs shrinking staff was too burdened.

Rather than examine those analyses, lawmakers killed the messenger by constraining Act 89 analysis. The newest proposal to cut DOT staff includes new performance measures, but those are after-the-fact and quite bureaucratic  that is, not very transparent to the public.

Perhaps a third to half of current DOT consultant spending represents legitimate need. But there is greater, not narrower, need for public engineers, who are more accountable to the public and far less costly overall. Of course, those public servants cant do efficient work if they dont exist.

Highway projects involve expensive, long-term effort and so they should rarely be managed with short-term thinking. Taxpayers want value and stewardship, not another taxpayer-supported business model. Citizens cannot afford that.

Like many Wisconsin residents, you may drive often on state highways, local streets and county roads. How do you think the state is doing in keeping these roads in good shape? If you agree that lawmakers have gouged out a gigantic pothole in highway budgeting and management policy, then contact them, and tell them to stop digging.
- The All Progressives Congress (APC) mentioned some alleged sins against Muiz Banire, its legal adviser

- Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has not reacted to the suspension by the APC

The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has finally handed its national legal adviser, Muiz Banire, suspension following allegations of anti-party activities.

Banire had been in a serious rift with some leaders of the party which he accused of imposition of candidates in elections as well as other actions that are injurious to APCs successes.

He was accused of working against the party in the last local government election as well as suing a top party member.

Apart from these, he was also accused of inciting the public against the interest of the party, falsely accusing the party of imposition in public, disobeying and causing others to disobey the partys directives.

READ ALSO: BREAKING: Governors speak after meeting with President Buhari

Banires suspension, Legit.ng learnt, followed a recommendation by the Ward C, Ilasamaja, Mushin, Lagos, where he belongs.

Banire, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), fell out with the party leaders after accusing them of imposition of candidates for last weeks local government elections in Lagos.

After a critical assessment of individual activities and the performance of the party during the last elections, members of the party in Ward C, Ilasamaja Mushin unanimously voted for the immediate suspension of Mr Muiz Banire from participating in party activities in the ward and his removal from office as national legal adviser, the acting secretary of his ward, Taofeek Ajani-Balogun, said.

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Ajani-Balogun added that the party also decided to suspend its ward and local government chairmen and executive committee for performing below expectation during the last local government election in Lagos.

Banire was yet to react at the time of this report.

Legit.ng had earlier reported that Dr Muiz Banire (SAN) recently raised alarm saying that some party dictators wanted to kill him.

Banire made this known in a statement on Monday, July 17, alleged that he has received many life threatening messages form the dictators.

Watch this video as it relates to the APC and 2019:

Source: Legit.ng
- Ekiti state Governor Ayodele Fayose has declared that the alleged third term agenda of ex-president Obasanjo was real

- Fayose said that each principal officer of National Assembly got N100million in 2016 to support Obasanjo's third term agenda

- He also noted that Obasanjo was aware of YarAdua ill health before he made him president in 2007

The Governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, said the aborted third term agenda of ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo was real.

The Nation reports that Fayose said the principal officers of the National Assembly got N100 million each in 2006, while the rest of the lawmakers were paid N50 million per head.

He alleged that the former President knelt down for the late Libyan leader, Mouamar Gaddafi, to seek his backing for third term.

He also said Obasanjo knew about the ill-health of the late President Umaru YarAdua before he was elected as the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in 2007.

Legit.ng gathered that Fayose said: Yes it is true. The people I am going to mention here, two of the key players are now dead. That position of Presidential Selection Committee that I headed was set up by all PDP governors. Initially, they wanted Dr. Olusegun Agagu. Then, the majority insisted that they wanted Fayose.

READ ALSO: OPINION: President Buhari and 2019 prophecy

So, since the majority wanted me, Baba (Olusegun Obasanjo) invited me to Ota and encouraged me to go ahead. I remember the committee was made up of Governors Danjuma Goje, Ahmed Makarfi, Bukola Saraki, James lbori, me and one other person who I cannot remember now. I want to tell you that, at some point, the majority of the committee was more disposed to having Makarfi as the presidential nominee. I and one other person were the only dissenters

So, as a loyal Obasanjo boy then, I went to Obasanjo then and told that this committee that was set up, everybody seemed to prefer Makarfi except me and one other person and we were in the minority.

Five out of seven governors wanted Makarfi. Then Obasanjo pointedly told me that Markafi was too smart and would not be easily controlled by him and, therefore, I must ensure that Makarfi did not emerge the presidential candidate. He mandated me to be briefing him often about the way things were going.

He confided in me that whether it was Makarfi or anybody that he was not prepared to leave. At that time, the third term agenda had begun to unfold in Abuja. I can tell you that l was co-opted into the secret committee that was behind it. In that body, we had had this senator from Plateau, Ibrahim Mantu, Senator Andy Uba and many others. We were the key players. Let me tell you the truth: at that time, I did not have a choice. l was just a young man without experience.

The Senate meeting started at about 11:00 a.m. in the morning and by 1:00 p.m. each senator was asked to stand up and say yes or no before live television coverage whether they supported third term or not, and the majority had their way. So Obasanjos dream of third term was shut down. Thereafter, he called a national meeting of PDP, termed reconciliation meeting and denied that he asked or worked for third term.

Meanwhile, before that time, N50 million was given to every federal lawmaker to support third term. The majority collected the money and still voted against third term. Principal Officers got N100 million each. Where did that huge sum of money come from?

Fayose opened up on the politics behind the choice of the late President YarAdua as a presidential candidate of PDP.

He said the current Chairman of the PDP; Sen. Ahmed Makarfi was sidelined in favour of YarAdua.

He added: Let me now come to the YarAdua issue. Obasanjo now called me and said, Now that third term has failed, you should go ahead with the PDP committee. And in order for me to check those rooting for Markafi, I should go and sound YarAdua out on the ticket.

"He told me, Dont tell him I asked you to come. You psyche him up. So, l met YarAdua in his lodge in Katsina. I met YarAdua in the company of Yakubu Tanimu (who became his influential chief economic adviser) and his police orderly.

I remember that while our interaction lasted, the orderly knelt down close to YarAdua. I acted as directed by Obasanjo, but the man told me expressly that he was not well enough to aspire to be Nigerian president; that the job would be too rigorous for him.

After much persuasion, he then told me the only condition under which he might consider running was if all stakeholders would sign up and reach an agreement to pick him as the consensus candidate because he did not want any hassles.

I remember, before then, YarAdua was hardly attending Council of State meetings because of his health. So, l went to tell Baba what YarAdua told me. On the issue of YarAduas ill-health. I remember Obasanjo told me, Dont worry about his sickness; government money dey to manage his ill-health. Baba told me to go and put the outcome of my interaction with YarAdua in writing.

Then Masari became the first loser; because, until then, Bello Masari as the Speaker of House of Reps was very loyal to Baba and did all the dirty jobs Baba wanted him to do, with the promise that he would be made the next Katsina governor after YarAdua.

But once YarAdua became anointed as PDP candidate, he preferred Shema to be his successor. That was one of the conditions he listed. That was how a wedge came between YarAdua and Masari.

That was the genesis of the rift between Shema and Masari up until today. Shema was then the deputy national chairman of PDP. That was how Masari defected to CPC. What I am trying to say is that Obasanjo engineered all the bitterness that exists in Katsina politics today.

All the confusion in Nigeria today was caused by Obasanjo in his scheming to install a stooge, a weakling in power so that he would continue to be relevant.

Fayose also spoke on how Obasanjo went on his knees to beg Gaddafi to seek the late dictators support for the third term plot.

He said: It was such a pathetic scenario, so shameful. Obasanjo was speaking rapidly like a parrot. I was shocked beyond words. I never knew Obasanjo would be that humble.

He was on one knee till the end of the conversation. Gaddafi kept quiet and was just watching Obasanjo. When Obasanjo stopped rambling, Gaddafi said, Have you finished? Just know that I will not attend that meeting. I have other engagements.

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He also explained how on two major occasions when he went to visit Atiku at the height of Obasanjos third term bid, security details promptly reported him to the former President, even before he left the venue.

He said: Obasanjo told me that when you capture a general and you dont kill him, hell come back and kill you; that since Atiku tried to stop him and failed, he must pay for it. And he (Atiku) is still paying for it.

Fayose said he knew, as an insider at the time, that Obasanjo betrayed former Liberian President, Charles Taylor, to get the United States support for this third term bid, after promising Taylor safe haven in Nigeria. Fayose said he had not spoken with President Muhammadu Buhari in the last two years.

Meanwhile, Legit.ng had previously reported that Fayose boasted that he would become the next president of Nigeria by taking over the reins of power from President Muhammadu Buhari.

In the video below Legit.ng asks Nigerians if Governor Fayose is the right man to rule Nigeria. Watch responses:

Source: Legit.ng
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Foxconn, the electronics manufacturer largely responsible for building components used in the iPhone, has announced their intention to construct an LCD manufacturing plant in Wisconsin. In return, the state of Wisconsin will pay the Taiwanese company US$3 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

4 Reviews

Wisconsin may soon be known for something more high-tech than cheese. Taiwanese electronics manufacturer Foxconn announced early Wednesday that they would be investing US$10 billion to build and staff an LCD manufacturing plant in the state over the next three years.

Politicians ranging from Wisconsin governor Scott Walker to United States President Donald Trump hailed the deal as a massive triumph for the states economic atmosphere and the countrys economic growth as a whole. Walker even called the deal the single largest economic development project in the history of Wisconsin. The factory, which will occupy over 1,000 acres of land, could draw in US$3 billion in taxpayer subsidies granted by the state of Wisconsin, by far the largest subsidy granted to any other corporation in the states history (the former #1 spot was held by Mercury Marine, which was promised $65 million in subsidies).

Perhaps the biggest boon to the states economic outlook is the creation of jobs. Foxconn estimates that the factory will require 3,000 staff for operations to run smoothly, and other estimates peg total job creation between 10,000 and 22,000, which account for construction, service, and secondary jobs created due to the deal.

Nothing has been finalized as of yet, and Wisconsin may do well to wait for these chickens to hatch before counting them. Foxconn recently pulled out of Brazil after a similar subsidy deal fell through. Other sites have suffered similar fates. On top of all that, the US$3 billion in tax subsidies is greater than the expenses of several other state services combined.

Aside from new jobs, what could this mean for the US tech industry? Higher smartphone component prices, for one. In the past, Foxconn has come under fire for its lackluster pay practices and working its employees to their breaking points in other countries, particularly China. The United States has much stricter labor laws and much steeper penalties for violators. Foxconn estimates that the average wage of a worker at the proposed Wisconsin factory would exceed US$53,000 per year, plus benefits. Some estimates peg wages in Foxconns Chinese plants at less than a tenth of that, roughly US$5,000 per year. Higher wages and increased cost of labor would result in much higher production costs which Foxconn would likely pass on to their customers. These customers, in turn, would probably pass on at least part of this increased expense to the end consumer with a final result of higher priced electronics, specifically smartphones.

Again, this is all hypothetical. Foxconn representatives will be meeting with lawmakers later this week to hammer out details, and nothing will be set in stone until construction begins on the factory.
The quarterly meeting of the Monroe County Traffic Safety Commission/Monroe County Safe Community Coalition will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 8 from 9:30-11:30 a.m. at Brighter Tomorrows in Sparta.

Highway Safety Commissioner Jeffrey Leis will call the session to order. Commission members will review quarterly accident reports for Monroe County, Wisconsin State Patrol and the cities of Sparta and Tomah.

Members will address highway safety concerns in the county, which have been recommended for action to local officials or the Department of Transportation.

The meeting is open to the public, and those with highway safety concerns are urged to attend the meeting or contact Highway Safety Commissioner Jeffrey Leis at the Monroe County Sheriff Office.
Earlier this week, Gov. Scott Walker signed January 2017 Special Session Assembly Bill 7 (SS AB 7), which I coauthored with Rep. John Nygren, R-Marinette, to expand graduate medical education in addiction specialty.

SS AB 7 is part of a bipartisan package of bills known as the Heroin, Opioid Prevention, and Education (H.O.P.E.) Agenda that is focused on combating Wisconsins heroin epidemic. Since the HOPE Agenda began in 2013, there have been 28 separate proposals that have been introduced, passed both houses of the legislature and signed into law.

One of the primary goals of this effort is to prevent addiction before it happens. We know from the medical community that in the majority of cases, heroin addiction begins with an addiction to prescription medications. Every persons body reacts differently to pain and pain medication. While many seek temporary relief from pain through prescription medication, others cannot manage without strong pain relief and ultimately succumb to the addictive qualities of these drugs.

When prevention is unsuccessful, there must be options for treatment, and in order for treatment to be successful, you need qualified medical personnel trained in addiction specialties. SS AB 7 allows the Department of Health Services to award grants to a hospital for the development of an addiction specialist training program with the graduate medical training programs in rural hospitals.

Graduate medical education, often referred to as residency training, is the training that medical students receive after graduating from medical school and is a key factor in determining where physicians practice. In fact, data from the Wisconsin Hospital Association shows that 86 percent of students from Wisconsin who attend medical school in Wisconsin and complete their residency training in Wisconsin then practice in Wisconsin.

Statewide estimates show that Wisconsin will need an additional 2,000 to 4,000 physicians by 2035. In addition to SS AB 7, the Joint Finance Committee has added $1.5 million in the proposed budget to expand the GME program for all specialties. Since 2013, the program has helped create seven new residency programs and trained 79 physician residents (including 31 new psychiatrists and 33 new family medicine physicians) in Wisconsin. The state contribution is matched dollar for dollar by the hospitals, health systems and medical schools to advance this public-private partnership.

This funding will help the rural GME training sites located in the 17th Senate District that serve Grant, Green, Iowa, Richland and Sauk counties. In addition, the UW Family Medicine Department also has training locations for the Wisconsin Rural Physician Residency Assistance Program that are located in Dodgeville, Lancaster, Monroe, Reedsburg and Richland Center, along with developing programs in Mineral Point and Platteville.

Efforts such as these programs and other initiatives are a proactive solution to help address the physician/health care shortage with homegrown talent. Changing demographics also factor into the equation, Wisconsins population is expected to grow 12 percent by 2035, but within that growth the number of senior citizens is expected to increase by 69 percent. Seniors tend to go to the doctor three times as frequently as the rest of the population, which makes this need more acute.

If you are interested in learning more about this topic, the Rural Wisconsin Health Cooperative has a comprehensive site called the Wisconsin Collaborative for Rural GME, http://wcrgme.org/. Their site has a directory of current programs, information on how to start a rural training site and funding.

For more information and to connect with me, visit my website http://legis.wisconsin.gov/senate/17/marklein and subscribe to my weekly E-Update by sending an email to Sen.Marklein@legis.wisconsin.gov. Do not hesitate to call 800-978-8008 if you have input, ideas or need assistance with any state-related matters.

Republican Howard Marklein, Spring Green, represents the 17th state Senate District.
An older man contacted me recently with a problem. A visit to the doctor left him with thousands in unpaid bills. Medicare deemed the tests routine and not a medical necessity. But the gentleman was told, for his occupation, the tests were absolutely necessary.

He was left with a medical bill costing more than his 2017 income.

The top-notch staff at the Department of Health Services discovered the man was likely eligible for Medicaid. But the man wasnt interested.

The constituent relations department within DHS has been a godsend over the years, helping me solve many difficult medical cases. Im very grateful for their help. Im sure they saved many lives by connecting people to health coverage. But, if a person doesnt want state help, there is little they or I can do  unless we change our state health care system and the perception of seeking assistance.

What if everyone had affordable health care? If you hadnt signed up, you could sign up the first time you saw the doctor, physicians assistant or nurse practitioner.

Behind the scenes, hospitals and clinics know theyd be paid. If you were eligible for Medicaid, youd get the benefits. Seamlessly, payers would pay bills, providers would be paid and people would no longer pay any insurance premiums.

You could choose a provider in your area from several options. Your plan would include comprehensive benefits including maternity and mental health coverage.

If you lost your job, you could keep your health coverage. If you took a new job or started your own business, you could keep your health coverage.

Employers no longer would worry about health coverage. Sure, they could offer extra benefits if they wanted, but basic coverage would be disconnected from employment  taking a huge irritation off a companys plate.

Health care doesnt have to be so complicated. Other countries have figured out how to solve this problem. And Wisconsin can too.

In fact, 10 years ago this summer, Wisconsin actually had a plan on the table to create such a system. Senate Democrats introduced Healthy Wisconsin, a plan written by Sens. Jon Erpenbach, Mark Miller and myself. Under our plan, coverage would have cost 14.5 percent of payroll  split between employers and employees.

This summer, an idea to offer BadgerCare for all attracted attention. I support the plan and see the idea as a first step. Details of the plan are sparse, but it would require the Trump administration to allow a public option in Wisconsin on the federal marketplace Healthcare.gov.

Minnesotas Gov. Mark Dayton introduced a plan to offer MinnesotaCare as a public option. He used the states authority and the states own health care marketplace, MNsure. He put together a plan that leveraged federal dollars and the states large Medicaid pool to add self-employed and small-business people. According to the Minnesota Department of Health, the cost would be entirely funded by premiums and tax credits.

GOP-controlled legislators didnt deliver Daytons request, but Minnesota is a lot closer to moving to a public option than Wisconsin. Wisconsin needs the flexibility of our own marketplace to explore options that work best for our state. Thats why I recently introduced a bill to create Wisconsins own health care marketplace.

Senate Bill 359 and Assembly Bill 445, the companion co-authored by state Rep. Sargent, D-Madison, creates a unique Badger-based approach to a health marketplace. Using innovations to balance high quality, cost control and wide access, Wisconsin can have its own approach.

We can move toward a system that minimizes the everyday hassles of health insurance and eliminates the fear of a loss of coverage just when you need it the most.

Access to affordable, high-quality health care is a duty of our society to everyone. Health care for all is a moral responsibility of our people to each other. Finding the best way to pay for and deliver the care should be the topic of discussion. Instead, some public officials propose dropping coverage and cutting state budgets. Harsh talk stigmatizes Medicaid.

Instead, lets share our vision of what health care for all looks like for each of us. And, meanwhile, support leaders who find ways to work together and take steps toward our mutual vision.
The Vernon County Censor

July 25, 1917

100 years ago

Ben F. Norris and wife are advised that they are again grandparents, a baby girl having been born to Mr. and Mrs. Roy Waterman at Minneapolis.

William Henthorn, aged 80 years, died at Viola. For thirty years Mr. Henthorn lived at Sylvan Corners, conducting a store there all that period.

Pine apple sherbet will be a special delicacy at Mrs. Asbjornson's restaurant and cream parlor on Saturday and Sunday. People are invited to remember this.

On a late day neighbors turned out and assisted John E. Williams to erect a new tobacco shed to take the place of the one burned on his farm a few weeks ago. For which he publicly expresses thanks to his thoughtful friends.

Prices on iron are up. I have received an order for 100 tons of iron. I will pay $10 a ton for old iron delivered at my house on North Main street. Always at home. Sam Gross.

Hon. Frank Clancy and Judge Alvin Peterson, after strenuous efforts, were able to motor to this city from Soldiers Grove Tuesday afternoon, bringing a large sack of mail. It may be a week before regular service is resumed on the Kickapoo railroad they say. Almost the entire system the road bed was under water on Sunday and Monday.

Mr. and Mrs. Samuel J. Sauer are receiving hearty congratulations of their friends over the happiness that comes to them in the arrival of a nine pound son. Mrs. Sauer has been in a LaCrosse hospital for some days, where the infant was born.

Fladen & Henrikson have moved to their new harness shop first door east of the First National Bank. The place was formerly used as a laundry, but is made available for their business. Their friends wish the boys success in their new quarters.

The Vernon County Censor

July 23, 1942

75 years ago

Franklin Lutheran Church to celebrate its 70th anniversary next weekend with programs planned Friday evening through Sunday.

Coon Prairie congregation to celebrate 90th anniversary. Two weekends are set aside for the celebration with former pastors or their descendants to speak.

Dude Henderson lost his 15 year old barn and contents to fire due to spontaneous combustion from new hay. The old barn also caught fire and was destroyed, and only a shift in the wind saved the tobacco shed.

The Vernon County Fair will remove Saturday from the fair dates this year as a concession during this year of war. Dates will be Sept. 22-25.

Wed: Audrey Richardson to Vern Jernander, Nina Quigne to Addison Weiland, Irene Runice to Morris Cox.

Obituaries: Mary Ames Bohland 60, Nettie Bratlien 70.

The Olson sisters, Emma and Della, missionary teachers, were evacuated from the Malayan peninsula in the Orient. A luncheon was given at the Methodist church and Emma spoke about the country. Della, suffering from malaria fever, did not speak.

Housewives are asked to salvage fats from cooking for the war effort in making glycerine which is essential for explosives.

Twenty-eight Vernon men leave for the Army Saturday.

Mr. & Mrs. Harry Cade received a telegram from son, Arnold, from Chile, South America, that he is in good health and all OK.

Able bodied pensioners are being asked to help farmers with haying and harvesting, and for industrial work in factories.

The Vernon County Broadcaster-Censor

July 27, 1967

50 years ago

John Wayne and Kirk Douglas are starring in the film "The War Wagon" playing at the Temple Theatre July 26 through August 1. Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" will be showing August 11 - 15.

Rose painting, or "rosemaling" in Norwegian, is a type of floral decoration that was common in the rural districts of Norway from about 1775 to 1875. Mrs. Kristin O. Vigdahl of Viroqua is exhibiting her work in the First National Rose Painting Exhibition in Decorah Iowa, opening July 27.

Deaths: Robert Morgan Swenson, 81; Oscar Alfred Peterson, 76; Thomas N. Johnson, 93; Petra (Berkelo) Wanberg, 80; Ethel Florence (Doerr) Alden, 76; Vila Mabel (Walling) Henry, 84; Rose (Pellet) Wanless, 76; Laveria Leona (Pierce) Olson, 69; Alice F. (Flynn) Coyne, 73; Sarah (Pugh) Howarth, 92.

Marie Buchal, a 16-year-old senior at Hillsboro High School has been cited by the Neighborhood Youth Corps as the outstanding enrollee for the month of June in Vernon County. Marie is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Bennie Buchal of Rt. 2, Hillsboro. Marie is working at the Hillsboro City Library under the supervision of Mrs. Dorothy Picha.

The Vernon County Broadcaster

July 23, 1992

25 years ago

Jim Sciacca, Viroqua High School's new principal, has settled into the job. Prior to this job, Sciacca had been a biology teacher and also the middle school principal in Platteville.

Eleven of the 56 county employees spoke at the county personnel committee last week since their job grade levels were lowered due to a reclassification project. Some of the employees said that due to the freeze on their wages, they would not get a pay raise for up to seven years.

The city of Viroqua is closing its landfill. The landfill is being covered with 40,000 cubic yards of clay and 40,000 cubic yards of sand. On top of that, the sand will be covered with six inches of top soil and then seeded.

Soldiers Grove has been selected as one of the five best small towns in America with a population of fewer than 1,000. There were over 800 small towns from which Soldiers Grove was selected.

A group of visitors from Sogn, Norway, will visit Viroqua and Westby for Sognefjordlaget. The purpose of this group's tour is to deepen ties with the United States.

Marlene Favor was installed as state president of the Eagles Auxiliary. At the same time, Orris Pederson finished his term as state president of the Eagles.

Paul Finch of the Cory Smith Studios located in Genoa received a "Best of Show" award at the 34th annual art fair in Madison.

The Vernon County Broadcaster

July 26, 2007

10 years ago

"Making a Difference" column spotlights DNR wildlife biologist, David Mathey, of Viroqua.

Letter to the editor author William Mapp, of Viroqua, encourages readers to contact their County Board Supervisor and inform them of your support in favor of the multi-use path between Viroqua and Westby. Voting will take place at the September 25th Vernon County Board meeting.

Viroqua Legion Post 138 played six games, winning five.

Nine local gymnasts excel at the AMKM Gymnastics meet in Tampa, Florida. Local gymnasts attending July 5-7 were Molly Kelsey and Amanda Arentz of Cashton, Bekah, Ashley and Jordyn Dwyer, and Karissa and Danielle Spiller of Westby.

Professor Snape, aka Youth Services Director Shirley Craeger, conducted a Harry Potter Potions Class at McIntosh Memorial Library.

The fourth annual Kickapoo County Fair will take place at Organic Valley in La Farge on July 28 and 29.

Music lovers are invited to the Temple Theatre on Aug. 1 for a concert featuring Bob Hirsch and the Golden Gate Rhythm Machine at 7:30 p.m.

Area death notices: Loretta Volden, 73, of Viroqua, Angela Haley, 53, of Westby, Kenneth Anderson, 80, of Readstown.

Kickapoo United Church of rural Soldiers Grove will celebrate their 150th anniversary on Aug. 5.
The Westby Police Department reported the arrest of four people for their alleged connection in a series of burglaries at the Bethel Butikk in Westby. Arrested were Calos P. Trevino, age 36, of Westby; Ronnilee Meyer, age 37, of Westby; Samuel Dier Cyngier, age 29, current address unknown; and Samantha Marie White, age 29, address unknown, but formerly held residency in Sparta and Viola.

The burglaries occurred in June and July, with the suspects netting about $1,300 over the course of eight confirmed entries to the building. The building was entered on June 24 and 26, July 7, 14, 19 and twice on July 22. There was money missing, but not reported to police, in early June. Without any signs of forced entry into the building, the Westby Police installed surveillance cameras in late June and worked with management to apprehend the suspects. The suspects were captured on video surveillance several times, but were wearing hooded clothing and had their faces covered making them difficult to clearly identify.

Westby PD caught a break in the case on Sunday, July 24, when Officer Matt White responded to an unrelated matter regarding a car theft at 109 Milwaukee St., where Samantha Marie White reported that Cyngier had taken her vehicle and failed to return it. Officer White recognized a unique piece of clothing being worn by the reporting party (Samantha Marie White) as the same sweatshirt worn by one of the suspects in the Bethel Butikk surveillance video taken during the latest break-in on Saturday, July 22.

Upon further questioning, White was taken to the Westby Police Station where she initially denied any connection to the Bethel Butikk burglary, but changed her tune after she was shown surveillance video of the July 22 break-in. White then admitted to being a party to the crime, but denied receiving any of the money. She said she learned about the Bethel Butikk from Meyer, who also resides at the 109 Milwaukee St. address. White said Meyer told her how easy it was to jimmy the lock of the Bethel Butikk front door and gain entry. According to White, Trevino and Meyer had entered the building several times netting quick cash.

On Saturday, July 22, at about 10:15 p.m., White and Cyngier drove to the Bethel Butikk. They attempted to jimmy the lock of the front door, but failed, so they went around the back of the building and kicked in the door. Once inside they stole money out of the cash register and the business checkbook before returning to the Milwaukee Street address. They were both caught on surveillance video inside the store at 10:24 p.m. Also on July 22, at 10:50 p.m. the surveillance video captured Meyer attempting to steal money from the same cash register inside the Bethel Butikk, which had already been emptied by White and Cyngier, a short time earlier.

While at the Westby PD, White said she was homeless and needed the money to feed her three children, but Cyngier never gave her any of the cash. Officer White arrested Samantha Marie White and transported her to the Vernon County Sheriffs Department on Monday, July 24.

Westby Sgt. Scott Stuber arrested Cyngier, Trevino and Meyer, in the city of Westby, and transported them to the Vernon County Sheriffs Department on Tuesday, July 25.

White, Meyer and Cyngier were released on signature bonds and Trevino, a convicted sex offender, remains in jail on a parole violation, plus burglary charges. All suspects were charged with burglary and White and Cyngier were also be charged with criminal damage to property.

Information has been sent to the Vernon County district attorney and all suspects could face further charges. No court dates were registered as of Monday, July 31.
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A brush fire in the Wildwood Canyon hills above Burbank broke out Wednesday afternoon.

The fire prompted an evacuation order of Wildwood Canyon and Stough Canyon parks, as well as residents along Country Club Drive, by the Burbank Police Department.

URGENT MESSAGE: Brush fire in Wildwood Canyon area. All hikers need to leave the area. https://t.co/5aXHIzDAXg pic.twitter.com/oUaeVdjKIT  Burbank Police (@BurbankPD) July 26, 2017

The Burbank Fire Department is currently battling the blaze with the Los Angeles County Fire Department assisting, a representative for the LACFD told LAist.

According to NBC LA, the fire is currently estimated at three acres. In late June, a fire in nearby McClure Canyon caused a similar evacuation.

LAist will update this story as more information becomes available
But these state-run cruises have a serious purpose: China wants to remind the world of its position that it owns nearly the entire South China Sea, a strategic waterway claimed by several countries.
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com.

They lived in Tabqa, a small city on the banks of the Euphrates River in northern Syria. Then occupied by the Islamic State (ISIS, also known as Daesh), Tabqa was also under siege by U.S.-backed troops and being hit by daily artillery fire from U.S. Marines, as well as U.S.-led coalition airstrikes. The city, the second largest in Raqqa Province, was home to an airfield and the coveted Tabqa Dam. It was also the last place in the region the U.S.-backed forces needed to take before launching their much-anticipated offensive against the Islamic State's self-proclaimed capital, Raqqa.

His parents, Muhammed and Salam, had already fled their home once when the building adjacent to their house was bombed, Wassim Abdo told me in a recent interview. ISIS had been arresting civilians from their neighborhood for trying to flee the city. So on that Sunday, the couple was taking shelter on the second floor of a four-story flat along with other family members when a U.S.-led airstrike reportedly struck the front half of the building. Abdo's sister-in-law Lama fled the structure with her two children and survived. But his parents and 12-year-old cousin were killed, along with dozens of their neighbors, as the concrete collapsed on them.

As an exiled human rights activist, Wassim Abdo only learned of his parents' death three days later, after Lama called him from the Syrian border town of Kobane, where she and her two children had been transported for medical treatment. Her daughter had been wounded in the bombing and although the U.S.-backed, Kurdish-led troops had by then seized control of Tabqa, it was impossible for her daughter to be treated in their hometown, because weeks of U.S.-led coalition bombing had destroyed all the hospitals in the city.

A War Against Civilians

Islamic State fighters have now essentially been defeated in Mosul after a nine-month, U.S.-backed campaign that destroyed significant parts of Iraq's second largest city, killing up to 40,000 civilians and forcing as many as one million more people from their homes. Now, the United States is focusing its energies -- and warplanes -- on ISIS-occupied areas of eastern Syria in an offensive dubbed "Wrath of the Euphrates."

The Islamic State's brutal treatment of civilians in Syria has been well reported and publicized. And according to Lieutenant General Stephen Townsend, the commander of the U.S.-led war against ISIS in Iraq and Syria, the battle to "liberate" these regions from ISIS is the "most precise campaign in the history of warfare."

But reports and photographs from Syrian journalists and activists, as well as first-person accounts from those with family members living in areas under U.S. bombardment, detail a strikingly different tale of the American offensive -- one that looks a lot less like a battle against the Islamic State and a lot more like a war on civilians.

These human rights groups and local reporters say that, across Syria in recent months, the U.S.-led coalition and U.S. Marines have bombed or shelled at least 12 schools, including primary schools and a girls' high school; a health clinic and an obstetrics hospital; Raqqa's Science College; residential neighborhoods; bakeries; post offices; a car wash; at least 15 mosques; a cultural center; a gas station; cars carrying civilians to the hospital; a funeral; water tanks; at least 15 bridges; a makeshift refugee camp; the ancient Rafiqah Wall that dates back to the eighth century; and an Internet cafe' in Raqqa, where a Syrian media activist was killed as he was trying to smuggle news out of the besieged city.

The United States is now one of the deadliest warring parties in Syria. In May and June combined, the U.S.-led coalition killed more civilians than the Assad regime, the Russians, or ISIS, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a nongovernmental organization that has been monitoring the death toll and human rights violations in Syria since 2011.

"This administration wants to achieve a quick victory," Dr. Fadel Abdul Ghany, chairman of the Syrian Network for Human Rights recently told me, referring to the Trump White House. "What we are noticing is that the U.S. is targeting and killing without taking into consideration the benefits for the military and the collateral damage for the civilians. This, of course, amounts to war crimes."

And nowhere is this war against civilians more acute than in ISIS-occupied Raqqa, where trapped families are living under dozens of airstrikes every day.

Hotel of the Revolution

Located at the confluence of the Euphrates and Balikh rivers in northern Syria, Raqqa was first settled more than 5,000 years ago. By the late eighth century, it had grown into an imperial city, filled with orchards, palaces, canals, reception halls, and a hippodrome for horse racing. Its industrial quarters were then known as "the burning Raqqa," thanks to the flames and thick smoke produced by its glass and ceramic furnaces. The city even served briefly as the capital of the vast Abbasid Empire stretching from North Africa to Central Asia.

Toward the end of the thirteenth century, wars between the Mongol and Mamluk empires annihilated Raqqa and its surrounding countryside. Every single resident of the city was either killed or expelled. According to Hamburg University professor Stefan Heidemann, who has worked on a number of excavations in and around Raqqa, the scorched-earth warfare was so extreme that not a single tree was left standing in the region.


Give me your money or your life.

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Ok kiddies. I refer to those of you out there who still believe in A) Santa Claus and B) This Two Party System of Government. Why? Well, for those of us who study what is called A) Truth and B) Facts that prove it, no one has ever seen either Santa Claus or this two party system of government being really adversarial on the key issues that go against this Military Industrial Empire.

Of course the major case in point has always been the race by the two parties to see who can spend more of your tax money on military spending to maintain our phony wars overseas and the 1000 bases there---in over 100 different countries. We'll leave that one for another day and another of my already over 100 columns on that subject. Let's stick with the healthcare fiasco.

Reference point: Obama's sellout to the private insurers, Big Pharma and the entire healthcare industry, better known as ObamaCare. In 2009, upon assuming office, Barack had the opportunity, using what is referred to as the ' bully pulpit', to publicize to Americans the need for what was labeled 'The Public Option' or AKA Medicare for All (who choose it ). This would allow anyone under 65 to have the choice to join the same plan that we seniors have: Medicare.

Now, this writer has been on Medicare for a few brief years, and knows it is not as viable as could be. It still has these sharks, AKA private insurers basically handling things, and then getting reimbursed by Uncle Sam. They still have the weight to deny many surgical procedures by insisting that doctors and patients who wish something done to 'jump through hoops' first.

Yet, compared to what this writer had previously, Medicare as it now is can be a blessing. The ability to go to specialists for a fair co-pay, and to have those surgeries for maybe a fraction of the old costs through private insurance, or medicines at much better prices than before is a giant step forward!

Well, Obama caved in, along with his (so called) progressive Democratic Party colleagues, and allowed this Affordable Care Act to keep the private insurers basically active and predatory. There were still very high deductibles (duh, like $3000 - $ 5000 in many instances) and premiums still rose. If you were under 65 and could not afford $6000 and up for decent coverage, then you settled for an inferior plan that still cost you $4000 or so a year. A friend of mine 56 could only afford a hospitalization plan which still costs her over $3000 a year. When she had an incident at an Urgent Care facility, and she passed out due to a deep cut, the ambulance and the emergency room has her still paying off the $2000 bill now 18 months later!

Now we have the (bought and paid for) Congress, run by the Republicans, hammering out a plan which is worse than even, Obama's plan. We know that under the Affordable Care Act millions of low income working stiffs did get coverage that they never before could get. These were folks who did NOT qualify for Medicaid, but the plan they did get was no Oasis. Yet, better than nothing, right?

Alas, for the rest of we working stiffs, whose earnings though paltry, did not qualify us for the discounted or free coverage under ObamaCare, had to go onto plans as explained above: mostly mediocre coverage with those insanely high deductibles etc.

The Republican plan will be even more reactionary than Obama's. Ok, so where is the so called adversarial Democratic Party during this fiasco? We know that their Congressional mouthpiece, Ms. Pelosi, already has determined that 'Medicare for All' is NOT on the table. Remember, this was the same (super-rich, by the way) lady who said the same thing about the call for hearings on the run up to the invasion of Iraq, to hold the Bush gang accountable: "It's not on the table."

What really cracks this writer up, and another reason why I did NOT support' Feel the Bern' for president, was his appearance on CNN's Anderson (serve the empire) Cooper show Tuesday evening. The interview was about the Republican Health Care fiasco bill. 'Feel the Bern ' had the great 'bully pulpit' opportunity to trumpet the need for 'Medicare for All'. Instead, like the good Democratic soldier he really is, he copped out and ranted about how we must save the Affordable Care Act, admitting it was NOT the best bill, but only needed some altering here and there. No mention of what millions of us out there are now being enlightened about, which is the need for an extension of Medicare for all of us, with each of us under 65 to contribute via taxes... still much LESS than buying into private health insurance with its high deductibles and high co pays etc.

With this current two party - one party empire neither group will ever 'drain the swamp', rather 'swamp the drain' of true governmental protection and oversight. Please folks, remember this for all you 'Free market' advocates: A Medicare for All system need not outlaw or legislate out private insurance---only compete with it for your support.
Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of (more...)


From Paul Craig Roberts Website

America has been a discouraging landscape ever since the neoconservatives took over US foreign policy during the Clinton regime and started the two decades of war crimes that define 21st century America, and ever since US corporations betrayed the US workforce by moving American jobs to Asia.

The outlook became darker when the Obama regime resurrected the Russian Threat and elevated the prospect of military conflict between the nuclear powers.

As Europe is caught in the middle, in normal circumstances European countries would have insisted that Washington cease the gratuitous provocations of Russia. But normal circumstances have not existed. Since the end of WW2, European countries have been vassals without independent economic and foreign policies.

Europe hosts US military bases that threaten Russia. Europe has backed Washington's wars of aggression against Serbia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Washington's air attacks on provinces of Pakistan, and Washington's use of Saudi Arabia to fight its proxy war against Yemen.

Europe has backed Washington's gratuitous economic sanctions against Iran and Russia, sanctions that have cost Europe much and Washington little.

Accustomed to having its way with Europe, Washington commits Europe without even consulting the vassal governments. Now it seems Washington's extraordinary arrogance and hubris has resulted in overreach. Confronted with a new round of sanctions against Russia, Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission told Washington that the time has passed when Washington can put its interests first and Europe's last.

The new sanctions have devastating economic and political consequences for Europe. Juncker said that if Europe's "concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days."

The German and French foreign ministries added their support to Juncker. The German foreign ministry said: "It is not in the Americans' right to judge or stipulate which way European companies may engage in cooperation with any third parties -- particularly, with Russian energy companies."

The French foreign ministry said: the sanctions "contradict international law" due to their "extra-territorial reach."

Europe views the sanctions as a tool of US industrial policy that elevates US business interests over Europe's business interests.

Let's hope that Washington's arrogance will not permit Washington to back down and that Europe will give Washington the finger and disengage from the American Empire. Without Europe to host its military bases and to parrot its propaganda, Washington's ability to threaten Russia would significantly decline. Indeed, a continuation of the hostile threatening attitude toward Russia would leave Washington isolated in the world. No country wants the risk of experiencing nuclear war merely for the sake of Washington's unilateralism.
From Other Words

Who needs roads when you've got a private jet?



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Charles and David Koch -- the billionaire oil men who've financed a vast network of right-wing advocacy groups -- have stayed out of the national limelight recently. But they're still trying to supplant American democracy with their little laissez-fairyland plutocracy.

In fact, in late June, they held a meeting of the Koch Boys Billionaires Club, gathering about 400 other uber-wealthy rascals to plot some political high jinks for next year's elections.

The club meets every year at some luxury hideaway, and its attendees have to pay $100,000 each just to get in. But participants are also expected to give generously to the brothers' goal of spending $400 million to buy a slew of congress critters, governors, and others in 2018.

This year, the group gathered in Colorado Springs at the ultra-lux Broadmoor Hotel and Resort, owned by the brothers' billionaire pal and right-wing co-conspirator, Philip Anschutz.

Among the recent political triumphs that these elites celebrated in the Broadmoor's posh ballroom was the defeat this year of a Colorado tax hike to fix the state's crumbling roads.

After all, who needs adequate roads, when you can arrive in private jets?

This attitude of the Kochs' privileged cohorts explains why the public is shut out of these candid sessions. A staffer for the Koch confab hailed such no-tax, no-roads policies as a "renaissance of freedom." For the privileged, that is -- the freedom to prosper at the expense of everyone else.

Indeed, their agenda includes killing such working class needs as the minimum wage and Social Security, and privatizing everything from health care to public education. This self-absorbed cabal of spoiled plutocratic brats intends to abandon our nation's core democratic principle of "We're all in this together."

If they kill that uniting concept, they kill America itself.
From Ramzy Baroud Website



Syria, War, Victims, Refugees, Help

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Israel, which has played a precarious role in the Syrian war since 2011, is furious to learn that the future of the conflict is not to its liking.

The six-year-old Syrian war is moving to a new stage, perhaps its final. The Syrian regime is consolidating its control over most of the populated centers, while ISIS is losing ground fast -- and everywhere.

Areas evacuated by the rapidly disintegrated militant group are up for grabs. There are many hotly contested regions sought over by the government of Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and its allies, on the one hand, and the various anti-Assad opposition groups and their supporters, on the other.

With ISIS largely vanquished in Iraq -- at an extremely high death toll of 40,000 people in Mosul alone -- warring parties there are moving west. Shia militias, emboldened by the Iraq victory, have been pushing westward as far as the Iraq-Syria border, converging with forces loyal to the Syrian government on the other side.

Concurrently, first steps at a permanent ceasefire are bearing fruit, compared to many failed attempts in the past.

Following a ceasefire agreement between the United States and Russia on July 7 at the G-20 meeting in Hamburg, Germany, three provinces in southwestern Syria -- bordering Jordan and Israeli-occupied Golan Heights -- are now relatively quiet. The agreement is likely to be extended elsewhere.

The Israeli government has made it clear to the US that it is displeased with the agreement, and Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has been leading strong efforts to undermine the ceasefire.

Netanyahu's worst fears are, perhaps, actualizing: a solution in Syria that would allow for a permanent Iranian and Hezbollah presence in the country.

In the early phases of the war, such a possibility seemed remote; the constantly changing fortunes in Syria's brutal combat made the discussion altogether irrelevant.

But things have now changed.

Despite assurances to the contrary, Israel has always been involved in the Syria conflict. Israel's repeated claims that "it maintains a policy of non-intervention in Syria's civil war," only fools US mainstream media.

Not only was Israel involved in the war, it also played no role in the aid efforts, nor did it ever extend a helping hand to Syrian refugees.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have perished in the merciless war; many cities and villages were totally destroyed and millions of Syrians become refugees.

While tiny and poor Lebanon has hosted over a million Syrian refugees, every country in the region and many nations around the world have hosted Syrian refugees, as well. Except Israel.

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From Consortium News

French President Emmanuel Macron has positioned himself as a possible go-between in facilitating a reduction of tensions between the U.S. and Russia, a move that makes sense for France but may anger Official Washington's hawks who want to escalate the New Cold War.

I interviewed Paris-based journalist and historian Diana Johnstone about Trump's recent visit to Paris. Johnstone is the author of From Mad to Madness: Inside the Pentagon's Nuclear War Planning Machine, recounting the experiences of her father, Paul Johnstone, as a senior analyst in the Pentagon's Strategic Weapons Evaluation Group and a co-author of the Pentagon Papers. I spoke to her by telephone in France on July 19.

Dennis Bernstein: Diana, please give us your response to the recent Trump visit to Paris to meet with Emmanuel Macron.

Diana Johnstone: Well, first of all, it is clear that Emmanuel Macron has seen an advantage in being the only friend of the friendless Trump. It is clear that this can strengthen Macron's hand in dealing with Germany, the main part of his mandate being to influence Germany in changing EU policy.

Also, Macron is in a position to be an intermediary in this rapprochement between Trump and Putin, which of course the War Party in Washington is doing everything to obstruct. So Macron has situated himself in an interesting position.

I think that any of the contenders in the recent French election would have followed the same path. It was absolutely in the cards for France to change its foreign policy. The intellectuals in the government -- the diplomats and so on -- realize that this Syria policy isn't working and, at the same time, that sanctions against Russia are very harmful to the French and European economies, while they benefit the US. So what Macron is doing is just what the intellectual community was going to do, regardless of which candidate won the election.

DB: Give us your analysis of this Russia-gate madness.

DJ: Well, I am not a psychiatrist, but seen from over here in Europe, it's unbelievable. I just saw Tucker Carlson's interview with Max Boot on Fox News. This raving maniac on foreign affairs is on the Council of Foreign Relations, when he ought to be undergoing psychiatric treatment.

Of course, the Clinton machine has taken over the Democratic Party and made it into the War Party. What in the world is wrong with people talking to members of another country? The whole idea that it is something traitorous to talk to Russians is completely insane. At every time in history, even when governments were actually at war with each other, they had some sort of contact, just for simple intelligence reasons.

To try to criminalize and ban any contact at a more or less official level with the Russians goes beyond what is diplomatic practice even in war time. I think that the real problem in Washington is that there is a real War Party who welcome a nuclear war with Russia if that is what it takes to prevent them from becoming as strong as we are.

DB: The big story at the G-20 was that Trump spoke to Putin and therefore should be tried for treason, along with his whole family.



President Trump meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at G-20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017.

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DJ: I am sure that the Russians draw the conclusion that we are preparing for war. How else can they take this? We are doing everything to convince the Russians that we want war with them no matter what. Of course, this means they are going to start a military build-up in order to be able to strike back. Putin has consistently made friendly moves to the United States and they are simply dismissed. The only possible explanation is that we are bent on war.

Unfortunately, in 2013, Obama painted himself into a corner with his "red line" rhetoric, requiring that the US strike if it detects any use of chemical weapons in Syria. Of course, since then, it has been well established by very serious investigators, including Seymour Hersh, that this use of chemical weapons was a false flag.

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At first glance, the restaurant landscape in Greenville, South Carolina may appear familiar to those who set off for Charlestons Rainbow Row during its recent travel surge. It doesnt take long to find the upstate city is brimming with modernized southern cuisine and a commitment to local sources. But, lets face it: the South is more than mac n cheese and barbecue. Foodies passing through and locals alike can find updated staple dishes amid the signature cuisine along with globally-influenced fare in Greenville.

Kickback on a rooftop bar for skyline views, chow down in a converted fire station or order tapas by the river to fulfill your dining vision be it romantic or casual catching up in the growing city. With more than 15 new restaurants and bars open or slated to open this year, anyone with a big appetite can eat their way through Greenville.

From downtown mainstays to the posh and trendy in the Village of West Greenville, Paste Travel takes you to the best bites in the city.

Top image by Mike Burton/Flickr, CC BY-ND 2.0

Molly Harris is Paste Designs assistant editor.

1 of 4 Grill Marks

Mark and Larkin Hammond of Greenville's Larkin's On The River felt the need for a quality burger joint in the city. In late 2012 the original Grill Marks appeared downtown across from the courthouse before the duo opened a second location in Columbia, South Carolina. With later hours on Friday and Saturday closing at 11 p.m. and a downtown location, there's no better place for a little grease half-way through a bender.



Stop into the former fire station for a brew and white truffle parmesan fries during happy hour, or take a seat for a late lunch. The restaurant serves up boozy milkshakes and an impressive list of burgers. Herbivores (and those not asking, "where's the beef?") can try an "unburger" which includes everything from bison and salmon to mushrooms and veggie patties. Watching your carbs? Try it naked or wrapped in lettuce. Photo courtesy of Grill Marks' Facebook

2 of 4 Ink N Ivy

Okay, Ink N Ivy may also be in Charleston, but this restaurant has an aesthetic we can't pass up. At this location just off of Main street, a former pawn shop now has the look and feel of a tattoo parlor with black and green leather seats, wrought iron chandeliers and inked brick walls. To tie in the "ivy," head to the rooftop to relax at the garden bar.



The restaurant makes for an easy choice for a decadent brunch of southern classics like chicken and waffles or shrimp and grits. Order a bloody mary at the bar while you wait. If eggs Benedict are your go-to, we'll go ahead and tell you one option features crab cakes. Photo courtesy of Ink N Ivy

3 of 4 The Anchorage

Chef Sean Brock's restaurant, Husk, is undoubtedly well known having been featured on NPR. To experience something different and equally delicious visit The Anchorage , run by Greg McPhee, Sean Brock's sous chef. In an airy space at the center of West Greenville, the locally sourced southern dishes demand a crowd.



This trendy bistro is always full, so expect a wait. Bring a friend, and order a cocktail or glass of wine to sip while the table is prepared. Opt to share and try several dishes including the trout spread and Brussel sprouts believe us, you will want to taste it all. End dinner with a French press for two and churros served on pottery made nearby just for the restaurant. Photo courtesy of Will Crooks / The Anchorage
I cant look down, Im terrified, said Caro, fervently gripping the armrest in the small Cessna aircraft as we flew over the Nazca Lines in southern Peru.

Like a rusty old roller coaster, the slow-moving plane rattled and shook, and we felt every slight change in altitude. I nervously chuckled at my future wifes comment knowing her fear was not altogether unfounded. Two major accidents involving Cessna planes occurred the year before our 2011 flight: A failed emergency landing in October took all six lives on board (including the drink-friendly pilot), while a February crash took seven lives. In between those two tragedies, drug cartel members apparently posed as tourists hijacking a plane that disappeared into the jungle. Being that I really wanted to see the Nazca Lines, I maybe kinda-sorta forgot to mention all that to her.

Im not really seeing the patterns, I replied, trying to change the topic. I dont see any animals.

The Nazca Lines (sometimes Nasca) are a collection of geometrical patterns, or geoglyphs, etched into stone surfaces under the desert sand thousands of years ago. The geoglyphs include various geometric forms like triangles, spirals and trapezoids as well as intricately designed fauna such as a spider, condor, monkey and lizard. The latter, which are technically called biomorphs, are largely grouped together, and archaeologists believe they were made around 200 BCE with most of the geoglyphs coming later. Researchers continue to find new markingslike a 200-foot-long snake discovered in 2014as wind continues to shift the sand. With some geoglyphs reaching 1,000 feet in size, the Nazca Lines were not fully discovered until the arrival of air travel in Peru about 90 years ago.

As I looked out the window failing to see the first animal image, I felt like someone staring for hours at a 3D poster whose design never seems to pop, but I did catch the second one.

Look, over there, I said pointing out the window. Its a bird.

Caro tepidly leaned over.

Yes, I see it, too, she said, now distracted from her fears. Thats amazing.

We were given a sheet that listed what images to look for and in what order. Once we could make out the 165-foot hummingbird, we had a better idea of how to make the patterns out. The next image, though, sent chills up our spines.

Do you see that? I asked.

I do, Caro said. What do they call that?

I looked down at the sheet and read, An astronaut.

Why would they draw an astronaut thousands of years ago? Caro replied.

With a strangely shaped head and giant round eyes, the 130-foot-tall geoglyph etched into the hillside looked like a freakin alien waving at the plane. In our minds, this immediately added another twist to how these giant patterns appeared in the sand without any modern instrumentation.

UNESCO, which bestowed World Heritage honors on the site in 1994, described the works as follows: These lines, which were scratched on the surface of the ground between 500 B.C. and A.D. 500, are among archaeologys greatest enigmas because of their quantity, nature, size and continuity. The geoglyphs depict living creatures, stylized plants and imaginary beings, as well as geometric figures several kilometres long. They are believed to have had ritual astronomical functions.

Some believed the lines represent constellations in the sky above, but in the 1960s, others argued that the Nazca Lines were created byor in cooperation withaliens who had contact with the Nazca people.

In his bestselling 1968 book Chariots of the Gods?, Swiss author Erich von Daniken argued that the constructions, which required technical skill unavailable to the Nazca, might have been runways and markers for extraterrestrial spaceships. Von Danikens theories became popular enough to warrant the Rod Serling-hosted documentary In Search of Ancient Astronauts on NBC and the film Chariots of the Gods. In more recent years, his theories popped up in shows like The X-Files and films like Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull where Indy visits the lines only the Gods can read.

In 2013, the television series Ancient Aliens also argued, Looking at Nazca from the air, it looks like an airport. It really does, because you have all these bands, wide bands, that look like airstrips that are layered on top of each other, but you also have these gigantic, long straight lines that go for miles and miles over valleys; over mountains.

Just as believers in the Christian heaven should know that gold is a soft metal thats horrible for paving streets, the 1995 book Fingerprints of the Gods argued that the soft rock of the Nazca plateau is less than ideal for bearing the weight of heavy extraterrestrial vehicles. That said, our minds immediately went to aliens when we saw the Astronauts.

That looks like an alien! I said.

The co-pilot turned and nodded with a goofy smile.

Aliens are not, however, the only far-out theory about the lines. Some suggest they are connected to human sacrifice.

Images of disembodied heads and decapitation were ubiquitous in the art of the Nasca culture, and the large numbers of physical remains of trophy heads found in the archaeological record of the area are unprecedented, said a study published in Current Anthropology in 2007. Human sacrifice and decapitation were part of powerful rituals that would have allayed fears by invoking the ancestors to ensure fertility and the continuation of Nasca society.

Adding some credence to this theory, a Japanese team in 2011 announced the discovery of a new geoglyph that resembled a human head.

After seeing the Astronaut, we were more determined than ever to see more geoglyphs, and they came in rapid succession during the 30-minute flight. We marveled at the 360-foot-long monkey with the spiral tail, the absolutely gorgeous 450-foot-long condor and the creepy 150-foot-tall spider. The plane visited more than a dozen different geoglyphs, and the size and scope made it hard to imagine how an ancient civilization might have crafted such works. Keep in mind, the Nazca created these geoglyphs over centuries, so it wasnt like they had their own Frank Stella banging these out in a single lifetime.

After viewing the last image, the Cessna headed back to the small dusty airfield, and the plane shook its way to a somewhat rough landing. Judging by her hand movements during the descent, Caro had suddenly become Catholic again.

So, if the Nazca Lines were not an alien hotline or airfield, what were they? In his 1985 book The Nasca Lines: A New Perspective on their Origin and Meanings, author Johan Reinhard wrote, It seems likely that most of the lines did not point at anything on the geographical or celestial horizon, but rather led to places where rituals were performed to obtain water and fertility of crops.

Making a similar argument, Between the Lines author Anthony Aveni told National Geographic, Our discoveries clearly showed that the straight lines and trapezoids are related to water but not used to find water, but rather used in connection with rituals. The trapezoids are big wide spaces where people can come in and out. The rituals were likely involved with the ancient need to propitiate or pay a debt to the gods probably to plead for water.

In 2000, a team of University of Massachusett scientists posited a new theory that the designs marked underground water sources in this thirsty plain that typically sees only one inch of rainfall per year. Stephen B. Mabee, a hydrogeologist on the team, argued, Ancient inhabitants may have marked the location of their groundwater supply distribution system with geoglyphs because the springs and seeps associated with the faults provided a more reliable and, in some instances, a better-quality water source than the rivers.

All of these theories have their doubters, but most researchers believe the Nazca Lines in some way involve water and rituals, the specifics of which are still being explored.

Still, our favorite Nazca observation comes from the site Ancient Aliens Debunked, which wrote, If you asked an ancient Nazcan what they believed about the world and how it worked, they would likely say something like: We take hallucinogenic drugs; we cut off a lot of heads, all in hopes that the monkey spirit will help us have some good crops this year.

In the end, it might just be as simple as that.
The Guca Trumpet Festival, which began in 1961, is an annual brass band gathering in western Serbia. Hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world come to the town of approximately 2,000 citizens every August.

But, it would be a mistake to think of this festival as only a set of concerts. It is also a hedonistic happening fueled by a locally distilled liqueur called rakija, which is the tincture of choice. The end of the event is punctuated with the Golden Trumpet award.

For an authenticand truly wildlook at one of the best festivals in Europe, please click through the following slideshow.

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District and Municipal Chief Executives as well as all directors of Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA) in the Brong -Ahafo Region have been sensitised on a new agriculture programme which government will soon launch to ensure food security and raw materials for industries.



The project, 'Planting for Foods and Investment' is to run and give life to government's yet-to-be established 'One district, One Factory' and 'One Village, One Dam' concepts, and also complement government's flagship programme 'Planting for Foods and Jobs', Hon. Collins Ntim, a deputy minister of Local Government and Rural Developments said at a meeting with the MMDAs in Sunyani on Wednesday.



He said the programme, which will pay special attention to selected cash crops namely Cashew, Shea, Mango, Citrus, Cocoa, Rubber and Oil Palm, will be launched jointly by the Ministries of Food and Agriculture and the Local Government and Rural Development.



Under the concept, MMDAs are required to present an agricultural project initiative taking into consideration one or two of the identified cash crops with a budget that would support 10,000 to 20,000 farmers to cultivate an average of 10 acres of crops within the next four years, and also recruit 100 youth in every district to support farmers to plant the seedlings from the established Seed banks by the Assemblies.



Dr Sagri Babagni, a deputy mister of MOFA in an interview with Peacefmonline.com said: "the project seeks to position Ghana as a world leading producer of Cocoa and Cashew in the next 4-10 years".



He added government will register and support about two to three million farmers, who would be mobilised into cooperatives and take a biometric database and GPS mapping on all the farmers and their farms.



According to Dr Babagni, the database of the farmers will be established for the sector to link up to establish the necessary value addition linkages.



The Agric programme will also see to the establishment of 'District Centre Of Agriculture, Commerce and Technology (DCACT) in every District to among other things enhance government's drive for industrial revolution through the various districts, with the mandate to promote agribusiness to facilitate an interface between the private and public sector at the district level.



The DCACT will also attract investment in Agro Processing at the districts to add value to agriculture produce for domestic industrial use, facilitate the establishment of processing plants in non farming districts to districts with raw materials to open up the area for development, and implement government policy on agribusiness and sustainable agricultural value chain.



The DCACT, which is expected to boost investor confidence in availability of raw material base, will be managed by a 13 member committee including the M/DCEs, a rep from the Ministry of Trades and industry, a representative from the Traditional Authority and an entrepreneur in the district. It will also promote the agribusiness potentials of the district playing an important role in directing the private sector into the 'One District, One Factory agenda.

Source: Henryson Okrah









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The government has revealed, the World Bank and the Saudi government will be funding efforts to provide comprehensive free Senior High School education.



Education Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh said this at a news conference in Accra Thursday, that the World Bank will provide $40m to support low-performing schools.



Concessionary funds will be sourced from the Saudi government to construct 42 model schools, he said. Prior to the 2016 elections, the New Patriotic Party (NPP) then in opposition, campaigned heavily on the mantra of free SHS if voted into government.



The Minister told the journalists free SHS is not simply about money, money, money.



He said it is a comprehensive policy that addresses not only access but quality, equity and employability of SHS graduates.



Explaining a feature of the plan to address quality, the Education Minister mentioned $40m financing from the World Bank which will target schools and students in low-performing districts.



We have enough places to put almost all our BECE students. That is not the problem. The problem is that some schools are failing and failing so bad [that] nobody wants to go there.



Through the Secondary Education Improvement Project (SEIP) about 75 schools in 100 districts will get help through improving facilities, providing bursaries to needy students and providing educational supplies to enhance teaching and learning.



Dwelling on quality, he said the government has also inaugurated the National Council for Curriculum Assessment (NACCA) headed by Professor Kwame Osei Kwarteng.



The council will review the syllabi of the various subjects and also access the process for selecting teaching and learning materials for the basic and secondary levels.



The Minister also stressed a student stands to benefit from free SHS once placed in a school by the Computerised School Selection Programme.

Source: myjoyonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The 2017 edition of the annual e.TV Ghana & Japan Motors corporate run and walk event has been launched at the Silver Star Tower with a special focus and support to the blind (Visually Impaired) in Ghana.



The Corporate Run and walk event which is scheduled for Thursday 21 September, 2017 at the Silver Star Tower is aimed at bringing together corporate institutions in Ghana to promote health and networking through team-building and physical activities. This is another way of celebrating Kwame Nkrumahs birthday.



Speaking at the launch, Melanie Botha, the Chief Operating Officer of e.TV Ghana and Global Media Alliance Broadcast Company (GMABC), said our main focus this year is to provide more support to the blind in Ghana through the Ghana Blind Union. We want to rally more organizations to come and support a noble cause through running and walking.



We at e.tv Ghana want to use our platform to change lives through innovative events and we encourage other organizations to partner us to achieve this objective, Melanie explained.



Mr. Abdul Rahaman Osman, Brand Sales Manager of Japan Motors, stated that, Japan Motors is always committed to the Corporate Run and walk event and has consistently supported e.tv Ghana to make it very successful. We are extremely excited that the blind is our main focus this time around and we believe this will increase participation, make the corporate run event better and change lives.



Mr. Osman urged corporate institutions and individuals to register and be part of supporting the blind. He ended by stating that there are interesting prices as usual this year including Yamaha Generator sets and a Yamaha motorcycle for the fastest corporate team.



Mr. Salah Kalmoni, Event Director of Corporate Run, explained that the 5 km race will start at 6:00am from the Silver Star Tower to 37 Station, turn left to the El-Wak traffic light, then left to the Airport round-about, left again to the Airport Traffic Lights and finish at the Silver Star Tower. Other activities to be held on the day include an exhibition, an awards ceremony, dancing competition and medical screening.



He continued that registration for single entry is GHS 30 while corporate entry for a group of five is GHS 120. We also have free breakfast for all participants and a unique VIP Breakfast for networking among CEOs, MDs, and GMs for GHS 60.



Registration centers include e.TV Ghana and Happy FM - Asylum Down, Silver Star Tower - Airport City, and YFM - Accra Mall.



Other guests present at the launch were reps from Allianz Insurance, Silver Star Tower, Silver Star Auto, Lakeside Estate, Oman Fofor Trading Company Limited, TT Brothers, Avis Fleet, IPMC, Branch Fitness Gym and Awake Purified Water.

Source: Peacefmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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How to Enter

Contest closes at 12:00am PDT on July 29, 2017. The winners will be contacted directly through Pinkbike.

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We Are One Agent Wheels

How to Enter

Contest closes 12:00am PDT on July 29, 2017. Winner to be contacted directly through Pinkbike.

Will Adrien Dailly continue to be a force as we head into the North American leg of the EWS, or will Jared Graves, last years winner of this round get luck back on his side and pull out a win? What about Cecile Ravanell? Will she continue her dominance or will Anneke Beerton, who has spent a good chunk of time in Colorado recently, go on to take her first win?The Enduro World Series hits North America this week, with the first stop of two being held at elevation in Aspen, Colorado. Who has the lungs to deal with the altitude and who will come out on top?With the Aspen Enduro World Series coming up this weekend, We Are One Composites would like to reward a set of their Agent carbon wheels to one lucky contestant. All you need to do is choose your top three finishers, (Pro Men and Pro Women) in order and you will be entered for a chance to win.Pick your top three in finishing order (Pro Men and Pro Women). Leave your 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the comments section of this article. The people with the correct answers will be entered into a random prize draw. *We Are One is going to give one lucky winner a set of their Agent carbon wheels. This is the Canadian brand's all-mountain wheelset and it's laced to a set of Project 321 hubs which can be selected to be either quiet or loud. The people who correctly guess the top three finishers in the men's race and the top three finishers in the women's race will go into the draw for the prize. Shallow, 23mm rim depth 30mm internal rim width Canadian layed 32 spoke 1,810g claimed weight 216 point of engagement magnetic pawl system $1,625 USDPick your top three in finishing order (Pro Men and Pro Women). Leave your 1st, 2nd and 3rd place finishers in the comments section of this article. The people with the correct answers will be entered into a random prize draw. *Sounds pretty good right? Leave your winning choices below!
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Master Sgt. Anthony Arriola from the Guam Air National Guard's 254th Security Forces Squadron is deployed in Southwest Asia in support of Operation Inherent Resolve, so meeting a close family member by chance was not likely  or so he had thought.

As luck would have it, Master Sgt. Arriola would meet his son, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Anthony Arriola, who happened to be in Southwest Asia at the same time.

"It's always a great feeling to see my son," Master Sgt. Arriola said.

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"I last saw him about a year ago when the carrier pulled into Guam."  Master Sgt. Anthony Arriola, referring to his son, Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Anthony Arriola

Barbecue overseas

The father and son, along with other deployed service members from Guam, had a barbecue the first night of their reunion at an undisclosed base.

Master Sgt. Arriola has been with the Guam Air Guard for 14 years, and has been in the service 22 years.

His son has been in the Navy four and a half years, and is currently on the USS Nimitz supercarrier.

"I last saw him about a year ago when the carrier pulled into Guam," Master Sgt. Arriola said.

The Arriola family has extended military ties, which is not unusual given that Guam has one of the highest enlistment rates in the U.S.

Master Sgt. Arriola's wife, Amy, is also serving in the Guam Air National Guard.

'I'll be home very soon'

The family can't wait to be together on the island, he said.

"Shoutout to my family at home, and I'll be home very soon," said Master Sgt. Arriola.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cuba Ventures Corp. (TSX-V:CUV) (OTCBB:MPSFF) (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of a 19% minority stake in International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC ("IBTO"), a cash-flow positive, fully licensed and bonded, Florida, USA based travel agency specializing in travel to Cuba. IBTO organizes trips for American Citizens to Cuba, in compliance with current and future US regulations. International Business & Travel Opportunities' specializes in educational and cultural trips to Cuba for groups of United States citizens wishing to visit Cuba. A definitive agreement, signed July 27, 2017, ratifies the transaction with the single shareholder of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC. The acquisition was achieved through the sale of a 19% interest in "IBTO" to Cuba Ventures Corp, through the issuance of 500,000 common shares of Cuba Ventures priced at 0.05 cents and cash payment of CAD $10,000 for transaction costs, to certain shareholders of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC. The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.

Highlights of IBTO acquisition

Ongoing creation and sale of legal U.S compliant Cuba Travel Packages across proprietary 432 websites

Sales of U.S legal travel offers to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Sales of cruises to Cuba from U.S ports to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Sales of flights from U.S airports to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Company access to a valid U.S Travel license to further sales in the USA



*U.S web visitor data calculated at 38.6% of 35 million approximate total web visitors to Cuba Ventures 432 proprietary websites



Significance of acquisition of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC & compliance with U.S Cuba Travel policy

International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC specializes in individuals and groups traveling to Cuba. International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC, with its exclusive itineraries, has hosted educational group trips for; Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Contractors, Hunting trips, fishing trips, hiking and special festivals in accordance with USA travel restrictions. Cuba Ventures Corp, through its wholly owned subsidiary Travelucion Media, owns and operates 432 Cuba-Centric websites with approximate annual visitors of over 35 million. Since 2015, website visitors originating from the United States have jumped from 6% in 2015 to the current 38.6% of all visitors, providing a solid and proprietary, highly targeted, Cuba focused consumer audience for legal travel packages to Cuba. Through this equity partnership, IBTO Cuba Travel offers for American Citizens will feature on these websites. IBTO is a fully licensed and bonded, Cuba Specialist, Florida based agency, thus in total compliance with current and upcoming U.S - Cuba travel regulations. Further, IBTO will seek, in the coming weeks, U.S compliant sales agreements with major Cruise lines currently sailing to Cuba and, a resulting booking engine will feature on all of Travelucion Media's websites, allowing immediate booking and payment of high sales volume cruise packages. Finally, a second IATA compliant flight booking engine will be sought, allowing direct sales of flight tickets to Cuba from major U.S currently operated by U.S airlines authorized to fly to major cities in the Republic of Cuba.

Steve Marshall, Cuba Ventures CEO, commented on the IBTO deal:

"The acquisition of IBTO is an important milestone for the company. Current and upcoming rules pertaining to travel to Cuba for Americans clearly benefit American Licensed travel companies who offer trips to the Island nation. Allied to this fact, our market research has shown that American consumers prefer to book travel to Cuba through a licensed and bonded U.S based travel agency who are compliant with American law, therefore, our acquisition of IBTO will allow exactly that. We will be working alongside the team at IBTO to create travel experiences that allow U.S Citizens to gain profound knowledge of Cuba while experiencing the very best Cuba has to offer."

Latest 25 July US Cuba Travel - OFAC Travel rules for American Citizens: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_faqs_20170725.pdf

Cuba Ventures Launches 2 brand new websites & provides update on IT program

Cuba Ventures Corp is delighted to announce the public beta launch of the following revised websites:

www.CubaHavana.com

www.CubaHavanacity.com

Investors should note that the update of the further 93 remaining geographic city/town/province websites remains on schedule.

Finally, under redevelopment by a separate IT team, the completion of the much anticipated modernization of www.Havanatur.com and, the additional 68 multi-language e-commerce booking websites, is on schedule for early August 2017.



About Cuba Ventures Corp.:

Cuba Ventures Corp. is a publicly traded Canadian company capitalizing on the growth and unique opportunities in the USD $3.5 billion per year Cuban travel and tourism industry. Travelucion, a wholly owned subsidiary, is a digital media and marketing company which owns a vast portfolio of Cuba related websites and online portals providing Cuba travel information in up to six languages, featuring individual web assets for Cuba's popular cities and towns, online booking solutions and online reservations through proprietary software, catering to international visitors to Cuba. Travelucion's online travel division is a licensed retail travel supplier handling millions of dollars in sales annually.

For further information on Cuba Ventures Corp. (TSX-V:CUV) or Travelucion visit the Company's website at www.cubaventures.com or www.travelucion.com. The Company has 72,412,487 shares issued and outstanding.

CUBA VENTURES CORP.

STEVE MARSHALL

______________________________

Steve Marshall

CEO

For further information contact myself or:

Nick Findler

Cuba Ventures Corp.

Telephone: 604-639-3850

Toll Free: 800-567-8181

Facsimile: 604-687-3119

Email: info@cubaventures.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.

This release includes certain statements that may be deemed to be "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts, that address events or developments that management of the Company expects, are forward-looking statements. Although management believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance, and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. The Company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements if management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements, include market prices, exploration and development successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. Please see the public filings of the Company at www.sedar.com for further information.
PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-27 18:17:01

ASKER, Norway, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TGS will release its Q2 2017 results at approximately 07:00 CEST on 3 August 2017. CEO Kristian Johansen and CFO Sven Brre Larsen will present the results at 09:00 CEST at the Hotel Continental, Stortingsgata 24/26 in Oslo, Norway. The presentation is open to the public and can be followed live on the internet at www.tgs.com.

The slides from the presentation will also be available in PDF format at both the TGS and Oslo Stock Exchange websites.

CEO Kristian Johansen and CFO Sven Brre Larsen will host a conference call on 3 August 2017 at 15:00 CEST (09:00 EDT). Attendees may want to call 5-10 minutes before to ensure registration and access.

Norwegian attendees are invited to call + 800 51084 or + 47 2100 2610

International attendees are invited to call 0800 358 6377 or + 44 (0)330 336 9105

US attendees are invited to call +1 866-548-4713 or +1 719-325-2213

Participants will need to quote the following confirmation code when dialing into the conference: 5950879.

A Q&A session will follow a short introduction, based upon the presentation issued in the morning. To pose a question, please press *1.

A replay of the conference call will be available shortly after.

To access replay of the TGS conference call:

dial + 47 23 50 00 77 or + 800 196 72 (Norway), + 44 (0) 207 660 0134 or + 0 808 101 1153 (International) or +1 1 719-457-0820 or + 888-203-1112 (US)

replay access code 5950879 followed by # (pound-sign).

A replay of the conference call will also be available at www.tgs.com.

Company summary

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) provides multi-client geoscience data to oil and gas Exploration and Production companies worldwide. In addition to extensive global geophysical and geological data libraries that include multi-client seismic data, magnetic and gravity data, digital well logs, production data and directional surveys, TGS also offers advanced processing and imaging services, interpretation products, and data integration solutions.

For more information visit TGS online at www.tgs.com.

Forward-looking statements and contact information

All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate. These factors include TGS' reliance on a cyclical industry and principle customers, TGS' ability to continue to expand markets for licensing of data, and TGS' ability to acquire and process data products at costs commensurate with profitability. Actual results may differ materially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking statements. TGS undertakes no responsibility or obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements for any reason.

TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSLO:TGS).

TGS sponsored American Depositary Shares trade on the U.S. over-the-counter market under the symbol "TGSGY".

For additional information about this press release please contact:



Sven Brre Larsen

Chief Financial Officer

Tel: +47 90 94 36 73

Email: sven.larsen@tgs.com



Will Ashby

VP HR & Communication

Tel: +1 713 860 2184

Email: will.ashby@tgs.com

This announcement is distributed by Nasdaq Corporate Solutions on behalf of Nasdaq Corporate Solutions clients.

The issuer of this announcement warrants that they are solely responsible for the content, accuracy and originality of the information contained therein.

Source: TGS via Globenewswire


PR-Inside.com: 2017-07-27 14:25:01

Sale enables greater focus on core business

COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Vertiv, formerly Emerson Network Power, today announced plans to sell its ASCO business as it continues to sharpen its focus on the digital critical infrastructure space. The $1.25 billion sale to Schneider Electric allows Vertiv to apply additional resources toward business and technological advancements in its core data center, telecommunications and commercial and industrial markets.

As Vertiv has repositioned itself after being sold to Platinum Equity in November 2016, it became clear that ASCO's strengths in the automatic transfer switch arena fell outside the new organization's more focused strategy, said Vertiv CEO Rob Johnson.

"This sale is a significant step forward in our evolution as the premier provider of digital critical infrastructure solutions," Johnson said. "This is consistent with our strategy of focusing on our customers and aligning the strengths of our organization - deep domain knowledge in IT and facilities applications, global scale and service coverage - to better meet their needs."

Platinum Equity Partner Jacob Kotzubei praised Vertiv's progress.

"Thanks to strong leadership and the commitment of Vertiv employees around the world, the company is performing exceptionally well, and the transformation of the business is right on track," said Mr. Kotzubei. "The sale of ASCO will further support those efforts and help Vertiv continue focusing on its core business. Given the amount of cash proceeds expected to be generated from the sale, we will evaluate a number of capital structure alternatives that would be beneficial to all stakeholders."

The sale price of $1.25 billion reflects a multiple of 11.7x adjusted EBITDA for CY2016. The sale is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close by Q4 2017.

About Vertiv

Vertiv designs, builds and services critical infrastructure that enables vital applications for data centers, communication networks and commercial and industrial facilities. Formerly Emerson Network Power, Vertiv supports today's growing mobile and cloud computing markets with a portfolio of power, thermal and infrastructure management solutions including the ASCO, Chloride, Liebert, NetSure(TM) and Trellis(TM) brands. Sales in fiscal 2016 were $4.4 billion. For more information, visit VertivCo.com.
For the New World Order, a world government is just the beginning. Once in place they can engage their plan to exterminate 80% of the world's population, while enabling the "elites" to live forever with the aid of advanced technology. For the first time, crusading filmmaker ALEX JONES reveals their secret plan for humanity's extermination: Operation ENDGAME.

Jones chronicles the history of the global elite's bloody rise to power and reveals how they have funded dictators and financed the bloodiest warscreating order out of chaos to pave the way for the first true world empire.

Watch as Jones and his team track the elusive Bilderberg Group to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III.





to Ottawa and Istanbul to document their secret summits, allowing you to witness global kingpins setting the world's agenda and instigating World War III. Learn about the formation of the North America transportation control grid, which will end U.S. sovereignty forever.





Discover how the practitioners of the pseudo-science eugenics have taken control of governments worldwide as a means to carry out depopulation.





View the progress of the coming collapse of the United States and the formation of the North American Union.

Never before has a documentary assembled all the pieces of the globalists' dark agenda. Endgame's compelling look at past atrocities committed by those attempting to steer the future delivers information that the controlling media has meticulously censored for over 60 years. It fully reveals the elite's program to dominate the earth and carry out the wicked plan in all of human history.

Endgame is not conspiracy theory, it is documented fact in the elite's own words.




By: Thai Australia Network

Contact

Joe Perri & Associates

***@joeperri.com.au Joe Perri & Associates

End

-- Providing regular opportunities for business owners and professionals to come together in an informal setting to network and develop long term personal relationships is the underlying objective of the(TAN) that was launched as an association earlier this month.The concept of TAN was started by Richard Lovell five years ago and as the popularity and support of the networking events grew it was felt that the time had come to take the next step as an association.On Thursday evening July 13, over 50 guests and friends came together to celebrate the TAN milestone and meet the inaugural members of the TAN Board.also attended the event as guest of honour and in his congratulatory speech, said Thailand and Australia have always enjoyed an excellent relationship that was further enhanced in 2005 when the Thailand- Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) came into effect."TAN is an excellent initiative and will do much to further enhance bilateral trade opportunities and commercial engagement  but most importantly facilitate greater understanding and appreciation of our Thai culture", added HE Chirachai Punkrasin. "I congratulate and wish TAN much success for the future".Responding on behalf of the Board, Dr Simon Wallace said TAN was a very unique organisation that reflected Thailand's warm welcoming culture of generosity and hospitality  and these would the values at the core of the Board's mission and vision for the future.It was also announced that the patron for TAN isand the board is headed byThe other TAN Board members are , Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), CPF, Thai Airways, Joe Perri & Associates, CPF, SinghAus (Singha Beer), Crown Promenade Melbourne, Bangkok AirwaysAdding his voice to those of Dr Wallace, Richard Lovell said far too many business councils and chambers are to rigidly focussed on strict formality and commercial outcomes and fail to provide an environment that just allows people to connect on an informal P2P level.The TAN launch was applauded as an outstanding success by the invitees who are keen to continue their support of the organisation in the future.Media Enquiries: Mr. Joe PerriJoe Perri & Associates Pty LtdTelephone / fax: +61 3 9324 0362Mobile: +61 412 112 545Email: jperri@joeperri.com.au
Nowadays many individuals visit Costa Rica looking for some incredible fishing opportunities.

By: costaricafads.com

250 - QC

Contact

Costa Rica Fads

***@costaricafads.com Costa Rica Fads

End

-- Nowadays many individuals visit Costa Rica looking for some incredible fishing opportunities. Costa Rica is as of now known as one of the universes' best fishing destination since it has got a portion of the best assortment and types of fishes.There are a few approaches to appreciate Fad fishing in the Costa Rica, yet maybe a standout amongst other ways is the FAD fishing. There are different private fishing contracts benefits that offer private and restrictive FAF fishing visits alongside FAD fishing guides.Costa Rica FAD Fishing is the best for the people who are truly keen to know about FAD fishing. Costa Rica is among the universes most looked for subsequent to fishing goals. Throughout the years, many individuals visits Costa Rica just to encounter the genuine delight of fishing in the sea and what better it could be to appreciate FAD fishing which the vast majority of the general population has basically viewed on the TVs some time recently.Costaricafads.com is the number one choice for anyone who wants to enjoy the thrill of Costa Rica FAD fishing. Costa Rica is one of the world's leading fishing destinations, and it is not difficult to see why. Not only do you have a huge range of species to test yourself against, but the backdrop of the country is truly beautiful, from the crystal clear waters, to the exquisite white sands, to the luscious rainforest. There is nowhere else like it.Twin Caterpillar EnginesIsinglass Curtains Bridge DeckFighting ChairSubzero FeezerLive Well & Tuna TubesTV/CD/DVD Player"What an amazing trip! We will visit again for our next fishing trip!""Great boat and crew. Crew was polite and helped us to catch and release 5 sailfish."For more information visit, http://www.costaricafads.com/
September to October is the perfect time to visit Italy, with minimal crowds, deals to be had and the sun shining, there is every reason to book your holiday!

Contact

Essential Italy

***@essentialitaly.co.uk Essential Italy

End

-- September and October are a little quieter in Italy, so if you're wanting to escape the crowds, yet still experience the incredible country, then that is the perfect time for you to book your holiday, pack your bag and enjoy yourself. Not only is it more serene without the mass of people, but you are sure to grab yourself an unbelievable off-peak deal with Essential Italy, saving you the pennies and maximising your experience.Wine lovers can rejoice with a visit to Tuscany. The world renowned and celebrated Chianti region grows some of the finest grapes and produces the most favoured wines from around the globe. With a fantastic selection of wineries offering tours, your authentic and traditional experience will be remembered for a lifetime (if you don't drink too much!). What is even better, is that September is harvest season, so you will be sure to get the best of the sun ripened fruits of the year.Tuscany isn't only about the wine, it is also home to an incredible selection of art. Masterpieces are held in various museums and galleries in the region, with work from Giotto, Botticelli and Michelangelo. While you are on your culture and history exploration, the landmark sites should be added to your itinerary as the region is recognised as the Renaissance treasure of the country, the Leaning Tower of Pisa, the Medici Villas and the Piazza dei Miracoil are immense structures which should not be missed.Tuscany has rolling hills outstanding valleys and the Apuan Alps, making it perfect for nature lovers or those wanting to immerse themselves in the untouched beauty. You can be surrounded by wildlife and hidden in a secluded and ancient village for the ultimate relaxation and recharge.Sicily is the Mediterranean island that has it all. The seductive island should be at the top of your list for places to visit. The desirable Mediterranean weather and turquoise sea captivates explorers and induces dreams of taking a trip. There is a huge selection of stunning and inviting beaches, whether a long golden stretch of sand is what you are after, or a hidden and secluded cove, you can be sure to find it on this dream like island.If beaches aren't your thing, or you are keen to explore, the breath-taking mountainous range will draw you in, the prominent Mouth Etna is a great spot for idyllic hikes with glorious panoramic views as your reward. The volcanic soil ensures the produce and wine are out of this world and will contribute to your eagerness to swiftly return to this haven.The extensive history is noticeable all over the island, with ancient sites and artefacts easily stumbled upon. An unexpected addition to your holiday is a day trip to the awe-inspiring Temples in Agrigento, which will have you believing you have been transported to the heart of Greece.Puglia is known and loved for the outstanding quality of food that it produces. The recipes have been passed down for thousands of years and for very good reason. The fresh ingredients, that are rich in nutrients from the sun and fertile soil aid in producing the mouth-watering dishes. Most Italian oil is produced in the region and it is claimed that over 40% comes for the olive groves in Puglia. Not only is the oil exceptional, you won't experience fresher seafood, as regular catches from the coastline surrounding the province contribute to delicious fish dishes.After you've filled your bellies, head to Trulli, a place like no other in the world, the whitewashed town with cone shaped roofs are a fairy tale escape, with charming residents, unique shops and captivating, winding streets.The rustic heel of Italy also has caves across the region which are a sight to remember and will simply leave you in awe. There is an abundance of them waiting to be discovered, inland and along the coastline, why not grab your snorkel and goggles to experience the coastline from sea level and spend your evening relaxing in yourThe weather across Italy is just as glorious during September to October, the sun is still shining and the evenings are still warm. Book your getaway soon, to grab yourself a fantastic deal and incredible holiday with Essential Italy!
OMLogic is one of the premium digital communications agency based in India.

OMLogic Consulting - Digital Marketing Firm

Contact

***@omlogic.com

011 64647380 011 64647380

End

-- OMLogic is one of the premium digital communications agency based in India. We are a team driven by our passion for digital media and what impact it can provide to a message. The message could be for a societal change, a brand, a consumer, an NGO, a government or any other entity [you name it, we have done it].We work/have worked with brands like Vestige, Jagran, Wave Group, HBO, Vivo, Oriflame for managing their digital presence. We also do a variety of activities with NGOs and CSRs for social media marketing and perception management initiatives (Delhi BRT, Maldives Coup, Women's safety and empowerment, etc.). We are partners with NASSCOM to help them with their social media and are also empanelled by the National e-governance Department, Government of India as well as Ministry of Power, to promote the Digital India Program. We started with this motto 10 years back and were very sure we will grow out of it at some point. It will no longer be sufficient to bring logic into online marketing. The world would move ahead. A decade later, the only thing we want to change in this motto is to say, "Bringing Logic to the Digital World".While there are lots of digital marketing agencies in India, following USPs make us ace the digital/social media game.1.Unlike large mainline agencies that lack understanding of technology / digital platforms or boutique agencies that lack the appreciation of brand message, we are a rare combination  the right expertise for the right project.2.We have the technology to convert this message or message manifestation into websites, microsites, mobile apps or other objects. These could be unique custom platforms for a unique brand or products that can be leveraged by everyone. We have the creative and content expertise to ensure this message is being reflected in the most suitable manner causing the best impact. We understand all digital platforms to target the most relevant audience and get the best visibility.3.We are not in the business of sales, we infect businesses with our passion and expertise. We bring logic to the digital world. In an increasingly social media centric world where the user has become king, we want to equalize the conversation and power balance between brands and their consumers.We believe that brand marketing has fundamentally changed in the last few years. Some key factors impacting the change are:: From a catch attention approach to telling a story over multiple touch points and multiple interlinked messages, marketing is no longer about the product.: Consumers no longer buy products based on need, they buy products based on value. Hence the focus is no longer on the product itself, rather it's on the entire periphery surrounding the product we lovingly call as 'brand experience'.: People like brands that are larger than life and provides more. They feel good if the brand they are working with is socially more responsible or has other facets they could associate with.At, we believe the potential of digital media is to leverage these changing behaviours as advantages for your brand.If you are looking for social media marketing services for your brand, visit OMLogic ( http://www.omlogic.com/ You can follow us on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/ OMLogic/ ), Twitter (https://twitter.com/OMLogic) and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/omlogic/).
Local author James W. Erwin will be available to sign copies of book

St. Charles, Missouri

End

--Louis Blanchette came to Les Petites Cotes (the Little Hills) in 1769. The little village, later dubbed San Carlos del Misury by the Spanish and St. Charles by the Americans, played a major role in the early history of Missouri.It launched Lewis and Clark's expedition, as well as countless other westbound settlers. It served as the first capital of the new state. Important politicians, judges, soldiers, businesspersons, educators and even a saint all called St. Charles home.Despite its rapid growth from a sleepy French village into a dynamic city amid one of the fastest-growing regions in the country, St. Charles never forgot its history. Author James Erwin tells the story of its fascinating heritage. The first Missouri legislature spent sixty-six of its eighty-one days in session arguing about where to locate the temporary capital. Finally, after numerous votes, they compromised on St. Charles. The first Capitol was located on the second floor of the Charles and Ruloff Peck Store on Main Street, where as a State Historic Site it can still be visited. During the Civil War, St. Charles supplied soldiers to both sides.Barnes & Noble320 Mid Rivers Center DriveSt. Peters, MO 63376Saturday, August 5th, 2017 at 1:00 p.m.Available at area bookstores, independent retailers, and online retailers, or through Arcadia Publishing at (888)-313-2665 or online.The combination of Arcadia Publishing & The History Press creates the largest and most comprehensive publisher of local and regional content in the USA. By empowering local history and culture enthusiasts to write local stories for local audiences, we create exceptional books that are relevant on a local and personal level, enrich lives, and bring readers closer - to their community, their neighbors, and their past. Have we done a book on your town? Visit www.arcadiapublishing.com
By: Cummings Graduate Institute

Contact

J. Carro

***@marketingideals.com J. Carro

End

-- Charles Davis, DBH student at Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies (CGI), has been confirmed by the New York State Senate Standing Committee on Finance as a Member of the New York State Board of Parole, beginning the end of July 2017.This marks the first time in history that a future DBH has served on a State Board of Parole in New York or any other US State. Reflecting upon the recent appointment, Charles shared the following message with Cummings Graduate Institute CEO and DBH Director, Dr. Cara English:"CGI has changed my life, all for the betterBecause I have the DBH program listed on my resume, the Senators wanted to know all about the program in each hearing. I was questioned by New York Senate Board members to explain the DBH program, and the 'DBH' title, which you can hear in the video below.Everyone appears to be excited to have someone on the Board with behavioral experience. My goal is to use the education and skills acquired at CGI to improve behavioral health services throughout the New York correctional system.Presently, within the NYS correctional system, primary care and behavioral health care are siloed, with no interaction across boundaries. The integration of care will support inmates while in prison, and will ensure appropriate treatment upon release, thus reducing recidivism rates among the formerly incarcerated."Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies congratulates Charles Davis for his recent achievement and looks forward to seeing his impact in the state of New York.Cummings Graduate Institute | About the FounderDr. Cummings is a visionary who, for half a century not only was able to foresee the future of professional psychology, but also helped create it. A former president of the American Psychological Association (APA) as well as its Divisions 12 (Clinical Psychology) and 29 (Psychotherapy), he formed a number of national organizations in response to trends. Since organized psychology resisted these inevitable changes, Dr. Cummings blazed the way, expecting others would follow. He launched the professional school movement by founding the four campuses of the California School of Professional Psychology that established clinicians as full-fledged members of the faculty. As chief of mental health for the Kaiser Permanente health system in the 1950s, he wrote and implemented the first prepaid psychotherapy contract in the era when psychotherapy was an exclusion rather than a covered benefit in health insurance. Presently, Dr. Cummings resides in Reno, Nevada with the one love of his life, Dorothy Mills Cummings. Together in 2015 they celebrated their 67th wedding anniversary. They maintain a winter home in Scottsdale, Arizona. He continues as Distinguished Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and active president of the Cummings Foundation for Behavioral Health. He serves as the Vice Chair for the Board of Directors of Cummings Graduate Institute for Behavioral Health Studies.For more information about Cummings Graduate Institute go online to http://www.cummingsinstitute.com
Big Data Helps Students Choose College Majors By: Majorfit inc Big data can find suitable majors for students in effective ways. ROLLING HILLS ESTATES, Calif. - July 27, 2017 - PRLog -- Majorfit.com launches new assessment that helps students choose college majors based on their competencies and aspirations. The company has been accumulated Big Data for years and has applied successfully to find student's suitability and strength.



Only 27 percent of college graduates in the United States have a career related to their college majors if a recent report finding by the Washington post is to go by. In another survey by Career Builder, a whopping 51 percent of employed college graduates confessed that their jobs have very little to do with their college majors. Unfortunately, on average, a 2016 college graduate owes the government more than $37,000 on student loans. Certainly, the students need a guide to help them choose college majors that are perfect fits for their talents, skills, and interests. Majorfit.com, a leading publisher of student assessment tools, has launched a program that will help the students make informed decisions when choosing college majors. The program consists of some self-administered assessments that will effectively guide students to determine what careers will be most relevant to their strengths.



"Many high school students work relentlessly for the 4.0+ GPA, yet most of them do not know what major they want to choose, and very few take time to explore the viable career options. Consequently, the college dropout rate has reached 38 percent and a greater percentage change their majors before finishing their college programs,'' says Majorfit's Co-Founder, Sara Park. "Considering the high cost of tuition in both public and private universities, the undecided bright young minds often waste a fortune and valuable time pursuing courses they won't practice. The need to guide them when choosing the majors is urgent. Majorfit.com will help them decide majors that lead to realistic careers."



Another Co-Founder, Steven Choi says "We use Big data analysis to find student's suitability and strength. That's totally different approach than any traditional personality test."

According to Choi, no special requirements are needed to take the self-administered assessments; any student can do them. The tests can be taken online, and results are instant and self-interpreted. All they need is a computer and an internet connection to access the website.



The Majorfit assessments are based on the fact that graduates tend to work in environments that are realistic, enterprising, social and more importantly relevant to their skills. The tests are structured to help the students determine their competencies and aspirations concerning the occupational information available in their database so that they can easily relate their skills with viable college majors. Majorfit aptitude test (MAT) is developed by big data analysis based on recent brain research and epistemology. This is why interpretations of the results are significantly different from most psychological theorized tests such as the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI).



The new website has now been brought up-to-date with thousands of jobs at all skill and education levels as well as data collected from over 500,000 cases of interviews and tracking records. The interface works well on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.



For more information on the program, visit their website



Contact

MajorFit inc

Contact Person: Steven Choi

***@majorfit.com



Photo:

https://www.prlog.org/ 12654925/1 MajorFit incContact Person: Steven Choi End -- Majorfit.com launches new assessment that helps students choose college majors based on their competencies and aspirations. The company has been accumulated Big Data for years and has applied successfully to find student's suitability and strength.Only 27 percent of college graduates in the United States have a career related to their college majors if a recent report finding by the Washington post is to go by. In another survey by Career Builder, a whopping 51 percent of employed college graduates confessed that their jobs have very little to do with their college majors. Unfortunately, on average, a 2016 college graduate owes the government more than $37,000 on student loans. Certainly, the students need a guide to help them choose college majors that are perfect fits for their talents, skills, and interests. Majorfit.com, a leading publisher of student assessment tools, has launched a program that will help the students make informed decisions when choosing college majors. The program consists of some self-administered assessments that will effectively guide students to determine what careers will be most relevant to their strengths."Many high school students work relentlessly for the 4.0+ GPA, yet most of them do not know what major they want to choose, and very few take time to explore the viable career options. Consequently, the college dropout rate has reached 38 percent and a greater percentage change their majors before finishing their college programs,'' says Majorfit's Co-Founder, Sara Park. "Considering the high cost of tuition in both public and private universities, the undecided bright young minds often waste a fortune and valuable time pursuing courses they won't practice. The need to guide them when choosing the majors is urgent. Majorfit.com will help them decide majors that lead to realistic careers."Another Co-Founder, Steven Choi says "We use Big data analysis to find student's suitability and strength. That's totally different approach than any traditional personality test."According to Choi, no special requirements are needed to take the self-administered assessments;any student can do them. The tests can be taken online, and results are instant and self-interpreted. All they need is a computer and an internet connection to access the website.The Majorfit assessments are based on the fact that graduates tend to work in environments that are realistic, enterprising, social and more importantly relevant to their skills. The tests are structured to help the students determine their competencies and aspirations concerning the occupational information available in their database so that they can easily relate their skills with viable college majors. Majorfit aptitude test (MAT) is developed by big data analysis based on recent brain research and epistemology. This is why interpretations of the results are significantly different from most psychological theorized tests such as the MyersBriggs Type Indicator (MBTI).The new website has now been brought up-to-date with thousands of jobs at all skill and education levels as well as data collected from over 500,000 cases of interviews and tracking records. The interface works well on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and desktops.For more information on the program, visit their website https://majorfit.com/ Email : ***@majorfit.com Tags : College , Major , Education , Aptitude Test , Suitable Major , Higher Education , High School , Teen Parents Industry : Education , Family , Technology Location : Rolling Hills Estates - California - United States Subject : Websites Account Phone Number Disclaimer Report Abuse Account Email AddressAccount Phone Number


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This article is the first in a series that catches up with the finalists from last years BookLife Prize.

It wouldnt be an exaggeration to say that indie author T.J. Slee took the inaugural BookLife Prize by storm.

A finalist last year in two categories, Sleewho refuses to divulge his identity due to his previous intelligence work and describes his writing as the misbegotten love child of Robert Ludlum and Janet Evanovichhad the top title in Mystery/Thriller with Cloister and SciFi/Fantasy/Horror with The Vanirim.

And while it was The Vanirima sci-fi noir mashupthat won top honors last year, BookLifes judges were similarly impressed by Cloister, about a former intelligence officer who left the world of secrets behind for life as nun.

BL Prize guest judge, author, and publisher Jason Pinter praised Cloister, calling it Highly original, well-written, with an engaging, sparkplug of a heroine, while guest judge and author Tim Pratt said of The Vanirim: "I devoured The Vanirim in a single sittingdriven forward by the twisty and mind-bending plot, centered on an enigmatic and compelling main character.

We caught up with Slee via email to see what hes up to now and what advice he has for aspiring indie authors:

Whats happened since you won the 2016 BookLIfe Prize?

The BookLife Prize meant that Cloister, or more particularly the character of Charlie Jones, attracted interest both from Hollywood and Madison Avenue. Fielding calls from producers in Hollywood and agents in New York keen to discuss the Charlie Jones character has been a real thrill.

Ive also had to consider all sorts of angles I would never have thought of before. Would I be willing to take a new author name (yes) and rebrand my work (yes), would I consider rewriting it to make it more accessible to a U.S. audience (done), and a really tough one: am I able to show a publisher that a title like The Vanirim has the potential for a series if it achieves commercial success?

What are you working on now?

Ironically, preparing my work for the move from Indie to traditional publishing. Indie publishing was a quick way to raise some money for charity, get reader feedback, and attract attention, but I would rather spend my time writing than marketing and publishing and I hope getting on board with a traditional publisher will allow that. Any publishers reading this please contact Kirby Kim at Janklow & Nesbit!

Whats one tip that you have for other indie authors?

Dare to prepare for success. I was completely unprepared and never thought about the what if. What if your writing wins a prize, what if you get a call from Hollywood, what if you get an agent or publisher on the phone? I was hilariously unready.
Drawn from our recent Fall 2017 Childrens Announcements Issue, here are our editors picks for some of the childrens and young adult books were already looking forward to. And be sure to check out PW's most anticipated fall books for adults, too.

Picture Books

After the Fall (How Humpty Dumpty Got Back Up Again) by Dan Santat (Little, Brown, Oct.) - Santat remains one of the busier artists working today (this spring alone, he illustrated Rob Sanderss Rodzilla and Gennifer Choldenkos Dad and the Dinosaur). But this is the Caldecott Medalists first outing as author since 2016s time-bending Are We There Yet?, and it packs a punch: Santat imagines the difficult psychological aftermath of Humpty Dumptys fall from the wall, and the fears and trauma that have become part of his life.

Good Day, Good Night by Margaret Wise Brown, illus. by Loren Long (Harper, Oct.) - Its not hard to see some Goodnight Moon in this previously unpublished picture book from Brown. It features a small bunny, for starters, and that bunny spends the book bidding good day to his surroundings after morning arrives, and then good night as evening falls. And although Long blazes his own trail in his acrylic paintings, he includes some visual treats for Clement Hurd fans.

It Takes a Village by Hillary Rodham Clinton, illus. by Marla Frazee (S&S/Wiseman, Sept.) - The countrythe world, evenmight feel more divided than ever, but this first picture book from the 2016 Democratic nominee for President, inspired by her bestselling 1996 book for adults, champions the idea that were stronger and better off together. Its a message that Frazees artwork, which so often emphasizes community and connection, is ideally suited to.

La La La: A Story of Hope by Kate DiCamillo, illus. by Jaime Kim (Candlewick, Oct.) - DiCamillo, a Newbery Medalist and former National Ambassador for Young Peoples Literature, has received no shortage of acclaim for her writing, but she uses only one worda girls sung Lain this picture book. Its up to Kim, a busy newcomer whos illustrated four picture books in just the past year, to reveal how much meaning that single syllable can have.

Robinson by Peter Sis (Scholastic Press, Sept.) - Sis returns to the subject of his childhood years in a story based on an incident in which he wore a homemade Robinson Crusoe costume to school. After being teased by classmates dressed as pirates, the young Peter retreats into the fantastical imagined world of Crusoes island, letting readers come along for the ride.

The Wolf, the Duck, and the Mouse by Mac Barnett, illus. by Jon Klassen (Candlewick, Oct.) - Barnett and Klassens Triangle made our spring 2017 most anticipated list, and theyre back this fall with a book about making the best of a bad situation. After a mouse gets swallowed by a wolf, he finds a duck already in there, living the good life. There isnt much of a view, but with records to listen to and wine to drink, whats not to like?

Middle Grade

Alls Faire in Middle School by Victoria Jamieson (Dial, Sept.) - Having picked up a Newbery Honor for her 2015 graphic novel, Roller Girl, Jamieson returns with another empathic story of a girl coming into her own. In this case, its Imogen Vega, the homeschooled daughter of parents employed at the local Renaissance fair, who is entering public school for the first time.

The Glass Town Game by Catherynne M. Valente (S&S/McElderry, Sept.) - Valente closed out her five-book Fairyland series last fall with The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home, so the timing is just right for this standalone adventure. Its based on the imaginary world concocted (and written about) by the real-life Bronte siblingsonly in Valentes novel, the cockeyed and unpredictable world of Glass Town comes to dazzling life for the children.

Im Just No Good at Rhyming: And Other Nonsense for Mischievous Kids and Immature Grown-Ups by Chris Harris, illus. by Lane Smith (Little, Brown, Sept.) - Harris, a TV writer and producer whose credits include How I Met Your Mother, makes a wildly entertaining foray into childrens books with a poetry collection bursting with creativity and wit. Beyond just illustrating Harriss verse, Smiths artwork is part of the fun, as he and Harris spar with each other using images and words.

The Purloining of Prince Oleomargarine by Mark Twain and Philip C. Stead, illus. by Erin Stead (Doubleday, Sept.) - Based on Twains notes about a bedtime story he told his children, the Steads adaptation expands on the epic quest of a boy named Johnny, who has the ability to speak to animals. Its a talent that comes in handy as he attempts to locate a lost prince.

The Whiz Mob and the Grenadine Kid by Colin Meloy, illus. by Carson Ellis (HarperCollins/Balzer + Bray, Oct.) - Meloy and Elliss Wildwood Chronicles came to a close in 2014 with Wildwood Imperium; their first literary collaboration since then introduces Charlie Fisher, a boy who gets drawn into a world of young pickpockets and thievessuddenly his life is far more exciting (and dangerous) than he ever imagined.

Wishtree by Katherine Applegate, illus. by Charles Santoso (Feiwel and Feiends, Sept.) - Newbery Medalist Applegate (The One and Only Ivan) movingly explores the way that prejudice affects a neighborhood after a Muslim family moves in. The novel unfolds through the memorable voice of a character with real perspective on the area: an oak tree that has been around for more than 200 years.

Young Adult

All the Crooked Saints by Maggie Stiefvater (Scholastic Press, Oct.) - Having wrapped up her Raven Cycle series last fall (it was recently announced that a TV adaptation is headed to Syfy), Stiefvater turns to a standalone story of miracles, owls, and radio waves. Set in 1960s Colorado, it stars a trio of cousins from a family with the ability to perform miracles.

The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (Knopf, Oct.) - More than 20 years after the release of The Golden Compass, Pullman returns to his world of dust and daemons in a novel set 10 years before the His Dark Materials books. First in a trilogy, the story will again focus on Lyra Belacqua though, as Pullman has said, Its not a sequel, and its not a prequel, its an equal.

Genuine Fraud by E. Lockhart (Delacorte, Sept.) - Lockharts 2014 YA novel, We Were Liars, made waves with its twisty plot and narration, and she unleashes even more trickery in this thriller. Centered on the uneasy friendship between two teenage girls, the novel essentially unfolds in reverse, and is no less gripping for it.

Long Way Down by Jason Reynolds (Atheneum/Dlouhy, Oct.) - Reynolds sets this intense and claustrophobic story in an apartment buildings elevator, expanding what should be a seven-story trip into a harrowing examination of gun violence. In the elevator is 15-year-old Will, a gun shoved in his waistband and ready to avenge his brothers murder. But this is no ordinary elevator ride.

Tool of War by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown, Oct.) - Five years after The Drowned Cities, Bacigalupi returns with the third book in the series that began with his Printz Awardwinning Ship Breaker. Set in a future America ravaged by climate change, this book turns its attention to Boston and the genetically enhanced half-man Tool.

Turtles All the Way Down by John Green (Dutton, Oct.) - Few details are known about Greens first novel since The Fault in Our Stars, which was revealed in a surprise announcement this summer. In the book, Aza a 16-year-old with a mental illness, looks into the disappearance of a billionaire. Theres no question that the authors fans will be all over it.
ENENSYS has announced that its ATSCheduler ATSC 3.0 Broadcast Gateway has been deployed at a test station in Cleveland, for use in ongoing trials.





The real-world test station, owned by Tribune Broadcastings WJW-TV and sponsored by the NAB and the Consumer Technology Association, has been set up as a living laboratory and operates under an experimental FCC broadcast licence.This is designed as a neutral test facility for the industry, said Lynn Claudy, senior vice president of technology at NAB. Manufacturers can test technologies on both the domestic receiver side and, of course, on the backend professional technology side to check interoperability, among other things. We do have some specific test programmes planned but we want to get to the stage where the station is on-air full time, or as close to full time as possible, so that manufacturers and broadcasters can come in any time.ENENSYS ATSCheduler is central to ATSC 3.0 network operation. ATSC 3.0 features are claimed to be able to provide a greater level of control, convenience and personalisation such as user-tailored on-screen guides with recommendations and on-screen search of video-on-demand (VOD), streaming services and over-the-air TV. It can also offer custom home screens based on viewer preferences.Running at a station or a central headend, the ATSCheduler encapsulates the IP streams stemming from the various HEVC encoders that deliver the compressed audio-visual content over ROUTE or MMTP protocols, and from the non-real-time server generating the signalling information and the interactive applications.Richard Lhermitte, VP of sales and marketing with ENENSYS , added: We have been very closely involved with the development of ATSC 3.0 and the technologies deployed. We believe the standard is very important for the future of DTT in key markets and we have brought our knowledge and skills developed via our work with other standards to our ATSC 3.0 product development. We very pleased our ATSCheduler solution is being used in this important ongoing test.
WASHINGTON -- British-American investor William Browder, whom Russia has accused of financial crimes, said reversing the 2012 Magnitsky Act is President Vladimir Putins single most important foreign policy goal.

Browder made the comments on July 27 in testimony before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee, one of several congressional panels looking into Russia's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign.

The hearing examined a Washington public relations firm called Fusion GPS and whether it may have violated U.S. law regulating individuals who work on behalf of foreign governments.

Fusion has been linked to the compilation of scandalous and uncorroborated reports about President Donald Trump known as the Steele dossier.

It also has been linked to a shady lobbying campaign to undermine the Magnitsky Act, which sanctions Russians for alleged human rights abuses.

Browder had been Russias largest portfolio investor until he fled the country in 2005, accused of financial crimes.

His lawyer Sergei Magnitsky helped uncover a massive tax-fraud scheme in Russia but was arrested by authorities and died in a Moscow jail.
Ukrainian officials and local residents moved to stabilize conditions in the freshly recaptured southern city of Kherson, as Russian symbols were being torn down and with the restoration of Ukrainian radio and television service and a new police presence.

Live Briefing: Russia's Invasion Of Ukraine RFE/RL's Live Briefing gives you all of the latest developments on Russia's ongoing invasion, Kyiv's counteroffensive, Western military aid, global reaction, and the plight of civilians. For all of RFE/RL's coverage of the war, click here.

The action on November 12 came after months of occupation by Russian forces following their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February and as Ukrainian and Western officials hailed Kyivs latest extraordinary battlefield success and Moscows strategic failure.

As jubilant Kherson residents awoke the morning following the arrival of the first Ukrainian troops, Ukraines military said it was putting stabilization measures in place to ensure safety.

Ihor Klymenko, chief of the National Police of Ukraine, said about 200 officers were at their posts in Kherson and that checkpoints had been set up. Authorities also began seeking out any evidence of possible Russian war crimes, he said in a Facebook post.



The Ukrainian communications watchdog said national TV and radio broadcasts had resumed in the strategic southern city and officials said aid supplies had begun to arrive from nearby regions.

Social media postings on November 12 showed local residents removing memorial plaques put up by Kremlin-installed authorities during the occupation.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and other officials warned that while special forces had entered central Kherson, the full deployment of Ukrainian troops was still under way and that some Russian soldiers could have shed military uniforms for civilian clothing and remained in the city.

Even when the city is not yet completely cleansed of the enemys presence, the people of Kherson themselves are already removing Russian symbols and any traces of the occupiers stay in Kherson from the streets and buildings, Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address.

But he said that medicine, communications, social services are returning. Life is returning.

WATCH: Local residents welcomed Ukrainian soldiers into Snihurivka on November 10, as advance forces of the Ukrainian military recaptured the town in the southern Mykolayiv region.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking to world leaders at an ASEAN summit in Cambodia, warned that the celebratory mood could turn grim with the possible discovery of war crimes evidence in Kherson.

Such evidence was discovered after Russian troops pulled out of the Kyiv and Kharkiv regions months ago.

Every time we liberate a piece of our territory, when we enter a city liberated from the Russian Army, we find torture rooms and mass graves with civilians tortured and murdered by the Russian Army in the course of the occupation of the territories," he said. "Its not easy to speak with people like this. But I said that every war ends with diplomacy and Russia has to approach talks in good faith.

The White House on November 12 hailed Russias withdrawal from Kherson as an "extraordinary victory" for Ukraine.

"It does look as though the Ukrainians have just won an extraordinary victory where the one regional capital that Russia had seized in this war is now back under a Ukrainian flag -- and that is quite a remarkable thing," U.S. national-security adviser Jake Sullivan told reporters as he accompanied President Joe Biden to the ASEAN summit.

Sullivan said that the Russian retreat would have "broader strategic implications," including relieving the longer-term threat by Russia to other southern Ukrainian cities such as Odesa.

"It's a big moment, and it's due to the incredible tenacity and skill of the Ukrainians, backed by the relentless and united support of the United States and our allies," Sullivan said.

Asked about reports that the Biden administration has started to press Zelenskiy to explore negotiations with Moscow, Sullivan said Russia, not Ukraine, was the side that has to decide whether or not to go to the table.

"This whole notion, I think, in the Western press of, 'When's Ukraine going to negotiate?' misses the underlying fundamentals," Sullivan said.

Russia, he added, continues to make "outlandish claims" about its self-declared annexations of Ukrainian lands, even as it retreats from Ukrainian counterattacks.

"Ultimately, at a 30,000-foot level, Ukraine is the party of peace in this conflict and Russia is the party of war. Russia invaded Ukraine. If Russia chose to stop fighting in Ukraine and left, it would be the end of the war. If Ukraine chose to stop fighting and give up, it would be the end of Ukraine," he said. "In that context, our position remains the same as it has been and fundamentally is in close consultation and support of President Zelenskiy.

Separately, British Defense Secretary Ben Wallace said on November 12 that Moscow's "strategic failure" in Kherson will sow doubt among the Russian public about the point of the war in Ukraine.

"Russia's announced withdrawal from Kherson marks another strategic failure for them. In February, Russia failed to take any of its major objectives except Kherson," Wallace said in a statement. "Now with that also being surrendered, ordinary people of Russia must surely ask themselves: 'What was it all for?'"

With reporting by AFP, AP, and Reuters
Mercurial Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov is urging young couples in his southern Russian republic to do everything possible to preserve their families and not get divorced.

"I once again very convincingly ask young people not to rush to destroy families, to break family ties. [The marriage] will always be successful! And the opposite process [of getting divorced] is very difficult!" Kadyrov wrote on Instagram on July 25.



His social-media message to wedded couples was part of a broader effort by religious and government officials in Chechnya to restore marriages in Chechnya by resolving "family conflicts" and getting spouses to reconcile. In this case, according to an Instagram message posted by Kadyrov on July 25, the focus was saving 240 "broken" marriages.





The strong-arm leader claimed in the post that the 240 unions were salvaged after Islamic clergymen and Chechen government officials met with nearly 2,000 couples who had divorced to discuss the importance of families and parents responsibility to raise children in a family structure, as well as how Islam views divorce.



In a video accompanying his Instagram message, Kadyrov is seen speaking with adviser Adam Shakhidov and Chechen Mufti Salakh Mezhiyev, who each gave an update on the progress theyve made on getting couples to give their marriages another chance.



"All our [Islamic] scholars are determined to reunite those spouses who got separated, to strengthen the families that exist, and to prevent any future discord within families," Mufti Mezhiyev said. "We have already succeeded in reunifying a lot of families."



Kadyrov told the men in the video: "Those [couples] who get divorced for trivial reasons or no reason at all, bringing tears into the eyes of their children, obey the commands of the [evil] genies."



Kadyrov said his government's efforts to reunite families separated by divorce was just beginning and that announcements would be placed on local television to promote the importance of maintaining marriages.



He added that only 59 of the hundreds of couples that have been contacted and spoken to by religious or government officials have been deemed to be irreconcilable.



"[Some] spouses crossed the line that would allow, according to ethical, religious, and moral criteria, a family to exist," Kadyrov said. "They themselves regret this bitterly."



He concluded in the Instagram message that "it is important to do everything to save the family in which there is a father, a mother, and children."



Chechnya has come under fire recently for its hard-core resistance to alternative lifestyles -- particularly those of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people -- amid reports that gays are persecuted and even killed.

Kadyrov has claimed that the republic he has led for more than a decade does not repress homosexuals because there are not any in Chechnya -- but that if there were any, they should all be sent "to Canada":

It is not clear why the offbeat Kadyrov -- who often uses Instagram to promote a new interest, himself, or even his pets -- is focusing on divorced couples now.

But Irina Kosterina, gender coordinator at Germany's Heinrich Boll Foundation, told RFE/RL's Caucasus Realities that divorces in the majority Muslim republic in southern Russia have increased in recent years.

"Despite the fact that Chechnya is a very conservative region, the [first and second Chechen wars] greatly changed the social fabric in the republic, and the number of divorces began to grow," Kosterina said.

She noted that domestic violence is one of the reasons why Chechen women seek divorces and that Chechen officials' attempts to use "religious and traditional values" to reunite separated couples is often "not effective."



Olga Gnezdilova, lawyer for the NGO Legal Initiative in Russia, told RFE/RL's Caucasus Realities that domestic violence "is not perceived as a problem" in either the Caucasus or even "throughout Russia."

She said that, with that in mind, "if a [Chechen] woman is pressured morally, from a religious point of view" to stay or reunite with an abusive spouse she could make a "not entirely voluntary decision and put her life at risk."

Written by Pete Baumgartner based on contributions from RFE/RL North Caucasus Service correspondent Alena Sadovskaya and Director Aslan Doukaev
Toomaj Salehi's lyrical support for protesters in Iran has landed him behind bars before, but this time the popular rapper's fortune-telling has fans and family members fearing for his life.

Just days before his September 30 arrest, the 32-year-old Salehi released his latest music video, in which he makes foreboding predictions about the future of Iran's clerical regime if it continues its violent crackdown against ongoing anti-government demonstrations.

"I am the predictor, the fortune teller," he raps in the video for Omen, which shows him reading the patterns left in his coffee cup and warning that brute force will not prevail.

"I saw a cage in the coffee grounds -- a lion was hunting a jackal," he explains, alluding to a fairy tale about wisdom defeating physical strength. "We will rise from the bottom and target the top of the pyramid."

Salehi goes on to warn that the regime's protectors -- including the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC), the Basij paramilitary forces, the Intelligence Ministry, and the state media -- will all get their day in court.

Salehi followed up on the new video by posting on social media images of him standing alongside protesters and chanting against security forces in his native city in Isfahan Province. The rapper, an ethnic Lur who was arrested last year after releasing other songs critical of the government, offered to turn himself in if protesters detained in his hometown of Shahinshahr were released.

In subsequent posts, he called the provincial authorities "cowardly vermin" and "scum who suppress and arrest [innocent] people."

Shortly afterward, Salehi went missing and has not been heard from since.

State media reported on September 30 that Salehi had been arrested, and a news agency close to the IRGC published a photo of the blindfolded rapper inside a car.

A short video later released by a press club associated with Iran's state broadcaster purports to show the rapper admitting he made a mistake.

But the reports' claims he had been caught while "illegally exiting the western borders of the country" have been fiercely disputed, and the video confession has been labeled a fake by some and a coerced confession by others.

Family members as well as Salehi's official Twitter account have said the rapper was, in fact, arrested in the southwestern Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, hundreds of kilometers from Iran's western border.

In a statement, Salehi's uncle Eghbal Eghbali said his nephew was in the province's city of Borujen on the morning of September 30 when he wrote saying "suspicious things" were happening outside his home. Soon after, Salehi stopped communicating. Eghbali said he learned from Salehi's neighbors and friends that security personnel had arrived to take the rapper away.

Later on September 30, a prosecutor in nearby Isfahan Province was quoted by the Meezan news agency, which is close to Iran's judiciary, as saying Salehi was arrested "in one of the provinces of the country." The prosecutor alleged the rapper had played a key role in "creating disturbances and inviting and encouraging the recent disturbances in Isfahan Province and in Shahinshahr."

The official IRNA news agency, meanwhile, quoted a judiciary official from Isfahan Province as saying Salehi stood accused of "propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments, and the formation of illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country."

Thousands of Iranians, many of them from the younger generation, have taken to the streets in recent weeks to protest the September 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died shortly after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran's hijab law requiring that women cover their hair.

As the protests have continued, the authorities have intensified their crackdown, resulting in the deaths of at least 305 people, including 41 children, according to the latest figures released by the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights (IHR) on November 6.

Salehi is among the hundreds of prominent young voices, including activists, artists, and athletes, who have been arrested for speaking out against the states bloody crackdown on the protests. Overall, activists estimate thousands of people have been arrested by the authorities since the rallies erupted.

Faced with a potential existential threat to Iran's clerical rule, 227 of 290 Iranian lawmakers this week called for even greater force by urging the judiciary to "deal decisively" with those behind the protests.

In recent years, Salehi has gained notoriety for his open opposition to the country's leadership, using his music and social media presence to take on issues that resonate with Iranian youths.

In the song Normal, he highlights the effects of poverty, saying "Our children sleep hungry at night" and asking Iran's leaders how their conscience can let them sleep.

The song Rathole, released in 2021, accuses members of the media and art community both inside and outside Iran of being an "ally of the tyrant," a reference to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In another song, he blasts Tehran's close relationships with Moscow and Beijing, asking: "Haven't you robbed us enough? Now, you want to give away half [of our resources] to China and the rest to Russia."

Salehi was detained in September 2021 after security agents raided his home in Isfahan, with Human Rights Watch decrying the detention of the artist for "exercising his right to freedom of expression."

Salehi was charged with "spreading propaganda against the state," but after more than a week was released on bail. In January, he was sentenced to six months in prison but was released on a suspended sentence in February.

While out, he continued his work and released Omen amid the states increasingly violent crackdown on anti-government protesters.

"Someone's crime was dancing with her hair in the wind," he raps. "Someone's crime was that she was brave and criticized."

Listing a litany of violent acts carried out by the authorities against protesters, Salehi asks, "How many young people did you kill building a tower for yourself?" and predicts that next year, the 44th year of the clerical regime's rule, will be its "year of failure."

Salehi's arrest has led to widespread condemnation inside and outside Iran, and his advocates have spread the #FreeToomaj hashtag on Twitter to shed light on his situation.

His family has said they do not know Salehi's whereabouts or health, leaving them wondering if he is even alive.

But the authorities have shed some light on the fate of another Iranian rapper arrested shortly before Salehi. The judiciary announced on November 7 that Saman Yasin, a rapper from Kermanshah Province -- a northwestern region with a significant Kurdish population and that has been a focus of the government crackdown -- has been accused of waging "warfare" against Iran and acting against the country's security.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, with contributions by RFE/RL senior correspondent Michael Scollon
Iranian officials have traded barbs in a public dispute over the hugely popular messaging app Telegram.

Hard-line conservatives have long pushed for more restrictions on the Telegram app, which, according to its CEO Pavel Durov, has 40 million active users among Irans 80-million population. The government of President Hassan Rohani, a relative moderate who has promised Iranians less censorship, appears to be resisting the pressure.

On July 26, the deputy state prosecutor in charge of cyberspace, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi, threatened Communications Minister Mahmud Vaezi with a lawsuit if he "continues ignoring juridical orders on blocking social-media channels with criminal content," he told reporters, according to Iranian media.

Khoramabadi, the secretary of the state committee in charge of online censorship, cited a Telegram channel operated by the opposition group Mujahedin-e Khalq Organization (MKO), considered a terrorist group by Iran, and another by the opposition media outlet amadnews as examples of channels whose blockage had been requested.

"A juridical order has been issued to block these channels; however, they have not been blocked," Khoramabadi was quoted as saying by the hard-line Tasnim news agency.

Khoramabadi claimed that the extremist group Islamic State (IS), which claimed responsibility for the deadly June 7 attack on the Iranian parliament in Tehran, had used Telegram to coordinate the attack.

"It is not acceptable for Iranians that IS terrorists held their communications through Telegram to carry out a terrorist attack on the parliament, and security bodies had no information about the issue because Telegram cannot be controlled," Khoramabadi was quoted as saying by the hard-line Tasnim news agency.

Vaezi responded by accusing Khoramshahi of using IS's alleged use of Telegram for communications as an excuse to push for more social-media restrictions.

"He should assume a clear position; one day he says Telegram app's servers must move to Iran, and then goes on to say that their transfer would be tantamount to espionage and infiltration," Vaezi was quoted as saying by Iranian media.

"It is clear that the issue lies elsewhere, and he is not happy when I say that his thinking is geared more toward blocking cyberspace," Vaezi said.

"[Khoramabadi] claims that no indigenous [mobile- messaging] services have been established and that the Communications Ministry has neglected to fulfill its role," Vaezi added. "He is gravely mistaken. He is well aware of the good steps undertaken by the ministry and knows well the many obstacles we face -- the greatest obstacle being his way of thinking."

Iran is among the world's most prolific Internet censors. Tens of thousands of websites, including news sites, are blocked. Many journalists, bloggers, and activists have been arrested and harassed in recent years for their online comments and activities.

Vaezi said earlier this year that his ministry would not give in to "pressures" to block Telegram ahead of the May presidential vote. He did not indicate where such pressures originated.

Rohani, who was reelected to a second presidential term in May, said during his reelection campaign that he had fought hard against those seeking to enforce more restrictions on social media.

"If it wasnt for this government, even our friends here today couldnt have campaigned on the Internet," he said during a televised debate that included conservative candidates.

Both Rohani and his main rival, hard-liner Ebrahim Raisi, extensively used the Internet and social media, including Telegram and Instagram, to spread their messages and attract voters.

Many Iranians use Telegram for messaging purposes, and it is also a popular way of exchanging news and information.

The app allows users to create channels where they can send comments, articles, pictures and videos, including those blocked in Iran on YouTube, to an unlimited audience.

Iranian media outlets, and many of the countrys politicians, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, maintain their own channels on Telegram.

In the run-up to the May vote, the administrators of a number of pro-reform and pro-government Telegram channels were arrested. Some were later released.

The hard-line judiciary also blocked voice-call features on the messaging app.

In March, Prosecutor-General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri claimed that between 16,000 to 20,000 Telegram channels were blocked each week. But he added that blocking alone is not enough, suggesting that Iran should work on developing its own national network and mobile app.

Iranian authorities have recently appeared to be pressuring Telegram to move its servers to Iran. Such a move could allow them to have better control over the app, its content, and its users.

Last week, Irans hard-line Fars news agency quoted Deputy Communications Minister Nasrollah Jahangard as saying that Telegram had agreed to move its servers to Iran.

But in a message on his own Telegram channel, company CEO Durov dismissed the claim as a "weird rumor."

"The idea of a privacy-oriented messaging app Telegram moving its servers to a country with a history of Internet censorship is absurd and is hardly worth commenting on," Durov wrote.

"We wont be able to put the privacy of our users at risk, even if rejecting such demands means getting blocked in some countries," he added.

Amir Rashidi, an Internet security researcher with the New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran, says Khoramabadi and his hard-line allies appear to be pushing for Telegram to be blocked.

He says Khoramabadi had said last year that Telegram's servers must be transferred to Iran.

On July 26, however, Khoramabadi suggested that the transfer of Telegram's servers to the country risked making alleged "espionage and infiltration" activities "systematic."

"It basically means that Khoramabadi is not interested in resolving what the Iranian establishment sees as a problem," Rashidi said. "Rather, hes after shutting Telegram down. In fact, his issue is his animosity toward the Internet: He wants to do all he can to stop these services in Iran."

Rashidi added, however, that it would be very difficult for Iran to block Telegram as the country has no alternative to offer to the millions of Iranians who use the app on a daily basis.

"Even those who are considered the theoreticians of this establishment -- clerics and others who often appear on state television to comment on alleged infiltration [by foreigners] -- even those who have a much harder line than the establishment use Telegram," he said.
The Moscow-based Memorial Human Rights Center has handed materials regarding the fates of 13 Chechen men, who have been missing for months, to Russian Ombudswoman Tatyana Moskalkova and Russia's presidential Council for Civil Society and Human Rights.

Memorial's chairman, Oleg Orlov, said on July 27 that the organization has determined that authorities launched an investigation against the 13 missing men on suspicion that they attacked law enforcement officers in December in Russia's North Caucasus region of Chechnya.

On July 24, Memorial issued a report saying that the 13 men were detained by Chechen police from December through February and that no information about their fate was given to relatives.

The report said it was confirmed that one of the men, Said-Ramzan Abdulkerimov, died in custody, reportedly of a "heart attack," but his body was never given to relatives.

On July 9, Russia's Novaya Gazeta newspaper published the names of 27 Chechens reportedly arrested in December and January in Chechnya in response to a December 17 attack against police in Grozny.

The newspaper claimed all 27 men were executed by police in Grozny, on the night of January 26 without facing trial.

Chechen Information Minister Dzhambulat Umarov rejected the newspaper's report, calling it "a lie."

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow was aware of both Novaya Gazeta's report and the denial by Chechen authorities.

Chechnya has been ruled by Ramzan Kadyrov, who is backed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, since 2007.

Human rights groups have criticized Kadyrov and his paramilitary forces for serious rights abuses, including the widespread use of kidnapping, torture, and extrajudicial killings.

With reporting by Kavkazsky Uzel

* This story was amended to correct the date of the 27 executions reported by Novaya Gazeta. It was January 26, not July 26-27.
CHISINAU -- Moldova's Constitutional Court has ruled that a move by President Igor Dodon to hold a referendum that could broaden his powers is unconstitutional.

Constitutional Court judge Tudor Pantiru announced the ruling on July 27, saying that the questions that are to be posed in the referendum "are beyond presidential authority."

The pro-Russian Dodon signed a decree in March calling for a nationwide referendum on September 24 in which Moldovans would be asked whether the president should be allowed to dissolve parliament and announce early elections.

Voters would also be asked whether the number of deputies in the single-chamber legislature should be reduced from 101 to 71.

It would also ask whether history classes that are called History of Romanians should be renamed History of Moldova.

The opposition Liberal Party of Moldova has challenged the decree, calling it unconstitutional.
Pakistani police say they have arrested the head of a village council and 23 other councilmen in central Pakistan on suspicion of ordering the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment for a rape committed by her brother.

Police spokeswoman Shabina Kareem said on July 27 that the arrest of council chief Saeed Patwari and the councilmen from the village of Raja Pur, near the city of Multan, came in a series of raids in recent days.

Kareem said the suspects all attended a July meeting in which Patwari allegedly ordered Mohammad Ashfaq to rape the 16-year-old girl to avenge the rape of his 12-year-old sister by another man, Omar Wadda.

Police official Allah Baksh said the families of the two girls are related.

Authorities said both Ashfaq and Wadda were still at large.

A regional police chief and some other officers were fired for their belated response in the case after the first rape took place in Raja Pur on July 16.

Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported that the 16-year-old girl was forced to appear before the group of councilmen and was raped by Ashfaq in front of them and her parents.

Police said medical examinations have confirmed rape in both cases.

Mohammad Bilal, a cousin of the 16-year-old rape victim, described how the council refused the family's request to go to police over the initial rape case and, instead, sought to carry out honor crime justice in line with traditions of the village by ordering the second rape.

Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab Province, said during a visit to Multan on July 27 that authorities will do justice with both of the victims.

Tahira Abdullah, a member of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, condemned the rapes and said that what the council did was illegal.

Abdullah demanded strong action against all who sanction such crimes.

So-called "honor" crime revenge rulings are common in some rural areas of Pakistan.

In June 2002, a tribal council in the Muzaffargarh District of Punjab Province ordered the gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, a young woman who took the 13 rapists to court.

That case gathered international prominence and Mai later opened a school for rural girls and founded the Mukhtar Mai Women's Welfare Organization (MMWWO).

The MMWWO provides legal help for victims of violence or injustice, many of them women.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Dawn
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying a deal with the Syrian government allowing Moscow to keep its air base in Syria for 49 years with "a possibility to automatically extend the agreement to 25-year periods."

The document signed on July 27 was placed on the Kremlin's website.

The original deal, signed in Damascus in January, sets out the terms under which Russia can use its Hmemim Air Base near the Syrian coastal city of Latakia, which it has used to carry out air strikes since 2015 against forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad.

Both chambers of Russia's parliament, the State Duma and the Federation Council, approved the deal earlier in July.

The Russian Defense Ministry said in October that it was working to make its Syrian naval station at the port of Tartus a permanent base.
Russia's Supreme Court has prolonged to 15 years the prison term for a jailed Crimean Tatar man, who was earlier sentenced to 12 years in April after a court found him guilty of creating a cell on behalf of the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic group.

Ruslan Zeytullayev was convicted of establishing the cell in Ukraines Crimean Peninsula, which was seized by Russia in 2014. Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in Russia.

Zeytullayev pleaded not guilty on July 27 and announced that he would start a hunger strike to protest his prolonged sentence.

Russia-backed authorities in Crimea have prosecuted many opponents of the takeover, including members of the Muslim Crimean Tatar community on what rights groups say are false charges.

Zeytullayev and three other Crimean Tatars were convicted of being members of Hizb ut-Tahrir and sentenced to prison terms ranging from five to seven years.

Prosecutors appealed Zeytullayev sentence, saying it was too lenient.

In April, Zeytullayevs sentence was extended to 12 years in jail, but prosecutors again appealed the ruling, saying that Zeytullayev deserved harsher punishment because they claimed he was "a founder" of a Hizb ut-Tahrir cell.

Russia has been heavily criticized by international rights groups and Western governments for its treatment of the members of the indigenous Turkic-speaking Crimean Tatar minority since it took over the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Finland on July 27 for a one-day visit that comes as Helsinki celebrates 100 years of independence from Russia.

Putin arrived during the afternoon near the eastern border town of Savonlinna for talks with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto about bilateral relations and international issues.

Putin and Niinisto also were due to take a steamship cruise on Lake Saimaa to Olavinlinna Castle to attend a performance by Russia's visiting Bolshoi Theater of Tchaikovsky's opera Iolanta.

Putin's visit comes as Russia and China conduct a weeklong naval exercise in the Baltic Sea.

Finland, which shares a 1,400-kilometer border with Russia, is not a member of NATO but has cooperated with the Western military alliance for years.

Finland has openly discussed the possibility of closer cooperation, or even outright membership, in NATO -- an issue that has prompted thinly veiled threats from Moscow.

In October, Finland and the United States signed a defense pact on increased military cooperation after alleged violations of Finnish airspace by Russian fighter jets.

With reporting by AP, dpa, and TASS


Greek police said on July 26 that they have arrested a Russian man who allegedly masterminded a $4 billion money laundering scheme using the virtual currency Bitcoins.

Police said Aleksandr Vinnik, the head of the BTC bitcoin currency exchange, was arrested on July 25 near the northern city of Thessaloniki.

Vinnik, 38, was indicted in the United States on charges of money laundering, the U.S. Justice Department said on July 26. A California court had issued a warrant for his arrest in January.

"An internationally sought 'mastermind' of a crime organization has been arrested," Greek police said. "Since 2011, [Vinnik] has been running a criminal organization which administers one of the most important websites of electronic crime in the world."

Part of Vinnik's illegal gains, estimated at $4 billion, came from the collapse in 2014 of the Bitcoin exchange Mt. Gox based in Tokyo, police said.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency created by computers. Unlike real-world money such as the U.S. dollar or euro, no central bank issues it and it is not guaranteed by any government.

Just like other currencies, bitcoins can be exchanged for goods and services -- or for other currencies -- provided the other party is willing to accept them.

Based on reporting by AFP and Reuters


Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president and Odesa regional governor who has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, is vowing to resist what he called the "cowardly" move and to "continue fighting for a real European Ukraine."

In a video statement posted on Facebook on July 27, Saakashvili lashed out at President Petro Poroshenko and charged that he was facing the same ill-treatment from the government that countless citizens of Ukraine face every day.

"I am a simple Ukrainian," Saakashvili said. "Today they are trying to do to me what prosecutors or bureaucrats do to ordinary Ukrainians: spitting on their rights."

Poroshenko's office confirmed to RFE/RL that Saakashvili's citizenship has been revoked, saying that it was done at the request of the Migration Service. It declined to give the reason, saying the information was personal and would not be made public.

A liberal lawmaker from Poroshenko's faction in parliament, Serhiy Leshchenko, said it appeared the president's intention was to force Saakashvili to stay out of Ukraine and seek refuge in the United States.

That "will never happen," Saakashvili, who had written in Facebook on July 25 that he was in the United States, said in the video. "I will fight for my legal right to return to Ukraine."

'Cowardly' Move

Saakashvili said it was "cowardly" of Poroshenko to strip him of his citizenship when he was out of the country. He added that the decision came after the opposition party he leads, the Movement Of New Forces, announced plans to organize street protests against the government in the autumn.

"As soon as those in power realized that the opposition is unifying in order to come out into the streets this fall and put an end to their oligarchic pact, their fear overcame their reason," Saakashvili said.

WATCH: Saakashvili Lashes Out At Poroshenko, Vows To Seek Return To Ukraine

He said that by annulling his citizenship, Poroshenko "signed off on his own demise." He accused the president of trying to maintain grip on power "by all possible means" and warned that Poroshenko could share the fate of his predecessor Viktor Yanukovych, who was toppled by pro-European protests in February 2014 and fled to Russia.

Saakashvili, 49, is an adamantly pro-Western reformist who was swept to power in Georgia by the peaceful Rose Revolution protests of 2003 and served two terms as president in 2004-2013. His popularity declined in his later years in office, in part because of a five-day war with Russia during which Moscow's forces drove deep into the South Caucasus country, and his long-ruling party was voted out of power in a 2012 parliamentary election.

Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship in 2015, after Poroshenko appointed him as governor of Ukraine's Odesa region -- a post that required him to take Ukrainian citizenship. Georgia is seeking his extradition to face charges -- which he says are politically motivated -- connected to the violent dispersal of protests and a raid on a private television station.

'No Matter What!'

He resigned as Odesa governor in November 2016, complaining of official obstruction of anticorruption efforts, accusing Poroshenko of dishonesty, and charging that the central government was sabotaging crucial reforms.

"I obtained Ukrainian citizenship to fight for reforms, to fight for a successful future for Ukraine, on which the future of my native Georgia depends as well," Saakashvili said in the video statement.

"Every day that I have had a Ukrainian...passport I have worked so that Ukraine could win and become a real European country," he said. "I am more Ukrainian than the majority of today's [Ukrainian] lawmakers. I love Ukraine with all my heart and I will continue fighting here, in our Ukraine, no matter what!"

On July 26, reports in Ukraine cited officials in the Migration Service as saying that Saakashvili's citizenship was revoked because, when he filled out application forms to obtain citizenship in 2015, he did not say that a probe was launched against him in Georgia.

Saakashvili dismissed that explanation, saying that no country including Ukraine has officially accepted the charges filed against him in Tbilisi.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said on July 27 that Ukraine had good reason to deprive Saakashvili of citizenship and the former Georgian president should never have left his own country.

"I think that Ukraine as a sovereign country has all reasons for [the] decisions it is taking," Margvelashvili told reporters in Tbilisi. "He should not have left the country that had entrusted him with the role of president and commander in chief twice."

Saakashvili would face charges of embezzlement and abuse of office were he to return to Georgia.

Late on July 27, some 400 members of Saakashvili's Movement Of New Forces and its supporters protested on Independence Square in Kyiv against the move.

Without citizenship, Saakashvili cannot seek political office in Ukraine, where his party is calling for early parliamentary elections and a presidential vote is to be held in March 2019.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Ukrainian Service, Reuters, and Interfax


ON MY MIND

It appears that Vladimir Putin is about to try the oldest trick in the Russian playbook: playing the role of the "good Tsar" against the "bad boyars."

According to a piece by Yekaterina Vinokurova (featured below), Putin plans to mobilize the Russian electorate against local and regional elites and to make the "struggle against poverty and social injustice" the centerpiece of his election campaign.

This indicates that the Kremlin is becoming aware that Russia is not immune to the populist antiestablishment wave that has swept the West in recent years.

Putin is apparently also attempting to co-opt the popular anger against corruption and cronyism that opposition leader Aleksei Navalny has tapped into.

But as Vinokurova notes, the strategy is not without risks. For 17 years, Putin has been concentrating power in a narrow circle and his cronies have been monetizing their positions.

And the populist strategy could backfire if the public turns its anger not only toward local elites, but toward Putin and his entourage as well.

IN THE NEWS

Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit neighboring Finland today on a one-day trip.

The Russian Prosecutor General's Office has approved an indictment against Russian former Minister of Economic Development Aleksei Ulyukayev and sent the case to court, Russian news agencies reported.

Greek police said on July 26 that they have arrested a Russian man who allegedly masterminded a $4 billion money-laundering scheme using the virtual currency Bitcoin.

Republican leaders in the U.S. Congress said they had reached an agreement clearing the way for final action on a bill cementing sanctions against Russia into law and barring President Donald Trump from easily waiving those sanctions.

Relatives of Raoul Wallenberg have filed a lawsuit against Russia's Federal Security Service to provide uncensored documentation that could help determine the fate of the former Swedish diplomat and war hero.

The European Union has added four Russian individuals and three Russian entities to its sanctions list after revelations that four gas turbines from the German company Siemens were "illegally" diverted from Russia to Ukraine's occupied Crimean Peninsula, officials in Brussels say.

U.S. senators have questioned Justice Department and FBI officials on the enforcement of a key law regulating lobbying activities by people who work on behalf of foreign governments.

Residents of the Taimyr Peninsula in a remote part of northern Russia are calling for a referendum that would restore the area's former status as an autonomous region.

Aleksei Volkov, the coordinator of Russian opposition politician Aleksei Navalnys election staff in the city of Volgograd has been charged with desecrating Russian military symbols.

Dmitry Ishevsky, one of several activists imprisoned following clashes at a protest on the eve of President Vladimir Vladimir Putin's inauguration to his current term has been released after serving a 38-month sentence.

Dozens of would-be homeowners who made down payments a decade ago on apartments that were never completed have started a hunger strike in the Russian city of Novosibirsk.

Ukraine's state power company says it has terminated electricity supplies to the parts of the Donetsk region that are controlled by Russia-backed separatists.

A Russian blogger who was jailed after traveling to a breakaway region of Azerbaijan has petitioned to be extradited to Israel, his lawyer said.

LATEST POWER VERTICAL BLOG

In my latest Power Vertical blog post, Playing The 'Little Russia' Card, I put the recent calls by Moscow-backed separatists to create a new state called Malorossia into context.

WHAT I'M READING

Tatarstan And Russian Nationalists

What are Russian nationalists thinking about Tatarstan as the republic's status agreement with Moscow expires? The website Sputnik i Pogram has a revealing and disturbing piece.

Putin The Populist?

In a piece for Znak, Yekaterina Vinokurova writes that, according to Kremlin sources, Vladimir Putin plans to make the "struggle against poverty and social injustice" the centerpiece of his election campaign next year. Putin, according to the article, plans to mobilize the Russian public against local and regional elites.

Russia's Naval Doctrine

In War On The Rocks, Dmitry Gorenburg, a senior research scientist in the Strategic Studies division of the Center for Naval Analyses (CNA), looks at Russia's new naval doctrine.

How To Recruit A Spy

Former FBI agent Naveed Jamali has a piece in The Daily Beast on how Russia recruits foreign assets.

How To Bust Sanctions

Max de Haldevang has a piece in Quartz on how the family of sanctioned Russian oligarch Vladimir Yakunin used UK companies to set up a new life for themselves in London.

The Future Of Nord Stream

In EUObserver, Andrew Rettman looks at the future of the Nord Stream-2 pipeline in the wake of possible new U.S. sanctions on Russia.

Elite Turnover

On the Moscow Carnegie Center's website, political analyst Tatiana Stanovaya looks at current trends in turnover in the Russian political elite and projects them forward to 2024.

Goodbye To Finlandization

As Finland celebrates 100 years of independence, the BBC looks at how Helsinki has managed relations with Russia -- and how this is changing.

Stateless Saakashvili

Halya Coynash of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group weighs in on Kyiv's decision to revoke MIkheil Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship.


Russian President Vladimir Putin has lashed out at U.S. attempts to impose stricter sanctions on Moscow, saying his country was ready to retaliate if Washington moved ahead with the plan being put forward by Congress.

Putin, speaking at a news conference on July 27 during a visit to Finland, said Russia was "exercising restraint and patience but, at some moment, we'll have to retaliate."

It's impossible to endlessly tolerate this boorishness toward our country," Putin told reporters.

Putins comments came after Republicans in the U.S. Congress said on July 26 they had reached agreement on a bill that would impose new sanctions on Moscow and would prevent President Donald Trump from easing punitive measures without congressional approval.

The bill has wide bipartisan support in the House and Senate. It would require Trumps signature, but a veto by the president could theoretically be overridden by Congress.

The U.S. administration has sent conflicting signals as to whether Trump would sign the bill. The president has said he opposes moves that would tie his hands in dealing with Russia and his ability to adjust sanctions should conditions require it.

White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci on July 27 said Trump "may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians."

Trump's presidency has been clouded by allegations that Russia meddled in the election on his behalf.

The Justice Department and Congress are conducting separate investigations into Moscow's alleged interference and whether there was any collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia, which denies the allegations.

The sanctions legislation, which also includes sanctions against North Korea and Iran, cleared the Senate late on July 27 with a 98-2 vote, sending the measure to the White House.

The bill would introduce new financial sanctions and enshrine into law a series of sanctions imposed by former President Barack Obama over Russia's alleged meddling in the 2016 U.S. presidential election and its aggression in Ukraine, where Moscow seized the Crimean Peninsula in March 2014 and backs separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people in the country's east.

In anticipation of its passage, Putin intensified his complaints about the U.S. move, threatening retaliation without being specific.

"When will our response follow? What will it be? That will depend on the final version of the draft law which is now being debated in the U.S. Senate," he said in Finland.

He also referred to the ongoing diplomatic dispute between Moscow and Washington that began in December when Obama ordered the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats.

"This goes beyond all reasonable bounds," Putin said. "And now these sanctions -- they are also absolutely unlawful from the point of view of international law."

"It's very sad that U.S.-Russian relations are being sacrificed to resolve internal policy issues in the U.S.," the Russian president said.

"It's a pity, because acting together we could be solving jointly the most acute problems that worry the peoples of Russia and the United States much more efficiently," he added.

Putin said, though, that Russia had "many friends" in the United States and that he hoped disputes between the two countries would eventually be solved.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, Politico, dpa, and New York Times
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The Sturgeon Moon will become The August full moon is known as the Sturgeon Moon and will become full on Aug. 11 at 9:35 p.m. EDT (0101 GMT).full on Aug. 11 at 9:35 p.m. EDT (0101 GMT).

The moon will officially become full on Aug. 11 at 9:35 p.m. EDT (0101 GMT), according to timeanddate.com (opens in new tab). For New York City observers, the just-past-full moon will rise at 8:18 p.m., while the sun sets at 7:59 p.m. Eastern Time that day. The moon will make a close pass by Saturn that night as well, at 11:55 p.m. EDT.

Full moons are exactly on the opposite side of the Earth from the sun  if you measured the angle across the sky from the sun to the moon it would be 180 degrees. If the moon passes through the Earth's shadow we see a lunar eclipse, but that doesn't happen each month because the moon's orbit is inclined about 5 degrees to the plane of the Earth's orbit, so the moon often "misses" the shadow (the next eclipse is slated for November 8).

On August 11, just before midnight, the moon will appear close to Saturn, passing within just under 4 degrees of the planet  the moon will appear (from the Northern Hemisphere) to be below Saturn, to its south. The two bodies will be in conjunction, sharing the same celestial longitude. Both will be in Capricorn, a faint constellation that will be washed out by the presence of the moon. Saturn and the Moon will reach a maximum altitude of about 33 degrees by 1:15 a.m. Aug.12, according to In-the-Sky.org (opens in new tab).

As one moves south the conjunction will appear higher in the sky; from San Juan, Puerto Rico the conjunction will be about 56 degrees above the horizon at 12:44 a.m. on August 12. In the Southern Hemisphere, the nights are longer (as it is winter there) and the moon will appear correspondingly higher still. From Buenos Aires, the full moon occurs at 10:35 p.m. on August 11, and the conjunction happens at 12:55 a.m. on August 12. The two will hit an altitude of 70 degrees, and Saturn will appear below the moon, as antipodeans are looking at the moon and the ringed planet from the opposite direction as those in the Northern Hemisphere.

Meteor showers: The Perseids

August is the time of the Perseid Meteor shower, which peaks on the 13th. Coming just two days after a full moon, though, means that it will be very difficult to see meteors at all, even from a dark sky site.

The meteor shower gets its name from Perseus, the constellation where the "shooting stars" seem to originate from (technically this is called a radiant). According to the American Meteor Society (opens in new tab), the Perseids are active from July through the start of September, so there are many chances to see them, but it's the period from August 11-13 when we sometimes see 100 meteors in an hour.

Visible planets

On the night of the full moon, Mercury will be an "evening star" in the constellation Leo, setting at 8:53 p.m. local time in New York City. It will be a challenging observing target as at sunset it will only be about 10 degrees high in the southwest. Venus, meanwhile, will be a "morning star" as it rises at 4:29 a.m. on Aug. 12 (opens in new tab), with the sun rising at 6:03 a.m.

Mars rises just after midnight (12:02 a.m, Aug. 12) and reaches an altitude of about 60 degrees by sunrise; it is in the constellation Taurus, east of Aldebaran. As the planet rises in the northeast it will appear to the right of Aldebaran, which rises at 1:08 a.m.; both have a noticeably reddish color which along with their brightness makes them easy to identify.

Jupiter meanwhile rises at 9:56 p.m. on Aug. 11 in New York and reaches its highest elevations by around 4:00 a.m. Jupiter is in the constellation Cetus, in a region of the sky with few bright stars  the planet will thus stand out even from a light-polluted city.

NASA astronaut Jack Fischer captured this view of the full moon from his post at the International Space Station on Aug. 7, 2017. "Now that's what I call a full moon! Although it does resemble the Death Star," Fischer tweeted along with the photo. August's full moon is also known as the Sturgeon Moon. (Image credit: NASA/Jack Fischer/ Twitter

Constellations

Although the full moon tends to overwhelm the fainter stars, asterisms such as the Summer Triangle  which consists of the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair  will be prominent and easily spotted, high in the east-southeast. About an hour and a half after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere, you can look nearly straight up to find Vega, which, at mid-northern latitudes, is at an altitude of between 80 and 88 degrees (depending on how far north or south you are in the lower 48 states).

By about 9:30 p.m. local time in mid-northern latitudes, Scorpio is visible in the south-southwest. Scorpio can be spotted by looking for Antares, a bright reddish star that marks the heart of the scorpion. To the left of Scorpio is Sagittarius, with its distinctive teapot shape, and above Scorpio is Ophiuchus, the snake handler and healer.

Ursa Major, the Great Bear, will be in the northwest after sunset and as one follows the "pointers"  the two stars in the front of the Dipper's bowl  to Polaris, one can keep going and hit the W-shaped constellation Cassiopeia. Using the handle of the Dipper, one can "Arc to Arcturus" by sweeping along the handle until you hit the eponymous star in Bootes, the herdsman.

In the Southern Hemisphere, the sky is "upside-down" and by 9 p.m. local time on August 11 at the latitude of Cape Town or Melbourne one will see the full moon with Saturn below it and to the left (as one faces south, so East is on your left). Looking due south one will see Alpha Centauri high in the southwest, about 50 degrees in altitude with the Southern Cross below it. Rising in the southeast one can see Achernar, the end of Eridanus the River.

August full moon culture

The full moon of August, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac, is sometimes known as the Sturgeon Moon. The name likely came from both colonists and Algonquian-speaking peoples in northeastern North America, as sturgeon are native to both Europe and the Americas.

Not all Native nations in the region used the term. The Ojibwe, whose traditional territory is near the Great Lakes, referred to the eighth full moon of the year as the Blackberry Moon, which could also occur in July. The Cree of Ontario called the August full moon the Flying Up Moon because it was when young birds would fledge. In the Pacific Northwest, the Haida called it the Salmon Moon ("chiin kungaay"), according to Dolly Garza's book "Tlingit Moon & Tide (opens in new tab)."

In China and many surrounding countries, the August full moon marks the Hungry Ghost Festival (opens in new tab). The Chinese calendar is lunisolar, and strictly speaking, the August full moon falls in the seventh month, Qiaoyue, or Skill Month (opens in new tab). It is also called Ghost Month. The festival is to honor spirits who were not given proper funerals or offerings when they died. People light paper lanterns and burn paper versions of earthly possessions or (fake) money to honor the departed.

The Maori counted lunar months from new moon to new moon, so the August full moon is halfway through the month of Mahuru (opens in new tab), which is towards the latter part of the austral winter. The month is described as "The Earth has now acquired warmth."

In South Africa, the Zulu call the first full month of the year uNcwaba (opens in new tab) (the small c marks a clicking sound in Zulu), and the name is derived from describing a man who has made "a new appearance" after a long journey when he washes and anoints himself with fat; in a similar vein the Earth puts on a new appearance in spring.

Editor's note: If you snap an awesome photo of the moon or the lunar eclipse that you'd like to share with Space.com and our news partners for a potential story or gallery, send images and comments to us at spacephotos@space.com.

Follow us on Twitter @Spacedotcom and on Facebook.
Farewell to FMARS

The Mars Society

The crew of the second phase of the Mars 160 mission wrapped up its stay at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in mid-August 2017.

Sunset at FMARS

The Mars Society

The crew of the Mars 160 missions second phase, based at the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station in the Canadian arctic, saw its first sunset on Aug. 14, 2017.

Landscape Near FMARS

The Mars Society

The otherworldly landscape near the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station, on Devon Island in the Canadian arctic.

FMARS: Aerial View

The Mars Society

An aerial view of the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) on Canadas Devon Island.

The FMARS Hab

The Mars Society

The FMARS habitat on Devon Island.

FMARS on the Ridge

The Mars Society

Another view of the FMARS hab, which lies on a ridge.

Testing an ATV

The Mars Society

A crewmember testing one of the ATVs at FMARS, before the simulated mission began.

New Shirts!

The Mars Society

Crewmembers show off their Mars 160 shirts at FMARS.

Devon Islands Haughton Crater

The Mars Society

A view of Haughton Crater, the home of FMARS.

First Meal at FMARS

The Mars Society

After a hard day moving supplies to into the Flashline Mars Arctic Research Station (FMARS) in the Canadian arctic, Mars 160 crewmembers enjoy a meal of Russian-made space food for their first official dinner at the station.

Starting an EVA

The Mars Society

Kicking off an extravehicular activity (EVA) at FMARS.
Eclipse models suggest that the sun's photosphere is slightly larger than the value commonly used. Eclipse measurements could help determine for sure. Here, an annular eclipse is visible.

A growing number of researchers think that the sun is actually larger than commonly thought.

Scientists don't know the sun's size as precisely as the details of the Earth and moon, making it a sticking point for perplexed eclipse modelers.

Xavier Jubier creates detailed models of solar and lunar eclipses that work with Google Maps to show precisely where the shadow of the moon will fall on the Earth, and what the eclipse will look like at each point. He came to realize there was something off about the sun's measurements as he matched his eclipse simulations with actual photos. The photos helped him identify exactly where an observer had been for historical eclipses  but those precise eclipse shapes only made sense if he scaled up the sun's radius by a few hundred kilometers. [Total Solar Eclipse 2017: When, Where and How to See It (Safely)]

"For me, something was wrong somewhere, but that's all I could say," Jubier told Space.com.

Scientists' knowledge of the Earth's and moon's contours weren't exact enough to highlight this discrepancy until about 10 years ago  the same time that modern eclipse simulations became possible through computer power and precision mapping. So it was around then that Jubier began to realize something was amiss.

Xavier Jubier simulated an annular eclipse that occurred March 29, 1987, matching his results to photos taken at the time of the eclipse. His results are able to precisely match when he combines incredibly precise data about the moon's contours and Earth's topography with a slightly larger solar radius. (Image credit: Xavier Jubier/Hugette Guertin)

NASA researcher Ernie Wright came to a similar conclusion as he began to create increasingly precise models of solar eclipses, starting about two years ago. He, too, had to scale up the sun slightly from the traditional size for his calculations to match reality.

"How can you not know this?" Wright recalls thinking. "You just hold a ruler up to the sky, and you say it's this big."

But as it turns out, it's not that simple, Wright told Space.com.

Where did it come from?

Historically, researchers have used the value 696,000 km as the radius of the sun's photosphere  the body of the sun whose wavelengths are visible to the naked eye on Earth. The value was first published in 1891 by the German astronomer Arthur Auwers, Wright said, and it was taken as a standard value for quite some time. In 2015, the International Astronomical Union defined a "unit" based on the sun's radius as a similar 695,700 km, based on a 2008 study, so researchers can use that value to compare the sizes of other stars in the universe.

But efforts to measure the sun's radius have never been accurate enough to match our knowledge of the moon's and the Earth's contours, the researchers said. Scientists have tried measuring it through transits of Mercury and Venus  when those planets cross the face of the sun  and through images taken from sun-observing satellites like the Solar Dynamics Observatory. Each pixel on SDO's higher resolution images covers about 270 miles (435 km), Wright said, which means there's a limit to how precisely the size of the photosphere can be measured with this method. In addition, orbiting solar telescopes like SDO generally collect wavelengths of light emitted deeper inside or further outside the sun, rather than its visible photosphere.

"It's harder than you think just to put a ruler on these images and figure out how big the sun is  [SDO] doesn't have enough precision to nail this down," Wright said. "Similarly, with the Mercury and Venus transits, it turns out [a measurement based on those is] not quite as precise as you'd like it to be."

Different papers trying to pin down the sun's radius, using planet transits, space-based sensors as well as ground observations, have produced results that differ by as many as 930 miles (1,500 km), and can't seem to be reconciled with one another, Wright said. And for eclipse modelers, it's a critical and irritating problem.

Eclipse viewers might find the uncertainty of interest, as well, as they plot out where they'll be in the path of totality. A slightly larger sun means the period of total blackout can be a few seconds shorter in the center of the path, and the path itself would warp, as well.

"For most people, yes, it doesn't really matter; it won't change everything," Jubier said. "But the closer you get to the edge of the [eclipse] path, the more risk you take." If the sun is indeed bigger, the path is narrower than projections made with the usual value would suggest. So those chasing the effects on the eclipse's edge could be in trouble if they're not using a large enough value for their calculations.

Few people do eclipse predictions, Jubier added, and the precise value isn't necessary to a lot of researchers. Because of that, definitions can vary and it's hard to compare different values to one another, including the original 1891 value. It can be hard to tell for a given study what assumptions went into their answer for the sun's diameter, and so they can't be adapted easily to match each other or the eclipse. Any discrepancies in eclipse measurements can be attributed to not fully understanding the values, Jubier added.

"It is definitely still an area of ongoing research, and something that the field itself is interested in getting a better handle on," C. Alex Young, a solar astrophysicist at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, told Space.com. "Probably a little esoteric for many people, and I would say that the calculation is not as important for a lot of areas, for example in solar physics, in terms of the accuracy needed. But especially the eclipse community is very interested in the accuracy."

Figure it out

Michael Kentrianakis, an avid eclipse chaser and a member of the American Astronomical Society's Solar Eclipse Task Force, learned about the confusion over the sun's size from his colleague Luca Quaglia, a physicist and eclipse researcher.

"The straw that broke the camel's back," Kentrianakis said, came during an expedition to Argentina in February, where he positioned himself outside what should have been the edge of an annular eclipse  where the moon is circled by a bright "ring of fire." A larger sun would make the "ring of fire" effect visible to a wider area.

"Technically, I should have been outside of annularity, [but the unfiltered photographs show] we were still in the path of annularity, and we have this beautiful chromosphere circling around at the edge," Kentrianakis said. That experience fully convinced him the sun was larger than generally thought.

This upcoming eclipse  which will very likely be the most-watched total solar eclipse in history, NASA officials have said  will provide a chance for others inside and outside the path of totality to help verify its size.

While researchers would ordinarily use the radius of the sun to compute exactly when the moon will cover and uncover the sun for a given location, called contact times, the opposite strategy is required here, Quaglia told Space.com. "If we can measure contact times accurately, everything else being the same, the only thing that can change is the solar radius. We can actually compute the solar radius that way," he said.

Kentrianakis, Jubier, Quaglia and others want to pin it down by positioning researchers inside and outside where totality should be, armed with the equipment for what's called a "flash spectrum" photograph. The process uses a textured grating over a camera, which splits incoming light into component wavelengths  making it easy to determine precisely when the entire photosphere has been covered by the moon, revealing a more limited set of wavelengths emitted by the chromosphere. Combined with accurate timestamps, that process would provide strong evidence for the sun's size. (Such a process has been used before, but on a limited scale, Quaglia said.)

This flash spectrum was taken in Gabon during an eclipse Nov. 3, 2013. On the left, a photo of the eclipse is visible, and the right shows the varying spectra released by the eclipse at that moment the sun's photosphere creates the smooth spectrum of color, and the chromosphere above it releases the distinct arcs of color. This setup can let researchers pinpoint the instant the photosphere is covered, and thus determine its size. (Image credit: Constantine Emmanouilidi, used with permission)

Such measurements would also provide another benefit, Jubier said  investigating what some think is a thin layer in between the photosphere and chromosphere called the mesosphere. That thin layer can be visible for a moment after the photosphere is blotted out during an eclipse, which means observers may make measurements that confuse the mesosphere for more of the photosphere. A flash spectrum can help distinguish between the two, although it must be a high enough resolution so the signals from each can be clearly separated.

A group involving Quaglia, Kentrianakis and Jubier was unable to get funding for as broad a flash-spectrum experiment as they would have liked  something like 30 separate measurement stations arrayed just inside and just outside the predicted eclipse path. But researchers could still use crowdsourced data and measurements during the eclipse to learn more.

"The more observations we have the better even if they are not providing the kind of quality we expected to get from the cinematographic spectroscopy," Jubier said. "Time will tell what we can make of all this."

Jubier said that flash spectrum measurements would be most useful, but so would (safely!) unfiltered views of the eclipse. Most filters cut out details of the images, making it much more difficult to determine precisely when the sun fully covers the moon.

Other groups will also be using the eclipse to try and measure the sun's diameter, Quaglia said, including the International Occulting Timing Association, which will analyze smartphone videos taken at intervals perpendicular to the eclipse path in Nebraska.

"The more people, the more techniques, the more teams involved will get us there as a whole," Quaglia said. "If, then, the International Astronomical Union makes the decision to change the value, they will probably not change the value lightly."

Understanding the visible sun's exact size will be possible only by combining careful solar measurements with the simulations and precise understanding of the moon's and Earth's elevations that exist now, Jubier said. But the pieces are in place to make that determination, if enough people get on board to measure the most common sight in the sky during those uncommon moments of eclipse.

"It's big, and it will take many eclipses  it may take until 2024  but at least we're starting it now," Kentrianakis said.

Editor's note: Space.com has teamed up with Simulation Curriculum to offer this awesome Eclipse Safari app to help you enjoy your eclipse experience. The free app is available for Apple (opens in new tab) and Android, and you can view it on the web.

This article was updated to clarify the resolution of Solar Dynamics Observatory images.
The SOCRATES microsatellite securely transmitted data to a receiver on Earth using a process called Quantum Key Distribution, marking the first time the technique has used between the ground and space.

For the first time, scientists have demonstrated laser communications between a microsatellite and a ground station while using the quantum nature of photons to secure the data being transmitted.

The work, carried out by researchers at the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology (NICT) in Japan and recently published (opens in new tab) in the journal Nature Photonics, demonstrates an "unhackable" quantum communications technology known as Quantum Key Distribution, or QKD.

As the world edges closer to quantum computing, current methods of securing transmitted data may be rendered obsolete so a new method to secure data will be required, the researchers argue. [Twisted Physics: 7 Mind-Blowing Findings]

"The main advantage [of QKD] is the unconditional security," team leader Alberto Carrasco-Casado told Space.com. "When quantum computers are developed, the security of conventional communications will be compromised, since current cryptography is based only on computational complexity.

"The development of practical quantum computers is only a matter of time, which has made quantum communication a hot topic in the last few years, and the tendency is foreseen to increase in the future," he added.

QKD is a very attractive method to totally secure communications. By recording data in the quantum states of individual photons, the process ensures that should the signal be intercepted, the quantum states will change  causing the recipient of the signal to be alerted of the breach.

This is a basic tenet of quantum mechanics, based on Heisenberg's uncertainty principle; one cannot simply observe a quantum particle (in this case a photon) without irrevocably changing that particle's quantum state. With QKD, a secret key is shared between the transmitter and receiver. If a hacker tries to decode the signal as it travels from one to the other, the signal itself changes on a quantum level. So the system detects the hacking event, the secret key is discarded and the signal is broken, preventing the hack from continuing.

To demonstrate this secured, high-capacity transmission of data between an Earth-based station and a satellite in low-Earth orbit (LEO), Carrasco-Casado's team used the quantum-communication transmitter, called SOTA (Small Optical TrAnsponder), on board the microsatellite SOCRATES (Space Optical Communications Research Advanced Technology Satellite) that was launched by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) in 2014.

Weighing only 13 lbs. (6 kilograms), SOTA is the smallest quantum communications transmitter ever tested. Orbiting above Earth at 372 miles (600 kilometers), SOCRATES was traveling at over 15,000 mph (7 kilometers per second) when SOTA would establish contact with a 1-meter telescope located in Tokyo's Koganei city. The received signal was then guided to a quantum receiver to decode the information using a QKD protocol, the researchers wrote in their study.

SOTA encoded the individual photons with 1 bit of data  either a "1" or a "0"  achieved by switching the photons between two polarized states  a method known as a "single-photon regime." SOTA then beamed pulses of laser at a rate of 10 million bits per second. On reaching the ground station, the laser signal was extremely weak (the researchers say that, on average, only 0.1 laser photons were received per pulse), but the quantum receiver was still able to detect the signal and decode the information over a low level of noise.

Now that the technology has been demonstrated using a microsatellite, Carrasco-Casado said he is thinking about future applications.

"Maybe the most exciting application would be applying QKD to satellite constellations," he said. "Several constellations are now being considered with a huge number of satellites  SpaceX constellation plans to use over 4,000 satellites. If QKD can be miniaturized following the heritage of SOTA, this technology could be spread massively, enabling a truly-secure global communication network."

The SOCRATES/SOTA mission ended in September 2016 after the satellite failed, Carrasco-Casado added, but the experiment had more than doubled the originally designed mission duration of over a year. "We are working on other future missions that will leverage the expertise and knowledge acquired with the SOCRATES/SOTA mission," he said.

There is international interest in quantum communications, with research being carried out in Japan, China, Europe, Canada and the U.S.

A Chinese research team recently announced the successful quantum teleportation of individual photons from a ground station to the orbiting satellite Micius, which was launched by China last year. Like QKD, teleportation is a form of quantum communications. Teleportation involves the production of two quantum particles that form at the same time, in the same place  the two particles share the same quantum states, and measurements on one impact the other instantaneously. They are "entangled."

In the Chinese experiment, pairs of entangled photons were produced on the ground, and some of the photons were transmitted to the ultra-sensitive receiver on Micius orbiting overhead. When the photons were received by the satellite, the researchers were able to confirm entanglement with those on the ground by "teleporting" the quantum state of a photon between the two, over hundreds of miles.

"This work establishes the first ground-to-satellite up-link for faithful and ultra-long-distance quantum teleportation, an essential step toward global-scale quantum internet," the researchers wrote in their study, which was posted on the ArXiv preprint repository.

As low-Earth orbit becomes more crowded, competition for the shrinking availability of radio frequency (RF) bands will eventually create a communications bottleneck, Carrasco-Casado's team said in a statement, so quantum communications solutions using laser technology will be needed not only to transmit data secured against hacking attempts, but also to send much larger quantities of data in a smaller space, as laser transmission allows.

Follow Ian @astroengine and www.astroengine.com. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
More than eight months after arriving at the International Space Station (ISS), record-breaking NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson is still having a blast.

"I haven't felt bored since I got here in November last year," Whitson said from orbit Wednesday (July 26) in a video interview with a representative of the Guinness Book of World Records. "I think if you have the right attitude, you can stay in space for a long period of time, and it's actually very satisfying and enjoy[able]."

Some of the enjoyment, she added, comes courtesy of the microgravity environment. [Peggy Whitson: Record-Breaking Astronaut's Feats in Pictures]

"To be able to float and move around and, pretty much effortlessly, do whatever you want with your body in space is pretty amazing," Whitson said. (She did note, however, that this freedom can complicate work with small items, which often must be taped down to keep them from floating away.)

NASA astronaut and space station crewmember Peggy Whitson speaks with a representative of the Guinness Book of World Records on July 26, 2017. (Image credit: NASA TV)

Whitson holds three official Guinness world records  most spacewalks by a woman (10), most total spacewalk time by a woman (60 hours and 21 minutes) and oldest female astronaut to reach space (57). She also holds the mark for most cumulative time in space by a NASA astronaut (629 days and counting).

Whitson said that such records are nice, but mostly as a marker of how NASA continues to push the envelope in human spaceflight.

"I feel like the reason I'm here is to do my job, and I'm going to do it to the best of my abilities," she said. "The records, I think, are important for NASA, to demonstrate what we're doing, how we're expanding and what we're improving on. And that continual improvement, that continual expansion of our records, is an important one for all of us at NASA, not just me."

Whitson reached the ISS on Nov. 19, 2016, aboard a three-person Russian Soyuz spacecraft. She was originally scheduled to return to Earth last month, but NASA and Russia's federal space agency, known as Roscosmos, signed an agreement in April to keep Whitson at the orbiting lab for three additional months.

This arrangement  which takes advantage of an empty seat on a Soyuz scheduled to depart the ISS in September  keeps the orbiting lab fully staffed at six crewmembers for a longer stretch, allowing more science work to get done, NASA officials have said.

Whitson has served aboard the ISS on three different long-term stints, but her spaceflight dreams don't end in Earth orbit.

"I would love to set foot on another planet  lunar or Mars, or somewhere. But I'm afraid I might be getting a tad bit old for that, unfortunately," Whitson said with a laugh.

Follow Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall and Google+. Follow us @Spacedotcom, Facebook or Google+. Originally published on Space.com.
Annunciation to the Shepherds

Taddeo Gaddi

For hundreds of years, artists have incorporated the spectacular sight of an eclipse into their paintings.

This 14th-century fresco by Taddeo Gaddi, found in the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, depicts an angel announcing the birth of the baby Jesus to shepherds during an eclipse.

A letter attributed to Gaddi, written between 1338 and 1348, suggests he suffered severe eye damage from looking directly at the sun during an eclipse, according to a study published in 2002 in the journal Meteorics and Planetary Science.

"For from days not long past I have suffered, and still

Crucifixion

Guisto de Menabuoi

This fresco in the Padua Baptistery  a religious building near the Piazza del Duomo cathedral in Padua, Italy, and dedicated to St. John the Baptist  portrays the crucifixion of Jesus Christ during an eclipse, painted by Giusto de Menabuoi, circa 1378. Crowds of onlookers stand around and the Virgin Mary has fainted.

As was the tradition in crucifixion scenes from this era, the sun is to the left of the Christ figure, while the moon is on the right. Menabuoi depicted the moon with "the red glow of a lunar eclipse," while the sun appears "cool and pale," according to a study published online August 2016 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

Le Christ Mort Sur la Croix

Philippe de Champaigne

This oil painting by Philippe de Champaigne, painted in 1655, depicts the crucifixion of Christ during an eclipse  the partially-obscured sun is visible behind the rocky hill, on the painting's left side.

"One sees the degree to which solar eclipses were the perfect choice for illustrating the traumatic light described in the Gospel," researchers reported in a study published online August 2016 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

Dionysius the Areopagite Converting the Pagan Philosophers

Antoine Caron/J. Paul Getty Museum

An oil painting from the 1570s  likely inspired by the 1571 total solar eclipse  shows Dionysius preaching the Christian message of salvation to a group of pagan Greek philosophers, while astronomers gather in the town square, beneath the shadowed sun.

Eclipse of the Sun

George Grosz/The Hecksher Museum of Art

George Grosz's surrealist-influenced oil painting, which he painted in 1926, lambasted the power and greed of Germany's governing military and bureaucrats in the 1920s. The solar eclipse  branded with a dollar sign  represented the anticipated collapse of the unstable Weimar Republic, according to the Princeton University Art Museum.

Eclipse

Carl Schmitt/Catholic Education Resource Center

Twentieth-century American artist Carl Schmitt often incorporated dark clouds ringed with light into his paintings, according to an essay published in 2007 by his son Carl Schmitt Jr., in the literary magazine "Dappled Things."

"The small eclipse shown in the painting, to the Virgin's left, serves as a sign for the eclipse of the Incarnation," Schmitt wrote in the essay.

The Elevation of the Cross

Peter Paul Rubens

In 1610, Rubens portrayed the raising of Christ on the cross in a triptych  a three-paneled display  which can be found at the Cathedral of Our Lady in Antwerp, Belgium. The panel on the right shows the solar eclipse, though in traditional crucifixion scenes, painters placed the sun to the left of the Christ figure, according to a study published online August 2016 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

Lovers' deception

Raffaello Sanzio

This fresco, painted in 1518 or 1519 by Renaissance artist Raphael and his workshop, is located in the Vatican Palace in Rome, Italy.

The totality of a solar eclipse accompanies a biblical scene described in Genesis 26:8, when Isaac and Rebecca  husband and wife, but pretending to be siblings  steal a lovers' meeting, and are secretly observed by King Abimelech, ruler of the Philistines.

The cosmic inspiration for the eclipse in the painting was an annular eclipse  in which the moon passes in front of the sun but a ring of light is still visible  on June 8, 1518, but Raphael chose to depict a total eclipse as a metaphor for the lovers' deception, the Princeton University Art Museum reported in a description of the painting.

Portrait of Ramon Gomez de la Serna

Diego Rivera

Mexican artist Diego Rivera painted this Cubist-inspired portrait of Spanish writer Ramon Gomez de la Serna in 1915, placing a total solar eclipse squarely in the poet's eye.

"This is a tribute to both the poet's own references to eclipses ("after the eclipse the Moon washes its face to clean up the soot") and that the artist was himself an aficionado, famously rushing onto the roof of the Detroit Institute of Art (while painting his famous murals) in order to witness a partial eclipse," according to a study published online August 2016 in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A.

The painting is currently on display at the Latin American Art Museum of Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Vision of St. Benedict

Cosmas Damian Asam/Jay Pasachoff

Painted in 1735, this artwork depicts St. Benedict experiencing a vision during a total solar eclipse, likely inspired by the eclipse that took place May 22, 1724, the Princeton Art Museum reported.

The oil painting also shows the solar corona  the aura of plasma around the sun  and the so-called "diamond ring effect," when light around the rim of the sun is fragmented by the moon's rocky landscape, according to NASA.
For some skywatchers, the upcoming total solar eclipse on Aug. 21 is more than just a chance to catch a rare sight of the phenomenon in the United States. It's also an opportunity to duplicate one of the most famous experiments of the 20th century, which astrophysicist Arthur Eddington performed in an attempt to prove that light could be bent by gravity, a central tenet of Albert Einstein's theory of general theory.

Amateur astronomer Don Bruns is among those hoping to re-do the experiment. "I thought of it about two years ago. I thought, surely, other people have done it," he told Live Science. "But no one had done it since 1973," Bruns said, when a team from the University of Texas went to Mauritania for the solar eclipse on June 30 of that year.

The group ran into technical problems, though, and could not confirm Eddington's results with much accuracy. Other attempts  such as one made for an eclipse on Feb. 25, 1952, in Khartoum by the National Geographic Society  fared somewhat better. [10 Solar Eclipses That Changed Science]

In 1915, Einstein published his theory of general relativity, which states that light will bend around massive objects because space itself becomes curved around such objects. A chance to test the theory came several years later, when a total solar eclipse was set to darken skies on May 29, 1919.

For the 1919 eclipse, Eddington led an expedition to measure the deflection of light from stars near the sun in the sky. Observing from Brazil and Africa, simultaneously, Eddington and his colleagues noted that the position of the stars close to the solar limb differed by a small amount from their catalogued positions, agreeing with the predicted 1.75 arc seconds (or 0.00049 degrees). The announcement that the experiment was a success made Einstein famous.

But later analyses of Eddington's data seemed to suggest that the astrophysicist's confirmation might not have been the slam dunk he thought it was. Bruns said the debate over Eddington's data is why he wants to do the experiment again.

"All these experiments, and the best they could get was maybe 10 percent error," he said. "I think I can get 2 percent." Modern instrumentation, as well as more accurate measurements of the positions of the stars, should help refine the measurements needed to replicate Eddington's experiment this time around, he added.

Bruns is taking few chances; he's going to a high-altitude location in Wyoming, where he's likely to have clear skies for the eclipse. And to make sure his telescope's aim is as accurate as it can be, he plans to stabilize his telescope mount by laying down a concrete slab the day before. "We have some quick-set cement," he said. The slab will also help ensure his mount is absolutely level.

And Bruns is not alone. Richard Berry, the former editor in chief of Astronomy Magazine, will be using his home-built observatory (known as Alpaca Meadows Observatory) to duplicate the Eddington experiment from Lyons, Oregon. [How to Make a Solar Eclipse Viewer (Photos)]

"I'm working in coordination with Toby Dittrich of Portland Community College and a group of four physics students," he told Live Science in an email. "Toby will be on the Oregon coast, and one of the students will be in eastern Oregon at the Oregon Star Party. Since I live on the center line [the path of totality], one or two of the students and I will take images for the experiment."

Berry has taken spectrographic images of the solar corona before, but this experiment is harder, because it involves taking an image of the star field that the sun is located in when the sun isn't there, and it requires getting a very precise measurement of the stellar positions when the sun is there during the eclipse.

There's also an outreach element to duplicating the experiment, said Rachel Freed, a science-curriculum consultant at Sonoma State University in Rohnert Park, California. "There's been a massive move to raise awareness," she said, in light of the August eclipse being visible across the United States. Sonoma State's Education and Public Outreach department has a website that describes how amateur astronomers can take part in the event, and what equipment they should use to view the eclipse.

Bradley Schaefer, a professor of astronomy at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, has detailed the equipment that skywatchers will need to do a modern-day version of Eddington's experiment. On Schaefer's website, he says it's possible for modern skywatchers to use off-the-shelf equipment and get much better accuracy than Eddington did nearly a century ago. According to the site, his goal is to get many people involved, because more measurements mean better precision and accuracy. In that sense, amateur astronomers could make some real contributions to science during the upcoming solar eclipse.

But even if you don't plan on conducting any science during the celestial event, an eclipse is still well worth seeing, Freed said  even without any fancy equipment. "During totality, you don't want to use anything," she said. "Just look at it, especially if you've never seen one."

REMEMBER: Looking directly at the sun, even when it is partially covered by the moon, can cause serious eye damage or blindness. NEVER look at a partial solar eclipse without proper eye protection. Our sister site Space.com has a complete guide explaining how to view an eclipse safely.

Original article on Live Science.
WASHINGTON  A Senate appropriations subcommittee approved a spending bill July 25 that would provide NASA with $19.5 billion, striking a middle ground between the administration's original request and a more generous House bill.

The commerce, justice and science subcommittee (CJS) approved the bill in a brief markup session, delayed by more than an hour due to a procedural vote on the Senate floor about healthcare legislation. The full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to mark up the bill July 27.

While the committee has yet to release the bill, the summary of the bill notes it provides $19.53 billion for NASA, $437 million above the administration's request for fiscal year 2018. That amount, though, is about $340 million less than what's offered the House version of the CJS bill, passed by House appropriators July 13 and pending consideration by the full House.

"This committee remains supportive of science and innovation by preserving a balanced space program with NASA," Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), chairman of the CJS subcommittee, said in his opening remarks at the markup. The White House proposal, he said, "would erode ongoing science missions, jeopardize core operations, eliminate the entire education directorate and delay exploration launches."

The bill summary addresses some of those issues. The bill provides $2.15 billion for the Space Launch System, $212 million above the request and identical to the amount in the House bill. It also provides $1.35 billion for the Orion crew vehicle, $164 million above the request and again identical to the House bill.

The bill also provides $100 million for NASA's Office of Education, which the administration sought to close in the request despite bipartisan criticism. The House offered $90 million for the office, also rejecting the administration's plans.

Few other details about the budget were included in the summary. NASA's science programs would receive $5.57 billion, $140 million below the request and nearly $290 million less than the House bill. The summary did not break down how that funding would be allocated among NASA's various science divisions and the development of the James Webb Space Telescope.

NASA's commercial crew program would get $732 million in the bill, identical with the administration's request and past planning for the multi-year development effort. NASA's space technology program would get $700 million, an increase of $21 million over the White House proposal. The summary did not specify what programs within space technology would benefit from the increase, but the summary did note that it includes funds "to advance projects in early stages of development that are expected to eventually demonstrate capabilities needed for future space exploration."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's two major programs, the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R (GOES-R) and Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS), would receive "full funding." The White House requested $518.5 million for the GOES-R program and $775.9 million for JPSS.

That full funding, Shelby said in his statement, extended to the Polar Follow-On program, which supports development of the third and fourth JPSS satellites. It wasn't clear what constituted full funding for that program, which received $328.9 million in 2017 and was previously planned to get $586 million in 2018. The White House request sought only $180 million for the program, which it plans to delay and restructure. The House bill provided only $50 million for Polar Follow-On, citing a lack of details about that proposed restructuring.

This story was provided by SpaceNews, dedicated to covering all aspects of the space industry.
Tom Wolfe's "The Right Stuff" is being adapted as a multi-season, dramatic television series by Leonardo DiCaprio and Appian Way Productions for National Geographic.

"The Right Stuff," journalist Tom Wolfe's venerable tale of real-life test pilots and early astronauts, is being developed as a new dramatic series for television by Leonardo DiCaprio for National Geographic.

Under the terms of the deal, announced Tuesday (July 25), DiCaprio and Jennifer Davisson of Los Angeles-based Appian Way Productions will executive produce the series, which will adapt Wolfe's 1979 book about NASA's Mercury astronauts as a starting point. "The Right Stuff" series will be produced in association with Warner Horizon Scripted Television.

"The heroism of these astronauts was rivaled only by the country's fascination with their story," Davisson, president of production for Appian Way, said in a statement released by National Geographic on Tuesday. "This series uncovers both the adventure of space exploration and the adventure of being unwittingly thrust into the public eye." [Best Spaceflight and Space History Books]

"We're looking at moment in time where the everyday life, the trials and tribulations, of these men was scrutinized in the public," said Courteney Monroe, National Geographic Global Networks' chief executive officer. "The story gives a peek into the minds and goals of these astronauts seeking exploration and adventure during the space race ... making it the perfect story for National Geographic to tell."

Wolfe's book, which was adapted for the 1983 feature film "The Right Stuff" by director Philip Kaufman, starring Sam Shepard, Ed Harris, Dennis Quaid and Barbara Hershey, chronicled the lives and missions of test pilots like Chuck Yeager and Slick Goodlin, who pushed past the speed of sound, and those who went on to become the first NASA astronauts, including Alan Shepard and John Glenn.

In "The Right Stuff," Tom Wolfe chronicled the lives and missions of NASA's original seven Mercury astronauts. (Image credit: NASA)

The National Geographic series will expand upon the 436-page book and 193-minute movie, featuring a mission for each season, with the first season beginning in the Mojave desert at the height of the Cold War and start of the Space Race between the Soviet Union and United States in 1958. Picking up after the launch of the first man-made satellite, Sputnik, 60 years ago this October, the series' first season will follow as the U.S. attempts to surpass the Soviets by aiming to put the first man in space.

The series' planned hour-long episodes will trace the test pilots' journeys from the edge of space to Earth orbit, with future seasons planned to carry through to pinnacle of the space race, the Apollo moon landings.

"The Right Stuff" is National Geographic and Appian Way's second collaboration following the 2016 documentary film "Before the Flood." That project included DiCaprio talking about climate change with the late astronaut Piers Sellers, then acting director for earth sciences at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland.

"I'm excited to work with them in a scripted capacity," said Monroe, noting the "rich relationship" between Appian Way and National Geographic on "Before the Flood."

"We couldn't think of a better partner to bring 'The Right Stuff' to the world," said Davisson.

Leonardo DiCaprio with the late astronaut Piers Sellers during the production of "Beyond the Flood" for National Geographic. (Image credit: NASA)

Writer Will Staples, who recently developed "Animals" with Appian Way as a thriller set in Africa for Ben Affleck, will serve as a writer and executive producer on the series. In 2015, Staples completed additional production work on the recent "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation."

In separate but similar news, Fox 21 Television Studios on Tuesday (July 25) announced it has acquired the rights to Time magazine editor Jeffrey Kluger's recent book "Apollo 8," to be developed as a new a series by Michael Bostick, who produced the 1998 HBO miniseries "From The Earth To The Moon" and David Friendly ("Queen Of The South"). Fox 21 is a division of 20th Century Fox Television, which owns a majority in the National Geographic Channels.

Follow collectSPACE.com on Facebook and on Twitter at @collectSPACE. Copyright 2017 collectSPACE.com. All rights reserved.
Bir Lahlou, July 26, 2017 (SPS) - The President of the Republic, Secretary-General of the Frente POLISARIO, Mr. Brahim Gali, sent a letter of condolence to the Algerian President, Mr. Abdelaziz Bouteflika, in which he extended his condolences on his behalf and on behalf of the people and the government of the Saharawi Republic, to the family of the deceased, Kamel Rezzag Bara , who died Tuesday morning.

"Algeria has undoubtedly lost one of its men who have been resolute in its determination and noble values, and has made tremendous efforts to promote a culture of human rights and the rights of peoples to live in freedom and dignity in its own country, Algeria, as in the whole world," Gali said.

He stressed that "the Saharawi people remember the late with all due respect and appreciation, who has always been in full harmony with the positions, principles and history of Algeria on the support for its just cause and legitimate struggle and his daily response to the most gross violations of human rights committed by the Moroccan Occupying Force, since its military invasion of Western Sahara on October 31, 1975. SPS

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Paris, July 27, 2017 (SPS) - Several associations have condemned Wednesday the sentences issued against the Sahrawi political detainees of Group Gdeim Izik by Rabat Court, demanding their release and the end of the Moroccan repression against the Sahrawis in the Occupied Territories.

In a communique, the associations of Sahrawis of France, Associations of support to the Sahrawi cause, human rights and development, as well as the Platform for Solidarity with Western Sahara people demanded the cancellation of the "unfair" verdict of 19 July, the liberation of the Sahrawi political prisoners and the end of repression in the territories occupied by Morocco.

After seven years of imprisonment and seven months of trial, the Rabat Court issued sentences ranging from two years in jail to life imprisonment against Sahrawi political detainees.

In their statement, the associations reaffirmed their support for the struggle of the Saharawi people for independence, calling on the French government, the European authorities and the United Nations to "pressure" the Moroccan authorities to release Sahrawi political prisoners, cease its policy of repression against the Sahrawi population and respect international law based on the holding of a self-determination referendum.

Due to their participation in the Gdeim Izik camp (violently dismantled by the Moroccan occupation forces on 8 February 2010), 24 Sahrawi activists were sentenced by a military court on 17 February 2013 to heavy prison sentences. SPS

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H es the man who made the magic of Harry Potter come alive on stage: John Tiffany pulled off the near impossible trick of crafting a blockbuster show that pleased both obsessive fans and snooty critics alike. In doing so, he confirmed himself as one of the worlds hottest directors  capable of stonking commercial successes that are still spellbindingly theatrical. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child at the Palace Theatre swept up at the Evening Standard, Olivier and Critics Circle awards, and is set to become a global phenomenon, opening on Broadway next year with other countries in the pipeline.

The stakes couldnt have been any higher but he was a clever bet: Tiffany had already scored hits with the National Theatre of Scotlands Black Watch, the musical Once, and a heart-stoppingly delicate take on Tennessee Williamss The Glass Menagerie.

When I think about it now, it feels a bit more vertiginous than it felt in the middle of it, he says of tackling the most successful franchise of all time  albeit with JK Rowling very much onside and a great script from Jack Thorne. But as soon as we started performing, it felt like its all right, people are going with this. Its a typically down-to-earth way of putting it from a Yorkshireman who seems unfazed by theatrical world domination.

He could have his pick of projects now, surely, but his latest has no big-name stars or crazy budget. Road is a revival of Jim Cartwrights 1986 play, set over one wild night in a Lancashire town devastated by Thatcherism and unemployment. Its bleak. Its also stingingly funny, and has a visceral poetry that rages against the impoverishment of peoples economic, social and spiritual lives. A long way from Hogwarts, then.

But Road is also something of a homecoming: it made a splash at the Royal Court 30 years ago but hasnt had a major London production since. And Tiffany has vivid memories of reading the play as a 16-year-old, after a drama teacher at his sixth-form college in Huddersfield gave it to him.

It blew my mind, he says. I was obsessed with theatre and loving the work of Caryl Churchill, Edward Bond, Howard Brenton and Howard Barker, people doing real formal experimentation. But Road was the first time Id read a play written in a very true Northern dialect that seemed to have that excitement running through it.

Faye Marsay and Shane Zaza in Road (Johan Persson )

It was also bracing to read something that gave dignity to a Northern voice. You grow up thinking youve got an accent great for comedy! But not necessarily intelligence or lyricism or poetry  and thats still the case. It blows my mind that you get Shakespeare where the low comedy characters have got Northern or Welsh accents. Really? Are we still there?

For Tiffany, who switched from studying biology to drama and classics while at Glasgow University, Road has the potency and power of a Greek tragedy. The character of Valerie, at the end, is begging the gods, shouting about how unemployment has trashed her relationship. In some ways its like Antigone screaming for burial rites for her brother.

Although set firmly in the Eighties  Tiffany beams when talking about soundtracking it with obscure gems by James, The Railway Children and Happy Mondays and promises a lot of big hairdos  Roads picture of neglected Northern communities is also timely. A similar anger, bubbling below the surface, has burst out in the past year, Tiffany suggests, seen in both the swing toward Jeremy Corbyns socialism and the vote for Brexit.

The play was famously originally a promenade performance but Tiffany is putting it on the big downstairs stage; he wanted to treat it like a classic piece of European theatre. Plus, he adds, it wouldnt feel right today to turn the Royal Courts bar in super-rich Sloane Square into a faux working mens club. It is a queasy thought, albeit one that after a short pause prompts a characteristically hearty laugh from Tiffany.

He is cheerfully, and cheeringly, committed to making theatre that is truly accessible. Theres a steeliness to his grin, for instance, when discussing ticket prices for the Broadway transfer of Cursed Child: I dont think that just because people will pay a certain amount for a ticket that its all right to charge it. Its very important to us to keep it accessible. [American producers] dont have the same sense of social responsibility, but we do. And were calling the shots.

Then there was the decision to cast a black actress as Hermione, causing a furore when it was announced  and further fuss when Rakie Ayola took over from Noma Dumezweni. It was a political choice  well, not political so much as responsible, says Tiffany. [The show] was going to have the eyes of the world on it. There was no way I was going to have all three of those characters played by white actors. He also confesses it took him a while to commit to Cursed Child because I knew that if I f***ed up, I would really f*** up, not just for me and the people I worked with but for theatre. Not wanting to be grand, but 60 or 70 per cent of our audience are first-time theatregoers. We had to make people fall in love with theatre as well as tell the next part of the story.

The original cast of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child / Manuel Harlan

When I ask if theres a shortage of working-class voices like Cartwrights in theatre today, Tiffany suggests there are still a variety of ways in for writers  the real problem is impossible fees for drama schools and the expectation that people can work for free, meaning acting and directing are becoming a preserve of the rich. I know for a fact that if I was leaving school now theres no way Id be a director. Its doubtful Id make the choice to go to university, my mum and dad certainly wouldnt have been able to afford it. That makes me terrified  how many are we losing? Theres a theory that talent will out: its not true.

Theres no stopping him today, however. Not long after Road opens, Tiffany begins rehearsals for the National Theatres big Christmas show  an adaptation of Pinocchio, using the Disney movies songs and plot spliced with elements of Carlo Collodis original stories. Dennis Kelly, who wrote Matilda the Musical, is penning the script, so its fair to say itll be another scorching hot ticket.

Typically, Tiffanys approach is hardly the razzle-dazzle of your usual big-budget Disney juggernaut. Its really dark. Kids love that, though! Of all the Disney films it feels much more like a European Grimm tale, he says. I presume thats something youre running with, I ask? Tiffany grins.

Oh yeah! Thats why I wanted to do it here rather than over in America. Its going to take a European theatrical sensibility to pull this off. Turning a Disney movie into a dark piece of European theatre thats still fun for all the family? Sounds like just the project for Tiffanys magic touch.

Road is at the Royal Court Downstairs, SW1 until September 9; royalcourttheatre.com
T he sister of a young man targeted in the latest horrific acid attack in the capital said it has changed his life forever as she revealed pictures of his badly scarred face.

Shakwat Hussain, 24, and his friend ran screaming in agony into an off-licence in Bethnal Green and begged for help after being sprayed with corrosive liquid.

Dramatic footage shows the pair in their underwear being washed down by firefighters and paramedics in front of shocked passers-by.

Mr Hussains sister Zackiya, 22, today shared pictures of her brothers life-changing facial injuries, and told the Standard: I just dont understand what these people are thinking, what are they getting from it? How can they just go around throwing acid at people?

Its going to be so hard for my brother from now on. You can see already that it has completely changed his appearance. He is devastated.

Men hosed down by firefighters following acid attack

He was just about to start his new job in security, but obviously now all this has happened we dont know whats going to happen.

She added: Its breaking him. He keeps looking in the mirror and he feels so insecure about everything now. Completely different.

Mr Hussain is hosed down after the attack / Rex

Its going to change his life forever.

Shakwat Hussain, 24, will have to undergo skin grafts after the attack

The suspected attack at just before 7pm last night is the latest in a string of similar assaults to hit east London in recent weeks.

The shopkeeper, who asked not to be named, said: They were shouting and I gave them water and they were washing their faces. They said: Weve got acid on us.

They were pouring the water over themselves in the shop, and it had got into their clothes. One of them was pouring it down his trousers.

I was really scared. They were crying and saying: Put the water on me.

His face was badly scarred and his clothes 'melted' after he was sprayed with acid

Fire crews from a nearby station connected hoses to a mains pipe below the pavement and spent more than 20 minutes dousing the two men on the pavement in Roman Road.

A police officer said that the colour of their faces had changed as a result of the incident.

Both Mr Hussain and his friend were taken to hospital as detectives launched an investigation.

The men are treated by medics at the scene

Mr Hussains sister said he was discharged from hospital at 3am and will begin to receive skin grafting treatment in Chelmsford today.

A black jacket belonging to one of the victims was pictured with its sleeve melted and burnt away to reveal the insulating fabric.

The attack comes days after a Standard investigation revealed the ease with which industrial strength sulphuric acid, sold as drain cleaner, could be bought over the counter with no questions asked.

The victims had to be hosed down by firefighters / Rex

The Standards investigation saw reporters buy litre-sized bottles of 91 per cent sulphuric acid for as little as 6 in a number of east London hardware stores.

When questioned most shopkeepers expressed shock at the strength of the chemicals they were selling and admitted they were unaware of Home Office guidance on suspicious purchases.

Following the investigation Home Secretary Amber Rudd urged business owners to be vigilant and Met officers are being equipped with 1,000 acid response kits.

Police figures reveal that east London is at the centre of the epidemic, with Newham, Barking & Dagenham, Tower Hamlets and Hackney the four boroughs with the highest number of acid attacks in the past three years.
F ree movement of people will end in 2019, the Immigration Minister has said.

Brandon Lewis said freedom of movement was one of the "core principles" of the European Union, and that a new immigration system would be in place when Britain formally quits the bloc in March 2019.

He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "Free movement of labour ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019 - we're very clear about that."

Asked why free trade and single market access would not also end then, Mr Lewis said: "There's a period of negotiation we're going through with the European Union at the moment, but we're very clear that free movement ends - it's part of the core principles, the four key principles, of the European Union - when we leave."

His comments came after Home Secretary Amber Rudd announced plans for a thorough investigation of the roles EU nationals play in the UKs economy by the Migration Advisory Committee.

Mr Lewis said: "There will be a new immigration system in place from the spring of 2019 and that will be outlined in the Immigration Bill that will go through Parliament next year."

He also told the programme that it remained the Government's "long-term aim" to bring immigration down to "sustainable levels", but did not say when that would be achieved.

"(It is) our determination to see net migration fall to sustainable levels and we think that is around tens of thousands - it's something we've had and continue to have as our long-term aim," Mr Lewis added.

He would not confirm if the target would be reached during the current Parliament, and said: "If this was an easy thing to do we would have already done it.

"We cannot, people know, control our net migration levels fully until we leave the European Union."

The prospect of ending freedom of movement has sparked concerns from the business community.

Ufi Ibrahim, chief executive of the British Hospitality Association, said up to 35 per cent of the staff in the capitals restaurants, bars, cafes and hotels were from the European Union. If many quit Britain or new controls severely limit how many can enter, some firms would struggle to survive, she claimed.

Senior Labour backbencher Frank Field branded Mr Lewis's comments "alarming", and told the same programme: "I genuinely don't think voters are looking for a cut-off point and will judge the Government accordingly.

"(Donald) Trump won in America on immigration - not because most people believed he would build a wall, but he convinced people that he was serious about trying to cut the numbers of immigrants no matter how long it took and I think that's where the British electorate is and that's where the Government ought to start to begin its negotiations."
A London expat and his son have been hailed as heroes after they stopped a knifeman on a rampage in Israels West Bank.

Shimon Maoz, a Londoner in his 50s, was reportedly the first person to witness the stabbings of three members of the same family in the Israeli district of Halamish.

46-year-old teacher Chaya Salomon was killed in the attack, as well as her father and brother when a knifeman went on a rampage on Saturday.

Mr Moaz, a high-tech worker who grew up in England and has lived in Israel for more than 20 years, heard the screams of Ms Salomon after she stumbled out into the street.

Youths gather next to candles and an Israeli flag placed next to the home / REUTERS

It is believed the womans nephews, nieces and sister-in-law were barricaded upstairs and the woman feared for their lives.

He told his son, a soldier, to get his gun, who shot through the window at the knifeman to scare him, before the pair rushed to the home to give CPR to the victims.

The son has not been identified by the Israeli military.

According to the Jewish Chronicle, his son said in a TV statement: I stood outside my house and saw the attacker through the window. I understood that I had to act calmly and professionally.

I fired one bullet that hit him in the stomach and neutralised him.

The attack came after a day of clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces over new security measures at a Jerusalem holy site.

Mr Moazs daughter Miri Maoz-Ovadia, who lives close to her parents, said: Once I knew all my family members were okay, the feeling I have is mostly one of being proud.

Were looking forward to going back to being a quiet normal family.

Rochelle Cohen, neighbour and friend of the Maoz family, said: I will forever be in awe of their actions.

You meet the types who are very gung-ho  these are much more gentle souls and it took an enormous amount of courage. Im totally overwhelmed by what they managed to do.

A man was arrested at the scene and taken to a hospital for treatment before being transferred to Israeli security agencies for questioning.
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The same Israeli firm (Rafael) that developed the Iron Dome system (for effectively and economically destroying rockets and shells from mortar and artillery) is now offering a version optimized to detect and shoot down UAVs. Called Drone Dome it is a lot cheaper because it does not use $90,000 Tamir guided missiles to intercept rockets or shells headed for residential areas or military targets. Instead Drone Dome uses a high powered laser that can destroy or disable most UAVs 2,000 meters or more distant. Drone Dome uses a radar that can detect most small UAVs at ranges of up to 30 kilometers at altitudes of 10 meters (30 feet) to 10,000 meters.

Drone Dome is not a radical development but part of a trend. Since 2010 Israeli firms have developed a growing number of AUD (Anti UAV Defense) systems largely because Israel is a nation that is most often threatened by hostile use of UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) particularly small commercial ones increasingly used by Islamic terrorists and criminal gangs.

Iron Dome entered service in 2005 and continues to be the main defense against rocket and mortar attacks from Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza. The manufacturer developed a version (Iron Beam) that used a laser but because the laser was only effective out to about 2,000 meters it was not useful against longer range rockets and actually more expensive than Iron Dome because the Tamir missile can knock down rockets fired from over 50 kilometers away and thus one Iron Dome battery can cover a much larger area than the Iron Beam system.

What makes Drone Dome different is its heavy use of electronic sensors to detect and jam the control signals used by UAVs, leaving the laser as a last resort. Several AUD systems are already in service and effective because they are good at detecting UAV electronically and either jamming those control signals or taking over the control signals and capturing (by making it land) the UAV. Troops in Iraq and Syria were asking for AUD systems that used lasers and better UAV detection systems as well those with jammers to disable UAVs. There is a need for AUDS that can detect and destroy UAVs that do not use control signals and basically go on pre-programmed missions. This can be to take photos or deliver a small explosive. Usually it is to take photos and return. Drone Dome is one of several AUD systems equipped to detect and locate UAVs operating in pre-programmed mode and destroy or disable them quietly with a vehicle mounted laser.

AUDs like Drone Dome use one radar system and one or more sensor systems for detecting UAV control signals or visual images (that pattern recognition software can quickly identify what it is). In addition they have two or more truck mounted lasers which, because short range (usually about 2,000 meters for a 5 KW laser) means you have to deploy multiple lasers to cover an area.

AUDs equipped with lasers can be effective keeping UAVs away from high value targets (like nuclear power plants) or prisons (where criminals have been using UAVs to smuggle in drugs, cell phones and other contraband). AUDs can also be effective at detection the use of UAVs to smuggle drugs and other high-value items across borders.
The GNA (Government of National Accord in Tripoli) and HoR (House of Representatives in Tobruk) governments have both agreed to a nationwide ceasefire, elections in early 2018 and UN recognition of the LNA (Libyan National Army). The original GNA prime minister (Fayez al Serraj) and the head of the HoR armed forces (Khalifa Belgacem Hiftar) were at the talks and openly supported the agreement. These men are the most prominent leaders in the country and that gives this agreement the best chance of succeeding.

Hiftar has built the LNA into the strongest and most disciplined military force in the country. Hiftar did this using the remnants of the pre-2011 Libyan armed forces which he was a senior officer in. But Hiftar turned against the dictatorship long before it was overthrown in 2011. Hiftar rallied many other likeminded officers and troops and began training and incorporating rebel fighters. As part of the agreement the LNA will incorporate many of the militia fighters into the LNA and disarm the rest. This deal had been in development for weeks and was finally confirmed at a conference in France two days ago. In addition both governments now allow foreign warships to enter Libyan coastal waters to go after people smugglers. Hiftar is the man to organize a more effective military in general and is known to oppose smugglers, especially those dealing in people, as well as Islamic terrorists of all sorts, especially the ones involved in smuggling people, drugs and guns.

What caused this seemingly sudden willingness to compromise and cooperate was the fact that all other choices were worse. The past had caught up with Libya and most armed factions realized that the country has been torn apart by the aftereffects of the 2011 uprising. No one faction was able to win. By the end of 2015 the UN had gotten the two (Tripoli and Tobruk) major coalitions to agree to a merger that was supposed to take place in early 2016. That merger was delayed by continuing factional infighting and the more pressing need to deal with the growing Islamic terrorist presence. That was accomplished in late 2016 but the rival Tripoli (UN approved) and Tobruk (popular in eastern Libya) governments were still trying to work out how to create a unified government. That was finally achieved, it appears. In mid-2017. A major reason for the agreement was the need to avoid mass starvation. Since 2011 oil exports had shrunk and the Central Bank cash reserves were nearly gone. If peace and unity were not achieved soon no government would be able to buy and import food and other essentials. Even by Middle Eastern standards Libya was setting a new records in self-destructive behavior. By 2017 more Libyans were agreeing that the situation was indeed becoming desperate and more compromise was the only solution. Even with the current national compromise the tribal and religious differences (Islamic radicals versus everyone else) plus epic levels of corruption and entitlement keep peace and prosperity out of reach. At this point most Libyans will settle for survival. The neighbors (particularly Egypt, Tunisia and Algeria) back the new peace deal as do European nations. How long it will last is another matter.

ISIL (Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant)

Many surviving ISIL members fled the country after being driven out of the coastal city of Sirte by the end of 2016. But a large number of ISIL members and their families (over a thousand people, most of them armed) fled south from their former bases in Sirte and Benghazi. Some of these Islamic terrorists found hideouts in the rural areas between Sirte and Derna and are still trying to cope with them.

Since early 2017 LNA forces from further east followed the ISIL and other Islamic terrorist remnants to Derna further inland. Some ISIL men managed to establish a presence down there and have been seeking to carry out bombings and other terror attacks on the coastal areas (where most of the people are). The new peace deal will get GNA and LNA forces operating together in finding and destroying remaining ISIL members in the south. Until now GNA and LNA forces would, at best, avoid each other and sometimes fight each other. Meanwhile Derna remains a problem. This city is about the same size (100,000 population) as the former ISIL capital Sirte. Earlier ISIL failures in Derna were the result of stubborn local militias who disliked outsiders in general. Hiftar was not popular with some of the Derna militias, especially those composed of Islamic conservatives and these groups were not cooperative. Now they are under attack by Hiftar forces and being pushed out of the area. The GNA had accused Hiftar of illegally attempting to take control of Derna while Hiftar says he wants to remove any Islamic conservative or terrorist militias still in Derna.

With the new peace agreement Hiftar will have the advantage because the new arrangement includes an agreement to crack down on Islamic terrorist groups and Arab oil states that previously supported (or allowed their citizens to do so) some Islamic terrorist groups have agreed to change that. This was a side effect of the of a June 5th diplomatic showdown between most of the Arabian states (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt and Bahrain) and Qatar over the Islamic terrorism issue. The issue of Qatari and Iranian support of Islamic terrorism in Libya goes way back. General Hiftar and the HoR government openly criticized Qatar for working with Iran and Sudan to back Islamic terrorists in Libya. Qatar along with Turkey and Sudan always backed more Islamic rebel groups and continues to support the rival Tripoli government in part because the GNA contains more militias that are, at the very least, more Islamic in their outlook. Qatar, Turkey and Sudan have long believed that you can coexist with Islamic conservatives. That concept has become less viable as it becomes apparent that the ancient tradition of Islamic conservatives eventually evolving into Islamic terrorists was still functioning. This process produced al Qaeda and its evil spawn ISIL. Many Arabs deal with this by insisting that al Qaeda and ISIL are creations of the United States and Israel. There is no evidence for this but to many Moslems, especially Arabs, it feels good.

A growing number of Libyans have been complaining about Qatar since 2014. Initially this came as a surprise because in late 2011, after the fall of the Kaddafi government neighboring Sudan, long the target of Kaddafi meddling, welcomed the change in Libya. But there were side effects. Huge amounts of weapons were stolen from Kaddafi era warehouses and some of the Libyan arms were showing up in Sudan, where Darfur (western Sudan) rebels were working with Libyan smugglers to get the weapons into Sudan. It was difficult to blame this on Israel and America.

This situation got even stranger after Sirte fell. A lingering reminder of Arab support for ISIL remains in western Libya where several hundred identified but unclaimed (by nations they came from) bodies of ISIL men killed in Sirte are held in refrigerated mortuaries. Tunisia, which estimates at least 3,000 of its citizens joined ISIL since 2014, accepted the dead from Sirte. Some Arab countries are reluctant to share data to help confirm who the dead are and where they are from. The Libyans, with assistance from the U.S. and some European nations, have taken DNA samples from the dead and are seeking to match that DNA many Arab nations have collected from Islamic terrorists (or those suspected of that). ISIL is so hated throughout the Arab world, and so many Arabs believe ISIL was a creation of Israel and the West, that confirming the ID of so many local men who obviously joined ISIL, is difficult to accept.

Oil And Survival

The National Oil Corporation (NOC) has managed to increase production this year to record (since 2011) levels. Currently about a million BPD (barrels per day, including natural gas equivalents) are produced. That is up from 250,000 BPD in mid-2016, 800,000 BPD in April 2017 and 880,000 BPD in May 2017. NOC expects to keep that up until, by the end of 2017, 1.25 million BPD is reached. After that work will continue to reach 1.5 million BPD by the end of 2018 and 2.1 million BPD by the early 2020s. This is far in excess of pre-2011 levels (1.6 million BPD) but is necessary because of the need to finance reconstruction and adapt to the fact that the world price for oil keeps falling, despite OPEC (the Arab dominated oil cartel) efforts to reduce overall production and drive up the price. The problem is that the United States and Canada are producing a lot more due to new technologies (like fracking) that open up huge new sources that were long known but not reachable.

OPEC had exempted Libya from production limits but this will only last until pre-2011 levels are reached and Libya hopes to get permission to exceed that limit because of hardship. That will be difficult because most of the OPEC members are suffering, politically if not economically, from the new normal for oil prices.

The new peace deal means much less fighting over oil facilities. Meanwhile there are technical problems, mostly the result of years without proper maintenance that cause production to remain unpredictable until there is enough money and time to measure all the damage. That should take until early 2018 if the peace deal holds. There is another problem that the NOC has to share responsibility for. In theory most of the oil is exported and the cash received buys essential items like food, medicine and other consumer items. In practice there is still a problem with corruption and a lot of the oil money disappearing before the needed imports can reach most Libyans.

July 25, 2017: France hosted peace talks between senior GNA and HoR factions. Italy worked with France to get the two factions to talk and played a major role in putting the final deal together.

July 9, 2017: Fighting between pro and anti-GNA militias spread in Tripoli. This fighting has been going on for over a year. Casualties are usually low but there is a lot of property damage and normal activities are disrupted.

July 4, 2017: In the west an artillery shell landed on a beach outside Tripoli, killing five and wounding 32 civilians. It is unclear if this was deliberate but it is another reminder that the GNA continues to have problems with rebellions (or downright criminal) militias in the city that will fight rather than obey orders to behave.

July 1, 2017: Fighting nationwide left several hundred dead during June, most of them Islamic terrorists or members of hostile (to both governments and most others) militias. There are few accurate statistics about deaths and estimate must be used. The LNA suffered most of its casualties in Benghazi where 44 soldiers were killed during operations to clear the last Islamic terrorists out of the city. Many of the casualties were caused by the many landmines and other explosives left behind by retreating Islamic terror groups. The LNA has troops trained to deal with this but there were so many explosive devices that casualties were higher than expected.

June 27, 2017: In the east Egyptian Air Force F-16s destroyed a convoy of twelve trucks coming into Egypt from Libya via a desert trail just north of the sand sea that is largely impassable to trucks. Video of the airstrike showed some of the trucks exploding twice as their cargoes of ammunition ignited. Smuggling Libyan weapons (looted from government warehouses during the 2011 revolution) into Egypt is still big business especially since Hamas and other Islamic terrorist groups, plus criminal gangs, are ready to buy whatever gets into Egypt.
A strategy to grow geothermal energy use in New Zealand by 2030 is receiving a warm welcome from energy suppliers and venture groups.

The Bay of Connections Energy Group has been working to grow geothermal energy use on a commercial and industrial scale and says the launch of the Geothermal Association Geoheat strategy fits well with their plans.

The Geoheat strategy focuses on developing continuous and sustainable direct geothermal energy use on a commercial and industrial scale, says BOCs energy strategy leader Brian Carey.

We have been looking to promote the growth of direct geothermal energy use in our area.

The Geoheat strategy will provide BOC with support and expertise on how to further grow this opportunity, says Brian.

The strategy envisages the creation of four or five large direct use projects like timber processing and large glasshouses, as well as a range of smaller ventures over the next 1012 years.

Bay of Connections Energy Strategy leader Brian Carey.

The strategy focuses largely on the Central North Island, which has the higher temperature geothermal resources.

A number of timber processing plants are already using geothermal energy for kiln drying in the Central North Island region, with milk processing and commercial glasshouses also operating in the area sourcing heat directly from geothermal.

Theres good opportunity for employment with 500 new jobs anticipated should the target of 7.5 Peta Joules per annum with the new projects be reached, says Brian.

New Zealand has a long history of utilising high temperature geothermal resources with approximately 60 years of extensive large scale geothermal energy use for industrial direct heat and electricity generation.

We are in the perfect position to take full advantage of the shift towards cleaner and more responsible energy. Its a great opportunity for us to use a renewable resource and help reduce our CO2 footprint.

Some BOP timber processors use geothermal energy.
Back in March, the US transport safety administration announced it would no longer allow large electronic devices such as laptops on flights originating from several countries, most of them located in the Middle East. But now, the controversial ban has been lifted for those traveling from one of the cities - Abu Dhabi.

Providing that passengers are flying nonstop to the US with long-haul airline Etihad - the only carrier with direct flights to America from Abu Dhabi - they can once again carry their laptops into the cabin with them. The airline operates 45 flights each week between the United Arab Emirates capital and six US cities.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan said that "seen and unseen" security measures have been implemented correctly and to the full extent required in the airport.

"We commend Etihad for working swiftly to implement these additional measures," Lapan told the Associated Press. "Their efforts are a model for both foreign and domestic airlines."

Abu Dhabi International Airport already has a U.S. Customs and Border Protection facility that allows passengers to clear screening when they reach the States.

The ban on in-cabin electronic devices larger than a cellphone on US-bound flights is still in place for nine other airports in eight countries in the Middle East and Africa. It came amid intelligence reports that ISIS was planning to use laptops to smuggle explosives onto passenger aircraft.

The ban applies to airports in Amman, Jordan; Kuwait City; Cairo; Istanbul; Jeddah and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia; Casablanca, Morocco; Doha, Qatar; and Dubai in the UAE. It has seen several carriers, such as Emirates, cut the number of flights to the US.

In May, Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly said he was considering extending the ban to all international flights to and from the US, but decided against it.
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick stepped down from the helm of the ride-hailing platform just over a month ago amidst a smattering of controversies. Naturally, the search for a new chief is already under way and according to reports, could wrap up by early September.

Bloomberg, citing two employees that recently attended an Uber staff meeting on the subject, says the short list of potential candidates is fewer than six. The identities of all but one candidate remain unknown at this time.

One source said Hewlett Packard Enterprise chief Meg Whitman is still in the running. Whitman, who ran for governor of California in 2010, is a well-respected business executive that previously served as vice president of strategic planning at The Walt Disney Company. She also oversaw global management during at stint with toy maker Hasbro in the late '90s and served as CEO of eBay for nearly a decade.

Sources tell the publication that Whitman has met with Uber's leadership team in recent weeks. It's unclear if she is the frontrunner for the job or how much money it'd take to pull her away from Hewlett Packard Enterprise.

Howard Clabo, a spokesperson for HPE, noted in a statement that Whitman is fully committed to her job and plans to stay with the company until her work is done. Uber declined to comment when reached by the publication.

Members of Uber's board are reportedly overseeing the CEO search with help from recruitment firm Heidrick & Struggle.
After going offline for unscheduled maintenance just days ago, a man linked to operating crypto currency exchange site BTC-e.com, 38-year-old Alexander Vinnik, was arrested in Greece and is being charged with 17 counts of money laundering in addition to two counts of engaging in unlawful monetary transactions.

It is not clear exactly what Vinnik's role was within what was once the largest exchange platform for digital currencies due to the secrecy and lack of disclosures made about who actually was behind the site. Currently, a holding company registered in London is listed as the official owner.

According to US officials, over $4 billion has been laundered through the site since it opened in 2011. In 2014, exchange site Mt Gox had assets stolen causing it to shut down permanently. Prosecutors have suggested that Vinnik may have been using BTC-e.com to launder funds stolen from Mt Gox by setting up user accounts on the site and then collecting the trade fees himself. Nearly 530,000 bitcoins from the Mt Gox hack were deposited to BTC-e, currently worth over $1.3 billion.

At this time, it is unknown whether the site's assets are still in place or whether legitimate users of the site will be out their money. No movement of the coins held within BTC-e's wallets has been confirmed. Even if the assets are still intact, US officials may choose to seize all assets if the site is proven to have been actively involved in money laundering. In the case that assets may be returned to their original owners, distributing them back to their rightful owners could prove to be a challenge since no personally identifiable information was collected or verified by BTC-e.

According to a translated tweet from BTC-e, the site will be back online with 5-10 days. However, it is unlikely for trading to resume until legalities have been settled.

Update2: At the moment, work is underway to restore the service. Approximate terms from 5 to 10 days. Thank you for understanding # btce

A $110 million fine has been placed by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network against BTC-e. Meanwhile, Vinnik has been handed a $12 million fine. If convicted, Vinnik is eligible for up to 55 years in prison which would likely be the remainder of his lifetime.

This is just one more example of an ongoing crackdown on cyber crimes. AlphaBay and tech support scammers have also been targeted and taken down earlier this year in joint efforts by US agencies.
Tech rivals have once again shown solidarity in their condemnation of Donald Trump. This time, it was the President's announcement to ban transgender people from serving in the military that has led to the outcry.

Trump tweeted Wednesday that "the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you," he wrote.

If the decision is turned into law, it will reverse a policy put into place by the Obama administration that allowed trans people to serve, offered aid with their transition, and introduced diversity training for soldiers working with trans individuals.

Leaders from the tech world have responded with the #LetThemServe hashtag. Google CEO Sundar Pichai was one of the first to tweet, writing: "I am grateful to the transgender members of the military for their service."

We are indebted to all who serve. Discrimination against anyone holds everyone back. #LetThemServe --- Tim Cook (@tim_cook) July 26, 2017

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Jack Dorsey, Tim Cook, Mark Zuckerberg, Microsoft president Brad Smith, Uber, Intel's Brian Krzanich, Postmates CEO Bastian Lehmann, and many more were quick to offer their support.

Y combinator president Sam Altman tweeted that the "estimated cost of trans service members is less than a couple of Trump's trips to Mar-a-Lago."

Bloomberg reports that a 2014 study estimated there were 15,500 trans people currently serving in the US military. According to analysis by the RAND corporation last year, their care would have come to $8.4 million in medical costs - "a little more than 0.1 percent of what the military spends on medical care for all service members," and "about 0.0014 percent of Trump's total defense budget proposal."

2/ These patriotic Americans deserve to be honored and respected, not turned away because of who they are. --- Uber Comms (@Uber_Comms) July 26, 2017

At the start of the year, the tech industry was united in its criticism of Trump's immigration ban. A joint letter was sent to the president challenging the move.

More recently, the US withdrawal from of the Paris agreement resulted in widespread denunciation, leading to over 1000 firms signing an open letter that pledged their support for climate action.
July 20, 2017 - Tamara Williams

Professor Ted Parnall

UNM School of Law former Dean and Professor Emeritus Ted Parnall (`67) recounts his upbringing, more than three decades at the law school, and international work in a very personal memoir called, Life and Law in Interesting Places: An Improbable Journey.

The book is the story of a lawyer/professor and his family as they move through sometimes troubled areas of the world, always finding friends, shared values, and a sense of optimism.

Parnall joined the UNM School of Law faculty in 1970 and was Dean from 1986-91. He is the only UNM law alumnus to serve as both a professor and dean of the School of Law. Parnall has trotted the globe for his entire legal career to advance legal education and legal systems in developing countries.

The past 50 years could not have been more interesting for me and my family, says Parnall. They included interactions with remarkable personalities in many unusual circumstances: clinking glasses with the Red Prince and Kaysone in Laos, dining with a member of the Derg in Ethiopia after seeing Haile Selassie arrested and put into a Volkswagen, celebrating President Tubmans birthday in Liberia, along with his unfortunate successor, William Tolbert, meeting Indonesias President Suharto in the last year of his regime, working with Mr. Vu Mao as he reshaped the legislative system in Hanoi, and working with the members of Chinas Committee to Restructure the Economic System on the eve of that countrys economic resurgence. It was a privilege and an honor to have met these people who made History and, no less so, to have worked with so many who, like myself, simply moved through it.

Former Dean and Professor Emeritus Leo Romero is a good friend of Parnalls and is mentioned several times in the memoir. This book answers the question that so many Law School colleagues, alumni, and students asked over the years: Where is Professor Parnall now and what is he doing? The Law School community will find Teds stories about the law school from his days as a student, professor, and dean to be both amusing and a testament to his affection for the school, says Romero.

Parnalls memoir begins with his familys immigrant origins and his early years in the rural south valley of Albuquerque. Next it describes his resolute search to understand the impact of law on diverse cultures as a long-term resident legal adviser in developing countries. Parnall has spent most of the time in Southeast Asia, Liberia, Laos, Afghanistan and East Africa and has an international reputation for his expertise and respect, his vision and his ability to get along with people.

The book also relates events of more than 30 years as a member of the faculty at the University of New Mexico School of Law, including five years as Dean of the school. During that five-year period, New Mexico adopted its unique method of selecting judges, and the book provides insights into the New Mexico legal community and its actions to assure a strong judiciary. Parnalls respect and admiration of his colleagues at the law school, the New Mexico Bench and the practicing Bar is apparent in the book, and frequently served as a backdrop for his law-development efforts abroad. The book is available on Amazon.
Google and Apple may offer white hat hackers and researchers up to $200,000 for reporting vulnerabilities in their respective systems, but Microsoft has them beat when it comes to the highest payout. The Redmond company's new Windows Bounty Program offers a maximum reward of up to $250,000 for those who discover serious Hyper-V vulnerabilities.

A quarter of a million dollars is a long way from the $50,000 top award Microsoft offered when its bug bounty program began back in 2013. The figure has increased over the years as the initiative expanded.

To receive the highest payout, users must identify an original and previously unreported vulnerability in Hyper-V that allows for remote code execution and impacts the hypervisor and host kernel. But Microsoft notes that the flaw needs to work on the latest release of the Windows Insider Preview slow ring to be eligible.

The lowest amount available for reporting security issues is $500. Awards will be paid out for "any critical or important class remote code execution, elevation of privilege, or design flaws that compromises a customer's privacy and security."

Reporting a remote code execution bugs found within a Windows Insider Preview or Edge can result in a reward of up to $15,000. Critical vulnerabilities in Windows Defender Application Guard can bring in up to $30,000. The price rises to $100,000 for those who "submit a novel mitigation bypass against [Microsoft's] latest Windows platform."

Should someone report a vulnerability that has already been discovered internally by a Microsoft employee (one that's not been publicly disclosed, presumably), 10 percent of the maximum cash reward will be handed out.

Last year, Apple finally announced it was starting a bug bounty program of its own. It said that bugs in its systems were becoming too difficult to find, and would offer cash ranging from $20,000 - $200,000 to researchers who discovered vulnerabilities.
HTC has teamed up with Qualcomm on a standalone VR headset for the Chinese market. The headset appears to be cosmetically identical to the one which HTC is bringing to the U.S. with Google, and they are both powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor. That said, they will differ in the underlying software and positional tracking technology.

While the U.S. offering will be built on Google Daydream, run VR apps and games from the Google Play Store, and utilize Google's WorldSense positional tracking technology, Vive's China-focused headset is based on Qualcomm's all-in-one reference design, which includes inside-out positional tracking, and will run apps from HTC's Viveport platform.

Viveport launched in China - one of the few countries where Steam isn't hugely popular - back in the Spring of 2016. The initial focus was on non-gaming content but HTC quickly thereafter embraced gaming titles along with a monthly subscription service.

On the hardware front, HTC has yet to reveal the device's exact technical specs, but Qualcomm's reference design calls for two 2560 x 1440 resolution displays, 4GB of LPDDR4 memory, at least 64GB of internal storage, a built-in trackpad for manual input, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi connectivity. HTC will share more information in the coming months, after today's reveal at the ChinaJoy expo.

"China is the leading mobile market in the world today, and has the momentum to lead the global VR market as well," said HTC Vive exec Alvin W. Graylin in a statement. "Partnering with Qualcomm to deliver an easy to use and more affordable Vive VR system will enable us to make premium stand-alone VR widely accessible to the masses in China."

Aside from HTC, Lenovo is also working on a standalone VR headset based on the Daydream platform, while Samsung is working on its own headset under its Odyssey brand and Oculus is expected to debut a standalone version of the Rift in 2018.
Hyundai Hope On Wheels Presents Phoenix Children's Hospital With $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award To Support Center For Cancer and Blood Disorders







LOS ANGELES - July 27, 2017: Yesterday, Hyundai Hope On Wheels presented Phoenix Children's Hospital with a $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award. Phoenix Children's is one of 25 recipients of this year's award, which is given to pediatric oncology departments at select children's hospitals nationwide. The grant funds will support the hospital's Center for Cancer and Blood Disorders (CCBD), which offers treatment to more than two-thirds of the children in Arizona who are diagnosed with cancer.

In 2017, Hope On Wheels will award $15 million toward pediatric cancer research and programs. This brings the organization's donation total to $130 million since Hyundai joined the fight against pediatric cancer in 1998. With this latest grant, Phoenix Children's has received more than $940,000 from Hope On Wheels.

"Throughout the country, talented doctors are working tirelessly to help kids fight cancer by conducting research or providing bedside care," said Scott Fink, chairman, Hyundai Hope On Wheels Board of Directors. "Our goal at Hope On Wheels is to provide these doctors with the grant funds they need to perform their lifesaving work. Superheroes come in all forms, but for children and families battling cancer  superheroes wear lab coats."

The $50,000 Hyundai Impact Award was officially presented to Phoenix Children's during a Handprint Ceremony, the organization's signature event in which local children battling cancer dipped their hands in paint and placed their handprints on a commemorative canvas and lab coat. Their colorful handprints represent their individual and collective journeys, hopes and dreams. The lab coat was presented to H. Stacy Nicholson, MD, MPH, Phoenix Children's physician in chief.

Doctors and researchers that receive a grant from Hope On Wheels are named Hyundai Scholars and are presented with a special lab coat. This year, Hope On Wheels will further recognize its Hyundai Scholars for their incredible efforts on behalf of children battling cancer through a campaign called "Superheroes Wear Lab Coats." The video series will showcase their lifesaving work. To learn more about the campaign, please visit HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org.

For more information about Hyundai Hope On Wheels and to view a complete list of this year's grant winners, please visit HyundaiHopeOnWheels.org/research. Follow us on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram at facebook.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels, twitter.com/HopeOnWheels or instagram.com/HyundaiHopeOnWheels.

HYUNDAI HOPE ON WHEELS

Hyundai Hope On Wheels is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that is committed to finding a cure for childhood cancer. Launched in 1998, Hyundai Hope On Wheels provides grants to eligible institutions nationwide that are pursuing life-saving research and innovative treatments for the disease. HHOW is one of the largest non-profit funders of pediatric cancer research in the country, and primary funding for Hyundai Hope On Wheels comes from Hyundai Motor America and its more than 835 U.S. dealers. Since its inception, Hyundai Hope On Wheels has awarded more than $130 million towards childhood cancer research in pursuit of a cure.

HYUNDAI MOTOR AMERICA

Hyundai Motor America, headquartered in Fountain Valley, Calif., is a subsidiary of Hyundai Motor Company of Korea. Hyundai vehicles are distributed throughout the United States by Hyundai Motor America and are sold and serviced through 835 dealerships nationwide. All new Hyundai vehicles sold in the U.S. are covered by the Hyundai Assurance program, which includes a 5-year/60,000-mile fully-transferable new vehicle limited warranty, Hyundai's 10-year/100,000-mile powertrain limited warranty and five years of complimentary Roadside Assistance.

About Phoenix Children's Hospital

Phoenix Children's Hospital is Arizona's only children's hospital recognized by U.S. News & World Report's Best Children's Hospitals. Phoenix Children's provides world-class inpatient, outpatient, trauma, emergency and urgent care to children and families in Arizona and throughout the Southwest. As one of the largest children's hospitals in the country, Phoenix Children's provides care across more than 75 pediatric specialties. The Hospital is poised for continued growth in quality patient care, research and medical education. For more information about the hospital, visit http://www.phoenixchildrens.org.
Card Skimming Devices At Fuel Pumps On Rise in Florida

GAINESVILLE, Fla. July 27, 2017; Florida is experiencing an increase in skimming, reports WUFT News. State data shows that 315 skimming devices have been discovered in fuel dispensers through July 18, compared to 120 skimmers discovered through the first seven months of 2016a 160% increase.

The news source adds that this years seven-month total in Florida already exceeds the 219 reported skimming devices in all of 2016 and the 169 devices found in 2015, according to the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam said that inspectors and law-enforcement officers have documented a continued rise since 2015 in skimming devices. Since that time, we have seen a steady trend upward, an increase in the number of skimmers being found around the state on these gas pumps, Putnam said.

This year the state passed a law making it illegal to possess skimming equipment. Even so, criminals are becoming more sophisticated, with some now using devices where card data can be downloaded remotely, eliminating the need to retrieve skimmers from inside the pumps. Putnam told the news source that retailers are taken steps to protect their customers and dispensers from skimming, such as moving away from a universal key system that allows access to pumps in different locations, and using technology that shuts down pumps if they are opened without authorization.

Unfortunately, like many forms of criminal activities, the bad guys continue to evolve just like the laws continue to evolve, Putnam told the news source.

Many retailers use the NACS WeCare Tamper-Evident Decals to reduce the risk of skimming at fuel dispensers. The tamper-evident labels are placed on dispenser door entries, which help identify potential security breaches if skimming devices are inserted at fuel dispensers. If the label is lifted to open a dispenser door and insert a skimming device, a void message appears on the label, providing a visual alert to store employees so that additional action can be taken. Because the labels clearly indicate that they prevent tampering, the labels also assure customers that their data is secure, and discourage criminals targeting the store.

More than 3 million NACS WeCare Tamper-Evident Decals are in use at convenience and fuel retail locations in the United States. Used in coordination with the decals is the SkimDefend app, powered by Pinnacle Corporation.

Pinnacles app (when installed on a mobile device) will scan and log the unique characteristic of each WeCare decal and locally store the site, time, pump number and decal ID information. Retailers can then use this information (stored digitally) to track any/all pump (CRIND) intrusions and thereby proactively combat skimming efforts, as well as maintain forensic evidence for authorities in the event a skimmer is eventually discovered, as well as help comply with PCI 3.1 guidelines.

Since 2008, NACS and Conexxus have offered convenience and fuel retailers the resources and tools they need to proactively initiate and maintain effective payment security procedures that help reduce the occurrence of skimming.
Germany Ordered Porsche To Pull Cayenne SUVs Off Their Roads

BERLIN July 27, 2017 ; Birgit Jennen and Rainer Buergin writing for Bloomberg reported that Germany ordered Porsche brand to pull thousands of Cayenne SUVs off the road as the brand became the latest Volkswagen Group marque to be embroiled in the diesel cheating scandal.

The German government has evidence that 22,000 Cayennes sold in Europe with 3.0-liter diesel engines use a defeat device to cheat on emissions testing, Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt told reporters in Berlin.

Dobrindt said he was withdrawing certification for the vehicles, and Porsche would bear 100 percent of the cost of the recall.

There is a high probability that the VW Touareg SUV also has similar software installed, Dobrindt said.

"This has not yet been checked by us and will now be carried out immediately," he said. "Volkswagen will cooperate with us to ensure that these vehicles, if there is a similar software there, are then subjected to the appropriate procedures."

Porsche said it had discovered the software during an internal investigation, and that it had agreed to recall the vehicles to fix the problem.

"This vehicle is a vehicle still in production," Dobrindt said at a hastily called press conference on Thursday.

He said the government will impose a registration ban on vehicles that are still being sold until updated software is available, which must be approved by the KBA registration authorities.

About 7,000 of the 22,000 Cayennes are registered in Germany.

SEE COMPLETE BLOOMBERG REPORT
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 04/07/2017 (1957 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The co-owner of a Richer-area campground has received a total of $500 in court fines after pleading guilty to a pair of regulatory offences under the Drinking Water Safety Act.

Raymond and Gisele Turenne, owners of Wild Oaks Campground in the RM of Ste Anne along Provincial Road 302, appeared in Steinbach court last Thursday. Each faced six drinking water-related offences. After Raymond Turenne pleaded guilty with an explanation to two of the charges, Crown attorney Kristee Logan stayed the remainder against the pair.

Turenne admitted he failed to test outgoing treated water for disinfectant residuals as it left the campgrounds holding tank. The two failures were found during on-site inspections in July and October 2016, and carried a set penalty of $673 each. They constituted Turennes first regulatory offence, Logan said.

The married couple has owned the operated the campground, which services 111 seasonal campsites, since 1999.

Turenne attributed the regulatory lapses to a busy schedule, explaining the couple runs a small family farm in addition to the campground, while he also works full-time as an electrician.

Some days, life gets very hectic, he said. The odd test might have gone to the wayside.

Court heard that Turennes water test logbook, which must be filled out daily and submitted to authorities each month, was turned in late and incomplete, with only six of 31 entries completed.

The campground had never failed water testing regulations before, Turenne maintained, adding he would never want to harm his clients.

Training for private businesses that oversee a public water supply would be appreciated, Turenne told the judge. In the absence of such training, he said, business owners are left to do the best they can.

Champagne sympathized with the daily burden that drinking water regulations place on mom and pop operations, and imposed reduced fine amounts. But he called water testing procedures common-sense, and explained the bureaucracy exists for a good reason.

When you invite the public to come to your propertyand you tell the public that youre providing them potable water, you have certain obligations, Champagne said. If youre going to provide that service, you have to follow the regulationsa lot of thought goes into that type of legislation.

Penalties for the regulatory offences were necessary, the judge said, in part to send a message to other local campground owners.

Everybody has to get in line with the regulations, remarked Champagne. This is about every operation in the province.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 01/05/2017 (2021 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A man will be sent to jail later this year after pleading guilty to possessing child pornography, which was found on his computer while crossing the border from the United States into Canada last June.

Benji Rustulka pleaded guilty to possessing child pornography Thursday morning in Steinbach.

During a plea inquiry, court heard that Rustulka was crossing the border on June 25, 2016 when border officers found him in possession of marijuana.

As a result, border security did a more extensive check of his belongings and searched his computer, on which they found child pornography images.

Border security contacted RCMP, who obtained a warrant, and conducted a further search of Rustulkas computer and found thousands of child pornography images.

Court was also told Rustulka had a device on his computer that could potentially distribute images, though he was unaware of its capabilities and was not using it.

Crown attorney Shauna Silver stayed possession and making child porn charges from the same incident.

A charge of possessing child pornography carries a mandatory minimum 90 days jail sentence, though Rustulkas lawyer, Alan Libman, noted the Crown will be seeking a significantly higher sentence.

Rustulka will be sentenced on Sept. 28 in Steinbach.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 14/07/2017 (1947 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Steinbach Prides second annual March for Equality takes place on Saturday morning, and a spokesperson for the events organizing committee has indicated this year will bring both continuity and change.

Co-chair Chris Plett called 2017 a transition year for the event, with organizers looking to capitalize on what worked last year, recalibrate what did not, and lay the groundwork for an expanded event in 2018. Cultivating a consistent public profile in the community, to increase the groups visibility year-round, is also a priority for the steering committee, Plett said, adding Michelle McHale will step back from her lead role after this years event.

For now, however, organizers are focused on finalizing practical details.

IAN FROESE | CARILLON ARCHIVES Michelle McHale, Karen Phillips, and Chris Plett march in last years Steinbach Pride March for Equality.

We had a few surprises in the preparation, Plett acknowledged. The City of Steinbach, he explained, is requiring the private event to cover the cost of signage and barricades, and have the necessary insurances in place.

We just had to pull up our socks and get the money raised, Plett said.

Attendance expectations for this years march are comparable to those for last year, with allies and community groups from Manitoba and beyond communicating their intent to attend, Plett remarked.

Steinbach Pride organizers are also paying close attention to the tone of this years event, which Plett said will feature more of a gentle stand, while holding firm on its core convictions and goals.

Last year it was aggressive, he acknowledged.

To that end, a theme has been chosen for this years march: neighbours.

The whole Good fences make good neighboursthat is so not true. We want to tear those fences down and get to know our neighbours, Plett stated. We want to stand beside each other because the job is huge in Steinbach. We want to build a bridge.

Organizers have therefore decided to scratch politician speeches at the march, as feedback from last year indicated personal or heartfelt messages from members of the Steinbach and Manitoba Pride communities were more widely appreciated than partisan political speeches, Plett explained.

Every Pride should be a little political, but we wanted to remember that theres a lot of issues going on right now, he said.

This years event will also employ the acronym 2STLGBQ*. According to Steinbach Pride, the ordering of the letters foregrounds the struggle of transgender individuals to share fully in the advances achieved by Pride movements, and acknowledges that Two-Spirited people predated the arrival of colonial settlers in Canada.

While last years event broke new ground in Steinbach, Plett said this years march has the benefit of building upon related community events from the past year, most notably a Steinbach Neighbours for Community drama production entitled Still ListeningVoices Among Us, with which Plett was involved. He listed local gay-straight alliances and mental health awareness efforts as two other related social currents that function as stepping stones for the march.

While the question of which, if any, local elected officials would attend the inaugural march dominated news headlines across Canada a year ago, Plett seemed unconcerned with pinning down politician attendance this year.

Provencher MP Ted Falk said last year he would never attend a Steinbach Pride event.

In February, Steinbach MLA Kelvin Goertzen issued a statement confirming he would not attend the march, and said last years event dedicated too much time to shaming individuals.

On Wednesday, Steinbach mayor Chris Goertzen told The Carillon he will not attend Saturdays march due to a family event. Asked if he would attend in the march in the absence of conflicting engagements, he replied, At this time, no.

Whats important is that when we build a communitywe work, not just one day, but 365 days, at making our community better, and thats what well concentrate on, he elaborated.

While Plett said the absence of local elected officials continues to be disappointing, he expressed a desire to dialogue with them in the coming year, as people across the table.

Its not okay, he said. But were not going to chase after them. We have our hand extended.

He later clarified, We all have been shamed enough in our lives that we know that we dont want to shame other peopleall were trying to do is hold our elected officials accountable, which is the democratic process.

March participants are being asked to assemble in K.R. Barkman Park at 10:30 a.m. Following an Indigenous blessing from Harmony Knott, speeches will commence at 11 a.m., featuring remarks from McHale, Plett, Gay Boese, Brielle Arian Beardy-Linklater, Andra MacAuly, and Uzoma Chioma.

Next, a 1,500-metre march will take participants west down Main Street to Reimer Avenue, and back to K. R. Barkman Park via Elmdale Street. Eastbound lanes on Main Street will remain open to traffic, while westbound Main Street traffic east of the water tower will be detoured onto Hespeler Street and McKenzie Avenue. Reimer Avenue between Main Street and Elmdale Street, and Elmdale Street to Kroeker Avenue, will also be closed during the march, but will reopen soon after. RCMP will direct traffic and provide security for march participants.

Those interesting in volunteering at the event can message the Steinbach Pride Facebook page, or email pride.steinbach@gmail.com. Attendees are encouraged to bring non-perishable food items for South East Helping Hands.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Lawyers debated whether his crimes constituted exceptional circumstances, but a youth who appeared for sentencing in a Steinbach provincial courtroom last Thursday ultimately avoided time in custody and will instead serve a 15-month community-based sentence.

In December, the teenager, whose identity is protected under the Youth Criminal Justice Act, pleaded guilty to a Sept. 2016 break-in at a Ste Anne residence in which several firearms and a compound bow were stolen. It wasnt his last brush with the law, after Ste Anne police found him in possession of a stolen BlackBerry in February. Crown attorney Kristee Logan noted the second offence occurred while a pre-sentence report, stemming from his December plea, was being prepared.

From the Crowns perspective, this was a serious matter, Logan said of the break-in that prompted the report, adding the stolen weapons open the door to custody. She sought three months of deferred custody followed by supervised probation, noting a conclusion in the pre-sentence report that suggested the youth harboured a dislike of law enforcement.

Judge Ken Champagne acknowledged the timing of the second offence was an aggravating factor, and commented the youth needs an attitude adjustment, but defence attorney Alan Libman argued his clients attitude had already improved. The youths spontaneous confession to police was a mitigating factor, Libman added.

I submit that the root cause of his criminality is low self-esteem, said Libman, and called the youths behaviour self-sabotaging.

Through tears, the boys mother said her son was now under the care of a doctor and was taking prescribed medication for a brain disorder while also seeking employment. Champagne credited the mother for being a supportive and corrective influence on her son.

Noting Manitobas two youth centres currently operate at capacity, Champagne said the youths actions were nevertheless cause for very serious concern, as stolen weapons often end up on the street. But the accuseds guilty pleas, along with a lack of prior criminal history, prevented the case from constituting exceptional circumstances, he said.

You need to understandif you were 18 years old, youd be going to Stony Mountain today. I wouldnt hesitate, said Champagne.

Youre not at that point yetIts up to you to choose what youre going to do here going forward, he told the youth.

Champagne imposed a community-based disposition involving 15 months of supervised probation with conditions to keep the peace, complete required counselling, and attend school or obtain employment. The youth must also complete 100 hours of community service, abide by a weapons prohibition, attend mediation services or write a letter of apology, and stay at least 200 metres from the site of the break-in.
Albemarle Corporation develops, manufactures, and markets engineered specialty chemicals worldwide. It operates through three segments: Lithium, Bromine, and Catalysts. The Lithium segment offers lithium compounds, including lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide, lithium chloride, and lithium specialties; and reagents, such as butyllithium and lithium aluminum hydride for use in lithium batteries for consumer electronics and electric vehicles, high performance greases, thermoplastic elastomers for car tires, rubber soles, plastic bottles, catalysts for chemical reactions, organic synthesis processes in the areas of steroid chemistry and vitamins, life sciences, pharmaceutical industry, and other markets. It also provides cesium products for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries; zirconium, barium, and titanium products for pyrotechnical applications that include airbag initiators; technical services for the handling and use of reactive lithium products; and lithium-containing by-products recycling services. The Bromine segment offers bromine and bromine-based fire safety solutions; specialty chemicals, including elemental bromine, alkyl and inorganic bromides, brominated powdered activated carbon, and other bromine fine chemicals for use in chemical synthesis, oil and gas well drilling and completion fluids, mercury control, water purification, beef and poultry processing, and other industrial applications; and other specialty chemicals, such as tertiary amines for surfactants, biocides, and disinfectants and sanitizers. The Catalysts segment provides hydroprocessing, isomerization, and akylation catalysts; fluidized catalytic cracking catalysts and additives; and organometallics and curatives. The company serves the energy storage, petroleum refining, consumer electronics, construction, automotive, lubricants, pharmaceuticals, and crop protection markets. Albemarle Corporation was founded in 1887 and is headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Angelina Jolie. Photo: Stefan Rousseau - WPA Pool/Getty Images

Angelina Jolie has been widely criticized for the news that she cast her new film  First They Killed My Father, an adaptation of Loung Ungs 2000 memoir about the Cambodian genocide  by playing a game where she gave and then took away money from impoverished Cambodian children. But perhaps a more concerning fact is that Jolie reportedly worked with the repressive Cambodian government and military in order to make the film.

According to Vanity Fair:

Cambodia went all in  closing off Battambang for days, giving the filmmakers permits to land in remote zones, providing them with 500 officials from their actual army to play the Khmer Rouge army.

Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watchs Asia Division, says that if the detail about 500 soldiers is correct, that raises serious concerns. To ask for permission to make a film and thereby invest in the local economy is fine, and youre going to have to have some meetings with some government officials. But you can take a stance to make sure you dont empower, legitimize or pay the wrong people. And working with the Cambodian army is a no-go zone, its a red flag, and its a terrible mistake, he said. This is an army that is basically an occupying force of a dictatorship, its used to put down environmental activists  the kind of thing that she stands for is in direct contrast to what this government is.

Adams points out that there would have been ways for Jolie to film in Cambodia while still avoiding involvement with the Cambodian army, which continues to be an extremely abusive rights-violating force. For instance, she could have hired extras to play the part of Khmer Rouge soldiers.

Theres moral hazard in having any relationship or dealings with the Cambodian government, Adams continues. Its not clear whether she understands that and its not clear whether she cares about it. He points to the fact that the Prime Minister of Cambodia, Hun Sen, is a dictator who has a record of killing, exiling, jailing, and threatening political opponents, and that Hun Sen, as well as other country leaders including the defense minister and head of the military, are former members of the Khmer Rouge. This film is about the horrors of the Khmer Rouge, yet she is dealing with former Khmer Rouge, and apparently in a noncritical way, he said.

This is not the first time that Jolies overseas work has prompted ethical concerns. Back in 2002, Jolie purchased land for the Maddox Jolie-Pitt Foundation from Yim Tith, an alleged mass murderer and former commander for the Khmer Rouge. Whether it was her mistake or her employees mistake in making that transaction, it shouldnt have happened. She should not have been transferring money to a guy charged with genocide, said Adams.

Weve reached out to Angelina Jolie and Netflix for comment and will update if we hear more.
Viagra. Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

On Wednesday morning, President Trump announced in a series of tweets that he would be reinstating a ban on transgender individuals serving in the military in any capacity, due in part to the tremendous medical costs. But according to the Hill, these costs pale in comparison to the amount of money the Defense Department spends annually on erectile-dysfunction medications.

Trumps statements reverse President Obamas 2016 announcement that required the Pentagon to begin accepting qualified transgender recruits by July 1, 2017. That same year, a RAND corporation report estimated that covering transition-related costs would cost the Defense Department between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually.

Meanwhile, a Military Times report found that in 2014, the Pentagon spent $84 million on erectile-dysfunction meds, including $41.6 million on Viagra alone. It notes that while drugs like Viagra, Cialis, and Levitra are occasionally prescribed for conditions such as pulmonary arterial hypertension, they are overwhelmingly used in the treatment of male sexual dysfunction. Of the 1.18 million prescriptions, less than 10 percent were for active-duty service members.

The RAND report also estimated there are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender service members in the military, but military LGBTQ advocacy groups put that number closer to 15,000.

The money is negligible, Kristen Beck, a Navy Seal veteran who is transgender told Business Insider, Youre talking about .000001% of the military budget.

A number of Republican lawmakers have spoken out against Trumps decision, and the American Civil Liberties Union is exploring ways to combat the move.
After years of being outsold by the iPhone, the venerable iPod has taken a big step toward eventual oblivion. Apple Inc. said Thursday it was discontinuing two of the cheapest iPod models: the nano and shuffle.

The two products have been removed from the Apple online store and will vanish from retail locations as well. Apple demoted the iPods placement in its retail stores a couple of years ago, moving the devices to the companys accessory shelves. The $180 nano and $60 shuffle were last updated with new colours in 2015, but the nano hasnt been revamped since 2012 while the shuffle hasnt been redesigned since 2010.

Today, we are simplifying our iPod lineup with two models of iPod touch now with double the capacity starting at just $199 (U.S.) and we are discontinuing the iPod shuffle and iPod nano, Apple said in a statement.

The original iPod arrived in 2001. It wasnt the first digital music player, but it upended the music industry and put 1,000 songs in your pocket. The shuffle hit the market in 2005 as the first iPod with faster flash storage and without a screen, while the nano was introduced later in the year as a replacement for the then-popular iPod mini. Both went through several redesigns in their early years before being supplanted by iPhone.

The iPod touch, the companys highest selling iPod and once referred to by Steve Jobs as an iPhone without the phone, remains on sale. The company updated the devices storage capacities on Thursday, discontinuing the 16GB and 64GB models and lowering the price of the 32GB and 128GB options to $249 and $369, respectively.

Apple discontinued the iPod classic in 2014, a large iPod with a click wheel that looked most like the original model. Apple chief executive officer Tim Cook said at the time that the classic was discontinued because the company was unable to source the necessary parts. Nonetheless, with the success of the iPhone, the lack of an App Store and services such as iCloud and Apple Music, the non-touch iPods have become less useful to both Apple and consumers.

Apple, based in Cupertino, Calif., has sold more than 400 million iPods so far, while the iPhone surpassed a billion units sold in July 2016.

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REGINAA residential school cemetery has become the first in Saskatchewan to be designated as a provincial heritage site.

Culture Minister Ken Cheveldayoff formally recognized the cemetery on the edge of Regina on Wednesday and said the children buried there will not be forgotten.

"With its new provincial heritage status, the Regina Indian Industrial School cemetery will be protected and respected for generations to come," Cheveldayoff said in a ceremony next to the site, which is surrounded by a peeling white rail fence.

There's just one headstone  for the children of the school's first principal  in the 680-square-metre cemetery. However, it's believed dozens of Indigenous children lie there in unmarked graves.

Archeologists for the Regina Indian Industrial School Commemorative Association scanned the ground and identified 38 anomalies. Association president Janine Windolph has said there could be many more children because it was practice at the time to bury several together.

The school operated between 1891 and 1910 and an unknown number of students died there.

Residential schools were often crowded, poorly ventilated and unsanitary. Children died from smallpox, measles, influenza and tuberculosis. Some were buried in unmarked graves in school cemeteries, while others were listed as "missing" or "discharged." In some cases, parents never found out what happened.

The federal government stopped recording the deaths around 1920 after the chief medical officer at Indian Affairs suggested children were dying at an alarming rate.

Heather Bear, vice-chief of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations, was there Wednesday to commemorate "the land where our children, where their bones and their blood lies."

"You know, we don't know who these children are," said Bear.

"But today we can say, as First Nations, we know that they were loved. We know that they had families that grieved: Mothers and fathers and grandparents and community."

Elder Noel Starblanket spent 11 years in a residential school and said he bears the scars of what happened to him. He said the cemetery and the children have become very dear to him.

"Our children lie here. They have lain forgotten for many years and so it now falls upon us to remember them," said Starblanket.

"For now, this is our way of saying that we will remember them. In our spiritual way, what we do, we ask those ones, even in their innocence, to pray for us up there. And we ask them to bring ... good fortune to our people, 'cause they're able to do that now in the spirit world."

Regina city council voted unanimously last September to grant the site municipal heritage status.

Windolph is now pushing for federal recognition.

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VANCOUVERA British Columbia Supreme Court judge has found four Sri Lankan men not guilty of human smuggling.

Justice Arne Silverman said Thursday that while there was evidence of organized crime in the smuggling operation, he wasnt satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that the men were connected to any crime. He also said the men were asylum seekers aboard the MV Ocean Lady get to asylum on the B.C. coast in October 2009.

I have determined that these four accused were asylum seekers and that there is an air of reality to the defence of mutual aid.

The accused  Francis Anthonimuthu Appulonappa, Hamalraj Handasamy, Jeyachandran Kanagarajah and Vignarajah Thevarajah  smiled, laughed and shook hands with their lawyers after the judge released his ruling.

The Crown had argued the four accused were in charge of the smuggling operation and out to make a profit on people seeking asylum in Canada.

But Silverman said the Crown didnt prove its case.

I am also not satisfied that their actions were to obtain either directly or indirectly a financial or material benefit, or that any of the them obtained one.

The men were part of a group of 76 young men from Sri Lanka who arrived on B.C.s coast in October 2009.

They travelled about 45 days across the Pacific Ocean seeking refuge in Canada from a civil war that ravaged their homeland, Silverman said in his decision.

Defence lawyers told the trial their clients were trying to escape poor living conditions and seeking a better life.

In 2015, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that people providing humanitarian aid, including family members, were exempt from smuggling laws.

But the Crown told the trial that the top courts exemptions didnt apply because the accused had a role in organizing and executing the voyage, which it said was a money-making scheme costing migrants thousands of dollars.

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Waterloo Regional Police has been called in by Toronto police Chief Mark Saunders to investigate the circumstances surrounding the assault of Black Whitby teen Dafonte Miller after an off-duty Toronto Police officer was charged.

That request by Saunders, announced at a police board meeting on Thursday, comes amid criticism of both Toronto and Durham Police for not reporting Millers injuries to the police watchdog responsible for investigating cases of serious injury when police officers are involved.

That criticism caused the meeting to be temporarily halted when journalist activist for Black issuesDesmond Cole demanded to speak to the case publicly before being escorted out of the building, fined and warned not to return.

As chief of police, it is my responsibility to ensure that transparency and trust are at the foremost of everything we do as a service, Saunders said at the start of a public meeting, saying Waterloo Chief Bryan Larkin has agreed to take carriage of the report.

Last week, Ontarios Special Investigations Unit (SIU) charged Toronto police Const. Michael Theriault and his brother, civilian Christian Theriault, with aggravated assault, assault with a weapon, and public mischief in Millers beating last December.

Miller was punched, kicked and hit repeatedly in the face with a metal pipe, says his lawyer, Julian Falconer. One of Millers eyes will have to be surgically removed, Falconer added. When Durham Police arrived on scene, it was Miller who was arrested. (All charges have since been dropped.)

The SIU learned of the incident only when Falconer contacted the panel in April.

This case is complicated and there have been serious allegations made, which everyone is taking extremely seriously, especially members of the Toronto Police Services Board, board chair Andy Pringle said Thursday. He added that the board supports the chiefs decision to seek an outside force to conduct a followup investigation.

The chief has advised the board that due to the fact that there are two very different versions of this case in the public domain, it is important to take this opportunity to have another agency that is independent and separate to conduct the Section 11 investigation.

An internal report by a police service to the police board investigating matters arising from an SIU investigation  referred to as a Section 11 for the provincial law it that requires it  will look at procedures, policies and conduct in the handling of this case, Pringle said.

Saunders said members of his professional standards unit determined that the case did not meet the threshold to report to the SIU with the information they had at that time.

Many months later, a very different version of the events of Dec. 28 was presented to the SIU, Saunders said.

The SIUs website states that in the case of an off-duty officer, it typically dont investigate unless the officer identified themselves, or displayed police equipment during an incident.

Saunders defence of why the incident was not reported to the SIU is contradicted by the account detailed to the Star by Millers lawyer, who said Michael Theriault twice identified himself as an officer  to Miller and his friends as they encountered him outside the Whitby home and on a 911 call.

The Theriaults father, John Theriault, is a longtime detective in the Toronto police professional standards unit, Falconer said.

Durham Police and its board have said very little publicly about the case.

Roger Anderson, chair of the Durham Police Services Board, was not available to comment on the case Thursday, his staff told the Star.

Durham police did not respond to multiple requests for an interview with Durham Police Chief Paul Martin on Thursday. All questions were referred to spokesperson David Selby, who repeated an earlier statement to the Star Thursday night that the responsibility to report to the SIU lay solely with Toronto police.

We are not at liberty to discuss any details related to the incident as there are active charges before the court, Selby said in an email.

When reached by the Star last week, Selby said that multiple Durham officers were at the scene of Millers alleged beating.

We conducted an investigation and interviewed multiple people. Our investigation resulted in only one person being charged  the injured male party, Selby said in an email.

The responsibility to contact the SIU should lie with whichever police force is first notified of an incident, said former SIU director Howard Morton.

They might decide to contact the police service that the officer is a member of, to have them contact the SIU, but I was always of the view that, because (police) have to contact us right away, then its whatever police service is (initially) notified, Morton added.

Mayor John Tory said the report from Waterloo Police will be made public.

I think what we have to do is let the Waterloo Police Service do their job. Theres been no suggestion that anybody associated with that police service had any involvement in this or has any prejudice going in, Tory told reporters. I trust they will do their job as police officers do, in an honest and thorough manner.

After briefly moving on to other business, the meeting was disrupted by Cole, who demanded a forum to speak to the Miller case, noting it was not made part of the public agenda.

Pringle earlier warned no disruptions would be tolerated, alluding to previous meetings where Cole and members of Black Lives Matter question the board on their oversight of police shootings and racial profiling.

As Cole continued to speak, board members, including Tory, walked out of the room.

Cole was eventually escorted outside by a group of officers, with one on each arm, and charged under the Trespass to Property Act for failing to leave when directed. The provincial offence comes with a $65 fine.

Speaking to reporters outside, Cole said the way Miller was treated is emblematic to us as Black people about how the system always turns us into the perpetrator even when we are the victim.

As a Black person who knows that this can happen to us and then knows that after its revealed that it happened that they will continue to cover it up, Im terrified, Cole said. And I have to act the way that Im acting now because sitting here calmly and quietly is not going to save my life and its not going to save the lives of Black people.

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New alcoholic Pop Shoppe beverages are sweetening LCBO shelves this summer, but some experts on alcohol policy are worried that the drink could be particularly attractive to youth.

The Pop Shoppe, a Canadian brand that sells retro-style soda in glass bottles, launched a Hard Cream Soda and a Lime Ricky Hard Soda this spring, with a seven per cent alcohol content.

The sweet, vodka-based drinks come in brightly coloured tall cans featuring the classic Pop Shoppe logo.

It isnt the first brand to have a spinoff alcoholic beverage  Snapple has a spiked iced tea, for example, and Hires Root Beer makes a vodka beverage.

Ashley Wettlaufer, research co-ordinator at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, said the Pop Shoppe drinks have a very concerning potential to appeal to youth.

She pointed to the colourful, cartoon-like label, sugary taste and familiar Pop Shoppe logo  a soda brand many adolescents may already know and drink.

Norman Giesbrecht, a CAMH scientist who specializes in alcohol policy, said he also imagines a scenario where a child might mistake the hard soda for regular pop.

Its inappropriate and risky marketing, he said. Im just baffled why this product was approved.

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Spokespeople for Pop Shoppe say that their hard soda is not targeted at youth  their nostalgic, retro-themed marketing is actually aimed at people older than 40.

Most of their customers are people with fond memories of going to Pop Shoppe stores as a kid in the 70s, said Stefan Kergl, vice-president at Beverage World Inc., which owns the Pop Shoppe brand.

That nostalgic focus would make the drinks less appealing to young people, said Mathieu Gagnon-Oosterwaal, co-founder of Blue Spike Beverages, which manufactures the alcoholic beverage.

The best way to make a product unappealing to a younger crowd is to advertise it to their parents, he said, adding that he has not heard any concerns about the product.

The labelling on the cans makes it pretty obvious they contain alcohol, he said. The cans say hard soda, 7% and have Alcoholic vodka beverage in small lettering at the bottom. The hard soda also comes in cans, while the regular soda is sold in bottles, said Gagnon-Oosterwaal.

Guidelines from the Alcohol and Gaming Commission of Ontario say alcohol cant be packaged or advertised in a way that appeals either directly or indirectly to minors. An LCBO spokesperson said the hard soda adheres to these guidelines, as well as to the Canadian Food Inspection Agencys labelling requirements and the LCBOs internal standards.

Giesbrecht, however, said the Pop Shoppe packaging goes against the spirit of not marketing to youth.

The artwork to me seems very youthful-oriented, said Giesbrecht, who believes alcohol packaging should include warning labels. I think its a mixed message, frankly.

In an email, an AGCO spokesperson said alcohol packaging and advertising doesnt need to get prior approval from the commission.

However, if the AGCO were to receive a complaint from a member of the public . . . AGCO would investigate, he said, adding that they have received no complaints about Pop Shoppe beverages.

These kinds of sweet, pre-mixed drinks are sometimes called alcopops, said Ann Dowsett Johnston, author of Drink: The Intimate Relationship Between Women and Alcohol. These innocuous-seeming drinks are particularly enticing to adolescents and women, she said.

Its an entry drink, she said. It looks like pop. It doesnt act like pop.

With so much focus on regulating tobacco and legalizing marijuana, Wettlaufer said provincial governments should also look at strengthening alcohol guidelines.

Ottawa has banned menthol cigarettes, which they say could appeal to young people, and is trying to implement plain packaging on tobacco products. The federal task force on marijuana legalization has also recommended plain packaging on cannabis.

With alcohol, however, the trend seems to be toward increased marketing and accessibility, said Giesbrecht, noting that beer and wine are now available in Ontario grocery stores.

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Deli restaurant owner Zane Caplansky has a message for Markham residents upset about the massive cow statue the city installed in their front yards: Ill take it!

If youve got a beef with that statue, youve got a beef with me, because Im all about beef, he said Thursday, less than 48 hours after Charity Crescent homeowners met with Councillor Alan Ho to express distaste over the cow their street is named after.

But the donor of the statue, Helen Roman-Barber, who is developing Markhams Cathedraltown neighbourhood in honour of her familys deep history in the area, has different plans.

Good luck, guy. Good luck, guy, she said.

Her father Stephen Romans Romandale Farm, the land on top of which Cathedraltown now rests, bought the famed cow named Brookview Tony Charity from a farm in Port Perry in 1985 for a then-record $1.45 million.

Charity was a nine-time all-Canadian or All-American show cow. Never defeated in her class, she was said to be the most productive milking cow in the world in the 1980s.

Inside Roman-Barbers office on King St. hang photos of Charity  and other family heirlooms.

The tables are covered in magazines from her ancestors lineage in Slovakia.

Theyre filled with sticky tags that denote the inspiration for everything found in her Markham development from its massive Cathedral of the Transfiguration to its bells, splash pads, cafes, arboretum, heritage apple orchard and ancient tress.

Roman-Barber plans to build Cathedraltown a traditional town square, too.

Many of the streets are named after bulls and cows Roman owned. She glows about the calves her father gave to the papal farm in Castel Gandolfo in Italy.

This is not a normal piece of suburb, she said, proudly.

The people who bought the original houses in Cathedraltown were all aware of all this history, because it was in the sales centre: the history of Romandale Farm, the street names, my dad. But people who have bought recently dont have any of that.

She says residents dont understand the planning that went into Charitys statue.

When people cite safety concerns, thats been gone into so in depth; there are no safety concerns, Roman-Barber said. The city also had to approve what we did to prove it was safe. It was a double tier of approvals.

Roman-Barber commissioned artist Ron Baird to recreate Charity in stainless steel in honour of her father.

Even the direction the statue is facing was designed so that the cow would overlook the 30-year-old trees Roman-Barber had planted in the parquet (instead of planting new trees) to the dome of the Slovak Catholic cathedral.

Residents have asked Ho to look to move Charity to a nearby pond, where she could still face the cathedral.

He says council couldnt persuade Roman-Barber to put the piece elsewhere during the planning process.

Caplansky wont give up hope. On Thursday, he met with Luke Robertson, one of Mayor John Torys staff, to make clear his interest in the statue for his Yorkville location.

He says it could be a beacon for beef lovers and an attraction the city would fall in love with.

Are you kidding? Its beautiful. I think the cow, itself, is stunning, he said.

Bob Forhan, Roman-Barbers land-use planning consultant, says Caplansky and residents shouldnt get their hopes up; Charity isnt moving.

Charity was planned to be in her crescent. Its called Charity Crescent, and that was 20 years ago, he said. Theres no way shes going to go anywhere else, because shes in her crescent where she belongs. That was where she was farmed.

To us, history is important, the most important, Roman-Barber said.

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More than seven months after the death of his brother, Soleiman, Yusuf Faqiri and his family are still waiting for an answer as to why he died.

A coroners report, released to the family earlier this month, showed that Soleiman, 30, suffered more than 50 injuries before dying in a segregation cell at the Central East Correctional Centre in Lindsay, Ontario, on Dec. 15, 2016  after an almost three-hour long confrontation with prison officers.

According to the report, Soleiman had a bruised laceration on his forehead and multiple bruises and abrasions on his face, torso and limbs  all the result of blunt impact trauma.

The report also details the final moments of Soleimans life. Diagnosed with schizophrenia in 2005, Soleiman had been placed in a segregated cell while he waited for a bed at a mental health facility. The afternoon of his death, he was taken to the shower where he stayed for just under two hours. He resisted the efforts of guards to remove him by spraying them with water and throwing shampoo bottles.

At 3 p.m., after he calmed down, guards escorted him back to his cell, his wrists and ankles cuffed. He spat on a guard and was hit in return. When he resisted going into his cell, guards used pepper spray on him, twice, and forced him to the ground. An alarm was called to get assistance, after which a large number of correctional officers entered Soleimans cell, according to the report.

The prison guards took shifts and described the ordeal as exhausting. When witnesses saw that Soleiman wasnt moving, medical personnel were called. Soleiman died at 3:45 p.m., 11 days after he was taken into custody in Lindsay, the report says.

Some of the incident was recorded on video, which the coroner had access to, but neither the family nor their lawyers have seen. Digital images of the scene after his death show several discarded items outside his cell, including a mattress, a book, white and orange sheets and garbage.

The coroners report did not determine a cause of death, calling it unascertained.

The fact that the report doesnt conclude what exactly, from a medical perspective, caused his body to stop functioning, doesnt diminish the fact that . . . there was no other event prior to his death that could have been material, said Edward Marrocco, the Faqiri familys lawyer. The only thing that happened to him before he became unresponsive was this beating.

My brother was alive before this altercation, said Faqiri. Hes dead after.

Faqiri and his family met with the coroner to discuss the report, a common procedure, according to Dr. David Eden, Regional Supervising Coroner of inquests. (Unascertained deaths) are not common, but there are times when it is the best finding to make, said Eden. In this case, it was based on the best information (they) have at the moment.

This was the second time the Faqiri family had any contact with the government. The first was a letter sent to them four months after Soleimans death, by Marie-France Lalonde, Minister of Community Safety and Correctional Services. The letter offered heartfelt and sincere condolences, adding that the Ministry takes the responsibility of individuals in our care very seriously.

It is disgraceful the way my family has been treated, said Faqiri, To this day we have no explanation.

Because Soleimans death is still part of an ongoing police investigation, neither Eden nor the Ministry could provide comment. When asked if there would be an inquest Eden answered certainly, but only after consultation with the family and the conclusion of the investigation.

According to the Ministry of the Attorney General, in Ontario, the investigation and laying of criminal charges is a function of the police.

However, Marrocco says that based on what hes been told by police, the investigation by the Kawartha police has concluded and they have reached out to a Crown Attorneys office for an opinion on whether and which criminal charges to put forward.

Both Marrocco and Faqiri expect criminal charges to be laid, saying that the post-mortem report gives reasonable grounds for this. Kawartha Police said that they could not comment at this time.

The Faqiri family were refugees from Afghanistan who moved to Canada in the early 1990s, when Soleiman was six years old. They have lived in the Ajax-Pickering area since 1998, where Soleiman is now buried. Yusuf said family was very important to Soleiman and he had a special relationship with everyone, spoke three languages and was pursuing an engineering degree.

Were in 2017, and as Canadians, we have to really, really be alarmed at what happened to Soleiman, said Yusuf.

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Police in the United States are more likely to disproportionately kill black people in areas where white residents have stronger implicit racial biases, according to a new study by a Ryerson University professor.

Lead author Eric Hehman said this research is initial evidence that racial attitudes in a community play a role in police killings  something thats long been speculated, but hard to prove due to a lack of data.

The researchers were able to determine this link even without studying police directly, suggesting that racist attitudes are prevalent across communities and not just in police forces.

In a lot of the media stories theres kind of this onus on the police  that theyre responsible or that theyre racist, and thats why these events are happening, said Hehman, who has been a psychology professor at Ryerson University for two years.

Im not saying that the police dont have these biases themselves. What Im saying is its not just the police that have these biases.

Hehman said hed like to do a similar study in Canada, but theres a lack of available police data. Hes also missing years of key demographic information from when the Conservative government nixed the mandatory long form census in 2010.

Wed expect this to be happening in Canada as well, absolutely, whether its with Blacks or First Nations, said Hehman, who said implicit bias has a global impact.

University of Toronto psychology professor Nicholas Rule said that although police should take responsibility for their actions, this research shows a need to look at the broader climate of racism in society.

The police dont live in a vacuum, said Rule, who testified about implicit bias at the inquest into Andrew Lokus death.

Nigel Barriffe, president of the Urban Alliance on Race Relations, said hes glad to see quantitative research that confirms what has always been deeply felt among the African Canadian community.

Racism is pervasive, not just in the police force but in society in general, Barriffe said. He said there needs to be pressure on police, however, because racism in the force can have deadly repercussions, adding its critical that police receive anti-racism and anti-oppression training.

The studys researchers compared lethal force data from different regions of the U.S. in 2015 with levels of racial bias in those areas, as well as demographic information.

They measured racial bias using roughly a decades worth of data already collected from Project Implicit a website hosted by Harvard University where people can take Implicit Association Tests measuring attitudes and beliefs that they are either unwilling or unable to report.

The racial prejudice test measures how quickly and accurately participants pair white and black faces with positive or negative attributes.

Another test measuring implicit racial stereotypes looked at how strongly participants associated black faces with weapons.

The study, published Thursday by the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science, found that implicit racial bias among whites was the only factor associated with police disproportionately killing African Americans  demographic factors like income, segregation, or education levels didnt play a role.

Its really just the attitudes of whites in an area thats driving to what extent blacks are killed by police, Hehman said, noting that this relationship was particularly strong in communities that strongly associated black faces with weapons.

Hehman noted they still dont know whats causing what. More bias in a region could lead to more police killings, he said, but its also possible that more homicides could lead to more community bias.

Research on whats causing police killings has been difficult until recently, he said, as the U.S. does not have a comprehensive record of people killed by police officers. This study used data from The Guardians newspaper The Counted database, which began tracking the number of U.S. police killings in 2015.

Hehman hopes his research encourages better data collection among law enforcement agencies.

This analysis should have been able to be conducted much more easily and a long time ago, he said. I dont think that either Canada or the U.S. should be relying on independent news agencies to put together databases on their own of these really important outcomes.

Jessica Flake from York University and Jimmy Calanchini from Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg (Germany) also conducted the research.

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On a rainy summer night, lit by a palette of yellow streetlights and blue low-beams from passing cars, a young couple danced on the corner of Bloor St. West and Queens Park like an animated watercolour.

The pair was protected overhead by a single black umbrella as they held each other close. Tango music crooned over a speaker tucked under cover of the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal. Onlookers stood quietly to the side, watching.

The pair arent lovers. But they are part of something bigger  a tango community in Toronto that began just before the First World War.

This is the third renaissance, Igor El Espejero, who acted as DJ, told the Star. After tango was born in lower-class regions of Buenos Aires in the mid-to-late 1800s, the intimate dance made its way to Toronto. Booms in tango popularity hit during the First and Second World Wars, he said, then again in the mid-90s.

We come to a very safe environment, where you can just hold someone, he said. You share your personal space with someone else for ten, twelve minutes, and then its just thank you very much.

El Espejero and the pair beneath the umbrella, Desmond Chan and Junko Mita Bodie, are a part of the group that dances on city streets in the summer months. At times, theyll dance outside for five hours straight.

El Espejero called the practice milonga  simultaneously meaning the place where they dance, a particular musical genre, and one of three styles in a tango repertoire. The tango itself is simple in structure, based on a series of movements divided by either slow or quick beats.

Ruoyu Yan, who also braved the rain Wednesday night, said that the intimacy of the dance made her nervous at first. It took me three to four months to have my first close embrace, she admitted.

Yan first began dancing the tango as part of a club at the University of Toronto, before finding the larger Toronto tango scene and outdoor milonga.

During a twelve-minute tanda, we embrace another person, allowing us to be vulnerable, she explained. To her, tango is about connecting with another human being  but it also forces dancers to be vulnerable with themselves.

Its easy to become so occupied in everyday tasks and career demands in a fast-paced city like Toronto. We forget about simply being spontaneous, Yan said. Tango offers us the beauty of pause.

On a typical night of milonga, which takes place every other Wednesday in the summer  typically on that same street corner  El Espejero and Yan say there can be up to fifty dancers locked in rhythmic embraces.

But, this time, the rain kept most of them at home.

Only a few brave souls came, El Espejero said, taking a seat on a bench outside of the Royal Ontario Museum. Yan smiled, adding that Chan and Bodie dancing beneath their umbrella anyway was romantic to watch.

For Chan, it means much more.

As an immigrant to Canada from Hong Kong seven years ago, he said that finding the tango community in Toronto was like finding a hidden heaven.

It was difficult for me to establish a stable social network in such a big and diverse city like Toronto, he said. Three years in, he found tango. Being in a group like this gives me a sense of identity and belonging.

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Its a celebration, this conference on education, for which some 2,700 Indigenous people from around the world have gathered in Toronto.

You might notice them around the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. Or, you might not.

Theres no Made on Reserve stamp on our forehead, says Dr. Verna Billy-Minnabarriet, a B.C. educator and vice-president of the Nicola Valley Institute of Technology.

Every one of the leading Indigenous educators from B.C., Hawaii, Australia and New Zealand I spoke to this week agreed: its insulting to say to an Indigenous person, But you dont look native.

While this emerged as a footnote in an hours-long rich group discussion on how these geographically disparate groups were brought together by a common history, it tapped into a larger issue that inextricably links them together.

Colonization is a common cancer that afflicted Indigenous people across the world, said Bob Morgan, a professor at the University of Newcastle, Australia.

Its easy to see how being colonized by the same people has resulted in some of the same outcomes  higher poverty, lower health indicators, suicide crises, disproportionate rates of incarceration and removal of children from families. It has also given them a common language with which to mobilize, to exchange ideas.

But riddle me this. How do people with no known connections for centuries all interpret land the same way?

In my culture, we dont own land. Land is a gift. And our job is to take care of that land and to ensure that that land is there for those who come behind, says Billy-Minnabarriet. Whereas in dominant society land is a commodity.

Our largest relationship is to the land, said Dr. Noe Noe Wong-Wilson, a native, or Kanaka Maoli, from Hawaii. Its not a commodity. Its in essence an inseparable part of ourselves. If you remove a native from the land, they struggle to survive physically, spiritually, economically.

Our connectedness is to country and to our waters and land, says Peter Buckskin, professor at the University of South Australia.

The soreness about having your identity doubted is at least partly linked to this connectedness to land.

When you tell a native person they dont look native, not only are you saying they dont fit your stereotype of them, youre also suggesting they are not entitled to their own land.

At one time, to qualify for Hawaiian land, you had to have 50 per cent native blood. Given all the intermingling of cultures, this year, the state legislature changed the blood quantum required to inherit native lands to 1/32.

This blood logic or the idea of measurable blood purity is a colonial construct historically used to override traditional norms that defined Indigeneity. It was a tool to determine ineligibility for benefits and rights reserved for white people. Now its used to reduce Indigenous populations by recognizing fewer of them, to cut off access to land and undermine Indigenous sovereignty.

The solidarity of this group also springs from the struggle to be allowed to live as Indigenous people.

Our greatest challenge is to live as Maori, said Bentham Othia, deputy chair of the Waikato Endowed Colleges Trust in New Zealand. The second challenge is the survival of Maori as a people.

We are not asking for permission, said Morgan. We assert our fundamental right and freedom to be Indigenous. That is our basic human right before all else.

The sad thing is modern society doesnt even work for non-Indigenous people, he says. So why do we assume its going to work for Indigenous people?

And why is it that in every city Ive visited internationally, theres an increasing number of people living in poverty that live on the streets that are homeless that are marginalized. What type of society allows that to happen?

In the modern world Im shattered to see that young people are turning away from life and choosing death . . . so what type of society allows that to happen to their young?

The natives also found a commonality in the misconceptions and stereotypes.

Were not happy natives in hula skirts dancing seductively around coconut palms, says Wong-Wilson.

Were seen as dysfunctional, says Buckskin. All were asking for is respect and a sense of place at the table. But thats hard to continue that agenda when you continually come from a deficit model. Theres a lack of trust that Aboriginal people can solve our own problems.

One thing thats consistent is the whole attitude of being less than, says B.C.s Billy-Minnabarriet. You dont have good education, you cant keep a good job, you dont, you dont, you dont. That stereotype is consistent in the fabric of everything we do.

We will never surrender to injustice, says Morgan. The day we do, all that our forefathers fought for will mean nothing.

It is a celebration of resilience, this conference.

If theres one thing that we can celebrate it is that weve survived, says Morgan. That is our greatest achievement. We always have to see ourselves as people that are of this land . . . And were not going away.

Shree Paradkar tackles issues of race and gender. You can follow her @shreeparadkar

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A Liberal MPP has been forced to apologize for and delete a tweet posted by an aide that said an Ottawa police officer murdered a man last year.

The Twitter account belonging to Nathalie Des Rosiers (Ottawa-Vanier) featured a series of tweets Wednesday night in English and in French about the shooting of Abdirahman Abdi.

My thoughts are with Abdis family & friends murdered by a careless police officer. Be strong! Des Rosiers tweeted.

That was an apparent reference to a July 24, 2016 incident involving Ottawa police Const. Daniel Montsion after officers were called because a man was allegedly assaulting a woman.

Abdi, 37, who had a history of mental health issues, died as he was being arrested.

Montsion has been charged with manslaughter, assault with a weapon, and aggravated assault, but his trial is not expected to begin until 2019.

Des Rosiers, a prominent civil-rights lawyer and former dean of the University of Ottawa law school, issued an apology through the office of Premier Kathleen Wynne on Thursday.

Despite the tweets from my account last night, I want to make it clear I had no intention of commenting on any ongoing proceedings, said the MPP, who was elected in a November byelection.

I have absolute respect for the integrity of our judicial process. In our society everyone is innocent until proven guilty and I apologize that the comments last night did not reflect that principle, she said.

The offending tweets, which were not written by Des Rosiers, have been removed from her account.

In an interview with Radio-Canada in Ottawa, the MPP said she was not aware of the Twitter posts, but that she takes full responsibility for the tweet coming out of my account.

This doesnt reflect at all what I would have said. It is completely inappropriate. I fundamentally respect the presumption of innocence. I have spent my whole like advocating for that, so the tweet does not reflect my thoughts at all, she said.

Des Rosiers, who is widely seen as a potential cabinet minister, said someone from my staff posted the tweets without her knowledge.

I take full responsibility and I am sorry. I have already called (Ottawa police) Chief (Charles) Bordeleau. I have also called the president of the Ontario Police Association to apologize.

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JERUSALEMA senior Muslim official in Jerusalem said Wednesday that worshippers would not return to a contested shrine until Israel removes the new railings and cameras it installed after a deadly attack there, prolonging a crisis that Israel hoped it had resolved by making concessions at the site.

Ikrema Sabri, head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, said that even after Israel removed metal detectors from the site, more steps are required to restore calm. He said mass prayer protests would continue until the gates of the compound are opened, metal railings and an iron bridge removed and newly installed cameras taken down.

A lawyer working on behalf of the Muslim administration of the holy site would be in touch with Israeli police about it, he added.

Read more:

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We will not enter the mosque until these things are implemented, Sabri told The Associated Press. Now we are awaiting the response of the police.

The demands set off the prospect of a renewed showdown ahead of Friday prayers at the site, when a large number of worshippers arrive for the centrepiece of the Muslim prayer week.

Israel installed the new security measures earlier this month after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site. It said they were necessary to prevent more attacks, while Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site. The issue sparked some of the worst street clashes in years and threatened to draw Israel into conflict with other Arab and Muslim nations.

Under intense pressure, Israel removed the metal detectors and said it planned to install sophisticated security cameras instead.

But Palestinian politicians and Muslim clerics say that isnt enough and are demanding Israel restore the situation at the shrine in Jerusalems Old City to what it was before the July 14 deadly attack.

In response to that attack, Israel closed the site for two days for weapons searches and installed the metal detectors. The decision quickly triggered Muslim protests amid rumours that Israel was trying to expand its control at the site under the guise of security  a claim Israel strongly denied.

Low-level clashes have continued in and around Jerusalem. The Red Crescent said 13 people were treated Tuesday night after being hit by rubber bullets during protests.

The continued standoff highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the shrine  the third-holiest in Islam and the most sacred in Judaism.

The 37-acre (15-hectare) compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, has been a lightning rod for the rival religious and national narratives of the two sides and has triggered major confrontations in the past.

The latest development could put Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a tough spot, as he tries to tamp out a wave of unrest that has triggered international pressure while not appearing to his hard-line base as capitulating.

His government has faced a growing backlash at home for what critics said was hasty decision-making and embarrassing policy reversals. Even Israel Hayom, a free daily owned by Netanyahus billionaire patron Sheldon Adelson, denounced Israels response to the crisis as feeble and frightened.

In an unprecedented headline, the paper  which has been an unequivocal source of support for the prime minister  led with Netanyahus demonstration of helplessness.

In a face-saving compromise, and after Netanyahu spoke to Jordans King Abdullah II and others, Israels security Cabinet announced on Monday that in place of the metal detectors, it would employ nonintrusive advanced technologies  reportedly smart cameras that can detect hidden objects. The new security system is said to be set up in the next six months at a cost of $28 million.

Netanyahu appeared to be doubling back again Wednesday when he instructed police forces to conduct thorough inspections at the site.

Israeli police, meanwhile, acknowledged Wednesday that their forces have been preventing journalists from entering parts of Jerusalems Old City as part of efforts to lower tensions.

Reporters have complained this week that they were being blocked from covering the unrest around the shrine while tourists have been able to freely move about the city and film with their mobile phones.

Police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said Wednesday that journalists are being prevented from coming in those specific areas where there have been disturbances and riots. He said it was a decision made by the Jerusalem police district.

The Foreign Press Association derided the move, calling it a kind of innovative censorship that is surprising in a country that prides itself on press freedom.

Israel has also found itself in a new scuffle with Turkey, whose leader President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been among its fiercest critics. On Tuesday, Erdogan accused Israel of using security measures as a pretext to take over holy sites in Jerusalem.

Israels foreign ministry responded by calling the comments delusional, baseless and distorted.

The days of the Ottoman Empire are over, it said. He who lives in a palace of glass would be better off not throwing stones.

Netanyahus office also chimed in, saying it wondered what Erdogan would have to say to Kurds and residents of north Cyprus. Erdogan is the last one who can preach to Israel, it said in a statement.

On Wednesday, Turkeys foreign ministry called the Israeli statements arrogant.

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U.S. President Donald Trump, searching for a reason to keep the United States in Afghanistan after 16 years of war, has latched on to a prospect that tantalized previous administrations: Afghanistans vast mineral wealth, which his advisers and Afghan officials have told him could be profitably extracted by Western companies.

Trump has discussed the countrys mineral deposits with President Ashraf Ghani, who promoted mining as an economic opportunity in one of their first conversations. Trump, who is deeply skeptical about sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan, has suggested that this could be one justification for the United States to stay engaged in the country.

To explore the possibilities, the White House is considering sending an envoy to Afghanistan to meet with mining officials. Last week, as the White House fell into an increasingly fractious debate over Afghanistan policy, three of Trumps senior aides met with a chemical executive, Michael N. Silver, to discuss the potential for extracting rare-earth minerals. Silvers firm, American Elements, specializes in these minerals, which are used in a range of high-tech products.

Read more:

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Stephen A. Feinberg, a billionaire financier who is informally advising Trump on Afghanistan, is also looking into ways to exploit the countrys minerals, according to a person who has briefed him. Feinberg owns a large military contracting firm, DynCorp International, which could play a role in guarding mines  a major concern, given that some of Afghanistans richest deposits are in areas controlled by the Taliban.

In 2010, U.S. officials estimated that Afghanistan had untapped mineral deposits worth nearly $1 trillion (U.S.), an estimate that was widely disputed at the time and has certainly fallen since, given the eroding price of commodities. But the $1-trillion figure is circulating again inside the White House, according to officials, who said it had caught the attention of Trump.

The lure of Afghanistan as a war-torn Klondike is well established: In 2006, the George W. Bush administration conducted aerial surveys of the country to map its mineral resources. Under President Barack Obama, the Pentagon set up a task force to try to build a mining industry in Afghanistan  a challenge that was stymied by rampant corruption, as well as security problems and the lack of roads, bridges or railroads.

None of these hurdles has been removed in the last eight years, according to former officials, and some have worsened. They warn that the Trump administration is fooling itself if it believes that extracting minerals is a panacea for Afghanistans myriad ills.

It would be dangerous to use the potential for resource exploitation as a selling point for military engagement, said Laurel Miller, a senior analyst at the RAND Corp. who served until last month as the State Departments special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. The barriers to entry are really quite considerable, and that kind of argument could fuel suspicion about Americas real intentions in Afghanistan.

But for Trump, as a businessman, it is arguably the only appealing thing about Afghanistan. Officials said he viewed mining as a win-win that could boost that countrys economy, generate jobs for Americans and give the U.S. a valuable new beachhead in the market for rare-earth minerals, which has been all but monopolized by China.

China already has a $3 billion contract to develop a copper mine about 40 kilometres southeast of the Afghan capital, Kabul. Officials said Trump was determined not to spend U.S. lives and treasure in Afghanistan only to watch China lock up its rare-earth deposits, which are used to make products from wind turbines to computer chips.

Silver, the chemical executive, may head an effort to maximize the rights for U.S. companies to extract these minerals, according to a senior official.

Trumps interest also reflects how his military advisers have struggled to present him with other persuasive reasons to send troops to the country, where the United States has been at war since 2001.

The White Houses review of Afghanistan policy  led by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and the national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster  was supposed to be finished by the middle of July. Instead, it bogged down after Trump expressed displeasure with a proposal from McMaster for a modest troop increase and a multi-year commitment to the country.

Policy meetings have become increasingly heated, officials said, as Trump and his chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, have squared off against McMaster. Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson is also said to be unhappy with the current proposals.

Vice-President Mike Pence, not McMaster, will lead a meeting Wednesday of National Security Council principals on Afghanistan. Some officials said that reflected McMasters isolation; others said that the general welcomed Pences involvement and that the two were closely aligned on the policy.

But Trump, it is clear, is not. In June, he grudgingly agreed to give Mattis the authority to send additional troops  a number believed to be about 4,000  as a stopgap measure to stabilize security in Afghanistan. But Mattis has not yet used his authority, perhaps reflecting his recognition that the commander-in-chief is uncomfortable with it.

When reporters last week asked Trump at a meeting at the Pentagon whether he planned to send more troops, he answered, Well see, and added, ISIS is falling fast, suggesting he viewed the counterterrorism threat in Afghanistan as declining.

Worried that Trump will be locked into policies that did not work for the last two presidents, Bannon and the presidents son-in-law, Jared Kushner, have brought in outside voices, including Feinberg and Erik D. Prince, a founder of the private security firm Blackwater International. Both have urged using more private contractors and giving the CIA an oversight role in the conflict.

In addition, Feinberg has reached out to people involved in the Obama administrations effort to build Afghanistans mining industry. Some warned him that the prospects for a profitable business are worse now than in 2009, given the decline in commodities prices and the deteriorating security in areas where the deposits are believed to lie.

Afghanistans deposits of copper and iron ore are trading at about a third of their 2010 prices. Most of the undiscovered deposits of rare-earth minerals are believed to be in Helmand province, large parts of which are controlled by the Taliban.

There are undoubtedly minerals to be exploited in Afghanistan, which could help provide economic stability to the country in the future, said Daniel F. Feldman, a former special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan. But given all the obstacles, it could be many years before mining yields dividends for the Afghan people.

One advantage is that the Trump administration would have a willing partner in the Afghan government. During the Obama administration, Ghani resisted the rapid development of the mining industry, largely because he worried about the threat of widespread corruption that would come with it.

But as soon as Trump was elected, Ghani reversed his position, contacting the Trump team and promoting Afghanistans mineral wealth. He realized that Trump would be intrigued by the commercial possibilities, officials said.

Trump has said little publicly about Afghanistan since being elected. But his thinking about what the United States should reap for its military efforts was made clear in another context soon after his inauguration. Speaking to employees of the CIA, the president said the U.S. had erred in withdrawing troops from Iraq without holding on to its oil.

The old expression To the victor belong the spoils, Trump declared. You remember?

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NEW YORKThe Boy Scouts chief executive apologized Thursday to members of the scouting community who were offended by the aggressive political rhetoric in U.S. President Donald Trumps recent speech to the Scouts national jamboree.

The apology came in a statement from Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh, three days after Trumps speech to nearly 40,000 scouts and adults gathered in West Virginia.

Other U.S. presidents have delivered non-political speeches at past jamborees. To the dismay of many parents and former scouts, Trump, a Republican, promoted his political agenda and derided his rivals, inducing some of the scouts in attendance to boo at the mention of Barack Obama, his Democratic predecessor.

I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree, Surbaugh said. That was never our intent . . . We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

Surbaugh noted that every sitting president since 1937 has been invited to visit the jamboree.

It is in no way an endorsement of any person, party or policies, he said. For years, people have called upon us to take a position on political issues, and we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters.

Read more:Donald Trumps Boy Scouts speech was unlike anything else in 80 years of presidential tradition: Analysis

Presidents are usually invited to address the National Scout Jamboree, a gathering that draws tens of thousands every four years. In the past, those presidential speeches dealt with broad themes like service, cooperation and the evils of drug use.

Trumps talk in Mount Hope, West Virginia, began with a similar message  never quit. Persevere. Never, ever quit  but then it veered away toward other themes.

Trump said he wouldnt talk about politics: I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when Im in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?

But he did.

Trump called the news media fake news, and said the media would underplay the size of this crowd - as if the Boy Scouts were a crowd at a political rally. Trump told the scouts about watching the U.S. map turn red on election night, and blasted President Barack Obama for never attending a jamboree. Some in the crowd booed.

Trump also told stories about events rarely discussed from the rostrum at a Scout Jamboree, like a New York cocktail party  the hottest people in New York were at this party, he said  and a friend who got rich in real estate.

He went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life, Trump said. I wont go any more than that, because youre Boy Scouts so Im not going to tell you what he did.

Read more:The 17 most jaw-dropping moments of Donald Trumps speech to Boy Scouts

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, at a news briefing, was asked about the Boy Scouts statement and whether Trump owes them an apology.

Sanders said that shed been at the event and didnt see anything inappropriate.

I saw nothing but roughly 40-45,000 boy scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, she said. And I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them.

Asked about the parents who have publicly criticized the speech, Sanders said she had nothing to add.

Surbaugh, in his statement, contended that the Trump controversy has not diminished the success of the 10-day jamboree, yet he acknowledged its impact.

Scouts have continued to trade patches, climb rock walls and share stories about the days adventures, he said. But for our Scouting family at home not able to see these real moments of Scouting, we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States.

His statement echoed some of the sentiments expressed by the Boy Scouts president, Randall Stephenson, in a phone interview with The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Stephenson said Boy Scout leaders anticipated Trump would spark controversy with a politically tinged speech, yet felt obliged to invite him out of respect for his office.

Hoping to minimize friction, the Boy Scouts issued guidelines to adult staff members for how the audience should react to the speech. Any type of political chanting was specifically discouraged.

Stephenson, who was not in attendance at Trumps speech, said the guidance wasnt followed impeccably.

There were some areas where perhaps they were not in compliance with what we instructed, he said. Theres probably criticism that could be levelled.

Stephenson was asked whether the Scouts would invite Trump back to address the next national jamboree if he wins re-election.

I dont see why we would break with tradition, whoever is holding office, Stephenson said. We are not to going to censor or edit the president of the United States. Thats beyond our pay grade, regardless of who it is.

With files from the Washington Post

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JERUSALEMClashes erupted Thursday at a sacred shrine in Jerusalem as thousands of Muslims rushed to pray at the site for the first time in nearly two weeks following Israels removal of security devices installed there after a deadly attack.

Israeli police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as Palestinians threw stones in the walled compound that is holy to both Muslims and Jews.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 37 Palestinians were wounded, including some by rubber bullets and beatings. It said several people suffered broken bones.

The new violence in Jerusalems Old City came shortly after worshippers rushed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque that was reopened following an 11-day Muslim prayer boycott over the Israeli security measures.

Read more: Jerusalem shrine crisis prolonged as protests continue

Israel removes metal detectors from Jerusalem holy site following tensions with Palestinians

Islamic leaders call for boycott of Jerusalem holy site following new security measures

Israeli police say they responded after stones were thrown at officers at the gates to the site. The Red Crescent said tensions arose when Israeli troops closed one of the gates as large numbers of worshippers tried to enter.

The shrine had been at the centre of an Israeli-Palestinian standoff over recent Israeli security installations at the site. Israel has removed the devices.

Palestinians had been praying in Jerusalems streets outside the shrine to protest the security measures taken since the July 14 attack. Israel installed the new security devices at the shrine after Israeli Arabs shot and killed two police officers from within the site.

Once Israel removed metal detectors and cameras Thursday, Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the compound. Droves of Palestinians entered for afternoon prayers, some waving national flags.

After extensive discussion and after achieving this victory in this round we call on our people in Jerusalem and inside (Israel) and anyone who can access the Al-Aqsa Mosque to enter ... en masse, the Islamic leaders said in a statement.

Abdel Azim Salhab of the Waqf, Jordans religious body that administers the site, had urged imams to close other Jerusalem mosques Friday so worshippers will pray only at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Friday prayers are the highlight of the Muslim religious week. Thousands of Muslims typically worship at the compound.

Israel has begun dismantling metal detectors from the gates of a contested Jerusalem shrine. The removal is meant to defuse escalating Israeli-Muslim tensions. Israel installed the detectors after an Arab attack killed two Israeli police guards. (The Associated Press)

Salhab said all devices had been removed from the entrances but he didnt know if security cameras mounted on the wall of the compound were also dismantled. If they remain, he said, then we reject it.

King Abdullah of Jordan urged Israel to respect the historical and legal situation in the holy shrine to prevent the recurrence of these crises.

Jordan is the Muslim custodian of the shrine  Islams third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Muslims believe the site marks the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Jews also revere the hilltop compound as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

Abdullah also criticized Israels handling of a deadly altercation at its embassy in Amman involving an Israeli security guard, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahus conduct provocative.

He blasted Netanyahu for hugging the security guard who killed two Jordanians at the Israeli Embassy over the weekend after a 16-year-old attacked the guard with a screwdriver.

Such unacceptable and provocative behaviour at all levels infuriates all of us, leads to insecurity and fuels extremism in the region, Abdullah said in a statement.

The embassy incident inflamed public opinion in Jordan, where a 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains unpopular.

Netanyahu praised the guard, saying he had acted calmly.

Abdullah told senior officials that Netanyahu needs to take legal measures that guarantee the trial of the murderer.

The incident will have a direct impact on the nature of our relations, he added.

Israel said the security measures at the Jerusalem shrine were needed to prevent more attacks and were standard procedure around the world. Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site, which Israel denied.

The issue sparked some of the worst street clashes in years and threatened to draw Israel into conflict with other Arab and Muslim nations.

After some of the security devices were removed early Thursday, Palestinians danced, chanted God is great and set off fireworks. Metal detectors were dismantled earlier this week.

Israel had faced intense pressure over the security devices and said it plans to install sophisticated cameras instead. But Palestinian politicians and Muslim clerics insist Israel restore the situation at the shrine to what it was before the attack.

The fate of the site is an emotional issue at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Even the smallest perceived change to delicate arrangements for the site sparks tensions.

Israels decision to add security measures there outraged Muslim and triggered protests, and low-level clashes have continued in and around Jerusalem in the days since.

The crisis highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians over the holy site.

Netanyahu is trying to halt a wave of unrest while not appearing to his hard-line base as capitulating.

Naftali Bennett, a senior member of Netanyahus coalition government, criticized the dismantling of the security devices, saying it could bring more violence.

Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, told Army Radio that every time Israel folds in a strategic way, we get hit with an Intifada. You seemingly benefit in the short term, but in the long term you harm deterrence.

The Islamic militant group that rules Gaza praised the move. Izzat Risheq, a senior Hamas leader, tweeted that Palestinians achieved a historic victory.

Separately, Netanyahu called for the death penalty for a Palestinian who sneaked into a West Bank settlement home July 21 and killed three Israelis.

Netanyahu visited the family of the three Israelis stabbed to death and said that the time has come for the death penalty for terrorists in extreme cases.

Though Israeli law permits the death penalty, the country has put only one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in 1962.

Netanyahu said his position on the 19-year-old Palestinian attacker, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier, is that he needs to be put to death.

Several members of Netanyahus cabinet issued similar calls recently.

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BRUSSELSA group of anti-migrant activists chartered a ship to help turn people back to northern Africa. This week, part of its own crew claimed asylum along the way.

The Wednesday asylum claim in Cyprus breakaway north by five Sri Lankans who were on the ship was a setback for the activists, members of the far-right Generation Identity movement, who hired the Djibouti-flagged C-Star to take them off the coast of Libya to try to disrupt the flow of migrants. More than 94,000 people have come to Italy in 2017 by setting sail from Libya in rickety dinghies and small boats, then getting picked up by naval vessels and ships run by charities.

The flow has enraged anti-immigrant activists and increasingly many ordinary Italians, who say that the aid organizations are playing into smugglers hands by functioning as a crucial link in the transport process to Italy. The Italian government has put new pressure on the aid groups and is seeking to send more migrants back to Libya. Critics say that is a violation of international law, because migrants face abuse, exploitation and war once back on Libyan shores.

The ship has been making its way to Sicily to pick up the activists, who are waiting in the port city of Catania as part of an operation they call Defend Europe.

But when the ship docked in north Cyprus on the way to Italy, 20 Sri Lankan men hopped out, and five of them claimed asylum, according to the activists. The activists said the men were apprentice sailors who were always planning to return home.

But a northern Cypriot asylum advocate who is assisting the men quoted them as saying that they had actually paid to be smuggled into Europe.

They called us saying their documents were fake, theyre not really sailors, and they paid smugglers in Sri Lanka something more than $10,000 to be taken to Italy, said Faika Deniz Pasha, an associate at the Refugee Rights Organization. And they flew from Sri Lanka to Djibouti to join this ship.

The claim led northern Cypriot authorities to detain the rest of the crew on Wednesday to investigate whether they had forged parts of the ships manifest, then deport them Thursday, Pasha said. Northern Cypriot police did not respond to a request for comment. They have not gotten very far in the investigation, probably because document verification is difficult given that the breakaway northern part of Cyprus is recognized only by Turkey and does not have diplomatic relations with other nations.

The anti-immigrant activists disputed that the Sri Lankans were trying to be smuggled into Europe and said the five asylum seekers had been bribed by the refugee organization into filing a claim.

On board, there were also 20 apprentice sailors, the activists said in a statement. They pay to make miles on this ship in order to validate their diplomas.

As the apprentices were about to return to their country of origin, NGOs offered them to stay in Europe and apply for asylum, in exchange for promises and money, the activists said. They said the 20 men had already tried to disembark in Egypt but were unable to do so. They offered no explanation why.

Pasha laughed at the accusation that her organization was bribing the asylum seekers to stay.

Any sensible person would know that we really dont have much money to bribe people, she said, noting that as a human rights organization in a small enclave recognized only by Turkey, it doesnt have much spare cash.

The Generation Identity movement is a collection of pan-European anti-immigration youth groups that say they want to defend their European identities against migration from outside Europes borders. They have been joined by a handful of anti-immigrant youth activists from the United States.

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ANCHORAGE, ALASKAA Utah man killed his wife aboard an Alaska cruise and told an acquaintance who later walked into the couples blood-splattered room that he did it because she laughed at him, the FBI said in documents released Thursday.

Kenneth Manzanares was charged with murder after he was found with blood on his hands and clothes and blood spread throughout the cabin on the Princess Cruises ship Tuesday night, according to a criminal complaint by FBI Special Agent Michael L. Watson.

Kristy Manzanares, 39, had a severe head wound, but authorities have declined to release other details in the case, including how many people were travelling with the couple on the 3,400-passenger Emerald Princess that left Sunday from Seattle.

A man and others went into the room before medical workers and security officers had arrived and saw the woman on the floor covered in blood, according to court documents. The man asked Manzanares what happened, and the suspect said, She would not stop laughing at me.

Manzanares then grabbed his wifes body and tried to drag her to the balcony, but the man stopped him, Watson wrote. A ship security officer handcuffed Manzanares in a nearby cabin.

While the FBI searched him, he spontaneously said, My life is over.

Manzanares, 39, was scheduled to appear in federal court by video conference from Alaskas capital city of Juneau later Thursday. He has no criminal history, according to online Utah court records.

We conducted approximately 200 interviews of passengers and crew members, Marlin Ritzman, FBI special agent in charge of the Alaska bureau, told reporters.

The ship was diverted to Juneau because of the investigation, which the FBI is leading because the death occurred in U.S. waters. The ship docked Wednesday morning, and passengers were kept on board for hours before the cruise departed late that night for the southeast Alaska town of Skagway.

Princess Cruises said in a statement Thursday that passengers will receive $150 on-board credit because of the effect on their vacations.

You feel sorry for the family, but a lot of people had to wait, said Lloyd Barrows, a passenger from Alberta, Canada.

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COLUMBUS, OHIOInspectors repeatedly looked over a thrill ride while it was assembled at the Ohio State Fair and signed off on it hours before it flew apart in a deadly accident that flung passengers into the ground, according to authorities and records released Thursday.

Investigators worked to find out what caused the opening-day wreck that killed a high school student who had just enlisted in the Marines. Seven other people were injured, including four teenagers.

The rides Dutch manufacturer told operators of the same attraction at fairs and festivals around the world to stop using it until more is learned about what caused the malfunction.

Read more: Deadly midway accident in Ohio prompts Edmonton fair to close ride

Ohio Gov. John Kasich shut down all rides at the state fair and ordered them inspected again. He said it was too early to say whether inspectors missed something that led to the tragedy Wednesday night.

Its a nightmare. Its a terrible situation, he said.

Video taken by a bystander of the swinging, spinning Fire Ball ride in action captured a crashing sound. A section holding four riders came apart, and screams could be heard as at least two people were ejected and plunged toward the ground. Other riders were still in their seats as they fell.

Tyler Jarrell, 18, of Columbus, was thrown about 50 feet and pronounced dead on the midway. The Marine Corps and school officials said Jarrell enlisted last week and was going to begin basic training next summer after his high school graduation.

That was just this past Friday. Then he goes to the state fair and he is involved in this horrible tragedy. Its just devastating, said Capt. Gerard Lennon Jr., a naval science instructor in the Junior ROTC program at Jarrells high school.

The injured ranged in age from 14 to 42. At least two were listed in critical condition. Some people were hit by debris.

Jarrells girlfriend was among those seriously injured, her mother told The Columbus Dispatch. Keziah Lewis, a University of Cincinnati student, doesnt remember the accident and has pelvis, ankle and rib injuries, Clarissa Williams said.

She kept asking for her boyfriend, Williams said. I had to tell her he was the one who was deceased.

Kaylie Bellomy was in the next group waiting to board the Fire Ball.

It was going for a minute and it was at its highest point and I saw somebody fall on the ride, and then a minute later the whole like row of seats fell off and hit the ground, Bellomy told WCMH-TV.

She said it was chaos afterward: Everybody was running. I got ran over trying to get out of the way.

Records show that inspections on Fire Ball were up to date and a state permit was issued for the ride on Wednesday, the fairs opening day.

Ohio Department of Agriculture records provided to The Associated Press showed passing marks on inspections of about three dozen items, including possible cracks, brakes, proper assembly and installation.

All rides at the fair are checked several times when they are being set up to ensure the work is done the way the manufacturer intended, said Agriculture Director David Daniels.

Michael Vartorella, Ohios chief inspector of amusement ride safety, said the Fire Ball was inspected three or four times before the fair opened. He said that some work on all the rides was delayed by heavy rains last week but that the inspections were completed and not rushed.

Col. Paul Pride of the State Highway Patrol said inspectors are basically going to do an autopsy on that machine to figure out why it malfunctioned.

I cant tell you with a matter of certainty how many days or weeks this will take, he said.

Amusements of America, the company that provides rides to the state fair, said it is committed to working with investigators to determine the cause. It said Fire Ball had been checked by its staff and independent inspectors before the fair opened.

Fire Ball swings 24 riders back and forth like a pendulum 40 feet above the ground while they sit in four-seat carriages that spin at 13 revolutions a minute, according to the companys website.

The rides manufacturer, KMG, said the one at the Ohio fair was built in 1998 in the Netherlands. Forty-three of the rides, also known as the Afterburner, are in use around the world, 11 of them in the U.S., according to KMG. None has had a serious malfunction before, the company said in an email to the AP.

After the accident, fairs in California, New Jersey and Canada shut down similar rides before the company issued its order.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is also investigating. It estimates there were 30,900 injuries associated with amusement attractions last year that required an emergency room visit.

It said there have been at least 22 deaths associated with amusement attractions in the U.S. since 2010.

The Ohio State Fair, which remained open Thursday, is one of the biggest state fairs in the U.S. It drew 900,000 people last year.

Our hearts are heavy for the families of those involved in last nights tragic accident, fair officials said on Twitter.

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RAJA PUR, PAKISTANPolice on Thursday arrested the head of a village council in central Pakistan for allegedly sanctioning the rape of a teenage girl, a police spokeswoman said.

In multiple raids over two days, police also arrested 23 councilmen over the same case, according to the spokeswoman, Shabina Kareem.

The suspects all attended a July meeting in which council chief Saeed Patwari allegedly gave Mohammad Ashfaq permission to rape a 17-year-old girl to avenge the rape of his 13-year-old sister by another man, Omar Wadda.

Such honour crimes are still common in some rural Pakistani areas. A village council in 2002 ordered the so-called honour gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, a young woman who took her rapists to court. That case gathered international prominence and she later opened a school for rural girls.

In this latest case, a regional police chief and some other officers were fired for their belated response after the first rape took place in the village of Raja Pur, near the city of Multan, on July 16. The second rape followed two days later.

We will do justice with the both victims, said Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, during a visit to Multan.

Kareem, the police spokeswoman, said Ashfaq was still at large but Wadda has been arrested and charged with raping Ashfaqs sister.

Residents in Raja Pur stepped forward with shocking details about the council meeting and how the case of the rape was common knowledge.

Mohammad Bilal, a cousin of the 17-year-old rape victim, described how the council declined the familys request to turn to the police, instead seeking to do justice in line with traditions of the village  and order the second rape.

Bilal said some women from Waddas family were present when the council met.

The incident angered domestic and international human right activists.

Nadia Rahman, Amnestys campaigner in Pakistan, appealed on Islamabad to crack down on the so-called village councils that prescribe horrific crimes against women, often in revenge for acts committed by others.

She said Pakistans failure to protect women against the arbitrary and cruel decisions of village and tribal councils had been subject of long-standing scrutiny by United Nations human rights bodies.

Tahira Abdullah, a top human rights activist, condemned the rapes and said that what the council did was illegal. She demanded stern action against all who sanction such crimes.

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SAN SALVADOR, EL SALVADORAfter being berated for a week by U.S. President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he will stay in the job for as long as Trump wants him to serve.

Sessions told The Associated Press he and Trump have a harmony of values and beliefs and he intends to stay and fight for the presidents agenda as long as he sees that as appropriate.

If he wants to make a change, he has every right, Sessions said in an interview outside the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador during a mission to increase international co-operation against the MS-13 gang. I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job.

Congressional Republicans have rallied around Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, and expressed mortification at the humiliation visited on him by Trump in several interviews and a series of tweets branding him weak and ineffective.

Read more: Key Republicans rally around Jeff Sessions in wake of Trump attacks on attorney general

Trumps attacks on Sessions, Mueller raise concerns about authoritarian tactics

Trump publicly calls Jeff Sessions position weak, privately asks about firing him

Trump is upset that Sessions recused himself months ago from the investigation into interactions between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and that he has not taken a tougher line against his defeated Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned Thursday there would be holy hell to pay if Trump fired Sessions.

After meeting his Salvadoran counterpart, Sessions told AP he was thrilled with the support hes received, presumably from lawmakers.

I believe we are running a great Department of Justice, he said. I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda.

He acknowledged, with considerable understatement, it hasnt been my best week . . . for my relationship with the president. The two have not spoken recently, he said. But I look forward to the opportunity to chat with him about it.

In Congress, Republican Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska went to the Senate floor Thursday to discourage Trump from making a so-called recess appointment while the Senate is away at the end of August  should that be the presidents intention. A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint anyone of his choosing and bypass Senate confirmation until 2019 if the Senate recesses for 10 days or more in August.

If youre thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it, Sasse said. The presidency isnt a bull, and this country isnt a china shop.

The previous evening, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, tweeted that he wouldnt be holding a confirmation hearing for a new attorney general if Trump decided to go that route.

The committees agenda is set for the rest of 2017, he tweeted, adding: AG no way.

The White House of late has appeared to be trying to tamp down the notion that Trump wants Sessions out  without offering a rousing endorsement of him, however.

The president wants him to do his job, do it properly, the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Thursday. He wants him to be tough on the intelligence leaks and he wants him to move forward.

In San Salvador, Sessions met his Salvadoran counterpart, Douglas Melendez, and congratulated him on charges laid over the last two days against more than 700 gang members, many of them from MS-13, said the Justice Department.

He also met members of an international anti-gang task force at an event where an FBI agent described MS-13 as a highly co-ordinated and well-organized gang whose imprisoned leaders order violence in the U.S. from their prisons in El Salvador.

MS-13 is an international criminal enterprise with tens of thousands of members in several Central American countries and many U.S. states. The gang originated in immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s then entrenched itself in Central America when its leaders were deported.

Its known for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes, drug dealing, prostitution and other rackets. Its recruits are middle- and high-school students predominantly in immigrant communities, and those who try to leave risk violent retribution, law enforcement officials have said.

MS-13 members have been accused in a spate of bloodshed that included the massacre of four young men in a Long Island, New York, park and the killing of a suspected gang rival inside a deli. The violence has drawn attention from members of Congress and Trump, who has boasted about efforts to arrest and deport MS-13 members across the United States.

For Sessions, the anti-gang mission was a way to show his priorities are Trumps priorities after days of being upbraided by the president in the most public fashion.

In Washington, lawmakers moved on efforts to prevent the dismissal of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, a development that might be made easier if Sessions were moved aside.

Graham is working on legislation that would block the firing of special counsels without judicial review. Democrats Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut said Thursday they are among the senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee who are working with Graham on the effort.

Blumenthal said the bill would protect Mueller and other special counsels. He said firing Mueller would precipitate a firestorm that would be unprecedented in proportions.

Sessions recused himself from the investigation into election meddling after he acknowledged meeting with Russias ambassador during the campaign.

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In the Bronze Age, between 4,000 and 3,000 years ago, a diverse group of people called the Canaanites lived in the Middle East. Despite their culture and influence  one of the only golden calf idols discovered was found in the Canaan seaport of Ashqelon  they left behind little information about themselves. Other civilizations made records of them, such as the Greeks, Egyptians and the authors of the Hebrew Bible. But, without Canaanite texts to cite, scholars view the ancient people as a bit of an enigma.

We havent found any of their writings, said Chris Tyler-Smith, a geneticist who studies human evolution at the Sanger Institute in Britain. Perhaps they wrote on papyrus but not longer-lasting clay.

We dont have direct information from them, he said. In that sense, they are a mystery.

Read more:Raising Canaan? Wine cellar found in ancient palace

Their final fate, too, was a puzzle. The Hebrew text offers one explanation for the destiny of the Canaanites: annihilation. The Israelites, per Deuteronomy 20:16-18, were commanded to utterly destroy the cities of various tribes, including the Canaanites. Those who survived fled or became servants.

But historians are skeptical that either exodus or annihilation occurred. University of North Carolina religious studies professor Bart Ehrman noted in a 2013 blog post that, beyond the Hebrew Bible, there are no references in any other ancient source to a massive destruction of the cities of Canaan.

Now, a study of Canaanite DNA, published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics, rules out the biblical idea that an ancient war wiped out the group. The DNA, when compared to that of modern-day people, shows that the Canaanites managed to leave a long line of descendants. Even if they suffered some defeats, enough people survived that they contributed to the present-day population, Tyler-Smith said.

Tyler-Smith and his colleagues sampled ancient DNA from five Canaanite people who lived 3,750 and 3,650 years ago. Though the skeletal remains were buried in a hot and humid region along the Mediterranean, the scientists were still able to extract genetic material. They mined the petrous bone, a region of skull behind the ear thats also the densest bone in the body. (The discovery that the tough petrous bone protects DNA like a bank vault has, in recent years, greatly advanced the study of ancient DNA.)

The geneticists sequenced the Canaanite genome and compared it to genomes of modern people, including Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and others from around the world. The comparison revealed that 90 per cent of the genetic ancestry of people in Lebanon came from the Canaanites. (The other 10 per cent was of a Eurasian steppe population.)

We can say that Lebanese mostly descend from an ancestry that is found in those five individuals, said Marc Haber, a Sanger Institute geneticist and an author of the new study. What we find is that the ancestry has changed, but it has changed very little.

The unbroken genetic heritage was a surprise. From the Bronze Age onward, that coastal Mediterranean region has been the site of repeated conquering and reshuffling of populations. There was more genetic continuity in Lebanon than in a place like England, Tyler-Smith said.

Its an exciting time to be investigating ancient DNA, the geneticists said. The Canaanites were an ideal case study  ancient genomes can provide information not available through historical records or archeology. But the corridor from Egypt to Asia was a path well-worn by many groups moving in and out of Africa. The researchers plan to use similar methods to study other Mediterranean populations in different time periods.

The Near East region is very important to understand how the human genome was shaped, Haber said, allowing experts to unpack the diversity we see in present day population.

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WASHINGTONU.S. President Donald Trump and Republican leaders in Congress have agreed to kill an import-tax proposal that was strongly opposed by the Canadian government.

While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform, Trumps treasury secretary, Steven Mnuchin, House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell jointly announced in a news release on Thursday.

Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland hailed the death of the tax.

Canada is pleased to see the border tax proposal dropped by the U.S. We know our people and economies prosper together, she said on Twitter.

The Conservatives Canada-U.S. relations critic, Randy Hoback, said they were pleased with the decision, having told U.S. lawmakers that the tax would have damaging effects.

The tax, known as a border-adjustment tax, was pushed by Ryan but faced major resistance in the Senate, where it was thought to be dead on arrival had it been pursued. Trump had sent mixed signals, at one point claiming it would create jobs and at another saying it was too complicated.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke against the tax while addressing energy executives in Houston in March.

Recognizing, of course, how much the Canadian economy depends on close collaboration and integration with the American economy, anything that creates impediments at the border  extra tariffs or new taxes  is something were concerned with, Trudeau said.

At the World Economic Forum in New York in April, Finance Minister Bill Morneau said Canada believes the tax would create an initial negative for both economies  and that the negative may be worse for the United States economy.

In broad terms, the tax would have been applied to imports  perhaps at a rate of 20 per cent  but not to exports. Retailers and other businesses reliant on imported goods had argued that the tax would increase costs for U.S. consumers.

The announcement comes less than a month before the formal opening of negotiations on revisions to the North American Free Trade Agreement. The talks begin in Washington on Aug. 16.

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Fourteen years after Stephen Harper and Stockwell Day penned their proclamation of support for the illegal invasion of Iraq in the Wall Street Journal, another Canadian politician took to the WSJ to valorize another American contravention of international law: the abuse of Omar Khadr.

Conservative foreign affairs critic Peter Kents op-ed excoriated the Canadian governments settlement with Khadr: an apology and reported $10.5 million in compensation, for Canadas many years of complicity in Khadrs imprisonment and torture in the legal black hole called Guantanamo Bay.

This payout was a cynical subversion of Canadian principles, Kent fulminated. Tea Party activist and former Republican leadership candidate Herman Cain agreed, condemning the settlement on Fox News as a pathetic interpretation of the law.

These castigations of the Khadr settlement reverse reality. It is not Canadas compensation to Omar Khadr that is a cynical subversion and pathetic interpretation of the law, but the U.S.s manipulation of legal processes to punish Khadr for his alleged misdeeds while routinely ignoring its own.

Khadr was charged in the Guantanamo military commissions with murder in violation of the law of war, for the death of U.S. Delta Force soldier Christopher Speer (who has misleadingly been described as a medic)  but killing an enemy soldier in combat is not a war crime. The prosecution asserted that Khadr violated the laws of war because he was an unlawful combatant  a civilian acting as a soldier  in the firefight in which Speer was killed.

By that standard, the CIA should also be considered guilty of war crimes, for committing murder as an unlawful combatant. No less than their insurgent targets, [CIA agents] are fighters without uniforms or insignia, directly participating in hostilities, employing armed force contrary to the laws and customs of war, writes law professor and Marine veteran Gary Solis.

CIA drone strikes in Pakistan, Somalia, and Yemen have not only killed people the U.S. claimed were militants, but also untold scores of civilians; civilians like Mamana Bibi, a 68-year-old woman who was obliterated in front of her grandchildren while picking vegetables in North Waziristan.

Under the legal theories adopted by our government in prosecuting Guantanamo detainees, these CIA officers [involved in the drone program]  are committing war crimes, observed international law professor and former Navy officer David Glazier.

But unlike Omar Khadr, the architects and executors of the CIA drone program have not been penalized as war criminals. Quite the contrary  their powers have been increased by President Trump.

The U.S. has also largely failed to prosecute the torture and killing of thousands of Afghan civilians by American forces since 2001. To pick just one massacre out of many: no one has been brought to justice for the U.S.s 2015 bombing of a Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) hospital in Kunduz, which killed 42 civilians; hospital staff were decapitated by shrapnel, while immobile patients burned alive in their beds.

The U.S. conducted an internal investigation into the bombing (under pressure from MSF) and exonerated itself of war crimes, by claiming its transgressions of the laws of war were not intentional  a much higher threshold for guilt than it applies to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, where acts that are merely negligent can qualify as war crimes.

The U.S. government surely cant have it both ways, remark law professors Ryan Goodman and Steve Vladeck.

If Omar Khadr is a terrorist and a murderer for killing one American soldier, what does that make those responsible for the deaths of so many civilians?

And if the family of Christopher Speer deserves compensation, dont families bereaved by the war on terror deserve compensation too?

Sgt. Speers widow was awarded $134 million against Omar Khadr, on the strength of Khadrs torture-extracted confession to murdering her husband  even while U.S. courts have steadfastly blocked lawsuits by those on the receiving end of American violence.

Instead, the U.S. offers condolence payments, without any admission of wrongdoing, for a fraction of the civilians it kills or injures. In Afghanistan, the average payment for a death between 2011 and 2013 was $3,426; the U.S. gave $6,000 for each person it killed in the hospital in Kunduz.

Fourteen years after the invasion of Iraq, that war is widely acknowledged as a debacle that breached international prohibitions against aggression. Canadian politicians should have learned this lesson from Iraq: those who side with American might over international right are not judged kindly by history.

Azeezah Kanji is a legal analyst based in Toronto. She writes in the Star every other Thursday.

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As Fiat Chrysler Automobiles N.V. (FCAU) - Get Free Report prepares to release its second-quarter financial report on Thursday, July 27, investors will be focused on the sales drop at Jeep.

Jeep, arguably FCA's strongest and most reliable brand as well as its biggest moneymaker, has suffered a 13.2% decline in sales in the U.S. through the first half of the year. Jeep's slide is significantly worse than the 2.2% slide for the overall U.S. vehicle market over the same period.

FCA explains that Jeep's numbers aren't bad and more or less track what the automaker planned when it juggled production, switching models built at a couple of its assembly plants in Toledo, Ohio,and Belvidere, Ill. The automaker replaced its Compass and Patriot SUVs with an all-new Compass. And like its rivals at Ford Motor Co. (F) - Get Free Report and General Motors Co. (GM) - Get Free Report , Fiat Chrysler deliberately reduced lower-profit sales to daily-rental fleets.

A new Jeep Cherokee went into production last month at Belvidere and a new Renegade is due in 2018. Jeep plans to display a new Wrangler later this year and also has plans for a Jeep pickup truck, a new Grand Cherokee and the reintroduction of the iconic Wagoneer.

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Based on three analysts' forecasts, the consensus earnings-per-share forecast for FCA's second quarter is 59 cents. Fiat Chrysler earned 51 cents a share a year earlier.

The automaker, despite a debt-heavy balance sheet, has shown remarkable progress toward long-term sustainability since the 2009 bankruptcy of Chrysler and subsequent merger with Fiat. Much of the credit must be attributed to CEO Sergio Marchionne and the team around him which recognized the potential of Jeep, Ram pickup trucks and, to a lesser extent, Chrysler's minivans.

Marchionne hasn't been afraid of bold moves, such as the spinoff of Ferrari and the discontinuation of the relatively new Dodge Dart and Chrysler 200 car models when they proved uncompetitive.

Still, Wall Street views FCA with some skepticism as 2017 looks more and more like the first year in seven that the U.S. vehicle market declines and automakers will have to cut prices to maintain sales. The industry's hope is that growth could return in 2018, which would be great news for Marchionne, who plans to retire in early 2019. His earlier forays to merge or ally with larger, stronger automakers haven't panned out.

Adam Jonas, equity analyst for Morgan Stanley, earlier this month issued a research report in which he stated that Jeep would be more valuable to shareholders if it, too, were spun off. The opinion is a left-handed compliment for FCA, which has more than quadrupled Jeep sales since 2009 and has plans to increase sales even more on a global basis.

So far, Marchionne hasn't indicated any solid plan to spin off Jeep. But when asked on an April earnings call whether he would consider the move, he answered, "Yes."

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Doron Levin is the host of "In the Driver Seat," broadcast on SiriusXM Insight 121, Saturday at noon, encore Sunday at 9 a.m.

This article is commentary by an independent contributor. At the time of publication, the author held no positions in the stocks mentioned.
McDonald's Corp. (MCD) - Get Free Report restaurants of the future are almost unrecognizable.

In Tuesday's conference call, McDonald's President, CEO and Director Stephen J. Easterbrook said its Polish eateries provide a look at the company's plans for the future. Easterbrook called the eastern European nation the company's "incubator market," since its restaurants there have adopted all aspects of the fast-food chain's "Experience of the Future," or EOTF, at once.

"Experience of the Future, or EOTF, as we call it, fundamentally changes the way customers interact with our brands," Easterbook said in the call. "We're providing an experience that is more personal and less stressful, matching our best people with technology platforms like self-order kiosks, digital menu boards and table service. Changes in the layout of our dining rooms and service areas create better customer flow and give us the ability to enhance our McCafe and dessert business."

McDonald's has introduced some aspects of its EOTF such as McDelivery in the U.S. and other markets, including Canada and Italy.

The Golden Arches also wants to be your afternoon snack go-to. Would you try its newest menu lineup?

"[EOTF is] making a difference for customers and for our business," Easterbook said. "Comparable sales and guest counts in [Milan and Catania, Italy] are above the market averages and in line with the mid-single-digit sales lifts that we have seen in other markets that have made progress with EOTF deployment."

In the U.S., McDonald's same-restaurant sales increased 3.9% in the second quarter, versus the 3.1% expectation on Wall Street. Globally, they rose 6.6%. McDonald's shares fell 0.4% to $155.26 early Monday afternoon.

"We're building a better McDonald's, and more customers are noticing," Easterbrook said in a statement.

Here is what that "better" McDonald's is shaping up to be.

Touchscreen Ordering

Like a giant smartphone screen, McDonald's locations in Poland feature checkout kiosks with touchscreens, allowing people to order by themselves and pay with a credit card.

Haven't Ditched Cashiers Yet

McDonald's, however, does not completely abandon person-to-person ordering. At some Polish locations, however, it does ditch one single counter top seen in many U.S. eateries for individual ordering stations that give a minimalist feel.

McCafe Cafe

No, this is not a Starbucks Corp. (SBUX) - Get Free Report coffeehouse. Polish McDonald's features a coffee shop-style bar for barista-made beverages that also displays some beautiful baked goods.

Wood You Like to Eat Here?

Pictures of the space make the restaurant look spacious and comfortable with bench and booth seating as well as curvy, modern chairs. Plus, the space is covered in wood and not tile, providing a sleek, natural and updated design.

Soak in the Sun or Shade

Many of the McDonald's locations in Poland have an outdoor seating space. While probably not great for the winter months, the area seems like a good way to enjoy nicer weather while catching some shade under patio umbrellas.

Can EOTF Come With the Menu?

Easterbrook did not mention anything about adopting menu items from the Polish restaurants, but its line of Maestro burgers sure look appetizing. The Fresh DeLuxe beef burgers feature natural emental cheese, lobster, tomato, cucumber, red onion, mayonnaise lemon sauce and spicy tomato and paprika salsa. Meanwhile, the Maestro Grilled Cheese includes a beef patty, two bacon slices, a portion of grilled camembert cheese, cheddar cheese, pickles, roasted onion, mustard and ketchup. Plus, McDonald's serves the sandwiches on a wooden slab with little flags rising from the bun -- how cute.

Special sides include fried cheese rounds with asparagus flecks inside and onion and black pepper crispy wedge fries with cream sauce. Plus, Polish restaurants offer a line of blueberry desserts as well as espresso and cappuccino pick-me-ups.

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Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. (CMG) - Get Free Report fell Wednesday, in spite of the chain's second-quarter earnings beat, as the company disclosed that it's facing a follow-up subpoena related to a Norovirus incident at its Virginia restaurant.

The Mexican-style food chain said Wednesday that on July 19 it received a second subpoena related to a federal grand jury subpoena issued in January from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's Office of Criminal Investigations.

The company said it plans to fully cooperate with the investigation and that "it is not possible at this time to determine whether we will incur, or to reasonably estimate the amount of, any fines or penalties in connection with the investigation pursuant to which the subpoena was issued."

Chipotle was down 2.41% Wednesday following the earnings release and subpoena disclosure to $340.60 at close. The shares continued to trade down in after-hours trading, to $339.

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All of this is in spite of posting earnings of $2.32 per share, beating analysts' consensus of $2.18, and an upgrade by Jefferies to "hold" from "underperform." Revenue, however, came in below estimates at $1.17 billion versus the consensus for $1.19 billion.

During the company's conference call Chipotle CEO Steve Ells touched on the concept of food safety which first plagued the company in 2015, and more recently, caused a closure at a Virginia location.

Regarding the Norovirus specifically, Ells said that the outbreak last week was not related to the company's food supply and that he is disappointed that Chipotle failed in preventing it from spreading. He apologized for the illness' outbreak during the call.

Don't Look -- Chipotle's Stock Chart Will Make You Sick

Chipotle reported on July 18 that a Norovirus outbreak had caused the closure of its Sterling, Va., location following reports of customers being sickened there. The company said the incident has been traced to a worker violating company policy and coming in sick.

The situation is all too familiar for Chipotle, which in 2015 had its food safety practices questioned following two E. Coli outbreaks.

--Giovanni Bruno and Jonas Elmerraji contributed to this story.

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Apple (AAPL) - Get Free Report iPhone-maker Foxconn Technology Co. (FXCOF) Thursday attempted to manage expectations about its U.S. investment just hours after appearing at the White House with President Donald Trump.

The company, which is also known at Hon Hai Precision, said in a regulatory filing Thursday that while it was reported that that it would invest $1 billion to $3 billion in Wisconsin, "The actual investment amount would depend on local government policies."

Foxxconn added: "The investment plan is subject to the investing entities' board approval and will be conducted in compliance with related regulations."

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that Foxconn will build a new $10 billion factory in southeastern Wisconsin.

The new 20 million square-foot facility, which will make flat-screen displays, will be located in the congressional district of House Speaker Paul Ryan, a White House official told the AP, although declined to provide a specific location.

The plant has the potential to employ 13,000 people at an average salary of $53,875, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker said. Walker added that the facility is slated for a 2020 opening.

"This is a great day for American workers and manufacturers and everyone who believes in the concept and the label 'Made in the USA,' " President Trump exclaimed.

The announcement comes months after Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said his company would invest at least $7 billion in the U.S. and create between 30,000 and 50,000 jobs. Shortly after the investment was revealed, Trump touted Foxconn's U.S. expansion.

"Foxconn is going to spend a tremendous amount of money on building a massive plant," Trump said last December, "and probably more than one."

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AstraZeneca plc (AZN) - Get Free Report could once again be vulnerable to takeover speculation, after disappointing trial results for a pipeline lung cancer drug that was a key component of the company's successful defense against Pfizer Inc's (PFE) - Get Free Report hostile 69.4 billion ($91.2 billion) bid of 2014.

The result of the Mystic trial, released a full 11 minutes after a set of better-than-expected second quarter earnings from the U.K.'s second-largest pharma group, and five minutes after the separate announcement of a multi-billion dollar strategic alliance with Merck & Co. (MRK) - Get Free Report , did little to soothe investors already troubled by rumors that chief executive Pascal Soriot is preparing to step down.

AstraZeneca was changing hands at 4,292.5 pence, down 16.05% on Wednesday's close in London on Thursday, July 27. AstraZeneca's U.S.-listed shares were down 15% to $28.88 apiece by Thursday's close.

The bombshell news was that in the much-hyped Mystic trial, AstraZeneca's stage-IV lung cancer drug Imfinzi failed to meet its hoped for target for progression free survival compared with standard chemotherapy, either in combination with tremelimumab or on its own.

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It did say that it will continue to test for further primary endpoints for overall survival for Imfinzi, or durvalumab, both in monotherapy and in combination. But the results of the study of the human monoclonal antibody, which is intended to counter a tumor's immune-evading tactics and trigger an immune response, will not be available before the first half of 2018.

AstraZeneca also released the result of another phase III lung-cancer drug trial, the Flaura trial for its central nervous system metastasis inhibitor Tagrisso, which it said had demonstrated "statistically-significant and clinically-meaningful" progression-free survival benefits. But the drug has already been approved in many countries for certain mutations, so the trial is for additional benefits.

Analysts were cautious about possible takeover talk, however. Roger Franklin and Graham Doyle of Liberum Capital Ltd. said that while the price would likely fall on the news, the share could still find support on bid-speculation

The deal with Merck will see the companies collaborate on the development of two AstraZeneca cancer drugs, Lynparza and selumetinib, sharing the development and commercialization costs as well as the profits. As part of the agreement, Merck will pay AstraZeneca up to $8.5 billion in total consideration, including $1.6 billion upfront, $750 million for certain license options and up to $6.15 billion contingent on successful achievement of future regulatory and sales milestones.

AstraZeneca anticipates it will record $1 billion from the deal as "externalization revenue" in 2017.

A Jefferies International LLC team led team led by Jeffrey Holford, Ian Hilliker and David Gu made a similar point, calling AstraZeneca a consolidation target.

They added: "The dividend may now look less safe and we expect some investors will start to question its long-term sustainability, despite prior reassurances from management."

"In the wake of these announcements, we fully expect investor concerns surrounding the sustainability of the dividend to be the main question on today's conference call given the massive contribution of externalization revenue to the overall P&L and the company's extraordinary cost structure," added Leerink Partners Seamus Fernandez in a note Thursday.

However, the Liberum note pointed out that AstraZeneca still has an immuno-oncology franchise for Imfinzi for stage-III lung cancer where its recent phase-III Pacific trial program did show positive progression-free survival endpoints.

And Jefferies too saw further potential in AstraZeneca's pipeline. "The company still has a number of other interesting pipelines and recently launched assets and durvalumab (Imfinzi) have already had success in other settings (Stage III unresectable NSCLC and bladder) and could still show benefits in other indications including head & neck, SCLC, breast and pancreatic cancer," the note said.

--Michael Brown contributed to this report

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Verizon (VZ) - Get Free Report was late to the wireless industry's unlimited data party, but the company's new plans drew an unexpectedly large number of wireless subscribers in the second quarter. Looking forward, Verizon CFO Matt Ellis said during a Thursday investor call that the carrier can improve declining wireless sales and improve margins in the second half of the year, and suggested that Apple's (AAPL) - Get Free Report launch of the iPhone 8 later this year will help.

Shares of the telecom gained 6.5% to $47.30 early Thursday afternoon, after Verizon said it added 614,000 net post-paid accounts, including 368,000 phone accounts, in the second quarter. Earnings of 96 cents per share matched expectations, while sales of $30.5 billion topped expectations of $29.81 billion.

Verizon's Ellis told investors during the carrier's earnings call that the gains show that network quality still matters in a world of unlimited pricing and streaming video deals. "We wouldn't get those results if a better network experience didn't matter to customers," he said. "Clearly it does."

Conveniently for Verizon, wireless service testing organization RootMetrics reported Wednesday that Verizon had the top scores for wireless network reliability and speed, among other categories, in the first half of the year.

The carrier introduced an unlimited plan mid-way through a dismal first quarter, in which it lost 307,000 net post-paid accounts and 289,000 phones.

"[Verizon] promised a better Q2 than Q1 -- and delivered," Wells Fargo Securities LLC analyst Jennifer Fritzsche wrote of Thursday's report.

Apple is a holding in Jim Cramer's Action Alerts PLUS Charitable Trust Portfolio. Want to be alerted before Cramer buys or sells AAPL? Learn more now.

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The turnaround was impressive, Fritzsche noted, "especially given the amount of competitive behavior seen in the marketplace in the quarter." Sprint Corp. (S) - Get Free Report , for instance, offered free service for a year to new customers who switch from another post-paid plan.

The second quarter was not entirely rosy, however, as Verizon's wireless revenues and margins fell.

Wireless service revenues declined nearly 2% to $21.3 billion in the quarter, as the shift to unlimited plans reduced overage fees. Wireless Ebitda margins dropped from 47.8% a year ago to 45.8 %.

Other carriers have improved margins amid the unlimited data competition. AT&T (T) - Get Free Report posted record wireless services Eibtda margins of 50.4% in the second quarter, as its DirecTV and HBO video promotions helped reduce customer churn. T-Mobile USA Inc. (TMUS) - Get Free Report boosted Ebitda margins from 37% to 40%, benefiting from its increased scale.

Verizon expects wireless revenue to improve in the second half.

While the launch of the iPhone 8 will likely spark intense promotions among the major wireless carriers, Ellis suggested the tenth-anniversary Apple phone would help Verizon. "When people get a new device with new functions they want it on the best network," he said.

Separately, Verizon closed the $4.48 billion purchase of Yahoo! in the quarter. The businesses have one billion unique monthly users and generate $7 billion in sales. Ellis said that AOL boss Tim Armstrong can wring $1 billion in expense reductions and other benefits through 2020. "Tim and the team are just getting started integrating those businesses," Ellis said.
General Electic Co. (GE) - Get Free Report Transportation plans to end production of locomotive parts at its plant in Erie, PA, ending all production by the end of 2018 and cutting 575 jobs.

The Erie plant remains GE Transportation's largest, and the company said that it is still committed to the plant. The company will move production to another plant in Fort Worth, TX.

The job cuts represent about a fifth of the more than 2,500 people that the Northwest Pennsylvania plant employs.

General Electric expects to begin talks with Local 506 of the United Electrical, Radio and Machine Workers of America, the union that represents the workers, within the next 60 days.

GE's were slightly up to $25.59 each early Thursday afternoon.

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Centrica plc operates as an integrated energy company in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Norway, North America, and internationally. The company operates through British Gas Services & Solutions, British Gas Energy, Centrica Business Solutions, Bord Gais Energy, Energy Marketing & Trading, and Upstream segments. It supplies gas and electricity to residential customers, as well as offers energy-related services; and generates power from nuclear assets. The company also provides installation, repair, and maintenance services for domestic central heating, plumbing and drains, home electrical, and gas and kitchen appliances; and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning equipment, as well as offers breakdown services. In addition, it is involved in the procurement, trading, and optimization of energy; procurement and sale of LNG; and supplies energy efficiency solutions and technologies to residential customers. Further, the company produces and processes gas and oil; develops new fields to maintain reserves; constructs, owns, and exploits infrastructure; and engages in the social enterprise investment fund activities. Additionally, it provides vehicle leasing, commercial, and insurance services, as well as energy management products and services; and operates a gas storage and franchise network. The company was formerly known as Yieldtop plc and changed its name to Centrica plc in December 1996. Centrica plc was founded in 1812 and is based in Windsor, the United Kingdom.
GSK plc, together with its subsidiaries, engages in the creation, discovery, development, manufacture, and marketing of pharmaceutical products, vaccines, over-the-counter medicines, and health-related consumer products in the United Kingdom, the United States, and internationally. It operates through four segments: Pharmaceuticals, Pharmaceuticals R&D, Vaccines, and Consumer Healthcare. The company offers pharmaceutical products comprising medicines in the therapeutic areas, such as respiratory, HIV, immuno-inflammation, oncology, anti-viral, central nervous system, cardiovascular and urogenital, metabolic, anti-bacterial, and dermatology. It also provides consumer healthcare products in wellness, oral health, nutrition, and skin health categories. The company offers its consumer healthcare products in the form of nasal sprays, tablets, syrups, lozenges, gum and trans-dermal patches, caplets, infant syrup drops, liquid filled suspension, wipes, gels, effervescents, toothpastes, toothbrushes, mouthwashes, denture adhesives and cleansers, topical creams and non-medicated patches, lip balm, gummies, and soft chews. It has collaboration agreements with 23andMe; Lyell Immunopharma, Inc.; Novartis; Sanofi SA; Surface Oncology; Progentec Diagnostics, Inc.; Alector, Inc.; and CureVac AG., as well as strategic partnership with IDEAYA Biosciences, Inc. and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. The company was formerly known as GlaxoSmithKline plc and changed its name to GSK plc in May 2022. GSK plc was founded in 1715 and is headquartered in Brentford, the United Kingdom.
Nucor Corporation manufactures and sells steel and steel products. The company's Steel Mills segment produces hot-rolled, cold-rolled, and galvanized sheet steel products; plate steel products; wide-flange beams, beam blanks, and H-piling and sheet piling products; and bar steel products, such as blooms, billets, concrete reinforcing and merchant bars, and special bar quality products. It also engages in the steel trading and rebar distribution businesses. This segment sells its products to steel service centers, fabricators, and manufacturers in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. Its Steel Products segment offers hollow structural section steel tubing products, electrical conduits, steel racking, steel joists and joist girders, steel decks, fabricated concrete reinforcing steel products, cold finished steel products, steel fasteners, metal building systems, insulated metal panels, steel grating and expanded metal products, and wire and wire mesh products primarily for use in nonresidential construction applications. This segment also engages in the piling distribution business. The company's Raw Materials segment produces direct reduced iron (DRI); brokers ferrous and nonferrous metals, pig iron, hot briquetted iron, and DRI; supplies ferro-alloys; and processes ferrous and nonferrous scrap metal, as well as engages in the natural gas drilling operations. This segment sells its ferrous scrap to electric arc furnace steel mills and foundries for manufacturing process; and nonferrous scrap metal to aluminum can producers, secondary aluminum smelters, steel mills and other processors, and consumers of various nonferrous metals. It serves agriculture, automotive, construction, energy and transmission, oil and gas, heavy equipment, infrastructure, and transportation industries through its in-house sales force; and internal distribution and trading companies. Nucor Corporation was incorporated in 1958 and is based in Charlotte, North Carolina.
Oman-based Dhofar Generation Company (DGC) will start generating power from a new natural gas-fired 445-MW plant (Salalah II) in January 2018, a report said.



A consortium consisting of Japans Mitsui & Co, Saudi Arabias Acwa Power and Dhofar International Development and Investment Holding Company had won a contract to build a $630-million power plant in Raysut in 2015, reported the Times of Oman.



As part of the deal, the consortium has acquired Dhofar Generating Company, which owns and operates an existing 273 MW gas-fired power plant at the adjacent site, from Electricity Holding Company (Nama Holding). This will take the total power capacity of Dhofar Generating Company to 718 MW once the new plant starts operation.



Electricity demand in the Dhofar region is projected to grow by seven per cent per annum for the next seven years, from an average of 348 MW in 2016 to 559 MW in 2023, the report said.



However, peak demand is expected to grow at about six per cent per year, from 497 MW in 2016 to 765 MW in 2023, according to a seven-year outlook report released by the Oman Power and Water Procurement Company (OPWP).



Presently, Salalah IWPP, owned and operated by Sembcorp Salalah Power and Water Company, generates 445 MW of power and 68,000 cu m of water per day for the Dhofar region. It is located in the Marbat/Taqah region, and started operations in 2012.



Meanwhile, the Rural Areas Electricity Company (Raeco), in partnership with Masdar of Abu Dhabi, is developing a 50 MW wind farm project, which will operate under a power purchase agreement with OPWP. The project has been tendered, but is currently on hold and awaiting approval, the report said.



The wind farm, where around 25 wind turbines are expected to be built, will be located near Harweel. It is expected to launch commercial operation in 2020.
Oman will soon get its first aviation academy after an agreement was signed by the Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD) and other shareholders.



The Oman Aviation Academy (OAA) is considered to be the first aviation training company to be established in the sultanate, in cooperation with Airbus Helicopters. The academy will be based in Sohar Airport and is expected to be operated by CAE, a leading civil and defence aviation training company with approximately 160 training sites in more than 35 countries around the world.



OAA will provide aviation training for national and regional cadres with the aim of them obtaining an EASA aviation frozen (ATPL), which enables them to be pilots in regional and international airlines.



The first phase of the academy will kick-off in the last quarter of this year with construction works set to begin by year end.

OAA will be built on an area of 4,000-sq-m with a capacity of 150 trainees. It will include an area of 3,000-sq-m of Aircraft Hangar, an area of 4,000-sq-m for student housing , tower and a taxi way.

Dentons, a shareholder in the project, has advised the Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD) on the establishment of the OAA. The firm additionally advised on the training service agreement entered into between OAA and Oman Air as well as OAA's service level agreement with CAE Oxford Aviation Academy for the provision of operating services.



Dr. Ali bin Masoud al-Sunaidy, minister of Commerce and Industry and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Authority, said: "This important agreement reflects the strategic partnership between the sultanate and Shareholders companies and it will play a great role in supplying the local aviation sector with pilots either in civil or military sector.



He added: "The Oman Aviation Academy is an educational training platform that will contribute to promoting the education sector through the development of a new training curriculum. We hope that through this project, the sultanate will be the first destination for neighbouring and regional countries to benefit from the training and educational services in the field of aviation sector."

In the margins of the ceremony, the Oman Aviation Academy, signed a training agreement with Oman Air. OAA will provide the training required for 48 pilots annually from Oman Air instead of sending them abroad for flight training.



Paul Gregorowitsch, chief executive officer, Oman Air, said: Oman Air is delighted to sign this agreement with The Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD). Under this arrangement, the first group of Omani cadets jointly sponsored by the Oman Aviation Academy and Oman Air, will receive training under the cadet-pilot programme to obtain a CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence) /IR (Integrated Rating) with frozen ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence). Oman Air will greatly benefit through training the cadets in its state-of-the-art facility based at Oman Airs headquarters in Muscat, ensuring efficient Omanisation requirements. The national carrier synergises seamlessly with OAPFD that strives to enhance the Partnership for Development Programme to achieve comprehensive and sustainable economic development in the Sultanate. - TradeArabia News Service
- A Dubai-based printing firm has confirmed that the Presidential ballot papers will arrive in the country on Monday, July 31

- The binding and packaging of the ballot papers will be completed by Thursday,July 27, night

- The printing of the presidential ballot papers was marred with controversies as NASA moved to court to challenge it

The much-awaited Presidential ballot papers which will be used in the forthcoming August,8 polls will arrive in Kenya on Monday, July 31 2017.

TUKO.co.ke has learnt that two planes carrying the Presidential ballot papers will touch down at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) on Monday, July 31, only seven days to the D-day.

According to Al Ghurair Printing and Publishing Companys General Manager, Lakshmanan Ganapathy, the presidential ballot papers will be dispatched to Kenya immediately after binding and packaging is concluded.

Ballot Papers. Photo: CitizenTV

READ ALSO: The academic qualifications of Uhuru, Ruto, Raila and Kalonzo in black and white

Mr.Ganapathy confirmed that the printing of the presidential ballot papers in Dubai will be done by Thursday, July 27, night ahead of the delivery on Monday.

Ballot papers arriving in Kenya. Photo: Kenya News

READ ALSO: The academic qualifications of Raila, Ruto and Uhuru's wives

Ganapathys words have been echoed by IEBC commissioner, Roselyn Akombe who says the ballot papers will be flown to areas where there are security issues such as Wajir, Lamu ,Garissa, Tana River and Mandera Counties.

IEBC officials receiving ballot papers. Photo: CitizenTV

READ ALSO: IEBC's 'heart-breaking' response to claims presidential results shall be announced within hours

The commission is taking drastic measures to reduce errors and time wastage among unique features include results management forms being pre-printed with candidates details, Akombe said.

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The situation in the ATO area in eastern Ukraine was relatively calm last day. From 18:00 till midnight, the number of attacks launched by Russian-terrorist groups was small. However, the enemy ramped up the reconnaissance activity with the help of unmanned aerial vehicles.

This is reported by the ATO Headquarters press center.

As noted, in Donetsk direction, militants launched two attacks on ATO troops near Avdiivka (18km north of Donetsk), using grenade launchers and small arms.

In Mariupol direction, Ukrainian positions came under grenade launcher fire outside the villages Vodiane (16km north-west of Donetsk) and Marinka (35 km south-west of Donetsk).

In Luhansk direction, illegal armed formations used small arms to shell Ukrainian strongholds near Zolote (67km north-east of Luhansk) and Stanytsia Luhanska (16km north-east of Luhansk).

Russian-backed militants violated ceasefire in Donbas a total of 17 times over the past day. One Ukrainian soldier was wounded.

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NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller and U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations Kurt Volker have expressed great concern over the situation in eastern Ukraine and build-up of Russia's military presence in the annexed Crimea.

The NATO Deputy Secretary General held a meeting with the US Special Representative at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday. Ms. Gottemoeller and Ambassador Volker discussed the security situation in eastern Ukraine, Kyivs reforms, and NATOs support for Ukraine, the Alliance press service reports.

I was pleased to meet with Kurt Volker today. We agreed that the situation in eastern Ukraine and Russias military build-up in Crimea continue to be of great concern. Russia must respect the Minsk Agreements, which are vital for Ukraines security and stability, said the Deputy Secretary General.

As noted, NATO continues to provide strong political and practical support for Ukraine.

"Through ten different Trust Funds, NATO Allies have pledged almost forty million euros to support Ukraine  in areas such as command and control, cyber defence and medical rehabilitation," the statement reads.

As a reminder, Ambassador Volker previously served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO from 2008 to 2009.

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One Ukrainian serviceman was killed as a result of enemy shelling in Vodiane area (16km north-west of Donetsk).

This is reported by the press center of the ATO Headquarters on Facebook.

"Today, July 27, at 08:00, one soldier of the Ukrainian Armed Forces was killed as a result of the enemy shelling of Ukrainian positions near the village of Vodiane. The Ukrainian defender received fatal injuries," the report reads.

According to the ATO HQ, the situation in the ATO area remains unchanged. The Russian-occupation troops continue to violate the agreement on non-use of weapons.

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During the first five months of this year, the trade turnover between the Federal Republic of Germany and Ukraine increased by almost 22%.

Such data were made public on Thursday by Michael Harms, Managing Director of the German Committee on Eastern European Economic Relations, an Ukrinform correspondent reports from Germany.

"In January-May, the trade turnover between Germany and Ukraine reached EUR 2.635 billion with growth of 21.9%," he said.

At the same time, the imports to Germany from Ukraine amounted to EUR 818.4 million with an increase of 10.5%, while German exports to Ukraine soared by 27.8% to EUR 1.816 billion.

Harms described Ukraine an important partner and welcomed the growth of Ukrainian exports to the EU countries. At the same time, he noted that Ukraine should be more active in entering the European markets.

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President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko congratulated the military on successful testing domestic military equipment.

The Head of State wrote this on his Facebook page.

"Phantom 2 unmanned ground vehicle is more powerful and more efficient, capable of producing a Grad effect on the battlefield. It has already confirmed its reliability during successful tests, the President wrote.

As Poroshenko noted, Stugna-P anti-tank missile system and Corsar light portable missile system have been also successfully tested.

Ukrainian army is getting stronger every day, the president stressed.

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More than 80 children from Luhansk region went on vacation to Croatia.

The Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine informed this on Twitter.

"The Ministry for Temporary Occupied Territories and IDPs in coordination with local authorities and @caritas_ukraine sent 83 children from Luhansk region to rest in Croatia," the report reads.

This campaign takes place within the framework of the Pope for Ukraine Initiative. The children are residents of the "gray zone" - Popasna, Novoaidar, Novotoshkivske, Shchastia, Stanytsa Luhanska. They will rest in Savudrija in the north of Istria.

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California has emerged from five years of drought and is turning its attention to underground aquifers, which have been depleted in many farming areas. Mike OSullivan reports from Californias Central Valley that as the state eases restrictions on surface water, it is exploring ways to replenish the underground water that many farmers rely on.
The head of the Boy Scouts of America apologized Thursday for the political rhetoric U.S. President Donald Trump employed in a speech earlier this week at a non-partisan national scouting jamboree.

Michael Surbaugh, chief scout executive for the group, said scouting adventures for thousands of youths at the quadrennial event in the eastern state of West Virginia had been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the president of the United States.

Surbaugh added, I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent.

Long-standing tradition

He said invitations to U.S. presidents to appear at the jamboree are a long-standing tradition. Past presidents who have addressed the group typically have given inspirational or goal-oriented speeches, not political commentary on the latest Washington disputes as Trump did.

Surbaugh said the scouting group has steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the scouting program.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined comment on Surbaugh's statement, telling reporters she "heard nothing but cheering" for Trump at the event.

Trump initially told Scouts Monday night at the National Scout Jamboree that he would not talk about politics. Who the hell wants to talk about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts? he said.

'Downright icky'

In the course of the half-hour speech, however, Trump fired barbs at former President Barack Obama and his election opponent last year, Democrat Hillary Clinton, while attacking the fake news media and this horrible thing known as Obamacare, Obama's national health care law Trump is trying to repeal. He spoke about about the cesspool of lawmakers in Washington and boasted about his election victory.

Some Scout leaders took to social media to disparage Trump's speech, while the group's Facebook page was filled with comments criticizing the president for using the Boy Scout gathering for political attacks.

Senator Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, wrote on Twitter, As a Scout leader, my stomach is in knots about what Trump did today. If you haven't watched it yet, don't. It's downright icky.

About 40,000 Scouts, leaders and volunteers were on hand for the jamboree.

'We'll be back'

Obama never appeared at the event in person during his two terms in the White House, but he did send a video message in 2010, the 100th anniversary of the Boy Scouts of America. Trump took note of that.

By the way, just a question, did President Obama ever come to a Jamboree? he asked. The answer is no ... but we'll be back.

Toward the end of his remarks, Trump reminisced about his election victory last November, mocking news media and pollsters who had predicted he would lose.

But do you remember that incredible night with the maps? he asked, referring to state-by-state maps denoting Democratic or Republican wins with blue or red coloring. And that map was so red it was unbelievable, and they didn't know what to say.
The British High Court ordered terminally ill infant, Charlie Gard, to be moved to a hospice facility to die, ending a case that has spurred debate over the role of the state in children's rights and health care.

The decision was made Thursday after Charlie's parents and Great Ormond Street Hospital in London, where he is being treated, failed to agree on an end-of-life care plan for the 11-month-old. If no further agreement is reached, Charlie will be moved to Hospice on Friday in accordance with the hospital's plan. The life-support systems would be removed shortly after, "inevitably result[ing] in Charlie's death within a short period of time," according to the judge.

"It is not in Charlie's best interests for artificial ventilation to continue to be provided to him, and it is therefore lawful and in his best interests for it to be withdrawn," the court order said.

Charlie was born with a rare genetic disease called encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome - one of only 16 confirmed cases worldwide. He cannot see or hear, he cannot move or breathe, he cannot cry or swallow, he suffers from frequent epileptic seizures. He would turn one year old on August 4.

Earlier this year, the hospital treating Charlie asked for court permission to remove him from life support, saying that keeping him alive was merely causing more suffering. The parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, disagreed and asked for permission to take Charlie to the United States for experimental treatment. The British courts and the European Court of Human Rights all backed the hospital.

The Court of Human Rights argued that "undergoing experimental treatment with no prospects of success would offer no benefit, and continue to cause [Charlie] significant harm."

The case drew pitched coverage from British tabloids and captured worldwide attention after world leaders like President Donald Trump and Pope Francis weighed in, offering medical support.

Earlier this week, Gard and Yates abandoned their months-long legal fight, acknowledging the illness was untreatable.

They then asked to take their son home to die, a request the hospital denied. According to the hospital, the "invasive ventilation" that Charlie required was only available in the hospital. The machines would not fit into the family's home in London.

Under British law, children hold rights independent of their parents, meaning the parents do not always have the absolute right to make medical decisions for their children. Great Ormond Street Hospital released a statement expressing regret over the public disagreement.

"We deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlie's doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period," the statement read. "While we always respect parents' views, we will never do anything that could cause our patients unnecessary and prolonged suffering. The priority of our medical staff has always been Charlie."
At the Terranova Ranch near Fresno, California, general manager Don Cameron examines grapes in a vineyard that workers flooded last spring.

Winter rains had ended a severe drought and he was engaged in groundwater recharge, returning unused water from the North Fork of the Kings River to an underground aquifer, the source of irrigation for this region. Some were skeptical because he was flooding a working vineyard and not a special basin designed for the purpose.

Weve been through a five-year drought, Cameron explained. Our groundwater has been depleted during that period, and long term, we want to rebuild what weve lost.

Recharging groundwater on fields that are in production was a test, and the vines were closely monitored. They held up well to the thousands of cubic meters of water that flooded the fields and percolated down to natures underground storage system.

A research team led by hydrologist Helen Dahlke at the University of California, Davis, wants to test this concept throughout the Central Valley.

California produce

The 50,000-square-kilometer swath of California farmland produces one-quarter of the food for Americans, and 40 percent of their fruits, nuts and vegetables.

The Terranova Farm grows 25 crops, from tomatoes to onions, and Cameron wants to see how other crops respond to the winter flooding. He is expanding the farm's recharge project with help from a $5 million grant from the California state government, and envisions recharge efforts at farms around the state.

Aquifers are like a banking system, says Graham Fogg, a UC Davis geologist and water expert who says depleted aquifers have three times the available storage capacity of surface reservoirs. If youre looking for places to store water, its a no-brainer, he said.

The idea of groundwater banking took root in the 1990s, when water authorities such as the Semitropic Water Storage District near Bakersfield, California, created exchange systems to credit farmers for surplus water returned to canals and reservoirs when it is not needed.

Farmers later use that water instead of pumping water from the ground. The district also floods recharge basins to let the water seep down to replenish the aquifer.

Surface and groundwater are parts of the same system, says district general manager Jason Gianquinto, so we can take advantage of the wet years and put a lot of water in storage and then fall back on the groundwater in the dry years.

Groundwater measures

In 2014, California legislators imposed restrictions on pumping groundwater and gave local authorities until 2020 to implement measurements and controls.

The law aims to stop aquifer depletion within two decades and create a record of groundwater use, something already seen in many other Western states.

Hydrologist Fogg says intervention was needed because Central Valley aquifers have been depleted significantly, drying up wetlands as well as shallower aquifers that supply drinking water to numerous homes and communities, degrading the groundwater quality, and inducing land subsidence that damages surface structures, including the canals used to import surface water. He notes that aquifer depletion is also a problem in many developing nations, including China and India.

Issues surrounding water in California are politically charged and pit residents of the north against those of the south, cities against farmers, and environmentalists against agricultural interests.

Regulations to regulate the pumping of groundwater are being drawn up by local agencies, and it needs to be done right, says farm manager Cameron, or youre going to have fewer jobs. Its a ripple effect through the economy.

He says that farmers could face a stark choice of pumping less groundwater or growing fewer crops.

Whatever happens, Cameron says, its going to be a real game-changer for this area when we get to 2020, when the groundwater management system is in place.
It's an old constitutional question for which there is no clear answer: can a sitting U.S. president be charged with a crime?

The question has become newly relevant as a special counsel investigates possible links between the Donald Trump presidential campaign and Russians who attempted to interfere with the 2016 election.

There's no evidence that special counsel Robert Mueller will attempt to indict any of Trump's associates, let alone Trump himself. But Mueller does have authority to prosecute any federal crimes related to the investigation. At least theoretically, that could include the president.

Mueller is reported to be looking into whether Trump obstructed justice when he fired former FBI director James Comey.

If Mueller's team found evidence to bring charges against Trump, it could spark a legal battle that would almost certainly end up at the Supreme Court. And it's not clear which side would prevail.

Lack of clarity

While the Constitution lays out conditions under which a president can be impeached and removed from office, it does not directly address whether the president can be prosecuted. Neither does federal law. Courts have never ruled on the issue.

As a result of that lack of clarity, scholars base their judgement on more vague factors, such as constitutional principles and the original intent of the founders.

The prevailing view among legal scholars is that a sitting president cannot be indicted, according to recent reports. But legal opinion is divided, says Eric Freedman, professor of constitutional law at Hofstra University.

"It's an important and unsettled question," says Freedman, who sees indictment as an additional tool to impeachment to help keep the president accountable.

To make his point, Freedman cites the first meeting of the Senate, in which lawmakers engaged in a heated debate over the issue, according to the diary of one member.

What are the arguments?

For those who say the president is immune from indictment, the argument basically comes down to the practicalities of governance. A criminal indictment, they say, would prevent the president from carrying out his or her constitutionally assigned functions as head of the executive branch, effectively hobbling the government. They say this principle is implicit in the Constitution.

This is the position twice taken by federal lawyers in the U.S. Attorney General's Office of Legal Counsel, which has considered the issue in 1973 and again in 2000. It would not be proper, they argue, for a jury's guilty verdict to effectively overturn the will of the people, as expressed through a presidential election.



But those on the other side of the debate argue if the framers of the Constitution wanted to make presidents immune from indictment, they would have explicitly written that immunity into the text. They argue another constitutional principle - that no person, including the president, is above the law - supersedes other considerations.



Kenneth Starr, who headed the independent counsel investigation into former president Bill Clinton, espoused this view.

It is proper, constitutional, and legal for a federal grand jury to indict a sitting president for serious criminal acts that are not part of, and are contrary to, the presidents official duties," according to a Starr office memo recently uncovered by The New York Times. "In this country, no one, even President Clinton, is above the law," the memo read.

Impeachment

James Pfiffner, a public policy professor at George Mason University, concedes the question is "really difficult."

"In principle, I think yes he can be indicted, but in practice probably not," he says.



In Pfiffner's view, the more constitutionally sound way of holding a president accountable is through impeachment, which effectively makes Congress the court that tries the president. But impeachment is a political, not legal, process, he says.

The Constitution says impeachable offenses include "treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors," but Congress alone has the authority to interpret that standard.

All it takes for a president to be impeached is a majority vote by the House of Representatives, which essentially serves as an indictment of the president. A president could be removed from office if two-thirds of the Senate agree to "convict" the president.

Only two U.S. presidents have been impeached by the House of Representatives - Bill Clinton and Andrew Johnson. Both men were acquitted by the Senate. Richard Nixon resigned before the House could vote on his impeachment.

Pardons

Impeachment isn't the only way to hold a president accountable. After a president is removed from office, he or she can be prosecuted for crimes. That's of course, assuming the president hasn't been pardoned by his or her successor.

It's at least theoretically possible that presidents can also become immune from prosecution by pardoning themselves. Like the question of whether a president can be indicted, it's a constitutional cliffhanger that hadn't been considered much before now.

"You can't spell everything out in the Constitution," says Pfiffner. "And a lot of American government and constitutional law is based on norms" rather than strict legality or constitutionality.

That's worked pretty well for most of U.S. history, he says, "But when somebody goes against history and tradition and breaks those norms, then you've got to figure out what to do about it."
China has released four of six Japanese nationals who have been detained there since March.

Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga made the announcement Thursday, but did not provide details on when the men were let go, citing the two who remain in custody. He said the four have returned to Japan.

Three of the Japanese were detained in the eastern province of Shandong, while the others were arrested on the southern island of Hainan. China's Foreign Ministry said the men were being held on suspicion of engaging in "illegal activities," but gave no specific details.

Three of the freed men are employed by a Japanese geophysical company, which says it sent the men to China to work with two local hot springs developers. One of the two men still in custody also works for the firm.

At least five Japanese nationals have been arrested in China since 2015 on suspicion of spying. The two nations have been engaged in a maritime territorial spat over a group of small islands in the East China Sea.
A construction permit should be granted for a giant telescope planned for a Hawaii mountain summit that some consider sacred, a hearings officer recommended Wednesday.

Retired judge Riki May Amano, who is overseeing contested-case hearings for the Thirty Meter Telescope, had been weighing facts in the case since June, after hearing oftentimes emotional testimony that spanned 44 days.

The $1.4 billion project has divided those who believe the telescope will desecrate land atop Mauna Kea held sacred by some Native Hawaiians and those who believe it will provide Hawaii with economic and educational opportunities.

Many more hurdles

This isn't the final say on whether the embattled project will proceed.

Now that Amano has issued her proposed decision and order, the state land board will set a deadline for telescope opponents and permit applicants to file arguments against her recommendations. The board will later hold a hearing and then make the final decision on the project's conservation district use permit.

Gov. David Ige said his office was reviewing the conditions Amano put on her recommendation, including that employees attend mandatory cultural and natural resources training and that employment opportunities be filled locally to the greatest extent possible.

Regardless of the (land board's) ultimate decision, I support the co-existence of astronomy and culture on Mauna Kea along with better management of the mountain, Ige said in a statement.

This second round of contested-case hearings was necessary after the state Supreme Court invalidated an earlier permit issued by the board.

The telescope's board of directors held public meetings before selecting Mauna Kea as the preferred site in 2009. In 2011, opponents requested so-called contested-case hearings before the state land board approved a permit to build on conservation land. The hearings were held, and the permit was upheld. Opponents then sued. In December 2015, the state Supreme Court revoked the permit, ruling the land board's approval process was flawed. That meant the application process needed to be redone, requiring a new hearing.

'Far from done'

Telescope officials didn't immediately comment on Amano's recommendation. They have said they plan to build it in the Canary Islands if they can't build in Hawaii.

Kealoha Pisciotta, one of the leaders fighting against the telescope, said she's disappointed but not surprised.

They're far from done, she said. They still have to go before the board. We still have the right of appeal  before anyone can even begin to contemplate any action or earth-moving on Mauna Kea.
On the eve of World Hepatitis Day, the World Health Organization is calling for stepped up action to eliminate Hepatitis B and C by 2030. It says the goal can be reached by scaling up diagnosis, treatment and prevention of the diseases, which can cause death from cirrhosis and liver cancer.



WHO reports viral Hepatitis B and C affected 325 million people and caused 1.34 million deaths in 2015, and is calling for the elimination of the public health threat by reducing new infections by 90 percent and death by 65 percent by 2030.

Officials say it can be done if countries show the political will and invest in available tools to rid the world of the ailment. They say the epidemic of Hepatitis B, which mainly affects the African and Western Pacific regions, can be prevented by vaccinating infants against the disease.



In regard to Hepatitis C, the director of the WHO Department of HIV Global Hepatitis Program, Gottfried Hirnschall, says there has been a sea change in the treatment of this disease. He tells VOA until four years ago no good treatment existed for Hepatitis C, which kills nearly 400,000 people annually.

Then we saw the revolution. New drugs came on the market that are really fantastic drugs," Hirnschall noted. "They have very limited side effects. You only have to take them for three months and 95 percent of people are cured. And, even those who are not cured in the first round, we now have even alternatives that we can provide to those.

Hirnschall notes the revolutionary kickoff of the new drugs was hampered by the huge $84,000 cost for the three-month course of treatment. But he says the cost in developing countries now has dropped to between $260 and $280.

A survey of 28 countries, representing about 70 percent of the global hepatitis burden, finds efforts to eliminate hepatitis are gathering speed. It says nearly all the countries have set up high-level elimination committees and more than half are allocating money to move the process forward.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored a major political victory on Thursday when the chief minister of a populous northern state joined forces with his ruling party, further weakening the field of credible opposition candidates.

Nitish Kumar, once seen as a potential challenger in the 2019 general election, was sworn in as chief minister a day after quitting - ostensibly over a row with his coalition ally - and will govern with Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The sudden political realignment in Bihar, home to more than 100 million people, means that Modi's party now rules  either alone or in coalition - in 17 of India's 29 states, representing close to two thirds of India's 1.3 billion people.

Modi has led his party to a string of state election wins since he stormed to power in 2014, expanding the BJP's base across the northern heartlands and into the remote northeast, and cementing his claim to a second term.

"Modi's road to power in 2019 is smoother with Nitish on his side," said Sankarshan Thakur, an editor at The Telegraph newspaper and author of a book on Kumar.

What had been broken, he said, was not merely an alliance but an attempt at building a credible counter-narrative to Modi's "stunning grab on the national imagination" after 2014.

Bihar had been a rare blot on Modi's electoral record, after a three-party alliance led by Kumar handed the BJP a heavy defeat in late 2015.

Kumar's collapsed coalition, which included the once-mighty Congress party, held out the possibility that opposition leaders could form some sort of national bloc to fight Modi.

His return to the fold, having served as a minister in the last BJP-led government, underscores Modi's political dominance and tactical acumen in either defeating or co-opting his rivals.

Backing Modi

Kumar's abrupt resignation on Wednesday followed a row with his coalition partner, Lalu Prasad Yadav, a charismatic and colorful former chief minister of Bihar who has previously been jailed for corruption.

The resignation centered on a disagreement around the role of Yadav's son as a regional minister, but some analysts said Kumar, 66, clearly saw a better political future by cutting his losses and aligning himself with Modi.

"The BJP has its strategy in place and the systematic assault on Lalu's family in corruption cases by federal agencies was not a coincidence. It was all well-timed and planned to ensure Nitish gets a smooth exit to join hands with the BJP," said Shekhar Gupta, founder and editor-in-chief of The Print.

Bhupender Yadav, BJP national general secretary, denied the BJP was to blame for any fallout between Lalu and Kumar.

"We are proud of the fact that the BJP has been successful in defeating the corrupt political party and will be able to serve the people of Bihar," he said.

Kumar, who broke with the BJP before the 2014 general election, had in recent months begun openly to support some of Modi's policies.

In contrast with other opponents, he had backed the prime minister's shock decision in November to ban high-denomination bank notes to fight "black money" and threw his weight behind Modi's recent choice for India's new president.

Following the resignation, Modi quickly praised Kumar for fighting corruption in one of India's poorest states. The prime minister said on Thursday that he was "looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress and prosperity".

Kumar's regional JDU party and Modi's BJP have enough seats to secure a narrow majority in the state legislature, although Yadav's party is the largest. Yadav said he had the right to form the next government and accused Kumar of "surrendering as per needs".

The BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi will serve as Kumar's deputy in the state.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday said he would work to close the Jerusalem offices of Qatar-based al-Jazeera, accusing the

television news network of inciting recent violence in the city.

Jerusalem is experiencing one of its most tense periods in years as Palestinians protest heightened Israeli security measures near the Temple Mount-Noble Sanctuary compound, one of the city's holiest sites, and the events have been widely reported, including by al-Jazeera.

The al-Jazeera network continues to stir violence around the Temple Mount, Netanyahu wrote on his Facebook page in Hebrew.

The Qatar-based network was not immediately available for comment.

The spike in tensions and the deaths of three Israelis and four Palestinians in violence on Friday and Saturday raised international alarm.

I have spoken several times to law-enforcement authorities demanding to close al-Jazeera's offices in Jerusalem. If this does not happen because of legal interpretation, I will work to enact the required legislation to expel al-Jazeera from Israel, the Israeli leader added in his post.

Al-Jazeera has also faced government censure in neighboring Egypt when in 2014, the Arab state jailed three al-Jazeera staffers for seven years and closed the network's offices. Two staffers have been released but a third remains imprisoned.
2 A man holds smoke bombs during a protest by Spanish taxi drivers unions in Madrid. They called for a 24-hour strike to protest the increase in cars run by private companies offering cheaper, mobile ride-hailing services..
Powerful political figures in Washington are coming to the defense of embattled U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, rebuking President Donald Trump for his days of complaints about the country's top law enforcement official.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told NBC News on Thursday there will be "holy hell" to pay if Trump fires Sessions, who was a Senate colleague of Graham's until Trump tapped him as attorney general.

Trump has vented his anger at Sessions, an early supporter of his presidential campaign, for removing himself from oversight of the Justice Department's investigation of Russia's interference in last year's presidential election.

'Beginning of the end'

That in turn led Sessions' deputy to name a special prosecutor, former Federal Bureau of Investigation chief Robert Mueller, to conduct a criminal investigation of possible Trump campaign collusion with Moscow aimed at helping Trump win. The probe has consumed the early months of Trump's White House tenure, even as Trump has branded the investigation a "witch hunt" and an excuse by Democrats to explain his upset victory over his Democratic challenger, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Graham said that "any effort [by Trump] to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong. Right now, I have no reason to believe Mueller is compromised."

Graham and two Democrats said they are drafting legislation to insulate Mueller from being fired without judicial review.

On a visit to El Salvador to combat the violent MS-13 street gang, Sessions told The Associated Press that Trump certainly has the right to replace him if he wishes. "I serve at the pleasure of the president," Sessions said. "I've understood that from the day I took the job."

Gingrich offers advice

One Trump supporter, former House of Representatives Speaker Newt Gingrich, told National Public Radio, "I think he should keep Jeff Sessions. And I think he ought to quit publicly maligning him."

Democratic Senator Charles Schumer, the Senate minority leader, noted Sessions' political support of Trump when he was an underdog in last year's race for the Republican presidential nomination, the first senator to endorse Trump's candidacy.

"I would say to my fellow Americans, Democrat, Republican, liberal, conservative, every American should be troubled by the character of a person who humiliates and turns his back on a close friend after only six months," Schumer told the Senate on Wednesday.

"All Americans should be wondering: Why is the president publicly, publicly demeaning and humiliating such a close friend and supporter, a member of his own Cabinet?" Schumer said. "They should wonder if the president is trying to pry open the office of attorney general to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire special counsel Mueller and shut down the Russia investigation. Let me say, if such a situation arises, Democrats would use every tool in our toolbox to stymie such a recess appointment."

Twitter attacks

Trump for days has lobbed attacks at Sessions, a highly unusual public spat in Washington between a president and a member of his Cabinet. Trump publicly said he is "disappointed" with Sessions, while calling him "VERY weak" and "beleaguered" in Twitter comments.

Associates of Sessions have told the White House he has no intention of quitting his post at the U.S. Justice Department, and so far Trump has not fired him.

Sessions was at the White House on Wednesday for meetings, but did not talk with Trump. He reportedly has not been in direct contact with the president for days.



White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said even though Trump is "disappointed" in Sessions, the president wants him to continue to run the Justice Department and focus on controlling illegal immigration and investigating leaks of classified government material to journalists.

The Washington Post said that Trump has mused with aides about replacing Sessions when Congress takes its annual recess in August, in order to avoid a protracted Senate confirmation hearing over a new attorney general. The White House called the report "more fake news."
Attorneys for a condemned killer of a San Antonio woman argue that deficient legal help during earlier stages of his appeals tainted his case and that he should be spared from being executed Thursday so his appeals can be reviewed more fairly.

TaiChin Preyor, 46, is set for lethal injection for fatally slashing 24-year-old Jami Tackett in 2004. She's identified in court documents as his drug supplier.

If executed, Preyor would be the fifth inmate put to death in Texas this year and the 16th nationally.

Preyor's lawyers, who were rejected by Texas courts and a federal judge in San Antonio, were at the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals pursuing arguments that an inexperienced California attorney who handled federal appeals in his case from 2011 to 2014 was utterly unqualified. They said she employed a disbarred lawyer for guidance, perpetrating a fraud on the courts.

The appeals court should pause the process to ensure that Preyor is not executed without receiving a full and fair opportunity to present his claims, attorney Catherine Stetson told the 5th Circuit. Preyor is not seeking absolution or commutation; he is seeking a chance to make the best case that he can.

State attorneys said the late appeals to reopen his case were legally improper and that it was Preyor's decision to stay with the inexperienced lawyer who didn't appear to miss any filing deadlines and filed appropriate pleadings.

Preyor may not be pleased with the outcome or might wish that different claims had been raised, but that does not warrant extraordinary relief, Assistant Attorney General Erich Dryden told the court.

The disbarred lawyer wasn't precluded from assisting Preyor's attorney, state lawyers said.

Testimony showed that in the early hours of Feb. 26, 2004, Preyor, dressed in black and wearing a hood and gloves, kicked in the door of a San Antonio apartment where Tackett lived and kept drugs in a safe.

Tackett recognized Preyor when he barged into a bedroom, calling him by his nickname Box. He attacked her boyfriend, who escaped to a neighbor's apartment and called for help. Evidence showed Preyor, also a drug seller and user since adolescence, then stabbed Tackett and cut her throat.

Tackett died before paramedics arrived but was able to tell police the guy who ran from the apartment did this, John Economidy, Preyor's lead defense attorney, recalled this week.

He is caught at the scene, and the dying declaration did not help us a whole lot, Economidy said.

Preyor, in the second of two statements to San Antonio police, said Tackett and her boyfriend attacked him and that he poked at Tackett with a knife to protect himself.

I felt like I was a victim, he said. I was the one being robbed, and I defended myself.

He fled the apartment but returned because he lost his car keys in the struggle. By the time he tried to flee a second time, police had arrived and used pepper spray to subdue him. He was covered with the blood of his victims.

At least six other Texas prisoners are scheduled to be executed in the next several months.
Mick Jagger has released two songs which he says are urgent responses to the "confusion and frustration with the times we live in.''



The Rolling Stones leader released the songs and music videos Thursday. He's calling "Gotta Get a Grip" and "England Lost " an audio-visual project.



Jagger said the songs were a result of the "anxiety [and] unknowability of the changing political situation.'' In a quote via email, the 74-year-old says of the world's current political climate: "We obviously have a lot of problems. So am I politically optimistic? No.''



Jagger said he started writing the songs in April and that he wanted to release them immediately.



"Doing a whole album often takes a long time even after finishing it with all the record company preparations and global release set up. It's always refreshing to get creative in a different fashion and I feel a slight throwback to a time when you could be a bit more free and easy by recording on the hoof and putting it out there immediately,'' he said. "I didn't want to wait until next year when these two tracks might lose any impact and mean nothing.''



British rapper Skepta is featured on "England Lost.'' Jagger said when he was writing it, he knew he wanted a rap act on the track.



"It's about a feeling that we are in a difficult moment in our history. It's about the unknowability about where you are and the feeling of insecurity,'' he said of the song. "That's how I was feeling when I was writing.''



Of "Gotta Get a Grip,'' Jagger said: "The message I suppose is  despite all those things that are happening, you gotta get on with your own life, be yourself and attempt to create your own destiny.''



The Rolling Stones' most recent album was the blues effort, "Blue & Lonesome,'' released in December. The band is also working on an album of new material.



Jagger also commented on the most recent artists he's been listening to, which includes Skepta, Mozart, Howlin' Wolf, Tame Impala, "obscure Prince tracks and classic soul stuff from The Valentine Brothers.''



"I really like Kendrick Lamar  he's also talking about discontent and he really nailed it,'' Jagger added.
Fresh violence has erupted at a disputed Jerusalem holy place that is sacred to Muslims and Jews.

Palestinians clashed with Israeli police at the mosque of Al-Aqsa in Jerusalem's Old City, on the site Jews call the Temple Mount.

According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, at least 100 Palestinians were hurt in the confrontation, including some who were hit by rubber bullets or beaten. Several of those injured suffered broken bones, the group said.

The clashes arose after Muslim leaders in Jerusalem gave permission for their worshippers to reenter the site, which they had been boycotting over the increased security measures.

Israel set up metal detectors, security cameras and railings at the compound after Arab gunmen killed two Israeli policemen there, but the move sparked Palestinian riots. Palestinians described the measures as humiliating to Muslims, and they accused Israel of trying to seize control of the third-holiest place in Islam. They refused to enter the mosque through Israeli security and held tense prayer protests on the streets.

Earlier Thursday, it appeared that the Israeli concessions would help restore calm.

Mohammed Hussein, the mufti or Muslim spiritual leader of Jerusalem, said Israel's removal of the security devices was satisfactory; however, that failed to stop a new round of clashes.

The big test will come Friday, when thousands of Palestinians are expected for prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Muslim Sabbath. Thousands of Israeli police and soldiers will be deployed to keep order.

Jerusalem's police chief, Yoram Halevy, urged Palestinians to keep the peace, warning that there will be a harsh response to any further outbreak of violence.
Lawmakers in Naypyidaw have approved a motion by the ruling National League for Democracy party (NLD) to open discussion of a U.N. report that sharply criticizes Myanmars treatment of its Rohingya minority. The move could lead the government to refuse to accept the U.N. document.

The United Nations special rapporteur for human rights in Myanmar, Yanghee Lee, said in a preliminary statement that her report will show the human rights situation has hardly improved since an evaluation last year. Lee assessed alleged atrocities committed against the Rohingya people during a 12-day visit that ended July 21.

Her statement accused Myanmars government of policies reminiscent of the countrys previous military government and of presiding over a worsening security and human-rights situation.

Myanmars Rohingya are a Muslim minority in a Buddhist majority nation. Lee wrote that she was aware of reports of killings, torture, the use of human shields by security forces [and] deaths in custody.

Ongoing humanitarian crisis

Altogether, the U.N. representative said, there is an ongoing humanitarian crisis for the Rohingya people as well as other minority groups in Myanmar who have been forced to leave their homes.

The office of Myanmars de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, released a statement expressing disappointment with the special rapporteurs end-of-mission statement.

During a Lower House hearing Tuesday, Myanmars deputy foreign minister, Kyaw Tin, said lawmakers had rational concerns about the special rapporteurs statement. He also noted that statement contained a number of factual errors.

Ms. Yanghee Lee is due to submit her report to the 72nd U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) in October, Kyaw Tin said, and it is based on her statement of many sweeping allegations and a number of factual errors. This might lead the UNGA to adopt a negative resolution on Myanmar, which we dont want. So we need to analyze it and take necessary actions accordingly.

Wednesdays parliamentary motion opened the floor to discussion of the U.N. rapporteurs statement and forthcoming report, which could lead to its eventual rejection by the central government.

Denied citizenship for generations

About 1 million Rohingya live in Myanmar, but authorities view them as illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh and deny them citizenship, even though many families have been in Myanmar for generations.

The group Human Rights Watch said this lack of full citizenship rights means that the Rohingya are subject to other abuses, including restrictions on their freedom of movement, discriminatory limitations on access to education, and arbitrary confiscation of property.

The plight of the Rohingya, who primarily live in Myanmars Rakhine state, has drawn international condemnation. Earlier this month, the United States called on Myanmar to allow a United Nations fact-finding mission to investigate widespread allegations of killings, rape and torture by government security forces operating in Rakhine state.

Myanmar had responded June 30, however, that it would refuse entry to the U.N. fact finders, whose mission is separate from that of the special rapporteur.

UN causing problems

Thirteen lawmakers from all major parties in the lower house of parliament spoke out about the U.N. rapporteurs findings. They represented the NLD, which holds a majority in the 440-seat chamber and is the party of Aung San Suu Kyi; the former ruling Union Solidarity Development Party (USDP), which lost 218 seats in the last national election in November 2015, when the NLD took over power; the Arakan National Party (ANP), which represents Myanmars Raphine people; and one of the military-appointed members of parliament, who hold one-quarter of the seats.

ANP lawmaker Aung Thaung Shwe, whose constituency includes areas populated by Rohingya, criticized the activities of United Nations teams and international non-governmental organizations, known as INGOs, which he said have been causing problems in Rakhine state.

Local authorities and the public simply do not know what kind of understanding and mandates are made between the Myanmar government and those international organizations.

The U.N. and INGOs staffers can go freely wherever and whenever they want, the ANP lawmaker said, adding that this deliberately creates tensions. He appealed to the central government in Naypyidaw to ban the U.N. and other organizations from Rakhine state on the grounds that they trigger conflicts among communities of different ethnic and religious backgrounds.

However, human-rights activist Aung Myo Min, the director of Equality Myanmar, urged the government to cooperate with the U.N. and other INGOs on human rights.

The legislative body should not have approved such a motion to discuss the rapporteurs findings, Aung Myo Min said. This would tarnish the legislative body.

Maung Myint of the USDP also urged the central government to restrict the activities of the U.N. and INGOs.

We are a sovereign nation, Maung Myint said. If we implement non-binding U.N. resolutions and yield to international pressure, we will be doomed. I fully support this motion of objecting to the special rapporteurs report.

Khin Soe Win contributed to this report, which originated on VOA Burmese.
What may seem like conflicting reports  that North Koreas economy is growing while its people also face severe food shortages because of drought  underline the sharp divisions that exist in one of the world most isolated and repressive states.

We have to understand that North Korea is a very unequal society, said Go Myong-Hyun, a North Korea economic analyst with the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

Growing economy

According to the Bank of Korea in Seoul, the Norths economy grew last year by 3.9 percent, its fastest pace in 17 years despite international sanctions imposed for its nuclear and missile programs. Exports to China of coal and other minerals accounted for much of the increase.

However, this year China imported 54 percent less coal from North Korea. In March, Beijing banned further coal imports in response to U.S. President Donald Trumps demand that China take stronger measures to restrain the Kim Jong Un government.

The Korea International Trade Association on Wednesday also reported that Chinas exports to North Korea grew nearly 20 percent in the first half of the year, totaling $1.66 billion in outgoing trade. Chinas exports of jet fuel to North Korea, while banned under U.N. sanctions, increased by 18 percent, and exports of mobile phones surged more than 90 percent.

The increased trade has disproportionately benefited a relatively small number of political and military elites that support the Kim government. They are reportedly provided with housing, prestigious jobs, and can afford to vacation at the Masikryong Ski Resort, built in 2013, dine at upscale restaurants in Pyongyang and buy international selections of alcohol and designer clothing.

A small number of elites even have unfettered internet access, including social media accounts such as Facebook and shopping sites like Amazon and Alibaba, while most North Koreans are prohibited from any contact with the outside world, according to Recorded Future, a security analysis company.

Edge of poverty

The vast majority of North Koreas population of 25 million live in poverty, and according to a United Nations report this year, chronic food insecurity, early childhood malnutrition and nutrition insecurity continue to be widespread in the country, which ranks 98th out of 118 nations in the 2016 Global Hunger Index.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) recently issued a report warning that this year North Korea could experience one of the worst droughts since 2001.

Immediate interventions are needed to support affected farmers and prevent undesirable coping strategies for the most vulnerable, such as reducing daily food intakes, said Vincent Martin, FAO representative in China and North Korea in a statement.

Mitigating circumstances

For many, talk of food shortages in North Korea brings to mind the famines in the 1990s known as the arduous march that killed more than 3 million people. But analysts say conditions today are different and the likelihood of widespread starvation is very low.

North Korea has experienced other significant droughts (2012 and 2014) and floods (2006, 2007, 2012 and 2016) that affected food supplies but did not lead to widespread starvation.

Stephan Haggard, a North Korea analyst and visiting fellow at Peterson Institute for International Economics, recently wrote, The FAO report has a somewhat alarmist tone, and the weather could still turn around. Last week the Korean Peninsula experienced significant rainfall, and three typhoons are reportedly developing in the region.

Agriculture reforms permitting North Korean farmers to keep a percentage of what they produce and allowing families to cultivate small plots of land for private use have made people less reliant on inefficient government farming practices and more able to endure times of scarcity.

Politics of food

Sending food aid to an adversarial nation spending billions of dollars to build nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, in defiance of U.N. resolutions banning such development, is also a controversial issue. Go said the Kim Jong Un government could divert about $300 million from its nuclear program to import food to make up for any drought shortages.

If they really wanted to fill the gap by importing food from outside, they could spend that amount of money easily, but they dont do it because they can always have access to the NGOs (nongovernment organizations) and international organizations ready to provide them with free food assistance, Go said.

In addition, there are concerns that North Korean officials could monetize food aid by selling it on the black market or exporting it to China.

Youmi Kim in Seoul contributed to this report.
Police on Thursday arrested the head of a village council in central Pakistan for allegedly sanctioning the rape of a teenage girl, a police spokeswoman said.



In multiple raids over two days, police also arrested 23 councilmen over the same case, according to the spokeswoman, Shabina Kareem.



The suspects all attended a July meeting in which council chief Saeed Patwari allegedly gave Mohammad Ashfaq permission to rape a 17-year-old girl to avenge the rape of his 13-year-old sister by another man, Omar Wadda.



Such "honor" crimes are still common in some rural Pakistani areas. A village council in 2002 ordered the so-called "honor" gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, a young woman who took her rapists to court. That case gathered international prominence and she later opened a school for rural girls.



In this latest case, a regional police chief and some other officers were fired for their belated response after the first rape took place in the village of Raja Pur, near the city of Multan, on July 16. The second rape followed two days later.



"We will do justice with the both victims," said Shahbaz Sharif, the chief minister of Punjab province, during a visit to Multan.



Kareem, the police spokeswoman, said Ashfaq was still at large but Wadda has been arrested and charged with raping Ashfaq's sister.



Residents in Raja Pur stepped forward with shocking details about the council meeting and how the case of the rape was common knowledge.



Mohammad Bilal, a cousin of the 17-year-old rape victim, described how the council declined the family's request to turn to the police, instead seeking to do justice in line with traditions of the village  and order the second rape.



Bilal said some women from Wadda's family were present when the council met.



Tahira Abdullah, a top human rights activist, condemned the rapes and said that what the council did was illegal. She demanded stern action against all who sanction such crimes.
An Iraqi army division trained by the U.S. military allegedly assassinated several dozen prisoners in the final days of battle to recapture Mosul's Old City from Islamic State, according to Human Rights Watch.

The rights group, in a report issued Thursday, is urging the U.S. to end support for the Iraqi army's 16th Division pending a probe into what it believes are war crimes.

"The U.S. military should find out why a force that it trained and supported is committing ghastly war crimes," said Human Rights Watch Middle East director Sarah Leah Whitson. "U.S. taxpayer dollars should be helping to curtail abuses, not enable them."

The watchdog said the alleged executions were witnessed by two international observers. The observers said they saw a group of Iraqi soldiers who identified themselves as members of the 16th Division take four naked men down an alley and then heard gunshots. The observers said the soldiers informed them the prisoners were IS fighters.

As the observers were leaving the area, one of them told Human Rights bodies of a number of naked men were seen lying in a doorway.

IS lost control of the Old City after nine months of fighting with Iraqi forces who are supported by a U.S.-led coalition. Fighting in the area continued for several days after Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over IS on July 10. Videos were distributed showing Iraqi troops beating unarmed men and killing one by pushing him off a cliff.

Iraq has vowed to investigate earlier allegations of abuses and to take appropriate action against those responsible.

Iraqi government spokespeople have not responded to these latest allegations.
Intel's more than two decade-long reign as the king of the silicon-based semiconductor is poised to end Thursday when South Korea's Samsung Electronics elbows the U.S. manufacturer aside to become the leading maker of computer chips.

Samsung reported record-high quarterly profit and sales Thursday. Analysts say it likely nudged aside Intel in the April-June quarter as the leading maker of semiconductors, the computer chips that are as much a staple of the 21st century wired world as crude oil was for the 20th century.

Samsung said its semiconductor business recorded 8 trillion ($7.2 billion) in operating income on revenue of 17.6 trillion won ($15.8 billion) during the April-June period.

Intel, which reports its quarterly earnings later Thursday, is expected to report $14.4 billion in quarterly revenue.

On an annual basis, Samsung's semiconductor division is widely expected to overtake Intel's sales this year, analysts at brokerages and market research firms say.

Mobile devices and data are the keys to understanding Samsung's ascent as the new industry leader, even as its de facto chief is jailed, battling corruption charges, and it recovers from a fiasco over Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that had to be axed last year because they were prone to catch fire.

Manufacturers are packing more and more memory storage capacity into ever smaller mobile gadgets, as increased use of mobile applications, connected devices and cloud computing services drive up demand and consequently prices for memory chips, an area dominated by Samsung.

Just as Saudi Arabia dominates in oil output, Samsung leads in manufacturing the high-tech commodity of memory chips, which enable the world to store the data that fuels the digital economy.

"Data is the new crude oil," said Marcello Ahn, a Seoul, South Korea-based fund manager at Quad Investment Management.

For over a decade, Samsung and Intel each ruled the market in its own category of semiconductor.

Intel, the dominant supplier of the processors that serve as brains for personal computers, has been the world's largest semiconductor company by revenue since 1992 when it overtook Japan's NEC.

Samsung is reaping the rewards of dominating in the memory chip market which is growing much faster than the market for computers that rely on processing units dominated by Intel, said Chung Chang Won, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities.

"Greater use of smartphones and tablet PCs instead of computers is driving the rise of companies like Samsung," Chung said.

Since 2002, Samsung Electronics has been the largest supplier of memory chips, called DRAMs and NANDs. But for years demand for memory chips was vulnerable to boom and bust cycles depending on output and on demand from the consumer electronics industry. At times, competition was brutal as supply gluts arose.

That changed in 2012 when Japan's Elpida filed for bankruptcy and was sold to Micron Technology, leaving only three major suppliers of DRAM, a type of memory chip used in servers, computers and handsets: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron.

Tight supplies coupled with rock solid demand have pushed prices of memory chips higher, with average selling prices of DRAMs and flash memory chips doubling over the past year, bringing South Korea's memory chip makers record wide profit margins. Both Samsung and SK Hynix are expected to report all-time high profits this year.

Amid this boom that analysts call a memory chip "super cycle," global semiconductor revenue is forecast to jump 52 percent this year, reaching $400 billion for the first time, according to market research firm Gartner.

For the full year, Intel is expected to post $60 billion in annual sales, according to a market consensus polled by FactSet, a financial data provider. Samsung Electronics' semiconductor business is expected to report 71.9 trillion won ($62.6 billion) in full-year revenues.

Looking ahead, Samsung and SK Hynix, which control more than three quarters of the global DRAM sales, are raising their spending on semiconductor capacity and development in anticipation of robust future demand. SK Hynix raised its capital spending to 9.6 trillion won ($8.6 billion) this year, up more than 50 percent from last year. Samsung has said it plans to spend $18 billion in the next four years to expand memory chip production capacity at its South Korean plants.

Not just tech companies but also transport, retail, tourism, food and other industries are seeking ways to better use or manage data, to gain insights on trends or customer preferences and otherwise make money from "big data." The rising use of vehicle connectivity and the "internet of things" is expected to drive still further demand for the chips that have helped Samsung move ahead, at least for now.
Senegal is wrapping up a heated campaign season ahead of Sundays legislative polls.



Tear gas filled the air in Dakars city center this week as police dispersed an opposition demonstration called by former president Abdoulaye Wade to denounce the organization of the upcoming election.

Wades return to the country to lead the main opposition coalition has been just one spark raising the temperature during this campaign period.

Another key political figure, the mayor of Dakar, is leading his "Manko Taxanu Senegal" coalition from prison. Khalifa Sall was arrested in March and charged with embezzling public funds. He demanded temporary release during the campaign period, but his request was rejected by the Supreme Court.

Supporters waited for the verdict outside the court. Mama Gueye, a coordinator for Ande Dollel Khalifa, a political movement supporting the mayor, was among them.

She said the verdict will not affect the "Manko" campaign. We will continue the battle until he is released, she said. Our objective is to see him live and become the next president in 2019.

There are 165 seats to be filled in the National Assembly, and voters on Sunday will choose from a record 47 lists, casting their ballots by party rather than for individual candidates.

Many see the vote as a sort of referendum on the current government of President Macky Sall and a preview of his potential challengers for the top job in 2019, although analysts say it is unlikely the ruling party will lose its majority in parliament.

There has been some violence during campaigning.

In and around Dakar, supporters of Salls Manko coalition have clashed several times with members of the presidents Benno Bokk Yaakaar coalition, which is led by the current prime minister.

Senegalese political analyst Aly Fary Ndiaye says the mayors coalition has made his continued detention work for them.

It is a tactic to put pressure on the government, he said, to question the independence of the justice system and remind Senegalese citizens of the injustice [they say] Khalifa Sall is suffering, Ndiaye said.

New ID card system

Meanwhile, former president Wade has joined civil society groups in condemning delays in the introduction of new biometric identity cards. The new ID cards were officially launched by the government in October last year, and also are meant to function as voting cards.

Sadikh Niass, Secretary-General of the NGO African Assembly for the Defense of Human Rights, says there have been delays in getting the cards out to voters, adding that as of July 19, many voting cards had yet to be printed. He also said those that have been issued are not reaching voters because the distribution system is poorly organized.

His organization estimated that with three weeks to go before the vote, only about 40 percent of voters had collected their cards.

Presidential spokesman Hamidou Kasse told VOA the situation is not as bad as reported.

In distribution centers there are hundreds of thousands of cards waiting for their owners. In Senegal, we have the habit of waiting until the last minute before collecting our cards, Kasse said.

On Thursday, local media reported that the Constitutional Court approved a request from the presidency to allow citizens without new biometric cards to vote using other forms of identification.

Legislative elections in Senegal typically do not witness high voter turnout. But with all the excitement during campaigning, this time could be different.



Still, Abdou El Mazide Ndiaye president of Gradec, a research group promoting democracy and good governance in Africa, says the anticipation of long lines could still be a turn-off.

Lines at the polls will be long because there are 47 lists. People will be completely discouraged by the wait, said Mazide.



Thats almost double the number of lists that voters had to choose from during the last legislative elections in 2012, and there are concerns it could lead to some confusion at the polls Sunday.
In a bid to avert a government crisis, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven on Thursday reshuffled his minority Cabinet, replacing two members, after opposition parties demanded the ouster of three government ministers over one of the largest security breaches in the country's history.

Lofven says the heads of the interior and infrastructure ministries had requested to leave but that Defense Minister Peter Hultqvist will remain in the Cabinet because the no-confidence proposal against him was unfounded.



Addressing a news conference, Lofven described the opposition motion to file a no-confidence vote against the three government ministers as "hasty and ill-planned," and said he did not want to continue the political crisis in Sweden.



"Now it's up to the Parliament," Lofven said.



The four right-wing opposition parties announced their plan on Wednesday but did not file the no-confidence motion. It was unclear if they would revise the planned motion to include only Hultqvist.



The crisis came to a head when the populist, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats said they would back the opposition in a no-confidence vote, giving them the required majority to oust the ministers.



The 2015 breach allowed IT workers abroad to access confidential information in Sweden's government and police database when the Transport Agency outsourced some of its services to IBM in the Czech Republic.



The three government ministers are blamed for incompetence and delaying the release of information. Lofven, who described the incident as a disaster that put Sweden and Swedes in harm's way, said he first heard about it in January  some 18 months after the leak occurred.



Officials say they do not know if the breach caused any tangible damage. The head of the Transport Agency was fired in January for negligence and waiving security clearance requirements for some foreign IT workers, Swedish reports said.
In 2016, an Iraqi-American artist sat down with Bahjat Abdulwahed  the so-called Walter Cronkite of Baghdad  with the idea of launching a radio project that would be part documentary, part radio play and part variety show.

Abdulwahed was the voice of Iraqi radio from the late 1950s to the early 1990s, but came to Philadelphia as a refugee in 2009 after receiving death threats from insurgents.

He represented authority and respectability in relationship to the news through many different political changes, said Elizabeth Thomas, curator of Radio Silence, a public art piece that resulted from the meeting with Abdulwahed.

Thomas had invited artist Michael Rakowitz to Philadelphia to create a project for Mural Arts Philadelphia, which has been expanding its public art reach from murals into new and innovative spaces.

After nearly five years of research, Rakowitz distilled his project into a radio broadcast that would involve putting the vivacious and caramel-voiced Abdulwahed back on the air, and using Philadelphia-area Iraqi refugees and local Iraq war veterans as his field reporters. It would feature Iraqi music, remembrances of the country and vintage weather reports from a happier time in Iraq.

One of the many initial titles was Desert Home Companion, Rakowitz said, riffing on A Prairie Home Companion, the radio variety show created by Garrison Keillor.

Rakowitz recorded an initial and very informal session with Abdulwahed in his living room in January 2016. Two weeks later, Abdulwahed collapsed. He had to have an emergency tracheostomy and was on life support until he died seven months later.

At Abdulwaheds funeral, his friends urged Rakowitz to continue with the project, to show how much of the country they left behind was slipping away and to help fight cultural amnesia.

Rakowitz recalibrated the project, which became Radio Silence, a 10-part radio broadcast with each episode focusing on a synonym of silence, in homage to Abdulwahed.

The voice of Baghdad had lost his voice, Rakowitz said, calling him a narrator of Iraqs history.

It will be hosted by Rakowitz and features fragments of that first recording session with Abdulwahed, as well as interviews with his wife and other Iraqi refugees living in Philadelphia.

Rakowitz and Thomas also worked with Warrior Writers, a nonprofit based in Philadelphia that helps war veterans work through their experiences using writing and art.

The first episode, on speechlessness, will launch Aug. 6 is. It will be broadcast on community radio stations across the country through Prometheus Radio Project.

One participant is Jawad Al Amiri, an Iraqi refugee who came to the United States in the 1980s. He said silence in Iraq has been a way of life for many decades.

Silence is a way of survival. Silence is a decree by the Baath regime, not to tell what you see in front of your eyes. Silence is synonymous with fear. If you tell, you will be put through agony, he said at a preview Tuesday of the live broadcast. He said he saw his own sister poisoned and die and wasnt allowed to speak of it.

When he came to the U.S. in 1981, his father told him: We send you here for education and to speak for the millions of Iraqis in the land where freedom of speech is practiced.

Lawrence Davidson is an Army veteran who served during the Iraq War and works with Warrior Writers also contributed to the project. He said the project is a place to exchange ideas and honestly share feelings with refugees and other veterans.

The project kicks off on July 29 with a live broadcast performance on Philadelphias Independence Mall  what Rakowitz calls the symbolic home of American democracy. It will feature storytelling, food from refugees and discussions from the veterans with Warrior Writers. Kristen de Groot, AP
The U.S. military's top general says there has been no change yet to the military's policy on transgender personnel, despite President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter that they will be banned from serving "in any capacity."

"There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense [Jim Mattis] and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance," the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Joseph Dunford, wrote in a memo obtained by VOA.

The chairmans spokesman, Navy Capt. Greg Hicks, told VOA that Dunford had sent out the note Thursday morning. The note was addressed to the militarys service chiefs, commanders and enlisted military leaders.

"In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect," Dunford added.

Meanwhile, a statement by Chief Pentagon Spokesperson Dana W. White on transgender policy was issued. "The Department of Defense is awaiting formal guidance from the White House as a follow-up to the commander-in-chief's announcement on military service by transgender personnel. We will provide detailed guidance to the department in the near future for how this policy change will be implemented. The department will continue to focus on our mission of defending our nation and on-going operations against our foes, while ensuring all service members are treated with respect."

Trump made his transgender policy announcement Wednesday in a string of Twitter comments. Trump said he was ordering the armed forces to stop allowing transgender individuals to serve after consulting generals and military experts.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump tweeted.



White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump will "have to work together" with the Defense Department to "lawfully determine" the fate of transgender service personnel who are already in the military. According to research by the RAND Corporation, the U.S. military has about 4,000 transgender people currently serving.

Sanders rebuffed reporters' inquiries suggesting that Trump had broken an election campaign vow to support the transgender community. The president felt his decision was "the best one for the military," she said.

Previous policy

In June 2016, then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon was ending what he said were policies that discriminated against transgender people, and would start by revoking a rule that transgender people could be involuntarily discharged from military service.

Under Carter's order, the military had planned to start allowing transgender people to enlist this year, provided they had been "stable" in their preferred gender for 18 months.

Ahead of Trump's announcement, Mattis said recently the Pentagon would delay Carter's order through the remainder of 2017 in order to review the impact of the shift.
After 13 years of military service that included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Indiana National Guard reservist Cameron St. Andrew felt crushed Wednesday by President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from the U.S. military.

The sergeant first class, who transitioned to living as a man while on active duty, said getting kicked out of the military two years before his planned retirement could mean losing many of his pension and health care benefits, and even harm his chances of being hired again.

"Why serve a country that doesn't want me? It breaks my heart, to be honest," said St. Andrew, 37, of Indianapolis.

Despite the devastating effect Trump's move could have on him, he said he was more concerned about younger soldiers who were earlier in their careers and transition.

"You pull that rug out from under them after they have this false sense of security, that could really throw them into a downward spiral," he said.

Twitter announcements

The Republican president's announcement, made through a series of Twitter posts, upended years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Just last year, the Pentagon ended a prohibition keeping transgender people from serving openly.

Trump, who cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" for the ban, did not specify how it would be implemented. It remained unclear whether the policy would apply to existing transgender service members or new transgender recruits.

The president's action was condemned by rights groups and some lawmakers in both parties, who called it discrimination with purely political motives. The move was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.

"I have a lot of service members that are scared that their careers are over with," said Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, who leads a support organization working with actively serving transgender military members. "Right now, they still have their jobs and we will continue to work to make sure that policy doesn't change."

The Pentagon said only that it was working on developing guidance following Trump's tweets.

'Breaks your spirit'

St. Andrew said he did not know he was transgender when he enlisted, eager to serve his country after the attacks of September 11, 2001. After an impoverished childhood in a small town in Michigan, he wanted to give back to the nation whose welfare system had kept him clothed and fed.

Several years into his military service, he began reflecting on his gender identity. He said he struggled with the anxiety that accompanied the fear of being outed and losing his job.

"They pound into you this thing of selfless service," he said. "So you do that for a few years, and then you come out socially or to a few close people and that gives you some relief, but you still have to hide what you are."

He said he received support from his commanders and peers through his transition and found that few accommodations were needed. He already was discreet in changing facilities and had trained for the male physical fitness requirements.

Still, anticipating changes like Trump's ban coming, St. Andrew resigned from full-time service after the November election. He now wonders whether his part-time reservist status in the National Guard is in jeopardy.

"I try to be tough about it," he said, but added: "It breaks your spirit down."

No trust

"Transgender people are serving today knowing that their leader frankly doesn't trust them," said retired Colonel Sheri Swokowski, 67, of Windsor, Wisconsin, the highest-ranking openly transgender veteran. "The bottom line is that this does great harm to people who simply want to serve their country."

Sergeant Sam Hunt, an electrician serving in the Nevada Army National Guard, said people had long referred to him as a man.

He thought he could serve openly as such after former Democratic President Barack Obama lifted the transgender ban.

Earlier this month, he learned that the Department of Defense had approved his transition to male from female.

"Until told otherwise, I will continue serving this nation and state, as I have since 2009," he said in a statement.
In a chaotic and perhaps crucial week in Washington, President Donald Trump held a campaign-style rally Tuesday in Ohio before thousands of enthusiastic supporters and a smattering of protesters. Trump is hoping to turn around his low poll numbers and get his agenda back on track with a health care victory in the Senate, a key campaign promise from last year's election. VOA national correspondent Jim Malone has more from Washington.
The Turkish prime minister has met with executives of leading German businesses operating in Turkey in a bid to allay concerns over German-Turkish tensions. According to reports a number of German companies are under investigation for alleged links to last years failed coup.

Binali Yildirim sat down with executives of German companies in Turkey, bringing the message they have nothing to fear.

Yildirim said the government views the companies as part of the Turkish economy. He said it is out of the question that German companies could pay a price for the state of relations between Turkey and Germany.

His comments come after Turkish authorities sent a list to Berlin of German companies allegedly implicated in last years failed coup to unseat President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Ankara has said the list was sent by mistake and that German companies were not under investigation.

But with nearly a thousand Turkish companies seized in the post-coup crackdown and German nationals also held, business analysts warn there is growing concern among German companies in Turkey.

Global Source Partners political consultant Atilla Yesilada warns Yildirims comments may do little to allay concerns.

"I think it is a nice gesture. But I do not think it is going to alleviate the problems. And I do not think it is going to end the chill over German and European investments. Because the story is bigger than the companies themselves. It's a question of property rights, respect for law, and what kind of guarantees can be given that their employees would not be implicated in some kind of investigation," Yesilada said.

Economic price

Tensions increased after Turkey detained German human rights activist Peter Steudtner earlier this month. He is one of 10 German nationals held in the crackdown. Berlin is suspicious the detentions are part of Ankara's effort to pressure Germany to extradite people accused of being involved in the July coup attempt.

Analyst Yesilada says Ankara needs to take concrete steps to increase German business confidence.

"Turkey could at any point release Mr. Steudtner and other names that has so annoyed Germany with their arrests. But assuming this will not be the case because Mr. Erdogan said, 'We will catch your agents and trample over them'."

But Ankara could pay an economic price for the tensions with its biggest trading partner.

Berlin has warned it could reduce or end credit guarantees for German companies importing from Turkey, which could cost the Turkish economy up to $2 billion a year. Tourism could also be hit; Berlin has issued a travel warning for Turkey.

The biggest threat, some regional analysts say, is the possibility of Western banks reducing loans the Turkish economy depends on.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stripped former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship Wednesday, leaving him effectively stateless.

Saakashvili became a citizen of Ukraine and was appointed governor of Odessa by Poroshenko on May 30, 2015.

Ukraines State Migration Services posted a statement July 26 mentioning Saakashvili by name and citing laws under which citizenship could be revoked, such as by submitting false documents with a citizenship application. The statement also mentioned unspecified documents recently sent by Georgian authorities.

The immigration service stated that Saakashvilis case, including the newly obtained documents, had been sent to the citizenship commission. According to Ukraines constitution, the president makes decisions on losses of Ukrainian citizenship based on the conclusions of the citizenship commission, the statement said.

Citizenship application

Anton Garashenko, an adviser to Ukraines interior minister, said in a post on Facebook that Saakashvilis citizenship application had not indicated any legal proceedings were outstanding against him, in Ukraine or elsewhere. However, at the time he was applying, a Georgian court had issued a warrant for his arrest in absentia; Saakashvili is still wanted in Georgia.

Neither Poroshenko nor Saakashvili responded to media requests for comment.

Saakashvili resigned as governor of Odessa last November after a dispute about the governments alleged failure to take action against corruption. He then established a new party, the Movement of New Forces.

The party said Wednesday on Facebook that it had no information about the revocation of Saakashvilis citizenship.

If this information is confirmed, it will mean that Petro Poroshenko, in the spirit of his predecessor, has irrevocably gone down the path of unconstitutional action for usurpation and holding on to power at all costs, the party said.

Georgias ambassador to Ukraine, Gela Dumbadze, confirmed to Rustavi2 television that Poroshenko signed the order to suspend Saakashvilis citizenship.

Political leadership

Saakashvili was president of Georgia from 2004 until 2013. He left Georgia after his term expired and after his National Movement Party lost its parliamentary majority in the 2012 elections, amid accusations of criminal activity, all of which he denied, declaring such charges were politically motivated.

Authorities in Tbilisi revoked Saakashvilis Georgian citizenship in December 2015, an automatic action when a Georgian citizen obtains a passport from a different country.

Georgia is seeking to extradite Saakashvili to face criminal charges arising from his time as president; he has been accused of calling for the use of force against protesters and of ordering a raid on the private television station Imedi. He has denied the charges and accused the current government of political persecution.

During a state visit to Georgia July 18, Poroshenko said he was unaware of any request for Saakashvilis extradition. However, he later clarified his statement, saying instead that the Ukrainian prosecutors office had refused to extradite Saakashvili because of a lack of documentation.

The Ukrainian leader said Saakashvilis extradition was not discussed during his meeting with the Georgian officials. He added that extradition was purely a legal issue, and if Saakashvilis alleged criminal activities were confirmed, Ukraine would act appropriately.

Last week, before Poroshenko revoked Saakashvilis Ukraine citizenship, Georgias prosecutor general noted that the former Georgian presidents new nationality would be an obstacle to his extradition.
The United Nations estimated Thursday that 20,000 to 50,000 civilians remained trapped in the Syrian city of Raqqa, the site of heavy fighting as U.S.-backed local forces seek to defeat Islamic State militants in their self-declared capital.

U.N. deputy humanitarian chief Ursula Mueller told the Security Council, "Their situation is perilous. There is no way for them to get out."

Mueller said the heavy fighting and airstrikes had killed or injured dozens of civilians and had displaced more than 30,000 people in July.

The Syrian Democratic Forces, a group of Kurdish, Arab and Christian fighters, began their offensive to liberate the city June 6. They have received air and ground support from the U.S.-led coalition.

"Civilian movement out of the city remains extremely difficult due to the presence of mines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as shelling, sniper activities and airstrikes," Mueller said during a video briefing from Amman, Jordan.

"The U.N. and its partners are responding to those who have been displaced and we are ready to provide support in Raqqa city, as soon as access and security conditions allow," she said.

In its monthly report on the humanitarian situation in Syria, the U.N. said the situation inside the city was "reportedly dire." Civilians continue to be killed by air and ground strikes, food and medicine shortages persist, and markets and bakeries remain closed.
Scientists at the Oregon Health and Science University say they have successfully edited genes of human embryos in the first such attempt in the United States.

Previously, similar experiments have been reported only by scientists in China.

Engineering human genes in the embryo stage opens up the possibility of correcting their defective parts that cause inherited diseases. The new trait is passed on to subsequent generations.

But the practice is controversial, since many fear it could be used for unethical purposes such as creating "designer babies" with specific enhanced abilities or traits.

Oregon scientists led by Kazakhstan-born Shoukhrat Mitalipov successfully repeated the experiment on scores of embryos created with sperm donated for scientific purposes by men with inherited disease mutations.

The editing was done very close to the moment of fertilization of the egg in order to make sure the changes would be repeated in all subsequent cells of the embryo.

Scientists have been experimenting with gene editing for a long time, but the availability of the technique called CRISPR rapidly advanced the precision, flexibility and efficiency of cutting and replacing parts of the molecule chains that comprise genes.

Citing ethical concerns, the U.S. Congress made it illegal to turn genetically-edited embryos into babies. Many other countries do not have such regulations.
Three prominent Republican senators said late Thursday they would not vote for a partial repeal of the countrys health care law unless they received a guarantee from leaders in the House that they would not pass the plan as is, but instead would agree to negotiate a more comprehensive replacement to Obamacare.

Earlier this week, Senate Republicans failed twice to overturn the 7-year-old Affordable Care Act (ACA), either to repeal the law outright or to repeal it and at the same time replace it with a new version.

On Thursday, the party attempted to win enough votes to approve what Republicans are calling a skinny bill that would void part of the ACA. The proposal would end the requirement that most Americans must either buy health insurance or pay a penalty, and that employers must offer medical insurance to their workers.

Congressional Budget Office says the pared-down health care bill would result in 16 million more uninsured Americans.

Skinny repeal would limit changes to law

The scaled-down effort, which also would abolish a separate tax on medical devices, would leave intact much of what is commonly called Obamacare, the signature domestic legislative achievement of former President Barack Obama. There would be no change to an ACA requirement that insurers cannot deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions that are costly to treat.

Some senators have been concerned the House of Representatives might simply ignore an earlier repeal bill it passed four months ago and instead duplicate the language of the Senates skinny bill and send it to President Donald Trump for his signature.

Republican Senators John McCain of Arizona, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Ron Johnson of Wisconsin threatened to withhold their votes for the skinny bill unless Speaker Paul Ryan guaranteed the House would form a conference committee with the Senate to negotiate more comprehensive legislation to replace the ACA.

Theres an increasing concern on my part and others that what the House will do is take whatever we pass ... vote on it, and that goes to the presidents desk with the argument this is better than doing nothing, Graham said. Im not going to vote for a bill that is terrible policy and horrible politics, just because we have to get something done.

Ryan waits for Senate passage

Later Thursday, Ryan said the House would be willing to negotiate with the Senate over details of the health care legislation, once the Senate leadership manages to pass a bill.

The House remains committed to finding a solution and working with our Senate colleagues, Ryan said, but the burden remains on the Senate to demonstrate that it is capable of passing something that keeps our promise to voters to repeal Obamacare.

So far, Republican leaders have yet to secure enough votes to approve even the scaled-down bid, which they see as a way of honoring their campaign promises to repeal and replace the law. Conservative lawmakers want to gut as much as possible of Obamacare, while more moderate Republicans are worried that such changes could affect insurance coverage for millions of poorer Americans.

The House narrowly passed its original version of an Obamacare repeal in May. Trump initially applauded their achievement, but later he described the reduced benefits in the legislation disapprovingly, saying it was too mean.

Cheerleader Trump calls for action

Trump exhorted the Republican majority in the Senate in a tweet Thursday to move ahead on health care overhaul: Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Dont let the American people down!

Hours later, the Senate was still debating the measure, a process expected to continue into the early morning Friday.

Republicans hold a 52-48 majority in the Senate. With all 48 Democrats opposed to overturning Obamacare, Republican leaders can only afford to lose two dissenters. Vice President Mike Pence would cast a tie-breaking vote in the event of a 50-50 deadlock, just as he did earlier this week in favor of formally opening the health care debate.

Of the two failed votes earlier in the week, nine Republicans first joined all the Democrats in rejecting a proposed bill crafted by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. The second effort called for outright repeal of the law in two years time, during which period Congress would be expected to agree on replacement legislation; that was rejected by a similar margin, with seven Republicans joining the unified Democratic minority bloc.


The U.S. Transportation Security Administration is boosting security measures by requiring any carry-on electronics larger than a cellphone to be screened separately at U.S. airports.

Security officers will ask travelers to take all larger devices out of their bags and put them in a bin by themselves, similar to the screening of most travelers' laptops, TSA announced Wednesday.

'An increased threat'

TSA cited an an increased threat to aviation security as the reason for the move. The change will not apply to PreCheck lanes.

The new rule eliminates one benefit of leaving laptops at home and traveling with a tablet. In the past, travelers weren't required to fish out those smaller electronics from their carry-on bags to be X-rayed.

In May, the TSA said it was going to test additional screening measures for tablets at 10 U.S. airports. That pilot program was successful and the agency said it planned to expand the rules nationwide during the weeks and months ahead.

Worried about laptops

Airlines for America, a trade group representing American, Alaska, Atlas, Federal Express, Hawaiian JetBlue, Southwest, United and UPS airlines remain committed to working collaboratively with DHS officials to strike the appropriate balance of maintaining the efficiency of the system, while ensuring the highest levels of security are in place.

The threat of terrorists hiding explosives in laptops prompted the Department of Homeland Security in March to ban electronics larger than cellphones in carry-on bags on direct flights of nine airlines at 10 Middle East airports to the U.S. That ban has since been lifted as each of the airlines tightened its screening.

John Kelly, the secretary of Department of Homeland Security, then announced tighter security for all 180 airlines flying directly to the U.S. from 280 airports worldwide. The measures that went into effect July 19 applied to 325,000 passengers on 2,000 daily flights.
A nationwide general strike in Venezuela entered its second day Thursday as street protests left three people dead in the ongoing showdown to protest the socialist government of President Nicolas Maduro.

State prosecutors said one man was shot dead in western Venezuela, while a 14-year-old boy was killed during clashes in the capital, Caracas. Details about the third persons death were not released.

Millions of workers stayed home Wednesday, leaving streets and highways clear of traffic and scores of businesses closed. Some protesters threw up roadblocks in neighborhoods to keep people from getting to work, leading to deadly confrontations with security forces. The nationwide strike is aimed at forcing Maduro to cancel a vote on creation of a Constituent Assembly that would be tasked with rewriting the constitution.

Maduro has scheduled the vote for this Sunday for the assembly to restore order in Venezuela, where more than 100 people have been killed in almost daily violent clashes between protesters and security forces since April.

Opposition leaders say Maduro intends to assume more authoritarian powers once a constitutional assembly acceptable to him is chosen.

Leopoldo Lopez, an opposition leader, called on Venezuelans Wednesday to continue peaceful street protests, and encouraged the military to ignore government orders to clamp down on activists.

A planned protest march Friday in the capital, Caracas, will follow the 48-hour walkout.

US sanctions

Meanwhile, the United States announced new sanctions Wednesday against 13 individuals connected to the Venezuelan government and state oil company, in an further effort to pressure Maduro to call off Sundays vote.

A senior Trump administration official said the individuals targeted include high-ranking current and former officials connected to the Maduro regime, including two Cabinet ministers, the national elections director, the vice president of finance for state-run oil company PDVSA, and the countrys army and police chiefs, among others.

In a statement accompanying the sanctions announcement, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said further sanctions are possible after the election Maduro called.

Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions, he said.

Maduro undeterred

The protests at home and backlash from abroad have not deterred Maduro from forging ahead with his plans. The president has followed through on his vow to arrest any new Supreme Court judges appointed by the opposition-dominated National Assembly, with three judges detained by intelligence forces since Saturday.

The protests were sparked by growing anger over Venezuelas crumbling economy. Once rich with oil, the nations revenues have tumbled following the sharp drop in global energy prices; corruption by government officials also is seen as a factor in the economic decline.

Food stocks across the country have dwindled or disappeared, forcing many Venezuelans to cross into neighboring Brazil and Colombia to buy food.

Maduro blames his countrys woes on the United States. He has warned the Organization of American States not to intervene in Venezuela, saying that would surely bring on civil war.

VOA Spanish Service correspondent Alvaro Algarra contributed to this report from Caracas.
MGM was awarded at the biennial Hiring Disabled Staff Recognition Scheme, organized by the Labor Affairs Bureau (DSAL) and the Social Welfare Bureau (IAS) for the fifth time.

This accolade also recognizes MGM as an outstanding employer that welcomes employees with disabilities. At present, MGM has 38 employees with disabilities working in seven departments.

For four years, MGM participated in the DSALs Summer Work Experience Program 2017 which is designed specifically for secondary school students with disabilities. During this time, it welcomed four of the programs participants to work in the Food & Beverage and Floral departments. Through its participation in this program, MGM hopes to provide the students with the opportunity to gain practical work experience.

MGM also garnered four awards at The 2nd Family-Friendly Employers Award Scheme hosted by The Womens General Association of Macau. The accolades include Family-Friendly Employer for Supporting Nursing Mothers, Family-Friendly Employer for Supporting Paid Paternity Leave, Excellent Family-Friendly Employer, and Excellent Family-Friendly Employer  Gold Award. The final award is a recognition only received by two enterprises in Macau.

Air Macau celebrates 10th anniversary of Macau-Osaka route

Air Macau celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Macau-Osaka route by presenting gifts to passengers traveling to Osaka via flights NX856 and NX855.

Ten years ago, Air Macau opened the route from Macau to Osaka, which was the first approved route to Japan.

According to a press release issued yesterday by the aviation firm, over 500,000 passengers were transported by Air Macau during the past ten years. A celebration was also held in the Osaka station.

The statement recalled that the number of flights to Osaka increased from two times a week to a daily service.

Over the years, Air Macau has been publicizing the overall city image of Macau to attract more and more Japanese traveling to Macau, exploring the unique charm of this city, which facilitates the traveling of local citizens, the firm concluded in a statement.
The White House Thursday broached the possibility that President Donald Trump could veto new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, prompting sharp criticism from U.S. lawmakers of both political parties.

"He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are, or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN.

Even the hint of a veto brought swift reaction from Capitol Hill.

I think that would be a very bad mistake, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, told VOA. What would be better is if they [White House officials] worked with us on the legislation.

This [sanctions bill] gives the president a stronger hand in dealing with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin, said the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ben Cardin of Maryland. If he vetoes it, it means he doesnt want a stronger hand in dealing with Mr. Putin."

Its hard to understand what comes out of the White House, Cardin added.

Congress has the power to override [a veto], and he would be overridden, said New Jersey Democratic Senator Bob Menendez.

Laughable

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer derided as "laughable" Scaramucci's assertion that Trump could negotiate even tougher sanctions against Russia.

"I'm a New Yorker too," Schumer said, adding, "And I know bull when I hear it."

The House of Representatives approved the sanctions bill Tuesday by a vote of 419-3. A similarly lopsided vote is expected in the Senate.

The bill seeks to impose an economic cost on Moscow, Tehran, and Pyongyang for an array of activities to which Washington objects, and gives Congress the power to block any presidential move to suspend the punitive measures.

During weeks of negotiations, the Trump administration initially pushed back at what it saw as an attempt to limit the executive branchs ability to unilaterally ease sanctions, making the case that it limits U.S. leverage in attempts to impact Russian behavior and build a better relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

That concern seemed to have been resolved at the start of the week, when the White House voiced backing for the legislation

The president very much supports sanctions on those countries and wants to make sure that those remain, but at the same time wants to make sure that we get good deals. Those two things are both very important for the president, White House spokesperson Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters Monday.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Wednesday that Moscow would likely retaliate against the United States if the sanctions are imposed.

According to state-run Russian media, Ryabkov warned that the new sanctions will scuttle any chance of improved relations between Moscow and Washington. He also said that Russia had previously warned the Trump administration it would mount a response if U.S. lawmakers passed the bill.



VOA's Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
TECHNOLOGY

Facebook profits soared in 2nd quarter

Facebook churned out faster-than-expected quarterly sales growth from its main social network, fueled by continued strength in mobile video advertising.

Instagram, the companys popular photo-sharing app, also helped second-quarter sales climb 45 percent to $9.3 billion, Facebook said Wednesday. Analysts projected $9.2 billion.

Facebooks social network, now with 2.01 billion monthly active users, is steadily driving revenue at a faster pace than at other technology giants. That funds the companys efforts in chat applications and virtual reality. To keep up growth, Facebook has been heavily investing in video.

Net income rose to $3.9 billion, or $1.32 a share, from $2.3 billion, or 78 cents, a year earlier.

In the main Facebook news feed, the company said it would stop increasing the frequency of ads shown to avoid turning off its users. For more ad inventory, Facebook is relying on photo-sharing app Instagram.

 Bloomberg News

INTERNET

Pew: Blacks face more online harassment

African Americans are facing more harassment online than other races and ethnicities in the United States, a new study says.

The Pew Research Center survey said that 25 percent of African American adults have faced some sort of harassment online based on race or ethnicity, compared with 10 percent of Hispanics and 3 percent of whites.

Fifty-nine percent of black Internet users say they have experienced some kind of online harassment, compared with 48 percent of Hispanics and 41 percent of whites, according to the survey. And nearly 38 percent black Internet users say they are called offensive names.

 Associated Press

Also in Business

Whole Foods said Wednesday that sales fell 1.9 percent at established locations for the three months that ended July 2  the eighth straight quarter the figure has declined. For the quarter, Whole Foods earned $106 million, or 33 cents per share. Earnings were 36 cents per share. Analysts expected 34 cents per share, according to Zacks Investment Research. Total revenue was $3.73 billion in the period, above the $3.72 billion analysts expected. Whole Foods agreed to be acquired by Amazon in a $13.7 billion deal announced in June. Amazon CEO Jeffrey P. Bezos owns The Washington Post.

Ford is recalling nearly 117,000 vehicles because the bolts in the seat, seat belt or seat belt buckle may fracture. The recall involves the 2014 F-series pickup, 2014 E-series van, 2014-2015 Ford Escape and the 2015 Lincoln MKC SUV. Most of the affected vehicles are in the United States, but there are 20,681 in Canada and 1,510 in Mexico. Ford said its not aware of any accidents or injuries related to the defect.

Apple must pay $506 million for infringing on a patent owned by the University of Wisconsin-Madisons patent licensing arm, a federal judge ordered this week. U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison added $272 million to a $234 million jury verdict the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation won against Apple in October 2015. Conley said Monday that WARF is owed additional damages plus interest because Apple continued to infringe the patent, which relates to computer processor technology, until it expired in December 2016. Apple is appealing Conleys ruling, according to court papers.

Boeing on Wednesday reported second-quarter net income of $1.76 billion, after reporting a loss in the same period a year earlier. The airplane maker said it had net income of $2.89 per share. Earnings were $2.55 per share. The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of $2.32 per share. Boeing posted revenue of $22.74 billion in the period.

 From news reports

Coming today

8:30 a.m.: Labor Department releases weekly jobless claims.

8:30 a.m.: Commerce Department releases durable goods for June.

10 a.m.: Freddie Mac releases weekly mortgage rates.

Earnings: Altria, Amazon, Comcast, Starbucks, Southwest, Twitter, UPS.
The technology that powers our favorite toys is the same technology that threatens our civilization. The little thumb sensor that unlocks your iPhone knows your fingerprint and could easily be used to create a vast international biometrics database. Cheap drones that are fun at backyard barbecues are cousin to the terrifying death-from-the-sky machines that allow imperial powers to project violence throughout the world. Send away for a DNA analysis to find out from which continent your ancestors came, and you have handed over an astonishing amount of personal data to complete strangers. And then theres the Internet, delivering the entire spectrum of consumer delights, from pizza to porn, while inflaming the worst of human nature and inviting us to loathe on a global scale with the immediacy, intensity and intimacy of a backcountry blood feud.

The artist Ai Weiwei may not have realized how thin the line is between technology that is fun and technology that is ominous when he created Hansel & Gretel, an enormous installation piece on view this summer at the Park Avenue Armory on New Yorks Upper East Side. Working with the architects Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, with whom he also collaborated on the famous birds nest stadium for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Ai has designed a haunted house devoted to the idea and practice of surveillance. But audiences dont seem particularly focused on the dark side of the subject. Hansel & Gretel is fun, and its attracting families and tourists and inveterate selfie-takers, who seem unfazed by the drones buzzing above their heads and the ominous red targeting lines that put them into the imaginary crosshairs of the unknown, unseen power the artist and architects have conjured to frighten us into heightened awareness of the dangers of surveillance.

With the same flair for popular appeal that he brought to the Trace exhibition now on view at the Hirshhorn Museum in the District, which uses Lego bricks to create 176 portraits of political prisoners, dissidents and open-society advocates, Ai has transformed the armorys cavernous Drill Hall into nocturnal hunting grounds. Overhead, drones buzz and traverse the darkened space, and cameras project ghostly black-and-white images of visitors onto the floor. The grainy thinness of these digital traces, sometimes captured or framed by laserlike red boxes, feels familiar from Hollywood high-tech thrillers about counterterrorism.

[Kennicott on Ai Weiweis Trace at the Hirshhorn]

An installation view of Hansel & Gretel at New Yorks Park Avenue Armory. (James Ewing)

The intent is to make you feel under constant scrutiny in what the presenters call a dystopian forest, but it isnt particularly terrifying. If you set aside the idea of surveillance and think about the experience in the language of contemporary art, you might understand it as an interactive painting in real time.

And thats the fundamental problem with Ais work at the Hirshhorn and at the armory: He wants to blur the lines between play and thinking. And he succeeds all too well because we are much more inclined to play than to think.

The armory show also animates the complicated narcissism of our new age of digital imagery. A satisfying sense of self-regard is inseparable from the pleasure we take in the devices that allow us to make and exchange digital images across the globe. Even surveillance brings with it the unconscious flattery of being monitored. These things should horrify us, and yet part of us is thrilled to live in a technologically sophisticated age, as if history has worked its laborious way to the present moment just so that we could be the first to savor its spectacular marvels.

The disturbing and unintended message sent by this show is: Its all a game. And we accept this because we have been conditioned to use the idea of a big game to make sense of the larger complexities of modern life. The technology is so new, and its extent so unknowable, that we cant seem to get the measure of it.

Intellectually, we may know about that thin line between the toy and the weapon, between the consumer product and the surveillance state. Emotionally, however, we take refuge in the hope that for now, when technology seems more fun than ominous, the evolving complexity of surveillance isnt quite real, just another part of the big game, no more connected to our actual lives than the banker in a game of Monopoly or the imaginary overlords in science-fiction film.

There is also a sense in the art world that play leads us to thought. What Ai has demonstrated, unwittingly, is that play helps us keep at bay thoughts that are too terrifying to confront directly. And he creates art that is implicated in this denial.

[A survey of Ai Weiweis most significant work]

When I visited the installation, the technology wasnt working perfectly. After you visit the drone-patrolled Drill Hall, you are ushered into the elegant wood-paneled lobby space at the front of the armory where, upon entering, you are photographed. These images are then projected on the walls, like giant mug shots, while visitors are invited to use tablet computers to dig deeper into the history and technology of surveillance. One option on the touch screen is find your picture, but the system couldnt find mine. Somehow, I had managed to slip through the net.

There was also an option to monitor live feeds from the overhead drones in the Drill Hall, and thus spy on other visitors. On my tablet, the feed never loaded.

My reaction to these glitches parallels the larger paradox of this technology. I was pleased that my image hadnt been caught up in Ais elaborate game of surveillance. That seemed to offer some hope that we can still be anonymous flaneurs in the all-seeing city, still pass through the world without being noticed, still stand on the outside of things and merely observe. But at the same time that I was relieved to be anonymous, I had the reflexive sense that something needed to be fixed. My experience had been diminished by a glitch in the system, and someone should jump to it and remedy the problem.

It reminded me of the old joke about the engineer who, upon being led to a guillotine that was proving balky, looked up at the oft-malfunctioning device and said, Ah, I see your problem. He helped his captors fix it, and the machine got about its usual business.

Hansel & Gretel is on view at the Park Avenue Armory in New York through Aug. 6. For more information visit armoryonpark.org.
Dear Miss Manners: Who pays for our sons birthday dinner?

My husband and I went out of town to celebrate our older sons birthday. It was originally going to be us, plus him and his girlfriend. Through our son, we invited the girlfriends dad and his girlfriend (whom we hadnt met) to join us.

At the dinner, our sons girlfriends dad insisted on paying. My husband wanted to be the host, and explained this. When we took the waiter aside to insist upon paying, we found out that the other dad had already given his credit card to the waiter. Without knowing this, my husband told the girlfriends dad that this was a 26-year tradition, but to no avail. My husband is offended.

Well, tell him to stop it. In all probability, the girlfriends fathers motive came from concern that his party outnumbered yours  and probably some embarrassment for the addition of a lady whom you had not met and who was not directly invited.

Miss Manners entreats you to persuade your husband that the intentions here were good  and that the charm of this birthday tradition comes from those celebrating it, not the person financing it.

Should the relationship with this family continue, you may tell your husband to have a frank, but kind, conversation with the other father about who is hosting whom and when. Your husband will probably be very grateful for this mans generous instincts when it comes to bankrolling a wedding.

Dear Miss Manners: I am at a loss as to how to best respond to co-workers who knock on my closed office door. You see, I am a working mother with a breast-fed infant at home and, as such, must use a pump to collect and store food for my daughter several times during the day.

I am fortunate enough to have a private office, so I can simply close and lock my door and continue to work while pumping at my desk.

However, it is a common occurrence for co-workers to knock and inquire as to whether they may enter to ask a question or discuss a work-related topic. I feel that ignoring them would be rude, but my gentle Ill be a few minutes or Im busy at the moment often seems to invite them to attempt conversation through the door  or worse, leaves me opening my door (bottles in hand!) to find co-workers waiting for me to emerge.

Surely there must be a way to get the point across that I need a few minutes of privacy without announcing through a closed door, Ive got my shirt off! Leave me alone!

You need a sign, although Miss Manners assures you that it hardly need be as explicit as you suggest. Please do not disturb will do  and a few succinct words at the next staff meeting as to the general subject of what they might be disturbing should effectively fend off persistent and oblivious co-workers.

New Miss Manners columns are posted Sundays, Tuesdays and Thursdays on washingtonpost.com/advice. You can send questions to Miss Manners at her website, missmanners.com.
Correction: An earlier version of this article incorrectly cited a Geiger counter reading as 26 sieverts per hour, rather than 26 microsieverts per hour. This version has been updated.



In Ukraine, an overhead look at the nuclear ghost town of Pripyat, which once was earmarked solely for Chernobyl workers. (Olivier Wullen /Alamy Stock Photo)

The button that could have started a nuclear holocaust is gray  not red.

I learned this after climbing into a nuclear rocket command silo, 12 floors below ground, and sitting in the same green chair at the same yellow, metal console at which former Soviet officers once presided. Here, they practiced entering secret codes into their gray keyboards, pushing the launch button and turning a key  all within seven seconds  to fire up to 10 ballistic missiles. The officers never knew what day their practice codes might become real, nor did they know their targets.

This base in Pervomaysk, Ukraine  about a four-hour drive from Kiev  once had 86 intercontinental ballistic missiles capable of destroying cities in Europe and the United States. Though the nuclear warheads have been removed, the command silo with much of its equipment, giant trucks that carried the rockets to the base and an empty silo were preserved so that people could see what had been secretly going on at nuclear missile bases in the former Soviet Union. The museums collection includes the R-12/SS-4 Sandal missile similar to those involved in the Cuban missile crisis and the RS-20A/SS-18 Satan, the versions of which had several hundred times the destructive power of the bomb dropped on Hiroshima.

This is what the tourists come to see, said Igor Bodnarchuk, a tour guide for Solo East Travel, a Kiev company that specializes in tours of Soviet ruins. What else do we have to offer?





Tourists go to Paris to marvel at the majesty of the Eiffel Tower, to Rome to stroll the cobbled streets of the Vatican, to Moscow to behold the magnificent domes of Red Square. And while Ukraine has its own plethora of domed cathedrals, including monasteries with underground caves, thousands of tourists are trekking to this country for a uniquely Soviet experience. Here, they stand outside an exploded nuclear reactor at Chernobyl and rifle through the remains of a nearby abandoned city  Geiger counter in hand. In Chernobyls shadow, they marvel at the giant Moscow Eye, an anti-ballistic-missile detector that rises 50 stories high and looks like a giant roller coaster.

Every day, a handful of travel companies ferry mostly foreigners to Chernobyls 19-mile exclusion zone. In 2016, Solo East Travel hauled 7,500 people there, up from only one trip in 2000.

It used to be sort of extreme travel, said Sergei Ivanchuk of Solo East Travel. You were very brave to go to Chernobyl in 2000. Now, not so much.

Ivanchuk insists that people who go to Chernobyl are not morbid. They are intelligent people who want to learn something new, and are often interested in nuclear power, he said.

Likewise, people who venture to the missile base at Pervomaysk are interested in the Cold War. Its a place to remember  like the Holocaust  about a dangerous time in history and what it means to have nuclear weapons, he said.

Earlier this year, Russia deployed a new cruise missile, apparently violating its 1987 arms-control treaty with the United States. In light of that event, the Soviet ruins in Ukraine seem all the more relevant.



An RS-20A/SS-18 Satan missile is on display at a former Soviet base  now a museum  in Pervomaysk, Ukraine. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

The day I visited the former 46th Rocket Division in Pervomaysk, silver engines gleamed in the sunlight as the temperature edged up to 22 degrees. Sticking out of the snow were missiles reminiscent of the one Major T.J. King Kong rode like a rodeo cowboy in the movie Dr. Strangelove. Nearby was a surface-to-air missile similar to the one that brought down Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 over Ukraine in July 2014.

The museum tour guides are all former Soviet officers who once worked at the missile base. Ours, Gennadiy Fil, once manned the nuclear controls. When American tourists dallied, snapping photos of the rockets above ground, he barked: Ledz go!

Then he darted through a heavy door of a squat building, down a series of winding stairs and through an underground tunnel, navigating by memory through the narrow, 500-foot-long passageway to the control center in a silo. The narrow cylinder is suspended from the ground  theoretically, to withstand the shock of a counterattack.

Gennadiy Fil', who once was a Soviet army officer stationed at the base, now is a tour guide. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

In six-hour shifts, Fil and another officer would descend in a tiny elevator (maximum capacity: three people) to the bottom of the silo. Stationed at metal consoles in an 11-by-11 control room, they would read secret codes from Moscow that flashed on a computer screen, then quickly tap them into a dingy yellow monitor. Then, they pressed a small, gray button and turned a key on the opposite side of the terminal to launch up to 10 nuclear rockets at once.

You dont launch just one missile, because the other side is going to shoot back and destroy you, explained Elena Smerichevskaya, our Ukrainian interpreter. An intercontinental ballistic rocket fired at New York, she explained, would take about 25 minutes to hit its target.

Fil, 55, said he never knew when he would be ordered to input real codes. It was his job, he said and shrugged. He said he had no moral objections to pushing the button. Launching nuclear missiles was a political decision, something that people on top of the ground decided, not him.

He admitted that he was scared about the possibility of nuclear war. Youd have to be crazy in the head not to be scared, he said.

But just in case Fil or a fellow officer (two officers were required to launch a rocket) refused to push their buttons, reserve officers could be called up from a compartment beneath the control center.

For officers like Fil, there were both mental and physical challenges. The compartments were hermetically sealed, and Fil said there was immense pressure on their ears. There were also concerns about the psychological impact of being isolated in the chambers. While the Soviets kept enough food and water on hand for 45 days, some men started to become batty after only two or three days inside the silo bunker, Smerichevskaya said.

While Fil is glad the world didnt implode under his watch, he said he is sad to have lost his job behind the missile controls.



At this seat at the former Pervomaysk Missile Base, an officer with the correct codes could launch up to 10 nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

In 1994, three years after Ukraine became independent, it joined the Non-Proliferation Treaty and agreed to dismantle its 1,900 Soviet missiles. At the time, Ukraine boasted the worlds third-largest stockpile of nuclear warheads after Russia and the United States. Ukraine shipped its nuclear warheads to Russia and dismantled its silos, often blowing them up or filling them with cement. The control silo at Pervomaysk was the only one spared  so it could become a museum. The 46th Rocket Division, part of the 43rd Rocket Army, was disbanded in 2001.

As a child growing up in the Cold War who was taught to hide under her school desk in case of a nuclear attack, I found it surreal to meet a man who at the same time had his fingers on the triggers of the Soviet Unions nuclear warheads.

Fil shakes his head at how things have changed. I never thought Id be standing here talking to an American, he said, his eyes wide with amazement. I never thought Id be having my picture taken. That was absolutely forbidden. And now . . . its okay.

The museum claims that its silos are very similar to those still in operation in Russia. The Satan missile is still part of Russias weaponry, although an improved version is set to be operational in 2018. Before Russia invaded Crimea and backed the separatists war on Ukraines eastern front, Russian soldiers frequently took their families to Pervomaysk to show them what they did at work, museum tour guides say. The missile sites in Russia remain secret.

The city of Pripyat was once a secret Soviet city, closed to anyone but workers of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor and their families. Now the city, an hour-and-a-half drive from Kiev, is a nuclear ghost town. Forty-nine thousand people were forced to evacuate the day after Chernobyls Reactor No. 4 exploded on April 26, 1986.



An abandoned classroom in Pripyat, Ukraine, features engravings of famous men still hanging on peeling walls. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

Nearly all the first responders and soldiers died from radiation poisoning while trying to contain the graphite fire and the radioactive particles spewing from the destroyed reactor, explained Bodnarchuk, our tour guide. Officially, only 31 firemen and soldiers were killed. But some believe that the disaster claimed at least 10,000 lives as wind carried radioactive material into Belarus and Northern Europe.

Even though critics have said that the designs of Chernobyl are outmoded and inherently unsafe, Russia reportedly is still using 11 similar nuclear reactors.

Today, visitors can stand across the street from the damaged reactor at Chernobyl, which recently was covered by a huge, $2.3 billion shield. But the highlight of the tour is, by far, the crumbling city of Pripyat. Though tour operators are warned to stay out of Pripyats buildings, tourists routinely stomp through the city, including the hospital where dying first responders were taken.

Tourists stick their Geiger counters against tatters of clothing in the hospital lobby and watch their machines shoot up to shockingly high levels  85 microsieverts per hour. The normal range is .09 to .30 microsieverts per hour, according to the tour company. Most guides carry their own Geiger counters; many tourists come with their own.

Tour operators claim that a visit to Chernobyl is no more dangerous now than a flight from Ukraine to North America. This calculation includes spending 10 minutes in front of the burned-out reactor and no more than two hours in Pripyat.

Solo East Travel has a video that shows how it came up with such math. Those calculations, however, dont factor in hovering over a firefighters highly radioactive clothing that has been dug up from deep in the hospital. Nor do they specifically include driving through the red forest near the Chernobyl reactor  where the radiation burned up all the trees, which were then bulldozed and buried. Our Geiger counters went crazy as we drove through the new-growth forest, registering 26 microsieverts per hour.

Our guide tried to calm fears about our exposure to radiation by assuring us that any high levels on our body would be detected by the machines we had to pass through on the way out of Chernobyls exclusion zone. Those machines  old Soviet steel contraptions that look like retro airport metal detectors  hardly inspire confidence.

To amplify tourists shock, guides have embellished some of the Pripyat remains: Amid hundreds of crumbling gas masks spread over the floor of an elementary school, a baby doll has been placed on a chair  wearing a gas mask. A hospital nursery has been outfitted with plastic dolls, placed in cribs with blankets, to make the scene appear even more macabre. Outside a village school building, old toys are scattered about. One-eyed teddy bears and dolls with missing limbs sit on bed springs at a village orphanage. Tables are set with plates and pots.



The floor of an elementary school in Pripyat, Ukraine, is covered with gas masks meant for schoolchildren. Somewhat cheeky tour guides have put the masks on some of the dolls left behind. (Cheryl L. Reed/For The Washington Post)

The most eerie scenes include an abandoned amusement park with its empty, lonely-looking Ferris wheel and bumper cars filled with leaves; a swimming pool with cracked tiles, its deep end filled with trash and an old shopping cart; school hallways cluttered with books; school desks laid out with science experiments; posters of Lenin and other Soviet leaders adorning classroom walls; and a broken baby carriage abandoned in a decaying community center.

Visitors are exhausted by the time their tour bus leaves Pripyat and turns down a one-lane road through a thick forest. Hiding there is the Moscow Eye, also known as the Russian Woodpecker, an enormous metal structure silhouetted against the sky like a vertical Stonehenge.

Using over-the-horizon radar, the Moscow Eye was the receiver for a powerful radio broadcast sent from elsewhere in Ukraine. Some said that the signals short, repetitive tapping noise sounded like a bird  thus the woodpecker moniker. Others say it sounded more like a machine gun. From 1976, until it went off the air in 1989, the unexplained radio signal interfered with many broadcasts. Listeners speculated that it was a method of Soviet mind control. Only in the past three years have tourists discovered its sublime metal architecture rising from the forest floor near Chernobyl, an anachronistic remnant from a not-so-distant era.

Reed is a writer based in Syracuse. Her website is Cherylreed.net. Find her on Twitter: @JournoReed.

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A prosecutor on Tuesday urged a jury to convict a Macau billionaire of bribing two United Nations ambassadors so he could build a U.N. facility in China that would be as big as the one in New York, but a defense attorney dismissed the case as a big zero.

The defendant Ng Lap Seng corrupted the United Nations, Assistant U.S. Attorney Janis Echenberg told a federal court jury during closings at a trial that has kept one of Chinas richest men confined under 24-hour guard in a luxury Manhattan apartment for the last two years.

She said the 69-year-old Ng paid millions of dollars to two U.N. ambassadors over a five-year period to clear away red tape so he could build a conference center in Macau that would be the Geneva of Asia, where tens of thousands of people would spend money at his hotel, a marina, a condominium complex, a heliport and a shopping center.

Echenberg said it was a project that would bring Ng and his family fame and more fortune.

Brick by brick, bribe by bribe, the defendant built the path that he thought would build his legacy, she said.

Defense attorney Tai Park raised his voice repeatedly as he derided the prosecution as frankly outrageous.

It falls by its own weight, he said. Its a big zero. Park reread aloud parts of a U.N. Task Force report that he said proved there were no rules or prohibition against the kind of private-public partnership that Ng had forged with the United Nations and its ambassadors to build a multibillion-dollar facility that would serve developing nations.

He blamed the ambassadors  former U.N. General Assembly President John Ashe and suspended Dominican Republic Ambassador Francis Lorenzo  for abusing their relationships with Ng.

Mr Ng literally threw his money in every direction he was asked, Park said.

Ashe, who died last year in an accident at home, had asked Ng to rescue him in 2014 with a USD200,000 donation to pay for a concert after another person who was supposed to finance the event backed out, Park said.

He said a $20,000-per-month salary paid to Lorenzo was for his job as president of a media organization meant to benefit developing nations.

Echenberg said if there was any doubt about why Ng was paying Lorenzo a lot of money it was eliminated in December 2012, when he promised him an extra $30,000 monthly to speed approval of the Macau center.

The prosecutor said Lorenzos testimony was so damaging that Park spent six days on cross-examination.

You know hes guilty just by the testimony of ambassador Lorenzo, she said.

Lorenzo, who pleaded guilty to accepting and paying bribes, remains free on bail pending sentencing. AP
Lights gleam on the rain-soaked pavement of Bourbon Street in New Orleans in February. After Hurricane Katrina devastated the city in 2005, a redoubled commitment to hospitality helped its comeback as a tourist destination. (Matt McClain/The Washington Post)

Bad things can happen to good places.

Like New Orleans, a city forever changed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Or Alabamas Gulf Coast, peppered by oil pellets after the Deepwater Horizon spill seven years ago. Or Colorados Royal Gorge Bridge, which was nearly burned down, along with much of the park, by a wildfire in 2013.

But when is it safe to go back, and when does it make sense to book your next vacation there?

This is a good time to ask these questions, with the approaching anniversary of Hurricane Katrina and other, more recent disasters fresh in travelers memories. And, as it turns out, you can plan your next vacation sooner than you think and also help a damaged destination without exploiting it.

Katrina brought us to our knees, remembers Sean Cummings, a New Orleans entrepreneur who owns the International House, a boutique hotel in the citys central business district. When the storm hit us, we knew we had to do more than just rebuild. We had to reinvent ourselves.

For the Crescent City, part of that reinvention meant doubling down on its commitment to hospitality.

Howard Leventhal and his wife, Lois, visited from New Jersey in April 2006, just a few months after the disaster. We found the service to be welcoming, friendly and excellent at the hotels and restaurants that we visited, recalls Leventhal, a retired math teacher. Tourists like the Leventhals benefited from lower prices, post-Katrina  and relished the opportunity to help a city on the mend.

[Aspire to travel the world? Read this before you go.]

When the Gulf oil spill happened in 2010, Spectrum Capital, a commercial developer based in Jackson, Miss., had just completed a luxury condo on Alabamas Gulf Coast. The project had already weathered an economic downturn, which delayed its completion. But the spill threatened to sink it.

Instead of throwing in the towel, as many other developers in the area did, Spectrum added luxury furnishings to some of its units and put them on the vacation-rental market. It also unveiled a clean bed guarantee that promised hotel-like amenities for its customers.

And it worked. Visitors returned, drawn by the favorable room rates and a promise of better hospitality.

We feel like survivors, says Spectrum chief executive Jason Voyles.

Disaster can bring out the determination in a place. Consider what happened when a forest fire threatened the Royal Gorge Bridge near Canon City, Colo., in 2013, burning many buildings and taking out an aerial tram over the gorge.

In response to that blaze and another wildfire in 2012, tourism officials not only quickly repaired the damage but they also launched an ambitious welcome back campaign to encourage people to visit the region and give the Royal Gorge Bridge & Park another chance after nearly the entire attraction was rebuilt.

I think people feel more fulfilled with this type of vacation, because they realize they are making a direct difference in a local hotel, property, restaurant or attraction, says Chelsy Offutt, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs Convention & Visitors Bureau. They feel a sense of pride and ownership when things start to rebuild or come back to life.

Tourism officials say theres a fine line between visiting a destination immediately after a tragedy  thats called disaster tourism, and its not pretty  and going somewhere to support it. But the rewards can be considerable, according to Vesna Plakanis, who runs a guide service in the Smoky Mountains called A Walk in the Woods. Wildfires ravaged the area last year, which hurt their business and those of thousands of other vendors near the park.

 You not only benefit from the feel-good of economically supporting an area that has been hard hit by a disaster, she says, you also are likely to find great deals, because hotels and other businesses offer discounts to attract travelers.

Another bonus: Smaller crowds, which means a more intimate experience, even during high season.

Tragedy can also make a destination downright chatty. Almost without exception, the areas hit by disasters found a new voice in the aftermath, speaking out on social media and via ad campaigns to let everyone know when it was safe to return.

[Did your great airfare suddenly disappear? Blame dynamic pricing.]

Thats even true for Miami-Dade County in Florida, which was hit by a Zika scare last year that led to a wave of cancellations  and triggered the inevitable hotel discounts. Tourism officials, at first, didnt want to talk about Zika, but they changed their tune as the number of cases multiplied. Miami launched a public-awareness campaign, called Fight the Bite, to keep prospective visitors informed about Zika. More than 70 hotels also signed a Tourism Industry Mosquito Abatement Pledge to combat mosquito-borne illnesses.

Last year, we welcomed a record-breaking 15.7 million overnight visitors, says William Talbert, president of the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau. And we remain committed to working alongside government partners for ongoing mosquito abatement programs.

But perhaps the best reason to return is that your tourism dollars can really make a difference. They did for Estes Park, Colo., which was hit by a flood in 2013 that inundated the main roadways to Rocky Mountain National Park.

We heard from so many visitors that they had traveled to Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park multiple times since they were children, remembers Elizabeth Fogarty, president of Visit Estes Park. And because of this connection, they felt an attachment and passion for the area.

People returned because they loved the park and wanted to see it again. Thats the most important part of comeback tourism: the coming back part. Its an opportunity for visitors to appreciate a destination they may have taken for granted  and for a destination to appreciate the visitors they may have taken for granted.

Elliott is a consumer advocate, journalist and co-founder of the advocacy group Travelers United. Email him at chris@elliott.org.
Alexandria

These were among incidents reported by the Alexandria Police Department. For information, call 703-746-4444 or visit alexandriava.gov.

ASSAULTS

Courthouse Sq., 400 block, 7:45 p.m. July 14. An assault was reported.

Janneys Lane, 1300 block, 1:11 p.m. July 20. An assault was reported.

Jefferson St., 700 block, 4 p.m. July 20. An assault was reported.

King and N. Saint Asaph streets, 11 a.m. July 12. An assault was reported.

King St., 800 block, 2 p.m. July 15. An assault was reported.

King St., 900 block, 1:25 a.m. July 18. An assault was reported.

Patrick St. N., 800 block, 2:43 a.m. July 15. An assault was reported.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Alfred St. N., 300 block, 7:17 p.m. July 18. A theft was reported.

Alfred St. N., 800 block, 8:33 p.m. July 13. A theft was reported.

Braxton Pl., 700 block, 8:17 p.m. July 12. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Cameron St., 400 block, 5:30 p.m. July 18. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Cameron St., unit block, 1:05 a.m. July 14. A theft was reported.

Commonwealth Ave., 1700 block, 4 p.m. July 11. A theft was reported.

Dulany St., 600 block, 6 p.m. July 14. A theft was reported.

Fayette St. N., 700 block, 10:59 a.m. July 18. A theft was reported.

Howell Ave. E., 500 block, 4:22 p.m. July 18. A theft was reported.

John Carlyle St., 500 block, 11:55 a.m. July 17. A theft was reported.

Madison St., 900 block, 9:15 p.m. July 17. A theft was reported.

Mason Ave. E., 100 block, 11:14 a.m. July 18. A theft was reported.

Monroe Ave. E., 400 block, 1:30 p.m. July 15. A theft was reported.

Monroe Ave. E., 400 block, 5:01 p.m. July 17. A theft was reported.

Mount Vernon Ave., 1300 block, 10:13 a.m. July 19. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Potomac Ave., 600 block, 5:04 p.m. July 17. A theft was reported.

Roundhouse Lane, 1300 block, 5:45 p.m. July 20. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Washington St. S., 400 block, 4:05 p.m. July 11. A shoplifting incident was reported.

West St. N. and Braddock Rd. E., 5:47 a.m. July 20. A theft was reported.

Wythe St., 900 block, 10 p.m. July 13. A theft was reported.

VANDALISM

Duke St., 2800 block, 2:05 p.m. July 19. Property was damaged.

Mount Vernon Ave., 1300 block, 10:13 a.m. July 19. Property was damaged.

Pendleton and N. Royal streets, 4:08 p.m. July 18. Property was damaged.

Roundhouse Lane, 1300 block, 5:45 p.m. July 20. Property was damaged.

Arlington

These were among incidents reported by the Arlington County Police Department. For information, call 703-558-2222 or visit newsroom.arlingtonva.us.

ASSAULTS

Columbia Pike, 3000 block. An assault was reported.

George Mason Dr. N., 1600 block, 8:20 a.m. July 17. An assault was reported.

George Mason Dr. N., 1600 block, 8:30 a.m. July 18. An assault was reported.

George Mason Dr. N., 3400 block. A harassment incident was reported.

Meade St. S., 2800 block. A harassment incident was reported.

Quinn St. N., 1800 block, 10:20 p.m. July 16. Two people fought.

Shirlington Rd., 2100 block. An assault was reported.

Stuart St. N., 1000 block, 6:25 p.m. July 17. An assault was reported.

Underwood St. N., 1800 block. An assault was reported.

Wilson Blvd., 2400 block. An assault was reported.

Wilson Blvd., 2800 block, 1:20 a.m. July 16. An assault was reported.

Fifth Rd. N., 4000 block. An assault was reported.

ELUDING

Danville St. N., 1800 block, 12:13 a.m. July 15. An officer observed a vehicle traveling without headlights. When the officer activated emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop, a man got out of the vehicle and fled from the scene. Units responded and searched the area with negative results. An investigation is ongoing.

INDECENT EXPOSURE

11th St. N., 2500 block, 6:15 a.m. July 18. An indecent exposure incident was reported.

ROBBERIES

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 2400 block, 8:38 p.m. July 19. An employee confronted two men attempting to steal merchandise and was assaulted. An investigation is ongoing.

Nelson St. N., 2000 block, 10 a.m. July 15. A robbery was reported.

12th St. S., 2600 block, 11:10 p.m. July 12. A man displayed a knife and demanded cash from occupants inside a parked vehicle. When they said they did not have cash, the man fled from the scene. An investigation is ongoing.

THEFTS/BREAK-INS

Army Navy Dr., 900 block, 4:15 a.m. July 13. A shoplifting incident at a grocery was reported.

Clarendon Blvd., 1900 block, 5:45 p.m. July 14. A theft from a building was reported.

Clarendon Blvd., 2000 block. A theft was reported.

Cleveland St. N., 1900 block, noon July 13 to noon July 18. Property was stolen from a residence entered by force.

Columbia Pike, 5000 block. A theft was reported.

Dinwiddie St. S., 900 block. A theft was reported.

Dinwiddie St. S., 1400 block. A theft was reported.

Edgewood St. N., 900 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Glebe Rd. S., 3600 block. A theft was reported.

Glebe Rd. S., unit block, 1:13 p.m. July 13. A theft from a store was reported.

Glebe Rd. S., unit block, 8:15 p.m. July 18. A theft from a store was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1000 block, 6:08 p.m. July 14. A shoplifting incident at a shopping mall was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1000 block. Two shoplifting incidents were reported.

Hayes St. S., 1100 block, 7:30 p.m. July 12. A shoplifting incident at a shopping mall was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1100 block, 6 p.m. July 15. A theft at a shopping mall was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1200 block. A theft was reported.

Hayes St. S., 1400 block. A theft was reported.

Irving St. N., 1100 block, 7:55 a.m. July 13. A theft from a residence was reported.

Jackson St. N., 900 block, 6:14 p.m. July 12. A theft from a garage was reported.

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 1500 block. A theft was reported.

Jefferson Davis Hwy., 2400 block. A shoplifting incident was reported.

Lee Hwy., 2500 block, 10:23 p.m. July 13. A theft from a restaurant was reported.

Lee Hwy., 4500 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Oakland St., 2000 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Powhatan St. N., 2000 block, 10 p.m. July 17. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Queen St. N., 1200 block, 2:30 p.m. July 17. A theft from a residence was reported.

Quincy St. N., 1000 block, 10 a.m. July 16. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Sycamore St. N., 2900 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd. and N. Lincoln St., 11:14 p.m. July 14. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

Wilson Blvd., 1000 block, 2 p.m. July 18. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd., 1900 block. A theft was reported.

Wilson Blvd., 3100 block, midnight July 14. A theft from a restaurant was reported.

Second St. S., 2300 block, 7:50 p.m. July 14. A shoplifting incident at a convenience store was reported.

Second St. S., 3300 block, 10:40 p.m. July 15. A theft from a residence was reported.

Fourth St. N., 4300 block. A theft was reported.

Ninth St. S., 5000 block. Identity theft was reported.

12th St. N., 1400 block, 1 p.m. July 13. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

20th St. N., 6000 block, 10 p.m. July 17. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

23rd St. S., 300 block. A theft was reported.

27th St. N., 6000 block. Property was stolen from a vehicle.

MOTOR VEHICLE THEFTS

Army Navy Dr., 800 block, 3:15 p.m. July 12. A white 2015 Hyundai Sonata was stolen.

Columbia Pike, 2000 block, July 11. A black 2011 Kawasaki Ninja was stolen.

Columbia Pike, 2200 block, July 12. A black 2005 Yamaha Chappy was stolen.

Kenmore St. S., 2000 block, July 16. A white 2009 Pontiac was stolen.

Lee Hwy., 3800 block, July 13. A red 2006 motorcycle was stolen.

Piedmont St. N., 500 block, 10 p.m. July 17. A gray 2013 Subaru was stolen.

12th St. S., 500 block, July 16. A red 2013 Honda motorcycle was stolen.

VANDALISM

Chesterfield Rd. S., 4700 block. Property was damaged.

Edgewood St. S., 1400 block. Property was damaged.

Joyce St. S., 1100 block. 9 p.m. July 13. A parking garage was damaged.

Stafford St. N., 1300 block, 10 a.m. July 12. Graffiti was reported.

Sixth St. S., 3700 block. 6 a.m. July 15. Residential property was damaged.

10th St. S., 5100 block. Property was damaged.
The 2009 Red Line crash, which hobbled the Metro, is the kind of infrastructure failure for which the District is trying to prepare as part of its resiliency project. The nations capital is one of 100 cities worldwide that have been selected by the Rockefeller Foundation to participate in a program to strengthen cities ability to recover from shocks and stresses. (James M. Thresher/For The Washington Post)

The District added a position last week with a trendy name and a wide-ranging goal: chief resilience officer.

Kevin Bush, who was appointed to the position by Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D), is charged with developing strategies to address long-term stresses the city faces  including economic inequality and lack of affordable housing  and identifying ways to lessen the impact of one-time events including terrorist attacks and natural disasters. The two-year position is funded as part of the Rockefeller Foundations international 100 Resilient Cities initiative.

Resilience is a bit of a buzzword these days  Ill admit that, said Bush, a former U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development policy strategist. But to me, resilience is about the immune system of a city.

Disaster exposes a citys underlying problems, said Bush, who helped lead HUDs recovery efforts after Hurricane Sandy. His mandate in the District will be to create initiatives  through partnerships involving the city, businesses and communities  that strengthen and improve the citys infrastructure, making it resilient in the face of changes we know are coming and in the face of changes we dont know are coming, he said.

Four specific shocks for which the District must prepare are terrorism, flooding, infrastructure failure and heat waves, according to the citys grant application to the Rockefeller Foundation. The proposal was written by Harrison Newton, who will be deputy chief resilience officer.

Newton identified four long-term stresses for the city as inequality, lack of affordable housing, a burdened transportation system and an overreliance on a single industry  government.

The District is one of the most racially segregated large U.S. cities, after Chicago and Atlanta, according to the citys application. It also noted that low-income renters in the District face an insufficient and rapidly declining supply of available housing.

The 100 Resilient Cities initiative, which was launched in 2013, is part of a $164 million commitment by the Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen cities as urban populations are projected to continue growing. Census estimates released last year showed the D.C. population was 681,170, its highest level in about four decades.

The District was selected as a participating city in May 2016 from a pool of more than 1,100 worldwide applicants. Twenty-four U.S. cities were selected.

Judges looked for cities that are ready to make changes to improve resilience, and have strong leadership and a certain gravitas, said Otis Rolley, director for North America of 100 Resilient Cities.

We want cities that box above their weight class. If we achieve resilience in these 100 cities, they can be models for the 10,000 cities we have around the world, Rolley said.

Each city develops a resilience strategy  which typically takes nine months to craft  and then works with public and private partners to implement initiatives laid out in the strategy.

No two cities have identical strategic goals. Boston is addressing racial and economic inequality. Miami is combating the risk of rising sea levels and erosion. Boulder, Colo., is concerned about flooding and wildfires.

The District has prioritized resilience for years, said City Administrator Rashad M. Young, who will oversee Bushs work. The city wanted to join the global network  which includes cities as diverse as Athens, Bangkok and Luxor, Egypt  to network and learn international best practices, Young said.

D.C. is prospering tremendously, but there is still too much disparity and unevenness in how that prosperity impacts different individuals and neighborhoods, Young said.

When people think about resilience, they usually think about being able to bounce back when bad things happen. But 100 Resilient Cities wants to expand that definition to include survival, adaptation and growth, despite shocks or stress, Rolley said.

The Rockefeller Foundation will pay Bushs $130,000 annual salary for two years. After two years, most cities keep their resilience officers because they realize the return on their investment is a good one, Rolley said.

Bowser named Newton, a longtime District official, as Bushs deputy. His current city salary of $110,620 a year will not change.


Hannah Kim, 14, a student at Poolesville High School, watches in an ambulance as master firefighter/paramedic Argie Koepke, left, and firefighter Pat O'Rourke talk with people injured in a car accident on Interstate 270 in Gaithersburg. Kim was one of several students this month shadowing Montgomery County firefighters. Others with her were in a program called Summer RISE that gives high school students exposure to potential careers through a three-week job experience. (Katherine Frey/The Washington Post)

Some high school students shadowed firefighters, learning about the physical rigor of their work, the intense training required, the rhythms of life in a firehouse. Others followed medical staff at a health-care facility in a Maryland suburb.

Then there was Tyler Kitts, 17, who spent part of July at a technology recruiting and staffing firm. By day 4, hed learned key aspects of a new computer language and was well into a special project. He previously worked as a lifeguard.

Its definitely useful to know more about the career that Ive chosen, said the student at Montgomery Blair High School in Silver Spring.

These teenagers and more than 400 others in Montgomery County are marking the debut of a program called Summer RISE (Real Interesting Summer Experience). For three weeks of summer, ending Friday, they are matched with a business, government agency or nonprofit organization, earning a $300 stipend as they get to know more about potential careers.

We knew we needed something for a school system that has 48,000 high school students, said Will Jawando, director of the program, operated by the nonprofit WorkSource Montgomery. Not only is this great for the kids to give them something to do, but also to show them opportunities exist and they dont have to live somewhere else to get an interesting job.

The program is not a classic internship or summer job initiative, but designed to be something in-between, for teenagers heading into 11th and 12th grades. There are no academic requirements, and most students dont have previous job experience. They work an average of 20 hours a week.

Its really cutting edge, and I think the exact type of program we need in Montgomery County, said School Board Member Jeanette Dixon. It gives students a sense of what the possibilities are in terms of future employment, and it gives businesses a sense of who our students are, what the possibilities are for hiring. 

In the best case, she said, it could spark a job connection for the future or a passion about a particular field.

You never know, she said.

At several fire stations this week, high school students climbed into emergency vehicles with firefighters this week to get a first-hand view of the job.

In Silver Spring, a student riding in an ambulance watched as emergency medical technicians helped a woman in labor who was about to deliver a baby.

In Gaithersburg, Chante Stuppard, 17, went out with firefighters Thursday on an emergency call to help a man severely injured in his garage.

Stuppard said it capped a three-week experience that also included learning how to perform CPR, participating in physical agility testing and doing mock job interviews. As the program ends, she said she is thinking about the possibility of firefighting.

It really opened my eyes, said the rising senior at Clarksburg High. They really do impact the community.

More than 175 employers are involved in the program, including banks, research labs, construction companies, child-care providers, health-care concerns, senior living centers, at least one veterinarian and a wide range of school system and government offices. Four students are assigned at Kaiser Permanentes medical facility in Gaithersburg.

Another five are at Willco, a commercial real estate company that manages buildings across the Washington region. Most of that group are shadowing maintenance engineers, helping with such tasks as painting, changing air filters, fixing plumbing and mopping floors.

They are really getting a lesson in back-of-the-house commercial real estate, making sure everything is running smoothly, said Stacy Cohen, director of human resources.

At the police department, students have gotten a glimpse into processing crime scenes, ensuring firearms safety, working in emergency communications and training dogs for the canine unit, said officer Ana Hester.

Were giving them little snippets of every part of the department, she said.

Others have done their three-week stints at nonprofit organizations, including Community Bridges, which works in leadership development for under-served girls in grades 4 to 12.

Shannon Babe-Thomas, executive director, said her Summer RISE student was shy and unsure at first but has made great strides. She has grown confident surveying families served by the organization and improvised an online survey, she said.

By the end of the first week, we already saw growth in her, said Babe-Thomas, who said she would welcome the student back for an internship or other opportunity.

Other employers have been pleased, too.

Ralph Lary, chief executive of Arena Technical Resources, a technology recruiting and staffing firm in Rockville, said that the teenager he is hosting  Tyler Kitts  has shown initiative, skill and decorum.

Beyond my wildest expectations, he said.

The programs 428 participants come from schools across the county and a variety of backgrounds. Forty-seven percent are black, 20 percent Hispanic, 16 percent white and 16 percent Asian. More than a third are from economically disadvantaged households.

Organizers want the program to expand to more than 1,000 students for next summer.

The idea dates to last fall, when county, school and community leaders discussed how to provide meaningful career exposure well before high school graduation.

It took shape with the help of local and state funding, including a $250,000 county appropriation, as well as some contributions from the private sector.

Students must submit applications and attend training on professionalism skills. The nonprofit group A Wider Circle gave about 100 students gently used professional clothing to wear to job sites.

Dominique Melo, 17, a rising senior at Northwest High, said her experience with the fire department has been hands-on and a launching point into the world of work. She hopes one day to become a pediatrician.

Melo recalled going out on an ambulance call to help a person who suffered a stroke.

Its really giving me experience and letting me work in the field before I even leave high school, she said. Most people dont get to intern until they get to college.
Robert A. Farmer, a top Democratic Party fundraiser who was national party treasurer and also served as national treasurer for the presidential campaigns of John Glenn, Michael Dukakis, Bill Clinton and John Kerry, died July 22 at a hospital in Miami. He was 78.

The cause was pancreatic cancer, said his husband, Tom Winston.

Mr. Farmer was said to have been one of the political fundraising luminaries of his generation.

In 1991 he resigned after three years as national treasurer of the Democratic Party to become the chief fundraiser of then-Arkansas Gov. Clintons 1992 bid for the presidency. He could talk an owl out of a tree, Clinton told the Boston Globe. As president, Clinton appointed Mr. Farmer consul general to Bermuda.

As the widely reputed father of soft money, Mr. Farmer targeted money not subject to the same regulations and limitations as gifts to specific candidates or campaigns. This would be money for such activities as voter registration drives; party administration; or state organizations that may have supported a specific candidate, but nevertheless had the trappings of neutrality.

Robert A. Farmer, chief fun raiser for Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis' presidential campaign, poses at Dukakis for President headquarters in Boston on Oct. 15, 1987. (Jim Shea/AP)

A former publisher of educational books, Mr. Farmer sold his business in 1983. Over the next three decades, according to his brother, Brent Farmer, he flunked retirement several times. He worked for Sen. Glenn (D-Ohio) in the Democratic presidential primary of 1984 and became national treasurer for Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis in the presidential election of 1988.

In that race, he presided over a fundraising operation that netted $90 million, parity at last with the Republican fundraising operation that had traditionally dominated the political money sweepstakes. It also made Mr. Farmer one of the preeminent stars of the political fundraising field.

Robert Alan Farmer was born in Cleveland on Sept. 20, 1938. He graduated from Dartmouth College in 1960 and from Harvard Law School in 1965. While in law school he established an educational publishing company that drew on the talents of the myriad graduate students in the Boston area to publish educational books.

After selling his publishing business, Mr. Farmer held several corporate directorships in fields of educational publishing, lobbying and technology. But he was mainly known to the public as a political fundraiser.

He was low-key but persistent and unrelenting in his quest for money, and he always relied on personal contact  by telephone or face-to-face  and never letters. If he was turned down, hed call back later. If he was turned down again, hed call again. Hed typically end a conversation with a donor with an exclamation such as, Youre a great American!

He operated on the maxim that the more people were involved, the better. He wanted benefactors to feel that they belonged to something: the greater the contribution, the greater the belonging. Donors were asked to find more donors. A giver of $10,000 would be asked to find 10 more givers of $10,000 each. In his view, this was preferable to one donor of $100,000.

From 1994 to 1999, Mr. Farmer served as Clintons consul general to Bermuda, a rank similar to that of ambassador. The next year, he came out as a gay man in the Advocate, an LGBT magazine. He and Winston were together for 18 years before marrying in 2013.

In 1979, during the exodus of Vietnamese boat people, Mr. Farmer took two brothers into his home in Brookline, Mass., from a Malaysian refugee camp. They were Hieu and Thieu Nguyen. Thieu, the younger brother, was later adopted by Mr. Farmer.

Besides his husband, of Miami, survivors include Thieu Nguyen of West Roxbury, Mass.; a brother; and three grandchildren.

Mr. Farmers last campaign was Kerrys 2004 unsuccessful run against incumbent president George W. Bush. He was kind of a pied piper of modern networking fund-raising, Kerry said of Mr. Farmer to the Globe.

In Mr. Farmers obituary published in the Royal Gazette of Bermuda, the newspaper wrote of him that no other consul general  and certainly no other Bermudian public figure in recent times  has managed to make so many friends and such a wide range of contacts throughout Bermuda.

Or as Mr. Farmer once put it, I kept us out of war.
Authorities in Warrenton, Va., said they found the body of a CVS Pharmacy store manager outside a dumpster.

The Warrenton Police Department said it was called early Thursday to the CVS Pharmacy in the 500 block of Blackwell Road for a report of a person who had died.

When they arrived, officers found the body on the side of the building near a dumpster.

Warrenton is a town in Fauquier County, about 50 miles west of Washington.

Police said there is no threat to the public.

The man was later identified as Rex Mack Olsen, 64, of Reva, Va. The cause of death, police said, is pending an autopsy that will be done by the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The case is under investigation.

Anyone with information is asked to call 540-428-9591.


Rita Sanders-Campfiled stabbed Chong Park to death at the apartment they shared. She is shown with a passage from her journal. (Montgomery County court records)

Sitting in a nearly empty courtroom, Connie Park looked at the woman who had killed Parks mother.

Do you remember? she asked 56-year-old Rita Sanders-Campfield.

She did not.

The exchange, in a Maryland murder case in which both families knew well the vexations of mental-health struggles, laid bare a shared pain. The women had been roommates for about a year in a housing program designed to help those with psychiatric disabilities integrate into society.

Rita is sick, not evil, just as my mother was, another of the dead womans daughters, Laureen Park, told a judge about the homicide that left her 67-year-old churchgoing mother, Chong Hee Park, dead from 84 slashing and stab wounds.

Sanders-Campfield, who suffered from schizophrenia and depression, and apparently had quit taking her medication, used scissors and two knives, leaving one lodged in the back of the woman she errantly concluded was turning toward witchcraft and had become evil. Park was found in their apartment, beside the white purse and in the same clothes she had worn to a dinner with some of her family on the last night they saw her in 2014.

The case concluded last week when a judge in Montgomery County found Sanders-Campfield guilty of murder and committed her to a high-security psychiatric hospital.

For Connie Park, the outcome was anticipated and felt like the only one that made sense, and yet, was unsatisfying.

For a long time, she told Sanders-Campfield in court, I wanted to hear any and all details about what happened, hoping that I could  even in my imagination  be there with my mother. I wanted to look into your eyes. I wanted to hear it from your mouth what happened in that apartment. But I cant have that.

Its complex

Connie and Laureen Park had a perspective both insightful and tragic  and struggled even so with the convergence of mental illness and homicide.

In a lot of ways these cases are more difficult, said Russell Butler, the longtime executive director for the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center. Its a struggle for a lot of people. Its so complex.

Some see the killer working one more scheme, aimed at staying out of harsh prisons. Others want the killer to get better, but to what end: So doctors will release the person?

Chong Park at the beach about 10 years ago. (Montgomery County court records)

Chong Park saw tragedy early in life while growing up in Korea. Her father regularly beat her mother, and her parents died when she was a teenager.

Chong Park married and by 1977 immigrated to Maryland, settling in Silver Spring.

Within months, a car crash left her husband a paraplegic, and Park went to work: at a fast-food chicken outlet and cleaning houses before saving enough to open a small store of her own in the lobby of an office building.

As her children moved out, her undiagnosed bipolar disorder and anxieties surfaced with ferocity.

Never a smoker, she went quickly to a three-pack-a-day habit, dragging on menthol cigarettes, always inside a parked car with the windows closed, according to Connie Park. She spent time in and out of hospitals.

Sanders-Campfield was born in Ohio, moved to Maryland, graduated from Bethesda-Chevy Chase High School and graduated from Duke University with a degree in zoology, according to Barry Helfand, her attorney, and officials at Duke.

She married and had two children but struggled with mental illness. When her husband died in 1999, Sanders-Campfields mental health deteriorated, sending her to a hospital for more than a year.

In 2005, according to Maryland court records, she was convicted on misdemeanor theft counts in Montgomery County and spent two months in jail. The records show no other arrests, and nothing violent.

It took a lot of work to get myself to a better place, Sanders-Campfield said in 2014, speaking at an annual Welcome Home dinner for Housing Unlimited, the nonprofit that provided her apartment.

Her speech laid out what then was her success story.

Luck isnt what matters. It is perseverance, she said. Today, I live in a lovely, beautiful home in North Bethesda with my roommate Chong Park.

She gave a terrifying look

By 2014, Chong Park had been taking medication steadily for 10 years and settled into a stable life.

She was active in the Maryland Central Korean Church, where she showed up in fancy, furry hats to services and helped distribute food to the homeless.

She was very kind, Pastor Namyong Kim said in an interview. She loved to laugh.

Her daughters, who lived in New York, stayed in touch by phone and visited about five times a year.

On Friday, Nov. 28, 2014, Connie Park, her husband, and their children were on hand to take Park to dinner, and as they waited in the living room they talked with Sanders-Campfield.

Polite and welcoming a year earlier--she had even offered Park the larger bedroom as she moved in--, Sanders-Campfield now seemed to have an edge, Connie Park recalled. Sanders-Campfield stressed how shed bought a Korean Bible for Connie Parks mother. When Connie Park told her that her mother already had one, Sanders-Campfield held it out to Connie Park while asking about her familys salvation.

Why do you not seek to be perfected? she asked, Connie Park recalled in court.

As the family left for dinner, Connies husband, Marc Vesci, glanced at Sanders-Campfield and later told his wife: That woman just gave me a terrifying look.

But given their earlier experiences with Sanders-Campfield, it wasnt a look that portended violence.

At evenings end, Laureen Park dropped her mom outside the apartment building and watched her walk to the exterior door. The next day and for two days after that, the family couldnt reach Chong Park on her phone.

Connie Park sent an email to Housing Unlimited staff asking them to check on her mother.

No memories

From the time Sanders-Campfield was arrested and transferred to a secure psychiatric hospital, her mental illness was evident. She seemed to respond to auditory hallucinations, walked in a daze and showed bouts of paranoia.

For two days, she didnt eat or drink, according to court records.Doctors forcibly medicated her, a process she fought in Maryland courts. Im not mentally ill, she declared at one point to a medical panel.

But the forced medications started to take effect, and she eventually was deemed fit to stand trial.

Even as lucidity returned, Sanders-Campfield maintained she had no memories of a four-day stretch in 2014: between 2 p.m. on the Friday when her roommate left for dinner and 10 a.m. Tuesday when a police officer came into Sanders-Campfields bedroom. She had spent the days alone with a dead person on the other side of her locked bedroom door.

She  according to everyone  has no memory of this event. None, said Helfand, her attorney. The whole thing has been bizarre.

Scissors used in the killing, police said. (Montgomery County court records)

No evidence suggested anyone else had come into the apartment. Sanders-Campfields DNA was on one murder weapon. The blouse shed been wearing, soaked in the victims blood, was found neatly hung in a closet.

Earlier this year, prosecutors told Helfand they would concede that Sanders-Campfield was not criminally responsible at the time of the killing, meaning she didnt understand her conduct was a crime, or lacked the capacity to conform that conduct to the requirements of the law.

What remained in dispute was whether Sanders-Campfield committed first-degree, premeditated murder or a lesser form of homicide. That generated last weeks trial, held before Circuit Judge Sharon Burrell.

Assistant States Attorney Jessica Zarrella showed Burrell the journal kept by Sanders-Campfield, with a reference to witchcraft and Sanders-Campfields belief Chong Park was her oppressor. Later, when Chong Parks family spurned Sanders-Campfields effort to redeem their souls, her frustrations grew.

The defendant stewed about these thoughts of witchcraft and evilness and sinfulness, and these thoughts intensified when Chong came home, Zarrella said.



A page from the journal of RitaSanders-Campfield referring to Chong Park. (Montgomery County court records)

Crime scene evidence pointed to an immediate attack: Chong Park would be found wearing the clothes shed had on at dinner.

At some point, while Chong Park was out or after her killing, Sanders-Campfield removed photographs of Chong Parks daughters from frames, tore each into four pieces, and threw them into a trash can.

But Sanders-Campfields attorney, Helfand, told the judge that establishing a motive or details to the crime required prosecutors to make too many assumptions. They want you to be a playwright, and fill in all these blanks, he said, arguing that if his client was guilty, it was to a lesser charge such as second-degree murder or manslaughter.

I hope you get better

Connie and Laureen Park were hoping the strongest conviction would equate to the strongest chance Sanders-Campfield would not be released any time soon. After the second day of the trial, they walked with prosecutors and asked about the legal question: Was there enough circumstantial evidence in the case to convict a legally insane person of first-degree, premeditated murder?

At prosecutors offices, Montgomery County States Attorney John McCarthy, who has dealt with the insanity defense in murder cases for more than 20 years, stopped in to speak to the sisters. He said direct-evidence cases  based on eyewitness accounts, for example  can have their own problems. Truly good circumstantial cases are often better, he said.

As he spoke, McCarthy knew the sisters  sharp and insightful as they were about mental illness  were still on a learning curve about insanity cases.

These women understand the uncertainties of what theyre facing, McCarthy said in an interview afterward. They are decent and sympathetic, but that does not mean they think this woman should ever be walking the streets again.

An investigation by McCarthys office had revealed Sanders-Campfield had quit taking medication in the months before the homicide. That possibility presented Parks family with another nagging fear: If Sanders-Campfield is treated for years, gets better and appears to pose no threat, could she be freed? And what then could happen if she stops her medication?

On July 19, Burrell ruled Sanders-Campfield was guilty of second-degree murder. There was not enough evidence, the judge said, that Sanders-Campfield had thought through the crime before she committed it to find her guilty on the higher charge. The judge committed Sanders-Campfield to a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. Any release would be based in large part on the opinions of doctors.

Burrell allowed Chong Parks daughters to speak.

My mourning comes over me at unexpected times  in waves, coming out of nowhere, Connie Park said.

She paused, cried, and continued speaking as she looked at Sanders-Campfield. She told her that they both were daughters, sisters and mothers.

I dont know how I feel toward you, Connie Park said. Even though I may hate you at times, and I can be very angry, I do hope you get better.
Cecilia Williams, right, elicits a laugh from centenarian Thelma Kouzes in Fairfax, Va., on July 21. Williams, a friend and former exchange student from Peru, was once hosted by Kouzes and now lives with her and helps care for her. (Cheryl Diaz Meyer/For The Washington Post)

Once again, Thelma Kouzes had a full house.

Over the decades, 174 international students from 34 countries have stayed in her Fairfax home. And on Wednesday she was surrounded by friends, family and two of her former students as her great-grandson blew out the candles of her 100th birthday cake.

A Kuwaiti woman who had stayed with Kouzes in the 1990s flew in for the celebration and brought her mother. Two others from Kuwait joined in through FaceTime. And the former Peruvian student standing by all of them was the one who helped bring this international cast of family and friends together for Kouzess party on Wednesday.

Its been a good life, said Kouzes, who also helped place more than 400 international students with American families. Ive met a lot of people, which I enjoy, and thats about all I know.

Cecilia Williams was studying at Northern Virginia Community College when she came from Peru to live with Kouzes in 1989. Back then, it was Kouzes who took her to doctor appointments, Kouzes who did her laundry, and Kouzes who cooked her meals. Now Williams, 55, says its her turn to take care of the woman who spent the better part of a century taking care of everyone else.

On a bulletin board next to Thelma Kouzess refrigerator, photos of some of the more than 150 exchange students and three refugee families she and her family hosted are posted. (Cheryl Diaz Meyer/For The Washington Post)

I dont have the heart to leave her, said Williams, Kouzess live-in caretaker. Its like a gratitude I have, and forever appreciation.

Williams, who has lived with Kouzes for the past four years, fields messages for her from around the world. Via WhatsApp, former students reach out to check in on Kouzess health and ask to visit when they travel to America.

Kouzes stepped into her role as a host mom to students after her son Jim Kouzes, now 72, heard about the American Field Service at school and asked his parents if theyd like to host Aaro, a boy from Finland. They welcomed him in 1960, and they kept inviting others.

Kouzes continued hosting students through her husbands death in 1977 and chemotherapy for her colon cancer in 2002. She always liked being a mother, her son Richard Kouzes said.

[Tom Kouzes Dies at 61, Retired Deputy at Labor]

Generations of families have come through the home, with former students sending their children to America to stay with Kouzes years later.

She has hosted students from Jordan, Iran and Peru, among other nations, and one of Kouzess children went on to become a Kuwaiti ambassador.

I was ambassador, but she was my first ambassador, said 72-year-old Abdul Hamid Al Awadhi, who spent decades as a career diplomat.

Kouzes helped him apply to college and hosted at least 10 of his brothers and sisters.

Williams watched Kouzes treat everyone coming in and out of the house like her own child. She helped them with science projects and history papers and drove them to school. She redecorated the basement bedroom in an Arabic-style design so the Kuwaiti students, and others, wouldnt feel homesick.

These days, Williams doesnt like to call herself a caretaker.

Im here because I love her, not because Im an employee she said.

The Kouzeses home always had a global focus. When her sons were young, Kouzes volunteered with the United Nations Association, and people from around the world would come over for dinner. Richard Kouzes said when hed come home for college breaks hed often share a room with other students, and Jim Kouzes eventually joined the Peace Corps in 1967.

The house was a very interesting place to grow up, Richard Kouzes said.

Now Richard Kouzes, 70, works as a nuclear physicist in Washington state, and his brother Jim is an author of more than 30 books on leadership and lives in California. He said its been difficult for them to live on the West Coast while his mother has required more care.

Without Williams, Richard Kouzes said, his mother would have to live in a nursing home.

Cecilia loves my mother and visa versa, he said.

Kouzes served as matron of honor at Williamss wedding, and she flew to Peru to witness her sons baptism.

When that marriage ended, Williams said Kouzes was there as her best friend and would attend her sons Boy Scout banquets  and any other activity Williams couldnt get to because of her work schedule. Williamss parents still live in Peru.

Bryce, now 24, is in the Marines, stationed in Missouri, but still tries to FaceTime with Kouzes a few times a week.

Mamacita in Peru and Grandma in America. . . . He always has those great memories, Williams said. At his birthday parties, he had the two grandmothers there.

Kouzess parents immigrated from Denmark, and her husbands family was Greek.

She said she tried to impress upon the children who lived with her that it was important to learn about different cultures and just try to get along.

Kouzes said she believes in getting people acquainted across borders, across the seas.

[For Mom, world understanding starts at dinner table]

That message stuck with Williams. In addition to care-taking, she works as a Spanish professor at Northern Virginia Community College and a volunteer interpreter for various nonprofit immigrant groups.

Williams also helps people prepare for their naturalization exams and serves on the Virginia Latino Advisory Board for Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D).

Kouzes doesnt talk as much as she used to. She passes the days playing cards and doing crosswords. Each morning, Williams and Kouzes share the newspaper, poring over every section except for sports. They watch Jeopardy and Wheel of Fortune every night, and sometimes Kouzes still yells out the answers.

Throughout the day, Williams doesnt let Kouzes forget the adventures she had: She reminds her she once hiked Machu Picchu, toured the pyramids and walked the Great Wall of China  all in high heels.

Three years ago, a blood clot in her leg left her unable to walk, and now Kouzes uses a wheelchair. Richard Kouzes said his mother doesnt take medication because she doesnt believe in it.

Kouzes said she still likes to dance  she met her future husband on the dance floor  so Williams blasts YMCA from her cellphone and does the dance motions in the living room as Kouzes smiles.

Williams used to bring Kouzes to her college parties to dance.

My feet dont work, but other than that I like it, Kouzes said.

Williams manages the four other caretakers, not counting the nurses through hospice care who bathe her and check her vitals every other day.

Only one other caretaker is fluent in English, but Williams said the language barrier doesnt bother her. When she screens caretakers, she tells them she requires three things for Kouzes: Hug her, kiss her, tell her multiple times youre beautiful. 

Williams reminds hospice nurses when they need more diapers, gloves and bed liners.

A Do Not Resuscitate form hangs on the refrigerator, but Williams tries to ignore that. Around the corner, theres corkboard layered with dozens of photos of Kouzess students.

On a recent day, Williams leaned over Kouzess wheelchair and spoke loudly into her ear so Kouzes could hear her: I love you, she said.

Thank you, Kouzes said.

Williams laughed and asked, Do you love me?

Yes, indeed, Kouzes said with a smile.

How much? Williams asked.

A lot, Kouzes said, and she kissed Williamss cheek, leaving a red lipstick mark behind.
Macau Civil Aviation Authority (AACM) President Simon Chan stated this week that the local government has requested the central governments permission to reclaim land for the expansion of the local airport.

The government is seeking to reclaim land in the waters between the airports two taxiways that link the runway and the apron.

Chan said that the government made its request for land reclamation to the central government in February, further noting that there was no current timetable for the commencement of the land reclamation project. He added that the central government is still considering the plan for the airports expansion.

AACM released the revised version of a development plan for the airport for the next 20 years in January. The airports development will require land reclamation of 172 hectares or 1.72 square kilometers, which will raise the total area of the airport to 346 hectares.

The revised plan also forecasts the number of passengers to reach 7 million by 2019, 11 million by 2037, and 15 million by 2040.

The airport exceeded its designed maximum passenger capacity in November last year, when six million passenger arrivals and departures were recorded.

Chan further pointed out that since the number of passengers at the airport now exceeds more than six million per year, land reclamation to expand the airport is the only way to accommodate the growing number of passengers.

The airport has been in service for 22 years since it first began operating in November 1995.
A 38-year-old man was shot and killed late Wednesday night in Southeast Washington.

D.C. police said Daniel Shelton Parker, of Southeast, was shot around 11:20 p.m. Wednesday in the 2000 block of Fairlawn Avenue SE near Naylor Road SE in the Anacostia neighborhood. When police arrived, he was unconscious and suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police said some vehicles in the area were shot by gunfire as well. No one else was seriously injured.

Police are trying to figure out a motive and are looking for a suspect or suspects.

This comes as the D.C. region has seen more than 150 homicides this year, according to a tracking system by The Washington Post. Of those, 64 have been in the District.
A 17-year-old Alexandria teenager was arrested for allegedly wounding three people Thursday during a shooting incident in the Del Ray section of Alexandria, alarming neighbors who heard multiple gunshots around lunchtime.

Alexandria police said the victims were expected to survive and that they knew the person who shot them. They were taken to a hospital, where they were in serious but stable condition, Alexandria Police Department Capt. Shannon Soriano said.

Detectives arrested the suspect, who was not identified because he is a juvenile, hours after police used a helicopter and police dogs to help with the search. Officials said he was arrested without incident and charged with malicious wounding.

The incident unfolded about 1 p.m. in the 400 block of East Howell Avenue. Police provided few details, but neighbors described seeing an injured man and woman, and a black car that had rammed into an SUV.

Edna Gregg, 73, lives on East Howell Avenue and heard the shots while she was in her basement. She came outside and saw two people on the sidewalk who were upset. The man appeared to have been shot in the arm, but Gregg could not tell how the woman had been hurt.

She was screaming, she said, and the man was trying to calm her down.

Gregg was told by police that both were taken to the hospital, along with a third victim.

Some neighbors were especially jolted because the shooting occurred blocks from where House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and others were shot last month as Republican members of Congress held a baseball practice. The shooter was killed by police.

[Lawmaker Steve Scalise is critically injured in GOP baseball shooting; gunman James T. Hodgkinson is killed by police]

Kyle Morrisey, 41, was parking his car on Leslie Avenue on Thursday when he heard a commotion and saw two victims sitting on the curb at the Howell Avenue intersection. The young man had his shirt off and was holding it to the right cheek of a young woman. There was blood on his chest. Neighbors were trying to calm them down.

Del Rays a safe neighborhood. . . . I dont feel unsafe, Morrisey said. But I dont feel like explaining to my 5-year-old and 3-year-old why theres police tape up again, that theres another bad guy out there.

Clarence Williams contributed to this report.
A retired priest was arrested in Fairfax County on Wednesday and accused of inappropriately touching a teenage girl nearly 15 years ago.

Gervase Cain, now 86, is alleged to have had the contact with the 15-year-old girl during a consultation at her home in Fairfax in 2003, police said Thursday.

The case was initially reported in 2004, though the complaint was later withdrawn, police said. They said the complaint was reopened in May and a warrant was issued July 17. Cain, who resides in Loretto, Pa., turned himself in Wednesday after learning of the warrant, police said.

Cain was charged with taking indecent liberties with a child by a person in a custodial or supervisory relationship.

According to a spokeswoman for the Fairfax County Police Department, Cain is no longer being held. A spokeswoman from the sheriffs office said Cain was bonded out before being booked, though it was unclear how much the bond was for.

Cain taught philosophy at St. Francis University  a Catholic liberal arts college in Loretto  for 20 years, according to the universitys website. He served as executive vice president of the university from 1976 to 1983, according to the website. St. Francis University is conducted under the tradition of the Franciscan Friars of the Third Order Regular.

According to the Arlington Catholic Herald, the Third Order Regular of St. Francis Fathers assumed responsibility of the Luray parish in Virginia in 1992, with Cain serving as its first pastor.

A message left at St. Francis University was not returned Thursday afternoon.
President Trump poses for a photo with this years White House interns, who are nearly all white and mostly male. (Tasos Katopodis/European Pressphoto Agency)

President Trump has declared war on inclusiveness.

Wait. Inclusiveness is the wrong word. Thats too squishy, too human resource-y.

How about we just call it a war on American reality?

Because all these Americans Trump is battling  transgender warriors, Muslims, people of color, women, immigrants, the disabled, people who need help affording health care  represent a huge and growing swath of our great country.

And this thing we call inclusiveness simply acknowledges that reality.

But reality hasnt been this administrations strong suit. It doesnt get applause at Trump rallies. Rigged reality, however, does.

No one knows that better than Trump, the king of rigged TV.

What does Trumps rigged America look like?

Take a look at his photo with this years White House interns, the overwhelming majority of whom are white and male.

Millennials are the most racially and ethnically diverse generation our country has ever seen. That photo looks nothing like America.

Trump set out to institute a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States and finally succeeded this month in winning Supreme Court approval of a partial travel ban.

He refused to keep the two-decade tradition of holding a White House Ramadan dinner, and he skipped the White House Seder.

He neglected to mention Jews in a statement marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and he turned down the NAACPs invitation to speak at its convention.

[Our ugly racisms newest artifact: The noose left at the African American Museum]

And he did nothing to celebrate National Pride Month in June.

The latest grenade in his war on reality: a series of tweets Wednesday that knocked the wind out of at least 11,000 transgender service members who fight for our country.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, Trump said in his breakfast tweetstorm. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Ridiculous.

It took Washington reporters about 15 seconds to dig up the studies that show these tremendous medical costs are between $2.4 million and $8 million annually. Thats about the same as what we taxpayers pay for one or maybe two of Trumps weekend getaways to Mar-a-Lago.

Stay home one weekend, Mr. President: Budget crisis solved.

Health care for transgender service members makes up 0.001% of the entire military budget. Thats one thousandth of one percent of a budget so huge, billions and trillions are the common terms.

Also, the military spends about $84 million every year on erectile dysfunction medications.

So, no, its not about money.

But  as every showman knows  its the plot twist that gets the audiences attention. And thats what Trump wanted. Attention.

This one backfired, though.

Because afterward, even congressional Republicans werent applauding.

Sen. Richard C. Shelby (R-Ala.), one of the lords of the Pentagons budget, wasnt on board with this attempt to rig the American military.

You ought to treat everybody fairly and give everybody a chance to serve, Shelby said on CNN. In a follow-up statement to the Huntsville Times, he added: The current policy is a big tent for people who want to serve. Youve got to remember, our military force is a voluntary force.

A big tent.

Like the Boy Scouts of America. Though the nonpartisan organization did ban gay Scouts and Scout leaders before welcoming them in 2013, one of the founding fathers of the Boy Scouts was Jewish financier Mortimer Schiff, who served as vice president from 1911 to 1931. The first Jewish troop was formed in 1913.

[If you dont believe country, honor and Allah can co-exist, meet these Muslim Boy Scouts]

In 1981, the Boy Scouts officially began an Islamic Council on Scouting, organizing the Muslim scouts who have been tying knots and camping for years with other Scouts.

Yet Trump, in his appalling speech to the National Scout Jamboree in West Virginia earlier this week, ignored all that made-in-America diversity. Instead he attacked the countrys first African American president, dissed his former rival Hillary Clinton and even invoked his war on Christmas campaign nonsense once again.

Under the Trump administration, he told the Scouts. youll be saying Merry Christmas again when you go shopping.

Christmas in July. This is nothing like reality.

Twitter: @petulad
Virginia Republican gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie, at the lectern, calls for a crackdown on gangs and sanctuary cities at a news conference in front of the Loudoun County Courthouse on Thursday. (Fenit Nirappil/The Washington Post)

Virginia GOP gubernatorial nominee Ed Gillespie on Thursday called for aggressive action against gangs and a ban on sanctuary cities that do not cooperate with federal immigration authorities, part of a policy rollout that appears designed to fire up his conservative base.

By highlighting gangs and crimes committed by immigrants living in Virginia illegally, Gillespie embraced an issue championed by Corey Stewart, who nearly beat him for the GOP nomination last month with a Trump-like agenda that took a hard line on immigration.

Gillespies rollout coincided with a Trump administration push this week to call attention to MS-13, a violent street gang that originated in Los Angeles and has taken root in some immigrant communities in the United States.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions traveled to El Salvador on Thursday as part of a mission to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against the gang. President Trump plans to visit Long Island in New York on Friday after the arrests of 15 gang members to discuss ways to eliminate MS-13.

[MS-13 gains power and recruits as teen border crossings surge]

After Gillespies razor-thin victory in the GOP primary, Republicans at the state and national levels have been urging him to listen to Trump strategists. A spokesman for the Gillespie campaign would not say whether it had coordinated Thursdays policy rollout with the White House.

While Stewart used inflammatory rhetoric when discussing illegal immigrants, Gillespie spoke in technocratic language about seeking federal funding, establishing prevention programs and revising the states criminal code to increase prosecutions. He announced his anti-gang policies in front of the Loudoun County courthouse, a site he chose in part because of MS-13 activity in the area.

Job number one is eradicating gangs and rewarding those who keep up safer, said Gillespie, who will face Democratic Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam in November. If someone is here illegally and they commit a crime, they will be deported.

Gillespie said MS-13s rise accentuates the need for local cooperation with federal immigration officials. The Justice Department this week said it will no longer award grant money to cities that dont provide access to jails or notify when prisoners in the country illegally are about to be released, escalating the Trump administrations crackdown on sanctuary cities.

A lot of those involved in [MS-13] are here illegally, Gillespie said. We cannot allow for the establishment of sanctuary cities.

The commonwealth does not have sanctuary cities, and Gillespie and Northam have agreed on that point. But theres no clear-cut definition of what constitutes a sanctuary jurisdiction, and different sheriffs vary when it comes to cooperating with federal immigration authorities.

Northam cast a tiebreaking vote in the state Senate to reject a bill banning sanctuary cities in Virginia, which he dismissed as a political scheme by Republicans. The measure later passed and was vetoed by Gov. Terry McAuliffe (D), who is barred from seeking consecutive terms under the state Constitution.

Northam has advocated for compassion for immigrants living in Virginia illegally and says they should be able to receive in-state tuition at public colleges and universities as well as drivers licenses.

Northam agrees with several of Gillespies proposal regarding law enforcement, including higher wages for state police (a pay raise was in this years budget) and a return of Project Exile, a program that originated in Richmond in 1997 and shifted the prosecution of illegal gun possession from the state to federal court, which had a mandatory minimum sentence of five years in federal prison.

Although it was initially credited with reducing gun-related crimes in Richmond, the program was criticized as having a disproportionate effect on African Americans.

A spokeswoman for Northam said that must be considered.

Dr. Northam is open to all ideas to help reduce crime, but they must be implemented in a way that does not exacerbate the racial disparities in our criminal justice system, Ofirah Yheskel said. Virginia also can foster positive relationships between law enforcement and the communities they represent, which will lead to increased rates of solving crimes.

[Attorney General Jeff Sessions highlights Project Exile in Virginia visit]

Gillespie echoed similar sentiments. I talked about disparities in arrests and convictions, and its something Im very aware of and cautious of, he said Thursday.

He was joined by GOP attorney general nominee John Adams, whom Gillespie said he would name as his anti-gang chief. This is a level of criminal activity that impacts the most vulnerable among us, including immigrant communities, said Adams, a lawyer and former federal prosecutor.

Some Democrats said Gillespies message to bolster law enforcement is undercut by his call for an across-the-board income tax cut, which Republican lawmakers have said would be funded by diverting future revenue.

Rather than talking about tax cuts for people who probably dont need it, we need to be talking about how we are going to address some of these crisis situations we are dealing with, said Newport News Sheriff Gabe Morgan.

Although he spoke of tougher sanctions for gun crimes, Gillespie has hinted about relaxing penalties for other crimes. During the primary campaign, he called for fewer prison sentences and more redemption.

About a dozen protesters organized by the Democratic Party of Virginia crashed Gillespies event Thursday, heckling him to condemn Trump and the GOP push for a health-care overhaul.

Gillespie later posted a photo that said his news conference was meant to promote policies to fairly compensate law enforcement, combat gangs and keep Virginians safe. Apparently these are things the Ralph Northam resistance hate.

An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that the MS-13 gang originated in El Salvador. The gang originated in Los Angeles.
For nearly 15 years, the Lerner Enterprises property that was once Landover Mall has been vacant waiting for a major development. The company was one of three finalists -- two in Prince George's County -- bidding for the project to construct a new, secure FBI headquarters at the corner of Maryland Route 202. (Arelis Hernandez/The Washington Post)

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday will consider language requiring the FBI to develop a new plan to consolidate its workforce in the capital region within 30 days of the bills passage.

The move comes weeks after the administration abruptly canceled plans a decade in the making to relocate the FBI headquarters at the J. Edgar Hoover Building, and consolidate workers scattered among about a dozen other offices.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who succeeded retired senator Barbara Mikulski on the powerful Senate committee, said he pushed for the language to encourage the FBI to find a way to replace the crumbling headquarters.

What theyve said is theyre not going to proceed with the old procurement process, he said in an interview Wednesday. They have not indicated that theyre opposed to consolation. In fact we believe theyll be supportive of moving forward with FBI consolidation.

Members of Congress from Maryland and Virginia condemned the administrations surprise reversal of plans to move the FBIs 11,000 headquarters employees to one of three final locations in Greenbelt, Md., Landover, Md., or Springfield, Va.

[Fallout from FBI headquarters decision leaves losers all around]

At the time, General Services Administration officials said an $882 million funding gap remained, despite Congress appropriating $523 million for the project in 2017.

If adopted and passed through a final budget package, the language would redirect the FBI to not only come up with a consolidation plan, but also justify the cancellation, detail the scope and cost for keeping the current headquarters operational until a move and explain how the fiscal year 2017 money will be spent.

The House Appropriations Committee recently adopted similar language based on a proposal from Rep. C.A. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) that would give the GSA 60 days from the bills passage to develop an alternative plan for consolidation.

The earlier plan would have awarded the winning bidder a chance to redevelop the Hoover site downtown and helped the government foot the bill for the new project.

There are alternative paths, Van Hollen said. People want to develop a plan sooner rather than later. Exactly how thats configured in terms of whether you put together procurement that sells the current building as part of the package is one option. I think there are other options.
Danica Roem, the Democratic nominee for the 13th District seat in the Virginia House of Delegates, walks from a home as she canvasses a neighborhood in Manassas, Va. (Steve Helber/AP)

President Trumps decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military sparked a wave of condemnation from Democrats and Republicans alike.

But the political arena where it resonated perhaps most personally was a local state House race in Virginia, where Democrat Danica Roem is looking to make history as the states first transgender lawmaker. She is vying to unseat Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), a social conservative who has sponsored a bathroom bill and a ban on gay people from serving in the states National Guard. Both pieces of legislation failed.

For our president, who opted out of serving in the military, to attack transgender people for being unfit to serve . . . is the height of hypocrisy, said Roem, 32, a former newspaper reporter. Transgender military members . . . have done more to serve and protect their country than Donald Trump ever will.

Marshall, a 25-year incumbent in the Prince William County district, which is close to the Marine Corps base in Quantico, said in an interview that he thought it was prudent to expel and bar transgender people from the military.

The money that would have been spent on costly and risky elective surgeries and decades of synthetic hormones that can cause cancer, in an effort to change sexual appearance, will be much better spent on treating our combat wounded servicemen and our veterans, and on buying equipment to keep our servicemen safe, Marshall said in an email.

Del. Robert G. Marshall (R-Prince William), has held his seat for 25 years. (Steve Helber/AP)

[Military spends 5 times as much on Viagra than it would on transgender troops medical care]

The latest flash point in the nations culture wars illustrates a bind for Roem.

She has said that she doesnt want to be defined as the transgender candidate, even as that status has brought her attention from the media and prospective donors. As her advisers have urged, she has focused her campaign on local issues, such as Route 28 traffic, jobs and education.

But Roem says she cant stay silent in the face of discrimination that she says sends a message to young transgender people that they are less than or dont belong. And she says that the time Marshall spends trying to pass conservative, social-issues legislation should be spent addressing local concerns.

As a transgender person, I find it reprehensible that Delegate Marshall has denigrated the service of transgender Americans who have sacrificed their lives so he can have the freedom to say what he says, said Roem, who included a fundraising appeal in one of her tweets about Trumps ban on Wednesday. Its about time the people of the 13th District had a delegate who will represent them instead of singling them out, stigmatizing them and trying to make them feel awful about who they are.

Roem said she received a $50,000 donation from Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele, who chairs the Gay & Lesbian Victory Fund, after Trump announced the transgender military ban. That is on top of the $150,000 she raised for her bid, including an earlier $35,000 from Abele.

Abele, a major donor to LGBT causes, said he was at the White House for an economic development event with Trump, Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) and others on Wednesday, the day the president made his announcement on Twitter.

Instead of condemning Trump to his face, Abele said, he made the donation to Roem from his smartphone while in the East Room. Then he texted her to say his donation would speak louder than any words could.

This is one election, but its a first, and so is the first woman elected, so is the first African American, the first Hispanic, Abele said in an interview. Transgender candidates being as much of a norm as any other citizen is the best way to prevent policies like a ban on anyone, transgender or otherwise, who want to serve defending this country.

In the past, when asked about Roems criticisms, Marshall has said that Democrats have long tried and failed to defeat him by painting him as out of touch with his constituents. The district has gone for both Democratic and Republican candidates in other races in recent years, and it voted for Hillary Clinton in November.

On Wednesday, Marshall said he is far from alone in thinking the military is no place for transgender people.

The decision to end transgenders from military service was made in consultation with generals who know more than I do about what is best for our military, said Marshall, referring to Trumps tweet that he made his decision after consulting generals and military experts.

It is unclear, however, whom in the military Trump had consulted.

His defense secretary, Jim Mattis, ordered a review of a plan to accept transgender troops that was due in December. Brad Carson, a former congressman who worked on transgender policy deliberations during the Obama administration, said no member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff favored a full ban.
The only legal app-based taxi hailing company, Macau Radio Taxi Ltd., failed to answer the requests of approximately 70 percent of passengers who had attempted to use its services.

According to Kevin U Kin Lung, general manager of the company, in the past three months Macau Radio Taxi received a total of 320,000 calls, but the company was only able to service an average of 1,000 passengers per day.

U admitted that the company failed to respond to 200,000 calls for two main reasons: the companys shortage of taxi drivers and the companys shortage of taxis. He also said that customers would often give up on the reservation upon finding a regular taxi to hail.

Macau Radio Taxi currently has around 120 drivers, but only operates 50 vehicles. U noted that the company hopes to hire another 90 drivers, and will dispatch an additional 50 taxis to the streets by the end of this month or early August.

By then, U expects the taxi service provider to be able to service 60 percent of requests for the companys services.

Macau Radio Taxi started operations in April 1. Every month, the company has recorded a 10 to 20 percent increase in the number of passengers who contact them for a taxi.

Regarding the drivers income, U revealed that only a few drivers can make up to MOP40,000 per month. Nine drivers make MOP30,000 per month, and more than 20 drivers make MOP20,000 per month. U also revealed that Macau Radio Taxi has not yet balanced its costs and income.
The skinny repeal plan that emerged as Senate Republicans best, and perhaps only, strategy for overturning much of the Affordable Care Act would pluck out just a few elements of the sprawling law, but it would pack an outsize punch, causing millions of Americans to lose health coverage and striking fear within the insurance industry.

The plan would remove pieces that lie at the very foundation of the compact the Affordable Care Act has created among the government, insurers, the nations employers and the American public.

[Senate GOP leaders work to round up votes for modest health-care overhaul]

When the skinny repeal would come to a vote seemed up in the air early Thursday evening. It has been waiting in the wings, a set of ideas that could be introduced as a bill or as an amendment to existing GOP health-care legislation. A congressional budget analysis Wednesday night forecast that the plan would increase the number of uninsured people by 16 million, and health insurance companies warn that it would drive up rates.

In its original form, the central features of the skinny repeal would eliminate the Affordable Care Acts requirements that most Americans carry health insurance and that employers with 50 or more workers offer them health benefits.

The skinny idea plays off the fact that the insurance requirements, or mandates, are the most unpopular parts of the current health-care law, based on years of public opinion polling. By focusing mainly on those features, plus the elimination of a tax on medical devices, the political strategy behind this narrow bill would be to court Republican conservatives and centrists alike, adopt the measure and then catapult the passed bill into negotiations with the House, which approved its own anti-Affordable Care Act legislation this spring.

However, that path became strewn with doubt early Thursday evening after key Republican senators said they would vote against it unless they had assurance that it would actually lead to a conference committee with the House, where more ideas could be aired  without risk that the plan would simply be approved at the other end of the U.S. Capitol.

Over the course of the day Thursday, skinny acquired a few more components, with senators saying the specifics might still change further. The additions included shifting funds from Planned Parenthood  a longtime conservative whipping post  to community health centers and an ill-defined intention to give states more latitude over their Medicaid programs.

[Skinny repeal could be the Senates health-care bill of last resort]

Though it would have few provisions, the skinny plan would have big effects.

In a hasty analysis sought by the Senates Democrats, congressional budget analysts are estimating that the changes would leave an additional 1 million Americans uninsured this year because consumers would immediately become free to drop coverage. The loss of insurance would quickly swell to 15 million in 2018, mainly among people who buy health plans on their own  the kind of coverage sold through the Affordable Care Acts marketplaces  or through their jobs.

At the end of the coming decade, 16 million extra people would be uninsured, according to the nonpartisan budget scorekeepers. That is almost three-fourths of the 22 million extra people the analysts predicted would be uninsured under the Better Care Reconciliation Act, the much broader Senate Republican bill that would unwind much of the Affordable Care Act and substitute new policies. The Senate, including nine Republicans, rejected that bill in a vote Tuesday night.

Under the skinny version, the largest additional segment of people without coverage in 2026 would be 7 million who otherwise would be on Medicaid, the public insurance program for low-income Americans. Thats even though the skinny plan would not touch Medicaids rules or funding. The broader GOP health-care legislation would reduce Medicaid recipients that year by 15 million. That broader bill would abolish the Affordable Care Acts expansion and, for the first time in Medicaids half-century history, start in a few years to restrict funding for the program as a whole.

For people who buy their own health policies, the skinny plan would cause 5 million fewer Americans to have coverage in a decade  the same as under the broader bill.

[Five things to know about the Senates bid to unwind the ACA]

The effects that the skinny approach would have on consumers and the business of health care already have drawn scorn from several vantage points.

The left-leaning consumer-health lobby Families USA has branded it a Frankenstein bill and said it could lead to a bait-and-switch because it could blossom into more profound health-policy changes in House-Senate conference-committee negotiations.

Health insurers are especially worried. As the Affordable Care Act was being assembled, industry representatives agreed to terms uncomfortable for them  such as a ban on charging more to customers with expensive medical problems or denying them coverage  in exchange for the laws promise that most Americans must have health insurance. In that way, industry leaders reasoned, they would gain millions of healthy new patients whose modest medical expenses would balance out the expense of insuring the sick.

Ever since, the Affordable Care Acts mandates  or at least strong federal incentives for people to stay insured  have been a bedrock underlying insurers willingness to participate in the insurance exchanges, or marketplaces, the law created. On Wednesday, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association issued a warning. A system that allows people to purchase coverage only when they need it drives up costs for everyone, the associations statement said.

On Thursday morning, Americas Health Insurance Plans, another main industry trade group, echoed those sentiments in its own statement, which alluded to the skinny idea. It said, Targeted proposals that would eliminate key elements of current law without new stabilizing solutions . . . will not solve the problems in the individual market and, in fact, will result in higher premiums, fewer choices for consumers and fewer people covered next year.
LESS THAN a month after the death of Otto Warmbier, news emerged of another American student imprisoned by a hostile power. Xiyue Wang, a graduate student and researcher at Princeton University, has been sentenced to 10 years in an Iranian prison on charges of espionage. He was visiting Tehran to research the cultural history of the Qajar dynasty, which lasted from 1794 to 1925. According to his adviser, this prompted him to review and scan historical documents housed in Irans national archive. He was subsequently accused of infiltration and collecting confidential articles to send to the State Department and Western academic institutions. He is one of at least four American citizens and two permanent U.S. residents currently behind bars in Iran.

Mr. Wang joins Karan Vafadari, a U.S. dual citizen who owns an art gallery in Tehran, and Baquer and Siamak Namazi, a father and son who are being held in the notorious Evin prison. Baquer Namazi, an 81-year-old who had undergone triple bypass surgery, was arrested after he flew to Tehran in January 2016 to try to secure the release of his son. Another American, Reza Robin Shahini, was sentenced to 18 years in prison last year but is appealing the decision while free on bond. All were accused of national-security-related crimes on the flimsiest of evidence.

Iran has a long history of imprisoning Americans without due process or transparency. But Mr. Wangs case is the first to come to light after Irans presidential elections in May, which resulted in a landslide victory for President Hassan Rouhani and his relatively moderate platform. On the heels of the arrest of Mr. Rouhanis brother Hossein Fereydoun this month, news of Mr. Wangs sentencing sends a troubling signal that hard-liners in the judiciary and Revolutionary Guard Corps. are the true nexus of power in the country.

The arrests warrant a strong diplomatic response, and early signs have been encouraging. The State Department announced new sanctions on Iran on July 18, specifically citing the detainment of Americans on fabricated charges as a factor in its decision. The White House also issued a strong statement condemning the arrests. Senior officials  including U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley and deputy national security adviser Dina Powell  have likewise been engaged. In June, they successfully urged U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres to send a letter to Mr. Rouhani calling for Baquer Namazis release. This pressure must be maintained until Iran releases all Americans it has arbitrarily imprisoned.

After the tragic case of Mr. Warmbier, the Trump administration has indicated that it will make freeing American hostages a priority. Addressing Irans practice of de facto hostage-taking is a good place to start.
Words I never imagined typing: Attorney General Jeff Sessions, please stay.

Its obvious that President Trump wants you to go. He and his aides have made that blindingly, humiliatingly clear. But its also obvious that Trump does not want to do the deed himself.

You may be a dead attorney general walking. Still, dont make the presidents job any easier by going gently. Dont enable this cowardly lawlessness. Certainly, you serve at the presidents pleasure, and he has made his displeasure abundantly clear. The source of it is  from my point of view  pretty much the one thing you have done correctly during your tenure at the Justice Department: You recused yourself from overseeing the probe into Russian meddling in the election.

This was the correct call, and not a close one. If anything, it took you too long to get there; your recusal came only after reports about your misleading testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee about your Russian contacts during the campaign.

Your decision to recuse yourself from the Russia probe was not, as Trump claimed in his petulant New York Times interview, very unfair to the president  it was clearly mandated by Justice Department regulations, which provide that no employee shall participate in a criminal investigation or prosecution if he has a personal or political relationship with its subject. The regulations define a political relationship as a close identification with an elected official . . . arising from service as a principal adviser thereto.

So staying in your post, as long as you can, notwithstanding the pressure on you to quit and the accompanying embarrassment of sticking around when you are clearly not wanted, would be a win for the rule of law. Let the president try to convince the country  let him try to convince a Senate that would ultimately be called on to confirm a new attorney general  that firing you served the national interest, not his own personal, political and legal needs. Dont make it easy for him.

No question, Trump can fire you. He can fire Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein. Other senior officials, if they maintain a shred of respect for themselves and the Constitution, would probably leave as well. Trump could then fire, or, more precisely, find or install someone willing to fire, special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. He can hand out pardons, perhaps even to himself. Thats all on him, and he would reap the political whirlwind that I trust would follow, notwithstanding the spinelessness among congressional Republicans that appears to be a widespread preexisting condition.

In the meantime, what should you do? A speech on the independence of the Justice Department and the necessity that justice be dispensed without regard to politics sounds awfully timely. Explain the judgment you reached that department regulations and basic considerations of conflict of interest prevented you from remaining in charge of the Russia probe. Defend the decision to name a special counsel and explain that these are the very circumstances that warrant  indeed, demand  a special counsel so that the public has confidence in the outcome of the investigation.

And you might turn to the wisdom of your predecessors to explain the proper, if complex, contours of the relationship between president and attorney general. Griffin Bell, President Jimmy Carters attorney general, explained in a 1978 speech that the president retains the power and the duty to accept or reject the attorney generals judgments. . . . The course best calculated, however, to inspire public confidence in the faithful execution of the laws is for the president to allow the attorney general freedom from undue influence, in the first instance; to accept the attorney generals judgment in specific cases; and to remove the attorney general if his judgments seem wrong.

If the president wants to can you, he should explain in what sense  other than that it threatens his political and legal well-being  your judgments, including to recuse yourself, have been wrong.

Or  brace yourself  you might invoke Eric Holder, President Barack Obamas first attorney general, outlining how the White House and Justice Department should interact. The legal judgments of the Department of Justice must be impartial and insulated from political influence, Holder wrote in a 2009 memo . It is imperative that the departments investigatory and prosecutorial powers be exercised free from partisan consideration.

An unlikely source for you to quote, but advice that every attorney general  and every president  must live by.

Read more from Ruth Marcuss archive, follow her on Twitter or subscribe to her updates on Facebook.
The July 23 Metro article Candidates spar in first debate for Virginia governor, covering the first debate between Virginia gubernatorial candidates Ed Gillespie (R) and Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D), failed to show that neither, as governor, would resist the unnecessary and environmentally devastating Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines. When a pipeline protester shouted , This stage is owned by Dominion Power, he hit the crux of the problem of each candidate answering to his big-business donor rather than his constituents.

Given the Republicans propensity to ignore environmental destruction for the sake of corporate profit, Mr. Gillespies stance is predictable. How can Mr. Northam, whose party supposedly puts the welfare of people over that of big business, promise to defy President Trumps positions on health care, environmental protection and climate change if he allows Dominion to compromise our health, destroy our land and exacerbate habitat degradation for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline?

Mr. Northam should use the next gubernatorial debates to distinguish himself from Mr. Gillespie. If Dominions donations do not buy favor from politicians, as elected officials who accepted them claim, Mr. Northam should be willing to renounce the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines and vow to use the power granted the governor under the Clean Water Act to protect our citizens. If he fails to do so, he will risk losing the election. His assumption that pipeline opponents will support him on the merits of the rest of his platform when contrasted with Mr. Gillespies is wrong.

Georgianne Stinnett, Richmond
As an Iranian American academic who has conducted research in Iran since 1992, I completely disagree with Matt Trevithicks July 21 op-ed, American colleges should stop sending students to Iran. In this era of heightened isolationism and fear-mongering, it is disappointing that those on our last frontier of hope for restoring diplomacy  intellectuals  should be asked to withdraw from interacting with Iran.

The solution is not to shut doors of communication; rather, we should properly educate our graduate students to understand, follow and respect the proper channels of engaging in research in Iran. Before we send our students off to gather data in the field, they should be trained in procuring proper clearances. Research courses in this country rarely provide guidelines of conduct for politically sensitive contexts for their graduate students.

We should offer our students sage advice about the caveats of conducting research in Western-wary Iran: that some affiliations might be construed by the officials as problematic, that securing written and signed permission letters by appropriate government offices is paramount, and that students need to be careful whom they talk to and what they share with them.

More often than not, arrests are a reflection of the visitors naivete rather than the supposedly inherent dangers of the countrys system. Blanket statements recommending that American colleges disengage with Iran will manage only to send us back to darker times.

Mitra K. Shavarini, Lexington, Mass.

Irans recent imprisonment of an American researcher is wrong. But Matt Trevithicks op-ed recommending that U.S. colleges stop sending students to the Islamic republic was wrong in faulting only Iranian authorities for seeing a potential spy in every traveler.

The rich history of the CIAs recruitment of American scholars, aid workers, clergy and journalists to gather intelligence overseas is no secret in countries that fear superpower manipulation. The fear is real in Iran because Washington has repeatedly threatened the country militarily for two decades and devastated two of its neighbors. In two centuries, Iran has not initiated a war but suffered major military invasions. Furthermore, Irans revered secular democratic Prime Minister Mohammed Mosaddegh was overthrown by the CIA in 1953. We can rightfully condemn injustice abroad. But the United States practice of might is right helps make the mistreatment of our travelers sadly predictable.

Rostam Pourzal, Washington
The July 23 editorial The lessons of Mr. McCain reflected on Sen. John McCains (R-Ariz.) commitment to principle and decency. However, the editorial stated, These are times of toxic, partisan warfare, where politicians will say just about anything at all, true or untrue, to gain an advantage. This statement is troubling because it reflects the tainting of politicians because one politician, the president, continues to behave outrageously. A significant number of politicians do not say just about anything at all, true or untrue, to gain an advantage. Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Virginias gubernatorial nominees Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam (D) and Ed Gillespie (R), Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) and former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney come to mind.

President Trump and his supporters behave badly and then say everyone does it. The editorial board was right to contrast Mr. McCain favorably with the villains of our current political landscape, but the villains, for the most part, are Mr. Trump and his circle, not politicians generally.

James E. Connor, Annandale

The editorial about Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) was timely and brilliant. Clearly, Mr. McCain has done much for this nation, fighting and almost dying at the hands of enemies in the defense of the United States. Despite all those tough and painful experiences, when he was offered an opportunity to leave, an opportunity most people would take, he refused based on his principled position. Upon return from captivity, he served in Congress as well as on the team that helped to restore relations with the former enemy.

Mr. McCain is a true American hero. He has given this nation much, and he always tries to make the best decisions as a patriot. In the heat of a presidential campaign, Mr. McCain defended his opponent, now-former president Barack Obama, by telling a supporter that Mr. Obama was a decent family man and citizen. In our present political situation, who would stand up and challenge his supporters not to make false and disparaging statements about political opponents?

Every American, regardless of political affiliation, should pray for and wish this good man, Mr. McCain, every success as he considers with his family the best treatment options for his cancer. We also should pray that his courage buttresses his ability to fight this sickness.

Joseph Nwoye, Montgomery Village
The citys newest hotel, the 1950s Hollywood-inspired Macau Roosevelt, held its official launch ceremony yesterday, offering a tour of its amenities to media and distinguished guests.

The 368-room hotel, which is being promoted as an urban getaway retreat and an all-day playground, has been in the works for nearly three years after its concept inauguration in October 2013.

Among the highlighted guests yesterday was the owner of the Macau Roosevelt, Mike Lam, chief executive officer of the Macau Jockey Club Angela Leong, and several high-profile government officials, including Secretary for Social Affairs and Culture Alexis Tam and Macau Government Tourism Office head Helena de Senna Fernandes.

We are committed to being a new urban retreat for Macau, said Mike Lam, in his speech at the official launch ceremony.

The five-star property is seeking to distance itself from Macaus megaresorts, through offering guests a trendy, private and more relaxed experience.

Its location, adjacent to the Macau Jockey Club, affords the Macau Roosevelt a sweeping view of the horse-race track, while its other amenities include an art gallery, fitness center, and a private cigar and wine lounge.

However, the resorts infinity pool can be truly said to be its flagship amenity. The swimming pool, which seemingly clings to the perimeter of the third floor, creates an illusion of water flowing over the edge, leaving the views of the Jockey Club, Hengqin and the South China Sea unimpeded.

Marc Bichet, marketing director of GCP Hospitality, which is involved in the branding and management side of the resort, stylized the property as a lifestyle hotel yesterday.

GCP Hospitality is a Bangkok-headquartered company in the areas of hotel management and design and branding, which represents the owners of the Macau Roosevelt. It also works with around two dozen other properties in the Asia-Pacific region, but this latest projct is the companys first in the MSAR, according to its hotel management portfolio.

The fact that we are just next to the Macau Jockey Club  and have this infinite pool overlooking it  will definitely position the property as the preferred Macau urban retreat, said Bichet.

Speaking to the Times, Bichet said that the property could distinguish itself through principally two angles; its focus on trend and design  a vision of architect and designer Gulla Jonsdottir  and its sophisticated social spaces.

Firstly, Gulla [Jonsdottir] is a very renowned designer, said Bichet. She has [demonstrated] a strong commitment to this property to set it aside from the rest of the hospitality [developments] in Macau. She took a strong take on 1950s Hollywood and gave it this retro-twist to bring alive the Macau Roosevelt Hotel.

The second factor that will set this property apart from the big boys [hotel operators] in Macau is the amenities and the sophisticated social spaces. We have the swimming pool and the art gallery its a little bit more relaxed [than the others].

Its design centers around the concept of Old Hollywood, merged with a 21st-century chic edge. The operating company behind the hotel wants it to be known as the sexiest stay in Asias favorite playground.

Because of its unique design and concept, a large number of never used before in Asia materials were carefully selected for the hotel such as metal erosion board, Italian marble, carved marble parquet and more, said Mike Lam, adding that some parts of the furniture had been tailored especially for the Macau Roosevelt.

Meanwhile, representatives of the Macau Jockey Club refused to comment yesterday on the racetracks financial difficulties.

In a statement published in the Official Gazette last week, the Macau Jockey Club (MJC) reported an operating loss of MOP109 million in 2016. This brings the companys accumulated losses to more than MOP4 billion, after several consecutive years of poor revenue performance. At the same time, last year the company held assets of MOP240 million and liabilities amounting to MOP1.3 billion.

The government concession for horse-racing at the Macau Jockey Club is due to expire at the end of August. The company has said it is currently in the process of applying for a renewal.

Asked about the impact of the hotel on the Jockey Club, Bichet conceded that although the two institutions would hopefully benefit each other, it was not the sole purpose of the property.

Look, were here trying to do something a little bit different in Macau. Whoever we can benefit [] to create this community to be successful and help each other well, we will see how it goes.

New casino to host 30 SJM tables

The Macau Roosevelt Hotel is home to the citys latest casino, containing 30 gaming tables and 90 slot machines. The gaming tables were formerly located at the Macau Jockey Club, under the license of SJM, before they were moved to the Macau Roosevelt. SJM will continue to provide the tables to the new hotel from its own allocation. In order to slow the growth in the number of tables, the MSAR government implemented a gaming table cap in 2013. Gaming operators are permitted to relocate their gaming tables from one casino property to another.
IN A series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Trump turned his back on the thousands of transgender people currently serving in the military  and he did so with his characteristic dishonesty. He claimed that he had consulted with my Generals and military experts before deciding that transgender individuals would not be allowed to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military  a reversal of the policy adopted by the Obama administration. In fact, Mr. Trump appears to have made his decision hastily, interrupting an ongoing Pentagon review and taking key military and congressional players by surprise. He asserted that allowing transgender personnel to serve would result in tremendous medical costs and disruption  though careful studies and the experience of other nations have shown just the opposite.

What the president no doubt did not consider is this: How will his decision affect the thousands of patriotic Americans now serving, including in war zones, who happen to be transgender? In addition to depriving them of the respect they deserve from their government, Mr. Trump puts them at risk: To continue serving, transgender personnel will have to conceal their identities, which in turn will make them less likely to come forward with health concerns or reports of sexual assault. Mr. Trump is essentially reinstating a shameful policy of silence and discrimination.

The decision disregarded the results of a year-long review conducted by the Obama administration that found the costs associated with accepting transgender troops would be minor. The Rand Corp. estimated that allowing these troops to serve openly would have a minimal impact on troop readiness and would mean between $2.4 million and $8.4 million in additional health-care costs per year  a little more than a rounding error in the military budget. A study in the New England Journal of Medicine reached similar conclusions. Around the world, 18 countries allow transgender troops to serve openly and none have reported experiencing ill effects or disruption.

The directive will surely weaken the armed forces, depriving them of thousands of service members and potential recruits. Yet Mr. Trump seems to have made his decision without significant input from the Defense Department. Several Pentagon officials told the New York Times they were caught off guard by the announcement, while spokeswomen for both the Senate and House Armed Services committees said the committees had not been informed in advance. A review of the policy ordered by Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was not due to be completed until December.

According to a report by Politico, the presidents precipitous action actually came in response to appeals from House Republicans, who feared a defense appropriations bill containing funds for Mr. Trumps border wall would be blocked by their own disagreements over the issue. That thousands of serving military personnel would be abruptly stripped of their rights for such crass political reasons would be shocking  if Mr. Trump had not already drastically devalued the norms for presidential behavior.

During his campaign, Mr. Trump promised to do everything to protect members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. But his administrations small-minded and ignorant policies toward transgender people  first students, and now service members  are doing just the opposite.
President Trump recorded something remarkable this past week. In fewer than 72 hours, he was rebuked by the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the chief scout executive for the Boy Scouts of America and the Suffolk County police on Long Island.

At a time when many eyes and ears in Washington are riveted on the staff shake-up at the White House and what it portends, no one should lose sight of the incoming fire that has arrived at the White House and what it says.

The words didnt come from the hard left or the Democratic resistance. Instead, they came from people who represent communities or constituencies considered friendly to the president: the Republican Party, the military, the police, and a civic organization known for its promotion of patriotism and traditional values.

The critiques were carefully worded so as not to give too much offense to a sitting president, but they were unmistakable in their intent. In their own ways, the messages to the president carried a common theme: They asked him to stop behaving as he has been behaving.

Trump has crossed so many lines  as a candidate and as president  that the public often is numbed to what he says and does. Not this time. Perhaps thats because each of the pushbacks dealt with a different transgression, all of them coming in the period of only a few days.

(Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

Its far too early to know whether this marks a turning point in how people who have been at least nominally supportive of the president will approach him in the future, but Trump ought not to be dismissive of their significance. The critiques might not change the presidents behavior, but as a marker of the rising concern even from his allies, they couldnt have been more obvious.

The first came from Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the generally even-tempered chairman of the Judiciary Committee. It was in response to the presidents repeated tweets and statements brutalizing Attorney General Jeff Sessions. The president will not forgive Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, and as Trumps blood pressure has risen week by week, he decided to lash out.

The tweets attacking Sessions and the presidents other comments aimed at unsettling a member of his Cabinet and early supporter  Time will tell, Trump said when asked about the attorney generals future  sparked fears that the president was looking to fire Sessions or force him to resign, with the obvious next step of appointing someone who in one way or another could contain or get rid of the Russia investigation now in the hands of special counsel Robert Mueller.

In terse language, Grassley made clear that he would not consider holding confirmation hearings for a replacement any time this year. That would leave the Justice Department in the hands of Rod J. Rosenstein, the career prosecutor who is deputy attorney general and has also earned Trumps disrespect, for appointing Mueller.

[Republicans are starting to draw red lines on Trump firing Sessions and Mueller]

Grassleys stamp of disapproval was an extension of the chorus of support for Sessions from his former colleagues in the Senate, particularly those in the Republican Party. They responded to the presidents public humiliation of the attorney general and the implied threat to Mueller with varying degrees of alarm. Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) said there would be holy hell to pay if Trump decides to force Sessions out and rein in Muellers operation.

For the most part, Republicans on Capitol Hill have sought to avert their gaze whenever the presidents tweets or actions spark controversy. So there has been nothing like this so far in Trumps presidency. Whether thats because it involves a former member of the Capitol Hill club or because of the potential implications for a constitutional crisis if the president tries to scuttle the Mueller investigation, the response to this has been different.

1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  What lawmakers are saying about Trumps decision to ban transgender people from the military View Photos In a series of tweets, the president announced the reversal of an Obama administration decision to allow members of the transgender community to serve openly. Caption In a series of tweets, the president announced the reversal of an Obama administration decision to allow members of the transgender community to serve openly. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) Pelosi noted that Trump made his announcement on the 69th anniversary of President Harry Trumans executive order desegregating the military, adding that the president has chosen this day to unleash a vile and hateful agenda that will blindside thousands of patriotic Americans. Oliver Contreras/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Gen. Joseph F. Dunford Jr., chairman of the Joint Chiefs, was responding to a different controversy: the presidents sudden and unexpected announcement  via Twitter  that transgender individuals would be barred from military service.

Amid confusion within the ranks, Dunford issued a statement saying there would be no modification to current policy until the Pentagon receives an actual directive from the president and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has had adequate time to evaluate it and decides how to implement it. In other words, the Pentagon will not allow the president to change policy through a tweet.

As was reported in the hours after Trumps tweet, Pentagon officials were caught by surprise by the proposed ban. The reaction to the ban was immediate, starting with the LGBT community and transgender members of the military and extending to Democratic and Republican lawmakers and much of the populace at large. If Trump was simply playing to the culturally conservative part of his political base, he miscalculated the overall state of public opinion  and perhaps of his own military.

The third rebuke came in two stages. It took the leaders of the Boy Scouts several days to issue a full criticism of the presidents appearance at the National Jamboree. Presidents are always invited to address Scouts at the jamboree. Those who have done so in the past have stuck to obvious themes of service, civic virtue and pride in America.

Trump treated his appearance as just another raucous political rally. He was partisan, attacking rival Hillary Clinton and former president Barack Obama. He was offensive, talking to the young Americans about the hottest parties in New York and a rich friend who he said did things he couldnt reveal to such a young audience.

No doubt unwilling to directly criticize the president, the Scout association initially issued an anodyne statement reminding everyone that the Boy Scouts are open to all ideas and generally free of politics and partisanship.

On Thursday, Michael Surbaugh, the chief scout executive, went further, issuing a lengthy apology on the Boy Scouts website. The good works by Scouts at the jamboree, he said, had been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the president of the United States. He extended sincere apologies to those offended and said injecting partisan politics into the event was never our intent.

[Boy Scouts leader apologizes for Trump speechs political rhetoric]

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked about the apology at her briefing. She said she hadnt read it. She said she was at the jamboree with the president and saw nothing inappropriate in his words. She noted as well that many of the Scouts were cheering the president, which was true. Older and more experienced members of the Scouting family knew the president crossed a line, and the reaction was swift and harsh.

The fourth disavowal of a presidential suggestion came Friday, after Trump spoke on Long Island about efforts to combat gang warfare. He offered police some advice  not to treat suspects so gingerly. He suggested that, when putting suspects into the back of a police cruiser, officers should not take precautions to protect the suspect from physical harm.

The presidents words drew a quick response from the Suffolk County Police Department that made clear that the department has strict procedures. As a department, we do not and will not tolerate rough[ing] up prisoners, the statement said, adding that officers who violate the procedures are treated with utmost seriousness.

The Pentagon is likely to carry out the transgender directive (assuming it arrives from the White House) once it has been reviewed and evaluated. Trump is the president and sets policy. The Boy Scouts will retreat quickly now that they have apologized to the presidents critics. They are not a combative or confrontational organization. Republican lawmakers will approach their battles with the president gingerly. They are risk averse about offending Trumps loyalists. Local police are not looking for conflict with the president.

Still, the multiple pushbacks, on four separate issues, from the Trump-friendly side of the American electorate should be a signal to the president. But is he listening?
A leader of the Boy Scouts of America apologized Thursday for a speech that President Trump gave to thousands of teenage Scouts earlier this week  in which Trump broke with the Scouts earnest traditions by criticizing his political opponents, recounting his election victory and talking about parties on yachts.

I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent, Michael Surbaugh, whose title is chief Scout executive, wrote in a message posted online.

That was a break from the Boy Scouts earlier statements about Trumps speech, issued the day afterward. Those merely noted that the Scouts were respectful of the wide variety of viewpoints in this country but made no mention of what Trump actually said.

On Thursday, Surbaugh wrote, We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program.

Asked about the statement at Thursday afternoons news briefing, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, said, I was at that event, and I saw nothing but roughly 40- to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, and I think that they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them.

(Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

When pressed again on the topic and asked whether the president also needed to apologize, Sanders said: Again, I was at that event and heard nothing but a lot of cheering and probably one of the most energetic crowds Ive seen in front of the president, and so I dont have anything to add. I havent seen the statement from the Boy Scouts, so I cant comment any further than what I saw firsthand, and that was a lot of individuals, roughly 40- to 45,000, as reported, cheering the president on.

[Trumps speech to Boy Scouts irks some in nonpartisan organization]

Presidents are usually invited to address the National Scout Jamboree, a gathering that draws tens of thousands every four years. In the past, those presidential speeches dealt with broad themes such as service, cooperation and the evils of drug use.

Trumps talk Monday in Mount Hope, W.Va., began with a similar message  Never quit. Persevere. Never, ever quit  but then it veered toward other themes.

Trump said he wouldnt talk about politics: I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when Im in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?

But he did.

Trump called the news media fake news and said the media would underplay the size of this crowd  as if the Boy Scouts were a crowd at a political rally. Trump told the Scouts about watching the U.S. map turn red on election night and blasted former president Barack Obama for never attending a jamboree during his time in office. Some in the crowd booed.

Trump also told stories about events rarely discussed from the rostrum at a Scout Jamboree, such as a New York cocktail party  the hottest people in New York were at this party, he said  and a friend who got rich in real estate.

He went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life, Trump said. I wont go any more than that, because youre Boy Scouts, so Im not going to tell you what he did.

[That yacht that Donald Trump told the Boy Scouts about was a 1970s celeb magnet]

In his statement, Surbaugh said that  outside of Trumps talk  this years jamboree was the same as in past years, with Scouts trading patches, climbing rockwalls and making new friends.

But, he said, we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States.

Jenna Johnson contributed to this report.
President Trump has discussed with confidants and advisers in recent days the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Jeff Sessions leaves the job, but he has been warned not to move to push him out because of the political and legal ramifications, according to people briefed on the conversations.

Still raging over Sessionss recusal from the Justice Departments escalating Russia investigation, Trump has been talking privately about how he might replace Sessions and possibly sidestep Senate oversight, four people familiar with the issue said.

Two of those people, however, described Trump as musing about the idea rather than outlining a plan of action, and a senior White House official said no action is imminent. Several people familiar with the discussions said that Trumps fury peaked over the weekend and that he and Sessions now seem to be heading toward an uneasy detente.

When asked Wednesday about the presidents discussions of a recess appointment, the White House released a one-sentence denial from Trump: More fake news from the Amazon Washington Post. The Washington Post is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.

Those who have discussed Sessions this week with Trump or with top West Wing officials have drawn different conclusions from their conversations  in part because the president ruminates aloud and floats hypotheticals, often changing his views hour to hour.

(Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

Some advisers have come away convinced that Trump is determined to ultimately remove Sessions and is seriously considering a recess appointment to replace him  an idea that has been discussed on some of the cable news shows the president watches. These advisers said Trump would prefer that the attorney general resign rather than have to be fired.

My understanding is the Sessions thing ends with Sessions leaving the attorney general job to go spend more time with his family, said one outside counselor to the White House, who, like many others interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject is highly sensitive.

But others involved in the discussions have concluded that Trump is merely venting with his continued assault against Sessions  one described it as an emotional exercise, while another called it just a rough-up job. They said Trump has neither fully articulated nor set in motion a plan to replace Sessions.

The president has the power to make a recess appointment when the Senate adjourns for a long break of more than a week, allowing the appointee to avoid Senate confirmation and serve through the end of next year. But Democrats have already signaled that they will use parliamentary stalling tactics to prevent the Senate from formally adjourning throughout the upcoming August break  in part to prevent Trump from being able to unilaterally install a new attorney general.

Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) tweeted a warning to Trump that his committees schedule already is set for the remainder of the year. It will consider judge and subcabinet nominees first, he wrote, adding, AG no way.

[The standoff between Trump and Sessions escalates]

Trump has long confided privately what he began to say publicly last week  that he blames Sessionss recusal for setting in motion the appointment of Robert S. Mueller III as the special counsel of the Russia probe, which the president sees as unfair and a metastasizing problem for himself and his family.

1 of 58 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  A look at President Trumps first year in office, so far View Photos Scenes from the Republicans first six months in the White House. Caption Scenes from the Republicans beginning months in the White House. Jan. 25, 2017 Trump signs an executive order for border security and immigration enforcement improvements at the Department of Homeland Security in Washington. Chip Somodevilla/Pool photo via Bloomberg News Wait 1 second to continue.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily and was at the White House on Wednesday for unrelated meetings with other officials.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters Wednesday that Trump was disappointed in Sessions but also said, You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job, and thats where they are.

Sanders added, He wants him to lead the Department of Justice. . . . He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues.

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich (R), who has spoken with Trump this week, said he believes the presidents attacks will quiet down. My read of him and the people around him is probably, in the end, it will be calm and well move forward, he said.

Asked whether he believes Sessions will leave the Justice Department, Gingrich said, No, no . . . I really dont think so. But he acknowledged that he cannot be certain until the president makes up his mind. He is really mad, Gingrich added.

[Trump is ratcheting up his abuse of Jeff Sessions. And Sessions has no good options.]

Several lawyers around Trump have been urging the president to stop his saber-rattling against Sessions and Mueller, according to three advisers. The president has countered that he believes the probe is a mere political attack  a witch hunt and hoax, as he often says on Twitter  and that he has no legal jeopardy to worry about.

But several lawyers have told Trump that his comments send a signal to Mueller that the president is trying to shut down or curtail the probe, as though he does have something to hide.

Trump has largely shrugged off these concerns. In his mind, he is his own best advocate, his own best lawyer, one adviser said. Hes not willing to let the Mueller probe and other events unfold without taking action himself. 

Replacing Sessions could be a precursor to firing Mueller as special counsel. But several of Trumps White House advisers  including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon  have strongly counseled him against ordering the dismissal of Mueller, which they have warned would be a political, if not legal, catastrophe, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Furthermore, Trumps advisers have argued that replacing the attorney general would be a political distraction from the big-ticket items the administration is pushing in the Senate, including health care, taxes and the budget.

[Sen. Bob Corker: No professional reason for Attorney General Jeff Sessions to step down]

The discussions about Sessionss fate come during a period of heightened anxiety inside the West Wing. The president has begun a staff overhaul, including empowering Anthony Scaramucci with a broad mandate as communications director and all-around adviser.

Priebus is fighting to maintain his influence with the president. The former Republican National Committee chairman has privately touted his ability to raise money from wealthy donors, suggesting he could bring in funds to a legal-defense fund, according to two people familiar with his appeal.

There has been tension in recent weeks between some in Trumps orbit who want the RNC to absorb Russia-related legal fees and RNC officials who believe that would be an inappropriate use of party resources.

Trump, who has called Sessions beleaguered and very weak, renewed his rhetorical attacks on Wednesday by questioning why Sessions had not replaced the acting FBI director.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote: Why didnt A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!

The attack was curious considering the president has the authority to remove McCabe himself without Sessions. After Trump fired James B. Comey as FBI director, Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein met with four candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, but the administration decided to stick with McCabe.

Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jenna Johnson, Paul Kane, Abby Phillip, Karen Tumulty and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
Republican female senators whose disapproval of the GOP health-care effort has at times endangered its progress are facing an increasingly pointed backlash from men in their party, including a handful of comments that invoked physical retaliation.

In the past week, Sen. Susan Collins (Maine) has been challenged by a male lawmaker to a duel. She and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) were told that they and others deserve a physical reprimand for their decisions not to support Republican health-care proposals. Murkowski, who voted with Collins against starting the health-care debate this week, was specifically called out by President Trump on Twitter and told by a Cabinet official that Alaska could suffer for her choice, according to a colleague.

The language of retribution increasingly adopted by Republican men reflects Trumps influence and underscores the challenges GOP women can face when opposing the consensus of their party, which remains dominated by men, outside experts said. A videotape of Trump surfaced during the campaign revealing him bragging in vulgar terms about groping women, and some believed that opened the gates for further insults and degrading behavior toward women.

Masculine dominance in the Republican Party is not only in numbers but in culture, said Kelly Dittmar, a scholar at the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers University and the author of Navigating Gendered Terrain: Stereotypes and Strategy in Political Campaigns.

When the person who is supposed to be the leader of the party shows its okay to use those sorts of attacks, whether they are specifically gendered or not, that is something that catches on at other levels, Dittmar said. We see it in the [elected officials] who feel its okay to say things like this.

President Trump, center, speaks as he meets with Republican senators on health care in the White House in Washington on June 27, 2017. Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), left, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) listen. (Susan Walsh/Associated Press)

[Senate GOP leaders work to round up votes for modest health-care overhaul]

Collins and Murkowski have been among the Senates most consistently skeptical voices as Republicans accelerate their effort to amend the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). In contrast with conservative critics such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), both women have criticized GOP health-care proposals because they would cut funding to Medicaid and Planned Parenthood, which provide medical care to hundreds of thousands of people in their states. Both have raised concerns about a lack of transparency in the crafting of GOP legislation.

They are not the only critics who have faced political attack over health-care legislation, but the backlash has not been as aggressive.

Notably, the pro-Trump political outfit America First Policies targeted Sen. Dean Heller (Nev.) with $1 million in TV and radio ads last month after he announced opposition to one ACA overhaul bill. The group canceled its campaign after senior Republicans intervened on Hellers behalf.

[See the anti-Heller ad here]

Trump also has threatened electoral consequences against Republican senators who oppose the party consensus on health care. Look, he wants to remain a senator, doesnt he? the president said recently of Heller, who was seated next to him at a lunch event. I think the people of your state . . . [are] going to appreciate what you hopefully will do.

Still, the most colorful and threatening comments have targeted Collins and Murkowski.

Rep. Blake Farenthold (Tex.), in an apparent reference to Collins, told a radio host Friday that if she were a guy from south Texas, I might ask him to step outside and settle this Aaron Burr-style, invoking the 1804 duel in which Alexander Hamilton was killed.

Like the President, I am sick and tired of the left-wing biased media trying to make something out of nothing, he said in a follow-up statement. This was clearly tongue in cheek. That being said, Im extremely frustrated with Senate Republicans who are breaking their promise to the American people to repeal and replace Obamacare.

Collins was caught on a hot mic responding, when Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) said she could beat Farenthold in such a duel. Collins called Fahrenthold huge and extremely unattractive. They later apologized to each other, CNN reported.

Rep. Earl L. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) told MSNBC on Wednesday that someone should go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their a--, a regional phrase that refers to punishment, usually of disobedient children. MSNBC reporter Ali Velshi had asked Carter what he thought of Trumps tweet chastising Murkowski for opposing the start of the health-care debate.

Carter later said the remark was directed at all those senators who, like Murkowski, stood in the way of easy victory for the legislation.

Rep. Carters comment was in no way directed toward Senator Murkowski specifically, Carter spokeswoman Mary Carpenter wrote in an email. His words speak for themselves that he was not speaking about a single senator. This is a southern phrase used frequently throughout Rep. Carters lifetime which simply means get your act together.

The comments are particularly poignant, given that Republican women in the Senate were excluded from the chambers original working group on health care.

Its too bad some folks are spending so much time creating cute catchy phrases in order to take potshots at colleagues, Julie A. Conway, executive director of VIEW PAC, which recruits and trains Republican female candidates, wrote in an email.

I wish they would spend as much time and energy sitting down with these women lawmakers to help find solutions and a strategy to get real health-care reform that Americans can feel good about.

Dittmar argued that these kinds of comments undermine female leaders in the long run.

The fact they call out specific women marks those women as outside of the norm. For those who may question womens capacity to be just as qualified as elected officials, it mines that vein of doubt or underlying bias, she said.

Trumps rhetoric has been almost calm by comparison.

Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! he tweeted Wednesday morning.

But later in the day, according to the Alaska Dispatch News, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Murkowski and Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) to say that Murkowskis vote against opening the health-care debate could have repercussions for federal policy affecting Alaska.

The message was pretty clear, Sullivan told the news outlet.

The next day, a nominations markup in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee was postponed, leading some observers to speculate that Murkowski  the panels chairman  had deferred it in retaliation for Zinkes call. A spokeswoman for the committee told The Washington Post that the meeting was postponed because of the uncertainty of the Senate schedule.

Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
The Trump administration has considered handing back to Russia control of two U.S. compounds the Obama administration seized at the end of last year, accusing Moscow of using them for intelligence purposes. (Evan Vucci/AP)

The Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to pass a bill increasing sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, establishing veto-proof majorities for the measure that also allows Congress to block President Trump from easing sanctions against Moscow.

The 98-to-2 vote sets up the president with a pivotal choice: veto the bill knowing that lawmakers are prepared to override, as his communications chief Anthony Scaramucci suggested this morning on CNN that he might, or sign the legislation that binds his hands when it comes to altering sanctions policy against Moscow, a provision his administration lobbied hard against.

Sens. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) were the only senators to vote against the bill. The two were also the only votes against an earlier version of the legislation that the Senate passed last month, also by a vote of 98 to 2, that focused on just Russia and Iran.

White House incoming press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to say Thursday whether the president would veto the bill.

Were going to wait and see what that final legislation looks like and make a decision at that point, she said.

(Dalton Bennett,Jorge Ribas/The Washington Post)

But in an interview on CNN earlier in the day, Scaramucci said that Trump may veto the sanctions to negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians.

It is unlikely that promise will be persuasive to members of Congress, who banded together in near-unanimous numbers to endorse unprecedented oversight powers over the presidents sanctions authority, a sign of many lawmakers concerns that Trump is fostering a too-warm relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and may scale back punitive measures against Moscow.

[Senate, House leaders strike a deal on sanctions]

Under the bill, the president is required to notify Congress before making any alterations to Russia sanctions policy, and lawmakers then have 30 days in which they can block the president from implementing those changes. The procedure, known as congressional review, is the most sweeping authority Congress has given itself to check the president on sanctions policy in decades.

Such matters have traditionally been left to the executive branch once Congress authorizes the sanctions at the administrations disposal. Even in the case of mandatory sanctions, Congress usually steers clear of the president on matters of national security.

But lawmakers are worried by hints that the Trump administration might make concessions to Russia, specifically sanctions that the Kremlin has sought to have lifted. The administration has considered handing back to Russia control of two U.S. compounds the Obama administration seized at the end of last year, accusing Moscow of using them for intelligence purposes. And Trump and his surrogates have spoken to Putin and other Russian operatives about restoring the ability of U.S. citizens to adopt children from Russia  which the Kremlin wont allow until the United States repeals the Magnitsky Act and Global Magnitsky Act sanctioning human-rights violators.

(U.S. Senate)

[U.S. lawmakers attempt to handcuff Trump on Russia could backfire, Europe says]

House and Senate leaders were unmoved by the Trump administrations repeated efforts to remove Congresss 30-day review power from the legislation. In fact, the final dispute among congressional leaders had to do with senators wanting to apply a similar congressional review provision to the North Korea sanctions portion of the bill. In the deal they struck Wednesday night, Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said he secured a promise from House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) that the House would take up such enhancements in the near future in exchange for the Senate passing the House-approved sanctions bill this week.

This week, the House passed the same legislation by a vote of 419 to 3.

Beyond the congressional review provision, the bill codifies existing sanctions and steps up sanctions against Moscow over Russias involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Syria, as well as allegations that it interfered in the 2016 U.S. elections. The bill also stiffens punitive measures against Iran and North Korea in an attempt to curtail those countries ballistic missile tests and other aggressive activities.

Philip Rucker and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.

Read more at PowerPost
Smoking  which now includes marijuana  is the hot-button issue today in almost every community association throughout the country. (istockphoto)

A contiguous owner in a three-level apartment-style condo caused a fire in her unit while smoking in bed. The ashes ignited bedding while she was breathing through her medically necessary oxygen tubes. She: (1) smoked in bed, (2) fell asleep and (3) was attached to oxygen tubes. The combination of all three is unsafe. Her normal cigarette smoke discharge enters units above hers.

How can a condo board deter or prevent such behavior that presents grave safety risks to all condo residents? Is it possible to declare the condo nonsmoking.  Al

Smoking  which now includes marijuana  is the hot-button issue today in almost every community association throughout the country.

You cant stop stupid people from doing stupid things. I hope the smoker  if she survived  has learned an important lesson. But the association cannot be the hand-holder of each and every unit owner.

However, you can restrict smoking of any kind in the common elements as well as in the units. While some of my lawyer friends believe the association can enact a rule prohibiting smoking in the common areas, I believe that the safe harbor is to get a bylaw amendment on this issue. I recognize that it often is very difficult to enact bylaw amendments.

[More Kass: Bill pending in D.C. Council would slightly diminish tenant rights]

To restrict smoking in units, you have to amend not only the bylaws but also the declaration. Such a restriction will be controversial, which is why the declaration should be amended. Now would be a good time to present such a proposal, because owners may be concerned there may be yet another fire resulting from smoking.

Case law around the country is very clear: Community association owners are legally bound not only by the legal documents in effect when the owner took title but also as to any properly enacted amendments to the legal documents in the future.

The president of our condominium association acts alone and has previous members of the board on the bank account of the association. He has been on the board for more than three years. He harassed all the secretaries and treasurers that had been elected by the unit owners.

The president doesnt have meetings with the board or include them in any decisions for projects, nor does he let the treasurer handle the money. He also is a custodian/ janitor and he pays himself a $800 per month.

Please, we need help. Where should we report this without hiring an attorney.

I am the current secretary for the association but the president doesnt even talk to us. He buys apartments from owners who are behind with the association dues. He owns five apartments in a 20-unit building, and he comes to the meetings with his votes plus with proxy votes from the owners who are renting out their units.  Ana

My first reaction was you gotta be kidding. But then I remembered reading Escaping Condo Jail by Sara E. Benson and Don DeBat, so my next reaction was welcome to the wonderful world of condo living.

Are you the only one concerned about this? Have you talked with other owners to see if you could mobilize a group that would start to challenge the president? Have you advised the absentee owners of these problems so they would no longer give the president their proxy?

[More Kass: This condo owner pays fees for a money-losing garage and doesnt even own a car]

The best approach, in my opinion, is to try to throw the rascal out of office. Your bylaws contains the procedure for recalling an elected board member. Keep in mind that the board can terminate an officer but only the unit owners  in the percentage of vote required by your legal documents  can remove a director.

If you can prove even only half of the facts in your question, there is a strong case that the president is breaching his fiduciary duty to the association.

So why dont you want to get an attorney? A lawyer can help, and I suspect that most lawyers would relish filing a suit against the president.

Contact the Community Association Institute ( caionline.org ). Thats a national association that represents community associations across the country. There are local chapters, and you will get some names of local attorneys who practice community association law. I strongly recommend you talk to a lawyer as soon as possible.

You are the secretary of the board. You also have a fiduciary duty to the association, and in my opinion, that duty requires you to take immediate appropriate action to remove the president  either by vote of the membership or by court order.

Benny L. Kass is a Washington and Maryland lawyer. This column is not legal advice and should not be acted upon without obtaining legal counsel. Send questions to blkass@kmklawyers.com.
Outside governments yesterday asked the Maldives to restore its legislatures independence, days after the opposition said parliament was locked down on orders from the president in an attempt to prevent a vote to impeach the parliamentary speaker.

Sri Lanka-based embassies from the U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway and Switzerland, as well as the EU delegation to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said in a statement that they were alarmed by the recent incidents in Maldives, which seriously damage and undermine democracy.

The Maldives opposition accused members of the armed forces of padlocking the gates of parliament on Monday on orders from President Yameen Abdul Gayoom to prevent a vote on a no-confidence motion against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed. It said the motion had support from 45 lawmakers in the 85-member house, and that it would have challenged the presidents power had it succeeded.

The government, however, said no voting had been scheduled for Monday. It said forces were called in to strengthen security in the parliament building because some parties were calling for protests nearby.

Some opposition lawmakers broke through the barriers, but they were forcibly thrown out by military troops and police officers, some of whom used pepper spray.

The foreign embassies said in their statement that the closure of parliament and the harassment and intimidation of lawmakers were deeply troubling. They called on the Maldives government to respect fundamental freedom.

Yameen has been accused of rolling back democratic gains the Maldives has made since becoming a multiparty democracy in 2008. His control over parliament is threatened by an agreement reached this year between former strongman Maumoon Abdul Gayoom  a half brother of the current president  and the Maldives first democratically elected president, Mohamed Nasheed.

A similar opposition bid to oust the speaker was defeated in March with no dissenting votes after opposition lawmakers were either evicted or walked out from the vote following a dispute over problems with the electronic voting system.

The opposition coalitions plan to wrest the parliamentary majority was aimed at reforming the judiciary, elections commission and other bodies perceived as being partial toward Yameen. Bharatha Mallawarachi, Colombo, AP
1 of 15 Full Screen Autoplay Close Skip Ad  Historically black beach communities struggle to maintain their heritage View Photos Towns, including Highland Beach near Annapolis, Md., and Sag Harbor Hills in the Hamptons in New York, feel pressure from gentrification. Caption Towns, including Highland Beach near Annapolis, Md., and Sag Harbor Hills in the Hamptons in New York, feel pressure from gentrification. Highland Beach, a town on the Chesapeake Bay near Annapolis, Md., was founded in the summer of 1893 by Charles Douglass  Frederick Douglasss son  and his wife, Laura, after they had been turned away from a restaurant at the nearby Bay Ridge resort because of their race. Cheriss May/For The Washington Post Wait 1 second to continue.

Sag Harbor Hills and the neighboring districts of Ninevah Beach and Azurest are unique among beach communities in the Hamptons, the collection of affluent towns on the eastern end of New Yorks Long Island long known for attracting wealthy summer residents.

Founded in the village of Sag Harbor after World War II, in an era of deep segregation in the United States, they were home to a robust African American population. Developers offered parcels of land in parched areas of the village for just a few hundred dollars or more. Working-class black families purchased much of the land, eventually creating several communities linked by dirt roads along Route 114.

Though their roots are working class, these neighborhoods of modest ranch houses and bungalows today are a haven for middle-class and upper middle-class black families, populated by doctors and lawyers, artists and academics. They rank as the oldest African American developments in the Hamptons and are among a handful of beach communities in the United States with African American roots.

[Jacqueline Kennedy Onassiss childhood summer home in East Hampton, N.Y., lists for $52 million]

The racial makeup of the districts kept home prices down for decades with many white buyers choosing to live in other parts of the village.

Yet that is changing as home prices in the Hamptons continue to rise, says Dianne McMillan Brannen, a broker with Douglas Elliman who has lived in Ninevah for more than 25 years. Investors are being lured to these areas now and are looking for bargains, she says. She estimates that about a dozen homes sold to investors last summer, up from four or five the previous year. We welcome investment, but there is a real concern that these areas will lose the cultural identity that made them distinctive.

Sag Harbor is not alone. Across the country, some historically black beach communities that have long escaped major property development and an influx of real estate investors are increasingly fending off both.



Historically black beach communities date back as far as the 1930s in a handful of coastal areas across the United States. (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)

As values soar in surrounding locations, pricing out many second home buyers, historically black beach enclaves from American Beach near Jacksonville, Fla., to South Carolinas rural Sea Islands are seeing sharp increases in development and new home buyers.

Like gentrification debates raging in largely urban areas across the nation, the increase in new money, along with a generational shifts, is sparking concerns in some historically black beach communities about the possible loss of their culture and identity.

The irony is that many of these places were deemed undesirable when African Americans first moved there, says historian Andrew W. Kahrl, author of The Land Was Ours: How Black Beaches Became White Wealth in the Coastal South. Some of these areas are gold mines today, but those luxury resorts in parts of coastal Georgia, South Carolina and around the Chesapeake were havens for African American life and culture.

Historically black beach communities date back as far as the 1930s in a handful of coastal areas across the United States. Many sprang up during segregation when blacks were either barred from whites-only beaches or simply unwelcomed. While most were in the South, many took shape in the Northeast and Upper Midwest, evolving into beachheads for thriving economic and social life for African Americans.

Audrey Davis grew up spending her summers in Highland Beach, a historic African American enclave near Annapolis. The town was a haven for affluent black Washingtonians seeking refuge from segregation and drew many black intellectuals including Paul Robeson, Booker T. Washington and Langston Hughes.

Her grandfather, teacher and author Arthur P. Davis, in the 1940s purchased the two-story wooden home that her parents still own today. It was actually made from reclaimed wood from a whites-only hotel across the street, says Davis, who is director of the Alexandria Black History Museum in Virginia. Our whole family would gather there in the summer because we cherished the sense of community.

[Quiet luxury by the water in the Palmetto State]



"Twin Oaks" is the summer cottage built in 1895 for Frederick Douglass by his son, Charles Douglass. (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)

The Frederick Douglass Museum and Cultural Center is housed in "Twin Oaks." (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)

But, she says, there is not a month that goes by that her parents do not receive a letter or two in their mailbox asking if they would consider selling the house. Though the waterfront community is relatively small  about 100 year-round residents  there has been a gradual uptick in home sales the past few years. The once-remote location of Highland Beach is slowly growing more integrated, with about 20 white and five Hispanic residents making Highland Beach their home, according to census data.

Younger people looking for an affordable home on the water are mostly interested in the area, she says. My hope is that new people to the community will have the same sense of its history and importance as we do.

African American homeownership along South Carolinas Sea Islands dates to 1865 when the Union army issued orders to give freed black men the island chain and abandoned rice plantations. Despite decades of decline, fueled by ravaging storms and overzealous development, a dwindling number of black families still live and work on the islands today.

Known as the Gullah, they are descendants of enslaved Africans who lived in the Lowcountry regions of South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.

A firm population count of blacks on the Sea Islands is difficult to obtain. But as part of an application for protected status in 2005, the Gullah/Geechee estimated their total population in the Carolinas, Georgia and northern Florida at 200,000, according to Marquetta Goodwine, co-founder of the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition.

Though much of the island chain in South Carolina has been declared a Cultural Heritage Corridor by the National Park Service, that has not stopped developers from chipping away at waterfront locations. Property projects large and small now dot many locations, and some locals fear it will eventually resemble Hilton Head, the upmarket waterfront resort in South Carolina that was once home to the Gullahs.

Theyre communicating with the developers, but when you have a multimillion-dollar development coming into an area, its always going to be an unequal conversation, says Bernie Mazyck, president of the South Carolina Association of Community Development Corporations.

[Sharing a little peace and quiet with the neighbors]

Oak Bluffs, Mass., a sliver of Marthas Vineyard that is home to a lively African American population, has long attracted wealthy second home buyers. But the town holds a unique history for African Americans.

Located seven miles off the Cape Cod coastline, on the northern tip of the Vineyard, its harbor drew freed slaves and laborers in the 18th century and white locals sold them land. The town eventually became a popular destination for freed blacks, who came to work in the fishing industries.

In the late 19th and 20th centuries, middle-class blacks began buying and renting summer homes in Oak Bluffs, eventually turning the town into a mecca for successful African Americans. Martin Luther King Jr. vacationed in Oak Bluffs, as did Joe Louis, Harry Belafonte and Dorothy West, a Harlem Renaissance writer. Barack Obama made regular trips to the town during his time in office.



Highland Beach is a historic African American enclave near Annapolis. The town was a haven for affluent black Washingtonians. (Cheriss May/For The Washington Post)

Oak Bluffs Beach, known as the Inkwell, is a famed stretch of sand some say was named by Harlem Renaissance writers who came to the Vineyard and found inspiration near the water and thus named the beach that was once segregated from the white beach.

Yet despite its history and oceanfront location, Oak Bluffs has not experienced the same kind of real estate squeeze as other historically black beach communities, says Richard Taylor, a real estate executive and director of the Center for Real Estate at Suffolk University in Boston. He is also the author of Marthas Vineyard: Race, Property, and the Power of Place. He credits local officials, who have tightened already demanding rules on residential development to fend off new buyers dreams of building larger homes closer to the ocean.

And while the town has seen a fair share of new buyers  white and black  the Vineyards long history of celebrating African American culture has kept it as a vibrant location for black homeowners, Taylor says. We have film festivals and book clubs and churches all dedicated to the history and culture of African American life, says Taylor, who has owned a home in the East Chop section of Oak Bluffs since the 1970s. He pointed to the popularity of the African American Heritage Trail of Marthas Vineyard, a preservation effort started in 1997 by a local high school teacher. Black culture is deeply integrated into a way of life on the Vineyard, and thats helped keep this history vibrant and alive.

In Sag Harbor, the influx of money underscores the challenges facing many historically black beaches. While home prices and the pace of sales are falling across the Hamptons, Sag Harbor is bucking the downward trend.

Last year, the median price of a house in the Hamptons fell 5.3 percent from 2015, while the number of sales was down 13.7 percent, according to appraiser Jonathan Miller. But Sag Harbor saw a 25 percent increase in the median home sale price in 2016 compared with a year earlier, rising from $1.2 million to $1.5 million.

Though homes in the historically black sections of Sag Harbor have not yet reached those sales levels, prices are rising, says Frank Wimberley, a 90-year-old artist who has kept a home in Sag Harbor Hills almost half his lifetime. Still active today, the abstract painter creates new works in a studio at the back of his modest beach bungalow.

Its worrisome because its beginning to feel like a takeover, he says. These areas were born when blacks were unwelcome in a lot of places. And for me and many longtime residents, they will always be places of special significance.

Brannen, the broker with Douglas Elliman, is more blunt. Rising home values are good, but eventually this part of Sag Harbor will look like just another upscale beach resort, she says. And I dont think anyone wants that.
Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, left, and Defense Minister Tomomi Inada review an honor guard before a meeting with Japan Self-Defense Forces senior members at the Defense Ministry in Tokyo in September. (Toru Hanai/Reuters)

If you think President Trump has had a rocky week, spare a thought for Shinzo Abe.

The Japanese prime minister lost both his defense minister and his army chief Thursday, when they signaled they would quit for having taken part in an alleged coverup of Japans peacekeeping activities in South Sudan.

This came just days after Abe finally relented and agreed to be questioned in parliament over cronyism allegations that he just cant shake, only to have to return the following day and correct his initial testimony. Plus, his party just lost another local election. Oh, and his latest poll numbers are down some 30 points.

Abe is now regularly recording support levels in the 20 percent range  even lower than those of the American president  sparking talk of a second ignominious exit from politics, a decade after his first abrupt departure as prime minister.

Up until now, Abe was the Teflon prime minister, said Jeff Kingston, director of Asian studies at Temple Universitys campus in Tokyo. But now hes almost in the zone of no return. He needs a miracle.

Protesters denounce Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe outside parliament as Abe attends a special parliamentary committee meeting in Tokyo on Tuesday. (Kimimasa Mayama/EPA)

All of this was unthinkable at the beginning of the year. Abes approval ratings were hovering around 60 percent, and his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) changed its term limit to allow Abe to serve a third term as leader.

With no opposition to speak of, either inside or outside his party, it was widely assumed that Abe, elected at the end of 2012, could remain prime minister until 2021.

But he started having troubles in February, amid suggestions that his and his wifes support for a right-wing kindergarten in Osaka  one that had been sending out notes about wicked Koreans and Chinese  helped secure a sweetheart land deal for the educational company that ran the school. The former head of the scandal-plagued school operator and his wife were both summoned for questioning Thursday on suspicion of defrauding the government.

[ Abe accused of giving secret donation to far-right school ]

Still, Abe seemed to have shaken off those allegations, until another scandal involving a school emerged. This time, he was accused to helping to win approval for a close friend to open a veterinary school in a designated national strategic special zone.



Coming so soon on the heels of the first set of accusations, and again involving allegations of influence peddling, this scandal is not sliding off Abe.

Appearing at a special session of an upper house committee Monday, the prime minister said that he did not know at first that his friends educational institution would be the operator of the new veterinary school. But after Renho Murata, leader of the main opposition party, noted discrepancies in his testimony, Abe had to return the following day and apologize for causing confusion with conflicting statements.

In another surprising twist on an unusually high-drama day in Japanese politics, Renho also resigned as the leader of the Democratic Party Thursday. She had been plagued about her dual nationality  her father was Taiwanese  but she faced no internal challenge, and analysts were puzzled about why she stepped down at a time when Abe is struggling.

Tomomi Inada, the defense minister, apparently decided to quit before being fired in a cabinet reshuffle set for next week.

Inada had committed a string of gaffes  the latest being her exhortation to voters, on behalf of the Self-Defense Forces, as the Japanese military is known, to support the LDP in local elections, a statement that was seen as breaching the militarys political neutrality.

No sooner had this passed than Inada was in hot water again, this time accused of covering up records of the Japan Self-Defense Forces controversial peacekeeping activities in South Sudan last year, when the security situation there was rapidly worsening.

[ Japans prime minister pushes ahead with controversial anti-conspiracy bill ]

The head of the ground self-defense forces, or army, and the Defense Ministrys top bureaucrats also signaled that they would step down.

They were taking the blame for a scandal surrounding logs kept by Self-Defense Forces members who went to South Sudan. The peacekeeping mission was Japans first under new security legislation as Abe tries to inch the country back to a more normal military footing.

The logs, which the ministry said had been lost, were thought to have described the dangers the peacekeepers faced  potentially complicating Abes efforts to cast off the postwar shackles that the United States imposed on Japan at the end of World War II.

Amid all this, the LDP has lost two elections. First, and most embarrassingly, it suffered a huge defeat to one of Abes rivals in Tokyo assembly elections earlier this month. Then, just this week, the LDP lost a parliamentary seat in Sendai to an opposition-backed independent.

The next test for Abes party comes Sunday, with mayoral elections to be held in Yokohama, Japans second-largest city.

Compared to Trump, Abe doesnt look that erratic, said Kingston of Temple University. But he has flip-flopped in his testimony and made statements that polls show most people dont believe.

A survey by the conservative Yomiuri Shimbun, Japans biggest newspaper and a supporter of the prime minister, found that almost 70 percent of respondents said Abes administration has become increasingly arrogant.

These challenges are reviving memories of Abes first term as prime minister a decade ago. In 2007, after Abe had been in power for only one year, the LDP lost control of the upper house for the first time in 52 years. That, combined with a financial scandal involving one of his ministers, led to Abes abrupt resignation, ostensibly for health reasons.

[ Why Japans first lady was probably not snubbing President Trump ]

But there are big differences this time, said Koichi Nakano, a professor of political science at Sophia University in Tokyo. Abes ruling coalition still has a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament, and the next national elections are not due until December 2018.



However, Abe could be setting himself up for trouble with the way he has tried to shift attention onto his longtime goal of revising Japans American-written postwar constitution. He has set an ambitious year-end deadline for his party to put forward a proposal and says he wants the revision to take effect by 2020.

If it was just a matter of survival for Abe, there would be much less to worry about than 10 years ago, but this time he is really staking his premiership on the constitutional revision, Nakano said.

But that task, already controversial, will only grow more difficult as Abe loses popularity.

The LDP has been waiting for this moment for decades, and they may have their chance, only to see Abe blow it, Nakano said, because the referendum on constitutional revision could turn into a confidence vote on Abes government.

Potential successors are already hovering in the wings.

Abes foreign minister, Fumio Kishida, has said he does not want to stay on in the cabinet after next weeks reshuffle  a move that is viewed as a sign he might challenge Abe for the party leadership. Other potential contenders, including former prime minister and current finance minister Taro Aso, are also sniffing around for support.

Read more:

Japan and Europe counter Trump with colossal trade deal

The White House keeps mixing up the names of Asian countries and their leaders titles

Japan signed abduction treaty but for left-behind parents it doesnt mean much

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

Like Washington Post World on Facebook and stay updated on foreign news
Journalists hold banners reading Cumhuriyet won't be silenced and copies of Cumhuriyet opposition daily reading We want Justice as they march to the courthouse from the daily newspaper's headquarters on July 24, 2017, in Istanbul. (Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

After spending more than seven months in prison on terrorism charges that could keep him there for years to come, Ahmet Sik, a Turkish journalist, appeared in an Istanbul court this week with a fleeting opportunity to publicly rebut his powerful accusers.

He was on trial with 16 colleagues from Cumhuriyet, Turkeys most prominent opposition newspaper. The case, media advocates say, is part of a harsh, year-long crackdown by the government of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on opposition voices and is a critical test of the states tolerance for free speech.

In the packed courtroom, Sik appeared determined not to waste the moment.

What was supposed to be a defense statement was instead a searing attack on the government and a spirited argument for the relevance of his beleaguered profession. The indictment against the journalists was trash, the trial an attack on media freedom, and the judiciary a lynch mob, he said in his appearance on Wednesday.

They think we will be scared and silenced, he said.

A man holds a portrait of jailed investigative journalist Ahmet Sik on July 24, 2017, during a demonstration outside Istanbuls courthouse. (Ozan Kose/AFP/Getty Images)

The trial, which has made defendants of some of Turkeys best-known journalists, is being closely watched at home and abroad, at a time when the Turkish government has earned the distinction of being the most prolific jailer of journalists in the world. Siks testimony  with its incendiary and rarely uttered criticism of the state  exploded on social media as it was delivered, resonating with others who felt put upon by the government.

[In powerful testimony, a Turkish investigative reporter says journalism is not a crime]

The issues at stake in the case also mirror Turkeys broader arguments in the year since the government fended off a coup attempt: The country has wrestled with questions about the judiciarys independence, the dwindling influence of opposition parties, the governments growing power and the definitions of patriotism, loyalty and treason.

The arrests of the Cumhuriyet employees began last fall, as the authorities were carrying out a massive purge of state institutions, ostensibly focused on followers of the Turkish cleric Fethullah Gulen, the accused mastermind of the coup attempt, who lives in the United States.

Ordinary dissidents were caught up in the purge, along with journalists. As it shut down media outlets and arrested journalists, including leftists, the government invoked the states enemies in Gulens movement as well as Kurdish militants.

In the case of Cumhuriyet  which had been openly hostile to the Gulen movement  the charges rang especially hollow, the papers supporters said. The governments antipathy toward the newspaper was more deeply rooted, they said, and included anger at its publishing of a photograph purporting to show Turkish intelligence sending truckloads of weapons to Syrian rebels.

The government has denied jailing large numbers of media workers but has narrowly defined who can be considered a journalist.

The indictment against Cumhuriyet accuses the newspapers employees  including its cartoonist, a staff lawyer and its editor in chief  of a sprawling number of offenses, including acting in accordance with the goals of a handful of militant organizations, and publishing articles designed to create internal turmoil and bring the country to an ungovernable state through manipulation and hiding the truth.

Dozens of the newspapers supporters gathered in a plaza outside the courthouse Monday, shortly before the trial began. Standing among them was Ahmet Siks brother, Bulent Sik, an academic who lost his job as a university professor in the purge after the coup attempt.

As Bulent told it, Ahmet and his colleagues were on trial solely because the government was sensitive about their journalism  including articles that detailed the once-close relationship between Erdogans governing Justice and Development Party, or AKP, and the Gulen movement.

They dont want journalists telling them they worked hand in hand, Bulent Sik said, adding that he was happy that the case was finally coming to trial.

Two days later, though, after sitting through hours of court testimony, he was far less hopeful. The judges seemed disengaged, he said, as if they were going through the motions. He doubts that when the hearing wraps up at the end of the week, his brother will be released.

[Inside a nervous Turkish newsroom as the government closes in]

It was not clear whether Ahmet Siks blistering speech helped or hurt his case.

He referred to the partnership between the AKP and the Gulen movement as a Mafioso coalition, and suggested that the government knew far more than it let on about the coup attempt last summer, according to a transcript of his comments published on the website of the European Center for Press and Media Freedom.

What I say is not defense or expression. On the contrary, it is an accusation, he said. That Sik is considered an authority on the Gulenists made his detailed portrait of elite intrigues, betrayals and collusion perhaps more damaging, at least from the governments perspective.

There are not many remaining who are trying to uncover the truth, he said in lengthy comments about the many hardships faced by Turkeys journalists. More than anything, he added, we need more truth.

Read more:

Erdogans speech on anniversary of coup attempt highlights Turkeys divisions

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Palestinian Muslims wave a national flag and flash the victory gesture in front of the Dome of the Rock. (Ahmad Gharabli/Agence France-Presse via Getty Images)

Palestinians declared a hard-won victory Thursday against what they saw as an attempt by Israel to limit access at their holiest site, the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Israel installed metal detectors at the gates to the sensitive shrine after three Israeli Arab gunmen killed two Israeli police officers there on July 14. Now, nearly two weeks later, the detectors and other extra security devices are being dismantled.

Jerusalems grand mufti, Mohammed Hussein, a spiritual leader and custodian of the mosque, urged Muslims on Thursday to return to their shrine for worship, declaring the crisis over.

Worshipers had refrained from entering the compound, praying on the streets outside instead.

The esplanade on which al-Aqsa stands is considered holy by both Muslims, who call it the Noble Sanctuary, and by Jews, who refer to it as the Temple Mount.





With news of the victory, Muslims flooded the 37-acre holy complex singing victory songs and chanting God is great. A group of youths scaled the mosques stone wall and planted a Palestinian flag on top.

Within minutes, Israeli police officers followed in their path and took the flag down. Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said worshipers started to throw rocks at security forces, as well as at Jewish worshipers praying at the adjacent Western Wall.

The cheers of joy were quickly replaced with the crack of stun grenades, and the air filled with smoke as Israeli police shot tear-gas canisters inside the mosque compound. At least 40 worshipers and 10 Israeli police officers were reported injured.

Clashes continued at the site through the evening.

The police will respond with a tough hand to any disturbances, the spokesman said in a statement.

Israeli security officials said they were bracing for huge crowds during Friday prayers at al-Aqsa, the scene for frequent clashes not only Thursday but also over the decades.

Jerusalem Police Chief Yoram Halevi warned Palestinian protesters that his officers will respond to provocations with force.

No one should try to test us tomorrow, Halevi told reporters. If there are people who try to disturb the peace, to harm police or citizens, they should not be surprised. There will be casualties and people injured.

Still, the Palestinians celebrated what they saw as a win, after Israel removed the new security measures.

Abu Abad al-Qaq, 49, a building contractor from Silwan in East Jerusalem who attended the protests at the Lions Gate entrance in the Old City, said: This was a big miscalculation by the Israelis, who underestimated the power of the Jerusalem street, which has surprised everybody, even the Palestinian leadership.

Ibrahim Awad Allah, a top official in the Islamic Waqf, which serves as custodian of the holy site, under the control and patronage of the king of Jordan, said the victory at the site was a message to the Israeli occupation that their arrogance failed them.

Everything that has been imposed by the Israelis, all of it, has been removed, he said, calling such a withdrawal both rare and sweet. This is a victory.

Beginning with the Palestinian attack that left the Israeli police officers dead on July 14, the turmoil over access to the mosque has left 15 people dead, including three Israelis fatally stabbed in their home in a West Bank settlement and two Jordanians, one an alleged assailant and the other a bystander, shot by a security guard at the Israeli Embassy in Amman, Jordan.

The decision by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government to back down over the increased security measures, after days of vowing that the metal detectors would stay for security reasons, was seen by Israelis and Palestinians as a capitulation.

Some Israelis said Netanyahu did the right and smart thing by de-escalating the tension, but members of his government criticized him for what they saw as weakness in the face of Palestinian opposition and violence.

Israel comes out weakened from this crisis, hard-line minister Naftali Bennett said on Israel Army Radio on Thursday morning. Instead of sending a message about Israels sovereignty on the Temple Mount, it sent a message that Israels sovereignty can be questioned.

At the outbreak of the crisis, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said it was up to Israel to decide security protocol for the site.

Israels minister for national security and foreign affairs, Tzachi Hanegbi, said earlier this week in a radio interview that Israel would not give in to threats at the Temple Mount.

If you are threatening us that you wont enter the Mount, then dont enter the Mount. Put down prayer mats and pray wherever you want. If you want to pray on the Mount, pass through the checkpoints just as I had to do at the Vatican a few weeks ago, just as we all have to at the Western Wall, he said.

He said that Israel was the sovereign power in Jerusalem and on the Temple Mount.

But the ongoing protests, some peaceful and some violent, have challenged that.

Over the past week and a half, Palestinian Muslim worshipers have laid their prayer mats down on the street outside the mosque compound, stirring emotions in the wider Arab world and causing tensions between Israel and one of its closest Muslim allies, Jordan.

In a Facebook post Wednesday, Netanyahu vowed to shut down the Jerusalem bureau of Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based news network, for broadcasting images of what he called incitement.

Netanyahus bureau declined to give specific examples of the Al Jazeera content that might have stoked tensions.

Asked for a specific example, a communications adviser in Netanyahus office suggested that reporters scroll through Google.

Last week, the channel published a short video clip showing an Israeli police officer kicking a Palestinian kneeling on a prayer mat for worship. Netanyahus office did not dispute the veracity of the clip.

It was this image and others that spurred Omar al-Abed, a 19-year-old Palestinian, to fatally stab three Israelis in the settlement of Halamish on July 21, his father told The Washington Post this week.

Netanyahu called the teen a beast and said he was incited by Jew hatred.

The attack, which left a 70-year-old Israeli grandfather and his two adult children lying in a pool of blood in the familys kitchen, drew angry reactions from Israeli leaders, with several calling for Israel to use the death penalty. The attacker was shot but only lightly wounded.

Palestinians say the Israelis are also guilty of inciting violence.

They point to statements by Israeli parliament member Oren Hazan, who posted a video on his Facebook account saying that he wanted to demolish Abeds home and execute his family.

I want to be honest without sounding too extreme, but if it was up to me, I wouldve gone to the terrorists house yesterday, grabbed him and his whole family and executed them all together, said Hazan, who is a member of Netanyahus Likud party.

Sufian Taha contributed to this report.

Read more:

A Palestinian vowed to die a martyr, then stabbed 3 Israelis to death

Todays coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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Retired Army colonel Derek Harvey, who was forced out his position on the National Security Council on Thursday, is pictured at a Senate hearing in 2015. (Mark Wilson/Getty Images)

The National Security Councils top official for the Middle East has been removed from his job following internal complaints about his management style, according to senior Trump administration officials.

The departure Thursday of retired Army colonel Derek Harvey, an influential voice on Iran, Syria and counterterrorism policy, came at the initiative of national security adviser H.R. McMaster, who has repeatedly clashed with him.

He and McMaster had different visions for what the mission required, said one of several officials who discussed internal White House decision-making on the condition of anonymity.

A statement issued by NSC spokesman Michael Anton said that McMaster greatly appreciates Derek Harveys service to his country. . . . The administration is working with Colonel Harvey to identify positions in which his background and expertise can be best utilized.

As senior director for the Middle East and special assistant to President Trump, Harvey supervised officials who specialized in various policy areas throughout the region, but much of his attention was focused on Iran, where he was a persistent advocate for a more hard-line policy. He has also been a key player in the administrations ongoing review of the Iran nuclear deal.

[U.S. slaps new sanctions on Iran, after certifying its compliance with nuclear deal]

Michael Bell, NSC director for Persian Gulf affairs, has been named to take Harveys place temporarily until a permanent replacement is determined, officials said.

In a statement, Harvey described the decision to leave as his own, and said it came with mixed emotions. He said that the criticality of the mission [and] the people I have worked with at the NSC and the White House make this a tough decision, but that he was leaving to take advantage of a new opportunity to continue serving our President and the United States of America in an important capacity.

Despite widespread reports of clashes with McMaster, Harvey said that H.R. and I have worked closely together to tackle some of our nations most difficult challenges. I value our friendship and deeply respect his visionary leadership. I look forward to working with H.R. in my future capacity, he said, although he did not indicate what that job would be.

Harveys departure is the latest upheaval in a national security team that has been riven with disagreements and controversy. He arrived at the White House with Trumps first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, who was forced out barely three weeks into the job, after reportedly misleading the administration about his pre-inauguration contacts with Russia and lobbying activities.

McMaster, an active duty Army general, took the job after Trumps next choice, Vice Adm. Robert Harward, turned it down. Since then, he has struggled to impose a national security policy process and decision-making structure amid powerful political voices in the White House.

In one of his first acts, McMaster orchestrated the removal of chief White House strategist Stephen K. Bannon from NSC membership. But an effort to remove Ezra Cohen-Watnick, a Bannon and Harvey protege, as the NSC intelligence director failed when Bannon and others intervened with Trump.

Harveys combative management style and hard-line policy views had long been seen as a problem inside the NSC, according to several officials. Shortly after arriving, McMaster told his staff in an all-hands meeting that any of them should be able to approach him with ideas or suggestions. Several officials involved in Middle East and counterterrorism policy drafted a memo that outlined some alternatives to the policies that Harvey was championing in the fight against the Islamic State.

[Militarys clout at White House could shift U.S. foreign policy]

As soon as Harvey learned of the memo, officials said, he attempted to dismiss the people who had drafted it  most of them detailed from other agencies  by sending them back to the Pentagon, State Department and CIA. It took a last-minute intervention by McMaster to stop the reassignments, several officials said.

Harvey also drew the ire of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Pentagon officials, who thought that he was trying to set policy rather than coordinate among the different departments and agencies. Some Iraqi officials complained to the Pentagon and U.S. Central Command that Harvey seemed to be telling them where to position their troops, an official said.

Ultimately, Harveys biggest handicap apparently was his poor relationship with his own staff.

The statement issued by Anton said that Harvey had served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the successful surge in Iraq.

A protege of Gen. David Petraeus when Petraeus was commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, Harvey was credited for predicting the post-invasion insurgency there. He later joined the Defense Intelligence Agency as a civilian and served as the first director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center of Excellence at Centcom headquarters in Tampa.

Retired Army Gen. Jack Keane called Harvey one of the finest intel analysts that Ive ever encountered. Keane told NBC News he was befuddled as to why he is being removed.
President Trump announced on Twitter on Wednesday that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity, an abrupt reversal of an Obama administration decision to allow them to serve openly and a potential end to the careers of thousands of active-duty troops.

The decision halts a years-long process of advancing rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in the U.S. military that began with the repeal of the dont ask, dont tell policy in 2010. And the nature of the announcement left Republicans and Democrats in Congress concerned about the seeming broad scope of Trumps order.

Citing the need to focus on what he called decisive and overwhelming victory, Trump said that the military cannot accept the burden of higher medical costs and the disruption that transgender troops would entail.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, Trump wrote on Twitter. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee who in 2010 opposed ending dont ask, dont tell, criticized Trumps decision in a statement, attacking both how it was delivered and its implications for active-duty transgender troops.

(Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

The presidents tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter, McCain said. The statement was unclear. The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity, McCain said.

Trump was lobbied for over a year by conservative Republicans to roll back the Obama administration policy change. Christian conservative leaders pressed him on the issue as a candidate in June 2016 during a meeting in New York just after Trump secured the Republican nomination for president. Many of them said the military is no place for social experimentation at the expense of military readiness.

Although they were pleased with Trumps decision, Wednesdays announcement came with no warning to those same conservative leaders. It also was a surprise to many on Capitol Hill.

Trumps decision comes two weeks after the House rejected an amendment to the annual defense policy bill that would have blocked the Pentagon from offering gender transition therapies to active-duty service members. Twenty-four Republicans joined 190 Democrats voting to reject the measure.

But conservative lawmakers  many of them members of the House Freedom Caucus  had threatened to withhold support for a spending bill if Congress did not act to prohibit the Pentagon from paying for the procedures. The impasse broadly threatened government spending, but most importantly for Trump, it potentially held up money that had been appropriated for the border wall between the United States and Mexico, a key promise he had made during the campaign.

[Hill Democrats slam Trumps military transgender ban, while GOP is caught by surprise]

A White House official and a House GOP official confirmed that Reps. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and Scott Perry (R-Pa.), all Freedom Caucus members, were in talks with the White House and House leadership on the issue.

(Whitney Leaming/The Washington Post)

They were willing to accept a Defense Department or White House provision that addressed paying for procedures  well short of a ban on transgender people serving in the military, according to the House official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly on the issue.

Trump went well beyond what they had requested.

Earlier this year, Trumps military leadership had signaled that they needed more time to fully assess the implementation of the last significant piece of the Obama administrations approach, delaying the entry of transgender military recruits until the end of 2017. The policy in place would have allowed them to begin serving July 1, but Defense Secretary Jim Mattis delayed it just before the deadline, citing a need for more study.

The six-month delay was requested by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and would have allowed a further review of how integrating transgender recruits would affect the militarys readiness and lethality, Mattis said in a memo last month. That review was due in early December.

Mattis noted that the delay in no way presupposes the outcome.

[On eve of deadline, Pentagon delays plan to allow transgender recruits by 6 months]

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trumps decision, saying it was purely focused on military readiness. Yet when pressed by reporters on how the new policy would be implemented and how it would affect currently serving transgender troops, Sanders deferred the questions to the Pentagon. She said Trump had made the decision and informed Mattis of the policy change Tuesday.

Look, I think sometimes you have to make decisions, and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, and theyre going to work together with the Department of Defense to lawfully implement it, Sanders said.

Aside from a short statement, the Pentagon referred all questions regarding Trumps tweets to the White House.

[Trumps LGBT rights promises were tied to war on radical Islam]

In a sign of how quickly political and social norms have shifted in Washington, many Republican lawmakers spoke out against Trumps announcement.

As well as McCain, Republican Sens. Orrin G. Hatch (Utah); Joni Ernst (Iowa), an Army veteran; and Richard C. Shelby (Ala.) issued statements calling the presidents decision into question.

Under former defense secretary Ashton B. Carter, the military lifted the ban on transgender troops and was given one year to determine how to implement a policy that would allow transgender service members to receive medical care and ban the services from involuntarily separating people in the military who came out as transgender.

Thousands of troops serving in the military are transgender, and some estimates place the number as high as 11,000 in the reserves and active-duty military, according to a Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Defense Department.

The Rand study estimated that gender-transition-related medical treatments would cost the military between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually.

Brad Carson, a former congressman who worked on transgender policy deliberations under the Obama administration, said in an interview Wednesday that months of delays last year in implementing a change in transgender policy left the door open to Trumps action and potentially invites litigation challenging the presidents decision.

That being said, just from the tweets, it seems as if what he is doing is rolling back already implemented policies, which will force out several hundred openly transgender service members out of the military, Carson said.

Also Wednesday, the Justice Department filed a legal brief in a case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit arguing that LGBT people are not protected from discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act.

As a political candidate, Trump largely avoided issues related to LGBT rights, even while many in his family  including daughter Ivanka Trump  have been vocal supporters of LBGT people.

But since taking office, the Trump administration has rolled back protections, including those for transgender children in public schools. And earlier this year, even before the decision on public schools, the Pentagon quietly rescinded a directive to Defense Department schools that students were free to use the bathrooms and locker rooms consistent with their gender identity.

[The Pentagons history of resisting transgender troops]

The White House also did not recognize LGBT Pride Month in June, although other members of his administration did so, including Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

When asked whether Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner, the presidents senior adviser and son-in-law, were involved in the discussions before Trumps tweets Wednesday, the White House official said, It actually may have caught them unaware.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a think tank that has helped the Pentagon research transgender people serving in the military, released a statement condemning the move.

This is a shocking and ignorant attack on our military and on transgender troops who have been serving honorably and effectively for the past year, Belkin said.

Philip Rucker, Dan Lamothe, Jenna Johnson, Ed OKeefe, Robert Barnes and Christopher Ingraham contributed to this report.
The State Department said Thursday that Irans launch of a space satellite was a provocative action that violates a U.N. resolution on ballistic missiles as well as the spirit of the landmark 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and six world powers.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said Thursday that reports that Iran had launched a rocket carrying a satellite into space violated U.N. Security Council resolution 2231, which calls on Iran not to conduct any activity involving ballistic missiles that are designed to be capable of delivering nuclear weapons.

Nauert said the United States regards the launch as continued ballistic missile development that is discouraged in the U.N. resolution.

We consider this to be a provocative action, and a provocative action that undermines the security, the prosperity of those in the region and around the world as well.

We believe that what happened overnight in the early morning hours here in Washington is inconsistent with the Security Council resolutions, she added. We believe that what happened overnight and into the morning is in violation of the spirit of the nuclear agreement.

[U.S. slaps new sanctions on Iran, after certifying its compliance with nuclear deal]

The launch of a satellite-carrying rocket was reported by Iranian state media on Thursday, but it was unclear exactly when the launch occurred. Officials in Israel and the United States fear Iran could use the technology to produce long-range missiles that could pose a threat to the region, and beyond, if they help Iran develop intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Irans defense ministry denies that its space program is a vehicle for weapons development, and the head of its space agency has even offered to cooperate with NASA and share its data with other countries.

The Trump administration has been highly critical of Irans ballistic missile tests. This month, the White House certified that Iran was in compliance with its commitments under the nuclear agreement. But while the language on Irans nuclear program is precise and extensive, the language involving missiles is ambiguous.

Resolution 2231 was passed in 2015 to endorse the deal in which six world powers, including the United States, agreed to ease nuclear-related economic sanctions against Iran in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear program. The agreement is officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

The language on ballistic missiles replaced a resolution dating from 2010 that said Iran shall not undertake any activity related to ballistic missiles capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The 2015 version merely calls on Iran not to conduct such activity.
Chef Mauro Colagreco is a two Michelin star award-winning chef, known for Mediterranean-inspired dishes created with high quality fresh ingredients.

The Worlds 50 Best Restaurants 2017, recently ranked his restaurant, Mirazur, in Menton, France the fourth best restaurant in the world. Mirazur moved up two positions from its 2016 ranking.

Mauro Colagreco has signed on to lead Grill 58, a restaurant which will be located within the soon to be opened MGM Cotai property. With a menu planned to feature premium beef sourced from the best ranchers around the world Grill 58 is expected to become a world-renowned destination for food and wine connoisseurs that is known for delivering exceptional steak dishes. Interviewed by the Times, Colagreco talks about what he proposes to bring to Macau.

Macau Daily Times (MDT)  Grill 58 will be the first restaurant in Macau to feature a Salt Meat-aging room. In what sense will this feature provide guests with a different experience in taste?

Mauro Colagreco (MC)  The Salt Meat-aging Room at Grill 58 will enhance guests experience in many ways. First, it will allow us to showcase different pieces of premium meats, giving the guests a visual interaction. It is also a plus on the technical side, as it dry-ages the high quality meat in the best conditions to reach perfect maturity. What the salt does, is that it dehydrates the meat, leaving the meat with a more condensed and intense flavor. In addition, just looking inside the room itself is a sensorial experience because the room features a big block of Himalayan salt, which is the first in Macau.

MDT  What are the main highlights of the menu and how did you decide on those particular dishes?

MC  The menu offers four different origins of meats  Australia, USA, Japan, and France  which will be accompanied by garnishes, condiments and sauces from the four respective countries, allowing guests to travel [through different tastes] without moving. The choice of such meats is obviously quality-driven, and getting the best meats from each [origin] is definitely our goal.

MDT  You have a gathered over the years a wide and highly praised reputation including an accolade from the world-famous Michelin Guide. How do you describe your cuisine?

MC  I like to describe my cuisine as personal, intense and influenced by my experiences [voyages] throughout the world.

MDT  Ingredients often have an essential role, how do you choose yours?

MC  Ingredients are key to any cooking. And I choose mine with my eyes and taste buds, but also with my heart. Knowing the people who make the ingredients I use and sharing their philosophy is just as important as tasting them.

MDT  What do you expect from the new trends in Asia, after observing how Asia has become the setting for world cuisines and Fusion Cuisines. Are these trends a reflex from the globalization trend worldwide?

MC  It is a bit tricky to link globalization with fusion cuisine in my opinion. In fact, people have always travelled and exchanged cultures, and cuisines have been telling that story for hundreds of years, long before globalization became a concept

MDT  What are your feelings about Macau and its long traditions in mixing South American, European, Middle Eastern and Far-Eastern cuisines? Is it the right place for a gastronomy gathering?

MC  Macau is definitely a perfect setting for gastronomy, being at the crossroads of so many cultures.

Its location, its vibrancy and its spirit stimulate creativity. In Macau, you feel like there is no limit to culinary art.
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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/07/2017 (1934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In past years, the Gimli Film Festival has had a tendency to load up its program with films that had already played in Winnipegs premiere art house cinema prior to getting a festival berth.

Gimli Film Festival? You might have just as easily called it Cinematheque North.

But in its 17th year, the GFF offers what may be its best and boldest program ever, with 134 films playing until July 30. (The breakdown is: 72 short films, 36 narrative features and 26 documentaries.) Many of the feature films have yet to open in Winnipeg.

Kate Micucci, Alison Brie and Aubrey Plaza in The Little Hours

Even the films that have played in Winnipeg, old and new, warrant a place at the table for no other reason than the observance of Canadas sesquicentennial has spawned a CanFilm mini-festival.

Here then is a roundup of films to watch for in Gimli:

Local, local, local

Menorca (Thursday, July 27 at 8 p.m. at the Aspire Theatre), director John Barnards weird-sexy comedy-drama is about a troubled mom whose pathological misbehaviour compels her young son to break up with her.

https://youtu.be/t57ooNEIIZA

Downtime (Friday, July 28 at 8 p.m. at the Lady of The Lake Theatre) is an 80s chestnut, the first ever feature film out of the Winnipeg Film Group. Director Greg Hanec examines the funny/despairing lives of a group of Winnipeg 20-somethings.

Lovesick (Sunday, July 30 at 3 p.m., Gimli Theatre), director Tyson Caron fashions a love story between a guy who cant let go of his about-to-be married ex-girlfriend. But in the subtext, the movie is also a love letter to Winnipeg, and the city has never looked more romantic.

https://youtu.be/D2XRiLVD5bU

O Canada

C.R.A.Z.Y. (Thursday, July 27 at 5:30 p.m., Lady of The Lake Theatre), director Jean-Marc Valee offers a portrayal of a sexually confused young David Bowie fan coming to terms with his true self in spite of his strict Catholic upbringing.

Tippi Hedren in Alfred Hitchcocks The Birds.

My American Cousin (Friday, July 28 at 5:30 p.m., Gimli Lutheran Church Theatre). Director Sandy Wilson will be in attendance at the screening of her 1985 coming-of-age silm set in 1950s-era British Columbia, where a 12-year-old girl is beguiled by her James dean-like cousin from the U.S.

Offbeat and international

The Little Hours (Thursday, July 27 at 10 a.m. and Friday, July 28, at 10 p.m. at the Gimli Theatre). Three very contemporary American actresses  Alison Brie, Aubrey Plaza and Kate Micucci  play medieval nuns given to 21st-century idioms and behaviour in this comedy adaptation of Boccaccios The Decameron, also starring John C. Reilly, Dave Franco and Nick Offerman.

Becoming Bond, (Thursday, July 27 at 3 p.m. at Lady of The Lake Theatre; Friday, July 28 at 12:30 p.m. at the Aspire Theatre) is a Hulu-produced documentary profile of Australian actor George Lazenby, a one-shot James Bond (On Her Majestys Secret Service, 1969) who lost the gig partly as a result of his own admitted hubris.

randall.king@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @FreepKing

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French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote dAzur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday.

A raging wildfire began late Tuesday in the dry Mediterranean forests around La Londe-Les-Maures before being pushed by the southern Mistral winds to Bormes, a tourist magnet with houses clustered on a hill surrounded by dense forests of scrub and trees.

The local Var Matin newspaper reported that 12,000 people were forced to take refuge in gymnasiums and other places, including thousands of campers. It said some people sought safety on local beaches.

Col. Eric Martin of the Var firefighting unit said Wednesday on BFM-TV that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres) around.

Four tracker planes and a fire-fighting aircraft were sent in as thick black smoke billowed above the skyline.

The airport in Toulon, a city 30 kilometers from La Londe, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well the Fort de Bregancon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

The wildfires began raging along Frances Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations with flames reaching a corner of Saint-Tropez. Since noon Tuesday, French firefighters had conducted about 100 operations.

Further east, reinforcements were sent in to battle a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of forest.

Another fire was contained Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer after burning two villas, seriously injuring one firefighter and devouring about 500 hectares.

Frances Mediterranean coast is particularly vulnerable to fires, with its massive back-country forests, often dry in the summer, and Mistral winds blowing across the sea to fan the flames. Smoke from the fires blew across bays on the picturesque coast, frightening some. But firefighters warned against panic  and unnecessary phone calls. No injuries have been reported among residents and vacationers.

Further south, flames ate through 2,000 hectares of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Summer fires, propelled by high temperatures, winds and drought  and often caused by careless humans  are not new to Europe. Both Portugal and Italy were also battling blazes.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Shes six years old, healthy, active and happy but Canadian immigration officials say she might be a burden on the system one day so her American family, who owns a tourist lodge and set down roots in Manitoba, has been ruled inadmissible.

Karalynn Warkentin was two years old when her parents, Jon and Karissa, bought Harvest Lodge on Waterhen River in 2013, planning to make it their permanent home.

In 2014, the little girl started having seizures and was diagnosed with epilepsy and global developmental delay.

Karissa and Jon Warkentin with four of their children: son Gabe, 14, Grace, 17, Shataya, 18, and Karalynn, six. The American family may be forced to leave Canada in November when their work visas expire.

She hasnt had a seizure in more than two years, but Karalynns health condition was enough for the federal government to deny her and her familys application for permanent residency in Canada.

It might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services, said the rejection letter from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada.

Your dependant daughter, Karalynn Faith Warkentin, is a person whose health condition, Global Developmental Delay and ADHD might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.

With her parents work visas set to expire Nov. 24, the future of Karalynn and her family is now in limbo.

Its been a lot of sleepless nights, said her mother Karissa in Waterhen, a four-hour drive north of Winnipeg. What are we going to do?

Theyve invested in the lodge and the tiny northern community and the couple and their four children are part of its fabric year-round, she said.

We specifically wanted to make a new life where we had the businesses, she said. Were not taking our tax dollars with us and living in Florida in the winter, she said.

Child needs extra supervision, but is otherwise healthy

The Warkentins have been rejected by Canadian immigration officials because of a section of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that says a foreign national is inadmissible on health grounds if their health condition might reasonably be expected to cause excessive demand on health or social services.

Look at our package as a whole  what were bringing in and paying in taxes. Look at the benefit of having a rural economy supported by a business like ours  the benefits would outweigh the potential costs. Karissa Warkentin

Their daughter isnt an excessive burden or drain on social spending and shouldnt be seen that way, said Karissa Warkentin.

At home and in school she needs extra supervision  she needs more direction, said her mom. If a child needs to hear something seven times to make a memory, she may need to hear it more, said Warkentin. She doesnt require any physical adaptation. Shes a relatively healthy child and rarely gets sick with colds or anything. She doesnt have behavioral issues, which is a blessing. She enjoys her classmates.

The help she needs in school is covered in block funding allocated to the Frontier School Division. If she ever needed more care, the Warkentins say they can cover the cost.

They have 10 years of our business and financial records. We have savings in our 401K and investment in our business  a business that brings in tourism dollars and residual dollars at the local store, with hunters buying groceries and liquor and (hunting and fishing) licences, Karissa Warkentin said.

Guests at their lodge often fly to Winnipeg, stay in a hotel then rent a vehicle for the four-hour drive to the Warkentins lodge at Waterhen. In 2016, the taxes and fees they collected at the lodge were in excess of $20,000, Jon Warkentin said in a letter to the Canadian immigration officer handling their file.

Look at our package as a whole  what were bringing in and paying in taxes. Look at the benefit of having a rural economy supported by a business like ours  the benefits would outweigh the potential costs.

Family well-liked in community: mayor

The family is actively involved year-round in the life of the northern community, said Warkentin, who has letters of support to prove it.

They are well-liked, friendly members of our community, wrote Waterhen Mayor Larry Chartrand. They are always willing to help out within the community, said the mayor, noting the Warkentins provide an important service to the area: a restaurant and lodging.

Waterhen School principal Craig Parks letter said the Warkentins are contributing members to the community and actively involved in the school. Karissa is a member of the Waterhen and District Day Care Board. Parks letter said funding for Karalynn at school is covered by the province without any significant impact.

The Warkentins have hired an immigration lawyer in Winnipeg to appeal the decision on their inadmissibility. She said the legislation as it stands now is discriminatory.

What we hope for most is for this policy to be reviewed and changed so other families arent discriminated against this way, said Karissa. Review the policy. Its not a good policy.

Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said it was not prepared to comment Tuesday.

carol.sanders@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

More than three years after the tragic death of a Peguis toddler, Crown and defence lawyers are expected to ask for a life sentence without parole for at least 14 years for the mother who admitted to killing her 21-month-old daughter.

Vanessa Bushie pleaded guilty in April to second-degree murder, admitting to the abuse and neglect that led to the death of her daughter Kierra Williams after the child was returned to her biological family by Child and Family Services. Second-degree murder carries a mandatory life sentence.

A publication ban on the case imposed in error earlier this year was lifted Wednesday. After both the Crown and defence agreed the court didnt have jurisdiction to impose such a ban in the first place, Court of Queens Bench Justice Chris Martin cancelled the court order that previously prevented Bushie from being identified.

Kierra Elektra Star Williams died on July 17, 2014. She had severe internal injuries, broken bones and bruises, and she was malnourished and dehydrated. (Handout)

Crown attorney Daniel Chaput told the judge he and Bushies defence lawyer, Mike Cook, had planned to ask the court to impose a parole ineligibility of 14 years along with the life sentence.

Bushie was to be sentenced Wednesday, but the sentencing hearing was delayed so a private report could be prepared detailing her history. Under the law, before imposing a sentence, a judge must consider the background of an Indigenous offender and any trauma they experienced as a result of Canadas history of colonization and residential schools. Court heard the report was meant to be ready for the sentencing hearing, which was scheduled for more than three months after Bushie pleaded guilty, but it wasnt ordered in time.

A new sentencing date was arranged for early December, but Martin was not prepared to wait that long.

I think its not appropriate, frankly, the judge said. Theres no way its going to happen that late.

Martin ordered that Bushie be required to appear in court Thursday so lawyers can discuss how to move the case along more quickly. She is being held in custody awaiting sentencing.

Kierra died on July 17, 2014 after being rushed to hospital in Hodgson in an unresponsive state. She had severe internal injuries, broken bones and bruises. She was malnourished and dehydrated, and her tiny body looked more like that of a nine-month-old infant than a nearly-two-year-old girl when paramedics brought her in, medical professionals previously told court.

Kierra suffered months of abuse and neglect leading up to her death, including being force-fed, pushed, slapped, kept in a locked room and forced to sleep on the floor. With her guilty plea, her mother has admitted to causing fatal damage to the toddlers internal organs, including her liver and pancreas, on the day she died.

Kierra had been taken into foster care at birth in October 2012. Domestic-violence allegations had been made against another family member, and as a result, Kierras older siblings were already in the care of Child and Family Services. Her parents worked to regain custody, and after they completed all required programs, Kierra and her siblings were returned to their family in July 2013. CFS officials visited the family occasionally until January 2014, found nothing of concern, and decided to close Kierras file. Six months after the CFS visits stopped, Kierra was dead.

RCMP began a lengthy investigation that culminated in January 2015 with charges against Bushie, Kierras father, Daniel Williams, and her adult sister, Jasmine Bushie. All charges against Jasmine were dropped late last year and she has since sued the RCMP for its handling of the case. The lawsuit is still before the court and the Attorney General of Canada is defending itself against the allegations.

Williams is charged with manslaughter and failing to provide the necessaries of life. He is set to go to trial in February. After Bushies guilty plea to second-degree murder, the Crown is expected to drop her charge of failing to provide the necessaries of life.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 27/07/2017 (1934 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Merchants of Riding Mountain National Park are reaping the rewards of free national park admittance as part of Canadas 150th birthday celebration.

Retailers in Wasagaming, the Manitoba parks townsite, are reporting sales increases of as much as 60 per cent over last year with the busiest part of summer yet to come.

Its our best year, hands down, said Karly McRae, owner of Lakehouse, which has a significant retail component, and Arrowhead Family Resort. Retail sales for her coffee shop, ice-cream shop and lounge are up 60 per cent. Her hotel occupancy is up 30 per cent.

Tim Smith / The Brandon Sun FILES Indi Unger goes boating with friends and family on a hot July day at Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park, where business is booming thanks to free admission as part of Canada 150.

Everything has been fantastic. Its been amazing, she said.

Sandra Shwetz  of the Boardwalk on Clear Lake, a souvenir-convenience store on the main strip in Wasagaming  says every weekend has been like a long weekend in terms of volume.

I would say my sales are up 25 per cent, she said. It takes a lot to raise her sales, she added, because theyre spread out over four revenue streams: ice-cream shop, convenience store, clothing store and snack shop.

Certainly June wasnt nice at all weather-wise, yet our numbers were well up, Shwetz said.

Free park admittance just removed any barriers to saying, Im going to drive up to the park and enjoy it, she said.

Merchants on the drive up to Riding Mountain on Highway 10 are reaping the rewards. Jeff Bettle of the Old Church Pottery and Gift Shop, about 20 kilometres south of the park, has experienced some of his best sales ever.

To tell you the truth, Im having a really hard time keeping up with demand, he said. The week before was one of the top three weeks Ive ever had in 18 years.

Bettle attributes it to the parks free admittance.

Free is good. People like free.

He shaped 500 mugs over the winter to stock his shelves and is running out. He made an extra 100 last week, and will have to make another 100 more to get him through August, he said.

As well, the parks campsite bookings are up 92 per cent over last year. Much of that increase is attributable to the 128 campsites that have been reopened and upgraded with water and electricity. They were closed during the upgrades.

However, Riding Mountain traffic counts dont jive with those increases. While national park figures across Canada to the end of June show visitors are up nine per cent, Riding Mountain shows just a 1.2 per cent increase.

The percentage mystifies the Wasagaming Chamber of Commerce. How the park arrives at its visitor numbers has been kind of a mystery to us at the chamber and the method keeps changing, Shwetz said.

Tim Smith / The Brandon Sun files A paddle-boarder is seen on Clear Lake in Riding Mountain National Park earlier this month.

The park said it does traffic counts and has a formula for estimating repeat visitors and service vehicles. Shwetz suggested the number of people per car may be up.

I cant see it that people are just buying more. One thing weve noticed in the last five years is an increase in larger families from various ethnic backgrounds visiting the park, she said.

Greater promotion by Clear Lake Country has also increased traffic, maintained resort owner McRae, a director of the marketing arm of Wasagaming retailers

For example, park entrance fees dont usually influence the number of people renting rooms or cabins, but extra marketing has seen hotel and cabin bookings much higher this year for the shoulder months of May, June, September and October, said McRae.

Another factor is most of Highway 10 through the park has been repaired. It had fallen into such a deplorable state in recent years, the annual Riding Mountain Triathlon was cancelled in 2016, but is returning this year.

The park entrance fee is normally $7.80 per adult per day, $6.55 per senior, $3.90 per youth (six-16) and $19.60 per carload. Children five and under are free. Annual passes for a group or family is $98.10, or $39.20 per adult, $34.30 per senior and $19.60 per youth.

While McRae said it would be nice to have free admittance to the park every year, she doesnt think thats feasible.

I understand those things cost money. I think there should be a nominal entry fee for sure, but I think its a great marketing tool and introduces new people to the national parks across the country.

bill.redekop@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A Manitoba Court of Queens Bench judge denied a local developers urgent request on Wednesday for an injunction against protesters camped out on the Parker Lands.

The motion for an injunction will be heard on Nov. 2, and the defendants have until Aug. 25 to file statements of defence along with affidavits.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Debbie Belcourt was among the protesters at the law courts this morning.

Im very pleased with what the judge has said, said Jenna Vandal, one of four named defendants.

Vandal is the leader of the Rooster Town Blockade  named for an informal Metis community once located near the Fort Garry property  an encampment set up July 14 to prevent Gem Equities Inc., and its contracted companies from clearcutting trees in preparation for future development.

The protest group  which includes some unaffiliated demonstrators along with members of both the Parker Wetlands Conservation Committee and the Rooster Town activists  began the action by blocking mulching equipment after Westshore Construction, a firm hired by Gem Equities, had cleared nearly one-third of the propertys 42 acres of aspen forest and grassland.

Cal Dueck, a defendant and the conservation committees chairman, said he is thankful he and the other defendants have more time to prepare properly for the injunction hearing. Duecks lawyer Raymond Oakes said he received court documents Monday.

Its not an appropriate amount of time to properly address the materials, Oakes said.

Protesters masked, one carried axe: Gem

Lawyers representing Gem and its owner Andrew Marquess argued the situation at the property, which Gem owns, has intensified and that demonstrations have led to irreparable harm for the company in terms of both financial loss and relationships with other businesses.

Im not too sure of many other cities where lawbreakers get to have meetings with the mayor, but apparently Winnipeg is now on that list. Kevin Toyne, the lawyer representing Gem Equities

It is difficult to determine what the plaintiffs losses will be at this point, Marquess wrote in an affidavit notarized July 19.

Justice Herbert Rempel said he didnt see evidence of irreparable harm done.

Kevin Toyne, the lawyer representing Gem along with two numbered companies connected to the propertys ownership, told court several protesters were wearing bandanas on their faces, one was wearing a mask and one carried an axe while following a worker on the site.

He said the owners believe the site is being fortified with lumber and called the alleged activities aggressive and extremely concerning, repeatedly calling out the Winnipeg Police Service for its lack of action.

Im not entirely sure how the presence of a weapon isnt something that would be of grave concern to the Winnipeg police and everyone in Winnipeg, Toyne said referring to the axe.

Vandal said the bandanas and masks were worn as a means of protection from dust clouds and to conceal protesters faces to avoid identification and subsequent legal action. She called the allegations the camp had been fortified with lumber false, and said the axe was used to prepare that wood for a campfire on the site.

Our claims are legitimate and valid: protesters

Toyne also suggested there might be other hidden weapons in the six tents set up on the property, which Vandal denied. Rempel called those allegations a great concern.

Anyone at the site would tell you its been a peaceful protest since Day 1, which is how we intend to keep it, of course, she said. (Marquess) is trying to turn people against our cause, but our concerns are legitimate and valid.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Protesters, including Jenna Vandal (right), have been camped out on the Parker lands development site since July 14. A lawyer says the situation has escalated with protesters covering their faces and using lumber to fortify their encampment.

Members of the blockade believe Indigenous people werent properly consulted when Marquess acquired the land from the city in 2009 in what many regard as a controversial land swap. Vandal has said shes willing to risk her own safety or be arrested in order to protect the land.

Im just trying to assert and protect Metis rights, she said before court proceedings began.

In court, Toyne discussed the protesters meeting with Mayor Brian Bowman Monday, saying that in addition to his clients dissatisfaction with police response, the mayors already invited (the protesters) for tea.

Im not too sure of many other cities where lawbreakers get to have meetings with the mayor, but apparently Winnipeg is now on that list, Toyne told reporters outside court. He wouldnt comment when asked whether his client had also requested a meeting with Bowman.

Bowman told Vandal and Dueck that he favours a pause of both tree removal and demonstrations until Gems development plan is approved, although Bowman said the city has no legal rights to prevent further tree removal.

Vandal said a time out would allow the development opponents to do their pre-hearing research and due diligence from home, rather than in tents on the property.

If it doesnt happen the blockade wont budge and protesters plan to remain until the November court date, she said.

ben.waldman@freepress.mb.ca

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Ten protesters by a tree clearing vehicle in the Parker wetlands on Friday morning to halt clearcutting of the land, saying they are determined to stop the machines "at any cost."
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Plans to appeal a mandatory minimum sentence as unconstitutional are on the horizon for a Winnipeg mother who is now behind bars despite the judges declaration that justice would not be served by locking her up.

Sandra Dignard, 37, was taken into custody Wednesday to start serving her two-year federal prison sentence for smuggling drugs into Stony Mountain prison five years ago. She tearfully said goodbye to her young son and pleaded with other relatives to take good care of all four of her children before sheriffs officers led her away, out of view of her family.

Court of Queens Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery, who previously spoke out against mandatory minimum sentences and the use of a prison term in this case, reluctantly imposed the two-year mandatory minimum sentence after delaying his decision for about two months to allow the single mother to make child-care arrangements before she went to prison.

KEN GIGLIOTTI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FILES Court of Queens Bench Justice Sheldon Lanchbery

I remain troubled by what I am mandated to do, Lanchbery said.

Im also mindful of the fact that when I was sworn in as a judge of this court, I promised to uphold the law. I promised to follow the Constitution. Im well aware of those circumstances and I understand that Im bound by those. Im also troubled by the fact that in some cases, when this court is to be seeking justice, that in this particular case justice is not being done. However, under the circumstances, its the law of the land, he said.

Suggesting federal corrections officials could release Dignard early, the judge ordered a transcript of his comments be sent to the correctional institution as soon as possible so that those in the system can understand that there are four children, two of them with special needs, that are separated from their mother. I leave it to those authorities to determine when release may occur, Lanchbery said.

The Correctional Service of Canada could not provide details Wednesday in response to a Free Press inquiry on the possibility of early release.

Sandras sister and Eric Wishnowski, the defence lawyer who took over the case, both said an appeal is the planned next step in this case. In some other cases in Canada, mandatory minimum sentences have been declared unconstitutional and set aside. An appeal in this case has not yet been filed.

He certainly was reluctant in having to pass the sentence, Wishnowski said following Lanchberys decision. I think its something that needs to be challenged.

During an emotional sentencing hearing for Dignard in May, Crown and defence lawyers agreed that if the law allowed, Dignard would be a good candidate to serve her sentence on house arrest rather than behind bars. But a conviction for drug trafficking within a correctional institution carries a mandatory minimum sentence of two years in prison.

Dignard had no prior criminal record and was on bail since her arrest without any violations. She was convicted after a trial before Justice Lanchbery last year, during which she admitted to smuggling in 100 morphine pills under threat from her boyfriend, who was then a Hells Angels prospect serving time at Stony Mountain.

A package containing the drugs was delivered to her home with instructions to deliver them during a visit with her boyfriend. She also admitted to smuggling drugs to him on previous occasions and court heard she didnt face repercussions in the past when she refused. Deciding Dignard knew she could have turned over the drugs to officials without her boyfriend knowing she had done so, the judge ultimately ruled Dignards case didnt meet the legal test for committing a crime under duress, and he found her guilty. While he denounced the crime, he emphasized Wednesday that, in Canadas criminal-justice system, offenders should only be separated from society when necessary.

Im not sure that society is well served by taking four children from their mother in the sense their mother is being taken from them, and the risk of being in (foster) care is far too great, Lanchbery said.

Im not too sure if putting her children at risk for her own actions is sufficient.

Dignards case tugged at heart strings in the courtroom because of the long history of emotional, physical and sexual abuse shes suffered at the hands of the men in her life, starting from childhood. She was homeless at age 14 and experienced violence in all of her adult relationships, some with gang members, according to a pre-sentence report filed in court.

The family history of multi-generational sexual abuse and the (significant) victimization of Ms. Dignard may have contributed to the negative and abusive relationships Ms. Dignard found herself in, the probation officer wrote, recommending she receive counselling. Her past abuse may have made her more prone to being manipulated by intimate partners, the report concluded.

Dignard raised her four children  ages 19, 14, eight and two  as a single mother and has been sober for eight years after beating an addiction to painkillers. She wants to keep her kids out of foster care, her sister Samantha Dignard said, saying the family will look after them. In the meantime, she said her sister hopes for early release.

Her main concern is her kids, Samantha told the Free Press.

My sister got caught in a bad situation She wasnt thinking. She was just thinking about the repercussions from that side, not only (from her ex-boyfriend) but the gang as well, she said.

katie.may@freepress.mb.ca Twitter: @thatkatiemay
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Wab Kinew portrayed himself as someone who could appeal to a new generation of Manitoba voters, while Steve Ashton emphasized the need for the NDP to build a bold, progressive vision to entice voters back to the partys fold.

More than 250 people attended an NDP leadership forum Wednesday evening at the University of Winnipeg  the last of four to be held across the province this month.

Kinew, 35, first elected to the legislature last year, said the NDP needs to draw more young people to the party, as well as people from more cultural communities, while bringing back disaffected members who were turned off by past leadership bickering.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Wab Kinew (left) and Steve Ashton at the NDP Leadership 2017 Forum at Richardson College for the Environment and Science Complex University of Winnipeg Wednesday evening.

Manitoba voters sent the New Democrats a message in the last election, Kinew said. The message was the next NDP government has to look different than the last NDP government. We need to return to our roots, listen to Manitobans again and bring a strong team that will build a new progressive movement in this province.

Ashton, 61, who served in the legislature for 35 years before his defeat in Thompson in 2016, said the way to appeal to the next generation of New Democrats is for the party to put forward a progressive agenda, including free university tuition for all and an immediate increase in the minimum wage to $15 an hour if the NDP wins the 2020 election.

I think the future of this party is that we have to go back to being a movement. We have to spend a lot more time talking about policies and principles and a little less time on PR and polling, he said.

This is Ashtons third bid for the NDP leadership. He also ran in 2009 and 2015, losing both times to former premier Greg Selinger.

Ashton told the crowd that growing inequality and climate change are the key challenges facing Manitoba. He said he believes it is critical for the New Democratic Party to rebuild, particularly in rural Manitoba and to provide a strong opposition to the Pallister governments austerity agenda.

Judging from the applause during the 75-minute debate, it appeared that the crowd was mainly in Kinews corner. Dozens in the audience wore Kinew buttons or carried signs with the younger mans name on one side and a picture of a canoe paddle (get the pun?) on the other. There were no corresponding visual signs of support for Ashton.

Organized labour has come out strongly for Kinew. This week the Manitoba Federation of Labour, representing close to 30 unions with a membership of more than 100,000, unanimously endorsed Kinew.

Wab is committed to working in partnership with the labour movement, and advancing priorities like creating good jobs, raising the minimum wage to $15 and protecting fair collective bargaining rights, MFL president Kevin Rebeck said in a statement.

Wednesday nights event was the fourth NDP leadership forum to be held this month. The other debates occurred in Brandon, Gimli and Thompson.

The NDP will select their new leader at a delegate convention at the RBC Convention Centre in Winnipeg Sept. 15-16.

Kinew, an author, musician and former broadcaster and university administrator, and Ashton, a trained economist who served for close to 17 years in NDP cabinets, are vying to replace Selinger, who resigned as leader after the partys crushing defeat in the April 19, 2016 general election. Flor Marcelino (Logan) has filled in as interim leader.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

An 18-year-old man was stabbed to death Tuesday in Gimli, according to the mayor, leaving the small Manitoba community in shock.

The man was found dead on 2nd Avenue, across from the Gimli Theatre, said Mayor Randy Woroniuk, who added the community of 2,200 on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg was reeling after learning of a violent death on the eve of its annual film festival.

This does not happen in Gimli, Woroniuk said. This sort of thing just doesnt happen here.

The community is in shock. This is the type of place where you walk down the street and people greet you by your first name, they say hello. This is a safe community. Hardly anything happens in this town.

Woroniuk was unable to provide further details Tuesday afternoon, other than he believed the attack happened around 2 p.m. He was not certain if any suspects had been identified or whether anyone was in police custody in relation to the death.

RCMP major crimes services confirmed it was investigating the death, which it described as suspicious. A spokeswoman for the RCMP was unable to confirm if police were investigating the death as a homicide.

Gimli RCMP originally responded to reports of an injured man Tuesday afternoon in the community located some 90 kilometres north of Winnipeg.

It was not long after 2 p.m., Woroniuk said. I was in town, driving by, and saw the police and police tape. But it didnt register. I thought they just closed the road off for the film festival. It wasnt till later I realized what had happened.

The RCMP were unable to confirm details provided by the mayor.

The 17th annual Gimli Film Festival runs Wednesday through Sunday. The 2016 edition topped 10,000 in attendance, according to the festivals website.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Guards with a private security firm are acting as the after-hours gatekeepers at one of the citys largest health care facilities, raising new concerns about patient safety in the wake of the provincial governments hospital reorganization plan.

Staff with Securitas Canada are now stationed just inside the front doors at Misericordia Health Centres Cornish Avenue entrance between 8 p.m. and 7:30 a.m., telling would-be patients that the urgent care centre is no longer open around the clock.

The overnight shift at the urgent care centre was axed after less than two weeks notice on July 5. One doctor and one nurse remain on staff overnight to care for patients who remain in the urgent care centre when the doors close  and to respond to emergency situations that might arise within the larger health care facility. The two health professionals are also there to ensure the safe and timely transportation of anyone who might show up with significant care needs.

But first would-be patients need to get past security guarding the entrance.

Obviously, our position would be that security guards are not triage nurses.  Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union

Security staff have been told to let in patients requiring emergency eye care. The eye centre within Misericordia remains open 24-7.

Patients with other health issues are directed to other city urgent care centres and emergency rooms  unless their health condition seems grave enough to be examined by the lone doctor or lone nurse on staff.

But the discretion as to whether to summon the doctor or nurse appears to be left with security staff.

Critics find it bizarre that untrained workers are in effect performing some of the duties of a triage nurse.

I think its very concerning, certainly from a patient safety point of view, said Sandi Mowat, president of the Manitoba Nurses Union.

Obviously, our position would be that security guards are not triage nurses, and they certainly dont have the expertise or knowledge to determine the severity of an illness or injury, she said.

Its not always obvious how ill a person is based upon their demeanour when they arrive, Mowat said. My question would be, How does that security guard determine that level of (medical) distress?

Security providing direction: WRHA

Lori Lamont, the Winnipeg Regional Health Authoritys vice-president of interprofessional practice and chief nursing officer, rejected the notion that security guards at Misericordia are being asked to do triage.

Not at all, she said. They are responding to the public as they come in the door and providing direction to them.

Lamont said the security function at Misericordia is similar to what it is overnight at most other health facilities. They do ask what the person is coming in to the centre for, which is our normal practice in many areas.

It seems odd to me to have the security person essentially doing triage, particularly when you have a doctor and a nurse there. Jon Gerrard, Liberal MLA for River Heights.

Generally, security staff are redirecting patients who arrive late at night to other facilities, Lamont said.

But certainly in the event that someone comes in in any form of distress the security guard would not be triaging as to what their problem is. They would be alerting staff within the facility to address that, the WRHA official said.

Its that apparent responsibility, left with security, for deciding what constitutes a serious enough medical situation to require immediate medical assistance that worries critics.

It seems odd to me to have the security person essentially doing triage, particularly when you have a doctor and a nurse there, said Dr. Jon Gerrard, Liberal MLA for River Heights.

PHIL HOSSACK / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Misericordia Health Centre

Gerrard said it would be better to have the doctor or the nurse examine patients as they arrive and determine whether they needed immediate assistance. If they were becoming overloaded with work, they could refer patients to other facilities, he said.

He noted the WRHA has already indicated that few patients use the urgent care facility in the wee hours of the morning. One official estimated the volume at one patient per hour between midnight and 6 a.m.

If they have one person per hour why arent they able to see them? Gerrard remarked.

NDP health critic Matt Wiebe said it is unfair to put a security guard in a position to decide whether a patients situation is serious enough to alert a doctor.

I think its a totally dangerous and irresponsible situation, he said, adding that it could have life and death consequences.

Securitas Canada did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

Misericordias urgent care centre is set to close entirely on Oct. 3 as part of the citywide hospital reorganization plan. The urgent care space will become a community-based intravenous clinic.

Wiebe accused the PC government of setting arbitrary timelines for the hospital system overhaul, saying it has left the WRHA scrambling to cope with the fallout.

While the Misericordia urgent care was to have remained open around the clock until it closed, WRHA administrators soon found that health professionals at the centre, seeing the writing on the wall, were taking positions elsewhere in the system. That caused officials to cut back the centres hours of operation.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

WINNIPEG FREE PRESS
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 18/07/2017 (1943 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Three leading organizations of Indigenous peoples yesterday boycotted the opening of the Edmonton meeting of Canadas provincial and territorial premiers, complaining they were being sidelined and segregated. Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, chair of the Council of the Federation, had invited them to attend the opening of the meeting and then clear out as the premiers discussed Canada-U.S. trade, legalization of marijuana and other pressing issues.

The moment reflected the poor state of understanding between Canadas provincial governments and the Indigenous peoples represented by the Assembly of First Nations, the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami and the Metis Nation of Canada. The Indigenous organizations wish for equal dignity with provincial governments. The provincial governments do not agree.

Things were very different 200 years ago, when the Earl of Selkirk sought to re-establish the Red River settlement, which had been abandoned after the 1816 violence at Seven Oaks. The dispersed settlers and Lord Selkirk knew how precarious their position was. The tiny settlement was outnumbered and outgunned by the Metis buffalo hunters who supplied pemmican and transport services to the Northwest Company, which was competing for furs with Lord Selkirks Hudsons Bay Company. The HBC and the settlers needed the support of the Cree and Saulteaux people of the region.

Justin Tang / The Canadian Press Files Alberta Premier Rachel Notley

In that context, Lord Selkirk visited the colony and concluded a treaty with five Indigenous chiefs  Mache Wheseab, Le Sonnant, La Robe Noire, Peguis and Ouckidoat. The chiefs granted to the British monarch a strip of land four miles wide on each side of the Red and Assiniboine rivers extending from the present site of Grand Forks, N.D., to the mouth of the Red River and from Portage la Prairie to Winnipeg. Lord Selkirk promised to deliver 100 pounds of good tobacco every Oct. 10 to the Saulteaux chiefs and warriors and another 100 pounds to the Cree chiefs and warriors.

By later treaties, the Crown presumed to give land to the Indigenous peoples to be their reserves. In 1817, however, the Indigenous chiefs were giving land to Britain and the British settlers to be a European reserve.

The anniversary today of the signing of Lord Selkirks Treaty is worth celebrating as Canadas governments seek reconciliation with Canadas Indigenous peoples and their leaders. Peguis and the other chiefs graciously made room for the European settlers and treated them as equals, though the newcomers were in practice helpless and unable to sustain themselves in their precarious and ill-defended colony. The Indigenous peoples had the power, in alliance with the Metis, to snuff out the little colony but they chose not to do that.

Governments now should be willing to make room for their Indigenous neighbours. Indigenous peoples are Canadians, like any other, but they are also heirs and victims of a long-lived and destructive system of segregation and exclusion.

The Indigenous organizations are not provincial or territorial governments and they should not try to prevent premiers from meeting and discussing matters of common interest. But now that the provincial leaders have declared themselves to be the Council of the Federation  something more than just a gathering of premiers  the governments should make room at the table for legitimate representatives of Indigenous peoples. That is what reconciliation looks like in practice. That may be one small part of the new relationship Canada needs with Indigenous Peoples.
Opinion

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This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Albertas Wildrose and Progressive Conservative parties decided on Saturday to merge, in the hope of defeating the ruling New Democratic Party in the election two years from now. They have yet to decide who will lead this new party and what it will do for Alberta.

The two parties are roughly equal in strength. Wildrose, the official Opposition, won 21 seats with 24 per cent of the provincewide vote in 2015, while the Progressive Conservatives, who previously governed the province for 44 consecutive years, won 10 seats with 28 per cent of the vote. Neither is obviously dominant in the newly formed United Conservative Party. Once they pick a policy and a leader, one or the other will presumably come out on top.

A comparable merger was tried in 2014 when Wildrose leader Danielle Smith and eight other MLAs joined the ruling Conservatives. The union came to nothing, because all the defectors were defeated in the following election and the PCs were kicked out of power. That recent failed manoeuvre suggests that clever schemes cooked up by political deal-makers do not always achieve their intended goals.

Codie McLachlan / The Canadian Press Alberta Premier Rachel Notley

The Wildrose-PC union is based on simple arithmetic: if you add together the one partys 24 per cent of the vote and the other partys 28 per cent, you get 52 per cent of the vote, which is more than enough to win an election.

Simple arithmetic, however, can be a poor guide to political strategy. Voters have all sorts of different reasons for supporting one party or another, and they may not agree to be herded from one party to another in the way the political strategists intended. The union of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative parties in 2003 did pave the way for the nearly 10-year prime ministership of Stephen Harper. Albertas United Conservative party may be equally successful, but such an outcome is far from certain.

The power base of the New Democrats lies in Albertas cities. Wildrose prevails in rural and northern Alberta. Conservative support is widely scattered. Premier Rachel Notley, governing during a period of low oil prices and resistance to pipeline construction, has been doing poorly in opinion polls. Her reputation could turn around quickly, however, if the oil industry shows signs of recovery or if good progress is achieved on proposed pipelines to Vancouver or to Oklahoma.

The 2015 election showed that urban voters in Edmonton, Calgary, Red Deer, Lethbridge and Medicine Hat are not wedded to conservative parties and conservative opinions in the way that had prevailed for the previous half-century. Demeaning, sexist remarks about Ms. Notley went down badly with urban voters in 2015 and may do so again if the United Conservatives do not mind their manners.

Ms. Notley has two years to prove that her policy of massive budget deficits is a good way to bring Alberta through the current oil industry recession. The newly formed United Conservative Party has two years to prove to urban voters that they are not the intolerant reactionaries the voters rejected in 2015. Both arguments are difficult to make.

The NDP, exceptionally, is enjoying the fruits of office in both British Columbia, where its hold on power is extremely precarious, and Alberta, where the conservative forces are massing for battle. Manitoba New Democrats, languishing in Opposition, can console themselves that the political winds sometimes change very quickly.
Human rights groups asked the Philippine president yesterday to retract a threat to order airstrikes against tribal schools he accused of teaching students to become communist rebels, warning such an attack would constitute a war crime.

U.S.-based Human Rights Watch said international humanitarian law prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes, adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, is also a war crime.

Left-wing Rep. Emmi de Jesus of the Gabriela Womens Party asked Duterte to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the countrys south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.

Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a road gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathizers.

In a televised news conference he called late Monday shortly after delivering his annual state of the nation address, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside. But he said that the insurgents were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under rebel control without government permits.

Get out of there, Im telling the Lumads now. Ill have those bombed, including your structures, Duterte said. I will use the armed forces, the Philippine air force. Ill really have those bombed  because you are operating illegally and you are teaching the children to rebel against government.

Carlos Conde of the Human Rights Watch said that Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, is directing the military to commit war crimes.

Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits government to support the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.

Duterte ascended to the presidency last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown, and his continuing popularity and the ineffective opposition have apparently emboldened him.

On Monday night, Duterte also called for abolishing the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman  an anti-graft prosecutor  route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations.

Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, then do not investigate my army and police.

Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. that runs indigenous schools in the south, said that Dutertes threats have heightened fear among the Lumad people already feeling the brunt of attacks by the military and security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining. The military has denied involvement.

The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools, said Magbanua.

Magbanua is among 300 teachers, students and parents who have traveled to Manila days before Dutertes speech in Congress to protest and file complaints before the Commission on Human Rights for alleged shootings and military encampments in indigenous schools.

She said there are around 200 Lumad schools in the southern Philippines, with around 4,000 students and 88 teachers. One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she added.

Magbanua said the indigenous schools follow governments curriculum, but have added a subject called ancestral land to teach students to value their home region. She denied they teach students to become communist rebels.

We only hold chalk, ballpen and paper, she said. If (Duterte) wants to find out, he should come to our school and observe.

Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating childrens right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since July last year. Jim Gomez, Manila, AP
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 19/07/2017 (1942 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This, like most things related to the United States of America these days, will not be easy.

This weeks release of the U.S.s list of priorities for the upcoming renegotiation of the North American Free Trade Agreement made it clear that under the watch of U.S. President Donald Trump, the America First attitude is expected to prevail.

Any notion that our country might similarly employ a Canada First approach, or that Americas southern neighbour might be so bold as to suggest Mexico First as a preferred strategy for Mexicans will, of course, be viewed as pure silliness by the American side.

Evan Vucci / The Canadian Press U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer

Mr. Trump, who has continually referred to NAFTA as a disaster since early in his presidential campaign, is determined to level the playing field for America  although, as he said in a speech this week, if the playing field were slanted, like, a little bit toward us, Id accept that, also.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer released his 18-page document on Monday, unveiling more than 100 negotiating objectives the U.S. intends to pursue in the NAFTA renegotiation, which could begin as soon as Aug. 16 (under U.S. law, trade objectives must be published 30 days in advance of negotiations to allow Congress to provide feedback before talks begin).

Of primary concern for Canadians is the U.S. demand for the elimination of NAFTAs Chapter 19, which requires a binational panel to hear complaints about perceived unfair trade. These panels issue binding decisions, which have tended not to fall in Americas favour; the elimination of Chapter 19 would force Canadian companies to fight unfair-trade accusations in U.S. courts.

In keeping with the insular approach of the nascent but struggling Trump administration, the NAFTA priority list demands greater opportunities for American companies to bid on public contracts in Canada and Mexico, while at the same time declaring that the U.S. will allow individual states to maintain the Trump-trumpeted Buy American provisions that will hamper efforts by Canadian and Mexican firms to compete for work in the U.S.

The top American priority, if Mr. Lighthizers list is to be taken at face value, is reducing the U.S.s trade deficit with its NAFTA partners; this seems mostly to apply to the U.S.-Mexico relationship, as the outsourcing of production and jobs south of that border and the inevitable importing back into the U.S. of finished products have resulted in a growing trade deficit that reached US$64 billion last year.

Wording in the document on perennially problematic Canada-U.S. issues such as agriculture and softwood lumber is rather vague, which suggests these NAFTA sections might require more complex negotiation.

While its apparent from Mondays release that the next round of NAFTA conversations will be lengthy and difficult, Canadians should take some comfort in the very fact that they are  unless something drastic occurs in the next few weeks  going to take place. Mr. Trump, embattled on many fronts, is prone to impulsive decisions and has stated, as recently as last April, a desire to pull out of the agreement altogether. That Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto were able to convince him to talk rather than quit is a victory of sorts. One can only hope that in the coming months, the U.S. presidents current troubles with other international (read: Russian) issues dont prompt him to seek an easy populist win by declaring new NAFTA talks are still a disaster and that America First should really mean America Alone.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 20/07/2017 (1941 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Premier Brian Pallister has shown great determination for tightening Manitobas belt. But hes had less success finding new revenue to fatten the provinces wallet.

For a premier who has unleashed a wide array of tough-love measures he says are necessary to return Manitoba to fiscal stability, Mr. Pallister has been surprisingly quiet about legalized marijuana as a potentially rich source of new revenue.

At a meeting of premiers in Edmonton this week, Pallister repeated his pitch for an extension of the federal governments July 1 deadline for legalization, saying provinces need more time to deal with tricky issues such as distribution, sales, a minimum age and drugged-driving enforcement.

Jason Franson / The Canadian Press New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant, right, and Alberta Premier Rachel Notley

On Wednesday, his concerns gained some support, but not all premiers are as eager to postpone this new revenue. New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant said legalized cannabis could be an economic opportunity for his province.

Financial consultants agree. A report last year from CIBC World Markets said Canadas federal and provincial governments could reap as much as $5 billion annually in tax revenues from the sale of legal marijuana.

A report eight months ago from Canadas Parliamentary Budget Officer wasnt as enthusiastic, suggesting initial revenue for governments from taxation could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, rather than billions. But the analysis suggests those revenues are likely to increase as the market grows and production costs for the industry decrease.

In Colorado, which legalized marijuana about three and a half years ago, the industry was worth US$1.3 billion last year, bringing the state US$200 million in tax revenue.

While Mr. Pallisters desire to successfully manage the many impacts of legalizing marijuana is understandable, even commendable, theres a danger of lost revenue potential if Manitoba moves more slowly than other provinces.

Federal officials have said Ottawa will likely approve an expanded mail-order system to supply recreational marijuana to customers in provinces that dont have a sales network in place by July 1. That would mean money spent by Manitobans on marijuana would leave the province and, once theyre used to buying by mail, customers in this province might continue to do so even after Manitoba is belatedly open for bud business.

Also, if Manitoba is slow in setting up shop, sellers in Kenora, Ont., and Moosomin, Sask., might be happy to sell to visiting Manitobans, once again robbing the Manitoba treasury of revenue Mr. Pallister so desperately needs.

Mr. Pallister and his team should ensure Manitoba marijuana outlets are open for business as soon as pot becomes legal. To meet the deadline, they can lean on the experience of eight U.S. states that have already legalized it, using these examples to devise the network of distribution and sales that will work best for Manitoba. After the stores are open, Manitobas marijuana laws and systems can be fine-tuned as necessary, in the same way that Manitobas alcohol laws have often changed with the times.

In the April 2016 provincial election, Manitobans elected a skilled entrepreneur who knows how to start from nothing. In private industry, Mr. Pallister began his business career by working out of his car, eventually building a highly successful financial-services firm.

With marijuana about to become big business, Manitoba is fortunate to have a premier who has the business acumen to get the best deal on behalf of the Manitoba treasury. He should see this challenge as an opportunity, not a burden.

Marijuana is a growth industry, in more ways than one.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 21/07/2017 (1940 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

As anyone who paid attention in high school science class can tell you, the law of inertia states that a body at rest will remain at rest unless an external force acts upon it.

For the sake of the people of Churchill, one can only hope Premier Brian Pallister paid attention in science class.

The situation involving the idled northern-Manitoba port, the damaged railway that is supposed to connect it to the rest of the province and the resulting supply crisis affecting its 900 stranded citizens is, as Newtons first law of motion might suggest, very much at rest. And unless an external force acts upon it, quickly and decisively, Churchills population is in a heap of trouble.

RUTH BONNEVILLE / WINNIPEG FREE PRESs files Omnitrax executive Peter Touesnard

Its clear that Omnitrax, the Denver-based company that owns the Port of Churchill and the floodwater-damaged Hudson Bay Railway, will not be the external force that gets the supply trains back in motion. Officials from the company held a technical briefing in Winnipeg Tuesday, in which they declared repairs to the rail line will cost between $20 million and $60 million, would take about 60 days to complete, and  heres the tricky part, for Mr. Pallister and his federal-government counterparts on the Churchill file  will absolutely, positively not be paid for by Omnitrax.

We cannot justify spending the resources to repair this line, was the blunt assessment of Omnitrax chief commercial officer Peter Touesnard, who added that the railway is not economically viable.

After two months of foot-dragging and inaction-justifying misinformation, Omnitrax has made its position clear, stating that the railway, no longer viable as a business concern, should be viewed as an essential service and treated by government as a public utility.

Omnitrax, which has been handed tens of millions of taxpayer dollars since 1997, had recently been looking to sell the combined assets to local, First Nations-led interests  a transaction that would depend on another injection of federal and provincial funds.

In other words, Omnitrax wants to be paid to abandon its Manitoban interests.

But if, as it seems, Omnitrax views the Hudson Bay Railway as having no commercial value, then it stands to reason the company could simply cut its losses by walking away.

Whats needed now is for government to take the necessary steps to repatriate the port and railway and get down to the business of re-establishing Churchills links to desperately needed supplies and almost-as-crucial tourism revenue.

But which government will make the first move? On Wednesday, Mr. Pallister stated Manitoba wont act on the railway-repair issue until the full cost is known and Ottawa makes a decision about the ports future. The federal government, for its part, said it still expects Omnitrax to live up to its agreements regarding the port and railway.

For practical purposes, Omnitrax is out. The feds are dithering and its safe to say Churchill is a long way from the top of the Trudeau governments priority list.

Expecting swift action from Ottawa is inviting disappointment.

Which, of course, puts Churchills desperate disconnectedness back into the provinces hands. Mr. Pallister has shown great tenacity when it comes to demonstrating what hes absolutely not willing to do  sign on to health-care accords, settle on a carbon-pricing framework, get on board with marijuana legalization  but on the Churchill file, waiting for someone else to make the first move is no longer an option.

If the premier decides to hold his breath on this one, itll be the heating-fuel-deprived residents of Churchill who end up turning blue.
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 24/07/2017 (1937 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

So, is this what the early  or, perhaps, middle  stages of panic look like?

The ever-perplexing behaviour of U.S. President Donald Trump made a subtle shift from erratic to frantic last week, as the investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, as well as the Trump campaigns possible links to it, took an apparent turn toward the presidents personal and business activities.

In the span of just 48 hours, from Wednesday into Friday, the New York Times and Washington Post reported that Mr. Trump had issued a veiled threat about the scope of special counsel Robert Muellers investigation, inquired to White House staff about his latitude for issuing pardons to his staff, his relatives and himself, and publicly lambasted his hand-picked attorney general, Jeff Sessions, for having recused himself from the Russian investigation and therefore allowing the election-meddling probe to proceed.

Bill O'Leary / Washington Post U.S. President Donald Trump

At the same time, the Times reported that members of the Trump administration were digging through the personal and professional backgrounds of investigators hired by Mr. Mueller, looking for information, such as perceived conflicts of interest, that could be used in an effort to discredit the results of their investigation.

Desperate times. Desperate measures.

Coming on the heels of previous revelations about a meeting involving Donald Trump Jr., son-in-law/adviser Jared Kushner, former campaign chair Paul Manafort and Russian-connected officials (first one, then two, then three and then four Russians, according to mutating versions of the story), these latest Trump-presidency travails suggest a commander-in-chief who is so fully on the defensive about his personal entanglements that he has lost the ability and will to govern.

It was supposed to be the week Republicans celebrated their long-desired and loudly promised repeal and replacement of the Affordable Care Act  also derisively known as Obamacare  but the party that controls both houses of the U.S. Congress and the White House was again, for the third time, unable to muster the necessary votes.

In the aftermath of that fiasco, many observers pointed to Mr. Trumps failure to rally the party behind repeal/replace as a key factor in its triple-miss meltdown.

The presidents attention, they complained, was focused elsewhere and his interest in the health-care file was at best middling.

It was also supposed to be Made in America week, with the president showcasing his push to return America to greatness by bringing jobs and production back home. The clumsy photo-op arranged to mark the occasion was quickly undermined by reminders that most of Mr. Trumps own branded products are made overseas, and that his Mar-a-Lago Club in Florida has applied for permission to hire 70 foreign workers this fall.

Controversy and contradiction dont just follow Mr. Trump; he invites, invents and incites them on a daily basis.

But there was something different about POTUSs antics toward weeks end.

The edge seems to have come off the Im-in-charge belligerence, and the anger that usually drives his anti-media tirades has been enveloped by a whiff of dread.

Observers of U.S. politics are almost unanimous in the view that Mr. Mueller  a decorated war hero and career investigator whose appointment received bipartisan praise  will not be deterred by Mr. Trumps latest brushback attempts.

The investigation will continue, and more will be revealed. If Mr. Trump has things to hide  and the accumulating evidence suggests he does  the shift from erratic to frantic might just be a logical next step on the way to full-fledged presidential panic.
Angelina Jolie makes some candid confessions. (Photo: Mert Alas & Marcus Piggott exclusively for Vanity Fair)

Angelina Jolie covers the September issue of Vanity Fair, and the actress is making headlines for her candid confessions about life post-Brad Pitt.

While were obviously interested in the juicy breakup quotes  and subtle shade  the story is filled with plenty of other gems.

Here are nine fun facts we learned about Jolie and her and Pitts six children:

1. Vivienne loves blankets.

Jolie and Pitts 9-year-old daughter, Vivienne, is obsessed with blankets. During the interview, Jolie explains why a blanket she picks up is shredded to death.

She has 32 blankets. She is very into her blanket, and she gets very mad if you wash her blanket, Jolie says with a laugh. She actually said to me the other day, Mom, I can taste my blanket. That, honey, is a sign that it really, really needs to be washed.

2. Decorating isnt Jolies thing.

When settling into the living room for the beginning of the interview, the writer notes that Jolie looks curiously at some throw pillows. She says, I didnt even know I needed throw pillows. Jolie declares that decorating and house stuff was always Brads thing.

The actress does have one personal piece of artwork in her recently purchased Los Feliz home: a black-and-white photograph of the six children, smiling and holding their various pets  dogs, reptiles, and rodents.

3. Zahara goes by Zaz.

Jolie describes her 12-year-old daughter as the rock of the family.

4. The kids arent always excited about humanitarian trips.

Even the Jolie-Pitt kids just want to be kids at times. Jolie explains that she will be taking the children to Africa while she checks in on a project connected to the Preventing Sexual Violence Initiative. The actress admits that its not a dream itinerary and that shes started to get a little pushback from her older children.

Angelina Jolie and her children, from left, Pax, Maddox, Zahara, and Shiloh meet with Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. (Photo: TANG CHHIN SOTHY/AFP/Getty Images)

Im conscious that the boys are teenage boys, and maybe theyd rather be watching TV with their friends, and theyve been to Africa, and they may not be as excited as the little ones, she confesses. But they dont really challenge me. They just kind of sit on the edge of my bed and say, What are we going to do there?

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Jolie apparently assured them that they would be doing fun stuff too, such as sandboarding. Still, the kids are much more awake than most and appreciate the humanitarian work. They know that its important, and they know that Mom thinks that its going to be important when theyre older, she adds.

At least one of them, 9-year-old Knox, enjoys the familys not-so-normal life. Jolie recently made a joke to her son along the lines of Pretend to be normal.

Knox replied, Who wants to be normal? Were not normal. Lets never be normal.

Thank you  yes! Were not normal, Jolie quipped. Lets embrace being not normal!

5. Jolie needs to work on her cooking skills.

While Jolie explains that shes prioritizing family over movie roles, we cant help but take the following quote to mean that she needs to work on her skills in the kitchen.

Im just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. Thats my passion, she states. At the request of my kids, Im taking cooking classes. As I go to sleep at night, I think, did I do a great job as a mom or was that an average day?

Wed love to know what shes whipping up.

6. Homemaker Jolie is a work in progress.

Sure, cooking classes are in the mix, but Jolie realizes that adapting to life as a single mom comes with time.

I never woke up and thought, I really want to live a bold life. I just cant do the other, she declares. Its the same as I cant make a casserole. I cannot sit still.

The interviewer notes that Jolie is champing at the bit for her trip to Africa, desperate to flee.

Ive been trying for nine months to be really good at just being a homemaker and picking up dog poop and cleaning dishes and reading bedtime stories. And Im getting better at all three, Jolie admits. But now I need to get my boots on and go hang, take a trip.

7. Jon Voight is trying to be a cool grandpa.

Jolie has a complicated history with her father, but it sounds as though shes been leaning on him in the wake of her split. Grandpa Jon has been helpful when it comes to the kids.

Hes been very good at understanding they needed their grandfather at this time, she tells Vanity Fair. I had to do a therapy meeting last night and he was just around. He knows kind of the rule  dont make them play with you. Just be a cool grandpa whos creative, and hang out and tell stories and read a book in the library.

8. Even Angelina Jolie needs a shoulder to cry on when going through a breakup.

The actress counts Loung Ung as a close friend. Ungs 2000 memoir, First They Killed My Father, is about the Khmer Rouge genocide; Jolie adapted the story and directed the film of it, due out on Netflix this month. Their friendship dates back nearly two decades, and Ung is one of the people whom the actress has confided in during her divorce.

Shes that girlfriend who rolled up her sleeves, got on a plane, and helped me on Christmas morning, says Jolie. Shes been my closest friend. I cried on her shoulder.

9. Ung helped persuade Jolie to adopt Maddox.

It was Ung who helped encourage her new friend, Jolie, to adopt Maddox. Jolie met the author when she was in Cambodia shooting Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, and they quickly bonded.

I asked her as a Cambodian orphan if she would be offended for somebody like me, an outsider, [to do that], or if that would be a nice thing, recalls Jolie.

Ung was fully supportive, so they visited an orphanage in Battambang. Jolie only wanted to visit one, telling herself that she wouldnt shop around. As she walked through the orphanage, she didnt feel a connection with any of the children, she says. They then said, Theres one more baby.

Thats when she saw Maddox lying in a box suspended from the ceiling.

I cried and cried, she said.





Read more from Yahoo Celebrity:
Angelina Jolie shared some surprising health news in a new interview. (Photo: Getty Images)

Angelina Jolie is breaking her silence about her split from Brad Pitt and her surprising health issues, from hypertension to dry skin and Bells palsy, a facial paralysis condition.

In a new Vanity Fair cover story titled Angelina Jolie Solo, the actress and mother of six explained that after the couples 2016 divorce, Jolie developed hypertension (high blood pressure) and Bells palsy, which causes one or both sides of the face to become temporarily paralyzed.

Bells palsy occurs when theres facial nerve inflammation in the back of the brain, which results in a loss of function, Benjamin Emanuel, DO, assistant professor of neurology at Keck Hospital of USC, tells Yahoo Beauty. Some people recover from Bells palsy and others dont.

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, the condition affects 40,000 Americans per year. The causes arent clear-cut, but possibilities include viral meningitis and common cold viruses. Patients can also experience twitching, drooping features, drooling, dry mouth, and watery eyes, as well as an inability to close the eye, which, according to Emanuel, is one of the most difficult parts to endure.

The specifics of Jolies condition are unclear, but the star told the magazine, Sometimes women in families put themselves last until it manifests itself in their own health.

Theres no definitive way to diagnose or treat Bells palsy, but in Jolies case, acupuncture helped alleviate her symptoms. One Chinese study found that Bells palsy patients boosted their odds of recovery in a six-month period with acupuncture treatments.

Angelina Jolie on the cover of the September Vanity Fair. (Photo: Vanity Fair, Photograph by Mert Alas and Marcus Piggott. Styled by Jessica Diehl)

While Jolie only briefly touched on the reasons for her divorce from Pitt by telling Vanity Fair, Things got bad. I didnt want to use that word.  Things became difficult, she insisted that the couples jet-setting lifestyle didnt negatively affect their marriage. The actress, however, has always been forthright about her health.

Her mother, Marcheline Bertrand, died of ovarian cancer at age 56, an experience that spurred Jolie to get tested for the BRCA1 gene. The positive result meant that Jolie had an estimated 87 percent risk of developing breast cancer and a 50 percent risk of ovarian cancer; in May 2013, she underwent a preventive double mastectomy. I choose not to keep my story private because there are many women who do not know that they might be living under the shadow of cancer, she wrote in a May 2013 op-ed published in the New York Times. It is my hope that they, too, will be able to get gene tested, and that if they have a high risk they, too, will know that they have strong options.

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In 2015, when Jolie had her ovaries and fallopian tubes removed after blood tests showed potential signs of early cancer, she penned another New York Times op-ed, writing, I wanted other women at risk to know about the options. I promised to follow up with any information that could be useful, including about my next preventive surgery, the removal of my ovaries and fallopian tubes.

Jolie now seems to be on the mend, both emotionally and physically, save for some pesky gray hairs and dry skin. I cant tell if its menopause or if its just been the year Ive had, she tells Vanity Fair. I actually feel [like] more of a woman because I feel like Im being smart about my choices, and Im putting my family first, and Im in charge of my life and my health. I think thats what makes a woman complete.

Read more from Yahoo Style + Beauty:

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'Now one of the big problems here that I'm discovering in the team is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them,' Anthony Scaramucci says: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Donald Trump's new communications director has denied publicly asking the FBI to investigate his chief of staff on Twitter.

Anthony Scaramucci deleted a tweet that was interpreted as calling for the FBI to investigate Reince Priebus for leaking.

Mr Scaramucci had tweeted: "In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45"

The tweet tagged Mr Priebus's Twitter account.

In case there's any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking.  Ryan Lizza (@RyanLizza) July 27, 2017

"In case there's any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking," New York Times reporter Ryan Lizza wrote on Twitter.

Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017

After Mr Scaramucci deleted his tweet, he responded to an Axios article about the story to say: "Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45"

His initial tweet appeared to be a reference to a Politico report revealing he will still be able to profit from his stake in his investment firm after he became communications director.

Between 1 January and the end of June, Mr Scaramucci earned earned $4.9m (3.7m) from his stake in SkyBridge as well as more than $5m (3.8m) in salary.

He is still listed as the managing director on the firm's website, even though he has been a government employee for more than a month.

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On Wednesday, Mr Scaramucci, told Fox News he expected Mr Trump would soon announce a plan to stem leaks, adding that there seemed to be some "political holdovers from the Obama administration that are not helping."

He said he recognized it was "impossible" to eliminate leaks in Washington but added: "We're going to try and hit a cultural reset on these leaks not only here in the White House, but I'm going to be working with the agencies and the departments to do that.

"Now one of the big problems here that I'm discovering in the [communications] team is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them," Mr Scaramucci told Fox News in a separate interview later on the same day.

On Tuesday, he told reporters on Air Force One after Mr Trump's trip to Ohio he would probably restructure the communications operation at the White House and fire staff if leaks did not cease: "If the leaks continue, then I've got to let everybody go."

Additional reporting by Reuters
Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Anthony Scaramucci is publicly challenging White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to come forward and deny hes been leaking information to the press during the Trump presidency.

During an appearance on CNNs New Day, Donald Trumps new director of communications all but blamed Mr Priebus for the damaging leaks that have plagued the President and painted a picture of a West Wing in near constant turmoil.

The two men have had a fraught relationship since early in the Trump administration, when Mr Scaramucci was unable to get a White House job, reportedly because Mr Priebus had lobbied against his hiring. Mr Scaramucci had earlier tagged Mr Priebus in a tweet about leaks, but later deleted that tweet.

When I put out a tweet and I put Reinces name in a tweet, theyre all making the assumption that its him because journalists know who the leakers are, Mr Scaramucci said. So if Reince wants to explain hes not a leaker, let him do that. But let me tell you about myself. Im a straight shooter, and Ill go right to the heart of the matter.

Mr Scaramucci was brought in help stabilize the White Houses press operations, which had been under fire during the tenure of former Press Secretary Sean Spicer. Mr Spicer fostered an adversarial relationship with the White House press corps early on, and was unable to shake that relationship in the six months he served as the face of the West Wing.

Mr Spicer resigned from his position just a day past the six month mark of the Trump presidency, saying he wanted to give Mr Scaramucci the ability to have a fresh start.

Mr Scaramucci said during the interview that he had a pretty good idea of who had been leaking information to the press during those first six months, and said that the leaks were apprehensible.

The new White House communications director has acknowledged before that he has a combative relationship with Mr Priebus. During his first appearance before the press last week, he said that their relationship was akin to brothers fighting.

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During the CNN interview, he indicated that he wasnt sure what kind of brothers he and Mr Priebus may be.

Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, he said, referencing the biblical sons of Adam and Eve  one of which killed the other. Other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don't know if this is repairable or not. That will be up to the President."
A photo exhibition that aims to raise social awareness about the underprivileged and disabled community in Macau and around the globe kicked off yesterday at the Taipa Houses Museum. Following the Asian premier of the 11 Million Reasons exhibition in Hong Kong last year, the collection is debuting in Macau.

Presented by the Taipa Village Cultural Association in partnership with the British Council and the Macao Digital Photography Association, the exhibition features a total of 40 photographs divided into three sections.

11 Million Reasons is a part of the collective photography exhibition of the Taipa Village Cultural Associations Dream with Love campaign.

11 Million Reasons, was conceptualized by UK organization for community dance, People Dancing, and presented by the British Council.

The UK collection was inspired by iconic dance moments from classic films. With 20 powerful and emotive images, the collection offers a different perspective on disability and dance.

The exhibition brings the visual and perfuming arts together into a dialogue that aims to create a greater awareness to lead towards social inclusion.

During a media preview, Anthony Chan, head of Arts and Creative Industries of the British Council, explained the reasoning behind the exhibition title, noting that when it was initially conceptualized in 2014, the UK had 11.6 million disabled people in its country.

Thus, the exhibition aims to present the physically disabled and impaired to the public through a series of photographs.

The images recreated the highlights of 20 classical films including Singing in the Rain, The Sound of Music, Grease and Billy Elliot.

The photos are a manifestation of courage and strength. Were looking at people with different disabilities, but actually they can be heroes of circumstances as well, said Chan.

11 Million Reasons offers a different perspective on disability and dance, as the subject of the images are mostly dance professionals.

According to Chan, the exhibition hopes to provide a platform for its audience to discuss inclusion, diversion and acuity, and to change the perception of people who have different abilities. It hopes to foster awareness of how people with disabilities can work and be integrated in the community.

Its not just about the artwork, its about how we create the dialogue and address the social issue, Chan reiterated.

The Dream with Love campaign consists of a series of art-related events and activities set against the cultural backdrop of Taipa Village, presented by the local association.

11 Million Reasons is complemented by a Macau photography series consisting of The Harmony Collection and The Dream Collection, which show the genuine face of disability through art.

The Harmony Collection features ten images that reflect the care and attention shown by volunteers to children and teenager with disabilities during an event organized by the Taipa Village Cultural Association.

Another ten images taken by members of the Macau Deaf Association under the technical guidance of the Macao Digital Photography Association is also showcased at the exhibition.

Titled The Dream Collection, the photos were developed around the theme of The World in My Eye, which aims to communicate the positive message that physical constraints do not affect personal ability.

Pamela Chan, director of the local associations executive board, said to the Times that art is the best way to promote social inclusion to the public.

We hope to increase social awareness about the needy. We think a lot of people dont have this mindset, which is why we want to use music and art to approach the local community, explained Chan.

Since there is beauty and audacity in art, [then] we can create social awareness [through this exhibition], she concluded.

According to organizers, the campaign is centered on the keynote Art in Unity.

Sponsored by the Macao Foundation, the exhibition will be held until August 31at the Taipa Houses-Museum  Exhibitions Gallery.
SYDNEY (Reuters) - Britain and Australia urged China on Thursday to do more to persuade North Korea to drop its nuclear and missile programmes. Earlier this month North Korea, which has warned Australia could be the target of a strike, said it had conducted its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile, which experts say could reach Alaska. The United States and other countries have indicated frustration that China, North Korea's sole major ally, has not done more to rein in the regime of Kim Jung Un. China maintains it does not hold the key to a resolution. "With international influence comes responsibility. It is now for Beijing to use the influence it has over the North Korean regime to get it to abandon its programme," British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon told reporters in Sydney. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes and the Security Council has ratcheted up measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches. Fallon said North Korea continues to receive help in developing its missile and nuclear ambitions as he called on enforcement of the sanctions. North Korea's missile and nuclear programme was a central element of the fourth annual meeting of Australia and British ministers. "We are seeing a level of uncertainty that we have not witnessed in a very long time," Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop told reporters in Sydney. "It is more important than ever before for like-minded countries to find common cause in supporting that international rules-based order." Earlier, Bishop told the Australian Broadcasting Corp's Radio National that China "has much more leverage over North Korea than it claims." "The export relationship with North Korea, the provision of remittance to workers, the foreign investment flows, the technology flows - these are all in China's hands," she said. China has rejected the criticism and urged a halt to what it called the "China responsibility theory", saying all parties needed to pull their weight. "Of course, as an important neighbour of the Korean peninsula, China has always proactively dedicated itself to working with the international community to appropriately resolve the peninsula nuclear issue via political talks," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing on Thursday. The United States could impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang, senior U.S. officials have said. (Reporting by Swati Pandey; Additional reporting by Colin Packham, and Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Richard Pullin and Neil Fullick)
Lovily K Johnson has been remanded in custody and faces two charges over the death of her infant son: Wyoming Police Michigan

A young mother has been arrested after her son died after allegedly spending days strapped to a car seat in her home without food.

Lovily K Johnson has been charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse following the death of her son Noah Edward Johnson at their apartment in Wyoming, Michigan.

Police said Johnson had arrived at the local hospital last week with Noah who was already clearly deceased and had been for some time.

In a statement the force said: Johnson . . . admitted that Noah was under her care and no one elses care for the last four days.

Johnson admitted to being at home multiple times a day during that time frame.

She knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday evening.

During this time, Noah remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnsons apartment with no air conditioning.

The 22-year-old, who is on probation from a conviction for embezzlement from a local business, also has a two-year-old daughter has been placed in temporary social care until she can be put in her paternal grandmothers custody.

The grandmother, who did not want to be named, said she believed Johnson was mentally ill and the system failed her.

She told Wood TV 8: Its like Im looking at a Law and Order movie. Its not my life.

I think the system failed her. I think the people she wanted to love her failed her.

It feels like people did not do their job. It feels like theyre still not doing their job.

A court petition to remove her daughter from her home revealed Childrens Protective Services had already raised concerns about Johnson.

Following the birth of her daughter in 2015, Johnson reportedly admitted smoking marijuana during her pregnancy and tests showed it in both her daughters, and later Noahs, bloodstream.

It is understood that Johnson has limited contact with the father of her daughter, Marshall White, who pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic violence last year, the Detroit Free Press reported.

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The man is believed to be the biological father of Noah but is getting DNA testing done to be sure.

Johnson is believed to have filed a personal protection order against him and a petition for child support.

Lovily appeared in court at Wyoming District Court via video link last week and was remanded in custody.
Dear internet  please welcome your newest First Dog.

South Korea's president Moon Jae-in has officially adopted Tory, the shelter dog he promised to take in during his presidential campaign.

On Wednesday, he welcomed the little pooch into the country's presidential mansion:

SEE ALSO: Friendly island doggo followed a street view mapper and photobombed all his shots

Tory, a four-year-old black mixed breed dog, was introduced to the Blue House alongside Moon's other two pets  Maroo, a dog; and Jjing-jjing, a cat.

Meet President Moon Jae-in's newly adopted dog Tory, who was earlier rescued from an abusive owner and given refuge in a shelter. #dogs pic.twitter.com/DNb4U5w1AO  LIM Yun Suk (@yunsukCNA) July 26, 2017

"As a society, we need to pay more attention to abandoned animals and care for them," the president said at a ceremony to officially welcome Tory to the Blue House. As many as 300,000 animals had been abandoned in the country, he added.

A post shared by Sung Eun (@k.jung.won) on Jul 26, 2017 at 7:59pm PDT

Administration officials had previously confirmed that they would bring Tory to the Blue House in May when the adoption process was complete.

Tory had been seen as unpopular with adopters, because of a stigma surrounding black dogs in Korea.

"Tory had to wait for two years to be adopted while his lighter-furred friends easily found new homes," Park Soyoun, the president of Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE), a Seoul-based shelter, told Reuters.

A post shared by   (@leekyeongcheol) on Jul 26, 2017 at 3:45am PDT

Tory had been kept on a meter-long (3.2 ft) leash in an abandoned farmhouse and fed scraps before he was rescued in 2015.

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Tory, when he was first found in 2015

Image: CARE/Naver

The dog was first thrust into the public spotlight when three animal groups  including CARE  started a nationwide campaign calling on presidential candidates to adopt a dog from their shelters after they were elected.

A postcard depicting Tory, which was offered as a part of a crowdfunding reward.

Image: Nam Jong-Young/Daum

Soon after the campaign was launched, Moon promised to adopt Tory if he was elected.

The president  an animal-friendly candidate who pledged to build more playgrounds for pets, as well as feeding facilities for stray cats  said then that "both humans and animals have the right to be free from prejudice and discrimination."
The alt-right website is not happy with the presidents recent attacks on Jeff Sessions  perhaps a sign that it senses a betrayal of its nationalist agenda

Donald Trump recently attacked attorney general Jeff Sessions, fueling rumors about his attorney generals possible political demise. Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

If anything has been predictable in the chaos of the early Trump presidency, its the unstinting support he has received from Breitbart News.

Until now.

In recent days, Trump has attacked the attorney general, Jeff Sessions, on Twitter and in an interview with the New York Times over his recusal from oversight of the investigation into Trumps possible Russian connections. As a result, there has been widespread speculation that Trump might fire his attorney general, or that, faced with an untenable position, Sessions might resign.

Trumps public attacks on Sessions seem to be alienating the website that gave him his chief strategist Steve Bannon, and helped him into the White House.

And on Tuesday, Breitbart bit back.

Adam Shaw skewered Trumps hypocrisy in calling Sessions weak on legal moves against Hillary Clinton, reminding readers that Sessions was one of the vital pillars of Trumps immigration agenda. He argued that Sessions has been responsible for some of the most significant achievements of Trumps young administration, such as pushing the Muslim travel ban forward, and coming down hard on sanctuary cities.

Another article went into more detail about Sessions alleged achievements in office, promoting his prosecutorial crackdown on illegal immigration as well as his winding back of Obama-era restraints on local law enforcement.

So why is Sessions such an untouchable figure in the eyes of Breitbart?

Dan Cassino, a political scientist and expert on conservative media, says Breitbart is protecting Sessions because he is a trusted broker for people on the far right on immigration. On top of Trumps failure to address totemic election promises, such as a border wall, Trumps shots across Sessions bow are seen as an indication that the nationalist wing  including Bannon  is losing influence in the White House to new players like [White House communications director] Anthony Scaramucci.

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Joseph Lowndes, a political scientist at the University of Oregon and the author of a book about modern conservatism, says Breitbarts latest take reflects the fact that while Trumps early presidency has been hemmed in by Congress, the courts, federal agencies and its own incompetence, the attorney generals office is one of the few areas where the administration has been able to step on the gas and deliver the red meat of Trumpism.

But he notes that Breitbarts affection for Sessions goes deeper, and speaks to shared values.

In the half-decade following founder Andrew Breitbarts death  mostly under Steve Bannons tutelage  the website has adopted a harder line on immigration. Lowndes says they saw [Sessions] very early on as their kind of politician, an unbending Washington outsider with a distinct whiff of white nationalism.

Sessions first came to national prominence when his prospective appointment as a federal judge was blocked after former colleagues said he had made racially charged remarks while working as a prosecutor. He arrived in Washington in 1997 as only the second Republican Alabama senator since Reconstruction.

Politically active from the late 1960s, Sessions was, according to Lowndes, a member of the first generation of southerners who moved into the GOP instead of the Democrats, and is representative of the moment the modern right took a sharp racial turn.

Since the election of George W Bush, however  when the GOP sought to soften its image as the party of white America  Sessions politics saw him relegated to the margins of Senate politics.

Theres a certain rectitude in his commitments  from racially inflected law-and-order policies, to harsh restrictionism on immigration, Lowndes said.

This inflexibility made him a minor player until the rise of Trump, who he supported early and to whom he gifted a staffer, Stephen Miller, who helped hone Trumps project and message. Now, Lowndes says, alt-right people embrace him. They see him as a principled nativist.

Both Lowndes and Cassino agree there isnt much Breitbart can do if Trump decides to fire their man. Cassino says if  or when  Trump fires Sessions, there will be some hand-wringing, but when push comes to shove I cant imagine them abandoning Trump.

Lowndes compares their position to the evangelical right during the Reagan years, who complained constantly about the raw deal they were getting but who really had nowhere else to go. He says that if Sessions is sacked, Breitbart will hammer away at him for it, but while hes in office, their power to discredit Trump is diminished.

Beyond Breitbart, other erstwhile loyalists are seriously questioning Trump  some for the first time.

Primetime Fox News host Tucker Carlson blasted Trump on Tuesday night, saying the attorney general had been humiliated by his boss. He argued that Trump dumping Sessions would only please the left.

Influential talkshow host Mark Levin, formerly a Ted Cruz guy who has warmed to the president, also called on Trump to back off. On Facebook, he praised Sessions effusively: He was the first senator to endorse you. He campaigned for you. He left the Senate to serve you.

Whether or not Trump fires Sessions, at least a few of his media supporters havent strayed. Alex Jones remains loyal as a puppy, and his Infowars outlet is preparing the ground for Sessions to go by calling him ineffective.

How long can he keep dividing his most ardent supporters and failing to address their concerns? We may find out sooner than we expected.
Hours after Donald Trump banned transgender people from serving in the military in just three tweets, Caitlyn Jenner has responded to the announcement.

The former Olympian and self-proclaimed transgender rights activist tweeted:

There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr  Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017

Jenner has consistently defended her support of Donald Trump, and has apparently reached out to members of Trump's administration to "help them" on LGBTQ issues, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

SEE ALSO: Trump bars transgender people from military, calls them a "disruption"

She has previously called Trump out for reversing an action that allowed transgender kids to use the bathrooms of their choice in schools, and recently said on The View that she had hoped Trump would be a "bit more outspoken" in his support of the LGBTQ community he had promised to protect.

Jenner is among the many celebrities and activists that have spoken out against Trump's ban, but some continue to question her continued loyalty to Trump amidst his announcement.

UPDATE 4:39 p.m. PT: Jenner released a full statement on her website calling Trump's announcement an "attack on transgender service members" and a "half-baked idea." She called on Trump to reverse his position on barring transgender people from the military.

She addressed Trump directly at one point, stating, "Americas 15,000 trans service members and 134,000 veterans are much braver than you, Mr. Trump; my allegiance is with them and our country, not you."
Members of the Royal Canadian Navy Band play music during Pride Day in Toronto on July 3, 2016. (DND Image Gallery)

After President Trump announced Wednesday that transgender people would be barred from serving in the military, the Canadian Armed Forces took a different tack.

In an apparent jab at its southern neighbor, the Canadian military invited individuals of all sexual orientations and gender identities to join the ranks.

We welcome Cdns of all sexual orientations and gender identities. Join us! #DiversityIsOurStrength #ForcesJobs, a tweet sent from the official Canadian Armed Forces handle read. It was punctuated with a link to Forces job listings.

Earlier Wednesday, Trump suddenly announced on Twitter his administrations new policy banning transgender individuals from serving in the military in any capacity.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

The reversal of the Obama-era policy was announced abruptly, and was met with criticism for both its substance and the method with which it was made public. The White House admitted at Wednesdays press briefing that there was not yet a plan for implementation or a decision about whether the thousands of transgender soldiers currently serving would be dismissed.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
On August 21, a solar eclipse will be visible in most cities across the United States. In preparation, the travel industry is exploding with activity, offering up unique deals and excursions for spectators to get the best views.

Southwest airlines says that they will have 3,857 flights operating that day, but have pinpointed the five flights with the greatest likelihood of seeing the solar eclipse from the air. Passengers on those five flights will also receive commemorative viewing glasses and cosmic cocktails. A one-way ticket on these routes cost between $213 and $333.

For those out of the loop, a solar eclipse is when the moon crosses in between the Earth and the Sun. This upcoming episode is special because it will be a total solar eclipse, where light from the sun will be completely blocked. The last time a total solar eclipse could be seen from the US was 1979.

What you see, however, depends on where you live.

Everyone in the US will be able to see at least a partial solar eclipse, but 14 states will get the full event. The path of totality will run through cities in Oregon, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and North and South Carolina.

How to find accommodations

As one would expect, tourism to these 14 states is getting a boost, and rates for accommodations reflect that.

Hilton says that they have 176 hotels in the path of the total eclipse. But at this point, travelers will find no vacancies in Nashville, TN; Columbia, SC; Salem, OR; and Casper, WY. The chain has several locations in Kansas City, an area expecting the total solar eclipse, but most are sold out. That said, Hotel Phillips, Curio Collection by Hilton in Kansas City still has rooms available for $309 a night.

On the East Coast, Columbia S.C. is expected to have the longest solar eclipse, and the city is hosting more than 100 eclipse-related events over the weekend. Perhaps thats why hotels are almost completely sold out from August 20-August 22. A quick search on Hotels.com came up with zero hotel vacancies, as did a search on Priceline and Kayak.

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Cities experiencing a total solar eclipse.

Alas, at this point your only option might be a homeshare. Still, it wont come cheap.

This single bedroom in a home is going for an astounding $800 a night in downtown, Columbia. But not every find will break the bank. This 3-bedroom home is a steal at $450 a night, and this minimalistic airplane hangar turned hotel is renting rooms for $300 a night.

At the time of this article, there was just one room hotel room left in Madras, OR, a city expected to experience the total solar eclipse. This room is at the Hub Motel for a rate of $450 a night. Rooms at this same hotel usually go for $55 to $75 a night.

For a cheaper and more rustic experience, there are several tent camps and RV lots available in Madras for under $300 a night. The catch is that you have to bring your own tent or RV.

How to save on travel

Seeing this solar eclipse is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, and shouldnt be missed. At the same time, you dont want to go into debt over it. Here are some cost-effective ways to experience the celestial event.

Roadtrip !

The travel industry to taking advantage of the eclipse hysteria, but truth be told, it will be over before you know it. Scientists predict that the longest duration of the solar eclipse will be near Carbondale, Illinois, where the sun will be completely covered for two minutes and 40 seconds. Do you really want to spend $300 on a plane ticket for an event that will last three minutes?

If you dont mind driving, jump in the car and drive to the nearest zone of totality. Gas prices are impressively low (about $2.29 a gallon on average), so the cost of your round trip will likely be less than paying for a plane ticket and hotel room.

To get yourself in the spirit, listen to the Eclipse playlist on Spotify. Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler, anyone?

Stay just outside the zone of totality

Its convenient to stay at a hotel or rental property in the zone of totality, but thats going to cost you more. Instead, consider staying in a less popular part of town. For instance, most hotels in Nashville are sold out, and those that remain will cost at least $425 a night. In comparison, Murfreesboro is located about an hour and half away from downtown Nashville, and it has a number of discount hotels available for $56 to $81 a night. Sure, you might have to drive a little for a premier viewing spot, but the savings will make it worth it.

Watch it online

Most Americans will get to see a partial solar eclipse from their hometowns, but if youre dying to see the full shebang, watch this live video stream. You may miss the excitement of seeing it in person, but this is no doubt the cheapest and most comfortable way to experience the rare event.

Brittany is a reporter at Yahoo Finance.

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Sri Lankas government deployed army troops yesterday to restore fuel distribution crippled during a strike launched by trade unions who want to stop leases of oil tanks to India and China.

Long lines have formed at gasoline stations across Sri Lanka since Monday evening due to the strike by workers at the state-run petroleum company.

Military spokesman Brig. Roshan Seneviratne said troops entered the countrys main distribution facility and refinery at Kolonnawa and Muthurajawela outside Colombo early yesterday and they are now working in distribution facilities alongside the workers not on strike to resume the distribution of fuel.

The army deployment followed a government decree issued Tuesday night that the supply and distribution of fuel, including petroleum products and gas, were an essential service.

The trade unions announcement yesterday that it would continue the strike came a day after the government approved of selling a large stake in a southern port to China.

Ceylon Petroleum Common Workers Union spokesman D.J. Rajakaruna said that along with the agreement, China will get 11 oil tanks at the port.

He also said the government was moving to give 99 oil tanks in the eastern port city of Trincomalee to India.

The tanks were built by the British during World War II but were unused until some were given to Lanka IOC, a unit of Indian Oil Corp., in 2002 as part of a privatization deal, giving Indians a presence at the strategic port.

Rajakaruna said the government is now trying to lease out 14 of the 99 tanks to Indian companies and have a joint venture for the other tanks.

He said the tanks are a prime national asset of Sri Lanka but the agreements would benefit only Chinese and Indian companies, adding that the moves would severely affect Sri Lankas economy in the long run.

Cabinet spokesman and health minister Rajitha Senarathna told reporters that the strike is politically motivated and the government is ready to face it. These are political demands and not trade union demands, he said. A country cant be governed by the demands put forward by trade unions.

The Cabinet approval Tuesday involved a long-delayed agreement to sell to China a 70 percent stake in a $1.2 billion Chinese-built port in the southern town of Hambantota.

In January, hundreds of farmers and opposition supporters protested the governments plan to lease the port, saying the proposed partnership was akin to a sellout of the country. The agreement on the deal is to be signed by the Sri Lanka Ports Authority and the state-run China Merchants Port Holding Co. over the weekend. Bharatha Mallawarachi, AP
A 10-year-old barefoot girl was sobbing and wearing only a pair of pajamas when she was found wandering in the desert for 30 minutes by a woman walking her dog, authorities said.

Her father, she told the woman, had dumped her in the scorching Arizona wilderness because she didnt place his pen exactly where he wanted it, according to the Mohave Sheriffs Department.

Read: Woman Arrested in Death of Daughter, 1, Who Suffocated in Hot Car While Mom Was at Salon

Christopher Watson, 28, has been charged with felony child abuse after deputies went to his home Saturday, woke him up and arrested him, deputies said. He smelled of alcohol, the department said in a statement.

The girl was discovered at about 9 a.m. walking without shoes on an asphalt road outside Kingman, authorities said.

A woman and her dog found the child, who was alone and crying, in 91-degree heat.

Asked why she was in tears, the girl said her dad had left her because he was angry with her, deputies said.

Her father had bitten her hand, dragged her out of his truck and sped off, leaving her on a dirt road, she said, according to the departments statement.

The woman took her home and called 911.

Read: Coroner Rules Neck Wound Killed 11-Year-Old AbbieGail Smith as Family Prepares to Bury Her

Watson told deputies he had taken his daughter for a drive to calm her down after they argued, authorities said. He acknowledged leaving her in the desert, saying she swore at him and gave him the finger.

Watson said he returned 15 minutes later but couldnt find her, authorities said. He searched for two hours and then went home, according to the statement. He said deputies arrived at his home before he could call for help.

He was arrested and released on his own recognizance. His preliminary hearing is scheduled for Aug. 4. It was not clear whether he had entered a plea.

The girl and her 9-year-old brother were placed with the Department of Child Safety.

Story continues

Watch: Mom Fatally Stabbed Her 4-Year-Old Daughter: Cops

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Jurud Arsal (Lebanon) (AFP) - Surveying the rocky no-man's land on Lebanon's eastern border with Syria, Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday recalled the "difficult" battle they fought to recapture much of the terrain from militants.

The Lebanese Shiite movement has waged a five-day offensive across the scraggy landscape known as Jurud Arsal to oust what it says are ex-Al-Qaeda Syrian jihadists.

The group's head Hassan Nasrallah praised his fighters late Wednesday, saying they were facing "a great military victory" with the enemy holed up in a pocket of territory.

Hours earlier, field commanders had led journalists on a guided tour of positions overlooking the shrinking enclave, where they said just around 200 fighters were surrounded.

Despite plumes of black smoke in the distance, the fighters appeared relaxed after several days of clashes, grinning in the blistering heat.

"Jurud Arsal's topography is tough and the battle against Al-Nusra Front here was difficult," said a Hezbollah commander, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"Al-Nusra was entrenched in its hilltops and valleys, turning these areas into combat facilities that even airplanes couldn't reach."

Al-Nusra was Al-Qaeda's Syrian branch before it broke off ties and rebranded as Fateh al-Sham Front last year.

Hezbollah has fought the group in Syria since intervening in support of the Damascus government in 2013.

- Syrian air strikes -

Jurud Arsal -- a mountainous area around the Lebanese border town of Arsal -- is mostly barren, save for some orchards of cherry and apricot trees that ripened long ago without being picked.

Tens of thousands of Syrian refugees live in and around the town, some in camps.

But security has long been a concern, with Lebanese security forces battling jihadists there in 2014.

On Wednesday, Lebanon's flag had been planted next to the yellow and green flag of Hezbollah in Jurud Arsal.

Syrian warplanes have backed the push with regular air strikes from their side of the frontier.

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A Syrian army colonel accompanied by Hezbollah fighters could be seen atop a tank Wednesday in the porous border area.

Lebanon's army has not officially declared its participation in the operation, but has shelled "terrorists" in the area.

Hezbollah fighters on Wednesday said they had helped protect "the Lebanese army's back".

"We're shouldering the danger for Lebanon -- the danger of explosions and terrorist cells," the commander said.

Hezbollah's involvement in Syria has intensified pre-existing divides among Lebanese political parties, but the assault in Jurud Arsal has appeared less controversial.

In a televised speech on Wednesday, Nasrallah said his group was willing to hand over the territory they had secured to Lebanese troops.

- 'Battlefield or talks' -

Nasrallah also said "serious" negotiations were taking place to secure a withdrawal of Al-Nusra militants from Jurud Arsal.

"There are two paths: the battlefield and the negotiations. Both are open," he said, adding that "an official Lebanese entity" was mediating.

The Hezbollah field commander told journalists earlier in the day that the battle in Arsal "is not over yet".

"Nusra has an ideology and its fighters are tough. But we too are strong and have an ideology, even if it's a different one," he said.

Extreme Sunni militant groups such as Al-Qaeda consider Shiite Muslims, who make up a majority of Hezbollah's members and supporters, as apostates.

Since its offensive began, Hezbollah has buried around 20 of its fighters and says around 120 enemy combatants have been killed.

Fighters said they were expecting the next phase of the battle to be against the Islamic State group, which controls swathes of territory in Jurud Arsal and around two neighbouring border towns.

"It won't be a difficult task. Its fighters are only a few hundred and spread out in this vast territory," the commander said confidently.
A U.S. association of physicians spoke out against President Trumps ban on transgender individuals serving in the military, which he announced on Wednesday.

The American Medical Association said that transgender people should be allowed to serve in the military.

There is no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from military service, association president David O. Barbe said in a statement. Transgender individuals are serving their country with honor, and they should be allowed to continue doing so.

President Trump tweeted that transgender people will not be able to serve in the military in any capacity, reversing a policy enacted last year under President Barack Obama that allowed them to serve openly. He cited tremendous medical costs for transgender service members as a burden on the U.S. military.

But a 2016 RAND Corporation study, commissioned by the Department of Defense, found that expanding medical coverage to include care for transgender service members would cost an average median of $5.4 million  a small amount considering that total active-component health-care spending adds up to $6 billion every year.

The financial cost of healthcare for transgender individuals should not be used as an excuse to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country, Barbe said.

We should be honoring their service  not trying to end it, he said.
First Lady Melania Trump joined her husband at a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday, and proceeded to be watched like she was a bad kid who might do something wrong at any moment.

As Melania took the podium to praise her husband for winning the election, Donald Trump stood a little too close for comfort, practically breathing down her neck.

The USA Association, a clearly pro-Trump "Conservative GrassRoots Organization with a Cause," tweeted a video of the speech.

We can practically feel Trump's hot breath enveloping Melania just by watching this video.

SEE ALSO: Donald and Melania Trump's most uncomfortable moments: A journey

As president, my husband will continue to fight each and every day to ensure our security, defend our livelihoods, and rebuild the foundations of fortune that have made the United States the land of opportunity, Melania said during her speech, probably smelling his breath as he inched even closer. Washington has fought him every step of the way, but I know my husband and he will never give up.

Then with an awkward couple of kisses and an embrace, Trump ushers Melania away from the podium because now it's finally his turn to talk.

Trump has a lot to learn, not only about the nuances of the presidency, but also, apparently, personal space.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

[H/T: Vanity Fair]
Mr Sessions was the first member of the upper chamber to back Mr Trump's campaign: Getty

Donald Trump has launched a fresh attack on his Department of Justice, even as his Attorney General seeks to cling on to his job.

Amid mounting speculation that Attorney General Jeff Sessions will have little option but to stand down, Mr Trump launched another broadside by social media against his own cabinet member.

Why didn't AG Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation, he said on Twitter. But but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp.

Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Mr Trumps tweets are just the latest attack on a member of his team who has displayed intense loyalty to the President. As a senator for Alabama, Mr Sessions was the first member of the US Senate to offer public support for Mr Trumps campaign. By joining the cabinet, he gave up a safe senate seat.

Mr Trump made clear in an interview to the New York Times last week, that he was angry with Mr Sessions for recusing himself from a probe into possible links between the campaign and Russia. Mr Trump said the officials decision was very unfair and that he would not have selected him for the job had he known was going to act that way.

Observers believe that Mr Sessions behaviour has made it harder for Mr Trump to fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller, who is heading the federal probe.

At the same time, it is unclear why Mr Trump does not simply fire Mr Sessions if he wants to get rid of him.

Mr Sessions has indicated that he plans to stay put. On Wednesday, it was reported he was carrying out an investigation into the government leaks that have so infuriated Mr Trump.

Story continues

Yeah. I think he has got a plan that hes put together and at some point, I dont know if it will be today, tomorrow or next week, he will announce that plan, White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci told Fox News.

Yet, Mr Scaramucci has also indicated he thinks Mr Sessions will have to.

Its clear the president wants him gone, right, he was asked by conservative radio show host Hugh Hewitt.

Mr Scaramucci responded: I have an enormous amount of respect for the attorney general, but I do know the president pretty well, and if theres this level of tension in the relationship that, thats public, youre probably right.
Lagos (AFP) - Eight people were killed when a four-storey building collapsed after heavy rains in Nigeria's commercial hub of Lagos, the emergency services and witnesses said on Wednesday.

Ibrahim Farinloye, a spokesman for the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said the collapse happened at about 2:00 pm (1300 GMT) on Tuesday on Lagos Island in the city.

"We have pulled out eight bodies from the debris of the building," he told AFP. "One corpse was recovered yesterday (Tuesday) while seven more were recovered today (Wednesday)."

He said 15 people had been rescued from the rubble following the incident on Tuesday afternoon.

Witnesses said the tragedy happened after rains pounded the megacity of 20 million inhabitants for hours.

Resident Suleiman Olamilekan said: "I was returning from the afternoon prayers at the mosque when I heard a loud bang and the building started crumbling."

He and others suggested a heavy telecommunication mast on the roof of the structure may have contributed to the collapse and that he had seen cracks in the building before it came down.

Building collapses are common in Nigeria's over-crowded urban centres where people often build without government approval and in compliance to regulations.

On Saturday, a woman and her two-year-old daughter were killed when a bungalow under construction caved in after heavy rain in the Abule-Egba area of the city.

In March 2016, at least 35 people were killed when a building under construction in the upmarket Lekki area of Lagos came down after heavy rains.

Criminal charges have been filed against the head of the real estate firm and contractor for manslaughter and flouting building regulations.

The most high-profile collapse in recent years came in September 2014, when 116 people, most of them South Africans, were killed when a church guesthouse came down.

A coroner's inquest later ruled that the addition of floors without proper planning approval was a factor.

The Synagogue Church of all Nations, run by popular evangelical preacher TB Joshua, and the contractors, are currently on trial.
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After falling far short of the votes needed to move forward with its sweeping measure to repeal and replace large parts of the Affordable Care Act, the Senate took another vote this afternoon, this time on a bill that simply repeals key aspects of the ACA without including any replacement.

Unlike last night's vote, which needed to have 60 supporters in order to merit further consideration, the repeal-only measure only needed 50 votes to succeed. However, the GOP was not able to reach that lowered threshold, with seven Republican senators voting against it. Ultimately, the vote went 55-45 in favor of rejecting the bill.

Senators Susan Collins (ME), Lisa Murkowsky (AK), Dean Heller (NV), John McCain (AZ), Lamar Alexander (TN), Shelley Moore Capito (WV), and Rob Portman (OH) were the Republicans who voted no. McCain, Alexander, Capito, and Portman had all voted "yes" last night in support of the repeal-and-replacement bill.

Six GOP senatorsBob Corker (TN), Tom Cotton (AR), Lindsey Graham (SC), Mike Lee (UT), Jerry Moran (KS), and Rand Paul (KY)who voted against the replacement measure voted for repeal-only, highlighting the Senate's current difficulties in reaching a consensus on this matter.

The billtechnically introduced as an amendment to the House repeal/replacement legislation that passed earlier this yearwas championed by Sen. Paul. The substance of the legislation is largely similar to a bill that Congress passed in late 2015, knowing that it would be (and ultimately was) vetoed by President Obama. It seeks to repeal the most frequently targeted aspects of Obamacare, like the so-called "individual mandate," which requires that just about everyone has to purchase at least some form of healthcare coverage.





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(Reuters) - All four people aboard a single-engine aircraft died when the plane crash-landed on a highway in Utah on Wednesday and caught fire, police said.

The crash about 35 miles (55 km) north of Salt Lake City shut down parts of the road and led to massive traffic jams, said Sergeant Todd Royce, a Utah Highway Patrol spokesman.

"The plane slid across three lanes of the highway and hit a median," Royce said in telephone interview.

Authorities have identified the people on board but have not released their names pending notification of their relatives, he said.

No one on the highway was injured and the cause of the crash was under investigation, he said.

(Reporting by Jon Herskovitz in Austin, Texas; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
Police in Cambodia have deported to China 17 telephone fraud suspects, among hundreds of alleged scam artists who have been caught and expelled in recent years.

The 17 were flown out yesterday from the airport in Sihanoukville in southern Cambodia, said the Interior Ministrys immigration investigation chief, Gen. Ouk Haiseila. Another 14 suspects are scheduled to leave this weekend from Siem Reap in the northwest, he said.

The two groups were being repatriated on commercial flights to different Chinese provinces for prosecution, he said.

The gang would target rich people and civil servants in China, contact women over social media, trick them into exchanging nude or sexy photos then extort money from them by threatening to circulate the pictures online, he said. They also used phone calls made over the internet for their activities, he said.

Phone scams come in many variations. When the authorities in Thailand this week announced the arrests of 44 people  19 Chinese citizens and 25 Taiwanese  suspected of running a telephone scam, they said the perpetrators made calls over the internet in which they claimed to be banking officials and accused their targets of financial crimes.

The targets would then be put in touch with a fake police officer  also at the gangs headquarters  and be told they could escape arrest by transferring the allegedly stolen money to a bank account belonging to the scammers.

Ouk Haiseila said police initially identified seven of the group detained in Cambodia as Taiwanese, but Chinese police said they were all Chinese citizens. It was not clear if the Chinese assertion was based on Beijings long-maintained claim that Taiwan is one of its provinces.

Cambodia last September deported 63 suspects, including 13 Taiwanese, to China over an alleged internet scam. Kenya and Malaysia have also deported Taiwanese internet scam suspects to China despite protests by Taiwanese officials.

Rights activists and Taiwanese authorities say such deportations reflect the great influence China exercises over Cambodia through aid and investment. Sopheng Cheang, Phnom Penh, AP
Caracas (AFP) - Venezuela's political crisis looks headed for a dangerous showdown Friday, after the opposition called three more days of nationwide protests against President Nicolas Maduro, defying a ban on demonstrations ahead of a controversial weekend vote.

The war of words escalated on Thursday, the second day of a 48-hour general strike by Venezuelans angry over Maduro's plans for a Sunday poll to elect a new body to rewrite the constitution.

"The regime declared we can't demonstrate... We will respond with the TAKING OF VENEZUELA" through a protest on Friday, the opposition coalition, the Democratic Unity Roundtable, said on its Twitter account.

It later upped the ante, calling for protests on Saturday and Sunday, as well.

"The whole country must tell the world this constituent assembly has no legitimacy," opposition lawmaker Freddy Guevara said at a press conference, urging Venezuelans to "deepen the conflict" to force Maduro to abandon his plan.

Maduro countered by urging the opposition to "abandon the road to insurrection."

He called for immediate dialogue but signaled he was not backing down. Any talks, he said, should happen "before the election and installation of the Constituent Assembly" tasked with rewriting the constitution.

Earlier, he issued a decree warning anybody taking part in protests that "could disturb or affect" Sunday's vote risked five to 10 years in prison.

Four months of violent protests have already left 108 people dead, according to prosecutors. Five of them -- including two minors -- died in protests during the two-day strike.

Fears of open civil conflict have prompted an exodus of thousands of Venezuelans into neighboring Colombia.

- Maduro unbowed -

International concern has mounted, with the United States, European Union, United Nations and most heavyweight Latin American nations urging Maduro to back down from his plan.

Story continues

Some 70 percent of Venezuelans oppose plans for the constituent assembly, according to polling firm Datanalisis.

Washington has responded to Maduro's intransigence by imposing economic sanctions on 13 current and former Venezuelan officials, freezing their US assets and forbidding American entities from doing business with them.

US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin warned that the 545 members to be elected to Maduro's constituent assembly could also face punishment.

Maduro branded the sanctions "illegal, insolent and unprecedented."

The US on Thursday ordered relatives of embassy staff in Caracas to leave the country, and authorized employees to leave on a voluntary basis, citing "social unrest, violent crime, and pervasive food and medicine shortages."

Venezuela's opposition, which controls the National Assembly, has urged civil disobedience against what it terms Maduro's dictatorship.

It is pushing on with its own strategy of trying to force Maduro from power through early elections.

Skirmishes in the street between supporters of the opposition and the Maduro government have become commonplace.

Volleys of tear gas, rubber bullets and homemade bombs arced through the air in the capital during the strike.

Barricades made from debris littered the eastern part of the city, with signs reading "No more dictatorships!"

"What happens if they impose the constituent assembly? The crisis will worsen. Where does Maduro want to take the country? To a social explosion?" asked Henrique Capriles, an opposition leader.

- Dire economy -

Protest organizers claimed 92 percent of businesses and workers supported the strike.

Maduro accuses Washington of fomenting unrest against him, aided by the opposition. He has increasingly relied on the Venezuelan military, which has repeatedly declared loyalty to him, to hold onto power.

The opposition, bolstered by an unofficial vote on July 16 that saw a third of the electorate reject Maduro's plan, has called for an election boycott.

At the same time, Maduro's administration is being squeezed by the long-running economic crisis.

The oil export-dependent economy will shrink 12 percent this year, after a contraction of 18 percent last year, the International Monetary Fund said.

Inflation is projected to top 720 percent.

Venezuela's currency reserves have dwindled to under $10 billion as the government keeps up debt repayments at the expense of imports to stave off a devastating default.

The country's isolation increased as more airlines cut service to and from Venezuela.

Avianca, a major Colombian carrier, said Thursday it was ending flights immediately, moving forward a suspension originally announced for mid-August.

US airline Delta is also expected to suspend services from September. The company declined to comment on the move.
Trump senior adviser Kellyanne Conway (Photo: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)

Top White House adviser Kellyanne Conway said Thursday on Fox & Friends that having to complete financial disclosure forms demoralizes qualified people from serving in government.

There are so many qualified men and women who wanted to serve this president, this administration and their country, who have been completely demoralized and completely, I think, disinclined to do so based on the paperwork that we have to put forward divesting assets, the different hoops you have to run through, Conway said.

Conways claim came during her defense of newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci. He claimed Wednesday night that he had been the victim of a leak, saying that his financial disclosure form had been divulged to Politico.

But the Politico reporter who wrote the story, Lorraine Woellert, said the disclosure form was publicly available through a records request.

Wow, sorry I slept through all the fun! FWIW, Mr @Scaramucci's Form 278e is publicly available from ExIm. Just ask. https://t.co/Io2ed5IEuj  Lorraine (@Woellert) July 27, 2017

This White House is transparent and accountable, and weve all complied with those rules, Conway added. But [disclosures are] really disincentivizing good men and women. I hope it doesnt disincentivize Anthony [Scaramucci].

According to the form, Scaramucci earned $4.9 million from an ownership stake in his investment firm and will take home an additional $5 million from the Export-Import Bank, Politico reported.

Scaramucci had railed against the leak of his disclosure forms after Politicos story was published.

In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, Scaramucci tweeted, I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJustice Department #swamp @Reince45.

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In the now-deleted tweet, Scaramucci had tagged White House chief of staff Reince Priebus, reportedly suggesting that Priebus was the source of the leak of his form.

Hours later, Scaramucci tweeted a screenshot of an Axios story with the headline Scaramucci appears to want Priebus investigated by FBI.

Wrong! Scaramucci wrote. Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45

Since becoming head of the communications team, Scaramucci has vowed to stop leaks from within the White House to media outlets. Hes promised to purge the communications team until the revelations stop.

In an unrestrained CNN interview Thursday, Scaramucci acknowledged that the disclosure form is public, but condemned leaks from the White House once again.

I understand the law, Scaramucci said. I know that there was a public disclosure mechanism in my financial forms. What Im upset about is the process and the junk pool, the dirty pool, in terms of the way this stuff is being done. And the leaking wont stop.

Read more from Yahoo News:
Photo credit: Lockheed Martin

From Popular Mechanics

Fifty years ago humans walked on the moon. Twenty years ago humans started living in orbit for months at a time. Where will we go next? For NASA, one of the most promising proposals is to build a space habitat for astronauts that will orbit the moon.

To help NASA achieve such a complicated endeavor, Lockheed Martin, one of the contractors for the habitat, is building a full-scale prototype out of an old cargo container designed to fly on the Space Shuttle.

An orbiting moon station has a number of unique challenges that the International Space Station doesn't have. Chief among them is that a moon habitat would be much farther away. The crew of such a station would have to operate much more independently than the ISS crew, and supply missions would be less frequent, meaning astronauts could only stay on the moon station for about a month or two.

It's also unlikely that astronauts would be able to man aboard the lunar station all the time, which means the base must be able to manage some of its functions autonomously. Solving this problem isn't as simple as just putting a computer on the station-it will require a completely new design from the ground up.

Lockheed Martin engineers are building their prototype here on Earth using the Donatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module from the Space Shuttle. The engineers will also incorporate new technologies like mixed-reality headsets and 3D printing to speed up the prototyping process.

The aerospace contractor predicts an 18-month-long development time, at the end of which Lockheed Martin will have a clear understanding of the challenges involved when building a moon station. Then, if NASA gives them the green light, they can begin designing and building the real thing.

If everything goes according to plan, astronauts might be living in orbit around the moon by the end of the next decade.

Source: Lockheed Martin

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By Gabriella Borter

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Long Island, New York, police officer was released on a $500,000 bond following a court appearance on Thursday after he was charged with forcing a woman he arrested to perform oral sex on him in a police station in March.

Suffolk County Officer Christopher McCoy, 38, appeared in federal court on Long Island on Thursday afternoon, charged on one count of violating the woman's civil rights.

On March 16, the defendant and his partner arrested the woman, who was the subject of several warrants in connection with unresolved vehicle and traffic offenses, according to U.S. prosecutors.

They said McCoy assaulted her in an isolated room on two separate occasions following her arrest, grabbing her by the jaw and saying, "Let's go, don't make this hard," according to a criminal complaint made public on Thursday.

"It's not appropriate to comment on the reliability of this complaining witness or the $40 million lawsuit she filed so quickly," McCoy's lawyer Edward Sapone said on Thursday. "Officer McCoy had served the community without incident for 12 years. We will have a lot to say at the appropriate time in court as the case unfolds."

The woman, who was not named in the criminal complaint, filed a civil lawsuit in May against McCoy, his partner and Suffolk County seeking at least $5 million on each of eight counts.

McCoy was terminated from employment as a result of an FBI investigation, according to the civil lawsuit.

While he initially denied the charges, McCoy admitted to FBI agents on April 6 that he engaged in oral sex with the woman after they told him they had a warrant to collect a DNA sample, the criminal complaint said. The FBI later analyzed the sample and matched it to a stain left on the woman's shirt as a result of the encounter.

The Suffolk County law department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the civil case.

(Reporting by Gabriella Borter; Editing by Dan Grebler and David Gregorio)
Photographer Nicki Kaylor gathered nine moms for a Latched for Love photo shoot in efforts to normalize breastfeeding. (Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography)

A group of mothers are taking the worst things people have said to them while they were breastfeeding and turning the disparaging comments into something beautiful with a photo shoot.

In an effort to break the social stigmas surrounding breastfeeding, professional photographer Nicki Kaylor asked nine women to pose with their children and simultaneously hold up a small whiteboard where they had jotted down the worst things people had said to them while they were breastfeeding.

Kaylor, who is originally from Tennessee, got the idea for the project, which she calls Latched for Love, from personal experience. A mother to three daughters ages 7, 4, and 2, shes been shamed in the past. She specifically recalls one winter when she was at a Walmart and her baby started crying; she felt she had to leave the store and go to the car to feed her. A mother shouldnt have to go out of her way to feed her child in private because shes scared of the inappropriate comments or judgmental stares in public, she tells Yahoo Beauty.

Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography

Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography

Motivated by this, Kaylor used her skills with a camera to start a movement, help empower other mothers, and try to change societys perception of the natural act. I will always be an advocate for normalizing breastfeeding, she says.

Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography

Kendra Montgomery Owen, one of the participants, has faced opposition to her breastfeeding of her three children that was similar to what Kaylor experienced.

Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography

Ive experienced the awkward stares every single time I have nursed my child in a public setting. I have had people, mostly the older generations, make remarks about how I should do that somewhere else and how nobody wants to see that, Montgomery Owen tells Yahoo Beauty. As a result of these situations, Ive felt pressured to hide away in a corner or in a different room as to not offend anyone while I fed my child.

Photo: Nicki Kaylor Photography

Montgomery Owen says she felt empowered by participating in the project and believes its important for other mothers to support one another along their breastfeeding journeys. Its so easy to get discouraged and want to give up when you feel ashamed or embarrassed about feeding your baby when they are hungry, regardless of where you are, she says. Know the laws and your rights, and never be afraid to stand up for yourself and your baby.

Story continues

Read more from Yahoo Beauty + Style:

Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and Pinterest for nonstop inspiration delivered fresh to your feed, every day. For Twitter updates, follow @YahooStyle and @YahooBeauty.




(Via Adidas and Nebraska)

Can you spot the differences in Nebraskas 20th anniversary uniforms?

The Huskers will wear special uniforms vs. Wisconsin on Oct. 7 honoring the 1997 Nebraska team that went 13-0. They dont look too different than what the Huskers currently wear; the most noticeable thing is the faux mesh on the numbers.

(Via Adidas and Nebraska)

From Adidas:

Centered around a one-to-one recreation of the mesh jerseys worn during the 1990s, adidas designers were able to recreate the visual aesthetic and texture of the traditional numbers by utilizing a new framis screen-printing technique that also allows for flexibility and movement. Additional detailing for the retro look includes the classic white pants and the traditional white Cornhuskers helmet that features a classic red N logo on the sides and accented with player numbers featured in red the back of the helmet.

Its fun to see the Big Ten logo on the jerseys as Nebraska was a member of the Big 12 in 1997. The Huskers beat Texas A&M  another team no longer in the conference  54-15 in the conference title game.

What do you think about the uniforms?

(Via Adidas and Nebraska)

More college football on Yahoo Sports:





      

Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
Three Somali-American women were threatened with death by a woman at a Walmart Supercenter's parking lot in Fargo, North Dakota on Tuesday, according to local television news station KVVR. The woman also instructed the Somali women to "go home."

Videos of the incident began to circulate social media, leading the woman, Amber Hensley, to come forward and apologize for her actions.

Read: Walmart Plans To Create 1.5 Million Jobs, Unveils Manufacturing Strategy

The Somali-American women  Rowda Soyan, Sarah Hassan and Laleyla Hassan  were interested in seeing a movie before being approached by Hensley. According to North Dakota news publication High Plains Reader (HPR), they were reportedly enjoying a day off from work before the confrontation.

The three women informed Hensley that they were recording her actions on camera, claiming they would file a complaint with the Fargo Police Department. However, Hensley ignored the women, instead instructing them to "move their car."

"Go home, go home," Hensley said. "We're going to kill all of you. We're going to kill everyone one of you."

Hensley told KVVR that she wanted to apologize for her actions, claiming what she did was "not a Christian-like thing to do."

"I would first like to apologize for the horrible things that I said to the two ladies at Walmart. It was not a Christian-like thing to do AT ALL and wish I could take it back, but I lost my cool and I can't," Hensley told KVVR Wednesday. "I am terribly sorry. I just wish the whole video could be shown. And the things that were stated before she starts taping."

Hensley alleged that there was more to the story than what was depicted in the video, claiming that an argument broke out because the women parked too close to her vehicle.

Read: Human Trafficking In Texas: 8 Found Dead Inside Truck In Walmart Parking Lot

"She had parked way too close to my car and I couldnt get in, when I asked her to move she refused, I asked her again and she swore at me calling me a fat b, to that I informed her that I was a Christian and asked her if she knew who Jesus was, she said F JESUS and I lost it," she added. "But there are absolutely no excuses. I am in tears with regret and will take any form of punishment deemed fit."

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Hensley was reportedly terminated from her position at Horab & Wentz following the incident. HPR journalist Christopher Hagen shared the firm's statement on his Facebook page, which read, "Horab & Wentz does not support the statements expressed by Amber Hensley in the recently posted video. She does not represent or reflect the views of Horab & Wentz. Ms. Hensley is no longer employed with Horab & Wentz effective immediately."

Hukun Dabar, the executive director of the Afro-American Development Association (AADA), shared the footage on his Facebook page Tuesday.

Dabar informed International Business Times that the Somali women contacted him because of his position, ultimately giving him permission to share the video on social media. However, he didn't expect the video to gain traction outside of North Dakota.

"They called me because I'm one of the committee leaders here [at AADA]," he told IBT Wednesday. "I never thought it'd go viral [and be] on national news."

Dabar shared three videos created by the Somali women, deeming the Hensley's actions "unacceptable" on Facebook.

"What happened today at Walmart Fargo - 13th Ave S Parking lot is unacceptable," Dabar wrote. "Three Muslim ladies were at the parking lot, a white lady approached them with hateful words and threatened them "that she will kill all of them" and no one defended them."

He added, "Everybody was watching, really is this Fargo, the welcoming City!! This is the fifth incident happening in our community. This must be stopped."

Walmart

Photo: Getty Images

Follow me on Twitter @dory_jackson

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North Korea recently celebrated after testing a missile that could hit Alaska: Reuters

US officials have said they fear North Korea may test fire another missile, using the 64th anniversary of the end of the Korean War to mark its new military assertiveness.

Both US and South Korean media have cited intelligence and military officials saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment had been seen on the move in North Korea, a suggestion that an imminent test may be underway. July 27 marks the anniversary of the end of the three-year-long war and is celebrated as Victory Day in North Korea.

Movements by transporter erector launchers carrying intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launch tubes have been continuously observed in North Pyongan (province), a South Korean government source was quoted by the countrys Yonhap news agency, according to the AFP.

There is a high possibility that the North may carry out (the test launch) around the July 27 armistice day.

Reuters quoted unidentified US officials saying they had seen increased North Korean activity at a site in the western city of Kusong that could be preparations for another missile test. It was the latest of a series of signs over the past week that the North may be preparing for launching an ICBM or an intermediate-range missile.

After months of sabre-rattling from Washington, and following a series of missile tests by the East Asian nation, North Korea earlier this month said it had conducted its first test of an ICBM and mastered the technology needed to deploy a nuclear warhead via the missile.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who personally oversaw the launch, described it as gift to the American b**tards.

Pyongyangs state media said the test verified the atmospheric re-entry of the warhead, which experts say may be able to reach the US states of Alaska or Hawaii. The news triggered officials in Hawaii to test emergency preparedness.

Despite such concerns, the vice chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff recently said the 4 July test by North Korea stopped short of showing it had the ability to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy.

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The Washington Post reported on Tuesday that the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), the Pentagon spy agency, had assessed that North Korea will be able to field a nuclear-capable ICBM by next year, earlier than previously thought.

North Korean Leader Kim Jong-un reacts during the test-fire of intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 (Reuters)

According to two US officials, however, some other analysts who study North Koreas missile programme do not agree with the DIA assessment.

DIA and the South Koreans tend to be at the leading edge of estimates on North Koreas military programmes, and thats understandable, said one of the officials.

There is no question that the DPRK has moved further and faster with its effort to develop a reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM that can be built in quantity, but there are still doubts about whether it can cross that threshold in a year.

Kusong has previously been the scene of past tests, including one carried out in in May when an intermediate-range ballistic missile travelled more than 435 miles.
Former Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose bank accounts were frozen this week, says she will fight to prove her innocence as a trial that could put her in prison for 10 years enters its final stages.

Yingluck was ousted as prime minister in 2014 when a court ruled that a personnel transfer involved nepotism. The action against her, widely considered politically motivated, came shortly before the army ousted her government in a coup.

A court on Aug. 25 is to issue a verdict on whether she was criminally negligent as prime minister in implementing a rice subsidy policy which allegedly caused the government billions of dollars in losses. An administrative ruling holding her responsible for about $1 billion of the losses led to her accounts being frozen. Her assets were listed in a statutory declaration in 2015 as being worth 611 million baht (USD18 million) in total. She is to give her closing statement to the court on Aug. 1.

Yingluck has also been banned from political office for five years after the national assembly appointed by the military government impeached her.

Her supporters believe she is being persecuted by the army and by other political opponents of her brother, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Thaksin, a telecommunications mogul, was ousted in a separate 2006 military coup after demonstrations accused him of corruption, abuse of power and insulting the then-monarch, late King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Thaksins ouster set off sometimes-violent battles for power between his supporters and opponents, including the military. He has been in self-imposed exile since 2008 to escape a prison sentence on a corruption charge. His supporters say the countrys political establishment opposes him because his electoral popularity threatens their entrenched privileges.

The government has chosen to exploit its power to freeze my assets without waiting for the Administrative Courts ruling. The timing of their decision comes a few weeks before the Supreme Courts verdict on the Rice Subsidy Scheme case. It seems to me that this is a desperate attempt by the government to do everything that it can to influence the case prior to the final verdict, Yingluck wrote in a statement posted Tuesday on her Facebook page. She said she filed a petition challenging the freezing of her accounts.

I will stay strong and I will continue to prove my innocence to the best of my ability in the closing statements this coming Aug. 1, 2017, because I know that I have done nothing wrong, she wrote. I will look to the moral support from all of you as it will give me the much-needed strength and patience to fight on.

Last Friday, Yingluck was greeted by almost 1,000 supporters at the most recent hearing of her case at the Supreme Court.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led the coup that toppled her elected government, warned her supporters Tuesday to tread carefully.

The court and judicial process are looking at it, you cannot be offensive or speak ill of the courts. Im telling you, he said. The government will not prevent people from going, but everyone must show restraint and ask themselves, Why am I going, what will I get out of this?'

Whether there are lots of people or just a few people that go, or if a situation arises, it would not make a difference in the verdict. Then why would you go? Let the court decide, Prayuth said. Kaweewit Kaewjinda, AP
North Korea threatened to launch a nuclear strike at the heart of the U.S. if it sees signs that Washington is trying to remove Kim Jong Un as the countrys leader, according to South Koreas Yonhap news agency.

Should the U.S. dare to show even the slightest sign of attempt to remove our supreme leadership, we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the U.S. with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time, the state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reports, citing a spokesperson of the Norths foreign ministry.

Pyongyangs warning follows comments by CIA director Mike Pompeo last week that hinted that the U.S. might be interested in seeing some form of regime change.

It would be a great thing to denuclearize the peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today, Pompeo told the Aspen Security Forum on Thursday, reports CNN. He went on to say that the most important thing the U.S. administration can do is, separate capacity and someone who might well have intent and break those two apart. Though Pompeo later denied that he was talking about removing Kim Jong Un.

Pompeos words went over the line, KCNA said, and show that toppling Kim is the ultimate aim of the Trump administration.

U.S. authorities have expressed increasing concern over North Koreas advancing nuclear and missile program, particularly following Pyongyangs successful test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile earlier this month. A report by the Defense Intelligence Agency suggests that North Korea could have an ICBM capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year, two years earlier than previously thought, according to the Washington Post.

[Yonhap]
Justin Bieber accidentally hit photographer Maurice Lamont on Wednesday evening. (Photo: Backgrid/Instagram)

Thats not much of a birthday present! That was the sentiment expressed by Maurice Lamont  better known as the paparazzo who was clipped by Justin Bieber outside the City Church in Beverly Hills last night  as he was being wheeled on a gurney for X-rays at a nearby hospital.

The good news is that Lamont is OK, according to a video he posted on Instagram Thursday. And if youre expecting him to trash-talk the Biebs, who jumped out of his giant pickup truck to check on the condition of the photog, its not happening.

WOW WHAT A WAY TO BRING IN MY BIRTHDAY! SHOTGETTER POWER! I WISH BIEBER WAS STILL ON TOUR!! A post shared by Maurice Lamont (@shotgetter) on Jul 27, 2017 at 4:17am PDT

An hour before my birthday hits, I get ran over by Justin Bieber, Lamont, who uses the handle @shotgetter, says in the video. Isnt that something.

However, he went on to call Bieber, who is having a heckuva week after calling off the remainder of his Purpose tour, a good kid.

He got out. He was compassionate. Hes a good kid, Lamont says from his stretcher. Accidents happen. Hopefully everything works out here. Getting ready to go into the X-rays right now.

Justin Bieber checking on Maurice Lamont after the accident. (Photo: GAMR/Backgrid)

Though he did have a criticism about Biebers pickup.

I think the truck was a little too big for him though because there is no way he could see over the front, he said.

Lamont posted the video with the kinda hilarious caption, I WISH BIEBER WAS STILL ON TOUR!! (Hes not the only one.)

Video of the accident showed Bieber making a turn as he left a church event and clipping Lamont, who fell to the ground and dropped some of his camera equipment. But Bieber got out and kneeled down to talk to the injured shutterbug as an army of other paps continued to profit off of it by filming the whole thing.





Police arrived on the scene and spoke to the pop star, who was not cited for the accident. A police spokesperson said Lamont suffered non-life-threatening injuries to his lower body.

On Monday, the perennially troubled star canceled the remaining dates of his tour to reportedly rededicate his life to Christ, sources connected to the Australia-based Hillsong Church, which Bieber has long been linked to, said. However, Bieber himself denied it was related to religion and said he is simply exhausted.

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We can imagine hell be even more tired now  as his handlers try to keep this accident from turning into a lawsuit.

Read more from Yahoo Celebrity:
Some officials at the Pentagon where reportedly concerned Donald Trump was set to declare war on North Korea when he started tweeting about his plans for the military.

There were nine long minutes between Mr Trumps first tweet - announcing he had been consulting with his generals - and the second, in which he said he had decided transgender people could not serve in the military.

During that time, some people were apparently worried Mr Trump had Pyongyang in his sights, rather than the rights of LBQTQ servicemen and women.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

At the Pentagon, the first of the three tweets raised fears that the president was getting ready to announce strikes on North Korea or some other military action, BuzzFeed reported.

Many said they were left in suspense for nine minutes, the time between the first and second tweet. Only after the second tweet did military officials receive the news the President was announcing a personnel change on Twitter.

The news site said Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis is on vacation this week, and officials said he knew Mr Trump was considering the policy change. It said it was unclear if he approved of it.

The news fits with the confused and seemingly shambolic way in which Mr Trump announced his news, the reversal of years of hard-fought progress that had been made by members of the LGBTQ community in regards to the military.

Barack Obamas administration had already permitted transgender people already enlisted to serve openly, and was set to allow new transgender recruits to join. The plan was suspended in December.

After Mr Trump announced the news on Twitter, the Pentagon directed all questions on the issue to the White House.

Story continues

At a briefing, spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders was asked what would happen to those transgender people already serving - an issue Mr Trump did not address in his tweets. She did not have a convincing answer.

She said: Thats something that the Department of Defence and the White House will have to work together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully.
Portugal battles raging wildfires Firefighters work to put out a forest fire next to the village of Macao, near Castelo Branco, Portugal, July 26, 2017. (Rafael Marchante/Reuters)

More than ten villages in central Portugal have been evacuated as forest fires rage in the provinces of Castelo Branco and Santarem. Almost 5,000 firefighters supported by water-dropping aircraft are deployed across central and northern areas of Portugal as the country continues its annual summertime battle against wildfires. The intensity of the wind is diabolical, said Jaime Marta Soares, saying new fires keep popping up away from the main fires. (Reuters)

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By Alexandra Zaslow

The unique culture and history of Queens can be found in the boroughs celebrated museums.

Right near the border of Astoria and Long island City, The Museum of the Moving Image showcases art, history, television and digital media. After a recent renovation, the museum boasts new interactive exhibits that explore all forms of media production, a vintage arcade exhibit, as well as a large-scale theatre that plays classic and modern hits, including a recent screening of a 70mm print of Christopher Nolans Dunkirk. The museums most exciting new addition is a permanent wing dedicated to the work of Jim Henson.

Theres a deep connection between Jim Henson and Queens, Carl Goodman, the museums executive director, said. And that is the values embedded in his work. Acceptance of others, appreciation of difference, tolerance, the importance of diversity, creativity and collaboration not only embodies Jim Hensons work, but also in a sense embodies Queens itself.

Another iconic museum is the Queens Museum, which recently featured an exhibit dedicated to the punk band Ramones, who hail from the borough.

I think that in a way the Ramones exhibit opens up a whole other level of relatability about what can happen in a museum, Laura Raicovich, president and executive director of the museum, said.

The Queens Museum is also home to the Panorama, a 10,000-square-foot replica of New York City, as well as rotating exhibitions that illustrate the creativity and ethnic diversity of the people of Queens.

The Queens Museum is a place that represents art and culture, about the times in which we live, Raicovich said. It is a place that connects the artistic visions of artists with the ways that we see the world around us.
More than nine in 10 US Muslims still feel proud to be American: Getty Images

More than two-thirds of Muslim-Americans are concerned about their place in society following the election on Donald Trump, a new poll has found.

The survey by the Pew Research Center found that 75 per cent Muslims in the US feel there is still a lot of discrimination in the country and half feel it has got worse in recent years.

Around 62 per cent said they believed other Americans did not see Islam as part of mainstream society.

While 55 per cent of respondents said on balance most Americans were friendly to Muslims, 48 per cent said they had been racially discriminated against at least once in the past year.

Despite this 92 per cent of respondents still said they were proud to be an American and 70 per cent said they still believed in the American Dream that if you can work hard you can get ahead.

But there has been uptick in discontent about societal attitudes under Mr Trump compared with during Barack Obamas administration.

In 2017, 64 per cent of Muslim Americans say they are dissatisfied about the direction the country is going in compared with 38 per cent in 2011.

Pew also reported a huge jump in the number of people who believe that the President is unfriendly towards Muslims, as 74 per cent say Mr Trump is hostile compared to just four per cent who said the same about Mr Obama.

(Pew Research Center)

(Pew Research Center)

It comes as Mr Trumps controversial Muslim ban was partially restored by the Supreme Court.

The executive order in the first days of his presidency brought in a suspension of the US Refugee Admissions Programme for 120 days and placed an indefinite ban on Syrian refugees.

Anyone arriving from seven Muslim-majority countries - Iraq, Syria, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen - also faced a 90-day visa suspension.

After it was blocked by the courts as unconstitutional, the administration introduced a revised ban with only six countries  after the intervention of the US military who expressed disquiet about upsetting their Iraqi allies while fighting Isis  subject to it.

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The Supreme Court eventually ruled the country could not ban these people altogether.

As a result, the White House introduced amended rules, which went into effect at the end of last month, which meant anyone from those countries would have to prove a close family or business tie to the US.

But grandparents, grandchildren, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, cousins, brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, fiancees or other extended family members are not considered to be close relationships, according to the guidelines issued in a cable sent to all US embassies.
One person has been killed and several others injured after a ride malfunctioned on the opening night of the Ohio State Fair, according to officials.

Read: Know Before You Tow: The Danger of Trailers and How to Properly Hitch Them to Your Car

An 18-year-old died after being thrown from the Fire Ball when it reportedly broke apart.

The victim has been identified as Tyler Jarrell, of Columbus, who had just joined the U.S. Marine Corps.

"We are truly proud to have known him as one of the brave few willing to step up and serve his country in the United States Marine Corps," the Marines said in a statement.

The young man wanted to be in the infantry or serve as a combat engineer, CBS News reported.

He enlisted Friday and was set to begin basic training next summer.

Jarrell lost his life after he was tossed from the ride, which spins and swings revelers in a pendulum-like motion.

Seven others were injured. Of them, three were listed in critical condition.

I heard a girl scream, 'Help!' and I saw someone fly out and then I seen it slap to the ground, one witness told reporters following the tragedy.

Passengers were ejected at high speed with high energy many feet  at least 20 or 30, if not more into the air and then crashed a significant distance from the ride, said Dr. David Evans of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.

Authorities said the ride had passed its state inspections. Video taken by a local news crew shows an inspector checking other rides at the fair Monday.

All rides at the state fair have now been closed pending "a complete review," said Ohio Governor John Kasich. We will get to the bottom of this.

Kasich added: "I am terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohio's fair."

His statement was echoed by Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther.

"I am deeply saddened by the tragic accident at the Ohio State Fair last night," Ginther said in a statement. "I pray for the victims and their families and am reminded again of the outstanding work done by our first responders every day."

Story continues

Read: Is This the Scariest Bridge in America?

Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center told reporters that two of the three patients they were treating have been discharged. Two other area hospitals are caring for the others.

The Ohio State Fair is scheduled to be held until August 8 and attracts hundreds of thousands each year. The fair will remain open, but the rides will be closed pending additional safety checks, Kasich said.

Watch: Paralyzed Former Olympian Walks Down the Aisle With His Wife: 'It Was a Goal for Me'

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Sadiq Khan said he was 'disappointed' in Donald Trump's comments in the wake of the London Bridge terrorist attack: EPA/WILL OLIVER

Sadiq Khan has accused Donald Trump of behaving like a 12-year-old as the spat between the Mayor of London and the US President continues.

The London mayor said that he was "disappointed" by the US leader's handling of the aftermath of the London Bridge terrorist attack in early June.

At the time, the US President tweeted criticism Mr Khan for, he claimed, saying there is no reason to be alarmed.

At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is no reason to be alarmed!, he said.

In reality Mr Khan had said Londoners should not be alarmed by the increased police presence in the capital, rather than by the attack itself.

Asked by the New Yorker why he appeared to have got under Trumps skin, the London Mayor replied: The short answer is I dont know, but I can understand if we were both aged twelve years old.

At least 7 dead and 48 wounded in terror attack and Mayor of London says there is "no reason to be alarmed!"  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 4, 2017

Mr Khan said he was disappointed in Mr Trumps comments and referenced a Nato policy that says members will come to each others defence to suggest that politicians should support each other.

The basic rule amongst politicians and amongst leaders is a sense of solidarityit is almost like our version of Nato Article 5, he said. So I was extremely surprised when the President of the USA, our strongest ally, said what he said. It was disappointing, to be honest.

At the time, Mr Khan said he had better and more important things to focus on than Mr Trumps tweets, while a spokesperson claimed the Republican had taken the Mayors words out of context.

That led the US President to tweet: Pathetic excuse by London Mayor Sadiq Khan who had to think fast on his "no reason to be alarmed" statement. MSM [Mainstream Media] is working hard to sell it!

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Mr Khan later called for Mr Trumps proposed state visit to the UK to be cancelled, saying he was not sure it is appropriate for our government to roll out the red carpet.

The pair had previously clashed over the US Presidents plans to introduce a ban on immigration to the US from seven mainly-Muslim countries.

When the Republican first suggested the policy in 2015, Mr Khan called the billionaire businessman a buffoon and said: His views are divisive, they are outrageous, and I hope he loses. Badly.

Mr Trump later said he would remember what he called Mr Khans very rude statements.
White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci called into CNNs New Day early Thursday to explain his cryptic tweet that reportedly suggested he wants the FBI to investigate White House chief of staff Reince Priebus for the leak of Scaramuccis financial disclosure form.

In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, I will be contacting @FBI and the @JusticeDept #swamp @Reince45, Scaramucci tweeted late Wednesday night after the document was published by Politico. Scaramucci later deleted the tweet.

But Lorraine Woellert, the Politico reporter who broke the story, said she had requested the disclosure form  which is publicly available information  through a simple records request.

Ive done a major amount of work over the past five days, Scaramucci told CNNs Chris Cuomo on Thursday. Ive interviewed most of the assistants to the president, Ive interviewed most of the people on the communications team in the White House, and what the president and I would like to tell everybody, we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are in the White House.

Scaramucci did not name names, but the New Yorkers Ryan Lizza reported late Wednesday that the communications chief had zeroed in on Priebus as the source of the most recent leak.

In a follow-up tweet, Scaramucci disputed the idea he was singling out the former Republican National Committee chair.

Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017

On New Day, Scaramucci said he has a brother-like relationship with Priebus, but isnt sure that its sustainable for both of them to be in the West Wing.

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Were rough on each other, he said. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel. Other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not; thats up to the president.

If Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, Scaramucci added, let him do that.

Scaramucci said the administration is working with law enforcement to undercut and undercover, or, out, if you will, the leakers in the entire country.

The White House leaks are small potatoes relative to things that are going on, leaking things about Syria, or North Korea, or leaking things about Iraq, Scaramucci explained. Those are the types of leaks that are so treasonous that 150 years ago, people would have actually been hung for those types of leaks.

Scaramucci speaks to reporters outside the White House on Wednesday. (Joshua Roberts/Reuters)

But Scaramucci said he is also concerned with the nefarious, unnecessary, backstabbing, palace-intrigue-like leaks coming from inside the West Wing.

Were American citizens, and the people that are working in those jobs have to honor those jobs, Scaramucci said. If theres 300 people working there, and theres 300 million people in the country, youre one in a million. Why dont you honor the job? Remember Joe Paterno? What would he say? Act like youve been there before. Act with honor and dignity and respect and hold the confidence of the presidency and his office.

He used another curious comparison make his case.

As you know, from the Italian expression, the fish stinks from the head down, Scaramucci said. I can tell you two fish that dont stink, OK? And thats me and the president.

There are people inside the administration that think it is their job to save America from this president, he continued. That is not their job.

Scaramucci  who had dinner at the White House Wednesday with Trump, first lady Melania Trump, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox News executive Bill Shine  complained that news of that visit leaked too.

I cant have a couple of friends up from Fox & Friends and Sean Hannity, whos one of my closest friends, to dinner with the president and his first lady, without it being leaked in seven minutes, he said.

Related: Scaramucci warns leakers: Im going to fire everybody

But Scaramucci also said he is open to leaking information  if it benefits Trump.

If you want to leak something, you now have a new director of communications, he said. If its a leak that helps the presidency, why dont we do that?

Scaramucci was named by Trump to the top communications post last Friday.

On Monday, Scaramucci met with his communications staff to discuss leaks. He didnt hold back, either, telling reporters he would purge the staff until the leaks stopped.

Do you want to sell postcards to the tourists outside the gate or do you want to work in the West Wing? What do you want to do? Scaramucci told reporters Tuesday in the driveway leading up to the West Wing. Im gonna put em out on Pennsylvania Avenue.

He further warned: Im going to fire everybody, thats how Im going to do it. Youre either going to stop leaking or youre going to get fired.

Scaramucci told CNNs Jake Tapper on Sunday that Trump is still not sure Russia interfered in the 2016 presidential election, and that the president has not decided whether he will sign a bipartisan bill slapping new sanctions on Moscow.

On Thursday, Scaramucci suggested Trump may not sign the legislation, which was passed with veto-proof majorities in both chambers of Congress.

Hes looking at the sanctions right now, Scaramucci said. He may decide to veto the sanctions and be tougher on the Russians than the Congress.

Read more from Yahoo News:
UniCredit SpA said hackers accessed about 400,000 client bank accounts in Italy, taking biographical and loan data in one of the biggest breaches in Europe to date.

The incidents occurred in September and October of 2016 and June to July of this year, the bank said on yesterday in an emailed statement. Unauthorized access was gained through an Italian third-party provider to some customer data related to personal loans, with the lender saying IBAN numbers and other personal data may also have been reached. A spokesman declined to identify the third party involved.

Banks are boosting cyber-defense budgets and hiring former intelligence and law enforcement officials to build up defenses against hackers as lenders open their networks to connect with new money-management apps and other fintech offerings. In the U.K., banks such as Barclays Plc and Deutsche Bank AG have joined forces with law enforcement in a unit called the Cyber Defence Alliance.

The most recent attacks were detected between Monday and Tuesday and led to the discovery of the incidents that took place last year, two people familiar with the matter said, asking not to be identified discussing a possible criminal matter.

I expect that this case will lead to all Italian banks reviewing their IT systems, said Francesco Confuorti, chief executive officer of Advantage Financial SA, a Milan-based investment firm. This is the first attack targeting an Italian bank and confirms that IT systems, particularly in Italy, need massive investment to avoid a loss of confidence.

Banking industry leaders are worried about more than the theft of customers data or money. Cybercriminals might also damage account databases and render them unusable, said Becky Pinkard, vice president of service delivery and intelligence at Digital Shadows Ltd., a London-based cyberdefense firm.

Banks are justified in their fear of corrupted data, Pinkard said. Attackers could harm the bank by adding or subtracting a zero to every balance, or even deleting entire accounts.

In May and June, two ransomware attacks dubbed WannaCry and Petya swept the globe and temporarily crippled operations in entities ranging from Britains National Health Service to oil companies and automakers. While Western banks were unaffected, the Petya attack penetrated 80 Ukrainian banks. Cybersecurity experts are bracing for more hacks of this magnitude in the months to come.

The breach at UniCredit involved customers with financing and consumer-credit loans, Daniele Tonella, CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, the IT unit of the bank, said in a phone interview. The banks IT department discovered anomalies while conducting checks, finding that some users from an external commercial partner were accessing client data. UniCredit, immediately blocked the intruders, closed the breaches and upgraded the system, he said.

There arent material damages for the bank and its clients from these attacks, Tonella said. No data, such as passwords allowing access to customer accounts or allowing for unauthorised transactions, has been affected.

UniCredit, which is investing 2.3 billion euros (USD2.7 billion) in upgrading and strengthening its IT systems, has started an audit and will file a report with the Milan prosecutor, it said. The banks IT investments include the strengthening of infrastructure through digitalization activities, technological development of core systems and the continuous updating of the infrastructure, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements. Sonia Sirletti, Edward Robinson, Bloomberg
Photo credit: Omikron / Getty

From Popular Mechanics

Concrete is one of the world's most versatile building materials. It's used to build everything from sidewalks to buildings to dams, and it holds up incredibly well under stress and pressure. But to build the world's strongest concrete scientists are going to have to take a lesson from ancient Rome.

Ancient Roman concrete is the strongest in the world, so durable it's survived 2000 years of environmental damage. Many Roman concrete structures are standing just as tall as when they were built, and it's because of a unique concrete formula that scientists are still trying to figure out.

But they have a clue, and a group of scientists are traveling to the island of Surtsey in Iceland to drill a bunch of holes and hopefully find the answer.

Photo credit: Nature

While the specific recipe for Roman concrete has been lost to history, we know the recipe involved volcanic ash and seawater. So to find out more, scientists are traveling to Surtsey, an entire island made out of volcanic ash and seawater. Surtsey was formed by an underwater volcanic eruption in 1963, and it could provide the missing ingredients for making Roman concrete.

The scientists will drill two holes, one parallel to a hole drilled back in 1979 and another at an angle. The first hole will enable scientists to study microbial life inside the volcanic rock, while the second hole will allow them to study how the rocks and minerals formed. It's this second hole that could provide clues to Roman concrete.

Surtsey is unique because when it formed the mixture of heat, volcanic material, and seawater created hydrothermal minerals that strengthened the rock. This makes Surtsey much more durable than other volcanic islands, and if we could understand this unique durability and strength we just might be able to reproduce it.

Source: Nature

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If youre fascinated by schools of sharks and how we can keep beaches safe without culling, Thursdays Shark Week premieres are for you.

In Shark Storm (10 p.m. on Discovery), Tristan Guttridge and his team study aggregations of sharks to find out what brings them together in large groups at different locations around the world, whether its 200 scalloped hammerheads around Cocos Island, as seen in the clip above, or 300 whale sharks off the coast of Mexico. Its crucial for two reasons. Knowing when, where, and why these large concentrations of animals occur may allow the closure of areas during peak times, such as mating season, to protect the sharks from capture (large groups can be easily and illegally exploited by fishermen). And, Guttridge says, it will foster the publics increasing appreciation of sharks.

I think 20, 30 years ago a lot of people thought sharks were mindless killers. That perception is changing, and its because of these types of studies that talk about the complexity of shark behavior, that shows that theyre social, that they can learn from each other, that they can recognize individuals, he says. I dont know what it is with humans, but I feel like we just seem to be more empathetic to animals that we can relate to. Relating to a shark is a bit tricky, but if you see their personalities and things like that, its a little bit easier to, and I think thats another reason why these types of studies are really interesting and why I did my whole PhD on working with social behavior in sharks.

A hundred days spent in observation towers watching lemon sharks socialize in the shallows was inspiration for one of the most fascinating sequences in the hour. Guttridge sets up an experiment to see if lemon sharks can learn to hit a target for food. One shark, on its own, does it in two weeks. A second shark is added, and while swimming with the initial subject, it masters the task in two days.

The team also observes and tags whitetip reef sharks to see if they hunt at night with the same sharks they rest with during the day. The night dive provides the tensest moments of the hour. It wasnt seeing the whitetips hunting, Guttridge says. We all had our torches. Were lighting up the reefs and all the reef sharks are going crazy, and this massive Galapagos shark, which clearly wants to take out one of the whitetips, enters the frame and then disappears. You dont know where it is and what its doing. But for me, thats why I work with sharks: so I can get to do those types of things. I mean, its just mind-blowing to see how those animals work together to hunt and feed at night and then having other animals try and take advantage of that situation.

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ReTweet if youre watching Shark Exile tonight at 9p! #SharkWeek pic.twitter.com/l38B1EnYd4  Discovery (@Discovery) July 27, 2017

The nights other premiere, Shark Exile (9 p.m.), follows another important effort to protect sharks. Australian shark scientists and shark attack survivor/conservationist Paul de Gelder want to end the countrys practice of lining popular beaches with nets and baited hooks to capture sharks that could be dangerous to humans. Why? Because many sharks and other marine animals die in the nets, and attacks still happen. Theres another option they want to explore. Brazil has been able to reduce shark attacks around Recife by 90 percent, thanks to a catch-and-move program conceived by Fabio Hazin. The hour shows how the Brazilians will catch a shark south of Recife, bring it aboard their boat, and keep it calm and healthy while they transport it past the former hot spot. Equally important, Hazin shares why the sharks dont return to Recife after theyre released.

As you see in the promo above, the Aussies experience some challenges trying to implement the technique, but they are ultimately successful. Hopefully that gives governments around the world, and especially Australia, a new approach at how to maintain sharks in their home in their ecosystem, because thats where they belong, de Gelder says.

Shark Week continues through July 30 on Discovery.

Read more from Yahoo TV:
President Donald Trump said today (July 26) that transgender individuals could not serve in the military.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump tweeted.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming  victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he continued in another tweet. [The 10 Most Outrageous Military Experiments]

A few thousand transgender people currently serve in the military, according to a 2016 report from researchers at the RAND Corporation. In June, the Trump administration delayed making a decision on whether to allow new recruits who are transgender to join the military, according to The New York Times.

Trump's announcement today goes against a policy enacted in June 2016 by the Obama administration, which allowed transgender individuals to openly serve in the military.

In that 2016 report from RAND, researchers led by senior political scientist Agnes Gereben Schaefer looked at the implications of having transgender individuals serve openly in the armed forces. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization that focuses on public policy. Here are five facts about transgender individuals in the military that the researchers found.

The total number of transgender individuals in the military is very low.

In 2014, there were an estimated 1,300 to 6,600 transgender individuals serving in the military, according to the RAND report.

That year, there were more than 1.3 million active service members, meaning that transgender individuals made up between 0.1 and 0.5 percent of the total active military, according to the report.

In the Selected Reserve (the non-active portion of the military), the RAND study estimated there were between 830 and 4,160 transgender individuals in 2014.

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Not all transgender service members seek transition-related treatments.

A subset of the total number of transgender individuals in the military choose to engage in any type of procedures to transition to a gender that differs from the one they were assigned at birth, according to the RAND report. And even among those who choose to do so, the transition may be "primarily social" and involve no medical treatments.

When medical treatments are involved, they can include hormone therapy, hair removal and for some, surgery.

Transition-related treatment would disrupt less than 0.1 percent of the active military.

The RAND researchers estimated that between 29 and 129 active-duty transgender individuals would seek transition-related treatment that could disrupt their ability to deploy each year. This estimate represents less than 0.1 percent of the total number of people in the military.

In comparison, in 2015, approximately 50,000 active-duty military personnel, or 14 percent, in the Army alone were ineligible to deploy for various legal, medical or administrative reasons, according to the RAND report.

Gender transition-related health care costs are "relatively low."

Though Trump cites "tremendous medical costs" related to transgender individuals serving in the military, the RAND study estimated these costs would fall between $2.4 million and $8.4 million each year.

These costs would increase overall military health care spending by an "exceedingly small" amount, the report said. Between 0.04 and 0.13 percent of the approximately $6 billion spent in 2014 would go to transition-related health care costs, the researchers found.

Foreign militaries can offer insights.

In 2016, 18 countries allowed transgender individuals to serve openly in the military, according to the RAND report.

For their report, the researchers focused specifically on four countries  Australia, Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom  and found that none of these countries' militaries "reported a negative impact on the operational effectiveness, operational readiness or cohesion of the force."

Originally published on Live Science.

Editor's Recommendations
On The Daily Show, Donald Trump's latest tweet storm calling for the ban on transgender persons in the military was the topic of discussion. Although conservatives were interested in removing gender reassignment surgery out of the military's medical budget, a total ban was a bit of a shock. Trevor Noah discussed the issue with two transgender Army veterans, Sgt. Jennifer Marie Long and Joey Whimple. Long said, "In the immediate piece are you looking at a reduction of force by nearly 15,000 service members across the board that served in various segments or branches with different skill sets. Some are highly regarded skill sets that are very valuable for the military." Aside from losing skilled service persons from the military, a dishonorable discharge would permanently affect their careers. Whimple said, "That discharge code is everything. It's education benefits, it's health benefits, it's the lead in to a new job. They can never work in the federal government again with a dishonorable discharge or anything underneath honorable so it leaves that uncertainty for them completely." One of the main arguments in Trump's tweet was cost. However, according to Noah, gender reassignment surgery makes up .001% of the military budget, roughly $8 million a year, an incredibly small amount of money in comparison to say Trump's $60 million budget to live on his own property at Mar-a-lago. Although some people think transpersons are incapable of doing their job, Sgt. Jennifer Marie Long transitioned while serving in Afghanistan and it didn't affect her ability to serve her country in the slightest. Long said, "I received the Bronze Star and the French National Defense Medal. I was the first soldier that received that medal from the French since World War II."
Commander-in-Tweet

On The Daily Show, Donald Trumps latest tweetstorm, calling for a ban on transgender people in the military, was the topic of discussion. Although conservatives were interested in removing gender reassignment surgery from the militarys medical budget, a total ban was a bit of a shock. Trevor Noah discussed the issue with two transgender Army veterans  Sgm. Jennifer Marie Long and Joey Whimple.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

A Tremendous Loss

Long said, You looking at a reduction of force by nearly 15,000 service members across the board that served in various segments or branches with different skill sets. Some are highly regarded skill sets that are very valuable for the military.

Career Impact

Aside from the military losing skilled service members, a dishonorable discharge would permanently affect the veterans careers. Whimple said, That discharge code is everything. Its education benefits; its health benefits; its the lead into a new job. They can never work in the federal government again with a dishonorable discharge  or anything underneath honorable  so it leaves that uncertainty for them completely.

Story continues

The Real Cost

One of the main arguments in Trumps tweets was cost. However, according to Noah, gender reassignment surgery makes up .001% of the military budget  roughly $8 million a year  an incredibly small amount of money in comparison to, say, Trumps $60 million budget to live on his own property at Mar-a-Lago.

With Honors

Although some people think trans persons are incapable of doing their jobs, Sgt. Jennifer Marie Long transitioned while serving in Afghanistan and said it didnt affect her ability to serve her country in the slightest. Long said, I received the Bronze Star and the French National Defense Medal. I was the first soldier that received that medal from the French since World War II.

The Daily Show airs weeknights at 11 p.m. on Comedy Central.

Check out Trevor Noah calling out Ann Coulter for victim hypocrisy:

Read more from Yahoo TV:

Tell us what you think! Hit us up on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram, or leave your comments below. And check out our host, Kylie Mar, on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) heads for the Senate floor for a vote at the U.S. Capitol on July 26, 2017, in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON  Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, confirmed Thursday that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke contacted her after her vote against a health care bill earlier this week. The conversation reportedly involved threats of administrative retribution against her home state.

A Murkowski spokesperson told Yahoo News that the moderate Alaska lawmaker received a call from Zinke on Wednesday, and he told her that the president wasnt pleased with the vote that she took.

Trump also expressed those feelings publicly Wednesday, when he tweeted that Murkowski really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday when she voted against moving to begin debate in the Senate on a series of health care bills.

But Zinke reportedly went beyond those sentiments, the Alaska Dispatch News reported Thursday morning. Alaskas other GOP senator, Dan Sullivan, told the Dispatch News that the interior secretary had a troubling message and that he threatened to curb department projects in Alaska over the matter.

I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans.  Were facing some difficult times and theres a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear, Sullivan told Alaskas biggest newspaper, saying both he and Murkowski were contacted.

The appointments of Alaskans to top interior posts, as well as infrastructure projects and expanded drilling in the states National Petroleum Reserve, are potentially on the line, according to Dispatch News.

I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop, Sullivan said.

In a statement to Yahoo News, Murkowskis office said both she and the president agree the status quo with health care in our country is not acceptable.

I pledged early on that I would work with the President to help advance Alaskas interests. I will continue to do that  to help build and strengthen our economy, keep the promises made to us as a state, and ensure access to healthcare, Murkowski said in the statement.

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For her part, Murkowski appeared unfazed by Trumps tweet on Wednesday and maintained that she would act in the best interests of Alaska, which could be hit hard by any health care reform.

Were here to govern. Were here to legislate. Were here to represent the people who sent us here. And so every day shouldnt be about campaigning. Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here? Thats what Im here for, Murkowski said Wednesday.

Murkowski is not without leverage in the dispute. As the chair of the Senates Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Murkowski will be able to control nomination hearings for Interior Department posts. A meeting to confirm a series of appointments to Zinkes department was postponed Thursday, the committee announced. A spokesperson claimed that the delay was due to scheduling uncertainty.

And Murkowski is also the chair of an appropriations subcommittee centered on the Interior Department.

Concerns have also been raised that Zinkes actions could prompt a review from the departments inspector general. At least one Democratic congressman said that he would request an investigation into Zinkes potential threats.

Running a department of the federal government means you serve the American people as a protector of their rights and freedoms, said Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. It doesnt mean you serve the president as a bagman for his political vendettas.

The Interior Department did not respond to requests for comment on the matter.

Read more from Yahoo News:
President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday via Twitter that the U.S. military would no longer accept or allow transgender people.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, wrote the president in three tweets early Wednesday.

READ: Transgender Parent Fights For Child's 'Non-Gendered' Birth Certificate

While many civil rights organizations and veterans panned the move, the accounts of some right-wing Twitter supported the president.

Ann Colter retweeted this one:

BUT TRUMP HOW WILL WE WIN WARS WITHOUT DEEPLY MENTALLY ILL SOLDIERS?!?!  J Burton (@JBurtonXP) July 26, 2017

Former Blaze host Tomi Lahren felt that taxpayers shouldn't cover the cost of transgender military health care.

The military is not about the wants of the individual, it's about the mission. Taxpayers should not be on the hook for hormone treatment!! https://t.co/cJWFu5BSmb  Tomi Lahren (@TomiLahren) July 26, 2017

And other conservatives spoke out in support of the announcement as well:

Prepare for the far left heads to explode over Trump ban of transgenders in military.  Bill Mitchell (@mitchellvii) July 26, 2017

"The military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars" @tperkins https://t.co/NAGPKXw5kM  FRCAction (@FRCAction) July 26, 2017

They were asking the Government to Pay - Who does the Government get their $ from? The Taxpayer.. so Again I am NOT paying for your surgery https://t.co/hDWPMxRYeQ  Peter Boykin (@peterboykin) July 26, 2017

If people with medical conditions aren't allowed to serve in the military, why should people with identity issues be allowed?







LGBT #trans  Pink Lady 4 Trump (@pink_lady56) July 26, 2017

"The U.S. Military doesn't conform to you, but you conform to it"







Trump's decision on Transgender Americans is completely valid.  Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) July 26, 2017

The move is a reversal of a 2016 decision by President Barack Obama that allowed current transgender soldiers to serve openly and set up a deadline for onboarding new transgender service members. The deadline was pushed back and it appears as if Trump's pronouncement will end it.

Story continues

READ: Chelsea Manning Reacts To Trump's Transgender Ban: How Many Serve In US Military?

It is not know how many transgender service members there are currently, but estimates run from 1,320 to over 15,000 from studies by think tanks and civil rights organizations.

Congress is currently debating a $700 billion spending bill to fund the military and several conservatives want language in the bill barring the Pentagon from paying for gender reassignment procedures.

In spite of vocal advocates of Trump's ban, other Republicans and conservatives panned the move. Republican transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner hit on Trump's hypocrisy.

There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them? https://t.co/WzjypVC8Sr  Caitlyn Jenner (@Caitlyn_Jenner) July 26, 2017

Republican and veteran Sen. John McCain said that making the policy announcement via Twitter was irresponsible.

Any American who meets current medical & readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving - my full stmt: https://t.co/6rHm5OWQzc  John McCain (@SenJohnMcCain) July 26, 2017

Sen. Orrin Hatch responds to Trump ban, saying he doesn't think "we should be discriminating." https://t.co/N2c7USw0T2 #trans pic.twitter.com/QNgqcibggO  USA TODAY (@USATODAY) July 26, 2017

Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch pushed back on the announcement as well.

Related Articles
The United States and China said Tuesday they are making progress on a new U.N. resolution that would impose additional sanctions against North Korea following its test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The U.S. gave China a proposed resolution several weeks ago, and U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley told reporters that China has been negotiating with its close ally Russia on possible new sanctions.

The true test will be what theyve worked out with Russia, she said.

Chinas U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told two journalists that we are making progress and we are working as hard as we can.

But neither Haley nor Liu would estimate how long it will take before they agree on a draft that can be circulated to the rest of the 15-member Security Council and then put to a vote.

There is certainly light at the end of the tunnel and we are working towards that light, and I cant really tell how much time we would need, Liu said.

He wouldnt confirm that China is working with Russia on the text, saying there is always a process of working out the resolution, and in due course I think the resolution will be discussed at a wider circle.

Haley said I think we are moving. Its not as fast as I would like but these are pretty serious sanctions and so I think that there is a lot of thought going into this.

The Security Council has already imposed six rounds of progressively tougher sanctions against North Korea, but so far that has failed to halt the countrys rapidly advancing nuclear and ballistic missile programs.

The most recent sanctions resolution to be adopted, on June 2, added to the U.N. blacklist 15 individuals and four entities linked to the Norths nuclear and missile programs.

At the time, China was blocking tougher measures pushed by the United States.

But North Korea raised the stakes with its launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile as Americans celebrated Independence Day on July 4.

The test marked a significant step toward young North Korean leader Kim Jong Uns goal of developing a missile with a nuclear warhead capable of reaching the United States  and it changed the reality for the Trump administration, which moved quickly to give China a new draft resolution with tougher sanctions.

Haley stressed that the United States wants to ensure that a new resolution is a strong resolution, because thats what we think we need to have.

I think we are making progress, so we are actually talking about different sanctions, she said.

Haley refused to say what measures were being discussed. But earlier this month she told the Security Council that if it is united, the international community can cut off major sources of hard currency to North Korea, restrict oil to its military and weapons programs, increase air and maritime restrictions and hold senior officials accountable.

Liu said there is going to be more than the last resolution.

But he stressed that for China, a resolution must serve to promote denuclearization and peace and security on the Korean Peninsula, and a negotiated solution to North Koreas nuclear and missile programs.

Therefore, Liu said, the specific measures in a new resolution need to be measured against achieving those three objectives.

Haley said she was pleased with Chinas response to the initial draft the U.S. proposed.

We were waiting to see if it was going to be weak or strong, and I think theyre showing some seriousness with it, Haley said. We are constantly in touch with China and I can say that things are moving, but it is still too early to tell how far theyll move.

Liu said the most important thing is to have  a draft resolution that everybody can support.

One possible stumbling block is whether the new resolution will refer to North Koreas test of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

Russia has questioned whether the missile actually was an ICBM, though China did not.

I think that everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges its an ICBM, Haley said. Whether theyre willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question.

Liu noted that previous resolutions referred to ballistic missiles without going into further categorization of the missiles.

And I do not think that for the purpose of working out a resolution you need really to go to the technical nitty gritties of things, he said.

Liu said China is still working to convince other governments to support its suspension-for-suspension proposal in which North Korea would suspend nuclear and missile tests in exchange for the U.S. and South Korea suspending their joint military exercises.

The package proposed by China and supported by Russia also includes denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula and a peace and security mechanism in place for both North Korea and South Korea, Liu said.

We just hope that the other relevant parties will be forthcoming because we dont see any alternative, he said. Edith M. Lederer, AP
President Trump and Attorney General Jeff Sessions. (Photo illustration: Yahoo News; photos: Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP, Matt Rourke/AP, AP [2])

I was itching to write this week about the ever-shrinking opposition party in Washington, which just unveiled its big new slogan, A Better Deal  expertly calibrated to appeal to the slice of 80-something Americans who still fondly recall the Roosevelt administration, about half of whom are Democrats in Congress.

But once again, hapless Democrats who deserve some scrutiny have been spared by the antics of the president, a relentless innovator who somehow manages to keep coming up with shocking new ways to compel our attention, even when you think the whole shtick cant get any crazier. Which, by the way, is pretty much the definition of an entertainer.

In a twist none of us saw coming, President Trump has now declared war not on Iran or North Korea (thats probably being held back for sweeps week), but rather on his own attorney general.

After ramping up his criticism of Jeff Sessions in the past week, going as far as to say he wouldnt have appointed the former Alabama senator had he known that Sessions would recuse himself from the investigation into Trumps Russian contacts, Trump took his case to Twitter, which is how you can always tell this president is serious about something.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers! Trump tweeted. A word spelled out in all capital letters is how you know this president is really serious about something.

If youre a Trump supporter, you should take all this seriously, too. Because the War on Sessions is telling you something about the kind of leader Trump really is.

And it should remind all of us, once again, that when it comes to Trump, you have to separate the reality from the reality show persona.

Theres a lot thats confounding about Trumps obsessive berating of Sessions. First, you have to stand back and consider the oddity of Trumps specific grievance.

Generally, when presidents lose faith in a subordinate, and it happens in every administration, its because that person has compromised his integrity or the standing of the administration.

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President Obama got rid of Stanley McChrystal, the top general in Afghanistan, after he publicly mocked the vice president. George W. Bush accepted the resignation of his friend Mike Brown, the FEMA director, not long after Hurricane Katrina became an all-out catastrophe in New Orleans.

In this case, Trump is disgusted with the nations chief law enforcement officer because he did precisely what any legal expert will tell you he had to do. Both Chris Christie and Rudy Giuliani, former prosecutors who can be counted as staunch Trump supporters, have said that Sessions had no choice but to recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

What Trump is saying here, quite baldly, is that his attorney general acted ethically instead of using his authority to spare the president a nettlesome investigation, and this constitutes an unforgivable act of treachery.

Inside voice, Mr. President. Inside voice.

Then theres this issue of loyalty, which Trump seems to value so highly in everyone else.

Sessions was the first senator to embrace Trump when he joined the campaign just after the South Carolina primary, at a crucial moment. But his symbolic value to Trump ran deeper than that.

A culturally conservative lawman in the tradition of the old, segregationist South, Sessions embodied a powerful, nostalgic current in Southern Republican politics. When he stepped up to a podium in Alabama, just before Super Tuesday, and acknowledged that we dont get everything we want in a candidate while embracing Trump, he sent a signal that religious Southerners could trust a coarse New York billionaire to hold the line against immigrants and liberal chauvinists.

Sessions took the Make America Great Again slogan that Trump slapped on a hat and gave it meaning in parts of the country where Trump could easily have seen the nomination slip away.

Later, when a lot of Trumps allies distanced themselves from the man overheard deriding women on a hot mic, there was Sessions on the Sunday shows and in the debate spin rooms, uncompromisingly vouching for the candidates inner morality.

Now heres Trump talking to the Wall Street Journal this week: When they say he endorsed me, I went to Alabama. I had 40,000 people.  He looks at 40,000 people and he probably says, What do I have to lose? And he endorsed me. So its not like a great loyal thing about the endorsement.

Oh. So I guess its like that.

Let me translate this for anyone in the White House or Congress whos still willing to sacrifice his own integrity for the promise of this presidents gratitude, or maybe for a pardon: You can tattoo MAGA on your forehead, but unless your last name is Trump, youre always going to be as disposable as an acne pad. (And that probably goes for you too, Jared.)

But here, to me, is the larger lesson of Trumps public breach with Sessions. Once again, the guy who held himself out on TV as the worlds toughest and most successful CEO turns out to be, in real life, a surprisingly whiny and ineffectual manager.

I mean, Trump has now publicly charged that his own attorney general  the seventh public servant in the line of succession to the presidency  is weak, delinquent in his duties and damaging to the institution of the presidency. If thats even partly true, the American legal system is in grave peril.

So what does the blustery president do, this guy whose catchphrase, Youre fired!, catapulted him to national celebrity?

He complains. He tweets. He talks smack and waits for someone else to act, like a high school kid too scared to break up with his girlfriend.

A friend of mine once related to me some very sage advice hed gotten in business, which was that whenever an employee fails in his job, there are two people who have to take a hard look at themselves in the mirror: the employee who cant hack it, and the executive who put him in a position to fail.

Mr. President, you chose this AG. He reports only to you. If hes so terrible for the country, then man up and find the stones to fire him.

Thats what TV Donald Trump would have done. But this Trump we have now  the one with a real job in the real world  seems paralyzed by insecurity. He wants other people to make the tough calls.

Sessions cant stay in his job for long  that seems clear enough. Trump wants an AG who will move to shut down the independent counsel, and somewhere out there is a legal scholar craven enough to do it. (Look up Bork, Robert in your history book.)

Its only a question now of whether Sessions can stomach the abuse long enough to get himself pushed aside, or whether hell do Trumps bidding one last time and ultimately stand down.

Either way, Sessions must understand now that the tough-talking CEO he endorsed bears little resemblance to the president he serves.

Mr. Youre Fired has become Mr. You First.

_____

Read more from Yahoo News:
By Michelle Nichols UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The United States is making progress in talks with North Korean ally China on imposing new United Nations sanctions on Pyongyang over its latest missile test, but Russia's engagement will be the "true test," U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said. The United States gave China a draft resolution nearly three weeks ago to impose stronger sanctions on North Korea over the July 4 missile launch. Haley had been aiming for a vote by the 15-member Security Council within weeks, senior diplomats said. "We're constantly in touch with China ... Things are moving but it's still too early to tell how far they'll move," Haley said on Tuesday, adding that she was pleased with China's initial response to the U.S. proposal because it showed "seriousness." "We know that China's been sharing and negotiating with Russia, so as long as they are doing that, we're going to continue to watch this closely to make sure it is a strong resolution," she told reporters. China's U.N. Ambassador Liu Jieyi told reporters: "We are making progress, it requires time, but we're working very hard." Speaking in Beijing on Wednesday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said any United Nations' moves should help ensure peace, stability and denuclearization. "All sides need to maintain pressure, and also work hard to ease the tense situation on the peninsula as soon as possible, creating a beneficial environment and atmosphere for resuming contacts and talks," Lu told a daily news briefing. Traditionally, the United States and China have negotiated sanctions on North Korea before formally involving other council members, though diplomats said Washington informally keeps Britain and France in the loop. Along with Russia, those five countries are veto-wielding Security Council members. "The true test will be what (the Chinese) have worked out with Russia (and whether) Russia comes and tries to pull out of that," said Haley. The United States and Russia have waged rival campaigns at the Security Council over the type of ballistic missile fired by North Korea. Western powers have said it was an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM), while Russia said the missile fired was only medium-range. Diplomats say China and Russia only view a long-range missile test or nuclear weapon test as a trigger for further possible U.N. sanctions. "Everyone that we have dealt with acknowledges that it's an ICBM. Whether they are willing to put it in writing or not is going to be the real question," Haley said. North Korea has been under U.N. sanctions since 2006 over its ballistic missile and nuclear programs and the Security Council has ratcheted up the measures in response to five nuclear weapons tests and two long-range missile launches. President Donald Trump's administration has been frustrated that China has not done more to rein in North Korea and senior officials have said Washington could impose new sanctions on Chinese firms doing business with Pyongyang. When asked how long Washington was willing to negotiate with China at the United Nations before deciding to impose its own secondary sanctions, Haley said: "We're making progress ... We're going to see what the situation is." "We want China and every other country to see it as serious and we're going to keep moving forward that way," she said. China's Ambassador to Washington Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday that Beijing objected to secondary sanctions. In June, the United States blacklisted two Chinese citizens and a shipping company for helping North Korea's nuclear and missile programs. "Such actions are unacceptable. They have severely impaired China-U.S. cooperation on the Korean nuclear issue, and give rise to more questions about the true intention of the U.S.," he told the Institute for China-America Studies in Washington. (Additional reporting by David Brunstrom in Washington and Ben Blanchard in Beijing; Editing by James Dalgleish and Clarence Fernandez)
MANILA (Reuters) - The United States on Thursday transferred to the Philippines two brand-new, single-engine surveillance planes, boosting the capability of its former colony to patrol sprawling maritime borders, including pirate-infested southern waters. At a ceremony at an air base in Manila, Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said two Cessna 208B aircraft were fitted with electro-optical sensors and other surveillance equipment to detect ships in the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea. "These planes will give us more capability to patrol our seas and guard against intrusions," Lorenzana said. "These are not spy planes, only surveillance aircraft, because they are not stealth." The military variant of the plane can operate for hours at an altitude of 25,000 feet (7,620 meters) and has a range of 1,000 nautical miles (1,852 kilometers). The planes, worth about $2 million each, can also be used against Islamist militants in Marawi City on the southern island of Mindanao. But the whole package costs $30 million, including the surveillance, intelligence and reconnaissance (ISR) gear. Philippine troops have been battling hundreds of pro-Islamic State militants who seized Marawi City on May 23, killing nearly 600 people and displacing close to 500,000 residents in Lanao del Sur. Military spokesman Brigadier-General Restituto Padilla said the United States decided last year to transfer the planes under its $425-million Maritime Security Initiative to help Southeast Asian countries tackle regional security challenges, including China's assertiveness in the South China Sea. The Philippines got more than 80 percent of the $49.72 million allocated in 2016 under the MSI program, a reward after Manila agreed to allow the United States access to its five bases. Two Eagle Scan unmanned aerial vehicles will also be donated by September to help tactical units defeat Islamist militants. In February, Washington also donated hand-held Raven drones to the Philippine Marines operating against the Abu Sayyaf militants on the southern island of Jolo. The military said it had bought hundreds of 500-pound bombs and unspecified rockets from the United States to replenish its inventory, depleted by daily bomb runs in Marawi City. (Reporting by Manuel Mogato; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
Moscow (AFP) - Moscow and the European Union hit out at the United States on Wednesday after an overwhelming vote by the House of Representatives to impose new sanctions on Russia left President Donald Trump facing a tough call.

The package, which targets Russia, Iran and North Korea, "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe," House Speaker Paul Ryan said after it passed on Tuesday by 419 votes to three.

It now heads to the Senate before Trump faces the tricky choice of whether to veto the bill, which has been opposed by the White House and considerably constrains his ability to lift the penalties.

While Moscow and Tehran raised the prospect of retaliation over any fresh punitive measures, the EU also warned it was "ready to act to protect European interests" if the legislation hit dealings with the Russian energy sector.

The US bill was the result of a congressional compromise aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly interfering in the 2016 US presidential election and intervening in Ukraine.

Related:

For more news videos visit Yahoo View, available on iOS and Android.

Key among the provisions is one that handcuffs Trump by complicating any unilateral efforts to ease santions against Moscow in future -- effectively placing him under Congress's watch.

"Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression," House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce said, applauding the bill's backing.

- Sanctions 'will not go unanswered' -

Despite initially opposing the bill, Trump appears to have few options in the face of near-total consensus in Congress, with a decision likely due by mid-August.

Spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House was still "reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk".

But even if Trump were to veto the legislation, Congress would likely be able to overcome such a blockage with a two-thirds majority in each chamber.

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Moscow responded angrily to the vote, with deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov insisting Washington had been warned "dozens of times" that any new sanctions would "not go unanswered".

"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destroying the possibilities for normalising relations with Russia," he told state-run TASS news agency.

Ties between Moscow and Washington have been at their lowest point since the Cold War since the US began slapping sanctions on Russia after its annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Trump repeatedly pledged to improve relations during his campaign, raising the prospect that he could roll back the Obama-era punishments.

Since then, accusations from US intelligence that the Kremlin meddled in the vote to get Trump elected have made any softening of the stance on Russia politically toxic.

The bill also includes fresh sanctions against Iran and its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, which stands accused of supporting terrorism, and North Korea, for its missile tests, are also included.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said Tehran would respond in kind to any breach by the US of the 2015 nuclear deal after the vote.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its response.

- European 'concerns' -

In a rare feat, the US vote has also managed to upset European Union nations worried that it could damage their energy interests.

European commissioners, the EU executive's top officials, "expressed their concerns notably because of the draft bill's possible impact on EU energy independence," the bloc said in a statement following talks in Brussels on Wednesday.

In an apparent concession, the House modified a provision so the bill only targets pipelines originating in Russia, sparing those that merely pass through, such as the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe.

But Brussels worries that the fresh wave of measures could end up penalising European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector.

"Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe," including those transiting through Ukraine, the EU said in a statement.

Brussels also decried the sanctions bill as a unilateral action by Washington that disrupted previous close cooperation on measures against Russia, which took a toll on its economy.

The EU and US imposed the punishment after Russia's annexation of Crimea, before Moscow was later accused of backing a separatist insurgency to halt Ukraine's pivot to the West.

The two sides later imposed broader economic sanctions after the shooting down of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 in July 2014, which international investigators say was downed by a Russian missile fired from rebel-held territory.

burs-del/adm
Mega-retailer Walmart reportedly joined business and government officials in Washington Wednesday to unveil a plan to boost growth in the domestic manufacturing sector. Company executives said the plan would generate an estimated 1.5 million jobs in the United States.

Walmart proposed 10 policy plans to boost U.S. manufacturing jobs that the company claimed might "recapture" an estimated $300 billion of the $600 billion worth of imported consumer goods.

READ: Amazon Could Launch Stand-Alone Messaging App 'Anytime,' Here Are The Possible Features Included

Walmarts "policy roadmap" proposal included building vocational schools, reducing costs for private companies to train workers, rebranding U.S. manufacturing to draw workers and increase demand for American-made products. Other proposals included creating flexible compliance guidelines for small businesses, broadening tax deductions to promote manufacturing investment and strengthening trade agreements.

The company claimed there was a lack of available and capable workers and proper financing to fund U.S. manufacturers prevented growth in the manufacturing sector. The worlds biggest retailer, which devoted efforts to sourcing $250 million worth of U.S. made products in 2013, claimed it identified those obstacles while working with suppliers during the past four years.

Cindi Marsiglio, Walmart's vice president of U.S. Sourcing and Manufacturing, talked about those challenges and how the company planned to spark job growth.

"As weve worked over the last four years alongside our suppliers toward our goal to source an additional $250 billion in products that support American jobs, weve learned a great deal about the challenges our suppliers face in domestic manufacturing," Marsiglio told Fox Business Wednesday. "The good news is weve also learned how to overcome the challenges and, because of our experience, Walmart is uniquely positioned to help facilitate broad engagement in accelerating the expansion of U.S. manufacturing."

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Marsiglio's statement came during a time when President Donald Trump promised to boost job growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector. Earlier this month, the White House held its "Made in America" week, showcasing companies and products developed across America.

With the aid of an analysis by the Boston Consulting Group and Walmart sourcing data, Walmart claimed that every $100 billion retained domestically had potential to generate over 500,000 manufacturing jobs that could, in turn, create an extra 1.5 million jobs.

Walmart said that it discussed the proposals during a meeting with representatives of business, government and non-governmental organizations in Washington D.C.

READ: Walmart Developing Facial Recognition System That Identifies Unhappy Customers

U.S. Representative Tom Reed (R-NY), co-chair of the House Manufacturing Caucus, cited the importance of the manufacturing sector and how technological advancement opened the door for economic growth.

"Enhancing US manufacturing is a top priority of mine," Reed told Fox Business. "Manufacturing is an advancing field where new technologies will open doors to job creation and economic growth."

He added, "We must work together to remove barriers so that we are more competitive and good paying jobs are once again created right here in the United States."

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Photo: Getty Images

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Amber Hensley abused the women and accused them of saying 'f*** Jesus': SARAH HASSAN/FACEBOOK

A woman told three Somali-American women she wanted to kill all Muslims while ordering them to go home during an argument over parking.

Amber Hensley shouted at Rowda Soyan, Sarah Hassan and Laleyla Hassan in the car park of a Walmart in Fargo, North Dakota, as she believed they had parked too close to her car.

Ms Hassan recorded a video of Hensley delivering an angry tirade, which was sent to the police and circulated widely on social media.

Go home, go home, Hensley was heard saying. Were going to kill every one of you f****** Muslims.Why are you in our country? Im an American, youre not.

When Ms Hassan warned she was going to report the incident to the police, Hensley said Do you think the police care?

Hensley said she was terribly sorry for threatening the women in an interview with KVVR but explained when she had become angry. "She had parked way too close to my car and I couldnt get in, when I asked her to move she refused, she said.

I asked her again and she swore at me calling me a fat b****. I informed her that I was a Christian and asked her if she knew who Jesus was, she said f*** Jesus and I lost it.

"But there are absolutely no excuses. I am in tears with regret and will take any form of punishment deemed fit. It was not a Christian-like thing to do at all and wish I could take it back.

Ms Hassan refuted Hensleys version of events, claiming Hensley initiated the insults and saying they would never insult Jesus in the way she described.

Hensley was reportedly fired from her job at Horab & Wentz, the accountancy firm, in the aftermath of the incident. The company said it had received dozens of complaints about her behaviour.
A rendering of Nasa's Low Boom Flight Demonstration Quiet Supersonic Transport (QueSST) X-plane design - Lockheed Martin

For all its reputation as a miracle of motion at the forefront of all things travel, supersonic aviation is both mired in the past and weighed down by a future laden with question marks.

Not since Concorde was removed from service in October 2003 has a commercial airliner flown at beyond the speed of sound. And with the retirement of the great Anglo-French jet, the concept of soaring through the air at faster than 761mph has increasingly become a fragment of yesteryear - a ghost of some golden age that is deemed unlikely to return.

Part of the issue with supersonic flying is just how noisy it is. Famously, a plane breaking the sound barrier provokes a "sonic boom" - a cacophonous whip-crack which, if it erupts close enough to the ground, can cause windows to break and complaints to be issued.

Concorde was enough of a noise monster that its presence in America was largely unwelcome.

secrets of air travel

Contrary to perception - and in spite of the popular consensus that the plane was generally a success in its 27 years of active service - supersonic flight over the US is banned, and has been since 1973. British Airways and Air France had to receive special dispensation to fly their baby to Washington DC and New York - and could go no further.

Concorde was retired in 2003 Credit:  2005 Robert Evans/Robert Evans

But reports suggest that one of America's biggest pioneers in aviation, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa), is taking tentative steps towards a second generation of supersonic airliners.

According toBloomberg, Nasa may begin work on a fresh supersonic prototype model as early as next month, and is likely to collaborate with manufacturers such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing and General Dynamics - as well as relevant industry innovators like Aerion and Boom Technology - to bring theory into reality.

Central to the blueprint will be a plane with a modified shape - subtler, sleeker, and therefore of less impact on the air around it. In theory, this would mean that it could break the sound barrier less brusquely, and at a lesser volume, than its celebrated predecessor.

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Nasa researchers are quietly confident that tests on their model, conducted in a wind tunnel in June, demonstrate that such an aircraft could cut current standard flight times in half - meaning that the average seven hour duration of a hop between London and New York could be slashed to less than four hours.

At a glance | Flight times if Nasa's plane is made reality

This radical time difference, along with the lower noise levels, could mean a loosening, or even an abandonment, of the US's strict rules on supersonic aviation in its airspace, and make the whole ultra-fast process more financially viable.

Although there were several causes of Concorde's gradual slump from being essential to being obsolete - not least its catastrophic crash at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris on July 25 in 2000 - the restrictions on where it could fly undoubtedly hastened its demise.

But times are changing, and the planet's growing reliance on air travel will, during the next decade, "drive the demand for broadly available faster air travel, Peter Coen, project manager for Nasas commercial supersonic research team, told Bloomberg. Thats going to make it possible for companies to offer competitive products in the future.

15 surprising things you didn't know about long-haul flights

How soon, and how softly, are the questions to which most interested parties want solutions - and the second is much easier to answer.

At its loudest, Concorde's sonic output was somewhere around 90 dBa (A-weighted decibels). Nasa is aiming to cut this by about a third, to 60-65 dBA - hardly a sudden silence, and still the equivalent of a high-powered car on the motorway - but a significant reduction in the main concern, all the same.

The agency is planning to spend some $390 million (299 million) on its prototype over the next five years, and has already been liaising with Lockheed Martin on design.

"Now youre getting down to that level where, as far as approval from the general public, it would probably be something thats acceptable, says Peter Iosifidis, a design program manager at Lockheed, of that 60-65 dBA figure.

The Nasa prototype will reportedly resolve the sonic boom problem by employing a shape which will keep sound waves from merging

A sonic boom occurs when a flying object achieves a speed of Mach 1 - which is approximately 761mph at sea level (though this varies at other altitudes).

This is the point at which the pressure waves created by a plane's motion can no longer get out of its, or each other's, way. They become compressed, and merge into a single shockwave, which causes the dramatic bang.

The Nasa prototype will reportedly resolve this problem by employing a shape which will keep sound waves from merging. Instead, they will be dispersed across various points of the aircraft, resulting in a low hum rather than a single sound explosion.

The matter of when air passengers may be able to see the fruits of this research is a little harder to predict. Nasa plans to run live tests on its brainchild as soon as 2022.

When, precisely, this will translate into everyday transportation is yet to be seen. But the future is coming - and it's quieter than you think.

Concorde: 40 fascinating facts
SAN FRANCISCO (AP)  Tech titans Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk recently slugged it out online over the possible threat artificial intelligence might one day pose to the human race, although you could be forgiven if you don't see why this seems like a pressing question.

Thanks to AI, computers are learning to do a variety of tasks that have long eluded them  everything from driving cars to detecting cancerous skin lesions to writing news stories. But Musk, the founder of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, worries that AI systems could soon surpass humans, potentially leading to our deliberate (or inadvertent) extinction.

Two weeks ago, Musk warned U.S. governors to get educated and start considering ways to regulate AI in order to ward off the threat. "Once there is awareness, people will be extremely afraid," he said at the time.

Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook, took exception. In a Facebook Live feed recorded Saturday in front of his barbecue smoker, Zuckerberg hit back at Musk, saying people who "drum up these doomsday scenarios" are "pretty irresponsible." On Tuesday, Musk slammed back on Twitter, writing that "I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited."

Here's a look at what's behind this high-tech flare-up  and what you should and shouldn't be worried about.

WHAT IS AI, ANYWAY?

Back in 1956, scholars gathered at Dartmouth College to begin considering how to build computers that could improve themselves and take on problems that only humans could handle. That's still a workable definition of artificial intelligence.

An initial burst of enthusiasm at the time, however, devolved into an "AI winter" lasting many decades as early efforts largely failed to create machines that could think and learn  or even listen, see or speak.

That started changing five years ago. In 2012, a team led by Geoffrey Hinton at the University of Toronto proved that a system using a brain-like neural network could "learn" to recognize images. That same year, a team at Google led by Andrew Ng taught a computer system to recognize cats in YouTube videos  without ever being taught what a cat was.

Since then, computers have made enormous strides in vision, speech and complex game analysis. One AI system recently beat the world's top player of the ancient board game Go.

HERE COMES TERMINATOR'S SKYNET ... MAYBE

For a computer to become a "general purpose" AI system, it would need to do more than just one simple task like drive, pick up objects, or predict crop yields. Those are the sorts of tasks to which AI systems are largely limited today.

But they might not be hobbled for too long. According to Stuart Russell, a computer scientist at the University of California at Berkeley, AI systems may reach a turning point when they gain the ability to understand language at the level of a college student. That, he said, is "pretty likely to happen within the next decade."

While that on its own won't produce a robot overlord, it does mean that AI systems could read "everything the human race has ever written in every language," Russell said. That alone would provide them with far more knowledge than any individual human.

The question then is what happens next. One set of futurists believe that such machines could continue learning and expanding their power at an exponential rate, far outstripping humanity in short order. Some dub that potential event a "singularity," a term connoting change far beyond the ability of humans to grasp.

NEAR-TERM CONCERNS

No one knows if the singularity is simply science fiction or not. In the meantime, however, the rise of AI offers plenty of other issues to deal with.

AI-driven automation is leading to a resurgence of U.S. manufacturing  but not manufacturing jobs . Self-driving vehicles being tested now could ultimately displace many of the almost 4 million professional truck, bus and cab drivers now working in the U.S.

Human biases can also creep into AI systems. A chatbot released by Microsoft called Tay began tweeting offensive and racist remarks after online trolls baited it with what the company called "inappropriate" comments.

Harvard University professor Latanya Sweeney found that searching in Google for names associated with black people more often brought up ads suggesting a criminal arrest. Examples of image-recognition bias abound.

"AI is being created by a very elite few, and they have a particular way of thinking that's not necessarily reflective of society as a whole," says Mariya Yao, chief technology officer of AI consultancy TopBots.

MITIGATING HARM FROM AI

In his speech to the governors, Musk urged governors to be proactive, rather than reactive, in regulating AI, although he didn't offer many specifics. And when a conservative Republican governor challenged him on the value of regulation, Musk retreated and said he was mostly asking for government to gain more "insight" into potential issues presented by AI.

Of course, the prosaic use of AI will almost certainly challenge existing legal norms and regulations. When a self-driving car causes a fatal accident, or an AI-driven medical system provides an incorrect medical diagnosis, society will need rules in place for determining legal responsibility and liability.

With such immediate challenges ahead, worrying about superintelligent computers "would be a tragic waste of time," said Andrew Moore, dean of the computer science school at Carnegie Mellon University.

That's because machines aren't now capable of thinking out of the box in ways they weren't programmed for, he said. "That is something which no one in the field of AI has got any idea about."

___

Follow AP Technology Writer Ryan Nakashima at twitter.com/rnakashi
RUPERT  A Boise man will spend time in county jail and five years on supervised probation for child enticement.

Awfeed Fareed Isho, 26, was charged with the felony in August 2016 after Rupert police said he drove more than two hours to meet a 15-year-old girl to have sex at a Rupert swimming hole.

Instead of meeting the girl, Isho found police waiting for him instead.

Isho was sentenced Monday to 30 days in county jail and two to five years in prison. The prison sentence was suspended, and Isho was given credit for already serving five days in county jail.

He was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation.

Isho pleaded guilty to the charge.

Police said the girl responded to Ishos Craigslist ad listing a car for sale and during the online conversation he began trying to talk the girl into meeting him to have sex.

The girl told her mother, who turned the information over to police.

As detectives continued the online conversation they told Isho multiple times the girl was underage but he still tried to talk her into having sex with him.

Pretending to be the girl, detectives set up a meeting with Isho and when he arrived at the swimming location, police arrested him.

Isho told police that he had initiated sexual conversations with the girl but was meeting her to warn her about the danger of meeting men online.
TWIN FALLS  A Dominos cashier who helped to stage a robbery on Super Bowl Sunday has been sentenced to two to seven years, but with a rider that could let her avoid prison if she completes a therapeutic program run by the Idaho Department of Corrections.

Katelyne Nicole Plaster, 20, pleaded guilty in May. She was also sentenced Monday to pay a combined $4,307 in fines, restitution and court fees.

Plaster and her two co-defendants, Nicholas Anthony Slane and Dustin Camryn Farnworth, faked the robbery of the Twin Falls Dominos where Plaster worked. Authorities said Slane entered the store with a gun and wearing a mask, taking $1,800, and Farnworth drove. Slane was sentenced to two to 10 years in prison last month. Farnworth is scheduled to be sentenced on Sept. 28.
RUPERT  An 18-year-old Rupert man is charged with child enticement after police said he asked an officer posing online as a 14-year-old girl for sex.

Dashiell S. Jones is charged with two counts of felony enticing children.

A city of Rupert police officer said he received a friend request on Facebook from Jones on his undercover profile, which depicted a 14-year-old female.

The officer received a private message from Jones and said the conversation escalated sexually over the next few days.

The deputy said he repeatedly told Jones he was 14 years old.

Jones sent sexually explicit photos and video of himself and then told the officer to delete the conversation, the investigator said.

The officer said Jones set up a meeting at a Rupert church on July 22 and was met by police and arrested.

Jones told the officer that prior to his arrival he had decided it was not a good idea to meet for sex and that he went to the location to tell the girl that. He said he did not want the girl to remain at the church.

A preliminary hearing in the case is set for Aug. 4 in Minidoka County magistrate court.
TWIN FALLS  Its that time of year again: Back-to-school advertisements are everywhere, and store aisles are full of pencils, glue sticks and three-ring binders.

Students across south-central Idaho head back to school from mid-August through early September.

Many school districts are expecting a modest increase in student numbers  even, in small, rural communities such as Hansen, Murtaugh and Shoshone. Larger districts like Twin Falls, Cassia County and Minidoka County are predicting much larger gains.

Im kind of anticipating were going to have a growth, said Ken Cox, Minidoka County School District superintendent.

It may be a reflection of the population continuing to grow across the Magic Valley as more businesses open. But school enrollment projections are just an educated guess at this point.

The Twin Falls School Districts enrollment predictions havent changed since this spring. Officials expect 293 more students  a 1.2 percent increase over last year, for a total of 9,595.

There are 21 days left of summer until children head back to class Aug. 17.

Each spring, school principals do a lot of work to predict enrollment for the following school year, Superintendent Brady Dickinson said Wednesday.

School officials look at enrollment history  including increases over time  and reach out to private schools that may have children coming into Twin Falls School District middle schools, for example.

We try to look at those numbers to anticipate how many students we might be picking up, Dickinson said.

And overall, the growth trend in the Twin Falls School District is continuing.

After talking with a few local realtors recently, Dickinson found out it has been an extremely busy spring and summer for home sales and many buyers are young families moving into the area.

For school officials, its important to be as accurate as possible with enrollment projections because it determines how many teachers are needed, Dickinson said.

With a statewide teacher shortage, its tough to find people to fill last-minute openings in August and September.

Also, class sizes are sometimes a concern in the district, Dickinson said, but the district funds an extra 10 teaching jobs that arent covered by state money to try to keep class sizes down.

One way parents can help the school district: attend school registration in August so schools can get a handle on any unexpected growth, Dickinson said. And if you child needs school busing, sign up on the districts website.

Elsewhere across south-central Idaho, Blaine County is projecting an enrollment drop  but it will likely lose only 17 students, for a total of 3,407.

In Shoshone, Superintendent Rob Waite expects to see an increase, up to 600 students total.

However, we are a traditionally mobile population and late enrollers, he wrote in an email to the Times-News. So, we really wont know for sure until the first couple of weeks of school.

The Cassia County School District expects to gain at least 100 students, for a total of about 5,600. And thats a conservative estimate.

Many people are moving into the area for jobs such as at Dot Foods, said Pam Teeter, superintendents secretary. But some outlying communities may see school enrollment remain fairly flat, she added.

One area where the district always seems to see an increase: incoming kindergartners, Teeter said.

Nearby in Minidoka County, the school district also expects to gain at least 100 more students  for a total of about 4,300.

That level of growth is in line with most previous years, but last years enrollment remained fairly flat.

Growth will likely be fairly spread out throughout the school district. Each of the two middle schools will gain about 20 students  largely, due to a bigger incoming six-grade class.

The district has hired an additional teacher for each of the two schools.

Theres capacity in school buildings to handle more students, Cox said. But at West Minico Middle School in Paul, the district plans to build another couple of classrooms.

The project is in the design phase and will likely go out to bid next week, with completion around Thanksgiving.

Cox said he has noticed growth happening in his own neighborhood  a new subdivision south of Heyburn Elementary School. New families moved in over the summer from out of state and have eight children among them.

Its a trend many other Magic Valley communities are seeing, too  new houses going up and more people moving in. And that means more children filling classrooms.
BOISE  Local Judge Richard Bevan is one of four finalists for a seat on the Idaho Supreme Court.

Bevan, who is the Fifth Judicial Districts administrative judge, was one of 13 candidates to interview for the spot with the Idaho Judicial Council earlier this week. Thursday, the Council released the names of the four finalists being submitted to Gov. C.L. Butch Otter  Bevan, southeastern Idaho judge Gregory Moeller, Boise lawyer Rebecca Rainey and Moscow judge John Stegner.

Bevan has been a Fifth District Judge for more than 13 years and before that was a lawyer in private practice in Twin Falls and a Twin Falls County prosecutor, a position to which he was elected as a Republican. A year-and-a-half ago, Bevan was also vetted for the U.S. District Judge position that recently went to David Nye. Whomever is appointed will take the spot of Daniel Eismann, who is retiring at the end of August.

Otter recently got out of the hospital after two weeks for back surgery and is recovering at home. Otters spokesman Jon Hanian said he doesnt want to create an artificial timeline but is aware of Eismanns impending retirement. The timeline for filling the vacancy depends on when Otter returns to the office.

Hes obviously cognizant of the vacancy, Hanian said. He knows when the term will expire and well need a new person on there, but his approach on these things has been were not going to be driven by a timeline, were going to ... find the (right) candidate.

Bevans interview with the Judicial Council in Boise Tuesday seems to have gone well, according to the Spokane Spokesman Reviews Eye on Boise blog. Council member Phil Reberger said Bevans application was the best Ive read in a long time, and Supreme Court Chief Justice Roger Burdick said that when the Council asks judgeship applicants about their role models, your name comes up 100 percent of the time.

Burdick asked Bevan what he thinks the secret is to being a good trial judge. Bevan replied he tries to keep in mind what its like to be on the other side of the bench and show respect to those appearing in his court, the Eye on Boise blog reported.

I take the time to lay out the rationale, the reasoning for why Im ruling the way that I am, he said, saying this helps to instill confidence in the courts and their decisions.

The appointee will, should they wish to stay on the court, be up for election in May 2018 and possibly a runoff in November 2018.
JEROME  Three people were taken to the hospital after a crash that blocked U.S. 93 for more than two hours Tuesday afternoon.

Brenda Naylor, 53, of Twin Falls, was driving south and David Meyers, 82, of Sun Valley, was driving north, when the two vehicles collided near the intersection with state Highway 25, according to Idaho State Police.

Meyers vehicle went off the right shoulder of the road and Naylors came to rest in the roadway.

Meyers was flown to Portneuf Regional Medical Center in Pocatello and Naylor and Frances Meyers, 82, also of Sun Valley, who had been a passenger in Meyers SUV, were taken by ambulance to St. Lukes Magic Valley in Twin Falls by ground ambulance.

ISP is investigating the crash. Jerome County sheriffs deputies, Jerome city and rural firefighters and Magic Valley Paramedics also responded.
JEROME  A Jerome police captain is retiring at the end of the week after almost 40 years in public service.

Tim Green started his law enforcement career in 1978, as a law enforcement specialist in the U.S. Air Force Security Police, according to a news release from Jerome Police Chief Dan Hall. He spent 14-and-a-half years in the Air Force, becoming a dog handler, which became a career-long passion for him, and serving many overseas assignments, including being deployed to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War.

Green left the Air Force in 1992, and was in the Twin Falls Police Department for years before becoming Bellevue Marshall in 2005. Jerome hired him as a captain in 2008.

Green spent most of his time as commander of the citys Uniform Patrol Division, Hall said, and he continued to be an active dog handler and canine instructor. He was commander of the Investigative and Administration division during his last few months on the job. Green also deployed to Iraq with the Idaho Army National Guard in 2011.

Green has lived in the Jerome area for most of his career in the Magic Valley, Hall said, but he is originally from Montana and plans to move back there to be closer to his family.

Captain Green has spent most of his adult life serving the nation and the people of southern Idaho, Hall wrote. The city of Jerome and the Jerome Police Department wish Tim a very happy, and well deserved, retirement!
HAGERMAN  There are West Nile Virus-positive mosquitoes in Gooding County.

The mosquitoes were caught in South Central Public Health District traps in the Hagerman area, according to SCPHD and the Twin Falls County Pest Abatement District. No human or animal cases of the disease have been reported at this time.

West Nile is a potentially serious illness that is usually spread to animals and humans through the bite of an infected mosquito. Most people infected with West Nile do not show symptoms, Tanis Maxwell, SCPHD nurse program manager, said in a statement. However, people with symptoms may experience fever, headaches, body aches, fatigue, nausea, vomiting, eye pain, and sometimes swollen lymph glands or a skin rash typically occurring 2 to 14 days after the bite of an infected mosquito. More severe infections may involve the central nervous system.

The health district recommends people protect themselves from mosquito bites by draining any standing water on their property that may produce mosquitoes; avoiding the outdoors at dawn and dusk; wearing long sleeves and pants while outdoors; using mosquito repellent; and making sure doors and window screens are in good condition to keep them out.

The pest abatement district traps mosquitoes throughout the Magic Valley during the summer to test for the virus, said Manager Kirk Tubbs.

Some species are more prone to carrying diseases than others and we try to focus our work on those species, Tubbs said. We are increasing the surveillance in the area of the positive pools.

For more information visit phd5.idaho.gov or tfcpad.org.
SHOSHONE  Firefighters are tackling a fire near Shoshone with hand tools due to difficult access in lava rock.

The Lagoon Fire was reported close to midnight, and by 5:30 p.m. Wednesday it had burned an estimated 765 acres. It was burning 2 miles west of Shoshone.

Although there are structures in the area, none were in immediate danger, Bureau of Land Management Twin Falls District spokeswoman Kelsey Brizendine said.

Engines and dozers have been unable to get close enough for mobile attack, she said.

Its impossible. They have to park and walk, she said.

Thats because beneath the sagebrush and grass, the area is covered with lava rock.

Three helicopters, one air attack and four air tankers were working to keep the fire in check. Notch Butte Rangeland Fire Protection Association and Sawtooth National Forest were assisting.

Fearing thunderstorms could bring wind, crews were able to slow the fires progress. By Wednesday evening, most of the flames were out.

Everythings looking pretty good out there, Brizendine said.

The fires exact cause is unknown, but lightning is suspected.

Another fire that began Tuesday morning south of Murtaugh was contained that same evening at 68 acres. Crews left the area Wednesday night. The cause of the Antelope Valley Fire is under investigation.

Meanwhile, the human-caused Martin Canyon Fire east of Bellevue had burned 4,072 acres, with estimated containment Wednesday night. The fire should be completely out by Sunday.

There is no immediate threat to structures, but Muldoon Canyon Road is closed from the entrance of EE-da-ho Ranch to Muldoon, and from Little Wood Reservoir Dam to Muldoon. Muldoon Canyon is closed to recreation and camping.
A great thing about Idaho is the variety and gusto of our community life. Twelve months a year in almost any corner of Idaho you can delight in the unique elan offered up by civic organizations through activities, lectures, concerts, craft fairs and all manner of enrichment education for young and old. Friday and Saturday, Twin Falls residents and visitors will enjoy our annual Art in the Park festival. Therell be wine-tasting and jazz 5-8 p.m. Friday evening and a special half-day of Kids Art in the Park Saturday beginning at 8:45 a.m. The rest of Saturday will offer a host of activities for all ages: food, music, arts and crafts.

Twin Falls elementary, middle and high schools all enhance their students lives through music, creative writing and the performing, tactile and visual arts. It doesnt stop there. CSI has similar robust programs. For many students elective classes are the magnetism that keeps students drawn toward their overall educations. For adults and seniors, attending their childrens programs and exhibitions are a major component of their lives. Much of CSIs adult enrichment programing is geared toward improving adult and senior lives for enjoyment or new earning opportunities through development of art and craft talents and skills.

Our schools and college interact intimately with The Magic Valley Arts Council and other art-oriented organizations. Our communitys sizeable involvement in and even dependence upon art is often overlooked because it is so deeply woven into the fabric of our lives. Yet, art is as much a part of communication, commerce and industry as industry, commerce and communication are integral to art.

Humanitys greatest minds have underscored arts essentiality to civilization. Historians, anthropologists and sociologists generally agree that, after the struggle to survive, protect and provide comfort to ourselves and families, the next priority is largely recognized as our pursuit of art and culture in their broadest definitions.

Winston Churchills response to calls for art budget cuts to fund the war was reportedly, Then what are we fighting for? Echoing Friedrich Schillers declaration Art is the daughter of freedom. Albert Einstein implicitly linked art and creativity, stating, Logic will get you from A to B. Imagination will take you everywhere. Steve Jobs famously said, It is in Apples DNA that technology alone is not enough  its technology married with liberal arts, married with the humanities, that yields us the results that make our heart sing.

The vitality of the arts in Idaho and nationwide have been threatened for years under Republican-controlled congresses or Republican presidents. This years threat was direr than in the past, given complete Republican control of both houses of Congress and the White House. The presidents budget initially proposed complete defunding of the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and Institute of Museum and Library Services. Also threatened was funding for the Smithsonian Institute and National Museum for the Arts.

This would have been one of the most cynical ideologically driven budget amputations in modern history. The outrageousness stems both from its clear political targeting of intellectual expression, which, lamentably, congressional Republicans have long regarded as a threat, and secondly because of the insignificance the cuts would have on the federal budget or deficit. These four organizations combined cost a mere $971 million (0.025 percent) of 2016s $3.899 trillion federal budget. Thats 0.09 percent of the $1.1 trillion discretionary portion of the federal budget. Putting this in perspective, 2016s annual NEA budget was $148 million  approximately the same estimated cost of providing security for New Yorks Trump Tower.

Fortunately, this springs negotiations to prevent a government shutdown reached a budget compromise keeping these organizations funded with tiny short-term budget increases. This stopgap political victory, however, should serve as a warning to Idahoans  yes, Idahoans.

The outrageousness of these proposals drew international attention. Many developed countries provide comparatively generous public arts funding. I enjoyed the benefits of this approach while living in New Zealand and Australia briefly in the 1990s.

The Guardian, an English paper, took note of Idahos potential plight in a June 7 story detailing how our state would be affected if draconian cuts are re-introduced in the next budget. Last year Idaho received $822,000 from NEA. The Idaho Commission on the Arts received $787,000  the balance going to several small local grants. Our predominately Republican legislature added $810,000 of arts funding. That foresight deserves acknowledgement, but should also be recognized as a pretty lean allocation for an endeavor documented to have a 65-times economic multiplier effect on local economies (according to figures shared by Stuart Weiser, deputy director of The Idaho Commission on the Arts).

In 2010 that multiplier produced an economic impact of Americas nonprofit arts totaling $135 billion. Very few government investments produce double-digit multipliers, let alone 65-to-1. Imagine the economic stimulus if Idaho doubled or tripled its investment in the arts? A 65-to-1 multiplier literally pays for itself and then some in under a year via revenues returned from the stimulus. Thats not trickle-down economics; its gusher outward economics with a potential to add revenues without increased taxation. Its also the kind of investment that attracts businesses and industry to settle in Idaho.

I encourage you to join the fun at Art in the Park this weekend. While your family enjoys itself, consider contacting your state and federal representatives. Tell them how important art is to Idahos quality of life and economy. Encourage them to read up on the economics of art, and increase public investment in Idaho arts beginning with next years budget.
King Mohammed VI, Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, has denounced the Israeli authorities continued, systematic violations in the city of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and around the Al-Aqsa Mosque, in blatant violation of international law.

In a letter addressed to UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, King Mohammed VI deplored the Israeli actions which undermine regional and international efforts to revive the peace process that could lead to the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Israel has recently taken a number of serious provocative measures, said the Al Quds Committee Chairman in his letter, recalling in this regard the unprecedented celebrations marking the fiftieth anniversary of the annexation of Al-Quds and the Israeli government development plans for the Old City, including the digging of more tunnels, the installation of elevators and the construction of corridors.

The provocative actions cited also include the Israeli bill requiring Arab schools to teach Israeli curricula and use textbooks to Judaize education in the occupied city of Al Quds.

King Mohammed VI also recalled Israeli draft bill on Greater Jerusalem, which aims to annex Israeli settlements in the West Bank as well as other areas in East Jerusalem, the unified Jerusalem bill, which undermines chances to reach an agreement on the citys future and the bill that bans the adhan (call to prayer) in Jerusalem and the surrounding Arab neighborhoods.

According to the Al Quds Committee Chairman, these bills show the escalating Israeli comprehensive campaign launched against the Old City in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its surroundings by confiscating Palestinian land, by denying Palestinians the right to build and by carrying out arbitrary evictions.

As if all those illegal practices were not enough, Israel has taken even more serious measures. On Friday 14 July 2017, it proscribed the Friday prayers, closed Al-Aqsa Mosque to worshipers for three days and, for the first time in half a century, banned the call to prayer. It also detained, for several hours, Sheikh Mohammad Hussein, the Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestinian territories, states the royal letter addressed to the UN chief.

Israel has increased tension in the region by introducing additional provocative and unacceptable security measures, installing surveillance cameras throughout the Al Aqsa Mosque compound as well as security gates to check the worshipers and assaulting officials and employees of the Islamic endowment department, deplored King Mohammed VI.

These illegal actions undermine the dignity of the inhabitants of Al Quds and constitute a provocation for all Palestinians. They may lead to an outpouring of anger and an overall public reaction that could compound the situation in the Palestinian territories, added the Monarch.

These provocative practices arouse the feelings of Arabs, Muslims and freedom lovers in the world. They could incite extremist tendencies that may lead to further tension, animosity and violence in the entire region, stressed the Al Quds Committee Chairman.

Given this alarming situation, I cannot but strongly condemn these unacceptable Israeli policies in my capacity as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, said King Mohammed VI, calling on the UN Secretary General, the international community and the influential powers to compel Israel to put an end to those practices, through which it seeks to impose a fait accompli and decide singlehandedly the fate of the City of Jerusalem  an issue which should be addressed within the context of final status negotiations.

The Monarch called the international community and the UN Secretary General to compel Israelis to respect the legal and historical status of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the Holy Places, and to ask them to cancel all illegal measures, including the additional security arrangements.

The Monarch insisted on the centrality of the issue of Jerusalem and its special spiritual significance, pointing out that No infringement on its symbolic character or its time-honored cultural identity can be tolerated, and warning against the risk of turning the issue into a religious conflict, and exploiting the cultural heritage to incite hatred, fuel extremism and undermine the ideals of tolerance and affection between the followers of the revealed religions.
The European Unions top court has ruled to retain Gaza ruling Islamist movement Hamas on its terror list despite the movements lobbying to influence the decision.

The decision of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) Wednesday overruled a ruling in 2014 by a lower court, the General Court, which indicated that listing Hamas on a blacklist was not based on competent authority.

The General Court pointed out that the listing was based on media and Internet reports.

Wednesday, the top court contradicted the General Court arguing that the court was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain.

The EU in 2001, following the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, ticked the Palestinian movement on its blacklist of terror organizations. The bloc has also frozen the groups asset and imposed travel bans on its leaders.
The Saudi Supreme Court has upheld death sentences against 14 Saudis for their association with a terror group responsible for several attacks in the restive Qatif province largely populated by minority Shia.

The mens execution order lies now in the hands of King Salman, reports say.

The 14 were handed death sentence by Specialist Criminal Court in an initial ruling in which 23 were put on a terror list for being members of Al Awamiya terror cell.

The men have been found guilty of carrying out more than fifty armed attacks in several areas in the Eastern Province.

Other charges pressed against the defendants also include assaults against two police stations in Al Awamiya and Qatif, a prison in Qatif, police check-points and 20 police patrols.

Authorities have also held the men responsible for more than forty attacks on commercial shops and private residences, setting an ambush to a cash-carrying van, wounding and stabbing guards and fleeing with 1.2 million Saudi Riyals, reports say.

Around 66 people have been executed so far this year in the kingdom according to London-based Amnesty International.

Saudi authorities since 2011 have been facing riots and militancy in the eastern province where the minority Shia has been complaining about marginalization.
Jordanian Foreign minister Wednesday deplored the warm welcome Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reserved to the Israeli security guard who killed two Jordanians in the Israeli embassy in Amman Sunday night.

It is a disgrace, Ayman Safadi told Sky News Arabia

It would be appropriate if Israel acted diplomatically.

Safadi was commenting on PM Benjamin Netanyahus hug for the Israeli security guard, identified as Ziv, on his return from Amman following his killing of two Jordanians; 17-year old Mohammed Jawawdeh and Bashar Hamarneh, a physician and owner of the residence.

The two victims reportedly entered the mission for carpentry work.

Israeli reports say Ziv opened fire on Jawawdeh who stabbed him with a screwdriver. Jordanian reports countered the Israeli accounts saying that Ziv killed the two Jordanians following an altercation over the late delivery of furniture.

Netanyahus office released photos of Ziv receiving a warm hug from the Israeli leader during their meeting Tuesday.

This is really absurd, Safadi said.

This is a criminal case and I think it is in everybodys interest that it is pursued as such.

Ziv flew to Israel Monday despite Ammans reluctance to let him go as security authorities wanted to question him over the incident. Israel protested the move arguing that its security officer was protected by diplomatic immunity.

Safadi in an interview with CNN denied claims that Amman stroke a deal with Tel Aviv over the shooting but insisted that it upheld its international obligations.

Monday Thousands of Jordanians mourned the victims displaying Jordanian and Palestinian flags.

Israeli reports say Tel Aviv is set to pay compensation to Hamarnehs family after it completes the mourning period.
King Mohammed VI of Morocco, in his quality as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee, sent a letter to the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres in which he strongly condemned the unacceptable Israeli Policies and urged the international community to intervene to compel Israel to put an end to such aggressions.

In the letter, the King expressed to Guterres deep concern regarding the systematic Israeli violations in the City of Al Quds and in Al Aqsa, which has a particular significance for Muslims as the third holy mosque.

He rebuked Israeli continued blatant breach of international law, noting that regrettably, whenever there appear to be signs of a chance to revive the peace process between the Palestinians and Israel, the latter resorts to fabricating events and fomenting tensions to abort those prospects.

The King blamed Israel for sapping regional and international efforts for peace in the region through taking a set of serious provocative measures, including staging celebrations and meeting in a tunnel under the Al Aqsa holy mosque and digging new tunnels, passing a bill in the Knesset providing for judaizing education in Arab schools in the occupied Al Quds, annexing settlements in the West Bank and other areas in East Al Quds, adopting the Unified Jerusalem bill, which undermines future chances for settling the citys future and the banning of the Adhan (call to prayer) in Al Quds.

The Israeli authorities are launching a comprehensive campaign of escalation against the Old City in Al-Quds Al-Sharif and its surroundings by confiscating Palestinian land, by denying Palestinians the right to build and by carrying out arbitrary evictions, said the Monarch in the letter that was made public on Wednesday.

A yet more serious measure was taken by Israel on Friday July 14 when it prohibited the Friday prayers and closed the Al Aqsa mosque to worshipers for three days while banning the call to prayer, underscored the king, recalling that Israeli authorities went too far in their provocation and proceeded to the introduction of unacceptable security measures through the setting up of surveillance cameras in the mosque and metal detectors in the gates.

These illegal actions undermine the dignity of the inhabitants of Al Quds and constitute a provocation for all Palestinians, he said, adding that they may lead to an outpouring of anger and an overall public reaction that could compound the situation in the Palestinian territories.

These provocative actions may incite extremist tendencies that may lead to further tension, animosity and violence in the entire region, the king went on to say.

Given this alarming situation, I cannot but strongly condemn these unacceptable Israeli policies in my capacity as Chairman of the Al-Quds Committee. I insist on the need for resolute action on the part of the international community and the influential powers to compel Israel to put an end to those practices, through which it seeks to impose a fait accompli and decide singlehandedly the fate of the City of Jerusalem  an issue, which should be addressed within the context of final status negotiations, the Sovereign stated.

In this context, he called on the UN Secretary General to approach the Israeli authorities as soon as possible and compel them to respect the legal and historical status of Al-Quds Al-Sharif and the Holy Places, and to ask them to cancel all illegal measures, including the additional security arrangements, which have prompted suspicion that there might be an Israeli plan for the spatial and temporal division of the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

On the same occasion, the Monarch highlighted the centrality of Al Quds and its special significance for Muslims stressing the need to safeguard its character and  time-honored cultural identity.

He also warned on the risks of turning the issue into a religious conflict, noting that Morocco staunchly advocates peace and considers that imposing the Israeli fait accompli in Al-Quds will exacerbate tension and violence in a region beset by turmoil.
The United Nations (U.N.) Security Council on Wednesday called on stakeholders in Liberia to uphold peace during the general elections in the country later this year and ensure that the polls are free, fair, credible and transparent.

The Council tasked the government to put in place an election security plan which will see a transfer of power from Ellen Johnson Sirleaf to a new leader.

During the forthcoming polls, the president will be elected after a two-round voting system and 73 members of the House of Representatives will also emerge.

The Security Council encourages the Government of Liberia to accelerate its accountability and transparency efforts to bolster public confidence in advance of elections and transfer of power, the of the Security Council statement read.

Political parties earlier this year entered an accord to uphold peace in the West African nation during the October polls.

26 parties have filed their nominations for the legislative and presidential elections.

UN commended the government and its forces that are currently in complete charge of the security and called for the full participation of women in the upcoming process.

Note that, there were reports of several deaths and injuries in the violence which marred the countrys presidential elections in 2011 after devastating back-to-back civil wars.
In 2013, California lawmakers passed legislation that allowed illegal aliens to obtain drivers licenses if they can prove to the Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) their identity and state residency. The plan was one of the largest victories to date by the open borders lobby.

Years later, an estimated 905,000 illegal aliens have drivers licenses in California, according to the Sacramento Bee , despite issuances beginning in 2015. The number of illegal aliens in California with drivers licenses is likely to surpass one million before the end of this year.

In the first half of 2017 alone, more than 83,000 illegal aliens received drivers licenses in California.

John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart Texas. Follow him on Twitter at @JxhnBinder

Dan Cadman is a retired INS / ICE official with thirty years of government experience. Mr. Cadman served as a senior supervisor and manager at headquarters, as well as at field offices both domestically and abroad.

Dan Cadman is a retired INS / ICE official with thirty years of government experience. Mr. Cadman served as a senior supervisor and manager at headquarters, as well as at field offices both domestically and abroad.

Meantime, if an illegal alien attorney shows up in court to represent an alien respondent in removal proceedings, perhaps the presiding immigration judge will have the good sense to summon immigration agents to arrest the attorney and place him or her into proceedings as well. After all, they're fair game. Being a lawyer shouldn't intrinsically place anyone above the law, should it?

Maybe it's time that Attorney General Jeff Sessions steps in to require his new EOIR director to amend the regulation and make the prohibition against illegal alien lawyers representing other illegal aliens in the immigration courts crystal clear.

There is also the issue of fairness to the illegal alien being represented by another illegal alien: What happens if his lawyer is arrested before his hearing is completed, thus leaving him high and dry? For EOIR to permit such a situation to occur would be tantamount to malfeasance. On the other hand, it defies logic that certain states have already taken that step-too-far, and that, too, seems to me to smack of malfeasance.

While I don't see any particular prohibition of illegal aliens in the provision of the federal regulations governing such registration, at 8 CFR Section 1292.1, it would defy logic and make a mockery of the immigration courts for the director to approve such an application for registration.

She's right. You can't square that circle. But one thing I can say for certain is this: It takes more than just a state license to practice immigration law because, of course, immigration laws are federal in nature. Attorneys who wish to represent aliens before the Executive Office for Immigration Review (EOIR), the Justice Department division that handles the immigration courts and Board of Immigration Appeals, must register with and be approved by the EOIR director.

This example illustrates the extent to which certain states both accept and encourage illegal immigration. Mateo is praised for being a leader and a bold advocate but should instead be described as what she is: a lawbreaker. Mateo has taken an oath of office to uphold the Constitution, but breaks federal law every day. Square that circle.

One such lawyer is Lizbeth Mateo. Born in Mexico, Mateo and her family illegally crossed the border when she was 14 and have been residing in California ever since. In 2013, Mateo returned to Mexico knowing she had no legal visa to come back and, as part of what became known as the Bring Them Home Campaign, returned to the U.S. border with eight other children and demanded unauthorized reentry into the U.S.  which she was granted. Having graduated from Santa Clara University School of Law and working jobs that required the use of a stolen Social Security number, Mateo now spends her time as an immigration lawyer preparing legal strategies to help undocumented immigrants stay in the country  all while flaunting her own undocumented status.

on The Corner, Rampersaud has her own version of the "Mr. Garcia" described above:

Aren't the two things, when put together, inherently oxymoronic? An alien who has no lawful status must inevitably engage in deception and subterfuge in order to remain in the United States without being apprehended. That doesn't sound like the kind of upright behavior required of officers of the court.

In addition to Feere's very cogent observations, I'm also wondering how, exactly, an attorney who is illegally in the United States can be deemed an

Garcia admits to working a number of jobs prior to law school, and depending on how he obtained the work, he may be liable under False Personation of a U.S. Citizen (18 U.S.C.  911), Fraud and False Statements (18 U.S.C.  1001), and Social Security Fraud (42 U.S.C.  408), just to name a few examples. We estimate that nearly half of working illegal aliens have filled out I-9 Forms and are likely in violation of these statutes. If the Obama administration decided to enforce federal immigration law, Garcia could potentially face many years in jail and significant fines. It is important to remember that these crimes often create real victims.

It is unclear why the court and the bar examiners would assume such things. Illegal immigrants regularly fail to comply with a whole host of laws. Within Garcia's own circle of family and friends one can identify a variety of potential legal violations, if media reports are accurate.

[N]ew lawyers must take an oath to support the Constitution of the United States" and must also pass an ethics exam. The California Supreme Court explained in its holding that it "assumes that a licensed illegal alien will make all necessary inquiries and take appropriate steps to comply with applicable legal restrictions. The Committee of Bar Examiners explained that there is no reason to believe Garcia [the illegal alien applicant seeking approval to practice law] cannot take the oath and faithfully uphold his duties as an attorney.

clear back in January of 2014, and commented on the back flips achieved by the California Supreme Court in deciding that permitting illegal aliens to practice law was copacetic:

Actually, they've been headed that way for some time. John Feere, previously a legal policy analyst here at the Center, wrote about

detailing how the states of New York and California have moved to permit illegal aliens to practice law. This is the kind of thing one might expect to see as a headline on the satirical website The Onion, but, sadly, it's true.

tatement announcing Holder's departure, in the State Dining Room of the White House, Sept. 25, 2014. Attorney General Holder will remain at the Department of Justice until his post is filled. (Official White House Photo by Chuck Kennedy)

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News. He was named one of the  most influential  people in news media in 2016. He is the co-author of How Trump Won: The Inside Story of a Revolution , is available from Regnery. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak

President Trump has claimed that he would have won the popular vote in the 2016 presidential election if not for illegal voting, and his administration has singled out California as a possible contributor to that margin.

Padilla has been one of the main voices in opposition to President Donald Trumps Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity, refusing to share voter data with it on the argument that doing so would legitimize false claims of massive election cheating last fall.

It gives Padilla 14 days to respond, and 90 days to correct alleged violations of the law.

It gives Padilla 14 days to respond, and 90 days to correct alleged violations of the law.

The letter contains a threat to sue the Secretary of State if Padilla does not remove from the rolls persons who have become ineligible to vote by reason of death, change in residence, or a disqualifying criminal conviction, and to remove noncitizens who have registered to vote unlawfully.

The letter contains a threat to sue the Secretary of State if Padilla does not remove from the rolls persons who have become ineligible to vote by reason of death, change in residence, or a disqualifying criminal conviction, and to remove noncitizens who have registered to vote unlawfully.

living in each of the following eleven (11)

living in each of the following eleven (11)

than there were adults over the age of 18

than there were adults over the age of 18

As the top election official in California, it is your responsibility under federal law to coordinate Californias statewide effort to conduct a program that reasonably ensures the lists of eligible voters are accurate.

As the top election official in California, it is your responsibility under federal law to coordinate Californias statewide effort to conduct a program that reasonably ensures the lists of eligible voters are accurate.

NVRA Section 8 requires states to conduct reasonable list maintenance so as to maintain an accurate record of eligible voters for use in conducting federal elections.1 As you may know, Congress enacted Section 8 of the NVRA to protect the integrity of the electoral process. Allowing the names of ineligible voters to remain on the voting rolls harms the integrity of the electoral process and undermines voter confidence in the legitimacy of elections.

NVRA Section 8 requires states to conduct reasonable list maintenance so as to maintain an accurate record of eligible voters for use in conducting federal elections.1 As you may know, Congress enacted Section 8 of the NVRA to protect the integrity of the electoral process. Allowing the names of ineligible voters to remain on the voting rolls harms the integrity of the electoral process and undermines voter confidence in the legitimacy of elections.

gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest  Arizona,

gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest  Arizona,

gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest  Arizona,

it should leave." And MEChA's goal is even more radical: an

it should leave." And MEChA's goal is even more radical: an

it should leave." And MEChA's goal is even more radical: an

Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like

Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like

Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like

''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario

''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario

''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario

Soros groups are currently pushing a plan that would make it illegal to not rent a residence to an illegal alien because of their immigration status, Breitbart Texas reported





While you were sleeping, Mexico was invading, occupying, looting and voting Democrat for more.





In 1960, according to a USC demographic study, fewer than 10% of the people in the Los Angeles County area were Latino. By 2008, according to federal census estimates, almost half were Latino. Roughly the same was true in the city of Los Angeles.





''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like it should leave." And MEChA's goal is even more radical: an independent ''Aztlan,'' the collective name this organization gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest  Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.





LA RAZA AGENDA: 3 Examples









Richard Alatorre, Los Angeles City Council "They're afraid we're going to take over the governmental institutions and other institutions. They're right. We will take them over. . We are here to stay."





Mario Obledo, California Coalition of Hispanic Organizations and California State Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare under Jerry Brown, also awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Bill Clinton "California is going to be a Hispanic state. Anyone who doesn't like it should leave."





Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General We are practicing "La Reconquista" in California."





Here are a few facts you should consider when you finally look around yourself and see only Mexicans.Mexicans driving, Mexicans in our jobs, Mexicans in our welfare office, Mexicans flooding our healthcare systems, and Mexicans and only Mexicans at all construction sites.





CALIFORNIA UNDER MEXICAN OCCUPATION:





The State Government of CA hands illegals more than $30 BILLION per year in social services. Thats the state level were talking about. Counties hand out even more with Mex-occupied Los Angeles leading at $1 BILLION in welfare for Mexicos anchor baby breeders. No legal in Los Angeles or California were ever given the opportunity to vote on Mexicos welfare state in our open borders.





California has the largest and most expensive state prison system in the nation. Half the inmates are illegals from Mexico.





There have been more than 2,000 Californians murdered by Mexicans that fled back across the border to avoid prosecution.





According to former CA Attorney General Kamala Harris, now CA senator and advocate for amnesty, nearly HALF the murders in CA are by Mexican gangs.





Los Angeles is Americas and Mexicos second largest city. Approximately 93% of the murders are committed by Mexicans.





The Los Angeles Police department publishes a list with images of the 200 most wanted criminals in Los Angeles. About 186 at any given time are Mexicans. Most of the rest are Russian and Armenians.





The County of Los Angeles spends about $300 million yearly to jail Mexican criminals.

The City of Los Angeles spends about $10 MILLION per year to clean up Mexican graffiti.

The City of Los Angeles has more than 100,000 homeless and bout 5 MILLION illegals housed and in jobs.





The tax-free underground economy in Los Angeles County is estimated to be in excess of $2 BILLION per year.





The City of Los Angeles tetters on bankruptcy. It will be the largest bankruptcy in American history and will end all City employee pensions. Still there will be no cuts related to the Mexican occupation.





California ranks No. 48 out of 50 states for abominable lower education quality. Mexicans loathe literacy and speaking the gringo language. Most Mexicans graduate from high school not being able to read at a third-grade level.





At Santee Public High School in Los Angeles, classes are taught in Spanish. Books are in Spanish and school assemblies end in !Viva Mexico, Viva Mexico!.





Many public schools in CA have prohibited Legals from wearing American flag T-shirts on Cinco de Mayo day.





Californias Attorney General Xavier Becerra has been described in the press as a Puss spewing racist. Mexicans think of themselves as LA RAZA The Race. The A.G.s website no longer list Californias most wanted criminals as they were all MEXICANS. Becerra, as Congressman, sucked in bribes from Mexican criminals.





There have been more than 82 private enterprise hospitals and clinics in CA driven into bankruptcy due to Mexicos occupation of CA. Its calculated that Mexicos free gringo-paid healthcare in CA cost legals $1.5 BILLION per year. No illegal in Mexico received ANY medical attention, welfare or jobs.





The La Raza Sanctuary City of West Hollywood, which employs hordes of illegals, banned the use of gas leaf blowers in 1987. No City ordinances anywhere in CA ever apply to illegals. The City handed out more than 400 fines to gardeners who were all illegals from Mexico. The fines were never paid and were deemed uncollectable as these gardeners all had fraudulent IDs. Therefore they were out there driving unlicensed and uninsured. No illegal caught using a gas leaf blower and with fraudulent ID was or will ever be prosecuted. In CA La Raza is above the law.





In Los Angeles there have been numerous murders of innocent black Americans by Mexican gangs who were ethnically cleansing their hoods.





LA RAZA Gov Jerry Brown has signed each and every bill put before him that would expand Mexicos supremacy in CA. Both houses of the state legislature are now controlled by Mexico.





Gov Jerry Brown has openly proclaimed that California is the Mexicans second home, but when it comes to jobs, a tax-free lifestyle, welfare, free medical, education and housing for many, CA is the Mexicans first home.





Former Mayor of Los Angeles and now candidate for Governor, Antonio Villaraigosa is a former member of the racist, violent, fascist separatist movement of M.E.Ch.A.





Mexico has 50 consulates in American compared with the United Kingdom which has only 8. These consulates are LA RAZA headquarters to help Mexicans claim their rights, which is more welfare and free medical.





Jose Pescador Osuna, Mexican Consul General We are practicing "La Reconquista" in California."





ILLEGALS COSTING CALIFORNIA BILLIONS

By Jerry Seper 2004 ( THINK ITS GOTTEN ANY BETTER SINCE 2004?)





THE WASHINGTON TIMES Published December 7, 2004

Illegal immigration costs the taxpayers of California -- which has the highest number of illegal aliens nationwide -- $10.5 (NOW $30 BILLION) billion a year for education, health care and incarceration, according to a study released yesterday. A key finding of the report by the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) said the state's already struggling kindergarten-through-12th-grade education system spends $7.7 billion a year on children of illegal aliens, who constitute 15 percent of the student body. The report also said the incarceration of convicted illegal aliens in state prisons and jails and uncompensated medical outlays for health care provided to illegal aliens each amounted to about $1.4 billion annually. The incarceration costs did not include judicial expenditures or the monetary costs of the crimes committed by illegal aliens that led to their incarceration. "California's addiction to 'cheap' illegal-alien labor is bankrupting the state and posing enormous burdens on the state's shrinking middle-class tax base," said FAIR President Dan Stein. "Most Californians, who have seen their taxes increase while public services deteriorate, already know the impact that mass illegal immigration is having on their communities, but even they may be shocked when they learn just how much of a drain illegal immigration has become," he said.





ALIEN NATION: Secrets of the Invasion.. It

S all about keeping wages depressed!





May 2006  ALIEN NATION: Secrets of the Invasion  Why America's government invites rampant illegal immigration

It's widely regarded as America's biggest problem: Between 12 and 20 million aliens (MOST SOURCES SUGGEST THERE ARE MUCH MORE LIKELY NEARLY 40 MILLION ILLEGALS HERE NOW)  including large numbers of criminals, gang members and even terrorists  have entered this nation illegally, with countless more streaming across our scandalously unguarded borders daily.

The issue polarizes the nation, robs citizens of jobs, bleeds taxpayers, threatens America's national security and dangerously balkanizes the country into unassimilated ethnic groups with little loyalty or love for America's founding values. Indeed, the de facto invasion is rapidly transforming America into a totally different country than the one past generations have known and loved.

And yet  most Americans have almost no idea what is really going on, or why it is happening.

While news reports depict demonstrations and debates, and while politicians promise "comprehensive border security programs," no real answers ever seem to emerge.

But there are answers. Truthful answers. Shocking answers.

In its groundbreaking May edition, WND's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine reveals the astounding hidden agendas, plans and people behind America's immigration nightmare.

Titled "ALIEN NATION," the issue is subtitled "SECRETS OF THE INVASION: Why government invites rampant illegal immigration." Indeed, it reveals pivotal secrets very few Americans know. For example:

Did you know that the powerfully influential Council on Foreign Relations  often described as a shadow government"  issued a comprehensive report last year laying out a five-year plan for the "establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community" with a common "outer security perimeter"?

Roughly translated: In the next few years, according to the 59-page report titled "Building a North American Community," the U.S. must be integrated with the socialism, corruption, poverty and population of Mexico and Canada. "Common perimeter" means wide-open U.S. borders between the U.S., Mexico and Canada. As Phyllis Schlafly reveals in this issue of Whistleblower: "This CFR document asserts that President Bush, Mexican President Vicente Fox and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin 'committed their governments' to this goal when they met at Bush's ranch and at Waco, Texas, on March 23, 2005. The three adopted the 'Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America' and assigned 'working groups' to fill in the details. It was at this same meeting, grandly called the North American Summit, that President Bush pinned the epithet 'vigilantes' on the volunteers guarding our border in Arizona."

The CFR report  important excerpts of which are published in Whistleblower  also suggests North American elitists begin getting together regularly, and presumably secretly, "to buttress North American relationships, along the lines of the Bilderberg or Wehrkunde conferences, organized to support transatlantic relations." The Bilderberg and Wehrkunde conferences are highly secret conclaves of the powerful. For decades, there have been suspicions that such meetings were used for plotting the course of world events and especially the centralization of global decision-making.

Did you know that radical immigrant groups  including the League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC), the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF), the Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and the National Council of La Raza (La Raza)  not only share a revolutionary agenda of conquering America's southwest, but they also share common funding sources, notably the Ford and Rockefeller foundations?

''California is going to be a Hispanic state," said Mario Obeldo, former head of MALDEF. "Anyone who does not like it should leave." And MEChA's goal is even more radical: an independent ''Aztlan,'' the collective name this organization gives to the seven states of the U.S. Southwest  Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah. So why would the Rockefeller and Ford foundations support such groups? Joseph Farah tells the story in this issue of Whistleblower.

Why have America's politicians  of both major parties  allowed the illegal alien invasion of this nation to continue for the last 30 years unabated? With al-Qaida and allied terrorists promising to annihilate major U.S. cities with nuclear weapons, with some big-city hospital emergency rooms near closure due to the crush of so many illegals, with the rapid spread throughout the U.S. of MS-13, the super-violent illegal alien gang  with all this and more, why do U.S. officials choose to ignore the laws of the land and the will of the people to pursue, instead, policies of open borders and lax immigration enforcement?

The answers to all this and much more are in Whistleblower's "ALIEN NATION" issue.

Is there hope? Or is America lost to a demographic invasion destined to annihilate its traditional Judeo-Christian culture, and to the ever-growing likelihood that nuclear-armed jihadists will cross our porous borders and wreak unthinkable destruction here?

There most definitely is hope, according to this issue of Whistleblower. Although most politicians of both major political parties have long since abdicated their responsibility for securing America's borders and dealing effectively with the millions already here illegally, there are a few exceptions  most notably Colorado Rep. Tom Tancredo.

May's Whistleblower includes an exclusive sneak preview of Tancredo's forthcoming blockbuster book, "In Mortal Danger: The Battle for Americas Border and Security." In an extended excerpt, Whistleblower presents Tencredo's expert and inspired analysis of exactly how to solve the nation's most vexing problem.





MEXICANOCCUPATION.blogspot.com





REALITY OF THE MEXICAN OCCUPATION AND MEXICAN SUPREMACY:





Banned: The American Flag on Cinco de Mayo





by Kevin McCullough

When 200 hispanic students skipped school last week and marched through downtown Morgan Hill, California chanting "Si se puede" intermixed with "We want respect," none were banned from school attendance on their return.

When five students, one of them an American from latino roots, wore American flags to school as a sign of patriotic speech, they were labeled incendiary. They were instructed to turn their shirts inside-out so as to cover up the American flag. And when they refused to surrender their first amendment right to expression, they were given unexcused absences.

Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez called the flag draped wardrobe "incendiary" because the students had chosen to worn them on May 5, popularly known as Cinco de Mayo. (A date that "celebrates" Mexico's defeat of the French in a single battle, in a war that Mexico eventually lost.)

The school's administration went further in claiming the five students were attempting "to start a fight" and "adding fuel to the fire."

Latino parents chimed in and chided the five students (one of which is of Mexican ethnic heritage) saying, "we're all offended by it."

One parent, Teresa Casillas, claimed her hispanic children were upset by the behavior of the boys wearing the flagged shirts, calling it disrespectful.

Yet for all the outcry, not an ounce of proof has erupted that the boys made any actions of provocation--except wear the shirts on Cinco De Mayo.

One of the more ignorant utterances by one of the hispanic student protestors summed up the stupidity best, "It's disrespectful to do it on Cinco de Mayo," said Jessica Cortez, a Live Oak sophomore. "They can be a patriot on some other day. Not that specific day."

And so this is what the argument has been reduced to.

I mean, you do understand don't you that Cinco de Mayo is not even celebrated en masse by Mexicans?

Yet the militant, belligerent, children of latinos living in Morgan Hill are exhibiting symptoms of a problem that is widespread. Raw naked entitlement that not only flouts the laws, but has now led to the limiting of the most legitimate expression whose freedom should always be protected: patriotism.

It was bad enough that the Obama administration went on a systematic campaign to discredit the recent right of the state of Arizona to reinforce federal guidelines for immigration. It was bad enough that the lies were widely told, and never retracted by news agencies that should have known better.





THE WEEK





Latino power comes full circle in L.A.





Once there was only Edward Roybal in a position of power. Today, as it did long ago, authority rests in many Latino hands.





By Cathleen Decker





April 11, 2010





The announcement last week that Archbishop Jose Gomez of San Antonio will replace Cardinal Roger Mahony as head of the local Catholic diocese capped an assertion of power on the part of Latinos in Los Angeles that is remarkable in its seeming speed.





Now the power positions held by Latinos in the Los Angeles area are multiple and manifest. Besides the Mexico-born archbishop, who is in line to become the first U.S. prelate of Latino heritage to become a cardinal, there is the mayor. The speaker of the Assembly. The sheriff. A county supervisor. Several members of the City Council, of Congress, of the Legislature, of the Los Angeles school board. The head of the most influential civic entity, organized labor.





"It is coming full circle," said UC Berkeley associate professor Lisa Garcia Bedolla, the author of two books on Latino politics. "That's what Los Angeles looked like before becoming part of the United States."





It is hardly accidental, however. The moves to the top in politics and other endeavors have required equal parts population shifts, hard-fought legal pursuit and political strategizing.





Population numbers are only the most obvious propellant for the ambitions of both the community and its leaders.





In 1960, according to a USC demographic study, fewer than 10% of the people in the Los Angeles County area were Latino. By 2008, according to federal census estimates, almost half were Latino. Roughly the same was true in the city of Los Angeles.





While trailing the population levels -- because of lagging citizenship numbers -- the ranks of Latino voters also swelled over those decades.





But their efforts to win elections were thwarted by political lines drawn to diminish their heft. In the mid-1980s, legal challenges began to chip away at those hurdles. First came a legal assault on the Los Angeles City Council's district boundaries, which led to the creation of what was called at the time a "Latino district."





GLORIA MOLINA  RACIST LATINA BITCH





Next came a federal court fight over the Board of Supervisors. A judge ultimately decided that the board had drawn its lines to intentionally discriminate against Latinos. The judge's ruling led directly to the election, in early 1991, of Gloria Molina to the board.





As inspiring to the community as the two legal moves were, however, they essentially accounted for a single seat each. A more prosaic development, term limits, would ultimately do far more, according to Garcia Bedolla.





Beyond the churning of legislative and council seats was the coincident rise of organized labor as a factor benefiting Latinos and other minority candidates. Miguel Contreras, who took over the county labor federation in 1996, ran it like a powerhouse until his death in 2005. His widow and fellow union leader, Maria Elena Durazo, now heads the labor organization.





"They explicitly included immigrants . . . [which] made the Latino community a political force in progressive politics in a way they hadn't been before," Garcia Bedolla said.





A conspiring assist came, at the same time, from the non-Latino head of the local Catholic Church. Mahony had made a name as a friend of immigrants and Latinos before he arrived in Los Angeles in 1985. As the Latino population of the area swelled, he waded into a host of civic entanglements on their behalf.





He publicly defended janitors during a nasty strike. He came out early and forcefully against Proposition 187, the 1994 measure to strip state services from illegal immigrants. (It passed overwhelmingly but was largely struck down by the courts.)





Kenneth Burt, the author of "The Search for a Civic Voice," a history of California Latino politics, credited Mahony for keeping peace in Los Angeles between groups seeking power and those afraid of losing it.





"He had a tremendous impact in empowering the Latino community and in sending a powerful signal that the rise of Latinos should not be seen as a threat," he said. "Even though he's Irish, he's the first Latino cardinal in spirit."





All told, the taking of power has been stunning in its breadth. A Loyola Marymount University study of the top 100 elected positions in Los Angeles from 1959 to 2009 found that for years, only one man -- Roybal -- made the list. The numbers increased only gradually until 1991, when altered political lines and long-thwarted ambition pushed the percentage of Latino seats to 18%. By last year, 33% were held by Latinos.

More subtle, perhaps, has been the more or less tranquil way that change has been accomplished. Although there have been periods of contention, the flow of power from whites and blacks to Latinos has happened with far less gnashing than might have been expected years ago.





In part, that is because both politicians and interest groups have worked at it. Los Angeles' mayor, Antonio Villaraigosa, won election in his second attempt by attracting African American voters to go along with the Latino and Jewish voters who had earlier supported him. One of the main forces behind the career of former Assembly Speaker Karen Bass, an African American now running for Congress, has been the Latino-dominated labor movement.





Still, tensions are never far from view. The Republican primary for governor is currently aboil with the subject of illegal immigration, a perennial flash point. Although so far the issue has been of little consequence in the campaign, its presence suggests that some element of the public remains uncomfortable.





"I don't think you can get rid of so many decades of that competition and animosity quickly," said Garcia Bedolla. "I think it's going to be a while before we stop having that sense that anything that is good for me is bad for you."





JUDICIAL WATCH.org





Feds Probe Universitys Device To Help Illegal Border Crossers





Last Updated: Wed, 04/07/2010





Nearly half a year after a professor at a public university spent taxpayer dollars to create a tool that helps Mexicans enter the United States illegally, the areas congressional delegation has finally decided to investigate the matter.

The activist Chicano professor (Ricardo Dominguez) at the University of California San Diego, a major public institution not far from the Mexican border, proudly announced his new inventionTransborder Immigrant Toolin November without scrutiny from university officials or the feds. The idea is to help Mexicans enter the U.S. illegally by mapping the safest routes through the notoriously rigorous southern border desert.





The innovative technology is a simple mobile application inserted into the cheapest available cell phone on the marketwhich guides illegal aliens through the least dangerous routes, areas with shelter, food, water and so-called Quaker help centers that provide medical attention and directions to the nearest major U.S. highway. The mobile program is touted as an intelligent agent algorithm that parses out the best routes and trails on a particular day and hour so that Mexicans can cross the vertiginous landscape as safely as possible.

Dominguez, a tenured visual arts professor, was inspired to create the technology by the thousands of Mexicans who have died on their journeys north because they got lost in the treacherous terrain. For months he boasted about his new Transborder Immigrant Tool, but the publicity campaign has come to a screeching halt and his tenure is at risk because federal lawmakers are finally looking into the matter.





The areas three representatives in the U.S. HouseBrian Bilbray, Duncan Hunter and Darrell Issaare demanding that the universitys chancellor provide a precise accounting of public funds associated with the Transborder Immigrant Tool. Referring to it as a troubling use of taxpayer dollars, the legislators point out that those who worked on the device may be committing a federal felony by encouraging illegal immigration.





Dominguez has dismissed the probe as a sort of witch hunt, assuring that he used less than $10,000 in taxpayer grants and suggesting the congressman should be more concerned about the cost of investigating him. That amount, the professor believes, will be much more than what he spent on the entire project to help illegal border crossers.





Mexicos government has provided its nationals with valuable tools to help them cross the border safely but Dominguez is the first American resident, with a salary provided by U.S.

taxpayers, to openly promote such a gadget. A few years ago Mexican officials published a 32-page booklet (Guia Del Migrante Mexicano) with safety tips for border crossers and distributed hand-held satellite devices to ensure the violators complete their journey safely.









THE MEX-OCCUPIED COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ALONE HANDS HEAVY BREEDING MEXICANS MORE THAN A BILLION DOLLARS YEARLY FOR ANCHOR BABY BREEDING. MEXICANS WILL DOUBLE AMERICAS POPULATION BY 2050.



Through love of having children we're going to take over."



Augustin Cebada, Information Minister of Brown Berets, militant para-military soldiers of Aztlan shouting at U.S. citizens at an Independence Day rally in Los Angeles, 7/4/96

HERITAGE FOUNDATION:

Amnesty would add 100 million more illegals and cost Legals trillions !

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2010/03/heritage-foundation-amnesty-would-add.html

Literally, LA RAZA DEM Gov Jerry Brown headed down to the open border with NARCOMEX to meet the dictator of Mexico and proclaimed California is Mexicos second home!

Gov. Jerry Brown, on a trip to Mexico, seeks to position California as a more welcoming place for immigrants... $35 BILLION PER YEAR IN WELFARE NOT WELCOMING ENOUGH?!?

http://mexicanoccupation.blogspot.com/2014/07/la-raza-jerry-brown-special-interests.html

Weve got an even more ominous enemy within our borders that promotes Reconquista of Aztlan or the reconquest of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas into the country of Mexico. AND IT IS THE DEMOCRAT PARTY!

WERE HERE... TO SHOW THE WHITE ANGLO-SAXON PROTESTANT L.A., THE FEW OF YOU WHO REMAIN, THAT WE ARE THE MAJORITY, AND WE CLAIM THIS LAND AS OURS, ITS ALWAYS BEEN OURS, AND WERE STILL HERE, AND NONE OF THE TALK ABOUT DEPORTING. IF ANYONES GOING TO BE DEPORTED ITS GOING TO BE YOU!





WE ARE THE MAJORITY IN L.A. THERES OVER SEVEN MILLION MEXICANS IN L.A. COUNTY ALONE.

LA RAZA  THE (MEXICAN) RACE.





14. Augustin Cebada, Information Minister of Brown Berets,

militant para-military soldiers of Aztlan shouting at U.S. citizens at an Independence Day rally in Los Angeles, 7/4/96 "Augustin Cebada, Brown Berets, we're here today to show L.A., show the minority people here, the Anglo-Saxons, that we are here, the majority, we're here to stay. We do the work in this city, we take care of the spoiled brat children, we clean their offices, we pick the food, we do the manufacturing in the factories of L.A., we are the majority here and we are not going to be pushed around. We're here in Westwood, this is the fourth time we've been here in the last two months, to show white Anglo-Saxon Protestant L.A., the few of you who remain, that we are the majority, and we claim this land as ours, it's always been ours, and we're still here, and none of the talk about deporting. If anyone's going to be deported it's going to be you! Go back to Simi Valley, you skunks! Go back to Woodland Hills! Go back to Boston! To back to the Plymouth Rock, Pilgrims!





Get out! We are the future. You're old and tired. Go on. We have beaten you, leave like beaten rats. You old white people, it is your duty to die. Even their own ethicists say that they should die, that they have a duty to die. They're taking up too much space, too much air. We are the majority in L.A. There's over seven million Mexicans in L.A. County alone. We are the majority. And you're going to see every day more and more of it, as we manifest as our young people grow up, graduate from high school, go on to college and start taking over this society. The vast majority of our people are under the age of 15 years old. Right now we're already controlling those elections, whether it's by violence or nonviolence. Through love of having children we're going to take over." Other demonstrators: "Raza fuerza (brown race power), this is Aztlan, this is Mexico. They're the pilgrims on our land. Go back to the Nina, the Pinta, the Santa Maria."





ZOGY POLL ON MEX RACISM AND VIOLENCE.. Half the murders in CA





are by Mex gangs, and 93% of murders in La Raza-Occupied Los Angeles are by





Mexicans.





ZOGBY





In Mexico, a recent Zogby poll declared that the vast majority of Mexican citizens hate Americans. [22.2] Mexico is a country saturated with racism, yet in denial, having never endured the social development of a Civil Rights movement like in the US--Blacks are harshly treated while foreign Whites are often seen as the enemy. [22.3] In fact, racism as workplace discrimination can be seen across the US anywhere the illegal alien Latino works--the vast majority of the workforce is usually strictly Latino, excluding Blacks, Whites, Asians, and others.













SICK OF THE MEX FLAG WAVERS?





An American immigrant is not someone supported by government funds in a "relocation" center; flown over here at government expense; given a cash allowance, free housing, and medical care; and then eased onto local public assistance: Section 8 rental grants, food stamps, WIC, AFDC, clothes from one government-sponsored charity or another, Medicaid, and public schooling, with free lunch and breakfasts and even help with furniture. That's not an immigrant. That's a future Democrat voter. AMERICAN THINKER COM ----- RICHARD F. MINITER 









THE LA RAZA LOOTERS: THEY ALL VOTED DEMOCRAT FOR MORE WELFARE!





HERITAGE FOUNDATION:









Amnesty would add 100 million more illegals and cost Legals trillions !
















McCaul is part of the GOPs corporate wing, which vehemently openly opposes Trumps election-winning promise to reform U.S. immigration system in favor of U.S. employees, and away from the GOPs business donors. His critics label him No-Wall-McCaul, because he has sided with the cheap-labor groups which oppose Trumps symbolic-and-concrete border wall between American employers and the worlds bottomless supply of cheap labor.

MS-13's most vicious 'animals': The brutal gangsters still on the run including one who murdered a fellow member and another who shot dead his ex-girlfriend

Carlos Flores Garcia and Victor Alfonso Argueta are wanted for stabbing to death two men in Maryland whom they mistook for members of a rival gang

Robert Morales, 39, is wanted by FBI for murders of two men in Los Angeles and an attempted murder of a woman

Sole MS-13 member to have made it onto FBI's Ten Most Wanted list is Walter Yovaniy Gomez, accused of stabbing a man 17 times and cutting his throat

Founded in by Salvadoran immigrants in Los Angeles in 1980s, MS-13 is now estimated to have 10,000 members in US

MS-13 has emerged as America's most brutal street gang, sowing terror wherever it's got a foothold and leaving a trail of mutilated corpses in its wake.

The Latino gang's ultra-violent criminal activities have drawn the attention of President Donald Trump , who vowed to eradicate the criminal enterprise in a controversial speech delivered last week in Long Island, New York , where MS-13 units, known in Spanish as 'clicas,' have been holding towns in fear through acts of murder and bloody retribution.

'They kidnap. They extort. They rape and they rob,' Trump told an audience of police officers on Friday. 'They stomp on their victims. They beat them with clubs, they slash them with machetes, and they stab them with knives. They have transformed peaceful parks and beautiful quiet neighborhoods into bloodstained killing fields. They're animals.'

Scroll down for video



+4 Gang crackdown: President Donald Trump delivered a strongly-worded speech in Long Island, New York, Friday and vowed to wipe out MS-13



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In that speech, Trump suggested that police should not be 'too nice' to suspected MS-13 'thugs' and condoned using 'rough' methods when dealing with accused gangsters - words that have been met with sharp criticism by many law enforcement officials across the nation.

Having been started by Salvadoran immigrants on the streets of Los Angeles in the 1980s, MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, is now estimated to have some 10,000 members in the US, many of them teenage boys and young men from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala.

As Fox News first reported, among the gangsters there are currently five men considered to be the most-wanted affiliates of MS-13 in the country, suspected of slaying both rival and fellow gang members.

Walter Yovaniy Gomez, 28, is accused of stabbing a fellow MS-13 member 17 times in the back and cutting his throat

Walter Yovany Gomez: The 28-year-old undocumented immigrant from Honduras is the only member of MS-13 who has earned a spot on FBI's Ten Most Wanted list. Yovaniy Gomez, dubbed 'Cholo,' is wanted for his alleged involvement in the murder of a man in Plainfield, New Jersey, in May of 2011. The victim was suspected of socializing with a rival gang and had been ordered to be killed by MS-13 leaders. It is alleged that Gomez and another gang member, after an evening of socializing with the victim, attacked him. The victim was struck in the head numerous times, had his throat cut, and was stabbed 17 times in the back. A federal arrest warrant was issued for Gomez in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, Newark, New Jersey, on September 19, 2013, after he was charged with violent crime in aid of racketeering. He was last seen in Maryland after he was driven there from New Jersey. The FBI is offering a reward of up to $100,000 for information leading to the suspect's arrest.



+4 Robert Morales, 39, is wanted for murders of two men in Los Angeles and an attempted murder of a woman

Robert Morales : The 39-year-old, known as 'Casper,' is believed to be a member of the Coronado clique of MS-13. He is wanted for the alleged murder of two men and the attempted murder of a woman in Los Angeles. On July 31, 2000, Morales allegedly shot and killed a man waiting at a bus stop. On November 9, 2000, Morales allegedly shot and killed a fellow MS-13 gang member, and fired several shots at the victim's girlfriend. On January 22, 2001, the Superior Court of Los Angeles County issued an arrest warrant after Morales was charged with two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder. A federal warrant charging Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution was issued on January 17, 2007.

Morales has a long criminal history including several assaults, burglary, narcotics transportation, and domestic violence. He has ties to El Salvador.

Carlos Flores Garcia, 30, is wanted in a double murder

Carlos Flores Garcia and Victor Alfonso Argueta: Garcia, 30, and Argueta, 31, both of El Salvador, are wanted for their alleged involvement in a double murder in Baltimore County, Maryland.

On January 8, 2006, the men were at a club in South Baltimore when they met the two male victims. It is believed the murders occurred because the suspects thought they saw one of the victims flash a rival gang sign. Law enforcement investigation revealed that the victims had no gang affiliation.

When the two victims left the club, they were approached by the suspects and agreed to meet them behind a local school. The two male victims were then stabbed multiple times with knives and died.

Victor Alfonso Argueta, 31, is believed to be Garcia's accomplice in the 2006 killing

Garcia was charged in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore County with two counts of first degree murder on September 11, 2006. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Garcia and he has been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.

Argueta was charged in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore County with accessory to commit first degree murder after the fact and conspiracy to act as an accessory to commit first degree murder after the fact on September 11, 2006. A federal arrest warrant has been issued for Argueta and he has been charged with unlawful flight to avoid prosecution.



+4 Carlos Alberto Gonzalez-Barahona, 26, is wanted for killing his estranged girlfriend and kidnapping a truck driver

Carlos Alberto Gonzalez-Barahona : The 26-year-old El Salvadorian national has been deported multiple times from the US and is wanted for killing his estranged girlfriend in June, earning him a spot on Texas Department of Public Safety's Ten Most Wanted list.

In 2010, Gonzalez-Barahona was convicted of Burglary of a Habitation after an incident in Harris County. In October 2013, he was deported from the United States back to El Salvador.

Then on June 18, Gonzalez-Barahona allegedly shot and killed his estranged girlfriend at their apartment in northwest Houston. After the shooting, he reportedly fled the Harris County area and abandoned a pickup truck he was driving in Wharton County. His whereabouts since then are not known. Prior to abandoning the truck on June 20, he allegedly kidnapped the driver of the truck at gunpoint in Brazoria County.

On June 20, the Harris County Sheriff's Office issued a warrant for Gonzalez-Barahona's arrest for Murder, followed by another warrant issued in July for Aggravated Kidnapping.

MS-13 works as an umbrella grouping of units, some of which are larger and more violent than others.

Most MS-13 members are young men that trace their heritage to El Salvador, Honduras or Guatemala, and among the members there are as many immigrants as there are US citizens. Many were born in the United States.
BUILDING THE LA RAZA 'The Race' WELFARE STATE ON MIDDLE AMERICAS' BACKS: Months ago, the Biden administration publicly defended their proposal to begin providing federal identification cards to border crossers and illegal aliens who they plan to release into American communities. The goal of the proposal is to make securing public benefits easier.
@alextdaugherty

There's a ton of inside-the-beltway lists that rank the most beautiful, powerful or wealthy people in Washington.

But one inside-the-beltway list eschews humans in favor of dogs, and Miami is well represented.

A weeks-long competition by Independent Journal Review ranked the top 25 dogs on Capitol Hill, and two dogs that frequent Rep. Carlos Curbelo's office and Mario Diaz Balart's office made the top 10.

Riggins, a 2-year-old Welsh terrier owned by Curbelo communications director Joanna Rodriguez, placed ninth in the voting. Riggins donned a blue bow tie in his photo shoot and according to Rodriguez, Riggins was cute enough to end the Curbelo office's ban on dogs.

Nola, a 7-year-old French bulldog owned by Diaz-Balart's chief of staff Cesar Gonzalez, placed sixth in the voting. Nola is named after the city of New Orleans, where Gonzalez attended college. She enjoys eating plastic water bottles.

The winner of the competition after more than 30,000 votes was Koji, a 2-year-old American Eskimo who belongs to House committee staffer Zach Hunter and White House staffer Mallory Hunter. Koji won a golden water bowl for his cuteness.

Follow Riggins on Instagram here.
@PatriciaMazzei

Emily's List, which promotes women in politics who support abortion rights, will announce Thursday it is setting its sights on three Florida Republican congressmen seeking reelection in 2018: Reps. Carlos Curbelo of Miami, Brian Mast of Hutchinson Island and Ron DeSantis of Ponte Vedra Beach.

All three lawmakers will be listed in Emily's List "On Notice" group of 50 national Republicans the organization says "have amassed appallingly anti-woman, anti-family records."

Chief among Emily's List concerns: the legislators' support to repeal the Affordable Care Act.

"Curbelo voted for the Republican health care bill that would kick 23 million Americans -- including thousands of Floridians -- off their insurance," Emily's List President Stephanie Schriock said in a statement. "He has repeatedly voted to defund Planned Parenthood and to undermine equal pay protections for women."

Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, who lost a state Senate race last year, is expected to soon challenge Curbelo, likely with Emily's List backing.

Emily's List also targeted Curbelo ahead of the 2016 election, which he won handily, defeating Democrat Joe Garcia by 12 percentage points even though President Donald Trump lost the district by 16 points.
For picture posts from 2010 and earlier, see the Earlier Picture Posts Page
Mary Beth Percival's life was defined by her art. After her passing, it stands as a record of the phases of her life.

Her husband Monte Dolack, among the most well-known artists in Montana, has been slowly combing through her archives: a body of work that she stopped adding to only six months before she died after a years-long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

He's found a picture of her, maybe 6 or 7 years old, in the Wise River area where her father was a Forest Service ranger. She's in the snow, drawing away.

He uncovered a sketch she drew of him when they first met in the mid-1970s, when she wandered into his studio in downtown Missoula.

Over the ensuing decades together, they traveled extensively to Hawaii, Europe, Japan and more. While many tourists snap photos and hurry on to the next destination, the two would set up for hours-long plein air sessions.

For 22 years, they two kept their well-known gallery on Front Street, where they sold their work and became familiar names to art lovers in Montana and farther afield.

In 2010, she "retired" from showing her new art publicly due to Alzheimer's. She continued painting, but her work slowly began to change. The landscape, her favorite subject, became more dream-like and surreal, Dolack said.

Work from all these phases of her career will be on display at the Frame of Mind shop in honor of Percival, who died in December 2016 at age 71. Amy Doty, the owner of the gallery, said they wanted to show the full range: from her meticulously drafted drawings, quick sketches from her trips, her landscapes and commercial posters, and the works from her later years.

***

"This is one of my favorite paintings of hers," Dolack said in the gallery earlier this week while admiring a picture from 2002. "She did a lot of flower paintings, but I think it's the best bitterroot painting," he said. For many years, they lived in the Lincoln Hills area of the Rattlesnake, with easy access to Mount Jumbo and Waterworks Hill.

"I've never seen a better one anywhere," he said. Those areas were dear to Percival: she was commissioned to create a poster in 1993, during the drive to purchase and preserve Mount Jumbo as public land.

The natural world was an important part of her life. She was born in Shelby and grew up in the Big Hole and Boulder valleys. While her father was a ranger, her mother was a schoolteacher. She went on to earn degrees in both and art and teaching from the University of Montana, but soon dedicated herself to art full-time.

The two met during the halcyon days of downtown Missoula. Dolack kept a studio above the Top Hat Lounge. One of the Perical's paintings in the retrospective hearkens back to that time: A portrait of Alexis Carmel Alexander, a flamboyantly dressed fixture in the Hat and Eddie's Club, now Charlie B's. Dolack painted her, too, for the first Aber Day Kegger poster in 1977.

Despite their Montana roots, the two more than once considered moving to the Bay Area or Seattle to advance their careers. The idea never took.

"We'd come back to Missoula, and we'd just like being closer to nature and we had a community here and felt like we were a part of something here," Dolack said. "It's nice to have that sense of, I don't know, belonging to a place."

They opened their own gallery on Front Street to showcase their own work. Dolack laughs a bit and says he's not sure what they were thinking. Even to this day, it's rare for a Montana artist to own their own gallery.

"Most artists work with a gallery and then they spend their time making art. Between the two of us, we had so many images," he said. They kept it open more than two decades, during which time it was a regular stop for thousands of people on First Fridays. They didn't close it until 2015, when they moved their collection to Doty's shop, where she sells prints of their full catalog and curates exhibitions of their work.

To compensate for staying in their home state, Dolack and Percival opted to travel frequently. The exhibition has on-the-spot watercolors from France and Hawaii.

He said their plein-air vacation expeditions were fun: scouting for the right spot, noting ones that they'd have to revisit later when the light was better.

"It was something that we could do together and share," he said. It's an usual way of sight-seeing, too, spending so much time in one place. He recalls one trip to Glacier National Park when they set up to do a water scene.

"We stopped at McDonald Creek, with the beautiful red rocks and turquoise water," he said. They arranged their easels and stayed for four full hours until the light shifted. Not many of the other tourists stayed for long, he said. They'd get out of the car, snap a picture and drive off again.

"It's like they took a picture so they could remember it later," he said. It's different when you sit quietly for hours at a stretch, studying the same scene and recording it in a picture, he said. It's there, ingrained in you afterward.

The two were at ease working together and offering each other advice.

"She was a really good influence on my art, because she was someone who could come in and look at something and go, 'What about this?' " he said. "I could do the same with hers."

Percival was always drawing, even sketching newscasters if the two happened to be watching television. She kept illustrated journals that are among the large archive of work that he's sifting through. He'd like to photograph them all in sequence to show the progression of her Alzheimer's.

He's making arrangements to donate her archives to the University of Montana, in the hopes that they can be studied in the future.

"I think there's probably an interesting link there, not only in the work she did over a period of time, but how it changed," he said. "I'm hoping in some way that can contribute to understanding of the disease and recognizing that it's occurring." Many artists suffered from similar diseases and continued to work. Scientists have studied the work of Willem de Kooning for early signs of cognitive decline: in the later period of his life when he had dementia, his frenetic abstract expressionist paintings began to simplify further and further into sparse lines and colors.

Dolack said he began to notice the change in Percival's work five to six years ago, perhaps longer. Other people have told him that in retrospect, they can see hints of it much earlier.

Some of the later pieces in the retrospective are much looser, such as the two "Forest Spirits" paintings. In the second of the two, a ghostly, transparent fawn grazes in a bed of red flowers, framed by a dream-like forest of exaggerated scarlet and vermilion. The vertical strips of color remind Dolack of the PET scans that show amyloid plaques building up in the brain of Alzheimer's patients.

He recalls one commissioned piece of a fishing camp that Percival was working on, in which she added a second horizon hovering above the first, another example of her work becoming more surreal with time.

After her Alzheimer's grew more intense, Dolack would set up a drawing table for her in his studio with a vase of flowers or still life. Later, he would do a foundation sketch to get her started.

Art was therapeutic for her, when she was cared for primarily by Dolack and their friend Mary Huddle, a nurse practitioner with an art background. She later enrolled in art therapy at Edgewood Memory Care facility.

She continued to work until about six months before she died. Dolack believes it will take months to sort through her work, and arrange it chronologically and photograph it all, documenting the change, a kind of perseverance at the end of a creative life.

"My plan is to go through everything and have a timeline, whatever that leads to, a further exhibition at some point that shows the progression," he said. "What it does reflect is that a creative person who loves to make art, they keep doing it even with a disease like that."
When the news gets too hard to digest, I console myself by reading books of history, and these days I have been reading a lot of it. Part of it is a primitive if you think things are bad now, consider the chaos of 1916 sort of consolation. Then theres that timeless principle that those who ignore the past are condemned to repeat it, an often ignored truth first advanced by the philosopher George Santayana.

Here are some recently published history books that have filled up some golden afternoons. Pour a cool drink, find a shady spot and prepare to take some deep breaths along the way:

Putin: His Downfall and Russias Coming Crash by Richard Lourie (St. Martins Press, 272 pp., $26.99) is a concise, clear-eyed, scary look at the Russian dictator whose greatest pleasure seems to be to humiliate America and other democracies. In this book, Lourie, a man who has spent decades studying and writing about Russia, gives his best shot at explaining what makes Putin tick.

Lourie ably covers Putins life story  his rise from a street-smart St. Petersburg kid to a KGB official foraging for intelligence in Germany to faceless St. Petersburg apparatchik to  suddenly, prime minister, then president of Russia. But the best bits are Louries explanation of why Russia views the U.S. and its NATO allies as an existential threat. The NATO countries, with America as the big brother backup, almost completely ring Russia in an ever tightening encirclement, one big reason Russia sees Ukraines possible inclusion in NATO an intolerable proposition.

Lourie believes Putin will fail, because hes already failed Russia  during his tenure he has squandered opportunities to transform Russias economy into a more technology-base one, falling back on old standbys such as the sale of oil, gas and timber to keep bread in peoples mouths and order on the street. This enlightening book, a relatively short read, will shape your understanding of the news for months to come.

Moving back in time, Lincoln and the Abolitionists: John Quincy Adams, Slavery, and the Civil War by Fred Kaplan (Harper, 395 pp., $28.99) reshaped my view of our most revered president.

Most Americans remember Lincoln as a warrior against slavery and a martyr to the cause of its extermination, but Kaplan tells a more complicated story. Lincolns decision to emancipate the slaves came after a long, arduous struggle with the Souths slaveholding elite and his own evolving beliefs.

Kaplan compares Lincolns trajectory on the slavery question with that of John Quincy Adams, a truth-teller to Lincolns conciliator. As the slavery debate bubbled and steamed in Congress, Adams, a Massachusetts congressman who had already served as secretary of state and president, had nothing to lose. He spoke out against slavery time after time and was censured for it. (If you think rules in Congress are a twisted mess now, consider that in Adams era it was forbidden to even speak of slavery on the floor.)

By the early 1800s Adams already believed that slavery would end only with an American civil war, but Lincoln believed abolition would destroy the union and set off a hundred years of volatile racism, Kaplan writes. Only when he concluded that freeing the slaves would wreck the Southern economy and free up thousands of black men to fight for the Union cause did Lincoln set emancipation in motion. Kaplan, author of biographies of both Lincoln and Adams, tells this story with precision and eloquence.

Finally, History of a Disappearance: The Story of a Forgotten Polish Town by Filip Springer, translated from the Polish by Sean Gasper Bye (Restless Books, 318 pp., $17.99), is history told in miniature, the story of a small town in lower Silesia that literally disappeared.

A mountain town called Kupferberg when the Germans controlled it, and Miedzianka when the Poles moved in after World War II, from its medieval beginnings it was a mining town. From the first, it was roadkill in the path of the clashes and conflicts of Europe  in the 30 Years War, Habsburg troops burned it down and killed everyone they could find, a gruesome chapter in the story of a town that live and died by physical transformation and invasion.

For a brief, halcyon period in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Kupferberg became a destination, a place where tourists could drink in the superior beer brewed by industrious Germans and the mountain-ringed view. All the while, the mining went on, and on. The very earth underneath the village became riddled with tunnels. Nights in village houses were punctuated by ominous creaks and groans. The villagers stopped their ears.

Kupferberg weathered the first World War but in the 1930s the Nazis arrived and destroyed the benign rhythms of town life forever. The village leaders were replaced by party enthusiasts; the Jewish families disappeared. World War II came, and though Kupferberg was spared the bombs, when the vengeful Russians invaded, the terrified Germans fled before them.

Now the village belonged to communist Poland, was renamed Miedzianka and repopulated by Poles. They worked the mines at extracting uranium, and the Soviet-run management brutally suppressed any talk about the dire health impact.

This is a book of astonishing personal stories and appalling documentation of violence, looting and destruction. Today the town lies in ruins, with maybe 100 people living on the unstable ground. But heres an odd thing  though Miedzianka no longer exists, after this book came out in Poland in 2011, a theater company produced a play based on its story, and investors have banded together to open a small brewery there. Another lesson in history, another turn of the wheel.
Thousands of the Red Ants Pants Festival faithful and many newcomers will gather in White Sulphur Springs this weekend to hear music, cheer for their favorite beards or try their hand at yoga or the crosscut saw.

Now in its seventh year, the festival kicked off Thursday with a street dance in downtown White Sulphur Springs. The music starts at the festival grounds on Friday with Tom Chacon performing at 3:30 p.m. and Turnpike Troubadours closing down the night with their set starting at 10 p.m. Three-day passes are $150 at the gate and single-day tickets are $60 at the gate.

Known for combining world-class music with down-home fun, the Red Ants Pants Festival relies on 220 volunteers and 85 staff members to put it on each year.

Founder Sarah Calhoun has many memorable moments from the festival. One of them was watching musician James McMurtry ride into the sunset after his performance when a friend surprised him with horses on the grounds. Those special memories remind Calhoun why she keeps putting on the festival.

The first year someone snapped a picture of two guys standing up front of the stage having a beer with their backs to the camera. One guys shirt said Save the planet and the other guys shirt said 'Pave the planet.' Thats the magic of this event. That experience is happening 100 times every year.

The festival has become a major fundraiser for many groups in White Sulphur Springs and Meagher County. This year, the White Sulphur Springs Senior Class will raise money by washing cars for folks leaving the festival, eager to clear off three days of dust. The library will host its annual book sale and the White Sulphur Springs Historical Association will host a craft sale.

I like hosting and bringing people together, small or large scale. There is a collective power in that, Calhoun said. What I am finding is that people are wanting to be part of something worthwhile.

Calhoun has said that she came to White Sulphur Springs, drawn by the late Ivan Doigs iconic Montana memoir, This House of Sky. She grew up on a farm in Connecticut and earned a degree in environmental studies before moving to Bozeman in 2004. Calhoun moved to White Sulphur Springs in 2005 and in 2006 she started her business Red Ants Pants, specializing in making work pants that fit women.

Proceeds from the festival go to the Red Ants Pants Foundation in support of womens leadership, rural communities and working Montana family ranches.

The local businesses have seen an uptick since the festival began in 2010. Bryan Stidham, assistant manager of the Exxon Convenience Store in White Sulphur Springs, said hes noticed more tourists coming to town, not just in July for the festival, but throughout the year.

Weve been discovered, Stidham said.

The population of White Sulphur Springs grows from 900 to 10,000 when the festival takes place, Stidham said.

Its pretty crazy, he said. Ive met people from as far away as New York and Texas, and a lot of people come down from Canada. Theyve all been pretty nice.

Michelle Walker, who runs the town's Branding Iron Cafe with her husband J.D., said she attends the festival every year.

I like all sorts of music. Its always fun to see musicians you dont really know. Sarah has done a really good job picking bands, Walker said.

Her best advice is for folks to come relax and enjoy the scene.

"It's something everyone should do at least once; it truly is a unique experience," Walker said.
After hearing vocal opposition from nearly 150 people at a public meeting on Tuesday night, a Kalispell company has indicated it is going to withdraw an application to dig a gravel pit next to the Frenchtown High School and Junior High that would have been in operation for 10 years.

Frenchtown School District Superintendent Randy Cline said he got a call from an official at Nelcon Inc. at about 11 a.m. Wednesday.

He said hes going to write a letter to the (Department of Environmental Quality) asking for withdrawal and send out a press release (on Thursday), Cline said. Cline said Sam Weyers, a vice president at Nelcon, indicated to him that what he heard at the meeting swayed the companys decision. Not a single person spoke in support of the gravel pit, he said.

Cline and Frenchtown residents had been concerned about noise, water quality, traffic and safety issues. The school gets all of its drinking water from a well on the site, and Cline said all 700 students and staff would be affected if there was any loss in water quality. Also, the proposed site is next to land where the school plans to expand in the future.

He indicated that he listened to what the community and the school had to say, Cline said. Im very happy. Im glad that the concerns were listened to by the company and they made a business decision that if they are going to build a gravel pit, they arent going to do it right next to a school.

Chad Lantz, who recently bought property with his wife and young child near the high school, said Tuesdays meeting was extremely passionate.

There were people that were so pissed off they were crying, Lantz said.

The proposed gravel pit would have removed an estimated half-million cubic yards of material over a decade. There also were plans for an asphalt patch plant at the site.
BOZEMAN  Montana Gov. Steve Bullock is moving forward with a plan to create an Office of Outdoor Recreation.

The Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports Bullock traveled to Bozeman on Tuesday to ask industry representatives for input on what the office could help them with.

Bullock says state officials are still looking for someone to run the office, but it should be up and running by September.

He says the office is meant to help grow the industry and support outdoor recreation, which he views as important for multiple reasons.

Bullock proposed creating the office during his reelection campaign last June. It was part of a broader public access agenda that he wanted to bring to the state Legislature.
William Buck would have to stop taking patients who are covered under Medicaid at his Lewistown nursing home if the state health department cuts reimbursement rates for providers like him.

We cant afford to continue to take Medicaid clients because of these cuts. These cuts are devastating, Buck told a packed hearing room in the Department of Public Health and Human Services building in the state capital Thursday.

These cuts are coming to people who are retired ranchers, retired farmers,'' he said. "Its going to have to be mitigated. I will have to reduce the number of Medicaid patients immediately.

The proposed rate drop is because of a one-two budgeting punch the department is facing. It first saw its overall budget reduced by the state Legislature this spring and now is facing additional cuts under a law, Senate Bill 261, passed in April. That legislation triggers more reductions because revenue came in lower than projected.

More than 100 people testified Thursday during three hearings on different aspects of the cuts.

The reductions would have a massive negative effect statewide, providers said, because a lower reimbursement rate would mean fewer doctors, dentists, mental health professionals, group homes and others would treat those covered under Medicaid. Some who testified said they would die without access to care.

The department must come up with $8.6 million in state dollar savings because of cuts triggered by the weak revenue. To do that requires a 3.47 percent drop in the rates paid to almost all Medicaid providers in the state, plus massive reductions in targeted case management and services for people with developmental disabilities.

Rate reductions would be closer to 2.6 percent in the second year of the biennium. The overall cut is $26 million when accounting for a loss of federal dollars that match what the state puts up.

The bill also calls for s $3.8 million cut from targeted case management, the program that provides hands-on monitoring for those with severe developmental disables and mental health issues. It would push back raises for workers who care for those with developmental disabilities and the elderly and cut the rate paid for home- and community-based services for those with developmental disabilities by 3.47 percent, which providers say could cause group homes to close.

Medicaid is a state-federal program that covers 216,000 people in Montana, including children, people with disabilities and pregnant women. More than 49,275 providers accept Medicaid. Providers who see patients with Medicaid already receive less reimbursement for services than they would for patients covered under private insurance.

The department does not respond to comments at hearings on proposed rules. Decisions to implement rules are made by director Sheila Hogan and Gov. Steve Bullock.

Hogan, in opening remarks Thursday, tried to stress the point to those who attended the hearing that the cuts were mandated by Legislative action.

These are no doubt difficult times, she said. I too am concerned. I truly wish we were not in this situation.

Medicaid patients make up about a third of the residents at Bucks nursing home, Shepherd's Way in Lewistown. The town of about 5,800 is a hub for surrounding rural communities and ranches in central Montana. He has room for 15 residents.

This 3.47 percent reduction is devastating, he said. We are barely surviving.

The proposed rule said the department does not anticipate the cuts would make it harder for patients to find Medicaid providers, but most who testified said that's already the case and it will only get worse.

It will undermine the community-based services that act as a safety net for our vulnerable folks, said Katherine Isaacson, executive director of Western Montana Mental Health.

She said without community care, the number of people in jails, the state prison and the state mental hospital will increase. There will be more suicides, she said.

The legislative interim committee that oversees the health department has objected to the proposed rate cuts, saying they do not meet the intent lawmakers had when passing the bill requiring the department to reduce its budget.

The department has countered by saying it has nowhere else to reduce costs. It is not filling vacant positions and already has seen a decrease of 6.3 percent in the amount of money it has for personnel services.

The objection could push back the date of implementation, set for Oct. 1. If the committee chooses to continue its objection after a Sept. 11 meeting, it could take six months for the rates to go into effect.

That would mean the department would have to come back and ask for even steeper reimbursement rate cuts to meet the required reductions in less time, Medicaid program head Marie Matthews said in opening remarks.

Cuts to targeted case management would mean the end of those services in many cases, providers said. The $3.8 million could equate to a 40 percent drop in reimbursements, some providers said.

Jessie Abney was one of many who testified who receive targeted case management; he said his case manager kept him alive after a difficult personal time.

I couldnt put a coherent thought together, except I wanted to die," he said. "Without a mental health professional checking on me, I would have.

Penn Wolfe, who has borderline personality disorder and PTSD, said her case manager keeps her from being homeless.

She is my eyes, she helps my with my problems. If she wasnt there to help me solve problems, because I go to extremes because of being borderline, she helps me sit down and breathe and practice my mindfulness because theres no pill out there that can help me. With these services being cut, it means Im homeless.

Senate Bill 261 also pushes back pay raises for workers who care for those with developmental disabilities and the elderly.

Kerry Dattilo, chief executive officer for Quality Life Concepts, which operates group homes and provides services for those with developmental disabilities, said her organization pays $9.75 an hour to entry-level staff, the same wage as the local Burger King.

At one location that employs 50 people, the turnover rate is 50 percent, meaning the organization must hire 125 people a year.

If something is not done about this crisis, disability services across the state will collapse, she said.

Several people who get services at group homes testified the cuts to their providers would greatly reduce the services they receive, lowering their quality of life. Those cuts would top $1 million in state money matched by more than $3 million in federal dollars.
WASHINGTON  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Alaska's two Republican senators to warn them of repercussions for the nation's largest state if they failed to toe the Trump administration line on health care, according to a published report.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported Thursday that Zinke called Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and complained that Murkowski's vote against proceeding on legislation to repeal "Obamacare" had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy. Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie to advance the measure earlier this week.

Sullivan told the newspaper that the call from Zinke heralded a "troubling message." Questioned by reporters on Thursday, Sullivan declined to discuss his conversations with administration officials.

Murkowski confirmed that she received a call from Zinke, but said she did not perceive the call as a threat against her or Alaska.

"He was just sharing the concern that the president expressed to him to pass on to me," Murkowski said Thursday. She and Zinke, a former Montana congressman, have a "cordial, respectful and friendly relationship," Murkowski added. "I don't think that will change one bit."

The Interior Department and the White House had no comment on the report.

The notion of a Cabinet official warning senators of retribution over health care is highly unusual, even as Trump has lashed out at GOP members of Congress for balking at his policies. On Wednesday, Trump tweeted at Murkowski: "Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!"

Murkowski, who was re-elected to a new six-year term last year, chairs the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has say over Interior business and nominations. She also leads an Appropriations subcommittee with authority over the Interior Department budget. On Thursday, an energy committee hearing on nominations was postponed, with a spokeswoman citing "scheduling uncertainties."

Alaska has a range of issues affected by the federal government, including proposals to build a road through a remote wildlife refuge and drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Several Alaskans also have been nominated for key posts at Interior, and Murkowski and Sullivan have pushed to expand drilling on federal land in Alaska's North Slope near the Arctic Ocean.

Sullivan told the newspaper: "I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop."

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear," Sullivan said.

Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that resource development is critical for his state, which he said is in recession.

"From my perspective, the sooner we can get back to cooperation between the administration and the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the better," he said, referring to Murkowski.

Murkowski, who talked to Trump before her vote on Tuesday, said she has no problem with the administration's efforts to persuade her on the health care bill.

"The president wants to get a health care bill. He's going to make calls. That's understood. ... That's kind of his job. I don't have a hardship with that. I don't have heartburn with that at all," she said, adding that she made her position clear to Trump when they talked before the initial vote on Tuesday.

"He was very direct, in terms of encouraging me to vote to proceed," Murkowski said of Trump. "It was a difficult conversation."

In the end, she decided to vote against moving forward, saying the bill was not ready and would make unacceptable cuts to Medicaid.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said any threat against Murkowski was a mistake.

"Always. Tomorrow's another day," Shelby said. "We vote thousands of times ... I'd never threaten anybody because they didn't vote with me on some issue because tomorrow, we might have another issue."
Montana recently missed an opportunity to advocate on behalf of Colstrip, a community of less than 2,500 souls that is nonetheless the largest city in Rosebud County, and which is almost entirely dependent on its coal-fired power plant.

The plant is one of the largest of its kind in the West, producing more than 2,000 megawatts of electricity. But two of the plants aging units  representing half the facility  are slated for imminent closure. One co-owner, Puget Sound Energy, reached an agreement with environmental groups last year to shutter Units 1 and 2 by July 2022, and the other co-owner, Talen Energy, wants to end its involvement with Colstrip by as early as 2018.

In February, Montana Attorney General Tim Fox filed for intervention in electricity rate proceedings in Washington, where Puget Sound Energy is based. At the time, Fox noted that (i)ts important that the state of Montana has a seat at the table throughout this rate proceeding so our interests can be adequately represented because (m)any thousands of Montana residents will be economically impacted, directly or indirectly, by the closure of the Colstrip Units.

It was therefore a dismaying surprise to learn that Fox recently opted not to fill Montanas seat at the negotiating table and chose not to file testimony. His office, while declining to more specific answers, essentially put the blame on the Legislature, saying the decision not to file was made after a bill was tabled in the Legislature that would have provided a transition plan for Colstrips closure and forced its co-owners to cover certain associated costs.

Fox owes Montana a much better explanation. Moreover, he owes the people of Colstrip a sincere apology.

First of all, Foxs lack of action on this matter should not have come as a surprise. If it was in fact his intention to miss the deadlines, he ought to have communicated that to the many folks who spent a great deal of time and effort to ensure he was provided with all the resources necessary to speak on Montanas behalf.

Instead, legislators and others were caught by surprise upon learning that the June 30 deadline had passed without comment from Fox. Now, Puget Sound Energy and the rest of the board in Washington will proceed with plans to shut down half of Colstrip without input from Montana.

Montanas legislators have been working to make that shutdown as painless as possible. During this years legislative session, they made sure to set aside $80,000 in a tight budget year specifically to help Colstrip. The money was meant to provide aid to Colstrip workers, encourage Puget Sound Energy to explore investment opportunities in Montana  and pay for any costs incurred by Foxs office while advocating for Colstrip.

Democrat and Republican legislators alike are justifiably frustrated with the Republican attorney generals silence. As House Energy Committee Vice Chair Denise Hayman, a Democrat, said in a recent news story, We do not as a state have too many options that impact Puget Sound Energy. This was one of our few options, other than taking them to court directly.

House Energy Committee Chair Daniel Zolnikov, a Billings Republican, further explained that the tabled bill should not have prevented the attorney general from offering recommendations, and in fact, other legislation was passed that established remediation procedures for coal-fired generating units.

In short, Foxs excuse doesnt add up.

His communications director, Eric Sell, did offer a statement saying that Attorney General Fox is determined to mitigate the broader societal costs imposed on the state of Montana by the closure of Colstrip Units 1 and 2. Although the Montana Legislature narrowly failed to pass a law that would have allowed for recovery of such costs, and was the primary basis for our intervention in the rate case to begin with, we are still actively engaged in an attempt to advocate for the people of Colstrip and the interests of the state of Montana.

His office must now follow up on that promise by detailing exactly how it is actively engaged and what specific steps it is taking to mitigate the broader societal costs.

Having missed a crucial deadline, Montana will not be a party to the discussions in Washington concerning the future of Colstrip Units 1 and 2. Montana wont be allowed to offer comment to the Utility and Transportation Commission in Washington, which must approve any shutdown plans or rate changes. Nine other organizations have that ability because they met the deadline to file testimony, but not Montana.

At it stands, Montana is in a weaker position to advocate for Colstrip than it was a month ago, and this unfortunate development came as a complete surprise. If Fox has some plan to strengthen Montanas position and help the Colstrip community, it shouldnt come as a surprise as well.
A North Dakota woman accused of starting a fire at a small home in Anaconda remains a person of interest in two other recent fires in that city.

The other fires include a July 14 blaze that destroyed the historic Shields Mansion and a July 17 fire that broke out in the basement of a radio station, Anaconda Police Chief Tim Barkell said Tuesday. Both structures are on Main Street.

Kellie Jeanette Olson, 48, of Fortuna, N.D., was arrested July 16 on a felony arson charge after a neighbor from the 200 block of Front Street told police she allegedly saw Olson lingering near the home there shortly before the small fire broke out. The neighbor said she witnessed Olson return to the home the next day.

Barkell said that, in addition to the mansion fire, Olson is also a person of interest in the KANA radio-station fire despite being arrested the day before the fire was detected.

The chief explained that the KANA fire  which was detected around 5:30 a.m., July 17  could have smoldered before becoming intense enough to become noticeable.

The initial report of the KANA fire came from an Anaconda resident who saw smoke emanating from the building and called 911, Fire Chief RJ Tocher told The Standard on the day of the fire. Tocher also said the radio station was empty at the time of the fire.

Last week Barkell said Olson, who gave North Dakota as her place of residence and was driving a car with North Dakota license plates, may have just been passing through Anaconda. But the chief said Tuesday it now appears that Olson has been in Anaconda since at least January, at which time she made a transaction at a local casino.

Barkell said the investigation into the three fires remains ongoing. Anaconda police are interviewing witnesses, he said, and are reviewing security-camera footage from businesses near the KANA radio station and from Anaconda High School (which is near the Shields Mansion) and photos and videos taken by residents during and after the fires.

Anaconda police have also sent evidence to the Montana State Crime Lab in Missoula, Barkell said. The evidence includes fingerprints and possible paper ignition source found at the radio station and paper found at the Front Street fire.

Olson remains detained in the Anaconda jail.
A couple of weeks ago I had the honor of helping out on a fishing trip to the Tongue River near Dayton with Joey's Fly Fishing Foundation. Joey Puettman instructed a group of young anglers in fly casting and fly tying prior to the trip.

When we arrived at the river, Art Orr, a retired science teacher spoke to the students about the Tongue River and dynamics of the stream. He explained to them that much of the water in the stream was from snowmelt and that there was still plenty of snow left in the mountains.

Orr then produced some small seines and fine nets to sample the aquatic life in the river. The youngsters soon had captured a number of aquatic insects and a few long-nosed dace. The aquatic insects included some large stonefly nymphs (most likely salmon fly nymphs), golden stonefly nymphs, western green drake nymphs, blue-winged olive nymphs, and cased caddis. Of course, the students were most interested in the long-nosed dace.

After Orr's exercise, Puettman gave a brief demonstration of how to fish the river and instructed the young anglers on getting a good drift and how to mend.

Soon, the young anglers were fishing the river with flies they thought would imitate what they had seen. One young fellow used a streamer fly that closely resembled the dace he had recently seen.

The students had a great time fishing the stream though the success was limited to just a couple of trout caught, but that didn't dampen their enthusiasm.

I don't know how many times that I have helped out on an outing that Puettman has organized, but it surely must be close to 20 or more. Each time that I help out, I realize how much that Puettman is imparting to his kids. I was curious just how much the foundation has done this year so I contacted Sheila Blackburn, Executive Director and more, for some information.

Blackburn recited a list of recent accomplishments that the foundation had done. She said, We have had around 150 kids go through our summer fishing camps this year. The kids ranged in age from 7 to 18 years. We had several fishing camps with area schools  Sagebrush Elementary, Coffeen Elementary, Tongue River Elementary, and Story. We were especially pleased to bring our fishing camp to Wyola. The students there really appreciated our coming to them and teaching them the various aspects of fly fishing and aquatic biology.

Blackburn continued, We also had camps with New BOCES from Gillette; CASA, Gillette; First Light Early Education Center; and Northern Wyoming Mental Health.

The camps that we had with the elementary schools were exclusive for the schools. In many instances, we loaded up our vans and equipment and went to the schools to avoid transportation and other problems.

In the next two weeks Joey's Foundation will be holding evening camps from 3 to 7 p.m. for advanced campers to further their skills. These are in addition to our regular day camps.

We have this fall's schedule fairly well planned out; we'll be going to Sagebrush and Meadowlark Elementary Schools for a total of 36 days in each school. We'll have special guests, and personnel from Wyoming Game & Fish, Forest Service, and Wyoming DEQ. They will be teaching the students about what their organization does, show them some of their projects, and give them some hands on projects, Blackburn stated.

We feel that it is important that the students learn what the various resource agencies do, but also, we like to point out what career opportunities there are with the agencies. We hope to encourage our youths to think about a career in natural resources.

It is so heartening to know that Joey's Fly Fishing Foundation has continued to serve and teach area youths that fly fishing can be a great pastime and that it can lead to a whole world of opportunity. Let's hope and pray that Joey's can continue to educate and grow area youths.
New acts will be joining returning favorites at this weekend's Evel Knievel Days, which will turn Uptown Butte into a stage for stunts, skateboarding lessons and music performances Thursday through Saturday.

Stephen Coe, president of the nonprofit organization running the event, said that this year Evel Knievel Days has partnered with Chive On Montana, the local chapter of a national social and fundraising group. Coe said that the funds raised at the Chive On Montana area, located behind the Times Bar, will be donated to Butte veterans through an as yet undetermined organization.

"As we were designing the festival this year, we wanted to give back to the community, and our focus was veterans," Coe said. "Chive On Montana had the same mission, so it was a natural fit to get together."

Another new partner is Skate Like a Girl, a Seattle- and Portland-based organization that aims to teach skateboarding to those outside the "skater" stereotype.

Levi Renz will return as a main attraction Saturday night doing a back flip on a side-by-side four-wheeler, Coe said. Other returning favorites are the Freestyle Motocross Show, with winners from the X Games and the Nitro Games, and the Seattle Cossacks, a precision motorcycle stunt team.

Aerial Assault, an acrobatic trampoline show, will be performing for the first time.

The Original mine yard will play host to kids' events and music, as well as the Friday Night Fights. Other venues will be at Broadway (closed from North Dakota to Arizona streets) and Granite Street (closed from Wyoming to Arizona).

The festival organizers have been reaching out to fans on social media to draw crowds to the festival, reaching over 90,000 people a week that way, according to Coe. They are also offering a mobile app for attendees to keep up with events this weekend, which will have a map, a schedule and access to a festival store, as well as coupons and incentive rewards.
Six weeks after "Buttetification" aired for the first time on HGTV, the television network is passing on the pilot featuring historic home renovations in Butte.

Sherry Sellers, executive producer at Dorsey Pictures, the Denver company that produced the show, said "Buttetification had to overcome a lot of hurdles to make it to air.

Not every concept gets the green light to become a pilot, the producer said, and many pilots never see the light of day. The fact that the pilot aired not once, but three times (on June 11, June 14 and July 8) speaks to the quality of the show and its stars Amy and Ty Free, of Bozeman, Sellars said.

It was a good show, Sellers said, Everyone gave 110 percent.

But in the end it wasnt enough, and the television network ultimately declined to move forward with the show.

HGTV did not elaborate on the reasoning behind its decision-making.

And thats show business, Sellers said, noting that its not for the faint of heart.

Meanwhile, heads hung low at Dorsey when the production company got the news at its Denver office.

It was like a death in the family, the executive producer explained, who noted that crew members had a soft spot for the Mining City.

She described the experience of making "Buttetification" as one in which a little family had come together, one that consisted of a work family but also a Butte family. She added that crew members looked forward to working in a community that she described as supportive and welcoming and possibly having a positive impact on the community.

Sellers also sang the praises of the pilots homeowners Erik and Kathleen Nelson  who now, thanks to the show, have a shower in their home after living in the Park Street residence for 20 years with just two old-school bathtubs  and of the Frees.

HGTV looks at lots of people, said Sellers, noting there are countless hopefuls who want to appear on the television network. The fact that they were chosen speaks to their uniqueness.

They should be really proud of what they did, she said.
County road officials will explore ways of enhancing safety on George Street, a narrow but heavily traveled road in Butte because it is one of the few straight, east-west routes between Harrison Avenue and Montana Street.

Butte-Silver Bow Commissioners Brendan McDonough and Bud Walker formally asked for the traffic study, in part because of accidents involving cars crashing into houses last month. But residents were concerned long before that.

Back when all those homes were built and the city was laid out, it was an alley, McDonough said. Now its a thoroughfare.

Some residents want the county to make George a one-way street, and Public Works Director Dave Schultz said Wednesday night that hes 95-percent certain thats the recommendation any study will produce.

This will be controversial, Schultz told members of the councils Public Works Committee. We could make it a one-way street, but do we make it eastbound or westbound?

The committee voted to have outside traffic experts study the street, since they can better determine how any options should affect traffic flow. Public Works officials say the study might cost $2,000.

George Street is a popular way to avoid signal lights and save time, despite numerous stop signs through the housing areas.

Walker wants the study to include the intersection of George and Kaw Avenue, which was recently pegged in a state and county transportation report as the most dangerous intersection in Butte in terms of severity of crashes.

There also are traffic volume and congestion problems where George connects with Montana, just south of a railroad overpass and just north of the Interstate 15-90 interchange, Walker said.

There is so much traffic in there, we may have to look at putting a signal in, Walker said. He noted that such a move would need authorization from the Montana Department of Transportation because that agency oversees Montana Street.

George Street marks part of the boundary between the districts in Butte that Walker and McDonough represent.

Besides the interstate and Front Street, George is the only direct route from Harrison to Montana. Harrison actually turns into Front Street at its north end, and although Cobban Street gets drivers quite a ways toward Montana, it stops at Kaw.

From Harrison, George stretches 10 blocks through residential areas and then runs past fields and open space most of the rest of the way to Montana. It does pass the KOA campground and the Butte-Silver Bow Chamber of Commerce.

Last month, a car on George crashed into a yard, ran into a fence and patio equipment and hit the corner of a house owned by Mary Sutherland at George and Whitman Avenue. Sutherland wasnt home at the time.

Two weeks before that, a driver ran into a utility pole and crashed into another corner house on George and Whitman. No one inside the house was injured, but the driver was charged with drunken driving.

Sutherland told The Montana Standard last month she wasnt surprised the crashes occurred in such a short time span.

She described George Street as about as wide as an alley, and though it has a speed limit of 15 mph through the housing area and also has numerous stop signs, drivers still use it as a quick route from Harrison to Montana.

Walker said the possibility of putting guard rails along parts of the street to prevent cars from crossing over into yards and houses has been discussed, but the road already is very narrow.

Making it a one-way street might solve some problems and please some residents, but McDonough said it could draw objections from others.

I imagine there will be some push-back from some of the neighbors who have relied on it (George Street) over the years to get to their house pretty quickly, he said.

They might not like having to drive one or two blocks down and then double-back, he said.

Whatever county officials recommend, McDonough said there still needs to be a formal, full scale public hearing before any steps are finalized.
After getting out of prison in 2008 for raping a child in Billings, Ernest Evans Coleman wasn't supposed to have contact with kids.

His parole officer says Coleman, who lives in Missoula, has had repeated contact with at least two children over the past two years. That includes volunteering with kids at a food bank without disclosing his sex offender status.

Coleman, 70, appeared in Yellowstone County District Court on Thursday in light of the new allegations. District Judge Mary Jane Knisely allowed him to remain free on a $10,000 bond that he previously posted.

Coleman's history of sexual crimes against children goes back to 1985, when he was convicted for sexual abuse of a boy in North Dakota. He admitted to abusing nine other victims at that time, according to court documents. He served three years in prison.

A 9-year-old boy reported to police in 1995 that Coleman molested him twice. Coleman was sentenced in 1997 to 25 years in prison. He was released in 2008 after serving 11 years.

Coleman reported to a parole officer in Missoula. That officer reported that Coleman seemed to be doing well and "did a good job making things look rosy on the surface," court documents state.

But earlier this year, the mother of a 10-year-old boy reported that Coleman took the child into his home "for a haircut." The report says that he took the same child out of town another time, and the boy helped Coleman with lawn work for five hours.

The contact was unsupervised.

His parole officer then learned that Coleman had been volunteering at the Clark Fork City Church Food Bank in Missoula, where he'd been meeting multiple boys for years.

Conditions of his parole include no contact with children and that he can't frequent places where children are present. The food bank utilizes kids as volunteers.

Through the food bank, Coleman began contacting one boy when he was 14, and the relationship lasted two years. In her report, Coleman's parole officer characterized it as an "opportunity to groom yet another boy."

The mother of that teen said Coleman never disclosed that he was a sex offender, court documents state.

Coleman offered the boy money, even for college. When the boy's family moved out of state, Coleman offered to pay for him to come back to Missoula, where Coleman would give him a job. He told the family that he "really liked" the teen and "wanted to help him," court documents say.

None of the contact in the report was sexual in nature.

When the parole officer asked Coleman about this, he replied that he "knew in his heart that he would not touch any kids again," according to the report. The officer included a signed note from Coleman admitting to the contact.

The officer noted that this was "nearly identical" to what Coleman said about his victim in the 1995 case. She recommended that Coleman receive another suspended sentence with the Department of Corrections and that he re-enter treatment.

On Thursday, Judge Knisely set a hearing for Aug. 21.
Montanas Republican Sen. Steve Daines brought an amendment to the Senate floor Wednesday calling for a single-payer health care system, even though its something he strongly opposes.

Daines move came after a day in which the Senate voted down a partial repeal of the Affordable Care Act and on the heels of a failed attempt to pass the bodys own Better Care Reconciliation Act.

A vote on the amendment was moved to Thursday.

Daines voted for the full and partial repeals, while Montanas Democratic Sen. Jon Tester voted against both. Daines has long called for and campaigned on doing away with the Affordable Care Act, saying it has made health care too expensive. Tester supports improvements to the law, sometimes called Obamacare, saying its repeal and subsequent rollback of Medicaid expansion and cuts to the Medicaid program would devastate rural Montana.

Republicans voted many times to repeal the Affordable Care Act when former president Barack Obama, a Democrat who would veto any repeal effort, was in office. The party is now being criticized for not voting to do the same when Republican Donald Trump is in the White House.

Pundits have equated Daines' move as a rebuttal to that, making Democrats weigh in on a policy favored by the more liberal wing of their party.

"I do not support a single-payer system, but I believe Montanans deserve to see us debate different ideas, which is why I am bringing forward this amendment," Daines said Wednesday night. "It's time for every senator to go on the record on whether or not they support a single-payer system."

Daines said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, of New York, said once the amendment was put on the floor Democrats would no longer debate.

The bill is familiar to lawmakers because it is the same legislation brought years ago by Democrat Rep. John Conyers, of Michigan.

It's been around since 2003 and would provide universal access by extending Medicare coverage to all Americans. Money to pay for it would come from a combination of taxes including a payroll tax on employers and employees and more taxes on the wealthy.

Daines announced plans on the Senate floor for another amendment that would reimburse people who paid a penalty for not having health insurance, as mandated under the Affordable Care Act.

This individual mandate, this poverty tax is immoral. Its unfair. Its a tax on freedom. And it needs to be repealed immediately. And those poverty taxes must be paid back to the poor people who paid them, he said on the Senate floor.

Critics have said that Medicaid expansion, which Montana started in 2016 and has covered nearly 80,000, significantly lowered the number of people who had to pay the fine by extending coverage to the working poor.

Tester voted Wednesday for an amendment that would have required any health care proposal to receive a Senate committee hearing and be stripped of provisions that cut Medicaid or shift Medicaid costs to state taxpayers, before returning to the Senate floor for a final vote. That failed 48-52.

All of the Senate and House versions of the Republican Partys plan to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act would end Medicaid expansion and greatly reduce the amount of money states get from the federal government to help cover people under the program.

More than 216,000 Montanans are covered under Medicaid, including children, people with disabilities and pregnant women.

Rural hospitals have said Medicaid expansion reduced the number of patients they treated without getting payment and the states health department says expansion saves Montana money. However, even if Congress does not reduce funding so drastically the program would end, in Montana it could expire in 2019 unless lawmakers choose to extend it.

Today we had a chance to improve health care for Montana families and protect taxpayers, but it fell victim to partisan politics, Tester said. Rather than protect health care for children, seniors, veterans, disabled Montanans, hardworking families, and rural communities, 52 senators today turned their backs on Montana and rural America in favor of proposals that will jack up health care costs and take money out of Montanans pockets.

He also introduced his own amendment during the health care debate to prevent any actions that would reduce access to health care in rural communities our force rural hospitals to close. That has yet to be voted on.

A spokesman for the Montana Democratic Party called Daines' move a political stunt.

Instead of holding in person town halls or contributing in any significant way other than being a guaranteed yes vote on legislation that will increase costs for Montanans, D.C. Daines' only contribution to the health care discussion is a shameful proposal that plays politics with Montanans' health care and has no chance of passing.

Tester's seat is up for re-election in a year and a half and his race is expected to gain national attention. Daines' seat is not up again until 2020.
Two Lincoln-area wildfires are burning within an area the Forest Service approved for fire mitigation work starting this year, but is currently under federal court injunction.

Now a coalition of groups and individuals will get to weigh in on the court case and urge a federal judge to allow the project to proceed.

Late last summer the Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest greenlighted a timber and prescribed burning project called the Stonewall Vegetation Project north and northwest of Lincoln. Within a 24,000-acre project area, the agency approved commercial logging and thinning on 2,100 acres and prescribed fire on 2,700 acres.

It was about creating resilient forest conditions, and part of that being protection for the community of Lincoln, said Bill Avey, forest supervisor. Theres fuel loading with high mortality and theres a history of fire starts in that area thatve been increasingly hard to catch.

Earlier this month lightning sparked the Park Creek and Arrastra Creek wildfires in the project area, burning more than 6,000 acres to date and still largely uncontained.

Last winter, environmental watchdogs Alliance for the Wild Rockies and Native Ecosystems Council filed a lawsuit challenging the project. The groups contended it would negatively impact elk and grizzly bears while exemptions allowing logging in Canada lynx habitat were misapplied.

With the first timber sale sold to a contractor, this spring a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction temporarily halting the project. Judge Dana Christensen ruled that an injunction only temporarily postpones the potential benefits of the project and found the risk of fire was not imminent and did not outweigh the Forest Services obligation to follow the Endangered Species Act.

The Court acknowledges that Defendants have presented evidence that the Project area is susceptible to severe and intense wildfires due to elevated fuel levels caused by heavy accumulations of dead and down timber. However, though there is the possibility of serious fire activity within the boundaries of the Project, there is no indication that this area is at risk of imminent fire activity, Christensen wrote.

In issuing the injunction, Christensen also cited the well-known Cottonwood decision. In that case, the Forest Service was ordered to re-initiate consultation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service after the latter re-evaluated and greatly expanded designated critical lynx habitat. With the consultation ongoing, the results could impact the Stonewall Project and activities in lynx habitat.

This week, Christensen agreed to allow multiple parties to write a brief in support of the Forest Service and Stonewall. Among those filing the brief are the Lincoln Restoration Committee, Lewis and Clark and Powell counties, Lincoln Volunteer Fire Department, the Montana Logging Association and other timber interests, the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation and several Lincoln-area residents.

KD Feeback, the attorney filing the brief and co-chair of the Lincoln Restoration Committee, says the goal of entering the lawsuit is to sway the judge to allow the project to go forward for the simple reason it would prevent exactly what were looking at, in regard to the fires.

The project came out of the collaborative committee and was approved by the Forest Service, he continued.

Theres literally thousands of acres of dead standing lodgepole thats begging for a fire and very close to Lincoln, he said. I think its fair to say that its the pervasive belief of not only the Lincoln Restoration Committee but the rest of the people that these giant wildfires are an environmental disaster.

I think the plaintiffs are crazy and theyre wrapped around lynx habitat and hiding cover, but its all on fire now so its counterproductive.

Steve Kelly, Alliance for the Wild Rockies board member, said his organization did not object to the groups entering the lawsuit. The criticisms are similar to what he often hears in response to litigation.

I understand the leverage and the politics, he said. Were going to hold our ground and see what we can do to protect wildlife habitat and the guys that want to go out and cut trees will do what they want.

Kelly said his group is focused on broader concerns than wildfire, namely the quality of wildlife habitat and the fragmenting that comes with logging.

The lightning is random and trying to predict on this broad landscape where to thin to prevent fire is just crazy odds of being successful, he said.

As firefighters carve fire breaks amid hot, dry and windy conditions, logs pile high and are moved out. Along Beaver Creek Road northwest of Lincoln, feller bunchers cut a 100-foot wide swath to make a defensible line and protecting structures, Avey said.

Under the emergency order with the fire, those logs can be cut and will eventually go to sale, he added.

While the project would not have been completed by the time the fires started, Avey says some timber harvest would have commenced and crews may have also conducted prescribed burns.

It is unclear at this point whether the analysis that authorized the original Stonewall project will need to be updated after the fires and changes to the landscape. Or that question could be moot depending on how Christensen ultimately rules.

Avey declined to offer his opinion of the lawsuit and injunction, but said the Forest Service is operating within the constructs of the law and what the courts have ruled.
Two defendants were given lengthy federal prison sentences Wednesday in separate, back-to-back horrific crimes of violence against children last year that rattled residents of a Montana American Indian reservation and prompted tribal leaders to blame rampant drug use.

U.S. District Judge Brian Morris sentenced a woman from the Fort Peck Reservation to 20 years in prison for the murder of a 13-month-old who had been under her care. Less than two hours earlier, Morris handed down a 42-year prison term to a man who kidnapped and raped a 4-year-old girl on the reservation.

Tribal leaders said the crimes, which occurred within weeks of one another, were rooted in the rising scourge of methamphetamine use on the sparsely populated reservation in northeastern Montana near the U.S. border with Canada.

While the sentencings closed out two cases that put a spotlight on the problem, tribal officials have said drug use continues and that they lack the resources to deal with it.

Fort Peck is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and has a population of about 10,000 people.

In the murder case, prosecutors said Janelle Red Dog, 43, abused 13-month-old Kenzley Olson, used methamphetamine while the child was unconscious and when the girl stopped breathing, put her body in a duffel bag and threw it in a trash can.

Red Dog pleaded guilty in May to second-degree murder after acknowledging she hit Kenzley twice on April 18, 2016, in an attempt to quiet her.

The child died of multiple blunt force injuries, and an autopsy found she had numerous bruises from head to toe in various stages of healing, suggesting a pattern of continued physical abuse and neglect.

Red Dog had been caring for Kenzley for three to four weeks prior to her death, court records said. Tribal Chairman Floyd Azure has said Kenzley's mother was being held in the tribal jail when the girl died.

Red Dog's mother, Rhea Starr, said her daughter was caring for Kenzley because no one else would.

In the kidnapping case, John William Lieba II was accused of chasing down a 4-year-old girl, brutally raping her and leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup in the middle of winter near the town of Wolf Point.

A jury convicted Lieba of kidnapping, aggravated sexual abuse of a child and assault resulting in serious injury on a minor. He faced up to life in prison.

He became a suspect almost immediately after the girl's Feb. 26, 2016, disappearance and was arrested a day later.

A friend of the victim testified at his trial that she watched Lieba snatch the 4-year-old girl after they'd been playing in a Wolf Point park. He was recognized by the mother of another girl he chased earlier the same night in the park but who got away, according to court records.

The victim was not found for two days, when a sheriff's deputy noticed her shoeless footprints in a patch of mud behind a fertilizer plant and discovered the girl  alive but traumatized  on a makeshift bed in the cab of an old pickup truck.

Bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck indicated Lieba had tried to strangle the girl, according to law enforcement officers and doctors who examined her.

The defendant's attorneys said Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events.
I have tried for three weeks to write this letter but wanted to wait until there was enough pause in the problems of our president and his family to draw firm conclusions. As of today, we are still waiting to know what Donald Trump knows and when he knew about Donald Jr.s meeting with Russian operatives to learn what dirt the Russians might have on Hillary Clinton prior to the 2016 election.

The recent emails released by Donald Jr. show that he must have known that U.S. law specifically prohibits soliciting information from any foreign power.

Our president is desperate for attention that he will give up important American interests to lie in the lap of luxury away from the buzz saw of the American media and his critics. He may continue his daily governing by inane tweets, but in so doing, sows confusion about what constitutes U.S. policy versus what is merely the complaint of a man who knows that blaming others is the only way he can hope to divert attention from his own failings.

Republicans have so far been unable to pass a new health care bill or tackle the tax reduction issue or address the dangerous state of our infrastructure.

There are many reasons why moderates of both parties should cooperate as soon as possible to restore faith in American democracy and the judiciary, media and educational system which supports it.

 Dave Grimland, Columbus
MUSCATINE  The Fruitland Fire Department is struggling with outdated or broken-down trucks and equipment.

The fire department board held a special meeting Tuesday night to discuss the need for a replacement engine in one of its firetrucks. Along with the immediate need to repair it, the department said it must begin replacing its fleet, which includes trucks that date to the 1980s.

Fruitland purchased the 1992 fire truck about two years ago, and its engine recently broke down. The board is considering buying a used engine that would cost about $6,000, including installation.

Fire Chief Don Briggs said the fire department's budget for the year is about $98,000, including $15,000 for equipment.

Briggs said "we're pinching pennies right now until tax time," which brings in about $64,000.

The fire department is supposed to have two operating pumper trucks at all times, so one truck can stay in town and the other can be sent to adjoining cities for mutual aid assistance. If the board decides to install a replacement engine, the department may have to rent an additional truck for about one month, which could cost about $3,000.

While Briggs said there is money in the budget to repair the broken-down truck, and fall taxes will help boost the department's funding, volunteer firefighters worry about a lack of planning for the future.

Firefighters and residents voiced concerns about the department not upgrading its equipment in decades and not planning for emergency repairs.

Fruitland's next priority is replacing a 1987 truck, which does not meet code and has been leaking fluids. The other trucks are aging and have various problems, including brake issues and rust.

At Tuesday night's meeting, residents encouraged the board to plan for the future and ensure money is set aside for emergencies, such as equipment breakdowns

The fire department has applied for several grants, Briggs said, but it is difficult to obtain them because of Fruitland's population size, proximity to Muscatine and higher than average household income rates.

Residents have been willing to donate money to the department, according to Briggs, who received two checks from individuals ahead of Tuesday's meeting.

Fruitland firefighters plan to start a fundraising campaign to help fund replacement trucks and new equipment in the future.
MUSCATINE  When Monica Gonzalez was in fourth or fifth grade, her teachers asked her the all-too-common question: What do you want to be when you grow up?

Gonzalez, now 27, recently found an old piece of paper with her answer. She wanted to be a CEO and change the world. Now, that dream is within her reach.

She intends to open the Black Pearl Cafe on 119 Chestnut St. in mid-August. As for the "change the world" part of her dream, she will start a nonprofit that will send some of her revenues to good causes, like the Musser Public Library or the Muscatine Police Departments K9 unit, among others.

Last week, she took a big step toward that dream, when the city awarded her a $24,500 business loan as part of its Small Businesses Forgivable Loan Program. The loan program is a roughly two-year-old initiative aimed at increasing small business presence along and near Park Avenue, Second Street and Grandview Avenue.

David Gobin, Muscatines community development director, said potential business owners must provide 1:1 matching funds to qualify and can receive up to $25,000. For each year the business is open, the city forgives 20 percent of its debt. If the business remains open for five years, the city forgives the entire debt. Since the program began, 16 businesses, including the Black Pearl Cafe and Chicharos Mexican Grillwhich belongs to Gonzalezs parentshave received the loan.

In helping her parents apply for their loan, Gonzalez learned about the process. Still, it took her a year to apply. She had to create a business plan, explain how she would make money, create a mission and vision statement, and other details.

Another business to receive the loan is Coffee Belt, located a short distance from the future site of the Black Pearl Cafe. But Gonzalez said she plans to offer something different from other coffee shops, emphasizing healthy ready-to-eat food such as salads and yogurt, along with coffee and tea.

I wanted to bring an urban feel to Muscatinesomething unique, she said. I dont even know how to describe it. Its just that big city, out-of-this-world place. You know, you go into a big city to be somebody different. I want people to walk into the cafe and be someone different. I want them to be that book writer they always wanted to be.

The cafe will have a piano, and Gonzalez wants customers to feel free to play it. Down the road, there will be stocked bookshelves and Gonzalez is already thinking of expanding to add a bookstore. A portion of the cafes proceeds would fund nonprofits that help the Muscatine community, she said.
Les blattes ou cafards (Blatta orientalis) sont des insectes qui appartiennent a la famille des Blattoptera. Ils se caracterisent par leur forme allongee, leurs ailes []
Former Devolution Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru was yesterday whisked to safety after rowdy youth stormed her political rally in Ndia, Kirinyaga Central.

The Kirinyaga Gubernatorial candidate had finished addressing a campaign rally when alleged supporters of Martha Karua began shouting that she was unwelcome at a Martha Karua and Gitari Gachoki stronghold.

According to a victim of the chaos, identified as Moses Waweru, Waigurus bodyguards swiftly swung into action and whisked her to safety when police began shooting in the air to contain the chaos.

The rowdy youths reportedly stoned Waigurus campaign vehicle before taking off with the car key.

Waweru, 50, sustained injuries during the chaos and was admitted to a private hospital in Embu County.

He said he was rescued from the angry mob by Waigurus bodyguards.

The Kirinyaga gubernatorial seat is one of the hotly contested seats pitting Anne Waiguru against Narc-Kenyas Martha Karua.

They will face incumbent Governor Joseph Ndathi on August 8.
Maragua parliamentary aspirant Sam Wairimu was on Tuesday charged with sodomy and sexual assault.

The independent candidate allegedly sodomized the victim in a room at Storm Pub Lodge in Kenol, Muranga County, on July 14.

The 29-Year-Old denied the charges before a Kandara court.

He was freed by Chief Magistrate Margaret Kurumbu on a Sh150,000 bond with a surety of the same amount.

Mr Wairimu was, however, unable to raise the bond by Tuesday evening and was remanded at Thika GK Prison.

The aspirant was arrested on Monday after a complaint was filed against him by a suspect, who had been arrested for allegedly assaulting the candidate.

The drama started over a week ago when Mr Wairimu was rescued by police officers at 5.30am from the lodging in Kenol after he made a distress call.

Kandara police boss Gregory Mutiso said Mr Wairimu was bleeding profusely when the police broke into his room.

He said the candidate was taken to a hospital in Kenol while the suspected attacker was taken to Kabati Police Station.

At the police station the suspect narrated why he was fighting the candidate, said Mr Mutiso, adding that he accused Mr Wairimu of trying to sodomise him.

But Mr Wairimu alleged that his ordeal resulted from political wars with his rivals, who he said were scared of his rising political star.

He said an unknown person broke into his room and viciously clobbered him with a wooden bar that had nails on it.

The aspirant said neighbours who responded to his screams locked the hotels door from outside, locking him inside with his attacker as they called the police for help.

The case will be mentioned on August 10 and the hearing will be on October 17.
The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and Kenyatta University (KU) have been blocked from admitting new students in neighboring Tanzania.

Tanzanias higher education agency, Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU), barred the two Kenyan campuses among 17 others for failing to meet minimum standards.

In a circular posted on its website, TCU stated that the universities will not be allowed to admit students from September 2017.

The agency says that between September and October 2016, it conducted an extensive audit on all the universities operating in Tanzania and found that JKUAT and KU were among the 19 tertiary institutions not to have met the standards in terms of quality of education as well as important infrastructure required.

The directive, however, will not affect continuing learners already enrolled at the Kenya-based universities.

The audit report showed some weaknesses in these universities and for that reason there will be no admission of students in these universities in the 2017/2018 academic year, said TCU Executive Secretary Prof Eleuther Mwagemi.

Acting administration officer at JKUAT in Arusha, Mr Elias Kizota, said the university was unaware of the announcement, adding that its senior officials have engaged TCU in dialogue to resolve the issue.
Heavy equipment began clawing away at the walls and roof the old Napa Valley Register building on Tuesday, methodically demolishing the former headquarters of the newspaper piece by piece.

The deconstruction is the first major step in a $42 million redevelopment project by Vesta Pacific Development to build 51 townhouses and several commercial spaces at the site.

The demolition crew is first gutting the building, which the Register opened in 1966, before bringing down the exterior walls. A time capsule that was sealed under a concrete cap in the mid-1980s will be salvaged and given to the Register.

The building, which was shaken up in the August 2014 South Napa earthquake, has been empty since last July when the Register moved its news and businesses offices to 1615 Soscol Ave. Earlier this year, the area fire department used it for training exercises.

Because of the quake, part of the Register operation had worked out of trailers in the parking lot for two years. Printing was moved off site.

With the demolition of the Register building, a commercial project, to be named Register Square, will occupy the full block bounded by Second, Wilson, Third and Seminary streets, as well as a parking lot at the northwest corner of Third and Seminary.

Were off to the races now, said Vesta Pacific spokesman Barry McComic.

After the building is razed and the ground is graded, Vesta will begin building nine townhouses on the smaller parcel at Third and Seminary, followed by another 10 townhouses on Third, then the final phase  32 townhouses and the commercial spaces. On-site parking will be part of the project.

Prices for the first nine townhouse units  1,350 and 1,450 square feet  are currently estimated at $739,000 and $790,000.

Thats the going rate for such a home in the downtown area, said McComic. The value of real estate continues to go up, he said. Theres just not that much inventory on the market.

Vesta Pacific of San Diego bought the former Register property in 2015 from the Registers parent company, Lee Enterprises for an estimated $5 million.

A remnant of the Registers old digs, a vintage linotype machine, will be removed from 1615 Second St. for safekeeping until a permanent spot can be found for it on the site, said McComic.

I would like to put it on the sidewalk in front of the commercial part of the building and put a sealed Plexiglas cube around it, with a bronze plaque explaining the history of the Register in Napa and this particular printer, he said.

McComic said it should take around eight months to build the first nine town house units. Within 60 days of that start, construction should begin on the next 10 town houses, and so forth.

Frankly, Im expecting to sell the first nine townhouses the week we open sales because the interest has just been tremendous, McComic said. Were priced very reasonably and we just have no competition among comparable housing in the downtown area, he said.

Theres always a debate as to exactly when to start selling new homes, said McComic. You never want to open sales too soon, particularly when the market is rising.

In a lot of instances, we will sell a unit and between the time we sell it and are able to complete the sale, some person who has entered into escrow three to four months ago turns it around and makes $50,000 or $100,000 on their unit.

I suspect that you will see a reasonable amount of that in this project, said McComic.

There has been debate in recent years about the growing number of vacation rentals in Napa. Some potential buyers might be interested in using a Register Square townhouse for temporary visitor lodging instead of a permanent home.

To counter this, McComic said the project will have a homeowner association. We will have specific articles that preclude a buyer using these as a vacation rental in violation of the city ordinance, he said.

McComic said his target audience is young professionals  people who want to live and work in Napa and are doing well, and there are a lot of those, he said.

Were looking for permanent residents  residents who have a stake in downtown, he said. We find that permanent residents are not interested in their neighbors being Airbnb guests.
Sara Lynn Krueger and Ryan Scott Warner were sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole in Napa County Superior Court Thursday morning for the murder of Kruegers daughter, 3-year-old Kayleigh Slusher, back in 2014.

Separate juries found Krueger, 27, and Warner, 29, guilty of first-degree murder by torture and assault on a child causing death in May following nearly a month of testimony. The couple was arrested Feb. 2, 2014 just one day after the little girls bruised body was found in a child-sized princess bed at Kruegers apartment on Wilkins Avenue in Napa.

The sentencing was held before Judge Francisca P. Tisher despite a request to postpone the sentencing by Kruegers attorney, Jim McEntee. The request was denied and both Krueger and Warner were denied probation and sentenced to life in prison without the possibility for parole for the murder conviction and a special allegation that the murder involved the infliction of torture. They were sentenced to 25-years to life in prison for the assault conviction, but that sentence was stayed.

Kayleighs paternal grandmother, Robin Slusher, was first to make her victim impact statement to the court.

How did we get here? Ill never understand, Slusher said, directing her words to Sara Krueger, who was crying while seated beside her attorney. Krueger never had any problem asking for money or clothes, but if she had asked for help when she needed it most Kayleigh would still be alive right now, Slusher said, tearfully.

For the first time since the trial began, Kayleighs father, Jason Slusher, who was incarcerated when his daughter was killed, made his feelings known through a prepared statement. Although he was present, Slusher sat in the back row of the courtroom while his statement was read by attorney Julia Sherwin.

Krueger stared at him from her seat  he looked down at first, eventually looking up, seemingly right at her.

It is very difficult for me to discuss Kayleighs death, he said. I feel like Kayleigh was the only right thing that happened in my life.

In his statement, Slusher said that when he was with Kayleigh, he always made sure that she was protected but when he couldnt be there, that job fell to her mother, Sara Krueger.

She should have been protected by her mother, he said, not the complete opposite.

Slusher said that he doesnt want to be angry but he is. As Kruegers father, John Krueger, began to make his statement to the court, Slusher called him a coward and exited the room.

This is the first time that Ive been treated as a victim by this court, John Krueger said. His daughters family members are victims, too  they lost Kayleigh, too, he said. That sentiment was echoed by Sara Kruegers mother, Cindy Leuthold, who said from the audience that the family had been treated like second-class citizens.

She used her statement as an opportunity to show support for her daughter.

Sara, I love you. You were an amazing mother, she said. You are innocent and you will come home  I promise you.

Deputy District Attorney Lance Hafenstein, who prosecuted the case along with Deputy District Attorney Kecia Lind, told the court that what the defendants did was simply inhuman and among the worst of the worst crimes.

Kayleigh died from complications of mesenteric contusion and small intestinal hematoma caused by fatal child abuse and neglect, according to earlier court testimony. She suffered multiple blunt impact injuries to the head, torso and extremities, and her death was classified as a homicide.

During the trial, jurors were shown photos of Kayleighs autopsy, which showed that she had bruises all over her body as well as internal injuries.

These injuries did not magically appear, Hafenstein said on Thursday. He asked the court to sentence both Krueger and Warner to life in prison without the possibility of parole. Hafenstein also suggested that the defendants come clean prior to sentencing.

In response, McEntee said that Krueger has no obligation to come clean and that she maintains her innocence. He then read a letter to the court prepared by Krueger.

Kayleigh was my world, Krueger said in her statement. She would have never intentionally allowed Kayleigh to be hurt, she said. If she had a time machine, she would have never let Warner into their lives, she said. I didnt know he hurt her, she said, asking for mercy from the court.

My heart is broken not only for myself but for Kayleighs dad, and the rest of their family members, she said.

Krueger, who was sentenced first, was escorted out of the courtroom before Warner made his statement.

Kayleighs death is an absolute tragedy. I myself am completely broken-hearted over it, Warner said, unemotional. Warner, now bearded with a shaved head, also maintained his innocence saying I did not cause any harm to this child. He made direct comments to Jason Slusher, Robin Slusher and John Krueger.

My prayer is that youll be able to find some type of closure  (and) let go of any hatred you may feel towards Sara or myself, he said, adding that any anger towards him is misdirected.

Warner said he knows his actions following the discovery of Kayleighs body were shameful and for that he provided no explanation.

I cant go back and change it, he said. All I can say is I apologize.

After being read his sentence, Warner told Judge Tisher that he plans to appeal and that his notice of appeal is ready.

Kruegers family said afterward that she also plans to appeal.

She didnt do it, said Kruegers grandmother, Pat Pinkerton, who has been travelling from Colorado to attend court events. She belongs in jail for neglect, not murder, she said.

Im devastated, Leuthold, Sara Kruegers mother, added. This isnt right.

The Slusher family was not immediately available for a comment following the sentencing.
Golden Age Air Tours will be operating scenic air tours from the Napa County Airport this weekend in a historical 1939 Douglas DC-3 that was originally requisitioned for the U.S. Army Air Force.

During World War II, the aircraft was one of two assigned to the 1st Staff Command Squadron in Bolling Field, Washington and used by military VIPs, including generals and the secretary of war.

Recently fully refurbished, and upgraded with modern avionics, Golden Age Air Tours will be offering flights, including Sunset and City Lights air tours, Friday and Saturday from the Napa County Airport.

During scenic air tours, the plane will fly "low and slow" and passengers are free to move around the cabin so that they can fully appreciate the views of wine country and San Francisco Bay.

To book a flight, go to https://www.goldenageairtours.com/tickets/
Having checked gas taxes and cap-and-trade off their 2017 agenda, California political leaders will turn to the states housing crisis after a month-long midsummer vacation.

Its high time, because California is building barely enough new housing to handle current population growth and making no dent in a years-long backlog.

Between 2003 and 2014, California built just 47 percent of what it needed, according to state housing officials, with construction dipping at one point during the Great Recession to a sixth of pre-recession levels. Although the economy has fully recovered, homebuilding has increased to just half of its pre-recession high.

The shortage has sent home prices and rents soaring, particularly in coastal urban areas, thus forcing many working families to spend half or more of their incomes for shelter  if they can find it. The crisis not only exacts a human toll but is an existential threat to the states economy.

Housing authorities bluntly say that the core issue isnt a lack of potential housing development investment but rather the reluctance of local governments to approve new projects, particularly high-density complexes for low- and moderate-income renters, because of not in my backyard resistance among homeowners and voters.

When the Legislature reconvenes in August, it will face dozens of bills that purport to relieve the housing crisis, but four major approaches:

Senate Bill 2, which would impose a $75 per document fee on real estate transactions, with a $225 ceiling, and raise about $250 million a year for low- and moderate-income housing;

Senate Bill 3, which would place a $3 billion housing bond issue on the 2018 ballot;

Senate Bill 35, or some variation, which would force cities to meet their state-imposed housing quotas by diluting, or eliminating, local land use powers; and

Perhaps a bigger chunk of the money that the state hopes to generate via its quarterly auctions of carbon emission allowances under the newly reauthorized cap-and-trade program.

The document tax, which would require two-thirds legislative votes, is politically tricky. But Democrats have enough members to do it on their own and some Republicans provided key votes to achieve two-thirds majorities on gas taxes and cap-and-trade.

Doing something to break the local project logjams  Gov. Jerry Brown has floated his own version for a couple of years without success  is by far the most important element, and the most politically difficult because it would impinge on local governments much-cherished power over land use and development.

Simple arithmetic reveals why permit streamlining is critical. The state says we need 180,000 new units of housing a year, but were building only 100,000 now. Closing that 80,000-unit gap would require more than $26 billion a year in additional investment at the average cost of $332,000 per unit for lower-end housing cited in Browns budget.

Under even the best circumstances, therefore, the state could provide only a tiny fraction of the needed money, so making it easier for private and nonprofit money to flow into actual construction is the most vital element of any package.

The major pitfall is that faced with the difficult politics, Brown and legislators will settle for a token response  throwing a few billion dollars at the problem that wont make even a small dent and failing to enact the regulatory reforms.

That not only would ignore the most vital issue, but would allow politicians to claim a face-saving, undeserved victory, much as they did for a roadway improvement package that covers only a fraction of the unmet need.
What a delight it was to wake up the other day and find that another nasty attempt by Republicans to take away peoples health care had failed.

Im talking about the implosion of the Better Care Reconciliation Act, Senate Republicans latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act. The proposal, which the AARP estimated would have slashed Medicaid spending between $2 trillion and $3.8 trillion over the next 20 years, was a callous assault on the independence of people with disabilities  like me.

It was even more gratifying to know that one of the main reasons this cruel proposal crashed and burned was that people with disabilities fought back. Video of disabled protesters from the group ADAPT being dragged out of the hallway in front of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnells office went viral. Other ADAPT protesters occupied the office of Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., for more than 50 hours before they were arrested and removed.

I took part in two other ADAPT protests. On June 26, I joined disabled people from Indiana in an occupation of the office of their Republican senator, Todd Young. We demanded that he publicly vow to vote against the bill. Federal marshals removed us from the office and building, carrying some and pushing or driving the wheelchairs of others. There were no arrests.

Two days later, I joined disabled people from Wisconsin in an action targeting their Republican senator, Ron Johnson. Again, as we chanted in the atrium of the federal building and U.S. courthouse in Milwaukee, we were removed but not arrested.

The Senate Republicans bill, like one passed earlier by the House, would have placed harsh limits on the amount of Medicaid funding the federal government would annually give to each state. Right now, state and federal governments split the cost of providing Medicaid services, whatever it may be.

The idea of capping Medicaid scares me to death. I use a motorized wheelchair and employ a crew of people to assist me with daily tasks like dressing, bathing and getting out of bed. Their wages are paid by a Medicaid-funded state program. Without this assistance, I would be stuck in a nursing home.

An analysis of the bill by the Community Living Policy Center concluded that if its proposed limits on Medicaid spending had been implemented in 2005, spending on community support programs like the one that serves me would have been reduced by between $72 billion and $98 billion in just the first nine years.

After the election last November, it was hard to not succumb to despair. But since then, I have found hope in the idea that collective protest action can turn the tide against the GOPs agenda. Thats exactly what happened. Thousands of people around the country have stood up for Medicaid and affordable health care. And, so far, its working.

But Republican leaders are so obsessed with destroying Medicaid that they will try again and again. The fiscal year 2018 budget resolution just released by the House Budget Committee calls for caps on Medicaid.

So the fight is far from over. But now, at least we know we can win.
Some regions in the world are known for single varietal wines, such as pinot noir and chardonnay in Burgundy, nebbiolo in Barolo and tempranillo in Ribera del Duero. In other regions, such as in Bordeaux, Riojo and the Southern Rhone, they are known for their blends.

I am not here to say that one is better than the other. A single varietal wine can truly express the terroir it comes from. On the other hand, a well-crafted blend will balance the different characteristics of each grape to enhance aromas, color, texture, body or finish of a wine.

The Rhone Valley in France is one of the regions known for its blends. In the Southern Rhone, grenache is the dominant variety but traditionally it is blended with syrah, cinsault and mouvedre. Blending is one of the required rules in Cotes du Rhone and other appellations in Southern Rhone.

Therefore, I was all the more surprised when tasting wines at Decouvertes en Vallee du Rhone, the Rhone Valley wine fair earlier this year, where I found more and more producers offering 100 percent grenache wines.

As I walked around speaking with winemakers, I asked them about the tradition of blending wines. I was told that blends allow for consistency in difficult years and that blends enable a balanced quality of different grapes. Others explained that blends of different grapes can increase acidity, which is needed for aging. But most importantly, it is tradition. It is how their fathers, grandfathers and great-grandfathers made the wine and is the law of the region.

But more and more, I would approach a wine table where they had 100 percent grenache wines, although it was not always labeled as such on the front of the bottle. Some of these wines were labeled Vin de Pays wines, some were given appellation labels.

 Domaine Le Sang des Cailloux

Winemaker Serge Ferigoule introduced me to his Oumage 2014 and told me it was 100 percent grenache. He had made 1,500 bottles and had also made the wine 100 percent grenache in 2010 and 2014. When I asked why he was not making a blend, he said he is testing grenache to see if it has potential to age for a long time. He is curious to know what the grape will do over time.

 Domaine Notre Dame des Pallieres

Le Pellegrin 2016 from Lirac is typically blended with 20 percent syrah. However, the grenache was so exceptional in 2016 that it was made as a single varietal wine.

 Chateau de Saint Cosme

Located in the heart of Gigondas, Chateau de Saint Cosme has been making single varietal grenache since 2003. Owner Louis Barruol explained that he does not blend because he does not want to lose the terroir of each of the three clos of grenache, each 90-110-year-old vines growing on limestone, clay and sand.

 Domaine des Bosquets

Domaine des Bosquets produces two 100 percent grenache wines in Gigondas. According to the rules written 40 years ago, the wine must be a blend, it does not specify grapes, so they blend barrels of grenache. In 2009, they felt that each plot was strong enough to produce single varietal wines. But, fifth-generation winemaker Julien Brechet explained that it is important to be precise, to taste the wine and to not make mistakes. If the quality is not there, there is no hiding it.

 Les Halos de Jupiter

Famous consultant Phillipe Cambie is not following a traditional path with Les Halos de Jupiter. With a true passion for grenache, Cambie calls it the king of all grapes and the natural leader of all Rhone varietals. Working with plots with 100-year-old vines, his wines pay homage to his favorite grape while showcase grenache in different lights.

 Bakke Vineyards

American winemaker Even Bakke has been living in the Rhone for 10 years. He joked that working with grenache was the closest thing to pinot that I can afford. But also, what he likes about grenache is its transparency. It is the third or fourth most planted grape in the world but people do not know it. It is a great blender grape as it lays nicely with other grapes but alone it shows a sense of place. Bakke makes a 100 percent wine from Pied Porcher, a single vineyard with 45-year-old vines.

 LePlan Vermeersch

Dirk Vermeersch, a Belgian-Flemish former race car driver, bought his property in 2000. As a new winemaker in the region, he wanted to do something different. As he explained, I am Flemish and want to do it the opposite way and as of 2016 is producing only single varietal wines, including grenache, as well as syrah and carignan.

These are just a sampling of the 100 percent grenache wines that I tasted and some of the thoughts the winemakers had behind the wines. I am not predicting the rules will change overnight in any region, but it is fun to see winemakers delve into specific grapes and see what the grapes can do on their own.

The conclusion I have drawn is that climate change, the age of the vines, technology and expertise are reasons that I believe we are seeing a region that has traditionally been exclusive to blends make singe varietal wines.

No longer are they doing things just because generations before have done it that way. We have a new generation of winemakers who have studied and traveled around the world. They have tasted wines from outside of their regions and are exposed to new ideas that they bring into to their wineries.
Thirty-odd years ago, during a long interview with Americas greatest wine maker, Andre Tchelistcheff at Beaulieu Vineyard, I asked the maestro about his use of oak in aging cabernet sauvignon.

In his strong Russian accent, Andre went into a detailed explanation of the use of oak barrels, and concluded by saying, in effect, once the wine maker smells the oak, you have lost the wine.

That sentiment was understood by many winemakers in the 1970s and earlier. The late John Parducci of Mendocino County was so adamantly opposed to the smell and taste of oak in his red wines that in 1973 he put out a cabernet with a red triangle in the right-hand corner of the front label that said, Not aged in oak.

By the 1980s, however, the flavor of oak was seen as essential to a fine red wine, and also defined great chardonnay.

Actually, it wasnt the oak aromas as much as the char inside the barrel that was lending wines their added aromatics and tastes.

The use of barrels goes back hundreds of years, and they werent employed for the flavors they imparted, but for the maturity that wine gets in older, neutral barrels.

Red wines tend to be raw and unappealing when very young. Aging them in oak (or walnut, acacia, or chestnut) can create a more mature beverage with complexities from the interaction of the volatiles in the wine and in the barrels. Aging also helps deal with rough tannins.

Aging wine in wood only for maturity began to change in the late 1970s when some wine reviewers started giving high scores to wines that smelled more of bacon, chocolate, coffee, and vanilla than they did of wine grapes.

Such aromas and favors came about partially as a result of the way barrels had traditionally been made. Staves cut from oak to be formed into barrels had to be bent before metal hoops could be used to hold them in place. To bend the wood, a small fire would be started in a coopers shop, around which staves could be positioned so the heat would make them more pliable.

The interior of each barrel thus was toasted, much the way the smoke from burning wood imparts a smoky aroma to bacon or the way roasting of cacao or coffee beans leads to the making of chocolate and coffee.

As oak flavors became a popular new characteristic for many wines, Tchelistcheffs old message about noticeable oak being a sign of a poorly made wine was abandoned.

Before long, numerous shortcuts were developed to infuse oak flavoring into wines, such as chips, toasted staves, and granulated oak powder. Most have serious drawbacks, but are still used in some cheaper wines.

French oak barrels, generally perceived to impart the most classic flavors, are made from a species called Quercus Robur, which differs from the American Quercus Alba, which imparts slightly different aromatics.

The cost of French oak is usually much higher than that of American oak, and there are literally dozens of variations from one barrel maker to another, and from one forest in France to another.

In the last few years, some wineries are experimenting by using older barrels and emulating the 1970s what their wines.

The newly released 2013 BV Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon ($140), a wine whose style was created by Tchelistcheff, reflects more restraint in the use of oak than many other Napa Valley producers. It has a classic varietal aroma and excellent aging potential.

One wine maker with courage developed a cabernet franc made in the style of the Loire Valley that is rather challenging, but remarkably interesting.

Fox Run Winery in New York is just releasing a small-production, but stellar cab franc that was not aged in barrels at all, a la Parducci.

The 2016 Fox Run Unoaked Cabernet Franc Ikehu (Hawaiian for energy) is amazingly stylish with perfect varietal character and delightfully high acidity.

It is paler in color than most such wines, but delivers wonderful, precise flavors.

The idea for that wine came from my assistant, Lindsey Van Keuren, said Bell. He said Fox Run didnt have enough barrels for all the Franc, so she suggested we put some in stainless steel tanks.

By January, he said, She suggested that the wine had turned out sensationally, so we all agreed, Lets go with this.

Only 120 cases were made.

I think its a mortal sin to throw new oak at a wine like that, said Bell.

Wine of the Week: 2016 Scheid Pinot Noir Rose, Scheid Vineyards, Monterey County ($19): This is completely dry pink wine has aromas of strawberry, watermelon, and a subtle spiced note and it is dry enough to work with almost any food. Superb.
(Natural News) With the passage of time, it becomes increasingly apparent that Google is at best dodgy, and at worst downright evil. More evidence to this effect recently emerged when the Wall Street Journal revealed that the internet giant has been paying esteemed academics from institutions like Harvard and the University of California, Berkeley, to sway policy and counteract antitrust accusations.

It is alleged that around a dozen respected professors have accepted payments of up to $400,000 each to write research papers to strengthen Googles legal position. The company also paid travel and other expenses for these professors to meet with and influence lobbyists and policymakers.

The general idea seems to have been for respected researchers to assert that Googles collection of online data is fair since its services are free. They were also paid to claim that the search engine does not unfairly steer users to Googles commercial sites or advertisers.

For the most part, it seems the academics involved did not disclose their conflicts of interest or Googles involvement in their studies to policymakers.

Not only were these studies bought and paid for, but Google specified titles, abstracts and an estimation of how much each paper would cost, according to the U.K.s Daily Mail.

Of course, Google is denying any impropriety, insisting that having been born out of Stanfords Computer Science Department it has simply maintained close ties with academia.

Were happy to support academic researchers across computer science and policy topics, including copyright, free expression and surveillance, and to help amplify voices that support the principles of an open internet, the company told the Wall Street Journal.

Google has been hit with a slew of legal issues in the recent past. In June this year, regulators levied a 2.4 billion euro penalty against the company, after Brussels accused Google of unfairly favoring its own shopping services over those of others in online searches.

The company is facing two other similar charges, and EU antitrust regulators announced earlier this month that they are considering further action against Google for charges related to its Android operating system. [Related: Read about how Google secretly disabled the Adwords accounts of nutritional detox companies.]

This is by no means the only evidence of Googles dubious business practices and ethics. Earlier this year, in a thinly veiled attack on free speech, the search engine punished Natural News by removing all its articles from Google searches, though there was no evidence (or even any allegation) that we had violated any of its webmaster guidelines. [Related: Read the full story of Googles censorship of Natural News.]

Google has maneuvered itself into a commanding position where it has virtually total control of the information we have access to and even the purchasing choices we make online. Of course, too much power in the hands of any one entity is never a good thing. Support the independent media and uncensored free speech by choosing an unbiased search engine like GoodGopher.com when you need a reliable, trustworthy source of information.

Sources for this article include:

DailyMail.co.uk

WSJ.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) England and Scotland are set to relax the restrictions that are currently placed on blood donations from gay men and sex workers as part of a series of reforms that were recently announced by the government.

Under the current rules, gay men must wait a full year after the last time they had sexual intercourse before they are allowed to donate blood. This is considered by many to be a de facto ban as most sexually active people find it difficult to abstain for such a long period. The new rule sees the period of abstinence dropped to just 90 days.

Moreover, sex workers will also be subject to the same 90-day period; in the past, they were completely banned from donating blood.

The new rules have been established in response to testing advancements that allow blood-borne viruses like HIV and hepatitis B and C to show up much earlier than before, rendering the previous long waits unnecessary.

At the height of the 1980s AIDS epidemic, gay men were banned entirely from donating blood. At the time, testing methods were not as quick or accurate as they are now, and this group had a significant risk of HIV. The U.K. relaxed the outright ban to a 12-month abstinence requirement in 2011.

Scientists now say three months is enough time

Scientists say that viruses and infections can now be detected within just three months of infection. Experts believe this rule change will enable the countrys blood supply to grow without compromising its safety. The U.K. is not currently experiencing a shortage, but NHS Blood and Transplant says that 200,000 new donors are needed each year to replenish the blood supply.

The Welsh Government is currently considering whether or not to follow suit. There have also been proposals to change the laws regarding donations from those who have undergone endoscopy, acupuncture, tattooing or piercing.

The U.S. currently uses donation rules that are similar to those the U.K. now considers outdated, but then again, the FDA has never been known for being logical. Although the ban on donations from gay men that had been in place for 30 years was recently replaced with a year-long ban, many feel this is still too strict.

Critics of the current rules point out that although gay men as a group do have a much higher risk of HIV, a monogamous gay man who practices safe sex with his partner is less at risk than a promiscuous heterosexual man who sleeps with hundreds of partners yet is not subjected to a one-year abstinence period. In addition, HIV can now be detected just two to three weeks after infection, making the year-long wait needlessly lengthy.

Other potential screening approaches

Many have suggested that a more effective approach than a ban that is likely excluding a lot of potentially useful and life-saving blood would be the method used in Italy and South Africa, where all potential blood donors are screened on an individual basis for risky behaviors like unprotected sex and intravenous drug use. This has the added benefit of reducing the amount of blood that is accepted from heterosexuals who engage in risky behavior. Of course, this requires specially trained personnel to carry out the screening; in the U.S., unskilled labor and automated computer systems are generally used for the screening.

A 2010 study from the University of California Los Angeles found that removing the 12-month ban in the U.S. could add as many as 298,000 pints of blood to our national supply.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

TheGuardian.com

NaturalNews.com
(Natural News) The infectious climate change narrative that is being drilled into the minds of the next generation isnt about protecting the planet. The term climate change is being used to get people to believe that they are supporting science, supporting the environment, protecting the Earth, and committing to a clean future. But it doesnt matter if your intent is good and you want to protect the planet; if you believe in the popular climate change narrative, you are simply being used by the globalists and central planners. Investments are at stake. Controlling elites will find any way to tax your existence so they can fix the problem of carbon.

But you see, carbon is not the evil molecule that the climate propagandists have made it out to be. The real human activities that are polluting the planet and poisoning people have nothing to do with carbon. Brain-damaging elements such as lead are increasing in the air, water, and soil. Pharmaceuticals are increasing in the water, intermixing and affecting human chemistry. Widespread pesticide and herbicide use is impacting microbial life, plant life, and ecology on a grand scale. Biosludge, a toxic slurry of municipal waste, is being repackaged as fertilizer and spread on rural farms. Fukushima radiation continues to leak into the oceans, distorting aquatic life. (RELATED: Ten alarming, real threats to the environment that are widely ignored by climate change advocates)

These important topics are all but dismissed however because all that climate change alarmists want is to influence your belief and reduce carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which would send temperatures plummeting worldwide. Even though carbon is an essential molecule of life and is currently measured at record low levels relative to Earths history, its your belief that the global elites need. Right now, carbon levels average slightly above 400 ppm, but ironically were as high as 7,000 ppm in the past. Volcanoes put more carbon into the atmosphere than human activity. Much of this carbon fiasco is out of human hands.

Arrogantly, global elites want to manipulate the temperature and weather patterns on Earth, in order to send Earth on a path of plummeting temperatures worldwide. The ultimate goal of these elites: Depopulation.

Climate change is the term used to devise for a colder, icier planet, devoid of life. The more we believe in reducing atmospheric carbon, the more we get behind their plans of central economic planning and depopulation. After all, a warmer, wetter planet is a green planet. Therefore, climate change propaganda and carbon reduction are rooted in eugenics, in population reduction, and getting people to cheer it on.

The evidence for this plan is found in the guilt that is being projected upon those who dont buy into climate change and reduction carbon levels. By not falling for the propaganda, you can be called a climate denier. Some people in authority have called for penalties and civil action against those who deny climate change.

We are supposed to feel guilty for our carbon footprint. We are looked down upon, like we are taking up space and using up resources that dont belong to us. Every breath we breathe is looked down upon as sin, as we exhale carbon dioxide. Even cow and sheep farts are fair game to be regulated and taxed. Expected to go along with the climate change narrative, we are shamed for existing, for breathing, for consuming energy and reproducing.

For people to thrive, the planet actually needs higher CO2 levels. Higher CO2 and warmer conditions would make it easier for people to grow a diverse array of crops. Evaporation of ocean water in warmer conditions would help regions become more self-reliant in the area of food production. Warmer weather invites abundance. Sure, people must learn to adapt to regional changes that take place on this planet, but the hysteria of climate change does nothing but fuel the flames of depopulation goals and manipulation.

Getting serious about pollution requires tackling the real issues that affect the water, soil, and air. Letting global government confiscate the fruits of your labor so scientists can control the weather and deplete the atmosphere of carbon is a dagger to all logic and reason. (Thankfully, President Trump broke ties with the Paris Climate Accord.) Feeling shame for exhaling carbon dioxide and cheering on global plans for weather control that leads to a colder planet is not in support of life. Its anti-life.

Learn why carbon dioxide is NOT a pollutant for our planet:

(RELATED: Keep up-to-date at ClimateScienceNews.com)

Sources:

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

NaturalNews.com

DailySignal.com
Posted by Mark Williams | July 27, 2017





Vehicles Affected: Approximately 60,000 model-year 2014 Ford F-150 pickup trucks manufactured between May 9 and June 15, 2014, at both the Dearborn Truck Plant in Michigan and the Kansas City Assembly Plant in Missouri

The Problem: If a seat, seatback or seat-belt anchor attaching bolt fractures, the structural integrity of the seat may be compromised in a sudden stop or crash, increasing the risk of an injury.

The Fix: Dealers will replace the affected seat, seatback, seat-belt or seat-belt buckle attaching bolts for free.

What Owners Should Do: Ford has not yet released an owner-notification schedule. Owners also can call the automaker at 866-436-7332, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's vehicle-safety hotline at 888-327-4236 or visit www.safercar.gov to check their vehicle identification number and learn more.

Need to Find a Dealer for Service? Go to Cars.com Service & Repair to find your local dealer.

Manufacturer image




Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:21:40|Editor: Yang Yi

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BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A new prospect for China-Indonesia relations is expected to be explored under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

The heads of state of the two countries have reached consensus on development strategies and closer cooperation on the China-proposed initiative, Wang said in a phone conversation with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

For his part, Retno said Indonesia hopes to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China and work together to safeguard regional peace and stability.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were also raised in the telephone conversation.

Retno said that the current Palestinian-Israeli situation is worrying, and the international community expects China, which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month, to play a further role in easing the tense situation.

Wang reiterated that Palestine's just rights should be respected and called on relevant parties to exercise restraint and create conditions for easing tensions and restoring dialogue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a new four-point proposal on the Palestinian issue during his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this month, Wang said.

Palestine and Israel should strive to establish a relationship in which both sides could benefit, said Wang.

China is willing to continue to play a positive role in resolving the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Wang said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 00:21:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Lebanese President Michel Aoun said Wednesday that Lebanon supports "a safe return" for Syrian refugees, but not in favor of "voluntary return."

According to a statement by the presidential media office, Aoun stressed that Lebanon clearly differentiates between Syrian refugees and militants, vowing that the Lebanese security agencies would continue their crackdown against sleeper cells.

"The Lebanese Army cannot be lenient with the militants who attack security forces and conduct suicide attacks against civilians and servicemen," Aoun said while meeting Kenneth Roth, head of Human Rights Watch (HRW), in Baabda Palace.

According to the United Nations Higher Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), Lebanon hosts more than 1.1 million Syrian refugees who fled their war-torn country since the rebellion against the regime of Bashar Assad started in March 2011.

However, the Lebanese government said the total number is close to 1.5 million.

Aoun also said that Lebanese government institutions would continue to offer aid to Syrian refugees, adding that the refugees left Syria "to escape war, killing and destruction and not for political reasons."

During his meeting with Roth, Aoun reiterated Lebanon's respect for human rights, noting that Lebanon works in collaboration with civil society organizations, including HRW, "to defend human rights."

Roth praised Aoun for acting as a "role model" in his refusal to prejudice against Syrian refugees residing in Lebanon.

Human rights activists have recently called on Lebanon to conduct additional investigations into the death of four Syrian nationals detained during June 30 raids on a Syrian encampment in northeast Lebanon's border town of Arsal.

The Lebanese authorities have denied accusations of human rights violations, insisting that the deaths were of natural causes.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:07:38|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Tanzanian Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa on Wednesday supported a move by the Tanzania Commission for Universities (TCU) to bar 19 higher learning institutions from admitting students in the 2017/18 academic year after they had failed to meet required conditions.

Launching the 12th Exhibition on Higher Education Science and Technology in Dar es Salaam, Majaliwa urged barred universities to stop wasting their time in unnecessary media debate and instead address problems raised by the TCU.

"The decision made by TCU (on Tuesday) to bar the higher learning institutions from admitting new students was for the interest of the country," said the prime minister.

Majaliwa added: "The government wants universities to produce well-educated professionals who could realize the country's dream of becoming an industrialized and middle income country."

Simon Msanjila, the Deputy Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, said universities and higher learning institutions should follow procedures in resolving their problems in order for the ban to be lifted.

TCU also suspended 22 universities from admitting students in 75 courses.

The statement signed by the TCU acting executive secretary Eliuther Mwangeni said the decision was made following an inspection of higher learning institutions across the east African nation conducted by the commission between September and October last year.
A member of the security forces stands guard at an electoral station during the simulation of the July 30 election for the National Constituent Assembly in Caracas, Venezuela, on July 16, 2017. (Xinhua/Boris Vergara)

WASHINGTON, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday slapped sanctions on 13 current or former senior officials of the Venezuelan government amid political turmoil in the South American country.

The Venezuelan officials were blacklisted for their association with the election of the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC) and their government's "rampant violence against opposition protesters and its corruption," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

As a result of the move, all assets of these individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with them.

The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30 election of the ANC that the U.S. Treasury Department says "will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions."

"As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

"Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions," he added.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against Venezuela's government if Venezuela goes ahead to pursue the creation of the ANC.

According to a strongly worded statement released by the White House, Trump warned that if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "imposes" the ANC on July 30, the U.S. will "take strong and swift economic actions."

In response, the Venezuelan government rejected the U.S. pressure to cancel the constitutional initiative.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said, "it is not the first time we have denounced and confronted crazy threats such as those contained in this unusual document," and vowed to hold the vote as planned, despite this latest "brutal threat."

Venezuelans will go to the polls on July 30 to elect the 545 members of the ANC. The vote comes at a time of high tension in Venezuela, with the anti-government protests organized by the opposition, Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), having led to more than 90 deaths since early April.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 02:48:07|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi issued on Wednesday a decree to form a national council for combating terrorism and extremism, state-run MENA news agency reported.

The council aim to rally institutional and societal capacities to uproot the causes of terrorism and to address its impact, according to MENA.

The planned council will be chaired by Sisi himself. It will draw up a national comprehensive strategy to combat terrorism and extremism, MENA said.

The council "will also coordinate with religious and security bodies to empower moderate religious approach and to spread the concepts of correct religion in face of extremism in all its forms," the report said.

Egypt has been battling growing terror activities following the military removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his currently-blacklisted Brotherhood group.

Terror attacks had been centered in restive North Sinai before they spread nationwide, killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.

Most of the anti-government terrorist operations were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

The Egyptian military in cooperation with the police killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects as part of the country's anti-terror war declared in 2013 by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, who was then the army chief, following Morsi's removal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 04:34:08|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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UNITED NATIONS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Wednesday condemned the killing of two peacekeepers from the UN peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic in the country's southeastern city of Bangassou.

On Tuesday, two Moroccan peacekeepers were killed and one other was injured in an attack by the suspected anti-Balaka elements, according to the UN. The incident came two days after the attack that led to the death of another Moroccan peacekeeper in Bangassou on Sunday.

In a statement, Guterres said he is deeply concerned at the fighting in the southeast of the Central African Republic, heightened inter-ethnic tensions and efforts by spoilers to derail the stabilization process in the country.

"If allowed to continue, the prevailing situation risks undermining the hard-won gains achieved towards lasting peace," said the statement.

The UN Security Council also condemned "in the strongest terms" the attack on the UN peacekeeping mission.

In a unanimous statement, the 15-nation council urged the Central African authorities to investigate this and all previous incidents without delay and bring the perpetrators to justice.

"The members of the Security Council called on all parties to cease violence immediately, and underlined the need for the Central African authorities, the sub-region and the international community to work in a concerted manner to avoid a further deterioration of the situation in the country," said the statement.

Despite significant progress and successful elections, the Central African Republic still suffers instability and sporadic unrest.

Clashes between the mainly Muslim Seleka rebel coalition and anti-Balaka militia, mostly Christian, plunged the country of 4.5 million people into civil conflict in 2013.

The UN says in Bangassou alone, nine peacekeepers have been killed since the beginning of this year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 07:57:26|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LOS ANGELES, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The median price of Southern California homes in June has a 7.5 percent leap compared with the same period last year, and most home prices are keep going up, according to a report from CoreLogic.

The highest record in history was in 2007, when the increase rate was 8.5 percent, the report said.

The median price of Los Angeles County in June was 569,000 U.S. dollars, 7.4 percent up from last year, which broke the record set in May. In Orange County, the median increase was 6.1 percent and kept the record of the previous month at 695,000 U.S. dollars.

The median home prices in other five county of Southern, including San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and San Diego, all rose last month compared to a year ago, according to the statistics showed on CoreLogic's report.

Corelogic is a California-based company providing financial, property and consumer information, analytics and business intelligence.

"I don't see any price correction of the housing in Los Angeles County in a short time, at least in two years. I have many customers, who are looking for a home between 400,000 U.S. dollars to 600,000 U.S. dollars in the past three months," Miguel Gonzales, a real estate agent in Los Angeles County told Xinhua Wednesday.

Miguel Gonzales said "only few of them have found their ideal homes, since the demand is far more than the supply now and many houses for sale are those old and ugly ones, which are not ideal for the buyers."

Due to the factors of growing economy, rock-bottom mortgage rates and a shortage of homes on the market, the home prices have been rising for more than five years.

Economists believed that these factors might make the home prices in California keep going up at 5 percent a year for the foreseeable future, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"In the past four to five months, the prices have surged fiercely since it's sellers' market now. The house inventory in Southern California is smaller this year compared with the past years, so the trading volume is not large", Vincent Ruan, a real estate agent told Xinhua on Wednesday.

"The houses between 500,000 U.S dollars and one million U.S dollars are the most popular," Ruan added.

The director of the USC Lusk Center for Real Estate, Richard Green, analyzed that such situation is the result of the strong economy and house building difficulties in California. Last year only 20,000 new homes were permitted to be built by Los Angeles County.

Green estimated that at least 100,000 new homes are required to stop the surging prices, and 35,000 additional each year are needed as well. The government officials stated that they are trying to figure out the process to address the problem and make the housing more affordable, Los Angeles Times reported.

Although the real estate market is very hot, not every corner in Southern California is experiencing a price raise. The luxury homes priced over one million U.S. dollars do not attract buyers that much.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 08:18:08|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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RIO DE JANEIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- A Brazilian federal court judge has dropped criminal charges against Barcelona forward Neymar, ending a prolonged tax evasion case.

Judge Cecilia Mello said charges could only be recognized by the court following a separate ruling by Brazil's tax dispute appeal body, CARF.

"It is with great happiness that we received the news of the shelving of the Public Ministry's case of tax evasion," Neymar's father, Neymar da Silva Santos, said in a statement.

"The process is officially closed and that proves the legality of all our acts."

According to Mello, prosecutors failed to show "a just cause" in claims that Neymar underpaid income tax between 2011 and 2014.

Local media reported that Neymar could still be forced to pay a hefty fine to the Brazilian tax office, which has accused the 25-year-old of evading around 20 million US dollars in taxes.

A court halved a tax office penalty of 200 million reais (around 60 million US dollars) following an appeal by Neymar's lawyers last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 08:28:13|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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SEOUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest maker of memory chips, display panels and TVs, posted a double-digit increase in its second-quarter profit thanks to brisk sales of semiconductors.

Operating profit was 14.07 trillion won (12.64 billion U.S. dollars) in the April-June quarter, up 72.72 percent from a year earlier, the regulatory filing showed on Thursday.

Revenue increased 19.76 percent from a year earlier to 61 trillion won in the second quarter, and net income soared 89.04 percent to 11.05 trillion won.

The double-digit expansion came amid strong demand for memory chips, of which profit accounted for more than half of the total operating profit in the second quarter.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 09:33:59|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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MEXICO CITY, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Mexico's homicide rate is on the rise, with 20 murders per 100,000 inhabitants registered in 2016, the national statistics institute INEGI said on Wednesday.

The rate was 17 homicides per 100,000 in 2015.

A total of 23,953 murders took place last year, including 15,064, which is 62.8 percent of the victims, killed by gunfire.

Most of the violent deaths, accounting for 40.4 percent of the total, were concentrated in just five states: the central state of Mexico, the southern state of Guerrero, the northern state of Chihuahua, the west-central state of Michoacan, and the western state of Jalisco.

Most of those states are also home to the country's biggest drug cartels.

Mexico's Interior Ministry said in June that a spike in violent deaths in 2016 and the beginning of this year was due to the struggle for power between criminal rings following the government's strategy of going after cartel leaders.

Critics say the strategy has only served to break up the large cartels into numerous smaller drug trafficking organizations.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 09:49:04|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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LONDON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- New cars powered by gasoline or diesel fuels will be banned in Britain from 2040, the government announced Wednesday.

It is the toughest measure ever in a government plan to see all cars and vans emission free by 2050.

The proposals by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are part of the toughest-ever anti-pollution measures ever raised in the country.

"Today's plan sets out how we will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide," said the Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

"This is one element of the government's 3-billion-pound (4 billion U.S. dollars) program to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions," he said.

"Today's announcement is focused on delivering nitrogen dioxide (NO2) compliance at the roadside in the shortest amount of time. This is one part of our program to deliver clean air. Next year the Government will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution," a Defra spokesman said.

Town and city authorities will also be handed new powers to impose charges on the most polluting vehicles.

Local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year to accelerate action. Local councils will also have to produce local air quality plans on reducing NO2 levels in the shortest possible time.

The "UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations" produced by Defra and the Department for Transport outlines how councils with the worst levels of air pollution at busy road junctions and hotspots must take robust action.

"We are determined to deliver a green revolution in transport and reduce pollution in our towns and cities. We are taking bold action and want nearly every car and van on UK roads to be zero emission by 2050," said Chris Grayling, the transport secretary.

Air quality in Britain has been improving significantly in recent decades, with reductions in emissions of all of the key pollutants, and NO2 levels was cut by half in the last 15 years, according to the Defra.

Despite this, an analysis of over 1,800 of Britain's major roads shows that 81 locations, 4 percent of the total, breach legal pollution limits for NO2, with 33 of them outside of London.

"Air pollution continues to have an unnecessary and avoidable impact on people's health and evidence shows that poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing the country around 3.5 billion U.S.dollars in 2012," added Defra.

Defra's new plans also include a new Clean Air Fund to cut congestion, improve public transport and help motorists move from diesel to cleaner energy.

A consultation on a targeted scrappage scheme to remove diesel vehicles off the road is also planned for this fall.

Britain is one of 17 Europe Union countries breaching annual targets for NO2, a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions, added Defra.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 11:19:36|Editor: Yang Yi

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CHENGDU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A total of 124 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, have been arrested in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Cambodia for cross-border telecom fraud.

In February, major telecom fraud cases were reported to police in Sichuan. Suspects, disguised as court or police officials, claimed that the victims' bank accounts had been breached, inducing them to transfer their money to a so-called "safe account" in panic.

After investigation, police located the gang's den in Cambodia.

Eighteen people were first arrested in an April raid in Sichuan. Another 74 people were captured on July 1 by Chinese and Cambodian police during raids on several locations in Phnom Penh. Cambodia deported the suspects to China on July 6.

On July 17, another 32 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, were caught in similar telecom fraud cases in Cambodia. A large number of mobile phones and laptops were seized during the crackdowns. Seventeen of the 32 suspects were sent to China by Cambodian authorities on Thursday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 11:24:42|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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RIO DE JANEIRO, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Brazil's Presidential Chief of Staff Eliseu Padilha said on Wednesday that he is absolutely sure that the vote by Chamber of Deputies next week will clear President Michel Temer's name.

Brazil's Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot formally accused Temer of corruption in June. Under Brazilian law, the congress must vote on whether to allow the tribunal to try the leader. A two-thirds majority is needed.

Such a process began with a vote in the House's Commission on Constitution, Justice and Citizenship on July 13, which Temer survived.Padilha believes the full vote will have the same outcome.

"We are sure the House will reject the charges, just like the commission did. We are absolutely sure of that," said Padilha.

According to Brazilian media, the government managed to easily win the commission vote by replacing members of the commission who intended to vote against Temer.

However, such horse-trading cannot take place in the full chamber, and next week's vote is more challenging for the Temer administration.

Temer and the government have been courting the undecided representatives to vote in the president's favor.

Some officials accused the government of spending a large sum of money to finance the allied parties' representatives. However, the government denies any act of vote-buying.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 11:34:45|Editor: Song Lifang

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BRASILIA, July 26 (Xinhua) -- China's better-than-expected economic growth has a positive impact on Brazil's otherwise flagging economy, especially in the primary products sector, said a leading economist.

Jose Luiz Oreiro, professor of economics at the University of Brasilia, said he believes China's 6.9-percent GDP growth in the first half of 2017 has helped to lift Brazil out of its economic doldrums.

"In the first quarter, the only sector that saw real growth in Brazil was agribusiness with a 13-percent increase," said Oreiro, adding that "steel also has reasonable prices due to China's growth, so China's added growth has been good news for the Brazilian economy."

As to China's economic indicators announced last week, the economist said "the result does not surprise me. We expected to see a more moderate growth in China compared to previous years (with a double-digit growth), so the 6-7 percent growth per year is a new norm."

China's economic growth helped sustain the prices of Brazil's commodity exports, offset slowdowns in other sectors of Latin America's largest economy, and also signaled a coming recovery for the global economy, which has been struggling since the 2008 financial crisis, said Oreiro.

"The global economy appears to be getting into third gear. The developed economies are seeing sped-up growth. As the world's second largest economy, China's accelerating growth is important in providing a greater impetus to the global economic growth," said the economist.

However, the main challenge for China will be to reduce its "huge savings rate" to sustain a new growth model that relies more on domestic consumption.

"China will have to put in place social security policies, state-paid pensions, a universal public health system, etc. to reduce the savings rate and promote spending, since the Chinese middle class will no longer need to save for medical treatment and thus will buy more consumer goods," he said.

"It is the transition China needs to complete, so that its consumption will represent a larger GDP share. In recent decades, the Chinese economy has been driven by investments and exports, now it needs to give a greater role to spending," said Oreiro.

The outlook for Brazil's economy remains "very bad" though a slight growth was registered in the first quarter of 2017, thanks to a bumper harvest of soy and grains, Oreiro said, adding that "the effect won't last, and my forecast for 2017 Brazilian economy is zero percent growth."
By Ru Ge

COPENHAGEN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Smoking is a common phenomenon in Denmark, especially in Copenhagen. Whenever I walk around in a prosperous area of Copenhagen, where there are lots of people gathering, the smell of cigarettes is everywhere. One can often see beautiful blonde girls who wear stylish black jackets, tight leather jeans, and exquisite makeup taking out cigarettes from cases, skillfully lighting them and holding them in their mouth. Sometimes after a smoker takes a few puffs, his or her friends will pick up where they left off, grab the half-smoked cigarette and continue to smoke on it. It's a way of socializing for young people in Denmark, and I see it quite often.

According to a recent survey conducted by the State Institute of Public Health, 46% of Danish upper-secondary students smoke either daily or occasionally.

Not only young people smoke, but also older people too. In Copenhagen, I've seen people of all age groups smoke. Some are middle aged women and men aged 40 or 50 years old. Some others are senior citizens apparently over age 70.

Because of the popularity of smoking, cigarettes have a huge market. In almost every convenient store such as 7-11 and netto, there's a glass-fronted showcase beside the cashier storing different brands of cigarettes. Although prices might vary, what is shockingly common is that there is a horrifying warning picture painted on all the cigarette cases, and beside them there is one sentence explaining one of the harmful effects of smoking. One reads "Rygning ger risikoen for blindhed" which means smoking increases the risk of blindness, and under the sentence, their is a huge muddy eye without any gloss, representing blindness caused by heavy smoking.

Another one (which is even more scary than the blind eye) is a foot with a disgusting black scar on it. The explanation is "Rygning er arsag til areforkalkning" which means smoking is the cause of atherosclerosis. In addition to these two, there are also pictures of "black lungs", "diseased heart," "damaged teeth and gums", "sick mothers accompanied by young children", and so on.

But no matter how shocking these pictures and explanations are, and no matter how drastically the potential consequences are laid out for the public, there are still lots of people buying cigarettes from time to time. According to Bjarne Hastrup, the author of Social Welfare-The Danish Model, there were 24% of Danish men and 22% of Danish women smoking in 2008. Although the percentages were already much lower than in 1995, when 44% men and 39% women were daily smokers, the problem is still quite severe.

Some might wonder why so many Danish people have become occasional or daily smokers. As far as I can see there are a few reasons behind this phenomenon.

First of all, for Danish people, especially Danish youth, smoking is a way of being cool and sexy. For boys, they think their masculinity will be shown when they smoke. For girls, they think it's really sexy just like when Marilyn Monroe smokes.

Secondly, it's a way to socialize and fit in a new group in Denmark. When people offer a cigarette to a new friend, of course he/she has the right to decline, but if one refuses, it's difficult to join the conversation with those smoking because they may think that person does not fit in with the group. So I've seen quite a few of my Danish friends who were nonsmokers before, gradually becoming occasional smokers and finally being addicted to smoking and finding it difficult to get rid of the habit after that.

Thirdly, some think it's a way to get rid of tiredness and exhaustion, especially after a long school and working day. Smoking helps them to refresh themselves.

In addition, it's a part of Danish party culture. Danish people drink alcohol and smoke cigarettes during parties. A few girls and boys from Copenhagen University told me that they are a perfect combination and taste well together.

The above mentioned reasons are the primary factors behind Danish people's smoking habits.

The Danish government has realized the harmful effects of smoking on the well-being of people, so they have come up with various ways to restrict it.

In 2007, Denmark's previous government banned smoking in public places like schools, trains, cafes and restaurants over a certain size.

In Aarhus, the second largest city in Denmark, employees are banned from smoking during working hours. Because of the government's efforts, and the gradual improvement of the Danes' health consciousness, about 425,000 people have quit since 2008.

One of my friends who majors in Chinese studies in Copenhagen University told me that she started smoking since she was 15, but right now she has quit it because she wants to live a healthy lifestyle. I believe that there will be more people like her in the future, and one day this idyllic Kingdom will move toward being smoke-free.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 11:49:50|Editor: Song Lifang

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URUMQI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- One person was killed and another 31 were injured after a gas leak in a chemical factory in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, local authorities said Thursday.

The high-temperature gas leaked while workers were conducting pipeline maintenance at the Xinjiang Yihua chemical industry company in Changji Hui Autonomous Prefecture at around 7:00 p.m. Wednesday, said a statement from the Xinjiang's regional government.

Among the workers hospitalized, 18 were seriously injured, it said.

The case is under further investigation.
The first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to Portuguese capital Lisbon via Beijing, capital of China, is landing at the Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon on July 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

LISBON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- An airbus A300 aircraft on its first direct flight from China's Hangzhou province to the Portuguese capital via Beijing landed on Wednesday at Humberto Delgado airport after a 13-hour flight.

Portuguese minister of planning and infrastructure Pedro Marques said at a ceremony marking the event that the launching of the first direct flight route between the two countries had been the government's dream for many years.

He said he hoped the route would strengthen the role Portugal has been playing as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run said in his speech that the direct flight path between China and Portugal was of great significance to the development of bilateral relations as it would promote economy, trade, investment, and tourism between the two countries.

Additionally, the opening of the route is more convenient for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, he said.

Nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists came to Portugal last year.

A Portuguese family was busy with check-in for the aircraft's return flight from Lisbon to Beijing, also on Wednesday. Lona, a prosecutor in his late forties, told Xinhua that he and his family had a strong interest in China as it is a big and important country.

"As summer vacation is going on, my wife and I, together with my son and daughter, will visit Beijing and Tianjin for ten days. We want to see the world-famous Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and famous Olympic buildings like bird's nest and water cube," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 12:25:02|Editor: Song Lifang

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CANBERRA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Methamphetamine remains Australia's most consumed illicit substance, according to a report released by the government on Thursday.

The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (ACIC) released the results of its second National Wastewater Drug Monitoring Program report.

According to ACIC CEO Chris Dawson, South Australia and Western Australia were the two states with the highest traces of methamphetamines, but overall consumption of the drug "far exceeded" the consumption of other drugs across the nation.

"Findings from the second report show that of the substances tested, methamphetamine consumption far exceeded the consumption of other illicit stimulants and both licit and illicit consumption of oxycodone and fentanyl," Dawson said in a statement on Thursday.

"Although jurisdictional results vary, there was a slight but pleasing reduction in the level of methamphetamine used nationally over the period covered by this report, though it's too early to say with any confidence whether this result is part of a longer-term trend."

Dawson said while the government was continuing to allocate money to drug prevention programs, the drug climate in Australia was "attractive" for smugglers and dealers.

"Australia's strong economic conditions and the high price that Australians will pay for illicit drugs make our country an attractive market for organized crime and motivated individuals," he said.

"The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission is committed to working with its partners to understand Australia's drug market, disrupt criminal activity, and reduce the supply and demand of illicit drugs in this country."

Cocaine levels were highest in New South Wales, but Victoria and parts of regional Queensland both had cocaine levels higher than the rest of the nation.

While methamphetamine was the number one illicit substance found in Australia's wastewater, alcohol and tobacco remained the overall highest consumed substances in all states and territories.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 13:30:16|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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MELBOURNE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt on Thursday announced a landmark funding deal for cancer research in Australia centered around the promising drug Venetoclax.

Hunt announced that Melbourne's Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) had sold part of the royalty rights to venetoclax, which took the institute three decades to develop, to CPPIB Credit Europe for an upfront cash payment of 250 million U.S. dollars.

Venetoclax, which was approved for use in Australia in January, has proven to be effective in helping patients with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL) enter remission.

Doug Hilton, director of the WEHI, confirmed that the money, which could rise to 325 million U.S. dollars with potential milestone payments, would be re-invested into cancer research.

"The institute is proud of its contribution to the realization of this anti-cancer treatment and its potential to improve the lives of many patients around the world," Hilton told reporters in Melbourne on Thursday.

"Venetoclax demonstrates what success can look like for a collaborative, entrepreneurial and innovative medical research institute and why investment in basic research is so important.

"The institute's mission is to make discoveries for humanity and this income will help us deliver on that. It will enhance and accelerate our ability to make fundamental discoveries that can be translated into better treatments, bringing real benefits to patients on a global scale, as well as benefiting the Australian economy."

Part of the money will be invested in an endowment to ensure the long-term financial stability of the institute.

Christopher Thomas, president of the WEHI board, said the partial sale was a unique opportunity that would have been difficult to pass up.

"The institute decided to make a partial sale of rights to minimize the risks associated with the longer term volatility in the pharmaceutical marketplace," Thomas said.

"Having observed similar transactions by other research institutions, and then realizing venetoclax's potential, we decided this was the right approach for the Institute."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 13:45:22|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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NEW DELHI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chief Minister of the eastern Indian state of Bihar Nitish Kumar Thursday returned to power, a day after he resigned from the position over corruption allegations on his deputy chief minister, who belongs to his alliance partner.

Kumar was administered the oath of office - for the sixth time in the past 12 years - by Bihar's Governor K.N. Tripathi Thursday morning after India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) offered him full support to form the government in the state again.

Bihar's BJP chief Sushil Modi has been sworn in as the new deputy chief minister. And after the trust vote in the state assembly, slated for Saturday, other ministers will be inducted into the new cabinet.

Kumar had resigned as Bihar's chief minister late Wednesday evening after his alliance partner Rastriya Janata Dal's chief Lalu Yadav said his son Tejashwi would not resign as the state's deputy chief minister despite being caught in a corruption scandal.

"There was no scandal before this, I tried to make it work for as long as I could," Kumar, the head of regional Janata Dal (United) party, said after his resignation.

"I tried to work it out ....I did not ask for anybody's resignation ... I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption. My conscience would not allow me to continue to be the state chief minister," he added.

After Kumar's resignation, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter to congratulate him for "joining the fight against corruption." Kumar had also thanked him on Twitter.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 13:45:24|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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by Levi J Parsons

SYDNEY, July 27 (Xinhua) -- One in 20 adolescents in Australia aged 10 to 14 have a food allergy, a new study has found.

The SchoolNuts Study is one of the only population-based studies which has examined the frequency of food allergies in early adolescents.

In total 10,000 kids took part in the clinic evaluation which was conducted by the Australian Center of Food and Allergy Research at the Murdoch Children's Research Institute.

Consisting of skin prick tests, questionnaires and oral food challenges, the findings suggest the commonality of food allergies is increasing, not just the level of reported diagnosis of the condition.

"There has been an increase in prevalence of allergies in Australia, one in 10 babies aged 12 months now have a food allergy," food allergy expert and chief executive officer of Anaphylaxis Australia, Maria Said explained to Xinhua on Wednesday.

"About 6 percent of older children and 2 percent adults also have food allergies."

"There is more awareness, but there is certainly more people with food allergies in 2017."

Among the most common foods people with allergies suffer from include milk, eggs, peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, sesame, soy, wheat and lupin.

But Said warns that some people can even be allergic to more unusual things like "garlic, banana or chicken."

"There is not a lot understood at this point about the cause of this increase in prevalence, there are lots of theories but we have no one answer," the expert said.

The common consensus around the issue is that a combination of factors are likely to be the reason for the alarming spike.

Those factors are thought to include the introduction of solid food to babies, the amount of exposure to vitamin D, whether a child was breastfed and if a child was born naturally or via cesarean section.

Said also points to a theory known as the hygiene hypothesis, as a possible contributor to modern food allergies.

"Have we created environments that are too clean so our immune system comes unstuck with something as natural as a food protein?" the expert wondered.

When in contact with high-risk foods, sufferers of the condition experience an immune system response, which is often clearly visible.

You will see the person might get hives or skin redness, they might get swelling of the face, the lips, the eyes, but when it crosses over into a severe allergic reaction or anaphylaxis, it involves the breathing and respiratory system and or your cardiovascular heart and blood pressure system," the expert said.

"If either of those two systems are affected, you are having a potentially life threatening reaction."

"Having food allergies really does affect your quality of life, you need to check the food content of everything you eat, every time."

Although there is currently no clear data, Said explained that in Australia, Asian-born parents, particularly from east Asia, are much more likely of having a child with a food allergy.

"Having been involved with several families that have lost children to a food allergy, sadly more than 50 percent of them have had Asian-born parents," the expert said.

"That is really alarming because there doesn't appear to be the increase in prevalence of food allergies in China as there is in Australia."

"But if you have Chinese born parents, your likelihood of having allergy in Australia is increased."

One of the problems for those who experience food allergies according to Said, is that the term "allergy" is used very loosely in Australia.

"That is a real problem because those of us that do have a potentially life threatening allergy are sometimes not taken seriously," the expert said.

"It's really important that people who have a food intolerance or simply don't like a food, say that, rather than claim they have an allergy."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 14:05:28|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- In a phone call last week with what he thought was the Ukrainian prime minister, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry discussed wide-ranging topics including cyberhacking. Yet, it turned out the official himself was the very target of hacking.

According to a Wednesday story by Bloomberg, the phone call, which lasted for 22 minutes, was actually a prank orchestrated by Vladimir Kuznetsov and Alexei Stolyarov, two Russians who described themselves as "Jerky Boys from Russia."

The U.S. Department of Energy has confirmed the incident through its spokesperson.

Having met a Ukrainian delegation led by President Petro Poroshenko just a few weeks ago, Perry, totally defenseless, thought he was speaking to the country's prime minister, Volodymyr Hroisman.

In the phone conversation, Perry explained U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord while expressing Washington's willingness to export gas to Kiev, which is still reeling from a violent separatist movement four years on.

"We look forward to bringing some oil and gas opportunities to Ukraine," the secretary was quoted by Bloomberg as saying, adding that the Trump administration opposed the potential Nordstream 2 pipeline transporting Russian gas to Germany via the Baltic Sea.

Asked if Ukraine could get U.S. coal exports at a discount, Perry reportedly said maybe. "Negotiation is always possible," he said.

The pranksters also informed Perry of Ukraine's ongoing efforts to develop a new biofuel, one made from home-brewed alcohol and pig manure. The Washington Post considered this part of the conversation "the only giveaway" of the hoax.

The Post reported that Perry said he would like to get more information about the "scientific development," citing the entire script of the conversation posted in the format of a video with Russian subtitles on Russian news site Vesti.

Calls between cabinet secretaries and foreign officials are typically closely vetted, Bloomberg said. What led to Perry being fooled, though, might be that such calls are often conducted through an interpreter if the persons on each side don't speak the same language.

The pranksters also boasted having tricked other high-profile figures, including Senator John McCain of Arizona. A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, McCain visited Kiev in late 2013 -- some of the most tumultuous days in the initial phase of the Ukraine crisis -- to show support for those who ultimately toppled then Russian-friendly President Victor Yanukovich.

But Perry's case might be more detrimental in the sense that he holds a post which "is in charge of the government agency that maintains the nation's stockpile of nuclear warheads and cleans up nuclear waste," the Post said.

The latest prank also came at a time when the U.S. Congress reached bipartisan consensus on further tightening sanctions against Russia over what Washington believed to be Moscow's instigation of the insurgency in eastern Ukraine as well as meddling in the 2016 U.S. election.

The White House said Trump hadn't decided whether to approve or, by using his executive power, veto the new sanction bill.

Experts, however, said the bill is putting the president in a dilemma where if he lets it go, it will potentially risk harming ties with Europe, which suffers more from the backlash of Russian sanctions. But if he disapproves it, speculation about his collusion with Russia will gain ground.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 14:15:31|Editor: Zhang Dongmiao

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SEOUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- South Korea on Thursday confirmed that no sign has been detected of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK)'s test-launch of ballistic missile to mark the 64th anniversary of the armistice agreement that ended the 1950-53 Korean War.

A senior official with South Korea's Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) told a regular briefing of the defense ministry that no immediate sign has been spotted yet of the DPRK's missile launch.

The JCS official said the South Korean military was closely monitoring and trailing moves of the DPRK forces through the combined U.S.-South Korea surveillance assets to prepare for possible DPRK provocations.

An official of the presidential Blue House, who declined to be identified, told reporters earlier that no sign has been found for the DPRK's missile launch, saying weather conditions were bad in areas where the DPRK's test-launch was estimated to happen.

The DPRK was forecast not to conduct any missile-test provocation at least on Thursday.

Those comments came amid global media speculations that Pyongyang had made preparations for the test-firings of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) and a submarine-launched ballistic missile (SLBM).

On July 4, the DPRK announced a successful test-launch of an ICBM, dubbed Hwasong-14, which flew around 930 km and was lofted as high as about 2,800 km.

South Korea's military cast doubts on whether Pyongyang mastered the ICBM technology, saying the reentry vehicle development had yet to be demonstrated. The military called the Hwasong-14 a ballistic missile of intercontinental range.

The reentry technology is an essential part of the ICBM development as it allows the missile to pass through upper atmosphere without any damage to warhead.

Expectations had run high among local and global media outlets for Pyongyang to test-fire another intercontinental-range ballistic missile to validate its reentry technology on or around July 27 that marks the 64th anniversary of the armistice agreement.

The Korean Peninsula is technically in a state of war as the three-year war ended in armistice in 1953, not a peace treaty.

South Korea's military was bracing for all possibilities though no specific sign has been spotted of the DPRK's missile test-launch, the Blue House official said.

On July 17, the new South Korean government under President Moon Jae-in, who took office on May 10, proposed to the DPRK for holding military and Red Cross talks to ease tensions on the Korean Peninsula and discuss pressing humanitarian issues.

The dialogue on military affairs was offered to stop all hostile acts near the military demarcation line (MDL) dividing the peninsula.

The Red Cross talks were aimed to hold the reunion of families of the two sides, who have been separated since the outbreak of the Korean War, on the occasion of the traditional Chuseok holiday in early October.

Pyongyang has been mum about the dialogue overtures, raising worry about additional provocations.

Seoul's unification ministry said Wednesday that no deadline had been set for the dialogue overtures, which came as follow-up measures to President Moon's so-called "Korean Peninsula Peace Initiative" announced in early July in Berlin, Germany.

Moon had been widely forecast to inherit the "Sunshine Policy" of engagement with the DPRK through an economic cooperation and the exchanges of sports, culture and personnel.

Defense Ministry spokesman Moon Sang-kyun told the regular press briefing earlier in the day that there has been no change in its position that urges the DPRK to positively respond to the peace initiative and the dialogue offer to defuse military tensions and build peace on the peninsula.

The spokesman said South Korea would continue its peace-building, tension-deescalating efforts regardless of the DPRK's response.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:11:06|Editor: Zhou Xin

Japan's Democratic Party leader Renho (2nd R) walks to the parliament in Tokyo, Japan, July 27, 2017. Renho announced her decision to step down as the leader of the largest opposition party Thursday. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)

TOKYO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Japan's Democratic Party leader Renho announced her decision to step down as the leader of the largest opposition party Thursday.

She said that she had been contemplating what actions could be taken for the public to regain trust in the Democratic Party again.

Renho, 49, said it was up to her to reflect on herself.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:16:12|Editor: Zhou Xin

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VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Lao Airlines, the Lao national carrier, is in expansion mode, re-launching direct flights from Vientiane's Wattay International Airport to Singapore's Changi International Airport from this October, according to an announcement by the company.

Earlier in 2017, Lao Airlines halted direct flights from Lao capital Vientiane to Singapore, for a number of unspecified reasons. However, the route is being re-launched beginning at the end of October, local daily Vientiane Times noted on Thursday.

The new flights between Vientiane and Singapore will begin on October 29 with fares starting at 155 U.S. dollars and can be bookable through their website.

The re-launch of the route from Laos to Singapore is expected to boost the economic development in terms of the influx of foreign tourists, investment and trade over the years to come.

Last year, two-way trade between the countries reached 30 million U.S. dollars, more than doubling from 13 million U.S. dollars recorded in 2015. In the same year, over 6,000 Singaporean tourists visited Laos. Singaporean investors invested 187 million U.S. dollars in 79 projects in Laos, making Singapore the 11th largest foreign investment source.

At the end of 2016, Singapore's SilkAir resumed its Singapore-Vientiane-Luang Prabang flight, which flies three times a week providing a convenient travel route to help boost investment and tourism cooperation.

In the joint commitment, SilkAir has set to offer more flights to Laos under a code-share agreement with Lao Airlines.

Currently Lao Airlines has direct routes to various major cities of Cambodia, China, Thailand, Vietnam, and South Korea.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:26:21|Editor: Zhou Xin

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PARON, Afghanistan, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Afghan security forces repelled a Taliban attack in the country's eastern province of Nuristan, killing at least 45 militants, including their seven commanders, the defense ministry said on Thursday.

"Hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked Want Waygal district of Nuristan province on Wednesday night, which faced with the fierce resistance of security forces," the ministry said, adding 45 militants were killed and 50 others wounded after their positions targeted by airstrikes.

However, the ministry didn't say if there were casualties on security personnel.

Taliban militants have intensified activities since late April and briefly overran at least three districts in parts of the war-battered country.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:31:29|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CARACAS, July 26 (Xinhua) -- The United States Wednesday announced sanctions on 13 current and former Venezuelan government officials to pressure their president Nicolas Maduro into halting his plan to rewrite the constitution.

The sanctions targeted leading ruling party figures to freeze their U.S. assets and banning Americans from doing business with them.

Maduro said his government does not "recognize any sanctions", adding that the officials singled out by Washington were "brave Venezuelans" who would instead be recognized for their service to the country.

He pledged to go ahead with the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30 election of the ANC that the U.S. Treasury Department says "will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions."

"As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in a statement.

"Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions," he added.

The opposition has boycotted the vote, warning it is a power grab by Maduro but the president reckons it as the only way to peace after four months of street protests against his government in which more than 100 people have been killed.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against Venezuela's government if Venezuela pursues the creation of the ANC.

According to a strongly worded statement released by the White House, Trump warned that if Maduro "imposes" the ANC on July 30, the United States will "take strong and swift economic actions."

In response, the Venezuelan government rejected the U.S. pressure to cancel the constitutional initiative.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said, "it is not the first time we have denounced and confronted crazy threats such as those contained in this unusual document," and vowed to hold the vote as planned, despite this latest "brutal threat."

The clash between the government and the opposition became a constitutional crisis since January 2016, when the latter won control of the National Assembly and ended a 17-year control by former president Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:56:44|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NEW DELHI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief Amit Shah is all set to soon become a Member of Parliament in the Upper House.

Indian Health Minister J.P. Nadda announced Wednesday night that the BJP's parliamentary board, the party's highest policy making body, has decided that Shah will contest the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Parliament) polls from the western state of Gujarat on Aug. 8.

Shah is a sitting member of the legislative assembly of Gujarat, also Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state, but the party now wants him in the Upper House of Parliament, where the BJP is in a minority.

Shah, a close aide of Prime Minister Modi, is credited with the BJP's win in the 2014 general election and this year's assembly election in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh in the north.

A long-time member of Hindu nationalist Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), the ideological mentor of the BJP, 50-year-old Shah is a controversial politician, who is accused of sanctioning the killing of a Muslim civilian in 2005 when he was Gujarat's home minister.

In 2010, Shah resigned after he was charged with murder and kidnapping of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and arrested in connection with the killing. He was released on bail after spending over three months in jail. Shah denied the charges.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 15:56:46|Editor: Zhou Xin

Muslim worshippers celebrate outside Jerusalem's Old City, July 27, 2017. Israel has removed metal detectors from the entry to Jerusalem's holy site, which is known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews, following days of violent clashes. (Xinhua/Muammar Awad)

JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Israel removed security apparatus from the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, as thousands of Muslim worshippers rejoiced in the nearby streets early on Thursday.

CCTV cameras, the metal bridge and the railings, which have triggered nightly violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police, were taken away by Israeli authorities.

Thousands celebrated in the streets of the Old City, handing out candy to children and adults.

However, Muslim leaders told the worshippers to continue to pray outside the site until they would decide if Israel has indeed canceled all of the recent security measures and returned to the status quo.

Palestinian Governor of Jerusalem Adnan Husseini hoped that "Israel would be serious about this step and not have undeclared goals behind this move," pointing out that the top Muslim clerics will listen to the technical reports by the field teams before taking a final decision regarding the ending of the protests.

Omar Kiswani, the director of Al-Aqsa Mosque, said a meeting of the Supreme Islamic Committee in Jerusalem would be held later Thursday morning.

The hilltop site is known as the Noble Sanctuary to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews.

The detectors, installed following a shooting attack that killed three Israeli policemen, sparked a huge protest. They are seen by the Palestinians as a violation of the status quo at the Muslim-run compound and an Israeli attempt to gain more control over the site.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 16:01:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump Wednesday hailed manufacturing giant Foxconn for a 10 billion dollar investment plan in the state of Wisconsin, potentially creating thousands of jobs.

"Today, I'm pleased to announce that Foxconn ... will build a state-of- the-art manufacturing facility for the production of LCD panel products in Wisconsin," Trump said in a job announcement at the White House.

"The company's initial investment of more than 10 billion dollars will create 3,000 jobs at a minimum, with the potential for up to 13,000 jobs in the very near future," he said, accompanied by Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou.

"America doesn't have a single LCD factory to produce a complete 8k system. So we are going to change that," Gou said.

The investment plan, labeled by Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker as "the largest economic development project in the history of Wisconsin," involves a virtual village, with housing, stores and service businesses spread over at least 1000 acres, according to media reports.

Multiple states competed over the Foxconn investment, but Wisconsin secured Gou's favor after agreeing to subsidize the enterprise with 3 billion dollars for the next 15 years if Foxconn fulfills its promise to pay an average annual salary of 54,000 dollars to its local employees.

The investment, if followed through, will be seen as another victory for Trump, Wisconsin native House Speaker Paul Ryan and Governor Walker, who is running for reelection next year.

In his speech, Trump made clear that he should receive the credit for the investment deal, saying "if I didn't get elected, he definitely would not be spending 10 billion dollars."

Foxconn is the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, and is most notable for assembling iPhones in China.
Muslim elders speak during a news conference regarding Israel's removal of security measures at al-Aqsa compound, in Jerusalem July 27, 2017. (Reuters photo)

JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Jerusalem's senior Muslim clergies announced on Thursday that worshippers can return to pray inside a contested shrine, following two-week-long violent clashes over new Israeli security measures at the site.

Hebrew-language Channel 2 TV reported that the Jerusalem Mufti Mohammed Hussein and the Waqf, a Jordanian body that administrates the site, ruled that the status quo at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound has been restored.

Prayers will be resumed on Thursday, the clergies said.

The announcement came hours after Israeli authorities took away the overhead metal bridge and the railings of surveillance cameras that they had recently installed at the entrance to the flashpoint site, triggering nightly violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli police.

Over the past two weeks, hundreds of Muslims were holding daily mass prayers outside the site to protest against the measures, following calls by Muslim leaders.

The detectors, installed following a shooting attack that killed three Israeli policemen, sparked a huge protest. They are seen by the Palestinians as a violation of the status quo at the Muslim-run compound and an Israeli attempt to gain more control over the site.

In the clashes that ensued, at least four Palestinians were killed by Israeli security forces and hundreds of others were injured. Three members of an Israeli family in a West Bank settlement were killed by an assailant who said he did it "to redeem Al-Aqsa."

The site, known to Muslim as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is located in East Jerusalem's Old City, a territory that Israel seized from Jordan in a 1967 war and annexed shortly later. The annexation has never been internationally recognized.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 16:52:24|Editor: Zhou Xin

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TOKYO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Renho announced her decision to step down as the leader of the largest opposition party Thursday.

Renho, 49, said she had been contemplating what actions could be taken for the public to regain trust in the main opposition party again.

"After thinking about what we can do to make the public think of us as a Democratic Party they can trust ... (I realized) I have to reflect," Renho told a news conference.

The DPJ's dismal results in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election earlier this month led to its secretary general Yoshihiko Noda announcing his resignation on Tuesday to take account for the party's poor showing.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) also took a historic clobbering from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's newly-formed Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party), who won the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election and possibly setting a new direction for national politics.

Despite a drastic fall in public support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet, the Democratic Party has failed to capitalize.

"We need to do something to strengthen our power," Renho was quoted as telling a gathering of DPJ lawmakers Tuesday.

"I ask for your cooperation so we can turn our party into an organization capable of winning," she said.

The resignations of Noda and Renho are aimed at shaking up the main opposition party's leadership lineup and breathe new life into a party that has never really threatened the ruling LDP in terms of leadership.

Renho, 49, became the party's first female leader when she won a leadership election in September last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 16:52:26|Editor: Zhou Xin

Photo taken on July 27, 2017 shows the signing ceremony of BEWG Malaysia's issuance of Islamic medium term notes in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. China's Beijing Enterprises Water Group (BEWG) announced Thursday the issuance of 400-million-ringgit (93.5 million U.S. dollars) Islamic bond in Malaysia. (Xinhua/Wang Dawei)

KUALA LUMPUR, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China's Beijing Enterprises Water Group (BEWG) announced Thursday the issuance of 400-million-ringgit (93.5 million U.S. dollars) Islamic bond in Malaysia.

BEWG Malaysia's issuance of Islamic medium term notes (Sukuk Wakalah) marked the first-ever ringgit-denominated Sukuk on water infrastructure by a Chinese company.

According to BEWG Malaysia's CEO Ong Kian Min, the proceed from the Sukuk Wakalah issuance will be used to fund the refurbishment and upgrading of water treatment and distribution facilities in Malaysia's Terengganu state.

The total value of the project is 687 million ringgit, and it will be completed by November 2018, three years after works commenced in 2015, said Ong.

Malaysia is one of the largest Islamic capital markets, he said.

"We are expecting more projects. When we see the benefits in Sukuk, we can look at it for other projects as well," Ong said.

BEWG was involved in the construction of a 983-million-ringgit sewage treatment plant in the capital city of Kuala Lumpur. The project was handed over to the Malaysian government on Thursday.

Ong said BEWG Malaysia may invest in water resources comprehensive solution project in Malaysia's southern Johor state after receiving a formal mandate from the state government.

The company is also in talks with Sarawak state in East Malaysia for potential collaboration on a state-owned sewerage project.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 17:02:34|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The U.S. President Donald Trump is facing an impending showdown as the House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday reached a deal on sanctions against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK).

"I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," said Bob Corker, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman.

The bill was overwhelmingly approved by the House two days ago, which will slap tougher sanctions on the three countries, followed by a day of tweaking and barbs within the Congress.

Congress voted 419-3 to pass the bill, achieving an overwhelming two-thirds majority, which means that the House could override a presidential veto.

RETORT, RESISTANCE AND RETALIATION

The measure aims at targeting key Russian officials in retaliation for Moscow's alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as sanctions against Iran and the DPRK in response to their weapons programs.

Moscow had said earlier that they viewed the sanctions bill "negatively," warning that fresh restrictions would adversely affect both Russia and the U.S.

"The attitude to this will be formulated after careful analysis, and the decision will certainly be taken by the head of state, President Vladimir Putin," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying by TASS news agency.

Peskov said the decision of U.S. lawmakers was "very sad news" for Russia-U.S. relations, international law and international trade relations.

The bill would impose sweeping sanctions on Russia, targeting its defense, intelligence, mining, shipping, energy and railway industries, and restrict dealings with its banks.

Reportedly it punishes Russia for its alleged role in Ukraine's crisis and the U.S. presidential election, the claims that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko described the move as an "important decision" for Ukraine in a statement on Facebook.

In Iran, officials on Wednesday unanimously denounced Washington's fresh sanctions against Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting that Iran is used to these kinds of "hostilities" and will give a necessary response to the new sanctions, official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iranians well know that they should resist and stand against their enemies," he said. "Over the past 40 years, the Iranians have faced numerous pressures, sanctions and accusations by the U.S. politicians and their propaganda machine."

"The Americans cannot tolerate an independent and influential country in this sensitive region," he said.

Iran and six world powers, namely Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue in July 2015, which put Tehran on the path of sanctions relief but with stricter limits on its nuclear program.

MORE UNCERTAINTIES

"In principle, China always opposes unilateral sanctions outside the framework of the United Nations Security Council," said Lu Kang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson, in response to a question over the US sanction plan at Wednesday's regular press conference.

It is reckoned that the move will bring more uncertainties to the country's relations with the three countries.

"The House's 419-3 vote on the sanctions bill reflects changes in its evaluation of threats from the three countries," said Teng Jianqun, director of the Department for American Studies at the China Institute of International Studies.

"The bill, undoubtedly, will bring a negative impact and more uncertainties to America's relations with the three countries, as well as solutions to related regional issues," Teng added.

As the bill has gained bipartisan support in Congress, Trump would have to decide whether or not to sign the legislation that would limit his ability to ease Russian sanctions imposed by the Barack Obama administration last year.

Experts expect Trump to sign the bill, probably with reluctance.

"The White House will not like the bill, as it limits presidential authority," Steven Pifer, senior fellow at Brookings Institution, told Xinhua.

But Trump "may have no choice but to sign," Pifer said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 17:02:35|Editor: Mengjie

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NEW DELHI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The death toll in ongoing monsoons in India's western state of Gujarat has rose to 94, local officials said on Thursday.

As the flood water started to recede, at least 16 bodies were found from river Banas near Runi Kharia village in flood-hit Banaskantha district.

"Death toll in the rain-related incidents during the current monsoon in the state has gone up to 94," local minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama told a press briefing in Gandhingar, the capital of Gujarat.

According to Chudasama, rescue and relief operations in the affected areas were going on in full swing.

"Eighteen teams of National Disaster Response Force, 11 companies of State Disaster Response Force and three columns of Indian army are constantly engaged in rescue and relief works, apart from 10 Air force helicopters," he said.

The minister said over 53,000 people were shifted to the safer places, out of which 8,518 people have returned home following improvement in flood situation.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi conducted an aerial survey of the flooded areas of Gujarat on Tuesday and announced a flood relief assistance for his home state.

Apart from Gujarat, some districts of adjacent Rajasthan experienced heavy rains.

Monsoon flooding also hit India's northeastern Assam, affecting nearly 1.9 million people and killing at least 70.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 17:22:49|Editor: Mengjie

Japan's Democratic Party leader Renho attends a press conference at the parliament in Tokyo, Japan, July 27, 2017. Renho announced her decision to step down as the leader of the largest opposition party Thursday. (Xinhua/Ma Ping)



TOKYO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) leader Renho announced her decision to step down as the leader of the largest opposition party Thursday.

Renho, 49, said she had been contemplating what actions could be taken for the public to regain trust in the main opposition party again.

"After thinking about what we can do to make the public think of us as a Democratic Party they can trust ... (I realized) I have to reflect," Renho told a news conference.

The DPJ's dismal results in the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election earlier this month led to its secretary general Yoshihiko Noda announcing his resignation on Tuesday to take account for the party's poor showing.

The ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) also took a historic clobbering from Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike's newly-formed Tomin First no Kai (Tokyoites First party), who won the Tokyo metropolitan assembly election and possibly setting a new direction for national politics.

Despite a drastic fall in public support for Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his cabinet, the Democratic Party has failed to capitalize.

"We need to do something to strengthen our power," Renho was quoted as telling a gathering of DPJ lawmakers Tuesday.

"I ask for your cooperation so we can turn our party into an organization capable of winning," she said.

The resignations of Noda and Renho are aimed at shaking up and realigning the main opposition party's leadership lineup and breathe new life into a party that has never really threatened the ruling LDP in terms of leadership.

On Tuesday Renho said she will stand in a House of Representatives constituency in Tokyo in the next election, so as to put herself in a position to be a viable alternative to Abe as prime minister, as he continues to grapple with dwindling public support amid a multitude of scandals connected to him, his cabinet members and LDP lawmakers.

If she were to successfully switch from her current position in the upper house and win the backing of her constituency in the lower house election, and provided the DPJ along with its future allies can commandeer enough seats from the ruling LDP-led camp, Renho could theoretically become prime minister, political watchers have noted.

Japan's lower house of parliament is the larger and more powerful of the two chambers, and Japanese prime minister must be member of the lower house, as per political custom.

On Tuesday, Renho said other important positions in her party may also be changed and that the party was gearing up to rebrand itself as viable alternative to the scandal-plagued LDP.

"We have to strengthen the party leadership somehow. The next House of Representatives election could be less than a year away."

The next election for the lower house is scheduled to take place in December 2018 at the latest, although Abe, as prime minister, has the right to dissolve parliament and call a snap election at will.

Renho backtracked slightly from her Tuesday's remarks, saying that she will "think again (about running for the premiership)."

Renho, who goes by her first name, attended Tokyo's Aoyama Gakuin from kindergarten through to university, where she studied law.

In 1993, she became a newscaster, working for TBS and TV Asahi, and was known for her coverage of the Great Hanshin earthquake, which struck in January 1995.

After a hiatus to China to study the language, she returned to the spotlight in 2000, as a TV anchor for a number of TBS shows.

In July 2004, Renho was elected to the House of Councillors representing Tokyo as a DPJ member.

Renho became the party's first female leader when she won a leadership election in September last year.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 18:13:25|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CHONGQING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The BRICS countries should work together to ensure stable employment and better quality of life for their people, according to the 2017 BRICS labor and employment ministers meeting that ended Thursday.

According to Yin Weimin, minister of Human Resources and Social Security, progress in science and technology and changes in economic and demographic structure have brought new challenges to labor markets around the world, and the international community should find common ways of dealing with them.

China has made employment a priority and tried to improve the quality of employment through vocational training, Yin said.

The BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, should work together to boost employment and inclusive growth, enhancing the skills of professionals to alleviate poverty, he said.

Countries should cooperate on social security systems, cultural exchange in the labor market and mechanisms for future collaboration, he said.

During the two-day meeting in Chongqing, labor and employment ministers discussed topics including skills-driven development and a universally sustainable social security system.

A declaration was passed, while four documents were presented, including one on common ground in labor market governance and an action plan on skills-driven poverty alleviation.

The meeting comes ahead of the 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, from Sept.3 - Sept.5.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 18:28:42|Editor: Zhou Xin

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LUSAKA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Zambia's First Lady Esther Lungu on Wednesday called on the international community to increase investments in cancer prevention and control, saying delaying investments in the prevention of cancer will be too costly.

She said increasing investments in cancer prevention and control by both governments and the private sector should be treated as a matter of urgency.

The Zambian first lady said the fight against cancer was expected to be costly as the fight against HIV/AIDS.

The Zambian first lady was speaking at the 11th Stop Cervical, Breast and Prostate Cancer in Africa Conference in South Africa, according to a statement released by the Zambian embassy in that country.

According to her, cancer prevention and control was a moral imperative which required critical investment for the future of societies, adding that Zambia and other African countries was unable to afford another pandemic in the form of cancer as the country was still grappling with the fight against HIV/AIDS and other infectious diseases.

About 70 percent of the diagnosed cancer patients in Zambia die, making cancer-related mortality very high, she added.

There was need for concerted efforts by all stakeholders to ensure more programs were in place to ensure that cancer-related mortality was reduced, she said.

The Zambian first lady said the next 10 years would demand sustained and tireless efforts in ensuring that the objective of reducing cancer mortality rates by two thirds by the year 2030 was achieved.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 18:59:07|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NAIROBI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya will host a regional mining conference in November to explore huge investment opportunities in the sector, organizers said on Thursday.

The Nov. 13-14 conference to be hosted by the ministry of mining in collaboration with the Chamber of Mines will bring mining stakeholders and senior government officials from Eastern Africa.

"We want to establish and consolidate Kenya's position as a regional mining hub in order to use the sector as a key driver for socio-economic growth," said Elodie Delagneau, event director of Kenya Mining Forum that is returning to Nairobi after a hugely successful launch edition last year.

Kenya Mining Forum is the annual meeting place for East African mining stakeholders to share and present their policies in the region.

"Evolving the mining conference toward a regional exhibition will allow us to create a consistent platform for Kenya, Tanzania, Ethiopia and Uganda, existing solid trade partners," Delagneau said.

Kenya is the third largest producer of soda ash in the world and the seventh producer of fluorspar. Metallic minerals currently produced in the country include titanium, gold and iron ore. Export statistics for Kenya indicate a constantly growing sector.

The recent discoveries are estimated to be worth 62.4 billion U.S. dollars and Delagneau said this will propel Kenya to the list of top five countries with rare earth deposits in the world.

In addition, the country has the world's top six deposits for niobium. Commercial deposits of coal have been discovered in the north eastern region of the country and are currently under review for potential uses and production.

The coal deposits in Kitui in eastern Kenya are being billed as a source of cheaper energy to drive Vision 2030, the economic blueprint that aims to make Kenya an industrialized country in 20 years.

"It is a very opportune time to promote investment in the Kenyan mining sector," Delagneau said, noting that the Mining Act, approved in May 2016, has provided more transparency and credibility for investors.

Kenyan officials have highlighted the potential of the mining sector to contribute up to 10 percent of the GDP in 2030 compared to 1 percent in 2015.

"Furthermore, Kenya has been working with McKinsey on a 20-year mining plan that has already highlighted a potential of 62.4-billion dollars in mining revenues," she said.

"This is going towards the objective to contribute up to 10 percent of the GDP in 2030 against 1 percent in 2015," Delagneau added.

According to organizers, apart from a varied and practical program focused on issues and challenges ranging from finance, legislation, women in mining, the gemstone sector and mining companies and industry suppliers will be present at Kenya Mining Forum.

Currently, 67 percent of Kenya's power is generated from hydro sources, 10 percent from geothermal and 23 percent from thermal sources, which is price-sensitive to fluctuating international fuel prices.

The anticipated mining of coal would free some of the country's foreign exchange reserves for other purposes.

Kenya's government is recruiting McKinsey & Co. to design a 20-year mining plan that will guide development of the nascent industry. A key component of the plan to be designed by McKinsey will be an airborne geological survey.

The mining ministry has intensified efforts to acquire mineral and geological data. A countrywide aero magnetic survey project is expected to begin imminently.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:04:13|Editor: Zhou Xin

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SOFIA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian customs officers in the Black Sea port of Burgas have captured three tons of undeclared hookah tobacco, officials said here on Thursday.

The tobacco, split into 3,000 boxes of one kg each, was discovered on Wednesday after an X-ray examination of a container with furniture coming from Dubai, the National Customs Agency said in a press release.

Authorities estimated the value of the seized tobacco would exceed 640,000 U.S. dollars. In addition, an excise of 271,000 U.S. dollars should be paid. Authorities have confiscated the container.

Due to its location, Bulgaria is a major destination for traffickers, with more than 3.7 tons of drugs, 43.9 million illegal cigarettes and 51.7 tons of smuggled tobacco seized by in 2016.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:09:22|Editor: Zhou Xin

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GAZA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Opponents to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Fatah Party joined on Thursday a special session for the Hamas-led parliament, or the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), held in Gaza first time since 2007.

Mohamed Dahlan, a Fatah lawmaker and a strong opponent to Abbas, delivered a speech before Hamas and Fatah lawmakers, during a special session held at the PLC headquarters in Gaza City in support of Jerusalem.

Dahlan called for holding an emergency meeting in Cairo, Egypt, with the participation of all Palestinian factions and political powers to end more than ten years of internal split.

"This meeting will be not only for ending our division, but also for backing our people in Jerusalem," said Dahlan, stressing need to pressure Israel to stop its measures against Jerusalem.

Around 12 pro-Dahlan Fatah lawmakers attended the special PLC session.

It is the first time since the beginning of the internal Palestinian division that Hamas and Fatah lawmakers were seen sitting inside the parliament building close to each other listening to Dahlan's speech.

In 2006, Hamas won an overwhelming majority in the elections for the Palestinian National Authority parliament, and defeated Abbas Fatah Party.

However, the PLC remained inoperative since 2007, when Hamas had forcibly seized control of the Gaza Strip and routed Abbas security forces.

"We are holding our session today for Jerusalem, the capital of our independent Palestinian state, and to work together on how to support and back our people in the city who are defending Al-Aqsa Mosque," said Dahlan.

Last month, Dahlan met with a senior Hamas delegation in Cairo, chaired by Gaza Hamas strongman Yehia Sinwar, and both agreed on a series of understanding aiming at easing hard living situation in the Gaza Strip.

"There had been efforts, which were exerted with Hamas leadership throughout direct dialogue, and we reached common understandings that would bring hope to our people in Gaza," he said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:09:23|Editor: Mengjie

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the opening session of a workshop in Beijing, capital of China. A workshop for provincial and ministerial officials was held from Wednesday to Thursday in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the CPC. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The past five years since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have been "extraordinary" during the development process of the CPC and the country, President Xi Jinping said at a high-level CPC workshop ahead of its 19th National Congress.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at the workshop attended by provincial and ministerial officials on Wednesday and Thursday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:19:35|Editor: Mengjie

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Meng Jianzhu, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev, hold the fourth meeting on institutional cooperation in law enforcement and security between China and Russia in Beijing, capital of China, July 27, 2017. (Xinhua/Zhang Ling)

BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China and Russia held their fourth meeting on institutional cooperation in law enforcement and security in Beijing on Thursday.

The meeting was co-chaired by Meng Jianzhu, member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Commission for Political and Legal Affairs of the CPC Central Committee, and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

"China-Russia ties have a steady and healthy development guided by the two countries' leaders," Meng said, pointing that the two sides should implement the consensus reached by the two leaders, strengthen cooperation in law enforcement and security, and make efforts to work through security challenges.

"Russia is ready to work closely with China to safeguard the two countries' security interest," Patrushev said.

China's Public Security minister Guo Shengkun also attended the meeting.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:24:38|Editor: Mengjie

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VIENTIANE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese Embassy in Laos has held a reception here dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

Chinese military attache to Laos, Senior Colonel Chen Yongjing introduced the history of PLA and its recent development when addressing the reception on Wednesday evening.

Chen said Chinese armed forces stick to the military strategy of active defense, and adhere to the principle featuring defensive operations, self-defense, and gaining advantage by striking only after the enemy has struck.

"Meanwhile, we know that China's security and development is closely linked with the peace and prosperity of the world. The Chinese armed forces are a strong pillar supporting regional security and stability, an important driving force for world peace and development," said the Chinese military officer.

According to Chen, the cooperation in constructing the Integrated Outpatient Building of 103 Hospital and the ASEAN Light Weapons Shooting Range is progressing smoothly, contributing to the friendly cooperation between the two militaries.

The reception was attended by more than 300 guests, representatives of Lao party, government and army, military attaches from foreign embassies in Laos and overseas Chinese.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:39:51|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has reappointed a newspaper columnist and media executive Jose Manuel Romualdez as Philippine ambassador to the United States, presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said on Thursday.

"We are confident that the re-appoinment of Romualdez will usher in better Philippine-U.S. relations and promote stronger cooperation between the two countries," Abella said in a statement.

Duterte named Romualdez as envoy to the U.S. in December last year. But Romualdez declined the appointment due to health reasons.

Robespierre Bolivar, the acting spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), said the DFA will begin briefing "ambassador-designate Romualdez at the earliest opportunity."

Like all other nominees, Bolivar said Romualdez will have to go through the process in order to perform his duties as ambassador.

"Malacanang (presidential palace) would have to convey in writing his nomination to the Commission on Appointments (CA). After this is received by the CA there is a required publication period (the nomination will be published on the CA's website) and the nominee will have to submit documents to the CA. Only then will the schedule for his confirmation hearings be announced," Bolivar explained.

U.S. Ambassador to the Philippines Sung Kim congratulated Romualdez on his nomination. "Warm congratulations to my good friend," Kim said.

Romualdez writes a column in the Philippine Star.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:44:57|Editor: Zhou Xin

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JAKARTA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Indonesian government has taken steps to accelerate the growth of export and investment amid rising oil prices and a better prospect of business in the country.

President Joko Widodo on Thursday ordered authorities at the provincial level to simplify procedure for issuing licenses, which was linked with both exportation plan and investment plan by private sector.

"The matters linked with export and investment must be seriously dealt," Widodo said.

The president asked officials to shorten the period required for issuing the license from several months into hours.

"Please improve the licensing procedure totally, and the speed is important. In Jakarta, it has been created a system which can issue a license in three hours, so in provinces it should be faster than that. This all aims to spur economic growth," said Widodo.

Export, investment and consumption are the major contributors to the GDP growth in Indonesia.

Widodo said the government could not only rely on the country's development budget to finance development, but also needs to include participation of private investment.

Indonesia has attempted to boost exports of manufactured products by increasing their competitiveness in the global market.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 19:45:00|Editor: Zhou Xin

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MANILA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Philippine Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said Thursday that government forces will be focusing on the fight against the leftist New People's Army (NPA) once the dragging armed conflict in Marawi City is over.

Lorenzana admitted that the operations against leftist rebels had been affected by the Marawi crisis, noting that troops had been pulled out to help flush out Maute Group in the city, whose members are extremists pledging allegiance to Islamic State (IS).

"It's just a consequence we were somehow (set back). We removed some of the battalions from the NPA areas and brought them to Marawi ... We lost focus and we are going to bring them back once Marawi is finished," he said.

The Duterte administration has ordered the termination of the peace talks with the leftist rebels last week, following series of attacks from NPA, including the ambush on Presidential Security Group personnel in Arakan, North Cotabato that wounded five men.

Lorenzana did not say the exact number of soldiers who were pulled out from NPA areas to fight the Maute Group in Marawi City. Sources said about 5,000 soldiers are currently assigned to liberate the city.

Lorenzana said finishing the problem in Marawi City will allow the military to focus on the fight against other threat groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.

Lorenzana has said he is seeing the end of the crisis, which broke out on May 23, in a month or so. The fighting has so far resulted in the death of 460 Maute members, 111 soldiers and policemen and 45 civilians.

Capt. Jo-ann Petinglay, spokesperson of the Philippine military's Western Mindanao Command and Joint Task Force, said finishing the job within the projection of the defense chief is possible.

"It's continuing. We are clearing structures every day. It's just taking time because of the challenges on the ground," said Petinglay.

She said there are about 50 to 60 enemies holed up in the small portion of the city, including their leaders -- Maute leaders Omar and Abdullah Maute, senior Abu Sayyaf leader and IS emir in Southeast Asia Isnilon Hapilon.

"Based on our information, the leaders that we are after are still in the area as of this time," said Petinglay.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:05:19|Editor: Zhou Xin

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KABUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Up to 149 insurgents including nine commanders have been killed and 116 others injured during the security forces operations over the past 24 hours, the Afghan Defense Ministry said on Thursday.

"The Afghan security forces launched several military operations across the country, killing at least 149 insurgents including nine Taliban's commanders, three al-Qaida members and eight Islamic States (IS) fighters over the past 24 hours," the ministry said, adding that 116 more armed militants were injured.

The operations were conducted in parts of Nangarhar, Kunar, Nuristan, Kapisa, Wordak, Paktia, Paktika, Urozgan, Herat, Ghor, Kunduz, Faryab, Baghlan, Badakhshan and Helmand provinces, the ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, the Afghan forces carried out 17 clean-up operations, 25 special operations and two night operations in 11 provinces within past 24 hours.

However, the ministry did not mention the possible casualties inflicted on security forces.

Taliban militants who have been fighting the government have yet to make comment.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:25:38|Editor: Zhou Xin

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DAR ES SALAAM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The government of Tanzania said on Thursday it has started looking for investors to develop industries which it has repossessed from investors who abandoned them after privatization.

Charles Mwijage, the east African nation's Minister for Industries, Trade and Investment, said the government has started a process to invite serious investors, partners and markets from these countries.

"The government sold these industries to private investors with a view to developing them. But most of the industries have been abandoned," said Mwijage.

"We are going to repossess the dormant industries and hand them to serious investors from countries such as China, Vietnam and India. They can't remain idle while the government is pushing for the industrialization drive," added Mwijage.

President John Magufuli reiterated on Thursday the government's resolve to repossess privatized industries that have not been developed.

Speaking on his way from a week-long tour of Lake Zone and central regions to the commercial capital Dar es Salaam, Magufuli said all abandoned industries should be repossessed and given to serious investors.

"All abandoned industries should be repossessed even if they belonged to members of the ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi," said the President to a tumultuous applause from his audience.

President Magufuli said on his stopover in Morogoro region, 200 kilometers from Dar es Salaam, the repossessed industries will help in achieving his government's industrial economy agenda.

Elli Pallangyo, Investment and Research Director in the Ministry of Industries, Trade and Investment, said the abandoned industries will be repossessed by August 15, this year.

Pallangyo said out of 156 industries which were privatized between 1992 and 2004, a total of 54 industries remained dormant after they were privatized.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:35:47|Editor: Mengjie

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BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- China started tests Thursday to restore the maximum speed of the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed bullet train to 350 kilometers per hour, six years after it was reduced to 300.

Departing Beijing South Railway Station at 8:38 a.m., a Fuxing bullet train completed the round-trip from Beijing to Xuzhou in east China's Jiangsu Province, about 700 kilometers away, in about four hours.

The speed hike will cut the Beijing-Shanghai journey to about 4.5 hours, about half an hour faster than the current minimum.

The test will pave way for a new schedule on the Beijing-Shanghai railway starting mid-September.

Connecting the Chinese capital with its major financial and trade hub, the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway is one of the busiest in the country, carrying over 100 million passengers a year.

The test on Thursday showed that energy consumption on the Fuxing decreased to 10 percent less than on the Hexie train (CRH380) when running at a speed of 350 kilometers per hour.

"The Beijing-Shanghai high speed railway is built to the highest standard in the world, while the Fuxing is designed and manufactured with an operating speed of 350 kilometers per hour. It is out of question for Fuxing to run on the Beijing-Shanghai line at such a speed from the point of view of technical safety, reliability and comfort," said Lu Dongfu, general manager of China Railway Corporation.

China started to run its first 350-kmh high speed train between Beijing and Tianjin in Aug. 2008 and opened at least three more such high speed lines nationwide in the following years, until the authorities ordered speeds to be cut to between 250-300kmh in 2011.

China's Fuxing bullet trains were unveiled in June and are capable of top speeds of 400 kmh.

"The Fuxing was designed and manufactured in China, led by the China Railway Corporation. We hold the complete intellectual property rights of the new bullet trains -- electric multiple units (EMU) -- which have reached the world's advanced level," said He Huawu of the China Academy of Engineering.

The new EMU has completed 600,000 kilometers of running assessment and increased the design life to 30 years from 20, according to He.

The Fuxing has a monitoring system that slows the train in case of emergency or abnormal conditions. Telemetry allows a control center to monitor the train in real time.

The Fuxing, meaning rejuvenation, is a substantial upgrade on the Hexie, which means harmony. The Fuxing is more spacious and energy-efficient, with a longer life expectancy and better reliability.

There will be a process for China to consider whether to speed up its whole high-speed network, though such a move may pose a challenge to railway management, He said, adding that the financial and social benefits must be considered.

Take the Fuxing as an example, energy consumption would increase 20-30 percent if the train improved its speed from 300kmh to 350, according to Du Yanliang of the China Academy of Engineering.

However, the speed hike will improve social benefits, as it will help ease ticket shortages on the busy Beijing-Shanghai line and save time for passengers.

China will open seven Fuxing trains in either direction of the Beijing-Shanghai line in its initial stage. The ticket price will not change.

The authorities will gradually increase the number of the new bullet train and adjust ticket prices in future, He said.

China has the world's longest high-speed rail network, 22,000 kilometers at the end of last year, or about 60 percent of the world's total.

About one-third of China's high-speed railways were designed to run at a speed of 350 kmh, according to He.

Several countries, including Indonesia, Russia and India, have bought Chinese bullet trains.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:35:49|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Brigitte Zypries (SPD), the German Minister for Economics and Energy, has warned against a potential trade war between EU and the United States on Thursday.

Speaking on German news channel ARD in response to Washington's announcement of new sanctions against Russia, she said that such an outcome "would be very bad."

Zypries voiced hope that the sanctions had not been imposed to harm Europe, but said that "the end result is still that our companies could suffer."

The EU is already discussing retaliatory measures, something which Zypries said was possible and sanctioned by the World Trade Organization.

She also vaguely alluded to "other sanctions" which the EU could adopt.

The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a legislative draft which would lead to stricter economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The law still has to pass the Senate and be signed by President Donald Trump in order to be enacted.

The Russian oil and gas industry would be particularly hard hit by the measures, leading German business representatives to warn that economic cooperation on energy supply between Moscow and Berlin could be jeopardized.

Volker Treier, the head of international trade at the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, DIHK) warned that a resulting freeze of pipeline projects "would heavily affect the German economy as well."

He called on the European Commission to demand a clarification from Washington and prevent that new U.S. sanctions against Russia applied to firms in different countries.

"The impression remains that the U.S. side is prioritizing its own economic interests," Treier added with view to the U.S. oil and gas industry. The sanctions were not coordinated with the European Union.

On Thursday, Gernot Erler, German government's official Coordinator for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia, echoed such concerns.

"The rejection of the Nord Stream II project is literally included in the legislative draft, but actually every European-Russian cooperation on energy supply could be sanctioned, including the maintenance of pipelines which EU energy supply relies on," Erler told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Nord Stream II is a pipeline project between Russia and Germany under the Baltic See which is planned to deliver natural gas to Europe from 2019 onwards.

Erler criticized that the U.S. government was prioritizing the export of its own energy in order to create jobs in the United States and strengthen its foreign policy.

"This type of "America First" element does not belong in a sanctions regime which places value on the common ground shared by allies," he said.

In contrast to the negative reactions expressed by Germany at the prospect of new anti-Russian sanctions, the former leader of the Green party Reinhard Buetikofer told the newspaper Bild that Nord Stream II was "not economically sensible."

Following Buetikofer, the newspaper contradicted the core objectives of European energy policy and "increased reliance on Russia for gas while harming the interests of our Eastern neighbors, above all Poland."

His statement was met with support from Claudia Kemfert, the head of the Energy division of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

"Nord Stream II is not necessary for German energy supply," she told Bild.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:40:52|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Individuals suspected of plotting terrorist attacks in Germany can be forcibly deported in a "fast track" process, a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe found on Thursday.

A corresponding provision in German residence law did not contradict the country's constitution, a statement published by the court read. The Federal Constitutional Court is the highest judicial authority in Germany.

The ruling enables interior ministries across the country's 16 states to deport non-German citizens more rapidly if they are seen to constitute a "special threat to the security of the German Federal Republic or a terrorist threat."

The judges have thus confirmed the constitutionality of legislation first introduced by German lawmakers following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001 in the United States.

The measures were only fully enforced after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin on Dec. 19, 2016, killing 12.

During related police raids in Goettingen, Lower Saxony, an Algerian and Nigerian extremist were taken into custody and subsequently deported to their home countries because they were allegedly planning terrorist attacks.

Although the plans were not concrete enough to instigate formal criminal proceedings, the Federal Administrative Court confirmed the deportations.

The Federal Constitutional Court has now assessed the law's constitutionality for the first time on the occasion of a separate incident in the city-state of Bremen.

The case at hand concerned an Algerian citizen who first travelled to Germany in 2003. Authorities in Bremen classified the man as a terror suspect in 2017 and ordered his deportation to Algeria. The appeal to the Federal Constitutional Court which was launched in response by the individual was unsuccessful.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:46:04|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WELLINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A new strategy and action plan was launched on Thursday to better equip New Zealanders, especially children and young people, with the knowledge, skills and motivation to tackle environmental issues, said New Zealand Environment Minister Nick Smith.

Environment Education for Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan sets out how government agencies will work together over the next 10 years to better support the delivery of environmental education.

The new strategy puts more focus on hands-on environmental education and links to the science curriculum.

It also provides a more inclusive approach, and will drive better co-ordination between the Ministry for the Environment, Department of Conservation, the Ministry of Education and schools, Smith said.

The government provides funding of 1.9 million NZ dollars (1.4 million U.S. dollars) per year for delivery of the Enviroschools, which covers more than 1,000 schools and early childhood centers, he added.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:51:09|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Deutsche Bank AG, Europe's largest investment bank, released disappointing figures for its revenue in the second quarter of 2017 on Thursday.

The Frankfurt-based financial institution recorded a 10 percent decline of revenues down to 6.62 billion euros (7.74 billion U.S. dollars) in Q2, the weakest quarter in three-and-a-half years.

An analyst consensus compiled by the bank had forecast substantially higher revenues of 7.15 billion euros.

"Revenues were not as universally strong as we would have liked it, in large measure because of muted client activity in many capital markets. As we modernize our bank we are turning our focus onto building profitable growth," a statement by CEO John Cryan read.

Investment banking was a particular weak spot, where earnings of the reorganized unit fell by 16 percent as trading and transaction banking income shrunk. Deutsche Bank warned that revenues of its operating businesses would decline this year.

The news prompted Deutsche Bank's shares to fall by 3.7 percent to 15.98 euros, the steepest fall in over four months.

Back in March, Cryan had expressed his desire to achieve "modest growth" by focusing more on corporate clients and the bank's German roots. Deutsche Bank has announced three turnaround plans in as many years.

The financial institution had recorded its weakest yearly revenue in 2016 for six years, forcing it to raise an additional 8 billion euros to calm fears that it would be unable to pay misconduct fines.

Despite lasting weak revenue development in Q2 2017, however, Deutsche Bank more than doubled pre-tax profits in the same period.

Pre-tax profits rose to 822 million euros compared to 408 million euros last year, well ahead of analysts' expectations of 199 million euros. A substantial year on year fall in costs to 5.717 billion euros (15 percent) allowed the bank to surpass profit forecasts.

"Despite the significant improvement, this level of profitability falls short of our longer-term aspirations," Cryan said. Deutsche Bank is mid-way into a five-year corporate restructuring plan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 20:51:11|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ADDIS ABABA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The UN Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) says it will continue to play its role to promote the economic and social development of its member states.

To this end, the UNECA says, efforts will be made through training and different programs that equip member states with knowledge and capacity to transform their economies by addressing their development challenges.

This came at the conclusion of a course on energy demand and supply training for east African energy experts, which has been hosted by UNECA in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, according to a statement from the Commission on Thursday.

The training aims to strengthen the sub-region's technical capacity in energy demand, supply planning and management, and allow the experts to respond to current energy planning gaps; integrate energy sector planning tools in sector planning.

With the attendance of 14 experts from different countries in the sub-region, the course, which also included discussions on energy balance statistics development, allows them to acquire knowledge on undertaking energy demand and supply analyses and balance management.

In his closing remarks, UNECA Special Adviser, Joe Atta-Mensah, said that UNECA would continue to play its role to promote the economic and social development of its member states through such training and other programs.

"The ECA had received numerous capacity development requests from member states in Eastern Africa and this vital training is being held in response to help strengthen the institutional energy sector planning capacity in the region," said Atta-Mensah.

Speaking at the end of the course, Ron Kamwendo of the African Institute for Economic Development and Planning (IDEP), has hailed the course crucial as it bridges energy planning capacity gaps.

Ismael Antonio Concha Perdomo of the International Atomic Energy Agency, whose organization co-hosted the training with the UNECA, said energy was crucial to development hence it was important for experts to be trained from time to time so they can be up to date with energy trends the world over and related issues.

ECA's East Africa office (ECA SRO-EA) partnered with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the Capacity Development Division (CDD) and IDEP in the training undertaken in two phases; energy demand and supply planning and management tools and financial analysis of generation expansion.

Specifically, organizers aimed to have the experts acquire energy planning knowledge on the Model for the Analysis of Energy Demand (MAED) and acquire energy planning knowledge on Model of Energy Supply Strategy Alternatives and their General Environmental Impacts.

They also wanted participants to gain knowledge on the relevance of building energy balance statistics and learn from country processes and experiences in building one.
Supporters of Kenya's ruling Jubilee party celebrate over the lowering of price of maize floor by the government in the streets of Nairobi, Kenya, on May 18, 2017. Maize is a stable food in Kenya which has been lacking due to the drought that has affected the East and Central African region for the last two years. The government has been importing maize to meet the shortfall. (Xinhua/Allan Mutiso)

by Bedah Mengo

NAIROBI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Maize, the staple consumed by millions of Kenyans, is steadily losing its appeal among the young as a farming crop.

Young farmers in the East African nation are totally shunning the crop as challenges of growing it and selling the grain increase year-in, year-out.

Instead, the young farmers including those in breadbasket areas of Western and Rift Valley are embracing high-value crops like tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, capsicum lettuce and those for exports that include French beans and sugar snap peas.

The staple is now being farmed mainly by old farmers, many who have sentimental attachment to the crop handed over to them by their forefathers.

The latest challenge to the growing of maize this season is Fall Armyworms, which farmers are currently battling with mixed success raising their production costs two-fold.

The pest follows the maize necrosis crisis, which farmers battled for close to two years as the fungal disease ravaged acres upon acres of the crop.

Scientists had managed to come up with seeds that are resistant to the disease, which a good number of farmers are currently growing.

Then there is the problem of erratic rains, which have consistently disappointed farmers for the last three years leading to heavy losses.

Besides the three, market for the commodity has become a great challenge for farmers due to poor prices, mainly as a result of increased imports from neighbouring countries.

Kenya is set to import up to 5 million bags of maize by the end of August to increase supply, according to the Ministry of Agriculture, a move that will see the flooding of the market, leading to low prices by September when farmers start harvesting.

The myriad of challenges have become a turnoff for many young farmers seeking to live off farming or who are doing it alongside their daily jobs.

"I planted maize on three acres for two seasons and gave up because it was a frustrating experience. The first time I had a good harvest, but prices were very poor including those offered by the government that I hardly made any income yet I had spent over 1,000 U.S. dollars," Godfrey Isanya, 29, who farms in Trans Nzoia County, said Tuesday.

The second season saw Isanya's maize affected by the lethal necrosis diseases making him harvest less than half of what he had planted.

"I could not take it anymore because most of what was affecting my crop was beyond my control, from weather to diseases and market. I decided to switch to vegetables, growing cabbages and tomatoes and occasionally beans," he said.

Isanya currently has close to 2,000 cabbage plants which he has grown on an acre under irrigation, and on another part of the farm he grows tomatoes.

"I no longer depend on rain since I pump my water from a nearby river, store it in a tank and irrigate my farm using the drip system. This way I do not have any worries that my crops will dry due to failure of the rains," he said, noting he sells a head of cabbage for between 0.40 dollars and 0.50 dollars depending on market forces and size.

When he was growing maize, Isanya would harvest some 50 bags from the three acres and sell each at an average of 25 dollars.

"If I do the maths right now, I am ashamed of myself since I was operating on a loss yet I called myself an agriprenuer. Currently I am not even using half of the farm yet I am making more money. "

File photo shows a vendor roasts maize or corn the African style, as he waits for customers at Imara Daima in Nairobi, capital of Kenya, July 16, 2012. Maize is one of the most popular and readily-available snacks in many streets in the capital as it is not only cheap but also delicious and easy to eat. Most roasters grill the corn the African style. (Xinhua/Daniel Namale)

Interestingly, his 58-year-old father still grows the crop and has refused to embrace any other despite seeing his son's change of fortunes.

Vincent Kariuki, who grows tomatoes and capsicums on an acre with his two friends in Juja on the outskirts of Nairobi, says young people are going for high-value crops because they mature faster and are high paying.

"As a young person, I know that if I want to make money in farming, then I should not grow a crop that government has influence over it like maize. We have never heard that we have tomato shortage then the government imports tonnes of the produce to boost supply," he said.

Kariuki, a banker, noted that many young farmers are impatient with crops like maize which take seven months to mature, what has also led them to high-value crops.

"For maize, you only harvest once a year but if I grow tomatoes or capsicum, that period would cover two seasons yet the cereal offers little. It is one of the reasons young farmers would not touch maize."

Bernard Moina, an agricultural extension officer in Kitale, Kenya's breadbasket acknowledged that the number of young people farming maize in the region is negligible.

"I can confidently say that maize has remained an old peoples' crop. Most of those growing the crop are aged from 45 and beyond. The young moved on, which is a good thing because maize farming has become a thankless job."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 21:11:25|Editor: Zhou Xin

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by Keren Setton

JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Shooting live ammunition, neutralizing "attackers," training with former military commandos ... Israel's anti-terrorism camps give tourists a taste of Israeli army life with quick counter-terrorism workshops.

Despite that the majority of tourists in Israel are usually attracted to its religious sites and vast history, anti-terrorism camps are sprouting around the country as a new trend in tourism.

The drive to Caliber 3, an Israeli counter-terror and security academy, crosses through the controversial settlement bloc of Gush Etzion in the West Bank.

Initially, it was an institution for training of security professionals, both Israelis and foreigners.

Its founder, Sharon Gat, a former Israeli military officer, saw the potential in tourism and opened a few years ago the academy's gates to tourists who want a different experience.

Around 500,000 tourists have already participated in a range of programs that let them shoot live ammunition and rub shoulder to shoulder with former military commandos, said Gat.

On a hot summer afternoon, a dozen of tourists gathered in an air-conditioned briefing room upon commands from a uniform clad and armed guide, also their instructor.

He asked the group questions about their perceptions on terrorism. It was a quick conversation.

The chill in the room was soon replaced with scorching heat at a shooting range. The tourists, most from the United States and one from Finland, were soon bending down to do push-ups as their instructor barked orders at them.

Live fire is heard at almost all times.

The group appeared fascinated by the explanations they got. In one scene, a guide on the site showed them how he and his companion, an attack dog, are completely synchronized, with the dog taking quiet signals and acting accordingly.

They also recreated a scene of a shooting attack at a crowded market. As they pretend to walk around, live fire suddenly interrupted the calm and they all ducked for shelter as the attackers, more accurately posters of them, were being neutralized by their guides.

Miika Vahakangas, a Finnish tourist, was satisfied with the experience.

"I've never done this type of thing, it's just pure interesting thing to do," he said. "I thought I knew much more about this kind of activity but actually I know really, really little bit and it's really amazing."

But for some, the taste of Israeli life may actually serve as a deterrent.

Israel's incoming tourism is lagging, with over 3 million visitors annually. While a country packed with history and holy sites to three religions has the potential of attracting many more tourists, bringing its difficult reality to the forefront may be counter-productive.

One of Israel's main challenges in attracting more tourists is its security situation and international image. The country frequently fluctuates from periods of calm to periods of tension and upheaval.

In its tourism campaigns abroad, Israel tries to distance itself from its militant image. Therefore some believes that anti-terror fantasy camps are an ironic twist.

Meanwhile, Han Sand, owner of Travel Composer, a boutique travel company based in Tel Aviv, sees a definite increase in tourists looking for such attractions.

"Tourists nowadays are savvier," said Sand. "They want to see something different. They want to really understand the army. I want to give them the whole picture and let them make their own decisions."

In addition to offering tourists military experiences, Sand also has tours to the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, tours to Israel's northern border with Syria and its southern border with Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Gat had a specific purpose in mind when opening his gates to tourists.

"The main purpose of this activity from our side is that we want people to become better ambassadors for the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and Israel," he said.

But Gat and his colleagues may be preaching to the choir.

Gat admitted that the overwhelming majority of his visitors are Jewish and thus most likely predisposed to supporting Israel. He said many come to "fill their hearts with Jewish pride."

Israel is often in the headlines for disputed government policies, particularly towards the Palestinians.

"I think it's really something that if you are interested in the IDF and military, you should come here and see it," said Giovanna Zavell, a Jewish student from the United States who was part of the group.

It is an inescapable fact that terrorism has become more prevalent globally. Places like Caliber 3 do not only offer a two-hour thrill, but make people face scenarios that they may have to face in real life.

"It can happen anywhere and it can be anybody, from a stranger on a street to maybe your neighbor. I mean -- who knows?" said Zavell. "They really teach you how to hold yourself and how to stay somewhat calm in those situations."
Tourists take part in a counter-terror experience program in Israeli Counter Terror & Security Academy in Gush Etzion in the West Bank, on July 20, 2017. Israeli counter-terror experience has becoming an attraction to foreign tourists from the U.S., Japan, India and other parts of the world. (Xinhua photo/Guo Yu)

JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Shooting live ammunition, neutralizing "attackers," training with former military commandos ... Israel's anti-terrorism camps give tourists a taste of Israeli army life with quick counter-terrorism workshops.

Despite that the majority of tourists in Israel are usually attracted to its religious sites and vast history, anti-terrorism camps are sprouting around the country as a new trend in tourism.

The drive to Caliber 3, an Israeli counter-terror and security academy, crosses through the controversial settlement bloc of Gush Etzion in the West Bank.

Initially, it was an institution for training of security professionals, both Israelis and foreigners.

Its founder, Sharon Gat, a former Israeli military officer, saw the potential in tourism and opened a few years ago the academy's gates to tourists who want a different experience.

Around 500,000 tourists have already participated in a range of programs that let them shoot live ammunition and rub shoulder to shoulder with former military commandos, said Gat.

On a hot summer afternoon, a dozen of tourists gathered in an air-conditioned briefing room upon commands from a uniform clad and armed guide, also their instructor.

He asked the group questions about their perceptions on terrorism. It was a quick conversation.

The chill in the room was soon replaced with scorching heat at a shooting range. The tourists, most from the United States and one from Finland, were soon bending down to do push-ups as their instructor barked orders at them.

Live fire is heard at almost all times.

The group appeared fascinated by the explanations they got. In one scene, a guide on the site showed them how he and his companion, an attack dog, are completely synchronized, with the dog taking quiet signals and acting accordingly.

They also recreated a scene of a shooting attack at a crowded market. As they pretend to walk around, live fire suddenly interrupted the calm and they all ducked for shelter as the attackers, more accurately posters of them, were being neutralized by their guides.

Miika Vahakangas, a Finnish tourist, was satisfied with the experience.

"I've never done this type of thing, it's just pure interesting thing to do," he said. "I thought I knew much more about this kind of activity but actually I know really, really little bit and it's really amazing."

But for some, the taste of Israeli life may actually serve as a deterrent.

Israel's incoming tourism is lagging, with over 3 million visitors annually. While a country packed with history and holy sites to three religions has the potential of attracting many more tourists, bringing its difficult reality to the forefront may be counter-productive.

One of Israel's main challenges in attracting more tourists is its security situation and international image. The country frequently fluctuates from periods of calm to periods of tension and upheaval.

In its tourism campaigns abroad, Israel tries to distance itself from its militant image. Therefore some believes that anti-terror fantasy camps are an ironic twist.

Meanwhile, Han Sand, owner of Travel Composer, a boutique travel company based in Tel Aviv, sees a definite increase in tourists looking for such attractions.

"Tourists nowadays are savvier," said Sand. "They want to see something different. They want to really understand the army. I want to give them the whole picture and let them make their own decisions."

In addition to offering tourists military experiences, Sand also has tours to the Palestinian territories in the West Bank, tours to Israel's northern border with Syria and its southern border with Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip.

Gat had a specific purpose in mind when opening his gates to tourists.

"The main purpose of this activity from our side is that we want people to become better ambassadors for the IDF (Israeli Defense Forces) and Israel," he said.

But Gat and his colleagues may be preaching to the choir.

Gat admitted that the overwhelming majority of his visitors are Jewish and thus most likely predisposed to supporting Israel. He said many come to "fill their hearts with Jewish pride."

Israel is often in the headlines for disputed government policies, particularly towards the Palestinians.

"I think it's really something that if you are interested in the IDF and military, you should come here and see it," said Giovanna Zavell, a Jewish student from the United States who was part of the group.

It is an inescapable fact that terrorism has become more prevalent globally. Places like Caliber 3 do not only offer a two-hour thrill, but make people face scenarios that they may have to face in real life.

"It can happen anywhere and it can be anybody, from a stranger on a street to maybe your neighbor. I mean -- who knows?" said Zavell. "They really teach you how to hold yourself and how to stay somewhat calm in those situations."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 21:36:48|Editor: Zhou Xin

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CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- One militant was killed on Thursday in an Egyptian military raid in North Sinai province bordering Israel and the Palestinian Gaza Strip, the Egyptian military spokesman said in a statement.

"The raid killed an extremist and detected and destroyed five hiding places of extremist elements, 23 motorbikes, 14 explosive devices prepared to target patrolling forces," Military Spokesman Tamer al-Refaay said in the statement.

Refaay noted that the raid, which took place in cooperation with the air forces and the police, marks the tenth day of a massive security campaign that killed at least 40 militants since its beginning in North Sinai.

The raid also seized an amount of weapons, ammunition and some computers and documents related to the extremists, he added.

Egypt has been suffering growing terror activities following the military removal of former Islamist president Mohamed Morsi in July 2013 in response to mass protests against his one-year rule and his now-outlawed Muslim Brotherhood group.

Most of the anti-government terrorist operations were claimed by a Sinai-based group loyal to the regional Islamic State (IS) militant group.

The attacks had been centered in restive North Sinai before they prevailed nationwide, killing hundreds of policemen and soldiers over the past few years.

Meanwhile, the Egyptian military in cooperation with the police killed hundreds of militants and arrested a similar number of suspects as part of the country's anti-terror war declared in 2013 by President Abdel-Fattah al-Sisi, the army chief then, following Morsi's removal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 21:51:54|Editor: Zhou Xin

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WASHINGTON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday that transgender people would be banned from serving in the military, immediately sparking outrage among U.S. congressmen, the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) community and celebrities.

In a series of morning tweets, Trump abruptly announced that transgender people would not be allowed to "serve in any capacity in the U.S. military."

The reason behind the decision, as mentioned in the tweets, is to avoid "the tremendous medical costs and disruption" and focus on "decisive and overwhelming victory."

This marks a wild shift in his stances on the LGBT community. During his campaign last year, he vowed to do everything in his power "to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in a press briefing Wednesday that Trump consulted with his national security team and believed the current policy "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

"The president has a lot of support for all Americans and certainly wants to protect all Americans at all times," Sanders said.

Jeff Davis, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Defense, replied with "call the White House" to all related questions.

Trump's announcement has led to widespread criticism from the two parties' congressmen, as well as social activists and celebrities.

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic leader of the U.S. House of Representatives, tweeted that Trump "has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by prejudice."

Adam Smith, top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, challenged the saying that the U.S. military needed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars for transgender surgeries and hormone therapies in 10 years, and said the figures "have no basis in fact" as was reported by the U.S. newspaper the New York Times.

Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, who served in the Iraq War and lost both of her legs, recalled her own experience.

"When my Black Hawk helicopter was shot down, I didn't care about the gender identity of the soldiers who were risking their lives to save me. I only cared that they were American troops," Duckworth said on Twitter.

Republican Senator John McCain, a Vietnam War veteran, said in a statement that "any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving."

"The president's tweet this morning ... is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter," he said.

The world's LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD released a statement to express outrage over the ban. The ban "means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of GLAAD.

Some celebrities also joined politicians and the LGBT community in speaking out against Trump's decision.

Retired Olympic gold-medal winner Caitlyn Jenner has had gender reassignment surgery. "There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the U.S. military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?" Jenner asked in a tweet retweeting Trump's tweet.

An estimated over 134,000 American veterans are transgender, and over 15,000 transgender people are serving in the military now, according to data revealed by the National Center for Transgender Equality, a U.S. social justice advocacy organization founded by transgender activists.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 21:56:57|Editor: Zhou Xin

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ISTANBUL, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Turkish police on Thursday detained at least 26 people, including 17 foreign nationals, over their suspected links to the Islamic State (IS), local media reported.

Backed by special forces, the counterterrorism units of the police carried out simultaneous operations at 14 addresses in nine districts of Istanbul, seizing documents and digital materials linked to the jihadist group, state-run Anadolu Agency said.

According to the agency, some of the suspects had previously fought with the IS in Syria.

Turkey has deported some 5,000 suspected terrorists and banned 53,000 others from entering the country in its counterterrorism efforts, state officials were quoted as saying.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:02:10|Editor: Zhou Xin

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NAIROBI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Kenya has allocated 74 million U.S. dollars on the old age cash transfer program for the 2017/2018 financial year, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Cabinet Secretary in the Ministry of East African Community, Labour and Social Protection Phyllis Kandie told a media briefing in Nairobi that the Older Person's Cash Transfer Programme (OPCT) currently supports 310,000 beneficiary households.

"The aim of the program is to enhance income security, improve livelihoods among older person of 70 years and above and build resilience and foster a life of dignity among older persons," Kandie said.

Under the program which began in 2008, old but poor people receive a monthly stipend of 20 dollars to cater for their daily needs.

Kandie noted that the government is currently on an enhanced registration exercise in order to recruit more people into the program.

"Our target is that by the end of the year, we will have registered 500,000 elderly people into the programme," she added. Kandie noted that the life expectancy of Kenya has been on the increase in the past decade.

"So, the government has the responsibility to ensure that the elderly are not a burden to society," she added.

The OPCT is part of the National Safety Net Programme that includes the cash transfer to orphans and people with disabilities.

The National Safety Net Programme currently has 830,000 beneficiaries and has disbursed 600 million dollars in the past four years.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:22:43|Editor: Zhou Xin

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- German carmakers could face antitrust fines of up to 20 billion U.S. dollars in the United States, the newspaper Bild reported on Thursday with reference to a first lawsuit being prepared against Volkswagen, Daimler, BMW, Audi and Porsche.

The estimate made by experts for the cost of anticipated civil lawsuits puts the cost of the recent "cartel" scandal equally high as that of the still ongoing "diesel gate" affair.

The combination of the two could place leading German carmakers under severe financial strain. A U.S. attorney, who already represents plaintiffs in the emissions cheating scandal, confirmed to Bild there would be further class action lawsuits.

A similar suit has also already been filed in Canada, with plaintiffs demanding 1.1 billion U.S. dollars in damages from carmakers.

U.S. authorities are currently assessing whether to instigate formal criminal proceedings against German automotive corporations.

In the civil lawsuit, filed at a New Jersey court, plaintiffs accuse vehicle producers of conspiracy over the course of two decades. As a result, customers had paid "unjustifiably high prices" for their cars.

Additionally, collusion is claimed to have influenced U.S. sales practices and made it more difficult for U.S. car manufacturers to enter the German market.

German carmakers have refused to comment on what several of their representatives described as "media speculation" since newsmagazine Spiegel first reported the allegations over the weekend.

BMW was the first firm to respond publicly to the claims, categorically ruling out the existence of an agreement between producers to purposefully install "AdBlue" tanks to purify diesel emissions which were too small to meet relevant regulations as a cost saving measure.

Following reports that Daimler had made a voluntary self-declaration of illicit collusion to European competition authorities in order to evade prosecution, BMW froze long-standing official cooperation between the two firms.

A spokesperson for Daimler told Xinhua that there was "nothing more to say" with regards to BMW's cancellation of talks about future joint ventures.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:32:49|Editor: Mengjie

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SAVONLINNA, Finland, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin assured on Thursday that the ongoing Russia-China joint naval drill in the Baltic Sea was not meant to start new military alliance.

The cooperation between China and Russia brings balance to the world, and it is not directed against anyone, said Putin. "We are not starting military blocks," he added.

Putin made the remarks at a press conference in Savonlinna, eastern Finland where he was paying a working visit to observe the centenary of Finnish independence.

The joint naval exercise codenamed "Joint Sea 2017" kicked off in the past weekend in the Baltic Sea. The drill aims to jointly carry out rescue missions and protect the safety of maritime economic activities.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:37:58|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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DUBAI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said on Thursday that it has lifted ban on imports of all fruits and vegetables from Jordan.

The lift came after a meeting between the UAE Minister of Climate Change and Environment, Dr. Thani Bin Ahmed Al Zeyoudi, and Jordanian Minister of Agriculture, Khalid Hneifat, according to a statement from the UAE ministry.

The Jordanian minister briefed his Emirati counterpart on the measures taken by the Jordanian government to ensure the safety of Jordanian agricultural products.

The ban lift "is based on the condition that imported agricultural products have no pesticide residues in accordance with the standards adopted in the UAE," the statement said.

"If any pesticide residue is found on a fruit or vegetable in an amount higher than the permitted limit, the concerned importer will be banned from importing the produce for three months," according to the statement.

The desert state UAE with about 10.5 million inhabitants has to import 90 percent of its food, according to Euler Hermes, the world's leading provider of trade-related credit insurance solutions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:38:00|Editor: Lu Hui

South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol is seen on the screen during the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, in Seoul, South Korea, March 9, 2016. Lee Sedol lost the first match. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

by Xinhua writer Guo Shuang

LOS ANGELES, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The war between tech titans has begun. Some are worried about what artificial intelligence (AI) will mean for humanity, calling for slowing down the process of building it, while others are pretty optimistic.

DEBATE

For years, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been famous for his skeptical attitude towards AI and suggested it could be dangerous to the future of the human race.

Earlier this month, he warned a group of governors at the conference of the National Governors Association that AI is a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

"Transport will be one of the first to go fully autonomous. But when I say everything -- the robots will be able to do everything better than us. ... I mean all of us," Musk told the National Governors Association on July 15.P "I have exposure to the very cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it," Musk said. He urged the governors to initiate proactive regulation regarding AI technology.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took exception. During the past weekend, while smoking meats and doing a Facebook Live feed from his backyard in Palo Alto, California, Zuckerberg blasted Musk-style warnings against AI as "pretty irresponsible" and "really negative."

Zuckerberg said he is optimistic about AI, and opposed the spread of fear surrounding its potential.

"I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios -- I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible," Zuckerberg responded in a Live feed recorded on July 23.

He praised Facebook's AI Research team and researchers at Cornell and Tsinghua, China. "One reason I'm so optimistic about AI is that improvements in basic research improve systems across so many different fields -- from diagnosing diseases to keep us healthy, to improving self-driving cars to keep us safe, and from showing you better content in news feeds to delivering you more relevant search results. Every time we improve our AI methods, all of these systems get better. I'm excited about all the progress here and its potential to make the world better."

"In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives," Zuckerberg predicted.

On Tuesday, in a tweet, Musk shot back.

"I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited," he said.

CONCERNS

Zuckerberg is not the only one who has a much rosier vision of the future.

Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera and former chief scientist at the Chinese company Baidu, tweeted on Tuesday: "Kudos Mark Zuckerberg for speaking out against AI fear mongering."

While the debate between Zuckerberg and Musk is ongoing, Ng shared his opinion as well. He told an audience at a Harvard Business Review event what AI's real societal challenge is.

"As an AI insider, having built and shipped a lot of AI products, I don't see a clear path for AI to surpass human-level intelligence," he said.

"I think that job displacement is a huge problem, and the one that I wish we could focus on, rather than be distracted by these science fiction-ish, dystopian elements," Ng said.

However, Musk is not the only tech billionaire who is sounding alarm bells over AI posing a threat to our safety and well-being.

Stephen Hawking, for example, has stated: "I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said that in the near future, robots doing more work will be positive, but he did express concern over the potential of AI in the long run.

"I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," Gates said in a question-and-answer session on Reddit, an American social news aggregation and discussion website.

HUMANITY AND AI

"AI is the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution," Fei-Fei Li, a top AI expert and chief scientist of AI/ML (Google Cloud), told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

She believed that all vertical industries have the potential to benefit from AI deployments, saying "AI can make life better."

"The risks are way over-hyped and the benefits of AI are under-represented in the popular media," Tuomas Sandholm, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told Xinhua earlier this year.

Sandholm and his Ph.D. student Noam Brown developed Libratus, a poker-playing AI computer program that in January beat a team of some of the best professional Heads-Up, No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker players.

No doubt, there will be lots of pressing problems for humanity to solve, which include AI amplifying racism and sexism, or the technology having the potential to put millions out of jobs.

"Technology can generally always be used for good and bad," Matt Kodama, vice president of Product at Recorded Future, told Xinhua on Thursday at the Black Hat conference. He thinks the most important factor is people, who are using the tools.

Li believed that humanity as a whole has the responsibility to use AI technologies to benefit mankind.

With more tools and technologies being developed, "we see how they could be used to benefit people or be used in pretty bad ways and cause big problems," Li said.

"It's not only responsibilities for developers or discoverers. I think all these people should be engaged: Silicon Valley leaders, professors, students, policymakers, lawmakers, educators ... everybody should be at the table discussing this," she told Xinhua.

In the Chinese language, the abbreviation of artificial intelligence, or AI, is pronounced the same as the character for "love."

"The ultimate power, in my opinion, is love, not AI," Li said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 22:53:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CHENGDU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Staff are under fire following accusations of mistreatment of giant pandas at Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan Province.

In an online video that went viral, a staff member can be seen pushing, dragging and throwing "Rourou" and "Manman," the two popular pandas at the research base.

The video has fueled heated discussion, and many are outraged by the mistreatment of the animals, seen as national treasures of China. A post about the incident on microblog Sina Weibo had drawn more than 6,000 comments as of 8 p.m. Thursday.

Authorities at the base Thursday explained to Xinhua about what happened during the incident.

Panda keeper Guo Jingpeng said he was feeding milk to some panda cubs on July 12, when one of them suddenly became violent.

"It bit my hand really hard, its teeth cut into the flesh and my hand started bleeding," Guo said. "When it tried to bite me again, I pushed it away out of instinct."

Even though it has been two weeks since the incident, Guo's hand is still scarred by the panda bite.

Guo said when he heard about the viral video and its scathing comments, he felt he had been wronged.

"The over 50-minute video was intentionally edited into less than two minutes of footage," Guo said.

Another panda keeper, Xie Huhai, said that to the playful pandas, biting is just a way of "having fun," but "panda fun" could cause injuries to the keepers.

"We often get hurt by the pandas," Xie said. "Scratches and bites are daily occurrences."

Pandas can become violent once they reach one or two years old, Guo said.

"When they are happy, they may act normally, but if they experience any external stimulation, they can react quite violently," he said.

Authorities with the breeding base said they have questioned the staff members involved and taken measures. They demanded all staff treat the pandas more "gently" when the animals try to bite or scratch.

"When we saw the video, we thought the staff members had overreacted, even though they meant no harm to the pandas," said Wu Kongju, a panda expert at the base. "But we hope people can show more understanding towards the panda keepers, because although giant pandas look cute, they are quite strong and can be violent."

Many people have agreed with Wu's explanation.

"Firstly, a panda is a bear, and they can be strong and violent," said Weibo user Dengzheshouxindehanzi. "They just happen to have a babyface."

The current giant panda population count, including cubs, is approaching 2,060 and mature adults are estimated to constitute 50.5 percent of that figure, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2016.

In the Red List of Threatened Species on Sept. 4, 2016, the IUCN reported the giant panda population had improved enough for the endangered species label to be downgraded to "vulnerable."

However, the threat of declining bamboo resources due to climate change could, in the near future, reverse the gains made during the last two decades, the IUCN warned.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:13:17|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Europcar, Europe's largest car rental company, is allowed to take over German rival Buchbinder, the German Federal Cartel Office (Bundeskartellamt) declared on Thursday.

The acquisition enables the French firm to narrow the market share gap with its main local competitor Sixt.

Bavaria-based Buchbinder is the fifth largest rental car company in Germany by revenue. The firm, which has about 20,000 vehicles in operation, will continue to exist as a distinct brand.

Details about the cost of the takeover were not revealed.

Federal Cartel Office president Andreas Mundt expressed confidence that the German car rentals market was highly diversified with several large and small providers.

Europcar would not achieve a "market-dominating position" as a consequence of the purchase, Mundt said.

Market leader Sixt reported revenue of 823 million euros (960 million U.S. dollars) in Germany last year, compared to Europcar's 500 million euros.

Europcar director Caroline Parot said the acquisition would allow her company to grow its business in the affordable car rental and truck rental markets. (1 euro = 1.17 dollars)
 

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Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:13:20|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TOKYO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Prosecutors questioned on Thursday the former chief of the scandal-hit school operator Moritomo Gakuen and his wife over allegedly using fraudulent means to obtain government subsidies.

Yasunori Kagoike, former head of Moritomo Gakuen, told reporters before heading to the prosecutors' office that he "would like to explain the situation as clearly as possible."

Kagoike and Moritomo Gakuen have been under public scrutiny over the past few months for a shady land deal scandal implicating Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his wife Akie Abe.

Moritomo Gakuen reportedly bought a 8,770-square-meter piece of land last June in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, for a price equivalent to only 14 percent of its appraisal price to open a new elementary school with Akie Abe as its honorary principal.

Kagoike, who has stepped down as head of Moritomo Gakuen since the scandal broke out, gave sworn testimony in both chambers of parliament, stating he thinks the land deal involved "politicians' intervention," while the Abes, for their part, denied involvement in the deal.

According to the complaint filed with the Osaka District Public Prosecutors Office in March, Moritomo Gakuen had also unlawfully received state subsidies worth about 56 million yen (502,600 U.S. dollars) by padding costs for the construction of the new elementary school.

Kagoike also faces another criminal complaint filed in May that he swindled the prefectural government out of subsidies totaling some 61.86 million yen over the past six years for Tsukamoto Kindergarten, a nationalist kindergarten in Osaka run by Moritomo Gakuen.

The complaint alleged that Kagoike inflated the number of full-time faculty and staff of the kindergarten and the number of children with disabilities to get subsidies from the local government.

Tsukamoto kindergarten, which has been visited by Abe's wife Akie Abe, has also been exposed for requiring 3- to 5-year-old students to recite in stilted Japanese the pre-war Imperial Rescript on Education that helped fuel Japanese militarism before and during World War II.

Public opinion polls have showed that the majority of Japanese considered the Abe administration not doing enough to clear away suspicions surrounding the scandal.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:23:25|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ROME, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Italy has been experiencing a drought for several weeks, and farmers and authorities are both sounding the alarm.

Chief of the General Confederation of Italian Agriculture (Confagricultura), Massimiliano Giansanti, ascribed the ongoing drought to climate change, and said "the lack of water for irrigation has jeopardized harvests and strongly compromised sowing" in Italy.

Confagricoltura represents 145,200 farms, 222,000 individual farmers, and 301,000 farming contractors across the country.

A week ago, Farm Minister Maurizio Martina announced emergency measures in response to the drought including activating the National Solidarity Fund for regions experiencing the exceptional climate conditions, suspending farmers' taxes and mortgage payments, summoning additional EU agricultural funds to a total 2.3 billion euros (2.68 billion U.S. dollars) by October.

There is also a plan to put out a tender for a 700-million-euro contract to overhaul the country's water supply systems that date back 30 years.

The deadline for that tender is Aug. 31, Martina said in a statement. "This is necessary in the medium term, in view of the increasing effects of climate change on our production," the minister said.

Also on Thursday, Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti said regional and local authorities were working to avoid water rationing in the nation's capital.

"(Rationing) is not acceptable," Italian news agency Ansa quoted the minister as saying. "The Rome situation is the one we are most worried about at the moment...The objective is to avoid rationing."

The average yearly temperature in Italy marked a new record in 2016, rising by 1.35 degrees Celsius compared to the period from 1961 to 1990, according to the farm ministry.

Temperatures throughout the country have risen 3.2 degrees Celsius above the national average this summer, while rainfall dropped by 55 percent in June compared to the average in previous years, the ministry said. (1 euro = 1.17 U.S. dollars)
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:38:37|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HANGZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Tax authorities of the five BRICS countries inked a landmark document Thursday to establish a mechanism for taxation cooperation.

The BRICS Taxation Cooperation Memorandum signed at the fifth Meeting of BRICS Heads of Tax Authorities is the bloc's first document that elevates taxation cooperation to the institutional level.

At the meeting, the authorities also agreed to cooperate on taxation information exchange, improve consultation procedures efficiency, boost taxation capacities and planned paths for coordination of taxation policies and tax collection.

The meeting comes ahead of the 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, from September 3 to 5.

The BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are home to 42 percent of the world's population. Their total share in the global economy has risen from 12 percent to 23 percent in the past decade, while contributing more than half of global growth.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:48:43|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Some 34 of the total 37 senior government officials, businesspersons and middlemen, who were detained last Tuesday on suspicion of corruption, have appeared before an Ethiopian court on Thursday.

The 34 defendants that include Fekade Haile, former Manager of Addis Ababa Roads Authority, appeared at the second criminal bench of the Ethiopian federal high court for alleged embezzlement of over 2 billion Ethiopian birr (over 86 million U.S. dollars).

While the suspects requested the court to grant them bail, the Ethiopian Police also asked the court for an additional 14 days to collect evidence and the bail to be denied, claiming that the suspects could hide documents if they are given bail.

The court has granted the police the requested 14 days additional time and adjourned the hearing for August 9, 2017.

The 34 Ethiopian government senior government officials, businesspersons and brokers also included government officials the Addis Ababa Roads Authority and the Ethiopian Sugar Corporation.

Foreign nationals were also brought to court as part of the alleged grand-scale corruption investigation that took place after a detailed inquiry.

The ongoing arrest of senior government officials, businessperson and middlemen is said to be part of the Ethiopian government's reform process, which was started at the end of 2016 to provide a concrete answer to the preoccupations of the public.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:58:51|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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NAIROBI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- As Kenya's tightly contested elections draw closer on Aug. 8, citizens are taking all manners of precautions to protect themselves and their families for fear that there may be violence.

Some are taking their families to their ancestral homes while others are raising their fences to boost security of their homes.

On the other hand, some companies are asking their employees to update them on their contacts and place of residence while others have asked their workers, especially that non-core ones to take leave and return after elections.

Amid this, the workers are being asked to take further precautionary measures including buying more food stocks and more mobile phone airtime.

Similarly, foreign governments have issued travel advisories to their citizens both within Kenya and those wishing to visit, warning of political protests, rallies and demonstrations, which often turned violent.

It is evident that no one, both foreigners and Kenyans, wants to be caught unaware in case elections lead to a major dispute as it happened in 2007, leading to violence in which close to 1,000 people were reportedly killed.

The Aug. 8 polls mirror those of 2007, where Kenya was on the brink of civil war due to disputed presidential results, in many aspects.

First is that the incumbent, President Uhuru Kenyatta, is seeking re-election against a resurgent opposition led by Raila Odinga.

In 2007, then President Mwai Kibaki was seeking re-election against his main challenger, who interestingly was Odinga. Kibaki was declared the winner amid claims of massive rigging during the polls.

The Opposition, this time round coalescing under the National Super Alliance (Nasa), has similarly accused Kenyatta's Jubilee party of planning to rig the polls, including by using security forces.

There is also waning confidence in the electoral commission among all the political players, with Nasa claiming the agency is working with ruling Jubilee party to rig the polls.

These claims have stoked fears among the electorate, with many Kenyans now making plans to enable them stay safe and secure their properties.

Assurances from President Kenyatta and security agencies that over 150,000 police officers would be deployed to man the polls and guarantee peace have not yielded much, especially as instances of election violence continue to be witnessed in different parts of the country.

"I have already sent my children to my rural home in Busia where I believe they would be safe in case anything happens. My wife would follow two days before the polls. I cannot take chances again," said Emmanuel Otiato, an electrician in Nairobi.

Otiato recounted that in 2007, his family suffered as there was no food in the house when violence erupted and people could not move freely.

Most residents of gated communities in Nairobi have come up with measures to boost security, including raising perimeter walls and increasing the number of security guards.

"We contributed 50 U.S. dollars recently which was used to buy spikes that we have erected on the security wall and the rest of the money would go to additional security personnel we would hire for three days during the polls," said Miriam Ngovio, who lives in Kitengela, a suburb on the outskirts of Nairobi.

More than 10 firms in Kenya have this month reportedly taken their employees through safety and emergency response drills ahead of elections.

Some companies have further gone ahead and mapped out various areas across the country where they have operations and come up with measures on how they can respond to a crisis in case anything happens after polls.

Others have done risk assessment of the polls on their operations and those of their staff before, during and after polls.

"On Tuesday, we received an email from the human resources department informing everyone to update their mobile contacts. Those who had not done so after three hours were reminded and informed of how the information was urgent," said Sylvia Muriuki, who works at a media company.

The police have identified parts of the Rift Valley, Coast, Nairobi, Kiambu and Kisumu as potential hotspots.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has, however, pledged to do everything in his powers to ensure there will be no repeat of the 2007 violence in this year's polls.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:58:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JERUSALEM, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Thousands of Palestinian worshippers performed on Thursday their afternoon prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem's Old City, first time since July 14.

Since July 14 attack at the vicinity of the mosque, where three armed Israeli Arabs and two Israeli policemen were killed, Palestinian worshippers had been performing their five-time daily prayers at the gates outside the mosque.

In response, Israel closed the gates that lead to the mosque for three days, then it decided to install electronic gates and cameras at the gates of the mosque. The Palestinians refused to enter the mosque under the new Israeli security measures.

On Thursday, Israel removed all electronic gates, bridges and cameras installed at the mosque's gates, where leaders of the Muslims in the city decided to allow prayers to go inside the mosque without any of the Israeli security measures.

Masses of worshippers entered into the mosque from "Bab Hutta," one of the gates lead to Al-Aqsa Mosque, right after the Israeli police opened it shortly before the afternoon prayers started.

Eyewitnesses told Xinhua that when worshippers went through the gate, Israeli police forces fired percussion bombs, tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the crowds. The Red Crescent Society said 37 prayers were injured.

Earlier, Omar Kisswani, the Palestinian director of Al-Aqsa Mosque announced that leaders of Muslims in the city decided to resume prayers into the mosque after the Israeli authorities removed all security measures in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa.

He said the Palestinians insist that everything at Al-Aqsa Mosque has to return to before July 14, before the Israeli police measures were taken.

On Thursday morning, the Israeli police announced that its forces removed all the installed security facilities it put recently at Al-Aqsa Mosque and brought the situation back to before July 14.

The police said in a press statement that on Friday, it will deploy its reinforcement in East Jerusalem to prevent any violent clashes that may break out at Al-Aqsa Mosque and in the old city.

On the light of the Israeli police decision, the religious leaders in the city decided to perform the afternoon prayers in Al-Aqsa Mosque and totally end their sit-in that has been going on for 13 days.

Director of Waqf in East Jerusalem Azzam Salhab read a statement in a news briefing held in Jerusalem and signed by Jerusalem's religious leaders saying they decided to perform the afternoon prayers on Thursday in Al-Aqsa Mosque.

"Our decision was made after a special technical committee made sure that the Israeli police had removed all the previously installed security facilities at the mosque and its vicinity," said Salhab, adding "what happened was a great victory for the Palestinians and a new page of glory for the residents of Jerusalem."

Five Palestinians were killed and more than a thousand injured, according to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS), during clashes with Israeli police since July 14, most of them in east of Jerusalem.

Following the crisis, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced Friday that all contacts with Israel, including security coordination, would be frozen until Israel retreated from its security measures against Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Abbas said that the issue of Al-Aqsa Mosque was among the issues that led to the freezing of security coordination with Israel, adding that the leadership "will meet to study the rest of things and see what can be done."

"When we decided to freeze security coordination with Israel, it was because of a number of things that had arisen, including Al-Aqsa issue," Abbas said. "We must examine and examine other issues."

After the meeting, Fatah Party member Mohammad Eshtayeh told Xinhua that the Palestinian leadership "decided to continue to freeze contacts with Israel, including security coordination at the moment."

He explained that "the matter with regard to the position of contacts with Israel is under study, and it's not only limited to the events of Al-Aqsa, but also related to the measures taken by Israel, especially in continuation of settlement expansion."

Eshtayeh pointed out that it was decided to resume prayer at Al-Aqsa Mosque after hearing a report from the Mufti of Jerusalem Sheikh Mohammed Hussein and the technical committee specialized in confirming the removal of all security measures imposed by Israel in the vicinity of the mosque.

Meanwhile, a Palestinian source told Xinhua that the Palestinian leadership "commissioned a specialized technical committee to continue its work to check the status of Al-Aqsa Mosque from inside and to examine any changes carried out by Israel in its courtyards."

The source said that the leadership also decided to accelerate the steps to prepare for a meeting of the Central Council of Palestine Liberation Organization and intensify efforts towards reconciliation to end the internal division since mid-2007.

For its part, the Palestinian consensus government considered that "the entry of the Al-Aqsa Mosque today is a great historical moment that paves the way for liberation and preaches the imminent disappearance of the Israeli occupation."

"The Palestinian people, led by their courageous leadership, have demonstrated that they are capable of achieving victory through cohesion, unity and unity," government spokesman Yousuf Mahmood said in a press release.

"Our people in Jerusalem have proven that they are the heroes of the nation and that they are the protectors of Jerusalem and the holy places," he said, adding "this is manifested in the spirit of tolerance and cohesion which is unmatched by our people, Muslims and Christians."
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-27 23:58:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PHNOM PENH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A Cambodian court on Thursday charged a British man, who allegedly sexually abused a five-year-old female pupil, with sexual assaults, according to a court spokesman.

Mark Andrew Smith, 39, the father of two, was arrested on Friday last week when he left the Golden Bridge International School in Phnom Penh, where he served as the school's deputy principal.

He is accused of sexually abusing the little girl at his home.

"After launching an investigation, the court's deputy prosecutor, Seang Sok decided to charge Mark Andrew Smith with sexual assaults under the article 246 and 248 of the Criminal Code and sent him to the investigating judge for next legal procedure," Phnom Penh Municipal Court's spokesman Ly Sophana told reporters.

Under the charges, the man can face an imprisonment of up to five years and a fine of 2,500 U.S. dollars if convicted.

Cambodia launched an anti-pedophile operation in 2003 in a bid to end its reputation as a haven for child sex offenders. Since then, dozens of foreigners have been imprisoned for child sex crimes.
| 2017-07-28 00:45:46|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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HANGZHOU, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Tax authorities of the five BRICS countries inked a landmark document Thursday to establish a mechanism for taxation cooperation.

The BRICS Taxation Cooperation Memorandum signed at the fifth Meeting of BRICS Heads of Tax Authorities is the bloc's first document that elevates taxation cooperation to the institutional level.

At the meeting, the authorities also agreed to cooperate on taxation information exchange, improve consultation procedures efficiency, boost taxation capacities and planned paths for coordination of taxation policies.

China pledged to annually train at least 150 taxation professionals from developing countries over the next two years. Since 2015, the State Administration of Taxation (SAT) has provided taxation courses for nearly 400 professionals from more than 50 developing countries.

In addition, the five countries promised to implement a financial account information exchange system before September 2018 to counter cross-border tax evasion and enhance taxation transparency.

Wang Jun, the SAT director, proposed at the meeting that BRICS countries should work together to improve the global taxation governance system, actively engage in rule-making, and allow emerging and developing countries to have a bigger say in the area.

Liao Tizhong, head of the international taxation department of the administration, said that taxation cooperation between BRICS members is an indispensable force to address imbalances of global economic development and promote coordinated growth.

The meeting comes ahead of the 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, Fujian Province, from September 3 to 5.

The BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are home to 42 percent of the world's population. Their total share in the global economy has risen from 12 percent to 23 percent in the past decade, while contributing more than half of global growth.
| 2017-07-28 00:45:00|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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LONDON, July 27 (Xinhua) -- A new drug developed at the University of Sheffield could become available to patients diagnosed with a wide range of cancers, the university said on Thursday.

Lynparza, the world's first and leading PARP inhibitor, is currently available for the treatment of some women with advanced BRCA2-related ovarian cancer.

In 2005, Professor Thomas Helleday and his team of researchers at the University of Sheffield demonstrated how PARP inhibitors could be used as a tailored treatment for patients with BRCA2 mutations, which are seen in both hereditary ovarian and breast cancer. PARP inhibitors work by blocking the cancer cell's ability to repair damage.

The discovery was patent protected and licensed to pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, which continued the development process and undertook successful clinical trials. Now AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc., have announced a global strategic oncology collaboration to co-develop and co-commercialize Lynparza for multiple cancer types.

"We welcome the announcement that AstraZeneca and Merck are working together to make this groundbreaking treatment available to more patients," said Professor Dave Petley, Vice-President for Research and Innovation at the University of Sheffield.

The drug will be developed as monotherapy and in combination with other potential medicines, further increasing the number of treatment options available for patients.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 00:09:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIJING, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Chinese mainland will continue to foster a favorable environment for Taiwan-funded enterprises on the mainland, a spokesperson said at a press conference Thursday.

Ma Xiaoguang, mainland spokesperson for the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the remarks while answering a question on whether the Chinese mainland was worried about the tech giant Foxconn's investment in the United States.

Ma stressed that the Chinese mainland has shown clear and consistent gestures to support Taiwan-funded enterprises to thrive on the mainland.

Taiwan businesspeople have agreed that the mainland economy is positive in the long run, and the future of Taiwan-funded enterprises on the mainland remains promising, said Ma.

Ma also pointed out that Foxconn has continuously expanded its investment on the mainland this year and the existing companies have not been affected.

On Wednesday, Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou announced a 10 billion dollar investment plan to build a LCD factory in the state of Wisconsin of the United States.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 00:19:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PHNOM PENH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Globally endangered greater adjutant chicks have successfully fledged from 175 nests in the Prek Toal Ramsar Site in northwest Cambodia's Battambang province and disbursed across the country, a conservationist group said on Thursday.

The nests were protected for six months by conservationists from Cambodia's Ministry of Environment (MoE), Prek Toal village, and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), according to a WCS press release.

The greater adjutant (Leptoptilos dubius) is the largest stork species in the world, reaching 1.5 meters in height, and is listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List as endangered.

An estimated 800-1,000 mature individuals exist globally and 150-200 pairs live in Prek Toal, the only known breeding site in Southeast Asia, the release said.

"I am proud of working with my team to conserve this rare bird and am happy to see greater adjutants and other important waterbirds living and breeding safely here," said Chhan Chhoum, former egg collector and a nest protector.

"Local people in Prek Toal recognize the importance of waterbird conservation and the fact that these birds are providing a sustainable source of income through ecotourism," he added.

Prek Toal is home to the world's second largest greater adjutant breeding colony after that in Assam, India, the release said, adding that the site is the premier freshwater wetland area on the Tonle Sap Great Lake, and is well known for its incredible biological, social and economic resources.

In October 2015, Prek Toal was designated a Ramsar site due to its global significance for conservation.

"Prek Toal is the most important habitat for waterbirds in Cambodia. Over 130 waterbird species live and breed in this area," said Sun Visal, Waterbirds Monitoring and Research Team Leader with WCS and MoE at the Prek Toal Ramsar Site.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 00:19:13|Editor: huaxia

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ABUJA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Terror group Boko Haram has killed four in yet another attack on a town near Nigeria's northeastern city of Maiduguri, a local emergency official confirmed on Thursday.

Four female suicide bombers were suspected to have carried out the attack on Mandirari Village in Konduga local district, a few kilometers from Maiduguri, the largest city in Nigeria's northeast region, late Wednesday, said Bello Dabatta, head of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency.

According to the official, four civilians were killed in the attack while the number of people injured in the attack was not clear.

Despite heavy military presence, Nigeria's northeast region continues to witness deadly attacks by Boko Haram, especially in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno State.

Last month, Maiduguri was jolted by bombings during Eid al-Fitr celebrations.

Boko Haram has been blamed for the deaths of more than 20,000 people and displacing of 2.3 million others in Nigeria since their insurgency started in 2009. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 00:29:23|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TUNIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The United Kingdom decided to lift travel restrictions on Tunisia following improving security situation in the country, announced the Tunisian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday.

The lifting of travel restrictions on Tunisia excludes certain areas including the southern border with Libya and the zone of the extreme center-west, according to the Tunisian State Secretariat for Foreign Affairs, Sabri Bachtabji.

"This decision, aiming to promote Tunisian tourism, is a result of a remarkable improvement in the security situation and also a fruitful cooperation between the two countries," said Bachtabji.

Bachtabji said that UK welcomed the efforts made by Tunisian military and security institutions to secure the various tourist sites across the country.

British tour operator Thomas Cook decided on Thursday to resume flights to Tunisia.

The British Foreign Ministry decided in June 2015 to restrict travel to Tunisia following the carnage on the beach of a hotel in Sousse, the main seaside resort of the country, in which 30 British tourists were killed.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 00:34:26|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ISLAMABAD July 27 (Xinhua) -- Pakistan on Thursday signed an agreement with Azerbaijan for sale of 10 Super Mushshak training aircraft to Azerbaijan Air Force, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said.

The contract was signed at Azerbaijan, where Air Marshal Arshad Malik, Chairman Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at the town of Kamra represented Pakistan, whereas Azerbaijan was represented by Air Force Commander Azerbaijan Lieutenant General Ramiz Tahirov at the occasion.

This contract would also include operational training and technical support and assistance to Azerbaijan Air Force, said a PAF statement issued in Islamabad.

"This landmark agreement will further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two brotherly countries," it said.

Approximately 300 Super Mushshak aircraft are being used by PAF and Pakistan Army for military training of pilots and other defense related activities.

Pakistan has recently signed agreements to export Super Mushshak aircraft to Turkey, Nigeria and Qatar.

This contract would not only open new avenues for export of aviation equipment to foreign countries but also help in generating revenue for the country.

The aircraft is already in service with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and South Africa.
South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol is seen on the screen during the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, in Seoul, South Korea, March 9, 2016. Lee Sedol lost the first match. (Xinhua/Yao Qilin)

by Xinhua writer Guo Shuang

LOS ANGELES, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The war between tech titans has begun. Some are worried about what artificial intelligence (AI) will mean for humanity, calling for slowing down the process of building it, while others are pretty optimistic.

DEBATE

For years, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, has been famous for his skeptical attitude towards AI and suggested it could be dangerous to the future of the human race.

Earlier this month, he warned a group of governors at the conference of the National Governors Association that AI is a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

"Transport will be one of the first to go fully autonomous. But when I say everything -- the robots will be able to do everything better than us. ... I mean all of us," Musk told the National Governors Association on July 15. "I have exposure to the very cutting edge AI, and I think people should be really concerned about it," Musk said. He urged the governors to initiate proactive regulation regarding AI technology.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg took exception. During the past weekend, while smoking meats and doing a Facebook Live feed from his backyard in Palo Alto, California, Zuckerberg blasted Musk-style warnings against AI as "pretty irresponsible" and "really negative."

Zuckerberg said he is optimistic about AI, and opposed the spread of fear surrounding its potential.

"I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios -- I just, I don't understand it. It's really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible," Zuckerberg responded in a Live feed recorded on July 23.

He praised Facebook's AI Research team and researchers at Cornell and Tsinghua, China. "One reason I'm so optimistic about AI is that improvements in basic research improve systems across so many different fields -- from diagnosing diseases to keep us healthy, to improving self-driving cars to keep us safe, and from showing you better content in news feeds to delivering you more relevant search results. Every time we improve our AI methods, all of these systems get better. I'm excited about all the progress here and its potential to make the world better."

"In the next five to 10 years, AI is going to deliver so many improvements in the quality of our lives," Zuckerberg predicted.

On Tuesday, in a tweet, Musk shot back.

"I've talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited," he said.

CONCERNS

Zuckerberg is not the only one who has a much rosier vision of the future.

Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera and former chief scientist at the Chinese company Baidu, tweeted on Tuesday: "Kudos Mark Zuckerberg for speaking out against AI fear mongering."

While the debate between Zuckerberg and Musk is ongoing, Ng shared his opinion as well. He told an audience at a Harvard Business Review event what AI's real societal challenge is.

"As an AI insider, having built and shipped a lot of AI products, I don't see a clear path for AI to surpass human-level intelligence," he said.

"I think that job displacement is a huge problem, and the one that I wish we could focus on, rather than be distracted by these science fiction-ish, dystopian elements," Ng said.

However, Musk is not the only tech billionaire who is sounding alarm bells over AI posing a threat to our safety and well-being.

Stephen Hawking, for example, has stated: "I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race."

Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, said that in the near future, robots doing more work will be positive, but he did express concern over the potential of AI in the long run.

"I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," Gates said in a question-and-answer session on Reddit, an American social news aggregation and discussion website.

HUMANITY AND AI

"AI is the driving force of the fourth industrial revolution," Fei-Fei Li, a top AI expert and chief scientist of AI/ML (Google Cloud), told Xinhua in a recent exclusive interview.

She believed that all vertical industries have the potential to benefit from AI deployments, saying "AI can make life better."

"The risks are way over-hyped and the benefits of AI are under-represented in the popular media," Tuomas Sandholm, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, told Xinhua earlier this year.

Sandholm and his Ph.D. student Noam Brown developed Libratus, a poker-playing AI computer program that in January beat a team of some of the best professional Heads-Up, No-Limit Texas Hold'em poker players.

No doubt, there will be lots of pressing problems for humanity to solve, which include AI amplifying racism and sexism, or the technology having the potential to put millions out of jobs.

"Technology can generally always be used for good and bad," Matt Kodama, vice president of Product at Recorded Future, told Xinhua on Thursday at the Black Hat conference. He thinks the most important factor is people, who are using the tools.

Li believed that humanity as a whole has the responsibility to use AI technologies to benefit mankind.

With more tools and technologies being developed, "we see how they could be used to benefit people or be used in pretty bad ways and cause big problems," Li said.

"It's not only responsibilities for developers or discoverers. I think all these people should be engaged: Silicon Valley leaders, professors, students, policymakers, lawmakers, educators ... everybody should be at the table discussing this," she told Xinhua.

In the Chinese language, the abbreviation of artificial intelligence, or AI, is pronounced the same as the character for "love."

"The ultimate power, in my opinion, is love, not AI," Li said.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 01:35:02|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BERLIN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Federal Transport Minister Alexander Dobrindt said here Thursday that an illegal emissions software had been detected in the 3-litre TDI diesel Cayenne and, as such, he had ordered 22,000 vehicles to be recalled across Europe.

Furthermore, he announced the withdrawal of the licensing for this particular SUV so that no new vehicles of this type would enter the market. This is the first time in the German diesel scandal that a car can no longer be newly registered.

According to Dobrindt, the technology that was detected recognizes when the vehicle is in an emission test scenario, switching to a "warm-up strategy" that was not activated in real driving situations.

The Cayenne's diesel engine is supplied by Audi who already has to recall 24,000 vehicles because of an illegal emission software. Volkswagen announced it would investigate Dobrindt's suspicion with respect to the VW Touareg.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 01:40:11|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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ADDIS ABABA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Ethiopia and Sweden on Thursday signed a 2.82 billion Ethiopian birr (over 120 million U.S. dollars) grant agreement to enhance climate change resilience and improve livelihood opportunities.

The framework agreement, which was signed between Admasu Nebebe, State Minister of the Ethiopian Finance and Economic Cooperation and Annika Nordin Jayawardena, Bilateral Development Cooperation Head at the Swedish Embassy in Ethiopia, also aims to promote sustainable and democratic development in Ethiopia.

The agreement is used as a framework which leads the development cooperation of the two countries up to 2020, according to a statement issued by the Ethiopian Ministry of Finance and Economic Cooperation on Thursday.

According to the ministry, the commitment made on Thursday will be applicable for various projects to be implemented in the east African country during the reported period.

Nebebe, while signing the agreement, affirmed that Sweden has been supporting Ethiopia in education, health, water supply and rural development projects since the 1960s.

Jayawardena, on her part, also said that the agreement will contribute to building the capacity of the Ethiopian federal government and regional states in natural resources development and other sectors.

She also indicated that the framework agreement will contribute to efforts in curbing the effects of climate change and the implementation of Ethiopia's green economy plan.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 01:45:16|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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AMMAN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Jordan and Egypt warned Thursday against any measures that seek to change the status quo at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, state-run Petra news agency reported.

The warning came at a meeting in Amman, where Jordanian Prime Minister Hani Mulki and his Egyptian counterpart Sharif Ismail discussed the strategic ties between the two countries and the latest developments at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

They said the two countries were closely following the removal of metal detectors and surveillance cameras Israel installed at the mosque.

The two sides stressed the need for Israel to refrain from taking measures that seek to alter the status quo at the shrine.

The two leaders also urged intensified efforts to fight terrorism of all forms.

In order to help boost trade between the two countries, they decided to form a committee for investors from both countries to explore opportunities of cooperation.

According to official figures, trade between Jordan and Egypt reached 550 million U.S. dollars in 2016.

Discussions also covered the situation of Egyptian workers in Jordan and cooperation in areas of tourism, education and energy.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 01:50:18|Editor: huaxia

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SOFIA, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva and her Sudanese counterpart Ibrahim Ghandour here on Thursday discussed strengthening bilateral ties during the first visit of a high-level Sudanese delegation to Bulgaria in decades.

This visit would open a new chapter in the relations between the two countries, Zaharieva told Ghandour, according to a statement issued by the Bulgarian foreign ministry.

Zaharieva, who is also Bulgaria's deputy prime minister, said that there is a strong potential for bilateral cooperation, especially in agriculture, mining, food production and information technology.

Meanwhile, Zaharieva thanked Ghandour for his country's efforts in the fight against terrorism and illegal trafficking of people, the statement said.

"This is a historic visit that will undoubtedly boost bilateral relations in all spheres," Ghandour said in turn, as quoted by the statement.

The agricultural sector is a very good area in which Sudan and Bulgaria can cooperate, because the two countries have many years of experience, as well as favorable conditions for agricultural production, Ghandour said.

During the visit, Bulgaria and Sudan also discussed the intensification of the political dialogue between both countries, organization of joint political consultations and deepening of cooperation in trade and education, the statement said.

Zaharieva and Ghandour also signed a Memorandum of Understanding between the foreign ministries of Bulgaria and Sudan, and a Memorandum of Cooperation between the diplomatic institutes of the two ministries, the statement added. Enditem
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 01:55:21|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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SKOPJE, July 27 (Xinhua) -- As the Macedonian health authorities are working to determine the cause of two deaths on Wednesday, the health ministry reported three new cases of an undiagnosed disease on Thursday.

"Another three persons from the Gostivar village of Simnica (southwest of Macedonia) have been admitted to the Clinic for Infectious Diseases with high fever, diarrhea, vomiting," Deputy Health Minister Goce Cakarovski told reporters.

Cakarovski said that besides this, there were also four others who had the same symptoms but their conditions were not life threatening.

Two people, a father and a son, died Wednesday at the Clinic for Infective Diseases in Skopje after suffering from symptoms of an undiagnosed illness. Health authorities suspect a contagious disease, but are waiting for the results of analyses.

According to media reports, specific information as to the cause of the deaths is expected to be unveiled on Friday.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 02:20:35|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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BEIRUT, July 27 (Xinhua) -- An agreement to evacuate besieged al-Nusra Front militants from Arsal's outskirts will be reached "within days," General Security chief Maj. Gen. Abbas Ibrahim said Thursday, hours after a cease-fire was agreed between the fundamentalist group and Hezbollah.

"The terms of the agreement are confidential and what I can say is that a cease-fire is certainly underway," said Ibrahim after talks with Speaker Nabih Berri.

Ibrahim added "the armed men and those civilians who wish to do so will go to Idlib in an organized fashion, under the supervision of the Lebanese state."

He said Lebanon's Red Cross would help organize the logistics of transporting the evacuees to Idlib.

About whether the deal will involve the release of Nusra-held Hezbollah members, Ibrahim said "This agreement is aimed at purifying and liberating Lebanese territory, and nothing prevents anyone to benefit from this liberation."

Hezbollah's "War Media" outlet confirmed later in a statement that the deal involves the release of five Nusra-held Hezbollah fighters.

The cease-fire agreement came after a week-long Hezbollah operation in Arsal's outskirts.

Hezbollah Chief Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah declared Wednesday a great military victory against the fundamentalist group.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addresses a press conference held with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (not in the picture) after their meeting in Budapest, Hungary, on Feb. 2, 2017. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)

SAVONLINNA, Finland, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin said here on Thursday that he saw the U.S. investigations into the so-called Russian influence in the U.S. presidential election as an effort to create anti-Russian hysteria.

Putin made the remarks at a press conference along with Finnish President Sauli Niinisto, in Savonlinna, Eastern Finland.

According to Putin, the investigations were not real investigations, as they are lack of a full study of the situation.

He noted that the election of a U.S. president has nothing to do with Russia and it is not Russia's business to evaluate what the U.S. president does.

The Russian president criticized the U.S. practice as an effort to "make U.S. legislation valid in other countries" and said Russian-U.S. relations were being sacrificed to U.S. domestic issues.

He reminded, however, that "Russia has also many friends in the U.S."

But Putin stopped short of defining what possible counter measures Russia would adopt, just saying Russia should see first what the final outcome of the U.S. legislation would be.

On his part, Sauli Niinisto said he did not quite share the view that it was an attempt to validate U.S. laws outside the country, but said the issue was alleged attempt to influence the U.S. elections.

Niinisto warned that any new sanctions would affect soon other countries and therefore there are talks within the European Union.

Local analysts noted possible new U.S. sanctions against Russia could affect the expansion of the Baltic gas pipelines known as Nordstream 2. If U.S. sanctions target western energy companies involved in Nordstream 2, a suspension of the project would be possible.

Some EU countries, mainly the Baltics and Poland, have been very critical of the new phase of Nordstream, whereas Germany and Finland have considered the plan as a business and energy venture.

Finland would not be using gas from the pipeline but it would be located in Finnish economic zone. The pipeline under discussion is supposed to carry Russian produced natural gas to the European continent through the Baltic Sea.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 02:55:53|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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JOHANNESBURG, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The Regional Tourism Organization of Southern Africa (RETOSA) said Thursday they want move Southern Africa's share of tourism from its current 2 percent of global tourist arrivals and receipts to 5 percent within the next decade.

Stakeholders in the tourism sector from Southern African Community (SADC) met in Johannesburg to strategize on how to collaborate to increase the tourism in the region.

The tourism industry resolved to increase cooperation between government and private tourism operators to make the industry grow. Sem Shikongo, Chairman of RETOSA and Director of Tourism and Gaming, Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Namibia said the organization will come up with a vision to enhance the region as the destination of choice.

"RETOSA is now ... with a new mandate and two key objectives, to increase competitiveness of the region and increased and improved global tourism market share for the region. This must be achieved through a smart partnership between the region's private sector players and RETOSA in a game-changing manner through innovation and pragmatism," said Shikongo.

Tourism remains a priority sector of many of the SADC countries' economies. He said the region's tourism ministries have committed themselves to creating the enabling policy and legislative environment.

Paul Matamisa, CEO of the Zimbabwe Tourism Council said coordination by tourism is the way to grow the regional economies.

"Today was a good positive beginning for the good future of Southern Africa where RETOSA has to engage all stakeholders and hope they bring all to the party, especially the private sector institutions," said Matamisa.

The Chairperson of the private sector association in Mozambique Vasco Manhica said they want RETOSA to add value to tourism in the region.

"By championing regional collaboration, RETOSA must drive Intra-Africa Tourism because a robust domestic and regional tourism sector is essential to a thriving tourism economy in Africa," said the CEO of South African Tourism, Sisa Nthshona.

RETOSA said tourism and its relations to economic growth, employment creation and poverty elimination are fundamentally interlinked to stimulation of investment and commerce. They resolved to complement and not duplicate what other stakeholders are doing.
A girl works at a vertical loom during the summer workshops at National Village Museum, where kids can learn different traditional handcrafts, in Bucharest,Romania, July 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Gabriel Petrescu)

By Marcela Ganea

BUCHAREST, July 28 (Xinhua) -- "Summer along the lanes" in the Village Museum in Bucharest may be one of the most comprehensive projects for children in the summer holiday across Europe.

It subtly prepares children of all ages to appreciate and respect the cultural treasures, and to understand differences and similarities in a multicultural world. It also teaches social rules, develops social skills and initiates in crafts that may later on evolve into jobs.

Set up 25 years ago by an ethnologist, the summer creation camp combines the learning of arts-and-crafts skills with training to develop societal skills, and exploration games, ethno-zoology, gastronomy, theatre, photography as well as multicultural sessions about other countries' realities, dances and food.

Imagine now an open-air park of a few hectares, with full-size Romanian traditional houses and their yards, interconnected with stone-slate paths, and the yards full of children and handmade objects.

"The creation camp hosts 25 creative workshops, and about 1,200 children come throughout the 6 weeks," said Iuliana Grumazescu, director of Communication of the Village Museum.

With no budget or advertising, this creation camp increases participation every year simply as a result of word-of-mouth recommendations, which turns it into a triumph accounted for by the achievements and satisfaction of children, which makes the parents spread the word about it.

The location is easily reachable, the fee affordable, the traditional outdoor setting is an escape from the stifling urban landscape, the trainers are warm and professional, the atmosphere transcends time and place and makes children focus on personal development and the anthropological dimension of things.

The accompanying parents and grandparents confess that children feel here "like home" and "learn so many things about life in such a short time that nowhere else they could pick! It's so profitable to bring them here".

The creation camp deploys the widest variety of crafts-and-arts skills taught by experts to the young students during of one-week initiation workshops in: pottery, glass icon and wood icon painting, textile doll-making, weaving, wood carving, traditional countryside mask-making, kneading dough into traditional sweets and knot-shaped bread.

Children aged 3, who are autonomous enough to manufacture small clay objects under supervision and to be aware of architectural differences in houses when they paint are enrolled in two "baby workshops", pottery and painting.

"Pottery is the most wanted because children enjoy making their little hands dirty of clay," said Grumazescu, adding that "the dolls are stars, children conceive a short script and enact a theatre play at the end of the week, whose audience is their families, relatives and neighbors".

Children develop their ability to appreciate crafts, to interact and socialize, to learn how to feel the environment. For some, it's the place where they learn a job. Toma, a formerly institutional child who learned here how to give shape to clay, has become a famous pottery maker, now invited all over the world, and the Village Museum boasts to "have given him a profession to earn his living".

Teodora, aged 10, loves painting on glass: "I wanted to learn how to paint on glass, it's a special technique ...It's difficult only when I make mistakes and I must wash away the colors and start again."

Ingrid's passion is pottery: "I am for the 2nd time in the pottery workshop.... I prefer this because I love seeing how plates and bowls grow in my hand. This year I have made 7 bowls. Sorry, you cannot eat in them yet, I must paint them first."

The manufacturing of dolls takes several days because they are hand-sewed. The instructor brings the materials and the children cut the shapes, stuff them with wadding linen, and sew the hair and the clothes. At the end, the faces are painted with such an incredible expression that big, beautiful eyes follow you.

Dariana, aged 9, is happy to have sewn here for the first time in her life: "From now on, I'll be able to sew buttons and to repair clothes. I've been in several workshops so far, each week I change the workshop, to learn new things this summer."

Raluca Pascaru, aged 31, is a former student, currently instructor, but whose job is actually dentist, teaches the children how to make painted and bead decorations and accessories.

"I have practically grown up here, coming here for 25 years! I have developed relationships with the children, and my countryside is here, since I don't have grandparents to go to, I come to the Village Museum which perfectly reduplicates the countryside and it's like a family!" said Raluca.

Short courses are delivered every day to children after the workshops to make them understand society: First aid taught by the Red Cross, road rules with the Traffic Police, while the smart consumption of energy, water and food is taught by the Consumer's Authority.

Exploration games such as "Find the secret" and the "Treasure Room" are meant to develop the children's sense of space orientation, their ambition, their organizational skills and the ability to combine individual effort with group work. Some children look after herbs and domestic animals, while others cultivate their acting ability during the diction workshop.

At the exit from the "Summer along the lanes", standing in front of her table full of sweets, Maria, the gastronomy trainer, concludes: "What you see here is the normal children! Not handling the iPad or the smartphone during their summer holiday, but making their hands dirty with clay, paint and flour!"
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 04:01:56|Editor: An

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Chinese and Russia n fleets fire main guns during a China-Russia naval joint drill at sea off south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 18, 2016. Chinese and Russian fleets conducted weapon use on a sea area east of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province during the "Joint Sea 2016" drill on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming)

ST.PETERSBURG, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Russian navies completed exercises in the first stage of the ongoing joint military drills code-named "Joint Sea 2017" on Thursday.

The missile destroyer "Hefei" and missile frigate "Yuncheng" of the Chinese fleet docked at the Lieutenant Schmidt Quai in the Russian city of St.Petersburg in the afternoon local time, following an intensive two-day naval drill in the Baltic Sea.

During the drill, two tactical assault groups, consisting of mixed warships from the Chinese and Russian fleets, conducted a string of joint exercises, including ship-to-sea firing by secondary guns, air defense, landing and inspection, maritime search and rescue, dry cargo replenishment and shipwreck relief.

On Wednesday,the participating fleets from the two countries held a farewell ceremony in the southeastern waters of the Baltic Sea before parting ways and continuing their respective voyages.

Navies from both countries are scheduled to attend a parade here in celebration of Russia's Navy Day on Sunday.

The Joint Sea 2017 drills, held from July 21 to 28, focus on carrying out joint rescue missions and ensuring maritime economic activities, during which the two navies are expected to strengthen the ability to cope with maritime threats and coordinate joint actions, as well as promote their friendship and mutual trust.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 04:12:04|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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TALLINN, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The good relations between China and Estonia in different levels and areas including military exchanges were hailed here on Thursday ahead of 90th founding anniversary of People's Liberation Army (PLA) that falls on Aug. 1.

Helmen Kutt, Chairman of the Social Affairs Committee and Chairman of Estonia-China parliamentary group at the Estonian parliament, told Xinhua during a reception at the Chinese embassy to celebrate the PLA's 90th birthday that good relations between the two countries have been developed since Estonia's independence in 1991, not only in military sector, but also in business and cultural areas.

"The Estonian students are studying in China and the Chinese students are studying in Estonia. Good relations have also been developed in different levels, people-to-people, parliament-to-parliament and government-to-government," Kutt said.

About 80 guests attended the reception. A photo exhibition about the PLA was also held.

Chinese Ambassador to Estonia Qu Zhe also exchanged views with ambassadors from Latvia, France and the Netherlands among others on the issues of international relations.
Pic from the official Starbucks website.

NEW YORK, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Starbucks announced on Thursday that it is buying the remaining 50 percent share of its East China joint venture in a 1.3-billion-U.S. dollars transaction, marking the largest single acquisition ever in the company history.

The Seattle-based coffee chain will assume 100 percent ownership of about 1,300 stores in Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang after it acquires the rest of share from its business partners Uni-President Enterprises Corporation and President Chain Store Corporation, according to a statement Thursday.

China is the company's fastest-growing market outside of the United States in terms of store count and the acquisition builds on the company's ongoing investment in the country.

In the statement, Starbucks reaffirms its commitment to operating 5,000 stores on the Chinese mainland by 2021.

Shares of Starbucks rose 1.72 percent to 58.94 dollars apiece in intraday trading Thursday after the news came out.

East China is a significant and strategic region for Starbucks, with Shanghai containing nearly 600 stores, the largest number of stores globally of any city where Starbucks has a presence.

In December 2017, Shanghai will also be the first city outside of the United States to open the brand's high-end Roastery.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 04:17:09|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CAIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- An Egyptian military court sentenced on Thursday 58 supporters of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood to 25 years in prison over anti-police violence in late 2013, state-run Ahram newspaper reported.

The defendants were charged with attacking a police station in Upper Egypt's Minya Province months after the ouster of former Islamist President Mohamed Morsi in mid-2013.

Five defendants were sentenced to 15 years in prison, five to 10 years and two others to seven years, the daily said.

Following Morsi's ouster, angry Brotherhood members and supporters launched several attacks on government institutions and the Coptic churches nationwide in August 2013.

Morsi, along with prominent figures of his Brotherhood group, was given death penalty and prison sentences over killing protesters, spying for foreign countries and other crimes in 2015.

In November 2016, Morsi's death sentence was overturned by the court of cassation.

Since Morsi's removal, Egypt has been battling a rising wave of terrorism which has left hundreds of police and military personnel dead, mostly claimed by a Sinai-based militant group loyal to the Islamic State.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:02:41|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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PARIS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- France will "temporarily" nationalize the STX France shipyard, the country's strategic shipyard that produces aircraft carriers and warships, following a dispute with Italy over ownership, Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire announced Thursday.

"We have taken the decision to exercise the state's right of pre-emption on STX," the minister said.

"The shipyard is not destined to remain under state control. The pre-emption decision is temporary and should give us the time to negotiate in the best conditions," he added.

Divergence appears between Paris and Rome over STX France capital split after Italian officials refused French proposal of 50-50 stake.

In May, Fincantieri, Italian state-run shipbuilder, proposed 79.5 million euros (92.83 million U.S. dollars) to seize for two-thirds of STX France, which is offered for sale following the collapse of its South Korea parent, STX.

According to Le Maire, the fifty-fifty capital was "a fair proposal (which) helps preserve the strategic interests of France while associating ... Italian friends with French shipbuilding".

"We will continue to negotiate on this basis with our Italian friends in the coming days," he said, adding that he would fly to Italy next week.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:07:44|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CARACAS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Venezuela has announced the death of Enderson Caldera, 23, on Wednesday in protests in the western town of Timotes, against the upcoming July 30 elections for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC).

Writing on Twitter, Venezuela's prosecutor-general said the man was wounded to the head during the beginning of a two-day strike, called by the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) for July 26-27.

Caldera was taken to a hospital in the city of Valera for treatment but he passed away on Wednesday night.

Hours earlier, authorities had already announced the death of Rafael Antonio Vergara during a protest in the town of Campo Elias while a 16-year-old boy, Juan Carlos Aponte, died in the northern state of Miranda.

These anti-government protests, called by the MUD since early April, are demanding for early elections, the release of political prisoners and an end to government attempts to rewrite the Constitution through the ANC.

These protests have blocked streets and caused violent clashes.

The prosecutor-general has counted at least 105 dead since early April. Both sides have blamed each other for the deaths, with the government accusing the MUD of hiring street thugs to cause violence, while the opposition points at violence from the police and army.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:12:48|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIO DE JANEIRO, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The former President of the Bank of Brazil and Petrobras, Aldemir Bendine, was arrested on Thursday in a new phase of Operation Car Wash, which investigates the corruption ring found within the state oil company.

Official sources stated that Bendine was arrested in Sorocaba, in the interior of Sao Paulo state, on charges of corruption and money laundering. As part of the operation, federal police also carried out 11 searches and three arrested in Brasilia, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Pernambuco.

The police accused Bendine and people close to him of soliciting bribes to ensure that the Odebrecht construction company would win Petrobras tenders.

In exchange for these, Odebrecht is thought to have paid Bendine and his associates bribes worth at least 3 million reais (about 1 million U.S. dollars). According to the police report, these payments only stopped when Odebrecht's former president, Marcelo Odebrecht, was arrested in June 2015.

Bendine ran the state-owned Bank of Brazil from 2009 until February 2015, under the administration of Dilma Rousseff, before taking over Petrobras until May 2016.

The prosecutor-general stated that there was evidence that Bendine asked for a bribe worth 17 million reais (5.3 million U.S. dollars) to facilitate a loan from the Bank of Brazil to Odebrecht.

In his confession to prosecutors, Marcelo Odebrecht stated that he refused to pay the bribe because Bendine was not thought to be able to arrange the loan.
Chinese and Russian fleets fire main guns during a China-Russia naval joint drill at sea off south China's Guangdong Province, Sept. 18, 2016. Chinese and Russian fleets conducted weapon use on a sea area east of Zhanjiang in south China's Guangdong Province during the "Joint Sea 2016" drill on Sunday. (Xinhua/Zha Chunming)

ST.PETERSBURG, Russia, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Chinese and Russian navies completed exercises in the first stage of the ongoing joint military drills code-named "Joint Sea 2017" on Thursday.

The missile destroyer "Hefei" and missile frigate "Yuncheng" of the Chinese fleet docked at the Lieutenant Schmidt Quai in the Russian city of St.Petersburg in the afternoon local time, following an intensive two-day naval drill in the Baltic Sea.

During the drill, two tactical assault groups, consisting of mixed warships from the Chinese and Russian fleets, conducted a string of joint exercises, including ship-to-sea firing by secondary guns, air defense, landing and inspection, maritime search and rescue, dry cargo replenishment and shipwreck relief.

On Wednesday,the participating fleets from the two countries held a farewell ceremony in the southeastern waters of the Baltic Sea before parting ways and continuing their respective voyages.

Navies from both countries are scheduled to attend a parade here in celebration of Russia's Navy Day on Sunday.

The Joint Sea 2017 drills, held from July 21 to 28, focus on carrying out joint rescue missions and ensuring maritime economic activities, during which the two navies are expected to strengthen the ability to cope with maritime threats and coordinate joint actions, as well as promote their friendship and mutual trust.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:27:54|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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CARACAS, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro sent a message to his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump, on Thursday, in which he reiterated that the July 30 elections for the National Constituent Assembly (ANC) will go ahead as planned.

"On Sunday July 30, the Constituent will go ahead," said Maduro during the closure of the campaign for the ANC in downtown Caracas.

In front of thousands of supporters, the president vowed that at dawn on July 30, "the people will sing the song of victory, the song of the liberators, 'Gloria al bravo pueblo' (Glory to the brave people, Venezuela's national anthem)."

This speech came a day after the U.S. passed sanctions on 13 top Venezuelan officials, in protest of the ANC, which Washington sees as a power grab by the Maduro government.

In response, the Venezuelan leader dismissed Trump as wanting to be an "emperor" by "ordering we suspend the Constituent."

However, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) has dismissed the ANC as fraudulent and unconstitutional, arguing that the government did not hold a popular consultation before announcing it.

Maduro also took aim at the governments of Colombia and Mexico, who have followed Washington's lead and pressured Venezuela to drop the ANC.

He said the ANC elections will be held on Sunday, despite these warnings and in defiance of the U.S. sanctions.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:37:59|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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RIYADH, July 27 (Xinhua) -- Saudi Air Defense Force intercepted a missile on Thursday launched by Houthi militias that was headed towards Muslim holy city of Mecca, Sabq local news reported.

The ballistic missile launched by the militias was intercepted by air defense forces using a surface-to-air Patriot missile, dropping its fragments in an uninhabited area. Meanwhile, a coalition aircraft managed to destroy the launch pad.

In October 2016, Saudi-led coalition announced that the forces intercepted a missile that launched towards Mecca from Yemen.

The missile was destroyed 65 km away from the holiest city for Muslims, while no damages were reported.

Houthis have been targeting Saudi-border cities since the beginning of the war in Yemen.
Source: Xinhua| 2017-07-28 05:58:06|Editor: Mu Xuequan

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by Hummam Sheikh Ali

ALEPPO, Syria, July 27 (Xinhua) -- The only thing slicing through the huge devastation and destruction in the al-Kalasseh industrial zone, is the loud noise of the textile factories, whose annoying sound is the only sign of life that started beating again in that area, the oldest industrial zones in the northern province of Aleppo.

Between now and six months ago when the army wrested full control over the city of Aleppo, not much has changed in terms of the landscape of the city, whose former-rebel held part in the east is still largely in ruins.

But inside the scenes of destruction, something significant has changed, a sign that life is stronger than death.

Al-Kalasseh is the oldest industrial zone in Aleppo, and of course took a beating due to the conflict in that city, as it's located in the eastern part of Aleppo, where the rebels had stayed for five years before they evacuated to other rebel-held areas in northern Syria in December of 2016.

The industrialists and factories' owners have started returning to revive their businesses, in most cases from scratch, despite the major obstacles they are facing, which are yet to be resolved.

Muhammad Mousa left his textile factory and the 50-years-old weaving machines to an unknown destiny and has returned to fix what needed to be fixed to regain, not only his livelihood, but his life.

"During the crisis I have left my factory and returned when the army retook this area," he told Xinhua, making an effort to hear amid the deafening sound of the machines' spinning.

Still, Mousa pointed out to the major problems they face, mainly the lack of electricity, as Aleppo largely relies on generators, with the major electricity stations out of service due to the war, which took a toll on all aspect of life, and the infrastructure was no exception.

"The production is half of what it used to be due to the lack of electricity as we are using the generators, which is not good for factories, causing the production to be weak," he said.

The 56-year-old man said he is happy he returned to his factory even though he has a difficulty in his hearing as he has spent most of his life operating his old machines.

Al-Kalasseh in particular and Aleppo, in general, are famous in the textile industry, but that zone has several industries, including the plastic one.

Muhammad Lababidi, a plastic factory owner, said he was back again after closing his factory for years, but he is also complaining about the lack of electricity, saying the Aleppo industrialists are still unable to compete with other industrial zones in other parts of the country.

"Following the rebels' evacuation and the entry of the Syrian army to this area, we returned and started the rehabilitation process of the factory and made maintenance to the machines and started the production wheel," he said.

He added that "we are suffering from the electricity problem as we are using the generators and the price of diesel is high, which negatively reflected on the cost of production in comparison with other industrial zones in Syria such as in Hasyeh and Adra near the Damascus as well as in Tartus city, so we are unable to compete in the local market," he said.

But despite those difficulties, those industrialists have proven to be tough in the face of the challenges, as no one could have imagined that someone is capable of bringing back to life something from the realm of the dead.

In the rubble-strewn streets of al-Kalasseh, workers, all covered with dust, are working their hearts out to fix, work and produce.

The horrible scenes of devastation that has befallen their area couldn't discourage them or keep them away, as once the area was retrieved by the Syrian army, they were so quick to return and start from scratch.

They expressed their spirits as stressing that the people of Aleppo "were born to work hard and be productive" and that nothing will stop them from building their lives back from zero.

Those industrialists and workers are working on their own, as no official effort has been established, at least on a wide scale, to rehabilitate their areas, with the government providing security to those areas as the first step as most of the areas in eastern Aleppo need a huge effort for restoration and reconstruction.

The factories that have so far returned are in the buildings that sustained damages, but not fully destroyed, with those industrialists promising success if they could get the basics.

Nadim Atrash, president of Al-Kalasseh's industrial committee, told Xinhua that the industrialists of Aleppo are ready to bring back the production wheel again if they could be provided with help.

He said that in al-Kalasseh there had been 1,376 factories before the war erupted in Syria in 2011, adding that 160 factories have so far returned since last December.

"Those who have recently returned to their factories are gradually working, not in full swing, but in accordance with their limited resources," he said.

Atrash also highlighted the problems facing the industrialists, saying that "we have many problems. The first is the lack of capital in the hands of the industrialists, and the second is the lack of electricity as the entire industrial zone has no electricity and is working on the generators and diesel."

"So those who have money can use the generators, while the rest are sitting helplessly and even those who are using the generators cannot compete in the local market," he said.

The man also pointed out to a third problem, which is the lack of working hands, as most of the young generation in Syria has either fled the country or joined the army.

Still, the man said that there are another 200 factories ready to operate again, if the electricity issue is resolved.

"We are emerging from under the rubble and despite the difficulties, we are determined to rise again and make Aleppo the first industrial city in Syria again," he said.

Al-Kalasseh is one of 14 industrial cities in Aleppo, with most of these areas have been destroyed by the war, causing huge losses.
Women still face many pressures

Making that line the theme of her presentation, Tam told the women, We all know that our expectations frame our lives, our expectations frame our future. She said that each person has an average of six careers in their lifetime and if they were still working on their first one they needed to consider if that was what they wanted to do for the rest of their lives.

Are you satisfied with your life that you have right now and if youre not, are you doing anything about it? Because your life is really what you expect. You are going to show up and you are going to receive based on your expectations, not what other people told you, what society tells you, what is in social media but what you really expected.

Tam told the audience that she was the second daughter in her traditional Chinese family in Hong Kong. There were three brothers after her and because she was a girl her parents didnt want her and gave her away to an aunt who did not have any children. She said she became a child labourer in a fishing village and did task work, an experience that was not good for her self-esteem. In time, the aunt became pregnant and had her own child, a boy, and promptly returned her to her parents, further damaging the way she thought about herself. She asked the women in the audience to examine what negative things they learned in their childhood which were still determining the outcome of their lives today and urged them to put those thoughts away. Despite her low self-esteem and the damage caused by all the negative things she was told because she was female, Tam said she developed a life mission  to do humanitarian work in Africa. After returning to her parents, she was sent to a private school where she got a quite good education. However, she dropped out early and applied to a college in the US where she was accepted. As she advanced through her career she faced many questions about her background, Tam said she decided to write a book, How to use what you got to get what you want, explaining that, Truthfully, its all inside of us. Everything you are going to achieve is already there in bud form, like a flower before it opens or a seed before it germinates. Its up to us to nurture that part of it. Its not waiting for somebody else to tell us that we are going to be great.

Tam shared four principles which she uses in her life and work. The first was to always tell the truth because it frees up the mind to concentrate on more important things. The second principle was to make partners, something she said women were good at because they like to collaborate and work together. The third principle was to make big mistakes because if they only made small mistakes it showed that they were just being careless while making no mistakes showed that they were not taking any risks. The fourth principle was to die by your own sword, which she said, meant that they should stand by their convictions.

Another speaker at the conference was Maja Djikic, PhD Director of the Self- Development Laboratory at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto. She said that women needed to beware of such internal obstacles as low self-confidence which manifests itself in not applying for positions even if the positions are available and they are qualified for them. She said another obstacle to the success of women was not having their voices heard in the companies in which they work.

Djikic also warned of the imposter syndrome which she described as the inability to internalise success and the problem of guilt which women feel about work.

In her welcome remarks, Jo-Anne Boodoosingh, Director, Executive Education at the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, said resilience is one of the greatest attributes of women, in addition to the ability to overcome obstacles with grace and humility. Each of us has a story. Obstacles weve faced whether personally or professionally, tears shed, pains but we also have a song of victory, a lesson of learning and a heart of gratitude.

She said while the wonder women in the audience may see what they do in ordinary terms whether as mother, teacher, company director, entrepreneur, the many roles they played each day made an impact, whether it was shaping lives, raising kids, running companies, building homes and supporting families, leading teams, creating wealth, holding huge corporate portfolios, volunteering and pushing the NGOs they were associated with to perform better and help the community.

Wendy-Fae Thompson, Managing Counsel at bpTT told conference participants statistics collected at bp showed that women represented 33 percent of the workforce and 22 percent of group leaders, the companys most senior managers. She said that by 2020 the companys ambition was that 25 percent of its group leaders and 30 percent of its senior level leaders would be women. She said the company had set internal goals for gender representation and is holding its leaders responsible for taking all reasonable steps to be inclusive.

Karen Darbasie, Group Chief Executive Officer of First Citizens, and speaker partner, said that in just a few generations the roles of working mothers had changed in the country and working women continue to work to define their roles in society with many of them trying to achieve the ever shifting balance as working mothers. The realities are that in our country many women are given the mammoth task of raising the children, cleaning the house, working a full day and at the end of the day the ritual of preparing the family meals.

She said women had made progress but still had a way to go. Are women getting equal pay for equal work? How do we make sexual harassment a thing of the past? Those are questions that we all need to find the answers to. As parents are we raising sons and daughters that respect each others differences and commonalities? She said that research had shown that women have made progress in leadership positions but the gender gap continues to be a prevalent issue.

Women bring different perspectives and approaches to business resulting in a more inclusive workplace and often better performance for the company, yet today the helm of Fortune 500 companies is held by only about 21 women. She added that of the eight commercial banks in Trinidad and Tobago, three are run by women, an indication of how far this country has advanced as a society. Darbasie said that although roles are changing and improving there remain many pressures for women in this country. She referred to the statistics on domestic violence, observing that the Victim and Witness Support Unit of the Police Service had reported last year that between 2005 and 2015 almost 300 women were killed in incidents of domestic violence and more than 7,000 cases of domestic abuse were reported between 2008 and 2015. However, she said it was not only a local issue because the World Health Organisation had estimated that one in three women worldwide have experienced either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner violence in their lifetime.

She said factors associated with this include low education, exposure to violence between parents, abuse during childhood and attitudes which are accepting of violence and gender inequality. She said these statistics can be changed: in low income settings by strategies to enhance womens social and economic empowerment including micro-financing combined with gender-equality training and community-based initiatives can make a difference while school-based programmes and initiatives had also proven effective in preventing relationship or dating violence among young people in high income settings.
Banana Joes brings the food truck fun to El Socorro

Sinanan, a senior member of the faculty of the Academy of Caribbean Fashion and Design at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, joined forces with two business partners who have worked in the area and seen it grow. She joked that it wasnt so much a passion for cooking but rather, her friends desire for something more interesting and appetising to eat near to their offices.

There are a lot of companies now  big companies  and theres a gap in the market because people want somewhere good to go to eat, Sinanan, told Business Day at Banana Joes launch party last Saturday.

Banana Joes has a prime spot in the middle of the burgeoning industrial estate sprouting along El Socorro south, where huge warehouses  including Newsdays production offices  are located, but where options for a quick lunch or after work lime are limited.

Sinanan and her partners saw the opportunity and capitalised, purchasing a brand new trailer outfitted with restaurant standard equipment, a 50-gallon water tank and a generator. They hired three chefs who whipped up a classic American-style menu, featuring sliders, popcorn chicken and wings slathered in three signature sauces. Theres also dessert  a signature brownie topped with caramelised bananas.

So far they only cater for lunchtime orders, but soon they hope to expand their menu items to include breakfast prepared by Sous Chef Krystal George from August 4, and of course, after work limes.

On July 1, they made their debut at the 2nd Annual Trinidad and Tobago Food Truck Festival, Hasley Crawford Stadium, and then a second appearance a week later at Bessfest: Taste of Trinidad and Tobago Food Festival at the Queens Park Savannah.

Sinanan says the reception so far has been good, especially because food trucks, a growing trend in TT, provide affordable and varied options to good quality meals on par with even fancy restaurants.

Now that theyve established themselves as a contender in the market, she added that Banana Joes is looking to get the required permits from the various Regional Corporations to set up its mobile shop in designated vending zones around the country.

Sinanan  and Banana Joes  is also ready to be an advocate for the industry.

The food truck industry is a growing industry and I think it needs some recognition. In fact, there are a number of them now and we are trying to form ourselves into a movement. We definitely have to become more organised and meet with the authorities and get them to understand that its an industry thats growing, she said.

The industry is also a premium employer for graduates of the various hospitality institution graduates in Trinidad and Tobago, she pointed out.

It cant be just fast food and theres not enough high-end restaurants they can all go to, so this is a good in between industry they can enter, Sinanan said.

In fact, Banana Joes chefs are recent graduates of the Trinidad and Tobago Hospitality and Tourism Institute (TTHTI) in Chaguaramas.

Chef Stefan Taylor has an Associates degree in Culinary Management, from the TTHTI, and says he enjoys seeing customers faces light up when they taste his food.

We use the freshest ingredients. We create our own stuff. We dont follow the trends, we try to set them, he said.

His Sous Chef, Keon Cooper also has an Associates degree in Culinary Management from the TTHTI and has interned for the Hotel Imperator in Nimes, France.

Its the whole idea of making our food from scratch and cooking it perfectly. Were also a family. Thats how we operate, he said.

And just where did the name Banana Joes come from?

When we were younger, there was a show on TV with a man who used to relax on a beach all day. That was the inspiration for our mascot  a banana lounging in a beach chair with a cocktail, Sinanan said with a laugh.
Pressing on the gas

This means that we can look forward to the future portfolio drill-out. The new offshore gas discoveries, as well as plans to increase upstream investment, should be taken as a boost of confidence in Trinidad and Tobagos aging energy sector. This is even more significant as the energy sector has been impacted in recent years by falling prices and concerns over dwindling reserves.

While all this represents positive developments, we must understand that the Macadamia field should at least have an operational platform around 2020, while the Savannah field will be linked into the nearby Juniper platform when it comes on-line later this year. We must also note bpTTs announcement of the construction and subsequent deployment of a 15th platform, to bring on-line its Angelin offshore gas project, which is located 60 km off Trinidads south-east.

There is the anticipation that production in the Angelin field will begin in the first quarter of 2019. When in production there will be four wells forecasted to produce up to 600 million standard cubic feet per day.

In recent years, we have suffered a decline in energy earnings due to lower prices and falling output. This has had the knock-on effect of being responsible for lower government revenues. The Minister of Finance has reported that government income fell by 35% to TT$37bn between 2014 and 2016. We have also seen our net international reserves drop from $10.4bn as of May 2014 to $8.95bn at the end of May 2017, resulting in export coverage moving from 12 months to 10.

We have also seen reduced spending by oil and gas companies to a fall in first-half projections of value-added tax (VAT) revenue. It is estimated that income from VAT fell short of forecast by as much as TT$669m; the projected full-year figure for FY 2016/17 was estimated at TT$7.8bn.

New offshore gas discoveries and plans to increase upstream investment should boost confidence in Trinidad and Tobagos energy sector, which has been impacted in recent years by falling prices and concerns over dwindling reserves. These new deposits are expected to take time to begin operations. However, they signify a degree of security for the energy sector and the government, giving us a sizable amount of reserves for exploitation and extended long-term revenue flow.

These new projects in the pipeline mean that there could be a reversal of lower spending and its negative impact on VAT in the energy sector. Henry Hub Natural Gas Spot Price has increased from more than a 10- year low of $1.75 per million British thermal units in March last year to $2.98 last month. If gas prices continue to rise, this could assist in a turnaround. The advent of higher gas prices and increased production could serve as growth drivers this year. We can surely hope that these factors could assist in getting the economy out of the recession it entered into since 2015.
Attorneys write Childrens Authority

The teenager was found hanging at the home at Ashland Avenue, Valsayn, on June 18. In a statement, the Childrens Authority said despite consistent support and counselling, some of the children who are received into care are often troubled because they have undergone significant trauma.

The authority also promised counselling for the other residents and staff at the home. Minister in the Ministry of the Attorney General and Legal Affairs Stuart Young, in the Senate on June 20, said Government was awaiting a report on the death of the teenager.

In a letter sent on Tuesday, Senior Counsel Anand Ramlogan, Jayanti Lutchmedial, Ganesh Saroop and Alvin Pariagsingh wrote to the Authoritys director Safiya Noel seeking information they had on the teenager, including correspondence, medical assessments, as well as his journal, among other pieces of information.

Their request for information was made in a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) application.

According to the attorneys, the journal the teenager kept outlined his educational aspirations, spoke of the prison-like conditions at the home and even drew a coffin.

The letter also noted that in August 2016, after the teenager was taken into the custody of the Authority, arrangements were made for the teen to be placed at the Rainbow Rescue Home for the boys and he was enrolled at the Belmont Secondary school.

Sometime later, the teenager was referred back to the Authority and while there arrangements were also made for him to return to his mothers home from time to time. He was then transferred to Credo House and stayed there for three weeks after which he was placed in the home in Valsayn, until he hanged himself in the bathroom of the facility.
Blind woman petitions Human Rights group

Juman, who is blind, claims she ought not to have been arrested and locked up in a police station cell on suspicion of having arms and ammunition.

Juman, 58, of Corinth Hills, San Fernando was arrested in 1998 at a house in La Romaine. After she fought in the local courts and then the Privy Council which threw out a malicious prosecution case she brought against the state, Juman petitioned the IACHR. She is asking the Commission to pronounce that in the hard-and-fast approach by police when conducting a search of premises, they failed to consider that a blind person living in a house would more than likely be unaware of the presence illegal items therein.

Juman is believed to be the first person in TT and quite possibly the Commonwealth to the IACHR, which is a body that usually hears from convicted murders whose appeals against the death penalty, have been exhausted.

Blind since 17, Juman has sought counsel from attorney Ted Roopnarine who filed a petition on her behalf with the IACHR.

I lost in the High Court, in the Appeal Court and in the Privy Council. This is not about money.

I want my name cleared and for all blind people to be treated with dignity according to law. How can you say a blind woman knew where guns were in a house, Juman said.

On September 30, 1998, police searched Jumans house which at the time she shared with her husband, two children, her mother and a sister. A bag with two guns and ammunition were found during the search. Everyone including the blind woman was arrested and charged with possession of an illegal firearm and ammunition. One of the persons charged, pleaded guilty and was fined $6,000. Juman, who weaves baskets at the San Fernando Blind Welfare Association, pleaded not guilty. After 20 hearings over two years, she was freed for lack of evidence and in April 2001, attorney Roopnarine filed a lawsuit for malicious prosecution.

Retired judge Shahfeyei Shah awarded Juman $17,000 for false imprisonment but dismissed her claim for malicious prosecution.

He ruled that police acted within the law in arresting her, although she is blind. Roopnarine appealed the ruling which was upheld in the Appeals Court. On December 1, 2016, her appeal was heard by three judges in the Privy Council in London and on February 20, the Law Lords ruled that police did not act outside of the law.

Juman then petitioned the IACHR of which TT is a signatory.

Juman told Newsday she has suffered tremendous embarrassment in being arrested, charged and brought to court in handcuffs. My world in one of total darkness. How will I know if someone brings something illegal in my house? I cant understand why they arrested and charged me, Juman said.

The IACHR has written to attorney Roopnarine indicating that Jumans matter is receiving immediate attention. The IACHR has posted Jumans case on its website.
CSEC app for results

The five main features of the App are news feed, frequently asked questions, live chat, events and examinations results. E-texting and voice notes is similar to what is done in the mobile Whatsapp. The app will keep stakeholders informed, providing an interactive platform that is accessible and easy.

Speaking about the need for the app, CXC Registrar, Mr Glenroy Cumberbatch said, increasingly, more of CXC stakeholders are using their mobile devices to interact with CXC, and CXC has responded to this change in users consumption habits with the development of CXC Connect. The mobile app, he said, is aimed at enhancing stakeholder interaction and communication and by extension improving stakeholder satisfaction.
Vans used as ambulance

He said some ambulances used to transport patients to hospitals are glorified mini buses illequipped to deal with emergencies. Stuart said government is to be blamed for this as they never set up an Ambulance Authority Board.

Stuart said many are using panel buses, changing the colour and passing it off as ambulances.

He said the most reliable ambulance service in the country is Global Medical Response (GMR). Stuart expressed disappointment with the Emergency Health Services (EHS) which he claimed are using improvised mini buses. The first internal ambulance arrangement was with the North West Regional Health Authority but now all the RHAs have in house ambulances which are really vans that they painted the word Ambulance and put in sirens. Stuart said when the RHAs came into being, the fleet of ambulances under the Ministry of Health were entrusted to the RHAs.

What happened and government is also to be blamed, they were supposed to set up an Ambulance Authority and an Ambulance Advisory Board.

These are two boards they have not set up to date and instead they have a retired doctor who oversee an operation which an entire department should be entrusted with, he said
Military to make amends

Last week Thursday, the Defence Force issued an apology to Maharaj for wrongly ascribing blame to him for civilians, namely children of Attorney General Faris Al-Rawi, being allowed onto off-limit areas at Camp Cumuto and to hold Defence Force owned and commissioned machineguns last October.

This inaccurate finding was contained in a report issued by a Board of Inquiry which was constituted to investigate the breach of military rules after Opposition MP Roodal Moonilal waved photos of the AGs children posing with the weapons during a sitting of the Lower House last October.

Maharaj, who from day one, has strenuously denied ever giving any permission to the AG or anyone else to have civilians enter Camp Cumuto sought under the Freedom of Information Act, to get a copy of the Board of Inquirys report.

On April 25, then Chief of Defence Staff Brigadier General Rodney Smart, by letter, stated, It was established that the former Chief of Defence Staff Major General Kenrick Maharaj, acting on his own volition, authorised the range practice. The TTDF subsequently set up a Board of Inquiry to investigate.

Maharaj last week Thursday, received a response from Lt Col Sheldon Ramnanan, which stated, The record of proceedings of the Board of Inquiry did not name you, Major General Kenrick Maharaj, nor did it state that you had any knowledge of the subject range practice and or that you granted approval for same to be conducted.

The Defence Force sincerely apologises for any inconvenience and or embarrassment caused to you by the aforementioned. Contacted for comment last week, Maharaj said, the responses did not meet my expectations and I have chosen to reserve comment until I decide my next move. Newsday understands that over the weekend, Captain Pritchard reached out to Maharaj on his return from Miami and agreed to provide a more comprehensive response to his (Maharaj) request for a copy of the report of proceedings of the Board of Enquiry.

Sources revealed that Captain Pritchard apologised verbally to Maharaj.
PoS mayor offers sympathy

This happened after yesterdays statutory meeting of Portof- Spain City Council at City Hall, during which time the residents plight was raised by councillor June Durham.

Resident Kingsley Hinkson said for all his 70-plus years he lived at his Woodbrook house in which his parents had also previously lived. On Tuesday he was fined by three litter wardens for the manner in which he put his garbage out for collection.

Saying his family has put out their garbage the same way for the past 100 years they have lived there, he vowed not to pay the fine.

I put it out at 8.30 am on the pavement in front of my property, Hinkson said.

All residents have it on the pavement at a specified time.

We have a regular collection of garbage so if you put it out by 10 am it is gone. Hinkson said the wardens said it should have been in a bin or on a wall to be away from disruption by vagrants.

Martinez said he could not advise residents whether or not to pay the fines which are due by Monday, and if unpaid or contested could attract a further fine of thousands of dollars. He promised to look into the fines issued but offered no promises.

Health Inspector Mitra Sooklal said he could not rescind the penalties.

He said from now on he would allow a grace period for residents to put out their garbage for collection without penalty.

Sooklal said he will look at the tickets issued but said the litter wardens may have a different version of events to justify the tickets. Meanwhile he suggested residents place their garbage bags on their wall to await collection.

One resident related garbage trucks were refusing to collect her bush cuttings. Sooklal said she must contact the Transport and Collection Unit to arrange to collect these. Theres no specific day for collection of tree cuttings. Another said the litter wardens should instead patrol the club-lined Ariapita Avenue as she picks up 25 empty bottles every Saturday. Lamenting loud noise from bars (all night through to 6.30 am), from limers, slamming car doors and pounding music from passing cars, another woman asked, How much more can we take?.

Ramona Guichard complained of the hours she spent after Carnival trying to clean the stench of alcohol and urine from her yard Deputy Mayor Hillan Morean urged the purchase of decibel meters and for the EMA to train the City Police in noise control.

Martinez told Newsday that unlike magistrates at a liquor licensing session being able to refuse a licence if enough neighbours object, the corporation does not likewise register bars, but only gives approval for construction activity or change of use of premises.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has offered his condolences to the Government of Morocco following the killing of two more Moroccan peacekeepers deployed in the Central African Republics south-eastern city of Bangassou.

This incident brings to nine the number of peacekeepers killed in service in Bangassou since the beginning of the year, said a statement issued by a Spokesman for the Secretary-General.

According to the UN Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in the Central African Republic (MINUSCA), two of its Moroccan peacekeepers were killed in an ambush in Bangassou by suspected anti-Balaka fighters, while another peacekeeper was slightly injured. The incident followed the killing of a Moroccan peacekeeper on Sunday.

In the statement, the Secretary-General urged the Central African authorities to swiftly investigate this incident and all previous killings and bring the perpetrators to justice without delay.

The Secretary-General is deeply concerned at the fighting in the countrys southeast, heightened inter-ethnic tensions and efforts by spoilers to derail the stabilization process, added the statement.

If allowed to continue, the prevailing situation risks undermining the hard-won gains achieved towards lasting peace. The Secretary-General calls on all parties to cease violence and to take action to avoid a further deterioration of the fragile security situation in the country, the statement underlined.

The UN Security Council also joined in the condemnation of the attack. In a press statement, the Council expressed its readiness to apply sanctions against individuals and groups responsible for acts of undermining peace, stability or security in the country, including attacks against MINUSCA peacekeepers.

The 15-member body also called on all parties to cease violence immediately, and underlined the need for the Central African authorities, the sub-region and the international community to work in a concerted manner to avoid a further deterioration of the situation.

Morocco is participating with 1470 peacekeepers in MINUSCA, which has a total of 12,870 uniformed personnel including 10,750 military personnel and 2,080 police personnel.

CAR descended into civil war in 2013 following removal of Christian President Francois Bozize by Muslim armed group, Seleka. The civil war has left hundreds dead and caused mass internal and external displacement of refugees.
Lamar Alexander, chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, is one of six Republican senators who voted for an Obamacare straight repeal bill in 2015 and against it today. Photo: Zach Gibson/Getty Images

As expected, the Obamacare Repeal Reconciliation Act, a.k.a. the repeal without replacement legislation that Congress enacted in 2015 knowing Barack Obama would veto it, was defeated on the Senate floor today. The margin of defeat was a bit wider than expected: 45 yeas and 55 nays, with seven Republicans voting against it. Thats a bit better than last nights 43 votes for the main replace-and-repeal legislation, the Better Care Reconciliation Act, although technically that was a procedural vote.

Whats most interesting, particularly to the conservatives who really like this legislation and would like to use it as a club with which to smite RINO moderates, is that six of the seven Republicans voting nay on ORRA voted for virtually the same legislation in 2015: Senators Alexander, Capito, Heller, McCain, Murkowski, and Portman. Susan Collins, who has been a model of consistency, voted against it in 2015 as well.

Republican backsliding on the 2015 bill has been underway all year; unhappiness with it was a large part of what killed the basic strategy of repeal and delay back in January. (Several ORRA supporters, most notably Rand Paul, flip-flopped on that strategy between then and now.) So there are plenty of people vulnerable to finger-pointing and accusations of cowardice now that the Senate is firing live ammo instead of making empty symbolic gestures.

And thus the GOP takes another step in its long march away from its own past positions on health-care policy. Between now and Friday, when the process in the Senate now underway is tentatively scheduled to conclude after a lot more debate and many, many votes on amendments, we will learn if Republicans can find its bearings at all, or just kick the can down the road to a House-Senate conference committee.
Blake Dremann (center). Photo: Blake Dremann/Facebook

Without warning  even to the Pentagon  President Trump announced via Twitter Wednesday that the U.S. military will no longer accept or allow transgender people to serve in any capacity. He seemed to have arrived at this decision to help secure funding for his border wall from fellow Republicans but, perhaps to his surprise, the party is divided on the issue. The move may be unconstitutional, so its yet another Trump administration policy thats likely to be decided by the courts.

Though Trump used the term transgender people, its important to be specific here. Transgender is an umbrella term that includes people such as drag kings and queens, cross-dressers, and other gender-nonconforming groups. Most notably, it includes a subset of people for which there, at the moment, is no better term than transsexual. This group  which often gets the most media attention  suffers from a medical condition known as gender dysphoria, most prominently characterized by extreme discomfort with the primary and secondary sex characteristics of ones body, to the point where the only known and effective treatment is cross-sex hormones and sex-reassignment surgeries, as needed.

So, what does Trumps decision mean for transsexual  and transgender  people currently serving in the military? Daily Intelligencer spoke with Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, who was the first openly transgender individual promoted after Defense Secretary Ashton Carter lifted the ban on transgender troops. Dremann is now the president of SPART*A, an LGBT advocacy organization for active duty servicemembers and vets, and he weighed in on what Trumps ban might mean for him and the military community he represents.

Some people argue that Trump is right to ban transgender people from the military because servicemembers may suffer mental or psychological problems. How do you respond to that?

They are woefully misinformed. Thats really what it comes down to. They refuse to accept the science that we are perfectly fit to serve and weve been doing it with and without treatment for decades within the military. Not to mention, were backed up by medical studies, both by Rand and the New England [Journal] of Medicine. So, to say that Im unfit is a slap in the face for the stuff that Ive done. Ive been to Afghanistan. Ive been onboard ships. Ive been onboard submarines. I was awarded the Navys highest logistics award in 2015.

Trumps mentioned the tremendous medical costs incurred by transgender service members. It seems to me, what gets lost in all of this, is that those sex-reassignment surgeries are medically necessary.

Those are the prescribed treatments and theyve been the same for the last 50 years. The misinformation that were fighting on that is that a large portion of the population still views transgender-related surgeries as elective. In spite of the research thats been done and in spite of the fact that, hey, if we do this and we treat them, we retain quality servicemembers. We dont need to train anybody new or bring up anybody in the ranks.

How did you hear about Trumps decision? What was your initial reaction?

I found out today while I was at work by pulling up CNN to check the news. My initial reaction was shock and surprise. Then I had to go outside and collect myself so that I could continue to be a strong pillar for the servicemembers of SPART*A, the organization I lead, and maintain that calm demeanor. But in order to do that I needed to take ten minutes to collect myself. But that was the reaction. Little bit of shock, little bit of fear, and then had to buck up and continue down the path.

And how has today unfolded for you?

I have had several friends and family reach out and express their support. Ive still yet to answer my panicked mother on what this all means. Its one of those things where my commanders are fully supportive of me and what I do. They understood that I needed to leave today to take care of this thing, to put some fires out.

So your commanders gave you the rest of the day off?

Yeah. They knew I was gonna need to go handle some personal things with regards to this. So just like a family emergency  which for me this is exactly what it was  I took off the rest of the day. I needed to handle some things here in order to both calm the servicemembers that I lead as well as make sure that our stories were getting out. In order to show people, Hey, this is uncalled for.

Ive been overwhelmed with lots of messages and words of support and interviews to basically put out there that, hey, were already here, were already serving, we do not impact readiness. Weve not shown any disruption to services with regards to operations. Transgender service is not, any way shape or form, a reason why a service cannot carry out a mission. That hasnt happened. Theyve all been able to do the mission that theyve done.

Did you get treatment while you were in the military?

I did.

Could you describe that? What was that process like?

I started my medical transition in November 2013, before we were even talking about changing the ban. I started with therapy before that in 2012. At the time, I was stationed on a U.S. submarine, and completed two deployments while I was on the submarine on hormones. [The therapy and hormones] were out of my own pocket through a civilian provider. My medical did not move to the military until September 2016. So, all of my medical procedures were paid for out of pocket at that point. Unbeknownst to the military, for the most part.

Can you elaborate on that last point?

The transition in general. I just didnt tell them and I continued to do my job as Ive always done.

You just took the steps as they came without notifying anybody?Correct. Other than my civilian doctor.

The military currently covers medical care related to gender dysphoria. Why did you have to go through the private route?Through the private route all I had done was hormones. Any surgery I received has been done through the military.

When did you tell your commanders that you were undergoing this medical process?

I first informed my commanders in June of 2015 right before the announcement that they were going to review the policy. Their concern was more that I was being treated properly and they knew that the policy was likely to change so they understood the difference between doing things the right way and doing the right thing. Thats how we handled it up until the policy change in June of last year.

Are these the same commanders who youre serving under now?No. Ive since moved to a different command. Im still in D.C., but under a different command. Theyre still fully committed and fully supportive of me and my service.

What happens now?

We are exploring our options as to what we can do to move forward. One of the big things to remember is that right now, its just a tweet. Neither the military nor the president have issued actual policy. Until that happens  and even after, if they do end up changing policy  we will continue to serve our nation as we always have until they tell us that we cant. And then well determine our legal strategies to move forward.
A lot of people dont realize Sam Brownback was one of the nations chief culture warriors before ruining his states fiscal health. Photo: Mark Reinstein/Corbis via Getty Images

The Jaws of Life have come to rescue Sam Brownback from the car wreck his fiscal stewardship made of Kansas: Donald Trump is appointing the Sunflower States governor to head up the Office of International Religious Freedom. There is no question his departure from Topeka improves the electoral prospects of his deeply divided party: hes dueling with Chris Christie for the title of Americas Least Popular Governor. He owes his competitiveness in this matchup to the experiment in supply-side economics he conducted during his first term, with massive tax cuts the GOP-controlled legislature was finally forced to rescind earlier this year, overriding his veto. Politics aside, it could take Kansas years to reverse the damage to public schools and the states fiscal reputation that the subsequent budget deficits caused, all thanks to Sam Brownback.

It is probably less widely appreciated, however, that his new gig lets Brownback return to the earlier arc of his career: As a two-term U.S. senator, Brownback became known as one of the countrys most fervent Christian-right politicians. He was a member of the shadowy conservative Christian power-elite group the Fellowship; a disciple of meta-culture-warrior Chuck Colson; and a former evangelical turned Catholic by way of the controversial conservative group Opus Dei. Unsurprisingly, Brownback was dubbed Gods Senator in a rather frightening profile by Jeff Sharlet that appeared in 2006. In one prototypical action, in 2004, Brownback traveled to Alabama to be present for the unveiling of a blatantly theocratic Constitution Restoration Act, designed to remove church-state conflicts from the jurisdiction of the federal courts.

But then Brownbacks rise hit a large bump in the road. Running for president in 2008, he became engaged in what amounted to a sub-primary against Mike Huckabee for the designation as the Christian rights champion. At the 2007 GOP straw poll in Ames, that great winnower of Republican presidential fields, Brownback finished behind Huck, and quickly faded from sight, while the Arkansan went on to win the Iowa caucuses and become for a while the GOP flavor of the month. His national aspirations dashed, Brownback decided to return to Kansas and run for governor, and the rest is history.

It will be interesting to see how much of his theocratic background Brownback carries into his new gig (assuming hes confirmed by the Senate, which tends to happen more easily with former colleagues). This tidbit from Sharlets profile might be an alarming hint:

Given to framing his own faith in terms of battles, he believes that secularists and Muslims are fighting a worldwide war against Christians  sometimes in concert. Religious freedom is one of his top priorities, and securing it may require force. Hes sponsored legislation that could lead to regime change in Iran, and has proposed sending combat troops to the Philippines, where Islamic rebels killed a Kansas missionary.

Lets just say Brownbacks perspective on religious freedom will probably differ from that of his predecessor, Rabbi David Saperstein, a member of the board of People for the American Way, that great institutional antagonist of the Christian right. We can only hope some members of the Senate prepare by reading up on Brownbacks first act.
Sad! Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

Trumpcare began Thursday wheezing and disoriented, a half-dead, bedridden bill that had become unrecognizable to its own parents.

Then, the Senate Parliamentarian took a sledgehammer to its rib cage.

Early Thursday afternoon, the parliamentarian ruled that waivers allowing states to opt out of Obamacares protections for people with preexisting conditions  and the laws essential health-benefits requirements  violated the rules of budget reconciliation, and, thus, required 60 Senate votes to be enacted.

This is huge. Without those waivers, Trumpcare would have been buried back in March. Paul Ryan was only able to get Obamacare repeal out of the House by placating conservatives deregulatory demands: The Freedom Caucus had no interest in Obamacare lite until those waivers were added to the bill.

And the Senates tea-party faction has demanded even more drastic measures to erode the Affordable Care Acts regulations. Now, any attempt to expand the liberty of insurance companies to discriminate against sick people  or to sell cheap plans that dont actually protect enrollees against serious illness  appears doomed.

At this point, the only way for Republicans to roll back the ACAs individual market regulations would be to overrule the parliamentarian.

But such a move would change lawmaking in the United States forever, and in a manner that might be detrimental to the conservative movements long-term goals. Right now, Senate majorities can only pass major legislation with a 50-vote majority if such legislation does not increase the budget deficit ten years after it is enacted. All other bills are subject to a filibuster by the minority party, and, thus, a de facto 60-vote threshold. This gives the party that wishes to reduce the size of government a structural advantage  one Mitch McConnell has shown little interest in forfeiting. But if Senate Republicans establish the precedent that majorities can simply ignore the parliamentarian, then the next Democratic-controlled Senate could, ostensibly, pass single-payer health care with 50 votes, no matter the impact on the deficit.

Maybe repealing Obamacare is important enough to conservatives to justify that risk. But its far from clear that Republicans will ever be able to find 50 Senate votes for a major overhaul of the law. And the last thing McConnell wants to do is neuter the parliamentarian and then fail to repeal Obamacare, anyway.

So, lets assume that the tea partys deregulatory dreams are dead. That means McConnells current strategy for keeping Trumpcare alive just got a whole lot more dangerous. As of this writing, the majority leaders plan is to pass skinny repeal  a package of Obamacares least popular provisions  through the Senate this week, and then, to have Senate and House leaders hash out a more comprehensive version of health-care reform in a conference committee. This was always a bizarre and hazardous gambit.

The provisions that skinny repeal eliminates  the individual mandate, employer mandate, and medical device tax  may all be unpopular, but if the bill were actually passed into law, it would be a political disaster for the Republican Party. Without the individual mandate, the risk pools in Obamacares individual marketplaces will grow even sicker. Or, at least, so insurance companies believe. And for GOP incumbents, that will be the only thing that matters: If skinny repeal becomes law, insurers will defensively jack up their premiums. Consumers will feel the pain within weeks. And, having passed a health-care bill, Republicans will no longer be able to blame that pain on Obamacare.

According to the Congressional Budget Office, repealing the individual mandate without a replacement would boost premiums by 20 percent, while increasing the ranks of the uninsured by between 15 and 16 million. Some of those individuals would be going without insurance solely because theyre no longer subject to a mandate  but others will voluntarily opt out of insurance simply because the increase in premiums will leave them unable to afford coverage.

As Texas senator John Cornyn has made clear, the point of passing skinny repeal isnt to pass skinny repeal; its to move the process to a conference committee, and give the GOP leadership more time to pressure and bribe fence-sitting senators. But if that conference committee will be powerless to roll back Obamacares regulations on insurers  or, even to defund Planned Parenthood, as the parliamentarian has previously ruled  its hard to see how House conservatives ever get onboard with a broader repeal bill. And if they dont, a Senate-approved, skinny repeal bill will just be sitting there, ready to become law, any time a majority of House Republicans decide that theyd rather repeal a little of Obamacare than none of it.

All of which is to say: McConnell probably cant get skinny repeal through the Senate without the votes of Republicans who dont want the House to actually pass it. But after the parliamentarians ruling, there is no reason for anyone to be confident that Paul Ryans caucus wouldnt.

Who knew trying to overhaul one-sixth of the American economy over lunch could be so complicated?
Senator Joni Ernst, an Iraq War veteran. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images

When President Trump got online this morning and tweeted that transgender troops will no longer be allowed in the U.S. military, it caught the Pentagon and many GOP lawmakers by surprise. Hours later, the White House is likely surprised too, because rather than greeting Trumps announcement with the glee officials appear to have expected, some GOP lawmakers are ripping the ruling.

Senators John McCain and Joni Ernst, who both served in the military, were among the first to speak out against the all-out ban on transgender troops.

Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, McCain said in a statement. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Ernst said, She believes what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life. Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity.

Senator Richard Shelby joined his colleagues, telling CNN that everybody should have a chance to serve.

.@SenShelby on transgender military ban: "You ought to treat everybody fairly & give everybody a chance to serve" https://t.co/Xj3yDt3QUH  CNN Newsroom (@CNNnewsroom) July 26, 2017

A fourth Republican Senator, Utahs Orrin Hatch, joined his colleagues after declaring on Twitter that he stands with transgender Utahns.

In a written statement to USA Today Hatch went further than the other senators and suggested that transgender people should not only be allowed to serve, but that [t]ransgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.

As the critiques of Trumps tweets poured in, Politico revealed Wednesday afternoon that he made the announcement after House Republicans asked him to ban the Pentagon from paying for surgery allowing servicemembers to transition.

No one was even asking him to ban transgender troops. But he did it anyway, because as one official told Politico, Its not the worst thing in the world to have this fight. The White House just didnt think it would be having this fight with members of its own party.
Dean Heller has a terrible choice ahead of him. Photo: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call,Inc.

Nevada senator Dean Heller is having a pretty miserable day. First Hellers amendment expressing symbolic support for maintaining Medicaid funding failed by a vote of 10-90. Then on Wednesday night, this happened:

Group of 10 bipartisan governors urges the Senate to the "skinny repeal" bill. pic.twitter.com/0U2sfZDR3g  Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) July 27, 2017

Obviously this does not bode well for the GOPs effort to pass skinny repeal, which would eliminate Obamacares individual and employer mandates, as well as the medical-device tax. But it could be fatal to the GOP repeal push due to one name on the list: Republican Nevada governor Brian Sandoval.

Earlier in the day, Heller indicated he would support skinny repeal as long as it doesnt include cuts to Medicaid (though, hes rightly worried that House Republicans would just attack Medicaid once its in a conference committee). Well see at the end of the day whats in it, but overall I think Id support it, Heller said.

Governors and senators disagree all the time, but the split between Heller and Sandoval could be hugely significant. When Heller announced his opposition to a previous GOP bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, he repeatedly cited Sandovals disapproval.

If you want my support (on repealing Obamacare)  you better make sure that the Republican governors that have expanded Medicaid sign off on it, Heller said at the press conference. Ive been saying that for months [] Where is Governor Sandoval? What does he think?

Back in June, Jon Ralston, the influential editor of the Nevada Independent, told Slate he wasnt surprised that Heller  the most vulnerable Republican senator up for reelection in 2018  sided with his states popular governor over his Senate colleagues:

He tethered himself to the most popular elected official in Nevada, who was the first Republican governor to expand Medicaid, and has hyped that ever since as putting hundreds of thousands of Nevadans on the rolls who otherwise would not be. Heller, not surprisingly, kept saying in the run-up to that news conference that he wanted to consult with the governor and see what the governor thinks. Heller is so vulnerable  he is the only Republican incumbent running in a state won by Hillary Clinton  and his numbers are terrible, and the health care bills numbers are terrible. I think the political calculus was pretty obvious.

But then, according to the New York Times, President Trump had his two pals Sheldon Adelson and Steve Wynn  the billionaire casino moguls and major GOP benefactors  call Heller to register their displeasure.

Whatever bill materializes in the next few days, Republicans can only afford two defections. Senators Susan Collins and Lisa Murkowski voted against even starting debate on the health bill, so theres a good chance theyll oppose skinny repeal, too. It may all come down to whether Heller decides to stand by Nevadas popular Republican governor or its wealthiest donors.
Mitch McConnell needs more time to write a health care plan. Photo: Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call

At times, various factions in Congress have called for repealing, replacing, or repairing Obamacare. Senate Republicans have been unable to agree on which of these ends to pursue, and so instead they are driving toward a policy that would, astonishingly, do none of them. The new plan is what they call a skinny bill, which would eliminate the employer and individual mandate and a tax on device makers. The only coherent end it serves, and the only way to understand this bizarre idea, is as the latest expression of the partys years-long quest to avoid having to define a health-care plan.

The skinny bill, taken on its own terms, would leave the vast majority of Obamacare in place. The expansion of Medicaid would be untouched, as would its regulations on insurance and tax credits to make insurance affordable. Eliminating the individual mandate, though, would do severe damage to the exchanges. People could go without insurance, and then choose to buy in when they need medical care, which would drive up the cost of premiums.

Before Obamacare, a handful of states tried to regulate insurance to prohibit discrimination against people with preexisting conditions. But doing this without subsidies and an individual mandate simply drove healthy people out of the markets and created a death spiral. Analysts on the right and the left alike concluded these experiments were a failure. Conservatives have proposed various alternatives to the individual mandate, but the skinny bill does not contain any of these. It simply eliminates an important function of the current law.

Its not clear whether the skinny bill would melt down the individual market altogether. Theres not much study of this as a stand-alone policy, mainly because its a terrible idea nobody has ever thought to propose, and Republicans came up with it just this week in a mad rush. The tax credits in Obamacare might create a stable-enough customer base. (Low-income consumers can get insurance for free, so they have no reason to skip out until theyre sick.) And some states, prodded by nervous insurers, might create a state-level mandate to replace the disappearing federal one. But it is clear that the skinny bill would damage the markets and increase premiums while advancing no coherent policy objective.

The point, rather, is to reduce the repeal agenda to its most popular constituent elements, pass something that 50 Republicans can live with, and then create a chance to go to conference with the House and rewrite the proposal. Republicans are very clear about their belief that the skinny plan is not intended to be passed into law. If we can get a skinny bill over (to the House), we can work in the conference committee to actually improve on the product, South Dakota Republican senator Mike Rounds told reporters. The content of the bill is not the point, says Senator Bob Corker, who calls it a forcing mechanism.

But what would the conference bill actually do? Nobody is saying, probably because they have no real idea. Republicans are no closer to solving the problem of designing an Obamacare replacement now than they were when the Senate began its debate weeks ago. Indeed, theyre no closer now than they were when the health-care debate began in 2009.

The GOPs failure to cohere around a proposal is not an incidental problem. It is a fundamental and unsolvable one. Conservative dogma is wholly incompatible with the development of any health-care plan that is remotely acceptable to the public. The only solution in the face of this dilemma is to denounce Obamacare while promising something different and better to come along at a later date.

The Republican Party has stuck to the strategic imperative of putting off its plan as unswervingly as the Russian empire pursued its goal of securing a warm water port. It is why Republicans never developed an alternative during the health-care debate that might have peeled away moderate Democrats. It is why their years of repeal votes always promised a replacement to come later. It is why their first and best plan after Trumps election handed them power was a two-stage repeal and delay.

The alternative to this endless farce is to admit the process of developing a Republican-only repeal and replace of Obamacare is a failure. It would be easy, almost trivially easy, to patch up the law and bring down premium costs  simply halting deliberate sabotage by the Trump administration would be enough. But this would admit that the party has spent eight years making promises that it could not fulfill. And a liar who is caught usually prefers to delay exposure as long as possible.
A man with nothing to hide. Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Donald Trump has spent much of the past week publicly humiliating the most effective member of his cabinet  a man who was one of his campaigns earliest supporters and is, to this day, a hero to his base.

He has done this on the (publicly stated) grounds that the attorney generals first obligation is to insulate the president from federal investigation, and that Jeff Sessions betrayed that solemn responsibility when he recused himself from the investigation into Trumps campaign (in deference to the most basic ethical norms of the legal profession).

This behavior has earned Trump the disapproval of the mainstream press (which objects to his contempt for the rule of law), but also the opprobrium of right-wing outlets and his most stalwart congressional allies (who want Trump to let Sessions focus on what really matters: denying civil-rights protections to gay people, terrorizing the undocumented, and giving police officers free reign to take the lives and property of the working poor, whenever they see fit).

Trumps actions have also caused alarm among his lawyers, who are reportedly concerned that the presidents harassment of Sessions  and his public demand that special counsel Robert Mueller ignore his finances  might put Trump in legal jeopardy, ostensibly by opening the door to obstruction of justice charges.

But the president has told told his legal advisers not to worry  his attacks on the attorney general and special counsel wont put him at any legal risk because theres no underlying crime to obstruct. Which is to say: He isnt sowing discord in his cabinet and threatening rule of law in the country out of rational fear, but merely mindless spite.

Or so this report from the Washington Post suggests:

Several lawyers around Trump have been urging the president to stop his saber-rattling against Sessions and Mueller, according to three advisers. The president has countered that he believes the probe is a mere political attack  a witch hunt and hoax, as he often says on Twitter  and that he has no legal jeopardy to worry about.

But several lawyers have told Trump that his comments send a signal to Mueller that the president is trying to shut down or curtail the probe, as though he does have something to hide.

Trump has largely shrugged off these concerns. In his mind, he is his own best advocate, his own best lawyer, one adviser said. Hes not willing to let the Mueller probe and other events unfold without taking action himself. 

If this is accurate, then the presidents position is insane for at least three distinct reasons:

(1) You can be found guilty of obstruction of justice, even if you were innocent of the allegations that sparked the investigation you obstructed.

(2) At this point, Trump cannot claim that he has nothing to hide without confessing that he is helplessly self-destructive. This is not a man who brushes up on the U.S. presidents pardon powers out of sheer intellectual curiosity. If he truly believes that the Russia investigation is solely a crisis of bad optics, then he has done virtually everything in his power to make that crisis worse, ostensibly in reaction to fleeting paranoid delusions brought on by anxiety.

(3) If we make the (safe-seeming) assumption that Trump does have good reason to fear Muellers investigation, then he is lying to his lawyers. Which is to say, he is putting himself in legal jeopardy for the sake of keeping up (transparently false) appearances in private conversations with his attorneys.

As of this writing, Trump and Sessions seem poised to kiss, oppress some minorities, and make up. The president was reportedly mulling the idea of firing Sessions, then appointing a crony as attorney general over the congressional recess, thereby avoiding a nettlesome confirmation process. But Senate Democrats have already indicated they will block that path, by preventing the upper chamber from ever formally adjourning. And top Senate Republicans have indicated that if Sessions is fired there will be holy hell to pay and no new attorney general nominee confirmed any time this year. Meanwhile, South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham has announced that he will be introducing legislation that would bar the president from firing the special counsel absent judicial review.

Meanwhile, Sessions is, reportedly, preparing to work his way back into Trumps good graces by cracking down on leakers within the administration.

But no matter how events proceed from here, Trumps feud with his attorney general has once again confirmed that he is either guilty of serious crimes or incapable of anticipating the consequences of his own actions  or both.
Now there's a name I wasn't expecting in 2017.

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1. Who?

2. Bye

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Mte

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She's married to a black guy & thinks she can wear a headdress + war paint because she's ~part Native American~. That's all you need to know

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She's some girl who sang a Sims Urbz song.

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dying rn

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omg that game was so shitty

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calling her a 9/11 victim feels idk... wrong?

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ya ia



I know the OP was trying to say something ridiculous about her ridiculous claim to poke fun at her, but still...

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Also her name is Willa not Will which drunk mod accepted this post lol

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Yeah the subject title is really tasteless.

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I read the article and didn't really get the feeling that she was blaming her shitty career on 9/11, she kind of just mentioned it as a contributing factor, which I'm sure it was. The other artists mentioned were way bigger than her and they also only mentioned albums that were released that day. Hers was just a second single from a lesser known popstar.

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to say the very least.

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i mean look at the OP

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Morals? On ONTD?



swish swish bish.

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Also POD's Satellite came out that day and I was going to ditch school to go meet them at my local tower records.

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lol POD. Haven't heard that name in a long ass time, totally forgot about them. Was such a fan back in the day.

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Lol.. that album was really good tbh

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Youth of a Nation was on the radio the other day. It was great.

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i blame her failed career on nick carter stans and their anti-willa ford websites

also her shitty music tbh

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Wait, I don't remember this. Did she date Nick?

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yes! she was mandy willaford back then lol everyone speculated that she started going by willa ford to try and escape the psychotic hatred directed her way. my 11 year old self wanted her dead tbh

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damn, the early 00's celeb web is vast.

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I remember there was a rumor (or maybe it was true?) that she slapped Nick and oh my god Nick fans went for her HARD.

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ugh I wish I could go back in time and tell my younger self that Nick wasn't worth it. Luckily I grew out of that whole hating celebrity girlfriends super quick - I think Willa Ford was the only one.

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Parents just don't understand.

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lmao. thank u for sharing this.

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lmfao

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lmfao



this sounds like an iconic family moment for you.

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Maybe your mom was the real reason Willa is not popular anymore

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lmaooo this made me cackle out loud, thank you

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omg I had forgotten all about CD singles. I used to have a double decker CD case with all of the singles. And sat for hours at my CD player to trade them out after every song lol.

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hahahahaaaa

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I can name 5 songs off the top of my head from all of these chicks except for Willa

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Lmao mte

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IDT she was ever lumped with them lol. She came after them and was much sexier iirc.

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IIRC she also claimed Britney doing "I'm a Slave 4 U" was influenced by her and her single "I Wanna Be Bad." this was in a website interview i read a looooong ass time ago. lmao.



like chica...por favor.

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Well there's a throwback. Now I remember Hulk Hogan's daughter's attempt at a music career too. Lord

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Let's not forget when Liz had a song co-written with JC Chasez with traces of NSYNC



Let's not forget when Liz had a song co-written with JC Chasez with traces of NSYNC

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"Do Your Thing" is such an underrated bop from NSYNC

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I loved that song but so many hated it, I guess because it wasn't pop enough.

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Are they lookin at cha hatin sayin' ooooooooh

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it seriously goes in omg

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This Liz bop was buried deep in my soundcloud likes ty for bringing it back to my attention

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I Wanna Be Bad is still a bop tho

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It's the perfect early 00's song. It captures everything about that era.

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lmao fucking excuse me?

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I Wanna Be Bad is my ho anthem! I still bop to it.

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is she serious?

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Wow... Willa Ford... now there's a name I haven't heard in awhile.

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As discussed over the weekend, the endgame in Venezuela is accelerating and it is now only a matter of time before the Maduro regime exits, stage left, the only question is whether he does so peacefully or with the sound of gunfire in the background. And, as we also noted last week, the collapse of the Maduro regime, will "one way or another, send oil prices up."

But while a regime change will certainly lead to violent swings in oil prices (mostly higher), even less volatile events could have a significant impact on the price of crude. According to an overnight report by Barclays' Warren Russell, "even limited new US-imposed sanctions or discussion of broader sanctions could be a catalyst for Venezuela defaulting on its upcoming debt payments, which would put upward pressure on oil prices and help tighten light-heavy spreads."

As it turns out, the timing of the note was apt because this morning, the Trump administration announced it was imposing sanctions on 13 senior officials of Venezuela's government, as well as military and state oil company PDVSA, "seeking to ratchet up pressure on President Nicolas Maduro to scrap plans for a controversial new congress." As Reuters reported, the United States decided to target individuals for alleged human rights abuses and corruption, while sparing the country for now from broader financial or sectoral sanctions against its vital oil industry "though such actions are still under consideration."

The move is aimed at showing Maduro's socialist government that U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to make good on his threat of strong and swift economic actions if it goes ahead with plans for a vote on Sunday to establish an assembly that critics say will cement Maduro as dictator, the officials said.

So in that gray zone in which Maduro is still in control, but the U.S. sanctions against Venezuela are escalating - as is the case now - what happens to the price of oil? The 15 second answer, according to Barclays, is that it depends on the duration of the disruption. If the sanctions do not lead to a long-term economic disruption, Barclays expects the U.S. to consider Strategic Petroleum Reserve sales as a backstop. "Ample government and commercial stocks are likely to mitigate the severity and duration of any upside price move over a 2-3-month time frame. However, quality differences may become evident as U.S. SPR stocks are mostly 30 API or higher."

However, "a sharper and longer disruption (eg, exceeding three months) could raise oil prices at least $5-7/b and flatten the curve structure despite an assumed return of some OPEC supply, a more robust US shale response, and weaker demand. It may be just the opportunity OPEC needs to exit its current strategy. US producer hedging activity would pick up if WTI moves to $50-55, limiting price upside potential."

Among the downstream consequences, is that refining margins should deteriorate if Venezuelan crude oil supply is curtailed. U.S. refiners will be negatively affected by any sanctions related to trade constraints. On the other hand, China and India could benefit if Venezuelan oil is offered at a discount to comparable grades, Barclays suggests.

Finally, looking at Venezuela from a longer-term perspective, this is how Barclays estimates the local investment climate:

It is too early to assess the investment appetite in Venezuela in a post-Maduro environment. Though Venezuelas assets are large, they are not short-cycle. Companies with deep connections to the country are likely to maintain a presence, but wait for the political landscape to stabilize before making incremental investments. Either way, it looks like Venezuelas production trend is down over the near term.

For those who are eager for more reasons to buy oil, there are more details in the full Barclays excerpt below:

Looming risk of sanctions against Venezuela

The Trump administration is considering a wide variety of sanctions against the Venezuelan regime, which could range from sanctions on several senior government officials to targeting PDVSAs ability to transact in U.S. dollars, according to Reuters. This would not be the first time the Trump administration has taken action against Venezuela. The U.S. already imposed sanctions on Venezuelas vice president (February 2017), eight members of the Supreme Court (May 2017), and other military and government officials. The most recent Supreme Court sanctions were in response to the courts decision to disband the democratically elected congress. The administrations recent discussion of potential new sanctions would aim to keep elections free and fair and prevent President Maduro from being able to establish a dictatorship, which could occur as early as July 30. Related: Anadarko Blinks First In The Shale Standoff

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The Trump administration is likely to proceed cautiously and incrementally with any sanctions. In contrast to the energy-related sanctions imposed on Russia and Iran, the more entrenched connections between U.S. companies and consumers and the Venezuelan oil industry lead us to believe that the U.S. administration will take a cautious approach.

Venezuela produces around 2.2 mb/d of oil and NGLs, which represents roughly 2 percent of the global petroleum market. Its Orinoco heavy oil plays a critical role as a feedstock for complex refineries around the world, particularly along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Close to half of its 1.8 mb/d of oil exports go to OECD countries, with Asia consuming most of the remainder. Venezuela is the third largest exporter of oil to the U.S. (?750 kb/d), behind Canada (3.2 mb/d) and Saudi Arabia (1.1 mb/d).

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As a guide to potential outcomes, we examine U.S. sanctions on Iran and Russia and their impact on the oil market. We find that the sanctions on Russia have not had a noticeable effect on its production or the oil market, while sanctions against Iran lowered its production and exports and supported oil prices. For more on sanctions on Russia and Iran, see the Appendix of this report. Related: Strong Draw In Crude Inventories Boosts Oil Prices

We see several important differences between the situation in Venezuela and those in Iran and Russia.

1. Unlike Russia and Iran, Venezuela is at significant risk of political and economic collapse. Low oil prices have greatly reduced the governments ability to pay its outstanding debts while funding imports of basic goods. As a result, President Maduro has taken decisions that have resulted in a deteriorating quality of life for Venezuelans in recent years. Amid the current instability, even limited sanctions are likely to have an outsized effect on the oil market.

2. A collapse in Venezuela could turn it into a regional crisis. More than 1.5mn Venezuelans have already fled the country because of the current crisis, this number could increase exponentially, affecting neighboring countries, particularly Colombia. The international community will need to support the region in a refugee crisis. In the case of Colombia, the situation could have additional implications because there are nearly 2mn Colombian and Colombian descendants living in Venezuela. Those people would likely be the first to cross the border and the Colombian government cannot deny them their rights as Colombian citizens. This could become significant fiscal burden for the Colombian government.

Venezuela needs to import oil and refined products to produce oil. Roughly 50 percent of Venezuelan production is heavy oil, which is typically blended with diluent for transportation purposes. Without access to diluent imports from the U.S. and elsewhere, certain Orinoco projects may be at risk of being shut-in. A trade embargo, sanctions that affect PDVSA, or a sovereign default could be catalysts for heavy oil shut-ins in the Orinoco. We estimated earlier this year that a default could take around 300 kb/d of heavy oil production offline (Commodities special report: The black swans of 2017, January 2017).

3. The current state of Venezuelas refinery sector necessitates fuel imports, which have been met in part by imports from the U.S. Plagued by underinvestment, Venezuelas refineries have been running well below nameplate capacity, with Bloomberg recently reporting that the Puerto La Cruz refinery is running at 15 percent utilization. Restricting fuel shipments to Venezuela would result in increased dependency on the PDVSAs dilapidated plants and imports from other origins to prevent the country coming to a standstill.

4. Venezuelas oil sector is much more intricately connected to the North American energy system, due to CITGOs presence in the U.S. and the dependence of other U.S. refineries on Venezuelan feedstock. This interdependency with the U.S. and the lesser connection with other OECD countries, mean Venezuelas position in the international energy system is quite different to that of Russia or Iran.

If the U.S. does impose further sanctions on Venezuela, it would likely take into account these differences. The use and timing of various sanctions will likely depend on how much the conflict escalates in the coming days and whether other factors (such as the potential for default on sovereign debt payments due in October and November), might be a catalyst for political change in the near future. In our view, if the Trump administration decides to issue sanctions, it would proceed conservatively and become increasingly restrictive only if its goals are not being achieved. One of the stated goals of the Trump administration is for Venezuela to hold free and fair elections, according to the White House press statement on July 17, 2017. Before implementing more aggressive sanctions, the administration is likely to seek multilateral support from other nations.

The EU recently expressed a willingness to impose sanctions on Venezuela as well. We believe sanctions could turn out to be a double-edged sword. Multilateral sanctions implemented after having exhausted negotiations are most likely to be successful. Nonetheless, history shows that sanctions alone are not enough to trigger political change, eg, Cuba, North Korea, and Syria. This finally depends on the level of internal pressure, which in Venezuela seems high.

Sanctions against individuals

Additional U.S.-imposed sanctions against government officials may be the next step. Such sanctions are likely to cause some inconvenience but probably would have only a limited impact on Venezuelas oil industry, in our view.

Sanctions on Venezuelas energy sector

Sanctions could take several forms, ranging from sanctions similar to those imposed on Russia to more disruptive ones that could completely halt existing operations.

- Sanctions that prohibit or limit investment in new exploration and production activity would not likely have an immediate direct impact on Venezuelan production. Many of the companies with equity stakes in Venezuelas new greenfield developments are headquartered in non-OECD countries. Furthermore, due to the current upstream investment environment and the increasing political risk within Venezuela, we believe upstream spending on greenfield projects is limited, with many projects shelved for future reconsideration.

- Sanctions prohibiting businesses from operating in Venezuela would be much more disruptive to Venezuelas current contribution to the oil market. A policy that would limit U.S. producer and service company operations and further investment in Venezuela, would require PDVSA and other international companies to step in to maintain operations. This scenario is likely to exacerbate Venezuelas declining production profile.

Sanctions against PDVSA

The U.S. could take an even more drastic approach by issuing direct sanctions against PDVSA. In an extreme scenario, if the NOC is banned from banking activity in the U.S. and from trading with U.S. entities, the impact would likely be swift and very damaging to Venezuelan oil production. Directly targeting PDVSA will also likely lead to a sovereign debt default in 2017. This action would affect Venezuelas petroleum imports and exports.

o PDVSA would have to find new destinations for nearly half of its oil exports, assuming production does not collapse. Currently, Venezuela ships more than 700 kb/d of oil to the U.S. and nearly 100 kb/d to the EU. China and India would likely be alternative destinations for some of this crude.

o PDVSA would also need to find a new source for some of its diluent needs. Algerian and Nigerian crude and condensates were previously used for diluent purposes and could substitute for shipments of U.S. crude and products used in the transport of heavy oil. PDVSA could ask it JV partners to import diluent, but the capacity to do this would depend on the extent of sanctions and other countries participation. Even if possible, this could also increase the production cost of these fields to levels that are not financially viable, which could ultimately result in shut-ins.

We believe the U.S. would implement such measures only as a last resort. In addition, the U.S. would likely seek multilateral support from other nations before taking this route. Such an action is likely to be severely disruptive to Venezuela as well as the oil market and its participants.

Sanctions against PDVSA would likely also mean that U.S. producers and service companies conducting business in Venezuela would have to cease operations, which would have an outsized effect on oil production compared to the effect of the U.S.-imposed sanctions on Russia. Compared with Russia, Venezuela is much more reliant on foreign oilfield service companies for oil extraction.

Discussions of broader sanctions likely limits Venezuelas access to capital

Regardless of whether new sanctions are imposed, discussion of broader sanctions could limit the Venezuelan governments ability to raise financing and to make debt payments coming due in October and November. Moreover, it could change the governments willingness to pay. If the current government wants to remain in control and not negotiate, it may be unwilling to use the few assets left to service its debt. As mentioned above, default alone would have a significant impact on oil production and the domestic economy.

The U.S. could sell oil from the SPR to steady the market

We believe the U.S. would consider the sale of oil from the strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) in order to smooth any price volatility that may result from a disruption to supply from Venezuela. The previous US administration was willing to tap the SPR to steady markets after the Libyan supply disruption, and we believe the current administration would consider this option as well. The U.S. did not sell oil from the SPR during the 2002-03 Venezuelan supply disruption and prices rose by more than 40 percent during that period, although other factors also contributed. We doubt a disruption will result in a 40 percent price increase in the event of a supply disruption, but we think prices will rise nonetheless. For this reason, we think the U.S. government would consider using the SPR as a backstop.

At present, we believe the price response to a disruption would be more muted than previous disruptions due to the apparent increased willingness of the U.S. to use its SPR, the fact that OPEC could raise quotas, and U.S. producers would begin to respond to sustained higher prices.

By Zerohedge.com

More Top Reads From Oilprice.com:
Brazil is a major oil producing country, but in 2016 was still a net importer, though imports dropped significantly and they have been a slight exporter overall so far this year. It is one of the few countries that have consistently grown production over recent years, and possibly the only non-OPEC country that will show overall growth of conventional crude in the ten years to (say) 2022.

Production

Brazil ANP or anp (Agencia Nacional do Petroleo, Gas Natural e Biocombustiveis) publishes Excel files for monthly production on all wells. In theory it should be easy to extract field data from these, in practice not so much. The files are downloaded from a database but not always consistently, sometimes in field units sometimes SI, sometimes one month per file sometimes more, around 2010 onshore and offshore was split but naming conventions werent always followed, handling of wildcat wells seems a bit arbitrary, and spelling conventions can change. However after more effort than I expected I did download the data and split it by basin and field.

The total production fits Jodi data well except for three periods: 2005 when the reports stated, and doesnt make much difference; 2010 when ANP split offshore and onshore reporting and the well files are a complete mess; and 2017, which may indicate that some of the data is revised (this should become evident as more releases are made over the next months).

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Land based production is a small component at about 130 kbpd. It averages over 90 percent water cut (and increasing) and is in long-term decline at over 9 percent per year (which also appears to be increasing recently). Petrobras is trying to sell off some of their holdings.

The gas and oil rigs combined for onshore and offshore are also shown. The majority is oil rigs for both off and onshore. It is interesting that their numbers started to decline in mid-2012 when oil prices were high and rising. I dont know the reason  could be to do with the financial and political problems in Petrobras, or associated with geology (i.e. a lack of exploration targets and development projects, which is probably the case for onshore drilling), or a move from many smaller shallow fields to fewer deep and ultra -deep rigs offshore.

The locations of the basins are shown here:

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Most of the production to date has come from the Campos basin (Campos actually just means fields in Portuguese). It and Espirito Santo are older basins now in decline at about 9 percent per year, combined. The big recent additions have been in the Santos basin, particularly Lula (which was Tupi at one time) and Sapinhoa. Note that gas production is not considered here though there are significant gas or gas/condensate fields in these basins, such as the Jupiter field. The charts below show C&C production from individual fields within Campos, Santos and others offshore. There isnt enough detail to show much of interest, but they are quite colourful.

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Most of the offshore production comes from large FPSOs, but there are shallow water platforms in smaller fields. Each of the larger fields in the charts above would have one to three FPSOs. Historically the FPSOs seem to start declining after about a six to twelve-month ramp up period. There are few showing any long plateau periods, though this may be different for Santos. Decline rates can vary from 5 percent up to 20 percent per year  i.e. to maintain production in a basin new FPSOs need to be continually bought on line.

Related: Daily OPEC Oil Prices Now Public For The First Time Ever

Water cut seems to be the biggest impact on decline rates. Campos and Espirito Santo started to decline once water cut hit 50 percent, and it is still rising in both. Santos fields seem to be low in water at the moment.

(Click to enlarge)

Reserves

ANP provide reserve data following SPE guidelines, however they seem to give only 1P, 3P and 1C numbers in their bulletins  i.e. providing upper and lower limits but not an expected 2P number. They give all numbers to six significant figures, so I guess they must be right. The stacked chart below shows the history for 1P and 3P crude and condensate reserves by state. Almost all the reserves are offshore in Rio de Janeiro and Espirito Santo States  i.e. the Campos and Santos basins. Note I could only find 2016 data by basin, some basins (e.g. Campos) split across two states so I pro-rated numbers bases on 2015 figures  the totals remain as given by ANP.

There was a big hit to reserves in 2015. This may have been partly price related but Forbes reported Petrobras as saying decline in reserves was due to other factors, primarily revisions of well estimates at its pre-salt sites offshore. In the context of the article the word other used there makes no sense, so theres still some ambiguity.

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Future Projections

From the 2016 reserves bulletin I estimated remaining recoverable reserves assuming 97 percent of 1P (which equals P1) and 50 percent of P2 plus P3 (which equals 3P minus 1P), as below. I didnt use 1C numbers but include them to show there isnt a huge upside there (these should be less than 10 percent probability of production). Numbers shown are mmbbls, converted from Mm used in the ANP report.

(Click to enlarge)

I fitted Verhulst equations for each of the three categories (Campos, Santos and others) based on the production data from 2005 till now, and ensuring the remaining production (out to infinity) equaled the numbers calculated above. I also added a guess at Libra production assuming 6,000 mmbbls (a bit less than the 8,000 sometimes reported, but then there hasnt been any production yet and it looks like their other pre-salt fields might not be as good as originally thought, and some of the reserves are already included in the ANP Santos numbers). To match the profile shown they would need to be approving major FPSO and drilling budgets next year, so the profile shown may be unrealistically aggressive as the Libra extended well test project hasnt even started yet.

(Click to enlarge)

(Sorry about the random changes in units.)

An alternative view of the future is to look at bottom up projection based on the projects identified by the E&P companies. Below shows such a scenario. Only the projects up to Bezios 4 have been approved and are under construction (plus possibly Peregrino, although I dont think there has been a formal FID). After that the capacities (shown as kbpd nameplate after the project name) and start up date are guesses. Most of the projects are in Santos but some (e.g. the Marlim revamp) are in Campos. Some have been cancelled, so Im assuming these would be revived given high enough prices.

Meeting this schedule for new projects in 2020 to 2023 is now unlikely. For Campos Petrobras use cloned FPSO designs that can be built in around three years, but these may not be suitable for the need for gas reinjection and ultra deep wells in Libra. They currently have higher priorities than development, in particular reducing debt (their interest is $6 billion per year), so other E&Ps would need to get involved. The developments also need latest generation drilling rigs and for Libra would be waiting for initial extended test results from the pilot projects. Petrobras vessels also have a history of major lost time incidents; only one or two such would knock production down considerably. While cloned designs reduce costs they can incur common mode failures; for example as all the gas injection risers on recent FPSOs seem to be seeing (pretty much the highest risk component on any offshore development) and such failures may also produce large downtime across several facilities.

(Click to enlarge)

Near term these projections are in-line with IEA (from OMR, June 2017): In all, Brazilian production is forecast to increase by 190 kb/d in 2017, with gains ramping up to 260 kb/d in 2018. The EIA STEO also has projections for Brail, but includes ethanol, which is highly seasonal and makes the numbers difficult to follow.

Related: The Next Big Catalyst In The U.S. Oil Export Boom

For longer term the new Santos pre-salt fields are the big hope. Lula is in production and Libra is being developed. Libra was discovered in in 2010 and may have up to 8 to 12 Gb recoverable, but it is expensive oil: ultra-deep, difficult wells, 40 percent carbon dioxide content in sour gas. The high CO2 means the gas has to be reinjected and provides pressure support, but even with this, extensive gas treatment facilities are required on board the production facilities. A consortium of companies won the rights to development, comprising Petrobras (the operator), Shell, Total, CNPC and CNOOC, They are starting with smaller developments to find the problems. To save money, Ive seen that they are looking at combined water and gas injection, which may not be ideal for the reservoir and introduces hydrate risk.

There have been reports that there may be over 100 Gb other oil in the pre-salt play (unrisked), but there is little current exploration  in addition to the price collapse, possibly because of Petrobras finance and corruption issues, or waiting for results from the initial Libra production tests or for help from outside interests (e.g. Statoil, ExxonMobil, Shell, Total, CNOOC, Repsol etc. are invested or looking to invest there). There have been other fields discovered in Santos, e.g. Iara and Iracema in 2008/2009, but there were also a number of high profile dry wells (i.e. expensive and operated by IOCs) in the basin in the years between the Tupi and Libra discoveries, and not much positive news since Libra, with some leases being given up even in the high price years. In addition the Santos basin geology is somewhat mirrored offshore Angola in the Kwanza province, which has proved pretty barren (and expensive) for the E&Ps. BP recently took a $750 million write-off against dry wells and lease costs there and have given up all leases. Other majors, including Statoil and Total, havent done much better. Cobalt (Cameia) and Maersk (Azul) seem to have the only announced discoveries there, but theres been little news on developing them; Cobalt is in litigation and Maersk has gone very quiet on Angola in general. There are differences with Brazil though, e.g. Santos is deeper and would have a better chance to seals the oil traps.

So overall does this indicate a coming Brazil peak? Probably yes near term, say around 2019/2020, but only more exploration and development will tell whether that could be exceeded again longer term. Statoil plan to be drilling wildcats later this year, the 14th bidding round has four significant offshore blocks up for lease starting in late July, but such things seem to go very slowly in Brazil: another Libra or another Kwanza  who knows, until they drill?

By George Kaplan via Peak Oil Barrel

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Royal Dutch Shell posted much better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter, a sign that the oil majors are adapting to a low oil price environment. Net profit jumped to $3.6 billion, more than triple the earnings for the same quarter in 2016.

Some analysts saw a lot to like in Shells financials. They bought BG, theyre shipping costs out of the business, cash flow is very robust and the industry itself is learning to live with oil at these prices, Brendan Warn, an analyst at BMO Capital Markets, told Bloomberg. Shell is showing its not just about disposals, but the entire business itself that is driving earnings.

Shell has some of the highest debt levels in the industry, but reported a third consecutive quarter in which it managed to whittle away at its debt pile. That eased concerns about the sustainability of its dividend  and Shell announced its dividend of $0.47 cents per share would stay the same for the second quarter.

The figures suggest that Shell and its peers are back in business, even with oil prices stuck roughly at $50 per barrel. According to projections from Sanford C. Bernstein, the seven largest oil companies will see cash flows grow by 42 percent in the second quarter from a year earlier.

Globally, the oil industry will slightly increase spending this year, compared to 2016. But Shells CEO Ben van Beurden insisted that his company would not get carried away, promising to remain very disciplined. Regarding oil prices, van Beurden declined to make any predictions, telling CNBC that the oil markets are not very transparent.

Related: The Next Big Catalyst In The U.S. Oil Export Boom

In fact, the oil majors are starting to come around to the idea that oil prices, rather than rebounding, will remain depressed for the foreseeable future.

Shells CEO Ben van Beurden has even gone as far as saying that the oil demand will peak, which will ultimately mean that oil prices will remain lower forever. The rapid adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) is not only inevitable, but a positive development, van Beurden says. The whole move to electrify the economy, electrify mobility in places like northwest Europe, in the U.S., even in China, is a good thing, van Beurden said in an interview on Bloomberg TV Tuesday. We need to be at a much higher degree of electric vehicle penetration. He even added that his next vehicle purchase will be electric.

If policies and innovation really work well, I can see liquids peaking in demand in the early 2030s and maybe oil will peak a little bit earlier if theres a lot of biofuels coming into the mix as well, van Beurden told Bloomberg TV.

Some of that could be a bit of PR strategy, but Shell is increasingly betting its future on natural gas as opposed to oil production. Shell is betting that gas still plays a prominent role in a carbon-constrained world as a source of electricity generation.

Shells comments came a few days after the UK announced a complete ban on the sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2040. The UK follows France in issuing a clear signal that fossil fuels will be phased out.

The threat of EVs, but particularly the specter of permanently low oil prices, is pushing investors to pressure the oil majors into remaining cautious, the WSJ reports. Rather than growing production, which was always the goal in years past, the main objective is to improve cash flow and profitability with an eye on $50 oil.

We need to see discipline and people being more realistic about where oil prices could remain for quite a long time, Jason Kenney, an analyst at Banco Santander, told the WSJ.

Related: Daily OPEC Oil Prices Now Public For The First Time Ever

Some analysts see that realization sinking in with oil executives. I think a lot of these companies have found religion, Brian Youngberg, senior energy analyst at brokerage firm Edward Jones, said in a WSJ interview. They realize now they cant just spend, spend, spend. They have to be more disciplined with their capital.

The WSJ pointed out that BPs share price has been clobbered worse than its peers, a dynamic attributed to the British oil companys decision to pursue growth after years of cost cutting.

It remains to be seen how the oil majors adapt to the rapidly changing oil market, but cost cutting and restraint seem to be the order of the day.

By Nick Cunningham of Oilprice.com

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Despite being the operator of Russias only operating LNG project, Sakhalin II, Gazprom has experienced quite a bit of misfortune with its pursuits. Its flagship endeavor, Shtokman LNG, ran aground and has been postponed indefinitely after the United States, the main presumed end market, witnessed an unprecedented surge in gas production on the back of to the shale revolution. Another project, Vladivostok LNG, destined to supply the Asia-Pacific region, was also shelved indefinitely after the Gazprom management prioritized the development of the Power of Siberia gas pipeline project to China. However, its recent initiative, Baltic LNG, might be just the thing Gazprom needed to kickstart its LNG portfolio on the Western front.

The clock is ticking, too, as the emergence of a powerful Russian rival, and the general surge in LNG facilities, might sideline Gazprom from a market which it is still yet to conquer. Bolstered by palpable state backing and a fully viable bundle of offtake contracts with the likes of Gas Natural Fenosa and Shell, NOVATEKs Yamal LNG is months ahead of its due commissioning date (the first line is believed to be commissioned this September) and it seems that the 16.5 MMtpa project might see its third line brought online in late 2018, more than half a year earlier than expected. With this, NOVATEK will next year become the leading LNG actor on the Russian market  a position which it wishes to consolidate further by the entry into service of another Yamal-based LNG project, Arctic LNG-2, slated for a 2022-2023 start. As global LNG supply is expected to increase by 110-120 MMtpa of LNG in the next five years, Gazprom needs to pitch in as soon as possible so as to avoid the dilemma of joining a potentially oversupplied saturated market in the mid-2020s.

The idea of constructing Baltic LNG has been around for approximately ten years, however, its current configuration was made public in 2016, when Gazprom and Shell signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the project. Many expected the deal to fall through, mostly due to Shell announcing its LNG downscaling intentions in the near future  on top of the company being contractually obligated to buy 0.9 MMtpa from NOVATEKs Yamal LNG. Yet Shell and Gazprom signed a heads of agreement at the SPIEF in June 2017, whilst indicating a 2022 commissioning horizon. Baltic LNG will be a 10 MMtpa two-train export facility located in Ust-Luga, in the immediate vicinity of the oil and oil product terminal. It would source gas from the Unified Gas Supply System (UGSS), thereby reducing any risk of feed dearth. The Baltic gas conduit will play an increasingly significant role in Russias European gas exports - Nord Stream 2 will have the same location, Ust-Luga, as its starting point. This will require substantial gas pipeline construction, too, i.e. from the junction of Gryazovets onwards to Saint-Petersburg the throughput capacity is 55 BCm/year, although with Nord Stream-2 and Baltic LNG around the corner it should be around 130 BCm/year. Related: China Outpaces Competition In Renewable Race

Baltic LNG is unlikely to go on in the current lineup as Shell seems to be unwilling to go beyond its Sakhalin II 27.5 percent share  Total declared interest a few years ago when the project was still in its incipient stage, yet nothing came out of it. Remarkably, if the reported interest of two Japanese companies, Mitsui and Itochu, will bear fruit, Baltic LNG may even copy the equity structure of Sakhalin II (50 percent+1, 27.5 percent+1, 12.5 percent and 10 percent). However, for Baltic LNG to be ultimately successful, Gazprom might find the example of Yamal LNG to be quite useful  the shareholders had a fully stocked offtake basket long before it was brought onstream. For now, there exists only a vague understanding of where Baltic LNG volumes could go, Europe and Latin America are quoted as the most likely outlets. Latin America seems to be the riskier bet, since a hefty portion of US LNG is already directed there, however, supplying LNG to European customers at affordable prices also faces Gazprom with some specific hurdles.

For Gazprom, it will be essential not to supplant its pipeline-transported volumes bound for Europe with LNG ones, hence, the most pressing need is to force their way through to new markets which are currently not covered by pipeline. Therefore, apart from traders active in the region, Spains Gas Natural Fenosa and Iberdrola, Portugals Galp, as well as French (ENGIE, Total), Italian (ENI) and Dutch partners (Shell itself) should be considered the most preferred offtakers. Yamal LNG contracts with Total and Fenosa, totaling 6.5 MMtpa possible volumes supplied, have certainly complicated matters for Gazprom to break new ground, however, there is still a lot of maneuvering space. The sweetest spot for Baltic LNG would be the United Kingdom, which gets 97 percent of its 7.4 MMtpa LNG needs from Qatar  with a combination of significantly lower transportation costs and pricing flexibility, Doha might see its dominant share narrowed down. Related: Libyas Oil King Wont Be Stopped By OPEC

One has also bear in mind that Baltic LNG allows Gazprom to solve problems of national supply, too. Even though talks about Baltic LNG supplying the enclave Kaliningrad Oblast have largely faded after Gazprom signed a new long-term gas transit agreement with Lithuanias Amber Grid in 2015 (transit fees going out to Belarus and Lithuania), the Russian company is pushing forward with the construction of a 1.45 MMtpa/year regasification terminal in Zelenogradsk, to the north of Kaliningrad. Moreover, there is another sphere of activities to which Gazprom might turn with Baltic LNG  and that is bunkering. With its fragile ecosystem and many environmental limitations, all the more so after the IMOs decision to lower the marine bunker fuel sulfur cap to 0.5 percent by 2020, the Baltic Sea will indubitably see an upsurge in LNG bunkering in the next years. If Baltic LNG goes along, it will be the only LNG export terminal in the Baltic region (as opposed to Swinoujscie), which Gazprom might turn to its advantage.

So where does all this leave Baltic LNG? The projects $11.5 billion price tag, if shared with other partners, is by no means unaffordable. Conditions within Russia are also conducive - since 2014, LNG exports are exempt from paying export duty and if Baltic LNG shareholders will lobby wisely their interests (which they are most likely to do), they might not get the all-round state support that Yamal LNG enjoyed, yet they might still see import duties on LNG equipment nullified, to be coupled with tax breaks on property tax and profits. Infrastructure-wise, Gazprom would need to expand its Baltic gas transmission throughput capacity and construct a LNG gasification plant, whilst sourcing gas would be as easy as falling off a log, given Gazproms current 150 BCm/year surplus capacity. Yet in order for Baltic LNG to happen, the shareholders ought to secure outlet markets for it, which, given a high level of political hostility towards Russian gas, will be difficult.

By Viktor Katona for Oilprice.com

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ConocoPhillips reported a loss of US$3.4 billion for the second quarter of the year, up from US$1.1 billion for Q2 2016, the company said today. However, excluding special items, the oil major was in the black with an adjusted result of US$200,000  an improvement from an adjusted loss of US$1 billion a year earlier.

The company attributed the result to special items including non-cash impairments on its Australia Pacific LNG project, as well as on divestments in the San Juan Basin and the Barnett shale that were carried out in the reporting period, and together worth US$3.3 billion. During the quarter, Conoco also divested most of its Canadian oil sands operations to Cenovus for US$13.3 billion.

Total proceeds from divestments stood at US$10.7 billion, Conoco noted, with cash from operations at US$1.64 billion. Debt payments totaled US$3.2 billion.

Chief executive Ryan Lance said that the quarter had been good for Conoco, with the company on track to complete its debt reduction plan ahead of schedule. Going forward, further production cost reductions and boosting free cash flow remain top priorities, Lance added.

Despite the negative net result, Conoco said it enjoyed higher realized prices during the reporting period, with the average at US$36.08 per barrel of oil equivalent, up from US$27.79 per boe a year earlier. Besides prices, Conoco also benefited from lower exploration costs, the company said.

For the first half of the year, Conoco booked a loss of US$2.9 billion, and an adjusted profit of US$1 million, meaning the company broke even on a per-share basis. During the six months, Conoco pumped 1.503 million barrels of oil equivalent, excluding Libya, a decline from last years H1 average of 1.562 million boed. The decline was a result of asset sales, Conoco said, noting that output from new projects increased as did well yields generally.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

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Nigerias government is suspending crude oil exploration activities in the Chad Basin in northeastern Borno state following the kidnapping of at least 10 people who were contracted to carry out oil exploration research in the area, Nigerias Oil Minister Emmanuel Ibe Kachikwu said on Thursday.

Yesterday, an official at the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said that gunmen believed to be members of the Boko Haram terrorist group had abducted at least 10 people who were on an oil exploration mission in the Islamist groups stronghold state of Borno. The Nigerian oil firm had hired the team to carry out research on the oil exploration activities in the Lake Chad basin in which Nigeria resumed exploration earlier this year.

The Nigerian Army said in a press statement that suspected Boko Haram terrorists ambushed on Tuesday the escort and team of NNPC staff returning from oil exploration at Barno Yasu, Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno State. After receiving the information about the kidnappings, the army organized a search and rescue party that included the Armed Forces Special Forces and guides to pursue the terrorists throughout the night. According to the army, all the NNPC staff have been rescued, but the corpses of 9 soldiers and a civilian were recovered during the rescue mission.

Minister Kachikwu told reporters today that he could not confirm the rescue and the government was still expecting confirmation from the security agencies.

Provided theres sufficient security clearance, NNPC Group will definitely go back and continue to explore for oil in the area, NNPC said on Twitter, quoting the minister as saying.

Related: Daily OPEC Oil Prices Now Public For The First Time Ever

According to Kachikwu, NNPCs re-entry into oil exploration in the Chad Basin wasnt misguided. For 6 months, theyve been operating in the area as theres some stability, NNPC tweeted.

The deterioration of the security situation in the Chad basin is the latest blow to Nigerian oil, after the Nigerian unit of Shell said earlier this week that it had shut its Trans Niger Pipeline due to a leak, while the managing director of the NNPC said that the pipeline was attacked, effectively shutting in 150,000 bpd of crude oil output.

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

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Nigeria is now saying that era of oil booms may be overfor good. According to its national petroleum policy approved this week by the federal executive council, the country plans to cut its oil exploration costs and move away from reliance on revenues from crude oil exports.

Its expectations are that oil prices will hover near $45 per barrel for the foreseeable future, necessitating a shift towards diversifying its economy and develop its own refining and petrochemical sectors.

The most realistic line of action for any nation with oil as the backbone of its economy is to diversify, because indices strongly point to the possibility that the era of oil booms may be over for good, said the policy.

In accordance with this 112-page policy document, the other aim of Africas second biggest oil producer is to reduce the cost of extracting oil, which now stands at $29 per barrel and as such, is one of the highest costs per barrel in the world.

This policy document is actually an outline for what the government hopes to include in its Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) designed to overhaul Nigerias energy sector. The larger PIB has been broken into several parts in order to enable its easier passage. More bills are also expected, including one to create a gas policy agreed earlier this month. One bill has passed the Senate in May, but still waiting for the House of Representatives to act.

The petroleum policy also calls for an oil industry regulator and revival of Nigerias refineries, which have been unable to operate for a sustained period at a capacity above 50% . Oil demand growth will markedly soften, except for the petrochemicals sector which is likely to be the main market for oil. Nigeria has to move downstream into the value-added sectors of refining and petrochemicals, the policy states.

The other call is for a removal of gasoline price caps and the permanent elimination of fuel subsidies.

The Nigerian oil industry has come under fire the last two days. This morning, gunmen presumably of the Boko Haram terrorist group kidnapped at least 10 people from the survey and geological departments of the University of Maiduguri, who were on an oil exploration mission in the Islamist groups stronghold state of Borno on northeastern Nigeria.

And on Tuesday, Shells Trans Niger Pipeline was shut down due to a leak, which caused its oil output to drop by 150,000 bpd.

While Nigeria is seemingly ambitious with its plans, Nigeria is likely to continue to face obstacles according to analysts.

"This policy offers a basis for legislation that would need to be approved, but it's light on specifics. For some of the big ticket changes and goals proposed, there should more of be a notional road map," said Aaron Sayne, senior governance officer with the Natural Resource Governance Institute, a non-profit group that advises nations on how to manage natural resources.

Commenting on the Bill, Sayne said that the bill passed by Senate was one of the most straightforward steps, and the bills to come, particularly any that propose changes to oil company revenues, will be far more challenging.

By Damir Kaletovic for Oilprice.com

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Chaudhry Nisar is seeking explanation for his exclusion from the PML-N's meetings: Chaudhry Nisar spokesperson

ISLAMABAD: Serious differences within the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) came to fore on Wednesday as estranged party stalwart and Minister for Interior Ch Nisar Ali Khan publically warned the party leadership over his exclusion from the consultation process and even sought a clarification.



Hours after a prolonged meeting between Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif and Interior Minister Ch Nisar Ali Khan, an interior ministry spokesperson, speaking on behalf of Nisar, dismissed media reports that efforts were being made to appease the interior minister who was reportedly angry with the PML-N leadership.



The truth is that the interior minister had adopted a contrary stance on some important issues in the PML-Ns internal meetings, after which he was excluded from the consultation process, the spokesperson said, adding the interior minister has sought an explanation from the party leadership over his exclusion from the PML-N meetings and wants to know if the decision was made due to his contrarian position or some other reasons.



Mr Prime Minister, only a miracle can save you, Ch Nisar had reportedly told Nawaz Sharif at a federal cabinet meeting called earlier this month to discuss the joint investigation team (JIT) report submitted to the Supreme Court besides carving out future strategy of the party to deal with the emerging political scenario.



While other participants of the meeting thumped desks to welcome PMs announcement that he had no intention to resign in the wake of the damning JIT report, Ch Nisar bluntly told him to see the writing on the walls and take a decision on the matter keeping in view the ground realities and the serious problems he and the party was faced with.



The prime minister, who apparently got irked with Nisars remarks, told the interior minister that he should have talked to him in private instead of delivering a speech in the meeting. The interior minister left the meeting soon after completing his speech and had never been seen in any of the important meetings since then.



In its statement, the interior ministry spokesperson further said that unless a clarification is provided, it will be difficult to resolve problems in a positive manner.



Earlier in the day, Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif held a meeting with Ch Nisar Ali Khan in an effort to convince him to set personal difference aside and stand by the party as well as its leadership in these testing times.



Ch Nisar on Monday had postponed for the second time a much-awaited press conference  where he was likely to discuss his conflict with the party leadership- due to a suicide attack in Lahore that left at least 26 people dead and scores others injured. I had planned to discuss many points today  but in light of Lahore explosion, it will not be possible for me to talk politics, I am sure you all will agree, Nisar had told reporters in brief chat at the Punjab House on Monday.



Shahbaz Sharif reportedly told Ch Nisar that internal differences could be better taken care of at the party level and that discussing them in public will bring no good for either side. He reportedly told Nisar to either call off his press conference or, at least, avoid criticising the party leadership if he decides to go ahead with his plan to address the media.



Ch Nisar reportedly told Shahbaz that he was not parting ways with the party but that he was very much distressed over a fetid atmosphere created against him by several federal ministers who were close to the prime minister. Reiterating his stance over the Panama case and the joint investigation teams probe into Sharif familys offshore assets, the interior minister said he was deliberately kept out of the consultation process on such important matters.



Appreciating Ch Nisar for his services for the party spanning over three decades, Shahbaz assured him that all of his concerns will be addressed in an amicable way through mutual discussion at the party level, sources said.



Shahbaz also told Ch Nisar that he would brief the prime minister on issues discussed during the meeting upon his return from an official visit to Maldives.



The late-night outburst by interior minister came amid reports that Shahbaz Sharif had succeeded in convincing him not to go public with his grievances. However, the statement issued on the behalf of interior minister has exposed the actual state of affairs within the party.
Imran Khan requested SC judges to announce Panama case verdict as early as possible

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) chairman Imran Khan has requested the Supreme Court judges to announce the verdict in the Panama Papers case against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharifs family as early as possible so that the country could move forward.



I, on behalf of the whole nation, request the SC judges that the whole country has come to a standstill while waiting for the verdict. I know you have done great work and you are to look into other things as well. But we all request you to decide early, Mr Khan said at a news conference after presiding over a party meeting at his residence on Wednesday.



I know there will be a lot of pressure on the judges. And I have no doubt about the pressure the Nawaz Sharif mafia will be putting on the judges, he said, adding: If they can offer Rs10 billion to a person like me... then imagine how much pressure will be there on the judges.



Mr Khan alleged that taxpayers money was being used to buy people in order to save a criminal prime minister.



Besides the PTI, the main petitioner, the demand that the court announce its verdict early has been echoed by other parties, including the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) and Jamaat-i-Islami (JI).



Accompanied by senior PTI leaders, Mr Khan drew the attention of the judges towards the deteriorating economic conditions in the country. Thats why I request the honourable judges to announce the verdict early, if possible, so that we can move forward.



The PTI chief lashed out at Prime Minister Sharif for visiting the Maldives at a time when the nation was in grief because of a terrorist attack in Lahore. He alleged that the prime minister had himself sought the invitation for the visit.



He also claimed that a number of countries had withdrawn invitations to Mr Sharif after coming to know that he had been facing criminal investigations.



Mr Khan said the Sindh Assembly had adopted a resolution seeking the prime ministers resignation and the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly would soon pass a similar resolution.



He said the lawyers were also demanding that the prime minister step down after the findings of the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) which probed money laundering charges against his family in the wake of the Panama Papers leaks.



The PTI chief alleged that the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz was making attempts to malign him and his partys leaders in a bid to hide its decades-long corruption.



He said that instead of defending themselves, Mr Sharif and his henchmen were trying to prove that every politician was corrupt.



Mr Khan also criticised a comparison between himself and the Sharifs, saying that he had brought money to the country whereas the ruling family had sent wealth abroad after committing corruption.



He said he had provided complete financial details and all money trails for the purchase of his London flat.



Replying to a question, Mr Khan said his disqualification would be a very little price to free Pakistan from this corrupt mafia.



Declaring that Mr Sharif would not be able to escape, the PTI chief announced that his party would arrange historic celebrations in the streets of Islamabad once the prime minister is disqualified.



Meanwhile, Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah accused the PTI chairman of adopting double standards while defending himself in his disqualification case in the Supreme Court.



Talking to reporters at the Parliament House, Mr Shah said Mr Khan should not dictate the SC.



He said it would also be a double standard if the SC disqualified one person and spared the other.



It will be a double standard. If the SC cannot disqualify one person, then it cannot disqualify the other as well, he said in reply to a question about Mr Khans position before the court that it was not a forum to disqualify parliamentarians.
From Greg Swank, 12-4-2 You are about to read a list of 45 goals that found their way down the halls of our great Capitol back in 1963. As...
I am not a fan of Nigerians, but I love Nigerians. They persevere, they are determined and they conquer.



A Nigerian does not see a limitation. A Nigerian has an enduring patience and a fighting spirit. A Nigerian has a strong will power to negotiate. A Nigerian does not believe in blame game. A Nigerian believes every opportunity is a blessing and must be grabbed be it legal or illegal. Inspite of all the negative perception people hold, these are arguably some positive traits we cannot discount.



Many entities in Ghana have let down our government, laudable initiatives do not see the light of day, either because beneficiaries abuse such opportunities or those in authority push such opportunities to family members and cronies who do not have what it takes to manage such projects.



The end result is poverty to the larger community who should have been the ultimate beneficiaries in the value chain and a financial loss to mother Ghana. General Kutu Acheampong under, 'operation feed yourself', 'feed your industry' opened up our economy for Ghanaian entrepreneurs but what did we see?



Rawlings and his (P)NDC out of frustration set up the divestiture Implementation Committee to divest the interest of the state in many of the public owned entities. Surprisingly the same Ghanaian who embezzled state funds and abused opportunities at these state owned entities turned round and either fronted for foreigners or used the ill gotten wealth from the state to buy such supposed ailing, failing, and non-performing state owned commercial entities.



Rawlings implemented poverty reduction/ eradication programs aimed at putting monies in the pocket of Ghanaians but all to no avail. J.A Kuffuor ushered us into the golden age of business and what did we see? Many who benefitted from MASLOC loans did not pay back. Many who had opportunities in the private sector abused same. NYEP,NHIS are examples of social intervention programs that have suffered from the Ghanaian greed. The LEAP program is no exception.



The debt situation at Metro Mass, with many broken down vehicles are all examples of our attitude towards state intervention. I drove through the Ashongman Estate today, and the roads are in a terrible state.So much is expected of the MP and the government, but the question is where is the money? The Atta-Mills/ Mahama 8 year rule transformed N.Y.E.P to GYEEDA and later to YEA.The government introduced SADA and Youth Enterprise Support (Y.E.S) among others and yet what did we see?



SADA in particular was so abused to the extent that it was so embarrassing for government communicators at the time to even defend same. How could government borrow at a compound interest to support the economic activities of three regions(Upper East,Upper West,Northern), and yet the same money ends up in the pocket of a Ghanaian who instead of using it for the benefit of the people , abused same.



Havent we as Ghanaians embarrassed our politicians enough? Are politicians really corrupt? Do politicians really amass wealth for themselves? Perhaps the mistake of the Ghanaian politician is that he/she places so much confidence and trust in his fellow Ghanaian to the extent that where there is a disappointment, he takes up the cross instead of allowing the offending citizen to bear the wrath of the people. Fortunately there is a new day. A new day where the determination of the Akufo Addo government is to place the wealth of the nation into the hands of the Ghanaian entrepreneur.



Obviously it is a better way to grow the economy through the private sector and allow the state to play the regulator role, but if we dont change our attitude and act the same way as we did yesterday, then we cannot provide a better future for mother Ghana. We must look at the long term collective gain with all the new opportunities christened under the 'one district, one factory'.



We cannot afford to let down our nation. As an entrepreneur, I feel so determined having been let down in the past to take advantage and create jobs, but without hesitation, lazy and greedy Ghanaians ,who may attempt to let down my enterprise once again will be shown the exit. Our public Universities are so rich, yet they still depend on government to support them with major infrastructure.



Ironically under the guise of independence and autonomy, some public universities have become unaccountable, and with impunity resources that can sufficiently be used to promote academic excellence without depending on government are landing in private pockets. If you dare talk, it becomes a political interference.



Oh Mother Ghana did we go Or did we come?!

Source: Godfred Asare/[email protected]









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QUEENSBURY  Hudson Headwaters Health Network has announced the appointments of Dr. John Sawyer as chief medical officer and Chris Tournier as executive vice president of finance and chief financial officer.

Sawyer joined the network in 1998 and has practiced at the North Creek Health Center, Queensbury Family Health and now West Mountain Health Services.

He earned his undergraduate degree from the University of California, Los Angeles, and his M.D. from Dartmouth Medical School. He is a fellow in geographic medicine and infectious diseases.

Sawyer earned his masters in public health and epidemiology from the University of North Carolina School of Public Health and was a Robert Wood Johnson clinical scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

He maintains specialty board certifications from the American Board of Internal Medicine and the National Board of Examiners.

Tournier has served as vice president and chief financial officer since 2009 and has helped to strengthen the networks financial footing that has led to an array of new services and expansion to new communities.

Previously, he served in several key positions with Berkshire Health Services in Pittsfield, Massachusetts, a multilevel health system including a critical access hospital, teaching hospital and a large physician practice.
FORT EDWARD  A Corinth woman is facing a misdemeanor assault charge for allegedly punching another woman in the face in the Washington County Municipal Center parking lot.

Allysha R. Bills, 19, is accused of striking the woman during an argument at about 2:15 p.m. July 10. The victim suffered an injury to her eye, according to a news release.

Bills was charged with third-degree assault. She was arraigned in Town of Fort Edward Court and released on her own recognizance to return to court at a later date.
FORT ANN  A Fort Ann woman faces felony DWI charges after police responded to a disturbance Tuesday evening on West Road.

According to a news release, Washington County Sheriffs officers arrived at the scene and observed Lisa M. Luedders, 51, operating a vehicle.

Deputies interviewed Luedders and detected an odor of alcohol on her breath. Standard field sobriety tests were performed, and it was determined Luedders was operating the vehicle while intoxicated, police said.

Luedders was found to have a BAC of .10 percent and was subsequently charged with misdemeanor DWI. Luedders had a previous DWI conviction in the past 10 years, elevating the charge to a felony, the news release stated.

For the latest incident, she was sent to Washington County Jail for lack of $500 bail and arraigned in Fort Ann Town Court.

Deputy Kyle Kolar made the arrest and was assisted by deputies Paul Trottier and John LaTour at the scene.
POULTNEY, Vt.  Vermont State Police divers searched a quarry just over the New York state line on Wednesday as part of the investigation into a former Granville mans disappearance.

Troopers searched a water-filled slate quarry off York Street in Poultney for evidence in the disappearance of Jonathan Schaff. Schaff, 23, has been missing since Jan. 18, 2014, when he walked away from a Granville bar east into Vermont on Route 149. His cellphone was found in a parking lot just over the state line in Pawlet, Vermont.

An investigation by Granville Police and State Police from New York and Vermont has not found any significant evidence of what happened to him.

Vermont State Police said in a news release that leads generated in the investigation led them to the quarry, but the agency did not say if any evidence related to the case was discovered. They also searched a quarry in Pawlet last year, to no avail.

New York State Police said they were not involved in Wednesdays search. Schaffs father, John Schaff of Cambridge, said he had not been told what led to the quarry search as of Wednesday afternoon.

 Don Lehman
The Saratoga County Sheriffs sergeant accused of possessing child pornography had more than 14,000 sexually explicit images of young girls on his family computer, according to court documents.

Peter Farnum, 41, was arrested Wednesday by the FBI, following an investigation that began in April.

Farnum and his wife have been legally separated since October 2015, but he still lives in the Ballston Lake family residence to care for their three children, who are 6, 4 and about 18 months.

Court filings say Farnums estranged wife had become concerned that he was using the family computer to download pornography. She deduced his password and on April 13 found folders of adult pornography. While viewing the content, some of the images began to disappear, which led her to believe that computer-wiping software was erasing content, according to the complaint filed in U.S. District Court.

She shut down the computer and contacted Farnum, who told her that you shouldnt have done that, according to the court documents. She removed the computer and brought it to her place of work. She then took it to an Albany business, where she was told that the hard drive contained images of child pornography.

She then reached out to a Montana computer forensics company to review the computers hard drive as well as an external hard drive.

The employee at the computer forensics company found in the hard drive images of 7- and 8-year-old girls displaying their genitalia, according to the complaint. The employee contacted Farnums estranged wife, who contacted her attorney. The attorney then notified the U.S. Attorneys Office, which prompted the FBI investigation.

The FBI in Montana took possession of the hard drives and applied for and received a search warrant to examine them. Investigators found 1,573 artifact files that correspond to identified and known child pornography images, the court documents say. More than 5,000 other files that appear to depict minors engaged in sexually explicit conduct were present, along with 7,856 files deleted from the system with names indicating that they were child pornography, according to court documents.

The files contain images of nude girls ranging in age from 7 to 13, according to the documents.

Farnum had been employed by the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office for the last seven years and had been working the midnight shift out of the Milton Station. He has been suspended without pay.

Farnum could face 5 to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000 if convicted.

He remains free on a personal recognizance bond of $50,000. Attorney Cheryl Coleman is representing him. She was not available immediately for comment.

A preliminary examination is set for 2 p.m. Aug. 9 before U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Daniel J. Stewart in Albany.
Wednesdays Post-Star included a story about a sergeant with the Saratoga County Sheriffs Office, Peter Farnum, who was arrested and charged with downloading child pornography onto his home computer.

The Saratoga County sheriff, Michael Zurlo, issued a statement in which he said the incident reflects negatively on law enforcement. The statement offered condolences to Farnums family as they deal with the immediate and long-term fallout of his alleged actions.

Wednesdays Post-Star also had a story about a Mexican immigrant, Ricardo Barajas-Suarez, who was living in the country illegally and working on a Washington County farm and who was charged with sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl.

State Police were called to the farm, and officers alerted U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which ended up taking into custody several other workers who, authorities said, also did not have proper visas.

Despite what the sheriff said about damage done to the reputation of the police, few people will assume, because of Farnums arrest, that consumption of child pornography is rampant among police officers or that lots of officers are criminals.

If you read the many angry comments on The Post-Star Facebook page, readers are singling out Farnum for abuse, not questioning the trustworthiness of all police officers because of one arrest.

People commit crimes, petty ones and horrible ones. We dont usually draw conclusions about whole groups from the bad acts of individuals, not only because its unfair but because its illogical.

The angry Facebook comments on the story of Barajas-Suarezs arrest mostly focus on whether the newspaper should have described him as an illegal immigrant. The story said he was living in the country illegally, the style suggested by the Associated Press, which is followed by newspapers across the country.

But the group of people living in the country illegally do sometimes all get stained by the solo acts of people like Barajas-Suarez. The president of the United States, Donald Trump, has engaged in this sort of generalizing, calling Mexicans who come to the United States rapists and criminals.

On Sunday, The Post-Star begins a series of stories on immigrants and their families who are living and working in this region  some legally, some illegally. Its a complex, poignant story that cannot be summed up with easy pronouncements or glib generalizations.

Of course, it looks bad when anyone who belongs to a well-defined group is charged with doing something terrible. Teachers cringe, Im sure, whenever a teacher is charged with abusing a student. Doctors cant be happy when a doctor gets arrested for selling drugs.

The one fair generalization you can make about the two arrests on Wednesday is about men. Both of the suspects in these cases are men, as are the majority of people charged with sex crimes, not to mention all violent crimes. In fact, most crimes are committed by men.

Besides that, you cant fairly or accurately generalize in either case. Farnums arrest says nothing about police officers in general, and Barajas-Suarezs arrest says nothing about immigrants in the U.S. illegally.

Each of these men has been charged with doing something awful. Thats on them, no one else.
I just read Gene Casellas letter about why we need guns. This famous World War II G.I. Joe just doesnt get it. While on the SACOM rifle team in Europe, I visited the Dachau death camp run by Nazi soldiers. Definitely a sad place to visit. He wants to steamroll all guns in America the way it was done in Rio de Janeiro like Mr. and Mrs. Clinton would love to happen.

Hey Gene, wake up, how and why was Germany freed of the Nazis? By the U.S. Army and Navy using guns to stop the evil government of Germany. You forget Gene, you must have guns to arm yourself of tyranny and injustice all over the world. Do you really think people are safer in Brazil because the government does a stop thing like that?
Editor:

The New York state and Warren County Conservative Partys annual 2017 Legislative Program is listed on the NYSCP website. A major part of the WCCPs vetting process is the interview which includes the candidates positions on the major core values of the Conservative Party program.

The Conservative Partys program and the Womens Equality Partys programs are far from compatible, conservative versus liberal. Thus, one cannot serve two masters by attempting to appear on both lines. The WCCP makes a point of inquiring what party ballot lines each candidate plans to appear, a requirement, so the voters are not mislead.

Filing an Opportunity to Ballot petition on the Conservative Party line and the Womens Equality Party line is contradictory and shows an individual is void of any core values, as both lines are directly opposite in philosophy.

In our opinion attempting to steal any ballot line, for lack of better words, particularly those opposite in their philosophy, demonstrates a candidates absence of character and values. That is unquestionably not a conservative trait.

Based on the above information, we believe it reinforces the fact that the Warren County Conservative Partys endorsed and authorized candidate, incumbent John Strough is the best conservative candidate for Queensbury town supervisor.

We expect our fellow registered Conservative Party members in the town of Queensbury be cognizant of these facts on Primary Day, Sept. 12, and vote for John Strough.

Thomas J. Birkholz Sr., secretary/treasurer, Warren County Conservative Committee, NYSCP Committeeman
















Jordans King Abdullah II urged Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas to work to calm spiraling tensions Wednesday, hours after Palestinian factions, backed by Abbas, called for violent demonstrations Friday over the Temple Mount.

In a phone call, the two leaders stressed the importance of continuing coordination to bring the situation back to what it was before the outbreak of the crisis and ensure that the historical and legal status in the Holy Mosque is respected, according to a statement carried by the Jordans Petra news agency.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency said the two agreed to unify efforts and maintain consultations.





Earlier Wednesday, Abbas approved plans by the leaders of the Fatah Tanzim militia to organize mass demonstrations on Friday and in the days after. Meetings on Wednesday took place between representatives of various Palestinian factions at the office of Fatah deputy chairman Mahmoud al-Aloul. Jabal al-Mheissen, responsible for the Tanzim on the Fatah central committee, and former Palestinian intelligence chief Tawfik Tirawi were at the meetings, along with the heads of Fatahs regional branches in the West Bank. Abbas, who was not present, approved the holding of the meetings, their content, and the decisions that were taken.





The Tanzim, an armed militia loosely affiliated with Fatah, was a key player in violent demonstrations at the start of the Second Intifada in 2000. Its leader then was Marwan Barghouti, who is serving five life terms in jail for orchestrating deadly terrorism during the Second Intifada.

Jordan, which acts as custodian of the Temple Mount and funds the Waqf Islamic trust that administers site, has played a key role amid the ongoing crisis, sparked after Israel installed metal detectors following an attack at the Mount on July 14 in which three terrorists used guns smuggled into the sacred compound to shoot dead two Israeli policemen guarding outside.





Israel early Tuesday removed the metal detectors and cameras, but Muslim leaders have vowed to continue protesting until all security measures, including metal railings at the Gate of the Tribes entrance to the site, are removed.





Israels decision to remove the detectors early Tuesday morning came after a flurry of diplomatic contacts between Jerusalem, Amman and Washington, which also resulted in the return of an Israeli guard who shot and killed two Jordanians at the Israeli Embassy in Amman after being attacked with a screwdriver.





Speaking to Sky News Arabic on Wednesday, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said there had been some progress in resolving the dispute over security measures but the issue remains unresolved.









The popular stance on the ground says that there is no solution other than to remove all the measures and obstacles that have been put in place, he added. Jordan wants calm, but knows that in order for calm to prevail, the solution must be accepted by the people.









Earlier on Wednesday, Abbass Fatah party called on Palestinians to take to the streets in Jerusalem and the West Bank in protest of the new security measures at the holy site, urging a day of rage.





Leaders of Fatahs Tanzim militia met with Palestinian officials to take part in planning mass demonstrations this Friday.





Fatahs youth movement issued a statement calling on Palestinians to remain steadfast in the defense of Jerusalem, and called for widespread participation in planned protests on Friday.





Senior Fatah leaders called to conduct Friday prayers in public places  not in mosques, in protests at continued security measures at the Temple Mount  as well as general readiness and escalating protests in all of Palestine as an [act of] victory for the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Hamas also joined calls to ramp up protests against Israel, calling for a day of rage in the West Bank on Friday, to respond to the ongoing events in order to deter Israel from continuing its violations against our people and holy places, according to Channel 2.





































Jordans King Abdullah II placed a phone call to Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, warning him to respect the historical and legal reality of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, but the Hashemite monarch may done too little, too late. The conversation followed calls by all factions of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO)  which is also headed by Abbas  urging Arabs to participate in the day of rage called for by the Palestinian Authority again this coming Friday, despite the removal of all security enhancements at the Temple Mount forced by Jordan and the United States.

This weeks day of rage will be led by Fatahs military wing, Tanzim, headed by Marwan Barghouti. While Barghouti is serving five life sentences in an Israeli prison for his conviction on charges of masterminding the murders of five people he has, if anything, gained in popularity on the Arab street.









The Tanzim terrorist organization  which was tasked by the Palestinian Authority leadership with heading Fridays day of rage  was pivotal in launching the second intifada in September 2000.





In addition, the Shabiba group has vowed to expand the confrontation with Israeli forces, isolating Jewish communities and the roads leading to them in Judea and Samaria, and opening all fronts, in villages, cities and refugee camps.

Earlier in the day, the Gaza-based Hamas terrorist organization claimed victory in what it called the battle over the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Hamas held a parade in Gaza to celebrate the removal of metal detectors Monday night from the entrances to the Temple Mount compound, along with all the security cameras.
















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T20 World Cup: Babar Azam wants Pakistan to continue with winning momentum in title clash

T20 World Cup: Morgan backs Willey to play ahead of Jordan in the final if Wood is unavailable

India's tour of New Zealand would be a great learning experience for Umran Malik, Kuldeep Sen: Zaheer Khan
As Marriott "turned the key" Wednesday allowing reservations for the new The Current Iowa hotel, the first guest booked a room for the same night.

"We're open for business," developer Amrit Gill said after he and his wife Amy snipped the ceremonial ribbon Wednesday on Restoration St. Louis' latest downtown Davenport project.

"This hotel is unique. It's unique in the entire country," he said, adding "It's the only operating hotel in a Daniel Burnham building and it's in the Quad-Cities."

Located in the former Putnam Building, the longtime office building was the work of the late Burnham, the iconic architect credited with pioneering the skyscraper. The 1910-circa Putnam was his last building. Now as part of Marriott's Autograph Collection, the $33 million Current boasts 78 hotel rooms and 14 luxury apartments (10 of which have been leased).

The Gills, whose first Davenport project was Hotel Blackhawk, gave a shout-out to the contractor Russell and banker Triumph Community Bank as well as the city, their own corporate staff, new hotel staff and their four children, ages 13-22, who all helped their vision be realized.

The Current is part of their $62 million City Square project, which also includes the nearby Parker Building, which has been renovated into Class A office space.

About 200 people packed The Current's lobby and its Viva restaurant, where they got their first glimpses of the hotel dedicated to Midwest artists. "We have over 500 pieces of art from artists well-known and unknown," Amrit Gill said.

The celebration drew city leaders and staff, chamber officials and ambassadors, community and business leaders as well as citizens interested in touring the new hotel.

"This is truly spectacular," said Kyle Carter, executive director of the Downtown Davenport Partnership, an initiative of the Quad-Cities Chamber of Commerce. "The Current is going to help the Quad-Cities, it's certainly going to help downtown Davenport. Having a hotel of this caliber  on top of the Hotel Blackhawk  certainly raises the bar."

Carter said the new hotel and City Square brings the total new development and investment in downtown to nearly $460 million since 2000.

Calling The Current "a grand slam in the World Series," Davenport Mayor Frank Klipsch said, "Restoration St. Louis and Amy and Amrit Gill have been involved in transforming our downtown. We are so happy they are here."

With other projects in the works in downtown and nearby, he said the downtown's momentum is continuing. "Vision without action is just daydreaming. (The Gills) have brought vision to life."

Amrit Gill reminded the well-wishers that their journey in Davenport began 10 years ago when "the city council and mayor (Bill Gluba) recruited us to help redevelop downtown." With two hotels, an office building and three loft housing renovations now complete, he estimated Restoration St. Louis has been responsible for nearly 40 percent of the new development.

During the event, visitors toured two guests rooms, the meeting space and other amenities as well as Up, the hotel's rooftop bar and restaurant, where construction workers still were installing temporary walls on the outdoor patio. New glass walls are expected to be installed next week, Amrit Gill said. But the all-glass restaurant, with the same breath-taking views as the patio, will be serving breakfast today both for hotel guests and the public. Visitors sampled food from The Current's other restaurant Viva, located on the ground floor at Second and Main streets.

Kristin Glass, the chamber's interim CEO, said The Current supports the community's Q2030 campaign to create a Quad-Cities that is cool, creative and connected. "We have to have properties like this to attract and retain talent," she said.

After a tour in which she went "all the way up and down" to the pool and fitness center, Deb Powers, CEO of the nearby River Music Experience, or RME, said "It's amazing ... It's exactly what the Quad-Cities needs."
June 28

1 Darren Morris Welch, 33, 3624 State St., No. 57, was arrested on the 3600 block of State Street on suspicion of disorderly conduct and criminal mischief.

June 29

2 Jennifer Marie Copeland, 18, 21002 277th Ave., LeClaire, was arrested on the 5800 block of Star View Drive on suspicion of fifth degree criminal mischief.

3 Cynthia Kay Hernandez, 51, 1700 Hospital Road, No. 312, Silvis, was arrested on the 2100 block of Mississippi Boulevard on suspicion of domestic assault with injury.

July 3

4 A 2002 Ford Thunderbird and a 2014 Ford Fiesta collided on the 2300 block of Spruce Hills Drive, resulting in $1,150 in damage.

5 Shakayla Lynn Jones, 27, 2721 Magnolia Drive, was arrested at the intersection of Spruce Hills Drive and Utica Ridge Road on suspicion of habitual offender driving while barred and driving while license denied, suspended, canceled, or revoked.

6 A license plate, no value listed, was reported stolen at McDonald's, 2460 State St.

7 John Adam Naab, 61, 644 10th St., was arrested at Isle of Capri, 1777 Isle Parkway, on suspicion of simple trespassing.

July 4

8 Antonio Renee Salinas, 20, 1815 West 58th St., Davenport, was arrested at the intersection of 18th Street and Elmwood Avenue on suspicion of disorderly conduct.

9 Caleb Bedford, 20, 2718 Esplandade Ave., Davenport, was arrested on the 2500 block of Middle Road on suspicion of first offense public intoxication, disorderly conduct, and providing false information.

July 5

10 Aaron Clifford Parker, 31, 2632 Magnolia Drive, was arrested on the 900 block of Middle Road on suspicion of habitual offender driving while barred, driving while license denied, suspended, canceled, or revoked, and an interstate warrant.

11 A 2009 Cadillac CTS and a 1975 Chevrolet Corvette collided on the 4500 block of Utica Ridge Road, resulting in $6,500 in damage.

12 A 2014 Ford Fusion and a 2011 Honda Accord collided on the 3100 block of Middle Road, resulting in $7,500 in damage.

July 6

13 Jewelry, a TV, and a laptop, valued at $9750, were reported stolen on the 6200 block of Buckskin Trail.

14 A 2000 STLG Truck and a 2009 Ford Focus collided at the intersection of 53rd Avenue and Devils Glen Road, resulting in $9,000 in damage.

July 7

15 A 2015 Chevrolet Equinox and a 2013 Chevrolet Silverado collided at the intersection of Devils Glen and Maplecrest roads, resulting in $2,000 in damage.

16 A 2008 Nissan Altima and a 2003 Honda Accord collided at the intersection of 29th Street and Middle Road, resulting in $5,000 in damage.

17 A 2009 Ford Escape and a 2003 Chevrolet S10 collided on the 3400 block of Middle Road, resulting in $3,700 in damage.

18 A 2007 International semi-truck and a 2000 Buick Lesabre collided at the intersection of 31st and State streets, resulting in $2,100 in damage.

19 A 2011 Ford Escape, a 2013 Buick Lacrosse, and a 2016 Ford Focus collided on the 1700 block of Middle Road, resulting in $2,800 in damage.

July 8

20 Ronald Baumbach, 48, 2731 Glenn Street, was arrested at the intersection of Devils Glen Road and State Street on suspicion of second offense operating while intoxicated and failure to maintain control.

21 A 2007 Harley Davidson motorcycle was involved in a single vehicle crash at the intersection of Devils Glen Road and State Street, resulting in $500 in damage.

July 9

22 Fernando Hernandez Vasquez, 29, 1501 12th Ave., East Moline, was arrested on the 3300 block of Candlewick Drive on suspicion of first offense operating while intoxicated.

July 10

23 A 2005 Chrysler Pacifica and a 2001 Honda 4D collided at the intersection of 18th Street and Middle Road, resulting in $7,000 in damage.

24 Glass sets, bowls, a crock pot, bath mat, and tray, valued at $214.94, were reported stolen on the 2500 block of Devils Glen Road.

25 A hit-and-run crash, no damage total listed, was reported on the 3400 block of Pleasant Drive.

July 11

26 A 2011 Chevrolet Malibu and a 2008 Toyota Avalon collided at the intersection of 17th and Grant streets resulting in $700 in damage.

27 Rebecca Nicole Beadel, 19, 6405 Western Ave., Davenport, was arrested on the 3700 block of Utica Ridge Road on suspicion of possession of controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
One of these days, you may be walking along a path in a Quad-Cities park, or near a museum, or an outdoor restaurant.

You may be having a bad day. You may need something to bring a smile to your face.

And while your head is down, you may find something that lifts your spirit.

A rock.

Not just any rock, but a brightly painted little treasure. When you pick it up to get a better look, youll find a positive message, sent from a local group called QC Rocks.

QC Rocks, the brainchild of Bettendorf resident Wendy Reyes, is based on a simple concept. Reyes, her friends, and others who have joined the movements Facebook page pick up rocks from various locations, paint them to create an original work of art that includes the group's website on the back, and distribute the rocks throughout the Quad-Cities.

We just put them out there in different places for people to find at random, thats it, Reyes says. Its just this simple concept, but it means so much sometimes ... Theres something so simple, but so beautiful, about it.

Hundreds of similar online communities have formed all over North America, with a handful in Iowa, around Des Moines and Ames. But they all started from an idea one woman had.

Her name is Megan Murphy, and she lives in Cape Cod. She started dropping painted rocks at Cape Cod in December 2014. The following spring, she began posting photos of her rocks on social media. The idea spread from there, first in her own network and then to people she didnt know. Social media groups quickly followed, with the first groups forming in Virginia. Later, when the idea spread across the country, Murphy created a website, The Kindness Rocks Project.

I think its gotten so popular so fast because people are really hungering for something positive right now, Reyes says. Were living in such a negative time, there are so many negative things going on, day after day, and people are burned out. They need something positive, however small, so when they find these rocks, just little painted rocks with positive affirmations on them, it means something.

The inclusiveness is likewise a lure, she says. Anyone can paint and place rocks. She only asks the artists include the website on the back and that any messages are positive and life-affirming.

We want people to pick them up and smile, she said.

Since Reyes founded her page in mid-June, it has gathered more than 1,400 followers. The site gives people a chance to check out the rocks she and others have painted, read stories of how people have found them, and hear about what those small gestures have meant, offering tiny ripples of good feelings across the transit of time.

Reyes got the idea from similar movements in other parts of the country, most notably Palm Beach, Florida, where a friend resides.

She told me about it and I started following their page, Reyes said. And one night I said, you know what, we need something positive like that around here, so I started it.

Its become a great activity for families and friends to do. People get together and paint rocks together and then go and hide them at different places. Weve got a lot of families  parents who paint rocks with their kids and then hide them and wait for them to be found, Reyes said. Its a great bonding activity for families and something that people can do to have a positive impact on the community. You know, anything that makes someones day better, however small, is a good thing.

That excitement connects strangers, and is perhaps the reason why the rock project became so popular, or "went viral. Jan Lauren Boyles, assistant professor at Iowa State University's Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, studies the way ideas spread online.

While there is not a magical formula for creating a post that goes viral, there are a few characteristics that viral content tends to share. It's often emotionally engaging and/or practically meaningful to a wide-ranging audience, she wrote in an email.

I love it, Reyes added. It just makes me feel really good to make people happy. Its such a small, simple thing, but thats one of the charms of it. You dont really need a lot of money or big things to make you happy. Sometimes its the simple things in life that are the best.
A Davenport elementary school teacher pleaded not guilty Thursday, more than a week after a federal grand jury indicted him on charges of receiving and distributing child pornography and possession of child pornography.

A trial slated to last two weeks has been scheduled Sept. 5 for Michael Loren Ross, 43, in U.S. District Court, Davenport.

He will be back in court Aug. 14 for a pretrial conference. Magistrate Judge Stephen B. Jackson Jr. set a plea deadline date of Aug. 22, according to court records.

The investigation into Ross began March 27 after a special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation received a tip through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that a user named "Mike Ross uploaded a child pornography video to his Dropbox account on Feb. 7, according to court records.

The account had numerous files that depicted prepubescent females performing sex acts, according to court records.

Ross admitted to police during a search of his home on June 20 that he possessed child pornography and that he both received and distributed it, according to court records.

He was arrested June 26. The Davenport Community School District placed him on administrative leave the same day.
A Kewanee, Illinois, teen has been charged with aggravated animal cruelty after police say he admitted to injuring a puppy.

The Kewanee Police Department received a complaint on Tuesday regarding a 7- to 8-week-old puppy that was found with injuries near Lakeland Terrace.

The puppy had four cuts on its neck and abrasions on its back that appeared to be 12 to 24 hours old. The puppy was taken to Kewanee Veterinarian Clinic and is expected to make a full recovery.

Police announced on Wednesday that they had charged the 17-year-old. The case remains under investigation.

-- Times staff
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voiced her opposition Wednesday to President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender individuals won't be allowed to serve in the military.

Ernst's office said that the senator thinks "Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity."

The president took to Twitter Wednesday morning and, in a series of messages, said: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you"

The Obama administration had decided to allow transgender people to serve, with the Pentagon lifting a ban on transgender men and women openly serving in June 2016. There are various estimates of how many transgender people are in the military. A Rand study last year put the number at 2,500 on active duty, out of 1.3 million overall. A 2014 study by the Williams Institute estimated the number at 15,000 who are on active duty, in the Reserves or National Guard.

Ernst, who is a veteran, doesn't think taxpayers should pay for gender reassignment surgery, her office said in an email, but added that "what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life."

On a conference call Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would defer on the question to military officials and to Ernst.

Told of Ernst's response, he said, "I have respect for what she has to say." He said he would study the issue further.

Also Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., issued a statement saying the president's announcement comes on the anniversary of President Harry Truman signing an executive order to desegregate the military.

"Instead of honoring the progress we have made on this historic day, the President chose to put our military, once again, in the middle of a discriminatory policy," he said.
United Neighbors Inc. will file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development after the city of Davenport voted to reallocate HUD Community Development Block Grant funds to other agencies.

The Davenport City Council unanimously approved recommendations from the Citizens Advisory Committee about allocations of CBDG funds for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2018. The recommendation included moving almost $79,000 initially earmarked for United Neighbors.

Community Planning and Economic Development Director Bruce Berger told the Council that United Neighbors will not receive funding because it did not submit city-requested documentation by June 1.

Following the Council's decision, Frank Berka, president of the United Neighbors Board of Directors, denounced the city's decision and refuted Berger's claim, citing multiple letters he sent to Berger and the City Council that went unanswered.

"The actual issue was they were requesting documents they were not entitled to under state or federal law and was a violation of the guidelines for distribution of those funds," Berka said. "What is going to happen now is we are filing a complaint with HUD. We have serious doubts about the city's ability to follow rules as we saw with Timothy's House of Hope and the approving Year 42 funds."

Berka's reference to Timothy's House Hope was in regard to the city changing its position on issuing a cease-and-desist order to the ministry of Compassion Church after finding that the nonprofit was operating legally according to zoning regulation.

The reference to Year 42 funds was Berka's opinion that the committee had violated open meetings law when it discussed and approved closing out last year's CDBG fund allocations during its June meeting despite it not appearing on the agenda.

United Neighbors has been under heavy scrutiny since October 2016 after the Iowa Finance Authority suspended payments for the agency's rental assistance program.

With all the agency's troubles, it was unable to submit all of the documentation in its January application for CDBG funds until an audit was completed.

The committee provisionally approved $60,000 for United Neighbors DREAM Homebuyers Program and $19,000 for its Summer Parks program, but at its June meeting, reallocated those funds to the city's housing funds and other youth-based programs.

In his letters to Berger and the City Council, Berka said the city requested information the agency was not required to provide and had cited noncompliance of other federal grants related to its rental assistance program, which remains under appeal with the Iowa Finance Authority, in its decision-making.

Berka said under the Code of Federal Regulations requirements, an audit was not required and agencies of United Neighbors size were exempt.

During last week's committee-of-the-whole meeting, Executive Director Evelyn Nelson asked the Council to approve the initial award or table a decision until further discussion could be held.

Despite Alderwoman Maria Dickmann, 2nd Ward, asking CPED to work with United Neighbors on a solution, no such meeting or any communication took place between the city and the organization or its legal counsel.

Prior to speaking at the meeting, Nelson said the city had not responded to the agency and its legal counsel's requests to discuss its concerns.

While the Council voted to reallocate the funds to other agencies, Alderman Ray Ambrose, 4th Ward, said he appreciated the hard work the organization performs.

"We all appreciate the 50 years of community involvement United Neighbors has and we're going to work closely that it continues for another 50 years," Ambrose said.

While the loss of funding will be a hit to United Neighbors, it will receive some funding for its housing counseling because HUD directly awarded it a grant for $19,000 a few weeks ago.

"The city had the knowledge that none of the funds were misspent," Berka said. "Any concerns they had were misguided. If HUD trusts the agency to give it funds, certainly the city should, since it is passing through HUD funds."

Prior to Wednesday's discussion, Mayor Frank Klipsch said he attended United Neighbors' Summer Parks program Tuesday and said, "It's so exciting to see a group of young kids who see hope and joy and smiles."

Now that the city has made its decision, it left Berka asking what that means for those children.

"This is not only a hit for United Neighbors, but a hit for kids in the community," Berka said.
President Donald Trump touted some museum-quality state-sponsored discrimination Wednesday. But U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst wasn't having it.

Ernst's objections to Trump's ban on transgender Americans serving in the U.S. military is doubly notable. The Iowa Republican was a Trump ally during the campaign, regularly stumping for the tweeter-in-chief and extolling his commitment to the military. Ernst also is a combat veteran and, like Democratic Sen. Tammy Duckworth in Illinois, is considered an expert on military affairs.

"Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity," Ernst said hours after Trump's rambling tweetstorm accusing transgender soldiers of costing the taxpayer and destabilizing military readiness.

Yeah. That's a full-blown rebuke from Ernst who, by and large, has kept her head down as Trump slogged from one self-imposed controversy to another.

Thing is, Trump's entire rant is bogus, a fact that must never be normalized, no matter how often it happens. It's just today's shiny distraction tossed by a desperate president whose entire administration is spiraling out of control.

For example, Department of Defense spent $8 million last year on gender reassignment surgery, according to an analysis by The Washington Post. Ten-times that figure went toward keeping the troops supplied with Viagra and similar drugs. Ernst did, however, agree that taxpayers shouldn't be paying for gender transition surgery. By that standard, pills for impotency also should be on the table for debate.

Either way, neither one's reproductive organs nor their gender identity has anything to do with their commitment to country or cause. One's rights, and the ability to defend them, should never be impinged based on sexual orientation. Equal protection is a constitutional bedrock. These are principles of respect for all Americans worth defending, and, in this instance, Ernst did so with gravitas.

Ernst mustn't back down. In-party rebukes such as this  coming from accomplished veterans  stand the best chance at scuttling Trump's campaign against the LGBTQ community.

Trump is flailing about now. His polls are sagging. His base is shrinking. Republicans in Congress are increasingly speaking out against him. All Trump can do is feed a constant drip of hate for the "others" to his most ravenous disciples. This from a man who last year wasted metric tons of oxygen prattling about his love for the troops.

Trump cares not for the estimated 4,000 soldiers and sailors whom he vilified and degraded for his own political ends. And he decided to do it on the anniversary of the racial integration of the U.S. armed forces, to boot.

The man is utterly shameless.

One can't help but wonder if Ernst regrets much of the campaign rhetoric she offered up on Trump's behalf. From attacks on POWs to Gold Star families and now assaults on men and women in uniform who, for too long, have hidden their true selves, Trump has shown total and utter disdain for thousands of America's service members.

Transgender service men and woman are Americans. Some, no doubt, are Iowans. They deserve the same admiration reserved for members of America's armed forces.

But they're just pawns to President Donald Trump, easy deflections from the massive failure that is his administration. In the past, Ernst has taken substantial heat for her silence amid Trump's mounting indiscretions. She, like many Republicans, find themselves in perilous political territory. At some point, silence or mild scoldings simply won't do.

Maybe it was because Trump picked an issue on which she's comfortable. Perhaps Ernst was genuinely offended by Trump's relegation of thousands to second-class status. Whatever the case, on Wednesday, Ernst seized on the opportunity to push back against a president willing to dehumanize men and women who serve honorably.

This time, Sen. Joni Ernst found her voice and stood up for all Iowans.
PIERRE, S.D. - South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley announced an Attorney General Explanation for a proposed constitutional amendment that has been filed with the Secretary of State. This statement will appear on a petition that will be circulated by the sponsor of the amendment. If the sponsor obtains a sufficient number of signatures (27,741) by November 6, 2017, as certified by the Secretary of State, the amendment will be placed on the ballot for the November 2018 general election.

The amendment is entitled An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution establishing open primary elections.

Under South Dakota law, the Attorney General is responsible for preparing explanations for proposed initiated measures, referred laws, and South Dakota Constitutional Amendments. Specifically, the explanation includes a title, an objective, clear and simple summary of the purpose and effect of the proposed amendment and a description of the legal consequences. The Attorney General Explanation is not a statement either for or against the proposed amendment.

To date the Attorney General has released Attorney General Explanations for the following:

1. An initiated measure requiring students to use rooms designated for the same biological sex, and requiring public schools to provide a reasonable accommodation for students whose gender identity is not the same as their biological sex

2. An initiated measure authorizing a South Dakota-licensed physician to prescribe drugs that a terminally ill patient may take for the purpose of ending life

3. An initiated measure to legalize marijuana for medical use

4. An initiated measure to legalize certain amounts of marijuana, drugs made from marijuana, and drug paraphernalia, and to regulate and tax marijuana establishments.

5. An initiated measure requiring people to use certain rooms designated for the same biological sex

6. An initiated measure to legalize all quantities of marijuana

7. An amendment to the South Dakota Constitution regarding initiated and referred measures

8. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution changing campaign finance and lobbying laws, creating a government accountability board, and changing certain initiative and referendum provisions (VERSION #1)

9. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution changing campaign finance and lobbying laws, creating a government accountability board, and changing certain initiative and referendum provisions (VERSION #2)

10. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution changing campaign finance and lobbying laws, and creating a government accountability board (VERSION #3)

11. An initiated amendment to the South Dakota Constitution changing campaign finance and lobbying laws, and creating a government accountability board.
PIERRE- Disability Rights South Dakota (DRSD) d/b/a South Dakota Advocacy Services (SDAS) is proud to announce its 40th anniversary of fulfilling its mission of providing advocacy services to South Dakotans with disabilities. In an effort to enhance public knowledge of the agency, SDAS is changing the agency name to Disability Rights South Dakota. The new name is effective immediately and provides better information about what the agency stands for, stated DRSD Executive Director Tim Neyhart. We are not changing our focus, or our mission, only the name. Staff of Disability Rights South Dakota will continue to maintain the same excellent and professionalism they always have.

DRSD provides free legal representation, investigation, and other advocacy services to eligible persons with disabilities using a variety of methods; including individual representation, educating policymakers, advocating for groups, information and referral services; rights education; systemic change efforts and self-advocacy, stated Neyhart.

DRSD is the designated protection and advocacy agency for South Dakota, its corporate offices are in Pierre with field offices located in Rapid City, Sioux Falls, and Yankton. DRSD is governed by an 11-member Board of Directors. Board President, Juanita Harrington of Piedmont, states Disability Rights South Dakota will continue to work today and into the future with and for the citizens of South Dakota to prevent abuse and neglect, ensure full access to inclusive education, financial entitlement programs, health care, and productive employment opportunities.

Harrington noted Board members have demonstrated an interest in and are knowledgeable about disability issues and the needs of persons with disabilities in the state. In addition to the Board, DRSD has an advisory council that provides development and guidance to the program providing supports for people with mental illness or the PAIMI program.

DRSD is a federally funded not-for-profit agency and serves South Dakotans under eight component programs:

 Protection & Advocacy Developmental Disabilities Program (PADD)

 Client Assistance Program (CAP)

 Protection & Advocacy for Individuals with Mental Illness Program (PAIMI)

 Protection & Advocacy of Individual Rights Program (PAIR)

 Protection & Advocacy Assistive Technology Program (PAIR)

 Protection & Advocacy for Beneficiaries of Social Security Program (PABSS)

 Protection & Advocacy Traumatic Brain Injury Program (PATBI)

 Protection & Advocacy for Voter Access (PAVA)

Protection & Advocacy agencies have the responsibility to protect and advocate for person with disabilities. To do this, Congress gave the P&As unique authorities and responsibilities. These authorities and responsibilities go well beyond those of a conventional law firm in various specific ways. For example, P&A agencies have access to people with disabilities who are receiving services in order to provide rights information and protection and advocacy services, through training, monitoring and investigations of allegations of abuse and neglect, explained DRSD Director of Legal Affairs, John Hamilton.

DRSD has grown over the years from one person in one small office, to providing services state wide. DRSD is private non-profit agency that can receive tax deductible donations. If you have questions about the services available from the agency or if you would like to make a donation, please contact us by using the toll-free number 1-800-658-4782.
Area 4-H and FFA members participated in a plant identification, collection and range judging contest at Chadron State College July 12. Ten youth from four communities and several adult leaders attended the event co-sponsored by CSC, the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) and Nebraska Extension.

Dr. Tony Perlinski, CSC assistant professor of Applied Sciences, said he was impressed with the students eagerness to learn about plants lifespans, origins, seasons of growth and value and importance for livestock and wildlife. He and other professionals from sponsoring entities showed students about 40 different species during the morning walk near the Rangeland Complex.

Thats quite a few plants for some of the younger participants, but it was definitely fun to see the students get excited when they recognized a plant from the morning during the contest in the afternoon, Perlinski said. I was also really thrilled to overhear a student telling a parent how much fun they had learning all the different plants.

Perlinski and Laure Sinn, Range program coordinator, are both planning additional youth agricultural events on campus.

Events like this align well with the CSC mission and let the faculty and students in the range program share our expertise in the region too, Perlinski said. Weve been working on campus to foster collaborative efforts with the USFS for the past two years and Ive seen some great things come out of those efforts. Kim Dolatta (of the USFS) and extension educators Jack Aterburn and Terri Lemmon, did a great job.

He said the CSC Ag Club has worked with the Upper Niobrara White Natural Resource District and the Nebraska Grazing Lands Coalition to host a Range Day the past two years, featuring speakers addressing pertinent range management issues. The club will host the Nebraska Section of the Society for Range Managements annual meeting Oct. 17-19.

There are a lot of people who work in rangeland management throughout the state who are excited to come see what we have going on in the new facilities and the program, Perlinski said.
For the past year, disaster preparedness has been a focus for the staff at Northwest Community Action Partnership, and much of the work has fallen to Vista volunteer Tyler Woodard.

Woodards one-year assignment in Chadron is nearly up, and he will be moving on to take a new job in as the Region 7 Emergency Preparedness Coordinator in Fort Dodge, Iowa, where he will be responsible for developing, updating and exercising a comprehensive emergency plan for public health and hospital emergencies in a seven-county area.

Woodard came to Chadron last summer as an Americorps VISTA volunteer. The program, along with RSVP, is funded by the Corporation for National and Community Service. When NCAP learned that there were Vista positions available, the staff applied for four separate workers to focus on four different needs identified by the agency. The disaster preparedness position was the only one they were able to fill.

The disaster piece has been in the citys needs list for a long time, said Rachel Johnson, who works with NCAPs RSVP and Vista programs.

For one reason or another, disaster preparedness always was relegated to the back burner as other priorities took place. At least until Woodard arrived.

Under his guidance, there is now a core group of volunteers to staff a mobile VRC  volunteer reception center. The VRC will help any community in the region handle an influx of spontaneous volunteers responding to a disaster in the area. He has also written and received grants to fully equip the go boxes the VRC volunteers will use to set up a reception center.

The group held a simulated training in November and another one a few weeks ago.

The process of establishing a mobile VRC was more involved than anyone anticipated.

It definitely took us a lot longer than we thought it was going to take, Woodard said. We realized doing this correctly was going to take a lot more time.

With two simulations in the books, Woodard said he feels the VRC group of volunteers is pretty solid, but ongoing training will be necessary. In his final weeks, he has been working to create a five year plan for training and simulations, to keep interest in the program high and skills sharp. The VRC director will have access to a community resources book, also assembled by Woodard, that includes important information such as who to contact to address pets or child care during an emergency.

One of the biggest reasons for Woodards success was his ability to raise awareness in the community about the need for a VRC and get people excited, Johnson said. He spoke to civic groups, churches and governmental entities about the importance of cooperation and mutual awareness of what each entity is doing.

He worked with Region 23 Emergency Management to use the area CodeRED system to activate the core VRC team. CodeRED is a notification alert system (see sidebar) that will contact those volunteers in the event of a disaster on when and where to meet to establish the VRC.

We did a lot of testing beforehand to make sure it worked, Woodard said, adding that the CodeRED activation was used during the groups second simulation earlier this summer.

To make sure the community stays prepared for disasters long term, Woodard also helped create the Northern Panhandle Disaster Fund through the Chadron Community Foundation at First National Bank of Chadron. The funding structure allows pre-disaster planned giving and can be launched during a disaster, since cash is often the best donation a community can receive.

In addition to creating the VRC group and go kits, Woodard was tasked with updating the emergency action plan for NCAP and all of its facilities. That project included creating a map of all NCAP properties; the interactive map can be used for multiple purposes, such as denoting exit routes or determining the square footage of each room.

Woodards work will make it easier for NCAP staff to make changes or additions to the maps, Johnson said.

Everything NCAP provides assistance with targets low-income residents, said NCAP Director Karen Harbach. Those individuals are often less prepared for a disaster and bounce back more slowly. When asking Woodard to make sure NCAP can rebound from a disaster, the goal was to make sure the agency has a business continuation plan so it can more quickly deploy its resources to aid those in need.

Weve been extremely lucky to have a quality person like Tyler, Harbach said.

In his spare time, he also graduated from the DELTA class, an entrepreneurship and leadership course offered by Northwest Nebraska Development Corporation, and learned how to operate a HAM radio. Still, those pursuits benefitted his work on emergency preparedness for the area because he made connections and learned what other resources are available.

The VRC was never going to work in a vacuum, he said. It relies on drawing resources in.

The only other established VRC in the state is in Scottsbluff, as far as Woodard is aware.

I think this is going to continue to grow. This is really cutting edge, he said, noting that it is unusual that something like this would form in the western part of the state and move east.

Harbach said she has already been asked by other Community Action groups for guidance on how to replicate the process.

For Woodard, his work in the Chadron community has re-affirmed that emergency management is the right career for him.

I really love what I do, he said. The biggest challenge during his Vista experience has been the limited time available, since his posting here was always meant to be only for one year.

Its going to be hard to see him go, Johnson said.
MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. | As he sat at the funeral, he watched intently as uniformed robots walked by his grandfathers casket. Focused on their crisp, mechanical movements he stared curiously as the Airmen paid their respects. Not knowing how to feel, he found himself overcome with a sense of purpose.

Staff Sgt. Michael J. Solo, 5th Force Support Squadron NCOIC of the base honor guard, was inspired to join the Air Force after seeing ceremonial guardsmen at his grandfathers funeral.

Seeing them come out and do military funeral honors for him, I thought that was awesome, kind of like the culmination of his whole life in the Air Force, said Solo. He did 20 years in the Air Force and didnt do a thing with it after that, and here at the end of his life, theyre providing that military funeral honors. I thought that was awesome.

Solo eventually joined the Air Force and was assigned to the services flight at 5th Contracting Squadron at Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota. After talking to previous honor guardsmen, he decided to get involved and become an honor guardsman himself.

I loved honor guard more than my current job, said Solo. I definitely got a lot more attached to the mission of honor guard. I felt like I was having more of an impact than my primary career.

Whether its at work or at home, honor guard Airmen practice constantly to perfect their craft. Solo was no exception.

When I was a guardsmen, it was 90 percent practicing, so it becomes kind of redundant after a while, said Solo. Its easy to lose over three weeks, so when I went back it was more and more practice.

The honor guard supports many on base ceremonies which includes colors team sequences with both flags and rifles, funeral sequences, pallbearing, firing party, flag folding, sword cordons, and other ceremonies.

Funerals are one of the most important ceremonies for honor guardsmen. They require a strong bearing, dedication and the Airmens full attention while performing.

Solo said his first funeral was the first time he made a mistake while in honor guard. He and his fellow honor guardsmen had to re-fold the flag twice. Later that day Solo answered a call from the daughter of the deceased, and she was furious.

I apologized profusely, but I was incredibly disappointed in myself and I wasnt sure I wanted to do honor guard anymore, said Solo. It was enough of an impact on me to where Im never going to screw that up again.

Despite feeling discouraged, Solo felt like honor guard was the only thing he wanted, so he pushed on. Remembering the sense of purpose he felt at his grandfathers funeral, he overcame his disheartening thoughts and continued to strive to be the best.

Honor guard brings me back to the tradition and the military aspect of the Air Force, said Solo. Working a desk job, contracting, phones, e-mails, computers, you start to get detached from the tradition and heritage of it. Getting to come into honor guard, its like youre the face of the Air Force.

Continuing his career in the honor guard, Solo recently rose up the ranks and became the new NCOIC of the base honor guard, with hopes of eventually join the Air Force Honor Guard.

Id go there in a heartbeat, said Solo. I would love to keep contributing, and continue to do honor guard in some way.

Dedicating yourself to a cause is important because it shows when you put your mind to something you believe in, you can make a difference. Whether its big or small, it still matters. To this
HOT SPRINGS  Dozens of tourists experienced the instant gratification of seeing a nearly 900-pound, 26,000-year-old mammoth skull hoisted from a natural bone bed and lowered safely onto pallets Tuesday at the Mammoth Site of Hot Springs.

But for the people who did the digging, it was a brief milestone on a continuing journey measured in days, years and even millennia.

Many of those people are volunteers  a term that is only partially accurate in their case, because they do more than work for free. They donate up to $3,000 for the privilege of spending two weeks of their summer painstakingly picking, scraping and brushing at mounds of ancient dirt and rocks as they labor to uncover more mammoth tusks, skulls and bones.

Many of the excavation participants, as they are also described, come from afar and have been returning for years, even decades, to work under the direction of the Mammoth Sites science team.

There have been three excavating sessions this summer, each with up to 10 participants, and the current group is the third. The participants range in age and origin from a New Jersey retiree to a 19-year-old Californian on a Make-a-Wish trip after successful treatment for cancer.

Ruth Clemmer, a retired corporate finance professional from Pennsylvania, has been returning to dig annually at the Mammoth Site since her first exposure to it 11 years ago.

I came as a tourist and fell in love with the place, Clemmer said. I walked through the doors and said, I want to dig here.

A friend and fellow excavator standing near Clemmer declined to be identified but explained the allure of the work.

No humans have ever seen what we uncover, she said. Were the first.

Jim Mead, the Mammoth sites chief scientist, confirmed that statement but added a qualifier: Weve found no indication that people were here, he said. That doesnt mean, definitively, that such evidence will never be found.

Mead said there is good evidence of human beings in North America as far back as 13,000 years ago, but whether people roamed the continent prior to then, and for how long and to what extent, is a question with an answer that depends on who you believe.

The mammoths at the Hot Springs site died at least 26,000 years ago. On the face of a geologic clock, said Justin Wilkins, curator at the Mammoth Site, that would be the last several minutes of Earths history. The relative recency of the mammoth deaths is evident from the look of the bones, which are not petrified and appear only slightly deteriorated. Despite their fresh appearance, the bones are dry and fragile and can easily break.

One hundred twenty-two tusks  attributable to 61 mammoths  and various other bones have been found at the Mammoth Site since construction workers unearthed the first bones in 1974 while excavating for a housing development.

Protecting

the site

A nonprofit organization was formed to preserve, protect and promote the site, and eventually a climate-controlled structure about the size of a retail superstore was erected over the ancient sinkhole where the mammoths died. Researchers think a cave collapsed under the mammoths, and the resulting depression filled with muddy groundwater that trapped the giant beasts.

Some of the mammoth bones have been removed and taken to an on-site lab for preservation, storage and research. But many of the bones remain in the ground, partially excavated, to be seen and enjoyed exactly as they were found. The Mammoth Site also has an exhibit hall and a gift shop.

The skull that was removed Tuesday was discovered in 1989. Excavation has continued around it since then, leaving it in a precarious position and also causing curiosity among excavators and scientists about what might be underneath it. So, the Mammoth Site crew spent the past two months preparing the skull to be moved, in part by wrapping it in burlap and coating it with plaster.

When they finally used a crane hanging from an overhead beam to move the skull Tuesday, they found the tip of a tusk below it, perhaps attached to one of the partially excavated tusks nearby or perhaps a new find.

Future excavation will reveal more about the tusk. The skull will be left on display for a while and eventually moved into the lab for preservation. Much of the preparation, preservation and research on the bones at the Mammoth Site occurs during the winter, between the summer excavation program and another excavation program in the spring and fall.

Wilkins said the skull removed Tuesday came from a mammoth that was probably 10 to 12 feet in height, 8 to 10 tons in weight and 20 to 25 years in age (which made it a youngster in a species that had individual lifespans of perhaps 80 years).

In other words, the mammoth was much younger when it walked into the sinkhole  in some cases four decades younger  than some of the volunteer excavators who finally helped extricate it.

Susan Kloss, a 68-year-old pharmacist from Indiana, watched the removal of the skull and quickly returned to work excavating some bones nearby, including a long portion of a tusk. She wore shorts, revealing a tattoo of a mammoth that she had inked on her lower leg when she was 55.

Kloss said she is on vacation and will return to her regular life and job on Monday.

Until then, shell be digging.

Its exciting, she said. You never know whats going to come up.
Matt Bunkowske loves computers. He earned a career diploma for PC maintenance and repair in six months instead of the projected eight. When he took his final exams, he even corrected errors in the questions.

When he became a Naja Shriner clown  a fraternity of the freemasonry  he took the keys off of broken computer keyboards to decorate his name on a tie.

After finishing his 4 p.m. to midnight shift monitoring various computer and data systems at Black Hills Corp., Bunkowske is almost always on his computer or playing video games.

But computers arent the only reason Bunkowske works for Black Hills Corp., a Rapid City-based energy company. He does it because the company supports him, he says, more than any job hes ever had.

Bunkowske, 38, was born in Rapid City. Since he was a child, Bunkowske has struggled with epilepsy, learning disabilities, attention deficit disorder and autism. He lived in Hot Springs, Pierre and Sioux Falls until moving to a home in Sturgis, where he now resides.

Bunkowske said his disabilities made it challenging for him to hold a steady job, especially one that required communicating with customers. But since joining Black Hills Works  which helps people with disabilities find and keep employment  10 years ago, that hasnt been a problem.

The Rapid City nonprofit supports about 650 local individuals with disabilities, chronic illnesses, impairments and physical challenges, according to CEO Brad Saathoff. The company has partnered with Black Hills Corp. for seven years, providing employees to help with system monitoring.

Today, SourceAmerica is presenting Black Hills Corp. with the Business Partnership Award, which honors a business that goes above and beyond to partner with a nonprofit agency to increase the employability of people with significant disabilities.

The energy company serves about 1.2 million customers in eight states. Black Hills Works Community Relations Director Dorothy Rosby said five people supported by the nonprofit are employed at Black Hills Corp.

Bunkowske helps monitor various computer and data systems. Before he joined Black Hills Works, Bunkowske said he had trouble managing his finances and at one point was receiving Social Security payments because of his disabilities.

When he applied to Black Hills Works, he almost didnt make it in because his IQ was too high. He now lives with his wife of three years in a small house in Sturgis, along with their four pets, and gets to work at a job he loves.

"Some of the past jobs I've had, they'd rather just fire you than try to help you, Bunkowske said. Here (they) will actually come and assist you and help you do whatever you do to succeed."

It matters to me because it's a needed job, Bunkowske said of working for Black Hills Corp. I'm glad I have it. It's the computers I love to work with. Helping the people I get to help and being helped by the people I get helped by.

Bunkowske is also a member of Battle River Lodge No. 92 in Hermosa, an historic Masonic building that the first superintendent of Mount Rushmore National Memorial, Lincoln Borglum, belonged to.

He is also passionate about theater and has worked lights for Miss South Dakota and Miss Rapid City pageants.

A presentation for the SourceAmerica award will take place at 4:30 p.m. today at the Suzie Cappa Art Center & Gallery.
Marla Murphy paused on the other end of the phone as she carefully considered what to say about the news that President Donald Trump had banned transgender people from serving in the military.

How can you respond to a bully? she eventually said.

Murphy, 61, is a transgender woman and former Rapid City council member who served for 22 years in the Air Force. She retired in 2000 as a decorated master sergeant and avionics technician in the 77th Bomb Squadron at Ellsworth Air Force Base.

Trumps banning of transgender people in the military, which caught the Pentagon off guard when he announced it on Twitter, will hurt a group of people who are already disenfranchised, Murphy said, and largely shunned from mainstream society.

Though no numbers have been made available by the Pentagon, a Rand Corp. study estimates that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

They serve this country with dignity and honor, and its sad that we have a president that reaches down into the gutter, Murphy said.

Murphy entered service in the 1970s, decades before she would begin hormone treatment to transition from her appearance as a man to the woman she had kept hidden inside since she was a child. Military service back then was still a difficult to impossible proposition for nonwhite enlistees, let alone individuals like Murphy who were part of the LBTQ community.

From day one I kept that secret, she said about her gender identity during her time in the Air Force. "I cared about this country and I wanted to serve, and I knew if I came out I wouldnt be able to. I would be ostracized, bullied, looked down on.

Trump on Wednesday abruptly declared the ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

"Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," the commander in chief tweeted.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that.

Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

His action is "harmful, misguided and weakens, not strengthens our military," said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," he said. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity."

Not everyone at the Capitol agreed.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "The president's decision was the absolute right decision. ... It's about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business."

Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next.

"Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared," said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.

Akbarian, who said his chain of command was supportive as he transitioned from female to male, said his time to re-enlist is coming up and he might stay to ensure there is a strong voice for transgender troops like himself.

Shane Ortega, a 30-year-old retired staff sergeant in Los Angeles, said he's concerned more for civilians than transgender troops.

Ortega, who transitioned to male while serving in the Army and served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "When Donald Trump attacks what America calls its heroes or its warrior class, it means it's only a matter of time before he starts attacking and disassembling the American public, and that's what I have the most fear of."

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon was working with the White House to "address the new guidance" from Trump. That suggested there is not yet any new written policy or executive order.

Trump's sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they meet normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces."

In a series of tweets, Trump said allowing transgender troops to serve is an unacceptable burden on the military's ability to fight and win wars.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he wrote.

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

Trump's tweets followed a fight in Congress over federal funding of gender transition surgeries. Earlier this month, the Republican-led House rejected a proposal to end the Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay such costs.
Sandi and I are selling our house. This isnt the first time. Though, like a childhood injury or some similar sustained misery, one forgets how fraught the experience is. Give us this day our daily dread ... .

The difficultys in the details. First, comes the reckoning with the actual state of disrepair your house is in. Good enough aint good enough anymore. Then, without any single incident to hang the witchcraft on, your home transmogrifies into a mere house. A building, a structure. One youd gladly be rid of to make the heartache stop.

Psychologically, youre homeless. I have to believe there is a best, or better, age for such dislocations. Like everything else, the older you are the more unsettling change becomes. Youd think itd be the other way around. Youd be wrong. Something to think about the next time you kids get together to put mom or dad in the home.

I havent even mentioned the worst part: paperwork  and fees. A thousand initials, signatures and dates later, everybody and their unemployed brother gets their beak wet. Little by little, a pile of industrial strength graft grows and grows until you just want to walk away.

Here I do not include the Realtor (though they have a few peculiar fees as well), house inspectors, or buyers and sellers. When a house is being put on the market, like inveterate rummage sale-ers, the city, county and state show up at the tables at the crack of dawn. Near as I can tell, they always get something for nearly nothing.

But thats government  at every level. It metastasizes. Someone has to pay for it.

Case in point: Tuesday was another travel day as I journeyed to Oklahoma. Listening to a news show, the media were agog about a procedural vote on yet another phantom health care bill. Senator John McCain (God bless him and his family) had apparently risen from his deathbed in Arizona, journeyed by horseback to D.C., and cast the decisive vote. But not before giving a fiery and historic speech. The microphone hive was abuzz.

About what? you ignorantly ask. Just this: the vote was merely procedural to determine if there would be debate on, and amendments offered to, the bill. Whats in the bill? you ignorantly ask, again. Well, no one seems willing to say. For 200-miles I listened to one politician after another effuse about the process and refuse to answer in plain English what were, to me, simple and germane questions.

Nope. Process.

Fiery. Historic.

In my early twenties, many moons ago, I developed an intense liking for the author Thomas Merton. In a little book he authored where he had collected sayings attributed to the ancient Chinese philosopher Chuang Tzu, I chanced upon this pearl: Beware the ten thousand things. When the laws multiply, head for the hills.

This was written nearly 4,000 years ago. But what hills can we run to? Theyre nearly all subdivisions now. And what laws can we escape? Our every waking moments and acts are cross-stitched by some legislation or another, and all by mumbling politicians and their paeans to process.

A question I often ask these days is were there ever simpler times? I seem to remember so, but I cant find my back. Heres hoping we find them, soon.
Russian Supreme Court increases sentence of Hizb-ut-Tahrir cells organizer by 3 years

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Nikolay Merkulov)  The Supreme Court has increased the sentence of Crimean resident Ruslan Zeytullayev, who was convicted of establishing in the republic a cell of Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization banned in Russia, from 12 to 15 years in prison, the courts press service told RAPSI on Thursday.

In September 2016, Zeytullayev was given 7 years behind bars for participation in terrorist activities. In December 2016, Russias Supreme Court reversed the sentence and ordered a retrial. During hearings in the Supreme Court, a prosecutor insisted on vacation of the judgment in order to typify the defendants is actions as organizing the activities of terrorist criminal association.

In April 2017, the North-Caucasus District Military Court passed a 12-year prison sentence upon Zeytullayev.

According to investigators, Zeytullayev joined Hizb ut-Tahrir terrorist organization in 2005. Law enforcement authorities believe that he established the organizations cell in several regions of Crimea in the spring of 2014.

Hizb ut-Tahrir (the Party of Islamic Liberation), founded in Jerusalem in 1953, is banned in several Arab and Central Asian countries. Russia's Supreme Court banned the group from operating on the territory of the country in 2003, describing it as a terrorist organization.

Hizb ut-Tahrir members are regularly arrested by the police across Russia, mainly in big cities in central Russia, the Volga region and Siberia.




Russian ex-Economy Minister Ulyukayev to stand trial on corruption charges

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko) - A criminal case against former Russia's Economy Minister Alexey Ulyukayev, who stands charged with extorting a $2 million bribe, has reached the Zamoskvoretsky District Court of Moscow, the courts spokesperson Emilia Khil told RAPSI on Thursday.

The hearing date has not been scheduled yet, according to the courts representative.

On Wednesday, prosecutors approved the indictment against Ulyukayev. His house arrest was earlier extended until August 15.

Ulyukayev was arrested while receiving a bribe in mid-November 2016. He allegedly demanded Russian state-controlled oil giant Rosnefts representative to pay him $2 million for lawfully providing a positive review and evaluation of a deal that allowed Rosneft to acquire governments share in mid-sized producer Bashneft. According to the Investigative Committee, the former minister threatened to create obtrusions for Rosneft with use of his position.

Ulyukayev has pleaded not guilty.

On November 15, the ex-minister was put under house arrest. Later in the evening, President Vladimir Putin has relieved Ulyukayev of his post because of loss of trust.

The Basmanny District Court has seized Ulyukayevs property valued at over 564 million rubles ($9.5 million).




Husband of woman sentenced for attempt on his life put under house arrest

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Vladimir Tkachenko, the husband of a woman sentenced to 6 years in prison for attempting on his life, had been put under house arrest by a court in Russias Altai Region, a statement the press-service of the Investigative Committee issued on Thursday reads.

The man has already been charged with causing grievous bodily harm to his daughter. The Committee is going to carry out a thorough and objective investigation, a representative of the agency noted.

Oksana Tkachenko, a mother of two, has received 6 years and 8 months in prison for the attempted murder of her husband. However, she has a chance to get back to her children if a criminal case against her is reviewed, Russia's children's rights commissioner Anna Kuznetsova told RAPSI earlier.

According to Kuznetsova, two children of Tkachenko are currently in the custody of their grandmother. The father of a younger daughter, whose life the woman allegedly attempted on, refused to take tutorship.

Earlier, the Investigative Committee Chairman Alexander Bastrykin ordered to check the rulings in the case of Tkachenko, who allegedly tried to defend herself and her son from the former husband.

If the inspection results in retrial, Tkachenkos sentence may be reduced or overturned, Kuznetsova said. Even mitigation of the sentence will make it possible to lodge a motion to suspend the sentence until her children reach the age of 14, she added. Under the current legislation, suspension of punishment in murder cases may be applied only if the given sentence does not exceed 5 years.




Review Nepal

Following the directives of the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba to fill up all potholes on valley roads and to repair damaged manhole coverings within the next 15 days, significant improvements have seen in the bureaucratic level but not in the in the road quality. The government officials of concerned ministries and departments including the secretary at the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transportation came out in the streets on the name of inspects the construction drives.

But neither the directives of the Prime Minister nor the activism and inspections of the bureaucrats did nothing to make clear the hurdles that have long being creating to mention the quality of roads. Some significant progresses have seen in some sections of roads as the contractors have filled up some potholes with gravel.

But the construction works made in haste in the middle of the rainy season seems to have motivated to respect the directives of the Prime Minister rather than concerning for the durability of the roads. The potholes filled up with gravels would need to dig out again while making blacktop the roads.

It is full of humorous that some officials have instructed the contractors even to blacktop the roads on the name of following the directives of the Prime Minister. It is not being realized that it is useless even to try to blacktop these roads in the middle of the monsoon.

We would like to salute to the Prime Minister Sher Bahadur Deuba for concerning over the pathetic conditions of valley roads though the works like routine repair and maintenance of the roads are not among the prime ministers duties. Prime Minister Deuba would have made the commitment to personally oversee the repairs of all valley concerning over the tragic accidents occurred recently in Kathmandu valley.

As two school girls- ten year-old Binita Phuyal of Nepaltar and 13-year-old Satya Sapkota of Samakhushi fell into open sewers at two different places on July 14 and a girl lost her live while receiving treatment at hospital, the government was highly criticized for not paying its heeds to maintain the quality of the roads. As there is no possible to maintenance the roads within the set deadline by the Prime Minister, it is likely that the concerned government officials would label blame to the incessant rains for hampering repairs and maintenance the roads.

We understand that the Prime Minister is helpless in getting the rather rigid bureaucracy to properly do its job. As the rainy season of now was not come as of a natural calamity, the concerned officials, who are supposed to supervise timely road repairs, should have discharged their duties rather than blaming the incessant rains of now for hampering repairs.

As the government has to do many things including the completion the three sets of elections within constitutionally set deadline for January 21, 2018, the Prime Minister should bring a concrete policy and program to change this entrenched culture of shoddy work and inaction of bureaucrats rather than personally involving in simple works like road repairing. As there is no meaning to try to blacktop these roads in the middle of the monsoon, it would be better to fill up the potholes with gravel for now and wait for the dry season for blacktopping. Not only the valley roads but also the roads of other places like Narayenghat Mugling road and Tatopani-Nylam road also need to be revamped immediately.

Since a landslide washed away the Larcha Bridge made over the Bhotekoshi River on Sunday, the entire Nepal is isolated with the Tatopani border triggering huge loss in business and putting risk the entire settlements of the areas. Similarly, dozens lives have already lost along the Narayenghad Mugling road section due to pitiable condition of road and landslides.

Only the concrete policy and program guided with the longsighted vision can tackle the challenges come ahead for the development of the country including the construction and repairing of the roads. As the country is transformed into a new era with elected representatives in the local bodies, it would be appropriate time to take initiations for such kind of policy and programs.
President Bidya Devi Bhandari honouring individuals who earned higher education in Buddhist philosophy, on Thursday, July 27, 2017. Photo: RSS

KATHMANDU: President Bidya Devi Bhandari has said Nepal is a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multi-ethnic and a multi-lingual country.

The Head of the State said this while addressing a programme organised to present letters of appreciation to various personalities in the Capital on Thursday. The programme was organised by the Ministry of Federal Affairs and Local Development and the Bouddha Darshan Prbardhan tatha Gumba Bikas Samiti, Lalitpur.

She said the costumes and languages of the people living in the mountainous, hilly and the Tarai (southern plains) region are national identities, establishing uniqueness of the country in the world.

On the occasion, President Bhandari honoured 399 individuals who earned higher education in Buddhist philosophy, presenting them with letters of appreciation.

The honoured individuals were conferred with different titles as Rimpochhe, Tulku, Acharya, Khempo, Loppen and Ghese, the titles that are conferred on an individual earning higher degree in Buddhist education.

Among the honoured persons were from Nepal, Burma, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India.

President Bhandari said that Nepal is an unparalleled place of Budhhist culture and philosophy, calling on the government, the private sector and all the stakeholders to work for the greater development of Lumbini, the birthplace of the Buddha.

Also speaking on the occasion, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Federal Affairs and Local Development Bijay Kumar Gachchhadar said the Buddhist education had proved a means of achieving peace. Adoption of teachings of Budhha would help minimise the violence and killings and ultimately attain world peace, he added.

Nepal had started the Buddhist education classes in 1979. Buddhist education is free in Buddhist temples and monasteries while the Lumbini Buddhist University has already been established in Lumbini, the birthplace of Gautam Buddha, for higher education.

On the occasion University Vice Chancellor Nareshman Bajracharya said Nepali preferred to go to India, Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand to pursue higher education on the Buddhist philosophy. He said the State should grant the recognition of national education to the Buddhist education.RSS
Pokhara, Nepal: At least two people have died, two missing in river and several injured when a passenger bus plunged into the Rudi River at the border of Kaski and Lamjung districts on Thursday afternoon.

Though the identities of the dead and missing persons are yet to establish, the Kaski Police have confirmed the accident. According to the police reports, the ill-fated bus with registration number Na 5 Kha 6395 that was en route to Baluwabeshi of Madi Rural Municipality from Pokhara fell into the river at around 1 PM.

It is suspected that the death toll would increase as six persons have injured seriously in the accident. The seriously injured passengers have rushed to Pokhara for better treatments while other about 20 passengers with minor injuries are receiving treatment in local medical center.
As U.S. Pacific Fleet chief says hed obey President Donald Trumps order to launch a nuclear strike on China , heres what would happen if Trump made the call.

With CIAs recent assessment that China poses the biggest threat to Washington in the long term, the commander of the U.S. Navys Pacific Fleet Admiral Scott Swift says he would launch a nuclear strike against China if President Trump ordered him to.

Addressing an Australian National University security conference on Thursday, Swift, who has led the Pacific Fleet since 2015 and has seen some of Beijings most provocative and threatening actions in the disputed South China Sea, said he would launch a nuclear strike on Beijing as soon as next week, if President Trump made such an order.

The timing of the statement could not be more inflammable, as China branded the U.S. a threat to national security after two of Beijings jets nearly crashed into a U.S. surveillance plane earlier this week. Less than 24 hours before the U.S. Pacific Fleet chief said he would be willing to nuke China on Trumps order, CIA Director Mike Pompeo went public with an assertion that Beijing poses a much bigger threat to U.S. national security than other hostile powers, including Russia and Iran.

But does the decision to launch a nuclear strike on China really come down to only two people  the President and the commander of the U.S. Navys Pacific Fleet? Well, sort of.

Trump Can Launch a Nuclear Strike on China in Less Than Five Minutes

The fact that Trump now has the obedience of the U.S. Pacific Fleet chief in the hypothetical, yet possible, decision to launch nuclear strikes against Beijing makes the whole lets-nuke-China scenario even faster and easier to execute.

Less than five minutes. This is the approximate time that would elapse from President Trumps decision to launch a nuclear strike against China to shooting intercontinental ballistic missiles out of their silos, according to Bloomberg estimations. The publication, citing former Minuteman missile-launch officer Bruce G. Blair, also estimates that it would take about 15 minutes to fire submarine missiles from their tubes.

While the expert predicts that there might be some minor hiccups in the lets-nuke-China scenario  like some of the top brass trying to talk Trump out of launching a nuclear strike  it appears that it would be easier for the President to nuke an enemy than expected now that he has the public support from the commander of the U.S. Navys Pacific Fleet.

US vs China Tensions Rising, But Is Nuclear War Imminent?

The mere thought of a nuclear war between the U.S. and China  the worlds two biggest militaries  sounds intimidating. Amid strained relations between Washington and Beijing, and with Trump recently giving U.S. Navy more freedom in South China Sea, the territory that China considers vital to its national and security interests, the possibility of the two nations going to a nuclear war cannot be ruled out anymore.

With Trump pledging to rein in Chinas aggressive territorial expansion in the South China Sea during his presidential campaign, the Trump administration has made quite a few moves that could be pushing the two nations to the point of no return. In May, Trump ordered the U.S. Navy to conduct a freedom-of-navigation operation in the disputed area, which Beijing claims in its entirety despite the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam and Taiwan also claiming parts of the disputed region.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration sent an even scarier war message to Beijing to challenge its military buildup on the artificial islands in the South China Sea. A U.S. destroyer passed through the international flashpoint in the South China Sea, a move that prompted a furious response from Chinese President Xi Jinping, who warned his American counterpart of negative factors in U.S.-China relations. The Chinese Foreign Ministry lambasted the incident as a serious political and military provocation.

US vs China War Would Be Disastrous For Both

Just last week, Trump approved the Pentagons plan to challenge Chinese claims in the South China Sea, where Beijing has been actively building reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes. Breitbart Newss Kristina Wong exclusively reported that the President approved the plan to check China over its ongoing militarization of and actions in the South China Sea, a move that will most likely further stain U.S.-China relations.

The latest heated exchange of hostile gestures between Beijing and Washington cannot but make experts wonder: what would happen if the U.S. and China went to war? That would be  disastrous for both sides  politically, economically, and militarily, according to VICE citing senior vice president for political and security affairs at the National Bureau of Asian Research, Abraham Denmark.

While the two nations continue working together to prevent a potential nuclear threat from Chinas neighbor  North Korea  it seems like an even bigger nuclear conflict is brewing between Washington and Beijing.

Increased Possibility of Nuclear War

In ValueWalks recent comparison of the U.S., Chinese and Russian militaries, it was concluded that the outcome of any war involving the U.S. and China is quite impossible to predict, as theres no telling what would be the scope and duration of the military confrontation and if nuclear weapons would be used.

Its also unclear if Russia would join forces with its arguably one of the biggest allies  China. If it did, Chinas chances of winning a war against Washington would considerably soar. After all, there are plenty of potential flashpoints in the relations between Washington and Beijing, notably Taiwan and the South China Sea. The U.S. has in its possession about 6,800 nuclear warheads  the worlds second largest nuclear arsenal after Russia  while China has only 270 nukes, according to recent estimations by the Arms Control Association.
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Don't mess with nurses.

In Atomic Blonde -- read our review here -- Charlize Theron proves herself to be quite deadly as an MI5 undercover agent during the Cold War. In Coffy, released in June 1973, Pam Grier proved herself to be the most deadly nurse ever.

Introduced as a seductive junkie in the back seat of a limousine, Coffin (Grier), known as Coffy, is the type of woman who gets right down to business. Just a few minutes into the movie, she's already blown a drug dealer's head off and pinned it on his henchman, to whom she's given a lethal dose of heroin.

Call it poetic justice, call it whatever you like, but Coffy is angry and doesn't have time for any pretty words. She's recently discovered that her 11-year-old sister has been shooting up with tainted heroin and is now permanently brain-damaged.

Before anyone can say she should wait for the authorities to act, she's already (justifiably) concluded that she has to take justice into her own hands, not just for the sake of her sister, but for her people in general, who are continually victimized by the white men in charge of, well, everything.

In retrospect, it's easy to figure out that by the time her sister ends up permanently damaged, Coffy has already been pushed to the edge. As a nurse in a city hospital, she has, no doubt, already seen the effects of years of victimization, including "the needle and the damage done," as Neil Young sang about heroin addiction, a song that was released about a year before Coffy erupted into theaters.

Of course, writer/director Jack Hill was not a social activist, he was a filmmaker, and so when approached to make a movie about an African-American woman's revenge, he agreed. (Watch the Trailers From Hell video below, in which Hill talks about the genesis of the project. Wikipedia claims that Larry Gordon, then head of production at American International Pictures, had lost the rights to make Cleopatra Jones and wanted to beat it to market.)

Hill began his career as a film director in 1960, and he made films fast and cheap, with titles like Spider Baby, Fear Chamber and Pit Stop. In 1971's The Big Doll House, a briskly entertaining 'women in prison' flick, he worked with Pam Grier for the first time. (The actress appeared in a quick followup, Women in Cages, though without Hill as writer or director.) Hill and Grier reteamed for The Big Bird Cage, in which Grier took firm command of the lead role in another enjoyably lurid picture about ladies behind bars.

Grier co-starred with Bernie Casey in George Armitage's Hit Man and then returned to prison in Black Mama White Mama before escaping in the company of revolutionary Margaret Markov. The latter was another example of a film that was far more vibrant than expected because of Grier's magnetic personality. Then the opportunity to make Coffy arose, and naturally Grier was the perfect choice to play the titular role.

I've watched Coffy twice before and I've always been impressed by how Grier enlivens the film, simply by her presence. She has a terrific screen persona that still translates very well; it's easy to root for her because she exudes a tremendously righteous and charming personality. It's not that everything she does is laudable or praiseworthy or, to be honest, even all that righteous; it's that she is convinced she is doing the right thing, the only thing that she can be expected to do in that circumstance.

In Coffy, she had a very good collaborator in Jack Hill. He's been praised, quite rightly, for his abilities as a director. This time around I especially enjoyed the variety of framing he employed and, as always, his uncanny sense of pace, which is relentless and rarely pauses for a beat longer than necessary. But he was also a very good screenwriter, parceling out good lines around the cast while developing his lead character(s) to the point necessary. And the concluding scene with a bitter Grier and her disappointing councilman lover is aces.

I also enjoyed Sid Haig for his affectless performance; he starred in Hill's very first short, The Host * and frequently appeared in the director's films thereafter.

It's true that the film features an over-abundance of female nudity, which places it firmly in the exploitation genre. The excuse would likely be, 'that's what was expected for this kind of picture at that time.' On the plus side, Grier stars as an empowered woman who rarely relies on anyone else; she has absolutely no hesitation about pulling the trigger, either in her own defense, or, more frequently, to exercise harsh justice according to her own sense of right and wrong.

Hill and Grier reunited for Foxy Brown, another more than worthy entry in the then-burgeoning Blaxploitation sub-genre, and then went their separate ways. Hill made three more films, two of which are above-average (The Swinging Cheerleaders and Switchblade Sisters). The third, Sorceress, was reportedly recut by producer Roger Corman and Hill asked that his credit as director be removed. Soon after, he retired from the film business.

Grier continued with Blaxploitation (Sheba, Baby; Friday Foster) until it died from overexposure. She received plaudits for her performance opposite Richard Pryor in Greased Lightning, but lead roles dried up and she was reduced to much smaller parts, even though she continued to refine her talents. See, for example, her fine performance in Above the Law (1988).

She has continued working, but even her glorious star turn in Quentin Tarantino's Jackie Brown did little for her career. By that time, she was also facing Hollywood's age prejudice. She did, however, make the most of her role in TV's The L Word over 70 episodes.

In his outstanding book Opening Wednesday at a Theater of Drive-In Near You: The Shadow Cinema of the American 70s, published a little earlier this year, Charles Taylor devotes an entire chapter to Grier, Coffy, Foxy Brown, Blaxploitation and much more, putting things into historical, cultural, and artistic context. He writes in regard to Grier: "One of the paradoxes of the movies is that you can be a star -- by which I mean you can display all the charisma and commanding presence and style that marks you as born to be in front of a camera -- and never break-out of second-rate movies or get the roles that you deserve. ... For all the pleasure there is in watching Pam Grier ... there's no escaping that she never had the career she should have."

Coffy remains rough and dirty and fabulous and memorable, an intentionally unpolished star in the firmament of great low-budget and disreputable films that happily littered the 1970s.

* Correction: The filmmaker kindly informs us that his UCLA student film with Sid Haig was titled The Host. My apologies for the error.

70s Rewind allows the writer to ruminate about his favorite film decade.


Having begun her acting career at age 10 in the hands of legendary Japanese director Suzuki Seijun, Kan Hanae has never stopped working. Attending Japan Cuts, with not one, but two films, Kan spoke with me about the challenges of playing a lesbian in West North West, and containing the inner rage of a wannabe rapper near an American airbase in Yamato (California).

The Lady Miz Diva: How did you become involved with WEST NORTH WEST?

Kan Hanae: At first, I was confused because I have never experienced that situation. And at that time, I didnt want to work as an actress. I wanted to stop. I was thinking about it but director Nakamura really wanted me to act in the film.

LMD: What did you make of Kei when you read her?

KH: Actually, the scenario had changed maybe five or six times. And then Sahel [Rosa], [Yamauchi] Yuka, and I; we are good friends now, but it was awkward at first, because we had such an intimate relationship on the screen. On our own, we went to cafes and we would talk about our situation, and we would talk a lot about the scenario, and we made our characters for each other.

LMD: Thats very interesting because I wondered how you created the strong chemistry amongst the three of you that we see throughout the film?

KH: It was very different for me. Sahels character was a Muslim, so I didnt know her feelings about things. We were talking a lot, more than I was with Yuka, actually, about how to create the triangle relationship.

LMD: What was the most important guidance that director Nakamura gave you regarding your creation of Kei?

KH: Up to me. He said, Its up to you. You, Sahel, and Yuka

LMD: Kei says Im not a lesbian. Its just that I fall in love with women. What did you take that to mean?

KH: Its not just a lesbian movie, because its about love. They love each other. Kei saw beyond that; the relationship between those two, she saw beyond that.

LMD: In your research to create Kei, did you speak with lesbians or bisexual women?

KH: Before shooting, director Nakamura said to me, Kei is me. [Nakamura, himself.] So, it was a little bit confusing, but the first time when I met him, he just seemed quite lonely. Then he said Kei is me. He said, If you dont want to act in it, then I dont want to take on this film. I wanted to help him. I feel like it was my job as an actress to help him make this film.

LMD: My perception had always been that Japan, compared to other East Asian countries, was the most accepting of LGBTQ people, yet theres that tense scene when Yukas mother meets Kei and says shell never accept their relationship. Did you meet any people in your research who had to deal with that sort of alienation?

KH: In Japanese society, today, the idea of women loving women, or men loving men hasnt permeated as much. Maybe recently its changed a little, but I believe that the society still has the idea that men are stronger within society, and women, perhaps, serve underneath. And so, theres still that sort of societal element thats still alive.

LMD: What would you like WEST NORTH WEST to say to audiences?

KH: Working on this film, there is definitely the element of religious issues that arise in the film. For example, Sahel herself, she had trouble accepting the idea of a woman loving a woman due to her religious views. But, through making this movie, Sahel and I were able to become friends, and we are friends now. That is a result of us working together and seeing beyond maybe ideas that we already had.

I think the power of movie is that it allows people to really understand each other and move beyond certain boundaries. And I think these kinds of emotions are something that I hope people can feel from watching the movie, itself.

YAMATO (CALIFORNIA)

LMD: Tell us about the process of training to play aspiring rapper, Sakura? Did you study a lot of hip-hop beforehand, were you already a fan?

KH: I did. I liked hip-hop music, but I had never experienced rap. So, I practiced with Director Miyazaki Daisuke.

Through rap, I felt like I can say everything. [Laughs.] [Everything] about the American and Japanese relationship. If I say certain things through words, its a little bit difficult, but if I do it in rap, its easier, I think.

LMD: Why did you think Sakura was such an angry person?

KH: In Japan, there are these issues within society; certain issues arise from having one-parent households, and I think there is definitely anger that is there through that. These days, things might be changing a little, but still, personally, I have both parents, but there are issues from having one-parent household; for example, being raised by father, or being raised by a mother.

The other part is that Sakura lives in this area called Yamato, where within the Army base is actually California, and being there and its actually really, really loud. And all that noise, I think really does feed into motivating Sakuras emotions.

LMD: While her anger may be understandable, she still does very bratty, impulsive things. What was Directors instructions to you about how to keep her sympathetic?

KH: When I was acting as Sakura, because she is always very high in emotions the entire time, so to keep that level of emotion was actually quite difficult and exhausting for me.

LMD: It sounds like between Kei and Sakura, you live under the skin of your characters quite deeply. Are you able to leave the characters on the set or do you take them with you after the days shooting is over?

KH: I actually do take the character along with me too much. [Laughs.]

LMD: Like Kei in WEST NORTH WEST, when we meet Sakura she is quite lonely and searching for her place in the world. Is this type of character journey that attracts you as an actor?

KH: Actually, its more that people are offering me these type of roles. [Laughs.]

LMD: Your own story is very interesting, youre that rare example of someone who began as a child actress, starting in a Suzuki Seijun movie {PISTOL OPERA}, going on to the brilliant NOBODY KNOWS, and working very steadily since. What has kept you motivated?

KH: Now I live in Tokyo, but my hometown is Shizuoka. So, after shooting, I always go back to Shizuoka, because I want to want to change my mind. I always get so emotional, and I want to take off my character, so always I go back to Shizuoka, and thats what has kept me here, now.

LMD: Has having worked with Suzuki, Kore-eda and Sabu, some of Japans finest, most influential directors, given you any desire to direct at some point?

KH: Yes, I would like to be a director. [Laughs.]

LMD: Lastly, because we lost director Suzuki earlier this year, even though you worked with him when you were quite young, I wondered if there was a memory of him that you might share?

KH: People said that he was quite scary, but I didnt think so. He was so gentle to me. After he made my name, I probably wouldnt be here if not for him.
Travis Milloy's sci-fi flick Infinity Chamber (formerly Somnio) will be in U.S. cinemas on September 15, 2017 and available on iTunes and VOD on September 26, 2017. Screen Anarchy has your first looks at the poster for the flick so you know what to look for this Fall in theatres or online.

Christopher Soren Kelly (Ink) and Cassandra Clark (Englishman in L.A.) star. XLrator Media is handling the North American release.
Last week, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted to allow Planned Parenthood to expand into a "flagship" location on Bush Street at Van Ness Avenue. This week, a bunch of chalk-wielding activists went to town on the sidewalks in front of some planning commissioners' homes.

The San Francisco Examiner reports that several commissioners' discovered generally nasty graffiti scrawled on the sidewalks and streets in front of their homes. In an act that was captured by security cameras, several people  many of whom appears to be below the voting age  emerge from mysterious white vans and, flash-mob style, write stuff like, "Your neighbor is a murderer," "Your car is gay," and "Stop the killing." The vans were even moved to block both ends of the block, presumably so the Pro-Life Chalk Bandits (PLCB) could create their messages without getting run over. Because they are pro-life.

VIDEO: watch unnamed prolife group - including kids - scrawl "MURDERER" and other messages @ #SF politician's home https://t.co/GOSPWQbzyZ pic.twitter.com/pcjOguU5Rn  Joe Fitz Rodriguez (@FitzTheReporter) July 26, 2017

Commissioner Dennis Richards and one other commissioner who wants to remains anonymous out of FEAR were targeted by the PLCB. "I can get people who have an opinion, but to start being hateful, that's where I draw the line," the openly gay Richards said to the Examiner.

Richards and his neighbors described the PLCB as about 40 young kids and three adults. Terrisa Bukovinac and her new group, Pro-Life Future of San Francisco (PLFOSF) told the Ex that PLFOSF was not behind the chalk attack, but she doesn't see anything wrong with it. "That's obviously not our group, we don't have children in our group," Bukovinac said, but also what's the big deal "as long as they were following the law, and adhering to their first amendment rights."

Well, wandering around the middle of the street isn't adhering to the law. You know what is adhering to the law? Having a safe abortion.

Richards, by the way, was on vacation last week and thus did not vote either way on the Planned Parenthood location. Nonetheless, "Dennis Richards is a murderer" was written in chalk outside his home.

Related: Video: Pro-Choice Protesters Far Outnumber 'Defund Planned Parenthood' Camp At Mission Rally
Tuesday night saw a pretty action-packed final Board of Supervisors meeting before their five-week summer recess, but a couple of the decisions they made might not be to a stoners delight. Supervisor Malia Cohen introduced a 45-day moratorium on the approval of any new medical marijuana dispensaries, according to the Examiner. On top of that, Supervisor Ahsha Safais resolution banning new dispensaries in his District 11 passed, prompting 48 Hills Tim Redmond to note I dont think there are many other rules [in San Francisco] controlling development of one type of business in one specific district.

Safai complained that his district, a portion of which has been nicknamed Dispensary Row, currently has three marijuana dispensaries. He noted that one applicant for a medical cannabis dispensary (MCD) was arrested on a murder-for-hire charge, and the pot shops in District 11 are bars on the door type facilities.

Now you just hold it right there, Sup. Safai. I live in District 11 and I frequent all three of these dispensaries. Yes, two of them (Mission Organic Center and Cookies SF, both on the 5200 block of Mission Street) do have jail-style entrances, and can be fairly described as somewhat seedy locations. But that Green Cross dispensary at 4218 Mission is one of the most exquisitely designed boutique dispensaries in town, and certainly has no bars on its doors.

Safais ban on District 11 dispensaries passed by a 9-2 vote, with only Supervisors Jane Kim and Sandra Fewer opposing. The 45-day citywide moratorium will be considered when the board convenes again in September.

These debates underscore how retail marijuana governance is such a tricky matter as legal, over-the-counter recreational sales loom January 1, 2018. The moratorium was recommended by the Planning Commission and being debated by the Board of Supervisors  and it's been long predicted that existing medical dispensaries would like have the first claim to recreational sales because they're already in the business. But we also have a new San Francisco Office of Cannabis plus a Cannabis Legalization Task Force, all with no clear chain of command on which department has final say. It seems inevitable these bodies will have disagreements, and will attempt to puff and pass their own conflicting resolutions.

Related: Two Pot Dispensaries On One Block Grows Grassroots Opposition In Visitacion Valley


Leaderless and scandal-impaired rideshare giant Uber has taken the curious, counterintuitive tack of adding another fee in order to win back customers who are deleting the app. Engadget reports that Uber has quietly added a $15 fee for returning a lost item that riders may have left in the car. The entire $15 fee goes directly to the driver, in a move the company says is meant to compensate [drivers] for their time.

You SFist readers wont currently be charged the fee, because as Consumerist notes, that $15 lost item charge is currently only in effect in Boston and Chicago. The company plans on rolling out the fee nationwide by the end of August.

Drivers are independent contractors, Uber points out in a company blog post regarding the new fee. Neither Uber nor drivers are responsible for the items left in a vehicle after a trip ends. We're here to help, but cannot guarantee that a driver has your item or can immediately deliver it to you.

Recode reports that this is all part of an Orwellian-named Uber PR campaign called 180 Days of Change, describing it as a company-wide effort designed to meaningfully improve the driver experience. We learned from the BuzzFeed expose on Uber's out-of-control asshole culture that Uber knows that drivers are making roughly the equivalent of McDonalds crew members. But Recode also notes that internal, salaried Uber employees are still being encouraged/forced to take Uber driving shifts  which may have been a factor in this more driver-friendly policy.

Rival Lyft has no such returned item fee, and does allow for riders to tip drivers. Uber is in the process of rolling out the ability to add gratuities to your driver, a move announced last month.

Related: Lyft Previews 'Taco Mode', Which Adds A Taco Bell Drive-Thru To Your Route




One thing that San Francisco is most known for is its timeless and gorgeous historic architecture. The Victorian/Edwardian aesthetic that pervades our fair city, with its bay windows, decorative cornices, and detailed appliques is what seduced many of us to move to the Bay Area, and what inspires so many tourists to still snap pictures of "Painted Ladies." But future generations will no doubt hate us for the boxy and Esprit-colored condominium detritus with which the most recent tech boom blighted our cityscape  if any of these ticky-tacky atrocities even last a generation, that is, given how little interest developers seem to have in spending money on good architects. I've picked out a few of the current most hideous condo complexes, but rest assured there are even uglier ones in the Planning Commission pipeline.

NOTE: This list only includes condominiums. Many of you rightfully despise structures like NEMA and 38 Dolores, but these are luxury apartment complexes, not condos. This list contains only condominiums, though mixed-use condos are also included. Also, these opinions reflect those only of the author of this article.





Linea

No matter how good a mood Im in, this compositionally unsettling Safeway Heights condo automatically renders me hopeless and depressed. An aggressive and angular attempt at Modernism, the big glass collection of cubes makes no attempt at harmony. And those cantilevers announce to the neighborhood that they cant wait to fall on you.

8 Buchanan Street, between Sanchez Street and Noe Street



The Vida, and the newly painted New Mission sign. Photo: Thomas Hawk

VIDA

It looks like the earthquake already hit at The Jokers hideout known as VIDA, whose form was dubbed Gangnam style, swagger style by the Planning Commissions Kathrin Moore. These disorganized zigzag boxes are detailed with a red and yellow color scheme that seems like a rich white designers attempt to convey a Latino feel in homage to those being displaced. This may explain why vandals just cant resist the place with their Die slow, rich f**ks graffiti.

2558 Mission, between 21st Street and 22nd Street





Photo: Allan Ferguson

Millennium Tower

How can we not include the infamously sinking Millennium Tower, whose unsold units and endless lawsuits will make it the butt of jokes for years to come. But let us also rag on its boring, fortress-like proportions that only a Cylon would love to call home. Its hilarious to think that back in 2012, this sinking stinker made Worth magazines Worlds Top 10 Residences list.

310 Mission Street, between Beale Street and Fremont Street



Image: Google Street View

Fontana Towers

We direct much of our fire here at the new generation of condos, but these two abominations have been ruining San Francisco views for 55 years. There is somehow no 1960s fun in these monoliths from the 1960s, and not a single interesting material anywhere on the facade. But its more the beauty they block than their own inherent ugliness that makes the Fontana Towers reliably among the most reliably irritating eyesores on the skyline  and this development just about single-handedly launched a generation of protesters screaming "No Wall on the Waterfront," by the way.

1000 North Point Street, between Polk Street and Van Ness Street



Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

Icon SF

Hey, Im all for combining different materials to get a nice exterior effect. But this awkward, colorblock monstrosity at Noe Street and 16th Street is a mashup of three different incompatible design ideas that just dont speak the same architectural language. Adding to the total lack of focus, we have jutty, Tetris-like elements that make the facade more busy and not at all cute.

2299 Market Street, between 16th Street and 17th Street



Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

2002 Third Street

Theres plenty of Stanlingrad chic to hate upon out at Mission Bay, but this grain silo concept is particularly bleak. Yes, Im aware this work was designed by Stanley Saitowitz, who has done remarkable work all over town. But the bunker mentality of these structures just isnt pleasant, and feels like in this case Saitowitz got conned by a particularly aggressive aluminum siding salesman.

2002 Third Street, between Mariposa Street and 18th Street



Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

298 Portola

Im forever enchanted with the kitschy, old-school motor lodge aesthetic of houses in the Twin Peaks neighborhood. But here we have this completely out-of-scale 80s McMansion that spreads a county jail vibe across an entire huge block of Portola Street. Puke-green bars cover the ground floor windows with ugly asterisks to further add to the overall unwelcomingess.

298 Portola Street, between Clipper Street and Burnett Avenue



Image: Toasty Ken via Flickr

Arterra

What in the Hello Fresh is going on with the Atari 2600 graphics that adorn of the exterior of this Mission Bay collection of slabs? There is all manner of fug going up near the 4th Street and King Street Caltrain station and the ballpark these days, but the inconsistently arranged shower of little orange lasers makes this structure really stand out. Further, it comes across as three differently sized and shaped buildings that were crunched together and just can't find their proper harmony.

300 Berry Street, between 5th Street and the 280



Image: Joe Kukura, SFist

The Century

Visually uninviting and inhumane, The Century makes Market street a lot less pleasant with drab gray paneling and ground-level reflective glass. Those balconies appear too small to be usable, and this building will age even less well than most of the unremovable architectural horrors on Market Street. Because peep those drainhole circles near the parapet, theyll only get uglier over time as water stains accumulate.

2200 Market, between Sanchez Street and Noe Street



Image: The Palms San Francisco via Facebook

The Palms

Completely overwhelming and incongruous with its surroundings, The Palms is sort of a Walmart attempt at an Art Deco scheme. Ive seen airport hotels that were more inspired than this, and it hulks over the neighborhood in a way thats pretentiously out of scale. Just to drive home its ethic of excess, The Palms once offered a studio with 116 parking spaces.

555 4th Street, between Bryant Street and Brannan Street



Related: Polarizing SF Federal Building Marks 10 Years Since Completion


A Twin Peaks-area man found himself the victim of a nonconsensual trade Wednesday, when he discovered his bike had been swapped out by a presumed thief.

Police say that the crime went down at some point between 5 p.m. Tuesday and noon on Wednesday, at a home on the first block of Mountain Spring Avenue.

According to the San Francisco Police Department, the 59-year-old male victim noticed that his garage door was open. When he checked inside to see if anything was missing, he "located old bicycle in garage that did not belong to him."

It was only then,police say, that the man realized that his bicycle, which had been stored in the since-breached garage, was missing.

The man didn't see the suspect, so the police don't have any information on who might be responsible and say that no arrests have been made. As always, the SFPD suggests that you check out and follow their garage safety tips to avoid a similar fate.
STORM LAKE, Iowa | Storm Lake police on Wednesday arrested two men suspected of selling methamphetamine.

Joshua Cook, 36, and Michael Kirchner, 45, both of Storm Lake, are each charged with possession with intent to deliver a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia. Cook faces an additional charge of delivery of a controlled substance.

Officers conducted a controlled buy of meth at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday from a person living in a home in the 300 block of East First Street. After the purchase and continued surveillance of the home, officers executed a search warrant at the residence, where Cook and Kirchner were taken into custody.

Inside the home, officers found 14 grams of meth, hypodermic needles and other devices used to ingest meth.
According to court documents, officers responding to a report of an assault on July 7 in the 200 block of Grace Street in Cleghorn encountered Brown, who displayed an AR-15 rifle as authorities approached the house. After failing to obey commands to put the gun down, Brown went to his back yard and told officers to come get him. He told officers he would use his gun to defend his property, court documents said.
SIOUX CITY | A 33-year-old has been arrested in connection with two armed robberies of auto parts stores in Sioux City.

Police Det. Nick Thompson said Caleb Babb, of Sioux City, is responsible for the robberies of the Advance Auto Parts at 3129 Gordon Drive on March 5 and the one at Auto Zone at 2427 Hamilton Boulevard July 17.

Babb was taken into custody Wednesday in Sioux City and booked into the Woodbury County Jail Wednesday night on a $50,025 bond.

Court documents state Babb entered Advance Auto Parts armed with a handgun and ordered the workers at gunpoint to give him all the money in the cash register. He then ordered them to open the safe where he collected more money. Babb fled the scene with $1,600. In a post-Miranda interview, he admitted to robbing the store.

Then on July 17 he allegedly entered the Auto Zone store armed with a handgun and demanded money from the cash register while pointing the weapon at the clerks. Again he forced the workers to open the business safe. He fled that scene with 2,502.99. He admitted to robbing that store as well in a post-Miranda interview.

He is being charged with two counts of first-degree robbery for the Sioux City incidents.

Babb also had a warrant out for his arrest in Mitchell, South Dakota, for an armed robbery.

Police said their investigation was helped by the Mitchell Police Department, South Dakota DCI and FBI.
SIOUX CITY | A beloved elementary school playground is undergoing demolition this week, with plans for it to be replaced before the outset of the new school year.

Demolition began Monday at the wooden "Dreams of Magic" playground at Nodland Elementary School, 5000 Mayhew Ave., which will be replaced after standing for nearly 25 years.

In March, the Sioux City Community School Board accepted a $106,320 bid from Outdoor Recreation Products of Elkhorn, Nebraska, to replace the playground. The school specified the age of the structure as a reason for its replacement.

The initial design and name were chosen in part by students at the elementary school during the early 1990s.

A clipping from an issue of the May 20, 1993, edition of the Sioux City Journal detailed a special "design day" in which children dreamed up ideas for equipment to suggest to the architect, Leathers and Associates of Ithaca, New York.

The new playground is among a handful of new development in the area of Nodland Elementary School and East High School. Crews are also continuing to work on an extension of South Cypress Street that will connect it to Lincoln Way to the south.

The City Council in January approved a $1.1 million contract with Steve Harris Construction Inc. for the road project. It's anticipated to be complete by Aug. 11.
Todays top picks from our online calendar. Find more events at siouxcityjournal.com/calendar.

Downtown Live

Grab your friends and a lawn chair and head to the front lawn of the Sioux City Public Museum tonight from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. to hear some live music. Chill out with food, beverages and a different live band Thursday night. Admission is $3. The party starts right after work, so get there quick...you wont want to miss a beat!

Meet the Animals

Stop in to meet our feathered and scaled live animals. This will give you an opportunity to view the salamanders, turtles, snakes and birds of prey up close and personal. Free! Open until 7 p.m. on Thursdays in July.

Bare

Bare is an incredible show that focuses on a coming-of-age of a group of high school seniors at a co-ed Catholic boarding school, each struggling to define themselves in the face of their relationships, sexuality and religion. Tonight's show begins at 8 p.m. at Shot in the Dark Theatre, 413 Nebraska St. Admission is $18.
WASHINGTON -- Do you have a problem -- trouble at work, relationship stress, or just some really hard math homework -- that you can't resolve on your own? You should turn to the man who is fixing problems for more than 300 million Americans.

You should ask Jared Kushner.

President Trump does it. When he needed somebody to negotiate peace in the Middle East, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to be his point man with China and with Mexico, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to solve the opioid epidemic, reform veterans' care, overhaul the criminal justice system and reinvent the entire federal government, Trump again turned to Kushner. Even when he just needed somebody to strap a flak jacket over his navy blazer and fly off to Baghdad, Kushner was the one he asked.

The president's 36-year-old son-in-law has done all this and more, even while keeping up with a demanding family life since the election: a beach trip to Hawaii, a ski trip to Aspen, another ski trip to British Columbia. Clearly he has time to help you, too. Kid has a fever? Rattle in the transmission? Weeds in the lawn? Ring around the collar? Ask JK.

But what happens when Jared Kushner has a problem? What happens if -- and I'm speaking strictly hypothetically here -- Kushner were to neglect to mention in his security-clearance forms that he had had more than 100 meetings with foreigners, including some Russians? Sure, you can ask him. But he won't have a good answer.

The seen-but-not-heard Kushner met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday (at a session closed to the public, naturally). He explained his repeated lapses -- he had to amend one disclosure form three times -- by saying, essentially, that he was new to politics and so terribly busy that he couldn't keep up with everything. And he used the hoariest excuse of all: He blamed his assistant.

"My experience was in business, not politics," he said in a written statement, and described himself as overwhelmed. "I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States," he wrote, and "I could not be responsive to everyone." He explained that he just didn't know he was sitting down with people promising dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government because it "was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one."

Kushner explained how a full accounting of his foreign contacts fell through the cracks "amid the scramble of finalizing the unwinding of my involvement from my company, moving my family to Washington, completing the paper work to divest assets and resign from my outside positions and complete my security and financial disclosure forms." A "miscommunication" led his assistant to file his form prematurely.

That's the trouble with Kushner's defense in the Russia imbroglio. He's essentially arguing that he isn't corrupt -- he's just in over his head. He didn't really know what he was doing, and he was too busy. Coming from the man charged with handling everything from Middle East peace to opioids, this isn't reassuring.

This inexperience defense is consistent with Kushner's filing last Friday showing that he had previously neglected to disclose more than 70 assets, as required, including an art collection (with wife Ivanka Trump) worth as much as $25 million. The Middle East peace negotiator also did not disclose that he held Israeli government bonds.

Yet Kushner's father-in-law entrusted him with what is arguably the most difficult portfolio ever to be assigned to a White House aide. His previous experience: running his family real estate business, which he took over in 2005 when his father was convicted of tax evasion. The next year, Kushner bought a $1.8 billion Manhattan building, near the top of the real estate cycle, and his family has been trying to find investors to keep the project afloat.

So now Kushner is defending himself by playing the ingenue: "All of these were tasks that I had never performed on a campaign previously," and "I could not even remember the name of the Russian ambassador." Kushner, arguing that he didn't seek to create a "back channel" with Russia, explained that he merely asked the Russian ambassador if he "had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use."

The defense leaves one big question unanswered: Why is a man of such inexperience in charge of so much?

Don't ask.
The gravity of the existential threat we face from Islamic Jihad is truly of epic proportions. It is essentially a battle pitting free-civilized man against a totalitarian barbarian. What is at stake is the struggle for our very soul - namely who we are and what we represent. The lives that were sacrificed for individual rights and freedoms that we've come to cherish are being chiseled away from right under our noses by the stealth jihadists. And many of us are in denial and totally clueless.



The left's appeasement and pandering to evil is nothing new. What makes their utopian delusions so infuriating and unpardonable is that it is not only they who will have to pay the consequences, and deservedly, so, they are thwarting and undermining our best efforts at resistance and are thus dragging us down in the process as well.







By Peter Lancz,, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg World Campaign Against Racism.
LA PLATA, Md.

(July 27, 2017)The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) signed an agreement with several community partners June 23 that is designed to better prepare local business students for contracting work at the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), located at Patuxent River Naval Air Station.St. Mary's County Public Schools, University of Maryland University College and NAVAIR will be working with CSM to tailor business education to ensure that local business students are trained and ready for NAVAIR internships and jobs."It's all about workforce development," said CSM President Dr. Brad Gottfried. "These are people who want to live in Southern Maryland. This is where their ties are. This agreement provides a pathway that will have a tangible impact on Southern Maryland."Because of the agreement, students starting out in the St. Mary's County Public Schools Academy of Finance, located at Chopticon High School in Morganza, will have an educational pathway they can follow that will take them from Chopticon to CSM to UMUC. Upon graduation, they will have earned a bachelor's degree in business administration or management with a minor in contract management and acquisition, and they will be uniquely trained for NAVAIR's needs. The agreement also assures the efficient transfer of students between colleges, including transfer of credit, admissions and financial aid and scholarships.Many in the community are aware of Pax River's continuing need for engineers, said NAVAIR SES 2.0 James Meade. However, the base has another, less well-known staffing deficit. "We have a tremendous need for great business people. We want to bring more local folks on board." He noted that NAVAIR at Pax River is an acquisition command and his office handles $35 billion in contracts annually, a task that requires plenty of savvy business people."It's a natural fit," said Superintendent of St. Mary's County Public Schools Scott Smith. Smith said the school system's goal is for all its graduates to be college- or career-ready, and the newly established pathway provides that for St. Mary's County students. In addition, the relationship between the three educational institutions and NAVAIR provides an excellent academic program for business students and all at a cost much lower than spending all four years at a university located outside the region, Smith said."I am thrilled," said Cindy Baden, lead teacher for the St. Mary's County Schools' Academy of Finance at Chopticon. "It's really going to be a great selling point." Baden noted that the academy already has a relationship with Patuxent River Naval Air Station, with her students visiting the base on field trips and the school hosting guest speakers from the base. This agreement strengthens that relationship, she said."It is a pathway business career program designed to address a NAVAIR need and puts the students in a position to be eligible for employment," said CSM Director of the Nonprofit Institute Barbara Ives, who helped create the agreement.UMUC President Javier Miyares noted that CSM works closely with UMUC in many similar agreements and the partnership works well. "Our students ultimately want a job at the end of the journey," Miyares said. "This is a program that can help them achieve their goal. It's also a program that can be a model for the nation."Miyares also commended the planned pathway for the business students because it allows them to earn their associate degree during the process. If anything in life happens that keeps them from completing their bachelor's degree immediately, CSM graduates will have that associate degree, which puts them a step ahead of those without, he said.For information on business and technology degree programs at CSM, visit www.csmd.edu/programs-courses/credit/academic-divisions/bat/ . For photos from the signing, visit csmphoto.zenfolio.com/contractpathway.
LEONARDTOWN, Md.

(, 2017)The St. Mary's County Sheriff's Office today released the following Juvenile incident and arrest reports.04/03/2017A 15-year-old male juvenile of Hollywood and a 15-year-old male juvenile of Leonardtown MD, were arrested and charged with Disruption of School Activities and Affray, while at Leonardtown High School. Both juveniles were arrested and charged by School Resource Officer Corporal G. Maloy. CCN# 18280-1704/03/2017A 15-year-old male juvenile of Hollywood was arrested and charged with Disruption of School Activities and a 15-year-old female juvenile of Leonardtown, was arrested for Disruption of School Activities and Assault 2nd Degree while at Leonardtown High School. Both Juveniles were arrested and charged by School Resource Officer Corporal G. Maloy. CCN# 18113-17 and CCN #18137-1704/16/2017Deputy V. Pontorno arrested a 16-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park for theft less $1000, after the juvenile stole a business sign from the Lexington Park business community. CCN# 22605-1704/21/2017A 14-year-old male juvenile of Great Mills was arrested for a Weapons Violation on School Property and Disturbing School Activities at Esperanza Middle School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by the School Resource Officer, Corporal C. Hartzell. CCN# 21306-1704/23/2017Two, 15-year-old male suspect(s), both of California, were arrested and charged with 2nd Degree Burglary, Trespassing and Property Destruction over $1000. The juveniles were arrested and charged by Deputy D. Holdsworth. CCN# 21682-1704/24/2017A 13-year-old female juvenile of Hollywood was arrested and charged with Theft less $1000 and Rogue & Vagabond. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy D. Lawrence. CCN# 21847-1704/25/2017A 17-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy P. Henry. CCN# 19574-1704/26/201714-year-old male juvenile of Mechanicsville was arrested at Chopticon High School for Assault 2nd Degree and Disruption of School Activities. Arrested by School Resource Officer, Corporal A. HoltonCCN# 22214-1704/26/2017A 14-year-old female juvenile of California was arrested for Assault 2nd Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy G. Muschette. CCN# 22290-1704/28/2017A 12-year-old male juvenile of Great Mills was arrested for Assault 2nd Degree and 4th Degree Sex Offense. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy S. Bowie. CCN# 22668-1704/28/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Theft less $100 from a local business. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy V. Pontorno. CCN# 22596-1704/28/2017A 17-year-old male juvenile of California was arrested and charged with Assault 2nd Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy P. Robinson. CCN# 22589-1704/30/2017A 7-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Malicious Destruction of Property. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy First Class R. Steinbach. CCN# 23018-1705/01/2017Deputy D. Holdsworth arrested a 7-year-old male juvenile and a 9-year-old female juvenile both of Lexington Park, for Assault 2nd Degree and Disturbing School Operations. Both of the suspects engaged in a verbal altercation while on a school bus that turned into a physical altercation. CCN# 23163-1705/11/2017A 17-year-old male juvenile, of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault 2nd Degree. CCN# 25004-17Arrested by Deputy G. Muschette05/12/2017A 12-year-old male juvenile, of Lexington Park was arrested for Vandalism inside of a residence. CCN# 20380-17Arrested by Deputy A. Schultz05/14/2017A 14-year-old male juvenile and 17-year-old male juvenile, both of California, were arrested for Burglary, Vandalism, and Theft to several California, businesses. CCN# 18642-17Arrested by Deputy P. Robinson05/18/2017A 13-year-old female juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree at Esperanza Middle School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by School Resource Officer Cpl. C. Hartzell. CCN# 25867-1705/22/2017A 13-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree, as well as Disturbance of School Operations at Spring Ridge Middle School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. C. Hartzell. CCN# 26089-1705/22/2017A 17-year-old female juvenile of Lexington Park was issued a juvenile civil citation for Possession of Marijuana by Cpl. J. Stone. CCN# 27046-1705/23/2017A 13-year-old male juvenile of Leonardtown was arrested for Second Degree Assault by Cpl. J. Davis. CCN#27716-1705/23/2017A 13-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree, as well as Disturbance of School Operations at Spring Ridge Middle School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. C. Hartzell. CCN# 26089-1705/25/2017A 16-year-old female juvenile of Drayden was arrested for Assault Second Degree and Unauthorized Use of a Motor Vehicle. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Dep. P Henry. CCN#27793-1705/26/2017A 10-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. M. Worrey. CCN# 27767-1705/26/2017A 13-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Second Degree Assault at Esperanza Middle School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by School Resource Officer Cpl. C. Hartzell. CCN# 27716-1705/26/2017A 14-year-old female juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. M. Worrey. CCN# 27767-1705/27/2017A 15-year-old male juvenile of Hollywood was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy C. Ball. CCN# 27836-1705/28/2017A 17-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. J. Vezzosi. CCN# 28047-1705/29/2017A 14-year-old male juvenile of Clements was arrested for Burglary at Dynard Elementary School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. E. Johnson. CCN#23953-1706/02/2017A 15-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault Second Degree. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy D. McClure. CCN# 29085-1706/02/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of White Plains was arrested for four counts of Burglary, Vandalism and Theft. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. D. Alexander. CCN# 28267-17, 28293-17, 28297-17, 28303-17.06/06/2017A 12-year-old female juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy C. Ball. CCN# 29708-1706/06/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Assault, Disturb School Operations at Great Mills High School. The juvenile was arrested and charged by School Resource Officer Cpl. K. Nelson. CCN# 29697-1706/06/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Theft. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Cpl. M. Worrey. CCN# 29733-1706/06/2017A 7-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Vandalism. The juvenile was arrested and charged by DFC R. Steinbach. CCN# 29746-1706/06/2017Two 13-year-old females were arrested for fighting on a school bus by Deputy Carl Ball on 6/6/2017. CASE#29708-1706/07/2017A 14-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Theft. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Deputy M. McCuen. CCN#29801.06/07/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of Lexington Park was arrested for Theft. The juvenile was arrested and charged by DFC R. Steinbach. CCN# 29806-1706/07/2017A 9-year-old male juvenile of California was arrested for five counts of Vandalism. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Dep. D. Holdsworth. CCN# 29916-17,29902-17,29898-17,29989-17,29990-1706/09/2017A 16-year-old male juvenile of Leonardtown was arrested and charged with Sex Offense 2nd and 4th Degree and Assault. The juvenile was arrested and charged by Lt. E. Jones CCN# 27846-17
A is for acclaimed. A is for affable. A is for accomplished. Finally, A is for Angelo, as in Angelo Elia, the Italian-born chef/restaurateur, whose impressive roster of dining establishments includes three Casa DAngelo restaurants (Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton and Paradise Island/Bahamas), as well as a growing chain of wildly-popular casual-chic Italian eateries  Angelo Elia Pizza, Bar, Tapas (Fort Lauderdale, Weston, Delray Beach and Coral Springs) and the Angelo Elia Bakery Bar.

Relocating to the U.S. as a teenager from Salerno, Italy, Elia worked his way through some of New Yorks most prestigious kitchens. After moving to South Florida with his wife Denise, Elia served at the helm of a variety of establishments before opening his first restaurant, Casa DAngelo, in 1998.

After expanding to the Bahamas and Boca Raton, he rolled out an all new concept Angelo Elia Pizza, Bar, Tapas in 2010. The casual eatery was such a success that it spawned branches in Weston, Delray Beach and Coral Springs. Last year, Angelo Elia opened his eponymous Bakery Bar on Oakland Park Blvd., specializing in authentic Italian pastries, breads, sandwiches, gelatos and coffees.

Elias culinary acumen and inviting attitude has earned him tremendous praise and recognition from local and national media and has garnered him numerous awards including Zagats Americas Top Restaurants; Wine Spectators Award of Excellence for the past 15 consecutive years, as well as being crowned one of 100 Best Wine Restaurants in 2012.

Casa DAngelo has received a four-star review in the Sun-Sentinel, the Golden Spoon Award from Florida Trend magazine (13 consecutive years) and the Washington Times cited it as, The Place to Eat when you visit Ft. Lauderdale.

Casa DAngelo, Elias flagship restaurant, is always packed, despite the hefty prices. You certainly get what you pay for; attentive service and elegant surroundings complement the upscale menu, which focuses on fresh, seasonable ingredients, many imported from Italy. To call the wine list extensive is an understatement. In addition to regular offerings, there are nightly appetizer, entree and dessert menu specials. In addition to standard antipasti, soups and salads, there are a trio of crudi (carpaccio); the standard beef as well as tuna and salmon. Pasta dishes are hearty and filling, entrees range from traditional favorites such as chicken Milanese to a 14 oz. grilled strip steak. First courses (antipasti, salads and soups) are in the $8-$14 range, pastas average $18 and entrees run $22-$38.

If the tab at Casa DAngelo is a bit steep for you, the same attention, service and flavors can be had at the decidedly more casual, Angelo Elias Pizza, Bar and Tapas. It is an elegant, hip dining destination where crowds line up every night to enjoy fine traditional Italian-style pizzas, tapas, panini and a notable wine list, either in the modern dining room or on one of the two patio cafes. Tapas range in price from $12-$18, which may seem high, but the servings are much larger than you usually get in a tapas spot. Many, such as the fritto misto, a mound of fried calamari, shrimp and vegetables served atop an arugula salad; could serve as an entree. Entree sized salads are $14 and could also easily serve two as a first course, while sandwiches and calzone are priced from $14-$16. Generous portions of pasta run $18-$24. The Neapolitan style pizzas average about $12. We sampled the Capricciosa, a delightful blend of artichokes, olives and mushrooms atop a traditional red sauce and blanketed by mozzarella. Desserts are scrumptious and decadent. The made-to-order cannoli is sheer perfection.

To make the place even more affordable, Mondays through Fridays all drinks are two for one, that accompanies a specialty tapas menu, served from 4  7 p.m., but only at the bar and high top tables. On Wednesdays, fresh blue point oysters are a buck each. Brunch is served on Saturday and Sunday from 11:30 to 3:30.

Angelo Elia Bakery Bar offers an even lower-priced alternative. While it primarily focuses on coffee, tea, soft drinks and incredible pastries, it does offer a few panini, folded flatbreads and salads (priced $6-$10). The best kept secret here is the incredibly reasonable wine list. Wine is available by the glass, quart-sized carafe or bottle. The prices are phenomenal, many as low as $6 a glass or $24 a bottle. Imported beers are also available. While the pastries are my downfall, Ive also been tempted to buy a loaf of bread and tear into it right in the dining area of the storefront cafe.

Angelo Elia Pizza and Tapas

4215 N. Federal, Ft. Lauderdale (additional locations in Doral, Coral Springs & Weston)

954-561-7300

AngeloEliaPizza.com

Casa D'Angelo Ristorante

1201 N. Federal, Fort Lauderdale

954-564-1234

Casa-D-Angelo.com

Angelo Elia Bakery Bar

2104 E. Oakland Park Blvd., Fort Lauderdale

954-566-6100

AngeloEliaBakery.com
On the anniversary of President Harry S. Trumans desegregation of the military, July 26, 1948, President Donald Trump announced that he would ban transgender individuals from serving in the military. It was a reversal from the June 2016 decision President Barack Obama made to allow transgender service members to serve openly.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you, Trump wrote on Twitter Wednesday morning.

It was an announcement met with condemnation from pro-Democratic LGBT groups and their allies. City officials in Wilton Manors also responded by flying the transgender and LGBT flags.

I condemn the Presidents decision to exclude all transgender persons from military service. Transgender persons are citizens of the U.S., pay taxes, support their communities and serve with distinction in the military. President Trumps decision to exclude all such persons from the military flies in the face of what this country stands for and is not based on anything other than bigotry and misunderstanding. It is apparent that this President does not represent me nor my community, said Mayor Gary Resnick in a statement released by the city.

Scott Herman, president of the Dolphin Democrats, said that the ban of transgender individuals is being wrongly justified in the same ways as the previous ban on gay and lesbian service members.

So far the only disruption has been on the basis of religious discrimination. We already have transgender service members and the President is totally disregarding the lives of LGBT service members. As an Army disabled combat veteran I view his actions as appalling. President Trump even received a medical deferment that got him out of military service while others were in the ditches and fields. The President has zero understanding of our military. Herman also accused Trump of not understanding the extraordinary courage of the service members that put their lives on the line for us every day.

Several Republican officials, including U.S. Senator John McCain, also criticized Trumps decision. Any American who meets current medical & readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, wrote McCain on Twitter.

The national Log Cabin Republicans organization also weighed-in.

In a statement, Log Cabin Republicans President Gregory T. Angelo labeled Trumps tweets as politics, pure and simple and that the military is already comprised of transgender individuals who risk their lives to defend the United States. Excommunicating transgender soldiers only weakens our readiness; it doesnt strengthen it. The presidents statement this morning does a disservice to transgender military personnel and reintroduces the same hurtful stereotypes conjured when openly gay men and women were barred from service during the militarys Dont Ask, Dont Tell era. As an organization that led the charge against that hateful policy, Log Cabin Republicans remains equally committed to standing up for transgender military personnel who put their lives on the line to keep us free.

Andy Eddy, a spokesperson and founding member of the Broward Log Cabin Republicans, said he doesnt fully understand the issues facing transgender military personnel. He stated that he wouldnt want anyone joining the military just to have their medical procedures paid for, but said he was unaware of any specific cases of someone doing so.

I have compassion for the situation but I dont understand it. In general though, he said he supports transgender individuals serving in the military. I think they should be allowed to stay in the military. We had a few transgender vets come and meet with and us and discussed their plight. I saw no reason why not to support them.

Vincent Foster, president of the Miami Log Cabin Republicans, said he was in shock and appalled when he first heard the news. But Foster said he still believes Trump is good for the LGBT community.

I think its really important people recognize that it wasnt until the last year of Obamas presidency that he allowed transgender individuals into our military. Foster said that he supports transgender individuals serving in the military but doesnt think taxpayers should fund transgender-related procedures and medical care for military personnel. Its a privilege, not a right [to serve in the military]. And Im done with the entitlement, especially on the left. Theyre risking the efficiency of the strongest military in the world.

A study by the Rand Corporation states that estimated transgender-related healthcare costs would be between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually.

The study also found no evidence that allowing transgender individuals to serve openly would negatively impact the military.

The limited research on the effects of foreign military policies indicates little or no impact on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness. Commanders noted that the policies had benefits for all service members by creating a more inclusive and diverse force. Policy changes to open more roles to women and to allow gay and lesbian personnel to serve openly in the U.S. military have similarly had no significant effect on unit cohesion, operational effectiveness, or readiness, reads the study.
Dying Star Arizona State University

In June 2016, an international team of 31 astronomers, led by the University of Marylands Eleanora Troja and including Arizona State Universitys Nathaniel Butler, caught a massive star as it died in a titanic explosion deep in space.

The blast of the dying star released in about 40 seconds as much energy as the Sun releases over its entire lifetime, all focused into a tight beam of gamma rays aimed by chance toward Earth.

The teams findings, reported in the scientific journal Nature, provide strong evidence for one of two competing models for how gamma-ray bursters (GRBs) produce their energy.

These are the brightest explosions in the universe, says Butler, an associate professor in ASUs School of Earth and Space Exploration. And we were able to measure this ones development and decay almost from the initial blast.

Quick reflexes

The gamma-ray blast on June 25, 2016, was detected by two NASA satellites that monitor the sky for such events, the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope and the Swift Gamma-Ray Burst Mission.

The satellite observatories detected the burst of gamma rays, identified where in the sky it came from, and sent its celestial position within seconds to automated telescopes on the ground.

The MASTER-IRC telescope at the Teide Observatory in the Canary Islands observed it first, within a minute of the satellite notification. The telescope is part of Russias MASTER network of robotic telescopes at the Teide Observatory. It made optical light observations while the initial phase was still active, gathering data on the amount of polarized optical light relative to the total light produced.

After the Sun set over this facility eight and a half hours later, the RATIR camera in which ASU is involved began observing. RATIR stands for Reionization And Transients InfraRed camera; it is mounted on a 1.5-meter (60-inch) robotically controlled telescope located on San Pedro Martir Peak, at Mexicos National Astronomical Observatory in Baja California. Butler is the principal investigator for the fully-automated camera.

Butler explains, At best, it takes a minute or two for our telescope to slew to the bursts position. In this case, we had to wait for it to rise over the horizon. This means the gamma-ray burst itself had ended, and we were observing whats called the afterglow. This is the fading explosion as the radiation shocks up the interstellar medium around the star that exploded.

He says, The RATIR camera lets us take simultaneous images in six colors, two optical and four near-infrared. Over the past five years, RATIR has imaged 155 gamma-ray bursts.

Mystery beams of energy

While gamma-ray bursters have been known for about fifty years, astronomers are still mostly in the dark about how they erupt.

Despite a long history of observations, Butler says, the emission mechanism driving gamma-ray bursters remains largely mysterious.

Gamma-ray bursts are detected approximately once per day and are brief, but intense, flashes of gamma radiation. They come from all different directions in the sky, and they last from tens of milliseconds to about a minute, making it hard to observe them in detail.

Astronomers believe most of these explosions are associated with supernovas. These occur when a massive star reaches the end of its normal existence and blows up in a colossal explosion. A supernova throws off some of the stars outer layers, while its core and remaining layers collapse in a few seconds into a neutron star or, in the case of highly massive stars, a black hole.

Continued RATIR observations over weeks following the June 2016 outburst showed that the gamma rays were shot out in a beam about two degrees wide, or roughly four times the apparent size of the Moon. It was sheer chance that Earth happened to lie within the beam.

Beaming effects, Butler says, may result from the spin of the black hole produced after the supernova explosion, as it releases material along its poles.

Magnetic focus

We think the gamma-ray emission is due to highly energetic electrons, propelled outward like a fireball, Butler says. Magnetic fields must also be present, he adds, and theories differ as to how the fields are produced and to what extent the flow of magnetic energy outward is important.

A key diagnostic is measuring the radiations polarization, he explains. This, astronomers think, is largely controlled by the strength of the magnetic fields that focus the radiation. Butler says, Measuring the strength of magnetic fields by their polarization effects can tell us about the mechanisms that accelerate particles such as electrons up to very high energies and cause them to radiate at gamma-ray energies.

In the case of the June 2016 blast, the scientists were able to measure polarization using MASTER within minutes, an unprecedented early discovery. The large amount of polarization the team observed indicates that powerful magnetic fields were confining and directing it. This lends support for the magnetic origin model for gamma-ray bursters.

While gamma-ray bursters have many more mysteries to be unfolded, Butler says, this is the first strong evidence that the early shocks generated by these bursts are magnetically driven.
Soyuz MS-05 ROSCOSMOS

In the Integration Facility at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft is lowered to a horizontal position to be encapsulated in the upper stage of a Soyuz booster July 21 in preparation for its launch.

Expedition 52-53 crewmembers Sergey Ryazanskiy of the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos), Randy Bresnik of NASA and Paolo Nespoli of the European Space Agency will launch July 28 on the Soyuz MS-05 for a five-month mission on the International Space Station. Credit: Roscosmos

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On this weeks episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast, Build-Outs of Coffee boosters and Sprudge co-founders Zachary Carlsen and Jordan Michelman sip Yes Plz Coffee while discussing new cafes in London, England; North Canaan, Connecticut; Kalamazoo, MI; and Quito, Ecuador.

Build-Outs of Coffee season may be over but you can always register cafes for free at Sprudge Maps!

This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, Oatly, Straus Family Creamery, and DONA.

The 2022 Build-Outs of Coffee is presented by Dripos, Dona, and Mill City Roasters. The 2022 Build-Outs of Coffee is sponsored by La Marzocco, Pacific Barista Series, Acaia, Cropster, and Marco Beverage Systems.

Hit the links below to dive deeper into the topics discussed in this episode.

Show notes and links:

Big Idea Grant from Oatly

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Ngopi In London, England

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Water Street Coffee In Kalamazoo, MI

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Kiwi Coffee Cafe In Orlando, FL

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Ilse Coffee In North Canaan, CT

Build-Outs Of Coffee: Coffee Relief In Quito, Ecuador

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Check out The Coffee Sprudgecast on Apple Podcasts and leave a nice review if youre so inclined. The Coffee Sprudgecast is available on Spotify, Stitcher, and other exceptional podcast portals. This episode of the Coffee Sprudgecast is sponsored by Pacific Barista Series, Straus Family Creamery, and DONA.

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Pasta with tears.

Never heard of it? Well, just ask the four American amateur drivers who were led to slaughter in Treviso, Italy in the first of three legs of the Italian-American Challenge rematch.

In the two contest races on Wednesday (July 26), the Italians decimated the Americans. The best the visiting Americans could muster was a fourth-place finish by Tony Ciuffetelli.

Treviso is a 1,000-metre (5/8-mile) racetrack, and both races were predictably won by the Italians. Maurizio Scala won the first, followed in the winners circle by the affable Giancarlo Moretti, whose famed Murano glass factory is world renowned.

The unfamiliarity with the horses and surroundings didn't help the Americans, but excuses aside, the Italians once again outdrove the Americans. "We can't blame the horses, we can only blame ourselves, Joe Faraldo reasoned. But, as it always seems, when you don't do well there is always something or someone else to blame, and the truth is when you don't drive well, it is your own fault,"

While both Tonys, Ciuffetelli and Verruso, drove well, the horses they drove could have been more competitive with those the Italian drivers had. However, the Italian team have been gracious hosts to the visitng American team, treating them as well as could be expected, especially with good food and great wine.

As Mike Lachance once said after losing a race in Delaware, Ohio, I just turn the page and get ready for the next one."

Tomorrows (Thursday, July 27) races are at Padova and for Team USA, a fresh start. If Team USA fails to catch up to the seemingly insurmountable Italian lead by the final leg at Cesena on Friday (July 28), former Italian amateur champion Michele Canale and friends will be waiting to carve up the remainder of what may be left of the American team.

While it is true that amateur racing is all about human relationships, it is sad for the Americans not to bring home the bacon while enjoying the tremendous hospitality of their Italian hosts. The American team will heed the advice of Mike Lachance and trek on behind the starting gate tomorrow.

(NAADA)
Trainer Jerry Riordan remembers working as a groom at Roosevelt Raceway in the 1980s. He was fortunate enough not only to race there in the tracks heyday, but to be there when the great French trotter Ideal Du Gazeau won the International Trot three consecutive years from 1981 to 1983.

We met the groom of Ideal Du Gazeau and took him out one night. They were a couple of French guys who couldnt understand a word we were saying, but they were good old guys, Riordan fondly remembered. We ended up going down to Jones Beach and drinking a few beers. They were happy as can be, hanging out with us, smoking cigarettes.

Soon after, Riordan witnessed Ideal Du Gazeau in one of his International Trot triumphs. It was the moment the American-turned-Italian-turned-Swedish trainer was first exposed to international racing.

Youre a little awestruck when you see those horses first hand, he recalled. Watching Ideal Du Gazeau with those legs that went flying every direction, it was like something from another planet. The equipment, the way they trotted, and the way they were indifferent to the rest of the race. They just did their thing, and then theyd win. Thats when I realized theres a whole nother type of horse out there besides ours.

In those nights at Roosevelt, Riordan couldnt have imagined he would get the chance to race a horse in the International Trot himself. And after the race was discontinued in 1996, the idea couldnt have crossed his mind. Yet, when Yonkers Raceway revived the International Trot in 2015 and offer a million-dollar purse, Riordan received an invitation with Rod Stewart.

It was fabulous the amount of hospitality they put on, he said. Everybody was enthused about being part of the old Roosevelt International. Its a race thats a legend by now. What it meant at that time, the Roosevelt International was a race that went out and got horses from all over the world and nobody else did that, not even the Thoroughbreds back then. They were ahead of their time with that race.

The longest shot in the field, Rod Stewart made a break shortly after the start of the 2015 International and finished eighth of 10. This fall, Riordan will get another chance at International Trot glory when he crosses the Atlantic with Twister Bi.

Riordan got the opportunity to train Twister Bi by chance. After moving his stable from Italy to Sweden, he got a call from the horses owner, Pasquale Ciccarelli. Ciccarelli knew the Varenne colt had talent, but needed to mature to unlock his full potential.

They said he could go like hell, but he needed to get raced properly. He was a little bit aggressive. He has a pedigree thats predisposed to being aggressive, Riordan explained. Sweden is the best in that type of situation. The way they race here, the tracks are so soft. If a horse is going to have a chance to calm down and learn how to be a racehorse, Sweden is a great place for that.

As time went on, Twister Bi settled into his new surroundings and began to transform from just another fast horse into a good horse. Twister Bi grew stronger and began to understand what his trainer was asking from him.

Mentally, hes just gotten so much better. That was the last step, Riordan said. Now hes filled in that part of the whole equation. Hes gotten so much better on race days. Hes got it all together, hes not wearing himself out. Hes the whole package right now.

Twister Bis breakthrough race came in the Group 3 Prix de La Mayenne at Vincennes Racecourse February 26. Carefully handled early in the 2,700-metre race by driver Bjorn Goop, Twister Bi raced in last early. Kept in the clear, Goop bided his time until the final turn when he tipped Twister Bi three-wide. The five-year-olds stride extended. He reached his neck out and accelerated past half the field in a dozen strides.

The gamblers there are sharp. He was the favourite in the race even though he hadnt raced in three months, Riordan remembered. The pace was really slow and when he tipped out three-wide, they all started yelling aller, aller, aller. Go, go, go. Hes out in the middle of the racetrack, and its him against nine Frenchmen.

Twister Bi sustained his rally and, by the top of the stretch, drew on even terms with leader Caly Loulou. Tango Negro joined the pair along the pylons and in a thrilling stretch drive, Twister Bi struck the lead in the final few metres and prevailed by hard-fought head.

After that race, that was the thing I noticed about him. Normally it takes five guys to slow him down for the picture and all that stuff. For the first time, the horse was cool after the race, Riordan explained. I was thinking, he just had a really great race and now he seems like hes not all stressed about it. I was hoping that meant something, and it did.

Since his Prix de Mayenne success, Twister Bi earned his first Group 1 win in Seinajoki, Finland on April 22 before finishing unplaced in his Elitlopp elimination against Nuncio on May 28. He achieved Group 1 success again the Oslo Grand Prix in Bjerke, Norway June 11. Starting from the post seven, bettors dismissed Twister Bi at odds of 96-1. Riordan saw the race as an opportunity to try something new.

It was the first time we put earplugs on him; it was the first time we put the American sulky on him, Riordan said. I had always been saving that stuff because we were always more concerned about just having him be manageable. I never wanted to be pulling plugs on him. We always tried to keep him calm.

Despite his wide draw, driver Christoffer Erkisson put Twister Bi in the race and tracked the cover of Your Highness. Lionel followed, but soon launched a three-wide bid that saw him move to the first-over spot, pressing leader Aubrion du Gers.

In the second lap of the 2,100-metre race, Lionel drew closer to Aubrion du Gers while Eriksson wheeled Twister Bi three-wide. Entering the final turn, Lionel put his white blaze in front just as Eriksson popped the plugs on Twister Bi, who advanced within a length of the lead. In the stretch, Twister Bi again stuck his neck out and reached for the wire with every sinew in his body. He passed Lionel in the final sixteenth and powered away to a length victory.

When he tipped him out and pulled the earplugs, he reacted really well. Hes always raced really well in Norway. There are no whips there and he doesnt need a whip, Riordan said. And the 2,000 metres suits him too. He doesnt have that extreme speed like some of the other horses do, but when he hits his top gear, he stays there for a long time.

Twister Bis most impressive performance to date came in the Group 1 Ulf Thoresen Grand International at Jarlsberg. Changing tactics, Eriksson let rival Oasis Bi blast off the gate to the front, but soon drove up on the outside and cleared the lead. Entering the last of four turns in the 2,100-metre stakes, Eriksson popped the plugs and Twister Bis lead grew from two lengths to three. Then four. Then five. He sprinted away from Oasis Bi, Lionel, and Carabinieri, leaving multiple Group 1 winners far behind. He won by 6 1/2 lengths.

He eased away gradually, got to the front and just kept that rhythm up, Riordan said. (Eriksson) wanted to make sure he didnt let Lionel get close. When he pulled the plugs, he just exploded. The last 500 metres were like a 1:50 shot or something.

After his romping victory, Riordan received an invitation to the $1 million Yonkers International Trot slated for Saturday, October 14. Although the trip could interfere with the winter meet at Vincennes, Riordans decision was an easy one.

I was a little concerned about the trip jeopardizing the winter, but its a lot of money and its an honor to be participating in the race. I thought about it for about ten seconds and I said, well go. 

Twister Bi finished third in Tuesdays (July 25) Hugo Abergs Memorial at Jagersro behind Propulsions herculean 1:49.2 effort. Before shipping to New York, Riordan hopes to race Twister Bi two to three more times. The Group 1 Jubileumspokalen for five-year-olds at Solvalla on August 16 is next, and the Group 2 UET Trotting Masters Series at Vincennes on September 9 could be after that, although Riordan is reluctant to face Bold Eagle before flying across to New York.

That race in France, Bold Eagle will probably be there. Thats obviously going to make things difficult for anybody in that race, he said. Thats a possibility, but Id personally prefer to find races where we can duck those guys and keep him fresh.

More International Trot invitees will be featured as they are confirmed for the race. The $1 million Yonkers International Trot will be raced Saturday, October 14 at Yonkers Raceway. For more information visit www.internationaltrot.com.

(SOA of NY)
As a high-profile trainer, its hard for Hall of Famer Jimmy Takter to fly under the radar. Yet thats exactly what hes done with Blood Line, wholl compete in Saturdays $400,000 final of the Delvin Miller Adios Pace for the Orchids at the Meadows. Blood Line will start from Post 8 with Mark MacDonald at the helm.

The final anchors a blockbuster Adios Day Card that features six Grand Circuit stakes. First post is noon, while the Adios has been carded as Race 11 (approximately 4 p.m.).

Takter won the Adios with Vintage Master (2009) and again with Sunfire Blue Chip (2013). For all that, Blood Line, a homebred son of Somebeachsomewhere-Blood Diamond for Diamond Creek Racing, was dismissed at 13-1 in his Adios elimination. After leaving for early position, he shot the lightning lane and just missed upsetting the heavily-favored Huntsville by a neck.

Blood Line has won only once this year  a Pennsylvania Sire Stakes split at Harrahs Philadelphia  but finished second to Huntsville in a Meadowlands Pace elimination before breaking stride in the final.

I dont know what happened that day, but he wasnt far off there, Takter said. Hes a good horse, and if he steps up, hell be a pretty solid horse.

Takter knows that Blood Line, who has been installed at odds of 12-1 on the morning line, must step it up now if hes to defeat Fear The Dragon and Huntsville, the No. 1 and No. 2-rated Standardbreds in North America, respectively.

If those two horses are in 100 per cent form, without a doubt, theyre a little better, he acknowledged. But horses are flesh and blood. They can take so much and after a while, some of them go a little backwards.

He also knows that Blood Lines upset chances took a blow when he drew outside.

If you have to have Post 8, the Meadows is probably the best place to draw it because of the slanted starting gate, Takter said. This horse has tremendous gate speed; Im sure Mark will give him a try and leave with him. But if he goes a :26 quarter, hell pay for it at the end of the mile.

Takter indicated Blood Line is eligible for most of the late-season stakes, including the Little Brown Jug.

(Meadows)
Mission America Coalition Names Millennial Evangelist Nick Hall CEO

Contact: Jennifer Willingham (for PULSE), 615-483-4729, Jennifer@iconmediagroup.com ; Noel Foutz (for Mission America Coalition), noel@missionamerica.org PALM DESERT, Calif., July 27, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- Nick Hall, the 35-year-old founder of PULSE and visionary behind Together 2016, will be named President and CEO of the Mission America Coalition, one of the nation's most significant conveners of Christian leaders and organizations focused upon evangelism and discipleship.The Mission America Coalition was launched in 1993 by the United States' Committee of the global Lausanne Movement. The Lausanne Movement was founded in 1974 by Rev. Billy Graham as he developed a passion to unite all evangelicals in the common task of the total evangelization of the world.What started as the U.S. representative voice of the Lausanne Movement, the Mission America Coalition has become a significant part of the Christian landscape in our nation. Today, Rev. Graham sits as the honorary chair of the Mission America Coalition. The Coalition regularly convenes national leaders in advance of the Gospel in North America, most recently through its Love2020 initiative that aims to reach every American with the authentic love of Jesus by the end of 2020. The Mission America Coalition's diverse activities have a single focus: evangelism and discipleship in the United States."It is with joy that we welcome Nick Hall as our incoming President/CEO of the Mission America Coalition," said Dr. Paul Cedar, Chairman of Mission America Coalition. "It's fitting that God would lead us to select an evangelist to carry on this movement to a new generation for the expansion of the Gospel has always been the focus of the Mission America Coalition. I believe Nick Hall has been uniquely anointed by God to share the Gospel, and we believe he has a voice and message that will resonate with this generation and bring together leaders for the cause of evangelism.""Evangelism is my passion, and it has been the entire focus of my adult life," said Hall. "I'm honored to join the Mission America Coalition and I'm praying and believing for a great move of God in our generation. As leaders in the Church, we have been given the charge not only to train up young leaders but also to collaborate with them. I believe this generation is hungry for Jesus, and we're doing everything we can to make Jesus known."Dr. Cedar continued, "God has wonderfully prepared Nick to assume this significant leadership role, and we thank God for it."Nick Hall will continue involvement with PULSE even as he assumes his role at the Mission America Coalition for "PULSE is itself a coalition of evangelists." Last year, Hall and PULSE gathered hundreds of thousands on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. for Together 2016. The event, which the Washington Post reported was filled with prayer for hope and reconciliation.Dr. Cedar concludes, "with all my heart I believe the Gospel of Jesus is the hope of the world, and my prayer for Mission America is that the Gospel will shine as brightly as ever before through the ongoing work of this wonderful coalition."The Board of the Mission America Coalition includes the presidents of many nationally respected Christian organizations such as the National Association of Evangelicals and CRU (formerly Campus Crusade for Christ). It also includes denominational leaders, senior executives from a number of Christian colleges and universities, and executives from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.PULSE, founded in 2006 by evangelist Nick Hall, is a prayer and evangelism movement on mission to empower the Church and awaken culture to the reality of Jesus. In the tradition of Rev. Billy Graham, PULSE was started by students on a college campus and has expanded to host large-scale evangelism events in cities and stadiums throughout the United States and internationally. In July 2016, PULSE held a massive event on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. Together 2016 drew hundreds of thousands from across the nation for a day of prayer, worship, and commissioning.The Mission America Coalition (MAC), founded in 1993 by the U.S. Committee of the Lausanne Movement , is an alliance of leaders in evangelism and discipleship whose exclusive focus is to mobilize the church to spread the Gospel of Jesus in deed and word. The Coalition has had executive-level involvement from 81 denominations, more than 350 parachurch organizations, and countless national, regional, and local networks.Dr. Paul Cedar is the Chairman and outgoing CEO of the Mission America Coalition. Before joining the Mission America Coalition, he served as the President of the Evangelical Free Church of America for two three-year terms, as the Senior Pastor of Lake Avenue Church in Pasadena, California, for 10 years, as Executive Pastor and Pastor of Evangelism at Hollywood Presbyterian Church, and as pastor of several Evangelical Free Churches. He was also a Crusade Associate with the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association and a Crusade Director with evangelist Leighton Ford. Dr. Cedar has also served as Chairman of the Lausanne Committee for World Evangelization, and currently serves as a member of the National Prayer Committee. He is the author of eight books. Paul and his wife Jeannie live in California and have three children and four grandchildren.Nick Hall is the founder and chief communicator of PULSE, a nonprofit organization at the center of the largest student-led prayer and outreach efforts in America today. As an evangelistic voice to the next generation, Nick Hall has shared the Gospel at hundreds of events to millions of students and is regularly featured as a speaker for pastors' gatherings, student conferences, training events, and festivals around the world. Nick is the author of Reset: Jesus Changes Everything (Multnomah, 2016). He sits on the leadership teams of US Lausanne Committee, the National Association of Evangelicals, and the student advisory team for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association (BGEA). Nick, his wife, Tiffany, and their two children live in Minneapolis, MN.
Why the Selection of the Next Metropolitan of Chicago Matters

Contact: George E. Matsoukas, Executive Director, Orthodox Christian Laity , 561-585-0245, 561-808-3494CHICAGO, July 26, 2017 / Standard Newswire / -- The Orthodox Christian Laity (OCL) supports the decision of Archbishop Demetrios and the Eparchial Synod of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America to elevate Bishop Sevastianos to lead the Metropolis of Chicago as its new Metropolitan. As Elaine Jaharis pointed out in her recent Open Letter published in The National Herald, the stakes for the Metropolis of Chicago, the Archdiocese and the Ecumenical Patriarchate could not be higher.The Orthodox Christian Laity has supported the efforts of the Ecumenical Patriarchate where it believes that those efforts have merit: (a) The convening of pre-conciliar meetings over the years; (b) the decisions of all of the Mother Churches at Chambesy; (c) the convening of the Assembly of Bishops in America; (d) the convening of the Holy and Great Council held in Crete last year.Much ink is being spilled in The National Herald both editorially and in commentaries by its Religion Writer, criticizing Archbishop Demetrios and seven of the eight members of the Eparchial Synod for their selection of Bishop Sevastianos to replace the late Metropolitan Iakovos. A fair reading of The National Heralds coverage is difficult, because it seems to be "all over the place." After all the "ad hominem" attacks against Church leaders, "including the Patriarch," the position of The National Herald comes down to this: Those entrusted with leading the Church in America who followed all of the required procedures, including receiving in-put from the clergy and laity should not be allowed to explain their choice to the Patriarch. By asking for a meeting, they are guilty of "entangling the situation against the Greek-American community." Suddenly, the request for a meeting is a "direct disobedience" of the Patriarch!The path forward according to The National Herald is to remove the Archbishop and "clean house" in the Eparchial Synod, presumably because the Patriarch has the ultimate power to do whatever he chooses, and because he knows the needs of the Church in America better than those who have been selected and entrusted to lead this "vineyard that the Lord himself has planted here in America."We strongly disagree with the analysis and the "cure" prescribed by The National Herald. OCL has taken issue with many of the decisions the Patriarchate has made with respect to the Church in America. We do not agree that the Patriarchate knows the needs of the Church in America better than those of us who live out our faith here, including the Archbishop and members of the Eparchial Synod. Evidence of Patriarchate's inability to recognize the needs of the Church in America include the following: The Patriarchate was wrong in forcing the resignation of Archbishop Iakovos; the Patriarchate was wrong in dismantling the Archdiocese and creating "Metropolises" with Metropolitans reporting to Istanbul rather than the Archbishop of this Archdiocese; the Patriarchate was wrong in assigning Archbishop Spyridon to America; the Patriarchate was wrong in imposing a Charter against the wishes of an overwhelming majority of the delegates at the Los Angeles Clergy-Laity Congress; the Patriarchate is wrong to complain about the performance of Archbishop Demetrios, after diminishing his authority over the Archdiocese.The National Herald's attempt to cast the current impasse over the selection of the next Metropolitan of Chicago as a matter of "disobedience" and an "affront" to the Patriarchate is without merit. It is a "crisis" created by the Patriarchate and hyped by The National Herald for its own agenda, whatever that happens to be: sell more newspapers? ...open more Greek Schools in NY? replace Archbishop Demetrios and most, if not all of the Eparchial Synod? ...and replace them with whom?OCL supports the selection of Bishop Sevastianos to lead the Metropolis of Chicago. OCL supports the process followed by Archbishop Demetrios and The Eparchial Synod. OCL supports the request of the Archbishop and Synod for a meeting with the Patriarch to explain their choice and seek an explanation from the Patriarch of his objections to that choice.For thirty years, OCL has championed transparency and accountability in Church governance. Without an honest and open dialogue between the Church in America and the Patriarchate, any decision coming from Istanbul will appear to be arbitrary and capricious. That will benefit neither the Church in America, nor the Patriarchate, which in the end, has more to lose.George D. Karcazes, President
Trump Says No 'Transgenders' in the Military

Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- President Donald J. Trump announced yesterday that the U.S. government will not allow so-called transgender people "to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military." President Trump's announcement came just weeks after Defense Secretary James Mattis announced that he will defer implementation of the transgender policy until January 1, 2018. The Obama-era policy would have allowed incoming service members identifying as "transgender" to enlist if they have been "stable" in their gender identity for 18 months.

"Transgender" service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and receive taxpayer-fund medical treatment that includes hormone therapy, counseling, and body mutilating plastic surgery.

In a series of tweets today, President Trump wrote: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allowtransgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

Liberty Counsel has been involved in this military issue by meeting with White House officials and others about the need to reverse the Obama policy. Last Friday, Jonathan Alexandre, Director of Public Policy at Liberty Counsel, met with White House officials and discussed this issue, stressing the importance of the President's power to direct his generals to prioritize unit cohesion and military readiness rather than sacrificing them to the demands of the transgender lobby.

Several Army soldiers and civilian employees also recently contacted Liberty Counsel for assistance for objecting to being forced to participate in LGBT training based upon their religious beliefs and conscientious objections. These include an Army Major and graduate of West Point, a former Special Ops high level DoD employee, Aerospace Engineers, and other military and civilian employees who objected to the Obama transgender policies.

"I applaud President Trump for making America safe again," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The military is a lethal weapon designed to protect America and our allies. It is not a social club, a social experimentation petri dish, or ClubMed. The focus should be military readiness and unit cohesion. The President has kept his promise to return to military priorities by not continuing the 'transgender' policy that undermines unit cohesion, preparedness, and morale. The duty of military officers is to appropriately lead and prepare their personnel to serve and protect, and they cannot do that when there is confusion, dysfunction, and safety issues within the barracks," said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
Productions of Shakespeare plays are a dime-a-dozen, but you likely wont see many like The Cross-Gartered Shakespeare Companys showing of the playwrights comedy "Twelfth Night."

The show is acted, produced and directed entirely by college students in Longview for the summer.

The production manager, Sadie Nickerson, who portrays Olivia in the production, said a group of actors and actresses performing Shakespeare at their age is a bit unusual.

Everyone in this project is under 30, making the play completely student-driven and student-run and student-created, she said. When you approach Shakespeare, you dont expect that, because Shakespeare is not considered to be the first thing that especially young actors want to approach. But to me, I find it beautiful and easy and far more accessible at times than modern, contemporary writing.

Her fellow cast member, Jeryn Pasha, also loves the Bard.

I love that as young artists, were all coming together to produce this and show what we all have, not be afraid to step up to the challenge that Shakespeare can very much so have in text and story, she said.

Nickerson, an R.A. Long High School graduate, said she began acting in St. Rose Schools musical productions when she was in middle school. She continued acting through high school, and is studying drama at Central Washington University.

Pasha is studying at CWU as well, and hails from Ephrata in Eastern Washington. She said she caught the acting bug while studying at Skagit Valley College. A professor there recommended taking an acting class to help with her sign-language skills, and she fell in love, especially after performing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.

The show will feature nine actors portraying 18 roles, Many actors will play multiple parts.

According to Nickerson, the show is extremely low-budget. She said she views that as a positive.

Because its a zero-budget production, we dont have a lot on the line, Nickerson, 20, said. So we get to do so much. We can just do what we want, and its been exciting.

The Longview native said the group chose to perform "Twelfth Night" over other Shakespeare classics due to the plays simplicity.

In Twelfth Night, the language, although it is poetic and very Shakespearean, which is why I love it, it is not hard, Nickerson said. There are other (Shakespeare) shows that are a lot to comprehend. You take on a history or Hamlet, and its a lot. Twelfth Night is so funny and fast-paced, and its a shorter show. We dont have to cut anything from the text.

The two also raved about their fellow college-student director, Jared Cox. Nickerson and Pasha said they enjoyed working with a collaborative director like Cox, who gives the actors space to experiment.

Personally, it makes me less afraid to make big choices as an actor, Pasha said. I can line up all these things that fit within the realm of the given circumstances within my characters arc, and say, OK, Im going to try this today. You dont like it? Cool, Ill try this then, and kind of cut-and-paste and switch around.

The two already have tentative plans to stage a modernized "Romeo and Juliet" when they return to CWU. They say it will tackle racial violence.

"Twelfth Night," on the other hand, wont have any larger meaning other than pure comedy Nickerson said.

Were very much social justice warriors when it comes to theater, but Twelfth Night is not about that, she said.  Twelfth Night is all about coming, laughing, and having fun with us for a couple hours.

Both actresses say they hope to work in the fringe theater circuit after graduating from Central, possibly in a traveling company. But for now, they simply want to encourage everyone in the Longview area to see "Twelfth Night."

Even if youre convinced that you dont like Shakespeare, come see it, she said. Weve physicalized it, weve added a lot of elements of (comedy) to it. You can find the storyline very easily. Its a love story, and youll laugh your butt off.
The Washington Department of Revenue has put out an alert about an email phishing scam targeting businesses.

The scammers are sending emails that appear to come from the Department of Revenue. The emails give instructions to renew business licenses using alternate links to the legitimate My DOR business licensing system.

Businesses are encouraged to be on the lookout for this, and other similar scams, and never click on an unusual link in an email.

To avoid falling victim to this scam, businesses should:

Confirm the senders email address is cms@dor.wa.gov.

Verify the expiration date on their business license document.

Visit the My DOR website directly at http://secure.dor.wa.gov and log in to review their license status.

More information about this scam is available on the DOR website at www.dor.wa.gov.

If a business is unsure about an email correspondence with the Department of Revenue or has questions related to this scam, they are asked to call 1-800-451-7985. Follow us on Twitter: @WAStateDOR.
Deer refuge great for wildlife watching, paddling

It's a compact piece of ground that brings you back in time and is one of the best wildlife watching places in Southwest Washington.

The Julia Butler Hansen Refuge for Columbian White-tailed Deer was established in 1971 to protect the then-endangered Columbian white-tailed deer. But, like all refuges, it's a haven for lots of other wildlife.

The 6,000-acre area, which is accessed via Steamboat Slough Road, features acres of pastures, forested tidal swamps, brushy woodlots, marshes and sloughs along the Columbia River in both Washington and Oregon. The refuge is a haven for amphibians. It harbors 200 species of birds and a wide array of mammals, including coyote, raccoons, Roosevelt elk, porcupine, river otters, harbor seals and, of course, the white-tailed deer.

The refuge hints at what the shores of the lower Columbia River looked like before European settlement of the region. It's flanked by two waterways, the Elochoman River on the east, Skamokawa Creek on the west. Both are easy, quiet paddling venues that drift through farms, woods and wetlands.

The lower Elochoman features spectacular fall foliage, and the blackberry picking along the waterways and the refuge road itself is always an August treat.

You'll find the refuge just west of Catlamet on State Route 4.

Astoria Sunday Market

Sounds of bluegrass, drums and live music fill the air at the Sunday Market in Astoria, as patrons munch on pastries, crab cakes and snow cones. The market offers a fun gathering spot to enjoy local cuisine or purchase fresh produce, crafts and art from 200 vendors.

Local farmers and craftsman gather to sell their wares from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Sundays between May 14 and Oct. 6. The Astoria Sunday Market is located in Astorias historic downtown on 12th Street. It spans four blocks from Marine Drive (Highway 30) to Exchange Street.

Born out of efforts to revitalize downtown, the market now attracts thousands of visitors every week and has become a vocal gathering point for local residents, artists, farmers and businesses. In 2004, the Oregon Downtown Association awarded the Astoria Sunday Market the Downtown Achievement Award. In 2007, the market was recognized Oregons second largest market of its kind.

Perched along the Columbia River where river and ocean meet, Astoria has because of a hub for visitors and artists drawn to the beautiful waterfront fishing town. With trendy breweries, restaurants and coffee shops, the downtown offers plenty of cultural activities year round. Beach lovers can comb the sand for shells, and visitors can enjoy panoramic ocean views from the top of the 125-foot tall Astoria Column.

A day in Cathlamet

Cathlamet combines historic sites and family activities into one great summer destination.

Nestled along the lower Columbia River in Southwest Washington, Cathlamet once was a Wahkiakum indian village called Kathlamet. For centuries it was one of the largest native settlements on the lower Columbia.

In 1846, retired Hudson's Bay Company employee James Birnie became the first permanent white settler at Cathlamet. The town established a thriving trading system of furs, fish and other goods.

Cathlamet still resembles that old fishing village, boasting an historic hotel, a brew pub, antique shops and other local businesses.

Cathlamets colorful history is preserved in the Historic Pioneer Church as well as the Wahkiakum Historical Museum.

The sleepy town of about 545 people provides access to the county-owned ferry  named the Oscar B  across the Columbia River.

The Julia Butler Hansen Wildlife Refuge  6,000 acres along the Columbia River  protects threatened Columbian white-tailed deer.

The Cathlamet library is a hub for summer kids activities and presentations from authors.

Coldwater Lake

For mountain bikers in Cowlitz County, its hard to get more off the beaten path than the trails at Coldwater Lake.

Local mountain biking guru Jim Lemond and his fellow riders have done extensive trail work on the 230A and 211 over the past 15 to 20 years.

In June, Lemond convened a work crew of 70 people to do maintenance on the intermediate to advanced trails. To be clear: these are not beginner-level trails.

The 230A begins almost immediately with a tough 1.5-mile climb right out of the parking lot.

There isnt much danger but it would get your attention if you arent a seasoned rider, Lemond says.

If youre looking for less elevation gain, head over to the north side of the lake on the 211. Most parts are benign, but others are a bit dicey for beginners, Lemond says.

Because Lemond and his team have kept the trails in relatively good condition, they have also seen an increase in use by hikers as well.

Reaching The Rock

Castle Rock is the western gateway to Mount St. Helens. But if you just pass by this quaint city, youll miss out on bike trails, hiking and walking trails, prime fishing spots and some great sights.

The city of Castle Rock gets its name from the 190-foot tall basalt monolith  appropriated name The Rock  that towers above of the Cowlitz River. It's cloaked in timber, so it's a bit hard to distinguish from a plain hill. If you're approaching the city from the south on Huntington Avenue you'll find a trail leading to the top just north of Lion's Pride Park.

In the early 1800s, river traders and Cowlitz Indians used the rock as a landmark. The rock is made of Columbia River basalt produced by giant lava flows that poured from cracks in the earth millions of years ago in an area that now is the Oregon/Washington/Idaho border. The rock shares its origins with similar basalt monoliths, such as Beacon Rock and Rooster Rock in the Columbia River Gorge.

Each year since 2009, the annual I Topped the Rock 5K run has attracted more than 1,000 participants. The family friendly race brings together volunteers and area residents to raise money for local groups. In past years, proceeds have gone to the city library, community gardens and veterans services.

For those looking to drop a line in the water, fishing on the Cowlitz River and nearby streams offers prime sports fishing opportunities with cutthroat, rainbow and brown trout, as well as large and smallmouth bass, bream and perch.

 The Daily News
Longview City Council Thursday is expected to award contracts for two high-profile road projects: the Columbia Heights Road slide repair and resurfacing of 15th Avenue near City Hall.

The council also is scheduled to discuss raising nonunion employee salaries, the Beech Street local improvement district, on-street parking regulations and memorials in the public rights of way.

The slope above the lower portion of Columbia Heights Road has been unstable since a slide there in December 2015. The estimated $164,000 project would grade the slope and prevent erosion. The council is expected to accept the lowest bid from P.C.R., Inc., in Beavercreek, Ore., at about $144,000.

City staff is also recommending the council accept a bid to resurface 15th Avenue between Washington Way and Hudson Street. The project will replace the asphalt and upgrade signals and wheelchair ramps. The pitted and patched roadway is among the citys highest street repair priorities.

The only bid came from Lakeside Industries of Longview for about $825,000  about $75,000 more than the citys estimate. The new Transportation Benefit District, which levies a $20 fee on car tab renewals, will pay for the project.

In other business, the council is expected to act on a proposal to increase salaries for 14 non-represented city employees in professional, technical and administrative (PTA) positions.

A salary survey of PTA positions in 10 comparable cities earlier this month found that Longview PTA positions combined are an average of 1.73 percent below the average of their peers. These upgrades are aimed at closing the pay gap.

In order to move forward with a local improvement district (LID) for construction of Beech Street between 14th Avenue and California Way, the city will need to conduct a special benefit assessment analysis, a feasible study and other preliminary activities.

Staff is recommending that the council approve a preformation agreement with WRSCO, the property owner proposing the LID, to equally split the costs of $150,000. Both the city and WRSCO would be reimbursed if the LID is successful. The new linking street is considered essential for bringing commercial development to the area, which now has no direct street access.

The council will also hear a proposed $68,500 contract with Valbridge Property Advisors to conduct the special benefit assessment.

Council members will also consider a proposal to restrict parking in the 1300 block of Florida Street to three hours to accommodate customers for Hearth Coffee. Motorists now can park there for 10 hours.

Staff will present a policy addressing memorials in the public right of way for roadway fatalities.

To accommodate grieving families, the policy would allow memorials in the right of way for up to 365 days, at which point families can sponsor a safety message sign and plaque.

The council meeting will occur at 7 p.m. Thursday at Longview City Hall.
Sean Spicer announced his resignation from being White House press secretary last week after weeks of speculation a change in the White House was coming. He may not be unemployed for long, however.

According to the New York Posts Page Six, Spicer is being targeted as a potential competitor on ABCs Dancing With the Stars, the reality dance competition hit show for the network. According to the report, Spicer is already in talks with networks about potential job opportunities in television, but this may not have been what he had in mind.

Can't wait to see Sean Spicer waltz on Dancing With the Stars.  Zach Braff (@zachbraff) July 21, 2017

While Spicer is destined to be joining a long list of political commentators on one of the cable news networks or with one of the main networks, a stop on reality TV may be the change of pace Spicer needs before he transitions back into the political game from the other end of the camera.

Dancing With the Stars may do well in gathering B-level and C-level celebrities to fill its cast, but it has not strayed away from political figures being included. Former Texas governor Rick Perry, now the Energy Secretary, was on the show last year. He was the second dancer voted out. FOX News commentator Tucker Carlson was on Season 3 and was the first contestant eliminated.

This seems to be playing off the headlines, which the show is known to do. Its actually a wise strategy to keep the show fresh and in-tune with the people that are known by the masses. But considering Spicers own approval rating, it also seems to be a bit of a gamble unless the hope is there is a comeback story in the making for Spicer.

The unfortunate reality for Spicer here is if things are not going well, the cameras will remain on. And there are no bushes to hide behind either.
Sinking island seeks seat in Security Council

Thalif Deen :

The Maldives, one of the world's low-lying, small island developing states (SIDS) - threatened with extinction because of a sea-level rise- is shoring up its coastal defences in anticipation of the impending calamity.

And it is seeking international support for its very survival.-at a time when most Western nations are either cutting down on development aid or diverting funds to boost domestic security.

"The danger of sea level rise is very real and threatens not just the Maldives and other low-lying nations, but also major coastal cities like New York and Miami," Ambassador Ahmed Sareer, the outgoing Permanent Representative of the Maldives, told IPS.

Sareer, who held the chairmanship of the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS) for over two years, said that even though projections vary, scientists anticipate at least three feet of sea level rise by the end of the century.

"This would be problematic for the Maldives, SIDS and many other coastal regions. We are currently building coastal defences to mitigate the danger, but need more support," said Sareer, currently Foreign Secretary of the Maldives.

Along with Maldives, there are several low lying UN member states who are in danger of disappearing from the face of the earth, including the Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia.

Asked if the United Nations and the international community were doing enough to help alleviate low-lying small island states, Sareer told IPS: "There has been a heightened focus on the risks SIDS face in recent years, not just from climate change but economic challenges as well. We are grateful for the progress, of course, but it is fair to say we still have much further to go."

Beginning July 31, the Columbia Broadcast System (CBS), one of the major US television networks, is planning to do a series of stories on "Sinking Islands" threatened by rising sea levels triggered by climate change.

Described as "one of the world's most geographically dispersed countries" and comprising more than a thousand coral islands scattered across the Indian Ocean, the Maldives has a population of over 390,000 people compared to India, one of its neighbours, with a hefty population of over 1.2 billion.

The island nation was devastated by the December 2004 tsunami, and according to one report, 57 islands faced serious damage to critical infrastructure, 14 had to be totally evacuated, and six islands were destroyed. A further twenty-one resort islands were forced to close because of tsunami damage estimated at over $400 million.

As part of its defences, the Maldives has been erecting a wall around the capital of Male to thwart a rising sea and a future tsumani.

Meanwhile, in a dramatic publicity gimmick back in October 2009, former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed held an underwater cabinet meeting, with ministers in scuba diving gear, to highlight the threat of global warming.

And earlier, at a Commonwealth Heads of Government (CHOGM) meeting in Kuala Lumpur in October 1989, then Maldivian President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom told delegates that if his country is to host the annual meeting in the foreseeable future, the meeting may have to be held underwater in a gradually disappearing island nation.

The World Bank has warned that with "future sea levels projected to increase in the range of 10 to 100 centimeters by the year 2100, the entire country could be submerged".

But still, the Maldives which graduated from the status of a least developed country (LDC) to that of a developing nation in 2011, is very much alive - and currently campaigning for a two-year non-permanent seat in the most powerful body at the United Nations: the 15-member Security Council.

This is the first time in its 51 years of UN Membership that the Maldives has presented its candidacy for a seat in the UN Security Council (UNSC).

Over the past 25 years, only six SIDS have served on the Council, out of the 125 elected members during that period. SIDS constitutes 20% of the UN Membership.

Since January 2015, the Maldives has chaired the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), a group it helped form in 1990, leading a coalition of 39 member states, of which 37 are UN Members, through landmark agreements on sustainable development, climate change, disaster risk reduction, financing for development, sustainable urbanization, and the follow-up to the SAMOA Pathway- the sustainable development programme of action for SIDS.

In a long-planned effort, the Maldives put forward its candidature on 30 January 2008: ten years before the election, which will take place next year in the 193-member UN General Assembly which will vote for new, rotating non-permanent members of the UNSC.

Sareer said the Maldives seeks to bring a fresh and unique perspective to old challenges."

And the Maldives believes that non-traditional security threats are as important if not more, than traditional security threats, in today's world. The Maldives also believes in multi-dimensional approaches to solving issues.

Despite its size, he said, the Maldives has always punched above its weight on the international stage. And it has been a staunch advocate for climate change, and a champion of small States.

Sri Lanka's former Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Palitha Kohona told IPS Maldives has a commendable mission to realise - to push for action on climate change through the Security Council.

This, though a laudable aspiration, will be an uphill battle given that a powerful Permanent Member of the UNSC (the United States) is a declared opponent of the majority global view on climate change, having recently pulled out of the Paris Accord. It will also run in to opposition from the fossil fuel lobby.

However, if elected to the UNSC, Maldives is likely to enjoy the sympathy of the vast majority of the membership of the UN, including those who initiated a movement to seek an advisory opinion in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on responsibility for global warming and climate change in 2012, said Kohona, who co-chaired the UN Working Group on Biological Diversity Beyond National Jurisdiction and is a former Chief of the UN Treaty Section.

"It will need to deploy considerable resources to secure a seat and then to realise its goal

because Security Council elections, unfortunately, have become a competition among aspirants to see who can spend most on entertaining, junkets and obligatory visits to capitals. These 'poojas' become bigger and bigger by the year," said Kohona.

He said Maldives will be a trend setter for small island developing states, which also must be able to play a role in the UNSC. "They have concerns of global import. It is unsatisfactory in every sense for the UNSC to increasingly become a preserve of big and the powerful."

He also pointed out that Maldives is well placed and eminently qualified to raise awareness on climate change, global warming and sea level rise. These are threats to the very existence of humanity and could very well morph in to threats to global peace and security.

Already the flood of refugees is having a destabilizing effect on Europe. Refugee flows, which could be massive, resulting from climate change would pose a greater threat to global peace and stability requiring UNSC action. Such action could be taken preemptively rather than after the catastrophe has occurred, he noted.

"Seeing our loyal friend and neighbour seeking a non permanent Security Council seat should also encourage Sri Lanka to do the same in the not-too-distant future," he added.

Asked whether the 2016 Paris Climate Change Agreement reflected the fears expressed by SIDS on sea level rise, Sareer said sea level rise is just one of the many impacts of climate change, which are of significance to SIDS.

"The Paris Agreement's main objective is to enhance climate actions, and hence doesn't directly address sea level rise. However it did include a strong temperature goal and a stand-alone article on loss and damage, which indirectly address these concerns. What is important now is for countries to make deep cuts in their emissions immediately."

Asked whether the Maldives expects funding from the multi-billion dollar Green Climate Fund (GCF), he said: "We do. The GCF is a primary multilateral vehicle to deliver climate financing to developing countries and therefore ramping up support for the GCF will be critical for all vulnerable countries."

However, other funds under the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) are also crucial for transforming climate action in SIDS and also in developing countries.

He said changing rainfall patterns and increasing salinization caused by rising sea levels have led to challenges in securing reliable supplies of drinking water in many Small Island Developing States.

In this context, the Maldives submitted one of the first projects approved through the GCF which will see almost a third of the population of the Maldives becoming freshwater self-sufficient over the next five years.



(Thalif Deen, a Senior Consulting Editor at Inter Press Service (IPS) news agency, has been covering the United Nations since the late 1970s).
Unabated drug traders across the country

MAKING all the efforts to prevent drug trading, trafficking and addiction by law enforcers, NGOs and governmental agencies futile, the fatal addiction and menace are extending to large sections of youths in urban and rural areas due to cheap price and availability of drugs within walking distance.





The drug addictions are destroying family coherence, thereby disarraying the very fabric of society, and leading to substantial cases of homicide which is ultimately an obstacle to economic growth by paralyzing youth and destroying their employability.



Despite all efforts, the spreading net of narcotics has proved difficult to break as ruling party politicians - some lawmakers, a section of law enforcers, and border guards are involved with this illicit trade. Each year, the nationals waste around Tk 60,000 crore for drugs whose social cost and economic cost for due to work hours lost defies all estimates.



Social protests that existed previously, have waned which helped to bolster the morale of drug kingpins and traffickers. In fact, the illicit net is run by a politically and administratively powerful group.



A vernacular daily reported that different types of narcotics, mostly Yaba and Phensidyl, are being openly sold and bought at around 1000 points in the capital and the number is innumerable across the entire country. Such a flood of narcotics in the country has engulfed 70 lakh nationals and it is feared that the number might be one crore by 2020.



The drug traders are continuously changing tactics and methods to spread their illegal markets across the country. They now traffic drugs by using guilelessness of children, women, elderly people, third gender, and even handicapped people.



The traders in some cases stick "Executive Magistrate", "Police", "Detective Branch" written insignia on vehicles to securely traffic drugs, while, train, launch, bus and other public transports are used largely. The most powerful and secured drug syndicate exists in Cox's Bazar where lawmakers, law enforcers, border guards, and ruling party men have merged into drug syndicates for making fortune at the cost of destroying the youth generation. All the 32 bordering districts have turned into a warehouse of drugs while border guards wishfully fail to prevent the smuggling of narcotics from India and Myanmar. Bangladesh government over the last few years requested the Indian government to destroy the drug factories alongside the border but no improvement has been achieved, an ironic sign of intimate friendship!



Drug addiction with its all-pervading impact on human body makes addicts emotionally and physically inconsistent and violent, thus the social fabric is being reshaped. The law enforcing agencies seen vigilant by day and night to deter drug trafficking, and seized hauls of Yaba and other narcotics but the seizure is the only a tip of large iceberg. The government is set to toughen the Narcotics Control Act 1990 by awarding capital punishment for drug traders and traffickers but social and cultural movement against drugs and moral guidance are seriously absent. We believe only tough laws will not prevent the drug addiction. Intimate family bondage with youths, religious teaching, social protest, cultural awareness, and rules of law, which can bulldoze the drug estate are must to get rid of the menace. Besides, border guards of Bangladesh must prevent the sneak of the drugs from other side of border and the neighbouring country must destroy the factories alongside the border.
Britain plans to send warship to South China Sea in move likely to irk Beijing

Britain\'s Secretary of State for Defence, Michael Fallon, arrives in Downing Street for a cabinet meeting, in central London, Britain.

Reuters, Sydney :

Britain plans to send a warship to the disputed South China Sea next year to conduct freedom of navigation exercises, Defence Minister Michael Fallon said on Thursday, a move likely to anger Beijing.

Britain would increase in presence in the waters after it sent four British fighter planes for joint exercises with Japan in the region last year, he said. China claims most of the energy-rich sea where neighbors Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims. "We hope to send a warship to region next year. We have not finalised exactly where that deployment will take place but we won't be constrained by China from sailing through the South China Sea," Fallon told Reuters.

"We have the right of freedom of navigation and we will exercise it."

The presence of a British vessel threatens to stoke tensions, escalated by China's naval build-up and its increasingly assertive stance.

China's construction of islands and military facilities in the South China Sea has stoked international condemnation, amid concern Beijing is seeking to restrict free movement and extend its strategic reach.

Britain's move could also upset ties between London and Beijing, undermining efforts to shore up what the two governments have called a "golden era" in their relationship as Britain heads towards a divorce with the European Union.

"We flew RAF Typhoons through the South China Sea last October and we will exercise that right whenever we next have the opportunity to do so, whenever we have ships or planes in the region," Fallon said.

The United States estimates Beijing has added more than 3,200 acres (1,300 hectares) on seven features in the South China Sea over the past three years, building runways, ports, aircraft hangars and communications equipment. To counter the perceived Chinese aggression, the United States has conducted regular freedom of navigation exercises that have angered Beijing.

Earlier this month, the United States sent two bombers over the region, coming just a few months after it sent a warship to carry out a maneuvering drill within 12 nautical miles of one of China's artificial islands. China has repeatedly denounced efforts by countries from outside the region to get involved in the South China Sea dispute.

The South China Sea is expected to dominate a regional security meeting in Manila next week, where Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will meet counterparts from the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries.

Meeting ASEAN diplomats in Beijing on Wednesday, Wang told them both sides must "exclude disturbances on the South China Sea issue, and maintain positive momentum", China's Foreign Ministry said.




For first time, over half of people with HIV taking AIDS drugs: UN report

Life Desk :

For the first time in the global AIDS epidemic that has spanned four decades and killed 35 million people, more than half of all those infected with HIV are on drugs to treat the virus, the United Nations said in a report released Thursday.

AIDS deaths are also now close to half of what they were in 2005, according to the UN AIDS agency, although those figures are based on estimates and not actual counts from countries.

Experts applauded the progress but questioned if the billions spent in the past two decades should have brought more impressive results. The UN report was released in Paris where an AIDS meeting begins this weekend.

"When you think about the money that's been spent on AIDS, it could have been better," said Sophie Harman, a senior lecturer in global health politics at Queen Mary University in London.

She said more resources might have gone to strengthening health systems in poor countries.

"The real test will come in five to 10 years once the funding goes down," Harman said, warning that some countries might not be able to sustain the UN-funded AIDS programs on their own.

The Trump administration has proposed a 31 percent cut in contributions to the UN starting in October.

According to the report, about 19.5 million people with HIV were taking AIDS drugs in 2016, compared to 17.1 million the previous year.

UNAIDS also said there were about 36.7 million people with HIV in 2016, up slightly from 36.1 million the year before.

In the report's introduction, Michel Sidibe, UNAIDS' executive director, said more and more countries are starting treatment as early as possible, in line with scientific findings that the approach keeps people healthy and helps prevent new infections. Studies show that people whose virus is under control are far less likely to pass it on to an uninfected sex partner.

"Our quest to end AIDS has only just begun," he wrote.

The report notes that about three-quarters of pregnant women with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, now have access to medicines to prevent them from passing it to their babies. It also said five hard-hit African countries now provide lifelong AIDS drugs to 95 percent of pregnant and breastfeeding women with the virus.

"For more than 35 years, the world has grappled with an AIDS epidemic that has claimed an estimated 35 million lives," the report said. "Today, the United Nations General Assembly has a shared vision to consign AIDS to the history books."

The death toll from AIDS has dropped dramatically in recent years as the wide availability of affordable, life-saving drugs has made the illness a manageable disease. But Harman said that "Ending AIDS" - the report's title - was unrealistic.

"I can see why they do it, because it's bold and no one would ever disagree with the idea of ending AIDS, but I think we should be pragmatic," she said. "I don't think we will ever eliminate AIDS, so it's possible this will give people the wrong idea."

-AP, London


Workshop on sustainable fisheries held

Economic Reporter :

The workshop on sustainable fisheries was held in Dhaka on Wednesday organized by CLS, a France company and Corona Engineering Ltd to address technical solutions for the management of the fish stocks and fishing effort in Bangladesh and its sea.

M Sayed Arif Azad, the Director General of Ministry of Fisheries and Livestock made the opening remarks of the workshop while Golam Shafiuddin,ndc, additional secretary of energy and mineral resources division, Sophie Aubert, Ambassador of France spoke at the workshop. M Masud, Managing Director of CORONA Engineers Ltd presided over the function. M. Jean-Francois Bonnin and Jean-Pierre Cauzac from CLS presented keynote papers.

M Sayed Arif Azad said that fisheries account for 2percent of the Bangladesh GDP and generates lots of employment. The Bangladesh fishing industry is now considering going to high seas of the Indian Ocean to develop tuna fishing.

Many participants of this workshop agree to develop sustainable practices for fisheries in Bangladesh as a priority, for the well-being of our fisher populations, for food security, and to improve our competitiveness for export to high value markets like EU.

M. Jean-Francois Bonnin and Jean-Pierre Cauzac from CLS presented solutions for modern management of fisheries. They consist in better understanding of the marine environment by satellite images, tracking the vessels and collecting their catch data in realtime. The solutions have to be put in operation in coordination between the government, the scientific institutions and the industry.

Sophie Aubert, Ambassador of France said that France has a long history in ocean fisheries science and is ready to support cooperation with Bangladesh.

CLS is a French company established in 1986 by CNES, the French Space Agency, and by Ifremer, the French national sea research institute. It is a world leader in fisheries management solutions. CLS is delivering detailed observations from satellites, and fishing vessel monitoring services to the ministries of fisheries in the major fishing nations like Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, and islands of the West Indian Ocean.


Prof Dr AKM Azharul Islam, VC , International Islamic University Chittagong (IIUC) attending an orientation programme of MBA and MBM Course at Hotel Agrabad Auditorium as Chief Guest on Tuesday .
GHATALI(Tangail): Gatail Pourashava Karmochari - Karmokarta Association observed a sit- in - programme demanding salary from Governmnet fund on Monday.
Beef price hikes

'No one controls market'

Reza Mahmud :

Beef price is increasing day by day in the city. The meat sellers are charging Tk 500 to Tk 550 for per Kg of beef, though the City Corporation fixed the rate at Tk 475 per kg during the Ramzan.

"We are disappointed at the hike of beef price. So we have changed our food habit by buying chicken," said consumer Rafiqul Islam to this correspondent at Jurain kitchen market.

Beef sells at Tk 520 per kg at Jurain kitchen market, said meat trader Suman Mian.

When asked why, he said, "We cannot suffer loss."

The beef has been selling at Tk 475 in different kitchen markets in the city. At Gandaria kitchen market, it is Tk 530 per kg and at Hatirpool Tk 500 to tk 520 per kg. The meat traders were selling beef at Tk 500 per kg at Karwan Bazar.

Ahsan Haidar, a consumer from Moghbazar said, the meat traders hike price after every strike. We have bought beef at Tk 475 during Ramzan, but now they are charging Tk 500 per Kg at Karwan Bazar and nearby other kitchen markets.

Abul Hashim from Hatirpool Bazar said, "We are to change our food habit to maintain budget. The traders hiked red meat price without any bar. But no one have been seen to control it."

When contacted, Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka South City Corporation told The New Nation yesterday, "The DSCC has fixed the beef price at Tk 475 per kg only for Ramzan, to keep the price stable in the holy month. After the month, we have not initiated any price fixing for the item."

He said, price of every commodity depends on some matters like demand and supply.

Mesbahul Islam, the Chief Executive Officer of Dhaka North City Corporation said, " So far I have heard that the cow supply from India decreased in recent days. It may cause the price hike."

He also said that DNCC will investigate if the enlisted meat traders are involved in the price hiking or not

He also said that the DNCC will sit with the officials of DSCC to fix red meat price.

Rabiul Alam, the General Secretary of Meat Traders Association, admitted the indiscipline in trading.

"Some influential persons grabbed our association's office at Gabtoli. So, we are not able to run our organization properly," he said.

He also said that the extra money charging by the lease holder of Gabtoli cattle market is the main reason of price hiking.

According to the traders, there is demand for 5000 cows and buffaloes and 1500 goats and sheeps per day.
Nine including 4 Nigerians held

DB police in a drive arrested 9 people including two women and 4 Nigerians of a \'fraud gang\' from different areas of the city on Wednesday night.

Staff Reporter :

Detective Branch of Police arrested nine people including four Nigerians, in connection with fraud and human trafficking from the capital on Wednesday.

Seven of them have been identified as John Agodi UGO, Liza Akther alias Eshta, Afeez, Mohammad Mohsin Sheikh, Tasmia Parveen alias Shimu,

Micheal kel Eugene Obumneme and Namdi Kelvin says, according to a press release of Dhaka Metropolitan Police.

Besides, Mohammad Jamal Hossain and Mohammad Mojibur Rahman were arrested for their reported link with trafficking, according to the press release.

All the nine were picked up from various areas of Dhaka in separate drives on Wednesday.

"The fraud ring sometimes through emails or sometimes through love affairs instigate people to send money. Posing as foreigners, they send emails to people in Bangladesh expressing desire to invest in the country as they have a lot of money," Abdul Baten, Joint Commissioner of Detective Branch of police, said in a press briefing at DMP media center.

"When someone responds to their emails on investment, they send various supportive documents and build up relationship with the victims and ask them to send money to process their investment which can be up to Tk two to Tk five lakh," Abdul Baten added.

The money is remitted to Bangladeshi accounts run by some people of the scam ring, he said.

An accused Liza Akther alias Eshta alone did transactions worth Tk 1.5 crore last month. The money is laundered outside the country via 'hundi' or through other mediums, Baten said.
Draft on judges' code of conduct submitted to CJ

Staff Reporter :

The draft of the disciplinary rules and code of conduct for lower court judges was submitted to Chief Justice SK Sinha on Thursday.

"Law Minister Anisul Huq handed over the draft to the Chief Justice yesterday," said Law and Justice Division Secretary ASSM Zahirul Haque.

The Chief Justice will send back the draft to the Law Minister after scrutinising it, he said, adding that draft will be later sent to the President for his consent and the gazette notification on the rules will be issued after the approval.

On July 23, the Supreme Court gave the government another week to publish the gazette notification on the rules determining discipline and conduct of lower court judges.

The judiciary was officially separated from the executive in November 2007 but the disciplinary rules for the lower court judges are yet to be formulated.

On December 2, 1999, the Supreme Court in the Masdar Hossain case issued a seven-point directive, including formulating separate disciplinary rules, for the lower court judges.
EC plans to build smart voting system

The Election Commission, is taking steps to use modern equipment at polling centres as part of smart election management.

The EC also discussed sending voting supplies to polling centres on the morning of Election Day to prevent fraud, said qouting EC Secretary Mohammad Abdullah.

On his last workday, Abdullah told bdnews24.com that the EC is paving the way for free and fair elections. "Various measures have been taken for that," he said.

Abdullah is being transferred to the post of secretary at the Ministry of Industries, only ten months after being assigned to his job as the EC secretary.

Helaluddin Ahmed, who was serving as the divisional commissioner of Dhaka will replace Abdullah.The commission is also discussing steps on certain issues, such as the snatching of ballot boxes on the night before the polls.

"We are planning to send out ballot papers on the day of the election to every voting centre. Many returning officers have recommended this idea as well. I think the EC will play a positive role in discussion about the issue in the future," he said.

Currently, the rules state that voting will occur between 8am and 4pm. However, the commission is also discussing an alternative proposal that voting will begin at 9am and conclude at 5pm so that the EC can send voting materials on the election day.

There has also been some concern about using the EVM system in the polls. The EC is currently waiting to hear the opinions from relevant parties before making a decision on EVMs, the secretary said, but the commission is moving forward with steps to make the polling centres 'smart'.

"We are considering the use of folder boards for counting the votes, which will reduce the pressure on presiding officers. The commission will take help from development partners," said Abdullah.

"The commission is considering ways to make the election system smart, simplify the selection process and reduce the pressure of the presiding officers."

"We are planning to fortify the polling booths. Though it will be expensive, we will use good-quality folding boards. After the votes are cast, the ballot papers will be folded and stored in the Upazila or district election office," he said.

"The commission is committed to modernising the entire election system."
KSA to take 3,000 BD workers this yr

Staff Reporter :

Saudi Arabia will take 3,000 Bangladeshi workers of different professions this year.

Bangladesh Ambassador in Riyadh, Golam Mosi, said it in a press release after a meeting with the Chief Executive Officer Fahad Al Sulaim of Eastern Recruitment, a manpower recruiting agency of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The meeting was held on Wednesday in Riyadh.

Counselor (labour) of the Bangladesh Embassy M Sarwar Alam, First Secretary (Labour) M Asaduzzaman, Second Secretary (Press) M Fakhrul Islam and Sonali Bank Deputy General Manager M Abdul Wahab were, among others, present at the meeting.

Golam Mosi participated in another meeting with senior officials of different companies in a Dammam hotel on the day. He urged them to recruit more workers from Bangladesh. The Bangladeshi ambassador highlighted honesty, dedication and skills of Bangladesh workers to the prospective employers in both meetings.

The envoy urged them to recruit doctors, engineers, ICT experts and skilled manpower of different professions alongside the general manpower.

Top officials of various Saudi companies, including Al Yamama, Nasser S Al Hajri and Nesma, were present in the meeting.

The ambassador emphasized training of workers in both the meetings and said, we need proper information about work environment, respective job responsibility, salary and other facilities before sending them to Saudi Arabia.

He also assured the representatives of the companies that the government of Bangladesh will provide all kinds of support to the workers for their training.
Readmission under proper policy must

The government will complete the readmission process of undocumented Bangladeshi migrants in Italy through fruitful discussion and negotiation with the European Union (EU), officials said.

They said the process will be completed under a proper policy guideline for ensuring it's transparently.

"The issue will be settled through better understanding and cooperation with the EU," a senior foreign ministry official told The New Nation yesterday, asking not to be named.

He said, "Bangladesh has already initiated a comprehensive dialogue with the EU on the issue. Both the sides have agreed to framing a specific readmission policy to ultimately ensure transparency of the process and European Comission's (EC's) legitimacy."

The EC is an institution of the European Union, responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the EU treaties and managing its the day-to-day business.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the EC, on Tuesday threatened to impose visa restrictions for Bangladeshi travelers to Europe unless the country speeds up the readmission of illegal immigrants from Italy.

When asked, the foreign ministry official said, "Speed up the process depends on early and fruitful negotiation between Bangladesh and the EU".

More than 93,000 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea this year, a 6 per cent increase over the same period in 2016. The top three nationalities of migrants disembarking in Italy are Nigeria, Bangladesh and Guinea, according to media reports.

Juncker, in a letter to Paolo Gentiloni, Italy's prime minister, on Tuesday said visa policy could be used as a bargaining chip with Dhaka. "We will intensify our efforts to reach an effective arrangement with Bangladesh to speed up the readmission of migrants irregularly present in Italy, including by proposing to the Council the use of visa leverage, if appropriate,"

Juncker also said that the EC was setting up a special "contact team" in Brussels to coordinate with Italian authorities to deal with the migrant crisis in Italy.

He promised an extra 100 million euros ($116 million) in funding to Italian prime minister to deal with the migrant issue.

"We would like to reaffirm the Commission's determination to stand by Italy in these challenging times and respond promptly to any solidarity requests that the Government may formulate in the weeks to come," Juncker said.

He added, "The extra 100m in funding, on top of nearly 800m already pledged, is intended to help Italy host the migrants and process asylum applications in a timely way. The EU also offered extra help in managing returns of immigrants selected for deportation, which has been a big logistical and legal struggle for Italy".
Rescue city canals first

Water-logging will force people to abandon capital, experts warn; term LGRD Minister's claim of water recede within 3 hours a day dream

Staff Reporter :

Initiative should be taken right now to tackle the city's water-logging situation, otherwise time will come when the people will be compelled to leave the capital with utter dismay, experts warned.



The experts called for taking immediate steps to rescue the city's canals first that have been grabbed by some influential people during the last few years.



Otherwise, the government's hope to recede the rainwater from the street within three hours will remain a daydream. And once the city's major thoroughfares would remain under water for years, the experts said.



LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain on Thursday claimed that rainwater will recede within three hours from the next year.



"Water logging problems in Dhaka city will not take place next year. And if the city's streets and lowlying areas are inundated due to heavy rainfall, water will recede within three hours," he said at a briefing on the eve of two-day international conference on water.



The conference will be held in the capital Dhaka on July 29 and 30.



Urban and water experts rejected outright LGRD and Cooperatives Minister Khandakar Mosharraf Hossain's claim, warning every major thoroughfare in the city will be inundated and the waters will have no scope to recede from the city.



M Enamul Huq, former Director General of River Research Institute and Water Development Board of Bangladesh and urban experts Prof Nazrul Islam and Prof Shamsul Huq echoing the same views said if the present trend of city governance continues, all city streets will remain submerged during monsoon in a decade.



The experts who made their remarks in different media on Wednesday and Thursday said the situation will intensify the suffering of the city dwellers, and some day the people will be compelled to leave the city.



Enamul Huq said as almost all canals around Dhaka city have been grabbed by some influential people after filling up the water canals and used those for various purposes it will not be possible to make the city livable within a year.



"The WASA and city corporations have failed to rescue the canals from the grabbers in the last eight years. Now, how and in what way the government hopes that the rainwater will recede from the city within three hours," he said.



Prof Shamsul Huq said there is no possibility of good days in the future.



"Lack of good governance pushed the capital to such a sorry state. And this problem will be spreading to other metropolitan cities. Now capital Dhaka, port city Chittagong, Khulna and Sylhet are facing the worst situation. It is like a cancer that spread fast leading to death," he said.



He said once the Dhaka will be an abandoned city as people will have no option to live here.



Prof Nazrul Islam said the concerned authorities, who use or control the city land, do not have any headache about the city streets.



Besides, the concerned authorities responsible for constructing or repairing the city roads do not have any idea about city land.



"And the agencies which are responsible for controlling the traffic system, they do not have any study on city lands and roads," Prof. Nazrul said.



The experts predicted that the city will face far worse water-logging situation in the future.
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WEST FRANKFORT  For their acts of bravery during Aprils flooding, seven Franklin County public servants who rescued a stranded driver were honored Tuesday by the Illinois House of Representatives.

During the West Frankfort City Council meeting Tuesday, Detective Jeff Tharp, Officer James Trogolo, Officer Jason Yunker, firefighter Gary A. Little, firefighter Matt Morthland, citizen Dustin Shelton, and citizen Scotty ODaniel each received certificates of recognition from the Illinois House. Rep. Dave Severin, RBenton, was in attendance to present the awards.

According to a news release, on April 29, as a result of heavy flooding, a vehicle was swept off of the road with the driver still inside. The West Frankfort Police and Fire departments were dispatched to the scene and were assisted by community members to free the driver.

Each of them will say they were simply doing their job, or did what anyone else would have done in that situation, however they truly went above and beyond, Severin said.

West Frankfort Police Chief Mike Irwin had similar praise.

These guys deserve every bit of the recognition they are receiving, Irwin said. He added that it is encouraging for officers and other public servants to have their work recognized so publicly.
CARBONDALE  The total solar eclipse next month is an opportunity not only to experience one of the rarer astrological phenomena visible from the Earth, but will also provide an incredible experience for learning.

Cities throughout the region are gearing up for massive crowds  each wanting to own their piece of eclipse fever. Carbondales Science Center is in on the action, but working with the goal to educate.

Chris Walls, executive director of the Science Center, said he and his team have been working to develop partnerships as well as programming to help make the most of next months momentous event. He said with so many eyes focused on the eclipse, its one of the best moments to engage children of all ages in science.

Any moment to teach science at this broad of a scale, its just amazing, Walls said. He said in the coming weeks, there are a lot of programs to take advantage of for families, and adults, as well.

Lots of people shy away from science and math because its considered hard, Walls said, adding that he hopes the eclipse makes science more accessible to people of all ages.

On Thursday, Shane Larson, fellow at the Adler Planetarium in Chicago and professor of physics at Northwestern University, will make a presentation as part of the centers Science Cafe.

In this talk well explore some of the important ways that eclipses have historically helped us develop a better understanding of the Earth and its place in the cosmos, a news release on the Science Centers website reads. Walls said he is thrilled that Larson is coming, and said the talk likely would be of interest to people high-school-aged and older.

Chicagos Adler Planetarium will also be making a stop at the Science Center Aug. 19 as part of its Galaxy Ride tour ahead of the eclipse. The tour will bring space artifacts, a telescope and activities to teach about the speed of light during stops in Du Quoin, Jacob, Cypress, Ullin, Sparta, Carbondale and Murphysboro between Aug. 14 and 21.

Walls said this will be an incredible opportunity for those in far-flung locations to get to talk to professional astronomers.

Michelle Nichols, director of public observing for the Adler, said that's the point of the Galaxy Ride. She said their mantra for the annual event is, Go where the people already are.

Nichols said she is excited to bring the resources of the Adler to people who may not get the opportunity to experience them in person.

A lot of them may not have the opportunity to come up to Chicago to interact with the Adler here so we are bringing the Adler to them, she said. Nichols also said she hopes this experience, both the Galaxy Ride as well as the eclipse itself, helps connect people with the resources that are already in their area and to help them continue to explore the world around them.

This is a great launching point for that, but we hope it continues past the eclipse as well, she said.

The Science Center will also be hosting a space camp program next week that Walls said will be very eclipse-heavy. He said he and his team have been developing eclipse exhibits ranging from an actual eclipse viewing simulator to a small-scale model that will show the eclipse path across the U.S. and the group of 25 5- to 10-year-olds will be among the first to experience them.

They will be working on learning how to study the eclipse, Walls said of the experience.

There is a glut of information both in person and online  Walls said Fred Espenaks website, mreclipse.com, is a personal favorite source, as well as SIUs eclipse website, eclipse.siu.edu  but Walls said its just important to get involved, particularly for kids. He suggested asking questions of children to keep them curious.

Nichols said this is a big goal of the Adler as well.

Kids are naturally curious, but the experiences that they sometimes have sucks the curiosity right out of them, Nichols said. She said she hopes the eclipse will rekindle that curiosity.

As for the day of, Walls said the most basic thing is also the most crucial. When the moon starts crossing the sun, stop and watch  safely of course.
While Southern Illinoisans are experiencing sweltering heat this July, two local residents are looking toward the holiday season. Jim Koonce and Becky Mueller have their focus on Dec. 16, National Wreaths Across America Day.

Wreaths Across America is an organization that places wreaths on the graves of veterans at Arlington National Cemetery and at 1,200 locations in the U.S., at sea and abroad.

The mission of Wreaths Across America is to remember fallen U.S. veterans, honor those who serve and teach children the value of freedom. That mission is carried out by coordinated wreath-laying ceremonies each December.

Koonce started an organization called Honor Wreaths for Veterans, a Marion-based nonprofit.

This year we have started a lot earlier than we did last year accepting donations for purchasing veteran wreaths for national cemeteries, Koonce said.

Koonce is asking donors to give $30, which buys two wreaths. Donations will be matched by Womens Life Insurance Society.

When you make a donation to buy two wreaths, they will match, making your donation purchase four wreaths, Koonce said.

The deadline to participate in the matching program is Aug. 12. Koonce expects another matching program to run from Sept. 15 to Nov. 1.

Becky Mueller of Mound City National Cemetery Preservation Commission said the commission also is selling wreaths for Wreaths Across America.

This is the only fundraiser we have, Mueller said.

The group gets a portion of the cost of each wreath. They use the funds for the caretaker lodge on the cemetery grounds. The lodge acts as an interpretive center when it is open.

Commission maintains caretaker lodge and pays utilities on the lodge. It is like an interpreters center, Mueller said. We are working on making it a small museum with some Civil War artifacts.

Mueller said the group cant keep the lodge open every weekend because they do not have enough volunteers to staff it. They are planning to open the lodge from 1 to 4 p.m. Aug. 18, 19 and 20 for eclipse travelers.

Last year, around 1,100 wreaths were placed on graves at Mound City National Cemetery. Mueller said the cemetery has 9,000 graves.

We raised enough money for 550 wreaths, and placed over 1,100 last year, Koonce said.

Koonce also would like to see a wreath placed on each grave at the cemetery.

Honor Wreaths for Veterans received donations last year from Chicago to Dyersburg, Tennessee. So, this year, the group has increased its reach to offer wreaths at the veterans section at OFallon City Cemetery and Alton, Jefferson Barracks, Camp Butler in Springfield, Danville and Abraham Lincoln national cemeteries.

When donating at honorwreaths4veterans.org, donors can designate which cemetery receives their wreaths. Most have donations go to Mound City National Cemetery.

To donate to Honor Wreaths for Veterans, visit the website at www.honorwreaths4veterans.org or mail donations to Honor Wreaths for Vets, 1212 N. Garfield St., Marion, IL 62959.

"Everyone has heard of Arlington National Cemetery, but Mound City National Cemetery is in our area. We need to support veterans buried in our area," Koonce said.

The deadline to order wreaths through Mound City National Preservation Commission is Nov. 29. Each wreath is $15. The group also accepts donations for maintaining the lodge.

After Friday, Mueller expects the groups new web page to be up. Visit it at www.moundcitynationalcemetery.org.

Send donations to: MCNCPC, P.O. Box 45, Mound City, IL 62963.
CAIRO  Cairo Public Utility Co. has found itself in the spotlight related to the housing crisis in Cairo, but utility executives and their consultants say the fingers should be pointing in another direction  toward Springfield.

Utility representatives say their wholesale power supplier, the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency, is charging excessively high electric rates that are sucking the life blood out of Cairo  as it was described it in a PowerPoint presentation that has been shared with U.S. Rep. Mike Bost, Housing and Urban Development officials and others.

Specifically, business and communications consultants Todd Ely, of Springfield, and Dave Lundy, of Chicago, say that the IMEA is over-invested in coal-fired generating units, locking members into long-term above-market rates as an abundance of natural gas has pushed wholesale market prices downward.

IMEA is a part-owner of two coal-fired generating units in Trimble County, Kentucky, and the Prairie State Energy Campus in Marissa, about an hour north of Carbondale.

Lundy said the decision to invest in the Prairie State Energy Campus, of which the IMEA owns about 15 percent, has especially caused unreasonable rates for the IMEAs 32 municipal members and one electric cooperative because of cost overruns and early inefficiencies at the plant, which came online in 2012.

IMEA signed the contract to invest in Prairie State in 2007. It was one of  if not the  biggest public works projects in the United States at the time.

While numerous other plans for coal-fired generating units were scrapped around the world in the face of a changing market, about 200 local communities across eight states banded together to build the Prairie State campus, primarily through umbrella municipal electric associations in their respective states.

Its turned into a boondoggle for the communities that are stuck with it, said Lundy, speaking on behalf of the Cairo Public Utility Co.

CPUC consultant 'stunned' by rates

Ely said he began to look into the issue on behalf of Cairo Public Utility Co. after Bost, R-Murphysboro, approached the utility company for more information. Bost had fielded several complaints about high electric costs. State and federal officials have been more actively involved in Cairos affairs since HUD placed the Alexander County Housing Authority in receivership in early 2016, and about a year later, announced plans to move everyone out of the large Elmwood and McBride housing complexes.

Ely said Cairo Public Utilitys general manager, Larry Klein, told him the utility adds about 5 cents per kWh to the cost it pays for wholesale electricity  to support its distribution systems and operations. Thats about average, Ely said. He said his next question to Klein was how much the utility pays per kWh for electricity to the Illinois Municipal Electric Agency.

Thats when it opened Pandoras Box, he said. Ely said that when Klein told him they paid on average about 7 cents per kWh last year, I was stunned  stunned  that they were paying that much, he said. He said that based on the wholesale market, the utility should be paying close 3.5 to 4 cents per kWh. That would reduce their purchasing costs in the neighborhood of $2.5 million to $3 million annually, he said.

CPUC is requesting one of two things: Reduce wholesale electric rates to fair market value, or release CPUC from its IMEA contract and obligations.

IMEA defends wholesale rates

But Staci Wilson, IMEAs director of government affairs, says the agency is not to blame for Cairos woes. She also said Cairo Public Utility Co.s information on rates is a misrepresentation of the facts.

The wholesale market rate cited is not an apples to apples comparison, she said.

In fact, it is not a rate quote at all. It is someones estimate based on a limited knowledge of what goes into the overall costs of acquiring and delivering power to the municipal substation, she said.

IMEAs rate, she said, includes a fully delivered product. That includes all transmission and sub-transmission service to the member delivery point, as well as other offers that include renewable sources, an energy efficiency program, and a seven-day-a-week operations center staffed by highly skilled power supply professionals.

In a true rate comparison, Wilson said that Cairo would be paying close to the same, or only slightly less, on the wholesale market at this time.

IMEA is not in a position to simply release Cairo Public Utility Co. from its contract, she said. Thats because costs are shared among the IMEAs membership, and if Cairo were to no longer buy its power from IMEA, it would affect how much other communities are paying.

IMEA has about $1.3 billion in bond debt on its books for its electric piece, according to its most recent audited financial statements. Cairo accounts for about 1.7 percent of the power supplied by IMEA, and therefore is responsible for about $22 million of the bond debt. The contract between Cairo Public Utility and IMEA expires in 2035.

A special deal for Cairo

Still, Wilson said that IMEA recognizes the economic difficulties facing Cairo, and has extended a hand to help try to get them over the hump.

Our board, recognizing that Cairo is facing an unusually difficult situation with the closing of their HUD facilities, began to discuss offering Cairo a discount on their full load, she wrote, in an emailed statement.

Those discussions prompted the boards chair, vice chair and an executive board member to visit Cairo Public Utility Co. and Mayor Tyrone Coleman in early June. Subsequently, the full board met and voted to extend a retention rate to CPU for their entire load until February 2021, she said.

Based on CPUs past 12 months usage, IMEA estimates this will result in a 3.3 percent discount, in addition to the previously established rate discount that is offered to Bunge, Cairos largest electricity user, Wilson wrote.

That wasnt near enough to stave off further crisis in Cairo, Lundy said.

So when Cairo says, Hey, were broke, and we need you to come up with a more market oriented solution and the answer is OK, well, well cut $160,000 out of your $5 million a year contract, its not really sufficient, Lundy said.

Complaints about Prairie State widespread

Numerous Midwestern cities locked into long-term deals with their umbrella organizations to purchase power from the Prairie State Energy Campus have raised concerns, as well. In 2014, the city of Batavia, which is a member of the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, which also owns a piece of the plant in Marissa, filed a lawsuit in 2014 accusing promoters of the campus of misrepresenting construction and long-term electricity costs to get them to participate in the deal.

The lawsuit, which a judge dismissed, called the Prairie State project a scheme by Peabody to create a market for its high-sulfur, high-ash coal reserves in Southern Illinois, according to a report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Peabody denied the allegations in past reports.

Sandy Buchanan, president of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, which has long opposed the Prairie State deal, said that Peabody, and then consultants on their behalf, went around and marketed the deal to local communities.

They told all these communities, and we have reams of documentation on this  (that) this plant was going to be a great deal, that no matter what happened it was going to be less expensive than power sold on the market, and they should buy into this because it was going to be this long-term reliable, stable, affordable source of electricity.

Just the opposite has proven true, she said.

The unfortunate thing is some of these communities, theyve just thrown in the towel and said this is how its going to be, Buchanan said. So they either have to eat it or in the case of Cairo or Galion (Ohio) or whatever, you just get so squeezed that you dont know whats going to happen next.

Peabody has defended the plant on numerous occasions by saying that the decision was based on sound forecasting that Prairie State will be competitive with other fuels over the long run.

Wilson said that Prairie State is simply one piece of IMEAs energy portfolio that is designed to hedge member costs in order to insulate members from quick and broad market swings, such as the polar vortex in 2014. She said Prairie State is 23 percent of the overall resource mix that IMEA uses to meet its members needs.

Between Prairie State and the Trimble County, Kentucky, units, IMEA is about 38 percent invested in coal-fired generating units. It also is part of several long-term contracts for the purchase of electricity from coal, natural gas and diesel units from private suppliers. Member resources and renewables, of close to 10 percent, round out IMEAs portfolio, Wilson said.

Alyssa Harre, director of public relations and government affairs for the Prairie State Generating Co., said the Prairie State Energy Campus represents the second largest capital project in Illinois during the past decade. At peak construction, it employed more than 4,000 tradesmen and tradeswomen in and around Washington County.

Harre said that today, more than 600 people are employed in full-time jobs on the energy campus. She said that economists predict that Prairie State will stimulate the creation of more than 800 additional jobs, and that its impact on the region is equal to more than $785 million annually.

As to the complaints raised about cost overruns at the plant, Harre said that construction for all types of plants  whether coal, nuclear, natural gas or wind  increased significantly in the period between 2000 and 2008 as costs escalated for commodities, labor costs, equipment and other materials at a higher rate than was anticipated. The final cost for the project was just shy of $4.933 billion, she said.

Harre noted that Prairie State does not "manage the debt service, transmission of the electricity, overall planning nor rate setting of the electricity for its owners."

Wilson, of the IMEA, notes that each member municipality has a seat on the board. Decisions are made collectively. The vote took place on Feb. 1, 2007, to buy into Prairie State and the vote was unanimous, meaning Cairo Public Utilitys representative, Karl Klein, the longtime general manager, was among those voting yes. Karl Kleins nephew, Larry Klein, is the current utility manager.

Further, to extend contracts as part of the Prairie State deal, all member utilitys city councils had to vote to approve to extend their contracts with IMEA precipitated upon new generation projects (second unit) in Trimble County and Prairie State. In the case of Cairo, the CPUC board of directors was required to affirm the contract under its agreement with the city as the CPUC is currently the contract holder with IMEA.

Buchanan, president of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said that part of the issue is that most had no real independent ability to gauge the claims made by Peabody and its consultants about this being a deal too good to pass up on. They were rushed, she said. They were told you must  and if you dont get into this deal in the next few months your opportunity is lost.

Ely said its true that Cairo Public Utility Co. went into the deal eyes wide open" as far as having taken the vote. But Ely said he does not think its executives, along with those in other cities, fully understood the extent of what they were roping themselves into for decades.

In addition to that point, Ely also said that it appears from reviewing IMEAs financials that they are sitting on enough reverses that they could afford to comfortably cut Cairo a better rate deal given its predicament.

So even if you assume, OK, they made a deal, they got stuck in a bad deal and so their 32 communities have to pay the price, the margin that theyre charging when you look at those financials, its breathtaking. This is a not-for-profit, he said.
CARMI  The Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Oil and Gas Resource Management on Friday announced a public comment period has been re-scheduled for a high volume horizontal hydraulic fracturing permit from Wichita, Kansas-based Woolsey Operating Co.

If the permit is approved, it will be the first issued in Illinois since former Gov. Pat Quinn signed legislation in 2013 that cleared the way for fracking in the state.

According IDNR spokesman Ed Cross, the public comment period is in effect now until 5 p.m. Friday, July 28, during which time community members are invited to provide input and feedback about the proposed project.

The application, previously announced in June, was put on hold pending further details from Woolsey Operating Co. According to IDNR, it has been assigned the review number of HVHHF-000001.

The well, to be known as Woodrow No. 1H-310408-193, is proposed to be permitted for the production of gas, located just north of Enfield in White County.

Anyone wishing to enter comments should email them to DNR.HFPublicComments@illinois.gov or mail them to Illinois Department of Natural Resources, Attention: Oil and Gas Regulatory Staff, 1 Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702.

All comments must include the review number (HVHHF-000001) and be received by the Office of Oil and Gas Resource Management by 5 p.m. July 28 in order to be considered by the IDNR during the permit review process.

All requests must contain all of the elements identified in 62 Illinois Administrative Code Section 245.270(a)(3) and must be received by the Department before 5 p.m. on the last day of the public comment period.

Guidelines for public comments may be found at: www.dnr.illinois.gov/OilandGas/Documents/public_comment_and%20Hearing_Request_%20instructions.pdf.

Additionally, any person having an interest that is or may be adversely affected, any government agency that is or may be affected, or the county board of a county to be affected under the proposed permit, may file a written request for a public hearing.

That request must be served by email or certified mail to all of the following parties: the hearing officer, the IDNR and the applicant. Those addresses are:

Hearing Officer, Oil and Gas Regulatory Staff, Illinois Department of Natural Resources Office of Legal Counsel, Attention: HF Hearing Officer Daniel Schuering, 1 Natural Resources Way Springfield, IL 62702; or email DNR.HFHearingRequest@illinois.gov.

Department of Natural Resources, Attention: Oil and Gas Regulatory Staff, 1 Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702; or email DNR.HFHearingRequest@illinois.gov.

Woolsey Operating Co. LLC, HVHHF, Registration Number HVHHF-00003, 125 N. Market St., Suite 1000, Wichita, KS 67202; or e-mail: woolsey@woolsyco.com

Per the IDNR, if public hearings are requested and granted, they will be held at 11 a.m. Aug. 2 at Enfield United Methodist Church Family Life Center, at the corner of West Main and South Jennette streets.

Anyone wishing to speak at the hearing must first submit a comment per the instructions above. Once received, a hearing officer will review the comment to determine if it has standing. The hearing is not open to general public comment.

Any other questions about the above mentioned process should be directed to the Hydraulic Fracturing Line at 217-558-2028.

All comments and hearing requests must be made in writing, and any comments or hearing requests left by telephone will not be considered as official comments or requests for the record.
St. Matthews resident Horace Ziegler knows the importance of keeping healthy.

About 11 years ago, Ziegler had heart surgery. Hes been undergoing cardiac rehab for the past seven years and tries to walk at least three times a week.

"Walking is good for you," the 82-year old Ziegler said. He walks about three miles every week and it makes me feel good to get out there and exercise."

When the Regional Medical Center announced plans to open a quarter-mile community walking trail on the front lawn of its U.S. Highway 601 campus, he wanted to attend.

"It gives the community a place that is secure to come out and walk," Ziegler said.

The hospital officially cut the ribbon Wednesday for the four-lane trail, which is free and open to the public.

RMC Vice President of Strategy and Compliance Brenda Williams said the walking trail shows the hospital's commitment to improving the health of the community.

"As citizens, we must take full responsibility for our health," Williams said. "We can build and ribbon cut all the trails in the world, but unless we as citizens get up and come out and walk it, it will do us no good. I would encourage all of us to seek a state of healthiness for ourselves and our community."

Orangeburg Mayor Michael Butler encouraged all those in attendance to look at one another and say, Lets start walking.

"Walking is a great exercise that can reduce and eliminate many health issues," Butler said. "This walking trail is a beautiful addition to the medical center and I know it will be utilized by many."

The trail is constructed of an asphalt foundation covered with a soft blue rubber top.

Recommended hours of use will be from dawn to dusk. There are plans to add lights to the walkway in the near future. There are also plans to add exercise stations in the future, depending on the availability of funding.

The cost for the project was $108,518, which includes all design and engineering fees. A U.S. Department of Agriculture grant provided $42,100; the RMC Auxiliary donated $15,000; the RMC Foundation donated $15,291 and Sen. John Matthews, D-Bowman, obtained $36,127 from the state legislature.

RMC Foundation Chairman Gregg Robinson said walking will allow hospital employees to reduce stress and patients to reduce anxiety.

Acting State Director of the USDA Rural Development Community Program Michele Cardwell praised the hospital administration for its foresight in developing the walking trail.

"The leaders here at the RMC are trailblazers," Cardwell said. "I guess that is why they wanted to put a walking trail here."

Cardwell says walking about 30 minutes a day can reduce heart disease, obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Barbara Riley says the walking trail is important to her.

"I am a diabetes patient," she said. "I am looking at it because I know I can walk but it is something I don't do."

Riley said she plans to use the trail.

"Most times when you go exercise, you have to pay a fee to go to the gym," Riley said. "Here there is no fee. You can just come out and walk around. I can bring my mom out. That is a good thing."

Bernice Rivers says the trail provides her with another option.

"I love to walk," she said. "It is a safe area and it will be a good place to walk."

Rivers said while walking in the mall is good, "you walk better when you walk outside."

"Walking is a good exercise," Tameka Eison said. "It does not hurt anyone. The little kids and the older adults can walk. Exercise is always best."
jgroup/iStock/Thinkstock(SKAGWAY, Alaska) -- A man was charged Thursday with killing his wife aboard a Princess Cruises ship in Alaska, according to federal court documents.



Kenneth Manzanares has been detained and faces murder charges in the death of his 39-year-old wife, who is identified by her initials K.M., according to a criminal complaint filed in federal court by the FBI. A source with knowledge of the FBI's investigation told ABC News that the victim was Kristy Manzanares of Utah.



Princess Cruises said that a domestic dispute occurred Tuesday night and resulted in the woman's death. The FBI, which said it is investigating the "suspicious" death, said that it had dispatched teams from Anchorage and Seattle to Juneau to speak with the deceased's family. The agency has jurisdiction in this case, it said, because the incident happened on the water.

The incident occurred while the cruise was traveling from Ketchikan to Juneau, acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska Bryan Schroder said in a press conference Thursday afternoon.



According to FBI Special Agent Michael Watson's affidavit, security and medical personnel responded to an incident in a cabin occupied by Manzanares and his wife aboard the Emerald Princess on Tuesday just after 9 p.m. local time, when the ship was seven miles off the coast of Forrester Island.



The man's wife was found with a severe head wound and blood was spattered throughout the cabin, according to the court documents. She was pronounced dead at approximately 9:20 p.m. local time, the court documents state.



An Emerald Princess security officer told investigators he noticed blood on Manzanares' hands and clothing at the time. According to the affidavit, the officer placed the man in handcuffs and detained him in an adjoining cabin.



The security officer told investigators that other witnesses had entered the cabin earlier and also saw blood on the husband's hands and clothing. According to the affidavit, one witness, identified by his initials D.H., said he saw the wife lying on the floor covered in blood, and when he asked Manzanares what happened, the man replied, "She would not stop laughing at me."

Schroder said that comment was made after the witness had entered the room. Neither he nor the FBI would comment on whether there was a witness in the room at the time of the incident.



Other family members were onboard the ship at the time, the FBI spokesperson said.



The same witness said he then saw Manzanares grab the woman's body and drag her toward the balcony in the cabin. The witness told investigators he grabbed the woman's ankles and pulled her back into the cabin. According to the affidavit, Emerald Princess security officers entered the cabin soon after.

"We dont know what he intended to do once he got her out there," Schroder said.



"Later, when Manzanares was being processed during a search by the FBI for physical evidence, he spontaneously stated, 'My life is over,'" Watson states in his affidavit, saying he has probable cause to believe Manzanares committed murder.



Manzanares is due in court at 6 p.m. ET Thursday.

The FBI spokesperson described the crime scene as fairly small and said 15 agents interviewed about 200 passengers and crew members following the incident.



Schroder would not comment on the condition of the remaining members of the family who were onboard the ship.



The Emerald Princess was on a seven-day round-trip cruise that departed Seattle on Sunday, according to the cruise line.



"Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and all those impacted by this tragic event," Princess Cruises said in a statement.



Passengers told ABC News they were allowed to disembark at Alaska's remote capital on Wednesday at around 8:30 p.m. local time after authorities lifted an hours-long lockdown.



Princess Cruises later confirmed that the ship departed Juneau for Skagway on Wednesday at 11:15 p.m. local time. The ship, carrying 3,400 passengers and 1,100 crew members, was scheduled to take a scenic tour around the Tracy Arm fjord near Juneau, but that event has been canceled.



"Guests who had shore excursions booked for Tracy Arm Fjord will have their shipboard folio credited automatically, and pre-paid shore excursions will be refunded. Additionally, in light of the impact on guests cruise vacations, Princess Cruises has issued each guest a $150 onboard credit," the cruise line said in a statement Thursday.



A passenger told ABC News that the ship arrived in Skagway on Thursday and passengers have been told the rest of their trip should be unaffected.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
By Trend





Liquidation of the Antonov state concern will not affect the supply of An-178 aircraft to Azerbaijan, the state concern told Trend July 27.

"The deal between Azerbaijan's Silk Way Airlines and Antonov will be implemented according to the schedule," the state concern said.

Earlier, the media reported that the Antonov state concern and its three enterprises  Antonov company, Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company and Plant 410 Civil Aviation State Enterprise  will be liquidated within two months.

This information is false, the Antonov state concern told Trend.

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers on July 19 approved a resolution on the liquidation of the Antonov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company.

According to the official statement of the concern, three enterprises, namely, Antonov company, Kharkov State Aircraft Manufacturing Company and Plant 410 Civil Aviation State Enterprise will be transferred to the Ukroboronprom state concern.

Ten An-178 aircraft, which Silk Way Airlines must receive according to the contract signed in 2015, are being built by the Antonov company.

According to the state concern, the Antonov company will continue to work as usually and the products of the company will be presented in the market as before, under the Antonov brand.

In May 2015, the Antonov company and Azerbaijans Silk Way Airlines signed a contract for the assembly and supply of ten AN-178 aircraft. According to the terms of the contract, the first two aircraft must be supplied by the end of 2018.

An-178 is a short-range military transport aircraft.
By Azertac





Azerbaijan and Macedonia have hailed the development of bilateral relations as Azerbaijani ambassador to Turkey and Macedonia Faig Baghirov paid a visit to Skopje to meet with Speaker of Macedonia`s Parliament Talat Djaferi and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.





In his meeting with Talat Djaferi, Faig Baghirov handed Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov`s congratulatory letter addressed to his Macedonian counterpart on his election as the Speaker of the Parliament.





The sides praised the current level of bilateral relations, saying the friendly ties between the two countries' peoples have deep historical roots. Talat Djaferi hailed the particular role of interparliamentary ties in the development of bilateral relations.





Ambassador Baghirov provided an insight into the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the provocations of the Armenian side, which is not interested in problem resolution through negotiations, on the contact line of the armed forces.





Talat Djaferi noted that Macedonia will continue to support Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, inviolability of its borders and sovereignty and expressed his hope that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be settled through negotiations.





In his meeting with the Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev, ambassador Baghirov handed Azerbaijani PM Artur Rasizade`s congratulatory letter to his Macedonian counterpart on the occasion of his election as the country's premier.





They hailed the development of relations between the two countries, noting the importance of meetings during high-level reciprocal visits and international events.





The Azerbaijani ambassador noted that his country hails Macedonia's support for Azerbaijan's fair stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.





As part of his visit to Macedonia, Ambassador Baghirov also addressed the opening ceremony of a concert of the youth chamber orchestra of TURKSOY in Skopje which was co-organized by International Organization of Turkic Culture and the Azerbaijani and Turkish embassies in Macedonia.




By Azernews





By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijan and Russia are planning to hold a second meeting in the framework of negotiations on border demarcation.

The fifth meeting of the joint commission on demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Russia is planned for the autumn in Moscow, a diplomatic source told Trend on July 27.

The meeting will discuss the progress with the implementation of the action plan of the Azerbaijani-Russian demarcation commission.

The Azerbaijani delegation is headed by Deputy Foreign Minister, Chairman of the State Commission on demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Russia Khalaf Khalafov, while the Russian delegation is led by Vadim Postnov, Co-Chair of the Azerbaijan-Russia joint Commission on demarcation.

The previous meeting was held in Baku this April. Following the meeting, the sides signed a protocol, which was attached with the action plan for 2017 of the commission. Additionally, the parties signed an instruction about the procedure of drawing up a protocol describing the passing of the state border between Azerbaijan and Russia.

Azerbaijan is bound by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, Iran to the south, and Turkey to the south west.

The length of the AzerbaijanRussia border is 327.6 kilometers on the mainland and 22.4 kilometers in the Caspian sea. The boundary is set by the agreement signed in Baku on October 3, 2010.

The border demarcation between Azerbaijan and Russia is carried out in accordance with the agreement on the delimitation of borders by the parties. Russia remains at the moment the only neighboring country with which Azerbaijan has fully completed the process of delimitation.
By Trend





Tashkent hosted a meeting of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkish National Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli, who arrived in Uzbekistan on an official visit.

The sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the military-technical sphere during the meeting.

The establishment of practical partnership between the defense ministries of Uzbekistan and Turkey, including the implementation of joint programs in the field of military education, has become one of the key areas of cooperation.

Following the talks, the sides have signed a set of documents aimed at strengthening experience exchange of the faculty of military educational institutions under the defense ministries and developing bilateral relations in the military sphere.

In particular, agreements on the organization of training courses in 2018 for servicemen of Uzbekistans Armed Forces in Turkish military educational institutions and centers were reached.
By Trend





A comprehensive examination of IT projects submitted to the fifth stage of the grant competition, held by the Azerbaijani State Fund for Development of Information Technologies, is nearing completion, a source in Azerbaijans IT market told Trend.

The results of the comprehensive examination will be disclosed next week, said the source.

Project evaluation is conducted in two stages  primary and comprehensive examination. Initially, the number of projects participating in the grant competition was 172, 150 of which passed the primary examination.

The final decision on funding will be made by members of the State Funds Supervisory Board.

The maximum grant amount to support IT projects is 300,000 manats (for 36 months).

Small grants will amount to 10,000-100,000 manats, medium grants will range from 100,000 to 200,000 manats and large grants will amount to 200,000-300,000 manats.

(1.7010 AZN = 1 USD on July 26)
Phase One of Dubais Parallel Roads Improvement Project (Godolphin District) is 85 per cent complete and all construction works under this phase would be finished in the final quarter of 2017, said a top official.



Mattar Al Tayer, director-general and chairman of Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) added that the two bridges crossing over the Dubai Water Canal had been accomplished.



Al Tayer made a statement to this effect during an inspection tour of work progress in the project, which comprises two phases costing about Dh1 billion ($272 million).



The objective of the project is to mitigate the traffic density on the Sheikh Zayed Road (between Interchange 1 and 2) by 15 per cent. It provides additional entry/exit points to the Business Bay and Burj Khalifa District with a capacity to handle 20,000 vehicles per hour in both directions, explained Al Tayer.



It would also step up the capacity of the Meydan Road, and cut down the journey time between the Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road from 12 minutes to about 2.5 minutes. It would also provide a ramp for Meydan Property Development Project, and ease the pressure on the Financial Centre Road. The project entails the construction of bridges extending 5665 meters and underpasses running 2445 meters.



Phase 1 of the Project, which costs about Dh578 million, encompasses the construction of a 3.5 km-long flyover comprising 3 lanes in each direction crossing over the Dubai Water Canal. The number of lanes increases to 5 in each direction above Godolphin Stables and Al Meydan Road up to Al Quoz Industrial Area. It also includes upgrading the existing junction of Al Meydan Road and Al Khail Road where flyovers will be constructed to provide left turns and ease the existing overlapping of traffic movement, which would reduce the congestion at the junction during peak hours. The project also includes the construction of a 2-lane bridge to serve the traffic inbound from Al Khail Road in the direction of Sharjah to Al Asayel Road up to the junction with Oud Metha Road.



It also includes providing entry & exit points for Meydan Development Project. The Project also includes the construction of 4 tunnels extending 1150 meters (300 meters as covered tunnels and the rest open tunnels). It also includes improving & shifting the utility lines in the area as well as carrying out lighting and signage works, he explained.



Phase 2:

In the second quarter of 2016, RTA started construction works in the Parallel Roads Project  Phase 2 at an estimated cost of Dh336 million. This Phase encompasses the improvement of the western part of the Parallel Roads between Al Meydan and the Financial Centre Roads across the Business Bay district. Lane capacity will range from 3 to 4 lanes in each direction, and service roads will be provided at both directions in most parts of the Project.



The Project includes the construction of a 240-meter flyover at the intersection of Al Saada and Burj Khalifa Boulevard Roads, and a 535-meter tunnel at the intersection of Al Saada and Business Bay Roads. Works include a 500-meter bridge at the extension of Al Saada Road crossing over the Dubai Water Canal (completed with the opening of the Dubai Water Canal), said Al Tayer.



It also includes the construction of a 420-meter bridge at the intersection of Al Meydan and First Al Khail Roads, a 420-meter tunnel to ensure leftward turn from Al Saada Road to Al Meydan Road, and a 340-meter underpass for horses crossing at Dubai Stables. The project works include improving and shifting utility lines as well as lighting & signage works. Works in Phase 2 of the project are set for completion in mid of 2018.



The Parallel Roads Project is one of the vital projects currently undertaken by the RTA to ease the congestion on Sheikh Zayed Road. This traffic corridor, which comprises 3 lanes in each direction, extends 108 kilometres from Sheikh Rashid Road in the north up to the entrance of Abu Dhabi. The project covers the construction of bridges and at-grade junctions at the intersections of parallel roads with the crossing roads extending 42 km. The entire project constitutes a traffic hub supporting the Sheikh Zayed Road and Al Khail Road, and upon completion of all phases, it would ease the traffic movement in the area parallel to the Sheikh Zayed Road to the East, added Al Tayer.



RTA had completed several phases of the Project including a 5-km sector from Oud Metha up to the Business Bay, a 12.3-km sector from Al Meydan Road up to Hessa Road, and a 7-km sector from Hessa Road to Qarn Al Sabkha Road. It had also completed roads in a 10.7-km sector from Al Yalayis Road up to Al Maktoum International Airport, he noted.  TradeArabia News Service
Abu Dhabi University said work on the new extension to its female dormitory has been completed and is set to open with the start of the 2017-2018 academic year, said a report.



Designed to cater to the rise in demand for on-campus student housing, which already accommodates 408 students in segregated male and female dorms, the Dh17.5 million ($4.76 million) project adds 93 rooms spanning over 4,200 sq m that can accommodate 144 female students, reported state news agency Wam.



The new facility will offer state-of-the-art services and facilities, such as a multi-purpose hall, a gym, discussion and reading rooms, several service rooms and outdoor courtyards, it said.



The university currently hosts more than 7,000 students from 70 nationalities across its campuses in Abu Dhabi and Al Ain, according to the report.



The number is expected to rise as its new postgraduate campus in Dubai opens in the academic year 2017-2018, it added.
Ooredoo Oman, a top telecom provider in the Sultanate, opened its first franchise store in the Wilayat of Bidiyah, marking the seventh to be operated by Khimji Ramdas and the 20th overall.



The new store was opened under the auspices of Mahmood bin Abdullah Al Saeedi; Wali of Bidiya, with Ooredoos director of Consumer Sales, Feras bin Abdullah Al Shaikh, in attendance.



Al Shaikh said: The Wilayat of Bidiyah has grown into one of the most vibrant communities in the Governorate of North Al Sharqiyah and a major destination for tourists looking to experience the wonders of the desert.



Given its consistent development over the past few years and position as an important tourism area for Oman, it was important that we expanded our presence here to reach more customers and deliver the exceptional experience they have come to love. With our franchise partners Khimji Ramdas, we are thrilled to extend our retail footprint and champion the continued growth of this burgeoning community for years to come, he added.  TradeArabia News Service
The prestigious Adipec 2017 Awards are now open for nominations, with five categories focused on issues crucial to the progress and resilience of the energy sector.



The Adipec Awards celebrate excellence and are a highly coveted accomplishment within the world of oil and gas, said a statement.



The accolades are a highlight of the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference (Adipec), the worlds most influential event for the industry and the global meeting place for movers and shakers in energy.



There are five categories in 2017, with a particular focus on innovation and efficiency as the industry adapts to an evolving energy landscape.



The categories include: Technological Innovation and Research of the Year; Best Digital Transformation Project; Driving Performance and Efficiency to Enhance Cost Optimisation; Social Contribution and In-country Value; and Young Adipec Engineer.



The Adipec Awards provide added value to the oil and gas industry, said Hiroshi Fujii, president and CEO of the Japan Oil Development Co (Jodco), which with its parent company Inpex Group is one of the awards sponsors.



The awards recognise outstanding innovation and technology, best practices and people. The future of our industry is dependent on such leading innovations, technologies and people, and previous editions of the Adipec Awards have successfully identified and honoured these.



Last year, the Adipec Awards received around 350 submissions from 34 countries. While previous editions have focused on the Mena region, for 2017 organisers are encouraging entries from throughout the world, raising the status of the awards as a truly global event.



Each Adipec Award entry is assessed through a meticulous judging process by the Regional Select Jury (RSJ). This panel of experts is comprised of senior professionals from across the oil and gas industry, including National and International Oil Companies, academic institutions, and professional associations. As leaders in their fields, the RSJ members provide a dedicated level of evaluation which narrows the entries to a final selection.



The ADIPEC Award is an important recognition of the oil and gas industrys aspiration to strive to enhance performance, related to important topics such as HSE (health, safety and environment), cost and social engagements, said Neri Askland, a member of the awards jury and Statoils vice president in the Middle East.



Thus, developing and recognizing people and company cultures are paramount to meet the future challenges of our industry.



Held under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and hosted by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc), Adipec 2017 will convene under the theme: Forging Ties, Driving Growth.



Organisers expect more than 10,000 delegates, 2,200 exhibiting companies, 900 speakers, and over 100,000 visitors from 135 countries who will gather in Abu Dhabi during the four days of the exhibition and conference programme, bringing together the worlds decision makers, industry leaders, and experts.



The deadline for entries for the Adipec Awards is August 22, with the shortlist to be announced in October. Winners and runners-up will be announced at the Adipec Awards Gala Dinner on Adipecs opening night on November 13. Adipec will run till November 16.  TradeArabia News Service


Dubai Taxi Corporation (DTC) has signed an agreement with Uber, a global provider of passenger transport services, enabling the booking of DTC limousines through Uber app.



Under this arrangement, DTC offers the service of deluxe limo driven by highly skilled chauffeurs fully cognizant of the road networks of the Emirate.



Dr Yousef Mohammed Al Ali, CEO of Dubai Taxi Corporation, signed the agreement on behalf of DTC and Christopher Free, general manager of Uber in the UAE signed it on behalf of Uber.



The signing of this agreement with Uber for operating Dubai Taxi limousines concurs with the directives of our leadership to transform Dubai into the smartest city in the world. The move can also bring about a quantum shift in the quick offering of limo through pairing passengers with limo chauffeurs by just a click of a button, said Al Ali.



The agreement would also leverage the operational efficiency of DTC through ensuring the optimal use of the existing resources, developing new & smart services capable of enhancing customers experience, and improving the calibre of services to keep pace with the technological advancements, he added.



Chris Free said: Adding Dubai Taxi Limo to Uber App would obviously add to the abundance of vehicles on offer; which in turn will cut back customers waiting time. Achieving this goal is in line with our objective to provide reliable, safe and suitable transport for all everywhere.  TradeArabia News Service
South Koreas Jeju Island witnessed a a 20 per cent increase in the number of UAE tourists during the first half of 2017, data showed.



Figures released by the Jeju Island Tourism Organization, South Korea were presented in a special promotional event held on Thursday at the JW Marriott Marquis in Dubai.



The event was aimed towards further promoting the increasing popularity of Jeju Island to a potential UAE and Middle East market.



Jeju, which is the largest island off the coast of the Korean Peninsula, has long been South Korea's highly preferred holiday destination - made more attractive for its beautiful beaches and posh countryside and seaside hotel and resorts.



Gracing the promotional event was Seongtae Jeon, vice governor for Administrative Affairs of the Jeju Special Self-Governing Province. This information session was also attended by the Korean Consul Namdeook Heo in Dubai, director Yongsuk Kwon of KOTRA, president Geyongsoo Kim of the Korean Association of UAE, Dubai travel agencies, medical tourism officials, and associated reporters.



A recent report from the Korea Tourism Organization showed that more than 10,277 tourists from the Middle East region visited Korea during H1 2017. The figure demonstrates a 7.4 per cent increase in the number of Middle East tourists that visited Korea during the same period in 2016. Jeju Island has become a top destination for tourists visiting the country, which has become famous for its natural World Heritage Site Jeju Volcanic Island and Lava Tubes - an area that serves as a testament to the rich history of the earth, its features and processes included. Other top attractions in the island include Mount Halla, the Cheonjeyeon Waterfalls, Hallim Park, Yakcheonsa Temple, Manjanggul and the Jeju Stone Statue Park.



Aside from the Unesco World Heritage Site distinction, Jeju Island has also been awarded by Unesco with the 2012 Biosphere Reserve Award and the 2010 Global Geoparks Award. The island has four seasons and has the smallest annual range of temperature, where the annual average temperature is about 16 degrees Celsius. The KTO has also shared that the island has also become a prime destination for medical tourism. Jeju is home to four general hospitals and 800 clinics. To date, there are also 30 hospitals spread across the island that offers specialized medical treatments including cosmetic surgery, skin care and allergy treatment, to name a few.



We are extremely pleased and proud to promote Jeju Island to the UAE's thriving outbound tourism segment. The UAE and South Korea have enjoyed strong ties over the years and we are more than happy to welcome them as guests and visitors to our famous Jeju Island, said Jeon. Tourists visiting Jeju will be awestruck with the island's many destinations, including crystal blue beaches, green countryside and historical and natural sites. In addition, there are wide choices of hotels that can suit their budget. We invite everyone from the UAE to visit and enjoy Jeju Island.



Jeon also shared that the island is also looking towards becoming a Muslim-friendly destination - offering Muslim visitors with prayer room facilities and have also started to work closely with the island's food and beverage businesses to ensure that food being served is Halal certified and approved. The Jeju Island offers a visa-upon-arrival privilege to 180 nationalities, including the UAE.



Visitors to Korea's biggest island will discover that there is a lot to do when visiting the area, from hiking up to the country's highest mountain, Hallasan, climbing the Seongsan Ilchul-Bong cone to walking across the Jeju Olle Trails and enjoying seafood delights caught by the haeneyos, South Korean female freedivers. - TradeArabia News Service


All airports in Saudi Arabia will be privatised this year in order to improve services being rendered to passengers and cut public expenditure, a senior official has revealed.



Speaking to Al-Eqtisadiah daily, Abdul Hakeem Al-Tamimi, president of the General Authority Civil Aviation (GACA) said GACAs privatization strategy aims to transform all airports and related sectors into companies fully owned by Saudi Civil Aviation Holding.



The ownership of the holding company would be transferred to the Public Investment Fund (PIF) at a later stage, the report said.



Three methods for privatisation will be followed:



1. Transform each airport into a company

GACA will apply this system on King Khalid International Airport in Riyadh first. Al-Tamimi disclosed plans to sell minority stakes in the company to the public. A board of directors will be formed to manage the company.



Goldman Sachs will manage the sale of stakes in the Riyadh airport, the first major privatization of an airport in the country.



The exact size and potential value of the stake was not immediately known. Riyadh has the second biggest airport in Saudi Arabia after Jeddah's King Abdulaziz International Airport.



King Khalid International Airport handled 22.5 million passengers in 2016, up 0.9 per cent year-on-year. Saudi Arabia is trying to raise $200 billion over the next several years through stake sales in assets such as airports.



2. Sign contract with a specialised company for operation and maintenance

As similarly done with the new King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah, GACA will bear the cost of the airport expansion project and the company will share the revenue, Al-Tamimi said.



3. Build, operate and transfer (BOT) system

"This system was applied on Prince Muhammad Bin Abdulaziz International Airport in Madinah and some other airports like Taif, Hail, Qassim and Yanbu, after signing deals with investors, Al-Tamimi explained.



The government has also brought in foreign firms to manage some of its airports including the Dublin Airport Authority (DAA), which was awarded in 2016 the contract to manage and operate Riyadh airport's new Terminal 5. Singapore's Changi Airport Group was awarded in April a contract to operate the King Abdulaziz International Airport in Jeddah for up to 20 years.



Some of the regional and domestic airports will be transformed into companies by the end of this year, Al-Sugair said, adding that this transformation was the first step of privatization, which will lead to the operation of all airports on a commercial basis," said Dr. Faisal Al-Sugair, chairman of Saudi Civil Aviation Holding.
InterContinental Hotels Group (IHG) has signed a dual-brand management agreement with PT. Graha Agung Indahsentosa to debut two hotels, Holiday Inn Resort Bintan Lagoi Beach and Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach in Bintan, Indonesia.



Set to open in 2019, the new-build hotels will be situated in the prime Lagoi Bay area.



Each hotel will feature unique offerings that appeal to a diverse pool of travellers. Designed to reflect the local culture, character, and history of the surrounding neighbourhood, the Hotel Indigo brand offers a stylish and inspiring boutique experience with the quality and consistencies promised by a global hotel brand. Holiday Inn specialises in comfortable mid-scale accommodation with warm service at a great value to encourage guests to do more of what they love while travelling.



Commenting on the milestone, Rajit Sukumaran, chief development officer, IHG Asia Middle East and Africa said: Indonesia is a key market for IHG; it is a diverse market, with a strong leisure and business pull, and the well-placed for easy travel between Australia, Southeast Asia and Singapore. In the past year we have seen a growing demand for the Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo in Bali, Jakarta and Semarang.



IHG sees a lot of potential and opportunities in Indonesia and we are delighted to work with our partner PT. Graha Agung Indahsentosa on this exciting development. This presents an excellent opportunity for us to introduce our Holiday Inn and Hotel Indigo brands, providing a mix of brand offerings to cater to the influx in travellers and their various needs  from travellers seeking quality midscale accommodation, to those who enjoy a refreshingly local experience, with the consistency of an international brand.



Holiday Inn



The 250-room Holiday Inn Resort Bintan Lagoi Beach will provide midscale accommodation ideal for family travellers, complete with a large pool as well as accessible food options at the hotels all-day dining and specialty restaurants. Families with children will enjoy signature offerings, such as the Kids Eat & Stay Free programme, which provides young guests with all-inclusive meals during their stay. The hotel will also offer eight versatile meeting spaces, including a large ballroom with a capacity of 300 people, and function rooms that can hold between 20 to 100 delegates each to cater to business travel needs.



Hotel Indigo



Hotel Indigo Bintan Lagoi Beach on the other hand will feature a variety of locally inspired dining options at its neighbourhood cafe and a destination beach restaurant, in addition to thoughtful guest amenities including a gym and infinity swimming pool. It will also be equipped with a board room to cater to VIP meetings.



Both hotels will have access to an award-winning spa for guests to rejuvenate and will be situated on a premium 9.2-hectare beachfront site owned by developer PT. Graha Agung Indahsentosa. Bintan has always been a popular destination for leisure travel, and with the upcoming Bintan International Airport scheduled for completion next year, international tourist arrivals to Lagoi are expected to increase twofold from the current 320,000 visitors annually. Located a short 10-minute drive from the Bandar Bentan Telani ferry terminal, visitors can enjoy a smooth and quick transit to the hotels.



Arief Sugianto, chairman, PT. Graha Agung Indahsentosa, said: We are delighted to be working with a company like IHG with such a strong track record for creative world-class hotels with not one but two of IHGs well-known hotel brands. The Holiday Inn brand is well-loved and recognised by travellers all around the world, while the Hotel Indigo brand lends a stylish, refreshing touch to the mix, as the worlds first globally branded boutique hotel brand. We are confident that each of the brands distinctive strengths, complemented by the excellent location, will be well-received by travellers when we open our doors in 2019.



Indonesia is an important market for IHG and is home to 22 IHG properties across four brands: InterContinental, Crowne Plaza, Holiday Inn, and Holiday Inn Express, with a further 23 hotels in the development pipeline.



Recently, IHG launched a Bahasa language IHG Mobile application making it easier for customers to book direct in their own language. The awards winning IHG App is now available on mobile in 17 languages.



Across South East Asia, there are 23 Holiday Inn properties and two Hotel Indigo properties open, and an additional 21 Holiday Inn and nine Hotel Indigo hotels and resorts due to open within the next three to five years. - TradeArabia News Service
Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso and a spokesman for Sen. Mike Enzi said Wednesday that the nations military leaders should decide on whether transgender troops should be allowed to serve in the military, several hours after President Donald Trump tweeted that such soldiers will be banned from serving in the armed forces.

In a three-part announcement issued Wednesday morning via Twitter, Trump wrote that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. He said he consulted with my Generals and military experts and that our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender(s) in the military would entail.

In statements emailed to the Star-Tribune on Wednesday afternoon, Barrasso and a spokesman for Enzi both said that the decision should be left to the nations military leaders.

Political or social agendas shouldnt drive such decisions, no matter which party is crafting them, Enzi spokesman Max DOnofrio wrote. Senator Enzi believes all individuals should be treated with respect and ultimately these kinds of decisions should be left to the military leaders, as they are the ones in the best position to decide which policies will best benefit our armed service members and the military as a whole.

Asked if that meant that Enzi believed transgender people should be allowed to serve, DOnofrio said the decision should be left to military leaders.

Barrasso did not respond to a similar question.

Nor did a spokesman for Cheney. In a statement to the Star-Tribune, Wyomings only House Representative said that every decision about eligibility should be made with the goal in mind of building the most lethal and effective fighting force possible.

Like Enzi, Barrasso indicated military leaders should make decisions on national defense.

Our nations military leaders are in the best position to decide which policies will maintain a strong national defense and uphold national security, he said in a statement. I look forward to hearing more about this decision.

A message left for the spokeswoman for the Wyoming National Guard was not returned Wednesday.

Its unclear what role the Pentagon played in Trumps decision to bar transgender war fighters from serving. Spokesman and Navy Capt. Jeff Davis said the Pentagon was working with the White House to address the new guidance from Trump, which suggested that a plan or new policy was not currently prepared.

Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis was silent, and the Pentagon otherwise referred questions to the White House. Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders who said the presidents national security team was part of this consultation but that Mattis was informed only after the decision was made.

A spokesman for the F.E. Warren Air Force Base in Cheyenne said the Air Force will work closely with the (Department of Defense) to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief.

Last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so. He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.

The Rand Corp. estimates there are between 1,320 and 6,630 transgender war fighters serving, out of 1.3 million active-duty troops. A 2014 study by a University of California Los Angeles think tank estimated there were more than 15,000 such service members, both active duty and reserve.

Rand Corp., a federally funded think tank, also estimated that each year, between 29 and 129 service members will seek transition-related treatment that could disrupt their ability to deploy. Extending transition-related health coverage to those troops will cost between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, Rand estimates. The Pentagons annual budget is more than $600 billion.

Other lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum condemned Trumps ban, which reverses an Obama administration policy allowing transgender troops to serve.

Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, Sen. John McCain, an Arizona Republican who served in the Vietnam War, said. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

But Rep. Duncan Hunter, who with Cheney serves on the House Armed Services Committee, said that the presidents decision was the absolute right decision and that its about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business.
BUFFALO  Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid were nowhere to be found, and the names of gunmen involved in the bloody Johnson County War were also mysteriously missing. But a valuable reference book recently donated to the Johnson County Library provided an apt and historic tie-in for Longmire Days 2017.

A large leather-bound ledger documenting every detainee who was booked into the Johnson County Jail over nearly 90 years is now part of the librarys reference collection and is available for the public to peruse.

The volume will likely be a key source of information for researchers or a point of interest for amateur historians who are curious to learn whether some long-lost relative ever had a scrape with the law.

It will also supplement the librarys extensive collection of materials pertaining to the Johnson County War, a conflict pitting wealthy cattle barons against small ranchers who were considered interlopers.

We are proud to be able to make this available to the public, said Cynthia Twing, director of the Johnson County Library. Rightly or wrongly, this documents who was in a certain place at a certain time.

Craig Johnson, Ucross author of the Sheriff Walt Longmire mysteries, presented the newly refurbished jail roster to Twing as part of Longmire Days. The annual celebration brought more than 14,000 people to Buffalo, the Johnson County seat and a template for fictional Absaroka County, the setting of Johnsons popular crime novels surrounding the adventures of Sheriff Longmire. The Longmire novels have been adapted into a popular TV series starring actor Robert Taylor in the lead role.

Steve Kozisek, Johnson Countys real-life sheriff, said his predecessor, Larry Kirkpatrick, had given the jail roster to Johnson a few years ago to use for research. Johnson then brought the tattered volume to John Rist, owner of Americana Bookcraft, a Billings book bindery, who re-bound the book.

Rist said refurbishing the book, which measures about 24 inches tall by 16 inches wide and is nearly 2 inches thick, proved to be a challenge.

The biggest job was developing a plan for restoring the book, whose cover had been held together by thick layers of duct tape.

As part of the process, Rist stitched together the books pages, fashioned a new spine and added new end sheets. He bought a 37-by 17-inch piece of brown leather from Tandy Leather Co. and carefully wrapped the cover.

Making a cover from leather is tricky because of the way the leather stretches, Rist said.

Johnson County is home to the Hole in the Wall, a remote hideaway frequented by horse thieves, cattle rustlers and other outlaws. Among the best known were Robert LeRoy Parker, also known as Butch Cassidy, and Harry Longabaugh, known as the Sundance Kid.

Cassidy served time in the Wyoming State Penitentiary for horse theft in the 1890s. Longabaugh was once jailed in Sundance, Wyoming, but neither of the famous outlaws is known to have been booked into the Johnson County jail.

The book documents prisoners held in the jail from Dec. 18, 1894, to June 29, 1981. People familiar with the record say one of its most distinguishing features is whats missing. Somebody  nobody knows who or when  apparently removed pages that would have listed detainees during the years when the bloody Johnson County War raged.

The range war resulted from a dispute between the owners of large ranches and smaller operators whom the cattle barons sought to oust from the range.

In one memorable incident, Nat Champion, who ran a small herd of cattle in the Hole in the Wall area, survived an attack by assassins who were said to be employed by the Wyoming Stock Growers Association. On Nov. 1, 1891, five men burst into a small cabin occupied by Champion and another man, according to an account by the Wyoming State Historical Society. In a gunfight, Champion wounded two men, one fatally, without sustaining a serious injury.

Champion testified in a preliminary hearing, and Joe Elliott, a stock detective for the Wyoming Stock Growers Association, was bound over for trial.

But in March of 1892, an invasion force of 52 armed men, most of them from Texas, left Cheyenne and traveled to Johnson County. They surrounded Champion at the KC Ranch and killed him.

Later, a local posse numbering up to 400 chased and surrounded the invaders, who had holed up at the TA Ranch south of Buffalo. After a three-day siege, soldiers from nearby Fort McKinney arrived and took the invaders into custody.

The librarys extensive history collection includes a wealth of material dealing with the range war. Researchers frequently peruse the collection, Twing said.
Dallas Laird wants citizens to have a stronger say in how their government manages money.

At the Casper City Councils work session on Tuesday night, the councilman proposed creating a citizens advisory committee to guide the council about balancing the budget.

Our citizens have a right to have input on this, he said.

Laird added that balancing the budget should be a priority and said he would like to see it happen by the end of 2017.

The city recently approved a budget using $4 million in reserves with the understanding that the citys finances be reviewed again in the fall. Caspers money problems stem from a state-wide financial crisis caused by falling energy prices and a sharp reduction in tax revenue.

I dont feel comfortable giving money out when we dont have a balanced budget, Laird explained.

The new councilmans idea, however, was quickly discarded.

Councilman Chris Walsh said its the councils responsibility to balance the budget and pointed out that the council members already represent the citizens views, because they are elected officials.

Walsh was also concerned that an advisory committee could actually slow down the process of balancing the budget.

Councilman Bob Hopkins also rejected the idea and argued that the city already has a balanced budget.

The other council members all concurred that a new advisory committee was not necessary.

Mayor Kenyne Humphrey offered a compromise: The city will create a link on their website that allows citizens to submit ideas about the budget.

We will get information, but we wont [create] a committee, she said.

Humphrey added that the council will focus on budget issues after the eclipse concludes in August.
The victim told officers they were arguing over his infidelity when Mitchell allegedly grabbed her throat and held on until she feared she would pass out, according to police documents.

The woman recalled punching Mitchell several times until he released his grip, but said he then hit her face and knocked her to the ground.

Police documents stated that Mitchell told officers he grabbed his girlfriends throat because she was already hitting him and he was attempting to push her away.

Police also interviewed Donny Scott, the accuseds grandfather, who witnessed part of the incident, which occurred in front of his house.

Scott told police he heard screaming and went to investigate, and saw the woman fall to the ground, but was unsure what had happened, according to police documents.

Police photographed both the accused and the virtual complaints injuries.

Formal charges have not been filed.
CHEYENNE  Residents in southeast Wyoming can return to their homes and cabins as firefighters make progress on a fire burning in the Medicine Bow National Forest.

The small communities of Keystone, Rambler, Lake Creek and Moores Gulch had been forced to evacuate earlier this month because of the fire.

But firefighters have gained 75 containment on the fire, which has burned about 4 square miles.

Elsewhere, firefighters have contained about two-thirds of a fire burning west of Cody in the Shoshone National Forest.
Republican senators were looking to go skinny Wednesday as they struggled to repeal key parts of former President Barack Obamas health law.

Their definition of skinny, however, is evolving and could change many times before they pass a bill  if they pass a bill.

One version of the skinny bill would repeal mandates on individuals to buy health insurance and on large businesses to offer health insurance to employees. It would also repeal a tax on medical devices.

It would leave the rest of Obamacare intact, falling well short of Republican promises to dismantle the 2010 law.

Its just a vehicle to get into conference (with House Republicans) so it may lead to a broader solution, Sen. Lindsay Graham, R-S.C., said Wednesday, referring to negotiations with the House on a final bill.

The Senate rejected an amendment Wednesday that would simply repeal much of Obamas law without replacing it with anything. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats to defeat the plan.

The House narrowly passed its version of a health bill in May. If the Senate passes a different version, the House could simply pass it and send it to the president. Or House and Senate leaders could form a conference committee to work out the differences.

Several Republican senators said this is the path they foresee, which would put off final decisions on what the legislation would eventually look like.

Whatever can get 50 votes will pass, then we will go to conference and the real negotiations begin, said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

A look at whats next:

Fast-track to somewhere

The legislation is being debated under fast-track budget rules that allow the Senate to pass it on a simple majority instead of having to clear the 60-vote filibuster threshold required of other legislation. Debate, which started Tuesday, is limited to 20 hours. It is expected to end Thursday.

Amendments, generally speaking, are unlimited  and can be offered after debate time has expired in a Washington ritual known as vote-a-rama. Thats when amendment after amendment is voted on in what could be an all-night session on Thursday.

Amendments galore

Unlike other bills, which typically are debated in ways that limit senators rights to offer changes known as amendments, the current bill is wide open.

Democrats can introduce amendments that would be politically difficult for Republicans to oppose, and Republicans can do the same.

Parliamentary puzzle

The special fast-track process, called reconciliation, comes with tricky rules. Amendments that are carefully crafted and fit within the rules can pass on a simple majority vote. But many amendments run afoul of the Senates byzantine rules, which mean they can require 60 votes and effectively be blocked by Democrats.

Among them is the so-called Byrd rule, named after former Sen. Robert Byrd, D-W.Va. Its complicated, but the Byrd rule disqualifies some of the GOPs ideas, such as a provision in the pending bill aimed at lowering premiums paid by younger, healthier consumers by allowing insurance companies to increase premiums paid by seniors.

The Byrd rule generally blocks provisions that dont affect the federal budget  and blocks provisions whose changes to spending or taxes are merely incidental to a larger policy purpose. If such provisions are inserted despite the Byrd rule, any individual senators can knock them out with a point of order.
Workers at Tucson-based Asarco LLC will have to wait until at least November for the next step in their legal battle to win millions of dollars in copper-price bonuses they say Asarco owes them.

In a notice filed Tuesday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said it is tentatively looking to hear arguments in November in an appeal Asarco filed to challenge a lower-court ruling upholding the bonuses.

The court said the case is being considered for the November 2017 oral argument calendar at its Pasadena, California, courthouse, but the exact date has not yet been set.

The bonus issue affects about 550 Asarco employees hired after June 30, 2011, and still employed as of March 2015, as well as 180 former hourly employees, court records show.

More than 2,000 union-represented Asarco employees work at Asarco copper mines, smelter and refineries spread across five locations in Arizona and Texas. The workers, represented by eight unions led by the United Steelworkers, have been working without a contract since the last one expired in June 2013 amid rancorous negotiations.

In July 2016, a U.S. District Court judge in Phoenix denied Asarcos motion to reconsider his earlier ruling that an arbitrator acted properly in ordering Asarco to pay the bonuses.

Asarco appealed the ruling to the 9th Circuit in August, halting any moves to compel payment of the bonuses pending resolution by the appellate court.

Asarco, part of Mexico-based mining giant Grupo Mexico, had alleged in a federal lawsuit filed in January 2015 that an arbitrator exceeded his authority by ordering the company to pay a quarterly copper-price bonus to union employees who are not part of the companys pension plan.

Long delays in docketing appeals are not unusual at the Ninth Circuit, which advises that once filed, it takes about 12 to 20 months for an appeal to reach oral arguments.

Asarco may end up paying out more if the judgment stands, due to the appeal.
Claire Grunsteins approach to business may be atypical, but her philosophy has kept her familys business afloat and thriving for 72 years.

My husband would never look at the money in the registers at the end of the night, Grunstein said. He would count the hugs and kisses he got that day. If he got a lot of hugs and kisses, it was a great day.

At age 90, Grunstein still works more than 30 hours each week at her longtime family business, Fabrics That Go, a fabric store spanning more than 13,000 square feet at 3105 N. Campbell Ave.

We have a history in our family of trying to help people, she said. Thats what its all about, pass it on.

Grunsteins long-lasting work ethic is fueled by her early childhood, when the Great Depression was in full swing.

Being poor was wonderful; it taught me a lot, she said.

Fabrics That Gos original store, under a different name, opened its doors in Paterson, New Jersey, in 1945, just before World War II ended. Herman Grunstein, Claires late husband, returned home from the Air Force and helped his father get their family business off the ground.

Herman came home safely and his father asked him to stay and help him for a couple days, Grunstein said. That couple of days turned out to be over 70 years.

Twelve years after the business started, Claire and Herman married and she soon jumped on board with the family business. The couple worked side-by-side for about 60 years.

In 1978, the Grunsteins traveled west to spend time with relatives.

We landed at night and I said, Look how beautiful it is. Nothing sparkles like Tucson, said Grunstein. My nephew put us up at the Skyline Country Club and I woke up in the morning and said, What is this paradise? It was so beautiful, like nothing I had ever seen.

The Grunsteins completed their move west intending to retire, but they quickly realized they had a passion for business they could not ignore. Since then, theyve had three different Tucson store locations on Campbell Avenue.

Their existing store has been on Campbell, near East Fort Lowell Road, for the last two decades, according to Grunstein.

While Grunsteins son, Robert, handles day-to-day operations, Grunstein still plays a large role in buying and selling products at the store.

Its not work to me, its fun, she said.

OLD-SCHOOL IDEALS

Jean Closs-Ames has worked for Grunstein for about four years as a manager at Fabrics That Go. Claire keeps it lively, she said. Shes tough, shes a perfectionist and she has old-school ideals.

Grunstein says forming strong connections to the community and with customers is key to having a good business. She also notes the importance of catering to the local audience.

If you take the time to look around, youll see theres no comparing, she said. We do all the buying, we look at everything before its bought. We have salesmen coming to us with the best buys because theyve known us forever. I think we have excellent taste. Its not cookie-cutter.

For Grunstein, receiving new shipments of product still feels like Christmas every time.

If you cant find it here, it doesnt exist, said longtime customer Darlene Gies. Gies says she has been coming to the store for all of her familys refurbishing and fabric needs for decades.

Tucsons gem and mineral shows bring an influx of visitors to Fabrics That Go from all over the globe every year, Grunstein said.

Herman and I didnt travel very much because we worked around the clock, she said. People came from countries I didnt even know the names of. When I get them, I always talk to them. We talk fabric, but we also talk about where they came from and I learn about where they live. I travel vicariously and I learn a lot from all of them.

Grunstein says a large portion of out-of-town visitors come from Germany, many of whom love Western aesthetics.

The best-selling fabric at the store, which Grunstein says she designed, is named after her.

I asked the fabric manufacturer, I said, You named it Claire? He said, No, I named it wild.

Grunstein celebrated her 90th birthday on July 12 with customers she considers friends, at three different parties.

I never had a party in my life. People didnt do that in those days, Grunstein said.

Ive made hundreds of parties, but all of a sudden, I had a party. Not only one, but I had three. That makes up for everything! I felt like queen for the day.

Outside of work, Grunstein finds other ways to keep busy and remain social. You can often find her at the poker tables at Casino del Sol on the weekends.
We've collected a few front pages from newspapers.com to give you a look at some July 27 papers in history. With a subscription to newspapers.com you can search the Arizona Daily Star and many other newspapers using keywords or dates, and download articles or pages.
KVOA-TV Channel 4 news anchor Kristi Tedesco is leaving the station to pursue a position outside of broadcasting.

Tedesco, who has won praise for her coverage of childrens issues since joining KVOA in 2004, posted news of her departure Wednesday on her Facebook page.

Her last day with the station will be Aug. 4.

After almost 13 years at KVOA, I will be leaving for a new adventure in less than two weeks, Tedesco wrote, adding that she will reveal more later but for now she is focusing on her transition and getting her two boys ready for school.

In an announcement Tedesco said was made to her co-workers Tuesday, KVOA News Director Cathie Batbie-Loucks said Tedesco would be greatly missed.

Kristi has been a huge asset to our television station for over 12 years and a wonderful advocate for Arizona children, Batbie-Loucks wrote, citing Tedescos Kristis Kids campaigns to raise donations for car seats, school supplies, swim lessons and pool fences.

At KVOA, Tedesco won two regional Edward R. Murrow awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, one for her look back at the murder of a Tucson child, and another for her investigation into worker safety at Arizona's Child Protective Services.

A 1994 graduate of the University of Arizona, Tedesco spent 10 years working as a TV reporter and anchor in Kansas and Indiana before joining KVOA.
Nogales, Ariz., has declared a state of emergency after a breach in a cross-border pipeline continues to dump untreated raw sewage outside the city limits into Potrero Creek, which flows into the Santa Cruz River.

As a result of the breach, millions of gallons of raw sewage and heavy metal contaminants from Mexico are currently spilling out and into the Nogales Wash and the Santa Cruz River, read the proclamation signed Wednesday by Nogales Mayor John Doyle.

The breach, which could cost more than $5 million to fix, will cause catastrophic pollution of the Nogales Wash and of the Santa Cruz River Basin from Nogales and surrounding areas, officials said.

Doyle asked Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey to declare an emergency and make available any and all assistance that may be available.

City public works employees found a partial breach of the International Outfall Interceptor, or IOI, during an inspection Tuesday. A dislodged section of cement, which encases one of the manhole accesses to the sewer line, partially sheared the pipe below the waterline, about 200 yards north of the intersection of Old Tucson Road and the Nogales Wash.

Santa Cruz County Health Services is advising people who live in areas where there is water running in the wash and tributaries east of the Nogales Wash to keep out of those areas.

City Manager Carlos Rivera said theres so much water at the moment that authorities cant get to the breach, and fixing it is outside the citys capabilities and resources.

They dont know yet how extensive the break is or exactly when it happened, but he said it was probably after heavy rains on Friday which caused the Nogales Wash to overflow in some places.

Sewage can be seen bubbling out of the north-flowing creek and cascading down some boulders. Rivera said they also found two breaks on the Mexican side on Wednesday.

Theres sewage in that wash regardless of this break on this side of the border, he said. Its nothing new; it happens every single day.

The IOI is a 30-inch sewer trunk line that carries 12 to 14 million gallons of raw sewage a day from from Nogales, Sonora, to a treatment plant about nine miles north of the border in Rio Rico. The 42-year-old pipeline runs about three feet below the bottom of the Nogales Wash and over time has developed cracks and half of its thickness has eroded.

When it rains, groundwater infiltrates the pipe and increases the volume in the wastewater system.

IOI has had major failures over the years, some of which impacted the Santa Cruz River, according to the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality, which sued the International Boundary and Water Commission in 2012 for allowing untreated industrial wastewater to cross the border at Nogales.

The wastewater that originates in Mexico is also industrial which is difficult, if not impossible to treat, Henry Darwin, director of the department, said in 2013. So if the IOI breaks, the water can be contaminated with chemicals, too.

The city of Nogales and the U.S. section of the International Boundary and Water Commission are responsible for maintaining the sewer line, but who is responsible for what and who pays for it has been the source of debate for many years.

The problem has been so dire, Arizonas congressional delegation has sent letters to the Department of State and in March introduced the Nogales Wastewater Fairness Act to help the city of Nogales avoid a $40 million repair bill, but its still in committee.

Sen. Jeff Flake said in a written statement that he and Sen. John McCain are coordinating efforts to ensure that IBWC and the city of Nogales share the appropriate level of responsibility for the upkeep and repair of the wastewater and stormwater systems serving communities on both sides of the border.

The International Boundary and Water Commission has said in the past that the cost should be split 50/50 with the city of Nogales. The commission is a binational agency which governs cross-border issues between Mexico and the United States.

Lori Kuczmanski, spokeswoman for the commission, said the city of Nogales is taking the lead on this latest issue and she could not comment on the cost-sharing or funding issues due to litigation, but added that they are still in discussions with the State Department.

Before finding the breach outside the city limits, sewer workers on Monday discovered part of the IOI had been exposed along Hohokam Drive within the Nogales city limits. City officials said a contractor was hired to do bank erosion work in an effort to prevent potential failure of the international sewer line through future floodwaters coming from Mexico.

In response to the exposed pipeline along Hohokam, where it didnt break, the commission told Nogales city officials that it appeared the recent erosion of the wash was due to lack of maintenance and the citys responsibility. It asked for additional information and offered technical assistance. Kuczmansk said they are working with the city and county, taking water quality samples, conducting inspections in the field and attending meetings.

The city maintains that the pipeline should mostly be the responsibility of the international commission since most of the sewage, between 80 and 90 percent, comes from Mexico, Rivera said.

Weve been fighting this fight for decades with the IBWC to deal with this problem, but the city doesnt have the means or capability to deal with it, he said. The citys sewage budget is about $2.5 million, he said, and they recently had to increase the rate because they were in the red.
Rio Nuevo is prepared to give businessman Ray Flores a $250,000 loan to help him reopen three downtown businesses.

In a unanimous vote Tuesday, the board of the downtown revitalization district backed in concept a loan to Flores, the president of a company that owns El Charro Cafe, Sir Vezas Taco Garage and several other restaurants, to buy out three long-term leases for street-front locations on East Congress Street.

The board authorized district officials to negotiate and finalize the loan to Flores. The loan would be repaid with interest and secured with assets and a guarantee.

Two of the venues are nightclubs known as Zen Rock, at 121 E. Congress, and H20 Discotec, at 61 E. Congress. Both clubs are no longer open on a regular basis, Flores said.

A third venue, known as the Betty Gay Space, at 125 E. Congress, has not been open for several years and needs significant renovations before it can be reopened.

It is likely the two clubs would be reopened under new names and the third location would be a retail space.

Flores said if a deal with the current owner of the leases associated with the three properties can be reached  the six-figure deal is still being negotiated  he would bring in new concepts for the three aging spaces.

Backed by his familys various restaurant businesses and a commercial kitchen the company operates near downtown, Flores said the two clubs would be expanded and could serve almost any type of food for lunch and dinner. Both have active liquor licenses.

Rio Nuevo board member Edmund Marquez favored the deal, saying he didnt believe the lenders would not be willing to back a loan for such a venture.

The Flores family has a long culinary history in Tucson, opening its first El Charro Cafe in 1922.

Fletcher McCusker, Rio Nuevo board chairman, said the loan made good sense for the district, noting its mandate is to increase sales taxes in the downtown area.

Figures released by Flores show sales taxes from the three locations have declined from roughly $133,000 in 2014 to about $51,000 in 2016.

Flores told the Rio Nuevo board that he hopes to reopen two of the businesses by the end of the year.

By the end of 2018, he estimated that the three businesses could generate a total of $215,000 in sales-tax revenues  based on $2.5 million in sales.

In addition to the loan, Flores is planning to make a $250,000 initial investment as well as pay for building improvements needed for the three locations.
The federal courtroom in Tucson lacked a familiar sound Tuesday: the clanking of chains as dozens of people accused of crossing the border illegally took their seats.

The 47 people who appeared in court did so without the shackles around their wrists, waists, and ankles worn by thousands of their predecessors at U.S. District Court in Tucson.

All criminal cases in Arizonas federal courthouses were affected by a decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that reversed a longstanding policy in the District of Arizona requiring defendants wear restraints except when in front of a jury.

It is unclear when defendants at the Tucson federal courthouse began wearing shackles, but defense lawyers said it began at least 15 years ago.

Before the circuit court ruling, the vast majority of defendants in the federal court in Tucson wore restraints throughout the proceedings, said Eric Rau, an assistant federal public defender.

The majority opinion in the 6-5 decision by a panel of circuit court judges, which was based on cases from Southern California, stressed that defendants are innocent until proven guilty and should be treated accordingly.

Judge Alex Kozinski, who wrote the opinion, said shackles should be used only when a judge makes an individualized decision that the defendant poses a security risk.

He cited another judges ruling that stated prisoners suffer degradation when needlessly paraded about a courtroom, like a dancing bear on a lead, wearing belly chains and manacles.

Judge Sandra S. Ikuta, who wrote the dissent, accused the majority of inventing a new right out of whole cloth and putting courtrooms at risk of violence.

The majoritys rule therefore fails not only as a matter of law, but also as a matter of common sense, Ikuta said.

The Tucson federal courthouse sees about 4,500 criminal cases each year, including 1,300 immigration-related cases, according to U.S. District Court annual reports.

The circuit court decision also affects thousands more immigration cases prosecuted through Operation Streamline, a fast-track program in which defendants appear before a magistrate judge in groups as large as 70 at a time.

The Border Patrol, which runs Streamline, does not release annual totals for the programs prosecutions.

On Tuesday, Streamline defendants appeared in groups of seven and without shackles, although many kept their hands clasped behind their backs. Defense lawyers said their clients were shackled before entering the courtroom and immediately after leaving.

The U.S. Marshals Service, which is responsible for the defendants, could not be reached for comment about the effects of the new policy.

The circuit court decision was published May 31 but did not take effect in Arizona until July 14. In response to a request from the U.S. Attorneys Office, the circuit court had issued a stay while the government considered an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court and judges grappled with how to implement the circuit courts decision.

Some District of Arizona judges chose to observe the stay in having the decision take effect, but public defenders argued the decision was already published and should be implemented circuit-wide, according to a July 21 brief from the U.S. Attorneys Office.

While the circuit court judges considered whether to order District of Arizona judges to have defendants unshackled, defense lawyers made individual requests of judges to unshackle their clients.

For defense lawyer Hortencia Delgadillo, who said she has handled Streamline cases since the program arrived in Tucson in 2008, the removal of the shackles was a matter of dignity for her clients.

Were very happy to see defendants are being treated like the human beings that they are, said Victoria Brambl, a lawyer with the Federal Public Defenders Office in Tucson.

Migrants who arrive at a dining hall for deportees in Nogales, Sonora, regularly complain about the physical and psychological effects of the shackles, said Joanna Williams, a spokeswoman for the Kino Border Initiative.

After the circuit court decision, KBI volunteers started writing down those complaints. Some said the shackles were used by authorities who wanted them to feel like criminals. One woman said her handcuffs were so tight, the marks were still visible after she served her 30-day sentence.

In her dissent, Ikuta said the appeal was moot because the four people named in the lawsuit had left custody prior to their appeal being heard.

She said the majoritys rhetoric about the presumption of innocence has no place in the analysis because the defendants in question were not appearing before a jury.

Ikuta also cautioned against creating splits, or contradictory opinions, with other circuits. The 2nd and 11th circuits concluded that juror bias is the paramount issue in not shackling defendants.

The courts should defer to the Marshals Service on questions of courtroom security, Ikuta said. And appellate courts, which are far removed from the day-to-day administration of criminal justice, should defer to district courts.

The circuit court judges left the door open for district court judges to keep defendants restrained.

In the case of a 55-year-old U.S. citizen accused of smuggling methamphetamine and heroin across the border in Nogales, her lawyer cited the circuit court opinion and asked the court to remove her shackles on July 19, court records show.

However, Magistrate Judge D. Thomas Ferraro cited her previous criminal history in his decision to keep her restrained.
Tucson police arrested a suspect in Wednesday's fatal shooting on the southeast side of town.

Jordan C. Ewer, 21, was booked into the Pima County jail Wednesday night on one count of first-degree murder, according to a Tucson Police Department news release.

Detectives have identified two other suspects in the shooting death of 40-year-old Gabriel Escalante. One of the suspects was located, but not arrested, and police are attempting to find the second man so they can speak to him about the incident, the release said.

Officers responded to a 911 call for shots fired shortly after 5:30 a.m. in the 8700 block of East Almond Street, near East Irvington Road and South Camino Seco, said Sgt. Pete Dugan, a Tucson Police Department spokesman.

When they arrived, officers found Escalante in the road with gunshot trauma, Dugan said.

Officers rendered first aid until Tucson Fire Department paramedics arrived and took over life-saving efforts, however Escalante was pronounced deceased, Dugan said.

Homicide detectives have learned that several people came to the neighborhood to meet Escalante, when an altercation broke out in the street and shots were fired.

Detectives don't yet know if there was an exchange of gunfire or if only one gun was fired during the incident, Dugan said.

It appears that the suspects knew Escalante, Dugan said.
In recent phone calls to Sen. Jeff Flakes offices I was given vague answers about his voting intentions on efforts to repeal and/or replace the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare). Well Senator Flake could not hide from his constituents forever. He voted yes on the motion to proceed to debate and vote on a bill he knows nothing about.

We now see that Flake cares more about his own job security than the health and welfare of thousands of Arizonans. Terrified that he will face a primary opponent, he buckled to threats. Faced with the facts that any version of the current health-care bills being tossed around will mean increases in premiums and millions of people losing their health-care coverage, Sen. Flake decided his personal ambitions were more important than his constituents.
Help India!

By TwoCircles.net Staff Reporter

Hindutva goons attacked a local journalist Shiv Das inside the Benaras Hindu University (BHU) and snatched his mobile and deleted videos and photographs. The goons, who are said to be associated with Hindu Yuva Vahini and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, were extorting money from the shopkeepers who have set their businesses in a commercial complex around Vishwanath Temple in the name of Janmashtami celebration.

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When Das heard about this misdeed, he reached the site and started shooting the extortion through his mobile phone. When goons spotted Shiv Das of shooting their activity, the argument from the both sides began.

Soon the goons started beating Shiv Das. Shiv Dass cell phone was snatched, and videos, as well as the photographs which could have been the proof of their activity, was deleted.

The astonishing fact is the BHUs security staff stood aside and did not intervene for a considerable amount of time. The journalist Shiv Das, in conversation with MediaVigil, said he did not want to register a complaint to Universitys proctorial board.

Instead, he is planning for a police FIR against those who assaulted him. Shiv Das is also a research fellow in the Journalism Department of Banaras Hindu University and works for Sonbhadra-based tabloid Vananchal Express.
Help India!

New Delhi, (IANS): More than 13,000 Jammu and Kashmir students have benefitted from the Prime Ministers Special Scholarship since 2011, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

A total of 2,240 were granted the scholarship during 2016-17 session. A total of 1,402 and 1,680 scholarships were granted during 2015-16 and 2014-15, respectively, Minister of State (HRD) Mahendra Nath Pandey said in a written reply.

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The scheme which is being offered since 2011 has benefitted 13,014 students so far in the state.

As a result of various initiatives, including creation of 10 supernumerary quota in Engineering Colleges, more number of students are taking admission in professional courses, Pandey said.

The scheme seeks to provide 5,000 fresh scholarships every year, out of which 4,500 are provisioned for General and 250 each for engineering and medical studies.
Help India!

New Delhi/Lucknow, (IANS): BSP chief Mayawati on Thursday accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of betraying the people of the state by abandoning the Grand Alliance and forming a new government with the help of the BJP.

In a statement issued here, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo said the people of Bihar voted against the so-called Modi wave and gave a stunning defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

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They gave the majority to the grand alliance of secular parties and that mandate should have been respected for complete five years, which did not happen. It is difficult to call this right, she said.

Her remarks came after Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, within hours of dumping the Grand Alliance with Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress.

Hitting out the BJP, she said that the hunger for more power was leading the BJP into misusing government machinery and investigative agencies.

Linking the Bihar developments to that of Goa and Manipur, she also said that the democratic values in the country were being weakened by such lust of power and urged the people of the country to come forward and save the country from this worrying situation

Mayawati also accused the BJP of misusing the government machinery and said it was endangering the democratic system of the country.

After Manipur and Goa, recent political developments in Bihar prove that under the Modi government, the future of democracy is in danger, she said.

The BJP formed governments in Goa and Manipur despite securing less number of seats than the Congress.
Help India!

Mumbai, (IANS): Kicking off a fresh controversy over Vande Mataram, BJP Maharashtra lawmaker Raj Purohit on Thursday announced that he would ask the state government to introduce a policy making the national songs singing compulsory.

I will urge Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that Maharashtra should adopt a policy on the lines of the Madras High Court judgement making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory, Purohit told media persons here.

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Immediately reacting, state Samajwadi Party President and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said that though he had great respect for Vande Mataram, he would not sing it under any circumstances, come what may.

When India was partitioned, nowhere it was said that if we (Muslims) stayed back in India, we would be forced to sing it. You may shoot me or throw me out of the country, but we will not sing it, he said.

Joining him, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Waris Pathan declared he would not comply to sing Vande Mataram even at gun-point or if a knife was put to his throat.

He said the AIMIM has always opposed it and will continue so if it raised in the legislature.

The two said nobody should be forced to prove their nationalism by singing the song and no true Muslim will sing it as Islam does not permit it.

Transport Minister Diwakar Raote, of the Shiv Sena, joined the issue by terming the duo traitors.

They are traitors. They should be aware that Vande Mataram symbolises nationalism and our soldiers are laying down their lives for the country. If they feel so ashamed and dont want to sing, they better go to Pakistan, Raote said.

In his interactions with media, Purohit said that he would urge the Chief Minister to make a rule making it compulsory to sing Vande Mataram in schools, colleges, government offices and other places on the lines of the Madras HC judgement, and even raise the matter in the legislature, if required.

There have been no reactions from the two main Opposition parties  the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party  on the issue so far.
At a time when Instagrammers are earning over 6,000 per post and YouTube celebs rake in up to 11 million a year, its no wonder that now you can get a formal education to become a Social media sensation.

About the one-of-a-kind study programme

Yiwu Industrial and Commercial College (YWICC) in China is offering a degree that'll help you become an Internet celebrity.Located near Shanghai, the college offers a degree in "Modelling and Etiquette." The hands-on course teaches students everything required to become a wang hong, i.e.; a social media celeb.

Classes include catwalk practice, dance performance, make-up modelling, public relations etiquette, lens expression, merchandise display, and much more. Internet celebrities in China celebrities in China can earn up to 35 million, annually. According to Analysys International, a Chinese internet consultancy firm, China's wang hong industry was worth 7 billion in 2016 and could double by 2018.

There are more than 700 million smartphone users in China.

Other unconventional college degrees around the world

The University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia offers a degree in Wasting Time on the Internet. The students are required to interact exclusively through chat rooms and listservs, or over social media.

"Were Reading And Writing more than we have in a generation, but we are reading and writing differently  skimming, parsing, grazing, bookmarking, forwarding, retweeting, reblogging, and spamming language  in ways that arent yet recognized as literary," explained Professor Kenneth Goldsmith, who teaches the course, in a November 2014 a New Yorker article.

Whats more, Pitzer College in California has a course called Learning from YouTube. The one-ofkind course aims to explore what the video-sharing site can teach everyone. Each section is an opportunity to explore different dimensions of already existing media theory and how it might help us to interpret the seemingly random and excessive experience of navigating through the YouTube universe, from LolCats to Jasmine Revolution uploads, noted Faye Ginsburg, Director of Center for Media Culture and History at the New York University in an MIT Press article.

If youre a Potterhead, you can do a course called To Hogwarts, Harry: An Intensive Study of Harry Potter Through the British Isles at the Central Michigan University in Michigan, U.S. The students are required to read the J.K. Rowling series and visit historical places that were an inspiration behind the locations described in the "Harry Potter" saga, such as Edinburgh Castle, Bodleian Library and Christ's Church at Oxford University, etc.

For those who are interested in chatting with Legolas and Thranduil, University of Wisconsin offers a course in Sindarin or the Elvish, one of the many languages spoken in J.R.R Tolkiens "Lord of the Rings."

Meanwhile, Santa Clara University of California offers a course in The Physics of Star Trek. The course uses the sci-fi TV series to discuss "Newton's and Einstein's physics, the Standard Model of particle physics, and the physics that underlies inertial dampers, transporter beams, warp drive, and time travel", according to TIME.

For those who are more inclined towards philosophy, theres a course called The Meaning of Life taught at Brown University, U.S. There may be no single question more important than this: What is the meaning of life? Its a question we all face, and finding an answer is urgent, states the university website.

And you thought studying was boring!
Ambulance call outs in London responding to people suffering mental health crises have risen by nine percent in one year, as people needing specialised help are left with no choice but to call the Police.

London Ambulance Service responded to 13,850 emergency calls for psychiatric/abnormal behaviour or suicide attempts in the financial year 2016-17, a Freedom of Information Request revealed. Thats an average of 38 calls a day, a substantial 8.8 percentage increase from the previous year.

Latest figures show how emergency services are often left to deal with mental health crisis cases, rather than dedicated professionals.

NHS feeling the pressure

Stephen Moore, Information Governance Manager from the London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, said: Figures generally show a rising trend, but this is the case for all incidents.

According to the Royal College of Physicians, demand for NHS services increases by 4 percent every year, but NHS funding will increase by only 0.2 per cent per year until 2020. At the same time, social care cuts are piling pressure on NHS services.

This is forcing police to be at the front line for mental health services, as emergency ambulances categorise calls according to severity. Mental health is very rarely categorised as Red 1; the most severe.

Mother's anguish at failing services

Katherine Sumners 10-year-old daughter Ella McDevitt has had to rely on emergency services multiple times due to violent outbursts shes had towards herself and others over the last 15 months.

In our case, social care and CAMHS are actively expecting the police to deal with mental health crises, Katherine said. Last weekend an emergency ambulance service put me on hold for five to ten minutes then said it was a matter for the police, she added.

Another FOI found that the number of referrals made to Sandwell Child and Adolescent Mental Health Service (CAMHS) has decreased over the last year, but CAMHS, according to Katherine, failed Ella who has suspected Autism Spectrum Disorder.

She tells me she hears voices, believes everyone in the world is a computer programme and has tried to kill herself more than once.

Social care say my only choice is to keep calling the police and taking her to general hospital but the last visit she refused to eat or drink for 50 hours in protest at being there. She is being passed between mental health/social care with no-one accepting any responsibility and leaving the police to deal with the inevitable crises, Katherine added.

10-year old arrested

Approximately half of all deaths in or following police custody involve detainees with some form of mental health problem, according to the Independent Police Complaints Commission.

The Met police can detain up to 400 people experiencing a mental health crisis in a public place, or 450 seeking urgent crisis care, under Section 136 of the Mental Health Act.

They said: Based on current trends the need for section 136 is set to double in the next 10 years. Over three-quarters of such detentions occur out of hours, yet the majority of mental health based places of safety do not have dedicated staffing 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Ella was arrested by police under S136 on Friday, May 26.

Katherine said: It can be very traumatising for a child in an MH crisis to be faced with police officers.

Mental health underfunded with police plugging the gaps

Alison Cobb, Senior Policy and Campaigns Officer at Mind, said prevention is the best way to protect people and the economy: Mental health has historically been underfunded. The increasing demand for ambulance services is a symptom of a mental health system in need of significant investment in services.

If people do end up in crisis, we need to make sure they receive urgent help. With ever-increasing pressure on emergency departments, carrying out a commitment to including psychiatric expertise in every hospital delivering acute care is crucial, she added.

The police should not be plugging the gaps created by failings in health services. People with mental health problems should get appropriate help and support as early as possible to prevent them becoming so unwell that they end up in crisis.

Other figures show that mental health ambulance call outs for males have risen the most at 9 percent, whereas for females it rose by 7 percent. The average ambulance response time for mental health issues in 2016-17 was 47 minutes; which was one minute quicker than the previous year.

However, how long people had to wait for an ambulance while experiencing a psychotic episode varied between eight hours and three minutes.

In Ellas case, she has had to wait up to six hours for an emergency ambulance vehicle while experiencing an episode.

Cuts across the health and emergency sector are not reflecting the ever growing demand for crisis care, leaving people who need directed care in the hands of services who are already stretched beyond their means to cope.
France and Germany have both hinted that Brexit could be cancelled, should the majority of British people change their minds.

Both nations have stressed that a relationship with the UK is in their best interests, worried that Britain leaving the EU could change the dynamics of that alliance. It comes as the Secretary of State for Leaving the European Union, David Davis, said it is imperative both sides agree on the rights of EU citizens living in Britain and British expats residing in European countries.

The French President, Emmanuel Macron, has said that if Britain continues with Brexit, they must pay more than the original 50 billion divorce sum being demanded by EU officials.

Confidential documents being circulated round senior figures in the City of London have revealed that Government ministers are quite prepared to pay the final sum.

Though the story was revealed by Buzzfeed, the British Government is yet to clarify its ultimate position on the issue. Mr Davis has said in the past that Britain must honour its final commitments to the EU's budget, but many Whitehall officials have privately conceded that the figures being demanded by Brussels are insane.

Precious few allies left

The EU's deputy negotiator, Sabine Weynard, has weighed into the Brexit debate, saying that Britain has got precious few allies left. She claimed the UK has been burning bridges with Brussels and that reality is starting to bite for the British negotiating team.

A think-tank called the European Policy Centre has issued a critical report of Mr Davis' Brexit position. The EU's deputy negotiator supported the claims the paper made and even shared it online. The report is called: Reality bites: the Brexit negotiations seen from the other side of the Channel by Fabian Zuleeg.

Mr Zuleeg said the UK Government is causing frustration in Brussels.

He said Mr. Davis must be willing to make considerable concessions if it hopes to achieve a deal, hinting at a 'soft' Brexit. This would result in Britain remaining a member of the Single Market via the European Economic Area.

Ms Weynard's claims about the British negotiating team alienating Brussels originated from this report.

It also advised the Government to pursue a transitional deal, which would result in the UK having to abide by the EU's four freedoms in the short-term.

Break the promises made to the British electorate

Mr Zuleeg refuted the claims Vote Leave, the group that campaigned for Britain's EU exit during last year's referendum, made that Brussels needs the UK. Instead, he suggested the 27 remaining member states will survive, and Britain will struggle. He even advised the Prime Minister to break the promises made to the British electorate by Vote Leave to accept a transitional deal.

The negotiations have hit a stumbling block in recent weeks as the debate over EU citizens' rights continues to dominate discussions.

However, a document leaked to The Daily Express reveals that lawyers based in Whitehall have concluded that Brussels' law will no longer apply to British citizens living abroad.

EU laws will not be able to protect British citizens

They said this would be due to Brexit, saying EU laws will not be able to protect them in legal cases. This will happen when Mrs May ends the supremacy of the European Court of Justice over British statutes. The document was drawn up by legal experts at the Department for Exiting the EU. These changes will be determined by the Great Repeal Bill, one of the Government's main measures to enact or repeal all of Brussels' laws into British statute books.

Despite this, ministers were quick to insist that this would not affect British citizens' rights to take a case to the European Court of Human Rights because it is an institution that is separate to the trading bloc.

Mr Macron said during his bid to become the French President that he opposes Brexit and even hinted that he intends to make the UK's EU exit as difficult as possible. He campaigned on a Europhile platform.
Emmanuel Macron, the dynamic and charismatic French president, is already reckoned to be something of a maverick. He swept to power in the presidential elections under the 'En Marche!' banner, a party he set up in April 2016 to challenge the presidency. At just 39, he is France's youngest ever president. He has now seized the initiative in a European Union whose relations are fast becoming fractured after the Brexit results.

Macron's invitation to Trump

It is no secret that Macron does not see eye to eye with Trump's views on climate change and has goaded him publicly with challenges to "Make our planet great again".

For his part, Trump has retaliated by reminding Macron that he represents "Pittsburgh not Paris" as he pulled out of the international Paris climate change agreement. But, with the US president already in Europe for the G20 talks in Hamburg, Macron extended an unlikely hand of friendship to the US Commander-in-Chief.

The invitation has been quite brilliantly planned by Macron. Aware that our PM Theresa May is preoccupied with Brexit and her own political problems, and also that relations between Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel are notoriously frosty, Macron used the opportunity to invite Trump not only to celebrate Bastille Day but also to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the USA's intervention in World War 1.

Trump is to be the guest of honour for the celebrations, an offer, that, as Commander-in-Chief his hubris would never let him refuse.

What to expect

The two have met before and there was the expected tense handshake that Trump seems intent on with every leader he meets. This will be different though, Macron, for all his youth and relative political inexperience, will be seeking to build relations with a President who risks becoming isolated in Europe.

He sees this meeting as an opportunity to bridge the gap between both sides of the Atlantic.

The meetings are scheduled formally to discuss Syria and counter-terrorism but the real meaning should not be overlooked. Macron is trusted by the French people to approach the President in person and voice his concerns over matters close to his heart such as climate change, and it is for that reason it is predicted there will be few anti-Trump demonstrations during the visit.

Whatever the outcome, it is clear that Emmanuel Macron is a rising star on the political stage. Like Trump, he came from nowhere and swept to power, but unlike Trump, he has succeeded in injecting a mood of optimism into French politics after only months in charge and with this latest coup he has shown that he has all the guile and cunning that will see him enjoy a political life for many, many years to come.
It has been almost two months since the general elections, and the reformation of the Conservative majority with the DUP from Northern Ireland. A move so disliked that a petition against it reached 503,880 signatures in a single day. While the calls for Prime Minister May's resignation were met with an announcement from May that Britain now more than ever is in need of stability. On the opposition camp, Labour leader Jeremy corbyn has continued to surge in opinion polls with a recent report from The Observer presenting a 20 point lead over Theresa May in approval ratings.

However, there is a significant part of the United Kingdom that disapproves of both Theresa May and Jeremy Corbyn, similar to the situations on either side of Britain as a significant number of voters disapproved of their choices in Trump or Clinton in the United States and Macron or Le Pen in France.

Brexit

Despite the similarities in political factions in other countries, the one thing that differentiates Britain is the Article 50. The exit of the United Kingdom from Europe and the European Union is one of the biggest political events to take place since the formation of the European Union. After the decision was announced, the future of hundreds of thousands of Brits living in continental Europe now hangs in the balance.

Many predict different stances on Brexit by the negotiating parties of the European Union and the United Kingdom. With Prime Minister May retaining her seat after the general elections, the Brexit plan and negotiation tactics for the UK will go ahead as planned before the elections. On the other end of the negotiating table, with the victory of Emmanuel Macron and potential re-election of Angela Merkel, things seem to be getting harder for the United Kingdom as both European leaders favour a stronger European Union and would want to deter any other countries in following suit regarding an exit from Europe.

Hard Brexit vs. Soft Brexit

Out of the many questions, the biggest one that stands out is the idea of a single market; a hard Brexit would eventually take Britain out of the single market while a soft Brexit would not. An idea that has drawn a lot of debate across parties and even within parties, with members of the Labour party differing in their stance.

Many have also called a soft Brexit as a meaningless option as it would deter from the main ideologies behind Brexit. European leaders have also taken a tough stance on Brexit and are trying to secure the maximum possible rights for the European citizens in Britain, which if not granted could backfire on the British people in Europe. All the while, custom and trade laws are being discussed, again with the idea of either sticking with the EU single market or leaving and rejoining the WTO regulations.

Societal issues

All politics aside, Britain has suffered some devastating terrorist attacks in the recent past, raising questions about the security threat levels around the country and then the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower fire.

A key issue has been the handling of the NHS, and many fear that funds are being moved away from the NHS with an emphasis on privatisation. While a large percentage of people believe in the NHS, the debate exists as to which party is better equipped to handle it. Another key societal issue has been the increasing number of people dependent on food banks. A recent Oxford study concluded that the dependence on food banks has been steadily growing across the UK and that almost 80% of households had experienced 'severe food insecurity' in the past 12 months, referring to an inability to buy sufficient food, including days spent without food.

Britain has led the world through many changes in the past, and with a Brexit vote it seemed to be doing so again as it was followed by Donald Trump's victory, people wondered if the next step was the disintegration of Europe.

Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel have countered that for now, making Brexit a very tough negotiation for Britain and with the country ambiguously divided on political stance and various social measures, people are starting to wonder just how united is the United Kingdom?
Around 1.2 billion people  thats 16% of the global population  still live without access to electricity. Meanwhile, over 2 billion people rely on wood, field residue, and animal waste, etc. to cook and heat their homes, according to a 2013 World Bank report.

In a bid to tackle this pressing problem, a project called #A Liter of Light was launched in 2012 in the Philippines, a country where nearly half of the total population lives off less than 1.5 a day.

The project uses discarded Plastic Bottles as bulbs by filling them with purified water and two caps of bleach (to prevent the growth of algae).

The bottles are then fixed on the roof using small metal braces.

Once the sunlight hits these bottles, the refraction of light helps these DIY bulbs give off about 55 watts of light at a fraction of the cost, without using electricity.

A Solar revolution

Launched by an NGO named MyShelter Foundation, A Liter of Light has now spread across around 20 countries worldwide and has lit over 850,000 homes, so far. The project aims to light up 1 million homes by 2018.

According to Nelly Duka, a community leader who is involved with the project, these makeshift bulbs can last up to five years, stated an NPR report.

"Access to energy is absolutely fundamental in the struggle against poverty," said Rachel, Kyte, former World Bank Group Vice President, in a National Geographic report.

"It is energy that lights the lamp that lets you do your homework, that keeps the heat on in a hospital, that lights the small businesses where most people work. Without energy, there is no economic growth, there is no dynamism, and there is no opportunity," she added.

Energy poverty is deadlier than malaria and AIDS: study

The Plastic Bottle light bulbs are the brainchild of Alfredo Moser, a Brazilian mechanic who had his eureka moment in 2002 during one of the frequent blackouts in his hometown, Uberaba, Brazil.

God gave the sun to everyone, and light is for everyone. Whoever wants it saves money. You can't get an electric shock from it, and it doesn't cost a penny," Moser told BBC.

A Liter of Light, however, has modified these bulbs to meet local needs. For 3.83, residents can upgrade these plastic bottle lamps to solar-powered LED bulbs.

According to a 2010 study published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), if nothing is done to address energy poverty then by 2030 nearly 4,000 people will die per day, globally, due to the toxic smoke and indoor fires caused by unsafe primitive cookstovesthis is more than the premature death estimates for malaria, tuberculosis, or HIV/AIDS.
The hits just keep on coming for united airlines, with the latest controversy surrounding a rappers Dog, which was put on the wrong flight. ScHoolboy Q did receive a dog, but it wasnt the one he was expecting.

Rappers dog ended up 2,000 miles away from home

Quincy Matthew Hanley is known as the rapper ScHoolboy Q. He is asking United for an explanation as to why his dog was put on the wrong flight. The rapper told TMZ he had recently bought a French bulldog puppy and it was supposed to be delivered by the airline to his home in Burbank, California.

However, when he opened the door to take delivery of his prized pet, he saw a completely different dog. It turns out United Airlines had somehow switched the two dogs, placing both on the incorrect flight. ScHoolboy Qs dog, Yeeerndamean, was sitting in Chicago instead, some 2,000 miles away.

You guys r idiots @united HOW U PUT MY DOG ON THE WRONG FLIGHT???? I need answers  ScHoolboy Q (@ScHoolboyQ) July 14, 2017

Some Twitter users did try to help out.

My dog on the look out pic.twitter.com/hGxv136QWw  Marco (@ActuallyCryBaby) July 14, 2017

My cat will keep a look out on the south side pic.twitter.com/19bbNCYcep  pedro (@BadVibesPedro) July 15, 2017

Dogs switched during layover in Denver

Hanley told CNN he was traveling on United Airlines accompanying his new pet from Missouri to his home in Burbank, Southern California.

However there was a layover in Denver, which is where the switch reportedly happened. When the rapper arrived in Burbank he discovered United had accidentally exchanged his dog with another dog during the Denver layover.

SCHOOLBOY Q: LIVID WITH UNITED AIRLINES 'IDIOTS' Where's My Dog At?!!! https://t.co/SEzQvk7qlC What would you do if this happened to you?  Harvey Levin (@HarveyLevinTMZ) July 17, 2017

The rapper is now planning on suing the airline over the incident.

ScHoolboy Q told CNN in a text message that he was concerned that his puppy was sitting trapped in a cage and unable to relieve himself. However he did, eventually, get his dog back.

United Airlines later confirmed the incident in a statement where their spokeswoman said a dog belonging to one of their customers had on Friday evening been reunited with its owner.

The statement went on to say they have contacted their customer and sincerely apologized for the mistake and will be giving a refund.

The airline is always in the news

There have been several incidents over the last few months relating to United Airlines, including the infamous incident where Dr. David Dao was dragged, screaming and bloody, from a flight after he refused to give up his seat. In a more recent incident, airline staff destroyed a mans $42,000 wheelchair while he was traveling to Paris, providing him with an unsuitable temporary replacement while they got it repaired.

There was also the scandal which emerged recently of an incident that happened two years ago, where a United employee pushed a 71-year-old man to the floor after an argument relating to a ticket. The man is suing the airline. In another recent incident, the airline gave away a seat meant for for a woman's two-year-old son, meaning she had to spend the whole flight with the child on her lap.
Angelina Jolie recently gave an interview to Vanity Fair. It was inevitable that the Brad Pitt divorce would come up and when it did, Angie was very careful with her words.

The majority of the Vanity Fair article centered around Jolie's work in Cambodia as well as her new movie "First They Killed My Father." They eventually moved to the juicy information that most fans of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt wanted to know - the details of their split last year.

Healing the family

Jolie explained that she and her six children have been having the "hardest time" since she split from Brad Pitt last fall.

She started off by saying "things got bad" last year but corrected herself, saying that she didn't want to use the word "bad." Instead, Jolie insisted that "things got difficult."

It's hard to tell if she meant the family dynamic itself or if Brad Pitt's behavior caused the family split. There were many reports back during the shock of their divorce news that said Pitt had been drinking heavily and it bothered Angelina Jolie.

The "Salt" star continued the interview by saying that the kids have brave through all the drama. "In times they needed to be. We're all just healing from the events that led to the filing ... They're not healing from divorce. They're healing from some ...

from life, from things in life."

Angelina addresses Brad Pitt GQ interview

Angelina Jolie wasn't the first one to come forward and do a magazine cover story. In fact, the Vanity Fair interview seems like her response to Brad Pitt's GQ interview that took place after their split. Both actors made sure to tell their sides in well-respected magazines rather than through the tabloids.

Likewise, both were very careful about what they said.

Angelina said she wasn't surprised about Brad's interview. She also said that they were working toward the same goal and that they both care a lot about their family.

On reconnecting with John Voight

It was for that reason that Angelina recently brought her estranged father John Voight back into the children's lives.

In the midst of her divorce from Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie felt that have their grandfather around might be good for the children.

Angelina admitted that they have some strict rules regarding John's time with the children. His grandchildren are world travelers and very intelligent, serious kids. Due to that, Voight isn't allowed to make the kids play with him, according to Angelina. Instead, he is allowed to hang around and tell them cool stories and just be a "cool grandpa."
Morgan Stanley Capital International's inclusion of A shares in its widely tracked indicesstarting from next summercould be a catalyst for leading global investors to pile into the Chinese mainland's onshore markets despite concerns about liquidity, according to heavyweight analysts at the world's largest asset manager.

Wenjie Lu, who joined BlackRock in February as the China investment strategist and was previously with UBS Securities, said flows into mainland's equities were still expected in the second half of this year.

But, the strategist added, the liquidity of the A-share market was an issue as China's financial leveraging will continue and A-share market will take time to attract more fund flows.

Lu added that the onshore market is included in the benchmark emerging-markets index, but the way overseas investors accessed the onshore market still needed to improve.

Lu said he believed capital will tend to flow into large and middle-cap companies in both onshore and offshore markets in the second halfas many global investors have large amounts of cash and are willing to improve their exposure to emerging markets.

Lu said the Hong Kong stock market had received inflows from both global and mainland investors this year and the trend was expected to continue.

He said technology was the best-performing sector so far in 2017 and was still preferred but valuations were high.

The BlackRock strategist added that he favored financial and industrial sectors in the second half, as they were undervalued.

Belinda Boa, the head of Active Investment for Asia-Pacific and CIO of Emerging Markets, Fundamental Active Equity at Black-Rock, said the company preferred equities in emerging markets, Europe and Asia including Japan.

On China's economy, Lu said the economic growth was becoming more sustainable, backed by financial deleveraging and support for the private sector.

The government has already started financial deleveraging and many financial institutions have been cutting exposure to shadow banking credit, giving the overall financial system much cleaner balance sheets and more sufficient capital for financial institutions to protect themselves, Lu added.
President Xi Jinping addresses the Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping at the UN Headquarters in New York City in September 2015. [Photo/Xinhua]

World's largest military force has seen role in global governance grow substantially since its founding nine decades ago

Since 2002, the People's Liberation Army has taken part in many dangerous and arduous humanitarian and relief missions in countries such as Lebanon, Pakistan, Djibouti, Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

In the Gulf of Aden and the waters off Somalia, the PLA Navy has successfully performed its duties in protecting commercial vessels from pirates for nine years.

In its attempt to play a bigger role in global governance, the PLA has been pushing forward international military cooperation to give China greater influence on the global stage, participating in a series of international duties, such as peacekeeping, anti-piracy patrols, humanitarian aid and disaster relief.

Addressing the UN Leaders' Summit on Peacekeeping in New York City in September 2015, President Xi Jinping pledged that China would build a standby peacekeeping force of 8,000 troops to help strengthen UN peacekeeping operations.

With Aug 1, the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, approaching, China Daily has chosen a selection of photos to showcase the PLA's efforts in military diplomacy and participation in international duties over the years.
Brent Johnson and his wife Serena Johnson in 2016. Photo provided chinadaily.com.cn

When Brent Johnson first came to central China's Shanxi province to learn Chinese history in 1990, he didn't know it would be the start of a close bond with orphaned and disabled children.

Attracted by Chinese culture, Johnson, then junior at the University of South Carolina (USC), came to Shanxi University on a one-year student exchange program, where he met his future wife, Serena Johnson, an American who shares his affection for China. The couple's deep concern for poor people made charity organizations their common dating sites.

One year in China greatly impressed Johnson and he never forgot his time there after returning to South Carolina for further study. After receiving his medical degree at the USC, Johnson and his wife moved to China in 1998 to commence their voluntary work with orphans.

Setting their feet on a series of places in northern China ranging from Heilongjiang and Shandong provinces to Hebei province and Beijing, they met and helped numerous sick children. The Johnsons have dedicated themselves to the well-being of children and charity work.

Johnson's ties with orphans in Shanxi date back to April 2004, when he approached the dean of Taiyuan Social (Children) Welfare Institute, Geng Kaiwen, while attending a children's foundation meeting in Beijing. He offered to fund treatment for the institute's disabled children through the China Care Foundation, a charity dedicated to saving the lives of medically fragile orphaned children in China.

Though touched by Johnson's sincerity and strong will, Geng hesitated because Johnson was a foreigner. But Johnson didn't give up. He went to Taiyuan, capital of Shanxi province, in person and gave Geng a very thorough and convincing presentation. He also invited Geng to visit the foundation in Beijing.

The sound operation of the China Care Foundation eased Geng's concern and he was moved by Johnson's proposal to send sick kids to Beijing for medical treatment and return them to Shanxi after recovery.

"Many children didn't get timely treatment due to lack of funds and the outdated condition in our institute. Johnson's particular proposal would address our current problems and help those in need in a broader way," Geng said.

During one business trip in Taiyuan in 2005, Johnson needed to catch the evening flight back to Beijing and Geng suggested they have dinner together. Considering the tight schedule and budget, he bought Johnson a bowl of rice noodles for 3 yuan (40 cents) on their way to the airport. Touched by Geng's pragmatic and frugal behavior, Johnson decided to nail down the funding agreement with the Taiyuan institute right away. Neither expected that the final agreement would be sealed thanks to a bowl of rice noodles.

Besides addressing various issues faced by the institute, such as manpower shortage, funding and technology crunch, Johnson also established a Baby Home project in Taiyuan to provide children a cozy environment for post-treatment recovery.
Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) speaks with reporters about the withdrawn Republican health care bill on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, July 18, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

WASHINGTON/MOSCOW/BRUSSELS - US lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday paving the way for the US Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress' approval.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington after the House of Representatives backed new US sanctions on Moscow, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and it stood ready to act too.

"I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

He said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran that it originally passed in mid-June, as well as sanctions on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) developed by the House of Representatives and included in a bill the House passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday.

Before the latest agreement, some senators had objected to the DPRK measures and it had looked like the sanctions bill, already delayed since mid-June, could languish into September.

If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. It is, however, expected to garner enough support to override a Trump veto.

The House voted 419-3 on Tuesday to impose new sanctions on Moscow and force Trump to obtain lawmakers' approval before easing any punitive measures on Russia.

"This is rather sad news from the point of view of Russia-US ties," said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. "We are talking about an extremely unfriendly act."

He said President Vladimir Putin would decide if and how Moscow would retaliate once the sanctions became law. Russia's deputy foreign minister warned the move was taking bilateral relations into uncharted waters, killing off hopes of improving them in the near future.

Reuters
A Chinese-American family in New York City received a bundle of joy this week that may help relieve some of their sorrow.

Peixia "Sanny" Liu, the widow of slain Detective First Grade Wenjian Liu, gave birth to a 6-pound, 13-ounce girl named Angelina early Tuesday. The baby was born through in vitro fertilization from sperm preserved after the officer's death.

Officer Liu, 32, and fellow New York City policeman Rafael Ramos, 40, were fatally ambushed by a gunman as they sat in their patrol car in Brooklyn onDec 20, 2014. Their deaths just before Christmas stunned the city.

Detective Liu's parents, Weitang Liu and Xiuyan Li, were at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center to celebrate the birth of their granddaughter.

The young couple had always planned to have children, and on the night of the shooting, Peixia Liu requested that her husband's semen be preserved so that she might one day have his child. The night after he died, she said she had a dream in which he handed her a baby girl.

"I got pregnant through the (in vitro fertilization) procedure," Liu said, "and I told my friend, 'It's going to be a baby girl.' My friend said, 'No, you haven't even checked the sonograms,' but I was right!"

Detective Liu, a native of South China's Guangdong province, came to the US at age 12 with his parents. He decided to become a police officer after the 9/11 terrorist attacks and joined the NYPD in 2007.

The officers' killer, Ismaaiyl Brinsley, 28, had claimed on social media that he was targeting police to avenge the deaths of Michael Garner on Staten Island and Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, in incidents involving police in the summer of 2014.

The new mother said she can't wait to tell Angelina that her father was a hero. She is also eager to introduce her daughter to the NYPD that she lovingly refers to as her "big blue family".

In June 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio and then-police commissioner William Bratton attended the unveiling ceremony for "Detective Wenjian Liu Way" in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where he lived.

Both Liu and Ramos, who also has a street named after him, were posthumously promoted to detective.

williamhennelly@chinadailyusa.com
Canadian canola has grown significantly in global trade with China and it's becoming ever more important for China to buy Canada's lumber with the US' protectionism, according to Paul Ferley, assistant chief economist of the Royal Bank of Canada.

Ferley made his comments at a briefing on the outlook for the US and Canadian economies and the impact of China, last Thursday in Markham.

China is Canada's second-largest trading partner in terms of bilateral trade and is second only to the US in both imports from and exports to China.

The top Canadian exports to China are resource-based goods such as pulp, paper and paperboard, seeds and beans, wood and wood products, mineral ores, motor vehicles and seafood.

"Canadian exports to China have continued to be dominated by natural resources, lumber and agricultural products, compared to what we saw in the last decade," said Ferley. "It is interesting that the seeds and beans component - whole seeds and oil seeds - exports have jumped up dramatically."

China was the second-largest export market for canola after the United States last year, taking in 4.8 million tonnes of seed, oil and meal worth $2.7 billion; and a free trade deal with China could create 33,000 additional jobs in Canada from increased exports of canola alone, according to the Canola Council.

"Canola product in Canada has grown quite significantly in the global trade with China," Ferley said. "Agriculture in Canada used to be dominated by wheat, and all the other crops were secondary. But China's demand for canola and seed oil has created a growing market for Canada."

The other big pick up is British Columbia's lumber and wood products, the economist pointed out. "We've seen a marked trade improvement for lumber products with China."

In 2011, China became British Columbia's top market for softwood lumber exports, surpassing the US, but transpacific export has declined since then, relative to the US.

"With the US' protection under measures, one of the areas on the radar screen is softwood lumber, so it becomes even more important with the Canadian economy buying more markets outside of the US for our lumber," he said.

The trade dispute with the US over Canadian softwood lumber exports has sent British Columbia looking for new buyers in China, as US President Donald Trump announced duties of up to 24 percent on its lumber imports.

"It's important for the BC government to grow those markets in China that much more rely on an offset of a potential hit in terms of our lumber trade with the US," he said.

Ferley also discussed Chinese foreign direct investment into Canada, which has increased significantly in recent years. It remains at 2.6 percent overall.

Canada's trade deficit with China was trending higher but narrowed last year, as imports from China slowed modestly, while exports to China edged higher.

"We looked at Canada and China trade and it disappoints me," Ferley said.

renali@chinadailyusa.com
Bill 79 - the Nanjing Massacre Commemorate Day Act - still faces obstacles to win passage as a private bill in the Ontario Legislature, said its proponent, Member of Provincial Parliament Soo Wong.

The bill passed a second reading by three Ontario political parties last year and has already garnered 90,000 signatures.

A private bill is one that benefits particular individuals or groups.

"This bill is not just supported by the Chinese communities but by people from other ethnic groups and communities across Ontario," Soo said at a press conference on Monday in Toronto to update the status of the bill.

"The purpose of the bill is to make sure the young people know about and remember an important piece of human tragedy happened in Asia during the Second World War," she said.

Soo encouraged Ontarians to write their MPPs and talk about the bill with their neighbours and associates. She mentioned that the bill's fate is uncertain if it isn't passed by the next election.

Joseph Wong, chairman of Toronto ALPHA (Association for Learning and Preserving the History of WWII in Asia), said that if the bill doesn't get passed in the fall, it's virtually dead, with the next provincial election set for June 2018.

Wong called on the premier to take a moral stand and support the Bill 79.

"The two opposition leaders, Patrick Brown of the PC Party and Andrea Horwath of the NDP, have both declared their support, but Premier Kathleen Wynne still is reluctant to accept the bill," Wong said. "That is wrong."

He noted that the Ontario Legislature has passed bills to commemorate the Holocaust and Holodomor, both atrocities committed in Europe.

"Why just Europe? Why not Asia? Are Asian victims not worth remembering?" Wong asked. "We must show the Legislature our determination. And it's important to let the premier know that we perceive this as a racism issue."

Joy Kogawa, a novelist of Japanese descent, said she supports Bill 79 "out of love".

"The long denial from the Japanese community came from the fear of being hated, yet the continued denial would expose them to more hatred."

"I understand that some Japanese community members may not be ready for Bill 79 yet (but), I would rather ask them to open up and start dialogues about the history, with reconciliation being the ultimate goal," said Ren Ito, Japanese Canadian Youth Leader.
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Richard de Boer, managing director of Control Union Vietnam, hands over organic certification to Tran Que Trang, general director of TTC Sugar Corporation.  VNS Photo Courtesy of TTC

HCM CITY  The TTC Sugar Corporation has received organic certification for its sugarcane and sugar from Control Union Vietnams managing director Richard de Boer.

To invest in organic raw materials that meet global standards, TTC has zoned 62ha out of over 200ha of land in Bien Gioi (Border) Sugarcane Farm in Tay Ninh Province.

The Thanh Thanh Cong Tay Ninh Joint Stock Company worked with Control Union and Peterson Consultancy, international inspection and certification organisations, to invest in producing the first organic sugar in Viet Nam and to assess the certification for meeting global organic standards.

In another development, TTC Sugar Corporation and the USs John Deere have signed an agency contract which enables TTC to become an official distribution agent of John Deere agricultural equipment in the Vietnamese market.

As one of the key business segments of TTC Group, the sugar segment is active in being innovative and improving productivity, especially in the field of mechanisation in production.

In addition to increasing productivity, speeding up the mechanisation in sugarcane cultivation helps TTC Group as well as other sugar companies save labour and production costs, contributing significantly to improving business efficiency.  VNS
HA NOI  Thirty-five Japanese businesses introduced various food items at a programme to connect businesses in the field of food, agricultural and forestry products and seafood in HCM City on Wednesday.

Under the programme, the Japanese businesses showcased many products, including rice, wheat flour, beef and seafood, as well as fresh fruit, canned juice, wine and powder milk.

Cool Hokkaido introduced Nanatsuboshi rice, ranked the top in a contest to evaluate Japanese rice flavour for six consecutive years. The rice is special for its taste and suitable for making sushi and com nam -- a Vietnamese rice dish of the northern region that is shaped into a roll.

Meanwhile, JA Fukushima Company showcased Megumi juice, which is condensed from fresh peach and has no sugar and preservative substances.

Several Vietnamese businesses that participated in the programme said the Japanese food products were higher priced in comparison with other Asian countries such as South Korea and Thailand. However, known for their safety and special flavour, many kinds of Japanese food products had evinced interest in Viet Nam and witnessed high growth in consumption.

Takimoto Koji, chief representative of the Japan External Trade Organisation in HCM City, said Viet Nam was a potential market for food products originating from Japan.

According to a statistics from 2016, Viet Nam ranked seventh on the list of countries importing food and agricultural products from Japan.

In recent years, the number of Japanese restaurants has been rapidly increasing in Viet Nam. There are currently more than 1,000 Japanese restaurants in the country, with HCM City leading with nearly 660 restaurants, doubling the figure from three years ago.

Japan is the second-largest foreign investor in Viet Nam. By June 31, 2017, Japan had 3,443 projects with total registered capital of US$46 billion operating in the country.

The country has witnessed growth in investment in services. In 2016, the volume of projects invested in retail, hotels and services doubled the figure of 2015. A series of supermarkets, retail shops and restaurants such as Aeon Mall, Family mart, Ministop, Takashimaya and 7-Eleven have entered the Vietnamese market and are planning to expand business.

In the first five months of this year, Viet Nam imported seafood worth $28.4 million from Japan, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly 12 per cent. Meanwhile, the country spent more than $8 million importing other food products, up 29 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Viet Nam has signed two free trade agreements with Japan -- ASEAN-Japan Comprehensive Economic Partnership (AJCEP) and Viet Nam-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement (VJEPA).

According to VJEPA, the average tax rate on Vietnamese goods exported to Japan and vice versa will be gradually cut to 2.8 per cent and seven per cent by 2018.  VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked authorities to take more drastic measures to rectify the late disbursement of investment capital for public projects, given that less than one-fourth of the funds has been disbursed.  VNA/VNS Photo

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc has asked authorities to take more drastic measures to rectify the late disbursement of investment capital for public projects, given that less than one-fourth of the funds has been disbursed.

The PM said the heads of agencies and localities will have to take responsibility for such delays.

Minister and Chairman of the Government Office Mai Tien Dung conveyed the PMs directive at a meeting on Tuesday between the PM Working Group and leaders of 13 ministries and provinces reporting slow disbursement of public investment in 2017.

If the disbursement is not improved by October, the PM will consider transferring the funds to other ministries and localities, Dung warned.

He noted that slow disbursement of public investment leads to a bottleneck in national economic growth, adding that absent an urgent solution to accelerate the disbursement, economic growth will suffer and public debt will grow.

Dung added that slow disbursement of public investment was due in large part to lack of proper direction by heads of ministries and localities, in addition to inadequacies of related procedures, slow land clearance and limited capacity of project contractors.

The PM will directly inspect a number of projects experiencing slow disbursement or slow implementation progress next month, he said.

Dung instructed relevant authorities to review all public projects, from investment procedures to choosing contractors, and take drastic measures to improve land clearance tasks.

At the meeting, Minister Dung also conveyed the PMs criticism of ministers and heads of Peoples Committees of 13 provinces regarding the slow disbursement of public investment in 2017.

The list of ministries and localities reporting slow disbursement includes the Ministry of Planning and Investment, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, the State Bank of Viet Nam and the cities of Ha Noi, HCM City and a Nang.

The PM Working Group report showed that over VN357 trillion (US$15.7 billion) was to be allocated for development investment in 2017, including VN307 trillion from the State budget and VN50 trillion from Government bonds.

However, only VN85 trillion ($3.74 billion) had been disbursed by June 15, equivalent to 23.9 per cent of the years plan and 27.6 per cent of the target set by the National Assembly and the Prime Minister.

According to the report, the Ministry of Planning and Investment disbursed nearly VN54.37 billion ($2.37 million) in public investment capital by June, equivalent to 13.3 per cent of the yearly plan. The slow disbursement involved two main projects - building an Institute of Policy and Development with a total investment capital of VN202 billion ($8.9 million) and a project to apply e-commerce in Government purchases based on a Public-Private-Partnership model worth VN26 billion.

The slow disbursement was blamed on the Ministry of Constructions slow progress in appraising construction drawings and the total estimated cost of the project, while the e-commerce project has not yet chosen a contractor, according to the Planning and Investment Ministry.

The Ministry of Health was reported to have disbursed VN831 billion ($36.6 million), or 16.2 per cent of the yearly plan. This was attributed to slow disbursement for two projects to build second facilities for Bach Mai and Viet uc hospitals, with a total investment capital of VN3.2 trillion ($140 million).

These two large, complicated projects require engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contracts, and the process of appraising and approving designs and cost estimates has taken a long time,leading to delayed implementation and disbursement, according to the Health Ministry.  VNS
HA NOI  Vietnamese businesses should be aware of the potentially huge pitfalls of trading with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), and the importance of tackling these together, experts said at a conference on Tuesday.

Representatives from the Ministry of Industry and Trade (MoIT) emphasised at the conference that Viet Nams producers and exporters must be aware of both the pros and cons of conducting trade with the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU).

The conference was held to mark one year of the Vietnam-Eurasia Economic Union Free Trade Agreement (VN-EAEU FTA).

Ngo Chung Khanh, Deputy Director of MoITs Multilateral Trade Policy Department, said that his chief concern was the trigger safeguard measure within the EAEU in the textile and furniture industries and its effect on Vietnamese exports to this market.

He asked Vietnamese textile exporters to be extremely careful of this safeguard mechanism, and only allow a limited number of consignments to be shipped out to the EAEU each year. He warned that should one company break the rule, all will suffer the consequences.

Khanh explained that even though the EAEU had agreed at the start of negotiations to bring tariffs down to zero per cent with no rule of origins requirement for thread or fabric, as in other FTAs that require the whole product to be made in Viet Nam from scratch, the bloc was not in total favour of opening its textile market to Vietnamese goods.

As such, they apply a trigger mechanism that takes effect if the total export turnover from Vietnamese producers to the EAEU grows to twice the average volume that Viet Nam has exported to the region over the last three years.

If Viet Nams textile export exceeds this volume, the EAEU will conduct an investigation to decide whether to apply tariffs of 20 per cent instead of zero per cent.

Khanh also stressed the importance of following the rules set by the VN-EAEU FTA, one of which is the prohibition on dividing shipping consignments between different countries.

This means for a shipping container to be subjected to the zero per cent tariff treatment, it must be shipped directly and wholly from Viet Nam to an EAEU member, even if it belongs to a multinational company with factories in many countries.

The EAEU has also made it clear that should any company forge a certificate of goods origin, the entire industry may be forbidden from exporting to their market.

"Altogether, these risks mean that Vietnamese producers in all fields must band together to ensure their rights and benefits, as well as the benefits to the sector as a whole," said Khanh.

Duong Quoc Thanh, Partner at the DIMAC Independent Law Firm, said that EAEU member countries, especially Russia, are concerned about the consistency of Vietnamese products quality, so businesses should keep this in mind and respond accordingly.

With the EAEUs rising influence, Vietnamese firms are gaining market share in this region through the signing of the VN-EAEU FTA in October 2016.

Along with other FTAs, it elevated Viet Nams status among East Asian countries, as the country was the first in the ASEAN community to sign an FTA with the EAEU.

In addition to favourable conditions for the fabric, textile and garment industry, the VN-EAEU FTA also brings up to 90 per cent tariff reductions for other export sectors like seafood, footwear, handbags and suitcases.

Tuesdays conference was jointly organised by the Hanoi Centre for Small and Medium Enterprises Support, Hanoi Department of Planning and Investment under the Department of Planning and Investment and the Hanoi Supporting Industries Business Association (HANSIBA).  VNS
HA NOI  The Ministry of Planning and Investment has proposed export tax cuts on cement while local producers are struggling with high stockpiles as supply has exceeded demand in the domestic market.

In a recent report submitted to the government, the ministry said that the export tax rate of five per cent on cement was too high, which undermined competitiveness of Vietnamese cement in the global market.

Besides, cement was not eligible for input value added tax (VAT) deduction.

The ministry estimated that no deduction on input VAT coupled with five per cent export tax rate pushed up prices of cement and clinker by US$7.5 and $4.5 per tonne, respectively.

This made Vietnamese cement unviable and unable to compete with products from China, Thailand, Indonesia and Japan, according to the Ministry of Planning and Investment.

The ministry proposed to the Ministry of Finance that it consider VAT deduction and export tax cut to remove difficulties for local cement producers.

According to the Ministry of Construction, in the local market, supply exceeded demand by around 20 per cent, putting local producers into a lot of difficulties.

Local producers were faced with fierce competition on both quality and prices not only in the export markets but also in the domestic market, especially from China which reportedly encountered overcapacity of hundreds of millions of tonnes.

The Viet Nam Cement Association estimated that the total production capacity of the cement industry of Viet Nam now reached 86 million tonnes while the local demand was at 60 million tonnes in 2017 and the industry must seek ways to export the rest.

Previously, the association said that exports were not easy due to higher prices of Vietnamese cement pushed up by taxes.

By 2020, the cement industry might encounter a surplus of 36 million tonnes to 47 million tonnes, said Nguyen Quang Cung, the associations president.

inh Trong Thinh from the Academy of Finance said that exporting cement was just a temporary solution, however. Viet Nam aimed to reduce exports of natural resources while the local cement industry was still using old technologies with high production cost, he said.

"Exporting cement is a difficult problem. Only producers with modern technologies can export and compete, Thinh said.

According to Le Van Toi, Director of the Building Material Department under the construction ministry, no more cement production lines would be put into operation from 2018 and cement companies must have appropriate production and sales plans to avoid creating more pressure on the local market.

Statistics of the General Department of Customs showed that Viet Nam exported 9.5 million tonnes of cement and clinker, worth $330 million in the first half of this year.

Major import markets of Vietnamese cement were Bangladesh (35.2 per cent) and the Philippines (33.8 per cent).

Viet Nams cement and clinker export hit a record high of nearly 20 million tonnes with a revenue of $1 billion in 2014 but has been on a downward trend since then. Viet Nam exported 16.2 million tonnes in 2015 and 14.7 million tonnes in 2016.

Export prices were at around $29 to $30 per tonne for clinker and $45 to $50 per tonne for cement, down by 25 per cent over 2014. - VNS
Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Samsung Electronics Viet Nam Thai Nguyen LLC (SEVT) during his business trip to the northern province of Thai Nguyen yesterday.  Photo vneconomy

HA NOI  Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc visited Samsung Electronics Viet Nam Thai Nguyen LLC (SEVT) during his business trip to the northern province of Thai Nguyen yesterday.

The PM Phuc spoke highly of Samsungs investment in Viet Nam with its high ratio of committed capital and disbursement. He especially praised the technology groups commitment to achieve $50 billion in exports in 2017.

Phuc said that he was impressed with Samsungs work in Viet Nam. He praised the companys focus on research and development (R&D) in addition to manufacturing and assembly, and he thanked the firm for improving the living conditions for employees and workers and reaching a localization rate of 57 per cent for their products.

Phuc said that the Government and Thai Nguyen Provinces authorities would provide all needed conditions to help Samsung succeed in Viet Nam and become the electronics hub in the country.

He also shared his great appreciation for the efforts and contributions of Samsung to Viet Nams socio-economic development.

He said that as the biggest foreign-invested company in Viet Nam, Samsung must remain a role model in the country, continue to focus on the living conditions of employees, environmental protection and set an example for other businesses.

Since it started operating in 2014, SEVT has increased its capital and revenue by 250 times to $5 billion and $20.4 billion.

SEVT is a member of Samsung Electronics Viet Nam, which contributed 20 per cent of the countrys US$39.9 billion worth of exports in 2016.

Samsung Viet Nam targets to export a total $50 billion worth of products in 2017 and reach a localisation rate of 57 per cent for its products, which are supplied by 215 Vietnamese companies.  VNS
HA NOI  Viet Nams import of palm oil and paper from Indonesia could experience a year-on-year increase of 38 per cent, Indonesian ambassador to Viet Nam Ibnu Hadi said on Wednesday.

While addressing a seminar held by the Indonesian Embassy in Viet Nam with the aim of linking the two countries businesses in the trade of palm oil and paper, the ambassador said that imports in palm oil and paper last year rose by 20 per cent.

The figure is predicted to be 38 per cent this year, which shows a promising opportunity for co-operation between the two countries.

He said that Indonesia would supply its products at competitive prices to meet Viet Nams demand for development.

Indonesian firms hope Vietnamese enterprises and associations would visit their factories to seek information and partners, he added.

Pham Quoc Manh, public relations official at the Indonesian Embassy said that last year, Indonesia ranked 14th in the word in terms of export of paper, mostly printing paper, with revenue of US$3.2 billion.

Indonesia is also the world top exporter of palm oil as the country provides 36 million tonnes out of total 56 million tonnes exported by countries around the world, or 62 per cent, he added.

The ambassador said that last year, paper was the third largest item that Indonesia exported to Viet Nam with revenue of $181 million, followed by animal and plant oil with $161 million.

Ambassador Ibnu Hadi said that relations between Viet Nam and Indonesia have been growing. In 2016, two-way trade reached $5.6 billion, he noted, added that the two sides agreed to lift up the figure to $10 billion in 2018.

This years bilateral trade revenue is expected to reach $7.8 billion.

In order to strengthen the Viet Nam-Indonesia co-operation, especially when the ASEAN Economic Community has been formed and the region has experienced many significant changes, the two sides should increase the exchange of information and investment promotion as well as the connectivity among businesses, thus improving the competitiveness of ASEAN enterprises, he said.

Viet Nam mostly exported to Indonesia telephones, iron, steel, machineries, equipment, rice, computer, electronics and spare parts, garment, leather and footwear materials, vehicles, plastics and plastic material.  VNS
On occasion of National Day of Peru on July 28, Viet Nam News presents an article written by Luis Tsuboyama, Chief of Mission of Peru Embassy in Viet Nam

Peru celebrates National Day

Today, we are celebrating the National day of the Republic of Peru, the 196-year anniversary of our independence. Peru is an Andean and Amazonian country in South America, multiethnic and multicultural, looking at the Pacific as a fundamental region for our future, where Viet Nam is a friend and also an important partner.

In this opportunity, I would like to review the relationship between Peru and Viet Nam since 1994 and share my optimism about future cooperation between our two countries.

The relationship between Peru and Viet Nam has been increasing substantially in different matters, among which trade and investment stand out as the most active areas.

In 2013, when the embassy of Peru was established in Ha Noi, the volume of exchange barely reached US$23 million. Now, after four years, bilateral trade has increased twenty times to reach nearly US$460 million.

With the establishment of Intergovernmental Commission on economic and technical cooperation, we hope to strengthen bilateral trade, cooperation and exchange. An example of this commercial approach is the opening of the markets for fruits from both sides, which will allow Peruvian and Vietnamese companies to export grapes, super fruits, lemons, avocados, dragon fruits and litchi for the benefits of consumers.

Lima, the capital of Peru, sits roughly at the center of the countrys lengthy coastline. This massive city has several well-known beaches. Photo Courtesy of the Embassy of Peru

Regarding investment, PetroVietnam and Viettel have been in Peru for many years, investing in energy and telecommunications and looking to expand thanks to their positive results. I would like to mention two Peruvian companies that have invested in Viet Nam in the areas of carbonated beverages and tourism (AJE Group and AquaExpeditions), demonstrating the future potential of this country for doing business.

Additionally, last year, Peru and Viet Nam signed some cooperation agreements in terms of culture, anti-drug and fishery, which will open new platforms for both countries to enhance the cooperation in the coming years.

On tourism, we have seen incredible growth of Vietnamese tourists to Peru in only 2 years (9 times higher). It means that more and more Vietnamese people are going to Peru to discover the beautiful nature, rich history and excellent cuisine.

During the APEC Summit last year in Lima, Peru, the President of Viet Nam and President of Peru reaffirmed the continued commitments to strengthen the political, diplomatic, economic and cultural relations between the two countries. This year, APEC will be hosted in Viet Nam, and we are continuing to support Viet Nam for the success of its Presidency. We have the same vision on deepening of regional integration, improving business competitiveness and innovation and focusing on micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) so as to contribute to the common economic development of all APEC member economies.

I would like to take this opportunity to convey greetings to my compatriots living in Viet Nam. We are a small community, but we feel at home because of the warmth and hospitality of our Vietnamese friends.

Finally, I would like to invite you all to celebrate along with us on this special occasion. I hope both countries will thrive together to better serve the interests of our citizens in the years to come.  VNS


Kids Vietnam (Kids in Difficult Situations in Vietnam), a non-profit organisation that aims to improve the lives of underprivileged children, will stage The Dreams musical at the Institute of Cultural Exchange with France (IDECAF) on August 4.

The play is about peoples dreams and goals and how to achieve them, featuring talented young dancers and musicians.

All of the proceeds from the show will be spent on equipment and other items for Kids Vietnams next charity trip.

The show will begin at 5 pm at 28 Le Thanh Ton Street in District 1. Tickets can be booked at https://tinyurl.com/thedreams. VNS
Deputy Chairwoman of ong a district's Van Mieu Ward was temporarily suspended yesterday.  Photo zing.vn

By Hong Minh

The Deputy Chairwoman of a ward in Ha Noi was temporarily suspended yesterday, just a day after an official petition complained about her attitude towards the public.

No matter what the merits of the case, such promptness deserves appreciation, because, in the short, medium and long-term, it sets the bar high for official responses to public concerns.

It does not require much imagination to see how some major problems could have been nipped in the bud if administrations, central and local, had been as sprightly as the capital city in this instance.

However, the episode that led to this temporary suspension also carries important lessons.

It all began when Vu Thanh Hoa, a resident of the districts Van Mieu Ward, approached the local administration to get a death certificate for her father, who passed away on July 18. She needed the certificate to conduct his funeral.

On the morning after the death, Hoa came early to the local Peoples Committee to request the death certificate so that she could arrange a funeral ceremony the next day. A clerk named Hieu received her application and told her to return at two in the afternoon. She did so, only to be told that the Deputy Chairwoman who had to sign the document was not in.

Kafkaesque ordeal

In a Kafkaesque ordeal, she was made to wait, go back home and return to the office again for a total of six times, but still could not get the certificate she needed for the funeral ceremony.

An acrimonious argument ensued between Hoa, her sister, Hieu and a woman named Ha, who turned out to be the Deputy Chairwoman. Hoa said the woman called her and her sister uneducated and asked security to escort them out of the office.

Because of the undue delay in getting the death certificate, Hoa was unable to book with the funeral home and her father had to wait for another day to be buried. Adding to the heartbreak of losing a loved one was the inability to give him a timely funeral, which is deeply important to all Vietnamese citizens, given our strong traditions of filial and ancestral piety.

A Vietnamese proverb referring to our attitude towards the dead goes: Nghia tu la nghia tan (Roughly, death ends hatred). The implication is that once a person is dead, all resentment and hatred should be ignored, and the deceased should be treated in a sympathetic, meaningful manner, especially in the organising of the farewell ceremony.

Hoas story attracted lots of sympathy from netizens who said local authorities should act more from the heart and sympathise with the plight of people whove lost a loved one, and help them in organising a proper funeral ceremony, instead of causing further trouble. They also criticised the inappropriate attitude of two civil servants, including the Deputy Chairwoman, towards voters.

Prompt response

Once the story went viral, Ha Noi Chairman Nguyen uc Chung called for an immediate investigation into the citizens complaint and accusation of harassment in issuing a death certificate.

Yesterday afternoon, the Deputy Director of the Department of Justice, Pham Thanh Cao, led an inspection team to work with Van Mieu Ward on the case. The inspectors proposed the suspension and cutting off of contracts for the civil servants involved.

The decision on temporary suspension of Ha as deputy chairwoman of Van Mieu Ward was signed by ong a District Peoples Committee Chairman Nguyen Song Hao the same day. Ha was suspended for three days, starting today, while the inspection was carried out. Hieu was transferred to another position at the wards Peoples Council. The results of the investigation and final responses have to be reported to the city Peoples Committee by Saturday.

Reflections

The deputy chairwoman of Van Mieu Ward, and all civil servants, would do well to reflect on this priceless insight.

There are doubtless many positive instances of administrative reforms where procedures and time taken to get certificates and documents have been reduced considerably. But stories like this one eroded the efforts.

The fundamental lesson from this episode is that the best of administrative reforms will fall short if civil servants do not behave with the clear understanding they are there to serve the public, not the other way round.

Improvements in procedures can help, but they cannot deliver public satisfaction on their own. Good, efficient service comes from the heart, and is rooted in humility, friendliness and compassion. -- VNS
Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue meets New Zealand Finance Minister Steven Joyce in Wellington yesterday.  VNA/VNS Photo Khanh Linh

WELLINGTON  Deputy Prime Minister Vuong inh Hue arrived in Wellington yesterday, starting his three-day official visit to New Zealand at the invitation of his counterpart Paula Bennett.

During a working session with New Zealand Finance Minister Steven Joyce in the afternoon, Hue said Viet Nam is accelerating economic restructuring of credit organisations, commercial banks and State-owned enterprises, adding that the country is working to refine market economy mechanisms, improve competitiveness and bolster the business climate.

He asked New Zealand to share experiences and encourage its enterprises to join the Vietnamese restructuring process.

Hue shared his deep gratitude for the development support that New Zealand has provided for Viet Nam and asked for the early signing of a bilateral financial deal.

Joyce, for his part, called Viet Nam a significant New Zealand partner in ASEAN and spoke highly of Viet Nams successful hosting of important events in its capacity as Chair of ASEAN 2017.

He affirmed that New Zealand would assist Viet Nam restructure finance-banking, bad debts, business equitisation and the securities market. He also promised to continue facilitating Vietnamese agro-fishery access to the Pacific countrys distribution and supermarket chain.

Both sides agreed to further enhance cooperation in the fields of economy, trade, investment, services, education-training, connectivity and information technology, toward raising two-way trade to US$1.7 billion by 2020.

Visiting the Vietnamese embassy in New Zealand, Hue said his visit was to further promote bilateral ties, particularly in trade, education and labour exchange, urge New Zealand to consider the future of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and prepare for upcoming visits by both sides.

According to Vietnamese Ambassador to New Zealand Nguyen Viet Dung, the Vietnamese community in New Zealand now counts more than 6,600, mostly in Auckland city.  VNS
HA NOI  A grand ceremony was held on Thursday morning to honour and commemorate fallen soldiers, war invalids and others who devoted their lives to national freedom.

The event was the highlight of a series of activities this year to mark the 70th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day (July 27, 1947-2017).

Nearly 3,500 delegates, including top national leaders, heroic mothers, war heroes and war invalids, from across the country filled up the grand hall of the National Convention Centre in Ha Noi.

A minute of silence was observed in memory of millions of people, both soldiers and ordinary people, who shed blood or died in the nations fierce wars in the 20th century to gain national independence.

Addressing the ceremony, Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong expressed his deepest gratitude, on behalf of the Party and State, towards the martyrs, war invalids and their families for their tremendous sacrifices.

Millions of martyrs relatives were never able to reunite with their beloveds," he said.

The war heroes and martyrs have brought honour to our nation. Their names will go down in history and be remembered forever, the party chief added.

He added that the Party and State have always attached special attention to preferential policies for revolutionary contributors. Up till now, more than nine million revolutionary contributors have become beneficiaries of such policies. More than four million have been awarded orders, medals and other awards recognising their contributions.

He pledged that that Party and State would continue to better their policies to ensure that by 2020, all families of revolutionary contributors would enjoy a living standard equal to or above the average in their localities.

Travelling all the way from HCM City to attend the ceremony, veteran Nguyen Viet Quan told the Viet Nam News he was very touched to attend such a solemn ceremony and that the contributions of his comrades and himself were honoured.

Wearing a military uniform full of medals, Quan could barely hold back tears when talking about his fallen comrades.

I can never forget this saying we used to tell each other during the war -- when peace comes, those who are still alive must bring those who died back to their hometowns, he said, adding that he had managed to collect 104 remains of martyrs from his former military units over the past years.

Hanoian Le Trang Tri, a war invalid who lost one leg in the northern border war in 1979, said he was grateful for the States supportive policies towards war invalids.

However, he hoped more policies and activities would be implemented in the future because there were still many war invalids and veterans living in very difficult situations.

Earlier in the morning, delegations of national leaders, the capital citys leaders and representatives of various organisations and agencies laid wreaths at the Monument of Heroic Martyrs and paid tribute to late President Ho Chi Minh at his mausoleum in Ba inh Square.  VNS
HCM CITY  A new website created by university students provides information to relatives about war martyrs and their graves at HCM Citys Martyrs Cemetery in District 9.

The website https://tphcm.anhhunglietsi.vn/ was launched yesterday by the city-based Viet Nam Student Association, which includes students at HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities and University of Information Technology.

The students spent three months seeking information for the database and designing the website, according to Truong Van An, deputy secretary of Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union at the HCM City Univeristy of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Through the search function, visitors only need to type the full name of the martyr or heroic mother buried in the cemetery.

The site will then reveal the martyrs birth year, birthplace, day of sacrifice, burial position in the cemetery, and their site of fighting in the war.

Pictures, videos and songs about martyrs on the website are also included, said Le Viet Hung, chairman of Viet Nam Students Association at the University of Information and Technology.

The website also offers information about the place where the remains of unidentified martyrs were initially found.

Through the information on the website, we hope that people can help us identify them and their family, said An of the HCM City University of Social Sciences and Humanities.

Many martyrs buried at the cemetery are unknown and have not been identified.

An said that he and his schoolmates, who study history and are now taking part in the Green Summer Volunteer programme, visited the cemetery to collect information about the martyrs but suffiicent data was lacking.

More sources at the citys libraries and in newspapers had to be researched, An said.

In the upcoming time, we will contact experts and researchers, martyrs friends and family members to update information on the website, he said.

Hung of the University of Information Technology said: We knew that this website would be good and useful, but we realised that it would be difficult to do because we had not sample to follow, but we never gave up."

After digitizing information about more than 14,000 graves of martyrs and heroic Vietnamese mothers at the cemetery, they plan to launch website for other martyrs cemeteries.

Setting up the website is an opportunity for us to practise what we learned in classes and gain more experience in programming, Hung said.

At a meeting to prepare for the 70th War Invalids and Martyrs Day, Le Hoang Minh, deputy chairman of the Viet Nam Students Association, said the website would be a meaningful addition to the special day on July 27.

The website provides a large database that helps educate young people about the patriotic tradition in the country, Minh said.  VNS
HCM CITY  Sixty war invalids and 50 relatives of wounded and sick soldiers were honoured at a conference held by the HCM Citys Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee in the city on Tuesday.

The head of the citys Viet Nam Fatherland Front Committee, To Thi Bich Chau, said the people honoured at the conference had made great efforts in overcoming difficult circumstances.

She recalled the late President Ho Chi Minhs saying: Thuong binh tan nhung khong phe (Wounded soldiers are disabled but they are not discarded; they are still useful).

On the occasion of the annual 70th Day for War Invalids and Martyrs (July 27), the city honoured 60 war invalids who made sacrifices for national freedom and are now running businesses and making positive contributions to the development of the country.

Nguyen Phan Tam, 67, a wounded soldier in Cu Chi District, said he had invested in breeding pigs and had attended a training course in breeding. He now owns a farm with more than 1,000 pigs and 200 sows.

He also regularly participates in charitable works and helps disadvantaged residents in the locality.

The city also honoured 50 relatives of wounded and sick soldiers who had cared for the soldiers and family members with love and responsibility.

Le Minh Duong, 77, who lives in District 9, takes care of his invalid wife, Nguyen Thi Anh, helping her eat her meals and taking care of her personal hygiene.

And Le Hong Ngoc, who lives in Phu Nhuan District, cares for her husband Nguyen Hai Quy who has serious wounds that become more painful during cold weather.

Chau said the city authorities in collaboration with agencies had implemented many activities and special policies to care for war invalids and martyrs families, and support policy beneficiaries.

Since last year, the city has presented more than 3,500 gratitude houses to policy beneficiary families, renovated about 1,290 gratitude houses, and supported policy beneficiaries facing difficulties, she said.

Nguyen Thi Quyet Tam, chairwoman of the citys Peoples Council, said the citys Party, State and relevant agencies should improve policies and take measures to pay tribute to those who have contributed to the nations independence.

To offer effective support, the city should follow the situation of heroic mothers, seriously wounded soldiers, and policy beneficiary families facing difficulties, she said.

To set an example for younger generations, city authorities should also continue discovering more good examples of people who should be honoured for their contributions.  VNS
HCM CITY  Deputy PM Trinh inh Dung on Tuesday asked HCM City to tap diverse resources to invest in major infrastructure projects to increase its global competitiveness and become a major player in Southeast Asia as well as the Asia-Pacific region.

Towards this, the city should also carefully consider improvements to its road infrastructure and implement an adjusted master plan to strengthen links with neighbouring localities, he said.

Top priority should be given to Belt Roads 3 and 4, the Long Thanh International Airport, Cai Mep-Thi Vai seaport, and railway routes connecting industrial parks, economic zones and seaports, Dung said at a conference held in the city.

HCM City and surrounding provinces, which are home to major international airports and seaports, have a total population of 19 million, contribute 42 per cent of national GDP and 51 per cent of the countrys exports, the meeting heard.

HCM City Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong said the administration planned to develop satellite cities to reduce population density in its downtown area.

One of the major challenges facing the city was inadequate transportation infrastructure, he said, adding that the city and other provinces had agreed to develop a railway line between the city and Can Tho in the Mekong Delta.

HCM City aims to become an economic, trade and education hub in Southeast Asia. The city must be well connected with surrounding localities, he said.

Le Thanh Liem, vice chairman of the Binh Duong Peoples Committee, agreed that it was vital to boost connectivity between HCM City and surrounding provinces.

A project to build the HCM City-Binh Duong-Chon Thanh expressway, however, is yet to begin implementation, although it has been discussed for 15 years.

He also agreed that it was critically important to develop the railways sector to share the burden with roads and improve cargo transportation capacities in the region.

Huynh Anh Minh, vice chairman of the Binh Phuoc Peoples Committee, asked that the Government consider a trans-Asia railway network to improve transport connections with Cambodia and Myanmar.

Secretary of the HCM City Party Committee, Nguyen Thien Nhan, said he was concerned about the tardiness of transport projects in the city.

Nhan said the city should not develop transport projects based solely on State Budget and ODA (Official Development Assistance) funds, and should look to other investment sources.

Plan adjustments

Deputy PM Dung said the project to adjust the master plan for HCM City and surrounding provinces had been studied carefully.

He praised the proposed development model, which ensures climate-change adaptation.

Besides HCM City, the region is divided into four sub-regions and key economic corridors, with the city expected to play a key role as the centre of the region.

The four subregions are: Binh Duong Province in the northern part of the region, Bien Hoa-Long Thanh-Nhon Trach in the eastern part, Cu Chi-Hau Nghia-uc Hoa in the northwest, and Ben Luc-Can Giuoc-Hiep Phuoc in the southwestern area.

The adjusted master plan emphasises the importance of the eastern Bien Hoa-Long Thanh-Nhon Trach area and the tourism potential of coastal areas.

Under the new plan, Binh Duong will be linked to National Highway 51 and National Highway 22 corridors, which are important gateways for seaports, airports and border gates.

The new plan should identify linkages between industrial parks, hi-tech agriculture, forestry, fisheries, tourist resorts and heritage preservation areas as well as historic sites and biodiversity conservation areas, Dung said.

It will also anticipate the risk of population concentration in central urban areas of HCM City, the effects of natural disasters and other adverse effects on the regions development and recommend solutions, he said.

The Deputy PM asked concerned agencies to study and make proposals to the adjusted plan to ensure efficiency in implementation.

A Construction Ministry official said that it would work with agencies to collect ideas from the conference and complete the adjusted plan.

The original master plan, approved by the Government in 2008, provided an important scientific and legal basis for the development of investment plans for each locality and the entire region. However, the plan had to be adjusted to keep up with rapid changes on the ground, officials said at the conference.  VNS
A traffic accident. Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has asked the Ministry of Education and Training to strengthen education of traffic rules and traffic culture for all students from pre-school to high school.  Photo infonet.vn

HA NOI  Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh has asked the Ministry of Education and Training to strengthen education of traffic rules and traffic culture for all students from pre-school to high school.

The ministry will be in charge of guiding its departments in cities and provinces to strengthen dissemination of traffic knowledge, said the Deputy PM who is also chairman of the National Traffic Safety Committee.

Binh made his request at an online conference held on Tuesday to review traffic safety management in the second quarter of this year.

Traffic safety is already taught at many pre-schools. Nguyen Hong Thanh, a teacher at Tan Hai Pre-school in southern Ba Ria-Vung Tau Provinces Tan Thanh District, said traffic knowledge had been combined in games, images and songs.

"Children are taught to recognise means of transport, some basic traffic signals and traffic lights when playing games or learning a new song," she said.

At Ward 8 Pre-school in Vung Tau City, traffic models such as crossroads and traffic roundabouts have been set up to teach children to obey traffic laws.

Le Thi Can, the schools principal, said the use of models had been effective in helping children remember traffic rules.

Child-related accidents

At the conference, Deputy PM Binh has asked the ministry to co-operate with the National Traffic Safety Committee to build a kit of traffic culture for high school students. The kit would be provided to all secondary schools in the academic year 2017-18.

The decision follows the results of a study that found that high school students were involved as either drivers or victims in 90 per cent of child-related traffic accidents in Ha Noi.

The study, conducted among 2,390 high school students in the capital, showed that driving in wrong lanes, speeding, and careless driving were the main accident causes.

In the study, more than 52 per cent of students said they drove electric bikes or motorbikes to school. The rest either walked or biked.

About 106,440 electrical bikes and 100,582 electrical motorbikes were reportedly available in families of high school students in Ha Noi.

The study found that up to 33 per cent of students walking to schools admitted that they had not learnt how to walk safely, and 27 per cent of students driving vehicles to school said that they had not learned about safe driving skills.

Vice head of National Committee for Road Safety Khuat Viet Hung said that high school students were the group most vulnerable to traffic accidents. Thus, measures on improving traffic safety for them were important.

The study was jointly organised by the National Committee for Road Safety and the Viet Nam Association of Motorbike Manufacturers (VAMM).

Nearly 5,000 traffic fatalities this year

Nearly 5,000 people have been killed and 9,300 injured due to traffic accidents since early this year, a drop of between 5.2 per cent and 10.2 per cent compared to the same period of last year, the National Traffic Safety Committee has announced. Nguyen Trong Thai from the committee secretariat said the number of deaths decreased by 263 people and the number of injuries by 1,050 people.

In terms of traffic violations, Thai said traffic police found more than 2.4 million violators, fining more than VN1.5 billion (US$66,079), seizing 22,700 vehicles and revoking nearly 220,000 driving licences.  VNS
By Bui Duy Loi

HA NOI  People often say its not easy to change ones habits, but a man from Cu Pua Village in the central province of Quang Tri has succeeded and inspired others to follow.

Ho E Not, 44, said the villagers in akrong District used to consider tobacco and alcohol indispensable. Most men and women smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol, whatever the occasion. It had become a custom. Drinking when celebrating new crops, at weddings and funerals, he said.

Not was no exception. At the age of ten, he started smoking and drinking, growing addicted to both.

After getting married, Not continued drinking every day. To have money for alcohol and tobacco, he didnt hesitate to sell the little rice left in the family rice basket.

Until one day he saw his children crying out of hunger. He also started noticing that many people suffered poverty and traffic accidents as an effect of alcohol abuse, and his conscience was awakened, Not recalled.

Villagers trusted me as I was the only person in the village that had finished the sixth grade (out of 12). I also inherited my father knowledge in curing normal diseases like dysentery, digestive disorders, gastritis and colitis.

Thus, he decided to give up smoking and drinking to set a good example.

Ghosts in forest

Since 2002, he has been serving as the village health official and is determined to build a village free of alcohol. A big paper sign with the motto No drinking at home  Drinking-free village hangs in a prominent spot in the middle of his house.

Everything did not go smoothly at the beginning. Many people considered him crazy.

He set out to convince villagers of the harmful effects of tobacco and alcohol. At public gatherings he explained that smoking and drinking were the main reasons for chronic diseases such as liver and lung cancer. Contrary to their belief, ghosts in the forest were not the cause, he told fellow members of the Van Kieu ethnic minority.

Besides, smoking and drinking accounted for much of the family expenditure, he said, adding that the money should be spent wisely.

Thanks to his efforts, the number of addicts dropped substantially. Many have copied the No drinking at home  Drinking-free village sign and it now hangs in almost every house.

Apart from dissemination of information about the harmful effect of smoking and drinking, Not worked with other village elders to issue regulations for smokers and drinkers. Accordingly, their families were cautioned and told they would not receive State support if they violated the rules.

To encourage compliance, gifts were handed out by local authorities.

Women rejoice

Ten years have passed.

Cu Pua villagers are no longer seen drinking. Soft drinks are offered at weddings, funerals and festive holidays and Ho E Not is a local hero.

Overjoyed at their husbands devoting time to cultivation to increase the familys income, women in the village voted him the head of the Cu Pua Village Womens Association.

Nots contribution to the village did not stop with his teetotaling campaign.

Seeing villagers walking over 1 kilometre to the national road No 9, he has mobilised villagers to contribute VN68 million ($3,000) to widen and pave the road, helping ease transportation access.

Not has donated over 2,000 sq.m of land to buid a primary school and kinder garten, as well as community houses for villagers. "I have no money so I decided to donate land. Although my children have grown up, children of other villagers can learn at the schools," he said.

"Thanks to Nots efforts, Cu Pua has become the only smoke and drinking free village in Quang Tri Province," said Ho Van Phoi, head of Cu Pua Village. The number of traffic accidents had declined since villagers dont drink on festive occasions and holidays.

"The lives of the villagers have changed," Phoi said.

With 15 years devoted to improving villagers living condition, Ho E Not has been granted dozens of certificates of merits. He also had a chance to report his experience at a ceremony to honour village heads and elders who made outstanding contributions to the cause of national construction and defence.

Commenting on the role of heros like Not, Trieu Hong Son, a former official of the Committee for Ethnic Minority Affairs, said village heads and elders play an important role in raising peoples awarness of long-embedded habits. They understand the communitys culture, speak the same language and have the same customs, making it easier for them to persuade others, he explained.

"Village heads and elders disseminating information about State policy, legal and social issues have a strong impact on villagers as they are the best example and the most effective bridge," he said. -- VNS
QUANG TRI  A bridge across the Thach Han River in the central province of Quang Tri was opened for public use on Wednesday.

The nine-span Thanh Co Bridge is 311m long and 15m wide, with reinforced abutments placed on a bored pile foundation.

It is part of a 5.9km bypass of National Route 1 that passes through Quang Tri Province, costing VN680 billion (US$29.9 million) to build, which was also opened for public use on Wednesday.

The bypass starts from the Le Loi-National Route 1A junction in the provinces Trieu Phong District and ends at the Long Hung-National Route 1 junction in Hai Lang District.

The bridge and the bypass connect Quang Tri and Ai Tu towns in Trieu Phong District, two administrative and economic centres of the province, and also connect other localities with the provinces ong Ha City.

Speaking at the Thanh Co Bridge launch ceremony on Wednesday, Nguyen uc Chinh, chairman of Quang Tri Peoples Committee, said the bridge has significant meaning since it crosses the Thach Han River where thousands of soldiers died during the war, the Dan Tri online newspaper reported.

The bridge will facilitate travel and visits of residents to the national historic site of Quang Tri Citadel, he said.

It is also part of an important traffic infrastructure that will help with socio-economic development of the province and localities, as well as ease traffic congestion on National Route 1A, he added.

The bridge was launched on the occasion of the 70th War Invalids and Martyrs Day, which is on July 27.  VNS
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump has nominated Daniel Kritenbrink, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Asian affairs, to be US ambassador to Viet Nam, the White House said Wednesday.

The Virginia native has been a diplomat since 1994 and currently works as senior advisor for North Korea policy at State Department, the White House said in a statement.

Kritenbrink once worked as deputy chief of mission in Beijing and speaks Chinese and Japanese, the statement said.  AFP
Having been the subject of rumour for some months, the new is now official: the next Patek Philippe Grand Exhibition will take place in Singapore, the Asian city thats the watchmakers most important in South-East Asia (and also the location of the largest Patek Philippe boutique in the region).

Confirmed by Thierry Stern in an interview with Singapore newspaper The Straits Times, the 2019 event will be its first stop in Asia. The New York Grand Exhibition (pictured above and below) just closed its doors a couple of days ago, with Londons Saatchi Gallery having been the venue in 2015, the same year the Geneva watchmaker celebrated its 175th anniversary.

With the template for the Grand Exhibition having been well established, come 2019 expect an expansive exhibition of Patek Philippe timepieces vintage and modern, as well as a range of limited editions (ranging from wristwatches to Dome Clocks) created just for the event. The recent New York exhibition was accompanied by a slew of limited edition exclusive to the American market, including the flagship World Time Minute Repeater ref. 5531R.

Stay tuned for more on the Grand Exhibition 2019 as soon as information is available.
WATERLOO  Authorities are seeking the publics help after someone attempted to light a fence over the weekend.

Waterloo officers were called to suspicious activity in the yard at 520 Elm St. around 11 a.m. on Sunday and discovered that someone had attempted to set fire to the wooden fence that surrounds the house. The fire had apparently been set around 6:42 a.m., according to the police report.

The home has been the subject of numerous complaints over the years, and city officials have twice cited the owner under the chronic nuisance ordinance.

Damage to the fence was minor.

On Tuesday, Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers released images taken from a surveillance camera that show a man with a shirt pulled over his face. Police said they would like to speak with the man in the photos.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Waterloo Police Department at (319) 291-4340 ext 7 or Cedar Valley Crime Stoppers at 855-300-TIPS (8477). Tips may also be left at WWW.CVCRIMESTOP.COM Tips may also be sent with TipSoft or by texting the word CEDAR plus the information to CRIMES (274637).
MANCHESTER -- On July 2 at 2:15 a.m., the Manchester Police Department was conducting an investigation at 113 Ludland Drive. Officers attempted to make contact with the occupant of the residence but no one answered the door and officers could see a 1-year-old child in the apartment.

A family member was contacted and entrance was made into the apartment to check the welfare of the children that were present. Officers found three children, ages 1, 4, and 7, in the home with no supervision. Law enforcement made contact with the mother at approximately 3 a.m.

Officers discovered the mother had left the children in the care of her 10-year-old daughter, who left the apartment to go to her grandmothers apartment. It was also discovered the mother had been consuming alcohol and tested above the legal limit for intoxication.

The mom, Shaunte D. Hughes, 27, of Manchester, was arrested on three counts of child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has been indicted on federal gun charges after police found a military-style rifle.

A grand jury in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids returned an indictment on July 10 charging Ramell Dashay McQueen, 31, with one count of possession of a firearm by a prohibited person.

The indictment was unsealed Monday when he was arrested and appeared in court, and a magistrate order he be detained pending trial following a Tuesday hearing.

Authorities allege McQueen possessed a MAG Tactical MG-G4 5.56mm rifle on March 26, 2016, while he was barred from handling firearms because of a 2010 domestic abuse conviction.
WATERLOO  A Waterloo man has been sentenced to prison for shooting a man while trying to rob him in 2016.

Daelin Elijah Cole, 20, pleaded to second-degree robbery, first-degree burglary, willful injury causing serious injury, going armed and prohibited person in possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to up to 45 years in prison on July 18, and he will have to serve at least seven years before he is eligible for parole.

Court records allege Cole had arranged to meet 21-year-old Houston Simmons at 2007 W. Third St. at 11 p.m. on March 30, 2016. Cole demanded Simmons money, fight broke out, and Cole pulled out a gun and shot Simmons once in the lower abdomen, police said.

Simmons was taken to a local hospital by a friend, and police found Cole near the Third Street address.
WATERLOO  All students at 10 Waterloo public schools will receive their meals for free under a federal program the district is participating in starting this fall.

The schools, all located in low-income areas of the district, will receive full reimbursement for meals served through the Community Eligibility Provision of the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act. Last years rate of reimbursement for free meals was $3.24 per child.

We started looking at it a year ago, said Nutrition Program Manager Heather Bathen, noting the option has been available to qualifying Iowa schools since 2014-15. We decided to run the numbers and talk to other schools to see if it was a possibility for Waterloo.

Sites include Elk Run Preschool; Dr. Walter Cunningham School for Excellence; Highland, Irving, Lincoln, Lowell and Kittrell elementary schools; Central Middle School; George Washington Carver Academy; and Expo Alternative Learning Center.

Meals would be free at those schools, but Bathen said children will still have to pay for additional milk or a la carte items.

We definitely feel its going to be a positive for the kids and their families, she said. Families at those schools no longer need to apply for free or reduced-price meals. It will also save time and administrative costs for each school without the applications and communicating to families about low balances on childrens meal accounts.

The state predicts with the CEP that the rate of meals (served to students) would go up 10 percent, Bathen added.

Last month, the Board of Education approved the schools participation in the program. Recently, the district mailed and emailed notices about the change to affected families, officials said.

The reimbursement option is being used by some schools in 17 other public or parochial systems across Iowa. The only other Cedar Valley school already participating is Sacred Heart Elementary in Waterloo.

Schools qualify based on the number of students eligible for free meals by direct state certification or categorical eligibility instead of by income applications, according to information on the Iowa Department of Education website.

Bathen said some examples of that are if a family receives government assistance such as food stamps, cares for foster children or is homeless.

This is like a database that the state has, she explained. There was a formula that they used to determine if the school was eligible or not.

More than 40 percent of children at a school during the prior year have to be identified as eligible for a school to qualify. But if every qualifying school in a district just meets that threshold, full reimbursement for meals is not available.

Bathen said 62.5 percent participation is the magic number to get 100 percent state reimbursement. Participating Waterloo schools range from 52.53 percent at Kittrell to 72.39 percent at Irving, according to Department of Education data. So, the district looked at the combined percentage of the schools.

The state data shows an 11th district school, Fred Becker Elementary, also qualified with 43.88 percent of students eligible. It didnt make the cut, though, when it was factored into the overall percentage.

I know when our financial department ran the numbers, it was just the top 10 that made us eligible for the 100 percent, said Bathen. Other schools could be added in future years based on next springs data.

She encouraged families whose children attend district schools not participating in the program to continue applying for free and reduced-price meals. The non-CEP schools, we want (parents) to realize they can still fill out the free and reduced application, said Bathen.
U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, voiced her opposition Wednesday to President Donald Trumps announcement transgender individuals wont be allowed to serve in the military.

Ernsts office said the senator thinks Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity.

The president took to Twitter on Wednesday morning and, in a series of messages, said: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.........victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you

The Obama administration had decided to allow transgender people to serve. There are various estimates of how many transgender people are in the military. A Rand study last year put the number at 2,500 on active duty, out of 1.3 million overall. A 2014 study by the Williams Institute estimated the number at 15,000 who are on active duty, in the Reserves or National Guard.

Ernst, who is a veteran, doesnt think taxpayers should pay for gender reassignment surgery, her office said in an email, but added what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life.

On a conference call Wednesday, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he would defer on the question to military officials and to Ernst.

Told of Ernsts response, he said, I have respect for what she has to say. He said he would study the issue further.

Also Wednesday, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., issued a statement saying the presidents announcement comes on the anniversary of President Harry Truman signing an executive order to desegregate the military.

Instead of honoring the progress we have made on this historic day, the President chose to put our military, once again, in the middle of a discriminatory policy, he said.
Farmers market

set on the Hill

CEDAR FALLS  The College Hill Farmers Market is open from 4 to 6 p.m. today at the corner of College and West 22nd streets.

A recipe with fresh produce will be provided by Julie Grunklee, Good Food Connections blog. The Tea Cellar will provide free tea samples.

HCC to host

alumni reunion

WATERLOO  Hawkeye Community College will host a nursing alumni reunion at 5 p.m. Aug. 10 in Tama Hall. The event is free and open to all nursing graduates and former faculty.

The reunion will include a social hour, vendor booths and tours of the Van Gerpen Patient Simulator Lab from 5 to 6:30 p.m. A meal will be served at 6 p.m. followed by program updates and door prizes at 6:30 p.m.

Interested alumni should RSVP by Aug. 4 by calling 296-4002 or emailing alumni@hawkeyecollege.edu.

Protest rally set

on health care

WATERLOO  A rally to protest the efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, will be held Saturday in Waterloo.

The event will be from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at Lincoln Park, at the corner of Franklin and East Fourth streets, in Waterloo.

The our lives are on the line protest is meant to be a community-building event where people can share stories about how the repeal of the law, if enacted, would impact them and their families.

Attendees also will be able to write messages on index cards to be collected and mailed to Iowas U.S. Sens. Chuck Grassley and Joni Ernst, both Republicans. There will be health care information booths to learn more.

The events sponsors include Indivisible Iowa, Americans for Democratic Action Iowa, Direct Action Cedar Valley, Cedar Valley Resistance and Cedar Valley Activate.

Events also will take place in Sioux City, Des Moines, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids and Davenport. Visit womensmarchiowa.com for more information.
Many words have been written about Dunkirk, the film by Christopher Nolan about hundreds of thousands of soldiers  most of them British  trapped on that long beach in Northern France with the German army coming to slaughter them.

Riveting and Oscar-worthy and stunning and so forth, and theyre all appropriate for this worthy film.

And because it is a great film, it should be seen in a theater. Dont wait for it to show up on your home TV. Youll only cheat yourself.

This one requires a theater screen to appreciate the span of it all, that long beach, the tiny men on it yearning for home and that short ride across the English Channel; the rescue ships of the British Navy smashed by the German bombers, the British Spitfires knifing out of the sky.

So, there are many praiseful words for the movie, but after watching Dunkirk, I wanted to add another:

Decency.

Yes, decency is an odd word to pair with war. Nothing human beings have ever created and unleashed is more murderous than war, with death beyond measure, and so theres nothing decent about the cost of it.

And yes, as Dunkirk is a film about the war, there is death in it, death that comes randomly, or is delivered with surgical dispassion, which makes it all the more horrible.

But a great film always leaves me quiet and spent when its over, and in a quiet moment leaving the theater, I thought about the decency in what Id seen.

The decency of the young British soldiers waiting in impossibly long lines, quietly, standing out in the wind, searching the sky for enemy planes, praying for a chance at a boat to take them home.

The decency of their officers, who cared for them and who kept them calm.

The decency of British civilians, weekend sailors who answered the call and took their own fishing boats and pleasure craft, crossing the English Channel in a motley armada and approaching the murderous beach to save their soldiers, their countrymen, their boys.

The decency of a middle-aged father played by Mark Rylance, the owner of a small yacht Moonstone with his teenage son, played by Tom Glynn-Carney.

They crossed the channel because they had a job to do and they werent about to shirk responsibility. They didnt do a lot of talking. They made no big speeches. But they did share a look. And that was enough.

And the decency of a British fighter pilot, finally out of fuel, making one last desperate run in the hopes of knocking down a German plane to save more lives.

The pilot was played by actor Tom Hardy; the commander who kept them calm was played by Kenneth Branagh. Yes they are great stars, but they were not the true stars in Dunkirk.

The star of Dunkirk is the character of the British people at that time, in the worst days of the war, long before America joined in, when the British Expeditionary Force was humiliated in Europe and almost destroyed.

And so it is a movie about a people of a certain time, a people who knew who they were, a people who firmly understood their culture and their obligations to it, and to their nation, and to each other.

You dont see or hear Winston Churchill in this film. You hear some of his words read by a soldier on a train, but you dont see his genius. All that happened after the troops were rescued.

The withdrawal at Dunkirk and what led to it was a terrible military defeat for the British Expeditionary Force. And yet, Churchill was somehow able to convince the British people they had won a great victory by rescuing their men on the beach. He rallied his people. And that kind of leadership is pure genius, indeed.

If you see Dunkirk, please dont go expecting a typical Hollywood formula war film, with plenty of character exposition and back story. This is not a movie about cliched archetypes. You wont find a platoon of Brits passing around photos of their sweethearts; and you wont see the joker, the farmer, the ladies man or the upper-crust failure seeking to redeem himself. You wont see a Cockney urchin who teaches the lads to survive.

Dunkirk isnt built that way. It expects more of its audience. It does not condescend. It anticipates your intelligence and respects it.

And so it presents stories on the beach, and stories in the water, and stories in the air and expects you to follow without a guide book.

Though you wont get to know the men by what they say, youll know them by what they do. Actions, not words.

And youll see details as death comes, the sound of paper in the wind, sea foam on the beach, the scratching of chalk on the dashboard of a fighter plane, the ping of a bullet, the panic of those trapped on a ruined ship as it tips, the sound of bubbles underwater and of boys breaking the surface to find a sea of fire.

Not many films are worth the price. This one is.

But please dont cram it into the end of a day when youre tired or rushed. See it when youre at your best. Respect it as much as it respects its audience.

And I know youll find the decency in it too.
Most liberals and conservatives  indeed, 80 percent of Americans, according to polls  concur on one topic. Seizure of your money or property without a charge or conviction shouldnt happen.

Civil asset forfeiture, allowing the government to seize property and money if an individual is a suspect, accounted for more losses in 2014 than all burglaries, according to the Washington Post.

In the 1970s, civil asset forfeiture was a weapon to seize planes, boats and vehicles used in drug trafficking, allowing local jurisdictions to keep up to 80 percent of the proceeds of confiscated property. Owners had to prove the property wasnt involved in criminal activity.

In the 1980s, the Drug Enforcement Agency trained police for highway interdiction with the same benefits. Later, a private firm developed the Black Asphalt Electronic Networking & Notification System so police could share reports about motorists  Social Security numbers, addresses and hunches about drivers to stop, despite dubious constitutionality.

According to a 2014 Washington Post report, officers competed to see who could seize the most cash and contraband. All of our home towns are sitting on a tax-liberating gold mine, wrote Deputy Ron Hain of Kane County (Ill.) in a book calling for turning our police forces into present-day Robin Hoods.

Often they became highwaymen stealing money.

The Post investigation found police had seized almost $2.5 billion from motorists and others without search warrants or indictments since Sept. 11, 2011, routinely during stops for minor traffic infractions, searches without warrants and seizing large amounts of cash without evidence of wrongdoing.

A 40-year-old Texas man, a refugee from Myanmar (Burma), who managed a touring Christian rock bank raising money for a college and orphanage, was stopped in Oklahoma for a broken taillight. After finding $53,000, the money was seized as possession of drug receipts, although no drugs or paraphernalia were found.

A 40-year-old Hispanic New Jersey carpenter was stopped on I-95 in Virginia for tinted windows. Police said he was nervous. They took $18,000 meant to buy a car.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas wrote, This system  where police can seize property with limited judicial oversight and retain it for their own use  has led to egregious and well-chronicled abuses, adding law-enforcement agencies frequently target the poor and other groups least able to defend their interests in forfeiture proceedings.

In April, the Justice Departments inspector general reported the federal forfeiture program had seized $28 billion in the past decade. Half of the DEA cases lacked a broader law-enforcement purpose.

When seizure and administrative forfeitures do not ultimately advance an investigation or prosecution, law enforcement creates the appearance, and risks the reality, that it is more interested in seizing and forfeiting cash than advancing an investigation or prosecution, the report stated.

Thirteen states passed laws prohibiting civil asset forfeiture, but that didnt stop the practice. (Iowa approved a law that someone must be convicted of a crime before the state can keep cash or property valued at $5,000 or less. A criminal charge or conviction isnt required for larger forfeitures. Law enforcement agencies can keep that money and property.)

However, under the adoptive forfeiture program, all local police departments had to do to circumvent state prohibitions and get a percentage of federal proceeds was to contact the local DEA or another federal law enforcement agency to make it a federal case.

In 2015, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder ended that loophole in a nod to states rights.

Now U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a supposed states rights advocate, has rescinded Holders order at the behest of President Donald Trump, describing civil forfeiture as a key tool that helps law enforcement defund organized crime, take back ill-gotten gains, and prevent new crimes from being committed.

Police would have to provide information showing probable cause that a crime occurred before federal authorities adopt the seizure. Seizures under $10,000 would require a warrant, a related arrest or seizure of contraband  or a U.S. attorney would have to sign off on an adoption.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., who backs bipartisan legislation to reform civil asset forfeiture, called Sessions policy troubling, stating, Criminals shouldnt be able to keep the proceeds of their crime, but innocent Americans shouldnt lose their right to due process or their private property rights.

Kanya Bennett, legislative counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, agreed. We are talking about Americans who have had their homes, cars, money and other property taken through civil forfeiture, which requires only mere suspicion that the property is connected to a crime.

Sessions is taking another step backward, encouraging trampling on Fourth Amendment prohibitions against unreasonable search and seizure. We continue to support bipartisan legislation making it more difficult to seize property from people never charged or convicted, and making it easier for innocent owners to get back property wrongfully taken.
FAIRBANK  Elsie Guseman Russett never heard bomb explosions and machine-gun bursts of live combat during the Korean War, but she saw the wounds inflicted on returning warriors.

The nurse worked on two amputee wards at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., during the conflict. A lot of the boys were young kids whod lied about their age and werent really old enough to be in the service. We had old soldiers, too, who were amputees, recalled Russett, now 95.

Russett served in the Army Nursing Corps from 1951 to 1957 and rose to the rank of captain.

She recalled treating a young man who lost both arms and both legs, and another whod lost both legs and one arm, as well as other injuries. Some amputations were the result of frostbite, she said. Soldiers, without proper winter clothing and boots, had lost feet or toes in the brutally cold Korean winters.

I remember going around doing dressings (on patients) and picking off toes. It sounds pretty terrible, but they were fairly cheerful about it, some of these young kids. They were sent someplace else for rehabilitation and prosthetics, Russett said.

Born in 1921, she grew up on a 365-acre farm in West Virginia, helping her older sister and four younger brothers and their parents tend to chickens, horses, pigs and cows. Her dad raised oats, corn, winter wheat and buckwheat, as well.

She had always wanted to be a nurse and after high school graduation, her father drove her to Morgantown, W.Va., to attend nursing school at the city hospital. The three-year program required working long days in the hospital, interrupted by afternoon classes. She graduated in 1943 as a registered nurse.

It was tough, but it was good experience, too, because we learned to do everything. I had a couple of tours in the operating room.

After graduation, she returned home and cared for her cousins ill baby, worked as a private nurse and later at a university student health center.

After working in a hospital, she took a job in a doctors office where she worked for six years before enlisting in the Army Nursing Corps. Her basic training took place in San Antonio, Texas.

It was a lot of fun  sitting in classrooms learning about the army and hospitals in the army, which were quite a bit different than (civilian) hospitals. It was only a few weeks, and it was a very social life in San Antonio with lots of things going on.

Her request was approved to be sent to Walter Reed Army Medical Center after basic training. I thought I could get home more, but we were very busy. It was an elite military hospital. I adjusted pretty well  made a lot of friends.

The injuries she treated ranged from combat wounds to frostbite to getting run over. We would get a convoy of patients  everything, arms, legs, whatever. Sometimes the soldiers would tell about what had happened to them. I remember this old sergeant who told me hed had maggots in his leg, Russett said.

She got orders to Austria, but ended up in Italy at a military unit as an operating room nurse. I spent a lot of time on the beach and bought an Opel to get around. It cost less than $1,000, and I paid for it in postal money orders.

After two years abroad, she returned to the States and the end of her three-year tour in the Reserves. It wasnt long before I decided I wanted more time and re-enlisted for three more years in the regular Army. If I was going back, Id stay until I retired. I planned on making it my career, said Russett.

The captain was sent to Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri, and met her future husband, a corpsman, on the recovery ward. Allen Russett, who was from Iowa, asked her to marry him. That changed everything.  I resigned my commission.

The couple moved to Iowa where her husband became a pharmacist while she worked as a nurse at several hospitals, including the Veterans Administration Hospital in Iowa City. The mother of two sons later spent 16 years as a school nurse.

Russett reflects on her experience as a military nurse, describing it as having a big impact on my life. It was a good experience. I would recommend it.
WATERLOO  Elbert Simpson was introduced to the horrors of war soon after arriving in Korea.

His outfit was the 378th Engineer Battalion (Combat), U.S. Army, stationed about 10 miles from the front. One of their first missions was to build a bridge across what had been dubbed Bloody River.

It was called that because the men whod been killed, they was coming down the river, Simpson recalled in a 2011 interview. You can get used to anything if you try.

Simpson was born in 1930 in Holmes County, Miss. He started shining shoes at age 10, picking up the lifelong nickname Slim the Shoeshine Artist.

As a teenager, he joined older brothers in Waterloo, finding work at Rath Packing Co. In 1951, his mother called to inform him the Army had sent a draft notice.

He reported in Mississippi and was eventually sent to Fort Belvoir, Va., where he completed basic training. He was sent to Illinois and Wisconsin for further training before boarding a ship bound for Okinawa, Japan.

It was a rough journey, and many of the men on the ship were sick eight days, Simpson said. In Okinawa, his outfit boarded a plane for Seoul, Korea. Men in his unit could volunteer to go to the front; he demurred.

I aint going to volunteer to die, he said. I aint going to volunteer to kill a man; I dont think I could do that.

Instead, Simpsons job was to ensure troops could continue their advance through Koreas rough, hilly terrain.

It was winter 1951 when he arrived in the country. Men of the 378th cleared ground and constructed buildings for military personnel. On the first day, an officer asked if anyone wanted a job as a truck driver. Simpson eagerly volunteered.

They fooled all of us guys, he recalled with a laugh. Truck-driving was actually hauling rocks and sand with a wheelbarrow.

We built roads through mountains.  We cut down trees this wide, Simpson explained, spreading his long arms into a broad semicircle.

In those pre-chainsaw days, tree-cutting was grueling work that employed two-man crosscut saws. Simpson was considered a strong, valued worker.

I could pick up 300 pounds though I didnt weigh more than 165 pounds, he said. Id pick up 100 pounds with this arm, 100 pounds with (the other) and 100 pounds with my mouth!

Days were long and the work was demanding. They awoke before dawn and were forced to shower in ice-cold water. They then crowded into large, open trucks, ascending mountains on narrow, treacherous roads. They subsisted on K-rations, water and plenty of hot coffee, quitting work well after the sun went down.

The way I saw it, you know you in there; you aint going nowhere, he said. If the man tells you to do something, you do it.

The Korean War was the last conflict that segregated units of U.S. armed forces based on race. Colored soldiers were treated differently in various ways, from jobs they were assigned to equipment they were issued.

For example, when Simpson took his turn on night watch, his rifle wasnt loaded. He never encountered an enemy soldier. If that had occurred, Simpson had been trained to raise the alert and use his rifles bayonet to defend himself.

I told the guys, when we go out, we aint got no bullets. We going to have to fight, so we fight; we was sent here to fight, he explained.

Thus Simpson believed he survived largely due to the bravado of youth.

I wasnt scared of nothing when I was young, he said. When youre out there with a bunch of guys, you might be thinking youre going to die, but oh, no. I wasnt thinking about dying; I was thinking about living.

At one point, battle lines had shifted while the unit was working. This caused the workers to retreat, leaving trucks and other equipment as many as 15 miles behind enemy lines. In the confusion, Simpson was forgotten.

Simpson hid and waited. Without food and armed with only a canteen, he used the water to rinse his mouth out and stay alert. He reminded himself to focus on survival.

The light created by guns  going off from the shooting from each side  made it so bright it was like daylight, he said.

After three days, his unit was able to return for the trucks.

I was so grateful to see them, I ran out waving, he said. I told them, I aint going back up there no more!

At home, Simpsons mother had been notified he had died. It took another three weeks before the truth reached her.

Simpson recalled that his time in Korea taught him how to treat people right, a concept he believed he hadnt grasped in the years prior.

The army taught me what to do and what to say to live, he said. (In the) army, each man gave you the same break. If you learn how to do the job, youve got the job.

With that understanding, he returned to Waterloo in fall 1953. He credited the army with strengthening his work ethic, which led to a job at John Deere.

In his spare time, Slim the Shoeshine Artist continued that decades-old occupation into his 80s from a metal chair beneath a shade tree.

I took my money I earned shining shoes and gave it to help others, said Simpson, who died in 2015. Before I went in (the army), I didnt treat people right. You treat a man like you want to be treated; thats what Mama taught us.
CEDAR FALLS  By his own admission, Calvin Bouck was a greenhorn when he arrived in Korea as part of a Waterloo U.S. Marine Reserve unit.

Youre a young person. Youre excited for a new adventure, he said. In fact, you dont know what war is like until you get over there.

It didnt take long after the Waterloo natives February 1951 arrival in Korea to get the full picture. I can very well remember my first day in combat, he said in the 2009 interview recorded by the Grout Museum District.

He recounted ducking artillery rounds and seeking cover in the shadow of tanks. We were taking on mortar fire and things like that, especially to get across the river, said Bouck, who is now 87 and lives in Cedar Falls.

As they dug into the far bank of the river for the night, I thought, Golly, if every day is like this, I dont know if Im going to last.

Bouck graduated from East High School in 1948 and worked at Chamberlain Manufacturing and then John Deere, where he remained until retiring. After a few years, though, he decided to enlist in the military.

I thought, well, Im going to get drafted someday, and I want to go to the Marine Corps. I always looked up to the Marine Corps, he said. So I went out and I joined the Reserve unit and was happy with it. I really enjoyed it.

While going through basic training at the Marine Corps base in Quantico, Va., Chinese forces crossed the border into North Korea. When we got back, we were activated and headed out, said Bouck. He trained as a telephone line repairman in San Diego and then went by ship to Korea via Japan, a three-week journey.

It was so cold, he said of the arrival in Korea, noting they didnt initially have winter gear. The cold alone is a war by itself. You dont realize how cold it is.

The new troops immediately headed for the front lines, where they spent most of the next year. Bouck said he was never in a building in Korea. You were out in the elements.

He recalled spending winter nights in nothing but a sleeping bag. If someone could start a fire without smoke (to avoid detection by the enemy), wed all wait for that to huddle around that in the morning to get warm and have a cup of coffee.

Along with feeling the intense cold, Bouck saw extreme hunger among the civilians they encountered and witnessed a lot of death. He also had some close calls of his own.

I remember one time I said, Im going to go ahead and check the barbed wire (perimeter), see if its been cut. I had walked a few yards up there and I noticed the ground was loose in one part. I stopped right there.

It was a shoe mine and I missed them all walking up there, he said, referring to a type of land mine in a wooden box. The one wasnt quite buried, thats how I noticed something was wrong.

Bouck alerted the people that take care of the mines and within a day they were removed.

Those experiences brought other questions to his mind: What am I doing here? What have I done? he said.

Bouck laughed, recalling after a year of service in Korea when his name was called to board the ship home. And I was ready, ready to go.

He returned to Waterloo and completed his four-year commitment in the Marine Corps Reserve. He got married in 1952, raising a son and daughter with his wife.

I guess the Lord was with me, said Bouck, of the year in Korea. You survive. You learn how to survive, how you can get along with nothing, practically.
TRAER  Two of John Kvideras older brothers enlisted in the U.S. Navy in the 1940s, and Kvidera wanted to follow in their footsteps.

Not so fast, said his father.

The family was still reeling from the death of eldest son William, presumed dead when the USS Oklahoma was bombed at Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941, and James  who enlisted in 1944  was somewhere in the Pacific Ocean on a troop and personnel carrier.

I wanted to enlist, Kvidera told the Courier. But my dad didnt want me to because (James) was there.

So Kvidera and his younger brothers, Charles and Ralph, waited, helping their parents farm in the meantime. But the boys were destined for the military anyway: Kvidera was the first to be drafted into the Army in 1950, followed by Charles in 1951.

Deciding he didnt want to await his fate any longer, Ralph enlisted in the Navy in 1952. By then, the Korean War was in full swing. Charles was shipped to Korea, while Ralph was on an aircraft carrier in the Pacific.

John Kvidera was sent in the other direction: To radio operators school in Wurzburg, Germany, where he learned to translate Morse code.

Kvidera said he felt lucky to have not gone to a war zone.

Instead of going to wherever they were taking guys to Korea, he called my name and said, Do you want to go to Germany? That was a surprise. I said, Sure, Kvidera recalled in a video interview for the Grout Museum.

Once in Wurzburg, Kvidera was surprised to see several places still rebuilding from WWII-era bombing. He said he enjoyed his time there.

I liked it there, he said. They were nice to us, I thought anyway.

He and his fellow radio operator trainees stayed in concrete, two-story barracks once used by German SS troops. Theyd receive messages in code from different military bases around Germany, decode them, then give them to their commanders.

It would come in groups of five letters, Kvidera said. Then wed have to decode it. Then it would make sense, tell us what the message was.

He used a special decoder to help figure out the messages, he said.

Occasionally, theyd hear chatter from Russians trying to break in to the radio frequencies. Kvidera, who speaks Czech, would try diffusing the situation.

Id get on the mic, tell them something in Czech to keep quiet, he said. At that time, we werent very friendly with Russia. We were afraid wed be in war with them.

Kvidera said he never felt his life was in danger in Wurzburg, and even was able to take vacations around Europe.

There were four of us who went to Paris, London, Kvidera said, noting he went to several museums and Churchill Downs for horse races.

Another friend of his from Minnesota couldnt find anyone to accompany him on a trip to Norway, so Kvidera volunteered for that one.

That was really nice, he said. They were so nice to us  they saw we were Americans, they came to us and showed us around. It was really something. ... I wished Id have stayed in contact with them.

After 17 months, Kvidera returned home and was discharged. He married and continued farming with his family.

His brother Charles, who was in field artillery, was wounded in Korea. A cousin, Louie, was captured by the North Koreans and held as a prisoner of war for 33 months.

For Kvidera, it was a very different experience.

I dont know if (the military) changed me any, I just knew I had to do the job, but I just didnt think about it any, he said. I tried not to miss home or anything like that.
Under Japanese rule before and during World War II, Korea was divided into two parts after the Japanese surrender. The Soviet Union occupied the area north of the 38th parallel and the United States occupied the area south until 1948.

Two new ideologically opposite countries were established in 1948: The Republic of Korea (South Korea) and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea).

North Korea wants reunification under communist rule.

The first war in which the United Nations played a role.

When asked to send military aid to South Korea, 16 countries sent troops and 41 sent equipment or aid. China fought on the side of North Korea, and the Soviet Union sent them military equipment.

The U.S. provided about 90 percent of the troops sent to aid South Korea.

It was the first war with battles between jet aircraft.

The U.S. spent around $67 billion on the war.

Truce talks lasted two years and 17 days.

The casualty toll had been reported as 54,246 until June 2000, when the Pentagon acknowledged that a clerical error had included deaths outside the Korean War theater in the total.

There are 7,747 American soldiers still unaccounted for from the Korean War as of June 2017.

There has never been a peace treaty, so technically, the Korean War has never ended.

Source: CNN
Nov. 1947: The United Nations General Assembly approves elections to be held throughout Korea to choose a provisional government for the entire county. The Soviet Union opposes this.

May 10, 1948: The people of South Korea elect a national assembly, setting up the government of the Republic of Korea. The north refuses to take part.

Sept. 9, 1948: North Korean Communists establish the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

June 25, 1950: 135,000 soldiers from the communist North Korean People's Army (NKPA) cross the 38th parallel and invade Republic of Korea (ROK). The U.N. Security Council denounces North Korea's actions and calls for a cessation of hostilities and withdrawal of the NKPA to the 38th parallel.

June 26, 1950: U.S. President Harry S. Truman directs Gen. Douglas MacArthur to evacuate American dependents from Korea and to assist the ROK Army.

June 30, 1950: Truman orders ground troops into action.

July 1950: In the first month of the war, U.S. soldiers kill significant numbers of Korean civilians under a bridge, near a village called No Gun Ri. It is unclear whether the soldiers were ordered to kill civilians or acted on their own.

July 5, 1950: For the first time since the end of World War II, U.S. troops go into battle, at Osan, 30 miles south of Seoul. The first American casualty of the Korean War dies here, Pvt. Kenneth Shadrick of West Virginia.

June 23, 1951: Jacob Malik, a Soviet delegate to the United Nations, proposes a cease-fire.

July 10, 1951: Truce talks begin at Kaesong.

Oct. 25, 1951: Truce talks are moved to Panmunjom.

Nov. 27, 1951: Both sides agree the existing battle lines would be the final dividing line between North and South Korea if a truce is reached in 30 days.

April 1952: Truce talks are deadlocked over voluntary repatriation.

Oct. 8, 1952: Truce talks are adjourned.

April 26, 1953: Truce talks are resumed, and the Communists agree to voluntary repatriation.

July 27, 1953: Democratic People's Republic of Korea (north), Chinese People's Volunteers and the U.N. sign an armistice agreement. The Republic of Korea refuses to sign. However, hostilities cease within 12 hours. Terms of the armistice include creation of the demilitarized zone, the DMZ. Each side is 2,200 yards from a center point. The DMZ is patrolled by both sides at all times.

1990-1994: North Korea recovers the remains it claims to belong to 208 American servicemen.

2007-present: The Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency posts news releases online about recently accounted for service members' remains.

Sources: Department of Defense, Encyclopedia Britannica
CEDAR FALLS  Kaye Ann Plumb had a choice to make: She could let betrayal and loss defeat her, or she could chart a new course.

She chose the latter. The decision put her in medical service for the U.S. Navy during the Korean War. It also gave her perspective on service and health care in general, said Plumb, now 84.

When youre a nurse, you see (patients) for that moment only; you never know how things went, she explained.

Plumb graduated from East Waterloo High School in 1951. Her father, who lived in Atlanta, viewed it as a major milestone. However, severe heart disease prevented him from traveling. He asked his brother and sister-in-law to travel from Standwood to stand proxy for him.

Her father died during the occasion, and Plumb went to Atlanta for his funeral. More bad news greeted her.

My father had always saved war bonds for my education, so I could go on for college, Plumb recalled.

She learned her fathers wife had convinced a nurse to help her change the beneficiary of Plumbs bonds. In an instant, her plans evaporated.

Plumb rallied. An uncle who had served in the military encouraged her to research the G.I. Bill. Her mother wasnt sure. The more Plumb learned, the more she believed military service was a good option.

Plumb selected the U.S. Navy after developing a rapport with a recruiter and his wife. In November 1952, she set off for Baltimore for six weeks of boot camp.

It was confusing, she said. It was learning a whole new way of life: a lot of education about  military justice, protocol and ship codes, along with gymnastics and marching.

Boot camp also was exhausting, and Plumb recalled some werent cut out for long days that started before sunrise.

Reveille came early; you better get up, or somebody would come get you, she added. It didnt bother me.  My mother was a stern taskmaster, so I learned young to do what youre supposed to do. I was used to that.

Her first assignment took her to Great Lakes Naval Hospital in Illinois. There, she attended Hospital Corpsman School for six months. This included medical education included anatomy and physiology, effectively training Plumb as a nurse.

It was so amazing. You learned a lot of things, said Plumb.

After training, Plumb continued on at the hospital. It was staffed primarily with corpsmen like her, with only a few RNs, she noted. Patients included everyone from naval dependents to those returning from the Korean War.

I worked very hard in the hospital, and it didnt matter if you were a girl or a boy; your gender didnt matter. If youd been trained as a hospital corpsman, you could work on the ward with men just as well as wards with dependents, she said.

One task she enjoyed was picking up returning troops in need of medical care. She and another hospital corpsman were assigned to a bus specially fitted to accommodate litters.

I tried to keep candy, chewing gum and cigarettes in my pockets, you know, because this was the first time these boys would be back in the United States.

One seaman exclaimed I could just kiss you, after receiving one such treat, before telling Plumb how grateful he was to be home.

I know Korea was very cold, said Plumb. I would tuck the blanket around their feet. One guy told me, Dont bother; my feet are frozen. It just tore me right apart.

It was particularly difficult to treat the injuries seldom seen in civilian life, added Plumb. She found shrapnel wounds, those resulting from explosions and burns especially heart-wrenching.

The war hit close to home in other ways, too.

Four fellas I was in training with  went fleet marine, she explained. They were still corpsman, but  they went straight to the front.  One was from Alabama; he had always been very protective of me, like a brother. Within a month-and-a-half, all were killed in action.

Plumb transferred to a clinic at the Naval Air Station in Norfolk, Va., in 1954. There, her work consisted primarily of treating dependents. Corpsmen took care of all aspects of patient care, from assisting doctors and ensuring rooms were clean to managing medications.

The path Plumb chose fulfilled her strong sense of duty at a time when women in military roles were sometimes viewed with skepticism and disdain. Still, she wore the uniform proudly and treated it as a duty.

Sometimes, this led her somewhat unique vocation for granted. For example, she waited more than 50 years before telling most family members she was the only woman from the naval airbase selected to participate in dedicating U.S. NATO headquarters in 1955.

She had shared the information with her mother, in case she wanted to find a TV to watch the ceremony. She didnt think much about it after that, she recalled.

It was a beautiful day.  It was very impressive, but I didnt say anything about it after that. I did my job, she said. I dont know why, but it occurred to me (recently), so I mentioned it to my son. He couldnt believe it, because Id never told anyone about it before.  I didnt think anybody would be interested.

Some reacted negatively to military women, said Plumb.

I came home (to visit), and my grandma was always very proud of me, she explained. We were going to dinner, and I wanted to wear my civis.

Her grandmother wanted to show off Plumb in her uniform. The family, including several uncles and aunts, were to dine at the Chesterfield Club in Waterloo.

Plumb relented. A woman at another table sized up Plumb and asked her companion in a snide tone, What is she?

On another occasion, Plumb was traveling by train to a family funeral. Next to her sat a woman who made it clear she conflated servicewomen with ladies of the night, said Plumb.

A sailor on the train eventually sought out Plumb. He had noticed the medical insignia she wore and enlisted her help with a medical emergency involving an elderly woman on the train.

Plumb cared for the woman and she and the sailor waited with her until a doctor met the train. Before leaving, the doctor commended the pair for their devotion to duty. He later ensured they both received commendations.

But when Plumb returned to her car, her seatmate was skeptical. She asked, Was there really an elderly woman?

Plumb felt vindicated when they disembarked at the same spot. Waiting for Plumb were two cousins in uniform  one of the U.S. Air Force and the other of the U.S. Army.

I told them (the story), Plumb said, noting how appalled the woman would be to see who picked her up. That was whipped cream! I said. That was the topping!
CEDAR FALLS  Robert Wray was born in 1928 in Missouri, a farmers son. When he was 5 years old, he and his family  including his eight siblings  moved to Iowa in the middle of the Great Depression.

While growing up Wray helped to support the family as best he could. First in the form of chores.

I would gather wood at night and make sure the chickens were in, he said.

The first actual job he held was separating cream from milk and then, at 14, he was hired on at a lumberyard unloading coal, sand and gravel out of boxcars after school. Sometimes he would work until midnight.

After Wray graduated from high school, the family moved to Cedar Falls, following two of his older brothers who had been hired by John Deere.

His father got work at a local lumberyard and Wray enjoyed life in Cedar Falls, going to the Rollerdrome almost every night when it opened and working at the Behrens-Rapp filling station on 14th Street.

The skills Wray learned and his penchant for hard work would serve him well when he joined the Army in October 1949 and went to Fort Riley Kansas for 12 weeks of basic training.

It was pretty rough, Wray said. We had a real strict sergeant. I learned a lot, but was glad when it was all over finally. And I was glad I had it (training) when I got to Korea.

Following basic training, Wray was sent to Seattle. From there he was scheduled to go directly overseas. Instead, he wound up working in an office for a month until someone realized he wasnt supposed to be there.

Youve got to be shipped out of here, he was told. Youre on the next boat.

He was sent to Japan in March and left there for Korea in June.

I had to ask the sergeant where Korea was, Wray said, laughing. Dont worry, youll find it, he said. And I did.

Troops, including Wray, arrived in Korea by boat and had to rappel down the ship into a smaller boat below. They were trained to be sure to hang on to the ropes as people in the boat below could be holding bayonets.

I was the first one down, Wray said. I let go of the rope and landed flat on my whole back. The sergeant came running over and said, Are you alright? Were you hurt?  Just my pride.  Everything they taught me went right through my ears as quick as a whistle.

In Korea, Wray was a truck driver for the quartermaster corps and was then promoted to Jeep driver for the captain and lieutenant in his outfit.

Once the troops landed, in the midst of heavy shelling, there was trouble getting Wrays truck off the boat. It wouldnt start and had to be hooked up to an amphibious craft and pulled to shore.

I went from there to hauling gasoline and stuff for tank outfits, Wray said. Hauling for three days and three nights straight.

Shortly after, the unit was told to retreat. With no time to retrieve the barrels of gasoline, they were blown up.

Do you know how hard I worked on that? Wray said. Theres lots of waste in the Army.

Wray spent a good deal of his time driving.

Hauling troops from the ships to the front lines  at night it was dark as pitch and you couldnt use lights or nothing. That was really scary. You could see the lights on the back of the vehicle in front of you but you couldnt tell if there was anybody around you or not.

I remember going that one night. I knew there was enemy around awful close and I was so scared I carried a bayonet in my mouth in case one of them jumped up on the truck maybe I could protect myself. That was the scariest part of the whole thing. Thank the good lord they didnt do it.

After we got to the front lines theyd load us up  bodies of dead soldiers  haul em to a boxcar. Eighty-five to a boxcar, and then theyd send them south to get shipped back home.

So that was quite an experience too, he said as he choked up.

One day a couple of my buddies got killed there. They said the name and I had to look under the blanket to see, and I wished I never had.

While in Korea, the soldiers had few perks although the received a beer ration, cigarettes and were awarded leave to go to Tokyo. But Wray would not accept the leave.

I dont want to leave here and know Im going to have to come back, he said. So I never did leave till I got papers to go back to Japan and be shipped home.

One of Wrays strongest memories was about a friend.

One good buddy that I had  his wife wrote him a Dear John letter and he couldnt take it, Wray said. He left our outfit and went and joined the front lines. They said he just stood up and let them shoot him.

I said She got her divorce all right. I swore then I would never get married until I got out of the service.

Wray sang in a choir while in the Army and said religious services would be held in the field and some got together and held Bible studies.

That really helped, he said. My faith is what got me through.

He would spend 11 months and one day in Korea.

When he returned to the states he was stationed in California.

Wray got married in June 1953 to a girl he met while home on furlough. They went on to have three children.

He ended up buying his brothers moving business, which he ran with his wife for 34 years before retiring.
CEDAR FALLS  Before Sid Morris began his career in education, he received an education in geography.

He learned about latitude and longitude. Especially latitude. And one latitude in particular.

The 38th parallel. On the Korean peninsula.

Morris served in the U.S. Army in the Korean War.

And the career education administrator learned about job security and job turnover. And there was one job in Korea that didnt offer much stability and had a high level of turnover.

That job was the position of forward artillery observer. There was a high casualty rate in that position.

Morris, originally from Taylor County, took basic training at Camp Chaffee, Ark., after a round of written testing. He was assigned to an artillery battery and a fire direction crew for 155mm and 105mm howitzers. It was 1952.

We learned how to fire and set up the guns. We got trained on the artillery pieces for eight weeks. The second eight weeks he was trained in fire direction, learning how to plot coordinates for fire missions and which type of ordnance to use.

After that training, he was immediately sent to Korea, in the Seventh Infantry Division. Armistice talks had already commenced and the war, for all intents and purposes, had settled into a stalemate.

The big struggle we had was, where was that demilitarized zone going to be? The last six to eight months of that war, it was a battle over a strip of territory  the positioning of the South and positioning of the North, Morris said. And the hills like Old Baldy, that was in that zone. And Pork Chop Hill. There were several of them that we, the Seventh Infantry Division, covered. It was a battle over territory. Neither were fighting for victory as much as position, to take the high ground.

Thats why that battle was pretty heavy. It was pretty bad, Morris said. Pork Chop Hill, for example, got its name for the high casualties there. It was bloody, he said. They were in our fire range.

We all operated from high points. We didnt have the technology we had today. It was a battle for position.

He showed a photo he took on box camera, from a high point. Look down in the valley. Theres all kinds or roads. Thats where the enemy was coming.

I was young at that time. I was uneasy, Morris said. Not necessarily because I wasnt willing to fight. It was because I didnt know what was coming. I never knew for sure where I was going to be.

He was fighting alongside United Nations forces of other countries. In my division we had Canadians, we has Puerto Ricans, we had Turks. We had about seven different countries in our division who were fighting beside us.

There were occasions where Morris and his comrades were driven from their positions by advancing North Korean and Chinese Communist forces, only to regroup and retake them.

Morris knows some of his comrades paid a high cost to serve in Korea, something that was felt throughout the unit. Some people had difficulty with that. Theyd lose a friend. We were always there to support one another.

They also saw refugees. We ran into a lot of families that were trying to escape, he said, both the fighting as well as the North. None were headed in the opposite direction.

When I went in, I was proud to go, he said. Hes still proud of his military service. You can tell by looking at a lot of my stuff that freedom is very important to me, he said. I took a lot of history and I knew very early on in life that freedom is not free  that there are lot of people who preceded me who defended our freedom in this country. It has always been very valuable to me. There are so many people that have given the freedom I have. And Im determined to do everything I can to assure that our future generations enjoy that same freedom.

Thats the major thing I thought about in that war. Because I saw the other side, Morris said. I saw no freedom. And I saw what it does to society. And it really irritates me when our freedoms are not respected and honored. It will always be a driving force in my life. Im afraid a lot of our young people really dont understand the importance of freedom.

To those who would question our involvement in overseas conflicts such as Korea, Morris said, What is North Korea doing right now? Theyre shooting long-range missiles. They can reach here. Do they have freedom? No. Thats why we do it. Would you rather do it there or do it here?

And he knows the South Korean government is grateful for his comrades sacrifice.

As the former president of the Tallcorn Chapter of Iowa Korean War veterans, Morris helped organize many anniversary recognitions of the Korean conflict in cooperation with the Korean consulate in Chicago and Korean-owned industries like PMX Corp in Cedar Rapids.

Among his awards is a medal from the South Korean government, containing a piece of barbed wire from the demilitarized zone along the 38th parallel, separating South Korea from North Korea, and, respectively, freedom from communist dictatorship.

I was on communication with them all the time in setting up those observances, Morris said of South Korean officials. They were very accommodating, helpful. They wanted people in this country to know that they really, really appreciated what the United States did for them. Its just amazing. I dont know of any other country thats done that.
Lorraine Griffie was ready to spread her wings. It was 1952, and shed graduated the previous year from Waterloos East High School.

I was like a lot of young kids. I was anxious to get away from home, she said.

She had a friend in the Army who wrote to her with stories of adventures that became irresistible. Griffie decided that she, too, wanted a life of adventure.

I went to enlist, and I was under 21 so I had to have my parents permission, she said. Her friend in the military and her recruiting offer assured Griffies protective parents that shed be looked after and taken care of.

My dad told me he was reluctant to sign. He said, I tell you, I wouldnt have a job in the Army counting money, but if thats what you want to do Ill let you go.

It turned out to be not nearly as glamorous as shed been told.

My friend was a lieutenant. I went in as a private. Her adventures and mine were very different, Griffie said.

She joined the Womens Army Corps  WACS, as they were known and was shipped off to Fort Lee, Va., for basic training.

It was eye-opening.

Going to Fort Lee was my first experience going south and my first experience running into segregation. Taking the train out of Des Moines to Fort Lee, once we crossed the Mason-Dixon Line, the train stopped and all people of color had to get off the cars they were in and get in one car designated for people of color. Of course the accommodations were not the same.

It was a rather jolting experience, my first experience with segregation. Getting off the train in a segregated waiting room, it was quite an experience. That was October 1952.

In Iowa, Griffie had been largely sheltered from the harsh realities of the segregated South. On several occasions, her self-described naivete placed her in harms way. During an off-base outing with friends while training in Georgia, her group boarded a city bus for a day about town.

I got on the bus and took the first seat I saw available. All the girls went to the back of the bus, and were frantically motioning to her to join them. I got off the bus and they told me. I hadnt seen the sign. I came from the city (where) you get on the bus, you take the first seat thats available.

Griffie wasnt the only soldier in her barracks experiencing segregation for the first time. Her Army base in Georgia was integrated. Outside the gates, it was not.

We could not fraternize with white friends while in town in training. I can remember being very touched by my (white) bunk mate who cried when we werent able to be together, Griffie said, choking back tears. It was a long time before I realized what that meant to her.

Griffie finished her occupational specialty training as a switchboard operator in 1953. I learned to use every form of switchboard there was.

She was sent to several U.S. Army bases to work over several months, then volunteered to serve overseas. She took a short leave to Waterloo to visit her parents before she shipped out.

I came to tell my parents. It was a mistake. ... I thought my mother was going to have a stroke. The Korean conflict was going on, so she assumed that anywhere I went (overseas) that I would be in the mix of war. I had to call my (commanding officer) to see if they would take me off my overseas request. They reissued my orders.

Griffie served two years in the Army, and after discharge used her training to make a living.

I had very little trouble getting jobs. I moved back to Chicago where I was a switchboard operator at two companies, and was a receptionist and switchboard operator at a hotel and a publishing company.

Griffie returned to Waterloo and has been honored for her lifelong work in the community and her commitment to honoring African-American women veterans.
WATERLOO  Two men were arrested after police say they fled from police at a high rate of speed and crashed their vehicle into a house.

Waterloo Police say Nathaniel Donya Whitaker, Jr., 23, of 704 W. Fifth St., was a passenger in a vehicle in the 700 block of Beech Street around 8:30 p.m. Tuesday.

Because police knew him to have an active warrant, they attempted to pull over the vehicle he was riding in when driver Tyran Cedrick Collins, 18, of 650 Kern St., took off, according to a police report.

Police say the vehicle reached speeds of 80 mph in a 35-mph zone through neighborhood streets, running three stop signs and one red light in the process.

The vehicle lost control in the 200 block of Conger Street and crashed into the southeast side of a house at 204 Conger St., breaking out a portion of the homes foundation, according to a police report. The pair then briefly fled from police on foot.

Collins was arrested and charged with eluding police, assault on a peace officer, interference, reckless driving, speeding, failure to obey stop signs and lights, controlled substance violation, possession of a controlled substance and failure to have insurance. He remained in the Black Hawk County Jail on a $16,000 bond.

Whitaker was taken to UnityPoint Health-Allen Hospital for a laceration to his head, then he was arrested on charges of interference and a parole violation. He remained in the Black Hawk County Jail on a no-bond hold.

Suspect sought in armed robbery

WATERLOO  Police are seeking the publics help finding a suspect they say robbed a convenience store clerk at gunpoint early Wednesday.

Waterloo Police responded to an alarm at 12:50 a.m. Wednesday at Yesway, 1976 Franklin St.

Police say the 21-year-old clerk working at the store, Alexander Bowers, told them a male suspect armed with a handgun came into the store just before midnight and threatened to kill Bowers if he did not give him the money from the stores register.

The suspect then fled on foot with an undisclosed amount of cash from the store, according to police. Bowers was not injured.

The suspect is described as a white male in his 20s, about 5 feet, 10 inches tall and weighing about 150 pounds. He was wearing a navy-colored Nike hooded sweatshirt at the time of the robbery.

Anyone with information about the suspect is asked to call Waterloo Police at 291-4340 or Cedar Valley Crimestoppers at 855-300-8477.

3 arrested after armed burglary in Charles City

CHARLES CITY  Three men were arrested after police say they found them burglarizing a home as one of the residents hid in a closet.

Charles City Police responded to a call about armed intruders inside a house in the 400 block of B Street just before 9:30 p.m. Tuesday. Police Chief Hugh Anderson did not know the specific address.

One resident said they were calling from inside a closet in the house. Two other residents had escaped the house. Police said one of the residents who escaped was transported to a hospital for injuries, but did not specify those injuries. Anderson said he would not name the residents.

Police arrived and arrested Michael Jackson, 19; DeAngelo Hawkins, 20; and Andre Johnson, 29. Anderson did not immediately know their addresses. All three were charged with first-degree burglary and interference with official acts.

The Floyd County Sheriffs Office and the Nora Springs Police Department assisted.

Sting sends man to prison CEDAR RAPIDS  A Waterloo man was sentenced to federal prison after admitting he sold a stolen firearm during an undercover sting operation.

Vernon Montrell Webster, 44, of Waterloo was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to 15 years in prison.

Webster pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm March 17.

At the time of his plea, he admitted to unlawfully possessing a 44-Magnum revolver and 30 rounds of ammunition in July 2015.

Testimony at earlier hearings showed Webster sold the revolver and ammunition to another person during an undercover sting operation. Other testimony showed Webster had previously sold a bulletproof vest stolen from a reserve police officer during another undercover sting operation in December.

Webster has previously been convicted three times of felony burglary, with one felony drug conviction.

Webster also was sentenced to five years of supervised release after his prison term.

Waterloo man gets 7 years prison time

CEDAR RAPIDS  A Waterloo man was sentenced to prison after admitting to his second felon-in-possession conviction.

John Daniel Forehand III, 31, of Waterloo was sentenced in federal court Wednesday to seven years in federal prison.

Forehand pleaded guilty to being a felon in possession of a firearm March 20, his second such conviction.

At the time of his plea, he admitted to possessing a loaded Smith and Wesson .22 caliber pistol in December.

Waterloo Police gave evidence at an earlier hearing that they found the pistol, which had an obliterated serial number, during a traffic stop. Police also testified they found a digital scale and cup with marijuana residue in the same bag as the pistol.

Forehand has previously been convicted of felony possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

He also was sentenced to three years of supervised release after his prison term.
O

* * *

ver the decade ending next spring, the Stateside church will have opened four new cathedrals. The sign of the times, however, lies in the specifics  all but one have been built to serve Catholicism's epic emergence in the heart of the American South.Though the cycle doesn't wrap up until early 2018, yesterday saw the dedication of the largest of the group: Raleigh's 2,000-seat, $46 million Cathedral of the Holy Name of Jesus  the new hub for a 550,000-member fold not only doubled in size over the last decade, but tripled since 1990 on the back of massive migration both from the Rust Belt and Latin America.Impressive as the upgrade is on its own, that's all the more the case considering what the new structure replaces: the 250-seat downtown church dedicated to the Sacred Heart, designated as the diocesan seat upon Raleigh's founding in 1924, and until now the smallest cathedral in the continental United States. Given the population boom, the parish's dozen weekend Masses have invariably drawn overflow crowds stretching past its doors; over the site's final Sunday, it was said that some of the liturgies saw people gathered around the windows outside and straining to follow along. (Even with the expanded space, the new cathedral parish will still celebrate seven liturgies each weekend.)Built on a century-old property initially acquired by Maryknoll missionaries, while local officials have aimed to compare Holy Name's size to St Patrick's in New York and the Stateside fold's other storied outposts, another stat is more telling: with its launch, Raleigh is now home to the largest mother church of an American see that isn't an archdiocese. As Catholics barely comprised a single percent of North Carolina's population until the last quarter-century, the milestone further consolidates the faithful's historic ascent in the Tar Heel State, which has likewise birthed what's said to be the nation's largest parish  the 10,000-family behemoth at St Matthew's in suburban Charlotte.Its copper dome already an established presence on the Raleigh skyline, the finished cathedral represents an evolved design from its first draft; after the early plans garnered criticism over their cost and concept, a scaled-back reworking based on wider consultation expanded the narthex, loaded the transepts with altar-facing pews and ditched a number of bells and whistles like an underground parking garage. At the same time, as a nod to its local context, the Romanesque-inspired product features quintessentially American touches  mostly red brick on the outside, and apart from the stained glass and life-size statues of 26 saints around the nave, a lack of interior adornment in favor of a strikingly white decor, both a traditional hallmark of the Souths Protestant churches as well as a choice reminiscent of the nation's first cathedral, Baltimore's Basilica of the Assumption, which was conceived with an eye to architecturally inculturating Catholicism to the American experiment. (In this particular instance, the latter piece is all the more significant: North Carolinas first resident bishop, James Gibbons, was baptized in the Baltimore shrine and was sent to Wilmington as the states founding vicar-apostolic, serving there from 1868-72 before returning home to the Premier See, where he would become its first cardinal-archbishop and reign for 45 years.)Marked in turns by reverence and exuberance, yesterday's rites capped an unusually emotional year for the project's builder, who fittingly  and gratefully  returned to do the honors with relish. Upon learning of his transfer to Arlington last fall as nearly a decade of planning, fundraising and construction neared the finish line, Bishop Michael Burbidge understandably wept. And on coming back to see his vision brought fully to life  delivering it on-time, on-budget and without any enduring debt  as he said early yesterday, "My knees buckled."In the end, however, the moment was nonetheless bound to be fleeting. Handed the keys to the building by the construction team as the first of multiple ovations thundered through the space, Burbidge promptly passed them to his successor, Bishop Luis Zarama, who takes possession of the cathedral and its marble and gilt throne as his own in late August. And if that poetic moment  the handover from a Northeast-born Anglo to a Hispanic immigrant in the church's "New South"  doesn't sum up the reality of this era in the nation's Catholic history, then nothing ever could.Here, fullvid of the three-hour Dedication Mass  and its 70-page worship aid ...and to mark the occasion, a prime-time special aired last night on the city's NBC affiliate,In the short term, the final lap of the US' new cathedral crop comes early next year  of course, again in the South. Amid the church's exponential growth in East Tennessee, Knoxville's $28 million, 1,500-seat replacement for Sacred Heart Cathedral will be opened on March 3rd, overflowing with frescoes and capped by a Florentine-style dome.That said, what's arguably the Stateside fold's most prominent and intensely-watched project of the kind is now formally underway out West: within the last six weeks, construction finally began for the conversion of Orange County's landmark Crystal Cathedral into the seat of its 1.3 million-member diocese, with completion currently eyed for sometime in mid-2019.Five years since the 34-acre campus made famous by Dr Robert Schuller's "Hour of Power" was purchased for a song by the growing Orange church, the work on its centerpiece belies the reality that the rest of the site's half-dozen buildings have already been put to ecclesial use, with the diocesan Chancery, a school, several media entities and more already based there at full tilt.Liturgically, meanwhile, the campus' first worship space  the 1960s-era Arboretum  is serving as theCathedral church for the time being, hosting most of the diocese's major events and drawing over 12,000 people every weekend across 14 Masses in four languages: English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese.
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Jul 27, 2017 | By David

3D printing developments show no sign of stopping, so heres another roundup of recent events to keep you up to speed. We have stories on the world's first 3D printed lab, which is due to be completed in Dubai, and some financial results from a number of key players in the 3D printing world.

Group Gorge 3D printing division sees 18 percent revenue increase for 2017

Group Gorge has announced its financial results for the first half of 2017, and things look to be going exactly as planned so far. Total consolidated revenue was 136.7 million euros, down a little from this time last year, but the 3D printing division experienced some significant growth. Total revenue was 14.6 million euros, up 18 percent from the first half of 2016.

The 3D printing division continues to expand with the announcement of its new Rapid Additive Forging technology for 3D printing of large metal parts. It also announced the release of its new generation of 3D printers. The ProMaker LD series is a specialist line of products dedicated to the dental industry. During the first half, PRODWAYS GROUP also continued its strategic initiatives with its successful Initial Public Offering on the Euronext Paris stock exchange.

Sales of the new ProMaker P1000 machine werent huge, contributing only 0.5 million, as marketing investment was decreased in order to perfect its reliability. At the same time, the Products business was up 50.5% in the first half of 2017. It made significant progress enabling to achieve a growth markedly greater than the majority of listed players in the sector.

Record revenue of more than 500million for 3D printing company Renishaw

Great news for UK 3D printing company Renishaw, not to mention its shareholders, as it achieved a record turnover of 536.8m for the first half of 2017. The financial report that the company just released also shows an underlying revenue growth of 14% at constant exchange rates. Renishaws adjusted profit before tax was 109.1m, and the statutory profit before tax of 117.1m, an increase of 25% on an adjusted basis. The total shareholder return during the year was 67%, ranking Renishaw in the top 25 in both the FTSE250 and FTSE350.

The report states Renishaws commitment to continual progress and investment in research and development, furthering the development of the 3D printing industry at the same time. Future growth is promised, with the faith places in its the companys innovative product base, extensive global sales and marketing presence, and relevance to high value manufacturing.

Renishaw is known for providing quality metal 3D printing solutions, as well as specialized design software for healthcare and the dental industry. The company decided to discontinue its 3D metrology systems, as well as diagnosticsm, due to limited potential revenue in those areas.

Proto Labs reports record revenue for the second quarter 2017

More financial results came from Proto Labs, the pioneering provider of on-demand 3D printing services which was established back in 1999. Its total revenue for the second quarter of 2017 was $82.0 million, which was 9.4 percent above the revenue of $75.0 million it achieved in the second quarter of 2016.

The number of unique product developers and engineers that the company served was 16,174 in total for the second quarter of 2017, which was an increase of 18.8 percent over the second quarter of 2016. Net income for the second quarter of 2017 was $12.1 million, or $0.45 per diluted share.

In a statement, Vicki Holt, President and Chief Executive Officer said that the companys revenue growth was driven by an 18.8 percent growth in the number of unique product developers we served this quarter, reflecting continued penetration of our market opportunity...We continue to execute on our initiative to expand our product envelope. Our recently launched on-demand manufacturing offering tailors our injection molding service to address the specific needs of the customer. This offering includes a suite of inspection reports, including a digital inspection report option, a lifetime mold guarantee and more competitive piece part pricing to the on-demand manufacturing customer.

4WEB Medical announces first U.S. surgeries with 3D printed lateral spine truss system

4WEB Medical, the industry leader in 3D printed implant technology, announced today the first surgeries utilizing the company's Lateral Spine Truss System were recently performed in several notable hospitals in the United States. The company's lateral interbody fusion device was designed to solve known surgical problems associated with legacy annular implant designs and represents a significant advancement in lateral access surgery.

"4WEB's spine truss implants have proven to be very effective in providing excellent surgical outcomes for my patients," said Frank Cammisa, MD, Hospital for Special Surgery, New York, NY. "In contrast to older ring-shaped implants with hollow cores, 4WEB's truss implant web structure spans the entire endplate providing strong initial fixation and minimizing subsidence."

The Lateral Spine Truss System is designed with a unique bi-convex dome that distributes load across a larger surface area and has three times more textured surface topography when compared to other competitive spine implants. The key differentiator for the product, though, is its proprietary truss design and the performance it lends to driving successful spine fusion results.

"A recent study comparing 4WEB's lateral truss implant to a ring implant design demonstrated that the truss design had superior resistance to subsidence," said John Peloza, MD, Center for Spine Care, Dallas, Texas. "In fact, the 40mm length truss implant displayed 61% greater resistance to subsidence than the 60mm length ring implant. These results are indicative of the optimized load distribution inherent to 4WEB's truss implant technology that maximizes endplate contact while providing an open architecture for bone formation and fusion."

Dubai almost ready to unveil worlds first 3D printed laboratory

Continuing the impressive progress made by the United Arab Emirates in the field of 3D printing technology, the worlds first fully 3D printed laboratory is due to be unveiled in Dubai very soon. The facility, which aims to study the science and technique of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and 3D-printing, is now 87 percent complete. The 3D printed lab will be supported by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (Dewa), which is getting fully behind the Dubai 3D printing strategy that has been gradually outlined in recent years.

The 3D-printed lab will include four sub-laboratories, which have a total capacity of 132 square metres. The Electronics Lab, the Software Lab, the Mechanical Lab, and the Prototype Lab will all be up and running soon, as will an outdoor-testing facility which has a capacity of 400 square metres.

The Electronics Lab will be used to conduct electrical design and repair services for drones, which will be used by R&D staff and Dewa employees. The Software Lab is going to develop and provide Dewa with innovative products, research, and educational solutions. It will be running various tests on avionic systems, flight controls, and electric power units. Particular areas of research interest for the lab include operating systems, mobile computing, cloud computing, virtualisation, distribution systems, and software engineering. The Mechanical Lab will conduct theoretical and experimental research into phenomena related to the behaviour of certain materials. An outdoor flight-testing facility will feature a large landing area that will be equipped with sensors, as well as a power, water, and data line.

Posted in 3D Printer Company

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Radhika Sanghani in The Telegraph:

It was on a family trip to the Isle of Wights Osborne House that Shrabani Basu discovered a secret that had lain untold since Queen Victorias death. The Indian journalist had taken her two teenage daughters with her to the former Queens palatial holiday home to witness the restored Durbar Room; an original banquet hall.

As Basu wandered through the houses Indian wing, she couldnt help notice several portraits and a bust of an Indian servant called Abdul Karim. He didnt look a servant, explains Basu, 54, from her North London home. He was painted to look like a nobleman. He was holding a book, looking sideways. Something that about that expression struck me, and when I moved along, I saw another portrait of him looking rather gentle. It was very unusual.

At the time, in 2003, everything she knew about Queen Victorias Indian servants came from a book she had written on curry several years earlier  namely that the Queen had loved curry (chicken curry and daal being a particular favourite), and had servants from India who cooked it for her every lunchtime.

It was in the back of my mind all along, so when I saw the portraits of Abdul, including a tableau of ladies serving him, I was intrigued, says Basu. I knew I had to look into this.

More here.
This week in San Francisco fashion, beauty and retail news.

Generation Beauty. (Courtesy of Ipsy)

Serious beauty junkies and Michelle Phan fanatics, you're going to want to check out Fort Mason this weekend. Porquoi? Beauty subscription box and digital community Ipsy is hosting Gen Beauty on Saturday and Sunday, July 29 and 30, at the Festival Pavilion. What to expect: More than 35 brandsCoverGirl and MAC Cosmetics to Ciate London and local faves theBalm and Benefitand 400-plus beauty influencers (including Phan), tips, demos, beauty swag and more. Two-day passes are available for $169. A pretty penny, to be sure, but that does a include a glam bag filled with makeup, haircare and skincare products valued at more than $200. // Saturday 11am to 5pm; Sunday 11am to 3pm. 2 Marina Blvd. (Marina), genbeauty.com







The Sample Sale

As far as we're concerned, every Saturday is made for shopping. But this Saturday, July 29, is extra-special as Cuyana, masters of sophisticated basics and SF It Totes, is hosting a sample sale at The Lab in the Mission. (Be prepared for Freda-level queues.) Previous seasons' bags, accessories and clothing are on the menu with prices starting at $25. Umm, that'll work. // 8:30am to 3:30pm, 2948 16th St. (Mission), cuyana.com

(Courtesy of Timbuk2)

Timbuk2 Drops New Women's Collection

Timbuk2's new women's collection (nee On-the-Go) checks three major boxes function, fashion and born to bike. We'd expect nothing less from the premium line designed by women for women. The five pieces come in a range of sizes and silhouettes, and are notable for sophisticated touches like metallic zippers and pop patterns. Lots of pockets, padded straps, internal drawstrings and other meticulous details for which the label is known are also part of every package. Right now, we're all about the chic Jet Black Drift Knapsack ($129), an everyday pack that will clearly get the job done. Along with the Drift, the Adapt Crossbody and Parcel Tote are available now; the Recruit Pack and Unit Duffel will debut in August. (Yes, just in time for back to school.) // Shop online and in stores, timbuk2.com

(Courtesy of Centinelle)

Tie One on (for the Animals)

Here's the dealio: One-woman show, local maker and animal-lover Cristina Rose Guizar and her scarf label Centinelle is launching a month-long Instagram campaign #putascarfonit on Tuesday, August 8. Simply post a photo with one of its colorful scarves (and, obvi, the hashtag) and Guizar will donate $1 to the SF SPCA. Not a scarf person? We're betting these high-quality silk beauties in cheeky designs (i.e. dancing, tutu-wearing cats and retro Mexican pin-ups) will change that. The accessories come in several sizes and range in price from $50 for cotton-silk bandanas to $110 for large silk squares. Do it for the kitties. // Shop online, centinelle.com
Northern State football team concludes season Saturday hosting Duluth

As the Northern State football team wraps up its season this weekend, the Wolves men's and women's volleyball season get going with games on the road.


Drilling Upgrades Porphyry Copper Target at Nankivel

Adelaide, July 27, 2017 AEST (ABN Newswire) - Investigator Resources Limited ( ASX:IVR ) is pleased to announce the drilling and assay results for the 2017 diamond and RCP drilling at the Nankivel porphyry prospect 4km southeast of the Paris silver project. Four inclined diamond holes were drilled in April to a maximum 520m depth, then 20 largely inclined RCP holes were drilled to an average 117m depth in June. The diamond drilling intersected strong argillic, phyllic and pyritic alteration that warranted immediate follow-up with RCP drilling to map the lateral extensions based on a preliminary target model.



- Extensive alteration halo intersected with modest copper intersections to date



- Mineralogy and geochemical vectors point to a large and undrilled porphyry copper target southwest of Nankivel Hill



- Coincident 2km x 500m IP geophysical anomaly starting at about 150m depth



- Further drilling requires access negotiations



Careful analysis of both the diamond and RCP drilling assisted with petrology and multi-element pathfinder geochemistry under consultant advice has positively modified the target model from the preliminary high-level epithermal setting previously interpreted (IVR ASX announcement 26th April 2017) to a shallow undrilled porphyry target extending from the advanced argillic breccia outcrop on Nankivel Hill about 2km to the southwest.



The drill results have focussed targeting on a large Induced Polarisation (IP) chargeability anomaly delineated by the late 2016 survey on 400m spaced lines (IVR ASX announcement 15th March 2017). The upgraded potential warrants renegotiation of current heritage restrictions to the revised target area.



Investigator Resources Managing Director John Anderson said "Our porphyry copper target interpretation has been logically modified and upgraded by the recent drilling and the application of state-of-the-art models and exploration science, including pathfinder geochemistry. The alteration haloes and geochemical signatures around porphyry copper deposits are being increasingly understood, and we now have high-integrity evidence that suggests we are within drilling reach of a potentially large porphyry copper system immediately southwest of Nankivel Hill at a depth shallower than previously projected.



This location is currently not accessible for drilling, so our immediate priority is to review the heritage boundaries with the Native Title Holders, with whom we have worked for many years and enjoy a good relationship. The bulk of the revised Nankivel target is under subdued topography compared with the adjacent hill," Mr Anderson said.



He said Investigator is a pioneer in identifying the potential for porphyry mineral systems on the southern Gawler Craton, and continues to apply rigorous industry-leading exploration science typically the cutting-edge applied by major companies.



"This approach minimises the usual exploration risk and provides the best discovery opportunities for our shareholders. As Investigator continues to drill and undertake collaborative research with the State Geological Survey and universities, several lines of evidence point to a transitional relationship between the IOCG deposits of the Olympic Dam belt and the emerging porphyry systems of which Nankivel is a prime example. This expands the copper potential in the southern Gawler Craton where Investigator has taken a strong tenement position," Mr Anderson added.



Recent RCP Drilling and Results



The previously interpreted shallow epithermal target following the diamond drilling was investigated with twenty slimline reverse circulation percussion (RCP) holes (PPRC421 - 440) drilled during last June with an average depth of 117m and generally on a dip of -60 degrees (Plan - see Figure 1 in the link below). As well as testing shallow flat-lying IP anomalies, two holes were positioned to test as close as possible to the northern margin of a strike- and depth-extensive strong chargeability anomaly that extends southwest from under Nankivel Hill (see Figure 2 in the link below - note this is an oblique view with the southern holes drilling over but not reaching the IP anomaly) that was otherwise inaccessible to drilling under current heritage restrictions (see Figure 1 in the link below).



The details of the drill holes are provided in Table A (see the link below). The intersections for the gold, copper, zinc and lead assay results are summarised in Tables B, C, D and E (see the link below) respectively.



Refer to Appendix 1 for 'TABLE 1 (see the link below): Peterlumbo Tenement, Nankivel Diamond and Reverse Circulation Drilling Results, July 2017 - JORC 2012', information relating to the compliance of the 2012 edition of the JORC Code. This includes Section 1 - sampling Techniques and Data and Section 2 - Reporting of Exploration Results.



The revised porphyry copper target interpretation encompassing the drilling results is summarised in plan and cross-section in Figures 3 and 4 (see the link below). The cross-section shown by the trace in the plans of Figures 1 and 3 (see the link below) was selected as the most appropriate one to demonstrate the alteration and geochemical vectors as detailed in Figures 5 to 8 (see the link below) in support of the interpreted target. It captures a broad window including the traces of holes (from northwest to southeast) PPRC438, PPDH157, PPRC430, PPDH155, PPRC426, 436, 431 and 437.



The initial target of advanced argillic alteration was only intersected in a few holes indicating a small deep root zone rather than a broad shallow cap. The drilling intersected a persistent flat-lying and copper-anomalous supergene zone with visible covellite (see Figure 5 in the link below). This is now interpreted to be the source in part of the initially targeted shallow IP anomaly. The plus 500ppm copper intersections (Table C) (see the link below) are low order with a best intersection of 4m @ 1,236ppm Cu in the supergene zone. They are significant however for vectoring towards the adjacent porphyry copper target with the elevated copper dominantly in the area of the initial phyllic intersection of PPDH155 in holes PPRC426, 430, 431, 436 and 437 (see Figures 1 & 3 in the link below).



The RCP drill program was extended to twenty holes owing to the widespread intersection of phyllic alteration in the majority of the holes including strong pyrite mineralisation indicative of a large robust hydrothermal system. The best pyrite intersections clustered along the southern side of the drill coverage in holes PPRC431, 437, 436, 426, 433, 432, 424, 428, 429 and 440. The geochemical measure of pyrite is sulphur assays as shown in Figure 6 (see the link below). The sulphur assay represents about half the pyrite content and this indicates pervasive pyrite contents of 5% to 10% on the southern side of the drilling and continuing untested beyond PPRC437. As initially recognised in the intense alteration and breccias of PPDH155, the amount of pyrite is considered to reflect a large hydrothermal system.



Pathfinder Geochemistry



Pathfinder element geochemistry using ICP-MS techniques has become a valuable tool in using drill assays to define vector directions which remotely point to the targeted potassic core and copper mineralisation of porphyry copper systems (e.g. Halley, S., Dilles, J.H. and Todsal, R.M., Footprints-Hydrothermal alteration and geochemical dispersion around porphyry copper deposits: Society of Exploration Geologists Newsletter, v.100, p1-17).



Metals associated with copper such as bismuth (Bi) and molybdenum (Mo), even at low levels, define broader and zoned halos enabling the prediction of proximity to the copper core. The values and gradual increases in these metals at Nankivel indicate a shallow porphyry copper core is possibly present a few hundred metres south of the current drilling pattern. The assay levels for these metals are shown on the sections of Figures 7 and 8 (see the link below) with the right levels and progressive increase to the south.



Bismuth (see Figure 7 in the link below) in particular shows a steady increase pervasively achieving the accepted porphyry-proximity threshold of greater than 1ppm Bi between PPDH155 and PPRC426 with the maximum value of 29.2 ppm Bi in the most southern hole PPRC437.



Molybdenum (see Figure 8 in the link below) shows patchy assays over the porphyry-proximity threshold of 5ppm Mo. However the best Mo values (maximum 26.4ppm Mo) are again in the most southern hole PPRC437, suggesting the start of an inner molybdenum shell closer to the copper core.



The results were assessed in plan with the distribution of maximum bismuth and accompanying tellurium values in each hole shown in Figure 3 (see the link below). They show a robust vector towards the large IP chargeability anomaly modelled to start 150m to 200m below the surface and interpreted to be the extension of the strong sulphide content in the adjacent drilling. This is consistent with the most southern hole of the cross-section, PPRC437, also showing the best copper, gold, bismuth and molybdenum results.



Overlying scattered outcrops of sericite-altered volcanics and metasediments also have elevated bismuth values. An outcrop of graphitic metasediment is located at the west end of the IP anomaly where it correspondingly reaches the surface. Graphitic metasediment occurs in the basement throughout the region such as at Paris and Thurlga. This is not considered to be the source of the main IP anomaly which has a different orientation to the local stratigraphic trend. The samples of the two holes (PPRC424 and 428) adjacent to the outcrop contained pyrite but no graphite and show clear signs of hydrothermal mineralisation in the bismuth and tellurium geochemistry (see Figure 3 in the link below).



An experienced consultant petrologist is assisting with the characterisation of the intrusive types and porphyry alteration mineralogy and zoning in the drill holes. The alteration patterns are summarised for the drill holes in Figures 5 to 8 (see the link below). The strength of the Nankivel hydrothermal system is indicated by the degree of phyllic alteration overprinting the broader propylitic alteration of multiple intrusions. It also implies a high exposure to hydrothermal fluids. The petrology reduced the extent of the potassic alteration previously interpreted to narrow zones near the bottoms of holes PPDH155 and 157. This also indicates proximity to the potassic and copper core and is more in keeping with the standard porphyry model and the revised shallow porphyry target.



A date was published in May by the State Geological Survey for the outcropping alunite alteration on Nankivel Hill of 1586+/-8 million years (Reference: Nicholson et al., A Mesoproterozoic advanced argillic alteration system: 40Ar/39Ar thermochronolgy from Nankivel Hill, Gawler Craton. Report Book 2017/00011, Department of Premier and Cabinet, Government of South Australia). This date supports the Investigator model that the Paris and Nankivel mineralisation are close to Olympic Dam age. There are local and regional ramifications for new discovery success in the southern Gawler Craton where Investigator continues to build a strong tenement position (see Figure 12 in the link below).



A propylitic-altered granodiorite from PPDH147 is also being dated by the GSSA with preliminary results supporting the correlation of the early Nankivel felsic and mafic intrusives with the St Peters Suite of subduction granites. This implies a long intrusive history for the Nankivel complex that is now permissive under a new overseas concept for late porphyries such as Nankivel to form at the same time as the non-subduction Olympic Dam mega-event.



Relation to the Paris silver deposit



Additional supporting evidence has come from the geometallurgical work underway at the Paris Silver Project with contributions from Scott Halley, with the geochemical characterisation of three suites of dykes intersecting and bounding Paris (e.g. Hafnium:Zirconium plot in Figure 9 in the link below). These data show the fluorite-bearing central dyke, considered to have caused the brecciation and silver mineralisation, is the latest and most fractionated. This dyke is correlated with a number of interpreted northeast dykes that show close associations with the main prospects and pathfinder metal patterns like molybdenum (see Figure 10 in the link below). The similar settings of Nankivel and Paris at the intersection of northeast dykes (pink on Figure 10 in the link below) with the same NW-SE structure (dashed blue line) is further support for the Nankivel porphyry copper IP target.



It is a reasonable interpretation that the lateness, fluorine-content and northeast trend of the mineralising Paris dyke correlates the Paris mineralisation with the brecciated alunite-altered dyke and topaz alteration on Nankivel Hill along with the fluorite topaz alunite alteration at the top of the phyllic zone in PPDH155 and the late fluorite veins in PPDH157. A drill sample of the central Paris dyke is being dated by the collaborative ARC Linkage project examining the spectrum of deposit styles in the Gawler Craton to establish if the dyke and the Paris mineralisation are also close to Olympic Dam age.



Applying the same Hafnium:Zirconium plot to all the assays for the Nankivel diamond core holes shows evidence of multiple intrusive phases not readily discernible otherwise owing to the intense alteration. A central Paris dyke signature is not evident yet; however the equivalent cupola of a late fluorine-bearing and porphyry mineralising phase is likely to remain undrilled under the Nankivel IP anomaly within the core of the interpreted zoning pattern (see Figure 4 in the link below).



Ongoing Work



As well as moving the Paris silver project forward, Investigator's objectives are to drill the Nankivel IP target and extend IP surveying to the interpreted additional porphyry target areas at Nankivel West and Helen (Figure 10).



The key activity at Nankivel will be to resurvey the heritage envelope around Nankivel Hill. Investigator has positive relationships with the Native Title Holders with an Exploration Agreement in place. The bulk of the revised Nankivel target is under subdued topography compared with the adjacent hill. The Nankivel West and Helen target areas are already approved for drill access after prior heritage surveys.



Investigation of the Company's large datasets will continue for targeting and research purposes.



Target Background



Interest in the epithermal, skarn and porphyry potential of the Nankivel Hill area originated with the discovery of the alunite-silica-haematite-altered rhyolite breccia outcrop in 1990. MIM Exploration mapped the extent of illite, dickite, pyrophyllite and alunite alteration and undertook RCP drilling (NAN001 - 003) with limited assaying on the hill in 1995/6 under heritage approvals at the time.



Following the Paris epithermal silver discovery in 2011 with a current resource standing at 9.3Mt @ 139g/t silver for 42Moz of contained silver, Investigator established the copper-gold-silver potential of the Nankivel intrusive complex with the discovery of the Helen skarn in 2014 and proceeded to drill around the margin of the complex assisted by government collaborative PACE funding, including PPRC334 and 335 as the nearest accessible areas to Nankivel Hill. These intersected propylitic-altered magnetic monzogranite and granodiorite.



After acquiring adjusted heritage approvals, diamond Hole PPDH147 and RCP holes 403, 404 and 405 (see Figure 1 in the link below) were drilled late in September/October 2016 under government collaborative PACE funding to test a magnetic anomaly and vein extensions near the advanced argllic outcrop at Nankivel Hill for porphyry, skarn and epithermal mineralisation.



Monzodiorites and granodiorites were intersected with extensive magnetic propylitic and demagnetised pyritic-phyllic alteration, the latter with anomalous copper and gold values. This encouraged suspension of the drilling while an IP survey was undertaken late in 2016 over a large demagnetised area of the Nankivel intrusive complex.



A selection of IP chargeable anomalies were tested by four diamond holes in March-April this year with one hole PPDH155 intersecting a broad pyritic-phyllic zone including a shallow kaolinite cap with evidence of relict alunite, topaz and bornite/chalcopyrite inclusions in pyrite. This was correlated with the advanced argillic alteration on Nankivel Hill and an east-west high-sulphidation target was proposed to extend for 2km along flat-lying IP and EM anomalies, the latter derived from a single airborne EM survey flown by CSIRO for water studies. The assumption of a shallow epithermal cap implied a deeper porphyry target nominally at 700m depth or more under the standard zoning model for porphyry copper deposits. The revised porphyry target based on alteration and geochemical data is much shallower at around 150m depth and has the geophysical support of a large IP anomaly.



To view tables and figures, please visit:

http://abnnewswire.net/lnk/85HF9M6M





About Investigator Resources Ltd





Investigator Resources Limited (ASX:IVR) is a metals explorer with a focus on the opportunities for greenfields silver-lead, copper-gold and other metal discoveries in South Australia.

The Company's priority is progressing the development pathway for the Paris silver project with the preparation of a pre-feasibility study. The Paris Mineral Resource Estimate is 9.3Mt @ 139g/t silver and 0.6% lead, comprising 42Moz of contained silver and 55kt of contained lead, at a 50g/t silver cut-off. The resource has been categorised with an Indicated Resource estimate of 4.3Mt @ 163g/t silver and 0.6% lead for 23Moz contained silver and 26kt contained lead, and an Inferred Resource: 5.0Mt @ 119g/t silver and 0.6% lead for 19Moz contained silver and 29kt contained lead.

The Company has applied an innovative strategy that has developed multiple ideas and targets giving Investigator first-mover status. These include: the Paris silver discovery; recognition of other epithermal fields and the associated potential for porphyry copper-gold of Olympic Dam age; extending the ideas developed at Paris-Nankivel and using breakthrough government Magneto-Telluric surveying to rejuvenate targeting with the Maslins IOCG target as the next priority drill target.
Lekki Lagos, February 1st 2019. Rilla Web Hosting, one of the top players in domain registration and web hosting has announces its full ...
MONTREAL, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Gaz Metro Limited Partnership ("Gaz Metro") (TSX: GZM.UN) and Boralex Inc. ("Boralex") (TSX: BLX) submitted three bids today in response to the request for proposals issued on March 31 by the State of Massachusetts in the United States for the supply of renewable energy. The project proposed by Gaz Metro and Boralex in these three submissions, named SBx, is a 300 MW wind project located on the private land of the Seigneurie de Beaupre territory in Quebec's Capitale-Nationale administrative region. SBx would be entirely developed, financed, built and operated by Boralex and Gaz Metro. Each submission has been submitted with a different US transmission provider, each of which proposes a distinctive transmission line for power delivery in Massachusetts.

"For over 10 years, Gaz Metro and Boralex worked together to develop the exceptional wind power potential of the Seigneurie de Beaupre," said Patrick Lemaire, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boralex. "The territory's unique characteristics make it suitable for the development of future wind farms. It is vast, is known to offer highquality wind resources and is located near existing transmission lines within reach of load centers in the northeastern U.S. We are confident that SBx has all of the qualities needed to stand out from the competition."

The bids submitted today by Gaz Metro and Boralex include the 300 MW SBx wind farm which will be firmed up with hydroelectric power supplied by Hydro-Quebec's generating fleet. The synergy between hydro and wind power would help supply the State of Massachusetts with clean, stable, sustainable energy well into the future.

"Northeastern U.S. states have adopted ambitious renewable energy targets and instituted regulatory requirements that favor wind power, which makes this market very appealing," noted Sophie Brochu, President and Chief Executive Officer of Gaz Metro. "Our bid would not only help Massachusetts achieve its goals in fighting climate change, it would also help meet its high demand for electricity, particularly in the winter."

The selected projects are expected to be announced at the beginning of 2018.

About the Seigneurie de Beaupre Wind Farms

The Seigneurie de Beaupre Wind Farms, with an installed capacity totaling 364 MW, are currently one of the largest clusters of wind farms in Canada. The 272 MW farms 2 and 3 (phase I) commissioned in late 2013 and the 68 MW farm 4 (phase II) commissioned in December 2014 are projects of the consortium formed by Boralex and Gaz Metro|Valener. The 24 MW Cote-de-Beaupre Community Wind Farm (phase III), commissioned in November 2015, was developed as a partnership between the Cote-de-Beaupre regional county municipality and Boralex.

About Gaz Metro

With more than $7 billion in assets, Gaz Metro is a leading energy provider. It is the largest natural gas distribution company in Quebec, where its network of over 10,000 km of underground pipelines serves some 300 municipalities and more than 205,000 customers. Gaz Metro is also present in Vermont, where it has more than 315,000 customers. There, it operates in the electricity production market and the electricity and natural gas distribution market. Gaz Metro is actively involved in developing and operating innovative, promising energy projects, including natural gas as fuel, liquefied natural gas as a replacement for higher emission-producing energies, the production of wind and solar power and the development of biomethane. Gaz Metro is a major energy sector player that takes the lead in responding to the needs of its customers, regions and municipalities, local organizations, and communities while also satisfying the expectations of its Partners (GMi and Valener) and employees.

About Boralex

Boralex develops, builds and operates renewable energy power facilities in Canada, France and the United States. A leader in the Canadian market and France's largest independent producer of onshore wind power, the Corporation is recognized for its solid experience in optimizing its asset base in four power generation types  wind, hydroelectric, thermal and solar. Boralex ensures sustained growth by leveraging the expertise and diversification developed over the past 25 years. Boralex's shares and convertible debentures are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the ticker symbols BLX and BLX.DB.A, respectively. More information is available at www.boralex.com or www.sedar.com. Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.

SOURCE Gaz Metro
BANGKOK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Thailand's Sufficiency Economy Philosophy is a powerful tool to end poverty and help others achieve the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, Thailand, stated.

NO POVERTY. The first goal of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations sounds so simple, but has proven enormously difficult to achieve. Despite progress made by many nations in recent decades, more than 3 billion people, half of the world's population, still live on less than $2.50 a day. Even more heartbreaking, a billion of the world's children remain mired in hardship and want. The stubborn persistence of poverty has led some to doubt whether it can ever be defeated. Many believe it can be, but the question remains: how?

One nation with a proven formula for success in alleviating privation is the Kingdom of Thailand. A nation of 69 million situated at the crossroads of Southeast Asia, "Thailand has made remarkable progress in social and economic development with sustained strong growth and impressive poverty reduction," said the World Bank. Just 30 years ago, 67 percent of Thais were living in poverty. Today, that figure is about 10 percent and falling, and just 0.6 percent are living in extreme poverty. Investment and exports helped generate economic growth and development, but Thai leaders have also adopted a set of policies to spread the gains more widely among the people and ensure they are sustainable. Those policies are driven by the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy.

Developed by Thailand's late constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy's central goal is to alleviate poverty and hardship. King Bhumibol formulated the philosophy not in the comfort of a palace, but in the field: by working hands on with poor villagers in every corner of his kingdom over a period of decades; researching, experimenting, using trial and error to find what works, and with the participation and feedback from the villagers themselves.

"The Sufficiency Economy places humanity at the center, focuses on well-being rather than wealth, makes sustainability the very core of the thinking, understands the need for human security and concentrates on building people's capabilities to develop their potential,'' wrote Joana Merlin-Scholtes of the United Nations Development Program.

Many of the philosophy's tenets and principles were piloted in more than 4,000 royal development projects and 8,000 model Sufficiency Economy Villages. Pilots that proved successful were often adopted and scaled up by the government to amplify and extend their benefits to more people nationwide, Ministry Of Foreign Affairs, stated.

The philosophy's approach blends knowledge and virtue: reasonableness, moderation and prudent decision-making are at its core. As Thailand's economy took off with a strong component of agricultural exports, many farmers engaged in mono-cropping to pursue as much profit as possible. But when market forces beyond their control sent prices crashing, they found themselves in debt and without enough to eat. That convinced many farmers to try the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. They began growing vegetables, raising chickens and fish, and reducing their dependency on a single crop. The farmers who diversified were able to withstand subsequent economic shocks and uplift their families.

Those same principles can be applied to many fields -- business, government, even life in general. Nations that practice prudent stewardship of increasingly scarce natural resources, and encourage rather than repress diversity in their societies and economies, increasingly find they have the human capital, wealth and innovation to survive and thrive in an increasingly unpredictable world.

It shouldn't be surprising that a practical approach to sustainable development would be found in a relatively small country that isn't ranked among the global economic powerhouses. Because it is often in small developing nations where the negative impacts of globalization can hit hardest and present the most difficult challenges to overcome.

In the spirit of fellowship with all nations and the global poor, Thailand has been offering its knowledge and experience with the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy to all those in need. And the world has been welcoming Thailand's contribution. "There is a need to embrace the Sufficiency Economy Philosophy for the Sustainable Development Goals in all the key sectors,'' said Amina Mohamed of Kenya's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. To date, representatives from 105 countries have participated in Sufficiency Economy Philosophy seminars and trainings.

No poverty, the First Sustainable Development Goal, may not be that simple to achieve and may take a long time to accomplish. But Thailand is among the believers that it can be achieved. And so it will continue to share its Sufficiency Economy Philosophy. Because those living in hardship and want simply cannot be left behind.

MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Tel. +662 203 5000

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539312/Ministry_of_Foreign_Affairs__resize.jpg
Indicate by check mark whether the registrant by furnishing the information contained in this Form is also thereby furnishing the information to the Commission pursuant to Rule 12g3-2(b) under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

Indicate by check mark whether the registrant files or will file annual reports under cover Form 20-F or Form 40-F.

MTS Strengthens Position in Urals Through Acquisition of BCC

July 27, 2017

Moscow, Russia - MTS PJSC (NYSE: MBT, MOEX: MTSS), the leading telecommunications operator in Russia and the CIS, announces the acquisition of 100% of shares in the regional network operator Bashkortostan Cellular Communication OJSC (BCC) for RUB 300 mln including net debt.

The transaction allows MTS to strengthen its presence in the Republic of Bashkortostan by obtaining additional frequency resources, including two bands of 15 MHz at 2,100 MHz, as well as two bands of 4.4 MHz in the 450 MHz spectrum.

Andrei Ushatskiy, Vice President for Technology and IT, MTS commented: The acquisition of a significant frequency resource at a reasonable price in Bashkortostan, one of Russias ten largest regional telecom markets, is fully aligned with MTS strategy of enhancing the Groups capabilities throughout Russias regions. With this investment, we are directly increasing our 3G network capacity and speed in Bashkortostan by doubling the frequency resource in the 2,100 MHz band. We intend to use these frequencies to further develop our data networks.

MTS acquired BCC from Rostelecoms subsidiary Bashinformsvyaz PJSC.

MTS has obtained all relevant corporate approvals for the transaction.

* * *

For further information, please contact in Moscow:

Joshua B. Tulgan

Director, Department of Corporate Finance and Investor Relations

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC

Tel: +7 495 223 2025

E-mail: ir@mts.ru

Learn more about MTS. Visit the official blog of the Investor Relations Department at www.mtsgsm.com/blog/

* * *

Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS - NYSE:MBT; MOEX:MTSS), the leading telecommunications group in Russia and the CIS, provides a range of mobile and fixed-line communications services. We serve over 100 million mobile subscribers in Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Belarus, and about 9 million customers of fixed-line services, including fixed voice, broadband internet, and pay-TV. To keep pace with evolving customer demand, MTS is redefining what telecommunications services are by offering innovative products beyond its core network-related businesses in various tech segments, including Big Data, financial and banking services, internet of things, OTT, cloud computing, systems integration and e-commerce. We leverage our market-leading retail network as a platform for customer services and sales of devices and accessories. For more information, please visit: www.mtsgsm.com.

* * *

Some of the information in this press release may contain projections or other forward-looking statements regarding future events or the future financial performance of MTS, as defined in the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. You can identify forward looking statements by terms such as expect, believe, anticipate, estimate, intend, will, could, may or might, and the negative of such terms or other similar expressions. We wish to caution you that these statements are only predictions and that actual events or results may differ materially. We do not undertake or intend to update these statements to reflect events and circumstances occurring after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events. We refer you to the documents MTS files from time to time with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, specifically the Companys most recent Form 20-F. These documents contain and identify important factors, including those contained in the section captioned Risk

2
In response to a recent query raised by Competition Commission of India (CCI) through RTI, the RBI and 19 PSU Banks expressed that no compensation for theft or burglary of valuables in their safe deposit lockers can be awarded, as the locker hiring agreement absolves them of all liability. The RBI policy states: The bank will in no way be liable.., and in case of unforeseen events, action will be initiated as per law.

For long, bank vaults have been the primary option to safeguard valuables from fire and theft. Prized possessions such as jewellery, property documents placed in the lockers are usually guarded by elaborate security. Over a period, people also kept family mementoes, photographs, even odd materials, like false-teeth and human ashes in the lockers.

In case of bankers negligence

The fire break-out in the state-owned Punjab National Bank (2012) raised many safety questions. In 2013, robbers broke into the strong room of Punjab & Sind Bank, Jalandhar branch and emptied nearly 40 lockers, revealing the poor security infrastructure. Though the bank promised safe deposit locker facility to its customers and charged for the service, sadly there were no cameras in the strong room, not even a security guard, which attracted the crime.

In the PNB, Bombay vs. K.V. Shetty (FA no.7 of 1991), the person found the contents (jewellery) of his locker to be missing and received a compensation of Rs.126,017/- along with interest. Though the bank insisted that it was not responsible for the loss as per the agreement signed, the National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC) dismissed the banks argument.

In another case  Bank of India vs. Smt. Kanak Choudhary (RP no.889 of 2000)- the customer pleaded that termites had destroyed the currency notes and important papers kept in his locker. The bank was bound to ensure that the respondents locker remained safe in all respects, and recompense was awarded to the aggrieved party.

Terms and conditions limiting the liability of the bank notwithstanding, it did not prevent the consumers from getting compensation. One does not know how they did the valuation, but it is ideal for clients to make a detailed list of the contents of the locker, get them imaged and valued, if possible.

But then, you dont show the proof of your belongings in the locker through an invoice, while it is even more complicated to prove that the invoiced items were inside the locker, and nobody keeps valuables in a locker in the presence of a witness. If the gold ornaments are inherited, then one may not even have bills to prove their purchase value, as jewellery is valuable for both monetary and emotional reasons.

Can the contents be insured?

As there is no proven way of estimating the value of the locker content, there is no insurable interest. However, to tide over your sleepless nights over the safety of your valuables, some standalone jewellery insurance products are available in the market.

A private Bank is offering one such cover (with several terms and conditions attached to it). But it makes better sense if you consider availing protection under home insurance policy from private insurance companies, which covers accidental loss, damage, burglary and theft of jewellery kept in some specified bank lockers, jewellery stored at home.

Bank lockers less expensive

Bank lockers are relatively less expensive, the procedure simpler, mandating less paper work. Also, lockers can be used for securing any number of valuables without incurring extra fee (it only goes with the locker size), which is not the case with insurance.

The customer, before hiring a locker, must satisfy himself that bank has all the requisite safety measures such as alarm system, CCTV surveillance are in place, and make wise decisions about (a) what items are kept in the locker, (b) who has access to the locker, and (c) what happens to the contents if something happens to the locker-holder

With advanced technology and safety measures, missing of valuables can be rare aberrations, and bank lockers are still safer to park your valuables.

(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
Caitlyn Jenner a vocal Republican and also supported Trump in his presidential campaign, is next on the list to respond to The President of the United States Donald Trumps outrageous statement about the military ban on transgender people.

Caitlyn took to her personal blog, I am Cait; expressing her disappointment she said, Studies estimate there are as many as 15,000 transgender people already serving this countryand for those brave people fighting for our nation, Trumps early morning tweets must be devastating. I believe every American should be outraged by the disrespect shown to those people wearing our countrys uniform. She also commented that Furthermore, this half-baked idea puts all of our service members in harms way. She continued, Does President Trump intend to just pull 15,000 people out of every critical position to which they are currently assigned? That would disrupt core military missions around the world and needlessly endanger our troops.

Early this morning, President Trump announced on Twitter that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

This announcement from Donald Trump has become a topic of discussion to all the Americans. Hollywood celebs are coming out in support of transgender people on their respective social media accounts.
Maharashtra Health Minister Deepak Sawant informed the legislative assembly that the states sex ratio (number of girls per 1,000 boys) has dropped to 899 in 2016 from 960 in the previous year.

The ratio of girls was 960 as against per 1,000 boys born in 2015, which dropped to 899 in 2016, Sawant said in a written reply over a question asked regarding female birth rate in the state.

The districts where the drop in female child birth was high are- Washim, Pune and Osmanabad. Washim district has reported a 49 per cent drop in female child birth, followed by 46 per cent in Pune and 34 per cent in Osmanabad district, Sawant said.

While responding to a question over the reason behind the drop in female birth ratio, Sawant said it was due to the secondary status given to women in the society.

He also said that the state government has appointed 608 officials for effective implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (PCPNDT) Act.

Other measures are also being undertaken, Sawant said.
In a recent interview with a leading daily in Hollywood, Dunkirk director Christopher Nolan revealed that legendary actor Michael Caine was in fact in Dunkirk and he is actually surprised that not a lot of people noticed his presence in the film. Filmmaker Nolan revealed that Caine lent his voice t a scene featuring Hardy and Jack Lowden.

Nolan said, Its shocking to me that a lot of people havent (spotted the cameo) when he has really one of the most distinctive voices in cinema. I wanted very much to squeeze him in here. Its a bit of a nod to his character in Battle of Britain. And also, its Michael. He has to be in all my films, after all. Caine has featured in all of Nolans films since Batman Begins in 2005.

In Dunkirk, he can be heard giving orders to pilots Hardy and Jack Lowden in the cockpit.

Dunkirk released last week and the movie features, Tom Hardy, Harry Styles and Cillian Murphy in the lead.
Once upon Prime Minister Modi rightly questioned Nitish Kumars DNA. He is an opportunist and greedy politician. Modis tweet against bhrashtachar and congratulations to Nitish Kumar for the same is old-fashioned. This is the same Modi and his supporters, who ripped Nitish apart during 2014 elections; they termed Bihar as jungle raj. Today all is fine when they joined hands together. Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time with the support of BJP, 14 hours after he resigned from that position, ending his two-year-old alliance with Lalu Yadav and the Congress. He is back with the BJP, whose Sushil Modi was also sworn in; he gets his old post of Deputy Chief Minister back.

This was well-orchestrated move as Nitish announced his resignation during the prime time with highest viewers. Prime minister tweets within few minutes, and normally he takes months to tweet about gau rakshaks and vigilantes or any such issues. Moreover Modiji is only one such PM who has congratulated a state CM for resigning. Whatever incident has happened was a pre-planned move as it didnt happen overnight.

Where are the morality, ethics and personal integrity of Nitish kumar? Didnt he know that Lalu was accused of corruption even before joining the Mahagathbandhan? Overnight all the respectable thoughts about Nitish got vanished. If he is really concerned about corruption and integrity he shouldnt have formed government with BJP. Instead he should have gone for fresh elections projecting his honesty and integrity. But as things are unfolding it becomes obvious that it is yet another attempt by BJP to capture power. Immorality cannot be considered less harmful and disgraceful than corruption.

Nitish Kumar has shown the meanest moral character forming alliance with BJP to remain in power. RJD and JD (U) jointly fought and defeated NDA in the last Assembly election in Bihar though Prime Minister had campaigned extensively but failed to make it to power. How does he explain his honeymoon now with the same opponent? Nitish is over ambitious politician, this is not the first time he betrayed his alliance or supporters. When Nitish Kumar left Lalu Prasad in 1994 to form Samata Party, a sizeable number of the then Janata Dal supporters went over with him. When he contested the 1995 Assembly election after having an alliance with the CPI(ML)which contested an election for the first time after coming over groundthere was not even a whisper. A year later when he took a complete right turn and jumped on the BJP bandwagon, there was some protest. A few leaders, for example Syed Shahabuddin, left his party. Yet many others argued that it was Nitishs political compulsion as otherwise he would have been politically finished.

The BJP got a backward caste leader in post-Mandal Bihar. He got more importance than he deserved. But on June 12, 2010, he cancelled the dinner of the BJP top brass in Patna and a week later returned Rs 5 crore donated by the Gujarat government for Kosi flood relief work in 2008. The Saffron party leaders were extremely upset. Yet, they were forced to accept the humiliation, as the Assembly election was only four months away. But when three and a half years later, Nitish suddenly sacked all the BJP ministers for no rhyme or reason, many of his ardent supporters started hating him. There was no charge of corruption or misgovernance against any of the BJP ministers; and yet all of them were sent packing. In return, they used the choicest abuses against him some of which have never been used even against Lalu. He was dubbed as an opportunist and a traitor. A day after the May 2014 electoral rout, he took moral responsibility and quit as CM and made Jitan Ram Manjhi, his hand-picked man, the Chief Minister.

Nitish wanted to run the government by proxy, which Manjhi did not like. During those days Manjhi was forced to quit and Nitish once again became the CM in the last week of the election in February 2015. Those days, Manjhi directly accused Nitish Kumar of supporting corrupt contractors who, according to him, were looting the state. He highlighted some of the serious scams within the state government.

After splitting from BJP, Nitish went on to sit on the lap of Lalu. He identified that Lalu was still a mass leader but, as a convicted politician, could not be the CM himself. The RJD chief was anxious for political renewal and he got an opportunity. So, RJD and JD(U) suddenly cobbled an alliance with the Congress and swept the election winning 178 out of 243 seats. In a way, Lalu helped Nitish to avoid downfall. The same Nitish who retained power sitting on Lalus laps is now summoning? This is a big eye opener for some voters who were afraid of someone will tear the secular fabric.

Now coming back to Modis personal corruption in the Sahara diaries and the Aditya Birlas case, and his not willing to be scrutinized, speaks volumes about his stand on Corruption. Nitish Kumar is an opportunist; his partnership with Lalu might have diminished his returns on the underhand money deals Politicians of this country are traitors. These are the ways of the so-called clean Politicians.

Bihars mandate was clearly against BJP and now it is the ruling party. BJP will be devastated in 2019; it is just a matter of 2 years or so. Nitish isnt interested in development but is only concerned about retaining the CMs post. He has betrayed the peoples mandate. Lalu may or may not be corrupt but he has to explain it only to the Court of law and no one else. Moreover, Tejaswi might be a criminal, cheater whatever but that will be decided by the court, you cant change governments based on FIRs. We have a PM who aims at making a state politically unstable to secure a minority government. Its a very sad day for the democracy.

(Any suggestions, comments or dispute with regards to this article send us on feedback@afternoonvoice.com)
After JD (U) leader Nitish Kumar severed ties with Congress, RJD alliance and joined hands with the BJP to take over as the Chief Minister of Bihar once again the morale of opposition has hit an all-time low. Many political parties are soon going to emulate Nitish and join hands with BJP with an eye on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. According to sources, NCP president Sharad Pawar too is keen to join Shiv Sena for strengthening his party ahead of general election. Pawar who always had ambitions to become Prime Minister this time wants to give a facelift to his daughter Supriya Sules political career. Thus Pawar who had ambitions to make it big at national level will try to play an active role in the state politics.

Ever since the BJP had come to power Pawar was always seen trying to cosy with the saffron party. The NCP had initially offered support to the Fadnavis government when it had fallen short of majority after the 2014 state assembly polls. Later NCP had withdrawn support to BJP as Sena came to the saffron partys rescue. Even though Sharad Pawar and Prime Minister are political rivals and often criticise each other but the NCP leader doesnt mind sharing stage with the PM at various functions.

Already Sanjay Nirupams rivalry with Gurudas Kamat has weakened the Congress. The party also lacks an amicable leader who can connect with the masses and prepare for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. Moreover, Nitish Kumars decision to shift loyalties towards BJP has given a severe jolt to the party. It also is a major setback to opposition parties strategy to form a grand alliance to stop the BJP juggernaut ahead of the general election.

According to sources from Congress, Many Congress leaders are unhappy with the functioning of the party vice president Rahul Gandhi. He remains inaccessible to lower rank leaders. Right now Congress is going through a major crisis and the morale of party workers is low. The partys growth also is affected due to the prevalence of infighting within various leaders.

Pawar is keen to merge his party with Shiv Sena. He wants to create a base for his daughter in the state politics which will make her a serious contender for the chief ministerial post. Thus he is trying to groom his daughter for playing a major role in the states politics. Supriya is already being seen as political heir of Sharad Pawar and take over the reins of the party from him, said a source from NCP.
The tax authorities will now relay audit reports of corporates and specific information from their I-T returns as also PAN data to the ministry of corporate affairs, as the government plans to crack down harder on shell companies.

Coming down heavily on shell companies, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) has already cancelled registrations of over 1.62 lakh companies for non-filing of financial statements for the immediate two preceding fiscals.

The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), the apex policy making body of the I-T department, in an order has asked the Principal Director General of Income Tax (Systems) to share bulk information to the MCA.

Bulk information would mean Permanent Account Number (PAN) data of corporates, their Income Tax returns (ITRs), audit reports and statement of financial transactions (SFT) received from banks relating to corporates.

Also the tax department would share identified PAN Challan Identification Number (CIN) as well as PAN Director identification number (DIN) with the MCA.

The Registrar of Companies (RoCs) have removed 1,62,618 companies from the register as on July 12, 2017 after following the due process under Section 248 of the Companies Act, 2013.

Section 248 provides powers to the RoC to remove the name of a company from the register on various grounds including non carrying out any business for two preceding financial years.

Out of the 1,62,618 companies that have been struck-off the register, the registration of 33,000 were cancelled by RoC (Mumbai).

Among others, RoC (Delhi) has deleted 22,863 companies from the register and 20,588 firms were deregistered by RoC (Hyderabad).
Now some people might think of this as more inclusion of those previously excluded. Or, like myself, some may just figure that as more and more kids are found to have behavioral or learning problems, a number of them are likely to show up in college.

Students with autism spectrum disorders are also more often attending college than a decade ago. And on some campuses, programs are emerging for students with intellectual disabilities.

Most of these students have what are often called nonvisible disabilities, including learning disabilities, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and, increasingly, mental health disorders such as anxiety or depression.

According to a 2016 report by the United States Department of Education, approximately 11 percent of all undergraduates report having a disability  up from 6 percent almost two decades prior. Since nearly two-thirds of all students who received special education services in high school did not self-disclose their disability to a college, the actual number of students with disabilities on campuses is likely much higher.

Meanwhile, our schools are havens for the disabled.

In this article, five of the six children talked about were boys. ADHD and autism were also mentioned.

Of these 475 were under seven and 50 were four.

Figures released by the Department of Education this month show that the number of children being excluded has risen every year for the last three. In 2015-16 around 35 children a day were expelled from schools in England, and a total of 1,185 children were excluded from primary school.

He is one of a growing number of young children who have been permanently excluded from primary schools because of their bad and often violent behaviour, left feeling isolated, unwanted and alone. 

July 25, 2017, UK Daily Mirror: Inside the school for children excluded at SEVEN - including boy who nearly broke teacher's back

Every day I find more stories of the end of childhood as we know it.

How long can people keep pretending that nothing is wrong with the health of our children?

July 24, 2017, Independent (Ireland): 'He has the same right to an education as every other child' - Jack (12) who has autism facing home-tuition because there are no school places

A mum fears her 12-year-old son who has autism will regress due to the fact that she can't place him in a secondary school anywhere in Dublin or Kildare.

Jack Cullen is due to start second level this September and needs to attend a school with am ASD unit or a class for children with special needs.

His mum, Karen Kavanagh, began searching for schools in September 2015 when she was given a list of 11 schools by the HSE.

These were schools in Dublin and Kildare that were able to meet his needs.

However due to the schools being at capacity she has not been able to secure a place. If there is no place found a home-tutor will be provided.

July 23, 2017, Sedalia (MO) Democrat: Sedalia 200 Board of Education to vote on policies for upcoming year

The district is also continuing to see an increase in the number of special services students.

Our numbers continue to increase in the districts special education program, Pollitt said. We receive a large percentage of students who qualify for services from the Co-op (Pettis County Early Childhood Cooperative).

The number of students who receive for those services who graduate continues to increase each year but we are continuing to have more students who qualify each year as well, Pollitt added. Typically we add about 30 students who qualify for services each year.

July 21, 2017, Independent (Ireland): McGrath defends spending on special needs

Children with special needs were "left behind for too long" and should be facilitated in mainstream schools, Disabilities Minister Finian McGrath has said.

He was responding to a spending review which shows the Department of Education is now spending more on special needs resources than higher education.

The report highlighted a 83pc rise in the diagnoses of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) between 2011 and 2016. 

"While significant improvements have been made to special education provision in the past 15 years, the historical reality of under-provision in this area means that even today we were still playing catch-up," he added.

July 21, 2017, Cape Gazette (Lewes, DE): Cape increases school tax rate

Taxpayers face $64 hike to pay for special education

The Cape Henlopen school board approved a 27-cent increase in the tax rate July 13, primarily to cover increasing costs for special education for six district students. 

July 21, 2017, (Franklin, VA) Tidewater News: Law requires mental health training for Virginia school counselors

RICHMOND

More than 20 percent of children in the U.S. have or have had depression or other serious mental disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.

Soon, school counselors in Virginia will be in a better position to help identify students with such problems. Beginning July 1, a new state law requires school counselors to receive more training in the recognition of mental health disorders and behavioral distress.

July 21, 2017, Scoop.co.nz, Independent News (New Zealand): Educators welcome Labour's plan to fix public education

"More and more children are coming to school with complex additional needs that we are not resourced to meet. 

July 20, 2017, PennLive.com: Pensions, special education and debt: why are these three school districts raising taxes much higher than their peers?

Rising pension and special education costs also contributed to the need for a tax increase, Moyer said. 

Not only has the number of students in the district increased by 660 in the past five years, the district also has seen a notable increase in the number of students who are homeless, have special needs, 

July 20, 2017, AAP (USA Today): SWEENEY: School funding increase the first step to solution

And for the first time, we are adding $25 million in funding to increase compensation to school districts for the costs of educating students with extraordinary special education needs.

July 19, 2017, The Spokane Spokesman Review: Spokane schools suspension rate drops, but disproportionality remains

Overall, Spokane Public Schools suspension rates have dropped 31 percent over the past two years, according to data collected by the district.

However, certain groups of students continue to be suspended at a disproportionate rate. 

Students who qualified for free and reduced-price lunch accounted for 88 percent of all district suspensions, while only making up 56 percent of the student population. Students qualifying for special education accounted for 36 percent of all district suspensions while only making up 14 percent of the districts student population. 

Eighty-six kindergartners were suspended a total of 225 times this year. Compare that to 58 high school students being suspended 63 times.

July 19, 2017, Des Moines Register: Ruling could expand special education services to more Iowa students

A legal judgment could force Iowa schools to change how they determine which students qualify for special education, potentially allowing thousands of more children to qualify for services, advocates say.

July 19, 2017, Rochester (NY) City Newspaper: Frustrated board wrestles with special ed

Elliott's report raised challenging questions for the school board. Why, for instance, have referrals for special education shot up by a whopping 93 percent during the last few years, while the district's enrollment has declined? The large number of special education referrals is overwhelming the district's ability to manage them, Elliott said.

And why does the district's special education enrollment hover at nearly 20 percent, when the national average for large school districts is around 12 percent?

July 18, 2017, WNMU FM, Marquette, MI: MAPS faces budget deficit next year

Superintendent Bill Saunders says aid is increasing by about $120 per studentor 1.5 percentbut that wont make up for increases in employee salaries, insurance rates, and utility costs. He says last year also saw a decline in enrollment of about 60 students, as theyre not necessarily staying in the district from kindergarten to graduation.

Saunders says hes always asked why the district is building more elementary rooms when enrollment has been down.

With the increase in the number of students that were enrolling in our early childhood special education program, some other special education programs,

July 17, 2017, Greenwich Time (WV): State OKs cap for special ed students in general ed classes

The West Virginia Board of Education has passed policy changes capping the percentage of students who receive specially designed instruction for disabilities that schools can place in general education classrooms.

The Charleston Gazette-Mail reported on Sunday that under the new Policy 2419, "special education students requiring specially designed instruction" won't be able to make up more than half of a co-taught classroom, 

July 17, 2017, University of Houston, The Signal: New law requires license for applied behavior analysis

A new law requires a state license to practice applied behavior analysis, which should benefit thousands of Texas families dealing with autism by reinforcing the standard of care and possibly resulting in more affordable services. 

More than 51,300 Texas residents between the ages of 3-21 were diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2015, the states Office of Special Education Programs reported.

July 16, 2017, NorthJersey.com: Passaic Valley High to expand special needs services

The district plans to add three staff members to its special education department.

They will be assigned to work with special needs students and to co-teach with a general education teacher in the mainstream classrooms.

More special education staff members are being hired to handle the increase in special needs students who will be coming to Passaic Valley High School in the 2017-18 school year. The school will be getting 37 students with special needs. 

The district will be adding a multiple-disabilities class for students who have more than one classification, Cardillo said.

July 16, 2017, Lancaster (PA) Online: River Rock Academy to open ninth campus this fall in East Hempfield Township

An alternative school devoted to serving special education students is coming to Lancaster County.

River Rock Academy, which has eight other campuses throughout Pennsylvania, will open its first county facility in the former Consolidated School of Business building at 2124 Ambassador Circle in East Hempfield Township.

The school, tentatively expected to open in September, will serve up to 45 special education students in grades six through 12, River Rock cofounder and CEO Steve Capoferri said. 

July 15, 2017, UK Bedfordshire News: Bedford council overspend fears prompt special needs cuts

THE green light was given to slash funding for children with special education needs (SEN)  despite nearly a 40 per cent increase in such pupils in just three years. 

despite the number of special educational needs students increasing from 695 in January 2014 to 961 in January of this year.

July 14, 2017, (Olympia, WA) The Olympian: What teachers and students get out of the states school overhaul

But the states plan to pour about $7.3 billion of new state money into public schools over the next four years will also bring big changes for teachers and students.

Among the changes planned: More money for special education, career and technical education and highly capable programs, and tutoring in high-poverty schools. 



About $500 million over four years will help pay for academic tutoring, with a portion of that money being directed for the first time specifically toward high-poverty schools.

The state also will spend about $63 million over the next four years to roughly double what it pays for highly capable students, while increasing money for special education by about $50 million during the same period.

Zavala said he wished the state would have done more to direct money to specific students that are struggling or who have special needs.

July 14, 2017, Cape Town, South Africa: IOL.com: Calls for more special needs schools in SA

Cape Town - The number of disabled children waiting to be placed in special schools has doubled in the last year.

July 13, 2017, Kings County Politico: Brooklyn Lawmakers On The Move July 13, 2017

Levin Joins PA James In Highlighting Failure Of DOE To Support Children With Disabilities

Nearly 200,000 children, or 19 percent of public school students, require an IEP. IEPs specify what individual services a child needs, such as speech therapy, occupational therapy, mental health counseling, and Special Education Teacher Support Services (SETSS).

July 13, 2017, New Jersey Herald: High Point school chief touts proposed budget

Despite the enrollment drop, Ripley indicated "special education costs in New Jersey are skyrocketing" and that High Point has seen its special education population increase as a percentage of overall enrollment from approximately 15 percent eight years ago to more than 25 percent today.








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Ottawa will remember 2016, in recent history, as its most violent year. Twenty-four homicides were recorded in 2016, an increase of over 200 percent compared to the seven of the previous year. This puts the homicide rate at 2.6. The reason remains shrouded in mystery.

The ease of accessing information related to this effect is further obscured by the recent trends in police leadership where avoidance and active denial create a divide that widens through the executive down to the various ranks and the public.

A poke into the internal moral police service members endure among the ranks revealed that racism, sexism, and high sexual assault rate are still some of the burning unaddressed issues. The hue and cry can be summed up into three distinct categories  dwindling organizational performance, the displeasure of employee, and how these impacts on officers and the safety of the public in Ottawa.

Across all professions, unfair treatment, discrimination, inequity, and outright abuse without an effective complaint and redress mechanism leads to the plunge of an employees productivity and self-esteem. It is possible that some employees will rise above the negatives  but only for a relatively short period. Others will put in suboptimal performance as stress management techniques.

This quantitative and qualitative correlation between employee satisfaction, job satisfaction and productivity and performance of an organization is enshrined in organizational behavior and social science. In the RCMP, this link has been extensively studied by Carleton Universitys Linda Duxbury.

When the police begin to vent anger and unsocial behaviors among some of their colleagues, it is unlikely that same will not translate to the general public. There have been various calls for the reform of RCMP including the report by David Brown in 2007. After many failed attempts, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commissions Ian McPhail had this to say, If over 15 reports and hundreds of recommendations for reform have produced any lessons it is that the RCMP is not capable of making the necessary systematic changes of its own accord.

It is high time the Ottawa Police Service come to terms with the reality that the reality that there is a strong correlation between the crime rates and state of our communities and the deterioration and breakdown of the Ottawa Police Services.

An organization is nothing but a group of people bound under a common philosophy. This cohesion can become a barrier on strictly dealing with a few bad eggs. This is more so when the organizations philosophy has been depraved by the senior ranks leading to tolerance of misconduct that clearly does not conform to the organizations philosophy.

In a frantic effort to redeem their image, the OPS has enacted various public complaint channels including the recent task by Chief Bordeleau which directed call centre staff to strongly encourage the public to utilize online crime reporting tools. However, these processes have been made hard to access leading to fewer complaints.

Societal improvement and progress are not achieved only by maintaining law and order but also through access to justice and fair treatment for the public. Just like ineffective policing cannot be tolerated, the police should not also block the road to justice.
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How the World's Oldest Assyrian Monastery Came Under Threat

Outside St Gabriel's Monastery, a fortress-like complex in rural southeast Turkey, monks and nuns scurry between prayer and farm work. Barley, olive trees and orchards all need tending to and minds are focused on the surrounding fields. Inside, guides offer tours in Turkish, but not English, or even Arabic -- the common parlance of many monastery residents and local Christians alike. Founded by two monks in 397, the monastery was once a major centre of Christian faith and learning in upper Mesopotamia. By the 6th century, more than 1,000 monks prayed here, worked the land and learned the Aramaic alphabet, the language spoken by Jesus Christ.

But it is the question of land that now sees St Gabriel's, the world's oldest Assyrian monastery, at the centre of discord with local villages and government bureaucrats that some say threaten its very existence. In 2014, the Turkish authorities returned to the monastery 14 parcels of land amounting to 61 acres, as part of the government's so-called "democratisation package". The process was the first step of its plan to fall in line with Ankara's EU accession requirements by handing back property taken decades ago from religious minorities across Turkey. At the time, the monastery welcomed that restitution as a "partial solution". However, ownership of a further 80 acres is today bitterly disputed. The state's forestry administration and three Kurdish villages ringing the isolated monastery say the land is theirs, and have fired off other serious accusations at St Gabriel's. The case is before the European Court of Human Rights. "Today the court process continues [and that means] the Kurdish farmers are not using the land," said an official at the monastery who asked not to be named because of the ongoing dispute. The Tur Abdin plateau on which St Gabriel's Monastery sits is home to dozens of churches and Christian sites in varying stages of decay and repair that, more than 1,000 years ago, made it the heartbeat of Assyrian Orthodoxy for the region. At its centre was St Gabriel's; once of such standing that it was feted with treasures by emperors in Rome. Today, the monastery holds within its walls three churches and a crypt where thousands of martyrs and saints are said to be buried. Over the centuries, it has been no stranger to turmoil. Its entire community was beheaded by invading Mongolian armies in the late 14th century. A century ago, during the massacres of about 1.5 million Armenian, Assyrian and other minorities by the Young Turk government, local Kurdish villagers occupied St Gabriel's and massacred anyone they found. That horror still undermines relations in the area today. More recently, with local Kurdish villages' demands for farmland intensifying, animosity has escalated between them and the 60 residents of St Gabriel's. At a court hearing over land ownership in 2009, one village leader claimed the monastery was involved in attempting to convert local children to Christianity. "So the state has begun to investigate these irrational assertions seriously and a court process has been launched with a whole bunch of such false claims," said the monastery official. This spring, the archbishop of Tur Abdin and monastery resident, Samuel Aktas, toured several local Assyrian villages to plead with locals to maintain peace with their Muslim neighbours. "The [court] process makes everyone worried, not only us Assyrians. But, of course, as a minority we are facing more problems," said a high-ranking cleric at St Gabriel's who believes its future is at risk. Some commentators have suggested the land dispute is being ignored by Ankara in retaliation for a campaign by international Assyrian groups for recognition of the 1915 massacre as genocide. The ongoing conflict between Turkey and rebel Kurds has also placed the monastery close to the geographic centre of longstanding political violence. Five people were killed in a suspected separatist bomb attack on a police station in Midyat, 22km northwest of St Gabriel's, last June. Military checkpoints around the monastery are a common sight. Several years ago, the monastery was closed to visitors because of the Kurdish unrest and though it has since reopened, come 4.30pm each day, its black, cast iron doors are bolted shut for the night. The Turkish authorities say the painstaking process of returning property to Christian and other minorities shows it has embraced a new chapter of inclusivity. Under the AK Party government, more than 1,000 religious sites and land plots that a century ago belonged to Jewish, Greek, Assyrian and Armenian communities have been returned to their respective foundations, and some are once again being used for worship. Questions regarding the St Gabriel's land dispute posed via phone and email to the directorate general for foundations, the state body responsible for returning property, went unanswered. Across the flat plains surrounding St Gabriel's as a soft breeze blows, the most conspicuous sight is of the fortified stone walls erected around the monastery's property. They are an uncommon though telling barrier in a part of Turkey where disputes over land look set to colour relations for years to come.
iStock/Thinkstock(WASHINGTON) -- Hundreds of demonstrators gathered Wednesday in New York City, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco to protest President Donald Trump's ban on transgender service members in the military.



The protests came just hours after Trump announced the ban on Twitter.



The president did not specify what the ban would mean for currently serving transgender soldiers.



Below, a round-up of the protests across the country.



NEW YORK CITY

Hundreds of protesters -- many carrying signs that read "Resist!" -- descended upon the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square to denounce the ban.

LIVE: Protesters gather in Times Square to rally against the ban on transgender people in the military. https://t.co/3AM6xwvDsy pic.twitter.com/ZIRs6zbuBX  Eyewitness News (@ABC7NY) July 26, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO

Protesters assembled in at least two locations in San Francisco Wednesday evening to speak out against the ban.



Several hundred protesters gathered at the citys Harvey Milk Plaza -- named after the gay rights icon and the countrys first openly gay elected official -- and urged those in attendance to stand up and fight back."



Some demonstrators waved pink and blue flags, while others held signs.



LOS ANGELES



Protesters, including transgender veterans, gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood. Some carried signs that read "Proud Trans Vet" and "LGBT Solidarity."



The ACLU of Southern California said it will sue the Trump administration to stop the ban if it actually becomes policy.

"Everyone is heartbroken!"



Transgender vets speak at @LALGBTCenter after @realDonaldTrump tweets they should be banned from the military. pic.twitter.com/ySIJsy02kU  Elex Michaelson (@abc7elex) July 27, 2017





.@ACLU_SoCal says if @realDonaldTrump turns his tweets about transgender people into actual policy, they'll sue to stop it. pic.twitter.com/mQHzoLHcfC  Elex Michaelson (@abc7elex) July 27, 2017

WASHINGTON, D.C.

More than a hundred people gathered at the White House, including some transgender service members and veterans who said they were "shocked" and "angry when they first heard about the ban.



"I was actually really shocked and angry. I dont know how he came to that conclusion so fast, Kara Zajac, a transgender woman and a Navy veteran, told ABC affiliate WJLA-TV.



The previous administration came up with a sensible plan for allowing transgender people to openly serve, and that plan needs to be openly respected, Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, director of external relations for the National Center for Transgender Equality, told the crowd.



Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
July 26, 2017

MOSUL, Iraq  The Islamic State (IS) issued many decrees when it took over Mosul in 2014, including one that banned barbers. As one might imagine, with the recent liberation of the city many men of Mosul  with their three years' worth of hair growth  are heading out for a shave and a haircut.

Barbershops are sprouting once again  albeit carefully because of the possible threat of remaining IS cells. Returning to a somewhat normal life in Mosul, which was liberated July 10 from the clutches of IS, is a difficult process. Thousands of displaced people are returning to their homes amid large-scale devastation and the stifling fear and culture of prohibition that IS left behind.

Today, the young people of Mosul seek to rid themselves of long beards, get proper haircuts and shake the weight of IS off their shoulders.

Barbershops are not yet in full swing due to economic and security reasons, according to Safaa Mohammed, a barber from the eastern part of Mosul. IS severely punished men who did not commit to growing their beards, or who drank alcohol, smoked cigarettes or went out with women who were not accompanied by an escort. The punishment ranged from prison to flogging and fines.

In one of the organizations punishment campaigns, 40 clean-shaven men were led off to IS prisons in September 2016.

Mohammed, who recently resumed work, told Al-Monitor IS destroyed his shop and it was very expensive to restore. He added that the turnout of customers is still low in some areas, especially on the west side of town, which was only freed very recently.

Despite the liberation of the city of Mosul, extremist elements are still present in dormant cells. The security situation is not well-established yet, and we still receive anonymous threats either via text messages or written letters left on our doors over the way we dress and how we cut our hair. We sometimes find threats in red writing on the walls of our shops, Mohammed said.

In addition to the volatile security situation, Mohammed said the dire economic situation has prevented many men from visiting barbershops. Instead, they cut their hair at home.

However, Mohammed refuses to close down his shop. He believes if people succumb to threats, the situation will remain the same. Sooner or later, life will go back to normal. We just have to hang in there for a while, he said.

Ahmad Rasem is also a barber, but he visits his clients at their homes to offer his services for a pittance. He is noticing a reversal of men's concern about their appearance.

Many clients prefer to fully shave their beard and cut their hair short so they do not raise any suspicions because of their looks, as people [otherwise] might think they are affiliated with IS, Rasem told Al-Monitor.

Commenting on threats to barbers, Rasem said, Not every barber receives death threats, except those who live in neighborhoods where security forces are not heavily present. I learned that the Iraqi army intelligence tracked down phone numbers to the owners who were sending threatening texts and arrested many of them.

He added, However, many people, regardless of their profession  are being threatened by extremists. But the people of Mosul will forge their way into normal life despite everything."

IS brought with it many other fatwas to Syria and Iraq in 2014. One forbade girls from wearing jeans or sweaters, requiring instead the Islamic abaya and burqa. The group also forbade women to wear makeup, or smoke cigarettes or hookahs. Women had to close up their sewing shops and hair salons if men were present.

Anyone using the term Daesh, which the group considers an insult, instead of the name Islamic State received 70 lashes or worse.

The same conditions existed in Baghdad before 2008 when al-Qaeda operated in secret, sending anonymous threats to stores that sold liquor or cigarettes, as well as barbershops.

Therefore, citizens believe it is imperative for security forces in the city to track down any remaining IS cells and lone attackers who are expected to do as much damage as possible to show strength after their defeat.
July 27, 2017

CAIRO  When Hala Fawzi, a resident of the Nile island of al-Warraq, left home to buy food, she never expected that she would return to find her home reduced to a pile of rubble. My four children were inside the house. The neighbors saved them before security forces began the demolitions, she said.

In the early hours of July 16, the residents of the island woke up to see police and army forces implementing a government decision to remove what the state described as unlicensed buildings and illegal use of state-owned land.

Most of the islanders were asleep when the forces first arrived to begin attempts to execute 700 building demolition orders. Residents quickly came together to defend their homes, and clashes broke out with policemen who fired bullets and tear gas. Sayed al-Tafshan, 23, was killed, while 19 others were injured, according to a statement by the Ministry of Health. A statement from the Interior Ministry noted that 37 policemen had been injured.

Hala and her family are now homeless. She lives with her husband, Shaaban  a manual laborer who has been unable to speak since the incident and has stopped working  her elderly mother-in-law and children under the new al-Warraq Bridge project executed by the government.

We don't know what to do. My son bought his home eight years ago and now they want to kick him and his children out, said Shukria, the mother-in-law.

Following Tafshans death, security forces withdrew and the government announced the postponement of demolition orders until further notice. Police arrested 10 protesters, according to a statement on July 16 by the Interior Ministry.

Commenting on the arrests, lawyer Mohamed Hanafi told Al-Monitor, On July 16, the police arrested four people during the clashes, four others from among those injured and transported to the Nile Hospital, in addition to 10 people at night who had participated in the funeral procession of Tafshan. The public prosecution pressed legal charges against them, accusing them of possession of weapons, assaulting police forces and preventing a public official from performing his duties. The prosecutor decided to keep them detained for investigation.

Al-Warraq island is located in the center of the Nile River and administratively falls under the Giza governorate. It is inhabited by around 90,000 residents who work in agriculture, fishing and various crafts. The island has a hospital, police station, post office, water station and three public schools. The islanders complain about poor sanitation sewage networks and contaminated drinking water.

The governor of Giza, Maj. Gen. Mohamed Kamal al-Daly, announced in a statement July 17, a day after the clashes when police forces executed 30 out of the 700 demolition orders, that the inhabited properties were not approached, even though some are built on state lands.

But the residents of al-Warraq denied this. Umm Abeer, who owns a house on the island, 40 meters (131 feet) from the Nile bank, told Al-Monitor that when she first saw the security forces she rushed to an army officer to tell him that her house was licensed; the officer assured her that instructions were issued not to demolish any inhabited property.

But only a few minutes later, we started hearing screams from inside homes. They were demolishing houses over the heads of residents, she said.

She confirmed that she has a legal document proving her ownership of her house, which she bought three years ago, just like a large number of residents of the island, including her sister who lives nearby. This is the land of our ancestors, not the states land, Umm Abeer said.

Indeed, the residents claim they were not informed of the demolition order and accuse the government of planning to evict them from their homes to sell the island to investors.

The government denies its intention to evict islanders to establish investment projects, but media reports showed recently that Dubai-based RSP architecture firm has published on its website a plan to develop al-Warraq island without disclosing any information about its client.

Ambassador Ashraf Sultan, the official spokesman for Egypts Presidency of the Council of Ministers, told Al-Monitor, The government has no plans so far to develop the island or to establish investment projects on its territories, asserting that the demolition decisions aim to lift infringements on state lands and cover uninhabited buildings.

Yasser Gamal, a craftsman, described the situation to Al-Monitor, saying, Police forces blockaded the island on July 16, prevented pipelines from pumping gas and cut off electricity. They also tried to confiscate the Nile boats  the only means of transportation from and to the island  but they were stopped by residents.

Gamal showed Al-Monitor his grandfathers identity card stating that he was born on the island in 1885. I was born on this land. We have owned this land for more than 100 years, he said.

The 1,300-acre island has been witnessing a longstanding conflict between its inhabitants and the state. In 2000, former Egyptian Prime Minister Atef Ebeid had decided to turn the islands of al-Warraq and Dahab into public property, but the State Council settled the issue and confirmed the inhabitants right to their land in 2002.

The conflict resurfaced when President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi called on the government to recover state-owned land from squatters in May, and he specifically tasked the army and police to do so.

In a June 7 speech at a conference held on the elimination of illegal buildings on state lands on the Nile islands, specifically al-Warraq island, the president said, People are illegally building houses on a Nile island of more than 1,250 acres of land  whose name I wont mention. Slums are built there. No one is supposed to be on these islands. This must be treated as a priority.

Prime Minister Sherif Ismail decided June 15 to exempt 17 islands from being subject to Prime Minister Decision No. 1969 of 1998 classifying the Nile islands, including al-Warraq, as nature reserves, and set a plan for their development.

This brought back fears of reviving the 2010 plan for the development of the Nile islands, which was prepared within the scope of the strategic urban development plan of the greater Cairo region: Cairo vision 2050.

Al-Warraq islanders, including those who elected Sisi, refuse to leave their homes and land. Ashraf Saleh, who owns a house on the island, told Al-Monitor, They said that Sayed al-Tafshan was a terrorist and a thief. He was just a daily wage worker. He was so poor that he was buried in a collective grave at a cemetery since his family does not have a burial lot.

A resident of al-Warraq island told Al-Monitor his brother is being prosecuted by security forces for taking this issue to the media. He said on condition of anonymity, Why did they kill Sayed? He was defending women in their homes. When he refused to stop protecting them, the officer fired at him and killed him.

On July 24, the state-run news agency issued a statement saying, Campaigns to remove encroachment on state lands are continuing and will not stop, stressing the states determination to recover all looted lands.

There were no instructions to attack any residents on the island, though they have built their homes in violation of the law, the statement continued.

Since al-Warraq islanders obtained a judicial ruling in their favor in 2002, resorting to a court of law could be an option again this time.
July 25, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  The owners of beach resorts on the coast of the Gaza Strip are complaining that the municipalities have increased the rental prices for land along the coast. Temporary vacation lodges are built there each summer, offering a rare escape for citizens from the summer heat and power outages that have reached 20 hours per day.

At the start of this summer season, the largest municipality in the Strip, the Municipality of Gaza, set rent for resort owners at $35,000 for the summer season, which starts in early May and ends at the end of October. The amount is very high compared to what the municipalities charged under the Palestinian Authority before 2007, according to Hatem al-Sheikh Khalil, the director of the Public Relations Department in the Municipality of Gaza. The fees at the time did not exceed $2,000 for the entire summer.

The beach resorts are temporary wooden structures built directly on the shores, their palm-thatched roofs covering the bare ground in units of 30 by 60 meters (100 by 200 feet). The lodges offer tents made of fabric and palm branches as well as tables and umbrellas for rent.

Khalil told Al-Monitor there is only one lodge this year on this municipality's beach. There were four last year and 18 before Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.

The only remaining lodge is called the Ghoroub, Houssam, Alaa and Marina Resort. The name combines those of four distinct resorts that had operated separately in previous years. Their owners decided to merge them this year to afford the expenses imposed by the municipality.

Shareholder Ramadan Malaka told Al-Monitor, The increase in the rental prices of a coastal piece of land has wrecked the summer season and led to soaring prices of services offered to vacationers like umbrellas, food and drinks. He sees the increase of rental prices as part of Hamas efforts to collect more money from citizens during the financial crisis plaguing Gaza.

Malaka said that in 2014, renting a piece of land to build a lodge cost $15,000, and in 2015, the price rose to $20,000. It reached $25,000 in 2016 and $35,000 in 2017. He added, The price of a beverage increased from 3 shekels to 7 shekels [$0.84-$2], while the rental price of a tent for one day rose from 30 shekels to 100 shekels [$8.50-$28]. Customers could not afford to pay this much, and many of them would leave after discovering the prices.

Mohammad Naim took his family for a summer vacation on the beach, but chose to brave the summer heat rather than rent a tent on the beach due to its high price.

Naim told Al-Monitor, During the summers in previous years, I would camp with my family for several days in these lodges. But this year, the vacation season is at its worst. I only went to the resort once due to the high prices. I prefer to spend my vacation on the open beach, without renting a tent or an umbrella to protect us from the sun.

The beach vacation industry once offered Gaza's unemployed youth dozens of job opportunities. But after the municipalities increased the rental prices, the jobs fell off, as did the wages.

Malaka said, The four resorts that operated during the last summer season employed around 200 workers, but after they were merged into one lodge in 2017, barely 40 workers were kept. He noted that the most a worker can now earn is 700 shekels ($197) per month, compared to 1,000-1,200 shekels ($281-$338) in previous years.

Khalil said that the municipality raised rents so it can pay its 80 employees in charge of cleaning the beaches after the vacationers leave. Each of those employees receive a monthly salary of 1,400 shekels ($394).

Khalil does not believe the prices are the only factor the resorts are dwindling and fewer Gazans are vacationing there. He pointed out that another important issue is the sea pollution, with sewage contaminating 73% of Gaza's beaches, in addition to the power outages, both of which have discouraged vacationers.

Alaa al-Kurd, another partner in the only resort on the beach, said that the municipality provides no services to the lodges or vacationers. He told Al-Monitor, Our workers, not the municipalitys, clean the shore. The municipality does not offer any services or public facilities to vacationers on the beach like lighting or restrooms and showers. Resorts offer these services at their own expense.

He added, The municipality only pumps sewage onto the beach and ruins peoples good time. It has wrecked the summer season for resort owners.

He noted that the fee that resorts pay to municipalities does not include expenses like water and electricity in Gaza, where the power outages are constant. Kurd said that he pays an extra 500 shekels ($140) a day to supply water and buy the fuel needed to run generators.
July 27, 2017

After reports that opposition leader Mehdi Karroubi became ill and needed medical care, four Iranian parliamentarians requested to visit the former parliament speaker who has been under house arrest since 2011.

According to Tehran parliament member Ahmad Mazani, a member of the Reformist Central Council of Hope, the parliament members felt that visiting Karroubi would be in the interests of the country. Karroubi, along with Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mousavis wife, Zahra Rahnavard, were put under house arrest for challenging the outcome of the 2009 presidential election. Mousavi was prime minister during the 1980s. Their call for street protests against Mahmoud Ahmadinejads re-election brought about the countrys biggest internal crisis since the post-revolutionary era.

Mazani said, A lot of time has passed since the environment of 2009, and we have to create an environment  that continues the path of win-win of 2013 [President Hassan Rouhanis election]. He called on the judiciary and Rouhani, as head of the Supreme National Security Council, to help secure the meeting in order to resolve differences about their house arrest. He added that a few parliament members had held meetings with those who can help, though he did not say whom.

Mazani said that parliamentarians represent the people and that during the last two elections people had expressed hope to see the issues of the house arrests come to an end. During the 2013 election, Rouhani was very vocal about his calls to end the house arrests of Mousavi and Karroubi. Though it has never been stated explicitly, it is believed Rouhani had made attempts to mediate a release, though both Mousavi and Karroubi refused to repent or promise to cease their protests. In May 2017, a reporter asked Rouhani why he has never spoken transparently about the issue of the house arrests or the efforts for their release. He replied with a vague answer about references to the law and his ill-fated Citizens Rights Charter.

Irans Health Minister Hassan Ghazizadeh Hashemi said that Karroubi checked into the hospital after having heart trouble. He noted that he visited Karroubi twice and that he is doing well and will be released from the hospital shortly.

According to Mousavis daughters, the former prime minister is also not feeling well. The daughters claim that he has fluctuating blood pressure and suffers from dizziness. Mousavi reportedly needs his wife to accompany him wherever he walks due to concerns he may fall from dizziness.

The news about the ill health of the two opposition leaders has renewed calls for their release. Iranian parliamentarian Ali Motahari tweeted that Karroubis health problems and stay in the hospital are a good opportunity to end the sad tale of his house arrest. Many other people tweeted about Karroubi with the hashtag #sonofAhmad in Persian. The hashtag was derived from Karroubis famous comments in which he said, I am Mehid Karroubi, son of Ahmad, and I will not retreat. Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former vice president under Mohammad Khatami, tweeted, If you want to put loyalty, kindness and bravery in a short term, it is Mehdi Karroubi.
July 26, 2017

In her book "Qur'an and Woman: Rereading the Sacred Text from a Woman's Perspective," pioneering Muslim feminist Amina Wadud writes, What concerns me most about 'traditional' tafasir [interpretations of the Quran] is that they were exclusively written by males. This means that men and men's experiences were included and women and women's experiences were either excluded or interpreted through the male vision, perspective, desire or needs of a woman.

For many who agree with Wadud, the active participation of women in the interpretation of Islamic scripture is necessary to transform the current patriarchal ambience in Islam. Throughout Islamic history, women have never been systematically trained in religious studies. The majority of Shiite religious scholars also consider masculinity an essential requirement for being a grand ayatollah or marja al-taqlid (source of emulation), which is the highest religious authority in Shiite Islam. Within the last few decades, however, things have changed in an unprecedented manner.

Perhaps the most extensive institutional change is underway in Iran. Its scale is stunning: In 2016, 70,000 women studied at more than 500 seminary schools nationwide. More than 90,000 women have graduated from these seminaries, excluding women who study various disciplines of religious studies at hundreds of other institutes of tertiary education. In Tehran province alone, more than 1,600 new students will be admitted into 52 seminary schools the next academic year.

But will these developments improve the situation of women in Iran and result in a more egalitarian attitude toward women in traditional seminaries?

A cursory look at the composition of members of the Policy-Making Council for the Womens Seminaries  the highest authority overseeing womens seminaries in Iran  attests to the contrary. Only three of the 16 council members are female. Moreover, many if not most of the managers of seminary schools are male. In addition, female seminarians are being trained in the same patriarchal views that have long been the norm. Therefore, graduates of these centers have hardly been involved in the activism or debates for womens rights in Iran.

More importantly, the curriculum of the women's seminaries varies significantly from those of men; the womens curriculum is designed for training preachers rather than scholars and, therefore, does not provide mastery of classical legal texts and other expertise required for being recognized as an independent Sharia authority (mujtahid) among the community of traditional jurists. Rather, womens courses concentrate more on those materials that are considered necessary for women in the role of a mother or wife. Indeed, of the 90 textbooks used at intermediate-level studies at womens seminaries, only two overlap with that of male counterparts.

The reason behind the differentiation of the curriculum is partly because men want to maintain their monopoly over the interpretation of holy texts as their own prerogative. This sense of ownership of legitimate readings of Islam has excluded other guilds of religious experts too. For example, while there are hundreds of Sharia experts at modern academic institutes, they have never been able to find their way into higher religious positions, which are normally occupied by those trained at the traditional seminaries.

This exclusionary approach has, however, proved to be unsustainable. Indeed, the very gender roles and ethics that have justified the differentiation of the curricula  including gender segregation  are in themselves instrumental in their failure. For instance, to avoid the intermingling of the sexes in the educational space, women have had to undertake the responsibility for teaching. Thus, the need for advanced courses to train teachers emerged. Only a few years after the establishment of the Womens Seminaries in August 1984 did hundreds of students enroll in these advanced courses. Moreover, as there was heavy pressure from female graduates for more access to high-level religious knowledge, the ground was paved for the introduction of advanced materials.

At present, there are three different levels of admissions: the general level (equivalent to a bachelor's degree), the secondary level (equivalent to a master's degree) and the advanced level (equivalent to a doctoral degree). While in the early years of the establishment of womens seminaries, less than 5% of the intermediate instructors were female, the figure has increased to more than 95%. At the 2015 National Research Festival of the Seminaries (also known as the Festival of Allameh Hilli), both the majority of the participants and the winners in all provinces except Qom were female. Furthermore, in October 2015, 15,000 graduates of womens seminaries were employed by the Ministry of Education, 10,000 were working as instructors/tutors at seminary schools and more than 8,000 were employed as administrative personnel. There are thousands of other employment opportunities for women at other seminary-affiliated centers.

The extensive participation of women in seminary education in the last decade has been partly due to the fact that ultra-religious families have been increasingly avoiding enrollment in public, mixed-sex universities due to their relatively liberal atmosphere. These families also generally hold an unfavorable view of the employment of women in mixed spaces  meaning that even if secular training is pursued at universities, there are few opportunities at the increasingly liberal common workplaces. These considerations do not apply to single-sex seminaries, where not only is the overall space arranged in accordance with orthodox beliefs, but where graduates can also find employment in the same safe havens. In addition, regardless of career considerations, the very acquisition of Islamic knowledge is seen as valuable in itself.

Overall, considering the relatively short history of the institution of the womens seminary compared to the almost 1,000-year-old mens seminary, one has to avoid early judgment of the effects and capacities of the former. No matter how much female seminarians embrace or pronounce gender equality, they are already creating a parallel  and undeniably powerful  religious authority that is increasingly becoming independent of mens intrusions and therefore reflects womens empowerment.
July 27, 2017

The Israeli-Palestinian dispute, a national conflict that risks turning into a religious war, has added five Israelis and four Palestinians to its list of victims over the past two weeks. Israel, long perceived as an island of stability in a stormy sea, is looking increasingly like a sinking raft. Drunk with power, it is evolving from being a strategic asset in the global fight against Islamic zealotry and terrorism into a provider of top-grade material for sedition by global jihad. When its inebriation with power erupts at sites holy to both Judaism and Islam, it provides excellent incendiary material for the zealots.

Ben Caspit raised the chilling prospect that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliberately delayed removing the metal detectors from the Temple Mount on July 25 to feed the flames and divert public and media attention away from the growing tide of police investigations against him. However, not a single policeman went after Netanyahu in 1996, when he approved the opening of the Western Wall tunnels  a mistake that cost the lives of 17 Israelis and dozens of Palestinians. Caspit wondered whether Netanyahu was afraid that removing the metal detectors from the Temple Mount would be interpreted as a display of weakness and push right-wing voters into the arms of HaBayit HaYehudi Chairman Naftali Bennett. But Bennetts party had not even been born in 2010 when Netanyahu flexed his muscles at Turkey and embroiled Israel in the imbroglio of the Mavi Marmara  a flotilla that sought to break the Israeli-imposed blockade of the Gaza Strip.

One cannot discount the possibility that the corruption probes and right-wing pressure affected Netanyahus judgment. However, the installation of the metal detectors (following the July 14 shooting death at the site of two Israeli policemen) was not a momentary lapse, the result of personal or political circumstances. Israels top defense and diplomacy professionals, such as the heads of the military, the Shin Bet and the foreign service, have failed time and again in their efforts to minimize the damage of the occupation and the stalemate with the Palestinians and to limit the influence of political and personal considerations on government decision-making. The Temple Mount crisis exposes a fundamental flaw in the system of checks and balances at the top echelons of power  an essential element in a violent conflict and loss of hope for its resolution.

Absent a full-time foreign minister (Netanyahu serves also in that capacity), there is no one at the Cabinet level with the expertise and prestige to present the regional and international implications of a move such as undermining the fragile status quo on the Temple Mount. The contribution of Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman at such events focuses on incitement against Arab Knesset members. Liberman astonished the security establishment when declaring July 23 that Israel can manage without security coordination with the Palestinian Authority. Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan is proving repeatedly to have a fondness for pyromania. He turned a series of wildfires (November 2016) into a wave of nationalistic terror acts (police did not corroborate this assumption); he declared that an Israeli Bedouin teacher shot to death by police was an activist of the Islamic State. He took the opportunity of a reception for US President Donald Trump in May to tell the guest about a supposed terror attack that had already been ruled by police to be a traffic accident.

Police Commissioner Roni Alsheikh, a former West Bank settler, is competing with Erdan to see who shoots faster from the hip. The latest example was his decision to install the metal detectors at the Temple Mount, without coordinating such a potentially explosive move with the sites Muslim custodians (Waqf). In discussions July 19, two days before the horrifying murder of the Solomon family at their home in the Halamish settlement, the Shin Bet and the military recommended removing the contentious devices and finding a face-saving solution to the crisis. As was the case with the building permits for the expansion of the West Bank Palestinian town of Qalqilya earlier this year, the recommendation by the professionals to approve the plan was shelved.

A similar fate befell the reservations expressed by the Shin Bet over the November 2015 decision to outlaw the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel. Then-Shin Bet chief Yoram Cohen warned against the move, saying it would strengthen the organization, make it harder to monitor its activists and those whom it incites, and limit the ability to foil terror attacks. The security Cabinet did not heed Cohens advice (including the defense minister at the time, Moshe Yaalon).

And, in fact, the Shin Bet did not get wind of the plot hatched by three Arab residents of the town of Umm al-Fahm, where the northern branch is headquartered, to murder the two police officers at the gates to the Temple Mount on July 14. The three members of the Jabarin family managed to stockpile deadly weapons, case the scene of the crime and plan the execution uninterruptedly. They were motivated by the religious-nationalist incitement washing over the biggest Arab town in central Israel, in which the head of the Islamic Movement, Sheikh Raed Salah, has been involved for years.

A neighbor of the three terrorists, Khaled Faur, told Shlomi Eldar that since the decision to outlaw the northern branch, the movement had not been openly active in the towns mosques, yet he did not discount the possibility of clandestine activities. The towns residents, including religious ones, had not detected any sign pointing to radicalization by the three Jabarin family members. This is not the fault of the residents of Umm al-Fahm. The blame lies squarely with the populist, negligent politicians who pushed the Islamic Movement underground.

Last year, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, an address by the deputy chief of staff, Maj. Gen. Yair Golan, generated anger on the political right. The general dared say that if there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes that developed in Europe  particularly in Germany  70, 80 and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here among us in the year 2016.

He continued, On Holocaust Remembrance Day, it is worthwhile to ponder our capacity to uproot the first signs of intolerance, violence and self-destruction that arise on the path to moral degradation.

Directing a barely veiled hint at the political echelons, Golan said, There is nothing easier and simpler than fear-mongering and threatening. There is nothing easier and simpler than in behaving like beasts, becoming morally corrupt, and sanctimoniousness. Two months ago, Golan retired. He knew there was no hope of being named the next chief of staff. This government prefers obedient false prophets to brave prophets of truth.

There are no indications of sobriety on the horizon, nor any signs that anyone is checking into rehab to treat the addiction to power. As long as the occupation continues, the next terror attack is only a matter of time. As long as the current government is in power, we can rest assured that instead of measured damage control, the next terror attack will result in another local crisis, accompanied by regional shockwaves and additional erosion of Israels strategic position.
July 27, 2017

This is a celebratory and important moment, declared Tourism Minister Yariv Levin of the Likud Party July 26 at the first debate in preparation for the first reading of the controversial nationality bill. Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked of HaBayit HaYehudi added her own dose of pomposity when she pronounced the proposed law historic and proclaimed, It will remain with us for eternity. The debate itself, however, held in the spacious Negev Hall of the Knesset, was far from celebratory. It was the last day of the Knessets summer session, and emotions were running hot  around the conference table and not far from there at the Temple Mount compound.

The charged debate, which included fierce conflicts between Arab Knesset members and their colleagues on the right, succinctly reflected the violent anti-Israel atmosphere on the Arab street, in the West Bank and Gaza and around the Muslim world since the murder of two Border Police officers on the Temple Mount July 14 and the ensuing installation of metal detectors (since removed) at the entrance to the compound.

It seems there could not have been a more appropriate debate to end the Knessets 2017 summer session, which will be recalled primarily for the advancement of anti-democratic, nationalist and divisive legislative initiatives put forward by the governing coalition at the direction of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. The Nationality Law, approved in May by the Ministerial Committee for Legislation, was the cherry on top for Netanyahus right-wing coalition. Netanyahu sought to pass it on the first reading (out of the three obligatory readings) at the session that ended yesterday, but encountered an obstacle in the Knessets legal adviser, Eyal Yinon, who determined that significant legislation cannot be rushed.

The current version of the law was advanced by Avi Dichter, the chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Security Committee. It is meant to anchor in law the Jewish character of the State of Israel. Its opponents argue that such a move would come at the expense of the democratic values of the state and its treatment of minorities, foremost among them the Arab minority.

One of the main arguments against the proposed law is that it contradicts Israel's declaration of independence, the 1948 founding document of Jewish sovereignty in the Land of Israel, which enshrines the value of equality as the highest goal while establishing Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people. According to former Justice Minister Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Camp, the legislation is a death certificate for the declaration of independence. Isaac Herzog, chairman of the opposition, expressed his disagreement with the government, stating, You are lighting a fire here that will tear the state to pieces.

Netanyahu had planned to attend the debate, held by a special committee established at his instruction, but announced at the last minute that he would not be able to attend because of security discussions. It was supposed to have been an important moment in the prime minister's national pride campaign, on which he intends to run in the next election. The legislation is popular among right-wing voters and could help him in competing against Naftali Bennett, the chairman of HaBayit HaYehudi.

Things almost spun out of control in the debate hall, with more than the usual number of Knesset members being ejected from the debate. Levin conveyed a message in Netanyahus name: Theres a very big test here, thats also personal, for every single Knesset member, especially for the [newly] elected chairman of the Labor Party, Avi Gabbay, and the chairman of Yesh Atid, Yair Lapid. You will be tested here on deeds and not words. This bit of intentional manipulation was meant to portray the center-left parties, Yesh Atid and the Zionist Camp (of which Labor is the main partner), as in line with the predominantly Arab Joint List. It further inflamed the discussion.

Joint List Chair Ayman Odeh responded angrily, No racist law can rewrite history and facts. We are sons of this homeland and have no other home. No apartheid law could erase the fact that there are two people here. Only a crazy state acts like this.

That was not the end of the events that raged that day at the Knesset. In the afternoon, Bennett addressed the plenum, hurling harsh accusations at Arab Knesset members, accusing, You know that the Temple Mount is open, blood spilled, and you are silent. You prefer to rub your hands in glee and look on from the sidelines.  Where is your leadership?  You are party to a blood libel against Israel. Ahmad Tibi of the Joint List of predominantly Arab parties responded, Every time theres a crisis, theres a competition between Bennett and Netanyahu that causes blood to be spilled.

Netanyahu missed this debate as well, but participated in the vicious discourse from his office, speaking to his associates and sending messages to his entourage. All this was in order to lessen the public relations damage he suffered after caving on the Temple Mount crisis in the face of pressure from the Arab world, deciding to dismantle the metal detectors. Instead of acting like the adult in the room and calming tempers, the prime minister announced that he would promote the Greater Jerusalem Law introduced by Transportation Minister Israel Katz. According to the bill, the municipal boundaries of the city will be expanded to annex several adjoining local authorities to alter its demographic balance and add Jewish residents.

A few hours later in a Facebook post, Netanyahu attacked Al Jazeera, which according to him, doesnt stop inciting violence around the Temple Mount. He said that he had spoken with law enforcement officials several times, asking them to shut down the networks bureau in Jerusalem, and threatened, If this doesnt happen because of legal interpretations, Ill work to legislate the necessary laws in order to expel Al Jazeera from Israel. It may be that we are witnessing the birth of another piece of legislation that will only add fuel to the fire of the ongoing conflict in advance of the Knesset's winter session, which opens in October.
July 27, 2017

Israeli security agencies have prepared a package of sanctions against the Palestinian Authority [PA] if it turns out that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the heads of his Fatah movement are pushing the Palestinians into a clash with Israel in the West Bank, an Israeli defense source has told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

Israel is closely monitoring preparations by the Tanzim, Fatah's armed wing, for Muslim Friday prayers on July 28. Although Israel has removed the contentious metal detectors from the entrance to Jerusalems Haram al-Sharif compound, it appears that Abbas and the other leaders in his movement are not interested in restoring calm and are instead openly calling for an escalation.

Israeli officials believe that senior PA officials, especially from the dominant Fatah faction, have interpreted Israels removal of the magnetometers in the face of international and regional pressure as a sign of weakness on Israels part and are unwilling to stop the momentum they have gathered.

Tanzim leaders convened July 26 in Ramallah, the seat of the PA in the West Bank, and adopted a unanimous decision to instigate clashes with Israeli troops. They have designated the events planned as Jumat al-Miyadin (Town Square Friday) and are not only calling on Palestinians to hold public demonstrations, but is also providing them with the means to ensure a mass turnout to confront Israeli forces at roadblocks erected at the entrance to Palestinian towns.

This is a dramatic shift for Abbas, who has always been considered an advocate of nonviolence. Fatah leaders insist the protests are part of a popular struggle, but no one really believes that mass demonstrations will not deteriorate into violence. Not only that, but Israeli security officials are convinced that the PAs goal is to inflame public sentiment, thereby buttressing Abbas standing as a leader of the protest and not as a pawn unwillingly dragged along.

After years during which the movement was considered defunct, unable to motivate the Palestinians who had grown tired of leaders they perceived as corrupt, Fatah enjoys the feeling that its calls are suddenly being heeded, said the Israeli source, who believes Fatah is wrong to expect that thousands will heed its call. Even if only several hundred come out and clash with soldiers at the roadblocks, it could result in bloodshed, and it will be their fault.

As previously reported by Al-Monitor, Israel has detected clear signs that since taking office earlier this year, Abbas deputy, Mahmoud al-Aloul, has been pushing the Tanzim to confront Israeli troops at roadblocks, and instead of reining him in, Abbas is getting in line with the radical voices emanating from his movement. Along with the head of Fatah's armed wing, Jamal Mhissen, and Tawfiq Tirawi, the former PA intelligence chief and current Abbas adviser on security affairs, Aloul took part in the Tanzim meeting in Ramallah that called on Palestinians to clash with the forces of the Israeli occupation.

After seeing top Fatah figures led by Tirawi openly promoting clashes with Israel, the Israelis have come to the foregone conclusion that this time, the Palestinian president is the one seeking an escalation with Israel for domestic political reasons. The security source said that even before the Tanzim meeting, Abbas had chosen to encourage protests and called on Palestinians to take to the streets, appealing directly to residents of East Jerusalem, where Al-Aqsa Mosque is located, as if they were soldiers on a battlefield. At a Fatah leadership meeting held July 25 in Ramallah, he was emotional, declaring, You did the right thing. You stood up as one, and we, the Palestinian leadership, support you and everything you do.

Israel has noted that Abbas did not use the past tense in his offer of support, interpreting his comments as a call to keep up the good work, dont stop. At that same meeting, Abbas once again pulled out the international weapon he likes to wield, threatening an appeal to UN bodies and other international organizations, including the International Criminal Court in The Hague. The Israeli source said Abbas threat violates his pledge to Jason Greenblatt, President Donald Trumps Middle East envoy, to withdraw all his demands for international sanctions against Israel to generate a climate conducive for the start of US-mediated negotiations with the Israelis.

Town Square Friday will be a test for all the players on the Al-Aqsa pitch. The security source suggests Abbas may be playing both sides. Publicly he gives his people the sense that he is leading a religious, national struggle against Israel, but in fact, his security forces will react as they recently have, diverting the protests a safe distance from Israeli roadblocks. Nonetheless, the source said, with Fatah stirring up public sentiment, the prospects of being able to stop in time before they spiral out of control are not good.

Friday will also test Abbas mettle in regard to the Fatah forces seeking to drag him inexorably into an escalation with Israel. Judging by his declarations, Abbas is indeed heading toward escalation, though unwillingly. Friday also presents a challenge for Israel. Will it be able to ignore the PAs open support for a call to arms?

According to Israeli security assessments, if Fatah and Tanzim activists sense that Israel is helpless in the face of their provocations, their appetite for confrontation will grow. As far as security officials are concerned, Israel must draw a line and make clear that it will not stand for further violence. That is why the government has already updated emergency procedures for dealing with a recalcitrant PA that fails to understand that its leaders are playing with fire.
July 26, 2017

Lebanon is pushing back against US pressure on Hezbollah for fear that efforts from the Donald Trump administration and Congress could destabilize the fragile state.

The Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) face the prospect of losing all military assistance under the State Department's fiscal year 2018 budget request, while Congress is taking new action to expand sanctions on Hezbollah. The cuts to the Foreign Military Financing (FMF) program would hit the country particularly hard, as the LAF, with the help of Hezbollah, is securing the war-torn Syrian border from the Islamic State (IS), al-Qaeda and other militants.

Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri is in Washington this week to lobby against both threats.

I will be going to the Congress tomorrow and talking to both parties and I believe that there are already enough sanctions on Lebanon and in the banking sector, Hariri told Al-Monitor today following his remarks at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. We need to immediately explain to Congress why this is important  and we will do that and Im confident Congress will hopefully listen to some of the remarks that well have.

The prime minister is also urging Trump to reconsider his aid cuts. Last year, the Barack Obama administration requested $105 million in military assistance for the Lebanese army.

"Though these cuts have been proposed, we understand from our Washington meetings that they are not expected to happen in the case of assistance to the LAF, a source within Hariris delegation told Al-Monitor.

Speaking at Carnegie after meeting Trump at the White House on Tuesday, Hariri said the president and other administration officials were receptive to the need to preserve FMF funding for Lebanon. He said he had stressed Lebanons role in combating terrorism throughout his meetings with administration officials.

We explained to them also that Lebanon is a buffer zone and that we are in the front lines of fighting extremism, Hariri said.

Many members of Congress have traditionally been skeptical of the LAF, arguing that Hezbollah exerts too much influence on Lebanons security apparatus. Still, faced with the prospect of a defunct LAF as the Syria war wages on, even hawks balk at eliminating or reducing US funding for the LAF.

[Lebanon has] a coalition government thats supporting over a million and a half refugees, and we have an active effort with them in which weve armed them and they are fighting [IS] on their border, Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Al-Monitor. So theres no question that that role and that cooperation has to continue.

Lebanese observers in Washington expressed confidence that some level of funding will remain in place.

"Based on Lebanese officials, particularly LAF command, their whole survival depends from a logistical, technical capability  on US assistance, said Joseph Gebeily, the president of the US-based nonprofit Lebanese Information Center, which is critical of Hezbollah. So its very crucial. Its a substantial program.

Gebeily said he does not believe that eliminating US funding for the LAF is intentionally designed to cripple Lebanons official army. Rather, the cuts are part of Trumps across-the-board effort to reduce US foreign aid.

To put it into perspective, its not just the Lebanese Armed Forces, Gebeily said. I dont think the administration necessarily meant to defund the LAF.

The State Departments budget proposal only preserves FMF for Israel, Egypt, Jordan and Pakistan while eliminating it for everyone else. In addition, the Trump administration seeks to reconfigure FMF grant funding into a loan program.

President Trump himself praised the LAFs role in counterterrorism operations during a press conference with Hariri on Tuesday, indicating that the United States will continue to provide Lebanon with military assistance.

Americas assistance can help ensure that the Lebanese army is the only defender Lebanon needs, Trump said. Its a very effective fighting force.

Despite his stated willingness to preserve military funding for Lebanon, Trump went out of his way to criticize Hezbollah and its chief backer, Iran.

Hezbollah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people and the entire region, Trump said while standing beside Hariri. The group continues to increase its military arsenal, which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel, constantly fighting them back. With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling the humanitarian catastrophe in Syria.

Last week, Congress further expanded its efforts to curb Hezbollahs influence in Lebanon by introducing new sanctions on the Lebanese political party and armed militia group. The sanctions would expand previous congressional sanctions from 2015 by blocking the assets of any individual or entity that supports Hezbollah or its affiliates. The new legislation also requires the administration to produce a semi-annual report on foreign financial institutions that support the US-designated terrorist group.

The draft legislation was leaked to Lebanese news outlets last April, causing a considerable amount of fear that it could potentially destabilize Lebanons financial sector. Foreign Policy reported that Lebanese lawmakers responded by lobbying their US counterparts in Congress against the legislation.

Despite Hariris concerns, Gebeily downplayed the risk that the legislation could destabilize Lebanon's banking industry, noting that the impact from the first round of Hezbollah sanctions in 2015 was really nil.

And this is only a continuation, a little bit of an expansion, Gebeily said. "Because it does mention some other Hezbollah institutions, thus making sure it also covers countries outside Lebanon, not just Lebanon.

During his Tuesday press conference with Hariri, Trump responded to a question asking for his stance on the sanctions bill by stating that he would make his position very clear within the next 24 hours. Trump has still not declared his official stance on the legislation and the White House did not respond to Al-Monitors request to clarify Trumps stance on the congressional sanctions proposal.

Correction: July 27, 2017. An earlier version of this article mistakenly referred to the bill's potential impact on Iran's banking industry instead of Lebanon's.
July 27, 2017

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip  Video footage showing Nidal Aboud, a young Palestinian Christian man, reading his Bible amid a crowd of Muslims performing Friday prayers July 21 in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem created a buzz on social media.

Palestinian activists saw the video as an example of coexistence between Muslims and Christians in Jerusalem and an expression of a shared fate against Israeli measures in the city.

Palestinians have been staging sit-ins for a week and a half now in the streets of Jerusalem and around Al-Aqsa Mosque denouncing Israel's attempt to install metal detectors at the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque to search worshippers.

Palestinian Christian youths and activists have also participated in these sit-ins to express their rejection of these measures, even though they target Al-Aqsa Mosque, a religious symbol of Muslims.

Aboud, 24, from Mount Olivet in Jerusalem, seen praying among thousands of Muslims, told Al-Monitor that he participated in the sit-in in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque as an act of patriotism. He said, A day before the sit-in, I saw on TV an elderly Palestinian in a wheelchair crying because he was not allowed to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque. I was deeply touched and felt I must act out to end this. This is why I decided to take part in the sit-in in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque and took my cross and Bible with me. I was there at 8 a.m. the next day in front of one of the mosque's entrances.

Aboud noted that Israeli soldiers at the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque prevented him and a number of elderly Palestinians from entering the mosque and fired tear gas at them, describing the scene as devoid of humanity and appalling.

Because I am a Palestinian national it is my right to defend all of my countrys religious sanctities, he said. He noted that he was unaware media outlets were reporting live, saying, I was thrilled with how Muslim activists and friends welcomed me among them. Their warmth was genuine, and it gave me the strength to stay with them.

Aboud added that when they started praying, he was asked to join them. They were very welcoming and they placed me in the center. At that moment, I began to recite Bible verses. We were all praying with great fervor, he said.

Denouncing Israel's attempt to install metal detectors at the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque, he stressed that Christianity is an integral part of the Palestinian cause. I would not accept such metal detectors to be installed at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, so why would I accept them to be installed at Al-Aqsa Mosque? Aboud said.

Pointing to the efficient role and participation of Christians in sit-ins and protests around Al-Aqsa Mosque against Israeli measures, he noted, Jerusalem needs us  even if we are a minority. The Palestinian cause needs all Palestinians. This is the land of peace.

The participation of Palestinian Christians in Al-Aqsa protests and sit-ins is attracting media attention as it reflects the strong interfaith relations in Palestine and represents a means to promote national unity and tolerance.

Zeina Mosleh, a Christian from Jerusalem, said she participated in a sit-in with Muslims in front of one of the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque because she felt this was a religious duty. She told Al-Monitor, I was shouting their slogans and distributing drinking water to worshippers and young protesters.

She strongly rejected Israels measures, describing them as unacceptable and against freedom of worship. It is not about a specific religion. We must have the courage to reject Israeli practices against one of the most important and sacred mosques for Muslims, she said.

Hanna Issa, a Palestinian Christian historian and the head of the Islamic-Christian Commission in Support of Jerusalem and Holy Sites, told Al-Monitor, Israel wants to portray the conflict as a conflict between Judaism and Islam. We as Christians refuse this.

He said, We believe the attack on Al-Aqsa Mosque is an attack on the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. Relations between Muslims and Christians in Palestine are governed by Umar's Assurance of Safety that we believe is tantamount to a constitution. Churches in Jerusalem are adjacent to mosques. We respect Ramadan, they respect our fasting, and we exchange visits on religious and national holidays.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre is one of the most important Christian religious monuments in Jerusalem, located deep inside the walls of the Old City.

Issa asserted that Muslims and Christians share the same just cause, and that the participation of young Christian activists in the sit-in in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque is the best example of this. Commenting on Abouds video footage, he said, We are all believers. There is no discrimination. We share the same sense of belonging.

According to Issa, there are 50,000 Christians in the Palestinian territories: 47,000 in the West Bank and the rest in the Gaza Strip.

It is said that Muslim Caliph Umar Ibn al-Khattab had written to the people of Aelia (Jerusalem) upon the first Muslim conquest of the city in 638 a document in which he assured safety for their churches and properties, provided that no Jews live with them in the city. This assurance is one of the most important documents in the history of Jerusalem and Palestine.

The Israeli government decided July 25 to remove the metal detectors installed at the entrances of Al-Aqsa Mosque, only to replace them with surveillance cameras.
July 27, 2017

Turkeys parliament broke another chip off the countrys largest pro-Kurdish bloc today, stripping two of its lawmakers of their seats over absenteeism. The move against Turkeys third-largest party marks a first in the chambers history.

Tugba Hezer Ozturk and Faysal Sariyildiz of the Peoples' Democratic Party (HDP) lost their seats for failing to attend any parliamentary sessions since October 2016. Hezer, from Van province on the Iranian border, and Sariyildiz, from Sirnak on the Iraqi border, face a panoply of charges surrounding their alleged ties to the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK). Both are believed to be in Europe.

Ozturk lost her seat by a vote of 324-20 and Sariyildiz by 328-29. The bulk of the ayes would have come from the Justice and Development Party (AKP), which holds 317 seats, and the balance from the far-right Nationalist Action Party, the AKPs de facto coalition partner.

In February, the parliament stripped former HDP Co-chair Figen Yuksekdag and fellow HDP lawmaker Nursel Aydogan of their seats, also over alleged ties to the PKK. Yuksekdag is currently in prison together with 10 other HDP members of parliament, including the partys magnetic Co-chair Selahattin Demirtas. Some 79 mayors belonging to the Democratic Regions Party, an HDP affiliate, are also in jail on assorted terror charges.

The parliamentary cull is set to continue as veteran Kurdish politician Leyla Zanas head is readied for the block. Her crime is to have substituted the words the great Turkish people with the great peoples of Turkey to convey her contempt for the exclusionist language in the parliamentary oath at a swearing-in session in November 2015. The parliament speaker declared her oath invalid and demanded she retake it using the prescribed wording. Zana refused. She is now expected to lose her seat over absenteeism as well.

If she does, it will further illustrate how the AKP has come full circle from championing pro-Kurdish reforms in its early days to enforcing the suffocating Turkish nationalism that it once opposed. Zana more than any other in recent times has come to symbolize the Kurds struggle to decriminalize the use of their ancient tongue. In 1991, when she was elected to the parliament for the first time, she addressed the inaugural session in Kurdish, provoking a furor. Three years later, she and seven fellow Kurdish deputies were stripped off their seats and jailed on terror charges, deepening the chasm between Turks and Kurds. Ironically, Zana has advocated dialogue with the AKP, prompting grumbles within her own party.

A set of bylaws are being debated and expected to be adopted tonight that will effectively forbid members from using certain words and phrases such as Kurdistan or Armenian genocide during legislative sessions. The rules, spearheaded by the AKP and its nationalist allies, state that members cannot use expressions that are in violation of the administrative structure as defined by the indivisible wholeness of the Turkish state. Those who violate the bylaws could face expulsion for three sessions and a two-thirds cut in their salary.

Ordinary Kurds are feeling the heat as well. Mesut Gokhan, an inmate at a jail in the southern border province of Kilis, was allegedly tortured by prison guards after they intercepted a letter addressed to him written in Kurdish. HDP lawmaker Leyla Birlik has petitioned the parliament to investigate claims that wardens beat the soles of Gokhans feet so badly that he could not walk. He was denied medical treatment and put in solitary confinement. Birlik faces up to 37 years in prison herself over alleged membership of the PKK. The evidence against her includes taking part in the 2015 funeral of her brother-in-law Haci Lokman Birlik, a Kurdish activist who authorities insist was killed while attacking police with a rocket launcher and the HDP says was executed by the police. Images of his corpse being dragged by a police vehicle in Sirnak provoked an outcry.

In todays Turkey there are those who still want to return to the 1930s politics of denial that define Kurds as mountain Turks and want to forcibly assimilate them, observed Tarik Ziya Ekinci, a doyen of Kurdish politics in Turkey.

Early signs of the governments hardening stance in the parliament came in January, when ethnic Armenian HDP lawmaker Garo Paylan was expelled from the chamber for bringing up the 1915 killings of Ottoman Armenians. As Al-Monitor contributor Mahmut Bozarslan reported, the HDP is protesting the clampdown against it by organizing a weeklong sit-in in the Kurds unofficial capital, Diyarbakir.

Unsurprisingly, the protesters are being obstructed by security forces who have blocked access to the park where the lawmakers are keeping their vigil. Democratic Regions Party official Ramazan Tunc told Al-Monitor, The assault on our parties is unremitting. At least 10,000 members and activists are in jail. It is a sign of our peoples unyielding support that we continue to survive.
A young Wylam man was arrested Thursday in connection with the shooting death of his uncle.

Devonte Desmond Bembo, 20, was booked into the Jefferson County Jail at 12:33 p.m., jail records show. He is charged with murder in the Tuesday-night slaying of 26-year-old Edward Lamar Davis.

The shooting happened at 9:46 p.m. in the 4200 block of 10th Avenue in Wylam. Birmingham's West Precinct officers were dispatched to the neighborhood on a report of a person shot. When they arrived, they found Davis lying in the middle of the roadway with multiple gunshot wounds to his body, said Lt. Sean Edwards.

Birmingham Fire and Rescue Service responded and attempted to save Davis, but he was pronounced dead on the scene at 9:50 p.m.

Police said Davis and his nephew - Bembo - were in the middle of the roadway and were standing chest to chest as if they were about to fight. The incident escalated into a physical altercation between the two and Bembo pulled a gun and opened fire on his uncle. "A disagreement between an uncle and a nephew should have never ended this way," Edwards said earlier this week.

After the shooting, Bembo fled the location on foot before officers arrived. He remained at large until his arrest Thursday. He is being held in the Jefferson County Jail on $75,000 bond.
The attorney for a Tuscaloosa man implicated in the alleged sexual assault of a former University of Alabama student has gone on the offense with a full-page ad in Thursday's Tuscaloosa News.

The student, Megan Rondini, killed herself after alleging the rape and transferring to another college. Her parents have since filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the accused, 36-year-old T.J. Bunn, as well as two university employees, the Tuscaloosa County sheriff, a sheriff's deputy and a sheriff's office investigator.

Bunn's lawyer, Ivey Gilmore, said in the ad - entitled "Character Assassination In The Internet Age." - that he has now reviewed all of the evidence obtained by law enforcement in the case and that while the lawsuit claims a sexual assault took place, Rondini's text messages to friends immediately before the incident make it clear that she intended to have a sexual encounter with Bunn.

"To be clear, this case is not a matter of 'he said, she said,''' Gilmore wrote. "It is this young woman's own words, and her own text messages that led every investigating authority to conclude she had not been sexually assaulted."

An attorney for the firm that filed the wrongful death lawsuit had this to say about the ad: "This paid advertisement reeks of desperation and is a clear attempt to bully the Rondini Family,'' said Ontario Tillman of the Maxwell Law Firm. "The text messages Sweet-T's lawyer refer to show exactly how a situation can devolve into a nightmare in a matter of minutes. It's no accident that this paid ad carefully avoids to mention the messages and phone calls that occurred immediately after that tragic night. This is classic case of victim blaming and a sad attempt to justify a sexual assault."

Rondini was a UA student from Texas when she reported to police she was raped by Bunn in 2015. Rondini's story became public in a June BuzzFeed story, as told by her parents, Michael and Cynthia Rondini, family and friends. They claimed the 20-year-old was mistreated by Tuscaloosa investigators, the university and DCH Regional Medical Center.

The lawsuit, filed by attorney Leroy Maxwell Jr., identifies Bunn as being part of a family that is "well connected and powerful in the Tuscaloosa community, and were major financial supporters of UA." Bunn works at ST Bunn Construction Company, which is across the street from the Innisfree Pub, where Rondini reportedly became drunk, or was drugged, before being raped for 30 minutes in July 2015.

The lawsuit names Terry J Bunn, Jr, two UA employees, Tuscaloosa County Sheriff Ronald S Abernathy, an investigator, deputy and the University of Alabama and its president Dr. Stuart R Bell (the university and Bell were added as defendants on July 26).

Gilmore has previously said in a statement that Rondini invited Bunn and another man to her apartment where they shared drinks. She then left her apartment with Bunn of her own free will and went to Bunn's home.

Here are excerpts from the Buzzfeed article: "Bunn brought her over to his bed and pulled her shorts to he side while she looked away from him, she told investigators. The incident report would later state that she "verbally informed Bunn that she did not want to have sex with him and that she needed to rejoin her friends at Innisfree," but that he "ignored these statements and continued to engage in intercourse with her." Afterward, Bunn passed out, and she felt she could leave safely, she said. But no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't open his door. She started texting friends around 1 a.m., begging for help. "OMG," she wrote to one, "I can't get out of the room."

Megan told police that, in a panic, she climbed through Bunn's second-story window, jumped onto a gate and then to the dark, unfamiliar street below. When she realized she didn't have her keys, she started frantically searching for them, even climbing back into Bunn's room and then out again. Next, she checked Bunn's Mercedes, where she found his wallet and a pistol. She grabbed $3 in case she had to take a cab and the gun "for safety," she told investigators. Megan didn't know how to handle guns, she'd later explain, and she accidentally fired it before dropping the weapon to the ground. Finally, a friend picked her up. They arrived at Tuscaloosa's DCH Regional Medical Center around 2:40 a.m."

The lawsuit filed on behalf of her family claims that authorities sided with Bunn's version of events and did not thoroughly follow-up on Rondini's story, and that an investigating officer was more interested in finding out whether Rondini committed any crimes on the night of the rape. The university allegedly "deliberately and repeatedly denied services and mishandled accommodations with hostility toward" Rondini, the suit goes on to say. The lawsuit claims Rondini confided in a UA counselor who told her she could no longer give her therapy because she was a family friend of the Bunns, and that a second counselor would not see Rondini unless she first took anxiety medication.

The lawsuit also claims UA did not accommodate Megan after the rape, alleging that she saw Bunn's car outside her apartment and saw her alleged rapist on the Tuscaloosa campus. Prior to the lawsuit, the university had issued this statement:

"The University of Alabama has been deeply saddened by the death of Megan Rondini, and we continue to offer our sympathy to her friends and family. Information published by news outlets this week has unfortunately ignored some significant facts," UA said. "When Megan went to the hospital, a university advocate met her at the hospital to provide support and stayed with her throughout the examination process. Megan also received information from university representatives regarding services available to her on campus, including counseling through the university's Women & Gender Resource Center. When she sought counseling and her first therapist identified a potential conflict as defined by her professional obligations, Megan was immediately introduced to another therapist, who provided care and support. Additionally, the UA Title IX Office was in contact with Megan, including offering academic accommodations and helping to streamline her withdrawal when Megan elected to return to Texas."

Gilmore's ad, however, states:

"The horrible, misleading and blatantly false accusations of BuzzFeed and malicious false assertions of social media attackers are designed to do nothing more than attempt to extort money with a lawsuit,'' he wrote. "These 'journalists' have used selective facts, gossip and have outright lied about the facts of the case."

"So why is the tragic suicide of this young woman now the subject of a lawsuit? It is because some of those involved have determined that money can be gained, one way or another, at the expense of this young woman's reputation,'' Gilmore wrote. "This matter is now before the Court, and in an open court, ALL the evidence, the text messages, the statements she made, photographs on her phone, everything will be aired for consideration. The full review of the evidence will show that law enforcement, the grand jury, the hospital and others involved acted properly because no sexual assault occurred."

The ad goes on to say, "It is regretful that BuzzFeed and a group of trial lawyers have chosen to potentially expose the most intimate and sensitive (and embarrassing) aspects of this young woman's life in this lawsuit,'' he wrote. "Further, it is regretful that the young woman's own texts, emails, photographs and statements will bring such embarrassment and intense examination for her friends and associates. But that is their choice and the result of their actions."

Gilmore said Bunn's family is consulting with their own attorneys in the aftermath of intense scrutiny of the entire family. "The Bunn family, T.J. Bunn's mother and father, his other relatives and S.T. Bunn Contruction have nothing to do with the civil action that has been brought against T.J. Bunn. But these internet 'news' sources have gone beyond misrepresentation of facts, they maligned, insulted and in fact probably libeled members of the family and their friends and associates."

Story updated at 10:45 a.m. July 28, 2017 to name the specific defendants in the lawsuit
Donald Lomax, a Birmingham native, is running for mayor of the Magic City.

Lomax, 68, currently lives in the Roebuck neighborhood. He is a graduate of the former Ullman High School and earned a bachelor's degree from Talladega College.

For the last 11 years, he has worked as a bus driver for the Birmingham Jefferson County Transit Authority. He has never held public office before.

"I am running for mayor because I feel we need some serious changes, and I don't see any visible economic growth for the people who make the least amount of money," he said.

Lomax is one of 12 candidates who qualified to run for mayor of Birmingham in the Aug. 22 municipal election.

The other candidates are incumbent William Bell, Randall Woodfin, Chris Woods, Randy Davis, Fernandez Sims, Frank Matthews, E. Philemon Hill II, Lanny Jackson, Carl Jackson, Patricia Bell and Trudy Hunter.

Lomax said he knows how to bring needed change that will require little to no extra money from city coffers. He said the city needs to raise hourly wages and absorb certain taxes.

"That will stimulate the economic growth that we need," he said.

His plan for economic growth involves setting up city workers to retire in 12 years instead of 30.

"The 30-year retirement plan is crippling economic growth for the city and the country," Lomax claims.

He said workers will be able to retire in 12 years if they earn higher wages, pay lower taxes and receive larger contributions to retirement plans.

This shorter retirement cycle will also make more jobs available, Lomax said.

Before working for MAX Transit, Lomax said he ran his own businesses. He previously owned rental income properties. He also operated mail order businesses, he said.

"It takes a business person to run this city," he said. "This city is actually a huge corporation. It takes a business person to run it."

Lomax said he wants to stop "waste in city government. "We need to maximize our spending," he added.

As mayor, Lomax said he would work to improve Birmingham City Schools.

"The education system in Birmingham is in ruins," he said. "There are not enough teachers. Teacher salaries are so low. I want to raise the salary of teachers to make it attractive enough so people will come in and make a career as a teacher."

The average salary for a Birmingham City Schools teacher is $50,730, according to the Alabama State Department of Education. This is the seventh highest in the state.

Lomax said the school system needs to be building new schools. Outdated textbooks need to be replaced, and students need access to updated science labs and laptops.

"Let's give our students a real education so they can complete with the outside world," he said.

Lomax said he will work with the Birmingham police chief to come up with strategies to reduce crime. He said getting more residents employed will work to lower the crime rate.

He said he also wants to create a "consortium of corporations" that will help to fund city initiatives. He said this model will help the city avoid obtaining municipal bonds to fund projects.
The FBI and Tupelo police are asking for the public's help finding a man wanted in an attempted kidnapping in Mississippi earlier this month.

There is the possibility, they said, that the suspect could be from Alabama.

The incident happened about 2 p.m. on July 4. Tupelo police offers responded to the 900 block of Mitchell Street for a reported attempted kidnapping. A black male driving a silver Pontiac Grand Prix with a spoiler on the back, possibly a mid-2000s model) entered the neighborhood and tried to kidnap a 7-year-old girl.

The girl, according to an FBI press release, was able to escape and run for help. The suspect fled the scene.

He is described as a slim, black male with balding hair, some facial hair and possibly in his mid-40s. He was wearing a grey shirt and khaki shorts. The girl also told police he had a large, brown dog in the vehicle with him.

The case is being investigated by the Tupelo Police Department and the FBI Jackson Division's Child Exploitation Task Force, which is composed of agents from the FBI and the Mississippi Attorney General's Office, deputies from the Prentiss County Sheriff's Office and prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney's offices in Oxford and Jackson.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Tupelo Police Department at 662-841-6546, the FBI Jackson Division at 601-948-5000 or Crime Stoppers of Northeast Mississippi at 1-800-773-TIPS (8477).
A Texas man was sentenced in federal court today for stealing more than $545,000 from a dead Huntsville man's retirement.

Dwayne Ellis Baptiste was sentenced on six counts of fraud to a total of six years and three months in federal prison by U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler.

Because Baptiste is a lawful permanent resident of the U.S., but not a citizen, he faces deportation to his home country of Canada after his release from prison. If he remains in the U.S., Baptiste is to serve four years on supervised release.

Baptiste, 43, also must pay $546,726 in restitution.

"I'm looking at your record, and it's frankly horrendous," Coogler said during the hearing. "I don't understand why you haven't been deported before this."

He pleaded guilty to four counts of wire fraud, one count of mail fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft in March.

Baptiste met Ralph Swinehart and his father Ronald Swinehart when Baptiste was living in Huntsville in 2011. Ronald Swinehart had retired, and had a retirement savings account through his former company that was held at ING Institutional Plan Services.

Court documents show in September 2011, the elder Swinehart signed and executed a power of attorney that named his son Ralph as his agent. Ronald Swinehart died in October 2011, and his son died just twelve days later.

An indictment showed after both Swineharts died, Baptiste filed a fraudulent power of attorney appointing himself as Ronald Swinehart's agent, and then created a fake company called Swinehart Investment Solutions. He claimed both Ronald and Ralph Swinehart were members of the fake company.

Later, Baptiste opened two bank accounts in the name of Swinehart Investment Solutions at BBVA Compass Bank. Court records show he changed the beneficiary on Ronald Swinehart's retirement account to himself, and contacted ING to withdraw money from that account.

Records show Baptiste transferred a total of $545,669 in four different transactions to the BBVA account. Then, he moved the money using cashier's checks and withdrawals.

Baptiste spoke briefly at his sentencing hearing Thursday and apologized for his actions. He said he was sorry for what the Swinehart family had to go through, and what he put his own family through.

Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey said in a press release that Baptiste "went to great lengths to exploit the deaths of two people so he could steal a man's life-long savings. In calculated steps, he formed a company, faked a power of attorney, created bank accounts and used stolen identifying information and a forged signature to carry out his scheme."

The FBI investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorneys John B. Ward and Manu Balachandran prosecuted. Deanna Oswald represented Baptiste.
It's been more than 5 years since Marlo Patton's mother heard her son's voice.

Before he was killed, the 36-year-old called his mother every day, she told a judge.

"He was my son and I miss him," Peggy Patton told Madison County Circuit Judge Karen Hall at a sentencing hearing Wednesday afternoon. One of three men convicted in the April 2012 Huntsville death of Marlo Patton was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.

Robert Eugene Davis

Robert Eugene Davis, 31, of Birmingham, was convicted of intentional murder during a trial last month.

Davis apologized to Patton's family at sentencing but maintained the crime was accidental.

"I'm sorry you can't tell your son you love him every day," Davis said. "I'm sorry you can't see your brother. I think every night about y'all.

"My intention was never to hurt him," Davis continued. "I'm not a violent man. I pray that peace would come to (Marlo's family)."

Despite Davis' pleas and apologies, Judge Hall imposed the maximum sentence of life in prison.

The crime

Marlo Patton was choked to death in a Huntsville home before his body was dumped across the Tennessee state line. Two others have also been convicted: Jamie Kelly, 28, was found guilty of intentional murder and Savontae Shoulders, 26, was convicted of heat-of-passion manslaughter.

Patton was killed after showing up to buy drugs from Kelly at a home on Sparkman Drive. Kelly was upstairs with Shoulders getting the product ready. Shoulders went downstairs and heard Davis say Patton was trying to rob someone--either the house or Kelly. Shoulders claims Patton hit him, so he punched back. In the process of the fight, Shoulders ended up putting Patton in a head lock. Because Patton was too strong for Shoulders, Davis ended up killing the victim with a headlock.

"He wasn't perfect," Peggy Patton said of her son. "But he didn't deserve what he got. There's not a day that goes by that I don't think of him, judge."

The woman also told the judge Marlo Patton has two children -- daughters who don't even remember their father because they are too young.

"I just want the court to acknowledge he has two children who won't be able to grow up with their father," said Marlo Patton's sister Ashley Tory. "It's just been so hard."

Street life

Davis also has children -- 3 sons and a daughter. At sentencing, he spoke of them and the street life he's led. Davis has been shot three times in the past. One shooting left him blind in the left eye. His lawyer Thomas Jarvinen told the judge Davis also has a learning disability that hampered his education as a child.

"Robert sees the world different from you and I," Jarvinen told the judge. "Robert is a different person now than he was five years ago."

Madison County Assistant District Attorney Shauna Barnett disagreed.

"There is literally only one year (2003) that he didn't get a charge," Barnett told the judge. "Even the fact he killed somebody didn't slow him down. He was arrested pretty much nonstop for 15 years."

While Davis has only one prior felony conviction for cocaine possession in Ohio, he has racked up pending charges since Patton's death. Those charges involve assault, weapons and drugs.

"I have spent several days trying to decide what to do," Judge Hall told Davis. "This is not a cookie cutter case for the court."

After hearing pleas from the defense for the minimum sentence of 15 years and requests from the prosecution and victim's family for the maximum, Hall handed down the life sentence.

The other convicts

Shoulders and Kelly, both 28, also have picked up new charges since the killing. They will be sentenced next month in the murder case.

Shoulders' new charges, which still are pending, include arson, theft, burglary, and running from police. He will be sentenced for heat-of-passion manslaughter August 18 at 10 a.m.

Kelly has a marijuana case pending in Madison County. He will be sentenced for murder August 17 at 1 p.m.

Initially, four suspects were indicted on charges of murder and kidnapping in Patton's death. But, the state's case was dropped for the U.S. Attorney's Office to pursue federal charges. Eventually the case was given back to the state and the defendants were re-indicted in 2016.

The prosecutor dropped charges against a fourth suspect, Timothy Smith, after new evidence convinced her he wasn't involved in the killing.

Additionally, kidnapping charges against the other three defendants were dismissed because a medical expert told prosecutors that Patton could not have been alive when his body was taken to Lincoln County,Tennessee.
Gov. Kay Ivey unveiled a new education initiative on Wednesday, focusing on three stages of education: early childhood, computer science in middle and high school, and post-high school workforce preparedness.

Calling this her first formal initiative as Governor of Alabama, Ivey said "Strong Start, Strong Finish" calls for various existing education groups to work together in a collaborative way from pre-kindergarten through workforce development.

The event was held at the Innovation Depot in Birmingham.

Standing at the lectern alongside Ivey were representatives from the state departments of Commerce, Education, Early Childhood Education and Labor, Alabama Community College System, School Superintendents of Alabama, A+ Education Partnership, Council for Leaders in Alabama Schools, Business Education Alliance, and the Alabama Workforce Council. Alabama's 2016 Teacher of the Year, Dana Jacobson.

The Alabama Association of School Boards representative was unable to attend, but they are part of the effort as well.

Ivey said, "Bringing this diverse group together today illustrates that we are all serious about education and the effect it has on the overall state but also how much it means for the success of individual citizens."

In previous years, "Instead of working together, individual efforts have been divided, separated and just disjointed," Ivey said.

"Alabama's education system is ripe for some opportunity for improvement," Ivey said, but was quick to add she isn't blaming teachers for problems in education.

The initiative will focus on those three areas, Ivey said, to address current problems facing Alabama.

"Pre through 3" will focus on making sure students get a strong start, with a focus on reading, she said, adding that students who aren't reading on grade level by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school.

Computer science jobs are growing, Ivey said, but students aren't learning those skills in school. In Alabama, Ivey said 4,700 computer science jobs, paying an average of $82,000 a year, are currently unfilled due to a lack of qualified applicants.

"CS for AL," which stands for Computer Science for Alabama, will focus on ensuring students receive science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) classes in middle school and high school, she said, adding that courses in computer coding will also be made available.

"Advanced Training, Better Jobs" aims to increase the percentage of adults holding some type of post-secondary certificate or degree, Ivey said. According to Ivey, only 37 percent of adults in Alabama have obtained either a two-year or four-year degree or an industry credential, and by 2020, 62 percent of jobs in Alabama will require that level of attainment.

Few details of how the initiative will be implemented were shared, but Ivey said she didn't anticipate needing any additional funding to get this collaborative working, because the work is ongoing. The group will work together in a new way, she said, through the seven Alabama regional workforce development councils.

Alabama Workforce Council (AWC) chairman Zeke Smith said Ivey asked the AWC to bring all of the various business and education groups together, in a public-private partnership, "to develop an attainment goal for the state of Alabama and a plan to reach that."

Educators at the table

Jacobson spoke at the event and thanked Ivey for including teachers and educators in setting the agenda for the initiative. Speaking to Alabama students, Jacobson said, "We want you to know we are working for you to support, encourage, and educate you today for a better Alabama tomorrow."

School Superintendents of Alabama Executive Director Eric Mackey said he is very excited that Ivey asked professional educators to be a part of the discussion, saying it was the first time in over six years that members of SSA have been asked for input.

Mackey said he is pleased that Ivey sees value in bringing business and education leaders together. "We are very happy to be working with the Governor," Mackey said. "She's got a great positive outlook and she wants to invest in education and she wants what's best for the children and it is a breath of fresh air."

Ivey said she invited professional educators and education officials to the Capitol last week, "and y'all, we had a very frank conversation about what we can achieve for our students when we work together better." Ivey said the education and business sectors depend on each other and this initiative will keep the groups working together.

Ivey on state board of education, Sentance

When asked her view on the strain between the state board of education and state superintendent Michael Sentance, Ivey said, "I've been in office 106 days. The superintendent's been on the job a little over 300 days. I just think, I'm hopeful that the state board will focus on providing all of our children a quality education in the upcoming days as we go forward. I think the superintendent might need y'all to give him a chance to bring about some of the needed reforms that everyone seemed to agree that needed to be brought about before he gets axed."

Ivey, who serves as the president of the state board of education by virtue of her office, did not participate in Sentance's evaluation on Tuesday, saying she didn't think she should because she had only been in office since April.

When asked what makes this effort different from previous ones, Commerce Sec. Greg Canfield said, "What's different is making sure that the various parts - Pre-K through 12, community college, universities - that they collaborate, share success, and I think they can do this in a cost effective and efficient manner."

"It may not be new, but that commitment to collaborate is, and it can pay some big time dividends."

Updated 7/27/2017, 2:05 p.m., to clarify Jacobson as 2016 Teacher of the Year and add that the Alabama Association of School Boards is part of the effort as well.
The shooting deaths of two men in North Courtland are believed to have stemmed from a robbery that involved drugs and cash, officials said today.

Drug evidence was found at the scene when investigators discovered the bodies of two men at a home on Rosa Parks Street during the early morning hours of July 7, lawmen said. The victims, Jimmy Lee Bolding, 34, of North Courtland, James Lemark Madden, 41, of Muscle Shoals, were shot late the night before.

Lawrence County Sheriff Gene Mitchell said both victims are related to the suspects, who have been charged with two counts each of capital murder. Those suspects, Kevin Deshaunn Deloney Jr., 19, of Decatur, and Tamorris Oneil Bolding, 23, of Muscle Shoals, are held without bail in the Lawrence County Jail. Although the suspects' permanent addresses are out of town, officials said the two often stayed in North Courtland.

The sheriff announced the arrests early this morning and provided additional information about the double homicide at a press conference this afternoon.

Mitchell said he believes the suspects planned the crimes. The sheriff said he believes the suspects took money from the victims, who worked at a cash business that was operated on Bolding's property. The killings happened on that property, where Bolding was found dead in the front yard, and Madden's body was found inside a trailer. Mitchell said no money was found at the scene.

Mitchell said while he doesn't believe the suspects specifically planned to kill their relatives, the two likely brought guns to prevent the victims from identifying them as the robbers.

Because the suspects and victims are all cousins, the investigation was more complicated, the sheriff said.

"I think it probably make folks a little less likely to come forward," Mitchell said. He estimated police and deputies interviewed 20 or more witnesses.

North Courtland Mayor Riely Evans Sr. asked for prayers for the town.

"We are hurting right now," Evans said.

He also thanked the sheriff for assisting the town with the investigation. The town's police department only employs a chief and assistant chief. The north Alabama town has fewer than 1,000 residents.

Police Chief Spencer Butler said the community assisted in the investigation by providing tips and other invaluable information in the case.

"To the citizens of North Courtland: Your safety is our first priority," the chief said. "We fielded several phone calls from the community."

Assistant Chief Mitchell Breland said long hours were involved in solving the case.

"It's paid off," he said.

Sheriff Mitchell said additional charges may be filed, but investigators don't believe anyone else was involved in the killings. The investigation is ongoing.
Human rights groups are calling for answers on the whereabouts of dozens of Uighurs arrested by Egyptian authorities.

Mahmoud Muhammad and his family were not home when Egyptian security forces knocked on the door of their flat in Cairos Nasr City on June 30.

An hour later, security forces returned in full riot gear and forcefully entered the flat, sniffer dogs in tow. The Egyptian officers questioned other residents of the building about Muhammad, a member of Egypts 700-strong Uighur community, as they attempted to determine his whereabouts.

Once he heard about the incident, Muhammad said, he immediately fled the country for Turkey and warned his family not to sleep in their flat any more. It had been 15 years since he first settled in Cairo to study at al-Azhar University.

READ MORE: Chinas Communist Party hardens rhetoric on Islam

At least 30 Uighur students and residents were arrested on July 2 from their Cairo homes and restaurants that they frequented. Dozens more were detained in the ensuing days, all believed to be intended for deportation to China.

Sakhr al-Din Razi, a 22-year-old Uighur student who managed to evade arrest, told Al Jazeera that some of the detainees had been gathered inside the Tora maximum security prison on the outskirts of Cairo, awaiting deportation.

They were split up in groups of 10 in various police stations, such as the Nuzha, Heliopolis and Ayn al-Shams branches, said Razi, who has gone into hiding since the wave of arrests. Now they are in Tora, where communication has been completely cut off.

Speaking from Istanbul, Turkey, Muhammad told Al Jazeera that the exact number of arrests was unclear, as the Egyptian security apparatus had not released details.

The detainees that are held in holding centres in the Cairo, Alexandria and Hurdaga airports are around 30, but there are probably at least 100 more that we dont know their location, he said. Many of the students have disappeared; we dont know whether by choice or if the government is holding them in a secret location or police stations.

Human Rights Watch released a statement in the aftermath of the crackdown, calling on Egypt not to deport the Uighurs back to China where they, as a Muslim minority, could face jail or torture. A foreign ministry spokesman in Beijing acknowledged the detentions by saying that the individuals would receive consular visits, but gave no further details, according to a report from the Associated Press news agency.

Sarah Leah Whitson, a spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera that Egypt acted upon Chinas request after two recent meetings between Egypts interior minister and Chinas deputy public security minister, during which they discussed joint efforts to tackle extremist organisations.

Egypt is eager to build security relations with China, who is intent on intelligence-sharing and cooperation, Whitson said.

Xinjiang, an autonomous region northwest of China, is home to 22 million people, about 40 percent of whom are Uighur. The Turkic-speaking Muslim population has been persecuted by Chinese authorities for decades.

China regards Xinjiang, which translates as New Frontier, to be an important part of the country, rich in resources and bordering six other countries.

The Uighurs consider it as their traditional homeland and resent the influx of ethnic Han Chinese, who generally receive better jobs and salaries.

In recent years, the Chinese government has tightened its control over Xinjiang under the banner of combating religious extremism, terrorism and separatism. Uighur separatists have been subjected to forced disappearances, torture and execution.

In March, the government passed a law that listed 15 types of behaviour or commentary that it considered to be extremism, including a ban on Muslim veils and abnormal beards.





Little information has been released about the fate of the Uighurs detained in Egypt. Whitson said that while she believes many have since been released, dozens remain unaccounted for.

We dont know if they are held in Egyptian prisons or are at the Chinese embassy for further interrogation, she said.

Ismail al-Rashidy, an Egyptian human rights lawyer, said that some of the Uighurs were released after pressure from international organisations and campaigns.

Twelve were deported in total, he told Al Jazeera. There are no formal charges against those who are detained; otherwise, they would have been presented to the Egyptian courts. This is a case of arrest in preparation for their deportation back to China.

Rashidy, who found out about the arrests through social media, said the best move at this point was for the Uighur community to raise awareness to pressure international human rights organisations into propagating their struggle.

READ MORE: For Uighur exiles, Kashmir is heaven

Egypt, as a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, is obligated to not return foreign nationals to their home country if they face the risk of potential harm by their government.

However, other countries, such as Cambodia and Malaysia, have violated international law by forcibly returning Uighurs back to China. In August 2015, Thailand deported 220 Uighurs.

For Muhammad  who built a new life in Egypt, including the birth of all of his four children  the recent crackdown by Egyptian authorities came as a shock. He said there was widespread fear in the Uighur community as security forces continued to pursue those who were not arrested in the initial sweep. Many were also afraid of travelling outside of the country because they could be stopped or detained, prompting some to disappear from public view.

I never broke any law and was never stopped by police or interrogated by authorities, Muhammad said. We know that the Egyptian people are not in support of what is happening to us and stand with us.

Here in Istanbul, I was welcomed by the Uighur community, he added. But my children and I miss Egypt, our home, and our life there.
Dr Harry Hagopian is a London-based international lawyer, political adviser and ecumenical consultant on the MENA region. He is also a second-track negotiator and works closely with European institutions.

The metal detectors at the entrance to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound were no more than the latest hurdle on a long and bumpy road. And in a sense, their removal was also part of a deal struck by HM King Abdullah II with PM Benjamin Netanyahu for the return of Israeli embassy officials to Jerusalem following the Israeli embassy incident in Amman, in which an Israeli embassy security guard shot dead two Jordanian citizens.

But this was not the first such hurdle, and it was not merely about airport-style machines either. I am long enough in the tooth to remember the Six-Day War of 1967 when Israeli Jews exclaimed triumphantly that they would finally pray at the Temple Mount.

Since those days, this walled territory of 35 acres (or 144 dunams) that is known interchangeably as the Noble Sanctuary (al-Haram al-Sharif) or al-Aqsa compound, has been the scene of many ugly events and challenging standoffs.

Remember 1969 when al-Qabali Mosque was set on fire, or Black Monday in 1990 when 20 Palestinians were killed in the al-Aqsa Massacre? Remember also the 63 people who died in 1996 during the protests over the opening of a new tunnel by the Israelis under the Western Wall? Or the second Intifada in 2000 that was set off in part by Ariel Sharon prancing around on the compound? Since then, confrontations between Palestinians and Israeli settlers protected by Israeli forces have led to an escalation of violence in both Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories.

In fact, what Israel has been doing over many long years is pursuing its political aims of encroaching on Palestinian lands through religious prisms. It is simple: appropriate the lands on the basis of a political ideology and then claim that they are being taken for religious purposes. In fact, Israel has mooted a similar concept of sharing this Noble Sanctuary by Jews and Muslims.

It has suggested time-sharing and space-sharing whereby Muslims and Jews would enter the al-Aqsa Mosque compound for prayer at separate times. In so doing, it has used the arrangements at the Ibrahimi Mosque (known to Jews as the Cave of Patriarchs) in Hebron as a future template for Jerusalem. In Hebron, for instance, Jews enjoy the use of 60 percent of the mosque while Muslims have 40 percent only.

The metal detectors, in their own right, are one small factor. But viewed more broadly, they become a tool for the gradual control of Palestinian territory in such a way that it does not jolt Arab and Muslim sensibilities. by

Consequently, Jewish religious settlers have been fighting to seize those rights on religious grounds and government officials have encouraged them for political reasons. Only this week, al-Resalah newspaper reported Bezalel Smotrich from the Jewish Home party calling for the building of a synagogue inside the al-Aqsa Mosque courtyard.

It is a heady mix when religion and politics coalesce in such an inflammatory manner. And the outcome is that any opening is grabbed to introduce new realities on the ground. After all, has this not been the case all along with illegal settlements?

The metal detectors, in their own right, are one small factor. But viewed more broadly, they become a tool for the gradual control of Palestinian territory in such a way that it does not jolt Arab and Muslim sensibilities let alone ruffle the international community  including the EU. And any enhancement in the rights of Israeli Jews would ineluctably lead to a reduction in the rights of Palestinian Muslims  until such day as Muslims in Palestine and elsewhere wake up to the fact that the arrangements of Hebron had been cloned in Jerusalem too.

But there was a difference. In the past, the Arab and Muslim worlds have defended the rights of Palestinians to this third holiest site for Islam. From Saudi Arabia to Morocco, and from Egypt to Jordan, these countries had used their moral and political stature to impede the unfurling of such predatory designs.

Following the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011 though, the political topography of the region has changed noticeably  in some cases subtly and in others more bluntly. These days, the Arab masses are far too busy with their own Sisyphean struggles against the despotism of their rulers to clamour for Palestinian rights. In fact, Palestine nowadays garners more support outside the Arab World than inside it.

Few are the Arab governments that still support Palestinian rights  be they for self-determination or for movement and worship. Indeed, new alliances are clearly being forged, and new enmities are also being honed: Israel is more of a strategic ally with whom to share intelligence than to fight over holy sites and peoples usurped rights. With Iran the arch-nemesis of some Arab leaders, the enemy of my enemy becomes my friend.

This is why it pains me to watch the so-called Anti-Terror Quartet expending so much theatrics blockading Qatar  one of their own  and castigating it for actions that are no different from those of its accusers. Would it not be better if they invested their time, energy and money defending Arab rights that are being pilfered stealthily but progressively?

Political mistakes have often tended to come back and haunt Arab leaders: I hope this will not be the case here too.

Harry Hagopian is a London-based international lawyer, political adviser and ecumenical consultant on the MENA region. He is also a second-track negotiator and works closely with European institutions.

The views expressed in this article are the authors own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeeras editorial policy.
An approach that ignores the demands and desires of people is destined to fail to produce a new coherent regional order.

Former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Turkey and a Member of Parliament from the AK Party, Turkey

At a time when the Middle East is in dire need of a positive agenda and a plan to overcome division, ominous new developments are dominating the scene and the forces of disintegration appear to have been unleashed.

The current Gulf crisis is just the latest manifestation of this trend. Before considering the way out of this crisis, it is important to accurately depict it, its root causes, and its regional implications.

There have been many depictions of the Qatari crisis, and several different names have been used to describe the nature of the issue.

The Qatari crisis, the Gulf crisis, the contest to define a new regional order, and the latest chapter of the Arab Spring showdown have all been employed on various occasions to describe the crisis.

These are all valid descriptions contingent upon observers own operational logic. In fact, the politics of naming a crisis is no frivolous endeavour.

They shed light on the political position of the intellectual or informed observer of the crisis, and hence also inform us of how the situation is being read and what formulas are being offered to solve it.

Exhausting competition

This crisis is neither a bilateral crisis between Qatar and its Gulf Arab neighbours, nor a geographically isolated dispute confined to the Gulf region.

Instead it is a regional crisis  the direct outcome of the lack of a sustainable regional order in the Middle East.

The lack of a sustainable and legitimate regional order has undergirded the menacing rivalries and exhausting competition, creating a cycle of zero-sum games in the region.

This lose-lose logic defines the basic premises of most inter-state relations as well as state-society relations in the region at present, becoming the hallmark of regional affairs in recent years.

Since enmities, suspicions, insecurities, and deadly rivalries have come to define the nature of regional interactions, borders started to represent not points of connection but barriers between peoples, societies, ideas, and states. In a sense, borders transformed into separation walls.

OPINION: Arab summit  Arab leaders oblivious to Arab realities

Such suspicions, misreadings, and exaggerated ideas of looming threats have ushered in a siege mentality at the level of political elites across the region, and this in return lays the groundwork for proactive plotting, bullying and aggressive politics.

The root cause of this siege mentality, as well as the paranoid nature of this political conduct, lies in the glaring gap between the people and the ruling elites.

Such a crisis of legitimacy at the level of political elites and the stark contrast between the aspirations of the people and the projections of the political class forms the backbone of all major crises in the region. This in return inhibits any fruitful engagement among states and societies at regional level.

Naturally, this condition has a deleterious effect on regional cooperation and integration. The reason for this is clear: institutions follow intentions and shared values.

Sound institutions

Political actors devoid of popular legitimacy cannot act with the goodwill which would pave the ground for sound institutions that can produce public goods for both individual societies as well as the region at large.

Therefore, solving the legitimacy crisis of regional political actors is essential for mechanisms of intentions and institutions to develop and function.

A successful model in this aspect is the European integration project. When analysing the intentions of the founding fathers of the European project, one thing that becomes clear is that they were all committed to the idea of European integration and of restructuring the nature of relations among themselves in a mutually beneficial way; hence a win-win logic was at play.

Moreover, these political elites could clearly see the interdependency of the national and regional contexts.

Likewise, equipped with popular legitimacy, they also shared similar values in terms of order in the state, society and region  a factor that contributed enormously towards the establishment of a common security community through the European integration project.

Proto-regional order

Over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, the closest the Middle East has come to creating a legitimate proto-regional order was arguably the year 2012, where it seems that certain societal energies and demands began shaping political processes, which in return would have provided the necessary ideational foundation and political security for political elites to embark on establishing a new regional order should the process have been successful.

Yet this process was aborted.

Today, the Middle East is sorely lacking the aforementioned qualities of the founding fathers of the European project. Likewise, the American leaderships stance on this crisis has been all but visionary as well.

The dual nature of the American policy, one represented by Donald Trump or the White House and the other by the institutions, have only aggravated the crisis. Such disparate policies adopted by the different components of the US government are contributing to the Gulfs insecurity.

This policy inspires neither confidence nor trust among American allies. The US needs to adopt a responsible common policy aiming at the de-escalation of the crisis.

Going back to the Middle East and putting it differently, the region is in search of visionary statements, equipped with popular legitimacy, which can project beyond the calamities of the present and above the particularities of their own national contexts.

Political elites must learn to envisage a mutually beneficial regional order in which the welfare of one nation will be dependent on the larger regional context.

Hence achieving a state of regional good which can be seen not only as an altruistic endeavour, but also as a self-serving action.

Logic of interdependency

In such a scenario, the blockade of Qatar would have been inconceivable, because the logic of interdependency would have militated against such a move. This is intimately tied to the existence of a functioning regional order.

But it isnt only the lack of a regional order that aggravates regional grievances or feuds.

The fact that the region lacks institutions or frameworks that can govern these grievances or serve to channel feuds into diplomatic and political processes should also be an issue of major concern.

But this deficiency is not surprising. As discussed above, institutions are the product of intentions, and intentions are mostly shaped by actors perceptions, and hence their political psychologies, which are in turn formed mainly by their level of socio-political legitimacy.

OPINION: To make peace in Middle East, start from the end

In the region, political elites are driven by dormant fears and active paranoias  or troubled political psychologies  and are ill-placed to initiate the process of establishing a legitimate regional order.

Because ill intentions pave the way for the establishment of either dysfunctional or misconceived institutions from the start, a glaring quality of most regional institutions or intergovernmental frameworks is that they prove to be useless when they are most needed.

The fact that the GCC has no place during discussions on how to settle the most significant crisis in the Gulf region in the organisations history is a case in point. An institution can only be as effective as its shareholders want it to be.

This requires forward-looking and legitimate political elites who are not mired in yesterdays petty ploys.

Therefore, there is a dialectical relationship between values, intentions and institutions.

Search for new order

Once again returning to our core issue, the pre-Arab Spring regional order is dead. The Arab Spring has not successfully produced a new order either. The search for a new regional order has been transferred to the post-Arab Spring period.

For this search to be successful, we need to observe four principles which I laid down in 2008 and later emphasised as foreign minister while attending the 132nd Arab League Conference of Foreign Ministers, upon their invitation, on September 9, 2009. These four points are as follows:

I. The principle of security for all, which should be applicable to all states and societies as well as individuals in the region;

2. High-level political dialogue should be the main mechanism to settle regional disputes;

3. Creating economic interdependency among regional countries as a means to lay the groundwork for a peaceful regional order;

4. Embracing cultural pluralism and co-existence as a shared value in order to protect and cherish ethnic, sectarian, and religious diversity and the compositions of our cities, societies, and countries.

Besides these ideational foundations, on more pragmatic grounds the attempt to form a regional order requires also the existence of some starting points or islands of stability whose boundaries can gradually be extended and enlarged to encompass the whole of the region.

While looking at the map of the Middle East, Turkey and the Gulf represent the areas of stability. At least, this used to be the case until very recently.

Case for Turkish base

What stability they still have needs to be preserved. In this respect, the Turkish base in Qatar should be discussed within the debate on the necessity of preserving the areas of stability in the region.

The Turkish base is not solely there to preserve the security and stability of Qatar. Instead, it is there to preserve the security of the Gulf sub-regional system as a whole.

In this respect, it is as much committed to the security of Saudi Arabia as it is to the security of Qatar. Turkey refuses to play the politics of different camps in the Gulf.

In other words, the Turkish base in Qatar is meant to function as a security- and stability-enhancing factor in the Gulf.

It is not designed to play a role in the further fragmentation of the region or to pave the way for the penetration of the region by extra-regional forces.

Experience has taught us that the penetration of the region by hegemonic or extra-regional powers has not brought peace and prosperity to the people of the region. Indeed, the opposite has often been the case.

In this respect, we should not allow this crisis to turn into a new normality for the region.

It should not constitute yet another unresolved crisis in our common neighbourhood, generating varieties of negative externalities and security challenges for the broader region.

Risk of new normal

If this crisis is not settled swiftly, there is a risk of a new normality emerging in which the lines of a new Cold War become drawn up in the region. In such a scenario, one thing is certain: no one will emerge as a winner from this deleterious feud.

On top of this, the lingering of this crisis is distracting the actors involved from the real issues and agendas of the region.

The largely deafening silence of the Arab Muslim leaders over Israels treatment of the Palestinians and of blocking access to al-Aqsa Mosque is a case in point.





Access to the places of worship is an inalienable fundamental human right.

Israels policy of the putting electronic detectors over al-Aqsa or later putting other means of surveillance under the pretext of the security is in breach of all human rights covenants.

The regional countries and international community need to act immediately to ask Israel to reverse this policy. Otherwise, this policy will lead to the escalation of the tension and aggravate regional instability.

The region sorely needs to increase the size of its islands or spots of stability rather than decrease them.

Todays collapse, regional disorder, state failure or societal decay should not obscure our view of tomorrow, and neither should our deeds and discourse extend the lifespan of todays chaos.

Attempting to revive the old order in its previous form and shape would be futile. The future will not be a replica of the past of the region.

Likewise, tomorrows regional order will not be achieved by breathing life into the corpse of yesterdays order. That order now belongs to a bygone era, whose social constituency has been rapidly vanishing in recent years.

Political psychology of consent

For any political order to be sustainable, a political psychology of consent at the societal level is required.

The presence of these authoritarian regimes, even in their more brutish forms, and regional bullying should not deceive anyone into thinking that a new regional order is emerging in this way.

At best, this is an attempt by remnants of the past to hold back the forces of the future.

The region has new actors and a new political psychology. A top-down design that does not extend to include the demands and desires of the people is bound to fail to produce a coherent regional order.

In this regard, the Gulf crisis should serve as an opportunity for us to rethink the idea of an inclusive, legitimate and sustainable regional order that will overcome regional bullying and forestall attempts to reinstate the previous authoritarian status quo.
Doha-based outlet says Israel leaders defamatory claims are latest episode of ongoing vicious attack against network.

Al Jazeera has denounced a threat by the Israeli Prime Minister to close the networks Jerusalem office, saying it will continue to cover events in the Palestinian territories professionally and objectively.

The Doha-based media network responded on Thursday, hours after the Israeli leader posted defamatory comments about the outlets coverage to his Facebook page, saying Al Jazeera journalists incite violence.

Al Jazeera denounces such arbitrary accusations and hostile statements, a press release from the network said.

Netanyahus comments mark yet another episode of the ongoing vicious attack against Al Jazeera, the statement read, referring to calls by a Saudi-led group boycotting Qatar to close the network.

Al Jazeera stresses that it would take all necessary legal measures in case they act on their threat, the statement continued.

The network moreover reiterates that it will continue covering the news and events of the occupied Palestinian territories, and elsewhere, both professionally and objectively.

Netanyahu has long complained of Al Jazeeras coverage.

His latest comments come amid a major fallout between Israeli authorities and Palestinians over al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Al Jazeera network continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount, he wrote on social media late on Wednesday, referring to recent events at the holy site in Jerusalem known as Temple Mount to Jews.

I have appealed several times to law enforcement authorities demanding the closure of the Al Jazeera Jerusalem office, he continued. If this does not happen because of legal interpretation, I will work to legislate the required laws in order to remove Al Jazeera from Israel.
Head of village council who allegedly sanctioned rape of 16-year-old among four suspects held over incident near Multan.

Pakistani police have arrested four people in Punjab province, including the head of a village council who allegedly sanctioned the rape of a 16-year old girl to avenge an earlier rape.

Sabina Karim, a local police official, said the suspects were arrested near the central city of Multan on Thursday.

That brings the total number of arrests to 24. At least three suspects remain at large.

Four of the main accused have been arrested last night. We will get a remand from the magistrate and then we will interrogate them, a local police official told Al Jazeera, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Pakistans Supreme Court has also taken notice of the case.

READ MORE: Pakistani police arrest 20 for ordering revenge rape

The countrys chief justice ordered a high-level investigation on Thursday into the rapes and the family councils alleged orders.

Cases have been registered against members of the council under sections of Pakistani law dealing with forcing a woman into marriage and abetment of a crime.

On July 16, a 12-year-old girl was allegedly raped while working in the family fields just south of Multan, according to a copy of the police report seen by Al Jazeera.

My daughter [] was cutting grass in the fields on July 16, 2017, at around 2pm when  she was covered in a cloth [by her attackers] and forcibly raped, her mother told police.

Attackers family

Following that attack, members of the victims family gathered together and resolved to rape a member of the alleged attackers family in revenge, said Malik Rashid, a local police official.

The two families were related to one another, he said.

On the night of July 18, 2017, at about 2am I was sleeping with my children in my house when [] my 16-year-old daughter was taken away [by three men], said the second victims mother in a separate police report.

The second victim iss the sister of the alleged attacker in the first rape, said Rashid.

We implored the culprits to leave my daughter alone, but [they] threatened us that if anyone came forward they would be killed, said the second victims mother.

Cases have been registered against the perpetrators of both rapes.

The maximum punishment for rape under Pakistani law is the death penalty.

Alternatively, convicts may face imprisonment of up to 25 years, depending on the nature of the case.

Womans shelter

The rapes were reported at a government-run Violence Against Women Centre in Multan, the first such centre set up under a new provincial law designed to enhance protection for women that was passed last year.

Both the girls were staying at the womans shelter and were due to meet the Punjab chief minister, Shahbaz Sharif, brother of Nawaz Sharif, Pakistans prime minister, later on Thursday, AFP news agency reported.

Pakistan ranks 130th on the United Nations Gender Inequality Index, and 143rd out of 144 countries on the World Economic Forums Global Gender Gap Index.

Last year, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) documented at least 2,446 cases of violence against women in the country, including 958 rapes and 158 cases of attacks in which victims were either set on fire or attacked with acid.

READ MORE: Mukhtar Mai revisits ordeal through Thumbprint

Village councils  known as a jirga or panchayat  typically consist of local elders and are a traditional means of dispute resolution in rural Pakistan, where the formal legal system is not always accessible. Such councils do not, however, hold any legal standing.

The council that ordered the rape consisted only of family members of the first rape victim, and was not a body that drew from the local community, said Rashid, the police official.

The [village council] system was brought about in the subcontinent at a time when we did not have courts or the rule of law as we have today, said Mehdi Hasan, HRCPs chairperson.

This is a 400-year-old system, and to keep it in place even today is damaging both to democracy and to the rule of law.

Mukhtaran Mai case

Last year, a 16-year-old girl was drugged, killed and her body burned after a similar ruling by a village council in the northern Pakistani town of Makol.

A panchayat was also involved in one of Pakistans most infamous cases of sexual violence against women, when in 2002 a council ordered the gang rape of Mukhtaran Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai took her attackers to court and has since championed the rights of women in Pakistan and elsewhere.

Thirteen of the 14 men accused of the crime were acquitted by Pakistans Supreme Court in 2011.

Up until now in all these incidents, no culprit has been punished, said Hasan.

Until the culprits are punished strictly and panchayat members face the law, we will continue to see such cases.

Asad Hashim is Al Jazeeras Web Correspondent in Pakistan. He tweets @AsadHashim.
Group close to military victory calls truce with Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, whose fighters will reportedly return to Syria.

Fighting between Lebanons Hezbollah movement and a former al-Qaeda affiliate on the Syria-Lebanon border halted on Thursday after a ceasefire was reached, Lebanese media and Hezbollah outlets reported.

The truce in the mountainous Juroud Arsal area between the Iran-backed Shia group and Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, previously known as al-Nusra Front, was struck after a week of fighting.

The ceasefire was confirmed by Hezbollahs al-Manar TV website and Lebanese National News Agency (NNA), which said the pause was part of a deal brokered by the countrys general security agency chief Major General Abbas Ibrahim.

The al-Nusra fighters and their families will go to Idlib, a province in northwestern Syria largely under the control of the jihadists, NNA said.

Hezbollah said the ceasefire came into force at 6am (03:00 GMT) and halted fighting on all fronts.

The development comes a day after the leader of the Hezbollah group said that the group was close to defeating Jabhat Fateh al-Sham in the battle along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

We are in the face of a very big military victory, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Wednesday.

The rival fighters have effectively lost most of the land they held in the barren, mountainous border region of Jroud Arsal, he added.

RELATED: Syrias civil war explained from the beginning

As soon as fighting ends, Hezbollah would be ready to hand over territory it has captured if the Lebanese army requests it, Nasrallah said.

Al-Nusra Front, formerly al-Qaedas Syria branch, severed ties with the latter and rebranded itself as Jabhat Fateh al-Sham last year.

Hezbollah has made rapid advances since it launched an offensive with the Syrian army on Friday to drive Jabhat Fateh al-Sham from their last foothold along the frontier.

Al Jazeeras Imtiaz Tyab, reporting from Beirut, said that Hezbollah captured the area in question in a quick offensive over a matter of days.

Hezbollah has been calling for talks in order to reach a settlement. It appears the sides reached some sort of a settlement, but the details of this deal are yet to be announced, he said. However, what we know for a fact is that the fighting has stopped.

ISIL expected to be next target

The next phase of the operation is expected to target a nearby enclave in the hands of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group.





The Lebanese army, a recipient of US and British military support, has not taken part in the offensive and has set up defensive positions around Arsal, which Nasrallah described as essential.

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting armed groups in the border region during the six-year Syrian war and provided critical military support to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On the Syrian side of the border, Hezbollah fought shoulder to shoulder with the Syrian army around the town of Fleita in recent days and cleared the area of rival fighters, Nasrallah said.

Nasrallah stressed that his movement is very cautious not to endanger the lives of any Syrian refugees living in informal camps on the outskirts of Arsal.

Security sources say some two dozen Hezbollah fighters have been killed overall in the battle, and nearly 150 from the other side.
Arabian Business report on liquidation of dozens of failed real-estate projects deleted from website and apology posted.

The UAE has banned a Dubai-based popular website and magazine for publishing a report on failed real-estate projects  false news according to the authorities.

A statement released by the media office of Dubai said on Wednesday that the print and online editions of Arabian Business would be barred from publishing for a month.

The magazine committed violations of the rules and regulations of Dubai Creative Clusters Authority (DCCA) by publishing false news that was based on inaccurate information, the statement said, without elaborating.

Arabian Business recently reported that courts in Dubai were in the process of liquidating dozens of failed real-estate projects in the city, which weathered a property slump as part of the global financial crisis in 2009.

It soon deleted the online article and posted an apology online on Friday. It said the piece was an oversight and related to projects dating from 2010 that are now outdated.

But by then, the article had already been picked up by other publications, angering UAE authorities and state-linked media.

The Dubai media office said on Saturday on Twitter that it ruled out a report published by Arabian Business (and) copied by Qatari media about the projects.

READ MORE: UAE  Social media users face jail for Qatar sympathy

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cut ties with Qatar early last month, accusing it of supporting extremists  a charge Qatar denies.

UAE authorities have warned that showing sympathy for Qatar online is punishable under the countrys sweeping cybercrime legislation, which criminalises a broad range of online activity and allows for long prison sentences and hefty fines.

Human rights groups say the law and measures, such as censorship of online content, limit freedom of expression in the UAE.

Besides Arabic and English editions of Arabian Business, ITP publishes regional versions of several international titles, including Cosmopolitan, Esquire and Time Out.

Internet users who attempted to reach the Arabian Business site in the UAE on Wednesday saw messages similar to those used for other types of censored content saying access was prohibited.
Macron announces plan to set up hot spots to handle asylum requests, just two days after brokering talks in Paris.

Emmanuel Macron says France will set up processing centres this summer in Libya for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean Sea.

The French presidents announcement comes two days after he brokered talks in Paris between the leaders of the two rival authorities in Libya, who agreed to a conditional ceasefire.

The idea is to create hot spots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. Well go to them, Marcon said on Thursday during a visit to a refugee shelter in central France.

He said the plan would be put in place this summer.

READ MORE: One day in Calais  The refugees hiding in the forest

Libya is the main launchpad for African migrants trying to reach Europe in boats operated by smugglers that frequently sink.

Macron had said on Tuesday he hoped the agreement to try to end five years of chaos in Libya would check the flow of migrants.

Since January, more than 100,000 people have made the dangerous journey from Libya, according to the Switzerland-based International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Over 2,300 have drowned this year attempting to make the journey, the IOM says.

Refugees Living in Hell

Human Rights Watch, the international rights monitor, released a report on Wednesday saying that the French police routinely abuse refugees and migrants in the port town of Calais, accusing authorities of turning a blind eye to police misconduct.

Wednesdays report  titled Like Living in Hell  accuses police and riot squads of regularly using pepper spray on asylum seekers, including children who do not pose a threat, even while they are sleeping.

Officers have also confiscated or pepper-sprayed asylum seekers food, water, sleeping bags, blankets and clothes, the report added, saying that the conduct violates international standards of policing.

French authorities have denied the accusations in the report, which relied on interviews with 61 people.
Measure hitting three US foes with more financial penalties draws concern from Germany which says EU was not consulted.

United States House and Senate Republicans have worked out a deal to move quickly on a package of new financial sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress approval.

Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday that he and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy had reached an agreement that removed the last obstacle to passing the bill. The measure hits the three US foes with additional penalties.

I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the presidents desk, Corker said.

The House had overwhelmingly approved the legislation on Tuesday, 419-3. But Corker had objected to including the sanctions targeting Pyongyang in the legislation.

READ MORE: Mr Trump, meet Bond, James Bond  From Russia with love

He wanted to keep the North Korea penalties in a separate bill that the Senate would consider. But Corker dropped his objections. He said the Senate will move to approve the House-passed bill after receiving assurances the North Korea sections would be fine-tuned at a later date.

Going forward, the House has committed to expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future, he said.

Russia punished for alleged election meddling

The sanctions against Moscow are punishment for its alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its military actions in Ukraine and Syria.

According to the bill, Trump would be barred from easing the Russia sanctions without first getting permission from Congress, a demand that could imperil his bid for better relations with Moscow.

A version of the sanctions legislation that only addressed Russia and Iran cleared the Senate nearly six weeks ago with 98 votes.

READ MORE: US announces new sanctions over missile programme

Not a word of the North Korea bill has been looked at over here. Not a word, Corker told reporters earlier on Wednesday as he explained his concerns.

But House politicians fired back, noting that the House had decisively passed a North Korea-only sanctions bill in May, yet the Senate never took that bill up.

They added that its all the more important to push ahead with the North Korea sanctions following a report that US intelligence officials believe Pyongyang will have a reliable, intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year.

READ MORE: Are Russia and the US entering a new Cold War?

That is why the House added the previously House-passed North Korea sanctions bill  which has been languishing in the Senate for over two months  to the Senate bill, said Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy.

Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he and other Democrats had no objections to making the North Korea sanctions part of the overall package.

Theres nothing in the bill that I find problematic, he said. I hope we pass it the way it is.

Russia, EU react

Earlier on Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington after the House of Representatives backed new US sanctions on Moscow.

This is rather sad news from the point of view of Russia-US ties, said Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesman. We are talking about an extremely unfriendly act.

He said President Vladimir Putin would decide if and how Moscow would retaliate once the sanctions became law.

Russias deputy foreign minister warned the move was taking bilateral relations into uncharted waters, killing off hopes of improving them in the near future.

Meanwhile, new sanctions against Russia could harm German companies and add another difficulty to Berlins relationship with Washington, German economy minister Brigitte Zypries said on Thursday.

The US has left the common line it had with Europe for sanctions against Russia, Zypries told ARD television, adding that by not coordinating with Europe on the matter, there was a risk that German companies would be harmed.

German business leaders warn that new sanctions passed last week by the US House of Representatives could prevent German companies from working on pipeline projects that they say are essential to Germanys energy security.
In letter to government, rights group seeks clarification on reports of restrictions on movements of Mohammad bin Nayef.

Human Rights Watch has called on Saudi Arabia to explain whether its former crown prince has been under house arrest since he was overthrown last month.

The international rights advocacy group has called on Saudi Arabia to clarify immediately whether there are restrictions on the movements of Mohammad bin Nayef Al Saud .

HRW made the demand in a letter to Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabias foreign minister.

Citing a New York Times report from June, HRW said Nayef had been confined to his palace and banned from travelling abroad since King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud elevated his son Mohammad bin Salman to crown prince.

READ MORE: Saudi Arabia should stop bloody execution spree

Saudi Arabia has previously denied the report.

The Saudi government needs to call a halt to officials arbitrary abuses of power, Sarah Leah Whitson, HRWs Middle East director, said.

She said that if the report of his restriction is true, it would be ironic given [Nayefs] role in imposing similar arbitrary restrictions on thousands of Saudis.

So what exactly are the travel restrictions on former crown prince Mohammad bin Nayef?

Saudis owe us an explanation. https://t.co/JWhz6ESZw5 pic.twitter.com/w9urDYYJgZ  Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) July 27, 2017

During Nayefs tenure as interior minister, the ministry allegedly detained and harassed Saudis who expressed views on politics, religion and society that were not in line with the governments.

On Monday, King Salman appointed Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to run the countrys affairs while he was on holiday.

Arbitrary travel bans

HRW said it has documented Saudi Arabias rampant use of arbitrary travel bans and detentions of Saudis over the years.

It said that in many cases the Saudi interior ministry did not inform citizens that they were on a travel ban list or the reasons for the restrictions.

Some learned when they attempted to travel abroad.

In 2014, the interior ministry banned Samar Badawi, a prominent human rights activist, from travelling.

The ban prevented her from travelling to Brussels for a human rights event where she had planned to champion the release of her then husband, Waleed Abu al-Khair, who is serving a 15-year prison sentence for his human rights work.

Badawi was arrested and later released in January for her alleged role in managing a social media account campaigning for the release of her husband.
Israel removes barricades and surveillance equipment around holy site after two weeks of protests by Palestinians.

Muslim leaders of the al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem have given their approval for Palestinians to re-enter the site after Israel removed new security measures, following almost two weeks of protests that saw several Palestinians killed and hundreds injured.

Officials of the Islamic Waqf authority that administers the holy site said on Thursday that Muslims should claim victory after Israel backed down, and urged them to once again pray inside the mosque.

The first prayer is expected to take place at around 13:00 GMT.

We will be able to offer prayers inside the compound, said Abdel-Azeem Salhab, director of the Islamic Waqf Council.

The Israeli occupation forces have been trying for decades to violate al-Aqsa Mosque compound. Now, you are living in the new era of victory. We totally appreciate the masses who have been gathering, he added.

Israel had erected railings, gates and scaffolding where cameras were mounted at the al-Aqsa Mosque compound entrance, claiming the measures were necessary for security after an attack on July 14.

Palestinians protested against increased security, which they viewed as an encroachment of Israeli control over the holy site, and a form of collective punishment.

With the discriminatory security measures, they feared that Israel was attempting to change the status quo of al-Aqsa, which gives Muslims religious control over the compound and Jews the right to visit, but not pray there.

Deadly street protests

Instead of praying inside al-Aqsa, thousands worshipped in the streets.

They also demonstrated, often clashing with police. At least four Palestinians were killed in that violence  one of whom was shot by a settler, and hospitals were unable to keep up with the number of injured.

We had to sacrifice everything, we had to win this battle, and we finally won, Ahmed Abulawa, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, told Al Jazeera. Jerusalem is our soul, our faith and we cannot live without it and al-Aqsa.

Everyone here will sacrifice everything for al-Aqsa, and this is what made us victorious.

A Palestinian also allegedly broke into the home of a Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank and killed three Israelis.





By Tuesday, Israel had removed metal detectors from the entrance.

The measures, which also saw Palestinian men under the age of 50 banned from Friday prayers, were imposed after the alleged attack almost two weeks ago at the compound, carried out by Palestinian gunmen who killed two Israeli security guards.

As workmen removed the extra security installations on Thursday, Palestinians gathered to celebrate, with whistling and constant horns from cars.

The message here is that the people have won, said Al Jazeeras Stefanie Dekker, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem. It is a very special time for the Palestinians, who have never really experienced this kind of victory. They have achieved what they wanted.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, backed calls to return to al-Aqsa Mosque.

The prayers will happen, God willing, inside the al-Aqsa Mosque, Abbas told a press conference.

Jordan welcomed Israels removal of all new security measures as an essential step towards calm, said Mohammad al-Momani, information minister.

The compound houses al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine, Islams third holiest site after Mecca and Medina, but also the ruins of the Biblical Jewish Temple.

Israeli police earlier confirmed that all security measures had been removed.
Palestinians rejoice as new restrictions at entrance of holy site, including metal railings, are removed after protests.

Israel has removed more security installations from the entrance to al-Aqsa Mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem after protests and deadly unrest in recent days.

Newly installed railings, gates and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were removed from the entrance to the compound early on Thursday.

On Tuesday, Israel had removed metal detectors from the entrance.

Palestinians had been protesting against increased security, viewed as an encroachment of Israeli control over the holy site and a form of collective punishment.

The measures, which also saw Palestinian men under the age of 50 banned from Friday prayers, were imposed after an alleged attack on July 14 at the compound carried out by Palestinian gunmen who killed two Israeli security guards.

As workmen removed the extra security installations on Thursday, almost two weeks after the alleged attack, Palestinians gathered to celebrate, with whistling and constant horns from cars.

READ MORE: Jerusalem cameras more dangerous than metal detectors

A Palestinian man in the crowds told Al Jazeera that he was there to mark a significant victory.

Today is a joyful day, full of celebration and sorrow at the same time  sorrow for the people who lost their lives and were injured, he said.

Al-Aqsa is dearer than our own lives

At least six Palestinian protesters were killed in the daily clashes  one of whom was shot dead by a settler  and hundreds were injured in confrontations with Israeli forces.

Most of the injuries inflicted by the Israeli forces were from rubber-coated steel bullets.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.

We are under occupation and al-Aqsa Mosque is a redline to everyone in Jerusalem  actually, to everyone in Palestine, and all over the Muslim world  but much more for the people of [Jerusalem]. Its dearer than their own lives, the Palestinian man in the crowds on Thursday told Al Jazeera.





Al Jazeeras Imran Khan, reporting from outside the compound in occupied East Jerusalem, said the crowds were celebrating what protesters feel is a significant victory that has gone beyond simply protesting against security measures.

This is very much a grassroots movement  this isnt led by Hamas or Fatah, the traditional political leaders of the Palestinians, he said.

This is an occupied East Jerusalem movement; its effectively leaderless but its growing and growing.

Refusing to pray at al-Aqsa

A tense standoff has been under way between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site despite the removal of the metal detectors, with concerns of major unrest later this week if no resolution is found.

Muslims have refused to enter al-Aqsa Mosque and have been praying in the streets outside since the fallout began.

The compound houses the revered al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to attack the security officers.

OPINION: The al-Aqsa metal detectors arent a security measure

There have been concerns that Fridays main weekly Muslim prayers  which typically draw thousands to al-Aqsa Mosque  will lead to even more serious clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

It was not immediately clear whether Muslim authorities would now give their approval to re-enter the site.

Mohammed Nuseibeh, deputy chairman of the Waqf Higher Council, told Al Jazeera they would not issue an official response until their own technicians had gone into the mosque compound and investigated.
Fresh clashes lift number killed in four months of violence to more than 100, as Maduros controversial election nears.

At least five people were killed in renewed clashes between police and protesters in Venezuela, where a 48-hour strike called for by the opposition is taking place.

The Venezuela prosecutors office said a 49-year-old man was killed during a protest in Carabobo state and a 16-year old died in El Paraiso, Caracas on Thursday.

That added to the previously announced deaths of a 23-year-old man and a 30-year-old man killed in western Merida state and a 16-year-old boy killed in the Caracas neighborhood of Petare during clashes on Wednesday.

The latest casualties bring to 108 the number of people killed in four months of violent protests against the government of President Nicolas Maduro, the AFP news agency said.

Maduros opponents at home and abroad are attempting to pressure him into halting his plans to rewrite Venezuelas constitution with an election for a Constituent Assembly on July 30.

The opposition-led two-day strike is the latest effort to bring Venezuela to a standstill.

Highways were mostly empty, and businesses shuttered across the country as millions of people observed the protest.

Activists threw up roadblocks in many neighbourhoods to keep others from getting to work, but the protest soon turned violent.

The strike came as the United States announced sanctions on 13 senior Venezuelan officials.

The US Treasury Department issued the punishing measures, saying the flawed election process would undermine democracy.

A defiant Maduro hit back late on Wednesday, holding a campaign style rally where he presented some of those hit by US sanctions with replicas of a sword belonging to Latin American independence hero Simon Bolivar.

READ MORE: Venezuela has reached the zero hour: Whats next?

Congratulations for these imperialist sanctions, he said, before handing out the symbolic swords. For us, its a recognition of morality, loyalty to the nation, and civic honesty.

Maduro accuses the US of fomenting the unrest against him and his government, with the help of the conservative opposition.

Constitutional fraud

Venezuela is days away from starting the process of rewriting its constitution by electing members of a Constituent Assembly, which will override the current opposition-led legislature.

The opposition is boycotting Sundays vote, saying election rules were rigged to guarantee Maduro a majority in the assembly.

Polling firm Datanalisis says some 70 percent of Venezuelans are opposed to the Constituent Assembly.





Opposition leader Leopoldo Lopez appealed to the military, which is fiercely loyal to the president, to withdraw its support from Maduros plan, which he called a constitutional fraud aimed at eliminating democratic rule.

We are on the brink of their trying to annihilate the republic that you swore to defend, Lopez said in a 15-minute video message. I ask you not to be accomplices in the annihilation of the republic.

After the strike, the opposition has planned a demonstration for Friday billed as a takeover of Caracas.

Its the only way to show we are not with Maduro. They are few, but they have the weapons and the money, decorator Cletsi Xavier told Reuters news agency.

Meanwhile, Telesur, a television network sponsored by several Latin American governments including Venezuela, reported that thousands of Maduro supporters rallied across the country on Wednesday in support of the election.

In a Twitter post, Diosdado Cabello, the vice president of the ruling Socialist Party, said Venezuela remained absolutely calm. He posted pictures of hundreds of red-clad government supporters at a rally in the state of Monagas.

Amor con amor se paga, en Monagas como en toda Venezuela #LaConstituyenteSiVa, Pueblo en la calle, mi corazon de Patriota con ustedes pic.twitter.com/87tXVUnZjI  Diosdado Cabello R (@dcabellor) July 26, 2017

US sanctions

US officials said the individual sanctions aimed to show Maduro that Washington would make good on a threat of strong and swift economic actions if he goes ahead with Sundays vote.

Among those hit by US sanctions were Tibisay Lucena, the president of the national elections council; Simon Zerpa, the vice president of the state oil company PDVSA; and prominent former ministers Iris Varela and Elias Jaua.

In addition, penalties will apply to several members of Venezuelas National Guard, police and other security services.

The administration of US President Donald Trump spared Venezuela from broader sanctions against its vital oil industry, but such actions were still under consideration.

OPINION: Maduro is not Chavez

Thirteen countries in the 35-member Organization of American States, a regional political bloc, have also urged Maduro to suspend the election.

Adding to Venezuelas isolation, a major Latin American airline, Avianca of Colombia, said it would stop flights to and from Venezuela in mid-August. It cited security concerns for the move.

Meanwhile, thousands of Venezuelans have fled the unrest this week, crossing the border into Colombia laden with heavy bags.

The elections are on Sunday, and we really dont know what will happen, Maria de los Angeles Pichardo, who left with her husband and son, told AFP news agency. To be safe, we prefer to cross.
Pair of women expected to plead not guilty at Malaysias High Court over murder of North Korean leaders half-brother.

Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half-brother of North Koreas ruler are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah, 25, and Doan Thi Huong, 29, from Vietnam are suspected of smearing Kim Jong-nams face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on February 13.

The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Koreas spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by North Korean leader Kim Jong-un to kill his half-brother.

READ MORE: Meet the Kims  Whos who in North Koreas first family

Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was Kim Jong-uns half-brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack.

It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other hostile forces.

Prank show





Siti Aisyah was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows, according to her lawyer Gooi Soon-seong.

James, identified by police as Ri Ji-u, had Siti practise at malls, hotels and airports by rubbing oil or pepper sauce on a victims face, the lawyer said.

Aisyah was paid between $100 and $200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort.

In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia to meet Hong Song-hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing. He told her he produced video prank shows for the Chinese market, the lawyer said.

Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked.

He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand.

OPINION: Kim Jong-nam attack reveals true nature of North Korea

Aisyah, who has a son, wrote to her family telling them to pray for her so that the case will be over soon and I can go back home.

Huong was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters LOL  an acronym for laughing out loud.

Security camera footage apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong-nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal.

Little is known about Huong. Raised on a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago, aged just 18 years.

Photos on her Facebook page show Huong wearing a white shirt that appears to say LOL, like the one seen on security camera video during the attack.

It shows her posing for selfies in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the attack and in January in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Kingdom seeks to question guard who has returned to Israel after dispute that left two Jordanian citizens dead.

Jordans King Abdullah has asked Benjamin Netanyahu to put an Israeli embassy guard who on Sunday shot and killed two Jordanian citizens, on trial.

Jordan wants to question the guard, but he has since returned to Israel, welcomed with an embrace by the Israeli prime minister.

Jordans public prosecutors initial investigation has found the Israeli guard responsible for the killings and of possession of a firearm without a licence.

Israel brought the guard home under diplomatic immunity on Monday.

On Thursday in his first public comments on the case, King Abdullah criticised Netanyahu for embracing the guard, calling it provocative and destabilising.

There are different versions of how the Jordanians were killed.

Conflicting versions

The Israeli foreign ministry says the guard was stabbed by 17-year-old Mohammed al-Jawawdeh, who was at an embassy residence delivering furniture.

The official Jordanian government version of events is similar: It says Jawawdeh attacked the Israeli guard, who shot and killed him and the landlord of the residence, Bashar Hamarneh.

The guards version of events, as communicated by the Israelis, suggested that he was defending himself when Jawawdeh attempted to stab him with a screwdriver in an argument over a late delivery of furniture.

Initially, the Jordanian government gave conflicting statements about the incident, describing it at one time as a crime against Jordanian citizens and then supported the Israeli version of events by saying that the embassy guard had acted in self-defence.

Ghaleb al-Zuabi, Jordans interior minister, had said the dead [man] had attacked the Israeli guard with a screwdriver who shot him in self-defence.

Mohamad al Hejouj, a former member of parliament who is related to the Jawawdeh clan, told Al Jazeera he was informed by government security officials that Jawawdeh might have attacked the security guard.

However, Jawawdehs family rejects the claim that he attacked the guard.

Columnist and retired army general Mussa al-Adwan wrote: The murder of Jordanians is not only humiliating the government but also the entire people of Jordan.

Adwan also questioned the credibility of statements made by Foreign Minister Ayman al-Safadi on CNN in which he said that the government would guarantee a fair trial to bring justice to the families of the victims.

Anis al-Khasawneh, another columnist, chided the government for being subservient to Israeli arrogance and crimes when it comes to Jordanian citizens. Al-Khasawneh added: The Jordanian government cheapens Jordanian blood, and gives its relations with the Zionist entity a priority over the dignity of its citizens

Killed in cold blood

Denying that the Jawawdeh family was knowingly doing business with the Israeli embassy in Amman, a family member told Al Jazeera: Our family would never deal with the Zionist occupiers; they killed our son in cold blood on Jordanian soil.

Jawawdehs father, Zakariya, told AFP news agency that he wanted the truth, urging authorities to view CCTV footage from security cameras at the embassy.

My son has no interest in politics. He does not follow any extremist ideology, he said.

I want to know how the investigation is going and know what happened, and what led to the killing of my son.

The Jawawdeh family has hired a lawyer to follow up the case with the Jordanian government.

Family members said officials from the Jordanian government, including the prime minister and officers from the General Intelligence Department, have visited the family to pay their respects.

The missing witness

Adding to the confusion and conflicting accounts has been the disappearance of a key witness who was present at the apartment where the shooting took place.

Maher Faris Ibrahimi, the truck driver who delivered furniture to the apartment, witnessed the shooting, according to his family.

After the shooting, Ibrahimi was questioned by the Jordanian police and remained in custody until he was released on Wednesday.

Ibrahimis family members told Al Jazeera that he was told by the police not to stay at his house, to shut off his mobile phone and not talk to anyone about the incident.

Ibrahimi is now staying with other family members in other parts of Amman, his wife said.

Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, but the Jordanian public largely views Israel negatively, especially in light of its continued occupation of Palestinian lands and its treatment of Palestinians under its control.

Ali Younes contributed to this report. Follow him on Twitter @ali_reports
More than 100 injured as Israeli forces fire tear gas on worshippers re-entering holy after two weeks of protests.

More than 100 Palestinians have been injured as Israeli forces fired tear gas, stun grenades and sound bombs at worshippers who returned to Jerusalems al-Aqsa Mosque compound for the first time in nearly two weeks.

As the call to prayer sounded from al-Aqsa Mosque again, thousands of men, women and children made their way to the compound on Thursday, after Israel removed surveillance equipment and other obstacles from the gates leading to the holy site.

On Thursday night, dozens of Palestinians who have taken shelter inside the al-Qibli Mosque were surrounded by Israeli forces who cut off electricity in an attempt to force them outside of the compound.

Earlier in the day, the scenes of eupohria and celebrations inside the compound were cut short by Israeli forces who stormed in at the heels of the crowds that had entered the al-Aqsa Mosque complex.

Raed Saleh, a resident of occupied East Jerusalem, said that re-entering the compound on their own conditions was a victory for Palestinians.

We never saw this kind of win for our people, he told Al Jazeera. People are coming from everywhere just to support us in this occasion.

The Israeli government will now understand that Palestinians from Jerusalem will not accept everything they [Israelis] will tell them. We control ourselves. No one is controlling us.

READ MORE: Five things you need to know about al-Aqsa

The metal detectors were removed overnight Wednesday by Israeli authorities.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were also cleared early on Thursday, after which Israeli police declared that all new security measures had been removed.





Palestinians had gathered at al-Aqsa on Thursday after officials from the Islamic Waqf authority, which administers al-Aqsa Mosque compound, gave the go-ahead to return to performing prayers there.

However, one of the gates, Bab Hutta, remained closed by Israeli forces and Palestinians refused to enter until all Israeli-imposed measures were removed from the gates.

Israeli security forces followed the worshippers in from the Bab Hutta gate and fired stun grenades, sound bombs and tear gas. According to the Palestinian Red Crescent, 113 people have been injured as a result.

Speaking from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeeras correspondent Imran Khan said that he saw Palestinians being brought out of the compounds gates injured.

Sporadically you hear stun grenades go off, you hear tear gas being used inside the al-Aqsa Mosque compound by Israeli security forces and the use of rubber-coated steel bullets, he said.

Right now inside the compound theres a hell of a lot of tear gas being used and people coming out with their eyes streaming. Every so often we see Palestinians running, trying to avoid the heavy-handed dispersal tactics that the Israelis [are using].

Palestinians were later pushed back by Israeli police from Lions Gate, one of the main protest points, and not allowed to enter the compound.

A live video posted on Facebook showed hundreds of Palestinian worshippers performing the sunset prayer inside the compound.

Meanwhile, the Arab League said that Israels removal of new security measures had solved the immediate crisis but urged it to learn lessons by desisting from any such steps in future.

Israels withdrawal from its provocative and illegal actions solves the crisis they themselves created, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, Arab League secretary-general, said at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Thursday.

Dealing with Islamic sanctities with such imprudence poses a real threat of igniting a religious war, because no Muslim in the world accepts tarnishing al-Aqsa or its closure in the face of the worshippers or placing it under Israeli control.

READ MORE: Palestine envoy to UN: Al-Aqsa crisis at tipping point

For 13 days, Palestinians had protested night and day, refusing to pray inside the compound after Israel installed metal detectors at its entrances.

They held prayers in the streets and just outside the gates to the Old City.

Palestinians viewed the installation of the surveillance equipment as Israel asserting further control.

The new regulations came after an attack on July 14 by three Palestinian citizens of Israel, who killed two Israeli policemen in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The three men were then chased inside the compound before they were shot and killed.

The following week, three Palestinians were killed in Friday protests by Israeli forces in what was dubbed a day of rage.

Later that night, three Israelis were stabbed to death by a Palestinian who entered their house in a West Bank settlement.

The compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, is in occupied East Jerusalem.

It was seized by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.
Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, wanted for mass rape and killings, surrenders to UN forces and will stand trial.

The founder and leader of a Democratic Republic of Congo rebel group who is wanted for crimes against humanity has surrendered, the UN mission in Congo has said.

Ntabo Ntaberi Sheka, the founder of Nduma Defense of Congo, has been wanted since 2011 on a national warrant for crimes against humanity, including for mass rapes.

He surrendered to UN forces in the countrys North Kivu region on Wednesday.

Sheka handed himself in in full awareness of the fact that he is wanted by the government  to stand trial for alleged crimes, the mission said.

It was not immediately clear why he had turned himself in, but his forces have been locked in a losing fight in recent years with a rival armed group, Reuters news agency said.

READ MORE: DR Congo loses $750m in mining revenues to corruption

The UN mission said it would support Congo authorities in pursuing criminal prosecutions for human rights violations, and it has a standing agreement with the government to ensure that those handed over to national authorities are treated in accordance with all relevant human rights standards.

Eastern Congo has been plagued by myriad armed rebels since the Rwandan genocide in 1994.

Ida Sawyer, the Human Rights Watchs Central Africa director, said Shekas surrender brings hope for justice and a reprieve from violence.

Thousands of civilians in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo have been affected by crimes committed by forces under Ntabo Ntaberi Shekas command, and many still fear the next attack, she said.

He remained at large for over six years as his troops continued to commit horrific crimes, Sawyer said.

According to the UN, Shekas forces and two other armed groups raped at least 387 civilians between July 30 and August 2, 2010, to punish them for alleged collaboration with Congolese government forces.

His soldiers are also accused of razing almost 1,000 homes and businesses and taking about 100 people off into forced labour.

HRW said Shekas forces continue to hold many women and girls hostage as sex slaves.
Republicans, struggling to keep seven-year-old promise to end the law, turn focus to passing slimmed-down skinny bill.

After seven years of emphatic campaign promises, Republicans senators on Wednesday failed to repeal Obamacare, as the senate voted 55-45 to reject legislation undoing major portions of Barack Obamas healthcare law without replacing it.

Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in rejecting a measure by Republican Rand Paul of Kentucky that would have repealed most of former President Obamas healthcare law, with a two-year delay but no replacement.

Congress passed nearly identical legislation in 2015 and sent it to Obama, who unsurprisingly vetoed it.

Yet this time, with a president in the White House whos eager to sign the bill, the measure failed on the Senate floor.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that repealing Obamacare without replacing it would cost more than 30 million Americans their insurance coverage, and that was a key factor in driving away more Republican senators than Majority Leader Mitch McConnell could afford to lose in the closely divided Senate.

READ MORE: The Obamacare debate is not just about healthcare

The result frustrated other Republican senators, some of whom expressed disbelief that their colleagues would flip-flop on legislation they had voted for only two years ago and long-promised to voters. Of the current Republican senators, only moderate Susan Collins of Maine opposed the 2015 repeal bill.

Make no mistake: Todays vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal, said Senator Ben Sasse of Nebraska. We still have a long, long way to go  both in health policy and in honesty.

Yet the outcome was unsurprising in a Senate thats already shown that unity is elusive when it comes to dealing with Obamacare. The real-world implications of repeal have proven sobering to Republican senators answering to voters whove come to rely on expanded insurance coverage under the law.

What the partys senators will end up agreeing on instead is far from clear. Yet they plunged forward with debate towards their unknown goal, pressured by an impatient president. By the weeks end, Republicans hope to reach agreement among themselves, and eventually with the House, on some kind of repeal and replacement for the Obama law they have reviled for so long.

A skinny repeal

One possibility taking shape in talks among senators was a skinny repeal that would abolish just a few of the key elements of Obamas law including its mandates that everyone buy insurance and its taxes that all Republican senators can agree to oppose.

But in a sign of the general confusion, some said the tactic was aimed chiefly at moving the process forward into the purview of a committee of senate-house bargainers while others expressed the hope that the house would swallow a skinny bill whole, freeing Congress to move on to other issues.

Either way, after weeks spent on the issue including false starts and near-death experiences that have eaten up months of Trumps presidency, the realisation was dawning on senators that they may be unable to pass anything more complex for now than a lowest-common-denominator bill.





At the end of the day, weve got to start somewhere. This is a start, said Republican Senator Thom Tillis.

The days proceedings began with input from Trump, whos proven impatient and inconsistent throughout the healthcare debate and yet can claim some credit for resuscitating talks in the Senate after McConnell essentially declared them dead last week.

The president singled out Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski, whod voted the day before against opening long-awaited debate on the legislation, and also opposed a wide-ranging McConnell amendment on Tuesday that offered a replacement for Obamacare and went down to defeat.

Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote.

I dont really follow Twitter that much, Murkowski remarked to reporters later with a shrug.

Murkowski was also among the seven Republican senators who voted no Wednesday on the repeal-only bill. The others were Collins, Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, Dean Heller of Nevada, John McCain of Arizona, Rob Portman of Ohio and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee.

In a statement defending his vote, Portman wrote: We need a rescue plan for Ohio families who are suffering under the status quo, not one that makes the healthcare system worse for Ohio families.
The UN has delivered aid to only a few hard-to-reach areas in Syria and not a single besieged location this month.

The United Nations has delivered aid to only a few hard-to-reach areas in Syria and not a single besieged location this month, a senior UN humanitarian official said on Thursday.

Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Ursula Mueller told the UN Security Council in a video briefing from Amman, Jordan, that there have been no UN aid convoys to besieged areas in July and just one a week to hard-to-reach areas, meaning just over 120,000 people got help this month.

Mueller blamed the Syrian government, armed groups, insecurity and fighting.

Other UN partners delivered aid to some hard-to-reach areas, where an estimated four million people live. The UN says 540,000 people in 11 locations are still under siege, mostly by Assads forces.

READ MORE: Jobar  Death is a central part of their daily lives

Mueller said the UN continues to see a reduction in violence in some areas since Russia and Iran, both supporters of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Turkey, which backs rebels fighting Syrian government forces, agreed on a plan in May to establish four de-escalation zones in Syria.

But despite reductions in violence, we have not been able to noticeably increase our reach, she said.

In a letter to the Security Council, ambassadors from 12 Western and Arab nations and the European Union, who attend weekly meetings in Geneva on humanitarian aid to Syria, said they remain extremely concerned that the UN is being excluded from sending convoys to besieged and hard-to-reach areas.





This trend has worsened significantly in recent months, said the letter, obtained by The Associated Press.

Only two UN supported convoys have been able to access territory besieged by the Syrian authorities since April.

The ambassadors urged the Security Council to underline to Syria its obligation under international law to allow humanitarian aid deliveries  and to take action given its pledge to take further steps in the case of non-compliance.

Britains UN Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters: Were not asking for humanitarian access as a favour. Were asking for it because its a legal and moral obligation. Its an obligation under successive Security Council resolutions.

Al Jazeeras Rosalind Jordan, reporting from New York, said that a new UN resolution is highly unlikely, according to Chinas UN ambassador Liu Jieyi, who is acting president of the Security Council.

[He] told reporters that members of the council are very worried about the humanitarian situation in Syria and that theyre looking for a way to try to make it easier for humanitarian deliveries of food and medicine to actually get to the people who need it, but there arent any new initiatives on the table, said Jordan.

There are already a number of resolutions calling for increased aid deliveries.

Over 200,000 have fled Syrias Raqqa since April 1

Mueller said that over 200,000 civilians had fled their homes in Syria around Raqqa, the de facto capital of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) group, since April 1, including over 30,000 displaced just this month as US-backed Syrian fighters try to expel the group.

Mueller told the UN that an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain inside Raqqa city, which is now encircled, and their situation is perilous  there is no way for them to get out.

For those displaced in Raqqa province, she said humanitarian conditions are very difficult with temperatures now approaching 50 degrees Celsius. The UN also has serious concerns over their protection, particularly over their freedom of movement outside the camps many now live in, she said.

Leaving the city of Raqqa remains extremely difficult due to the presence of mines and other unexploded ordnance, as well as shelling, sniper activities and airstrikes, Mueller said.

OPINION: Syria and the case for editorial accountability

As military operations continue, our concern is further civilian casualties, she said, especially since fighters from the ISIL group have allegedly used civilians as human shields.

US-backed Syrian fighters have captured almost half of Raqqa from ISIL, but the push into the northern city has slowed due to the large amounts of explosives planted by the armed group.

Mueller said the UN and its partners are ready to support the people of Raqqa as soon as security allows it and they can gain access.

The health situation, particularly the low availability of trauma care services, is a major concern in view of the intense fighting and shifting front lines, she said. We continue to engage with relevant parties and actors on the ground  but a lot more needs to be done.
Activists chant undocumented, unafraid as they block street in Texas capital to protest Trumps immigration rhetoric.

At least 15 people, including four DACA recipients, have been arrested in Texas during a protest demanding permanent legal status for the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States.

The demonstration, organised by Cosecha  a nonviolent immigrants rights movement  took place in the city of Austin near the state capitol building on Wednesday.

A group of about 50 people chanted undocumented and unafraid and si se puede (yes you can) as some blocked a street in the state capital, leading to the arrest of 15 people including four beneficiaries of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) programme.

Under DACA, which was implemented by the Obama administration, children who arrive in the US are allowed a temporary reprieve from deportation if they meet a series of requirements.

More than 787,000 young people have been approved for the DACA programme since 2012, according to government data.

US lawmakers target undocumented student sanctuaries

US President Donald Trump repeatedly vowed to repeal DACA during his 2016 presidential campaign.

Earlier this month he told reporters that deciding what to do about DACA was a very, very hard decision to make.

There was a high risk for the DACA recipients participating in Wednesdays protest, Cosechas spokeswoman Maria Fernanda Cabello told Al Jazeera.

Its a very high risk to get arrested as a beneficiary of DACA, Cabello said, pointing to recently introduced state and national legislation and Trumps rhetoric on immigration as cause for fear among undocumented immigrants in the US.

Weve been getting hit from every angle, she added.

JUST IN: 15 immigrant rights activists arrested during demonstration in Austin #Texas 4 of them are #DACA recipients.#OutragedandUnafraid pic.twitter.com/zW6s84FSFQ  Antonio Arellano (@AntonioArellano) July 26, 2017

According to local media, Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) staff sergeant Victor Taylor said: after repeated requests by DPS officials to leave the roadway were ignored, the suspects were arrested without incident.

Catalina Santiago, a DACA recipient who was arrested on Wednesday, said in a statement that she wants her community to know that politicians do not get to decide who is deserving of dignity and who is not.

DACA is under attack while my parents, who are farm workers, were never even given the temporary protection DACA provides, she added.

I am getting arrested today to tell my parents, my community and the rest of the 11 million that no matter what politicians say, you are worthy, and we will not settle for the crumbs they offer us in exchange for being the economic and labour force that sustains this country day in and day out.

According to Cabello, the 11 activists also arrested have vowed to stay in jail until the DACA recipients arrested have been released.

Ground zero

On Tuesday, the US justice department intensified its crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities, implementing stricter rules for cities that receive grant money from the federal government.

Under the new rules, cities must give 48-hour notice before releasing a detained undocumented immigrant wanted by federal immigration authorities and give the authorities access to jails in order to receive grant funds.

Sanctuary cities and states limit their cooperation with federal immigration authorities in an effort to help reduce the number of deportations.

In April, a US judge blocked Trumps executive order that sought to withhold federal money from such cities.

READ MORE: Inside the American sanctuary city of Somerville

Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a law, known as Senate Bill 4, in May that effectively bans sanctuary cities in the state. Under the law, which is set to go into effect on September 1, local law enforcement can be charged for refusing to comply with requests from federal immigration agents. It also allows police to question peoples immigration status while detained.

Last month, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton led a group of his counterparts from nine other states in sending a letter to US Attorney General Jeff Sessions that called for the phasing out of the DACA programme.

Cristina Tzintzun, the founder and executive director of Jolt, a Latino advocacy group said such moves show that Texas has become ground zero for Trumps plan against the undocumented community.

Tzintzun told Al Jazeera her husband was among the 15 people arrested at Tuesdays mobilisation, adding that measures like Senate Bill 4 open the door to racial profiling and discrimination based on last names.

Fear has multiplied

Natalie Romero, a US citizen whose parents are undocumented, said the Texas moves, as well as the crackdown by US authorities, have amplified by fear felt by immigrants in the US.

What Texas is doing is facilitating Trumps anti-immigrant agenda, Romero, who participated in Wednesdays mobilisation, told Al Jazeera.

The 20-year-old university student said that since the US president took office in January, the fear faced by immigrants has multiplied.

She added that such legislation does not just affect immigrants, but the entire country.

The country will not function without these immigrants, she said.

Cosechas Cabello agreed, saying that the movement wants to challenge Trumps rhetoric from do you want immigrants to you need immigrants.
Human Rights Watch urges US to suspend all support for Iraqi army division pending probe into alleged executions.

A US-trained Iraqi army division allegedly executed dozens of men in the final phase of the battle against ISIL fighters in Mosuls Old City, Human Rights Watch has claimed.

The rights group on Thursday urged the US government to suspend all support for the 16th Division of the Iraqi army pending an investigation into what it called war crimes, evidence of which was seen by two international observers whom the group did not name.

The claims could not be independently verified as Iraqi authorities have restricted media access to the Old City since July 10, following Prime Minister Haider al-Abadis victory declaration over the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS).

Spokesmen for the Iraqi government and military could not be reached for comment.

ISIL made its last stand in the Old City after nine months of urban warfare with Iraqi forces, who are backed by a US-led coalition.

READ MORE: Mosul in ruins  I see only despair around us

Fighting continued there for several days after victory was declared in mid-July, and videos emerged of Iraqi forces beating unarmed men.

Footage showed one man being pushed off a cliff to his death.

Given the widespread abuses by Iraqi forces and the governments abysmal record on accountability, the US should take a hard look at its involvement with Iraqi forces, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Iraq has promised to investigate previous accusations of abuses and hold perpetrators to account.

The observers cited by HRW said they had seen a group of Iraqi soldiers who identified themselves as members of the 16th Division lead four naked men down an alleyway, after which they heard multiple gunshots.

They were told by other soldiers that the four men were ISIL fighters.

As they were leaving the area, one of the observers saw the bodies of a number of naked men lying in a doorway, one of whom appeared to have been handcuffed and had a rope tied around his legs.

The 16th Division has also been implicated in other executions.

In a separate incident, two soldiers from the same unit showed an observer at least 25 bodies lying on mounds of rubble along the Tigris, and bragged that these were ISIL fighters whom they and their fellow soldiers had executed.

The US military should find out why a force that it trained and supported is committing ghastly war crimes, Whitson said. US taxpayer dollars should be helping to curtail abuses, not enable them.
President Poroshenko, accused by Mikheil Saakashvili of corruption, deprives former ally of citizenship by decree.

Mikheil Saakashvili has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship, meaning he is now stateless, according to the former Georgian president and Ukrainian state media.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, whom Saakashvili has accused of perpetuating entrenched corruption in the former Soviet republic, deprived him of citizenship by decree, Ukrainian state media reported on Thursday.

Poroshenko decided to deprive me of my citizenship in an underhanded way, while I am out of the country! Saakashvili wrote on his Facebook page.

I have only one citizenship, that of Ukraine and I will not be deprived of it, he said.

Russian state news media reported that Saakashvili was in the US at the time.

RELATED: EU approves visa-free travel for Ukrainians

Saakashvili, president of Georgia for nearly a decade until 2013, is wanted on charges of abuse of office, claims that he has denounced as politically motivated. He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015.

Saakashvili had been building a new political career in Ukraine after Poroshenko appointed him governor of the Odessa region in 2015.

In an interview to Al Jazeera, Donnacha O Beachain of Dublin City University said supporters of Saakashvili would argue he was not given the proper resources to do the governors job plus he also realised that Poroshenko was part of the problem.

This made Saakashvili a threat to the Ukrainian government.

On the other hand, Beachain said, detractors of Saakashvili would say this falling out is testimony to his legendary divisive character.

Former Poroshenko ally

Saakashvili, whose country fought a war with Russia in 2008 and who is intensely disliked by the Kremlin, was once a natural ally for Poroshenko after Russia annexed Ukraines Crimea region in 2014.

However, Saakashvili, who served as Georgian president from 2004 to 2013, has become one of Poroshenkos most vocal critics, casting doubt on the Western-backed Kiev governments commitment to tackling entrenched corruption.

Saakashvili resigned last November, citing opposition to reform, and set up a new political party.

Attacking Poroshenkos record on reforms, Saakashvili said: Today the entire country has understood the price of your promises to live anew.

Poroshenkos administration did not immediately comment on the decision to strip Saakashvili of his citizenship.
The Department of Small Business Development in collaboration with various stakeholders will host the Disability Engagement Session on Thursday, 27 July 2017 to Friday, 28 July 2017 in eThekwini Municipality, KwaZulu/Natal. The primary focus of the engagement/workshop is to communicate services that entrepreneurs with disabilities can access, communicate challenges and constraints experienced in accessing Read []http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Appa-sourceTheAfric...
Silk Way West Airlines, a growing cargo operator based in Azerbaijan, and Alaska Airlines on Thursday signed contracts with Boeing for two freighters apiece  but that is where the similarities ended. Silk Way West said it will take two 777-8s, the largest plane available from Boeing (NYSE: BA) and one so modern it isnt []
The disgusting terror murders of two Israeli policemen (one shot in the back) on the Temple Mount, coupled with the indescribable terror murders of three Israelis (grandfather, father, and aunt) celebrating the birth of a baby at their Sabbath dinner, were met with howls of outrage and threats of retaliatory violence and even religious war - not by Israelis seeking vengeance, but by Palestinians!

Echoed by Jordanians, al Jazeera, and the UN, Palestinian strongman Mahmoud Abbas claimed he couldnt be held responsible for escalated violence if Israel maintained the metal detectors on the Temple Mount installed to prevent a recurrence of violence directed at Jews.

Nothing in the Middle East is ever what it looks like. Metal detectors may be metal detectors elsewhere, but on the Temple Mount they are an attack on Muslim patrimony. Turkeys President Reccep Tayyip Erdogan made that clear. When Israeli soldiers carelessly pollute the grounds of Al-Aqsa with their combat boots by using simple issues as a pretext and then easily spill blood there, the reason [they are able to do that] is we [Muslims] have not done enough to stake our claim over Jerusalem."

Israel, to the relief -- and kind words -- of the White House, has removed the metal detectors, but far from resolving the problem, the retreat encouraged Fatah to announce it would intensify the struggle because the campaign for Jerusalem has effectively begun, and will not stop until a Palestinian victory and the release of the holy sites from Israeli occupation.

Two important issues have to be sorted out here: first, the political and religious rights of Jews in their indigenous space; and second, the right not to be murdered for the crime of being Jewish, or Israeli, or non-Jewish and non-Israeli but being in Israel. Among the recent victims of Palestinian terror are Druze Muslim police officers Kamil Shnaan, 22 and Haiel Sitawe, and American Vanderbilt University student and U.S. Army veteran Taylor Force, as well as American and Israeli Jews.

Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people -- the restoration of Jewish sovereignty to even part of the historic homeland was prayed for since the end of the Second Jewish Commonwealth and celebrated since 1948. In the 20th century, Jews and Israelis accepted various suggestions and commands for borders of a reconstituted State -- everything from the lopping off of 75% of the British Mandate for a Judenrein Arab state (1917) to the split-state Peel Commission Partition Plan (1937) to the British Partition Plan (1938) to the Jewish Agency plan (1946) to the much smaller UN Partition Plan (1947).

The Arab states agreed to none of those and declined to say where Jews might then exercise sovereignty -- because there was no such place. The 1949-67 lines were unacceptable and so were the post-67 lines. Israel and the U.S. posited new lines after the Oslo Accords, and in 2008 when Prime Minister Ehud Olmert proposed 93% of the West Bank plus political rights in Jerusalem for the Palestinians (the Gaza Strip already being 100% in Palestinian hands). Mahmoud Abbas said no.

No was the necessary answer because the Palestinians agree there is no legitimate place for Jews to exercise sovereign authority. This goes directly to the question of the Temple Mount and metal detectors.

Jews have prayed alongside the Western Wall since, perhaps, the 12th century, and certainly since the 16th century, when the Ottoman Sultan gave them official permission to do so, according to scholar Nadav Shragai. The Arab warning, Al Aksa (the mosque on the Temple Mount) is in danger - used in this case by Abbas - has been a call for shedding Jewish blood by Arabs for more than a century. The originator of the lie was Haj Amin al Husseini - the Hitler acolyte Grand Mufti of Jerusalem in the earlier part of the 20th Century. Abbas and Raed Salah, leader of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel carry on his legacy.

In 1967, in an audacious (or there are other words) act of generosity, the Government of Israel informed the Arab Waqf that Israel would not assert sovereignty over the top of the Temple Mount, the holiest site in Judaism; that its administration would remain in the hands of the Waqf and King Hussein of Jordan. The Hashemite King is by history the Guardian of the Mosques (Mecca, Medina, and Jerusalem).

Israel adopted the Arab position that Jews could not conduct prayer atop the Temple Mount, although visits by Jews and others were commonplace for decades after. Israel did, however, maintain security control through a negotiated series of steps with the Jordanians, the Waqf and later the PA. At various points, the Temple Mount was the scene of Palestinians throwing rocks down on worshippers at the Western Wall plaza, but at no time until last Friday were guns used on or from the Temple Mount.

To prevent further weapons use, Israel searched the mosque and installed metal detectors. It is hard to get Americans excited about that - weve been taking off our shoes, agreeing to be x-rayed and patted down, and tossing our Starbucks for years, precisely because Palestinian terror (remember who started airplane hijacking) was focused on civilian rather than military objectives.

But in Palestinian eyes, if Israel assumed the right to install metal detectors without negotiation, Israel assumed control of the space. And that, like every other manifestation of Israeli sovereign decision-making, is unacceptable to the Palestinians.

Cue the howling!

Al Aqsa is under attack! didnt mean Israel was shooting at the mosque, or that Israel had claimed it for Jewish prayer. It meant the sovereign Jewish state had exercised a governmental decision affecting the Temple Mount. And that was enough for Omar al-Abed to announce on his Facebook page that he would die a glorious death for al Aqsa. All I have is a sharpened knife and it answers the call of al Aqsa. He called Jews pigs and monkeys, a familiar phrase.

He put on a white shirt and black slacks - the standard Sabbath dress of Orthodox Jewish men - and knocked on the door of 70-year-old Yosef Salomon. The Salomons, who were expecting guests as they welcomed the birth of Yosefs grandson, opened the door. Photos of the massacre scene show rivers of blood on the floor from Yosef, his daughter Chaya and son Elad. They cant show the screams of Yosefs wife Tova as she bled from stab wounds and watched her husband and children die.

As a result, Al-Abed stands to receive the standard PA salary for convicted terrorists - and, happily for him, he committed his crime after Palestinian authorities announced a salary increase of 13%.

If the United States wants to help bring peace to a troubled place, it will focus on the Palestinians what territory and rights they claim, what heroes they pay and venerate, what constitutes a crime vs. glory in their lexicon, and - most important - what they believe are the sovereign rights of the citizens of the Third Jewish Commonwealth. If the Palestinians are honest (hmm?) the answer to the last is none, the conversation is over, and metal detectors are the least of the problem.
The black man who stalked and assaulted Fox News megastar Kat Timpf in Brooklyn this week has nothing on me. I was a charter member of Kats Disgusting Club two months before this still unidentified POC -- piece of crap -- dumped a bottle of water over her blonde locks and earned him the second spot in what used to be a more exclusive enclave.

My journey into the group began on the first episode of Kats show, The Fox News Specialists. In her trademark flip style, Kat declared that no one had anything to tell her about how black people are relentless victims of relentless white racism all the time, everywhere and that explains everything. She already knew.

I do understand issues with criminal justice, particularly in the black community and police brutality, she intoned.

Another black whisperer is born.

So in the spirit of public service, I wrote an article for this publication reminding Kats viewers that their hero had just bought into the Greatest Lie of This Generation: The Hoax of Black Victimization.

And I gave lots and lots of very nasty -- very recent -- examples of black on white violence, assault, rape, burglary and murder. All wildly out of proportion. All conveniently ignored by the lovely and self-assured Kat Timpf.

Pretty soon the readers of American Thinker and my YouTube channel audience were sending Kat lots and lots of tweets, polite but firm, along the lines of hey Kat, that guy Colin Flaherty says you dont have any idea what you are talking about. You should read his book, the scintillating best seller Dont Make the Black Kids Angry.

Then came the deluge.

Everything Colin Flaherty documents is anecdotal, she said on Twitter.

Anecdotal is, of course, Latin for I cannot challenge what you say because it is too unpleasant to admit, so I will just call it a name and hope no one notices the difference.

Anecdotal evidence does not refute whats clear statistically, she tweeted. The criminal justice system needs reform.

Criminal justice reform is an increasingly popular canard with people like Kat and Senator Rand Paul, who loves telling black audiences that the only reason so many more black people are in prison than white people (and Asian people!) is because racist cops are arresting black people for no reason, prosecutors are trying them for no reason, juries are convicting them, judges are sentencing them, parole boards are releasing them, and cops are rearresting them all for no reason what-so-ever except for the fact they are black.

They call it Critical Race Theory and is the dominant -- and unchallenged -- orthodoxy on hundreds of college campuses across the land.

The other explanation for the racial disparity is that white people do it too -- only they never get arrested. No one, however, is producing the victims, videos, 911 calls, witnesses or police reports to support the fairy tale of secret white criminality. Which leaves us with just one explanation: Black people commit a whole hell of a lot more crime than white people and reporters and public officials are in denial, deceit, and delusion about it.

All documented three times a day on my YouTube channel. And here, on occasion.

No matter: Kat was in full-on Libertarian virtue signaling mode 140 characters at a time: Ridiculing me for acknowledging the indisputable impact of our criminal justice system on POC is disgusting, she told me.

And that is how I became the Charter member of the Kat Disgusting Club.

Flash forward two months to the Brooklyn bar, the black guy, the dreadlocks, the stalking, the assault.

And all of a sudden, Anecdote is the New Evidence.

Kat took to Twitter to explain to the universe that this one isolated example from this one misguided black person without a father, without a job, without prospects, and all the while suffering under the yoke of relentless white racism and police brutality, was more than an anecdote, it was proof positive that right now, the Sky Was Falling All Over The World.

Im at Union Pool in BK about to speak at my friend @BenKisssels campaign event, a guy walks in, dumps an entire bottle of water on me, quoth she. The dreadlocked lost soul was clearly here because he knows Im here, dumps an entire 1.5 liter bottle of water on me, first on my head

After providing a few more details of what she rightly calls an assault, Kat explains it all to us: Ive never seen a more disgusting, insane climate than the one we are in now, she said.

And she went on to unveil her apocalyptic vision because of one crime, against one person, committed by a man who is not even responsible for his own actions because of his race. Curiously, she has yet to release the video.

Now that is what I call anecdotal. Even disgusting. Welcome to the club, Kat.

Cant say we didnt warn you about not making the black kids angry.

Colin Flaherty is the author of the #1Amazon best seller Dont Make the Black Kids Angry. You can find thousands and thousands of anecdotes there and on his YouTube Channel.
On September 1, 1967, shortly after the Six Day War, the Khartoum Declaration was issued by eight Arab states with its "framework of the main principles by which the Arab states abide." It listed the combative three NOs: no peace with Israel, no recognition of it, no negotiations with it. Fifty years later, on July 25, 2017, the Palestinian Fatah movement, protesting against Israeli efforts to ensure security of its citizens by metal detectors and security cameras, issued a new three NOs: no to the occupation, no to the metal detectors, no to the cameras.

Once again, Palestinian leaders and organizations, and Muslim leaders in other countries have misused the religion of Islam as a political weapon to explain the unsatisfactory social and economic condition of their people, as well as their refusal to accept the legitimacy of the State of Israel. Religious texts promote an extreme political agenda.

Prominent among these leaders is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, though preoccupied with arresting journalists in his country, animosity against the Kurds, and plans to annex Northern Cyprus, nevertheless found time to comment on July 25, 2017 on the Jerusalem issue. He urged Muslim worshippers to "protect the holy sites in east Jeruslem, because Israel, using terrorism as an excuse, is trying to steal the al-Aqsa mosque from Muslims."

The Israeli stealing was not apparent in the events starting on July 14, 2017 when three Arab Palestinian terrorists smuggled handguns into the al Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem and killed two Israeli Druze policemen at this site, known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Noble Mosque. As a result Israel closed the site to Muslim men under the age of 50 during Friday prayers, an action which in turn caused a weekend of bloodshed. Israel then set up metal detectors and more cameras at the site, after which thousands of Palestinians protested on the excuse that it was undermining the holiness of the shrine.

Two things are pertinent to the events. One is the call by Palestinian leaders to continue the violence. President Mahmoud Abbas, now approaching the 12th year of his four-year term and seemingly converted into a democrat, called for Palestinians to "intensify the popular struggle" over the Temple Mount. He has encouraged religious authorities to "defend your land and your honor." The other matter is the curious silence and no "popular struggle" over the metal detectors providing security in the Vatican, in Mecca for the Hajj, in Egypt, in Bihar, India, and Lahore, Pakistan. Wherefore are they different from those in Jerusalem?

Administration over the disputed site is in the hands of the Waqf, the Jordanian-controlled Islamic religious authority, which called on Muslims not to visit it until the cameras were removed. In any case, for many years only Muslims have been allowed to pray at the site. The meaningless response of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to the metal devices was not to discuss a solution to the surveillance but to call for cutting all ties with Israel until the issue is resolved. The boycott of the shrine would continue.

Israel on July 25, 2017 did remove the metal devices from the entrance to the mosque, and attempted to put in less offensive surveillance methods such as cameras. For Muslim officials, this was insufficient. Some appear to have undergone instant conversion to democracy. One spokesperson, Sheikh Raed Dana of the Waqf, was equivocal on whether worshippers should end the protest and return to the shrine; "this movement is a movement of the street... we as the Waqf listen to the street."

In this view, the Waqf would act as the "people" decided. Inadvertently, he was agreeing to a conclusion that the whole supposed religious crisis was a political event, having little connection with religious principles. Moreover, the Muslim call is extreme. Jews should be banned not only on the Temple Mount but also at the Western Wall, part of the Old City, which Palestinian leaders claim belongs to Muslims.

There is no secrecy about the misuse of Islam. President Abbas on July 23, 2017 praised Palestinian terrorists, asserting that each drop of their blood that was spilled in Jerusalem is "pure blood" as long as it is for the sake of Allah. The essential problem is that Palestinian authorities have made the Temple Mount a base for operations not simply for supposedly protecting the site but also as the place for the struggle against Israel and Jewish history in the area. It is distressing that Jewish archeological treasures have been destroyed. The Palestinian leadership inflamed its people by saying that the mosque is in danger. The diatribe by Abbas on September 20, 2015 is familiar: "al-Aqsa is ours and so is the Church of the Holy Sepulchre.

For those interested in policy in the area, two matters are relevant. One is to emphasize the political misuse of the Islamic religion, and to base policy proposals on factors on the ground. The other matter, accompanying the first, is to become familiar with the analysis on this contentious Middle East area coming from impeccable sources.

Since 2002, a series of reports of Arab Human Development (AHDR) written by independent Arab scholars have provided an objective and accurate picture of the political, social, and economic trends that influence the Arab region. Among other things they comment on the role of Islam in hindering development. At that time, the GDP of the whole Arab League was less than that of Spain.

The first AHDR report indicated three areas of shortcoming: the Arab states lacked full respect for human rights and freedoms; they suffered from lack of empowerment of women; they lacked knowledge. Subsequent AHDR reports emphasized existing deficiencies: "the need for freedom of opinion, speech and assembly; high quality education; affirmative action for women; popular representation, lack of democracy; lack of scientific research and informational technology; high level of illiteracy, about 65 million, two thirds of whom are women.

The sixth, most recent, report in 2016 considers the situation of youth, a subject important for the whole Arab Middle East and directly pertinent to the riots and demonstrations of Palestinians. For a considerable time, average population growth rates in the area have been among the highest in the world, and thus exert great pressure on existing institutions, though the growth has slowed somewhat in recent years.

The Arab population in 1970 was 124 million, in 2010 350 million, and on current projections it will be 604 million in 2050. To help understand the July 2017 events in Jerusalem, the crucial fact is that over 60% of the Arab population is under 30: young people between 15 and 29 account for one-third of the population, while those under 15 account for another one-third.

The lack of development stems not from Israeli alleged activity in the Temple Mount but from poor education, lack of employment, poor health, lack of empowerment in economic, political, and social life, inadequate representation in public life, and conflicts. In 2002 five Arab countries were affected by conflicts; in 2016 11 Arab countries were involved and 250 million live in areas vulnerable to conflict.

For youth, there is a lack of suitable job opportunities, partly because of nepotism. Youth unemployment in the Arab area is twice the global average; it is 24% for young men, and 47% for young women. The area does not embrace the concept of equality, especially for women.

Yet, in spite of the reality and magnitude of all these problems, the cause of the Palestinians remains the largest and most serious existential threat in the region according to the 2015 report of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies. About 75% of respondents believe the Palestinian cause is not only a Palestinian issue but also an Arab one. Some 85% oppose diplomatic recognition of Israel by their countries.

Logically this is inexplicable in an area that accounts for 25% of global conflicts since 2010. The consequences of those wars are dire: in Syria, more than 250,000 deaths and one million injured, 4.8 million refugees and 7.6 million internally displaced; in Libya, fighting has led to over one million dead and wounded; in Iraq, more than five million are refugees, internal and external. The area is home to 47% of the world's internally displaced people and 58% of all world refugees.

A sane point of view would suggest that Arab countries would benefit by enhancing the capacities of their young people and pursuing development. It is a disgrace that the official communique of Fatah on July 21, 2017 is that everything that is happening is a toll for the blessed al Aqsa mosque. That is not the road to development.
The mainstream media are doing their best to ignore a bizarre, serious, and colorful story, but it's not going to work. The Awan family Pakistani I.T. consultant ring extracted 4 million dollars from Democrats in the House; its point man, Imran Awan, was arrested on bank fraud charges at Dulles Airport attempting to flee back to his homeland; and allegedly (Awan's lawyer disputes this), there was a pile of smashed hard drives and other equipment found at a house he owned and leased out to a Marine.

Peculiarly, Awan's primary employer, former DNC chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz, kept him on her staff until just before he attempted to flee, even though he had been banned from the House network owing to corruption investigations and was unable to perform the work for which he is being paid from taxpayers funds.

Bizarrely, DWS was videotaped at a hearing openly demanding that evidence on the Capitol Police investigation be returned to her and threatening consequences for the Capitol Police, a creature controlled by Congress. I leave it to the lawyers to argue if this constitutes obstruction of justice, but it certainly looks as though she has something to hide on that hard drive.

The loss of the media monopoly of three broadcast networks and one daily newspaper per city means media dams cannot hold in the face of compelling content. And based on what we already know, this is one heckuva story. Fox News already is all over it, and social media will spread it everywhere.

Investor's Business Daily pays out a must-read summary that includes lots of nuggets like this:

It turned out that the other four being investigated were relatives of Awan  two brothers, his wife, and a sister-in-law. Then we learned that Awan's bothers owed money to a Hezbollah-connected fugitive, and a friend of Awan's had been working at McDonald's before getting hired as an IT professional by Congressional Democrats. What's more, they were pulling down unusually large salaries of around $160,000, according to the Daily Caller, which is the only news outlet that has been actively pursuing this story. Together, Awan and his family raked in $4 million between 2009 and 2016, the DC reported, for what at times appeared to be "no show" jobs. Then, a month after the investigation was made public, Awan's wife took her children out of school and fled the country for Qatar. Earlier in the year, Awan wire transferred $283,000 to two people in Pakistan. More recently, the FBI found smashed hard drives and other equipment at Awan's home. How these people were able to get high-paying, highly sensitive jobs with dozens of House Democrats over the years is a mystery.

Occam's Razor suggests that DWS and the Dems were being blackmailed. For what? And what secrets, if any, were compromised by the members of the House Intelligence Committee who employed the Awan ring?

Wasserman Schultz has a combative personality and doesn't photograph well.

In the reality TV series that lies ahead, with congressional investigations and justice agencies involved, she may not be the most sympathetic figure to the public.

The left has whipped up an atmosphere that wants a lynching. They forgot that what comes around goes around.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army have formally published notice that the regulation known as "Waters of the USA" will be repealed. The rule was tied up in court, but the EPA's notification will make those court cases moot.

The step was expected, but now the clock is actually ticking. Groups now have 30 days to comment on the withdrawal of the rule, after which time it's expected that the EPA will deep-six the regulation.

Waters of the USA was an Obama-era idea to give the EPA immense regulatory authority over almost all creeks, streams, rivers, and tidal waters in the country.

Washington Times:

"We are taking significant action to return power to the states and provide regulatory certainty to our nation's farmers and businesses," EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt said in a statement. "This is the first step in the two-step process to redefine 'waters of the U.S.,' and we are committed to moving through this re-evaluation to quickly provide regulatory certainty, in a way that is thoughtful, transparent and collaborative with other agencies and the public." The proposed repeal comes days after the Bureau of Land Management launched the process of rescinding the 2015 rule placing federal restrictions on hydraulic fracturing on public lands. Rolling back the regulations essentially would codify the status quo, given that neither the fracking nor the water rule has been implemented. In separate proceedings, two federal courts placed holds on the regulations last year pending the outcome of lawsuits filed by states, energy trade associations and others. In August, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit stayed the water rule in reaction to a legal challenge brought by 31 states and a coalition of nearly 100 GOP House and Senate members. North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper, a Democrat elected in November, withdrew from the lawsuit in April. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Rob Bishop, a fierce critic of Obama administration rule, lauded the Trump administration for acting to rescind the regulations. "This long-overdue withdrawal is a win for farmers, states, communities and private property rights," Mr. Bishop said in a statement. "I want to thank the Trump Administration for their steadfast efforts to foster a level of rationality in environmental policy and begin detangling the web of crushing rules and regulations across the federal government." Mr. Trump's executive order calls for keeping navigable waters clean "while at the same time promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of Congress and the States under the Constitution," said the EPA statement. Although the water rule has yet to take effect, environmental groups have insisted that the effort to dismantle the federal regulations places the health of Americans at risk.

I would say American liberty was far more at risk because of this rule than the health of citizens.

It's something of a novel approach for liberal groups to challenge the rollback of a regulation that was never implemented. So the challenge will be directed at the president's executive order. As we've seen, some federal judges are not averse to overturning an order from the Executive Branch on the thinnest of grounds, which means the challenge is likely to end up in the Supreme Court.

It's hard to imagine the nightmare for farmers and businesses this regulation would have caused. It would virtually destroy the foundations of private property rights, giving the government veto power over the decisions of property owners of what to do with even the most insignificant running waters on their property.

The Trump administration is dismantling Obama's overweening executive legacy piece by piece.
A Republican senator will offer an amendment to the health care reform bill that would implement a government-sponsored single-payer health care system.

Montana senator Steve Daines will offer the amendment in the hopes of putting Democrats on the record as supporting single-payer.

The Hill:

A vote on the amendment has been scheduled for Thursday. To be clear, it's almost certain Daines doesn't support a single-payer system. The vote would be part of the ObamaCare repeal bill vote-a-rama  a rapid succession of amendments that can last hours, oftentimes stretching through the night and into the next early morning. Vote-a-ramas are often a time when senators force their colleagues across the aisle to take tough votes, which can be turned into political attack ads later. During the 2016 election, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) championed the idea of Medicare for All. It's gained traction, as more Democratic candidates have embraced the idea. Recently, senators  such as Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)  have rallied around universal coverage. And a Medicare for All bill in the House has already garnered 115 co-sponsors, which is almost double the amount the legislation received last congressional session. Senate Democrats have a lot of seats to defend next election: 23 and another two held by independents who caucus with the Democrats. Those up for re-election include Sens. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.). The legislation from Daines appears to be the same language as the Medicare for All bill in the House sponsored by Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.). But single-payer isn't a unifying message among Democrats. "In order to embrace that concept, you'll have to be willing to defend the efficiency and effectiveness of a fully run government system, and there are many Democrats who are not going to do that and there are some who are."

The GOP plan is in danger of failure, but this amendment is a political winner on several different levels. Just 33% of Americans support a single-payer health insurance plan in one recent poll. That's up slightly from January. A vote in favor of single-payer by Democrats leaves them wide open to attack from Republicans come election time.

Even more problematic for many Democrats, their radical base fully supports a government-run health insurance system. Voting against the amendment may protect them from the wrath of the electorate, but it would anger their base of supporters who supply foot soldiers and money for their campaigns.

The amendment will probably be voted on in the dead of night, when Democrats hope no one is watching. And, of course, it has zero chance of passing. But these days, you take your victories where you can, and offering this amendment is a winner.
The New York Times, aka the paper that will defend Obama's legacy down to the last executive order, has attacked the GOP Senate over its health care vote.

This is a bit of the editorial:

The details are complicated, but most Americans understand that these proposals would be incredibly cruel and needlessly devastating, which is why polls have shown that few people support the partisan repeal effort. A recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll found just 28 percent supported the Senate bill to repeal and replace the A.C.A., while 71 percent wanted Republicans and Democrats to work together to improve the law.

The Times regrets the lack of bipartisanship and what it refers to as "the travesty."

First of all, I've been looking all morning for an editorial from 2009-10 condemning the partisanship of Democrats in passing the ACA. I cannot find any. Perhaps they meant to print it and forgot about it.

The Times must think we've been living in some health care paradise since the ACA went into effect. On the contrary  Obamacare has meant high premiums, deductibles, and insurance companies bailing out here, there, and everywhere. I'd be happy to introduce one of their reporters to a young couple in our area who simply cannot afford insurance. It's tough to afford an insurance premium that exceeds your mortgage payment.

Second, these Obamacare polls are complete nonsense. Most Americans are not under Obamacare. In other words, they have employment-based coverage. According to a recent study, 49% of Americans have group coverage. Medicaid and Medicare add up to 34%. In other words, about 15% of Americans are impacted by Obamacare.

How can you do a poll on Obamacare when 85% of Americans are not under it? It's possible that some of those under Medicaid started out looking for Obamacare, but that's still only 20%. Again, how can you take "popularity polls" about something most Americans are not participating in?

As far as these polls, let's remember what David Harsanyi, senior editor at The Federalist, just wrote:

It is true that Obamacare repeal legislation  whatever the specifics happen to be  is going to be unpopular. Why wouldn't it be? It's not merely the revisionism practiced by many in the media in regards to Obamacare. If people are persistently told that the GOP is preparing to "slash" Medicaid by a bazillion dollars and "revoke" the insurance of 26 million people, the average voter has every reason to be concerned. And if there isn't a single Republican lawmaker out there effectively slapping down these misleading claims, voters will be. Republicans certainly can't rely on factcheckers.

The GOP has done a lousy job of countering all of these claims about the consequences of repealing Obamacare. My hope is that they will start doing so now that there is a plan that they can put their signature on.

Last, but not least, the GOP keeps winning special elections where the Democrat runs protecting Obamacare. The GOP is also raising more money than the Democrats. These two facts tell you all you need to know about these polls that claim that Americans have fallen in love with the Obamacare that they hated for years.

P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk) and follow me on Twitter.
Wow. Can you imagine the hue and cry if the nation's top immigration enforcement officer were to charge the leaders of sanctuary cities with smuggling?

That's just what Thomas Homan, the acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is contemplating.

Washington Times:

"I think 409,000 is a stretch this year, but if [the Justice Department] keeps going in the direction they're going in, if we continue to expand our operational footprint, I think we're going to get there," he told The Washington Times. "Our interior arrests will go up. They're going to top last year's for sure."

Mr. Homan is the spear tip of President Trump's effort to step up immigration enforcement  perhaps the largest swing in attitude for any agency in government from the last administration to the current one.

Agents and officers have been unshackled from the limits imposed by Mr. Obama, whose rules restricted arrests to less than 20 percent of the estimated illegal immigrant population.

Now, most illegal immigrants are eligible for deportation, though Mr. Homan said serious criminals, recent border crossers and people who are actively defying deportation orders are still the agency's priorities.

He said the biggest impediment to expanding deportations is no longer ICE priority, but rather a huge backlog in the immigration courts, which are part of the Justice Department. Migrants who in the past would have admitted their unauthorized status and accepted deportation are now fighting their cases.

"They can play the system for a long time," he said.

That resistance extends well beyond the courtroom.

Migrants are increasingly refusing to open doors for his officers and, when they do, the encounters are turning violent, Mr. Homan said. Use-of-force instances are up about 150 percent, and assaults on ICE officers are up about 40 percent, he said.

Local officials are also pushing back, declaring themselves sanctuaries and enacting policies that block their law enforcement officers from cooperating with ICE.

The refusals range from declining to hold migrants beyond their regular release time to refusing all communication  even notifying ICE when a criminal deportable alien is about to be released into the community.

For Mr. Homan, who came up through the ranks of the Border Patrol and then ICE as a sworn law enforcement officer, that sort of resistance is enraging.

"Shame on people that want to put politics ahead of officer safety, community safety," he said.
A study has found that male sperm counts have plunged since 1973, citing the evidence found in a large number of studies. Scientists say a continuation of this trend could mean the human race will go extinct.

A team of scientists is sounding the alarm about declining sperm counts among men in the Western world. As Hagai Levine, the lead author of a recently published study, told the BBC, "If we will not change the ways that we are living and the environment and the chemicals that we are exposed to, I am very worried about what will happen in the future." He added, "Eventually we may have a problem, and with reproduction in general, and it may be the extinction of the human species."

Sperm counts have fallen an average of 1.2 percent each year, and the compounded effect of that has resulted in a more than 50% drop in sperm counts today. CBS news reports that it follows a 1992 study that shows the exact same 50% decline, so nothing has changed in the rate of decline; it remains steady.

Sperm concentration decreased an average 52 percent between 1973 and 2011, while total sperm count declined by 59 percent during that period, researchers concluded after combining data from 185 studies. The research involved nearly 43,000 men in all. "We found that sperm counts and concentrations have declined significantly and are continuing to decline in men from Western countries," said senior researcher Shanna Swan. The effect of estrogenic compounds in the water supply from industry, agriculture, and other sources raises concerns about human health and deserves scrutiny.

The one factor the report doesn't mention, but probably should, is the credible reports of artificial birth control getting into the water supply.

This is not the Catholic Church's argument against contraception going on here  the Catholic Church opposes artificial contraception because it interferes with the natural male-female relationship in marriage and discourages its use. This is something entirely different: whether one person's right to "control her own body" entitles her to damage the reproductive system of another person's body. Ultimately, it is a question of whether a man has a right to control his own body, too. This is deep libertarian territory.

The Competitive Enterprise Institute's Iain Murray has done significant research on the effects of birth control pills in the water supply, pointing out that its hormones released into the water supply, which can't be filtered out, are creating "intersex" characteristics and sterility in the fish supply. Fish exhibit sexual characteristics of both species due to estrogen contamination and cannot reproduce. Scientific American has noted that despite the claims that the amounts present are small, the presence of them has harmed wildlife in the water supply. Might be canaries in the coal mine for us.

Writing in 2008, Murray noted:

As I demonstrate in The Really Inconvenient Truths, by any standard typically used by environmentalists, the pill is a pollutant. It does the same thing, just worse, as other chemicals they call pollution. But liberals have gone to extraordinary lengths in order to stop consideration of contraceptive estrogen as a pollutant. When Bill Clinton's Environmental Protection Agency launched its program to screen environmental estrogens (a program required under the Food Quality Protection Act), the committee postponed considering impacts from contraceptives. Instead, it has decided to screen and test only "pesticide chemicals, commercial chemicals, and environmental contaminants." When and if it considers the impacts from oral contraceptives, the Agency says that its consideration will be limited because pharmaceutical regulation is a Food and Drug Administration concern. As a result, the EPA's program will focus all energies on the smallest-possible part of endocrine exposure in the environment and the lowest-risk area.

The U.S. Geological Survey has found problems, too.

A recent report from the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) found that birth-control hormones excreted by women, flushed into waterways and eventually into drinking water can also impact fish fertility up to three generations after exposure  raising questions about their effects on humans, who are consuming the drugs without even knowing it in each glass of water they drink. The survey, published in March in the journal Scientific Reports, looked at the impact of the synthetic hormone 17-ethinylestradiol (EE2), an ingredient of most contraceptive pills, in the water of Japanese medaka fish during the first week of their development. While the exposed fish and their immediate offspring appeared unaffected, the second generation of fish struggled to fertilize eggs  with a 30% reduction in fertilization rates  and their embryos were less likely to survive. Even the third generation of fish had 20% impaired fertility and survival rates, though they were never directly exposed to the hormone.

The article states that there have been problems in mammals, too.

The Vatican, too, has spoken out about the environmental damage of artificial birth control going unfiltered into the water supply, specifically linking it to male infertility. Agence France-Presse reports:

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday.

The contraceptive pill is polluting the environment and is in part responsible for male infertility, a report in the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano said Saturday. The pill "has for some years had devastating effects on the environment by releasing tonnes of hormones into nature" through female urine, said Pedro Jose Maria Simon Castellvi, president of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations, in the report. "We have sufficient evidence to state that a non-negligible cause of male infertility in the West is the environmental pollution caused by the pill," he said, without elaborating further. "We are faced with a clear anti-environmental effect which demands more explanation on the part of the manufacturers," added Castellvi.

The blame cannot be laid on individuals who are attempting to do something they believe is responsible and useful and who have no intent to harm others. Nobody here is calling for the pill's prohibition in a free society, where people of all religions should be free to make their own choices.

There should be reason, however, to look into whether birth control is affecting the water supply and contributing to this species-threatening low sperm count matter. The science does show that compounds excreted by users are impossible to filter from the water supply, and there are credible reports as to this affecting male fertility.

I would add that the span of years coincides with the rise of birth control pills, and it also coincides with the nations that use it.

A pro-contraception trade group, the Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, has admitted in a long editorial that there could be a problem, even as it tries to exculpate its industry, citing other possibilities.

The effect of estrogenic compounds in the water supply from industry, agriculture, and other sources raises concerns about human health and deserves scrutiny.

But all we see blamed in this and other editorials are "pesticide chemicals, commercial chemicals, and environmental contaminants," as National Review's article notes.

Seriously, why? Why not investigate everything and, if there is a problem found, find new ways to filter out the pollutants from the water supply? For all the global warmers' alarmed claims about the threat to the species, here is a real threat, it's moving fast, and nothing effective is being done about it.
The classic example of chutzpah is to kill one's parents and then demand clemency in the court on the grounds of being an orphan.

People laugh hearing this example despite its gruesomeness, for no one in his right mind can take it seriously. Yet it is no laughing matter anymore, for recently, Palestinians utilized that very excuse in the court of public opinion.

There is a hill in Jerusalem called by Palestinians the Al-Aqsa compound, by Jews the Temple Mount. After Israel's capture of East Jerusalem in the Six-Day War a half-century ago, Israelis and Arabs came up with a simple equilibrium that became the status quo regarding the site: all can visit, but only Muslims can pray there.

Simply put, the status quo is this: the Al-Aqsa compound is a site of Muslim prayer.

On July 14, 2017, three terrorists ran out of it, gunning down two Israeli policemen, and ran back, hoping to escape there. They were shot and killed by the police.

This means that the status quo got changed  by the Palestinians. From the place of prayer, Al-Aqsa was turned into a weapons storage facility and a launchpad for terrorist attacks.

By placing around it metal detectors and surveillance cameras  thus rendering Al-Aqsa unusable for military purposes  Israeli authorities turned the location back into a prayer site.

And yet the Palestinians are unhappy. Instead of being grateful for restoring the status quo, they are accusing Israelis of altering the very status quo they, the Palestinians, themselves murderously altered in the first place, which Israelis restored! Not willing to come back to Al-Aqsa, they cry to heaven, irate at Jewish perfidy!

I don't think heaven hears them. They are refusing to come pray at Al-Aqsa for several days now, yet somehow the heavens are not falling down.

Perhaps even Allah does not find funny Palestinians' bizarre claims of victimhood after committing a murder.
President Donald Trump has been attacking his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, daily. There have been brutal attacks on Twitter, in media interviews, and during speeches. Conventional wisdom is that Trump is getting ready to fire Sessions or hoping Sessions resigns. Conventional wisdom also assured everyone that Hillary Clinton would win in a landslide, the only question being by how large a margin.

Trump's complaint is that his attorney general should not have recused himself from the Russia hacking hoax and that he is dragging his feet on long overdue investigations and prosecutions: Deep State leaks; unmasking; DNC and Clinton collusion with the Ukrainians; Hillary Clinton's reckless email management, including tens of thousands of missing emails; the Clinton Foundation Russian uranium deal; and all the mischief and criminality left over from the Obama administration, perpetuated to this day by the Deep State imbeds.

These are reasonable complaints. After all, Trump promised to drain the swamp. Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation is leaking like a sieve. Most of the daily news originates from Deep State leaks, much of it illegal but given a pass by the Justice Department.

Additionally, how could Sessions continue to work for a boss who is publicly berating him? Who of us would put up with that in his job? Sessions could easily say the heck with Trump and his endless criticism and quit. He has had a good career. Why would he want his last and most prestigious government job to be constantly whipped by his crazy boss?

Alternatively, Trump could fire Sessions. All Cabinet officials serve at the pleasure of the president. Cause is irrelevant  Trump's Cabinet, his call. If Sessions is so bad, why hasn't he been fired? James Comey was fired. Sean Spicer was not officially fired, but in essence, he was, with the appointment of new communications director Anthony Scaramucci.

It doesn't make sense. Rush Limbaugh was pondering this on his radio show. He was puzzled. Trump blasting Sessions, Sessions smiling and saying everything is fine in his world  what's wrong with this picture?

What if this is all one big distraction? A charade? A magic trick?

Famous magicians Penn and Teller have seven principles of magic. One such principle is misdirection  to lead attention away from a secret move. Suppose the Trump-Sessions feud is a magic trick, distracting the media while he pulls a rabbit out of his hat?

The media is breathless over Trump's next move. Fire Sessions? Fire Mueller? What will his voters say? What will Congress do? Will they begin impeachment proceedings? Will there be a coup against the president, as former CIA director John Brennan suggests? Is this a grand distraction and illusion? Everyone's watching Trump's right hand while he grabs the missing playing card in his left hand, ready to pull it out of the magic hat.

While the feud is playing out in the media, the Department of Justice is getting stuff done: cracking down on sanctuary cities, ramping up leak investigations, slowing illegal immigration. Who knows what else?

What if this is all a show, and Sessions is in on it? The White House press secretary and communications director may be part of the act as well, publicly playing into the president's dissatisfaction with Sessions and suggesting that he will be canned  "pouring gasoline on the Trump-Sessions fire," as the Washington Post described Sarah Huckabee Sanders's assessment.

It's the grand illusion: watch the feud while Sessions is running through the Trump checklist, cracking heads and taking no prisoners.

As a bonus, the media as well as Democrats and NeverTrump Republicans are rushing to Jeff Sessions's defense. The guy who just a few months ago was a Klansman, a white supremacist, a racist, a bigot, a homophobe is now a victim, worthy of sympathy and support from the left. Where does that leave his fair-weather supporters when he starts enforcing the laws his two predecessors ignored for the past eight years? Trump just led them into a box that will not be easy to climb out of. In six months, how can Jeff Sessions go from being Hitler to a sympathetic victim, then back to Hitler?

An alternate theory is that Trump's criticism may have motivated Sessions to get to work and pursue these recent initiatives. But given the size and cumbersome nature of a bureaucracy like the Department of Justice, I don't believe that Sessions could get these investigations moving in just a few days or a week. Instead, these were likely ongoing, perhaps part of the grand plan all along.

This is just my theory. If Trump fires Sessions tomorrow, then my idea heads straight to the ash heap of foolishness. But if he doesn't, don't watch Trump's Twitter account. That's the magician's misdirection. Instead, watch what isn't being widely reported in the mainstream news. Watch what the lefty bloggers are having fits about. That's where the magic trick is taking place.

Draining the swamp, holding the guilty accountable, fulfilling campaign promises. Some say Trump is playing 3D chess while the media are playing checkers. If the current feud is replaced by another kerfuffle in the next week or two and Jeff Sessions keeps his job enforcing the law, Trump may have pulled off another great charade.

Brian C Joondeph, M.D., MPS is a Denver-based physician and writer. Follow him on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.
"Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country." John McCain, 2014

Russia's Economy and Political Strength

The Russian economy is dominated by natural gas and oil production and sale. A large part of Russia's political sway in Europe is due to its sale of natural gas to European countries that need it to run their economies. Part of why the Europeans have not fought the Russian attacks on Ukraine is the fear of natural gas being cut off.

In the U.S., there are persistent allegations that Putin's Russia has funded anti-fracking groups within the U.S. It makes eminent sense for the Russians to do this since the biggest threat to Russia's economy is more competition from American natural gas brought to market via fracking.

2016 U.S. Presidential Campaign

During the campaign, Hillary Clinton raised money from Tom Steyer and other anti-fossil fuel advocates. Clinton was opposed to fracking. (Note: This probably cost her the state of Pennsylvania.) Clinton was a champion of the Paris Climate Accord. Clinton's positions on energy policy were pro-Russian. Clinton is opposed to competing with Russia in the natural gas market.

Consistently during Trump's campaign, he advocated for expanding fossil fuel energy production. In May 2016, Trump gave a speech outlining his views on energy policy. He advocated large growth in fossil fuel production, including natural gas. He advocated building the Keystone pipeline. He advocated exporting American energy as a way of increasing employment in the U.S. One of his campaign promises was to drop out of the Paris Climate Accord. Trump was advocating anti-Russian economic policy by freeing American energy companies to compete more vigorously in the global energy markets.

Trump Administration Policies

The Trump Administration has appointed Scott Pruitt to be EPA administrator, Rick Perry to be secretary of energy, and Ryan Zinke to be secretary of the interior. These officials have helped Trump put together a plan for not just energy independence for the U.S., but U.S. energy dominance. He has approved pipelines and port facilities to export more natural gas. He is working to open up more government-owned land to oil and natural gas exploration.

The U.S. is expanding its energy exports rapidly, including to Europe. Trump went to Poland and promised U.S. natural gas to the Polish people. Having access to U.S. natural gas means Polish independence from Russia. And the rest of Eastern Europe will follow. This economic relationship will have geopolitical ramifications, including the weakening of Russia and Putin.

And the one person in the world with the best knowledge of the impact of U.S. energy exports on Russia is...Trump's appointee to be secretary of state, Rex Tillerson. Tillerson knows how reliant Putin is on oil and natural gas sales. Tillerson can use this to the maximum leverage.

U.S. natural gas and oil production is a far more effective economic weapon against Putin and Russia than any sanctions we can place on them. Trump's energy policies are more anti-Russian than anything Clinton ever would have done. And Putin knew that and knows it now.

Clinton's energy policies were pro-Russian. Trump's energy policies are anti-Russian. Putin knew this and knows it now.
ABC News(WASHINGTON) -- Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham warned on Thursday that there would be holy hell to pay if President Donald Trump fires U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.



This effort to, basically, marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate, Graham told reporters on Thursday. I dont think its going over well in the conservative world. ... If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay.



The South Carolina senator also pointed out that any effort to go after" special counsel Robert Mueller "could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, unless Mueller did something wrong.



Graham, a Senate Judiciary Committee member, stressed that there would be no confirmation hearing for a new attorney general in 2017 and that Trump should respect Sessions as a person who deserves better.



Grahams warning partly echoed Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who subtly critiqued Trump on Twitter Wednesday morning, saying the Judiciary Committee is focusing for the rest of the year on judges first and sub-cabinet nominees second -- and not any attorney general nominee.

Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017



Senators such as Graham and Grassley have backed Sessions as Trump jabbed him this week for being weak on the Clinton email investigation and for not firing Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, who was closely tied to former FBI Director James Comey.



Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said to ABC News on Wednesday, "Well, I'm a little bit surprised at some of the reported comments. Jeff has been very loyal to the president, and I think that he deserves loyalty back."



The Trump-Sessions tension gained steam July 19 when the president told the New York Times that he was disappointed that Sessions had recused himself from the Russia investigation, leaving the power to appoint a special counsel to Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. Rosenstein appointed Mueller, who Trump said in the interview should never have been appointed.



Graham reiterated his support for Muellers continuation of the Russia investigation, saying he has no reason to think that Mueller is compromised. Graham warned that he would be introducing a bill next week that prevents the special counsel from getting fired when empanelled to investigate the president unless there is judicial review of the firing.



The idea that the president would fire Mueller or have somebody fire Mueller because he doesnt like Mueller or Mueller is doing something he doesnt like, then we have become Russia, Graham said. So the red line should never be drawn. ... No president can do that.



Graham added that the president is not in the business of drawing red lines when it comes to the law and said he hoped Trump would calm down to work together on Afghanistan, taxes and health care instead.

When Rosenstein appointed Mueller on May 17, Trump took a defensive stance, saying a thorough investigation will confirm no collusion with Russia and that he wanted to fight back. Mueller resigned from law firm WilmerHale, which boasts clients such as adviser to the president Jared Kushner.





Copyright  2017, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.
Reject new trolling laws: free speech means being free to lampoon and abuse MPs

British politicians have been subjected to a wave of racism, sexism and homophobia on social media, spiking during the General Election. Not all of it is satirical lampooning of our elected and unelected representatives. A fair amount of it is cruel and vindictive. But  yep, theres the but  so what? If you trammel what can and cannot be said to an MP, you have lost an essential part of democracy.

Tory MP Simon Hart said things have taken a turn for the worse. The robust banter followed by a shake of the hand and a pint in the pub of past campaigns has mutated into death threats, criminal damage, sexism, racism, homophobia, anti-Semitism and general thuggishness. Was none of that there before? And can the downturn in pubic discourse be linked to the death of pubs, hastened by the smoking ban and tax on booze? The problem is not one of less pubs, of course, but more internet, which has given voice not only to the oppressed and isolated but also to the bigots, prudes, nutters, mentally negligible and mouth breathers.

So Theresa May PM has ordered the Committee on Standards in Public Life to investigate whether existing laws governing threats against MPs are enough. The mood is that new laws are required to keep MPs protected and the less attractive elements of the demos at bay. The Independent says the MPs are looking at online trolling laws.

Diane Abbott, the shadow home secretary, had a word on her own experiences. We are talking about mindless abuse and in my case the mindless abuse has been characteristically racist and sexist, she said. And just to outline Ive had death threats, Ive had people tweeting that I should be hung if they could find a tree big enough to take the fat bitchs weight. There was an EDL-affiliated Twitter account BurnDianeAbbott, Ive had rape threats, described as a pathetic, useless, fat, black, piece of shit, ugly, fat, black bitch.

Nasty. But is being pathetic the same as being threatened with rape? Can mindlessness be banned? What about the figures?

Research undertaken by Buzzfeed News and the University of Sheffield looked at 840,000 tweets sent during the month before June 8. It found that male Conservative MP candidates received the highest percentage of abuse on Twitter while male Ukip candidates were second with just over four per cent of their mentions deemed to be abusive. Male Labour candidates were next with just under four per cent while female Conservative candidates were also on about four per cent. Meanwhile, just over two per cent of female Labour candidate mentions were abusive.

Whats considered abusive?

Moron. Twat. Coward. Should such words be banned? Of course not. A new law that protects politicians from being hailed by such words  a law that criminalises us from using them when addressing one of our elected reps  is abhorrent.

In 1964, the US Supreme Court ruled that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic, and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks on government and public officials.

Well said.

Freedom of speech is, as AA Gill noted, what all other human rights and freedoms balance on. Dont let them or anyone own it.

Anorak

Posted: 27th, July 2017 | In: Key Posts, News, Politicians Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
(ANSAmed) - AMMAN, JULY 27 - The UAE has ended a ban on import of Jordanian agriculture produce, signaling start of exports to the oil rich state in what would be a blessing for the struggling agriculture sector, officials said today.



More than 500 tonnes of fruits and vegetables were exported to the UAE after the ban ended. Also, up to 200 refrigerated trucks laden with some 3,000 tonnes of fruits and vegetables left to the Gulf countries," said an official from ministry of agriculture. The UAE decided to end the ban after examining local products to make sure they are free of pesticides residues.



A technical team visited the country to examine the Kingdom's measures in ensuring safe agricultural production.



The banned vegetables included zucchini, sweet pepper, eggplant, cabbage, green beans, cauliflower and lettuce. The end of the ban from the UAE is seen as a breath of fresh air for the struggling sector.



The war in Syria and Iraq has been having serious repercussions on Jordanian agriculture sector. Exports to Lebanon, Syria and Europe ended with the war in Syria, causing farmers to lose in millions over the past few years. (ANSAmed)
TUNIS - After a long debate and postponements in Parliament, 146 Tunisian MPS unanimously voted in favor of legislation on violence against women and gender equality.



The law's 43 articles divided into five chapters are aimed at providing effective measures against any form of gender-based violence or abuse, to ensure that the dignity of women and gender equality, guaranteed by the constitution, are respected through a global approach based on prevention, ensuring that abusers face justice and the protection of victims. The law also vies to eliminate gender inequality in the workplace.



Relevant changes include the abolition of article 227-bis in the criminal code, which provides for a sort of ''pardon'' for rapists of a minor if they marry their victim.



The new legislation provides for harsh sentences for rapists and moves the ''age of consent'' for sex from 13 to 16.



Another fundamental point is article 17, which provides for fines from 500 to 1,000 dinars for those molesting women in public.



Employing minors (young girls) for house work is also punished with prison terms between three and six months for employees.



The legislation however does not address the issue of gender inequality in inheritance law. A proposal in favor of women was not approved by the commission examining the legislation last year because it did not abide by Islamic law.
ISTANBUL- Turkish lawmakers from the main opposition party to President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Social Democratic CHP Party, spent the night in Parliament to protest against new legislation on the presidential system.



The MPs refused to abandon the floor of the Grand National Assembly at 1 am last night, when the ongoing debate on a package of 18 amendments to internal regulations, including 14 that were already approved, had closed.



''The Chp group is not leaving Parliament tonight to protest against the attempt to silence the opposition'', explained the party's deputy whip, Ozgur Ozel.



The most controversial laws include limiting from 10 to 3 the minutes granted to lawmakers for ordinary interventions and from 40 to 14 minutes the time allotted for debates on parliamentary motions.



According to the opposition, this would further reduce the role of the assembly in the future presidential system approved with the referendum in April and in place as of 2019.



The status of lawmaker will be denied to those who don't swear according to the correct procedures - a sanction aimed at Kurdish lawmakers such as People Democratic Party HDP's Leyla Zana, who after her reelection on November 2015 changed some words at her swearing-in ceremony, introducing some Kurdish words.



Over the past few weeks, the Turkish opposition has started several protest initiatives, including the 'march for justice' from Ankara to Istanbul, denouncing the state of emergency like a 'counter-coup' by Erdogan to eliminate his political rivals.



Since the failed coup a year ago, over 50,000 people and been arrested and 110,000 fired or suspended from the public administration in Turkey. .


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BarcelonaAfter the Guardia Civil (Spanish gendarmerie) took statements this Wednesday from the general secretary of the Catalan Presidency ministry, Joaquim Nin, and the director general of Public Services for the Catalan government, Jordi Graells, the minister for the Presidency and spokesman, Jordi Turull, gave a press conference to announce that he has instructed the Catalan governments legal service to bring a complaint before the court for a "violation of fundamental rights".

According to Turull, the Catalan government will file a legal complaint not only against the instructing judge, but also against the Guardia Civil and all those who "are involved in or endorsing this sweeping legal action", as he considers that they are "abusing the gag order" leaving those who have been called to testify without defence.

As an example of this defencelessness, he cited Nin, who started this Wednesday as a case witness for having authorised the setup of the website for the National Pact for the Referendum but, halfway through his statement, the Guardia Civil informed him that he was now being treated as a person of interest in their investigation.

The minister for the Presidency stressed that the case was opened after a lawsuit filed by Vox, a Spanish far-right political party, over the Santi Vidal affair, against the former judge and Treasury secretary Lluis Salvado, as well as the president of the Institute of Self-governance Studies, Carles Viver i Pi-Sunyer. They have been charged with embezzlement, disobedience, revealing secrets, conspiracy, proposing sedition and rebellion against the peace and independence of the State.

Then, the gag order was issued. A mechanism which, according to Turull, is being misused "to turn a very specific complaint into sweeping legal action against those in Catalonia who want to vote". He warned Spain that it shouldnt assume that "it can do whatever it wants, however it wants". "The Catalan government says enough is enough", he concluded.

In fact, Turull noted that the investigation is based on the website of the National Pact for the Referendum, an organisation which aimed for terms for the vote to be negotiated with Madrid, for which he considers that "working in favour of a pact, of dialogue and agreement" is being "criminalised".
Simmonds, whose promotion takes effect immediately, will report to AJW Groups President and CEO, Christopher Whiteside.



He will work closely with AJWs Chief Technical Officer, Dave Lewis, and be accountable for all aspects of strategic inventory management including planning, vendor spend, MRO vendor services, freight, warehouse, distribution and information technology services.



He remains General Manager for AJW Technique, the Montreal-based state-of-the-art maintenance, repair and overhaul facility which celebrates its fifth birthday this month and has grown to employ 200 people.



Christopher Whiteside, President and CEO of AJW Group, said: We are very proud of what AJW Technique has accomplished over the last five years and it is a natural evolution for Gavin, having successfully led our Montreal facility, to take wider responsibility for MRO activities across the Group.



His new role will encompass a lean initiative for our business with automation at the forefront of that and, with his proven track record, Ive no doubt he will achieve great success.



Gavin Simmonds, Chief Operations Officer of AJW Group, said: I am delighted to take on this challenging role and build upon the foundations which makes AJW Group unique in so many ways. We have an excellent team already in place and we will be utilising our collective experience and strengths to ensure we deliver the maximum benefit for our large portfolio of customers around the world.
Fueling partnerships were extended in Boryspil and Vilnius International airports, whereas Rigas International airport is a new service location. Fueling services will be provided until the end of April 2018.



During 2016, the entire BGS-served airport network, comprised of Lithuania, Poland, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine, was supplied with almost a quarter of a million tons of aircraft fuel, or 80% more compared to the previous year. In 2017, the company plans to continue the growth and increase the quantity supplied to as much as 315 thousand tons of aviation fuel.



We are happy about the continuously expanding partnerships. Turkish Airlines has been our client since 2015 and we support carriers activities in a number of serviced stations. I am glad that we manage to extend contracts, for us, these are the best indicators that partners are happy with the quality of services provided, comments Linas Geguzis, Chairman of the Board at BGS.
The core airline business achieved steady passenger revenues of US$ 4.9 billion and 79% load factors while carrying a record 18.5 million passengers. Available seat kilometres (ASKs) increased by 9% to 113.9 billion. Yields fell 8% amid market capacity pressures and the tough global economic climate, but this was partially offset by an 11% reduction in unit costs.

Total impairments of US$ 1.9 billion included a US$ 1.06 billion charge on aircraft, reflecting lower market values and the early phase out of certain aircraft types. There was also a US$ 808 million charge on certain assets and financial exposures to equity partners, mainly related to Alitalia and airberlin.

Legacy fuel hedging contracts also had a negative bearing on performance in 2016, though this exposure is expected to have less of a financial impact during 2017.

A slowdown in the cargo market put increased pressure on cargo revenues and yields, and the airline saw a slight improvement in freight carried at 595,519 tonnes for the 12-month period.

Mohamed Mubarak Fadhel Al Mazrouei, Chairman of the Board of the Etihad Aviation Group, said: A culmination of factors contributed to the disappointing results for 2016. The Board and executive team have been working since last year to address the issues and challenges through a comprehensive strategic review aimed at driving improved performance across the group, which includes a full review of our airline equity partnership strategy.

The record passenger numbers in 2016 affirm Etihads role as a significant economic enabler for Abu Dhabi, and our airline business continues to support Abu Dhabis vision to develop tourism, grow commerce and strengthen links to key regional and international markets.

Ray Gammell, Interim Group Chief Executive Officer, explained: We are focused on maintaining the solid performance of our core airline business  operationally and financially  even amid difficult market headwinds. At the same time, we continue to implement changes across the group as part of the comprehensive strategic review, with a focus on improving revenues and reducing costs.

During 2016, the airline commenced a Right Size & Shape programme that generated total overhead savings of 4% through headcount reductions and other measures by the end of the year, even as capacity and total passenger number increased.

This year is just as challenging for the global aviation industry and the ever-evolving competitive environment is likely to impact overall performance in 2017. However, our airline business remains strong and class-leading, and as an aviation group, we are in a stronger position.

Peter Baumgartner, chief executive officer of Etihad Airways, added: We are in an industry characterised by overcapacity, declining market sizes on key routes, and changing customer behaviour as a weak global economy affects spending appetite.

Our answer to these challenges is innovation and reinvention, and this gives Etihad Airways a competitive edge as we seek to leverage opportunities offered to us by a changing environment.

Operationally, we performed well in 2016. We maintained load factor levels even as we increased capacity. Yields were under pressure in all cabins, with Business Class impacted particularly as corporate travel policies continued to encourage flyers to downgrade to Economy.

Our fuel hedging positions, which helped manage fuel spend during the oil price boom, yet significantly impacted our cost base last year, will taper during 2017. We are also seeing promising improvements in the contribution made by our ancillary revenue strategies, and we expect those to offset some of the yield declines.
OAA is one of The Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD) projects which the Authority oversees, in partnership with Airbus Helicopters, Oman National Investments Development Company (TANMIA), Al-Hosn Investment Company and the Ministry of Defence Pension Fund. The signing of the agreement was held under the patronage of His Excellency Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al-Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Authority. The ceremony was attended by HE Mohammed bin Nasser Al-Rasby, Secretary General of the Ministry of Defense, Shura Council members and their Excellencies, the Ambassadors of the State of Qatar and the Republic of France and the United Kingdom.

The agreement was signed by Dr. Dhafir bin Awadh Marai Al Shanfari, OAPFD CEO; Mr. Ben Bridge, Airbus Helicopters Executive Vice President Global Business; Sheikh Rashid Bin Saif Al Saadi, CEO of TANMIA; Mr. Osama Mariam, CEO of Al-Hosn Investment; and Captain Said bin Mohammed Al Ismaili, Assistant General Manager of the Ministry of Defence Pension Fund.

The Oman Aviation Academy is one of the Partnership for Development (PFD) Programme projects, and is considered to be the first aviation training company to be established in Oman, in cooperation with Airbus Helicopters. Moreover, the Academy will be based in Sohar Airport and operated by CAE Oxford, a leading civil and defence aviation training company with approximately 160 training sites in more than 35 countries around the world.

OAA will provide aviation training for national and regional cadres with the aim of them obtaining an EASA aviation license (ATPL), which enables them to be pilots in regional and international airlines.

The first phase of the Academy will kick off in the last quarter of this year. The Authority has signed a cooperation agreement with Sultan Qaboos University and in October, the first group of students will begin a special foundation course developed by SQU for OAA students. The Oman Aviation Academy project will play an important role in the development of the Sultanate's national economy through the development of the local aviation sector and training of highly skilled graduated pilot as well as its future role in meeting the needs of the Middle East for aviation professionals which is estimated at being more than 30,000 pilots over the next 20 years. The Academy is expected to attract more than 80 trainees each academic year from both local and regional pilots. CAE will also play an important role in marketing the Academy both regionally and globally through its global aviation training network.

The Academy will also play an important role in enhancing the operational role of Sohar Airport, attracting foreign investments and providing around 50 new direct jobs.

OAA will be built with an area of 4000 square meters with a capacity of 150 trainees. It will include an area of 3000 square meters of Aircraft Hangar, an area of 4000 square meters for the student housing, tower and a taxi way.

The construction works will begin in the last quarter of 2017. The Academy will be equipped with the latest specifications and standards and will be equipped with nine single engine piston aircraft and four twin-engine aircraft for flight training and simulators.

Dr. Ali bin Masoud Al Sunaidy, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Authority, expressed the importance of this new project and how it is the first of its kind in the Sultanate. "This important agreement reflected the strategic partnership between the Sultanate and Shareholders companies and it will play role in supplying the local aviation sector with pilots either in civil or military sector.

He added, "The Oman Aviation Academy is an educational training platform that will contribute to promoting the education sector through the development of a new training curriculum. We hope that through this project, the Sultanate will be the first destination for neighbouring and regional countries to benefit from the training and educational services in the field of aviation sector."

In the margins of the ceremony, the Oman Aviation Academy, signed a training agreement with Oman Air. OAA will provide the training required for 48 pilots annually from Oman Air instead of sending them abroad for flight training.

Dr. Dhafir bin Awadh Mari Al Shanfari welcomed the signing of the agreements which a chives one of the Partnership for Development programme objectives to create new investment partnerships with the world's leading companies. "We are pleased to sign these agreements and this strategic partnership between various stakeholders to move the Oman Aviation Academy to an advanced stage. This is a good occasion which coincides with the Sultanate's celebrations of the blessed Renaissance. We are delighted to be working with Airbus Helicopters and this is final project as part of the current offset/PFD commitment and we hope to build on this project in future obligations. The Academy will play an important role in attracting trainees from abroad, especially from neighbouring countries." He added: "We thank all the participating companies and agencies supporting the Academy, the Royal Air Force of Oman, Oman Air, Public Authority for Civil Aviation (PACA), Oman Airports Management Company, Sultan Qaboos University, and Ministry of Manpower for their trust in the Oman Aviation Academy, which represents a successful cooperation and strategic partnership between government local investors and international institutions"

Shaikh Rashid bin Saif Al Saadi, CEO of TANMIA, expressed his pleasure on the completion of an important milestone in the incorporation of Oman Aviation Academy evidencing the strategic partnership with the Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD). "This partnership confirms TANMIAs commitment to harnessing its capabilities towards the Blessed Renaissance which was established by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al Said indicating that this partnership is in line with the companys principles to enter into strategic investments in various sectors that generate dynamic benefits for the Omani economy and viable returns to shareholders.

"This strategic partnership with the offset fund is set to setup Omans first Aviation Academy. The diversity of the partnership that enhances the collaborations between the government and the private sector to achieve the economy diversification into education and training. The Academy will play a key social role within the country to contribute to the Omanisation plan as part of the Omans government vision 2020. It will support the aviation business development in Oman by preparing the next generation of local flight instructors and competent airline pilots. Being in Sohar with the current flight expansion from Salam Air and Qatar airways will further enhance the business prospects and the growth of the academy. Commented Osama Mariam, CEO - Al Hosn Investment company (A joint venture between the government Oman & Qatar)

Paul Gregorowitsch, Chief Executive Officer, Oman Air welcomed the training agreement with Oman Aviation Academy stating Oman Air is delighted to sign this agreement with The Omani Authority for Partnership for Development (OAPFD). Under this arrangement, the first group of Omani cadets jointly sponsored by the Oman Aviation Academy and Oman Air, will receive training under the cadet-pilot programme to obtain a CPL (Commercial Pilot Licence) /IR (Integrated Rating) with frozen ATPL (Airline Transport Pilot Licence). Oman Air will greatly benefit through training the cadets in its state-of-the-art facility based at Oman Airs headquarters in Muscat, ensuring efficient Omanisation requirements. The national carrier synergises seamlessly with OAPFD that strives to enhance the Partnership for Development Programme to achieve comprehensive and sustainable economic development in the Sultanate.
In addition two of the four daily flights will be serviced by the B777-300ER aircraft to accommodate the increased travel demand to and from Sri Lanka.

The increased frequency and aircraft upgauge will boost overall capacity to and from Colombo by 3,136 seats weekly, a 20 per cent increase from current weekly capacity.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: We are delighted to be able to cater to the buoyant leisure and business travel demand by increasing our frequency and capacity to Colombo, the gateway to Sri Lanka and one of the most vibrant cities in South Asia. Besides our acclaimed inflight service, our passengers can now also enjoy our modern B777 aircraft when they travel with us on our non-stop service to Doha and onward to destinations in Europe, Americas and the Middle East. The additional frequency will provide passengers with even greater flexibility and convenience when planning their next trip with Qatar Airways.

Sri Lankas Minister of Tourism Development the Hon. John Amaratunga said: Tourism is expected to be one of Sri Lankas major growth engines as we seek to further strengthen our economy. Sri Lanka, Asias leading destination for 2017, has a wealth of places waiting for travellers to discover. With the support of major carriers like Qatar Airways which has invested additional capacity, we are confident that Sri Lanka can achieve the target of 2.5 million tourists this year.
The airline, which launched daily flights between Dammam, Jeddah, Riyadh and Abha in October 2016, will use the Envision suite to support their CAMO (Continuing Airworthiness Management Organisation), line maintenance, materials management and quality and safety management functions across their operation.

Announcing the deal, Rusada CEO Julian Stourton said: SaudiGulf Airlines are committed to providing the highest quality and safety standards for their customers. In delivering that commitment, they wanted to partner with a vendor who they could work within the long-term as well as one who offered a technology platform that met their requirements.

SaudiGulf currently operates a fleet of Airbus A320s with Bombardier C300s on order, and has an agreement in place to expand its long-haul network by working with Boeing to support the airlines wide body requirements.

Stourton added: From a standing start, SaudiGulf has had a hugely successful launch phase and has an ambitious vision and growth plan. Our Envision solution is specifically engineered to be flexible, quick to deploy and scalable and SaudiGulfs selection of our suite is a further endorsement of these credentials.

SaudiGulf becomes Rusadas 12th customer in the Middle East region and joins an active community of aviation organisations who use our technology and actively contribute to the on-going development of our solution roadmap.
It said: Following numerous publications in the media SCAC is officially denying the signature of a contract for SSJ100 delivery to Iran
Derek Thompson: Altogether, the numbers paint a clear picture: The higher-education market is not bursting, like a popped soap bubble; but it is leaking, like a pierced balloon. Whats going on? The explanation is a little bit of weak demand, a little bit of over-supply, a big crackdown on for-profit colleges, and, perhaps, a subtle shift in culture.
Laos: Profit tax and land lease fee exemptions announced for tourism investors

According to Laos Deputy Minister of Information, Culture & Tourism, Ounethouang Khaophanh, foreign investors in the countrys tourism sector will be exempted from the payment of profit tax for four years and land lease fees for ten years. To qualify for the incentives, foreign investors should invest in the development of infrastructure and facilities at the countrys newly identified sites of tourist interest.

In 2016, a study commissioned by the government identified more than 2100 potential sites of tourist interest in the country. Only 40% of those sites have been developed into visitor sites. The governments latest move comes as part of its bid to upgrade the countrys tourism infrastructure through funding from foreign investors.

Brunei: Halal certification made mandatory for all food businesses

According to Bruneis Ministry of Religious Affairs (MoRA), all food businesses and restaurants in the country will now be required to obtain a Halal Certificate for their premises and a Halal Permit for their products. As per a recent notification, any individual owning a food business, including restaurants, stalls or canteens, must now secure a Halal Certificate. This regulation will also apply to individuals who make and sell food from home without distributing to a retailer or wholesaler.

Further, any individual who owns a food business that prepares food for distribution to a retailer or a wholesaler will be required to secure a Halal Permit for each kind of product sold. The Halal Permit will cost US$50 and will be valid indefinitely.

Myanmar: Government indicates plan to lift ban on livestock exports

Myanmars Ministry of Planning and Finance has indicated that it will lift a current ban on livestock exports. The move comes as part of the governments bid to boost the countrys agriculture and animal husbandry sector. The government is also planning to facilitate loans to farmers and support the whole supply chain of the countrys agricultural sector.

In a further move, the government is planning to set up designated agricultural trading zones across the country. The government will also issue slaughter licenses for livestock and allow export of animals and dairy products without any further restrictions.

About Us Asia Briefing, a subsidiary of China, India, Indonesia, Russia, the Silk Road & Vietnam. For editorial matters please contact us here and for a complimentary subscription to our products, please click ASEAN Briefing is published by, a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates . We produce material for foreign investors throughout Asia, includingthe. For editorial matters please contact usand for a complimentary subscription to our products, please click here Dezan Shira & Associates provide business intelligence, due diligence, legal, tax and advisory services throughout the ASEAN and Asia. We maintain offices in Singapore, as well as Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City, and maintain Alliance offices in Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila as well as throughout China, South-East Asia, India and Russia. For assistance with ASEAN investments into any of the featured countries, please contact us at provide business intelligence, due diligence, legal, tax and advisory services throughout the ASEAN and Asia. We maintain offices in Singapore, as well as Hanoi & Ho Chi Minh City, and maintain Alliance offices in Bangkok, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Manila as well as throughout China, South-East Asia, India and Russia. For assistance with ASEAN investments into any of the featured countries, please contact us at asean@dezshira.com or visit us at www.dezshira.com

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Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in ASEAN 2017

An Introduction to Doing Business in ASEAN 2017 introduces the fundamentals of investing in the 10-nation ASEAN bloc, concentrating on economics, trade, corporate establishment, and taxation. We also include the latest development news for each country, with the intent to provide an executive assessment of the varying component parts of ASEAN, assessing each member state and providing the most up-to-date economic and demographic data on each.

How to Set Up in the Philippines



In this issue of ASEAN Briefing magazine, we provide an introduction to the Philippines as well as analyze the various market entry options available for investors interested in expanding to the island nation. We also discuss the step-by-step process for setting up a business entity in the Philippines, highlighting the various statutory requirements for overseas investors. Finally, we explore the potential for Singapore to serve as a viable base to administer investors Philippine operations.
The Nifty gained 56.10 points or 0.56 per cent to end the day at 10,020.65.

The 30-share Sensex too rallied to a record high and closed at 32,382.46, gaining 154.19 points or 0.48 per cent.

Mumbai: Continuing with their winning momentum, the equity markets scaled new highs amidst broadbased buying in index heavyweights that helped the 50-share Nifty to close above 10,000 level on Wednesday a day after the index hit this historic milestone in the intra-day trade.

The Nifty gained 56.10 points or 0.56 per cent to end the day at 10,020.65. The 30-share Sensex too rallied to a record high and closed at 32,382.46, gaining 154.19 points or 0.48 per cent.

The markets are getting into a bubble like situation where the valuations are not able to justify fundamentals. What we are seeing is a liquidity-driven rally. Investors are buying the momentum instead of value. This is why even penny stocks are seeing significant rally along with quality stocks. This is a dangerous situation, said Ambareesh Baliga, senior research analyst.

As long as the liquidity flow is strong, the markets would be able to sustain their winning momentum. But as soon as it dries up, the markets are likely to see a steep correction. It is better to stay away instead of making fresh investment at these levels, he added.

According to the provisional data released by the stock exchanges, domestic institutional investors bought equities worth Rs 676.61 crore while foreign portfolio investors remained net sellers to the tune of Rs 60.60 crore.

Nifty reaching 10,000 is the culmination of decades of hard work now captured in the front line indices. However, celebrated new highs are also a warning bell for investors. Such euphoria would eventually give rise to anxiety, denial, fear and capitulation and again hope, relief optimism and euphoria will emerge. This cycle goes on and on in a never-ending succession. Ability to go against the crowd makes big money. Investors need to be extra caution during times of euphoria, said Jimeet Modi, CEO, SAMCO securities.
In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, but reduced the sentence to five years.

Mumbai: The Maharashtra government told the Bombay high court on Thursday that it had not flouted any rules while remitting Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutts sentence in the 1993 blasts case. If the court disagrees, and detects a mistake, it could order for Dutt to be sent back to jail. The court noted that Dutt surrendered in May 2013 and filed applications seeking to be released on furlough and parole in July, which were confirmed.

A division bench of Justice Rajendra Savant and Justice Sadhana Jahav was hearing a PIL filed by Pune resident Pradeep Bhalekar, who alleged that the state government had favoured Dutt with an early release.

On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced Dutt to six years of rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on him for possessing an AK-56 in a notified area. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling, but reduced the sentence to five years.

The actor surrendered in May that year to serve the remainder of his sentence, and was released from prison in February 2016. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later.

On Thursday, the court observed that Dutt had been granted furlough and parole at the same time, which is contrary to the law. As per the law, either one can be granted at a time.

Advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni made a statement before the court stating, It (the government) has not flouted any rules while granting remission to Dutt but if the court feels so, it can send him back to jail.

However, stating that the court did not want to set the clock back in time, Justice Savant said, We are not for a moment suggesting that he (Dutt) should be sent back to jail. But we only want such issues to be streamlined so that in future no questions are raised.

The court also noted that Dutt was granted both parole and furlough within two months after he surrendered before the jail authorities. On July 8, 2013, Dutt filed for furlough and then on July 25 he sought to be released on parole. Both applications were allowed, the court said. HC, which also sought reply from state as to the grounds on which it assessed Dutts conduct as good behaviour, directed state to file affidavit within two weeks on its queries.
The Tigmanshu Dhulia directorial stars Amit Sadh, Kunaal Kapoor and Mohit Marwah in the lead roles.

Rating:

Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Cast: Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mohit Marwah, Mrudula Murali, Keneth Desai

Having last directed Bullet Raja in 2013, writer-director Tigmanshu Dhulia brings you his first ever patriotic film, Raag Desh, which is based on the INA Trials that took place in 1946. Known for making raw films, Tigmanshu unfolds the journey of three soldiers who were found guilty of murders.

Captain Shah Nawaz Khan (Kunal Kapoor), Captain Gurbaksh Dhillon (Amit Sadh) and Captain P K Sahgal (Mohit Marwah) heads the INA (Azad Hind Fauj) in 1942 which had been founded by Subhash Chandra Bose. The mission of INA was to fight against British Indian Army and make India a free nation. Unfortunately, Subhash Chandra Bose dies in a plane crash leaving the INA behind.

Meanwhile, Shah Nawaz, P. K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh appeal to their fellow soldiers to join INA but unfortunately have to kill a few of them who don't agree to go against the British empire. In return, the British Indian Army convict the three and announce the trial against them to prove them guilty. Bhulabhai Desai, a well known judge fights the case in their defense.

The three lose the case but to avoid further aggression of INA members and communal disturbance, the British Indian Army let them go freely.

Director Tigmanshu Dhulia has a knack of handling small town, brash plots. Though his last Bullet Raja was a disaster, with films like Haasil and Paan Singh Tomar, Dhulia had proved his mettle. For the first time, he tells the untold story of the INA trials on celluloid which is watchable. The dialogues are strong and moving but the pace of the film in the second half is exceptionally slow. But then, one needs to be patient while watching a patriotic film since it has to be factual and not fictional.

However, Raag Desh is not much thrilling as a film. In the past, several films have been made on historical events which are quite engaging, like Rang De Basanti, The Legend of Bhagat Singh to name a few. Raag Desh is not in the same league. Even the court room drama in the second half is not heart wrenching but Tigmanshu is a fairly good director to hold a weak screenplay with conviction till the end.

The noticeable thing in the film is its cast. They all not only resembles the actual people but also perform highly well. Kunal Kapoor who plays Captain Shah Nawaz Khan is outstanding in his act. His body language very much reflected that of a freedom fighter from the bygone era. Though he will remind you of his character in Rang De Basanti as he has the same aggression in this one, guess that makes him shine bright. Mohit Marwah, who marked his acting debut with Fugly in 2013, is surprisingly good as Captain P K Sahgal. His dialogue delivery, emotions and expressions are excellent. Looks like he has very much arrived. Luckily he got a nice screen presence too. It shows that Mohit is completely a director's actor. Amit Sadh, who plays the role of Captain Gurbaksh Dhillon is convincing as a Sikh. His fluency in speaking raw Punjabi is wow. Rest of the star cast is good too. Be it Bose or Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru or Jinnah, every performer resembled their real-life counterparts.

On the whole, Raag Desh is an average film with an untold factual story. The film could have been much better plus in the era of commercial films, Raag Desh is a niche in its own genre. If you are still patriotic to watch such a film in 2017, then Raag Desh isn't a bad watch.
Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of the state with senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi as deputy chief minister.

Nitish Kumar with senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi at an oath ceremony function, at Raj Bhawan in Patna. Kumar was sworn-in as the Chief Minister of Bihar while Modi as the Deputy Chief Minister. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: The decision to part ways with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and joining hands with the BJP was taken in the interest of Bihar and will ensure development and justice for the state, Nitish Kumar said on Thursday after being sworn in as the chief minister.

Kumar resigned the post on Wednesday evening after a fall out with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejaswi, who was the then deputy CM.

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," Nitish Kumar told reporters.

Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of the state along side senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna.

Nitish Kumar will prove majority in the Bihar Assembly on Friday. It will be a special session where the new Janata Dal (United) and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alliance will prove their political mettle.
Two judgments of the apex court, in 1954 and 1962, have held that privacy is not a fundamental right.

New Delhi: The Centre on Wednesday asserted in the Supreme Court that the concept of privacy is too vague to qualify as a fundamental right. Attorney general K.K. Venugopal, making this submission before a nine-judge bench, said, Defining the contours of privacy is not possible. Privacy is as good a notion as pursuit of happiness.

The nine-judge Constitution bench is examining whether right to privacy is a fundamental right or not in a case that could have implications for Aadhaar.

Two judgments of the apex court, in 1954 and 1962, have held that privacy is not a fundamental right.

The AG argued that there could be no independent right called right to privacy as privacy is a sociological notion, not a legal concept.

Every aspect of it does not qualify as a fundamental right, as privacy also includes the subtext of liberty. No need to recognise privacy as an independent right If privacy were to be declared a fundamental right, then it can be a qualified right, he said. And since only some aspects of privacy are fundamental, Mr Venugopal submitted that in legitimate state interest this limited fundamental right can be taken away.

Reiterating that in developing countries something as amorphous as privacy could not be a fundamental right that overrides other fundamental rights such as to food, clothing, shelter etc., he submitted that the World Bank has said that identity system should be followed by every developing country.

We cant say every encroachment of privacy is to be elevated to fundamental right. The claim to liberty has to subordinate itself to right to life of others, Mr Venugopal said.

Earlier in the day, senior counsel Kapil Sibal, appearing for four non-BJP ruled states  Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Union Territory of Puducherry  said that in light of technological advancement, the court needs to take a fresh look at right to privacy and its contours in the modern world.

Privacy cannot be an absolute right, but it is a fundamental right. This court needs to strike a balance, he said.

Mr Sibal asked the apex court to address the issue of privacy afresh, and not from the prism of an era where issues confronting contemporary society did not exist.

He said the right to privacy as an inalienable natural right is based on the classic premise of the individuals wish to be let alone. However, the contours of the right needs to be understood with changing times. Rapid advances in science and technology pose considerable challenges in delineating the exact contours of the right.

Mr Sibal argued that privacy is a right which protects the inner sphere of the individual from interference of state and non-state actors and allows the individual to make autonomous life choices regarding the construction of her identity, not only in seclusion from others but in the personal, familial, and social. With advances in technology, the state in the 21st century is far more powerful than it ever was, and is capable of entering a citizens house without knocking at his/her door. Evolution of technology has facilitated easy intrusion into the life of individuals by state and non-state actors, he said. Arguments will continue on Thursday.
The meeting of the BJP leaders was coordinated by parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar.

A woman, air-lifted from a flooded farm, gets down from an Air Force helicopter at an airport in Deesa, Gujarat. (Photo: AP)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday asked BJP MPs from Gujarat to play an active role in providing relief to flood-hit people in the state and asserted the Centre was committed to helping the affected.

A day after the Prime Minister undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas in Gujarat, he addressed the MPs at a meeting where BJP president Amit Shah, finance minister Arun Jaitley and party veteran L.K. Advani were also present.

The meeting of the BJP leaders was coordinated by parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar.

Mr Modi said the people of Gujarat were patiently facing the situation, and asked the MPs to play an active role in providing relief to them, an official statement said.

MPs of Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, and Andaman and Nicobar islands were also invited to the meet.

To mark the 75th anniversary of the Quit India movement, Mr Modi asked the MPs to take out sankalp yatras from August 15 to August 30.

The Prime Minister also assured the people about the progress made by the country. He urged the MPs to spread the message of development-oriented initiatives taken by the government.
Kumar is scheduled to be sworn-in today, probably with some new Cabinet colleagues.

New Delhi/Patna: Curtains fell on the Grand Alliance on Wednesday with Nitish Kumar resigning as Bihar chief minister and dumping his allies  RJD and the Congress. The ghar wapsi of the Bihar chief minister, a former NDA ally, was complete as the BJP immediately swung into action and announced its support. Mr Kumar is scheduled to be sworn-in today, probably with some new Cabinet colleagues.

In Bihar Assembly, with 243 seats, the magic number is 122. While the JD(U) has 71 MLAs, the BJP has 53, taking their total to 124. Add to that NDA allies (the LJP, RLSP and HAM) five MLAs.

Mr Kumars home coming (he was part of the NDA till Narendra Modi became its prime ministerial candidate in 2014) is a major victory for the saffron brigade and a severe blow to the Opposition and its plan for a united secular alliance in 2019.





That Mr Kumars surprise move to step down was a part of a well thought out script became somewhat evident as the Prime Minister Narendra Modi reacted instantly after the chief minister stepped down.

Mr Modi tweeted, Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption.

The Grand Alliance, led by RJD, Congress and other secular parties, was yet again outfoxed by a superior saffron game plan. With the RJDs 81 MLAs, Congress 27 and allies three legislators, the Grand Alliance is nowhere near the simple majority.

The drama began to unfold at around 7.30 pm when Mr Kumar reached the governors residence and put in his papers. The decision to quit was apparently over probity in office, as Mr Kumar wanted the deputy chief minister, Tejashwi Yadav, to step down following corruption charges.

The deputy chief minister, his father and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav had made it clear that Tejashwi will not step down.

Mr Kumar had also met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi last week to work out a solution. The Nitish camp claimed that the meeting between Mr Kumar and Mr Gandhi had failed to evoke any result and that the chief minister was disillusioned.

I met Bihar governor and submitted my resignation. I have resigned because it was getting tough for me to work as the chief minister, the Bihar chief minister said after meeting the governor.

He said that while he had not asked anyone, including Tejashwi Yadav, to resign, he said, I told Lalu Yadav and Tejashwi that they must explain the charges publicly which they kept dodging.

As Mr Kumar resigned, the BJP in the national capital swung into action and messages were sent to the state unit to rush to the governor before the Opposition could do so.

Sushil Modi met state legislators and party functionaries and declared the BJPs support for Mr Kumar.

Mr Kumars decision to return to NDA fold is being viewed a move to back and be with the winning side.

With the Opposition in a complete disarray and indications that NDA-led by Mr Modi is all set to the return to power in 2019 general elections, Mr Kumar was in no mood to stick to the losing side, a JD(U) leader said.

Mr Kumars decision to ally with the saffronites is expected to have minor tremors within the JD(U) as senior leader Sharad Yadav had made it clear that he would quit the party if the chief minister crossed over to the BJP.

While Mr Kumars switch could be a win-win situation for the BJP, the JD(U) could be in a fix during the 2019 general elections if Muslims and Yadavs remain loyal to RJD chief Lalu Yadav.

Before the BJP extended support to Mr Kumar, the RJD chief huffed and puffed and said that another leader could head the Grand Alliance government. But the Congress, toeing the middle path, said party president Sonia Gandhi and her son Rahul Gandhi were preparing to speak to Mr Kumar on Thursday. But the BJP, led by Mr Modi and Amit Shah, yet again stole their thunder.
Nitish pulled out of grand alliance with RJD, Congress yesterday; this is his 6th term as chief minister.

Patna: In a little over 12 hours after he resigned as chief minister of Bihar  pulling out of the mahagathbandhan with the RJD and the Congress  Nitish Kumar was back in the chair on Thursday morning with a different but familiar partner  the NDA.

Sharp at 10 am, Nitish Kumar was administered the oath by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, heralding his sixth term in power.

BJP leader Sushil Modi was sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, a post that he held before from 2005 to 2013.

Other ministers will be sworn in after Nitish Kumar proves majority on Saturday.

Nitish ended his two-year grand alliance with the RJD and Congress on Wednesday evening, citing a call of conscience over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejaswi Yadav. Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejaswi are central to a CBI inquiry into the land-for-hotels deal when Lalu was the Union railways minister.

Nitish had nearly a decade alliance with the NDA before he split in 2013 as soon as Narendra Modi was announced the face of the BJP campaign for the 2015 general elections.

Read: Nitish's masterstroke: Bihar's Chanakya joins hands with BJP, becomes CM for 6th time

After the JD(U) was reduced to two seats in the 2014 general polls, Nitish teamed up with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress and the alliance made the NDA taste its first big defeat in the 2015 state polls.

Nitish has since campaigned in Uttar Pradesh calling for a Sangh Mukt Bharat and a Sharab Mukht Samaj. After the grand alliance had formed, he had called out the BJP for playing the politics of dividing be it in the name of caste or religion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lauded Nitish last night for choosing honesty over corruption, had hit out at the leader in 2015, caustically suggesting there was something wrong with his DNA for deserting his friends.

Nitish quit on Wednesday after a few-day staredown with alliance partner Lalu Prasad Yadav over Tejaswi quitting his post as deputy chief minister. Lalu called a meeting of his party leaders Wednesday afternoon and made it clear his son would not quit, and also reminded Nitish that the RJD had made him chief minister.

That seemed to be the last straw for a relationship that was withering, given Nitishs decision last week to skip Sonia Gandhis lunch and dine with the Prime Minister instead. He had also supported demonetisation, the surgical strikes and BJPs candidate Ram Nath Kovind as President. Lalu Prasad called Nitishs exit a setting of the RSS and the BJP.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar said outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday evening.

It had become difficult for me to work, Kumar had said, adding, In taking this decision, I have listened to my conscience.

A few hours after he had quit, Nitish had got the BJPs support to form the new government.

Nitishs JD(U) has 71 MLAs, RJD 80, Congress 27 and NDA 58 in the 243-seat Assembly. JD(U) and NDA have the clear majority while the RJD-Congress is 15 short of a simple.

It is advantage BJP once again with this return back to power in Bihar, while the Opposition struggles to keep its flock together.

It is advantage BJP all the more because Nitish Kumar  with his very clean image and intolerance for corruption -- was being seen as the tallest leader in the secular front that could challenge Narendra Modi.
Sources in the Congress said that despite Mr Gandhis failures, the party has no option but to continue with him.

New Delhi: The resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar has come as another blow to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi. His interventions and efforts to persuade Mr Kumar to stick with the grand alliance has failed with the Bihar chief minister returning to the NDA fold.

Mr Gandhi had reportedly supported Mr Kumars demand that Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, the son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, must resign over corruption charges. But, he failed to convince Mr Lalu Yadav to make his son step down. The RJD chief made it categorically clear to Mr Gandhi and Congress president Sonia Gandhi that his son was not going to quit.

Hit by repeated failures electorally, and the inability to keep the Opposition unified, the Congress attempts to make Mr Gandhi the face of the Opposition during the 2019 polls could get tricky. With Mr Kumar crossing over to the BJP, the Opposition will find the going tough during the genral elections.

This is the latest in a string of setbacks for the Congress, from the disastrous tie-up with the SP in the UP polls to former Gujarat CM Shankersinh Vaghela quitting the party before the upcoming Assembly polls.

In poll bound Himachal Pradesh, the tainted Congress chief minister, Veer Bhadra Singh has refused to toe the party line and step down.

Sources in the Congress said that despite Mr Gandhis failures, the party has no option but to continue with him.
Speaking to the media in Bihar, deputy chief minister Sushil Modi said, Lalu Yadav and Rahul Gandhi had abused Bihars mandate.

Nitish Kumar and Shushil Kumar Modi wave at gathering after they were sworn-in as Bihar Chief Minister and Dy Chief Minister respectively, at a ceremony in Patna. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar who took over as chief minister of Bihar once again on Thursday after the resignation drama on Wednesday night will face a floor test on Friday. With the support of 132 MLAs in the House of 243, the floor test appears to be a mere formality. While Mr Kumar returned home to the NDA, senior state BJP leader Sushil Modi returned to his former position as deputy chief minister of the state.

Taking over as the chief minister, Mr Kumar indicated that he was ready to share power at the Centre. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is expected to go in for a major Cabinet reshuffle after the end of the Monsoon Session of Parliament and is likely to accomodate two JD(U) ministers in the Union Cabinet.

After the JD(U) and the BJP staked claim, governor Keshari Nath Tripathi asked Mr Kumar to prove his strength in a floor test at 11 am on Friday.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the new NDA alliance claimed to have 132 MLAs  71 of JD(U), 53 from BJP, two from RLSP, two from LJP, one from HAM and three independents. With this they will comfortably sail over the magic figure of 122. As for the Opposition, the RJD has 80 MLAs, Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

While Mr Kumar resumed his chief ministership, there were reports of rumblings in the JD(U), particularly among the faction led by Sharad Yadav. However, despite the apparent diffrences, majority of the JD(U) MLAs have rallied around Mr Kumar.

Mr Kumar, who was back at the helm of affairs in Bihar nearly 12 hours after he stepped down and broke ranks with his allies  RJD and Congress, claimed that he did everything to save the grand alliance. Speaking to the media in Bihar, deputy chief minister Sushil Modi said, Lalu Yadav and Rahul Gandhi had abused Bihars mandate.

Former deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav threatened that his party would not let the House function on Friday. RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav claimed, This is the end of Nitish Kumar. Trying to put up a brave front, Tejashwi Yadav claimed that his party has adequate strength to prove majority and that some of JD (U) MLAs also want to support the grand secular alliance. Lalu Prasad Yadav who returned from Ranchi on Thursday evening chaired a meeting of legislators and party workers at his residence where it was decided to oppose each and every move of Nitish Kumar and the BJP. He also kept reiterating through the day that JD(U) had locked up its MLAs.

Sources revealed that the BJP and Mr Kumars camp rushed ahead with the move to form the government mainly to prevent resentnment among the JD(U) workers. Secondly, the BJP along with Mr Kumar moved with breakneck speed to block the RJD from influencing the JD(U) MLAs.
Sources in the ED said the case has been registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

New Delhi: The Central investigating agencies on Thursday intensified their probe into the corruption cases against RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday registered a money laundering case against the Yadav family in connection with the alleged irregularities committed in awarding tenders for development, maintenance and operation of railway hotels at Ranchi and Puri to a private company

Sources in the ED said the case has been registered under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The ED has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move. Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a corruption case in this regard and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

Meanwhile, the ED on Thursday issued notices to Misa Bharti, daughter of RJD chief and his son-in-law Shailesh Kumar in connection with Rs 8,000 crore money laundering case. The ED has asked the duo to submit all documents related to the case required by the agency by Friday, sources said.

Mr Yadavs wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi and others will be probed by the ED. The case dates back to the time when Mr Yadav was the railway minister in the UPA government. Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P.K. Goel.
This time around, six Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal fall vacant out of which five will go to TMC and the sixth one to Congress.

New Delhi: The denial of a third term in the Rajya Sabha to CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, apart from being another historical blunder, will also result in major political realignments for the party in West Bengal, where its focus was on creating a distance between the Congress and the Trinamul Congress.

Before Mr Yechury, then West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu had been denied a shot at the Prime Ministers post by his party in 1992.

This time around, six Rajya Sabha seats in West Bengal fall vacant out of which five will go to TMC and the sixth one to Congress. The Congress, specially vice- president Rahul Gandhi, was keen that Mr Yechury is re-elected from the sixth seat in order for the Opposition to have a strong voice in the Upper House.

However, the CPI(M) Central Committee, its highest decision making body, decided against another term for Mr Yechury and this move has disappointed the West Bengal unit.

The Bengla unit of the party, which is a bitter rival of the TMC in West Bengal, is uncomfortable with the new closeness between the Congress and Mamata Banerjees party, but the decision not to field Mr Yechury for a second term seals this very closeness and now Congress Meira Kumar in all likelihood will get elected with TMC support from the seat.

Though the Central Committee maintained that the possibility of getting a joint Opposition candidate from the sixth seat in Bengal should be explored, leaders in the West Bengal unit of the party maintained that this was not possible as it would also entail seeking Congress support which was one of the g rounds on which Mr Yechurys candidature was rejected.

At the CPI(M) Central Committee meeting on Tuesday, the three grounds on which Mr Yechurys candidature was negated was that there has been no precedent for a third term, that a party general secretary could not be in the Rajya Sabha and that the CPI(M) cannot take Congress support to send its candidate to the Upper House.

However, a top leader from the partys Bengal unit told this newspaper that when Mr Yechury had taken over as the General Secretary he had been allowed to remain a Rajya Sabha member with the argument that his resignation would mean that the seat goes to the Trinamul Congress since the strength of the party had depleted in the West Bengal Assembly.

With this, the objecting of creating a distance between the TMC and the Conrges vanishes and this will opens the way for a fresh poaching ground for the BJP, the leader said.

The party in Bengal is apprehensive that certain local Congress leaders will veer towards the BJP to find political relevance now since the TMC was the ruling party in the state.

Interestingly, while the Left, Congress and TMC are bitter rivals in Bengal, they are trying to forge a common anti-Modi front at the Centre.
The Congress in the Lower House has been demanding a discussion on mob violence and lynching in the country.

New Delhi: The Congress on Wednesday hit out at the government for not letting them raise issues in the Lok Sabha. Leader of the Congress in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, charged the government for adopting a fascist approach and dictatorial agenda. He further asked that why is it so that Congress and other Opposition parties are not allowed to raise issues in the Lok Sabha. The Congress in the Lower House has been demanding a discussion on mob violence and lynching in the country. Mr Kharge also attacked the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for avoiding a debate on the issue. He said, The Prime Minister has adopted silence in Parliament, even though he has spoken outside in public rallies. He represents the people and is leader of the House, he must inform the House. Does he want to work in a democracy, as the leader always gives a statement in the House on important issues and when there is a crisis. He comes for 5-10 minutes and goes. This is like ending democracy and the Constitution.

While Mr Kharge also charged the government for exerting pressure on the Speaker of the Lok Sabha. He also alleged that the Speaker took the decision of suspending six Congress members demanding a discussion on lynching only after the government exerted pressure. He added, The Speaker takes such a decision after the government exerts pressure. We respect the Speaker and there is no charge of partiality.

The Congress leader also added that there are double standards while dealing with the Opposition. He also condemned and questioned the adoption of different yardsticks by suspending the Opposition members and letting off BJP member Anurag Thakur for filming the Lok Sabha proceedings with a mere warning.

He said Why are two yardsticks being applied  one for the BJP member Anurag Thakur and another for the six suspended Congress members?
Modi unveiled a statue of Dr Kalam in Ramesawaram on his second death anniversary.

Rameswaram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated a memorial dedicated to former president A P J Abdul Kalam at Peikarumbu near Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on his second death anniversary.

He opened the memorial built in the hometown of the former president at a location where the mortal remains of the "missile man" are buried.

Modi, who also unveiled a statue of Kalam playing a 'veena', a musical instrument, was accompanied by Tamil Nadu

Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palanisamy, Union ministers Pon Radhakrishnan and NDA's vice presidential nominee M Venakaiah Naidu.

The Prime Minister unfurled the national flag at the entrance of the memorial, built by the Defence Research and

Development Organisation (DRDO) with which Kalam was associated for decades as a key scientist.

Later, Modi interacted with the family members of Kalam.

He was seen holding affectionately the hands of Kalam's elder brother APJ Mohamed Muthumeeran Maraikayar while speaking to him.

With 'unity in diversity' as its theme, the memorial features quotes of Kalam and his pictures as a scientist and as the president of the country.

Resembling the arch of the India Gate, the memorial has on display replica of rockets and missiles on which Kalam had worked.

While the first phase of the memorial was inaugurated on Thursday, its second phase was scheduled to be completed in another 18 months. It would then house a library, planetarium and auditorium.

Earlier, Rao and Palanisamy received Modi at the Madurai airport from where he arrived Rameswaram by an helicopter.

A three-tier tight security ring was put in place in and around Rameswaram for the Prime Minister's visit.
This will be Nitish Kumar's 6th term as Chief Minister of Bihar.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar with senior leader of BJP Sushil Kumar Modi at legislators' meeting in Patna on Wednesday. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday, but hours later joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the Opposition.

The ostensible reason for Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Yashaswi Yadav, the son of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite Kumar's exhortations.

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

But in a series of fast paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours, it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner.

First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's Janata Dal (United) (JD) (U) MLAs.

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

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

He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10 am on Thursday. It would be Kumar's 6th term as chief minister.

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

However, the RJD appeared in no mood to give up without a fight, with Tejaswi Yadav saying he, too, would stake claim to form government.

"Have sought an appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejaswi tweeted.

Half of JDU MLAs in our touch therefore Nitish Ji rushing to Raj Bhawan in midnight. Listen the inner voice of ur MLAs also  Tejaswi yadav (@YadavTejaswi) July 26, 2017

We are going to governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.  Tejaswi yadav (@YadavTejaswi) July 26, 2017

However, the numbers are stacked against him. The JD(U), BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejaswi, their number would add up to 110.

Reacting sharply to the governor inviting Nitish Kumar for the swearing-in at 10 am after giving him an appointment for 11 am, Tejaswi said RJD would stage a dharna outside Raj Bhavan against it.

"Governor gv us time of 11 am and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10 am. Why so much hurry & rush Mr Honest & Moral?" he tweeted well past midnight.

        ?   5     10         Tejaswi yadav (@YadavTejaswi) July 26, 2017

"If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values & honesty, He would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for govt. Honest man doesn't fear," he said in a series of tweets.

Nitish Ji if u hv belief in ur morality & honesty thn Y u hv caged JDU MLAs in ur https://t.co/n4ub3IHRfr thm,they wil tell ur morality rate  Tejaswi yadav (@YadavTejaswi) July 26, 2017

He claimed half of JD(U) MLAs were in touch with him which forced Kumar to rush to Raj Bhavan at midnight to stake claim to form the government.

Earlier, citing irreconcilable differences with the senior ally over corruption charges against Tejaswi, son of Lalu Prasad, Kumar announced his resignation after meeting

Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, hours after the RJD supreme rejected outright the demand for his son's ouster.

Kumar's resignation capped days of a stand-off between his party JD(U) and the RJD, with the former insisting that Tejaswi defends himself against the allegations.

Tensions simmered between the two alliance partners ever since the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and son Tejaswi in a land-for-hotels case.

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.

As suspense mounted over Kumar's next step following his resignation, BJP quickly seized upon the opportunity to reunite with its old ally, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption", saying the entire nation supports his honesty.

Kumar responded quickly tweeting: "I thank the prime minister from the core of my heart for praising my decision (of quitting)."

The state and central BJP leadership swiftly got in touch and Sushil Kumar Modi, who was Kumar's deputy when the two parties ran a coalition government, said his party was not in favour of a mid-term election.

Modi said BJP has decided to back the JD(U) leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

The development has left Tejaswi out of the government, and his father emasculated, at least for now.

Also, the Congress, part of the grand alliance, stands diminished politically.

Earlier, after putting in his papers, Kumar he had favoured Opposition unity but that was not possible when it only had a "reactive agenda".

"I favoured opposition unity...but what kind of Opposition unity was going to be there...there was no discourse, no agenda. Having a reactive agenda will not do," he said.

"Needs can be met, but not greed," he said, apparently referring to graft charges against Tejaswi and other members of Lalu Prasad's family.

Kumar also said that while supporting demonetisation he had called for a crackdown on benami properties and that he cannot back out now.

Several members of Lalu Prasad's family, including his MP daughter Misa Bharti and son-in-law Shailesh Kumar, are embroiled in cases related to possessing benami properties (immovable properties not registered in the name of the real owners) bought with tainted money.
Nitish Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within 2 days of taking oath at 10 am on Thursday.

Patna: Tejaswi Yadav on Thursday met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi in Patna to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of Rashtriya Janata Dal(RJD), which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.

Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath at 10 am on Thursday.

Read: Grand alliance falls apart as Nitish Kumar resigns as Bihar chief minister

Kumar resigned as the chief minister on Wednesday night. The ostensible reason for him to quit was his falling out with Tejaswi, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down as the deputy chief minister despite Kumar's exhortations.

After Kumar's meeting with the governor late on Wednesday night, Tejaswi, accompanied by some RJD MLAs and leaders, marched to the Raj Bhawan to meet Tripathi.

We have requested Guv to stall the swearing-in ceremony and give us a chance to prove majority on the floor: Tejashwi Yadav, RJD pic.twitter.com/jxeunUQBPp  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

"RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he said after the meeting. He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance its mandate to run its government for 5 years which Kumar betrayed. He also threatened of protests across the state against Kumar "who will find it difficult to move around".

Tejaswi claimed he had the support of most Janata Dal(United) MLAs. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor-test," he said.

RJD, Cong and all those who oppose BJP-RSS & #NitishKumar will protest, hold dharnas & burn effigies: Tejashwi Yadav pic.twitter.com/0EjFrrHUXr  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

He said the governor told him that he has already invited Kumar for taking oath and it is not possible to take back the invitation letter. Tejaswi was accompanied by brother Tej Pratap Yadav and senior party leaders -- Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh, and party spokesman Manoj Jha in the meeting.

He described Kumar's resignation as a "pre-planned conspiracy" between the former and the National Democratic Alliance(NDA), and also questioned the advancing of the oath ceremony timing from 5 pm to 10 am. "This whole drama was planned and Tejaswi was just an excuse for him (Kumar) to go with Bharatiya Janata Party(BJP)," Tejaswi said after the meeting.
Nitish Kumar had resigned on Wednesday, claiming that corruption charges against Lalu and Tejaswi were the reasons behind his decision.

The special session is likely to be stormy, considering the mood displayed by former deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav, who said that his party RJD has not been a given a chance to form the government despite being the largest party in the Assembly. (Photo: PTI)

Patna: In a first major sign of a split within the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), a senior member of the party and five times MLA from Gaighat constituency, Maheshwar Yadav, has come out in the open to protest against Lalu Prasad Yadav.

He told reporters on Thursday that the split occurred due to Lalu Yadavs love for his son. Nitish Kumar never backstabbed anyone; he met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi and also gave enough hints but Lalu Yadavs ego forced Nitish Kumar to leave the alliance and join hands with the BJP.

Maheshwar said that a large number of MLAs wanted Tejaswi Yadav to quit but they couldnt muster up the courage to speak in front of Lalu Yadav. If only Tejashwi Yadav had resigned immediately after the raids were conducted then he would have become a bigger leader.

Nitish Kumar had resigned as the chief minister of Bihar on Wednesday, claiming that corruption charges against Lalu and Tejaswi were the main reasons behind his decision to leave Grand Secular Alliance in the state.

Differences in reaction to Kumar's decision have also been witnessed in his party, JD(U). Earlier, JD(U) MP Ali Anwar had registered his protest against Nitishs decision to form the government with BJP.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi, Anwar had said that, Nitish Kumar took a decision by listening to his inner voice, But my conscience doesnt allow me to support his decision.

His statement was opposed by senior members in the JD(U). According to senior JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Today Ali Anwars conscience is not allowing him to support Nitish Kumars decision but he must also remember that he became Rajya Sabha MP on BJP votes.

If RJD sources are to be believed, as many as 16 JD(U) MLAs have opposed Nitish Kumars move to form a government with BJP in Bihar. They hinted that top RJD leaders are trying to gain the support of 5 Muslim and 11 Yadav MLAs from the JD(U) on secular lines.

Hours after submitting his resignation to Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, Nitish joined hands with the BJP and was sworn in as the chief minister for the sixth time. A floor test in Bihar Assembly is scheduled to be held on Friday as Nitish Kumar has been asked by Tripathi to prove majority in the House within two days.

The special session is likely to be stormy, considering the mood displayed by former deputy chief minister Tejaswi Yadav, who said that his party RJD has not been a given a chance to form the government despite being the largest party in the Assembly.

Nitish has the support of 132 MLAs, including 71 from his party, 53 from BJP, 2 MLAs each from RLSP and LJP, 1 from HAM and 3 Independents.

Meanwhile, Tejaswi told reporters in Patna that RJD has the support of 27 Congress MLAs, 2 legislators of CPI(ML) and several independents. He also said that a large number of JD(U) legislators were also planning to support the Grand Secular Alliance.

We deserve a chance to prove majority on the floor of the house, we have enough support to form a government in Bihar. Some of JD (U) MLAs also want to support the grand secular alliance, Former Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav said.
The RJD chief faces more trouble as ED registers a case of money-laundering against Lalu and his family members in the IRCTC hotel scam.

Outwitted by Nitish, Lalu is however considering knocking the Supreme Courts doors against the Bihar Governors decision to allow the JD(U)-BJP combine to form government in Bihar. (Photo: PTI/File)

New Delhi: Outmanoeuvred from power by Nitish Kumar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav plans to launch a counter assault on his former ally but looks cornered at the moment as the Enforcement Directorate has slapped a fresh case on him.

PTI reports the ED has registered a case of money-laundering against Lalu and his family members in the railway hotel allotment scandal.

On July 7, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), registered a corruption case against Lalu, Rabri Devi and Tejaswi Yadav, former Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) Managing Director PK Goyal and the wife of Lalu's confidante Prem Chand Gupta, Sujata, on allegations of awarding the tender for development, maintenance and operation of hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006.

It is alleged that Lalu as Railways Minister in 2006 transferred two hotels under the IRCTC in Ranchi and Puri to Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd, by violating tender rules. Tejaswi, who is named in the CBI FIR against Lalu and his family, has claimed he was only 14 when the deal was struck.

Outwitted by Nitish, Lalu is however considering knocking the Supreme Courts doors against the Bihar Governors decision to allow the JD(U)-BJP combine to form government in Bihar.

"Nitish Kumar has betrayed us. These leaders will do anything for power. I am considering an appeal against the Governor's decision, Lalu told the media in Ranchi. He called Nitish a huge opportunist.

"The Bihar mandate was against the BJP, to throw out Modi-Shah out of the state. I worshipped Nitish Kumar like Lord Shiva, but he turned out to be Bhasmasur. He said he would do anything but join hands with the BJP," Lalu said.

The RJD chief claimed the CBI cases against him and his family were part of a conspiracy hatched by the BJP and Nitish.

"It is sad there is no Bapu in the country today. BJP worships Mahatma Gandhi's killers and now Nitish has joined hands with them, which is very unfortunate. I had no greed in my heart, else why would I nominate him the chief minister?" he asserted.

Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister on Thursday morning. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also took oath as Bihar deputy chief minister. Bihar Governor Keshrinath Tripathi administered oath to Kumar and Modi at Raj Bhavan.

This is the sixth time that Nitish has taken oath as the Bihar chief minister.

Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday as Bihar chief minister to protest his deputy and Lalu's son Tejaswi Yadav's stubbornness to stay in the Cabinet despite being named in the FIR over corruption charges.

Tejaswi blames Nitish and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the latest political development in the state.

Tejaswi said political vendetta against him has exposed the Opposition's viciousness.

"I delivered more than what was expected of me. My performance perturbed our ally and the BJP, he tweeted.

The RJD on Thursday morning was forced to cancel its protest march to Raj Bhavan to oppose Nitish's swearing-in ceremony due to the probationary orders.

The case against Lalu, Rabri and Tejaswi:

The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The Enforcement Directorate has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.

Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

The Enforcement Directorate will investigate the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials said.

Lalu's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejaswi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.

The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

The CBI FIR alleges that Lalu, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a 'benami' company owned by Sarla Gupta.

The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as 'quid pro quo'.

The ED, under the PMLA, has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets and it is expected the agency will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case.
There is also a likelihood that Mr Doval, along with other BRICS NSAs, may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

New Delhi/Beijing: Even as visiting National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Thursday held talks with his Chinese counterpart and state councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs meeting in Beijing in the wake of the Doklam stand-off, external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament on Indias stand on Tibet, We used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear. .

There is also a likelihood that Mr Doval, along with other BRICS NSAs, may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Later in the day in New Delhi, the ministry of external affairs (MEA) said India has an approach to resolve issues through peaceful means on Thursday evening, the MEA said India would like to strengthen the close development partnership (with China) based on the Astana concerns. Foreign policy observers feel that despite Beijings belligerent rhetoric on the Doklam stand-off, New Delhi is also trying to keep the focus on positive, constructive issues.

Ms Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha that there is no quid pro quo with China on the issue of sufferings of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing. On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the minister said We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them. She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and we allowed him to do so.

She added, Whatever issue that is there that goes against Indias interest, we lodge our protest.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, Yang Jiechi met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Yang separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth Chinas position on bilateral issues and major problems, the report said, without giving further details. Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism. Doval had arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.

Meanwhile, responding to supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal residents by China, Ms. Swaraj said in the Rajya Sabha, The issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or that of the Prime Minister. The issue has been raised by us.

To a question, she said there was no policy under which Chinese companies are denied security permission. She also objected to a member raising the issue of a particular Chinese company in the House. She said that denial of security permission to one particular company cannot determine the relations between the two countries. She said

it done under a process and if a Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.
Today, were excited to welcome Beth Jones to the blog to share her lovely home with us! Her vibe is light, airy, and super cozy.

My husband and I moved into this home 3 1/2 years ago. We had been on the hunt for homes for a while, but when I saw this place I knew we had to make it happen. The open fireplace is what originally caught my eye on the real estate website, and when we walked in, I fell in love with the mid-century design. It is so light and bright and I love all the little living spaces that are designed into an overall small house  1,560 square feet! Basically, everything in my home was found at a thrift store, flea market or on Craigslist. For the most part, everything has a story. One of my favorites is the Picasso wall hanging in our little eating area off the kitchen. I found it at an antique store and it was actually supposed to be a curtain, but there was only one. I bought it and and had it put on a pole to hang as a mural. I love the design and bright colors. I actually love a lot of the spaces for different reasons, but the living room is probably my favorite. I love the high ceilings and all the furniture was found on Craigslist or a flea market. Everything came together so easily and perfect for this room. Two outdoor spaces are connected to the living room, the atrium and the deck. When the doors are open and we have friends over, it becomes the perfect party room to flow in and out of.

I also love the succulent paintings that hang above our dining room table. My husband and I went to Cambria for our anniversary one year and found the set in an antique store. We loved them and every time I see them, I think of that special trip. Weve lived in this home for 3 1/2 years and I pretty much got all the rooms designed in the first few months. Things change here and there, but not too much.



The outside is our current project! My husband built and designed a fence and I chose a fun yellow door to make it pop. We have a lot of renovation projects we would like to do in the future, but for now we are comfortable and really happy with our home as it is!

Thanks for sharing your space with us, Beth! You can find more of Beth on her Youtube Channel and Instagram. xo!

Credits//Author: Beth Jones. Photography: Candace Rock.
Several European nations such as Luxembourg and Ireland have shown the way forward by electing gay heads of state.

The news of Leo Eric Varadkar assuming the office of the Prime Minister of Ireland made many headlines in the last month. While a few concentrated on the qualifications and vision of the new Taoiseach (Irish PM), for many what stood out was his ethnicity and sexual orientation. Varadkar is a half-Indian, openly gay Prime Minister.

Popularly referred to as the Celtic Tiger, Varadkar has come to embody the liberalisation of a country that was once regarded as one of the most socially conservative in Europe. His rise to the top of Irish politics makes him Irelands first and one of the five openly gay heads of government in modern times, which includes Ana Brnabic (Serbia), Johanna Sigurardottir (Iceland), Elio Di Rupo (Belgium) and Xavier Bettel (Luxembourg).

The appointment of these politicians as heads of their respective states has started a global debate about how and why every democratic country should be open to someone with a vision to develop the country, irrespective of their caste, creed, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

While many nations in the West are opening up to these ideals, the LGBTQ community in India is still struggling with Section 377. Not many politicians were ready to make any comment about these European nations accepting LGBTQ communities in their politics or about India having a long way to go for any such development to take place here.

Explaining the political scenario in the country, well-known journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta says, Looking at the current political and social situation prevailing in India, one shouldnt be surprised that there is considerable intolerance towards people with a different sexual orientation.

He adds, However, I really hope that Indian society becomes more tolerant and accepting, because for a nation like ours, it is necessary to include various points of view, irrespective of their economic, social and sexual background.

The battle for the LGBTQ community is, however, far from over. In a shocking statement, the US President Donald Trump recently announced that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the US Armed Forces.

Although many big celebrities and politicians have condemned this, it proves that life is not rosy for the LGBTQ community even in one of the most developed nations in the world.

Ana Brnabi, was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Serbia on June 29, 2017. She is the first openly LGBT head of government in Eastern Europe and the second female LGBT head of government overall.

Xavier Bettel is the Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Bettel is openly gay, and once stated that increasingly in Luxembourg people do not consider the fact of whether someone is gay or not.

Johanna Sigurardottir was the Prime Minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. In 1994, when she lost a bid to head the Social Democratic Party, she raised her fist and declared Minn timi mun koma! (My time will come!), a phrase that became a popular Icelandic expression.

Elio Di Rupo, was the Prime Minister of Belgium from 2011 to 2014. Not only was he Belgiums first openly gay prime minister, but was also the first head of state of non-Belgian descent.

Liberal thought is what our party stands for and when you get news of things like a homosexual person becoming a Prime Minister of a country, of course you can only applaud the inclusive spirit. In India, we need to simply look to our rich and liberal past, instead of looking to the west for examples. If you look at the sculptures and paintings of the ancient civilization, homosexuality was a part of our culture even at times when Ireland thought of fit as taboo. We are a democracy, so we should allow all people of all sensibilities, sexualities and backgrounds should be accepted and judged only on the basis of their leadership qualities when they contest for any political position.

 Sachin Sawant, Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee Spokesperson

When we speak about diversity, we must also accept people with different sexual orientations and its high time that in politics, legitimacy is given to it. Section 377 must go and we must accept people, no matter what their religious, cultural, food or sexual preferences are.

It is not about a country drawing inspiration from countries like Ireland or Serbia. We need to send a message to our citizens, and anybody who has studied Indian culture and mythology will understand that alternate sexuality was not just accepted, but even celebrated.

 Tehseen PoonaWalla, congress activist

The fact that the Serbian and Irish Prime Ministers are homosexual is a reflection of the liberal attitude of the voters. They are only judged according to their performance and not by what happens behind closed doors in their private lives. In India, we are still far from having a similar kind of acceptance and there arent any openly gay politicians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi often says perform or perish and I think that is the only parameter that leaders should be judged upon. So long as what you are doing in your private life does not hamper your capacity as a leader, there should be no point of contention.

 Shaina NC, BJP leader
The court in September 2016 had voiced concern over the deaths due to malnutrition in tribal areas in 2015-16.

Mumbai: The state on Wednesday said in the Assembly that in 16 tribal areas of the state, 45,724 children were found malnourished between 2014 and 2016. It also said that in 2016-17 a total 21,985 children died, of which 2,718 were recorded in tribal areas.

Health minister Deepak Sawant said that authorities have also found that 9.4 per cent of child deaths between age group 0 to 6 were due to them being underweight.

A petition regarding 17,000 deaths in the state due to malnutrition in 2015-16 is currently before the high court for hearing. The court in September 2016 had voiced concern over the deaths due to malnutrition in tribal areas in 2015-16.

Mr Sawant said, In 2014-15, 25,289 children were found malnourished and in 2015-16, 20,435 children were malnourished. The authorities have also found that 9.4 per cent of child deaths between age group 0 to 6 were due to them being underweight.

The reply from Mr Sawant has come after the high court in June said that children dying due to malnutrition was more important than waiving farmers loans and the state government should give it priority.

A concept of model Anganwadi has been implemented and the Anganwadi workers have been given tablets to note real time valuation of the children.
Sunil Shitap, the accused, has Shiv Sena links; Cops say more arrests likely in case in which 17 persons were killed.

Mumbai: Sunil Shitap, the main accused in the collapse of Ghatkopar building Siddhi Saidarshan on Tuesday in which 17 persons have died so far, was produced in court on Wednesday after his arrest. Shitap, whose wife had last year contested the civic polls on a Shiv Sena ticket, has been remanded to police custody till August 2. The police said more arrests in the case are likely. The building allegedly collapsed when two load-bearing pillars inside the ground floor nursing home owned by Shitap were broken the night before the incident as part of a renovation effort.

The police is interrogating those who were involved in the construction work, including the architect tasked by Shitap to renovate the nursing home and the officials concerned. Producing Shitap in court on Wednesday, the police asked for further custody to collect evidences against him.

At least 17 persons were killed, including a 3-month-old baby, and 14 injured when Siddhi Saidarshan collapsed around 10.30 am Tuesday.

The last person rescued from the collapse was Rajesh Doshi (57), at 2 am on Wednesday.

Shitap was arrested on Tuesday night by Parksite police station officials. Parksite police station senior PI, V. Jadhav said,  The accused was arrested and we are interrogating him. He is cooperating with us. However, it is important to collect more information about who all were involved in it. Soon we will make more arrests in the case.

Defence lawyer Sharif Shaikh said, The police should not add the section 304 (II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder), Shitap was just trying to renovate the ground floor and make a nursing home for the betterment of people. The building was in dilapidated condition, therefore Shitap had asked his architect to renovate it, to plaster the wall and not break it. Shitap did not run away after the incident but co-operated with the police from the start.

On the other hand, public prosecutor Vaishali Agavane said, If Shitap knew the building was in bad condition why did he start the renovation work in the first place. He should have alerted the construction team not to break anything during the construction. His act is punishable and the police needs time to take residents statements, therefore his custody is important for police.
The court has asked the MSRDC to file a reply within four weeks.

Mumbai: The state anti-corruption bureau on Thursday infor-med the HC that it had initiated a discrete inquiry as to whether a concession agreement had been signed between MSRDC and the contractor to collect toll on the Mumbai-Pune expressway since 2004 and whether the same had been registered. The ACB informed the court after the petitioner alleged that as the concession agreement had not been registered, toll collected by the contractor since 2004 was unauthorised, causing losses to the state.

A division bench of chief justice Dr Manjula Chellur and Justice R.M. Jamdar was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by activist Pravin Wategaonkar praying that as the contract for collecting toll on the Mumbai-Pune e-way and national highway 4 was for 15 years and the contractor had already collected an assured sum of Rs 4,330 by December 31, 2016, he should not be allowed to pocket the amount collected thereafter. Appearing in person, the petitioner pointed out that the concession agreement which allowed the contractor to collect toll for 15 years had not been signed and if at all, not been registered under the Registration Act, 1908.

If an agreement is registered, the party has to pay stamp duty however it has not been done as a result of which, the state has suffered losses, Wategaonkar claimed. He said that in such a scenario, the agreement had no value and hence, toll collection by the contractor for the past 13 years was unauthorised.

Senior counsel for the contractor however objected to the petitioners complaint and said that an amount of Rs 13 crore i.e. half the stamp duty owed, had been deposited with the MSRDC as per a previous court order. The state ACB, through counsel A. Vagyani informed the court that it had started a discrete inquiry into the petitioners allegations.

The court has asked the MSRDC to file a reply within four weeks. It also said it would like to go through previous PILs concerning the e-way to ascertain whether the current PIL was valid.
All the students have already paid the hiked fees for the fear of losing their academic year.

Mumbai: It has been 21 days since IIT-Bombay officials promised students protesting against the hike in fees to look into the matter by forming a committee, which will feature IIT officials and select students as members, but it has not been set up yet.

Furthermore, all the students have already paid the hiked fees for the fear of losing their academic year. August 12 is the date given by the committee and the students hope for a positive response from the committee and their only demand is to include and consider them while making any decision for them.

It all started in the month of May when the students received a circular saying that the fees would be increased. As these students need to pay their fees online, most of them did not bother to check, as their date to pay the fees is June. Later after checking the margin of hike, it came into light that they have reduced the tuition fees by 50% however they have hiked the hostel rent by 300%, gymkhana fees by 167% and Rs 15,000 mess fees was hiked to Rs 20,000. The net fee hike for the semester 2017-18 would be Rs 8670 (minimum) to Rs 11,170 (maximum). They bought the tuition fees down and justified their fee hike. Including this, they even increased the insurance cover to Rs 2 lakhs, which was 1 lakh earlier. Whatsoever, our question is why they did not discuss with us before increasing and decreasing the fees, asked a student from IIT-B.

According to the students groups at IIT-B, the decision to increase the fees was more national than institutional. Reportedly, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) decreased the amount of funds, which they give to IIT-B as according to them the operational charges are supposed to be charged by the students. This means that the institution should generate income from its students.

Apart from the signature campaign conducted by the students, where more than 700 students participated, the students went for relay hunger strike and protest rally. In the next move, reportedly the students are planning to protest against the MHRD instead of the institution after August 12 if they dont give a positive response.
Mr Kumar will not be unaware of the scant independence that the Prime Minister has allowed ministers from his coalition partners.

In the fiftieth anniversary year of Gaya Lal, an obscure Haryana legislator who defected back and forth thrice between two parties in a matter of days, birthing one of the lasting metaphorical phrases in Indian politics  Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram, it is time for a makeover: Aaya Kumar, Gaya Kumar. Indians use the act of defection, elucidated in various dictionaries as desertion of ones country or cause, conscious abandonment of allegiance or the act of leaving a country, political party, etc, to describe instances of politicians quitting one party to join another. It is time, however, to use it for shifting ideological stance or dumping fight against one evil for another one. If this new usage is accepted, Bihar chief minister is undoubtedly the new serial defector. The Bihar chief minister, who responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modis claim of ushering in Congress-mukt Bharat by declaring that he would ensure Sangh-mukt Bharat, has chosen to end his battle against communal forces.

By effectively contending that he had to choose between corruption and communalism and in his assessment, the latter is a lesser danger to Indias polity, Nitish Kumar has betrayed the mandate for Bihars Mahagathbandhan. Let it not be forgotten that the humiliating defeat that Bihars electorate heaped on Mr Modi, was not just because of correct political arithmetic, but also for its articulated anti-sectarian plank, bolstered by the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri. Moreover, public sentiment in Bihar also turned against the Modi-Shah duo due to their aggressive campaign that bordered on the personal. In July 2015, when Mr Modi questioned Mr Kumars political DNA, the chief minister shot off a letter. Of Mr Modis accusation, he wrote: These statements have disrespected the lineage of our people and have denigrated the great legacy of the state. This also gives credence to the feeling that perhaps you and your party hold a prejudice against the people of Bihar.

There is a certain hollowness in Mr Kumars claims that he was disallowed to function effectively. It is not that the chief minister was unaware of Lalu Prasad Yadavs brusqueness and propensity to be overbearing  the two after all, have a now-on, now-off political relationship since the mid-1970s. In fact, at one point Mr Kumar was the astute backroom expert shepherding Mr Yadavs dramatic rise. When Mr Kumar chose to swallow past venom against the old bete noire in the run up to the 2015 polls, the latter was already debarred from contesting elections after conviction in corruption cases. At that time, Rahul Gandhi, who famously tore an ordinance at a press conference prepared by the Manmohan Singh government because it provided for convicted politicians to contest elections, was not enthusiastic about appearing alongside Mr Yadav. The bitter truth is that Mr Kumar chose to cohabit with Mr Yadav despite the taint of corruption charges because it was the only path to his political resurrection. With the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and his family under fire from Central agencies now, Mr Kumar ditched ship and hitched himself to the BJP bandwagon, because he does not end up as collateral damage in Mr Modis attack on Mr Yadav. The Bihar chief minister was previously motivated solely by pursuit of survival and by cuddling up with Mr Modi, he demonstrated that there is little change in his basic characteristics. If Mr Kumar hopes for greater elbowroom in partnership with the BJP, he is either sadly mistaken or is fooling himself. Mr Modis BJP is not the party that it used to be and to which Mr Kumar is used to. This is a ruthless organisation driven by a duo who believes that no one is indispensible and allies are only for making tactical gains and discarded later.

Mr Kumar will not be unaware of the scant independence that the Prime Minister has allowed ministers from his coalition partners.

The alacrity with which Mr Modi responded to Mr Kumars resignation and the haste with which the chief minister was sworn in again with Sushil Modi suggests that neither of the two parties are confident of facing the people once again. For a moment even if one accepts that there was indeed substance in Mr Kumars charge that Mr Yadavs dominance had made his tenure suffocating and that he had no way to check corruption in the government, there was no stopping him from recommending to the governor that the state Assembly be dissolved and fresh elections held. Given the peculiar arithmetic of the Bihar Assembly, it requires at least two of the three big parties to join hands to provide a stable government. Not just Mr Kumar, but even the BJP is not sure if an immediate election would not have been to its benefit substantially. By deciding to join hands and revive the old alliance between the BJP and JD(U) at all levels, the two have betrayed their assessment that it is too early to write an epitaph for Mr Yadav and his party. In fact, whatever little one has seen and heard of Tejashwi Yadav post Mr Kumars defection, it is evident that he has political ambition and fight in his belly.

By changing sides Mr Kumar has undoubtedly delivered a body blow to Opposition efforts to pose a challenge to Mr Modi. It is in Mr Modis nature not to be kind towards those who once deserted him. He is also aware that Mr Kumar solicited support from the BJP only when he was certain that the Congress was unwilling to yield the position of principal challenger to Mr Modi. This leaves the Bihar regime in an unsettled state till one of the three major players asserts complete hegemony. Because in this objective, odds are currently in favour of the BJP, Mr Kumar will not have to just safeguard credibility but also hone his cunning. His success or failure will have bearing in the run up to the next parliamentary polls.
The sentencing came after Mohit Chauhan pleaded guilty before US District Judge Elizabeth Foote in Louisiana.

According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Mr Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers. (File Photo)

Washington: An Indian in the US has been jailed for 30 months for illegally selling silencers, used to reduce the sound of guns, and planning to smuggle more, an American attorney said on Thursday.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, a resident of Pitampura in New Delhi, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said.

The sentencing came after he pleaded guilty before US District Judge Elizabeth Foote in Louisiana to one count of dealing firearms without a license.

According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Mr Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers.

Mr Chauhan discussed the manufacturing of silencers with the potential client by email and phone calls. He also discussed importing more silencers and parts by labelling them as "auto parts" to evade US Customs.

After they set up a meeting, he arrived in Shreveport on December 1 last year to meet the buyer and brought silencer parts with him.

He travelled to a restaurant in Louisiana's Bossier City to discuss the sale details with the buyer. Agents recorded the meeting.

Mr Chauhan did not have a license to deal or conduct a business involving silencers and parts as required by law, and the silencers and parts had travelled in foreign commerce, according to a statement by the department.
China's state-run Xinhua news agency reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil.

Beijing: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on Thursday discussed "major problems" in bilateral ties, the foreign ministry in Beijing said after the first high-level meeting between India and China since the military standoff erupted in the Sikkim sector on June 16.

The Chinese foreign ministry, in a brief readout on Doval-Yang meeting, said Yang "elaborated China's position on bilateral issues and major problems", which is being seen as an apparent reference to the standoff in the Dokalam area.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency also reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil.

Though there were no direct reference to the Sikkim standoff in the Xinhua report, it said the talks between Doval and Yang included bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs.

Though China had maintained that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, India has been maintaining that the unilateral action by China to build a road in the area was altering the status quo and had serious security implications for India.

India has also been pitching for diplomatic solution to resolve the standoff but sought simultaneous withdrawal of troops of both the sides from the tri-junction with Bhutan.

However, the Chinese official media has been carrying a blistering campaign accusing India of trespassing into the Chinese territory.

Doval arrived here on Wednesday to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang, who, like Doval, is the Special Representative for India-China boundary talks.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over the month-long standoff.

While the media had no access to today's meetings, it will be allowed to cover tomorrow's joint meeting of the NSAs of the five-member bloc.

Doval, along with other heads of the delegations, will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow evening.

About the BRICS NSAs meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry on Monday said that the meeting on security issues is a major platform for BRICS countries to discuss and conduct cooperation in politics and security fields.

"It bears great significance for these countries to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and elevate their impact on global affairs."

As agreed by all parties, those at the meeting will discuss on topics including global governance, anti-terrorism, internet security and energy security, as well as major international and regional hot spot issues and national security and development, Lu said.

The military standoff began on June 16 when Chinese troops attempted to lay a road in the Dokalam area. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

India and China share a 220-km-long border in Sikkim section.
India withdrew from last year summit after Uri attack.

Male: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has accused India of undermining the spirit of the Saarc by casting shadows of bilateral issues on the multilateral forum for regional cooperation.

In a joint press conference with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen here, Mr Sharif on Tuesday said that the last Islamabad Saarc summit was not the first time that India caused harm to the Saarc by seeking its postponement.

It had done so on four occasions, he claimed.

After holding talks with Mr Yameen, Mr Sharif said Pakistan and the Maldives have agreed to work together to make the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) a vibrant organisation and a vehicle to realise their shared dreams for a peaceful and prosperous region.

India undermined and violated the spirit of Saarc Charter by casting shadows of bilateral issues and problems on a multilateral forum for regional cooperation, he was quoted as saying by the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP).

We, however, remain grateful for President Yameens support regarding the SAARC summit in Islamabad, he added.

Mr Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue.

India pulled out of the Saarc Summit in Islamabad last year citing increased cross-border attacks after heightened tension with Pakistan over Uri terror attack.

Afghanistan, Bang-ladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.

Opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) slammed President Yameen for his deafening silence while Mr Sharif attacked India during the

press conference.

President Yameen said nothing when Sharif accused India of harming Saarc and claimed that both Maldives and Pakistan share similar views on Saarc, the opposition party, headed by ousted president Mohamed Nasheed, said in a statement.

We are extremely concerned about Yameens refusal to clarify the Maldives position on the Saarc, it said.

It said that by failing to correct Mr Sharif at the press conference, Mr Yameen had effectively sided with the Pakistani version of events.

The party reminded President Yameen that it was India which came to the Maldives assistance and protected its sovereignty during the 1988 attempted coup.
The women's lawyers say their clients are expected to plead not guilty at the High Court Friday.

Kuala Lumpur: Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler in a bizarre airport assassination are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam's face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea's spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

The women's lawyers say their clients are expected to plead not guilty at the High Court Friday.

Here's a look at the significance of Kim's death and the two suspects:

Why was Kim Jon Nam Assassinated

North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger. Kim had also spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation.

North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was leader Kim Jong Un's half brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other "hostile forces" in blaming Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Nam died while en route to a hospital after he fell ill at a budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a flight to Macao. He told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray that Malaysian officials later identified as the deadly VX nerve agent.

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

Indonesian Suspect

Siti Aisyah was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows, according to her lawyer Gooi Soon Seong.

The two met at a pub in downtown Kuala Lumpur and over the course of several days, James had Siti rub oil or pepper sauce on a victim's face from forehead downwards which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said. They practiced at malls, hotels and airports. Gooi said Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort.

In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia where James introduced her to Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing. Hong had introduced himself as Chang, a Chinese who produces video prank shows for the Chinese market, the lawyer said.

Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked. He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand.

James, identified by police as Ri Ji U, was among seven North Korean suspects wanted by Malaysian police. Four fled the country on Feb. 13 and the other three, including James, hid inside their country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid questioning.

The three were later allowed to fly home in exchange for nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang, as part of a deal to ease a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Gooi said James was key to Aisyah's defense and that his absence could weaken her case.

Aisyah, who has a son, has wrote to her family telling them to pray for her "so that the case will be over soon and I can go back home."

Vietnamese Suspect

Huong was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters "LOL" - acronym for laughing out loud.

Security camera apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal.

Little is known about Huong. Raised in a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago, aged just 18 years.

She made postings on a Facebook page under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, Dinh Thi Quyen.

Photos on the page show Huong wearing a white shirt that appears to say "LOL," like the one seen on security camera video during the attack. It shows her posing for selfies in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the attack and in January in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Her last post was on the morning of Feb. 11, two days before the attack, from an area near the airport.

"I want to sleep more but by your side," she wrote above a photo showing her with her eyes closed.
The drills were monitored by a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship off northeast Australia.

Canberra, Australia: The US Pacific Fleet commander said on Thursday he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if President Donald Trump ordered it, and warned against the military ever shifting its allegiance from its commander in chief.

Adm. Scott Swift was responding to a hypothetical question at an Australian National University security conference following a major joint US-Australian military exercise off the Australian coast.

The drills were monitored by a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship off northeast Australia.

Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Trump ordered it, Swift replied, The answer would be: Yes. Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us, Swift said.

He added, This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.

Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown later said Mr Swifts answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military.

The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military, Mr Brown said. The premise of the question was ridiculous, Brown added.

The biennial Talisman Saber exercise involved 36 warships including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, 220 aircraft and 33,000 military personnel.
by Christopher Sharma

The earthquake on 25 April 2015 affected 993 monasteries, out of a total of about 5,000. The National Reconstruction Authority first pledged US$ 78 million, then reduced it to US$ 10 million.

Kathmandu (AsiaNews)  Hundreds of Buddhist monks took to streets of Kathmandu to complain that no monastery has been rebuilt more than two years after a violent earthquake hit Nepal.

Monks travelled from 25 districts to protest against delays in the reconstruction of their places of worship, which forces them to pray out in the open and under the rain.

For Furi Sherpa Lama, from Solukhumbu District, "the delay is due to the reluctance of the authorities to restore Buddhist holy structures. During the rainy months, we have no shelter in which to pray and perform our rituals."

On 25 April 2015, a powerful earthquake destroyed homes, schools, Hindu temples, prisons, and killed more than 9,000 people and injured another 22,300.

According to the Buddhist Philosophy Promotion and Monastery Development Committee (BPPMDC), the 7.9 quake damaged 993 Buddhist monasteries out of a total of about 5,000 religious buildings.

In the aftermath of the seism, the National Reconstruction Authority (NRA) estimated that it would take 8 billion rupees (US$ 78 million) to bring the temples back to their ancient splendour. However, about a month ago, it revised its estimate, saying that monasteries would get only a billion rupees (US$ 10 million).

It should be noted that delays in reconstruction plagues all sorts of buildings, including houses. In fact, official government sources have recently admitted that only 50,000 houses have been rebuilt in the past 24 months against 887,353 that were destroyed.

What is most alarming is the fact that the reconstruction of the few "lucky houses was made possible only through funds from charities with contributions from all over the world.

In a short period of time, the NRAs profound inadequacy in handling the work was exacerbated by rampant corruption and the slow appointment of members charged with determining the value of damages and spending funds from the international community.

Reconstruction got the go-ahead in December 2015, after eight months, when Parliament approved the Reconstruction Authority Bill that established the NRA and named its top officials.

However, about a year and a half later, only 1,300 survivors received the first aid installment to rebuild their homes.

In total, the NRA has about US$ 4 billion at its disposal, but so far, the government has signed agreements for only US$ 2.6 billion.

Making matters worse, the authorities sparked outrage when they decided to send bulldozers to level a tent city on the outskirts of the capital sheltering at least 2,000 people in order to force them to return to their villages.
by Shafique Khokhar

A 16-year-old girl is raped to wash away her brothers sin of raping a 12-year-old girl. Multan police arrest 20 people involved. The violence is the fruit of a feudal mindset. Locals do not trust government institutions and turn to illegal village councils.

Lahore (AsiaNews)  Pakistani police arrested 20 people in connection with the rape of a 16-year-old girl, who was punished out of "revenge" for her brother's alleged rape of a 12-year-old girl.

The arrests took place in Multan district, Punjab, where the local panchayat or village council ordered the rape. The latter was done in front of the eyes of the two families involved to "wash away the faults" of her brother.

Speaking to AsiaNews Ata-ur-Rehman Saman, coordinator of the National Justice and Peace Commission of the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Pakistan, slammed the incident noting that it blatantly speaks about the plight of women and lack of will of the government to address the core issues" of violence against women.

For Hamza Arshad, a well-known Muslim educator, Some, if not all, areas of Pakistan have centuries old tribal culture which fails to keep up with the march of civilization. Sadly, Deep rooted ignorance, wild ego and bestial vengeance weave the iron wrap of this culture inspired by misogynist ideas, sadism and untameable wild nature of [a] feudal cult.

Even more chilling is the fact The heinous act is meant to punish a culprit who is a male. The mockery of all sense and humanity is that a girl has to bear the brunt of this act where the offender was a male. And worse still, It shows that we have no rule of law and our justice system has failed to safeguard the poor and the weak.

The panchayat, or "jirga", is council of village elders. Its actions are illegal, but by tradition, rural communities rely on their decisions to settle disputes.

Zafar Iqbal, a Christian activist, believes that their authority reflects the lack of trust in government and law enforcement institutions. Most people in the country believe that these institutions cannot protect their rights. Therefore, they choose such illegitimate ways to seek justice."

Seeking an eye for an eye comes from the fact that there are many loop holes and lacunas which often provide safe way out for culprits. We have many examples where the victims of rape could not get justice and they committed suicide.

To avoid this, the government should improve the judiciary system and outmoded ways of police investigations. We should also denounce the social and religious taboos which encourages the village courts."

The incident clearly indicates the parallel judicial avenues that exist in Pakistani society, said Samson Salamat, a human rights activist and chairperson of Rwadari Tehreek (movement for tolerance and pluralism). These are always dangerous and discriminate against women and girls.

The situation also exposes the weak justice system and the negligence of governance all around, which has been busy with other issues and has not focused on addressing the human rights abuses which happen very day in society.

Ata-ur-Rehman Saman agrees. Pakistan became a nuclear power because we were convinced to have it, he noted. Similarly, things would turn to better when our rulers will have the will to do so. Yet, how many years will take them to realise this.
by Mathias Hariyadi

Yesterday, two Batak priests were ordained in Padang. Two days ago 8 priests in the diocese of Semarang. Two weeks ago, six new Jesuit priests in Kotabaru. Many young people reflect on the basic meaning of their lives and decide to enter seminaries. A very different situation from the one in the West.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - While European countries suffer from a lack of priests, and religious vocation seems increasingly unattractive, Indonesia, the most populous Muslim state in the world, is experiencing a golden season of Christian religious vocations. In particular, many young men are entering the seminaries. Although there are few young men asking to enter religious congregations, the number of vocations in diocesan seminaries is very high.

More than 230 seminarians attend the San Petrus Canisius Seminary in Mertoyudan, Magelang, central Java, the oldest seminary in Indonesia with its 104 years of existence. "In the Marianum Seminar at Probolinggo in East Java, which belongs to the Diocese of Malang, there are 46 seminaries," reporter Adam Suncoko tells AsiaNews.

This reality is demonstrated by the number of new priests ordained in Indonesia over the last two weeks. Last night in the diocese of Padang, in the western Sumatra province, bishop Martinus D. Situmorang ordained Wolfram Ignatius Nadeak and Prian Saut Doni Dongan Malau both local diocesan priests of Batak ethnicity.

Two days ago in Archbishop Robertus Rubiyatmoko in Yogyakarta, Semarang diocese, ordained eight priests in the chapel of St. Paul in the Major Seminary in Kentungan. Two weeks ago, six new Jesuit priests were ordained by Msgr. Rubiyatmoko, who had received episcopal ordination just two months earlier. The priestly ordination in the Catholic Church of Saint Anthony of Padua in Kotabaru saw the presence of the Jesuit General Superior, Arturo Sosa Abascal, along with his Asia-Pacific General Assistant, Fr. Danny Huang SJ.

In his homily, the superior Fr. Abascal invited the six new priests to have the courage to "go out into the deep." "Entering into the deep is not an instant experience, but requires a lot of energy, hard work, and is a process that lasts forever, so that each of you is called to become Christ's companion for reconciliation and justice" .

Speaking to AsiaNews on priestly ordination two days ago at St. Paul's Major Seminary, Father Rector Joseph Kristanto Suratman explained that many "fundamental" motives are becoming the "obvious" reason why young people have been spiritually "pushed" to respond to their religious vocation.

Unlike other seminarians who join the local diocese or religious congregations, Martinus Sutomo Pr took a long and winding road to respond to his vocation. "I grew up in a Catholic family facing serious economic challenges, and I am the firstborn in a family with three younger sisters." When I finished high school, I decided to find a job to help my parents pay for my three sisters to study, "this diocesan priest wrote to AsiaNews.

His application to the Minor Seminary in Mertoyudan was rejected and he continued to live by starting an internet cafe to raise funds for his family in the Bayat neighborhood of Klaten Regency, Central Java. "My first contact with God occurred when I heard a sentence from a former elementary teacher I was asked. He asked me who I wanted to be in my future." The same teacher offered him the chance to be called to become a priest.

When he was enjoying his private life as a young internet cafe entrepreneur, that episode repeatedly reminded him of a longing for the infinite. Finally asked to enter the diocesan seminary of Semarang diocese.

Together with his seven companions just ordained and after seven years of formation, Father Sutomo now states, "I have experienced that God never leaves me, but always accompanies my life."

A week ago, in the Catholic Church of the Holy Family of Banteng, Yogyakarta, Samarinda Yustinus Harjosusanto from the province of Kalimantan Orientale ordained three new priests. Two priests are local Indonesians from Java, while Fr. David Ravaoavy Samianagnandaza is from Madagascar in Africa. Speaking to AsiaNews a few days before his ordination, Father David explained that he was happy to have had some years of work in Kalimantan and Java to get in touch with the Indonesian Catholics. The most interesting thing for him in Indonesia, he said, is that "this nation is characterized by its pluralistic society in ethnicity, languages, cultures, social values, religion." "I'm really happy to experience this unique situation in Indonesia" , he added.

Father David completed his philosophical and theological studies in Madagascar, but was sent to Indonesia as part of the MSF (Holy Family Mission) exchange program to offer opportunities to experience work in Madagascar and vice versa. He spent nearly two years at Samarinda in the eastern Kalimantan province as part of his pastoral mission and later in Semarang, the capital of Central Java, for his year of diaconate. His family could not take part in his ordination at Yogyakarta, but some "adoptive" Indonesian relations who accompanied him on his journey were present.
According to some Pentagon sources last week the North administration transported a missile launcher on a truck to Kusong, near the northwestern coast of the country. Today is the anniversary of the Armistice between the two Koreas. A test would be another provocation after the July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile. Moon Jae-in Administration confirms the line of dialogue.

Seoul (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The South Korean Army has said there is no clear indication of further North Korean ballistic missile launches.

"Currently, there is no sign of an imminent launch of North Korean missiles," said army Colonel Roh Jae-cheon, a spokesman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff (Jcs), at a press conference. "Our military continues to closely monitor all North Korea's possible provocations by mobilizing combined surveillance systems in collaboration with the United States."

The statement denies the news appearing in some international media based on anonymous Pentagon sources. According to this information, last week the North administration moved a missile launcher by truck (Tel) to Kusong, near the northwestern coast of the country. News that, if confirmed, would represent another provocation by the North after the July 4 launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

The North has often chose the dates of its provocations with regard to precise political anniversaries. And today, the two Koreans mark the 64th anniversary of the Armistice that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, even there was never come to a formal peace treaty.

Another element that affects North Korea's missile tests is the climate. According to reports, in Kusong, in the northern province of Pyongyang, it is raining. This would imply a launch in the next few hours.

However, it has to be said that the North has improved its ability to hide the preparations for a launch until the last minute.

Cnn reported that in recent days the North conducted a missile expulsion test at a shipyard in Sinpo's eastern city. Citing an American defense official, the television broadcaster reported that it was a "cold launch system" test used primarily for an underwater missile.

If the North continued the missile experimentation it would be a heavy blow to the renewed Southern push for the inter-Korean dialogue promoted by the new president Moon Jae-in

"There is no change in the government's determination on dialogue," Moon Sang-gyun, spokesman for the Ministry of Defense told reporters while having to admit that his ministry is still waiting for the Northern response to the offer of dialogue.
By Adam Best, Research Group Leader & Senior Research Scientist, CSIRO

Wikimedia/Sammlung eines Mitglieds des Ersten Deutschen Historic-Actien-Clubs e.V

This article is part of a series on building the future of batteries. How can we create the batteries well need to power our electronics, transport and industry, and whats standing in the way? You can read the rest of the series here.

The storage battery is, in my opinion, a catchpenny, a sensation, a mechanism for swindling the public by stock companies.

- Thomas Edison, 1883

When American inventor Thomas Edison made this statement, he was working on the nickel-iron battery. It became the backbone of the electric vehicle fleet of the day, before petrol took over. At the time, the lead-acid battery was in its infancy and went on to outperform Edisons nickel-iron technology.









Wikimedia Commons





Today lead-acid batteries are still used heavily in the automotive industry, while lithium-ion batteries power our electronics and newer cars. Emerging battery technologies continue to generate interest and serious hype; there are breathless promises of longer cycle life, more energy and more power.

A team at Carnegie Mellon University has even attempted to quantify the hype cycle for batteries that scientists hope will surpass lithium-ion.

How do we wade through the fact and fiction to avoid being  as Edison put it  swindled?

Not all batteries are the same

In batteries, the positive and negative electrodes are separated by an electrolyte. Charged molecules (such as the lithium ions in lithium-ion batteries) move between the two electrodes, delivering energy.

There are two ways to improve the energy of a battery cell:

increase the amount of charge that can be stored, or

increase the voltage between the negative and positive electrodes.

But when it comes to measuring how they work, the numbers can be confusing.

Researchers generally describe energy as either watt-hour per kilogram or watt-hour per litre, which mean two different things:

watt-hour per kilogram measures the energy density of a battery  it tells us how much energy is stored per unit of mass.

watt-hour per litre refers to specific density  how much energy is stored per unit of volume.

Either of these two measurements can be important depending on the application.

Mass or weight matters in different situations. A bus, for example, can handle a heavy battery. Sometimes size is paramount  a battery with small volume is important for smartphones so the device can fit in your pocket.

High energy versus high power

Watch out for claims that a new battery is high-energy and high-power.

Researchers and engineers can design battery materials and electrodes to be suitable for either high-energy or high-power uses, but generally not both.

For example, a battery can deliver large amounts of energy over a long period of time for a wildlife-tracking sensor. Or, for applications such as a hand drill, it can provide a large amount of power in a short burst.

This is largely governed by the process of how fast lithium ions can be stored in the electrode and released.

For high-energy batteries, lithium metal is the holy grail, because its the material with the highest energy per unit of mass. When it comes to power, researchers are looking at things like lithium iron phosphate, which can charge and discharge quickly.

How super are super materials?

In some papers, you may read about the use of additives in either the batterys electrode or the electrolyte that lead to better performance. These new materials have a lot of potential for the promised effects, but significant limitations remain.

Lets consider graphene. A 2D material made from a single layer of carbon atoms, its a good electrical conductor. Some researchers are looking at it as a possible electrode material.

But like the internal combustion engine, a battery has the highest efficiency when it delivers energy under a constant and steady load. Graphene has no physical sites where ions can be stored. Since it doesnt store ions, the material doesnt add to the energy of the device.

Graphene could be used in supercapitators, however, which use static electricity rather than a batterys chemical reaction to produce energy.

Not to mention, graphene and other 2D materials are generally expensive and hard to process on a large scale.

Overstating cycle life









USPTO/Wikimedia





And then there are the bold claims made about a batterys cycle life.

This is the number of times you can charge and discharge a battery before it dies. Many companies define this cycle life for themselves, which means they could create a self-serving test that effectively allows their battery to last forever.

Often new battery testing is done with coin cell batteries, which are similar to the batteries you might find in a watch. In other words, theyre great for research but dont resemble batteries youd actually use to run an electric car.

Depending on how its used, more than 1,000 cycles  each cycle is one charge and discharge  are typically required for a battery to come to market.

In order to provide clarity on this issue, many industry groups, such as the United States Council for Automotive Research, have adopted standard test cycles to evaluate and compare batteries.

Obstacles to commercialisation

The reality is, not all batteries are created equal. Not all batteries will serve every market.

When you read our battery is targeting automotive applications, there is more to consider than just energy and power  there is safety, cost and cycle life to consider, among other issues.

Its also important to recognise that its tremendously difficult to get a new battery into a car. Automotive companies demand tried and true solutions, and it can be a challenge for new technologies to get a foothold in the market.

We have come a long way from when Edison invented the nickel-iron battery, but its important to check the detail and understand the lingo to make sure that you arent being swindled.

As a CSIRO employee, Adam Best receives funding from the Commonwealth Government and companies working in the energy storage domain.

Originally published in The Conversation.
By Stephen Poropat, Postdoctoral Researcher (Palaeontology), Swinburne University of Technology

Stephen Poropat, Author provided

Fossil bones discovered almost 80 years apart in a remote area of Queensland are helping to reveal the shape of a dinosaur that roamed Earth more than 100 million years ago.

We still have only a few fragments  mostly vertebrae and a few ribs  but we now know that Austrosaurus mckillopi was a sauropod, a plant-eating dinosaur with a long neck that walked on four legs.

Sauropods are fairly commonly found in outback Queensland, but the majority of them lived between five million and ten million years after Austrosaurus. This means that Austrosaurus could potentially be their close relative, or even their direct ancestor.

Unfortunately, the bones of Austrosaurus are too incomplete and poorly preserved for us to be able to determine this. But we can tell that Austrosaurus was at least distantly related to other Queensland sauropods, such as Diamantinasaurus and Savannasaurus, since it shares some features with them.

Details of the new research on Austrosaurus were published today in Alcheringa, an Australasian Journal of Palaeontology, and the story of how the fossil bones were discovered is as fascinating as the discovery itself.

The original find

Many amazing fossil discoveries in outback Queensland have been made by people who make their living off the land. As an example, the recently discovered specimen nicknamed Judy, which appears to be the most complete sauropod dinosaur ever found in Australia, was discovered by Winton grazier Bob Elliott while he was mustering sheep.

Back in 1932 it was Henry Burgoyne Wade, overseer of the Clutha sheep station northwest of Richmond, who spotted some unusual rocks in one of the paddocks.

Realising they were fossils, he showed them to station manager Harley John McKillop, who contacted his Brisbane-based brother, Dr Martin Joseph McKillop.

Dr McKillop travelled more than 1,700km to Clutha to help collect more bones and then sent a sketch of one to Heber Longman, director of the Queensland Museum in Brisbane. Longman instantly recognised the significance of the find and asked for the fossils to be sent to him.

The Clutha fossils arrived in Brisbane in January 1933 and within two months Longman realised they were backbones from a long-necked sauropod dinosaur. He named the new dinosaur Austrosaurus mckillopi (Dr McKillops southern reptile) and estimated its length as 15 metres.

Austrosaurus would have been a land-living animal but Longman realised that its bones had been buried at the bottom of the Eromanga Sea. This inland sea covered much of western Queensland 102 million years ago.









Artwork by Travis R Tischler, Author provided





A lost dig site

After 1933, relatively little attention was paid to Austrosaurus. In the 1970s, palaeontologists tried to relocate the site from which the bones were exhumed, but these attempts failed. Consequently, the site was considered lost.

In 2011, I started work as a postdoctoral researcher at Uppsala University in Sweden. The focus of my research was Australias Cretaceous sauropods, and Austrosaurus intrigued me.









Stephen Poropat, Author provided





Most of the preserved bones were vertebrae from the chest region, but some fragments looked like bits of rib. One thing was particularly curious: on several fossil blocks, the back half of one vertebra was positioned immediately before the front half of another vertebra, with very little rock in between.

The bones of Austrosaurus must have been preserved in sequence, close to life position, which suggested that more of Austrosaurus was waiting to be found.

In 2014 I contacted Dr Tim Holland, then curator at Kronosaurus Korner museum in Richmond, about relocating the site. I had worked out the approximate location of the site by overlaying Longmans 1933 map  complete with an X to mark the spot  on Google Earth.

Thanks to David and Judy Elliott, cofounders of the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum in Winton, I also knew that Wade and the McKillops had erected a sign, supported by two wooden posts, at the Austrosaurus site in 1933.









Courtesy of Richard Wade, Author provided





To relocate the Austrosaurus site, Tim enlisted the help of Richmond mayor John Wharton, who had grown up on Clutha and knew about the wooden posts. By 2014 both posts had fallen over and a ground-based search for them among the dried Mitchell grass was unsuccessful.

Unperturbed, John jumped in his helicopter and soon spotted the posts from the air. Once he landed, he saw some rocks nearby and they contained fragments of sauropod bone. John had rediscovered the Austrosaurus site!

Back to the dig site

Shortly after I received the good news from him, Tim started planning a trip to the site. We visited twice in 2014 and although we found plenty of bone fragments we struggled to get through the clay-rich topsoil.









Stephen Poropat, Author provided





In 2015, Tim organised another dig, and Richmond Shire Council loaned their backhoe to remove the soil. Together with a team of dedicated volunteers, we recovered six deeply buried ribs, surrounded by fossilised marine bivalves (relatives of modern day clams and mussels).

The spacing between the ribs showed that they were close to life position, just like the vertebrae. We were delighted that more than 80 years after the initial discovery of Austrosaurus we had found more of the same individual.

From 2014 to 2016, for a few days each year, I studied the original bones of Austrosaurus in Brisbane with Jay Nair, a PhD candidate at The University of Queensland.

Together, we worked out the sequence of Austrosaurus vertebrae. When we scaled photos of the complete series with photos of the ribs found in 201415, we confirmed that they belonged to the same animal.

In 2016, another PhD candidate at The University of Queensland, Caitlin Syme, tried to work out how Austrosaurus carcass came to rest at the bottom of the Eromanga Sea.

She concluded that for a portion of the carcass to have remained intact, some of the soft tissue must still have been in place when it sank. This suggests that at least this portion of the carcass was not picked clean by scavengers before it sank. Why that is, we might never know.









Stephen Poropat, Author provided





Much still to learn about Austrosaurus

Even though my colleagues and I have enhanced the original and only known specimen of Austrosaurus, we still dont know that much about its anatomy or appearance.

We can tell that Austrosaurus is a type of sauropod called a somphospondylan titanosauriform  this means that it sits on a branch between brachiosaurs like Giraffatitan, and titanosaurs like Savannasaurus and Diamantinasaurus, on the sauropod family tree.

Placing it more precisely than that, however, is tough. On the plus side, we have been able to identify features of Austrosaurus that distinguish it from all other sauropods.

One of the best ways to advance palaeontological understanding is to find new fossils. Another is to rigorously reassess old specimens. By conducting the Austrosaurus project, my colleagues and I did both.

Although we ended up with a less-than-amazing specimen and an incomplete story, we hope it will inspire other people to revisit old sites while continuing the search for new ones. It is tantalising to wonder what else might be waiting to be found in outback Queensland.

Stephen Poropat is affiliated with the Australian Age of Dinosaurs museum of Natural History Museum in Winton, Queensland.

Originally published in The Conversation.
After more than six years in custody, including a couple of months in a state hospital where doctors determined he is competent, Tokunbo Okuwo
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A veteran injured in Afghanistan is running again this weekend with a mission close to his heart.

Greg Para running in Sgt. Eric Landon 5k Memorial Run

Para served in Afghanistan, suffered injuries

Race is in memory of soldier who took his life in 2015

Want to sign up for run? Click here



Fifty-four-year-old Greg Para of Bradenton was an avid runner before being deployed to Afghanistan in 2011.

"I would run along the beaches and the causeways and the bridges," Para said.

But while serving, Para suffered injuries to his shoulders, back and neck. The former Navy officer also struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder.

"I came back and it took me by surprise," Para said. "The nightmares. I didn't want to be alive and I didn't know why."

Para worked through the mental anguish and underwent four different surgeries to repair the physical damage. In May, doctors finally gave him the green light to run again.

For his comeback race, Para has chosen to participate in the Sgt. Eric Landon 5k Memorial Run on Saturday.

Landon, who served in the Army for 10 years, took his own life in 2015. The 27-year-old left behind his wife Rachel and two young daughters, who live in Palm Harbor.



Saturday's run is in memory of Sgt. Eric Landon

When Para learned the 5k in Landon's memory will benefit the charity Stop Soldier Suicide, he immediately signed up and started training,

On race day, Para said a couple of things will weigh heavy on his mind.

"One is how fortunate I am to have come through this whole medical and mental storm and come out the other side five years later the lucky one," Para said.

But Para said he will also be thinking of all the veterans who have lost their lives to suicide. He hopes by running the 5k, he will do his part to raise awareness.

For those interested in running as well, registration will run through Saturday morning. For more information on how to sign up, visit the race website at http://sgtericlandon.com/
A 94-year-old man's tricycle has been stolen and St. Petersburg Police are asking for the public's help to find it.

Someone stole a tricycle at CVS in St. Petersburg

Trike belonged to Richard Griffin, 94

Griffin asks suspect to give it back

Anyone wanting to donate, can send a check made out to SCLEC with Richard Griffin in the memo line at the bottom of the check.

Suncoast Law Enforcement Charities

c/o St. Petersburg Police Department

1300 1st Avenue North

St. Petersburg, FL 33705

On July 18, Richard Griffin rode the tricycle to the CVS located at 4260 Sixth Street S. to get some eye drops and eye wash.

He said it's a trip he makes frequently to get groceries and medication, and the tricycle is his only means of transportation.

"Every time I felt like I needed some air, I would just jump on it and I'd go to the shopping center," he said.

Griffin said the trike always got a lot of attention from people.

"They'd say, 'Oh that's a nice trike,' 'I like that color,' 'How fast does it go?'" he said.

Police have released a surveillance video of the trike theft. It shows a man looking at it and then walking away with it. Officers said the images aren't clear enough to identify him. They're also worried that whoever stole it will just dump it once they realize you need a key to start it. Officers said that makes it hard to pawn.

 

Griffin said he's losing hope of getting it back.

"I won't get it back, I'm sure of that. That trike is gone for good," he said.

He estimates it will cost nearly $3,000 to replace it, and on a fixed income, he said he doesn't have the money.

"Yes, I'm stuck here right now. I can't go anywhere," he said.

He said he could forgive the thief if the person turns himself in and returns the trike.

"If he brings me the trike back, I forgive him because, I mean, the trike is my life," Griffin said.

Anyone with information about the stolen trike is being asked to call the St. Petersburg Police Department at 727-893-7780.
Outgoing Tampa Police Chief Eric Ward was honored Thursday for his work in the community.

Tampa Police Chief Eric Ward honored by city council

Ward retiring at end of July for security position in private sector

RELATED: 'The department is in good hands,' Ward says

Ward, who has been with the agency for 29 years, has served as police chief for the past two years. He's retiring at the end of July.

"Twenty nine years ago, I came here just to be a police officer and I was blessed and given the opportunity to be chief," Ward said.

Never a fan of the media spotlight, Ward, 50, has quietly worked for years within the rank and file of his police department.

The city council honored him for his dedication and service.

Ward said he sees his biggest achievement as getting officers out of their cars and into the community.

"Getting back involved in the community, getting officers out of the cars into the community," Ward said. "Getting to know the citizens was important to me."

"It was a tough decision to leave after 29 years," he said.

Ward was sworn in as chief in May 2015, replacing longtime Chief Jane Castor.

A 1984 graduate of Hillsborough High School in Tampa, Ward started at the bottom rung in the department when he was 21 years old and worked up to the top spot.

Ward said he had three goals when he became chief: Drop the number of violent crimes, focus on youth in the community and improve police officer training.

City council member Charlie Miranda said Ward has accomplished all that and more.

"He's a person that talks to people, understands people," Miranda said. "(He) gets all the information before he makes a decision of what to do, and that's what makes a good chief."

So what's next for Ward? He'll be heading to the private sector to take a postion as head of security for Coca-Cola Beverages in Florida. He will be based in Tampa.

The city will begin a nationwide search to replace Ward in early August. Assistant Chief Brian Dugan will serve as interim chief while the national search takes place.

Ward said he has not been asked to be involved in the selection of the new chief, but he does have advice for whoever that person may be.

"Work hard, it's a full time commitment," Ward said. "You have to be invested in the community in order to achieve your goal and that's ultimately bringing the city up as a whole."
President Donald Trump's tweets on banning transgender military members has the Central Florida LGBTQ community voicing its frustration  and support.

Trump wants to ban transgender people from military service

Central Florida LGBTQ advocates frustrated

Orlando-area gay Republican voices support for Trump's ban



On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted a series of statements saying that after consulting with "Generals and military experts," the government "will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military."

He added that having transgender military members adds a "burden" of "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Although some Orange County Republicans commended the president on his decision, others, including former military members who are transgender, called the ban discrimination.

"Just reading that this morning really just struck home... It tore me up," Windermere Army veteran Micaela Iphys said.

Iphys, a transgender woman, said she's always been proud to have served as a military police officer in the Army.

"So I put on my uniform and I took a picture. I said, 'This is what an American soldier looks like.' It doesn't have anything to do with big muscles or masculinity. It has to do with a devotion to your country and a willingness to serve," she said.

Iphys joined the Army when she was 17 as a gay man while the "don't ask, don't tell" policy was in effect. The policy allowed gays to serve in the military, but not openly. So her ability to express her sexuality, while also serving her country, wasn't an option at that time.

More recent policies under the Obama administration have allowed transgender people to identify themselves.

Iphys is concerned that Trumps tweet will have negative repercussions on the transgender people hoping to serve in our armed forces.

"It's blatant discrimination," Iphys said.

Some members of the Central Florida LGBTQ community agreed with Trump's tweet that transgender military members may be distracting, or have distractions of their own, that could affect their ability to serve.

Randy Ross is president of the Orange County Trump Republican Club and was the county chairperson for Trump's 2016 presidential campaign.

"In any type of conflict, you need to be completely focused on your job at hand, so... if there are concerns regarding if you can make clear or concise decisions, then I'm not sure if the battlefield is a place for them. So I continue to support President Trump in that decision," he said.

Ross also said he agreed with the president's statement that transgender sex-reassignment surgeries come with a price tag that he doesn't think the government should pay for.

However, Iphys said transgender people, regardless of their medical needs, are being targeted by a political system  the same political system they may hope to serve through military service.

"You saw something in me before I even told you that I was trans. So does that change after I tell you that I am trans? I'm the same person," Iphys said.

Meanwhile, Patrick Air Force Base in Brevard County, as did the Pentagon, referred all questions to the White House.

"The Air Force will continue to work closely with (the Defense Department) to address the new guidance provided by the Commander-in-Chief on transgender individuals serving the military," Maj. Cathleen Snow said in a statement.
Can you name the original 13 Colonies? Do you how many amendments there are to the Constitution? Or how many voting members are in the House of Representatives?

These are some of the questions those seeking U.S. citizenship are expected to answer, but many Americans struggle with them.
The state's highest appeals court on Wednesday denied a petition to review the dismissal of indictments against two Jefferson County Sheriff's deputies, upholding two lower courts' decisions to drop criminal charges.

Sgt. Chad Kolander and Chief Deputy Timothy Smith were indicted in May 2016 for allegedly making and using a false probable cause affidavit for a search warrant in June 2013. The indictment said the document was linked to an incident involving a process server who tried to serve Judge Layne Walker with a lawsuit while he was presiding in court.
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Physicians Endoscopy signed a strategic agreement with Digestive Healthcare Center physicians on the company's 58th partnered center  Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center in Hillsborough Township, N.J.

Here are four things to know:

1. Since opening its door in 2002, the surgery center's physicians have performed more than 8,000 procedures per year.

2. The Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care-accredited ASC has two rooms.

3. New Jersey Department of Health licensed Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center.

4. Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center is Physicians Endoscopy's seventh partnered ASC in New Jersey.
Stepping into the nursing field in 1995, Tammy Blackburn, BSN, RN, has accrued a wealth of experience in different care settings. She practiced in hospitals for two decades before joining Rockford-based OrthoIllinois' team, where she currently serves as the ASC's director. The primary difference between a hospital and a surgery center, in Ms. Blackburn's opinion, is the ability to make changes quickly based on observed inefficiencies.

"We've changed our processes [for the program] a few times to make it better. We are a small group so we can come together and agree to start doing something," she says. "We have the ability to make decisions quickly about making something imperfect perfect."

Making the necessary decisions to drive optimal patient outcomes is crucial for the ASC's total joints program. Following a successful TJR procedure, OrthoIllinois' patients leave the facility between four hours and six hours thereafter. OrthoIllinois does not currently have the bed ability to keep patients for 23-hour stays. Therefore, the many moving parts of a patient's care team, from the anesthesiologist to administrative personnel, have to work collaboratively for the program to succeed.

First and foremost, the ASC staff members work to eliminate any variables that could compromise excellent patient outcomes. When the surgery center first launched its program, physicians used a local hospital's operating room as a testing ground to see if getting patients up and moving in that four-to-six-hour time frame was feasible.

"We tried it in the hospital setting to see if the program could work the way we wanted it to work," Ms. Blackburn says. "When we started the program, we only selected a few patients and kept our variables tight. We had the same anesthesiologist, the same surgeon and the same patient selection criteria, and it worked."

The surgery center's nursing staff, along with the physician staff, plays a large role in the patient vetting process. The surgery center's pre-admission nurses conduct in-depth interviews with patients to understand factors that impact their recovery. For instance, nurses ask patients if they have someone to care for them following surgery and meet with the patients at least 10 days pre-operatively to answer any questions and collect any needed labs. Other questions include assessing if a patient's home allows for mobility, if the patient has pets they have to care for and options for physical therapy.

"We do much deeper interviews than what patients may have in a physician's office," Ms. Blackburn says. "Our physicians do a great job screening patients. However, patients don't always tell certain details to physicians. We [nurses] ask them a variety of questions."

For every initiative, there is always room for improvement. Within the next 30 days, OrthoIllinois is rolling out an initiative to ensure all paperwork, labs, PT evaluation and risk assessment are completed 10 days before a patient has surgery.

"Patients should have their PT evaluation and home health set up. Everything should be completely done those 10 days prior to surgery or we will postpone," Ms. Blackburn says. "We realized this was a better practice and we need to make sure that when patients get home, they are in the best situation."

The overall goal of this initiative and every part of the evolving TJR program is to help patients and ensure their recovery is ultimately successful.

"[The most rewarding part of my job] is seeing patients up and walking an hour after they enter the recovery room and with minimal to no pain," Ms. Blackburn adds.
Joining Ambulatory Surgical Centers of America in 2005 as a financial analyst, Jeff Peo has held many roles within the organization. He currently is ASCOA's chief development officer. He previously was the organization's vice president of acquisitions and development.

Before joining ASCOA's team, Mr. Peo oversaw a Fortune 100 company's knowledge management and information technology consulting division.

Currently residing in Salt Lake City, Mr. Peo earned a manufacturing engineering degree from Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
As a result of years of budget turmoil in Illinois, the state now faces $5 billion in unpaid group insurance claims, according to the Chicago Tribune.

Providers are owed so much by the state that some are asking patients with full coverage from the state to pay bills upfront in their entirety, and some have simply stopped accepting insurance from state employees. The largest hospital network in Illinois, Downers Grove-based Advocate Health Care, cited the budget impasse reason for the hiring freeze it implemented this spring.

The State's Central Management Services, which operates the group insurance program, has not been able to pay providers since 2015. The claims earn between nine and 12 percent interest for each year they are not paid.

The state owes Cigna nearly $857 million in claims and interest, while Anthem subsidiary HealthLink Open Access Plan is owed over $778 million in claims and $56 million in interest. It is not only providers who are troubled by these developments, but also state employees who worry that their insurance's bad reputation will hurt their efforts to recruit top talent.

Kimberly Archer, a music professor and head of the faculty union at the University of Illinois-Edwardsville, said younger faculty will be dissuaded from applying to the university because of its poor benefits.

"'Why would I come here for $45,000 with health insurance that doesn't work and second-tier benefits?'" she said. "I think we haven't begun to see the long-term damage of this."

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ONC released a notice seeking applicants for the federal Health IT Advisory Committee July 25.

The 25-member Health IT Advisory Committee was created under the 21st Century Cures Act, which former President Barack Obama signed into law in December 2016. The committee of experts  appointed by Congressional leaders, the HHS secretary and the comptroller general of the Government Accountability Office  will provide policy recommendations to the ONC.

Congressional leaders have appointed several committee members in recent months, including Anil K. Jain, MD, vice president and chief health informatics officer of IBM; Steve Ready, CIO of Louisville, Ky.-based Norton Healthcare; Steven Lane, MD, clinical informatics director of Sacramento, Calif.-based Sutter Health; and biotech entrepreneur and surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong, MD.

Applications for the committee must be submitted to the ONC by Aug. 4.
High rates of physician burnout and depression may predate EHRs, but the imperfect technology hasn't helped, Michael Blum, MD, said during a panel discussion in San Francisco last week, according to Reuters.

Dr. Blum, chief medical information officer at UC San Francisco Medical Center, and three other physicians spoke on a panel discussion titled "Technology, Patients and the Art of Medicine." The panel discussion was sponsored by Medscape.

Although innovative technologies have helped inform and improve patient care in recent years, 69 percent of physicians in the audience said increased reliance on EHRs hindered patient care.

Abraham Verghese, MD, a Stanford (Calif.) University professor, said EHRs were successful in streamlining billing and reducing medical errors. However, he also credited EHRs with tethering physicians to their computers and partially contributing to higher rates of burnout, depression and suicide.

Dr. Blum highlighted physician burnout, depression and suicide predate the move toward EHRs. He added the government has arguably been encouraging physicians to treat their notes as billing tools for at least the past 10 years.

"Then you throw the electronic health record on top of that," Dr. Blum said, according to Reuters. "That just took a bad situation and made it horribly worse."
In July, Toronto, Canada-based Humber River Hospital and GE Healthcare announced their collaboration to build one of the first hospital command centers of the future, designed to deliver better quality of patient care.

The 4,500-square-foot center will feature GE Analytic Tiles using artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and thoughtful design to target improved clinical, operational and patient outcomes on the journey to becoming a high-reliability hospital.

The GE Tiles power Humber's quality command center with decision support tools drawing real-time data from multiple sources around the hospital. The system helps command center staff to expedite and synchronize patient care activity. This creates spaces for clinicians to practice great care. It works by identifying irregularities or potential issues before they become emergencies. Humber's command center will feature 16 distinct analytic tiles from GE. Over time, GE and Humber expect to expand the data model to include data from wearable technologies to care for patients outside the hospital.

Here, Managing Principal of GE Healthcare Partners Jeff Terry and President and CEO of Humber River Hospital Barb Collins discuss the project and how they see technology evolving.

Q: How is the hospital of the future different from a typical hospital today?

Jeff Terry: The hospital of the future seeks to deliver high quality efficient care; that goal doesn't change. However, new tools and methods are making it possible to achieve ever-higher performance in four areas:

 Serving the right patient in the right place, and that doesn't always mean at the hospital.

 Making it easier for patients to navigate and access the hospital.

 Making it easier for caregivers to provide care at the hospital.

 Becoming highly reliable.

Barb Collins: Given the cost of healthcare, we need to make care delivery safer and more reliable, and where possible automate processes so we are doing procedures in the most efficient and effective way.

JT: That doesn't mean robots will be practicing medicine. Clearly, delivering healthcare is a human activity, but we want caregivers to operate at the top of their license. That means if a machine can perform a function safer, faster and better, we should automate it and allow humans to focus on patient- and family-centered care.

Q: Barb, how are you already incorporating automation into the hospital's processes?

BC: There are several ways, but one of the most important concepts is that of interoperability  the ability of systems to exchange and make use of information; one example is with our nursing staff. In a traditional hospital, the nurse travels to a patient room with a blood pressure monitor and pulse oximeter to measure oxygen saturation and check the patient's temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. The nurse writes the results down on a piece of paper and at some point, takes the information back to the nursing station and inputs it into the patient's chart. Nurses, however, get interrupted often which can delay entry of results into the patient's chart.

In our hospital, we know through a real-time locating system which nurse has entered the patient room to check the patient's vitals. There is a fixed bedside monitor at the head of every bed, which once the patient's vitals are taken and checked by the nurse, automatically sends them to the patient's electronic chart. If there are abnormal results or abnormal cardiac monitoring results and a certain level of concern, other members of the team including the physician can automatically see the results.

To add to this, with real-time closed loop communications we can see whether the provider has accepted the results. If the provider gets busy or distracted and the necessary care isn't followed up on, our system will catch that and notify the right provider to assist as required. All of this is safer and faster, and prevents staff from having to perform manual steps.

JT: Humber River's design blends physical, technology and process design to make it easier for patients and caregivers. What Barb described is a hospital that has been designed for care  at the room level, department level and hospital level. And they've been internationally recognized for that design. The challenge to replicating that is it requires expertise in multiple disciplines.

Q: How does building the "hospital of the future" with a central technology hub impact care?

BC: Hospitals are busy places in which communicating issues is a key component of safe, high-quality care. Much like airplanes; airplanes travel around the world and their movements are recorded in black boxes; a data center tracks that and intervention occurs if required. We need that function for patients in the hospital and those in their homes. This is a whole new way of providing care by using data and digital technologies to help with early warning of changing patient conditions and of process breakdowns. When vulnerable patients return home and do not notice a problem until they are so sick they need to go to the emergency room, we wonder how that happened. If you monitor data, you can detect delayed or missed care activities and as well as deterioration in patient status before it becomes an issue. We are embarking on that with our command center.

Q: Is the command center and mission control like a central transfer center? How would that be different than what most hospitals are already doing?

JT: No  this mission control concept is different and goes way beyond transfers; the scope can include access, throughput, length of stay, quality, safety, staffing and even population health. For example, a command center can spot patients who've fallen off their pathway outside the hospital. That "backstop" capability just isn't there today for too many critical processes. With the hospital, command centers can prioritize and synchronize processes to reduce delays and defects.

There is a culture curve of course; caregivers don't want "big brother" looking over their shoulder. The key is to work with caregivers to design command center activity that amplifies and de-stresses the work of caregivers, not disrupts or second guesses it.

BC: Our hospital team understands the opportunities digital capabilities present for patient care. A number of our physicians and staff come to the table to help us plan technology that will improve patient care and care delivery process. They see technology and analytical data as a benefit. That's part of a cultural transformation and understanding that digital technology when properly applied improves patient care.

JT: All major hospitals and health systems in the future will have command centers and mission control. The capability is revolutionary. Johns Hopkins is the first hospital to implement the concept and we are working with hospitals around the world on similar projects. Provider organizations are starting to recognize if we are going to deliver highly reliable care and take advantage of our oceans of data, we need a central node to orchestrate a range of informatics and interventions.

Q: How will wearables and communication technology affect patients seeking care in the future?

BC: Wearable technologies are going to allow providers to send patients home sooner and avoid ER visits. In the next year, we will look to increasing the use of wearable devices for patients who return home but need to continue care. The command center can monitor their results remotely and, for a patient who requires help, we can intervene. For example, we could send a 65-year-old patient home with a respiratory and vital signs monitor. By tracking monitoring data through the command center we can be proactive if the patient is experiencing changes that could signal a problem. If mission control sees that the patient has a dangerous heart rhythm, we can intervene and get them to an elective clinic appointment or send home care to them. When our central command center opens later this year, we will already be underway with planning for this expanded functionality.

JT: Wearables are a real technology trend in the hospital and allow hospitals to extend their influence beyond their four walls.

Q: Is this concept something other hospitals could implement?

JT: The secret to Humber's success is a leadership that worked together for 10 years. They committed to a vision, adapted it over time, implemented a new hospital and continue to evolve.

In the end, several things here are special: the design of this hospital; it's use of cutting edge tools in lab and pharmacy; the data center and EMR. The command center is the next step. It builds on what came before.

BC: A bold vision needs to be a hospitalwide commitment. Our senior team and program and physician leaders committed 100 percent to our mission. You must have a committed team that's nimble enough to make changes quickly to benefit from technology changes. You must continue to build on a digital vision each and every day or quickly you will become yesterday's hospital.
The American Psychoanalytic Association issued a statement Tuesday clarifying its position on the so-called "Goldwater Rule," which prohibits mental health professionals from commenting on the psychiatric condition of prominent figures, after STAT reported the association was lifting the rule.

APsaA sought to clarify it "did not encourage members to defy the 'Goldwater Rule,' which is an ethics code of a different mental health organization, the American Psychiatric Association," it wrote in a statement. In a supplementary position paper, APsaA wrote, "The American Psychoanalytic Association takes the position that psychoanalysts should offer relevant psychoanalytic insights to aid the public in understanding a wide range of phenomena in politics, the arts, popular culture, history, economics, and other aspects of human affairs  However, the American Psychoanalytic Association expects psychoanalysts to exercise extreme caution when making statements to the media about public figures. Respect for the limits of psychoanalytic inference about individuals one does not know and has not interviewed in-depth."

APsaA cautioned its members against "wild analysis," libel, thinly veiled interpretations and definitive diagnoses of public figures, but noted it is committed to free speech.

By contrast, the American Psychiatric Association adopted the Goldwater Rule in 1973 following public comments by some psychiatrists regarding the mental condition of Sen. Barry Goldwater while he was running for president in 1964. The American Psychiatric Association stood by this rule throughout the 2016 election and reaffirmed this position in March, according to the STAT report.

However, it has never penalized its members for violating the rule, according to STAT. The rule has garnered increased criticism during the Trump administration as professionals seek to explain the behavior of President Donald Trump, according to the report.

Read the full STAT story here.

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psychiatry

Let's understand something about the American healthcare system: The problem is not the emergency department nor emergency physicians
A U.K. High Court judge ruled 11-month-old Charlie Gard will be transferred to a hospice facility and his ventilator will be turned off unless his parents and his physicians at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London come to an agreement on his end-of-life care by noon Thursday, according to CBS News.

"It is in Charlie's best interests to be moved to a hospice and for him at that point to be moved to a palliative care regime only," the judge said in his ruling Wednesday. He also barred the publication of the hospice facility's name and the date Charlie will be taken there.

Charlie was diagnosed with infantile onset encephalomyopathic mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, an incurable autosomal recessive disorder that causes a drop in an individual's mitochondrial DNA in affected tissues. The disorder has left Charlie with significant brain damage and unable to breathe without a ventilator.

Charlie's parents Chris Gard and Connie Yates previously asked the judge during a court hearing July 25 to allow Charlie to spend his final days at home with his family. However, GOSHC physicians argued the "invasive ventilation [Charlie] requires can only be provided in a hospital setting." Nurses at the hospital volunteered to care for the infant during his final hours, CBS News reports.

During Tuesday's court proceedings, Charlie's mother requested a medical team of her choosing be employed to keep her son alive for one week, until his first birthday Aug. 4. Charlie is not expected to survive longer than a couple of hours once his ventilator is switched off, according to the report.

The couple ended their months-long legal battle to have Charlie undergo an experimental treatment July 24.
Los Angeles-based USC President C.L. Max Nikias, PhD, issued a second letter to the campus community July 26 stating the university "could have done better to recognize the signs and severity" of Carmen Puliafito's, MD, former dean of Los Angeles-based Keck School of Medicine, behavior, according to The Los Angeles Times.

While Mr. Nikias's letter did not specify how the university could have "done better," he said he "ha[s] every confidence [USC] acted in good faith and in accordance with [its] core values" in dealing with the allegations brought against Dr. Puliafito.

"As a result of this recent incident, it is clear to us now that the university currently has only loosely defined procedures and guidelines for dealing with employee behavior outside the workplace that may be improper or illegal and has the capacity to affect USC. And, presently, the university has very limited capacity to conduct investigations and follow up on leads or anonymous reports of such employee behavior," Dr. Nikias wrote in the letter.

Dr. Nikias appointed USC Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs Michael W. Quick, PhD, and Todd Dickey, JD, senior vice president for administration, to form a task force to address some of the concerns that surfaced after The Los Angeles times published a story July 17 alleging Dr. Puliafito engaged in drug misuse and associated with criminals.

The university's board of trustees also issued its first public statement on the issue July 26, expressing their confidence in Dr. Nikias and his team to "put in place policies and procedures to prevent something like this from happening again," according to the report.

The news comes two days after a crisis management specialist representing USC admitted officials received a phone call from an unidentified source in March 2016 detailing Dr. Puliafito's alleged exploits at the Pasadena, Calif.-based Hotel Constance and asking the university to investigate the situation. The spokesperson said the anonymous report did not reach senior administration, the report states.

Keck School of Medicine Dean Rohit Varma, MD, told students last week USC "had found no evidence, particularly, of [the anonymous witness's] phone call."

It is unclear when the university first discovered Dr. Puliafito's alleged behavior. The Los Angeles Times made repeated inquiries to the university about Dr. Puliafito's behavior during the past 15 months, but university officials "never responded to the inquiries."

USC initiated termination proceedings to fire Dr. Puliafito from his faculty position at the medical school July 21.
Here are 21 hospitals and health systems that posted job listings seeking nurses in the past week.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list. Job listings were compiled from job seeker websites.

1. MacNeal Hospital (Berwyn, Ill.): Seeks registered nurse for emergency department and post-anesthesia care unit

2. Black Hills Surgical Hospital (Rapid City, S.D.): Seeks registered nurse for operating room

3. Valley Baptist Medical Center (Harlingen, Texas): Seeks registered nurse

4. Thorek Memorial Hospital (Chicago): Seeks registered nurse for ED

5. Sisters of Providence Health System (Chicago): Seeks registered nurse for ED and neonatal intensive care unit

6. PeaceHealth (Cottage Grove, Ore.): Seeks registered nurse for ED

7. Regions Hospital (St. Paul, Minn.): Seeks registered nurse for recovery room

8. North Suburban Medical Center (Thornton, Colo.): Seeks registered nurse for ED

9. Centennial Medical Center (Nashville, Tenn.): Seeks registered nurse for ED

10. Memorial Hermann (Houston): Seeks registered nurse for day surgery recovery

11. Halifax Hospital Medical Center (Daytona Beach, Fla.): Seeks registered nurse for psychiatric ED

12. Larkin Community Hospital Palm Springs Campus (Hialeah, Fla.): Seeks registered nurse for PACU

13. Froedtert Community Memorial Hospital (Menomonee Falls, Wis.): Seeks registered nurse

14. Rose Medical Center (Denver): Seeks registered nurse for OR

15. Cary Medical Center (Portland, Maine): Seeks registered nurse for OR

16. Vaughn Regional Medical Center (Selma, Ala.): Seeks registered nurse for ED

17. Cleveland Clinic: Seeks registered nurses to attend "interview day" on Aug. 1

18. The Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin (Milwaukee): Seeks registered nurse for ED

19. Baystate Health System (Springfield, Mass.): Seeks registered nurse for ED

20. Frisbie Memorial Hospital (Rochester, N.H.): Seeks registered nurse for OR

21. Homestead (Fla.) Hospital: Seeks registered nurse for ED
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According to reports, a panchayat in Pakistan's Punjab province asked a man to rape a 16-year-old girl in front of her family as punishment after her brother was accused of raping the man's sister. The village council claimed that the same act should be repeated with the accused's sister as justice. Police have arrested 20 people including the head of the village council for ordering rape of the sister of Umer Wadda of Rajpur village.
Online car marketplace Auto Trader is teaming up with the Belfast Telegraph to maximise the motoring audiences enjoyed by both.

The consumer will now be able to use Auto Trader's powerful search tool alongside the Belfast Telegraph's motoring content online and in print. Auto Trader has over 450,000 cars listed, including 13,000 in Northern Ireland.

Karolina Edwards-Smajda, Auto Trader's retailer and consumer product director, said: "By building our partnership network, we are extending our customers' reach even further, providing them with exclusive access to the UK's largest marketplace of engaged car buyers." Mark Reilly, classified advertising manager at Belfast Telegraph, added: "We see a great synergy between the strength and depth of our own multi-media motoring audience and that of Auto Trader."
Brexit fears are holding back the commercial property market in Northern Ireland with fewer overseas investors prepared to spend money here, according to a survey today.

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and Ulster Bank research found that occupier and investor demand for commercial property here had fallen between April and June.

And surveyors also told the professional body that they had lowered their expectations for rents and capital values.

The downwards shift in sentiment comes despite an upsurge in building in Belfast, including the construction of a number of new hotels.

The new venues include Hastings Hotels' Grand Central at Bedford Street, Dalata plc's nearby Maldron Hotel, and the Marriott AC at Belfast Harbour's City Quays.

In total, more than 20 hotels are planned for the city.

RICS members said that uncertainty regarding EU withdrawal negotiations and the inconclusive result of the recent general election were combining to form impediments to the market.

Of all UK regions, Brexit was having the biggest impact on outlook in Northern Ireland, where demand from foreign investors for assets was down for the fifth quarter in a row.

And professionals in the province were the most likely to report that they'd seen evidence of businesses wanting to relocate away from the UK.

Just 17% of respondents reported that occupier demand was up in the second quarter, compared to 27% in the first quarter.

And 10% more surveyors expected rents to rise than fall - down from 38% in quarter one.

Only 4% of respondents reported a rise in investment enquiries, down from 18% over the first three months of the year.

And reports of enquiries from foreign investors were down for the fifth quarter in a row.

Tracy Flannigan, a director at Colliers International and RICS commercial property spokeswoman, said most indicators were in positive territory.

But she said there were a range of political factors at play, including Northern Ireland's lack of devolved government.

She added: "RICS believes that a local Executive would be best placed to ensure the delivery of long-term policies and decision-making that are vital to the development and growth of the economy, including the land, property and construction sectors."

Gary Barr, relationship director of commercial real estate at Ulster Bank, said: "The survey's data is in line with other economic indicators for the Northern Ireland economy in the second quarter of the year, which suggest a more cautious approach by businesses and consumers.

"However, while sentiment has eased back, the survey points to ongoing activity in the market, and Ulster Bank is committed to continuing to support good deals and investments."

Separate research this week described Belfast as "one of the world's fastest-growing cities in the world" for prime retail space.

CBRE's half-yearly report, Global Prime Retail Rents, listed Belfast as the eighth fastest-growing location. It recorded an 8.7% year-on-year increase in rents for prime retail in the first quarter of 2017.

But Belfast was beaten in the rankings by its rivals Dublin and London.

The city has seen significant regeneration of key retail locations, such as Donegall Place, Arthur Street and Ann Street.
Thomas Cook said it has seen a surge in demand for holidays in Greece

Losses at travel giant Thomas Cook narrowed in the third quarter as bookings to Greece, Bulgaria and Cyprus drove sales.

The group said it saw a "significant growth" in holidaymakers visiting the three nations, with Greece the standout performer with a 22% increase.

This helped boost revenues by over 20% to 2.3 billion in the three months to June 30, meaning that pre-tax losses narrowed from 64 million to 31 million.

Thomas Cook also confirmed that bookings to Turkey were recovering after terrorist attacks and political instability in the nation hit bookings.

Demand for trips to Egypt and Turkey plunged after the bombing of a plane from the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh and a violent attempted coup by the Turkish army, which has been followed by a string of terrorist attacks in the country.

Boss Peter Fankhauser said: "Our increased focus on the customer is reflected in a good performance for the third quarter.

"So far, we are taking one-and-a-half million more customers on holiday this summer than we did three years ago, showing the growth in demand for our modern package and flight offer.

"The pick-up in demand for Turkey we reported earlier in the year has continued, as customers are attracted to the quality and value on offer."

However, he added that the firm is experiencing pressure on margins in Spain in a "competitive environment", though this is being mitigated by its focus on own-brand and core hotel offering.
Ramutis was remanded into custody.

A Lithuanian man is to stand trial accused of supplying heroin in Belfast, a judge has ordered.

Vilandas Ramutis was allegedly involved in drug-related incidents at the city's gasworks area.

The 21-year-old, of no fixed abode, appeared before Belfast Magistrates' Court on Thursday for a preliminary enquiry on charges linked to incidents in November and December last year.

He faces counts of possessing, supplying and being concerned in the supply of heroin.

Speaking through an interpreter, Ramutis confirmed that he understood the charges against him.

He declined to call witnesses or give evidence at this stage in proceedings.

Defence counsel Sean Mullan did not contest prosecution submissions that his client has a case to answer.

Following the brief exchanges District Judge Fiona Bagnall granted an application to have Ramutis sent for Crown Court trial.

She remanded the accused in custody until his arraignment.
Plans to ban diesel and petrol vehicles are expected to feature in the Government's clean air strategy (Chris Ison/PA)

A ban on new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 as part of efforts to tackle air pollution could prove disastrous for Northern Ireland's energy supply, the Ulster Unionists have warned.

Yesterday the Government unveiled its court-mandated plans to meet European Union limits on harmful nitrogen dioxide pollution - much of which comes from road transport, particularly diesel vehicles - after a long-running legal battle.

Much of the focus was on plans to end the sale of all conventional petrol and diesel cars by 2040 to help tackle air pollution and climate change emissions.

However, Ulster Unionist economy spokesman Alan Chambers MLA said that the announcement by Environment Secretary Michael Gove would have major implications for electricity and energy policy in the province.

In April the NI Affairs Committee at Westminster reported that we will need more energy than can be supplied in 2021, prompting fears of an energy crisis here.

Mr Chambers said: "In the Assembly last year the UUP flagged up the looming crisis in the security of electricity supply in Northern Ireland. This was downplayed by the then DUP/Sinn Fein Executive, but our position was vindicated just a couple of months ago by a House of Commons inquiry and report which stated that in present circumstances, Northern Ireland will go into an electricity generating deficit in 2021.

"Clearly, as we have said, there needs to be substantial investment in the electricity grid in Northern Ireland and decisions need to be taken on local electricity generation to secure supply into the future.

"However, at the moment all we have at Stormont is an energy policy vacuum and no Executive to provide and implement a coherent energy policy.

"Decisions need to be taken now to ensure that we can keep the lights on after 2021, never mind gear up to the massive challenge of supplying the potential boom in electric vehicles in the decades to come."

The Institution of Civil Engineers welcomed the plan. Northern Ireland regional director Richard Kirk (left) said: "Today's announcement is a positive step forward for public health, but we urgently need to deliver the infrastructure that will lessen emissions over the coming decades."
Former Irish premier Brian Cowen has said he regrets that a quarter of a million people lost their jobs during the recession.

In a rare public appearance, Mr Cowen insisted, however, that significant cuts in public expenditure had been necessary to ensure future economic success.

Mr Cowen was speaking after he received an honorary degree from the National University of Ireland.

The former taoiseach received a law doctorate in recognition of his role in Irish politics.

Chancellor of the University Dr Maurice Manning conferred the degree on Mr Cowen during a ceremony in Dublin Castle on Wednesday.

Mr Cowen, who has kept a low profile since his retirement from politics, took the opportunity to reflect upon the "arduous task" he faced as taoiseach with the onset of the financial crisis and resulting economic recession.

"The greatest hardship of the recession was the loss of employment for so many of our people - something which I deeply regret.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand of our two million workforce lost jobs, the vast majority in construction and related industries and in retail," he said.

Mr Cowen added: "We knew that the required action would understandably be more unpopular than almost any policies in recent Irish history and that this threatened the survival of the Government and our hopes of election.

"However, we also know that to avoid taking the decisions would mean that future recovery could be put off by decades."

He added that the Government's "decisive action" saw an annual return to economic growth by 2011.

Mr Cowen served as taoiseach from May 2008 to March 2011, a period which coincided with the economic collapse and a period of harsh budgetary austerity in the public finances.

He retired from politics following the collapse of the Fianna Fail-Green Party government in early 2011.

He was taoiseach when the state entered the bailout in November 2010, accepting financial help from the EU-IMF-ECB Troika which imposed strict conditions involving bank recapitalisation and a programme of tax increases and public spending cuts.

Mr Cowen had previously served as minister for finance in the government led by Bertie Ahern from 2004 to 2008, a period which saw public spending, bank lending and property prices all expand rapidly.

Mr Ahern attended the conferring ceremony on Wednesday.

The Senate of the NUI decided to award Mr Cowen an honorary doctorate in May this year, following a recommendation from the body's honorary degrees committee. The committee is chaired by Dr Manning.

It is a tradition in the NUI that former taoisigh and presidents are awarded honorary doctorates.
Terminally-ill baby Charlie Gard could soon be moved to a hospice and allowed to die.

A High Court judge set a timetable for the final stage of 11-month-old Charlies life after what could have been the final hearing in the case on Wednesday.

Mr Justice Francis has heard that Charlies parents and doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London cannot agree on hospice care plans for the youngster.

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The judge said Charlie will move to a hospice if the dispute cannot be settled by noon on Thursday and life-support treatment would end shortly after he arrives.

Mr Justice Francis, who has analysed disputes at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court, said the time had come for a decision to be made.

Charlies parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard wanted to be given time to reach agreement over end-of-life plans for their son.

Ms Yates walked out of Wednesdays hearing in tears after the judge set the timetable. She yelled: I hope you are happy with yourselves.

Expand Close Connie Yates, mother of Charlie Gard, outside court (Victoria Jones/PA) / Facebook

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Ms Yates and Mr Gard had initially said they wanted 11-month-old Charlie to spend days with them at home before dying.

Great Ormond Street doctors said it was not practical to provide life-support treatment to Charlie at the couples home for days. They said a hospice would be a better plan, and they said life-support treatment should end shortly after Charlie arrived at a hospice.

Lawyers representing the couple on Wednesday told Mr Justice Francis about a change of heart. They said the couple now wanted a move to a hospice. But they said Charlies parents were still in dispute with doctors over the detail of hospice care plans.

Grant Armstrong, who led Charlies parents legal team, said the couple wanted to privately fund care at a hospice where Charlie could continue to receive life-support treatment for days before being allowed to die.

He said a doctor was ready to help and several Great Ormond Street nurses had volunteered their services.

Great Ormond Street bosses said they were not satisfied that a properly-qualified specialist would be in control under Charlies parents plan.

A lawyer in the couples legal team said discussions about mounting an appeal against Mr Justice Franciss decision not to allow more time were taking place. Relatives said an appeal had been mounted for a specialist to come forward.

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Charlies parents became embroiled in the new fight with doctors earlier this week, a day after abandoning attempts to persuade the judge to let their son travel to America for experimental treatment.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York. Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help. They said life-support treatment should stop.

The couple abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the point of no return.
Charlie Gard will spend the final part of his life in a hospice, a High Court judge has said.

Both his parents and doctors have agreed that he should move to a hospice, Mr Justice Francis heard. But they disagreed over the detail of care plans.

The judge said if an agreement could not be reached by noon today Charlie (above) would be moved to a hospice and life-support treatment would end soon after.

Charlie's mother Connie Yates became distressed as the judge made his decision. She left court crying and said: "I hope you are happy with yourselves."

Ms Yates and Charlie's father Chris Gard had initially said they wanted 11-month-old Charlie to spend his final days with them at home.

But doctors caring for Charlie at Great Ormond Street Hospital in London said it is not practical to provide life-support treatment to Charlie at the couple's home for days. They said a hospice would be a better plan.

Lawyers representing the couple yesterday told the judge overseeing the dispute about a change of heart.

They said the couple now wanted a move to a hospice. But they added Charlie's parents were still in dispute with doctors over the detail of care plans.

Mr Justice Francis began analysing the dispute at a hearing in the family division of the High Court on Tuesday.

He said the time had come for a decision to be made.

Charlie's parents became embroiled in the new fight with doctors earlier this week, a day after abandoning attempts to persuade the judge to let their son travel to America for experimental treatment.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are aged in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street Hospital said the therapy would not help and believed that life-support treatment should stop.

The couple abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the "point of no return''.
Germany says it will examine a new package of US sanctions against Russia approved by the House of Representatives amid concerns that the measures could affect European businesses.

Germany and Austria have criticised the planned penalties, saying they could affect European businesses involved in piping Russian natural gas.

German spokeswoman Ulrike Demmer said that Germany opposes in principle "sanctions with extraterritorial effects".

She added that it is important for the European Union and the US to continue closely coordinating sanctions against Russia and "in this light, we will examine in detail the bill that has now been approved".

German Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said the US is not entitled to tell European companies how to do business with a third country, but the legislation has improved from the original proposal.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin refrained from discussing its possible response to the sanctions.

Eager to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, the US Congress overwhelmingly backed a new package of sanctions against Moscow that prohibits President Donald Trump from waiving the penalties without first getting its permission.

Senior Russian officials and politicians said Russia was considering measures in response to the new round of sanctions, but Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said it was too early to speak about it.

Mr Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the new sanctions, which he described as "lamentable", have not been signed by Mr Trump into law yet and that the Kremlin "needs to analyse it very carefully" before Mr Putin makes a decision on how to respond.

When outgoing US president Barack Obama imposed new sanctions on Russia last December, including expelling dozens of Russian diplomats and seizing two Russian recreational estates, Mr Putin chose not to respond and said Russia would not expel US diplomats despite the overwhelming expectations.

Russian officials welcomed Mr Trump's presidential win last year, hoping to mend relations with the United States which reached a post-Cold War low under Mr Obama. But six months into Mr Trump's presidency ties between the two countries remain tense, and the much-anticipated first meeting between Mr Trump and Mr Putin early this month did not seem to produce any tangible results.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov criticised the sanctions as "closing off the prospect for normalising ties". He told the Interfax news agency the new sanctions are pushing Russia and the US "into uncharted territory both in political and diplomatic sense".

Several Russian politicians said Moscow is considering how to respond to the new sanctions that aim to hit Mr Putin and his inner circle by targeting alleged corrupt officials, human rights abusers, and crucial sectors of the Russian economy, including weapons sales and energy exports. The Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's parliament, is already discussing the response, the chairman of its foreign affairs committee Konstantin Kosachev told reporters in Moscow.

Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the defence committee at the upper chamber of Russian parliament, warned that the new sanctions could hurt Russia's efforts to work with the US in fighting terrorism.

Cooperation on counter-terrorism between Russia and the US "will be extremely problematic if at all possible", Mr Klintsevich said in comments carried by Russian news agencies on Wednesday.

AP
Dozens of Indonesian women working in Hong Kong used their earnings to support the Islamic State after being recruited online, according to a think tank in Jakarta.

A report from the Institute for Policy Analysis of Conflict (IPAC) urged Indonesia  the worlds most populous Muslim country  to work with labor recruiting agencies to prevent radicalization. It explored how dozens of Indonesians in Hong Kong became vulnerable to extremist recruitment as religious teachings and prayer groups grew alongside with demands for more nannies, domestic helpers or caretakers for the elderly.

The women were exposed to radical content online, said Nava Nuraniyah, an IPAC analyst.

Some of these women were drawn in by jihadi boyfriends they met online, she said in a statement. But some joined IS as a path to empowerment.

While the number of radicalized workers is small compared to the Indonesian workforce, it is potentially dangerous, Nava said.

Indonesians form the second-largest migrant community in Hong Kong, with more than 150,000, according to official census data. The Philippines leads the list with more than 180,000.

The IPAC report released Wednesday charted the mostly female Indonesian Muslim community in Hong Kong, which tripled during the past 17 years because of the demand for domestic workers.

It said Jakarta-based overseas employment agencies marketed Indonesian women as being cheaper and more pliable than better-trained Philippine maids, resulting in many Indonesians being paid less than the minimum wage. Even though the workers were systematically underpaid and exploited, abuse was not a direct factor in their radicalization.

The search for a sense of community in an unfamiliar environment may have been more important, the report said, explaining the growth of the Muslim community was accompanied by a rise in religious outreach (dakwah) activities by Indonesian clerics. The outreach started with moderates but gradually included extreme ideologues.

Indonesian women found friends in these dakwah groups that often acted as surrogate families, the report said. When one was drawn into a radical circle, others followed.

IPAC conducted in-depth interviews with several dozen domestic workers in Hong Kong, Indonesian clerics and leaders of Islamic organizations in the city and in Jakarta. It also monitored social media and analyzed documents from outreach groups.

The report identified at least 50 female radical workers in East Asia who had taken part in a variety of extremist online discussion groups, including 43 who worked or are working in Hong Kong, three in Taiwan and four in Singapore.

The war in Syria brought support for violent extremism to Hong Kong, the report said, explaining that Indonesian Muslims were interested in the conflict and extremist sites on social media had some of the most detailed news.

As of June 2017, four women joined IS in Syria, about 16 returned to Indonesia and mostly married militants and eight were deported from their host countries or from Turkey while trying to cross over to Syria, the report said.

None were ever interested in supporting attacks in their host countries, the report said, explaining the Indonesian migrant workers would rather support forces fighting the Syrian government or pro-IS violence in Jakarta.

Getting exposed to radical preachers

As religious conservatism grew in Jakarta, the women in Hong Kong were exposed to radical preaching at Muslim community meetings when prayer groups and visits from clerics became more prevalent, Nava said.

These women see militants as heroes and want to help them with money and logistics. Some get involved and want to help the militants go to Syria, and are prepared to follow them there.

The public should not panic about the report, she said, but expatriate communities should watch out for migrant workers becoming radicalized.

If one sees a colleague beginning to show symptoms of exposure to radicalism, approach them in a good way, she said.

The government needs to do more to explain the threat of terrorism to migrant workers, according to Anis Hidayah, executive director of Migrant Care.

They are vulnerable to IS recruitment. They dont realize it, she said, adding the government should consider setting up a help line or sending an official notice to spread awareness.

These efforts need to be expanded down to the village level, she said, as she explained embassies should use social media to spread the governments message about the dangers of extremism.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Arrmanatha Nasir and Nusron Wahid, head of the Agency for the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Migrant Workers, could not be reached for comment.

Turkey Deportees

Since 2015, 430 Indonesian nationals have been deported from Turkey as they tried to cross into Syria, authorities said.

It doesnt mean all of them are linked to IS. They never crossed into Syria, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi told reporters in Jakarta on June 17.

She said 193 Indonesians were deported from Turkey in 2015, 60 in 2016 and 177 in the first six months of 2017.

Officials from the Ministry of Social Affairs said more than 160 deportees from Turkey since last year have been trained in weaving and sewing and how to start small businesses.

About 75 of the deportees were children who received counseling, toys and educational assistance.

Commenting on those figures at that time, IPAC director Sidney Jones confirmed that 60 percent of the deportees were women and children. She called the rehabilitation program insufficient.

There has to be a plan for where the children are going to go to school, there has to be counselling for those children, she said.
After an 18-year run in Goose Creek and unforeseen challenges presented by COVID-19, Dreamalot Books has gradually  but decidedly  gained a steady foothold in the Moncks Corner community as a welcoming haven of second-hand books for both area bibliophiles and those traveling in from Myrtle Read moreThe 'happy place' for used books: Dreamalot Books emerging as a go-to hot spot in Moncks Corner
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ISIS instructs the BILD reporter: |

A French-speaking ISIS jihadist instructs a masked terrorist to stab a handcuffed prisoner. This gruesome ISIS instruction video for attackers was published from Raqqa on November 26, 2016

How does ISIS recruit its attackers in Germany? What are the last instructions before the terrorists strike and kill as many innocent people as possible?

For months, BILD reporter Bjorn Stritzel pretended to be an Islamist willing to carry out an attack (always in consultation with the security authorities).

In a new series, BILD documents the chats with the ISIS terrorists.

My ISIS instructor recommends a video to me. It is a straightforward instruction on how to kill. At the beginning of the video, past ISIS attacks in the West are celebrated  the axe-attacker from Wurzburg is also briefly shown. This is followed by the headline: Explanation of how to slay the disbelievers.

A ruined house can be seen, in which a prisoner is chained to a concrete pillar with handcuffs. A masked jihadist explains in French why terror attacks against the crusaders must be carried out.

BILD reporter Bjorn Stritzel

Then the terrorist  who is introduced as Abu Sulayman al-Faransi  shows several knives (from a kitchen knife to a combat knife) and explains which ones are suitable for an attack. Jack-knives are bad because of the unstable blade.

Another masked jihadist approaches the prisoner, who wears a white jumper with the logo of a German pharmaceutical company. The gagged prisoner stares listlessly at the ISIS terrorist who cuts open his wrists, stabs him in the throat and the belly, and finally cuts his throat.

At the end of the video, a masked jihadist also explains how to make explosives. In order to demonstrate the effect of the explosive, a backpack bomb produced this way is used to murder another prisoner.



Go to an old people's home, that's very easy

My German-language ISIS instructor wants me to use the knife techniques shown in the video  in Germany. He immediately suggests several suitable targets: Go to an old peoples home, thats very easy. I ask whether that is permitted, even by ISISs radical interpretation of Islam. Is an old peoples home allowed from an Islamic perspective? His answer is clear: Yes, inshallah. Or to go a monastery or a church.

Auch interessant

He is obviously suggesting targets where potential victims will show little resistance, or that have a special symbolic value. An attack of this kind already happened: on July 26, 2016, two ISIS terrorists cut the priest Jacques Hamels throat in a church in Normandy. Amaq later published a letter claiming responsibility first, and then a martyrs video of the terrorists, who were shot by the police.

My instructor knows about the shock that this murder caused worldwide. This is exactly what he wants to repeat. Believe me, Akhi, it will fill their hearts with so much terror, because everybody can do this.

Lesen Sie auch

Nobody is supposed to feel safe, because everybody could be a potential terrorist  this is the insidious strategy of the German jihadist.

In order to remove any last doubts I might have, he promises me heavenly rewards for the murder: It will also encourage many Muslims to do the same, and then you will receive your reward.

What he means is the reward in the afterlife. In this Salafist-jihadist ideology, when a jihadists deeds inspire others, this counts extra towards heavenly rewards. Not only is ones own terror attack added to ones martyr account, but also the attacks of those who were inspired by it.

My ISIS instructor actually tries to make me commit an attack by the same methods that are used elsewhere to lure buyers into dubious pyramid schemes. In both cases, the seller appeals to the lure of allegedly easy to reach riches. In the case of ISIS, however, the payment for a terror attack will follow when one is with Allah.

Simply walk into a hospital

I explain to my ISIS instructor that, despite the knife techniques in the video, I am too clumsy to kill a person. He also has a solution for this problem: Akhi, trust in Allah, wallahi it is very easy. Simply walk into a hospital  Take flowers with you and go to the inpatient ward, where the severely ill are. Then calmly slay them. Very calmly.

Hiding a knife in a bouquet of flowers in order to murder severely ill people  so this is what jihad is for my ISIS instructor.

Sheikh al-Adnani rahimahuallah has said this many times. We want very simple operations, because the enemy cannot stop these. Do you understand, akhi?

Al-Adnani  whom my ISIS instructor refers to here  was one of the highest-ranking ISIS leaders. He was head of the ISIS secret services department of external operations responsible for attacks abroad. In pamphlets and audio messages, Al-Adnani kept calling for attacks in the West  be it by car or knife. On August 30, 2016, al-Adnani was killed by a US airstrike in northern Syria.

However, his department of external operations still exists. His German employees still try to guide willing jihadists towards carrying out attacks  just as they did with me.
Starting your day with a cup of mushroom coffee can give a much-needed twist to your daily regimen. Many speak of its benefits, and some even prefer it to regular coffee. But given its unique
Opinion | 04 November 2022 | Interviews

India needs to connect OPD with the cashless insurance network to bring them into the digital economy

After having raised $1.2 million from Entrepreneur First and GrowX Ventures in 2021, how do you see the perfor...Read more
Estimates of global counterfeit drug industry vary from $90 billion to $200 billion

Indias Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO), the apex body for regulatory control working under the health ministry, has adopted two prong strategy to control the spread and sale of sub-standard drugs. Recently, it conducted raids in the Delhis wholesale pharma market and seized medicines nearly worth Rs 50 million which were not stored with the required proper care. Some people were even arrested in this connection.

According to news reports, various types of irregularities like storing medicines and vaccines directly exposing to sunlight, at room temperature against the requirement of 2 to 8 degrees, and storing cough syrups in large containers and then selling it to retailers without proper labels were noticed. CDSCO has also issued draft standard operating procedure for handling of not of standard quality samples and has released the draft guidelines on post marketing surveillance of pharmaceutical products in India.

In US also, United State Food & Drug Administration (USFDA) is investigating sale of counterfeit drugs which was reported by alert patients. Just a few months back another news report said that US customs and border protection seized machines used for making fake pills at a rate 19 times higher than in 2011. In another incident USFDA issued notices to 14 drug companies for false claims of cancer cure and selling unapproved drugs.

Various estimates about the fake drug market in India have been made by different organisations. In some cases it was even noticed that Indias name was maligned by the exporters of the fake drugs from other countries. The drugs were exported from other countries, but the packets carried the Made in India tags.

Such incidences exhibit the magnitude of the problem of fake drugs. But many times it is just a tip of the iceberg. Data about the counterfeit drugs released by the USFDA itself was alarming. Approximately 10% of all pharmaceuticals sold globally are counterfeit. However, the further details are more worrying for Asia since the average figure of 10 % is not equal for all regions. While developed nations have only 1% penetration rate in Europe and the USA, developing nations have high level, up to even 30% in Africa and Far East.

Estimates of global counterfeit drug industry vary from $90 billion to $200 billion. Equally serious issue is the problems, including deaths, faced by patients due to fake drugs. Fake drugs contribute to rise of drug resistance and experts estimate that the counterfeit drugs cause the deaths of nearly one million people.

Authorities in different countries take anti-counterfeiting steps to stop the menace of fake drugs. Government are introducing legislations and initiating actions to prevent spread of fake drugs and attempting to stop them from reaching to patients. Even pharmaceutical companies too are developing methods to prevent sales of fake drugs as that harms their reputation and business. They are trying to use new technological developments.

Among various technological initiatives by the pharma companies, the one in China is printing 20-digit electronic drug monitoring code (EDMC) on each package of medicine or medical device to track the packets and test them for authenticity throughout the supply chain. However, one problem is that the EDMC coding does not correspond with other traceability systems in the world like Global Trade Item Number (GTIN). Serialisation is another method. But those are not found to be adequate. There are advance types of labels which can warn the drug buyers. Combination of such methods leading to multilayer security systems can help detect counterfeit drugs and prevent their spread. There are still challenges in all these systems for which solutions need to be found out. But most important vigilance could be alert buyer. Hence along with all precautionary steps and technical measures, educating people and creating awareness is important for other measures to be successful.
RABAT, Morocco - A Moroccan court on Tuesday sentenced to three months in jail a journalist accused of having "invited" people to take part in banned protests in the restive north, his website said.

 elwynn via 123RF

Hamid El Mahdaoui was arrested on Thursday at the start of a banned demonstration in the northern city of Al-Hoceima, during which protesters clashed with police.

El Mahdaoui, who heads the Badil online news site, was found guilty of helping to organise "a non-authorised march" as well as having "invited" others to take part in the protest, the website said.

He was sentenced to three months in jail and fined 20,000 dirhams (1,800 euros), Badil said, adding that he could appeal the verdict.

The journalist, known for criticising authorities particularly in videos posted on YouTube, was already facing prosecution after two government ministers accused him of defamation.

Media watchdogs have denounced his arrest and accused Morocco of hindering the coverage of unrest in the Rif region, where Al-Hoceima is located, which has been shaked by protests for months.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Friday called for his release and urged authorities to drop all charges against Badil.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) in a statement Saturday said the situation for Moroccan and foreign journalists covering events in northern Morocco "keeps on getting worse".

"By trying to prevent coverage of the Rif protests, the Moroccan authorities are gradually turning this region into a no-go zone for independent media," it said.

The Al-Hirak al-Shaabi protest movement was born last October after a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.

Calls for justice later snowballed into a wider social movement demanding jobs, development, and an end to corruption in the mainly Berber region.

Source: AFP.
UNCTAD adviser, Alibaba's Jack Ma, has launched an African Young Entrepreneurs Fund worth $10 million. In addition, Ma, planned to roll out a partnership with African universities to teach internet technology, artificial intelligence and e-commerce.

Ma announced the creation of a African Young Entrepreneurs Fund, during the Youth Connekt Africa Summit co-hosted by UNCTAD and the Government of Rwanda. Ma, who is on his first visit to Africa, also visited Kenya on Thursday.

I want that fund supporting African online businesses, said Ma, who is special adviser to UNCTAD for Youth Entrepreneurship and Small Business. The money is set. This is my money, so I dont have to get anybodys approval, he said, adding that he was poised to hire staff for the fund, set to begin operations this year.

Ma said that he would also work with UNCTAD to help bring 200 budding African businesspeople to his homeland China to learn from Alibaba hands on. I want them to go to China, meeting our people, seeing all the things we have been doing, all the great ideas China has, he said. They know what they want. And when they know what they want, we can support it, he added.

In addition, Ma said that he planned to roll out a partnership with African universities to teach internet technology, artificial intelligence and e-commerce.

He has been sharing his experience of having built his company, founded in 1999, into a global e-commerce giant valued at more than $231bn, and how he met the string of challenges that he faced along the way.

Ma underscored the importance of internet access in all nations, saying it was an even more important raw material for economies than coal and electricity were in the past.

The Youth Connekt Africa Summit, held in Kigali, brought together more than 1,500 participants from government, entrepreneurial and investor communities, multinationals, and startups shaping the African technological ecosystem. Unlocking Africa's e-commerce is a key priority for UNCTAD, given the potential of online trade to power development.

"African entrepreneurs should not be asking successful businesses, 'How can I distribute your products?', Africans should be saying, 'I have an idea I want to grow  how can you help me to grow it? How can you help me market it?'," said UNCTAD secretary-general Mukhisa Kituyi.

UNCTAD is working with Ma to explore opportunities with African businesses to participate in global trade, as well as to raise awareness of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was adopted by the international community in 2015. In addition to his role as an adviser to UNCTAD, Ma also serves as a UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate.

Ma underscored the importance of internet access in all nations, saying it was an even more important raw material for economies than coal and electricity were in the past.

"Not being connected to the internet today is worse than not having electricity 100 years ago," he said. He also pointed to the big implications for economies and the labour market.

"I think e-commerce, internet, big data is the future. You can never stop it. You like it or dont like it. But you will never stop it, he said. Every time you have a technological revolution, it will kill a lot of jobs and it will create a lot of jobs. This is what history tells us.
SINGAPORE - Amazon launched its express delivery service in Singapore on Thursday, the US online retail giant's first foray into Southeast Asia and a move that puts it in direct competition with China's Alibaba.

Prime Now allows online shoppers in the affluent city-state of five million people to order a wide range of items from baby products to food, electronics items and beer. It marks Amazon's entry into a region of more than 600 million people, where many countries have a growing middle class, and which is seen as the next e-commerce battleground.

"Amazon's entry augurs well for shoppers in the region who will benefit from more choice, price competition and better delivery services," said Prem Shamdasani, an associate professor for marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School.

Alibaba already has a headstart in the region with an 83% stake in Southeast Asia-focused online retailer Lazada. The Chinese firm, founded by China's richest man Jack Ma, raised its stake in Lazada last month with a further $1 billion investment.

The Prime Now application was made available for download in Singapore on Google's Play store and Apple's iTunes. By just entering their postal zip code after opening the app on their devices, online shoppers can start placing their orders. The service promises delivery of items within two hours.

But Shamdasani warned that Southeast Asia could be a tough market. The region includes relatively wealthy countries such as Singapore, but also developing nations with poor infrastructure where it is harder to do business.

"While e-commerce is set to grow the market in Southeast Asia is relatively small and fragmented with narrow margins," he said.

He said Amazon will "face increasing competition from many established store retailers who are embracing e-commerce and providing their customers with seamless omni-channel shopping experiences".

Source: AFP
#NewCampaign: Coding a better, prosperous future

With its 'prosper' philosophy at its core, in helping people achieve their ambitions in the right way', Absa recently released its latest film, Coding a better future', which features three Digital Academy graduates, namely Edward Motloung, Gopolang Lekoto and Sanusha Naidoo, who secured themselves an internship, which led to a full-time job at Absa.

Its astounding what you stand to achieve when you are only given the opportunity to do so, says Absa brand manager Lauren Daniel. For these three coders, life took a turn for the better when they were selected to build a 'prosperous' future for themselves with the help of Absa and the Digital Academy. Now they take their newly acquired skills into the real world, through their permanent positions at Absa  an incredible achievement that is set to better their lives, as well as the lives of every Absa consumer. Speaking of Absa's partnership with the Digital Academy, Daniel says Absa is always looking for scarce and critical skills in the IT space. By partnering with the academy, we actually create a pipeline of these skills into our organisation while contributing to the employability of our youth at the same time. Graduating students are often offered positions in the bank where they assist us in developing innovations and solutions to better service our customers." It's a beautiful collaboration to witness, she says, which is beautifully demonstrated in these three stories, "portraying exactly how all players win and ultimately, through this initiative, how all players prosper." Here, Daniel tells us more about Absa's 'shared growth' strategy and the bank's belief in the power of partnership. Why did Absa partner with Digital Academy? Why did Absa partner with Digital Academy?

Absa believes in the power of partnership, and specifically in the potential to leverage amazing talent and skills from the private sector. The Digital Academy, as an Absa supported initiative, is one of the ways that the bank lives our shared growth values  the belief that when we grow and prosper, so do our customers and the organisations we partner with. We focus on tangible ways to educate and upskill individuals, to empower enterprise development and to promote and drive financial inclusion. The Digital Academy is one of the ways that we drive the education and upskilling pillar of that agenda  by creating high calibre skilled interns that can be absorbed into the Absa group, we are strengthening both the individuals and our organisation to better serve our customers.

Why is education/skills development and creating jobs important to Absa? Why is education/skills development and creating jobs important to Absa?

By creating platforms to address knowledge gaps and supporting education institutions and infrastructure with capacity building to improve their delivery of education, BAGL can drive systemic structural change in the education ecosystem, and ultimately bridge the gap between labour supply (qualified workforce) and market demand (employment opportunities).

Why the focus on web and software development and IT coding in particular and/or the technology, innovation and product development side of the bank? Why the focus on web and software development and IT coding in particular and/or the technology, innovation and product development side of the bank?

A stark reality is obvious to our organisation: we do not have enough skilled developers in South Africa. Given the pervasive trend to digitisation and product innovation within financial services, it became a simple matter of if we cant find [it], create [it].

What is Absas prosper philosophy? What is Absas prosper philosophy?

Prosper is Absas philosophy of facilitating the hopes and dreams of all South Africans, born out of its brand purpose of helping people achieve their ambitions in the right way.

How do all players prosper? How do all players prosper?

The Digital Academy is a startup and their growth depends on the partnership with our corporate partners. The more partners we have, the more our business prospers.

Sanusha, Edward and Gopolang received hands-on training and education in IT coding and technology through the Digital Academy  through this training, they secured themselves an internship and then full-time job at Absa, where they are now being fulfilled in their dream jobs and receiving an income.

Through our relationship with the Digital Academy, Absa is securing a pipeline of high calibre, skilled talent that can be absorbed into the group, thereby strengthening the individuals and our organisation to better serve our customers.

Our customers will be receiving superior products and services as a result of this innovative and forward-thinking approach.

How is Absa coding a better future?



By graduating young, talented, skilled coders or developers for recruitment into the Absa technology teams, we are able to better serve our customers with new products and services in the way they enjoy being served.
Following an extensive and competitive pitch, digital marketing agency Liquorice has been appointed Avon South Africa's digital and social media agency of record.

Avon is a direct seller of beauty products and cosmetics with a presence in over 100 countries through their independent sales force of over 6 million representatives.

Avon as a brand has grown exponentially in South Africa over the years, and has created a strong position as a champion of South African women, says Liquorice founder and CEO, Miles Murphy.

Liquorice looks forward to harnessing digital channels to grow Avons direct sales model, empowering both its brand representatives and customers with digital innovation, he adds.

Liquorice never failed to wow us," comments Momin Hukamdad, ED for Commercial Marketing at Avon. "With their impressive credentials, dynamic energy and innovative creativity, were sure that Liquorice will take our brand to the next level."
As a business owner in the hospitality industry, you have a lot on your plate. Staff management, financial planning, compliance with industry standards, menu development, special promotions, customer service - the list sometimes seems endless. The last thing you need is being overwhelmed by something that can get your head in a serious spin: inventory management.

Trevor Gosling, CEO, Lulalend

According to Trevor Gosling, CEO of Lulalend, poor inventory management can undermine your profits, customer experience and long term financial stability. Letting customers down with poor stock can result in a damaged reputation that can have significant negative effects on your business in the long term. Thankfully, business owners can rely on some core inventory management principles to ensure this aspect of your business supports  instead of undermines  your success.

1. Check the stock when its delivered

Inspect the products, checking that the correct quantity has been delivered and that the items are not damaged. As far as food items are concerned, be sure to check that the best-before dates are not imminent. Dont waste your hard-earned money on stock that wont yield any profit. A careful look at new stock will help you pick up shortcomings in the items received and improve the overall efficiency in the day to day running of your business.

2. Track and analyse your inventory

Are you overspending on your stock? With proper care, you can evaluate how much you need to spend so that you have enough to meet your needs while avoiding excess produce that will only go to waste. Its a good idea to keep track of the most popular menu items, as this will give you a good indication of what you need to purchase more of and what you can cut down on. Estimate how much inventory you will need based on prior sales or seasonal demand and change these based on shifting customer preferences and new sales trends.

3. Store stock in a secure place

Produce like meat, vegetables and fruit should be purchased on a regular basis so that your meals are always fresh. Non-perishable items like tinned food can be purchased in bulk since this has a longer shelf life. Make sure you store all items in the correct conditions so that they wont spoil. This will not only save you money, but its kinder to the environment since discarded food ends up in landfills where it rots and releases harmful greenhouse gases. According to CSIR principal scientist for pollution and waste, Dr Linda Godfrey, a third of all food produced in South Africa is wasted. At an alarming cost of roughly R60bn a year thats equal to 2.1% of our Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

4. Use software to manage your stock

Get a little help from technology to lighten the load and improve productivity. There are many applications designed to help you effectively manage stock. Some great online tools include the Goods Order Inventory System (GOIS Pro)  a web and mobile application designed specifically to address the inventory management needs of SMEs. This app can be used both online and offline, making it easier to help your business automate inventory processes. If youre looking for a free version of software, then opt for Stockpile. This online inventory system for small businesses gives you valuable information about inventory turnover with great reporting functionality.

5. Find trustworthy people to manage stock

Even if youre using software, you still need people that will help control your inventory. Generally, its best to hire two staff members to perform this function. Two sets of eyes make it less likely that anything will be missed during the inventory count. Alternatively, if you cant afford to hire staff to count stock, ask existing staff to do it as part of their duties, or manage this area yourself if you have the time. Whether you hire staff or conduct the stock check yourself, make sure that this is done on a regular basis.

If you know that investing in staff or purchasing inventory software will help your business, dont let a lack of capital stop you. Dont put off investing in the things you need to help you improve your inventory management and grow your business because you dont have the cash flow on hand.
Digital transformation, as we've come to realise, means something different in every industry. In manufacturing, the term can be broad-reaching, encompassing everything from automation and robotics, to fully-fledged smart factories', all the way to the reinvention of the entire sector - captured in the Industry 4.0' concept.

Kittipong Jirasukhanont via 123RF

For manufacturing execs, digitalisation presents numerous opportunities, to enrich their processes with new data insights, to pool their human and their artificial intelligence (AI) resources, and to evolve their classic value chains into more collaborative and digitised networks of specialists.

With the right mix of strategy, culture and technology, manufacturing organisations can shift from their outdated legacy processes, towards more flexible and digitalised platforms, enhancing their competitiveness and positioning themselves for an unpredictable future.

Connected everything

In the smart factory vision, almost every piece of equipment and tooling is fitted with sensors that are continually piping information into a nerve-centre  producing the insights that inform resource allocation, warn of potential machine downtime, and quickly reveal any bottlenecks in the factorys processes.

General Motors, for example, uses sensors to monitor humidity in the painting process, automatically shifting the work to another part of the plant if the levels breach a certain threshold. Another prime example is that of a gold mining house that boosted yield by 3.7% by understanding and reacting to fluctuations in oxygen levels during the leaching process.

A digital thread that weaves new value-chains

Digitalisation collapses borders and time zones, compressing distance and bringing different parties closer to one another. With new collaboration tools, manufacturing execs can digitally connect designers, engineers, researchers and supply-chain partners, and integrate these new networks into the products being developed on the factory floor.

Suddenly, manufacturers can access a wider array of specialist resources from across the globe, creating platforms for enhanced collaboration, communication, and real-time decision-making.

New production techniques

The emergences of digital and 3D printing technologies are starting to change the way many production lines operate. With new advancements such as direct metal laser melting, for instance, its possible to create stronger components at reduced cost, reduced waste, and greater efficiency.

New levels of excellence

But manufacturing technology isnt just about new ways of producing goods and materials. Were starting to see sensors and data being used in interesting, innovative ways, even in the context of traditional manufacturing. For example, some aircraft manufacturers are using sensors on smart tools to help workers drill holes with perfect precision. Tools detect the exact torque required to tighten bolts correctly, for instance, among other tasks. All of this helps to elevate manufacturing excellence to new heights.

Positioning for the future

While we certainly cant predict the future direction of the manufacturing industry, one thing we can be sure of is that digital will play an essential role. By starting to adopt greater levels of digitisation in the factory, manufacturers position themselves to capitalise on emerging trends for the coming decade: the likes of rapid prototyping, crowdsourcing, augmented reality, increased robotics and artificial intelligence, and image-recognising cameras.

Traditional manufacturing business models are coming under increasing threat, and the pressure to digitise is intensifying. Todays leading manufacturers are taking bold steps to reshape their operations, remove the processes hindering transformation, and change their company cultures.

For these fast-moving manufacturers, able to access the technology and the skills that they need, digital is creating exciting new opportunities in the production and distribution of goods.
South African police on Wednesday, 26 July, arrested a 24-year-old woman with 20kg of rhino horn before boarding a flight bound for Hong Kong, a spokesman said.

The woman, whose nationality has not been revealed, was detained at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport while in transit from the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Police said a luggage scanner revealed her suitcase "contained 11 pieces of rhino horn weighing approximately 20 kilogrammes".

She has been charged with contravening laws that protect endangered species.

South Africa is battling a scourge of rhino poaching fuelled by insatiable demand for their horn in Asia, where its powdered form is mistakenly believed to have medicinal powers that could cure cancer or act as an aphrodisiac.

Roughly a quarter of the world rhino population has been killed in South Africa, home to 80% of those remaining, in the last eight years.

The South African government this week revealed that 529 rhino were poached for their horns in the first half of the year, a slight decrease from 542 killed during the same period a year ago.

Source: AFP
The Western Cape government has proposed to rezone the Somerset Hospital Precinct. It will be used for both businesses and homes.

Situated between the V&A Waterfront and the Cape Town Stadium, it includes Somerset Hospital (which will become a clinic under the new proposal), the Old City Hospital and the Helen Bowden Nurses Home.

The Western Cape governments proposal for the Somerset Hospital Precinct.

The proposal by the provincial Department of Transport and Public Works (DTPW) aims to change the character of the area from an underutilised largely inaccessible, institutional precinct containing redundant and dilapidated buildings to a more intensive mixed-use precinct with public access and a pedestrian-friendly environment at street level.

It also includes 300 affordable homes, or social housing. This would be for low-income earners, such as workers in the area.

However, Ndifuna Ukwazi has taken issue with the amount of social housing in the proposal. In a press statement it says the proposed 300 units would account for only 4% of the land.

In response, Siphesihle Dube, spokesperson for MEC for Transport and Public Works Donald Grant, said this number only relates to the Helen Bowden portion of this precinct.

The nurses home has been renamed Ahmed Kathrada House by activists from Reclaim the City who have been occupying it since March. The protest, supported by Ndifuna Ukwazi, started after the province chose not to build affordable housing on the Tafelberg property in Sea Point.

As it stands, the proposal is not aligned with the provinces obligations to redress spatial apartheid, read a statement by Ndifuna Ukwazi. The vast majority of the site could potentially be owned, occupied and used by wealthy corporations and an elite few which would entrench unequal and segregated access to land and opportunities.

But Dube said that the proposal has four phases and detailed development planning is still required for each precinct. This suggests the province may set aside more affordable housing.

Ndifuna Ukwazi has lodged a complaint against the proposal: Unfortunately, much like we saw in the process leading up to the disposal of the Tafelberg site, the department seems to be acting unilaterally, furthering an agenda to strip public land for maximum profit.

Dube said the period for public comment on the proposal is until 28 July.
SANBI Marine Programme manager Dr Kerry Sink was recognised at this year's WWF-SA Living Planet Conference with the organisation's Living Planet Award for her contributions to marine conservation.

Dr Kerry Sink, 2017 WWF-SA Living Planet Award winner

Sink is the founder of the WWF Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative (WWF-SASSI) - a set of tools that allows consumers to contribute to a sustainable seafood industry. She continues to play a critical role in ensuring the scientific credibility of the seafood assessments through her role on the independent SASSI review panel.

Expanding on SA's marine protected areas

Through Operation Phakisa, a South African government initiative, Sink has expanded on the WWF-funded Offshore Marine Protected Area (OMPA) project, with the goal of increasing the extent of South Africas marine protected areas (MPAs). A Pew Fellowship recipient, she is using this research support to ensure that the proposed MPAs are designed to promote biological diversity, and is working with key industry sectors to reach the goal of protecting 10% of South Africas waters.

The WWF South Africa Living Planet Award recognises the contributions of South African individuals who inspire people to live in harmony with nature for the benefit of the country and the wellbeing of all. Previous winners have included international river-flow expert Dr Jackie King, and Andrew Zaloumis, CEO of iSimangaliso Wetland Park.

The 2017 WWF-SA Living Planet Conference was held on Thursday, 27 July, at The Maslow Hotel in Sandton.
Dr Akinwumi Adesina, the president of the African Development Bank (AFDB) says the bank will invest $24bn in agriculture in Africa over the next 10 years. Adesina made the disclosure at the 50th-anniversary celebration of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan on Monday.

Joachim Huber via Wikimedia Commons

The AFDB president said the bank was committed to turning agriculture into a business across Africa and to ensure that the continent fed itself within the next 10 years.

Taking technology to farmers

Adesina said that AFDB had decided to work with IITA to help drive Africa's agricultural sector transformation and unlock its full potential. "At the core of this is getting technologies to millions of farmers and the bank has developed the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) together with IITA and other centres as a technology platform.

"This is to help take high yielding technologies to farmers for an African green revolution. AFDB and the World Bank expect to invest up to $800 million in TAAT which will be launched this year," he said.

50 years of significant successes

Adesina said that the past 50 years of IITA had been full of successes, adding that the institution was run with transparency, honesty and integrity.

The former agriculture minister said that IITA had contributed so much to agriculture across Africa and in Nigeria in particular. He said that the institute developed the maize varieties that transformed the savanna and humid zones.

"It's cowpea varieties supply the beans on our markets and the soybeans varieties led to the soya beans revolution in Nigeria.

"While its work on cassava and yam still form the core of Nigeria's cassava and yams value chain transformation, IITA's work on alley-farming sparked global interest in sustainable agriculture.

"It's landmark breakthrough on biological control which saved Africa from the devastating cassava mealy bug that had wiped out all its cassava was globally recognised," Adesina said.

Becoming a continent that consumes what it produces

In his address, the Director General of IITA, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, highlighted the successes recorded in the last 50 years. Sangina appreciated contributions of former President Olusegun Obasanjo and retired Gen. Yakubu Gowon to IITA in Nigeria. He said that the next agenda of the institute was to see Africa becoming a continent consuming what it produces in agriculture.

The director general pointed out that 99 percent of funds used in running IITA came from outside the country and urged Nigerians to invest in agriculture. According to Sangina, there will be a serious crisis if funds from outside the country stopped coming in.
With the backing of the African Legal Support Facility, the Government of Rwanda has taken a concrete step toward becoming a transportation hub for the East African region with the signing of a concession agreement for the construction and operation of Bugesera International Airport.

Kigali is being positioned to become a nerve center for business, travel, and shipping in the sub-region.

Photo by Andrew Branch via Unsplash

The agreement was signed on behalf of the government of Rwanda by the minister of infrastructure, James Musoni and Manuel Mota, chief executive officer of Monta-Engil, on behalf of the developer and the engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contractor respectively.

Worth approximately $700 million, the Bugesera Airport project is designed to be executed across four phases. The first phase will involve approximately 27 months of construction - at an estimated cost of $400 million - and is expected to be completed by 2019, at which point the airport will be able to accommodate 1.8 million passengers annually.

Aligned with vision 2020

The development of Bugesera Airport is aligned with Rwanda's Vision 2020 - an ambitious strategy which aims to transform Rwanda into a knowledge-based, middle-income country by the end of the decade - as well as the country's economic development and poverty reduction strategy (EDPRS).

As such, the project is designed and is being implemented with the aim of generating socio-economic development in Bugesera, Kigali, and other parts of the Eastern Province. The airport will further sustain the development of the aviation sector by backstopping the growth of RwandAir with new facilities and training opportunities. The project is expected to provide approximately 2,000 jobs for local residents.

The ALSF provided assistance to the government of Rwanda in the development of the project, notably the provision of legal advisers who supported the government in its negotiations between project partners in the concession agreement for the construction and development of the airport. The coordination of legal efforts was instrumental in ensuring the signing, first of a project development agreement and joint-venture agreement between the Rwandan government and investor, and subsequently of the concession agreement.

"We have anticipated this project for close to 10 years, all the while relying largely on local expertise," explained Emmanuel Rugambwa, a strategic investment analyst at the Rwanda Development Board.

"When we approached the ALSF, they swiftly helped us procure the required expertise to structure the project such that it attracts private capital. Since then, we've had many banks express interest in joining the project. The ALSF grant also includes a capacity building component which ensures that the procured experts will train Rwandans to monitor the project's development, as well as to structure future projects in a similar manner."

Designed to ease air traffic load

The Bugesera airport is designed to ease the air traffic load currently being experienced at Kigali International Airport which is the nearest to Kigali's central business district in Kanombe, 10km east.

In 2009 the Rwandan government employed TPS, a British engineering firm, to design and carry out a feasibility study to develop a new airport in Nyamata village in Bugesera, 40km south of Kigali.

The Bugesera Airport is designed to handle one million passengers and 150 million tonnes of cargo annually during its first phase from 2015 to 2025. Subsequent phases will follow with higher passenger and cargo capacities.

Under its second phase, Bugesera will incorporate building a second runway to approximate the capacity of the largest world airports.

The airport is also designed to provide leisure, hotels, and conference facilities. It is further hoped a free trade zone will be created in the area which will spur economic development.

Bugesera is an ideal location for an international airport because as Kigali expands, the two areas are expected to marry.
The Seed Academy has released its third Real State of Entrepreneurship in South Africa 2017, one of South Africa's largest entrepreneurial surveys, which indicates the development of youth entrepreneurship, and access to funding and markets remain key challenges.

Donna Rachelson

More impactful business development support that provides entrepreneurs with robust business basics is needed to increase small business success rates, while a decline in youth owned businesses has emerged as cause for concern, given South Africas dire unemployment figures.

This years survey, which canvassed over 1,200 entrepreneurs, expanded its scope from start-ups to all entrepreneurs at any stage of business development to gain valuable insight on the true state of entrepreneurship in South Africa.

These are just some of the findings of, the announced by Conducted by Seed Academy and now in its third consecutive year, the survey is the biggest and most widely referenced of its kind.

Encouragingly, we are seeing the gap between the number of male and female entrepreneurs start to narrow as women represented 47% of entrepreneurs surveyed. This gives some indication that efforts focused on the development of women owned businesses are beginning to pay off. Similar initiatives are now urgently needed to develop youth entrepreneurs so that entrepreneurship is viewed as a real career option, notes Donna Rachelson, Seed Engine CEO, incorporating Seed Academy and the WDB Seed Fund.

Short on specific education, strong on relationship

Although some 65% of survey respondents were in possession of a post-matric qualification and a sizeable majority at 85% had at least one years work experience before starting a business, many entrepreneurs indicated that they require education specific to the practicalities of running a business such as marketing support and business planning. Rachelson says that while Centres for Entrepreneurship at TVET colleges are making strides in entrepreneurial education, both the public and private sectors need to look at what more can be done and how this kind of education could be incorporated into both basic and tertiary curricula.

Interestingly, 33% of entrepreneurs that have been in business for more than two and half years attribute the primary reason for their success to cultivating strong personal networks. This finding bears some correlation to the fact that 95% of businesses are funded by a combination of owners funds and funds from owners friends and family.

What we can interpret from this is that entrepreneurs place a high value on cultivating strong trust-based relationships that can help the business owner with access to markets and other opportunities, including access to financing, both of which were stated as the most pressing challenges by 67% and 43% of entrepreneurs respectively.

Finding funders

Only 18% of entrepreneurs surveyed have attempted to secure funding from banks or development funding institutions like the IDC or DTI. Some entrepreneurs indicated that they simply do not know where to go for funding especially in light of the fact that most early-stage business funding requirements are below the R100k threshold. There is certainly a case to be made for funding providers to revise certain requirements to better accommodate the unique needs of small and early-stage businesses. Of course, one unfortunate implication of self-funding is that growth potential is limited to the owners own pocket and diminishes the ability for a small business to increase capacity, hire more staff and make a more meaningful impact on the South African economy.

Top sectors

This years survey has also revealed that the top sectors represented by respondents are information technology, business services, construction, and advertising, marketing & pr. These are however weakly aligned to the South African governments priority sectors of manufacturing, construction, utilities and telecoms, indicating that more aggressive efforts are needed to incentivise businesses development in these key priority sectors.

One important aim of the survey is to influence the entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Africa positively by providing the basis for robust engagement for policy makers and providers of financial and non-financial support to business in South Africa. In addition, the research functions as a useful touchpoint to help educate individuals thinking about starting a business, and those already running businesses, about the current challenges and opportunities facing entrepreneurs in South Africa.

With each survey, we learn something new that challenges us and the broader entrepreneurial ecosystem in South Africa. Armed with concrete new insights we are better equipped to make significant changes to the way we support entrepreneurs, concludes Rachelson.

To download the full report go to www.seedengine.co.za.
The Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa (RETOSA) leadership has spent a day at the Midrand Conference Centre in Johannesburg developing RETOSA's repositioning strategy with the aim of moving the SADC region share of tourism from its current 2% of global tourist arrivals and receipts respectively to 5% within the next decade. In a departure from past practice which saw more preoccupation with governments or public sector, the new vision is founded on strong partnerships with the private sector.

Front from left to right: Desmond Khalid Golding (CEO of RETOSA), Sem Shikongo (Chairman of RETOSA), Digu // Naobeb (CEO of Namibia Tourism Board). Middle from left to right: Vasco Manhica, (Chairman of the private sector association in Mozambique), Sisa Ntshona (CEO of South African Tourism), Albino Mahumana (CEO Mozambique Tourism Authority), Dr Kaseke (CEO of Zimbabwe Tourism Authority) Back from left to right: Martin Kennedy (Communications Officer of Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association) and Paul Matamisa (CEO of the private sector Zimbabwe Tourism Council) Back from left to right: Martin Kennedy (Communications Officer of Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association) and Paul Matamisa (CEO of the private sector Zimbabwe Tourism Council)

Following a comprehensive transformation process of the 20-year old organisation, RETOSA has been rekindled into a new organisation, with a new value proposition for its key stakeholders, and a new vision which will be achieved through focused marketing and strategic investment. A new management team, led by Desmond Golding as CEO, started in June 2017 and has been instrumental in todays turning-point event which saw both the public sector and private sector stakeholders contribute to a sustainable, action-driven and results-orientated strategy, which will focus on value adding to its partners bottom line and enhance the region as the destination of choice.

According to Dr Sem Shikongo, chairman of RETOSA and director of Tourism and Gaming, Ministry of Environment and Tourism in Namibia, After a long adventure of reflection, analysis and critical re-thinking, RETOSA is now emerging as a transformed agency with a new mandate and two key objectives: to increase competitiveness of the region and, increased and improved global tourism market share for the region. This must be achieved through a smart partnership between the Regions private sector players and RETOSA in a game-changing manner through innovation and pragmatism. At the same time, the Regions tourism ministries have committed themselves to creating the enabling policy and legislative environment through the tourism coordination unit to be housed at the SADC Secretariat, a critical development. The road is clear . Tourism is everyones business"

Tourism remains a priority sector of many of the SADC countries economies.

Championing regional collaboration to drive tourism growth

According to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, in 2015, international tourist arrivals grew by 4.6% to reach more than one billion, generating $1.5 trillion in export earnings. Forecasts see continued tourism growth in the region of 4% year-on-year, and that foreign tourists will total 1.8b by 2030. The new RETOSA is tasked with taking advantage of this opportunity to increase tourism in the region in partnership with the private sector."

Paul Matamisa, CEO of the Zimbabwe Tourism Council indicated that"Today was a good positive beginning for the good future of Southern Africa where RETOSA has to engage all stakeholders and hope they bring all to the party, especially the private sector institutions."

"By championing regional collaboration, RETOSA must drive intra-Africa tourism because a robust domestic and regional tourism sector is essential to a thriving tourism economy in Africa," said the CEO of South African Tourism, Sisa Nthshona.

Vasco Manhica, chairman of the private sector association in Mozambique said: From our perspective, we need RETOSA to add value to tourism in the region. Our expectation is that RETOSA will be the champion advocate for tourism integration for the benefit of the region."

Martin Kennedy, communications officer of SHTA (Seychelles Hospitality and Tourism Association) summarised deliberations as follows: "Potentially an important step towards reducing the credibility gap between words and actions. There was evidence of diverse and creative thinking with a focus on real and pressing industry scenarios."

The CEO of RETOSA, Desmond Golding pointed out that: "The presence of very senior representatives from the private sector from the various countries today truly marks a turning point for RETOSA, and we are particularly encouraged by their contribution towards the development of our strategy. We are confident that we have taken the points they made and have reflected in our strategy, which will enhance the new partnerships, that RETOSA needs to build with the private sector. We will, of course, secure further engagement with the wider private sector representatives from the various Member States to further entrench their support, participation and commitment to the new RETOSA."

Working strategically

For example, the Trans-Frontier and cross-border products with multinational benefits remain strategic with high impact. RETOSA will work strategically to complement the tourism marketing work currently being implemented by the different countries and not duplicate."

The fundamental anchor for RETOSAs vision is an understanding that tourism is an economic and trade imperative. RETOSA sees tourism and its relations to economic growth, employment creation and poverty elimination fundamentally interlinked to stimulation of investment and commerce.

The recently-appointed RETOSA executive management include:

Desmond Khalid Golding, chief executive officer, commands transversal skills in economics, finance, banking, commerce, investment and tourism. He was the director general/permanent secretary for the KwaZulu Natals Department of Economic Development and Tourism; director: credit and risk governance at Standard Bank; group credit officer at Investec Bank Limited, and senior manager: strategic management at the SA Reserve Bank (Governors Office).

Golding has served in various boards including SA Broadcasting Corporation, Ithala Development Finance Corporation, Ithala Bank, as well as Chairing the South African Civil Aviation Authority, and the Corporation Bank Development Agency. He has read for Masters of Law (Banking and Finance) from University of London, Master of International Relations (Wits University), Finance for Senior Executives (Harvard University), and Advanced Leadership and Management Programme (Oxford University). Golding is a Mandela Scholar  having been awarded the prestigious Nelson Mandela Leadership Scholarship, and has been Indicted at Oxford Said Business School for having participated and won the Great Oxford Debate.

Thembi Kunene-Msimang, executive: marketing and communications, a communications graduate from the University of Fort-Hare, has over 18 years experience in the tourism sector. Prior to her current position at RETOSA, Kunene-Msimang was responsible for tourism services at Cape Town Tourism. Before that, she was the chief quality assurance officer for the Tourism Grading Council of South Africa (TGCSA) and member of Exco at South African Tourism (SAT). She currently serves on the Boards of Stenden South Africa, Gilt-Edge Khula, as well as Brand South Africa.

Kenneth Racombo, executive: resource mobilisation, was previously the director general at the Department of Foreign Affairs in the Republic of Seychelles. Racombo has a Masters Degree in Diplomatic Studies with the University of Pretoria, a Masters Degree in Leadership and Strategic Management with the Institute of Public Administration in Ireland and a Degree in Economics with the University of Mauritius. Racombos career has been primarily focussed in Economic Diplomacy and regional intergration.

Simba Madinyanye, executive: research and information management, has more than 20 years experience in the tourism sector. An expert in research, planning and sustainable tourism development, capacity building and product development. Madinyanye holds a Bsc Hons Degree in Economics, an MSc in Population Studies and a Masters in Business Administration.

Kevin Kenanao Masupe, executive: corporate services, holds a Masters Degree in Business Leadership coupled with several business management and

leadership training. A business management specialist, Masupe has 23 years experience in organisational structuring and startups. Masupe brings a wealth of experience that will assist the new RETOSA to build the new organisation.
From day trips to multi-week adventures, self-catering lodges to luxury tents, the demand for wildlife experiences are increasing as tourism in sub-Saharan Africa grows. As tourist and investor interest grows in this sector, HVS has released a white paper, Learnings From and For Africa's Game Lodge Industry, which brings some peculiarities and challenges of the lodging industry to light and also lists some lessons/best practices for developers.

Image Supplied

It is interesting to note that the annual increase in absolute visits in room nights and units sold has increased steadily but not at an alarming pace. However, the tourism revenue has increased more than five times (over 16% year-on-year increase), pointing to an effective strategy that can be adopted by national parks and overall by the lodging industry. Visits to national parks cannot be a volume driven approach and hence the rate strategy is very important, says Rishabh Thapar, senior consultant at HVS, Cape Town.

The volume of visitors to game reserves has always been a topic of debate. Thapar says tourism can actually contribute to the conservation, local communities and the long-term sustainability of game reserves. There is always a case to manage the visits and still extract the highest yield from tourism activities, he adds.

Accessibility is key

As travel patterns shift from one long holiday in a year towards multiple short trips, the accessibility of lodges (and the national park itself) from major cities or ports of entry is critical for the lodge industry. The availability of flights, maintenance of airstrips, national highways and motorable tracks within reserves are all crucial factors that impact seasonality in wild life destinations.

Birds eye view

Structuring the concessions/land leases is vital and must be investigated as it can be an important factor in determining profitability and return on investment. Factoring an incubation period is essential as these projects require strong funding and are usually not profitable in the initial years of operations.

Looking at the opportunities ahead

Travel trends are, to an increasing degree, not being carved by successful middle-aged or the retired wealthy but by the millennials who are looking for an authentic experience, not just comfort and luxury. Luxury travel is no longer about pampering and spoiling yourself at a hotel with a heated pool and Egyptian cotton sheets, its about experiencing the world and moments that are social media worthy.

The African safari experience and the excitement of spotting something natural and unexpected are unique and not available on every continent. The popularity of tourism in the plains of Serengeti, or the dotted landscape of Mara, the vastness of the Kruger National Park, the deltas and deserts of Botswana are examples of this trend.

HVS anticipates this momentum will grow as tourism and connectivity in African wildlife destinations continues, presenting a strong investment potential for passionate developers/wildlife conservationists especially in upcoming wildlife destinations in Africa (reserves of Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda and Zambia among others).

Full copies of this white paper will be available to all delegates attending the upcoming THINC Africa conference, hosted by HVS, taking place on 30-31 August in Cape Town. HVS consultants will be available to discuss the potential of game lodge development and investment and to advise current game lodge owners and management on any challenges they may be facing.
Concept initiators Soul Candi announced the launch of the first ever annual official Dance Music Awards South Africa in Johannesburg yesterday, 26 July 2017.

Created to acknowledge and honour the accomplishments and contributions of South African dance music artists, the Dance Music Awards South African (DMASA) aims to award the hard working, publicly-recognized individuals who are pushing boundaries and driving South Africas thriving dance music industry forward.

The winner selection will be held entirely online with the SADMA managed as an audience-voted award event dedicated to South African dance music. Voting and nominations will be made through the official website & social media. With the fully transparent user voted award process, the DMASA gives the public the power to choose the award winners. Competition will be driven strictly by social media and online interaction, no panel will dictate the nominees.

The actual awards ceremony will also be conducted online, where the winner will be announced in each category. This not only provides fans a chance to interact with artists/DJs around South Africa but also helps those artists/DJs gain recognition and prestige throughout a wider fan base and audience. The winners will then be invited to a private honorary dinner to collect their actual physical awards.

Key phases:

July  The Announcement

August - Phase 1 Voting campaign commences

September - Phase Two of voting (Top five per category)

October - Winner announced

October - Honorary dinner

The evolution of dance music in Southern Africa is nothing short of a phenomenon says conceptualizer Ricardo da Costa and further adds, Dance musics popularity defies race, age and socio-economic dividers so why not celebrate it? DMASA will create a platform for the commercial, underground, black, white, festival, clubs, male & females of the dance music industry to be honoredby the fans!

Furthermore, the DMASA also hopes to stimulate dialogue and create a forum for songwriters, performers and dance music musicians. Through this exchange the DMASA hopes to draw attention to the artists/DJs and ideas at work in the dance music industry and promote greater participation and recognition for South African dance music abroad.

The DMASA presents an opportunity for music enthusiasts from around South Africa to celebrate their favourite DJs and/or artists by nominating or voting for them as a potential category winner.

Categories:

Best Male DJ

Best Female DJ

Best Producer

Best Live Act

Best Festival

Best Music Video (From Dance Artist)

Best Male Vocalist of the Year

Best Female Vocalist of the Year

Best Record Label

Compilation of The Year

Album of The Year

Remix of The Year

Best International DJ (who has recently toured or performed in SA)

Best International Producer (who has had recent success in the SA market)

Best Club of The Year (includes Clubs, Lounges, Bars, etc)

Best House Record of the Year

Best Kwaito Record of the Year

Best EDM Record of the Year

Best Underground Record of the Year (All non-commercial dance & underground sounds by SA Dance Music Artist)

Best Dance Radio Show Award

How it works:

Sign up

Phase 1: List your top five per category

Automate social sharing of voting procedure to users social platforms with who they voted for

Phase 2: Vote for your favourite from list per category

Automate social sharing

For more information check out www.facebook.com/DMASouthAfrica
The police's Operation Vala Madi is making headway in preventing cross-border crimes in Limpopo, with two smuggling suspects recently arrested.

The operation is targeted at the areas along the borderline between Phafuri, Beitbriedge and Pontdrift.

Members of the Tactical Response Team, Public Order Police Unit and K9 Unit -- supported by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) -- intercepted a Range Rover valued at R900,000 en route to Malawi. The driver was arrested and an amount of R30 000 was found in his possession, Brigadier Motlafela Mojapelo said on Thursday.

The team also recovered a vehicle that got stuck in the middle Limpopo River. The vehicle, a white Mercedes Benz, was stolen in Durban and it belongs to a renting company. It was being smuggled into Zimbabwe by a 28-year-old suspect.

The arrested suspects will appear in the Musina Magistrates Court soon.

Mojapelo said other suspects in a Ford Ranger were intercepted when they were about to cross the Limpopo River. However, the suspects fled into the bushes when police pounced on them.

In addition to this, three more vehicles were also recovered along the N1, north of Musina, during the operation.

Some of these vehicles belong to rental companies. The police will continue to operate at all identified areas to close the routes that are being used by criminals to smuggle stolen vehicles north of our borders, Mojapelo said.

In December, the operation intercepted a stolen vehicle that was being ferried across the Limpopo River.

Police Minister Fikile Mbalula said he is encouraged by the success of this operation, as it will go a long way in the fight against crime.

I am highly motivated by the work of the SAPS and its units in our fight against crime. With the recent major drug bust in Soweto and this operation, police are squeezing the space of the criminals. They must not feel safe at our borders, said Minister Mbabula.

He said there will be no retreat as police will not compromise their radical approach towards criminals.

We are squeezing the space and our operations are focused on wanted criminals. We will redouble our work and intensify our efforts. We have no time to waste.
The best creatives in the world inspiring the best creatives in the region. That's how Fahmeeda Cassim Surtee, Marketing & Sales Director DStv Media Sales, describes the DStv Seminar of Creativity during Loeries Creative Week in Durban on Friday, 18 August.

Now in its fifth year, the seminar is a highlight of Loeries Creative Week for everyone across the industry.

This is the only opportunity of its kind for our local creative community to be directly exposed to such international thought leaders. Were thrilled to continue to host some of the worlds leading creative minds at our seminar, says Andrew Human, CEO of Loeries Africa Middle East. There is no other seminar in our region that hosts seven world-class speakers of this calibre all on one day.

This years speaker line-up includes:

Pum Lefebure Tea Uglow Luc-Olivier Luco Marquet Gotz Ulmer , Chief Creative Officer, Jung Von Matt, Hamburg, Germany. His clients include Vodafone, MINI, eBay, Audi and Mercedes and international judging includes Cannes, OneShow, DA&D, and Clio.

, Chief Creative Officer, Jung Von Matt, Hamburg, Germany. His clients include Vodafone, MINI, eBay, Audi and Mercedes and international judging includes Cannes, OneShow, DA&D, and Clio. Keith Cartwright , Executive Creative Director, BSSP, California, USA. Keith was responsible for the gender-busting #keepbuilding Lego campaign, the most viewed commercial in Legos history, and the Become Legendary campaign which helped Jordan reach US$ 1B in sales for the first time in its history.

, Executive Creative Director, BSSP, California, USA. Keith was responsible for the gender-busting #keepbuilding Lego campaign, the most viewed commercial in Legos history, and the Become Legendary campaign which helped Jordan reach US$ 1B in sales for the first time in its history. Luc-Olivier Luco Marquet , CEO, Unilever South Africa joined Unilever from the LOreal group with 23 years of FMCG experience, having worked in brand building and brand development, customer development and travel retail. He has worked in Europe, the Americas and, most recently in West Africas developing and emerging markets for Unilever.

, CEO, Unilever South Africa joined Unilever from the LOreal group with 23 years of FMCG experience, having worked in brand building and brand development, customer development and travel retail. He has worked in Europe, the Americas and, most recently in West Africas developing and emerging markets for Unilever. Markus Maczey , Chief Creative Officer, Plan.Net Group, Munich, Germany, was one of the first creative brand communicators in the digital sphere and now takes his place as a leading digital thinker on an international level.

, Chief Creative Officer, Plan.Net Group, Munich, Germany, was one of the first creative brand communicators in the digital sphere and now takes his place as a leading digital thinker on an international level. Pum Lefebure , Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, Washington DC; Board Director, The One Club, New York, USA. Named in Adweek's Creative100 in 2016, Graphic Design USAs Top 50 People to Watch, and as a Rising Star by the Washington Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business.

, Co-Founder and Chief Creative Officer, Design Army, Washington DC; Board Director, The One Club, New York, USA. Named in Adweek's Creative100 in 2016, Graphic Design USAs Top 50 People to Watch, and as a Rising Star by the Washington Business Journal's Women Who Mean Business. Tea Uglow , Creative Director of Googles Creative Lab based in Sydney, has been with Google since 2006, pioneering its Creative Labs in Europe and Asia Pacific. Her work centres on enabling artists, writers and performers to experiment with new ways of using digital technology to augment traditional methods. She speaks on innovation and digital futures around the world; her 2015 TEDx talk has 1.5M+ views.

, Creative Director of Googles Creative Lab based in Sydney, has been with Google since 2006, pioneering its Creative Labs in Europe and Asia Pacific. Her work centres on enabling artists, writers and performers to experiment with new ways of using digital technology to augment traditional methods. She speaks on innovation and digital futures around the world; her 2015 TEDx talk has 1.5M+ views. Weera Saad, Head of Creative Shop, Facebook: MEA, inspires and drives innovative ideas to help unlock the creative power of Facebook on her quest to scale up the platform and deliver powerful stories from the region. Her award-winning 20-year advertising background culminated in Executive Director Strategic Planning at DDB and BBDO across the MEA region.

Seating at the seminar is limited and delegates are advised to secure their seats as soon as possible. More info on Loeries Creative Week can be found on loeries.com.

About Loeries Africa Middle East

The Loeries, a non-profit company, is Africa and the Middle Easts premiere initiative that recognises, rewards, inspires and fosters creative excellence in the brand communication industry. As the highest accolade for creativity and innovation across our region, the Loeries promotes and supports creativity by helping marketers, agencies and consumers appreciate the value of ideas and fresh thinking.

Culminating in the biggest creative gathering in Africa and the Middle East, Loeries Creative Week Durban brings together the best innovative minds from our industry for a festival of networking, inspiring minds and recognising great work.

Our region's creative economy is world-class and has great potential to grow and to offer employment both to our talented youth. The growth occurring throughout Africa and the Middle East is very exciting, and a major focus of the Loeries is to increase the standard of brand communication in the region.

Major Partners of the Loeries 2017

Tourism KwaZulu-Natal (TKZN), The Department of Economic Development, Tourism and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal Province (EDTEA), eThekwini Municipality  Durban Tourism, DStv Media Sales.

Category Partners

AB InBev, Accenture, Channel O, Facebook, Gagasi FM, Google, JCDecaux, SANBS, The Times, Unilever South Africa, Woolworths.

Additional Partners and Official Suppliers

AAA School of Advertising, Antalis South Africa, Aon South Africa, Association of Practitioners in Advertising, Backsberg, BEE Online, Circus Circus Beach Cafe, DDB South Africa, First Source, Fresh RSVP Guest Logistics, Funk Productions, Gallo Images, Graphica, Grid Worldwide, HelloCrowd, Hetzner, Multiprint Litho, Lingo Communications, Newsclip, Paygate, Paul Shiakallis Photography, Rocketseed, Scan Display, Shift Social Development, South African Airways, Total Exposure, Tsogo Sun, Vega School, VQI.

Official Media Partners

Between 10and5, Bizcommunity.com, Book of Swag, Campaign Middle East, CliffCentral.com, Coloribus Advertising Archive, Design Times, Film & Event Media, Goliath and Goliath, iDidTht.com, Leading Architecture and Design, Marketing Edge Nigeria, Marketing Africa, Media Update, The Redzone, YouTube.




Proposals contained in a draft bill to change the tax treatment of foreign trusts held by South Africans are aggressive and should be reconsidered, says Andrew Wellsted, director at Norton Rose Fulbright.

"The continued attack on trusts by the revenue authority is disappointing because they serve a useful commercial purpose and are not solely used as tax-avoidance structures," Wellsted said this week.

Trusts could ring-fence assets owned by entrepreneurs so that creditors could not attach them or protect assets for children not old enough to manage their parents' estates in the event of death, he said.

Revenue authorities globally are scrutinising trusts, which are perceived as tax-avoidance vehicles. The Davis Tax Committee, an advisory panel to the Treasury chaired by Judge Dennis Davis, has proposed that the South African Revenue Service establish an investigations unit to examine foreign discretionary trusts.

Johan van Zyl, partner and CEO in SA of international family office Stonehage Fleming, said trusts were becoming less popular because tax benefits had been eroded over time.

In respect of foreign trusts that house their assets in foreign companies, the Draft Taxation Laws Amendment Bill has proposed to treat the companies as controlled foreign companies. This would mean income earned by these companies would be taxable in the hands of resident beneficiaries.

A second proposed amendment would subject all distributions made to local beneficiaries by these types of trusts to income tax. This could result in double taxation of trust income, said Wellsted.

Currently, distributions from foreign trusts were taxed according to their nature, which was more equitable, he said.

A further proposed change seeks to address the tax-free transfer of wealth to trusts by tightening a loophole in section 7(c) of the Income Tax Act.

Section 7(c) was introduced to penalise individuals making interest-free loans to trusts of which they were beneficiaries, said Tertius Troost, tax consultant at Mazars. The provision treats the difference between the interest charged on the loan and the official rate of interest for trusts - 7.75% a year - as a donation, subject to donations tax.

To avoid paying this tax, individuals would shift the investments originally held by the trust to a company of which the trust was a shareholder, said Troost.

The Treasury has now proposed that section 7(c) should also apply to loans made to companies held by trusts.

This would hurt entrepreneurs, who commonly loaned interest-free funds to a newly established company held in a trust to keep it outside that person's estate, said Troost.

Trusts would need to be independently evaluated to determine what action should be taken to deal with the implications of the amendment, said Elana Nel, senior associate in tax advisory at Stonehage Fleming.

Aggressive first-draft proposals were often eased in the second draft, said Wellsted.

Source: Business Day
THESSALONIKI - Greek police said they had arrested a 38-year-old Russian sought by US authorities for allegedly helping criminals launder billions of dollars using bitcoin.

Police said the man, identified as Alexander Vinnik, headed a organisation that has allegedly laundered at least $4bn since 2011 using the virtual currency.

He was arrested on Tuesday in the tourist resort of Halkidiki, near the northern city of Thessaloniki.

According to Greek police, part of the suspect's illegal gains came from the collapse in 2014 of Tokyo-based bitcoin exhange Mt. Gox.

A California court issued a warrant for his arrest in January, they said.

Bitcoin is a virtual currency created from computer code. Unlike a real-world unit such as the US dollar or the euro, it has no central bank and is not backed by any government.

Just like other currencies, bitcoins can be exchanged for goods and services -- or for other currencies -- provided the other party is willing to accept them.
#NewCampaign: Adidas Originals teams up with young creatives to tell product stories

Adidas Originals kicked off a three-month campaign earlier this month, that engages the youth to tell three key product stories for Campus in June, NMD in July and EQT in August.

Area3.co.za Area3 CPT17 on Bree Street in Cape Town is a co-creation space where young creatives are publishing these brand stories themselves in real time. With this campaign, we wanted to explore new ways of opening up our product stories to interpretation of the creative youth today, explains Ashleigh Melvill, merchandise specialist: style. The aim is to offer a co-creation platform allowing young creatives to become immersed in our product stories and engage with our brand on a deeper and more meaningful level than before. Consumers today want to be given a voice and engaged with on a more personal level rather than being talked at with conventional marketing campaigns. Young creatives are invited to book one of two studios complete with equipment and the use of Adidas Originals product. The booking slots also include creative support, styling advice and editing software for post-production. Its also open on Saturdays and Sundays for shoots and on Friday evenings for talks and workshops on a range of creative disciplines. I chatted to Melvill and Imraan Christian, photographer and creative director of the space for more info. Ashleigh Melvill Why is it important that brands relook at their marketing strategies, especially when it comes to the youth? Why is it important that brands relook at their marketing strategies, especially when it comes to the youth?

AM: In modern times both consumers and brands are fighting to express their individuality and need more than ever to cut through the clutter in order to find true meaning and expression of their desired message(s). As a brand, if you dont change and continuously evolve and reinvent your methods of communication, you are not going to discover what your consumer truly wants to communicate back to you; marketing is not a one-way conversation any longer. Consumers are hungry for more meaningful experiences and opportunities to express their individuality  it is creativity that is the key outlet for this expression.

What opportunity(ies) does such a project present to the consumer and the brand? What opportunity(ies) does such a project present to the consumer and the brand?

AM: By opening our brand up in this way, we hope to offer the consumer an open source experience of a real-life creative industry environment and inspire and ignite the passion to create with our products over the next three months. Real-time publishing in our studio is a core element to this campaign and coupled with the powerful creative team at the forefront of the project, we believe we are onto something powerful and meaningful. The opportunity for the consumer lies in the exposure to the brand and hopefully the ultimate unleashing of their untapped creative potential and passion for design. For the brand, we want to see what concepts and interpretations come from the next generation creatives out there and ultimately would like to tell our product stories in a more authentic way hopefully instilling a deeper emotional connection with the Adidas brand.

The purpose of the campaign is two-fold, one of engagement and enrichment. Please elaborate. The purpose of the campaign is two-fold, one of engagement and enrichment. Please elaborate.

AM: Engagement is key to everything we do; a message or story that is not engaged with and shared is not worth telling at all. We have so many Adidas brand and product stories to tell but we need to make sure that consumers are given the platform to immerse themselves and interpret these stories in their own individual ways  this is where the enrichment comes in.

Briefly explain how it works. Briefly explain how it works.

AM: To use the space to bring your ideas to life, all you need to do is: e-mail Raees to book your slot and hell get in touch to confirm a date and time as soon as possible. Once you are checked in, our creative directors, stylist Gabrielle Kannemeyer and photographer Imraan Christian, will assist the young creatives with the conceptualisation of their content ideas, styling and shoot production, while playing a mentorship role over the three-month period.

How/where did you advertise the event? How/where did you advertise the event?

AM: Our brand campaigns are always communicated on our various brand channels: Instagram or Twitter (@adidasZA) as well as our exclusive 3stripes club which gives you the latest inside news on everything happening in the world of Adidas. The Area3 CPT 17 space has been communicated organically and purely by word of mouth, but we also have a blog which you can follow for further updates and inspiration on whats happening in the space.

Imraan Christian

What has the response been to Campus in Area3? What has the response been to Campus in Area3?

IC: The response has been overwhelmingly positive. We've had a full house for every event so far, and even more positive, people have been engaging in the space all throughout the weekends forming a small community and sharing knowledge and skills  which is essentially what the project is about.

What were some of the product stories that came out of it this month? What were some of the product stories that came out of it this month?

IC: I think we've all been blown away by the content produced by the young creators on Campus thus far. If you head over to Area3.co.za you can see all the published content that has come through. The level of work is clearly at an excellent standard.

What was your highlight? What was your highlight?

IC: The highlight is the little family that is forming  this is our third week now and the atmosphere is incredibly supportive and nurturing.

What are you looking forward to most these next couple of months? What are you looking forward to most these next couple of months?

IC: Im excited to keep this energy snowballing. We are growing from week to week, and the sky is truly the limit right now. We are trying to reimagine and reinvent both the physical space as well as the content we are producing, so I'm most excited to continue evolving.

Who were some of the creatives who hosted the talks/workshops and who will be speaking next? Who were some of the creatives who hosted the talks/workshops and who will be speaking next?

IC: Gabrielle Kannemayer and myself, and Xzavier Zulu kicked off the first talk with our journeys and our intentions and hopes in creating this space with Adidas. Last week Angel-Ho and K-$ did a talk on their careers and journeys which was incredibly well received and was a momentous event for Cape Town. This week we have Anees Petersen and Lukhanyo Mdingi speaking which is bound to be inspirational.

What are you waiting for, impossible is nothing
In recent years, the discipline of nation branding has become a new frontier in how nations position themselves to compete for global share of, amongst others, attention, tourism, investment and skills. Cities have become an integral pillar in building strong competitive nation brands because a nation is, after all, a collection of cities - or city brands.

Improvements in the standards of socio-economic and human development can significantly influence the brand of a country. Many indices, including amongst others, the World Economic Forums Global Competitiveness Index, the Institute for Management Developments World Competitiveness Yearbook and the Mo Ibrahim Index, which evaluate national competitiveness include improvements in socio-economic conditions as measures and indicators.

While policies which can impact on development can be made at a national level, the real evidence of their implementation is experienced by citizens at city and local levels. This experience  positive or negative  contributes towards building the city brand and ultimately the nation brand. A cohesive brand experience at the city level will go a long way towards giving expression to the national brand identity.

Cities contribute significantly to socio-economic growth and development

In addition to contributing to the national brand, cities contribute significantly to socio-economic growth and development. According to the 2016 Brookings Institutions Metropolitan Policy Programme which has published Redefining Global Cities: the seven types of Global Metro Economies, with more than half the worlds population now living in urban areas, cities are the critical drivers of global economic growth and prosperity. The worlds 123 largest metro areas contain a little more than one-eighth of global population [or 13%], but generate nearly one-third of global economic output.

The Brookings Institute also surmises that with greater urbanisation, cities are at the centre of global economic development. The share of global population in metropolitan areas has grown from 29% in 1950 to well over half today, and it is predicted to reach 66% by mid-century. This trend is mirrored in Africa where since 2010 annual urban populations have grown fastest in Africa (3.55%) and Asia (2.50%), greatly exceeding the pace of urban growth in North America (1.04%) and Europe (0.33%).

Recognising the role of cities, the United Nations has dedicated Sustainable Development Goal 11 to [Making] cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, since cities connect all other goals together; their density and economies of agglomeration link economy, energy, environment, science, technology and social and economic outputs.

To date however not enough is known about the dynamics of efficient city brands although their value in national development is recognised globally.

SA will contribute to global knowledge systems on city dynamics

This is about to change with the establishment of an international consortium called the Centre for Sustainable, Healthy and Learning Cities and Neighbourhoods (CSHLC). The CSHLC will be administered at Glasgow University with partners located in South Africa, China, Tanzania, Rwanda, India, Bangladesh and Philippines. The work of the Centre has just been boosted by the award of a multi-million-pound grant from the UKs Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) which will fund 37 interdisciplinary projects over the next four years.

South Africa will contribute to global knowledge systems on city dynamics through its representation on the CSHLC by the Human Sciences Research Council.

It is anticipated that the Centre will conduct comparative studies of urbanisation and urban neighbourhoods to understand the dynamics of city development. Amongst others, the work of the Centre will aim to respond to the following questions: how cities foster inclusive economic growth and social transformation, and how can neighbourhoods be made more equitable and integrated?

In the responses to these questions, policy and decision makers will better understand how to make cities work efficiently and effectively towards the common good of the citizens which live in them. In this regard, the CSHLC can be a powerful resource for global good while influencing the thought leadership on building strong, resilient and successful city brands which can benefit the discipline of nation branding.
Total and Worldline will support the deployment of the Guichet Unique digital solution for retail networks, in eight African countries.

 nopporn suntornpasert via 123RF

Under the agreements, Total and Worldline will support the deployment of the Guichet Unique solution in eight African countries  Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote dIvoire, Kenya, Mali, Morocco, the Republic of Guinea and Senegal.

Guichet Unique provides retail networks with a unique customer-friendly device that makes it possible to securely and seamlessly accept all means of payment, including mobile money, payments through private label cards and cash, and to distribute third party services, such as subscriptions to media content, bill payment, money transfer, card top-up, banking and insurance.

Already deployed in more than 170 Total service stations and more than 600 independent points of sale in Senegal, the Guichet Unique platform manages more than 30,000 transactions per day in that country.

As part of these agreements:

Total and Worldline will fund the first phase of deployment of the Guichet Unique solution in the above-mentioned eight countries and become shareholders in InTouch, alongside its founder, Omar Cisse.

Total will deploy the Guichet Unique solution in its service station network in these eight countries, with possible further deployment in another 30 African and Middle Eastern countries. This initiative aligns with Totals overall strategy of offering innovative solutions to customers and facilitating their journey.

InTouch is targeting deployment of the solution in more than 5,000 retail network and independent points of sale in each of these countries.

Worldline, on top of supporting InTouch through its payment expertise, will provide a secure and industrial hosting infrastructure to enable the pan-African deployment and run of Guichet Unique.

Closing of the transaction is subject to the approval of the competent anti-trust authorities.
Advertising Week, the world's largest annual gathering of marketing, media, and technology leaders, makes its long-anticipated debut in Africa on 14-19 February 2023, after the planned launch was delayed by the global pandemic.
A woman tries out an Ofo bike at an industry expo in Beijing earlier this month. [Photo by Zou Hong/For China Daily]

Three senior executives from China's biggest ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing have joined Chinese bike-sharing startup Ofo Inc. The move is seen as an indication of the strengthening influence that Didi is having on Ofo.

Ofo announced on Wednesday it had named Fu Qiang, a former senior vice-president of Didi, executive president of the company. Fu will report directly to CEO Dai Wei.

Fu will leverage his industry experience to help Ofo improve operational efficiency and upgrade user experiences, the company said in a statement.

At the same time, the head of Didi's open platform Nan Shan and director of finance Leslie Liu have joined Ofo's marketing and finance department, financial magazine Caijing reported.

Ofo confirmed that the two senior executives joined the company, but declined to disclose the positions they hold.

Didi, as a strategic investor in Ofo, said in a statement that it is willing to provide assistance to such an excellent startup and would continue to help Ofo in capital, staffing, technology and operations in the future.

The ride-hailing giant aims to further integrate Ofo's last-mile mobility solutions with its own ride-hailing capabilities, and has participated in nearly every financing round of Ofo since its first investment in September 2016.

"Didi has accumulated rich experience in the car-sharing sector, including market strategy, investor relations management and consumer behavior analysis, which is of guiding significance for Ofo that is still in a growth phase," said Wang Xiaofeng, a senior analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

Wang said only two to three companies could survive in the fierce competition. "Users' experience and their loyalty to the brand will become more important to bike-sharing companies," the analyst added.

Earlier this month, Ofo raised more than $700 million in its latest round of financing, which was led by e-commerce giant Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, Hony Capital and CITIC Private Equity. Other backers included its former investors DST Global and Didi.

Didi reportedly owns more than 30 percent of Ofo, and two of Ofo's eight board members are from Didi. It added Ofo's service into its app in April, allowing users to book their bikes directly via the Didi ride-hailing app.

Last month, Ofo's arch rival Mobike Technology Co Ltd raised more than $600 million in its latest round of financing led by existing investor Tencent Holdings, taking this year's funding to over $1 billion.

Wang Chenxi, an analyst at internet consultancy Analysys in Beijing, said Didi will help Ofo enhance its operational ability and competitiveness.

Wang added that Ofo's personnel adjustment would speed up the reshuffle of the industry and accelerate the pace of competition with its biggest rival Mobike.

Ouyang Shijia contributed to the story.
The signboard in Thandwe was erected at the Pa Yeik Monastery, according to U Tay Zanika, a Thandwe sayadaw.

Let them come and take it down if they dont want it. We dont have any plans to take it down. We will continue to keep it as is, he said.

The State Sangha Maha Nayaka Committee announced in May that no individual or group will be permitted to operate under the name Ma Ba Tha  the Myanmar language acronym for the Committee to Protect Race and Religion, a hardline group infamous for prominent members anti-Muslim speeches. The group was given a July 15 deadline to take down any posters or signboards bearing its name.

When asked whether a new signboard will replace the faded, barely visible one in Thandwe, U Tay Zanika said, We can only give the answer on whether we will replace it under the name Buddha Dhamma Parahita Foundation [a rebranding of Ma Ba Tha] after holding a monk conference. The monk conference will be held with monks from Thandwe township at the Thein Kone Monastery before the full moon day of Wakhaung [August 2].

He insisted that Ma Ba Thas Thandwe township chapter has carried out several charitable activities, including providing assistance to the public during floods, tornadoes, and the sinking of Aung Takon 3 ferry in Kyaukphyu.

Ma Ba Tha is not an organization that is involved politics. It wont be disbanded no matter who tries to make that happen. It will always exist, U Tay Zanika added.
The 23 people from the Mae La refugee camp on the Thai-Myanmar border arrived in Seoul on July 25, joining 86 Myanmar refugees already resettled in Korea.

We went to the airport to welcome them together with the heads of the Korean immigration department, officials from the UNHCR [UN High Commissioner for Refugees], representatives of the Red Cross, and a Kayin [Karen] interpreter. We have settled them at the Foreigners Support Center, said Naw Eh Sa Phaw from the Korea Karen Organization (KKO).

Under the three-year pilot project, South Korea accepted 22 Myanmar refugees in 2015 and 34 Myanmar refugees in 2016. The 23 arrivals on July 25 made up most of the expected third batch, with another seven-member family scheduled to arrive and complete the three-year resettlement plan in August, according to Naw Eh Sa Phaw.

The refugees are given F-2 visas, which will allow them to work and live in the country. They will temporarily reside at the Foreigners Support Center in the capital to take Korean language and job training courses for six months. In three years, they will be eligible to sit a citizenship exam.

We are teaching them the Korean language and Korean culture over a six-month period. We will resettle them outside [the Foreigners Support Center] after six months. We will give them jobs and places to stay. The children will be sent to school, said Saw Tun Tun, secretary of the Karen Youth Organization (Korea).

South Koreas refugee pilot scheme involved a five-month inspection period during which the names and health status of refugees selected for resettlement by UNHCR were scrutinized.

Most of the Myanmar refugees in South Korea were from the Mae La and Umpium refugee camps. The Myanmar community in Korea mostly lives in Gyeonggi Province, next door to Seoul.
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Listen to our podcast on the history of the Silent Parade of 1917 here:

To the beat of muffled drums 8,000 negro men, women and children marched down Fifth Avenue yesterday in a parade of silent protest against acts of discrimination and oppression inflicted upon them in this country, and in other parts of the world. Without a shout or a cheer they made their cause known through the many banners which they carried, calling attention to Jim Crowism, segregation, disfranchisement, and riots of Waco, Memphis and East St. Louis.  New York Times

The Silent Parade of July 28, 1917, was unlike anything ever seen in New York City. Today it is considered New Yorks (and most likely Americas) first African-American civil rights march.

New York had seen its share of protest parades since the start of World War I, but none had featured so prominently the citys African-American population, gathering in such impressive numbers along New Yorks wealthiest street.

This extraordinary procession was organized by the National Association of the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), a group of concerned black and white activists and intellectuals which had formed less than a decade earlier in New York.

The march was organized in direct response to a horrible plague of violence against black Americans in the 1910s, culminating in the East St. Louis Riots*, a massacre involving white mobs storming black neighborhoods in sheer racial animus.

In Illinois, two sets of riots in May and July 1917 left almost 200 people dead. Rioters burned black neighborhoods, cutting off water hoses and watched as families fled the burning buildings  to be picked off by gunmen.

From the St. Louis Post-Dispatch on July 3:

This massacre was but one of several violent incidents aimed at new black laborers, pointed attacks meant to strike fear in the hearts of black Americans.

The circumstances of World War I exacerbated an already volatile crisis. As W.E.B. DuBois would explain it,

The Negro, attracted by higher wages in the North and repelled by the menace of lynchinig and caste in the South moves in to fill the new labor demand [caused by the war]. The common laborer in the North is caught between the tyranny of exclusive trade unions and the underbidding of blacks. The rest is murder and riot and unrest. White Northern laborers find killing Negroes a safe, lucrative employment which commends them to the American Federation of Labor.

W.E.B Du Bois in 1918.

In New York, at a meeting of the NAACP in Harlem, president James Weldon Johnson (at the suggestion of New York Evening Post editor Oswald Villard) proposed an unusual but effective form of protest  an army of marchers along Fifth Avenue, drawing attention to the victims of the East St. Louis riot.

And in an unprecedented decision by the organizers, it would consist only of black marchers.

Underwood & Underwood

New York newspaper reports of the riot passively mentioned the tragic cost to the black residents of East St. Louis; a dramatic march down the citys most prosperous street  comprised of those very people most likely to be victimized in such riots  would jar the delicate sensibilities of insulated New Yorkers.

This was a fairly radical idea for its time. Decades after the Civil War, most Americans, even in the most progressive states, still looked skeptically at organized black movements. Part of the NAACPs early legitimacy for many was that it was formed by a mixture of black and white activists.

James Weldon Johnson, one of the architects of the Silent Parade

In 1915, the NAACP (in a crusade led by newspaper editor William Monroe Trotter) protested the release of the film Birth of a Nation, the trailblazing film that positively depicted the Ku Klux Klan while demonizing African-Americans. The protests failed to stop the films release but this organized resistance galvanized the NAACP and the black community for future battles.

While the East St. Louis tragedy was the focus of the mournful July 28th gathering, the march was intended as a larger protest against civil rights abuses in the United States. One of many flyers passed around during the march declared :

We march because we are thoroughly opposed to Jim Crow cars, segregation, disenfranchisement and the host of evils that are forced upon us. We march in memory of our butchered dead, the massacre of honest toilers who were removing the reproach of laziness and thriftlessness hurled at the entire race. They died to prove our worthiness to live. We live in spite of death shadowing us and ours.A

Below: The organizers marched in front of the women and children. At far right are W.E.B. Du Bois and James Weldon Johnson.

Underwood and Underwood

The thousands of people who marched that day came from virtually every African-American church in New York City and the surrounding area. A drum corps and a troupe of black Boy Scouts vibrantly led the parade, with women and children following behind, garbed in white dresses.

The men, some in United States army uniforms, marched last behind a row of flag bearers, holding representative flags from the United States, Great Britain, Liberia and Haiti.

New York Tribune

There were no chants or rallying cries. The throng remained silent during the length of the parade, a common practice for peace parades but one pregnant with meaning here. The black communities in East St. Louis and in the South had little opportunity to engage in such protests.

New Yorkers, in solidarity, would echo that reverberating silence. (It may also have been prudent for large groups of African-Americans marching along the citys whitest street to keep themselves calcified.)

The marchers were orderly and stone-faced as they walked down Fifth Avenue  from 57th Street to 24th Street, culminating at Madison Square Park. They were not allowed to gather there; according to the New York Sun, When the marchers reached Twenty-Fourth Street, they turned west and were dismissed.

While there were no chants, political intentions were made known via a series of banners interspersed among the marchers:

Your Hands Are Full of Blood

Pray for the Lady Macbeths of East St. Louis**

We Are Maligned as Lazy and Murdered When We Work

From Bunker Hill to Carrizal*** We Have Done Our Duty

One controversial sign was thrown out of the march. According to the Times, the sign displayed a picture of a negro woman kneeling before President Wilson and appealing to him to bring democracy to America before carrying it to Europe. The police intervened, and the sign was removed.

Below: A newspaper illustration that was most certainly used in the offending sign

No other incidents surrounding the march were reported that day. Thousands of onlookers had lined the parade route that day out of curiosity, amusement, pride, anger and joy. Some were shaken to the core.

[T]he streets of New York have witnessed many strange sites, but I judge, never one stranger than this; among the watchers were those with tears in their eyes.  James Weldon Johnson, The Autobiography of James Weldon Johnson, 1937

FURTHER LISTENING

After youve listened to this podcast on the Silent Parade of 1917, check out these past episodes of our show that feature topics referenced in the new episode:

NOTE: The number of marchers so widely varies from source to source that I can safely say that it was between 5,000 and 15,000 marchers. Not exactly precise! Judging from all reports, I would guess the actual number is closer to 15,000.

*East St. Louis, on the Illinois side, is about 15 miles away from Ferguson, the St. Louis suburb on the Missouri side.

**According to author Nikki Brown, the Lady Macbeth sign references an alleged incident wherein at least two white women pulled black women off a streetcar, tore off one womans clothing and then took off her shoes and beat her over the face and head with their shoe heels.

***The Battle of Carrizal had been fought in Mexico a year before the march. Unlike the battles in Europe, African-American soldiers served with American units on the front lines of this engagement.
By Anna O'Donoghue

You never know what you may come across walking down Patrick Street in Cork City.

From the famous pint-sized busker, Allie Sherlock to the resident fire throwers at dusk - theres never a dull moment in the rebel county.

Today a group of Irish dancers simply proved that point with this out of nowhere Irish dance piece on the cobbles of Opera Lane.

The group of elite Irish dancers shocked shoppers by banishing the stereotypes of Irish dance with a comtempary twist.

Trust us, it'll leave you wanting more.

To see what it was all about just pop along to AON, the show running nightly in Corks Firkin Crane until August 3.

The show, brought to you by former Riverdance principal dancer Breandan de Gallai and his stellar cast of Irish dancers, tells the story of modern online dating.

We're intrigued 
The news that Kilkee beach is set to remain closed for a number of days is a major setback to the local community according to a local TD.

The HSE took the decision to issue a precautionary bathing ban after it was revealed that an Irish Water wastewater pumping station discharged raw sewage into the Victoria stream.

"This news comes as a shock to the local community who have been repeatedly reassured by Irish Water that the issues with the wastewater pumping station in Kilkee had been resolved. The decision to close the beach comes as we are approaching the height of the tourist season and just days before the opening of the music festival in the town," said Fianna Fail TD for Clare Timmy Dooley.

"The beach closure will undoubtedly have an adverse impact on businesses in the town. The beach is the key amenity in the town and attracts people from far and wide into the area. Its closure will result in a fall in the number of people visiting the town in the days ahead.

"There have been persistent problems with the wastewater pumping station in Kilkee. Just last December the beach was closed for an extended period of time due to the discharge of raw sewage. The issue arose due to an electrical fault at the pumping station and Irish Water carried out upgrade works to prevent a repeat of the problem. These works have been completed and Irish Water assured the local community that the issue would not arise in the future. However here we are back at square one.

"Irish Water officials need to get down to Kilkee and meet with local people and businesses to set out what exactly went wrong in this case and the steps they are taking to prevent a repeat of the problem. Irish Water clearly need to be better prepared for incidents such as this. An electrical fault at a pumping station should not result in the discharge of raw sewage, safeguards need to be put in place to prevent this from occurring."
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has further raised expectation that the Cork to Limerick motorway could finally be given the green light after saying he hoped the project can be included in the Governments mid-term review of the Capital Plan which is due in September, writes Rob McNamara.

Mr Varadkar was speaking at an event at the Foynes Flying Boat Museum in Limerick and was questioned on the subject by Mayor of Limerick city and county Stephen Keary.
Update 28/07/2017: John Burns (43) who was missing from Kildare has been found safe and well.

Gardai have asked for the publics help to find missing man John Burns.
Sinn Fein has accused the Government of allowing a 'free for all' for waste collection companies.

The party is holding a public meeting at Wynn's Hotel in Dublin this evening to campaign over what they believe is a move towards bin-charge hikes across the country.

Deputy Leader Mary Lou McDonald says it is the first in a series of public meetings aimed at rallying the public and sending a message to the Government that enough is enough.

Nobody is convinced by these so-called reassurances from Government, she said.

The Government was issuing these reassurances, people in the neighbourhood in which I live were receiving these reassurances from waste collection companies, telling them they had changed the terms and conditions of their contract, telling them they were hiking up their charges, and whats worse [is that] youve very little recourse back to any of these operators  their arrogance is astonishing.

Sinn Fein claims people with medical conditions and disabilities, large families, and low-income households, will all bear the brunt of the Government's policy with regards to private waste operators.

The fear is that now that the Government has conceded the market, has conceded an open field to leave operators, that actually people will be left at the mercy of these bin collection companies , added Deputy McDonald.

People are fearful that costs will spiral, that service will be poor  people are very anxious because obviously they are struggling with household bills as it is.
The European Consumer Centre is advising Irish people to be extra vigilant if hiring cars on holidays during the coming weeks.

It says some tourists are being charged for damages which they are not responsible for.
A biker who shot a member of a rival motorcycle club dead saw an opportunity for retribution and murdered an innocent man, a barrister told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

By Eoin Reynolds

The accused mans barrister said his client was acting in defence of himself and his family after members of the rival club threatened to kill him and burn down his home.

The jury heard closing speeches in the trial of 51-year-old biker Alan Cookie McNamara, of Mountfune, Murroe, Co Limerick who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew AOD ODonoghue at Mountfune on June 20, 2015. The trial has heard that Mr McNamara was a member of the Caballeros Motorcycle Club while the deceased was a member of the Road Tramps.

Michael Delaney SC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the details of the case may have brought to mind American television dramas, but in this case the location is not California, but Limerick, and it involves middle aged men some of whom have health issues. He said some acted with a misguided sense of "code and honour" and that the "colour" in the case may tempt them towards the facetious. But, he reminded them: "A man has lost his life."

There is no doubt, he told the jurors, that Mr McNamara shot Andrew ODonoghue. They must now decide if he intended to kill or cause serious injury to Mr ODonoghue and whether he was acting in defence of himself and his family. If the accused used excessive force but believed he was using reasonable force then the jury must find him guilty of manslaughter and not murder. If they believe that he was not entitled to use any force or that he knew the force he was using was excessive, then the appropriate verdict is murder. If he used only reasonable force, then he should be acquitted.

"We say self defence doesnt get off the ground," said Mr Delaney. "There were no circumstances which necessitated the use of any force, let alone the force he did use."

Going over the evidence in the case, counsel reminded the jury that Mr McNamara had been assaulted the previous day in Doon, Co Limerick, after he entered a pub wearing a waistcoat with the colours of the Caballeros sewn into the back. On leaving the pub, two members of the Road Tramps took his waistcoat off him and one of them punched him in the face. A third member held back his wife. In garda interviews Mr McNamara said that later that same evening, soon after he arrived home, three members of the Road Tramps pulled up outside his home and, in front of his wife and children, threatened to kill him and burn down his house. But Mr Delaney asked the jury to consider whether that happened at all and reminded them that one of the men named by Mr McNamara was Jim McInerney, who denied it outright. He invited the jury to assess Mr McInerneys demeanour as a witness.

On the morning of the shooting he said Mr McNamara told gardai he was "out of my mind" and in a panic. "It didnt stop him making two phone calls to his insurance company for routine matters," said Mr Delaney, referring to phone records obtained by gardai. That afternoon the accused received a call from his stepson Robert Cusack who told him he was in a car with two other Caballeros and they were chasing a member of the Road Tramps. He said Mr McNamara then went to the Road Tramps clubhouse knowing that one of the Road Tramps was being pursued in that direction. Mr Delaney said the accused man brought a gun with him because this was an opportunity for him to obtain some form of retribution.

Mr McNamara told gardai that when he got to the clubhouse he saw men carrying what he thought were guns. Mr Delaney asked the jury why he did not just keep going. He added: "Because, he saw an opportunity to shoot a Road Tramp and he wasnt going to pass that up."

Mr Delaney said the prosecution does not stand over the attack at Doon or the alleged threats or the presence of an arsenal of weapons at the Road Tramps clubhouse, but he added: "You are not entitled to take the law into your own hands and shoot an innocent man." He said there was no evidence Mr ODonoghue had been involved in any of the incidents leading up to the shooting and said that he was an innocent man. He concluded: "He was shot by a man bent on retribution and his killing was murder and that is the verdict that I urge you to bring."

Hugh Hartnett SC, for the defence, said the killing was tragic because Andrew ODonoghue is dead and his client, a father, a family man with an interest in horses, dogs and motorbikes, was on trial for murder. He asked the jury to consider what caused this to happen. He said they had heard that the Road Tramps wanted to make his client feel unwelcome in the area but, unfortunately for him, he lived within three minutes of the Road Tramps clubhouse. He had been attacked and three of them, one of them waving a gun, had threatened him and his family with being burnt out of their home. "Would that have an effect on the mind of an average man?" he asked the jury, adding that his client knew what the Road Tramps were capable of. He reminded the jury of the weapons found at their clubhouse and that one of the Road Tramps, Kevin Ryan, had a conviction for a firearms offence.

Knowing all this, and knowing that he might have to defend himself and his family, he asked the jury to consider Mr McNamaras state of mind "on this awful day". He told the jury that if it were a planned murder, Mr McNamara would not have done it in front of a CCTV camera that he knew was pointing at him when he fired the shot at the gates of the Road Tramps clubhouse.

When he received the call from his stepson to say that they were heading towards the clubhouse in pursuit of one of the Road Tramps, he was worried because he knew what these people were capable of.

Mr Hartnett said it was wrong for him to bring a gun but he was a "panicked and frightened man" and feared that his family could be attacked at any time. In his fear, he believed the men at the clubhouse had guns. He added that the ballistics showed that only one third of the pellets in the cartridge that he fired struck the deceased, which he said was consistent with what Mr McNamara told gardai - that he didnt aim the gun and that he didnt intend to kill anyone.

He asked the jurors to put themselves in the mind of his client and ask themselves how they would feel if threats were made to their family.

He concluded that Mr McNamara had no intention to kill and believed he was acting in defence of himself and his family. Justice Paul McDermott will deliver his charge to the jury of seven men and four women tomorrow.
Patients are being advised to take the full course of antibiotics as prescribed by their doctor.

It is after experts have warned that resistance to drugs is more of a threat if treatment goes on for too long.
The Minister for Health has announced the Governments approval for the drafting of the Childrens Health Bill 2017.

This Bill will establish a single statutory entity to take over the services of the existing three Dublin childrens hospitals: Our Ladys Childrens Hospital, Crumlin; Temple Street Childrens University Hospital; and the National Childrens Hospital at Tallaght Hospital.

It will also run the new childrens hospital which is being built on a campus shared with St Jamess Hospital, and the paediatric outpatient and urgent care centres at Connolly and Tallaght Hospitals.

This follows on from the April 26 decision by the Government to approve the construction investment for the childrens hospital and associated outpatient and urgent care centres.

Simon Harris TD welcomed the decision.

"This legislation, which is to create a new legal entity into which the services of the three childrens hospitals will transition, will be another step on the way to providing Ireland with a world class childrens hospital," he said.

The Boards and Executives of the hospitals affected welcomed the Governments approval for the drafting of the Childrens Health Bill 2017 to provide for the establishment of a new body into which the existing hospitals will transition.

"We are delighted that the legislation to create this new body is being progressed. While bringing three hospitals together is a complex challenge it is an extraordinary opportunity to enhance local paediatric services in Dublin as well as enhancing highly specialist paediatric services nationally. The voluntary merger of the three hospitals is primarily driven by our common objective to deliver a single service with all specialties under one roof in the new childrens hospital as this will deliver better clinical outcomes for the sickest children and young people. In advance of the move to the new facilities we also acknowledge the effort needed to guide and support our staff in the clinical, operational and cultural integration of the three hospitals," Dr Jim Browne, Mr Turlough OSullivan, Mr Sean Sheehan and Mr Liam Dowdall jointly said.
A lack of mental health services in Irish prisons is being raised at the UN in Geneva today.

The Irish Penal Reform Trust is one of a group of Irish NGO's attending a two-day hearing, where Ireland's record is being examined by the UN Committee Against Torture.
Alias Grace, based on Margaret Atwood's award-winning novel, will launch on Netflix on 3 November and it looks epic.

The six-hour miniseries follows Grace Marks, a poor, young Irish immigrant and domestic servant in Upper Canada who, along with stable hand James McDermott, was convicted of the brutal murders of their employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper, Nancy Montgomery, in 1843.
An investigation is under way into an armed police shooting which left a man in a critical condition.

An officer with West Midlands Police, responding to "intelligence" about possible firearms offences, shot and wounded the man at about 9pm on Wednesday.

The incident is being investigated by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which has been visiting the scene in Hereford Close, Birmingham.

In a statement, the police watchdog said the injured man was taken to the city's Queen Elizabeth Hospital where he remains in a "critical condition".

It added: "Initial information indicates that armed police were deployed to the Frankley area of Birmingham at around 9pm last night in response to intelligence received relating to firearms offences."

The force's police and crime commissioner David Jamieson said it was the first shooting by a West Midlands Police officer in 17 years.

Giving further details, the IPCC said it had gathered the officer's body worn video "which captured footage of the incident" and a police firearm.

It said: "There is early evidence to indicate a single shot was fired by one police officer."

Meanwhile, investigators have again been at the scene on Thursday, carrying out house-to-house enquiries.

IPCC commissioner Derrick Campbell said: "We will be carrying out a thorough, independent investigation into this serious incident, as is appropriate when police use potentially lethal force.

"We are making contact with the man's family and will ensure they are updated on the progress of our investigation."

In an interview with BBC WM radio, Mr Jamieson said: "This incident happened about 12 hours ago and it would be premature for us to start talking about details of the incident.

"But what we do know is that police were called to a particular event in south Birmingham and unfortunately it ended up with one of the people involved getting shot by a police officer.

"There is an independent inquiry that will look into that, but just to put this in context, this is extremely rare, for officers to open fire.

"In fact, the last time someone was shot by an officer in the West Midlands was actually 17 years ago in June 2000 and it's been over 20 years since someone was fatally shot by a police officer.

"So these are very rare events, fortunately, in the West Midlands."

A force spokesman said: "At around 9pm, a firearm was discharged by an armed officer which resulted in one man being taken to hospital with a gunshot injury.

"Another man has been arrested for suspected firearm offences.

"The officer's body worn video was on at the time of the incident.

"The matter has been referred to the IPCC."
A man in the US has been accused of drunkenly strolling down a road wearing a black hooded top and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to where his arm had been amputated.

Corey Berry, 31, of Hollis, was arrested and charged with criminal threatening, Maine State Police told WCSH-TV.
Members of the US Senate Judiciary Committee are working on legislation that could attempt to insulate special counsel Robert Mueller from being fired.

A Republican and two Democrats said they are among committee members working on legislation that would prevent the firing of special counsels without judicial review.
More than 1,000 firefighters backed by planes dropping water and fire retardant have been battling wildfires that billowed smoke into the sky over the Cote d'Azur in southern France and forced the evacuation of at least 12,000 people.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited the area on what he said was a grim day.

Large swathes of Mediterranean forest have been left bare and blackened after three days of fires.

About 250 trailer homes, a hangar, an atelier and several vehicles were burned in the blazes, but no-one has been injured so far, the prefect of the Var region said.

Residents and tourists were evacuated early on Wednesday after a ferocious fire whipped by strong Mistral winds spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to dense forests around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas. About 60 people were evacuated by boat from nearby Cap Benat.

"There will be more fires tomorrow," Mr Philippe said after flying over the devastated region and meeting firefighting personnel.

Firefighting aircraft made more than 500 drops of water or retardant, Mr Phillipe said, and only three blazes remained active in the Var region - out of dozens that started on Wednesday.

But "the situation remains difficult, I must say it. Like me, you feel the wind is blowing," the prime minister added.

Further south of the French mainland, flames ate through 4,950 acres (2,000 hectares) of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Fires also were burning across parts of bone-dry Portugal and Italy.

Tourist Francoise Roparse, who was visiting the south of France, was among the evacuees awakened in the middle of the night who found shelter in a sailing club near Bormes.

"First, it was a bit the panic," she said. "We tried to gather all important things ... Obviously we forgot a lot."

Dozens of people initially spent the night on a beach, but public spaces pressed into service as emergency shelters were filling up.

The disaster, which hit at the height of the summer season, challenged regional governments with economies that depend on tourism. The town of Bormes tweeted a call for donations of towels for the evacuees staying in the local gymnasium.

The wildfires began raging along France's Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations as flames reached a corner of Saint-Tropez.

Firefighters said they were exhausted and needed more manpower and equipment. Hundreds of reinforcements were sent in from around France but the president of the Provence-Alpes-Cotes d'Azur area, Renaud Muselier, said on BFM-TV that "we don't have enough means".

Numerous firefighting aircraft have been grounded for repairs, and nine are 60 years old, Eric Faure, of the National Federation of Firefighters, told BFM-TV.

The prime minister said France plans to buy six new aircraft to beef up the country's firefighting capabilities. For now, it has asked the European Union for more planes and Italy provided one on Tuesday. Nevertheless, the pilot of a Canadair firefighting aircraft said there were not enough planes in the sky.

Marion Manent, whose husband's trailer homes were burned, was suspicious about the origins of the fire around La Londe.

"Someone is certainly responsible ... for me, he is a killer," she told BFM-TV.

Mr Philippe said an investigation has been launched to identify the reasons for the multiple fires.
Two women accused of poisoning the half brother of North Korea's ruler Kim Jong Un in an airport assassination are expected to plead not guilty in court on Friday, their lawyers said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam's face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on February 13.

They are due to appear at the High Court in Malaysia, where they are expected to deny the allegation.

The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

According to her lawyer Gooi Soon Seong, Aisyah, 25, was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows.

The two met at a pub in downtown Kuala Lumpur and over the course of several days, James had Siti rub oil or pepper sauce on a victim's face from forehead downwards which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said.

Mr Gooi said they practised at malls, hotels and airports and that Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort.

In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia where James introduced her to Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing.

Mr Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked.

He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand.

The second woman, Huong, 29, was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters "LOL" - an acronym for laughing out loud.

Security cameras apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal.

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, died while en route to a hospital after he fell ill at a budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a flight to Macao.

He told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray that Malaysian officials later identified as the deadly VX nerve agent.

The two women are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea's spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met.

Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime.

While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger.

He had also spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation.

But North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was leader Kim Jong Un's half brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack.

It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other "hostile forces" in blaming Pyongyang.
Capital Brewing Co, industrial designers Red Robot, and 42 Lines letterpress are among the residents who have already moved in.

A brewery, a coffee roaster, three indoor ski slopes, and a rock climbing centre are slated for the Dairy Road site next to the Jerrabomberra Wetlands.

Fyshwick, the suburb infamous for fireworks, porn and industrial land, is the new home of Dairy Road District, an almost 20,000-square-metre, warehouse-style precinct being developed by Canberra's Molonglo Group.

Duncan Amos and Phil Preston, founding directors of Red Robot which was one of the development's first tenants. Credit:Jamila Toderas

Red Robot, who are the largest manufacturer of photo booths in the southern hemisphere, were one of the first to open their office in the warehouse. Co-founder Duncan Amos said they were drawn to plans for the creative and collaborative space.

"That's really what Molonglo [Group] wanted was this collaboration of concepts and ideas, and I think to a certain degree it's already started to happen," he said.

"We've spent a couple of days with the Capital [Brewing Co] guys, in fact we're going to produce a few very cool products for them. And we're doing some stuff for Greg [Hewitson from 42 Lines], and he's done stuff for us. So there's a collaboration."

Out the front, Capital Brewing are putting the finishing touches on a new brewery, will produce more than 750,000 litres of beer per year.
A supernatural poem first published in 1798 might not seem to have much to do with climate change or poisoning the oceans of the world.

But for its latest show, QL2 Dance has used Samuel Taylor Coleridge's The Rime of the Ancient Mariner as a vehicle for three choreographers to create a work commenting on the state of the ocean and what can be done about it.

QL2 Dance performs This Poisoned Sea at the Canberra Theatre. photo by Karleen Minney. Credit:Karleen Minney

QL2 Dance's artistic director Ruth Osborne said they wanted a literary work to develop into a dance piece for the Canberra youth dance ensemble.

Dramaturg Pip Buining suggested the Coleridge work, about a mariner who kills an albatross that has saved his ship and undergoes a terrible ordeal, which was published during the Industrial Revolution.
"Deal volumes are down... it's a competitive market again," said one person close to the CAF division. The unit isn't just junk debt, it also includes mundane businesses like aircraft leasing and auto finance. But its growth was driven by the bet on non-investment grade debt in the aftermath of the financial crisis. "It's not a conscious decision to wind it down," said Omkar Joshi, portfolio manager at Regal Funds Management, which doesn't have a position in Macquarie as it sees the shares as fairly valued. "It's just that the opportunities don't exist for the moment." The loans in the CAF book mature on average every three to five years, according to a Macquarie presentation. And with few new options, that's a concern for CAF's high-flying boss, 46-year-old Ben "Brains" Brazil, one of the bank's best paid executives. Casting around, CAF is increasing its presence in Britain, where it has been sizing up the mortgage market, and it is setting up an office in San Francisco, according to recruitment advertisements, to tap the technology sector.

It financed a 30 million ($49 million) acquisition of three office buildings in London in May, and last year supported a 300 million ($440 million) refinancing of a private hospital in Dublin. In New York, it's promoting itself as a provider of middle-market leveraged finance solutions. 'Ben's book' Sometimes referred to as "Ben's book", the CAF portfolio includes bonds, bank and mortgage debt, and loans that Macquarie originates. "The portfolio is predominantly senior secured loans which have numerous covenants and are secured against high quality assets - almost 90 per cent of these are to non-investment grade borrowers," a bank spokeswoman said in a statement. But part of the mystique around CAF is that even investors who follow Macquarie closely don't know what's in it.

The bank doesn't record mark-to-market gains and losses on the book because, it says, it holds the vast majority to maturity. This means shareholders don't see the highs and lows of what could be a volatile part of the business. That opacity also helps ward off prying eyes - and rivals. But healthier credit markets since the European banking crisis mean there is less disruption for Brazil's team to profit from, and more competition. Brazil's short-term bonus - a rough gauge analysts use to measure the junk book's profitability - slipped to $6.4 million in the year to March, from $6.7 million a year earlier. He declined to comment for this story.

Caveat emptor The son of an affluent Queensland farmer, Brazil joined Macquarie over two decades ago. He was the protege of the current CEO Nicholas Moore, and one of his first jobs was to advise the late media mogul Kerry Packer on a potential buyout of Qantas, the country's biggest airline. In 2006, he took part in a complex deal to start selling PBL Media, then run by Packer's son James, to private equity group CVC. He would go on to sit on the board of Packer's Crown Resorts. "He's very smart. When it comes to sniffing out opportunities in imperfectly priced markets, there are none better," said a Sydney lawyer who worked on the CVC deal. At the height of the financial crisis in 2008, the Rudd government said it would allow banks to pay a small fee in return for using the government's AAA rating to issue debt. Brazil swooped.

Stressed banks like Royal Bank of Scotland offloaded their loan portfolios at steep discounts to free up capital. The debt was cheap, but the quality was decent and - Brazil and Macquarie reckoned - likely to be repaid in full. Buyers could make 400 basis point spreads on a single trade, and there were principal gains on the maturing portfolio. For example, Brazil's team bought debt in motorway service station operator Tank & Rast Germany in 2009 by picking up senior loans from a distressed European bank. By the end of 2013, the company was able to refinance all its debt at par, realising what Brazil later described as a "significant profit", though he didn't disclose how much. "They were one of the few banks able to actually buy these loans, and at a good price, because their funding cost was much lower," Regal's Joshi said, raising the issue of the cheap funding behind the junk bond bet - which has prompted some public criticism of Macquarie. Then-treasurer Wayne Swan said the guarantee was necessary. "We acted in an entirely appropriate way and a way that basically stopped the destruction of a significant part of our economy at a really difficult time."

A Macquarie spokeswoman disputed that Macquarie took advantage of the guarantee, noting the bank's total loan assets fell while the guarantee was in place. It may take another major market jolt for Brazil's unit to cash in once again. "It was a great little opportunity while it lasted, but trying to recycle it is pretty tough," said a veteran banking analyst. Loading "They won't close it down. They'll just wait for credit spreads to blow out again and try to trade around it."
While some variation in returns is due to intentional differences in the design of default investment products, some is related to differences in manager skill or efficiency .

The investment performance of MySuper products also varies considerably. In the same year, the mean annual investment return (gross of expenses) for single-strategy MySuper products was 8.45 per cent, the bottom 10 per cent receive less than a 5.5 per cent return and the top 10 per cent receive more than a 10.9 per cent.

Even so, MySuper product fees and investment performance vary widely. APRA quarterly superannuation statistics (2017) report that, in 2015, after MySuper was up and running, annual fees and costs on a $50,000 account balance in fixed-strategy MySuper products ranged from $265 per year to $1085 per year (with a median of $520 per year).

MySuper funds also have to report their investment goals and performance on a dashboard that is supposed to help people make comparisons between similar products. Employers must choose a default fund for their employees from the list of MySuper products.

Following the paternalistic reasoning of the Cooper Review , successive governments have shepherded passive superannuation fund members into MySuper options. MySuper products must have a single diversified investment strategy , are allowed to charge only a limited range of fees and must offer a standard default cover for life and total and permanent disability.

These latest reforms, if passed into law, will mean APRA can refuse or cancel a MySuper authority, at a much lower threshold than applies currently. If APRA has reason to think that a superannuation entity that offers a MySuper product may not meets its obligations, that is grounds to refuse or cancel an authority. Since the default superannuation sector is large, such a decision would be extremely costly to the fund in question.

Under this legislation, trustees of MySuper funds will be obliged to write their own annual report card. Each year, trustees will have to assess the options, benefits and facilities offered to their members and the investment strategy (target risk and return). Trustees will also be required to report on the insurance strategy for members, including whether (unnecessary) insurance fees are depleting balances; and to evaluate whether the fund is large enough to do all these at a reasonable cost.

In each case, trustees are required to show that they are promoting members financial interests. They will have to compare the performance of their MySuper product to that of other MySuper products.

Even though the trustees score their own card, APRA will also examine these, under the threat that the MySuper authority could be cancelled. Its not clear how much discipline these rules can impose on trustees, but there are some obstacles to implementation and some possible unintended consequences.

Most superannuation funds know very little about their members. Usually these funds only collect a members age, gender, some indication of income, and sometimes their postcode. To show that a financial service, investment or insurance product promotes (or fails to promote) the financial interest of a member will be very difficult on this little information.
Australia's major banks fear a royal commission will damage their reputation in global markets and hurt customers and investors, Australian Bankers' Association chief Anna Bligh has warned.

And if the Labor opposition wins the next election  a result on a "knife edge", according to Ms Bligh  then the banks will do everything in their power to fight for a decent hearing and fair terms of reference for the inquiry.

Ms Bligh, in her first address to the National Press Club since taking over as spokeswoman for Australia's banks, said the sector realised it urgently needed to rebuild trust with the community and outline what was being done to improve banks' governance.

She also conceded that banks needed to better explain why their chief executives received huge, multimillion-dollar salaries  backing similar comments from former Liberal treasurer Peter Costello  and promised the Australian Bankers' Association would fight state-based bank-specific taxes being weighed by South Australia and West Australia.
GENEVA  A group of 47 World Trade Organization (WTO) members issued a joint call on Wednesday for fellow members to work together to ensure the sound functioning of the WTO-based multilateral trading system as it faces a number of important challenges ahead.

In their joint statement, the group, including Australia, Canada, China, Russia, Singapore, said they were "strongly supportive of the multilateral trading system and are concerned that the WTO is facing challenges" as it prepares for its 11th ministerial conference (MC11) in Buenos Aires in December.

"To date, the political will to find compromises and to forge consensus is lacking. Even the legitimacy of discussing topics of interest to members has been put into question," the group noted.

The statement added that other important functions of the WTO were also facing challenges, such as compliance with notification obligations and the functioning of the WTO's dispute settlement system.

The group called on members to safeguard the integrity of the open, rules-based trading system embodied in the WTO.

"The WTO continues to be essential to achieving inclusive and sustainable global growth and development, including through the further integration of LDCs (least developed countries) into world trade," concluded the statement.
Travel records obtained by BuzzFeed News appear to show Malcolm Roberts travelled on a UK passport in 1956. Credit:BuzzFeed News Mr Black alleged he was misquoted and "The Guardian, as always, is most likely wrong. They always publish nonsense and I have told them as much today." Fairfax Media has since unearthed a tweet from October 26 last year - four months after the date he now says he renounced his citizenship - in which Senator Roberts said he has never had foreign citizenship: "I have never held any citizenship other than Australian. When I travelled to UK & India I require a visa," he tweeted. One Nation leader Pauline Hanson. Credit:Andrew Meares Mr Black accused Fairfax Media of running a left-wing agenda against One Nation and said Senator Roberts did not lie.

"He is choosing to believe that he was never British. He is preferring to believe that he was never British because he has no allegiance or exercised any citizenship arrangement. However they have renounced and released him of anything to do with them," he said. "... There is nothing wrong or incongruent with Malcolm Roberts putting his hand up and saying as far as I'm concerned I'm not British, never was - the British government may have a different view." Mr Black claimed on Wednesday "any renunciation" occurred on June 6, 2016, before the close of nominations for the federal election. Mr Black repeatedly refused requests to further clarify what was meant by "any renunciation". Senator Roberts released a statement on July 18 claiming he had "fully investigated" his eligibility status and had contacted the Indian authorities in 2014 confirming he was not an Indian citizen, but made no mention of UK citizenship. He later released a statutory declaration referring to his statement, adding that he had "analysed" whether he was a British or Indian citizen.

"I can confirm I am not a citizen of the United Kingdom, nor am I a citizen of India. I am a citizen of Australia only," he said in the declaration, but continued to refuse to release the documents he said proved it. On Wednesday night, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and her chief advisor James Ashby claimed to have sighted the documents, and Senator Hanson labelled concerns over Senator Roberts' eligibility "a media witch hunt" "I can hand on heart assure everyone that Malcolm is not a dual citizen," Senator Hanson posted on Facebook, in response to questions from Fairfax Media. "I saw first hand his renouncement of UK citizenship before he became a candidate for the Senate." Mr Ashby initially said Senator Roberts had renounced his foreign citizenship "well before" he nominated. He now says the candidate nomination process prompted him to renounce, however he could not be specific on dates. "My memory isn't that great," he said.

Mr Ashby was seen talking to James Lambie, chief of staff to Attorney-General George Brandis, at Commonwealth offices in Brisbane on Wednesday. However, both sides said they did not discuss Senator Roberts' eligibility. If Senator Roberts' election was ruled invalid his seat would likely go to the third person on One Nation's Queensland ticket, Fraser Anning. TIMELINE May 3, 1955: Malcolm Roberts is born to an Australian mother and Welsh father in Disergarh, India. Laws suggest he was given Indian citizenship by birth and was also eligible for British citizenship. July 2, 2016: Malcolm Roberts elected to the Senate.

October 8, 2016: He responds to a tweet saying: "I don't have, and never have had, Indian citizenship. You are, however, correct in saying I was born in India." October 26, 2016: Senator Roberts' office is asked about his citizenship status. A spokesman says: "Senator Roberts has never held any other citizenship other than his Australian citizenship. He's had to obtain visas when he's travelled to the United Kingdom and to India, and people who are citizens do not have to get visas." His office now claims this is a misquote. October 26, 2016: Senator Roberts said the same thing himself on Twitter on the same day: "I have never held any citizenship other than Australian. When I travelled to UK & India I require a visa". July 18: Fresh questions are raised about Senator Roberts' eligibility after the resignation of two Greens over their dual citizenship. He posts a statement to social media: "Prior to agreeing to run as a candidate for Pauline Hanson's One Nation I fully investigated whether I was eligible to hold the position of senator in the Australian Senate. In 2014, I contacted the Indian authorities and that confirmed that I am not an Indian citizen. I am a citizen only of Australia and therefore eligible to hold the position as senator in the Australian parliament." He makes no mention of UK citizenship. July 18: Pauline Hanson's adviser James Ashby says Senator Roberts is "definitely not" a dual citizen. "That was established well before he put his nomination in. We learnt from the Heather Hill case, so weren't going to fall for that a second time."

July 20: In response to question from Fairfax Media, Mr Ashby calls on Labor senator Sam Dastyari to provide evidence he has renounced his Iranian citizenship. This call is later backed by One Nation senator Brian Burston. July 21: The Australian reports that Senator Roberts appears on the General Register Office's Register of British Nationals Born Overseas 1818-2005, confirming he also had British citizenship. July 21: In response, Senator Roberts signs a statutory declaration saying that prior to agreeing to nominate as a candidate for the Senate he investigated his eligibility under the constitution. He says he "analysed" whether he was a British or Indian citizen. "I can confirm I am not a citizen of The United Kingdom, nor am I a citizen of India. I am a citizen of Australia only." July 26: Buzzfeed News publishes documents which show he travelled on a British passport as a child. He still refuses release renunciation papers citing fears they will be manipulated. July 26: His spokesman tells Fairfax Media "any renunciation" occurred on June 6, 2016 - three days before the close of nominations for the federal election - but will not clarify which nations this refers to, or whether this was when papers were submitted or when renunciation was confirmed. He repeatedly refuses to answer further questions and says of The Guardian's earlier article: "The Guardian, as always, is most likely wrong. They always publish nonsense and I have told them as much today."
One of the United States' most senior Navy commanders has acknowledged that accepting North Korea as a fully fledged nuclear power is "part of the dialogue" about how to deal with the rogue state.

In comments that appear conspicuously more moderate than typically emanate from the US government on North Korea, Admiral Scott Swift, Commander of the Pacific Fleet, said in Canberra he regarded a nuclear North Korea as one of the options "on the table".

The frank remarks from such a senior figure underscore the difficulty the world faces in stopping the regime's program, even as the Trump administration declares that the era of "strategic patience" is over and insists it won't accept a fully nuclear regime.

Mr Trump tweeted in January of dictator Kim Jong-un's ambition to develop a nuclear weapon that could reach the US: "It won't happen!"
Michelle Obama has spoken candidly about the racism she still faces.

During a rare appearance since leaving the White House, Obama took to the stage at the Women's Foundation of Colorado's 30 year anniversary celebration to share her personal experience in shattering glass ceilings and the obstacles she faced as America's inaugural African-American First Lady.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama speaks, emphasising that women must celebrate their strength, during a live conversation with The Women's Foundation of Colorado President and CEO Lauren Y. Casteel. Credit:Getty Images

Interviewed by the organisation's president and CEO Lauren Casteel, Obama cited the racists attacks she endured while in office, alluding to being called "an ape in heels" by a former West Virginia Official last November and people not acknowledging her achievements because of her colour as the "falling glass shards" that cut her the deepest.

"The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut," she told Casteel in front of the 8500 strong crowd according to Jezebel.
Ah, dividends. Is there any sweeter (virtual) sound than the digital tinkling of dividends as they fall into your bank account every six months or so?

Dividends  like rent, but to a greater degree  are the true expression of "passive income". You don't have to stand at the tills, dig the pit, code the software or restock the ATMs; as a business' part-owner, someone else is doing that for you.

Former prime minister and treasurer Paul Keating was the architect of superannuation and the dividend imputation system. Credit:Daniel Munoz

Which doesn't mean dividends don't come as the result of hard work, by the way  you had to work and save hard to put aside your investment dollars in the first place. But, once that investment is made, you stand ready to collect your share of the company's profits by way of dividends.

Even better, dividends are about the most concessionally taxed income you can earn. Indeed, if you're in a low-enough tax bracket, or you're a retiree with a super fund in pension phase, the Tax Office may actually send you extra money each year. You won't get that from cash in the bank or an investment property.
Footage showed Mr Mokmool running at an officer who then opened fire. He broke free before Mr Mokmool dropped the bottle and grabbed a pair of scissors. "He was yelling 'don't move, call the police, call the police'," Theoharis said. "He was really disturbed. He was kicking the flower pots and waving the scissors around." Charlie Huynh said his half-brother walked out of their home hours before the shooting. Credit:Rachel Olding Three Police Transport Command officers, both uniformed and in plain clothes, were on the scene in seconds, yelling "put it down" to Mokmool.

Footage showed him running at a plain-clothes officer before four shots  two from two officers  were fired rapidly. He was hit in the head and chest and died instantly. Florist Emmanuel Theoharis allegedly had a broken bottle held to his neck just before the shooting. Credit:Kate Geraghty Fairfax Media understands that capsicum spray was used unsuccessfully during the encounter but Tasers were not drawn. Mr Mokmool had worked on and off as a furniture packer and a forklift driver but stopped working as drug addiction and mental illness besieged him. Reformed drug dealer Tony Hoang said Mr Mokmool walked into his church one day, and spoke frankly about his problems.

Tony Hoang, a former drug dealer and gangster who mentors youth and runs a church largely populated by reformed criminals, said Mr Mokmool walked into his church one day in 2014 after being released from prison. Heavily tattooed but quietly spoken, Mr Mokmool spoke frankly about his addiction to ice and his depression, Mr Hoang said. Danukul Mokmool, on the left, with his half-brother Charlie Huynh and their mother, had attended church after his release from prison. "There were periods and pockets of him doing well while coming to church and getting some structure in life," he said. "I always tried to cast that vision of a changed life, that he could do it if he chose. But he had some mental issues going on. He was seeing things and experiencing these supernatural experiences."

Mr Mokmool would often ride his electric bike to Mr Hoang's house for Bible study. Sometimes he would arrive at church in a suit with a smile on his face. "For a while he was doing good and then he just went off and I hadn't seem him for about a year," he said. Mr Huynh said his brother collected medication from a mental health facility in Liverpool daily and largely spent his time at home on his computer. After stints in prison for drug and gang-related offences, he had enrolled in TAFE in the hope of working with computers. In a tragic twist, Mr Huynh watched footage of the shooting on Wednesday night, not knowing it was his brother involved.

His aunt broke into tears when police delivered the news while his mother, who is in Thailand visiting family, was arranging to fly home. "They're not angry but more upset [at] the fact that it happened," he said. "I don't know why [they would] shoot a man that was just holding scissors but ... it was a weapon at the end of the day." Mr Theoharis, who returned to work on Thursday less than 12 hours after the ordeal, said he felt sorry for the man who attacked him but believed police did the right thing. "They had no choice," he said. "If they didn't he would have attacked them."
After rushing to her friend's Sydney dormitory room late one night, a young woman allegedly found her on the floor, sobbing as she leant against her bed.

"She was really distressed," the woman told the NSW District Court on Thursday.

Jean Claude Perrottet has pleaded not guilty to three counts of sexual intercourse without consent. Credit:AAP

"I was telling her that we needed to go to (Royal Prince Alfred hospital) and trying to comfort her.

"She was crying a lot and she kept saying that she was really embarrassed."
A killer likely drank up to 17 beers and half a bottle of bourbon before he fatally stabbed his neighbour, a Sydney court has heard.

Clinical forensic pharmacologist John Farrar told the NSW Supreme Court on Thursday it was estimated Sateki Siale had been drinking for more than six hours and would have had a blood alcohol content of between 0.23 and 0.36 when he attacked his victim with a smashed beer bottle.

Kelly Ventigadoo was talking loudly to his father, who had a hearing impairment, when he was stabbed.

Mr Farrar said if this was correct Siale would have had to have consumed up to 17 bottles of beer and half a bottle of bourbon.

Siale, 26, has admitted causing the death of victim Kelly Ventigadoo in the early hours of October 11, 2015, at Lakemba in Sydney's southwest but has pleaded not guilty to murder.
A friend of a friend sent Charlie Huynh a video on Wednesday night of the police shooting a man dead outside a florist at Central Station.

It wasn't until hours later that police knocked on the door of his family's home in Heckenberg to break the news that the man in the video was Mr Huynh's half brother, Danukul Mokmool.

On Thursday, Mr Huynh said his family was upset and heartbroken but not angry that Mr Mokmool, known as Dan, was shot.

"I don't know why [they would] shoot a man that was just holding scissors but ... it was a weapon at the end of the day," he said.
A woman has been arrested after allegedly holding a knife to a teenage boy in a park in Sydney's west on Wednesday afternoon.

Dramatic footage of the incident shows the woman, 28, allegedly threatening the boy, 13, before police disarm her.

Police said the woman was taken into custody on Centenary Road, South Wentworthville about 4.45pm on Wednesday after they received reports of a concern for welfare.

The woman allegedly assaulted the child and threatened him with a knife as he lay on the ground.
A Queensland mother accused of trying to kill her infant daughter says she falsely confessed because she "wanted to be locked up" and spare her family the trauma of criminal proceedings.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered "catastrophic" brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010.

Ashleigh Watterson says she falsely confessed because she 'wanted to be locked up'. Credit:Dan Peled/AAP

Sarah died in March 2012 from unknown causes that are not part of the allegations against Ms Watterson.

In a sometimes emotional testimony, the accused woman told the Brisbane Supreme Court she considered taking her own life after charges were laid in June 2013.
A Queensland mother accused of trying to kill her infant daughter says she falsely confessed to spare her family the trauma of criminal proceedings, having already contemplated suicide.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered "catastrophic" brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010.

In a sometimes emotional testimony, Ashleigh Watterson told the Brisbane Supreme Court she considered taking her own life after charges were laid. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

Sarah died in March 2012 from unknown causes that are not part of the allegations against Watterson.

In a sometimes emotional testimony, Watterson on Thursday told the Brisbane Supreme Court she considered taking her own life after charges were laid in June 2013.
A former outback Queensland police officer will front court on Thursday, charged with defrauding the police service.

Daniel Allan Baker, 34, was extradited from the Northern Territory to face three counts of fraud, two counts of stealing by someone in the public service and one count of misconduct related to public office.

A police officer has been charged with fraud. Credit:Glenn Hunt

Police allege the former officer from Mt Isa, who resigned in March, inappropriately dealt with cash collected by the QPS on behalf of other government agencies.

The fraud charges dated from January 1, 2015 to April 1, 2017, while former sergeant Baker was stationed in Camooweal, a border town near Mount Isa, in north-west Queensland.
More than 40 Queensland buildings are being investigated for potentially deadly flammable cladding.

Housing and Public Works Minister Mick de Brenni said there were 44 buildings identified for assessment by a new taskforce to discover if combustible cladding was used.

More tests are being conducted on cladding from the Princess Alexandra Hospital. Credit:Robert Shakespeare

"Twenty-three of those are government-owned buildings and 21 of them are privately-owned," he said.

It comes after London's deadly Grenfell Tower fire, which killed at least 80 people.
Every weekend around Australia from Canberra to Collingwood and beyond, locals and visitors buy fresh produce at farmers' markets.

MegaFresh founder and managing director Alex Stefan wants to tap into this demand with the roll-out of the world's first online farmers' marketplace where shoppers will be able to purchase farm fresh produce from their phone.

Apple farmer Kevin Sanders was one of the first to sign up to Online farmers' market MegaFresh .

Stefan is in the midst of a "soft launch" of Megafresh signing up farmers to the site in Victoria, soon to be followed by NSW and Queensland.

"MegaFresh works like eBay. Sellers list their products at their own price and buyers do their shopping," he says.
Victoria is open to "going it alone" on a plastic bag ban if a national deal cannot be reached.

Pressure is building on the Andrews government to eradicate plastic bags with some states already implementing bans and Victorian councils calling for change.

Environment Minister Lily D'Ambrosio told Fairfax Media: "We believe that a national ban is the most effective way to address the issue but we have not ruled out going it alone."

"We're engaging with industry and the community to identify the most effective and appropriate approach to reduce the impact of plastic bags in Victoria," Ms D'Ambrosio said.
Western Australia is one step closer to legalising euthanasia, after Mandurah MP David Templeman said a plan to establish a parliamentary inquiry into end-of-life legislation would be debated in August.

Mr Templeman, who is also the government minister responsible for which laws are debated, said the move could mean euthanasia legislation may be introduced as early as next year.

A motion to establish an inquiry into "end-of-life choices" was put on the notice paper in June by Morley MP Amber-Jade Sanderson.

It called for a committee to examine "the need for laws in Western Australia to allow citizens to make informed decisions regarding their own end-of-life choices".
The US Congress struck a deal on Wednesday paving the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar President Donald Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without Congress' approval.

Earlier Wednesday, Russia warned it was edging closer to retaliation against Washington, after the House of Representatives backed new US sanctions on Moscow, while the European Union said the move might affect its energy security and it stood ready to act too.

Most White House watchers believe Donald Trump will reluctantly sign off on the new sanctions. Credit:AP

"I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," Senator Bob Corker, the Republican chairman of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement on Wednesday evening.

He said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran that it originally passed in mid-June, as well as sanctions on North Korea developed by the House of Representatives and included in a bill the House passed overwhelmingly on Wednesday.
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A doctor who treated a victim of the nutty Prospect Park squirrel that bit five people last week described his patients assault in an exclusive interview with The Brooklyn Paper.

The victim  an Israeli immigrant in his 60s who lives in Midwood  was exercising in Brooklyns Backyard on July 19 when the rodent suddenly attacked, gripping his leg with its paws as it sunk its teeth into him, according to the physician.

The squirrel was acting weird, jumped on his leg, and wouldnt let go, said Dr. Jacob Gerlitz of Quality First Urgent Care at 6010 Bay Parkway.

The man wrenched the crazed critter from his limb and hurled it away, but, instead of scurrying off, the creature stared him down in an inter-species standoff.

It was biting him, so he grabs it and throws it, but then the squirrel just stood there staring him down  it wouldnt even run away, Gerlitz said.

The doctor sent his patient to Mount Sinai for a rabies vaccine, but not before taking a good look at the bite, which he said was not that impressive.

It wasnt that crazy, Gerlitz said.

And while he was attacked by what could be the first rabid squirrel found in New York since state officials started tracking the disease in animals in 1992, the man took his assault in stride, according to Gerlitz.

He was very nonplussed by it, the doctor said.

Other victims of the animals three-day biting spree included a 7-year-old girl and an East Flatbush man who claimed the squirrel gnawed his finger when he tried to feed it, according to a New York Daily News report.

Park officials have yet to find the furry culprit dead or alive, but said that if it did have rabies, it likely has met its maker by now.
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Talk about flunking communication!

A much-needed 392-seat school will be built Downtown, city officials announced Wednesday, but they neglected to share the news with the head of the local education council, its leader said.

I just dont know much about it, said Ayanna Behin, president of the Community Education Council for District 13, which includes Downtown, after this paper reached out to get her reaction. I wish I knew more.

The schoolhouse will occupy the first six floors of developer JEMB Realtys high-end, 35-story office building at 420 Albee Square West between Fulton and Willoughby streets, according to a press release from the Economic Development Corporation, which is overseeing the project.

The Community Education Council is a panel of volunteers who represent parents and advise education officials on programs and improvements. Behin  who sat on its board for a year before taking over as president last month  said she had heard rumors from other parents about the school on Wednesday, but nothing from the city, and hopes that is not a sign of things to come as honchos figure out what type of school it will be.

I think its really important for them to work with the CEC, the community, and the superintendent to make sure these seats will fill the holes we need them to fill, she said. I want to make sure the CEC is involved in whatever theyre planning.

Officials have not decided who the institution will serve, but parents in District 13  which also includes Brooklyn Heights, Dumbo, Fort Greene, Prospect Heights, Clinton Hill, and parts of Bedford-Stuyvesant  have been demanding the city build elementary schools to keep pace with a Downtown population boom that followed the nabes 2004 rezoning, which was meant to bring more office space but resulted in more residential development instead.

The ensuing influx of people led Borough President Adams in 2015 to warn of a school capacity crisis Downtown if the city did not start building new elementary schools there.

And competition for existing school seats is fierce  Brooklyn Heights PS 8 put 22 families on its kindergarten wait list in March, just a year after a controversial rezoning dramatically reduced the area served by the institution.

Usually, the education department, superintendent, and community education panel work together to decide the type of a new school, according to Councilman Steve Levin (DBoerum Hill), who agreed Downtown is desperate for more elementary classrooms following its rezoning.

Its probably the greatest need because of the residential development that wasnt anticipated, he said.

The new Albee Square school will not be the first new developer-built facility in the district  a middle school is slated to open in Atlantic Yards in 2018.

A spokesman for the Economic Development Corporation referred a question about the lack of Community Education Council engagement to the education department and School Construction Authority, the agencys arm in charge of building new schools.

A spokeswoman for the education department did not comment on its outreach to the panel at this time, except to say the School Construction Authority handles community engagement.
Over 1,200 mail-in votes added to Montco totals; Bucks still in limbo

Two of Montgomery County's three commissioners said they did not support disenfranchising more than 1,200 voters because of a handful of rule breakers
State Senator Steve Santarsiero (D-10) presented a check to Yardley Borough Police Chief Joseph Kelly for $68,600 for the purchase of a new police vehicle and motorcycle during a visit to the station. Our police put themselves on the line every day to keep our community safe, said Sen. Santarsiero. Dating back to when I was a Lower Makefield Township Supervisor more than...
Disclosure: My family and I were given free admission to the Colorado Gator Farm in return for our honest review. All opinions are our own.

Last week on our road trip to Canon City Colorado to visit the Royal Gorge Bridge we took a little detour to Mosca Colorado so see some Gators!! Mosca Colorado is between Alamosa and Salida Colorado. It was a bit out of our way but since we were in the southern Colorado area we decided we had to stop and see this fun place called the Colorado Gator Farm

What Is The Colorado Gator Farm?

The Colorado Gator Farm is one of Alamosas most unique attractions. Using the geothermal waters of the valley in this area of Colorado, the owners decided to start their very own Tilapia farm in 1977. Instead of throwing away the dead fish, in 1987 they bought 100 baby alligators to take care of the fish remains naturally. These baby alligators grew fast in the warm, geothermal waters and locals started asking if they could see them. The Gator Farm opened to the public in 1990, showcasing their tilapia ponds and enormous alligators.This farm has also become an Exotic Animal Refuge. They have received dozens of unwanted, illegal, and abused reptiles from all over; giving the refuge not only alligators, but tortoises, iguanas, poisonous snakes , and giant snapping turtles.

When we first drove up to the Colorado Gator Farm we were quickly reminded that this is a working farm. Yes, there are bugs, it is dusty, and it smells. They warn you as you walk in, so they know. HA! After you pay for your admission, you get to start meeting all kinds of reptiles that live on the Gator Farm. Our first friend was an 18 year old Tortoise. The kids loved him, and he loved the food they gave him. These guys are all over the farm, and are pretty friendly.

Not all of these reptiles and exotic creatures were things we could hold, touch and feed. Scorpions, spiders, poisonous snakes and mean lizards were those that we just looked at through the glass. Now, the corn snakes were different. These guys are friendlyI guess. Jude did not hesitate when the employee asked if he wanted to hold the corn snakes. He was so brave and had a great time when he had two of them on him. That smile says it all!

At first Teagan was not going to touch those snakes but after Jeremy held one and she pet it, she decided she could hold him too. Sure enough! She did it!! Brave girl!

While visiting the farm, you follow a path through a number of buildings. In these buildings you get to see all kinds of creatures along with the gators. I especially thought the orange iguana was pretty cool!

The kids especially loved feeding the Gators some gator chow. The gator chow is available for purchase when you first walk into the farm. One bucket was plenty for our two kids. The kids thought it was great when the gators would move to get the chow. I on the other hand was freaked out at how their eyes could see that tiny piece of chow and get it quickly in the water.

The Colorado Gator Farm has over 200 gators on property. CRAZY! They are in every body of water around the farm; all gated of course. It is pretty fun to see the different sizes. Some of the gators are babies and others are over 25 years old and GIANT!

Every guest that comes into the farm has the opportunity to take a picture with an alligator  you can even hold her! This one pictured below that Jude is proudly holding is named Ali. She is a baby but was surprisingly heavy. It was a fun family photo to take a picture with an alligator.

General Information:

9162 CR 9 N

Mosca, CO, 81146
With more women's sports on TV, more fans are tuning in
Buoyed by the sale of FreeCharge to Axis Bank, Snapdeal co-founder Kunal Bahl has said the deal provides us the necessary boost in resources to continue our journey towards building an e-commerce platform.
Private sector lender Axis Bank has acquired digital payments company FreeCharge for Rs 385 crore. The bank will get FreeCharges 50 million wallet users and 0.2 million merchant base, helping it to scale up its presence in the digital payments space.
State-owned Cochin Shipyard will enter the inland vessel building segment on the back of strong growth potential in the next three years. The company will build small barges, passenger ferry, river-sea vessels and river cruise among other inland vessels.
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Advertising major Aegis Network has acquired Bengaluru-and-Pune-based digital agency Sokrati Technologies, wrapping up its 13th acquisition in South Asia in two years. The deal size of the current transaction  estimated at Rs 800 crore  is the largest for in the digital space in India, according to persons in the know.
Exide Industries, a leading name in lead acid batteries for the automotive segment, is gearing up to ride the next wave of growth with a foray in batteries.

"We are in a very disruptive stage as far as the battery industry is concerned. There is so much talk about e-buses, e-cars, etc. Elon Musk is creating such a hype. We are keeping our plans flexible currently. If electric vehicles come then our investment has to be in a different directions. Then we have to look for persons and collaborations," said G Chatterjee, MD & CEO, Exide Industries, on the sidelines of the company's annual general meeting.
Fast Track Call Cabs, one of the leading cabs service in the country, is planning to raise around $50 million from investors. The money will be utilised by the company to expand its operations and to take on cab aggregators Ola and Uber.

C Ambigapathy, managing director, Fast Track said that after the entry of foreign aggregators, around 25 have vanished in Tamil Nadu alone. Fast Track, however, has managed to survive for the past 17 years.
In line with Street estimates, conglomerate ITC posted a 7.4 per cent rise in net profit to Rs 2,560 crore for the quarter ended June, with a 4.3 per cent rise in gross revenue from sales of products and services at Rs 13,722 crore.
Managed hosting and cloud service provider says it is targeting the 350-odd Japanese companies in India as part of its expansion plan.



A fully owned subsidiary of Japan-based NTT Communications, it launched national long distance (NLD) services last year. It plans to take on lease the fibre laid by existing telecom operators, not lay its own.



"As of now, we want to focus heavily on the Japanese customers. There are more than 350 Japanese MNCs who are very actively engaged in India. For our network business, our strategy is first to go to these guys, as most of them are NTT global customers," executive director and president Sunil Gupta told Business Standard.



He said it made sense for these Japanese companies to have a single provider across the globe. Apart from these, it is looking at other global multinationals in India which are NTT customers in other regions.



Asked when the company could achieve its targeted customer base, Gupta said, "Hopefully, in the next 12-15 months." It currently has 55 enterprise customers.



Gupta said with so much of fibre laid underground by telecom operators over the past 20 years, there was no point in one more player coming in and digging the roads. "Our plan is not to get our own fibre. We are tying up with all the providers, like Tata, Vodafone, Sify, Airtel or Reliance, and then constructing a single network for an enterprise," he added.



The company says it has no plan to enter mobile connectivity and servicing of individuals -- it sees its strength in data centres and the connectivity business through fibre. Netmagic has seven data centres in the country and plans to add two, with an initial investment of $160 million (Rs 1,000 crore).



The company acquired a Virtual Network Operator-International Long Distance network licence in March.



"India has been a key strategic market for us, with the accelerating shift of information technology services from traditional enterprise data centres into cloud-based services," said NTT Communications' president and chief executive, Tetsuya Shoji.



For the past few years, he said, their business in India had consistently grown at a little over 35 per cent annually.



"With further expansion of data centre footprint and addition of international data network services to our portfolio, we aim to meet the growing market needs for mobility, e-commerce, the internet of things (IoT), cloud and big data," Shoji added.
The share price of Indian Oil Corporation (IOC), after scaling highs of Rs 450.65 on May 16, has continued moving down. Trading at Rs 368, it is down 18 per cent from the peak.
Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time on Thursday  with the support of old ally, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Sushil Kumar Modi, who had served as finance minister in the previous Democratic Alliance (NDA) government in the state (2005-2013), was sworn-in as Nitishs deputy.
Indian Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Kumar Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met in Beijing on Thursday on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting, amid an ongoing military stand-off between the two nations in the Sikkim area.
Amid the Sikkim standoff, Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday held talks with his Chinese Counterpart and State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs meeting here.

Yang met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Yang separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems, the report said, without giving further details.

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

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a solution to the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

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

China claimed that it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.
Kicking off a fresh controversy over "Vande Mataram", BJP Maharashtra lawmaker Raj Purohit on Thursday announced that he would ask the state government to introduce a policy making the song's singing compulsory.

"I will urge Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that Maharashtra should adopt a policy on the lines of the Madras High Court judgement making singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory," Purohit told media persons here.

Immediately reacting, state Samajwadi Party President and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said that though he had great respect for 'Vande Mataram', he would not sing it under any circumstances, come what may.

"When India was partitioned, nowhere it was said that if we (Muslims) stayed back in India, we would be forced to sing it. You may shoot me or throw me out of the country, but we will not sing it," he said.

Joining him, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Waris Pathan declared he would not comply to sing 'Vande Mataram' even at gunpoint or if a knife was put to his throat.

He said the AIMIM has always opposed it and will continue so if it raised in the legislature.

The two said nobody should be forced to prove their "nationalism" by singing the song and no true Muslim will sing it as Islam does not permit it.

Transport Minister Diwakar Raote, of the Shiv Sena, joined the issue by terming the duo "traitors."

"They are traitors. They should be aware that 'Vande Mataram' symbolises nationalism and our soldiers are laying down their lives for the country. If they feel so ashamed and don't want to sing, they better go to Pakistan," Raote said.

In his interactions with media, Purohit said that he would urge the Chief Minister to make a rule making it compulsory to sing 'Vande Mataram' in schools, colleges, government offices and other places on the lines of the Madras HC judgement, and even raise the matter in the legislature if required.

There have been no reactions from the two main Opposition parties -- the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party -- on the issue so far.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Finance Minister Arun Jaitleys scathing indictment of the Election Commission of India for its failure to check the influence of black money in elections since independence could be a double-edged sword for the Modi government. Jaitley exhorted to an audience at a conclave in Delhi last week, For 70 years, Indias democracy has completely been funded by invisible money  elected representatives, governments, political parties, Parliaments. And I must say that the Election Commission completely failed in checking it.
On a remote pass through Himalayan peaks, China and India, two nuclear-armed nations, have come near the brink of conflict over an unpaved road. It is one of the worst border disputes between the regional rivals in more than 30 years.
(ASER),

Over 85% of rural government elementary schools had a provision for drinking water in 2016, compared to 83% in 2010, while only about 74% of schools had drinking water facilities that were useable, compared to 73% in 2010, showing little progress in access to drinking water over six years, according to data collected for the Annual Status of Education Report a citizen-led survey of rural schools.

Drinking water facilities include handpumps taps, any other form like an earthen pitcher or other storage vessels etc.
The government has rejected international advocacy group Reporters Without Borders' (RWB) press freedom index, which gave India a poor ranking, citing threats to the media as one of the reasons for it, Rajya Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
After yoga, the Narendra Modi government at the Centre is now increasingly looking to promote khadi as an international brand with a special focus on Indian diaspora.
The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has instructed various nodal agencies and its offices across the country to check the import of pepper into the country. The authority feels pepper coming from Vietnam may be contaminated.
India has not imposed any restrictions on for foreign patients but in case of those from Pakistan, a recommendation letter from Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs is required for obtaining a visa, the Lok Sabha was informed on Thursday.
With the rains falling in abundance and tomatoes refusing to do so, agriculture economy experts have a lot to say on what both mean for the sector.
The (RBI) on Thursday criticised private and foreign banks for appointing the same set of auditors alternatively after mandatory rest of two years, as such practice establishes a comfortable relationship that may lead to compromise in strict adherence to audit principles.
Chabahar Port

India Ports Global Ltd. has signed a contract with Aria Banader of Iran to equip and operate two terminals at Chabahar - Shahid -Beheshti Port in Iran for transportation of goods and other purposes.

As per Article 6 of the contract, effort are to be made to commence commercial operations at Chabahar Shahid- Beheshti Port in Iran within 18 months from the contract activation date or 4 months from the date on which the Lessor hands over the Terminals and the infrastructure facilities to the Lessee in accordance with the terms of the Contract.

This information was given by Minister of State for Shipping and Road Transport and Highways Shri Pon.

Radhakrishnan in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today.
The Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal, New & Renewable Energy and Mines, Shri Piyush Goyal, while giving a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha today, informed the House that Government has reviewed the status of 34 stressed Thermal Power Projects, as per the list provided by Department of Financial Services (DFS), with an estimated debt of about Rs. 1.77 lakh crore. The Minister also informed that as per DFS data, the total advances towards electricity generation sector reported by Scheduled Commercial Banks (SCBs) is about Rs. 4.71 lakh crore and most of them are stranded assets. .

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Shri Goyal stated that Neyveli Lignite Corporation of India Limited (NLCIL) has identified Ragunathpur Thermal Power Station- Phase-I (2x660 MW), a stressed asset of Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) for acquisition. NLC has also shortlisted two suitable stressed power assets for possible acquisition to augment its power generation capacity. Currently, NTPC has no proposal to acquire stressed power projects or enable their lenders to operate on contract basis, the Minister added. .

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Government has identified the major reasons for stress in the Power Sector, which are as follows: .

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Non-availability of regular fuel supply arrangements .

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Lack of Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) tie-ups .

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Inability of the Promoter to infuse the equity and service debt .

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Regulatory and Contractual issues .

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Shri Goyal informed that the Government has also taken a number of steps to ease stress in the sector. These include: .

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? For grant of regular coal linkages, Govt. of India has approved New Coal Allocation Policy, 2017, for Power sector, on 17.05.2017 viz. SHAKTI (Scheme for Harnessing and Allocating Koyala Transparently in India) under which coal is made available to Public Sector Undertakings of Central and State Government, and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) against already concluded long-term Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) and long-term & medium-term PPAs, to be concluded in future. .

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? To encourage increased purchase of Power, following measures have been taken: .

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Ujwal DISCOM Assurance Yojana (UDAY) scheme for Financial and Operational Turnaround of power distribution utilities (DISCOMs) of the country. .

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Power For All (PFA) initiative with States and UTs for bringing uninterrupted quality of power to each household, industry, commercial business, small & medium enterprise and establishment. .

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Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Gram Jyoti Yojana (DDUGJY) for Rural Electrification; strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in the rural areas; separation of agriculture and non-agriculture feeders and metering of distribution transformers/ feeders/consumers in the rural areas. .

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Integrated Power Development Scheme (IPDS) for strengthening of sub-transmission and distribution networks in the urban areas; Metering of distribution transformers / feeders / consumers in the urban areas and IT enablement of distribution sector. .

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Augmenting Transmission capacity to remove transmission constraints. .

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Flexibility in utilization of domestic coal for reducing the cost of power generation. .

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Shri Goyal also informed that RBI has notified schemes such as (i) Scheme for Sustainable Structuring of Stressed Assets (S4A) and (ii) Strategic Debt Restructuring Scheme (SDR) for the revival of stressed assets. Due diligence and financial restructuring by Banks to make projects viable would attract new promoters or States to bring in fresh equity investments. The issue of setting up of a fund has been discussed among other options with stakeholders, he added. .

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The meeting of Home Minister Advisory Committee for Union Territory Chandigarh was held here today under the Chairmanship of Union Home Minister Shri Rajnath Singh. The Union Territory was represented by Shri V. P. Singh Badnore, Governor of Punjab and Administrator, Chandigarh, Smt Kirron Kher, Member of Parliament and other Members. .

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The members had suggested 46 agenda items relating to different fields of development of the Union Territory of Chandigarh. The items that were discussed during the meeting included issues relating to land, building bylaws, traffic, parking and service matters. The status of grant of subsistence allowance to Home Guards of Chandigarh and extension of Court fee (Punjab Amendment Act, 2016) was informed in the meeting. The members also stressed upon increasing the revenue share of Municipal Corporation and to resolve the problem of solid waste management in Chandigarh. .

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The Union Home Minister directed the officers to expedite the issues pending with MHA and also follow up the issues pending with other Ministries. He also advised the Chandigarh Administration to look into the issues which are of priority nature. Shri Rajnath Singh thanked the Members for the extremely fruitful and detailed deliberations. .

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Other participants of the meeting included Shri Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, Minister of State (Home), Shri Rajiv Mehrishi, Union Home Secretary, Shri Rajiv Gauba, Officer on Special Duty (Home), Shri Hari Krishna Paliwal, Advisor and senior officers from Ministries of Home Affairs, Health & Family Welfare, Human Resource Development, Social Justice & Empowerment and Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions. .

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Following is the text of statement made in Rajya Sabha today by Minister of State for Home Affairs, Shri Kiren Rijiju on Situation arising out of recent floods in various parts of the country, particularly in Assam: .

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India receives heavy rainfall from June to September every year during the South West (SW) Monsoon Season. The rainfall during this period accounts for about 70-90 % of the total annual rainfall over India. As a consequence of this rainfall, flooding of rivers is a natural weather phenomenon. This year monsoon set in over Kerala on 30th May, the monsoon has already covered entire country by 19th July 2017. In terms of area wise distribution, 89% of the area in the country received excess/ normal rainfall and 11% of the area received deficient rainfall till date. .

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Over 40 Million hectares land of the country is prone to floods and river erosion. The flood prone regions of India are the Himalayan Rivers Basin (Kosi and Damodar Rivers in particular), the North Western River Basin (Jhelum, Ravi, Sutlej and Beas Rivers) and the central and Peninsular River Basin (Narmada, Chambal, Godavari, Krishna and Cauvery River). .

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During the current South West monsoon season, various parts of the States of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand and West Bengal reported to have been affected by heavy rains / flash floods / and rain oriented calamities of varying degrees. As per the information of damage received from these States 508 persons have lost their lives, 24,811 cattle heads have perished, 63,215 houses/ huts have been damaged and about 2.8 lakh hectares of crop area have been reported affected due to heavy rains/ flood/ landslides etc.. .

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Primary responsibility to deal with natural calamities rest with the State Government concerned. The Central Government supplements the efforts of the State Governments by providing financial and logistics support to effectively deal with such exigent situations. The concerned State Governments have been taking necessary relief, preparedness/ preventive measures, which inter-alia includes distribution of relief, evacuation and shifting of the people to safer places, setting up of multipurpose relief shelters/ camps, providing Governments have also taken necessary health and hygiene measures to prevent outbreak of any epidemic during floods/ post flood calamity period. State authorities are monitoring rainfall, water level of the rivers/ dams in coordination with the IMD and CWC as well as issuing weather advisories to all vulnerable districts. .

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With regard to Assam, there are 2 major rivers system (viz; Brahmaputra valley and Barak valley) in the State which causes floods. The State faces acute flood problem in the flood plains of the river Brahmaputra and Barak and other smaller river sub-basins. Assam has faced two waves of floods till 19th July 2017 affecting 29 districts out of 33 districts, resulting in loss of human lives, livestock and large scale damage to the dwelling houses. The State Government is providing necessary relief assistance affected people in the State. As per information received from the State Government of Assam, about 59430.45 quintal rice, 11142.18 quintal dal, 3541.71 quintal salt, 37249.89 liters M. Oil and 58092 numbers of tarpaulins etc. have been provided to the affected people in different districts of Assam. The State Government has mentioned that 1160 relief camps (357 relief camps + 803 relief distribution center) have been opened and 1,31,416 inmates are housed in these camps, so far. However, at present the situation is under control in the State. The State Government is closely monitoring rescue & relief operations in the districts to deal with any eventuality. The Ministry of Home Affairs is also keeping constant round the clock watch on the situation in the country including Assam. .

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In order to assess the loss of immediate nature, upon receipt interim memorandum an Inter-Ministerial Central Team (IMCT) was constituted on 21st July 2017. The Inter-Ministerial Central Team, in consultation with the State Government, are visiting the affected areas of the State, from 25-28th July 2017 for on the spot assessment of damages of immediate and temporary nature. Further, action would be taken in the matter, in accordance with the established procedure. .

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To ensure effective preparedness, MHA conducted annual meeting of Relief Commissioners/ Secretaries, Department of Disaster Management of State / UTs on 17 May 2017 to review the status of preparedness and to discuss other disaster management related issues. The representatives of various Central Ministries/ Organizations rendering Emergency Support Functions also participated in the meeting. During the conference the emphasis was laid on close coordination with forecasting agencies such as Central Water Commission (CWC), India Metrological Department (IMD), GSI and INCOIS. .

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As stated earlier, the State Governments concerned are primarily responsible for undertaking necessary rescue, relief and preventive measures in the wake of natural calamities. Apart from providing logistics support, the Government of India supplements the efforts of the State Governments by extending financial assistance through State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF) as per the laid down procedure. An amount of Rs. 9382.80 crore has been allocated as central share to all the States in their SDRF accounts for the year 2017-18. An amount of Rs. 3387.15 crore has so far been released, as the installment of Central share of SDRF for the year 2017-18 to 21 States. In addition, financial assistance from NDRF amounting to Rs. 1555.84 crore has been provided during 2017-18, so far, to different States which were affected by calamities of severe nature. In addition to regular schemes of crops damage, the farmers are also entitled for compensation under the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojna of the Ministry of Agriculture, which is being implemented by the State Government. .

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MHA have deployed about 88 specialized teams of NDRF in 26 States and UTs with 304 boats another necessary search and rescue equipment. Based on vulnerability profile of different regions of the country, NDRF teams have been presently stationed/ deployed at 12 Bn HQ viz; Guwahati (Assam), Haringhata (West Bengal), Mundali (Odisha), Arakkonam (Tamil Nadu), Pune (Maharashtra), Vadodra (Gujarat), Bhatinda (Punjab), Ghaziabad (Uttar Pradesh), Bihta (Bihar), Vijayawada (Andhra Pradesh), Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) and Doimukh (Arunachal Pradesh). Besides, pre-positioning of the NDRF teams has already been done at 31 different locations in the country depending on the vulnerability profile of the area. In addition, NDRF teams also assist to the State administration in distribution of essential relief material and provide medical support to affected people at the time of emergency. NDRF also conducts mock drills along with the relevant departments and State agencies in the country for effective management of floods, response and rescue operations. .

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Honble PM has reviewed the flood preparedness of the nation via PRAGATI on 12th July 2017. Honble MOS (PMO & DONER) has reviewed the flood situation of North-Eastern States including Assam on 13th July 2017. Honble MOS (Home) has visited and reviewed the flood situation of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh from 13th to 15th July 2017. I would like to assure the Honble Members that the Government of India will give due importance to the valuable suggestions given by them during the discussion to deal effectively with the situation caused by floods and other natural calamities." .

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World Bank financing of USD 100 Million for development of internal infrastructure of solar parks has been planned by Indian Renewable Energy Development Agency Ltd. (IREDA) under the aegis of Ministry of New & Renewable Energy. The World Bank loan is proposed to flow to the interested Solar Power Park Developers (SPPDs) through IREDA. This was stated by Shri Piyush Goyal, Minister of State (IC) for Power, Coal & New and Renewable Energy and Mines in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today. .

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In addition, the World Bank is providing low cost financing to roof-top solar developers under a $625 million Programme for Results (PforR) to be routed through the State Bank of India. These programmes will increase the availability of debt financing, de-risk commercial financial flows, and build capacity across the solar PV industry to significantly expand the programme of rooftop solar PV across India. The first 100 MW of solar rooftop financing under this loan has just been approved, the Minister added. .

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RM/RS- USQ1863- LS
United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday announced that transgenders, in any capacity, won't be allowed to serve the military saying that their inclusion would entail "disruption" in the military affairs.
On July 25, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell narrowly managed to keep a Republican effort to reform health care alive. We asked our experts to consider the importance of this procedural vote and what happens next.
US Tech giants, including Google and Apple, have come out in support of the transgenders after President Donald Trump banned the community from serving in the country's military, according to a media report.
CIA Director Mike Pompeo has branded China as one of the biggest threat to America's super power status in the world, than Russia or Iran.

Terming terrorism and North Korea as short-term threats to U.S. security interests, the CIA head described China as mid to long term threat due to its strong economy and its military capabilities to confront the United States.

"It's hard to pick between China, Russia and Iran to be honest with you. I guess if I had to pick one with a nose above the others, I'd probably pick China,"Russia Today quoted Pompeo as saying.

"They have a real economy that they have built, unlike Russia that lives and dies on how many barrels of oil they can pluck out of the ground. And Iran that is similarly very single sector derivative and not to the scale of China population-wise," he explained.

As China is asserting dominance in the East and South China Sea, a U.S. Navy warship has sailed close to a Chinese claimed island in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials say, marking the second such operation under Donald Trump's presidency.

United States pointed out that China cannot "unlawfully restrict the navigation rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea as all the states are entitled to exercise under international law."

Trump signaled he could use the US-China trading relationship as to pressure China to force North Korea to act, Trump said,"Somebody said, what cards you have? I said, very simple- trade. We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals. We have the worst of all trade deals is with China," Trump said.

"But the biggest strength we have these horrendous trade deals, like with China. That's our strength. But we're going to fix them. But in terms of North Korea, our strength is trade."

"We have to fix the trade. We have to fix the trade.But we have to fix the trade with China because it's very, very none-reciprocal," Trump added.

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The Air Intelligence Unit (AIU) recovered a hollow cylindrical shaped gold weighing 860 grams valued at Rs 25,37,000 from a passenger at Mumbai Airport.

The arrested passenger named Muhammed Rishad Vannante Valappil holding Indian passport arrived in Mumbai from Dubai by Emirates flight. He is a resident of Kannur, Kerala and works as a salesman in one electronic shop in Dubai.

Examination of his checked-in-baggage resulted into the recovery of hollow cylindrical shaped gold from inside a mixer weighing 860 grams worth Rs. 25,37,000.

The gold was cleverly concealed in the cavity of shaft in the housing of mixer grinder of brand 'Meenimix'.

In a similar incident, AIU on Wednesday recovered 4 gold bars weighing 464 gms valued at Rs 13,68,000 , concealed inside battery slot of a mobile phone.

While frisking of one Airport Staff Arif Mohamed Khan, near the gate located at V17F, officers recovered four gold bars of ten tolas each totally weighing 464 grams valued at Rs. 13,68,000 from the battery slot of the Samsung mobile he was carrying.

Arif Mohammed Khan told in his statement that the said mobile phone with gold bars was given to him, near aerobridge, by one passenger who arrived from Dubai by Jet Airways Flight no. 9W 579.

Arif Khan works as a Customer Agent in Air India Air Transport Services Limited (AIATSL), a subsidiary of Air India.

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HCL Infosystems, India's pioneer IT services, solutions and distribution company, today announced its financial results for the quarter that ended on June 30, 2017.

"The planned focus on the enterprise has been maintaining its growth course while in the consumer we are steadfast in our transition from single-brand to a multi-brand model. Both are integral to the company's onward transformation journey," said executive vice-chairman and managing director of HCL Infosystems Ltd, Premkumar.

The core enterprise business (consisting of enterprise products distribution, domestic enterprise services, global enterprise services and care services) continued on its positive growth track. The focus of the company in building capabilities in emerging technologies resulted in further strengthening of its portfolio in this segment through partnerships such as the one with Parablu to offer cloud data protection and management solutions to enterprises across the country.

The enterprise products distribution business continued its consistently robust performance with 10 percent growth in QoQ and 11 percent in YoY revenue. During the quarter, the business launched a comprehensive channel partner program to provide promotional and financial incentives to its partners. Higher sales were also achieved from channel partners.

The enterprise services business (comprising domestic services, global services and care services) clocked revenue of Rs. 212 crore in Q1 FY18 with a revenue decline of eight percent QoQ. The decline in revenue can be partly attributed to the office automation consumables business being regrouped with the enterprise distribution business due to better business synergies. Also, ongoing contract rationalization for profitability improvement has impacted revenues in this business.

The consumer distribution business is focused on new tie-ups with leading telecom OEMs as part of its multi-brand telecom distribution strategy. Though there have been ongoing discussions with OEMs, the ongoing transition from a single-brand into a multi- brand distribution has impacted revenues. Revenue declined 58 percent from Rs. 163 crore in Q4 FY17 to Rs. 69 crore in Q1 FY18.

The SI and solutions business registered revenue of Rs. 40 crore during the first quarter of FY18. The total order book size stood at Rs. 715 crore as on 30 June, 2017. The focus remained on completion of major projects and collection of receivables even as projects valued at Rs. 60 crore were billed in this quarter. The flagship UIDAI project crossed the milestone of enrollment of more than 115 crore Aadhaar cards.

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External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said the day she gets proof of whereabouts of 39 missing Indians, abducted from Mosul in Iraq, she will inform about them via Twitter or in the Parliament if the session is on.

Addressing the Upper House, the Foreign Minister reiterated her stand that she will not declare anyone dead without proof.

"The day I get proof of whereabouts of 39 missing Indians, I will come here if the session is on or inform via Twitter But I reiterate that i won't declare anyone dead without proof," she said.

Yesterday, Swaraj said that there is no evidence to substantiate the claim that 39 Indians missing in Mosul, Iraq, have died. "And declaring anyone dead without proof is a sin that I won't commit," she said.

Sushma was giving her statement on the 39 missing Indians after a morning of uproar in the Lok Sabha.

Sushma Swaraj asserted that Iraq never claimed that the missing nationals are "dead".

"Why should I believe Harjit Masih's claims that the 39 Indians are dead? It is a crime to do this without proper proof", she said.

Lok Sabha witnessed uproar as the Minister started speaking on the missing Indians, leading to her refusing from giving statements on the issue.

Earlier on Monday, Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said that he was not sure about the fate of 39 missing Indians, who were held captive by Islamic State in Mosul.

He said there is no report about them whether they are dead or alive and added that the Iraqi government is doing its best to locate them.

"We're not 100 percent sure whether they're alive or not, we don't know. We are going to do our best, but till now we cannot say anything about their fate," al-Jaafari said.

"We will do our best in order to find those 39," he added.

The Iraq Embassy in India had also informed that search operations are underway to locate the 39 missing Indians, and assured there is a high level coordination between concerned Iraqi and Indian authorities to locate them.

The Government of India has already sent two high-level senior delegations to Iraq to follow up on this matter.

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Few terrorists fired upon a joint party of the Army and the Police on Thursday in Jammu and Kashmir, which was returning from a cordon and search operation at Shopian district's Materbugh area.

Meanwhile, in another incident a constable was injured after terrorists opened fire upon him in the Kulgam district.

The constable, who hails from the Yamrach village, has been shifted to a nearby hospital.

His condition is said to be normal.

Further details are awaited.

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With the latest political development in Bihar, it is likely that Janata Dal (United) will become part of Narendra Modi led Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at Centre.

JD-U leader Nitish Kumar on Thursday forged an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form government in Bihar. He took oath as Chief Minister and BJP leader Sushil Modi as Deputy Chief Minister.

According to sources, Modi government may undergo a reshuffle by next month and JD-U could get one Cabinet berth and one Minister of State (MoS).

Sources also said that Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar could be included in the Cabinet.

Neither Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor JD (U) has confirmed the news.

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Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) Working President M K Stalin on Thursday was detained on his way to Salem near Kaniyur Toll Plaza, as he was to take part in a protest.

Stalin was on his way from Coimbatore Airport and was heading towards Salem when the police arrested him.

Coimbatore Superintendent of Police (SP) Pa Moorthy, along with more than 200 police personnel had been waiting at Kaniyur toll plaza which s on the outskirts of Coimbatore.

Following that, hundreds of DMK members staged a protest at Kaniyur. All of them were arrested and taken to a marriage hall.

Stalin was planning to lead a human chain protest against National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) at Salem today evening.

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Nepal's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Education Gopal Man Shrestha has urged India to play a positive role in reducing growing trade deficit of the country in the present context.

He made these remarks at a programme 'Nepal-India relations in changed context' organised here on Wednesday by the Centre for Nepal and Asian Studies (CNAS) and Political Science Study Association.

He said that the Nepal-India relation has been a matter of international concern.

"The two countries have strong and cordial relations due to economic and social affinities and mutual good will. Nepal has attached high importance to the bilateral dynamic relations", The Himalayan Times quoted Shrestha as saying.

He also appreciated India's continuous support to the development of physical infrastructure and socio-economic advancements in Nepal.

Shrestha said the recommendations of the objective study carried out by research institutions should be taken into account in order to further strengthen the multi-faceted relations.

Describing the bilateral relations between Nepal and India as special, Indian Ambassador to Nepal Manjeev Singh Puri said New Delhi has always accorded due respect to this relation.

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Asserting that peace in Afghanistan is crucial for development in the region, Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Chaudhary made these remarks while addressing members of the Washington-based think tank community, local and international press, and academia, at an event organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Washington on Wednesday.

Dunya News quoted Chaudhary as saying that Pakistan continues to support an inclusive political reconciliation process in Afghanistan as the only viable path towards obtaining lasting peace in the region and added that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Chaudhary was addressing members of the Washington-based think tank community, local and international press, and academia, at an event organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Washington on Wednesday.

The envoy also suggested ways for restoring peace and stability in Afghanistan which included intra-Afghan reconciliation, robust border management, repatriation of Afghan refugees and close cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

He said the tendency of accusing Pakistan for security incidents inside Afghanistan was unhelpful.

Chaudhary claimed that militant groups had found sanctuaries in Afghanistan's ungoverned spaces after fleeing Pakistan's border areas due to military operation in the region.

He also alleged that these militant groups which are based in Afghanistan had planned coordinated attacks against both the countries during recent times.

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North Korea is likely to test fire another intercontinental ballistic missile on Thursday as July 27 marks the 64th anniversary of the signing of armistice that ended the Korean War.

U.S. intelligence agencies have indicated that defiant North Korea is testing the components to launch another intercontinental balllistic missile or intermediate range missile test from a submarine.

The US intelligence officials also believe that North Korea will be able to launch a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by early 2018.

Even South Korean media have cited intelligence and military officials saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment had been seen on the move in North Korea.

"North Korea can currently get a missile "off the ground," there are still a lot of undetermined variables about guidance, re-entry and the ability to hit a specific target," CNN quoted U.S. intelligence officials as saying.

The intelligence agency has assessed that North Korea has accelerated its intercontinental range ballistic missile program.

"North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental range ballistic missile which was not a surprise to the intelligence community is one of the milestones that we have expected would help refine our timeline and judgments on the threats that Kim Jong Un poses to the continental United States," Scott Bray, National Intelligence Manager for East Asia, Office of the Director of National Intelligence said.

The U.S. is watching further testing of North Korean radars and communications that could be used in a launch, but the intelligence assessment is that program remains in early stages.

Under the supervision of Kim Jong-un , North Korea, on July 4, conducted its first successful test of a long-range intercontinental ballistic missile Hwasong-14 ,that it says can "reach anywhere in the ."

An intercontinental ballistic missile reached a height of 2,802 kilometers (1741 miles), according to state broadcaster Korea Central Television (KCTV).

After July 4th launch, the United States conducted the successful test of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) anti-missile system by shooting down an intermediate-range ballistic missile over the Pacific Ocean thus increasing tensions between United States and North Korea.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump is in talks with China, Japan and South Korea on finding ways to deal with North Korea nuclear and ballistic program.

Trump signaled he could use the US-China trading relationship as to pressure China to force North Korea to act, Trump said, "Somebody said, what cards do you have? I said, very simple -- trade. We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals.

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Pakistan's Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan shockingly announced on Thursday that he will resign from his office and exit from politics altogether on the day of the Panamagate verdict.

According to the Dawn, the minister said at his press conference that he would resign from his ministry and the National Assembly on the day the Supreme Court announces the Panamagate verdict - "be it for the party or against it."

"My heart is no longer in politics," he added.

At the start of the presser, Nisar remarked that it was the "most difficult" press conference he has ever hosted.

In his nearly 45-minute long speech, Khan talked about his 33-year-long association with the party, the conspiracies within the ruling PML-N, and his disillusionment with politics.

At the conference, he shared details of a rumored rift with the existing PML-N leadership. He also disclosed that he was told by senior party leaders not to hold the press conference today.

Admitted that he was not called for the consultative meeting of the party for the past month, he said, "For the past month-and-a-half, I was suddenly excluded from PML-N meetings. I do not know why this was so. I was not invited to these consultative meetings and I do not attend if I'm not invited."

"Some people said I'd missed the train. I don't just get on any train. I've been on this train since the very beginning, but I've recently been a victim of internal intrigues," he added.

"It pains me to say this, but when the PML-N faced its most difficult challenge, there was a conspiracy to remove me from the consultative process," Nisar said, saying some people did not like what he had said.

The minister also took the platform to give some parting advice to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif saying, "I want to tell Nawaz Sharif - if I was with you, I would tell you that if you are absolved in the Supreme Court, keep your feet on the ground. There will be those who will ask for heads for roll: I beseech you, you are a humble man, do not fall for this."

"If the court decides against you: you are a well-loved man. This country and its people have given more to you than to anybody else. You have to behave with restraint, and you have to take the party forward. You need to ensure unity in the PML-N and you need to take it forward. Do not be angry; there are some who will want you to be angry."

He reiterated the party's stance of accepting the Supreme Court verdict on the Panama papers case.

"I said this in the party meeting, and I'll say it again: the Supreme Court's decision should be accepted at all cost. If the apex court's decision is not respected, it will be as if Pakistan is ruled by the law of the jungle," he said.

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United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry is the latest to join the list of A-listers who have fallen prey to prank calls, as he ended up reportedly speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman for 22 minutes.

The Russian prankster, pretending to be Ukrainian Prime Minister Groysman, managed to have this conversation with Perry earlier this month. They discussed the energy policy, U.S. sanctions on Russia, an upcoming visit by Perry to Ukraine, and what steps are being taken to counter cyber attacks -- including from Russia, CNN reported.

Energy department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the call with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksey Stolyarov.

"Secretary Perry is the latest target of two Russian pranksters. These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine," CNN quoted Hynes as saying.

The conversation came about a month after Perry hosted Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko and his delegation for a meeting at the U.S. Energy Department.

According to reports, Perry received a request on July 12 for a phone call to follow up on the meeting with the Ukrainian prime minister and a week later, Perry spoke on the phone with the Russian pranksters.

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The teaser of quirky rom-com 'Shubh Mangal Saavdhaan' is finally out, bringing back the superhit 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha' jodi -Ayushmann Khurrana and humi Pednekar.

In the teaser, with the help of cartoons and caricatures, a voice can be heard talking about the evolution of "hot girls" and "cool guys" and later, introducing the "non-hot and non-cool joda."

The film, which is directed by Prasanna and produced by Aanand L. Rai, is a remake of Prasanna's Tamil release 'Kalyana Samayal Saadham.'

The story revolves around a really cool couple, who falls in love and decides to get married. But things start going wrong when the groom discovers that he suffers from erectile dysfunction.

The production banner Eros released the teaser of the film on their official Twitter account.

Everyone is loving the teaser. Dhanush took to twitter to convey his appreciation for the upcoming movie . He tweeted '#ShubhMangalSaavdhan looks great sir. Another feather in your cap @aanandlrai @cypplOfficial.

This film is set to hit the threatres on September 1.

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The Lebanese armed group Hezbollah and the Syrian army jointly won the battle against al-Nusra Front and re-captured the mountainous area around the town of Fleita region of Jaroud Arsal near the Lebanese-Syrian border.

Inspite of the challenging topography of the Jaroud Arsal , Syrian Army and its allies were able to flush out terrorists of Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, the former Syrian branch of al-Qaeda known as al-Nusra Front, and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) from the town of Fleita due to their efficient operation, good maneuverability.

The terrorists suffered huge losses and lost control over the strategic routes, connecting Arsal and Jurud-Fleita through which weapons from Lebanon were supplied into Syria.

"It took 24 hours in total to break the terrorists' defense and knock them off their positions," Sputnik quoted a field commander of the Syrian Army as saying.

The Syrian Army has taken control of 36 square kilometers of territory, eliminating more than 70 al-Nusra fighters.

Jaroud Arsal mountainous border area on the Lebanese-Syrian border is used by terrorists to enter into Syria and also for arms smuggling. It also houses several camps for thousands of Syrian refugees.

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister E. Palaniswami on Thursday requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to take immediate action for the release of 75 Indian fishermen and 149 boats in Sri Lanka's custody.

Palaniswami said, "I request PM Modi to take immediate action for release of 75 Indian fishermen release and 149 boats from Sri Lanka".

Palaniswami had also written a letter to Prime Minister Modi asking the Centre to take necessary steps against Sri Lankan.

This statement comes after; Sri Lankan Navy arrested four Indian fishermen for allegedly poaching in their territorial waters on July 17.

As per the Sri Lankan Navy, the Fast Attack Craft of the Northern Naval Command of Colombo arrested the fishermen about 9 Nm Northwest of Kovilan.

Along with the Indian fishermen, the Navy also took a fishing dhow into its custody.

The fishermen were taken to the SLNS Elara, naval base and will be handed over to the Jaffna Assistant Fisheries Director for further legal action.

Earlier on June 13, at least seven Indian fishermen were reportedly arrested by the Sri Lanka Navy on for trespassing in their waters.

The fishermen from Mandapam near Rameswaram were fishing at Neduntheevu Island in the Palk Straits, close to the island nation's coast

Two Fast Attack Craft belonging to the Northern Naval Command arrested seven Indian fishermen along with two fishing trawlers for crossing the International Maritime Boundary Line (IMBL) and engaged in bottom trawling in Sri Lankan territorial waters about 12.5 Nm and 9.5 Nm off Northwest of Delft Island yesterday (July, 12), the Colombo Page quoted the Navy website.

Sri Lanka recently passed a bill that allows the authorities to imprison bottom-trawling fishermen for two years and fine Rs. 50,000.

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Venezuela is in state of a crisis as government has banned all protests that could affect or "disturb" Sunday's vote called by President Nicolas Maduro to elect a new lawmaking body known as the Constituent Assembly to rewrite the 1999 constitution.

Venezuelans have been observing a 48-hour general strike form Wednesday deploring the possibility that their President could gain more sweeping powers.

Venezuelan diplomat who resigned from his post in protest has warned that the country may fall into civil war.

"If the Sunday vote goes through, we are at the brink of civil war," CNN quoted Isaias Medina, former minister counsellor at the Venezuelan Mission to the UN as saying.

There are 545 seats up for grabs and those elected would essentially replace the current National Assembly, which is controlled by opponents of President Nicolas Maduro's government.The newly elected body would rewrite the 1999 constitution, the cornerstone of former President Hugo Chavez's "Bolivarian Revolution," which extended presidential term limits and allowed for indefinite re-elections.

Opposition leaders won a majority of seats in Venezuela's National Assembly in midterm elections in December 2015 because of the economic crisis the country has been facing and the results were a blow to the oil-rich country's socialist government that has held the congress for 16 years.

The political upheaval started in late March when the Venezuelan Supreme Court dissolved Parliament and transferred all legislative powers to itself, which is stacked with government loyalists. The opposition claimed Maduro was creating a dictatorship as impeachment attempts were blocked by the Court.

Meanwhile,the U.S. Treasury Department slapped sanctions against 13 Venezuelan government officials. The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30, 2017, election orchestrated by Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of a National Constituent Assembly that will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and dissolve all government institutions.

"As President Trump has made clear, the United States will not ignore the Maduro regime's ongoing efforts to undermine democracy, freedom and the rule of law," Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin said in a statement.

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, chaired by the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has approved the proposal of Department of Rural Development for revision of cost of Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 (SECC 2011). It provides for:

(a) Revising the cost of SECC 2011 to Rs. 4893.60 crore from the approved estimated expenditure of Rs.3,543.29 crore within the indicative cost of Rs.4,000 crore as approved by the Government.

(b) Approval of time and cost overrun and consequential revision in the upper limit of cost per record to the consortium of Central Public Sector Undertakings.

The SECC -2011 project has been concluded on 31.3.2016. The cost has already been committed and the project has met all its milestones.

Major Impact:

The Government of India has been spending a large sum of money on poverty alleviation and welfare programmes in rural and urban areas of the country to assist the poor and the marginalized section of the society. The SECC has paved the way for better targeting of the poor and evidence based targeted intervention for ameliorating conditions of the poor households.

Before the availability of SECC data, correct identification of eligible beneficiaries was a major challenge. Accusation of bias in the BPL list affected coverage of poorest of the poor. SECC data is based on information furnished by households. In addition, households were given opportunity to raise claims and objections on SECC enumerated and published data. Thus, SECC database provides an authentic list of information disclosed by the households for identifying and prioritising beneficiaries under various schemes run by Ministry of Rural Development and other Departments in the Government.

Ranking of Households is made through a three-step process involving thirteen Exclusion parameters for identifying not-poor households, five Automatic Inclusion parameters for identifying poorest of the poor households and seven Deprivation Criteria for identifying poor households. Government of India has advised States to use this process, SECC data and its TIN number of households for identification of poor under Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana (DAY), Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin(PMAY-G), etc.

Use of SECC-2011 has brought transparency in selection of beneficiary and its structured incidence with DBT having maximal impact on governance and accountability.

Background:

Before the availability of SECC -21011 data, Below Poverty Line (BPL) list prepared in 2002, by States/UTs was being used for identifying beneficiaries of development programmes and schemes including Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojana-Gramin (PMAY-G)) and National Social Assistance Programme(NSAP). The 2002 BPL list attracted claims of biases. It was decided by the Government on 19.05.2011 to launch a Socio Economic and Caste Census 2011 in order to get data for ranking of households for receiving benefits from the Government. To avoid exclusion and inclusion errors, the SECC 2011 elicited information on identified parameters from each household for identification of deprivation and multi-dimensionality of poverty.

The Ministry of Rural Development provided financial and technical support to the States/UTs for conducting Socio Economic and Caste Census-2011 (SECC-2011) to generate a large number of socio and economic indicators for ranking of each rural household across the country. The project could not be completed in scheduled time as the States/UTs needed more time to deal with enumeration and claims and objections. Cost increased from Rs.4000 crore approved by the Government to Rs.4893.60 crore.

SECC allows ranking of households based on their socio economic status. SECC-2011 provides the government the names and number of families in each Panchayat and details their status on seven deprivation parameters. The advantage of SECC is that it provides for programme specific customized priority list to suit programme objective and budget space to address specific deprivation. Ministry of Rural Development has generated customized priority list for Pradhan Mantri Awaas Yojna-Gramin(PMAY-G) and Deen Dayal Antyodaya Yojana - National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) from SECC following due selection process approved by the Government.

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WELLINGTON  New Zealand dairy exports to China were up 102 percent in value to reach NZ$373 million ($277 million) in June, and up 63 percent in quantity, which boosts the country's exports, its statistics department Stats NZ said on Wednesday.

New Zealand exports rose 11 percent year on year to reach NZ$4.7 billion($3.5 billion) in June, said a release from the department.

Milk powder, butter, and cheese led the rise, up 45 percent to NZ$1.2 billion ($890 million) and up 11 percent in quantity.

"The milk powder, butter, and cheese group continues to be a key export commodity, and accounts for over a quarter of our total exports," international statistics senior manager Daria Kwon said in the release.

Total monthly imports were valued at NZ$4.5 billion ($3.3 billion), up 7.7 percent from June 2016, Stats NZ said.

Imports of cars led the increase in total imports in June, up 31 percent to reach NZ$505 million ($375 million).

New motor cars led this increase, up NZ$86 million ($64 million) in value, which was 2,566 more new cars than in June 2016, and was the 11th consecutive increase in value year-on-year, it said.

The trade balance for June was a surplus of NZ$242 million ($180 million), or 5.1 percent of exports. This is the fourth consecutive surplus, Stats NZ said.
Govt. taking steps to promote investments in tier II, III cities

Though imposition of Minimum Alternative Tax (MAT) in 2011 slowed down growth of special economic zones (SEZs), but implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST) provides wonderful opportunity for making investments in Indian SEZs, a top Commerce Ministry official said at an ASSOCHAM event.

After 2011, today again probably is the right moment to make investments in the SEZs, as it is the only scheme of the many export promotion schemes operating in India, wherein an initio exemption has been provided from customs duty as well as IGST (Integrated Goods and Service Tax), said Dr L.B. Singhal, development commissioner, Noida SEZ.

He also said that this exemption has been provided both for import as well as domestic procurement of the raw materials, capital goods and others.

So, this being the only export promotion scheme, this is a real major incentive for making an investment for manufacturing and services in the SEZs, added Dr Singhal who has 27 SEZs operating under his jurisdiction in Northern India which employ over 81,000 people.

Earlier, he had said that after enacting SEZ Act in 2005, up to 2011 it really grew up very well by almost 100 per cent every year but in 2011, Government of India imposed MAT and that slowed down the growth a little bit.

The SEZ Act had provided income tax exemption for 15 years - with 100 per cent income tax exemption in first five years and 50 per cent exemption in next five years but when the MAT was imposed, the investor felt that the kind of incentive which was promised to them that was taken back, said Dr Singhal.

Citing other favourable reasons for growth of SEZs in India, he said that the SEZ Act provides income tax exemption on profit on exports for 15 years to the SEZ units but now a sunset clause has been laid that this income tax exemption will be available only on the SEZ units which start operating by March 2020.

With GST exemption together with exemption in the income tax and in case you are able to make investments and are able to make your SEZ unit operational by March 2020 then you will get the complete income tax exemption for 15 years which is envisaged in the SEZ Act, he said further.

He also said that Government has considerably addressed the issue related to MAT. The major issue was coming that MAT is kind of an advance income tax which you can offset in future liabilities and earlier the time period given for setting your MAT offset was seven years, now two years back that period has been changed to 12 years so for MAT liability also you get longer period for adjustment.

He said that in the SEZ scheme, the benefits which were provided under Foreign Trade Policy under various export promotion schemes like focus product scheme, focus market scheme and others have now all been merged into MEIS (Merchandise Exports from India Scheme).

These benefits are now also available for exports from SEZs - benefits from MEIS as well as services exporters are also entitled for the benefit of Service Exports from India Scheme (SEIS), said Dr Singhal.

These reasons put together make it a attractive proposition for making investment in the SEZs, he added.

He further said that the package which is provided for SEZs in India is quite comprehensive as one gets benefit of indirect exemptions on raw material together with indirect exemptions on capital goods, besides one also gets exemptions from taxes even for setting up unit of cement, steel and others.

Referring to the steps taken by the Government to expand the scope of SEZs, he said Earlier area requirement for setting up a multi-product SEZ was 1,000 hectares which has been reduced to 500 hectares, for sector-specific it has been reduced to 100 hectares and for IT (information technology) sector which was earlier 10 hectares has now been completely done away with and what you require is only 1 lakh sq. meter built-up space.

He said that government intends to promote investment in the tier-II, III cities, so the minimum area requirement for tier II cities is 50,000 sq. meters while for tier III cities it is just 25,000 sq. Meters.

Highlighting that results of these steps can be seen, he said that in the last 2-3 years, IT sector SEZs have come up in Chandigarh (employing 12,000 people), Lucknow, Indore and other such cities.

He also said that Government support is not merely limited to fiscal incentives but it includes providing ease of doing operation, single window clearance.

There are two tier single window approvals in place in SEZs - one apex in the Commerce Ministry at the Board Approval level chaired by Commerce Secretary where the representatives of all ministries are there. So the approval for setting up SEZ is given by the board itself and no approval from any other separate ministry is required, said Dr Singhal.

Once the SEZ is approved and you go for setting up the unit in the SEZ, there is an approval committee meeting in every SEZ chaired by the Development Commissioner wherein the representatives of customs, central excise, DGFT (Director General of Foreign Trade), income tax, state government all are present at one place and approval is given at one place, he added.

Exports from SEZs in India which were a meagre $2 billion (bn) in 2000 and reached $5 bn in 2005 had touched a massive $81 bn last year. Besides, direct employment in the SEZs which was about 1.43 lakh in 2005, today stands at 17.31 lakh. While the investments, which were just about Rs 4,000 crore in 2005, today we have investments worth Rs 4.23 lakh crore in SEZs.

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Tata Motors rose 0.47% to Rs 458.90 at 10:45 IST on BSE after the company said that the authorised committee of board approved offering of non-convertible debentures aggregating up to Rs 1000 crore.

The announcement was made after market hours yesterday, 26 July 2017.

Meanwhile, the S&P BSE Sensex was up 239.62 points or 0.74% at 32,622.08.

On the BSE, 39,766 shares were traded on the counter so far as against the average daily volumes of 18.74 lakh shares in the past one quarter. The stock had hit a high of Rs 461 and a low of Rs 458.05 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 598.60 on 7 September 2016 and a 52-week low of Rs 417.10 on 8 May 2017.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 26 July 2017, gaining 3.08% compared with the Sensex's 4% rise. The stock had also underperformed the market over the past one quarter, rising 1.32% as against the Sensex's 7.46% rise. The scrip had also underperformed the market over the past one year, sliding 9.22% as against the Sensex's 15.75% rise.

The large-cap company has equity capital of Rs 577.47 crore. Face value per share is Rs 2.

Tata Motors announced that a authorised committee of board of directors approved offering for subscription, on a private placement basis, up to 10,000 rated, listed, unsecured, redeemable, non-convertible debentures (NCDs) E27-I series of face value Rs 10 lakh each, at par, aggregating up to Rs 1000 crore, comprising of two tranches of debentures of Rs 500 crore each.

The company will announce its Q1 results on 9 August 2017. On a consolidated basis, net profit of Tata Motors declined 16.8% to Rs 4336.43 crore on 2.9% decline in net sales to Rs 77217.19 crore in Q4 March 2017 over Q4 March 2016.

Tata Motors is a market leader in commercial vehicles in India. The company's British luxury unit Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) sells premium luxury cars.

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At least 45 Taliban militants were killed as Afghan security forces repelled an attack in Nuristan province, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

"Hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked Want Waygal district on Wednesday night. They were met with fierce resistance from security forces," the ministry said, adding that 50 militants were also injured.

However, the ministry did not reveal if there were any casualties among security personnel.

--IANS

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India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is in Beijing to attend a BRICS security summit amid rising bilateral tensions with China over a protracted border stand-off.

Officials were tight-lipped about Doval's expected meeting with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the two-day summit which begins on Thursday.

"No idea," an Indian diplomat responded when contacted on the phone.

If the two officials meet, the stand-off between their armies in Doklam in the Sikkim sector is certain to be discussed.

Doval, who reached Beijing on Wednesday, will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping along with the NSAs of the five-member bloc that also comprises - Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

The meet, where the five-nation bloc traditionally discusses counterterrorism and security issues, assumes significance in the view of the festering border row between India and China.

Earlier this week, an editorial in the a Global Times said India should not pin hopes on Doval's visit to resolve the border stand-off.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own. New Delhi has said that troops from both sides should withdraw for a dialogue as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

In June, the Indian Army stopped road construction by Chinese troops in the area, leading to the stand-off that is now in its second month.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance for all three.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, has also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops.

--IANS

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The Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights decided on Wednesday to form a committee to monitor the "Israeli violations" in East Jerusalem, Egyptian state-run MENA news agency said.

This decision came in the committee's recommendations at the end of its three-day 42th session, Xinahu reported.

The committee asserted that Israel is an apartheid state that enjoys no sovereignty over East Jerusalem or the Palestinian occupied land.

The Committee also stressed that Secretary-General of the United Nations should be informed to oblige Israel to respect the provisions of humanitarian and human rights law.

Regarding the Arab prisoners in Israel, the committee asked Criminal Court to launch an urgent probe into the Israeli crimes and violations towards the Arab prisoners.

On July 14, three Arab-Israeli gunmen opened fire at two Israeli policemen and shot them dead, while police forces fired back at the gunmen and killed them.

The attack took place at the yard of Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Muslims' third holiest site.

After the attack, Israel closed the mosque and later installed electronic gates and cameras at the entrances to the mosque.

The action provoked protests by the Muslims who refused to enter the mosque through these gates.

--IANS

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The CBI on Thursday arrested an Army officer who was working as a Garrison Engineer, and an Assistant Garrison Engineer for taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 and 30 gold coins in Karnataka, an official said.

The Army official, identified as Lt. Col. J.S. Bath, and Assistant Garrison Engineer R.B. Chawan, who are deputed to MES, Karwar, were held while accepting the bribe for clearing pending bills of a civil contractor, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

The central probe agency has booked the arrested persons under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act following a complaint against them.

"It was alleged in the complaint that the two officials demanded Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, from a civil contractor for clearing his pending bills and for the payments already made," the CBI official said.

"They demanded Rs 50,000 each as the first instalment in the form of gold and cash. The CBI laid a trap and the Garrison Engineer was caught red-handed while accepting 30 gold coins (total 15 grams) while the Assistant Engineer was accepting Rs 50,000 from the complainant."

The agency also conducted searches on the premises of the arrested officers.

--IANS

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A proposed Bullet train between Mumbai and Ahmedabad will take approximately two hours, running at a maximum speed of 320-350 km per hour.

But what if you were told this time could be reduced to a mere 40 minutes, travelling at a unprecedented speed of 1,200 km/hour? Most people would call it a hare-brained idea.

A group of enterprising students from BITS Pilani, though, are working on the concept. Taking a leaf from the ground-breaking "Hyperloop" travel idea of billionaire entrepreneur Elon Musk, the students are planning to build a "pod" that will be able to reach 1,200 km/hour within a vacuum tube.

"Hyperloop India" is in the final stage of building its single-compartment capsule or pod that will be presented and tested in late August at the Musk-owned SpaceX headquarters in Hawthorne, California, in the final round of a global contest that was initiated in 2015.

"Hyperloop is tube travel wherein you have a vehicle that is magnetically levitated and propelled inside a vacuum tube. The technology that is used for the propulsion and braking systems can vary," Prithvi Shankar, a BE final year student at BITS Pilani and a member of what is being called Team Hyperloop, told IANS.

He said that they are using a "scalability first" approach, making the design more flexible for the transportation of cargo as well as passengers.

The concept works in theory and, according to their "feasibility assessment", if adopted, will cost only 60 per cent of the total cost of the Mumbai-Ahmedabad Bullet train.

"If hyperloop were to replace the high-speed rail that is currently being proposed... the entire infrastructure cost will be 40 per cent less, plus the maintenance costs will be much less. It will also require very little land acquisition," Shankar said.

Hyperloop will be not only be faster than a Bullet train but also the Maglev (Magnetic Levitation) trains that touch 650 km/hour and are currently operational in Japan and China.

Although both are magnetically levitated, Hyperloop will be superior to the Maglev in that it will run inside a vacuum tube, thus avoiding any air resistance, and will employ a different propulsion method. Instead of electromagnets that require a constant electricity supply, the Hyperloop will use passive permanent magnets.

The material used by the Team Hyperloop will also differ from the other 23 teams in the contest. While other teams would be using carbon-fibre for the capsule, Hyperloop India, Shankar said, will use aircraft-grade aluminium "which is four-times cheaper than carbon-fibre".

Another differentiating factor, Shankar noted, will be the capsule's aerodynamic structure.

"Other teams are not dwelling on this, but we have kept our focus on an aerodynamic structure for the pod since at such a high speed of 1,200 km/hour, although there's a very little air to be displaced, aerodynamic drag can become a powerful factor," Shankar said.

The three-member team consisting of two students -- Shankar and Shibhesh -- working under Professor M.S. Das Gupta of BITS Pilani, is the only one from India and the second from Asia to be going to California to present their model.

The team was formed in 2015 in response to the SpaceX design contest for which the firm built a one-mile (1.6 km) track on its premises and invited teams from all over the world to design hyperloop vehicles that could travel on the track.

Competing against 216 teams -- three from India initially -- from around the world, Team Hyperloop now is among the 24 finalists.

They have collaborated with IIMs, IITs and the Indian School of Business on the feasibility of the project, and are being supported and mentored by organisations like Invest India, RITES, NITI Aayog and Indian Railways.

(Vishal Narayan can be contacted at vishal.n@ians.in)

--IANS

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BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday supported JNU Vice Chancellor's demand for placing an artillery tank on the university's campus to instil a sentiment of nationalism among students.

Lekhi even proposed that students should be made to take oath of nationalism in institutions like the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Lekhi rued the fact that the Vice Chancellor's demand was turned into a controversy.

She said: "Yesterday was Kargil Divas, and we remember our martyrs on this day. In a university like JNU, where the Vice Chancellor asked for a tank to be put on display, that was made into a controversy by some people."

She said JNU students should take the following oath: "Whether we are alive or not, Mother, your glory shall live... the glory of Bharat Mata and our nationalism should always live."

She said there were old aircraft on display in the school where her children studied, and they loved playing around them.

"Even after growing up, they would go to see the aircraft on display at the Air Force bases... The sentiment of nationalism is gained only by understanding the nation," the MP said.

"These institutions are run on government money and if there are separatist sloganeering, or slogans like 'India will be broken' are raised, I think somewhere there is a problem with the administration and ideology."

"If someone tries to change that, which is the Vice Chancellor (in this case), it is converted into an issue of nationalism," she said.

Vice Chancellor M. Jagadesh Kumar has proposed installing an old army tank for display on the varsity campus so that students can be reminded of the sacrifices and valour of soldiers.

Lekhi said students should remember the "culture and civilisation of this country" and the soldiers "who keep the borders safe for the universities to function".

"Disrespect of martyrs will not be tolerated by Parliament and government of this country... The symbol of nation's unity, harmony and power -- our soldiers -- whatever can be done in their honour should be done," she said.

--IANS

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BRICS member-countries should work together to ensure stable employment and better quality of life for their people, the 2017 Labour and Employment Ministers' meeting that ended on Thursday has suggested.

According to Yin Weimin, Minister of Human Resources and Social Security, progress in science and technology and changes in economic and demographic structure have brought new challenges to labour markets around the world, and the international community should find common ways of dealing with them, reports Xinhua news agency.

China has made employment a priority and tried to improve the quality of employment through vocational training, Yin said.

The BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa -- should work together to boost employment and inclusive growth, enhancing the skills of professionals to alleviate poverty, he said.

Countries should cooperate on social security systems, cultural exchange in the labour market and mechanisms for future collaboration, he said.

During the two-day meeting in Chongqing, Labour and Employment Ministers discussed topics ranging from skills-driven development to a universally sustainable social security system.

A declaration was passed, and four documents were presented, including one on common ground in labour market governance and an action plan on skills-driven poverty alleviation.

The meeting comes ahead of the 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, Fujian province, from September 3 to 5.

--IANS

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Police in China's Zhejiang province have detained 18 people in connection with their involvement with "The Church of Almighty God" cult.

The Church of Almighty God known in Chinese as "Quannengshen", grabbed national headlines in 2014 with viral videos showing five of its members beating a woman to death at a McDonald's outlet in Zhaoyuan city, condemning her as an "evil spirit" after she refused to give them her mobile phone number for recruitment purposes, reports Xinhua news agency.

First appearing in the 1990s in Henan province, Quannengshen claims that Jesus Christ has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, who is the wife of the cult's founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan.

The couple fled to the US in September 2000.

Dong Jianfeng, a police officer from Changxing county, on Wednesday said most of the detained members showed signs of depression.

"Some of them are divorced and do not seem to know how to vent their suppressed emotions," Dong said.

According to initial investigations, the cult's financial sources mainly came from "donations" from its members.

The higher the donation, the more rights a member obtains.

"Every member is willing to donate their money, and the amounts ranged from 10,000 yuan ($1,480) to tens of thousands of yuan," Dong said.

"The cult's 'leaders' impose spiritual control over the members...They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay."

China's crackdown on the cult predates the McDonald's murder, reports the BBC.

There were a string of arrests in 2012 in Qinghhai and Zhejiang where nearly 100 members were sentenced to prison terms, including several senior members.

In 2014, more people were arrested in Hubei and Xinjiang.

In August 2016, police in Anhui detained 36 members accused of creating and spreading video content for the cult.

--IANS

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Amid the dragging border row, China on Thursday raised "major problems" in ties with India as its top diplomat Yang Jiechi held talks with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the sidelines of a BRICS security meet.

The two met "separately" and exchanged views on bilateral relations where Yang expressed China's view on "major problems and bilateral issues", according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

It was not known whether Doval and China's State Councillor Yang discussed the stand-off between their armies in Doklam in Sikkim sector that is in its second month, and has added to the host of disputes between the two countries that fought a war in 1962.

The meeting between the two top officials is seen as a positive sign in view of Beijing's tough public posturing on the issue.

Earlier, China had ruled out any talks over the feud until India withdraws troops from Doklam.

Beijing claims Doklam as its own territory.

India has said it is ready to pull back from the Bhutanese territory if China does so too.

Doval along with his BRICS counterparts will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Some experts fear the festering situation could lead to an armed conflict.

Doklam, located at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China, is of high strategic importance to all three. It is disputed by Bhutan and China.

India says Doklam is Bhutanese territory and perceives any Chinese presence in the area as a threat to its own security.

The stand-off began over a road being built by the Chinese Army in Doklam. Indian troops halted the work in mid June, leading to the crisis.

Yang separately met South African Minister of State Security David Mahlobo, Brazilian Institutional Security Minister Sergio Etchegoyen and India's NSA Doval and exchanged views on "bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems".

He met Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrusheissues on Wednesday.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based correspondent of IANS. He can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com and gauravians@yahoo.com)

--IANS

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Sri Lanka hit back with four quick wickets even as India consolidated their advantage by posting 503/7 in their first innings at lunch on the second day of the opening Test here on Thursday.

At the break, Hardik Pandya was batting on four with Ravindra Jadeja unbeaten on eight at the other end.

The Sri Lankan bowlers, however, hit back after a rather lacklustre opening day with pacer Nuwan Pradeep returning figures of 5/25.

The day began in a promising fashion for the Indians with Cheteshwar Pujara crossing the 150-run mark before Ajinkya Rahane brought up his half-century in style, stepping out to hit a Rangana Herath delivery to the mid-on boundary.

But the tide was destined to turn soon. Pujara was the first to go when Pradeep produced an excellent delivery which moved slightly away after pitching at a perfect length on the off-stump.

Pujara was totally outfoxed as the ball took the outer edge on its way into the gloves of Lankan wicket-keeper Niroshan Dickwella.

Rahane was the next to go. The Mumbai batsman mistimed an attempted drive off Lahiru Kumara only to see the ball take the outer edge and Dimuth Karunaratne pull of a superb diving effort at first slip.

The visitors plunged into further trouble when Wriddhiman Saha and Ravichandran Ashwin also went back in successive overs.

Ashwin had started in nervous fashion, almost handing Pradeep a wicket when he edged the first ball he faced. But the ball dropped just short of the fielder at gully. Aswhin enjoyed another piece of luck immediately after when he hit out at the next ball and was lucky not to offer an easy top edge behind the stumps.

The Chennai lad settled down gradually and notched up a well made 47 off 60 balls before a poor piece of shot selection to a short pitched delivery by Pradeep denied him his half-century.

Brief scores:

India (first innings): 503/7 (Shikhar Dhawan 190, Cheteshwar Pujara 153; Nuwan Pradeep 5/25) vs Sri Lanka.

--IANS

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Thirty-six tourists, including 25 foreigners, fell ill due to food poisoning and were hospitalized at a mountain resort in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankovsk region, local authorities said.

The tourists were sent for medical treatment after eating dinner at a local complex near Verkhovyna town, Xinhua news agency quoted the authorities as saying on Wednesday.

There were 14 German and 11 Polish tourists among those hospitalised and all of them were now in stable condition.

A total of 152 people were accommodated at the tourist complex at the time of the incident.

According to the preliminary investigation, violations of sanitary regulations and food safety norms were the cause of poisoning.

--IANS

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A fresher and bigger edition of the widely popular Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will begin here on Friday, with a total of 12 teams fighting it out for the top honours over the next 13 weeks.

Into its fifth season, the league's popularity can be gauged from the fact that as many as four new teams -- Gujarat Fortunegiants, Haryana Steelers, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas -- have been added this time.

"Due to PKL, our sport has gained a lot of popularity. Now, with the additions of these new teams, the profile of the league and the sport is further elevated," Telugu Titans star Rahul Chaudhary reckoned at the trophy unveiling ceremony.

On the first day of the campaign, Titans clash with Ajay Thakur-captained Tamil Thalaivas, while former champions U Mumba, who will be led by veteran Anup Kumar, will take on Deepak Niwas Hooda-captained Puneri Paltan at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.

The new edition will also see a new format in which 12 teams have been divided into two zones of six teams each. Each of the teams will play 15 intra-zone and seven inter-zone matches, prior to the play-offs.

Zone A consists of Dabang Delhi, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Puneri Paltan, U Mumba, Haryana Steelers and Gujarat Fortunegiants while Zone B will have Telugu Titans, Bengaluru Bulls, Patna Pirates, Bengal Warriors, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas.

The play-offs stage will comprise three qualifiers and two eliminators, which are scheduled to take place in Mumbai and Chennai. The final will be held on Ocober 28 in Chennai.

While double defending champions Patna captain Pardeep Narwal promised to make it three in a row, Dabang Delhi skipper Meraj Sheykh's intention is to get into the play-offs.

While the new teams, even though boasting of experienced players, may struggle in putting up their best combination initially, some of the teams like Jaipur Pink Panther, who have overhauled their full squad, will also begin nervously.

Seasoned all-rounder Manjit Chillar, who will lead the Rajasthan outfit this time, said luck will play a major role in determining the fortunes of the teams.

"All the teams are here to win, as we do. All the teams have prepared well but at critical moments luck becomes a big factor," Manjit said.

Thakur, who will lead Tamil Thalaivas said: "We have a young and energetic bunch of new players. For them, holding their nerves in such (match) environment, will be important."

Mumbai and Bengaluru will also be among favourites, while Titans and Warriors are desperate to put their hands on the trophy.

"Despite having good teams in the first four editions, we couldn't do it. We will come up with full force," Warriors captain Surjeet Singh noted.

Their 18-member squad has a number of new recruits. Surjeet and former Jaipur players Maninder Singh and Ran Singh are some of the new faces in the side.

Anup felt that the teams having the most number of all-rounders will walk away with the trophy.

As many as 27 overseas players will feature in the league. Delhi's Iranian raider Mehraj and South Korean Jang Kun Lee of Bengal are quite popular among the foreign recruits.

Apart from the bigger pool of players, this edition will have a bigger prize money of Rs 8 crore ($1,244,800) -- a significant and unprecedented jump of Rs 6 crore. The title winners will take home Rs 3 crore ($466,800).

The runners-up will be awarded Rs 1.8 crore ($280,080), while the team that finishes in the third place will win Rs 1.2 crore ($186,720).

The Most Valuable Player prize is also receiving a boost this season, with the awardee set to win Rs 15 lakh ($23,340).

--IANS

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A day after President Donald Trump announced that Apple would build 'big' plants in the US, Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn has said it will invest $10 billion in an LCD manufacturing plant in the country, creating 13,000 new jobs.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou announced the plans on Wednesday during a presser at the White House where Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence were also present, Apple Insider reported.

The Taiwanese manufacturer makes electronics for Apple and other tech companies. The production slated will go to subsidiary Sharp.

The new 20,000-square-foot facility in Wisconsin is slated for completion by 2020.

Trump has been talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US since the day he became President.

"One thing we know about this president is how committed he is to reviving American manufacturing and bringing jobs home. This right here shows actual results," the report quoted White House Speaker Paul Ryan as saying.

On Tuesday, Trump said that Apple CEO Tim Cook had plans to build three big manufacturing plants in the US that would create job opportunities for the American citizens.

Though there was no comment from Apple CEO, but Trump said he had talked to Cook and he was going forward with it.

"I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won't consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward," Trump was quoted as saying.

Now with Foxconn's announcement, it is unclear if Trump was referring to this production facility.

"Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturing partner, in April said it was considering a number of US investments. Gou later clarified that his company was investigating the buildout of potential manufacturing plants in few US states," the report noted.

According to reports, Wisconsin is offering a taxpayer-backed incentives package worth as much as $3 billion to woo Foxconn.

--IANS

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The free movement of people between the European Union (EU) and the UK will end in March 2019 after the introduction of a new immigration system, a minister announced on Thursday.

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis made the remarks while speaking to the BBC about a government commissioned "detailed assessment" of the costs and benefits of EU migrants.

The assessment is due to be completed in September 2018 - six months before the UK's scheduled date for leaving the EU.

However, he did not give details of how the government plans to manage migration after Brexit, saying these would be revealed in a white paper later this year, and that the immigration bill would go through Parliament in 2018.

Immigration was one of the central topics of last year's EU referendum campaign, and ministers have promised to "take back control" of the UK borders as they negotiate Brexit.

The Home Office has asked the advisory committee to consider the regional distribution of EU migration, which sectors are most reliant on it, and the role of temporary and seasonal workers, the BBC reported.

The committee will also study the "economic and social costs and benefits of EU migration to the UK economy", its impact on competitiveness, and whether there would be benefits to focusing migration on high-skilled jobs.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: "We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally.

"But, at the same time, our new immigration system will give us control of the volume of people coming here - giving the public confidence we are applying our own rules on who we want to come to the UK and helping us to bring down net migration to sustainable levels."

--IANS

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Angry over alleged police inaction against the management of a school where a student was critically injured in an accident, local residents on Thursday blocked Sohna Road in Gurugram, causing inconvenience to commuters.

The mob, including elderly men and women, blocked Sohna Road at two places -- on Netaji Subhash Chowk and Islampur village, the native village of the victim.

Class 9 student Mohit Thakran fell off the building of the school on July 4.

"Mohit's condition is critical and he has been on ventilator since then. Instead of enquiring about the health of the child, the school management issued a statement to the media saying it was a suicide bid," Mohit's father Bijender Singh told IANS.

"No suicide note was recovered, his belt, necktie and identity card was missing," he said.

Singh said that Mohit was very happy as he had just returned from a visit to Dehradun and other places.

"My son has undergone seven major surgeries at a multi-speciality private hospital, costing nearly Rs 30 lakh till now," he added.

Various officials of the school management have been booked for negligence at Badshahpur police station.

"It was not clear whether the boy fell off accidentally, someone pushed him or he jumped of his own volition. The statement of the boy has not been recorded as he is in ICU on ventilator," a senior police officer said.

Despite repeated efforts, no one from the school management was available for comment.

--IANS

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Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York City, Washington, San Francisco and Portland to protest President Donald Trump's ban on transgenders in the US military.

The protests came just hours after Trump announced the ban on Twitter on Wednesday.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the US government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," tweeted the President, who said on the campaign trail that he supported the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

More than a hundred people gathered at the White House. They included transgender service members and veterans who said they were "shocked and angry", ABC News reported.

"I was actually really shocked and angry, I don't know how he came to that conclusion so fast," said Kara Zajac, a transgender woman and a navy veteran.

The demonstrators carried anti-Trump signs and faced the White House as they chanted "Trans rights are human rights".

Major Kimberly Moore, a transgender woman who served in the army for 20 years, said it's "disgusting" that the country isn't protecting the rights of its transgender citizens.

"The previous administration came up with a sensible plan for allowing transgender people to openly serve and that plan needs to be openly respected," said Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, Director of External Relations for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Hundreds of protesters, many carrying signs that read "Resist!" descended upon the US Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square to denounce the ban, acording to reports.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered at San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza -- named after gay rights icon and the country's first openly-gay elected official Harvey Bernard Milk -- and urged people to "stand up" and "fight back".

Some demonstrators waved pink and blue flags. Protesters also gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Centre in Hollywood. Some carried signs that read "Proud Trans Vet" and "LGBT Solidarity".

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said it will sue the Trump administration to stop the ban if it actually becomes a policy.

Senator Scott Weiner called Trump's announcement a "bigoted move".

Republican Senator John McCain said: "The President's tweet regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

"We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so," he added.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
With political turmoil prevailing in the Maldives days after the opposition parties launched a bid to seize control of Parliament, India on Thursday said it wished to see peace and stability prevail in the Indian Ocean archipelago nation.

"India wishes to see a stable, prosperous, peaceful Maldives in which the aspirations of the people of Maldives are fulfilled," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said in his weekly media briefing here in what were India's first comments on the recent developments.

"We continue to remain committed to provide our unstinted support for stability, development and democracy in Maldives," he said.

His comments come after a police crackdown on the opposition after Monday's controversial lockdown of Parliament by the military. The police have since blocked the opposition's attempts to hold rallies or stage protests in the capital.

According to the opposition MDP, 11 people were arrested on Wednesday as opposition supporters attempted to gather at the meeting hall in front the artificial beach in Male. The protesters were released after they were taken to the police headquarters, the Maldives Independent reported.

Late on Wednesday night, riot police pepper sprayed inside the meeting hall, shut the gate and prevented people from coming out, the MDP alleged.

Seven journalists and cameramen from two private TV stations were arrested while covering a protest outside the Maldivian Democratic Party meeting hall in Male.

The seven were released later.

On July 4, 10 lawmakers from President Abdulla Yameen's own Progressive Party of Maldives crossed over and joined opposition lawmakers in Parliament.

This resulted in Yameen losing his 48-seat majority in the 85-seat Majlis with the four-party opposition alliance now holding 45 seats.

A no-confidence vote against Speaker Abdulla Maseeh Mohamed was due to take place on July 24, but the motion was thrown out after the disqualification of four ex-ruling party lawmakers deemed to have fallen foul of a new anti-defection rule imposed by the Supreme Court.

Parliament sittings have been suspended since the opposition submitted the second motion with 45 signatures from the 85-member house, prompting the Attorney General to seek the anti-defection ruling after the dramatic collapse of the pro-government majority.

On July 23, police warned that the opposition alliance would not be allowed to stage an anti-government demonstration in Male the next day.

On July 24, soldiers barred the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) from entering the heavily guarded parliament complex.

The Speaker has meanwhile decided that the next Majlis sitting will take place on July 31, citing security arrangements ahead of activities planned to mark Independence Day on July 26.

Baglay said the Maldives is "an extremely close neighbour with which we have historical and civilisational ties".

"We attach the highest importance to our relations with Maldives. There are linkages at the people-to-people level also," the spokesperson said.

--IANS

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An Indian citizen has been jailed for 30 months by a federal court in Louisiana in the US for illegally selling gun silencers and planning to smuggle more of them disguised as auto parts.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, who is from Pitampura in New Delhi and was sentenced on Tuesday, admitted before federal Judge Elizabeth E. Foote in April that he had dealt with firearms without a license.

Alexander C. Van Hook, the acting federal prosecutor for Western Louisiana, said on Wednesday that Chauhan was contacted by someone who wanted to buy silencers and he discussed by email and phone manufacturing silencers for the client.

The silencers were to be imported as "auto parts" to evade customs, Hook said.

Chauhan brought silencer parts to the Louisiana city of Shreveport in December to show the buyer, according to the prosecutor.

When they met in restaurant in Bossier City to discuss the sale, federal agents recorded their conversation, leading to his prosecution, Hook said.

Chauhan lacked a licence to deal in firearms and the parts had been brought illegally into the US. His customer was not publicly identified.

--IANS

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Global jihadi network on Thursday officially announced the establishment of its unit in Jammu and Kashmir, naming former Hizbul Mujahideen militant Zakir Musa as its chief in the troubled state.

The announcement was made by the Global Islamic Media Front, a media wing of and its allied jihadist groups across the world.

The online propaganda wing disseminated a statement on social media, declaring Musa, a close aide of slain militant commander Burhan Wani, as its leader in .



"After the heroic martyrdom of Burhan Wani, the jihad in has entered a stage of awakening. Firmly holding the flag of jihad in their hands, Muslims in have committed to retaliate with gun every aggression by tyrant Indian invaders," the statement said.

It said jihad with the aid of Allah was the only way to "liberate Kashmir".

"For this goal, a new movement of jihad has been founded by the companions of Wani under the leadership of Zakir Musa," the statement said. The new Al Qaeda cell has been named Ansar Ghawzat-ul-Hind.



Though there have been speculations earlier that Al Qaeda was making inroads in Kashmir, this is the first official confirmation from the terror network about its presence in the state.

Earlier, a 2014 video had called on "brothers in Kashmir" to wage jihad against India.

Though political separatist leaders and militant commanders have been denying a link between Kashmir militancy and jihadi movements like Al Qaeda and Islamic State but Musa, who succeeded Wani after his July 2016 killing, in an April video message made his intentions clear.

Musa asked Kashmiris not to "fall for nationalism" as it was a sin in Islam.

"I see many people in Kashmir are engaged in a war of nationalism, which is forbidden in Islam. The fight in Jammu and Kashmir should not be for the sake of the state. It should be exclusively for Islam so that sharia is established here."

The 23-year-old militant also threatened to kill Hurriyat leaders if they spoke for nationalism and deny that the struggle in Kashmir was for the establishment of strict Islamic code.

The Hizbul Mujahideen, the largest group of local militants, condemned his statement saying they have nothing to do with his Islamist assertions.

Interestingly, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin, who is based in Pakistan, released a video statement on Wednesday urging Kashmiris "not to join any global jihadi movement".

"Some of our friends are playing in the hands of our enemy and trying to create divide between people and their leadership. Our movement is an indigenous movement. The freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir has no worldwide agenda, no links with organisations like Islamic State or Al Qaeda.

"Such organisations have no role in Kashmir," Salahuddin said in a five-minute video clip.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday said India is committed to address all outstanding issues with Pakistan, including Kashmir, but the onus is on that country to create an atmosphere conducive for bilateral talks.

"India is committed to address all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, bilaterally and through peaceful means in accordance with the Simla Agreement and the Lahore Declaration. Such a dialogue to be meaningful necessarily requires an atmosphere free of terror, hostility and violence," Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha.

"The (Indian) government's consistent policy has been that it desires good neighbourly relations with Pakistan... (but) the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and substantive comprehensive bilateral dialogue," the Minister added.

Swaraj said India's "principled and consistent" position has been that the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Indian Union and that a part of the state is under "forcible and illegal occupation of Pakistan".

In a written reply to another question, the Minister denied relations with Pakistan were tense in the last three years.

"It is not true that bilateral relations between India and Pakistan have been very tense during the last three years. In fact, during 2014 and 2015, there was considerable improvement in bilateral relations," she said.

Swaraj said during her December 2015 visit to Islamabad, both sides agreed to a meeting at the Foreign Secretaries level to work out the modalities for a comprehensive dialogue.

However, the terror attack at the Pathankot airbase in Punjab in January 2016, continued support to cross-border terrorism and ceasefire violations by Pakistan forces, and more recently, the announcement of death penalty to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav haves "prevented the forward movement in bilateral relations", she said.

--IANS

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Rome, July 28 (IANS/AKI) The Italian government next week will outline to parliament plans for a naval mission to help Libya's UN-backed government combat human traffickers in the turmoil-wracked country's waters, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said on Thursday.

"We are currently discussing the details of the support mission and will present them on Tuesday at 4 p.m. to the Foreign Affairs and Defence Commissions of the parliament's Chamber of Deputies and Senate," he said.

Gentiloni said he was certain the Italian parliament would back the planned mission, requested by Libya's UN-backed government in a recent letter.

Gentiloni's office said the Premier chaired a meeting on Thursday "on security, migration and the Libyan situation" with army, police and intelligence chiefs, as well as the Defence, Foreign and Interior Ministers.

Italy is considering deploying a large vessel and at least five smaller ships to patrol Libyan waters, Italian daily Corriere della Sera reported on Thursday without stating its sources.

Aeroplanes, helicopters and drones would also be used in the operation which could be staffed by between 500 and 1,000 military personnel, the daily said.

Speaking after a meeting in Rome on Wednesday with Gentiloni, Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj admitted Libya needed to do more so its coastguard can fight illegal immigration "and ensure that we have advanced technologies to control our coasts".

Over half a million migrants and refugees have over the past three years crossed from Libya to Italy, which is eager to stop the human traffickers' boats setting sail from its former colony, and is already helping train and equip the Libyan coastguard.

Italy is already taking part in the European Union's Mediterranean naval monitoring mission Sophia operating in international waters against people and oil traffickers.

The EU on Tuesday extended the Sophia mission by a further 18 months until December 31, 2018, despite a damning report in May by Britain's House of Lords saying it cannot deliver its mandate of smashing the human trafficking networks and preventing deaths in the Mediterranean.

--IANS/AKI

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Janata Dal-United (JD-U) in Kerala on Thursday opposed Bihar Chief Minister for tying up with the BJP and announced it was severing ties with him.

The chief of the Kerala unit of JD-U, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters here that he was even ready to resign from the Upper House in his fight against "fascist forces".

"Whatever the price, we're ready to pay," he said.

"We are not accepting the JD-U joining the NDA and our relations with Nitish Kumar has ended. It's shocking that Nitish Kumar has joined the NDA. We all thought that he will fight the fascist tendencies but he has now become a part of it."

Veerendra Kumar said he expected JD-U senior leader Sharad Yadav and its MLAs in Bihar not to accept Nitish Kumar's decision. "I call upon Sharad Yadav and JD-U MLAs to say that we won't accept it."

He said he would go back to Kerala after the Vice Presidential election on August 5 and hold a state council to take a decision on future action.

Nitish Kumar broke ties with the the RJD on Wednesday. A two-member Bihar cabinet of Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister and BJP's Sushil Modi as his deputy was sworn in on Thursday morning.

--IANS

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Domestic mobile manufacturing company Lava International has been honoured by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for hiring the maximum number of apprentices from the state.

The company hired 710 apprentices from Uttar Pradesh last year as per the guidelines of Apprenticeship Act, 1961.

"Last year, we hired 710 apprentices from Uttar Pradesh and for this, our team travelled rigorously across the state covering 124 campuses. To ensure we cover every stretch of the state, we also went to smaller towns," said Sanjeev Agarwal, Chief Manufacturing Officer, Lava International, in a statement on Thursday.

The company was honoured for its efforts towards skill development during an award ceremony on the occasion of 'World Youth Skills Day' recently.

The shortlisted apprentices from UP received training that enabled them perform well during the mobile phone manufacturing processes.

"The overall capacity of the two existing Lava manufacturing plants in Noida has grown to over 36 million phones per year," the company said.

--IANS

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday congratulated Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar shortly after he took oath with the BJP as an alliance partner in his government. Modi said he was looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress.

Modi also greeted Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi, a senior BJP leader.

"Congratulations to Nitish Kumarji and Sushil Modiji. Looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress and prosperity," Modi said in a tweet.

Nitish Kumar took the oath of office within hours of quitting the Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav.

Nitish Kumar had on Wednesday evening resigned as the Chief Minister of the Grand Alliance.

--IANS

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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday held the central government and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) responsible for the "man-made" floods in southern West Bengal districts.

"This is a man-made flood. This will go on till September. We will monitor the situation closely till first or second week of October. It has rained more this year and, on top of that, water is being released by DVC without informing us," Banerjee told media persons here during an inspection of the inundated areas in Hooghly and Howrah.

Banerjee also interacted with local residents and told them about the cause of flood there.

"What you see here is not due to rains. Over two lakh cusecs of water has been released by DVC. That water will reach the area by midnight. I can only apologise. Unless the DVC is reformed, the problem will persist," she said.

Banerjee on Wednesday demanded that the central government immediately "revamp" the DVC.

She said the central government should start dredging at places like Farraka barrage and ports of Kolkata and Haldia to stop this flooding every year.

The DVC, however, said that it had "no role" in releasing the water as the decision was made by the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which has central government as well as state government representatives.

"The regulatory authority is more dangerous. They don't consider the plight of the public. They don't understand. We alert the public on our own that DVC is releasing water. My throat has become sore requesting the Centre," she said.

Banerjee also announced that the state government was going to take up a Rs 1,800 crore World Bank project for reforming the lower Damodar basin area.

"The project is being finalised and it will take some time. But if DVC continues to release water like this, then it will be difficult to manage. The Centre is spending so much on publicity... it can also take up the issue of reforming DVC," she said.

State Irrigation Minister Rajib Banerjee said rivers in at least six districts had breached their banks.

"Birbhum, West Midnapore, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Bankura and Howrah are the worst affected districts. Some small rivers in Murshidabad and other districts have burst their banks. Many blocks in Hooghly are under water," Rajib Banerjee said.

--IANS

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"I considered it my privilege to come to the holy land of Rameswaram," said Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Tamil to the delight of the gathering he addressed here after inaugurating a memorial for late President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

"Nanbargale, vanakkam! Indha punidha sthalamana Rameswaram nagarathuku vandadhai en baghyamaga karudhugiren," was the opening line in Modi's 40-minute speech, which was peppered with Tamil words and praise for the late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister, J. Jayalalitha, and Kalam.

"Ramayanathil vanda anil pola (Like the squirrel in Ramayana)," he said, calling upon people to contribute their mite to the building of the nation.

"If a squirrel can inspire God, so can 125 crore people get together to realise the dream of Abdul Kalam for a developed India, which the government is working to achieve by 2022," Modi said.

In the Ramayana, the squirrel is believed to have played a part in helping Lord Rama build the bridge that was used to cross into Lanka to rescue the abducted Sita.

Modi referred to Rameswaram as one of the sacred sites of 12 Jyotirlings and said he was happy to inaugurate the train that will connect the town with Ayodhya, the birthplace of Rama in Uttar Pradesh.

He called his presence at five functions as 'panchamrut'.

The Prime Minister spoke about his government's help to Tamil Nadu through liberal financial assistance in projects like Smart Cities, AMRUT Mission and expansion of Chennai Metro for which Rs 4,000 crore had been given.

He said Chennai, Coimbatore, Tiruchirapalli and Thanjavur are among the nine cities picked under the Smart Cities programme for development while 33 cities had been selected under the AMRUT Mission for which Rs 4,700 crore had been allocated for development of power, water, sewage and health.

Rameswaram, Madurai, Tuticorin, Tirunelveli and Nagercoil are among the cities chosen under the AMRUT Mission.

Modi lauded the Tamil Nadu government for carrying forward and implementing the schemes of the central government.

He regretted the absence of 'Amma' (Jayalalitha) in the function to dedicate the memorial for Kalam. "Wherever her soul is resting, I am sure it is blessing the state."

Modi complimented the people of Tamil Nadu. "A new India cannot be built without the participation of new Tamil Nadu."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Credit rating agency Moody's on Thursday revised its outlook for the Chinese banking system from negative to stable.

The revision follows Moody's assessment of five drivers: Operating Environment (stable); Asset Quality and Capital (stable/stable); Funding and Liquidity (deteriorating); Profitability and Efficiency (deteriorating); and Systemic Support (stable), Yulia Wan, a Moody's Assistant Vice President and Analyst, said in a statement.

"The stable outlook is also based on our assessment that the government's adoption of more coordinated policy measures to curb shadow banking will help mitigate asset risks for banks, and address some key imbalances in the financial system," Wan added.

The statement added the revision reflects expectations that "non-performing loan formation rates will be relatively stable at current levels", reports Efe news.

This is Moody's first review of the Chinese banking system since 2015, when it had warned that growing weaknesses as reflected in public companies and weaker asset profiles were a result of the country's economic slowdown.

The statement said the quality of bank assets "had deteriorated more rapidly during 2015 and also in the first half of 2016".

Moody's hopes that asset risks will moderate over the next 12-18 months, while capitalization will stay stable.

The agency also expects the Chinese government to remain a key shareholder in major banks and continue to be committed to providing strong support to banks in times of stress, while its support for smaller banks might be more selective, "following the introduction of deposit insurance scheme in May 2015".

Moody's had already upgraded the banking outlook in the Asia-Pacific region from negative to stable earlier in the month, noting that banks in China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and Mongolia were primarily responsible for the increase in stable outlooks.

--IANS

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Seated in a chair on the seventh floor of a city hospital, with one end of her blue saree over her head, Mamta Devi, 40, recalled just two words: "Mummy, help!"

It were these two words that came out as her son shrieked even as acid was forced down his throat by a group of people.

A floor above, 17-year-old Yogesh Sagar lay on a bed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the hospital, but he hasn't uttered a word since he cried out for help.

Sagar was forced to drink acid by some people late on Tuesday night, a day after a scuffle over paneer (cottage cheese) in Sangam Vihar area of south Delhi.

On Monday night, two people had came to the dairy run by Sagar's family and asked for paneer. A scuffle broke out after Sagar said that paneer was out of stock.

The two had left then, threatening to come back later.

Mamta Devi said that at around 11 p.m. on Tuesday, Sagar was closing the shop and the rest of the family were at the house, a floor above, when she heard the cry - "Mummy, help!"

It was her son's voice.

Mamata Devi, Sagar's father Babulal and sister Garima rushed downstairs only to find Sagar lying on the ground in the unlit street -- a white smoke rose around him and the assailants were fleeing in the distance.

"There were fumes all over the place and they rose as high as our house on the first floor," Sagar's 16-year-old sister Garima said. "My brother's lips and face were all white."

A bottle of acid lay next to him and Sagar was writhing on the ground with his hands squeezing his head.

The 17-year-old was taken to a nearby hospital in an auto-rikshaw, but the hospital refused to admit him and he was referred to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

In the meantime, Sagar kept vomitting blood in the auto-rickshaw and later in a police van, which came late, according to the family.

"There were pieces of flesh in the vomit -- this big," Devi said forming a small gap between her forefinger and thumb.

Babulal, 43, walking barefoot down the hospital corridor said he visited Sagar in the ICU an hour ago and doctors would soon call to let them know about his condition.

He said his son had not yet started talking, but he has explained what happened on Tuesday night through gestures.

"Holding out his fingers, he (Sagar) showed me that nine persons ganged up on him. Then he held his forefingers on both sides of his forehead," Babulal said.

"I asked him 'knife'? He shook his head. Then I asked him 'gun'? To which he nodded," Babulal said.

He said that two men held Sagar at gun-point while another held a plastic bottle containing the acid against his mouth.

Babulal cupped his hands leaving a gap in-between and squeezed them together to show how one of the assailants held the acid bottle in his hand and forced it down Sagar's throat.

Tired of waiting to hear from the doctors, Babulal and some of the family members sat down on the hospital floor to have their food.

But Devi didn't.

"Right now we only want our son to be normal and nothing else," Devi said. "Please ask the doctors what's happening to him," the mother said in a broken voice.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
While Arundhati Roys comeback novel has once again made the cut for the just announced Man Booker Prize longlist, the other books that are running for the 50,000 pound award make it one of the most diverse lists in the race for a literary award in the recent years.

Roy's comeback novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is the most celebrated book in the list, which also comprises several other literary heavyweights as well as three debutant writers. For the judges, Roy's is "a rich and vital book," but a close look at the longlist reveals that the other contenders for the much coveted prize are on an equal footing.

The judges, according to a Youtube video released by the Prize committee, went through over 150 books in a "relatively short span of time" and were thoroughly impressed by so many unusual and beautiful novels. For author Sarah Hall, a member of the judging panel, it's been "a thrill to sit down and discover them". Another member of the panel, Lila Azam Zanganeh, felt that the longlist clearly reflects the "state of fiction today".

Arundhati Roy's entry into the longlist, despite her rich credentials and having been a past winner, does not yet guarantee the final victory primarily because the judging panel has overlooked new novels by former Booker winners Salman Rushdie and Roddy Doyle. The reason? All other books which have made the cut deserve the place.

Consider "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid, for instance. The book poignantly transports the readers to a world or time in the future where migration is peaceful and where people are open to accepting others. Between the lines, the author reminds us that ultimately we have more in common with "others" than the sum total of our differences. Marked by careful symbolisms and imageries, the novel stands to serve the purpose of fiction.

Similarly, Paul Auster's "4321," which is an exploration of one man's four simultaneous lives has been deemed "magisterial" by the judges and is one of the most promising contenders in the list. There is also George Saunders, a noted short-story writer whose first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" is based on Abraham Lincoln's visits to the graveyard where his 11-year-old son has been laid to rest. An instant choice by readers of fiction, this book attracted much critical media acclaim in the US.

One should also not ignore "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. Based on the troublesome life of a female slave who is trying to escape from a Georgia cotton plantation, the offering has already bagged the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for fiction in the US. "Autumn" by Ali Smith has been described by the judging panel as "humane, zany, delightful, optimistic" while "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith is the classic story of the friendship and rivalry between two London girls who meet at a dance class.

Also in the race for the prize this year are four UK and four US authors; there are two from Ireland, two UK-Pakistanis. Of the 13 shortlisted entries, the ratio is seven men to six women. Three novels which have made it to the list are from independent publishers while three others are by first-time writers.

Even as Arundhati Roy is the most celebrated name in the longlist, the Man Booker has often surprised readers across the globe with its verdict. For now, the race seems too close to call until the winner is announced on October 17.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, within hours of dumping the Grand Alliance.

This is the JD-U President's second innings in the last two years. He snapped ties late on Wednesday with Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

The Raj Bhavan here echoed with chants of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad" as Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath to Nitish Kumar.

BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. The BJP offered support to Nitish Kumar after he resigned as Chief Minister on Wednesday.

Nitish Kumar took the oath in Hindi.

This is the JD-U's second innings with the BJP in the state. Nitish Kumar had in 2013 ended his party's association with the BJP after the party projected Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
There is no quid pro quo with China vis a vis Tibet and Arunachal Pradesh and India is not a "mute spectator" to the sufferings of the Tibetan people and the issue of stapled visas given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said on Thursday.

Replying to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said there is "no quid pro quo" with China as far as the question of the latter recognising Arunachal Pradesh as part of India is concerned.

"We used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want China to also recognise this. Our policy has been very clear," she said.

The Minister said the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China has been raised "in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or by the Prime Minister".

On the issue of alleged atrocities in Tibet, she said India has not been "sitting as a mute spectator".

"Whenever there are differences, we raise them," she said.

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh and the government facilitated his visit not once but five or six times.

"Whatever issue that is there that goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," she said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
One person was killed when a ride malfunctioned during opening day at the annual Ohio State Fair, US officials said.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Superintendent Col. Paul A. Pride told CNN said seven other people were injured on Wednesday evening, three of whom are in critical condition.

The ride, called the Fire Ball, consists of at least six rows of seats that spin around as the entire structure moves like a pendulum.

The ride's operator -- Amusements of America -- says the Fire Ball swings riders 40 feet above the midway while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.

The "aggressive thrill" ride debuted in 2002 and has become one of its most popular thrill rides, according to the company.

A video posted online appears to show several people on the ride seconds before parts of the structure break apart.

An eyewitness told CNN: "The ride had four riders per cart. This piece snapped off and the riders came out of the cart."

"At least two (people) flew through the air at least 20 feet before landing on their backs on the concrete."

Ohio Governor John Kasich has ordered all fair rides to be shut down until additional safety inspections were completed.

--IANS

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Internationally acclaimed Indian designer Rahul Mishra will head to the French capital, which is always "so inspiring", for his Paris Fashion Week show in September.

What's keeping him busy?

"Paris Fashion Week! Our Spring Summer 2018 runway show is due to be presented on the 30th of September," Mishra, who has been closely associated with Paris, told IANS.

Talking about his collections for Indian and international consumers, he said: "We have to approach both collections very differently. Paris is important in terms of showcasing your most unique collection which has to have an evolution from the previous collection."

"Design wise we look for inspiration from the past, as well as internationally... it's separates that sell the best. In the end, the runway look is created by the stylist that I work with in Paris."

In India, he says, when he prepares for a collection it's different.

"Because we only showcase our couture line here. So, we create a lot of bridal and occasion wear, we have to think about the entire look, from head to toe the entire ensemble is decided in-house and we start making the collection or designing based on that image," he said.

How important is it for Indian designers to have a global presence?

"Fashion celebrates individuality, and India has the resources and the ability to embody that uniqueness in our clothes.

"Globally, I feel people do have a huge respect for Indian craftsmanship, we just need to take out the ethnic feel out of the ethnic techniques and create a more global product - that's what the world demands, and I feel like India has a huge potential to be able to fulfil that," he said.

For him, it has always been a dream to be able to showcase at Paris Fashion Week.

"PFW is arguably the number one fashion week in the world, it has global heavy weights such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Chanel, Balenciaga and Hermes showcasing," he said.

"It's a dream come true for a brand like us to be amongst these iconic fashion houses and showcase on the same calendar. It also creates a new opportunity, in terms of design, when you're showcasing alongside some of the world's most gifted designers, it makes us want to step-up our game as well."

"I think it improves my work and constantly pushes my aesthetic to new directions. Paris is one of the most culturally influential cities, especially where the idea of beauty is concerned; every visit is always so inspiring," he added.

Being an Indian designer showcasing at Paris, gives him a certain edge.

"India's rich craft heritage allows me the freedom to explore my design visions, I am lucky to be from a country that has such a large living population of talented and skilled artisans," he said.

"I feel like Paris is where I can dream and India is where I can realise that dream."

Before he impresses fashionistas in the fashion capital, he will showcase his new collection at the ongoing India Couture Week here.

"The collection is called 'Parizaad', which means born of the divine. It takes inspiration from century old Persian, Roman and Byzantine architecture, and the intricate use of geometric patterns, tiles of flowers and mosaic of nature, emphasizing great design aesthetics from a time when human skills were divine," he shared.

He feels India has got that right kind of craftsmanship and ready resources that are waiting to be able to create a "global powerhouse of couture for clothes that are all entirely handmade".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar on Thursday welcomed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar back into the NDA fold.

He said although the Janata Dal-United leader delayed his return, he was happy the JD-U was back with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance.

"He should have been with the NDA right from the beginning. The right thing has happened even if it is late," Parrikar told reporters here. "He is welcome. I am happy."

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The parents of 31-year-old Naina Bharali are worried since their only daughter has been diagnosed with cirrhosis (liver cancer) -- caused by the Hepatitis C virus. She is four months pregnant and they fear the new born will also get infected by the blood-borne viral disease.

The confused Bharali does not know how she got the disease, but doctors she is consulting on a regular basis suspect she received infected blood almost a decade ago when she had met with an accident. Now, the only priority for Bharali's parents is to get her proper medication and prevent her foetus from getting affected by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV).

"A child born to a HCV-positive mother has a 90 per cent chance of carrying the viral infection. Such children usually develop chronic HCV and, without treatment, progress to chronic liver disease and liver failure," Manish S. Bhatnagar, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist cum Director of Ahmedabad's Icon Hospital, told IANS.

A study by the Indian Society for Clinical Research says that around 12 million people in the country are infected with HCV, the second-highest globally. More worryingly, there has been an eight per cent rise in the number of HCV cases among pregnant women in the last one decade.

Experts say that babies born with HCV often have a mild liver disease and around 80 per cent have very low to no liver scarring in the first 18 years. However, the actual nature of the disease becomes apparent once the child reaches adulthood as HCV usually takes more than a decade to cause liver problems -- but whenever it happens, it is disastrous.

The Hepatitis C virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness. Most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through injection drug use, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.

Bhatnagar said that HCV cases in women are fast increasing due to unsafe injection practices, promiscuity and unsafe sex, unsanitary delivery practices, rising intravenous drug use and usage of unsafe blood products from unregistered blood banks.

According to global health bodies, an estimated 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection. A significant number of them will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. Approximately 399,000 people die each year from hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Neerav Goyal, Senior Consultant -- Liver Transplant, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said HCV in pregnant women in India has been reported more from rural areas compared to urban areas.

"One of the reasons attributed is the increased incidence of anaemia in the rural population with a consequent higher chance of using contaminated needles and syringes for its treatment. A higher incidence has also been reported from multigravida, where previous pregnancies, hospital admissions, obstetrical surgeries and blood transfusions have lead to an increase incidence of HCV infection," said Goyal.

According to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, transfusion of unscreened blood in patients till 2002 had been one of the major reasons behind spread of Hepatitis C. Following 2002, the government has been strict on measures against infected blood.

Commenting on cases of HCV among pregnant women, Roy Patankar, a prominent Mumbai-based gastroenterologist and Director of Zen Hospital, said that as the impact of this illness on children is not as much in the initial days as that of an adult, many doctors opt for a wait-and-watch approach. Until they reach an appropriate age for therapy, doctors do not prefer any treatment.

Antiviral medicines can cure more than 95 per cent of persons with HCV infection, thereby reducing the risk of death from liver cancer and cirrhosis, but access to diagnosis and treatment is low. There is currently no vaccine for HCV, but research in this area is ongoing.

"HCV can usually be treated using antiviral medicines, although currently there is no vaccine for HCV, research is on. Recently, few Indian firms have received licenses to manufacture HCV drugs as the country's capabilities in generic manufacturing, where quality and low cost co-exist, is quite well known," said Patankar.

As far as research on the development of new medicine for HCV is concerned, a lot of effort is being put in worldwide. However, most of the breakthrough drugs have come from the US and Europe so far. India's pharma prowess has ensured the lowest rates of these antivirals, thereby making them accessible to most of the patients.

Sofosobuvir, Ledipasvir Ribavarin, Veltapasvir, Grazoprevir, Elbasvir and PEG-Interferon are some of the latest drugs against HCV.

Sofosbuvir is a direct-acting antiviral drug that targets different steps of the HCV lifecycle. The medicine blocks the polymerase enzyme that the virus uses to replicate.

Ramesh Garg, Senior Consultant at Gastroenterology at the city-based Saroj Hospital, said that earlier, HCV treatment was difficult and came with a lot of side effects, but since the advent of direct acting antivirals, there have been significantly higher cure rates.

(Rupesh Dutta can be contacted at Rupesh.d@ians.in)

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a protocol to an agreement with Syria to deploy a Russian Air Force group at a Syrian military base.

The protocol was signed into law on Wednesday and ratifies the agreement signed by Russia and Syria which allows the Russian air group to use Syria's Hmeymim air base free of charge for 49 years with possible extension for another 25-year period, Xinhua news agency reported.

The document was posted on the Russian government's legal information portal.

The protocol to the 2015 Russian-Syrian agreement "aimed at establishing the legal framework governing the conditions for the location of the Russian air force group" was signed in Damascus on January 18, 2017.

Prior to being signed into law by Putin, the protocol was ratified by both chambers of the Russian Parliament.

The Russian air group was deployed at Hmeymim from the end of September 2015 to help Syria fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said the Centre's ambitious Sagar Mala project would transform the logistic sector and change the lives of those living along the 7,500 km coastline in the country.

Addressing a public meeting after inaugurating the A.P.J. Abdul Kalam's memorial here and launching a slew of projects, Modi said the government was working to bring down input cost of logistics for import, export and trade through the project.

"The 7,500 km long coastline has a potential of fetching huge investment. Keeping that in mind, we are implementing the Sagar Mala project with an objective to exploit the coastline to benefit logistic transport sector," he said.

The government had plans to bring a big change in the lives of those living along the coastline, Modi added.

Modi also flagged off the Rameswaram-Ayodhya 'Shraddha Sethu' Express train connecting Rameswaram with Ayodhya, both considered sacred by Hindus, inaugurated a road from Rameswaram to Dhanushkodi, the point from where one can the mythological 'Ram Setu', and gave away trawlers to fishermen for deep sea fishing.

Talking about the significance of Rameswaram, Modi said the sacred land gave to the country Abdul Kalam, who has been a source of inspiration for Indians, especially the youth.

"The APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial was built in less than a year and the innovation and imagination used in it is coherent with his life, work and ideals," he said.

"It could be built speedily because of contribution of the artists, architects, workers from across the country. The unique point was that workers put in extra time and did not claim money for that.

"Our youth is the most inspired section inspired by Abdul Kalam. Today's youth wants to get ahead on its own. It wants to generate employment for others. The central government has started schemes like Startup India, Standup India to make their truth come true."

Modi added that the government had started setting up skill development centres in all districts and the Pradhan Mantri Mudra Yojana to address the financial problems youths faced.

He urged tour operators, tourists and youths to visit the memorial while in Rameswaram.

Modi also said that Kalam made genuine efforts all through his life to fulfill his dream of a developed India.

"He always inspired 125 crore citizens of India to achieve this target. This inspiration will help us in achieving our target of a New India by 2022 when India completes 75 years of her independence."

Referring to the squirrel of Ramayana which helped Lord Rama to build a sea-bridge Ramsetu, Modi said: "If everyone take a pledge like the squirrel of Ramayana, our country will progress to a great extent."

The Prime Minister told the gathering that the government had started giving away loans, subsidies and grants to fishermen as a part of "Blue Revolution" to solve problems faced by them.

Modi also spoke about schemes the Centre was implementing such as AMRUT Mission to develop 10 cities in Tamil Nadu as Smart Cities, extension of Chennai Metro and promotoon of Self Help Groups.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has blamed India for scuttling the Saarc summit which was scheduled to be held in Islamabad last year.

Sharif, who is visiting the Maldives, said India not only harmed the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) it also undermined the spirit of the regional forum.

Addressing a joint news conference along with Maldivian President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom in Male, he said both the countries share common views to make Saarc a vibrant organisation for regional development, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported.

Sharif said that during his talks with the Maldivian President he also raised the Kashmir issue.

India pulled out of the Saarc Summit last year citing increased "cross-border" terror attacks.

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Bhutan also pulled out of the Summit indirectly blaming Pakistan for creating an environment which was not right for the successful holding of the meet, resulting in its collapse.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump donated the second quarter of his salary to the Department of Education, according to Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

White House press secretary Sarah Huchabee Sanders handed a $100,000 check to DeVos at the White House press briefing on Wednesday, reports CNN.

The donation will fund a camp to promote science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) careers, DeVos said.

"Today's and tomorrow's economy requires students prepared for STEM careers," DeVos said at the briefing.

"That's why we've decided to use the President's second quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education."

DeVos and first daughter and adviser to the President, Ivanka Trump, attended an event on Tuesday with group of young girls at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History to promote women entering STEM fields, CNN reported.

They read "Rosie Revere, Engineer" to the kids, who were campers at Boys and Girls Clubs and YMCA STEM programmes.

Trump donated his salary last quarter to the National Park Service to help improve the country's historic battlefields.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Rabat, July 26 (IANS/MAP) Two Moroccan peacekeepers from the United Nations mission in Central African Republic were killed in an ambush by suspected Christian militiamen.

The attack took place on Tuesday and the peacekeepers were attacked by suspected Christian anti-balaka militias in the town of Banagassou, 700 km east of the capital Bangui, the mission said in a statement.

It was the second deadly attack on Moroccan forces this week. One Moroccan peacekeeper was killed and three were injured in the earlier attack in the same city on the border with the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Several humanitarian organisations had suspended their activities after the violence in Bangassou, where fighting in May killed at least 115 people.

--IANS/MAP

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A scuffle over which way an air cooler should point ended in the murder of a father and son who were running a roadside eatery in west Delhi, police said on Thursday.

Eatery owner Shyam Singh Verma, 57, and his son and manager Mayank Singh, 28, were shot dead by four armed men who had come to dine at the eatery in Nangli Dairy area of Najafgarh on Wednesday night.

The accused, who were drunk, asked a waiter to point the cooler at the eatery in their direction.

Mayank objected to this, at which one of the accused then forcefully pointed the cooler towards their table. Mayank tried to stop him, resulting in a scuffle between the two.

"He abused and dragged Mayank," a police officer said, adding that the other accused joined in and started beating the owner's son.

Shyam Singh, who was sitting at the cash box, tried to rescue his son. At this point, one of the men took out a pistol and fired at Mayank.

"When his father rushed to save him, the men fired at him too," the officer said.

Shyam died on the spot while his son succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital in Dwarka, the officer said.

The accused fled and are absconding. There were at least 15-20 people at the restaurant and some of them informed the police.

The police said they have identified the suspects, who have a criminal background. A manhunt is on to nab them.

--IANS

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has said that Kiev supports the US House of Representatives' decision to back a draft bill on new sanctions against Russia.

In a statement on Facebook, Poroshenko on Wednesday described the move as an "important decision" for Ukraine, reports Xinhua news agency.

Meanwhile, some Ukrainian experts suggested that the possible sanctions may bring uncertainties to the European and global trade, affecting Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill that would lead to stricter economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea.

The bill reportedly allows sanctions against Russia for its alleged role in Ukraine's crisis and the US presidential election, the claims that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The Kremlin had said earlier that they viewed the sanctions bill "negatively", warning that fresh restrictions would adversely affect both Russia and the US.

To come into effect, the legislation on sanctions has to pass the Senate and be signed by President Donald Trump.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday urged 'Siksha Mitras' not to indulge in violence after the Supreme Court ruled they will not be assimilated as teachers.

A government spokesman said the Additional Chief Secretary (Basic Education) has been authorized to hold parleys with representatives of 'Siksha Mitras'.

The 1.37 lakh 'Siksha Mitras' are contractual teachers. Many have launched sit-in protests at some places in the state.

The government has requested them to have patience. It has said it was studying what could be done in the wake of the apex court ruling.

Thousands of 'Siksha Mitras' have taken to the streets after the apex court quashed their assimilation. Violence has been reported from Etawah, Agra, Mainpuri, Farukkhabad, Meerut, Bijnore and Bareilly districts.

Minister of State for Basic Education Anupama Jaiswal said that while the government will implement the apex court order with immediate effect, its sympathies were with the 'Siksha Mitras'.

--IANS

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Film: "Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets"; Director: Luc Besson; Cast: Dane Dehaan, Cara Delevingne, Clive Owen, Rihanna, Ethan Hawke, Herbie Hancock, Kris Wu. Sam Spruell, Alain Chabat and Rutger Hauer; Rating: **

This latest offering from the French director Luc Besson is based on the 'Valerian' comic book characters created by Pierre Christin and drawn by Jean-Claude Mezieres, which debuted in 1967 through 21 volumes, ending in 2010.

Set in the 28th century, Valerian (Dane Dehaan) and Laurine (Cara Delevinge) are a team of special operatives charged with maintaining order throughout the human territories. Under assignment from the Minister of Defense, the two embark on a mission to the astonishing city of Alpha, which is also known as the City of Thousand Planets.

In this ever-expanding metropolis, species from all over the Universe have converged over centuries to share knowledge, intelligence and cultures with each other. But, there is a mystery at the center of Alpha. A dark force threatens the peaceful existence of the city, and Valerian and Laureline must race to identify the marauding menace and safeguard not just Alpha, but the future of the universe.

As a comic book adaptation, the film is a disappointing showcase of promises. It is impressive to look at as it boasts of incredible visuals but the premise itself is bloated beyond belief and the exposition is too verbose. Also, the interesting aspects are so stretched that you find it difficult to concentrate.

The narrative begins with scenes very reminiscent of "Avatar" where you meet another race, speaking a different language. It seems as though this film will have a few deeper elements because there are pale blue people playing with psychedelic balls on a paradise like planet with jewel-pooping frogs, but then the narrative cuts to the two lead characters, Valerian and Laureline, and then lands up looking like a rip-off of Star Wars.

With over 137 self-indulgent, hyperactive yet meandering minutes of run time, the film feels like a series of events that would be played out in a video game. Though there are multiple points of action interweaving into a satisfying spectacle, there is a tinge of ineptitude in the flow.

This you notice when a character completes a mission, another one arises and as soon as a conflict presents itself, the film cuts away to an exposition scene in order to explain how the main characters can save themselves from peril. Thus, with these contrived solutions at every turn, the characters never feel in danger.

On the performance front, Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne are perfunctory. Valerian is supposed to be a charming rogue, a swaggring playboy, a fearsome cop and none of these attributes work with DeHaan. On screen, he is neither intimidating nor impressive and the script does not back up the praises.

Delevingne is striking to look at but she is stiff and fails to emote. Together with DeHaan, their on screen romance lacks chemistry.

Rihanna as the shape-shifting alien, a burlesque dancer whose routine feels almost like a Hindi film item number. Her role is interesting but short lived.

On the production front, Besson manages to deliver a wacky world of sci-fi that is vibrant, weird, wild and luscious brimming with alien life and the City of a Thousand Planets is impressive to look at.

The set piece of the opening act, an inter-dimensional bazar known as Big Market are a few scenes that show the potential power of Besson's transporting vision. But they all feel like manic decorations meant to stimulate and distract from the glaring deficiencies of the characters and the story.

Overall, the film degenerates into a kitschy futuristic feature.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Actor Warwick Davis has joined the upcoming "Star Wars" Han Solo film.

Director Ron Howard shared the news of Davis coming on board for the film on Twitter, reports variety.com.

Howard was named the director of the Han Solo film in June after Disney and Lucasfilm fired Phil Lord and Christopher Miller months into the shoot.

Fans asked Howard when they might get to see a sequel to his 1998 fantasy film "Willow", which starred Davis.

He tweeted: "Glad you are asking for one! I directed Warwick Davis for the first time in 30 years today. It made me happy."

Details of Davis' role have not been shared yet.

Davis is no stranger to the franchise though, as he has earlier starred as Ewok and Wicket W. Warrick, in 1993's "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi". He also played assorted characters in 1999 film "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace", 2015's "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" and 2016's "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story".

The untitled standalone "Star Wars" film stars Alden Ehrenreich as young Han Solo, Donald Glover as Han Solo's friend Lando Calrissian, Woody Harrelson as Han Solo's mentor named Beckett and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca among others.

Scripted by Lawrence and Jon Kasdan, the "Star Wars" spin-off is scheduled to release next year.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday said his party was consulting legal experts and may approach the Supreme Court as the verdict in the S.R. Bommai case has not been followed while inviting Nitish Kumar to form government in Bihar.

"The S.R. Bommai case verdict clearly states that the largest party should be invited to form government. The majority is proved on the floor of the House. The RJD should have been invited. We have sought the opinion of Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani," Lalu Prasad told reporters here on Thursday.

"We suspected foul play when Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi was called to Patna on Wednesday. We were given time by Raj Bhawan at 11 a.m. today by spreading the rumour that the oath taking ceremony is at 5 p.m. But the oath ceremony was scheduled at 10 a.m.

"We had sought time to stake claim to form the government. When our leaders met the Governor on Wednesday night he told us that the letter of oath taking was given to Nitish Kumar. The S.R. Bommai case directive has been overlooked in the case," Lalu Prasad said.

In the S.R. Bommai vs Union of India case in 1994, the Centre's capacity to dismiss a state government was curbed as per constitutional necessities. The judgement laid down that the only way to resolve internal issues within a state's administrative functioning would be by means of a floor test determining the support enjoyed by the party in power.

Lalu Prasad alleged that the entire political episode was fixed between the BJP and JD-U chief Nitish Kumar.

"The script was written six months ago. Nitish Kumar had met Narendra Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah. Nitish colluded with the BJP for my conviction in the fodder scam case."

He also alleged that Nitish Kumar is a murder accused. "Nitish is an accused in the murder of Sitaram Singh in 1991. The court has taken cognisance. Nitish Kumar must resign on moral grounds," he said.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Angry at not being invited to form the government, the RJD on Thursday threatened it will not allow the monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly to be run unless new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi resign.

The monsoon session of the state Assembly begins on Friday.

Nitish Kumar, who along with the BJP formed a new government on Thursday, will have to prove his majority in the next two days on the floor of the House.

Demanding that Nitish Kumar and Modi resign, senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said: "RJD is the largest party in the state Assembly. We have majority but were not invited by the Governor to form government. The RJD will not allow the Assembly to function," Singh said.

Singh, a former Minister, said the RJD will reply to Nitish Kumar for his "cheating and betrayal" at its August 27 party rally.

RJD leader Manoj Jha said Nitish Kumar has acted against the people's mandate by joining hands with the BJP to form government. "Mandate of the 2015 Assembly polls was against the BJP. It is like dacoity," Jha, RJD spokesperson, said.

Another senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said it is an "old habit" of Nitish Kumar to dump one party to join hands with another to form the government. "Earlier he dumped the BJP and joined hands with RJD to be in power, now he again joined hands with BJP and formed the government," he said.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, senior RJD leader and former Union Minister, said Nitish Kumar has betrayed the people and acted against the wishes of people. "Nitish Kumar will face the anger of people and its consequence," he said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi said "Nitish Kumar used to talk to Laluji in the day time and with BJP leaders at night".

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
After taking over as Chief Minister again, Nitish Kumar on Thursday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his greetings and said he has faith that with the central government's assistance development would gain pace in Bihar.

"Thankful to Prime Minister for his greetings. No compromise will be done on corruption. I have faith that with Centre's assistance development would get pace," the JD-U chief said in a tweet.

The Janata Dal-United President's remarks came after Prime Minister Modi greeted him shortly after he took oath with the BJP as an alliance partner in the state.

In a tweet, Modi said he was looking forward to working together with Nitish Kumar for Bihar's progress.

--IANS

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(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
NDA vice-presidential candidate today described both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and former president APJ Abdul Kalam as 'karma yogis' (selfless workers), committed to the growth of the country.

"Kalam and Modi are great 'karma yogis' (selfless workers) dedicated to the development of the nation," Naidu said in his welcome address at a function after the inauguration of the memorial of late 'Missile Man' Kalam.

He said Modi was "the worthiest person" to open the memorial to the former president simply because the PM stays in MODI-mode for "Making of Developed India (MODI), while Kalam dreamt of a developed India."



Paying rich tributes to Kalam, he said the scientist was the soul of India. A great scientist and an architect of the rocket project, from a small town, he became the President of India.

Naidu also hailed late Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa and said two great souls  one Abdul Kalam and the other 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (revolutionary leader) J Jayalalithaa.

"God has taken away the two great souls from Tamil Nadu," he said.

Recalling his discussions with Jayalalithaa as Union minister after he was made the coordinator for the memorial project, Naidu said she was kind enough to immediately allot the land for the project.

She had also felt it was necessary to have such a memorial for Kalam, he added.
The Rajya Sabha saw repeated adjournments during Zero Hour and Question Hour on Wednesday over Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley's remarks that the opposition was making Zero Hour a TV opportunity.
Less than a day after resigning as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as the head of the state's government, which will include BJP and its allies. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who had served as the deputy CM in the previous Nitish-NDA government, took oath as the deputy CM again. Kumar met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday with NDA leaders and staked his claim to form a new government with the support of 132 MLAs. Talking to reporters after meeting the Governor, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that Nitish Kumar ...

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on Wednesday met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi here to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.
Over 10,000 trees will be cut for the proposed widening of the Mumbai-Goa highway on the 84-km Panvel-Indapur stretch in Maharashtra, the assembly was informed today.

Of these, 5,462 trees have already been cut.

Revenue Minister Chandrakant Patil said the National Highways Authority of India's (NHAI) proposed widening of the Mumbai-Goa highway (NH-66) will affect 10,509 trees on the Panvel-Indapur stretch that is 84-km long.

"Of the affected trees, 5,462 have already been cut. The state has also obtained necessary environmental clearances for the project. As per the agreement, the number of trees to be planted will be three time more than the number of trees to be chopped," he said.

The minister was replying to a query raised by MLAs Sunil Shinde and Jayant Patil in the Lower House.

The land requirement for the four-lane road conversion on the Panvel-Indapur stretch is 217 hectares, of which legal hearing for 203 hectares has been completed, according to the written response.

The road widening is taking place in several phases. The government's proposal for constructing a connecting road and a tunnel on the Indapur-Zarap stretch of the highway was struck down by the Centre, he said.

The stretch between Indapur (in Pune district) and Zarap in Konkan region is 366-km long.

The government has invited e-tenders for planting some 1,600 trees on the 91-km stretch between Aravali and Waked, the response stated.

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India and Bangladesh have agreed to create 13 thoroughfares across the border fences in Assam and Meghalaya to let elephants make to-and-fro movements between the two countries, the officials said here today.

"Trans-border migration is a natural process and we have identified certain points (30 initially) but we have zeroed down to 13 points to allow to-and-fro migration of elephants in their natural habitats," India's Director General of Forests and Special Secretary to the Government of India Siddhanta Das told reporters.

At these identified thoroughfares for the jumbos, the fence would be broken and special gates would be built for their safe passage, he said.

Both the countries have also decided to constitute a Joint Working Group to draft protocols and Standard Operating Procedures for trans-boundary conservation and management of elephants and their movements between the two countries.

Das said 12 of these points are in Meghalaya and one in Assam and we do not want to create a barrier against the natural movement of the elephants.

The opening of the border fencing along the Indo- Bangladesh border for elephants is one of the 18 agreed points of action signed by top forests officials of both the countries at the 2nd Indo-Bangladesh dialogue for trans- boundary conservation of elephants here.

The other agreements included the one to discourage and regulate erection of electric fences for protection of agriculture and horticulture crops in the areas falling in the identified migratory corridors to prevent death of elephants from electrocution, he said.

District deputy commissioners of both the countries will also be empowered to permit trans-boundary movement of elephant rescue teams.

With both the countries having similar concerns for elephants, Das said, "Within 60 days, we will constitute a Joint Working Group to evolve and develop protocols and Standard Operating Procedures for trans-boundary conservation and management of elephants in India-Bangladesh landscape."



He said the agreed action points should lead to signing of an official protocol between India and Bangladesh on trans-boundary conservation of elephants, Das said.

The third round of dialogue is expected to take place in Bangladesh by June next year.

The forest officials from the states of Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal and Tripura and an 11-member team from Bangladesh attended the 2nd Indo-Bangladesh dialogue for trans-boundary conservation of elephants here and discussed at length on how best to coordinate the free, to-and-fro movements of the pachyderms across the international border and prevent their poaching.

"It was agreed (in 2015) to develop an operational guideline to handle trans-boundary movement of elephants and as a follow up action of this, dialogue is on and the protocol or else a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries is expected soon," Bangladesh Chief Conservator of Forest, Md Shafiul Alam Chowdhury said.

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Two engineering students were arrested from Kanpur for allegedly stealing Rs 4.92 lakh cash from two ATMs of a bank here last month, police said.

They stole the cash by tampering the machines and making fraudulent transactions on the two ATMs in city's MVP Colony between June 24 and June 28, Assistant Commissioner of Police (Dwarka Zone), K Ramachandra Rao said yesterday.

The duo was identified as Swapnil Singh (22), a native of Kushinagar district in Uttar Pradesh, and Satyarath Mishra (20) from Faizabad, UP.

They both are students of second year B.Tech (Computer Science) course at a university in Nagpur, he said.

The accused were arrested on Tuesday from Kanpur and brought here yesterday, Rao said, adding that an amount of Rs 1.3 lakh cash, gold jewellery and some other items have been recovered from them.

According to police, the accused carried out the thefts by tampering with the cash dispenser of ATMs and opening its hood with a master key, rendering the unit non-functional for some time.

After the heists reported in June, cases were lodged with the MVP Colony police station.

He said based on the CCTV footage installed at the two ATM kiosks and some concrete clues like purchase of gold jewellery in the city with the same debit cards as used by the accused for transactions, police caught hold of the duo and apprehended them from Kanpur.

Rao said the two accused told the police that they got the idea to execute theft at ATM kiosks by watching a video of a similar theft that happened in Gujarat a few year ago, on YouTube.

The two men managed make a duplicate key of a model of an ATM of the particular bank.

They first tried to execute thefts in Delhi and parts of Odisha but failed. Later, they attempted it in Vizag city.

Elucidating the modus operandi, Rao said, the duo used their debit cards of the particular bank while making the transactions.

One person first swiped the debit card and entered the PIN, in the meanwhile the other used duplicate key to tamper the machine. They doctored the machine in a way that before the cash could be dispensed out the machine, it was rendered non-functional.

However, the money debited would not be reflected in the user's account. They would then open the cash tray and take out the money, he said.

In this manner, the duo made 51 attempts at the two ATM kiosks during June 24-28 and carried out the heist between 11 pm and 2 am.

In the entire process, the account holder will not suffer any loss (as money is not debited from the account), but the cash would to go missing from the ATM, subsequently resulting in a loss to the bank, the ACP said.

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Turkey's parliament has voted to strip two legislators from the country's pro-Kurdish party of their parliamentary seat for absenteeism.

The move comes amid what critics say is the government's widening crackdown on opposition and dissenting voices. A dozen legislators from the Democratic People's Party, or HDP, have been arrested on terror-related charges, including the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. The latter also lost her parliamentary seat earlier this year.

Legislators voted overwhelmingly on Thursday to oust Faysal Sariyildiz and Tugba Hezer from parliament, a move that reduced HDP's seats in the 550-member parliament to 55.

HDP legislators protested the vote by banging on desks, accusing the ruling party of double standards because it didn't take action against other lawmakers who fail to regularly attend sessions.

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The 28th batch of 599 pilgrims left Jammu for the 3,888-metre-high Amarnath cave shrine of Lord Shiva in south Kashmir Himalayas today amid tight security.

Escorted by the CRPF and the state police, the batch comprising 369 males, 133 females and 97 sadhus and sadhvis left in a convoy of 19 vehicles for Baltal and Pahalgam base- camps this morning, officials said.

With today's batch, a total of 67,906 pilgrims have left Jammu for Amarnath in 28 batches since the yatra began on June 28.

A senior official said 2,48,152 pilgrims have paid obeisance at the holy cave shrine in this year's yatra.

The government has mobilised a heavy security blanket of over 35,000 to 40,000 troops, including the police, Army, BSF and CRPF.

The annual yatra began this year amid a terror threat, withintelligence reports warning of a probable attack which prompted authorities to mobilise the "highest level" of security, includingsatellite tracking system.

This year's yatra will be eight days shorter than last years and will conclude on Shravan Purnima (Raksha Bandhan) on August 7.

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Three persons, including a woman, were crushed to death by a car at Sahnewal, about 15 kms from here, today, police said.

The deceased were waiting for a bus when the incident occurred, police said.

Balwinder Singh (37), a resident Bilga village here, Baljit Kaur (38) of Bhagpur and Sunny (29), a migrant labourer from Uttar Pradesh, were killed, they said.

They were all working at a factory at Doraha and were going for work, they added.

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: Eighty sovereigns of gold jewellery were stolen from the house of a cotton merchant at Innabur near here today, police said.

The jewels were stolen when the merchant and his wife had gone to Andhra Pradesh to distribute invitations for his son's wedding.

The burglarly came to light this afternoon when the neighbours found the door at the rear of the house broken open and informed the police.

Sekar's relatives told the police that 80 sovereigns gold jewellery and Rs two lakh cash were missing.

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Explosive Trace Device checks will be in place at airports in the national capital and Mumbai for Air India flights flying directly to the US, according to the government.

Such checks will be for portable gadgets that are larger than a smartphone in order to comply with directions issued by the US authorities for foreign air carriers.

In a written reply to the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for Civil Aviation Jayant Sinha said the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security (BCAS) has issued directions to commission Explosive Trace Device at "secondary screening check points" to comply with the requirement of the US Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

The TSA has made it mandatory for foreign airlines to perform Explosive Trace Device checks at secondary ladder point checks for all portable electronic and gadgets which are larger than a cellphone or smartphone in certain cases, he said.

"As such, instructions are applicable to airports in India as last port of departure stations for US-bound flights. Air India is operating flights to the US with New Delhi and Mumbai as last port of departure stations," the minister said.

In a separate written reply, he said the Airports Authority of India (AAI) is expected to see a profit after tax of Rs 1,538.11 crore in the current financial year.

The airports operator, which manages 126 aerodromes, had reported a profit after tax of Rs 3,115.93 crore in 2016-17.

The AAI has already started action for payment of bonus to eligible employees in accordance with the provisions of the Payment of Bonus (Amendment) Act, 2015, he said.

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BJP president Amit Shah will be on a three-day visit to Lucknow, beginning July 29, during which he will hold meetings with various party units and workers.

"On July 29, the party president will interact with party office bearers from Awadh, Kashi, Gorakhpur and Kanpur regions. He will also interact with various district presidents and district in-charges," UP BJP spokesperson Chandramohan said today.

"On July 30, he will address a meeting of intellectuals at Scientific Convention centre," he said.

The 'Jan Sahyog Kendra' at the UP BJP office here, held to hear public grievances, will remain closed on all three days of Shah's stay.

"People are advised that they should not turn up at the UP BJP head office on these three days. The kendra will commence functioning as usual from August 1," UP BJP media in-charge Harish Chandra Srivastava said.

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Anti-Semitic hate incidents in Britain rose by 30 per cent to a record high of 767 in the first six months of this year compared to the same period last year, a Jewish community group said today.

The Community Security Trust said 80 of the incidents involved physical attacks but the highest number was verbal abuse at visibly Jewish people in public places.

"Anti-Semitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of British Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading," David Delew, head of the Community Security Trust (CST), said in a statement.

The trust said 51 of the incidents were linked to damage or desecration of Jewish property. Most of the incidents were concentrated in London and Manchester, the country's two biggest Jewish communities.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said in a statement that the rise in incidents could be due to better reporting but added that "one such incident is one too many".

"We will continue to do everything we can to stamp out the hatred and division that blights our communities," Rudd said, pointing to an increase in government funding for the protection of Jewish sites.

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The office-bearers of the Bhim Army today gheraoed the office of the District Magistrate and submitted a memorandum to administrative officials alleging assaults on the outfit's founder Chandrasekhar inside the jail here.

They demanded necessary action and an unbiased investigation into their charges by the administration.

The mother of Bhim Army's district unit president Kamal Walia said if "the innocent people" of the Dalit outfit were attacked they would not sit silent.

The office-bearers sought an early resolution to the issue and warned of launching a stir if their demands are not met.

Chandrashekhar, a lawyer by profession, was arrested on June 8 by Special Task Force of Uttar Pradesh Police from Himachal Pradesh's Dalhousie in connection with his alleged role in the violence in Saharanpur.

He had shot to limelight after holding a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi against violence on Dalits in Saharanpur.

Earlier, two members of the Bhim Army were arrested in Saharanpur for their alleged involvement in the Ramnagar caste violence on May 9 after a person was killed and several others were injured in a clash between Dalits and Thakurs at Shabbirpur village on May 5.

About a dozen police vehicles were set ablaze and 12 policemen were injured in subsequent violence on May 9.

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Bio-pharmaceutical firm Biocon today reported a 51.20 per cent decline in its consolidated net profit to Rs 81.3 crore for the quarter ended June 30, on account of weakening of the US Dollar and GST impact.

The company had posted a net profit of Rs 166.6 crore for the corresponding quarter of the previous fiscal, Biocon said in a BSE filing.

Total income of the company stood at Rs 987.7 crore for the quarter under consideration, as against Rs 1,032.9 crore in the same period a year ago.

Commenting on the results, Biocon Chairperson & MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said: "Financial performance was muted largely due to a combination of factors: weakening of US Dollar, GST impact and inclusion of operational and fixed costs of Malaysia".

Additionally, the year-on-year comparison was impacted by the one-time adjustment in Q1 of FY17 related to IndAS migration, she added.

A major milestone this quarter was the USFDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) recommendation for approval of our biosimilar Trastuzumab, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

"We also received regulatory approvals from the Indian regulator for our biosimilar Bevacizumab," she added.

"The outlook for FY18 remainscautious as much depends on regulatory approvals and tender outcomes for our biosimilars in key emerging markets. However, we will endeavour to maintain healthy core operating margins, going forward," Mazumdar-Shaw said.

Shares of Biocon today closed at Rs 399.10 per scrip on BSE, down 1.13 per cent from its previous close.

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Britain plans to play a bigger role in Asia after Brexit, including deploying aircraft carriers to the region, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said today.

Johnson backed the campaign to quit the EU and said the decision had given his country the opportunity to "think afresh" about its international role, while maintaining close ties with its European partners.

"One of the purposes of my trip is to get over the message that we are now going to be more committed to the Asia-Pacific region and more committed to Australia," he told The Australian newspaper in a Sydney interview.

"People want the involvement of a country that sticks up for a rules-based international system, that is prepared to deploy its military in the area, as we are."



After attending annual talks in Sydney between the British and Australian foreign and defence ministers, Johnson added that one way his nation would be "stepping up" in the region would be through supporting freedom of navigation.

"You will have seen last year how we sent a squadron of typhoons to Korea and Japan," he told reporters later today.

"One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area."



The comments came as British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made a pitch to build Australia's next fleet of warships, with Spain and Italy also in the running for the lucrative deal to construct nine frigates.

Australia earlier this year detailed a massive Aus$89 billion (USD 70.4 billion) shipbuilding strategy in the nation's largest peacetime naval investment.

The big increase in defence spending follows Beijing's assertion of its regional power status through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea.

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich waters despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

"What people need is certainty and stability. We believe that legal certainty in the South China Sea is hugely important," Johnson added to The Australian.

"We don't want to see the militarisation of that area. We believe that for world trade to prosper there must be a fairness about the way sea lanes are going to operate."



Another key issue discussed during the meeting was a free-trade agreement with Australia post-Brexit, with Johnson stressing that Britain's greater regional military involvement went hand-in-hand with an economic pact.

"The increase in our defence budgets that Michael Fallon has alluded to do allow for the UK to step up in this region," Johnson told reporters.

"The change in our circumstances in our relationship with the European Union also allow us now to do a big free trade deal with Australia. The two things go together.

"We believe that it is the guaranteeing of the rules- based international system, the preservation of the security and stability of this region, that allow for economic growth.

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The Calcutta High Court today granted bail to two activists, who allegedly led an anti-power grid project agitation at Bhangar, while censuring a trial court for having "mechanically" extended their judicial custody under UAPA charges.

In scathing observations against the trial court, Justice Joymalyo Bagchi said that the magistrate has hopelessly failed to apply his mind independently and that he mechanically affixed his stamp of approval on the investigating agency's report.

The additional chief judicial magistrate, Baruipur court, had extended the judicial remand of Sarmistha Chowdhury and Pradip Singh Thakur on a plea of the state CID, which is investigating the case, while refusing their bail prayers.

Justice Bagchi granted bail to Chowdhury and Thakur on a bond of Rs 50,000 each and two sureties of like amount. They were were directed to be present during all hearings in connection with the case before the trial court, failing which the court would be at liberty to cancel their bail.

The two accused, who allegedly led an agitation against setting up of a Power Grid unit at Bhangar in South 24 Parganas district adjacent to the metropolis, were directed not to enter the jurisdiction of Bhangar, Kashipur and Rajarhat police stations till further orders.

CPI(ML) Red Star members Chowdhury and Thakur were arrested from Bhangar in January this year by the CID and were slapped with charges under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), under which an accused can be placed in remand for up to 180 days.

Justice Bagchi observed that mere application of UAPA does not mean automatic extension of custody up to 180 days. It is the discretion of the court on the basis of satisfaction with the public prosecutor's report, indicating reasons thereof for extension of custody.

He observed that the magistrate has to assign firm reasons for extension of custody following expiry of 90-day statutory period.

Perusal of the trial court order shows it has not been done and that extension of custody was given merely on the prayer of the public prosecutor, "betraying surrender of the independence of the judiciary to the executive," Justice Bagchi observed.

The high court observed that the public prosecutor is supposed to act independently and not relegate himself to be the mouthpiece of the investigating agency, as has happened in the present case.

Observing that judges/magistrates shall record orders strictly in terms of law, Justice Bagchi directed that under no circumstances a judicial officer shall take assistance of external agencies, particularly police officers.

Any deviation or breach of the direction will invite departmental proceedings against the said officer, he directed.

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Campaigning for the by-election to Northern Angami-I assembly constituency in Kohima district from where former chief minister Shurhozelie Liezietsu is contesting came to an end this evening.

The by-election scheduled for July 29 will be straight fight between Liezietsu who is Naga Peoople's Front (NPF) nominee and educationist turn politician Kekhrie Yhome who is an Independent candidate.

The by-poll was necessitated after sitting MLA Khriehu Liezietsu resigned on May 24 last, so that his father Shurhozelie Liezietsu could get elected as regular member of the state Assembly.

A total of 16,235 voters, which include 7697 male and 8538 female will exercise their franchise in 25 polling stations spread across eight areas, said Chief Electoral Officer, Abhijit Sinha while briefing media-persons this evening.

The CEO said all arrangements have been made besides the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and for the first time Voters Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) Machine would also be used during the polls.

Sinha said three companies of Central Armed Police Forces will be deployed in every polling station to ensure peaceful conduct of election.

The CEO also informed that campaigning has come to an end at 4 pm this evening while exit polls have also been prohibited till the polling is over.

Deputy Commissioner Kohima, Rajesh Soundararajan, who is also the Returning Officer for the by-poll said the administration has completed all preparedness for the smooth conduct of the bye-polls.

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The Centre has given its approval for setting up of a new international airport at Rajkot in Gujarat, the Lok Sabha was informed today.

"Site clearance approval (was granted) to the government of Gujarat for setting up of Rajkot International Greenfield Airport at Hirasar, District Rajkot, Gujarat in May, 2017," Minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha said in a written reply.

The Ministry grants clearances in two stages, i.E. "site clearance" followed by an "in-principle approval", he said.

Last year, the government had given in-principle approval to Dholera International Airport Company Limited (DIACL) for setting up a new greenfield airport near Navagam village in Ahmedabad.

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Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde today told the state legislative assembly that 10,000 students, seeking admission to Class XI, changed their choice of colleges within the 10 days of submission of forms, causing delay in the admission process.

"Colleges were allotted to the students based on their choices. But after releasing the first list, we came to know that as many as 10,000 students have changed their choices and did not take admission in the colleges they were supposed to," Tawde said in response to a calling attention motion raised by leader of opposition Radhakrishna Vikhe Patil and other MLAs.

"It put a pressure on the entire system and resulted in the slowing down of the procedure. If so many students changed their choices, it would naturally affect the system," he said.

Compared to the rest of Maharashtra, there are more number of colleges in Mumbai with minority status-which complicated the admission process further, Tawde added.

"The state officials, after speaking to some students came to know that their parents had filled the forms and not the students. Therefore, the students did not take admissions in the allotted colleges," he said.

Tawde assured the House that the government would develop a mechanism, wherein only one person can fill an admission form.

"The state will develop a mechanism, which will generate a password and only one person can fill in an admission form. This will reduce the load on the online system, though the state is going to enhance the capacity of the server to handle the incoming traffic," he said.

There are 2.60 lakh students in Mumbai, the highest in Maharashtra, who submitted their applications online, he said adding, "This was also a challenge for us."



Meanwhile, BJP whip in the assembly, Raj Purohit, demanded special quota to be reserved in colleges for the students of south Mumbai.

"There are many good colleges in south Mumbai and students scoring good marks from entire Mumbai region apply for these colleges. Hence, students from south Mumbai are forced to go to distant colleges despite having good colleges near their homes," Purohit said.

In response, Tawde said, "The state government will discuss this particular demand with the Advocate General and experts in the field of education, as we cannot deny meritorious students admission to particular college."



Congress MLA Varsha Gaikwad raised the issue of 242 students, who could not get admission in the first round, despite their good scrore.

Tawde said, "The students have committed some errors while filling the forms. Due to it, despite their good scores these students could not get admissions. Had they submitted the forms without any errors, they would not have faced such inconvenience."



The minister also told the assembly that the state government has initiated action against Nyasa Asia Pvt Ltd for the delay in the admission process.

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China has reached a turning point in history as it is becoming "rich and powerful", President Xi Jinping said today, terming his five-year tenure ending this year as "extraordinary".

Xi, bracing for his second term, told officials that "over the five years, the party's central leadership... Solved many challenging problems which (the ruling Communist Party of China) wanted to solve for a long time but could not, and achieved many things it wanted to achieve in the past but did not manage to achieve".

"The Chinese nation... Has achieved the historic leap of rising to our feet, getting rich and getting powerful," Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post quoted him as saying.

Xi, also the general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks at a two-day workshop attended by provincial and ministerial officials.

Over a million officials were reported to have been punished in the massive anti-corruption drive launched by him since he took over the leadership in 2013.

Xi said the upcoming 19th National Congress of the CPC, which was expected to confirm a second five year term for him, is a key meeting at a crucial time for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

The meeting also comes when China's endeavour to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way has entered the decisive stage, state-run Xinhua agency quoted Xi as saying.

Chen Daoyin, an associate professor at the Shanghai University of Political Science and Law, said Xi's remarks were a signal that he had placed himself on par with late leaders Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

"Mao's era of founding the modern communist China was when the Chinese nation rose to its feet, and Deng's reform and opening up policies helped the economy take off, and Xi sees himself as bringing China all the way to becoming powerful. Now it is his era," Chen told the Post.

Analysts said the meeting was also a call for senior officials to pledge political loyalty to Xi as the congress approached.

Many of the officials at the seminar would attend the 19th party congress as delegates and cast votes, Chen said.

"They will have to be politically reliable and choose the right team," he said.

Wu Qiang, a former politics lecturer at Tsinghua University in Beijing, said the strictly arranged and controlled seminar served as a warning to all officials to toe the line.

"Every official is supposed to declare his or her position and pledge loyalty after the session. The leaders need to make sure the voting result (at the congress) won't look embarrassing," he said.

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Controversy over a new cross- border rail link which will see mainland laws enforced in a Hong Kong train station escalated today after the justice chief likened China to the city's "landlord".

It comes at a time when fears are worsening that Hong Kong's freedoms are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.

There are already concerns that Chinese operatives are working undercover after the alleged abductions of a city bookseller and a reclusive mainland businessman.

The high-speed rail line between Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, 80 miles away, is due to open in 2018.

Its Hong Kong terminus will be in the heart of the semi- autonomous city, on its famous harbourfront, not near the boundary with China that lies further north.

But the Beijing-friendly government wants to create a joint immigration point which would mean parts of the station, the platforms and the train cabins would fall under Chinese jurisdiction and would be patrolled by mainland officials.

Critics say the plan is a clear breach of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which guarantees freedoms unseen on the mainland and prohibits its law enforcers operating in Hong Kong.

Justice secretary Rimsky Yuen stoked opponents by likening the arrangement to the relationship between a landlord and tenant.

"The landlord has rented a house to me and then realised he didn't have enough space and asks me, can you rent a room to me? He has that right," he said on a radio talk show yesterday.

Yuen's comments alarmed the pro-democracy camp which has now formed a concern group.

"If China is our landlord, that means they could ask us to give back land any time," opposition lawmaker Tanya Chan told AFP today.

Barrister and former lawmaker Margaret Ng said there was no legal basis for the move to create what the government is calling a "mainland port area" on Hong Kong soil.

The territory's boundaries are protected by its constitution, she said.

"If you choose to carve out part of it and call it something else, then we lose our protection altogether," said Ng.

There are already transport connections between Hong Kong and the mainland, but Chinese immigration checks are done on the other side of the border.

The government insists the plan will save travel time and says it does not breach local laws because Hong Kong's land and natural resources are "state property".

Yuen said the arrangement would not diminish the rights of Hong Kong people, who are used to freedom of expression and accessing social media sites like Facebook, which are banned in China.

But when asked by reporters whether passengers would need to change their behaviour in mainland parts of the station, Yuen said they would be treated as if they had crossed into China at any other Hong Kong border point.

The new high-speed rail line is one of a number of cross-border infrastructure projects which have increased concern that Hong Kong is being swallowed up by the mainland.

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Chinese police have detained dozens of members of a suspected pyramid scheme after many staged a rare demonstration in Beijing to protest a crackdown on the group.

Photos and videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of protesters in central Beijing on Monday, chanting slogans and holding red banners urging President Xi Jinping to stop the investigation into the group.

While the authenticity of the images could not be verified, Beijing police essentially confirmed that a protest was held in a statement saying that scores were detained following the "illegal gathering".

Sixty-three members of the pyramid scheme, known as Shanxinhui, were held for "harming social management order" and four more for "disrupting order in a public place," the Beijing police said in a statement on their official Weibo microblog.

An earlier statement by authorities said that the group's members "were incited by those with ulterior motives to illegally gather in Beijing, seriously disturbing the capital's social order," the official Xinhua service reported.

Protests of such size are rare in Beijing, where authorities have little tolerance for public demonstrations.

On Friday, police had arrested Zhang Tianming, the group's founder, and several employees on charges of defrauding "a huge amount of property" from victims "under the guise of 'helping the poor and achieving common wealth,'" according to a police statement.

But banners carried by protesters at the protest claimed Shanxinhui was a legitimate platform that was being "persecuted".

Shanxinhui's official Weibo microblog account was blank on Thursday with no posts shown, and its website was not accessible.

A cached version of the website described the organisation as an equity investment group founded in 2013 that promotes causes such as forestry conservation and poverty alleviation.

Pyramid schemes have become more popular in China in recent years, with promotional material spreading rapidly on social media networks.

Police investigated 2,826 pyramid scheme cases in 2016, nearly 20 percent more than in 2015, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

From 2005 to 2015, 21,904 pyramid schemes were investigated and 990 million yuan (USD 140 million) was confiscated, the ministry said.

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Sound batting from veteran Alastair Cook and debutant Tom Westley saw England to 62 for one on the first morning of the third Test against South Africa at The Oval today.

When rain stopped play some 10 minutes before the scheduled interval, Cook was 34 not out and Westley 24 not out.

The Essex duo had put on exactly 50 for the second wicket after South Africa-born opener Keaton Jennings was out for a duck.

It was just the sort of 'correct' top-order Test-match display England's critics, including several former captains, had called for after the hosts were twice bowled out cheaply in a huge 340-run defeat at Trent Bridge that saw South Africa level the four-match series at 1-1 last week.

Left-hander Cook had batted for 82 minutes, facing 77 balls, including five fours, with Westley so far having struck five fours in 47 balls faced during 87 minute at the crease.

England had a setback soon after captain Joe Root won the toss and elected to bat despite the overcast conditions and green-tinged pitch that promised to assist a Proteas' pace attack bolstered by the return of Kagiso Rabada.

The under-pressure Jennings was repeatedly beaten outside off stump by Vernon Philander and it was no surprise when he eventually edged the seamer low to Dean Elgar at third slip for a nine-ball nought.

Westley, one of three debutants in England's XI for what is the 100th Test at The Oval, walked out to bat with England 12 for one.

But he immediately looked far more certain of where his off stump was then Jennings.

Westley confidently left his first two deliveries from Philander, whose opening spell of one wicket for two runs in four overs, including three maidens, was testament to accuracy.

The 28-year-old right-hander, given his chance after a finger injury saw the struggling Gary Ballance ruled out, got off the mark with a minimal risk legside four off Morkel.

Westley, who earlier this season scored a hundred against South Africa for the second-string England Lions, then cover- drove and on-drove Keshav Maharaj for two well struck boundaries in the left-arm spinner's lone over before lunch.

Cook had made 28 when South Africa thought he might be lbw to paceman Chris Morris but a review of umpire Joel Wilson's not out decision showed the former captain, England's all-time leading Test run-scorer, had got an edge.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A special court today directed the CBI to hand over certain documents to Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and others in connection with a nearly Rs 10 crore disproportionate assets case against him.

Special Judge Virender Kumar Goyal passed the directions after the advocate for Singh, his wife Pratibha Singh, and others, submitted that they have not received various documents filed along with the charge sheet.

The couple, who have not been arrested so far, and other accused persons -- Universal Apple Associate owner Chunni Lal Chauhan, stamp paper vendor Joginder Singh Ghalta, Managing Director of Tarani Infrastructure Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, and co-accused Lawan Kumar Roach, Prem Raj and Ram Prakash Bhatia -- were present before the court during the day's proceedings.

The charge sheet also names as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who was arrested in the case and is currently in judicial custody. He was produced before the court from jail.

The court had granted them bail on May 29 after they appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them by the court.

The court had on May 8 summoned them after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI.

The CBI charge sheet, running into over 500 pages having the statements of around 225 witnesses and containing 442 documents, has claimed that Singh had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate to his total income during his tenure as a Union minister.

Chauhan was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the disproportionate assets case.

The matter was transferred by the Supreme Court to the Delhi High Court, which on April 6, 2016, had asked the CBI not to arrest Singh and directed him to join the probe.

On November 5 last year, the apex court had transferred Singh's plea from the Himachal Pradesh High Court to the Delhi High Court, saying it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but "simply" transferring the petition "in the interest of justice and to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) today hit out at the Delhi Police and accused it of "implicating" its MLAs at the "behest" of the BJP.

Citing the case registered against party MLA from Deoli Prakash Jarwal earlier this month, senior party leader and political affairs committee (PAC) member Atishi Marlena alleged that Delhi Police was being "misused" by its "political masters".

"The Delhi Police, on the orders of the Bhartiya Janata Party has consistently implicated the Aam Aadmi Party MLAs in false cases, the latest being that against Jarwal by a female BJP activist," she said in a press statement.

Jarwal has been booked for allegedly molesting a 53- year-old woman in southeast Delhi's Sangam Vihar. It is the second such case against him.

"In complete violation of procedure and norms, the Delhi Police filed a case against Jarwal under Section 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty).

"After the court quashed the complaint today, it has reinforced the fact that the Delhi Police is being misused by its political masters to sully the image of the AAP," Marlena alleged.

Since the AAP came to power in Delhi, 15 of its MLAs have been booked under different charges with the party claiming it was being subjected to "political vendetta".

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Nearly three months after Russia, Iran and Turkey reached a deal on de-escalating the war in Syria, hundreds of thousands of civilians have yet to receive desperately needed aid, a senior UN official said today.

The agreement by Syrian allies Russia and Iran, along with Turkey, which backs opposition groups, was to establish safe zones to ease fighting and allow deliveries of aid to Syrians, now in their seventh year of war.

In July, not a single aid convoy was allowed to reach civilians in the 11 besieged areas, UN deputy aid chief Ursula Mueller told the Security Council.

While the fighting has eased in Daraa governorate and other areas, "the humanitarian and protection situation remains extremely difficult for civilians in many parts of the country," Mueller said.

Military operations have restarted in rebel-held eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and in the capital's Jobar neighbourhood, among other areas, she said.

In Idlib, infighting among opposition and rebel groups have forced some aid agencies to suspend their work.

Mueller accused the Syrian government of blocking aid convoys but said armed groups were also obstructing access, especially in Idlib and the eastern governorates of Syria.

"This means that, despite reductions in violence, we have not been able to noticeably increase our reach," said Mueller, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

Over the past two months, just over a third of the one million Syrians living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas received aid, Mueller said.

Britain, France and other countries that make up the international humanitarian task force for Syria have written to the Security Council to express their concern about the failure to ramp up aid deliveries.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said that in the last three months only two areas besieged by Syrian forces have received aid.

"We are not asking for humanitarian access as a favour. We are asking for it, because it's a legal and moral obligation," Rycroft told reporters.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said Islamist armed groups were to blame for blocking aid deliveries and rejected UN accusations that the government was uncooperative.

"These reports are used to slander the Syrian government, to apply pressure on the Syrian government and its allies in the fight against terrorism," Jaafari told the council.

He charged that aid convoys "often go to armed terrorist groups instead of reaching the Syrian people who need them."



An estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain trapped in Raqa as a US-backed alliance battles to oust the Islamic State group from the northern city.

"There is no way for them to get out," said Mueller, citing the danger of mines, unexploded ordnance, shelling, snipers and airstrikes.

Dozens of civilians have been killed and injured by airstrikes and shelling in July and over 30,000 people have been displaced since July 1, she said.

Over 2,00,000 Syrians have fled fighting in Raqa since April 1, according to UN figures.

A polio vaccination campaign was launched this week in Raqa targeting 4,50,000 children in Raqa and Deir Ezzor. So far 27 polio cases have been confirmed.

More than 3,30,000 people have lost their lives in Syria since the country's conflict broke out in March 2011 with anti-government protests.

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India today continued to maintain that diplomatic channels were "functional" to resolve the ongoing standoff in Dokalam in the Sikkim sector.

"I think that you are presuming. I will not give a direct answer... There are diplomatic channels. We (both India and China) have embassies which are functioning. The embassies are under bodies of the MEA, which is under the external affairs minister," external affairs ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

He was asked why the foreign ministers of India and China are not talking to each other.

He also did not reply to a question on whether there was any hope of a resolution during the China visit of National Security Advisor Ajit Doval.

Baglay only said his visit was in the context of meeting of NSAs of BRICS (Brazil-Russia-India-China-South Africa).

Chinese and Indian soldiers have been locked in a face- off in Dokalam area since June 16 after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the disputed area.

To another question on the possible visit of Mongolia's newly-elected President Khaltma Battulga to India and if he was invited keeping in mind the China angle, Baglay said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had send him a congratulatory message.

The message also carried an invitation to visit India as the prime minister had visited Mongolia for the last summit and it was turn of the Mongolian leader to come here for such a meeting, he said.

The dates for his visit will be worked through diplomatic channels as per mutual convenience, Baglay said and also asserted that India's bilateral ties with any country were independent and were not linked with any third country.

On whether the Union home ministry had shared any information on the recent arrest of some Hurriyat leaders, involved in cases of terror-funding by Pakistan, he only said regular interactions between various departments on all issues are "usual".

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Two city-based organisations today launched a programme to help schools here address the risks of natural and manmade disasters.

The Honeywell Safe Schools programme, created in collaboration with Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS), will be focussed on 50 schools in the east Delhi area for the next three years and is looking to "empower 25,000 students, 40,000 parents, and 1,000 teachers".

Kamal Kishore, member of National Disaster Management Authority, said focusing on school safety is a step towards achieveing the wider aim of disaster risk reduction.

"I feel the countries that do a good job of school safety can do a better job at disaster risk reduction as a whole. Look at Japan and Turkey, the countries that have done a great job at school safety and eventually improved upon their disaster management system," he said.

The three-year programme will focus on orienting staff based on risk assessment of each participating school and conducting exercises to make aware the students, teachers and parents in a such a situation.

With 32 government and 18 EDMC schools in the first phase of the programme, SEEDS expects to make it a city-wide campaign after three years.

Manu Gupta, executive director of SEEDS, emphasised on the need of creating awareness among students, teachers, parents and civic authorities about high potential risks.

"Often high potential risks are not recognised as imminent threats, most parents worry about threats at hand like road safety, bullying and even fire threats.

"So there is a need to create awareness among children, parents, teachers and civic authorities to mitigate the impact of disasters," Gupta said.

The NGO also released a study 'How Safe Are Our Kids' based on 1035 responses collected on perception of risk and understanding of safety measures.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is in China to attend BRICS top security officials meeting beginning today during which he is expected to hold talks with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the ongoing Sikkim standoff.

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a solution to the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

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

As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

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

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

Ahead of Doval's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang yesterday reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the Doklam area.

Lu also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue.

Though China continued to maintain that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

About the BRICS NSAs meeting, Lu told media that "the meeting on security issues is a major platform for BRICS countries to discuss and conduct cooperation in politics and security fields".

"It bears great significance for these countries to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and elevate their impact on global affairs," Lu said.

He said that discussions will be held on topics, including global governance, anti-terrorism, internet security and energy security, as well as major international and regional hotspot issues.

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National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi today discussed "major problems" in bilateral ties, the foreign ministry here said after the first high-level meeting between India and China since the military standoff erupted in the Sikkim sector on June 16.

The Chinese foreign ministry, in a brief readout on Doval-Yang meeting, said Yang "elaborated China's position on bilateral issues and major problems", which is being seen as an apparent reference to the standoff in the Dokalam area.

China's state-run Xinhua agency also reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil.

Though there were no direct reference to the Sikkim standoff in the Xinhua report, it said the talks between Doval and Yang included bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs.

Though China had maintained that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, India has been maintaining that the unilateral action by China to build a road in the area was altering the status quo and had serious security implications for India.

India has also been pitching for diplomatic solution to resolve the standoff but sought simultaneous withdrawal of troops of both the sides from the tri-junction with Bhutan.

However, the Chinese official media has been carrying a blistering campaign accusing India of trespassing into the Chinese territory.

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang, who, like Doval, is the Special Representative for India-China boundary talks.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over the month-long standoff.

While the media had no access to today's meetings, it will be allowed to cover tomorrow's joint meeting of the NSAs of the five-member bloc.

Doval, along with other heads of the delegations, will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow evening.

About the BRICS NSAs meeting, the Chinese foreign ministry on Monday said that the meeting on security issues is a major platform for BRICS countries to discuss and conduct cooperation in politics and security fields.

"It bears great significance for these countries to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and elevate their impact on global affairs."



As agreed by all parties, those at the meeting will discuss on topics including global governance, anti-terrorism, internet security and energy security, as well as major international and regional hot spot issues and national security and development, Lu said.

The military standoff began on June 16 when Chinese troops attempted to lay a road in the Dokalam area. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while China claims it as part of its Donglang region.

India and China share a 220-km-long border in Sikkim section.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi met here today on the sidelines of a BRICS meeting, amid an ongoing military standoff between the two nations in the Sikkim area.

Yang also separately met his counterparts from South Africa and Brazil, according to China's state-run Xinhua agency.

The report said bilateral relations, international and regional issues, multilateral affairs and "major problems" were discussed during the meetings.

It did not say whether the Sikkim standoff was raised during the Doval-Yang meeting.

Indian officials here too have have not elaborated on the issues discussed between Dovan and Yang, who are special representatives of their countries for the boundary talks.

Doval arrived in China yesterday for the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting hosted by Yang.

A joint meeting of the NSAs will take place tomorrow. The media will be allowed to cover that meeting.

Doval and other heads of the delegations will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow evening.

Doval's visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of a solution to the more-than-a-month-long military standoff in Dokalam area near the Bhutan trijunction.

The standoff began after Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area.

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

Last week, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border standoff.

Swaraj also said that the "unilateral" Chinese action to change the status quo near the Bhutan trijunction poses a challenge to India's security.

China has maintained that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops from the area. But both sides have acknowledged that talks were held through diplomatic channels to ease the tension.

China's foreign ministry on Monday had said the BRICS' NSAs meeting on security issues is a major platform for the countries for cooperation in politics and security fields.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
In more trouble for RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family, the ED has registered a money laundering case against them in a corruption case, officials said today, a day after his party was ousted from power in Bihar.

The anti-money laundering agency has also issued a notice to his MP daughter Misa Bharti for producing certain documents.

Officials said the Enforcement Directorate recently filed a case against Prasad and his family members involving grant of licences to two Patna businessmen for running two hotels of the railways' PSU IRCTC in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital when RJD supremo was railway minister in the UPA government.

The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The agency, they said, has registered the offence after taking cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard.

Meanwhile, it also issued a notice to Bharti to furnish additional documents to the investigating officer (IO) of the agency who is probing her and her husband's role in a separate Rs 8,000 crore money laundering case in which they allegedly used shell companies to turn tainted money into white.

The ED had questioned Misa and husband Shailesh Kumar in this case early this month and now has widened the probe.

In the first week of July, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

In this case, too, the Enforcement Directorate will investigate the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials said.

Prasad's wife Rabri Devi, also a former chief minister, son Tejashwi Yadav, a former deputy chief minister, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.

Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels) who got the contract for running the two hotels, Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a 'benami' company owned by Sarla Gupta, the wife of former Union minister Prem Chand Gupta.

Under the PMLA, the ED has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Elaborate security arrangements are in place in and around Mata Vaishno Devi shrine to thwart any terror attack, a top CRPF official today said.

There is high degree of alertness amid increased security deployment in and around the shrine, Special Director General, CRPF (J&K Zone), S N Srivastava told reporters here.

"There is threat in general. There is possibility of the (terror)attack on Vaishno Devi shrine..That is why there is heavy security presence of CRPF as a large number of devotees visit the shrine," he said.

The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officer said that a massive combing operation was carried out at the shrine in view of the special input of terrorattack recently.

"There was an input of our sister security agency about a specificterror attack on Vaishno Devi (shrine). We got entire area checked ... But nothing was found", Srivastava said.

The top CRPF official said that there was no security or intelligence lapses in connection with terror attack on Amarnath yatra bus last month in which seven pilgrims were killed.

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India's engagement with China is multi-faceted and issues having differences of perception by both sides are being handled with maturity, government told Rajya Sabha today.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said the two sides have agreed to continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and address outstanding issues.

Referring to talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Astana last month, he said both sides had agreed that Sino-India ties are a factor of stability at a time of global uncertainty.

Singh's comments came, a day after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing to attend a BRICS meeting of top security officials. Doval is expected to hold talks with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the ongoing Sikkim standoff.

Talking about Astana consensus, Singh said India and China must not allow differences to become disputes.

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

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

"In view of the significance of the bilateral relationship, the two sides have agreed ti continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and trust and to address outstanding issues in the spirit of showing mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests, concerns and aspirations," he said.

The minister said government is committed to develop friendly and mutually beneficial relations with all its neighbours under the 'neighbourhood first' policy.

Singh was asked whether India's relations with China have gone bad during the last years and if so, whether government was reviewing its strategy towards ties with the neighbouring countries.

"India's engagement with China is multifaceted. In areas where we have commonality of views, engagement has expanded and upgraded in recent years. There are other areas where more progress can be made and cooperation expanded," he said.

To a separate question, he said the Kailash Manasarovar yatra via the Nathu La route has been deferred this year after the Chinese government cited unfavourable conditions to ensure the safe and smooth conduct of the yatra on the route.

"The government of India is engaged with the Chinese government on this matter," said Singh.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis today said that the farmers whose debts were restructured in 2016 will also be eligible for the farm loan waiver of up to Rs 1.50 lakh.

Announcing this in the state legislative assembly, he also said that the loan waiver benefit will be extended to the families of serving Army jawans who are engaged in farming.

"The government would make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers, whose loans were restructured, and tweak the norms to make serving Army jawans eligible to avail of the scheme," he said during a discussion on loan waiver.

On June 24, the state government had announced that loans taken between April 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016 would be written off. However, it later announced that farmers who have taken loans from 2009 onwards would also be covered under the scheme.

The BJP-led state government had earlier said that 89 lakh farmers would be benefited by the scheme that would cost Maharashtra Rs 34,022 crore.

"The farmers whose loans were restructured, became eligible for fresh loans. However, they are facing financial burden. Therefore, we will make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers whose loans were restructured," Fadnavis said.

He also announced that a mobile application would be launched in a couple of days for the farmers to fill their forms to avail the loan waiver scheme.

He said if farmers do not have access to computers to fill the forms, they could use a mobile app to submit the required information.

Fadnavis also appealed to the MLAs in the state to assist local farmers to submit the information.

"The form is not difficult to fill. We have set up 26,000 centres for the farmers to fill the forms. An app will be launched so that the farmers do it from their mobiles," he added.

There are 1.36 crore account holders, of which 49 per cent possess less than one hectare of land.

According to Fadnavis, there are three lakh farmers in the state with outstanding loan between Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs two lakh; 1.50 lakh farmers with Rs two lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh outstanding debts; 37,000 farmers with loan in the range of Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs three lakh; 26,000 in the range of Rs 3.50 lakh to Rs four lakh and 35,000 farmers between outstanding loan ranging between Rs 4.50 lakh and Rs five lakh.

"There are 46,000 farmers in Maharashtra, who have outstanding loan amount of over Rs five lakh," he said.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar had yesterday pointed out that the loan waiver scheme would be extended to the families of Army jawans engaged in farming.

Responding to it, Fadnavis said, "We will tweak the norms to make the serving Army jawans eligible for the loan waiver scheme."



Currently, Army jawans are not eligible for the waiver.

Taking a dig at the loan waiver scheme given by the erstwhile UPA government in 2008, Fadnavis said debts secured for shops, vehicles and lands were also written off that time.

"Even Mumbai got Rs 208 crore loan waiver and Vidarbha got Rs 286 crore. Many people got very little waiver, while few others got even Rs 60 lakh waived," he said.

Fadnavis also pointed out the "loopholes" in the 2008 loan waiver scheme.

"CAG officials had taken a sample for assessing the implementation of loan waiver in the state. As many as nine per cent account holders, who were non-eligible, got their loans waived. Personal loans, vehicle loans, and those for the purchase of shops, were also got waived. There were around 2,000 cases, where people not related to agriculture also got benefited. Surprisingly, no information is available with the banks about the beneficiaries across the state," he said.

The BJP-led state government is also under criticism over the advertisements about the loan waiver scheme.

Responding to it, he said, "We are being criticised for spending money on the advertisements, but the UPA had spent Rs 1.60 crore for the loan waiver of Rs 4,000 crore. But we spent only Rs 36 lakh for Rs 34,000 crore waiver".

Advertisements are necessary to convey about the government schemes to people, he added.

The CM also slammed the Congress and NCP over their 'Sangharsh Yatra' they had taken out over the farmers' issues.

"I know the response the Sangharsh Yatra got. I have the report," he said.

He also told the House that the Centre had asked the insurance companies to submit the data about crop insurance online.

"Banks in the state failed to submit this data online effectively. Therefore, the Maharashtra government had approached the Centre with a demand that the data be allowed to be presented offline. However, the Centre turned down the demand. The Centre pointed out that if states like Bihar and Assam could shift their functioning online, Maharashtra can also follow suit," Fadnavis said.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories of the northern region at 1745 hrs:



DES 2 UKD-TIGER CENSUS



Dehradun: The count of tigers in Uttarakhand has gone up to 242 with an increase of 63 big cats this year, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has said.

DES 7 PB-SWINE FLU



Ludhiana: A 58-year-old man dies of swine flu at the DMC hospital here, says a senior health department official.

DES 14 RSQ-HRD-MERGER



New Delhi: No decision has been arrived yet on merger of institutions for classical languages with central universities, Rajya Sabha is informed.

DES 17 RSQ-CVC



New Delhi: The anti-corruption watchdog CVC's recommendations of disciplinary action against government officials were not followed in 52 cases, 11 of them in the Railways, says Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

DES 9 RSQ-OFFICERS-PUNISHMENT



New Delhi: More than 130 officers have been given premature retirement in the past over two years, says Union Minister Jitendra Singh.

DES 6 UP-ASSEMBLY-NITISH



Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly adopts a resolution congratulating Nitish Kumar on becoming the chief minister of Bihar again.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Following are the top stories of the northern region at 2125 hrs:



DES 45 RJ-LD RAINS



Jaipur: Heavy rains have been forecast in Rajasthan's Hadoti region that includes Jhalawar, Kota and Baran districts, following which relief teams have been deployed there, says a senior disaster relief official.

DES 22 UP-AKHILESH-NITISH-JIBE



Lucknow: Samajwadi Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav strikes a musical note to mock JD(U) president Nitish Kumar for again allying with the BJP to become chief minister.

DES 39 UP-ASSEMBLY BILL



Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly passes a Rs 3,84,659.71 crore state budget for the fiscal 2017-2018 and the related appropriation Bill.

DES 27 UP-ASSEMBLY-STING



Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Assembly passes a resolution that no action should be taken against a private broadcaster over the airing a sting on 2013 Muzaffarnagar riots.

DES 40 DEF-ARMY-MACCHIL



New Delhi: Five army personnel including two officers will be released on bail after an armed forces tribunal suspends the life sentence given to them by a court martial for allegedly staging the killing of three Kashmiri men at Macchil in 2010, say officials.

DES 35 MHA-CHANDIGARH



New Delhi: Home Minister Rajnath Singh reviews various issues related to the development of Union Territory Chandigarh and directs officials to expedite works in all pending issues.

LGD 30 DL-COURT-GANGRAPE



New Delhi: A Delhi court sentences two rickshaw pullers to imprisonment for the remainder of their life for raping a woman here on the pretext of taking her home.

DES 25 DL-LANGUAGE ACADEMIES



New Delhi: The national capital will soon have 12 regional language academies to promote the culture and tradition of the respective regions among Delhiites.

DES 30 JK-CRPF



Srinagar: The situation in Kashmir is "under control but fragile" and the number of stone-pelting incidents in the Valley have decreased, says a senior officer of the CRPF.

DES 2 UKD-TIGER CENSUS



Dehradun: The count of tigers in Uttarakhand has gone up to 242 with an increase of 63 big cats this year, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has said.

NRG 12 CUSTOMS-GOLD



New Delhi: A 37-year-old man is arrested by the customs for allegedly trying to smuggle into the country gold valuing about Rs 57 lakh at Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA) here.

NRG 8 RJ-CHILDREN-RESCUE



Kota (Raj): As many as 122 children from Kota and Bundi districts, who had gone missing, have been rescued under an ongoing special drive, 'Operation Muskan- III', say officials.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
European Commission head Jean- Claude Juncker today promised Slovakia and other eastern European member states he would help stamp out the "totally unacceptable" sale of lower quality food products in their markets.

Eastern member countries have complained bitterly of "food apartheid" or being treated as "Europe's garbage can" by manufacturers who they say cut corners on the ingredients used in a whole range of everyday goods.

Critics and the companies say the claims are unfounded, reflecting different tastes not contents, but Juncker insisted the problem was real and must be tackled.

"I don't like the idea that there would be some kind of second category citizens in Europe," Juncker said after talks in Brussels with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

"We will pursue our common intention to an end to this discriminative way of supplying food goods to the Slovakian people," he said.

"This is totally unacceptable."



Fico, who last week described the issue as an "international scandal," said he welcomed Juncker's commitment to solving the problem.

"The most important fact for me is that the Commission and the president accept that the problem exists and that the president has pledged to devote attention to this issue," Fico said.

"It might seem ridiculous to some people" but for Slovakia and its Visegrad 4 partners -- the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland -- it was "a serious political problem," he said.

Slovakia was prepared to hold a major summit of member states and the food companies "so that we can go into this issue," he added.

Government-backed studies in Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic appear to show that many items sold with identical packaging were of superior quality in other EU countries.

Bulgaria said earlier this month that its research showed discrepancies in at least seven out of 31 products bought from the same chain stores in Germany and Austria.

Under EU directives, companies are free to change a product's ingredients from one member state to another as long as they are clearly listed on the packaging.

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Amid the controversy over purchase of 'forest land' by Chhattisgarh agriculture minister Brijmohan Agrawal's wife, Chief Minister Raman Singh today said he will take decision on the issue after discussing it with the BJP leadership.

"I have seen reports and also heard reactions of the opposition leaders," Singh said, speaking to reporters at the airport after arriving from Delhi.

"Yesterday the minister (Agrawal) had given a clarification about allegations and said he was ready to face a probe," the chief minister said.

"I had asked the chief secretary to submit a detailed report which I have received," he said, adding that the BJP's central leadership was aware of the issue.

"I will take a decision after having a discussion with the central leadership," Singh said.

The minister is accused of purchasing 4.12 hectares of forest land in the name of his wife at Jalki near Sirpur, a popular Buddhist site, in Mahasamund district, and constructing a resort there.

Kisan Mazdoor Sangh convener Lalit Chandranahu had first raised the issue last year.

The land, owned by Vishnu Ram Sahu and five other farmers, was handed over to the Water Resources Department (WRD) under a "daanpatra" (gift deed for public use) in 1994.

Later, it became part of 61.72 hectares of land given to the forest department by the WRD to compensate for forest land falling in the submergence area of an irrigation project in Mahasamund.

Chandranahu alleged that Sarita Agrawal, Brijmohan Agrawal's wife, purchased a part of this land in 2009 from the original owners, though it was then a part of forest land.

The minister had yesterday denied any wrongdoing, and said the allegations were part of a political conspiracy.

"The land was procured based on revenue records which stated that its ownership was in the name of the farmer. I had mentioned the property in my affidavit (in 2013 election)," he said.

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Four prisoners were killed, and one of them beheaded, in the latest of a string of riots at a Brazilian penitentiary, officials said today.

Nine other inmates managed to use the riot to escape from the prison in the central state of Goias, and four were still at large today.

The violence broke out last afternoon, with inmates torching the administration building and destroying a security vehicle in the city jail of Jussara, which housed 77 inmates.

"The workers serving dinner were overpowered. The prisoners killed four inmates. Two of them were burned and one was beheaded," Goias prison authorities said in a statement.

"Nine prisoners fled and took weapons from guards," it added, noting that five of them had been recaptured within 24 hours.

Fighting broke out among prisoners from rival criminal gangs, officials said.

Most prisons in Brazil are badly overcrowded and turf wars between rival drug gangs are common.

Such fights have left 140 prisoners dead since the start of the year, with mass killings carried out in jails in the states of Amazonas, Roraima and Rio Grande do Norte.

Brazil has some 6,22,000 people behind bars in 2,766 detention facilities, the fourth largest prison population in the world. Most are kept in run-down, unsanitary jails.

In June, seven adolescents were killed at a riot in a youth detention center in the northeast of the country.

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The French presidency said today that a plan announced by President Emmanuel Macron to create migrant registration centres in Libya this summer "was not possible at the moment" for security reasons.

A presidency official said France would instead study the feasibility of setting up migrant "hotspots" in Libya, Niger and Chad, but hoped that they could be opened in Libya "in the short term".

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A Delhi court today sentenced two rickshaw pullers to imprisonment for the remainder of their life for raping a woman here on the pretext of taking her home.

Refusing to show leniency, the court said they committed the heinous crime on a hapless woman who had lost her way.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar held UP resident Ehsaan and Bihar resident Umesh Giri guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment for remainder of their natural lives.

"Instead of helping her, Ehsaan induced her to accompany him to the place of incident on the pretext of dropping her at her destination where his associate Giri joined him and they both in furtherance of their common intention committed gang rape on her," the court said.

The court, which imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 each on the two convicts, said the amount shall be paid to the victim.

It also took into consideration the brutality inflicted by the two men on the victim.

An FIR was registered in September last year on the allegation that the woman was raped by two rickshaw pullers at a bus stand near Mata Sundri College in Central Delhi.

The woman was living separately from her husband and two children. Following a quarrel with her brother, with whom she was residing in UP, the woman somehow managed to reach New Delhi railway station in the night.

At the station, the accused Ehsaan assured her he would drop her to her destination but took her to a deserted place where co-accused Giri joined him in raping the woman.

Another rickshaw puller, who witnessed the crime, caught hold of one of the accused and informed the police.

During the trial, the duo claimed they were falsely implicated by the eye witness as he wanted to extort money.

The court, while holding them guilty, relied on the depositions of the woman and the eye witness saying they were in full consonance with medical and scientific evidence brought on record by the prosecution.

Public prosecutor A T Ansari sought maximum punishment for the convicts saying the offence committed by them was not only diabolical, gruesome and brutal but also alarming.

He contended that the convicts took advantage of the woman's vulnerable condition and said a strong message needs to be conveyed to the society to prevent repetition of such offence.

The court also praised the prosecution for bringing overwhelming corroborative evidence in the form of deposition of eye witness, medical evidence in the form of injury sustained by the woman, and scientific evidence which established the guilt of the accused persons.

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The Centre has asked private television channels to create awareness about the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by running scrolls on screen.

"GST Cell is organising GST awareness campaign 'Manthan' across the country. In order to publicise the same, it is requested that scrolls on the issue may be run by channels," Amit Katoch, Director (Broadcasting), Information and Broadcasting Ministry, said in a letter to all private satellite channels.

The Goods and Services Tax came into effect from July 1 across the country.

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The Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan today said the government is doing its utmost to arrest the trend of brain drain in the state.

Encouraging the students to think on bridging the divide between the pace of technological progress and the growth of societal concerns, Vijayan said "The government is creating opportunities for home-grown engineers to stay here and use their talents to make a difference in the state."



He was addressing 'Sankethapravesam - 2017,' a one-day induction programme for first year engineering students at Tagore Theatre.

"In addition to education, the need of the hour is innovative ideas as also an understanding of your commitment to the society that is nurturing you," Vijayan said,



Inaugurating the programme, Governor P Sathasivam exhorted incoming engineering students to work towards becoming innovators rather than employees.

Organised by APJ Abdul Kalam Technological University (KTU) and Kerala Startup Mission (KSUM) in association with the IT Department, the event - which channelled the teachings of former President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on the second anniversary of his death - was beamed to engineering colleges across the state.

Lauding Kerala for being one of two states to make headway in implementing the All India Council for Technical Education's recently released startup policy, AICTE Chairman Dr Anil Sahasrabudhe stressed the importance of a vibrant startup culture for furthering technological and social development.

He also noted that the curriculum for engineering schools was under revision to both improve employability of students and instill a sense of entrepreneurship in them.

'Metroman' E Sreedharan was among those who spoke on the occasion.

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The sources who gave the government confidence of not abandoning the search for 39 Indians abducted in Iraq include a "head of state and a foreign minister of another country," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha today.

She, however, refused to disclose the identity of the sources, citing "diplomatic confidentiality".

Making a statement in response to Zero Hour mention on the issue raised by Pratap Singh Bajwa (Cong) on July 19, Swaraj vehemently denied that she ever misled Parliament or the country on the fate of the people abducted three years back.

She said she has all through maintained that there is no proof of the abducted Indians being alive or dead.

And in absence of "solid proof", it is a "sin" at personal level and irresponsible act on the part of the government to declare them dead, the minister said.

She asked, "Why should I apologise? That I did not declare them dead?"



Opposition Congress, however, tried to corner her by saying the government has been changing goal posts all through and she has to give "one proof" for believing they are alive.

"I have said in Parliament and outside that I have no evidence of their being alive or dead," Swaraj said, adding in absence of any solid evidence or proof she cannot presume them dead.

"We are not sitting idle. All countries which can help have been asked for help," she said and added, "Why will I mislead? What will I gain? What will I gain, what will my government gain by misleading?"



Bajwa countered Swaraj's assertion, asking what would Harjit Masih, one of the abducted Indians who had escaped, gain by claiming that he had witnessed the 39 being shot dead.

Responding to this, the minister said she was first to speak to Masih after he called up on but did not provide convincing reply how he was able to escape from the ISIS captivity.

Also, family of one of the abducted persons had received a call from the captors, saying the captive was alive, she said.

The minister threw a challenge to the Congress leader, saying if he was convinced that the Indians are dead, he can call up the families and tell them that.

Swaraj said she had never stated that the 39 Indians are alive and that she will ensure they come back home safe.

She said she had in the past told the Parliament that in absence of a proof, the option before the government was to abandon search or continue its efforts to locate them.

"I had asked for permission of House (to continue efforts to locate them) and had not just taken it in confidence," she said, claiming the members had given their consent by thumping of desk or nodding.

The minister said her deputy V K Singh had travelled to Iraq on the very next day ISIS was overthrown from Mosul on July 9 this year.

Senior Iraqi officials told him that they had information of the Indians being picked up from Mosul airfield three years back and after holding them in captivity for some time, they were made to work in a hospital and then in agriculture field. Thereafter they were in early 2016 shifted to the prison at Badush, some 30-km away of Mosul town, she said.

"That is the last known location," she said, adding she had informed the families of the victims about the same.

Countering the Congress charge, she said this government knows how to protect its people. "Relief for stranded person abroad is one tweet away," she said, adding 80,000 people have been helped by her ministry in last three years.

These are onces for whom the government paid air-tickets and does not include the numbers who were helped but had paid for their own ticket, she said.

"This government's credibility cannot be questioned relating to protection of its citizens," she said.

Swaraj said the day evidence is available, she will inform Parliament without delay and if Parliament is not in session, she would take to the twitter in 10 minutes to make the public.

"Without evidence I will not declare them dead," she asserted.

Bajwa asked why the government was not believing the version of Harjit Masih and sought to know the 5-6 sources she keeps quoting for her statement.

He said upon the fall of Mosul, it was said that the Indians are in the prison at Badush but that jail was demolished three months back.

"They have misled the Parliament. They have misled the country," he said. "Give one proof how do you say they are alive."



He said an all-party delegation should be sent to Iraq to get the first hand account.

Swaraj said he asked Masih how did he survive but he did not give a convincing answer. "He wants to mislead how he came out (of ISIS captivity)."



She said the Congress was using the issue as a political agenda.

"There is a difference between information and proof. There is no proof," she said. I have said there is no solid proof of their being alive or dead.

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The Punjab and Haryana High Court today directed both the states to suitably amend their notifications on compensation to acid attack victims, including males.

Taking up the ongoing contempt petition filed through advocate H C Arora against the Punjab Chief Secretary, Justice Daya Chaudhary directed the Punjab and Haryana governments to suitably amend their notifications for covering male acid attack victims as well.

As the case came up for resumed hearing, Chaudhary also impleaded the Haryana government as a party.

A Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was initially filed by the Poor Patients Relief Society through its secretary H C Arora.

The petitioner moved the court after the acid attack on Mandeep Kaur and her father Shamsher Singh on July 11, 2014. The incident had occurred when they were on their way to the Moga district courts to attend the hearing of a case.

The Punjab government put on record a notification of June 20, 2017, which incorporates a provision for grant of Rs 8,000 per month as financial assistance to "female acid attack victim".

However, the state government did not give such assistance to the male acid attack victim.

The Haryana government, too, provides financial assistance of Rs 8,000 to the acid attack victims falling within the definition of "disability" under section 2 (i) of the Persons with Disabilities (Equal Opportunities Protection of Rights of Full Participation) Act.

The case was adjourned for September 7.

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The Madras High Court ruling on singing of Vande Mataram has triggered a political slugfest in Maharashtra with a BJP MLA today demanding its implementation in schools and colleges of the state, while AIMIM and SP MLAs opposed any such move.

While AIMIM MLA from Mumbai, Waris Pathan said that he would not sing the national song "even if anyone puts revolver to my head", SP's Maharashtra unit president and MLA, Abu Asim Azmi said he would not sing Vande Mataram even if he was "thrown out of the country".

The reaction comes in the wake of a demand raised by senior BJP MLA Raj Purohit, who, citing the HC order, said singing of Vande Mataram should be made mandatory in all schools and colleges across Maharashtra.

Speaking to reporters outside the Vidhan Bhavan, Purohit, the BJP chief whip in the Assembly, stated that he would meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tomorrow and seek the latter's intervention to make singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory.

"I will raise the demand in the House as well. I will tell the chief minister that the government should come up with a policy which would make it compulsory for everybody to sing 'Vande Mataram' at the beginning of an event and 'Jana Gana Mana' at the end," Purohit said.

Reacting to Purohit's demand, Pathan, who represents Byculla constituency in south Mumbai, said a particular ideology cannot be imposed on people.

"I will not sing Vande Mataram. My religion as well as law do not allow me to sing it. Even if anyone puts a revolver to my head, I will not sing it. I will oppose the demand in the House," he said.

Azmi alleged the BJP was following the instructions of the RSS, which would eventually polarise the society.

"I am a true follower of Islam. Singing Vande Mataram would be against my religion as well as Constitution. A true Muslim will never sing it. I will also not sing Vande Matram even if I am thrown out of the country," he told reporters.

However, the BJP's otherwise unpredictable ally Shiv Sena backed Purohit.

Condemning the AIMIM and the SP, senior Sena leader and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said they are "traitors".

"They need to know that it (Vande Mataram) is a patriotic song which was sung by freedom fighters during the struggle for Independence," he said.

In its order on Tuesday, the Madras HC made singing of the national song mandatory in schools across Tamil Nadu, at least twice a week.

As per the order, private and government schools in the southern state should ensure that their students sing the national song at least twice a week preferably on Monday and Friday. The order also said the song can also be played in other government and private establishments at least once in a month.

The high court also said that if any person or organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the song, they shall not be compelled or forced to sing it, provided there are valid reasons for not doing so.

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COLOMBO  Sri Lanka's participation in China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative will boost the country's economy and help it attract more foreign direct investment (FDI), participants of the "Sri Lanka Economic Summit 2017" have said.

Speaking at the gathering here on Wednesday, Jim McCabe, chief executive officer of Standard Chartered Bank, Sri Lanka said the Belt and Road Initiative would strengthen the country's competitiveness and improve its growth and development.

Proposed by China in 2013, the Belt and Road Initiative refers to the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, aiming at building a trade and infrastructure network connecting Asia with Europe and Africa along the ancient trade routes of Silk Road.

"The Belt and Road Initiative will help Sri Lanka get the FDIs it needs. The OBOR has many positives for the island country," McCabe said.

Wen Zha, associate professor from China Foreign Affairs University speaking at the summit, said the Belt and Road Initiative will cover more than 4 billion people and it would increase connectivity in the region.

She said the initiative was open to all the countries and Sri Lanka would be an important part of the initiative due to its geographical location in the Indian Ocean region.

"Sri Lanka can link its own development plan to China's initiative in order to achieve a win-win situation," Wen said.

However, participants also said at the summit that Sri Lanka must do more to be better involved in the initiative in order to reap benefits.

"Language is a barrier between the two and Sri Lanka must take steps to learn the Chinese language," Group Managing Director of Sunshine Holdings PLC Vish Govindasamy said.

The two-day annual summit, which ended on Wednesday, organized by the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, attracted over 40 sectoral experts, industry practitioners, government officials and ministers taking part to discuss ways of strengthening the island's economy.
Pakistan said today that India's restrictions on granting medical visas to Pakistani patients was "highly regrettable" and against the diplomatic norms.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the restrictions were in response to Pakistan awarding the death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav.

A letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the External Affairs Ministry had announced in May.

"It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses. Asking for a letter from the Foreign affairs Adviser is against the diplomatic norms," Zakaria said.

"Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries," he said.

Zakaria also accused India of not taking action against those involved in the Samjhauta Express attack.

He said the USD 50 million blocked by the US was not aid but reimbursement of what has actually been spent by Pakistan on counter terrorism operations.

Earlier on July 8, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj waived the condition of a letter from Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come to come India as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) was an integral part of India.

Osama Ali, a 24-year old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, had been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wanted to seek treatment in Delhi.

"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj had tweeted.

India's decision to impose restrictions on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the wake of growing tensions between the two countries.

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An Indian scientist at MIT has developed a sticker-like wearable sensor that can detect sexual assault in real time and quickly alert nearby people as well as the victim's friends and family to seek help.

The sensor, which can be attached to any piece of clothing like a sticker, could be trained to learn the difference between when a person is undressing themselves and when they are being forcefully disrobed, Manisha Mohan, research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, told PTI.

This allows the sensor to detect signs of an assault even when the victim is unconscious or not in the position to fight against the assaulter, such as in case of minors, bed-ridden patients or intoxicated people.

An integrated bluetooth connected to a smartphone app can trigger a loud noise to alert people nearby and send out a distress signals to pre-defined family members or emergency services.

The sensor works in two modes. In passive mode, the wearer is assumed to be conscious and can set off loud alarms or distress calls on their own by touching a button when they encounter an approaching threat.

In the active mode, the sensor tries to detect signals from the external environment.

For example, if somebody is trying to remove the clothing off the victim's body, a message is sent to the smartphone to confirm if the act was done with consent.

If the victim does not respond within 30 seconds, the phone begins to emit a loud noise to alert the user and nearby people.

If the victim does not stop this alarm using a predefined password within the next 20 seconds, the smartphone app can automatically send distress signals to family or friends, along with the location of the victim.

Mohan's experience as an engineering student in Chennai inpired her to create the device.

"Female students on campus were not allowed to work beyond certain hours. You were expected to be back in your dorm by 6:30 pm," Mohan said.

"Instead of asking them to remain indoors I think we should provide more safety for them," she said.

The technology can seamlessly integrate with existing clothing to respond to initial signs of assault such as forced disrobing, researchers said.

"The proposed solutions aim to combat child sexual abuse, college campus assault and abuse of elderly and disabled," they said.

"We don't need body guards, I think we should have the ability to protect ourselves," said Mohan.

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A man linked to the banned terrorist organisation ISIS was today sentenced to five years' rigorous imprisonment by a court in Shimla for planning to commit terror strikes in several places in the country.

The case was probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

A case was initially registered against Abid Khan, who owed allegiance to the Islamic State, at Banjar police station in Kullu district of Himachal Pradesh on December 17, 2016 on the allegation of hatching a conspiracy to commit terrorist acts, an NIA release said.

The NIA re-registered a case on January 19 this year on the directions of the Ministry of Home Affairs.

On completion of investigation, the charge sheet was filed on June 12. The court held the accused guilty on July 19, it said.

The court pronounced judgement convicting the accused Abid Khan. "The accused has been sentenced to undergo rigorous imprisonment for five years and also to pay a fine of Rs 5,000," the release said.

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Anti-terror officers in Istanbul detained 26 suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group, Turkish media reported today.

Seventeen foreigners were among those detained, state-run Anadolu agency said, without giving details of their nationalities.

Police seized several electronic devices and documents during the operation in nine different Istanbul districts, the agency said.

Officers suspected those detained had links to "people in conflict zones", Hurriyet daily reported, but not saying in which countries.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks in the last 18 months blamed on IS and Kurdish militants.

The last major IS attack was during New Year's Eve celebrations at an elite Istanbul nightclub where a gunman killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.

There have been frequent police raids since against IS including one on July 12 in the central Turkish province of Konya when police killed five alleged IS extremists.

The Turkish border with Syria was previously a key transit point for IS recruits and supplies before Turkey tightened security and launched a military operation to clear the jihadists from the frontier last August.

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Jordan's king today urged Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure a security guard who killed two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman last weekend face trial.

Abdullah II called on Netanyahu to "take responsibility and take legal steps including the trial of the killer", he said, quoted in a royal court statement.

Jordan allowed the security guard to go home to Israel on Monday after he was held for questioning over the previous night's shooting.

The guard was welcomed home and greeted as a hero by Netanyahu, who embraced him and said: "You acted well, calmly and we also had an obligation to get you out."



The Jewish state maintained the guard had diplomatic immunity.

The king called on the Israeli premier to "implement justice instead of dealing with this crime in the manner of a political show for personal political gains".

"This kind of behaviour -- which is unacceptable and provocative on all levels -- has made us all angry... And feeds extremism in the region," he said.

He vowed Jordan would do everything possible towards obtaining justice for its two slain nationals.

Israel's foreign ministry said the security guard shot dead a Jordanian worker who had come to an apartment to install furniture and had stabbed him in the back with a screwdriver.

A second Jordanian, the landlord of the apartment, was also killed -- apparently by accident. He was buried today in Madaba, southwest of the capital.

Tensions have been high in recent days after Israel put in place security measures at the highly sensitive Al-Haram Al-Sharif mosque compound in east Jerusalem, known to Jews as Temple Mount.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, but it remained unclear if the incident was linked.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.

Jordan's public prosecutor said today he had concluded his investigation into the embassy deaths, the official Petra agency reported.

Prosecutor Akram Musaid found the guard responsible for the killings and possession of a firearm without a license.

However, Musaid said in comments carried by Petra: "It became clear to the public prosecution through the investigation that the killer enjoys diplomatic and judicial immunity", and he had decided to drop the case.

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Lt Governor Anil Baijal has approved the implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations in the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), a move that will benefit thousands of employees of the public transporter.

"Approved the proposal for implementing 7th Central Pay Commission in DTC. Urge DTC employees to make bus transport in Delhi the best," Baijal tweeted today.

Implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations will provide financial benefit to around 17,000 DTC employees, said a DTC official.

"It will result in salary hikes in the range of around Rs 10,000 to 30,000 as per seniority. The average pay hike will be around 20 percent," he said.

The Delhi government notified implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for its over one lakh employees in August last year.

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The Legislative Assembly today passed an amendment to the Maharashtra Local Authority Members Disqualification Act to include the state government as the second appellate authority that an aggrieved councillor can approach to challenge his disqualification.

The Opposition demanded a division of votes on the amendment bill as they were not convinced with certain provisions. The bill was finally passed with 87 votes in its favour and 34 opposing it.

As per the original bill, if a councillor defects to another party, he can be disqualified by collector or municipal commissioner.

However, as per the new amendment, the councillor concerned can appeal to the government against the decision of collector or commissioner.

Congress MLA Jaykumar Gore said the amendment will make the decision-making process political.

"If the state government is going to decide (on the appeal), then they will obviously save people who are close to them or those who want to join their party," he said.

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A 42-year-old man allegedly poisoned his five family members in Maharashtra's Satara district, police said today.

His son died while the other family members are admitted in hospitals, they said, adding that the man has been arrested.

A police officer said domestic discord is believed to be the reason behind the man poisoning his family.

Vishnu Chavan, a small time contractor, made the family members drink a liquid laced with poison at the Mandhardevi temple in Satara last night, Superintendent of Police Sandip Patil told PTI over phone from the district in western Maharashtra.

"Chavan was fed up with domestic issues and had frequent quarrels with his wife. There were also reports of poor financial status of the family," the IPS officer said.

"The man, who has been arrested, tricked his family members into believing that a concoction, given to him by a 'devarshi' (godman), will rid the family of all ills plaguing them," Patil said.

He mixed the poison with sugar and camphor and asked the family members to drink it and observe a day's fast, he said.

Chavan's son Swapnil (23) died soon after consuming the liquid, while the four other members of his family -- his mother, wife and two daughters -- are undergoing treatment in hospitals at Satara and Wai, police said.

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Several women's rights groups today sent a memorandum to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, reiterating their demand for the passage of the Women's Reservation Bill in Parliament.

Over a thousand women from these groups marched towards Parliament Street here to register their protest and to demand the passage of the Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, according to a statement issued by the All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA).

"Under-representation of women remains a longstanding injustice, with only 64 women MPs in the current Lok Sabha. In this context, we appeal that no move should be made to dilute the Bill in the name of a consensus. We request that the original Bill be passed immediately," the memorandum said.

It also said that the BJP has not honoured its promise on the issue, in its election manifesto.

The Women's Reservation Bill or the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, has sought to reserve one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies for women.

Notable among those present at the march were CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat who lamented that India was behind countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh in terms of women's representation, as per the press statement.

AIDWA, ANHAD, Feminist India, Leprosy Mission, Nari Shakti Manch, Shehri Mahila Mazdoor Union, Swastika Mahila Samiti, YWCA, were among those that participated in the protest march.

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A group of migrant teachers today staged a demonstration and threatened "mass resignations", a day after they were asked to rejoin their duties in Kashmir within a week.

They warned that all employees along with their families wouldhit the streets of Srinagar and stage day night 'dharna' (sit-in) topress for their demands.

The employees staged the protest outside relief and rehabilitation commissioner's office at Canal Road in the heart of wintercapital under the banner of All Parties Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC).

The state government yesterday had asked migrant employees, who leftKashmir in 2016 due to prolonged unrest following the killing of HizbulMujahideen commander Burhan Wani, to report to Directorate of School Education Kashmir (DSEK) within a week's time. On failure to do so, the authorities have threatened to take disciplinary action.

"The employees protested against the unilateral decision of the DSEK without giving any security guarantee even as the APMCC had recently written to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Governor NN Vohra and Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti seeking guarantee of security and safety before asking the employees to return," a spokesman of the APMCC said.

Criticising the Director School Education Kashmir for his order,he claimed that Mehbooba has assured them that they would not be forced to join till their security concerns are addressed.

He also accused the local administration of running a "parallel government" in Kashmir.

The protesters have asked the relief commissioner to communicate their concerns to the concerned authorities, threatening mass resignations and street protest against the "biased attitude" of the valley administration towards these "victims of terror".

A notification issued by Director School Education Kashmiryesterday said: "Such migrant employees who have left the valley and are away from their respective places of work are advised to report to the Directorate of School Education Kashmir, Srinagar within a week's time from the date of publication of this notice failing which appropriate disciplinary action shall be initiated without further notice".

The Directorate has also asked the Chief Education Officers of all districts in Kashmir Valley to submit the list of such employeeswithin two days so that appropriate action could be initiated against theoffenders.

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Moroccan police have arrested a British dealer in virtual currency Bitcoin wanted on fraud charges in the United States, a source close to the investigation told today.

Police said only that a 49-year-old Briton had been detained in the northern city of Tangiers on Wednesday in response to a notice issued by Interpol on July 17 and that his extradition would be considered by the Court of Cassation.

But the source identified him as British businessman Renwick Haddow, a former New York resident who was charged with securities fraud in the United states on June 30 for allegedly bilking investors in what turned out to be a fake Bitcoin trading platform.

He appeared before the public prosecutor in Tangiers on Wednesday before being transferred to prison in Sale, near the capital Rabat, the source told AFP.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged last month "the clandestine" Haddow, who is alleged to have diverted funds invested in a phony Bitcoin site as well as from flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totalling $5 million.

He touted experienced senior executives as running the operations, who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies, the SEC alleged.

"Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly-qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability," said Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office.

"In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable."



Bitcoin Store claimed to be "an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin" and had generated several million dollars in gross sales.

The SEC alleges that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.

In 2015, Bitcoin Store's bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.

Haddow's investors pumped more than $37 million into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact "primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes," the SEC said in a statement.

And the SEC said throughout he was "hiding his connection" to the companies, given his past with regulators in Britain, where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.

According to a report in Crain's, 27 investors from China filed suit in the New York State Supreme Court on June 16 seeking repayment of more than $3 million invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.

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The apex consumer commission has asked the Odisha state consumer commission to decide afresh a complaint against a bank, saying it is the fora's duty to look into the matter and redress the consumer's grievance.

The National Consumer Disputes Redressal Commission (NCDRC), while allowing an appeal filed by a transport firm, said that while taking cognisance of the complaint, a consumer fora was supposed to go into all the aspects of the matter including its maintainability.

The NCDRC bench, headed by presiding member B C Gupta, remitted back to the state commission the complaint against Keonjhar Central Cooperative Bank Ltd and asked it to dispose of the complaint within four months of taking cognisance.

"The interest of justice and equity demand that the state commission should have gone into the allegations levelled in the complaint and then decided the cases after considering the merits of the same.

"The contention taken by the state commission that it was merely an account dispute and hence, the consumer fora had nothing to do with the same, was erroneous on the face of it and hence, the order passed by the state commission was perverse in the eyes of law," the bench also comprising member S M Kantikar said.

According to the complaint filed by the firm, Maa Tarini Transport Ltd, there was discrepancy in the balance amount shown in its account as per the statement issued by the bank and the statement in the computerised system.

According to the statement, the balance as on April 1, 2008 stood over Rs 4.36 crore, whereas the computerised statement showed the balance to be Rs 3.41 crore, it said.

The complainant alleged that despite requesting the bank several times to reconcile the difference in figures, it had not taken any action to rectify the same.

It claimed that despite the directions being given by the high court, the bank did not rectify the mistake.

The state commission, in its order, had said that it was a matter pertaining to account dispute, which could be sorted out at the level of the parties and that the commission has nothing to do with the matter.

It had disposed of the matter on August 3, 2011.

The firm then approached the apex consumer commission which said if the bank has indulged in any negligence or deficiency in service, it was the duty of the consumer fora to look into the matter and redress the grievance of the consumer.

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The new Nitish Kumar-led NDA government in Bihar will seek trust vote in the state assembly tommorow.

"A one-day special session of the Bihar Assembly has been convened tomorrow in which the new government will seek trust vote," Principal Secretary, Cabinet Coordination Department, Brajesh Mehrotra told reporters.

Mehrotra said two agendas have been set for the session after a brief meeting of the state Cabinet comprising Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi.

The first agenda was to cancel the decision of the previous grand alliance government to call a five-day Monsoon Session of the two Houses from July 28 to August 3.

"The second agenda was to convene a one-day special session of the assembly tomorrow to take up the trust vote," he said.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has asked the CM to take trust vote within two days of swearing-in.

The Nitish Kumar government has the support of 132 MLAs which included 71 members of JD(U) besides 53 of BJP, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and Independent 3.

In the 243-member Bihar house the magic figure is 122.

Tomorrow's session is likely to be a stormy one considering the belligerent mood displayed by the RJD which said it was not given a chance to form government despite being the single-largest party.

The RJD has claimed the support of 27 Congress MLAs, 2 CPI-ML legislators and some Independents.

RJD leaders also claimed many JD(U) MLAs, who won the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls against the BJP, would cross over to them during tomorrow's trust vote.

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Union minister Ram Vilas Paswan today described Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as a "natural" ally of the BJP and said his return to the NDA will not only give Bihar a corruption-free government but also ensure the opposition parties draw a blank in the 2019 general polls.

Attacking Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi over his comment that he was aware of Kumar's move was being planned, he said the grand old party was a "sinking" ship and felt "sorry" for the young leader as whenever he speaks "things and votes" glide into minus.

The minister also hit out at Gandhi for allegedly siding with RJD chief Lalu Yadav, whose family members are facing graft charges, saying Kumar must have been "most angry" with the Congress leader for not taking a stand against their corrupt practices before the grand alliance broke.

Paswan said the coming together of the JD(U) and the BJP will ensure "direct" benefit to the NDA during vice presidential poll.

The JD(U) had earlier declared its support to the opposition's joint candidate, Gopal Krishna Gandhi, for the August 5 election.

The Union Food and Public Distribution Minister also reiterated that the prime minister's post was "not vacant till 2024", suggesting Narendra Modi will continue to lead the NDA even after Kumar, often considered as a contender in the race to the top office, joined hands with the BJP.

Kumar, who headed the grand alliance dispensation till yesterday, resigned as the chief minister, deserting the company of Congress-RJD and teamed up with the saffron party to form a new government in the state.

"This was to happen. None can stay comfortable in the company of 'egoistic' (Lalu) Yadav. Nitish always looked under a spell of tension when he was with Yadav. The BJP-JD(U) is a natural alliance," he told reporters here.

"The new government will successfully complete its over three-year term. It will offer corruption-free and pro- development governance in Bihar," said Paswan, who had earlier predicted the grand alliance government formed in 2015 will come down mid-way.

Paswan, a leader from Bihar himself, said Kumar's walking over to the NDA will mean gains for the ruling alliance at the Centre during the vice presidential poll and also the next Lok Sabha elections.

"Although I have not spoken to JD(U) leaders yet, it is but natural they will support our vice presidential candidate (M Venkaiah Naidu) in the election which we were anyways going to win," he said.

Paswan slammed Gandhi for allegedly not taking stand against Yadav over the issue of corruption charges.

"Gandhi had taken stand against corruption issue, had torn apart a copy of an ordinance which would have favoured Yadav when Manmohan Singh was the prime minister. Now he did not take stand against corruption of the Yadavs. I think Nitish would have been most angry with Gandhi only," Paswan said.

To a question whether his Lok Janshakti Party, which contested the 2015 Bihar assembly polls as a constituent of the BJP-led NDA, will get ministerial berth in the new JD(U)- BJP government, Paswan said the issue will be discussed by the leaders concerned when he goes to Patna tomorrow.

"We are with them, but not for ministerial post. I am going there tomorrow, will discuss the issue. As I said, everything is but natural," he added.

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JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar has become the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time as he jilted an uncomfortable ally in the RJD and joined hands with the BJP after four years, yet again demonstrating his political manoeuvrability.

Often referred to as the Chanakya of Bihar politics, Kumar, 66, quit as the CM of the politically crucial state last evening and readily accepted BJP's support to continue in power, a move that could have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls as it is seen as a major setback for efforts to forge opposition unity to stop the BJP juggernaut.

Kumar led the 'Mahagathbandhan' (Grand Alliance) that comprised his JD(U), the RJD and the Congress to a stunning victory few thought possible after being bruised and bloodied in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Kumar, who first became the chief minister on November 24, 2005, was sworn in for a fifth term on November 20, 2015.

But the uneasy alliance lasted for barely two years with corruption allegation against the kin of RJD chief Lalu Prasad proving to be the last straw. The going was never easy for Kumar as the RJD lost no opportunity to press that it was the major partner in the alliance.

For the cool, suave and workaholic Nitish, he knew his association with 69-year-old Prasad, whom he called his 'Bade Bhai', would be the main point the BJP-led opposition could always score off, but he countered it with an answer to anything and everything thrown at him.

Soft-spoken, sharp and articulate, Kumar, who speaks in a measured tone, had an answer ready with a subtle fact that he himself "had been with the BJP but never been coloured, and in any case Lalu is and remains a socialist."



Persuasive, sometimes adamant, Kumar is known to carry strong likes and dislikes and never forgets a slight--a trait for which Prasad described him as having 'aant mein daant' (teeth in his belly).

Working with his new tactician Prashant Kishor, a key strategist for the BJP in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Kumar worked a carefully crafted soft campaign template for Bihar in the 2015 Assembly elections.

He invoked only his work, the potential of the next government with him, the slights to Bihar and his own self, strident appeals to Bihar's 'Asmita'(pride) and speaking for himself as the lone Bihari against the 'Bahari' (outsider), a veiled reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Even Sushil Kumar Modi, the tallest BJP leader from Bihar and once his deputy and friend, acknowledges Kumar to be a visionary who changed Bihar.

His breakaway from the BJP in June 2013 stunned the nation, as did his resignation from the chief minister's post after the JD(U)'s massive Lok Sabha defeat in May 2014 and elevation of his protegee Jitan Ram Manjhi as chief minister and then pulling the latter down to assume power again in February 2015 for a fourth term.

Kumar is also widely known as the 'Sushashan Babu' (Good governance man) and 'Vikas Purush', whom even critics credit with turning Bihar around.

Following the age-old proverb enemy's enemy is friend, the JD(U) leader whose party won just two of the state's 40 seats in the Lok Sabha poll, joined hands with Prasad to halt bete noire Narendra Modi's juggernaut in Bihar in the 2015 Assembly polls.

Prasad and Nitish, friend-turned-foe in state politics, sank their differences to revive an alliance that began over 40 years ago with the students' agitation, which soon turned into a pan-India movement led by veteran socialist leader Jayaprakash Narayan.

Though Prasad got lucky in his very first outing in the electoral arena, winning Lok Sabha poll in 1977, it took Kumar, an electrical engineer from NIT Patna, then known as Bihar College of Engineering, eight more years to get elected to the state Assembly for the first time in 1985, after having lost twice.

Though as different as chalk and cheese, Kumar backed Prasad in bagging the chair of the Leader of Opposition in the assembly in 1989 and again when he challenged Ram Sundar Das and Raghunath Jha, nominees of Prime Minister V P Singh and Chandra Shekhar respectively, for the chief minister's post after Janata Dal came to power in Bihar in 1990.

Kumar, who won the 1989 Lok Sabha polls from Barh, shifted his focus to Delhi, getting elected to the lower house in 1991, 1996, 1998 and 1999. He became Minister of State for Agriculture in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government and then briefly the Railway Minister in 1999. He resigned after the train tragedy at Gaisal in West Bengal in 1999 in which nearly 300 people were killed.

Kumar again became Railway Minister in 2001 and continued till 2004 during which he was credited with introducing several reforms in the public sector behemoth like Internet ticket booking and Tatkal system of instant booking.

The Godhra train burning incident in February 2002, which provided the spark that led to communal riots in Gujarat, occurred during his tenure at Rail Bhavan.

The JD(U) stalwart reworked his social engineering strategy and made a rainbow coalition of OBCs, EBCs, Mahadalits and minorities that helped him sweep Bihar in November 2005 elections, thereby uprooting 15 years of uninterrupted Lalu-Rabri rule.

Bihar became a completely 'dry state' last year banning sale and consumption of all kinds of liquor in a move seen as fulfillment of a poll promise to women by Kumar.

Kumar's passionate pitch for prohibition citing the adverse affects of domestic violence and broken families besides economic and health costs had earned overwhelming support from women for the ruling JD(U) in the 2015 Assembly polls. He reiterated his commitment while announcing the ban.

Kumar's backing to BJP presidential candidate and former Bihar Governor R N Kovind by breaking ranks with the opposition and his support of the Modi government's demonetisation drive had triggered speculation that he was warming up to the saffron party.

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There have been no riots under the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh and incidents of crime have decreased, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath today said, accusing the Samajwadi Party of failing on the law-and-order front during its tenure.

"In the previous regime riot-accused people were brought in state plane to meet the chief minister (Akhilesh Yadav) at his residence. Its (SP) ministers were involved in the Muzaffarnagar riots. In past three years there were 450 riots in the state but in the past four months there were no riots," Yogi Adityanath said in the state Assembly.

Citing data, the CM also said that cases of murder, dowry and crimes related to SC/ST have seen a decline in his tenure.

"No FIRs were lodged in previous SP and BSP regimes. We have given directives to lodge FIRs in all cases. Solving of of cases related to murder, dacoity and other crimes have increased. The opposition did not want this," the CM said.

Attacking SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath said political patronage was given to criminal elements during his tenure as chief minister.

Adityanath cited cases like the Jewar gangrape and kidnapping of two traders in Jhansi and said they were solved in a timely manner.

"It is our ideology that no guilty person should be spared. The opposition has objections as to why the Azamgarh liquor tragedy case was solved and why the name of the accused and his party was taken. A hardened criminal was arrested in Ambedkar Nagar. If his background is revealed, it will make many uneasy," the CM said.

Trying to corner the opposition, which has been boycotting the proceedings of the House from July 20, Adityanath said, "Truth is bitter. They are not ready to to hear truth and are not hesitating in violating dignity of the House."



On Akhilesh's Dial 100 project, the CM said it was made into "a tool for extortion" and his government has initiated a number of measures to "make it accountable".

While highlighting budgetary provisions of the Home department under different heads, Adityanath said a State Disaster Response Force would be set up on the lines of the NDRF and financial provision has been made for this.

"The opposition had objections over constitution of anti-Romeo squads for women security, they objected to the state following NGT and SC guidelines on slaughterhouses and also objected to the anti-land mafia task force which is identifying mafias who were until now working under political patronage," he said.

The chief minister also announced recruitment of 30 thousand constables in police and said that the process will be transparent unlike previous regime.

He said model police stations would be set up in all districts and the ATS (Anti-Terror Squad)and and STF (Special Task Force) of the state police will be strengthened.

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The government has slapped ONGC, Reliance Industries and Royal Dutch Shell with a demand of $3.9 billion (about Rs 25,487 crore) in dues following an arbitration award in its favour, the state-owned firm said on Thursday.

The demand notice pertains to interpretation of the contract for the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) oil and gas fields in the Arabian Sea.

"The directorate general of hydrocarbons (DGH), vide letter dated May 25, 2017, marked to all joint venture partners -- RIL, BG Exploration and Production India Ltd (now taken over by Shell) and ONGC -- has asked for payment of differential Government of India's share of profit petroleum and royalty alleged to be payable by contractor pursuant to the government's interpretation of the Final Partial Award," the company said in a regulatory filing.

ONGC, which owns 40 per cent stake in PMT fields, said its share out of the demand notice amounts to $1.57 billion, equivalent to Rs 10,195 crore.

RIL and Shell hold 30 per cent stake each.

The notice does not contain any date for making the payment or consequences that would follow if the payment is not made.

In its first quarter earnings statement, ONGC said the production sharing contracts (PSCs) for Panna-Mukta and Mid and South Tapti areas were signed on December 22, 1994, for 25 years.

"In December 2010, RIL and BGEPIL invoked an arbitration proceeding against the Union of India in respect of certain disputes, differences and claims arising out of or in connection with both the PSCs," it said, adding that it did not participate in the arbitration following a specific instruction to that effect from the oil ministry in July 2011.

However, in the case of an arbitral award, the same was to be applicable on ONGC as a constituent of the contractor.

"On October 12, 2016, a Final Partial Award (FPA) was announced by the tribunal in the arbitration matter," it said.

ONGC said that in response to the government notice, the other joint venture partners led by RIL have stated that the demand is "premature as the FPA does not make any money award in favour of the Government of India as quantification of liabilities is to be determined during the final proceedings of the arbitration and the same has been challenged for the English Commercial Court".

"Pending final quantification of liabilities by the Arbitration Tribunal and decision of the English Commercial Court, the company is not liable to implement the FPA being premature and therefore, no provision for the same has been considered necessary (in the first quarter earning statements)," it said.

Last November, RIL and Shell had challenged in the English court a three-member arbitration panel headed by Singapore-based lawyer Christopher Lau's FPA upholding the government view that the profit from the fields should be calculated after deducting the prevailing tax of 33 per cent and not the 50 per cent rate that existed earlier.

It also upheld that the cost recovery in the contract is fixed at $545 million in Tapti gas field and $577.5 million in Panna-Mukta oil and gas field. The two firms wanted that cost provision be raised by $365 million in Tapti and $62.5 million in Panna-Mukta.

Shell became the operator of the field last year after taking over BG.
There can be no compromise on the issue of cross border terrorism and the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and comprehensive bilateral dialogue, the government told the Rajya Sabha today.

In response to a question, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said India's consistent position has been that entire Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and a part of the territory of the state has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

"India is committed to addressing all outstanding issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, bilaterally and through peaceful means in accordance with Simla agreement and Lahore declaration," he said.

At the same time, he asserted that an environment free from terror, hostility and violence is required for a meaningful dialogue.

Singh said India has consistently called upon Pakistan to abide by its commitment of not allowing any territory under its control to be used against India in any manner and to respect the sanctity of the international border and line of control.

"The onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and substantive comprehensive bilateral dialogue," he said.

The minister said it was not true that bilateral relations between the two countries have been very tense in the last three years.

He identified Pathankot terror attack, cross border terrorism, ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces and death penalty handed down to "innocent" Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav as reasons preventing forward movement in bilateral ties.

Singh said there was considerable improvement in bilateral ties during 2014 and 2015.

To a separate question, he said more than hundred Indian fishermen along with 19 boats were apprehended by Pakistani authorities in the intervening night of March 25 and 26.

He said Pakistan had acknowledged custody of a total of 494 fishermen believed to be Indian who are in Pakistani jails, adding 77 Indian fishermen were repatriated on July 10.

Singh said 10 civilian prisoners and 9 fishermen from Pakistan were released by India in 2016 while 42 civilian prisoners and 22 fishermen were freed till July 25.

Replying to another query, Singh said the MEA has received information concerning attacks on 57 Indians in 18 countries during 2016.

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A 42-year-old partially disabled powerlifter was allegedly beaten up by a group of seven people, including his friend in central Delhi's Paharganj, the police said.

According to the police, the incident took place on July 21 when Anil Sharma, who runs an eatery shop outside Hanuman Mandir, was returning home along with his friends-- Mohan Chand and Mohit after having dinner at a restaurant in Paharganj area.

Sharma stopped his car and stepped out to make a phone call. At that point, he was attacked by seven people including his friend Golu.

The group allegedly thrashed Sharma and assaulted him with sticks and stones. They even attacked his friends and damaged the car.

Police suspect personal enmity to be the reason behind the attack.

Sharma was taken to a hospital but was unfit to record a statement. Police do not have leads in the case and are awaiting for the victim to recover in order to record his statement.

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Provident fund accounts of 3.47 lakh coal mine workers, roughly 96 per cent of the total workforce, have been linked to Aadhaar.

"The CMPF (Coal Mines Provident Fund) Organisation has taken a resolution for seeding of Aadhaar number with the account number of CMPF subscribers," Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha today.

Out of a total 3,62,072 subscribers, PF accounts of 3,47,745, that is 96.04 per cent of the total beneficiaries, have been seeded with their Aadhaar till 2017 May-end, the minister said.

The minister added that there are well structured schemes and facilities for welfare of coal mine workers of Coal India Ltd (CIL), which include housing, clean drinking water and education, among others.

In addition, the Coal Mines Provident Fund Organisation has introduced payment of PF and pension directly to the subscriber's bank account through RTGS or NEFT from August 1, 2016, and developed a mobile application through which the subscriber can view his PF balance, besides other functions.

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Vernon Philander again proved a thorn in England's side as Alastair Cook held firm against South Africa in the third Test at The Oval today.

England were 171 for four at stumps, having won the toss, with 31 of the scheduled 90 overs lost to bad weather on the opening day of the 100th Test at The Oval.

Pace bowling all-rounder Philander had superb figures of two wickets for 17 runs in 12 overs, including five maidens, despite a stomach bug.

That followed his man-of-the-match display with both bat and ball in South Africa's crushing 340-run victory in the second Test at Trent Bridge last week -- a result that left the four-match series level at 1-1.

But former England captain Cook was 82 not out at today's close.

Already England's leading Test run-scorer, the left- handed opener spent more than four-and-a-half hours at the crease to be in sight of his 31st century at this level.

Ben Stokes was unbeaten on 21.

England had been heavily criticised by several former captains for an inability to bat time and wear down the Proteas at Trent Bridge, where they were twice bowled out cheaply and folded for just 133 in their second innings.

Although the overcast conditions and green-tinged pitch promised to assist pace bowlers, England captain Joe Root opted to bat first after winning the toss, just as South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had done in a similar situation in Nottingham.

Root clearly hoped England could come through some early adverse circumstances and may also have wanted to show confidence in his under-fire batsmen.

But it was not long before England lost their first wicket.

Keaton Jennings, battling to retain his place, was repeatedly beaten outside off stump by Philander and it was no surprise when the South Africa-born opener eventually edged the seamer low to Dean Elgar at third slip for a nine-ball nought.

Tom Westley, one of three England debutants, joined Essex team-mate and mentor Cook with the hosts 12 for one.

The 28-year-old right-hander, selected after a finger injury ruled out the struggling Gary Ballance, got off the mark with a composed legside four off fast bowler Morne Morkel.

Westley, who earlier this season scored a hundred against South Africa for the second-string England Lions, then cover- drove and on-drove left-arm spinner Keshav Maharaj for two well struck boundaries in an over.

Cook had made 28 when South Africa quick Chris Morris appealed for lbw, but a review of umpire Joel Wilson's not out decision showed the batsman had got an edge.

England were 62 for one at lunch, with Cook 34 not out.

Westley, however, had added just one to his interval score when, four balls after the break, he nicked a Morris delivery that curved away to du Plessis at second slip.

It was the end of a promising innings of 25 and a second-wicket stand of 52 with Cook.

Star batsman Root then made 29 before he edged an excellent Philander ball that moved away off the seam and was brilliantly caught one-handed by wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock, diving across first slip.

Kagiso Rabada, returning after being banned from the second Test for swearing at Stokes in the series opener at Lord's, then got in on the act.

The fast bowler produced a superb inswinging yorker that knocked Dawid Malan, another of England's debutants, off his feet before crashing into middle stump.

Middlesex left-hander Malan, born in London but brought up in South Africa, was out for one and England were 120 for four, with the Proteas hoping Rabada's joyful celebrations did not contain any obscene words on this occasion.

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Philips Lighting today announced top level reshuffle by elevating its South Asia head Harsh Chitale to global role, as the CEO of its b2b arm Business Group Professional.

Chitale, currently South Asia CEO, would be succeeded by Sumit Joshi, Head of Marketing Excellence of Philips Lighting, the company said in a statement.

In his his new role, Chitale will relocate to the Netherlands in September and replace Emmanuel Sabonnadiere. He would directly report to Philips Lighting CEO Eric Rondolat.

Joshi would report to Philips Lighting Market Group Leader - Growth Markets, Murali Sivaraman, it added.

Commenting on the development, Sivaraman said: "The new appointments reflect the company's commitment to leadership development and our tradition of growing talent across markets. This also emphasises the importance of the South Asian operations for Philips Lighting."



This year alone, more than two dozen employees from the operations in South Asia have taken up global and regional roles at the parent company across Europe and Asia, he added.

Chitale said: "I am delighted by this opportunity. Our professional business contributes significantly to our business globally and we are well positioned as the global market leader in lighting. I look forward to working closely with our professional team to continue to grow the business."



Philips Lighting has four major verticals - Lamp, LED, Professional and Home.

Earlier, Philips Lighting South Asia chief human resources officer Kiran Brar was elevated to global role and is now Global Head of Lighting University.

Bidhu Bhushan Mohanty, previous CFO - Philips Lighting, South Asia, is now Financial Controller - MET (Middle East and Turkey).

"Philips Lighting has a long tradition of building global talent. Philips Lighting's South Asian operations have steadily contributed to the global organisation," said Sivaraman.

Chitale, who led the South Asian business of Philips Lighting from January 2015, helped the company to drive in the leadership position in the fast growing LED and Professional businesses.

Joshi, who joined Philips in 2011 as Marketing Director for Philips Lighting India, has more than 19 years experience in marketing and business leadership roles. Besides Philips, he has worked with companies such as Whirlpool, Boots, Marico and Britannia.

"South Asia is a critically important market for Philips Lighting and we are committed to this market. We have an excellent team and I look forward to returning to India to further grow our business and expand our market leadership in the region," said Joshi.

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A multi-crore memorial of former president A P J Abdul Kalam was today inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Peikarambu here on the occasion of the "Missile Man's" second death anniversary.

Modi also paid floral tributes to Kalam at his 'samadhi' inside the memorial, built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), where the "People's President" worked for decades, and other central government departments.

Evincing keen interest in the features of the memorial, which has on display replicas of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked, the Prime Minister examined it for about 15 minutes.

It has been built at a cost of Rs 15 crore on land alloted by the Tamil Nadu government at Kalam's village Peikarambu.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister also unveiled a wooden statue of Kalam playing the 'veena'. The former president was adept at playing the musical instrument.

The memorial also has about 900 paintings and 200 rare photographs of the late scientist, who held the office of the president from 2002 to 2007.

A bronze statue of Kalam has also been erected at the memorial, the entrance of which has been designed in the style of the India Gate in New Delhi.

The rear portion of the memorial has been modelled after the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

A model of 'Agni' missile positioned in front of the memorial also drew the attention of the prime minister, who was briefed about the exhibits and portraits by officials.

Modi was accompanied by Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Union ministers Pon Radhakrishnan, Nirmala Sitharaman and NDA's vice presidential nominee M Venakaiah Naidu.

The prime minister earlier unfurled the Indian national flag at the entrance of the memorial. Later, he interacted with family members of Kalam.

Modi was seen affectionately holding the hands of Kalam's elder brother A P J Mohamed Muthumeeran Maraikayar.

With 'unity in diversity' as its theme, the memorial features quotes of Kalam and pictures of him as a scientist and the president of India.

A large number of children were present at the venue carrying placards with slogans on the achievements of Kalam.

Earlier, Rao and Palaniswami received Modi at the Madurai airport from where he arrived here by an helicopter.

A three-tier security ring was put in place in and around Rameswaram for the Prime Minister's visit, during which he would also dedicate to the nation a 9.5 km-long Link Road to NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai near here.

A new express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram would also be flagged off by the Prime Minister through video conferencing from nearby Mandapam.

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Acceding to a long-pending demand of the Tamil Nadu government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi today launched a deep-sea fishing scheme for fishermen of this region, saying it would help them overcome problems of fishing in Palk Strait.

Under the initiative taken up under the "Blue Revolution" scheme, the Centre would allocate Rs 1,500 crore over a period of time for conversion of bottom trawling boats into deep sea liners.

Handing over the sanction letters to select beneficiaries of the Long Line Trawlers under the scheme at a public meeting here, Modi said it would help fishermen to get better revenue and overcome problems of fishing in the Palk Strait.

The measure was instantly hailed by Chief Minister K Palaniswami, who in his speech at the event, thanked Modi for ensuring the prompt release of funds for conversion of bottom trawlers of state fishermen to long liners.

"I wish to thank Prime Minister Modi for extending financial assistance of Rs 200 crore this year for conversion of the bottom trawling boats to deep sea long liners ... And for launching this scheme today," he said.

Under the Blue Revolution scheme, Rs 100 croe was allotted and as a Special Financial Package Rs 100 crore was sanctioned by the Centre for this initiative, he noted.

Recalling that late Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had batted for retrieval of Katchatheevu to end fishermen woes when she had met PM Modi in 2014 , Palaniswami said she had also repeatedly taken up with the Centre a deep sea fishing and infrastructure package of Rs 1,520 crore since 2014.

In May this year, he too had made the demand, he recalled.

Along with the Centre's contribution of Rs 200 crore, the state government too allotted Rs 86 crore for the conversion of bottom trawlers to long liners, he said.

In the first phase, a total of 500 bottom trawlers will be converted into long liners at the cost of Rs 286 crore, he said adding a total of 2,000 bottom trawlers will be customised as long liners at a cost of Rs 1,621 crore in three phases.

Palaniswami thanked Modi for accepting "Amma's proposal" to allieviate the sufferings of Tamil Nadu's Palk Strait fishermen and personally directing the relevant Union ministries to ensure release of adequate funds for the plan.

The use of bottom trawlers by the state fishermen was being vehemently opposed by Sri Lankan government, whose navy often arrests them on charge of poaching.

Deep sea liners are expected to help fishermen make a turnaround in their fortunes against such a background.

Palaniswami also requested Modi to "kindly use your good office to persuade" the Sri Lankan Government to release all the 75 Tamil Nadu fisherman and 149 fishing boats in its custody.

He also said in the temple town of Rameswaram, amenities were being improved through the 'Swach Bharat' and 'Amrut' Central schemes totalling worth about Rs 48 crore.

Thanking Modi for such initiatives, he sought the Centre's



nod for a Rs 78.17 crore improvement scheme to further upgrade the civic amenities for Rameswaram.

He said the opening of the new highway upto the Arichalmunai point from Mukuntharoyar Chatiram at Dhanuskodi was a 50-year dream come true for the Rameswaram people.

Palanisamy also drew parallel between Kalam and Modi, saying both belonged to "small villages, poor background and have reached great height by sheer hard work, honesty, integrity, sharp intellect and self confidence.

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Port sector players will continue to experience healthy growth in cargo in the near term, rating agency Icra said today.

Over the medium to long term, cargo growth is expected to gain further traction driven by domestic requirements of coal for power and other sectors, crude oil, for meeting domestic petroleum requirements and containers, given the cost and logistical advantages associated with containerisation, it said in a statement.

"Port sector players will continue to experience healthy growth in cargo in the near term, albeit somewhat lower compared to the recent fiscals, as revival in iron ore exports and pick up in POL (petroleum, oil and lubricants) volumes as well as impetus for coastal shipping will be partially offset by lower coal imports following the increase in coal production by Coal India Ltd," said K Ravichandran, Senior Vice-President and Group Head, Corporate Ratings, Icra.

Moreover, cash accruals of the players will be supported by steadily rising handling rates, barring the projects where the tariff setting process is mired in litigations, he said.

During FY17, cargo throughput at major ports registered a 6.8 per cent growth to 648 MT as against 606 MT recorded in the previous fiscal.

The uptick was supported by 164 per cent growth in iron ore cargo volumes (50 MT against 19 MT) supported by a resumption of mining operations in Goa, Karnataka and Odisha as well as growth in POL and liquids (8 per cent) and other cargo categories (10 per cent).

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Privacy is not a "standalone" right, but it is rather a concept and the court cannot recognise it as a new and separate fundamental right under the Constitution, the Maharashtra government today told the Supreme Court.

Giving a fresh twist to the ongoing debate whether right to privacy could be a fundamental right, the state government referred to various dictionary meanings of the term 'privacy' and said it was not a definite one, rather "an inchoate (rudimentary) expression, incapable of an exact definition".

"Privacy is a concept and my concept of privacy may be different from others including my colleagues and judges at the bench. Privacy is not a definite term, rather it is a relative term.

"The court cannot bring in any new separate fundamental right and the only way it can be done is through constitutional amendment," senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for the state, told a nine-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar.

He rebutted the arguments of senior lawyers, who had submitted that right to privacy was an inalienable part of the Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21 of the Constitution.

"Liberty without a doubt is one of the most cherished rights available to mankind and may even be traceable to pre- constitutional natural rights that are constitutionally recognised and protected.

"But, attempts have been made to treat the expression privacy as synonymous with liberty so as to bring it within the ambit of the Right to Life and Personal Liberty under Article 21, which is fallacious," he told the bench also comprising Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

Sundaram said that the fallacy in treating privacy in its entire manifestation within the right to life under Article 21, was to overlook the fact that privacy and liberty were not synonymous or inter-changeable.

"Privacy is not a fundamental right. There can be rights whose violation may be considered as a violation of a fundamental right, but these rights have to trace back directly to one of those rights protected under Part III of Constitution," he said, adding that courts will be faced with dilemma as to what constitutes privacy and what does not as it is a "fluid term".

He elaborated his point saying that in a given case, privacy can be traced directly to "a fundamental right", but that will not make privacy as such a slandalone fundamental right.

"To treat right to privacy itself as a fundamental right will therefore mean that one would have to define the term privacy, and then confer on it the status of a fundamental right, since no fundamental right can be included in Part III except through a constitutional amendment.

"The question will then arise as to whether such a definition of privacy in its entirety, can trace to a fundamental right," he said.

He said that according privacy the status of a fundamental right would amount to injecting a new right in the Constitution which would create ambiguity.

The senior lawyer referred to the debates of the Constituent Assembly and said that the framers, in their wisdom, deliberately decided against including privacy as a fundamental right under the Constitution.

He deliberated upon some apex court verdicts that had protected facets of privacy in a given scenario and said that those judgements were based on fundamental rights under Article 19 (Freedom of Speech, Expression and Profession) and Article 21 of the Constitution.

"The repository of rights are fundamental rights. Injecting anything into it is not a solution. We can't inject anything," he said.

To this, the bench said, "When you align various aspects of liberty and the Preamble then privacy right emerges."



It said that the court cannot deny a right to an individual to chose from staying in solitude or to socially co-inhabit with others.

The bench asked the lawyer whether he is suggesting right to privacy is an intangible right or not.

"Keeping away someone is tangible. I can watch pornography in my house. Someone can say it's my house I can do anything. It's my privacy," Sundaram said, adding that no one is disputing that it is a common law right, but not a fundamental right.

He also cited an apex court verdict of 1975 and said that this pronouncement gave birth to the concept that right to privacy could be traced to a fundamental right, but the judges in that case had proceeded on the assumption that this right existed under the Constitution.

Sundaram would resume arguments on August one.

At the outset, Attorney General K K Venugopal, who concluded his arguments, said that the nine-judges bench has to decide as to whether verdict in MP Sharma and Kharak Singh cases rightly held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

"In view of the fact that large section of the people would be deprived of their basic needs and rights if the claims of the petitioners to a fundamental right to privacy is accepted, even if fundamental right to privacy is held to exist in respect of some other claim or claims, no such rights as claimed by the petitioners, should be recognised as a fundamental right," he said.

"Even otherwise, it is submitted that there can be no claim to a privacy right against identification for the purpose of public welfare and social schemes of the government, and to plug leakages and corruption in the administration of such schemes," he said in reference to the Aadhaar scheme.

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The Ramoji Krian Universe, a joint venture between Ramoji Film City and Krian Media, today signed an MoU with a Kolkata-based acting school in the fields of film making and animation among others.

Bollywood actor, writer and producer Vivek Vaswani was present when the MoU was signed by Ramoji Kiran Universe Dean Prof Ujjwal K Chowdhury and Actor Studio School of Communication director Abhishake De Sarkar here.

Ramoji Film City (RFC), which has been at the forefront of the Indian film industry, has now decided to create future professionals for country's showbiz segment, an RFC statement said here.

Actor Studio School will launch courses in film making, animation and cinematography for a duration of three months.

During this tenure, each student will get the opportunity to undergo a seven-day certificate course with RKU, the statement said.

RKU will provide accommodation, food and arrange a tour of Ramoji film city for all students free of cost.

Actor Studio School have co-produced two Bengali feature films this year.

Ramoji Film City, Hyderabad, was set up by Ramoji Group and it produces over 100 films every year.

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A section of Rajya Sabha members belonging to the Congress, the DMK, the TMC and the CPI today staged a demonstration in Parliament premises and demanded exemption to Tamil Nadu from the purview of the NEET exam.

Speaking to reporters after the protest, the Upper House MP MK Kanimozhi today said as a principal opposition party in the state, the DMK was demanding a permanent solution for students in all fronts.

"We will be persistently raising the issue in Parliament with the help of like-minded parties," she said.

DMK MPs Tiruchi Siva, R S Bharathi, T K S Elangovan, CPI's D Raja and Congress' Hussain Dalwai, All India Trinamool Congress' Dola Sen, Derek O'Brien and Vivek Gupta took part in the protest.

Both the factions of the ruling AIADMK and the opposition party in the state legislature have been holding talks with Centre demanding president's nod for two bills passed recently by the state assembly and now pending with the Centre.

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The Kremlin today announced the appointment of Vasily Nebenzya as Russia's ambassador to the United Nations, replacing the previous long-serving envoy Vitaly Churkin who died in February.

President Vladimir Putin signed a decree appointing Nebenzya, the Kremlin wrote on its website.

Nebenzya will start in the new post as relations between Russia and the West have hit post-Cold War lows over Moscow's annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its role in escalating the eastern Ukrainian separatist conflict.

Churkin, who died suddenly after collapsing at work aged 64, was a well-known figure who had been Russia's UN ambassador since 2006. In recent years he energetically defended Russia's policies on Ukraine and Syria.

Russia has used its right to veto at the UN Security Council to block resolutions on Syria on eight occasions.

Churkin's successor, 55-year-old Nebenzya, is a career diplomat who previously served as a deputy foreign minister. He will also represent Russia at the UN Security Council.

Nebenzya began his career as an attache at the Soviet embassy in Thailand. He previously worked at the UN from 1996 to 2000 as a senior advisor to Russia's mission in New York. He speaks English and Spanish, according to the foreign ministry website.

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Scientists are developing a deep space habitat for NASA that would keep astronauts safe during long-duration missions by providing critical communications, life support and autonomous navigation.

Refurbishing an old cargo container used to transfer essentials to the International Space Station (ISS), US-based aerospace company Lockheed Martin is prototyping a deep space habitat for NASA at the Kennedy Space Center.

The prototype will integrate evolving technologies to keep astronauts safe while onboard and operate the spacecraft autonomously when unoccupied.

NASA recently awarded Lockheed Martin a Phase II contract for the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships (NextSTEP) habitat study.

As part of Phase II, the team will continue to refine the design concept developed in Phase I and work with NASA to identify key system requirements for the Deep Space Gateway.

The team will build a full-scale habitat prototype in the Space Station Processing Facility at NASA's Kennedy Space Center and a next-generation deep space avionics integration lab near Johnson Space Center.

"It is easy to take things for granted when you are living at home, but the recently selected astronauts will face unique challenges," said Bill Pratt, Lockheed Martin NextSTEP programme manager.

"Something as simple as calling your family is completely different when you are outside of low Earth orbit. While building this habitat, we have to operate in a different mindset that's more akin to long trips to Mars to ensure we keep them safe, healthy and productive," said Pratt.

A full-scale prototype of the deep space habitat will be built by refurbishing the Donatello Multi-Purpose Logistics Module (MPLM).

Donatello was one of three large modules, flown in the space shuttle payload bay, that were used to transfer cargo to the ISS.

The team will also rely heavily on mixed reality prototyping using virtual and augmented reality. Through this approach, the team can reduce cost and schedule, as well as identify and solve issues early in the design phase.

"We are excited to work with NASA to repurpose a historic piece of flight hardware, originally designed for low Earth orbit exploration, to play a role in humanity's push into deep space," said Pratt.

"Making use of existing capabilities will be a guiding philosophy for Lockheed Martin to minimise development time and meet NASA's affordability goals," he said.

The work will occur over 18 months and will build upon the concept study performed in Phase I.

Phase II will also focus on mixed reality and rapid prototyping, and working on concept refinement and risk reduction.

The results will further the understanding of the systems, standards and common interfaces needed to make living in deep space possible.
The situation in Kashmir was "under control but fragile" and the number of stone-pelting incidents in the Valley has decreased, a senior officer of the CRPF said today.

Inspector General of the CRPF, Srinagar, Ravideep Singh Sahi told reporters here that around 250 militants were active in the Valley.

"The situation in the Kashmir Valley is under control but fragile. We have seen a reduction in the number of stone- pelting incidents in the recent past," he said.

The Army, security forces and Jammu and Kashmir police are conducting coordinated counter-insurgency operations in a "very organised way and we have got lot of success", he said.

Sahi said things have improved over the last three months in terms of law and order and anti-militancy operations.

The reduction in the number of stone-pelting incidents was a result of social initiatives and the people in the Valley "have realised that stone-pelting is not very fruitful", the officer said.

"People are getting fed up of all this because it has no positive results. At the same time, security forces are also trying to reach out (to them) ... Various kinds of initiatives are there," he said.

The CRPF IG said the number of militants in the entire Kashmir Valley "would be around 250. The number keeps on changing".

He said the CRPF played an important role in several encounters and joint operations.

"Around 75 militants were neutralised (this year) because of the active involvement of the force," he said.

Asked about Kashmiri youths joining militant ranks, Sahi said a few youths have taken up arms, but the number was "not too much".

"It is not that a large of youths number are joining (militancy). There have been a few reports from the Kashmir Valley, especially from Srinagar. We are aware of it. Our operations and efforts to eliminate militancy will continue," he said.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi today expressed grief at the passing away of Mohinder Kaur, the mother of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, and recalled her contribution to the party and the country.

In her condolence letter to Amarinder, Gandhi described Kaur as a lady who lived her life with utmost grace and dignity, and a strong sense of service to the Congress party and the nation.

"In her years as a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, she demonstrated unshakable patriotism, as well as her commitment to furthering education, and through that the values of good citizenship," Sonia said in her condolence letter, adding that the Rajmata was admired and respected across the political spectrum.

"Rajmata lived a long and fulfilled life, and your own career in public life must have been a source of great pride and joy to her," Gandhi said in her letter.

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Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi today expressed their deepest condolences on the demise of veteran party leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh.

Dharam Singh held a special place in the hearts and minds of the people by his grit, determination and hardwork on the ground, Sonia said in her message.

He will always be remembered for his work and commitment in a career spanning five decades, she said.

She also conveyed condolences and prayers to the wife and family of Dharam Singh and hoped that his legacy and goodwill shall always remain a beacon of light.

Condoling his death, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi described him as a people's leader.

"Former Karnataka CM Dharam Singhji was a people's leader, with a distinguished career of over five decades. My condolences on his passing," he tweeted.

Singh (83), who was ailing for the last few months, fainted at his home in Bengaluru and was rushed to M S Ramaiah hospital where doctors declared him dead about 40 minutes later.

Singh headed the Congress-JD(S) coalition government from 2004 to 2006.A nine-time MLA and a former Member of Parliament, he had also headed the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

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Two Swedish ministers will leave the government in a reshuffle sparked by a huge leak of sensitive data, Prime Minister Stefan Lofven said today.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman, who reportedly knew about the leak but failed to inform the premier, will quit "at his own request", Lofven told a press conference, adding that Infrastructure Minister Anna Johansson will also step down.

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A tempo driver has been arrested for allegedly running over a two-year-old girl in Rohini, the police said.

The child died on the spot. Before locals could catch hold of the driver, he fled leaving the vehicle behind. Later, he was arrested and identified as Avdhesh, 28.

The tempo was passing by residential flats in Alipur area. The girl was playing outside her house and was crushed under the rear wheel of the tempo, the police said.

Hearing the girl's cries, the neighbours came out and saw her lying in a pool of blood. She was rushed to a hospital where she died.

The owner of the tempo might also be booked since it was often parked and driven around in the residential area.

In another incident, an unidentified man was hit by a vehicle on a flyover in outer Delhi's Samaypur Badli.

The incident was reported yesterday. Many vehicles passed by the man's body but nobody came to his rescue. An autorickshaw driver informed the police about the body lying there, police said.

He was taken to a hospital where he was declared dead.

Police said they have not found any CCTV footage of the incident and it is not yet known which vehicle hit the man.

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The White House today announced the departure of a contentious top Middle East advisor, Derek Harvey, from Donald Trump's National Security Council staff.

"The administration is working with Colonel Harvey to identify positions in which his background and expertise can be best utilized," the White House said in a statement announcing the departure.

Harvey was seen as one of the few allies of ousted national security advisor Michael Flynn, who remained in the White House.

In recent months he had complained in private about his waning influence as he wrestled with competing US interests in Syria and elsewhere.

Hawkish on Iran -- thanks to experience countering Shia militias in Iraq -- he also viewed the fight against the Islamic State as a key US priority.

In a statement National Security Advisor General HR McMaster was said to "greatly" appreciate "Harvey's service to his country as a career Army officer, where he served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the successful surge in Iraq, and also for his service on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration.

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Supporting India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, the Trump administration has urged all the members of the elite club to support New Delhi's long-pending application.

India has applied for the membership of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which controls the nuclear trade.

"The United States welcomed India's application to join the NSG and it continues to re-affirm that India is ready for the membership. The United States has called on NSG members to support India's application," the Department of Defence and Department of State said in a joint report.

In the report submitted to Congress as required under National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017, the Trump administration also re-affirmed its support for India's membership in the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement as soon as India meets each group's membership criteria.

The US and India share a commitment to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the report said.

"Since 2010, the US has supported India's membership in the four multilateral export control regimes -- Wassenaar Arrangement, NSG, Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime -- as India prepared to take the steps required for membership in each one," it said.

The US, the report said, welcomed India as a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime and its subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation in June 2016.

The report notes that the future leadership of Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) will consist of an individual with experience in defence acquisition and technology to reinforce and ensure the success of the US-India Defence Relationship. This individual will help resolve remaining issues impeding bilateral defence trade and other cooperation, it said.

The NDAA for FY 2017 also directs the Department to reorganise the Office of the USD (AT&L) into two new Under Secretary positions -- one for Research and Engineering (USD (R&E)) and one for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD (A&S)).

"This change will take effect no later than February 2018. The organisational responsibility for DTTI will be determined as part of the reorganisation of AT&L; however, this determination will not affect DTTI's ongoing work," the report said.

The US defence industry has provided India with proposals for F-16 Block 70 and F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft, the report said.

"These proposals will help create and maintain jobs in both countries and demonstrate the depth of our commitment to defence cooperation," it said.

Since 2008, the US and India have concluded more than USD 15 billion in defence trade, including the transfer from the US to India of C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles, Apache and Chinook helicopters, and M777 light-weight Howitzers.

India operates the second largest C-17 and P-8 fleets in the world, recently using its C-17s to deliver humanitarian assistance to Nepal and evacuate civilians from Yemen, the report added.

While India has garnered the support of a majority of the group's members, China has stuck to its stand that new members should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making India's entry difficult as the group is guided by the consensus principle.

India is not a signatory to the NPT.

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US President Donald Trump and his administration supports the imposition of tough new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, the White House has said a day after the House of Representatives voted in favour of the move.

"The White House, the president, and the entire administration strongly support sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, told reporters yesterday.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passes legislations with an overwhelming majority of 419-3 supporting tougher sanctions against the three countries.

The bill is aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. It also seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its "continued support of terrorism."



The bill now needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign it into a law.

Congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, yesterday urged the Senate to pass the North Korea, Russia, Iran sanctions bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the Senate needs to pass the bill at the earliest.

"Yesterday the House of Representatives passed, nearly unanimously, a sanctions bill that was a product of bicameral, bipartisan negotiations and includes strong sanctions against Russia, Iran, North Korea.

"The Senate must act quickly on the legislation from the House," he said.

Earlier, Senator and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker indicated that he plans to strip out a section of this package that relates to North Korea, Schumer said.

"This is yet another delay generated by Republicans to prevent this bill from landing on the president's desk before we leave for the recess," he said.

Mark Warner, vice chairman of the senate select committee on Intelligence and a member of the senate banking committee, said the strong bipartisan congressional support for increased sanctions on Russia sends a message to the Kremlin that attacks on US democracy will not be tolerated.

"I expect this bill will pass the Senate in short order. At that point, it is incumbent upon President Trump to immediately sign this legislation into law, or risk endorsing Moscow's interference in future elections," he said.

"We must also make clear to Iran and North Korea that they will be held accountable for their actions, includingNorth Korea's advancement of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program, the detention and death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, and the continued imprisonment of American citizens," Warner said.

Later, Corker announced a path forward on the legislation.

"Following very productive discussions with Leader McCarthy, I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," he said.

"The Senate will move to approve the Iran and Russia sanctions it originally passed six weeks ago, as well as the North Korea sanctions developed by the House," he added.

Going forward, the House has committed to expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future, Corker said.

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To promote Uttarakhand's local dialects, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat today posted two tweets in Garhwali and asked people to communicate with him in local languages on social media.

Communicating in Garhwali and Kumaoni with the youth on social media will help future generations connect more deeply with their own dialects and with their own culture, an official release quoting him said.

Taking to the micro-blogging site, Twitter, to convey his message, the Chief Minister greeted people in Garhwali and said he will try to communicate with them in the dialect for its promotion.

"It will promote our own dialects and help the future generation connect better with their own language and culture," he said in Garhwali.

He also said the state government was making efforts for inclusion of the languages in the eighth schedule of the constitution.

"Demands for inclusion of Garhwali and Kumaoni in the eighth schedule of the Constitution have already been raised in Parliament in the past and efforts for this are still continuing," he said.

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A newlywed couple from the UK were detained at an airport in the US for 26 hours and then deported, apparently because the groom was Muslim, according to British media reports.

Natasha Politakis, 29, and her new husband Ali Gul, 32, paid 7,000 pounds for their two-week trip to Los Angeles, Hawaii and Las Vegas.

They ended up having to spend more than a day in Los Angeles International Airport, before being they were refused entry entirely and flown back to the UK.

While in the detention centre, they were refused a shower and had all of their possessions confiscated. They were only given their phones back when they were back on British soil, the metro.Co.Uk reported.

When they tried to find out why they were detained, officials handcuffed them and marched them onto a flight back to London.

Although they were never told why they were denied entry, Natasha suspects it was because of her husband's Turkish name and origin.

"Ali is British, however, and holds a British passport. I am in utter shock that this has happened," she said.

"We had just got married, we were on our way to our honeymoon as excited as anything, and never expected that we would be deported. We were treated like criminals and we had all the relevant documentation and answered all their questions," Politakis said.

"We believe that since Trump was elected, they took one look at his name, thought he was Muslim and did not let him in," she said.

The couple, from Enfield in North London, had two weddings earlier this year - a registrar wedding in April for Ali's Turkish family, and then a big church wedding on May 6.

Two weeks later they set off for their honeymoon.

They have now been told that if they wish to complain they need to contact the US embassy, but they have struggled to get an appointment, the report said.

The couple managed to book a last-minute holiday to Mexico instead, and are now in the process of trying to get their money back from their insurance.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A top American education official will visit India to develop an international teacher and student exchange program among Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and US state of Indiana.

"This will be the very first initiative by Indiana with India. Currently there are only a few exchange programs with other countries across the globe," Chairman of Sikhs PAC Gurinder Singh Khalsa said after his meeting in this connection with Indiana State Superintendent of Education Jennifer McCormic yesterday.

McCormick's visit to India is expected to be later this fall, he said, adding the exchange program among school students and teachers would have a long-term impact in building people-to-people relationship between the two countries.

"We should have a mechanism of exchange programs for school students and teachers. This will give exposure to our students and teachers," Khalsa said.

Indiana is currently working on producing a 90-minute documentary to inform student residents about the diversity of cultures, and showcase international citizen communities in Indiana.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, there are currently 375 spoken languages registered with the State.

Last year, former Indiana Superintendent of Education Glenda Ritz announced the introduction of Sikh History in the state's high school history curriculum by sending immediate text supplements until history books are republished.

Since 2016, Indiana is the second state after California where Sikh history has become part of public schools' history books curriculum.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
- An Iraqi army division trained by American forces summarily executed prisoners in west Mosul, Human Rights Watch said today, calling for US assistance to the unit to be suspended.

The latest report of executions comes after the release of videos allegedly shot in the Mosul area that appeared to show Iraqi forces executing one detainee and brutally beating others.

Iraq declared victory in Mosul on July 11, but abuses by security forces and the anger they stoke could pose a potentially major threat to long-term stability in an area that was only just recaptured from the Islamic State group.

"An Iraqi army division trained by the United States government allegedly executed several dozen prisoners in Mosul's Old City," HRW said in a statement, referring to an area on its western side.

"Two international observers detailed the summary killings of four people by the Iraqi army's 16th Division in mid-July 2017, and saw evidence that the unit had executed many more people, including a boy," the watchdog said.

The international US-led coalition against IS has provided training, advice and other assistance to various Iraqi units.

"The US government should make sure it is no longer providing assistance to the Iraqi unit responsible for this spate of executions," Sarah Leah Whitson, HRW's Middle East director, said in the statement.

Earlier in July, HRW found a series of videos posted online that appeared to show other abuses by Iraqi forces in the Mosul area.

In one clip, men in Iraqi army uniforms beat a bearded detainee, drag him to the edge of a cliff, throw him off and shoot him and another body at the bottom.

Three other videos show men in army and police uniforms beating detainees.

Earlier in the Mosul operation, an Iraqi journalist embedded with the Rapid Response Division reported that members of the special forces unit carried out torture, rapes and killings.

The journalist, who has since left Iraq, documented some of the abuses on film.

IS overran Mosul and swathes of other territory in the summer of 2014, but Iraqi forces backed by US-led air strikes have since regained much of the territory they lost.

Widespread anger among Iraqi Sunni Arabs -- over issues including abuses by security forces -- helped aid the jihadist resurgence which culminated in the 2014 offensive.

Abuses by security forces now are likewise a boon to IS, which is thought likely to increasingly revert to bombings and hit-and-run attacks as its cross-border statehood project continues to fall apart.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
US President Donald Trump supports imposing tougher new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, the White House has stressed, a day after the House of Representatives voted in favour of a bill that seeks to limit his ability to lift many of the sanctions on Moscow.

The House voted 419-3 to pass the bill that seeks to punish Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.

Other than Russia, the legislation also seeks to make Iran pay for its "continued support of terrorism", and includes provisions to curb North Korea's nuclear programme.

The bill has in recent weeks attracted controversy.

The Trump administration opposes the legislation as it requires congressional approval for the president to lift previous sanctions on Russia, according to US media reports.

However, Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters: "The White House, the president, and the entire administration strongly support sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea."



The bill now heads to the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign it into a law.

If enacted, it could put strain on Trump's ability to improve ties with Russia, which he has vocally pursued, but has been restrained by the allegations that his associates had contacts with Russian officials during the election campaign.

Trump has denied any collusion between his associates and Moscow and termed the Russian investigation "a witch hunt".

Congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have urged the Senate to pass the legislation without delay.

"Yesterday, the House of Representatives passed, nearly unanimously, a sanctions bill that was a product of bicameral, bipartisan negotiations and includes strong sanctions against Russia, Iran, North Korea. The Senate must act quickly on the legislation from the House," Schumer said.

Senator and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker has indicated he plans to strip out a section of this package that relates to North Korea, he said, calling it "yet another delay" by Republicans to prevent this bill from landing on the Trump's desk before "we leave for the recess."



Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate select committee on Intelligence, said the bipartisan congressional support for increased sanctions on Russia sends a message to the Kremlin that attacks on the American democracy will not be tolerated.

"I expect this bill will pass the Senate in short order. At that point, it is incumbent upon President Trump to immediately sign this legislation into law, or risk endorsing Moscow's interference in future elections," he said.

"We must also make clear to Iran and North Korea that they will be held accountable for their actions," Warner said.

Later, Corker announced a path forward on the bill.

"Following very productive discussions with leader McCarthy, I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," he said.

"The Senate will move to approve the Iran and Russia sanctions it originally passed six weeks ago, as well as the North Korea sanctions developed by the House," he added.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
A youth drowned while another



went missing in a river at Kanhan village in Nagpur tehsil this evening, police said.

They were part of a group of six youths from Saoner who had come to Kanhan for picnic.

An officer from Khapa police station said body of one of them was fished out, while search was on for the other youth who was missing.

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
MUMBAI (Reuters) - Axis Bank Ltd , India's seventh-biggest lender by assets, said on Thursday it had agreed to buy mobile payments wallet provider FreeCharge from e-commerce company Snapdeal for 3.85 billion rupees ($60.04 million).

"Digital payments in India are surging. Government policies are driving a less-cash economy," Axis Bank finance chief Jairam Sridharan told a conference after announcing the deal.

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Sankalp Phartiyal)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Devidutta Tripathy and Aby Jose Koilparambil

MUMBAI (Reuters) - ICICI Bank Ltd said it was optimistic about containing its bad loans after the three months to June saw the smallest rise in soured assets for seven quarters.

The country's third-biggest lender by assets has the highest non-performing loans in absolute terms among non-state banks.

On Thursday ICICI reported an eight percent fall in first quarter profit from a year earlier to 20.49 billion rupees ($320 million), in line with analysts' estimates around 20.43 billion rupees.

It added gross non-performing loans of 49.75 billion rupees in the quarter, which Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said was the lowest in seven quarters, reiterating the bank's guidance that incremental bad loans in the current financial year to March will be lower than the last financial year.

"As far as NPAs are concerned, actually the trend is very positive," Kochhar told reporters on a conference call, adding the bank had been selective in lending to corporates and was growing its retail loans faster.

Indian banks' "stressed" loans hit a record $150 billion at the end of last year, prompting the government to change rules and give the central bank more power to push defaulting companies to bankruptcy.

The Reserve Bank of India has ordered banks to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against 12 of the country's biggest defaulters that account for a quarter of the total non-performing loans and also to step up provisioning on those accounts.

ICICI Bank has outstanding loans worth 68.89 billion rupees to nine of the 12 borrowers being taken to bankruptcy proceedings, Kochhar said. The bank had a provision cover of about 41 percent on those loans and would need to set aside 6.5 billion rupees more over three quarters to meet central bank requirements.

Even as the bank's list of potential troubled loans to below investment-grade companies increased marginally to about 203 billion rupees as of the end of June, Kochhar said they were encouraged by record loan recoveries during the quarter driven by infrastructure firm Jaiprakash Associates' sale of cement assets.

Gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 7.99 percent at end-June from 7.89 percent at March-end. However the net non-performing loan ratio narrowed to 4.86 percent at end-June from 4.89 percent in March.

ICICI Bank's domestic loans in the quarter grew 11 percent from a year earlier. Retail loans within that grew at a faster clip of 19 percent, it said.

($1 = 64.1075 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy and Aby Jose Koilparambil; Editing by Keith Weir and Elaine Hardcastle)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
By Jessica Kuruthukulangara

(Reuters) - Maruti Suzuki, India's top-selling car maker, posted a quarterly profit that missed estimates even though sales grew steadily, as a rise in commodity prices and the impact of a new nationwide sales tax ate into earnings.

The company, majority-owned by Japan's Suzuki Motor Corp, announced on Thursday a profit of 15.56 billion rupees ($242.66 million) for the first quarter ended June 30, up 4.4 percent from the year-ago quarter.

That was below the 17.01 billion rupees average estimate of analysts, according to Thomson data. (http://bit.ly/2eQcEmf)

Maruti, which provides the bulk of Suzuki Motor's revenues, sold a total of 394,571 vehicles during the quarter, up 13.2 percent from the year-ago period. Total income jumped 17 percent to 204.60 billion rupees.

Maruti dominates the small car market in India and has been expanding its net by launching more premium vehicles to compete better with newer and planned entrants such as Kia Motors and SAIC Motor Corp. Higher sales of premium models such as the Brezza SUV and Baleno hatchback helped its bottomline in the March quarter.

In the latest quarter, the company absorbed a one-time cost paid to dealers to compensate for the tax loss incurred on vehicles in stock during the transition to the Goods and Services Tax, which India introduced on July 1. The amount was not disclosed with the quarterly results.

Maruti also said its profit was hit by higher commodity prices and costs from sales promotion and marketing.

The automaker also incurred a deferred tax expense of 1.85 billion rupees, more than four times the amount it spent last year.

Shares of Maruti were largely flat after the results. Maruti is valued by the market at more than $35 billion, compared to Suzuki Motor's market capitalisation of about $21 billion. The Japanese company owns 56.2 percent of Maruti.

($1 = 64.1225 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Jessica Kuruthukulangara in Bengaluru; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman)

(This story has not been edited by Business Standard staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
Testing and assessment company MeritTrac Services has launched AceTrac to assess candidates on employability skills at regular intervals during the graduation study of a student. That candidates are not job-ready is the refrain of several companies. "Corporates have been looking for a solution that can help them recruit job-ready candidates. The educational institutions and the student community have been looking for solutions that will help them improve their employability quotient. AceTrac has been evolved out of this market need," said Nagendran Sundararajan, Executive Vice President of MeritTrac Services at the launch.

Hence, AceTrac starts as the student enrolls in a graduation course. It is a three-stage programme comprising of diagnostic, review and final employability assessment. The diagnostic assessment will assess students in the first or the second year of graduate education and generate feedback on strengths and areas of improvement. The feedback from the assessment will be used as an input for designing training interventions. In six to twelve months after the diagnostic assessment, the students undergo a review assessment. Their improvement is analysed and training needs are fine-tuned. The final employability test is undertaken few months before the graduation or the placement season. The continuous assessment, feedback and training helps in improvement and readiness for workplace.

AceTrac assesses candidates on key employability parameters - Cognitive Abilities, Communication Skills, Interest and Personality. The tests monitors students' proficiency and progress in Interactive English, Number Dexterity, Problem Solving and Decision Making.

English language communication has been identified as a key requirement by corporates for employability. AceTrac assesses candidates on written, spoken and listening skills in the English language. To add to this, AceTrac also assesses interest and personality which is important for 'Person-Job' fitment.

The performance of student communities is hosted on the secure AceTrac platform. The students can access their reports from the platform using their credentials. The institutions get access to detailed analytics based dashboards on student performance and training needs. Authenticated corporate and hiring managers are given free access to the platform from where they can identify employable student groups, communities and colleges.

Gopal Devanahalli, CEO of MeritTrac Services said, "AceTrac will complement India's skill building initiatives by systematically enhancing job-readiness of candidates thereby making them gainfully employable." Over the last 17 years, MeritTrac, subsidiary of Manipal Global Education (MaGE), has administered more than 20 million pre-recruitment assessments for over 300 organisations.
A Pakistan-born former IT aide of a top Democratic lawmaker has been arrested while trying to leave the US by the FBI on charges of bank fraud, officials have said.

Imran Awan, 37, an information technology administrator of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was arrested from the Dulles International Airport on Monday while he was about to board a flight to Lahore.

FBI has seized smashed computer hard drive from his home, federal investigators said.

Awan's wife, Hina Alvi, had earlier left for Pakistan along with their children. The FBI said they do not believe she and their kids would return to the US.

He was at the center of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of lawmakers, with possible security breach into their emails and computer systems.

Awan, who pleased not guilty, was released on Wednesday on a high intensity supervision programme, the Department of Justice said.

Capitol Police is investigating this criminal incident into "serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network" by Awan and three of his relatives who had access to the emails and files of the more than two dozen House Democrats who employed them on a part-time basis, said the Daily Caller which has been carrying out investigative reports in the case for the past several months.

In its complaint, the FBI accused Awan of attempting to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by obtaining a USD 165,000 home equity loan for a rental property. This is against the credit union's policies since it is not the owner's primary residence.

Those funds were then included as part of a wire transfer to two individuals in Pakistan's Faisalabad, the FBI alleged in its chargesheet.

"Bank records show that USD 165,000 of USD 283,000 wired to Pakistan. Alvi had numerous pieces of luggage with her, including cardboard boxes. A secondary search of those items revealed that the boxes contained household goods, clothing, and food items. US Customs and Border Protection conducted a search of Alvi's bags immediately prior to her boarding the plane and located a total of USD 12,400 in US cash inside," FBI said.

Alvi, who was permitted to board the flight to Qatar, has not returned to the US along with her daughters.

Awan's attorney Chris Gowen, in an email statement to Politico, said: "This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim. A quick glance at what the government filed in court confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client".

However, the Republican National Committee has accused Congresswoman Schultz of not being truthful on this matter.

"We have to get to the bottom of this, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz has obstructed at every level on something that affects potentially our national security. So to have this gentlemen try and leave the country, and now we know there is bank fraud and we know he destroyed these hard drives, when you read story about the Marine that found them in the apartment he wastrying to rent," the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.

RNC said that the criminal investigation alleges the "stealing equipment from members' offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network".

Awan allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment from House offices and funnelled sensitive congressional data offsite as part of a massive cybersecurity breach, RNC said, adding that last year Awan worked for as many as 13 House Democrats.

According to Politico, most Democratic lawmakers cut ties with Awan and his family after the criminal investigation came to light in early February.

"But Awan continued to be employed by Wasserman Schultz, although it is unclear what his job duties were, given he had been barred from accessing the House IT system for months," it added.
The western borders of India are often considered the most sensitive territory that the armed forces have to guard against intrusion. And people like Rakesh Sharma, a former Inspector General of the Border Security Forces (BSF), Jammu Frontier, know it only too well, especially how arduous the task is and the chances of human errors slipping in.

"There can be misjudgement in detection as it is difficult to keep a human being alert and active for day and night," explains Sharma. To avoid such trip-ups, the BSF decided to deploy cutting-edge technology that would add an extra layer of protection in the surveillance system. The solution they wanted was a virtual wall that would alert troops about intrusion attempts and help them decide on further action in real time.

So, Tushar Chhabra, co-founder and Chief Executive of CRON Systems, stayed at the borders for six months and interacted with the troops to come up with the product called Kavach. Simply put, the intrusion detection system creates a virtual wall with the help of poles that work on transmitter-receiver topology. The transmitter emits infrared and laser rays, and the receiver constantly senses them. Whenever there is an intrusion attempt, the receiver is not able to sense the uninterrupted beams and raises the alarm. What's more, The virtual wall comes paired with a quick response tool, a console unit that displays the status of the Kavach units, and also alerts security personnel (in the case of an intrusion) using CRONet, the company's encrypted wireless communication network. Then there is MICRON, a control-and-command platform, which manages all these units, analyses the data received and predicts future intrusion attempts.

Besides Kavach, the start-up has developed an array of interesting products, keeping in mind the requirements of the armed forces. Integrated as a whole, these devices offer a comprehensive perimeter security solution, a field where CRON wants to carve a niche for itself.

The start-up has already tied up with 200-plus original equipment manufacturers for sourcing parts for its products, which it assembles at its facility in Neb Sarai, New Delhi. However, the designs are its own and a team of electrical and mechanical engineers have been hired to design those. To ensure that its products have the best possible technology edge, CRON is also working with overseas companies - an Israel-based drone manufacturer for drone integration and a defence robotics company for integrating its rovers with CRON's surveillance systems. The start-up currently employs 36 people but plans to expand its team to about 100 by the end of this year.

The Playing Field

CRON has done ample research in several high-tech areas, including the Internet of Things (IoT), lasers, artificial intelligence, automation, encrypted communications and data analysis, which has helped it develop extremely sophisticated intruder detection and deterrence solutions. But its foray into the defence space has not been smooth. Chhabra says the biggest hurdle was getting permission to stay in borders areas, but convincing investors was not easy either. "We are talking about defence hardware. So, most people ask if it is such a great idea, why somebody has not done it before. It is not easy to convince people."

Nevertheless, the start-up has managed to raise an undisclosed amount in pre-Series A funding from venture capital firm YourNest. According to Girish Shivani, one of the founding partners at the VC firm, investment decisions become easier when the product has been tested in the market and has found a good response. That is what has made the cut. Add to that a sound revenue model and a diversified expansion plan and the future looks promising.

"Our business model is simple. We start with direct sales, and after that, most of the money comes from annual maintenance contracts, upgrades and services," details Chhabra. The company also charges for its CRONet and MICRON services.

The BSF and Indian paramilitary forces are among its key customers. But the company says it will soon cater to the Indian Army. CRON has recently completed its first product pilot on the western border and now plans to set it up across a 50 km stretch. Chhabra says the basic cost for securing per km is about Rs 25 lakh.

The company did not disclose its financials, but as per a filing with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, it clocked Rs 8,47,555 in revenue between October 2015 and March 2016, and incurred losses of more than Rs 26,000 over this period. CRON claims it will break even by the end of the current financial year and also come up with several products which are in the pipeline. Plus, it is upgrading all its existing systems. Its primary aim is to secure India's 15,000 km long border, but in the long term, the company wants to expand beyond government business and get into the fast-expanding B2B space.

A Future beyond Defence?

According to Dhiraj Mathur, a partner of PwC, defence is the space for companies that either have a significant size and experience or a huge manufacturing capability. He, however, agrees there might be scope for start-ups in niche areas, "something so novel that no one has done it so far; small things, where the investments required are relatively low, and there is a large demand."

With India's defence spending at Rs 2.74 lakh crore in the 2017/18 Union Budget and the government's initiative to encourage homegrown products, the outlook is positive. Even then, CRON's dependence on defence projects may hinder its future growth as these chunky contracts only come up once in two-three years.

Aware of this shortfall, the co-founders have already started looking at the commercial and residential establishments for growth. "Perimeter protection is one of the largest markets in the world. Everybody is trying to secure their perimeters. So, there is a massive market. Also, our primary goal is to automate perimeter protection. So the products will keep evolving," says Chhabra. ~

@DevikaSingh29
When Business Today carried a report in April last year about Piramal Group Chairman Ajay Piramal's plans to create a $20 billion empire by 2020, many felt it was an aspirational, even aggressive, target. The reason for this scepticism was simple. In 2010, his net worth was estimated at $1 billion, and after selling the flagship drug formulations division of Piramal Healthcare to Abbott for $2.9 billion, the group was left with a small pharmaceutical business and a struggling glass business with revenues of nearly Rs 2,000 crore. The listed Piramal Enterprises (then Piramal Healthcare) got just Rs 15,000 crore after expenses and paying taxes. After buybacks and dividends (Rs 4,866 crore), Piramal decided to invest the rest in businesses with 20-30 per cent-plus profits and took three-four strategic decisions. One was investing more in the US and continuing investing in contract pharmaceutical and over-the-counter, or OTC, businesses, apart from new areas such as knowledge management. Another was to deploy personal wealth into the real estate business in Mumbai. The third was to enter financial services, mainly funding the real estate sector and investing strategically in companies, in a big way. Among all businesses - from pharmaceutical, knowledge management, OTC, critical care and glass - financial services and real estate have turned out to be the biggest value creators. In 2017, Piramal's net worth was estimated at $5.6 billion. The recent proposal for the merger between IDFC and Shriram Group, where Ajay Piramal is the Chairman and Piramal Enterprises one of the largest investors, seems the Piramals' ticket to the $20 billion goal. But the question is, can they make it work? Though the finer details of the deal are yet to be worked out, the group's recent moves indicate that the pieces of Ajay Piramal's grand plan are finally falling into place, slowly but surely.

Piggy-riding Shriram?

Two years ago, there were unconfirmed reports that Ajay Piramal was trying to take control of Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services, India's largest unlisted infrastructure financial company. Things did not work out. "You need not have a bank to scale up in financial services. See how HDFC Ltd, an NBFC, grew over the years," Ajay Piramal had told BT a few months after these reports. A year-and-a-half later, HDFC founder Deepak Parekh and Shriram Group founder R. Thyagarajan were present at the function to announce the merger between IDFC and Shriram Group.

There has been a certain inevitability about this merger. After all, Piramal Healthcare spent Rs 4,583 crore in three deals in 2013 and 2014 to buy minority stakes in Shriram Capital, the holding company of Chennai-based Shriram Group, Shriram Transport Finance Company, and Shriram City Union Finance. While many saw this as a strategic investment like in Vodafone India - where it invested Rs 5,863 crore and exited with Rs 8,900 crore in three years - it turned out differently. After being invited to lead Shriram Capital when Thyagarajan, its founder, decided to retire, Ajay Piramal saw the investment as an opportunity for Piramal Capital - which is into real estate lending, asset management, corporate finance and distressed assets - to get a large retail exposure and scale up through Shriram's huge experience and reach, especially in South India.

Though he brought in some of his people into Shriram Capital and shuffled some business heads, the biggest move was the appointment of Rajesh Ladda, Chief Financial Officer of the Piramal Group, as Managing Director and CEO of Shriram Capital, in the last week of June. Ladda, a confidant of Ajay Piramal, has been with the Piramals since 2001. He has been a part of all major decisions of the group. The merger announcement followed soon after. "Our partnership with Ajay Piramal has given us a lot of strength and confidence to go ahead," Thyagarajan said while announcing the merger on July 8.

Rajiv B. Lal, Managing Director and CEO of IDFC Bank, says the attempt is to create a financial conglomerate with a universal bank at its centre which may become India's largest mass retail bank-like entity. "The contours and details of the mutually beneficial deal will be worked out in the next three months," he says.

How the Piramals benefit and what will be the role of Ajay Piramal in the new entity still remain unanswered. "As an investor, we will benefit like any other investor. It is too early to predict. We are yet to work out those details," says Ajay Piramal who, deal or no deal, is already the master of a big financial play.

The Real Estate Lender

Ajay Piramal was among the first in India to fund real estate, way back in 2005, with Indiareit. In 2014, the group merged the combined Indiareit Fund Advisors and non-banking finance arm Piramal Finance into Piramal Capital, the holding company, to form Piramal Fund Management Pvt Ltd, or PFMPL, one of the five segments of Piramal Enterprises. "We have experience in this space and know the challenges. We know where you can make money and where you cannot. Our strategy is to finance land acquisition, construction. Sometimes, we provide equity, even last-stage apartment funding, too," Piramal had explained earlier. The smartest decision was funding only top-notch developers who were unlikely to default.

After two-three years of lending, financial services is the fastest-growing segment of Piramal Enterprises, accounting for 40 per cent revenues, the second-highest after the pharmaceutical business. For year ended March 2017, financial services yielded Rs 3,352 crore out of Piramal Enterprises' total revenue of Rs 8,547 crore. That was a 92.2 per cent increase from the Rs 1,744 crore earned in 2015/16. Loan book grew 87 per cent to Rs 24,400 crore from Rs 13,048 crore in the previous year (this includes Rs 3,600 crore non-real estate lending to companies). Construction finance accounted for 57 per cent loan book. Total funds under management are $ 5 billion.

The Piramals, in tie-up with several global partners, are now entering housing and commercial real estate finance. They also plan to offer long-term equity funding to blue-chip residential developers and enter the business restructuring segment, say sources.

Realising Realty

Under Ajay Piramal, the group had entered the real estate sector in the 1990s, when it developed marquee real estate projects such as India's first modern retail mall, Crossroads, and Mumbai's landmark business destination, Peninsula Corporate Park. However, in the family split in 2005, the real estate assets went to the wife of Ajay's elder brother Ashok, Urvi Piramal, and her sons.

When Ajay Piramal was firming up plans after the Abbott deal, his son, Anand Piramal, came to India after getting an MBA degree from Harvard Business School. In 2012, he was inducted into the group management team as an executive director, with the responsibility of heading the unlisted real estate business under Piramal Realty. Anand's sister, Nandini, also an executive director with Piramal Enterprises, was given the charge of developing Piramal's human resources and consumer health care businesses. Her husband, Peter DeYoung, is the CEO of Piramal Critical Care, a part of Piramal Enterprises.

In their second shot at real estate, the Piramals decided to limit Pwiramal Realty's focus to the Mumbai market in the initial years. "Mumbai has a lot of opportunities and huge demand. Also, if you look at the top real estate developers, none have succeeded in markets outside their home turfs," says the 32-year-old soft-spoken Anand Piramal. "We are investing Rs 16,000 crore (including land and development costs) in the ongoing projects," he says.

There is a big reason why their real estate play makes more business sense than that of other players. The Piramals have been investing personal wealth in real estate in Mumbai over the years. Sources say Ajay Piramal had got over Rs 1,200 crore as dividends after the Abbott deal, and the responsibility of deploying this money was given to Khushru Jijina, Managing Director of Piramal Fund Management. "Their biggest advantage compared with other real estate developers is that they own huge land banks in various parts of Mumbai bought years ago. Their main spending is in construction, which they can recover in no time," says Sandeep Sadh, CEO of Mumbai Property Exchange, a real estate advisory.

In 2011, Gliders Buildcon, a subsidiary of the Ajay Piramal-owned Piramal Realty, bought a seven-acre textile mill land at Byculla from Mafatlal Industries for Rs 605 crore. A year later, Ajay Piramal bought a one-acre sea-facing property at Bandra named Gulita from Hindustan Unilever for Rs 452.5 crore (Gulita was later converted into a home for the Piramals, who also own a weekend home at Alibaugh sea shore).

Anand says Piramal Realty has been one of the fastest-growing companies in the sector ever since it launched its first project in 2015. In 2016/17, it reported revenues of Rs 1,100 crore. This year, it may post about Rs 1,200 crore, he says.

Piramal Realty has four big projects under development at Thane, Byculla, Mulund and Bandra Kurla Complex. Anand is trying to make the projects stand out by stressing quality and convenience. "We wanted to focus on customer centricity, architectural design, quality, safety, and build India's most admired real estate company, and not just for its scale and profitability," he says. For that, the Piramals have tied up with several global partners. Piramal Realty has also created a board of advisors that includes HDFC Bank Chairman Deepak Parekh, Harvard Business School Dean Nitin Nohria, former Emaar CEO Robert D. Booth, McKinsey's Real Estate/Infrastructure Practice Director Subbu Narayanaswamy and Piramal Enterprises Fund Management Managing Director Khushru Jijina, who was earlier the Executive Director of Piramal Sunteck Realty, an erstwhile joint venture of the Piramals.

The Road Ahead

But the ride for the young Piramal Realty may not be smooth, say experts. "They have been in the market for just two years. The Mumbai property market is highly competitive," says Sandeep Sadh.

"The effects of de-monetisation are still there. The demand is shifting towards affordable houses of less than Rs 60 lakh and low-cost houses," says Dr. Samantak Das, Chief Economist and National Director, Research, Knight Frank.

But the Piramals are putting their best foot forward. They are reaching out to potential customers with flower shows, aggressive marketing and a buyback guarantee scheme. Vivaan, one of the most premium towers of Piramal Vaikunth, has been reserved for non-resident Indians from Dubai. When Piramal Realty launched Piramal Vaikunth at Thane in September 2015, the first phase inventory of over Rs 400 crore was sold within 12 days. On the day of the launch, over 100 units were sold within three-four hours, says a company press release.

Funds for projects are also not an issue for the cash-rich Piramals. As a policy, the real estate fund belonging to the listed Piramal Enterprises does not fund Piramal Realty projects. "That is because of corporate ethics," says Anand. The New York-based private equity firm Warburg Pincus invested $284 million in July 2015 for a minority stake. A month later, financial services giant Goldman Sachs invested another $150 million in what was the largest investment in India's real estate sector. "That shows the faith in our capabilities and our reputation as a group," says Anand, who is planning to buy more distressed assets in the real estate market.

"More consolidation will happen in the sector as many companies we approached earlier are coming back to us to sell at a lower price," says Anand. He wants to make Piramal Realty among the top three real estate companies in India by net asset value by 2020, the year his father hopes to take the group's net asset value to $20 billion from $9.5 billion at present. It seems the Piramal Group is on course to meet its target.

@pb_pbjayan


Putting an end to the huge speculation of Shikha Sharma leaving the Axis Bank, the bank today reappointed her as CEO and MD for another three years.

"This is to inform you that the Board of Directors at its meeting held on 26th July 2017, approved the re-appointment of Smt. Shikha Sharma as the Managing Director & CEO of the Bank for a period of 3 years, w.e.f. 1st June 2018, subject to compliance with the prescribed formalities and receipt of requisite regulatory/ statutory approvals", the bank said in a regulatory filing on BSE.

Responding to her future with the bank she said, "All I can say is I am deeply excited about the opportunity of what is possible in the financial services space in India. Axis bank has created some very strong capabilities in it."

Earlier this week, few media reports pointed out that Tata Sons' Chairman N Chandrasekaran had reached out to Sharma to hire her as the head of Tata's financial services, however, Axis Bank had denied those reports.

Sharma, 58, is heading Axis Bank, country's third largest private lender, since 2009 and is in her third term.


Courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol

LOGAN  A man died Wednesday afternoon near Wellsville while being pursued by the Utah Highway Patrol. Troopers were attempting a traffic stop when the man allegedly drove head-on into a semi-truck, causing both vehicles to burst into flames.

The fatal accident occurred at 6200 S US-89/91, near the mouth of Sardine Canyon just after 1:30 p.m.

Police radio traffic, provided by Broadcastify, described the scene as two troopers were trying to pull the man over.

<em>Trooper 1: We are going to be 10-80. Southbound 89-91, approaching the Park N Ride. Do you want to notify Box Elder?</em>

<em>Dispatcher 1: 10-4</em>

<em>Dispatcher 2: Copy, 10-80 southbound.</em>

<em>Trooper 1: Send medical and fire. He just went head-on with a semi.</em>

<em>Dispatcher 2: 10-4. Whats the location?</em>

<em>Trooper 2: We are right by the South Valley R.V. Just barely north of it.</em>

The mans identity has not been released, pending notification of family and the ongoing investigation.

Minutes before the crash police dispatch operators put out an attempt to locate for the mans vehicle after another motorist called 911, stating the truck was driving recklessly. The witness claimed the black Chevy Silverado was swerving all over the road near the American West Heritage Center. They also said they saw the driver throw a beer can out the window.

The man reportedly died instantly. Troopers radioed that the driver of the semi was able to get of his truck.

<em>Trooper 1: Cache 497. The semi driver is out of the vehicle</em>

<em>Dispatcher 2: 10-4.</em>

<em>Dispatcher 2: 497 Cache. Are they going to need extrication for this vehicle?</em>

<em>Trooper 1: Fully engulfed right now.</em>

Fire fighters and emergency crews arrived on the scene and extinguished both vehicles.

Paramedics transported the semi-truck driver to the hospital with non-life threatening injuries.

The crash occurred in the median, completely blocking all southbound traffic and partially blocking northbound. Traffic was diverted for over nine hours while officers investigated the crash and cleared the scene.

Because the crash involved UHP troopers, Logan City Police officers are investigating the accident.

Logan City Police Chief Gary Jensen said they plan to release more information Thursday morning, including the identities of the drivers involved.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
Courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol

LOGAN  Police have released the identity of a man who died in a fiery crash Wednesday afternoon near Wellsville, as Utah Highway Patrol troopers were trying to pull him over. The accident also sent a second driver to the hospital with severe burns.

Logan City Police Chief Gary Jensen said 26-year-old Marcos Torres of Brigham City was pronounced dead at the scene. He was driving a black Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck on US-89/91, when he veered into oncoming traffic, hitting a semi-truck head on. The semi was being driven by William Gray of Rigby, Idaho.

Torres was travelling southbound near 6200 S when the crash occurred. Investigators believe he accelerated and ignored troopers, who had just initiated their lights and sirens, attempting to pull him over.

The speed of the pickup truck was well in excess of the posted speed limit, at the point of impact, Jensen said. As a result of the violent impact, there was an immediate explosion and a fire.

Minutes before the crash police dispatch operators issued an attempt to locate for Torres vehicle after another motorist called 911, stating the truck was driving recklessly. The witness claimed the black Chevy Silverado was swerving all over the road near the American West Heritage Center. They also said Torres was seen throwing a beer can out the window.

Jensen said Gray is a reserve police officer. He was transporting a full load of sand and was injured severely in the accident.

He got out of his vehicle on fire and was extinguished by a Highway Patrol trooper. Medical crews transported Mr. Gray to Logan Regional Hospital, where he was later air-lifted to the University of Utah Hospital for care.

The crash occurred in the median, completely blocking all southbound traffic and partially blocking northbound. Motorists were diverted for over nine hours while officers investigated the crash and cleared the scene.

Because troopers were in pursuit of Torres at the time of the crash, Logan City Police officers were called to investigate the accident. They interviewed witnesses and tried to reconstruct what happened.

As part of their examination, Jensen watched dash-cam video of the crash. He said it appears the trooper did everything correct, from the time he initiated his lights and sirens, to the crash occurring 10-seconds later.

It appears to me to be good judgement making. Good communication on the radio from the troopers, I mean theyre doing the right things. Obviously post-accident, those guys are heroes. They did everything just right. From shutting down the highway immediately and then seeing to patient care, they did a fantastic job.

Jensen said investigators are still trying to determine Torres motive or cause for swerving into the semi, and whether or not he was impaired.

<hr /><p style=text-align: center;>will@cvradio.com
The post situated at the Gloudjan locality in the Mayo Sava division in the far north region was completely destroyed with two soldiers (lieutenant and 2nd class soldier) seriously wounded.

The soldiers were been taken to Mora for treatment.
| BY Ricki Green |

ARN has today announced the appointment of former Cummins&Partners Gareth Cooper to the newly created role of national strategy director.

Cooper will lead ARNs national strategy team and be responsible for further driving ARN strategy and insights with the broader commercial teams. He will head strategic responses to briefs to create market leading client solutions.

Cooper has held senior roles in media, communications and strategy in Sydney, London and New York and most recently held the role of executive strategy director at Cummins&Partners.

Says Cooper: Im delighted to be joining ARN at such an exciting time for the business and broader industry. I look forward to working with the leadership team across the business to further drive the strategic proposition for ARN.

Says Emma-Jayne Owens, chief commercial officer, ARN: Gareth is a great appointment for ARN. With such an extensive background in strategic planning across media and creative agencies, hes perfectly suited to help grow ARNs strategic insight capability delivering best in market solutions for our clients.
| BY Ricki Green |

Using oOh!medias unrivalled reach in regional Australia, Carlton & United Breweries via creative agency Clemenger BBDO Melbourne, has launched a hyper-localised OOH campaign in ten cities and towns in NSW, Victoria and the ACT for Carlton Draught.

The light-hearted classic roadside billboard campaign touches on various historical themes, rivalries, and traditional exports of some of Australias most iconic regional cities and towns, including Wagga Wagga, Ballarat, Bendigo and Wodonga.

The campaign includes executions such as Proudly serving Albury; our favourite of the twin cities (dont tell Wodonga) on the NSW side of the Murray with a billboard on the other side claiming Wodonga as their favourite.

While in the National capital, a billboard says: Canberra: You love roundabouts (we love a round of fresh beer).

Noel Cook, group director, oOh! Road said the campaign used oOh!s regional billboards smartly, using them in a targeted and audience-led way.

Says Cook: We often see big brands extending national Out Of Home campaigns into regional Australia on our assets, but we love it when an industry leading brand creates a regional-only campaign to reach Australians outside of the major cities.

Tim Ovadia, brand director of classic brands at CUB, said the campaign was all about the history and connection Carlton Draught shares with Australians in regional Victoria and NSW.

Says Ovadia: The campaign is a way to demonstrate how much we value the relationship we have with these places. We wanted to let the residents of these towns know how important they are to our brand and remind them that Carlton Draught has been serving beer in their local pub for a bloody long time  so theres a lot of history there.

Taking the time to develop a hyper-localised campaign with some cheeky creative in Carlton Draughts classic voice on oOh!s regional billboards was the best fit for reaching our objectives.

Client: Carlton & United Breweries

Creative Agency: Clemenger BBDO, Melbourne

Media Agency: MediaCom
| BY Ricki Green |

Jesse Young (left) has been awarded Top Student at Victorias 2017 AWARD School graduation ceremony, which took place at Smart Artz Gallery in Melbourne tonight (26 July).

Jesse was tutored by: James Willis, Kieran Moroney, Aaron Pepper, Jake Barrow of Y&R; and Pete Cvetkovski and Adam Ferrie of Publicis.

He is now in the running for Top Student at the National AWARD School Competition, with the chance to win a once in a lifetime opportunity to meet David Droga in NYC. The national winner will be announced on Monday 7 August in Sydney.

Second place was awarded to Oliver Brock, who was tutored by: Adam Barnes and Ray Ali of Clemenger BBDO; and Anna Yates and Locki Choi of DDB.

Third place went to Kate Foley, who was tutored by: Michael Punton and Lars Wannop of Isobar; and Alex Metson and Blair Kimber of Leo Burnett.

Before a crowd of industry professionals and supporters, VIC AWARD School Heads Elle Bullen (SDWM), James Orr (SDWM) and Michael Mulcahy (JWT) congratulated the class of 50 graduates on completing the 12 week intensive course.

Commenting on the calibre of the 2017 class, Bullen said: Weve been blown away by the effort and enthusiasm shown by this years students. The briefs continue to get tougher and more challenging every year, but the ideas only get better and better. The level of innovative thinking, particularly in non-traditional media, has been exceptional. Bravo to all.

The School Heads also took the opportunity to thank this years lecturers, tutors and judges for their time and support over the 12 week course. For a full list of 2017 AWARD School VIC Tutors, click here.

VIC Top 10 Students:

1st place  Jesse Young

2nd place  Oliver Brock

3rd place  Kate Foley

The final seven graduates to make the VIC top 10, in no particular order, are:

Katarina Matic

Ben Grant

Jack Harrison

Matthew Bladin

Harrison Robbins

Aaron Bethune

Keir Telfer-Williams

AWARD School VIC Judge and Creative Director at J. Walter Thompson Melbourne, Annie Price said: In previous years, its been quite a clear gap between great, good and average. But this year, the gaps had closed significantly and it was tough to pick. We deliberated over those top spots, and there were a lot of fantastic contenders. So well done, class of 2017. Hopefully agencies will be snapping up this wealth of fresh talent at graduation night.

This years five state winners from Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Brisbane will have their books reviewed by the National Competition Super Jury, comprising leading creatives from around the world.

The National Competition coincides with the 30th anniversary of a teenage David Droga, Founder and Creative Chairman of renowned agency Droga5, winning Top Student at AWARD School in 1987.

To mark the occasion, AWARD School will fly the national winner to NYC to meet David Droga and to compare their winning portfolios from 1987 and 2017.

Dates for all graduation ceremonies are as follows:

QLD  Wednesday 19 July

NSW  Tuesday 25 July

VIC  Wednesday 26 July

SA  Thursday 27 July

WA  Friday 28 July

National Announcement (in Sydney)  Monday 7 August
| BY Ricki Green |

Blue 449 has been appointed to handle Pernod Ricard Australias media planning and buying following a four-way competitive pitch against Atomic 212, Maxus and the incumbent, Vizeum. Billings are undisclosed.

Pernod Ricard Australia is a major player in the wine, spirits and champagne market, representing a distinguished portfolio of premium brands including Jacobs Creek, Stoneleigh, Absolut, Chivas Regal, Jameson and Mumm.

Says Anne Martin (left), marketing director, Pernod Ricard Australia: We had the opportunity to see some strong thinking from a number of leading media agencies but were most excited by Blue 449. They have demonstrated a data inspired understanding of our business, creative strategic thinking and implementation rigour, married to a transparent way of working.
| BY Ricki Green |

The Queensland Government has launched its All Abilities Plan, which is aimed at helping build a society that enables people with disability to fulfil their potential as equal citizens.

Its accompanying social marketing campaign was developed by Brisbane-based creative advertising and digital marketing agency Khemistry.

Entitled Everybody has a role to play, the campaign features actors from inclusive theatre company indelabilityarts, an organisation that provides professional training opportunities for artists and community members with disability.

The No Pile is the first of three social media content videos in the series and addresses limitations put on employment opportunities for people with disability.

Co-written and produced with three of indelabilityarts performers, The No Pile is a music video  performed in black box theatre style  that is based on shared stories from the performers about rejections they have faced over the years when applying for jobs.

Khemistry creative director Lindsay Thompson said authenticity was front-of-mind when producing the campaign: When we were given the brief, our biggest focus was on making sure that whatever we developed was absolutely, 100 per cent authentic.

A chance encounter with indelabilityarts co-founder, Catarina Hebbard, provided us with a unique opportunity to chat to people who have experienced, first-hand, the frustrations involved in applying for a job and automatically being assigned to the no pile.

We were shocked by some of the excuses theyve heard from potential employers over the years. Ableism (the discrimination against people with disability) is a very real issue and something many people in society, whether they realise it or not, are guilty of.

After hearing these stories, we decided that there was no one better to tell this story than them  and so, through an uncanny creative collaboration, The No Pile came to life.

It just goes to show that when a network of self-motivated people with a collective vision come together and share ideas, information and work  the results can be truly amazing.

We hope this campaign encourages more employers to put people with disability on the YES pile  focussing on ability rather than disability when reviewing job candidates and giving equal opportunity to all.
| BY Lynchy |

DDB Group Singapore has appointed David Shaw as Chief Strategy Officer to head its brand consulting and planning divisions.

Shaw (pictured left) was a copywriter and creative head at Saatchi, JWT and BBDO in Singapore and Canada, then became a regional marketer and marcom leader at HP and Lenovo, before co-founding a Challenger brand consulting practice trained by and aligned with Adam Morgan of EatBigFish. The move signposts DDBs drive to move upstream towards being a marketing agency.

Ive been a fan of DDB for a long time  huge respect for what David and Neil have accomplished at the agency  so it was hard to resist the call. But what struck me when I got here is how tightly knit Jeff, Melvin, Chris and the teams are. You need that trust and collaboration to scale your success in these challenging times, said Shaw.

The agency is revamping its offering, adding a cutting-edge to its planning methodology, with new insights and marketing solutions through its T-divisions. It also offers consulting modules to help clients in shaping growth-driven brand strategy, activation, employee engagement and organisational alignment.

David is an exceptional practitioner: Hes a creative-turned-client-then-consultant, and gets what clients want from an agency in creative marketing solutions. Whats more, hes a gentleman who fits our talented and nice mold at DDB. I think clients will like his marketing sense and savvy, commented David Tang, CEO of DDB Group Singapore and Asia.

This is a homecoming of sorts for Shaw, as he was creative director at JWT when he worked with the likes of Neil Johnson (creative chairman), Chris Chiu (chief creative officer), Joel Chin, Chris Lim and Chew Ping Nan (creative group heads), all of whom are now at DDB.
| BY Lynchy |

Due to overwhelming response, the call-for-entry deadline for Singapore Student Crowbar Awards 2017 has been extended to 4 August 2017. Interested participants have one additional week to pull out their best work and compete for a shot at realizing their own fairy tales.

This competition is open to students of all faculties in local and overseas institutions. Submit your work here, and you can also find out more about the various disciplines, award categories, as well as submission requirements too.

From its commencement in 2001, the Crowbar Awards has since become a leading award show for budding creatives to showcase their best ideas. The show now attracts over 1000 entries from local, regional and international tertiary institutions. This includes entries from the US, UK, Australia, Germany, New Zealand, China, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. This year, Crowbar has opened up to attract a wider range of categories entries, spanning across disciplines such as Advertising, Branding, Design, Digital, Film, Innovation and Technology, and will be judged by leading industry creatives, clients, and specialists.

The Crowbar Awards is organised by the Association of Accredited Advertising Agents Singapore (4As).
When will we know who won? Election officials are still counting in many states
"It assumes property developers are a different type of person, and I just don't see that they are. They're just like everybody else, they're trying to run a business, they're trying to make a dollar. If the issue is undue influence on governments or public officials then that's actually the real problem and we should be looking at what we can about that side of it."
Brittney Johnsen , had just turned 15 when her father, Commander Mark Johnsen, died of cancer in 2010. She will turn 22 on the trip. Brittney will be joined by another legatee, Kefi Faupula, who will be wearing the jacket of her father, ACT officer, Jonny, who passed away from cancer in 2015.
"And travelling with John Butler was great - the classic 'hit the road in the bus' type of touring where we drove from Seattle down the west coast, across to New Orleans and then up to New York."
Millennial Moms Review: 2022 Acura MDX is pretty close to the perfect family car

I dont know if perfect is attainable, especially considering weve got the world of options when it comes to modern vehicles. Were spoiled and, as such, we have very specific needs and wants. Driving-wise, the 2022 Acura MDX is one of my favourite ...
BRASILIA  China's better-than-expected economic growth has a positive impact on Brazil's otherwise flagging economy, especially in the primary products sector, said a leading economist.

Jose Luiz Oreiro, professor of economics at the University of Brasilia, said he believes China's 6.9-percent GDP growth in the first half of 2017 has helped to lift Brazil out of its economic doldrums.

"In the first quarter, the only sector that saw real growth in Brazil was agribusiness with a 13-percent increase," said Oreiro, adding that "steel also has reasonable prices due to China's growth, so China's added growth has been good news for the Brazilian economy."

As to China's economic indicators announced last week, the economist said "the result does not surprise me. We expected to see a more moderate growth in China compared to previous years (with a double-digit growth), so the 6-7 percent growth per year is a new norm."

China's economic growth helped sustain the prices of Brazil's commodity exports, offset slowdowns in other sectors of Latin America's largest economy, and also signaled a coming recovery for the global economy, which has been struggling since the 2008 financial crisis, said Oreiro.

"The global economy appears to be getting into third gear. The developed economies are seeing sped-up growth. As the world's second largest economy, China's accelerating growth is important in providing a greater impetus to the global economic growth," said the economist.

However, the main challenge for China will be to reduce its "huge savings rate" to sustain a new growth model that relies more on domestic consumption.

"China will have to put in place social security policies, state-paid pensions and a universal public health system to reduce the savings rate and promote spending, since the Chinese middle class will no longer need to save for medical treatment and thus will buy more consumer goods," he said.

"It is the transition China needs to complete, so that its consumption will represent a larger GDP share. In recent decades, the Chinese economy has been driven by investments and exports, now it needs to give a greater role to spending," said Oreiro.

The outlook for Brazil's economy remains "very bad" though a slight growth was registered in the first quarter of 2017, thanks to a bumper harvest of soy and grains, Oreiro said, adding that "the effect won't last, and my forecast for 2017 Brazilian economy is zero percent growth."
" " A model hippo in the town of Doradal, Colombia, lets visitors know there's something unique about the wildlife, and it all has to do with notorious drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

Pablo Escobar, the notorious Colombian drug baron of the 1970s and '80s, was at one time responsible for 80 percent of the global cocaine market. He was also behind thousands of bombings, and assassinations of his Colombian countrymen over the course of his career. His Medellin Cartel very nearly capsized the government in Colombia. Escobar was killed in a gunfight with the National Police in 1993, but these days his infamy lives on  just not in the way you'd think. And no, we're not talking the show "Narcos."

" " Pablo Escobar, the Medellin Cartel drug trafficker and narcoterrorist, photographed in Colombia in February 1988. Eric Vandeville/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

The scourge Escobar is currently, posthumously inflicting on the Colombia countryside? The hippopotamus. You didn't see that one coming, did you?

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In the early 1980's, Escobar built a sprawling estate, Hacienda Napoles, in the countryside near the town of Doradal, halfway between Medellin and Bogota. The grounds included a private bullring, an airport, giant dinosaur sculptures made of concrete, and a public zoo full of smuggled exotic animals: lions, ostriches, giraffes, elephants  you name it. Escobar also procured four hippos (Hippopotamus amphibius)  three females and a male who would later be named "El Viejo," or "The Old One"  from a California zoo in the early 1980s. You see where this is going.

After the Colombian government confiscated Hacienda Napoles in the early '90s, Escobar's menagerie was split up and shipped off to other zoos, with the single exception of the hippo harem. You can hardly blame them  who wants the job of wrestling a 4.5 ton (4.1 metric ton) bull hippopotamus out of a pond? So the hippos were left in place.

" " In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar bought four hippopotamuses from a California zoo and flew them to his ranch in Colombia. The original population bred and grew to what's assumed to be the largest herd of wild hippos outside Africa. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

But the fence confining the giant pachyderms wasn't quite sturdy enough to confine their growing family. These days, around two or three dozen hippos live in the pond at Hacienda Napoles, but a number of the animals escaped, and an unknown number of hippos  estimated at likely more than 50  live in the nearby Magdalena River, a slow, shallow waterway, perfect for hippos.

Now Colombia is dealing with the largest invasive animal species in the world, as wild hippos all descended from El Viejo and his three hippo companions cavort in the Colombian countryside. Researchers' best estimate is that the hippo population will continue growing at a rate of about 6 percent a year. With lots of food and no natural predators, they really can't lose. (Except for the bull hippo Pepe, hunted and killed in 2009. He lost to Colombian soldiers.)

Scientists have also noted that these Colombian hippos are reaching sexual maturity and reproducing at significantly younger ages than their African relatives, a testament to their safety, health and ability to flourish.

" " A sign in the Jorge Tulio Garces neighborhood in Doradal, Colombia, alerts people to the presence of hippos near the Hacienda Napoles theme park. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

"It's just like this crazy wildlife experiment that we're left with," San Diego University ecologist Rebecca Lewison told the BBC in 2014. "Gosh! I hope this goes well."

Even though hippos are important in their native ecosystems in Africa, where their poop provides vital nutrients to the river ecosystems they evolved in  many fish and insects feed on hippo poo  scientists are concerned the rivers will become too clogged with nutrients and the oxygen levels will plummet as a result of all that hippo crap. Hippos can also be territorial and aggressive, making the risk of wild hippo attack a very real thing

These days, Hacienda Napoles is a theme park. Located a little more than three hours from Medellin, it features a water park, a zoo, and other animal-themed attractions and events. For the most part, the history of Pablo Escobar's narcoterrorism is a thing of the past... but then a hippo pokes its head above the water.

" " More than two decades after narcoterrorist Pablo Escobar died in a gunfight with police, his former pet hippos live on. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

" " A boy sits on a model hippo near the Hacienda Napoles theme park, once the private zoo of drug trafficker Pablo Escobar. Raul Arboleda/AFP/Getty Images

Now That's Interesting The state of Louisiana nearly became the hippo ranching capital of the U.S. In the early 1900s, a bill was introduced to Congress to solve two problems at once: a meat shortage and a proliferation of the invasive water hyacinth, which the hippopotamuses were supposed to like to eat. The effort to make "lake cow bacon" a staple at every table in the nation was never realized, and Louisiana's bayous remain hippo-free.
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The officers started off a new day preparing to tackle the usual struggles  the heat, crowd control, monitoring the counting area, officials and unexpected events.

And Constable Jimmy had left behind some poignant words on Facebook for his fellow PNG citizens.

Obeying their call, constables Glenn Jimmy, Alex Kopa and their team served in Enga until fate met them at the front gate of My Kids Inn, Sangurap residential area, last Saturday morning.

It took them out of the Tambul area in the Western Highlands province to provide security for the 2017 national election in neighbouring Enga province.

DUTY called for two police officers and other members of Papua New Guineas Mt Hagen Mobile Squad 6 last weekend.

Little did they know that day would be a tragic one for the Mt Hagen Mobile Squad 6 and the Royal Papua New Guinea Constabulary.

Walking out of their camp that morning, Constables Glen Jimmy and Alex Kopa  along with their colleague Constable Mathew Kassap  were hit by a hail of bullets from high-powered M16 rifles fired by Papua New Guineans who did not care about casualties.

The two gunmen were shot dead after mobile squad members reacted quickly.

However, while being rushed to Wabag General Hospital Emergency Unit for initial treatment before being evacuated by helicopter to Port Moresby, Constables Jimmy and Kopa died. Constable Kasap was left fighting for his life in a hospital in Port Moresby.

The family of late Constable Glenn Jimmy are left only with the memories. Who was Glenn Jimmy and how should we remember him?

Glenn Jimmy, from the Tongai Tribe, Menspi Clan, a small village of Panjin, was the eldest of three siblings.

Jimmy, a Christian, was a person of good character to those who knew him  a leader and God-fearing man.

He was the students council president during his time at the Goroka Technical College in 2013-14, prior to joining the police, and was an outstanding young man.

Constable Jimmy showed true patriotism in what he did when he made his final posting on Facebook:

Being a cop its not a mistake, no matter what I will always be the servant to the public. If you asleep Im awake thinking of your wealth for 2moro. Im standing static guard to your properties (boxes) in any weather conditions. No matter how u criticizes us, I will still give the best to serve my citizens of the nation PNG until I leave. Im 4 u PNG & die as PNG.

Constable Jimmys testimony in the line of duty stands out and has been shared by many of his colleagues.

Jimmy leaves behind his two-year-old son, Simon, wife Hadassah  who is also four months pregnant  and his grieving parents and relatives.
To prove copyright infringement, Goldman must prove there was substantial similarity between Looney and Zootopia. Goldman attempted to do this with allegations that both works feature similar conflicts among the charactersabout whether one can be what he or she wants to be, with two contrasting protagonists that team up and contend with prejudice and preconceived notions of the elite, including a power structure headed by those whose species were dominant in a state of nature. Goldman included in his complaint side-by-side illustrations of his characters with the Disney characters.

But in his order, Judge Fitzgerald  appointed by President Obama in 2012 and the first openly LGBT person on the federal bench in California  wrote that Goldmans descriptions of his characters and story were too general, that it was difficult to discern the plot of Looney, and that Goldman failed to include either his screenplay, a treatment, or even a synopsis of his work for the court to compare to Zootopia.

This action, Judge Fitzgerald wrote, presents the unusual question of whether a plaintiff can plead substantial similarity between two works withoutactually attaching the allegedly infringed work for the Courts review. Without these materials, the Court could not determine whether there was substantial similarity between Goldmans work and Disneys hit.

The details of the plot, dialogue, setting, and so on, are pled at such a high level of generality that arguably they consist only of non-protectable concepts and themes, added Fitzgerald. In copyright law, elements common to any genre or type of work, such as buddy cops or odd couple pairings, are known as scenes a faire, that is, elements that are almost obligatory in certain types of work and so are not protected by copyright.

Perhaps ironically for a complaint filed by a highly-paid and established professional storyteller like Goldman, Judge Fitzgerald found it impossible to get more than the most general sense of Looneys plot from the Complaint, because the story arc itself is never made clear. Instead, it is left for the Court to infer details of the plot from a list of purported similarities.

Worse, some of the factual details alleged in the Complaint are wrong. For example, the Complaint alleged a story arc shared by both Looney and Zootopia where the hero loses a dream job following a job crisis. But Zootopias Judy character, according to Judge Fitzgerald, does not lose her dream job, she voluntarily resigns at the height of her success. Fitzgerald also characterized the comparison between both works climaxes as strained, and that the Complaint misstates the sequence of events in Zootopia.

Nor did the Court find the comparison of the character illustrations persuasive, noting that none of the above pairings actually include the same animals Additionally, the Looney characters are unclothed while the Zootopia characters are all elaborately costumed. Fitzgerald thought the Disney characters cute and appealingclean, healthy. And well-built, whereas the Looney characters were darker, seedier, with slovenly physiques, poor posture, and circles under their eyes.

Ultimately, the Court concluded that the failure to include any clear summary of Looneys plot, dialogue, themes, and so on indicates, on some level, that [Goldman] believed including those details would have been detrimental to [his] claims. The Court offered Goldman a chance to revise his Complaint to address these shortcomings.

Goldman has until August 3, 2017 to amend his Complaint.
Photo: Colin Dacre Penticton dam

For more than two months, the Okanagan has been fixated on getting Okanagan Lake back down to full pool, the high end of the lake's operating range.

That's the level when rain and wind storms don't pose a problem to docks, beaches and people's property.

Getting the lake to a level nearly 80 centimetres (343.250 metres above sea level) above full pool took almost a month.

It will have taken nearly double that to release enough water downstream from the Penticton dam, to get back to that top end of 342.480 metres.

The lake level is currently at 342.539 metres above sea level, down 2.1 centimetres since Tuesday morning, and just 5.9 centimetres above full pool. The high water water mark should be reached this weekend.

But, what then?

Shaun Reimer, head of public safety and protection for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, who operates lake flow from the Penticton dam, says the lake is still well above where it should be at the end of July.

"We're still a month behind our target level. We're also five weeks past the time we were supposed to be hitting full pool," said Reimer.

"We will be dropping the flow closer to the middle of August. We'll run these high (flows) the next couple of weeks, then we'll start ramping them down."

In a typical year, he says the lake would be at full pool the third week of June before bringing the level down over the summer.

"Normally, in a year like this year with the absolute dry weather we've had in July, we would have a difficult time keeping the lake as high as we want."

Reimer says the lake is still 20 to 30 centimetres higher than he'd like.

"But, as along as we keep flows up, not where they are now but higher than normal, then our models show us we'll be able to get back on track in the fall."
Photo: clearlakecottageresort.com

I have to admit, I didn't really understand the whole camping thing.

When I wed my beautiful bride, she wanted to leave our home and sleep on the ground under the trees wrapped in canvass.

I had been working hard for many years to prevent that sort of thing and now I was supposed to do it voluntarily.

Like I said, I didn't really get it, but because I was in love I readily agreed  and the cooler full of adult recreational beverages didn't hurt in convincing me either.

So off we went, leaving our lovely rented apartment behind so we could sleep on the ground like a wild critter.

The first thing I noticed about camping was how much work it was. You had to load everything you needed into a vehicle, drive to the campground, unpack everything, set up the tent, bedding, cooking utensils etc. only to reverse the whole process a few days later.

And don't even get me started on the insects, especially the eight-legged monsters that haunt my dreams when I am in my own bed, let alone sleeping in a sack of stuffed material on a thin layer of foam in the middle of bug central.

Camping actually goes back to biblical times. Moses did it for 40 years. It may not have been by choice, but he still spent four decades pitching a tent and looking for just the right fauna for personal use.

I get tired of camping after just a couple days.

And speaking of fauna for personal use: where the heck did they find fauna in the middle of a desert in the first place? And if there was no fauna, what did they use?



On second thought, maybe I don't want the answer.

Fortunately, provincial campgrounds have bathroom facilities of some sort and what a thrill it is to make a boom-boom in an outhouse.

The most distressing part of the outhouse was the aromatic essence of the structure. Outhouses have a special odiferous quality that just cant be described without actually experiencing it.

But young love ruled the day, so camping became a regular part of our summers  wooden toilets and all.

The longer we were married, the more our camping evolved. We went from a small, three-person tent to a 10-person tent that was so large it had room for our queen-sized air mattress, baby playpen, luggage, a full basement and in-ground pool.

The tent of wonders eventually gave way to a tent trailer, and not just any tent trailer, the largest tent trailer ever built by the human race.

The thing was so big we dubbed it The Land Whale. With the wings out, it was 26 feet long. In the right light, it could be seen from space.

What an improvement it was. I was no longer a ground-dwelling barbarian, but had an actual bed to sleep in. Camping was still a lot of work, especially with three little ones, but the Land Whale made it a lot more bearable.

My favourite part of camping was sitting around the fire with those adult bevvies I was talking about while the kids slept quietly in their beds.

But it still took many years for me to really enjoy camping.

The change started when I saw how excited my children were to leave our home and head for the hills.

When my son was 18, he said he can't wait to go camping with us and his own family (when he has one).

In that moment, the importance of family camping became clear. Suddenly, I loved camping. What an awesome way to spend a weekend with the family.

Now, if we could just do something about those bugs.

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: uffingtonpost.ca

Since being elected in 2015, the Liberal government has made numerous changes to Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) policy that has made it more difficult to obtain a mortgage.

These changes have also made re-financing an existing mortgage more expensive.

Generally, the Liberal government has reasoned these changes are intended to slow down the Vancouver and Toronto real estate markets and lower overall consumer debt.

Why would the government want to slow down the real estate market in Toronto and Vancouver? The theory is if fewer buyers can qualify to purchase homes, the demand will decrease and prices will potentially drop as a result and by extension increase affordability in these markets.

The challenge with this particular approach is that CMHC policies are very much one size fits all.

Although Vancouver and Toronto are the primary targets of these new restrictions, the rest of Canada is also subject to them and as a result many regions of Canada may be adversely impacted.

This was feedback I heard extensively during hearings at the Finance Committee back in February when these changes were heavily scrutinized.

One stakeholder pointed out that while the Liberals crack down on debt taken on for home ownership, they overlook the consumer debt on credit cards, third party loan outfits and elsewhere.

The difference is that with home ownership debt, there can be equity created and much lower interest costs in contrast to credit card debt. It is a valid point.

More recently, the government quietly announced that it will raid CMHC to the tune of $4 billion over the next two years. This announcement received very little media attention and that is disappointing.

For those who have mortgages with a down payment less than 20 per cent, the CMHC fees required to provide insurance on that mortgage is substantial.

Rather than reduce CMHC fees to make them more affordable or refund the surplus to those who have paid them, the Liberals are instead using CMHC as cash grab contrary to the purpose of this organization.

Rather than just oppose, I would like to propose an alternative.

Instead of taking $4 billion from CMHC to go into general revenue, why not ioffer a GST exemption on new housing up to $750,000, similar to what the B.C. government has done with the Property Purchase Tax exemption on new housing.

This policy would reduce the costs of home ownership by tens of thousands of dollars.

At the same time, this policy would help stimulate economic activity through increased construction, would help increase housing supply and would help Canadas value added wood producers hit hard by the current softwood lumber dispute.

My question this week:

Instead of a $4 billion cash grab from CMHC, would you support those same funds supporting a GST rebate on new housing?

This article is written by or on behalf of an outsourced columnist and does not necessarily reflect the views of Castanet.
Photo: Contributed

UPDATE: 7:40 p.m.

Vancouver Police say a missing boy has been found and is safe.

Bruneau Fulton went missing while cycling on the Stanley Park seawall and rode all the way to New Westminster.

He has been reunited with his family, and police say he was looking for a public building so he could call home.

ORIGINAL: 3:50 p.m.

Police in the Lower Mainland are looking for a missing 11-year-old boy.

Vancouver Police Sgt. Jason Robillard said the boy was last seen biking with his family in Stanley Park just after noon today.

Police are appealing to the public to keep an eye out for the child.

Bruneau Fulton was last seen around the Second Beach pool area, riding his bicycle on the seawall, said Robillard. He was riding a sky-blue Rocky Mountain bike and wearing a black helmet."

Bruneau is described as a five feet six inches tall and 110 pounds, with reddish, short hair and green eyes. He was last seen wearing black shorts, a purple T-shirt and flip flops.

It is unclear if Bruneau stayed on the seawall, which leads to UBC or the downtown core. Anyone who sees the boy is asked to reassure him and call 911 immediately.
Photo: Facebook

After several days of good weather for firefighting, conditions are deteriorating in the Cariboo Fire Centre.

An increase in fire behaviour and wildfire growth is expected, along with gusty winds.

Winds are forecast to gust up to 40km/h this evening.

There is also a chance of lightning in the Cariboo, which could start new wildfires. Winds will pick up again Thursday, along with the lightning risk.

The major wildfires burning in the region, with the exception of the Gustafsen fire, are classified as out of control.

Evacuation alerts and evacuation orders are reviewed on a daily basis by the BC Wildfire Service and local governments. For up to date list, visit: http://cariboord.ca/
Photo: The Canadian Press

Thousands of residents from Williams Lake hoping to head home after being displaced by wildfires nearly two weeks ago will have to be patient a while longer.

Hot, dry weather in the foreseeable future for southern parts of the province prompted officials to say Wednesday that the wildfire crisis will likely get worse through the summer.

Chief fire information officer Kevin Skrepnek said crews are still monitoring the situation around Williams Lake but because of weather conditions, the B.C. Wildfire Service is likely to recommend a delay in lifting the evacuation order.

"We're definitely going to want to wait and see in terms of what these fires are going to do, how they're going to react to this weather," he said.

Skrepnek added city staff in Williams Lake were expected to fly over the fires Wednesday as they worked to decide when to lift the order, and Cariboo Regional District Chairman Al Richmond said preparations for residents to return are ongoing.

The current level of dryness in the forests is weeks ahead of where it should be, and more fires are expected to start Wednesday and in the days ahead, Skrepnek said.

Crews are "gearing up" as lightning and little to no precipitation creates "ideal conditions for fires to start and fires to spread quite quickly," Skrepnek said.

There are still approximately 19,100 people displaced, and Robert Turner of Emergency Management BC said more support is coming for Kamloops and Prince George, the communities that have helped most of those residents forced out of their homes.

"The commitment and dedication of these people has seen some truly heroic efforts and I think we're finding now with the situation going on for so long that a lot of them are getting tired," Turner said, adding the relentless fire conditions are also taking a toll on fire crews and volunteers.

He said the province is working with local governments to ensure any additional support needed, including human resources, will be made available as people remain out of their homes.
Photo: Steve Tobias

The final evacuation orders for residents forced from their homes by the Princeton wildfire have been lifted.

As of 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, the evacuation orders for 19 properties along Summer's Creek Rd. have changed to an advisory alert.

Access to properties on Summers Creek Rd. will be regulated, in an organized manner to allow for fire crews to conduct clean-up operations. A Local State of Emergency is still in place for Princeton and the close surrounding area.

All property owners and residents are asked to stay well back from crews and not interfere with their work. Fire crews have the right to enter private property to fight the wildfire, if need be.

The speed limit will be lowered to 30 kmh in that area.

Summers Creek Rd. residents will require clearance letters supplied by the Regional District to be allowed to go back to their properties.

Letters can be obtained from the Princeton Resiliency Centre located at Princeton Seniors Centre at 162 Angela Ave. The centre is open until 7:00 p.m. Wednesday and will reopen Thursday at 9:00 a.m.

Evacuation alerts have been also rescinded for two properties: the Tulahead Campground and a residential property 1815, Hwy 5A.
President Donald Trump's comments about upstate New York in an interview with the Wall Street Journal drew criticism Wednesday from some of the region's elected officials.

Trump discussed the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Wisconsin that could create up to 10,000 new jobs and mentioned upstate New York's struggles.

"I'm going to start explaining to people: When you have an area that just isn't working like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you'll have another area 500 miles away where you can't get people, I'm going to explain, you can leave. It's OK. Don't worry about your house," Trump said.

U.S. Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican who has developed a good rapport with the president, said she hopes Trump's comments were taken out of context. She also invited Trump to visit upstate New York.

"I have full confidence that President Trump understands the struggle that upstate New York has experienced for decades, and why we need to continue to fight for policies that will revive our region," Tenney, R-New Hartford, said.

U.S. Rep. John Katko, another upstate Republican, said he's "disappointed" with Trump's remarks.

"Elected officials at all levels should be focused on putting pro-growth policies in place," Katko, R-Camillus, said. "We should never give up on our efforts to restore our nation's manufacturing sector, and create well-paying jobs. I love central New York, and I will never stop my work to keep and create jobs right here in our region."

Trump's suggestion that upstate New Yorkers leave to take jobs in other states contradicts comments he made while campaigning for the presidency in 2016.

In an interview with The Citizen in April 2016, Trump said he would not only bring jobs back to New York, but that he was going to be "focused very strongly on the state."

"It's a state I love," he said. "We're going to bring jobs back so that people can really get out there and make a tremendous living again."

The plant opening in Wisconsin will be operated by Foxconn, an Apple supplier. The company will invest more than $10 million and create 3,000 jobs. An additional 10,000 jobs could be created "in the very near future," Trump said.
Contributed Reel Peach Fest Film Festival

Penticton Peach Festival is quickly approaching and now is the time to put together a video for a chance to win cash prizes.

The third annual 2017 Reel Peach Fest film festival is Wednesday Aug. 9 to 13 each night at the Penticton Peach Festival. One to three minutes films, made by locals will be featured each night at Okanagan Lake Park before the main performers hit the stage.

The first place prize is $1000 and accommodation for two at Lakeside Resort, $500 for second and $250 for third.

The Reel Peach Fest offers an opportunity to entertain the large crowds and showcase the Okanagan with authentic experiences and different perspectives. It is an opportunity to engage more than 5,000 people in Okanagan Lake Park with films about "Okanagan experiences or libations."

Organizer Andrew Jakubeit says entries have started to come in, but he would like to put out a final call and reminder to anyone that might be interested.

Videos submitted must have a liquid libation or Okanagan experience theme associated to them. Time is running out and the deadline for applications is Aug. 6.

Submit your epic film online here.
Photo: pixabay

A South Okanagan guide outfitter is facing several poaching charges as a result of a lengthy investigation by the Conservation Officer Service of B.C.

James Wiens, the owner/operator of Vaseux Creek Outfitters, specializes guiding hunters to big game including wolves, black bear, cougar, deer, elk and more.

Seven charges under the Wildlife Act were sworn against him on Tuesday, in addition to a Criminal Code violation in May.

The Conservation Officer Service is alleging Wiens used poison to hunt wolf between Oct. 1, 2015 and May 15, 2016.

Its also alleged he hunted black bear using bait, placed an attractant with the intent of attracting dangerous wildlife (bear), and discharged a firearm from a motor vehicle in May 2016. On the same dates, he is also accused of failing to accompany a hunter as a guide outfitter for big game.

Insp. Tobe Sprado of the Conservation Officer Service said non-resident big-game hunters are required to be guided by a licensed guide outfitter in B.C. Upwards of 5,000 non-residents travel to the province each year to hunt big game, he said.

The same month, the COS claims Wiens acted as a guide in a park or conservancy without a permit and operated a motor vehicle in park or conservancy not permitted by sign.

Finally, connected to the same incident, Wiens is facing one Criminal Code charge of willfully kill, maim, wound or injure a horse on May 9, 2016.

Sprado was not able to elaborate beyond the basics of the charges, stating the details of the offences would have to come out at trial.

Its been a lengthy investigation conducted by the Conservation Officer Service that we finally got charge approval on, Sprado said.

Wiens appeared in Penticton court Wednesday on the Criminal Code violation to consult counsel. He makes a first appearance on the new Wildlife Act charges on Aug. 16. He did not respond to request for comment.
Photo: Wikipedia

The families of missing and murdered Indigenous women say a national inquiry has already failed and are calling for "a hard reset" on the process.

Many made emotional pleas Wednesday as two of the inquiry commissioners appeared at the Assembly of First Nations annual meeting to explain the inquiry process, including how to register and give testimony.

Gerri Pangman, whose sister and aunt were killed in separate incidents decades apart, said the inquiry is a failure because it doesn't hold police to account.

"For this national inquiry, in the terms of reference, to leave out the police, it's a failure and it's a dishonour to my sister," Pangman said at the meeting.

The remains of Pangman's sister, Jennifer McPherson, were found scattered on a remote island off the coast of Vancouver Island and her husband was convicted of murder in 2014.

Traigo Andretti subsequently pleaded guilty to second-degree murder in the death of a Manitoba woman, Myrna Letandre, who disappeared in 2006. Letandre's dismembered remains were found in 2013 in a Winnipeg rooming house.

"So it took the death of my sister for Myrna's family to get justice, when it could have been in 2006 and my sister would be here," said Pangman.

"And you can just say this inquiry is going to be a success? No, it failed my sister."
Photo: The Canadian Press

A small plane crashed on a Utah highway Wednesday, killing two couples heading for a vacation but narrowly missing cars when it barrelled across the lanes through a gap in traffic.

The plane went down shortly after takeoff from a municipal airport popular with private pilots north of Salt Lake City, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer said. No injuries were reported on the ground after it snarled traffic and left behind blackened wreckage.

Layne Clarke, 48, was flying his wife and two friends as they departed for a vacation, said family friend and colleague Jeff Henderson. Clarke owned an automotive paint business and had gotten his pilot's license about five years ago after a friend got him interested in aviation, he said.

Also killed in the crash was his wife, Diana Clarke, 46, of Taylor, Utah, and their friends Perry, 45, and Sarah Huffaker, 42, of West Haven, Utah, according to the Utah Department of Public Safety.

The FAA and the National Transportation Safety Administration are investigating the cause of the crash. It closed most lanes of Interstate 15 in Riverdale, about 35 miles north of Salt Lake City.

The Beech A36 Bonanza crashed about a half-mile from a nearby municipal airport.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Federal officials have given a giant airtanker approval to fight wildfires in the U.S., but a lack of contracts currently limits the aircraft to California and one county in Colorado.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Interagency Airtanker Board issued the 17-month interim approval on Tuesday for the aircraft capable of carrying 19,200 gallons of liquid.

Global SuperTanker Services CEO Jim Wheeler said Wednesday the company is close to signing a contract with two states.

"The next step is for us to try to get a contract with the Forest Service," he said.

Such a contract would allow a state to be reimbursed by the federal government if the aircraft fought fires in that state. Wheeler said he hopes to get such a contract this year so the aircraft can fight fires across the West.

"The worst of the fire season is not over," he said. "It's just beginning."

During the interim approval, Global SuperTanker "must take steps to ensure its 747 aircraft delivers fire retardant in a manner that is effective and efficient and aids firefighting efforts on the ground," the Forest Service said in a statement Wednesday to The Associated Press.

The company has been fighting the Forest Service over a contract limiting firefighting aircraft to 5,000 gallons.
Photo: Contributed

The U.S. State Department is warning tourists going to Mexico about reports of tainted or substandard alcohol causing drinkers to become sick or pass out.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel recently reported about travellers becoming sick after drinking alcohol at Mexican resorts. In January, a 20-year-old Wisconsin woman vacationing in Mexico with her family died after she was pulled from a resort pool.

The State Department added the warning to its travel site for Mexico on Wednesday. The warning advises tourists to drink in moderation and seek medical attention if they begin to feel ill.

State Department spokeswoman Pooja Jhunjhunwala told The Associated Press that the warning had been added following reports about recent incidents in which people in tourist areas had fallen ill or blacked out after consuming allegedly tainted or substandard alcohol. She said the State Department had consulted with U.S. diplomatic posts in Mexico about the concern.

Abbey Connor of Pewaukee died after being pulled from a pool at the Paraiso del Mar, part of a cluster of Iberostar resorts near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, the Journal Sentinel reported. She was brain dead and was flown to Florida, where she was taken off life support.

Connor's 22-year-old brother also reported blacking out.

Following the initial report, the newspaper received accounts from more than three dozen people reporting similar experiences after drinking limited amounts of alcohol at all-inclusive Mexican resorts in the region.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A California teenager pleaded not guilty Wednesday to felony charges of vehicular manslaughter and drunken driving after she lost control of her car while livestreaming on Instagram and recording a crash that killed her younger sister.

Obdulia Sanchez, 18, appeared via remote camera in Merced County Superior Court, dressed in yellow inmate garb. She pleaded not guilty to all six counts and responded a "little bit" when the judge asked whether she understood the charges against her.

Ramnik Samrao, a public defender who represents Sanchez, said the teen believes she killed her sister.

"Anybody can say very easily that she is responsible for the death. She believes that too. She said multiple times, 'I killed my sister, I killed my sister,'" Samrao said outside court. "There's no doubt about that, but whether there was a crime committed, that's a separate story."

The judge set bail at $560,000.

Sanchez was driving the car on Friday when it veered onto the shoulder of a road about 75 miles northwest of Fresno.

Authorities said she overcorrected, causing the vehicle to swerve and overturn into a field, ejecting and killing her 14-year-old sister, Jacqueline Sanchez.
Photo: NBC News

A swinging and spinning amusement park ride called the Fire Ball broke apart on the opening day of the Ohio State Fair on Wednesday, hurtling people through the air, killing at least one and injuring seven others.

Three of the injured remained hospitalized in critical condition Wednesday night, authorities said at a late-night news conference.

"The fair is about the best things in life, and tonight with this accident it becomes a terrible, terrible tragedy," said Republican Gov. John Kasich.

The man who was killed was one of several people who were thrown when the ride malfunctioned, Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said earlier.

Dramatic video captured by a bystander shows the ride swinging back and forth like a pendulum and spinning in the air when it crashes into something and part of the ride flies off, throwing riders to the ground.
Photo: The Canadian Press

French firefighters have tamed one of the fiercest blazes to break out during four days of wildfires in the country's southeast Mediterranean coast that led to the evacuation of more than 12,000 people.

The fire in the seaside town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas in the southern Var region calmed Thursday because of a drop in the wind  but still marked the skyline with dramatic clouds of black smoke that were visible for miles.

"The fire is contained," Frederic Marchi-Leccia of the Var Fire and Emergency Service told reporters Thursday of the Bormes-les-Mimosas blaze that's forced many to sleep overnight in gyms and sailing clubs.

Despite the progress, authorities fear there will be flare-ups Thursday afternoon due to lack of moisture and higher winds. Firefighters are still battling blazes in nearby Artigues.

Still, the Var prefecture said fires in some sites in Bormes-les-Mimosas mean it is "not yet possible" for displaced residents and tourists to return to their homes and campsites. An afternoon reconnaissance flight will help authorities determine if it's safe to start sending people home.
Photo: The Canadian Press

With only a few bleats of protest, a flock of woolly, four-legged lawnmowers took a rare stroll through the streets of Montreal on Wednesday to take up their duties in a new city park.

The six ewes and four lambs were carefully herded along the sidewalk from one park to another with the help of shepherds and volunteers holding up orange barricades.

The 10 animals are providing environmentally friendly lawn maintenance and educational opportunities in three parks in the Rosemont-La Petite-Patrie borough this summer.

Marie-Eve Julien-Denis, one of the project's organizers, says grazing animals provide a natural way to trim the grass and eradicate invasive plant species.

Unlike mechanical lawnmowers, "herbivores have the ability to eat invasive species like buckthorn and phragmites, and to uproot them so they don't grow back," she said.
Americans collectively lose about $124 billion annually in wasted time and fuel due to traffic congestion alone. The personal-finance website WalletHub took an in-depth look at 2017's Best & Worst Cities to Drive in.

To determine the most driver-friendly places in the U.S., WalletHubs analysts compared the 100 largest cities across 25 key metrics. The data set ranges from average gas prices to average annual hours of traffic delays to auto-repair shops per capita.

Best Cities for Driving

1. Corpus Christi, TX

2. Gilbert, AZ

3. Greensboro, NC

4. Mesa, AZ

5. El Paso, TX

6. Laredo, TX

7. Winston-Salem, NC

8. Plano, TX

9. Scottsdale, AZ

10. Raleigh, NC

Worst Cities for Driving

91. Los Angeles, CA

92. Baltimore, MD

93. Philadelphia, PA

94. Honolulu, HI

95. Boston, MA

96. Seattle, WA

97. Washington, DC

98. Detroit, MI

99. Oakland, CA

100. San Francisco, CA

Best vs. Worst

Greensboro, North Carolina, residents spend the fewest annual hours in traffic congestion per auto commuter, 4.2, which is 24.8 times fewer than in Los Angeles, the city where residents spend the most at 104.1.

Gilbert, Arizona, has the fewest car thefts (per 1,000 residents), 0.55, which is 27.7 times fewer than in Oakland, California, the city with the most at 15.23.

Las Vegas has the most auto-repair shops (per square root of the population), 1.41, which is 8.8 times more than in Boston, the city with the fewest at 0.16.

Tulsa, Oklahoma, has the lowest average gas price, $1.85 per gallon, which is 1.7 times lower than in San Francisco, the city with the highest at $3.20 per gallon.

Winston-Salem, North Carolina, has the lowest average parking rate, $2.59 per two hours, which is 9.1 times lower than in Boston, the city with the highest at $23.54 per two hours.

To view the full report and your citys rank, please visit:
Photo: The Canadian Press

A Saskatoon pastor is taking a page out of Charles Schultzs classic Peanuts comic strip by offering spiritual advice and a glass of fruit punch at a roadside stand in his neighbourhood.

Mark Kleiner of Christ Church Anglican church says the stand is part of a parish initiative to participate more in the community.

He tells CTV Saskatoon they want a minister "that engages with the people around us."

The stand is strikingly similar to the one where Lucy often counsels Charlie Brown in the Peanuts comics.

An overhead sign on the booth promises spiritual help for five cents, while another sign on the front of it reads: The pastor is IN.

Kleiner says the fruit punch is free, and that hell take an IOU for those who dont have a nickel to pay for his spiritual advice.

Its really not so much a money-making proposition as it is a nod to Charles Schultz and Lucy of Peanuts fame, he says.

Kleiner has faced a wide range of questions, from big ones like the meaning of life to smaller ones about the intricacies of individuals personal faith.
Photo: Air Force Times Trans airman Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland: "I'd like to see them try to kick me out of my military."

Most LGBT-rights activists never believed Donald Trump's campaign promises to be their friend. But with his move Wednesday to ban transgender people from military service, on top of other actions and appointments, they now see him as openly hostile.

Leaders of major advocacy groups depicted Trump's Twitter pronouncement as an appeal to the portion of his conservative base that opposes the recent civil-rights gains by the LGBT community.

"His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government  even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group GLAAD.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-Defence Secretary Ash Carter.

Among those dismayed by Trump's tweets was Lt. Cmdr. Blake Dremann, a transgender man who's served in the Navy for 11 years and received his latest promotion after the policy change last year.

"Trans service members are continuing to do our jobs," Dremann said. "People know who we are now and it becomes personal, especially when you've got families that are going to be affected by this."

Another active-duty transgender soldier, Army Capt. Jennifer Peace, said she was concerned how a possible ban would affect her, her family and other transgender service members.

"My command has told me in the past the only thing that we should discriminate on is job performance, and I hope that military leadership will handle this issue the same way," Peace said in an email.
Photo: Interior Health

Interior Health is announcing changes to access and parking for the MOOG and Friends Hospice due to the construction on the new tower at Penticton Regional Hospital.

From July 31 until Dec. 2018, pedestrian and vehicle access will be closed from Government Street through Hospice Road. Alternatively, the facility can be accessed off of Industrial Ave.

The hospice parking lot, excluding two handicap parking stalls, will also be closed and hospice parking will be relocated to the South parking lot, an IH notice reads.

Signage and flaggers will be in place on Government Street to help people find their way and direct traffic to the Industrial Ave. entrace.
Photo: Google Maps

The Nova Scotia government says it closed the 2016-17 fiscal year with a surplus of $149.6 million.

The figure is $22.2 million higher than forecast in the April 2016 budget and about $110 million higher than stated when this year's budget was tabled in April.

The Finance Department says total revenues were up $62.3 million to $11.23 billion mainly due to higher than expected provincial recoveries from external sources such as cost-shared federal programs and net income from government business enterprises.

The increase in revenue was partially offset by lower than expected tax revenue.

Total expenses were also up $40.2 million to $11.08 billion mainly due to university funding and costs for flooding last fall and winter snowstorms.

The province's net debt also decreased by $121 million to $14.95 billion.
Photo: The Canadian Press

Prince William will complete his final shift in his job as an air ambulance pilot Thursday as he gets ready to take on more extensive royal duties.

The heir to the British throne is working the night shift at the East Anglian Air Ambulance, where he has been flying medical crews to emergencies such as traffic accidents for about two years.

"As I hang up my flight suit, I am proud to have served with such an incredible team of people, who save lives across the region every day," he wrote in an exclusive story in the Eastern Daily Press, a newspaper that serves the community near the ambulance service's base at southern England's Cambridge airport.

The announcement closes a chapter for William, 35, who is leaving the skies to return to formal duties as Britain's future king. As the older generation of royals slows down, the younger members of the family are taking a greater number of official roles, such as foreign trips and other appearances.

The prince's move is also about location. William and his wife, the former Kate Middleton, will be spending less time in their Norfolk residence and be carrying out more duties in London, where their 4-year-old son, Prince George, is due to start school.

Despite William's change in role, he said what he has seen as an ambulance pilot changed his perspective.

"I have had experiences in this job I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that will add a valuable perspective to my royal work for decades to come," he said in January.
Photo: The Canadian Press

A report on lessons learned from the Fort McMurray wildfire recommends improved prevention along with better disaster management and evacuation planning.

The KPMG review was commissioned by the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo following the fire in May 2016 that forced about 88,000 people to flee the area in northeastern Alberta.

The report says the municipality did a good job protecting people's safety and noted that nobody died as a direct result of the wildfire.

But it suggests key emergency leaders should take more training, pass on their knowledge to staff and use a command system to better co-ordinate how a disaster is managed.

The report says in the years leading up to the fire very little was spent on wildfire prevention programs, but since the disaster Alberta and the Red Cross have pledged $14 million for FireSmart mitigation efforts.

Mayor Melissa Blake says the municipality accepts all of the recommendations.

"We are committed to continuous learning and improvement," Blake said Thursday.

"We welcome the recommendations within this report, and are committed to their implementation, while building a stronger, and more resilient region."
Photo: RCMP

A Yukon couple is safe after a harrowing trip to a remote mining site left them stranded for three weeks.

RCMP in Haines Junction, 150 kilometres west of Whitehorse, say the couple was riding an all-terrain vehicle loaded with supplies on June 29 when the quad flipped in a fast-flowing river. The man and woman managed to make it to shore, but their supplies, including a satellite phone, were swept away.

Police say in a news release that the pair was able to walk to the mine site and take shelter at a cabin, but continued rising waters in the river kept them isolated and unable to call for help.

They were able to salvage some of their lost gear, including a cooler of food, but RCMP say it wasn't until July 21 when they thought of using marking paint to scrawl an SOS on a gravel bar near their cabin.

A passing pilot spotted the markings within hours and an RCMP helicopter sent to check out the report was able to airlift the couple to safety.

Const. Meagan Brown says everyone is pleased by the happy ending.

"The fact that they decided to write their SOS signal before they completely ran out of supplies was a good move, and definitely increased their chances of being found safe and sound."
Photo: Contributed Ashton with Christy Clark in Penticton last year

The B.C. Liberal Party is holding its first major caucus meeting as an opposition party in Penticton this week.

Local Liberal MLA Dan Ashton confirmed they are in town until Friday, adding the party felt it was important to keep their MLAs within the Interior.

Weve gone through flooding here, weve got fires, we cant get too close to them but we also have to keep our caucus members close to our ridings where the fires are, because they are on call on a continual basis, he said.

I know that everyone is glad to be here. They realize how important it is for tourism, the local economy and its been a bit difficult for a lot of people," he said, referring to the economic impact the fires have had on the region.

Ashton declined to comment on when a shadow cabinet would be announced, only hinting the public should see something very quickly."
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Driving down North Glen Haven Road in the town of Niles Wednesday, "for sale" signs dotted the southern part of the road, sandwiching a crew of Cayuga County Highway Department workers as they replaced a washed out culvert.

With the road bank caved in, and trees hanging precariously on the hillside up above, Doug and Kathy Sage walked up their driveway to see how the roadwork was going. The Sages live in Maryland, but they had been warned prior to coming that their vacation home on Skaneateles Lake had been involved in multiple problematic rainstorms.

The ditches along their driveway were about two feet deeper than usual, and there was about six inches of silt and sediment on their stairs and deck when they arrived. There's a new silt peninsula not far from their dock stretching into the lake. Other than that, they said, their biggest concern is the main roadway.

"We've been pretty lucky," Doug Sage said. "Our story was fairly low drama."

For many, the story was much worse, and that includes local municipalities who are crippling under large-scale, costly road projects.

Niel Rivenburgh, deputy director of emergency services for the county, said the state Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services is estimating that the damage to public infrastructure in southern Cayuga County from July 1-11 is about $3.74 million, though he said that's a conservative estimate. That's more than double what Rivenburgh had estimated about two weeks ago, and does not include damages to individuals' properties.

Bruce Nodine, superintendent of the Sempronius town highway department, said the constant rain is washing out all of his crew's temporary fixes.

"You fix, and you go back, and fix again," he said. "It's the only thing you can do."

One success story in the midst of the chaos is Mitchell Road, an important thoroughfare for emergency response vehicles in Sempronius. The road had been washed out, trees fallen on top, the roadside ditches widened and about 17-feet deep. It was unsafe to cross and had been closed for weeks after the July 1 storm.

Following an emergency request Rivenburgh and his office put in with the state Department of Transportation, DOT crews came in and worked with Sempronius, Summerhill, Niles and Sennett highway departments to get the ditches filled, the trees cleared and the road safe enough to open. Nodine added that he was amazed to have crews as far away from Sennett come to help, after they had reached out to him through the Highway Superintendents Association of Cayuga County.

The work, which Nodine estimated would have taken his four-man crew six weeks to complete, was finished in just three days. And what would have been an approximately $90,000 bill, at least, in materials for the town is looking to be about $15,000 to $20,000 due to the assistance.

Not only that, but the third storm to hit Moravia proved to be an odd blessing for Sempronius. Silt and sediment that needed to be removed from the Moravia cleanup was hauled to Mitchell Road and used to fill the ditches.

"It was shared services at its finest," Nodine said. "It's not finished, but it's passable. In my mind, that in itself was huge.

"We're a long ways from done," he added "The biggest thing on our minds is, winter is coming. We're trying to get things addressed before snowfall. That's what's driving our priorities."

Snow, Rivenburgh said, is usually not on the general public's mind in July, and so occasionally highway departments get criticized for the projects they are working on first. Rivenburgh is uncertain whether the state will reach Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster thresholds for this flooding event, but, he said, his office, local officials, local highway departments and fire departments are championing for their communities.

"FEMA's not coming until FEMA decides they're coming," Rivenburgh said. "What we know is there are tens of thousands of people impacted in Cayuga County and other areas of the state. Everyone's doing the best they can. We don't know what the outcome is going to be until they decide to be here. When they engage, things move quickly. When they don't engage, things move at a snail's pace."

The lack of funding help right now is slowing down regular work for highway crews, too. Cayuga County Highway Superintendent George Wethey has told legislators at committee meetings that his regularly scheduled summer paving is not getting done because crews are fixing roads down south. Legislator Terry Baxter had said at the full Legislature's meeting Tuesday night that he'd like the body to consider moving around money into the highway account since Wethey said his paving funds are being spent on cleanup materials. Rivenburgh added Wednesday that the damage could upset highway work for the next two or three years.

Another sector that Nodine said has been affected and not getting a lot of attention is the agricultural industry. Darren Reynolds sees the damage from both worlds. A medium equipment operator for Sempronius and a farmer at his father's crop farm, he said there isn't enough time in the day to get everything done.

While the rain is making the corn look healthy and abundant, the stalks cover the mud and erosion that some fields have underneath. Rivenburgh said the U.S. Department of Agriculture has disaster relief funds, too, and he's assisting some farmers through his office's call for damage reports.

Reynolds said that unless things dry out quickly, harvesting on his fields will be difficult.

"Mother Nature is going to see we're going to earn it," he said about this season's harvest. "We just struggle through it."
A developer is looking to redefine apartment living with rental homes atop McMillan Mesa.

The Bungalows on Pine Cliff are the first Flagstaff development for Cavan Companies, a Phoenix-based developer owned by David Cavan.

This is much more like living in a house than in a multi-level apartment, Cavan said of the Bungalows, which are available now for rent. We created them to look like houses, but smaller. They are about the size of an apartment, and cost about the same, sometimes a little more.

The first phase of the project included 23 bungalows, with one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom options. A one-bedroom bungalow is 731 square feet and rents for $1,700 per month plus utilities. The two-bedroom, which is 1,134 square feet, goes for $2,200 per month, and the three-bedroom, 1,280 square foot bungalow costs $2,500 per month.

Much of the surrounding area was designated as open space by Proposition 413, which was approved by voters in November.

The bungalows were designed with Millennials and Baby Boomers in mind, Cavan said.

Millennials are more of a segment of the population than any other age group, Cavan said. They are waiting longer to get married, so they are renting for most of that time. They also have student debt, and that delays them in buying.

Many baby boomers lost a lot of money in the recession, Cavan said, and many chose to sell their homes and put the equity from their homes into their savings and rent a home instead of buying.

Its becoming more of a lifestyle in this country, Cavan said. I know many people my age who rent and love it, because if something breaks they can just call the landlord to get it fixed.

Each bungalow is equipped with stainless steel appliances, and all have a washer and dryer in the unit. Each unit is also equipped with air conditioning.

They have more amenities than most apartments, Cavan said.

Most people grew up in a home, not an apartment, Cavan said. A lot of people want that home feel, and this is like a home rather than an apartment. A lot of people still dont qualify to buy, and this way they can rent. Its less expensive to get into and its less expensive to stay. It has a lot of lifestyle advantages.

Cavan owned the land where the bungalows were developed, south of Forest Avenue on Pine Cliff Drive, for about 14 years before building them. His company owns several other parcels of land in the area.

The parcel on the north side of Gemini Drive on the east side of Pine Cliff Drive will be another development of bungalows, built in the same style of the first phase. Construction on the second bungalow phase will start in the next three or four weeks, Cavan said. That phase will have 133 bungalows and will take about 18 months to complete, he said.

On the west side of Pine Cliff Drive Cavan will eventually develop a multi-level apartment complex, but he said that will not happen for a couple years. The company also owns more undeveloped land on McMillan Mesa, and Cavan said he is not sure exactly what will be built there yet.

David Price, the realtor in charge of renting the homes, said so far three have been rented out within the three weeks they have been on the market. It is still in a construction phase because the internet service has not been connected yet, and the patios of each will be extended and get a fence, Cavan said.

So far, most of the those touring through the development has been hospital employees, Price said. He said he expects many of the renters to work at the hospital, Gore, Northern Arizona University or Purina.

Stephen Brighton, a realtor with Century 21, said the housing shortage in Flagstaff has affected the rental market severely.

Its a very smart move to invest in rental properties, Brighton said. Either buy them and rent them or build them and rent them.

During the recession, many people looking to relocate found that they could not sell their houses for the price they wanted, so instead hired property managers to help them rent. Brighton said. Now that the selling prices have recovered, people are often telling the property managers not to renew leases because they would like to sell their properties.

Weve all had to kick out some really great tenants, Brighton said. These are tenants that paid their rent on time and took good care of the place, because the owners want to sell.

With fewer rentals available, the supply of rentals has not kept up with demand, creating a need for more units like the ones developed by Cavan, Brighton said.

The median sale price for a single-family, detached home in the Flagstaff area in June was $360,000, a 7 percent increase over the same time last year, Brighton said. The month has 128 home sales, which had not been seen in June since 2005, Brighton said.

Summer is always the busiest time of year for sales, he said.

The uptick in sales is about what was expected for the month, he said.

Its taken 11 years to get back to those levels, he said.
The Flagstaff Unified School District Governing Board is mulling ways to hold the Arizona Schools for the Deaf and Blind accountable after signing an agreement with them to once again provide services to FUSD students.

The FUSD Board decided to end and not renew its contract with ASDB two years ago after an Arizona Board of Education investigation found FUSD in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The board agreed to sign the contract in order to make sure that students with special needs had the tutors and aides they needed at the beginning of the school year.

The school year for Killip Elementary and Leupp schools started July 19. The other schools in the district start the year on Aug. 10. The contract has a 90-day clause that allows either the district or ASDB to end or renegotiated the contract.

The district was found in violation of the act after Dani Lawrence and her husband Aaron Green reported that ASDB had not been keeping all of the records on her sons improvement from year to year. The act requires student records to be kept for four years and FUSD requires them to be kept for five years after a student leaves the district. As a state agency, ASDB is allowed to destroy student records every two years.

Susan Smith, FUSDs director of Exceptional Student Services, brought a new contract with ASDB before the FUSD board last week. The contract would last one year with the option for the district to renew it with ASDB for the next five years. For the last two years, the district has contracted for some services through the Foundation for Blind Children.

Smith said staff was recommending going back to ASDB because as a state agency it couldnt pick and choose which students and parents it wanted to work with. Because the Foundation for Blind Children was a private entity it could choose which students to provide services to, leaving the district open to legal troubles because the district has to provide services to all students who need them. Because ASDB is a state agency it also must provide services to all students.

The district was also having trouble recruiting skilled staff to provide services that the Foundation didnt cover, such as education audiologist. The district is currently working with an audiologist from Flagstaff Medical Center but that person provides more of a medical outlook on a students hearing problems, students need help with finding an educational plan that works for them. ASDB has an education audiologist on staff, she said.

Smith said the district has put several new rules in place to prevent a repeat of two years ago. The district now has a student support specialist in each school who is in charge of making sure that students are getting the aid they need on a regular basis.

School Board members wanted to know what specific changes were in place to make sure records were kept according to the federal law. All of the board members were concerned that there was no specific guarantee spelled out in the agreement that ASDB would be required to keep records for a set amount of time.

Board member Kathryn Kozak was also concerned that there was no way listed in the contract that the district could audit ASDBs records.

Smith said that student support specialists in each school will be responsible for collecting and keeping progress data on each student throughout the year. Smith would keep an eye on the specialist to make sure that the records keeping requirements would be met.

Green and Lawrence pleaded with the board not to approve the contract without assurances that ASDB would keep proper records.

They werent providing services in compliance with the law, Green said. That should be the bare minimum in this contract.

The contract doesnt guarantee that the records will be retained, he said. The data from those records is important to parents who have a child that needs special education services in order to track their progress.

The school board unanimously agreed that the contract didnt have strong enough language to prevent a records mishap from happening again and teetered back and forth on the idea of approving the contract.

Board member Kara Kelty said she was not comfortable with the idea that the current provider could pick and choose which students and parents to work with.

Board member Carole Gilmore was concerned about students having access to the services they needed at the beginning of the school year.

Smith said the next meeting of the ASDB Board was in September, which is the earliest that a renegotiated contract could be approved after it had been rehashed by the districts and ASDBs attorneys. She said that about five to 10 students would be without interpretation services for class and the district would have to find substitutes for other children.

Board President Christine Fredericks suggested approving the current contract to make sure that services were in place at the beginning of the year and then having staff try to get stronger language on records retention inserted into the contract in the next 90 days.

In an email to the Arizona Daily Sun, Lawrence wrote, "Our family is disappointed to see the return of ASDB and had hoped FUSD would have done a better job of writing a service contract with federal law protection for student rights. Sad to see the agreement adopted without those assurances."
A 17-year-old student proposed the look of a new solar station in Shanxi province to promote ecology.[Photo provided to China Daily]

A solar power station shaped like giant pandas opened to the public on Tuesday in Datong, Shanxi province, and its owner said similar plants are planned in countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative.

Engineers used different kinds of silicon solar cells in black and grayish white to present an image of two baby pandas when seen from above.

The idea came from a 17-year-old overseas Chinese student. She hoped that it would make people think about protecting the environment by using green power.

The project's first stage is operating and was connected to the grid on June 29 with a capacity of 50 megawatts, meaning its average daily output could supply 120 average Chinese households with electricity for a year.

The project incorporates eight industry-leading technologies, according to Wang Jingchao, technical engineer of the power station. "With the new technologies, our plant is estimated to achieve 1,600 hours of full power operation annually," Wang said.

In the next five years, the owner of the solar station, Panda Green Energy, a Hong Kong-listed company, will carry out its "Panda 100 Plan", cooperating with countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative to build more panda power plants.

"We have signed an agreement with the Philippines to help them build a solar station," said Wang. "Pakistan, Djibouti, Australia, Canada and other countries are on the list for the next step."

One of the most interesting innovations is dubbed the "panda's smile". The angle of the solar cells can change based on the movement of the sun, making the panda seem to smile at times. Double-sided silicon cells get more out of sunlight.

Teens from around China have been invited to a summer camp hosted by the United Nations Development Programme at the station on Aug 10 to 19 to promote an interest in new energy innovation.
Beatrice police arrested a man late Wednesday accused of stealing copper and other items from a building.

Charles Fisher, 52, was arrested for burglary, possession of a weapon by a prohibited person, possession of a weapon while committing a felony, possession of burglar's tools, carrying a concealed weapon, first-degree trespassing and obstructing police.

Just before midnight, police were investigating an open door at the old Hoover building in the 700 block of South Seventh Street. Officers had previous reports of copper and other items being taken from the building this week.

An officer opened a door inside the building and heard a loud bang, as items above the door fell to the ground, as though an alarm system was set up, court documents state.

The door was tied shut from the other side and after opening it a few inches, officers had to cut a rope to gain entry.

Inside, Fisher was found holding a flashlight. He ran into another room and attempted to exit the building. Fisher was apprehended after a pursuit of approximately 100-yards.

Police found a black bag that contained items used for the burglary and other tools.

A large cable containing copper wiring was pulled from the ceiling and Fisher also had a knife with a six-inch blade that was recovered by police.
The Georgia Department of Labor announced Thursday that the unemployment rate in the Northwest Georgia region in June was 5 percent, up three-tenths of a percentage point from 4.7 percent in May. In June 2016, the rate was 5.6 percent



The rate rose as the number of unemployed residents increased and the labor force grew.

The number of unemployed increased by 1,541 to 20,933. There were 1,975 fewer unemployed than in June 2016.



The labor force increased, partially because high school and college students entered the job market. From May to June, the labor force, which consists of employed residents and those who are unemployed and actively looking for jobs, increased by 2,265 to 417,019. Compared to June a year ago, the labor force had a net increase of 11,183.



Although the rate rose, there were still 724 more Northwest Georgia area residents employed in June than in May, pushing the total number to 396,086. The increase in the number of employed residents in June grew by 13,158 from June 2016.



The number of initial claims for unemployment insurance, a measure of new layoffs, decreased by 366, or 16.8 percent, to 1,819. Most of the decrease came in manufacturing. Over the year, claims were down by 894, or 33 percent, from 2,713 in June 2016.



Metro Gainesville had the lowest area jobless rate at 4.3 percent, while the River Valley region had the highest at 6.4 percent.



Meanwhile, Georgias seasonally-adjusted unemployment rate for June was 4.8 percent, down from 4.9 percent in May. It was 5.3 percent in June 2016.



Job seekers and employers are encouraged to use the GDOLs online job listing service employgeorgia.com to search for jobs or recruit new employees. In June, 2,951 new job openings in the Northwest Georgia region were posted on Employ Georgia. Throughout the state, 71,261 new job openings were posted.

Audio comments from GDOL Director of Communications Sam Hall are available for download here.
Amy Jenkins, director of Home & Community-Based Early Intervention at Siskin Childrens Institute, has been named board chair for the Tennessee State Interagency Coordinating Council (SICC). The Council, which is tasked with supporting the implementation of Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families in the state, is made up of regional leaders in early intervention and appointed by Governor Haslam.

Ms. Jenkins has a masters degree in Education and began working with children and their families in 1992. As the Director of the Home & Community-Based Early Intervention Program, she supervises 14 home visitors who serve more than 310 families weekly, in the 10 counties of the Southeast District of Tennessee. She is a certified Routines-Based Interview trainer, certified Routines-Based Home Visiting Trainer, has coordinated and presented during the Routines-Based Interview Certification Institute from 2012 through 2015, as well as leads the Siskin Home Visiting Training Institute. She has presented at numerous conferences on Routines-Based Early Intervention and other early childhood and early intervention topics, and works with states across the country to provide individualized training on research-based practices in early intervention. She is currently a member of the National Association of Education in Young Children and the Division of Early Childhood as well as the chair of the Youth and Family Development board of directors.

It has been an honor to be a part of our State Interagency Coordinating Council for the last several years, as we have made huge strides in how we, as a state system, provide better services to families of children with special needs in Tennessee, said Ms. Jenkins. As I take on the role of board chair, I hope to continue the path we have set for ourselves in ensuring all those we serve receive the best possible care and support for their child and their family. We will continue to apply evidence-based practices to our model of service delivery and we anticipate improved results for all children in the Part C/TEIS system.

We are extremely proud of Amys appointment as SICCs board chair. Her phenomenal commitment to children with special needs and their families as well as her expertise in the field make Amy an ideal fit for this important role. Additionally, Amys dedication to expanding best practices helps the Institute fulfill its strategic goal of impacting the field of early childhood development to create positive change, said Siskin Childrens Institute CEO, John Farrimond.

To learn more about the TN State Interagency Coordinating Council, visit tennessee.gov/education/article/teis-in-your-community.
A burger from Butcher and the Burger and french toast from The Breakfast Lounge are among the items offered for free to users of Freevo, a new-to-Chicago app offering freebies to restaurant customers. (Freevo app)

Another app is landing in Chicago that gets diners freebies at local eateries  if they're willing to eat at off hours.

Freevo, which launched this month, partners with 150 restaurants who provide free items to lure potential customers during their slower periods. Once diners claim a deal, they have 45 minutes to use it before it expires.

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Though no restaurant purchases are required, the hope is that first-time visitors will make other food or drink purchases while there to pick up their freebies, or even become regular customers, said Anthony Miller, CEO of the South Africa-based company.

App users pay a $20 annual membership fee, which is being waived until July 31 as an introductory offer. The company charges participating restaurants $200 for every 200 coupons issued.

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Restaurants post on Freevo what's available  typically between five and 10 items  as well as the times the offers are available. Currently offered deals include the delta force roll (normally $8.95) at Blue Fin Sushi, 1952 W. North Ave.; coffee (normally $6) at Ethiopian Diamond, 6129 N. Broadway; and southern nachos (normally $5.95) at Wishbone, 3304 N. Lincoln Ave.

New users get two freebies to redeem in the app. Once they pick a deal, they get an electronic coupon that they show to the restaurant upon ordering. To get additional coupons, users must take a photo of their check  even if the bill is $0  and submit it to Freevo.

Users can redeem only one coupon at a time, but can make multiple trips in a day to use additional coupons. Freevo is partnering with Restaurant Depot and launching in Chicago restaurants who are part of the supplier's network.

Chicagoans may be familiar with using apps to get free stuff at restaurants, being home to the Belly customer loyalty app and its Belly Bites companion that provides free food and other products and services from a variety of vendors. There is no charge for consumers to use Belly or Belly Bites.

Chicago is Freevo's first U.S. market, and the app launched with 10 employees at WeWork State Street. It plans to at least double its employee count and hopes to sign up hundreds of more restaurants by the winter, Miller said.

Miller, one of five founders, said about $1.5 million has been invested in the project. New York and Los Angeles are Freevo's next targets for expansion.

Cheryl V. Jackson is a freelance writer.

Twitter @CherylVJackson
The president of a national group aiming to enhance downtowns across the country visited Beatrice Thursday morning to see what the Sunland has to offer.

Patrice Frey, President and CEO of Main Street America, met with local Main Street Beatrice officials for a tour of the downtown district highlighting a variety of improvements and upcoming projects.

Beatrice was one of two stops in Nebraska for Frey, who also toured Fremont.

Frey, who operates out of the national office in Chicago, said one thing Beatrice has going for it is buildings with multiple levels.

She said the option for upper-level housing downtown helps build a 24-hour experience for the area.

I would say upper stories in particular play a really critical role in downtown revitalization, she said. Thats because putting those back to their traditional use of upper story housing has really transformed a lot of communities because it helps bring two groups interested in downtown living, thats boomers and millennials. A lot of times, what we see is that helps create foot traffic to help sustain those local businesses downtown.

The tour was led by Michael Sothan, President of Main Street Beatrice, who said this was the first time the national CEO had visited Beatrice in nearly 20 years.

Sothan said there are 168 businesses in the downtown area and that $3 million in downtown improvements are planned through 2018. The tour gave a chance to showcase some of the things to come, and also point out challenges Beatrice is working through.

Its a chance to really showcase what were doing and what were succeeding at, but also what challenges were having and trying to find different resources to handle that, Sothan said. Well see if something comes out of that. Weve been working hard to really try to help position downtowns across America to be able to grow. Weve been working hand-in-hand with the national Main Street Center, so its nice to have them come here locally.

Frey said Beatrice isnt the only community facing challenges in its downtown district, as many communities nationwide are working through issues that originated a half century ago.

Those challenges started in the 1950s and 60s when we saw suburbanization, even around small towns such as this, she said. Location of key businesses outside the downtown area, that remains a challenge. Its continued to be a challenge with the development of big boxes and now online retail. I would say that downtowns dont have an easy time of it, but were seeing a resurgence because people value quality of place and that sense of community only offered by downtown.

Sothan is hopeful that the tour could result in more grant funding for Beatrice, having shown some of the issues in the area in person.

Theres definitely no guarantees, especially in the world of grants, but I definitely think that it helps us be able to show what a community like Beatrice needs, he said. Were definitely different than a downtown thats going to be on the east coast or an inner city neighborhood. Its a great opportunity to show the national Main Street folks rural America and for them to better understand what our needs are.

Frey said funding for downtown districts comes from a variety of sources, and that one of the most crucial pieces is to have support from the city.

She added one of the biggest assets downtown Beatrice has going for it is nearby access to the trail system and the Big Blue River, which promote tourism and activity.

One of the things that were seeing is rural communities can be really successful linking their downtowns to trails, she said. Thats such a great way to capture folks coming through, often on their bicycles, and need to kick up their heels for the night, get a cup of coffee, get a meal and maybe while theyre at it browse some of the retail.

Anything and everything you can do to foster those connections is really important and pays off to the community.
All is not quiet on United Airlines' western front as the carrier gears up to protect its most profitable hub, Denver International Airport.

United will be pushing back on the encroaching Frontier Airlines, an ultralow-cost rival that's based at the Denver airport and has expansionary ambitions there. Frontier recently said it is adding 21 destinations from the Mile High City, with more to come.

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For United, prevailing in Denver is one of its most crucial competitive missions. So important, in fact, that United President Scott Kirby vowed during a recent quarterly earnings call that taking on Frontier is "a battle I guarantee United will win."

Discount-hungry air travelers could win too, regardless of which airline comes out on top. To blunt Frontier, United will likely expand its recently introduced basic economy fares and might even match Frontier's low fares on direct competitive routes  at least during the initial phase of marketing combat.

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"It's going to lead to some pricing pressures," Kirby said during the conference call.

Kirby has waged this type of battle before.

Before landing in 2016 at United, Kirby was president of American Airlines, where he cut fares at O'Hare International Airport and Dallas-Fort Worth International to beat back Spirit Airlines, another ultra discounter.

Last year, Chicago-based United told investors the Denver facility is its biggest money-making hub. It is the sixth busiest airport in the U.S., serving nearly 58 million passengers annually.

United, which operates 370 daily flights from Denver, has a 42 percent market share there. Southwest Airlines has 30 percent and Frontier has about 12 percent, according to the airport's website.

Even a small shift in paying customers can mean millions of dollars to an airline and the feisty Frontier is determined to grow at Denver and beyond.

By next summer, Frontier expects to have 314 nonstop flights, double its current tally, and will serve 90 percent of the country.

What's more, the private equity group that owns the airline has recently filed for an initial public stock offering.

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There are news reports Frontier's initial public offering has stalled because of United's strong reaction to its expansion. But if the IPO is completed, look for some of the proceeds to go into acquiring new planes and bankrolling more expansion initiatives in Denver.

On top of selling deeply discounted fares, Frontier's business model depends on transporting passengers directly to their destinations by using what's referred to as a "point-to-point" system.

That's in contrast to a more centralized "hub-and-spoke" approach deployed by United and other large airlines. Planes are routed through a central airport, or hub, and the spokes are routes flown in and out of those centers.

This is probably more than you care to know about airport operations.

Yet Frontier's aggressive Denver expansion could require it to adopt a centralized airline system, which could put it at a competitive disadvantage against United.

Why?

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Aviation experts point out that a hub-and-spoke strategy is more complex than a point-to-point operation because moving passengers, luggage and planes in, out and within one airport is a delicate and expensive dance.

"You've got to staff up, because you have peaks and valleys  you've got to connect bags, which is the most operationally difficult thing we do," said Kirby, who added the planes also have to arrive on time so passengers can make connections.

(Frontier and United did not respond to my emails asking for further comment on the Denver situation or Kirby's remarks.)

United's fervor won't scare off Frontier.

Frontier has made its mark by selling cheap tickets that don't include assigned seating, checked bags or carry-ons. If you want a soft drink that costs extra.

Frontier's dogged presence, along with Spirit's, has pressured United, American and Delta to launch similar deep-discount ticket programs. Even low-fare provider Southwest is feeling the ultra discounters' hot breath.

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Nonetheless, Frontier's expansion in Denver ratchets up the competition with United to a whole other level.

In doing so, it's picking a fight the Chicago-based airline can't afford to lose.

roreed@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @reedtribbiz
When Ian Schrager bought the landmark Ambassador East hotel in Chicago's Gold Coast neighborhood in 2010, the plan of the New York City nightclub owner turned hotelier and real estate developer was to restore the hotel to its original glamour with a modern touch.

The restoration and renaming to Public happened, but those go-go days of decades earlier, when the hotel and its Pump Room restaurant was frequented by A-list celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Humphrey Bogart, Lauren Bacall and Marilyn Monroe didn't entirely take off.

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Last year, after a five-year run Schrager, who paid $25 million for the property, sold it to investors Shapack Partners and Gaw Capital for $61.5 million, a price considered less-than-stellar in Chicago's superhot hotel market.

Now a new hotelier is aiming to do what Schrager didn't. Journal Hotels, which has restored several properties in Los Angeles, has reimagined the hotel and restored part of its name: Ambassador. The company also is bringing back Rich Melman's Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises to reconceptualize the Pump Room, which it ran for 22 years.

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But it remains uncertain whether the second reboot will be the charm for a hotel that's not only off the beaten path, but surrounded by a flush of other small, trendy hotels.

A sign marks the newly rebranded Ambassador hotel in Chicagos Gold Coast neighborhood. The hotel, once known as the Ambassador East, was most recently known as the Public hotel. (Terrence Antonio James/Chicago Tribune)

Ambassador is Journal Hotel's first Chicago property  the company has restored the Hollywood Roosevelt and the MacArthur in Los Angeles, among others.

The choice to snap up Public was an easy one for Gaw, because it isn't common that hotels with the history of the Ambassador East come up for sale. Chicago, being a "strategic market" with a flush of tourists is an asset, said Stephen Brandman, CEO of Journal Hotels. Journal is part of Gaw.

"There are a lot of beautiful things in the hotel," Brandman said."Everything we're trying to do is bring out reinforce the beauty of the hotel."

The 285-room Ambassador East opened in 1926. It was a companion to the Ambassador, across the street, which is now a condominium building. The Pump Room followed in 1938 and quickly became a hub for celebrities stopping through town.

At the hotel, A-listers often set up residence. Eunice Kennedy's father, Joseph, held an apartment for her there for when she worked in Chicago as a social worker. The likes of Lana Turner, Doris Day and Helen Hayes were famous residents. Journal Hotels hopes to recapture some of that glory.

Schrager is famous for his sexy-chic hotels such as the Hudson in New York City, where models and moguls mingled in the hotel lobbies. In the 1970s and '80s, he rose to stardom as the force behind New York City hot spots Studio 54 and the Palladium, where stars such as Michael Jackson, Bianca Jagger and Diane von Furstenberg danced and held court.

When Schrager opened Public in 2011, his aim was to make that glamour accessible and friendly to people who aspired to be cool but lacked the star wattage and deep pockets of celebrities.

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But in Chicago, Public was up against a growing crop of trendy, hipster hotels popping up closer to the hubbub in River North and near North Michigan Avenue. Even though Public had Schrager's reputation behind it, the brand's debut sputtered.

Schrager's talent is in creating memorable, aspirational and coveted spaces, not operating a hotel, which requires keeping costs down to turn a profit, said Robert Cole, a senior research analyst of hospitality and leisure travel at Phocuswright, a market research firm.

"He got the idea that the nightclubs of the '80s would be the hotels of the '90s," Cole said. "Ian is very much into creating environment, but where his hotels fall down is having to keep them up. If you have lambswool that's very cool on your chairs, it's very cool, but keeping it clean can get complicated and expensive."

Brandman is betting he can recapture the hotel's glory with his plans to restore the hotel, beginning with the name change.

"We are trying to be respectful to the building and bring back that time that it was at it's height."

Plans include improving the public spaces and installing new elevators, said Brandman, a veteran hotelier who previously was the CEO of Commune Hotels and worked on the development of Hotel Sax and Hotel Lincoln.

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Melman, meanwhile, won't provide any details on plans for the Pump Room, but the "reconcept" of the restaurant is expected to debut in the fall.

Lettuce previously ran the space from 1976 to 1998. "Lettuce has a lot of history at this location," Melman said in a statement. "Our first restaurant here was exciting and so much fun that I'm thrilled to be doing it again in a more modern way."

History and glory aside, there's still the matter of attracting guests to the hotel, which has been an uphill battle for the past few owners of the property.

Lifestyle hotels, are "... just about how people see themselves. (It's) a broad range of customers (who) are looking for an interesting experience," Brandman said. "We want to make it approachable, rather than defining ourselves as a luxury hotel."

Attracting that dynamic is competitive in Chicago, where in recent years several boutique hotels are in busier, trendier neighborhoods than the Gold Coast, which is more posh than party.

"The uniqueness of the neighborhood is both a challenge and opportunity," said hotel consultant Ted Mandigo.

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It enables the hotel to command a higher rate, but it also calls for the hotel to be quieter and less vibrant. "There's a fine line of balance that needs to be achieved," he said.

That could be tricky for Journal, because as the company aims to keep room rates down and make the hotel more accessible, tighter margins will limit profitability.

Room prices at the Ambassador will start in the low $200s. Other local boutique hotels such as Acme and Hotel Monaco are roughly in the same range, although cheaper rates can be found on travel websites.

Brandman's success will depend on his ability to create that essential hip ambiance for travelers on a budget, industry watchers say.

Journal's track record of successfully revamping historic hotels is in its favor. "It seems to be their sweet spot," Cole said. "They've figured out how to run these hotels, probably more efficiently than Schrager."

crshropshire@chicagotribune.com

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The tasting room in the Ballast Point brewery in San Diego. The San Diego-based brewery known for Sculpin IPA and Grapefruit Sculpin plans to open a brewpub in Chicago's booming Fulton Market district early next year. (John Schulz photography)

Ballast Point, the San Diego-based brewery known for Sculpin IPA and Grapefruit Sculpin, plans to open a brewpub in Chicago's booming Fulton Market district early next year.

Ballast Point intends to open a 12,000-square-foot "research and development" brewery, restaurant and a rooftop bar on North Green Street in a former meatpacking plant that's been redeveloped into office and retail space. Ballast Point's first Midwestern location reflects its continued efforts to grow the brand nationally since being acquired by Constellation Brands' Chicago-based beer division for $1 billion in 2015.

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Close to Constellation's beer headquarters in the Loop, the Fulton Market brewery will try to win the hearts and palates of Chicago beer enthusiasts in an increasingly crowded market.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 34 The 31-day beer crawl ends where it arguably all began for Chicago craft beer: with a Bell's beer at Hopleaf. Back in the early 1990s, both were trying to make names for themselves, and they did: Bell's Amber Ale was the biggest seller at Hopleaf by a mile. The bar even made a Bell's Brewery neon sign for its front window. (It still hangs there today.) Twenty-five years later, Amber Ale has faded away at Hopleaf, but Two Hearted Ale has a permanent place on the tap handles. And why shouldn't it? The Kalamazoo legend was recently named the best beer in America by the readers of Zymurgy, a home-brew magazine published by a division of the Brewers Association. It's a classic American IPA  a balanced melding of fruity (I get orange) and bitterness with a clear malt presence tying it all together. It's America's best beer at what's arguably Chicago's best bar. $6; 5148 N. Clark St., 773-334-9851, www.hopleafbar.com  Josh Noel (Josh Noel/Chicago Tribune)

"Chicago's a great beer-drinking city and a great food city. ... This is really about engaging with the people of Chicago and having them experience our beer and creativity," Marty Birkel, president of Ballast Point, said Thursday.

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Using a three-barrel system, the brewery will produce small batch beers unique to Chicago while also selling Sculpin IPA and other flagship beers brewed in Virginia, Birkel said. The restaurant will dish up Southern California grub, such as Baja-style fish tacos, in addition to locally inspired fare.

When Constellation placed its huge bet on Ballast Point, it bought one of the fastest growing and highest-priced beer brands on the market, with six-packs often selling for north of $14. Last year, Ballast Point was ranked as the 13th largest brewery in the U.S. in terms of sales volume, according to the Brewers Association, a craft beer industry group.

Ballast Point will join Goose Island and Lagunitas in Chicago as former darlings of craft beer now owned by giant beer companies in an industry where the lines continue to blur through acquisitions. None of those three are considered craft breweries anymore by the Brewers Association because they're no longer independently owned, but they're still classified as craft by market research firms like IRI and Nielsen.

Executives with Constellation Brands  the third largest beer company in the U.S., known for brands like Corona and Modelo  recently have acknowledged that Ballast Point hasn't yet lived up to expectations in terms of sales growth, given the size of the investment.

Birkel, a longtime Constellation executive who took over as president of Ballast Point last year, said numerous factors have impeded Ballast Point's growth, including the overall slowing of sales growth in the craft beer industry. There was also price compression in the industry, though Birkel said the company continues to like Ballast Point's position in the high end.

Constellation remains bullish on Ballast, the only craft beer in its stable, which continues to grow through distribution.

"We have work to do to get the value for our shareholders, but we have a plan in place to get there. ... It's a long-term play. It doesn't happen overnight," Birkel said.

Going forward, Ballast Point will invest more in its core brands, which include Sculpin IPA, Grapefruit Sculpin and Mango Even Keel, and tap the brakes on rolling out new fruit-flavored beers, Birkel said.

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It also will open more brewpubs, an increasingly important way for breweries to engage with consumers. Since 2010, on-premise beer consumption at breweries in the U.S.  including taprooms and brewpubs  has more than quadrupled, from about 448,500 barrels to about 2 million barrels last year, according to data from the federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.

"I think it's very important," Birkel said. "We want to connect with consumers. We want them to experience the brand."

Ballast Point currently has six retail locations in California and one in Virginia. Just recently, the company launched a new brewing system focused on sour beers, as well as a new barrel-aging facility, in Miramar, Calif.  perhaps a sign of things to come to Chicago in the years ahead.

Ballast Point is the latest brand to establish a presence in the Fulton Market district, an area west of the Kennedy Expressway that once was dominated by meatpackers and food wholesalers and in recent years gained notoriety for its Randolph Street restaurants.

A wave of real estate development continues to change the area, with Google's Midwest headquarters moving into a former cold storage building and McDonald's future headquarters under construction on the former campus of Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Studios. Modern offices are being joined by boutique hotels, apartments, shops and other new uses.

Ballast Point's new home on Green Street was formerly an Amity Packing Co. pork processing plant. A venture including Chicago developers Shapack Partners and AJ Capital Partners  who also developed the Soho House hotel and private club down the street  bought the 90,000-square-foot building in 2013 and converted it to office and retail space. The largest tenant is New York-based co-working company WeWork.

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Ryan Ori contributed.

gtrotter@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @GregTrotterTrib
The Chicago-area unemployment rate ticked up in June from the month before, coming off record-low levels earlier this year.

The unemployment rate across the region that spans Chicago, Naperville and Arlington Heights was 5.1 percent last month, according to data released on Thursday by the Illinois Department of Employment Security. In May, the rate was 4.1 percent, the lowest May unemployment rate since tracking began in 1976. In June 2016, the unemployment rate for greater Chicago was 6.2 percent.

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The unemployment rate identifies those who are out of work and looking for work. The total number of nonfarm jobs in the Chicago -metro division rose to 3.78 million in June, up 1.1 percent from June 2016 and just under 1 percent from May.

"We gained jobs but at about half the rate than the rest of the country," Employment Security Director Jeff Mays said in a news release. "Although the unemployment rates are lower compared to last year, the labor force continues to shrink in most metro areas across the state."

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Illinois businesses added jobs in 11 of the state's metropolitan areas, with the largest increases in Bloomington, Lake County and Kankakee. Danville and Rockford reported declines, while Decatur jobs remained flat from a year ago.

sbomkamp@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @SamWillTravel
Michigan's Short's Brewing has sold a 20 percent stake of Lagunitas, which is headquartered in Chicago and Petaluma, Calif. (Michael Tercha / Chicago Tribune)

Short's Brewing Co., which until last year used the slogan "Michigan only, Michigan forever," announced Wednesday that it sold a 19.99 percent stake to Lagunitas Brewing Co.

But since Lagunitas, which has locations in Chicago and Petaluma, Calif., was recently bought out by Heineken, that chunk of the celebrated Michigan brewery is actually in the hands of big beer.

Short's, which is based in Bellaire and Elk Rapids -- and known for such beers as fruit ale Soft Parade and IPA Huma Lupa Licious -- last year expanded distribution beyond Michigan to several nearby states.

Short's founder, Joe Short, said in the news release Wednesday that he's found success surrounding himself with "the best people," and that the Lagunitas deal is one of many strategic decisions to ensure the brewery's continued success.

"This partnership with Lagunitas is just another part of evolution in the cycle of our dynamic and growing business," he said in the news release, which doesn't mention Heineken.

The partnership comes as many other craft breweries, such as Lagunitas , have been purchased by large, mass-production brewing companies. Short's deal with Heineken is only for a minority stake, so in the eyes of its peers in the national Brewers Association trade organization, it still meets the definition of a craft brewery.

Since it opened its Chicago brewery in 2014, Lagunitas Brewing Co. has become the largest craft beer producer in the city. Here's a timeline of its development. (Kori Rumore / Chicago Tribune) (Kori Rumore/Chicago Tribune)

Of course, Heineken's deal with Lagunitas started with a 50 percent stake in 2015 before acquiring the rest of the company earlier this year.

To many people who enjoy craft beer, this is no big deal.

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But people close to the craft-beer business tend to resent the idea of publicly traded, corporate macro-breweries controlling craft beer. Many are concerned that they'll prioritize profit over quality, hoard hops and other resources, and undersell traditional craft brewers. Money spent on local craft beer also feeds more into the local economy -- think mom-and-pop stores versus Walmart.

There's also a sense of pride that the demand for craft beer developed from humble beginnings, in many cases with home brewers wanting to share their creations with others.The Brewers Association defines "craft brewer" as a small, independent, traditional brewer -- specifically, annual production of 6 million barrels of beer or less. Also, the brewer must be less than 25 percent owned or controlled by an alcohol industry member that is not itself defined as a craft brewer.

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Short's Brewing, with its creativity and frequently successful experiments, is one of Michigan's 10 biggest craft brewers, and it's the largest Up North.

"We are looking forward to upping our game with quality," Short's spokeswoman Emily Sullivan said of the partnership, adding that it will bring access to resources such as materials, goods and packaging.

She said there aren't currently plans to further expand distribution, but it's possible. The brewery was founded by Joe Short in 2004, and the Elk Rapids production facility opened in 2009.

This isn't the first time a Michigan brewery sold a substantial stake to a company outside Michigan. Founders Brewing Co. in Grand Rapids announced in 2014 its partnership with Mahou San Miguel, which is based in Spain and owns a 30 percent stake. Founders is no longer considered by the Brewers Association to be a craft brewery.

Perrin Brewing Co. in Comstock Park is now part of Colorado-based Oskar Blues, owned by Boston-area investment group Fireman Capital Partners. Fireman's investment allowed Oskar Blues to expand its brewing capacity across the country, and to buy Perrin and Florida's Cigar City Brewing. Each brewery remains run by its local managers, with input from Fireman's Dan Fireman and Oskar Blues owner Dale Katechis, as reported in USA Today.

Under the craft beer industry's Brewer's Association guidelines, Oskar Blues remains a craft brewer because it's owned by a private equity firm, and not a multinational conglomerate brewery, USA Today reports.

From 2011 to 2016, the volume of craft beer produced in the United States has grown from 5.7 percent to 12.3 percent of the U.S. beer market as the number of craft breweries grew from 1,977 to 5,234, according to the Brewers Association. Last year, the association reports that craft beer accounted for 21.9 percent of the market share by dollars; that's $23.5 billion of $107.6 billion.

Meanwhile, the big beer companies have seen losses: In 2016, total volume at Anheuser-Busch declined 2 percent, including a 1.6 percent volume decline in North America, the Associated Press reports.
Dread might be too strong a word. But Kate Hunt's feelings about back-to-school shopping aren't far from those of kids who soon will have to give up lazy afternoons at the pool for long hours in the classroom.

The supply lists her first- and third-grade sons' school sent home were simultaneously not specific enough  or too specific. One required eight folders, each a different color.

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"There's just so many rules," said Hunt, of Evanston, hoping to cross most items off the boys' lists at the local Target Monday afternoon with as little hassle as possible.

You'd think it was a no-brainer to buy back-to-school items online, where there's no line at checkout and price comparisons are easy. But for many families, the tradition of trekking to a store and pushing a cart loaded with pencils, notebooks, folder, tissue boxes, a protractor and a first-day outfit remains intact, one of the last strongholds in a fast-changing retail industry.

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For some families, it's a way to get kids excited about the upcoming year. Others are skeptical buying online would be any less of a chore.

"It feels like one of the few things that's actually easier in the store," Hunt said.

A shelf containing back to school supplies at Walmart in Pullman. (Nuccio DiNuzzo / Chicago Tribune)

Back-to-school is the retail industry's second-biggest shopping season, and families with children in kindergarten through high school are expected to spend an estimated $29.5 billion this year, according to a recent survey by the National Retail Federation.

But although the share of consumers who say they plan to shop online has grown in recent years, most of those dollars are still spent in stores.

More than 70 percent of last year's back-to-school purchases were made in bricks-and-mortar stores, according to market research firm The NPD Group.

When it comes to apparel, Katy Mickelson, a mother of two from Chicago's Roscoe Village neighborhood, said she still likes to touch and feel most items before buying. She also wants her kids  a son in second grade and daughter in preschool  to get the traditional back-to-school shopping experience she remembers.

Mickelson said she has fond memories of stocking up on new jeans and sweaters before the start of each year as a kid, and wants the same for Luke, 7, and Adelyn, 4.

"It gets them excited, the experience of getting something new and cool to show your friends, that lessens the sting of school a little," she said.

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Michelle Kwak, of Chicago, will likely buy her fifth-grade daughter's backpack online, where there's a wider selection of fun designs. But when it comes to the basics, it's quicker to hit the stores, said Kwak, shopping Monday at a Skokie Walmart  the first of three planned stops at nearby big box chains.

It feels like one of the few things that's actually easier in the store.  Kate Hunt, back-to-school shopper from Evanston

Supply lists often call for very specific items, and tracking down the right version on a shelf can feel easier than clicking around online, Hunt said.

Convenience, not just price, is a priority for back-to-school shoppers, so Walmart is trying to make it less of a headache, however they choose to shop, said Scott Bayles, Walmart's vice president of stationery.

"As customers view time as a new form of currency, it's our job to save them time as well as money," Bayles said.

For the first time, the chain is deploying a version of the "Holiday Helpers" program, in which Walmart added more employees near checkout to keep lines moving during the busiest shopping periods.

But it's also one of several retailers trying to make it easier for customers to handle their back-to-school shopping online. Walmart is offering same-day store pickup for a wider range of school items shoppers can order online. And both it and Target post supply lists from participating schools on their websites. Shoppers can browse on their own or add every item on their child's list to a digital cart with one click.

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Staples lets customers upload a photo of a supply list through their app. An employee will prep the order for in-store pickup within two days, but typically in about half an hour, Christine Mallon, Staples' vice president of retail marketing, said in an email.

Still, shoppers who choose to pick up an online order at a Staples store often walk the aisles to make sure they didn't forget anything, she said.

Customers already have proven willing to outsource some supply shopping. According to The NPD Group, 65 percent of U.S. consumers who have the option to purchase a pre-packaged school supply kit have done so at least once. The kits, often sold through a child's school, are a timesaver, but can also be more expensive and don't let kids choose the items filling their backpacks.

As online back-to-school services become more common, more customers likely will start taking advantage of them, said Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst with The NPD Group.

It's already happening with back-to-college shopping, an even larger market. Families of college students, who often purchase electronics and dorm furniture along with apparel and other supplies, are expected to spend an estimated $54 billion this year, according to the retail federation.

College students increasingly shop online at home and pick items up at a store near their school or have them delivered straight to campus, Cohen said.

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"These kids aren't loading a trailer full of stuff anymore, they're buying online and shipping to themselves at school," Cohen said.

Families buying for students in kindergarten through high school were more likely to say they planned to do back-to-school shopping at department stores and discounters than online, according to the retail federation. But for back-to-college shoppers, online was the most popular choice.

That doesn't mean stores aren't getting ready for the college crowd, stocking shelves with extra-long sheets, shower caddies, minifridges and futons.

Even when a retailer's website doesn't get a shopper's back-to-school dollars, it's likely influencing them. About 60 percent of Chicago parents surveyed by Deloitte said they planned to research back-to-school purchases online before buying in stores.

"It's similar to the holidays, they want physical stores and online to be complementary," said Liz Berrill, a partner at Deloitte.

If new online shopping options that shoulder much of the work of back-to-school shopping succeed in getting customers to spend more online, it could be a double-edged sword for retailers with a bricks-and-mortar presence, Cohen said.

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A frazzled parent might give in when a pleading child pulls a pack of scented colored pencils and a new Avengers-themed backpack off the shelf. They're less likely to splurge on items that aren't essential when given an easy-to-find list of basics online, Cohen said.

Losing a few impulse purchases is probably worth it to keep shoppers from defecting to a competitor willing to remove more hurdles, Cohen said. The trick is mixing convenience with a compelling enough experience to make customers want to browse anyway.

"That's the dilemma for all of retail, not just back-to-school," Cohen said.

lzumbach@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @laurenzumbach
British singer Liam Gallagher performs on the fourth day of the Benicassim International Festival in Benicasim on July 15, 2017. (Jose Jordan, AFP/Getty Images)

Twenty-three years after Oasis became one of the biggest bands in the world, and eight years after its bitter breakup, former frontman Liam Gallagher is releasing his first solo album. Of "As You Were," set for release Oct. 6, Gallagher figures, "It ain't the best record in the world, it ain't the worst record in the world," which is his way of saying he really likes it.

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Oasis broke up after the feuding between Liam and his brother Noel became unendurable (the two have still not reconciled). Noel was the first to leave; for years, Liam and the other members carried on as Beady Eye, in a sort of Britpop interregnum, before dissolving in 2014.

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In May, Liam Gallagher played his first-ever solo show in his hometown of Manchester, England, just a week after the terrorist attack at the Manchester Arena. He returned a few days later to perform Oasis' "Live Forever" with Coldplay at the One Love Manchester concert. Gallagher had colorfully (and unprintably) insulted Coldplay in the past, so this was awkward (other recent targets have included his brother, and One Direction).

Gallagher, who plays Lollapalooza on Thursday, has a prickly reputation, but in a phone interview from Spain, he was cheerful and profane and seemingly impossible to offend. An edited transcript of that conversation follows,

Q: Your first solo show ever was in Manchester in May, right?

A: I think that was a week after that terrorist attack. It was pretty intense. Manchester is always pretty intense, anyway, it's your hometown  but it was a good gig, man.

Q: Do you still get nervous before a show like that?

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A: Not nervous like, "I want me mommy and I want to go home, I wish I'd never bothered with this rock 'n' rock thing." But I get a nervous energy, like, "I just want to go on and get it  done and see whether I've still got it," you know what I mean?

Q: What was the songwriting process like for "As You Were"?

A: After Beady Eye split up, I had four years of just sitting around my house doing (nothing). I had a bunch of private stuff going on, I didn't want to make music. I wanted to go away to Spain, buy a house and live there, walk on the beach and get a suntan, eat some nice food, then come up with a plan. I just needed some time out. All of a sudden, I picked a guitar up, and I wrote a song.

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Q: Do you think you're fundamentally a band person?

A: Yeah, without a doubt. I prefer being in a band. I'm liking this at the moment  I've only done eight gigs  but I definitely prefer to be in a band. There's too many solo people, and bands are suffering. There's too many great bands that have split up because somebody's got an ego, and then he goes solo.

Q: In new single "Wall of Glass," you seem to take a gentle dig at One Direction.

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A: Yeah, I wouldn't say it's a dig. It's about people who are  I don't know. It's not about  One Direction. I don't know what it's about. It's not about them.

Q: After Beady Eye broke up, it seems like that's when the end of Oasis truly hit you.

A: Yeah, that's correct. Beady Eye was like a safety net, I think. After Oasis, we went straight into that, and carried on making music, which was the right thing to do. Going on (is better than) sitting there twiddling your thumbs.

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Q: Oasis is still huge. You're on the cover of NME all the time. Does that spill over into success for your solo stuff?

A: Yeah, but that's the same for everyone. It's the same for Paul McCartney, it's the same for Ray Davies. Oasis is a big thing, and it seems to get bigger and bigger. I'm not hiding away from it. It's like, listen, I was in Oasis, I still feel Oasis, the first thing that comes out of people's heads when they meet me is Oasis. I'm proud of the fact that I was in Oasis.

Q: You could discover a cure for cancer, but if you died tomorrow, the first line of your obituary would still mention your brother.

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A: I love my brother, I just don't get on with him. I'm very proud of what me and my brother did, without a doubt.

Q: What do you do at Christmas?

A: Well, I eat food, I open presents 

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Q: No, who has custody of your mom at Christmas?

A: It depends on the kids. My kids are all grown up now. I don't say, "Well, she's mine this year." She goes where she goes. She didn't come to see any of us last year, so there you go. She went out with her sister, she'd had enough of us. She was like, "Ah, (forget) you."

Q: How was the One Love concert?

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A: It was a no-brainer, we had to do it. That's me home, and I've got family and friends in Manchester. It had to be done.

Q: Did Chris Martin know that you'd said vaguely insulting things about him in the past?

A: Oh, yeah. When I met him backstage, I said, "Listen, I'm really sorry about all (that), I'll pack it in." He went, "No, no, no, carry on. We like it."

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Q: There have probably been people over the years who haven't had as good a reaction to things you've said.

A: Yeah, but listen, man, I don't wish anyone any harm. It's just banter. I can take it, and people shouldn't dish it out if they can't take it. I don't mean any real harm, it's just having a laugh.

Q: The One Love concert must be a nice way to go into your solo career, with all that positive energy.

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A: It's nice to do nice things, innit? I'm a nice person, deep down, I do nice things all the time. I did it because it was the right thing to do, it put some smiles on people's faces, showing a bit of solidarity. I did it because I'm from Manchester, and they're my people.

When: 4:30 p.m. Thursday

Where: Grant Park, 337 E. Randolph St.

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Tickets: Sold-out; www.lollapalooza.com

Allison Stewart is a freelance writer.

onthetown@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @chitribent

[ RELATED: All-star Manchester benefit concert is a moving expression of resilience  ]

[ Lollapalooza announces 57 aftershows  ]

[ 'Oasis: Supersonic' review: Gallagher brothers doc a wild act to follow  ]







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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 122 Sophie Turner as Jean Grey, anger management student, in "Dark Phoenix." The film, the latest in the "X-Men" franchise, costars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jessica Chastain. Read the review. (Twentieth Century Fox)
MOAB, Utah  My first Moab mountain biking excursion started off bumpy  and not because of the rocks.

My husband, Neil, and I had traveled to this red-dust town in Utah, about a four-hour drive southeast of Salt Lake City, for a long weekend of biking, hiking and magical desert scenery.

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As we drove past dramatic gingerbread stacks of sandstone to pick up our rented mountain bikes, I was nervous for the ride ahead, despite my husband's assurance that he'd chosen an easy route. He's a regular visitor to Moab, an area known for some of the world's greatest mountain biking. Before this trip, I'd ridden a total of 2 miles on singletrack trails.

At the bike shop, the woman who's helping us asks if I've brought my CamelBak. A fair-weather outdoor enthusiast, I do not own a CamelBak. I tell her no.

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"I always wear a CamelBak," she says in a chiding tone. "For spine protection," she adds without missing a beat. She explains that if she goes headfirst over her handlebars  which she's done, more than once  that CamelBak acts as a cushion for that vulnerable cord that helps the body move.

I'm mostly silent as we drive about 30 minutes toward the trail, staring at the relentlessly beautiful red rocks that are, apparently, conspiring to break my back.

We pull up to the Klondike Bluffs trail  a mix of singletrack and slickrock (i.e. sandstone) trails for varying skill levels  and hop on our bikes. My confidence builds as we pedal down tight crimson paths, steering around chunky, iron-tinged rocks and green shrubs. It takes so much focus to navigate the ups and downs of the terrain  leaning low when I shoot down steep, rocky slopes to avoid going tea-over-tea-kettle  that it's only during breaks that I can take in the glory of the landscape around me: the serpentine switchbacks, the misty mesas in the distance, the impossibly blue skies.

After proving myself on the easy stretch (designated with a green circle), I graduate to a moderate area (blue square). Slopes become steeper, and I stop quickly a couple of times to catch myself. A few times I walk my bike, but I never actually fall. Then we come upon the black diamond trail  aka difficult. Neil does not point out the black diamond. I do not mention the black diamond. The truth is, I see these words: "dinosaur tracks," and all else is forgotten.

"You want to try it?" asks my husband, surprised that I'm even considering the challenging terrain. "I want to see the dinosaur tracks!" I say. And we set off on a steep, up-and-down slickrock trail that has me walking my bike within seconds while he zips ahead, in his happy place. About a half-hour in, I'm frustrated and ready to throw the bike I'm dragging. We decide to turn around and head back.

Next stop: Moab Brewery, where we savor onion rings and a couple of well-earned craft brews, clinking glasses as I proclaim under my breath that one day of trail riding might be enough for me.

I convince my husband to stop at what might be the cheesiest roadside attraction ever: Moab Giants dinosaur park, where a trail meanders in front of dozens of fake dinos  some doe-eyed, others in attack mode. Neil, who is unabashedly unimpressed by the plastic creatures (and the $16 ticket fee) rolls his eyes as I go on about how easy it is to imagine the monsters roaming these same red rocks 200 or so million years ago  if you just got rid of the nearby power lines and train tracks.

We take the prehistoric theme one step further and drive out to see some of the many dinosaur tracks around town. Dusty, one-lane Willow Springs Road leads us to what looks like a dried-up red riverbed. Sure enough, there are chunky, three-toed footprints made by theropods and ornithopods 165 million years ago. We agree on this one: It's incredibly cool to go toe-to-toe with the ancient beasts.

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We retreat for the night to our Airbnb cabin, a spacious house in a development called Whispering Oaks Ranch, high up in the snow-covered La Sal Mountains, about 20 deer-filled miles from town. (We must have seen two dozen of the graceful creatures on the side of the road.) We open a bottle of wine, grill steaks, soak in the hot tub and get lost in the star-filled sky.

The next day, we're both sore but eager to spend more time outside. Per my request, we take the bikes to a paved path alongside the Colorado River. Since we don't have to focus too much on the path ahead, we can admire the babbling waterway and towering rocks. We ride long enough to feel justified in an indulgent meal, and, upon a friend's recommendation, head to Milt's Stop & Eat. It isn't just Moab's oldest restaurant, it's a slice of 1950s Americana. A line snakes around the side of the building as people wait to order at the outdoor window. As the picnic tables fill, folks eat out of their cars. The burgers and fries  with a side of Utah's signature mayo/ketchup combo known simply as "fry sauce"  are simple and divine.

We'd asked around for hiking recommendations and kept hearing about one place: Delicate Arch in Arches National Park, just north of town. The image of the arch  a spectacular structure standing out among the 2,000 arches  is one that's often associated with the national park.

By late afternoon, the nearby parking lot is packed, with crowds flocking to the arch in time for sunset. The narrow start of the 3-mile round-trip hike is elbow to elbow, but as the hikers fan out by the dozen across the rising rocks in the distance, it looks as if we're watching a pilgrimage of some sort. Or an episode of "The Walking Dead."

The scene at the arch, itself, reminds me of a giant amphitheater, as people grab a seat before the sunset show begins. We snap a couple of photos of the 65-foot arch, admiring the graceful mesas and misty, snowcapped mountains that peer through the fiery icon. We promptly turn and head back, taking advantage of the remaining daylight and now-empty trail.

Along the way, I hear a rustling in the quiet and look up just in time to catch one, two, no, three deer sprinting across the high desert. The sun is going down in the distance, and they stop on a hilltop, their silhouettes highlighted by a ring of sunbeams, so perfect that the moment feels like a gift.

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Taking it all in, I have a sudden appreciation for being on foot, able to do a slow 360 to savor the surroundings  no spine protection needed.

Kate Silver is a freelance writer.

[ Lost cities of the Midwest: A trek back to pre-Columbian times  ]

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The coordinator of the Nebraska Human Trafficking Task Force welcomed an auditorium full of school administrators Tuesday to the statewide effort to stop those who sell children for sex.

Weve just recruited you into this army, said Glen Parks, who coordinates the state task force organized in 2015. Theres not one tell-tale sign. Youve got to use your intuition ... this is a crime that happens in the shadows.

Parks and Erin Aliano, a special projects coordinator of the Nebraska Alliance of Child Advocacy Centers who focuses on child sex trafficking, gave Lincoln Public Schools administrators a short course into that dark world and how to recognize signs that their students might be victims.

Look for changes in behavior, unexplained absences and truancies, she said. One of the good thing about educators is that theyre with students all day, so they may notice changes.

A student who was outgoing and participated in class and suddenly is quiet and timid could indicate somethings going on. Another possible sign: students who typically cant afford luxury items who suddenly have the newest iPhone or manicured nails, she said.

Such changes warrant a conversation. Maybe theres a ready explanation -- mom got a new job, stomach flu kept them home. If not, it might be a sign that something else is going on.

Sex traffickers often brand their victims with tattoos, she said, and students reluctant to talk about new tattoos could be victims. Typically, Aliano said, people love to talk about their tattoos -- where they got them, what they represent.

Something that makes your stomach go ugh usually means something is not right here, she said.

School is a safe haven for students, a place they sometimes come even when theyve been reported missing to police, Aliano said.

She urged educators to be part of a cultural shift away from seeing children reported missing simply as runaways and instead as victims.

Instead of asking what did you do? (when missing), ask what happened to you?, she said. Look at the child first as a victim.

She urged patience, said its important educators believe what students tell them and then get them help. LPS Security Director Joe Wright said if educators are worried something might be going on, or if a student discloses abuse to a teacher, they should contact him or the student services director so they can coordinate with child advocacy services and police.

Understand that disclosing (abuse) is a huge step for these kids, Aliano said.

Wright said he asked Aliano and Parks to speak during the annual LPS administrator days in an effort to coordinate with stepped-up efforts by Lincoln police and the state attorney generals office to stop human trafficking.

We want to get out in front of it, he said.

The task force has focused primarily on training law enforcement and caseworkers and other service providers, but recognize the important role educators can play, Parks said.

This is the kind of thing we would never say no to, he said.

Teachers can also help educate students about how to be safe on social media, and what a legitimate job opportunity looks like -- and doesnt.

Sometimes traffickers masquerade as salesmen, offering the young and vulnerable chances to sell magazines or other ways to make money that turn out to be something else entirely, Aliano said.

Traffickers target children at risk -- those who have been abused before, whose families are dysfunctional, or those who struggle with alcohol and substance abuse, Aliano said.

Much of the trafficking happens on social media. Traffickers use sites like Craigslist and Backpage.

The Human Trafficking Initiative on sex trafficking in Nebraska estimates 900 people a month are sold for sex online in the state, including 200 in Lincoln.

We used to worry about who physically had access to our kids, Aliano said. Now we have to worry about everyone in the world having access to our children.
Why do barbecue cooks wear shoes when they're stepping around hot coals?

Because glowing hot coals are dangerous. Not as dangerous, perhaps, as writing a political column while watching a Sox-Cubs game, but both can burn.

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I did promise that I'd give you the recipe for that killer Jimmy Banakis lemon aioli, the perfect dipping sauce for those lemony, garlicky, Greek-style smoked back ribs I told you about in an earlier column.

And I've got an excellent BBQ cheat for smoke-roasted pork loin or double-thick pork chops:

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An amazing store-bought rub, "Papou's Secret Spices," with cinnamon/cumin/allspice rub; and a superb store-bought roasted apple glaze/sauce from Maine.

But with so many other important issues in the news, why write about barbecue?

Because I feel like it. And it's summer, dang it. It's barbecue time.

Unfortunately, some have gotten the wrong idea about my food columns. They just don't understand. Perhaps they never will.

They think it's all about eating. But when you cook over coals, putting your face in that heat and wood smoke, you don't feel much like eating.

So it's not about the eating.

It's about serving friends and family, serving people at your table in your home, making them happy, watching them smile.

You don't need an expensive cut of meat. A chunk of bread, some grilled sausage, an apple and a glass of wine will do. Or ice water.

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The food isn't the thing. The serving is the thing. The way you feel about them when you serve them. That's what it's all about.

Today's BBQ cheats are about making guests smile too. But remember, you can't cheat hot coals.

A man I'll call "Shoeless," an excellent cook, decided to use hot coals without the proper equipment.

Shoes.

Yes, he went barefoot.

"At first, I thought it was some kind of rock," said Shoeless. "Right on the heel, and I really ground my heel down on it and crushed it."

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But it wasn't a rock, and in a split second  as if he were trapped in a Tony Robbins fire-walking event going horribly wrong  Shoeless felt the burn.

Scrambling into the yard, scraping his burning heel on the grass, screaming gibberish, he wished he had shoes.

But the fire was ready and the meat had to go on the grill. He was still limping, but he finished the cook. That's a man. A barbecue man.

It happened to me once, too, while wearing flip flops. A glowing coal fell between my toes and I couldn't get the damn flip-flop off. Only Zeus the Wonder Dog heard my piteous screams.

So wear shoes.

Now what about that Jimmy Banakis' sauce for the Greek ribs?

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I used grilled lemons to dress my ribs before I wrote about them. But after the column was published, my friend Banakis, who owns the Juicy-O restaurants, offered a perfect lemon-mayo recipe. Outstanding:

Ingredients  the juice of 2 lemons and half of a grilled lemon. 1 egg; 1 tablespoon of water; 1 cup olive oil; half-teaspoon salt; half- teaspoon cayenne pepper; and fresh herbs.

"Squeeze the lemon juice into blender," Banakis said. "Add egg and one tablespoon H2O. Blend low to medium speed, and drizzle the oil slowly into top opening. Optional, add fresh herbs and other spices."

Betty used a double hoofta of finely chopped fresh basil. And she played with the recipe as all cooks do, till she achieved the desired consistency.

That day we had the Greek ribs. First I hit them with the grilled lemon, then with the Jimmy Banakis sauce. With baby boiled Swiss chard with olive oil, grilled lemon and kosher salt, and sweet corn on the side.

Now what about that BBQ cheat for pork?

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BBQ guys brag that they make their own rubs and sauces. But what if you've already brined your pork  in water, vinegar, sugar, salt and apple juice  and you don't have time?

Get a jar of "Papou's Secret Spices" (Strompolos Foods, Chicago) as a rub. It has the flavors of the East: cumin and cinnamon, allspice, sea salt, pepper and Greek oregano.

"No preservatives," Stavros Strompolos told me. "Never, none in my rubs or salad dressings. And no sugars."

Papou would be proud.

And, as a glaze and serving sauce: Roasted Apple Grille Sauce (Stonewall Kitchens, York, Maine).

Here's the recipe:

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Remove the pork from brine, rinse and thoroughly pat dry. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle on the "Papou's"  and don't be bashful.

Set up your charcoal grill with coals bordering a throwaway aluminum water pan. If making a boneless loin, sear it first over the hot coals, then roast it on indirect heat, grill cover on, with two chunks of dry pecan or apple wood.

If you're making double-thick pork chops, don't sear them first. I skewered six with long metal skewers, separating each to let air flow in between, and they stood perfectly up on the bone. Cook these on indirect heat, over the water pan, with the same wood chunks.

When the pork loin roast reaches an internal temperature of 130 degrees, apply the Roasted Apple Grille Sauce and let it caramelize. Remove the pork when it hits 139 degrees and set it on a platter to rest, loosely tented with aluminum foil. It will continue cooking to the desired 145 degrees.

If grill-roasting chops, when the chops reach 125 degrees, remove the skewers and grill directly to sear. Brush on the Roasted Apple Grille Sauce, set them back on indirect heat, over the water pan, until they, too, reach 139 degrees. Remove and tent.

Warm the remaining apple sauce and serve. Watch your guests smile.

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Remember: It's not about you. It's about them.

Kali orexi. Good appetite.

Listen to a new episode of "The Chicago Way" podcast with John Kass and Jeff Carlin at http://wgnradio.com/category/wgn-plus/thechicagoway.

jskass@chicagotribune.com
Chicago police are warning business owners in the South Side's Chatham neighborhood of several burglaries that have occurred within blocks of each other this month.

The offenders have gained access by breaking the front window or prying open the front or back doors, police said in a community alert.

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The burglaries happened between 10 and 11 a.m. Wednesday in the 8300 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue, about 8:15 p.m. July 13 in the 8400 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue and 12:50 a.m. July 17 in the 8500 block of South Cottage Grove Avenue.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Area South detectives a 312-747-8273.
A Chicago firetruck was hit by a bullet while responding to a traffic crash in the 7900 block of South Yates Avenue on July 27, 2017. (Elyssa Cherney / Chicago Tribune)

A man who intervened in a traffic crash in the South Chicago neighborhood fired shots at a crowd of people early Thursday, hitting the windshield of a Chicago fire engine responding to the crash, authorities said.

One of the three firefighters in the engine said he suffered a cut to his nose, apparently from flying glass.

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The two-car crash happened in the 7900 block of South Yates Avenue just before 2:25 a.m., police said. One of the people involved in the crash called the man to the scene and an argument ensued.

As firefighters in Engine 126 pulled up, the man retreated to a light blue Ford Marauder he parked at a Subway shop and grabbed a handgun, according to preliminary information from law enforcement.

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The man fired from the edge of the parking lot, according to witnesses. A shell casing could be seen on the ground near his car.

Two firefighters had gotten out of the engine and three were inside when he started shooting, said one of the firefighters.

One firefighter said he heard three shots, one of them piercing the windshield. He appeared dazed as he stood inside the crime scene tape, hands on his hips, staring straight ahead.

A firefighter with a bandage covering his nose said flying glass had cut his face. He said he was thankful the situation wasn't worse.

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Another sighed, saying this was the second time in his 12-year career that someone fired shots at him while on the job.

Officers arrested a suspect and recovered a weapon, authorities said.

As police investigated, a woman involved in the crash continued to argue about whose fault it was.

"You ran the red light, why are you lying?" one woman yelled.

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Family members of another woman came to the scene and said their relative was the victim.

"They were already fighting, why did they have to go get a gun?" the woman said.

Check back for updates.
Shootings occurred in the Heart of Chicago, Austin, Marquette Park, Cabrini-Green, South Shore, Park Manor and other areas across Chicago from July 27 to July 30, 2017. (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune) (Erin Hooley/Chicago Tribune/Chicago Tribune)

Updated July 31, 2017 11:25 a.m.  Sixteen people were shot, two fatally, in Chicago from Thursday to early Friday, including a shooting that wounded five people in the South Shore neighborhood, according to police.

One man was killed and another was critically injured about 2:55 a.m. Friday in the 500 block of West Iowa Street in the Cabrini-Green rowhouses, according to police. Someone shot a 31-year-old man multiple times in the face, according to police. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

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A 34-year-old man was shot multiple times in the abdomen. He was in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Police do not yet know what led to the shooting. No one was in custody.

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In the South Shore neighborhood late Thursday, a shooting killed an 18-year-old man and wounded four other people in the 2000 block of East 71st Street.

Just before 10:40 p.m. Thursday, someone in a tan minivan opened fire and hit the 18-year-old, Zaire Benjamin, in the head. He was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Benjamin lived in the 6800 block of S. Paxton Avenue, according to the medical acaminer. His family members declined to comment.

A 19-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and the groin during the attack. He was in critical condition at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

Two 21-year-old men took themselves to Jackson Park Hospital, where their conditions were stabilized. One had been shot in the left leg and back, and the other 21-year-old man was hit in the buttocks.

A fifth man, another 18-year-old man, was shot in the left wrist. His condition was stabilized at Trinity Hospital.

On 71st Street, people gathered across the street from the crime scene and watched as detectives focused on an alley near a sandwich shop.

Among those huddled was a couple who had been delivering food as part of UberEats when they heard gunshots. The woman asked to be identified as Janet and the man did not want to be identified.

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"It was so close, that you can feel it in your ears," Janet said. "There's no way for us to hide, it's like when is this going to stop?"

Another woman, who did not want to be identified, was passing through and stopped to get a closer look at the crime scene. She moved away from the neighborhood a couple of months ago because of the violence.

"This is every day," she said.

On the West Side, another shoting fatal attack happened about 2:30 p.m. at Chicago and Lawndale avenues in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, according to a Chicago Fire Department spokesman.

A 19-year-old man was walking when a gunman came up and shot him in the face, police said. He remained in critical condition at Stroger Hospital.

Police earlier said the man was dead on the scene.

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Fire Department personnel responded to assist police with a SWAT operation because someone apparently was holed up inside a building nearby in the 500 block of North Hamlin Avenue.

Police were led there after witnesses told officers a possible suspect in the homicide had retreated into that home, said Officer Michelle Tannehill, a police spokeswoman.

The SWAT operation was canceled about 7 p.m. after police, who were given consent to search the home, did not find anyone inside, Tannehill said.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 11 The mother of Kennatay Leavell kneels over his body at the scene of a fatal shooting in the 500 block of West Iowa Street on July 28, 2017, in the Cabrini-Green neighborhood. Leavell was shot multiple times in the face and pronounced dead at the scene, and a 34-year-old man was shot in the abdomen and taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital in critical condition. (Erin Hooley / Chicago Tribune)

CTA bus veers off road after shooting

Two people were shot and a third was hit by flying glass after a shooting in the Park Manor neighborhood that caused a CTA bus to veer off the road Thursday evening.

The victims were on foot in the 600 block of East 71st Street about 7:15 p.m. when an assailant got out of a dark-colored SUV and fired, police said.

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A 48-year-old woman was shot in the head, and a 40-year-old man was shot in the back. They were both taken Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn in serious condition, police said.

A third victim, a 33-year-old woman, was hit by flying glass and suffered a laceration to her hand, police said. She was taken to Jackson Park hospital in good condition.

Officials did not immediately say how the 33-year-old woman was injured by the glass but as of about 9 p.m. a CTA 71st Street bus that had apparently tried to swerve away from the shooting remained at the scene after hopping a curb and traveling onto a sidewalk, where it appeared to have narrowly missed crashing into a black, wrought-iron fence.

A CTA employee at the scene said the westbound bus didn't appear to be badly damaged in the shooting, but it struck the front bumper of a parked vehicle as it crossed over into the opposite lanes of traffic and jumped the curb.

The entire intersection of 71st Street and St. Lawrence Avenue had been cordoned off with red and yellow tape that kept several bystanders away from the scene and the nearly two dozen shell casings bunched at the northeast corner of the intersection.

After receiving a "hysterical" call that his 47-year-old mother-in-law was wounded in the shooting, Dwight Rogers, of the Roseland neighborhood, said he rushed to her home to check on children before walking to the scene in hopes of finding out what happened.

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"I was surprised. I said, she had to be walking from the store, because she's a gentle person, not into any of that," he said. "Just wrong place wrong time,'' Rogers said.

Triple shooting in Back of the Yards

About 4:30 p.m. on the South Side, two women and a man were shot in the 5100 block of South Loomis Street in the Back of the Yards neighborhood, police said. Earlier, police said it happened in the 5100 block of South Elizabeth Street.

They were walking through an alley when someone in a red vehicle opened fire, hitting a 22-year-old woman in the back, a 24-year-old woman in the abdomen and a 25-year-old man in the chest, police said.

The 22-year-old's condition was good while the conditions of the other two had been stabilized.

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A Chicago police SUV was parked due south of 51st and Elizabeth streets, where a single evidence marker sat atop a shell casing.

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Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 3 Chicago police respond to a barricade situation inside a building in the 500 block of North Hamlin Avenue on Chicago's West Side on Thursday, July 27, 2017. (Chris Sweda / Chicago Tribune)





A man, who declined to give his name, said he was sitting outside of his garage less than a block away when he heard a ruckus and poked his head down the alley to see the aftermath.



"I didn't know it was shots until I saw people running and making commotion," he said. "It's kind of rough. They can't seem to put a hold on this (violence)."



The man, who's lived in the neighborhood since 1990, said he's reached his breaking point with what he called the rampant gun violence, and Thursday's shooting bolstered his decision to leave the city where he once laid roots.



"I'm gonna get up out of here," he said, leaning forward in his folding chair. "I'm gonna leave here. I can't stay. It ain't changing. I sit out here all day and say, 'You hear about the shooting and you never know when it'll come right to your door.' And there it is! I could've been out on my porch and got shot."



The alley where the shooting happened runs between a religious ministry and a large community garden. However, the scene remained mostly silent about 6 p.m., and except for traffic noise from 51st Street, it was devoid of gawkers or bystanders.



"It's a triple shooting, but it's so quiet and empty," said crisis responder Donovan Price, who was also there. "That's because it's not a big deal in Chicago, unfortunately."

In other shootings:

-- About 1:10 a.m. Friday on the South Side, someone shot a 28-year-old man in the leg in the 4000 block of South Princeton Avenue in the Fuller Park neighborhood, police said. His condition was stabilized at Mercy Hospital.

-- In the West Side's Humboldt Park neighborhood, a 19-year-old man was standing in the 800 block of North Springfield Avenue about 11:45 p.m. Thursday when someone shot him in the left leg, according to police. He took himself to Stroger Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

-- About 11:25 p.m. on the West Side, an 18-year-old man was shot in the left hand while in a parked car in the 2600 block of West Adams Street, police said. Someone in a sedan pulled up next to the car and someone opened fire, striking him in the hand. He took himself to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition was stabilized.

Editor's note: This story was updated on July 29, 2017 when Chicago police corrected information about the Humboldt Park neighborhood shooting of the 19-year-old man at Chicago and Lawndale avenues, saying it was not fatal.
FBI and U.S. Postal police inspectors remove artwork from the Kass-Meridian Gallery during a raid on Michigan Avenue in 2008 in Chicago. ( Zbigniew Bzdak/Chicago Tribune )

An Italian art distributor was sentenced Wednesday in federal court in Chicago to nine months in prison for selling fake "limited edition" prints of legendary painters such as Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso as part of an international fraud ring.

Elio Bonfiglioli, 62, was given credit for about six months he had already spent in custody, so he has about three more months to serve.

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The lanky Bonfiglioli, his gray hair thinning, listened to the proceedings with the assistance of an Italian interpreter.

U.S. District Judge Robert Dow Jr. also ordered that he pay restitution of $14,750 to the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

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Bonfiglioli had pleaded guilty in May to a single count of wire fraud. Prosecutors had sought about four to five years in prison, while Bonfiglioli's attorney asked that his client be sentenced to time served and be allowed to return to his home in Tuscany, Italy.

Bonfiglioli had been a fugitive since 2009 after failing to turn himself in to authorities in Spain, where he was living at the time, to be extradited to the U.S. to face 10 counts of mail and wire fraud.

Two years earlier, he had been charged as part of a scheme that made headlines after federal authorities raided the well-known Kass/Meridian Gallery on Chicago's Magnificent Mile and confiscated sales records and prints.

According to the charges, Bonfiglioli and several other European art distributors conspired to create bogus prints of sought-after 20th century artists, including Marc Chagall, Andy Warhol and Joan Miro. In many cases, the prints "bore false numerical or other markings" to make them appear to be part of a limited-edition release, according to the indictment.

The artists' signatures were also forged, and the prints often included fictitious certificates of authenticity, the indictment said.

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Bonfiglioli then sold the fake prints to art dealers, including Michael Zabrin of Northbrook, who "knowingly sold the counterfeit work to various wholesale and retail customers," the indictment alleged.

Zabrin, who had already been convicted of a similar scheme in the early 1990s, began cooperating with the investigation after authorities confronted him in 2006, records show.

Zabrin told authorities he knowingly bought forged art from Bonfiglioli since before 1999, according to a recent court filing by prosecutors. Bank records showed that Zabrin wired about $245,000 to Bonfiglioli from 1999 to 2006, prosecutors said.

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FBI Special Agent Brian Brusokas moves a counterfeit Salvador Dali painting during a news conference at the Dirksen U.S. Courthouse in 2008. Elio Bonfiglioli, an Italian art distributor, was sentenced July 26, 2017, to nine months in prison for selling fake limited edition prints of legendary painters such as Dali and Pablo Picasso. ( Chicago Tribune )

The probe eventually ensnared a dozen defendants, including Alan Kass, whose gallery in the 300 block of West Huron Street was raided by agents in 2008. Kass pleaded guilty in 2013 to selling phony artwork to hundreds of unsuspecting buyers and was sentenced to six months in prison.

Zabrin, meanwhile, pleaded guilty in 2011 to scamming at least 250 people out of more than $1 million in counterfeit prints and was sentenced to nine years in prison.

jmeisner@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @jmetr22b
Alexander Bowers has been charged with three counts of predatory criminal sexual assault and three counts of criminal sexual abuse, according to the Oswego Police Department. (Oswego Police Department)

A man who was the subject of an international manhunt has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a boy at an Oswego home, starting when the child was 9 years old, and has been sentenced to 13 years in prison, according to court records.

Alexander Bowers, 29, pleaded guilty Friday to aggravated criminal sexual assault of a child 13 or younger, according to court records. Kendall County Judge John F. McAdam sentenced him to 13 years in prison, with credit for 325 days served, according to records.

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Bowers sexually assaulted the boy for four years starting in 2008, when Bowers was 20 and the boy 9, police said at the time of his arrest in August 2016.

The boy's parents reported the attacks in March 2016, and after first finding Bowers had moved to Arkansas, investigators found out he had moved to Japan and was trying to travel to Australia.

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After a warrant for his arrest was issued in late August, Bowers was arrested by Japanese authorities and extradited to the United States, where he was taken into local authorities' custody at O'Hare International Airport.

Bowers has been in Kendall County Jail since just after his O'Hare arrest. It was unclear Wednesday why he had not yet been handed over to state prison authorities.
Thomas Griffin is a longtime Northeastern Illinois University employee who uses state-sponsored health insurance. Griffin, who is legally blind, is switching from a self-funded PPO plan to an HMO, after hearing that his friends with HMO plans have not had such a hard time with coverage. ( Phil Velasquez/Chicago Tribune )

Betty La France found a way to deal with a doctor who demanded she pay her entire bill upfront because the state could not be counted on to pay insurance reimbursement: She stopped going.

"I'm doing my job. I'm paying my bills. But the state is not doing their job, and they're certainly not paying their bills," said La France, a Northern Illinois University communications professor who lives in Sycamore. Her doctor, she added, "is irritated because she's not getting paid, and I'm irritated because she's trying to squeeze blood out of a turnip."

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While Illinois' leaders waged a two-year budget battle, the state fell years behind in reimbursing medical providers for their services, skimping physicians and dentists even if their patients were up-to-date with their premiums.

At public universities, officials and workers say some doctors and dentists, particularly those outside an insurance plan's provider network, increasingly asked patients to pick up the state's tab during the impasse. Some physicians, like La France's, required full payment in advance. Some sent outstanding bills directly to debt collection agencies. And some simply refused to accept insurance from state employees.

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To be sure, medical providers felt the pain too. Advocate Health Care, the state's largest hospital network, imposed a hiring freeze in the spring, citing the budget impasse. Company executives also pointed to the state's insurance payment delays and low reimbursement rates in announcing $200 million in cuts in May.

The state now faces a $5 billion backlog of unpaid group health insurance claims as of June 30, according to the Governor's Office of Management and Budget. The July 6 budget agreement sets aside funding to cover new insurance claims, but relies heavily upon different forms of borrowing to try to clear the deficit. Worse, the longer health insurance bills sit unpaid, the more interest accrues, ultimately costing the state hundreds of millions more.

All told, the state is grappling with roughly $15 billion in overdue bills, a tally that has nearly tripled since Gov. Bruce Rauner took office in 2015.

During the impasse, campuses laid off hundreds of workers, imposed steep program cuts and delayed maintenance to cope with the prolonged drought in state support.

University workers and officials say the disruption to their health insurance coverage on top of that took a heavy toll. The squeeze on employees through insurance costs could ultimately hurt a university's ability to attract new talent.

That's because affordable health insurance is an important incentive for workers taking a lower salary than they might earn in the private sector, according to higher education advocates.

"Waiting a year or two for reimbursement for medical and dental expenses is simply inexcusable," said Thomas Harnisch, director of state relations and policy analysis for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities in Washington, D.C. "This is a great way to shed talent at the state universities, and it's creating an insurmountable barrier for many lower-income employees and their families seeking care."

Caught in the maelstrom are medical providers contracted with the State Employees Group Insurance Program.

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State university faculty and staff employees who can participate in the State Universities Retirement System can enroll in the group insurance program, according to state law. Employees, retirees and their dependents are eligible for coverage.

The state's Central Management Services, which operates the group insurance program, already was at least eight months late in reimbursing providers because of consistent underfunding of the program, according to department memos.

But CMS ran out of state funds to pay providers in September 2015 because no budgets were in place for fiscal years 2016 and 2017.

At the time, CMS officials said HMO plans were continuing to pay claims to health care providers but that the department was working with self-insured health plan administrators to ensure physicians did not charge patients upfront for services, according to a memo from September 2015.

Patients who were asked to pay the full amount were encouraged to contact insurance plan administrators, who would then try to work out a resolution with physicians, according to the memo.

"If the provider continues to require upfront payment, you will be reimbursed by the provider, plus applicable interest, once state funding has been released to the provider," the CMS memo stated.

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Some 22 months later, the state faces a ballooning pile of medical insurance bills that earn 9 or 12 percent interest for every year they sit unpaid.

HealthLink Open Access Plan, a subsidiary of Anthem, is owed more than $778 million plus another $56 million in interest as of June, for bills dating to Aug. 30, 2015, according to the governor's budget office and Central Management Services.

Cigna is owed almost $857 million in claims and interest. Network providers have not been paid since Sept. 4, 2015, while out-of-network providers have not been paid since June 19, 2015.

Coventry is owed about $278 million, and Delta Dental awaits more than $169 million in payments as old as two years.

"Nearly all of Illinois' in-network physicians and health-care providers continue to provide services to state employees," Richard Bossert, a spokesman for CMS, said in an email. "In instances where issues have arisen, our benefits team has worked aggressively to maintain the delivery of services and supplies with great success."

Memorial Health System in Springfield, where 1 in 4 patients is covered under the group insurance program, is owed about $120.5 million in reimbursements, a "devastating" amount, its chief executive, Edgar J. Curtis, said.

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Curtis said providers are not asking patients to pay anything more than their copays, yet patients are scared they could be denied care. So far, the system can afford to absorb the expense but it is particularly tough on individual practices.

"For the physicians, this is a huge burden because they still have to pay their employees," Curtis said.

In downstate Urbana-Champaign and Springfield, where dentists are typically out-of-network providers, most University of Illinois employees are paying their full tabs upfront and waiting for the state to reimburse them, according to Thomas Hardy, a university spokesman.

"The delay is now so long that we routinely hear from employees that they are owed large sums  or that they are putting off dental work entirely  and they feel like they have no dental insurance," Hardy said. "I've spoken with an employee who is owed $11,000 and one who is owed $6,000."

Joyce Coleman, associate vice president of human resources at Governors State University in University Park, said officials have repeatedly intervened on behalf of employees whose bills have been sent to collection agencies. Sometimes it has worked, sometimes it hasn't, Coleman said. In other cases, they have encouraged employees to work out payment plans with their providers until the state sends money.

"We have tried to resolve these issues and work with CMS to express the urgency of the claim payments because the providers are threatening to sue the employees," Coleman said. "You have a population that doesn't make a lot of money anyway. On top of that, here are collections agencies calling to say, 'You haven't paid anything.'"

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Thomas Griffin, who runs the language learning lab at Northeastern, had a $210 bill from his longtime primary care doctor sent to a debt collector before his physician reconsidered and recalled it.

Griffin, 50, said he caught a break in that situation, but he switched to an HMO this month in hopes his coverage will be more consistent.

"It's extremely frustrating because what it does is cause me to delay medical treatments; it causes me to incur more debt because the copays and deductibles are expensive," Griffin said. "I'm legally blind, so this insurance is important to keep me in the workforce and to keep me off of benefit entitlements."

The health care bill backlog has budged somewhat since the budget passage.

Comptroller Susana Mendoza released $740 million to Medicaid providers Wednesday, a move that helps meet a federal court order that the state pay all new claims starting this month and another $1 billion in overdue vouchers over the next year. Mendoza said the payment will reduce Medicaid backlog by 18 percent.

Payments to some group insurance providers whittled several weeks' worth of the oldest claims. Still, most of the largest companies are owed more than 18 months of reimbursements.

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Anders Lindall, spokesman for American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees Council 31, the largest state employee union, said that even with a spending plan in place, it's too early to say how much the landscape for group insurance will change.

"Full funding for the health plan in the current year should prevent new claims from piling up," Lindall said. "We certainly hope that will mean providers who wouldn't accept the state health plan, or who required plan participants to pay upfront, will revisit those policies, but I think only time will tell."

Some say potential employees are doubting whether Illinois is the best place to establish their careers.

Kimberly Archer, a music professor at Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and the head of the faculty union there, can see problems arising.

Younger faculty will ask, "'Why would I come here for $45,000 with health insurance that doesn't work and second-tier benefits?'" she said. "I think we haven't begun to see the long-term damage of this."

drhodes@chicagotribune.com

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Army veteran Holly Schilling, 34, discusses her reaction to President Trump's tweets at her home Wednesday, July 26, 2017 in Janesville, Wisc. Schilling served in the Army from 2005 to 2009 and was honorably discharged. (Armando L. Sanchez/Chicago Tribune) (Armando L. Sanchez)

Holly Schilling, a former Army sergeant who was discharged after disclosing that she is transgender, had hopes of someday serving in the military again.

Those hopes were dashed Wednesday, when President Donald Trump said on Twitter that he wants transgender people barred from serving in the U.S. military "in any capacity," citing "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

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"I've wanted to go back since I got out," said 34-year-old Schilling, who lives in Janesville, Wis., and works in Chicago as a mobile software engineer. "This would be the end."

And billionaire Chicago native Jennifer Pritzker, who retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and went public about being a transgender woman in 2013, on Wednesday took issue with the president's statement.

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Pritzker, one of the heirs to the Hyatt hotel chain fortunes, is a longtime preservationist, Republican and founder of the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Chicago. She has been an advocate for the transgender community, and campaigned against a North Carolina bill that required that people use a bathroom that matches the gender on their birth certificate.

She has also expressed support for Trump in the past, donating $250,000 to his inauguration committee through her Evanston trust.

But on Wednesday, she said she reached out to Trump and "expressed my disappointment and offered my help to find a better solution than barring transgender citizens from serving in the Armed Forces."

"There are thousands of transgender veterans and those currently serving who have made enormous personal sacrifice to serve their country by subordinating their personal identities to service to our nation. Virtually all of them have served and are serving honorably and many with distinction and heroism," she wrote in the statement.

"I would like to personally thank all of the men and women who serve our nation, regardless of their race, gender, sexual orientation, or religion. I also urge President Trump to reconsider his position."

Billionaire Chicago native Jennifer Pritzker, who retired from the Army as a lieutenant colonel and went public about being a transgender woman in 2013, took issue with President's Trump statement barring transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. (KRISTAN LIEB / Chicago Tribune)

Schilling said she had her application to re-enlist in the Army ready to be submitted when news surfaced about Trump's announcement, which would reverse the effort under President Barack Obama to open the armed services to transgender people. Trump did not say what would happen to transgender troops already in the military.

"My hope would be President Trump will discuss this with his secretary of defense ... and see the full implications of it and not simply the politics and not simply the popularity ratings and poll numbers," said Schilling, who considers herself a Republican but did not vote for Trump.

"These are people's lives and careers and the nation's defense on the line. This is not something to make quick changes over," said Schilling, who added that the government has invested millions of dollars into training soldiers  including those who identify as transgender, like her.

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"Those individuals go do their job as well as anyone else," Schilling said.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced earlier this month that he was giving military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services would affect the "readiness and lethality" of the force.

Schilling enlisted in the Army in 2005 and was stationed at Fort Detrick, Md. "At that time, I knew I was transgender, but I was trying to prove I wasn't to myself," she said.

She saw a therapist and was diagnosed with a gender identity disorder, she said. In late 2007, she confided to her sergeant and commander  the first people other than her wife  that she was transgender. Schilling said that at that time there were no visible physical effects of the low doses of hormone treatment she was taking, and that she continued to meet the male standards for grooming, weight and fitness in the military.

Schilling said she did not transition until 2015  six years after she left the military when she changed her name from Neal to Holly, grew her hair longer and dressed in feminine attire. She said she has plans to undergo gender-reassignment surgery.

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"I was met initially with great support" within the Army, she said, noting that her supervisors said they were happy with her job performance regardless of her gender. She said she was surprised that her commander would support her at a time when the LGBT community was shunned by the military, whose "don't ask, don't tell" policy ended in 2011.

"Not only is it admitting a secret, it is admitting a secret that would potentially end my career," she said.

Schilling continued her job in satellite communications, garnering a number of commendation and service medals. She was even promoted.

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But when she got a new commander, who sought to have her discharged, her fear that her Army career would end became a reality.

Schilling was honorably discharged in 2009 after serving for more than three years. The official reason listed on the discharge papers is "condition, not a disability."

Although a number of transgender soldiers serve openly, others Schilling knows of live in secret, fearful of policy changes under the Trump administration, she said.

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During his campaign, Trump said he would support the LGBT community. Instead, he has rolled back transgender policies, Schilling said. "It makes me question if he instead has become part of the swamp that he had claimed to drain."

Associated Press contributed.

lvivanco@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @lvivanco
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, calls on Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner to have a meeting to discuss the changes the governor wants made to Senate Bill 1 during a news conference on the first day of a special session on education funding at the state Capitol, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Springfield, Ill. (Justin Fowler / AP)

SPRINGFIELD  Senate President John Cullerton said Wednesday that lawmakers will wait until next week to send Gov. Bruce Rauner an overhaul of the school funding formula he's promised to veto, prompting Republicans to double down on accusations that Democrats are trying to create panic about whether schools will be able to open this fall.

Cullerton said Democrats were holding on to the bill until Monday to give Rauner time to come to the negotiating table to prevent a showdown over the matter, though that has long appeared unavoidable. Rauner, who has declined to meet until the Senate sends him the bill, called the timetable "outrageous."

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"This is fundamentally wrong," the Republican governor said. "This is a vicious manipulation of the democratic process for political gain for a political machine, damaging our children's lives."

The sparring came as lawmakers returned to Springfield on Wednesday for the first of several special sessions Rauner called on education funding. Many lawmakers were absent, however, and the action was confined to competing press conferences.

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The latest dispute centers around a provision Democrats inserted into the budget lawmakers approved over Rauner's objections that would prevent schools from receiving money unless a new "evidence-based" funding formula is in place. Democrats passed such a plan in May, but have put a procedural hold on the bill in the Senate keeping it off Rauner's desk.

That's because while Rauner has said he supports the majority of the proposal, he's deemed part of it a "bailout" for Chicago Public Schools. He's taken particular issue with $215 million that would help pay for teacher pension costs, which the state covers for all schools outside of Chicago, and also has raised concerns about another $250 million CPS receives in the form of a special block grant.

Rauner, a longtime vocal opponent of the Chicago Teachers Union, has vowed to use his amendatory veto powers to strip out those earmarks and redistribute the money to other school districts. But he's been unwilling to detail his proposed changes, prompting concerns from Democrats who note that it took decades for the legislature to pass changes to the school aid formula.

Cullerton said he's held on to the bill out of concern for the governor's "mental state," noting the governor's staff shake-up and the fact that more than a dozen Republicans joined Democrats this month to override Rauner's veto of a budget plan that relied on an income tax hike.

"I'm afraid he's acting out of anger. You know he has had a bad month," said Cullerton, who added that Rauner rebuffed a meeting request. "I mean, we've overridden him I think four times in a row, half his staff was either fired or quit, and I just want to have a meeting so we can talk rationally about what's in the bill."

Later Wednesday, the head of the Rauner-controlled state mental health division issued a statement taking issue with Cullerton's comments.

The agency "works every day to reduce the stigma attached to mental illness. For a political leader to perpetuate this stigma to score political points is completely inappropriate and we respectfully request that our leaders stop doing so," said a statement attributed to Diana Knaebe, state mental health division director.

Cullerton said he's holding out hope the governor will change his mind, but that he will send the legislation to Rauner on Monday regardless of whether a meeting happens.

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The Senate president argued the special session was a waste of taxpayer dollars, and said it was up to Rauner and legislative leaders to strike a deal. During special session, legislators are able to collect $111 a day for expenses plus 39 cents per mile. To combat that notion, Rauner on Wednesday signed into law a measure to stop the pay and per diem increases lawmakers would receive automatically.

For his part, Rauner said Democrats should have sent him the bill weeks ago. By waiting until a few days before the first school aid payments are scheduled to go out Aug. 10, Democrats are trying to create pressure on lawmakers to once again override his veto so their districts don't go without, Rauner said.

"We should not tolerate this for one second. There is no legitimate reason for that education funding bill to have not been sent to me already," Rauner said.

Once he vetoes the bill, lawmakers have three choices. They can agree with his changes, which is unlikely, or they can vote to override them. If they do nothing, the measure essentially would die.

It would take 36 votes in the Senate to override Rauner. The measure passed that chamber with 35 votes, though two Democrats were recorded as not voting.

Cullerton said he wasn't sure if there was enough support for a Senate override, but Democrats there led the push for the changes and it's doubtful they would walk away now.

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In the House, 71 votes are needed for an override. The bill passed with just 60 votes, and there are just 67 House Democrats. Still, Speaker Michael Madigan said Wednesday that there was a "good possibility of an override" in his chamber, noting the willingness of some Republicans there to break ranks with Rauner on budget issues.

"We've been talking to a variety of people, and there is a real good level of knowledge of what's contained in (the education funding bill)," Madigan said. "I think over time, why, that level of knowledge will increase and that therefore will facilitate the sufficient number of votes to override the governor."

mcgarcia@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @moniquegarcia
Ald. Edward Burke, left, and Ald. Raymond Lopez introduced an ordinance that would allow police to cite parents if they are found to know their kids 16 and under have guns and fail to make reasonable efforts to stop the possession or report the possession to law enforcement. (Chicago Tribune photos)

Welcome to Clout Street: Morning Spin, our weekday feature to catch you up with what's going on in government and politics from Chicago to Springfield. Subscribe here.

Topspin

Two Chicago aldermen want to hold parents responsible if their children have guns.

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An ordinance introduced at Wednesday's City Council meeting would allow police to cite parents if they are found to know their kids 16 and under have guns and fail "to make reasonable efforts to stop the possession or report the possession to law enforcement."

The ordinance does not define what constitutes "a reasonable effort." If cited, parents could be required to perform community service, which could include supportive social services.

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The measure, introduced by Ald. Edward Burke, 14th, and Ald. Raymond Lopez, 15th, was sent to the Committee on Education and Child Development. (John Byrne)

What's on tap

*Mayor Rahm Emanuel is in Washington, D.C., for private meetings.

*Gov. Bruce Rauner is expected to take reporters' questions after the special session on school funding wraps up.

*The Illinois House and Senate will be in special session.

From the notebook

*Springfield math: Once Gov. Rauner amendatorily vetoes the school funding formula bill, lawmakers have three choices. They can agree with his changes, which is unlikely, or they can vote to override them. If they do nothing, the measure essentially would die.



It would take 36 votes in the Senate to override Rauner. The measure passed that chamber with 35 votes back in May, though two Democrats were recorded as not voting. Senate President John Cullerton said he wasn't sure if there was enough support for a Senate override, but Democrats there led the push for the changes and it's doubtful they would walk away now.



In the House, 71 votes are needed for an override. The bill passed with just 60 votes in May, and there are just 67 House Democrats. Still, Speaker Michael Madigan said Wednesday that there was a "good possibility of an override" in his chamber, noting the willingness of some Republicans there to break ranks with Rauner on budget issues.



"We've been talking to a variety of people, and there is a real good level of knowledge of what's contained in (the education funding bill)," Madigan said. "I think over time, why, that level of knowledge will increase and that therefore will facilitate the sufficient number of votes to override the governor." (Monique Garcia)

*J.B. and Me?: Democratic candidate J.B. Pritzker held a Facebook Live social media event to tout his support for the Democratic-passed school funding formula legislation and attack Rauner's amendatory veto vow.



"Well, he's tried to turn it into a divide between Chicago and the rest of the state," Pritzker said of the Republican governor and his travels to Downstate school districts in which he has labeled the legislation a "bailout" for the Chicago Public Schools.



"He thinks it will get him re-elected because he knows he's not going to get a lot of votes out of Chicago and so he wants the rest of the state to think Chicago's taking something away from them. No school district loses under Senate Bill 1," he said.



Pritzker contended the state's lengthy budget impasse has left schools "reeling across the state," even though elementary and secondary education has been funded during the impasse. The state has been late on some payments, however, amid a cash crunch caused by the stalemate.



"For him this is all politics. For the kids, this is so critically important for their future. If you mess up the beginning of their school year, if you mess up the school-funding formula that they deserve, they can't get those years back," Pritzker said.



"I really think he doesn't understand the difference in government between an investment and an expense. Investing in education is an investment, it's not an expense," he said. (Rick Pearson)

*More City Council oversight of legal settlements?: Aldermen say the City Council should have to sign off when the city stands to get paid more than $100,000 in a lawsuit settlement with a vendor, a move that would let them weigh in when they think a legal deal should be bigger.

Now, aldermen only get to weigh in on big legal settlements if it's the city that has to pay out. Ald. Burke said Wednesday that the council should get to OK settlements when the city is getting paid, too.

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Burke cited the $20 million settlement the city reached with red light camera vendor Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. earlier this year. It settled a suit brought by the Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration over the company's admitted fraud.

Burke said the city originally sought $300 million from Redflex and aldermen deserve justification for taking considerably less in such cases.

"Aldermen do not want to be given the reasoning for such settlements after the fact," Burke said in a news release announcing his proposal.

Ald. Roderick Sawyer, 6th, said aldermen should be "made fully aware of all the details surrounding decisions that result in compromises of this magnitude."

The ordinance will head to the Finance Committee, which Burke chairs. (John Byrne)

*Quick spins: State Sen. Daniel Biss, a Democratic candidate for governor, announced the endorsement of Bloomington Mayor Tari Renner. ... Another Democrat running for governor, 47th Ward Ald. Ameya Pawar, sent a fundraising email to supporters Wednesday afternoon mentioning the statewide bus tour he's on and asking for gas money. "Our bus doesn't fuel itself. If you're ready for a governor who will forge a New Deal for Illinois, I need your help. Please invest $3 or more to support the One Illinois Tour." ... WBEZ City Hall reporter Lauren Chooljian covered her last council meeting Wednesday as she departs Chicago for New Hampshire, and Mayor Emanuel gave her the first questions at post-meeting news conference.

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What we're writing

*Chicagoans get chance to speak at City Council meeting, but doesn't mean they were heard.

*Cullerton to send Rauner education bill Monday, administration takes issue with Senate president questioning governor's mental state.

*Emanuel tries to crack down on reselling stolen cellphones.

*City Council roundup: Potential cost to City Hall of bucking Sessions on immigration is $3.2 million grant money.

*Emanuel: Cubs chose lucrative concerts over more night games.

*Chicago cop Patrick Kelly taken off street amid reopened city investigations.

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*Local Democrats attack Trump over tweet about transgender troops in the military.

*Illinois Democrats attack Trump transgender military ban.

*Man refuses to turn over CTA storage container with $600K in tools, lawsuit says.

*New program gives fresh start to Cook County Jail ex-inmates.

What we're reading

*High-living Cubs fan faces prison for defrauding investors out of $1.67 million.

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*Lost cities of the Midwest: A trek back to pre-Columbian times.

*iPhone-maker Foxconn to open Wisconsin plant expected to create 3,000 jobs.

Follow the money

*Track Illinois campaign contributions in real time here and here.

Beyond Chicago



*Trump announces ban on transgender people in the military.

*Senate rejects Obamacare repeal.

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*Trump goes after Sessions again.

*Sanctions bill hits snag over North Korea.
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The collection includes Poet Laureates, Ockham New Zealand Book Awards winners and strong new voices from recent collections and anthologies.

Phantom Billstickers National Poetry Day celebrate their 20anniversary this year and, to mark the occasion, are publishing free online poetry collection 20/20.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday dismissed a threat by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions to pull some grant funding from so-called sanctuary cities where law enforcement cooperation with federal immigration officials is deemed lacking by the administration of President Donald Trump.

Emanuel suggested the Trump administration might not be on solid legal ground in trying to take away the money. And he reiterated his stance that Chicago would remain "a welcoming city" to immigrants from around the globe.

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"But let me say this: We will not be intimidated away from our values," the mayor said. "We will not be intimidated. We will not be coerced. We will not be pushed off from doing what's right, not only in our self interests, but what is morally right."

In overwhelmingly Democratic Chicago where Trump voters are relatively scarce, the mayor has often sounded a similar refrain on the issue. It percolated during last year's presidential election, when Trump's get-tough stance on illegal immigration was central to his successful campaign.

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His administration stepped it up Tuesday, when the Justice Department led by Sessions announced local governments will lose some federal grants if they do not give advance notice when immigrants in the country illegally are about to be released from custody and allow immigration agents access to local jails.

The policy will apply to all cities that get grants from the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant, or JAG, program, which provides a relatively minuscule amount of money to Chicago. The city this year is counting on $3.2 million from the program. The money mostly is used to buy police vehicles, but the grants at risk amount to about less than three-hundredths of 1 percent of the entire $9.8 billion city budget.

Chicago is considered a sanctuary city because in part because Chicago law prohibits police from providing U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement officials access to people who are in the Police Department's custody, unless they are wanted on a criminal warrant or have serious criminal convictions.

It also prohibits local police from allowing ICE agents to use their facilities for interviews or investigation. And it bars on-duty officers from responding to ICE inquiries or talking to ICE officials about a person's custody status or release date.

Emanuel made his remarks after the council meeting, during which the following actions were taken:

Aldermen approved a $38.75 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit alleging the city broke its own rules in issuing tickets for red light and speed camera violations, despite some complaints.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, decried the fact attorneys filed the suit at all, saying other projects will go wanting. "Something has to suffer to pay out $39 million, somebody's project that could have gone forward is going to be put on ice because of this particular lawsuit," Beale said.

Ald. Scott Waguespack, 32nd, made a broader complaint, saying the city never should have let disgraced red light camera firm Redflex regain its right to bid for city work after the Tribune uncovered a bribery scandal there linked to the camera contract and the city fired the company.

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Despite those concerns, no aldermen voted against the settlement.

Aldermen also approved a framework for the rezoning of about 700 acres along the North Branch of the Chicago River beginning just north of downtown, a change that could set up a land rush as developers build residential towers and commercial buildings in an area that has been zoned mostly for industrial use for decades.

Ald. Michele Smith, 43rd, joined Waguespack in voting against the plan. Smith said there's simply too little oversight in place to make sure developers put in enough green space and pay sufficient fees to the city to cover the cost of needed infrastructure upgrades to handle thousands of new residents.

"The ordinance that we are about to consider, in the judgment of the thousands of people who live around this area, will be a mistake of large proportion," Smith said before the vote. "Its impact will be felt for decades and the fallout will only grow with time."

Emanuel introduced an ordinance to crack down on the type of cellphone theft that befell his teenage son a few years ago by making it tougher to resell stolen phones in Chicago. "There's a profit motive for stealing a phone and a market that's created, and ... if you don't change the law, it's not only about a phone, it's about a life," Emanuel said. He noted that wasn't the case with son but has been in other instances.

Ald. Anthony Beale, 9th, introduced a resolution calling on Assessor Joe Berrios to come before the Finance Committee to explain his office's practices, after the Tribune series "The Tax Divide" found county valuations for property tax purposes favored the wealthy at the expense of the poor. His resolution mirrored one filed last month filed by four other aldermen. Committee Chairman Ed Burke, 14th, said Monday he would hold a hearing.

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jebyrne@chicagotribune.com

Twitter @ReporterHal

Twitter @_johnbyrne
The head of the State Department's diplomatic security bureau has resigned and will leave his post on Thursday, leaving the two top positions vacant for the foreseeable future in the bureau in charge of embassy security around the world.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Diplomatic Security Bill Miller announced his resignation and retirement from the State Department on July 19 in a note to staff, which The Washington Post obtained. His last day of service will be July 27. Miller has been the top official in the Diplomatic Security Service since January, when the Senate-confirmed assistant secretary Gregory Starr was asked to resign.

Starr had been singled out by Republicans during the investigation of the Sept. 11, 2012, attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. Starr was asked to resign after President Donald Trump's inauguration, along with a host of other senior State Department officials. This is common at the beginning of a new administration, although traditionally officials are not pushed out until replacements are found.

Miller, whose official title was principal deputy assistant secretary of state and director of the Diplomatic Security Service, resigned voluntarily and was not asked to resign or fired, a senior State Department official said. He has been a member of the Diplomatic Security Service since 1987.

"It is with extraordinary sadness, counterbalanced by extreme pride, and with the deepest sense of humility, that I announce my retirement from the Department of State and the Diplomatic Security Service," he told colleagues in his note. "I have been blessed throughout my life in so many ways. I count among those blessings the opportunity to SERVE with all of you."

Christian Schurman, the deputy assistant secretary for international programs, will assume the role of acting assistant secretary for the bureau, said Heather Nauert, State Department spokeswoman.

"We thank [Miller] for his leadership and dedicated service, and we wish him the very best," she said.

Sources close to Miller said that he had been hoping to be appointed to lead the Diplomatic Security Service on a permanent basis but was informed that he would not be getting the job. Two sources familiar with the situation said Secretary of State Rex Tillerson is planning to bring on Michael Evanoff, who was the head of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's personal security detail when she led the State Department.

Rice has been advising Tillerson and was part of the effort to persuade President Donald Trump to choose him for secretary of state. Evanoff declined to comment.

Miller's departure is the latest in a string of senior State Department officials who have decided to resign or retire since Trump came into office. Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Stuart Jones will retire early next month and move to the Cohen Group, a Washington, D.C., consulting firm.

Several other senior State Department officials and Foreign Service officers have decided to retire rather than take on new posts. And while turnover is natural with any change of administration, several officials also say there is broad frustration in the department's senior ranks with Tillerson and his approach to running the department.

"If no one is going to give you the job but they are going to ask you to crush your team with budget cuts and impossible tasks, why would you stay?" said one recently departed senior State Department official. "The thing this administration doesn't get about the foreign service and State in general is that our skills and expertise are very marketable in the private sector. We have choices."

Besides Tillerson, only one senior State Department political appointee and a handful of ambassadors are in place. Zero assistant secretaries of state have been confirmed. Tillerson has reportedly clashed with the White House on personnel issues, including his initial desire to appoint Susan Thornton, the acting assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs, to serve permanently.

BuzzFeed reported that Tillerson is now favoring former Treasury Department official Olin Wethington for that post. Administration officials said the White House prefers Michael DeSombre, a mergers and acquisitions attorney in Hong Kong who is "Worldwide President" of "Republicans Overseas."

The diplomatic security post is particularly important because of the crucial role that bureau plays in protecting American officials and property at diplomatic posts all over the world. During the campaign, Trump often criticized Hillary Clinton for failing to protect diplomats as secretary of state, especially in the case of the Benghazi attack.

In addition to protecting U.S. diplomats and embassies in more than 160 countries, the diplomatic security bureau also protects the secretary of state and more than 100 domestic State Department facilities, investigates passport and visa fraud, conducts personnel security investigations and issues security clearances.

Even if Evanoff is nominated soon, it may take weeks or months for him to be confirmed by the Senate. Meanwhile, the office that is in charge of preventing the next Benghazi attack will have to make do without permanent leadership in place.
Rogelio Hernandez visits a makeshift memorial on July 26, 2017, in the parking lot of a Walmart where authorities Sunday discovered a tractor-trailer packed with immigrants in San Antonio. (Eric Gay / AP)

SAN ANTONIO  Mexican government officials said Wednesday they were working to reunite families with some of the survivors of a failed human smuggling operation and had been assured by U.S. immigration officials that they would not question relatives about their legal status in the United States.

Ten immigrants, including seven from Mexico, died after a sweltering ride from the Texas border city of Laredo in a tractor-trailer without air conditioning on Sunday. Another of the dead was identified as being from Guatemala; two others were not publicly identified.

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At least 29 immigrants survived, according to U.S. officials. Twelve remained hospitalized Wednesday in San Antonio.

The driver of the big rig, James Matthew Bradley Jr., waived a detention hearing that had been scheduled for Thursday and remained in federal custody, charged with illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. Federal court records indicated a new hearing was set for Aug. 23, when Bradley was expected to a give video deposition. The 60-year-old Florida trucker could face the death penalty, if convicted.

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Latin American diplomats worked, meanwhile, to confirm names of the dead and injured, most of who were not publicly identified.

The top Mexican diplomatic official in San Antonio said relatives of some of the immigrants didn't even know their family members had left for the United States. Consular officials were working to notify families, repatriate bodies and arrange hospital visits for relatives of the survivors.

"We have to make sure everyone is informed and everyone knows where their children are," said Reyna Torres Mendivil, the Mexican consul general for San Antonio.

U.S. immigration authorities assured her, she said, that any relatives escorted by consular officials on hospital visits would not be questioned about their legal status.

Thirteen immigrants were in federal custody, being held as material witnesses in the government's case against Bradley, the U.S. Attorney's office announced.

Their appointed attorney, Michael McCrum, said it was too early to know whether they would receive visas or be allowed to settle in the United States in consideration for their help.

"One of my concerns is that they begin to be treated as chips in a political game instead of real people who have been severely abused," McCrum said.

It's not clear how many immigrants in total were in the tractor-trailer. An unknown number fled once its doors were opened in a Walmart parking lot early Sunday, on foot or into six waiting black SUVs, according to a federal criminal complaint against the driver.

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One victim, a 19-year-old who had been previously deported and was trying to get back to his family in Maryland, was identified as a Guatemalan national by diplomat Cristy Andrino.

Andrino told the AP that Frank Guisseppe Fuentes immigrated to the U.S. as a child, but was deported this past March.

Another of the dead was identified as Jose Rodriguez Aspeitia, 34, from the Mexican town of Palo Alto, Aguascalientes. A town spokesman told The Associated Press that Aspeitia had worked in construction there and had apparently spent time in the United States. Aspeitia was rescued from the tractor-trailer, but later died at a hospital.

An Aguascalientes state government official at the consulate told the AP that Aspeitia's family was driving north to San Antonio, hoping to cross the border on humanitarian grounds.

Investigators have said they believe Bradley was part of a larger organization involved in human smuggling that authorities are trying to identify and dismantle.

Bradley had his commercial driving privileges suspended by Florida three months before Sunday's deadly smuggling attempt, officials said. And court records show he had been repeatedly cited for violating federal motor carrier safety regulations in Iowa dating to 1995. At least two of the tickets were for logging more hours than allowed.

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Associated Press writers Sarah Rankin in Richmond, Va., Emily Schmall in Fort Worth, Texas, and Claudia Lauer in Dallas contributed to this report.
Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks to the media after his annual televised call-in show as his press secretary Dmitry Peskov, right, smiles in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, June 15, 2017. (Alexander Zemlianichenko / AP)

MOSCOW  The Kremlin on Wednesday refrained from discussing its possible response to a new package of U.S. sanctions against Russia before President Donald Trump signs them into law.

Eager to punish Russia for meddling in the 2016 presidential election, Congress on Tuesday overwhelmingly backed a new package of sanctions against Moscow that prohibits Trump from waiving the penalties without first getting permission from Congress.

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Senior Russian officials and lawmakers said Russia was considering measures in response to the new round of sanctions, but Dmitry Peskov, spokesman for President Vladimir Putin, said it was too early to speak about it.

Peskov told reporters in Moscow that the new sanctions, which he described as "lamentable," have not been signed by Trump into law yet and that the Kremlin "needs to analyze it very carefully" before Putin makes a decision on how to respond.

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When outgoing U.S. President Barack Obama imposed new sanctions on Russia last December, including expelling dozens of Russian diplomats and seizing two Russian recreational estates, Putin chose not to respond and said Russia would not expel U.S. diplomats despite the overwhelming expectations.

Russian officials welcomed Donald Trump's presidential win last year, hoping to mend relations with the United States which reached a post-Cold War low under President Barack Obama. But six months into Trump's presidency ties between the two countries remain tense, and the much-anticipated first meeting between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin early this month did not seem to produce any tangible results.

Earlier on Wednesday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov criticized the sanctions as "closing off the prospect for normalizing ties." He told the Interfax news agency the new sanctions are pushing Russia and the U.S. "into uncharted territory both in political and diplomatic sense."

Several Russian lawmakers said Moscow is considering how to respond to the new sanctions that aim to hit Putin and his inner circle by targeting alleged corrupt officials, human rights abusers, and crucial sectors of the Russian economy, including weapons sales and energy exports. The Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russian parliament, is already discussing the response, the chairman of its foreign affairs committee Konstantin Kosachev told reporters in Moscow.

Frants Klintsevich, first deputy chairman of the defense committee at the upper chamber of Russian parliament, warned that the new sanctions could hurt Russia's efforts to work with the U.S. in fighting terrorism. Cooperation on counter-terrorism between Russia and the U.S. "will be extremely problematic if at all possible," Klintsevich said in comments carried by Russian news agencies on Wednesday.
Illinois is suspending the operation of all amusement rides similar to the one involved in a deadly accident at the Ohio State Fair.A man was killed and seven other people were injured when the Fire Ball ride broke apart and flung people into the air at the fair in Columbus Wednesday. Amusement rides remained closed there.In Illinois, the state Department of Labor said Thursday it was suspending all rides similar to the Fire Ball ride until further notice.State officials said inspectors are notifying operators to suspend operation of three Fire Ball rides, eight Freak Out rides and one Extreme ride in Illinois.The department made the move as many festivals and county fairs are scheduled across Illinois. The Illinois State Fair starts Aug. 10.
Senate and House leaders struck a deal late Wednesday to send long-debated sanctions bill imposing new measures against Russia, Iran and North Korea to the president's desk, after securing promises that Congress will consider even more stringent measures against North Korea down the line.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker, R-Tenn., announced that he agreed to have the Senate take up the measure that the House passed Tuesday on a vote of 419 to 3, after House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., agreed that in the near future, the House would "expeditiously consider and pass enhancements" to the North Korea portion of the bill.

Chief among the "enhancements" Corker had sought up to the last minute was a provision that would have given Congress the ability to block the president from being able to ease punitive measures against North Korea in the future.

Such a provision, known as "congressional review," would have been modeled on similar language in the sanctions bill that pertains to Russia sanctions. In addition to codifying and enhancing existing sanctions against Moscow, the legislation requires the president to notify Congress whenever he wants to change Russia sanctions policy. That notification then triggers a 30-day period in which Congress can vote to prevent the president from easing punitive measures against Moscow.

That level of congressional review is unprecedented in sanctions bills, but was roundly popular in Congress, where many lawmakers have been uneasy about President Donald Trump's apparent coziness with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Despite the administration's considerable efforts to get lawmakers to abandon the congressional review, members and senators endorsed the approach, both for the Russia sanctions in the pending legislation and as a model for future sanctions bills - a reflection of lawmakers' continuing distrust of the president's conduct in foreign affairs.

While House Republican leaders have been noncommittal when it comes to endorsing congressional review as an approach for future sanctions measures, Corker has been one of its most vocal advocates in Congress. He told reporters Wednesday that "most" other senators wanted to see such a provision attached to the North Korea sanctions in the legislation - even threatening at one point to strip the North Korea sanctions out of the bill entirely to force more debate.

Earlier on Wednesday, Corker laid out three options for the Senate: Pass the bill as it is, strip the North Korea sanctions provision from it and start negotiating with the House - "which I know they're adamantly opposed to," Corker acknowledged - or try to make more changes to the legislation before sending it back across the Capitol.

In a Wednesday morning forum at The Washington Post, Corker appeared to favor taking out the North Korea provisions entirely, telling Post columnist David Ignatius that what "likely will happen is we will strip out the North Korea piece and send it back to them so that the two pieces we've negotiated together will remain intact."

"That's the likely scenario," Corker said, saying that "it's not an affront, it's just a timing issue."

But later in the day, he dismissed his commentary as "just kind of having a flowing conversation" with Ignatius, saying that senators would pick an option "in concert with the House . . . and do it very quickly, because we know they're leaving on Friday."

"Last night when we left the floor, that was what was being discussed," Corker added. "I understand that's not where the House wants to be, and we're going to have to figure something out."

Meanwhile, the House leaders have been growing impatient with the Senate.

"The House passed the Iran, Russia, North Korea sanctions package in a decisive bipartisan vote of 419-3, and we look forward to the Senate acting on it without delay," said AshLee Strong, spokeswoman for House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

Last month, the Senate passed a version of the sanctions bill that contained measures against Russia and Iran only by a vote of 98 to 2. But leaders in the House delayed their action over what they identified as a procedural violations of a constitutional rule that all measures that could affect government revenue must originate in the House.

It took some time to iron out a "fix" to that problem, and uponits resolution, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., officially threw North Korea into the sanctions mix, announcing about two weeks ago that the House would package its bill of sanctions against Pyongyang with the Senate-approved measures focused on Russia and Iran. According to one person with knowledge of the discussions, negotiators were always aware that House leaders had hoped to add a North Korea provision to the bill.

Corker's timeline of events is different.

"If we had known that North Korea was coming over, we would have been negotiating those over the last six weeks," he told reporters on Wednesday, adding, "We'll figure it out . . . first and foremost is to cause this bill to become law."

House leaders also stressed Wednesday that taking a stand against North Korea was a matter of utmost urgency.

"The Senate did not take up the bill, even after Kim Jong Un launched a new ICBM that could soon be capable of hitting California," said House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Edward Royce, a Republican from that state. "Now the House has acted again, by a vote of 419 to 3. Further delay on North Korea is completely unacceptable."

The resolution appears to have given leaders in both chambers what they wanted: the House will get the Senate's stamp of approval for the North Korea sanctions they initially passed as a standalone bill in May, and the Senate has secured a promise from the House to debate expanded congressional review authority for North Korea - a move that may set a precedent for future sanctions bills, as the provision is extremely popular with the House's rank-and-file.

The precise timing for the Senate to consider the legislation is uncertain, as the chamber is presently occupied with a series of votes related to health care, but senators are expected to vote on the measure this week.
President Donald Trump speaks in the Rose Garden of the White House on July 26, 2017. According to a fact check by The Associated Press, some of Trump's recent tweets have not been completely accurate. (Alex Brandon / AP)

In invoking Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and complaining that his own attorney general is not holding her accountable, President Donald Trump rehashed concerns that have preoccupied him since the campaign last year.

WASHINGTON  But his series of tweets about Clinton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe misstated key facts and omitted others, including one very relevant one: Sessions has had little to say about Clinton because he recused himself earlier this year from any investigation of her. Taken together, the tweets point to Trump's inability even now to turn his attention from Clinton, and also harken to suggestions in the campaign that he might use the Justice Department as a mechanism to punish a political opponent.

A look at the statements and how they hold up to scrutiny:

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What did Trump mean when he said Sessions had taken a "very weak position" on Clinton's "crimes" and on intelligence leakers?

The tweet covers a lot of ground, but it seems to be, in part, a clear reference to Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.

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It is true that Clinton wasn't prosecuted for mishandling classified information, but that had nothing to do with Sessions.

James Comey as FBI director last July declined to recommend charges against Clinton, saying neither she nor her aides had intentionally broken any laws regarding the handling of classified material. The Justice Department under Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted the FBI's conclusion.

In asking "where are the emails," Trump seems to be referring to the tens of thousands of emails that Clinton deleted because she said they were personal in nature. Trump has repeatedly suggested that Clinton should be investigated over the missing emails. In the 2016 campaign, he even seemed to invite the Russians to look for them.

Paradoxically, Comey's treatment of Clinton  including a news conference where he criticized her and a public disclosure months later that the FBI was revisiting the Clinton case  was initially cited by Trump's White House as a basis for the president's decision to fire Comey in May.

Trump also conveyed his frustration over leaks of classified intelligence that in some cases have embarrassed him and his administration. But the Justice Department under Sessions actually has brought a case  charging a U.S. government contractor in June of leaking classified documents to a news organization.

What does any of this have to do with Sessions?

It's not clear if Trump remembers this, but Sessions at his January confirmation hearing actually forfeited his right to be involved in any Clinton-related investigation.

The Alabama Republican was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump and was a loyal and reliable presence on campaign stops. Video online shows him smiling from a stage as a crowd chants "Lock her up" in reference to Clinton.

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So when Sessions was asked at the hearing what role he would have in any Clinton-related investigations  Trump, after all, had floated the idea of reopening the email investigation and of appointing a special prosecutor  the senator said he would recuse himself.

"It was a highly contentious campaign," Sessions said at the time. "I, like a lot of people, made comments about the issues in that campaign." He said: "With regard to Secretary Clinton and some of the comments I made, I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question."

Unstated in these tweets but central to Trump's dissatisfaction with Sessions: The attorney general also recused himself from the continuing investigation into Russian interference in the election and possible coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

Why was Trump tweeting about McCabe receiving $700,000 from Clinton for his wife? What's that about?

The tweet in question  "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!"  is a misstatement of fact.

McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, ran for the Virginia Senate in 2015 and received routine donations from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and ally of Clinton. McAuliffe's political action committee and the Democratic Party of Virginia gave her campaign $700,000, an unremarkable amount for a competitive Senate race that year.

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Those donations also happened before the FBI says McCabe was promoted to deputy director of the FBI and took a supervisory role in the email investigation. He became acting director in May after Trump fired Comey.

Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Va., contributed to this report.
Illinois Senate President John Cullerton, D-Chicago, questioned the "mental state" of Republican Gov. Bruce Rauner during remarks to reporters Wednesday.

I share his concern. I would have said "emotional state" so as to avoid provoking the likes of Diana Knaebe, director of the mental health division of the Illinois Department of Human Services, who quickly released a statement criticizing Cullerton for stigmatizing the mentally ill. But yes.

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Rauner is clearly suffering from an advanced case of Madigan Derangement Syndrome  the belief that veteran Democratic House Speaker Michael Madigan is the cause of all of the state's economic woes and the primary obstacle to recovery.

Madigan is undeniably powerful and has been in a leadership role for every misguided decision in Springfield over the past three decades that has left Illinois in its financially precarious position.

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But to those with MDS, every Democratic leader and virtually every legislator and candidate is nothing but a Madigan lackey  terrified, compliant and venal. And every problem in state government is ultimately the speaker's fault.

Example: When Rauner's team kicked off a five-day fundraising drive Thursday, the letter to prospective donors billed it as an attempt "to show Madigan that Illinois does not want the old way" and wailed that "Madigan forced a permanent 32% income tax hike on Illinois families and passed a budget that is $2 billion out of balance."

Even though Rauner had previously agreed that the new, higher tax rates were necessary. Even though Republicans joined in the effort as both legislative chambers overrode Rauner's veto. Even though the budget deal contained deeper spending cuts than what Rauner had asked for.

Example: When Democratic gubernatorial candidate J.B. Pritzker launched a livestream series Wednesday urging Rauner to sign Senate Bill 1, the education funding overhaul, as soon as Cullerton sends it to his desk, Rauner's Illinois Republican Party raged that this was "evidence that Pritzker works for Mike Madigan and his Chicago Machine."

Example: At a news conference Wednesday, Rauner claimed Cullerton had been on his way to a joint appearance with Rauner to announce a deal on proposed changes to the pension law when "he got a phone call from the speaker and then he didn't show up. The speaker said 'You're not going to do an agreement with the governor for pension reform,' and that died."

A spokesman for Cullerton not only denied that Madigan ever made such a phone call, he also denied that such a joint appearance had ever been planned.

Example: Even though it's the Illinois Senate that's using a parliamentary maneuver to keep the education funding bill in limbo, Rauner on Wednesday repeatedly blamed "Madigan's majority" for holding up the process.

It was in this context that Cullerton offered his dim view of Rauner's mental state. "He's acting out of anger," in threatening to veto portions of the education bill and in refusing to sit down with Democratic leaders to try to negotiate a compromise, Cullerton surmised.

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Indeed Rauner was pointedly angry in his public comments Wednesday. And though too much of his anger was misdirected at Madigan and came off as paranoid and unhinged, he was right to be irked.

The Democrats' game  passing the controversial education bill but keeping it from the governor to try to build public and legislative support that will inspire him to sign it with no changes  has gone on for eight wheel-spinning weeks.

Maybe it was worth trying for a while, but if Rauner has shown us anything in the last 2 1/2, years it's that he's famously, proudly stubborn. And he made it known early in June that he saw certain portions of the bill as unduly generous to Chicago.

I have yet to hear or read a good defense of the Democrats' continued stalling, which Cullerton has said will end by July 31, no matter what. Every day that goes by brings us closer to a funding crisis that will imperil the coming school year, particularly in low-income school districts, and gives the legislature one less day to address Rauner's amendatory veto and come to a resolution.

I've also yet to hear or read a good excuse from Rauner as to why he won't reveal his veto plan or sit down for talks with Cullerton to see if a messy, protracted squabble over his override can be avoided.

I like Senate Bill 1. It's a fairly wrought compromise that addresses decades of funding inequities and, yes, throws a badly needed lifeline to Chicago Public Schools , which educates the most challenging student population in the state.

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But even if you don't like it, you've got to agree that this petulant brinkmanship on both sides is a disgrace to the democratic process.

Or maybe that's just my Illinois Derangement Syndrome kicking in.

ericzorn@gmail.com

Twitter @EricZorn
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is coming to Chicago to discuss her life and career. (John J. Kim / Chicago Tribune)

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is taking a break from serving up sass in the highest court in the land and getting drunk ahead of State of the Union speeches to come to Roosevelt University.

The Queen of the Court will sit down with Judge Ann Clair Williams of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit at the university's Auditorium Theatre (50 E. Congress Pkwy.) at 7 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 11 to discuss her life on the bench since being named to the Supreme Court in 1993.

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The event will mark the start of Roosevelt University's 2017 American Dream Reconsidered conference about law and social justice as it pertains to the "American dream."

Tickets for the discussion will go on sale the morning of Friday, July 28 at 10 a.m. Each ticket is $35.

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@shelbielbostedt | sbostedt@redeyechicago.com
Featuring new work by Anne Salmond, Witi Ihimaera, Diana Wichtel, Bill Manhire, Kirsten McDougall, Pip Adam and Selina Tusitala Marsh, audiences will also be treated to an address by Rod Oram as the Sir Graeme Douglas orator; C.K. Stead examines the literacy legacy of Allen Curnow; Steve Braunias tells us how he Ate Lincoln Road while Colin Hogg Hits the High Road. This years Ockham New Zealand Book Awards Acorn Foundation Fiction Prize winner, Catherine Chidgey, discusses; Bill Manhire plays tour guide through NZ poems set to music by Norman Meehan and Hannah Griffiths and the Titirangi Poetry Collective celebrates 40 years at the fringe of heaven.
From a dream trip to Barcelona as an exchange student to shining in the finals this summer at the 2017 National Speech & Debate Tournament in Birmingham, Ala., 18-year-old Ben Marshall's senior year at Prospect High School was nothing short of spectacular. The Pioneer Press caught up with Ben, a resident of Arlington Heights, who shared a bit of advice for incoming high school freshmen just weeks before he will head off to Western Michigan University, where he plans to major in theater.

Q: How did you decide to get involved with the speech team at Prospect?

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A: When the speech team adviser first asked me my freshman year at Prospect if I'd be interested in auditioning for the speech team, I told him 'no,' as I was already busy with the fall play. By the time I had enough people convince me to audition, I thought it was too late, but Mr. (Jeremy) Morton said there was still time. I had the worst audition of my life ... I was so bad and awkward. But he still had faith in me, and put me on the team.

Q: I've heard you and your partner Molly McDermott were finalists in Duo Interpretation at the National Speech & Debate Tournament this summer. Did you love speech team from the start?

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A: I was really naive that first year. We'd be at a tournament and I thought our team was so good, that I was sure we'd get first place. And then they would announce the winners, and we'd be in last place.

Q: Can you tell us about your award-winning skit with Molly?

A: It was a one-act skit, "The Story of Us." It's about two kids, a boy and a girl, who are waiting backstage to give a speech, and they're both really nervous, and you don't know why. Then the boy starts to flash back and talk about his childhood, and the audience realizes he's dead, and was killed in a school shooting. Last year, we did a humorous skit, so at first, people didn't know how to react, but it was a really cool experience for me.

Q: What advice do you have for incoming freshmen at Prospect who are considering getting involved with the speech team?

A: It's such a growing process, and your freshman year does not dictate how you will do your senior year. It's so important for kids to just try it, because they will learn so much about themselves. And when you do a duet with someone, you really grow with that person so much. It will be so weird not working with Molly, but she's a junior, so I told her, she better kill it for me next year.

kcullotta@tribpub.com

Twitter@kcullotta
A 26-year-old Aurora man has been charged with robbing a 56-year-old woman who was sitting inside her parked car in Aurora.

Aurora Police Department spokesman Dan Ferrelli said the incident occurred around 4:40 a.m. July 21 in the 800 block of LaFayette Street, where the woman was parked.

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According to Ferrelli, a dark-colored sedan stopped near the woman's car and a man got out of his vehicle and demanded the woman's valuables at gunpoint.

Police said the woman complied and handed over her valuables, at which time the man got back into the sedan and drove away.

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A short time later, the woman reported hearing a crash in the area. Police were also called about a dark-colored sedan that had crashed into an unoccupied pickup truck that was parked in the 700 block of Lebanon Street.

Ferrelli said responding officers were able to locate three men in the area and the group was detained for questioning. Following the interviews, police said they were able to tie Dakota Irvin, 26, 500 block of North Edgelawn Drive, to the robbery. He was charged with armed robbery and robbery.

The gun was not located, however, some of the proceeds from the robbery were found in a yard in the 700 block of Lebanon Street where the car was found crashed, Ferrelli said.

The two other detained men, Demetrius Jackson, 25, and David Adams, 23, both of the 1300 block of Pearl Street in Aurora, were both charged with resisting police.

Erika Wurst is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News
Orland Park Police said a 26-year-old village resident has been charged with criminal sexual abuse for allegedly abusing another male a number of years ago.

Police, in a news release, said that in late April a male victim, now an adult, told police he had been sexually abused over several years when the victim was between the ages of 12 and 17. The incidents took place at a location in Orland Park between September 2010 and February 2014, police said.

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Charged is Robert J. Favorite, of the 15100 block of Orlan Brook Drive, police said.

He was taken into custody Tuesday, and during a hearing Wednesday at the Bridgeview courthouse his bail was set at $100,000, police said in the release. He is due back in court Aug. 21.

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Police said they would not identify the location where the alleged abuse took place in an effort to protect the victim's identity.

Police said the basis for the charge of criminal sexual abuse is that Favorite allegedly committed the act with a victim who was at least 13 years old but younger than 17, while the offender was at least five years older than the victim.
About 200 people attended a prayer vigil Wednesday night for the Schmidt family at Firemen's Park in Beecher. ( Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown )

A 4-year-old boy has died from injuries in a two-vehicle crash Monday in Beecher that also claimed the lives of his pregnant mother and younger brother, officials said Wednesday.

Weston Schmidt was pronounced dead at 5:55 p.m. Tuesday at Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago, according to a news release from the Will County sheriff's office.

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Weston had been on life support earlier Tuesday, as had an older brother, 6-year-old Owen. Owen, who was in a medically induced coma, remained in critical condition Wednesday at Comer, according to the news release.

Lindsey Schmidt, 29, and her 18-month-old son Kaleb were killed Monday when the driver of a 2002 Chevrolet S10 pickup truck blew a stop sign and struck their 2014 Subaru Outback at the intersection of Corning Road and Yates Avenue in unincorporated Washington Township, according to the Will County sheriff's office.

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Meanwhile, about 200 community members attended a prayer vigil Wednesday night at Firemen's Park in Beecher, where two local pastors offered prayers, blessings and a message of hope. The solemn event, which was organized by a group of local mothers who did not know the Schmidt family but were touched by the tragedy, lasted about 20 minutes.

"I lived right over there by that street, by that intersection," said Renee Sabino, one of the organizers who used to live near the crash site. "I thought, 'My God, I passed by there three, four times a day every day for six years, and it just broke my heart.'

"It hurt, it just hurt and I just thought we should try something, anything to show them that we care, even if we don't know them, that we care."

Weston and Owen initially were taken to Franciscan St. Margaret Health in Dyer, Ind., and were later airlifted to Comer.

The pickup truck driver, a 25-year-old Manteno man, was taken to St. James Hospital and later to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where he was in stable condition after undergoing minor reconstructive surgery for a large laceration to his arm, according to the sheriff's office.

Deputies, who visited both hospitals Tuesday morning, have spoken to the Manteno man, and he is fully cooperating with them, officials said. Charges are pending until the investigation has been completed, according to the sheriff's office.

Schmidt was traveling north on Yates Avenue about 8:30 a.m., en route to Vacation Bible School at Trinity Lutheran Church in Crete, when she was struck on the driver's side by the pickup truck, which was traveling eastbound on Corning, sheriff's office spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer said.

The pickup truck driver failed to halt at the stop sign, and Schmidt had no stop sign, she said.

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The impact of the collision forced the Subaru off the road and into a field on the east side of Yates, while the pickup landed in a ditch on the north side of Corning, Hoffmeyer said.

A roadside memorial was erected at the intersection of Yates Avenue and Corning Road in Beecher, where a pregnant mother and two of her young children were killed Monday, July 24, 2017, when their car was struck by a pickup truck. (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown )

A roadside memorial with a cross, flowers, stuffed animals and an inscribed memorial stone had been erected at the crash site, just down the street from Schmidt's Kentucky Road home.

A note affixed to the plastic bin that holds the flowers reads, "Stay strong like you have always been/ may the Lord give you the strength to overcome this great loss/ God bless you all."

Schmidt, a graduate of Illinois Lutheran High School in Crete, had led her church's "Time Out For Moms" group for mothers of young children and was a room parent at Illinois Lutheran Schools, according to a post on the Trinity Lutheran Church Facebook page.

School officials identified Owen as a student at the elementary school.

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A Harvey firefighter performs a walkthrough of the Candidate Physical Ability Test now available for aspiring firefighters at the MABAS 24 facility in Homewood.

A consortium of south suburban fire departments on Wednesday opened the region's first firefighter candidate testing center, a major step toward aligning local hiring practices with national standards.

Mutual Aid Box Alarm System Division 24, which consists of 20 departments in southern Cook County that assist one another through mutual aid agreements, partnered with the National Testing Network, a pre-employment testing service, to launch the testing facility at MABAS Division 24 headquarters in Homewood.

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Aspiring local firefighters, who had previously traveled long distances, including across state lines, to take the nationally recognized Candidate Physical Ability Test required by many departments, can now do so in their own backyard.

"Candidates aspiring to be firefighters had to travel well beyond their own communities to pursue their career dreams, so we at MABAS 24 made it happen," Glenwood fire chief and MABAS 24 president Kevin Welsh said. "Once the concept was brought to us, we were going to do whatever we needed to do to build it."

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A National Testing Network trainer, who led a walk through of the new CPAT course for firefighter candidates in Homewood on Tuesday, July 25, 2017, demonstrates the course's second station, the hose drag. (Zak Koeske/Daily Southtown )

In addition to adding convenience, MABAS officials said they hope the testing center will help standardize the firefighter hiring process in the region.

Because there is no recognized regional or statewide physical ability test that firefighters must pass before being hired, individual departments and fire protection districts have historically created their own tests or contracted with outside companies to administer tests.

As a result, physical ability tests have varied widely by department, and some, including the city of Chicago's, invited costly litigation from applicants who asserted the tests were discriminatory.

The Candidate Physical Ability Test, or CPAT, which will be administered at the new testing center, is considered legally defensible and non-discriminatory, however. Both the International Association of Fire Fighters and the International Association of Fire Chiefs endorse the test.

The CPAT is an eight-event course of job-specific actions, such as a hose drag, ladder raise and search and rescue that candidates must complete in less than 10 minutes and 20 seconds.

"The advantage to this system is this is all tested and true replica of the agility and the ability needed to become a firefighter," Welsh said. "It is not necessarily calisthenics or pull-ups or chin-ups All eight stations are directly related to the performance of the duties of a firefighter."

In the past, departmental tests may have required candidates to run a mile in under 9 minutes or hang on a chin-up bar for 2 minutes, even though neither task was necessary for actually performing the job of firefighter. Such tests, which often favor male candidates over female candidates, were challenged in court and have become a potential liability for departments that still use them.

Michael Lampkin, a firefighter/paramedic with the South Holland Fire Department, drags a weighted mannequin to simulate a rescue during a walk through of the Homewood CPAT course on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 (Zak Koeske / Daily Southtown)

"Were they really important?" Welsh said of the tasks required to pass earlier physical ability tests. "Or were they just, we wanted to weed out some of the wieners? And that's what it came down to. Now this is a true tested process."

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Whether individual departments or fire protection districts require the CPAT for all candidates will remain up to them, but Welsh said he hopes he can get all of his MABAS 24 partners on board.

"The advantage to the local municipality or the commission is the fact that they don't have to worry about being challenged in the court of law because their test wasn't validated," he said. "The liability lies on (National Testing Network), and that's huge to a village administrator or to a fire district president. This is tested and true and ready to go, and why they wouldn't take advantage of it, I don't know."

Aspiring firefighters can register online to take a CPAT test at the Homewood facility for $125. The registration fee includes a packet with exercises to help candidates train for the course and the opportunity to attend orientation sessions where candidates can familiarize themselves with the eight stations in person. Candidates also can attempt up to two timed practice runs for $39 a pop, if they wish.

The CPAT test, which upon passage is good for one year, is intended for entry-level firefighters hoping to break into the profession, South Holland Deputy Fire Chief Bryant Krizik said.

Because the test is standardized and nationally recognized, it is transferable to any department across the country that requires it, meaning that a certified firefighter candidate can apply to multiple departments, including ones out-of-state, without having to travel or take multiple tests.

Daily Southtown Twice-weekly News updates from the south suburbs delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Working firefighters who already adhere to their own department's training and wellness programs are not required to take the CPAT unless they're switching departments, explained Krizik, a major proponent of opening the new testing center.

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MABAS Division 24 President and Glenwood Fire Chief Kevin Welsh welcomes participating Southland fire department representatives to the new CPAT Testing Center in Homewood on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Among the approximately 200 in attendance were mayors, village managers, fire chiefs and other administrators from the 20 towns that make up MABAS 24. (Bill Figel )

He said the Homewood facility would offer two testing sessions per month to start, but could expand to as many as three times a week within a year, depending on demand.

The testing location also will provide computer-based testing for entry-level firefighters, law enforcement officers, corrections officers and emergency communications applicants.

The money MABAS 24 earns from operating the testing facility will go toward paying off the $70,000 outlay the division made to purchase the center's specialized training equipment, he said.

"This is a profession and we hold our people to high standards and now we have a consistently applied standard, physical fitness standard, to bring people in the door and establish that level of credibility, that level of professionalism and that level of ability to respond to what the community needs," Krizik said.

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The Elgin City Council has agreed to lease six buildings on the Fox River Country Day School property to a group with plans to open a charter school, provided the states charter school commission decides in favor of an appeal the group filed after its plans were rejected last month by the District U46 School Board. (Mike Danahey/ The Courier-News)

Backers of the proposed Elgin Math and Science Academy charter school cleared a hurdle when the Elgin City Council Wednesday voted to lease Fox River Country Day School properties it owns to them.

The lease is contingent upon the charter supporters winning an appeal they filed Wednesday with the state's charter school commission. The filing is necessary because last month, by a 4-3 vote, the U46 School Board nixed measures that would have allowed the project to proceed.

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The City Council approved the lease by an 8-0 vote. Council member John Steffen abstained from voting as his wife, Kerry Kelly, is a member of the charter group's board.

"The more choices in education we have, the more attractive our city becomes," Council member Rose Martinez said.

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Martinez also noted that the deal calls for the charter backers to repair the buildings, which would be costly for the city to do.

"It's a good lease for both parties," Council member Rich Dunne said. "I don't see a downside for Elgin."

Council member Terry Gavin said the deal "is in the best interest of the city. The charter school adds value and human currency."

While he may not be in favor of charter schools, Council member Corey Dixon said having one would provide benefits to the city.

The terms of the lease give the charter school supporters until Dec. 1 to get approval for the project.

The plan would open the academy August, 2018 at the former Fox River Country Day School site off Route 25 just north of Interstate 90. The proposal is for grades K-7 serving 400-420 students by 2022 and would have start as a K-3 school. Charter supporters said it would primarily target at-risk students in the U46 area.

The initial lease would run from April 1, 2018, through June 30, 2023. The school would be given 5-year options to renew the lease through June 30, 2048, subject to the academy having its charter renewed for each additional time frame. The leases would otherwise automatically be renewed, and the school would have to give Elgin 180 days notice if it would not be renewing its lease.

The lease would be for use of the Neil Building, dining hall, administration building, the gym, the Kilns Cabin and the Bates Fieldhouse - six of the 11 buildings on the campus.

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Prior to the lease starting, Elgin, at the city's expense, would demolish Allison Hall and the Kilborn Building and regrade and landscape those sites. Elgin also would make some repairs to the administration building and the gym to keep rain from getting into them.

The rent would only be $1 per year, with $30 for the 30 years of the proposed renewals due at signing.

However, the school supporters would agree to take the buildings and property as is, and they would be responsible for any repairs, improvements, maintenance, utilities, snow removal, heating, air conditioning or any remodeling or renovations. Officials have estimated repairs could run $4 million or more.

The school would also be allowed to sublet to nonprofits. Elgin also could sell the site to another property, with the school given 180 days notice and right of first refusal.

Council member Tish Powell said one of her main concerns is that if the state charter school commission turns down the Elgin group's appeal - as it did to its plan in October 2014 - the city still would have to decide what to do with the day school property.

The day school closed in 2011 and has sat empty ever since. In 2013 Elgin obtained the site in a complicated deal involving the Illinois Tollway, the Forest Preserve District of Kane County and Max McGraw Wildlife Foundation, which is adjacent to the school grounds.

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Officials from the Elgin Math and Science Academy have filed an appeal challenging last month's denial by the U46 school board.

The charter school's organizing group filed the appeal this week with the Illinois State Charter School Commission, chairwoman Kerry Kelly said.

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In a 25-page memo sent to the commission as part of its appeal, the Elgin Charter School Initiative requests commissioners to reconsider their proposal for the school commonly known as EMSA, a proposal ultimately rejected by a majority of School District U46 board members.

"EMSA's proposal for a charter school was timely approved by the U-46 Board of Education, and the only condition to the approval -- reaching an agreement with the administration -- was met within the time frame allowed by the board's resolution," according to the memo, dated Wednesday. The group had 30 days from the June 26 U46 school board meeting to submit an appeal to the state commission if it wanted reconsideration for its proposal.

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Under state law, the charter school commission now has 75 days to consider and vote on the appeal  whether it be an approval or denial. The appeal process consists of interviews, a public hearing, and a public meeting where the commissioners make their final decision.

The Illinois State Charter School Commission has the authority to overturn a school district's decision and authorize the charter  however, the state becomes the one to authorize instead of the district, although the district has to supply the funding. The state commission currently authorizes eight charter schools, the majority of which are in Chicago.

The Elgin Charter School Initiative went through the same ordeal back in 2014, just after U46 board members rejected their proposal on a more overwhelming basis. The commission did not approve the group's appeal, but recommended to improve the proposal and try again.

The group is requesting full tuition funding for EMSA, or just over $10,000 per pupil. In negotiations, U46 did not want to offer full funding, with both sides agreeing to 92 percent. In addition, EMSA would have a $950,000 federal start-up grant and additional private funding. In the first year of operation in 2018, the school would have 200 students in grades K-3, with plans for expansion into the middle school level over the next few years.

The saga of the Elgin Math and Science Academy has seen its share of highs and lows this year. In April, U46 board members voted 6-1 to conditionally approve the charter school proposal, pending a contract. Elgin City Council, meanwhile, approved a measure for lease terms to the Fox River Country Day School site, pending U46 approval of the charter.

Both charter school and district officials worked on a contract that would meet a June 30 deadline and satisfy the board. However, the majority of the school board still had concerns over the contract and proposal, such as the viability of the location, accessibility and transportation, finances, special education, student discipline, among others. During the last board meeting in June, the board voted 4-3 against the contract and by the same tally voted to reject the charter altogether.

In the memo to the commission, much of what has been presented in support of the charter was shared once again. Officials wrote that they do have community support for EMSA, noting more than 800 email subscribers and Facebook followers, and close to 200 families signaling intent to register their children at the school.

The academic program EMSA supporters have touted would help improve academic performance of at-risk students, the primary beneficiaries of the proposed charter school, proponents wrote.

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EMSA officials again argued they would have no trouble recruiting at-risk students to the school, which is in the outskirts of Elgin. The officials have crafted an outreach plan and have been developing relationships with local agencies like the Boys and Girls Club, the Housing Authority of Elgin, the YWCA and others, according to the memo.

The district's financial footing is capable of supporting a charter school, EMSA officials argued. They noted U46 is considered financially strong by the State Board of Education. By the time the school expands into the middle school levels, EMSA officials wrote the school's budget would amount to just over one percent of the total U46 revenue.

raguerrero@tribpub.com
Dundee Middle School's police officer is likely to have a greater presence this upcoming school year.

West Dundee's village trustees moved forward Monday an intergovernmental agreement with Algonquin-based School District 300 that greatly expands the police department's school resource officer duties.

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The school resource officer program at Dundee Middle School has been in operation since 2011, but on a limited basis. West Dundee Police Det. Kate McCarthy makes lunchtime hour stops at the school for at most two hours a week. Unlike agreements with Carpentersville, Algonquin and Hampshire and their respective police departments, West Dundee does not have a police officer patrolling the village's only secondary school on a consistent basis, said West Dundee Police Chief Andrew Wieteska.

According to the language voted upon Monday, the demands for McCarthy grew in the past six years, as the officer spent more time at the school dealing with both lunchtime and additional duties. According to a West Dundee Police activity report, the school's officer spent an additional 73 hours last school year responding to a number of incidents, along with the 108 hours of lunchtime duty. Furthermore, the officer spent 22 hours last school year responding to incidents at neighboring Dundee Highlands Elementary School.

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Under this new agreement, a West Dundee officer would spend 20 hours a week at Dundee Middle School when classes are in session, as well as provide additional support to Dundee Highlands Elementary when necessary. The assigned officer will be required to provide an educational component to students, such as through anti-bullying, social media, drug and alcohol awareness lessons and programs.

Wieteska said McCarthy would take this role for the 2017-18 school year, where she has developed a strong relationship with the 1,000-student-plus school and staff since first making the rounds to the schools in 2011.

"They very much support her being at the school, (school administrators) requested her with an expanded program," Wieteska said of McCarthy, who has worked for West Dundee Police since 2001.

Both D300 and the Village of West Dundee will pay for the officer's salary, according to the measure. The school district will reimburse West Dundee half of the salary, which is just over $84,000.

The agreement now moves to the D300 school board, which is expected to vote on it within the next few weeks. If approved by the school board, the agreement begins in August and would be a year-to-year agreement with an option for termination, if necessary.

raguerrero@tribpub.com
Two Chicago men are facing charges following a traffic stop in Evanston where police said a loaded gun and drugs were recovered, Evanston police announced in a news release Wednesday.

Eric L. Wilson, 25, of the 8000 block of South Maryland in Chicago, was charged with felony unlawful use of a handgun by a convicted felon on parole and misdemeanor possession of a firearm/ammunition without a Firearm Owner's Identification card, according to the release.

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Also charged in the Tuesday incident was Cameron Bush, 18, of the 7600 block of South Evans in Chicago. He was charged with misdemeanor cannabis possession and was cited for not wearing a seat belt.

Police said that around 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, detectives were working a violence reduction sting and stopped the vehicle Wilson and Bush were two of four occupants in because the front seat passenger did not have on a seat belt, according to the release.

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After pulling the vehicle over in the 1200 block of Howard Street, police detected the smell of cannabis, the release states, and ordered all four occupants out of the vehicle.

When the occupant now identified as Wilson got out of the vehicle, police noticed a handgun sticking out of the passenger side rear door pocket where he was riding in the back seat, according to the release.

A loaded Sig Sauer .22 caliber handgun with the serial number missing was recovered, along with 13 grams of marijuana that was found in storage compartment under the front passenger seat where Bush was sitting, police said in the release.

Searching the vehicle further, according to the release, a prescription pad and loose prescriptions  some filled out to get codeine  was found behind the driver's seat where another man was sitting.

All four men in the vehicle were taken to the Evanston police station and Bush and Wilson were charged.

Evanston police contacted the Illinois Department of Corrections regarding parolee Wilson, according to the release.

However, charges are pending against the driver's side rear occupant  identified only as a 26-year-old man from Chicago  in connection with the prescription pad.

The vehicle driver, identified by police only as a 27-year-old man from Chicago, was released without charges.
A 35-year-old Gurnee man is being held in the Racine County jail in Wisconsin on Thursday in connection with the January bank robbery of the Norstates Bank in Gurnee.

Jason Crawford of 7983 Dada Drive was named in a federal indictment this week for allegedly taking approximately $2,100 from the Norstates Bank at 5384 Grand Avenue just before 9 a.m. on Jan. 31 in a non-takeover type robbery, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

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The FBI said it will ask for no bond on the bank robbery charge, and will take him into federal custody at his arraignment scheduled for Aug. 10.

At the time of the robbery, the suspect wore black-framed, square-shaped prescription glasses, a dark hat, a dark button-style coat, gloves, and blue jeans with holes or a large tear in the knees, the FBI reported. At the time, the FBI did not say if the suspect implied he had a weapon or not.

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A warrant was issued in Lake County on Feb. 13 for his arrest, according to Lake County court records.

Suspect in the Jan. 31 robbery of the Norstate Bank in Gurnee. (FBI)

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The cleanup of a chemical spill in the Antioch Industrial Park this week began Wednesday in the 800 block of Anita Avenue. (Frank Abderholden / Lake County News-Sun)

The clean-up of the chemical leak in Antioch was underway Wednesday with the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) overseeing the investigation, but the identity of the chemical, how much of the chemical was spilled and whether it went into nearby Sequoit Creek was still unknown.

The leak apparently began on Friday at a business complex that includes several businesses in between 874 and 892 Anita Avenue, all of which were red-tagged Wednesday by the village. Fire Chief Jon Cokefair said two businesses have been displaced.

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The IEPA said in a statement Wednesday that, "The investigation is ongoing, so IEPA cannot provide further details at this time. We are working to obtain confirmation on the substance that leaked from the property," according to spokeswoman Kim Biggs.

"Material remaining on the property is currently being pumped off and a berm has been built to prevent any further material from leaving the property. Illinois EPA will continue to provide oversight," the statement added.

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Cokefair said the chemical was in a building that treated circuit boards and has not been in business for "many many years." While adding, "We can't be 100 percent positive of what it is," Cokefair said it is believed to be ferric chloride, which can be used in etching circuit boards and is also used in wastewater treatment.

If it is that chemical, it is the same one that spilled from the village's wastewater treatment plant when a storage tank overflowed in 2003 and spilled into Sequiot Creek. That incident led to a consent decree regarding cleanup between the village, the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, the Illinois Attorney General's Office and Lake County State's Attorney's Office.

In this week's incident, Cokefair said at first officials thought the chemical didn't go into the creek, but now they are not so sure. He added that they are still trying to determine the amount of the chemical that spilled.

He said the owner of the property, whose name has not been released by authorities, has agreed to use HazChem Environmental of Addison to clean-up the spill. A request for information from the village administration on the owner and the former company that had occupied the space was not immediately available Wednesday.

While the leak appears to have started on Friday, it was not discovered until someone walking past it late Monday night noticed it and called police.

Cokefair said officials tested the village water supply, and it was not affected.

As part of the consent decree following the February 2003 spill, the village was required to implement a Supplemental Environmental Project (SEP), which was the cleanup of Sequoit Creek, above and beyond the cleanup necessitated by the spill of ferric chloride solution.

According to News-Sun story from September 2004, the cost of the SEP was $130,000, which included costs of the creek cleanup and penalties paid by the village of $17,465 to the Illinois EPA and $5,818 to Lake County. Antioch was also required to pay around $273 to the EPA wildlife and fish fund as reimbursement for the value of the fish killed because of the spill.

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Lake County Fair officials said Thursday that rides at the fairs midway are inspected daily and do not include the Fire Ball, a spinning ride that witnessed a fatal accident at the Ohio State Fair on Wednesday. (Tajari Lester / Lake County Fair)

After learning about a fatality and injuries related to the malfunction of an amusement ride at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus on Wednesday, extra safety checks were done on all rides Thursday morning before the Lake County Fair opened in Grayslake, officials said.

All rides were safe, functioning properly and open Thursday, said John Maguire, a spokesman for the fair. Nevertheless, Lake County fairgoers expressed some concern about the accident, and some said they'd avoid the faster, scarier rides.

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On Thursday, the state of Illinois suspended the operation for all amusement rides similar to the one called the Fire Ball involved in the deadly accident at the Ohio State Fair. State officials said inspectors notified operators to suspend operation of the three Fire Ball rides, eight Freak Out rides and one Extreme ride that are in Illinois.

None of those are operated at the Lake County Fair, said Jon Brodzik Jr., the fair's general manager.

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Brodzik said he had spoken Thursday with officials at Skinners' Amusements, the Crystal Lake-based company that operates the midway rides at the fair. "They said they do not have any of the rides that were suspended," Brodzik said.

All the rides including the Cliff Hanger were up and running at the Lake County Fair Thursday afternoon in Grayslake. (Sheryl DeVore / Lake County News-Sun )

The victims at the Ohio State Fair were hurled from the Fire Ball ride at 7:20 p.m. Wednesday. Battalion Chief Steve Martin, a spokesman for the Columbus Fire Division, said one man was killed on impact and seven were injured and taken to local medical centers. All rides remained closed at the Ohio State Fair as of Thursday.

A ride called the Fire Ball at the Lake County Fair is not the same as the one of the same name at the Ohio fair, said Emily Coroneos, an office manager at the fairgrounds.

"The Lake County Fair uses a different amusement company than the one used by the Ohio State Fair (Amusements of America)," Coroneos said. "We have similar rides, but not the same ones."

An operator of the Fire Ball at the Lake County Fair confirmed it was not the same ride as the one in Ohio. No one was in line to get on that ride about 1 p.m. Thursday.

The Lake County Fair runs through Sunday, with amusement rides open from noon to 11 p.m. each day. Some fairgoers Thursday expressed concern about the accident in Ohio.

Brodzik said inspections are performed daily by the Grayslake Fire Department and the fair's director of safety and security before the rides open at the Lake County Fair. Maguire said Skinners' Amusements has been in business for more than 50 years, and extra safety checks were done Thursday.

Kate Kaufman, of Lake Bluff, who brought her three grandchildren to the fair, said, "I'm never certain safety checks are all they're supposed to be."

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She added that her grandsons won't go on any of the faster, scarier rides.

"We'll go on the safe ones, maybe the Ferris wheel," she said.

Rob Brooks of Round Lake came to the Lake County Fair with his sister, Cassie Wessely, and daughter Mia, 5, who just got off the Zero Gravity ride. (Sheryl DeVore / Lake County News-Sun )

Cassie Wessely, of Grayslake, who came to the fair with her brother, Rob Brooks, and his 5-year-old daughter, Mia, said an accident at an amusement park "is a rare thing. But when we were on the Ferris wheel, I did feel a little nervous."

Brooks, a Round Lake resident, said, "There's always a risk to an amusement ride, but they design them to be safe. But if something does happen, you're going to be hurt."

Wessely added that "you drive every day" and that has its dangers as well.

Sheryl DeVore is a freelance reporter for the News-Sun. The Chicago Tribune and The Associated Press contributed.
As part of the Naperville Plays! partnership, Naper Settlement will be hosting its Sheep Sunday Aug. 6, complete with sheep-herding demonstrations and other family activities. ( Naper Settlement/HANDOUT )

Baaaahhh.

If you see a flock of sheep in downtown Naperville, it must be Sheep Sunday.

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Naper Settlement will be hosting the latest "Naperville Plays!" event 1-4 p.m. Aug. 6  this time with a flock of fluffy sheep and plenty of family-friendly activities.

"'Naperville Plays!' is an afternoon of cooperative programming between Naper Settlement, DuPage Children's Museum and the Naperville Public Library," said Sheila Riley, director of learning experiences at Naper Settlement. "This has been happening three times a year since 2015 and rotates to each site hosting usually in January, April and August."

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Consider it a sampler of some of Naperville's best fun and educational offerings.

"You can get a taste of programming from three Naperville sites in one spot," Riley said. "We often choose themes for organizing the activities  this time it's 'Animals, Animals!'"

Activities are ongoing from 1-4 p.m. with contributions from all three institutions. The Naperville Public Library will offer an animal craft and outdoor storywalk. The DuPage Children's Museum will provide an animal-patterns studio art experience with interactive exhibits, including giant Tinkertoys, pin screen and engineering squares.

Naper Settlement adds a hobby-horse obstacle course, wool carding, animal collage art, pioneer animal furs, animal tracks and an animals-in-paintings scavenger hunt.

And of course, don't forget the sheep.

John and Connie Seraphine of Heatherhope Farm  a working sheep farm in Sycamore, Illinois  will be bringing their sheep and trained border collies and performing two sheep-herding demonstrations at 1:45 p.m. and 2:45 p.m.

While Sheep Sunday traditionally has been held in the fall at Naper Settlement, rolling it in with its Naperville Plays! partnership seems a natural fit for the 12-acre living history museum.

"We're interested in telling Naperville's story from the 19th into the 21st century," Riley said.

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It's also a unique opportunity to explore Naper Settlement, especially for those who have never experienced it before.

"Families can spend a few hours onsite enjoying touring our buildings, participating in fun programming and interacting with staff and volunteers bringing history to life," she said.

Admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and $8 for children ages 4 to 12. Kids under 4, Naperville residents with proof of residency as well as Naper Settlement and DuPage Children's Museum members are free.

Free parking can be found either in Naper Settlement's lot at Porter Avenue and Webster Street or across the street at the Municipal Center Parking lot.

Jen Banowetz is a freelance writer for the Naperville Sun.

Naperville Plays! Sheep Sunday

When: 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Aug. 6

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Where: Naper Settlement, 523 S. Webster St., Naperville

Tickets: $8-$12; free for Naperville residents
A district judge in Yellowstone County denied an attorney's challenge to the constitutionality of Montana's DUI law for marijuana.

Public defender Gregory Paskell argued that the 5 ng/mL blood content threshold that constitutes a DUI in Montana isn't supported as a scientific point of impairment.

Paskell represents Kent Roderick Jensen, 20, who was charged with vehicular homicide while under the influence after he crashed into a motorcycle in March 2016, killing the rider.

A blood test showed Jensen's blood contained 19 ng/mL of THC, the psychoactive compound in marijuana.

District Judge Gregory Todd denied Paskell's request for a constitutionality review of the DUI limit in an order filed on Monday. He concluded that the issue at hand is marijuana consumption, which is not a fundamental right under threat in this debate.

Todd said that while the science may not be precise on impairment, the goal of the law was to reduce impaired driving.

"Currently there may be no method for precisely measuring the distracting effects of THC on a person," Todd wrote in his order. "But it is scientifically proven that THC had major psychoactive effects on people, and driving while under its effects poses a major risk to the driver and the public."

Paskell was trying to have the charge against Jensen dismissed. He cited a 2016 report from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety that cast doubt on a specific level of THC impairment, because tolerance varies considerably between people. He called on a chemist from a Colorado pharmaceutical testing lab, who testified that he agreed with those claims.

Deputy Yellowstone County Attorney Victoria Callender, the prosecutor in the case, argued that the Legislature had relied on the determination of the Montana Crime Lab to set the 5 ng/mL, which was set by the 2013 Montana Legislature.

Todd's ruling reflected that argument. The constitutionality of the law was upheld in the Legislature's "responsibility to pass laws that provide for the general welfare, notwithstanding the absence of a perfect measuring method," he wrote.
Joe and Cathie Russo, giving of their time again to run the bingo tent at the Harwood Heights Summer Fest. (Pioneer Press)

Harwood Heights has an impressive lineup of music acts, games, food and desserts, local restaurants getting into the act  even a movie night planned for its annual Summer Fest, this year celebrating the village's 70th anniversary.

The annual festival is held over two days, from 1 to 9:30 p.m. Aug. 5 and Aug. 6 on the Union Ridge School grounds, 4600 N. Oak Park Ave. For a full schedule, visit harwoodheights.org.

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Visitors should have no trouble, though, orienting themselves. Just head for the booming voice calling out numbers at the fest's bingo tent.

For the past four years, Harwood Heights resident Joe Russo, who also serves as the village's part-time treasurer, and wife Cathie, have been running the bingo tent, inheriting the job from the local seniors club.

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"I'm known as Bingo Joe," offers Joe.

"He loves it," adds Cathie.

Q. How does one become a bingo caller?

Joe: When my children were going to school at St. Rosalie's in grade school, there were weekly bingos. And I was one of the callers. And I really enjoyed it. It was a fundraiser kind of thing. What I like about the bingo at the fest is it's a 50-50 pot each game, so payouts are based on how many people are paying and the proceeds go to a Union Ridge program of one kind or another.

Q. Do you take a special approach?

Joe: With bingo you don't have to be exotic. One lady said "call my number." I said, "look, I'm going to make somebody happy every game, it may not be you but I'm going to make somebody happy."

Q. What else goes into it?

Joe: You have to keep the cadence. Basically, what you learn to do when you're calling is to watch the people with the daubers or whatever they're doing for the covering and see if they're paying attention or starting to gab. If they're starting to gab, then you know that they're done and you call another number. And if you call too fast, they'll let you know. Now me, I like to call a number every 30 seconds because most of the people don't have more than two or four cards. The Bingomaniacs, as I like to call them, will have 12 cards. I've got to watch some of them. Every once in while, I get a little too quick and they say "slow down," and I do.

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But it's a lot of fun, and you have to keep it light. That's the key to the whole weekend. This is an enjoyable time; we're celebrating the village.

Q. What about the village?

Joe: When somebody asks me "why are you still there?" I say, well, it was a nice town when I got here, and it still is. It's a great place to live.

Cathie: It was a nice, quiet town. It's close to Chicago, but it's not Chicago. And people will understand exactly what that means. You can catch a CTA bus, you can get to Chicago or whatever and it doesn't cost you all the taxes et cetera, and so forth that you catch in Chicago.

Q. The two can talk from authority: they were were married at St. Rosalie Catholic Church 52 years ago.

Joe: We bought the house here (7373 W. Leyland, just down from the Eisenhower library) after my daughter was born, in 1968. We moved in here in mid-May. So we're only here 49 years  we're brand new!

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Q. Actually, they were renters in the area before that, living in apartments at Lawrence and Austin, and then at George and Luna, where they had a helpful landmark.

Cathie: Polk Brothers!

Joe: Do you remember the Polk Brothers chair? You could see it from our apartment.

Cathie: That was the landmark if anybody was coming to the house ...

Joe: If you were coming south  hang a right at the chair. If you're coming north  hang a left at the chair.
Hammond Police are investigating the shooting late Wednesday, July 19, 2017, of Chloe Bell, 17, at her home in the 7400 block of Chestnut Avenue in Hammond. Bell was pronounced dead early Thursday, July 20, 2017, at Community Hospital, Munster. (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune) (Joe Puchek / Post-Tribune)

Police believe the shooting death of a 17-year-old girl last week in Hammond was connected to shootings a few days earlier, but investigators do not think the teen was the intended target, a department spokesman said.

Chloe Bell was shot late July 19 in her home in the Saxony Town Homes in the 7400 block of Chestnut Avenue in Hammond, police department spokesman Lt. Steve Kellogg said.

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"(The suspect) knocked on the door of the residence. The young lady came to the door and asked who it was and was shot through the door," Kellogg said.

Officers on scene found Bell inside the home with multiple gunshot wounds, Kellogg said. She was transported to Community Hospital in Munster, where she was pronounced dead, according to the Lake County Coroner's office. Her death was ruled a homicide.

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Hammond investigators said they believe shootings in the area two days before "are connected with the shooting" that left Bell dead, according to Detective Capt. Zeke Hinojosa.

Police responded around 3 a.m. on July 17 to the 1300 block of 175th Street in reference for shots fired, Kellogg said. A 31-year-old woman said an unknown man shot at her vehicle several times, hitting and damaging her rear window, according to police.

"Minutes later, a 49-year-old female called from the same area and stated that her home had been struck with several bullets," Kellogg said.

Around 11 a.m. that same morning, a 30-year-old woman said her vehicle, which was parked in the 1300 block of Saxony Boulevard, had been hit a by a bullet, according to police.

The shootings on July 17 and 19 occurred within about a mile of each other.

"These incidents could have been the same shooters targeting the area looking for someone else," police said.

Investigators "do not believe Chloe Bell was the intended target of the July 19 shooting, but instead possibly a family member who resides there," Hammond police said.

The investigation is ongoing and no arrests have been made in connection with the homicide, Kellogg said. Anyone with information is asked to call Detective Sgt. Adam Clark at 219-852-2987 or Detective Sgt. Shawn Ford at 219-852-2998.

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After the teen's shooting, Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott Jr. said Bell "was an unfortunate victim" in a series of tragedies in Northwest Indiana.

A neighbor, Shavonne Handy, said Bell was "looking forward to her senior year of high school and graduating with an associate's degree" through a dual credit program she was in.

A GoFundMe set up to raise funds for Bell's "home going" has raised more than $1,600 in five days. The account states that the teen "attended church and sang with the youth choir" and "had high hopes of going on to study criminal justice."

"On (July 19) Chloe was involved in a senseless act of violence where her life would be taken all too soon," the page states.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
A 20-year-old man has been charged with murder in perpetration of a robbery and two attempted murder charges in connection with a deadly Hobart home invasion earlier this week, according to court records.

The charges against Anthony James Crenshaw were filed Wednesday as part of Hobart police's investigation into an attempted home invasion that happened in the 800 block of 6th Street around 11 p.m. Monday that left a man dead and a woman injured, police said.

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Crenshaw also was charged with attempted robbery resulting in serious bodily injury, burglary while armed with a deadly weapon, burglary resulting in serious bodily injury, aggravated battery, attempted armed robbery and residential entry, all felonies, Lake County records show.

The Lake County Coroner's office identified the man who was killed as Jordon Davis, 28, of Indianapolis, and ruled his death a homicide, according to a press release.

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A woman in the residence, who has not been identified, was shot in the left hip and abdomen and was taken to St. Mary Medical Center in Hobart before being flown to Advocate Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, Ill., police said.

Hobart officers were dispatched to a call for shots fired at 10:55 p.m. Monday where they found Davis "lying face down in front of a green Chevrolet Colbat" in front of a residence on 6th Street, according to a probable cause affidavit.

Davis, who told officers "he was shot and could not breathe," was shot in the lower right chest and was taken to Methodlist Hospital Northlake, where he was pronounced dead, according to court records.

The man living at the home on 6th Street, who admitted to police he "deals marijuana ... THC oil and liquid LSD," said that while getting ready for bed, he went out to his truck to get his phone charger and inhaler, the affidavit states.

Outside, he saw several men on the side of his house, so he ran back inside and told the woman "to get the gun" as the men outside "forced the door open," according to court records. The man told police "he heard gunshots immediately," according to the affidavit.

The man went into the bedroom with the woman, who said she had been shot, and "had her put on a ballistic vest as he was concerned the shooting would start again" as they called 911, according to court records.

Officers found Crenshaw, who was "sweating profusely and was out of breath," walking west on 6th street and took him into custody, the affidavit states.

Crenshaw told police he was in Indianapolis earlier that day when Davis called him and asked if he wanted to go to Hobart with him, according to the affidavit. Davis said "he was going to a house in Hobart, where there was $15,000 in a safe and some dope" and asked Crenshaw "to be the door man and look out," according to court records.

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Crenshaw said they "went to the screen door and attempted to pick the lock with the knife" when a light came on, and they moved to the east side of the house, court records state.

When the resident saw them, the man ran inside the house and "they all ran after him forcing entry to the house" and the "shooting began," the affidavit states.

Expand Autoplay Image 1 of 100 Charge: drug induced homicide; Read more (DuPage County State's Attorney: Arrest does not imply guilt, and criminal charges are merely accusations. A defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty and convicted.)

"Crenshaw stated he ran back to the car waiting for (others) to show up, but when no one did, he ran," according to the affidavit.

Crenshaw said he "changed his clothes so he would not be discovered" but realized he forgot his debit card in his pants, the affidavit states.

Police found a vehicle parked on the bike trail off 6th Street, west of the shooting and a black bag, coat, glove and mask on the ground nearby, according to the affidavit, and they found a debit card with Crenshaw's name on it.

Police found several bullet casings on the floor and in the walls and ceiling of the home, according to court records.

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Lake County court records did not list when Crenshaw's first court date is.

rejacobs@post-trib.com

Twitter @ruthyjacobs
A robust group of protesters gathered outside U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky's Merrillville office Wednesday afternoon urging him to write a letter seeking to block a federal agency's request for a permit that would allow it to dump more toxic material dredged from the Indiana Harbor and Canal at an East Chicago open-container facility.

The protesters say they want the Merrillville Democrat to write a letter to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency objecting to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' request for a permit that would allow it to dispose of higher levels of contaminants at the facility.

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"We have come to remind the congressman that we will accept nothing less than a letter of objection," said the Rev. Cheryl Rivera, executive editor of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations. "We are tired of being dumped on. We are under toxic assault and we want no more."

Dozens of demonstrators gathered in front of Visclosky's office at 7895 Broadway in Merrillville chanting and holding signs, including one that read "Stop Poisoning East Chicago." Motorists driving on the heavily populated street often turned their heads and honked their horns as they drove by the cluster of protesters.

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Two weeks ago the Community Strategy Group, an environmental advocacy group based in East Chicago, reached out to Visclosky seeking his support in its opposition to the Army Corps dumping sediments with higher toxicity levels at the confined disposal facility at 3500 Indianapolis Blvd.

The Rev. Cheryl Rivera, of the Interfaith Federation, speaks outside the offices of U.S. Rep. Peter J. Visclosky in Merrillville. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune )

During an emotional July 14 meeting, the group gave an hour-long presentation and vented its frustrations about the Army Corps' premit request pending before the EPA.

"I will not sign a letter saying that I oppose the permit," Visclosky said following the meeting.

Although Visclosky refused to write the EPA a letter explicitly opposing the Army Corps' permit request, he did write a letter to Robert Kaplan, acting regional administrator for EPA Region 5, relaying the concerns he heard during the environmental group's meeting.

"I would appreciate your assistance in making sure that these concerns are considered during the consideration of USACE's request," Visclosky wrote in a letter to Kaplan. "Further, as EPA and IDEM continue to review the request, I would ask that you continue to ensure that all applicable federal laws and regulations are adhered to in order that public health and safety is protected and the future public utilization of the CDF site is taken into consideration."

As part of the Army Corps' Indiana Harbor and Canal dredging project, the agency has been cleaning the canal since 2012. Under current regulations, the agency is permitted to dredge and store canal sediment that is below the 50 parts per million threshold. The Toxic Substance Control Act permit being sought by the Army Corps would allow the storage of PCB sediment with a concentration at or greater than 50 parts per million.

"PCB-contaminated sediment in the canal is a threat to humans and the ecosystem, including nearby Lake Michigan," Natalie Mills, the Army Corps' manager for the Indiana Harbor and Canal dredging project said previously. "(The Army Corps) proposes to safely dredge the sediment and place it in the (container disposal facililty), where it can be effectively monitored and managed to minimize any potential harmful health effects."

People at Wednesday's protest, however, expressed their frustration with the environmental landscape in East Chicago citing the high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil at the U.S.S Lead Superfund site.

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The Rev. Cheryl Rivera, of the Northwest Indiana Federation of Interfaith Organizations, leads the group in prayer outside the offices of U.S. Rep. Peter J. Visclosky in Merrillville. (Jim Karczewski / Post-Tribune )

"We've been dealing with the Superfund site for nearly a year," Rivera said. "Our community has already faced and endured the burden of environmental justice and environmental racism."

The confined disposal facility is less than a mile away from Carrie Gosch Elementary and East Chicago Central High.

"What we see over and over again is that people who are in local government positions are not dealing with these issues in the way that they should be dealing with them and putting the emphasis they should be on these environmental projects," Vincent Emanuele, of Michigan City said. "I'm asking as someone who once voted for Congressman Visclosky and who served this country, that we need our leadership to take a stance against these environmental injustices."

In regard to the Army Corps' permit application, Visclosky said he would continue to make sure that federal agencies hear the concerns of all East Chicago residents and that the law is properly applied for the people he represents.

The EPA is currently considering and reviewing all comments it's received and has not made a decision on whether it will grant the Army Corps the permit, according to EPA officials.

Visclosky said in an email that he appreciates the continued advocacy of the East Chicago Community Strategy Group and its legitimate concerns regarding the health and safety of each citizen in the community.

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"I share their concerns, but do not have the technical or scientific expertise to determine the value of the permit application," Visclosky said in the email. "My role is to make sure that their voices are heard and that every provision of the law and every regulation are being adhered to properly."

jaanderson@tribpub.com

Twitter @JavonteA
The Lake County Council started a process to potentially grant a series of tax abatements to a proposed cold storage facility off Interstate 65 and Indiana 2.

The council's vote Wednesday only started the process moving on the potential development after the Lake County IN Economic Alliance approached the county about the abatement as the group is putting together an incentive package for the new development, dubbed Project Pumpkin.

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Council President Ted Bilski, D-Hobart, said the potential site for Project Pumpkin is tough to develop but the possibilities could be significant for that area. Bilski said the developer will have to put in sewer, water and road infrastructure for the currently undeveloped lot.

"I think it's going to be a great way to kick off development in that area," Bilski said.

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Project Pumpkin is a national food distributor considering building a new facility in Northwest Indiana, according to Karen Lauerman, president and CEO of the Lake County IN Economic Alliance. The first phase of the project will include a $23 million cold storage facility, Lauerman said, and another $7 million in machinery and equipment.

Lauerman said Project Pumpkin could create 60 jobs at the facility and need more than 500 for the construction phase.

Project Pumpkin isn't yet a done deal, Lauerman said, and the company continues doing its due diligence.

If Project Pumpkin moves forward, it could be the first part of a multi-phase project, Lauerman said.

"The plan will be a larger build out," Lauerman said.

The declaration signed by the council Wednesday would designate an economic revitalization area for the parcel where Project Pumpkin might be sited, according to documents, and abate a portion of the taxes on real and personal property for a 10-year span.

"This is basically procedural," said council attorney Ray Szarmach. "This starts it off."

Szarmach said the council will hold a public hearing on the proposed abatement at its regular meeting in September. Wednesday's action does not guarantee an abatement will be given to the project, he said.

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If Project Pumpkin doesn't move forward, neither will the abatement, according to Lauerman.

Councilwoman Elsie Franklin, D-Gary, said she had no objections to the project and wants to make sure jobs and new opportunities are created in Lake County.

"I'm hoping my colleagues will support our efforts," Franklin said.

Councilman Eldon Strong, R-Crown Point, didn't take issue with the project but objected to the idea that stretch of property is economically distressed. Strong said he doesn't think that area near I-65 is troubled or depressed.

"I don't believe that," Strong said. "I believe it can develop on its own."

Strong said he supports the project but it's going to be "tongue and cheek."

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"I think that this is a magnificent area that's going to be developed," Strong said.

clyons@post-trib.com

Twitter @craigalyons
Annual paddling event at Robinson Lake

Beginners and experienced paddlers alike can try out canoes and kayaks for free on protected waters during the annual paddling event from noon to 3 p.m. Saturday at Robinson Lake, 5250 S. Liverpool Road, Hobart. Children accompanied by an adult can participate too. More information is at 219-743-0679 or nwipa@nwipa.org.

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Calumet Trail section temporarily closed

A 4.5-mile section of the Calumet Trail adjacent to the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore will be temporarily closed until approximately Oct. 3 to allow NIPSCO to replace and upgrade an underground natural gas line. The closure affects the section of the trail from East State Park Boundary Road to Mineral Springs Road. The pedestrian crossing from the South Shore Dune Park Station to the Indiana Dunes State park will remain open, but is within the construction work zone. Trail-users who travel near the construction are reminded to use caution to ensure personal safety and the safety of the construction crews. Appropriate signs and notices will be posted. More information about NIPSCO's construction efforts is with Rick Calinski at 219-853-4405. Information about upgrades to the Calumet Trail are with Walter Lenckos at 219-548-0221.

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Cancer support group

Porter Regional Hospital will host a support group for those affected by cancer from 11 a.m. to noon Wednesday at Fagen Pharmacy, 3400 N. Calumet Ave., Valparaiso. The group meets the first Wednesday of each month and is open to anyone affected by cancer, including survivors, family members, friends and caregivers. More information is with Peggy Banks at 219-983-6128.

Flag-raising ceremony to honor enviromentalist Botts

U.S. Rep. Pete Visclosky, D-Merrillville, will honor Dunes Learning Center founder and environmentalist, Lee Botts, during a ceremonial flag-raising ceremony from 4:30-5:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Learning Center, 700 Howe Road, Chesterton. The flag, which previously flew over the U.S. Capitol Building, was given to Botts on her 80th birthday by Visclosky and will fly over the Dunes Learning Center. More information is at 219-395-9555.

MCCMF to present music, green presentations

The Michigan City Chamber Music Festival (MCCMF) in collaboration with Save the Dunes will present two evenings of music and green presentations related to the theme "The Natural World" at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday at Barker House, 444 Barker Road, Michigan City. "Nature's Influence on Musical Composers" will feature Steve Sass on Tuesday, and "Setting the Tone of Our Changing Climate" will introduce Katherine Powell Moore of the Field Museum, Chicago, on Thursday. The MCCMF 2017 season runs from Aug. 5-13, and all events are free. More information is at www.mccmf.org or 219-561-1939.

Express enrollment open at Ivy Tech

Ivy Tech Community College will offer Express Enrollment Days from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Thursday and Aug. 5 at all four area campuses: 1440 E. 35th Ave., Gary; 410 E. Columbus Drive, East Chicago; 3714 Franklin Drive, Michigan City; and 3100 Ivy Tech Drive, Valparaiso. Students can obtain financial aid information, meet with an adviser and register for classes. New students can apply for admission, take an assessment test and complete orientation. Those new to Ivy Tech are asked to bring their SAT, ACT or PSAT scores and high school or college transcripts, if possible. More information is at www.ivytech.edu/enrollmentday.

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Gary school registration Saturday

District-wide registration for the Gary Community School Corp. will be held from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Saturday at Williams Elementary School, 1320 E. 19th Ave. The first day of school is Aug. 17. Parents of students who are new to the district should bring transfer documentation, an original birth certificate, immunization records, residency proof and a photo identification card. For more information, call 219-881-5466 or 219-881-5404.

Staff reports
Porter County is losing almost $800 million in assessed valuation because of tax increment finance districts that a member of the Porter County Council said are being used improperly and draining tax revenue from the county and its municipalities.

Porter County Auditor Vicki Urbanik told the council Tuesday she had submitted the county's annual TIF neutralization study for the coming year to the Department of Local Government Finance, because the document is necessary for the county to certify its assessed valuation before it prepares next year's budget.

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Once the study has been accepted by the state, it will be available online.

"I think we as a council have to understand what that does," said Councilman Dan Whitten, D-At large, sparking a sometimes heated discussion on the use of the districts. "We're losing hundreds of millions in assessed valuation due to TIFs."

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The county is losing $779 million in assessed valuation because of the TIF districts, Urbanik said. Her department is preparing the study for the state in-house for the second year in a row, saving the county $20,000.

The county lost $741 million in assessed valuation for this year because of TIF districts, she said Wednesday.

In the districts, tax revenue generated by new development is used to pay for infrastructure and other improvements within that district, rather than going back to schools, police, fire departments, libraries and other taxing units. The tax revenue from a new shopping center, for example, may be used to build roads for the center rather than going back to a city or township.

"I've called it a back-door tax for a long time," Whitten said. "We're losing future revenue and seeing tax rates either not going down or being driven up because of TIFs."

But Councilwoman Karen Conover, R-3rd, said since the districts capture new tax revenue, the county isn't losing that revenue, it's just not gaining it.

The lack of those funds drives tax rates up, Whitten said, and the TIF districts aren't being used as they should, to develop blighted areas.

"They are picking and choosing areas that they know are gong to develop," Whitten said, calling the districts "low-hanging fruit."

He noted ongoing efforts for a TIF district around Porter Regional Hospital at U.S. 6 and Indiana 49, which is already spurring development of health-related facilities, instead of along U.S. 6 in South Haven, which needs redevelopment.

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According to Gateway, the online government access portal run by the state, Porter County had 15 TIF districts in 2015. Porter County does not have any districts of its own, and the Valparaiso City Council approved the brunt of those districts. More than $639 million in assessed valuation was lost to TIF districts that year, the most recent year with available online data.

This year, Valparaiso again has the largest share of TIF districts, with $317 million, including a portion of Washington Township within the city's boundaries. Portage has $273 million in the districts, and Chesterton has $118 million, according to Urbanik.

Councilman Jeff Larson, R-At large, argued that some areas wouldn't develop without the financial incentive.

"We know we would have lost some of the development," he said.

The county and other taxing units aren't losing tax revenue that's already rolling in from TIF districts, Larson said, but future revenue, and the county could lose potential development to places willing to offer TIF districts.

"We're in a bargaining war with other communities," Larson said. "We might lose something to other communities."

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Though the county council has no say over TIF districts in other municipalities and any county TIF districts must be approved by commissioners, Whitten said he would be remiss not to address the matter.

Urbanik will provide the report to the council at a future meeting, as well as information on past years for comparison.

"There are developments happening in Porter County that are not in TIF areas. To say Porter County needs a ridiculous amount of TIFs, (it) shocks the conscience how much is in TIFs," Whitten said.

Amy Lavalley is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
NIPSCO linemen and other field employees receive ongoing training at NIPSCO's Training Center in LaPorte to better serve customers and safely respond to issues that may arise. (NIPSCO)

Last Friday night, the 10 p.m. news showed several Chicago area homeowners struggling to keep their basements from flooding due to heavy storms.

"Too bad for them," I told my fiancee before casually flipping to another channel.

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Outside, rain pelted our bedroom windows. Thunder crackled in the background. Perfect sleeping weather, I thought to myself.

An hour later, a lightning strike of biblical proportion lit up the sky above our Valparaiso home. It looked like Mother Nature plugged in a massive flashlight and shined it on our neighborhood. A second later, our power went out.

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We waited for a few seconds in the dark, hoping the power would magically come back on. It didn't. A couple minutes passed. Nothing. I looked out our window. Total darkness. No one on our block had power.

Our minds raced to the same concern  our basement sump pump.

A few weeks ago, we replaced it with a new one but this new (cheaper) model didn't come with a battery-powered backup. If our home loses power, so does our sump pump, which is a 24/7 necessity in our house.

We raced downstairs, guided by our smart phone flashlights. The water around the sump pump gradually swelled toward the rim of the hole in our basement floor. It would start seeping onto the floor within seconds.

"Too bad for us," I said, recalling my earlier nonchalance for those storm victims.

My fiancee and her daughter hustled to scoop out the rising water into a nearby storage bin. I ran into the garage to unearth a generator that hadn't been used in years. Does it have gas? Will it start? Will it run? Will it power our new sump pump? I had no idea.

I have no mechanical skills, and my toolbox consists of duct tape, super glue and a Fisher-Price hammer. Or close to it anyway. I dragged the generator into the driveway under a heavy downpour. I yanked the pull cord. It started on the second pull, belching on old gas.

I ran back downstairs to search for a long enough extension cord and to assess the water level around the sump pump. My fiancee and her daughter had already filled up three storage bins of rainwater. The basement floor was still dry. For now.

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We eventually found that extension cord, all tangled up with duct tape covering a rip in it. I ran it out to the driveway, plugged it in, and hoped the generator didn't die. It chugged but it kept running. The sump pump came back to life. We exhaled. For now.

"Check NIPSCO's website for its outage map," I told my fiancee while I double-checked the generator.

Sure enough, our 46385 ZIP code was already listed on that outage map, with 1,292 NIPSCO customers in the same situation as us. Were they better prepared than us? Did they know exactly where their candles were located? Did their sump pumps have a battery backup? Yes, of course, I figured.

I posted our predicament on Facebook to see how many others lost their power or planned better than I did. Misery still loves company, especially in the Digital Age.

My sweaty clothes were drenched from the rain. I went into the bathroom to change and flicked on the light switch. How stupid. Has anyone else done that? I hope so.

I opened the refrigerator door in lightning speed to get something cold to drink. I strategically placed the oddest collection of old candles around the house. I rechecked the outage map to see how many other people were also in the dark.

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As the generator chugged away outside, surely annoying my neighbors at midnight, I kept telling myself that our power would come back any minute now. It didn't. Our home inside was eerily quiet.

By 1 a.m., my fiancee fell asleep. She had to wake up at 6 a.m. for work. By 2 a.m., her daughter fell asleep after reading a book by candlelight. By 3 a.m., I laid in bed, making a list of things to do the next day to be better prepared for another outage.

I also started writing this column, using my iPhone as a makeshift laptop. Its battery was down to 12 percent, reflecting how my body felt. I started dozing off, with the hum of the generator now serving as a gentle white noise.

At 4:09 a.m., our house reawakened in a huff. Our bedroom TV blared. Lights glared. Clocks flashed. I could barely hear the generator, which was still chugging along, thankfully.

After I got our house back in order, I sent an email to my media relations contact at NIPSCO for details of the outage. I had questions. What was the cause of the outage  the storm or a traffic crash? How many Northwest Indiana customers also lost power? What can customers do to better keep in contact with NIPSCO in similar situations?

Post Tribune Twice-weekly News updates from Northwest Indiana delivered every Monday and Wednesday >

Nick Meyer, director of external communications at NIPSCO's public affairs office, got back with me in short order, again reminding me why he's my favorite public relations manager in this area.

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More than 15,000 NIPSCO customers across Northwest Indiana lost power that night, he said. In the Valparaiso area, 40 different storm-related incidents affected the power of roughly 4,000 customers.

"The exact cause was due to the combination of the extensive rain as well as the trees and limbs that came into contact with the electric circuit that fed your area," Meyer said. "It took some time to restore service due to the conditions, as well as the extensive tree clearing and trimming work that was required."

He also told me that customers can report a power outage by texting OUT to 444111. And, to be more proactive, they can sign up for alerts at NIPSCO.com/alerts, or by calling (800) 464-7726.

I plan on signing up as soon as I refill the generator, replace the extension cord, buy new candles and read how my sump pump works.

jdavich@post-trib.com

Twitter@jdavich
Meghan Espinoza is sworn in by Skokie School District 68 Board President Una McGeough on July 20, 2017, at the start of a district board meeting. Espinoza is filling an open seat left vacant by the recent resignation of Menucha Levy. (Mike Isaacs / Pioneer Press )

The newest member of the Skokie School District 68 Board of Education is no stranger to the district or to education in general.

Meghan Espinoza, a teacher and mother of three, was appointed to the board and sworn in July 20, to fill a seat left vacant by Menucha Levy's recent resignation.

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According to district officials, she was one of five people who applied for the open board seat.

"I've been very active in the district for the last 10 years now since my kids first started there," she said. "Education is something that is very important to me."

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Espinoza teaches sixth grade English language arts at Highcrest Middle School in Wilmette School District 39, she said.

Two of Espinoza's children will attend School District 68 schools this academic year. One is a fourth grader at Devonshire School and the other a sixth grader heading to Old Orchard Junior High School. Her oldest child will be starting his sophomore year at Niles North High School, she said.

Espinoza has served as president of the Devonshire Parent Teacher Association and in many other roles for the PTA. For the last two election cycles, she was chair of School District 68's independent nominating committee, which endorses candidates for the board, she said. She was a member of the committee the two previous election cycles before becoming chair, she said.

Espinoza said she also has been involved in the district in other ways.

She was part of a committee that shaped the district's strategic plan in 2013. Board members said they are due to review and update the strategic plan this school year, which means Espinoza will be part of the process again but this time as a board member rather than a parent.

Levy was elected to a four-year term in 2015, which means Espinoza will fill the seat until the 2018 election. . She said she would hope to run for election to the post at that time to remain on the board.

She noted that she joins the board just after a new contract was negotiated with the school district's teachers.

"There was a much better tone (between teachers and district negotiators) this time, and I'd like to see that remain going forward," she said. "Maintaining our fiscal responsibility is also a top priority. It gets harder and harder every year because of the state that we live in. In Illinois, you're not quite sure what you're going to get."

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misaacs@pioneerlocal.com

Twitter @SKReview_Mike
A Natrona County man convicted of multiple sexual crimes will serve up to 75 years in prison.

Joshua McCullough previously pleaded guilty to first-degree sexual assault, second-degree sexual abuse of a minor and three counts of first-degree sexual abuse of a minor.

Moments before Natrona County Judge Daniel Forgey handed down his sentence on Wednesday, one of the defendants victims addressed the court.

Justice will never be served, she said, explaining that no punishment could undo the defendants actions.

The Star-Tribune does not identify the victims of sex crimes.

McCullough declined his opportunity to speak.

The Natrona County Sheriffs Office began investigating the defendant on Dec. 9 after staff at the Wyoming Medical Center reported that an 11-year-old girl said McCullough had sex with her, according to court documents.

A nurse conducted a sexual assault exam on the girl and found physical indications of sexual activity, the documents say.

The girl told investigators that McCullough had assaulted her multiple times over the past three years and said she worried he was doing the same thing to a second girl, who was two years younger.

The documents stated that McCullough described himself as a pedophile during an interview with investigators on Dec. 9, and told them about four specific sexual acts he had done with the girls in the previous six weeks.

Deputies arrested McCullough after the interview.
What to expect next in the Frisch vs. Boebert CD-3 race

Final results in the race won't be known until Friday, Nov. 18, after clerks in all 27 counties upload final counts. So what happens between now and then?
Republican lawmakers have blocked a vote on a bill that would have allowed Veterans Affairs doctors to recommend medical marijuana as a pain treatment in states where the drug is legal.

The House Rules Committee stopped a proposed Veterans Equal Access amendment from moving to debate on the House floor by keeping the measure out of the Houses proposed VA funding bill for next year.

The sponsor of the House provision, Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Ore., said he was bitterly disappointed that his amendment was sidelined.

This is a subject that has gained a great deal more attention and momentum, Blumenauer told McClatchy. More people recognize that the VA has really failed our veterans when it has come to pain management, opioids and opioid dependency.

He noted that his amendment had the bipartisan support of nine Democrats and nine Republicans. But somehow the (13-member) House Rules Committee decided it wasnt going to allow this amendment.

The Rules Committees move makes it more difficult for the provision to be approved this year, but not impossible: The Senates fiscal 2018 Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations bill contains a similar provision, and that means the amendment could still make it into the final bill when the two chambers meet later this year to negotiate a compromise.

The measure would have allowed VA doctors to consider medical marijuana for interested patients and complete the forms necessary to participate in state medical marijuana programs. With marijuana illegal under federal law, VA physicians and other providers are prohibited from recommending medical marijuana or filling out the needed paperwork.

Veterans still can seek treatment outside the VA but must pay out of pocket for care and cannabis.

Blumenauer introduced the same amendment in 2016, and the legislation enjoyed widespread bipartisan support, passing the House by a 233-189 vote. Its companion measure in the Senate also passed overwhelmingly, 89-8. But the amendment disappeared from the final version of the larger appropriations bill, stripped by the committee that met to negotiate the differences between the two.

The congressman, a founder of the Congressional Cannabis Caucus, is hoping for a different outcome this year. This isnt going away. I think theres an excellent chance it happens this Congress, as veterans become more and more outspoken about why they shouldnt be treated like second-class citizens.

Veterans and advocacy groups have worked for years to promote medical marijuana as a treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic pain and other combat-related conditions. The American Legion, the largest veterans organization with 2.4 million members, last August called for marijuana to be rescheduled as something other than a Schedule 1 drug to promote research on its use in medical treatment.

VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin said in May that any decision on rescheduling marijuana would have to come from Congress, but he expressed interest in it as a potential treatment if research supports it.

If there is compelling evidence that this is helpful, I hope the people take a look at that, Shulkin said.

Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., introduced the amendment in the Senates version of the VA spending bill. Like Blumenauers, Daines amendment would provide veterans the opportunity to access medical marijuana through the VA in states where it has been legalized. The Senate Appropriations Committee voted July 13 to include Daines provision in the bill by a 24-7 vote.

Montanas veterans have suffered under the status quo for too long, Daines said in a prepared statement after the vote. We are beginning to make real progress for Montanas veterans and I look forward to continuing to make progress for them.

Despite what they see as a setback with the House Rules Committee decision on Tuesday, veterans advocates remain hopeful that the measure eventually will pass.

Its confusing. So many people think this already passed last year, said Michael Krawitz, a former Air Force staff sergeant and executive director of Veterans for Medical Cannabis Access. We were disgusted by the process (last year) but I think the Veterans Equal Access amendment will pass, and its almost the end of the road for us in terms of a quantifiable success.

Veterans cannot lose their VA disability compensation or health benefits if they are found to use marijuana. Their doctors can decide, however, to reduce their access to pain medications, including opioids, if the veteran uses medical marijuana and the physician believes they may be at risk for drug interaction or dependency. The decision is made on a case-by-case basis.

Medical marijuana is legal in 29 states plus the District of Columbia, although states differ on the medical conditions for which it can be prescribed.
South China Sea exploration will be conducted in joint operations

Joint exploration in the South China Sea will help the Philippines solve urgent problems and help Beijing set a good example in resolving maritime disputes in the South China Sea, observers said.

The comments came after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said this week that Manila and Beijing are working on a joint oil exploration deal which involves gas and oil.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Alan Peter Cayetano, the Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, vowed on Tuesday to seek an appropriate approach to jointly explore the South China Sea in the near future.

Cayetano said at a joint news conference after meeting with Wang that to develop bilateral ties, Beijing and Manila have to seek joint exploration of natural resources to benefit the people of both nations.

He noted that leaders from the two countries decided on the joint exploration in the South China Sea in 1986, but breakthroughs have yet to be achieved after discussions lasting 31 years.

Cayetano said he believed that the two countries, led by Duterte and President Xi Jinping, have the wisdom to work jointly on exploration.

Wang said where there are overlaps of maritime rights and interests, if one party goes for unilateral development the other party will take similar actions, possibly complicating the situation.

It could lead to tensions, he said, and result in nobody being able to develop the resources.

Bilateral ties have developed significantly, Wang said, and it is necessary that the two countries make decisions soon to benefit both.

Xu Liping, a researcher of Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said due to limited funds and technology, Manila had hired European companies to explore resources in the South China Sea, and the companies took most of the profits.

"Now the contract is to expire, so it is a realistic decision for Manila to carry out joint exploration."

For China, joint exploration will lay a solid foundation of mutual political confidence with the Philippines, he said.

Zhong Feiteng, another expert at the academy, said joint exploration will greatly help the Philippines, as oil imports have long been troubling for the country.

And for China, the case will set a promising example for future efforts to settle the South China Sea dispute.

Wang also met Duterte during the visit. Duterte said that "the Philippines attaches great importance to China's status and influence in the world and is willing to build stronger relations with China".

"Facts speak louder. For neighbors, dialogue is better than confrontation; cooperation is better than friction. History will show that we have made a right choice," Wang said.

lixiaokun@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/27/2017 page3)
Three candidates for Billings mayor  Angela Cimmino, Danny Sandefur and Jeff Essmann  are scheduled to appear during a forum at 7 a.m. Aug. 2 at McCormick Cafe, 2419 Montana Ave.

The Yellowstone County Democratic Study Group, also known as the Democrats Breakfast Club, is organizing the no-host breakfast. The forum will include a question-and-answer session.

Cimmino and Sandefur did not participate in a July 18 forum that was attended by mayoral candidates Bill Cole, Randy Hafer, Danielle Egnew and Essmann.

Egnew, Hafer and Cole participated in a July 26 breakfast forum.

According to a news release by the Yellowstone Democratic Club, forums will be held on five consecutive Wednesday mornings beginning Aug. 9 for City Council candidates in each of the citys five wards. Information about those breakfasts will be released shortly.

The club will hold a dinner and forum for council candidates who survive the Sept. 12 primary election on Sept. 19. That event will be at the Fortin Culinary Center, 2112 Fourth Ave. North.

Two candidates from each ward as well as the top two vote-getters on the mayoral ballot will move on from the primary election to the Nov. 7 municipal general election.
By Linh Tran Huy

Editor: Thibaut Minot

After over 15 years of rapidly expanding economic and political exchanges, China-Africa relations are changing.

During the sixth Forum on China-Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) in Johannesburg in 2015, Chinas President Xi Jinping announced 10 major Sino-African cooperation projects. Covering areas such as industrialization, agricultural modernization, infrastructure, environmental issues, and financial services. With funding for such projects amounting to around US$60 billion, a number of them are already well underway.

The forum reflected the conventional interpretation of Sino-African relations since the early 2000s. China aids Africas development through the construction and modernization of local infrastructure and financing apparatus. In return, Africa provides China with a steady supply of natural resources.

Shifting trends, however, are changing the current status quo. A closer look at Sino-African economic relations reveals that investment and trade flows are perhaps not as one-sided as it is commonly portrayed. Indeed, for African companies and entrepreneurs seeking to expand overseas, China is progressively becoming a destination of choice.

Chinas investment destinations in Africa

In terms of foreign direct investment (FDI), Chinas presence in Africa is undeniable. Between 1998 and 2012 alone, approximately 2,000 Chinese firms invested in 49 different African countries. In 2014, these investments , with South Africa, Algeria, Nigeria, and Zambia as the leading destinations.

While this may account for a fraction of the total stock of FDI in Africa when compared to that of the UK, France, and the US, the growth of Chinas FDI in the continent is remarkable and the amount is impressive in relation to its own level of investment in other countries.

Sub-Saharan Africa in particular garners significant attention from China thanks to its wealth in natural resources. In 2013, China became the top destination for Sub-Saharan African exports (over US$20 billion) and the largest exporter to Sub-Saharan Africa, according to the World Integrated Trade Solution (WITS) database.

According to Yuusuf Moossajee, Partner at Moollan & Moollan, Dezan Shira & Associates partner firm in Mauritius, China has clearly become a leading investor in Africa. In addition to the countries mentioned above, other attractive into Africa are Egypt, Mozambique, Morocco, Cote dIvoire, Angola, Kenya, Senegal, and Cameroon.

In Tanzania, for example, China has become the second largest foreign investor, with Chinese MNEs having invested US$2.5 billion in about 500 projects, 70 percent of which are in manufacturing. There are currently around 20,000 businesspeople from China, who are operating in different sectors in rural and urban areas across Tanzania.

Moossajee adds that Mauritius, which has signed investment promotion and protection agreements (IPPAs) with 15 African member states, has successfully positioned itself over the years as the preferred platform for investing into Africa. There is rising interest from Chinese multinational corporations to set up their headquarters and treasury management activities in the Mauritius International Financial Center.

RELATED: China-Israel Relations: Why the Tech Industry is Key to Bilateral Trade and Investment

Areas of Chinese investment in Africa

China contributes not only to local infrastructure through buildings and industrial zones, but also to the physical integration of African states through regional projects in the form of roads, railways, waterways, energy infrastructure, and others. This can be seen through the 2015 African Union-China memorandum of understanding to cooperate on major infrastructure and industrialization projects, which represents another step toward the African Unions Agenda 2063 to have world class infrastructure throughout the continent.

Notable examples include the Merowe Hydropower Dam Project in Sudan, completed in 2009, the West-East Expressway in Algeria linking the North African countries, completed in 2014, and the Ethiopia-Djibouti Railway Project, completed in September 2016. All of these projects were overseen by Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) such as the China International Water and Electric Corporation and the China Civil Construction Corporation, while at least partly financed by Chinese banks.

In contrast with Chinese SOEs, private small and medium enterprises (SMEs) focus on services sectors over infrastructure and resources-related projects. In a 2015 analysis of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) database, International Monetary Fund (IMF) economist Chen Wenjie noted that out of 3,989 projects, 60 percent of all projects were in the services sector, and within that, the business services sector received the most deals (1,053 projects).

This is true for most African countries regardless of their abundance in natural resources. For instance, two-thirds of Chinese projects in both Nigeria and South Africa are in services sectors. Manufacturing-related investment, however, is far less pronounced. Overall, while it seems that Chinese investment is heavily skewed in favor of natural resource projects when looking at aggregate data and the financial gains involved, other sectors are certainly not ignored  and may develop over time at a faster rate than SOE projects.

The rise of Africas manufacturing sector

While Chinese investment in African manufacturing is presently low, a number of factors suggest future expansion. At the same time, changes in demographics will temper Chinas need for natural resources, resulting in a significant decrease in the pace of Chinas investments into Africas natural resource sector.

China and Africas demographics are moving in opposite directions: Chinas population is rapidly aging, while Africas fertility rates are high, with half of the continents population below the age of 20. UN data forecasts a decrease in the working age population in China from 927 million in 2015 to 838 million by 2035, whereas Africas working population could increase from 536 million to 922 million over the same period.

China will need to create fewer and fewer jobs while Africa will be required to create 20 to 30 million jobs every year in the years to come. A smaller population and labor force in the future, in addition to a slowing construction boom, may mean lower demand in China for natural resources However, a second change to note is the progression of wages in China, especially pronounced since 2012. An increase in wages could in fact result in an increase in consumption per capita due to lifestyle changes, and a greater need for resources. Nevertheless, while its appetite for energy and resources in the 2000s largely explained Chinas risk-taking approach in its African investments, China will most likely be more selective with its projects in the future.

In contrast, wages in countries such as Ethiopia and Tanzania have remained at relatively low levels. With the and shift to a services-driven economy, China may increasingly relocate its manufacturing to Africa. Ethiopia, for example, recently attracted 15 Chinese investment projects in textiles and electronics through modernizing its industrial zones and creating special economic zones, displaying the potential for such changes.

Pre-Investment, Market Entry Strategy Advisory from Dezan Shira & Associates

In China: African business

Sino-African trade flows are no longer a one-way street. According to the China-Africa Economic and Trade Cooperation White Paper, Africas FDI in China totaled over US$14 billion by the end of 2012, including US$1.4 billion in that year alone, with countries such as Mauritius, Seychelles, South Africa, and Nigeria investing in petrochemical industries, manufacturing, and wholesale and retail in China.

According to Moossajee, success stories are already abundant, such as the case of Snow Beer, the worlds best-selling beer, which was produced by a Sino-African joint-venture between SABMiller and China Resources Enterprise. In 2016, SABMiller owned more than 90 breweries, produced 30 beer brands, and owned 23 percent of the market share.

The development initiatives directed by China should foster industrialization and human capital on the African continent, which should in turn encourage the development of more added-value goods and services  to be delivered primarily in China. For instance, the 2015 FOCAC Action Plan aims to boost China-Africa training and education opportunities, with 2,000 degree programs and 30,000 government scholarships available for African students who wish to study in China.

In the past few years, ambitious African companies from a wide range of sectors have looked to expand into China, with a number of large investors originating in South Africa, for instance. Aspen Pharmacare Holdings, a South African pharmaceuticals manufacturer, has increased its exports by two-thirds in 2016 and has used its recent acquisitions of pharmaceutical product lines to boost its number of sales representatives in China to over 600 people. Its Chinese sales force is now the companys biggest worldwide.

Chemical and energy giant Sasol, also from South Africa, is currently looking to strengthen its position in the growing Chinese market through a new alkoxylation plant in Nanjing, whose construction began the June 8 this year. The plant will allow the firm to meet differentiated customer requirements, such as personal care, detergent, textiles, and other categories.

Naspers, the initially small South African newspaper publisher, failed to expand in China in the 1990s through a subsidiary, yet broke through in 2001 with a US$32 million investment into Tencent, at the time a loss-making tech start-up. The latters success catapulted Naspers into a multimedia investing powerhouse and the seventh largest Internet company in the world. Its 34 percent share in Tencent is now worth roughly US$100 billion.

African commercial activity in China is also thriving at a local level. In Guangdong, the manufacturing heart of the country, hubs such as Guangzhous Yuexiu and Baiyun districts are flourishing with small African businesses. Trading is the main line of work for many in China to purchase inexpensive goods from wholesale markets, shops, and factories throughout the country to sell them back in Africa. The goods sourced in China by African traders are mainly textiles, cosmetics, and electronic products. A number of business-people are also present to act as intermediaries between investors in African and Chinese factories.

A shifting relationship

While the Sino-African trade relationship was primarily defined in the recent past as infrastructure and development in exchange for natural resources, the trends are changing. The shift in demographics should dampen Chinas demand for natural resources, while rising wages in China should encourage the shift of manufacturing capabilities to Africa. Eventually, African labor in China-funded infrastructure projects in Africa could become more attractive than exporting Chinese labor.

As seen, a number of African enterprises, especially joint ventures, are taking off in China. The primary challenge that remains for these newcomers, however, is adapting to an unfamiliar business environment, from the complex regulatory environment to competition with local players.

While the China-Africa economic relationship is just beginning to shift, opportunities are emerging for forward-looking investors mindful of these macro-economic changes.



About Us China Briefing is published by Asia Briefing, a subsidiary of Dezan Shira & Associates. We produce material for foreign investors throughout Asia, including ASEAN, India, Indonesia, Russia, the Silk Road, and Vietnam. For editorial matters please contact us here, and for a complimentary subscription to our products, please click here. Dezan Shira & Associates is a full service practice in China, providing business intelligence, due diligence, legal, tax, IT, HR, payroll, and advisory services throughout the China and Asian region. For assistance with China business issues or investments into China, please contact us at china@dezshira.com or visit us at www.dezshira.com

Dezan Shira & Associates Brochure

Dezan Shira & Associates is a pan-Asia, multi-disciplinary professional services firm, providing legal, tax and operational advisory to international corporate investors. Operational throughout China, ASEAN and India, our mission is to guide foreign companies through Asias complex regulatory environment and assist them with all aspects of establishing, maintaining and growing their business operations in the region. This brochure provides an overview of the services and expertise Dezan Shira & Associates can provide.

An Introduction to Doing Business in China 2017

This Dezan Shira & Associates 2017 China guide provides a comprehensive background and details of all aspects of setting up and operating an American business in China, including due diligence and compliance issues, IP protection, corporate establishment options, calculating tax liabilities, as well as discussing on-going operational issues such as managing bookkeeping, accounts, banking, HR, Payroll, annual license renewals, audit, FCPA compliance and consolidation with US standards and Head Office reporting.

Payroll Processing in China: Challenges and Solutions

In this issue of China Briefing magazine, we lay out the challenges presented by Chinas payroll landscape, including its peculiar Dang An and Hu Kou systems. We then explore how companies of all sizes are leveraging IT-enabled solutions to meet their HR and payroll needs, and why outsourcing payroll is the answer for certain company structures. Finally, we consider the potential for China to emerge as Asias premier payroll processing center.

Dezan Shira & Associates
Five foreign filmmakers explored craftsmanship in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, by shooting short films in the city earlier this month as part of the Looking China Youth Film Project, an annual event organized by the Huilin Foundation and Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture at Beijing Normal University since 2011.

Nay Htet, a director from Myanmar, does a film on Mongolian clothes and headwear. [Photo by Hao Fei/China Daily]

The event is intended to promote Chinese culture travel more widely through the cameras and perspectives of foreign filmmakers.

This year's young directors and camera crew are from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. With the help of Southeast Asia Broadcasting Center of China Radio International and Ordos New Media Center, they spent about two weeks in Ordos and nearby areas for their projects.

Their tour focused on craftsmanship in Ordos as revealed through the various skills of its people, including growing trees to prevent desertification, enhancing art forms such as traditional songs, making carpets by hand, decorating wood with burn marks, and making Mongolian clothes and headwear.

Chansey Phan, a film director from Cambodia, says he liked his crew to call him by his Chinese name, Pan Jiangshui.

His film tells the story of a worker who has been planting trees in Kubuqi, a large desert in Ordos, for about 15 years and contributed to the city's efforts to combat desertification.

He had to go to the windy desert every morning and stay there until late at night to document the worker's life and capture the desert's sights.

Phan says the worker's persistence touched him and the desert's vast beauty amazed him.

"The task was challenging but full of joy," he says.

Wee Your Lee, a filmmaker from Malaysia, chose pyrography as his subject. He filmed a veteran in Ordos decorating wood with burn marks.

"It will be a pity if the art dies," says Wee. "I hope that through my lens, more people around the world will learn about the art and support its preservation."

Tee Inthilard, a cameraman for MV Lao Television in Laos, chose Gurduu, an ethnic Mongolian music form, for his film. "The music goes through the heart. It's so amazing," says Inthilard.

All the films were shown in Ordos on July 11 and a selected few will be screened internationally later.
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China's Defense Ministry released a new video in a bid to showcase the country's rising military capabilities two weeks ahead of the 90th birthday of the People's Liberation Army (PLA).

The video, named "PLA Today," is China's latest bid to show the world how far its military capacity has increased since its inception nine decades ago, and also how far it would go to preserve the country's hard-won peace and order.

The 16-minute English-language video, with Chinese subtitles, displayed a host of unmanned "smart" military vehicles, reconnaissance robots and drones, followed by footage of live-fire drills in the South China Sea and the East China Sea in July last year.

The video also sought to reaffirm the PLA's commitment to "safeguarding world peace and regional security," by highlighting its efforts in conducting UN peacekeeping tasks and escort missions around the Gulf of Aden, with footage of crew members from foreign ships saying "Thank you China" after being rescued by Chinese forces.

"Peace is a core value of the Chinese civilization," the video said, "China pursues a national defense policy that is defensive in nature."

The video has aroused patriotism online.
The upcoming 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) is a key meeting at a crucial time for the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics, President Xi Jinping has said.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the opening session of a workshop in Beijing, capital of China. A workshop for provincial and ministerial officials was held from Wednesday to Thursday in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the CPC. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

The meeting also comes when China's endeavor to build a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way has entered the decisive stage, said Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission.

He made the remarks at a workshop attended by provincial and ministerial officials from Wednesday to Thursday in Beijing in preparation for the 19th CPC National Congress.

"Whether we can raise comprehensive, strategic and foresighted guidelines [at the congress] concerns the development of the causes of the Party and the nation, the destiny of socialism with Chinese characteristics as well as the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the Chinese people," he said.

The CPC must explicitly declare what banner to hold, what road to take, in what state of mind, what historic mission to shoulder and what target to achieve, he said.

"In planning and advancing various work of the Party and the state, we must thoroughly analyze and precisely evaluate the national, international and the Party's conditions under current circumstances," Xi said.

Such analysis will help map out the development blueprint and remind CPC members, especially leading officials at various levels, of potential dangers.

Both opportunities and challenges posed by the changing situation should be heeded during the analysis, Xi said, calling for utmost efforts to prepare for the worst while striving for the best results.

The workshop was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang and also attended by Zhang Dejiang, Yu Zhengsheng, Liu Yunshan, Wang Qishan and Zhang Gaoli, all members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.
 Flash

Russia on Wednesday denied a report that it supplied arms to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, calling the allegation "groundless."

"Russia does not support the Taliban, and maintains contacts with it exclusively to ensure the safety of Russian citizens in Afghanistan and to encourage it to join the process of national reconciliation," a Foreign Ministry statement said.

CNN on Tuesday showed a video in which militants of the hardline Islamic movement demonstrated sniper rifles, Kalashnikov variants and machine guns, claiming that the weapons were originally supplied by Russian government sources.

Although the video does not provide incontrovertible proof of the trade, it offers "some of the first battlefield evidence of a flow of weapons that have the Afghan and American governments deeply concerned about Moscow's intentions here," the CNN report said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said the allegations were "groundless," pointing out that it was impossible to determine the origin of the shown weapons in the video, as they were stripped of any means of identification.

"They are not stamped by the manufacturer" and the serial numbers are unclear, the ministry noted.

Such weapons were produced in some Eastern European countries, and some Americans massively sold them to Afghanistan in the early 2000s, it added.

No evidence has been provided that could confirm the accusations against Russia, according to the ministry.
 Flash

Islamic Hamas movement said Thursday the Israeli removal of all recent security facilities at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem is a "historic victory" and the battle for the sake of the mosque is not over yet.

"The removal of electronic gates, cameras and all other measures" is an "achievement and a historic victory for our people," Hamas said in a statement.

The movement called on the Palestinians in the West Bank, Jerusalem and Israel to head to Al-Aqsa Mosque on Friday "to restore this great achievement," adding "our battle for the sake of Al-Aqsa Mosque is not over yet."

Israel removed on Thursday morning all recent security measures outside Al-Aqsa gates including the cameras, metal beams or bridges, and the metal bars. Palestinians celebrated their removal.

"This big achievement accomplished by our people in Jerusalem who sacrificed their blood for the sake of Al-Aqsa has broken the determination of the Zionist enemy to take control of the mosque," said the movement.

Meanwhile, Hamas movement's chief Ismail Haneya said in an emailed press statement that "the occupation (Israel) has been defeated by the will of our people and retreated before the guarders of Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem."

"Al-Quds (Jerusalem) is Arab and Islamic land, it will remain so and will never be divided. Everyone must understand that the Palestinians will never let anyone to dirty our Al-Aqsa Mosque," said Haneya.

He called on the Palestinian factions, mainly Fatah party of President Mahmoud Abbas, to hold an emergency meeting "to build up on this victory and draw a track for our Palestinian work."
Montanas Main Street program is being recognized and replicated in other states, the Montana Department of Commerce said in a news release Wednesday.

This week, the programs coordinator, Tash Wisemiller, shared some of the states best practices for revitalizing small towns at the Convergence of Health, Place and the Economy in Denver. Wisemiller attended to share how innovative approaches to downtown revitalization in Montana can be applied to other states and regions.

The local efforts being made, said Commerce Director Pam Haxby-Cote, represent the importance of community health, walkability, historic preservation and downtown business vitality.

New tourism marketing research commissioned by the Commerce Department shows that travelers seek out Montanas small towns. In 2016, a record 12.4 million visitors from out of state spent $3.5 billion in Montana.

Working with local community leaders and business owners, the departments Main Street Program has helped Montana communities strengthen and preserve their historic downtown commercial districts by fostering economic development, downtown revitalization, tourism development and historic preservation using such tools as long-range planning, organization, design and promotion.

Last year, Montana Main Street hosted a national placemaking workshop in Helena and coauthored an article in a national publication on designing healthy places through community development.

Since then, Montana communities have used the training to implement more than 40 placemaking projects across Montana with $2.6 million of public and private funds invested.
 Flash

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in the picturesque Finnish town of Savonlinna midday Thursday amid tight security arrangement that has been nearly unprecedented in Finland.

The police have asked residents not to appear on balconies or open windows and private sailing in the waters around the Olavinlinna castle has been prohibited, although Savonlinna is used to high level visitors.

A police spokesman told local media that the threat level has not been increased, and said he could not give more details. Senior inspector Harri-Pekka Pohjolainen of the Eastern Finland police said police can give such orders at its own discretion.

Despite the strict security controls, dozens of local residents could be seen waiting along the road from the airport where Putin was to arrive at.

With his working visit, Putin observes the Finland's centennial anniversary of independence from Russia. Finnish President Sauli Niinisto is to greet Putin at a historic resort hotel on the Punkaharju ridge Thursday afternoon.

After talks there, they will take a short voyage on lake Saimaa on a steamer and enjoy an operatic performance by the Russian Bolshoi Theatre at the mediaval Olavinlinna Castle.

The location also carries a strong message about the joint history of Finland and Russia. Finland declared independence in 1917 from Russia after the Russian revolution. After centuries of Swedish rule, Finland became an autonomous Grand Duchy under Russia in 1809.

The construction of the resort hotel used as the venue of the political talks Thursday was authorized by Czar Nicholas I in 1845.

The Olavinlinna Castle, the scene for the opera performance, was built in 1475. The border between Russia and Sweden ran near the castle in medieval times.

Although adhering to the joint foreign policy of the European Union, Finland that shares a 1,300-kilometre long border with Russia, has maintained high level contact with Moscow also during the worsened relations since the beginning of the Ukraine crisis.

Sauli Niinisto last met Putin in Arhagelsk, Russia this past winter, and Putin visited western Finland last July.

Thursday's visit coindicides with the joint Russia-China naval excerices on the Baltic Sea which kicked off on Sunday.

Kari Huhta, a security policy analyst of the newspaper Helsingin Sanomat, noted that the exercises do not change the security situation in the area.

Huhta said that the peaceful and festive atmosphere around the presidential meeting will be positive for trade and tourism.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a protocol to an agreement with Syria to deploy the Russian air forces at a Syrian military base, the Russian government said Wednesday.

The document was posted on the Russian government's legal information portal.

The law ratifies the agreement signed by Russia and Syria which allows the Russian air group to use Syria's Hmeymim airbase free of charge for 49 years with possible extension for another 25-year period.

The protocol to the 2015 Russian-Syrian agreement "aimed at establishing the international legal framework governing the conditions for the location of the Russian air force group" was signed in Damascus on Jan. 18, 2017.

Prior to being signed into law by Putin, the protocol was ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament.

The Russian air group was deployed at Hmeymim from the end of September 2015 to help Syria fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
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Brigitte Zypries (SPD), the German Minister for Economics and Energy, has warned against a potential trade war between EU and the United States on Thursday.

Speaking on German news channel ARD in response to Washington's announcement of new sanctions against Russia, she said that such an outcome "would be very bad."

Zypries voiced hope that the sanctions had not been imposed to harm Europe, but said that "the end result is still that our companies could suffer."

The EU is already discussing retaliatory measures, something which Zypries said was possible and sanctioned by the World Trade Organization.

She also vaguely alluded to "other sanctions" which the EU could adopt.

The U.S. House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a legislative draft which would lead to stricter economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK). The law still has to pass the Senate and be signed by President Donald Trump in order to be enacted.

The Russian oil and gas industry would be particularly hard hit by the measures, leading German business representatives to warn that economic cooperation on energy supply between Moscow and Berlin could be jeopardized.

Volker Treier, the head of international trade at the German Chambers of Industry and Commerce (Deutscher Industrie- und Handelskammertag, DIHK) warned that a resulting freeze of pipeline projects "would heavily affect the German economy as well."

He called on the European Commission to demand a clarification from Washington and prevent that new U.S. sanctions against Russia applied to firms in different countries.

"The impression remains that the U.S. side is prioritizing its own economic interests," Treier added with view to the U.S. oil and gas industry. The sanctions were not coordinated with the European Union.

On Thursday, Gernot Erler, German government's official Coordinator for Intersocietal Cooperation with Russia, echoed such concerns.

"The rejection of the Nord Stream II project is literally included in the legislative draft, but actually every European-Russian cooperation on energy supply could be sanctioned, including the maintenance of pipelines which EU energy supply relies on," Erler told the newspaper Neue Osnabruecker Zeitung.

Nord Stream II is a pipeline project between Russia and Germany under the Baltic See which is planned to deliver natural gas to Europe from 2019 onwards.

Erler criticized that the U.S. government was prioritizing the export of its own energy in order to create jobs in the United States and strengthen its foreign policy.

"This type of "America First" element does not belong in a sanctions regime which places value on the common ground shared by allies," he said.

In contrast to the negative reactions expressed by Germany at the prospect of new anti-Russian sanctions, the former leader of the Green party Reinhard Buetikofer told the newspaper Bild that Nord Stream II was "not economically sensible."

Following Buetikofer, the newspaper contradicted the core objectives of European energy policy and "increased reliance on Russia for gas while harming the interests of our Eastern neighbors, above all Poland."

His statement was met with support from Claudia Kemfert, the head of the Energy division of the German Institute for Economic Research (DIW).

"Nord Stream II is not necessary for German energy supply," she told Bild.
Billings Clinic named its interim chief executive officer as its new CEO on Wednesday.

Randall K. Gibb is a gynecologic oncology surgeon who has been with Billings Clinic since 2006.

In November, Gibb was named interim CEO after the retirement of longtime Billings Clinic CEO Nicholas Wolter. And the search for a replacement began.

More than 150 people applied for the position, a number that was eventually winnowed down to four finalists. The high volume of applicants did not surprise Gibb.

"One of the greatest things about Billings Clinic is that it's a national leader," he said Wednesday. "When you look at it, it's a pretty coveted position."

Gibb's background is in medicine rather than business, which can sometimes present a challenge as the two roles require vastly different skill sets.

"It's very different," Gibb said.

In the past, a physician would enter a room like a quarterback runs onto the field. The doctor is the expert in the room who calls all the shots and knows all the answers.

But that's the not the case anymore, Gibb said.

"Medicine has gotten so complex, you have to rely on a team," he said. "And you have to be a good team member."

It's the same for a CEO. The head executive has to be a team leader who knows how to listen and receive feedback. The person needs to be able to share a strategic vision and then bring the team along as they work in that direction.

And that's one of the reasons Gibb was keen to be in the running for CEO. He believes whole-heartedly in the team at Billings Clinic. In the eight months Gibb has been interim leader of the hospital, he's gotten to know people at the Clinic on a different level.

"I've deepened relationships," he said.

Those months as interim CEO felt like a try-out for the position, Gibb said. It convinced him that Billings Clinic is one of the best organizations with the best people in the region.

And those people "are critical to our success," he said.

Before he joined Billings Clinic, Gibb was associate professor of obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University St. Louis. When he joined Billings Clinic, Gibb was the first gynecologic oncology surgeon in the multi-state region. Over the past 11 years, Gibb has expanded his role beyond clinical practice as a department chair, medical director of the Billings Clinic Cancer Center, and chief medical officer of the clinic.

It's that record of leadership that made him appealing to the board of directors.

"In his successive physician leadership positions and as a practicing surgeon, Dr. Gibb has gained a deep understanding of Billings Clinic, our patients, his physician colleagues, and the complexity of health care in our region and nation," Joy Ott, chairwoman of Billings Clinic board of directors, said in a statement. "This experience has allowed him to develop a vision that builds on our firm foundation as a physician-led organization. We are excited to continue Billings Clinics tradition of excellence under Dr. Gibbs leadership."

The board made its decision Wednesday morning, a few weeks earlier than anticipated.

During their 11 years in Billings, Gibb, his wife Lee, and their two children have established strong roots and are actively involved in the community.
When the new school term began in Australia recently, posters appeared on the campuses of some universities warning Chinese students not to enter the university buildings. Such racism should be condemned by the whole of Australian society, and the relevant authorities should do more to guard against the spread of anti-China sentiment in universities.

These racist posters obviously hurt the feelings of not only Chinese students studying in Australia but the entire Chinese community in the country. It is to be hoped the perpetrators can be found and held accountable.

In recent years, Chinese students have contributed hugely to Australia's education sector, as they account for one-third of one of the country's pillar industries, bringing in approximately 20 billion Australian dollars ($16 billion) a year. Chinese students enrolled in Australian universities have the right to enjoy a peaceful and friendly school environment. Australia should also show the outside world that it respects people from other cultures.

Unfortunately, the posters are just the latest in a series of China-smearing incidents that have flared up in Australia over the past few months. Posters mocking Chinese property buyers, whom some Australians believe should be held responsible for fueling rising prices in Australia's property market, were seen in Sydney earlier this month. And in June, an Australian TV program falsely accused China of trying to influence the Australian political system by "manipulating the Chinese community in Australia. To add fuel to the fire, some Australian politicians have talked in an unfriendly manner about China or aired biased and unjust opinions on the territorial disputes involving China and some of its neighbors.

Such a worrying tendency should raise the alarm because, if it remains unchecked, it will undermine the generally good momentum in China-Australia interaction.

Such an ill tendency runs counter to the two governments' efforts to deepen both the scope and the depth of bilateral cooperation. And it does not reflect the ever-increasing interactions of the two economies and their robust people-to-people exchanges.

Generally speaking, China and Australia relations are not plagued by any longstanding issues between them, meaning they should be able to effectively anchor their bilateral ties with friendly cooperation.

Yet, due to the deep-rooted bias harbored by some Australians toward China and the influence of a Cold War mentality, anti-China sentiments do flare up from time to time. It is high time the Australian government countered these undesirable misperceptions that hinder the healthy development of China-Australia ties.
An AI robot performs a dance routine at a high-tech expo held in Chongqing. [Photo/Xinhua]

Export-oriented provinces and municipalities sustained high-speed growth in the first half, while regions relying on smokestack industries, though still lagging behind, have gradually gathered pace as economic structures improved.

Chongqing registered 10.5 percent year-on-year growth in the first six months, top among 25 of the 31 provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities to have released official economic data as of Wednesday.

The southwestern metropolis' growth was 3.6 percentage points higher than the nation's overall figure of 6.9 percent for the first half of this year.

Containers being loaded at the Nansha Port in Guangzhou, Guangdong province. [Photo/Xinhua]

In terms of economic output, Guangdong province ranked top with a total of 4.2 trillion yuan ($617 billion) in gross domestic output in the first half.

These two regions are in the driving seat thanks to their diverse business structures which rely little on traditional industries, said Gao Huiqing, head of the development research department of the State Information Center.

A recovery in global demand has also helped the two export-oriented regions to enjoy sustained rapid growth, he said.

Michael Enright, an economics professor at the University of Hong Kong, said Chongqing's high-speed growth is related to central government's support such as the Belt and the Road Initiative and policies attracting foreign investors.

"Foreign investment helps Chongqing stand out among other inland cities," said Enright, citing the example of how it became the largest laptop manufacturing base in Asia in only around 10 years, as a large amount of foreign investment has poured in.

He said he expected that Chongqing and other cities with free trade zones, such as Shanghai and Tianjin, will continue to witness sustained growth, because the government will boost the domestic economy through further opening up and attracting foreign investment.

In contrast, regions which relied on traditional industries still lagged behind.

Northeastern Liaoning province only witnessed 2.1 percent year-on-year growth in the first half, while other old industrial bases, such as Heilongjiang province and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, were among the six provinces and regions that have yet to release data.

Li Luoli, deputy head of the China Development Institute, a Shenzhen-based think tank, said these areas need to speed up the pace of finding new growth engines.

"The toughest time of economic transition may have passed, but there are many challenges that have yet to be resolved," he said, referring to issues such as the relocation of laid-off workers.

He said it would take a considerable period to see a new generation of industries takes shape.

"Some major coal and steel producers have achieved progress in economic transition," said Zhao Chenxin, head of the economic operation bureau of the National Development and Reform Commission, citing the example of a company located in Shanxi province, China's major coal producer.

The earnings of Shanxi Yangmei Group improved as it developed new production technology and expanded business such as coal transportation and storage, he said.

Shanxi province witnessed better-than-expected growth in the first six months with 6.9 percent year-on-year growth, according to Zhang Xiaodong, deputy head of the province's statistics bureau.
By Li Xiang in Beijing and Luo Weiteng in Hong Kong | China Daily | Updated: 2017-07-27 08:14

Advertisements for domestic and foreign banks in Beijing Financial Street. [Photo by Yu Zhiqiang/For China Daily]

China has loosened up market access for foreign banks that want to invest in domestic lenders.

Industry insiders expect policymakers will continue to open up the sector, after the country's top banking regulator issued a statement last week clarifying the rules on overseas bank investment.

The China Banking Regulatory Commission said "wholly-owned foreign lenders and Chinese and foreign joint ventures will be subject to the same regulations as overseas financial institutions" when it comes to investing in Chinese banks.

"Overall, foreign lenders may not necessarily act on the new policy in the short run, but its long-term impact can never be underestimated," said Fielding Chen Shiyuan, Asia economist at Bloomberg Intelligence in Hong Kong.

"What matters is the new regulation sends a strong message that Chinese policymakers will progress with opening up (the sector)," Chen added. "For foreign banks betting big on the long-term opportunities in Chinese mainland, they will get a head start."

According to the regulator's clarification, foreign banks in China will be able to purchase a stake in domestic lenders through their locally incorporated subsidiaries. Previously, investment in domestic banks could only be carried out by parent companies.

Still, the 20 percent maximum stake cap by a foreign bank remains unchanged.

She Minhua, a banking analyst at Zhong De Securities Co, felt the new rule could mean that the regulator intends to encourage more foreign banks to establish subsidiaries in China.

"One intention could be pushing the localization of foreign banks," he said. "By granting them greater rights, the regulator hopes that more investment by foreign lenders will help drive economic growth."

Investment through banking subsidiaries instead of parent companies will also make it easier for the regulator to monitor and manage capital flows, She stressed.

Analysts believe that smaller Chinese city banks and rural lenders will appeal to major foreign players looking to invest in the sector, such as HSBC and Standard Chartered.

They already have a wide network of businesses here and could take advantage of this policy clarification.

Zhang Xiaolei, president of Standard Chartered Bank in China, admitted the moves to open up the financial industry were "very encouraging" and said the bank will be doing specific business planning to take advantage of the new policies.

While the government has pledged to liberalize the sector, it remains highly restricted for foreign banks. They account for about 2 percent of the total assets of the industry.

By the end of 2015, there were 40 locally incorporated foreign lenders and one joint-venture, the Sino-German Bausparkasse Co Ltd, according to the annual report of the China Banking Regulatory Commission.

Dominic Wu Sze-yin, chairman of Asia Financial Risk Think Tank in Hong Kong, said foreign banks tend to take small stakes in Chinese lenders because of pressure from home regulators to reduce capital expenditure and debt ratios.

"Looking ahead, foreign banks will pay more attention to business collaboration with their Chinese counterparts," Wu said.

"Traditional business areas like retail and commercial banking may spell few opportunities, while private banking and asset management stand as the twin pillars of areas that generate high returns and woo foreign banks to invest in," he said.

Zhuang Qiange contributed to this story.

Contact the writers at lixiang@chinadaily.com.cn
A traffic policewoman drinks water while on duty in Hengshui, Hebei province, July 12, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

As hot weather swept across China over the past two weeks, it also brought new opportunities, fueling businesses such as food delivery and online ride-hailing service, 21st Century Business Herald reported.

Most parts of the country are reeling under high temperature, especially Shanghai, which recorded its hottest day on July 21, as the temperature surged to 40.9 C. It broke the 145-year-old record kept by the meteorological station in the Xujiahui area.

According to the 21st Century Economic Institute, beverages, air conditioners and sun blocks are also witnessing brisk business.

Restaurants have seen a surge in lunch orders since June, with Shanghai, Beijing and Hangzhou topping the chart, according to data from Ele.me, one of the country's largest online catering platforms.

Home delivery order of fresh food such as vegetables, fish and meat jumped by 116.9 percent in July, compared with 40.43 percent in May, according to a survey by Benlai, a leading online shopping platform for food ingredients in China.

Didi Chuxing, China's biggest ride-hailing company, said it saw a jump in trip volume between July 11 to 13. In Shanghai, the figure rose 13 percent in July.

Compared with popular online ride-hailing, bike-sharing service seems to be temporarily out of favor in hot summer. According to data from iResearch Consulting Group, the number of people using the service fell in June, except for ofo, which saw a more than 5 percent rise.

The 21st Century Economic Institute said the trend of "high temperature economy" created more business opportunities for online shopping platforms. For brick-and-mortar stores, it has become a major task to explore new ideas and innovation services, in order to attract more people to consume.
MELBOURNE  Australia's Victorian state government on Thursday announced a major partnership with Ctrip, China's largest online travel agency.

During an official visit to China, Victoria's Tourism and Major Events Minister John Eren signed off on the partnership with Ctrip that will see the company market Victoria as a tourist destination to its user base of 250 million people.

More than 570,000 Chinese people visited Victoria in the 12 months to March 2017, contributing $2.08 billion to the state's economy.

A quarter of all international visitors to Victoria in 2016 came from China.

"We're working hard to win an even larger share of the China market because we know that more visitors means more jobs and a stronger Victoria," Eren said in a media release on Thursday.

"This new deal with China's biggest online travel agency gives us an incredible opportunity to speak to millions more people and show them what they can enjoy by coming to Victoria."

A 2016 report found that the Queen Victoria Market, Great Ocean Road and Peninsula Hot Springs were the most popular destinations in Victoria for Chinese visitors.

During the official visit, Eren will open the first Visit Victoria office in Beijing on Friday.

He said that establishing a presence in China's capital would "allow us to work even closer to promote all things Victorian."

Tourism Australia is the only other official Australian tourism body with an office in Beijing.

Eren, who is also Victoria's sport minister, will also hold discussions with major sport groups while on the trip.
A man looks at a window display outside a Gucci store, part of the Kering group, at Tsim Sha Tsui shopping district in Hong Kong, China. [Photo/VCG]

Luxury Consumer Price Index (LCPI) in China saw an accumulated rise of 81.7 percent over the past 10 years, more than doubling the growth rate of nationwide Consumer Price Index (CPI), according to a Hurun report released on Wednesday.

The gauge represents a basket of 116 high-end goods and services, 20 percent of which are imported. It is the 11th of this kind issued by Hurun research institute, which tracks changes among Chinas high-net-worth individuals.

The index compares the price level from June 2016 to June 2017, while noting that the LCPI rose by 3.6 percent so far this year, outpacing a 1.5 percent increase in CPI.

"What impresses me most this year is the increase in property prices, baijiu (a Chinese alcohol), and Tesla cars, which drive the general luxury consumer price up," said Rupert Hoogewerf, chairman and chief researcher of the institute.

Of the 11 categories measured by Hurun, luxury housing price led the upward trend, up 16.6 percent from the previous year. And baijiu recorded huge price surge, with Wuliangye, one of China's most famous high-end Baijiu brands, rising as high as 30.5 percent.

The LCPI report attributed more expensive luxury houses and imports to the depreciation of yuan, as many foreign currencies became stronger, with exchange rate of US dollar against renminbi up 3.6 percent year-on-year as of June 9.

Gold and diamond maintained momentum, up 9.6 percent and 3.3 percent respectively. And Tesla electric cars increased by 4.5 percent, thank to favorable policies in China to support electric car development, the report noted.

However, wedding and healthcare markets witnessed a decline for the first time, dropping 3.6 percent and 3.5 percent respectively.

Tan Xinyu contributed to this story
The logo of Tencent Cloud is pictured at an exhibition in Fuzhou, Fujian province, June 18, 2016. [Photo/VCG]

Chinese tech giants are busy deploying their cloud offerings overseaspaving the way for the growing number of local companies expanding aggressively abroad and their projected demand for data storage and processing.

Among the latest round of developments was the opening last week of a European data center in Frankfurt by Tencent Cloud, the cloud computing arm of internet conglomerate Tencent Holdings Ltd.

The new center is the first of its kind on the continent for Tencent, a region more Chinese businesses are increasingly making forays into.

As Tencent's local partner in Frankfurt, cloud service provider Interxion will serve the rising demand for the Tencent's cloud services, particularly from online games, online finance, video streaming, and other internet-related industries.

In the wake of the opening of Tencent's Silicon Valley data center in April, the new facility is expected to boost the group's cloud global availability zones to 34 in total. These span Singapore, Australia, Europe, the United States and the Chinese mainland.

Gartner Inc Research Director Kevin Ji said that for service providers, cloud computing was essentially about the economies of scale. The expanding deployment of their offers would lower costs further and push forward global infrastructure deliveries, Ji added.

Datacentersor supporting data nodeswere essential to enable the global expansion of Chinese companies, which had already become a major driving force in the global economy, said Charlie Dai, principal analyst at consultancy Forrester.

"Choosing the same vendor will help simplify the architecture and management complexity and ensure consistent user experience," Dai added.

Gartner's Ji said adopting a cloud service provider required prudence, because it would be costly to change vendors once infrastructures and codes were set.

"That explains why Chinese companies, which are already using Chinese cloud services, tend to extend the service overseas," he said.

Chinese cloud services, meanwhile, will also help international companies tap the vast and opportunity-rich Chinese market, analysts said.

They added that explained why Alibaba Cloud, backed by Alibaba Group Holding Ltd, decided to set up a new digital hub in Malaysiaenabling small businesses to achieve scale through a series of cloud-related technology, architects and consulting services.

Only a handful of Chinese players, including Alibaba, Tencent and Huawei Technologies Co Ltd, have appeared as emerging forces in a cloud market currently dominated by Western peers led by Amazon.com Inc and Microsoft Corp.

But some of them have started to climb global rankings of their sector. A Gartner report in June highlighted Alibaba's high potential, ranking it at No 4 ahead of IBM Corp and Oracle Systems Corp, among others.

"Currently, however, Chinese companies lack genuine technological breakthroughs and innovation. They still have very little in the way of unique differentiation compared with other providers," Ji said.
HANGZHOU - Police in East China's Zhejiang province have detained 18 suspects in connection to activities of the "Almighty God" cult.

Police in Changxing County caught the suspected cult members following an investigation. Police also confiscated laptops and books used by the cult for dissemination of information.

"Almighty God," known in Chinese as Quannengshen, grabbed national headlines in 2014 with viral videos showing five of its members beating a woman to death at a McDonald's in the eastern city of Zhaoyuan, condemning her as an "evil spirit" after she refused to give them her mobile phone number for recruitment purposes.

First appearing in the 1990s in central China's Henan Province, Quannengshen claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, who is the wife of the cult's founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan. The couple fled to the United States in September 2000.

According to Dong Jianfeng, a police officer from Changxing County, most of the apprehended suspects showed signs of depression.

"Some of them are divorced and do not seem to know how to vent their suppressed emotions," Dong said. "Some of their families have experienced bad accidents and caused them to become depressed."

According to initial investigations, the cult's financial sources mainly came from "donations" from its members. The higher the donation, the more rights a member obtained. More donations allowed members access to higher positions within the cult, according to police.

"Every member was willing to donate their money, and the amounts ranged from 10,000 yuan (1,481 US dollars) to tens of thousands of yuan," Dong said.

"The cult's 'leaders' imposed spiritual control over the members," Dong said. "They were told that as long as they gave donations, the Almighty God would keep their illness at bay."

Of the detained suspects, eight have been "re-educated" and denounced their cult beliefs, police said.
Jennifer Owen looked like a child excited for the first day of school  the happy type, not the nervous one  showing off a new location for Billings' Head Start, the federally funded public preschool operator.

The group closed on the purchase of Holy Rosary Church off Broadwater Avenue and Fifth Street West on Monday and plans to add 80 preschool slots for the upcoming school year at the building while keeping current locations at North Park, Laurel and Lockwood, said Owen, who leads the local Head Start program. All classrooms will be expanding from their current four-hour half-days to seven-hour full days.

With a waiting list of more than 200 kids last year, expanding was a major priority for the program. A $919,000 federal grant awarded in December set the wheels in motion, with $600,000 allocated for the building purchase and other money allocated for year-to-year operations.

There was a hiccup: the feds haven't released the grant yet. But Head Start secured a bridge loan from Stockman Bank and the Montana Community Development Corporation. The group also put money raised from other sources toward the purchase.

"For the children that we're serving, a year is one-third of their life," Owen said. "We didn't want to wait."

The building will require some renovations  for example, it needs additional bathrooms  but five classrooms will open for this school year. Head Start hopes to double that next school year, up to 160 slots.

"The demand is constant and going up," Owen said. The grant funding that pays for operations will become renewed funding for each year, she said.

Eight of the slots at the new location will be part of a new tuition-based pilot program. Head Start has strong interest from families who don't qualify for the program's income requirements; a tuition program would give higher-income families options, and the fees would be able to pay for the program.

All the program's seats will expand to seven-hour full day classrooms this school year. The change was driven in part by direction from the federal Head Start program, but local officials were encouraged by what they saw in classrooms in Lockwood and Laurel that expanded hours last year.

"We really saw tremendous outcomes," Owen said.

Holy Rosary

The Catholic church building, which has also been used as a Catholic school, went up for sale in 2012 with the consolidation of Holy Rosary and two other parishes into a new church. According to a lawyer for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Great Falls-Billings, the sale price was $1.25 million. A bankruptcy judge had to approve the sale to Head Start.

While Head Start plans to do some remodels on the 1952 building, the main church hall will remain intact to use for parent and staff training classes and a meeting area.

Head Start will maintain its current facilities in North Park, Lockwood and Laurel, and will add slots overall, though some may be shifted around. The group also plans to ramp up fundraising efforts related to its expansion.

The group will also increase child care services before and after the main classroom hours. A new playground will aim to feature natural concepts that differ from typical jungle-gym style equipment.

The program will also rebrand itself as "Explorers Academy  A Head Start Program."

"We wanted to create a new identity that represents the new way we serve the community," Owen said.
Public hospitals in China will operate under a new system not driven by profits by 2020, according to a guideline the State Council, China's Cabinet, released on Tuesday.

China should establish a "modern hospital management system" that adheres to putting people's health at the center and adheres to the nonprofit nature of public hospitals and putting the public's interest as a priority, the guideline said.

By 2020, it said, the new system will ensure that a nonprofit, higher-efficiency and sustainable development has been established.

Public hospitals are the main provider of healthcare in China. These hospitals, which numbered more than 12,700 by the end of last year, provided 2.85 billion outpatient and emergency services last year, accounting for more than 87 percent of the cases provided by all hospitals in China, according to the National Health and Family Planning Commission. Private facilities accounted for the rest.

To ensure the new nonprofit hospital structure is sustainable, health authorities will make new health plans and establish integrated healthcare systems in different regions for a better distribution of health resources between big hospitals and community health centers, Wang Hesheng, vice-minister of the health commission and head of the State Council Medical Reform Office, said at a news conference on Wednesday.

The government will increase funding to public hospitals and help them repay loans so they can retain a nonprofit status, he said.

Health authorities also will establish a new merit evaluation system on presidents of public hospitals that is not profit-oriented, highlighting indexes such as quality of medical services provided, cost control and satisfactory ratings from patients, he said.

The result of the evaluations will be linked with the amount of government subsidy, payment of public medical insurance fund and salaries and promotions of hospital presidents, he said.

China started a new round of medical reform in 2010 aiming at public hospitals. One major task was abolishing the generally practiced price markups of drugs sold in hospitals. Drug prices contributed to a profit-driven system, in which many public hospitals were encouraged to use excessive and more expensive drugs and even unnecessary checkups to generate higher profits, according to experts.

Under the system, doctors' incomes are closely linked with the incomes of their departments in public hospitals, which increased medical bills for patients, according to some experts.

The practice of markups for medications, which has been practiced in public hospitals in China for decades, will be abolished in all public hospitals before the end of September, the National Development and Reform Commission said earlier this year.

"Establishing the new public hospital management system in China that emphasizes their nonprofit nature can ensure a healthy development of public hospitals," said Fu Wei, director of the Heath Development Research Center, which is part of the health commission. "In the process, public hospitals should be given more autonomy in their management, and more participation from hospital employees in management and supervision of hospitals should be encouraged."
Modernized structure to help clear institutional barriers

With some exceptions, China will include all central State-owned enterprises that have not been reformed in a modern corporate system by making them legal persons by the end of this year. The exception will be those in the financial and cultural sectors. The move is expected to help clear away institutional barriers for further SOE reform.

The move, giving corporations the same rights and responsibilities as people, was announced by the State Council on Wednesday.

It is part of the implementation plan for company system reform for central SOEs, which refers to those directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the country's top SOE regulator.

It was also the latest move since the reform was mapped out at the Central Economic Work Conference in December and in the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered in March.

"By the end of 2017, all central SOEs, except financial and cultural ones, will be registered as limited liability companies or joint-equity corporations in accordance with the Company Law, which will accelerate the establishment of an effective and balanced corporate governance structure, based on their legal person status, as well as a flexible and efficient marketized management mechanism," the plan said.

The document provides supportive policies on registration, land usage and taxes. New companies can still be kept solely State-owned and the registered capital will be evaluated based on audited net assets. They can be registered as joint-equity companies with State Council permission, and registered capital is assessed via procedures like audits and asset evaluations.

By the end of 2016, more than 92 percent of subsidiaries under 101 central SOEs had been restructured into modern companies. The reform of the remaining companies is expected to involve 3,200 subsidiaries of 69 central SOEs, which have total assets of 8 trillion yuan ($1.18 trillion).

In the first half of 2017, central SOEs made $78.66 billion in net profit, an increase of 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

SOE reform aims to boost efficiency and increase State-owned assets, said Liang Jun, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. "But the reform has been obstructed by some historical problems, including hard-to-define registered capital. The plan will clear obstacles and help eligible SOEs eliminate institutional barriers. The corporate legal person status provides a legal foundation to further the campaign such as acquisitions, mergers and mixed ownership reforms," Liang said.

"Though many SOEs have set up the modern company system, there's still room for improvement," said Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, saying some companies' governing boards existed in name only.

The China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear operator, wrapped up the reform last year. Its spokesman Huang Xiaofei said the company witnessed a strengthened market consciousness and a more flexible company system after being restructured.

Huang also credited reform with the company's initiating new projects worldwide and its potential to be a major nuclear technology supplier.

Jing Shuiyu contributed to this story.
Student undergo military medical checkups in Nanjing, Jiangsu province. [Photo by Dong Rui/For China Daiy]

Chen Yu, a straight-A student and a descendant of a New Fourth Army soldier who was killed during the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45), had two childhood dreams. His first was to attend China's best college. His second, to join an elite unit of the People's Liberation Army.

He fulfilled both after becoming a student at Tsinghua University in Beijing.

In 2012, Chen, 17 at the time, was admitted to the country's top school. Two years later, before he started his third year at college, Chen postponed his studies and enlisted in the PLA Rocket Force, serving in Northwest China for two years.

Each year, young people from across the country suspend their studies and enlist. They are known as student soldiers.

In 2016, the number of students who applied online to join the PLA exceeded 1 million for the first time, and the proportion of students among new recruits continues to rise, according to China National Defense Newspaper. In Beijing and Shanghai, students have accounted for more than 70 percent of all applicants this year, compared with about 30 percent nationally. The PLA declined to reveal complete recruitment numbers.

Benefits package

Beijing, the city with the most colleges, offers a benefits package for students who enlist, subsidized by the municipal government and the army. Undergraduates receive about 214,000 yuan ($31,680) a year, while students at vocational colleges get 206,000 yuan.

Students at the capital's universities who enlist and serve at least two years before resuming their studies are granted Beijing hukou, or permanent residence, when they graduate and start work in the city.

Other cities and provinces offer similar packages, tailored to local conditions.

Government departments and State-owned enterprises in Beijing reserve 10 to 15 percent of their annual employment quota for discharged student soldiers.

Those given second-class military merit awards or higher are recommended for graduate school directly after demobilization, and they are excused from the national graduate entrance exam.

Lyu Jishu, a teacher of military theory at Tsinghua, said the army began enlisting students in 2002 because the rapid modernization of weaponry and equipment required better-educated soldiers.

Deng Yu, deputy director of Tsinghua's national defense education office, said the program to recruit the university's students was launched in 2005, and by the end of last year, 134 students, mostly male, had enlisted from a wide range of majors.

While that may not seem a large number, every Tsinghua student excelled in the army. Eighty-nine of them have been demobilized so far, all returning to Tsinghua having been decorated as outstanding soldiers, while 30 received first-, second - or third-class merit awards, according to Deng. "Their performances were above standard," he said.

Numbers rise

Lyu, who was dispatched by the army to lecture on military theory at Tsinghua, said only two students enlisted when the undertaking was initially launched. The following year, only one applied.

"But the number has risen recently, with more than 20 students enlisting every year," he said, adding that although large numbers of people apply to join the army, only a few achieve their ambition.

"Most failed as a result of issues such as myopia, which led to them failing the physical examination," he said.

Enlistment generally begins in June, ahead of the summer vacation. After registering online, applicants undergo initial selection procedures, followed by physical and political examinations. Those chosen are officially recruited in early September.

According to Deng, the enlistment requirements are the same for students and nonstudents, and the only real difference between them is age. For example, male applicants from urban areas are required to have graduated from high school and be ages 18 to 21, while male undergraduates age 22 or younger and male graduate students age 24 and younger are also eligible.

Most Tsinghua students enlist as they approach their junior or senior years, he added.

A range of ambitions

Deng said Tsinghua students enlist for a variety of reasons: "Some have had a passion for military life since childhood; some want to experience a different life; and for some, it is an opportunity to develop a new career."

Chen Yu, who was discharged in September last year, said one of the reasons he joined the army was the example set by his great-grandfather, who was killed while fighting more than 50 years ago. His appetite was also whetted by TV series such as Soldiers' Sortie, a highly popular program shown in 2007.

"All these factors made me think that being a soldier is cool and joining up is an honor," said Chen, who has now returned to Tsinghua's department of engineering physics.

He insisted on joining the PLA Rocket Force because his university department had produced a number of famous experts on atomic and hydrogen bombs, and artificial satellites. He wanted to walk in their footsteps.

"Joining the Rocket Force made me feel close to them. I felt I was making a contribution, just as they did decades ago, although my contribution was minimal and different," he said.

However, the decision to enlist is not easily understood by some people.

The feeling was even stronger 10 years ago. Li Gaojie, one of the two Tsinghua students who enlisted in 2005, said his decision surprised many people.

"I was the only one in my hometown - a small, impoverished village in Henan province - to be admitted to a top university during recent decades. In many people's eyes, I should have followed an academic path and then landed a decent, professional job, like the majority of students did. They didn't understand why I suspended a well-designed academic and career path and took the road less traveled," the 30-year-old said.

"I had always been fond of military things and had wanted to experience life in the army since I was a little boy. I never expected to have the opportunity at college, but when it came, I seized it without hesitation."

During his two years in the People's Armed Police in North China, Li was comfortable with army life, and realized that the military, rather than civil engineering - his university major - was his real passion.

After returning to college, he continued to study military-related courses, and when he graduated in 2011, he caused a second surprise by declining several job offers and refusing to apply for graduate school. Instead, he re-enlisted.

Hard to leave

Li, now deputy commander of an infantry unit, said he found it difficult to leave the army and turn to a civilian occupation.

He believes he learned a lot in the army, including discipline and teamwork - things he seldom considered before joining up but which are now paramount in his life.

"If I had to leave one day, I think I would work in a sector or industry related to the military," he said. "The hallmark of a soldier will accompany me wherever I go, whatever I do."

Lyu, the military theory teacher, said Tsinghua students are intellectually elite, but they may also be fragile psychologically and sensitive to criticism.

"In that sense, joining the army would be a very good exercise and training for them to overcome their weaknesses," he said.

According to Deng, the students have always regarded the army as an environment - a campus outside Tsinghua - where they can thrive and hone their skills.

"We are happy to find that students have changed after demobilization. Many become stronger, both physically and mentally. They have also progressed in terms of getting along with other people and dealing with all kinds of unexpected situations."




Guangzhou has been urged to develop a system to help improve the management of its growing number of foreign residents.

The city, capital of Guangdong province, is the southern gateway to the country and should also study and explore a new employment guarantee system for the city's foreigners, indicating those who invite and employ foreigners must take all responsibility for them, a senior legislator said.

"And Guangzhou should build special platforms for foreigners to seek translators and interpreters, medical treatment and related services, as well as the establishment of databanks for the overseas people," according to Cai Guoqiang, head of the committee of overseas Chinese, foreign, ethnic and religious affairs of the Guangzhou People's Congress.

Cai made the remarks on Tuesday in the wake of a survey on the situation of foreigners in Guangzhou, launched by Cai's committee.

According to the city's exit and entry department, Guangzhou now has a transient foreign population of about 80,000, more than 60 percent of them from Asian countries.

The figure usually reaches more than 120,000 when the city holds the semiannual China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, in Spring and Fall.

Guangzhou, which registered a record high of more than 5.41 million foreigners in and out of the city last year, has become the third-largest exit and entry port on the mainland, following Beijing and Shanghai.

South Koreans make up the majority of foreign residents in Guangzhou.

The number of foreigners from Africa comes to about 11,000, less than one-fifth of the total number of expats.

Most of the foreigners arrive in Guangzhou for employment, doing business, for study or sightseeing. Many foreigners think Guangdong, a major production base, has a wide range of good quality products at competitive prices and that the business environment of the city is getting better, authorities said.

Guangzhou will never limit the number of foreigners, as they have greatly contributed to the city's economic development, authorities have said.

Garments, silks, ceramics, handicrafts, electronics, toys, shoes and watches have become the main products many foreigners purchase in Guangzhou and ship home.

Yue Jinglun, a professor of public administration from Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, said the number of foreigners in the city will continue to grow due to the myriad employment opportunities and the improved working and living climate.

Authorities should learn from the experience of other countries, Yue said on Wednesday. "The legal interests and rights of foreigners in Guangzhou should be well protected while improving the management of the foreigners to build harmonious communities," he added.

Liang Fengxin contributed to this story.
South China Sea exploration will be conducted in joint operations

Joint exploration in the South China Sea will help the Philippines solve urgent problems and help Beijing set a good example in resolving maritime disputes in the South China Sea, observers said.

The comments came after Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte said this week that Manila and Beijing are working on a joint oil exploration deal which involves gas and oil.

Foreign Minister Wang Yi and Alan Peter Cayetano, the Philippine secretary of foreign affairs, vowed on Tuesday to seek an appropriate approach to jointly explore the South China Sea in the near future.

Cayetano said at a joint news conference after meeting with Wang that to develop bilateral ties, Beijing and Manila have to seek joint exploration of natural resources to benefit the people of both nations.

He noted that leaders from the two countries decided on the joint exploration in the South China Sea in 1986, but breakthroughs have yet to be achieved after discussions lasting 31 years.

Cayetano said he believed that the two countries, led by Duterte and President Xi Jinping, have the wisdom to work jointly on exploration.

Wang said where there are overlaps of maritime rights and interests, if one party goes for unilateral development the other party will take similar actions, possibly complicating the situation.

It could lead to tensions, he said, and result in nobody being able to develop the resources.

Bilateral ties have developed significantly, Wang said, and it is necessary that the two countries make decisions soon to benefit both.

Xu Liping, a researcher of Southeast Asian studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said due to limited funds and technology, Manila had hired European companies to explore resources in the South China Sea, and the companies took most of the profits.

"Now the contract is to expire, so it is a realistic decision for Manila to carry out joint exploration."

For China, joint exploration will lay a solid foundation of mutual political confidence with the Philippines, he said.

Zhong Feiteng, another expert at the academy, said joint exploration will greatly help the Philippines, as oil imports have long been troubling for the country.

And for China, the case will set a promising example for future efforts to settle the South China Sea dispute.

Wang also met Duterte during the visit. Duterte said that "the Philippines attaches great importance to China's status and influence in the world and is willing to build stronger relations with China".

"Facts speak louder. For neighbors, dialogue is better than confrontation; cooperation is better than friction. History will show that we have made a right choice," Wang said.
Kong Guochang donates blood in Zhoukou city, Central China's Henan province.[Photo by Hu Hongtao for China Daily]

A migrant worker from Henan has donated blood more than 200 times while shuttling between construction sites in 40 cities in the last decade.

Kong Guochang, 48, from Zhoukou city, Central China's Henan province, said he does it as he considers helping people in need a meaningful act.

Kong learnt about blood donation after he became a migrant worker in 2007, and decided to become a volunteer.

"I left home and worked in different cities. I wanted to give back to the community for helping me," Kong said.

He said the people's response he saw when he was working in Chengdu to the earthquake in Sichuan province in 2008 impressed him the most. "Donating blood means lighting up hope," Kong said.

After that he kept an eye on blood centers wherever he went.

He proudly displays 81 certificates which have recorded his blood donations in the past 10 years, and posted the red certificates as the Chinese character Zhongguo (meaning China), to display his love for the country.

"Whenever there's a disaster, all the Chinese people come together - this is an ingrained power rooted in all Chinese," Kong said.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 2012, China's overall education system has outpaced many countries around the world, thanks to the Central Government's efforts to improve the sector.

The retention ratio of nine-year compulsory education reached 99.9 percent, higher than the upper-income countries. The gross enrollment ratio for China's preschool education came to 77.4 percent, higher than the average of upper-middle-income countries of 69.2 percent.

The gross enrollment ratio for senior secondary education and higher education reached 87 and 42.7 percent, respectively, both of which are higher than the average of upper-middle-income countries.

These achievements are closely related to the Chinese government's overall plans to boost education. To make sure that no student drops out of school due to poverty, China has spent over 4 percent of GDP on education for five straight years.

At the beginning of 2017, the country released the 13th Five Year Plan (2016-2020) on Education, reiterating that spending on education will account for no less than 4 percent of the country's GDP.

Last year, Tan Honglai, a poor student from southwest China's Guizhou province, was admitted by the province's teaching university. Tan said he and his family would be hopeless without the student loans and scholarships provided by the government.

In 2016, nearly 1.3 million rural teachers received living subsidies in China, covering 97 percent of rural teachers in impoverished areas, according to the Ministry of Education. Subsidies benefited some 81,000 schools in 2016.

Li Hui, a rural teacher in east China's Anhui province, said her life has undergone obvious changes in recent years. "Besides from the basic living allowance, I'm paid an extra 500 yuan ($74) per month for my hard work. We are highly motivated."

In June 2015, the State Council announced the Rural Teacher Support Plan for the overall building of rural teacher teams. According to a plan to support weak schools, 77 percent of the counties and 218,000 compulsory education schools gained access to labs, libraries, and other advanced educational resources.
CHENGDU - A total of 124 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, have been arrested in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Cambodia for cross-border telecom fraud.

In February, major telecom fraud cases were reported to police in Sichuan. Suspects, disguised as court or police officials, claimed that the victims' bank accounts had been breached, inducing them to transfer their money to a so-called "safe account" in panic.

After investigation, police located the gang's den in Cambodia.

Eighteen people were first arrested in an April raid in Sichuan. Another 74 people were captured on July 1 by Chinese and Cambodian police during raids on several locations in Phnom Penh. Cambodia deported the suspects to China on July 6.

On July 17, another 32 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, were caught in similar telecom fraud cases in Cambodia. A large number of mobile phones and laptops were seized during the crackdowns. Seventeen of the 32 suspects were sent to China by Cambodian authorities on Thursday.
The life expectancy of residents with household registration in Beijing reached 82.03 years last year, according to a health white paper released on Wednesday.



The white paper, which reported on public health and Beijing residents' health conditions in 2016, was released by the Beijing municipal government and Beijing Municipal Commission of Health and Family Planning.



Life expectancy of Beijing residents is predicted to continue to grow slowly.



Three main causes of death are cancer, heart attack and brain diseases, which together account for 72.3 percent of deaths, the white paper revealed.



Death caused by endocrine and metabolic diseases increased by 10.8 percent, making them the fastest growing diseases.



Cancer has been the number one killer since 2007 with lung cancer claiming the most people's lives in 2016. The occurrence of lung cancer rose by 27.5 percent from 2006 to 2015.



Lung cancer occurred in more men than women in 2015, being the most common cancer for men.



For women, although lung cancer is also prevalent, it is the second most common after breast cancer.
There are at least five wildfires in Montana that each have burned through more than a million dollars in firefighting costs this year, according to estimates from the Northern Rockies Coordination Center.

The estimates are based on a computer program that crunches running costs from everything from firefighter labor to catering costs. Deciding who foots the bill depends on several factors and often doesn't get sorted out until the winter. Sometimes, multiple agencies end up splitting the cost.

The 270,000-acre Lodgepole Complex is the largest fire in the nation, and so far, Montana's most expensive. The fire in Garfield and Petroleum counties is up to 62 percent containment, according to a Thursday update from fire officials, and has cost about $6 million to fight.

Several new lightning-started fires in the area were quickly extinguished by locals following a Thursday morning thunderstorm. No rain fell on the north end of the fire, but Connell said no major areas of concern remain along the fire's perimeter.

The much smaller Sapphire Complex has burned about 6,600 acres southeast of Missoula. Combined, the Sliderock, Little Hogback and Goat Creek fires have cost about $4.4 million. The lightning-sparked fires are no more than 5 percent contained. The fires are burning in more heavily forested areas than the Lodgepole Complex.

The Park Creek Fire two miles north of Lincoln has cost about $2.8 million to fight. The 3,500-acre lightning-sparked fire is 25 percent contained.

The 1,000-acre Meyers Fire has cost about $1.1 million. The fire is burning about 25 southwest of Philipsburg and was started by lightning.

The 1,600-acre Lolo Peak Fire is burning 10 miles southwest of Lolo. The lightning-sparked blaze has costs about $1.1 million.

The NRCC information didn't list the Sunrise Fire, which has led to evacuations orders in Mineral County. The 2,700-acre fire has kicked out long-range spot fires beyond the main blaze and became the top priority nationally for firefighting resources Wednesday.
China will continue its efforts to build a Healthy China and cooperate with the UN World Health Organization, Premier Li Keqiang told the former director-general of WHO.

Premier Li met with Margaret Chan, who oversaw the WHO from 2007 until earlier this year, in Beijing on Thursday.

Li said China had made a big effort to implement medical reforms aimed at providing basic medical and health services to the general public. He said the country had managed to establish a medical system covering 98 percent of the population, benefiting more than 1.3 billion people.

He said China was willing to enhance communication with the WHO and other global partners and share its experience in medical reforms to help implement the United Nation's 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

Li spoke highly of Chan's efforts in promoting global health and medical development and dealing with important public health issues such as the outbreak of Ebola virus epidemic and Hemorrhagic Fever when she was the director-general. He said Chan has been promoting public health systems in WHO member countries, especially in developing countries, and has also provided advice and support to China's medical reform.

Chan expressed her gratitude to the Chinese government for its long time support of the WHO. She said China had made outstanding achievements in medical reforms, serving as an example to other countries. She said she is hoping to continue to contribute her expertise to the next stages of China's medical reforms and international cooperation.

zhangyue@chinadaily.com.cn
Helicopter pilot Cheng Wengang has plenty of good stories to tell his son. [Photo by Liu Jing/chinadaily.com.cn]

Cheng Wengang may not have been able to spend as much time with his son as other fathers, but he has more stories to tell him.

"To live an ordinary life is great. The only thing is you won't have so many stories to tell your children," Cheng says.

Cheng is a helicopter pilot in the aviation independent regiment from the North Sea Fleet.

Joining the navy in 1997, he has participated in many important missions including international military drills and escorting shipping vessels in waters where piracy prevails.

One memorable experience recalled by Cheng happened in 2013 when he successfully picked up 26 sailors that had been kidnapped by pirates in Somalia and held for 570 days.

"I could see them standing on the beach from the cockpit. They were really skinny, many were topless and in bare feet."

The wind was too strong and the beach too soft for the helicopter to land, but he knew that he must make a quick decision because the longer the hostages stayed on the beach, the more likely they would fall prey to other pirates. Plus the operation would be even more difficult as it got darker.

Suddenly, Cheng noticed that the tide had ebbed, leaving a narrow wet and hardened area on the beach. Maybe the helicopter could land there. The information was passed on to his superior and Cheng soon got permission.

Luckily, the plan worked. Thanks to his calmness and rich experience, he managed to land on the beach and picked up the sailors in batches. Thirteen were from the Chinese mainland, one was from Taiwan and 12 were from Vietnam.

The hostages were sent to a nearby Chinese frigate where they received food and a health check.

"Two sailors from Vietnam said, 'Thank you, Chinese navy' again and again in Chinese," Cheng said.

What Cheng described is just one accomplishment of the regiment during its 15 escort missions in the Gulf of Aden.

Since 2008, the PLA navy has been dispatching forces to the Gulf of Arden with the authorization of the United Nations, in order to protect passing shipping vessels from rampant pirates.

Pilots discuss tactics during a break. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Cheng's regiment has participated in 15 out of 26 missions. During the 14th mission, one helicopter's engine broke down. The mission would be effected if the helicopter had to be sent back to repair. Instead Ren Wenzhu, the leader of the ground service team decided to change the engine on board. After 46 hours of worka new engine was installed.

A harsh environment and mechanical failure are not the only challenges soldiers encounter. For example, an escorting mission takes, on average, more than eight months. The ship docks every three or four weeks which means the soldiers have to spend about a month onboard before setting foot on land.

Most fresh vegetables will long be rotten after such a long period. During the first week after setting sail, those onboard can still enjoy various vegetables. But after that, only a few kinds of vegetables such as potatoes and onions are still available. In the last days of the mission, they will be left with only frozen meat and canned food. The vegetables ordinary people take for granted become a true luxury.

"Sometimes I feel very hungry but when I step into the canteen and see the food there, I will feel sick," said Zhang Keyan, another helicopter pilot from the regiment. During one mission, Zhang said he ate only chicken legs and rice for about a week.

Cheng said it was very normal for the pilots to lose weight during a mission.

On the other hand, they also find it a headache killing time. Due to machine radiation and abnormal living conditions, soldiers often suffer from serious insomnia which means the soldiers are awake a lot of the time.

"It is so boring that one time we got up at four or five o'clock in the morning for one month just to see the sunrise," Zhang said, adding that the appearance of sea gulls and dolphins often draws a surprising amount of attention from bored soldiers.

"When I was younger, I thought that joining such a mission is contributing to the country and is glorious. Therefore, I wished more opportunities like this," Cheng recalled.

"Now I have a family and hope to take better care of my wife and son. But I'm a soldier and I have to obey the orders and put the interest of country above myself."

"Sometimes I feel afraid when thinking of wars. Everyone is afraid of death," Cheng said. "However, I am a soldier, it's my duty to fight for my country and people. "

"The process is really hard. But when you've made it, you will feel fulfilled and have a lot to remember in your life," he said.
Xi Jinping, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, speaks at a symposium for provincial and ministerial level officials held on Wednesday and Thursday in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. MA ZHANCHENG / XINHUA

Xi: Strive for best results

 All Party members, especially Party leaders of all levels, should make an in-depth analysis and judgment of the current global and domestic situation, be prepared for risks, and take both achievements and challenges into consideration.

 After four decades of reform and opening-up, the country's social development has been improved outstandingly, and the people's desire for happy lives is stronger than ever.

Symposium readies Party leaders for vital 19th National Congress this year

President Xi Jinping urged senior officials to enhance crisis consciousness and be ready for risks and challenges as the Communist Party of China is preparing for its 19th National Congress.

Xi, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the remarks on Wednesday at a symposium attended by provincial- and ministerial-level officials on Wednesday and Thursday. The meeting was attended by all seven members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee.

All Party members, especially Party leaders of all levels, should make an in-depth analysis and judgment of the current global and domestic situation, be prepared for risks, and take both achievements and challenges into consideration, Xi said, adding that the officials should anticipate the worst-case scenario, make full preparations and strive for best results.

The Party's 19th National Congress, to be held later this year, will be an important congress held during a key period, Xi said, adding that the people's fundamental interests are related to the congress.

Xi told senior officials to uphold the flag of socialism with Chinese characteristics; be confident in the Party's path, theories, system and culture; and ensure the Party and government's mission to develop in the correct direction.

The CPC should bring forward new methods, strategies and measures to meet the people's demand for happy lives, he said.

Since its 18th National Congress held in November 2012, the CPC has answered the call of the people, put forward a series of important policies, resolved lots of long-existing problems and produced a large number of achievements, Xi said.

In the past five years, the Party has strengthened its leadership comprehensively, implemented new thoughts of development, comprehensively deepened reform, implemented the rule of law, enhanced ideological works, built a more beautiful country, modernized national defense and the army, practiced diplomacy with Chinese characteristics, and fought corruption in a strict manner, he added.

Xi pointed out that after four decades of reform and opening-up, the country's social development has been improved outstandingly, and the people's desire for happy lives is stronger than ever.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Three wild rabbits managed to escape rising floodwaters in New Zealand by clambering aboard a flock of sheep and surfing to safety on their woolly backs.

Ferg Horne, 64, says he's been farming since he left school at age 15 and has never seen anything quite like it.

He was trudging through pelting rain to rescue a neighbor's 40 sheep from the floodwaters on Saturday at their South Island farm near Dunedin when he spotted some dark shapes from a distance.

He was puzzled because he knew his neighbor, who was away in Russia attending a nephew's wedding, didn't have any black-faced sheep. As he got closer, he thought it might be debris from the storm, which had drenched the area and forced Horne to evacuate his home.

Then he saw the bedraggled rabbits hitching a ride - two on one sheep and a third on another.

"I couldn't believe it for a start," he said.

Nobody else would believe him either without proof, he thought, so he got out his phone to take a photograph, an image he figured his grandchildren would enjoy. In fact, he inadvertently shot a short video.

"It's a Samsung or a smartphone or whatever you call it. I swear at it every day," he said. "I'm absolutely useless with technology."

Nevertheless, Horne managed to capture the moment. He said the sheep were huddled together on a high spot on the farm, standing in about 8 centimeters of water.

He said the rabbits looked like they'd gotten wet but seemed quite comfortable and relaxed atop their mounts.

He said the rabbits appeared to cling onto the wool with their paws. As they approached higher ground, the rabbits fell off but climbed a hedge to safety.

Rabbits are considered a pest to farmers in New Zealand and Horne said that when he sees one he usually shoots it.

"But they'd showed so much initiative, I thought they deserved to live," he said.

He then sent his video to his son, who sent images to the local newspaper and posted them on Facebook.

"From then on it's just gone crazy," Horne said.

Associated Press

(China Daily 07/27/2017 page11)
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Nicolas Maduro said on Tuesday that his country is in a "decisive week" for peace, ahead of elections for a National Constituent Assembly, or ANC, on Sunday.

"We are in a decisive week so that Venezuela definitely takes the path of peace," Maduro said in a public address in Caracas.

He said Venezuelans will choose between "peace or war", "the future or the past", "independence or colonialism" and "the sovereign power of the people or the oligarchic, imperialist coup".

On Sunday, about 20 million Venezuelans will elect 545 members of the ANC, who will draft a new Constitution.

However, the opposition Democratic Unity Roundtable, or MUD, has been relentless in protesting the move, which it sees as a power grab by Maduro.

Street protests since April against the Maduro government have claimed at least 102 lives.

Venezuela's Attorney-General Luisa Ortega Diaz, who has lodged two unsuccessful appeals against the ANC to the Supreme Court, accused Maduro of seeking to rewrite the Constitution in order to prolong his stay in office.

While Ortega Diaz was appointed by the government, she has now become one of Maduro's principal critics, slamming his call for the elections as unconstitutional.

On May 1, Maduro called for the July 30 ANC, reckoning it as the only way to lead the country out of the current political and economic crisis.

Ortega Diaz dismissed the ANC as "deceitful, as it will not resolve the major problems of food, of hospitals, of insecurity".

Maduro's government has responded by labeling Ortega Diaz a "traitor" and has vowed to review all the staff from her office "one by one" after the election.

The clash between the government and the opposition became a constitutional crisis since January last year, when the latter won control of the National Assembly and ended a 17-year control by former president Hugo Chavez and his successor Maduro.

In mid-July, the opposition MUD held its own unofficial referendum to protest the ANC, in which it said more than 7 million Venezuelans turned out to reject any attempt to rewrite the Constitution.

Xinhua

(China Daily 07/27/2017 page12)
Moscow calls it 'serious step' toward wrecking chances of improving ties

WASHINGTON - The US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers' permission before easing any sanctions on Moscow, in a rare rebuke of the Republican president.

Russia's deputy foreign minister said on Wednesday that it is a "serious step" toward wrecking chances of improving ties.

"What has happened goes beyond the realms of common sense," Sergei Ryabkov told state-run TASS news agency.

"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step toward destroying the possibilities for normalizing relations with Russia."

But for now Moscow appears to be keeping its powder dry as it waits to see how Trump reacts.

"We are not giving in to emotions," Ryabkov said.

"We will work to look for ways to move ahead, persistently and consistently searching for ways to compromise of issues important to Russia and the US."

It was unclear how quickly the bill would make its way to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto. The bill still must be passed by the Senate, which is mired in debate over efforts to overhaul the US healthcare system as lawmakers try to clear the decks to leave Washington for their summer recess.

The sanctions bill came as lawmakers investigate alleged meddling by Russia in the presidential election last year and potential collusion by Republican Trump's campaign.

Moscow has denied it worked to influence the election in Trump's favor, and he has denied his campaign colluded.

The White House said the president had not yet decided whether he would sign the measure. Rejecting the bill - which would potentially hamper his hopes of pursuing improved relations with Moscow - would carry a risk that his veto could be overridden by lawmakers.

"While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk," said spokeswoman Sarah Sanders.

EU concerns

House members backed the bill, which also imposes sanctions on Teheran and Pyongyang, by a near-unanimous margin of 419-3, with strong support from Trump's fellow Republicans as well as Democrats, despite objections from Trump, who wanted more control over the ability to impose sanctions.

The bill had raised concerns in the European Union, where US allies depend on supplies of Russian gas.

On Tuesday, Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, spent three hours with the House of Representatives intelligence panel, his second straight day on Capitol Hill answering questions about his contacts with Russians during the campaign.

Kushner, who is now a top aide in Trump's White House, said on Monday he had no part in any Kremlin plot.

Reuters - Afp

(China Daily 07/27/2017 page12)
MARSEILLE, France - At least 10,000 people, including thousands of holidaymakers, were evacuated overnight after a new wildfire broke out in southern France, which was already battling massive blazes, authorities said on Wednesday.

The new fire broke out a day after France asked for Europe's help to tackle the flames already raging in several spots on the tinder-dry south, including near the popular resort of Saint-Tropez.

Firefighters are also battling blazes on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica and in Portugal.

About 3,000 of the evacuees in southeast France were holidaymakers staying in campgrounds, some of whom ended up spending the night in sleeping bags on the beach.

"The evacuations, at least 10,000, followed the progression of the fire. It's an area that doubles or triples its population in summer," said a fire service official of the blaze near Bormes-les-Mimosas on the Mediterranean coast.

The number of people on France's Cote d'Azur bulges in July and August as holidaymakers head to the beach, although the area is experiencing an exceptionally hot and dry summer that has made it especially vulnerable to fires.

On Tuesday more than 4,000 firefighters and troops backed by 19 water bombers had already been mobilized to extinguish the flames, which have left swaths of charred earth in their wake.

At least 12 firefighters have been injured and 15 police officers affected by smoke inhalation since the fires broke out on Monday, according to the authorities.

The blazes on Tuesday had devoured 4,000 hectares of land along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on Corsica.

Help from EU

With strong winds and dry brush creating a dangerous mix, the government asked its European Union partners to send two extra firefighting planes - a request immediately fulfilled by Italy.

A fire in La Croix-Valmer near Saint-Tropez, a resort frequented by the rich and famous, had been contained, local fire chief Philippe Gambe de Vergnes said on Tuesday.

But the blaze had already consumed 400 hectares of coastal forest in an area dotted with homes, he said. More than 200 people had to be moved from the area.

La Croix-Valmer's Deputy Mayor Rene Carandante described a desolate landscape of blackened headlands fringed by charred umbrella pines, where green forest had once framed the azure waters of the Mediterranean.

"It's a disaster area. There's nothing left," he said.

A local official accused the authorities of failing to regularly remove dry undergrowth, making the forest a fire hazard.

"All of France is mobilized," said the head of the fire service in southeast France, Colonel Gregory Allione, adding that extra firefighters had been drafted in from the north.

Corsica, situated midway between France and Italy, was also assessing the damage.

A resident, whose house had at one point been in danger, spoke of "apocalyptic" scenes.

Portugal, meanwhile, which last month suffered deadly forest fires, has been battling fresh blazes since Sunday in center of the country, forcing the evacuation of around 10 villages.

Afp - Ap

(China Daily 07/27/2017 page12)
By He Shuang in Beijing and Yuan Hui in Hohhot | China Daily | Updated: 2017-07-27 06:58

Five foreign filmmakers explored craftsmanship in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, by shooting short films in the city earlier this month as part of the Looking China Youth Film Project, an annual event organized by the Huilin Foundation and Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture at Beijing Normal University since 2011.

The event is intended to promote Chinese culture travel more widely through the cameras and perspectives of foreign filmmakers.

This year's young directors and camera crew are from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. With the help of Southeast Asia Broadcasting Center of China Radio International and Ordos New Media Center, they spent about two weeks in Ordos and nearby areas for their projects.
Women from the Yi ethnic group wear traditional costumes and headwear. Photo by He Qinming. [Photo provided by photoint.net]

The 7.76 million people from the Yi ethnic group mainly live in the provinces of Sichuan, Yunnan and Guizhou, as well as, Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.

Most Yi people are scattered in mountainous areas at high altitudes, while only a small number live on flat land or in valleys.

Liangshan Yi autonomous prefecture in Sichuan province is the largest community of Yi people in China and it was also the only route for the "Ancient Tea Horse Road".

Butuo county is the hinterland but also the least developed area in Liangshan, with an altitude of 2,385 meters.

Yi people in Butuo are simple, honest, and unspoiled. The natural scenery is beautiful and enchanting.

In order to capture the real life of Yi people, three photographers - Wu Xiaopeng, He Qinming, and Liu Jianming - traveled to Butuo more than 10 times in the last five years.

They went into Yi villages and spent time with families to capture the lives of Yi people in black and white photos.

Their work reflects the traditional homes, customs, and lifestyles of Yi people, as well as the natural landscape in Butuo.

The photos are natural, vivid, and touching, with great humanistic and artistic value.
The site of the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Wuhan, Hubei province, in 1927. [Photo provided to China Daily]

When 10-year-old Liu Jian was studying at a Beijing primary school in the early 1960s, his teacher read a famous poem written by Chairman Mao Zedong to the class.

But when the students were confused about the battle depicted in the poem, the teacher asked Liu if he could get details from his grandfather.

Liu is the grandson of Zhu De, one of the founding fathers of New China and the People's Liberation Army.

"My grandfather rarely talked about his feats at home, as he believed the victories belonged to the people," says Liu.

But the late army marshal made an exception for the teacher, inviting her home and speaking about the battle, which was a key one.

This story is featured in the upcoming TV documentary Ni Cong Jinggangshan Zoulai (You Come from Jinggang Mountain), which is based on the early history of the PLA.

Liu and 22 other descendants of the armed forces pioneers, such as the late premier Zhou Enlai's niece Zhou Bingde and the late army marshal Luo Ronghuan's son Luo Dongjin, recently attended an event to promote the series in Beijing.

To mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, the six-episode series will air on Beijing Satellite TV from Aug 1, with two episodes every night.

The series, set between 1924 and 1930, chronicles events that shaped the army and Mao's military theories.

The events include the 1927 Nanchang Uprising, the Communist Party of China's first fight against Kuomintang rule, the founding of the Party-led army and the Sanwan Reorganization, which set up a new system to consolidate the Party's leadership of the army in Jiangxi province in 1927.
Nay Htet, a director from Myanmar, does a film on Mongolian clothes and headwear. [Photo by Hao Fei/China Daily]

Five foreign filmmakers explored craftsmanship in Ordos, Inner Mongolia autonomous region, by shooting short films in the city earlier this month as part of the Looking China Youth Film Project, an annual event organized by the Huilin Foundation and Academy for International Communication of Chinese Culture at Beijing Normal University since 2011.

The event is intended to promote Chinese culture travel more widely through the cameras and perspectives of foreign filmmakers.

This year's young directors and camera crew are from Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Malaysia. With the help of Southeast Asia Broadcasting Center of China Radio International and Ordos New Media Center, they spent about two weeks in Ordos and nearby areas for their projects.

Their tour focused on craftsmanship in Ordos as revealed through the various skills of its people, including growing trees to prevent desertification, enhancing art forms such as traditional songs, making carpets by hand, decorating wood with burn marks, and making Mongolian clothes and headwear.

Chansey Phan, a film director from Cambodia, says he liked his crew to call him by his Chinese name, Pan Jiangshui.

His film tells the story of a worker who has been planting trees in Kubuqi, a large desert in Ordos, for about 15 years and contributed to the city's efforts to combat desertification.

He had to go to the windy desert every morning and stay there until late at night to document the worker's life and capture the desert's sights.

Phan says the worker's persistence touched him and the desert's vast beauty amazed him.

"The task was challenging but full of joy," he says.

Wee Your Lee, a filmmaker from Malaysia, chose pyrography as his subject. He filmed a veteran in Ordos decorating wood with burn marks.

"It will be a pity if the art dies," says Wee. "I hope that through my lens, more people around the world will learn about the art and support its preservation."

Tee Inthilard, a cameraman for MV Lao Television in Laos, chose Gurduu, an ethnic Mongolian music form, for his film. "The music goes through the heart. It's so amazing," says Inthilard.

All the films were shown in Ordos on July 11 and a selected few will be screened internationally later.

Contact the writers through heshuang@chinadaily.com.cn
China's top 10 most popular paper books on Amazon for the first half of 2017. [Photo/amazon.cn]

Amazon China, one of the largest online booksellers, unveiled the bestselling books in China for the first half of 2017 on Tuesday, disclosing Chinese people's reading habits.

Japanese author Keigo Higashino's Miracles of the Namiya General Store topped the list of the most popular paper books, followed by late Chinese writer Yang Jiang's We Three and Israeli historian Yuval Noah's Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow.

In the list of paid eBooks on Kindle, the top three places were taken by Chinese writer Zhou Meisen's In the Name of the People, Keigo Higashino's Miracles of the Namiya General Store and Fall of Giants  book one of British author Ken Follett's historical Century Trilogy.

Amazon has also released a ranking of Chinese cities where people read most. Hefei and Zhengzhou occupy the first and second spot respectively for the second straight year. The ranking was based on the ratio of books sales compared to the volume of all products sold on Amazon during the first six months of the year.
Chinese teacher goes missing in Japan 2017-07-27 15:07:58 chinadaily.com.cn A 27-year-old Chinese teacher has disappeared while on a trip to Hokkaido island in Japan.

A 27-year-old Chinese teacher has disappeared while on a trip to Hokkaido island in Japan.

Her younger brother said Wei Qiujie departed Fujian on July 18. She was last seen leaving Ocho hotel in Sapporo at 7 am on July 22, according to Chinese consulate-general in Sapporo, citing the hotel owner. The hotel owner said Wei left the premises without her luggage.

Wei's father said the last time Wei contacted her family members was on July 21.

Wei had reserved a flight to return to China on July 25; however, airline information showed she did not board, cancel or reschedule the flight bound for Shanghai. Consulate staff members said the hotel owner contacted the police when she did not show up or check out.

The employees of the consulate added there was nothing unusual before her disappearance. Social media thread showed she updated travel photos to her social media account on July 21. She also liked a celebrity's update on July 23.

Wei Qiujie had been working as an elementary school teacher in Fujian's Shaowu city.

While investigations into the disappearance of Wei continue, her father and uncle plan to fly to Japan to search for her.

Before Wei's disappearance, two other Chinese girls recently went missing in Japan, according to reports. The bodies of 25-year-old Chen Baolan and 22-year-old Chen Baozhen were found in a mountainous forest near Tokyo, after the sisters went missing from their apartment in Yokohama on July 6.

The Chinese embassy in Japan issued a notice reminding its citizens residing in Japan to be more security conscious.
CAI MENG/CHINA DAILY

Editor's note: How to improve China-US trade and how Washington can reduce its trade deficit with Beijing are issues affecting bilateral ties. Three experts share their views on these issues with China Daily.

Reciprocal arrangement to boost bilateral trade

Washington blames Beijing for its trade deficit, and criticizes China's steel exports, market environment, and restrictions on the entry of foreign capital into some industries. Beijing, on the other hand, is unhappy with US restrictions on the export of high-technology products to China, and the standards and lack of transparency of Washington's security review mechanism on foreign investment.

Steel overcapacity is a global concern. Yet the United States imposes anti-dumping and countervailing measures against Chinese steel products, with the tariff on some items being as high as 500 percent, which is nothing but trade protectionism.

Since all these issues could not be resolved at the US-China Comprehensive Economic Dialogue in Washington on July 19, the two countries need to deepen communication on trade issues, in order to reach a consensus on how to objectively view the trade imbalance and make coordinated efforts to gradually rebalance bilateral trade.

China can moderately increase the import of US agricultural products, if in return Washington lifts the restrictions on Chinese agricultural products. The reciprocal arrangement of the 100-Day Action Planthe US exporting beef to China and China exporting chicken to the USis a good example of how the two sides can strike a mutually beneficial deal.

Also, China wants to import more US high-tech products, for which Washington has to lift the restrictions on the sector as early as possible. To correct the imbalance in bilateral trade, China can also increase its investments in the US, but the US, in return, has to make its investment security review mechanism more open and transparent, and resume the talks on the bilateral investment treaty as soon as possible.

Moreover, China can consider opening up its service sector more expeditiously, and importing more oil and natural gas from the US. In return, however, the US has to create a favorable cooperative atmosphere.

Huo Jianguo, a researcher at the Center for China and Globalization and vice-chairman of the China Society for World Trade Organization Studies
Chinese President Xi Jinping (R, front), also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, shakes hands with senior military officers stationed in Zhangjiakou city, North China's Hebei province, Jan 23, 2017.[Photo/Xinhua]

Yang Yongkang [Photo/China Daily]

At a meeting on Tuesday, the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China Central Committee emphasized the importance of deepening military reform. And top leader Xi Jinping reiterated the importance of military legislation, and interpretation or annulment of laws and regulations.

In May, Xi signed a decree, laying out rules for the formulation of military laws and regulations, as well as the procedure for drafting standard documents. The decree will help regulate rulemaking for the military and standardize the formulation of military laws and regulations.

The reform of military law-making is expected to strengthen military laws by making clear the legislative responsibilities of all parties concerned. According to the latest regulation, the Central Military Commission, for example, has the right to formulate military laws and regulations, while the military units can only draw up regulations. In terms of effect, it makes clear the regulations promulgated by the CMC override those passed by the units.

Besides, all military laws, normative documents and regulations are now subject to the new regulation on military legislation. Previously, the implementation of normative documents was exempt from supervision at the central level, which could lead to inefficient, even counterproductive, legislative work.

On legislation, the latest regulation stresses the absolute leadership of the Communist Party of China over the military. In particular, the drafting, submission, modification and issuance processes all are subject to scrutiny by Party committees at all levels. Which is in line with the Legislation Law, which was revised in 2015 to broaden public participation in legislation and streamline legislative consultation, especially to meet the need for further civilian-military integration.

Ostensibly, military laws and regulations apply only to the military. But their implementation can also affect ordinary citizens, whose coordination in issues such as military conscription, national defense education, protection of military facilities and arrangements for retired servicemen matters a great deal. In other words, those formulating military laws and regulations also have to take into account the activities of citizens, organizations and enterprises.

Managing defense affairs in accordance with the rule of law depends on stronger national defense laws as well as their implementation, and a functioning accountability mechanism. Since national defense is not about just military buildup but also to serve the people, the connection between the military and civilians needs to be strengthened to fulfill the due purposes.

The author is an associate professor at Northwest University of Political Science and Law.
Chinese President Xi Jinping visits an exhibition on the high-technology achievements resulting from military and civilian cooperation in Beijing, capital of China, Oct 19, 2016. [Photo/Xinhua]

Wang Baokun [Photo/China Daily]

China has to make greater efforts to integrate military and civilian industries, as it will further boost the economy, strengthen the national defense sector, and mark an important achievement of the comprehensive reforms over the past five years, reiterated President Xi Jinping, who is also the chairman of the Central Military Commission.

The military-civilian integration is an inevitable choice and effective strategy for a rising power to cope with resource, growth and security issues. In March 2015, Xi said the military-civilian integration has been elevated to a national strategy. In essence, military and civilian integration signifies reasonable distribution of national resources between the economy and defense sector. In peacetime, a major part of the resources are invested in the economy for the benefit of the people, while during wars more resources are diverted to the defense sector.

The military's combat capability consists of personnel, weapons, facilities and equipment, logistical support, intelligence, a command system, military theories, technologies including information and communications technology, and funds. Some of these resources now come from civilian enterprises, reflecting the importance of military-civilian integration to cope with complicated national security issues and improve the military's combat capabilities.

In fact, military-civilian integration has made much progress. The 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20) has laid out 100 major projects, and 40 of them are related to military-civilian integration. As a result, an increasing number of private enterprises are producing military products. By the end of 2015, private enterprises with the license to produce military weapons accounted for two-thirds of the total enterprises in the sector, and their accumulated registered capital was more than 50 trillion yuan ($7.4 trillion). Also, the number of integrated military-civilian industrial parks has increased from 28 in 2010 to 140 today.

Besides, emerging strategic industries have grown rapidly. Last year, industries such as new generation information technology, new energy and new materials grew at about 10 percent.

The transfer of intellectual property rights in defense-related science and technology fields has accelerated. Several industrial bases and parks, and incubators for military-civilian integration have been established in places such as Beijing, Tianjin and Shandong province. The Tianhe supercomputer and Beidou navigation systems are just two of the scientific achievements that can boost national defense as well as economic growth.

Still, there is a need to further promote integrated military-civilian development to cultivate talents, conduct scientific research, build facilities and develop equipment in order to strengthen national defense and bolster economic growth. For example, military talents can be cultivated in non-military colleges, and the military can create a favorable environment to attract more civilian talents. There is also a need to raise military personnel's salaries and material benefits.

Besides, military enterprises should implement deeper reforms by changing their management approach, reorganizing themselves, seeking mergers and acquisitions, and opening up some areas to the market. And private enterprises must seize the opportunity to participate in defense-related scientific research and production. Some regulations still prohibit private enterprises from entering certain military manufacturing fields. But these problems will be gradually solved, leading to the establishment of a new military product system headed by highly-competitive enterprises, including some private ones, which in turn will make weaponry purchase efficient, and encourage research into and application of new weapons.

Moreover, some military facilities and applications can be jointly built and shared by the defense forces and civiliansfor instance, they can share airports, roads, ports, harbors and logistics. Also, concerted efforts must be made to promote the development of technologies, products, facilities and equipment that can be used by the military as well as civilians. For example, the Beidou navigation system can serve civilians and the military, and big aircraft can be used in both civil and military aviation.

To further promote military-civilian integration, the government should strengthen service planning and establish military-civilian innovation platforms. And military and private enterprises should better connect with each other in order to expedite the integration of military and civilian factors of production.

The author is a professor at the college of economics, Renmin University of China.
Eight corporals and sergeants in their new sailor uniforms stand on the deck of the mine sweeping ship Jingjiang of a maritime garrison command of the East China Sea Fleet, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Navy (PLAN), on January 1, 2015.[Photo/PLA Daily]

Zhang Junshe [Photo/China Daily]

A high point of the 90th anniversary of the founding of the People's Liberation Army, which falls on Aug 1, should be the increasing might of the PLA Navy, which launched its first domestically built destroyer in June and first "homemade" aircraft carrier in April. The destroyer is expected to have cutting-edge air defense, missile defense, anti-ship and anti-submarine missiles when it is commissioned for duty early next year, while the aircraft carrier will lead combat and defense missions as well as non-combat missions such as anti-terrorism and anti-piracy operations.

The two large vessels are just a glimpse of how far China has come in its pursuit of naval prowess. From a collection of elementary warships to a combination of submarines, surface vessels, airmen, marines and coastal defense troops, the PLA Navy now has multiple versatile forces that can engage in both conventional and nuclear combats. Its capability to safeguard sovereign and security interests, as well as conduct sophisticated modern naval missions, too, has greatly improved.

China developed its first-generation warships, including guided missile destroyers, nuclear-powered attack submarines and missile destroyers before the mid-1970s. In the 1990s, the second-generation guided missile destroyer, or CNS Harbin, joined the naval fleet, reflecting Chinese warships' focus on versatility and open sea operations. The Type 052C-class destroyers, the third-generation vessels in the line, were equipped with point and area defense systems.

The successful landing and takeoff of J-15 fighter jets on the CNS Liaoning, the country's first aircraft carrier, marked a key breakthrough in naval operations. The deployment of naval air troops, the commissioning of several nuclear-powered submarines and two aircraft carriers, and the successful underwater launch of a carrier rocket have propelled the PLA Navy further offshore and enabled it to conduct defense operations in the open sea.

The PLA Navy has also expanded its overseas peacekeeping missions. In 2008, a flotilla comprising destroyers CNS Wuhan and CNS Haikou, and supply ship CNS Weishanhu, left for the Somali coast in the navy's first attempt to protect important shipping lanes and fulfill humanitarian duties in the open sea.

Over the past eight years the PLA Navy has sent 26 flotillas to escort about 6,400 ships from China and other countries, an achievement that has been praised worldwide. In 2009 the Chinese escort flotilla was praised by the International Maritime Organization under the United Nations for performing peacekeeping duties in the Somali waters.

Moreover, the PLA Navy helped evacuate both Chinese and foreign nationals from war-stricken Libya and Yemen in 2011 and 2015. And Chinese hospital ships have sailed to a number of African, Asian and South American countries to provide medical aid for local residents since 2010.

Efforts like these have become an integral part of China's foreign aid, proving that the country has fulfilled its international obligations. They have also enhanced China's reputation as a responsible major power that seeks to maintain constructive interaction with other naval powers. Chinese navy personnel, too, have benefited a great deal from the overseas training and missions, and the deepening cooperation with their foreign counterparts, which will better prepare them for unforeseen challenges.

The author is a senior researcher at the Naval Military Studies Research Institute of the People's Liberation Army. The article is an excerpt from his interview with China Daily's Cui Shoufeng.
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, accompanied by Foreign Minister Wang Yi, is greeted at Beijing Capital International Airport at the start of his fourday state visit on Oct 18, 2016. HE XIAOHUI / FOR CHINA DAILY

There may be no better example of the Chinese diplomatic saying "Harmony benefits both, while confrontation hurts" than the China-Philippines relationship.

Just a year ago, when Benigno Aquino III was the Philippine leader, Beijing and Manila were locked in confrontation following the South China Sea arbitration unilaterally initiated by the Philippines.

Who at that time could have anticipated the "all-round reversal" in the two countries' relationship hailed by visiting Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi in Manila on Tuesday?

As Wang remarked, in a little more than six months, exchanges in "all fields have been restored in an all-round manner".

And the rapport is not just rhetoric. Judging from Wang's exchanges with Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte as well as his Philippine counterpart, Foreign Affairs Secretary Alan Peter Cayetano, it looks likely Beijing and Manila may start serious talks about a 1986 agreement between then Chinese leader Deng Xiaoping and Philippine Vice-President Salvador Laurel for the two countries to jointly exploit resources in the South China Sea.

If that step is finally taken, it will not only be the realization of the 31-year-old proposal, it will also be an inspiring example for all claimant countries of how to handle their disputes in the South China Sea.

As Wang said, shelving disputes and engaging in collaboration is a far better option than taking unilateral actions and becoming stranded in damaging confrontation.

In sharp contrast to when Aquino III was president and the tense standoff he sparked froze trade ties, Duterte's diplomatic pragmatism is laying a solid foundation for constructive ties, which will surely result in tangible rewards.

The Chinese foreign minister is now referring to Manila as "an indispensable, important partner" for building the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, stating the Belt and Road will be a highlight of their next-step cooperation. The initiative's heavy input in interconnectivity may be a tremendous boost for the infrastructure-hungry Philippine economy.

Vowing China will be "the most sincere and enduring partner" of the Philippines for its national development, Wang also promised strong Chinese support for the latter in domestic and international affairs, including its crusade against drugs and terrorism.

The dramatic reversal in the China-Philippine relationship has proved Beijing's proclaimed belief that the claimants in the South China Sea disputes are fully capable of handling their disagreements on their own. Yet attempts by third parties to muddy the waters have never stopped. And it may not be realistic to expect those claimant countries to demonstrate solidarity in the face of powerful outsider intervention and say no to it.

Manila's rapport with Beijing, however, will certainly be conducive to managing the other unresolved disputes in the waters.
A man uses his smartphone to scan an Alipay two-dimensional code for payments at the first unmanned supermarket in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo/Asianewsphoto]

THIRD-PARTY MOBILE PAYMENTS have become a way of life for many Chinese residents, and China will move further ahead in this regard despite the challenges, Bai Ming, deputy director of the Commerce Ministry's research institute was quoted as saying on haiwainet.cn:

Last year China's third-party mobile payments reportedly reached 38 trillion yuan ($5.5 trillion), nearly half of the country's GDP last year. A report by the Better Than Cash Alliance released in April suggests that Chinese mobile payment platforms Alipay and WeChat Pay, which enabled $2.9 trillion in digital payments, have not just granted Chinese people wider access to digital financial services but also created more business opportunities worldwide.

A report issued by the McKinsey Global Institute predicted that by 2025 mobile payments would increase the GDP of developing countries by 6 percent while creating 95 million jobs.

Being an e-commerce forerunner, China is expected to benefit from its successful promotion of digital payments, particularly when it comes to the internationalization of the renminbi, with more countries partaking in cross-border e-commerce and adopting third-party payment means.

While mobile payment technologies matter a lot to the thriving e-commerce and retailing businesses in the developing world, Western economies appear to be not as keen to develop them. Unlike many developing countries where mature, sophisticated financial services are not available, developed countries have cultivated several payment methods that can meet most of the public demands.

There are thus challenges facing Chinese mobile payment platforms eying overseas markets. Those who have become accustomed to credit card payments may find it difficult to trust a foreign digital service. Local competitors, too, could be tempted to call for stricter scrutiny on the introduction of Chinese mobile payment systems, let alone the already high technological barriers.

Despite that, the prospects for China's mobile payment providers in the West will be promising once those consumers get a better understanding of the third-party mobile payment services. Nor are they likely to shut the door on the influence of Chinese mobile payment technologies, which are among the best worldwide.
The seventh meeting of BRICS senior representatives on security issues will be held in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said on Monday. Senior security officials from South Africa, Brazil, Russia and India will attend.

The meeting, presided over by State Councilor Yang Jiechi, is one of a series of BRICS meetings during China's rotating presidency of the BRICS bloc this year.

Lu said State Security Minister David Mahlobo of South Africa, Secretary of Institutional Security Sergio Etchegoyen of Brazil, Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev of Russia and National Security Adviser Ajit Doval of India have confirmed their attendance.

"The meeting on security issues is a major platform for BRICS countries to discuss and conduct cooperation in politics and security fields," Lu said in a daily news conference in Beijing.

"It bears great significance for these countries to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and elevate their impact on global affairs."

As agreed by all parties, those at the meeting will discuss on topics including global governance, anti-terrorism, internet security and energy security, as well as major international and regional hot spot issues and national security and development, Lu said.

The meeting comes at a time when regional hot spot issues are heating up, threats from internet security and terrorism are rising and challenges from traditional and nontraditional security fields are intertwined.

"China hopes the security meeting will further maintain common interests, push forward political and security cooperation among the BRICS countries, improve the impact of the bloc, and prepare for the BRICS Leaders' Meeting in Xiamen this September," Lu said.

Since early this year, a series of BRICS meetings have been held.

mojingxi@chinadaily.com.cn
Montana environmental regulators say a Canadian company can move forward with plans to explore for gold in an area north of Yellowstone National Park despite local opposition.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality on Wednesday released a months-long evaluation of Lucky Minerals' exploration proposal. State officials said the company had agreed to extensive water quality and wildlife monitoring plans.

Local residents are concerned that mining could harm the local tourism industry and pollute the nearby Yellowstone River.

Legislation proposed by Montana's Democratic U.S. Sen. Jon Tester would bar future mining claims on 30,000 acres of public lands outside Yellowstone.

Lucky Minerals' proposal is on private land, but officials say it might not be economically viable without mining on adjacent public lands.

Republican Sen. Steve Daines says he opposes mining in some areas outside Yellowstone National Park but stopped short of endorsing proposed legislation on the matter from a fellow Montana lawmaker.

Daines appeared to speak favorably of Tester's bill to block Yellowstone-area mining during a Wednesday hearing before a Senate committee.

But a spokeswoman said afterward the Republican still is weighing the best way to achieve the withdrawal of lands outside the park from future mining.

Daines has said previously that property rights also must be respected.

Federal officials last year placed a two-year halt on new mining claims on 30,000 acres of federal land outside Yellowstone at the urging of Tester and local officials.

Two gold exploration projects are proposed on private land in the same area.
Brazil's Foreign Minister Aloysio Nunes, Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, South Africa's Foreign Minister Maite Nkoana-Mashabane and Indian Minister of External Affairs Vijay Kumar Singh meet with China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi before the opening of the BRICS Foreign Ministers meeting in Beijing, China on June 19, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - The 2017 BRICS Youth Forum opened in Beijing Tuesday to discuss youth development in BRICS countries.

Themed "Enhance BRICS Partnership, Promote Youth Development," the three-day forum gathered 50 youth representatives working as civil servants, scholars, entrepreneurs, artists and journalists from BRICS countries.

Representatives will hold discussions on issues concerning youth policies and entrepreneurship, as well as the roles of BRICS youth in global governance, before formulating an action plan for the forum.

The five BRICS countries, Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, first came up with the idea of establishing a dialogue mechanism for BRICS youth in 2014 during a meeting between BRICS leaders in South Africa.

In the past three years, the forums have had achievements in various fields, such as youth policies and employment through dialogue.
NEW DELHI - The death toll in a building collapse in India's Maharashtra state has risen to 17, while 11 others were rescued in injured condition from the rubbles, officials said Wednesday.

The 40-year-old four-storey building collapsed on Tuesday in Ghatkopar, an eastern suburb of Mumbai, India's financial capital.

"We pulled out 17 bodies and 11 survivors from the debris of the collapsed building," a senior official of disaster management cell at Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) said.

"Of the injured, six persons have been discharged, while five others are still admitted in hospital."

Meanwhile, rescue teams from disaster response force, fire brigade personnel, police as well as locals are searching underneath the rubbles to locate survivors and retrieve bodies.

Local officials feared 30 to 40 people were trapped under the debris.

Reports said around 15 to 16 families used to reside on three floors of the building, with a nursing home operating on the ground floor.

Officials said the nursing home was vacant at the time of collapse. However, the owner was carrying out illegal renovation in the building. Police have detained the owner.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered in-depth enquiry and asked BMC commissioner to submit report in 15 days. He assured strict action against the culprits.

Deadly accidents due to failing infrastructure (either new or old) is common in India.

Construction experts blame the lax administration and corruption for flouting building rules that often results in using poor quality materials, inadequate supervision and poor safety standards for workers.
Jiangsu province, the economic powerhouse of China, is working to expand cooperation with California in education and culture.

The province launched on Tuesday an international education agency in Pasadena, California - its fourth overseas education base after those in the UK, Canada and Australia.

The Jiangsu-California International Education Center, an affiliate of the Jiangsu Provincial Department of Education, is tasked with promoting the bilateral relationship between China and the US through education, professional training and business development. "Jiangsu has been focusing on its economic and trade relationship with California," Chen Zhenning, vice-governor of Jiangsu, told guests at the kickoff reception. "The establishment of the center means the province and the state will start comprehensive cooperation, especially in cultural and educational exchange."

Jiangsu has a strong reputation for education and scholarship. It produced 66 of China's top scholars during the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties.

Today, Jiangsu has more college students than any other province, and the number of fields of study offered in its colleges and universities ranks second in China. Jiangsu has about 13 million students in its 14,000 schools, universities and colleges. Its 137 universities and colleges serve 1.87 million students, the largest provincial population of higher education students in the country.

"Jiangsu will strengthen international education exchanges and cooperation in the next few years with the aim of becoming advanced in educational exchanges with other countries by 2020," Chen said.

A series of agreements on educational cooperation was signed at the Fourth Jiangsu-California Joint Economic Committee meeting on Monday.

Chen said he hoped the education center would serve as a training center for overseas talent and Chinese teachers and students, as well as a bridge to expand cooperation and deepen friendship between Jiangsu and California.

The center will provide overseas study trips for thousands of students from elementary school through college. The agency said it would also arrange teacher training and professional development programs for international delegations.

Twenty-eight schools in Jiangsu have established sister school relationships with US schools. Last year, more than 3,000 primary and secondary school students and more than 100 teachers participated in short-term training programs in the US, according to Xu Zimin, deputy director of Jiangsu Provincial Education Department.

liazhu@chinadailyusa.com
BEIJING - A new prospect for China-Indonesia relations is expected to be explored under the Belt and Road Initiative, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said Wednesday.

The heads of state of the two countries have reached consensus on development strategies and closer cooperation on the China-proposed initiative, Wang said in a phone conversation with Indonesian Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi.

For his part, Retno said Indonesia hopes to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with China and work together to safeguard regional peace and stability.

Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians were also raised in the telephone conversation.

Retno said that the current Palestinian-Israeli situation is worrying, and the international community expects China, which holds the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council this month, to play a further role in easing the tense situation.

Wang reiterated that Palestine's just rights should be respected and called on relevant parties to exercise restraint and create conditions for easing tensions and restoring dialogue.

Chinese President Xi Jinping put forward a new four-point proposal on the Palestinian issue during his talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas earlier this month, Wang said.

Palestine and Israel should strive to establish a relationship in which both sides could benefit, said Wang.

China is willing to continue to play a positive role in resolving the current Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Wang said.
File photo shows Iranian President Hassan Rouhani takes part in a news conference near the United Nations General Assembly in the Manhattan borough of New York, US, September 22, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

TEHRAN - Iranian officials on Wednesday unanimously denounced Washington's fresh sanctions against Tehran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a cabinet meeting that Iran is used to these kinds of "hostilities" and will give a necessary response to the new sanctions, official IRNA news agency reported.

"Iranians well know that they should resist and stand against their enemies," he said. "Over the past 40 years (following the victory of the Islamic republic in 1979), the Iranians have faced numerous pressures, sanctions and accusations by the US politicians and their propaganda machine."

"The Americans cannot tolerate an independent and influential country in this sensitive region," he said.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives approved a bill that slaps tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Sanctions against Iran is mainly in response to Tehran's growing missile program. The bill should be approved by the Senate and signed by the president in order to become legal.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Iran maintains its right to respond to the United States if the latter does not comply with the nuclear deal.

Iran's Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said on Wednesday that the fresh sanctions by the United States will have adverse impacts on the "successful" implementation of the nuclear deal, official IRNA news agency reported.

Given the US commitments, "they should have implemented the nuclear deal (JCOPA) with goodwill and in constructive atmosphere, and they should have avoided the measures which might have (negative) impacts on the successful implementation of the deal," Araqchi, also senior Iranian nuclear negotiator, was quoted as saying.

However, the recent move of the US congress to impose sanctions on Iran runs counter to the US commitments, Araqchi told reporters.

"Iran will definitely respond to the US hostile move," he noted.
Female panda Huan Huan rests inside her box after her echography at the Beauval Zoo in Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher, central France, on July 26, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

PARIS - Giant panda Huan Huan, which is on loan to France from China, is pregnant and likely to give birth to the first French cub in early August, Beauval zoo announced Wednesday.

Ultrasound tests on the female giant panda detected "a small heart beating" and a fetus at 3.4 cm.

After a 50-day gestation period, the new comer is expected on either August 4 or 5. It will likely weight just 100 grammes, according to a statement of the zoo.

The female panda and her male partner Yuan Zi arrived in central France's Beauval zoo in January 2012.

"It is a very good news. We are very happy. Everything is ready for birth, and it takes two or three months for the baby to be visible," said Delphine Delord, the zoo communication director.

"In February, we had an artificial insemination," she added.

The female panda is only on heat once a year for two days.

There are about 2,000 pandas in the world. They are classified as "vulnerable" species by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Foxconn, the manufacturer from Taiwan that makes electronics for Apple Inc's iPhones and other tech companies, announced on Wednesday that it will invest $10 billion in Wisconsin for a new manufacturing plant.

The project will create 13,000 jobs and should be completed by 2020, according to Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He said that the state will award $3 billion in incentives and sign a memorandum of understanding on the investment on Thursday.

Foxconn had considered building the plant in Ohio, Michigan and Pennsylvania, among other states.The company has facilities in Virginia and Indiana, each of which employ fewer than 1,000 workers, according to its website.

Foxconn announced the investment at the White House. CEO Terry Gou was flanked by Walker, Vice-President Mike Pence and House Speaker Paul Ryan, who represents Wisconsin. President Donald Trump later joined them.

Trump has called for companies to build more products in the United States and open additional plants. He has made several announcements since his election in November about US investments by both foreign and domestic manufacturers, building on his campaign focus on boosting American jobs. Some of those announcements sought to take credit for previously announced investments.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has committed to build three big manufacturing plants in the United States. Apple did not comment.

The United States has added 70,000 manufacturing jobs since November, to nearly 12.4 million, but has not added any net factory jobs in the last two months, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

REUTERS
European Commissioner for Migration and Home Affairs Dimitris Avramopoulos addresses a news conference at the EU Commission headquarters in Brussels, Belgium, May 4, 2016. [Photo/Agencies]

BRUSSELS - The European Commission pressed ahead on Wednesday to the second stage of legal actions against the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland over refugee sharing.

The Commission said it had sent "reasoned opinions", the second step in infringement procedures, to the three European Union (EU) member states for "non-compliance with their legal obligations on relocation".

The three countries were given one month to respond, instead of the usual two-month deadline.

The move came a month and a half after the Commission launched infringement procedures by sending "letters of formal notice" to the three countries.

The Commission said the three countries' replies to the letter "have not been found satisfactory as none were accompanied by an indication that these member states would start relocating swiftly to their territory."

According to the Commission, Poland and Hungary haven't taken in any refugees since September 2015, when EU member states pledged to relocate a total of 160,000 migrants from Greece and Italy within two years. The Czech Republic has not relocated anyone since August 2016 and has not made any new promises for over a year.

If the three counties still refuse to comply, the Commission may refer the case to the Court of Justice, which may impose financial penalties on them.

As of July 24, the total number of relocations stands at 24,676, of which 16,803 from Greece, 7,873 from Italy, according to the latest Commission report on the relocation of refugees released Wednesday.

As for resettlement, 17,179 persons have been resettled since July 2015, when member states agreed to resettle a total of 22,504 asylum seekers.
Portuguese Minister of Planning and Infrastructure Pedro Marques speaks at the inaugural ceremony of the first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to Portuguese capital Lisbon via Beijing, capital of China on July 26, 2017. [Photo/Xinhua]

LISBON - An airbus A300 aircraft on its first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to the Portuguese capital via Beijing landed on Wednesday at Humberto Delgado airport after a 13-hour flight.

Portuguese minister of planning and infrastructure Pedro Marques said at a ceremony marking the event that the launching of the first direct flight route between the two countries had been the government's dream for many years.

He said he hoped the route would strengthen the role Portugal has been playing as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run said in his speech that the direct flight path between China and Portugal was of great significance to the development of bilateral relations as it would promote economy, trade, investment, and tourism between the two countries.

Additionally, the opening of the route is more convenient for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, he said.

Nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists came to Portugal last year.

A Portuguese family was busy with check-in for the aircraft's return flight from Lisbon to Beijing, also on Wednesday. Lona, a prosecutor in his late forties, told Xinhua that he and his family had a strong interest in China as it is a big and important country.

"As summer vacation is going on, my wife and I, together with my son and daughter, will visit Beijing and Tianjin for ten days. We want to see the world-famous Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and famous Olympic buildings like bird's nest and water cube," he said.

The first Hangzhou-Beijing-Lisbon flight was carried out by Beijing Capital Airlines. Both flights were 90 percent full. Currently, there are three flights per week and one more will be added in winter of this year.
Cars are seen in London, Britain. [Photo/VCG]

LONDON - New cars powered by gasoline or diesel fuels will be banned in Britain from 2040, the government announced Wednesday.

It is the toughest measure ever in a government plan to see all cars and vans emission free by 2050.

The proposals by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are part of the toughest-ever anti-pollution measures ever raised in the country.

"Today's plan sets out how we will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide," said the Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

"This is one element of the government's 3-billion-pound (4 billion US dollars) program to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions," he said.

"Today's announcement is focused on delivering nitrogen dioxide (NO2) compliance at the roadside in the shortest amount of time. This is one part of our program to deliver clean air. Next year the Government will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution," a Defra spokesman said.

Town and city authorities will also be handed new powers to impose charges on the most polluting vehicles.

Local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year to accelerate action. Local councils will also have to produce local air quality plans on reducing NO2 levels in the shortest possible time.

The "UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations" produced by Defra and the Department for Transport outlines how councils with the worst levels of air pollution at busy road junctions and hotspots must take robust action.

"We are determined to deliver a green revolution in transport and reduce pollution in our towns and cities. We are taking bold action and want nearly every car and van on UK roads to be zero emission by 2050," said Chris Grayling, the transport secretary.

Air quality in Britain has been improving significantly in recent decades, with reductions in emissions of all of the key pollutants, and NO2 levels was cut by half in the last 15 years, according to the Defra.

Despite this, an analysis of over 1,800 of Britain's major roads shows that 81 locations, 4 percent of the total, breach legal pollution limits for NO2, with 33 of them outside of London.

"Air pollution continues to have an unnecessary and avoidable impact on people's health and evidence shows that poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing the country around 3.5 billion US dollars in 2012," added Defra.

Defra's new plans also include a new Clean Air Fund to cut congestion, improve public transport and help motorists move from diesel to cleaner energy.

A consultation on a targeted scrappage scheme to remove diesel vehicles off the road is also planned for this fall.

Britain is one of 17 Europe Union countries breaching annual targets for NO2, a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions, added Defra.
Astronauts from China and Europe are to undertake an extreme sea survival training exercise of the coast of Shandong province.

In the first such maneuver in Chinese waters, astronauts Ye Guangfu and Chen Dong will be joined by Italy's Samantha Cristoforetti and Matthias Maurer, of Germany, on the 10-day joint training program in Yantai in late August.

Part of the challenge involves the quartet being left at sea with limited supplies and equipment.

The sea drill is part of a collaboration agreement between the European Space Agency (ESA) and China's Manned Space Agency.

"The objective of the cooperation with CMSA is to fly a European astronaut on the Chinese Space Station in 2022," ESA spokesman Pal Hvistendahl said.

The sea exercise is designed to prepare the astronauts to survive an emergency landing in an extreme environment, such as water, desert, tropical rain forest or on a glacier. The have to learn to live for long periods on basic items provided in a space capsule's emergency pack.

"This sea survival training is now a further step towards a future cooperation between Europe and China in the area of astronautic space travel," Maurer told German newspaper Der Spiegel: "I would be really happy to fly with my Chinese colleagues.''

The European and Chinese space agencies have significantly strengthened ties in recent months.

Earlier this year, the China National Space Administration said it had discussed several joint proposals with the ESA, including a base on the Moon.

China launched the unmanned Tiangong-1 and Tiangong-2 space labs into orbit in 2011 and 2016 respectively. The labs allow China's space agency to test the technology required to build a permanent, staffed space station.
GAZA -- Opponents to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Fatah Party joined on Thursday a special session for the Hamas-led parliament, or the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), held in Gaza first time since 2007.

Mohamed Dahlan, a Fatah lawmaker and a strong opponent to Abbas, delivered a speech before Hamas and Fatah lawmakers, during a special session held at the PLC headquarters in Gaza City in support of Jerusalem.

Dahlan called for holding an emergency meeting in Cairo, Egypt, with the participation of all Palestinian factions and political powers to end more than ten years of internal split.

"This meeting will be not only for ending our division, but also for backing our people in Jerusalem," said Dahlan, stressing need to pressure Israel to stop its measures against Jerusalem.

Around 12 pro-Dahlan Fatah lawmakers attended the special PLC session.

It is the first time since the beginning of the internal Palestinian division that Hamas and Fatah lawmakers were seen sitting inside the parliament building close to each other listening to Dahlan's speech.

In 2006, Hamas won an overwhelming majority in the elections for the Palestinian National Authority parliament, and defeated Abbas Fatah Party.

However, the PLC remained inoperative since 2007, when Hamas had forcibly seized control of the Gaza Strip and routed Abbas security forces.

"We are holding our session today for Jerusalem, the capital of our independent Palestinian state, and to work together on how to support and back our people in the city who are defending Al-Aqsa Mosque," said Dahlan.

Last month, Dahlan met with a senior Hamas delegation in Cairo, chaired by Gaza Hamas strongman Yehia Sinwar, and both agreed on a series of understanding aiming at easing hard living situation in the Gaza Strip.

"There had been efforts, which were exerted with Hamas leadership throughout direct dialogue, and we reached common understandings that would bring hope to our people in Gaza," he said.
Russian military jets are seen at Hmeymim air base in Syria, June 18, 2016.[Photo/Agencies]

MOSCOW -- Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a protocol to an agreement with Syria to deploy the Russian air forces at a Syrian military base, the Russian government said Wednesday.The document was posted on the Russian government's legal information portal.The law ratifies the agreement signed by Russia and Syria which allows the Russian air group to use Syria's Hmeymim airbase free of charge for 49 years with possible extension for another 25-year period.The protocol to the 2015 Russian-Syrian agreement "aimed at establishing the international legal framework governing the conditions for the location of the Russian air force group" was signed in Damascus on Jan. 18, 2017.Prior to being signed into law by Putin, the protocol was ratified by both chambers of the Russian parliament.The Russian air group was deployed at Hmeymim from the end of September 2015 to help Syria fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
The European Commission has confirmed it has set up a working group to explore "possible actions" to screen foreign takeovers in strategic sectors.

Critics said any screening of foreign investment is directed at China but could be opposed by many member states, who don't want the commission getting involved in domestic matters.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker will announce the proposals on Sept 13 when he delivers his annual state of union address to the European Parliament.

A European Commission source said that President Juncker had set up a dedicated Commissioners' group on trade and harnessing globalization to elaborate first possible actions."The objective is to present such possible actions at the time of the President's State of the Union speech in September," they said.

But analysts wonder if the European Commission can take any meaningful action. Fredrik Erixon, director of Brussels-based think tank European Center for International Political Economy, said: "It remains to be seen if the Commission proposal actually will work. Member states guard their sovereignty on these matters because, on inward investment, they often compete with each other and jockey to offer better advantages."

While media in Europe has suggested that the bloc's strengthening of regulation in investment in strategic sectors is targeting China, Erixon said he thinks it is also aimed elsewhere.

"China is in the limelight because it has resourceful investors and because there has been a number of high-profile M&As by Chinese firms. But a policy like this is also argued on the basis of non-Chinese concerns," he said.

Erixon also said concerns about sovereignty and security concerns is an issue for member states, not the commission and countries such as France and Germany have resisted previous attempts at commission regulation.

Erixon said the policies are anti-growth and often it is protectionism masquerading as security policy. "If there is security concerns over investment today, member states have all the power they need to act and, in my view, the new attempt is just a ploy to get tighter controls over the ownership of companies where there simply is no security concerns," Erixon said.

Dries Lesage, director of the Ghent Institute for International Studies of the Ghent University in Belgium, cited the example of Chinese auto company Jeely's acquisition of Sweden's Volvo several years ago, which preserved a Belgian plant employing 5,000 workers. Lesage said, "We are not caring whether the investment is Chinese or Swedish. The result is that the jobs are safe."

Against the backdrop of United States' growing isolationism, Lesage urged the European Union to reshape its vision of foreign policy by actively engaging global powers, such as China and Russia, instead of following the US.

The European Commission source said it showed concerns in May about foreign investors, notably state-owned enterprises, taking over European companies "with key technologies for strategic reasons" but maintained that openness to foreign investmentwas a key principle for the EU.

Contact the writer at fujing@chinadaily.com.cn
Atanas Maina says the passenger service dubbed Madaraka Express has transported approximately 150,000 passengers with the demand increasing on daily basis. [Photo provided to China Daily]

Barely two months since Kenya commissioned its Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway, the transport system is seeing heavy demand from travellers between Nairobi and Mombasa.

The service, dubbed the Madaraka Express, has transported approximately 150,000 passengers with the demand increasing on daily basis, according to Atanas Maina, managing director of Kenya Railways Corporation.

Kenya Railways said it will review the passenger numbers so as to increase the frequency of trains and number of locomotives in order to meet the growing demand.

"The corporation remains committed to meeting this growing need by increasing the number of trains as well as frequency of schedule, all in due course," he said.

The train's average speed is 100 kilometers per hour. Trains have been stopping only at Mtito Andei to allow for passage of the oncoming intercity train. However, from Aug 1 another stop will be introduced at Voi.

"Operations at the remaining intermediate stations, namely Mariakani, Miasenyi, Kibwezi, Emali and Athi River, will start once the operations of the county trains commence," Maina told a news briefing.

He said KR is currently revisiting the ticket format and will soon be rolling out a new version of the tickets incorporating passenger's identification details, thus addressing the issue of unscrupulous purchase and resale of tickets at a premium.

"We have enhanced surveillance at the termini and the security team is on the ground to monitor any such occurrences and handle them appropriately," Maina said.

He noted that the ticketing process has taken a lot of time because the handover process from construction to Kenya railways and then to the operator was delayed. "We now have technical team on the ground and hope in the next few weeks we will launch an online ticketing platform," he said.
Scotland samples China for weekend

By Li Wensha in Edinburgh | China Daily | Updated: 2017-07-25 07:12

Folk singing and dance performances by multiethnic groups from West China have given Scotland a rare chance to explore the region's colorful cultural landscape.

The weekend event at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre featured cucurbit flute, peacock dancing and fashion shows of ethnic costumes in Yunnan province and the Tibet autonomous region.

An exhibition, featuring 100 photographs and 18 cultural artifacts, themed Color of West China, also was displayed as part of the Cultural Exploration of West China tour, which kicked off in London and will visit Manchester, in northwest England, and Dublin, Ireland.

"The performances were stunning," said Liz Cameron, head of the Scottish Chamber of Commerce. "They portray a beautiful culture, and the amazing dancing and singing projected China in a wonderful light."

Lu Guangjin, director-general of the State Council Information Office of China, who co-organized the tour with the Chinese embassy in the UK, said the events "showcase both the cultural heritage that has been sustained by the ethnic groups in West China to this day and the latest changes and development in this region".

The program is part of the Experience China series, which already has toured Germany, Italy, the United States and many other countries.

Pan Xinchun, the Chinese consul general in Edinburgh, said West China is an important cradle of Chinese civilization and is making a significant contribution in developing the Belt and Road Initiative. He said the events "will display the colorful culture of China and help develop the friendly relationship between China and Scotland".

Claire Tynte-Irvine, head of the International Division of the Scottish government, said: "We are lucky that the Chinese presence in Scotland is so strong and that people-to-people exchanges are an important part of this."

She said an increasing number of Scottish children are learning about China's language and culture through the Confucius Classroom hubs. Eighteen out of 19 Scottish higher education institutes have created academic and research links with Chinese institutions.

Scotland's flagship education award, the Saltire Scholarships, have been presented to more than 200 Chinese students since 2011. The country has welcomed an increasing number of Chinese students and tourists and will host more Chinese performers at the world-famous Edinburgh Festival in August.

liwensha@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 07/25/2017 page3)
A few weeks ago, the China Law internet and listserve (yes, we lawyer-nerds still have a China Law listserve) was abuzz with an article on In-N-Out-Burgers China trademark troubles. Surprisingly, the article was written by a just graduated law student. I contacted that recent law school grad to request he do a shortened version for our blog and he graciously agreed. The law grad is Bradley Sova and his vitals are as follows:

Bradley Sova graduated magna cum laude from Truman State University with a degree in Political Science and Chinese Studies. After completing additional language study at Tsinghua University, he earned his law degree from the William S. Richardson School of Law. In law school, Bradley completed extensive coursework on Chinese and international law, served on the board of the Asian-Pacific Law & Policy Journal, completed a semester at Tsinghua University School of Law, and worked for multiple Chinese law firms and international organizations. Bradley is currently preparing for the California bar exam and he hopes to work in China-related commercial law or international arbitration. His full paper on the issues discussed below can be found here and I urge you-all to read it.

Heres Bradleys blog post:

In late 2011, burger advertisements from an unnamed source sprang up in Shanghai promoting Double-Double, Animal Style, and Protein Style burgers, all of which are well-known staples of the West coast fast food legend, In-N-Out Burger. The ads, however, were not from In-N-Out, but were posted by a new company called CaliBurger, which had registered these names as trademarks in China and in several other Asian and Eastern European countries. CaliBurgers restaurant design and business model also closely imitated the American chain.

Although In-N-Out was able to use CaliBurgers corporate registration in California as a toehold to bring a Lanham Act claim in the United States, this toehold does not appear have given In-N-Out too much leverage. The two parties ultimately reached a confidential settlement, with CaliBurger slightly altering its burger names and decor and In-N-Out presumably paying CaliBurger a decent settlement to retrieve the trademarks out from under its Chinese doppelganger. CaliBurger continues to operate in Shanghai and Guangzhou and recently signed franchise agreements for locations in Hong Kong and the Philippines. For its part, In-N-Out has been more vigilant in Asia, conducting multiple promotional activities throughout the region since its dust up with CaliBurger.

Trademark squatting is common in China, and American fast food brands have been fertile ground for Chinese copycats, as those who have seen places like Starbox Coffee or Pizza Huh can confirm. As such, it is easy to write this dispute off as yet another squatting squabble where an American company was forced to buy its American trademark names back in China. There are, however, several elements that should cause American brand owners to consider registering trademarks in China, even if they never plan to go there.

Like many companies facing Chinese copiers, In-N-Out had no presence in China nor any immediate plans to enter the Chinese market. Indeed, despite the pleas of many homesick Californians, In-N-Out has never ventured to the East Coast. Yet, In-N-Out ruthlessly pursued CaliBurger and was ultimately willing to pay to secure the Chinese burger trademarks. Its reasons for doing so reveal why Chinese trademark registration in China is important, even for businesses that may never end up doing business in China.

In-N-Out has limited its growth to protect its supply chains, customer loyalty, and, most importantly, its brand reputation. This is why In-N-Out has never left the American west despite over forty years of success and a cult-like following. CaliBurger, on the other hand, had no such quibbles about rapid expansion. Although expectations have since cooled, CaliBurgers initial plans called for hundreds of locations in China and franchises in almost a dozen other countries. More than the trademarks themselves, the threat to its brand and paradigm that roused In-N-Out to confront CaliBurger. Like any zealous brand owner, In-N-Out could not allow confusion in China and elsewhere to tarnish its meticulously built identity.

Companies without plans in China should also understand the threat that judicious use of Chinese law can pose, especially in the hands of a savvy entity such as CaliBurger. The perception that Chinese IP law cannot be used effectively is wrong and In-N-Outs dispute with CaliBurger shows that the exact opposite is true: with proper knowledge, Chinas IP system can be used very effectively  against foreign brand owners.

In-N-Out never registered its company or burger names in China or extended its protection into China. Although the company is well known in America, a Chinese court would not possibly find that the burger names of an American regional chain meet Chinas high standards of being well-known to the relevant Chinese public and thus deserving of trademark protection without registration. Additionally, even though CaliBurgers American origins might indicate bad faith registration, Chinese law makes proving such conduct very difficult. Finally, Chinas first-to-register system gave CaliBurger strong rights once it received its China trademarks. CaliBurger no doubt knew all this. It did not seek to skirt Chinas IP law. It actively used the law as a shield, and In-N-Out was left with little choice but to sue in America and ultimately buy out the trademarks.

These facts by themselves are not unique; Chinese trademark squatters exploit the system everyday. What makes CaliBurger unique and what should frighten American brand owners, is that CaliBurger was a sophisticated, American entity capable of raising millions of dollars in capital to carry out its plans to simultaneously execute trademark applications and challenges in several nations. Additionally, its founders had the legal knowledge necessary to fulfill its plans in China. All four of CaliBurgers founders had law degrees from California law schools and two had IP legal experience. This sort of threat is a far cry from the small-scale squatter or shoddy pirating scheme many envision when considering Chinese IP theft.

Though CaliBurger and In-N-Outs dispute is just one incident, such activities are ongoing and increasing in frequency and sophistication. With such a threat, even those companies with no plans for doing business in China should at least consider trademark registration there.

What do you think?
Wyomings coal industry has rebounded from the dire circumstances of a year ago, when its three largest companies were in bankruptcy and stockpiles of coal sat idle at power plants and mines across the country.

Those companies have since restructured, wiping away billions in debt in the process. And the overstock of coal has largely burned down.

Wyoming companies, energy experts and environmentalists agree that a new normal has set in for coal in Wyoming, where companies are operating at lower costs and producing less coal with fewer miners. It is a time for tightening belts and operating efficiently, not expanding.

There is less agreement, however, when it comes to allowing new coal leases on federal land.

On Thursday, the U.S. House will hold a hearing on a bill sponsored by Rep. Liz Cheney. The measure would make any attempt to halt leasing for coal mining on public land subject to congressional approval. Getting that consent from the House and the Senate would also be subject to a swift 30-day timeline.

Opinions on future leasing of Wyomings coal today havent changed since leasing was halted on federal lands in 2016, under then-President Barack Obama.

The moratorium on new leases was put in place to allow federal agencies time to review the government's program for federal coal, which hadnt been done in decades, the administration said.

Wyoming, where the bulk of the nations coal is mined, hadnt seen a new lease in years, to the detriment of public school facilities that depend on coal lease income to build and maintain K-12 buildings.

The moratorium became a rallying cry for those in industry who viewed the Obama Administration as an aggressor, bent on constricting the coal industry. Proponents of the moratorium said coal was under pressure because of decreased demand, not politics, and that a full scale review of the process for leasing publicly owned coal was key.

In a move applauded by industry and criticized by environmental groups, the Trump Administration lifted that moratorium in March. Cheney introduced her bill days later, calling Wyoming coal a national treasure.

It was in part a symbolic gesture in support of the coal industry. Few investors had been open to coal projects and fewer firms had shown interest in new applications for leasing due to the industrys downturn. A number of environmental groups rallied against the federal decision with a lawsuit, arguing that the administration could not lift the moratorium before it had completed its review of the coal leasing program.

Because of the decreased interest in new leases, some groups are less concerned about the moratorium than they are about the review.

The market is doing more for the environment than the environmental regulators are, definitely, said Shannon Anderson, lawyer for the Powder River Basin Resource Council.

The moratorium was a vehicle for reform, she said.

We had a whole bunch of coal leases five years ago and Wyoming was flush with cash because of it, and now we dont have any and were trying to figure out how to fund our schools, she said. Its not a sustainable program that is driven by the government.

Environmental groups have likewise fought against lease expansions of Wyoming two largest mine sites, which together produce about one quarter of the nations coal: Black Thunder and North Antelope Rochelle. The Bureau of Land Management decided in 2010 that increased operations at the sites would not result in a net increase of emissions.

The Sierra Club and WildEarth Guardians said federal agencies approved expansions of the mines, owned by Arch Coal and Peabody Energy, without taking into account the increased carbon dioxide emissions that would result from more coal sold for electricity. The case is in the Denver court of appeals, with a decision expected soon.

Coal companies, however, are fed up with restrictions on the industry.

A spokesman for Cloud Peak Energy, a Gillette-based coal company with two large mines in Wyoming, said Cheneys bill was vital.

The continued ability to efficiently maintain these mines through leasing additional tracts is critical to ensuring the maximum economic recovery of coal, said Richard Reavey, spokesman for Cloud Peak Energy, in an email.

The company has a number of lease applications right now, he said.

Representative Cheneys Bill, HR1778, is extremely important to any coal producer that mines federally leased land, to jobs and communities in Wyoming and Montana as well as other states with coal production on federal lands.

Wyoming coal is projected to have a better year in 2017 than it did in 2016, when production fell to 30-year lows. Production was up by 15 million tons in the first quarter. The momentum slowed in the ensuing months, but is expected to rally in the latter half of the year from increased electricity use.

What happens long term with federal coal leasing, and whether there will be a review of the federal coal program, is less clear.
Those who have never owned a home, but are considering buying one, may be overwhelmed with aspects to consider and may not even know where to start. A non-profit in Los Angeles recently hosted an all-day event at Southwestern Law School for just such potential homeowners.

The event was the 16th annual one hosted by Korean Churches for Community Development (KCCD, which will soon change its name to Faith and Community Empowerment), during which banks, experts in the field, and government officials attended and offered practical advice to new and potential homeowners. According to KCCD, more than 8,800 people have been educated on homeownership through the annual events since its beginnings.

More than 180 individuals from 25 different cities attended this most recent event which took place in early July.

Hyepin Im, the executive director and CEO of KCCD, emphasized the importance of homeownership by citing some statistics. For instance, the net worth of homeowners is 36 times greater than that of renters, according to a Federal Reserve study, she said.

We have one of the lowest rates of homeownership in the country. It actually has declined since the Great Recession and has not rebounded, said Ben Winter from the Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcettis Office. I think organizations like KCCD/FACE are so important to help navigate this challenging housing market.

At the homeownership fair, numerous banks presented the loan products they offer, including Union Bank, U.S. Bank, Boston Private, HSBC Bank, Bank of the West, and MB Financial Bank.

Government assistance programs were also presented, including one offered by the City of Los Angeles called the Low-Income Purchase Assistance (LIPA). Currently, LIPA provides up to $60,000 in down payment and closing cost assistance to qualifying first-time home buyers. That will soon increase to $90,000 in the coming months, according to George Guillen of the City of Los Angeles Housing and Community Investment Department (HCIDLA).

Meanwhile, KCCD offers free counseling sessions for potential home buyers in English, Spanish, and Korean.
Seven Christians were killed in Kenya earlier this month by militants from the extremist group al-Shabaab, according to a persecution watchdog groups report on Monday.

International Christian Concern reported that during al-Shabaabs raids in three villages  Pandanguo, Jima, and Poromoko  between July 5 and 8, the militants went door to door in the latter two villages, asking for IDs and killing seven Christian men. The report adds that Christian families in the two regions were evacuated to a church in Witu.

The attackers have been targeting Christians living in Lamu County especially famers in the interior areas where small-scale agriculture thrives, Pastor Henry Divayo, who leads the Witu church to which the families were evacuated, told ICC.

Divayo added that the al-Shabaab militants in Jima were asking the villagers to produce their identification cards and if you were found to be a Christian you would be shot or slaughtered.

According to Divayo, more than 200 are currently finding shelter at his church, and food and security is being provided by the government and the Kenya Red Cross.

Al-Shabaab has been known to target Christians in particular. One of its most well-known attacks included one at Garissa University in 2015, during which almost 150 students were killed. Most of the students were Christians.

More recently in June of 2016, militants killed 48 people in Lamu County who were unable to recite verses from the Quran.

Nathan Johnson, the regional manager for Africa for the ICC, emphasized the need for greater safety and stability to be secured by the government.

[The government] must end al-Shabaabs reign of terror that has been thriving on the border with Somalia, Johnson said in a statement.

We pray for the families of the deceased and for peace to come to a region that has seen such violence towards Christians, he added. We hope that Kenyas government can take effective action to rid Kenya of these terrorist actions.

Al-Shabaab, which means The Youth, emerged as a radical youth extremist group in 2006, and pledged allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012.

It is recognized as a terrorist organization by multiple countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and the United Arab Emirates.

Though the group is mostly based in Somalia, it has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya because it alleged that Kenya had sent troops into Somali territory.
Earlier this month, a debate long familiar within the Christian hip-hop (CHH) community resurfaced when rapper Shai Linne released Still Jesus. Throughout the album, Linne suggests that CHH musicians whose tracks focus less explicitly on Jesus and who now professionally or personally associate with secular artists could be risking the integrity of the community. (Read his Twitter follow-up.)

CHH musicians have the freedom to change the focus of their music, says DJ Cut No Slack, a former member of early CHH group I.D.O.L. King. For those who say, Hey, I dont want to be called Christian MC anymore. Okay, well why? That would be a question Id have, said Slack. Why dont you? I think there needs to be a real answer or clarification as to why you dont want to be, especially since you came out that way, and Ive been following you for years and now you want to switch. But guess what? You have the right to change your mind.

Part of that means that fans must be willing to let their favorite artists change.

On the churchs side, we have to make space for people to be who they are and change because they are not mandated in Scripture that everything you did in artistic form must proclaim the birth and resurrection of Jesus, he said.

Slack joined assistant editor Morgan Lee and editor in chief Mark Galli to discuss the historical context of Linnes critique, what fans and MCs owe each other, and what Christians without a public artistic presence can learn from the controversy.

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Kansas Governor Sam Brownback

Today the White House announced that Sam Brownback will be President Donald Trumps nominee for Americas next ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

Religious freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul, the current Republican governor of Kansas tweeted. I am honored to serve such an important cause.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Brownback would follow in the footsteps of previous ambassadors-at-large David Saperstein and Suzan Johnson Cook in the State Department post.

Brownback has governed Kansas since 2011, after representing the Sunflower State in the Senate (1996-2011) and in the House of Representatives (1995-1996). He was a key sponsor of 1998s International Religious Freedom Act, which was significantly expanded by President Barack Obama last December. He was also 1 of only 3 members of Congress to receive a perfect score on the International Religious Freedom Scorecard for his efforts during Obamas first two years in office.

A convert from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, Brownback served as a Catholic advisor to the Trump campaign.

He is a man of convicted compassion and courteous candor whoas a function of his own deeply held Christian beliefswill work tirelessly for people of all faiths and none, said Chris Seiple, president emeritus at the Institute for Global Engagement.

Seiple told CT he has known Brownback for almost 20 years, and that the nation needs the Kansas politicians nuanced and sophisticated approach to complex international issues more than ever.

As America and the global community tackles the rising restrictions on religious freedom worldwide while working ...
What Ive learned: Lynda McLeod, Head Librarian

Christies King Street archives now occupy more than two kilometres of shelf space. Our head librarian, who first dusted off the collection nigh on 20 years ago, takes us on a deep dive into more than 250 years of auctioneering history

To note:



While the King Street office has fully reopened under the revised government restrictions, our Archives remain physically inaccessible due to the nature of its limited space. Do therefore please email your query to Client Services and we will endeavour to assist you.

Dont judge a book by its cover. In 2018 I will have been working at King Street for 20 years. Before Christies, I had been working at the Royal Collection at Windsor Castle. I will always remember that first interview at King Street. I asked if I could see the library, and the two interviewers palpably gulped. When they brought me down to the archives, it was gruesome. Catalogues were piled from floor to ceiling. In my first three months here, I literally wore a mask and overalls  and all I did was dust and tidy.

Open a larger version of this image Framed correspondence from James Christie lines the walls of the archives

Google is a start, not the end. Many researchers today expect to be able to sit at their desks and do everything online. But we are constantly picking up reference volumes and looking through index cards. Its our job to show specialists what historical documents are available to them. Were always looking back, harvesting our history. At King Street, we have sales catalogues dating to 1766. Some of the auctioneers books might look a little careworn, but they have actually been conserved. When we went through the conservation process, the conservator said, I could get rid of all these watermarks, and I said, No! These pages have had a journey themselves. The King Street building was bombed in 1941, and the catalogues took a battering. Its important to preserve the history of their paths as well.

Its the lovely eureka moments that keep you here. We have researchers sitting at the table, quietly going through a catalogue, and all of a sudden youll hear, Yes!

Provenance is more important than ever. Its really come on a long way in the past 20 years. Interestingly, although the term has been around since the mid-19th century, the first time the word provenance was published in a Christies catalogue was in 1969, in an Old Master Paintings sale.

Open a larger version of this image One of Lynda McLeods favourite 18th-century catalogues records the sale of the Madame du Barry collection of jewels on 19 February 1795

Occasionally, clients or art dealers ask for our help. Two days a week, by appointment, we open the archives to researchers or curators looking to find out more about their own collections. Its a bit like going to the British Library. If we know exactly what theyre looking for, we locate and prepare the materials for them to read on-site. They might have seen a number on the back of a painting, for example, and not know what it is. We can help clear that up. Its nice to be between the commercial world and academia. We spend a lot of time helping people with their catalogue raisonnes, and students with their PhDs. I particularly love the 18th-century auctioneers books. The one Im looking at (in the main picture, above), from 1795, records the sale of an exceptional collection that once belonged to Madame du Barry, who was the mistress of King Louis XV. Two years after her grizzly execution in Paris in 1793, James Christie was asked by the Revolutionary Tribunal to sell her jewels. In February 1795, 65 lots consisting of 1,681 individual pearls and brilliants fetched just shy of 9,000. The highest price was 910 for one oval white brilliant. During the French Revolution we had a large number of works of art that came over the Channel to London, brought by people fleeing Paris and not sure where they were going to end up.

Open a larger version of this image Christies collection of sale catalogues dates back to 1766
Wei Qiujie, 27, was last seen at the Ocho hotel in Sapporo city in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido on July 22. Photo from Sina Weibo

A 27-year-old Chinese teacher has disappeared while on a trip to Hokkaido island in Japan.

Her younger brother said Wei Qiujie departed Fujian on July 18. She was last seen leaving Ocho hotel in Sapporo at 7 am on July 22, according to Chinese consulate-general in Sapporo, citing the hotel owner. The hotel owner said Wei left the premises without her luggage.

Wei's father said the last time Wei contacted her family members was on July 21.

Wei had reserved a flight to return to China on July 25; however, airline information showed she did not board, cancel or reschedule the flight bound for Shanghai. Consulate staff members said the hotel owner contacted the police when she did not show up or check out.

The employees of the consulate added there was nothing unusual before her disappearance. Social media thread showed she updated travel photos to her social media account on July 21. She also liked a celebrity's update on July 23.

Wei Qiujie had been working as an elementary school teacher in Fujian's Shaowu city.

While investigations into the disappearance of Wei continue, her father and uncle plan to fly to Japan to search for her.

Before Wei's disappearance, two other Chinese girls recently went missing in Japan, according to reports. The bodies of 25-year-old Chen Baolan and 22-year-old Chen Baozhen were found in a mountainous forest near Tokyo, after the sisters went missing from their apartment in Yokohama on July 6.

The Chinese embassy in Japan issued a notice reminding its citizens residing in Japan to be more security conscious.
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Michael McClure has joined Faberge as store director for the new Houston Galleria location.

Elke S. Laughlin is president and CEO of Laughlin Consulting Group, a recently launched management consulting firm serving the commercial real estate and other industries.

Kip Brar has joined Seyfarth Shaw as a partner focusing on commercial litigation within the energy oil and gas, health care and manufacturing industries.

Dean & Draper Insurance Agency announced the promotion of Stephen B. Smith to executive vice president, chief operating officer and limited partner over its group of agencies.

Momentum Indoor Climbing has named Rees Williams general manager of its Katy location. Eliza Keegan has been named Momentum Katy's youth program manager, and Tuesday Kahl is the gym's assistant manager.

William Hermann has joined On Point Custom Homes as an architectural designer.

Matthew Berg, CEO of Simfero Consultants, has been appointed to the board of directors of Bayou Land Conservancy.

Brett Haugh has joined Lockton Dunning Benefits as executive vice president.

KPMG has added Mark Martin and Mark Horowitz as principals in the tax practice.

David Windham has joined Cypessbrook Co. as a commercial broker associate and will handle office and industrial leasing.

Chuck Lowrey will rejoin Alvarez & Marsal as a managing director in the private equity performance improvement practice in Houston.

Chef Omar Pereney has joined Houston-based A'la Carte Foodservice Consulting Group.
Group 1 Automotive reported lower second-quarter earnings Thursday, again citing steep declines in Houston and other energy-centric markets despite the region's ongoing recovery from the oil bust.

The Houston-based Fortune 500 auto retailer reported a $39.1 million profit, 16 percent less than the $46.6 million it earned during the same quarter last year. Most of the declines occurred in Texas and Oklahoma, where vehicle sales fell 7 percent.

In Houston, the company outperformed other auto dealers, which collectively reported a 24 percent decline in sales last month. Group 1's local sales fell only 12 percent during the same period, but the company expects the slump to continue.

"Our single largest market of Houston was extremely volatile," president and CEO Earl Hesterberg said in a statement. "This is indicative of the headwinds we continue to face in much of Texas and Oklahoma."

The company's results mirror a nationwide trend. Auto sales fell nearly 3 percent in June, the sixth consecutive monthly decline.

RELATED: Here's how the oil bust is still affecting Group 1 Automotive

Auto sales in Houston have been sluggish for months following a record-setting 2015. Retail sales in the region totaled about 17,690 vehicles last month, down 24.3 percent from the same period a year earlier, according to data from the TexAuto Facts Report, published by Sugar Land-based InfoNation.

That total fell more than 22 percent May, when sales reached the highest level since August.

The overall declines ate into Group 1 revenue, which fell 4 percent to $2.7 billion during the quarter. Same-store sales decreased 2.7 percent across the nation.

Group 1 operates 173 automotive dealerships, 227 franchises and 47 collision centers in the U.S., the U.K. and Brazil. Its U.S. operations account for about 80 percent of its revenue.

In a research note, Consumer Edge Research analyst Jamie Albertine wrote that Group 1 managed well through a "particularly difficult" time. He noted that the steep declines in Texas and Oklahoma might have come as a surprise to those expecting a faster recovery in those markets this year.

"We continue to view (company) management as one of the best in the sector," he wrote.

CFRA Research analyst Efraim Levy lowered the firm's expectations for Group 1's earnings this year amid broader challenges in the auto sector. He noted that Group 1 faced particular pressure in oil-centric markets as well as the U.K.

In the U.K., which accounts for about 16 percent of Group 1's revenue, new vehicle sales declined by about 1.4 percent. The company recently acquired British auto retailer Beadles Group, which operates 12 dealerships in the greater London area.
Cabot Properties, a Boston-based private equity investment firm, has bought a 415,000-square-foot portfolio of industrial buildings in Houston, real estate service firm CBRE announced Wednesday.

Cabot bought the four-building portfolio for an undisclosed price from EastGroup Properties, a Jackson, Miss.-based investment firm.

"We are pleased to be a part of this transaction between EastGroup and Cabot as it demonstrates the continued institutional demand for quality industrial product in Houston," said Heather McClain Venegoni, first vice president at CBRE, which facilitated the transaction.

RELATED: Demand for warehouses rises, fueled by population growth, online shopping

The buildings, on Bissonet near Beltway 8, were 100 percent leased at the time of the sale.

Industrial real estate continues an exceptionally strong streak in Houston and nationwide, driven largely by demand for distribution warehouses and third party logistics operations.
A Cleveland man has been jailed after returning to an area store the day after authorities gave him a criminal trespassing warning, a spokesman for the Precinct 3 San Jacinto County Constables Office said Wednesday.

Employees of the Bear Creek Feed and Grocery Store called Constable Sam Houston on Friday complaining that Gregory Kocian was causing problems because his Lone Star Card was not working.

Houston and Deputy Peter Sparta arrived at the scene, and the store clerk said she did not want Kocian back at the store because she was scared of him.

The constable went to Kocians residence in Cleveland and issued a criminal trespass warning, advising that he could not return to the store for any reason.

Kocian stated he understood he would not return to the store or he would be arrested, the constable said.

But the next day, a store employee called the constables office to report that Kocian had returned, demanding to speak to the owner. Authorities said Kocian appeared to be agitated and wanted a store employee fired.

He then was arrested and taken to San Jacinto County jail.
On Wednesday, Houston rapper Joseph McVey, known commonly by his rapper name "Z-Ro," was arrested and charged with aggravated assault of a family member.

His ex-girlfriend and fellow Houston rapper Brittany Bullock, who goes by the stage name Just Brittany, accuses Z-Ro of slapping, punching and dragging her around his home on April 29.
A funny thing happened on Reddit this summer: A link from the National Student Clearinghouse, a higher education research group, went viral. The post to a Life Pro Tips forum encouraged users to check out the Clearinghouses reverse transfer initiative.

Heres how the exchange works. Say a student starts her post-secondary education at a community college but transfers those credits to a four-year university before earning an associates degree.

If she attended institutions that participate in the Clearinghouses program, she can ask the university and college to track her credit completion at the four-year school.

Shell then learn automatically when she has enough credits to retroactively earn an associates from that initial institution  and then get the degree.

The post drew more than 100 people to contact the Clearinghouse about the process, the group said in a press release. But what is a novel initiative elsewhere in the U.S. has already been somewhat standardized in Texas.

State law requires universities to track every student who transfers from a community college to that university with 30 credits  half of whats necessary to earn an associates degree. After students complete about 30 additional credit hours at the university, that institution gives the community college the students transcript to review for an associates degree.

HoustonChronicle.com: Lone Star bucks sluggish enrollment trend

Some programs have a lower benchmark for who is tracked than the state Legislature requires. In El Paso, the University of Texas at El Paso and El Paso Community College have an automatic reverse transfer system that requires fewer community college credits to participate. The Clearinghouse highlighted the schools program in recent promotional materials.

Students who transfer to UTEP with at least 25 percent of an associate degree completed are tracked and then notified when they have earned enough credit to be awarded an associate degree, the American Association of Community Colleges wrote in a 2014 outline of how to implement automatic graduation programs.

Coordination at that level can be challenging. In 2015, Texas universities participating in a reverse transfer initiative found that there were limited fiscal and human resources and no mechanism for consistent communication between universities and students, creating some challenges for systems.

Lone Star College graduated more than 1,000 reverse transfer students in the 2014-15 academic year, of about 7,600 transcripts received, according to that report. About 680 more needed two or fewer classes to earn an associate's.

There are 2 million students nationwide who attended college for two years between 2003 and 2013 without earning a degree, according to 2014 research from the Clearinghouse. Separately, 78 percent of students who transfer from a community college to a university do so without a degree.

As more students choose less-traditional paths to a college degree, the population of those who stop out along the way stands to grow, said Doug Shapiro, executive research director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, in a statement. Many colleges and national organizations are interested in drawing this population back to complete their degrees, but research to inform these efforts is still emerging.

The Clearinghouse says the second phase of the programs development will allow students to securely access their academic information online through the national group.
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A Harris County judge ruled Thursday that Houston rapper Z-Ro can have no contact with his rapper ex-girlfriend after hearing allegations that the rapper beat her while brandishing a handgun at his Katy area home in April.

State District Judge George Powell agreed to a motion for emergency protection and a no-contact order as conditions of bond for the well-known rapper, whose real name is Joseph Wayne McVey.

McVey, 40, is free on a $50,000 bail after being arrested Wednesday on a charge of aggravated assault of a family member. He appeared before the judge in a black T-shirt and khaki cargo pants as prosecutors laid out the allegations against him.

After the brief hearing his attorney, Charles Adams, said McVey is a close personal friend.

"He is one of the nicest, sweetest people I know," Adams told reporters. "I'm shocked by these allegations."

During the hearing, Adams told the judge that McVey's girlfriend has initiated contact with the rapper many times in the three months between the alleged incident in April and her report to the police on Tuesday.

"She continues to initiate contact with my client," Adams told the judge as he protested the no-contact order. "Both of them were on my radio show together since this allegedly happened."

The judge cautioned McVey that if he has any contact - such as calls, texts, messages or in person - his bail could be revoked.

BACKGROUND: Houston rapper Z-Ro arrested, allegedly beat girlfriend while holding pistol

His ex-girlfriend, Brittany Bullock, who goes by the stage name Just Brittany, told police McVey slapped her, punched and dragged her for an hour and a half. She said she was assaulted so many times "she eventually got sick and threw up."

Bullock backed up her claim with a 20-minute audio recording of the alleged assault.

It was April 29 when the couple had a miscommunication about a dinner date, and Bullock went to the rapper's home near West Side Forest in the Katy area.

MUSIC: Houston rap hero Z-Ro preps 'final' album

When she arrived, there was an altercation where McVey allegedly began to assault her while holding a pistol. At one point, Bullock asked to go to the restroom, where she began recording with her phone. The alleged assault continued once she left the restroom.

Investigators said they could hear McVey state "you're dead" in the recording as well as sounds that appeared to be slapping, court records show. Police also heard Bullock state "why did you just push me" and "get your fu**ing hands from around my neck."

They also heard Bullock crying and asking McVey to stop.

HoustonChronicle.com: As an outsider, Houston rapper connects through honest songs

She called the Harris County Sheriff's Office about 11:40 p.m. Tuesday to report the assault, almost three months after the alleged assault. It was not clear in court records why there was such a delayed outcry.

Z-Ro and Just Brittany have collaborated in the past. She appeared in a music video with McVey in December.
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A Houston member of the MS-13 gang has been charged with murder in two counties amid a growing focus on the brutal Salvadoran gang that Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo called "the worst of the worst."

Douglas Alexander Herrera-Hernandez, 20, faces charges of capital murder in Fort Bend County and murder in Harris County.

He landed Wednesday on Texas DPS's list of most wanted fugitives, along with Carlos Alberto Gonzalez-Barahona, 26, also believed to be an MS-13 gang member.

MOST WANTED: Police are searching for two suspected MS-13 members from Houston

Herrera-Hernandez is accused of killing a 16-year-old boy who is believed to have witnessed several MS-13-related murders, according to a news released from the Houston Police Department. The teen was found dead in June 2016 at Buffalo Run Park in Missouri City.

Story continues below...

He is also accused of killing another documented MS-13 gang member, Kevin Alvarez, 26, on July 9 outside a southeast Houston apartment complex, according to sworn statements from Houston police officers.

Alvarez was found dead from multiple gunshot wounds about 10 p.m. in the walkway between several units of an apartment complex at 265 El Dorado.

A witness said Herrera-Hernandez frequented the apartments to buy drugs. The witness said he heard gunshots and saw Herrera-Hernandez fire at Alvarez, according to court records.

The Houston Police Department is focusing increased attention on local gangs. Acevedo announced in June he planned to form a specialized unit to combat violent crime, and he spoke Wednesday on National Public Radio about the notoriously violent MS-13.

MOST DANGEROUS: Texas gang threat led by Tango Blast; Aryan Circle downgraded

Citing the atrocities committed by the gang's members, Acevedo called MS-13 a "transnational terrorist organization."

"They are brutal," Acevedo said to NPR. "They're ruthless. They will kill without blinking an eye."

The department's ramped up enforcement of violent crime follows a nationwide anti-gang operation that led to 207 people arrested in the Houston region, the highest number of any region in the country.

MS-13, which originated in El Salvador before spreading to California and then Texas, poses additional risks. The Texas Department of Public Safety warned in January of the potential dangers transnational like MS-13 bring: a connection to drug cartels, criminal activity that spans the border and high levels of violence.

Herrera-Hernandez was still on the run as of Thursday, according to court documents.

MAPPED: Where Texas' most dangerous gangs hold sway

He is believed to be traveling with his girlfriend, Josselin Leyhmar Romero Flores, 19, and the couple's infant, said Wendell Gilbert, an officer with HPD's homicide division.

Herrera-Hernandez is from El Salvador and has been in the U.S. without documentation, Gilbert said.

Police are unsure if he has fled Texas.

But, "we're not ruling out that he's still here in Houston," Gilbert added.

HPD, the Texas Departments of Public Safety, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are all helping with the manhunt.

Crime Stoppers is offering a $5,000 for information that leads to Herrera-Hernandez's arrest. Anyone with information can call HPD's homicide division at 713-308-3600 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-252-TIPS (8477).
A single mother of two, Trenace Carter is worried that her 20-year-old son will not be ready for classes to start Aug. 28 at Houston Community College.

He still needs a meningitis shot - and he's too old for the children's vaccination program and didn't get a booster shot in high school. She doesn't want him to miss a semester.

"I don't want him to linger out too long and start making money and forget about education," she said. "He definitely needs to go while it's in his mind to go."

For many students in Texas, the cost of college includes the price of a meningitis shot.

More Information Texas cases of meningitis in 2016

Brazoria County - 1

Collin County - 1

Dallas County - 2

Denton County - 1

Duval County - 1

Ector County - 1

Galveston County - 1

Hardin County - 1

Harris County - 4

Jefferson County - 1

McLennan County - 1

Montgomery County1

Panola County - 1

Tarrant County - 2

Travis County - 3

Webb County - 1 See More Collapse

If you're 21 and younger, you must have a vaccination before you attend college unless you have a special exemption.

And with the retail cost exceeding $100 per vaccine, it's an additional expense that has many students and parents panicking the month before most classes begin at Houston-area colleges and universities.

Classes start Aug. 28 at HCC, Lone Star College, San Jacinto College and Texas Southern University. School opens one week earlier at the University of Houston and the University of Houston-Downtown.

Meningococcal disease is a rare, yet serious, bacterial infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Two dozen cases were identified in Texas in 2016, including four in Harris County.

A meningococcal vaccine has been required for college students in Texas since 2010, when lawmakers passed the Jamie Schanbaum Act after a University of Texas student who survived the illness with amputations and became an immunization activist. The mandate first covered students living in campus housing, then expanded to students under 30 regardless of living arrangements.

In 2013, the law was amended to include only students 21 and younger, which targets the group most at risk for infection. The Texas Department of State Health Services has an online exemption form for those attending public junior colleges and community colleges.

Carter said she priced the meningococcal vaccine at $133 from Walgreens and Kroger pharmacies. She found a clinic offering a cheaper shot for $22 but he couldn't get an appointment in time for her son to enroll.

There are other options. Health departments in Houston as well as Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Galveston counties have an ample supply of free and discounted doses available under the Vaccines for Children program, which covers eligible patients younger than 19.

Special prices are also available for those a little older. And some schools, including San Jacinto College, have arranged for students to receive discounted vaccines.

Here are options available for reduced-price vaccines:

*Adult Safety Net: For uninsured adults 19 and older, this statewide program offers free meningitis vaccines through an Adult Safety Net program, though providers may charge an administration fee up to $25. If a patient is unable to afford the fee, "the provider may not deny them the vaccination because of their inability to pay," according to Texas Department of State Health Services spokesman Chris Van Deusen. Visit https://www.dshs.texas.gov/immunize/ASN/public.aspx to find a provider, verify the vaccine availability and to make an appointment.

*Houston Health Department: The agency's four health centers only charge an administrative fee for vaccines provided to patients who meet the eligibility requirements of the Texas Vaccines for Children and Adult Safety Net programs. Patients 18 and younger who are uninsured, under-insured, American Indian or Alaskan Native can receive a meningitis vaccine for $10 per dose. Medicaid and CHIP recipients ages up to age 18 will not be assessed a fee. Patients 19 and older without health insurance can receive a vaccine for a $15 administrative fee, according to department spokesman Porfirio Villarreal.

*Harris County Public Health: The agency participates in the Vaccines for Children program and charges a $19 administrative fee. Adult Safety Net vaccines are offered for a $22 administrative fee. Patients can receive multiple vaccinations for one administrative fee. The cash price for those who do qualify for federal programs in $110. Clinics have vaccines and appointments available.

*Fort Bend County Health and Human Services: Eligible clients 18 and younger receive a free vaccine with a $10 administrative fee. The charge is $15 for clients 19 and older. "For clients who are unable to pay, we waive the administration fee," said Dr. M. desVignes-Kendrick, the agency director and county health authority.

*Montgomery County Public Health District: Vaccines are administered for $10 to patients who are uninsured and under-insured. Medicaid-eligible patients will have that fee billed to Medicaid. "We ask that the student bring a shot record so that we can update it," said the agency's public health manager, Alicia Hawkins Williams.

*Galveston County Health District: The cash price for the meningitis vaccine is $134, but the immunization clinic accepts Children's Medicaid and Blue Cross Blue Shield  which cover the vaccine. An uninsured patient can receive state-supplied vaccine for a $14 administrative charge, "which can be waived if the patient cannot pay," said Scott Packard, director of communications for the Galveston County Health District.

*Christus Foundation for HealthCare: Meningitis vaccines are available for $15 to uninsured children and young adults at clinics in east Houston and Dickinson. Free immunizations will be offered at the Dickinson clinic during a health fair on Aug. 9, a spokeswoman said.

*Walgreens: Most insurance plans cover the vaccine. The cash price is $133.99 and can be reduced to $127.29 using the Walgreens Prescription Savings Club, according to a company spokeswoman.

Meningococcal disease is a rare, yet serious, bacterial infection of the fluid surrounding the brain and spinal cord.

Since 2010, the Lone Star state has a meningitis vaccine requirement for college students. The mandate was named the Jamie Schanbaum Act after a University of Texas student who survived the illness with amputations and became an immunization activist. The law first covered students living in campus housing, then expanded to students under 30 regardless of living arrangements.

In 2013, the law was amended to include only students 21 and younger, which targets the group most at risk for infection.

The Texas Department of State Health Services has an online exemption form for those attending public junior colleges and community colleges.
A North Texas sheriff is planning to bill the Texas Department of Public Safety for lodging state prisoners in his county jail, a response to last week's surprise announcement that DPS will begin charging for forensic testing done in state crime labs.

Wise County Sheriff Lane Akin, a former Texas Ranger, narcotics agent and highway patrol trooper during a 27-year career with the DPS, was upset that the agency is pulling back from its traditional support of local law agencies.

The DPS has not charged Texas law agencies for forensic tests conducted at 14 state crime labs, but Director Steven McCraw issued a press release last week saying that the state budget approved by lawmakers in May requires the agency to begin charging for lab fees, beginning Sept. 1.

The new policy will not effect Houston or Harris County, but is expected to have the biggest impact in smaller counties and cities, where law enforcement agencies do not operate crime labs or have the funds to use private labs.

Related: DPS to start charging for lab fees

Akin noted that McCraw gave a presentation to a gathering of law officials at the North Texas Crime Commission in Dallas, about two weeks before announcing the new policy last Thursday.

"He made a great presentation, but said absolutely nothing about this fees going to be pushed out to local agencies," Akin said, adding that local officials were left with only six weeks until the Sept. 1 fee imposition. "To me, it feels like DPS wanted to hide this for as long as they could. "

Akin said Wise County not only keeps DPS prisoners at no charge in the county jail, it allows DPS the use of its communications and dispatch services, as well as provides a full-time county employee as a secretary for DPS sergeants. He estimates the county uses $60,000 to $100,000 worth of forensic services from the DPS crime lab.

DPS responded to a request for comment with a statement: "We understand the concerns, and we are prepared to discuss this issue directly with any law enforcement partner."

Akin also is critical of the Texas Legislature's spending of $800 million for the DPS border security operation which has caused Texas Rangers, criminal agents and troopers to leave North Texas for duty on the border.

"I don't appreciate the fact they're taking (resources) from Wise county and sending it to the border, but it's something that's beyond my control," Akin said.




The fatigue set in a few months before Sarah Millers 28th birthday.

She had been helping two of her grandparents who had been diagnosed with cancer, driving them to appointments and helping at their homes. While that was sometimes tiring, it didnt explain the growing exhaustion that sometimes forced her to nap in her car during lunch breaks at work.

She collapsed one day while planting iris bulbs in her yard. She went inside to rest, but grew lightheaded whenever she tried to move. Lab tests in the ER that night showed her white blood cell count so far above normal that only blood cancer could be responsible.

Now, seven years later, Miller continues to manage chronic myelogenous leukemia. And for six of those seven years, shes walked in Caspers Relay for Life.

She and the rest of Team Orange will return for this years local Relay for Life on Friday and Saturday at the Natrona County High School field. The American Cancer Society event raises funds for cancer research and support for cancer patients.

The event inspires Miller, both as someone who has cancer as well as someone who knows family members and friends who have had the disease. Every year she gets to celebrate with many of the same survivors and their families and bond with families of those who died.

Its that kind of camaraderie that happens, Miller said It gives you hope and support.

Celebrating survival

Team Orange is an assortment of Millers family and a few friends, including another cancer survivor. They sport the color for leukemia support during Relay for Life. The team raises more than $1,000 annually.

Every little bit makes a difference, Miller said.

One of her favorite parts of the event is when people step forward as the announcer calls out numbers representing years of survival. In recent years, shes seen more people every year in the 10-year and over categories.

Its a testament to the research and availability of new treatments and the changes in and how those are being offered, she said.

Miller is one of those benefiting from medical advances. She has the same kind of leukemia that claimed the life of a cousin and her grandfather, whom shed helped care for. That was before a medication that Miller takes to control her disease was available.

At the relay, Miller has a chance to meet others affected by cancer and catches up with others that she knows from previous years. They get to know one anothers stories, families and struggles, she said. Family members and caregivers also can bond.

You get to know the people you know their stories about their kids, what theyre going through and their lives, Miller said. It helps you remember that youre not a cancer, youre a person who has cancer.

About 38 teams will participate in the local event, which last year raised $113,000, said Jennifer Jones, community development manager with the American Cancer Society.

Funds from the event go to research efforts and services for patients, like hotel money for those who have to travel for treatment. Those include medical navigators and hotels for those who travel for treatments. Including an ACS grant for a cancer research project at University of Wyoming, more than $1 million came back to Wyoming last year, Jones said.

People are welcome to attend the event, enjoy live music and participate in activities, Jones said. Anyone can purchase a luminaria bag at the ACS office or at the event and decorate it with supplies provided that day. The luminarias light the track during a Friday night ceremony to remember those affected or lost to cancer, Jones said.

Day by day

After her diagnosis, Miller started treatment with the same oncologist who treated her grandmother and grandfather. She started with oral chemotherapy followed by a medication that now keeps her cancer suppressed.

But there are side effects, including less energy than she used to have and longer recuperation time from activities. She knows shell have to take it easy before and after the relay.

With her disease and energy levels stable, though, shes now working toward a radiography degree and continued volunteer work with Relay for Life. She and her father spent a day this summer building a box car for the nonprofits Road to Recovery Car Show and Race where participants race Flintstonestyle around the track. The event helps bring awareness about the American Cancer Societys Road to Recovery program, which provides transportation to treatment appointments. Team Orange helped spearhead the local box car event three years ago, Jones said.

I hope to relay for many, many years to come, Miller said. I want to be that old lady in the front of the line holding up the 25-plus sign.
More than 100 cats and dogs were rescued from a North Texas home where they didn't have air conditioning and water.

According to the Humane Society of North Texas, 27 dogs and 84 cats were seized from a Keller home on Tuesday. Authorities were alerted to the animals after neighbors said they could smell a foul odor coming from the home.
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Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will face trial in December for the first of three criminal charges, a Houston judge ruled Thursday.

Jury selection will begin Dec. 1 and testimony will start on Dec. 11 for the single count of failing to register as an investment adviser with the state.

Paxton, who was indicted in 2015, also faces two first-degree felony charges of securities fraud.

The hearing Thursday was the second in the case for state District Judge Robert Johnson of the 177th Criminal Court, a freshman jurist assigned to oversee Paxton's case after it was moved from the attorney general's home of Collin County.

PAY DELAY: Paxton's special prosecutors want criminal case delayed until they are paid

Paxton's trial was originally scheduled for May, then moved to September. Both of those dates were scrapped amid upheaval over where the trial should be held and whether the visiting judge would remain at the bench.

The three special prosecutors building a case against Paxton want the judge to delay the trial until a tangential case holding up their pay is settled. Johnson was set to consider those arguments after getting up to speed on the history on the case.

In court Thursday, special prosecutors Kent Schaffer and Brian Wice agreed to give defense attorneys a list of witnesses who appeared before the grand jury that indicted Paxton.

JUDGE ATTACKED: Mailer attacks judge presiding over Paxton's criminal case

Paxton, who is planning to run for re-election, was indicted in 2015 on the three charges. A federal court dismissed similar charges brought against the high-profile Republican earlier this year.

If found guilty, he faces up to 99 years in prison and thousands of dollars in fines.

There was no mention Thursday of the unresolved issue of compensation for the special prosecutors; Collin County has indicated it no longer will pay for the prosecution.
State Rep. Ron Reynolds, D-Missouri City, is hoping that the fourth time is the charm in his attempt to change the way that the Fort Bend ISD Board of Trustees is elected, an effort to increase minority representation in the district.

Reynolds filed HB 132 for the Texas Legislature's special summer session, a bill aimed at changing Fort Bend ISD's board election setup from essentially all at-large positions to mostly single-member district positions. It's an effort he's undertaken three other times to no avail since taking office in 2011.

"Fort Bend's antiquated at-large system is no longer beneficial to our students and families," Reynolds said in a release Wednesday.

Supporters of the change say that the current election process stacks the odds against minorities and residents of lower-income areas of the district, where there is a significant achievement gap. They also say that this lack of minority representation is reflected in the school district's struggling minority-majority schools and disproportionate discipline rates for African American students.

"The representation on the board should be a reflection of the community," said KP George, one of two minority members on the seven-member school board. "Every community's issues are different. They have different kinds of hot-button issues."

George testified in favor of a similar bill filed by State Sen. Borris Miles, D-Houston, during the regular session this spring, but the bill was left pending in committee.

The school board itself could vote to change the election process, but according to George, he has not been able to garner enough support on the board to even bring the issue to discussion.

Board President Kristin Tassin said that, although she has met with a few community members interested in moving to single-member districts, she does not believe there is widespread community support for it.

Aside from passing the legislation, the change could be achieved either by a petition to put the issue on the ballot as a referendum or by legal action in the courts. Though both could be expensive, supporters of the change are considering pursuing both possibilities to move forward.

In the meantime, Reynolds is hoping that HB 132 will finally find its way onto the floor during the 30-day rush to get through Gov. Greg Abbott's list of 20 priorities. As of Thursday, the bill had been referred to the Public Education Committee and was awaiting a hearing.
FARGO  What began as a questionable parking job by three Muslim women in a car in Fargo led to an enraged Mapleton woman calling for the death of all Muslims in a tirade caught on video.

Were going to kill all of ya, Amber Elizabeth Hensley said, looking directly at a cell phone camera held by Sarah Hassan, a 21-year-old Somali-American from Fargo. Were going to kill every single one of you (expletive) Muslims.

Hassan told reporters she had to record the Tuesday encounter in the 13th Avenue South Walmart parking lot. You know if I tell anybody about it, people are not going to believe it. I said we need evidence for that.

Hensley apologized to the women on her now-inaccessible Facebook account but alleged there was more to the incident that hadnt been recorded, including one of the Muslim women calling her a fat b-tch and insulting Jesus. But there are absolutely no excuses. I am in tears with regret and will take any form of punishment deemed fit.

Hassan acknowledged that she did respond by calling Hensley fat, which was also caught on video, but denied insulting Jesus, considered by Muslims to be a great prophet. I dont even know what to say to people when they start abusing me.

Hensleys tirade has apparently cost her her job at Horab & Wentz, a Fargo accounting firm, according to a person who identified himself as a partner there. Our phone has been ringing this morning hundreds of times. Its ringing right now, the man said, referring to the videos viral nature and the backlash it was bringing. Were the ones getting the brunt of this. No one else is.

Attempts to contact Hensley by phone and at her Mapleton home were unsuccessful. A man answering to Mr. Hensley said she was sleeping and had asked not to be disturbed. He wouldnt respond to other questions.

That was really scary

The 27-second video that Hassan produced appears to be four shorter videos stitched together.

Hassan said she had initially used Snapchat, a social media app that records videos that last a maximum of 10 seconds. All the videos she has, she said, are in the 27-second video.

In one segment, Hassan is heard calling Hensley a racist and says she is not going back to her country while Hensley points at the camera while saying Im an American; youre not. In another, Hassan asks What are you gonna do? only to have Hensley lean over and, lowering her voice, say, Were going to kill all of ya. Hassan replied Youre fat, you cant do anything.

"It was not a Christian like thing to do AT ALL and wish I could take it back, but I lost my cool and I can't. I am terribly sorry," Hensley wrote in her Facebook post. I just wish that the whole video could be shown. And the things that were stated before she starts taping. She had parked way too close to my car and I couldn't get in, when I asked her to move she refused, I asked her again and she swore at me calling me a fat b-tch.

According to Hassan, her sister, 20-year-old Leyla, had just parked the car next to Hensleys car. With them was their friend Rowda Soyan, 23. All three are Somali-Americans from Fargo and, following their Muslim tradition, cover their hair with a scarf.

When Hensley came out of the store and found the car parked too close to hers, she mocked Leyla Hassans misaligned eyes, saying they were obviously the reason for the bad parking job, according to Sarah Hassan, who tried to defend her sister by demanding to know what Hensley was getting at. Its a sore topic, Sarah Hassan said, because her sister needs surgery but insurance wont cover it.

Leyla Hassan said she apologized to Hensley for parking too close and tried to pull out to avoid confrontation. But she said she couldnt because Hensley got so close she worried shed run over the womans toes.

In the meantime, the confrontation between Hensley and Sarah Hassan was heating up.

Hassan said Hensley pointed to a Donald-Trump campaign sticker on her car and told the Muslim women he would deport them. Hensley also told them that Muslims were all going to hell, Hassan said, and had made the threat about killing Muslims at least once before she started recording.

The way she was staring at me  that was really scary, Hassan said. Thats why we had to call the police and tell them about everything.

Hensley also said on her Facebook apology that one of the Muslim women said something derogatory about Jesus Christ.

Sarah Hassan said that never happened. We Muslims, we believe in Jesus, too, she said. If I abuse Jesus its like Im abusing my own god and I not going to be considered a Muslim.

Jesus, known as Isa, is considered by Muslims to be a great prophet and that Muhammad was his successor.

Trumps shadow

The Hassan sisters and Soyan told reporters they regularly receive insults from strangers in Fargo, though mostly of the Go back to your own country or Speak English when youre in America variety. Hensleys threatening message was the worst theyve seen, they said.

But the insults are a relatively recent thing.

It just started with the election and whatever's going on, Soyan said.

Sarah Hassan said after Donald Trump won the presidential election she was insulted at work for greeting a fellow Somali-American in their language. She said the offenders were fired but she quit anyway.

Trump is known for making uncharitable statements about Muslims, including the false claim that Muslims in New Jersey celebrated 9/11. In more recent news, the president has issued a ban on travel from six predominantly Muslim countries, Somalia among them, because he believes people from these countries could be sleeper agents for terrorist organizations.

The Hassan sisters said their family actually fled Somalia because of the threat of Al Shabab, a terrorist group affiliated with Al Qaeda.

Hensley has expressed support for Trump on her Twitter account. Parked at her Mapleton home is a pickup with stickers in the window supporting Trump and the Trump-Pence presidential ticket.

The 27-second video, though, was never meant to make a statement, according to the three Muslim women. They said they initially shared the Snapchat videos with friends and hadnt expected to get so much attention, which so far has been predominantly positive.

Hukun Abdullahi, who runs the Afro American Development Association in Moorhead, said he was the one who encouraged them to share the videos widely as an example for other immigrants facing abuse.

Some of us, the immigrants, sometimes they fear to film the incident when its happening, he said. Theyll learn now that nothing will happen to them if they film their abusers, he said.

Despite the harsh words against them, the three women said they dont hold a grudge against Hensley. Asked if they would sit down with her if she came to them to apologize, they said they would.

Of course, everybody makes mistakes, you know, Sarah Hassan said. If she said sorry, of course, were going to accept her. And maybe she had a bad day. We don't want to increase the problem. People are following her now and saying mean stuff to her, too. Whatever happens, shes a human being in the end.
As President Donald Trump continues to publicly criticize Jeff Sessions, one of the attorney general's former colleagues is promising that if Sessions is fired, there will be "holy hell to pay."

"I'm 100% behind Jeff Sessions," Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, told CNN's Manu Raju Thursday morning on Capitol Hill. "If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay."

The Republican lawmaker also slammed Trump for what he views as an effort to "marginalize and humiliate" Sessions, adding that his Senate colleagues are also displeased with the recent barrage of attacks.

"This effort to basically marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate," Graham told CNN. "If you believe Jeff Sessions should be fired, use the power you have and accept the consequences."

"I hope it stops," he added.

Despite Trump's Twitter attacks, Sessions has no plans to resign, sources have told CNN. Instead, Sessions is moving ahead with his duties as attorney general, including routine meetings with administration officials at the White House on Wednesday.

Graham then announced that he plans on introducing legislation next week to ensure that a special counsel cannot be fired if they are investigating the President, unless there is judicial review of the firing.

"I'm going to try to come up with statutory language that would say, in the case of Bob Mueller and future special counsels, that if the attorney general fires that person who's been empaneled to investigate the President or their team, then judges will have to look and see if whether or not the reasons stated meet the statutory definitions," Graham told CNN.

The South Carolina senator noted that this legislation is intended "not just for Trump, but for any future president," adding that "we need a check and balance here."

Trump has lambasted Sessions on Twitter over the past week, calling the attorney general "beleaguered" and slamming him for a "weak position" on former 2016 presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are emails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" the President tweeted Tuesday.

Trump also questioned why the attorney general and special counsel Robert Mueller were not looking into Clinton's deleted emails.

"So many people are asking why isn't the A.G. or Special (Counsel) looking at the many Hillary Clinton or Comey crimes. 33,000 e-mails deleted?" Trump tweeted over the weekend.

When asked whether he believes Donald Trump Jr. intentionally colluded with the Russians, Graham remains skeptical. Trump Jr., as well as then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner attended a June 2016 meeting with a Russian lawyer who reportedly offered "compromising" information about Hillary Clinton.

"I think Don Jr. thought the meeting was okay. I'm not saying he intentionally violated the law. I really believe he thought it was something that all campaigns should do," Graham said.

But he cautioned that further investigations were necessary to determine the extent of the Trump team's contact with Russians.

"The reason this won't end any time soon is because how can you say with 100% certainty, given all the players here, there was never any more contact?" Graham told CNN. "The likelihood that the Russians just quit after one meeting, once the Trump campaign expressed desire to be helped, is pretty hard to believe but that may be the facts."

Attendees of the meeting have repeatedly said the June 2016 gathering was the only time they met.

"As it ended, my acquaintance apologized for taking up our time," Trump Jr. said in a statement obtained by CNN on July 9. "That was the end of it and there was no further contact or follow-up of any kind. My father knew nothing of the meeting or these events."
MANDAREE  North Dakotas Mandan, Hidatsa and Arikara Nation has the ear of the Trump administration, with a second federal official visiting Fort Berthold on Wednesday and pledging to support tribal energy development.

William Bradford, director of the Energy Departments Office of Indian Energy, told attendees of the MHA Energy Symposium that tribes, not the federal government, should oversee energy development on their lands.

Who better knows how to manage the waters and air and land within your reservation than you yourself? Is there anyone? I dont think so, Bradford said during the event in Mandaree, a tribal community located in the heart of the Bakken.

Visits this week from Bradford and Gavin Clarkson from the Department of Interior come on the heels of an energy roundtable meeting with President Trump attended by MHA leaders.

Tribal Chairman Mark Fox, who had sat across from Trump during the discussion in Washington, said tribal leaders emphasized the best way to encourage more energy development in Indian Country is to defer more regulation to the tribes.

In addition, Fox said the tribes need to be the primary beneficiaries of the energy resources. He said Trumps reaction was favorable.

We believe, as a nation, that the door is open as it was under Obama and now it is under Trump to try to do development the right way, Fox said.

Former U.S. Rep. Earl Pomeroy, who attended the conference to talk on federal tax reform, applauded the federal officials for their comments on tribal sovereignty, regulation challenges and dual taxation inequities.

I think they got the message, Pomeroy said.

Fox and other MHA leaders reiterated during the two-day symposium that the tribe should receive a greater share of tax revenue for oil production on the reservation, which is currently split with the state.

This is our land; those are our resources. The only entity that should be taxing off of economic development and energy development off of trust lands are Indian tribes, Fox said.

In an interview, Fox said the Tribal Business Council continues to consider options to get more revenue to offset impacts of oil development, including the possibility of leaving a tax sharing agreement with the state.

The issue is going to be a priority for an upcoming August meeting with the MHA Tribal Business Council and Gov. Doug Burgum, Fox said.

North Dakota Petroleum Council President Ron Ness said the state can and should do more to offset energy impacts on Fort Berthold. Ness encouraged tribal leaders to continue working with the governor to find a solution.

Dont punish the operators by pushing dual taxation on them, Ness said.

Fox said his vision is that oil development at Fort Berthold will ultimately raise the standard of living for all 15,627 tribal members and the generations that follow.

We dont want to wake up one day and say all that oil and gas and were in a worse situation today than we were before the first barrel came out, Fox said. Thats a tragedy that were trying to avoid.
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Bonuses for experienced teachers and funding to reduce retired teachers' health insurance costs passed Monday evening through the Texas Senate.

But a $1,000 raise for all Texas teachers didn't survive the chamber, ending one of Gov. Greg Abbott's priorities heading into the special legislative session.

Senators voted 28-3 to give bonuses of $600 to $1,000 to teachers with at least six years of experience, and to pump $212 million into a fund that provides health insurance to retired teachers. Both moves were part of Abbott's special session agenda and received positive marks from local school leaders.

HoustonChronicle.com: Retired teachers feel pinch of health plan changes

The across-the-board raises, however, weren't brought up for a vote after Sen. Jane Nelson, R-Flower Mound, offered an amendment withdrawing them from her bill. Local school leaders decried the raises as an unfunded mandate, while Abbott said districts should reallocate money they already have for the pay bumps. The increases would have totaled more than $350 million for Texas districts.

In the greater Houston area, teachers on average draw annual salaries of roughly $52,000 to $58,000, depending on the district. In smaller, more rural districts, average salaries range from about $40,000 to $50,000.

See how much the average teacher makes in Houston's 25 biggest districts in the gallery above.

Nelson said she wanted to provide the raises, but couldn't find funding in the current budget. Her original proposal called for raises to start in the 2019-20 school year, but she didn't want to promise money out of the next legislative budget.

"My intent was, and it continues to be, that we provide a pay raise to our teachers," Nelson said. "The budget doesn't allow for us to guarantee state funding at this time."

Legislators said they plan to prioritize teacher salaries during the next legislative cycle, which begins in 2019.

HoustonChronicle.com: Districts brace for looming spending fight with state lawmakers

Still, the bill brings some relief to current and retired teachers. Under the bonus plan, teachers with six to 11 years of experience would get a one-time payment of $600, and teachers with more than 11 years of experience would receive $1,000. The bonuses would be paid out in September 2018.

For retired teachers, the $212 million injected into the health care retirement fund would help lower out-of-pocket costs and aid those with disabled children. Retirees who buy health insurance through the fund, called TRS-Care, are still expected to see significant increases in premiums and deductibles. Those costs could reach into the thousands of dollars, particularly for retired teachers who aren't yet 65 years old and eligible for Medicare.

Q&A: Big changes coming to retired teachers' health insurance

The cost of providing health insurance to retired teachers continues to outpace the revenues brought into TRS-Care, even with a one-time supplement of $212 million. Without additional changes, the fund is projected to be insolvent by fiscal 2021.

"We have a commitment in Texas, and I have a commitment, to continue to work to preserve this very valuable, important benefit to our teachers," State Sen. Joan Huffman said. "But it comes at a significant cost, and we're making this commitment now to give this relief to our retired teachers."

The teachers bonuses and TRS-Care funding will be paid with state appropriations.

The Texas House of Representatives hasn't yet taken up the bill. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick signaled his approval of the legislation Monday.
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The Houston Police Department and thousands of other law enforcement agencies are carrying Tasers that are "woefully underpowered" because of a design change in 2011, according to documents filed in a federal lawsuit in Houston.

The late-model Tasers, produced by the newly named Axon company, issue about half the charge of the previous model and 70 percent of the stopping power of over-the-counter stun guns sold to consumers, according to documents in a lawsuit brought by a former Houston officer.

The lawsuit claims the company intentionally reduced the jolt its weapons delivered amid adverse publicity over deaths of people hit by Tasers and over fear of losing lucrative government contracts.

"There's compelling evidence to suggest they did it to stop the lawsuits from the people who were being Tased," said Andy Vickery, who represents the former officer. "They were saying people were killed by the X26 former model, so they ratcheted it down without telling police."

The company swapped out its X26, with a maximum charge of 125 microcoulombs of electricity, for the X2 model, which has 63 microcoulombs, the documents claim. The consumer version delivers 90 microcoulombs, according to the lawsuit.

Karen Taylor, the former Houston police officer, filed the product liability and deceptive trade practices suit in March, saying the weapon endangers police officers who rely on it.

Taylor was seriously injured when her Taser failed to stop an assailant; she has been unable to return to work as a peace officer because of a back injury.

The Houston Police Department has a $9 million contract with the company for the X2 model, which was introduced in 2011, according to the lawsuit. Harris County has a contract for 28 X2 tasers and another 500 of the X26P model, a variation of the X26 but which carries the same electrical charge as the X2.

Steve Tuttle, spokesperson for Axon, formerly known as Taser International, acknowledged that the new weapon delivers a reduced charge, but said the difference is negligible.

"If you're a connoisseur of electricity, it's less pain with the X2," he said. "The bottom line is you're incapacitated. It works."

He continued, "It's less power because it's much more efficient. All of our modern Taser weapons ... are designed to stop motivated individuals that don't feel pain."

Tuttle said the proof is in the fact that officers use them daily.

"Where the rubber meets the road with these weapons is by law enforcement using them thousands of times per day," he said. "If there was a pattern, it would be discovered very quickly and you would have these devices thrown in the trunk for being a gadget or a gimmick. Cops are the most skeptical buyers in the world."

He added that proper use of the weapon is essential. Axon maintains, based on the details provided in depositions, that Taylor used the weapon improperly.

"If there is no electrical connection with the subject, there will be no delivered electrical charge," Tuttle said. "That is not a failure of the product, but rather, a law of science."

Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo could not be reached for comment about the change in the weapon's electrical charge.

Houston Police Officers Union Vice President Joe Gamaldi said he could only speak generally about TASER use because he did not know the specifics of Taylor's case.

"The TASER is a very good tool in order for us to take down combative suspects, and often leads to less injury on the suspect's part and on the officer's part," he said.

Clothing, improper usage, suspects' drug use and other issues could all stop a TASER from incapacitating someone, he said.

"It's widely known there are number of issues why a TASER wouldn't be effective," he said. "Officers are taught that in training."

Vickery, however, said the Taser manufacturer deliberately withheld information about the design change from police departments and officers.

"The result - what happened with officer Karen Taylor," he argued in court documents, " was exactly what one would expect from sending an officer into the field with an underpowered stun gun."
On Wednesday, Houston rapper Joseph McVey "Z-Ro" was arrested and charged with aggravated assault of a family member.

Police arrested McVey after his ex-girlfriend, Brittany Bullock, filed a complaint with the Harris County Sheriff's Office about an incident she claims occurred in April near West Side Forest in the Katy area. Bullock backed up her claim with a 20-minute audio recording of the alleged assault.

According to the complaint, on April 29, Bullock arrived at McVey's residence to discuss the canceling of a dinner date.

VIDEO: Rookie officer arrested for driving drunk

Story continues below...

Upon her arrival, Bullock claims McVey began to slap, punch and drag her throughout the residence while holding a pistol.

She told police the attack lasted roughly an hour and a half and said she was assaulted so many times "she eventually got sick and threw up."

At one point, Bullock asked to go to the restroom, where she began recording with her phone. The alleged assault continued once she left the restroom.

Police said they could hear McVey state "you're dead" in the recording as well as sounds that appeared to be slapping. Police also heard Bullock state "why did you just push me" and "get your fu**ing hands from around my neck." They also heard Bullock crying and asking McVey to stop.

GANGLAND: Two suspected MS-13 members from Houston added to 10 Most Wanted Fugitives list

McVey is being held without bond.

Both McVey and Bullock, better known as "Just Brittany," have collaborated in the past. She appeared in a music video with McVey last December.
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An 19-year-old Texas woman has been indicted on numerous felony counts after she lied about being sexually assaulted, according to police.

Breana Rachelle Harmon, of Pottsboro, was indicted Wednesday on two counts of third degree tampering with physical evidence, a third degree felony, as it relates a sexual assault hoax she perpetrated, Grayson County district attorney Joe Brown told Chron.com. Harmon could face 10 years in jail for each of these counts, Brown added.

Harmon was also charged with two counts of tampering with a government record. These counts relate specifically to the false statements she gave authorities, which caused reports to be falsified, Brown said.

READ MORE: Horse riding instructor accused of sexually assaulting child

"Ms. Harmon was originally arrested for the misdemeanor offense of False Report to a Peace Officer," Brown said in a news release Wednesday. "That charge was a class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine. However, the more we have looked at what happened in this case, and considered the harm it caused, and certainly could have caused, we believe what she did fits the elements of these higher charges. What she did was very serious, and we believe it was felony conduct."

Harmon's alleged ruse began on the afternoon of March 8 when she walked into a church at 3400 S. Eisenhower Parkway wearing a shirt, bra and underwear, Denison Police Chief Jay Burch said in a March 22 news release.

Harmon had scratches and cuts on her body. She told parishioners she had been kidnapped and sexually assaulted behind the church by three black men, Burch added. She said the men were wearing ski masks.

Harmon was taken to Texoma Medical Center for examination while patrol officers, detectives and the K-9 team scoured the area where she said she was taken and assaulted. Several pieces of evidence were gathered and more of Harmon's clothing and other personal effects were recovered, Burch said.

READ MORE: Baylor University under investigation by NCAA after sexual assault scandal

Harmon's story began to fall apart roughly two days into the Denison Police Department's investigation. Nearly every aspect of Harmon's story was staged, Burch said.

"Our team of detectives, led by John Watt, did an outstanding job in the case," Burch said. "Almost from the beginning, we had doubts in Harmon's story as the puzzle pieces just weren't coming together. We were unable to corroborate any of Harmon's allegations that she had been abducted or sexually assaulted."

READ MORE: Former Harris County deputy constable charged with sexual assault

Harmon's lies has a negative affect on the community, Burch said.

"This alleged crime as reported by Harmon made many in the community fearful there were individuals abducting women," Burch added. "Even though we know the story to be a hoax, there is still potential damage to the reputation of the City of Denison and the Texoma region as many may remember the reported crime but not the outcome. That is unfortunate."
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Police on Monday jailed four suspects in connection with an alleged sex-for-money "set up" that went wrong in May 2017 and ended with a 24-year-old man stabbed to death in the parking lot of Lulu's Cafe.

Faith Barrientes, 17; Genie Rose Aguilar, 20; Johnny Estrada, 20; Ruben Arellano, 21, are now facing murder charges in connection with the case.

Barrientes, Aguilar and Estrada remain in the Bexar County Jail on $100,000 bonds. Arellano faces an additional domestic violence charge and faces a $103,500 bond.

RELATED: SAPD: Officer shot, suspect dead after NW Side invasion leads to shootout

According to arrest affidavits for the four suspects, Barrientes and Aguilar posed as prostitutes the night of May 12 and went to meet at least two men, one of whom was Brandon Lee Medina, the murder victim, in Room 268 of the Motel 6 in the 900 block of North Main Avenue.

A witness inside the room told police that Barrientes and Aguilar appeared nervous after they entered into the motel room.

All at once, two suspects, who police identified at Estrada and Arellano, rushed into the room and began assaulting Medina and the witness, according to an arrest affidavit. The witness told police he was dragged out of the room and thrown down the stairs.

Security camera footage shows two women running out of the front door of the room, followed soon after by Medina and one of the male suspects, who was chasing him. The chase ended in the parking lot of Lulu's Cafe nearby, where police found Medina covered in blood with a stab wound in his chest. He was pronounced dead minutes after midnight.

RELATED: 3 face murder charges in alleged botched robbery at North Side Taco Cabana

On June 16, about a month after the alleged murder, another witness informed police they had spoken with Barrientes, who allegedly confided details about the murder. According to the affidavit, Barrientes told the witness that she and Aguilar went to the Motel 6 room on May 12 posing as prostitutes, but really, the transaction was a "set up."

The plan, however, "went wrong," according to the affidavit. Barrientes told the witness that Estrada stabbed Medina, an accusation that was later reported to police by an undercover informant who supplied police with details on the alleged murder, according to the arrest affidavit.

Police were able to obtain an arrest warrant affidavit for Aguilar, who allegedly told police during interviews that Arellano was also part of the robbery plan. Arellano was arrested on a domestic violence warrant and allegedly admitted to his involvement during interviews with police.

All four suspects were booked into jail on arrest warrants in connection with the murder.

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WASHINGTON  Texas Republican Will Hurd says he has a "smart" plan for a border wall.

The border district congressman, a former CIA officer and cybersecurity entrepreneur, is introducing legislation Thursday to employ Silicon Valley technology to monitor and secure the border.

Called the "Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology Act," or SMART Act, Hurd and a group of border state lawmakers are proposing technology fixes that could radically bring down the $20 billion cost of the sort of border wall envisioned by President Donald Trump.

Hurd's proposal comes as the U.S. House is poised to approve $1.6 billion in 2018 to begin construction of several miles of fencing and levies, including stretches in the Rio Grande Valley.

Hurd, whose heavily Latino district encompasses more than 800 miles of the border in west Texas, has been critical of Trump's wall proposal.
An association of the five federally recognized tribes in North Dakota has endorsed Clare Hochhalter to be the state's next top federal prosecutor.

The United Tribes of North Dakota issued a resolution on July 20 after interviews conducted of Hochhalter and competitor Drew Wrigley by tribal chairman and representatives on July 7.

"The board interviewed both candidates evenly and thoroughly, reviewed their written submitted materials, and reviewed their public records, actions and comments on law enforcement in Indian Country," the tribes wrote. "Having done so, the UTND endorses Clare Hochhalter for the U.S. Attorney for North Dakota."

The UTND is composed of the tribal chairperson and one council member from each tribe. The vote was six in favor and four not present.

In an interview Wednesday evening, Standing Rock Tribal Chairman Dave Archambault II said he felt that both candidates have had respectable careers, but that he could not get past statements and actions taken by Wrigley during the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. Wrigley was outspoken in public, frequently calling the protests unlawful and dangerous.

"I would rather have somebody who I know doesn't have a biased opinion towards the tribes," said Archambault, who was not present for the interview but knows Wrigley personally.

By contrast, he said that Hochhalter would make a "great U.S. attorney. It felt like he did know a little more about federal law when applied to the tribes."

Hochhalter is a veteran federal prosecutor and serves as the criminal chief out of the U.S. attorney's office in Bismarck. Wrigley is a former U.S. attorney and lieutenant governor, and he works at Sanford Health.

Wrigley said in a brief interview that he does not think his involvement in the protest would affect his credibility with the tribes.

"I spoke to the need for law and order. I spoke against millions of dollars in damage ... (and) protests that had spun out of control," Wrigley said.

He added that he would aggressively prosecute crime in Indian Country and visit the tribes early in his tenure.

Hochhalter said late Wednesday that he feels "very honored and grateful for their support."

Ryan Bernstein, legal counsel and chief of staff for Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., said the resolution would not affect the senator's endorsement of Wrigley.

"He was a good U.S. attorney for North Dakota and will be a good U.S. attorney for North Dakota, including tribal reservations," Bernstein said, adding that he had also heard good things about Wrigley from tribal chairpersons.

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp, D-N.D., said in a statement that she will share the tribes endorsement with the White House for their consideration in making a recommendation for the next U.S. Attorney.

"It's imperative that any U.S. Attorney for North Dakota thoroughly understands and has the ability to accommodate the needs of Native communities in our state, particularly when the job is seated in the personal and unique position of determining the outcome of criminal cases on tribal lands. I was glad to hear that both candidates took the time to listen to and sit with the tribes about the needs for strengthening this important relationship, and as the tribes deserve a clear and distinct voice in this process, I'll be sure to relay their preference for the job to the White House."

The interviews with the candidates came after a resolution passed June 2 that said the tribes wanted a role in picking the next U.S. attorney, because he or she is in charge of prosecuting the most serious crimes on the reservations.

A version of the resolution was subsequently adopted on a national level by the National Congress for American Indians.

The resolution passed this month also lists expectations for the next U.S. attorney.

The tribes want this person to understand tribal sovereignty and jurisdiction and the treaties relating to North Dakota's Indian tribes. They also want federal law enforcement to spend "substantial amounts of time" in the native communities, learning about their culture and the "positive elements of our nations."

The tribes also request that a future U.S. attorney assign designated prosecutors for individual reservations. They additionally want the top prosecutor to consider tribal community standards for when it is OK to decline to prosecute a case and be creative in charging and sentencing to reflect the "local nature of many crimes."

This article has been clarified to reflect the fact that the resolution was passed by the association of the United Tribes of North Dakota not the individual tribes.
WASHINGTON  U.S. Rep. Ted Poe of Humble introduced legislation Thursday commemorating Austin native Megan Rondini, a University of Alabama student who committed suicide after a botched rape investigation.

The bi-partisan Megan Rondini Act, sponsored by Poe and New York Democrat Carolyn Maloney, would require hospitals to either have a sexual assault forensic examiner available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, or have plans to get rape victims to other nearby hospitals that do.

Rondini was allegedly raped in 2015 by a man from a wealthy family in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. After escaping her attacker, she went directly to the hospital for a rape kit and contacted police.

The hospital, however, did not have a sexual assault forensic examiner or other staff trained in forensic procedures, and the DNA from her rape kit was never properly examined.

The suspect escaped prosecution and Rondini later took her own life.

"Rape is a crime that destroys the very soul of a victim," said Poe, a former judge and member of the Victims Rights Caucus who has met with Rondini's family. "The failures that drove Megan to commit suicide must not be allowed to continue in our society."
AUSTIN -- On the steps of the Texas Capitol, there stood Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo along with police officers from around the state lending their voice in opposition to a new bathroom bill that hours later passed the state Senate.

"We don't want this bill, it's bad law," said Acevedo, one of the star attractions in a Tuesday press conference organized by a coalition of groups opposed to the bathroom bill.

It didn't take long for critics to start questioning why Acevedo would be 160 miles away from Houston at a political rally about one of the most divisive issues in Texas politics today.

But Acevedo said by being in Austin at the rally he was doing his job.

"My job is to weigh in on matters of public safety," Acevedo said. "I'm not here talking about environmental policies. If it has to do with public safety I have moral obligation and I have a duty to speak out."

He was also clear to point out that he's not just doing the bidding of Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who has also opposed the bathroom legislation. Acevedo pushed back at the notion that Turner and other mayors told police chiefs to go to Austin to join the fight.

"I'm not here at his direction," Acevedo said, though he added that he agrees with his opposition to the bill.

At the press conference, which included police chiefs from Austin and San Antonio as well, Acevedo stressed that enforcing the bathroom law has the potential of tying up law enforcement on something that will keep them from more pressing matters. He said his department has dug through 3 years of records and can find no problem with privacy issues in bathrooms.

"Please don't put another handcuff, another burden, on our overworked law enforcement community," Acevedo said.

Supporters of the bathroom bill say that without new legislation regulating bathroom use, men could pose as transgender women in order to gain access to women's bathrooms. Senate Bill 3 which passed early Wednesday morning, would require people to use the bathroom of the gender that is listed on their birth certificate or driver's license and bar cities and school districts from enacting different rules on the topic.

Critics, like the police chiefs, said the legislation is unnecessary and only further marginalizes transgender populations that are already marginalized in society. Business leaders have also pushed back, warning that the state could risk boycotts like happened to North Carolina last year when they imposed their own bathroom restrictions.
John Marshall/Houston Chronicle

AUSTIN  Legislation that would ban insurance coverage for elective abortions was given final approval Wednesday by the Texas Senate.

Senate Bill 8 is among 20 issues that Gov. Greg Abbott has identified as must-pass measures for the special legislative session now underway at the State Capitol.
The summers final Live on the Waterfront concert was held Wednesday evening at Prince Arthurs Landing. The popular series in Thunder Bay has completed nine weekly shows that began on July 13. Wednesdays concert was unique as it was held one hour later in the evening to mesh with the 10 p.
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"Our mantra is innovation not regulation."

 Gov. Doug Burgum, addressing The Bakken Conference & Expo. He asked those attending to double oil production and eliminate spills.

q q q

"I never thought just because I'm a North Dakotan I'd be in it. I knew that people came from all over and I knew that competition was steep and these people were really, really good."

 Bismarck native Taylor Leet, who is a member of the Medora Musical cast this year.

q q q

"There's a great amount of frustration about not being able to get the trained personnel to be able to hydraulically fracture wells as fast as they can drill them."

 Department of Mineral Resources Director Lynn Helms, on the difficulty oil companies are having finding qualified workers.

q q q

"It connects to everything we've been learning all throughout the summer."

 Biology teacher Andee Woodmansee, on how participating in a fossil dig at Medora was a great experience for Bismarck students.

q q q

"Put the phones down, put the distractions away and just allow a little more time to drive. If it'll help save lives, then it will help us all."

 North Dakota Highway Patrol spokesman Lt. Michael Roark, urging motorists to heed a new distracted driving law.

q q q

"You can decriminalize things, but that's just a way to me to sit them in county jail and not provide them any services. We don't have addiction counselors and psychiatrists and all those things that these people need."

 Mercer County Sheriff Dean Danzeisen, voicing concerns about changes made by the Legislature.

q q q

"The unwarranted delay between August 2016 and February 2017 in allowing the pipeline to go forward imposed serious costs and other hardships on Dakota Access and others who now benefit from a safer and more economical way to meet our nation's energy demand. A shutdown while the corps provides additional explanation for its determinations, under a statute that calls only for a process and not a particular substantive outcome, would add insult to injury."

 Dakota Access Pipeline, arguing in a court filing that the company should be allowed to operate while the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers completes an environmental review.

q q q

"In Bismarck, we have a response for the cold, so I asked (the Missouri Valley Coalition for Homeless People) what is our response to extreme heat? And I kind of found there wasn't one, and so we just talked about it and said we've got to get people inside."

 Sister Kathleen Atkinson of Ministry on the Margins, explaining why they extended their hours during the heat wave.

q q q

"We're trying to turn over every stone to find regulatory relief."

 Gov. Doug Burgum, telling farmers and ranchers in Golden Valley that the state is trying to find drought help.

q q q

"I still believe that they should pay for it all because it was on federal land and the federal government did nothing to make the protesters move. However, we'll be thankful for every dollar we get."

 Senate Majority Leader Rich Wardner, R-Dickinson, arguing the federal government should pay the law enforcement costs for the Dakota Access Pipeline protests. So far North Dakotas requests have been rejected.
Behind every successful IT project, youll find a highly skilled project manager. From hardware and software upgrades to ongoing security patches, to application development and the rollout of software itself, project managers keep your teams on task and productive.

Almost any IT pro can benefit from adding a project management certification to their list of IT credentials, showing you have the know-how to plan, schedule, budget, execute, deliver, and report on IT initiatives. Here, CIO.com outlines the most popular project management certifications that will add value and help you hone your skills this year.

Top project management certifications

Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP)

Associate in Project Management (APM)

BVOP Certified Project Manager

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Certified Project Director (CPD)

Certified Project Management (CPM)

Certified Project Manager (CPM-IAPM)

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

CompTIA Project+

Master Project Manager (MPM)

PRINCE2 Foundation/PRINCE2 Practitioner

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation/Agile Practitioner

Professional in Project Management (PPM)

Project Management Professional (PMP)

Program Manager Professional (PgMP)

Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP)

Offered by the PMI, the Agile Certified Practitioner (ACP) certification is designed to validate your knowledge of agile principles and skills with agile techniques. The exam covers topics including Scrum, Kanban, Lean, extreme programming (XP), and test-driven development (TDD). Its aimed at those who work on agile teams or in agile organizations and focuses on seven main domains of knowledge, including agile principles and mindset, value-driven delivery, stakeholder engagement, team performance, adaptive planning, problem detection and resolution, and continuous improvement.

Price: $435 for members; $495 for non-members

Requirements: Candidates for the exam must have a secondary degree, 21 contact hours of training in agile practices, 12 months of project experience within the past five years or eight months of agile project experience within the past three years. A current PMP or PgMP certification can satisfy the requirement for 12 months of experience but is not required for the exam.

Associate in Project Management (APM)

The Associate in Project Management (APM) certification offered by The Global Association for Quality Management (GAQM) is an entry-level project management certification to validate your fundamental knowledge of the Project Management Framework. Its aimed at those with little to no experience in project management and includes an online course that you will be required to complete before taking the certification exam. The course covers topics such as project management fundamentals, project management training, and all the basics of the project management role that you will need to be successful in the role. Its targeted at managers and project team members, students at the graduate or undergraduate level, entry-level practitioners, and anyone with an interest in project management as a career.

Price: $175

Requirements: GAQM body of knowledge study and e-course; no formal education or experience requirements

BVOP Certified Project Manager

Business value-oriented principles (BVOP) is an agile-based framework that has grown in popularity in the UK. BVOP emphasizes business value in all project management activities and practices. The BVOP Certified Project Manager is for senior practitioners with experience in both project management and people management. The focus on a people-oriented culture sets it apart from other project management certification programs. Its a certification aimed at senior project managers, agile professionals, product managers and owners, Scrum masters, and business analysts. The BVOP approach helps to develop professionals collaboration skills, and candidates for certification not only gain project and product management skills, but also learn to become more people-focused leaders. The exam includes questions from the project management, program management, and product management sections of the course materials.

Price: $130

Requirements: No previous professional project management experience required; free study guides and preparation materials available online

Certified Associate in Project Management (CAPM)

Administered by the Project Management Institute (PMI), the Certified Associate in Project Management certification is the precursor to the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification (see below). For professionals without a college degree, or with only rudimentary project management experience or those who want to achieve their PMP certification in steps rather than all at once, the CAPM is a stepping-stone to the more rigorous PMP.

For more information, see CAPM certification guide: Certified Associate in Project Management exam explained.

Price: $225 for PMI members; $300 non-members

Requirements: High-school diploma, associate degree or equivalent, and at least 1,500 hours of project management experience or 23 hours of project management education

Certified Project Director (CPD)

The GAQMs Certified Project Director certification is the credentialing bodys highest-level project management certification. This designation is designed for experienced project managers who are involved in directing multiple, complex projects, and programs. The certification focuses on managing, budgeting, and determining scope for multiple projects, multiple project teams, and assessing and mitigating interdependent risks to deliver projects successfully. The CDP program is only for those who have significant project management experience.

Price: $280

Requirements: Qualified candidates must have a bachelors degree or post-graduate degree or global equivalent and must hold one of the following certifications: a PPM certification from GAQM; a PMP certification from PMI; a PRINCE2 Practitioner certification from APMG; or a CPM certification from GIAC.

Certified Project Management (CPM)

The EC-Council was formed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to address issues of cyberterrorism and the information security of nations at large. The EC-Councils Certified Project Management certification course is for project managers who want to benchmark their skills through hands-on experience and across various management techniques and tools necessary to successfully manage complex projects efficiently. The course includes on-demand instructor-led training videos, online CyberQ Labs, a continuing education video subscription, and live instructor-led training in-person or online. You can select from three course options: the basic package includes a single video course, labs, e-courseware and the certification exam, while the midtier package adds on the CodeRed continuing education video subscription and live instructor training, and the top-tier package includes an additional certification course, exam insurance, and online exam prep.

Price: $999 for the single video course package; $2,999 for the unlimited video courses; or $3,499 for the full live-course bundle.

Requirements: No prerequisites

Certified Project Manager (CPM-IAPM)

The Certified Project Manager certification is offered by the International Association of Project Managers (IAPM) as an entry-level certification for those with a basic understanding of project management. It covers the necessary knowledge to theoretically plan, organize, and implement a project effectively, according to the IAPM. Its designed for those who aspire to have a career in project management and doesnt require prior experience in the field. The exam covers a range of topics, including project check, project environment, steering committees and core teams, creation of the Phase Model, creation of the WBS, cost breakdown and budget, risk analysis, project review, and more. The certification includes a combination of hard and soft skills that are relevant to the role of project manager. For novices, the IAPM offers a Certified Junior Project Manager certification and for those with extensive experience, they offer the Certified Senior Project Manager certification.

Price: Fee depends on candidates nationality, as pricing is based on country-of-origins GDP; in the US, the exam cost is $514

Requirements: None, but IAPM offers workshops through global training partners, or recommended literature for self-study. Candidates can also take a self-test to benchmark their knowledge.

Certified ScrumMaster (CSM)

The use of agile methodologies has become standard, so its not surprising that IT practitioners uniquely qualified to manage projects in agile environments are in high demand. While there are different Scrum master certifications available, the Certified ScrumMaster (CSM) from Scrum Alliance is a great jumping-off point for project managers getting started as Scrum practitioners. The Scrum Alliance, which offers this credential, is a nonprofit organization that encourages the adoption of Scrum and agile practices, promotes user groups and learning events, and provides resources for professional development. The organization boasts more than 450,000 certified practitioners worldwide.

For a deeper look at the CSM, see CSM certification guide: Certified ScrumMaster exam explained.

Price: Varies by training provider, but approximately $995 to $1,395

Requirements: General familiarity with Scrum; completion of two-day CSM training course

CompTIA Project+

The CompTIA Project+ certification is an entry-level credential for IT professionals charged with managing smaller, less complex projects as part of their job duties. Candidates for this certification should have knowledge and experience with managing project life cycles, maintaining project documentation, managing resources and stakeholders, and ensuring appropriate communication. The exam covers project basics, project constraints, communication and change management, and project tools and documentation. Its best suited for IT project coordinators or managers, IT project team members, business analysts, managers, directors, or team leaders.

Price: $348

Requirements: At least 12 months of cumulative project management experience or equivalent education

Master Project Manager (MPM)

The American Academy of Project Management (AAPM) has modeled the Master Project Manager (MPM) after the professional licensure model that many professions such as pilots, engineers, doctors, and lawyers follow. The AAPM focuses on professional project managers, but also includes professionals with business and technical management responsibilities. The MPM certification is aimed at senior project managers and project directors who have an undergraduate or masters degree.

Price: $300 for application, review, processing, review, initiation, and certification

Requirements: Three years of project management experience and training; waivers available for professionals holding a masters degree, with other qualified training and experience, the military or project management instructors

PRINCE2 Foundation/PRINCE2 Practitioner

Projects in Controlled Environments (PRINCE2) is most well-known outside the US, especially in the UK and its government entities. The PRINCE2 certifications are delivered by Axelos and focus on directing, managing, and delivering projects across all phases, pre-project, initiation, delivery, and final delivery. The PRINCE2 Foundation certification is an entry-level credential that tests basic project management terminology and methodology, whereas the Practitioner certification tests advanced project managers who have already achieved PRINCE2 Foundation. These certifications are targeted at aspiring project managers, project board members, team managers, project assurance professionals, project support professionals, and operational line managers or staff.

Price: Price varies based on location

Requirements: PRINCE2 Foundation: PRINCE2 Foundation course; PRINCE2 Practitioner: one of the following: PRINCE2 Foundation, Project Management Professional (PMP), CAPM, or an IPMA certification

PRINCE2 Agile Foundation/Agile Practitioner

The PRINCE2 Agile Foundation and Practitioner certifications offered by Axelos are designed for those working in agile environments and validate your knowledge of PRINCE2 governance requirements, agile concepts, and techniques. The Foundation certification covers the fundamentals of the PRINCE2 method and covers governance requirements and agile concepts such as Scrum, Kanban, Lean Start-up, and Cynefin. Once you pass the Foundation certification, youll be eligible for the PRINCE2 Agile Practitioner certification, which takes the foundational knowledge covered in the first exam and validates your ability to apply it in real-world management examples.

Price: Price varies based on location

Requirements: No requirements for the foundation exam but you will need to pass the Agile Foundation exam to qualify for the Agile Practitioner exam

Professional in Project Management (PPM)

The Professional in Project Management (PPM) is a midtier project management credential from the GAQM. The GAQMs project management certifications are focused on a broad knowledge base and emphasize effective resource allocation, clear direction, adaptability to change, effective communication, and assurance of quality deliverables at minimal risk. The certification covers how to plan, execute, control, and complete project schedules and how to develop project measures, approach project control, and lead project teams. It focuses on project management fundamentals, project management training, effective planning and scheduling, team building, risk management, crisis management, time management, leadership skills, communication strategies, and knowledge management. The PPM is targeted towards intermediate to experienced project managers who are involved in risk and crisis management, and who are involved in the day-to-day management of projects.

Organization: Global Association for Quality Management

Price: $340

Requirements: GAQM body of knowledge study and e-course; no formal education or experience requirements, but candidates should have at least some project management experience to pass the exam

Project Management Professional (PMP)

The gold standard in project management certifications, the Project Management Professional certification offered by the PMI is a rigorous test that covers absolutely everything you need to prove your knowledge and skill in managing the triple constraints: time, cost, and scope. The certification validates your project leadership experience and expertise and demonstrates your capabilities to help organizations work more efficiently and perform better. The exam covers topics such as managing conflict, leading teams, building effective teams, training and empowering team members and stakeholders, executing projects to deliver business value, assess and manage risks, engage stakeholders, plan and manage budgets and resources, among other topics. For more about the PMP, and tips on how to pass it, see PMP certification: How to ace the Project Management Professional exam.

Price: Computer-based exams: $405 for PMI members, $555 for non-members; paper-based exams: $250 for PMI members, $400 for non-members

Requirements: Four-year secondary degree plus three years of project management experience, 4,500 hours leading and directing projects, and 35 hours project management education or CAPM certification; or a high-school diploma, five years of project management experience, 7,500 hours leading and directing projects, and 35 hours of project management education

Program Management Professional (PgMP)

The Program Management Professional (PgMP) certification offered by the PMI is designed for program managers who are senior-level practitioners who are responsible for advancing the organizations strategic goals. Candidates for this exam should have extensive experience managing multiple, related projects and navigating complex environments across different departments, job functions, regions, or cultures to align results with organizational goals. The exam covers topics including strategic program management, program life cycles, benefits management, stakeholder management, and governance.

Price: $800 for members; $1,000 for non-members

Requirements: A secondary degree or global equivalent, 48 months of project management experience or a PMP certification and 84 months of program management experience within the past 15 years; those with a four-year degree will need 48 months of project management experience or a PMP certification and 48 months oof program management experience within the past 15 years

Additional project management certificates

Many colleges and universities offer project management certificates through their existing business, management, or professional education programs. Schools such as Villanova, University of New Haven, Stanford University, and others (check your local college or universitys course offerings) have excellent project management programs and certificates. There also are IT vendor-specific project management certifications available, such as the Microsoft Project Certification. Requirements and price vary based on institution.
The Ohio Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld cities use of traffic camera enforcement for a third time, striking down as unconstitutional legislative restrictions that included requiring a police officer to be present.

The ruling was 5-2 in support of the city of Daytons challenge of provisions in a state law that took effect in 2015. The city said it improperly limited local control and undercut camera enforcement that makes cities safer by reducing red-light running and speeding. Dayton and other cities including Toledo and Springfield said the laws restrictions made traffic cameras cost-prohibitive.

The court Wednesday ruled illegal requirements in the law that an officer be present when cameras were being used, that there must be a lengthy safety study and public information campaign before cameras are used, and that drivers could be only ticketed if they exceeded the posted limit by certain amounts, such as by 6 mph in a school zone.

A majority opinion written by Justice Patrick Fischer found those three restrictions unconstitutionally (limit) the municipalitys home-rule authority without serving an overriding state interest.

The states highest court has twice previously ruled for cities on cameras.

Justice Patrick DeWine wrote a dissenting opinion, saying the legislation was a compromise meant to deal with concerns that cameras were being misused to generate revenue while allowing municipalities some opportunity to employ cameras.

Todays decision has the unfortunate impact of further muddling a body of law that is already hopelessly confused, DeWine wrote. Justice William ONeill also dissented.

The state had contended that the law was within the legislatures powers as a statewide and comprehensive way to regulate enforcement of traffic. Supporters said officers were needed to detect camera malfunctions and situations that clearly call for an exemption from ticketing.

Dayton police, whose use of traffic cameras goes back nearly 15 years, were already planning to soon resume using officer-manned fixed cameras at certain sites, saying traffic crashes had shot up after camera enforcement halted. Dayton is also among cities equipping some officers with new hand-held cameras to record violations.

Ohio has been a battleground for years in the debate across the United States over camera enforcement. Critics say cities use them to boost revenues while violating motorists rights. Supporters say they increase safety and free up police for other crime fighting.

Attorney Generals spokesman Dan Tierney said Wednesday the case couldnt be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court because it involved a solely state law.

(Associated Press reporter Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed.)

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AKRON, Ohio --An Akron man charged in a house fire that killed seven people was indicted on new charges related to a 2016 blaze that killed two more people, prosecutors said.

Stanley Ford, who was arrested a week after a May 15 house fire that killed two adults and five children, is now charged in an April 18, 2016 blaze that killed two adults, prosecutors said Thursday at a news conference.

Ford, 58, is now charged with more killings in the same case than anyone in Summit County history, prosecutors said.

"In the two fires, the victims were trapped and overcome by smoke with no way to escape," Summit County chief assistant prosecutor Margaret Scott said. "Never before in Summit County history has one man been charged with the murders of nine people."

Ford could face the death penalty if he is convicted of aggravated murder charges, prosecutors said. Ford is also charged with attempted aggravated murder, aggravated arson, cruelty to animals, arson and aggravated menacing.

Ford is scheduled to be arraigned on the new charges Aug. 2 in Summit County Common Pleas Court.

Ford has also been charged in a car fire that happened earlier this year on Russell Avenue. No one was hurt in that fire, police said.

Investigators declined to say how they linked Ford to the April 18, 2016 house fire that killed Lindell Lewis, 66, and Gloria Hart, 65, at a house on Fultz Street.

"It's going to be a complicated case, but I'm very proud of the work we've done," Akron Police Chief James Nice said.

That fire happened more than a year before the May 15 fire that killed Angela Boggs, 38; Dennis Huggins, 35; Jered Boggs, 14; Daisia Huggins, 6; Kylle Huggins, 5; Alivia Huggins, 3; and Cameron Huggins, 1, at another house on Fultz Street.

Ford continues to deny any involvement in the deadly fires, police said.

Investigators raided Ford's house days after the May 15 fire and were seen seizing gas containers.

Ford has lived in the community for 49 years and is married with two young children, his attorney Joseph Gorman previously said.

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AKRON, Ohio -- An Akron man who is accused of starting a house fire that killed seven people, including five children, is also linked to a second deadly blaze on the same street, prosecutors said.

Stanley Ford has been linked to an April 18, 2016 fire that killed Lindell Lewis, 66, and Gloria Hart, 65, at a house on Fultz Street, the Summit County Prosecutor's Office said in a news release.

Officials will release more information at a 10:30 a.m. news conference.

The fire happened more than a year before the May 15, 2017 fire that killed seven people at another house on Fultz Street.

Ford, 58, faces aggravated murder charges related to the 2017 blaze and remains in custody on $7 million bond.

The May 15 fire killed Dennis Huggins, 35; Angela Boggs, 38; Jered Boggs, 14; Daisia Huggins, 6; Kylle Huggins, 5; Alivia Huggins, 3; and Cameron Huggins, 1. All of the victims died of smoke inhalation, the Summit County Medical Examiner's office said.

The fire is tied as the deadliest blaze in Akron's history. Investigators raided his home just days after the fire. They carried gas containers out of Ford's home during the search.

Ford has lived in the community for 49 years and is married with two young children, his attorney Joseph Gorman previously said.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio - William Griswold, director of the Cleveland Museum of Art since 2014, likes the institution and the city so much he's signed a contract extending his job another seven years, through 2024.

The museum announced the deal Thursday, just a few weeks shy of Griswold's third anniversary as director.

"We think the world of him," Peter Raskind, the chairman of the museum's board of trustees, said Wednesday in an interview. "I can't tell you how excited I am to be announcing this news. The board is thrilled. We look forward to a really bright future for the Cleveland Museum of Art under Bill's leadership."

Griswold's reaction

Griswold, 57, said he was "surprised and flattered and thrilled" that the museum's trustees want him to stay a full decade.

He said the new seven-year contract would supersede the five-year agreement he signed when he arrived in 2014, after having left the Morgan Library & Museum in New York.

"I said I'm retiring in Cleveland, and now you know it's true," Griswold said, adding that he'll be 64 in seven years and would then "have to decide how much longer I want to do this kind of work."

The museum calls Griswold the ninth "permanent" director in its 101-year history. At times it has counted Deborah Gribbon, who led the museum in 2010 between Timothy Rub and David Franklin, as a director, which would make 10 the total.

Fading years of turnover

The agreement marks a conclusion to two decades of high turnover in which the museum has had five directors and four interim regimes while completing its eight-year, $320 million expansion and renovation.

There was no pattern behind the flux, but it left a cloud over Ohio's biggest art museum.

Reasons for the constant change in directors ranged from Robert Bergman's death from a blood ailment in 1999 to the surprise retirement of Katharine Reid in 2005, just before the museum broke ground on its expansion.

Timothy Rub, the popular and ambitious director from 2006 to 2009, left Cleveland to lead the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the only institution that could have pulled him away, he said at the time.

The Franklin years

Following Rub came Franklin, the former chief curator deputy director of the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, who left Cleveland after three years in 2013, following the revelation that he had lied to trustees to conceal an affair with a museum employee.

In 2015, the Globe and Mail of Toronto reported that Franklin was a curator for the Thomson Collection, assembled by David Thomson, chairman of Thomson Reuters Corp.

A 'message to staff'

Raskind said that he hoped the agreement with Griswold would be a positive signal to the museum's staff that the turmoil and intrigue of the Franklin years are very much over.

"People feel like they've been burned, and I completely understand that," he said. "We are trying to do everything we can to make sure it doesn't happen again, and we hope that message will be well received by all members of the staff and all other constituencies of the museum."

Raskind and the museum declined to discuss Griswold's compensation, which is likely in the mid-six figures.

Franklin was paid $437,161 in 2013, according to the museum's tax return. Griswold was paid $263,077 for his partial year of work in Cleveland in 2014, the latest year for which tax returns were readily available.

What he's done

On Griswold's watch, the museum celebrated its centennial in 2016 and rebuilt a curatorial and leadership staff that had also been affected by the turnover among directors - and the lure of other museums.

Griswold personally led negotiations with the governments of Cambodia and Italy resulting in the restitution of antiquities.

In both cases, the museum initiated the conversations following research by staff members that raised troubling questions about the provenance, or ownership history, of a 10th-century Cambodian sculpture of the Hindu monkey god Hanuman; and an ancient Roman marble head of Drusus Minor.

The museum has been in the black over the past three years, with a budget reaching $57 million in fiscal year 2016, the latest audited year.

Near record attendance

The museum's programs and exhibitions have boosted attendance into near-record territory, reaching 707,000 in 2016, the second-highest level since 1992, when the museum drew 719,620 visitors for its 75th-anniversary exhibitions on Egyptian art and the still-life paintings of Pablo Picasso.

Looking forward, Griswold said the museum is putting the final touches on a new strategic plan, the first in a decade.

Raskind said the plan examines how the museum can better serve its audiences while competing in an art market in which prices make it difficult to collect at the museum's rarefied level of quality.

Raskind said that he and the museum's trustees are more than convinced Griswold is the right person to tackle those and other tasks.

"I haven't met a person yet who doesn't like him," Raskind said. "He's personable, he's sociable. He's very skilled interpersonally. He's very thoughtful. Things don't slip through the cracks. He doesn't forget to call people. He follows through. When he says he's going to do something, he does it."

The career

Born in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Griswold grew up in nearby Camp Hill, where his father, Robert Edward Griswold, was a clinical chemist and his mother was a homemaker.

Griswold attended Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut, before earning a doctorate in art history from the Courtauld Institute of Art in London.

He worked in curatorial roles at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Morgan before holding administrative posts at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, and serving there as acting director in 2004-05.

He led the Minneapolis Institute of Arts from 2005 to 2007, before returning to the Morgan as its director from 2008 to 2014.

Of the offer to extend his appointment in Cleveland, Griswold said: "I am delighted because I think you know how I feel about this place and how much it means to me."
CLEVELAND, Ohio - For the first time in more than 20 years, Medical Mutual of Ohio's SuperMed network - and its 1.5 million members - will have access to the entire University Hospitals system.

Starting Oct. 1, the hospital system's main campus and the UH Bedford Medical Center will be part of Medical Mutual's SuperMed network and Medicare Advantage network. The businesses jointly announced their agreement Thursday morning.

For decades, the 650,000 Northeast Ohio members of the SuperMed plan have had access to UH's community hospitals and physicians. But they could not use the main campus hospitals or Bedford facilities without risking out-of-network charges, due to an exclusionary contract that Medical Mutual had with the Cleveland Clinic. That contract included steep cost increases for Medical Mutual if the insurer added UH to the SuperMed network.

But that contract expired years ago. And in an uncertain healthcare environment, insurers and hospitals are making changes to ensure sustainability.

"I wasn't sure this would ever become a reality," said Rick Chiricosta, Medical Mutual's chief executive officer. "If it weren't for the crazy environment that's going on in healthcare, I don't think it would have been possible."

The deal won't increase members' costs, Chiricosta said.

Under the new contract with UH, SuperMed members will have more continuous, cooperative care through the health system than they do today, said Tom Zenty, the hospital system's chief executive. Patients treated by UH primary-care doctors or at UH community hospitals will be able to access the UH Cleveland Medical Center in University Circle if their condition requires it, without fear of daunting bills for out-of-network services.

"From my perspective, this had been, in the past, a rather significant interruption in the continuity of care that patients would receive," Zenty said. "Now, all of those barriers have been removed across our entire health system."

The expansion will give patients access to UH's proton-therapy program, the child and adolescent cancer program and the cystic fibrosis program, among other services.

With this agreement, UH now is part of all major health insurance plans covering the region. And Medical Mutual's SuperMed network now includes all of the area's major health systems.

Both businesses said they expect to see an increase in customers - and a better competitive edge - as a result of the agreement.

Employers and patients with coverage through Medical Mutual might be more likely to choose University Hospitals after September because they won't face such high out-of-pocket costs for visiting the main hospital campus, Zenty said. And Medical Mutual believes employers might be more apt to pick the SuperMed network, with knowledge that employees with UH doctors will have full access, Chiricosta said.

The SuperMed network includes 24,000 primary-care physicians and 60,000 specialty-care physicians at more than 200,000 locations across the state.
CLEVELAND, Ohio - Members of the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus endorsed no incumbents for re-election in races for mayor of Cleveland and seats on City Council.

The caucus endorsed Councilman Jeff Johnson in the mayoral race. Johnson is one of eight people challenging Mayor Frank Jackson's re-election. It also made endorsements in seven of 17 City Council contests:

Former Councilman Joe Jones over incumbent Terrell Pruitt in Ward 1.

Carol Ford, who is affiliated with Service Employees International Union District 1199, for the open seat in Ward 2.

Gail Sparks, the director and founder of GOA Realty, over incumbent Ken Johnson in Ward 4.

Mansfield Frazier, a long-time Hough resident, writer, activist, radio personality and vineyard owner, over incumbent TJ Dow in Ward 7.

Michelle Burk, an SEIU-affiliated candidate, over City Council President Kevin Kelley in Ward 13.

Jasmin Santana, community engagement director for Hispanic Alliance Inc, over incumbent Brian Cummins in Ward 14.

Alex Karrfalt, an SEIU-backed candidate over incumbent Matt Zone in Ward 15.

Ellen Cleary over incumbent Brian Kazy in Ward 16.

The endorsements were decided by a vote of membership, the caucus said in a statement.

The lack of endorsements for incumbent candidates is not a surprise.

The caucus, a grassroots activist organization, supported establishing a $15-an-hour minimum wage for Cleveland and opposed a deal that would use city tax dollars to help finance renovations at Quicken Loans Arena.

The minimum wage for both public and private employers citywide was sought last year by Raise Up Cleveland and the Service Employees International Union. Jackson and most members of City Council opposed that proposal, saying that limiting the wage hike to just Cleveland would hurt the city economically.

Jeff Johnson supported the issue.

The effort was thwarted when the state legislature passed a bill allowing only the state to set a minimum wage that covered private employers. City leaders lobbied the legislature to pass the bill.

A Franklin County judge recently struck down the state's prohibition on city's enacting minimum wage limits, ruling that the legislation violated Ohio's constitutional requirement that bills address only one subject.

Twelve of 17 members of council - including Pruitt, Ken Johnson, Kelley, Cummins and Kazy -- supported the deal for upgrades at The Q.

The day after council's April 24 vote, Jackson signed legislation authorizing the deal and a contract with Cuyahoga County that committed admissions taxes the city collects at The Q.

Jeff Johnson opposed that legislation also.

The caucus is part of a coalition that is fighting in the Ohio Supreme Court to get a referendum on the Q deal on the November ballot. A ruling in that case is expected shortly.

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CLEVELAND, Ohio -- A Cleveland man is charged in an elaborate plot to swindle money from a downtown law firm, according to police reports.

The plot involved two schemers who forwarded the John J. Spellacy & Associates law firm's phone calls to another phone number. The men then tried to cash counterfeit checks at local banks, police said.

Antwain Jones, 44, was arrested July 20 at the Fifth Third Bank on Kinsman Road near Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Jones is charged with burglary, a second-degree felony, and is being held on $25,000 bond until his first appearance in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court.

Detectives have not identified the other man involved in the scheme.

The plot began at least one day earlier when two men walked into the law office on Lakeside Avenue near West 3rd Street, according to a police report.

The men were acting strange, and one asked to use the office's phone so he could have court paperwork faxed over. Office administrator Ann McCool said staff members were suspicious but allowed the man to use the phone.

After the pair left, the office's phones started to ring just once before stopping. Investigators later learned that call forwarding had been set up on the office's phone lines, the report says.

McCool called the office's phone number, and an unknown man answered and said "law office." Someone also tried to cash two $7,500 checks that appeared as if they belonged to the law office, Spellacy told cleveland.com.

Spellacy declined to speculate how the men obtained fake checks from his business. The incident is still being investigated.

Spellacy's account was flagged after the two check-cashing attempts, but Jones went to another bank the next day and tried to cash another $500 check, the police report says.

When a teller at Fifth Third Bank called the law office to verify the check, Jones' phone started to ring at the same time. The teller reached Spellacy at a different number and stalled Jones until police arrived to arrest him, the report says.

Spellacy credits his staff, bank employees and police in their response, which ultimately prevented any cash from being stolen from the business.

"It's pretty brazen, pretty bold, to walk into an office of lawyers who, on a day-to-day basis, do the best job they can for people in some sort of (trouble)," Spellacy said.

Jones' criminal history includes a series of drug convictions in Cuyahoga County, court records show.

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Trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire discusses performance techniques and styles.

Praised for a "chameleonic tone that can sigh, flutter or soar" (The Los Angeles Times), trumpeter, Ambrose Akinmusire (pronounced ah-kin-MOO-sir-ee) first caught the attention of saxophonist Steve Coleman as a high school student playing in the Berkeley (California) High School Jazz Ensemble. After graduating, Akinmusire moved to New York to attend the Manhattan School of Music and before he had turned eighteen, he had already performed with Joe Henderson, Joshua Redman, Steve Coleman and Billy Higgins. Coleman invited Akinmusire (only 19 at the time) to join his Five Elements band, with whom he toured Europe after which he pursued a Master's degree at the University of Southern California, He went on to attend the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, studying with Herbie Hancock, Wayne Shorter and Terence Blanchard, and in 2007, he won the prestigious Thelonious Monk International Jazz Competition as well as the Carmine Caruso International Jazz Trumpet Solo Competition. He returned to New York and performed with Vijay Iyer, Aaron Parks, Esperanza Spalding, and Jason Moran, and also he made his Blue Note debut, When The Heart Emerges Glistening (2011), to rave reviews. His 2014 follow up, the imagined savior is far easier to paint, was described by AllMusic as "a diverse range of carefully scripted, genre-blurring compositions - modern classical, vanguard pop, spoken word - in addition to jazz." A recipient of the Doris Duke Impact Award in 2014, Akinmusire's forward-reaching compositions have also earned him grants from the MAP Fund and the French-American Jazz Exchange and he was a Commissioned Artist for the Monterey Jazz Festival (2015), Hyde Park Jazz Festival (2015), and the Kennedy Center (2016). The New York Times described his music as existing in "the realm of poignant possibility & artful implication, and not a small amount of beauty." Joining him tonight are Sam Harris, piano; Harish Raghavan, bass; and Justin Brown, drums. Opening tonight's concert will be the winner of the first ever John Lewis Youth Piano Competition held the previous day at the African American Performing Arts Center.

Ambrose Akinmusire will also perform a free youth concert/lecture demonstration at 2pm at the South Broadway Cultural Center/John Lewis Auditorium. Free for youth 18 years and younger, Adults are welcome if accompanied by a youth.

Ambrose Akinmusire's performance is made possible, in part, by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Western Jazz Presenters Network (WJPN). The WJPN is a coalition of jazz presenters in the western region of North America dedicated to mutual support through networking, collective block-booking of touring jazz artists, professional development and advancement of the full diversity of the jazz field. www.westernjazz.org. Tonight's concert is also part of The John Aaron Lewis Legacy Project which is supported in part by a grant from the Urban Enhancement Trust Fund of the City of Albuquerque.
There are still five months left in 2017, but it looks like we already have our list of contenders for the Cronies of the Year Award.

Last night President Trump, Speaker Ryan, and Gov. Scott Walker announced Foxconn Technology Group would be building a display panel plant in Wisconsin. Gov. Walker said the deal is the single largest economic development project in the history of Wisconsin.

It will also be the biggest crony deal in Wisconsin history. The Daily Tribune reports that, state lawmakers must now consider a subsidy package nearly 50 times bigger than the states previous record.

Many other states competed for the honor, but Wisconsin won the opportunity to advance the cause of crony capitalism, a general term for the range of activities in which particular individuals or businesses in a market economy receive government-granted privileges over their customers and/or competitors.

There are a number of government-granted privileges individuals and businesses can receive that give them an unfair advantage: loan guarantees, tax privileges, bailouts (and expected bailouts), tariffs and quotas on foreign competition, noncompetitive bidding, subsidies, etc.

The government-granted privileges offered to Foxconn are a mix of different types reportedly worth $3 billion. The company agrees to create 13,000 jobs at an average of $53,900 a year and in return the taxpayers of Wisconsin subsidize the workers at a cost of $231,000 per job.

Even if in the long run the deal turns out to be profitable for Wisconsin, its still a moral loss for the state. The power of the government should not be used to determine winners and losers in business (a concept that Republicans tend to forget when they are back in power). A primary reason is that it forces consumers to pay a higher price for products than they normally would, since Foxconn chose the site of the plant not based on how it could minimize operating costs (and thus reduce the price of their products) but rather on basis of how it could maximize subsidies.

The free market should also be a level playing field, but because of cronyism Big Business is able to gain an advantage over over smaller firms. Not only will the small and medium size business in Wisconsin not be getting the same types of breaks, theyll be expected to fund the privileges given to Foxconn.

Does a company with revenues of $135 billion really need to be subsidized by Wisconsin taxpayers? Of course not. But corporations like Foxconn know that in the crony game its not about what the company needs, its about what politicians need. Trump needs to claim he brought jobs back to the US of A. Ryan needs to show he can use the federal connections to bring the goodies back to his home state. And Walker needs to be able to say he created jobs.

So what if the taxpayers get stuck with the bill? Thats a price the crony politicians are willing to pay.
How popular is populism in Europe? A new study reveals that populist parties have displaced traditional advocates of liberty among European voters. It also reveals the nations where populism attracts the greatest support.

The information is found in the 2017 Authoritarian Populism Index, released by the Swedish libertarian think tank Timbro, along with the European Policy Information Center.

The report refers to the philosophy of limited government, free markets, and respect for individual rights as Liberalism, in the European sense. In the United States, this is sometimes described as classical liberalism. And it has been outpaced by populism, the report states.

Authoritarian-Populism has overtaken Liberalism and has now established itself as the third ideological force in European politics, behind Conservatism/Christian Democracy and Social Democracy, according to the studys authors.

Researchers studied political parties espousing a populist message in all 33 nations ranked free by Freedom House. That includes all 28 present members of the European Union, as well as Iceland, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, and Switzerland.

They found that populist parties have nearly doubled their support over the last 20 years, commanding the votes of 55.8 million people, or 17.5 percent of voters. They also hold 1,342 of the 7,843 parliament seats available in the countries surveyed.

Parties advocating Liberalism have remained static at 12 percent support since 1997.

Timbro studied both right-wing and left-wing populist movements. Right-wing populism, such as Marine Le Pens National Front, may focus on ethnic or migration issues, while left-wing populism attacks corporate power. Yet both varieties seek to increase government economic intervention, wealth redistribution, and barriers to international trade.

Populist parties receive the greatest percentage of the vote in Hungary (65.2%), Poland (46.4%), Greece (45.1%), Switzerland (30.8%), Italy (28.2%), Cyprus (25.7%), Austria (24%), Spain (21.2%), and Denmark (21.2%).

Are supporters of liberty populist?

There are two phenomena in the report worth noting. First, the support for radical left-wing parties have fallen by two-thirds since 1980, according to Timbro. One suspects that the former radicals have simply rebranded themselves as populists.

Second, the reports definition of populism offers hope and a roadmap forward. Timbro defines populist parties by six markers:

1) the self-image that they are in conflict with a corrupt and crony elite; 2) a lack of patience with the rule of law; 3) a demand for direct democracy; 4) the pursuit of a more powerful state through police and military on the right and nationalisation of banks and big corporations on the left; 5) highly critical of the EU, immigration, globalisation, free trade and NATO; 6) the use of revolutionary language and promises of dramatic change.

By those criteria, supporters of liberty would score 50 percent on the populist scale.

We certainly see ourselves as in conflict with a corrupt, crony elite. Cronyism is fueled by large, remote government. The more taxpayer funds, contracts, and favors government has to distribute  and the more taxes, regulations, and sanctions it can impose  the greater the penchant for graft, bribery, and corruption. Classical liberalism would avoid this pitfall by constraining the state within strictly delimited boundaries.

Free marketeers are highly critical of the EU  and rightly so  with its tens of thousands of regulations, 18 percent tariffs on imported food, and an often imperious advocacy of an ever-closer union.

The rhetoric of classical liberals should not be considered revolutionary. It is rooted in the reality of human nature as described by revelation and manifest throughout history. Their proposals should be based in reality, with a strong infusion of prudence. But if the modern transatlantic sphere were to embrace a classical liberal outlook, it would experience dramatic change.

Liberty recognizes two of the main driving forces of the populist explosion: cronyism and global governance. And it prescribes the right cure. To prevail, its adherents must offer a different narrative than the shrill, envy-filled braying of homegrown demagogues. They must show the superiority of their prescriptions.

In a word, they must compete.

The report concludes that left- and right-wing anti-establishment parties are here to stay. Whether or not their authoritarian and illiberal ideas will spread too remains an open question.

That question hinges on the whether advocates of liberty will make a case for the views that have laid the bedrock upon which every other ideology contends.

(Photo credit: Thierry Ehrmann. This photo has been cropped. CC BY 2.0.)
Grace Cheng and Pedro Pla know how to stretch a dollar  or, more accurately, their credit card points. Thanks to savvy planning, they and their two children have already flown to five continents for free, and that's just in this year so far.

Cheng and Pla are the founders of GET.com, a website that helps travelers make the most of their credit card points through firsthand blogs, travel guides and a customizable credit card comparison tool. The site made eight figures within its first two years, according to the company.

In an interview with CNBC Make It, Cheng and Pla share their top tips and tricks for how credit card users can minimize travel expenses and make their credit card use more efficient overall.

1. Choose the right card

It's not enough to just choose any rewards card, according to the couple. Especially if you want to travel.

"If you want to use your rewards points to redeem for an air ticket, you will need to make sure that the credit card you are using allows you to convert points to real airline miles on the airline of your choice and at a favorable rate," they say. "This may seem obvious, but there are many cards that advertise themselves as 'miles' cards where miles can only be redeemed toward a statement credit on travel booked through certain sites."

They add that the amount of points one can earn will vary based on the credit card as well as the spending category, "such as air tickets, restaurants, supermarkets, etc., so it's important to use the card with the highest earn rate for each type of purchase you make."
Gulfstream parent General Dynamics said it's been taking longer to get new orders signed, but not for the reasons you might think. The wait is due in part to corporate boards taking their time to approve new business jet purchases.

Just when it looked like the business jet market was ready for take off, there are new challenges: corporate executives caught in a waiting game for their shiny new planes.

"We've got potential customers who are waiting on the sidelines," said General Dynamics CEO Phebe Novakovic. "It's simply just taking longer for a whole series of reasons  everything from the introduction of brokers to additional board approvals ... for fleet aircraft purchases."

Indeed, some boards may be slow to approve corporate jet purchases when they are still letting workers go or looking for ways to trim other expenses.

Novakovic didn't share customer names on the waiting list, but the company's Gulfstream G650, a $65 million aircraft, is one of the most popular high-end corporate jets on the market today.

Following the election of President Donald Trump (a long-time private flyer), some analysts had predicted that "anti-bizjet rhetoric" that began during the Great Recession would fade and make buying corporate jets hip again. But the waiting time for board approval may be a sign companies are in no rush to loosen the purse strings.

Analysts say there have been improvements in the overall business jet market, but new deliveries still remain well below the 2007 to 2008 peak.

The higher-end business jet market generally recovered faster after the Great Recession than the lower-end market, but it was then hurt again about two years ago by declining commodity prices, especially oil, as well as weakness from emerging markets.

A strengthening dollar also made it more expensive for international customers to buy U.S. planes.

Another factor that has impacted new deliveries has been elevated levels of pre-owned business jets on the market. It has allowed some buyers to get better pricing on aircraft this year.

"Used bizjet prices continue to ease, but this may reflect an increasing base of older and more heavily used aircraft for sale," Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr said in a note last week.

General Dynamics on Wednesday said Gulfstream aircraft deliveries in the first half of 2017 fell 6 percent compared with the year-ago period and second-quarter deliveries slid almost 17 percent against the year earlier. The biggest decline in the quarter was to the large-cabin aircraft segment, the company said.

That said, Novakovic said the company is "comfortable with the anticipated third-quarter orders based on early contract activity and contract discussion. The interest in the G650 and G650ER as well as the G550 remains quite good and supportive of next year's operating plan."

At the same time, Eric Trappier, CEO of French-based business jet manufacturer Dassault , was quoted by Reuters on Wednesday as saying in a news conference that "the recovery is uncertain."

Dassault manufactures the Falcon 8X, which competes in the ultra-long range business class with jets made by Gulfstream, Canada's Bombardier and others. Bombardier is scheduled to report its second-quarter financial results on Friday.
Despite his position as the chief of one of the world's top banks, Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat takes pride in not having an executive office of his own.

"I don't have an office. I've got a cubicle. It's a nice cubicle, but I've got a cubicle," Corbat tells "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer on Wednesday in a wide-ranging interview about his company.

A self-proclaimed believer in the power of communication, Corbat finds it critical to be able to connect with his employees in an increasingly digital world.

"In a day to day where people are tweeting, chatting and there's a distance in those communications, I want to create, construct, what we call 'constructive collisions' in our people's day," the CEO says.

Corbat says that at a massive company like Citi, which employs over 200,000 people worldwide, it is crucial to have information moving through the company, both from the top down and from the bottom up.

"We felt, as a leadership team, we can't ask people to give up their offices or what they do until we do it. So we went, we moved to cubicles, and I would say that while people were uncertain at the start, the team loves it," the CEO says. "Information flows, there's no doors, we come and go from each other's spaces, we hold meetings together, there's a trust factor there in terms of communication, and I think it's resonating in the rest of the firm."
Following Citigroup's first investor day since the 2008 recession, CEO Michael Corbat said his bank has been primarily focused on positioning itself to take advantage of a changing industry.

"We've repaired a lot of relationships," Corbat told "Mad Money" host Jim Cramer on Wednesday. "From a credit perspective, from an earnings perspective, from a business model perspective, we put the company through a massive restructuring, and now we're showing what the company can do."

Corbat said the goal has been to bring Citi back to its roots as a bank, done in part by exiting dozens of secondary businesses and scaling back some $800 million in core assets.

"If you look at how we've defined growth, we've gone from 60 consumer markets to 40, we've gone from covering 32,000 institutional clients to 14," the CEO said. "We think, within our own target client base, there's plenty of growth."

On top of that, Corbat said the bank aims to return at least $20 billion in capital to its shareholders via dividend increases and share buybacks in the next two years.

That said, Citi is no less involved in financial markets. Dubbing his bank "the largest mover of money in the world" as well as the largest global issuer of credit cards, Corbat suggested that with its efficient capital structure, Citi could lead the world into the next era of payments.

"Think about it: the world's largest mover of money, the world's biggest payment company. Think of the big data that we generate and the information we get and the view we get," he told Cramer. "We've got 120 million consumers who interact with us. We've got companies, governments, universities. We see all their flows. And our ability to take that data and use it ... and the investments we're making in technology we think pave the way for the future."

Corbat said that when Citi's management first set the goal of being "the best digital bank," they quickly amended that vision when they realized that everything in banking would eventually be digital.

Now, as financial companies from PayPal to Goldman Sachs race to capitalize on digital payment methods, Corbat finds Citigroup in a good spot to seize on those developments.

"We've got, probably, the best fintech laboratory in the world," the CEO said. "Three, four, five years from now, we're not going to be talking about credit cards. We're just going to be talking about digital payments."

And as the company undergoes employee churn, letting go of roughly 40,000 employees but adding 9,000 in its regulation and compliance division, Corbat said the focus remains on using technology to drive business.

"I would say that those areas, like many areas in banking today, remain ripe for the introduction of technology to help us and make us smarter. Artificial intelligence, robotics, all of those things we're using today, and we think there's a terrific trajectory in terms of how we can use them in the future."
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Just when Jim Cramer expects the transports to be rallying, they roll over, raising concerns about weakness in one of the market's most important sectors. "I can't do enough to stress just how important this sector is to any rally. Transports equal commerce," the "Mad Money" host said. related investing news After this week's big market rally, here's a rapid-fire update on all 32 stocks in our portfolio But one of the transport stocks could reveal boosts in its shipping business when it reports on Wednesday, and Cramer said it could be enough to lift the sector out of its rut. "As long as the transports are in trouble, we need to be at least a little worried about the whole market. So what's the best hope for a reversal in this super important cohort? I'd say it comes from United Parcel ," Cramer said. "People are expecting a very good quarter given the incredibly fast shift to e-commerce in this country. UPS should be a huge winner now that online is totally ascendant, but how many times has this company managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory? FedEx did a great job when it reported, but the stock's been stuck in neutral. Perhaps UPS can get it going again. My fingers are crossed."

Renewed Hope for the Market's Old Dogs

A McDonald's restaurant in Sydney, Australia. Jeff Greenberg | UIG | Getty Images

Several recent upside surprises from formerly struggling stocks made Cramer more open to the idea that maybe old dogs can, indeed, learn new tricks. "Every day in this market it seems like some old-line company surprises us with good news, causing investors to buy their stocks hand over fist. The resuscitation of these falling stars is what's behind a lot of the strength here," the "Mad Money" host said. From AT&T to McDonald's , Cramer proceeded to review how five unloved stocks are bouncing back into Wall Street's favor thanks to earnings-positive changes their companies are making.

Citigroup CEO: New Pathways for Growth

Michael Corbat, chief executive officer of Citigroup Inc.

Then, in a wide-ranging interview, CEO Michael Corbat told Cramer that his bank has been primarily focused on positioning itself to take advantage of a changing industry. "We've repaired a lot of relationships," Corbat said on Wednesday. "From a credit perspective, from an earnings perspective, from a business model perspective, we put the company through a massive restructuring, and now we're showing what the company can do." Corbat said the goal has been to bring Citi back to its roots as a bank, done in part by exiting dozens of secondary businesses and scaling back some $800 million in core assets.

Citigroup and Costco: An Accredited Match?

Getty Images

Corbat also touched on Citigroup's partnership with Costco. It may be old news, but the CEO still considers the deal, which the big bank took from competitor American Express , a huge success. Corbat said the deal with Costco to issue the retailer's branded credit cards was much larger than it may have initially seemed. "If I came in and said, 'Jim, let me tell you about a deal that we're gonna do. And that deal is going to be with a terrific partner, one of the best retailers in the world. And in that deal we're going to bring in $10, $11 billion of receivables. We're gonna bring in new cardholders. And those cardholders, in a single year, are going to spend $100 billion on that card,' think about it," Corbat said.

Polaris Industries: Total Recall?

Finally, Cramer grudgingly reviewed Polaris Industries , a manufacturer of snowmobiles, all-terrain vehicles and motorcycles that has had a wild ride over the last several years. From 2012 to 2015, shares of Polaris rallied 150 percent. But starting in 2015, the company's earnings, revenue and growth all slowed due to mishaps in costs, shipping and inventory that drove customers away and dramatically lowered the product prices. Following that, the company went through a series of recalls for its products over the next several years, even as earnings were improving. "Put it all together, and while I do think Polaris is turning things around, the story is just too risky for this guy. The recalls simply make this stock too dangerous," Cramer said. "I have to give CEO Scott Wine and his team credit for getting Polaris out of a really bad situation, but as long as these product recalls keep coming, I think now the stock is just too risky to own because execution matters. And the execution here? Well, you fill in the blank."

Lightning Round: Could a New CEO Make GE Surge?
U.S. media company Discovery Communications in the lead to acquire U.S. cable TV network owner Scripps Network Interactive , people familiar with the matter said on Wednesday.

Discovery has after prevailing over a rival offer from Viacom , another U.S. media company, one of the sources said.

While a deal could come as early as next week, negotiations are ongoing and no agreement is certain, the sources added.

The exact value of Discovery's offer could not be learned, but sources said it is a cash-and-stock bid, comprising mostly cash, and valuing Scripps in the region of $90 per share.

The sources asked not to be identified because the negotiations are confidential. Viacom, Scripps and Discovery declined to comment.
Insulting Apology

It was bad enough that Imam Shahin said these things. It is even worse that the Islamic Center of Davis insulted the American people even further with a non-apology apology.

Here are a few excerpts from the apology? and some relevant challenges:

The ICD states: The ICD will always stand against anti-semitism similarly to how the Jewish community has always stood against Islamophobia in our close knit community. We have zero tolerance for anti-Semitism or any other form of bigotry.?

Response: If the ICD is so opposed to antisemitism, then why did its members allow Imam Shahin to continue with his sermon? If the ICD has zero tolerance for bigotry, then why did the center post a video of the hateful sermon on its website? Did its leadership not recognize the incitement for what it was?

The ICD states: He also addressed the recent horrific events including the illegal closure, occupation, and attacks against Al-Aqsa Mosque, in addition to the killing and injuring of Muslim worshipers, including the wounding of the Imam of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the prevention of worship and the call to prayer at the Mosque. Specifically, the Imam was referring to individuals that are contributing to this oppression.?

Response: Why is the ICD ignoring the relevant facts about the events at Al Aqsa Mosque? The recent conflict began with the murder of two Israeli policemen by jihadists who took refuge in the mosque after the attack. Why didnt Imam Shahin condemn the jihadist murderers who killed two policemen in cold blood? And it was the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem who called on worshippers to refrain from praying at the mosque after Israel installed metal detectors, not Israel. Along these lines, will Imam Shahin condemn the murder of three Israeli Jews in Halamish by a Palestinian incited by inflammatory remarks from Palestinian leaders? The terrorist who committed these murders could very well point to Imam Shahins sermon as justification for his murders.

The ICD states: MEMRI, an extremist agenda driven organization that supports Israel's occupation of Palestinian land, and other Islamophobic news organizations, accused Imam Shahin of anti-Semitism, quoting edited, mistranslated, passages of the sermon out of context.?

Response: If MEMRI got it wrong, exactly how? Did Imam Shahin ask Allah to kill and/or destroy Jews?

And exactly how were his statements taken out of context? And if MEMRI did take his statements out of context, then why did the ICD take the sermon down? Wouldnt keeping the sermon up provide people with the evidence they needed to see that Imams Shahins statements were taken out of context? The fact is, the ICD was wrong to even post the video on the internet, and did the right thing in taking it down, because one way or another, Imam Shahin called for the deaths of Jews. MEMRI got it right and everyone knows it.

The ICD states: MEMRIs video included an edited segment about a Prophetic tradition dealing with the apocalyptic battle between Jesus and the Antichrist. Prophetic traditions addressing the end of times are not meant to address modern conflicts, the Imam was using the tradition to address unity and coming back to the faith.?

Response: If prophetic traditions addressing end times are not meant to address modern conflicts,? then why did the Imam pray that modern-day Muslims have a hand on the destruction of modern-day Jews when he said, "Oh Allah, liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. Oh Allah, make this happen by our hands. Let us play a part in this. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds. Oh Allah, let us support them in words and in deeds."

This is clearly a call for Allah to bring about murders of Jews and for Muslims to participate in this project  in current time.

Who really needs to be told that traditions addressing end times are not meant to address modern conflicts  Imam Shahin or people who are shocked at his speech?

The ICD states: During these emotional times its important for all parties to use restrained language and maintain respect.?

Response: Does asking Allah to annihilate and/or destroy Jews qualify as restrained language?? Does it help maintain respect? to cite hateful passages from the hadith that promote genocidal hostility toward Jews and apply them to modern-day conflicts? Again, who needs to be told about the importance of restrained language? and respect?  Imam Shahin or his shocked listeners?

Conclusion

It is time for the members of the Islamic Center of Davis to come to grips with what really happened at their house of worship. Their leader called for the murder of people in the name of God. The ICDs weak apology indicates they have a lot of soul-searching to do before they come to grips with this reality.

July 28, 2017 Note: The Islamic Center of Davis has removed the apology from its website. The link is to the text archived on the Wayback Machine maintained by archive.org.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley appeared to send a warning to the White House on Wednesday evening: If you fire Jeff Sessions, we won't confirm you a new attorney general anytime soon.

In a message on Twitter, the Republican senator from Iowa said that "everybody in D.C." should be "warned" that the Judiciary Committee schedule was already set for the remainder of 2017, and therefore there was "no way" discussions about a new attorney general could be held.

Chuck Grassley Tweet: Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way

President Donald Trump has ratcheted up the pressure on his own attorney general in recent days, publicly criticizing Sessions in multiple interviews, messages and forums.

In March, Sessions said he would recuse himself from any current or future investigations related to Trump's election campaign amid backlash over his testimony about contacts with Russia. In congressional testimony, he appeared to mislead senators about his contact with Sergey Kislyak, Russian ambassador to the United States.

Critics questioned whether Sessions could be impartial in investigations related not only to Trump's campaign, but also the president's conduct more broadly, due to his former role as an advisor to Trump's campaign.

Sessions insisted that he stepped back from the Russia investigation only because of Justice Department rules related to his role in the Trump campaign, not because of his contacts with Kislyak.

Either way, Trump has been critical of that decision.

"He should not have recused himself almost immediately after he took office, and if he was going to recuse himself he should have told me to prior to taking office, and I would've quite simply picked somebody else," Trump said earlier this week.

Trump has also publicly called out his attorney general for not doing certain things:

Donald J. Trump Tweet: Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!

CNBC's Jacob Pramuk contributed to this report.
At the beginning of the year, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set a goal to visit every state in the U.S. so he could learn more about the millions of people who use the social network every day. But two of his employees tell The Guardian that they wonder when the billionaire is going to get to know his own community.

The employees, a married couple named Nicole and Victor, are both contract workers in the cafeteria at Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif. headquarters. And they wish they, and the problems closer to home, could also get a share of Zuckerberg's attention.

"He should learn what's happening in this city," Nicole tells The Guardian.

The couple says they can barely make ends meet. Together with their three children, Nicole and Victor share a two-car garage adjacent to Victor's parents' home. They borrow money from friends and family to stay afloat and occasionally resort to payday loans.

Although they earn too much to qualify for state benefits, they don't earn enough to afford Facebook's health care plan.
The American dream may not be dead, but it is changing.

Automation and outsourcing mean that a high school diploma no longer guarantees the type of well-paid work it previously did in many places across the U.S. Now, the majority of high-paying jobs require at least a college degree.

According to The Wall Street Journal, "The number of good jobs for non-college graduates rose to 30 million in 2015 from 27 million in 1991, but the labor market grew, too. By 2015, the share of all good jobs that went to non-college graduates fell to 45 percent from 60 percent in 1991leaving 45 million workers in low-paying, sometimes part-time roles that don't offer a path to the middle class."

The average person might fear that all is lost in today's economy if you can't afford, or don't want to pursue a college degree. But according to a new report by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce, that's not necessarily the case.

For those with a high school degree, some college experience or an associate's degree, there are 30 million well-compensated jobs out there, which according to the Georgetown University research team pay a minimum of $35,000 and an average of $55,000 per year.
Jeff Bezos, now the world's richest man with a net worth of over $90 billion, loves books. For one, the company that made him a multi-billionaire started as an online book retailer. He's spent his career changing the way books are published and sold, devouring many small bookstores in the process. But on a more personal level, the Amazon founder and CEO also has an abiding love of reading, and it has played a key role in forming him as a leader. In biography "The Everything Store," author Brad Stone describes how books shaped Bezos' leadership style and way of thinking. In fact, Stone writes that there's a list of books Amazon employees refer to as "Jeff's Reading List." It includes autobiographies, business and technology reads and even a novel, and according to Stone, many Amazon executives have made their way through these volumes.

1. "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro

Ishiguro's novel is a first-person narrative told by a butler who recalls his time serving in the army during the first World War. The book explores the meaning of duty, the pursuit of greatness and the sacrifices that come with both. Stone writes that it is Bezos' favorite novel. "Bezos has said he learns more from novels than nonfiction," Stone writes.

2. "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by Jim Collins

This famous management read explains how companies that succeed build environments where "employees who embrace the central mission flourish," Stone writes.

The key thing about a book is that you lose yourself in the author's world. Jeff Bezos founder and CEO, Amazon

3. "Creation: Life and How to Make It" by Steve Grand

"A video game designer argues that intelligent systems can be created from the bottom up if one devises a set of primitive building blocks," Stone writes. "The book was influential in the creation of Amazon Web Services, or AWS, the service that popularized the notion of the cloud."

4. "Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap  and Others Don't" by Jim Collins

Author and business consultant Collins briefed Amazon executives on many of the principles in this book before its publication, according to Stone. It explains how "companies must confront the brutal facts of their business, find out what they are uniquely good at and master their flywheel, in which each part of the business reinforces and accelerates the other parts."

5. "The Innovator's Dilemma" by Clayton Christensen

In this book, Christensen argues that companies improve by embracing disruptive innovation. Michael Bloomberg, founder and CEO of the eponymous company, once described the book as "absolutely brilliant." "An enormously influential business book whose principles Amazon acted on and that facilitated the creation of the Kindle and [Amazon Web Services]," Stone writes. "Some companies are reluctant to embrace disruptive technology because it might alienate customers and undermine their core business, but Christensen argues that ignoring potential disruption is even costlier."

6. "Sam Walton: Made in America" by Sam Walton

"In his autobiography, Walmart's founder expounds on the principles of discount retailing and discusses his core values of frugality and a bias for action  a willingness to try a lot of things and make many mistakes," Stone writes. "Bezos included both in Amazon's corporate values."

7. "Lean Thinking: Banish Waste and Create Wealth in Your Corporation" by James Womack and Daniel Jones

This book explores how major American, European and Japanese companies applied a series of "lean thinking" principles in an attempt to cut costs and boost efficiency to survive the 1991 recession and grow over the rest of the decade.

8."Memos from the Chairman" by Alan Greenberg

"[The book is] a collection of memos to employees by the chairman of the now defunct investment bank Bear Stearns," Stone writes. "In his memos, Greenberg is constantly restating the bank's core values, especially modesty and frugality."

9. "The Mythical Man-Month" by Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.

"An influential computer scientist makes the counterintuitive argument that small groups of engineers are more effective than larger ones at handling complex software projects," Stone writes.

10. "The Goal: A Process of Ongoing Improvements" by Eliyahu Goldratt

"An exposition of the science of manufacturing written in the guise of the novel, the book encourages companies to identify the biggest constraints in their operations," Stone writes, "and then structure their organizations to get the most out of those constraints."



11. "Data-Driven Marketing: The 15 Metrics Everyone in Marketing Should Know" by Mark Jeffery

"[This is] a guide to using data to measure everything from customer satisfaction to the effectiveness of marketing," Stone writes. "Amazon employees must support all assertions with data, and if the data has a weakness, they must point it out or their colleagues will do it for them."



12. "The Black Swan" by Nassim Taleb

"The scholar argues that people are wired to see patterns in chaos while remaining blind to unpredictable events, with massive consequences. Experimentation and empiricism trumps the easy and obvious narrative," Stone writes.

For Bezos, the most important thing a book can provide is an escape. "The key thing about a book is that you lose yourself in the author's world," Bezos tells The Washington Post. Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook. Check out the No. 1 takeaway from Bill Gates and Warren Buffett's favorite book
On Thursday, Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became the richest person in the world. Worth more than $90 billion, according to Forbes, he took the top spot from Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, thanks to recent jumps in the value of Amazon stock. But Bezos hasn't always been the billionaire titan he is today. He was born the son of a 16-year-old mom and deadbeat dad. And he didn't set out to be the CEO of an e-commerce juggernaut.

Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos Photo by Bloomberg

"I won the lottery with my mom. Thanks for literally everything, Mom"

Jeff Bezos was born on January 12, 1964, as Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen. His biological dad, Ted Jorgensen, met and started dating his mother, Jacklyn Gise, when they were both in high school. Jorgensen was 18 and Gise was 16 when she became pregnant. They flew to Mexico with their parents' money to get married. Jorgensen belonged to a unicycle troupe and worked at a retail store making $1.25 an hour, so he didn't have much money. He was also "had a habit of drinking too much," according to "The Everything Store: Jeff Bezos and the Age of Amazon," by journalist and biographer Brad Stone. When Jeff Bezos was 17 months old, his mom divorced Jorgensen. In 1968, Gise remarried Miguel Bezos, who arrived in Miami in 1962 from Cuba knowing only one word of English: "hamburger." Jorgensen agreed to let Bezos adopt his son and, at 4 years old, Jeffrey Preston Jorgensen became Jeffrey Preston Bezos. Biographer Stone suggests that Bezos' childhood may have contributed to his obsession with success. "It is of course unknowable whether the unusual circumstances of his birth helped to create that fecund entrepreneurial mix of intelligence, ambition, and a relentless need to prove himself. Two other technology icons, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison, were adopted, and the experience is thought by some to have given each a powerful motivation to succeed," Stone writes.

Growing up, Bezos spent summers with his grandparents on their Texas ranch, he says in the commencement speech he gave at Princeton in 2010. "I helped fix windmills, vaccinate cattle, and do other chores. We also watched soap operas every afternoon, especially 'Days of our Lives,'" says Bezos. Bezos would also occasionally get to road trip with his grandparents. "My grandparents belonged to a Caravan Club, a group of Airstream trailer owners who travel together around the U.S. and Canada. And every few summers, we'd join the caravan," Bezos says in graduation speech. "We'd hitch up the Airstream trailer to my grandfather's car, and off we'd go, in a line with 300 other Airstream adventurers. I loved and worshipped my grandparents and I really looked forward to these trips."

Launching Amazon: "I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice"

Bezos got straight As in high school, was the valedictorian of his class and was accepted early admission to Princeton, according to Stone's biography. For a time in college, he thought he would be a theoretical physicist. But it was years later, while working in finance in New York City that he had the idea to start Amazon. "I came across the fact that Web usage was growing at 2,300 percent per year. I'd never seen or heard of anything that grew that fast, and the idea of building an online bookstore with millions of titles  something that simply couldn't exist in the physical world  was very exciting to me," says Bezos, in his 2010 Princeton address. At the time, Bezos was just 30 and had been married for a year. "I told my wife MacKenzie that I wanted to quit my job and go do this crazy thing that probably wouldn't work since most startups don't, and I wasn't sure what would happen after that," he says.

After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice. Jeff Bezos founder of Amazon, Blue Origin

His wife told him to go for it. "As a young boy, I'd been a garage inventor. I'd invented an automatic gate closer out of cement-filled tires, a solar cooker that didn't work very well out of an umbrella and tinfoil, baking-pan alarms to entrap my siblings," he says. "I'd always wanted to be an inventor, and she wanted me to follow my passion." But not everyone was on board. Bezos boss took a walk through Central Park and told Bezos that, while it sounded like a "really good idea," it would be an even better idea for somebody who didn't already have a good career. "That logic made some sense to me, and he convinced me to think about it for 48 hours before making a final decision," says Bezos. "Seen in that light, it really was a difficult choice, but ultimately, I decided I had to give it a shot. I didn't think I'd regret trying and failing. And I suspected I would always be haunted by a decision to not try at all. "After much consideration, I took the less safe path to follow my passion, and I'm proud of that choice."

The early days of Amazon: "I thought maybe one day we would be able to afford a forklift"

When Amazon first started, it sold only books. Bezos would drive the packages to the post office himself in his 1987 Chevy Blazer. "I thought maybe one day we would be able to afford a forklift," Bezos tells Charlie Rose in a wide-ranging interview in 2016. "And it is very, it's very, very different today." After books, the next items Bezos added to Amazon were music and videos. Then, he asked customers to see what else they would want to buy from the online retailer. "I sent an email message out to the customer base, actually a thousand randomly selected customers, and I said, besides books, music and video, what would you like to see us sell? And the list came back incredibly long," explains Bezos. "It was basically just whatever the person had on their mind right now," says Bezos, and that sparked an idea.

"One of customers said, 'I wish you sold windshield wipers because I need windshield wipers for my car.' A light kind of went on in my head. You know, people  people will want to use this new fangled e-commerce way of shopping for everything," Bezos says to Rose. "People are very convenience-motivated," says Bezos. "So that really started the kind of the expansion into all categories, consumer electronics, and then apparel, and so on." Expand he did. Today, Amazon sells almost everything. From toilet paper to groceries to electronics to fashion to furniture. When Bezos enters a new product category, he is not intimidated by a lack of expertise. "I am never disappointed when we're not good at something because I think, well think how good it's going to work when we are good at it," Bezos tells Rose. "And the apparel is like that. There is so much opportunity. Nobody really knows how to do a great job of offering  apparel online yet. And we have tons of invention and ideas and working our way through that experimental list."

Amazon's North star: "Customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession"

Bezos has always been a rare combination of optimistic, idealistic and visionary. Back in 2003, while much of the tech industry was still hungover from the dot-com bust, Bezos was aggressively foretelling the potential of the Internet. "I do think there's more innovation ahead of us than there is behind us," says Bezos in a TED Talk he gave that year. "We're very, very early."

As Bezos charged full force into the Wild West that was the Internet then, he was  and still is today  guided by a single belief: Do what is best for the customer. "Thing that connects everything that Amazon does is the number one  our number one conviction and idea and philosophy and principle which is customer obsession, as opposed to competitor obsession. And so we are always focused on the customer, working backwards from the customer's needs, developing new skills internally so that we can satisfy what we perceive to be future customer needs," Bezos tells Rose. Another through line to Bezos' business strategy is his "willingness to think long-term," he says. "We are very happy to invest in new initiatives that are very risky, for five to seven years, which most companies won't do that," Bezos tells Rose. "It's the combination of the risk-taking and the long-term outlook that make Amazon, not unique, but special in a smaller crowd." Finally, he's obsessive about finding problems and fixing them. "Taking real pride in operational excellence, so just doing things well, finding defects and working backwards  that is all the incremental improvement that in business, most successful companies are very good at this one. ... [Y]ou don't want to ever let defects flow downstream," Bezos says to Rose. "That is a key part of doing a good job in any business in my opinion."

From e-commerce to media

As consumer behavior on the web has evolved, so, too has Amazon. Prime, the e-commerce's popular two-day shipping membership comes with access to premium television shows, for example. Being a content creator built on the back of an e-commerce giant gives Amazon freedom to be creative. For example, one of Amazon's most popular shows, "Transparent," is about a patriarch who becomes a woman later in life. It's won eight Emmys and been nominated for another 28. "A show like 'Transparent' which has won Golden Globes and Emmys is not ever  it is not a show that could be successfully done on broadcast TV, because broadcast TV needs a much bigger audience," says Bezos to Rose. "And so you can actually think about the creative process a little differently. You can attract different storytellers. You can go for stories that are narrower but incredibly powerful and well told." In addition to producing online shows, Bezos is also the owner of another kind of content: journalism. Through his Nash Holdings LLC, he bought the Washington Post in 2013 for $250 million. "I bought it because it's important," says Bezos. "I would never buy a financially upside down salty snack food company. You know, that doesn't make any sense to me. But The Washington Post is important. And so it makes sense to me to take something like that, and I also am optimistic. And I thought there were some ways to make it  I want it to be a self-sustaining, profitable enterprise," Bezos says to Rose. "And I think it can be done." Bezos' empire now stretches far and wide. Amazon, which currently has a market cap of about $500 billion, agreed to buy Whole Foods last month and also owns companies like Zappos and Twitch. Through Bezos Expeditions, he's also invested in companies like Twitter and Basecamp, among many others.

The final frontier: "I fell in love with the idea of space and space exploration and space travel when I was 5"
Incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci on Wednesday evening called the "leak" of his financial disclosure form a "felony," saying that he would be contacting the FBI and Justice Department about the matter.

The disclosure, however, is a public document, multiple commentators pointed out.

Late on Wednesday, Politico reported findings from the former hedge fund star's disclosure, noting that the 53 year-old had earned $4.9 million from his ownership stake in SkyBridge Capital and more than $5 million in salary between January 2016 and the end of June this year.

The disclosure form, which was filed with the Office of Government Ethics, hadn't been previously reported, Politico said. It's not clear how Politico obtained the document.

"In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45," he said in the message.

Scaramucci's post was removed shortly after it began to garner attention online.

Many immediately responded to the post by saying that financial disclosure forms were not classified information, suggesting the "felony" label was unnecessary.

@Scaramucci @FBI @TheJusticeDept @Reince45 Your financial disclosure report is a public document http://archive.is/F35zX#selection-65.0-309.19

Individuals wanting to access financial disclosures for White House officials must fill out an online form. The White House stipulates that any use of a disclosure for any commercial purposes, "other than by news and communications media for dissemination to the general public," is unlawful.
It's never a good day when drugs don't appear to work, and that was the case Thursday for an experimental combination of AstraZeneca medicines designed to treat lung cancer.

AstraZeneca shares fell 15 percent after the British drugmaker said its highly anticipated clinical trial, called MYSTIC, failed to show its two-drug combination extended progression-free survival, a measure of how long patients live without their cancer growing, compared with standard-of-care chemotherapy.

In London trading, it was the stock's biggest drop ever.

The combination was seen as AstraZeneca's ticket to catch up to leaders in immunotherapy, a new way of treating cancer that unleashes the power of the body's own immune system. The British drug giant had been seen as behind in a race dominated by Bristol-Myers and Merck , with Roche, Pfizer and others on their tails.

The results Thursday don't bode well for AstraZeneca's approach, and they affected other stocks as well.
An attendee checks the conference schedule on his phone as he waits for a keynote address during the Black Hat information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 26, 2017.

In a dark conference room lit up by large electronic screens scattered across the walls, dozens of engineers are huddled over computers, trying to safeguard their network from hackers. The room is the Black Hat Network Operations Center at the Mandalay Bay Hotel in Las Vegas, where 15,000 cybersecurity professionals from companies like FireEye and RSA are gathered for the Black Hat Conference. The room is not for show; for most of the attendees, the threat of getting hacked is real.

"In security, there's a general belief we all have  it's not whether or not you will be breached or attacked, it's a matter of when," says Haiyan Song, senior vice president and general manager at Splunk, a cybersecurity company.

According to the Identity Theft Resource Center, the number of U.S. data breaches so far this year hit a half-year record of 791, which is 29 percent higher from this time last year.

Amid those figures, experts seem to have a bleak view of the state of information security. A survey of the top leaders at the Black Hat conference found 60 percent believe a successful cyberattack on U.S. critical infrastructure will likely occur in the next two years. Examples of critical infrastructure include power grids, traffic signals, dams, or nuclear power plants.

Industry watchers say applying digital technology to operate critical infrastructure like utilities, energy, or telecom can be a cyber hazard.

"When you combine old tech with new tech, it almost always creates vulnerabilities," says Carson Sweet, co-founder and chief technology officer at cybersecurity startup CloudPassage.

The experts behind the study say part of the reason for the pessimism in the industry is that hackers are getting more potent.

"Cyberattacks are definitely increasing because they're becoming more effective," says Steve Wylie, general manager of Black Hat. "And I don't think that enterprises have the tools necessary to handle them."

Security pros are worried about governments getting involved in hacks. 70 percent of those surveyed in the Black Hat poll also said recent examples of state-sponsored cyber attacks  from allegations of Russian election hacking to North Korea's possible involvement in the Wanna Cry attack  have eroded their confidence in the security of critical infrastructure. Only 26 percent believe the White House will have a positive impact on cybersecurity policy.

Michael Chertoff, the former Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, says while the risks are great, he doesn't necessarily believe a significant hack on U.S. critical infrastructure is imminent. One way companies are fighting back, he says, is by elevating the top IT leaders to the C-suite, in the Chief Information Security Officer (CISO) position.

"I think as we've seen an elevation of some of these attacks, and serious impacts on businesses, there's an understandable desire from the board of directors and CEO's to have somebody who owns the responsibility of security," he says.

Still, some say companies need to go further, but doing more "hygiene" checks of their networks, and arming those CISO's with large enough teams to battle those digital predators.
A Union Jack flag flies near the Elizabeth Tower, commonly referred to as Big Ben, at the Houses of Parliament in central London, U.K., on March 29, 2017. Justin Tallis | AFP | Getty Images

The free movement of people between the U.K. and the European Union will come to an end in March 2019 after the completion of Brexit, a U.K. minister said on Thursday. Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said that the government would introduce a "new system of immigration" by the time the U.K. left the EU, which is estimated to be in two years' time. "Free movement of labor ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019. I'll be very clear about that," he told BBC Radio 4's Today program on Thursday. "Obviously there's a period of negotiation we're undergoing with the European Union at the moment, but we're very clear that free movement ends  it's part of the four key principles of the European Union  when we leave."

Lewis appeared to contradict U.K. Home Secretary Amber Rudd, who announced an "implementation period" for when the country leaves the monetary union, to ensure there is no "cliff edge" for businesses and employers. Rudd commissioned a study of the costs and benefits of European immigrants to the U.K. economy to come from the country's independent Migration Advisory Committee. "We must keep attracting the brightest and best migrants from around the world," she wrote in an article for the Financial Times newspaper. "We must implement a new immigration system after we leave the EU which gives us control and works in all of our interests."

British Prime Minister Theresa May signs the official letter to European Council President Donald Tusk invoking Article 50 and the United Kingdom's intention to leave the EU on March 28, 2017 in London, England. Prime Ministry of the United Kingdom | Anadolu Agency | Getty Images

Position differentiates government from opposition

The immigration minister noted that this position differentiated the ruling Conservative Party from others, saying that the opposition Labor Party wanted the country to remain a member of the single market and maintain freedom of movement. "We're very clear that the British people, when they voted in that referendum, wanted  part of the key issue as many people saw it  having control of our borders, but at the same time I do believe it's right," Lewis said. "The people do understand, we want our businesses to be able to have a proper process, and to have an ability to bring in the bright and the best, we have a good track record of doing that in this country and we want to continue that." The minister's remark followed comments made in The Times of London newspaper, in which he said the new immigration system "must and will allow the government to take back control of who is coming here from Europe and help us bring down net migration to sustainable levels".

What do U.K. businesses want?

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has said that it wants European workers' rights to be protected as part of Rudd's examination into the benefits of EU migrants to the British economy. "Workers from across Europe strengthen our businesses and help our public services run more smoothly  any new migration system should protect these benefits while restoring public confidence," Josh Hardie, deputy director general at CBI, said in a statement on Thursday.

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Buffalo Wild Wings ' proxy battle may be over, but nearly two months later the company is still fighting to convince investors that it can forge a successful turnaround.

A weaker-than-expected earnings report and a lower forecast for this year caused shares of the company to plummet in trading Thursday, with the stock recently down about 10 percent.

The chicken wing chain's miss was sizable. The company posted adjusted earnings of 66 cents per share on $500 million in revenue, while analysts had forecast that the company would report earnings of $1.05 per share on $513 million in revenue.

In addition, Buffalo Wild Wings saw same-store sales of its company-owned restaurants fall 1.2 percent and same-store sales at franchised locations drop 2.1 percent in the quarter. The company was expected to see flat same-store sales in its company-owned stores and growth of about 0.1 percent in its franchised locations.

CEO Sally Smith blamed "historically high" chicken wing prices and a shake-up of the company's menu promotions for the weaker-than-expect sales. Smith said in June that she will resign from her post by the end of the year.

"As traditional chicken wing costs remain at historically high levels, we're adapting our value day on Tuesday to feature our boneless wings at company-owned restaurants," Smith said in a statement Wednesday. "Due to our disappointing second-quarter earnings and an outlook for slowing traffic as we manage through the Tuesday promotional change, we are lowering our 2017 earnings outlook.

Buffalo Wild Wings also slashed its 2017 outlook. Net income is expected to be between $4.00 and $4.50 per share, down from prior exceptions of $5.20 to $5.50 per share.

On an adjusted basis, the company said it will earn $4.50 to $5.00 a share this fiscal year. Previously, the company forecast adjusted earnings of $5.45 to $5.90 per share for the year.

In addition, the company said it now expects its same-store sales to be down about 1 percent to 2 percent for the year. Last quarter, Buffalo Wild Wings said that same-store sales would be up 1 percent.

Smith was "optimistic" about the company's plans to transition to boneless wings, which she said will provide a "more stable promotional platform for the future."

The company said that traditional wings account for about 31 percent of Buffalo Wild Wings costs, while boneless wings are about 13 percent. Both types of wings bring in nearly identical revenue for the company, although customers have begun to favor boneless wings, COO James Schmidt said.

Buffalo Wild Wings is testing promotions for the boneless wings in several markets in an effort to boost its margins.

The company said that traditional wing prices were $2.05 per pound, up 6 percent from last year, and forecasts that prices will rise to $2.13 per pound for the rest of the year.

"We believe Buffalo Wild Wings results this quarter once again demonstrate the challenges of a mature casual dining brand as it transitions away from a growth concept," Peter Saleh, analyst at BTIG, wrote in a research note Thursday. "While we are encouraged by some of the previously announced cost savings efforts, we continue to be confounded by the magnitude of downward pressure on earnings the promotional strategy and other factors have caused."

"While optimistic about the brand's longer-term prospects, we hesitate to assume the path to achieving better financial performance will be straightforward amid a choppy casual dining backdrop," David Tarantino, a Baird analyst, wrote in a research note Wednesday. "As such, even though we consider Buffalo Wild Wings an interesting value for patient investors at prospective levels, we prefer to wait for signs of better fundamentals before adopting a more constructive near-term investment recommendation."

Tarantino lowered his earnings estimate to $4.55 per share and revised his price target to $127, down from $140.
Rep. Joe Kennedy (D-MA) speaks during a press conference condemning the new ban on transgendered servicemembers on July 26, 2017 in Washington, DC.

"There will be no modifications to the current policy until the president's direction has been received by the secretary of defense and the secretary has issued implementation guidance," said Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs.

Regardless, the top officer of the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued an internal memo on Thursday that was obtained by NBC News , and it indicated no immediate changes were planned on the policy.

Some reports such as Politico 's have suggested Trump is using the transgender military ban issue to energize support in the House from Republicans for his border wall.

Trump tweeted his ban Wednesday and followed it up by adding the military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

President Donald Trump's sudden move to ban transgender people from the U.S. military is generating widespread controversy, and even the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Thursday pushed back on any immediate changes.

Even so, a Rand Corporation study released last year looked at the impact of transgender people serving in the U.S. military and found "the number would likely be a small fraction of the total force and have minimal impact on readiness and health care costs."

The nonpartisan think tank's study was originally sponsored by the Obama-led Pentagon at a time when the military was looking at the transgender issue.

"We identified that less than 0.1 percent of the force would seek the type of treatments that would affect their ability to deploy," Agnes Gereben Schaefer, lead author on the study and a Rand senior political scientist, said in an interview Thursday.

According to Rand estimates, out of the U.S. military's 1.3 million active-duty service personnel, between 1,320 and 6,630 members of the force are transgender, but "only a small portion" of them would likely seek to have transition-related treatment, according to Rand.

Rand estimates that between 29 and 129 active service members would seek the transition-related care that could impact their deployability or result in additional health-care costs.

"To put that in perspective, in 2015 in the Army alone there were about 50,000 active component soldiers who were unable to deploy," said Schaefer, pointing out that the reasons were due to accidents or issues unrelated to transgender surgery.

As for Trump's assertion of "tremendous medical costs," that doesn't appear to be the case when looking at Rand data.

The think tank estimates transition-related health care for active service members would cost the military between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually. That equates to a 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent rise in the active military's $6.27 billion in annual health-care expenditures.

Assuming the high-end estimate provided by Rand, the military's costs of transgender health care over a 10-year period would total about $84 million.

But opponents of transgender people serving in the active U.S. military claim the costs over a 10-year stretch could run into the billions.

The Family Research Council, which identifies itself as a Christian public-policy group, estimates the potential 10-year costs of transgender individuals serving in the military could "total as much as $1.9 billion to $3.7 billion."

Similarly, Republican Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri said the 10-year cost would be about $1.35 billion. Her estimate includes active duty, National Guard and Reserve members, or a force of 2.13 million personnel.

"Our military is the most effective, efficient and well-funded fighting force in the world, and as the president notes, we cannot burden our armed forces with the tremendous costs and disruptions that transgender in the military would entail," Hartzler said in a statement Wednesday. She recently introduced an amendment in the House that seeks to bar the military from paying for transgender surgeries or allowing those individuals to be deployed.

Democratic Rep. Joe Kennedy of Massachusetts, who serves as chair of the Congressional Transgender Equality Task Force, blasted Trump's transgender ban on Wednesday and said on the House floor that transgender service members "are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect our freedom" and "deserve better" from the president.

Rand's Schaefer said they also looked at transgender impact on the Reserve force but the analysis found "it's hard to figure out how the Reserve component members might utilize their health benefits because a lot of them have civilian jobs."

Finally, Rand's research included looking at lessons learned from 18 other countries, including Canada, that have allowed transgender personnel to serve openly in their military.

"None of them reported any negative impacts on operational effectiveness or operational readiness or cohesion of the force," Schaefer said.

The Canadian Armed Forces, in a statement provided to CNBC on Thursday about the transgender issue, said: "Diversity is viewed as a source of strength and flexibility, plays a pivotal role in making CAF a modern forward-looking organization, and is imperative to the CAF's operational effectiveness."

That said, the Canadian military said it does not collect data on the number of transgendered personnel in its forces and has "no bona fide work-related reason" to do so.
Check out which companies are making headlines before the bell:

Comcast  , 4 cents above estimates, with revenue also beating forecasts. The biggest jump in revenue came from the company's film unit, with a nearly 60 percent increase over a year earlier.

Twitter  adjusted quarterly profit of 12 cents per share, 7 cents above estimates, while revenue was above analyst forecasts as well. However, user numbers were flat compared to expectations for some growth

Verizon  with adjusted quarterly profit of 96 cents per share, although revenue beat. Verizon added 633,000 wireless retail customers during the quarter.

Procter & Gamble  per share, beating estimates of 78 cents, with revenue slightly above forecasts. The bottom line was helped by cost cutting measures.

Southwest Airlines  The airline reported adjusted quarterly profit of $1.24 per share, 4 cents above estimates, while revenue also beat forecasts on an improved fare environment and a record load factor.

Dunkin' Brands  The restaurant operator came in 2 cents above estimates with adjusted quarterly profit of 64 cents per share, though revenue was below forecasts. It also gave a full-year forecast that falls largely below analyst projections. Results were hurt by a sales decline at the company's Baskin-Robbins business.

Facebook  quarterly earnings of $1.32 per share, 19 cents above estimates, with the social media giant's revenue also beating forecasts. Facebook's results were boosted by greater advertising revenue for its mobile app.

Gilead Sciences  Gilead beat estimates by 41 cents with adjusted quarterly profit of $2.56 per share, and the drugmaker's revenue easily surpassed estimates. Sales of its hepatitis C drugs did decline, but came in above Street forecasts as well. Gilead raised its full-year sales outlook.

PayPal  with adjusted quarterly profit of 46 cents per share, with revenue scoring a slight beat. The digital payments provider also raised its full-year guidance as the number of users and transaction volumes increase.

Buffalo Wild Wings  The company fell well short of the $1.05 consensus EPS estimate for its latest quarter with adjusted profit of 66 cents per share, and the restaurant chain's revenue missed as well. The company cited high chicken wing costs, increased operating expenses, and lower than expected same-store sales.

Discover Financial  Discover reported quarterly profit of $1.40 per share, 5 cents below estimates, although the credit card provider did see revenue come in very slightly above forecasts. Discover saw a jump in loans and deposits, but also saw credit card delinquency rates rise.

Whirlpool  Whirlpool fell 19 cents short of consensus forecasts with adjusted quarterly profit of $3.35 per share, although the appliance maker's revenue was in line with estimates. Whirlpool's results were hurt by a decline in the Europe, Middle East & Africa region, as well as currency issues. The company also lowered its full-year earnings guidance.

HP Inc.  HP announced the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise CEO Meg Whitman has stepped down from the computer and printer maker's board of directors. Whitman had been chair of HP since the company and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise were split from the former Hewlett-Packard in late 2015.

Nestle  Nestle trimmed its full-year 2017 sales outlook, as healthier eating trends hurt the food and candy maker.

AstraZeneca  The drugmaker's shares remained pressured after an experimental treatment for advanced lung cancer failed to help patients as much as expected in a trial.

Royal Dutch Shell  Shell reported that its second-quarter profit more than tripled from a year ago, as oil prices rose and its refining operations performed well.

Anheuser-Busch InBev  Anheuser-Busch saw profits rise over a year ago, although they fell slightly shy of analyst forecasts. The beer brewer's bottom line was helped by improved sales in China, Mexico, and South Africa.

McDonald's  McDonald's issued a statement in China reassuring customers about the safety and cleanliness of its ice cream machines. That came in response to U.S. reports and pictures allegedly showing a mold-covered ice cream maker at a restaurant.

Amazon.com  Amazon launched its Prime Now two-hour delivery service in Singapore, taking on rival Alibaba head-on in that market. Separately, Amazon has started a secret project aimed at opportunities in health care including electronic medical records and so-called "telemedicine."

Discovery Communications  Discovery is now in the lead to buy Scripps Networks according to multiple reports, which say Viacom is now out of the running.

Diageo  Diageo reported improved earnings and raised its profit margin targets, after the spirits maker saw sales growth across all its major global markets.
U.S. oil and gas drillers have cleaned up their balance sheets over the last year, but some analysts worry they are growing production at the expense of financial discipline.

Drillers look healthier today after slashing capital spending, putting dollars behind their most productive land and securing discounts from the companies that help them extract oil from their wells. But many are still spending beyond their means to hike output at a time when analysts are cutting their oil price forecasts.

Some analysts worry that some drillers could find themselves in a familiar and unwelcome situation: searching for funding to keep oil flowing.

That was the scenario one year into the oil price downturn, when CNBC analyzed two key measures of financial health in the oil patch  free cash flow and debt compared with earnings  for 44 drillers and found a sector outspending cash on hand and loaded to the hilt with debt.

Today, a recovery in earnings has helped drillers reduce relative debt levels that soared at the bottom of the oil market. And while many drillers are still spending more than they make, their cash flow has generally improved.
The first half of 2017 saw 6.1 gigawatts (GW) of extra wind energy capacity installed in Europe, according to figures released on Thursday by industry body WindEurope.

WindEurope said that the figures meant that Europe was on course for a "bumper year for installations", although it cautioned that they hid some worrying trends.

Breaking the figures down, 4.8 GW of onshore wind capacity was installed in the first six months of 2017, with the majority "heavily concentrated" in Germany, the U.K. and France. In the offshore sector, 1.3 GW was installed.

The first half of the year saw 8.3 billion euros ($9.72 billion) spent on new asset financing, with 5.4 billion euros in onshore and 2.9 billion euros in offshore. WindEurope said that the latter figure was down from a record high of 14 billion euros in the first half of 2016.

The "trend for market concentration" was again noted, with 53 percent of total investments made in Germany.

"We are on track for a good year in wind capacity installations but growth is driven by a handful of markets," Pierre Tardieu, chief policy officer at WindEurope, said in a statement. "At least ten EU countries have yet to install a single MW so far this year," Tardieu added.



"On onshore wind, the end of U.K. Renewable Obligation scheme will lead to even greater market concentration in Germany, Spain and France."

With regards to offshore, Tardieu described the level of finance activity as a concern. "Although this won't translate into lower installations for another few years, the industry needs clarity on volumes for the post-2020 period to maintain the current cost reduction trend," he said.
Yet, increasingly there is reason to question whether or not tax reform can actually become a reality.

It isn't just the difficulties Republicans have had coming together on health care.

While we are only 6 months into President Trump's term, we are one-fourth of the way through this two-year Congress and in practical terms, only six months from the first primaries of the 2018 election. In other words, time is quickly slipping away and a tax reform bill hasn't even been introduced in Congress or released by the administration.

From my time in Congress, I know that much of the work of getting a proposal enacted into law is what happens behind the scenes and when a proposal does come together, it can come together and be enacted relatively quickly. I still believe Congress can and will pass a significant tax reform bill this year.

But it is worth contemplating for a moment the consequences if I am wrong; if tax reform isn't enacted into law.

The political consequences are relatively straightforward. It isn't just that Republicans will have failed to deliver on a major campaign pledge, they will have failed on a commitment that is core to the identity of the party. Since Ronald Reagan, Republicans have been the party of pro-growth tax reform. Major tax cuts / reforms were enacted in 1981 and 1986. In the 1990s the new Republican majority in Congress lowered capital gains tax rates and created the per child tax credit. In 2001 and 2003, George W. Bush signed major tax cuts into law.

Failing to successfully act on tax reform in a unified Republican government, after the party campaigned on reform for a decade, would be catastrophic.

The political consequences pale in comparison to the economic ones. We have endured over ten years of below 3-percent economic growth. While America has had plenty of recessions, we have never experienced a lost decade before. Many economists are predicting that this is the new normal. And absent some big change, they are probably right.

While we need to get a lot of policies right to get back to the growth of the 1980s or 1990s, it is impossible to get there without comprehensive pro-growth tax reform.

Tax reform offers the promise of greater growth that creates new jobs and raises wages and take-home pay. Without tax reform, a decade of low growth could easily become a generation of stagnation. That would put a death knell in the basic American promise that each generation will be better off than the last.

When it comes to the economy, reforming the tax code isn't optional.

In the world of business, if something must be done, it will be done. American families and businesses are counting on the fact that, when it comes to tax reform, that maxim holds true in Washington. That partially explains their optimism about the economy. The clock is ticking and it is up to Republicans to turn that optimism into reality.

Commentary by Eric Cantor, the former House majority leader, who served as the U.S. representative for Virginia's 7th congressional district from 2001 to 2014. He is currently vice chairman and managing director at Moelis and Co. Follow him on Twitter @EricCantor.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.


OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Ocean Springs may well be the Bloody Mary Capital of Mississippi -- at least if one poll is to be believed.

A week ago, the travel website Onlyinyourstate.com published its list of the top nine places to get a Bloody Mary in Mississippi.

Coming in at #2 was Maison de Lu in Ocean Springs, with Bayview Gourmet, also in Ocean Springs, at #4. Ocean Springs was the only Mississippi city with two establishments on the list.

The Capitol Grill in Jackson earned the top spot, although if the goal was to compile a list of the best Bloody Marys in Mississippi, it would seem the Capitol Grill's version should be disqualified, given it's been dubbed "the Crimson Tide."

"In addition to creative sandwiches, specialty soups, salads, steaks and seafood, this Ocean Springs eatery serves one mean Bloody Mary," the list's authors wrote of the Maison de Lu Bloody Mary. "It's so good, in fact, it's often referred to as the best in the state."

The author's noted Bayview Gourmet has six times won a local award for the Best Sunday Brunch, "so it makes perfect sense that it's mastered the art of making a great Bloody Mary. Practically an entire meal, it's dressed up with an array of toppings that include everything from green olives to fresh Gulf shrimp."

So what goes into making a great Bloody Mary? The Mississippi Press reached out to Maison de Lu owner LuAnn Ellis to find out. Maison de Lu is no stranger to honors, including Best Appetizers and Best Bourbon Bar in Mississippi.

Maison de Lu owner LuAnn Ellis and her restaurant's signature Bloody Mary.

"We found out through Facebook," Ellis said of the #2 Bloody Mary ranking. "We didn't know we were up for it. There's a lot of things that happen like that. But we're honored. We're always honored when we get those kind of nominations from our customers. I think it's a great compliment."

Both Ellis and bartender Ryan Jurich said the key ingredient in the Maison de Lu Bloody Mary is sriracha -- the hot sauce made from chili peppers, distilled vinegar, garlic, sugar, and salt and named after the coastal city of Si Racha, in the Chonburi Province of eastern Thailand.

Jurich said the Maison de Lu Bloody Mary starts with the house vodka, Absolut -- "a pour and a little more," he said. Then fresh lemon and lime, squeezed. Then a few shakes of sriracha, with pepper added if the customer wants a bit more spice.

Maison de Lu uses Zing Zang as its Bloody Mary mix. "We use Zing Zang as our base and I think down here in the South people want Zing Zang," Ellis said.

Then Jurich mixes the concoction and pours it into a glass of ice. Now come more surprises. "Presentation's got a lot to do with it. You set one of these down on a table and the next thing you know everyone in the restaurant is drinking a Bloody Mary," he said.

While chock full of goodies, this isn't one of those monstrosities often seen in other places -- the ones with a rack of ribs, half a watermelon and a 10-pound turkey sticking out of the top of the drink.

First, Jurich adds a combination of pickled okra, green olives and black olives stuffed with Gorgonzola cheese. If that isn't enough, a couple of long spears of pickled asparagus are added.

Then the final touch: two or three large slices of bacon are slid down inside the side of the glass. There's a reason the menu says the Bloody Mary is a "balanced meal."

Jurich said he and fellow bartender Javana Jackson each have their own personal touches they may add to a Bloody Mary. In Jurich's case, it's a bit of olive juice.

The major festivals Ocean Springs hosts each year, the Peter Anderson Festival and Cruisin' the Coast, Jurich said, have gone a long way towards spreading the word about the Maison de Lu Bloody Mary.

"Now on any given day people come in and tell us they were told to go to Maison de Lu and get a Bloody Mary," he said.

The Maison de Lu is $9, with $2 off during Happy Hour from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. (Discount also applies to all cocktails, wines and appetizers).
Getty Images

With talks to revise NAFTA around the corner, there's a worry earlier heated rhetoric from Washington may work against U.S. food and agriculture producers. At the same time, some ag executives claim parts of the industry are "under assault" due to unfair competition under the North American Free Trade Agreement. They want a modernized trade pact to fix such abuses, such as Mexico's "dumping" of certain specialty crops. Indeed, President Donald Trump has been vocal too about Canada's "unfair" dairy industry and also picked a bone with Mexico by threatening a border tax to pay for a big new wall. Mexican leaders, meanwhile, have threatened they may look elsewhere for ag products such as corn and may be prepared to act as early as next month. The first round of talks between Canada, Mexico and the U.S. to revise NAFTA is scheduled to begin Aug. 16 in Washington.

A 'retaliation target'

"We hope that whatever negotiations are conducted here that agriculture doesn't end up being caught up as a retaliation target," Floyd Gaibler, director of trade policy and biotechnology for the U.S. Grains Council said in testimony Wednesday before a House Agriculture Committee looking into revamping NAFTA. Overall, Mexico and Canada represent nearly one-third of the total U.S. ag exports. Gaibler said there are indications Mexico is seriously looking for alternative suppliers for not just corn but other grain products. He said Mexico could make the purchase from Argentina or Brazil beginning in August or September. Corn and corn products today account for more than 30 percent of U.S. farmer income, according to the National Corn Growers Association. Mexico is the top export market for corn, while Canada is also a major market for corn as well as ethanol, the trade group said. Last year, Mexico ranked as the third-largest agricultural export market for the U.S., while Canada ranked as the second-largest ag customer after China. For Canada, prepared foods, fruits, vegetables as well as pork and beef were the top-five U.S. exports last year. After corn, soybean was the top ag export to Mexico last year followed by pork, dairy and prepared foods.

A 'godsend' for poultry
A quick scan of the foot with an iPhone will result in a customized pair of high heels, delivered from Spain, through an app created by True Gault  the latest brand to crack the code on mass-producing personalized items.

The New York-based shoe start-up has patented a technology that uses 3-D measuring tools to capture the biomechanics of a foot, all from an iPhone's camera. A user will also enter certain foot measurements into the app, helping create a truer representation.

The result is what True Gault calls a "bespoke pair of heels," in a personal fit, and priced at $250 to $350 per pair. "Women can buy shoes online, but size doesn't guarantee fit, so we broke the mold of the shoe industry to redefine the relationship between women and their heels," the company said of its mission.

The start-up was founded by Sandra Gault, who has spent time in past careers at Kodak and IBM . The company is part of Google 's Accelerator program, which has notably helped launch other popular brands such as Warby Parker, Dollar Shave Club and Casper.

The woman-led company aims to tap into the growing trend of mass customization in fashion and retail. Nike , for example, has managed to grow its online platform after rolling out NikeiD, which allows shoppers to customize their own Nike merchandise.

"Since NikeiD debuted in 1999, this offers the opportunity in retailing for what I term 'Customized Creativity,'" Fashion Institute of Technology professor Shawn Grain Carer told CNBC in an interview.

Customized purchases of special items and unique styles allow brands to stay "relevant as fashion leaders" today, Carter said.

True Gault is looking to create something similar to Nike's customizable platform, but with high heels and a technology twist. NikeiD boasts an extensive website with design capabilities, but has no standalone app and less integration with 3-D imagery.

Gault calls herself the quintessential "geek in high heels," saying that she was "baffled by the notion that women everywhere simply accept that looking great in high heels means discomfort."

Nina Garcia, famous for her role as a judge on television show "Project Runway" and also the fashion director of Marie Claire magazine, has joined the True Gault team as an advisor.

"What makes me so excited about True Gault is that not only am I a shoe lover, but I have always been a promoter of technology," Garcia said. "True Gault is a rare combination that strikes the perfect balance between tech and fashion, solving a widely known problem for the consumer and the industry as a whole."

"True Gault is changing the way women select, buy and wear shoes, much like Uber has impacted transportation, or Warby Parker has impacted eyewear," she added.

More and more retail brands are starting to deliver customized options to shoppers, as the concept gains in popularity and companies are searching for ways to differentiate themselves from the competition.

"With the success of NikeID, we are seeing brands jump into the mass personalization trends," Maya Mikhailov, co-founder of mobile marketing firm GPShopper, told CNBC. "From The North Face to Gucci, consumers are increasingly having the option to 'make it their own,' at all price points."

With technology on the upswing, mass customization in retail will only grow from here, Mikhailov said. Customization will become more "sophisticated" and special features will be added to extend beyond the selection of colors and patterns, she said.

"Take, for example, Google and Ivyrevel's Data Dress, which uses an app to track a user's activities, lifestyle and environment to create a custom dress. ... It is the beginning of a concept where mass customization would no longer even need user inputs, but instead make product suggestions for what the consumer needs based on tracked activity."

Coded Couture  an app built by Ivyrevel, backed by H&M and in partnership with Google  is the creator behind Data Dress. The program turns out a personalized dress after tracking a user's lifestyle for a week. For now, the product remains in beta testing with top fashion influencers the only ones using it.

"More and more our clothing will fuse with our devices to create optimal experiences," Mikhailov added. And shoppers are "absolutely willing to pay more" for personalized products. That being said, True Gault's $250 to $350 price point shouldn't be much of an issue.

True Gault guarantees that its shoes will fit properly, or adjustments will be made until the heels are "perfect."

Shoppers can choose from more than 20 styles, more than 40 leathers, various colors and heel heights when designing their shoes within True Gault's app. That selection will continue to grow, the company said.

Other fashion retailers using mass customization to reach a wider audience include Stitch Fix, a personal styling service that curates selections of clothing for men and women  based on taste, need and price. Amazon, meantime, is preparing to roll out a similar concept with Prime Wardrobe.

"Mass customization is here and will foster greater connections between the retail stores, fashion brands, and loyal customers who participate in the shopping experience online, in the physical store, and through social media..." FIT's Carter said.

Teespring and Zazzle provide other examples of online-only platforms that have successfully tapped into the mass customization trend  offering personalized shirts, watches, sunglasses and cards.

"Today, everyone's lifestyle is infused with tech from the way you order groceries to how we get around town," Marie Claire's Garcia told CNBC. "How we express ourselves through fashion should be no different. ... Shoe lovers no longer need to choose comfort or style, and they don't even need to choose from options on the market  aesthetic customization is very exciting."
"Foxconn's track record does not inspire a high level of confidence that it does truly care about either its word or it employees."

Second, as the Washington Post reported Tuesday, lawmakers and other concerned citizens in Wisconsin are concerned that the state may give away too much in incentives to attract Foxconn. Those concerns are heightened by the facts that Walker is up for re-election next year, has a low approval rating, and has run as a job-creator.

Third, it is uncertain whether the promised jobs will be stable and pay a living wage. As for job security, both the BBC and MarketWatch reported in May 2016 that Foxconn had replaced 60,000 of its workers with robots.

As for pay, Walker said the jobs would pay $53,000 plus benefits on average. According to Census Bureau data, median income for all residents of Wisconsin in 2015 was $55, 638. So if Walker is correct the new Foxconn jobs would pay right around that median amount.

But is he correct? There is some cause for doubt since Foxconn is known for paying a low-wage rather than a living wage.

Foxconn is also known for a work environment so harsh it led to employee riots and suicides. The Fair Labor Association  a non-profit formed by Nike and others in 1999 after a series of sweatshop scandals  documented in 2012 major labor-rights violations at Foxconn facilities including excessive overtime and salaries that were too low to cover basic living expenses and sometimes not paid.

The company has also been criticized for under-age workers, improper disposal of hazardous wastes, injury to workers required to clean iPhone screens with a toxic chemical, and fatal industrial accidents resulting from the failure to address known hazards.

Harsh work conditions at a variety of Foxconn locations in China led to a spate of Foxconn employee suicides in 2010. Foxconn chillingly responded to those suicide attempts by installing safety nets to catch employees attempting to jump to their deaths from company buildings. A company that cared about its employees would have done more to investigate and remediate the conditions that led to the suicides in the first place.

Some of the concerns about worker pay and safety will, of course, be less of a problem in the United States because we have much stronger laws and regulations protecting workers and more effective enforcement of those laws and regulations than China does.

But to what extent can we confidently rely on Foxconn to remain in compliance with our laws if they are complying because they have to rather than because they care about their employees and want to.

A senior executive in Latin America once told me that, in his country, a company did not have to take care of its workers any more than it wanted to because the few laws protecting workers there were weakly-enforced.

A company shows its true values in a situation like that when it doesn't have to treat its employees well but will only if it cares about their welfare as much as or more than profitability. Foxconn's track record does not inspire a high level of confidence that it does truly care about either its word or it employees.

Commentary by Joseph Holt, a business ethics professor at the University of Notre Dame's Mendoza College of Business. Follow him on Twitter @busethicsdude.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos is now the richest person in the world, with a current net worth of $90.7 billion, according to Forbes. When his Amazon shares hit $1,065.92 each on Thursday, reports Bloomberg, Bezos knocked Microsoft founder Bill Gates (current net worth: $90.1 billion) out of the top spot. More than 90 percent of the billionaire's wealth is tied up in Amazon stock, since he owns about 80 million shares. The rest is in cash or comes from proceeds from investments, salary and bonuses, according to research firm Wealth-X. So how does the world's new wealthiest man spend his money?

Real estate

Bezos has homes across the U.S. His home base, a lake house in Medina, Wash., is estimated to be worth $25 million, according to Wealth-X. Neighbors include the now No. 2 richest guy in the world, Bill Gates.

The old Textile Museum which was recently purchased by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, is photographed in the Kalorama neighborhood of Northwest on January 13, 2017 in Washington, D.C. Ricky Carioti | The Washington Post | Getty Images

In Washington D.C., Bezos owns a 27,000-square-foot home that, with a purchase price of $23 million, according to the Washington Post, is the most expensive house in his fancy Kalorama neighborhood. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama just bought the second-most expensive house in the enclave, and Ivanka Trump is also a neighbor. Bezos's mansion was formerly a museum. The Amazon founder also owns a 2.03-acre property in Beverly Hills, Calif., worth about $25 million. And in Manhattan, Bezos' three linked apartments in The Century building on Central Park West are worth $17 million, according to Wealth-X.

The space race

Justin Solomon / CNBC

Elon Musk's SpaceX and Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic are famous for their otherworldly missions. But space travel is a passion for Jeff Bezos too. He founded aerospace company Blue Origin to make space tourism more affordable. Bezos is selling about $1 billion in Amazon stock a year to fund the venture, reports The New York Times. He believes Blue Origin could have "paying customers" on short trips to space by 2018. For his love of space, Bezos also financed the recovery of "the remains of several Apollo booster-rocket engines from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean 14,000 feet down," starting in 2013, according to the Seattle Times. NASA donated a restored F-1 booster to the Museum of Flight in Seattle in 2015 at the CEO's request.

Expensive toys

Bezos is famous for having his wife drive him to work in a 1996 Honda Accord long after he became a multimillionaire. But he does have some more expensive vehicles.

Gulfstream G-650ER jet. Source: Gulfstream

For example, he owns a top-of-the-line, $65 million private jet, the 2015 Gulfstream G-650ER, via his holding company, Poplar Glen, says Wealth-X. The model is the "longest range business jet and has a top speed of Mach .925, according to the Robb Report. Inside a mountain on Bezos's property in Texas, workers are constructing one of several 10,000-year clocks. The clock, which is meant to run for 10,000 years, is the brainchild of The Long Now foundation, and Bezos has invested a reported $42 million into the project.

Investments

The CEO has helped bankroll some big names. Bezos Expeditions has invested in businesses including Basecamp, Juno Therapeutics, Workday and Twitter. Bezos himself has invested in the likes of Airbnb, Uber and Google, among many others, reports Business Insider (in which Bezos has also invested). And the CEO also has Nash Holdings, LLC, through which The Washington Post was acquired for a reported $250 million.

Piazza Navona in Rome, Italy Getty | Tiziana Fabi

Travels

In May, Bezos was spotted vacationing in Rome, Italy, with his wife MacKenzie, his parents and his siblings and their spouses. The group visited Campo dei Fiori Market and Piazza Novona, among other sights.

Philanthropy

Compared to fellow billionaires like Gates and Warren Buffett, Bezos' charitable contributions have been relatively limited. Bezos recently gave $35 million to Seattle's Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, reports The New York Times. And in May, Bezos gave $1 million to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. According to Weath-X, in 2015 the Bezos Family Foundation had more than $54 million in assets and donated more than $20 million. Recipients include Teach for America, the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy, the Long Now Foundation, Aspen University and Woodland Park Zoological Society. Bezos also donated $2.7 to the University of Washington Foundation (2013), $2.5 million to Washington United for Marriage (2012) and $15 million to Princeton University, his alma mater, according to Wealth-X. And the Amazon CEO may be looking for more philanthropic endeavors  he recently tweeted a request for ideas that will produce more immediate results.
From computers to coffee cups and bottles of water, plastic is an integral part of modern life. Despite its ubiquity, the issue of plastic waste is a big, pressing one.

Recent research has highlighted just how big the problem is. The study  by scientists from the University of Georgia, the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Sea Education Association  found that as of 2015, humans had produced an estimated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic, with 6.3 billion tons of that seen as waste.

At the Shanghai Institute of Organic Chemistry (SIOC) in China, scientists are looking to turn plastic into fuel.

"If we have the plastic waste in the environment or in the ocean or bury it underground, it's going to stay there for hundreds or thousands of years," SIOC's Zheng Huang told CNBC's Sustainable Energy.

"So we needed to find a solution to plastic waste, and we think converting them into fuel is an excellent way to reuse it," he added.

The work Huang and his team are doing focuses on polyethylene, used in everything from bags to toys and food packaging.

"What we are doing differently is to use so called 'cross alkane metathesis' strategies," Huang said.
Intel stock jumped as high as 4 percent in after-hours trading on Thursday after it reported better-than-expected earnings for the second quarter, but then the share price fell back to nearly flat.

EPS: Excluding certain items, EPS of 72 cents vs. 68 cents in earnings per share expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.

Revenue: $14.76 billion, vs. $14.41 billion in revenue expected by analysts for the quarter, according to Thomson Reuters.

The results come after Intel barely beat expectations on EPS and fell just below expectations on revenue .

While Intel's Client Computing Group brings in more revenue than any other business segment, the company has been shifting away from the personal computer market, as PC shipments continue to decline. In the past few quarters, Intel has faced a fresh wave of competition from AMD's Ryzen PC chips. Intel explored the markets for wearable devices and the maker community, but it recently health wearables group and it has sought to kill off some Internet of Things products.

But in the second quarter the Client Computing Group made a strong showing with 12 percent revenue growth at $8.2 billion in revenue.

The Internet of Things Group, for its part, was up a hefty 26 percent year over year, at $720 million in revenue.

Intel's typically high-margin Data Center Group, which includes sales to public cloud infrastructure providers and also competes with AMD, is key  last year its revenue rose 8 percent year over year, compared with the Client Computing Group's 2 percent growth. This time around, the Data Center Group was up 9 percent at $4.4 billion.

Earlier this month the Data Center Group unveiled its next generation Xeon Scalable chips, codenamed Purley. "We believe that Intel's Data Center Group segment could deliver faster growth as Purley ramps," MKM Partners managing director Ruben Roy wrote in a note last week.

Meanwhile, the company has been talking up its opportunity in artificial intelligence, thanks to acquisitions of companies like Altera, Nervana, Mobileye and Movidius.

Altera is part of the newly formed Programmable Solutions Group, which had the worst performance of the quarter for Intel -- $440 million in revenue, which is down 5 percent year over year.

The top performer was Intel's Non-Volatile Memory Solutions Group, whose revenue of $874 million was a record high, up year over year by 58 percent.

With respect to guidance, Intel says it's expecting 80 cents in earnings per share on $15.7 billion in revenue for the third quarter. For the full year, the company expects $3 in earnings per share and $61.3 billion in revenue.

On the company's conference call with financial analysts, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich committed to a spending target of 30 percent of revenue and said he's expecting the company to reach that goal no later than 2020. The company will make these ongoing changes to meet that goal while also driving growth, Krzanich said.

The $15.3 billion acquisition of Mobileye that Intel announced in March should close before the fourth quarter, "several months ahead of schedule," as Axios' Ina Fried noted on Twitter.

tweet

Intel stock is down 3.5 percent since the beginning of the year.

Earlier this month Hilliard Lyons initiated coverage of Intel, writing that "while we note competition is fierce and continues to increase, we believe Intel is in a strong position to outperform peers on a risk-adjusted basis over the coming five-year time frame."
Poor Jeff Bezos.

That may sound like a strange way to describe the Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos on the day when he eclipsed Bill Gates and became the world's richest man. But that title comes with a greater chance of holy hell raining down on him, his company, and the entire U.S. tech sector.

Of course, Bezos has had something of a target on his back for some time. But now that he's the world's #1 rich guy, he's even more vulnerable. Here are the top three threats to Bezos' empire now:

War with Trump

One of the people targeting Bezos is none other than President Donald Trump, who has been openly complaining about Amazon and the Bezos-owned Washington Post since the height of the presidential campaign last year.

The taxes Amazon pays, or doesn't pay, is almost always at the center of those complaints.

It's not hard to see a pattern emerging where the president lashes out at Amazon and Bezos after he becomes enraged by a particular story in the Post. The fact that Bezos bought the paper as a private investor without folding it into the Amazon empire doesn't seem to matter to Trump as he now refers to it as the "Amazon Washington Post" in his tweets:

Of course, the administration is more than just President Trump. On Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a Senate panel that he's looking closely at Amazon's practice of collecting sales taxes on its own goods, but not on the sales of its third party vendors.

Taxes are one thing, antitrust concerns are another. Then-candidate Trump said Amazon has a "huge antitrust problem" back in May of 2016. Gates and his colleagues at Microsoft can tell Bezos a thing or two about how an antitrust probe or two can slow progress down and consume years and millions of dollars in resources. Spoiler alert: It can get pretty bad.

Populist revolt

Back in May, Bank of America Merrill Lynch chief investment strategist, Michael Hartnett released a report noting that the rising wealth in the American tech sector "could ultimately lead to populist calls for redistribution of the increasingly concentrated wealth of Silicon Valley." But anger at the wealthy or big corporations is often a little hard to cultivate and sustain. Perhaps the lack of a central human figure to attack was the reason why the "Occupy Wall Street" movement fizzled out.

Bezos may provide the populist movement with that kind of personal target, and he doesn't have some of the cultivated protections that his peers enjoy. Unlike Gates who has dedicated his post-CEO career to his charitable foundation, Bezos is quite publicly skeptical and cagey about philanthropy. Unlike Warren Buffett, Bezos doesn't have the near-slavish devotion of the news media and much of liberal America believing he's a billionaire on their side.

For now, Bezos may be fending off some of the worst of that predicted populist ire because of his ownership of the highly Trump-critical Washington Post. But it may not be enough.

With that in mind, Bezos might want to start taking notes on how Gates, Buffett, and even Mark Zuckerberg have avoided the kind of concentrated unpopularity that billionaires like John D. Rockefeller endured in their day. His much-criticized and seemingly clueless decision to ask for charitable ideas on Twitter earlier this year was not a good step in that direction. He's been a billionaire for years and should be further along in his philanthropic giving.

More competition

The title of richest man comes along with more than just added political and cultural scrutiny. It also means there will be an added focus on beating him in business. Bezos isn't just an investor like Buffett or semi-retired like Gates, he's still actively running Amazon and constantly expanding its reach.

That activity is clearly a valuable source of great wealth, which means it will attract more competition.

And here's where politics comes back into this: Bezos should expect his competitors to use his new status to their advantage as they seek political allies to help beat him in the marketplace.

That's what people like then-Sun Microsystems CEO Scott McNealy did at a Senate hearing back in 1998 when he told the Judiciary Committee that Gates and Microsoft had too much control over the "language of the digital age."

Bezos has said in the past that becoming a billionaire hasn't changed his daily life that much. That's a stretch for sure. But he's about to find out that becoming the richest man in the world, even when you've been a billionaire for years already, can change almost everything.

Commentary by Jake Novak, CNBC.com senior columnist. Follow him on Twitter @jakejakeny.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Bezos' rise carries important symbolic weight  signaling Amazon's unbridled power and value, presenting a new face of outsized wealth to the world and heralding a new kind of billionaire who is skeptical of philanthropy and has massive reach in culture, technology and media. Bezos will be a stark contrast to his fellow Seattle-area resident Gates, who has topped the list for much of the past quarter-century and devotes his time and money to philanthropy. What's most astounding about Bezos' rise is his recent wealth surge. He has been a billionaire for nearly 20 years, first making the Forbes list in 1998 with a net worth of $1.6 billion after Amazon's IPO. He chugged along for the following decade, reaching $4.4 billion in 2007, gradually rising to $18.4 billion by 2012, ranking him 26th on the list. But over the past two years, as Amazon's stock has soared, so has Bezos' fortune. He owns 79.9 million shares, or just under 17 percent of the company. His net worth has grown by $70 billion over the past five years, surging by $45 billion in the last two years alone  possibly the largest wealth-creation surge in history.

When he hits the mark, Bezos, who started selling books from his garage 22 years ago, becomes the first man to bump Gates from his perch in seven years and is only the sixth man to hold the "richest person" title in the past 30 years, according to Forbes.

According to Forbes and Bloomberg, the Amazon CEO had a net worth of over $89 billion as of the close of markets Wednesday, while Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates had a net worth of just over $90 billion.

Of course, Bezos avoids talking publicly about his wealth. Like most tech tycoons, he insists he's trying to change the world rather than get rich. In his commencement speech at Princeton, Bezos said he had the idea of selling books on the internet while he was working at a New York hedge fund. Torn between his high-paying job and a risky start-up, he chose the start-up.



"I took the less safe path to follow my passion and I'm proud of that choice," he said.



Bezos may not only be the richest man in the world today  he might become the richest man ever, at least measured in pure dollars. At his peak Gates was worth $90 billion, marking the largest single fortune ever. With little sign that Amazon's momentum may be slowing, Bezos could well be the first 12-digit man, worth $100 billion one day.

On Thursday, a leading analyst said that Amazon "could be the first trillion-dollar company" with its stock doubling to $2,000.



Indeed, Bezos' rise to the top of the rich list shows just how large and fast today's biggest fortunes have become. In the 1980s, Saudi businessman Adnan Khashoggi was considered the richest man in the world with a net worth of around $4 billion. By 1995, when Gates first became the richest man, he was worth $12.9 billion.



By 2005, Gates was still topping the list at $50 billion.



In 1987, according to Forbes, there were 140 billionaires in the world with a combined net worth of $295 billion. Now, billionaires number 2,043 and have a combined $7.7 trillion. In fact there were more new billionaires in the world in 2016  233  than the entire population of billionaires in 1987.



Gates has been the richest man for 18 of the past 23 years. The only interlopers were Carlos Slim of Mexico, who was the richest man between 2010 and 2012, and Warren Buffett, who was the richest in 2008.

Indeed, with the exception of Slim and the occasional overseas billionaire, Gates and Buffett have been a duopoly at the top of the rich list. Their close friendship and partnering in philanthropy made them a potent symbol of the philanthropic side of wealth.



Bezos will be a different figurehead. Unlike Gates, he is still actively running and building a business. He is far more press-averse, rarely giving interviews or public addresses. He is hyper-competitive. And he is only moderately  some would say barely  philanthropic.



But like Gates and Buffett, Bezos is not given to many flashy displays of wealth. He has loads of real estate  he bought the most expensive home in Washington, D.C., and owns homes in Beverly Hills, California, and New York along with his spread in Medina, Washington  and is one of the nation's largest landowners, with over 300,000 acres.

He also owns The Washington Post and founded Blue Origin, the space-travel company. Yet Bezos drove his 1996 Honda Accord long after he became a billionaire.



When asked how his life changed when he became a billionaire he said: "Personally, it hasn't changed at all. The big difference is that we now have $50 million in the bank, which is huge."

With a net worth topping $90 billion, Bezos' definition of "huge" may have changed.
Sen. Lindsey Graham warned President Donald Trump on Thursday against firing his attorney general  the latest Republican to try to deter Trump from a move that would carry huge consequences for the U.S. government.

"If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay," the Republican from South Carolina told reporters, according to video taken by NBC News.

A push to fire Sessions  who enraged Trump by recusing himself from the investigation into Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election and whether the Trump campaign colluded with the Kremlin  is seen as a possible precursor to removing the special counsel overseeing that probe. Graham also warned of consequences if the Trump administration tries to remove special counsel Robert Mueller, the former FBI director.

"Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency, unless Mueller did something wrong. Right now, I have no reason to believe that Mueller is compromised," Graham said.

NBC News: WATCH: Sen. Lindsey Graham says there will be "holy hell to pay" if AG Jeff Sessions is fired. Video via @VaughnHillyard

Trump has publicly lambasted Sessions several times recently, and his anger stems from the attorney general's March recusal. Reports have said Trump has talked privately about replacing Sessions, potentially circumventing Congress by making an appointment while the Senate is in recess.

It is unclear how serious Trump is about appointing a new attorney general.

On Wednesday night, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said "no way" would he fit in confirmation of a new attorney general this year.

Graham said Thursday that he is working on bipartisan legislation to protect Mueller.
Lloyds Banking Group 's biggest half-year profit in eight years and an increase in interim dividends was clouded by ongoing misconduct charges, as the lender reported its first set of results since the bank exited government ownership.

Britain's largest retail bank reported Thursday a statutory pretax profit of 2.5 billion pounds ($3.28 billion) on Thursday, about 4 percent higher than last year.

The modest increase in profit, which was below analyst expectations, was driven by higher revenues. But it was tempered by a higher-than-expected bill for compensating customers mis-sold loan payment insurance in what is Britain's costliest consumer scandal.

The bank set aside a further 700 million pounds to compensate people mis-sold the insurance policies, nine months after saying it had hopefully drawn a line under the issue.

Lloyds, seen as a bellwether for the British economy, said although the economy remains resilient it is starting to tighten lending standards in consumer finance.

Earlier this week, the International Monetary Fund downgraded its 2017 economic outlook for Britain by more than any other rich nation.

Lloyds said the new charge to compensate customers mis-sold loan insurance should be the last major provision until the end of the claims deadline in 2019.

This was another blow to Lloyds whose earnings for years have been drained by costs related to conduct issues and takes the bank's total cost to cover the mis-selling of payment protection insurance to about 18 billion pounds.

Lloyds also agreed to pay 283 million pounds in compensation to mortgage customers who incurred fees after they fell behind with their mortgage payments.

Total income rose 4 percent to 9.3 billion pounds.

Lloyds said it would pay an interim dividend of 1 pence per share, up 18 percent on last year.

The bank said its net interest margin - the difference between the interest it gets from borrowers and what it pays savers, a key revenue driver had widened to 2.82 percent from the last quarter.
Nobody puts Benjamin Brafman in the corner when it comes to defending Martin Shkreli.

Brafman, the former Catskills stand-up comic-turned-high-powered criminal defense lawyer, tried to deliver a killer punch line to prosecutors and their evidence Thursday as he asked jurors to acquit his client Shkreli of securities fraud and other charges.

Brafman used a bag of potato chips, a Borscht Belt joke, and jibes about "rich people B.S." to blast claims that Shkreli was a Ponzi schemer instead of an oddball genius devoted to building a successful drug company to repay his hedge-fund investors.

"This is not a case where anybody was defrauded!" Brafman yelled in Brooklyn, New York, federal court, during closing arguments.

"If you're committing fraud, you don't care about your victims."

"He's not a Ponzi guy that takes the money and is buying Cadillacs and yachts," Brafman said. "No one who invested with Martin Shkreli ever suffered any economic harm."

Brafman also called Shkreli "maybe one of the most extraordinary minds of his generation."

"He's an honest kid," the lawyer said.

But "in terms of people skills? He's impossible!" Brafman said of Shkreli, who for the past two years has reveled in his Internet troll persona while defending his raising the price of an anti-parasite drug by 5,000 percent.

Brafman's argument came after a prosecutor painstakingly detailed the government's case against Shkreli in a nearly five-hour summation.
Three Republican senators on Thursday appeared to get the assurances they needed to support the GOP's "skinny" Obamacare repeal, after earlier criticizing the proposal.

In the latest twist in a bizarre legislative process, Sens. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., and Bill Cassidy, R-La., slammed the proposal to roll back parts of Obamacare at a news conference. But they later told reporters that they would back the plan after House Speaker Paul Ryan told them a House and Senate conference committee would seek a better alternative. A fourth senator who attended the news conference, John McCain, R-Ariz., would not say where he stood after speaking to Ryan.

Earlier, Graham said he could not support a "half-assed" plan that he called "politically" the "dumbest thing in history." But he added that he could back the bill if he is promised that lawmakers could strike a better Obamacare replacement deal in conference.

Johnson said the plan was sold to senators as "a vehicle to get to conference." McCain added that he is "voting no unless I see that there is a path to a conference" and said he would also listen to GOP Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey's opinions on the plan.

Essentially, the senators said they would back the plan only with the assurance that the House will not pass the same bill.

House Speaker Paul Ryan later said that his chamber is open to going to a conference committee to reach an Obamacare repeal deal with the Senate  but expressed doubts that his Republican counterparts could pass any major overhaul of the health-care system. After Ryan's initial statement, McCain responded by saying his assurances were not sufficient.

Supporting the proposal carries risks for senators who do not want it to become law. The House could simply approve it and send it to President Donald Trump's desk to end the months-long struggle to at least partially repeal Obamacare, a key GOP promise for the last seven years.

A conference committee can form when the Senate and House pass differing versions of bills and aim to strike one agreement that both chambers can then vote to approve. The House already passed an Obamacare replacement plan, the highly unpopular American Health Care Act. It is unclear if that process can produce a plan that enough Senate Republicans will support.

Separate GOP plans to immediately replace the Affordable Care Act or repeal it with a two-year transition period failed in the Senate amid Republican divisions. The skinny proposal is seen as a final attempt to push a plan through the Senate before the chamber tries to reach a plan that could also get approval in the House.

Senate Republicans unveiled the "skinny" repeal bill late Thursday just hours before they planned to vote on it. It repeals Obamacare's individual mandate, rolls back the employer mandate, suspends the medical device tax, increases contribution limits for health savings accounts, cuts off Planned Parenthood funding for one year and expands a program that would allow states to waive some consumer protections.

A Congressional Budget Office score requested by Democrats estimated that a skinny repeal plan would leave 16 million more people uninsured and make premiums about 20 percent higher than under current law. However, that report was based only on widely reported outlines of a skinny repeal proposal, meaning it does not capture the exact bill the Senate will field.

Insurance companies need to collect payments from healthier people in order to offset the costs of sicker ones. Without an individual mandate requiring Americans to have insurance or pay a penalty, it is expected that some healthy people will drop their coverage.

Graham did not mince words about the proposal.

"The skinny bill, as policy, is a disaster," he said.

It is still unclear if the Senate can reach a majority vote on the plan. As Republicans hold 52 seats, three "no" votes will block it.
Shadow banking is a broad category of banking-like services from non-traditional players; it can include loans from non-financial companies as well as investment products. It is outside the bounds of normal banking regulation, so it largely goes unregulated.

"The government's adoption of more coordinated policy measures to curb shadow banking will help mitigate asset risks for banks, and address some key imbalances in the financial system," Yulia Wan, a Moody's banking analyst, said in a statement on Thursday.

Moody's Investors Service no longer takes a negative view on China's banking system, raising its outlook to stable on Thursday as concerns over so-called shadow banking eased.

Earlier this month, Moody's had noted that actions on shadow-banking had included the central bank changing its monetary policy setting in the last quarter of 2016 to "moderate neutral" from "moderate," which raised market funding costs and refinancing risks for banks, reducing the return from supporting long-term investments with short-term market funds.

In March and April, the China Banking Regulatory Commission also requested banks test whether their interbank liabilities would exceed the regulatory ceiling at one-third of total liabilities.

Moodys' noted in the Thursday report that there were signs of declines in outstanding wealth management products issued by the mainland's banks and fewer investments in loans and receivables among the 26 listed banks.

But it added that profit growth would be limited by continued pressure on net interest margins and slower fee-income growth on higher funding costs and stricter shadow-banking regulations.

It also noted that banks relying on short-term market funds would face lower profits and were exposed to refinancing risks.

Moody's pointed to another risk that might emerge from the shadow banking crackdown: The potential for disputes among financial institutions over the responsibility of absorbing losses on bad investments.

Wan added that non-performing loan formation rates were also expected to stay stable at current levels.

"Overall delinquency rates will stabilize as corporate profit continues to recover, helped by stable and solid economic growth, steady commodity prices and a slower increase in corporate leverage," the Moody's statement said.

Moody's said that operating conditions were also stabilizing amid government efforts to support growth, including policies to encourage investment in sectors such as infrastructure and self-occupied residential property.

China's banking system has long spurred concerns about financial stability risks, particularly as the economy grows more indebted.

In particular, analysts have been concerned that official figures were understating the true level of non-performing loans.

But Moody's noted that the Chinese government was a key shareholder of the major banks on the mainland and would likely support them in "times of stress."

That support would likely cushion any potential crisis.

Separately Thursday, Moody's kept its outlook negative for banks in Hong Kong, citing "rising private sector indebtedness."

In May, Moody's downgraded China's credit rating to A1 from Aa3, changing its outlook to stable from negative, citing concerns that efforts to support growth will spur debt growth across the economy.

CNBC's Huileng Tan contributed to this article.
A daily morning look at the financial stories you need to know to start the day. STOCKS/ECONOMY -Stock futures are modestly higher after Wednesday's market gains. It's another busy day for earnings while we also get jobless claims numbers and durable goods data. -Comcast, the parent of NBC Universal, reported earnings that beat Wall Street expectations on profit and revenue. The stock is trading higher in the pre-market. Facebook shares hit all-time highs in the pre-market after it beat earnings expectations on all fronts and lowered its spending guidance. Twitter shares are under pressure this morning. It beat Wall Street expectations on earnings and revenue, but reported flat user growth. OBAMACARE REPLACEMENT -The Senate failed to pass a straight repeal of Obamacare Wednesday. Now, Republicans will try to pass a so-called "skinny bill" that would just repeal Obamacare mandates. The CBO just released a study that says that bill would leave 16 million more people uninsured over the next decade. The insurance industry is warning Congress not to pass the measure. OIL/ENERGY -U.S. crude prices are down , but holding near 8 week highs at the $48 a barrel level. -Gasoline prices are holding at $2.28 a gallon , national average. TRANSGENDER BAN -Several top tech sector CEO's are publicly criticizing President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender people from the U.S. military. INTERNET TAXES -In a sign the Trump administration may crack down on Amazon, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that he doesn't understand how Amazon can collect sales taxes on its own merchandise but not on the items sold by its third party vendors. DEALS/NO DEALS -Discovery Communications is reportedly in the lead over Viacom to buy Scripps Network. Discovery is expected to pay $90 per share. PHARMA -AstraZeneca shares are sharply lower after its lung cancer drug failed to show good results in trials. MOVING AMERICA -Meg Whitman has stepped down from the HP board amid rumors she's being offered the Uber CEO job.

Jack Dorsey is CEO of both Twitter and Square Teresa Kroeger | Getty Images
Nike's CEO Mark Parker will be taking a drastic pay cut this year to the tune of 71 percent of his income, according to CNN Money, which looked at the company's regulatory filings. That means his compensation will go from $47.6 million to $13.9 million.

To put it into perspective, in 2016, Parker claimed the No. 14 spot in the New York Times' ranking of highest paid CEOs.

The pay cut comes after a year of poor sales and a layoff of 1,000 employees in June.

CNBC Make It contacted Nike for comment, but the company could not be reached.

Nike is not the only company to have senior executives take drastic pay cuts over the years. Here are five other CEOs who've had this happen:
It's rare for private equity firms to criticize their peers.

But as SoftBank  the Japanese conglomerate known for its acquisitions of technology, media and telecommunications companies  raises an almost $100 billion fund for technology investments, it has elicited skepticism from at least one prominent investor.

Oaktree Capital's Howard Marks took to criticizing SoftBank's Vision Fund in a new memo published on the firm's website Wednesday, saying that the contours are emblematic of an overheated market.

Marks, the co-founder of Oaktree, a two-decade-old alternative investing shop, questioned SoftBank's capacity to invest $100 billion and generate decent performance.

Marks said SoftBank's historic, 18-year track record has produced annual returns of 44 percent. But was that "skill or luck?" he asked.

SoftBank's "record of investment success has relied heavily on one investment," Marks said. He's talking about Alibaba , the Chinese e-commerce giant that SoftBank invested $20 million in in 2000, a stake that has grown to be about $50 billion today.

Is that kind of success "extrapolatable?" Marks asked in the memo.

He also asked whether there are enough viable opportunities to deploy $100 billion into tech companies, citing the abundance of capital that led to trouble in the venture capital industry during the dot-com euphoria of 1999 and 2000.

Marks pointed to what he said is a lack of experience managing outside capital.

"Here's an organization that has never managed money for third parties, starting the biggest fund in history to do just that," he wrote. "Is their experience transferrable? In all these regards I think the fund indicates a high level of enthusiasm and low level of skepticism."

He also challenged the structure of the fund, saying that once it reaches $100 billion in assets, SoftBank will have put up only 28 percent of the capital but will own half of the equity. He said the private-equity industry has historically shied away from levering up technology industries, although he admitted it has become more common recently. SoftBank doesn't hesitate to do that, he said.

What's more, Marks said the fund's limited partners will get paid a "modest" 7 percent a year as preferred shareholders but their ultimate reward may be limited. "I can imagine the sales pitch about how lucky the LPs are to get a chance to provide leverage for their own investment, but I doubt I'd be convinced," Marks said.

A representative for SoftBank declined to comment.

SoftBank continues to sprinkle millions of dollars all over the globe.

Just this week, there were reports that SoftBank was seeking stake in Uber, that it was funneling millions into the co-working space startup WeWork for Chinese expansion, and that it was leading an investment in Slack, the chat service for businesses.

Still, Marks said he sees the ability for SoftBank to be this busy as another example of a market that's overheated.

"The willingness of investors to invest in a shockingly large fund for levered tech investing with a questionable structure is a further indication of an exuberant, unquestioning market," Marks said.
Procter & Gamble CEO David Taylor said billionaire investor Nelson Peltz has not offered a substantial plan to help the company.

"I want to prevent anything from derailing the work we're doing," Taylor told CNBC. The company, which makes Pampers diapers and Tide detergent, is in the midst of a plan to cut its costs by $10 billion over the next five years.

However, with its sales stagnating, the company has come under attack by Peltz's hedge fund Trian Partners, which owns about $3.3 billion worth of P&G shares.The fund is pushing for shareholders to vote Peltz to P&G's board. The proxy battle began earlier this month after P&G rejected Peltz's request to be named a director after months of meetings.

Taylor said P&G has a "rigorous" selection for board membership.

"The fact that he has good advice doesn't mean we just add him to the board," Taylor said.

Peltz does bring "a number of good folks with him," Taylor told CNBC. However, he said, P&G does not need a group to come and be a shadow management team.

Taylor's comments came after P&G reported earnings that beat expectations amidst aggressive cost-cutting efforts.

"I respect Nelson Peltz, I will listen to Nelson Peltz. There is evidence, though, now, that we have the plan and the portfolio," Taylor said.

He pointed to P&G's earnings results as proof its plan is working. The company's net sales remained flat at $16.08 billion for the quarter, though its organic revenue grew 2 percent. P&G's selling, general and administrative expenses fell 7 percent, and its profit climbed 13.5 percent.

He did, however, acknowledge two areas the company needs to address: diapers in China and Gillette. P&G's razor brand has struggled to compete with newcomers Harry's and Dollar Shave Club.

Peltz has criticized P&G for allowing the upstarts to eat into Gillette's market share.

Trian published a letter Thursday following P&G's earnings announcement criticizing the company's performance compared with its peers.

"Over the past 10 years, P&G's total return to shareholders is less than half that of its peers and it has been in the bottom quartile over most recent time frames," Trian said in its statement. "Trian believes P&G needs to address the root causes of this consistent underperformance, including deteriorating market share across most of its categories and excessive cost and bureaucracy."

P&G lowered its razor prices earlier this year. Taylor said it's about a 9- to 12-month story for Gillette, but Peltz's criticisms will not add a greater sense of urgency to reverse sales trends.

"We were already moving fast," Taylor said. "I feel that Peltz is pushing on things that I am pushing on, as well."
Peltz's Trian Fund Management owns about $3.3 billion worth of P&G shares, according to the hedge fund's latest filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Notably, Peltz has been involved with numerous other turnarounds of consumer-focused brands, such as Heinz.

P&G has been under increasing pressure by Wall Street to reverse lagging sales and speed profit growth. Earlier this month, billionaire hedge-fund manager Nelson Peltz called P&G a "suffocating bureaucracy." Peltz said he's seeking a board seat at P&G after the company rejected his request for one following months of meetings.

Procter & Gamble , the maker of Pampers diapers and Crest toothpaste, reported fourth-quarter earnings and sales Thursday that topped analysts' expectations. The company is aggressively cutting costs as part of its plan to reinvigorate growth.

"Over the past 10 years, P&G's total return to shareholders is less than half that of its peers and it has been in the bottom quartile over most recent time frames," Trian said in its statement. "Trian believes P&G needs to address the root causes of this consistent underperformance, including deteriorating market share across most of its categories and excessive cost and bureaucracy."

Peltz has said he's looking to ensure greater "management accountability" at P&G, where he wants to "accelerate positive change." However, Trian hasn't detailed any specific plans of attack nor strategies to achieve said results.

By Thursday afternoon, P&G CEO David Taylor called Peltz out on this.

"I want to prevent anything from derailing the work we're doing," Taylor told CNBC. "The fact that he has good advice doesn't mean we just add him to the board."

P&G's plan to please Wall Street has been to trim unprofitable brands from its portfolio, and to cut as much as $10 billion in costs from the business over the next five years.

"We went from 16 categories down to 10... 170 brands down to 65," Jon Moeller, Procter & Gamble CFO, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box" Thursday morning, discussing the latest quarter. He said P&G is seeing progress and that the company is focused on improving into 2018.

"I truly believe the best days of our company and [for] the consumer-products space are ahead of us," Moeller said. "We are in the middle of the biggest transformation ever as a company."

In the latest quarter, Cincinnati-based P&G managed to drive costs even lower, which aided in boosting its profit; P&G's net sales remained flat at $16.08 billion, though the company's quarterly profit climbed 13.5 percent.

Selling, general and administrative expenses fell 7 percent in the quarter.

Net income rose to $2.22 billion, or 82 cents a share, from $1.95 billion, or 69 cents per share, one year ago. Excluding restructuring charges and the results from discontinued operations, P&G earned 85 cents, outpacing analysts expectations of 78 cents a share.

The company's total organic sales  which excludes the impact of foreign exchange, mergers and acquisitions  grew 2 percent on a 2 percent increase in organic volume.

"We met or exceeded each of our going-in objectives for fiscal year 2017 in a challenging macro and competitive environment," CEO Taylor said in the earnings release.

"We made significant progress on our key priorities: accelerating organic sales growth, continuing to drive strong productivity improvement and cost savings, strengthening our organization and culture and completing moves to simplify and strengthen our product portfolio."

Bright spots, and thus sales drivers, in P&G's portfolio for the quarter were in beauty and fabric and home care. Both of these segments saw their organic sales climb 5 percent from a year ago. In beauty, P&G said its skin and personal care products grew sales in the high-single digits, aided by more innovation.

P&G's grooming and health-care segments saw their organic sales fall 1 percent from a year ago. Pricing pressure in the shave care and oral care categories is what drove results lower during the quarter, the company said.

Looking ahead, P&G said it expects earnings to grow 5 percent to 7 percent in 2018, also warning that the first quarter of fiscal 2018 will be the "lowest organic sales and core EPS growth period of the year."

Headwinds from "portfolio choices" and the a recent reduction in Gillette prices across the U.S. are the primary reasons for tough first quarter, the company said, but cost savings are still expected to build as 2018 progresses.
A file photo of Martin Shkreli, former chief executive officer of Turing Pharmaceuticals AG, arriving at federal court in Brooklyn, New York.

A prosecutor on Thursday told jurors at the Martin Shkreli securities fraud trial that they were the only people who could see the entire scope of the "Pharma bro's" allegedly widespread schemes that duped investors and directors at his drug company for years.

"You are the only people who know the whole story of what happened," said assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra Smith as she began closing arguments in Shkreli's fraud trial in Brooklyn, New York, federal court.

Smith said that after a month-long trial it was time "to pull back the curtain on these... fraud schemes and finally see the truth behind all these lies."

Shkreli, 34, is accused of defrauding a group of investors in two hedge funds by lying about his investing track record, and doubling down on those lies by issuing glowing financial reports about their money even as he was losing it.

He also is charged with ripping off Retrophin, the drug company he later founded, out of stock shares and cash to pay back those investors.

Smith told jurors that "to this day" investors in Shkreli's two hedge funds "have no idea what really happened to their money, what happened to their funds."

"All of the information they got... was from the defendant, and it was false," Smith said.

Smith said Shkreli routinely lied about his past experience in running a prior hedge fund when he was soliciting investments for his MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare funds.

"He did not talk about the fact that he had blown up a fund, lost people's money, and had a [legal] judgment that he owed," Smith said.

Shkreli also lied about having auditors and advisers for his funds, and grossly overstated the total amount of assets that his funds actually had under management, Smith said.

And he also then gave investors "false performance statements and the false [claim] about being able to redeem their money" within 30 days.

In the case of young investor Sarah Hassan, Smith noted, the performance reports she received from Shkreli "all show positive returns, all the while."

But, Smith added, that was false, and Shkreli had actually "stopped trading altogether" in the fund where Hassan had invested her money, "in February 2011 because there was nothing left in the fund."

"The brokerage account [for the fund] was actually shut down in 2011," the prosecutor said.

Hassan was "told her investment had grown, which is a lie, and she's also told she can take her investment [out] in cash or stock, which is lie," Smith said.

Hassan and other witnesses testified at length how Shkreli stonewalled them for months or more as they sought the redemption of their money after he said his hedge funds were closing. Hassan, like a number of other investors, ended up getting a combination of Retrophin stock and cash, instead of just cash from the hedge fund, as she had requested.

Defense lawyers have repeatedly underscored the fact that Hassan and the other Shkreli investors all ended up getting stock and cash that was worth more than their original stakes in his hedge funds.

Smith's closing statement was expected to continue until midday. After that, Shkreli's lawyer will give his own argument.

Prosecutors are expected to conclude their statements with a rebuttal to the defense argument on Friday morning. After that jurors will receive legal instructions from Judge Kiyo Matsumoto, and begin their deliberations.

Defense lawyers did not call a single witness in the case, which began in late June. Shkreli earlier this week told Matsumoto he would not testify.

WATCH: Co-worker says Shkreli 'mentally unstable'
Samsung's semiconductor division has been growing rapidly. SeongJoon Cho | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Samsung's chip division, which propelled it to record second quarter earnings, could be almost twice the size of Intel's entire business. The South Korean electronics giant reported operating profit of 8.03 trillion Korean won ($7.21 billion) in its semiconductor division in the three months to June, accounting for more than 57 percent of its entire earnings. Revenues came in at 17.58 trillion Korean won or $15.78 billion. U.S. rival Intel, which is a semiconductor giant, is set to report second quarter earnings after the market close on Thursday. Analysts surveyed by Reuters are expecting an operating profit of $3.89 billion in the second quarter. If that is realized, Samsung's semiconductor business alone would be almost twice the size of Intel's in terms of operating profit. Samsung first overtook Intel in the first quarter of 2017 when it reported operating profit in its semiconductor unit of 6.31 trillion Korean won or $5.66 billion, more than Intel's $3.9 billion figure. However, revenues were still slightly behind Intel. But the second quarter is shaping up to be the first time Samsung's operating profit and revenues for its chip division, will surpass those of Intel's whole business.

Focus on chips

The South Korean firm is still the world's largest smartphone player, and its recently-released flagship Galaxy S8 has performed well. But in recent times, it has been investing heavily in the chip business.

watch now

Earlier this month it announced plans to invest $18 billion in South Korea in its chip business, as it doubles down on the division. "Based on its history, we believe Samsung is either entrenching itself in areas where it is a market share leader  or making a push to gain market share," investment bank Stifel said in a research note Thursday. A number of trends are driving the uptake of so-called NAND and DRAM chips Samsung produces, which can be used in devices such as laptops and smartphones, through to data centers. There is rising demand, but not enough supply, which is pushing prices higher. At the same time, the number of data centers are growing. Intel has been particularly strong in the data center business. Revenues in its data center group rose 8 percent in 2016 to $17.2 billion. But it is facing threats from Samsung, but also other players such as Nvidia and AMD . Investment house Jeffries downgraded Intel from hold to underperform earlier this month saying the chipmaker has the "most to lose" in the "4th tectonic shift in computing." The industry shifted from PCs to mobile at first. But now another shift is underway towards the internet of things, meaning loads of devices that are connected to the internet, as well as artificial intelligence. "As the incumbent with dominant share, we think INTC (Intel) has the most to lose," Jefferies analyst Mark Lipacis wrote in a research note dated July 10.

Intel shares to rally?

Analysts have a mixed view on Intel shares. There are 4 strong buy ratings, 18 buys, 15 holds, 4 sells, and 2 strong sell ratings on the stock. But there does seem to be a growing consensus that feels Intel shares are undervalued, and the market is too bearish. And the company is also keeping abreast of changes in the semiconductor market. Earlier this month it unveiled a new line of chips aimed at servers and data centers called the Xeon Scalable Line. Intel touted improved performance and already a number of high-end customers are using the product. This was encouraging for some analysts.

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Shale oil drillers have seen the writing on the wall, and it says: "Slow down."

As the energy sector begins reporting earnings, independent oil companies are announcing plans to throttle back spending this year after a price rally stalled in the second quarter, leaving U.S. crude languishing below $50 a barrel for much of the period.

"What I've said in the past is $50 is kind of the line of demarcation," said Rob Thummel, portfolio manager at Tortoise Capital Advisors. "That's exactly what we're seeing. We're seeing a decline in capex."

The pullback started with Anadarko Petroleum , a global driller with shale oil assets in Colorado and Texas. The mini-major announced it would reduce its 2017 exploration and production budget by about $250 million. Going forward, the company will determine its spending depending on how much cash it generates and the returns on investments it realizes, Anadarko CEO Robert Walker said on Tuesday.

"We sincerely believe the volatility of the current operating environment requires financial discipline. And as I have said many times, pursuing growth without adequate returns is something we will avoid," he told analysts.
The people we sit near at work inevitably impact our day. They may brighten our mood or drive us crazy. What's more, our work neighbors can actually change how well we do our own jobs. Researchers looked at the 25-foot radius around high-performers at a large technology firm and found that these workers boosted performance in coworkers by 15 percent. That "positive spillover" translated into an estimated $1 million in additional annual profits, according to new research from Dylan Minor, an assistant professor of managerial economics and decision sciences at the Kellogg School. More from Kellogg Insight:

Four strategies for cultivating strong leaders internally

What happens to patient care when there are not enough nurses?

Take 5: How to motivate employees Of course, the flipside is that bad eggs impact their neighbors, too. Negative spillover from so-called toxic workers is even more pronounced  sometimes having twice the magnitude of impact on profits as positive spillover. Yet, while this toxic spillover happens very quickly, it also dissipates almost immediately once that worker is either fired or relegated to the far physical reaches of the company. Which means that companies potentially have a very cheap way to boost productivity  simply shift some desks around  as opposed to relying on expensive training and recruiting, Minor says. In an era where companies are experimenting with open floor plans and other nontraditional seating arrangements, the stakes can be high. Minor's research provides tangible takeaways for leaders thinking about how to group their staff.

"Companies are realizing that, 'wow, spatial management really does matter. Let's put some more work into thinking about how to do it well,'" he says.

The spillover effect

This research grew out of previous work by Minor and coauthor Michael Housman of HiQ Labs that focused only on toxic workers. Using data from consulting firm Cornerstone OnDemand, the researchers analyzed more than 58,000 hourly service workers at 11 well-known firms. They found that a toxic worker's negative financial impact  $12,800 by their calculation  was far greater than the financial boost that comes from a superstar. Minor and Housman presented their findings to the firms involved. A technology company in California that was part of the study approached the researchers afterward and asked if they could drill down deeper into the data. How, the company wondered, did physical proximity impact spillover? "We've known since kindergarten that who you sit next to can matter," Minor says. But it's not so simple. People are not uniformly good or bad at their jobs; many excel in some areas and are average or below average in others. "In today's world, most of the jobs we do are very much multidimensional," Minor says. "We're not just putting widgets together one piece at a time." So what did physical proximity do when employees' work was approached in a multidimensional way? To explore this, Minor and Housman got two years' worth of detailed information on the performance of more than 2,000 workers at the tech firm. They picked two measures of performance  speed and quality  and gave workers a ranking of either high or low for each. They also defined toxic workers the same way as in their previous research, as anyone whose behavior was so bad that they were fired. Toxic workers ended up comprising about two percent of the workers studied. Then the researchers literally mapped out where each employee sat and analyzed how each person's work shifted over time as their neighbors changed.

Positive spillover

First the good news. Having a high-performing neighbor is a bonus for everyone. Employees who ranked high on either speed or quality boosted the performance of those within a 25-foot radius. The impact was particularly strong on those who were matched with someone who had a complementary skill. In other words, if Bill is rated high for speed and Bob is rated low, Bob's speed will improve when he sits near Bill, more so than if they were both already speedy workers. The same holds true for quality. And, crucially, Bill's speed will not be dragged down by his slower-moving neighbor.

NBC's The Office NBC | Getty Images

"The beautiful part of it is that when we put these people together, they're not going to materially suffer on the area of strength," Minor says. "They're only going to improve on their area of weakness." This idea of matching people with complementary strengths makes sense when the skill in question is something that has a finite upper limit, like speed, Minor explains. But for other skills, like creativity, where there is no true upper limit, it might make sense to pair people with the same strengths so that their positive spillover keeps nudging the other to do more and more creative work.

Negative spillover

Now the bad news. Toxic workers are really, really toxic. And they infect their neighbors very quickly. "Once a toxic person shows up next to you, your risk of becoming toxic yourself has gone up," Minor says. And while positive spillover was limited to about a 25-foot radius, with toxic workers, "you can see their imprint and negative effect across an entire floor." Keep in mind how narrowly the researchers defined toxic  someone who is fired for their behavior. This means that simply sitting near someone who gets fired means you yourself are now more likely to commit an act heinous enough to merit firing. And this toxic spillover happens almost immediately. The researchers saw neighbors go bad, so to speak, as soon as that toxic neighbor showed up. Whereas positive spillover that boosted speed or quality generally took a month to impact a lower-performing neighbor. Why is negative spillover so much more powerful than positive? Minor believes it is line with many other psychological studies that show that, "negative effects have more of a magnitude than positive effects." For example, losing $100 is more painful than winning $100 is joyful. But even among the toxic, there is reason to be reassured, Minor says. "Once they're transferred or fired, your risk pretty much immediately subsides." Plus, he adds, "most people are not toxic."

Learning vs. peer pressure

Next the researchers explored why spillover happens. Are people learning good or bad behavior from their neighbors or is something like peer pressure at work?

They reasoned that if employees were learning from those nearby, then the positive or negative effects would continue after their influential neighbor left. But the data showed that both positive and negative spillover were fleeting. While this is unfortunate for positive spillover  wouldn't it be great if the improved employee continued being awesome forever?  it is good news in the negative department. "You could have this other kind of model where people learn how to become a criminal or a jerk and then they stay a criminal or a jerk," Minor says.

Spatial management matters
Shares of were hit hard in early Thursday trading before recovering slightly. Investors were expressing concern over slower unit revenue growth.

Despite reporting better-than-expected quarterly earnings and revenue Thursday, the stock was down more than 7 percent at one stage.

Here's what Southwest reported versus what Wall Street was expecting:

Earnings per share: $1.24 adjusted compared with $1.20 expected, according to Thomson Reuters

Revenue: $5.74 billion vs. $5.72 billion Thomson Reuters estimate

Unit revenue grew at the Dallas-based airline, but more slowly than other airlines. Southwest reported 1.5 percent growth in the second quarter.

, for instance, posted growth of 7 percent in the same category.

"We did 1.5 [percent] over last year, considering that we had a brand-new reservation system," Southwest Chairman and CEO Gary Kelly told CNBC shortly after the airline released results.

In a note, Kevin Crissey, a senior analyst at Citi Research, said Southwest's capacity growth is "a top concern of investors."

Excluding special items, second-quarter net income was $748 million compared with $757 million in the year-earlier period. Total operating revenue increased 6.7 percent.

Kelly was confident about the future after what he called "a really solid performance," saying in a "Squawk on the Street" interview "there's nothing different at Southwest today than three months ago."
Verdana is a humanist sans-serif typeface designed by Matthew Carter for Microsoft Corporation, with hand-hinting done by Thomas Rickner, then at Monotype. Demand for such a typeface was recognized by Virginia Howlett of Microsoft's typography group and commissioned by Steve Ballmer. [1] The name "Verdana" is based on verdant (something green), and Ana (the name of Howlett's eldest daughter). [3]

Bearing similarities to humanist sans-serif typefaces such as Frutiger, Verdana was designed to be readable at small sizes on the low-resolution computer screens of the period. [4] Like many designs of this type, Verdana has a large x-height (tall lower-case characters), with wider proportions and loose letter-spacing than on print-orientated designs like Helvetica. The counters and apertures are wide, to keep strokes clearly separate from one another, and similarly-shaped letters are designed to appear clearly different to increase legibility for body text. The bold weight is thicker than would be normal with fonts for print use, suiting the limitations of onscreen display. [5] Carter has described spacing as an area he particularly worked on during the design process. [6]

Distinctive visual identifiable characteristics [ edit ]

Characteristics of the typeface are:

Lower case

there is a square dot over the letter i

the lowercase j has a serif on top that protrudes left

has a serif on top that protrudes left the a is double-story

Upper case

the capital Q 's tail is centered under the figure

's tail is centered under the figure the uppercase J has a serif on the top that protrudes left

has a serif on the top that protrudes left the uppercase I has serifs on the top and bottom

As an example of the approach of making similar characters easily distinguishable, the digit 1 (one) in Verdana was given a horizontal base and a hook in the upper left to distinguish it from lowercase l (L) and uppercase I (i). This is similar to the digit "1" found in Morris Fuller Benton's sans-serif typefaces News Gothic and Franklin Gothic.

Prevalence [ edit ]

Released in 1996, Verdana was bundled with subsequent versions of the Windows operating system, as well as their Office and Internet Explorer software on Windows, classic Mac OS, and Mac OS X. Since at least Mac OS X 10.4 it is even bundled with macOS itself. [7] In addition, up until 2002 [8] [9] it was available for download from Microsoft's web site as freeware (".exe" files for Microsoft Windows and in ".sit.hqx" archives for Mac OS) under a proprietary license imposing some restrictions on usage and distribution, allowing it to be used by end users in any system supporting installation of "exe" or ".sit.hqx" files and supporting TrueType fonts. [10] The downloadable files are still available legally from third-party web sites; see the External links section. However, these files include only old versions of Verdana and updated versions are not available as a freeware.

According to one long-running survey, the availability of Verdana is 99.70% on Windows, 98.05% on computers running Mac OS, and 67.91% on free operating systems like Linux. [11]

According to a study of online fonts by the Software Usability and Research Laboratory at Wichita State University, participants preferred Verdana to be the best overall font choice and it was also perceived as being among the most legible fonts. [12] However, Microsoft's font manager Bill Hill wrote of it that "with its large x-height and very generous spacing, it never felt comfortable as an eBook font", and noted that Microsoft had commissioned an alternative, version of the pre-existing typefaces Berling and Frutiger, for its Microsoft Reader e-book product. Despite this, Verdana was initially used as one of the bundled book-reading fonts on the iPad before an update in 2011. [13]

Microsoft variants [ edit ]

Verdana Ref is a custom version of Verdana for use with Microsoft Reference. It is used in Microsoft Bookshelf 2000, Encarta Encyclopedia Deluxe 99, Encarta Virtual Globe 99, Office 2000 Premium, Publisher 2000. MS Reference Sans Serif is a derivative of Verdana Ref with bold and italic fonts. This font family is included with Microsoft Encarta.

Tahoma is similar to Verdana but with tighter letter spacing. The Windows Mobile core font Nina [14] is a more condensed version of Tahoma and Verdana. [15]

Verdana Pro [ edit ]

Microsoft licensed rights to Verdana to Font Bureau for a new Verdana Pro release, published in 2013. Verdana Pro adds light, semi-bold and black styles with italics, as well as condensed styles with italics across all weights. The expanded family was designed for organisations which had made extensive use of Verdana due to its availability but desired additional versions for greater flexibility. It is sold separately through print and web licenses, being sold by Font Bureau and Ascender. [16] [17] A similar Georgia Pro release was announced at the same time.

Combining characters bug [ edit ]

In the past Verdana (v. 2.43) had an incorrect position for combining diacritical marks, causing them to display on the following character instead of the preceding. This made it unsuitable for Unicode-encoded text such as Cyrillic or Greek. This bug didn't usually reveal itself with Latin letters. This is because some font display engines substitute sequences of base character + combining character with a precomposed character glyph. [18] This bug was subsequently fixed in the version issued with Windows Vista. It is also fixed in Verdana version 5.01 font on Windows XP by installing the European Union Expansion Font Update from Microsoft. [19]

Awards [ edit ]

In 2006, the Verdana typeface was named in the list of British design icons in the Great British Design Quest organised by the BBC and the Design Museum. Carter's typeface appeared on a list which included Concorde, Mini, Jaguar E-Type, Aston Martin DB5, Supermarine Spitfire, World Wide Web, London tube map, AEC Routemaster bus and the K2 telephone box. [20]

Usage [ edit ]

In 2008, during their merger with Northwest Airlines and resulting rebranding effort, Delta Air Lines changed their official logo typeface from Times New Roman to Verdana. [citation needed ]

In 2009, IKEA changed the typeface used in its catalog from Futura to Verdana, expressing a desire to unify its branding between print and web media. The controversy has been attributed to the perception of Verdana as a symbol of homogeneity in popular typography. [21] Time magazine and the Associated Press ran articles on the controversy including a brief interview with an IKEA representative, focusing on the opinions of typographers and designers. [22] Design and advertising industry-focused publications such as Business Week joined the fray of online posts. The branding critic blog Brand New was one of those using the Verdanagate name. [21] The Australian online daily news site Crikey also published an article on the controversy. [23] The Guardian ran an article asking "Ikea is changing its font to Verdana  causing outrage among typomaniacs. Should the rest of us care? Absolutely." [24] The New York Times said the change to Verdana "is so offensive to many because it seems like a slap at the principles of design by a company that has been hailed for its adherence to them." [25]
Spain's economy is heading in a "very good direction" and is set to grow more than the European Union, the CFO of the Spanish lender Bankia told CNBC on Thursday.

The retail bank beat analysts' expectations when reporting second quarter profits Wednesday of 210 million euros ($244 million). Analysts had forecast a net profit of 188 million euros. The recent economic recovery in Spain contributed to the bank's performance.

"GDP (gross domestic product) is going to grow this year probably above 3 percent, as much as 3.3 percent, and what's more important it's going to be 3 percent next year, so it's well-above the European Union level," Leopoldo Alvear, chief financial officer of Bankia, told CNBC Thursday.

"The micro in Spain is also working very well. We've seen this in consumption, we've seen this in the number of cars being sold, and we've seen of course in tourism," he noted.

The International Monetary Fund noted last week that Spain's economic recovery remains strong. The Fund estimated a 3.1 percent GDP rate for this year, benefiting from the economic reforms undertaken in the years after the 2008 crisis.
Starbucks shares declined in aftermarket trading Thursday after the company posted weaker-than-expected third-quarter revenue and lowered its full-year 2017 forecast.

The company posted earnings of 55 cents per share on $5.66 billion in revenue. The coffee giant is expected to report earnings of 55 cents per share on $5.75 billion in revenue, according to Thomson Reuters estimates.

Shares of the coffee giant fell more than 6 percent following the report.

Despite posting its highest U.S. same-store sales in five quarters, Starbucks CFO Scott Maw said the company is "a bit more cautious" about the current quarter amid broader pressure on the slumping retail sector.

Starbucks said that it now expects to see earnings per share for full-year 2017 to be between $2.05 and $2.06. Previously, the company forecast EPS in the range of $2.08 to $2.12.

In addition, the company said it expects revenue growth will be on the lower end of its previous range of 8 percent to 10 percent.

Starbucks said same-store sales rose 4 percent during the quarter. Analysts had anticipated global same-store sales growth of 4.9 percent for the quarter, according to StreetAccount.

This is the third quarter in a row that Starbucks has posted weaker-than-expected same-store sales.
Despite the stock market rally, technology and pharmaceuticals are the main sectors actually chalking up growth, said advertising and public relations company WPP's CEO, Sir Martin Sorrell.

"Growth is there, but it's in limited sectors of the economy despite what the stock market is saying," Sorrell told CNBC's "Squawk Box" on Thursday.

The advertising guru said most growth is coming from technology with the "Fearsome Five" of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook dominating. Meanwhile, in the U.S. pharmaceutical industry, contract manufacturing organizations are also posting rapid growth, he added.

Sorrell said WPP is investing in more digital services, and Facebook and Google will be the top two destinations to which the firm directs media spending this year.

As for Chinese tech companies, they are also establishing global import as they already dominate the market in the world's second-largest economy, he said, pointing to the "BAT" trio of Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent.

"We in the West tended to think China copied technology, or even stole technology. If that was the case, that's no longer the case," he said.
During the holiday season, most Americans are looking forward to vacations and celebrating with family. But in December 2015, social media star Rachel Mansfield was devastated when she was fired from her job. The health and wellness social media influencer, who now boasts over 200,000 Instagram followers, says having two crucial traits helped her learn from that experience and become her own boss: knowing her self-worth and having unwavering determination. As a self-proclaimed "dessert enthusiast," Mansfield's Instagram focuses on her daily eats, new recipes she's testing out, her favorite restaurants and her fitness routine  she's a big fan of barre classes. The 27-year-old tells CNBC Make It that her parents were actually the first ones to suggest that she turn her budding social media presence into a business. Mansfield recalls sitting with them at a pizza shop when they told her to venture off on her own "because the corporate world would always be there." However, before losing her job, where she claims she was "under-compensated and undervalued," she felt fairly content working as an executive assistant at a food and beverage company in New Jersey.

How getting fired helped her turn to social media

When she originally created her Instagram and blog in March 2015, her goal was to use social media to establish a following so she could sell and deliver her homemade food across Manhattan. She got married in September of that year and had a stable job, so she soon forgot about that dream until months later when she was fired.

"I was so blindsided," says Mansfield. "I walked out onto 7th Avenue and literally started crying." The then 25-year-old says she headed home in a state of shock. When she arrived, it finally dawned on her that she was unemployed, which led to a panic attack. "Around the holidays no one is hiring," says Mansfield. "It's impossible to get a job. People are on vacation. I had no idea what I was going to do." But her self-pity didn't last long, which she attributes to her personality. "In general, I'm a tough person. I don't sit still and I'm always going, going, going," she tells CNBC Make It. At the time, the recipe developer had only 10,000 Instagram followers but she knew that if she wanted to create a profitable influencer marketing agency she would have to invest in her brand and grow her audience. "Just posting good pictures isn't enough to build a social media brand," Lorena Garcia, co-founder of Bloguettes, a social media and brand management agency, tells CNBC Make It. "You have to create quality content." Mansfield began reaching out to friends, past colleagues and brands. She worked from early in the morning until 11 p.m. at night as well as most weekends. She was also constantly checking her email. "Failure wasn't an option and I was so determined," says Mansfield. "I'm also really independent and didn't want to ask my parents for money." Her hard work began to pay off. The audience for her Instagram and blog grew rapidly and companies began to reach out to partner with her. Some featured brands on her accounts include Sun Basket, an organic meal delivery service, Rebbl, an herbal drink brand that can be found at Whole Foods, and Equinox gym. But the increase in interest came with problems of its own.

Making money and achieving success

Mansfield says she is paid by brands for recipe development on her blog or if she posts on her social media about a company. However, companies would sometimes try and give her low ball offers to promote their products, or worse yet, partner with her and try to get out of paying her. "You really need confidence in order to portray your message because people will try to walk all over you," says Mansfield. "You have to know your self-worth." That includes knowing which brands to partner with and potentially leaving money on the table if she doesn't believe in a brand. Why? Because her readers trust the products she reviews and she wants to keep it that way. In fact, for social media influencers, choosing brands that align with their values is paramount. When partnerships aren't authentic the audience begins to "doubt your credibility and gets upset because they are invested in you," says Garcia.

Looking back, Mansfield says that the last year has been a whirlwind. "I could have given up at $40,000 for the rest of my life," she tells CNBC Make It. In fact, all she wanted before the termination from her previous job was a $10,000 raise. Now a year and a half later, working as a recipe developer, food stylist and blogger her yearly salary is in the low six figures and growing. Garcia notes that the pay for a social media influencer can be lucrative. The brand expert says she has seen influencers who make $15,000 just for one Instagram post. However, it doesn't happen overnight. "It's that influence and vision that gets brands to come to you," she says. But it takes "strategy, commitment and hard work," which is tough for most people. Garcia adds that many people start blogs and social media accounts as businesses but end up giving up because it's too difficult. As a solo business owner, Mansfield says she is the "CEO, accountant, creative director, admin and CFO." She has no one to tell her what she needs to accomplish and no one to set deadlines, so it takes a concerted effort to get things done. "I have no one to tell me I need to do a holiday campaign or that I need to reach out to partner with this brand," she says.

Why luck has nothing to do with it

Social media influencers also have to be a one-person band and pick-up on the most minute details, says Garcia. They must look at color schemes for their blogs and social media accounts, determine how often they will post, schedule photo shoots, create appealing visuals and set editorial calendars in advance. "You see these girls and it looks like they're living the life," the social media strategist tells CNBC Make It. "But you don't understand that they work day and night." Mansfield, for example, forms recipe creations for brands, does food styling and content plus video creation, hosts speaking engagements and cooking classes and works as a brand ambassador as part of her day-to-day. She says that she just took her first vacation since starting her social media company, this June, which was a very belated honeymoon (she was married in 2015). The Instagram star tells CNBC Make It that people frequently tell her she is so lucky because her job seems easy. While she is grateful for how quickly her business has grown and how "fun" her job seems, she wholeheartedly disagrees. "I don't believe that I'm lucky," says Mansfield. "Luck didn't get me here. Determination did. And not letting anyone get in my way." Like this story? Like CNBC Make It on Facebook. See also: This former factory worker is now the world's richest self-made woman Mark Cuban says hustling at a young age helped him succeed Kim Kardashian and Bethenny Frankel say this trait helped them succeed
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Alaska's senators Wednesday warning them about potential changes to policy after the state's Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski broke from the GOP on Obamacare repeal this week, the Alaska Dispatch News reported.

Zinke, who heads the agency that oversees federal land and natural resources, spoke to Murkowski and GOP Sen. Dan Sullivan, who represent a state that relies heavily on energy. Sullivan told the Dispatch News that he feared "the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop."

The calls came after Trump tweeted Wednesday morning that Murkowski "let the Republicans, and our country, down" by casting one of two GOP votes against a motion to start debate on some form of Obamacare repeal. Senate Republicans are pushing to pass an Obamacare repeal plan this week despite party divisions and concerns from Murkowski and others that current repeal or replacement options will not adequately fix Obamacare's flaws.

Murkowski could prove decisive this week as the GOP seeks to approve a so-called skinny Obamacare repeal in what will likely be a tight vote. Murkowski has shrugged off Trump's criticism and told reporters Thursday that she would characterize the call from Zinke more as a difficult conversation than a threat.

"I'm a pretty strong and independent individual," she said. "I listen to the input from all sides, whether it is the president, whether it is certainly the secretary of Interior where we have much, much in common, and always absolutely, the people of Alaska."

Murkowski said that she and Zinke talked about energy issues as well as health care.

A spokesperson for Sullivan, as well as the White House and Interior Department, did not immediately respond to CNBC's requests for comment.

Read the full Alaska Dispatch News report here.
Whether he likes it or not, President Donald Trump will have to accept Congress' harsh sanctions bill against Russia, says enemy of the Putin regime Bill Browder.

Russia's hopes for removing the sanctions imposed by the Magnitsky Act are "gone" now that Congress has passed this new bill so unanimously, said the founder and CEO of Hermitage Capital Management.

"These sanctions will not go away," Browder said on CNBC's "Power Lunch" Thursday.

"To the extent that the president wants to be nice to Russia, he's going to have to find issues to be nice to Russia that don't include sanctions, because we now have sanctions completely locked up via an act of Congress," he said.

The new bill essentially cements the Magnitsky sanctions into law by requiring congressional approval to have them repealed. The president would be required to inform Congress of his intention to alter U.S. policy on Russian sanctions. Congress would have 30 days to block the president from doing so.

"They're effectively tying the president's hands," said Browder, who supports Russian sanctions and the current bill that would preserve them.

The Trump administration, for its part, has floated the possibility of the president vetoing the sanctions bill.
"So far in Colorado, marijuana taxes have failed to shore up state budget shortfalls. The budget deficit there doubled in the last few years, despite claims that pot taxes could turn deficit into surplus."

This isn't just a theory - it's already happening. As marijuana use has increased in states that have legalized it, so has use by employees, both on and off the job. Large businesses in Colorado now state that after legalization they have had to hire out-of-state residents in order to find employees that can pass a pre-employment drug screen, particularly for safety-sensitive jobs like bus drivers, train operators, and pilots.

And now drug using employees - supported by special interest groups - are organizing to make drug use a "right" despite the negative impacts we know it will have on employers and the companies that hire them.

And what about that promised tax revenue? So far in Colorado, marijuana taxes have failed to shore up state budget shortfalls. The budget deficit there doubled in the last few years, despite claims that pot taxes could turn deficit into surplus.

Collected pot taxes only comprise a tiny fraction of the Colorado state budget less than one percent. After costs of enforcement and regulation are subtracted, the remaining revenue used for public good is very limited.

Even viewed solely in the context of Colorado's educational needs, pot revenue is not newsworthy. The Colorado Department of Education indicates their schools require about $18 billion in capital construction funds alone. Marijuana taxes do not even make a dent in this gap.

In Washington State, half of the $42 million of marijuana tax money legalization advocates promised would reach prevention programs and schools by 2016 never materialized. We've seen this movie before: witness our experience with gambling, the lottery, and other vices.

We should also care about the human fallout of increased marijuana acceptance. Recent evidence demonstrates that today's marijuana isn't the weed of the 1960s. It is addictive and harmful to the human brain, especially when used by adolescents.

Moreover, in states that have already legalized the drug, there has been an increase in drugged driving crashes and youth marijuana use. States that have legalized marijuana also continue to see a thriving black market, and are experiencing a continued rise in alcohol sales despite arguing users will switch to a "safer" drug.

Over the past several months, the Trump Administration has signaled it is considering a crackdown on marijuana in states where it is legal. We don't yet know what this policy change may look like, but one thing we know for sure is that incarcerating low-level, nonviolent offenders in federal prisons is not the answer. Individual users need incentives to encourage them to make healthy decisions, not handcuffs.

But we do need to enforce federal law. Indeed, by reasserting federal control over the exploding marijuana industry, we know we can make a positive difference in preventing the commercialization of a drug that will put profits over public health and fight every regulation proposed to control its sale and use.

Marijuana addiction is real, and simply ignoring this health condition will only cost us down the road. We should assess marijuana users for drug use disorders as well as mental health problems, and assist those into recovery. This can't happen in a climate that promotes use.

Commentary by Kevin Sabet, president of Smart Approaches to Marijuana (SAM) and a former White House drug advisor for presidents Clinton, Bush and Obama. He cofounded SAM with former Congressman Patrick Kennedy who is currently an honorary board member. Follow Sabet on Twitter @kevinsabet.

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.
Like all teachers, Charles Best wants to see his students succeed. Yet as a high school history teacher at Wings Academy in the Bronx, he saw firsthand the struggles his students faced: No dental care, no winter jackets, no lunch or school supplies. As a result, Best was spending upward of $500 a year to give students the tools they needed to stay motivated to learn. After five years of digging into his own pocket, Best came up with a solution: DonorsChoose.org, an online platform that empowers public school teachers across the United States to request funding for the materials and enrichment experiences their students need in order to progress  things like reading materials, whiteboards, audiobooks, math games and lap desks.

Source: DonorsChoose.org

Donors can choose whatever project that appeals to them, and there is no required donation amount. When DonorsChoose.org launched in 2000, Best's colleagues posted the first 11 requests. The concept quickly spread. That's no surprise. A recent study by the National Center for Education Statistics revealed that 1 in 5 students in the United States is living in poverty. The study further revealed that poverty and education are inextricably linked, as these students are seven times more likely to drop out of high school. As a result, educators are reaching into their own pockets to help out. In a DonorsChoose.org survey of more than 2,000 educators from America's highest poverty classrooms, 84 percent of these teachers spent their own money to provide their students with basic needs such as clothing, food, shoes and personal hygiene items. Of these teachers, 63 percent report spending more than $100 of their own money each school year. Now in its 17th year, DonorsChoose.org  operating under the tagline "Support a classroom. Build a future"  has raised more than $530 million and has funded over 935,000 projects. In all, more than 23 million students have benefited from Best's innovative approach to supporting America's classrooms.

Expanding beyond the classroom

In February, DonorsChoose.org expanded their original project model to include Student Life Essentials, a platform that goes beyond school supplies to provide students with critical life needs, like warm coats, clean clothes, personal hygiene items and food for outside of school. The concept, says DonorsChoose.org, is that having these materials means students can come to school with confidence, ready to learn, which will in turn set them up for better success. SLE has caught the attention of notable philanthropists, including Twitter co-founder Biz Stone; co-owners of Townsend Press, Judy Nadell and John Langan; and Goldman Sachs executive Scott Rofey, among others. Together they have agreed to provide a $1 million fund that will be sourced to match any donation the projects in the SLE program receive. Since its launch on February 9, SLE has raised more than $1,002,780 fully funding 2,025 projects to aid 241,226 students. These projects served 1,017 schools across America. Among the successful campaigns: footwear at Lincoln Elementary School in Utah, umbrellas at Frank Elementary School in Wisconsin and personal hygiene products for Muskegon Middle School in Michigan.

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone Getty Images

"My wife and I were smitten with this simple way to support students and teachers," Biz Stone says upon learning about DonorsChoose.org. The Twitter co-founder says that since discovering the organization, the couple has "enjoyed taking a broader role and being part of the big campaigns like #BestSchoolDay and Student Life Essentials, which often shine a light on the needs of teachers many people don't know about." According to DonorsChoose.org, SLE garnered this level of support because of its popularity among tech founders and entrepreneurs, as well as through promotion from Stephen Colbert, a member of the organization's board of directors. On his show The Colbert Report, he gave his guests DonorsChoose.org gift cards.

Total transparency

Each campaign request is vetted by a team of 230 volunteers, mostly former teachers, who work out of the organization's New York and San Francisco offices. Every request posted on the site goes through a strict approval process, and each request must provide a breakdown of how the money will be used, right down to the penny. DonorsChoose.org prides itself on total transparency. "I figured that if people could see where their money was going, they would want to help teachers like us," Best says.

Source: DonorsChoose.org
The so-called "skinny repeal" of Obamacare being considered this week in the GOP-controlled Senate may leave 16 million more Americans uninsured over a decade, according to a CBO estimate requested by two key Senate Democrats. (CNBC)



* With only 45 GOP votes, Senate rejects straight repeal of Obamacare (NBC News)

Newly named White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci is calling the "leak" of his financial disclosure form a "felony," saying he would be contacting the FBI and Justice Department about the matter. The Tweet was removed last night. (CNBC)

Chinese technology firm Foxconn will invest $10 billion to create a state of the art manufacturing facility in Wisconsin. At the White House Wednesday, Foxconn's chairman said the deal will create 3,000 jobs. "American jobs; that's what we want," President Trump said. (CNBC)

AstraZeneca (AZN) was plunging about 15 percent in the premarket after an experimental treatment for advanced lung cancer failed to help patients as much as expected in a trial. (NY Times)

Samsung Electronics delivered its biggest-ever quarter of profits, shrugging off last year's global recall of its Galaxy Note 7 by leaning on its dominance as a supplier of electronics components. Results position the company to top Apple in quarterly profits. (WSJ)

Amazon (AMZN) has started a secret team, dubbed 1492, dedicated to opportunities in health care, including electronic medical records and telemedicine. The 1492 reference appears to be a reference to the year Columbus first landed in the Americas. (CNBC)



* Amazon launches first Prime Now services in Southeast Asia (CNBC)

New York City co-working space startup WeWork has raised $500 million to set up shop in China. Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital led the investment. (CNBC)

HP Incorporated (HPQ) announced the Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) CEO Meg Whitman has stepped down from the computer and printer maker's board of directors. Whitman had been chair of HP since the companies split in late 2015. (CNBC)

Billionaire Howard Marks, one of the most respected value investors out there, starkly warned investors to avoid high-flying digital currencies. In a note to clients, he called them "unfounded fad (or perhaps even a pyramid scheme)." (CNBC)



* SEC moves closer to taming 'Wild West' of digital currencies (CNBC)
Co-working space start-up WeWork has raised $500 million to set up shop in China, the company announced on Thursday.

Japanese conglomerate SoftBank and Chinese private equity firm Hony Capital led the investment.

The investment created an entity that will operate under the name WeWork China and will allow the company to expand its operations into new cities next year and increase its current footprint in Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

"Since coming to China only a year ago, we've been able to establish a vibrant community of creators and companies - and we've only just begun," Adam Neumann, CEO of WeWork, said in a press release on Thursday.

WeWork allows individuals or businesses to hire desks or offices at a monthly rate. It currently has more than 155 physical locations in 50 cities and 15 countries around the world.

SoftBank and WeWork have an existing relationship. Earlier this month, the two agreed on a joint venture to launch its co-working spaces in Japan.

In February, CNBC reported that SoftBank was close to finalizing a $3 billion investment in WeWork. A SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment on whether this latest funding round is going to make up part of that.

Then in March, the Wall Street Journal reported that SoftBank had invested $300 million in WeWork, with more tranches of funds expected down the line which would total $3 billion. Bloomberg then reported earlier this month that WeWork had closed a $760 million round of funding.

The $500 million investment announced Thursday may therefore be part of the bigger round that SoftBank was targeting. WeWork has not responded to a request for comment when contacted by CNBC.

SoftBank has been on an aggressive investment path since announcing its $93 billion Vision Fund back in May, which includes investors such as Apple and Qualcomm . Investments so far include self-driving car start-up Nauto and chipmaker Nvidia . The WeWork investment has likely come from the Vision Fund, but a SoftBank spokesperson declined to comment when contacted by CNBC.
More than 60 Democratic lawmakers in Congress have requested more information from Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos about how she plans to support reductions in school discipline policies that remove students from classrooms and schools.

In the Wednesday letter , the members of Congress stress to DeVos that limiting out-of-school suspensions and harsh, zero tolerance disciplinary approaches lead to a better atmosphere for minority students, while continuing such practices disproportionately impacts those students. They want DeVos to use her oversight power to make sure states Every Student Succeeds Act plans support other approaches to discipline, and they want to know what, if any, guidance she plans to provide to states on the issue.

DeVos hasnt really weighed in decisively with her thoughts on school discipline. In June, she ducked a question about the disproportionate impact of some disciplinary practices on certain groups of students. (We asked the U.S. Department of Education for any response to the letter, and well update this post if we hear back.)

But it was an area where the Obama administration was relatively active. Obama Education Department officials, for example, called for school discipline practices to be more evenhanded . And they highlighted data about how minority students have been on the receiving end of more serious forms of discipline. An Education Week analysis released in January showed that black students are arrested at school at disproportionate rates .

We believe it is well within the scope of the Departments authority to continue taking steps towards reducing exclusionary and aversive discipline practices in schools, and that the Department has an obligation to take such steps under the Every Student Succeeds Act, the lawmakers wrote to DeVos.

Instead, the lawmakers say that DeVos should encourage approaches such as positive behavioral interventions and supports, trauma-informed care, and de-escalation techniques. Some analysts, however, have questioned the Obama administrations approach. A March study of New York City schools written by Max Eden for the Manhattan Institute, for example, found that school climate might suffer if theres a shift away from suspensions .

It is often assumed that reducing suspensions will help those students without imposing negative spillover effects on their better-behaved peers. However, research demonstrates that disruptive peer behavior can have significant negative effects on students, Eden wrote.

Read the Democratic lawmakers full letter below:
The success of e-commerce juggernaut Amazon pushed founder and CEO Jeff Bezos to become the world's richest person on Thursday, dethroning Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. But Bezos, who also is the founder of space travel company Blue Origin, didn't dream of becoming an e-commerce billionaire. When he was young, Bezos' focus went to his love of outer space. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico, in 1964, Bezos remembers watching Neil Armstrong land on the moon in 1969. "I fell in love with the idea of space and space exploration and space travel when I was 5 years old," Bezos tells Charlie Rose. "I watched Neil Armstrong step onto the moon. You don't choose your passions, your passions choose you. I  so I am infected with this idea. I couldn't ever stop thinking about space. I have been thinking about it ever since then."

Jeff Bezos, founder and Ceo of Amazon Paul Souders | Getty Images

Bezos also remembers going through a phase in first grade when he was 6, where he wanted to be an archaeologist  because he had learned how to spell the word, according to a 2001 Guardian article. Later, Bezos was his high school's valedictorian, and then he went to Princeton, where he thought he would become a theoretical physicist. That didn't stick either, though. "I was doing well, but it was so much work for me, it was hard and there were half a dozen people in my class who were so gifted, and their brains were just wired in a different way, and the things that I worked so hard to do came so effortlessly to them," says Bezos in the Guardian.
There are places in the world that still have untapped oil lots of oil. But they're hard to access and therefore expensive to develop, especially when it comes to ensuring their ecosystems are respected. A new technology may radically upset this status quo. METIS aims to complete the exploration and imaging phase virtually without setting foot on the ground. It's clearly a disruptive project that will require patience and acceptance in addition to technology. The enthusiast who has championed the project for the last three years unpacks it.

Approximately 450 billion barrels of oil equivalent1 still lie untouched beneath the Earth's surface. And 15 percent of those resources are in areas geologists refer to as foothills. But there's a problem: These areas are also labeled "geological chaos" for their incredibly complex surface and subsurface, made up of folds and thrusts, which make development difficult if not downright impossible.

What's more, such areas are often found in remote corners of the planet, deep in hard-to-reach, hostile environments whose wildlife and plants are closely watched by multiple stakeholders. So it's not hard to see why these foothills weren't an oil company priority, for reasons of operational difficulty, profitability, social or environmental acceptance and risk management.

Nevertheless, as CEO Patrick Pouyanne points out in his video, The Future of Energy: "[Total's] technological capacity is at the heart of the future of the company." Especially when "competitive oil has a future."

Florent Bertini knows all about competitiveness and technical progress. He runs the Earth Imaging R&D (research and development) program in Total's Exploration & Production segment. Since the summer of 2014 he has been working with his teams on METIS2, which he describes as "a disruptive and holistic project" to acquire very high-caliber geophysical data to produce subsurface images of foothills that can subsequently be used to explore their potential.
Washington

Schools need to do more to equip K-12 students with computational thinking skills to prepare them to fill the growing number of middle- and high-skilled jobs that require computing or programming skills, witnesses told members of a congressional committee this week.

The STEM workforce is rapidly changing, said James Brown, the executive director of the STEM Education Coalition , a STEM education advocacy group. Mechanics and techniciansoccupations that arent always popularly associated with a need for computing skillsnow require some programming ability, he said. And the jobs pay well.

If youre really good at being an automechanic, and you work at a high-end car dealership, you might make more money in your first or second year than a college-degreed personwho is maybe in the middle of their classwith an engineering degree, Brown said, in his testimony before the House, Science, Space, and Technology Committee.

States and school districts need to adapt to this shift, he said. But many arent focusing their computer science and STEM efforts on the kinds of career and technical education curricula and lessons that could lead to jobs after high school graduation.

A number of members of Congress argued that ensuring that students are prepared to enter careers in computing fields is integral to the future of the U.S. workforce and the nations competitiveness in a global economy.

The workforce gap is espescially troubling considering the many hearings weve held in this committee on cybersecurity issues, said Rep. Barbara Comstock, a Republican from Virginia and the subcommittee chair. She said tech-focused companies in her district have voiced the need for an emerging workforce able to tackle cybersecurity concerns.



The goal of opening up more opportunities for students to study computer science and preparing them for the STEM workforce drew bipartisan support at the hearing. Also this week, Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., and Rep. Steve Knight, R-Calif., introduced a bill to encourage the National Science Foundation to devote more funding to research in teaching STEM in early childhood, defined in the bill as age 11 and younger.

Both Rosen and Knight sit on the committee, which contributes to shaping legislation around STEM education (which includes computer science), especially the programming of federal agencies like NASA and the National Science Foundation.

Foundational Skills

Several lawmakers at the hearing asked about what specific skills students all students would need in the STEM workforce, especially in middle-skilled positions that dont require a college degree but may require specialized training.

Brown said that problem-solving skills with technology will be especially important.

Pat Yongpradit, the chief academic officer at Code.org , a nonprofit that aims to expand access to computer science education, echoed Browns assessment. Yongpradit emphasized that computational-thinking skills will be more important than learning how to operate individual devices, which could become obsolete soon after students learn how to use them.

Focusing on these key foundational concepts in computer science is the way to go, he said.

Workers in todays economy are being automated out because they only learned how to use technology in school, not how to apply computational thinking skills to direct machines, said Yongpradit. We have people who may be able to use a welding machine, but theyre not able to program a welding machine, he said.

Courses need to dig deeper, he said to give students the skills around technology that will make them indespensible. Yongpradit pointed to the K-12 Computer Science Framework , which Code.org helped write in collaboration with representatives from school districts and research and nonprofit organizations in 2015, as a good example of those enduring skills.

The Education System Cant Keep Up

Dee Mooney, the executive director of the Micron Technology Foundation , an organization that promotes STEM education, told lawmakers that supplemental educational programs and out-of-school time STEM experiences can boost student skills. Comstock added that introducing students to computer science skills outside of the the K-12 school system could be a possible solution for districts that are hesitant or slow-moving to adopt large-scale programs.

But Yongpradit raised concerns around relying too heavily on out-of-school programs and coding programs offered online. Our research shows that when there is a teacher in a classroom teaching these subjects, the classrooms are more diverse, and the kids go further, he said. Ultimately, schools need to be responsive to where our culture is heading.

Computer science and coding programs have grown more popular in the nations K-12 schools over the years, and major corporations have lent their support to those programs. Critics, however, have questioned whether companies based in Silicon Valley are shaping school curriculum to serve their own workforce needs and financial interests.

While Brown lauded the work of out-of-school skills programming, he raised concerns about training sponsored by tech companies aiming to mold future employees.

The companies are doing [their own training] because the education system cant keep up, he said. Thats not to say we should be giving up on fixing our educational institutions. The high schools that people really value are the ones that are preparing kids for specific career paths.

Brown said that most of the states that have already proposed their ESSA plans have added science to their states accountability systems, and about one-fourth plan to use federal resources to invest in STEM teacher development. But whether any of those changes are supported by federal funding is uncertain, he said, as the Trump administrations budget and the House Appropriations Committee are sending mixed signals about what funding will be available for those programs.

Pressing for Diversity

Lawmakers at the hearing also emphasized the role that K-12 systems can play in drawing more girls and underrepresented minorities into the STEM workforce.

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson, D-Texas, mentioned President Obamas Computer Science For All initiative, and a bill introduced last week that directs the NSF to award grants encouraging young girls to get involved in STEM, as examples of steps that could engage underrepresented groups in K-12.

Right now, computer scientists are creating innovative products and services that will affect all of our lives, said Johnson. These innovations cannot meet the needs of society if they are developed without insights from women and underrepresented minorities.

Photo: Jennifer Langston, a freshman at Plain Dealing High School in Plain Dealing, La., is learning engineering and computer programming skills in a cyber-literacy class. --Douglas Collier for Education Week, file.

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A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit claiming that an African-American student was denied the chance to continue at a St. Louis charter school for allegedly discriminatory reasons.

The student, identified in court papers as E.L., attended Gateway Science Academy from kindergarten until 3rd grade. But then his family moved from the city of St. Louis to a suburban area of St. Louis County. When E.L.'s mother, LaShieka White, sought to keep him in the charter school, the enrollment was denied.

But the reason was apparently not simply because the family no longer lived within the city limits. It was, the family says, because of E.L.'s race.

The charter school follows a policy that bars the enrollment of African-American students from outside the city. That policy appears to be at least somewhat tied to a longtime desegregation plan for the St. Louis city school district that includes a voluntary interdistrict transfer plan.

The transfer plan allows African-American students living in the city to transfer to St. Louis County school systems, and white students living in the county to transfer to the city. While the desegregation plan does not apply to charter schools in St. Louis, E.L.'s mother contends in the suit that the Gateway Science Academy told her that denial was required under the transfer policy of the Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp., a non-profit entity created in 1999 to oversee desegregation efforts in St. Louis.

The family sued VICC alleging that its race-based transfer policy violated the 14th Amendments equal protection clause.

A federal district court dismissed the suit, and in a July 27 ruling, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 8th Circuit, in St. Louis, upheld the dismissal in E.L. v. Voluntary Interdistrict Choice Corp.

The court ruled unanimously that the family lacked standing to sue VICC because it was essentially the wrong defendant. The suit on behalf of E.L. erroneously assumes VICCs policy, not Gateways, was the reason he was denied admission, the appeals court said.

The court said the family was wrong to rely on VICCs race-based transfer policy because Gateways policy also differentiates based on race.

The court cited a passage from the charter schools policy that if an applicants address is not found on the city site or the ZIP code is not listed above and the student identifies as African-American, you cannot enroll the student.

The opinion does discuss, without great clarity, a provision of Missouri law that the family relied on that requires charter schools to enroll any student eligible to attend a districts school under an urban voluntary transfer program.

The family thinks that provision legally imposes VICCs policy on charter schools, the 8th Circuit court said.

Even if VICCs policy applies to charter schools under [the state law provision], VICC still would not cause E.L.'s injury, the court said. VICC does not make or adopt rules or regulations for charter schools; Gateway and the state of Missouri do.
The Missourians Opinion section is a public forum for the discussion of ideas. The views presented in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Missourian or the University of Missouri. If you would like to contribute to the Opinion page with a response or an original topic of your own, visit our submission form
The KYO organized the youth forum as a positive activity for youth in the camp, where abuse of drugs and alcohol is rife.

The aim is to raise the awareness of the youth from the camp about the current political situations, peace processes, and issues upon the return of refugees, said Saw Eh Kaw, secretary of the preparatory committee for the youth forum. Leadership and management training was also incorporated.

Mae La Refugee Camp Committee member Saw Sunday addressed the youth during the forum, telling them they should prepare for the future, outside of the camps. The Drug and Alcohol Recovery Education Network (DARE) also gave a talk on the first day of the youth forum.

Todays discussions were very beneficial because I have learned about issues that might affect the refugees upon their return [to Myanmar] in 2018, said Na Lei Lie, a student enrolled in an engineering program.

The KYO plans to hold youth forums across all of the Karen refugee camps at the Thai-Myanmar border between now and September, according to the KYO officials.
The local residents told Shan Herald the evictions started in early July.

The Wa authorities are forcing Jar Taw Khar Lahu village to relocate. The village has 32 households, said Aik Nat, the village elder. The Wa authorities are confiscating the villagers farmlands after making them sign papers. They confiscated the farmlands near Loi Sit Main Mountain in early July without paying compensation. The villagers are crying over it.

The village, in Mine Hpyat/Mong Hpyak township, is under the control of the UWSAs 468th Division, according to local officials.

But a UWSA commander said the villagers have misunderstood, the project is for them. Mong Hpyak-based battalion commander Ah Fong said the new city will improve the area, allowing the residents to live with modern amenities. He said 3,000 acres of land are being used for the project. Mountains are also being blown up and farmlands are being filled in with earth to prepare for the settlement next year, he added.
Close

A new report said that the sperm count and quality of males in the continents of Australia, Europe, and North America has dramatically declined over the past 40 years. It showed a 52.4 percent drop in sperm concentration.

The said report, which was published last Tues. (July 25), is the most in-depth and largest one. It looked into 185 studies, with 42,000 men from around the world between the years 1973 and 2011. Sadly, this might have confirmed that male reproductive health could be dwindling.

More Details About The Sperm Count Study

According to The Washington Post, one of the authors of the new study, Shanna H. Swan, said that in the Human Reproduction Update, the meta-analysis is general and inclusive. She hoped it would put some vague concerns to rest. "It shows the decline is strong and that the decline is continuing," Swan said.

Swan added that the analysis tracked the drops only for men in Europe, North America, and Australia - not in South America, Asia and Africa. She explained that this could mean that there's something particular in certain cultures or regions that has an effect on their males' sperm count. Although, it was also possible that the study needs more data from the rest of the world.

Why Is This Happening?

Per USA Today, several reasons could contribute to this issue of sperm count decline. One is smoking, specifically by women who are carrying male babies. This will possibly have an effect on the sons' fertility in the future.

Another factor is the increasing rate of obesity and sedentary lifestyles, as well as pesticide use, according to the researchers. The concern about choosing to eat more fruits and vegetables could sometimes still be hazardous because of the pesticides sprayed on them. Stress also plays a big role in the reduction of sperm count in the males analyzed in the study.

What Can Be Done?

There are several things that men can do to avoid this decline. Exercise and losing weight can improve fertility. As well as reduction of exposure to chemicals by eating less canned foods and choosing organic fruits and vegetables. The researchers also said that microwaving in plastic should also be avoided if possible.

For pregnant women, they should also be mindful in avoiding pesticides and other chemicals. But there is a very small window to that because by the time a woman learns that she is pregnant, it could be too late. The male reproductive organs are already formed towards the end of the first trimester.

See Now: What Republicans Don't Want You To Know About Obamacare
I was once invited to attend an event in Dubai, but after I read stories of people going to prison there for stupid reasons (like a man from Britain who received a four year prison sentence when customs officers found a microscopic speck of cannabis stuck to the bottom of his shoe, and a another man who went to prison for "possession of three poppy seeds left over from a bread roll he ate at Heathrow Airport") I bowed out.

Here's another reason you might want to think twice about going to Dubai: you can get jailed for having sex if you aren't married.

From Gulf News:

The British woman arrived in Dubai for a visit and she accompanied her Emirati friend to the luxury hotel in Bur Dubai in 2016. Shortly after showing his identification to the hotel staff, the Emirati had a heated argument with the security guard and refused to present the woman's identification papers when asked to do so before going up to the room. The guard called the police. Following several attempts to make the couple open the hotel room door, police obtained the prosecutors' permission to raid the room and when they opened the door, the couple were found nude in bed together. The couple was taken into custody and taken to the nearest police station.

They were arrested and sentenced to a year in jail. After lengthy appeals the couple (who got married in the interim) got their sentences suspended and the woman was deported.

Dubai also has terrible human rights and LGBT rights records.
Channel programs News

Arbitrator Rules PCM Can Exit Troublesome BPO Contract In En Pointe Spat

Michael Novinson

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PCM has received a favorable ruling in the feud over its 2015 En Pointe acquisition, enabling the solution provider to get out from under a business process outsourcing (BPO) deal gone sour.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company, No. 25 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500, said an arbitrator has ruled that its contract with Pakistani business process outsourcing partner Ovex Technologies terminates no later than Aug. 18, Chief Financial Officer Brandon LaVerne told Wall Street analysts Wednesday.

At that point, LaVerne said PCM plans to move the services from the Ovex contract to Manilla, Philippines. En Pointe acquired a 70 percent stake in Ovex in 2006, and the company had been a captive supplier of low-cost sales, purchasing, operations, help desk, accounting and IT services since then.

[Related: PCM Claims En Pointe Overstated Profits, Stock Drops After Allegations Revealed]

Nonetheless, LaVerne said PCM expects to achieve cost savings by moving the BPO work to the Philippines, where the company already has a presence.

"Management attention has been diverted a little bit to deal with this, but we've been able to mitigate any operational issues to date, and we expect to mitigate any operational issues going forward," PCM CEO Frank Khulusi said during the company's earnings call.

LaVerne said during the earnings call that certain people and companies have been "colluding to raid Ovex employees and misappropriate our confidential information and trade secrets."

PCM is currently embroiled in four lawsuits across four different jurisdictions related to the En Pointe acquisition, and spent $1.4 million in its most recent quarter on litigation costs related to M&A activity, LaVerne said. That's up from a litigation spend of just $200,000 a year ago, according to LaVerne.

Specifically, PCM filed a lawsuit in Orange County (Calif.) Court in February against Imran Yunus, its former director of government sales who came over in the En Pointe acquisition but left in December 2016 to join Auburn, Wash.-based competitor Zones, No. 32 on the 2017 CRN Solution Provider 500. PCM accused Yunus of taking confidential information from PCM and using it to solicit clients on Zones' behalf.

In June 2017, PCM widened its lawsuit to include claims against Ovex, Zones and former En Pointe CEO Bob Din, who are accused of conspiring to raid PCM of its Pakistani office and divert its business to Zones' Pakistani operation.

"Ovex employees have consistently described a coordinated plan by Ovex's executive management  to work with U.S.-based competitor Zones, and its Pakistani affiliate Zones PK, and help Zones PK hire away virtually all of Ovex's workforce, while taking En Pointe's [now part of PCM] confidential information with them to Zones PK," Simon Abuyounes, PCM's executive vice president of IT and operations, wrote in a May 30 declaration.

Ovex, Zones, and Collab9  an En Pointe subsidiary affiliated with Bob Din  didn't immediately respond to requests for comments. Collab9 filed a lawsuit against PCM in Delaware Superior Court in December 2016, accusing PCM of underpaying its agreed-upon earn-out payments, while Ovex initiated proceedings against PCM in Pakistan's Islamabad High Court in June for alleged breach of contract.

PCM saw sales for the quarter ended June 30 drop to $560.1 million, down 4 percent from $581 million during the year-ago quarter. That fell well short of Seeking Alpha's projection of $595.7 million.

Net income fell to $2.5 million, or 19 cents a diluted share, down 66.2 percent from $7.4 million, or 71 cents a diluted share, the year prior. On a non-GAAP basis, net income fell to $6.3 million, or 47 cents per diluted share, down 24.5 percent from $8.3 million, or 68 cents per diluted share, the year prior. That edged out analysts expectations of 46 cents per diluted share.

PCM's stock remained unchanged at $19.75 in after-hours trading. Earnings were announced after the market closed Wednesday.

PCM saw sales in its commercial segment fall to $439.5 million, down 1 percent, due to the transfer of some customer contracts to a minority and women-owned business. Public sector sales sunk to $76.8 million, down 22 percent thanks to a shift in sales mix toward products reported on a net basis.

Canada sales jumped to $43.6 million, up 18 percent, due to increased sales of products and services across all business units. And PCM's United Kingdom business generated $362,000 of revenue in its first quarter of operations.

PCM's strongest product categories included delivered services  where sales grew by 20 percent  and servers, where sales climbed by 24 percent. The company's top vendors were Microsoft, Dell, HP Inc., Cisco Systems, Apple, Lenovo and Hewlett Packard Enterprise, which LaVerne said collectively represented 62 percent of PCM's gross billed revenue in the quarter.

For the coming quarter, PCM expects adjusted earnings of between 56 and 62 cents per share on low-to-mid single digit revenue growth.
Networking News

Mitel Acquiring ShoreTel To Create A $1.3B UCaaS Powerhouse

Mark Haranas

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In a move to become the second largest Unified Communications as a Service player in the market, Mitel struck a deal on Thursday to acquire ShoreTel for $530 million.

"This is a very natural combination that enables us to continue to consolidate the industry and take advantage of cost synergy opportunities while adding new technologies and significant cloud growth to our business," said Mitel CEO Rich McBee, in a statement. "Together, Mitel and ShoreTel will be able to take customers to the cloud faster with full-featured, cloud-based communications and applications."

Mitel and ShoreTel entered a definitive merger agreement in which Mitel will acquire 100 percent of the outstanding shares of ShoreTel common stock in an all-cash transaction, or a total equity value of approximately $530 million and a total enterprise value of approximately $430 million, according to a statement.

[Related: Cradelpoint CEO On Meraki Being Cisco's Biggest Competitor, SD-Perimeter Technology And An $89M Channel Investment]

The acquisition will give Mitel annual sales of $1.3 billion, according to Ottawa, Canada-based Mitel, and will double Mitel's UCassS revenue to $263 million.

The combined company will be headquartered in Ottawa and will operate as Mitel. The company will have approximately 3,200 channel partners and a broader communications and collaboration product portfolio. After the close, Mitel will have a global workforce of approximately 4,200 employees.

"Customers are clearly moving to the cloud at a rapid pace," said ShoreTel CEO Don Joos, in a statement. "The combination of Mitel and ShoreTel creates a new UCaaS market leader with a differentiated strategy and solution, and a clear migration path so that no customer is left behind or will have to abandon what they already have to cloud-enable their organization."

Mitel CEO McBee will lead the combined organization and Mitel CFO Steve Spooner will continue in that role.

The acquisition is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2017.

In May, Mitel unveiled plans to acquire select UC assets and support contracts from Toshiba.
Companies Want Open Networking

Big Switch Networks has doubled revenues over the past 12 months thanks to the growing adoption of open, white box networking, said CEO Douglas Murray.

"There's been a lot of commoditization that's been occurring relative to the hardware platforms themselves and much of the differentiation we see is very much rooted in software," said Murray, in an interview with CRN. "Even beyond Dell, there are a number of other large systems companies that are embracing opening networking  It's not just the early adopters. We now have large petrol oil companies and train companies as customers  a lot more main stream [businesses] are now starting to show up on the radar  that's exciting for the channel."

Murray also talks about Big Switch's new $30 million funding round announced this week, new channel investments and why he's "bullish" about its Dell-EMC partnership.
Business / Companies

by Stephen Jakes

FBC Insurance has chosen to support the growth of its Zimbabwean general insurance business in line with its strategic objectives using SSP's (www.SSP-worldwide.com) digital insurance platform, SSP Pure Insurance.SSP Pure Insurance is a flexible end-to-end core insurance system for all lines of business and all channelsSSP Pure Insurance is a flexible end-to-end core insurance system for all lines of business and all channels. As a single solution with consistent best practice processes for policy administration, claims management, finance and credit control, as well as strong reporting MI, SSP Pure Insurance enables FBC Insurance to operate more efficiently and remain compliant with the stringent Zimbabwean regulatory environment.With a sound insurance foundation in place, FBC Insurance can focus on its transformation from being an intermediated bancassurer and move into direct writing. Currently, a large proportion of business is driven through the FBC bancassurance sales force, and FBC Insurance now has a platform that will help it achieve exponential growth of its direct distribution.As the direct market is maturing in Zimbabwe, the omni-channel support provided by SSP Pure Insurance puts FBC Insurance ahead of the curve, enabling it to push and hit the market.Another key focus for FBC Insurance is diversification into the growing microinsurance market. With an insurance penetration rate of just 3.6% in Zimbabwe, there are significant opportunities for FBC Insurance to provide affordable products that match the needs of the currently excluded population. SSP Pure Insurance enables FBC Insurance to simplify the product design and development process, so it can respond more agilely to these market conditions.Adrian Coupland, Customer and Marketing Managing Director at SSP, says, "I am delighted that FBC Insurance is live on our digital insurance platform to support its objectives of growth, greater operational efficiency and risk control."Half of the top ten insurers in Zimbabwe use SSP's software, and this is testament to our continued investment in supporting the territory without the need for reliance on third parties."Musa Bako, Managing Director at FBC Insurance, explains, "We needed a system that would enable us to achieve our growth and cost-cutting objectives. Investing in SSP, a technology partner with a broad footprint in the African and global markets, took the risk out of the decision-making process."In addition to its knowledge and experience of the Zimbabwean market, SSP demonstrated it has the financial stability to support our evolution over the long term."
When cybercriminals wanted to launch cyberattacks, they once had to know how to code. No longer. Bad actors can now search among any number of underground online sites to buy or lease potent cyberweapons.

In the market for a Russian DDoS booter rental? That costs just $60 for the day or $400 for a weeks lease. Orders over $500 qualify for 10 percent discounts  15 percent off if you place orders in excess of $1,000.

How about a nifty ransomware kit? One month rentals are available for $1,000. Maybe thats a bit dear for some, but just think of the return on investment! Besides, prospective customers can test drive the product for 48 hours to see whether they like it.

This is just a brief snapshot. Fact is that illicit businesses on dark web services and other environments host a variety of hidden services and marketplaces that sell the tools of the trade for criminals to rent or buy to launch cyberattacks.

Cybercrime-as-a-service  along with attacks-as-a-service, malware-as-a-service and fraud-as-a-service  has opened a wide digital door to anyone looking to score a quick, illicit buck on the internet.

Thats a big deal. The customers for these wares dont need to be technically sophisticated anymore. Novices not only can participate but also are being wooed: Many online marketplaces on the dark web actually tout the technical support they can supply to anyone who requires extra handholding. The cybercrime-for-hire business appears to be so robust that hacker gangs reportedly are hard-pressed to keep up with demand.

The presence of this flourishing as-a-service market has also attracted growing interest from traditional criminals. These individuals and groups are making use of the service-based nature of the cybercrime market. Researchers at Cambridge found that more than half of the convicted cybercriminals in the UK had records for traditional offences, such as burglary.

From an enterprise security standpoint, the technology threats remain the same. The difference is the number of people who are now able to get involved in cybercrime.

The battle is joined

Even though theres no evidence that this new cohort of attackers is particularly tech-savvy or poses unique challenges, thats no solace to organizations that will be in the crosshairs.

The good news is that IT security experts, who have battled malicious hackers for decades, can apply the knowledge and lessons learned from past experience to meet this new challenge.

As always, it comes down to vigilance in following basic security principles around defense-in-depth along with the promulgation of best practices for employees.

It also speaks to the need to constantly review the existing network infrastructure to analyze potential attack openings, plugging up any gaps in the organizations defense that may exist.

Whats changed is the need to adjust to the morphing nature of the threat landscape. Attacks are going to come faster and more frequently than ever, and security practitioners need to treat this as the new normal. Otherwise, its the same blocking-and tackling thats helped enterprises deter attacks in the past.

Charles Cooper has covered technology and business for the past three decades. All opinions expressed are his own. AT&T has sponsored this blog post.
The WannaCry ransomware exploded onto the scene in mid-May, bringing computer systems in organizations as diverse as FedEX and the U.K.'s National Health Service to a grinding halt. There's no indication that its authors targeted these organizations specifically, and the malware will happily infect any vulnerable computer system that it comes across in order to hold the data stored on it to ransom.

In other words, WannaCry is an unscrupulous money-making tool, and its purpose is to make whoever is behind it rich. Operating a piece of ransomware like WannaCry is really just a business. An illegal business, but a business none the less.

The purpose of any business is to maximize profits, and to do that it is important to charge the right price. When it comes to ransomware, the amount demanded as a ransom is effectively the price. The dilemma for the criminal behind the ransomware is whether to set the ransom relatively low in the hope that a large number of victims will pay up, or to set the ransom much higher to get a smaller number of big payments. Which pricing strategy yields higher revenues depends on what economists call the price elasticity of demand.

It turns out that the average ransom demanded is about $700, although in about 20 percent of cases the ransom may be as high as $1300, according to research carried out by security software vendor Trend Micro. "If you look at the demands they are relatively low  they are in the ballpark of what people can afford to pay," says Bharat Mistry, a Trend Micro cybersecurity consultant. That would suggest that ransomware criminals believe the price elasticity of demand is relatively high: a small increase in the ransom demanded will lead to a much greater fall in the people willing or able to pay it, resulting in less overall profit.

But the fact that there is such a variation between the average and the highest ransom demands suggests that ransomware criminals are still testing the market to see what level of ransom produces the highest profit. It may even be that some criminals are carrying out A/B tests, sending out variants of the same ransomware that differ only in the ransom demanded in order to establish the optimum ransom to maximize profits.

It's not be proven that ransomware criminals are engaging in this type of behavior, but they are certainly using other established business practices to maximize profits. For example, Recorded Future, a threat intelligence company based in Massachusetts, recently discovered a piece of ransomware called Fatboy that alters the ransom demanded based on the geographic location of the victim's machine. It uses the Economist's Big Mac Index, which measures the purchasing power parity between two currencies, to try to ensure that the ransom is "affordable".

That means that the ransom demanded from a victim in a rich country like the U.S is higher that the ransom demanded from a victim in a less affluent country like Egypt. In economic terms this is a type of price discrimination similar to offering discounts to students: it aims to charge more to those who can afford to pay more, without pricing out those who can afford less.

Another business practice that many ransomware criminals use is to offer a hefty price discount  often 50 percent  if the victim pays up within three days. There are many reasons why businesses of all types offer discounts to customers who are prepared to make a buying decision quickly, and to understand why ransomware criminals offer discounts it's necessary to consider the ransomware victim's perspective.

Should you pay the ransom?

Put bluntly, what should a business do if one or more of its computers is hit by ransomware? The advice of many law enforcement and government agencies is that companies should never pay the ransom, because this rewards criminals and encourages them to carry out more attacks. If no-one ever paid a ransom to unlock their data then the whole ransomware business would disappear.

That's the course of action that's in the long-term best interest of everyone, but while refusing to pay may be in the best interest of the business community as a whole, it is not necessarily in the best interest of a particular ransomware victim who may permanently lose access to vital data and go out of business. Faced with a choice between refusing to pay a ransom in order to serve the best interest of the community and going out of business in the process, or paying a relatively modest ransom and staying in business, the obvious choice is to pay the ransom.

This fact has not been lost on most businesses: although 66 percent of companies say that they would not pay a ransom to criminals under any circumstances as a point of principle, it turns out that 65 percent of companies pay a ransom when they are hit by ransomware, according to Trend Micro's research.

Some law enforcement agencies appear to understand this too, according to Gary Sockrider, principal security technologist at Arbor Networks, another Massachusetts-based security software vendor. "The official position of law enforcement agencies is never to pay a ransom," he says. "But if you talk to ransomware victims they sometimes say explicitly that they were advised (by a law enforcement agency) to pay the ransom."

The reasons that companies offer for giving in to the criminals' demands are relatively simple, according to the Trend Micro survey. They fear incurring fines (from regulators and other bodies) for losing data, they want to regain access to important data, and they feel that the ransoms are relatively low.

This shows that the decision to pay or not to pay a ransom is rarely made on a point of principle. The choice comes down to a rational business decision. When a company loses access to some of its data, this has cost implications: they may face fines, there may be costs involved in recreating that data, and they may even go out of business.

Now, it may be possible to regain access to that data by reimaging the affected systems and restoring data from backups (if backups are available.) This involves a cost, and further costs may be incurred due to loss of business during the time it takes to restore these systems, which can often be several days.

An alternative to restoring data  if that is even an option  is to pay the ransom, and if the cost of regaining access to the data by paying the ransom is less than the cost of regaining access through reimaging and restoring, then it would seem to make good business sense to pay the ransom.

This may explain why ransomware authors offer discounts for prompt ransom payment: if a company can restore its data in a day or two then the cost may be relatively low. That means the ransom also needs to be low for the first few days to be a cheaper alternative. On the other hand, this may just be a marketing tactic intended to incentivize victims to pay quickly without exploring alternatives more fully.

There are, however, complicating factors when deciding whether to pay the ransom based on the economics of recovery. For one thing, there's no guarantee that paying the ransom will result in the criminal handing over the encryption keys. He may just take the money and run.

But that outcome is unlikely because it is in the interest of the criminal to hand over the encryption keys on receipt of a payment. That's because if word gets out the criminal behind a piece of ransomware is not "trustworthy" then ransom payments are likely to grind to a halt.

That's the theory, and in practice it holds true the majority of the time: criminals hand over the encryption keys as often as 70 percent of the time, Sockrider, estimates. "I think a figure of 65 percent to 70 percent is credible," he says. "The majority of these criminals do unlock your data if you pay because they would break the ransomware business model if they didn't. These people do have to trade on their reputation, and if enough people don't get anything back in return for a ransom then why would anyone pay?"

So in economic terms, companies should factor the risk of not getting the encryption keys from the criminals into their cost calculations. (That's because paying $1000 to recover your data is a better deal than paying $1000 for a 65 percent to 70 percent chance of recovering your data.)

Another complicating factor is that it is possible that paying a ransom marks you out as a "ransom payer" who will be targeted again by the same or other criminals. It's not clear if this actually happens in practice, but it is worth bearing in mind that paying a ransom may have an additional uncertain future cost.

For most companies, then, deciding whether to pay the ransom demanded by criminals to decrypt data should be an economic one: will it cost less, all things considered, to pay the ransom or not to pay the ransom? Deciding not to pay on principle may sound admirable, but it may not in the best interests of the business or its shareholders.

Related video: Ransomware marketplaces and the future of malware
German industry is under attack, and they may not be aware.

According to Bitkom (Germany's digital industry association) a full 53 percent of German companies have been victims of economic espionage. While the German domestic intelligence and security service, Bundesamt fur Verfassungsschutz (BfV), warns of the ever increasing instances of nation-state cyber espionage.

BitKom's report, Business Protection in the Digital World (pdf-German), shows over 55 billion euros are lost each year due to espionage, sabotage or data theft within German industry. The survey queried 1,069 managers and security officers across a breadth of industries.

BitKom's president, Achim Berg, noted, "Companies need to do much more for their digital security. The study shows that the risk for companies in all industries and of all sizes is real."

He was joined in this admonishment by Dr. Hans-Georg Maaen, president of the BfV, who said, "The study highlights that we must direct our special attention to the defense of espionage attacks on the German economy in times of digitization and Industry 4.0. In terms of a holistic and sustainable economic protection including not only IT-related measures but risk-minimizing plans in the areas of organization, personnel and awareness. It is also important the intensive cooperation between business and government and the authorities themselvesas in the 'Initiative economic protection.'"

Cyber espionage by Russia, China and Iran

The BfV's annual Report on the Protection of the Constitution provides foundational support of Dr. Maaen. The report highlights the activities of Russia, China and Iran as being the primary players in the world of cyber espionage targeting German interests. Russia is primarily focused on pushing its political and geopolitical narrative. China, however, is focused on industry, research, technology and the armed forces. The Chinese use social networks (Facebook/LinkedIn) to recruit on a large scale. Their MO is textbook:

Ostensible researchers, recruiters and headhunters contact

persons with promising profiles and try to lure them with attractive

opportunities. Finally, they invite these persons to China where they are

approached by the intelligence services.

The Chinese are targeting trusted insiders for the desired information.

The Iranian effort has been focused on critical infrastructure, with cyber attacks not only being used for information collection but also for sabotage purposes. That said, the Iranians continue to spot and recruit human sources with access to desired technologies.

How German companies have been hurt by cyber attacks

Economic and industrial crime within Germany seems omnipresent. Examples contained in the BitKom report evidencing the depth to which German companies have been victimized include:

Theft of sensitive digital data  17 percent (every sixth company) had sensitive digital data stolen over the past two years.

Emails  41 percent of companies noted their email systems had been compromised

Financial information  36 percent found financial information had been purloined by attackers.

Intellectual property  11 percent had their research and development, patents targeted

Personnel  10 percent of companies saw the loss of employee-centric information.

Analog events  20 percent of companies reported instances of phone call and meetings being listened to by unauthorized personnel, while others reported the theft of documents, papers, samples and components. Four percent of companies reported their production systems had been compromised and crippled or sabotaged in an analog manner (i.e., not a digital attack).

Digital events  18 percent of companies reported they were subjected to social engineering, with every eighth company (12 percent) having seen their systems digitally sabotaged.

The most common theft remains the theft of devices, with a full on 30 percent of companies seeing laptops, tablets and smartphones stolen in the past two years,

A full 62 percent of Bitkom's respondents noted how the trusted insider (be they current or former employees) being responsible for espionage, sabotage and data theft. With more than one-third of companies (37 percent) noting their perpetrators being home grown from Germany.

Industry reports the instance of foreign intelligence services to have been a low 3 percent, with 7 percent categorized as "attacker unknown. Of those attacks that could be attributed to foreign entities, the distribution was not surprising: Eastern Europe  23 percent China  20 percent Russia  18 percent U.S.  15 percent Europe  12 percent Japan  9 percent



Sadly, both BitCom and the BfV report that less than one-third of companies turned to the government for assistance in sorting out the attack they experienced. Dr. Maaen said, "Only when companies report attacks to security agencies can realistic picture of the situation and defensive strategies be developed. "

The number one reason for not reporting a cyber attack? "Fear of reputational damage." And those who do report often times omit information because they fear negative consequences (35 percent) or the cost is too high (29 percent).

Public-private partnerships have never been as important to the protection of industry and nation as they are today. Industry is often many generations more advanced in technology than their government partners and thus brings unique knowledge to the table. The government, however, can contribute resources that the private sector cannot legally bring to the table. It is in the interest of every country to have industry and nation operating in a collaborative manner, not just in Germany, as the alternative is to lose intellectual property, research and development and economic stability.
Attorney General George Jepsen ruled on Thursday that under certain emergency circumstances, the General Assembly can make changes to existing union contracts.

The opinion gave Republicans some traction heading into the scheduled Monday vote in the state Senate on $1.5 billion in union concessions. But Democrats including Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, Speaker of the House Joe Aresimowicz and Senate President Pro Tempore Martin M. Looney agreed that the opinion is further support for the pending deal with the State Employees Bargaining Agent Coalition.

The agreement, engineered over six months by unions and Malloys negotiating team, narrowly passed the House on Monday after winning overwhelming ratification among rank-and-file workers earlier this month.

Not all modifications of contractual benefits will impair a contract, and whether a particular modification constitutes an impairment will depend on the specific language of the contract at issue and the legislation that modifies it, Jepsen wrote.

Jepsen culminates the opinion with a warning that rewriting exiting union contracts could raise major constitutional questions.

Warning about impairments

In reaction, Senate Republican Leader Len Fasano, R-North Haven, and House Minority Leader Themis Klarides, R-Derby, said Thursday that the opinion essentially gives a green light to their budget proposals, which drew fire from Democrats for allegedly being a union-busting vehicles.

What the AGs opinion demonstrates is our budget, clearly without a doubt, is perfectly fine, Fasano said in an interview. It does nothing with pensions and health care until after 2022, the current contracts expiration date. The concessions approved 78-72 in the House on Monday would extend the contract with state unions until 2027.

Jepsens eight-page assessment concludes that unilateral contractual changes would likely result in uncertain court battles.

Ultimately, to the extent that the budget proposals that you identify in your letter impair existing contracts between the State and its employees, those impairments would raise substantial constitutional questions under the Contract Clause, Jepsen warned, citing a 1989 ruling as precedent.

The AGs opinion is quite clear and no amount of spin will change what this opinion actually means, Malloy said in a mid-afternoon statement. Despite the political rhetoric from those wishing to defeat the SEBAC agreement and undermine collective bargaining, the facts are the facts. And the fact is, the legal opinion offered by the Attorney General Jepsen stresses that substantial constitutional questions remain with respect to certain Republican proposals to alter portions of state employee collective bargaining agreements.

Missed budget deadlines

Looney, D-New Haven, said that Jepsens opinion highlights the potential constitutional dangers in the proposals of House and Senate Republicans. Using this opinion as ammunition for their attack on workers rights is an intentional misinterpretation of the attorney generals cautionary statement and an attempt to shoehorn this opinion to fit their anti-worker ideology.

The legal principles under the Contract Clause have not significantly changed since 1989, Jepsen responded, although several cases have applied those principles in different factual contexts, with varying results. He said that changing active contracts depend on the severity of the fiscal crisis, the states behavior negotiating contracts; and the extent that the state has studied alternatives.

The states projected $5 billion budget shortfall in the two-year, nearly $40 billion budget that had been scheduled to start July 1, has stymied lawmakers for months. The General Assembly first missed its June 7 budget deadline, then failed to reach a compromise budget by the end of the 2016-17 fiscal year on June 30.

Malloy has been keeping the state on a bare-bone budget this month under his executive powers. He and Democrats, with a 79-72 margin in the House and an 18-18 tie in the Senate, see the $1.5 billion in union concessions as a crucial part of addressing the deficit.

KDixon@ctpost.com; Twitter: @KenDixonCT
News / National

by Staff reporter

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai is demanding an apology from Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko for his remarks that the former prime minister was once involved in an assassination attempt on the late national icon Joshua Nkomo and that he was also behind the Gukurahundi atrocities.Mphoko told journalists after a closed door meeting in February with the Zanu-PF leadership at the party's provincial headquarters in Bulawayo - that Tsvangirai had participated in the atrocities that saw more than 20 000 civilians killed in Matabeleland and Midlands between 1983 and 1987.This was after President Robert Mugabe's government had deployed the North Korean-trained Fifth Brigade to fight insurrection in the South western parts of the country.Through his lawyers Atherstone and Cook, Tsvangirai is demanding a retraction and public apology from Mphoko for his statements he says are false and defamatory."We are instructed to demand from you as we hereby do the retraction of the unfounded and defamatory allegations you made against our client in Bulawayo on February 4, and a public apology over the subject defamatory statements."You must realise now, in the context of the falsity of your statements that your allegations against our client regarding Gukurahundi are not only untruthful they are terribly defamatory."Your false statements incorrectly portrayed our client as a cruel, murderous and evil person who would associate himself with, and participate in horrendous activities of the Gukurahundi-era madness," said Tsvangirai's lawyers."The defamatory allegations also cast our client as a dishonest politician who would make the public believe that he cares about justice for victims of the Gukurahundi massacres when in fact he had participated in the persecution of the said victims."The reaction and apology must be issued by you in a public manner as you deliver them; that is at a press conference convened for the purposes of setting the record straight with journalists from all media houses in Zimbabwe in attendance," they further demanded.Mphoko made the remarks after Tsvangirai's whirlwind tour of the Matabeleland provinces where he was canvassing support for the mooted grand coalition which is expected to contest Mugabe and Zanu-PF in next year's eagerly-awaited elections."Tsvangirai was around a few weeks ago and said as MDC-T, they want to fix the Gukurahundi issue and said Zanu-PF has failed and he can do it."Let us not forget that when Cde Nkomo's car was shot he (Tsvangirai) was at the forefront, when an officer-in-charge was killed in Tsholotsho, he was there too. The same person wants to address the Gukuraundi issue now," Mphoko said then.Nkomo, the late vice president and one of the stalwarts of Zimbabwe's struggle from the 1950s to the 1970s for independence from Britain, died in 1999 at the age of 83 after a long illness.After independence in 1980, Nkomo served in Mugabe's government for two years but was dismissed by his former brother-in-arms for allegedly plotting a military coup.He always denied the charge and was later reconciled with Mugabe, taking one of the two vice presidents' posts in 1987, after the nonagenarian and Nkomo's Zapu signed a Unity Accord, leading to the integration of-PF-Zapu and Zanu.Tsvangirai's spin doctor yesterday said, "Our lawyers yesterday filed President Tsvangirai's defamation papers against Vice President Mphoko for unashamedly alleging on national television on 4 February 2017 that President Tsvangirai was involved in an assassination plot against the late vice President Joshua Nkomo in the early 1980s."He equally falsely alleged, with neither shame nor compunction, that President Tsvangirai had played a part in the Gukurahundi genocide and had killed the officer in charge of Tsholotsho police station."For his misguided and blatantly defamatory statements, Mboko will now have his day in court."
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MILFORD  The sandbar at Silver Sands State Park has drawn people in for decades, but the waters around the sandbar have dragged many to their deaths and sparked countless rescues over the years.

The half-mile-long sandbar, more accurately classified as a tombolo, connects the Milford beach to Charles Island, a wildlife sanctuary.

When the tide is low, beachgoers are presented with a window of opportunity to walk to Charles Island from the beach. But warning signs in capitalized, red letters remind visitors just how dangerous that sandbar can be.

The signs instruct visitors not to go on the sandbar when any part of it is covered with water.

But visitors dont always pay attention. Several over the years have walked out on the sandbar and gotten swept away by strong currents  and pulled into deeper waters by ruthless undertows.

The widow of a 34-year-old Hamden man, Rocco Daddio, Jr., made it very clear that the sandbar at Silver Sands needed to be closed after her husbands drowning death when he was swept from the sandbar with his 9-year-old son on July 4, 2011. His son was rescued.

Despite fatalities, its not practical for the sandbar at Silver Sands State Park to be permanently closed to the public, said DEEP spokesperson Dennis Schain.

Rescue crews recently responded to Silver Sands to search for 28-year-old George Swaby of Bridgeport, and an unidentified friend in his mid-20s after police said the two were swept from the sandbar July 21.

The friend was rescued by a private boater shortly after the incident and Swabys body was recovered July 23 after two days of search and recovery.

Theres significant signage out there warning of the dangers from the tide, Schain said. We think thats the most practical and best approach to dealing with that area. Its not really practical to patrol that  police that  to keep people off the sandbar.

Many people are easily swept off their feet from the infamous sandbar, and Milford Fire Department Battalion Chief Anthony Fabrizi said that is mainly because of a dip in the sandbar about halfway out.

The safest thing is to stay off the sandbar, Schain said.

Schain made it clear that though the sandbar appears to provide a clear path to Charles Island during low tide, the island is closed until September 9 to protect nesting birds.

Signs are erected at access points for why (the birds) shouldnt be disturbed, Schain said. The entire island is completely closed.

He said that means no one should be on the island. He said anyone that violates the protected area can be issued a ticket and may have to pay a small fine.

Lifeguards hours cut

In 2016, Gov. Dannel Malloys administration asked the DEEP to make budget cuts. Those cuts reduced the number of days during the week the beaches were staffed with lifeguards.

Of the 23 designated swimming areas at state parks in Connecticut, Schain said seven of them have lifeguards. He said lifeguards are typically on site Thursdays through Sundays and during holidays.

Schain said there were no lifeguards at Silver Sands when Swaby and his friend were swept into deep waters from the sandbar.

That Friday, we did not have the guards there and it was posted, Schain said. In some ways, the question of lifeguards doesnt have direct bearing on what happened because that sandbar is outside the designated swim area.

On July 21, Schain said he didnt know the specific reason for the lack of lifeguards, but he said signs were posted to inform beachgoers there were none on duty that day.

The state considered building a boardwalk between the island and the beach in June 1989, newspapers reported at the time. But Schain said there are no current or future plans for such a thing.

In recent times, (a boardwalk) is the furthest thought from our mind, Schain said.

He mentioned plans to improve Silver Sands to make it a better experience for family. He said there are plans to build a bath house, changing rooms and a small snack bar, but plans for a boardwalk do not exist.

Its a beautiful beach, Schain said. We just hope people can cooperate and pay attention to the signage.

History of rescues, deaths

Though fatalities are not a frequent occurrence at Silver Sands, rescues certainly are, Schain said.

He said many are carried out by good Samaritans that happen to be nearby before rescue crews are even called.

Two unidentified adults were rescued by the Milford Fire Department participating in a training exercise after the two were swept from the sandbar on Sept. 15, 2015.

Eight children and two adults were rescued after the tide caught them by surprise as they walked on the sandbar on July 25, 2016.

A 52-year-old Waterbury man was rescued near Charles Island on Sept. 20, 2016, after he was dragged into deeper waters from the sandbar, officials said at the time.

Two unidentified men were rescued after they spent overnight hours trapped on Charles Island on Nov. 7, 2016, after their kayak flipped while they were fishing.

Other than Swabys recent death, there have been others dating as far back as the 1880s and as recently as a few months ago.

Elizur Pritchard, the owner of a hotel that once inhabited Charles Island, died suddenly in November 1860 while crossing the sandbar from the island. It was believed he died of a heart attack.

Six construction workers that helped build a religious retreat, which was housed on the island from 1929 to 1935, drowned on March 20, 1929.

On April 15, the body of Richard Melucci, 43, of Mount Sinai, New York, was found by rescuers after he fell out of a boat in the area of Charles Island.
The animosity between Mark Lauretti and Tim Herbst, Republican rivals for governor, just reached the Q-tipping point.

The spat centers around Q-tips parent company Unilever, which Hearst Connecticut Media reported Wednesday has moved an undisclosed number of employees from its global center for its personal care and beauty brands in Trumbull to neighboring Shelton. The relocation has left a 112,544-square-foot building at 75 Merritt Blvd. vacant.

Thats become a source of bragging rights for Lauretti, Sheltons longtime mayor, who said his citys low taxes make it a more attractive place to do business. He further cited UnitedHealthcare as another major employer to leave Trumbull for Shelton.

Herbst has been Trumbulls first selectman since 2009.

The competition for jobs  and now Republican primary votes in the 2018 governors race  is getting personal.

A certain candidate is parading around with opinions about everybody else when things arent so good in his own backyard, Lauretti said. By the way, Trumbull for years has been a pretty solid community, and those things started to erode over time.

Herbsts administration said its been two years since the Unilever division, referred to by Lauretti, left Trumbull. The relocation recently came up because the company listed the building on the commercial real estate market, which Trumbull officials characterized as a positive development for attracting a new employer.

Herbst boasted that the commercial grand list has increased 64.3 percent while hes been in office. Trumbull recently lured NEC Corp. of America away from Shelton, which he said has inferior schools.

The burn didnt end there, with Herbst mentioning a federal corruption probe in Shelton that led to the imprisonment of two local developers and the citys former building inspector.

This education record, coupled with widespread public corruption and multiple indictments has made many Shelton residents uncomfortable, Herbst said. When your chief executive is referred to as Public Official Number 1 by federal prosecutors, that is not a morale booster for any municipality.

Lauretti was cleared in the matter, but not until after the 26-year mayor suspended his 2010 bid for governor.

When youve been around as long as I have, people are always gunning for you, said Lauretti, who is Fairfield Countys longest-serving mayor or first selectman. The federal government spent millions on this issue and they lost. That probably makes me the most successful and most vetted candidate in the state.

Multiple requests for comment were left Thursday for Unilever, whose other brands include Vaseline, Dove, Caress, Degree Deodorant and Axe.

Neither Laurettis nor Herbsts administration was able to say how many Unilever jobs had moved to Shelton from Trumbull. As of June, the company had a workforce of 1,100 in Trumbull, according to the towns annual report.

The current mill rate  the amount of taxes owed for every $1,000 of assessed property value  is $22.21 in Shelton and $33.39 in Trumbull.

Ive been lowering taxes longer than hes been first selectman, Lauretti said. When you dont raise taxes for nine years, businesses have predictability. They can plan for one year to the next. This is a the story of a community that continues to grow when the rest of the state continues to shrink.

Herbsts refrain has been that Shelton schools have suffered during Laurettis tenure. In response to a Hearst Connecticut Media report last week that nearly one in five of his campaign contributors are Chinese immigrants, Herbst said its because of his strong education record in Trumbull.

He said that public school students from his town scored higher than their Shelton counterparts on the states standardized math and English tests, known as Smarter Balanced Assessments. Herbst stood by the comparison Thursday.

We often have families and businesses move to Trumbull from Shelton because the Shelton mayor has never prioritized education, Herbst said. In fact, he has single-handedly decimated his school system. As a result the Shelton public school system is among the worst in the citys peer group.

Said Lauretti, Trumbull had good education long before he showed up on the scene and so did Shelton.

Herbst and Lauretti are part of a logjam of Republicans and Democrats vying to replace Gov. Dannel P. Malloy, who is not seeking re-election. Both are seeking to qualify for public campaign financing under the states clean-elections program, which requires candidates to raise $250,000 in increments of $100 or less from individuals.

I believe Connecticut needs a governor who is focused on bringing back jobs, growing wages and restoring opportunity for every town and city in Connecticut  a proven reformer, not an insider or retread candidate tainted by corruption, Herbst said.

Lauretti said Herbst resorting to smears is a sign of desperation.

You can tell that hes scrambling, Lauretti said.

http://twitter.com/gettinviggy; nvigdor@hearstmediact.com; 203-625-4436
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GREENWICH  A critic of a proposed high-speed rail system through parts of Connecticuts Gold Coast said unity, political pressure and pull may be the only way to stop the plans progress.

The broader the coalition and the more it serves the entire state and the less it pits one town against another, the more likely you are to get state-wide support, Gregory Stroud of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation told a standing-room-only crowd at Town Hall Wednesday that included officials and residents from much of lower Fairfield County.

In Southeastern Connecticut, we managed to get every single municipality between Branford and Providence, R.I., against it. Thats how you stop it ... There are the resources here. There is the clout here. Theres the heft. If you guys speak together, they have to take you seriously, he said.

The proposed rail line is part of a larger plan called NEC Future, the Federal Railway Administrations vision for the Northeast Corridor that would increase the role of rail travel in the region through 2040, and build on infrastructure that already is near capacity, according to necfuture.com.

Early information describes a raised rail system that would follow Interstate 95. Stroud said historic areas, like Cos Cobs Bush Holley House, and residential neighborhoods were at risk from disruption.

I dont think the Federal Railway Administration came to Fairfield County to say, Lets build a terrible project through the wealthiest real estate in the hardest market to run rail through, Stroud said to the 100 people at the meeting. They didnt propose this because they thought, What the heck or because theres no problem. Theres a real reason.

The environmental review of the proposed plan is complete. A 10-year-plan is being drawn up over the next 12 months to cement the details. Stroud said it was unclear how much flexibility remains in the potential route and that some details are available.

A call to NEC Future Spokesman Douglas Gascon for comment was not immediately returned.

I would strongly urge representatives and the public to ask for access to these maps going forward, Stroud said. It seems like a reasonable request whether youre for it or against it.

Stroud said residents should request a meeting with the FRA in Fairfield County to get their questions answered directly.

Jim Cameron, head of the Commuter Action Group, said discussion needs to be strong on facts with emotion left to the side.

We have to have a reasonable conversation with the FRA, Cameron said. We cannot come off looking like rich NIMBYs who in theory support the idea of high speed rail unless it effects our own property values.

Wednesdays meeting drew people from throughout the county, including Darien First Selectwoman Jayme Stevenson, state Rep. Gail Lavielle and other government representatives and state residents.

We are concerned with the environmental and residential disruption this plan could have on our community, said Sarah Harris, a representative from Westport First Selectman Jim Marpe.

Todd Bryant, president of the Norwalk Preservation Trust, said, The more people the better. Everybody on the line from Greenwich to Greens Farms to Westport needs to work together. They listen to numbers. They grade by weight, as we used to say in college. The more people show up at the meetings and the more emails and letters and more public officials they hear from the better.

Greenwich resident Heather Brower said she was frustrated that previous efforts to get hard information about the plan, even with the support of town resident U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn), didnt seem to be getting anywhere.

Rich Kehoe, state director of Blumenthals Connecticut office, said the senator would remain involved in the high-speed rail discussion and would look at convening a meeting with representatives of the FRA.

We will lay the groundwork for bringing people together and getting the voices heard early on in this process because there is still a lot of time for things to change and things to actually halt, Kehoe said.

Stroud urged attendees to call NEC Future Spokesman Douglas Gascon at 203-493-0239 with their questions and concerns.

kborsuk@greenwichtime.com
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OXFORD  First Selectman George Temple says his record will carry him into a fourth term.

But this November hell face two candidates.

Scott Flaherty, who unsuccessfully ran as the Democratic state representative for the 131st District last fall, got the Democratic nomination.

Kathy Johnson, a former Oxford first selectman who resigned from the Democratic party earlier this year, has secured enough signatures to run as a petition candidate this fall.

I still have the fire in my belly, the confidence in myself and a good message, she said Thursday. I will do my very best to win the top spot, but in the end its the voters who decide.

Temple, a lawyer, was endorsed for a fourth term Tuesday night.

In accepting the nomination he told the Republican Town Committee his team maintained fiscal responsibility, upgraded infrastructure and equipment and maintained a stable tax base during his six years.

He said economic development  which brought in Stilh Corp., Balfour, Executive Aircraft Interiors, Greenleaf Energy, Quarry Walk and Burns, Kovac and Guerrera Construction  has grown the grand list by 4.55 percent even after our re-evaluation  which significantly reduced property values.

We now enjoy a AA rating with Moodys ... and paid off $10 million total debt even after funding our new projects, Temple said. He added that the tax rate is 2 mills lower than when he took office.

As for town improvements, Temple said his administration spent a least $1 million per year for road improvement and repaving. We bought and paid for six new trucks for public works and a new pay loader. We have also entered into a cost sharing agreement with Seymour and Beacon Falls for the use of other equipment. We have purchased or ordered three new fire trucks three boats for the fire department and funded improvements for each firehouse. We have purchased new Tasers and police cars and funded a new ambulance.

Flaherty, who was one of six candidates endorsed for the Democratic slate last week, said he can work with both political parties.

The current, polarized climate is not helping anyone, he said following his nomination.

Under the Oxford Town Charter, the two highest vote getters after the first selectman winner serve on the board of selectman. Running with Temple as a Republican selectman is Jeff Haney Sr., an incumbent.

Margaret West, the longtime town clerk, was endorsed by both parties.

The Democrats also endorsed John Powers to run for Board of Finance against Republicans Jack Kiley, Paula Jensen and Jeff Grant.

Democrats also endorsed Christin Kimball to run for Board of Education. Her Republican opponents are Melissa Cole, William Miller, Shelley Lacey-Castelot, Stephen Kozek and Victor Tomporowski.

The Planning and Zoning Commission race features Republicans Arnold Jensen, Tanya Carver, Jeff Luff, Patrick Cocchiarella and Daniel Wall while Peter Zbras, is the lone Democratic candidate.

Betty Hellman is the only other Democratic candidate. She is running for Board of Zoning Appeals. The Republicans are Larry Ellis and Brett Olbrys.
WESTPORT  A threatening statement led to criminal charges for a New York couple in Westport, police said.

Cristin Towle, 35, of Bronx, N.Y., was charged with first-degree trespassing and threatening. Seneca Abreu, 40, of Bronx, N.Y., was charged with possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia, police said.

Westport police responded to the area of Riverside and Treadwell avenues around 11:30 p.m. July 20 after police received a call of a person trespassing on Jonathan Lane and threatening a resident.

Police said two individuals that matched the description by the victim were found on the property of a residence in the 400 block of Riverside Avenue. Towle told police she and her boyfriend, Abreu, were talking a walk.

The victim on Jonathan Lane told police Towle knocked on the door and attempted to enter the residence, police said. When the victim attempted to close the door, police said Towle continued to try to get into the residence.

Eventually another resident of the home approached the door and, police said, Towle walked away and met up with Abreu near the road.

Police said the victim overheard Towle tell Abreu, Were coming back and were gonna shoot him.

There was no clear reason why Towle and Abreu were on the property to begin with, police said.

When the two were detained, police said they found 11 bundles of heroin, a syringe, a tourniquet and a small metal candle holder on Abreu.

Both were held on $5,000 bonds and have court dates in Norwalk on Aug. 3.
FAIRFIELD  Police are continuing to investigate what sunk a 36-foot trawler the afternoon of July 23 off of Penfield Reef.

All six people aboard were safely transferred to a Bridgeport Fire Department boat, which happened to be in the area on a training drill.

The boats owner, Brian McDonald, of Hulls Highway, put out a mayday call on the radio. He was unable to give a latitude and longitude, but said the boat was going down quickly.

Fairfield Police Officer Keith Perham stood by as the boaters were brought onto the fire boat. The Fairfield officer secured the Mary Kirby with a line and a marker, and notified the Coast Guard. McDonald told Perham the boat hit something that was submerged near Sunken Island, and one of passengers said he saw a large log. Perham said they have gotten reports lately about a lot of debris in the water.

Perham said the owners insurance company was working with SeaTow to make salvage arrangements. The state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection is also involved and working with the Coast Guard.

Deputy Police Chief Christopher Lyddy said the Coast Guard planned to send a dive team down to anchor the boat July 27 in the hopes that a salvage company would be able to retrieve it Monday, likely around high tide.

There is about 150 gallons on diesel fuel on the boat, which had been kept in a slip at Captains Cove in Bridgeport.

greilly@ctpost.com; @GreillyPost
You might have done those embarrassing Google searches in an incognito tab, but the internet still knows your secret shame.

Real estate blog Estately combed through 11 years of Google search data to come up with the most "embarrassing or shameful" searches that each state googled at a higher rate than any other. You can see 17 of the best (or worst, depending on your perspective) in the gallery above.
News / National

by Staff reporter

President Robert Mugabe has warned the police force against temptations which visit them in the course of their duties, especially those manning road blocks.He was delivering a keynote address at the 2017 Zimbabwe Republic Police Presidential Graduation Parade at Morris Depot this Thursday morning.Addressing cabinet ministers, captains of industry and commerce, legislators and relatives and friends who witnessed the graduation of 593 police graduands, President Mugabe urged them to keep on improving themselves in the organisation and to value loyalty and commitment to virtues to policing.Mugabe said police training seeks to develop a curriculum that prepares the police officers to face challenges in the course of their duties."It is necessary to improve the quality of police training in the country and make the training thorough to prevail over the sophisticated and versatile modern day criminals," said President Mugabe.The graduands in today's ceremony were the first batch to undertake a one year course compared to the previous 6 months course.The new training paradigm also involved on the job training which required students to be attached to various police stations countrywide before they returned to the Depot for further refinement integration of skills.Turning to the graduands, Mugabe urged them to be humble enough to accept that what they have acquired in training does not surpass the world of experience of their predecessors.The President also warned graduands not to be led astray by some in the force who do not speak the good side of the police force.After delivering his address, Mugabe was treated to impressive displays showing off the agility and tactics of the police.The theoretical content of training included the teaching of political history of Zimbabwe, the constitution of Zimbabwe, Domestic Violence Act Chapter 5.16, traffic enforcement, local languages and sign language.The inclusion of sign and local languages in the new curriculum ensures that all officially recognised languages are treated equitably.This constitutional requirement creates an inclusive society and emboldens police effectiveness through creation of strong community relations.The graduation parade was attended by the two vice presidents Cdes Phelekezela Mphoko and Emmerson Mnangagwa, Home Affairs Minister Dr Ignatius Chombo, other cabinet ministers, fellow officers, captains of industry and commerce, representatives of the judiciary, and relatives and friends of the graduating officers.
News / National

by Staff reporter

Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has been sucked into a dispute between Bulk Cash and Carry Wholesale (BCCW) and one of its employees who has made a report to the police, accusing the company of externalising foreign currency, the Daily News can report.The allegations, which constitute a serious crime in Zimbabwe under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (Chapter 9:24), are contained in an affidavit lodged by BCCW's operations manager, Oga Chafausipo, who was suspended from the company early this year.Chafausipo had been employed by the company for 16 years.In his signed affidavit submitted to investigating officers at Bulawayo Central Headquarters on February 17, 2017, Chafausipo makes serious allegations of externalisation against BCCW, which is in the business of repackaging basiccommodities such as rice, flour and cooking oil before reselling them to retailers in Zimbabwe's second city.He claims the company, which dismissed the allegations in their entirety this week, is involved in externalisation of funds, smuggling of goods, tax evasion and sale of substandard or expired goods.National police spokesperson Charity Charamba confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that investigations were underway."The matter is still under investigation. It is being handled by the fraud department. The police need to be thorough in their investigations as we need to build a case that is beyond reasonable doubt," she said."We heard the Pakistani (businessman) was out of the country but the investigations are continuing. Investigations take time; when you investigate you need to be smart (about) the areas to get information. And we will also be expecting Chafausipo to present himself to the police," added Charamba.Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson, Precious Simango, also confirmed receiving the affidavit from Chafausipo in February although he could not give details."I can confirm that we received the affidavit but unfortunately I cannot give you details," Simango said.Chafausipo, who alleges to have been suspended from BCCW after he questioned why his salary had been cut, alleges, however, that he witnessed firsthand on two separate occasions how over $8 million was separately externalised." . . . I had a trip to Botswana with . . . on 14/10/14 on the pretext that we were travelling for business . . . whilst at the border, I was shocked to see the guy declaring $4 which was stashed in clothes that were in a monarch," he claimed.Chafausipo further claimed that in November 2014 and February 2016, using the same modus operandi they took out of the country $2,7 million and $2 million respectively, the money which was said to be then banked at an Islamic financial institution."The company has been ably assisted to continue its illicit activities after successfully recruiting some government officials into the play," Chafausipo said, while giving names of officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the Criminal Investigations Department officials."I have it on good authority that (George) Mlala was recently paid $35 000 for onward transmission to honourable Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko for the sole purpose of no interference or protection of the company," further claimed Chafausipo."I have since approached the Honourable Vice President Mphoko over the issue and he denied receiving the ransom from George Mlala. Surprisingly, George Mlala also denied receiving the money but vowed to protect the company directors before the Honourable Vice President," reads part of the affidavit.Contacted for comment, the minister of State in Mphoko's office, Tabetha Kanengoni Malinga, said she was yet to discuss the matter with the Vice President as he was out of office.The Daily News first contacted Kanengoni Malinga on Tuesday, and made a follow-up on Wednesday, but she said she was yet to discuss the matter with her boss as he was still out of office.The director of the wholesale, Imran Shahzad, dismissed the allegations saying they had been made out of malice by a jilted employee.Shahzad said he has since lodged a complaint for criminal defamation against Chafausipo."He is bitter man after he lost his job. These are all lies. I have cases against him that I have since opened with the police. I opened a criminal defamation (case) against him two months ago with the police fraud section," Shahzad said."It's all a joke. Honestly, how can someone carry all that kind of money as he claims. If so, what mode of transport can one use to carry such an amount of money, it's never easy."Besides, do you think Botswana will allow me to carry all that money he is talking about? That's impossible. But anyway, since he is bitter he is just doing all that to soil my image and my business that is why I have decided to make it a police case so that they can deal with him," he added.On Tuesday, the 51-year-old Chafausipo said he stood by his claims and was willing to see who would disapprove his facts.War Veterans minister Tshinga Dube was the first to make the sensational claims against Mlala early this month as they continued to haggle over the leadership of the former liberation war fighters.Dube accused Mlala of working with an unnamed Pakistani businessman to externalise foreign currency and that he had evidence to support his claims.But Mlala dismissed the allegations after being contacted for comment.The war veteran said he has since instructed his lawyers to respond to the allegations though he had not seen the said affidavit."I have heard of such nonsense and I have since instructed my lawyers to attend to those allegations. If Chafausipo is the one who is raising such allegations in an affidavit that he has signed himself mentioning my name in it, so it means I also have to include his name in the list of those who should face the lawsuit that is being prepared by my lawyers," Mlala said."Those are just baseless and misleading allegations but let's leave it to the courts."
News / National

by Stephen Jakes

The MDC official Discent Collins Bajila has said the Constitutional Amendment of the clauses about the appointment of the Chief Justice was a clear victory for the Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa's faction who were against the appointment of Justice Luke Malaba.19 hrs "Constitutional Amendment Number One was passed by Parliament of Zimbabwe. The Amendment gives the President powers to appoint Chief Justice, Deputy Chief Justice and Judge President without going through the Judicial Services Commission, amongst other powers," Bajila said."Those who were alive when Justice Anthony Gubbay got a visit from a mob of war veterans will remember that when he tried to get protection from the state, he was informed that the state can no longer guarantee his safety if he doesn't give in to the demands of the mob. The mob demanded his resignation."Bajila said what is significant is that part of the war veterans who constituted that mob, which visited Retired Justice Gubbay are now Members of Parliament and they supported yesterday's event."It is also important to note that the current Minister of Justice leads a faction of Government that was initially opposed to the ascendance of the current Chief Justice His Worship Luke Malaba. The same Minister doubles up as Vice President of the country with undisputed Presidential ambitions," Bajila said."The fix that Justice Malaba finds himself in is bare to all with eyes."
Great Allegheny Passage improvements coming

The bids were opened Nov. 1 and Adam Eidemiller's was the lower of two bids received. The project will take two weeks starting within the next week.
News / Regional

by Stephen Jakes

There is a potential explosive matter in Bubi district where villagers have complained over the importation of labour into the district while thousands of local youth are unemployed.This was revealed by Mthwakazi Republic party following its visit to the area recently."There is yet another development in Inyathi in Bubi district that might be a potential explosive following the decision by the Inyathi hospital management to bring in builders from Harare to build a guard room," said MRP."MRP secretary for security who will also represent the party in that constituency in 2018 elections went there in company of the local MRP members to verify for themselves the situation on the ground, have since proved that it is indeed true as evidenced by the pictures below as well as villagers testimonies.""How can people be hired all the way from Harare to come and build a guard room in Inyathi hospital ahead of the locals". asked Bukhosi Sitsha.The locals are reportedly very bitter about this development since they have qualified builders and professional contractors in the area."How come the government priorities the outsiders at the expense of the local Inyathi people?," fumed one resident."It is now clear that the restoration agenda being pursued by the Mthwakazi Republic Party is the way to go. We can't continue to be treated like second class citizens in our forefather's land", added an elderly man only identified as Dawuduna."After all the structure by these Harare builders is substandard, and lacks creativity as it exposes the guard to rain and cold weather". said DawudunaAs MRP we view this development as a perpetuation of Gukurahundi in another form as part of the 1979 grand plan. Those Thomases from Matabeleland its high time you woke up and see the reality.One villager who has been hopeful that her husband might get the tender and pay the fees for her children was seen shading tears as she spoke to her parliamentary candidate Bukhosi Sitsha.
Opinion / Columnist

I hope my post is going to be taken in it's correct context and not get sensationalized.A week ago in the company of a friend while walking in Gwanda we met up with a vendor who was selling Roundnuts, Indlubu in IsiNdebele and Nyimo in ChiShona.The lady appealed to us to buy the deli. She was speaking in Shona and I deliberately spoke back to her in IsiNdebele asking her how fresh the nuts were as in when she cooked them because they are not pleasant once they are overstayed after cooking.The lady unapologetically told us that she could not understand IsiNdebele. Even though I speak fluently over eight local languages Shona included, her attitude to refuse to converse in the local language of where she was doing business forced me to end our business deal.Then later, I get to Sakubva Bus Terminus in Mutare. While walking through I saw a group of vendors selling the same deli. I decided to play the devil's advocate and approached them. I deliberately spoke to them in IsiNdebele asking how much they were selling the nuts for and when they were cooked.Instead of them answering my query the five of them burst out laughing. I gave them a confused face to say why are they laughing. One of them then replied in Shona that they did not understand IsiNdebele. I apologetically equally replied in IsiNdebele that I also did not understand Shona deliberately declaring a stalemate.The others went on laughing and hitting hands telling each other that I must be mad to expect to find anyone in Sakubva speaking IsiNdebele. Though I could perfectly understand what they were saying I ignored them and kept making my simple enquiry in IsiNdebele how much the nuts were going for and when they were cooked.With no joy for all of us, the business deal ended yet again with a collapse. As I walked away the group continued laughing. They loudly tried to imitate what I was saying claiming that I had said "ncancanca qoqoqoqo lolololo xaxaxaxa."They even started arguing with one saying that I must be South African and not Ndebele from Zimbabwe because ALL Ndebeles can understand and speak Shona.Indeed on both incidents I played the devil's advocate simple to prove a point. I know that by so doing and posting this there is some who are already jumping up and down shouting tribalism on my part.I have always insisted that whatever tag may be used on me, and several others of the same call as mine, our fight is not tribalism but a fight against the dominance of one tribe over all other tribes in the country. My call is for an equal recognition and respect of all of us in our diversity as Zimbabweans.If it sounded like madness for me to expect to find a Ndebele vendor in Sakubva it should then resonate that a Shona speaking vendor in Gwanda should also come expecting to find a Ndebele buyer for her nuts and so be prepared to speak or at least try to understand IsiNdebele than say "haandizve chiNdevere" and expect life to go forward her way.Last week I was watching on live tv President Mugabe address a rally in Lupane deep in Ndebele territory where he spoke 99.9% in Shona and English. Not that I expected him to address in IsiNdebele though it would have been proper and more appealing had he addressed through out in 90% IsiNdebele especially after having led the country for thirty seven years with Ndebele as one of the three official languages for much of that era.What touched me is that in the 0.1% times that the President uttered or attempted an IsiNdebele word the crowd went jubilant and cheered strongly in desperate appreciation which would have been more had he spoke in Ndebele throughout. I remember the First Lady also trying an IsiNdebele word falling to bring it out and laughing it off with the crowd cheering at that.I have always asked a good number of my Shona speaking friends why it has been so particularly difficult for them over the thirty seven years to learn to speak IsiNdebele which was one of the three official languages that were recognised in the country over that time.It goes without saying for a fact that 95% of people of Matabeleland origin can speak both Ndebele and Shona while only 5% of people of Shona origin can speak IsiNdebele, and the question is why is that so.On a number of occasions the answer I get from my Shona friends is that IsiNdebele is very difficult, but who said Shona was easy? I stayed in Hwange for six years and when I left I could not only speak but also write Nambya, Chinyanja and even the most difficult language I have ever encountered, Tonga.I strongly want to believe that the basis of this whole imbalance is a question of attitude and intolerance. This issue which so many view as a minor issue is in actual fact probably the biggest cause of the political difficulties that we find our country faced with.Indeed, I have so many great Shona friends who speak so fluent IsiNdebele and don't even take lightly of me trying to speak to them in Shona. To me they are the heroes in the building of this country. They are there to show to those with an attitude that other languages in the country are just other languages, that it is possible and it can be done for the good of our country and the generations to come if we could all speak each other's languages.My opinion is that this has to start with our political leaderships especially our country's Presidium and Cabinet Ministers to parliamentarians. If they begin to believe in the unitary nature of our country and practising it then it becomes easy for us down here at the bottom to do the same.Our neighbour South Africa is a learning example for us. No political leader in SA can claim not to understand any of the official languages in the country and that attitude has escalated to every member of the South African citizenry. This has helped them all developed a huge pride in all their country's languages so much that no tribe despises the other.Let's see a new dispensation coming through where every Zimbabwean language is as equal and special as much as everyone is supposed to be an equal citizen of the country. I repeat it just has to start from the top.If we are able to accept this now it will make it easy for us as we move into the imminent and inevitable phase of national healing and reconciliation.
A Gold Coast mother-of-four has spoken of the traumatic moment she found her one month old baby girl choking and turning blue in her cot.

Charlotte Brown's daughter Bella was around a month old when the panicked mother found her with a tinge of blue in bed.

'She wasn't making any noises, she wasn't crying, she was just staring and her eyes were wide open and huge and she was turning blue and I could tell she wasn't breathing,' the mother told Daily Mail Australia.

Charlotte Brown, 30, knew that there was something not quite right with her daughter Bella since she was born

'Words cannot describe what it's like finding your child like this and trying to act without panicking. It all still seems like such a blur,' the mum told Mamamia.

Charlotte had feared that there was something not quite right with her daughter when she was born, as she struggled to breathe after feeds.

A pediatric check discovered that Bella had a heart murmur.

'Finding out that your little tiny baby has a heart murmur was quite frightening when we were in hospital, she was also having problems with her blood sugars as well so she was under the special care nursery which was all new for me and my husband which was quite scary,' Charlotte told Daily Mail Australia.

On top of this, milk was repeatedly coming out of her nose when she vomited or had a feed

Charlotte's instincts told her something was wrong with her baby but initially medics thought she was suffering from common childhood ailments.

A pediatric check discovered that Bella had a heart murmur when she was born

Bella was roughly a month old when Charlotte found her with a tinge of blue in her cot, which she says was terrifying

But then at one month old, baby Bella stopped breathing in her cot.

'I turned her over and started to pat her on the back to try and dislodge or move it, just to get her to start breathing again while also calling out to my husband so we could take her down to the hospital,' Charlotte recalled of the terrifying moment.

'All I was thinking was I just have to get whatever's in her nose out and all she has to do is breathe and take her to hospital.

'All I wanted was the doctors to listen and say "you know what, okay this isn't normal, let's investigate as to why it keeps happening" but they didn't really offer much advice apart from to keep her upright after a feed for half an hour.'

'All I was thinking was I just have to get whatever's in her nose out and all she has to do is breathe and take her to hospital'

Bella was monitored for a long time afterwards as she wasn't feeding, so medics put a nasal gastric tube down her throat to feed her.

Charlotte was told to keep Bella upright after a feed and had to watch her really closely while also making sure she was breathing.

'I used to sleep on the lounge with her in a baby rocker because that kept her upright a little bit and lay next to her on the lounge all night while watching her sleep so she was never unwatched,' she recalled.

'I only went out of cars to do school runs and my elder daughter was sitting next to her so that if she did start to choke she could pick her up and pat her on the back.'

The doctors told Charlotte that she had to keep Bella upright after a feed and had to watch her really closely while also making sure she was breathing

'The speech therapist at 12 months of age realised that her nasal regurgitation wasn't normal and that she still couldn't eat lumpy foods.'

It was at this point Bella was referred for a swallow study to be done and that's when it was picked up that her palate wasn't working properly.

Bella was diagnosed with a syndrome called 22q11 Deletion Syndrome, otherwise known as DiGeorge Syndrome.

After a couple of months the family were referred to a dietitian to see why their daughter wasn't gaining weight

This is a syndrome caused by the deletion of a small segment of chromosome 22 and there are a variety of possible symptoms.

It's a diagnosis that has put a strain on the close-knit family.

'Having a child with a disability puts a huge toll on a relationship, family,' Charlotte previously wrote.

'As a mother, I always worry I am not giving my other children the attention they deserve, as Bella has significant sensory and anxiety issues, meaning she is very attached to me.'

But she added: 'I wouldn't be the same mother, wife, woman I am today without Bella and 22q, we are not complete without her our little bumblebee.'

Bella has been diagnosed with a syndrome called 22q11 Deletion Syndrome, otherwise known as DiGeorge Syndrome

'It is a really really varied condition, it affects everybody that has it in a different way... she has a few medical issues as well as development issues, it can effect nearly every bodily system,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'It can either be passed down through your family or it can be random occurrence at conception, which for Bella that's what it is.

'Both my husband and I have had genetic testing and neither of us have it and don't carry it, it was random at conception.'

For Charlotte it was a relief to finally know what was happening with her youngest child.

'Just to know that we could have a plan in place and that the right doctors can be involved and that we knew what to do next.'

For Charlotte it was relief to finally know what was happening with her youngest child

Charlotte explained that doctors still don't know what it means for the body that particular genes are missing.

'It's really uncertain what this will mean long time for her,' Charlotte told Daily Mail Australia.

Bella needs regular check ups with the pediatrician at the families local hospital and a lot of specialist doctors at the children's hospital in Brisbane.

'She is in hospital a lot being ill or with different things going on and she also has weekly therapy sessions for speech, physiotherapy and occupational therapy.'

Bella needs regular check ups with the pediatrician at the families local hospital and a lot of specialist doctors at the children's hospital in Brisbane

Charlotte thinks that Bella doesn't really understand what's going on due to her developmental delays and 'probably doesn't have the mindset of a four year old'.

'She doesn't know any different because she's never been any different.

'She's also got a very sunny and happy disposition, she's just happy all the time... she's just so happy and loves going to the doctors and plays doctors with her babies at home and with her siblings.'

To support children like Bella donate to Genes for Jeans day by clicking here.
At around the half way point of the year, many people find themselves swamped with work, succumbing to sickness and feeling zapped of energy.

But at what point does common stress and tiredness progress into a burn out?

The Thinkergirls recently spoke to Australian doctor Sam Hay who discussed the three most common signs of a burn out.

'A burn out is really common and I do start to see it more around this time of the year - this seasonal depression that you go through where people find that their mood does drop to the point of clinical depression through winter,' Dr Hay explained.

At around the half way point of the year, many people find themselves swamped with work, succumbing to sickness and feeling zapped of energy - but when does this become a burn out?

According to Dr Hay, the first sign of a burn out is poor sleep or waking up early and thinking about things that get them down

Signs of a burn out * feeling exhausted and unable to perform basic tasks * losing motivation in many aspects of your life, including your work and friendships * feeling unable to focus or concentrate on tasks * feeling empty or lacking in emotion * losing your passion and drive * experiencing conflict in your relationships with co-workers, friends and family * withdrawing emotionally from friends and family Source: Reach Out Advertisement

'I think a lot of it is coming from the fact that we are six months into the year, theres less sunlight out there, work is busy and theres not as much opportunity to get out and about and enjoy life.'

According to Dr Hay, the first sign of a burn out is poor sleep.

'They are finding it hard to get to sleep, they're waking up a lot overnight and especially waking up early and just ruminating over things. They just cant stop thinking about everything,' he said.

And the second? A lack of motivation and concentration in the workplace.

'People just sit at the desk, staring at the screen and it takes them forever to make the most simple of decisions,' he said.

The third is a short temper.

'The third one - and this is usually the young mums that complain about it the most - is getting angry and short tempered and just losing it at the most simple of things with friends and family.'

And the second sign? A lack of motivation and concentration in the workplace

The third sign is a short temper - those who find themselves just losing it at the most simple of things with friends and family

Those who experience all of these are, according to Dr Hay, most likely experiencing a burn out.

According to Reach Out, another common sign is the lack of desire to take part in activities you normally find meaningful.

Other signs include feeling unable to focus, feeling 'empty or lacking in emotion', losing passion and drive and withdrawing emotionally from friends and family.

Other signs include feeling unable to focus, feeling 'empty or lacking in emotion', losing passion and drive and withdrawing emotionally from friends and family

Signs of too much stress in your life You feel: * angry or annoyed for no reason * anxious or worried all the time * like you want to withdraw * extra-sensitive to things that wouldnt normally get on your nerves * useless or incapable Physical signs can include stomach issues, headaches and muscle pain Advertisement

'Essentially, when you've reached the point of burnout, it can feel like youve had the life sucked out of you. You no longer feel capable of caring about whats important to you, to making any effort, or staying motivated,' they explain.

For those who do feel burnt out, it's important to take regular time out and to set aside some time each day to switch off from technology.

Other things that can help are developing your problem solving skills, opening up to friends, family, colleagues or a health professional, reaching out for support and re-evaluating your goals and priorities.
TV reporter Sam Squiers has opened up about motherhood after she was able to bath her premature daughter for the first time.

The young Brisbane mother-of-one gave birth to her baby daughter Imogen Grace at 32 weeks on the morning of June 13.

But the little girl has been spending the first few weeks of her life in the neonatal intensive care unit as her doting parents go home without her.

The 35-year-old Channel Nine journalist said the ordeal made her feel 'useless' but after doing the simplest tasks with her daughter such as changing her nappy or bathing her, she now feels like a 'real parent'.

TV reporter Sam Squiers has opened up about motherhood after she was able to bath her premature daughter for the first time

The young Brisbane mother-of-one gave birth to her baby daughter Imogen Grace at 32 weeks on the morning of June 13

'So a simple thing like bathing Immi for the first time made Ben and I feel like real parents and did so much for us emotionally,' she wrote on Instagram.

'Little things like changing a nappy were so important, we would get disappointed when it was changed before we arrived for the day as it made us feel like we were being useful and somehow taking care of our baby.

The first-time mother said she has faced several challenges, including one where she can only hold her baby - but only after going through a washing procedure.

'We've had plenty of moments feeling helpless in here,' she wrote on Instagram.

'When people say "you're a mum" it felt really surreal when you had to ask to hold your baby and could only do that once a day.'

But despite the separation, Mrs Squiers said the pair have bonded strongly since her birth - and bath time has become the mother's favourite time of the week.

'We're so close now and should be going home this week but I don't want to forget how little things like this mattered to us in such a big way,' she continued.

'This experience has given us a new perspective on everything...'

Australian TV reporter Sam Squiers has shared an adorable photo of her newborn baby girl, with a strawberry pink birthmark she calls her 'Wonder Woman kiss' (pictured)

The Channel Nine journalist underwent an emergency caesarean after suffering a placental abruption - a serious pregnancy complication where the placenta detaches from the womb

WHAT IS A HEMANGIOMA? A hemangioma is a birthmark that most commonly appears as a rubbery, bright red nodule of extra blood vessels in the skin. A hemangioma grows during the first year of life, and then recedes over time. A child who had a hemangioma during infancy usually has little visible trace of the growth by age 10. A hemangioma can occur anywhere on the body, but most commonly appears on the face, scalp, chest or back. Treatment of a hemangioma usually isn't needed, unless the nodule interferes with vision or breathing. Source: Mayo Clinic Advertisement

Her latest post comes after she shared an adorable photo of her newborn baby girl with a strawberry pink birthmark she calls her 'Wonder Woman kiss'.

Sharing the heartwarming photo on her Instagram page, Sam wrote: 'You may notice Immi's hemangioma. It wasn't there when she was born but popped up 6 days afterwards, starting off as a tiny pressure point.

'They occur in 1 in 10 babies and are more common in premmies, girls and babies under 1.4kgs - so Immi ticked all the boxes.

'It's not there forever, they do go away on their own but because it's so close to Immi's eye & growing we're treating it with #propranolol,' she went on.

The first time mother and her husband Ben, both from Queensland, welcomed their bundle of joy Imogen Grace Squiers on the morning of June 13.

She underwent an emergency caesarean after suffering a placental abruption - a serious pregnancy complication where the placenta detaches from the womb, causing her baby to be delivered at 32 weeks.

Sports reporter Sam Squiers has opened up about the premature birth of her baby girl Imogen

Sam went on to say the birthmarks are sometimes called 'strawberry kisses or stork kisses'.

'But given Immi's battle over the last 38 weeks, we have been calling hers her Wonder Woman kiss because this little girl has shown Ben and I her incredible strength fighting her way through some incredibly tough times in NICU,' she wrote.

'She's made of stronger stuff than us and after seeing the struggles of some of the parents in NICU if Immi comes out with just a hemangioma, then we're doing incredibly well.

'I've always said strength is true beauty and Immi already has plenty of that.'

Sam's post led to an outpouring of support from her fans, with others sharing their own stories.

'My little guy was an emergency delivery and was born with "angel kisses" all over the back of his neck and lower head. With a little bit of time they are hardly noticeable. Your little girl is one strong bubba,' one supporter wrote.

'My daughter was born 5 weeks early and she has a strawberry mark on her head. I think it makes them extra special. Hope your gorgeous bubba is home in your arms very soon,' wrote another.

The first time mother and her husband Ben welcomed their bundle at 32 weeks on June 13

Talking openly about her baby's birth to 9Honey, Sam previously said: 'They were talking about kidney failure, heart murmurs, fluid on the brain and I just thought, "All I did was have a baby".'

Sam was initially warned her baby could arrive early after she started experiencing pregnancy problems at 19 weeks.

On the night of June 12, the expectant mother woke multiple times in the night when she begun enduring constant stomach pains.

As she tried to fall asleep, she realised she could no longer feel her baby move.

Doctors found there was a blood clot between her baby and placenta, and Sam's kidneys were shutting down dramatically after rushing to hospital.

Following the birth, she said she briefly saw her daughter just moments before she was taken away to the NCCU.

'It can sometimes feel like we're stuck in a cruel time warp but we're trying to treat the premmie progression of two steps forward one step back like our new dance, knowing, however slow, we will get to our destination eventually,' Sam wrote

Eventually, the mother-of-one was able to see her baby again - but she could only hold her after going through a washing procedure.

'Everyone kept saying, "You're a mum!" But I have to ask for permission to pick up my own daughter,' Sam previously said.

'I can touch her but only after I've washed my hands for a minute-and-a-half and sprayed them and checked that it's okay for her to be touched.'

In a post to Instagram on July 11, the new mum wrote about her newborn reaching a milestone.

'One month...No milestone cards as milestones take on a different meaning here in NCCU. There's cracking 2kgs, moving off a respirator, no more CPAP, advancing to an open cot, and saying goodbye to extra oxygen plus so many more,' she wrote.

'It can sometimes feel like we're stuck in a cruel time warp but we're trying to treat the premmie progression of two steps forward one step back like our new dance, knowing, however slow, we will get to our destination eventually.'
Cate McGregor, who was previously Australia's highest-ranking transgender military officer, has hit out after Donald Trump's announcement that the US government will 'not accept or allow' transgender individuals to serve for their country.

Speaking to BuzzFeed, Ms McGregor - who is no longer in the military - said: 'Coming from someone who has never served, and who disparaged [John] McCain's heroism, you can see it for what it is.

'Why should we be surprised?'

Cate McGregor (pictured) who was previously the country's highest-ranking transgender military officer, has hit out after Donald Trump's announcement that the US government will 'not accept or allow' transgender individuals to serve for their country

Trump sent out tweets announcing that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the US military 'in any capacity'

Ms McGregor was referring to comments the US president previously made about Senator John McCain during a rally where he declared he was 'not a war hero'.

McCain was captured and held prisoner during the Vietnam war.

Trump said the military must be 'focused on decisive and overwhelming victory'

On Wednesday, Trump sent out a series of tweets announcing that transgender people would not be allowed to serve in the US military 'in any capacity'.

'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow.. transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Trump said the military could not be 'burdened' with the 'medical costs and disruption'

'Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,' Trump wrote.

'Thank you,' he concluded.

Ms McGregor, who transitioned in 2012 after serving in the military since 1974 and retired in 2016, slammed Trump's argument about medical costs as 'completely hysterical'.

'In a democratic society, there is an important principle here that any suitably qualified citizen be allowed to serve in the military,' Ms McGregor said

Ms McGregor said medical support for the small number of transgender people in the US military would be a 'drop in the ocean'

'There are not a large number of transgender people in the military, and as a portion of the enormous United States military budget, medical support for transgender people would be a drop in the ocean,' she told BuzzFeed.

'In a democratic society, there is an important principle here that any suitably qualified citizen be allowed to serve in the military,' she added.

Reaction to the policy change was swift in the US, with transgender military leaker and former prisoner Chelsea Manning also taking to Twitter.

'So, biggest baddest most $ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? [aircraft] sounds like cowardice,' wrote Manning, ending with the hashtag #WeGotThis.'
A mother-of-four was startled to see a picture of her son sporting an extra leg - and herself with three arms - in what she believes could be a message from beyond the grave from her late father.

Laura Clarke, from Belfast, Northern Ireland, shared the image of her holding three-year-old Theo and smiling for the camera during the family's 'day of the dead' party to honour their loved ones who had passed.

During the memorial party, Laura's sister took the picture but her husband only discovered the strange appearance of the 'extra' limbs the next day.

Now, following a series of unexplained events in the household, Laura believes it could be the work of her late father, Terry, who passed away shortly after her youngest son was born.

Ghostly: Laura Clarke shared the image of her holding three-year-old son Theo and smiling to the camera during a family 'day of the dead' party to honour their loved ones who had passed

Laura, 34, said: 'Last year we had a day of the dead party where you celebrate the life of loved ones who have passed.

'It wasn't until the next day when I was in bed with my husband that we were looking through them and he said "there's something strange about that photo".

'I had an extra arm and Theo had an extra leg. When my daddy passed away, Theo was a couple of months old and the night that picture was taken he was talking about his grandad.

'Theo was the only grandson who never got to meet my daddy. I like to think this is one of his ways of letting us know he's here.

Laura said of the photo: 'My husband Ricky (pictured) was in the room at the time the picture was taken, but it wasn't until the following morning that he noticed it'

The family were having a 'day of the dead' party to celebrate the life of loved ones who have passed (pictured: Laura's son Oscar with grandma Alice McCafferty)

'I really don't know how it could have happened. I don't know if it's ghostly, but I like to think Daddy is with us.'

This image isn't the only strange sighting at Laura's mum's home since the death of her father in 2014, but it has baffled her the most.

A combination of supernatural reflections and shadowy faces have led the stay-at-home mum to question if the house is haunted.

Laura said: 'It was my sister who took the pictures on my phone so no-one actually looked at it properly at the party.

Laura's sons Harley, Theo, Oscar and Jack on a recent holiday. The mother-of-four revealed: 'Theo was the only grandson who never got to meet my daddy. I like to think this is one of his ways of letting us know he's here'

'We had the party at my mum's house and there's been a lot of strange goings-on over the years.

'My sister used to talk about the man who lived in the attic and now my nephew talks about it too.

'My husband Ricky was in the room at the time the picture was taken, but it wasn't until the following morning that he noticed it.'
The defiant parents of a transgender girl who has been transitioning 'since she was two' have told how they feared for her mental health after living as a boy left her deeply unhappy.

Jamie Bruesehoff, from New Jersey, and her now-daughter Rebekah, now 10, have made it their mission to spread awareness of transgender issues after their own experience.

Since her transition began, the brave youngster has been campaigning, attending marches and speaking at rallies to stand up for transgender rights.

Jamie and her pastor husband Christopher say they have supported Rebekah - born Ben - in her transition since she was two.

Rebekah Bruesehoff - who was born a little boy called Ben - and her family have made it their mission to spread awareness of transgender people after their own experience

The youngster with dad Christopher, a pastor. He said: 'I'm always worried about reactions with Rebekah, both in the community, the church and the world. I'm very worried about how the world is going to treat her because I see a lot of ugliness in the world'

Jamie said: 'Rebekah has always been gender non-conforming. As young as two or three she gravitated to typically feminine things.'

As the years went on, her gender non-conformity intensified and she began to search for her identity and the words to describe it. Consequently, her parents realised happiness was declining.

Jamie explained: 'By the time she was seven, all of this hit a crisis point - her anxiety was crippling and her depression was becoming life threatening.

'We were faced with a seven-year old kid who wanted to die. One time she punched out the screen of her second storey window and tried to jump out.'

Rebekah as a one-year-old, then named Ben. Her mother said: 'Rebekah has always been gender non-conforming. As young as two or three she gravitated to typically feminine things'

The couple gradually realised their daughter (pictured as a toddler) wasn't a boy who liked pink - she was a girl. With the help of a gender specialist, Rebekah was able to 'peel back the layers'

Rebekah - then Ben - playing with dolls aged four. Later, following the advice of their family doctor and counsellor, the Bruesehoff family were able to help their eldest son

Rebekah aged seven. Her mother recalls: 'We were faced with a seven-year old kid who wanted to die. One time she punched out the screen of her second storey window and tried to jump'

Following the advice of their family doctor and counsellor, the Bruesehoff family were able to help their eldest son.

With the help of a gender specialist, Rebekah was able to peel back the layers, and that's when her family were able to discover that she wasn't a boy who liked pink - she was a girl.

Rebekah said:'I want to make a difference in the world by speaking out and spreading hopeful messages.'

'I want to send the message of "You are not alone and you are safe" to other transgender kids.'

Mother-of-three Jamie writes a blog called I Am Totally That Mom which has recently become focused on their journey with a transgender child.

Family time: Rebekah with (L-R): eight-year-old brother Elijah, mother Jamie, three-year-old brother Oliver and father Christopher at their home in New Jersey this year

Brave: 'I want to send the message of "You are not alone and you are safe" to other transgender kids,' says ten-year-old Rebekah, who loves dyeing her hair different colours

Oliver, Christopher, Elijah, Rebekah and Jamie at home. Jamie was recently flooded with supportive messages and comments, praising her daughter's braveness, after posting a photo of Rebekah online

Mother-of-three Jamie (pictured with husband Christopher, Rebekah - then living as Ben - and son Elijah) writes a blog called I Am Totally That Mom which has recently become focused on their journey with a transgender child

And in February, Jamie posted a picture of Rebekah holding a sign with the slogan: 'I'm the scary transgender person the media warned you about,' which went viral overnight.

Jamie was soon flooded with supportive messages and comments, praising her daughter's braveness.

The proud mother said: 'The picture went pretty crazy viral. It started out with some really wonderful comments and lots of affirmation, but if I keep scrolling a comment says, "This whole transgender issue is a mental illness but because it's 'cool' you have parents forcing their kids into it".

'We haven't had anyone in our community or families say that we are pushing this on to her but we have had that through social media and my blog, that go as far to say that it is child abuse and we should have our children taken away.'

Proud mother Jamie said: 'We feel confident that we have the best resources we can and we are supporting her the best way that we can'

Jamie worries about the online reaction to her daughter, saying: 'We haven't had anyone in our community or families say that we are pushing this on to her but we have had that through social media and my blog, that go as far to say that it is child abuse and we should have our children taken away'

She added: 'Luckily, every medical professional we've seen says otherwise, so we feel confident that we have the best resources we can and we are supporting her the best way that we can.'

The word 'transgender' was first explained to Rebekah when it came up on the internet as she and her mum were searching for gender non-conforming swimsuits.

Jamie said: 'The term popped up and I took it as an opportunity and told her what it meant and it was very much an "aha!" moment. "Wow, it makes so much sense. This may be who I am.'''

Rebekah added: 'The hardest part of all this was when I wasn't transitioned and I was not happy and it didn't feel right.

'Before I became a girl, I felt unhappy. This is definitely me. I am a girl. I am a girl in my head, in my heart.'

Describing the moment her daughter officially changed her name, Jamie said: It was like a cloud had lifted. She was just more of herself. She was vibrant and she was excited and she was happy and her personality kind of just exploded all over the place'

Once Rebekah really understood who she was, she was able to socially transition and in July 2016 they went to court and legally changed her name from Ben to Rebekah (pictured)

Although her parents are relieved Rebekah (pictured aged eight) is happy and finally comfortable in her own skin, they fear for her future as a transgender woman

Jamie said of her daughter (pictured here aged seven: 'We honestly fear for her safety. I know there is a lot of violence and discrimination against trans people'

Once Rebekah really understood who she was, she was able to socially transition and in July 2016 they went to court and legally changed her name from Ben to Rebekah.

'We saw the difference in her,' said Jamie. 'She was just a different kid. It was like a cloud had lifted. She was just more of herself. She was vibrant and she was excited and she was happy and her personality kind of just exploded all over the place.'

After transitioning to Rebekah, she created a 'Ben Box' with all her 'Ben memories.' Although she doesn't ignore her past, she is over the moon to now be known as Rebekah and seen for who she really is.

She said: 'When I see pictures of Ben, I just think of it as part of my past now I am Rebekah.'

Although her parents are relieved Rebekah is happy and finally comfortable in her own skin, they fear for her future as a transgender woman.

Jamie said: 'We honestly fear for her safety. I know there is a lot of violence and discrimination against trans people.'

Protective: Mother-of-three Jamie writes a blog called I Am Totally That Mom which has recently become focused on their journey with a transgender child

Rebekah at a recent march with her parents. Jamie said: 'Rebekah really doesn't like thinking about the medical side of this. She doesn't want to develop into a man'

Rebekah (pictured at a recent March with mum Jamie) added: 'The hardest part of all this was when I wasn't transitioned and I was not happy and it didn't feel right'

The word 'transgender' was first explained to Rebekah when it came up on the internet as she and her mum were searching for gender non-conforming swimsuits

For now, Rebekah is happy to be treated and recognised as a young girl, but her parents are already researching the medical side of transitioning

Since her transition began, the brave youngster has been campaigning, attending marches and speaking at rallies to stand up for transgender rights

Her dad Christopher said: 'I'm always worried about reactions with Rebekah, both in the community, the church and the world. I'm very worried about how the world is going to treat her because I see a lot of ugliness in the world.'

For now, Rebekah is happy to be treated and recognised as a young girl, but her parents are already researching the medical side of transitioning.

Jamie said: 'Rebekah really doesn't like thinking about the medical side of this. She doesn't want to develop into a man.'

'Medically transitioning involves a lot of different stuff and every transgender person chooses their own adventure.

'For Rebekah, the first steps will be puberty blockers, which will prevent her from going through male puberty and stop her from developing male characteristics - like facial hair, a deeper voice and an Adam's apple - that are irreversible.

'As far as surgery, she hasn't indicated a desire for that. That is a decision she gets to make down the road. That's not something she'd do before she's 18.'
Opinion / Columnist

Say it Mr President. Say it loudly or we will say it, your sons, your own blood, are wayward and very violent. Like father like sons.Violence and wayward behaviour is not tolerated outside the boundaries of Zimbabwe, a country led by the violent who are boastful of their degrees in violence, a country where Matabeleland genocide is viewed as an act of heroismTwo years back you were too quick to accuse Kalangas of being involved in criminal activities in South Africa. Let us hear you tell the world that that your sons, Robert Jr and Chatunga were chased away from Arab Emirates and as recent as last week they were kicked out of an apartment in South Africa. The reason being unbecoming and unacceptable behaviour, violence, use or abuse of banned substances.Most Matabele young people are in South Africa as political and economic refugees while your two sons are in the same place in pursuit of luxury and good life.They grew up in a violent environment where ZANU pf zealots and the first family are a law unto themselves. The land where over 40 000 Matebeles can be butchered at the behest of the president just because they belong to an unwanted tribe. The land where billions of dollars disappear into pot bellies of the corrupt government officials and the President does not care. How can he when his own sons are spending over R200 000 a month of tax payer's money on luxury and drugs in the foreign lands.Addressing a rally during the weekend in Lupane, you commanded ZANU pf youths to take the law into their hands and beat up people.Your sons belong to the same rogue ZANU pf Youth League. When they exported violence and indiscipline to foreign countries they had forgotten or they are not aware at all that that in other countries, all are equal before the law.Violence begets violence, him who plants seeds of division reaps division.It is ZANU pf's divisive,currupt and violent tendencies that have caused Matabeles to seek restoration of the statehood of Matabeleland as quickly as possible.Izenzo kungemazwi!
A former contestant on the beleaguered Channel 4 reality show Eden has likened the extreme concept to something out of 'Lord of the Flies'.

Eden tasked 23 volunteers with creating a new society in the Scottish Highlands in a year back in March 2016. Despite plans to document the action with regular broadcasts throughout, just four episodes were aired during participants time in the community.

Now the experiment is over, ahead of a retrospective look back at how events unfolded set to air on Channel 4, some of the participants have revealed for the first time exactly what it was like, with one female member claiming the divide between male and female contestants became so severe there were 'talks of starving out certain people... who happened to all be girls'.

Caroline, 28, a shepherdess and dog groomer from Scotland, told Times2 that the men rationed the initial food supplies, leaving them 'basically starving' for weeks - to the point where some of the women stopped having periods.

The male-female divide caused problems among the Adam and Eves taking part in the Channel 4 reality programme Eden

Caroline, a shepherdess and dog groomer, who was part of the extreme experiment claims that the men tried to weed out the weak

Eden was made up of 23 strangers tasked with creating a community, but only 10 made it to the end of the year long challenge which ended earlier this year. (Pictured L-R) Left to right - Robert, Andrew, Lloyd, Jasmine, Matt, Stephen, Tara, Caroline, Rachel, Josie, Robert P, Katie, Raphael, Jenna, Tom, Jane, Jack, Ali, Oli, Glenn, Sam, Ben and Anton

But Jack, 32, a former officer of the Household Cavalry who was in charge of the rations, disputes the claims along with chef Stephen, 27, who called it a 'load of b******s'.

The group of strangers were thrown together to battle hunger, infighting and isolation, with some having to resort to eating chicken feed to survive.

Conditions deteriorated to the point where all but 10 contestants quit before filming was scheduled to end, with those who left complaining of health concerns.

The ratings fell from 1.7million to 800,000 by episode four, and Channel 4 took the decision to cut back its coverage, but the participants were none the wiser - emerging seven months later to learn that no-one had been watching.

Now the channel will air five episodes from August 7 to offer an insight into how events really unfolded called Eden: Paradise Lost.

Caroline, who believes that the experiment 'failed' because a community wasn't truly formed, said there were miserable moments, along with paranoia over the food rationing.

Jack (left) and Stephen (right) both disagree with Caroline's versions of events, insisting that they never rationed food or tried to starve anyone

Some of the women shaved their heads 'like Britney Spears when she had her mental breakdown', groups split off to build their own communities only to burn them down to the ground, there were physical fights, and uproar when one member left only to return after having access to pizza and beer.

But happy moments did occur, Caroline added, from enjoying the beautiful surroundings and parties on the beach, to successfully rearing and breeding animals.

And of course many found love or even a little romance, including Caroline who enjoyed a fling with plumber Titch, adding that more than half of the group 'hooked up' with each other.

The participants split off into their own groups during the experiment and there were many arguments. But also some people found love and romance

However, both Stephen and Jack disagree with Caroline's version of events.

'It was people destroying each other, and the worst sides of people were magnified to ridiculous proportions,' explained Stephen.

Jack - who has decided to build his own log cabin in Scotland - adds: 'For me it has been a hugely life-changing experience.'

But Caroline says: 'If you want Lord of the Flies, honestly, watch.'

Liz Foley series editor said of the programme 'it went quite dark' as the contestants tried to negotiate how to survive in the remote forest.

Eden: Paradise Lost begins on August 7 on Channel 4
Drugs mule Michaella McCollum - one half of the infamous Peru Two - is reportedly penning a tell-all book about her time behind bars in Lima.

But it seems the 24-year-old Belfast native is in need of a break from the creative process after she was spotted arriving in Majorca for yet another holiday.

McCollum who was jailed in Peru in 2013 along with Melissa Reid for trying to smuggle 1.5 million of cocaine, flashed her gym-honed figure in a crop top and high waisted miniskirt as she made her way through arrivals at Palma airport today.

The jet setter slung her striped skirt's matching jacket around her neck, giving onlookers a cheeky glimpse of her toned midriff.

Drugs mule Michaella McCollum - one half of the infamous Peru Two - was seen arriving at Palma Airport for yet another holiday

The 24-year-old took off the striped jacket to match her shirt, offering onlookers a glimpse of her toned midriff

But life isn't all holidays for the former jailbird, who was pictured at the Job Centre in April.

One fellow job seeker said at the time: 'Michaella didn't look happy to be joining the dole queue.

'I was surprised to see her there after all the photos of her enjoying herself on holidays abroad.'

Over the last few months, Michaella has been spotted living it up in party centres Ibiza and Marbella enjoying sun, sea and cocktails.

The holidaymaker came armed with two suitcases and a miniature backpack

How the former drugs smuggler has funded her holidays is unclear, but she has been linked to a number of potentially lucrative opportunities.

It has been reported that she has been offered a 250,000 tell all book deal detailing her criminal exploits and time behind bars in Lima.

And rumours suggest she hopes to use her notoriety to kickstart a reality TV career, but claims she was being considered for Celebrity Big Brother were denied by the show's makers.

Originally from County Tyrone in Northern Ireland, McCollum could expect to receive 69-a-week Jobseeker's Allowance.

Michaella and her fellow mule Melissa Reid (front) attending a hearing in Lima four years ago

Shady lady: Michaella opted for a casual but on-trend look for her travels

Four years ago she and friend Melissa Reid were caught trying to smuggle 1.5million worth of cocaine to Europe and McCollum has certainly been making the most of her newfound freedom.

The beach lover recently signed up for the dole amid claims she is set to appear on Celebrity Big Brother, having spent time on the beach in Ibiza and Marbella, Spain, in recent months.

It is a stark contrast to Reid, who has landed a charity job at Citizens Advice.

Michaella McCollum seen arriving at Palma Airport for yet another holiday

The former jailbird has already enjoyed several sun-soaked breaks in Spain this year

Reid applied for a job at the charity after she was released from the South American jail last June.

McCollum, by contrast, has been accused of capitalising on her notoriety, and in May it emerged she has signed with a talent agency.

She is rumoured to have been offered a 250,000 book deal.

The two were sentenced to spend six years and eight months inside a grim jail in Lima, after they were caught trying to smuggle the huge quantity of cocaine.

The ex-convict, from Dungannon, Northern Ireland, was released on parole last March after serving less than half of her sentence but initially had to stay in Peru, where she carried out voluntary work until August when she flew back to Belfast.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4713882/Michaella-McCollum-leaves-hotel-55-000-Audi.html#ixzz4o1cHaEuD Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
A student has beaten depression thanks to 'booty training' to chisel her 'pencil thin' body and give her a 'dream muscular butt'.

Briana Chandler, 22, from St Cloud in Minnesota, regularly battled comments growing-up that she was 'light as a feather', should go 'eat a cheeseburger' and was 'too skinny'.

She struggled with low-moods while studying and trying to pay her own way through college, before finding weightlifting four-years-ago.

Briana started working out to give herself a more feminine figure by exercising different parts of her body and focusing on chiselling her derriere up to three-times-a-week.

Briana Chandler, 22, from St Cloud in Minnesota, regularly battled comments growing-up that she was 'light as a feather' but has beat her depression with booty training and her dream 'muscular derriere' has made her an Instagram star

The student, left, struggled with low moods but instead of turning to drink, she started exercising. She started working on getting a big bum and since doing so has found happiness, right

Now she says people regularly compliment her giant glutes, with girls often asking to touch it to 'see if it's real', asking for tips and she has even been accused of having surgery.

She says that building a big bum has helped her to overcome depression and now the social media influencer has an online following of over 270,000 people.

She said: 'My family always joked that I was born with pencil legs and as I grew older people would tell me I needed to eat a cheeseburger and generally eat more.

'Others said that I was light as a feather, I was always small with a tiny frame and so looked skinny.

'At the beginning of college, I felt really unhappy and was really lost in life.

Briana started going to the gym to battle depression and focused on toning up her derriere and overall body

People would tell her she was too thin and needed to eat a burger, left. Speaking about her new figure, right, she said: 'Overall, I feel more feminine than I ever did before, I looked like a stick in high school, I had no curves and so when gaining weight, I focussed on my butt'

'Most people knew what they were doing and had career goals, I had nothing and became depressed.

'But instead of turning to drink or other things like some people my age, I went to the gym and tried to benefit myself mentally by getting myself to a happier, more positive place.

'I started training, working on my legs and butt three times a week and saw a lot of growth, while building more upper body to give myself a more feminine look.

'Overall, I feel more feminine than I ever did before, I looked like a stick in high school, I had no curves and so when gaining weight, I focussed on my butt.

'Now people say "oh my god your butt is so big", they are blown away by it and always ask me for tips on getting the same results.

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'Ladies often come up to me and ask what I do to get such an amazing bum, some even ask to touch it or whether it's real.

'Some make comments in disbelief, others tag their friends online and a few are so impressed they ask for instructions on how to do it themselves.

'One lady came up to me last week and asked, 'I'm getting my butt done next week, can I take a picture of your butt so to show my surgeon.'

'I laughed and told her I didn't get it from a surgeon, you have to work to get a butt like this as you work on each individual part of your glutes.'

Briana struggled with low-moods and feeling unhappy while studying for her bachelor's degree and working two jobs to pay for her education.

She added: 'A lot of the time when I was depressed I was taking tough classes, all of these things added up, then working two jobs on top I had a lot on my plate.

'I paid my way through college without any help and the financial stress from that left me in a depression.'

She said that instead of turning to drink or other things, she went to the gym and tried to benefit herself mentally by getting herself to a happier, more positive place

Speaking about her newfound asset, she said: 'Ladies often come up to me and ask what I do to get such an amazing bum, some even ask to touch it or whether it's real'

Briana started going to the gym to battle depression and focused on toning up her derriere and overall body.

She gained two and a half stone (33lb) in muscle and believes having a fuller figure has given her more confidence.

Briana said: 'I have a small waist now but wide looking hips, with large glutes and a toned upper body.

'I've gave myself a more feminine looking body by working out my bum, I don't believe in having surgery, you have to work to achieve this it's not something you can pay for.'

Since going to the gym, she gained two and a half stone (33lb) in muscle and believes having a fuller figure has given her more confidence

She says that her new lifestyle has helped her beat depression, adding: 'Now if I have low days or feel depressed, I'm reminded by people that I'm inspiring them and my posts help them'

Briana started an Instagram page to document her progress online and now has over 270,000 followers.

She says it's helped her to realise her achievements and stopped her from feeling depressed.

Briana said: 'As soon as I realised the impact I was making on social media I began posting more and became impactful.

'Now if I have low days or feel depressed, I'm reminded by people that I'm inspiring them and my posts help them.'

You can follow her workouts on Instagram @bribaebee www.instagram.com/bribaebee

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Most mothers will be familiar with the task of combing through the knotty hair of an unwilling child.

But this seven-year-old schoolgirl's unruly blonde mane simply refuses to be tamed.

Shilah Calvert Yin, from Melbourne in Australia, is affected by a rare condition known as Uncombable Hair Syndrome - and her springy blonde locks have seen her compared to everyone from Back to the Future's Doc to Albert Einstein.

But Shilah is perfectly happy with the attention from strangers who regularly stop her in the street to remark on her hair, because 'it's not boring like everyone else's'.

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Shilah Calbert-Yins wild blonde locks are down to a rare condition known as Uncombable Hair Syndrome - thought to affect only about 100 people worldwide

The Melbourne schoolgirl has been compared to everyone from Back to the Future's Doc to Albert Einstein thanks to her voluminous locks

Uncombable Hair Syndrome is believed to impact only around 100 people worldwide.

Shilah said of her distinctive mane: 'It's not ordinary and it's not boring like everyone else's.

'Everyone knows me and remembers me - especially at school; all the grade levels know who I am.

'I think my friends wish they had hair like mine.'

And no matter how much Shilah and her mother, Celeste, 36, comb her hair, the pair still cannot control it.

Shilah, who is now seven, says her hair is not 'ordinary' or 'boring like everyone else's'

The family had no idea about Shilah's condition until about nine months ago, when a doctor informed them of UHS.

When explaining it to others, Celeste said, people usually think it's a joke - or take to Google to find out more.

The syndrome is said to be caused by a mutation to one of three genes - PADI3, TGM3 and TCHH - and though there is no cure, it is believed to become more manageable with age.

Is that you, Einstein? Shilah wedges a pair of goggles over her mane and gets to work

A straightforward ponytail isn't really an option for Shilah, who needs more elaborate styles to keep her hair out of her eyes

In order to show off her unique hair, Shilah and her family have created an Instagram account.

The youngster has also tried her hand at modelling - something her family hope will show the positive side of embracing such a condition.

Celeste said: 'Shilah draws attention everywhere she goes and always has since her hair grew through at about three months old.

Shilah, who says she loves how her hair makes her stand out, has been showing off her mane on Instagram and even tried her hand at modelling

Her mum Celeste says Shilah's hair has made her the centre of attention since she was a baby

'Her older brother, Taelan, has been a fantastic support when other children make comments towards her or even touch her.

'Having said that, adults can be just as juvenile and say some of the most random things or take photos of her and even touch her hair.

'Shilah is used to all the attention and has begun to manipulate and work situations in her favor.

'Hence why we decided that modelling will embrace her unique look and she has the personality and attitude to pull it off.'
They became the highest profile couple in Spain when they became King and Queen three years ago.

And today King Felipe and Queen Letizia looked every inch the stylish power couple as they stepped out together for a joint engagement in Madrid.

Former journalist Letizia, 44, showcased her slim figure in navy tailored trousers, teamed with a simple white top with a cut out detail.

The mother-of-two added interest to her outfit with a silver clutch bag featuring a grey snakeskin panel.

King Felipe and Queen Letizia of Spain looked every inch the stylish power couple this morning as they visited the telefonic hotline central for gender violence assistance in Madrid

The Spanish Queen added interest to her understated outfit with a silver clutch bag

Meanwhile Felipe looked dapper in a dark suit, teamed with a stripy shirt and spotted tie.

Earlier this month, the couple enjoyed a successful state visit to the UK.

This visit was seen as an important step in securing relations with Spain as the UK leaves the EU; the last incoming state visit by a Spanish king - Felipe's father Juan Carlos I - was 31 years ago in 1986.

King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia's trip was postponed twice - firstly because of a political crisis in Spain in March 2016, and then again when the rescheduled date clashed with June's snap general election.

King Felipe was looking dapper in a dark suit, teamed with a striped shirt

Highlights of the visit included a glittering state banquet, hosted by the Queen and attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

The Spanish couple also viewed Buckingham Palace's Royal Collection before meeting the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall for tea at nearby Clarence House.

They were also welcomed to Parliament by the Speaker of the House of Commons and the Lord Speaker, where the King delivered an address in the Royal Gallery.
You've never seen a chicken as funky as the one strutting around a barn with his companions to the soundtrack of DMXs X Gonna Give It to Ya in a new ad currently gracing UK TV screens.

But the only slight trouble for viewers is that the chicken in question is apparently destined to end up breaded in a bucket at fast food giant KFC.

The chain's new ad has caused quite the stir on social media with even meat eaters branding it horrific' and 'inappropriate'.

And the ad and accompanying poster campaign could now face investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority after 250 consumers complained.

According to Marketing Week, complaints range from depiction of the chickens being 'offensive and distressing' for children and those who don't eat meat, and 'misleading' as it 'features a healthy, older looking chickens that complainants believe misrepresent the age, quality and living conditions of KFC chickens'.

A spokesperson for KFC told Femail: 'Our fans know that when they eat with us, its all about the chicken, so seeing one in our ad shouldn't come as a surprise.

'With this campaign, we wanted to create a bold, attention grabbing celebration of chicken. Were really proud of our chicken, freshly prepared in our restaurants and sourced from Red Tractor Assured farms, and were not afraid to show it.'

The footage features chickens dancing to the rap track X Gon' Give It to Ya by DMX

Meat eaters and vegetarians alike said they were offended by the ad, which portrays chickens as cute and full of personality, despite being destined for slaughter

The ad is part of KFC's new campaign to highlight that its products contain 'the whole chicken and nothing but the chicken'.

But it seems that consumer don't necessarily want to be reminded of the link between the feathered birds and their Zinger Tower meal.

One Twitter user complained that the company had made chickens appear 'so human and happy', yet their whole ethos is 'about killing them'.

Another said that the company was trivialising slaughter, and advised: 'Don't pretend to be friends with your victims.'

KFC's new 'nothing but the chicken' ad was blasted by Twitter users who branded it 'disgusting' and 'horrific'

However, some people saw the funny side, with one tweeter saying it had made her day, while another described the concept as 'brave'.

Others questioned how people had never made the connection between KFC and live chickens before.

As one pointed out: 'If you're mad, you don't need to ban the ad you need to stop eating chicken.'
A Texas restaurant helped a regular customer celebrate his 80th birthday by throwing him a surprise party.

Ed Johnson of El Paso, Texas, has been eating breakfast at his local Whataburger every morning since he lost his wife in April of last year.

'After her passing, he was really lonely. We moved him into an apartment that is right by that Whataburger,' Johnson's granddaughter, Emma Carr, told mySA.com.

Happy day: Grandfather Ed Johnson of El Paso, Texas, was surprised by the staff of the Whataburger he eats at every morning for his 80s birthday

Ed is so well-known to the staff at the restaurant that they start preparing his usual - a bacon, egg and cheese biscuit with a small coffee - as soon as they see him pull up.

So, when the grandfather's 80th birthday began approaching, the manager of the restaurant decided to plan a little surprise.

Ed walked in on the big day to a huge happy welcome from the staff, complete with balloons and a large orange and white birthday cake.

'Happy Birthday Mr. Johnson, customer #1,' read the icing on the cake.

'He was speechless, and teared up. He is very humble and has always put his family and friends before himself,' Emma told KTRK.

Big love: Ed is so well known by the staff that they begin preparing his usual as soon as they see him pull up

Going big: Images of the touching event have gone viral on Twitter after being shared by Ed's granddaughter

Can relate: This user claims that her grandfather used to also eat breakfast everyday at one of the restaurants

'I consider every one of these guys a member of the family,' said Ed of the kind Whataburger staff.

'I'm just little ole me. I don't deserve this. All I do is eat some biscuits, but I'm beyond grateful for everyone.'

Touched by the wonderful gesture, Emma shared a series of photos of the event on Twitter, including one of her grandpa with the staff and another of him sitting in front of his birthday cake.

'My grandpa goes to @Whataburger everyday for breakfast so the local workers surprised him today with a cake and balloons for his birthday,' she wrote.

The tweet has been shared more than 16,000 times and gained over 70,000 likes as users were moved by the story.

'Kuddos to all the Whataburger employees for showing their love of a valued customer,' wrote one user, while another added: 'Whata-business!'
When a little boy with a disability needed a new wheelchair, his best friend stepped up to the plate.

Kamden Houshan, 8, of Poway, California, was born with a tumor on his spine that left him a paraplegic - yet it never stopped him from making friends, pretending to be a superhero or generally horsing around with his buddies.

Paul Burnett and Kamden met in kindergarten, and quickly became the best of friends, with Paul seeing him as no different than any other kid.

Besties: Paul Burnett (right), 8, of Poway, California, recently raised enough money to buy his friend Kamden Houshan, also 8, a new wheelchair

Playing around: The boys have been friends since kindergarten, with Kamden's mother saying that Paul 'does not see Kamden as someone who has a disability'

'What really contributes to their friendship is that Paul does not see Kamden as someone who has a disability. He sees him as Kamden. Because of that Kam truly is himself around him,' Kamden's mom Yvonne Houshan told Today.com.

Kamden's bulky wheelchair had been causing him some problems lately, which came to Paul's attention when it tipped forward leaving Kamden on the ground while the two boys were playing on a farm.

California Medicare, Medical, pays for a wheelchair every five years, which means that a chair like Kamden's isn't made to fit him as he grows.

Given that his family couldn't afford to buy a new one, Kamden has had to deal with the current one.

Too cool for school: Kamden was born with a tumor on his spine that left him a paraplegic

Altogether: Kamden's wheelchair isn't fit for him and causes him daily problems, but his family can't afford a new one

But Paul had taken notice. And so after the two boys finished the second grade, Paul told him mom that he intended to get Kamden a new chair through the help of crowdfunding.

The clever youngster had been doing his research, and was sure that a GoFundMe page would do the trick. He set one up, and even wrote the introduction.

'[Kamden and I] have been friends since kindergarten and we love to play superheroes during recess,' he wrote. 'We love to go to McDonalds to eat Happy Meals and play at the park.

'My friend Kamden was born with something on his spine and he cant walk. He has been in a wheelchair since before I met him,' he added. 'His wheelchair has fallen forward many times and that sucks. Also, he has a really hard time pushing it because its so heavy.'

Chipping in: After the boys finished the second grade, Paul told his mom that he wanted to help Kamden get a new chair

Success! The GoFundMe campaign raised more than $5,000 in just two weeks

More fun to come: Kamden will be receiving his new custom wheelchair in August

The funding page was a massive hit, raising more than $5,450 in just two weeks - far exceeding the initial goal of $3,900.

Kamden is now on track to receive a new custom wheelchair in August, having tried a demo version already.

'This new chair is a lot lighter,' said Kamden's mom. 'It will make things so much better. He could push himself more and do more.'

As for Paul, Kamden knows how lucky he is to have a friend like him.

'Hes helpful,' he said. 'He just thinks about [me]. I like to have a friend who just thinks about [me].'
Thousands of families are having to pay expensive top ups for their relatives care home stay  even though they were told they would be getting it free.

An investigation has found that a quarter of those told their care would be free are having to pay stealth charges that can run into thousands of pounds.

Age UK said its research had found that 48,400 older people in care homes are paying the charges, which can exceed 100 a week.

This is despite the fact they have already met the tough conditions for their costs to be paid entirely by their local council.

Caroline Abrahams, Age UKs charity director, said the charges were stealth taxes on families, many of whom were being put in horrible situations. Pictured: A stock image of an elderly man being cared for in a home

Caroline Abrahams, Age UKs charity director, said the charges were stealth taxes on families, many of whom were being put in horrible situations.

The investigation found that older people are being welcomed into care homes  but just weeks later are being told they have to pay top-ups of up to 160. Town halls are then telling families they will have pay the top up or move out.

In some cases, hospital discharges are being held up by requirements for top-ups that families cannot afford  adding to the problem ad NHS bedblocking.

And Age UK has found examples of care homes improperly demanding top ups direct from families.

The scandal underlines the crisis in Englands broken care system, which is struggling to fund increasing demand from an ageing population.

Ms Abrahams said: Over the last year we took over 250 calls from worried families complaining about demands for extra fees, when their loved ones care home place was supposed to be paid for in full by the local council.

Families are finding themselves in horrible situations, such as knowing that unless they pay up their older relative will have to live in a care home that is so far away they will be cut off from everyone they know.

In some cases families are being asked to pay a lot more than they can afford and in others we have heard of families under pressure not to dispute an unfair request for a top up, when their loved one is in hospital and ready to leave, because otherwise it would take even longer for them to be discharged.

The investigation found that older people are being welcomed into care homes  but just weeks later are being told they have to pay top-ups of up to 160

Older people and their families should make sure they understand their legal rights if they are asked for a top up as it is sometimes possible to challenge these demands. Age UK has a lot of free information available via our advice line and website.

In todays cash-strapped care system we fear that third-party top ups are increasingly a form of stealth tax on families, unfairly exploiting their desire to do right by their loved ones if they need to move into a care home. This is hugely unfair and its yet another reason why the government must live up to its commitment to consult on new proposals on social care, later this year.

The law says that top ups should only be paid voluntarily  and with their informed consent  by families to pay for a home closer to relatives or extra facilities such as a nicer room.

It makes it clear that older people have the right to be offered at least one residential placement which is available and affordable within the funding the council has allocated to them; that is without the need for any topping up by a third party.

But Age UK said relatives were increasingly being asked to pay a top up, often because there is no local care home place available that the council has enough money to pay for.

The charity said it believed the third party top ups regime is too often being abused.

Age UK said it is often a difficult and upsetting time when an older person needs to move into a care home  but that this was being made even worse by demands for top-up fees that come as a nasty surprise.
Statins should be offered to an extra two and a half million patients with chronic kidney disease, according to the health watchdog.

The guidelines mean some 20 million adults in England  almost half the population - are now eligible to take the cholesterol lowering pills.

Patients with chronic kidney disease are at a much higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke as the condition leads to the accumulation of fatty deposits in arteries.

Statins should be offered to an extra two and a half million patients with chronic kidney disease, according to the health watchdog

Approximately 2.6 million adults in England have chronic kidney disease and it is more common in the elderly and amongst black and Asian ethnic groups.

The condition leads to 60,000 deaths a year and many are due to heart disease which includes heart attacks and strokes.

The health watchdog NICE is recommending that GPs offer statins to all adults with kidney disease on the basis that they are safe and clinically effective.

The guidance comes amid a long-running debate over whether the benefits of the pills outweigh their long term harms.

Many doctors and patients remain concerned about their side effects which include muscular aches, diabetes, memory loss and damage.

But academics claim the pills are preventing 80,000 heart attacks and strokes a year and say many others would be avoided if they were prescribed more widely.

Approximately 6 million adults in England are currently taking the pill although 17.5 million are eligible, excluding patients with kidney disease.

Patients with chronic kidney disease are at a much higher risk of having a heart attack or stroke as the condition leads to the accumulation of fatty deposits in arteries (File photo)

Professor Gillian Leng, deputy chief executive at Nice, said: We know that a high number of people with long-term kidney problems will develop cardiovascular disease. This means they have an increased risk of suffering a fatal heart attack or stroke.

It is important for healthcare professionals to speak to patients about their treatment options. The effectiveness of statins is now well proven, as is their long term safety. They may appeal to a lot of people who are at risk.

The guidelines recommend patients take a 20mg daily dose of atorvastatin, one of the most commonly prescribed statins.

Earlier this week Harvard researchers urged patients to continue taking their statins despite the side effects as they were so beneficial.

The review of 28,000 patients found the pills lowered the risk of death by 20 per cent.

It also found that 30 per cent of patients who suffered side effects abandoned them.

There is also growing evidence that statins help fight cancer by stopping tumour cells dividing and boosting the bodys immune system.

Research in June found that women taking statins were 40 per cent less likely to die from breast cancer.
Opinion / Columnist

There is no tragedy greater than ignorance. When someone spews tribal venom on the basis of their misplaced that maybe they could be "Zulu" when they have absolute no knowledge of the culture, customs and language of the Zulu would be comical except that before him are bones of 20 000 innocent civilians butchered for nothing else except that they were Ndebele. It is a sad irony that this Tendai hopelessly trying to shed off his Shona heritage choses the Jonathan Moyos of this world to advance his warped arguement, blissfully oblivious that Jonathan Moyo's father was murdered by Gukurahundi for being Ndebele and that Jonathan Moyo according to his own words ran away from the Mozambiquean Zanla camp when Ndebeles were being butchered.It is logical to believe that this Tendai has neither understanding nor respect for the Ndebele culture. His demands for social justice are purely self-serving. The Ndebele society is a conglomerate of different people from South Africa (KZN), Swaziland, Botswana whose unity is not in surnames but in language, culture, customs and aspirations. The silly attempts at tsustification of the people of Matabeleland must fail, precisely because it is a tribal agenda driven from a point of ignorance and hatred. He is not aware that the Zulu nation is a construct of Shaka and even itself has never been a homogeneous group. Yet it has been united through nation building something which he can never understand given the glaring failure of his country Zimbabwe.I live in Zimbabwe but have never felt Zimbabwean. Thus a topic for another day. Tendai must be proud of his Shona origins instead of seeking to decide who is Ndebele and who is not. Most probably he is not aware that King Lobhengula's mother was a Swati but Ndebele. Confusing to many tribalists.His claim that there is no Ndebele or Shona is pure nonsense. It is that think that creates tribal hatred. We need to know that there is Ndebele a proud culture with a legacy and an attempts to destroy it will be resisted. We are tired of being forced to speak in Shona. we are tired of being forced to walk like Shonas. We want a country that celebrates our diversity. The Moyos are indeed Ndebele by choice and some of them trace their origins to the Great Mambo empire.He claims that he saw his friends home being torched by Zanu Pf lunatics. Maybe he will be happy to know that my entire family except myslf and two siblings was set alight in a hut that had been sealed from outside. They were set alight because they were Ndebele. Their cries for mercy could not be heard for they beg for this mercy in the Ndebele language. I think its high time people who celebrate Gukurahundi are arrested by communities that suffered. For how long will Tendai and his Shona relatives continue to mock us? In Zulu we say "Kusasa kuyizolo!". He must use his 1% Zulu to figure it out!
Cannabis should be made legal for multiple sclerosis patients who get no pain relief from conventional drugs, a leading charity has urged.

The MS society says some evidence shows the world's most popular recreational drug can dampen pain and reduce muscle spasms.

It issued a report asking for the Government to relax its ban on cannabis for patients with such symptoms who have been left with no other options.

Current laws state those caught in possession of the Class B substance face up to five years in prison in the UK.

The MS society says some evidence shows the world's most popular recreational drug can dampen pain and reduce muscle spasms

The charity made the claim after reviewing an array of evidence and seeking the views of nearly 4,000 sufferers.

It said 10 per cent of patients, of which, figures suggest, there are 100,000 in the UK, receive no benefit from medication.

One in five patients had admitted to using cannabis to help their pain, while a quarter had stopped taking it out of fear they would be caught, its survey found.

Genevieve Edwards, the MS Society's director of external affairs, told The Guardian of the charity's updated stance.

'Cannabis should be legalised for medicinal use'

She said: 'We think cannabis should be legalised for medicinal use for people with MS to relieve their pain and muscle spasms when other treatments havent worked.

'The level of clinical evidence to support cannabiss use for medicinal purposes is not conclusive.

'But there is sufficient evidence for our medical advisers to say that on the balance of probability, cannabis could benefit many people with MS experiencing pain and muscle spasms.'

Ms Edwards added: 'Its simply not right that some people are being driven to break the law to relieve their pain and spasticity.'

'NO INTENTION' TO MAKE WEED LEGAL It comes after the Government announced it has 'no intention' of making cannabis legal in the UK. Despite a growing body of evidence showing the herb to be safe, possession will remain punishable with jail. Experts slammed the Home Office's controversial decision, describing it as a 'missed opportunity' to legalise the herb. But ministers pointed to various studies that have shown cannabis to be detrimental to human health, with significant links to schizophrenia. Such worrying associations have existed for decades, and were responsible the decision to reclassify the drug to a Class B nine years ago. In recent years, Spain, South Africa, Uruguay and several states in the US have made cannabis legal for recreational use. Pressure has been increasing on the UK to follow suit and update its drug policy, with many citing weed's medicinal properties. Advertisement

Allow patients to get Sativex

The charity has also called for the NHS to make Sativex, a cannabis-based mouth spray used by some MS patients, available on prescription.

In 2010 it became the first medicine based on herbal cannabis available for use in the UK - but only in Wales.

The mouth spray, derived from THC and CBD, can only be prescribed to treat the loss of muscle control experienced by MS patients.

On its website, the MS Society states it's not available elsewhere in the UK 'because the good it does is seen as too small to be worth what it costs'.

For many patients it is too expensive to buy privately, where the medically-proven drug can cost as much as 2,000 for a year's supply.

But such restrictions on accessing the product in the UK is driving many to turn to smoking cannabis and breaking the law.

'A significant endorsement'

Ian Hamilton, a researcher who looks into the effects of cannabis at York University, told MailOnline it was a 'significant endorsement' to make.

He said: 'It's clear that they have explored not only the scientific evidence but the views of their members.

'Although it is clearly important to have scientific evidence to support the use of a drug in any form of treatment, it is also important to listen to the first hand accounts of people who report a benefit in using cannabis for specific symptoms.

'This is a further example of how research into the medicinal potential of cannabis is politicised in the UK as it remains outlawed.'

Mixed results

Research into the benefits that cannabis-based medicines could provide MS patients in recent years have been mixed.

A controversial report issued in September stated that medical cannabis helps to alleviate chronic pain and muscle problems related to MS.

But a major review led by King's College London in 2014 concluded that the drug is highly addictive and can cause mental health problems.
Mothers are generally seen as more stressed-out than fathers, as they juggle careers, skewed pay grades, and children.

But a new study claims men are just as concerned about their work-life balance.

Studying more than 250,000 people, US psychologists found that the majority of working fathers are plagued by stress, but they are too frightened to talk about it for fear of appearing less 'masculine'.

Experts warn the study, the first of its kind, sheds light on the dangers of gender stereotypes, that may be preventing fathers from expressing themselves or seeking mental health support.

Lead investigator Professor Kristen Shockley, a psychologist at the University of Georgia, admitted she was surprised by the results.

Stressed-out: A team of psychologists at the University of Georgia said men appear to mask their concerns about juggling fatherhood and their career because 'it doesn't seem masculine'

She said: 'We essentially found very little evidence of differences between women and men as far as the level of work-family conflict they report.

'This is quite contrary to the common public perception. The way this issue is presented in the media frames the way we think about it, and it creates a perpetual cycle.

'Women hear that other women are struggling with this issue, so they expect they will experience greater work-family conflict. There also is some socialisation for it being OK for women to talk more about it than men.'

Previous research has found men often do not feel comfortable discussing work-family concerns because of fears of being stigmatized, threats to their masculinity or negative career repercussions.

But Professor Shockley said men may feel more open discussing those conflicts in anonymous, confidential surveys - the same method she used for her study.

'I do think it is harming men, who are silently struggling and are experiencing the same amount of work-family conflict, but no one is acknowledging it,' she said.

Her team spent several years examining the findings from more than 350 studies conducted over three decades that included over 250,000 participants from across the world.

PATERNITY LEAVE MEASURES IN THE US AND THE UK In the US, there is no guarantee of paternity or maternity leave. A recent study revealed just 10 percent of working fathers in America get paid paternity leave at the value of their full salary, compared to 21 percent of mothers. Currently, there is no nationwide paid paternal leave program. California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are the only states with measures in place. New York will be bringing in a similar measure next year. The only two other countries without standard leave coverage are Suriname and Papua New Guinea. Paid paternity leave of two weeks was first introduced in the UK 2003. It allows fathers or same-sex partners to take two weeks of leave at a rate of 140.98 per week or 90 percent of the person's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower. Fathers on average take only one day of paternity leave, paid or unpaid, for every month of maternity leave mothers take, with 96 percent having two weeks or less after the birth of a child. Advertisement

In recent years, more men are becoming stay-at-home dads, while more women head back to work after giving birth.

Although women still spend more time on both tasks, a study by the Pew Research Center found fathers were just as likely to say parenting is extremely important to their identity.

Professor Shockley added that women also may face career penalties because of stereotypes that they are more family-oriented and less committed to their work.

The researchers were also surprised to find men and women reported similar levels of work-family conflict - regardless of the level of gender equality in their country.

Some minor differences between the sexes were detected but none were large in magnitude, she said.

Mothers reported slightly greater family interference with work than fathers, as did women where both partners were working.

Men in these 'dual earner couples' reported slightly more work interference with family, as did women in the same occupation as their partner.

Professor Shockley explained while fathers and mothers experience the same lamount of work-family conflict, they may perceive it differently.

Women could feel guiltier about work interference with family because of traditional expectations they are caretakers.

A father's traditional role has been as the primary breadwinner so men may feel they are fulfilling their family responsibilities by working, resulting in less guilt, she added.

But, as in the UK, both of those gender roles are changing in the US as more women enter the workforce and more men assume larger responsibilities in rearing children.

Professor Shockley said companies and the government should provide greater support for policies that benefit both women and men including flexible work arrangements, child care support and both paid maternity and paternity leave.

In the US, there is no guarantee of paternity or maternity leave.

A recent study revealed just 10 percent of working fathers in America get paid paternity leave at the value of their full salary, compared to 21 percent of mothers.

Currently, there is no nationwide paid paternal leave program. California, Rhode Island, and New Jersey are the only states with measures in place. New York will be bringing in a similar measure next year.

The only two other countries without standard leave coverage are Suriname and Papua New Guinea.

Paid paternity leave of two weeks was first introduced in the UK 2003. It allows fathers or same-sex partners to take two weeks of leave at a rate of 140.98 per week or 90 percent of the person's average weekly earnings, whichever is lower.

Fathers on average take only one day of paternity leave, paid or unpaid, for every month of maternity leave mothers take, with 96 percent having two weeks or less after the birth of a child.

Prof Shockley said Increased paternity leave could improve mothers' well-being, and father-infant bonding has long-term positive benefits for children as well as an equal division of labor between spouses.

About half of the studies included in the research, known as a meta-analysis, were conducted in the US, while the remainder were spread mostly across countries in Europe and Asia.

While some were carried out decades ago, about half were published in 2010 or later.
One of Gwyneth Paltrow's (pictured in November 2016) Goop doctors has come out to say she doesn't endorse all of their products

One of Gwyneth Paltrow's Goop doctors has come out to say she doesn't endorse the brand.

Dr Aviva Romm was one of the two physicians quoted in Goop's recent letter - Uncensored: A Word From Our Doctors - defending the site against its detractors.

However, just two weeks later, she has revealed that she doesn't consider herself a Goop doctor.

She still hasn't read most of the content on the site which promotes things like vaginal jade eggs and goat milk cleanses.

Dr Romm also said she doesn't endorse all of the site's advice and is critical of anyone who automatically trusts the products just because the brand is owned by Gwyneth Paltrow and branded as 'natural.'

'I don't think everything in there is necessarily evidence-based or effective,' the family and women's health doctor, based in Massachusetts, told Stat.

'I'm not one of those integrative doctors who basically thinks just because it's alternative it's safe and good.'

Dr Romm also offered a word of advice to the trendy women's health brand: if its directors want to embody alternative health for women, editors need to get a physicians 'stamp of approval' on all of their content, rather than presenting some as an 'alternative view'.

Goop has previously said it is considering a medical advisory board, and Dr Romm urges them to set one up sooner rather than later.

At the beginning of July, some Goop doctors hit back at critics of the website who claimed the website wasn't based on fact and was instead just a popular te

DR ROMM'S HISTORY WITH ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE AND HOW SHE GOT STARTED WITH GOOP

Dr Romm has worked in alternative medicine since she was in college. She also spent 20 years working as an herbalist and a midwife before she went onto medical school at Yale.

She explained that she understands why people are dissatisfied with conventional medicine and looking for new paths to well-being, and even promotes her own take on alternative medicine.

Dr Aviva Romm explained that she doesn't see herself as a Goop doctor and hasn't even read most of the content on the site

On her website, she sells blends of nutritional supplements, and urges women to consider seasonal detoxes, use herbal alternatives to antibiotics in some cases, and try a month-long program - which costs upwards of $1,800 - to improve adrenal and thyroid health.

Dr Romm explained to Stat that she got involved with Goop when the publicist for her book- Adrenal Thyroid Revolution- suggested expanding her audience.

Following that advice, she was put in contact with the website, and now writes unpaid articles, normally about thing she's interested in.

Though, she explained, sometimes the Goop editors will reach out to her with ideas about different articles. For example they've looked for articles that touch on endometriosis, polycystic ovary syndrome and the Epstein-Barr virus.

'My role with Goop is nothing formal at all. I really just write my articles,' she told Stat.

HER INVOLVEMENT WITH THE WEBSITE DOESN'T MEAN SHE AGREES WITH EVERYTHING THEY WRITE

Dr Romm said that, just because she writes for the website and was quoted in the letter attacking critics (Uncensored), doesn't mean she endorses everything, or even most things, that the brand does.

'I think there's this sense that sort of by default by writing for them, I was endorsing them,' she explained. '[But] I had a letter to the editor published in the [New England Journal of Medicine]. I certainly don't endorse everything in the NEJM.'

She also explained that she only wrote the response to critics because she was still in the early stages of writing for Goop, and because they asked.

Dr Romm was asked to submit a quote addressing the criticism, so she did, responding that she could not endorse the site, but instead shared her though on women's wellness.

Her key goal in writing the letter was to push back against conventional wisdom that chastises women who seek alternative medicine options. She explained that these women aren't always just 'participating in a wellness trend.'

'I can't endorse Goop in that, just because [products are] natural or organic, doesn't mean that they're beneficial for women,' she told Stat.

'Just because it hasn't been proven harmful and it's natural doesn't mean it's safe. We can't just say that's sort of the default position.

'If it's wrong, it's wrong.'

HER PRACTICE AND HER PATIENTS

If one of her patients came into her practice and explained she wanted to try the Goop approach, Romm said she would talk to them first to understand why.

'She might be being told by a rheumatologist that she needs an immunosuppressant drug but maybe there's not great evidence for that either, and she'd rather try something more benign for 21 days before she goes on that,' she explained.

Dr Romm said she's respectful of 'autonomy' as long as there's nothing outright harmful in the plan.

'I'll say, "Great, awesome, give it a try,"' she explained.
A man has been diagnosed with Zika in Texas, marking the first locally-transmitted infection in the United States this year.

Health officials said Wednesday that a man from Rio Grande Valley, close to the Mexican border, was diagnosed with the virus and has not traveled to other states or out of the country this year.

The man, who has not been named, is no longer at risk of transmitting the disease to a mosquito that bites him because tests show the virus is no longer active in his blood.

However, he did test positive for antibodies to the virus, which can persist for multiple months once the virus is gone, Chris Van Deusen from the Texas Health and Human Services told Daily Mail Online.

A man was diagnosed with the Zika virus in Texas, which is the first infection transmitted from a mosquito local to the country this year (stock image)

HOW ZIKA INFECTS FETUSES 1. BREAKING DOWN DEFENSES In most cases, Zika occurs in the first trimester. First, the virus unlocks a 'gatekeeper' cell, hurling at the cell until the cell is disoriented. Eventually that gatekeeper can no longer protect the brain's signaling region. 2. GAINING ENTRY Once inside, Zika destabilizes the brain's bacteria-killing network called autophagy. Normally autophagy digests and kills pathogens. But when Zika infects the cell, that network is manipulated into helping the virus to spread. 3. WEAKENING CELLS INSIDE Zika is so hyperactive, using all the energy of the autophagy to proliferate, that the other cells do not have scope to flourish. The cells are left with metabolic deficits. It means they do not have the chance to differentiate and mature into neurons and other brain cell types. 4. THE RESULT By hijacking fetal neural stem cells, Zika caused the size of brains to half. Advertisement

'Thousands of Zika tests have been done since a DSHS recommendation in April expanded testing of pregnant women and people with Zika symptoms in South Texas counties,' Texas Health and Human Services said in a news release.

'The additional testing led to the identification of this infection, the first this year that appears to have been transmitted by a mosquito in Texas. There is no evidence of ongoing Zika transmission in the state at this time.'

The mosquito-borne virus became a major health concern last year, particularly in South America, when a flux of infants were born with severe defects, namely microcephaly, meaning an abnormally small head.

Last year there were more than 5,000 cases of the disease reported, with 224 of those transmitted locally within the United States, according to the CDC.

Rio Grande Valley became an epicenter of the virus in late 2015, with six cases of locally-transmitted Zika reported in the county of Brownsville.

Officials said healthcare providers have been alerted to this most recent case, and were reminded about testing recommendations.

They also urge people to beware of the most common Zika symptoms in adults, such as a rash, fever, joint pain and eye redness. People are urged to get tested if they have a rash plus one of the other symptoms.

And to avoid the virus, they recommend people, particularly women, use insect repellent, wear long sleeves and pants, and remove standing water in and around homes that would give mosquitoes a place to breed.

The county has increased mosquito control and surveillance activities, and urges pregnant women or women expecting to become pregnant to be wary of symptoms and avoid countries where disease is the most prominent.

Since the Zika epidemic exploded in late 2015, scores of research teams have scrambled to find out why it caused birth defects and how to stop it.

Since the Zika epidemic exploded in late 2015, scores of research teams have scrambled to find out why it caused birth defects and how to stop it (stock image of a child with Zika birth defects)

One team of researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have discovered that a malaria drug - which is already FDA-approved - could block the virus from infecting the fetus of an infected mother.

Ironically, the drug works to dial down the body's defense reaction, since research shows Zika thrives on turning the body's weapons against itself.

The finding, published on July 10, came amid sweltering summer heat in the United States, which exponentially drives up the risk of Zika infection.
An eccentric and educational cartoon about a woman's menstrual cycle made by Disney in 1946 has resurfaced online, years after it stopped being shown in middle school sex-ed classes.

The Story Of Menstruation, the first of its kind to offer such explicit detail on a mainstream platform, was made to teach young American girls why women get periods and how to deal with them when they happen.

It was the first film to use the word 'vagina', demonstrating how little emphasis was placed on women's health less than 100 years ago.

Despite its age, experts insist it is surprisingly up-to-date.

The narrator gives an accurate explanation of the female reproductive system and recommends things like exercises to relieve cramps, as do many gynecologists today. It also suggests wearing makeup to 'lift your morale' during that time of the month.

Crucially, it debunked taboos regarding what you can and cannot do when you are on your period, reassuring women that, despite popular belief, they can exercise and bathe while menstruating.

The film is titled The Story Of Menstruation lasts 10 minutes and briefly explains why women get periods and how to deal with them when they happen. It also 'debunks taboos' that were present during the time regarding what you can and cannot do when you are on your period - including things like exercising and bathing

The 10-minute-long video was created during the Second World War, at a time when Disney's growth stalled and needed a production boost.

To make money and avoid a shutdown, the company collaborated with government agencies and corporations, such as Kotex.

In making the video, Disney hired gynecologist Mason Hohn to increase scientific accuracy and increase the likelihood school doctors and nurses would allow the film to be shown.

It worked, and the movie was shown in school sex education classes reaching roughly 93 million American girls through the late 1960's.

In making the video, Disney hired gynecologist Mason Hohn to increase scientific accuracy and increase the likelihood school doctors and nurses would allow the film to be shown

The film features a woman speaking a mid-century accent and diagrams of the female sex organs

The film also came with a pamphlet for girls called Very Personally Yours, which went over the specifics of things like sanitation. It also discouraged tampon use, which was common at the time due to the belief that they only worked for women who were no longer virgins.

In 2015 The Story Of Menstruation was selected for preservation by the National Film Registry for being 'culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.'

The film features a woman speaking a mid-century accent and diagrams of the female sex organs.

New York-based gynecologist Dr Alyssa Dweck told Daily Mail Online she found the video to be 'enlightening.'

'Aside from the hoaky music and stereotypical gender roles, this is actually highly accurate from a medical standpoint, albeit simplified,' Dr Dweck explained.

It also tells young women to stay positive during that 'time of the month,' and gives tips and tricks about how to avoid bad moods and period pain

The video provides a basic description of the menstrual process and emphasizes how important it is for each woman to make sure they are on a regular 28-day cycle

WHAT ARE PERIODS? A period is the lining of the womb falling away when there is no pregnancy. A 'normal' period comes every 21-35 days and typically lasts for five days. The flow is light for the first day or two, heavier for two to three days and then tails off over a day or two. Blood flow may appear heavy in a period but in the majority of cases, the amount of blood lost is around five to 12 teaspoons. Most women have fairly tolerant periods, give or take a few cramps, but it's important to know when problems can become more serious. Amenorrhea is when a woman stops having periods altogether. There can be many reasons for this, including excessive exercise, stress, excessive weight loss, lack of nutrition, medications and hormonal problems. Advertisement

'Amazing to me that the advice for healthy lifestyles hasn't changed much throughout the years.'

It also tells young women to stay positive during that 'time of the month,' and gives tips and tricks about how to avoid bad moods and period pain.

Some of the things the narrator mentions are having good posture, doing stretches to relieve cramps, avoiding constipation and not letting not letting a period 'get you down.'

It also recommends that women should keep wearing makeup, because 'that well groomed feeling will give you new poise and lift your morale.'

The film has been praised because of the overall positive message about body image it portrays, and because it is thought to be the first film to use the word vagina.

Dr Dweck also lauded the use of the word, saying: 'Including that dirty V word "vagina" twice... touche to Walt Disney and Kotex for that. Amazing how many news and media outlets shun the word now and we can all take a lesson from this.'

The movie was the first of its kind to feature a female narrator and, while it was being shown in schools, is thought to have taught millions of American girls that their bodies were normal.

However, the video also shows just how little information there was available about women's health during this time period.

The video provides a basic description of the menstrual process and emphasizes how important it is for each woman to make sure they are on a regular 28-day cycle.

And though it shows a graphic of a woman's reproductive system, everything is pictured in black and white, even menstrual blood.

The video doesn't actually mention the idea of period blood, sexuality, or intercourse, other than one moment in which a boy and a girl are dancing and the narrator tells them not to 'get carried away'

It's also been criticized by some for promoting stereotypical gender rolls, with the women in the video being pictured wearing hair-bows, lipstick and dresses

In the scenes of the video where the uterine lining sheds, a mass of snow white exits the vaginal opening, glossing over the idea of blood.

The video doesn't actually mention the idea of period blood, sexuality, or intercourse, other than one moment in which a boy and a girl are dancing and the narrator tells them not to 'get carried away'.

It's also been criticized by some for promoting stereotypical gender rolls, with the women in the video being pictured wearing hair-bows, lipstick and dresses.
Angelina Jolie, 42, spoke out about her split from Brad and her health woes this week

Angelina Jolie has revealed she suffered from hypertension and Bell's palsy as her marriage to Brad Pitt was falling apart.

The mother-of-six, who has been vocal about her private health battles in the past, said the conditions caused one side of her face to droop, and she needed acupuncture to treat it.

She also opened up about going through menopause early, and how the debilitating symptoms forced her to take charge of her health and life.

Jolie, 42, divulged her latest health issues in a new interview with Vanity Fair, her first since splitting from Pitt last year.

'I can't tell if it's menopause or if it's just been the year I've had. Sometimes women in families put themselves last until it manifests itself in their own health,' she said in the interview, published on Wednesday.

'I actually feel like more of a woman because I'm being smart about my choices, and I'm putting my family first, and I'm in charge of my life and my health.

'I think that's what makes a woman complete.'

Within minutes of the magazine's release, there was a spike in Google searches for 'Bell's palsy'.

Here, we explain the conditions, the risk factors, and how it could be triggered or exacerbated by hypertension and menopause.

WHAT IS BELL'S PALSY?

Bell's palsy causes temporary weakness or paralysis of the muscles in one side of the face. It may also affect the sufferer's sensitivity to noise and affect their taste buds.

The condition affects around 40,000 Americans each year.

It is caused by trauma or damage to the seventh cranial nerve, the nerve which controls the muscles in your face.

The exact cause is unknown.

It is most common among children under the age of 15 and adults over the age of 60. Other high-risk groups are pregnant women, diabetics, and people with the flu.

However, it is also commonly associated with viral infections like meningitis or the herpes simplex 1 virus, which causes cold sores. Doctors believe the virus could cause the facial nerve to become inflamed, restricting oxygen flow to the face, and putting pressure on the muscles.

Within minutes of Jolie's interview being released, there was a spike in searches for Bell's palsy

WHAT ARE ANGELINA JOLIE'S RISK FACTORS?

HYPERTENSION

Angelina Jolie said she suspects her newly-diagnosed hypertension was one of the things that triggered her Bell's palsy.

The condition, characterized by abnormally high blood pressure above 140/90, is a major risk factor for strokes and heart conditions.

It puts intense pressure on blood vessels and nerves. Though it is not the most common cause of Bell's palsy, doctors say it is a logical link.

MENOPAUSE

The actress also suggested menopause could have increased her risk.

At the age of 42, Jolie is much younger than the average menopausal woman. In most women, they stop menstruating between the ages of 48 and 55. Anything before 40 is deemed premature menopause, but 42 is still on the younger side.

Menopause is not typically a cause of Bell's palsy; cases are rare. However, experts warn that stress and hormonal fluctuations can put undue pressure on the nervous system, which could affect the facial nerves.

Twelve years: Jolie and Pitt met filming Mr & Mrs Smith (left) in 2004, as Pitt was still married to Jennifer Aniston. They were together until 2016 (right), after making By The Sea together

STRESS

Finally stress, though not a driving factor of Bell's, is known to increase one's risk of developing the condition.

Jolie has been frank about the pain of her divorce, and the strain it has had on her life.

The A-listers were together for 12 years before they announced their separation in September 2016.

They have six kids together: Maddox, 15; Pax, 13; Shiloh, 11; Zahara, 12; and twins Vivienne and Knox, nine.

Filing the divorce papers last year, Jolie said the couple had suffered irreparable differences, accusing Pitt of consuming too much marijuana and being violent.

Speaking to Vanity Fair this week, Jolie opened up about the difficulty of single-parenting in the wake of their split.

Parenting: Jolie has six children with Pitt, including (L-R) Zahara, Vivienne, Shiloh, and Pax

'It's just been the hardest time, and we're just kind of coming up for air. [Moving in her own house] is a big jump forward for us, and we're all trying to do our best to heal our family,' she said.

'I'm just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. That's my passion. At the request of my kids, I'm taking cooking classes. As I go to sleep at night, I think, Did I do a great job as a mom or was that an average day?'

Her divorce comes on the heels of a few years battling health issues.

Jolie made headlines in May 2013 after revealing she'd had a double mastectomy.

Writing in an op-ed for the New York Times, Jolie said gene-testing revealed she carried the BRCA1 gene, which increases one's risk of breast cancer by 65 percent.

As such, she decided to remove her breasts and get a surgical reconstruction to reduce her risk.

Speaking out: Jolie divulged her latest health issues in a new interview with Vanity Fair, her first since splitting from Pitt last year

Two years later, in March 2015, Jolie revealed in another op-ed for the Times that she'd had a preventative laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy (removal of the ovaries) to reduce her risk of ovarian cancer.

Countless studies have shown the stressful impact such invasive and life-altering surgeries can have on women.

COMBINATION OF FACTORS

All three factors - hypertension, menopause and stress - can trigger flare-ups of viral infections, like the herpes simplex 1 virus, which causes Bell's.

HOW IS BELL'S TREATED?

Anyone experiencing facial drooping should go straight to the hospital, since it can be a symptom of something more serious such as a stroke or a tumor.

If it turns out to be Bell's, it is easily cleared up.

Around 70 percent of people with Bell's palsy make a complete recovery, with or without treatment.

Treatment normally consists of facial massages or, as Jolie did: acupuncture.

In some cases, doctors prescribe steroids to reduce swelling. However, there is little precedence to suggest this works.

Most people notice an improvement in their symptoms after about two to three weeks. However, a complete recovery can take between three and six months.
A father-of-two has said he 'feels great' after having 98 cancerous tumors removed from his brain.

Leland Fay, a 46-year-old from Monument, Colorado, told CBS Denver that it's been six years since he was given the first cancer diagnosis, and he feels 'Great, you know, normal. Whatever normal is.'

Fay was diagnosed with aggressive melanoma in 2011 after feeling a bump on his scalp.

The cancer metastasized, causing he had 98 tumors on his brain, of which 97 were eventually removed using stereotactic radiosurgery, a type of radiation that directly targets brain tumors. Only one had to be removed surgically.

Melanoma is the deadliest form of skin cancer and can appear anywhere on the body. It often spreads to other organs in the body, and when that happens, is significantly harder to treat.

Leland Fay (pictured), a 46-year-old from Monument, Colorado, told CBS Denver that it's been six years since he was given the first cancer diagnosis

There were a total of 98 tumors growing in and on Fay's brain from the metastasized melanoma

After the original melanoma diagnosis, he had that part of his scalp removed, as well as the lymph nodes in his neck in an attempt to keep the disease from spreading.

He then underwent an undisclosed experimental treatment in California in an attempt to kill any remaining cancerous cells on his body.

The experimental treatment failed, and in 2012 he was told the cancer had spread to his stomach, liver and lungs. Two months after that news, he found out the cancer had spread to his brain.

THE DEADLIEST SKIN CANCER: MELANOMA Melanoma can appear anywhere on the body, but they most commonly appear on the back, legs, arms and face and even underneath a nail. Though less common, they often spread to other organs in the body, making them more deadly. The most common sign is the appearance of a new mole or a change in an existing mole. A helpful way to tell the difference between a normal mole and a melanoma is the ABCDE checklist: Asymmetrical  melanomas have two very different halves and are an irregular shape

 melanomas have two very different halves and are an irregular shape Border  melanomas have a notched or ragged border

 melanomas have a notched or ragged border Colors  melanomas will be a mix of two or more colors

 melanomas will be a mix of two or more colors Diameter  melanomas are often larger than 6mm (1/4 inch) in diameter

 melanomas are often larger than 6mm (1/4 inch) in diameter Enlargement or elevation  a mole that changes size over time is more likely to be a melanoma Advertisement

There were a total of 98 tumors growing in and on Fay's brain. His doctors told him that some people will be sent to hospice with as few as three, he recalled in an interview with CBS.

At first, his oncologist said it looked bleak: he had six weeks to live.

Days later, he met neurosurgeon Dr Robert Breeze at the University of Colorado Hospital to try unconventional methods in a last-ditch attempt to stay alive.

Dr Breeze first used stereotactic radiosurgery, a noninvasive treatment for malignant and benign brain tumors among other things.

Fay was transferred to Rocky Mountain Gamma Knife Center later that year, where he began Gamma Knife radiation treatment.

The treatment works similar to traditional radiation, but is significantly stronger and more precise.

It delivers 192 precisely focused beams of the gamma radiation to a single point to kill the diseased tissue, sparing nearby healthy tissue, according to University of Arkansas for Medical Science.

He underwent seven-hour-long treatments, to remove 97 of the tumors, and the 98th was removed surgically.

The treatment has many benefits, primarily in that it is bloodless and virtually painless. It also has excellent outcomes for a variety of brain diseases.

Though these treatments are often done in one siting, because Fay had 98 individual tumors that had to be targeted individually, it was a lengthy process for him.

Now, six years after the original cancer diagnosis, his brain scans have come back clean, and the father-of-two (pictured left with his wife and two sons) said he feels 'great'

Now, six years after the original cancer diagnosis, his brain scans have come back clean.

'With melanoma it's hard to ever say that someone's cancer free,' Dr Breeze told CBS.

'He certainly has beaten the average.'

On top of the Gamma Knife treatment, Fay had surgeries that removed tumors in other parts of his bodies, and is now on his third round of immune therapy.
SHRINKING VIOLETS by Joe Moran (Profile 9.99)

SHRINKING VIOLETS

by Joe Moran (Profile 9.99)

The term shy entered the English language in the 13th century to describe horses that were easily startled.

It wasnt until the 17th century that it migrated from horses to people  Shakespeare uses it twice in Measure For Measure. By the 19th century, Jane Austen wondered whether shyness was in danger of becoming extinct: What is become of all the Shyness in the World? she wrote to her sister, Cassandra.

She neednt have worried. In the 21st century shyness continues to thrive, though many of its victims may wish that it didnt.

Joe Morans delightful chronicle offers comfort to the socially paralysed and he writes with empathy about the shades of diffidence that have afflicted sufferers from George Best to General de Gaulle.

DR JAMES BARRY by Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield (Oneworld 9.99)

DR JAMES BARRY

by Michael du Preez and Jeremy Dronfield (Oneworld 9.99)

In July 1865, a man lay dying of cholera in a Marylebone lodging-house. Dr James Barry knew his illness was mortal and, before his death, he had left instructions that his body should be buried without inspection, but his wish was forgotten.

The charwoman who came to lay out the corpse discovered that the body was unmistakably that of a woman  a woman, moreover, who had given birth to a child.

Margaret Ann Bulkley was born in Cork around 1798. But by 1809 she had become James Barry, a medical student who went on to pursue a distinguished career as an Army doctor and a surgeon who performed one of the first successful caesareans.

Michael du Preez, himself a doctor, and novelist Jeremy Dronfield bring detailed research to their account of Barrys life.

THE HISTORY THIEVES by Ian Cobain (Portobello 9.99)

THE HISTORY THIEVES

by Ian Cobain (Portobello 9.99)

At the start of the 19th century, Ian Cobain writes, the British people felt quietly confident that they enjoyed the most open system of government of any of the great European powers.

Politicians of every hue proclaimed that they embraced transparency as a defence against the use of state power.

Transparency, reinforced by the growth of a free press, was widely accepted as the only means to promote political and social wholesomeness, yet in 1844 a scandal erupted when it was proved the Home Secretary had authorized the opening of private letters.

In his illuminating book on the culture of state secrecy that has flourished for centuries, Ian Cobain scrutinizes the secretiveness that Richard Crossman described as the chronic ailment of British government, which has led to the purging and concealment of historical records from the 17th century to the present day.
THE LATE SHOW by Michael Connelly (Orion 19.99)

THE LATE SHOW

by Michael Connelly (Orion 19.99)

It has been more than ten years since Connelly, one of the worlds greatest crime writers, last launched a major new character.

Then it was the Lincoln Lawyer, Mickey Haller, who followed on from his famous Los Angeles detective Harry Bosch.

Now, Connelly gives us a brand-new protagonist in the shape of surfing enthusiast, Hawaiian-born Detective Renee Ballard  once a hotshot, but whose career has been cut short by a sexual harassment suit against her former boss, which finds her shunted to working nights out of the Hollywood station and handing her cases over to the day shift each morning.

But she catches two cases from which she does not want to be parted. The first is the brutal beating of a prostitute, while the other is a mass shooting at a nightclub, which claims six lives. Against orders, Ballard continues to work both crimes while still on the night shift.

Superb storytelling, with a feisty new character of whom we will hear far more, this cements Connellys place at the very top of the crime-writing tree.

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SLEEPING IN THE GROUND by Peter Robinson (Hodder 18.99)

SLEEPING IN THE GROUND

by Peter Robinson (Hodder 18.99)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the creation of Robinsons DCI (now promoted to Detective Superintendent) Alan Banks.

In that time, Robinson has written 24 books about his troubled, gruff hero, immortalised on TV by Stephen Tompkinsons perpetually sad face.

It is a canon that is on the way to rivalling Agatha Christies Hercule Poirot, though the two protagonists could hardly be more different. Here, Banks is called to a shooting at a wedding in a beautiful church in the Dales, where a sniper has killed five people, including the bride, and wounded four others.

Before police can question the suspect, he is found dead in his home. But Banks is convinced there was more to it and continues to delve into the background of the killings. Could there have been a more calculated motive behind what appears to be a spree killing?

Superbly textured, this dark story reveals that Banks is growing even more suspicious and melancholy as he grows older  which makes him even more captivating.

GIRL ZERO by A. A. Dhand (Bantam 12.99)

GIRL ZERO

by A. A. Dhand (Bantam 12.99)

Just over a year ago, I warmly welcomed Dhands debut, Streets Of Darkness, starring Detective Inspector Harry Virdee, of the Bradford Police. This second outing amply confirms his reputation as one of the most multi-layered policemen to have appeared in recent years.

It is not just his Sikh origins that make Virdee compelling, but his gangster brother Ronnie, which gives Virdee a depth and complexity that is all too rare.

This book begins with Virdee discovering the dead body of his niece, Tina, at the bottom of a disused school swimming pool. As the plot unfolds, it reveals the trafficking of young girls by men anxious to satisfy an ever-growing demand among the rich and powerful. It is a story as fresh as todays newspaper headlines  and all the more potent for being so.

Virdee finds himself breaking the law, as well as upholding it, alongside his ruthless, violent brother, to get to the bottom of his nieces killing and break the trafficking ring. Fierce, fast-paced and vivid, it underlines just how good Dhand is.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, once an arch-rival of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and genuine prime minister prospect after the rapid decline of the opposition Congress party, has aligned with the Hindu nationalist leader to form a new government in Bihar.

The outspoken Nitish Kumar took the oath as Bihar's chief minister just hours after standing down in protest at corruption allegations against his last coalition partner.

The link up between Kumar's Janata Dal United party and the prime minister's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) further tightens Modi's grip on power ahead of national elections in 2019.

The link up between Kumar's Janata Dal United party and the prime minister's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) further tightens Modi's grip on power ahead of national elections in 2019

Kumar has long been considered a potential challenger to Modi for India's top job.

The BJP, which this month easily won the presidential election for the first time, now rules 17 of India's 29 states either directly or in alliance with regional parties.

Bihar, with a population of 100 million people but impoverished and frequently scandal-tainted, has seen a titanic power struggle in recent years.

In 2013 then-chief minister Kumar pulled his party out of a 17-year-old alliance with the BJP over Modi's appointment as party leader.

He had called Modi a 'fascist' and 'Hitler' over his alleged anti-Muslim and hardline Hindu politics.

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav with his son and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav

After stepping down in 2014 as chief minister after a poor showing in elections, Kumar forged a 'grand alliance' with another ex-rival and former chief minister, Lalu Prasad Yadav, to thwart Modi's right-wing Hindu party in the following year's state polls.

Lalu and his family enjoying better times

The alliance, which also involved the main opposition Congress party, was seen as a possible prototype for a national bid to stop Modi's re-election.

In the now broken alliance, Laul Yadav's son Tejashwi Yadav became a deputy chief minister under the deal, but is now under investigation by federal investigators over an illegal land deal. He has denied the charges.

His father was jailed and has been banned from elected office since 2013 over a separate million dollar fodder scam.

After several calls for Tejashwi Yadav to stand down, Kumar resigned late Wednesday saying it was 'impossible' to carry on.

As such, not all were impressed with Kumar's political gamesmanship especially after his party came to power on the message and momentum of keeping the BJP out of the state.

Congress MP Shashi Tharoor tweeted, 'This is now the3rd time that BJP has formed a state government after losing an election', adding, 'Goa, Manipur&Bihar show our democracy in poor light'.

Kumar will face a floor test on Friday to prove his new majority.

'I promise that I will stay committed to the people of Bihar,' Kumar told reporters after taking oath in state capital Patna.

Modi congratulated Kumar for taking over as the chief minister, a day after he commended him for taking a stand against corruption.

Masterstroke

Both his former coalition partners lashed out at their erstwhile ally, calling him an opportunist and accusing him of treachery.

Yadav's party announced they would challenge Kumar's nomination as chief minister in court.

'Nitish Kumar is a huge opportunist. The mandate was against BJP, to throw Modi out of Bihar,' Yadav told reporters after appearing in a court in a long-running corruption trial.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused Kumar of 'cheating' voters and the opposition alliance.

Kumar, who has ruled the state intermittently for 12 years, is regarded as a clean figure in the scandal-ridden state.

He was credited with turning Bihar from a lawless, near ungovernable state to one of the fastest growing provinces in India.

Siding with Modi, and avoiding being tarnished by the corruption charges dogging his former allies, was a 'masterstroke', Patna-based political analyst Saibal Gupta told AFP.

JD(U) national spokesperson says there could be cross-voting and crossovers in Nitish's favour

by Siddhartha Rai and Sweta Dutta

While the twists and turns in the Bihar political drama have left observers giddy, the ruling Janata Dal (United) believes more excitement awaits.

The party is confident that there will be massive cross-voting from opposition lawmakers in favour of chief minister Nitish Kumar when he faces the floor test in the assembly on Friday.

The halfway mark lies at 122 and the BJP-JD(U) combine amounts to 124.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar speaks to the media

But the slender margin, Nitish's party believes, will be turned into a massive support when MLAs from other parties break rank and back the new regime with the same chief minister 'Mr Clean' at the helm.

Nitish quit as Bihar chief minister on Wednesday while breaking off an alliance with the RJD and Congress, but was sworn back to power with help from the BJP.

Corruption allegations against the family of ally Lalu Prasad Yadav, including his son and deputy CM Tejashwi, proved to be the last straw.

Sources said those defecting from Congress and RJD will first vote in favour of the government on the floor and then later split their respective parties.

'We are in the same position that we were in already. We have not been promoted,' said an elated KC Tyagi, JD(U)'s national spokesperson, suggesting that Congress and RJD legislators would back the new regime.

He based the 'forthcoming' support on the 'moral sway' of Nitish.

'When we all entered 'mahagathbandhan' and entered assembly polls together, Congress had four MLAs, RJD had 22 and JD(U) 118,' said Tyagi.

'The moral authority of Nitish Kumar was the single biggest factor that this four became 27, 22 became 80.

'RJD and the Congress are crestfallen and agitated because of this reason. This government will function for three more years and the cadre of both the parties is largely frustrated.'

Eight JD(U) leaders were elected as MLAs on Congress tickets owing to seat-sharing compulsions.

'These parties, more so the RJD, will not just break, but they will also try to spread anarchy and chaos in the state as is evident by the fact that today they have beaten a district magistrate,' added Tyagi.

According to highly placed sources in the Congress, rumours of a split are reaching a crescendo as Bihar party unit chief Ashok Chaudhary, who was the education minister in the grand alliance government, remained unavailable to Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for several hours.

He opened communications with the high command only after party's Bihar in-charge CP Joshi arrived in the state to meet him.

However, Choudhary maintained publicly that 'our flock remains together', even as some party leaders hinted that there is 'serious apprehension' of some Congress MLAs being 'bought over'.

Party functionaries in the national Capital made frantic calls to the state unit for feedback on whether their legislators were being poached.

'Though the MLAs are saying that no one has approached them yet, it is really hard to believe that the JD(U) or BJP has not made a move yet. What is worrisome is that the local MLAs are being so cagey about it,' said a senior party functionary.

Joshi, who flew down to Patna after deliberations with Rahul, made desperate attempts to pacify the state unit.

Top leaders said that the Bihar section of the party is disgruntled not just because it feels 'cheated' by Nitish, but also due to Rahul's flip-flop on the long-drawn crisis.

Sources said the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief after meeting Nitish had rushed to Delhi to discuss the issue with the Congress V-P, who kept him waiting for over two days.

Sources suggested a strong possibility of the PCC chief jumping sides, as the JD(U) leadership and Chaudhary are in constant talks.

They added that about 15 MLAs could be shepherded to the JD(U) in which case the antidefection law would not apply.

Also, JDU leader and five-time MLA Vijay Kumar Chaudhary is the assembly speaker and considered close to the CM.

As Gandhi lashed out at Nitish on Thursday, claiming that he knew for the past three-four months of the 'planning' between BJP and Nitish, senior leaders asked why he did not act on the information.
Opinion / Columnist

Just about a month ago, War Veterans Minister Cde Tshinga Dube was rebuked for suggesting that President Mugabe must consider naming his successor to avoid confusion surrounding the ongoing succesion wars. Some G40 extremist led by the normally drunk Sandi Chimhene went on to even demand of his immediate expulsion from the party and government. There have been several casualties before who have found themselves chucked out of the Zanu Pf for suggesting an honest and open debating regarding the 93 year old president, Chris Mutsvangwa & a group of pro Mnangagwa War veterans are notable examples. Interestingly, the same messsge is now coming from the powerful Womens league boss "Dr" Grace Mugabe who doubles as Mugabe's wife and the mother of notorious drug addicts and gangs who are causing havoc in Johannesburg. In 2014, the same First lady was parachuted into the powerful women's league and her entry into the political discourse changed the power structure of Zanu Pf and government that resulted in hundreds of Zanu Pf activists being suspended or explelled from the party and government. Joice Mujuru, Rugare Gumbo, Didymus Mutasa can write books about thier fallout.There is no doubt that Grace Mugabe's entry into the political discourse has changed the course of the power dynamics within the ruling party. Dozens of powerful former allies and Cdes have found themselves in the way side for plotting to block or prevent Dr Mugabe from succeding her husbund.The biggest question for today is who sent Amai Mugabe to tell her women's league collegues that it is now incumbent upon the president to announce his successor while it is still practical for him to do so. Was it a women's league resolution, a suggestion from her own 'independent' thoughts or a pre-planned bedroom arrangement that had to be unpacked.We must'nt forget that the very same Amai Mugabe has in the past warned those ambitious party cadres that leaders are choosen by the people not imposed by anyone. According to the party rule book, it is a criminal offence for one to aspire to be a leader or succeed the 93 year old veteran dictator who had been pictured numerous times by the local and international media sleeping at some official events. The very same leader can barely walk without any assistance, not to mention that he has red wrong speeches or traveled thousands of miles only to find out that the intended meetings have been cancelled or he wasnt really needed. For a 93 year old human being, one can be forgiven for all these errors as it is part of our human nature for one's facaulties to be impaired at that age.Nevertheless, one can never be forgiven for overloading their 90 year old grand parents with numerous administrative tasks and duties especially if such decisions can affect over 13million citizens. The only reasonable explanation for would be if one' s mental facaulties are disturbed or if they possess an ulterior motive that they best understand.Back to Amai Mugabe's utterances, its quite clear that the first lady wields enormous amout of power within her party and government. Vice President Phekezela Mpoko has in the past admitted that he takes some "notes" from Amai Mugabe from time to time. Furthermore, the Tsholotsho North legislator Professor Jonathan Moyo has exposed to us that the controversial command agriculture was Amai Mugabe's initiative that has since been high jacked bu Vice President Mnangagwa for his own succession ambitions.Nevertheless, it is not a criminal offence for anyone to be ambitious or seek a most powerful organisational position later on in politics. We all knoe that politics is a discourse of power, how to grab, expand and maintain it. Its quite unfortunate that in the process, there may be casualties who find themselves or allies on the wrong side and ultimately ejected from the political system.Whatever the case, Grace Mugabe is the wife of the country's president and the leader of the powerful party's women's league and therefore she enjoys unlimited immunity from public rebuke or criticism. Some bold cadres have in the past tried to voice their frustration at her undue influence within the operations of rhe ruling party and found themselves being suspended and expelled from Zanu Pf. In some rare occasions, state litigations have been initiated as with the case of Jabulani Sibanda. The only crime that some of these cadres committed was encouraging their veteran leader to bring the issue of succession into the table.Now that the powerful Grace has brought this contentious succession issue into the limelight we are waiting to learn how the distinct political factions within the ruling party will respond to this latest and likely decisive political episode. Will they embrace her idea or otherwise choose to be conservative as has been the status quo. Is this the beginning to an end?James Katso is a political & media analyst as well as Freezim Congress spokesman.For more information contact jimkatso@gmail.com
Terror in Kashmir has a new name after a prominent young militant was named as the head of a new Al-Qaeda-linked group in the disputed Himalayan territory.

The move has been described by Indian police Thursday as an 'ideological shift' in the long-running conflict with the Islamist movement now usurping the traditional 'separatist' movement in the Valley.

The declaration, by an Al-Qaeda-affiliated propaganda channel, marks the first time the international jihadist group has pushed so far into Kashmir, a restive Muslim-majority region divided between India and Pakistan but claimed in full by both.

Kashmiri children stand next to graffiti that reads Zakir Musa - War till victory

Burhan Wani (left) and the man who replalced him for a short time as the leader of the Hizbul Mujahideen, Zakir Musa (picture from Burhan Wani's social media)

Zakir Musa, a 23-year-old militant based in Indian-administered Kashmir, was named leader of the new group by the Global Islamic Media Front, a propaganda organisation linked to Al-Qaeda.

The statement, published Wednesday by US monitor SITE Intelligence Group, said 'the jihad in Kashmir had entered a stage of awakening' and that the new movement would 'liberate our homeland'.

More details about the new group, 'Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind', will be released soon, the statement added.

Ultra radical Salfist ideology?

Zakir Musa is a 23-year-old militant based in Indian-administered Kashmir

There has been widespread discussion over the motivations of those seeking separation in India as to whether or not a culture shift was taking place and moving the Kashmiri youth away from the traditional separatist movement and towards the hardline Islamist dialogue used by ISIS.

Although separatist groups have repeatedly stated that Al-Qaeda and ISIS have no role in the Kashmiri self-determination movement, observers have deemed the increased visibility of the black Islamic State flags at funerals and demonstrations as proof that ISIS has made inroads into Kashmir.

If true, this would certainly mean a monumental shift in Kashmir's conflict.

However police in the state has dismissed the claims: 'Kashmir is not Syria. An organisation like ISIS establishing a base in Kashmir and working the way it does in Iraq and Syria is just not possible. Let us not underestimate our grids', said a top official.

It is thought that ISIS professes ultra radical Salfist ideology and their system of Islamic governance is guided by that. They use brutal means to achieve the objective. Kashmir, it is believed, is unwilling to accept that.

'In Downtown it is for the first time we have seen ISIS flags on a militant body. Earlier such flags were seen in protests. We have already started investigations but so far found nothing concrete', said Munir Khan, Inspector General of Police, Kashmir.

Kashmiri protesters shout anti-India and pro-Pakistan slogans as they hold Pakistan, ISIS, Lashkar-e-Toiba, Palestinian flags and a pictures of leader of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

For decades, armed groups in Kashmir have waged an insurgency against Indian rule, fighting for independence or a merger of the territory with Pakistan.

Musa is a controversial figure in Kashmir, having ruffled feathers by criticising top separatist leaders for not pursuing Islamic law in the contested region

Al-Qaeda established an Indian chapter in September 2014, but it has not garnered wide support.

The announcement of a new Islamist outfit in Kashmir linked to the global extremist group was an 'ideological shift', said Kashmir police chief S. P. Vaid.

'Earlier, people were fighting for something different,' Vaid told AFP on Thursday.

'For us, whoever picks up a gun is a terrorist. Musa is a terrorist. Organisation doesn't matter. We'll see, we'll face it.'

Musa is a controversial figure in Kashmir, having ruffled feathers by criticising top separatist leaders for not pursuing Islamic law in the contested region.

Separatist claim that the armed movement against Indian occupation as 'indigenous' and deny that Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have a role in the Kashmiri self-determination movement.

Pakistan-based militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) said the announcement was an Indian conspiracy to label Kashmir's freedom struggle as terrorism.

Due to his religious hardline and brutality against own people, Musa is not liked much by locals and known for his violent ways of dealing with people who dont offer help in their actions against security forces

LeT spokesman Mehmood Shah in statement issued late Thursday said 'groups such as AL-Qaeda and ISIS are being brought up to label the legitimate freedom struggle as terrorism.'

Security officials consider the young militant's following to be small.

Musa was understood to have succeeded Burhan Wani as leader of Hizbul Mujahideen after the charismatic rebel leader was shot dead by Indian forces last July.

But Musa fell out with the militant group, the largest in Kashmir, over ideological differences.

Burhan Wani and the Hizbul Mujahideen Kashmir-based militant outfit

Wani's killing sparked months of widespread protests against Indian rule and left nearly 100 civilians dead and thousands injured.

Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan since 1947, is one of the most heavily militarised spots on earth with a long history of conflict.

The conflict has left tens of thousands, mostly civilians, dead.
The current troop standoff at the Tibet-Bhutan-Sikkim trijunction has revealed how China combines psychological warfare ('psywar'), media warfare and the manipulation of legal arguments ('lawfare') to undermine its opponent's information- control capabilities and to buttress its strategic game plan.

Disinformation and deceit are among the tools China is employing in its psywar to tame India without military combat, in Sun Tzu style.

Crisis

The current crisis, on the other hand, has shown India as ill-prepared to counter China's psywar, especially its disinformation operations.

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval currently has the hardest job in India

This has partly to do with India's traditionally defensive strategic mindset.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government has also done little to improve public relations and media outreach.

Blending toughness, savvy, single-mindedness and deft propaganda, China has mounted intense psychological operations (psy-ops), including almost daily threats to teach India a lesson, unless it gives in.

China's warmongering has become so shrill and coarse that, to the casual observer, a Himalayan military conflict may seem imminent.

In reality, the crisis has highlighted the centrality of propaganda in China's foreign policy - from the aggressor playing the victim to continuing Chinese efforts to camouflage the People's Liberation Army intrusion into tiny Bhutan, an action that precipitated the standoff.

Indeed, the powerful, highly centralised authoritarian regime in Beijing has shown itself adept at exploiting the political divisions in the world's largest democracy, including reaching out to Modi's opponents, including Rahul Gandhi, and attacking his 'Hindu nationalism' in order to help sow dissensions in India on its current China approach.

China's warmongering has become so shrill and coarse that, to the casual observer, a Himalayan military conflict may seem imminent (National Security Advisor Ajit Doval)

China's vitriolic war rhetoric and unrealistic preconditions for holding talks stand out in stark contrast to India's measured response and emphasis on diplomacy and dialogue to end the standoff.

The US has implicitly supported India's stance by similarly calling for a dialogue to peacefully resolve the crisis.

China's psywar against a raucous democracy with poor PR raises a key question: What is Beijing hoping to accomplish?

Take its foreign ministry, which is probably the weakest government branch, given China's rise as a praetorian state.

Yet that ministry has taken the lead to intimidate India in unbecoming and undiplomatic language.

Beijing is also using its state media to threaten an 'all out confrontation' along the entire, more than 4,000-km-long Sino-Indian border and to warn India that it would suffer a humiliating rout greater than it did in the 1962 war.

One Chinese state mouthpiece even called the Indian external affairs minister a liar.

The current crisis has shown that Chinese propaganda is getting smarter and more targeted, with some in the Indian media lapping up the disinformation, yet Beijing's deception and mendacity are also becoming conspicuous.

Consider two examples.

Mail Today learnt that the range of issues included the current ensuing crisis at the border (file pic)

Telecast

In mid-July, the Chinese state broadcaster CCTV telecast a video of live-fire military exercises in Tibet by a mountain brigade deployed against India.

It later came to light that this was a routine annual drill conducted much before the crisis began.

Shortly after the CCTV report, the Chinese military's official newspaper, PLA Daily, said tens of thousands of tons of military hardware had been moved to Tibet in response to the troop standoff.

This report too turned out to be part of China's psywar, with Indian intelligence still finding no evidence of a Chinese military build-up in Tibet.

China's psywar, after its initial success in dominating the narrative, has failed to obscure the key facts about the standoff.

If anything, its psy-ops offer India important lessons, including how a clever China feeds disinformation and manipulates even the Indian media.

It is standard Chinese strategy to play the victim in any conflict or dispute. It did the same even when it carried out the 1962 trans-Himalayan invasion.

Conflict

The risk that a frustrated China could escalate its current psywar to a military conflict cannot be discounted.

Indeed, Beijing is signalling that it will brook no Indian 'interference' in Bhutan's affairs, although Indo-Bhutanese relations are governed by a friendship treaty and defence arrangements.

It wants India to leave Bhutan to its fate. More fundamentally, China's intrusion into Bhutan and its war rhetoric against India raise two important larger issues.

One issue is China's disregard of international law, including the bilateral accords it has signed with Bhutan and India pledging not to alter the status quo unilaterally.

As the South and East China seas also illustrate, Beijing signs agreements and treaties but does not comply with them.

Chinese and Indian troops pictured at the Nathu La border crossing between the two countries

Another issue is China's abiding faith in propaganda, extending from fake history claims to the territories of other nations to disinformation operations intended to deceive and outmanoeuvre opponents.

The reliance on propaganda blurs the line between fact and fiction to such an extent that, gradually, the Chinese state begins to believe its own propaganda and act upon it.

This factor, along with its associated risks, is apparent in the Doklam standoff. As for India, it needs to recognise that while caution is prudent, diffidence tends to embolden the aggressor.

It should continue to err on the side of caution but must shed its diffidence and develop a strategy to deal with China's psywar capabilities.

The Doklam standoff could represent a defining moment for India.
Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca saw its shares plummet 15 per cent after the failure of a highly-anticipated lung cancer drug trial.

The Anglo-Swedish company's stock sank to a low of 4,300p in morning trading, making it the biggest loser on the FTSE 100.

Jeffrey Holford, equity analyst at Jefferies, described the chain of events as a 'significant blow', adding that the 'dividend may now look less safe'.

Pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca saw its shares plummet 15 per cent after the failure of a high-anticipated lung cancer drug trial

News of AstraZeneca's so-called 'Mystic study' flop comes amid speculation over the future of CEO Pascal Soriot, who has been linked with a move to Israeli firm Teva.

Last week in an internal memo Mr Soriot did not confirm or deny reports that he had accepted a job offer from the company.

Commenting on the failed trial, Mr Soriot said: 'Despite the outcome of the initial readout, we must be patient as the... trial continues as planned to evaluate overall survival.'

AstraZeneca made the announcement alongside half-year results, which saw sales fall 11 per cent to 7.9 billion after the loss of patents on profitable drugs in the US. Operating profit grew 37 per cent to 1.3 billion.

AstraZeneca's Mystic study was the most anticipated clinical experiment in the pharmaceutical industry this year.

But initial results found the combination of two injectable immunotherapy drugs - durvalumab and tremelimumab - was no more effective at stopping disease progression than chemotherapy in patients expressing a protein called PD-L1 on 25 percent or more of their cancer cells.

AstraZeneca's so-called Mystic study was the most anticipated clinical experiment in the pharmaceutical industry this year (above, stock image)

Immunotherapy drugs are designed to help the body's immune cells kill cancer and PD-L1 levels are widely used as a benchmark to determine if they are likely to work for individual patients.

As a secondary endpoint, although not formally tested, durvalumab monotherapy also would not have met a pre-specified threshold of progression-free survival benefit, the company added.

Durvalumab is already on the market for bladder cancer, under the brand name Imfinzi.

The clinical study was seen as key to proving the value of the group's new drug pipeline and its future as an independent company, after it spurned a $118 billion takeover attempt by Pfizer in 2014.

Good news for Merck?

The setback for AstraZeneca is likely to be good news for Merck & Co, the only manufacturer on the market today with an immunotherapy treatment for previously untreated lung cancer.

But Bristol-Myers Squibb, which is working on a similar combination to AstraZeneca's durva/treme cocktail, could be hit, according to Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson.

AstraZeneca - a relative latecomer in immunotherapy - had been hoping to secure a substantial slice of a multi-billion dollar market by proving its combination could help previously untreated patients with advanced lung cancer.

It has already shown in a separate trial called Pacific that durvalumab alone can help some patients with earlier-stage disease.

The news came as AstraZeneca reported drug sales fell again in the second quarter, hit by loss of patents on blockbusters like cholesterol pill Crestor.

Despite income from disposals and external deals, first-quarter revenue fell 10 percent in dollar terms to $5.05 billion, while core earnings per share (EPS) rose 5 percent to $87 cents.

Industry analysts, on average, had forecast revenue of $5.0 billion and earnings of 80 cents, according to Thomson Reuters data.

AstraZeneca reiterated its outlook for the full year that revenue would decline at a low to mid single-digit percentage rate, with core EPS dropping by a low to mid-teens percentage.

There was some better news elsewhere, with the company announcing that its lung cancer pill Tagrisso had significantly improved progression-free survival another clinical trial called Flaura.

AstraZeneca also said it had set up a strategic oncology collaboration with Merck to study cancer drug combinations.
Lloyds Banking Group has revealed that it has taken a fresh 1billion financial hit over botched mortgage payment collections and the long-running payment protection insurance fiasco.

The lender has estimated it will have to shell out 283million to repay approximately 590,000 mortgage customers who were mistakenly charged between 2009 and 2016 because of the way Lloyds applied policies relating to financial difficulty assessments.

That is on top of 700million put aside to deal with PPI claims, which has now set the bank back more than 18million - far more than any of the other British lenders.

Lloyds has revealed that it has taken a fresh 1 billion hit over botched mortgage payment collections and the long-running PPI fiasco

It is the 17th time it has injected extra cash into its reserves for customer compensation since 2011, with the payment protection insurance scandal dragging on for more than ten years. Just months ago, an extra 350 million was added to the pot.

Commenting on the emerging trend, chief financial officer George Culmer said it was 'disappointing to be having to do it again.'

The additional provisions are set to cover around 9,000 PPI claims per week through to the deadline set at the end of August 2019, following a higher number of complaints over the past three quarters.

The bank had previously made provision for around 7,700 weekly complaints.

But Neil Wilson, senior market analyst at ETX Capital, warns that there is still more fallout to come.

In its first set of results since returning to private ownership Lloyds - headed up by Antonio Horta-Osorio - reported half-year profits of 2.5 billion, its biggest in eight years and 4 per cent higher than a year ago

He explained: 'PPI remains a thorn in the side of Lloyds and it could yet get worse.

'The bank stressed that "risks and uncertainties remain" with respect to future volumes of claims. Costs could easily rise again.

'Lloyds has so far settled or provided for just over half of all the 16 million PPI policies sold since 2000.

'Not all PPI policies were mis-sold, of course, but it would be reasonable to assume that there will have to be further provisions made.'

In 2011, British banks lost a high court appeal against tighter regulation of PPI, which provides insurance for consumers should they fail to meet repayments on a credit product such as consumer loans, mortgages or payment cards.

ARE YOU ENTITLED TO A REFUND ON MORTGAGE ARREARS FEES? Mortgage arrears fees are what banks charge for sending out administration, such as letters, about customers being behind on payments. The 'mortgage arrears errors' made by Lloyds are currently unspecified, but a report in 2010 revealed typical ways in which lenders were ripping off their customers. In many cases, banks have overcharged homeowners for simple procedures, costing a letter being sent out at as much as 35, when it should be closer to 10. The Financial Services Authority found firms incorporating charges when they shouldn't, such as when a customer is already on a repayment plan. Also, lenders have charged non-direct debit payment fees when no such payment was ever made. Banks were also found to have included arrears charges in the total mortgage balance when calculating an early repayment charge, which is usually a percentage of that balance. Lloyds has already stressed that any customers affected will have refunds paid automatically, and will not have to contact the bank in order to get their money back. Source: MoneySavingExpert

PPI became controversial after it was revealed that many customers had been sold it without understanding that the cost was being added to their loan repayments. British authorities subsequently banned simultaneous sales of PPI and credit products.

Including the latest update from Lloyds, British lenders have been forced to set aside more than 30 billion to cover PPI compensation costs.

Lloyds, bailed-out by the UK government at the height of the financial crisis almost a decade ago, said it was still in the process of paying victims of fraud at the hands of HBOS Reading staff between 2003 and 2007, having set aside 100 million to deal with compensation costs.

The corrupt financiers were jailed earlier this year for the 245 million loans scam which destroyed several businesses, before they squandered the profits on high-end prostitutes and luxury holidays.

Commenting on the chain of events, chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio, who has repeatedly stressed the importance of running an ethical bank, said: 'We have a commitment as a management team of putting these legacy charges behind as soon as possible.'

However, he admitted that 'there will always be redress costs' when running a banking business.

Another cause for celebration was Lloyds' return to full private ownership in May.

The government had been steadily offloading its stake as the bank steadily recovered, resulting in about 21 billion being returned to the taxpayer.

The British government bailed out Lloyds following the 2008 world financial crisis at a cost of about 20 billion, handing the state a 43-percent stake in the bank.

The government still owns 73 percent of Royal Bank of Scotland, which was rescued with 45.5 billion of taxpayers' cash during the crisis in the world's biggest bank bailout.

Lloyds is meanwhile cutting 3,000 jobs this year, bringing to 12,000 the number of positions it has decided to axe since 2014, while - in a sign of its turnaround - the bank bought Bank of America's UK credit card division MBNA for 1.9 billion in December.

In its first set of results since returning to private ownership Lloyds reported half-year profits of 2.5 billion, its biggest in eight years and 4 per cent higher than a year ago.
A Montana man who chased down a young girl at night in a park, raping and strangling her and then leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup truck in February 2016 has been sentenced to 42-years behind bars.

John William Lieba II, will spend the next four decades behind bars for the shocking attack on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation last year.

Wednesday's sentencing in U.S. District Court in Great Falls came in a case that prosecutors had described as every parent's nightmare.

A jury convicted him on counts of kidnapping a minor, aggravated sexual abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury on a minor.

Judge Brian Morris sentenced Lieba to 500 months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently.

The sickening attack on the child left her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

Awaiting sentencing: John William Lieba II (left), 21, is set to be sentenced Wednesday for the kidnapping and rape of a four-year-old girl (right) in Montana whom he infected with an STD

Lieba II of Wolf Point was accused of chasing down the young girl at night in a park, and then dumping her last year.

But the toddler was not found for two days, when a sheriff's deputy noticed her shoeless footprints in a patch of mud behind a fertilizer plant and discovered the girl - dehydrated and cold - on a makeshift bed in the cab of an old pickup truck.

Bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck indicated Lieba had tried to strangle the girl, according to law enforcement officers and doctors who examined her.

The sexual assault injured the girl and infected her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease, said Dr. Cynthia Burrows of the Billings Clinic who examined the girl and testified at Lieba's April trial.

'The child will forever be reminded of this trauma,' Assistant US Attorney Ryan Weldon wrote in a sentencing memo to U.S. District Judge Brian Morris. 'The United States without hesitation recommends life in prison. Lieba, through his actions, forced every parent in Montana to confront their worst nightmare.'

Crime scene: Lieba was arrested in Wolf Point, Montana, in Montana in late February. The victim was found alive a day later

During Lieba's three-day trial, a 12-year-old neighbor of the victim testified that she also had been chased by Lieba at a playground in the town of Wolf Point at around 9.30pm on the night the toddler went missing, but she managed to escape.

The defendant's attorneys said he had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events of that night.

When he was initially questioned by police after his arrest, Lieba said he had no idea where the victim was, and when asked if she was dead, he replied, 'probably,' reported the station KRTV in April. He also told the detectives to 'go get the body.'

Defense attorneys requested 30 years in prison, noting that Lieba would be approaching middle age by the time of his release.

Guilty: Defense attorneys requested 30 years in prison, saying Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication before attack. The toddler suffered injuries and contracted an incurable STD

'The most effective protection for the public will be for Mr. Leiba to address his substance abuse and mental health issues,' Assistant Federal Defender R. Henry Branom wrote in documents.

Both Lieba and the victim are American Indians. The Fort Peck Reservation is home to the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes and has a population of about 10,000.

The kidnapping and assault of the girl was followed weeks later by the killing of a 1-year-old girl by a caregiver who dumped the victim's body in a trash can.

Tribal officials have blamed both crimes on the rising use of methamphetamine on the reservation, but it's uncertain what involvement Lieba had with the drug.
The Jersey Shore has long been an attraction for pleasure-seekers. In the late 1800s, it played host to real estate speculators eager to develop the sandy wilds of New Jerseys Atlantic coast. Its largest settlement, Atlantic City, later became the Boardwalk Empire of gambling, glamour and vice. More recently, it somewhat controversially served as the setting for an eponymous reality television series.

One of the Shores most beloved residents, a 65-foot-tall elephant, has been there through it all.

Called Lucy, the monument has proudly gazed upon the Jersey Shore since 1881. Built as a means to sell coastal real estate, Lucy instead became a roadside attraction before the age of automobiles. In her long life, she has served as a home, a tavern and a tourist attraction before she was nearly killed  or, one might say, demolished  in the 1960s.

A National Historic Landmark, she celebrated her 136th birthday this weekend. Today, Lucy is the oldest existent roadside attraction in America and draws around 130,000 visitors each year.

Richard Helfant remembers his mother taking him through Lucy as a child. Later, as a mischievous teenager he would break into her with friends to eat hot dogs they had purchased from Lennys a nearby stand. Now Helfant, 60, runs the executive team responsible for maintaining Lucy for her visitors.

Its more than a job. Its a labor of love, he said. We do it because of our passion and commitment to what we are doing.

Lucy the Elephant is a 136-year-old roadside attraction in Margate, New Jersey. James Lafferty conceived of her as a means to attract potential real estate buyers to the sandy, undeveloped wilds of Southern New Jersey in the 1880s

Lucy is pictured in 1895, at the age of 14. Lafferty would bring buyers to her howdah, the carriage on top of her back, from which they would gaze across the surrounding landscape rife for development

Today, Lucy is a museum and attracts 130,000 annual visitors. Pictured are her pink innards

Lucy is pictured in Margate, about five miles from Atlantic City. She has survived life-threantening foes including hurricanes and developers

Lucy was conceived by James Vincent de Paul Lafferty Jr, an Irish-American engineer and inventor from Philadelphia.

Lafferty thought a giant elephant structure might help boost real estate purchases and tourism in the sandy wilds of what was then called South Atlantic City, five miles down the beach from the burgeoning pleasure capital of Atlantic City. His scheme was to use Lucy as his real estate office. Prospective buyers were to climb 130 steps to her howdah, an ornate carriage placed atop an elephants back, and look out at the vast expanse of coastal land ripe for the taking. Then, back in her belly, Lafferty would try to strike a deal.

In patent 268,503, his 17-year patent on animal-shaped buildings granted in 1882, Lafferty wrote that he invented a new and useful improvement in buildings.

My invention consists of a building in the form of an animal, the body of which is floored and divided into rooms, closetsand the legs contain the stairs which lead to the body, said legs being hollow, so as to be of increased strength for properly supporting the body, and the elevation of the body permitting the circulation of air below the same, the entire device presenting a unique appearance and producing a building which is well ventilated and lighted, he noted. The building may be of the form of any other animal than an elephant, as that of a fish, fowl, etc.

A postcard from 1910 advertises that Lucy is 'The only elephant in the world you can go through and come out alive.' Pictured behind her is the Elephant Hotel, housed in the Turkish Pavilion from the 1876 Centennial International Exhibition held in Philadelphia

Lafferty received a 17-year patent for animal-shaped buildings in 1882 (pictured). In the patent, he included his planned design for the innards of an elephantine structure

Lucy is pictured in 1907 in a less idealized representation than the above postcard. Originally called the 'Elephant Bazaar,' a later owner named Sophia Gertzen coined the name 'Lucy' for unknown reasons

Lafferty commissioned architect William Free to design the elephantine structure and found a contractor to build it in 1881 for between $25,000 and $38,000 (between $550,000 and $850,000 in 2017).

Upon completion, Lucy  then called the Elephant Bazaar  measured 65 feet tall and 60 feet by 18 feet. She was made of one million pounds of wood, 12,000 square feet of tin and she weighed 90 tons. Lucy had 22 windows and her largest room was 324 square feet.

While she made for an impressive sight, the pachyderm failed to generate much interest in real estate. Laffertys rampant land speculation caught up with him, and in 1887 he sold off many of his assets, including the Elephant Bazaar.

Her new parents were Anton Gertzen, a German immigrant, and his wife Caroline, a Dutch immigrant. Gertzen also purchased the Turkish Pavilion from Philadelphias Centennial Celebration to put next to the elephant.

Their third son, John, purchased the Elephant Bazaar from his parents. John and his wife, Sophia, turned Lucy into a tourist stop and charged 10 cents (about $2.25 today) to tour her. At some point, Sophia supposedly coined the name Lucy.

Lucy the Elephant served as a home in 1902 for an English doctor and his family. Her website notes: A bathroom was outfitted in one of the small front shoulder closets using a miniature bathtub. Later, she briefly served as a tavern. The nearby Elephant Hotel provided rooms for her visitors, who included Woodrow Wilson and Henry Ford.

Lucy survived a fire started by drunken tavern-goers and multiple severe storms that threatened to drown her. She survived the Turkish Pavilion, which was destroyed in the 1944 Great Atlantic hurricane. She survived John, who died in 1916, and Sophia, who died in 1963.

But in 1962, Lucy shut down for tours and by 1969, she stood decaying and vulnerable to her greatest foe  a land developer eager to turn her seaside lot into a condominium building. The Gertzen descendants were preparing to sell the land on which Lucy stood.

Lucy was closed in 1962 and stood rather derelict in the late 1960s (pictured). A local organization, first the Margate Civic Association and later the Save Lucy Committee, worked to save her

Lucy was moved two blocks from her original home in July 1970 to make way for a new condominium development. She is pictured being pulled by a yellow pickup truck down the road, as curious spectators look on

A group of citizens including Edwin and Sylvia Carpenter formed the Margate Civic Association and purchased Lucy from the Gertzens, who were happy to sell her for a ceremonial price of $1 (about $7 today). The Association then negotiated with the city of Margate to secure a vacant beachfront lot two blocks away. The fight to preserve her necessitated the Save Lucy Committee, which used grassroots means to raise the roughly $25,000 (about $160,000 today) needed to relocate her.

On the morning of July 20, 1970, a yellow pickup truck pulled Lucy to her new home amid thousands of curious spectators. Seven hours later, she was parked in her new lot.

For a lady ninety years old, it is marvelous that she could stand such a rigorous ordeal, noted Mayor Martin Bloom, according to Lucys website.

After Lucy was moved, the next step was to bring her back to life. Much of this work fell to the Carpenters and their neighbor and friend, Josephine Harron.

They, along with the rest of the Save Lucy Committee, worked to reopen her. Lucy was once again open for tours beginning in 1974, and she became a National Historic Landmark in 1976. Much of this work was due to Harron, who tirelessly campaigned for grants to maintain and improve Lucy.

Lucy has 22 windows and her largest room is 324 square feet. She cost, in today's money, between $550,000 and $850,000

An electric streetcar passes through Margate as Lucy is pictured at left gazing out into the ocean. The Atlantic City area used to boast three different streetcar lines. The last ceased operations in 1955

Richard Helfant, who runs the executive team responsible for maintaining Lucy, said: 'Its more than a job. Its a labor of love'

Jo was an extraordinary woman, said Helfant, who succeeded Harron as the chief executive responsible for maintaining Lucy in 2000. She just seemed to be very plain and innocent in a kind way, but Jo was ferocious, and Jo was determined, and nothing could stop Jo from achieving her goals.

He added: She is the reason that Lucy exists today.

Today, Lucy welcomes 130,000 people a year. Annual costs to maintain her run around $500,000, about the same as the $500,000 in revenue she generates from tours (now $8 for adults and $4 for children) and her gift shop.

On her 135th birthday last year, she (or, more accurately, her proxies) announced her candidacy for the United States presidency.

In a mock vote held at her birthday party, she easily won the election.

A CONEY ISLAND COLOSSUS AND THE LIGHT OF ASIA: THE DECEASED ELEPHANTS OF THE EAST COAST James Lafferty also designed the Elephantine Colossus, a gargantuan 12-story elephant that towered nearly 200 feet over Coney Island, New York. It was built in 1884 and was dubbed the eighth wonder of the world by its manager, C.A. Bradenburgh. Its stomach housed a 2100-square-foot space and the elephants innards housed everything from a cigar lounge to a concert hall to an observatory aptly, the eyes served as telescopes  from which patrons could pay for panoramic vistas of Manhattan, Brooklyn and the Atlantic Ocean. An 1885 New York Times account notes that Bradenburgh claimed that one could see as far as Rio de Janeiro and Paris from the colossal structure. Later, a rollercoaster was built around the colossus. The Elephantine Colossus was more than twice the size of Lucy and towered over Coney Island, Brooklyn, New York for 12 years. It was built in 1884 and burned down in 1896 Pictured is the design for the Coney Island Elephantine Colossus But soon enough, the elephant lost its cool and became a pick-up spot for prostitutes. The euphemism seeing the elephant became a rather scandalous turn of phrase. In 1896, the Colossus burned down in a spectacular fire that could be seen from the shores of New Jersey. Theodore Reger purchased the rights to build a 58-foot-tall elephant statue in Cape May, on the southern tip of the Jersey Shore. Similarly to the elephants Jersey Shore neighbor, the so-called Light of Asia was built to help sell real estate in 1884. People could also pay to climb to a viewing platform in the howdah. But much like Laffertys scheme farther up the shore, the Light of Asia failed to generate interest in real estate. The elephant only lived until the age of 16. It was torn down in 1900. Advertisement
A three-year-old Sydney girl who was pulled unconscious from a pool while on holiday with her family in Bali has been declared brain dead.

Kawa Sweeney was airlifted to Perth for medical treatment after she was found at the bottom of a pool at the resort her family were staying at in Uluwatu on Sunday morning.

But her parents, from Newport, have been told their daughter won't recover from the accident and now face the heartbreaking decision to turn of her life support, Nine News reports.

Kawa was resuscitated by a doctor who happened to be nearby when she was pulled out of the pool.

She was flown back to Australia for treatment at Princess Margaret Hospital for Children in Perth on Monday after a GoFundMe campaign quickly raised the $42,000 needed for a medivac.

Her mother Dee Tang, who runs homewares brand Kawaiian Lion, with her husband Desmond Sweeney, an artist, planned the trip for work as well as a family getaway.

Kawa Sweeney (pictured) who was pulled unconscious from a pool while on holiday with her family in Bali had been declared brain dead

A GoFundMe page set up to cover the cost of a medivac flight back to Perth for Kawa (above, in hospital) raised the $42,000 goal in less than a day

Ms Tang's sister Christine Walsh told Daily Mail Australia was pulled out of a pool unconscious on what was to be the family's last day of a week-long trip to the popular Indonesian island.

'Basically, she was in a drowning accident. They pulled her out of the pool and she was unconscious,' she said on Monday.

She added that a doctor who happened to be nearby at the time performed CPR on the little girl for 45 minutes.

'Kawa is still in an induced coma. They will be keeping her that way until her vital signs improve,' Ms Walsh added.

Three-year-old Kawa is in an induced coma, her aunt Christine Walsh told Daily Mail Australia

Kawa (pictured, with her one-year-old sister Rafa) was on the last day of a family trip to Bali

Kawa Sweeney was on a trip with her parents when she was found unconscious in a pool on the Indonesian island on Sunday morning

Three-year-old Kawa is pictured with her mother Dee, father Desmond and one-year-old sister

'She's trying to stay strong,' Ms Walsh said of her sister.

Ms Tang's friend Pearl Tan issued a fundraising appeal on her friend's Instagram page saying Kawa was in a coma after a 'drowning accident.'

She set up a GoFundMe page seeking donations to cover the cost of a medivac flight to Perth.

'Kawa was in a drowning accident in Bali. She is currently stable but unconscious,' a post on the fundraising page said

Kawa was pulled out of a pool unconscious on what was to be the family's last day in Bali

Kawa's mother Dee Tang (pictured with her daughters) runs homewares brand Kawaiian Lion

The campaign raised more than $70,000 in a day, surpassing the $42,000 goal for the flight.

An update said the remainder would cover medical bills.

'Thanks for the speedy support everyone,' it said, alongside a picture of Kawa in a hospital bed.

Ms Walsh said the family is extremely grateful by the support they've received.

She said they had thought they had travel insurance, but it turned out they weren't covered.

Kawa (pictured with her one-year-old sister) is in an induced coma after being pulled out of the pool unconscious

Kawa (above, with her father) is expected to be airlifted back to Australia by Monday evening

The family were advised to get Kawa back to Australia as soon as possible, she said.

Ms Walsh said the air ambulance company had advised Ms Tang, who is originally from Perth, to raise funds to charter a plane to fly her daughter there as it is closer to Bali than Sydney.

She added that any funds left over after Kawa's medical bills have been paid will be donated to charity.

'They are really overwhelmed by the support and people's generosity,' Ms Walsh said.

'They are really grateful.'
An elderly florist has relived the horrifying moment a man threatened him and held a broken bottle to his neck, minutes before being shot dead at a Sydney train station.

Emmanuel Theoharis pulled up the shutters on his Central Station shop on Thursday morning, despite just hours earlier having been at the centre of the horror shooting.

Witnesses claim the man stormed the florist and held sharp objects to the throat of the elderly shopkeeper, before a tense stand-off ended with police shooting him.

Daily Mail Australia understands the attacker was Danukul Mokmool, a 30-year-old Thai-national.

Recounting the terror he saw unfold in front of him, the 76-year-old told how he 'felt sorry' for Mokmool but supported the decision police made to shoot him dead.

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Emmanuel Theoharis (pictured), the elderly shop owner attacked by a man at Central Station on Wednesday night, has supported the decision by police to shoot him dead

'He put his hand to my neck, come [sic] from behind and put the bottle here,' Mr Theoharis told the Today Show.

'He was yelling: "Call the police, don't move, call the police".'

The elderly shop owner said the man rushed into the store and held the glass bottle to his throat, before stashing pairs of scissors he found lying on the front counter.

'When I got out (of his grasp)... he had scissors everywhere. He put some scissors in his belt, he was holding some,' Mr Theoharis said.

'If they didn't shoot him he would've attacked them with the scissors he was holding.'

But despite being left with a small cut on his throat, Mr Theoharis said he 'felt sorry' for his attacker.

'I just feel sorry for him, he lose his life, the young man,' he told the Sydney Morning Herald.

Witnesses said he stormed into a florist and held scissors to the throat of an elderly shopkeeper, before telling officers: 'Shoot me'.

The man is seen inside the store (left) before he appears to run towards on officer (right). He is shot dead just moments later

One horrified bystander who witnessed the standoff said: 'He was shot and he was straight to the floor'

An armed man has been shot dead by police following a tense stand-off at Central Station in Sydney

'A man came from nowhere. He tried to grab an old man, the florist owner, and he was pulling him and yelling at him,' Nathan Yin told news.com.au.

'I said, ''What the f*** do you want?'' and he said, ''I just want to die''.

Horrifying footage of the seconds before the man was shot dead, show him running from the florist before being shot down in a volley of four gunshots.

The attacker then lay motionless on the ground as witnesses gasped in horror.

'F***, f***,' one distressed bystander is heard screaming.

Witnesses said the man entered a florist and held scissors to the throat of an elderly shopkeeper before telling police: 'Shoot me'

Police are seen at Central station on Wednesday night after a man was shot dead by officers

Officers were called to the station's Eddy Avenue entrance following reports of an armed robbery just before 6:45pm on Wednesday. Police are pictured at the scene following the shooting

Sami Aryal, who works nearby, told ABC News four or five officers surrounded the florist amid the chaos.

'One of the policemen went inside the shop and as soon as the man was about to run, I saw the policeman shooting him,' she said.

'He was shot and he was straight to the floor.'

Police said they had been initially called to scene just before 7.00pm, amid reports of an ongoing armed robbery.
The State Department is warning tourists going to Mexico about reports of tainted alcohol causing drinkers to become sick or pass out.

Travelers are being warned to drink in moderation and seek medical attention if they fall ill, before contacting their nearest US embassy or consulate.

It comes after 20-year-old Abbey Conner, from Pewaukee, Wisconsin, died when she blacked out in a hotel pool after taking a shot of what her family say was tainted alcohol.

The State Department is warning tourists of possibly tainted alcohol being served in Mexico after Abbey Conner, 20 (left), and brother Austin, 22 (right), passed out in a hotel pool

Abbey, who was found floating face-down in the pool, had her life support removed after being declared brain-dead. Austin suffered a severe concussion after hitting his head, but survived

Abbey was on holiday with her brother, mother and stepfather, at the Paraiso del Mar hotel near Playa del Carmen, Mexico, when the incident took place, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported.

She had been swimming in the pool with brother Austin, 22, when they went to a swim-up bar and were offered a shot along with another group.

Austin said he remembers swimming around for a little while after that, and then suddenly 'the lights went out'.

Both were found floating in the pool some time later - Abbey face-down and not breathing, and Austin with a large lump on his head and severe concussion.

They were taken to hospital where Abbey was stabilized before being flown back to Florida for further treatment.

But shortly afterwards doctors found she was brain-dead and the decision was made to turn off her life support.

Abbey's family believe a shot that she and Austin drank at the hotel bar moments before was tainted, leading to both of them losing consciousness

Iberostar, which owns the Paraiso del Mar hotel where the incident took place (pictured), has denied being responsible for the student's death

Both had been drinking at a swim-up bar at the hotel shortly before losing consciousness, the Sentinel reports.

An appeal by the newspaper led to more than three dozen people coming forward to report similar experiences while traveling in Mexico.

Iberostar, which owns the hotel where Connor died, said it adheres to strict regulatory standards and only purchases 'sealed bottles (of alcohol) that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities.'

The family are now suing the hotel company, saying they are refusing to cooperate with the investigation into their daughter's death.
A man has been charged over a road-rage incident in Sydney's west.

Footage of the incident captured by a nearby motorist emerged on Wednesday showing four men throwing punches and kicking each other at traffic lights at Merrylands.

The 22-year-old driver of the Audi handed himself into police on Wednesday and has been charged with various offences.

The two occupants of another car were also interviewed by police and released pending further inquiries.

Want to fight? A suspected road rage dispute in western Sydney escalated into a full-blown brawl on Tuesday afternoon

Two tradesmen wearing hi-vis work shirts took issue with the driver threatening them and burst out of the car

Dramatic footage of the incident posted on social media shows a man wearing sunglasses and a dark hoodie threatening a driver while stopped at a traffic light in Merrylands.

As he begins to walk back to his car, two tradesmen wearing hi-vis fluro orange work shirts burst out of the tiny P-plate vehicle and start throwing punches.

The man who appeared to instigate the brawl takes a hit to the head and races back to his flashy Audi, leaving his passenger to fend for himself against the two men.

One of the tradesman launches a dramatic flying kick into the man's chest, while the other takes off his shirt and keeps fighting in a bizarre display of bravado.

The instigator of the brawl loops his car back into the fray, blocking traffic on the corner of Centenary Drive and Douglas Street for hundreds of commuters.

Instead of hopping out of his car to help his friend - who appears to be taking a flurry of hits to the body - he stays in the car while bystanders try to break up the fight.

One of the tradesmen struck the driver and then ran back with a flying kick for the passenger

At one point one of the tradesmen took off his shirt as bystanders tried to break up the fight

Left to fend for himself: The passenger of the front car was left on his own and retreated after copping a hiding

After the fracas is broken up, the beaten up man tries to get back into his friend's Audi, only to have to wait sheepishly as the driver unlocks the car door.

Bill Bridle, who filmed the encounter from the safety of his car, can be heard swearing in disbelief as he watches the violent incident unfold.

When he asks the tradesman if he is okay as he calmly steps back into his car, the man replies: 'Yeah ... he f***ing hit my brother.'

The tradesmen were both wearing 'Allied Pickfords' shirts, indicating they may be employed by the international furniture removalist company.

The company, which has a branch in Sydney, told Daily Mail Australia: 'We have no comment as the matter is with the police.'

A woman claimed to have seen the men in the black car driving the streets of Merrylands in a dangerous manner at 4.30, directly after the time frame police believe the conflict happened.

'This idiot was coming on the other side of the road did a full three point turn in front of traffic,' she told Daily Mail Australia.

'He was speeding up the street overtaking everybody ... he looked like he was on a mission.'

The tradesmen were both wearing 'Allied Pickfords' shirts, indicating they may be employed by the international furniture removalist company. The company said it had no comment

'He f***ing hit my brother': One of the tradesmen told the man filming the incident that he was fine, explaining why he lashed out

Police said the men involved in the fight could potentially be facing a number of charges

On Wednesday NSW Police said they were reviewing footage of the incident, which took place between 3.30pm and 4.30pm, but said no formal complaints had been made.

Detective Inspector Pat Sharkey said police were confident they had identified 'a number of parties' involved in the fight but were yet to interview anyone.

'The key theme from the NSW police is that we would ask that everybody abide by the road rules to start. Secondly, if you are involved in some sort of incident dont take matters into your own hands, report it to police immediately,' Inspector Sharkey said.

'I dont want to prejudice any ongoing investigation, but certainly on the sheer vision alone, there are quite serious charges from assault to affray or even the simple offense of conduct (the men could face)'.

It marks the second horrific road rage attack in 24 hours, after a man was filmed allegedly punching a female in the face after a dispute on the Central Coast.
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A major heroin ring in New York City was busted this week with federal authorities alleging the dealers flaunted their lavish lives, funded by drug money, on Instagram.

The alleged members of the trafficking operation, said to be based in Brooklyn and Queens, include: Victor Agosto, also known as 'Bebo,' Perfecto Deleon, also known as 'Fec,' Luis Lopez, also known as 'Lou,' Andres Reyes, also known as 'Dre,' Nestor Rivera, also known as 'Tito' and 'Tito Bird,' and Peter Vasquez

Over $2million in cars and drugs alone were seized from the men, including 12 kilos of heroin valued at $900,000 and a feet of luxury vehicles.

The crew had connections to a Mexican cartel and would funnel the drugs through Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, according to federal authorities.

The fleet of cars seized in the bust included a Lamborghini Huracan, Rolls Royce Ghost, Bentley, Audi R8 Spyder, Mercedes CLS63, Mercedes S550, Porsche Cayenne, Maserati, Range Rover Sport and BMW M4, totaling roughly $1million.

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Lopez's Lamborghini beside Vasquez's Rolls Royce, taken on Wednesday by the feds from the storage garage they were kept in

Alleged dealers circled in red. On a yacht: Peter Vasquez is third from the left, Nestor Rivera is to the right of Vasquez, Luis Lopez is third from the right wearing a baseball hat, white t-shirt and Burberry bottoms, Victor Agosto is to the right of Lopez wearing Burberry bottoms and no shirt

Lopez's family flaunting their waterfront Miami getaway

Vasquez's Mercedes S63 has been confiscated by the feds

Vesace stroller purchased by Lopez for his infant son was confiscated by feds

Lopez bought his family gifts, which have been confiscated by the feds

Vasquez's Rolls Royce Ghost, purchased in grey- later gets a new red paint job

Plethora of gifts purchased by Lopez could be subject to forfeiture to the feds

Vasquez's Mercedes CLS63 taken by the feds Wednesday near his home

Vasquez's Audi R8 Spyder taken near his home by the feds on Wednesday

The alleged dealers didn't just buy cars for themselves, they lavished luxurious gifts on their babies, young girlfriends and wives according to feds.

Among gifts seized; a $3,000 Versace stroller for a defendant's baby.

The same defendant also bought his wife a Rolex watch, Chanel handbag and Versace dress, with the alleged drug funds.

Lopez aka Lou, had a very Merry Christmas buying an Audemars Piguet watch worth approximately $20,000, and a celebrated a birthday with a 256-gram piece of gold jewelry and diamond encrusted ring.

Shoes for a 5th grade graduate, worth hundreds of dollars

Lopez's large jewelry gifts for himself are now in the fed's hands

More large bling Lopez purchased and flaunted on Instagram, taken by the feds

Porsche Cayenne Purchased by Vasquez for his mother

Federal authorities say easy come, easy go: 'The ill-gotten proceeds of the narcotics trafficking conspiracy will be subject to forfeiture.'

However authorities can't seize the memories. When the crew wanted to kick back, feds say they splashed out lots of cash renting waterfront property in Miami.

'The heroin epidemic is real. These defendants not only moved large amounts of heroin across the country -- they carried firearms to protect their turf and extravagant lifestyle,' stated NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill.

Versace all day... even the dress is subject to forfeiture by feds

The alleged dealer Agosto on the right, wearing an open shirt

Authorities say one of the defendants relied on a crew of the violent street gang the Young Gunnerz, also known as the YGs, based in the Bushwick, Brooklyn to provide protection of the illicit business.

O'Neill added 'New Yorkers are safer with this poison off the street.'

Each of the men faces a minimum of 10 years to life behind bars if convicted.
A video captured the shocking moment a woman grabbed a waitress by the hair and slammed her head onto the bar counter because shed poured her the wrong drink.

Hannah Dayney, 27, is seen reaching across the bar inside Shooters nightclub in Surfers Paradise and grabbing the employee behind the bar by her hair, Nine News reports.

The Gold Coast mother is seen being tackled by other patrons, but refuses to let go of the waitress  lifting her off her feet during the incident in February.

A video captured the shocking moment a woman grabbed a waitress by the hair at a nightclub

Hannah Dayney attacked a bartender at Shooters nightclub for pouring her the wrong drink

Seven people get involved in the brawl in a bid to restrain Dayney.

She later reportedly slapped a security guard as she was escorted outside and then spat at two police officers.

Dayney pleaded guilty to five counts of common assault at Southport Magistrates Court on Wednesday.

She avoided jail and was ordered to pay a fine of $118.18.

The incident was captured on CCTV in February and showed Dayney lash out at the waitress

Seven people get involved in the brawl in a bid to restrain 27-year-old mother Hannah Dayney

Her defence lawyer Campbell Maccallum said his clients actions were provoked by the clubs bouncers.

He said Dayney paid for a booth and asked for a guard and waitress to be assigned, but didnt get what she paid for, according to Nine.

The magistrate accepted that Dayney had been provoked, but said there were no excuses for her actions.




Almost a quarter of workers have been given a dressing down for what they wear to work - with men often told off for wearing shorts and sandals and woman for wearing leggings and low-cut tops.

A survey of 2,000 Brits found that just under 25 per cent of workers had been called into their managers office for a chat about their outfits.

Men were more likely to be given a rollicking for wearing unsuitable clothes - most commonly shorts or sandals - with 24 per cent admitting a telling off.

A total of 21 per cent of women confessed that they had been told off for wearing out-of-place outfits, often low-cut tops or tight leggings.

Men were more likely to be given a rollicking for wearing unsuitable clothes - most commonly shorts or sandals - with 24 per cent admitting a telling off (file image)

A quarter of women also said they had been the subject of inappropriate and sexist comments by colleagues or bosses, often commenting on their tight dresses or cleavage-enhancing tops.

The poll, by online clothing firm Banana Moon, found that 53 per cent of Brits now dont have a specific dress code at work, with many workplaces now allowing casual dress.

The survey found that more than one-in-three felt judged by what they wore - with colleagues and bosses criticising their choice of clothes.

A total of 39 per cent said they would rather they had a set dress code at work or a uniform so they wouldnt have to stress about what to wear.

Vicky Charles, a copywriter from Wiltshire, said she experienced clothing Nazis at a previous firm.

She said: The dress code was smart casual which was rather unclear.

My boss kept coming up with specific details that would be emailed around: men couldnt wear shorts and women couldnt wear leggings.

Because the dress code was so vague, it could be interpreted in a lot of different ways, but when upper management saw specific examples of what they didnt want us to wear they sent an email - so something that was OK one day would be out of the question the next week.

21 per cent of women confessed that they had been told off for wearing out-of-place outfits, often low-cut tops or tight leggings (file image)

We ended up with really weird and backwards rules.

Alex Grace, the boss of Banana Moon Clothing, said: Work uniforms have changed dramatically over the years.

Whereas it was once expected that employees would wear a suit or formal dress from 9 to 5, the lines are now blurring between what we wear inside and outside the office.

While casual dress codes can be more comfortable for employees, its still important for employers to define what appropriate office dress looks like.

Putting dress code guidelines or a standard uniform in place can be beneficial in reducing confusion in the workplace over what is and isnt acceptable, and can lead to happier employees in the long run.
Judges were last night accused of encouraging spurious litigation by ripping up employment tribunal reforms.

The Supreme Court said ministers had acted unlawfully in bringing in fees of up to 1,200 to make a claim.

Seven judges ruled unanimously in favour of the union Unison, which said the charges discriminated against women and the poorly paid.

The court said the fees were inconsistent with access to justice and had resulted in a big fall in claims.

The Supreme Court said ministers had acted unlawfully in bringing in fees of up to 1,200 to make a claim. Seven judges ruled unanimously in favour of the union Unison, which said the charges discriminated against women and the poorly paid

But Charlie Mullins, who founded Pimlico Plumbers in London, said: This is a charter for litigants which will fuel Britains compensation culture.

I have sympathy with people with genuine claims but a lot of people make false allegations and try it on. This ruling will only encourage those who abused the system to come back into the market.

Smaller companies are worried they will now have to settle cases they would win because they cannot afford the time and expense of fighting them.

The Institute of Directors, which represents 30,000 small and medium sized businesses, predicted the decision would open the door to a spike in malicious or vexatious claims.

Seamus Nevin, its employment and skills chief, said: Businesses across the country will be extremely alarmed by todays judgment. Before fees, individuals faced no risk or barriers in bringing claims that were not merited. Even the weakest or most vexatious cases meant sizeable legal expense and wasted valuable management time for companies.

The courts summary said claimants on low to middle incomes could not afford the fees without sacrificing ordinary and reasonable expenditure for substantial periods of time.

The judges  headed by the courts president, Lord Neuberger  decided that the fees indirectly penalised women because they were more likely to bring discrimination cases against their employer.

The Government will have to refund around 32million to thousands of people charged for taking claims to tribunal since July 2013.

Unisons general secretary Dave Prentis described yesterdays court ruling as a major victory for employees everywhere. He said these unfair fees have been letting law-breaking bosses off the hook for years.

Unisons general secretary Dave Prentis described yesterdays court ruling as a major victory for employees everywhere

Ranging between 390 and 1,200, the fees were introduced in 2013 by then Lord Chancellor Chris Grayling after lobbying from businesses deluged with tribunal claims. The number of employment tribunal claims slumped by almost 70 per cent in the first year.

The IoD is particularly worried that new gender pay reporting requirements and the immigration skills charge could lead to a surge in claims from women and workers from outside the European Union.

From April, medium and larger firms wanting to hire a worker from outside the EU have had to pay a fee of 1,000 a year, with smaller firms paying 364 a year.

The institute said the change, which is supposed to encourage firms to hire British workers, will cause unsuccessful job applicants from outside the EU to lodge discrimination claims.

From April next year firms with 250 or more employees will have to publish their gender pay gaps  the difference between the average salary of male and female employees.

The IoD warned that this could also lead to an increase in unjustified claims, particularly in male-dominated industries such as engineering.

The Supreme Court ruling is a boon to solicitors, who predicted that the abolition of fees could cause the number of tribunal claims to return to pre-2013 levels.

Emma Bartlett, a partner at Charles Russell Speechlys, said: The impact of todays decision will be enormous, it will be a total game changer for employment law.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described the decisions as as a 'significant win'

Emma Burrows, head of the employment department at Trowers & Hamlins, said the increase in claims will put further pressure on tribunals already under strain following funding cuts. But TUC general secretary Frances OGrady said: This is a massive win for working people.

Too many low-paid workers couldnt afford to uphold their rights at work, even when theyve faced harassment or have been sacked unfairly.

Tribunal fees have been a bonanza for bad bosses, giving them free rein to mistreat staff. Any fees paid so far should be refunded as soon as possible.

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn described it as a significant win against governments sky high tribunal fees which price workers out of justice.

Labour would scrap them, he added.

Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson said: This is a landmark victory for workers and for access to justice.

The Government should be ashamed that it fought this case all the way to the Supreme Court. Ministers have wasted workers taxes in an attempt to undermine workers rights.

Justice Minister Dominic Raab said: In setting employment tribunal fees, the Government has to consider access to justice, the costs of litigation, and how we fund the tribunals.

The Supreme Court recognised the important role fees can play, but ruled that we have not struck the right balance in this case.

We will take immediate steps to stop charging fees in employment tribunals and put in place arrangements to refund those who have paid. We will also further consider the detail of the judgment.
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Hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets of New York City, Washington, DC, and San Francisco on Wednesday night after President Donald Trump announced his shocking ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces, calling the cost of transgender healthcare in the military as a 'burden'.

Crowds gathered at a plaza named after the late San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk to protest Trump's ban.

Demonstrators waved pink and blue flags and held signs bearing slogans: 'Trans lives are not a burden.' As they took to the streets and gathered in front of the plaza, they could be heard chanting: 'Stand up! Fight back!'

A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla addressed the crowd and said she's tired of being told who she can or cannot be, and asked for others in the LGBTQ community to support trans people as they fight for respect.

Doug Thorogood and Nick Rondoletto, a couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign that read: 'The only reason transgenders are being banned from the military is for bigotry.'

'Haven't transgender people gone through enough? I'm over it!' Thorogood said, as they marched with the crowd from the Castro neighborhood to City Hall.

'When (Trump) goes for the people with the least rights, I just can't sit back and let that happen,' Rondoletto added.

At a smaller gathering at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood, US Army Reserve member and transgender man Rudy Akbarian, 27, said at first he thought the news of the Trump's order was a joke. The five-year military veteran said he was 'heartbroken' to learn it was real.

'There are people who are retiring in the military, there are people who've done 18, 19 years and are about to retire and now it's all taken away from them,' he said. 'It's not fair. I know it's not over. I know we're not going to give up.'

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Hundreds of angry protesters took to the streets of New York City, Washington, DC, and San Francisco on Wednesday night after President Donald Trump announced his shocking ban on transgender people serving in the armed forces

'Trans is not a burden' read one sign that protesters held up in San Francisco's Castro District on Wednesday

Nick Rondoletto (left) and Doug Thorogood, a couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign against the proposed ban of transgender people in the military at a protest in the Castro District

A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla addressed the crowd and said she's tired of being told who she can or cannot be, and asked for others in the LGBTQ community to support trans people as they fight for respect

Protesters against the policy Trump declared on Twitter also gathered in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles. Pictured are protesters in San Francisco

Protesters against the policy Trump declared on Twitter also gathered in New York City, Washington, DC, and Los Angeles.

Crowds swarmed the famed US Army Recruitment center in Times Square with 'resist' and 'rise up' signs in a show of defiance against the president's announcement.

Demonstrator Yael Leberman said transgender people 'are completely adequate to serve' and combat is 'not about physical, it's about mental' abilities. She said it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.

Others marched on foot outside the White House bearing signs which read 'we're here, we're queer, we hate the f****** president'.

The demonstrations were in response to an announcement Trump made earlier on Wednesday in which he described the cost of transgender healthcare in the military as a 'burden'.

'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.

'Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,' he said.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer was among those present at the protest on Wednesday.

He addressed the crowd with a megaphone and used his speech to poke fun at the president who he said had skipped enlisting in the 1960s so that he could 'hang out at Studio 54'.

The president dodged the draft to serve in the Vietnam war because he had bone spurs in his heels. Four other deferments were given so that he could pursue his education.

Also at the protest was a transgender army veteran and Miss Peppermint, a famous New York City drag queen who appeared on the ninth series of RuPaul's Drag Race.

Protests erupted outside the US Armed Forces Recruitment building in Manhattan's Times Square on Wednesday after the president announced a ban on transgender people entering the military

Dozens of people gathered in the tourist hot spot with signs bearing slogans including 'resist and 'we object'

A protester cries as they chant slogans with the rest of the crowd in Times Square after the president's announcement

The same activist struggled to contain their emotion as others chanted anti-Trump slogans and preached messages of love and inclusion

She addressed the crowd, telling them: 'It's not that they're afraid of us. You know what they're afraid of? That they're just like us.'

Actress Alyssa Milano also joined the crowds. She shared a photograph from the event on Instagram, telling her followers: 'Trans rights are human rights. I was proud to support the LGBTQ community at the #NoTransBan rally.'

Brenda Sue Falton, an army veteran who was among the first women allowed entry to it and whose wedding at Cadet Chapel in 2012 was the first same sex marriage it has hosted, was also present.

The announcement rattled the global LGBT community and those who support it and was condemned by transgender celebrities including Laverne Cox and Caitlyn Jenner, who had been one of Trump's few celebrity supporters.

'There are 15,000 patriotic transgender Americans in the US military fighting for all of us. What happened to your promise to fight for them?' Jenner asked her 3.9million followers.

Cox said: 'Marginalized folks have often found ourselves at odds with systems which seek to subjugate & erase us. Let us love each other more & fight.

'To all the trans folks currently serving in the military, thank you for your service. I am sorry your 'commander in chief' doesn't value it.'

Transgender veterans made direct appeals to the president to reconsider the controversial move. Chelsea Manning, the transgender former soldier who was convicted of Espionage after giving information to Wikileaks, labeled him a coward.

Actress Alyssa Milano was at the protest on Wednesday night. She later said she was proud to stand up for the LGBTQ community

Demonstrators carried pride flags along with their protest signs. They were restricted by police barricades after growing in numbers

The crowds chanted as they held their signs in the air. Trump's announcement was universally decried by his critics on Wednesday

Another protester wipes tears from their eyes while protesting in Times Square against President Trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military

A man draped in an American flag chants as he leads the crowd in protest outside the recruitment center in Times Square

A man solemnly raises his sign in the air and listens as protesters lead one another in chants and with speeches

A man holds up a sign bearing the slogan 'rise up' as he joins protesters on Wednesday after the president's announcement

Young protesters were among those who gathered in the crowds to join the demonstration

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer was among those who joined the protesters on Wednesday night

Transgender Army veteran Tanya Walker addressed the crowd in Times Square with a megaphone

A transgender woman appeared at the rally in Times Square alongside cisgender protesters who were united in their fury over Trump's decision

Miss Peppermint, an adored New York City drag queen who appeared on the 9th series of RuPaul's Drag Race, also took part

A man wearing a costume depicting President Trump holding Russian president Vladimir Putin on his shoulders was among the crowd

New York City Public Advocate Letitia James also addressed the crowd on Wednesday

Members of Lambda Legal, a non-profit legal firm which specializes in protecting the LGBT community, attended the protest in pink t-shirts

There was no shortage of slogans among the many signs held by protesters who had gathered in the evening heat to take a stand

There were countless more messages of outcry from celebrities and civilians alike but their outrage did nothing to shift the administration's position.

At a lunchtime press briefing, new White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stood by the president's decision.

'This was a military decision. This was about military readiness, this was about unit cohesion, this was about resources within the military, and nothing more.'

Trump gave no figures to explain the decision on Tuesday. A report by the global think tank Rand Corporation last year estimated that the cost of healthcare for transgender military servicemen and women was between $2.4million and $8.4million a year which the report said was less than a 1 percent increase.

It has not been made clear by the president whether acting transgender individuals will be thrown out of the military.

Trump's announcement on Wednesday - if it becomes enforced by the Pentagon - undoes the Obama administration's Force of the Future policy which, after decades of discrimination, finally lifted the ban on transgender people serving in the military last year.

A protester in Washington attempts to break the resolve of a Secret Service agent outside the White House. He carries a sign reading 'we're here, we're queer, we hate the f****** president'

Demonstrators held up signs calling for the president to 'give impeachment a chance' outside the White House

Rep Joe Kennedy, D-Mass, spoke in support of transgender members of the military on Capitol Hill in Washington

Other protesters marched outside the White House in Washington. They included gay veterans and civilians

Protesters outside the White House held signs which went against the president's earlier tweet in which he described the cost of the healthcare of transgender servicemen and women as a 'burden'

Atlas Winfrey, 25, protested Trump's proposed ban of transgender people serving in the US military during a rally outside the US Army Recruiting Station in Los Angeles
A Florida man, who was caught on video running down a street naked and throwing money in the air after allegedly stealing $7,500 from a bank, told police that it was all part of an attempt to 'launch his career as a comedian'.

Alexander Hayden Sperber, 25, was spotted Tuesday running in the nude through parking lots and along sidewalks as he threw '$100s and $50s' in the air.

'He's completely naked. This is bizarre,' a man is heard saying in the video.

Alexander Sperber (right), 25, reportedly told Florida cops that he robbed a bank, ran down a street naked (left) while throwing money in the air because it was all a part of an attempt to launch his career as a comedian

'He's completely naked. This is bizarre,' a man is heard saying in the video. The so-called comedian (pictured) was seen running down Las Olas Boulevard

Sperber was arrested for robbing the Regions Bank at 100 Southeast 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, according to an FBI criminal complaint obtained by NBC 6 Miami.

The so-called comedian allegedly approached a teller at the bank, told the teller he had a gun and demanded the teller to put money in a bag, according to the complaint.

According to the complaint, the teller put $7,500 in the bag, along with a dye pack and a bait bill.

After Sperber fled the bank on foot, the dye pack exploded, causing red dye to get all over his clothing.

He then stripped down and ran naked down Las Olas Boulevard.

'When I initially saw him I thought he was maybe mental patient but then when I heard about the bank robbery I thought it was more shocking and could've been dangerous,' Dennis Toledo told NBC.

Sperber (pictured) allegedly approached a teller at the bank, told the teller he had a gun and demanded the teller to put money in a bag. According to the complaint, the teller put $7,500 in the bag, along with a dye pack and a bait bill, the complaint said

Sperber was arrested for robbing the Regions Bank (pictured) at 100 Southeast 3rd Avenue in Fort Lauderdale, according to an FBI criminal complaint

Toledo, who is a valet employee, witnessed the bizarre moment from a parking lot.

After Sperber was arrested, authorities questioned him about the incident.

He said the robbery and him running naked was all part of a stunt to 'begin his career as a comedian', according to the complaint.

Sperber was then booked into a local jail, where he is being held without bond.
A census-style survey of every EU worker is being launched by Home Secretary Amber Rudd today  but signalled that the UK would not take back full border control on Brexit day.

She has told an independent panel to carry out the most comprehensive assessment ever of the role of European nationals in Britains economy and society.

Experts will study exactly how many EU citizens have jobs and issues such as which sectors they work in, regional distribution, skills levels, seasonal workers and their impact on the competitiveness on UK industry.

It intends to help ministers to devise an immigration system that keeps the economy buoyant after the country takes back control of its borders.

A census-style survey of every EU worker is being launched by Home Secretary Amber Rudd today  but signalled that the UK would not take back full border control on Brexit day

But Ms Rudd stressed that there would be an implementation period when Britain leaves the Brussels bloc to ensure there is no cliff edge for employers or EU nationals in the UK.

She strengthened suggestions that free movement would not end in 2019 in order to give business and government time to adjust to departure  fuelling claims there had been a Brexit betrayal over open borders.

Concerns were also raised that the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) has been asked to report by September 2018  only seven months before the UKs scheduled departure from the EU in March 2019.

It raised questions as to whether this was cutting it too fine for the Government to piece together its new immigration policy.

The Office for National Statistics said that overall more than 2.2million EU nationals aged 16 to 64 work in Britain. Manufacturing relies on some 332,000 EU nationals while the wholesale and retail trade has some 508,000.

Employers have warned that some sectors of the economy, such as agriculture and horticulture, rely heavily on EU workers  and could struggle if the labour supply dries up.

The figures lay bare the challenges businesses face in weaning themselves off cheap foreign labour following Brexit.

Ms Rudd stressed that there would be an implementation period when Britain leaves the Brussels bloc to ensure there is no cliff edge for employers or EU nationals in the UK

Advisers will also examine issues such as the costs and benefits of EU migration  including the potential impact of any fall in arrivals from the 27 other nations, such as on hospitals and care homes.

They will also look at whether the availability of cheap, unskilled labour has led to low UK investment in certain sectors such as agriculture and food processing.

Writing to MAC chairman Professor Alan Manning, Ms Rudd will say that under a future system we will be able to apply different immigration rules and requirements according to the UKs economic and social needs.

Ms Rudd described the study as a major step in ensuring we create a system that works in the best interests of the country.

She said: Leaving the European Union gives us the opportunity to take control of immigration from the EU. We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally.

But, at the same time, our new immigration system will give us control of the volume of people coming here - giving the public confidence we are applying our own rules on who we want to come to the UK and helping us to bring down net migration to sustainable levels.

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of the Migration Watch think-tank, which campaigns for lower migration, said: This is a very welcome step. It is high time that we had an objective evaluation of the true costs and benefits of EU migration.

It is especially important to take account of the massive impact of immigration on the size of our population and the resultant overcrowding which is of concern to a growing number of people.

Tim Thomas, director of employment and skills policy at EEF, the manufacturers organisation, said: Many manufacturers will see todays announcement as a first step, with the Government for the first time acknowledging that future migration changes will be implemented in a measured way over a period of years.

Whilst this announcement was much needed, the fate of EU nationals already in the UK before Brexit now needs to be settled quickly, positively and conclusively.

Josh Hardie, deputy director-general of business organisation the CBI, welcomed the move as a sensible first step.

He said: Businesses urgently need to know what a new system will look like - during transition and afterwards.

Dr Adam Marshall, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said: While businesses are committed to filling vacancies locally wherever they can, they will still need access to both EU and global candidates with a range of skills in the future.

As well as the MACs work, talks will be held across sectors including business, industry, trade unions and educational institutions in the coming months.

Official statistics show net long-term migration for EU citizens - the balance between arrivals and departures - was running at an estimated 133,000 last year, a fall of more than a quarter on 2015.

Overall international net migration, including from outside the EU, was also down at 248,000 in 2016, although the measure remains well above the Governments target of below 100,000.

Last week the Mail revealed that the Cabinet had agreed to pursue a soft-landing transition from the EU that could see free movement continue in all but name until 2022.
The family of Justine Damond could receive a payout of $US3 million from the city of Minneapolis after the Australian bride-to-be was shot and killed by a police officer.

Bob Bennett, an attorney hired by Ms Damond's family in Sydney and her American fiance Don Damond, has revealed damages could exceed the $US3 million awarded to the family of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed by Minnesota police in July 2016, according to The Herald Sun.

It comes as Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo, who has replaced former Chief Janee Harteau, announced Minneapolis police officers must now turn on their body cameras 'when dispatched to any call or self initiated activity.'

'What good is a camera if it's not being used when it may be needed the most. From this day forward at the Minneapolis Police Department we want to add strength to our expectations - body worn cameras must be on,' he said, according to 9News.

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The family of Justine Damond could receive a payout of $US3 million from the city of Minneapolis after the Australian bride-to-be was shot and killed by a police officer

Damages could exceed the $US3 million awarded to the family of Philando Castile, who was shot and killed by Minnesota police in July 2016 (pictured is Ms Damond's fiance Don Damond and Philando's mother Valerie Castile).

Her father, John Ruszczyk (pictured), and fiance Don Damond have reportedly come to an agreement to have her body cremated and her ashes sent back to Australia

Chief Arradondo said the changes to the department's body camera laws will be activated over the next three days and training officers will audit other officer's body cameras.

Originally from Sydney, Ms Damond, 40, was shot dead in her pyjamas by Minneapolis policeman Mohamed Noor on July 15.

Ms Damond called 911 at around 11.30pm after hearing a woman's screams and fearing a sexual assault was taking place in an alley behind her home.

When police arrived, she approached the vehicle before Officer Mohamed Noor shot across his partner, Matthew Harrity, and struck her in the stomach.

Neither Noor or Harrity had their body cameras turned on at the time of the shooting.

It comes as Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo (right), who has replaced former Chief Janee Harteau (centre), announced Minneapolis police officers must now turn on their body cameras 'when dispatched to any call or self initiated activity'

Mr Bennett, the attorney for Ms Damond's family said no civil lawsuit has been filed yet but told The Herald Sun he is expecting compensation from the city to be in the millions.

The city of St Anthony, Minnesota - where Philando Castile was shot after being stopped by police - recently paid his mother Valerie Castile $US2.995 million settlement.

Because St Anthony is a smaller town than Minneapolis, it had an insurance cap of $US3 million ($AU3.8 million), Mr Bennett said.

'It is too early to speculate but there was a $US3 million limit in the Castile case. That's not the situation here. There is no limit and the city [of Minneapolis, unlike St Anthony] has a lot of assets. There were limiting factors [in the Castile case] which aren't present here,' he told the publication.

Justine Damond's American fiance has given his blessing for her ashes to be returned to Australia

Don Damond is comforted outside his home as demonstrators march by during the Peace and Justice March for his fiance

A Bureau of Criminal Apprehension statement said Officer Harrity heard a loud noise before Ms Damond was killed.

There is a suggestion that the Australian woman may have 'slapped' the car and startled him before she was shot.

A Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension search warrant, obtained by Minnesota Public Radio, doesn't specifically name Ms Damond.

It says, 'upon police arrival, a female ''slaps'' the back of the patrol squad... After that, it is unknown to BCA agents what exactly happened, but the female became deceased in the alley.'

Minneapolis and its twin city of St Paul have been shaken by multiple police shootings.

Fake street signs warning of 'easily startled' police popped up in the area Ms Damond was shot dead

A concerned citizen, or prankster, erected official-looking metal signs around the cities warning drivers and pedestrians of 'easily startled' police.

It features a graphic of an officer shooting two guns in separate directions and reads: 'Warning: Twin cities police easily startled'.

A Minneapolis Police Department spokeswoman said authorities were working to have them removed.

Officer Noor is maintaining his wall of silence and continues to exercise his legal right not to be interviewed by investigators probing Ms Damond's death.

Ms Damon's father, John Ruszczyk, and fiance Don Damond have reportedly come to an agreement to have her body cremated and her ashes sent back to Australia.

Damond family spokesman Tom Hyder told News Corp a funeral would be finalised in the coming days and held in Minnesota in August.

'She will be cremated and her ashes sent back to Australia,' he said.

'The Damonds and Justine's family in Australia are in agreement about what happens after her memorial. They are in frequent contact.'
Jeremy Corbyn has accused EU institutions of being detrimental to the poor, it emerged last night.

A recording from 2014 reveals the Labour leader discussing the problems of the EU with Venezuelas socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro.

Mr Corbyn suggested the EU had caused suffering to the people of Europe, and singled out the European Central Bank (ECB) for criticism.

A recording from 2014 reveals the Labour leader discussing the problems of the EU with Venezuelas socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro

He said the ECBs policies were detrimental to the poor of Britain and other countries.

And he suggested the EU was also a barrier to building socialism and the fight against capitalism.

The revelation came as Labours position on Brexit descended into further chaos, with members of Mr Corbyns frontbench team divided on whether Britain should leave the EUs single market.

Mr Corbyn faced criticism from pro-EU Labour MPs last year over his lukewarm support for the campaign to keep Britain in the EU.

The Labour leader insisted that he had voted Remain. But critics believe he sees the EU as a barrier to his vision of turning Britain into a socialist state.

He appeared to confirm this view during a conversation with President Maduro in 2014.

The Labour leader rang in to a radio show hosted by the socialist president to discuss the death of his hero Tony Benn, who inspired the Venezuelan regime.

The Labour leader rang in to a radio show hosted by the socialist president to discuss the death of his hero Tony Benn (above), who inspired the Venezuelan regime

Mr Corbyn praised Mr Benn for his opposition to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, adding that he was also a leader in the struggle against the economic policies of the European Bank and others, which were detrimental to the poor of Britain and other countries.

He added: During his life we discussed many times the problems for building socialism and the fight against capitalism.

Labour sources last night suggested Mr Corbyns comments were a criticism of the suffering inflicted on southern European countries, especially Greece, through austerity as a result of policies pursued by the EU and implemented by the ECB.

But the revelation will underline Labour concerns about Mr Corbyns attitude to Europe.

It also reveals his close links to the Venezuelan president, who has been branded a dictator by the opposition after the role of the elected national assembly was sidelined.

Mr Corbyn, who idolised Venezuelas former socialist leader Hugo Chavez, has refused to criticse the countrys leadership despite its slide into chaos and repression under President Maduro.
Trust in charities has collapsed amid evidence of dirty tricks designed to boost donations.

Double the number of Britons say they trust hairdressers compared to charities, which will be a severe blow to the good causes they support, according to a new report.

A series of Daily Mail investigations have revealed how charities brought the problems on themselves by adopting a raft of illegal and unethical practices.

In 2015, we exposed how fundraisers were cold-calling vulnerable people and sharing donors personal data without their permission.

More people trust hairdressers than charities, according to the FTI Consulting survey for Pro Bono Economics. Pictured: A stock image of a hairdresser at work

And, earlier this year a number of Britains best known charities were fined following revelations they were snooping on donors, ranking their wealth.

Some shared information with firms that ran prize promotions and sold health supplements, putting them at risk of being scammed.

Just 26 per cent of people said they trust charities, according to a survey for the volunteering organisation Pro Bono Economics by FTI Consulting.

More than four in ten people  45per cent - said that they were cautious of charities, 18per cent were suspicious of them, and 10per cent explicitly distrust them.

The study found trust in the law and order system was also relatively low. Just 38per cent said they trust judges and the figure was 44per cent for the police.

This put both of these groups below hairdressers in the trust league, who scored 45per cent.

The study found trust in the law and order system was also relatively low. Just 38per cent said they trust judges and the figure was 44per cent for the police. Pictured: The Lady Justice statue atop the Old Bailey in London

Just over half the population, 52per cent, said they trust scientists. Teachers came in at 56per cent and first place went to doctors at 69per cent.

Chief Executive at Pro Bono Economics, Julia Grant, said: Over the last 12 months, much has been made of the apparently sharp practices used by certain charities to attract donations. In response to this criticism, charities have vowed to stamp out these methods, and are aiming to increase transparency with improved reporting.

But transparency does not equal trustworthiness, nor does it of itself prove that an organisation is taking the right decisions or making the intended impact.

The only way for charities to rebuild any trust they have lost is to demonstrate their impact on society with solid independent economic evidence.

They are accountable to the public, who are the people who support them, so they need to communicate their impact in a way that engages with the public as stakeholders.

Essentially, charities future stability and sustainability relies on their capacity to prove the importance of their work.

A separate survey found that eight in ten people would prioritise donations to charities able to prove their impact on society and the economy.
One of three men accused of raping an unconscious teenager with a glass bottle at an Australia Day party isn't an 'idiot' and wouldn't have shared footage if it was anything more than boys 'mucking around', a court has heard.

Bailey Hayes-Gordon, Jacob Watson and Nicholas Jackson have pleaded not guilty in the Brisbane District Court to one count each of rape in relation to the alleged assault of a 19-year-old in 2015.

Barrister David Funch, acting for Hayes-Gordon, told the jury on Wednesday his client was an 'intelligent fellow' and his sharing a video of the incident in a Facebook conversation actually backed up his client's account.

Bailey Hayes-Gordon (pictured leaving court on Monday) is accused of inserting a bottle into a 19-year-old male who had passed out at an Australia Day party

'If Bailey had actually thought that they had done something wrong... why would he post a video online?' Mr Funch posed.

'He's not an idiot.

'That is entirely consistent with his version that they were just mucking around.'

Mr Funch said the video also aligned with evidence that the boys had a brotherly dynamic and often teased each other.

'And that's what this video is all consistent with - consistent with drunken teenage idiots,' he said.

It came after Hayes-Gordon took to the witness box to deny prosecution allegations he penetrated the complainant with a bottle and only changed his story after being charged with the offence.

He was questioned by Crown prosecutor Caroline Marco about the Facebook messages, including the remark: '(The complainant) passed out so we stuck a bottle up his arse and he just took it ... Funniest thing I've ever seen, legit.'

But the 21-year-old said these were 'over-exaggerations'.

'Initially I thought it was funny, but after seeing how serious this incident was ... he's my mate, I shouldn't have done that,' he said.

Watson (pictured on Wednesday) covered his face with round sunglasses as he arrived at court to plead not guilty

Jacob Watson is also accused of being involved in the alleged rape. The prosecution claims he filmed the assault on his phone

He said he believed the bottle did not actually penetrate the complainant's anus and said there was 'no uproar' afterwards to suggest he had been injured.

The prosecution alleges Jackson rolled the teenager over and restrained him by his feet, Watson took video footage on his phone and Hayes-Gordon - as the principal offender - inserted the bottle.

The trial continues.

Jackson (Watson, centre, leaves court on Wednesday) also pleaded not guilty to one count of rape in court on Monday

Hayes-Gordon appeared concerned as he left the Brisbane District Court on Monday after pleading not guilty

Nicholas Jackson (pictured) is accused of holding the victim down








A teenager who ran into a church claiming she was kidnapped and gang raped by three black men has been indicted after she admitted it was all a hoax, police said.

Breana Harmon, 19, was covered in blood and wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear when she appeared at a Denison, Texas, church in March claiming she had been raped by two black men while a third held her down, KXII reported.

But police became suspicious of Harmon's claims and she eventually admitted to lying about the rape.

She was charged Wednesday with tampering with physical evidence and tampering with a government record.

Breana Harmon, 19, was covered in blood and wearing only a shirt, bra and underwear when she appeared at a Denison, Texas, church claiming she had been kidnapped and gang raped

Harmon (above, mugshot) was charged Wednesday with tampering with physical evidence and tampering with a government record after police said she admitted it was all a hoax

A man who said he was Harmon's fiance called the Denison Police Department on March 8, reporting the teen was missing.

The man then told police her car was found in the parking lot of an apartment complex with the driver's door open. Her phone, keys and a single shoe were scattered around the car.

On the same night, Harmon entered a church on the S. Eisenhower Parkway wearing a shirt and underwear with visible cuts or scratches on her body.

She made the false rape claims to witnesses at the church, and later told police officers she had been kidnapped at the apartment complex by three black men wearing ski masks.

Harmon said they took her to a wooded area behind the church, where two of the men raped her while a third suspect pinned her down.

But when she was examined by doctors, they found she did not suffer injuries consistent with her claims.

Pictured, a general view of the church where Harmon turned up on March 8, wearing a shirt and underwear with visible cuts or scratches on her body

Police launched an investigation and detectives soon grew suspicious of Harmon before she admitted to staging both the scene at her car and her own injuries when she walked into the church.

Three of the charges are felonies and carry a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison in addition to a maximum fine of $10,000, according to Grayson county District Attorney Joe Brown.

One charge is punishable by up to two years in state jail along with a $10,000 fine.

Police issued a statement in March that called the hoax 'insulting to our community and especially offensive to the African-American community'.

Brown explained the charges against the teen, writing: 'Ms. Harmon was originally arrested for the misdemeanor offense of false report to a peace officer.

'However, the more we have looked at what happened in this case, and considered the harm it caused and certainly could have caused, we believe what she did fits the elements of these higher charges. What she did was very serious, and we believe it was felony conduct.'
As a whodunit, it remains one of the greatest of all time, a British seafaring mystery with such enduring fascination that even after 170 years of rumour, allegation and speculation, it still fires imaginations.

What really did happen to Rear-Admiral Sir John Franklin and the 129 sailors on the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror who set off to explore the Arctic in 1845 but who never returned home from that frozen wasteland?e

Precisely how, where and why they died has only ever been guessed at.

In command of the doomed was the 59-year-old Sir John Franklin (pictured), a much admired seaman who had fought at Trafalgar and sailed the Arctic three times before

This image depicts the HMS and Erebus and HMS Terror trapped in the ice during the expedition, although nobody lived to really know what happened

Marc-Andre Bernier setting a marine biology sampling quadrant on the port side hull of the Erebus

Over the years it has variously become a legendary tale of men fighting against starvation, sickness and extreme elements to stay alive, or a baffling story of unexplained death, with murky under-currents of possible murder, suicide and cannibalism.

At last, though, there has been a breakthrough, as a new exhibition, Death In The Ice, at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London reveals.

In 2014 and 2016, the wrecks of Erebus and Terror were discovered in the depths and marine archaeologists have been examining them ever since. The exhibition reveals the preliminary findings  and the startling results call for a complete rethink of the saga of Sir John Franklins epic last voyage.

The ships and their crews went missing on a Royal Navy expedition to find and chart the last 900-mile section of the fabled North-West Passage  a sea route over the top of the world linking the North Atlantic to the Pacific via the Arctic Circle.

They were sailing into the unknown, trying to weave their way from Baffin Bay to the Bering Strait, between thousands of islands, large and small, where ice-covered land and frozen sea constantly merge and icebergs block the way.

John Rae (pictured), a Scottish explorer, returned with stories he heard from the Inuit. They told of having seen a ghostly party of sick, hungry and desperate qalunaaq (white men) who walked across the ice until they dropped dead

Experts have used pioneering reconstruction techniques on skulls (pictured), believed to be of crew members, that were found back in 1993)

To add to their troubles, they experienced winters so severe that even the Inuit, the native inhabitants of the Canadian Arctic, thought them exceptional.

In command was the 59-year-old Franklin, a much admired seaman who had fought at Trafalgar and sailed the Arctic three times before.

But he had recently been a failure as governor of the British colony in Tasmania and, desperate to restore his reputation, volunteered to lead the expedition. The Admiralty was concerned about his age but gave him the nod anyway.

Erebus and Terror were, like Franklin, veterans of the ice, having survived previous expeditions to the Arctic and Antarctic.

Their hulls were reinforced with iron sheeting to cope with the frozen seas, and had steam-driven propellers for when they were becalmed or in danger of becoming ice-bound.

The officers and men on board were the Navys finest, each one a volunteer for a voyage expected to last up to three years.

In May 1845 the ships left the Thames, sailing north. By July they were in Greenland, and in August their tall masts were spotted by whalers between Greenland and Canada, heading for the start of the North-West Passage.

After which, they were never seen or heard from again. So began the mystery.

For two years, the Admiralty did nothing, expressing its unlimited confidence in the skills and resources of Sir John. But family and friends were growing anxious, particularly Franklins wife, Jane, who lobbied for action.

Ships were finally dispatched to search from both eastern and western ends of the Passage.

In all, more than 30 search teams would be launched over the next decade  some out of altruism, others inspired by an Admiralty reward equivalent to 1.5million today for a successful rescue. But no traces of the ships were found.

Then in 1850, three graves were discovered on an island near the start of the Passage, yielding the frozen and intact bodies of two sailors and a Royal Marine private. But of the rest of the crews, there was no sign.

Their fate was by now a Victorian obsession, prompting endless debate, books, magazine articles and folk songs. Spiritualists joined in, claiming to have seen visions of the lost souls.

The HMS Erebus was found off the Canadian coast in 2014 after decades of searching

This bronze bell was recovered by Canadian divers in September 2014 from the wreck of the HMS Erebus

Then, in 1853  eight years after the Erebus and Terror had set sail  significant new light was thrown on the plight of the crew.

John Rae, a Scottish explorer, returned with stories he heard from the Inuit. They told of having seen a ghostly party of sick, hungry and desperate qalunaaq (white men) who walked across the ice until they dropped dead.

The Inuit said they had found many corpses, and cooking pots with body parts inside.

The obvious conclusion was that starving men had resorted to what Rae described as the last dread alternative  cannibalism.

Raes discoveries were a massive shock to the British public, and an outraged Charles Dickens denounced the suggestion that British heroes had stooped so low as to eat each other in extremis.

The arguments raged on, but from Raes evidence, the mens fate seemed certain. The Admiralty declared the members of the expedition assumed dead and paid out the mens wages to their relatives.

A picture of during a previous voyage, when shipwrecked while on the Flinders voyage exploring the coast of Australia in 1804

An officer's leather boot, recovered from the wreck of HMS Erebus in 2015, on display at the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich

But Jane Franklin was having none of it  neither the money, nor the idea that all hope had gone. She protested that there might still be survivors, sustained by fish or seal or polar bear meat.

Some 12 years after the expedition went missing, she financed her own search mission by Arctic explorer, Leopold McClintock.

On King William Island, McClintock came across Inuit who had in their possession silver spoons and forks and other items from the Franklin expedition. They told him of how ships had been stranded in the ice nearby and of bodies in the snow.

McClintock and his team found three skeletons and a 28ft lifeboat lashed to a sledge, with an array of boots, towels and tobacco inside.

Most revealing of all, they came across a hand-written message inside a cairn with instructions that anyone finding it should forward it to the Admiralty. It gave the position of Erebus and Terror, referred to the ships and their crews wintering on the ice in 1845-46 and declared that all [is] well.

But, dated April 28, 1848, more scrawled text had been added that told a much bleaker story.

It explained that by now the ships had been stranded in this same place for 20 months; that Franklin was dead (and had been for almost a year), as were 23 other crew members; and that the remaining 105 souls were abandoning the ships. The message was signed by James Fitzjames, captain of the Erebus, and Francis Crozier, captain of the Terror who, with Franklin dead, had become the faltering expeditions commander.

Some 12 years after the expedition went missing, Jane Franklin financed her own search mission by Arctic explorer, Leopold McClintock (pictured)

A marine achaeologist studies the Erebus' bell at the foot of the ocean

McClintock raced back to London with his findings, establishing the narrative that was now to be generally accepted as the truth about the sad fate of Franklins expedition.

The ships had stranded in the ice to the north-west of King William Island and after three winters had run out of provisions.

The men were heroes who tried to save themselves by slogging across the ice to the other side of the island but one by one dropped from exhaustion, hunger, frostbite and sickness. The cannibalism allegations were set aside.

Here instead was a legend of British grit to be proud of  summed up in an iconic Victorian painting that today hangs in the National Maritime Museum depicting Franklin and his men dying in the snow.

What remained missing, though, were the actual ships. McClintock had been told where Erebus and Terror were but, assuming that no one was left on board, he had seen no point in finding them.

And in the following century and a half, their location remained unknown, assumed lost for ever.

Then in 2014, following an extensive search authorised by the Canadian government, HMS Erebus was pinpointed and two years later, Terror was found.

Experts believe this man, whose face has been reconstructed using his skull, was Ice Master James Reid of HMS Erebus

Today, the wrecks rest on the sea bed, upright and amazingly intact, awaiting further investigation by divers and marine archaeologists. Substantial relics have already been brought to the surface  the ships bell of Erebus, a six-pounder cannon, the gilded hilt of an officers sword, even willow-pattern china plates from the galley.

But perhaps most astonishing is that the ships were found more than a 100 miles from where their crews abandoned them.

It is possible that shifting sea-ice moved them from their original site. But there is also a strong chance that they may have sailed to their final locations. In which case, the abandoned ships must at some stage have been re-occupied by some of the crew.

Significantly, Terror appears to have been anchored  which could only have happened if there had been crew on board.

And if thats true, the notion of Franklins men heroically remaining together as a disciplined British military unit trekking doggedly through blizzards until the very last man collapsed and died, is thrown up in the air.

HMS Terror may yet contain the answers everyone seeks. She sits in 150ft of water, her hatches closed and the glass windows apparently still intact. In such a closed, cold environment, documents may have been preserved

Perhaps the ships log or a diary is nestling there, sealed inside a water-tight container  something that could settle once and for all the long-running mystery of what exactly happened to the 129 lost souls who went out to find a passage through the ice and never came back.
A young woman who was on the amusement ride that malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair said that her seat began 'shaking' just moments before the fatal crash that claimed the life of one and injured seven others.

'It started normal, everything started normal, and then it started shaking. It was shaking real bad,' Devray Williams told ABC 6 on Wednesday.

She said that the girl next to her also started to say her seat was shaking just moments before Devray watched the woman go flying off into the air when the machine snapped.

An emotional Devray then said through tears: 'And then the dude hit the ground. He wasn't breathing. None of them was, it was like five people. Nobody was breathing and then they came and tried to give him CPR but nothing was happening.'

An 18-year-old man was killed on impact after he slammed to the ground when part of the ride 'snapped off.'

Four of the victims are in critical condition, with one being treated at Grant Medical Center and the other three at Wexner Medical Center.

Doctors at Wexner said that the three individuals who were admitted underwent surgery overnight and will have to undergo additional surgeries in the coming days.

The other three victims were admitted to Grant in fair condition, and two were released from the hospital early Thursday.

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Horror scene: One person has been killed and another three are fighting for their lives after a ride malfunction at the Ohio State Fair on The Fireball (above just moments after crash)

Tragedy: Part of the ride snapped off on Wednesday night, sending people flying through the air (above)

Victim: A person is attended to as authorities respond after the Fire Ball amusement ride malfunctioned

Remains: The pieces of The Fireball that broke off laying on the asphalt at the fair (above)

Meanwhile, the young boy who filmed the fatal ride malfunction that occurred at the fair revealed that bystanders began screaming at the operator to slow down just moments before the crash.

Julian Bellinger was filming The Fireball as he stood in line with his friends to get on the ride when it suddenly broke, killing one person and injuring seven others.

He recounted what happened in an interview with Good Morning America, saying: 'We were just recording each other on Snapchat and we had deleted the video because we heard like commotion on the ride and there was people on the ride like, "Slow it down, it's too fast," and all this. So people on the ground beside me and in front of me in line... they all were like, "whoa, whoa, slow down."'

Julian said at that moment the operator 'pressed the emergency brake,' with the teenager stating that he had to turn his head away when he started to see people fall out of their harnesses and seats on the ride.'

Host Robin Roberts confirmed that Julian did in fact hear people shouting out to the operator to slow down the ride, and the boy against said that was what happened, adding: 'I heard people in front of me in line and then after the fact I talked to them and they were like, "yeah, people on the ride just couldn't take it anymore because I guess they had sped it up.'

He then said that in the wake of the crash people were running away and 'crying.'

Britney Neal and her little sister Kylie also witnessed the crash at the fairground on Wednesday, and told a story very similar to Julian's while appearing on Today.

'Well, the ride was going normal, then all of a sudden you see people flying out and then the guy hit the emergency stop button which then made the seat fly off and other people flew off as well,' said Britney.

The fireball was working normally. Then it swing to the left and it looked like someone's chair was kind of falling out. Then the guy pushed the emergency stop switch, and then it swings to the right and the whole row broke off and they went flying.'

The teenager later said is 'traumatized' by the incident, while her younger sister Kylee saying nothing and just stared off into the distance during the interview.

Emotional: Devray Williams (above), who was on the ride when it malfunctioned, said that he seat began shaking uncontrollably just moments before the crash

Scene: Two of the victims are treated after the crash on Wednesday by first responders

Flung: Some of those on the ride managed to stay in their seats while others flung free

Good move: In the wake of the incident a number of other fairs announced that they would not be operating their Fireball ride and began re-inspecting their machines

Ohio Governor John Kasich released a statement Wednesday evening, reading: 'I am terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohios fair.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to those grieving and injured. I have ordered a full investigation into this incident and have ordered that all fair rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed.'

Wednesday was the opening night of the fair.

The Ohio State Fair also released a statement on Thursday, saying: 'Our hearts are heavy for the families of those involved in last night's tragic accident.'

Thursday morning the fair was back in business , though all the rides remained closed to the public.

Few people were in attendance.

In the wake of the incident a number of other fairs announced that they would not be operating their Fireball ride and began re-inspecting their machines.

Eyewitness: Julian Bellinger, who filmed the video of the fatal ride, said that just before the machine snapped people were screaming at the operator to slow down

EXCLUSIVE: "I turned my head and couldn't watch it." Eyewitness, recalls what he saw at the Ohio State Fair: https://t.co/CQrROSX1zr pic.twitter.com/rD7HC5Wvtw  Good Morning America (@GMA) July 27, 2017

One person is pictured being treated for injuries while laying on a gurney after the ride accident

A police officer is pictured at the scene of the accident while another person takes photographs of what happened on Wednesday night

Pictured is another ride at the festival in Columbus, Ohio, on Wednesday night

At the scene: Britney Neal (left) and her sister Kylie (center, mother Christy right)) were also in line for the ride and said that an ' emergency stop button'was pushed by the operator hust before the crash

The incident comes after ride inspectors from the Ohio Department of Agriculture were forced to work long hours this week to make sure everything was up to standard, due to delays caused by heavy rain in recent days, the Columbus Dispatch reports.

'The rain slowed us down a little bit. Usually a lot of this stuff would be up a lot faster,' Ron Dean, an amusement ride inspector who has been with the Ohio Department of Agriculture for 13 years, told The Dispatch.

The fair is currently celebrating its 164th year in operation.
Attacks against Jewish people have rocketed to record levels.

A charity that monitors anti-Semitic abuse recorded 767 hate crimes in the first six months of 2017  a rise of 30 per cent compared to the same period last year.

It was the highest figure since statistics were first kept 33 years ago.

The Community Security Trust (CST) said there had been an unprecedented run of more than 100 incidents each month stretching back to April 2016.

A charity that monitors anti-Semitic abuse recorded 767 hate crimes in the first six months of 2017  a rise of 30 per cent compared to the same period last year

The average monthly incidents total is now roughly double that of five years ago.

The high number of attacks was due to events and factors that had created an atmosphere that has the potential to motivate anti-Semitic incident offenders, said the report.

These included issues that had attracted public debate, such as the Labour party disciplinary hearing into and suspension of former London mayor Ken Livingstone for claiming Hitler supported Zionism.

Attacks included verbal abuse at Jewish people in public, extremists attacking synagogues or doing the Heil Hitler salute or daubing swastikas on community centres or places of worship.

The CST said there was no obvious single cause for the total, which dwarfed the previous high of 626 incidents in the first half of 2009.

It said previous peaks had been caused by anti-Semitic reactions to specific trigger events leading to temporary spikes in incidents  such as the Israeli bombardment of Gaza in 2014.

Better reporting of incidents from victims and witnesses, an increase in security at Jewish buildings and closer collaboration with the police accounted for some of the rise, said the CST.

But it added: It is likely it is also down to a general, sustained rise in the baseline number of anti-Semitic incidents.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: Anti-Semitism has no place in this country, which prides itself on openness, diversity and tolerance'

The most common type of incident recorded involved verbal abuse randomly directed at Jewish people while going about their daily business in public places  568 cases.

In most instances the victims wore religious or traditional clothing, school uniform or jewellery bearing Jewish symbols.

There were 568 incidents of abusive behaviour reported - the highest total ever recorded in the category, which includes verbal abuse, hate mail and anti-Semitic graffiti.

Incidents of damage and desecration to Jewish property increased by two-thirds to 51, while there were 80 violent anti-Semitic assaults reported to the CST  up 78 per cent.

But Jewish people are increasingly being targeted on social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, with 140 recorded incidents. The problem is likely to be worse because the CST only collated cases where the offender was based in the UK.

CST chief executive David Delew said: It is sadly clear that the overall situation has deteriorated. Anti-Semitism is having an increasing impact on the lives of British Jews and the hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said: Anti-Semitism has no place in this country, which prides itself on openness, diversity and tolerance.

She denounced the deplorable crimes and said the Government was working to stamp out the incidents.
Heroic Grenfell firefighters have said they were willing to die in the inferno as they desperately struggled to rescue everyone inside.

They relived their experiences of tackling the horrific fire in a new ITV documentary series exploring the challenges the brigade face every day.

A London Fire Brigade commander said as they battled flames they had 'no intention' of coming out until they had rescued everyone they could, despite their fear the burning building was on the verge of collapse.

Heroic Grenfell firefighters have said they were willing to die in the inferno as they desperately struggled to rescue everyone inside

A London Fire Brigade commander said as they battled flames they had 'no intention' of coming out. Unseen footage shows them breaking down as the scale of the disaster unfolded

Commander Steve Dudeney (left) was one of the first senior officers to arrive at the scene and was accompanied by Commander Pat Goulbourne (right)

Commander Richard Welch said: 'If it was going to collapse...every single person within that building was willing to lose their own life to try to save others. Every single person.'

Commander Welch was one of the first senior officers to arrive at the scene and he described how the flames kept raging as more and more firefighers arrived.

He added: 'Initially they had six machines. Then they asked for eight, and then 10, and then 15, 20 and 25.'

Commander Welch said it very quickly became clear that they needed to declare a major incident .

Commander Pat Goulbourne, who was also at the scene, added that he knew Grenfell Tower and had be there before, reports the Mirror.

He said: 'I just knew we had the job of our lives on the go because already I could see fire from the lower floors and I could not believe I was looking at fire to the top floor.

Firefighter battled for hours to rescue everyone they could despite fears the burning building was on the verge of collapse

TV crews followed the London Fire Brigade for 12 months, showing the diverse challenges they face

Commander Welch described how the flames kept raging as more firefighters arrived

'I've never seen anything like that. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly. You could hear people screaming for help. There were people making signals for help. It was dreadful.'

Commander Goulbourne described 'men, women and children' coming out of the building 'fully sooted'.

The men worked from a bridgehead post two floors below where the fire started on the fourth floor.

Commander Goulbourne said it was the busiest bridgehead he had ever seen.

The June 14 fire, which claimed at least 80 lives, is featured in the ITV series: Inside London Fire Brigade.

Commander Goulbourne described 'men, women and children' coming out of the building 'fully sooted'

Tearful firefighters relived the horrors they witnessed in moving ITV documentary

TV crews followed the London Fire Brigade for 12 months, showing the diverse challenges they face.

Commander Welch described the logistical problems the firefighters faced when they arrived at the 24-storey building in the early hours of the morning.

'We had our hoses going up the staircase, he said. 'We had people trying to get out coming down the staircase.

'We've got firefighters going up the staircase and the staircase was filling with smoke.

'The priority was really to try to reach the flats we knew had people in. The issue we had was the intensity of the fire'.

Inside London Fire Brigade starts tonight at 9pm on ITV.
A seven-year-old girl, who was the sole survivor of a horror crash which killed three on Wednesday, ran down the road screaming 'mum and dad are dead', neighbours say.

Residents of Gregory, in outback Queensland, told the Cairns Post the girl was singed but lucid when she approached them on foot after her family's car rolled over.

'She saw it all,' a resident told the newspaper.

'She was running down the road, bits of smoke coming off her, beautifully dressed in town clothes and shoes, crying out 'Mum and Dad are dead, Mum and Dad are dead'.'

A girl, seven, was the only survivor of a horror car crash which killed her family on Wednesday morning. Residents say the youngster ran down the road screaming 'mum and dad are dead' after the family car rolled and caught alight near Burketown, in outback Queensland (pictured)

The single-vehicle crash took place on Wills Developmental Road, Gregory, near Burketown, at about 6.30am on Wednesday and the car is understood to have burst into flames soon after.

Three people all believed to be in the same family and on their way home to Doomadgee - a small indigenous town - were killed.'

Mount Isa Acting Police Inspector Chris Hodgmann told the North West Star the cause of the fatal crash was still unknown

'We're still examining the scene, we have some crash experts there to try and discover the cause,' he said.

'We are unsure if alcohol or speed or any of the Fatal Five were involved at this stage, it's too early to tell.'

Two adults and a child are believed to have died in the single-car accident, and investigators say they are still trying to establish the cause (stock image)

A Queensland Ambulance Service spokeswoman said the seven-year-old girl had minor injuries, including scratches and a swollen lip.

A police spokesperson confirmed specific details of the incident had been hard to come by, because only satellite phones were working at the remote location.

Those involved are being transported to a local airstrip to be airlifted to hospital by the Royal Flying Doctor Service (RFDS).

The RFDS confirmed one person was airlifted from Gregory Downs Station to Mount Isa Hospital on Wednesday.

'They'll be monitored in hospital,' a spokesperson told the North West Star at the time.
Police have released images of four men and a vintage car one month after a 20-year-traveller died at an M25 petrol station in Surrey.

Surrey Police want to speak to the four men, caught on CCTV in the Cobham Services shop, and the driver of a distinctive green Model A Ford, hoping they can help with their enquiries following the death of Quhey Saunders.

The images were taken between 3pm and 3.30pm on Monday, June 26, before Mr Saunders was beaten to death with a shovel.

Police have released photographs of four men they are hoping to speak to in the connection with the death of Quhey Saunders, who died last month. He is pictured right with his girlfriend, Larosa Smith

Police are appealing for information from these two men who were at Cobham Services between 3pm and 3.30pm before Mr Saunders was beaten to death with a shovel

Police are also wishing to speak to these men about the incident which took place on Monday, June 26

The force are also looking to speak to the driver of this vehicle, a green Model A Ford

Mr Saunders, a member of the travelling community in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, was 'attacked' on a petrol station forecourt service station in Cobham, Surrey.

Police battled to try and save him before he was airlifted to St George's Hospital, Tooting, London, but his life support machine was switched off on June 28.

Paying tribute to him after his death, his family said: 'Quhey was a very kind hearted boy, always full of laughter, loved life and loved enjoyment. He was very respectful to his elders and the sick.

'He was always laughing, always happy and loved every day of life. He lived life to the full and his life was taken very young. He had his whole life in front of him and was taken for no reason at all.'

Quhey's mother said 'Quhey was the heart of the whole family. All our hearts are broken. The family is very close and he will be missed by his brothers and sisters. Quhey donated his organs and he has saved lives. I wish those people who have received Quhey's organs well and I hope they live a long and happy life.'

Mr Saunders (left) is pictured with Miss Smith. His brother Luke posted a video of an air ambulance leaving St George's

'We would like to thank everyone all around the world for their support and messages of condolence. Thank you to all the staff at St George's Hospital - they were angels - and thank you to everyone for their support, everyone has been very kind.'

His family consented to have his heart donated after he died, to which his brother Luke dubbed him a 'legend' for the act.

A statement from the NHS Donation Facebook page read: 'Quhey Saunders who's life was sadly stolen from him at they age of 20 donated his heart. This is not something people do from a traveller background, but now thanks to Quhey and his legacy so so many from our culture have now become donors.'

Simon Daniel Baker, 22, of Green Lane, Outwood, was charged with murder and appeared via video link at the Old Bailey on Wednesday, July 5.

Mr Saunders, a member of the travelling community in Stanford-le-Hope, Essex, was attacked on the petrol station forecourt

Forensic scientists were seen taping off the area on June 26 after the incident

Mikey Joseph Coyle, 21, from Barnes, was also charged with murder on July 6 and appeared at magistrates court later that day.

Senior investigating officer Detective Chief Inspector Jo Hayes said: 'Exactly one month ago today, a young man was brutally attacked at the petrol station at Cobham Services. We have charged two people with Quhey's murder, but still need to speak to these five witnesses to understand the circumstances of his murder.

'I want to be clear that the people we are trying to locate are not under suspicion, but may have seen or heard something that could help our investigation. Cobham services is on one of the busiest roads in the UK - so these people could be from anywhere in the country. If you are one of these people, or you know who they are, I urge you to get in touch.'

Anyone with any information is asked to call Surrey Police on 101 (ask for Surrey Police if you are outside of Surrey) or report it online at report.police.uk, quoting 45170068211. You can also report any information you may have to the independent charity Crimestoppers in complete anonymity by calling 0800 555 111.
Police may escort Cardinal George Pell through an underground entrance for his next Melbourne court appearance after officers had to force their way through a 100-strong media throng.

The highest-ranking Catholic official to be charged with sexual abuse appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday, with his barrister making it clear Pell will plead not guilty to all charges.

Police officers shepherded Pell through a crush of local and international journalists, photographers and camera operators through the main entrance to the Melbourne Magistrates Court and at one stage blocked off part of the road immediately outside the building.

A heavy police presence was needed to shepherd George Pell through the media circus

The third most senior Vatican official's case is due back in the same court on October 6.

Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Graham Ashton said police would consider taking Pell through an underground door to the court complex next time.

'There's a couple of different options that we'll look at, certainly won't rule that out,' Mr Ashton told 3AW on Thursday.

'One of the issues going underneath through the roller doors is you've got a lot of prisoners down there. We've got to get those prisoners up to court.

'There are other ways it could be done. We'll just have to do that in consultation with the courts.'

About a dozen police officers helped Pell through the media throng as he arrived at court on Wednesday morning.

George Pell looks bewildered as he fights through the crowds outside the court on Wednesday

About 20 forged a path for him to walk the 100 metres back to his barrister's office after his appearance.

Mr Ashton says police had prepared for a large media turnout on the day, with a number of news organisations flying in from interstate and overseas.

Pell has been charged with multiple historic sex offence charges involving multiple complainants.

Police attempted to protect George Pell from the media scrum after his court appearance

Wednesday's filing hearing, the first step in the preliminary court process, was over in six-and-a-half minutes.

Magistrate Duncan Reynolds adjourned the case until a committal mention on October 6, when a date may be set for a committal hearing to determine if Pell stands trial.

The prosecution has until September 8 to hand over its brief of evidence to the defence, although prosecutor Andrew Tinney SC said that could occur as soon as next week.

Cardinal Geroge Pell will b returning to the Melbourne Magistrates Court on October 6

Pell will not have to enter a formal plea unless a magistrate decides there is enough evidence for him to stand trial in the County Court.

Despite barrister Robert Richter QC saying that the 76-year-old is innocent, hoards of protesters also gathered outside of the court, as well as supporters who called out that Pell was 'innocent until proven guilty'.

On the day he was charged, Pell said, 'Im innocent of these charges. They are false. The whole idea of sex offences is abhorrent to me.'

Protesters gathered outside the court as George Pell entered with his barrister Robert Richter

'I am looking forward finally to having my day in court,' Pell said last month.

Mr Richter told the court, 'For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, might I indicate that Cardinal Pell will plead not guilty to all the charges and will maintain his presumed innocence that he has.'

The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop and Ballarat priest has taken leave from his position as Vatican treasurer to return to Australia to defend himself.
President Trump's new communications director Anthony Scaramucci took on the BBC on Wednesday night in an extraordinary interview that saw him accuse political editor Emily Maitlis of being 'elitist'.

The Mooch, as he has become known, went head-to-head with Maitlis in a far-ranging 11-minute interview that covered the subtle differences between American and British society, the benefits of 'frontstabbing' and the reasons why the President's love of cheeseburgers make him a man of the people.

Trump has clashed with the BBC before - he once called the broadcaster's North America Editor Jon Sopel 'a real beauty' - and the latest meeting of minds did not disappoint.

Maitlis appeared flabbergasted by Scaramucci's line of reasoning throughout the interview - which also touched on the comparisons between the American Revolution and fast-growth start-ups like Uber.

But it was a discussion of elitism and whether President Trump's vast wealth makes him part of the global elite that proved the main flash point.

'There's so many things about the president [that make him non-elitist]. What about the cheeseburgers? What about the pizzas' he said.

'Everyone eats cheeseburgers and pizza. What are you talking about?' the astonished journalist asked.

'No, no, no. See, you're coming across a little bit elitist,' he fired back without explanation.

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Anthony Scaramucci, President Trump's new communications director, was interviewed by the BBC's Emily Maitlis for Newsnight on Wednesday

At the end of the interview, he apologized for the remark. Turning to the camera with Maitlis' extended hand still grasped in his own, he said: 'I didn't mean it. She was hitting me very hard'.

Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, said one of the things he liked about the president was his direct way of dealing with things because it mimicked his own.

He gave a name to the president's confrontational approach to politics, calling it 'front stabbing'.

'Im from a town right on the border of Queens and the President grew up in Queens.

'We have a little more of a different communications style (than the UK), a little bit more direct ... probably less subtle and polite. You dont think politicians in your home town are hitting each other left and right?

'One of the things I can't stand about this town is the back-stabbing. Where I grew up were front-stabbers.'

Later, he offered the interviewer an explanation of the term by bemoaning his new surroundings.

'I'm now living in Washington. Do you live in Washington? What happens in Washington is someone says something to your face and they don't mean it and they say something else behind your back.

'So what I like about the president, it's actually good leadership, to say the things to people's faces that he actually means and then let's resolve it or not resolve it.'

The 11-minute interview touched on a wide range of topics including whether or not Attorney General Jeff Sessions would see out the week before being fired.

Scaramucci would not be drawn on whether Sessions was staring down the barrel of being fired.

'It would be inappropriate for me to get in the middle of that. I think it will resolve itself over the next week or so.'

Scaramucci emphasized his many points with some expressive hand gestures

He reached over to touch the interviewer's hand several times and, in all, gave a convivial performance

HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE MOOCH'S INTERVIEW On the president 'He's a very straight shooter. He likes to express himself. He likes to let people know how he feels. Sometimes it's a tough conversation.' On Attorney General Jeff Sessions 'I don't want to interrupt whatever ultimately is going to be the outcome between Attorney General Sessions and the president. I like both people a great deal.' On Washington 'This is a very tough town. One of the things that I cannot stand about this town is the backstabbing that goes on here. Where I grew up, in the neighborhood I'm from, we're front stabbers. Lucky for you, you don't live here in Washington. 'This is the scandals incorporated down here. We manufacture fake scandals so that we can disrupt people, so that we can hit them personally.' To his colleagues 'Have a tough exoskeleton. Be a tough person with a strong backbone.' On the senate blocking the healthcare act 'It's too early. What do we know. That's a congregational setting.' On Russia 'We were political neophytes back in June of last year. Donald J. Trump Jr., who is a dear, personal friend of mine and I can attest to all of your viewers that he has done nothing wrong and he will be completely exonerated.' On American history You know what this nation is? It's a disruptive start-up. It was a group of rich guys that got together and said "you know what? We're going to break away from the other countries and start our own country" On his humble beginnings 'I grew up in a middle class family. We had virtually, a tight budget and little to no money. I spent 30 years of my life trying to get in to the global elite so that I could stand here and serve the president.' Advertisement

Of the president's recent scathing comments about Sessions (in which he called him beleaguered and said he would never have given him the job had he known he would recuse himself), Scaramucci offered a word of warning to colleagues: 'If you really understand the president's personality, he's a very straight shooter.'

He reiterated his advice later, saying: 'If you can handle the president's personality and his temperament which I happen to love then you're going to do great with the president.'

When questioned about Obamacare and whether the president was slighted by the four Republican senators who stepped away from his plan to replace it last week, Scaramucci said he couldn't comment on what happened in the Senate because it was a 'congregational setting'.

In an astonishing comparison of events, he compared Trump's battle to repeal Obamacare with Abraham Lincoln's fight to abolish slavery.

Referring to Lincoln's biography, he said: 'If you read Team of Rivals it took Lincoln three or four times to get what he wanted from the House of Representatives and the Senate which was the full abolition of slavery.

'That was a much tougher thing to get done than what we're working on right now,' he added hastily.

In a glowing tribute to his new boss, he described him as a 'remarkably loyal guy' and but one who insists on 'symmetrical loyalty'.

'The loyalty always has to be symmetrical.

'You don't want it to be asymmetrical,' Scaramucci mused.

He touched on Donald Trump Jr.'s ill-fated meeting with a Russian lawyer who promised him dirt on Hillary Clinton last year, saying: 'All of us were political neophytes back in June of last year.'

Staring in to the camera, he gave a fierce defense of Donald Jr., who he said was a 'dear personal friend who has done absolutely nothing wrong'.

'There's a difference between being naive and being inexperienced.'

At the end of the interview, he turned to the camera to address viewers and tell them: 'She was hitting me hard'

The pair enjoyed a lingering handshake at the end of the 11-minute interview

Maitlis seemed to enjoy the showdown, later taking to Twitter to describe Scaramucci as a 'supremely good sport'

He offered some insight into the Brexit vote, telling Maitlis: 'Have you been to a Bernie Sanders rally? Have you been to a Trump rally?

'There is discontent, Emily. There is civil discontent.'

At this, Scaramucci reached over to tap Maitlis's hand repeatedly.

In an unapologetic show of transparency, he admitted having 'no idea what was going on' with a trade deal between the US and UK which hinges on chlorine-rinsed chicken.

'Here's the good thing about me. You and I are meeting for the first time. I have no idea what's going on with the chlorine rinsed chicken and so even to pretend and make something up to you, I'm just not going to do that, OK?

Scaramucci would not be drawn on whether the president plans to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions (seen above together in February) but said 'the issue should be resolved in a week'

Scaramucci defended Donald Trump Jr., describing him as a 'personal friend'. He also gave a glowing tribute to Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, who he said was 'earnest and honest'

Get used to it: Scaramucci said the president was a 'straight shooter' and urged his colleagues to develop a thick 'exoskeleton' in order to survive working for him

'If you want to interview me in a week or two, I'll figure out what's going on with chlorine rinsed chicken and I bet you I'll have a clever answer for you,' he said, tapping the presenter's hand again.

Showing off his history knowledge, he concluded the interview: 'You know what this nation is? It's a disruptive start-up. It was a group of rich guys that got together and said "you know what? We're going to break away from the other countries and start our own country".

'The president's bringing it back to its roots of disruption.'

Promising good trade relations with the UK, Scaramucci said the president was 'about reciprocity', about 'fair and equal trade'.

To cap off the exchange, he said with a fixed smile: 'I'm having a lot of fun. I love my country.

'I had lunch with the president today and I can't tell you who else was there but the president looked over and said "doesn't Anthony look like he's having a good time". And the answer is yes.'

Scaramucci took over from Sean Spicer this week. He is pictured in the briefing room with the new White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders

Outgoing White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer, who resigned from the role last week. He will serve until August

Scaramucci was announced as the White House Communications Director last week.

Sean Spicer, the embattled former White House Press Secretary, announced his resignation shortly afterwards.

He explained the decision afterwards, saying he did not want there to be 'too many cooks' in the White House communications division.

The president said he was a 'wonderful' person and accepted that he bore the brunt of the administration's ongoing feud with the media.

From the get-go, Spicer's pugnacious approach to the press corps dominated the briefing room. He tore in to journalists, accusing them of lying and falsely representing facts, and sometimes banned publications from briefings.
Morning News Brief For July 27, 2017

Morning Minute: Bieber Nails Paparazzo + Kid Rock Gets Serious About Politics

As you start your day, it can be overwhelming to try to make sense of everything you missed while you were getting on with your life. Morning Minute is here to bring you the news you need to know to start your day, all broken down into tidbits you can consume before you finish your morning constitution. Here are this morning's headlines.

Justin Bieber Slams Photographer With His Truck

TMZ video shows that while Justin Bieber was leaving a church service in California, he appears to accidentally clip a photographer with his large truck tire. To his credit, Bieber remained on scene, spoke with police and wasn't cited. To his not-credit, he's still Justin Bieber. [TMZ]

Kid Rock Is Getting Serious About A Senate Run

Yesterday the musician released a statement saying that, basically, if he feels there's enough support for his candidacy and policies, he may just run for a Michigan senate seat. He also said that in the meantime, he's using his influence and resources to get more people registered to vote. He also said that the Democrats are "shattin in their pantaloons," which I thought was pretty eloquent. [Billboard]

Walmart Cancels All SNES Classic Pre-Orders

If you pre-ordered a SNES classic system through Walmart's narrow, unannounced window, tough shit: the retail giant confirms that all pre-orders have been canceled, claiming they never should have been available in the first place. They blame a "technical glitch." [PCMag]

Samsung Is Very Skeered Of The iPhone 8 (Or Whatever It's Called)

Samsung posted strong Q2 earnings this year, but a company blog post reveals they aren't as optimistic for Q3. They expect flat sales in the second half of the year, noting intensified competition from competitors. They also plan to spend so much marketing the Galaxy S8 and S8+ that it may affect their bottom line. [BGR]

Twitter Still Sucks, Loses Even More Value

While Twitter did beat earnings expectations in Q2, things overall are still very bad for the social media mainstay. Due to a stagnant user base and declining ad revenues, the company actually lost 9% of its market value. [CNBC]

Adrian Beltre Ejected For Moving On Deck Circle

Adrian Beltre, the likely hall of fame 3rd baseman for the Texas Rangers, does not suffer fools. When an umpire instructed him to take his practice swings in the designated on deck circle last night, he did this:

Adrian Beltre is the greatest and Gerry Davis is in need of a sense of humor. pic.twitter.com/y9Mi5EMoC0  Jeff Passan (@JeffPassan) July 27, 2017

Look, no one specified that he had to stand in the circle in its original location. Nevertheless, Beltre was ejected because God forbid our national pastime actually have any fun. [Sports Illustrated]

Trump Administration Still Doing Gay Stuff

On the same day that President Trump announced a ban on transgendered people in the military, his Justice Department is urging a federal appeals court to take the position that sexual orientation is not covered by current civil rights legislation. There is, as you can expect, a lot of back and forth and citing of past precedents on both sides of the issue. [Washington Post]
The brother of a man gunned down by police after a tense stand-off at a Sydney train station had watched video of the incident online without realising it was his sibling.

Danukul Mokmool rushed into a florist at Central Station on Wednesday evening and attacked an elderly shop owner with a glass bottle in front of peak hour commuters.

Witnesses claim the Thai-born 30-year-old was armed with multiple pairs of scissors he had found in the shop when he charged at police, who shot him dead in a hail of bullets.

Speaking out the front of their family home in Heckenberg, in western Sydney, hours after Mokmool's death, his half-brother said he believes he must have 'wanted to die'.

A heartbroken Charlie Huynh said his sibling suffered mental health problems, while also revealing he had watched footage of the police shooting without realising it was his half-brother who had been shot.

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The brother of 'Dan' Mokmool (left), the man gunned down by police after a tense stand-off at a Sydney train station, watched video of the incident online without realising it was his sibling

Mokmool is seen inside the store (left) before he appears to run towards on officer (right). He is shot dead just moments later

Mr Huynh told the Sydney Morning Herald he did not know why Mokmool was in the city, but said his 'lonely' half-brother may have had 'something on his mind'.

He also told how he had seen horrifying video of Mokmool charging at police before he was shot on social media, without realising who the person in the video was.

'A friend of a friend of mine sent to our group a video and it was clear everything was perfect and I sort of saw an Asian character and I thought: "oh wow, the cops actually shot him",' he said.

'Little did I know that it ended up being my brother after all. It was pretty devastating to hear it was my brother.'

Mr Huynh said he wondered if Mokmool, who previously spent time behind bars and more recently visited a mental health facility for daily treatment, had intended to die.

'I guess he was trying to make a big scene. He told the cops to obviously shoot him. He just wanted to die I guess,' he said, the ABC reports.

'If he's telling the cops to shoot him, I'm guessing so.'

Mokmool spent time packing in factories and working as a forklift driver, while over recent months was studying at TAFE in the hope of working with computers.

One of his former employers told Daily Mail Australia he worked briefly in Sydney's west before falling off the company's radar.

Gary Walker, the marketing director at Sydney-based Belmont Timber, said Mokmool spent two months driving forklifts for the company between March and May in 2014.

Mokmool had reportedly spent time in prison and was suffering from mental health issues. His half brother said he did not know why he was in the city when he was shot on Wednesday night

His half-brother said he wondered if Mokmool, who previously spent time behind bars and more recently visited a mental health facility for daily treatment, had intended to die

'I guess he was trying to make a big scene. He told the cops to obviously shoot him. He just wanted to die I guess,' Mr Huynh (pictured) said

That was until one day, out of the blue, he failed to turn up for his shift and was never seen at work again.

'He was forklift driver and one day he just didn't turn up. He wasn't put off, he just didn't turn up,' Mr Walker told Daily Mail Australia.

'It's sad that something like this happened... but nobody remembers anything about him.

'It's common with people these days that you have a forklift licences, you put them on (staff) and then unfortunately they leave.'

Mr Huynh said Mokmool's shocked mother was flying to Australia from Thailand to be with her family.

While the horror of the incident has rocked the family, Mr Huynh said he understood why police shot his half-brother, with witnesses claiming he was armed with scissors.

Mokmool reportedly ran into a florist at Central Station with a broken bottle before he picked up a pair of scissors and threatened the elderly shop owner.

But just hours after finding himself at the centre of the attack, Emmanuel Theoharis was back at work in Central Station pulling up the roller shutters on his shop.

Recounting the terror that he witnessed in front of him, Mr Theoharis, 76, said he 'felt sorry' for Mokmool but also supported the decision police made to shoot him dead.

Emmanuel Theoharis (pictured), the elderly shop owner attacked by a man at Central Station on Wednesday night, has supported the decision by police to shoot Mokmool dead

One horrified bystander who witnessed the standoff said: 'He was shot and he was straight to the floor'

An armed man has been shot dead by police following a tense stand-off at Central Station in Sydney

'He put his hand to my neck, come [sic] from behind and put the bottle here,' Mr Theoharis told the Today Show.

'He was yelling: "Call the police, don't move, call the police".'

The elderly shop owner said the man rushed into the store and held the glass bottle to his throat, before stashing pairs of scissors he found lying on the front counter.

'When I got out (of his grasp)... he had scissors everywhere. He put some scissors in his belt, he was holding some,' Mr Theoharis said.

'If they didn't shoot him he would've attacked them with the scissors he was holding.'

But despite being left with a small cut on his throat, Mr Theoharis said he 'felt sorry' for his attacker.

'I just feel sorry for him, he lose his life, the young man,' he said.

Witnesses said the man entered a florist and held scissors to the throat of an elderly shopkeeper before telling police: 'Shoot me'

Police are seen at Central station on Wednesday night after a man was shot dead by officers

Witnesses said he stormed into a florist and held scissors to the throat of an elderly shopkeeper, before telling officers: 'Shoot me'.

'A man came from nowhere. He tried to grab an old man, the florist owner, and he was pulling him and yelling at him,' Nathan Yin told news.com.au.

'I said, ''What the f*** do you want?'' and he said, ''I just want to die''.

Horrifying footage of the seconds before the man was shot dead, show him running from the florist before being shot down in a volley of four gunshots.

The attacker then lay motionless on the ground as witnesses gasped in horror.

'F***, f***,' one distressed bystander is heard screaming.

Officers were called to the station's Eddy Avenue entrance following reports of an armed robbery just before 6:45pm on Wednesday. Police are pictured at the scene following the shooting

Police officers at the scene of a fatal shooting at Central Station in Sydney on Wednesday

Sami Aryal, who works nearby, told ABC News four or five officers surrounded the florist amid the chaos.

'One of the policemen went inside the shop and as soon as the man was about to run, I saw the policeman shooting him,' she said.

'He was shot and he was straight to the floor.'

Police said they had been initially called to scene just before 7.00pm, amid reports of an ongoing armed robbery.
A furious Hungry Jack's customer was left hungry and 'incomplete' when her veggie burger didn't come out quite as it should have.

Tara Marsden had ordered the vegetarian burger to go from the fast food chain on Wednesday when her ordeal began.

The Melbourne woman says she discovered she had been 'deprived' of half a bun after receiving her order, and vented her frustration on social media.

Outraged: Tara Marsden, of Melbourne, shared her disappointment online when she was given a veggie burger which was missing a key ingredient

The offending burger (pictured) was missing the bottom half of its bun, leaving Ms Marsden to wonder why

'I was left hungry today when the staff decided to deprive me of my bun that should have been on the bottom of my burger,' she began.

Ms Marsden admitted she had taken the missing bottom bun personally, and questioned whether it was the staff taking a jab at her figure.

Soon after, she admitted it may have just been a case of human error.

'I think they looked at me and thought I could go without some of those carbs - or maybe they got confused with my veggie pattie being a bread bun,' she wrote.

Pictured: The Hungry Jack's veggie burger - as it is meant to appear

Despite her own personal woes, Ms Marsden said it was most important that she and the restaurant get to the bottom of her missing bun - for the safety of others.

'I would like to get to the bottom of this as it looks like there's a rogue bun on the loose,' she concluded.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Hungry Jack's for comment.
Police have arrested two people during early morning drug raids in Sydney's outer north-west aimed at dismantling trafficking on the dark web.

Officers attended a home in Wilberforce at around 5.30am on Thursday to execute a search warrant.

They arrested a man, 23, and a 21-year-old woman, an NSW police spokesman told Daily Mail Australia.

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Police have arrested two people during early morning drug raids in Sydney's outer north-west aimed at dismantling trafficking on the dark web.

They seized materials that were allegedly used to make and sell drugs on the dark web, Nine News reports.

'Two people have been arrested following a search warrant in Wilberforce,' an NSW Police spokesman said.

'Officers from Hawkesbury Local Area Command attended a home in Hawkins Place at about 5.30am to execute a search warrant.

'A 23-year-old man and a 21-year-old woman were arrested and taken to Windsor Police Station, where they are currently assisting police with their enquiries.'
A prisoner who escaped from Rikers Island in New York City on Wednesday night has been captured after an hours-long search, police said.

Naquan Hill, 24, was found by corrections officers early Thursday morning after putting Rikers Island on lockdown for several hours when he hopped a barbed wire fence.

While it was initially thought that Hill might try to swim off the island, officials later said it was unlikely because the current is too strong, according to the New York Post.

Rikers Island is a high security detention center in Queens

An aerial view of Rikers Island from a flight leaving LaGuardia airport

Hill has six burglary arrests since 2010, and the police confirm the most recent was May 15. He's spent four years in state prison for a burglary in Queens according to prison records.

Port Authority Police combed the area between the high-security detention center in Queens and LaGuardia Airport looking for Hill.

Shortly after Hill escaped, a spokesperson for the Department of Corrections, Peter Thore, told Dailymail.com: 'This evening, on Rikers Island, it appears an inmate did not return from outdoor recreation.'

'A thorough investigation is underway, which includes an active search for this individual in coordination with NYPD,' Thore added.

The Port Authority Police are sweeping the area of LaGuardia airport where the inmate may have tried to swim to

'Rikers Island facilities have been placed on lock-down and we are talking to anyone who may be involved.'

A source in the Department of Corrections added 'around 7:30pm, the Rikers Island staff noticed our headcount was off by one.'

The escapee was thought to have gone to the recreational yard and jumped over a fence, potentially into the rough waters of the East River.

'There were six inmates who went out to the rec yard, while there was still some daylight,' a source said to the New York Post. 'Only five came back.'
A newsreader has slipped up live on air, dropping the F-bomb one minute after he thought he had finished the bulletin.

After finishing with what he thought was the end of the bulletin, New Zealand news presenter Eric Young said 'good night' before shocking the audience while still live on television.

Young can be seen on camera looking down before a man can be heard off camera telling the news anchor he was 'so so sorry'.

New Zealand newsreader Eric Young (pictured) was caught dropping the f-bomb live on air

Young (pictured) and a man off camera got into a discussion about there being no weather segment on the bulletin before saying 'oh f*** absolutely'

Puzzled, Young asked the man off camera 'where was the weather?' which was replied with 'it had to go' because they were already three minutes over.

The man off camera can be heard apologising about not running the weather for the Wednesday news bulletin several times to Young.

'We got out on time, there's no weather - I'm unbelievably embarrassed by this ... because I would have dropped that brain story,' the man off camera said.

'Oh f*** absolutely,' Young said.

Prime News New Zealand anchorman (pictured) was caught giving the two finger salute to a camera man live on air six years ago

Three seconds later the bulletin was cut and a guide of the television shows scheduled for the evening flashed on the screen.

However this is not the first time the news veteran has slipped up while live on air.

In 2011, Young was delivering the sport segment before being caught flipping a double finger salute to the camera man, which he later apologised for.



Social media users were generally amused (pictured) by slip up on Wednesday night's bulletin

Many social media users were disappointed about missing the weather (pictured) but the slip up made up for it

The live television f-bomb happened seconds before producers cut to a television guide
Dozens of Transgender members of the US military have spoken out after President Donald Trump said they would be barred from serving 'in any capacity' on Wednesday.

'I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military,' US Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland told the Air Force Times.

A Marine military police officer who asked not to be named also told the Times: 'I have never described myself as trans; I'm a motherf***ing Marine. That's all that matters. Don't tarnish my title with your bigotry and fear of the unknown.'

'I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military,' US Air Force Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland (pictured in uniform, left, and right) said Wednesday

Trump's announcement that he would bar transgender people from serving in the military is a reversal of a policy instituted in the last year of Obama's administration (pictured, Obama with Ireland and wife Laila Ireland, who is also trans)

During the last year of the Obama administration, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter instituted a policy allowing transgender people to serve openly in the military.

But he also gave the military a year to come up with a way to implement the policy.

On Wednesday morning, Trump was intent on reversing that policy, sending out a series of tweets saying transgender people wouldn't be allowed to serve in the U.S. military 'in any capacity'.

'After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow.. transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

'Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail,' Trump wrote.

'Thank you,' he concluded.

Despite the president's announcement, Ireland vowed to continue serving, saying: 'You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.'

President Donald Trump tweeted about a new U.S. military policy on transgender individuals Wednesday morning

Army Reservist Rudy Akbarian, 26, said he would not leave the armed forces without a fight.

His chain-of-command was supportive of him as he transitioned from female to male.

Now, he said: 'Everybody is hurt. Everybody is scared. This is people's lives we're talking about. People who enlisted nearly 20 years ago and now 18 or 19 years in, now that's being taken away and they don't get to retire?'

Blake Dremann, 36, a transgender, active-duty Navy lieutenant commander in Washington, said he will continue to serve 'regardless of what was said today.'

'Trans service members are continuing to do our jobs,' said Dremann, president of SPARTA a trans advocacy group.

Blake Dremann (left), is an active-duty Navy lieutenant commander said he will continue to serve 'regardless of what was said today'. Rudy Akbarian (right), questioned whether trans service members would be allowed to retire

Sgt. Jack Schuler, a transgender man serving as a chemical operations specialist in the Army Reserve, told the Air Force Times: 'I love serving this country and its people. I love being a part of this military family.

'My dream is to retire after a long career. I'm not going anywhere, anytime soon.'

Not everyone was so confident, however. US Army Staff Sgt. Patricia King, who has served three tours in Afghanistan, wrote: 'Did I just get fired...via tweet?'

She added: 'This is a concerning turn of events. Please keep trans service members in your prayers and call your representatives.'

Trump's announcement did not acknowledge what would happen to the 15,000 trans people already serving in the military.

It is unclear exactly how President Trump's new policy will affect transgender people already serving. In a short statement, the Pentagon said it will work with the White House and 'will provide revised guidance to the department in the near future.'

Combat veteran Shane Ortega, who served in the Army and Marines for more than a decade said Trump was using trans service members as a pawn to distract from the Russia probe

Combat veteran Shane Ortega, who served in the Army and Marines for more than a decade, told MSNBC: 'My immediate reaction was this is a completely egotistical move on behalf of Donald Trump.'

Ortega went on to say he thought Trump was using transgender service members as a 'pawn' to 'invoke some sort of emotional reaction from the public to circumvent his own investigations.'

He added that troops who are forced out may get a bad conduct discharge for being transgender, jeopardizing their VA benefits and future.

'That's the equivalent of being a convicted felon in American society,' said Ortega, 30, who transitioned to a male in 2009, seven years before leaving the military after serving multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. 'They will not get gainful employment.'

Paula M. Neira (right), who left the Navy in 1991 and transitioned to female after leaving active duty, said she was angry at Trump's announcement

Paula M. Neira, who left the Navy in 1991 and transitioned to female after leaving active duty, said she was angry at Trump's announcement. It brought up bad memories for the naval officer, who served on Sept. 11, 2001.

She said the commander in chief is sending the message that the country does not want transgender troops.

'Nobody who is willing to volunteer to defend our country should ever be told that they're not fit because of other people's prejudice, and not because of any military necessity,' she said.

Veteran Alaina Kupec, a Navy intelligence officer from 1992 until 1995, said she felt 'heartbreak' after she heard about Trump's tweet. The 48-year-old transitioned to life as a woman in 2013.

'It just really saddened me for the transgender sailors and soldiers who are serving around the world today and are selflessly giving themselves to protect our country,' said Kupec, who lives in Orange, New Jersey.

Air Force veteran Vanessa Sheridan said transgender people have always served in the military but now they are going to have to hide their identities if there is a new policy.

'My biggest concern now is going to be that transgender people are going to be forced back into the closet,' said Sheridan, a transgender woman who works as an LGBT activist in Chicago.

Emma Shinn, 41, (above) a transgender woman who served in the Marine Corps for 20 years before retiring in 2014, said it was incredibly stressful to work under the military's previous policy that banned LGBT service members

Emma Shinn, 41, a transgender woman who served in the Marine Corps for 20 years before retiring in 2014, said it was incredibly stressful to work under the military's previous policy that banned LGBT service members.

'It creates a gulf between the service member and his or her fellow Marines,' said Shinn, who lives in Castle Rock, Colorado.

What matters most is if 'you have my back in a firefight,' Shinn said.
A family have been told to remove their second driveway by the local council because their front yard is too small, setting them back tens of thousands of dollars.

Matt and Nicole Fowler said a building inspector cleared the Gold Coast property of having any compliance issues when they bought the home six months ago.

But the couple claim the Gold Coast City Council have now doubled down, threatening to report the building for having an unapproved garage.

A family have been told to remove their second driveway by the local council because their front yard is too small

'They said if you don't dig it up, we're going to report you to the Building Compliance Commission because your carport wasn't approved to be a garage,' she told the Gold Coast Bulletin.

The pair are now facing an estimated $30,000 bill to rip up the driveway, re-turf it and transform the garage into an approved carport.

'It's about $15,000 to get a Bobcat and a truck here to dig it up and another $15,000, easy, to pull three walls down of the garage and the rolling door,' Mr Fowler said.

Rules posted on the Gold Coast Council's website clearly state that a home may only have two driveways 'when the road frontage at the kerb is at least 40m.'

The Fowler's property spans just 17 metres, less than half the required length.

'Our officers identified the property has an unapproved driveway while conducting work in the street,' a council spokesman told the Bulletin.

'The owner must undertake work to rectify it.'

Social media users were quick to side with the Fowlers, encouraging the couple to report the building inspector for not identifying the issues in the first place.
A young woman who claimed she was gang raped by four teenage boys at a party in 2012 says she feels 'numb' after the group were found not guilty.

Christian Dickens, 22, Aaron Jensen, 23, and two other 21-year-old men who cannot be named were on Wednesday acquitted by a jury over the alleged incident.

The four were accused of raping the then 15-year-old girl during a house party in the Blue Mountains, an hour west of Sydney, in October 2012.

But the group walked free from the Downing Centre District Court on Wednesday, with the woman telling Nine News their acquittal had taken a toll.

Christian Dickens (pictured), 22, walks free from Sydney's Downing Centre on Wednesday after he and four other men were acquitted by a jury over an alleged 2012 rape

Mr Dickens, Aaron Jensen (pictured), 23, and two other 21-year-old men who cannot be named were all acquitted of

'It has affected my schooling, my emotional state, my mental state, physical everything,' she said.

The woman, who had been drinking at the party, claimed the four had laughed at her during the alleged rape.

She also claimed they had told her: 'Shut up, you love it'.

Judge Leonie Flannery discharged the jury as the accused men's families applauded the verdicts on Wednesday.

The four co-accused smiled and hugged family members as they walked out of the dock.

Outside court, a relieved Dickens said: 'Not guilty's great... it's about time'.

He said it was 'heartbreaking' when the jury delivered its verdicts, some seven weeks after the Crown opened its case.

Another of the acquitted who cannot be named said he too felt 'very' relieved.

The woman, who had been drinking at the party, claimed the four had laughed at her during the alleged rape. She also claimed they had told her: 'Shut up, you love it'

The woman said their acquittal had taken a toll. 'It has affected my schooling, my emotional state, my mental state, physical everything,' she said

Despite being disappointed at the verdict, the woman said it was important girls and women who find themselves in similar circumstances notify police.

'Just make a report to police, whether you make a statement or not,' she said.

'Or go to a psychologist and get some sort of help because it's really hard to do it by yourself.'
A Queensland mother accused of trying to kill her infant daughter says she falsely confessed because she 'wanted to be locked up' and spare her family the trauma of criminal proceedings.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered 'catastrophic' brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010.

Sarah died in March 2012 from unknown causes that are not part of the allegations against Watterson.

Ashleigh Meagan Watterson (pictured on Thursday) has pleaded not guilty to the attempted murder of four-month-old Sarah, who suffered 'catastrophic' brain injuries when she was deprived of oxygen in late 2010

In a sometimes emotional testimony, the accused woman told the Brisbane Supreme Court she considered taking her own life after charges were laid in June 2013.

'Because I did not want to commit suicide, I thought of a way of ending the whole turmoil for my family,' she said on Thursday.

'I felt tiny compared to the investigation that I had against me.'

The court heard this led Watterson to give false statements to police even though she knew she 'hadn't done anything to Sarah'.

In a sometimes emotional testimony, Watterson told the Brisbane Supreme Court she considered taking her own life after charges were laid in June 2013

'Because I did not want to commit suicide, I thought of a way of ending the whole turmoil for my family,' she said on Thursday

She also said the content of messages and conversations before the court, alleged by the prosecution to be admissions of guilt, was 'completely incorrect'.

Asked why she did this, Watterson said: 'Because I wanted it to come to an end for my family. I wanted to be locked up.'

Watterson eventually did make a series of suicide attempts in 2014, including at Redcliffe Hospital and a Caboolture mental health facility, it was heard.

'I was in a bad way,' she said of the time.

It came after Watterson described being unable to wash herself or get out of bed in the period after she was charged.

Asked why she did this, Watterson (right) said: 'Because I wanted it to come to an end for my family. I wanted to be locked up.'

Her functioning was 'very limited' despite efforts by her then husband Mark Watterson (right and left) to make her feel better, she said

Ashleigh Watterson (right) leaves the Supreme Court in Brisbane, Monday, March 6, 2017

Her functioning was 'very limited' despite efforts by her husband Mark to make her feel better, she said.

Sometime after her arrest, she said the pair, now separated, drove down towards Sydney and he asked 'straight out' if she had harmed Sarah.

'I said no,' Watterson said.

The trial continues.

Readers seeking support and information about suicide prevention can contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Trump's new Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci denied accusing White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus of leaking his financial details on Wednesday night - and deleted a cryptic tweet that was widely interpreted as such.

Scaramucci deleted the tweet which read: 'In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,' tagging Priebus's account,' two hours after posting it at 10.30pm.

Before it was removed, the message had been interpreted by White House observers as a threat to Priebus.

It was in reference to a report published earlier in the evening which revealed details of Scaramucci's financial disclosure form.

The form, that was filed with the Office of Government Ethics revealed that the 53-year-old earned $10million between January and June from his private investment firm SkyBridge capital. It showed his total assets to be worth $85million.

The financial disclosures of White House officials including the president are listed on the office's website and any member of the public can request to view a copy of Scaramucci's form once it becomes available.

Despite this, he considered the sharing of his information a crime and believed it was proof of the gushing leaks coming from the administration - something he had spent the day vowing to put an end to in television interviews.

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Newly minted White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci suffered a severe lapse in communication on Wednesday night when he appeared to accuse Reince Priebus of leaking his financial details then denied ever doing so and deleted the tweet which sparked the speculation

The confusion began with this tweet, posted by Scaramucci at around 11pm in which he appeared to accuse Priebus of leaking his financial disclosure to the media. He has since deleted the post

Shortly before 1am, Scaramucci posted a denial. He claimed he only tagged Priebus in the original tweet to prove they were united in tackling the leaks. He promptly deleted the first post

Just before 1am, he attempted to issue a correction and claimed that he'd only included Priebus in the tweet to show that they were united in their clampdown on leakers.

'Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45'.

No other senior members of the administration were tagged.

The severe lapse in communication comes in the middle of his first week as the new White House communications director and on the back of a dinner with President Trump, First Lady Melania, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox exec Bill Shine.

It was prompted by a report in Politico which detailed how Scaramucci earned $10million between January and June this year from his private investment firm, SkyBridge Capital.

The financial disclosure was filed with the US Office of Government Ethics which publishes the financial disclosures of the president and the vice president and lists those of Priebus and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on its website.

In his tweet, Scaramucci appeared to be under the impression that it was a crime for the information to have been put in the public domain.

After his first post, Twitter users went into overdrive speculating over what he meant

New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza, purporting knowledge on the subject, appeared to confirm their suspicions

He reported earlier that Scaramucci had spent the evening dining with the president, the first lady and Sean Hannity

After he posted it,The New York Times asked Scaramucci why he believed it was a crime for his to have been shared, pointing out that in theory, because he submitted it on June 23, it is available for request from July 23.

He replied: 'They arent in process yet,' meaning someone had leaked them to Politico before they were supposed to go into the public domain.

The head of the ethics office, Walter M. Shaub Jr, stepped down last Thursday after failing to see eye-to-eye with the Trump administration for months.

Scaramucci's was not listed on the office's website on Wednesday night.

Scaramucci was mocked for believing it was a crime for the information to have been leaked

Politico's report indicates that he holds an ownership stake in SkyBridge Capital, a private investment firm which he founded in 2005.

His ownership stake paid him $4.9million between January and June and he collected another $5million in salary payments during the same period, according to Politico's report.

SkyBridge announced in January that it was being sold to the Chinese conglomerate HNA.

In an announcement of that sale, the company said Scaramucci would be stepping down as one of its managing directors but he is still listed as such on its website.

The deal has still not been finalized and is being looked-over by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

With his sights set on a role in Washington, Scaramucci moved to DC in June as an employee of Export-Import bank. He immediately took an unpaid leave of absence and has not collected any of his $172,000 salary.

Scaramucci made $10million between January and June this year from his ownership stake in and salary from SkyBridge Capital, the private investment fund he founded in 2005

Before Politico published its report on Wednesday evening, Scaramucci appeared to be on a high from a busy day on the Hill in his new role.

He participated in several television interviews for both British and American networks. They included an appearance on Hannity where he said he had evidence the leaks - of which there have been 125 since the start of Trump's presidency - appeared to be coming from the top down.

'One of the big problems that Im discovering is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them.

'I'm very proud to be reporting directly to the president so I can hermetically seal off the [communications] team from this sort of nonsense,' Scaramucci said.

'Some people think we're naive. I know I'm in a cesspool called Washington or a swamp called Washington so it'll be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak but we're taking dramatic steps to get rid of the leaks.'

In an interview with the BBC, he told of how he worked for '30 years to join the global elite' in Washington.

He also lamented the 'tough town' and how it appeared to foster backstabbing, telling more than one interviewer proudly: 'I'm a front stabber'.

Watch the latest video at <a href="//video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

Scaramucci appeared on Hannity hours before the tweet to tell of his plan to crackdown on the leaks

Hannity, who spoke with Scaramucci on the subject hours earlier, welcomed his announcement

It had been a busy day for the new White House Communications Director. Earlier, gave a fiery interview with the BBC's Emily Maitlis, during which he said of his new job: 'I'm having a lot of fun'

Priebus was rumored to have been against Scaramucci's hiring from the beginning. A more conservative member of the GOP, he vouched for Spicer and was disheartened by his sudden resignation last week.

Scaramucci cryptically acknowledged the tensions between them in May, telling Business Insider: 'I have one or two people who obviously don't favor me, but that's okay, that's politics.

'I'm not the first person to get hit in politics, and I won't be the last.'

It was previously reported that the president was unimpressed with Priebus's performance as Chief of Staff.

In June, Politico reported that he'd given him until July 4 to clean up the administration and put an end to the gushing leaks and constant infighting.
A mother reportedly left town days before her five children disappeared  and police believe the father of one of them has taken off with them.

The children were last seen in the town of Orbost, around 90km from their home in Bairnsdale, on Monday.

Their mother, who is from Katherine, left for the Northern Territory and Victoria police have contacted authorities there in a bid to locate the woman, news.com.au reports.

A mother reportedly left town days before her five children disappeared  and police believe the father of one of them has taken off with them. Above, the three girls

Police are concerned for the welfare of the children  Savannah Tomlins, 13, Indiana Bohning, 11, Charli-Beth Dargie, nine, D'Artgan Clark, seven, and five-year-old Lynkon Quigley.

They believe the children may be with Raymond Gooch, of Bairnsdale, who is the father of the five-year-old and stepfather to the others.

He may be travelling in a green 1997 Holden Commodore sedan with the registration number 1KC4OB.

Warrants have been issued for 41-year-old Gooch's arrest in connection to a breach of a court order.

Police believe the children may be with Raymond Gooch (left), who is the father of five-year-old Lynkon and stepfather to the others

The kids were last seen on Monday. Above, Lynkon Quigley (left) and DArtagan Clark (right)

Gooch, who is also known as Quigley, is known to frequent the Bairnsdale and Latrobe Valley areas, police said.

He is described as 180cm tall with blue/grey eyes and short brown hair.

Anyone with information is urged to call Bairnsale police on 03 5150 2600 or submit a confidential report at www.crimestoppersvic.com.au
Think you know how to speak like a true blue Aussie, then you could land yourself a job with an international online retailer.

Online retailer Amazon are on the hunt for 'Australian English' speakers with an Australian background to join their data team.

While the role is not specified, it will include speech and language data, transcription, text annotation and general data analysis.

Online retailer Amazon (pictured) are on the hunt for speakers of 'Australian English'

Amazon (pictured) are after linguists with an Australian background to join their data team

The position is one of many up for grabs alongside roles for Canadian French, American English and Canadian English speakers.

For many English speakers who don't have an American accent, talking to devices with voice recognition can be difficult.

Amazon, based in America, are hiring more diverse English speaking linguists so devices have the ability to recognise a wider variety of accents.

'If people like Google, Apple and Amazon are putting money into this stuff, localisation needs to be part of it,' Monash University lecturer Simon Musgrave told New York Times.

'They're going to need a body of recordings from Australians with good annotations that connect audio to meaning.'

The Australian accent differs from American English significantly where the 'r' sound is not pronounced.

The linguists will help Amazon (pictured) make talking to voice recognition easier for people with Australian English accents

Australian English has a lot of diphones and triphones with a lot of vowels in the same space which may make it difficult for a computer device to recognise.

To get a job at Amazon as an Australian English speaker, some of the qualifications people must have according to the website include linguistics experience, excellent proficiency in Australian English in both verbal and written skills, comfortable with working with speech from various accents and be willing to work with audio content and wear headsets most of the day.
A white Mercedes used in the execution of underworld figure Walid 'Mr Big' Ahmad was allegedly supplied by a criminal syndicate that is accused of stealing 11 high-performance vehicles across Sydney.

Two men, aged 20 and 21, were arrested on Wednesday during early morning raids in Greystanes and Plumpton for their alleged involvement in the theft syndicate, which police claim sold on stolen cars.

Their arrest follows a lengthy investigation into a streak of break-ins across Sydney and the Central Coast by the NSW Property Crime Squad's Motor Unit.

Five trail bikes, 11 high-performance cars, and other property totalling $680,000 were allegedly taken.

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A white Mercedes (pictured) used in the murder of underworld figure Walid Ahmad was allegedly supplied by a criminal syndicate that is accused of stealing high-performance vehicles across Sydney

Two men, aged 20 and 21, (pictured) were arrested on Wednesday during early morning raids in Greystanes and Plumpton for their alleged involvement in the theft syndicate, which police claim on-sold stolen cars

One of the cars allegedly stolen by the syndicate - a white Mercedes AMG - was used as a getaway car by Ahman's hitman (pictured moments before Ahman was attacked)

Ahmad was gunned down at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre in April 2016

'Investigators believe that the stolen vehicles were then on-sold and used in the commission of a number of other serious offences, of which the investigations are ongoing,' police said in a release.

One of the cars allegedly sold on by the syndicate - a white Mercedes AMG - has been linked to the murder of gangland figure Walid Ahmad, according to The Daily Telegraph.

Ahmad was gunned down at Bankstown Central Shopping Centre in April 2016. The Mercedes was used as a getaway car by Ahman's hitman.

There is no suggestion the two men arrested on Wednesday knew the vehicle's intended purpose.

The Mercedes was later discovered by police. It had been set on fire and abandoned.

It is believed fellow gangland figure and hitman Hamad Assaad had targeted Ahman. Assaad was later murdered in his driveway.

The Mercedes was later discovered by police. It had been set on fire and abandoned (pictured)

Pictured is the moment a hitman began shooting at Ahmad while he sat inside the Bankstown Central Shopping Centre

It is believed fellow gangland figure and hitman Hamad Assaad (pictured) had targeted Ahman. Assaad was later murdered in his driveway

There is no suggestion the two men arrested on Wednesday knew the vehicle's intended purpose (pictured)

Detectives with NSW's Property Crime Squad's Motor Unit began investigating a streak of thefts of high-performance cars across Sydney and the Central Coast in January (pictured)

One of the men was seen wearing short blue shorts, a small grey hooded jumper and no shoes as he was escorted from one of the homes (pictured)

The 21-year-old man arrested this week has been charged with four counts of dispose motor vehicle, where theft is serious indictable offence; and knowingly deal in the proceeds of crime.

The 20-year-old man was charged with 14 counts of aggravated break and enter, 11 counts of steal motor vehicle, and knowingly deal in the proceeds of crime.

One of the men was seen wearing short blue shorts, a small grey hooded jumper and no shoes as he was escorted from one of the homes.

The second man, who has long hair, was seen holding his hands to his face as detectives arrested him.

They were denied bail at local courts in Mt Druitt and Fairfield, respectively.

The second man, who has long hair, was seen looking down and held his hands to his face as detectives arrested him

Detectives are seen with their guns drawn as they approached one of the west Sydney homes
The U.S. Pacific Fleet commander would be willing to nuke China next week - provided the President ordered him to do so.

Admiral Scott Swift also warned that any country whose military is not bound by civilian control has 'a really significant problem.'

Adm. Scott made the statement during a question and answer session at an Australian National University security conference on Thursday.

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Admiral Scott Swift was asked whether he would nuke China next week during a question and answer session in Australia following joint military exercises. He said that he would, because every member of the military has sworn an oath to serve the President

The conference came after a major joint training exercise by the Australian and American navies which was closely monitored by Chinese vessels.

Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Trump ordered it, Swift replied: 'The answer would be: Yes.'

'Every member of the U.S. military has sworn an oath to defend the constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the United States as commander and chief appointed over us,' Swift said.

He added: 'This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.'

Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt. Charlie Brown later clarified Swift's remarks.

Admiral Swift told the audience that military subservience to civilian authority is 'core to the American democracy' and that any country whose army feels it does not have to obey elected officials 'has a significant problem'

'The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military,' Brown said.

'The premise of the question was ridiculous.'

The biennial Talisman Saber exercise involved 36 warships including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, 220 aircraft and 33,000 military personnel.

It was monitored by a Chinese People's Liberation intelligence vessel from within Australia's 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Swift said China had similarly sent an intelligence ship into the U.S. exclusive economic zone around Hawaii during the Pacific Fleet-hosted multinational naval exercise in 2014.

China had a legal right to enter the American economic zone for military purposes under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which defines the rights and responsibilities of nations sailing the world's oceans, he said.

Governments needed to engage with Beijing to understand why the Chinese did not accept that the United States had the same access rights within China's exclusive economic zone, Swift said.
Joshua Dylan Thorburn, the foster brother of slain Brisbane schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, has been sentenced to three months behind bars.

Thorburn, whose father Richard has been charged with Tiahleighs murder, pleaded guilty to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

The court heard Thorburn, 21, twice gave misleading statements to police and lied to a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing investigating the alleged crime.

Josh Thorburn (pictured), the foster brother of slain Brisbane schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, has pleaded guilty to perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice

Josh Thorburn (pictured) will be sentenced in the Beenleigh District Court on the charges relating to the alleged murder of 12-year-old Tiahleigh in late 2015

The court heard Thorburn came home on the night of 12-year-old Tialeighs alleged murder to a family meeting where she was discussed.

Thorburns lawyers claimed that while his father did not make a specific threat, he was terrified of what his father would do and thats why he lied.

Tiahleighs decomposing body was found on the banks of a northern Gold Coast river in November 2015, a week after she was last seen alive.

The charges against Thorburn related to two instances of giving false statements to police and then making false testimony at a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing.

Thorburn's father Rick has been charged with Tiahleigh's murder, while his mother Julene and younger brother Trent are also facing charges over the alleged crime.

Tiahleigh's birth mother, Cindy Palmer, arrived at court flanked by family and friends.

The grandmother(left) of Joshua Thorburn, the foster brother of slain Brisbane schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer, leaves Beenleigh court after Thorburn's sentencing

Cindy Palmer (left), mother of of slain Brisbane schoolgirl Tiahleigh Palmer leaves Beenleigh court

Family and friends of Joshua Thorburn, who was sentenced to three months behind bars

Thorburn's father Rick has been charged with Tiahleigh's (pictured) murder while his mother Julene and younger brother Trent are also facing charges over the alleged crime

Ms Palmer wore a white shirt with the slogan '#Justice 4 Tiahleigh'.

Other supporters donned similar items of clothing, their t-shirts reading 'In Loving Memory of Tiahleigh'.

More to come
A New Zealand teenager who used her hair to express herself was quickly shut down by her high school, who found the bright colour in breach of their uniform policy.

So desperate were they to resolve the issue, they even gifted her a box of black hair dye so she could change her hair colour back - before she went to class.

Macy Sutcliffe, 15, told Stuff she had dyed her hair on a whim during the school holidays, and immediately felt a benefit.

Macy Sutcliffe (pictured) came to school with bright pink hair after the holidays and was then given a box of black dye by the school and asked to change it. Though she complied, her hair was soon a bright shade of red

'It actually made me feel like who I was and helped find who I am, expressing myself  now I feel boring and not like who I am,' she said.

Her mother, Debbie Dixon, agreed the hair colour change had helped her daughter

'She was quite different when it was pink, in a good way,' she said.

The Year 11 student had been warned by the school that her brightly coloured tresses were not within the dress code.

Shortly after, Ms Sutcliffe was taken out of class and asked to dye her hair black before she could return to the classroom.

Ms Sutcliffe has since settled on a dark violet colour which is acceptable to the school board (pictured)

Though she initially complied, it was not long until Ms Sutcliffe had found herself drawn back towards a bright colour, and chose a cherry red shade - also in breach of the uniform code.

She has since settled on an 'acceptable' dark violet.

Nayland College principal Daniel Wilson said every school in the area included hair colour in their dress code, and denied Ms Sutcliffe had been forced to change her hair.

'When the student was assisted by the school to recolour her hair it was with full communication, cooperation and permission of the parent and the student,' he said.

'At the time we believed we were doing the student a favour to assist her to meet the expectation set by the Board of Trustees.'

Since Ms Sutcliffe's brush with the Board, they have agreed to take suggestions on the uniform policy once a year.
A man accused of a violent road rage attack was kicked out of court for refusing to say his name  before giving a bizarre interview to reporters outside.

Rujero McRae fronted Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after allegedly ramming a car across three lanes of traffic on the Riverside Highway earlier this month.

But during the hearing, he refused to say his name and was kicked out, according to Seven News.

Rujero McRae fronted Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after allegedly ramming a car across three lanes of traffic on the Riverside Highway earlier this month

A warrant was then issued for his arrest.

'I gave them a life lesson 101, a little left jab in the mouth, f*** all,' McRae told Seven News outside court.

'Anyone else would've smashed all their teeth out 'cause of how cheeky they were. They were taunting me.'

He added: 'I think those fellas got off lightly, anyone else would've demolished them.'

During the hearing, he refused to say his name and was kicked out - but then gave a bizarre interview to reporters outside

McRae, 31, allegedly attempted to assault a passenger in a vehicle before violently ramming the car across traffic lanes on the Riverside Expressway on July 13.

Police allege he jumped from his car onto the second car's bonnet, where he stomped on the windscreen and punched the 23-year-old male passenger through the window.

Another man who tried to assist the victim was also allegedly assaulted by McRae before he left the scene.

McRae was charged with two counts of assault occasioning bodily harm and one count each of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle, wilful damage, public nuisance and unlicensed driving.
Comedian Tiffany Haddish has come under fire for an awkward joke about still wanting to work with Bill Cosby - despite the allegations made against him.

The 37-year-old Girls Trip star joked about the alleged sex offender during a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times.

When asked to rattle off some of her comedic inspirations, Haddish replied: 'Bill Cosby - I still want to work with Bill Cosby.

'I don't care, I'll drink the juice. I'll drink the juice. I'll take a nap. I don't give a damn.'

Comedian Tiffany Haddish has come under fire for an awkward joke about still wanting to work with Bill Cosby

She continued, after taking a pause to laugh about her Cosby joke: 'But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something.'

Haddish went on to list a number of other inspirational figures in her career, including Richard Pryor, Lenny Bruce, Carol Burnett, Moms Mabley, and Regina Hall.

Shortly after the interview was published, people on social media began attacking the comedian for her joke.

'Tiffany Haddish basically said she would let Cosby drug and rape her just so she can work with him in a movie,' one person wrote.

When asked to rattle off some of her comedic inspirations, Haddish (left) replied: 'Bill Cosby - I still want to work with Bill Cosby'

Haddish was quickly attacked on social media as the joke she made during the interview was shared around

'Wait. Tiffany Haddish said she still wants to work w/ Bill Cosby? Girl...,' another tweeted.

'I've been rooting hard for Tiffany Haddish but I find nothing funny about her making light of Bill Cosby drugging women,' another tweeter said.

'Tiffany Haddish just broke my damn heart. Just no girl. No. We don't make Cosby jokes. We don't want to work with him,' another added.

However, some stuck up for Haddish and her joke.

'I like Tiffany Haddish. I don't like that she said she's inspired by Bill Cosby and wants to work with him, but I like her,' one of her defenders said.

Cosby will be retried on three charges of assault starting November 6 of this year, after he avoided a conviction on Father's Day weekend as a jury declared itself hopelessly deadlocked on charges he drugged and molested a woman more than a decade ago.

The 80-year-old is accused of abusing more than 50 women.
Legendary musician Red Symons remains 'as sharp as ever', despite suffering a brain injury following a 'significant' fall early this month.

The former Skyhooks rocker turned ABC radio host continues to recover following a 'sudden lack of consciousness' that led him to fall and hit his head the pavement.

But despite the seriousness of the accident, the 68-year-old has his sights set on a come back to radio his ABC Melbourne colleague John Faine told his listeners on Thursday.

Legendary musician turned ABC radio star Red Symons (pictured) remains 'as sharp as ever', despite suffering a brain injury following a 'significant' fall early this month.

John Faine, a long term colleague and friend of Symons, said: 'He's working at coming back as soon as he can'. (Symons is pictured with his wife Elly)

'He's working at coming back as soon as he can,' Faine, a long-term colleague and friend of Symons, said.

'The bottom line is he's had a significant injury to his brain... [but] he hasn't lost any function.'

Although the news is positive, an ABC spokesperson told The Age that the popular TV and radio personality is expected to be off-air for a considerable length of time.

Last week, his colleague Warwick Tiernan read a statement on Monday on behalf of Symons.

'When walking home from the supermarket I experienced a sudden lack of consciousness,' the statement said.

'This resulted in a fall, with my head hitting the pavement. I am currently in hospital, thankful to be receiving the best of medical attention and working on a speedy recovery.

'I'm sorry for this unexpected absence but I do look forward to getting back to work as soon as possible.'

A long-term ratings winner in Victoria, Symons made headlines weeks before his fall after a bizarre interview with ABC journalist and producer Beverley Wang.

Music royalty, Symons is pictured with Molly Meldrum at the 52nd TV Week Logie Awards in 2010

Ms Wang was a guest on a ABC radio program to discuss her podcast about 'racism, identity, culture and difference'.

The interview with Symons was awkward from the outset, with him admitting he had not listened to the podcast and telling Ms Wang he was upset because he wanted to launch a similar show.

'Except my segment was called ''What's the deal with Asians'',' Symons said.

But Symons wasn't finished there and went on to ask Canada-born Ms Wang if she's 'yellow'.

He later apologised for the awkward interview, admitting he came across as racist.
Two men working on separate construction sites have been struck by lighting during a storm that passed overhead on Thursday afternoon.

A man in his 50s, who was operating on crane on Franklin St in Adelaide was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital by a colleague and is reportedly 'okay'.

Earlier in the day, a tradesman in his 30s was rushed to Flinders Hospital after a metal object he was standing next to was struck by lightning.

The workplace of the older man has been shut down for the day.

Two men working on separate construction sites have been struck by lighting during a storm that passed overhead on Thursday afternoon

A man in his 50s, who was operating on crane on Franklin St in Adelaide was taken to the Royal Adelaide Hospital by a colleague and is reportedly 'okay'

'He shouldn't have been in that position,' Cartledge said, adding that all crane work on the site had ceased because of their lack of policy

'The crane chaser was hanging on to the chains on the hook and because it had steel chains, he's got a zap,' Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Aaron Cartledge said

'He shouldn't have been in that position,' Cartledge said, adding that all crane work on the site had ceased because of their lack of policy.

'The crane chaser was hanging on to the chains on the hook and because it had steel chains, he's got a zap,' Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union state secretary Aaron Cartledge told Adelaide Now.

Three separate cranes were reportedly hit by lightning during the storm, but the other two were shut down in accordance with safety policy.

It is understood that the union is now working with the construction company to improve safety practices.

Earlier in the day, a tradesman in his 30s was rushed to Flinders Hospital after a metal object he was standing next to was struck by lightning

Three separate cranes were reportedly hit by lightning during the storm, but the other two were shut down in accordance with safety policy

There is also intent to establish a new weather policy, which will see all work stop when a stormfront is 15-20km from a work site

There is also intent to establish a new weather policy, which will see all work stop when a stormfront is 15-20km from a work site.

The younger man was at a work site in Marion, south of Adelaide, when the lightning struck about 12pm, South Australia Ambulance told Daily Mail Australia.

'He was next to something metal that was struck and was shocked as a result,' a spokesman said.

The man was conscious when he arrived at Flinders Hospital for treatment, but his injuries are not considered life-threatening.
Eleanor Wilson is a Royal Navy reservist (picture) and is 'getting on with her life', her brother says, and she maintains she did not have sex with a pupil in a plane toilet

The brother of a female physics teacher struck off for have unprotected sex with a student in a plane toilet has told MailOnline she was set up.

Jethro Wilson, 26, says his sister Eleanor, 28, denies joining the 'mile high club' with a sixth-former on the way back from a school trip to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva 2015.

Mr Wilson says the former teacher, who was banned from the classroom for life and is under investigation by police, is now in the Royal Navy and is currently backpacking on Dartmoor as part of her training.

He said she is serving alongside her new boyfriend who she is also living with.

A spokesman for The Royal Navy said: 'It would be inappropriate to comment.'

Jethro also told MailOnline that his sister was not sacked from her job, adding: 'She left because of all the hassle she was getting from the younger students.

'She mutually left the school but nothing sexually happened with the student and for it to come out that it was on the plane was a bit bizarre really.

'The police have dealt with it and haven't prosecuted her because she hasn't done anything wrong. Nothing happened on the plane or anywhere else.'

A tribunal heard that Miss Wilson, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, had been drinking miniature bottles of wine while flirting at the back of a budget flight back from Geneva.

She is then said to have entered the toilet, kissed, engaged in a sex act and had intercourse with the pupil without using any protection.

Giving evidence to a professional conduct panel, the sixth-former, known as Pupil A, said both of them were drunk on the flight in the summer of 2015.

But Jethro Wilson denies this, saying: 'When she [Miss Wilson] went on this trip the drinking wasn't on the plane, she had just had a drink with some of the students older than 18 in a bar in Switzerland.

He added: 'She worked so hard to be a teacher and it's a shame because she doesn't want to do it because of what's happened.

'She had a drink in Switzerland and allowed students over 18 to have a drink, that was all and now it's this big.

Eleanor Wilson, 28, has been banned from the classroom for life after having unprotected sex in a toilet with a pupil on a flight home from a school trip

'A student can easily say one thing that has ruined a teacher's career. She has worked seven years for it and to suddenly out of the blue stop because of lads pestering her because she is a young teacher.

'It's a real shame, they need more good teachers like her, she was the smartest teacher in her school.

'She had a boyfriend at the time who she was happy with. She has no reason to blow her career like that.'

Miss Wilson, from Keighley, West Yorkshire, continued their relationship, texting and meeting up for drinks despite gossip at the school in Bristol.

In September 2015 the head teacher heard rumours about the relationship and quizzed Miss Wilson about them.

But she denied any improper behaviour and no further action was taken.

But the relationship came to light seven months later after another pupil threatened to reveal the tryst unless Miss Wilson had sex with him.

Miss Wilson, pictured on a wild west themed photoshoot while on holiday in Canada admitted during the school's probe that the pair had met and exchanged text messages but denied that they had drunk any alcohol

He sent Miss Wilson a series of emails in March 2016, in which he said he knew about her relationship with Pupil A and would inform the school.

These emails were reported to the school and the police.

The school launched an investigation and Miss Wilson was dismissed in May 2016.

Pupil A said Miss Wilson, pictured on the school trip, was intoxicated and he had consumed approximately five miniature bottles of wine on the flight

She was called to appear before the professional conduct panel earlier this month.

At the hearing, the National College for Teaching and Leadership disciplinary panel found that Pupil A to be a credible, reliable witness and agreed with his version of events.

Miss Wilson was not present but the panel heard she had previously denied the pair kissed or had sex, and claimed they simply 'hugged on occasion'.

She admitted during the school's investigation that the pair had met and exchanged text messages but denied that they had drunk any alcohol, even though Pupil A had shown his teachers a receipt for ciders.

But following the two-day hearing, she was found guilty of all but two of the allegations against her.

Polly O'Malley, chairman of the professional conduct panel, said: 'There was evidence that the teacher's actions were deliberate and continued for a significant length of time despite her understanding that her behaviour was inappropriate.

'There was no evidence to suggest that the teacher was acting under duress.'

Miss Wilson (pictured with a friend) became close to the sixth-form pupil during the trip to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva and got drunk on the plane home, a tribunal heard

Denial: Miss Wilson, pictured, was not present but the panel heard she had previously denied the pair kissed or had sex, and claimed they simply 'hugged on occasion'.

The banned teacher became close to the sixth-form pupil during the trip to the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva (pictured) and got drunk on the plane home

Striking Miss Wilson off from the profession, she added: 'These behaviours include serious dishonesty and serious sexual misconduct.

The panel has found that Miss Wilson engaged in sexual activity with Pupil A on one occasion, including oral sex and sexual intercourse.

'Additionally the panel has found that Miss Wilson encouraged Pupil A to hide their relationship and lied about it herself when an investigation into the allegations was undertaken by the school.'

The name of the school and the name and age of Pupil A were not revealed at the hearing to protect his identity.

Miss Wilson was reported to the police, however it was not known last night whether officers had taken any action against her.

An Avon and Somerset spokesman said she voluntarily attended a police station for interview in 2016 and 'enquiries are ongoing'.
A Russian widow has been jailed for murdering her banker husband by poisoning his mashed potato with a chemical favoured by KGB killers in the Cold War.

Ekaterina Puzikova, from Russia's Samara region, was found guilty more than five years after her husband Dmitry's mysterious death after being consumed with jealousy over his lover.

The glamorous 28-year-old was accused of using deadly thallium, a heavy metallic chemical which can be radioactive and which was favoured by Cold War assassins because it is hard to detect.

Russian widow Ekaterina Puzikova (centre) has been jailed for murdering her banker husband by poisoning his mashed potato with a chemical favoured by KGB killers in the Cold War

Ekaterina Puzikova (right) was found guilty more than five years after her husband Dmitry's (left) mysterious death after being consumed with jealousy over his lover

The glamorous 28-year-old (pictured) was accused of using deadly thallium, a heavy metallic chemical which can be radioactive and which was favoured by Cold War assassins because it is hard to detect

Dmitry received the deadly dose at a meal in March 2012 after complaining to Ekaterina that there were no potato dishes on the table.

When his wife brought some mashed potato, the 29-year-old scolded her because it tasted 'bitter'.

Two others became ill at the country house birthday party for a dozen people, but survived, although one guest was paralysed.

Her husband's secret lover named as Olga M said in evidence: 'I had known Dmitry since 2008, when he got a job in our bank.

'We worked in the same room. We were lovers since September 2009.

'In January 2011, Dmitry Puzikov told me that he was going to get married.

'But soon after the wedding we continued seeing each other, once or twice a month.'

Prosecutors insisted mother-of-one Puzikova became jealous at her husband's betrayal and killed him.

Dmitry received the deadly dose at a meal in March 2012 after complaining to Ekaterina (left, in court) that there were no potato dishes on the table

Prosecutors insisted mother-of-one Puzikova (pictured) became jealous at her husband's betrayal and killed him

At the earlier court case, the widow had been sentenced to seven years in jail, but this was increased in the latest trial

Her lawyer Andrey Karnomazov mocked the idea that thallium was the reason the potatoes tasted 'bitter'

But the case has become notorious in Russia amid defence claims that she had no way of obtaining thallium, a weakness of the prosecution case that earlier led to the ordering of further investigation before a retrial.

There were also claims that her husband was involved in money laundering for a drugs gang, and that he had rivals in RosSelhozBank where he was deputy head of the Samara branch, possible motives for others to want him dead.

At the earlier court case, the widow had been sentenced to seven years in jail, but this was increased in the latest trial.

Her lawyer Andrey Karnomazov mocked the idea that thallium was the reason the potatoes tasted 'bitter'.

'Science tells us that it does not have colour, taste or smell,' he said, adding that there was no trace of the highly toxic poison on the banker's plate.

Ekaterina Puzikova is pictured with her baby son

He vowed to appeal against the verdict, claiming it was 'outrageous' and a miscarriage of justice.

'No thallium was found on the hands of Ekaterina Puzikova nor on the plate that she has served potatoes to her husband,' he said.

'The main amount of thallium was found on the clothes of Dmitry Puzikov's cousin' - also called Dmitry, whose 27th birthday the group were celebrating.

'But there was no single word about this in the court ruling.'

The defence accused investigators of failing to probe other motives for the banker's poisoning, alleging the widow had been 'framed', adding she did not benefit financially from his death.

Puzikova was handcuffed in the court room and led away by armed guards to begin her sentence.

KGB defector to Britain Oleg Gordievsky claimed that he was poisoned with thallium in a suspected Russian hit in 2007 which he blamed on by 'rogue elements in Moscow'.

He spent 34 hours unconscious in hospital before recovering.

Soviet KGB defector Nikolai Khokhlov was the target of a thallium attack in Frankfurt in 1957.

Initially, the deadly poisoning of Kremlin enemy Alexander Litvinenko in 2006 was blamed on thallium before British experts detected radioactive polonium-210.

There was also speculation that Alexander Perepilichnyy, a Russian businessman turned supergrass, who died while jogging near his home in St George's Hill, Surrey, was killed by hard-to-trace thallium.
More members of a village council in Pakistan have been arrested for ordering the revenge rape of a teenager because her brother had sexually assaulted a 12-year-old girl in a field.

The latest arrests, which include the man who allegedly committed the 'revenge rape', brings the total number detained to 18, a police source confirmed.

A jirga - or village council - in a suburb of the central city of Multan had ordered the rape of the 16-year-old girl as a punishment, after her brother sexually assaulted a 12-year-old.

She was dragged to the meeting in Rajpur and the horrific retaliation was carried out in front of her parents and the 40 men on the council.

A Pakistani villager poses as he points to a house where a teenage girl was raped in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan on July 26, 2017

Family member Muhammad Bilal, 25, said after they learned of the first rape - which was committed last week - they went to the 12-year-old's family to seek forgiveness.

'Their women started shouting and their men asked us to first bring Umar's sister (the 16-year-old) then they will talk about it,' he said.

'But when we came back with the girl, the men and the council decided that the same act would be done to the girl. What could we do, in our village disputes are settled like this.'

Both the girls are now staying in a women's shelter and were due to meet the provincial chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, brother of the prime minister, later today.

This photograph taken on July 26, 2017, shows a view of a room where a Pakistani teenage girl was raped in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad

Pakistan's Supreme Court has also ordered an investigation into the incident.

Jirgas, or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.

Such councils are illegal and have been under fire for their controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

'What we did was wrong, but this is the way things are done here. We seek pardon and we promise not to do it again,' said Mohammad Amin, 45, a member of the jirga who is now in police custody.

An aerial shot of a festival in Multan, where the council convened to dish out the sickening punishment to an innocent girl

A jirga was involved in one of South Asia's most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. Her attackers walked free but she went on to become a high-profile women's rights activist.

Her story inspired an opera, 'Thumbprint', which opened in New York in 2014 and premiered in Los Angeles last month.
The Immigration Minister today said Britain would leave the EU free movement rules in 2019 but refused to say whether it would actually cut the number of new arrivals.

Brandon Lewis said the Government remained committed to cutting net migration to the tens of thousands but would not place a timescale on the decade-old target.

Mr Lewis' position appears to differ from an apparent Cabinet agreement last week that backed a transition deal that kept Britain in the single market until 2022 - meaning free movement would continue for three years after Brexit takes place.

The confusion came as Home Secretary Amber Rudd launched a new census on the role of EU migrants already in Britain and working in the economy and insisted Britain must remain an 'international hub' for talent.

Ms Rudd today said Britain would remain open to skilled EU citizens after Brexit amid fears the referendum vote will do little to cut immigration.

Her intervention is her most striking on immigration since she was appointed as Home Secretary more than a year ago and signals a softening of the Government position on immigration after Brexit.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd (pictured in Troon to see one of Border Force's new coastal patrol vessels) today insisted Britain would remain open to skilled EU citizens after Brexit amid fears the referendum vote will do little to cut immigration

Ms Rudd (pictured on the new vessel today) said Britain would remain open to skilled EU citizens after Brexit amid fears the referendum vote will do little to cut immigration .

Ms Rudd toured the new boat with Head of Border Force Maritime Gordon Scarratt

In an article for the Financial Times today, Ms Rudd said: 'Put simply, the UK must remain a hub for international talent.

'We must keep attracting the brightest and best migrants from around the world.

'And we must implement a new immigration system after we leave the EU that gives us control and works in all of our interests.'

Ms Rudd today announced a 'census' of EU migrants already working in Britain to assess their role in the economy.

The Government has not yet unveiled any detail of its immigration plans for the post-Brexit period.

Mr Lewis insisted today new laws would be in place by the time Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 and said free movement would end at that point.

But asked repeatedly when the Government would meet its flagship target of cutting net migration to the tens of thousands, Mr Lewis refused to answer.

He told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme: 'Our determination to see net migration fall to sustainable levels - and we think that is the tens of thousands - is something we have had and continue to have as our long term aim.

'The reason it is not outlined specifically in this commission is its job is to look at the impact of EU migration on our economy, what our economy needs going forward post-Brexit to inform the decisions we make as free movement ends when we leave the EU.'

Pressed on whether the commitment would be met by 2022, Mr Lewis said: 'We have to leave the EU, put our new migration process in place which we will do with the Immigration Bill next year. There will be an implementation period for business.

'I am not setting a particular arbitrary year on that.'

Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis (file image) was today unable to say the Government's target to cut net migration to the tens of thousands would be met by 2022.

Ms Rudd's intervention is her most striking on immigration since she was appointed as Home Secretary more than a year ago and signals a softening of the Government position on immigration after Brexit

Ms Rudd later rejected any suggestion of a 'contradiction' between Mr Lewis's comments and her own desire to avoid a hard Brexit.

Speaking during a visit to a Border Force patrol ship in Troon Harbour, on the west coast of Scotland, Ms Rudd said: 'When we leave the EU, which will be in March 2019, the current freedom of movement will obviously end so what we'll need is a new system and we've said that that new system will have a proposal whereby new EU workers coming here will need to register.

'We will need that grace period for a while before the full changes come in, which is what we're consulting on with the MAC.

'The MAC have been asked to give us the real evidence about the value of EU migration to the UK because we know it has been hugely valuable and we want to make sure that the changes we put in place are evidence-based.'

Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday accused the Government of presiding over a 'great Brexit betrayal' by refusing to slash immigration immediately after Brexit.

As part of Ms Rudd's new inquiry, advisers will also examine issues such as the costs and benefits of EU migration  including the potential impact of any fall in arrivals from the 27 other nations, such as on hospitals and care homes.

They will also look at whether the availability of cheap, unskilled labour has led to low UK investment in certain sectors such as agriculture and food processing.

Writing to MAC chairman Professor Alan Manning, Ms Rudd will say that under a future system 'we will be able to apply different immigration rules and requirements according to the UK's economic and social needs'.

Lord Green of Deddington, chairman of the Migration Watch think-tank, which campaigns for lower migration, said: 'This is a very welcome step. It is high time that we had an objective evaluation of the true costs and benefits of EU migration.

'It is especially important to take account of the massive impact of immigration on the size of our population and the resultant overcrowding which is of concern to a growing number of people.'

Ex-UKIP leader Nigel Farage yesterday accused the Government of presiding over a 'great Brexit betrayal' by refusing to slash immigration immediately after Brexit.
This is the incredible moment a police officer went beyond the call of duty when he wrestled and captured an alligator that had wondered on to a terrified resident's porch.

Officer Alfredo Vargas from Boynton Beach Police Department in Florida, knew that if he didn't catch the alligator it could be killed by the trapper who was being sent from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

Using training he had picked up in Hollywood to wrestle, handle and release nuisance alligators back into the wild, Officer Vargas patiently tried to loop the lasso around the hissing creature's neck.

On the third attempt, he managed to pull the drawstring loop tight around the reptile - despite its efforts to free itself by thrashing from side to side.

Officer Vargas then placed his jacket over the animal's head to calm it down, and used his bare hands to clamp its huge jaws shut before a colleague bound its mouth shut with a strap.

Sharing the video on their Facebook page, Boynton Beach Police Department said: 'A few weeks ago, Officer Alfredo Vargas responded to a call from a resident of Hunter's Run who found an alligator laying by his front door.

'He learned how to handle/wrestle alligators at the Native Village in Hollywood, Florida. Officer Vargas called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and learned that it would be about 30 minutes before a trapper could arrive, and it was likely that the trapper would kill the alligator.

Snappy: Officer Alfredo Vargas from Boynton Beach Police Department in Florida, knew that if he didn't catch the alligator (pictured) it could be killed by the trapper who was being sent from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Sharp thinking: Using training he had picked up to handle and release nuisance alligators back into the wild, Officer Vargas patiently tried to loop the lasso around the hissing creature's neck

'Officer Vargas said he didn't want that to happen given his background with learning how to capture nuisance gators and return them to their natural habitat.'

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission told Officer Vargas he was allowed to released the reptile wherever he liked, so according to the police department he put the alligator in the back seat of his patrol car and set it free in a nearby canal.

Boynton Beach Police Department added: 'Officer Vargas removed the tape from around its mouth and put him back in the water. Officer Vargas doesn't know it yet, but we've just made him the department's official alligator wrestler (kidding but not really).'

Jaw talent: Officer Vargas then placed his jacket over the animal's head to calm it down
The young mother who was filmed being punched in the face by a burly man in a horrific road rage attack has been charged over her involvement in the incident.

Bianca Lee Sams, 21, admitted to throwing nails at the man's car before he struck her in stopped traffic at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney, on Monday.

Ms Sams was charged with a string offences on Thursday, including malicious damage, being armed with intent and intentionally throwing an object at a vehicle.

The young mother who was filmed being punched in the face by a burly man in a horrific road rage attack has been charged over her involvement in the incident

Ms Sams (pictured left) uploaded two images showing a bruised and bloody upper lip (right)

Police also allege she wasn't wearing a seat belt when she held part of her body outside the window.

She was granted conditional bail to appear at Wyong Local Court in September.

It comes just 24 hours after a 41-year-old man was charged with assault after the shocking video emerged online.

The man, from Windermere Park, handed himself in to police on Wednesday morning after the dash cam footage went viral.

Police said he was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and granted conditional bail. He is due to appear in Wyong Local Court on August 30.

Bianca Lee Sams, 21, admitted to throwing nails at the man's car before he struck her in stopped traffic at Lake Macquarie, north of Sydney , on Monday

Ms Sams was charged with a string offences on Thursday, including malicious damage, being armed with intent and intentionally throwing an object at a vehicle

Ms Sams, who previously boasted about 'taking the hit better than a man', claimed she had 'been through worse' and warned she 'don't back down to no one'.

'I don't back down to no one. I never have, never will... I've been through worse, so it is what it is,' she told Channel Nine's A Current Affair program.

'I had to do what I had to do to protect me and my mate and her son... He's a b**** in my eyes if he can hit a female.'

Ms Sams said she threw objects at the man's car because he tried to run her vechile off the road with a five-month-old baby inside.

'I just grabbed a set of nails from a nail gun, I started breaking them up and throwing them at his car, hoping he'd leave us alone. But he didn't, he just kept coming,' she said.

Ms Sams said she launched nails and a chisel at the attacker's car before he got out of his ute at Lake Macquarie. Pictured, she displays a bruised lip

'I had to do what I had to do to protect me and my mate and her son... He's a b**** in my eyes if he can hit a female,' Ms Sams said

The 21-year-old mother is seen in the video getting out of the passenger seat and crossing her arms as a man in a yellow shirt approaches.

'I wasn't going to do nothing to him. People think it's an aggressive manner. I always cross me arms, I always have, anyone that knows me knows what I'm like,' she said.

'I just get out and I'm just like ''what's your problem, mate? You're driving like a d***head'' and that was it.

'He then just smacks me in the jaw. It still hurts. It's hard to talk sometimes, hard to eat.

'But it is what it is, I've got to deal with it... I threw a few nails at your car, whoopee mate. You tried running us off the road with a baby in the car.'

Police said the man (pictured) was charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm and granted conditional bail

'I smashed his window he should of hit me harder (sic),' Ms Sams wrote on Facebook

She admitted to throwing nails at the man's car before the incident was caught on a dash cam

On Tuesday, Ms Sams took to social media and shared a series of posts in response to the incident.

'Take a hit like that and then see if you're still standing I doubt it... I smashed his window he should of hit me harder,' she wrote.

'I don't give a f*** he hit me, don't put a babies (sic) life at risk.

'He tried running us off the road with a 5 month old baby in the car we tried getting away from (him but) he kept going so I got out and asked what his problem was.'

The driver of the car, Ms Sams' good friend, also took to Facebook to tell her side of the story.

'I tried letting him around me but no he wanted to tail gate me being an a*****e, so my friend decided to throw things at him to get him off my tail,' she wrote.

Ms Sams uploaded two images showing a bruised and bloody upper lip, and said she would be taking the matter to court.

But she now faces her own day before a judge on September 6.
Alan Davies, who walked down a Birkenhead high street pointing a fake gun at pedestrians and motorists

A gunman was filmed brandishing a weapon at a bus full of passengers in the middle of the day before pointing it at panicked pedestrians in a busy street.

Alan Davies had to be tackled by two have-a-go heroes when he took the handgun, which later turned out to be fake, through the streets of Birkenhead in Merseyside, terrifying motorists.

CCTV stills show Scott Morris and Chris Barlow running toward Davies, 56, in Argyle Street South, pinning him down and disarming him.

They had no idea the gun was a replica at the time, and will each get 700 from the public purse as gratitude for their actions.

Davies, who was drunk at the time, was also being filmed by a passer-by, who caught him weaving in and out of traffic, holding the gun to his head.

Davies has pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation fire arm with intent to cause fear of violence and was jailed for three years.

A judge said off-duty police officer Adam Lea, who also intervened, should be commended for his actions and be brought to the attention of the Chief Constable.

When Scott Morris and Chris Barlow tackled him, they had no idea the gun was an imitation weapon

Prosecutors described the two men's actions as 'remarkable.'

Mr Morris and Barlow, who are ex-servicemen, were driving close to the incident when they spotted Davies and decided to confront him.

Geoff Fryar, senior district crown prosecutor with Mersey-Cheshire Crown Prosecution Service, said: 'Davies walked down a busy street in broad daylight, brandishing what looked at face value to be a real gun.

'He was waving the gun around and pointing it at people and cars, causing real panic and fear.

'One woman described how she thought she was about to be shot in the back by Davies.

'He pointed the gun in the face of another woman.

'The gun was in fact a plastic replica but his actions caused real alarm.

CCTV stills show the 56-year-old walking through the street with the gun in his hand, terrifying pedestrians and motorists

After the incident, he apologised and said he 'shouldn't have done it'. He was jailed for three years

The 'have-a-go heroes' were praised for their bravery by a judge in court, as was the police officer who then arrived on scene

'The judge has praised the action of the two passers-by who tackled Davies, brought him to the ground and disarmed him.

'What they did was remarkable and brought a terrifying situation under control. A police officer at the scene was also praised.

'Davies pleaded guilty and apologised but his actions on the day were reckless and caused real panic.'

Davies, who even pointed the gun at his own head on March 30, in the middle of the afternoon, was jailed for three years last week.

The gunman was heard to say: 'I just told you, I need a f***ing police officer.'

He then pointed the weapon at the windscreen of a single-decker bus, and then towards himself.

Later, when calm, Davies, of Tranmere, said: 'It is wrong what I did, I should not have walked down the street with a gun, I'm sorry.

'I should not have done this, this is major isn't it. I should not have done it.'

The court heard how Davies, who pleaded guilty to possessing an imitation fire arm with intent to cause fear of violence, has a serious drink problem.
Supermarket giant Coles has declared it could stop stocking certain varieties of Mount Franklin water out of frustration with prices charged by parent company Coca-Coca Amatil.

Coles chief executive John Durkan says the company's sparkling water is way too expensive compared with the supermarket's Home Brand equivalent.

'This is frustrating to me because often the price differences relate to the same product, made and sourced from the same place,' he told reporters at an American Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Thursday.

Coles chief executive John Durkan says Mount Franklins sparkling water is too expensive

The supermarket chain boss was launching a cost-of-living trends report at an AmCham lunch

The move comes only days after rival Woolworths announced it would cease stocking most Mount Franklin water products in its supermarkets - after deciding not to stock Coca-Cola Amatil's new 'no sugar' drink.

Mr Durkan also took aim are baked beans maker Heinz and Mars confectionery for overcharging customers, as he launched a report on Australian cost-of-living trends.

'At a time when incomes are not growing much, many households are having to confront large price rises in other areas of everyday living,' he said.

'We are seeing people really being affected by utility prices across the board.

Coles say it wants to cut back on the many varieties of Heinz products it stocks on its shelves

Mars products are regarded as so dear by Coles many poorer people can't afford one a day

'They are having to choose not only what they are going to feed their family but how much of it, which is disastrous as far as I am concerned.'

Research commissioned by Coles on cost of living trends in Australia showed consumers were paying higher prices for utilities, childcare, health and education, contributing to cautious spending.

'Why should Australian customers pay more for products like baked beans, cola, coffee and razor blades, chocolate bars, than customers overseas? ... We have to fix that,' he said.

The report, which used data between 2011 and 2015 from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling and consumer surveys, noted the cost increases were a bigger financial burden on poor families.

Coles is owned by the Wesfarmers conglomerate.
A bizarre video has emerged of a stark naked man walking into a local shop and casually helping himself to two bottles of beer.

CCTV Footage from Poland is reported to show the shoplifter sauntering into the store in broad daylight in the small town of Suwalki, northeast Poland.

The nude guest opens the fridge and picks out three bottles that take his fancy, leaving a shop assistant to shocked to take action.

A shop assistant to shocked to take action when the naked man enters the premises

The nude guest opens the fridge and picks out two bottles that take his fancy

According to local police, the 33-year-old nude then went to another shop where he pinched a packet of cigarettes before heading to a bar to order some food.

He was arrested while sitting outside waiting for his order and swigging beer, it's not clear if he was still naked at this point.

Police spokeswoman Eliza Sawko told local media: 'Officers were already looking for him in relation to the earlier shoplifting.

'A breath test showed 1.5 pints of alcohol in his blood.

'After being stopped by officers the man was taken away to sober up.'

After sobering up in the town's drunk tank overnight the man showed some repentance for his thievery.

After leaving the store the 33-year-old nude then went to another shop where he pinched a packet of cigarettes

Police say he burst out crying and returned to the shop to pay for the beer he had taken.

Police spokeswoman Eliza Sawko added he claimed to have no idea why he had stolen the beer nor why he was naked.

She said: 'He has been charged with theft and indecent public exposure.'
The flame is going out at another Sizzler restaurant as the once beloved chain continues its seemingly inexorable descent into oblivion.

The buffet chain's Redcliffe store in Queensland is shutting up shop on August 20, leaving just 10 standing across Australia.

It's the latest in a long list of Sizzler shutdowns, leaving the crumbling company's national future hanging in the balance.

Sizzler's Redcliff store in Queensland is set to close down on August 20

'The company is offering employment opportunities within its network for the Sizzler Redcliffe staff,' a Sizzler spokeswoman told Redcliffe Herald.

'We also want to thank the Redcliffe community who have embraced Sizzler locally over the last 26 years and we want to invite them to Sizzler Caboolture to continue enjoying the famous Sizzler Cheese Toast.'

Sizzler Annerley in Brisbane's south shut last month, hot on the heels of the Brisbane Brookside and Toowong stores closing their doors.

The chain's owners, Collins Foods, maintains Sizzler is not exiting Australia but conceded it is no longer investing in the group.

Sizzler also has restaurants in the US, Thailand, Japan and China, where the company is expanding.

The chain's warm buffets and cold salad bars were once a booming business across Australia with hundreds of stores.

The chain's warm buffets and cold salad bars were once a booming business across Australia
A US dentist has died after a scuba dive to help find the bodies of American airmen who crashed into the English Channel during the Second World War.

Dr Bruce Hottum, 63, felt ill after coming up from a dive to explore a wartime plane wreck site near Ramsgate, Kent, before collapsing and dying last Friday.

The dentist arrived in England two weeks ago after the Project Recover group asked if he wanted to explore the site that could contain human remains.

Dr Bruce Hottum (right), 63, of Glenford, New York, felt ill after coming up from a dive to explore a wartime plane wreck site near Ramsgate, Kent, before collapsing and dying

Married father-of-three Dr Hottum, of Glenford, New York, had previously helped identify remains using dental records after the September 11 terrorist attacks.

But on Friday afternoon the Maritime and Coastguard Agency was contacted by a dive boat ten miles east of Ramsgate reporting a diver needing medical aid.

A helicopter was sent to the boat and Dr Hottum was airlifted away, but he was pronounced dead at hospital.

Dr Charles Fliegler, the long-time partner of Dr Hottum at their practice in Kingston, New York, said: 'He came up on the last dive, didn't feel well and collapsed.'

Dr Hottum's wife Peggy and three adult sons Jack, Dean and Peter have travelled to England to await the release of his body so he can be brought back home for burial.

Patients have been posting tributes to Dr Hottum on the Pine Street Dental Facebook page

Dr Hottum was in local ski patrols and a certified emergency medical technician who trained other EMTs and firefighters, according to the practice's website.

Dr Hottum was in local ski patrols and a certified emergency medical technician

'He was busy helping and going into the community. He was a good guy all the way around,' Dr Fliegler said.

In recent years, Dr Hottum became interested in efforts to locate, recover and identify the remains of US Second World War servicemen listed as missing in action.

In the autumn of 2015, he went to the Palau Islands in the Pacific with The BentProp Project, a non-profit organisation based in Woodland, California, that researches Second World War wreck sites and searches for American MIAs.

Dr Fliegler said Dr Hottum went to England to explore an underwater wreck site with Project Recover, a Second World War research partnership involving BentProp, the University of Delaware and the University of California San Diego.

A spokesman for Dr Hottum's practice, Pine Street Dental, said: 'Over the past 31 years, Dr Hottum has been an integral part of the Pine Street Dental family.

'He was an expert in his field who treated his patients with the highest level of care and comfort. He will be sorely missed here at Pine Street Dental.

'As we come to grips with our great loss, we recognise that some of Dr Hottum's patients have become his close friends over the years. As such, we will be leaving a memorial poster board at the front desk for patients to sign.'

Patients posted tributes to Dr Hottum on the practice's Facebook page, with Pam Krom writing: 'OMG! I am so sad! Shocked! I have no words!

'He always went above and beyond! I have been going to him forever. I will dearly miss him! R.I.P. Dr Hottum. No one will ever compare to you.

'You took the fear I had for going to the dentist the first time I saw you.'

Allyson Whittaker added: My husband, my boys and I heard this terrible news on Saturday and we were all so sad to hear this!

Dr Hottum had previously helped identify remains using dental records after the September 11 terrorist attacks. A hijacked plane is pictured crashing into the World Trade Center in 2001

'I just saw Dr Hottum last week and we laughed together. He was a great person. Terrible! May he rest in peace!

And Bill Strein said: 'I am in shock! Dr Bruce Hottum has been my dentist for about 30 years. He was an excellent dentist, loved and respected by his patients and also a friend to many including myself.

'He will truly be missed. While saddened by this news, his memory and time spent with him bring comfort. Our prayers to his family, friends and colleagues.'

Dr Hottum was educated at State University of New York at New Paltz and New York University College of Dentistry in Manhattan.
A 'hoarder' has created the most 'dangerous house in England' after storing so much clutter outside his home that he needs a ladder to get in through a window.

The dilapidated terraced in Leyton, east London, is covered with ladders, tarpaulins and metal sheeting.

Furious residents claim that the items are held together by thin pieces of string and tower dangerously over the busy commuter street below.

Dangerous: This dilapidated property in Leyton, east London, has been slammed by local residents

Hoarder: The owner of the property has stacked ladders, tarpaulins and metal sheeting, on the side of the terraced house

Waltham Forest Council have slapped the owner with enforcement notices and court orders to sort out the mess, but all were ignored.

Shocking photos show possibly hundreds of items piled up and strapped to the house's exterior while neighbours claim the mess has attracted an infestation of mice and rats.

A 61-year-old man who lives on the same street said: 'He lives there on his own. He is a hoarder. He collects rubbish.

'The rubbish is piled so high inside that he has to use ladders to get into the house through the first floor window. It is unbelievable.

'It's disgraceful. We have tried the council but nothing has been done. They sent trucks down to clear the place a few years ago and spent days going back and forth but it quickly built back up. We want a solution.'

Risky: Furious neighbours say the owner's selfish actions could lead to someone getting hurt

Bus driver Richard Brock, 52, took pictures of the tatty property during his commute through Leyton.

However, it appears not much as has changed in nearly 10 years, with images from Google Maps show it in the same state dating back to at least 2008.

He said: 'If there was someone underneath [when something fell] there would be a fatality. It's a very, very built up area.

'It's dangerous for commuters if it collapses. It doesn't bear thinking about. It's a dangerous structure really. It's the way it's laddered up.

Clutter: The items dangle dangerously over the edge of the property with a ladder used by the owner to enter the home via a window

'It's a tragedy waiting to happen - it's going to fall on someone and we're going to have a fatality.

'I would be very loathed to walk past it - I would give it wide birth but it's a busy, busy area.'

He added: 'I have seen run down areas, utter bomb sites, and coal mining communities like South Yorkshire - and those are particularly rough.

'But I think this is the worst case I have ever seen. It's worse than Belfast.

'When I first noticed it I was completely taken aback.'

'He must be taking a great risk. I just thought he was someone who had run out of money, who had overstretched himself and run out of cash. But I think he's just a bit of an old hipster.

'I want it made safe. It's a nightmare and I want it made safe because it's going to hurt someone by the way he's putting people's safety at risk.'

Laura Marriot works at KeepCup Limited, a reusable coffee cup business across the road from the house.

She said: 'To be honest, I have worked here for three years and it's his property, he can do what he wants with it.

Concerns: Bus driver Richard Brock, 52, took pictures of the tatty property during his commute through Leyton, and said the clutter was putting lives at risk

'Perhaps he doesn't know the dangers even though it's precarious. It's his home isn't it? People have their quirky ways and it's up to him.'

Cllr Clyde Loakes, cabinet member for the Environment at Waltham Forest Council, said: 'The house in question is privately owned and the owner currently resides at the address.

'Despite the council having issued enforcement notices and secured court orders requiring the owner to make immediate repairs, we are very disappointed that no work has been carried out.

'The powers we need to tackle unsightly and unsafe private dwellings are not easily available - however, we continue to do all we can to safeguard Waltham Forest residents and this includes dealing with dilapidated private properties.'

The owner was unavailable for comment.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has contradicted Jeremy Corbyn over the single market as Labour's confusion on the policy deepened (file image)

Shadow chancellor John McDonnell has contradicted Jeremy Corbyn over the single market as Labour's confusion on the policy deepened.

Mr McDonnell - the Labour leader's closest lieutenant - claimed last night Labour only wanted the 'benefits' of the single market and hinted Labour could back continued membership.

Asked on Sunday if he would lead Britain out of the single market, Mr Corbyn said 'yes'.

The response has triggered a week of angst inside Labour as Remain supporters demand Mr Corbyn soften his position.

The Labour leader was praised by Nigel Farage for taking a tougher line on EU migrants than the Government.

Mr McDonnell told the BBC that Labour's objective was 'tariff-free access to the market' and 'the structures - whether we are in or out - are a secondary matter'.

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer has also appeared to soften the Labour position, telling senior business figures that it was 'vital' to obtain the benefits of the single market and the customs union and 'how we achieve that is secondary to the outcome'.

Speaking at a Labour in the City event, Sir Keir said: 'Labour's objective is tariff-free access to the single market, no new red tape at customs and a deal that works for services as well as goods.

Mr McDonnell - the Labour leader's closest lieutenant (pictured together at party conference last year) - claimed last night Labour only wanted the 'benefits' of the single market and the question of membership was not important

Shadow Brexit Secretary Sir Keir Starmer (pictured during the election campaign) has also appeared to soften the Labour position

'It is vital that we retain the benefits of the single market and the customs union. How we achieve that is secondary to the outcome and should be part of the negotiations.

'We need to be flexible in our approach and not sweep options off the table.'

Their comments are a shift in Labour's position since Mr Corbyn told the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday that the UK must leave the single market as it is 'inextricably' linked with EU membership.

Liberal Democrat Brexit spokesman Tom Brake said: 'Labour need to come clean. Do they support staying in the single market or not?

Asked on Sunday if he would lead Britain out of the single market, Jeremy Corbyn (pictured on Sunday's Andrew Marr show) said 'yes'

'They are in total disarray on the biggest issue facing the country in a generation.

'The Labour shadow cabinet has taken more positions on Brexit than the Kama Sutra.'

The new row comes after Labour's campaign chief said Labour could still u-turn on Brexit if it senses public opposition hardening.

Andrew Gwynne claimed Labour could still be 'flexible' on its Brexit position amid a growing battle inside the party over Jeremy Corbyn's policy.

The Labour leader is backing the Government on taking Britain out of the EU single market and has a confused position on the customs union.

Andrew Gwynne (pictured on the campaign trail in May) claimed Labour could still be 'flexible' on its Brexit position amid a growing battle inside the party over Jeremy Corbyn's policy

Theresa May insists leaving both EU groupings is crucial to deliver Brexit because they open the door to cutting migration and striking new trade deals.

But Mr Corbyn is under growing pressure to soften his line, including from the powerful trade unions which have propped up his leadership and bankrolled Labour's general election campaign.

Mr Gwynne's confession came at a public event in London where he claimed Mr Corbyn's stance could become a 'political problem' for Labour.
This is the sickening moment a jogger was caught on camera swinging his dog by its lead and making it somersault through the air.

The stomach-churning footage was captured by a driver in Copdock, Suffolk, who stopped in shock after seeing the man yank the border collie around by its neck.

During the clip, the man pulls sharply on dog's lead and made it flip 3ft through the air while his friend runs down the country road next to him.

The motorist reported the incident to Suffolk Police and went to confront the man but retracted after the pair gestured 'aggressively' towards him.

The man was pulling the dog along by its lead and yanked so hard it did a somersault 3ft in the air

The man could be seen running with his dog just seconds before he pulled the border collie's lead

The 28-year-old witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, said: 'I felt physically sick. I couldn't believe what I had seen. I can't even watch it back now.

'I kind of wish I'd handled it differently, looking back on it. At the time I just thought "holy crap".

'I slammed the breaks on and at that time they were maybe 50m away from me. My initial reaction was to stop straight away.

'I reversed about 20m back down the road to let them know that I had definitely seen what had happened.

'They were telling me in no uncertain terms to go away so I hesitated to get out. Then they started motioning at me to come and have a go at them.

'I didn't fancy a fight and I thought by that stage I would have enough on camera to send to the police for them to take it seriously.

'I watched them for 20 seconds or so. I was just totally in shock and didn't know what to do.

'I've got a French bulldog myself and it just turned my stomach watching the way this guy treated his dog.'

He pulled the dog's lead so hard that it ended up in the air (pictured) as he friend continued to run

The dog ended up doing a somersault as the man was running along the same country road as the motorist who filmed the incident

The driver said he called the police non-emergency number to report the incident, which happened at around 4.30pm on Friday.

The men with the dog then continued running away from the scene.

The witness, who works in publishing, said: 'I wasn't sure it was as bad as I thought it was and then I watched it back on the dashcam and I was just stunned.

'The whole way home I was thinking "should I have done more?" I was just driving home from work as usual and you don't expect to see something like that.

'I go that way quite frequently as it's one of three ways from my office back to the house.

'It's just a normal 60mph B-road - some people tried to say I'm speeding in the video but I'm definitely not. It is popular route with joggers.

'I saw these two guys coming towards me and as I passed them I looked in my rear mirror and saw that the dog was being thrown about quite aggressively.

'I can't really watch it anymore. I just hope the dog is ok.'

A Suffolk Police spokesman said: 'We can confirm we received a report of animal cruelty from a caller who said they had witnessed a dog being poorly treated on Friday July 21.

'The witness described a border collie being repeatedly pulled over by the owner's lead in the Copdock area of Ipswich.'
Police in Mississippi shot a man dead after serving an arrest warrant at the wrong address, it is reported.

Officers in Southaven, on the outskirts of Memphis, were looking to arrest Samuel Pearman on a warrant for domestic violence on Sunday night, WREG reports.

But the cops ended up killing Ismael Lopez, 41, who lives in the house opposite, and shooting his dog Coco after apparently calling at the wrong address.

Ismael Lopez, 41, was shot and killed on Sunday night by police who were supposed to be raiding the house of Samuel Pearman who lives across the street

Court documents show that Pearman, who is still not in custody, lived at 5878 Surrey Lane, which is the address listed on the warrant.

But Lopez was shot dead in the doorway of 5881 Surrey Lane, which is the house directly opposite.

DeSoto County Prosecutor John Champion said officers were executing a warrant when a pit bull dog charged at them, causing them to open fire.

Pearman was wanted over allegations he assaulted a woman earlier that night. He remains at large

Champion said the officers then saw a gun being pointed out of the house and started shouting 'drop your weapon'.

When that did not happen multiple shots were fired at the doorway, fatally wounding Lopez, Champion claimed.

He added that it was 'possible' the officers responded to the wrong address, and confirmed that Lopez' name was not the one listed on the warrant.

Murray Wells, attorney for the Lopez family, bluntly said the police department 'can't read house numbers' saying the incident is both 'tragic' and 'embarrassing'.

Lopez' wife, who was not named, also contested the police version of events - saying her husband was not holding a gun and did not even have time to open his front door before being shot.

Relating her story through family friend Jordan Castillo, she said she was sitting with Lopez on the night he died when a commotion was heard outside.

She said Lopez got up and she heard his footsteps walk to the front door and the doorknob turn, but 'it was just gunshots from there', the New York Post reports.

Lopez, an auto mechanic who is originally from Mexico, had been a resident of the neighborhood for 13 years. His family have started a GoFundMe campaign so his body can be taken back to his home country and buried.

Officers shot Lopez dead in the doorway of his home (left), saying he ignored orders to drop a gun. His wife claims he was unarmed. Court documents show police were actually supposed to be raiding the house opposite (right)

DeSoto County Prosecutor John Champion said it is 'possible' that police targeted the wrong house (pictured, Pearman's house left, Lopez' house right)

The officer who fired the fatal shots has been placed on administrative leave while an investigation into the shooting is carried out.

Pearman was due to be picked up by officers after allegedly assaulting a women in front of her four-year-old daughter at a gas station earlier that evening.

The woman had asked Pearman to pay for her gas because she had forgotten her purse, at which point he started choking her and threatened to 'smash your face in', the police report says.

He fled the scene as the woman called the cops, which led to officers being sent to his address later that night.

Pearman is still on the run, and officers have asked for him to turn himself in.
A Malaysian lawmaker has been accused of ignorance after he claimed that women who deny their husbands sex were subjecting them to 'psychological and emotional abuse'.

Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh said during a parliamentary debate on domestic violence that husbands often suffer emotional attacks rather than physical abuse.

The 58-year-old, a member of the ruling United Malays National Organisation, said: 'Even though men are said to be physically stronger than women, there are cases where wives hurt or abuse their husbands in an extreme manner.

'Usually, it involves wives cursing their husbands - this is emotional abuse. They insult their husbands and refuse his sexual needs. All these are types of psychological and emotional abuse.'

Che Mohamad Zulkifly Jusoh said during a parliamentary debate on domestic violence that husbands often suffer emotional attacks rather than physical abuse

But critics were fast to brand Jusoh's remarks 'ridiculous'.

Marina Mahathir, a prominent women's rights activist, said the lawmaker's view was 'based on ignorance'.

'Women have a right to say no to sex - this is an old notion that when you marry a women you own her body,' she told AFP.

'It does not work that way. It is ridiculous to say men are abused if women say no to sex.'

The lawmaker from Terengganu state in Malaysia's Muslim heartland, also said that denying a Muslim man the chance to marry a second wife amounted to abuse.

It is legal for Muslim men in Malaysia to have many as four wives. But they must obtain permission from an Islamic, or shariah, court to marry more than one.

More than 60 percent of Malaysia's population of over 30 million are Muslim.

The MP made the comments yesterday during a debate on amendments to domestic violence legislation.

It is not the first time a lawmaker has sparked controversy with comments about women.

In April a member of the country's ruling coalition, Shabudin Yahaya, told Parliament in Kuala Lumpur that some girls as young as nine were physically and spiritually ready for marriage.
Sababu Colbert-Evans, of Aurora, was sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in a botched drug deal that ended in a gunfight

A Colorado man who tricked marijuana buyers into believing a bag of broccoli was marijuana has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for his role in a mall parking lot gunfight that broke out over the scam.

Sababu Colbert-Evans, of Aurora, was sentenced on Friday, two months after he was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder in a shooting sparked by a botched drug deal.

On March 16, 2016, his partner Tercell Davis - a drug dealer who went by the name 22 Jump Street - accepted $10,000 for a bag of broccoli that the buyers believed to be pounds of marijuana.

The purchasers didnt realize that the bag was actually filled with the vegetable until they had driven away.

The next night, the two buyers tried to beat Davis at his own game by confronting him during another deal, according to the Denver Post.

They organized the deal under a different name in hopes of getting their money back or trading the broccoli for actual marijuana.

The gunfight broke out in the parking lot of the Town Center at Aurora in Aurora, Colorado, between Colbert-Evans, Davis and two potential drug buyers

The group met in the parking lot outside the food court of the Town Center at Aurora at about 7.30pm on March 17 - and Davis brought along Colbert-Evans.

His partner Tercell Davis pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and will be sentenced on August 7

Again, Davis and Colbert-Evans tried to sell the men broccoli.

An argument broke out between the four men, and Colbert-Evans and Davis fired 11 shots at the potential marijuana buyers as they fled the scene.

One of the men was hit in the torso by a bullet and later recovered.

Colbert-Evans was found guilty of attempted first-degree murder, extreme indifference, a Class 2 felony.

He was sentenced to a mandatory minimum sentence of 16 years with five years of parole.

He was also found guilty of attempted second-degree murder, distributing an imitation controlled substance, conspiracy to distribute an imitation controlled substance, and reckless endangerment.

Davis pleaded guilty to attempted second-degree murder and will be sentenced on August 7.
A teenage girl has spoken of the horrific moment she was groped in her own home by a man who responded to her Gumtree advertisement.

The Gold Coast teenager put her Xbox up for sale on the classifieds site, but Sami Mechkor, 27, wanted much more than a games console when he was welcomed into her lounge room.

'My dog came out and I was giving him a pat... Then he said ''you have a sexy body''. He stepped forward and touched my chest,' she told Nine News.

A Gold Coast teenager put her Xbox up for sale on the classifieds site, but Sami Mechkor, 27, wanted much more than a games console when he was welcomed into her lounge room

A teenage girl (pictured), who can't be identified, has spoken of the horrific moment she was groped in her own home by a man who responded to her Gumtree advertisement

'I told him no and I stepped back... he laughed in my face, stepped forward and did it again. My back was against the wall, I could not get away from him.'

After asking Mechkor for money for the Xbox, she said he responded by 'putting his wallet at his crotch' and telling her 'come and get it'.

The woman, now 18, can't be identified because of her age at the time of the 2016 assault.

Speaking to Gold Coast Nine News, she said she felt 'empowered' that she had told her story and Mechkor had his day in court.

After asking Mechkor (pictured) for money for the Xbox, she said he responded by 'putting his wallet at his crotch' and telling her 'come and get it'

The teenager put her Xbox games console up for sale on Gumtree and Mechkor responded to the advertisement (stock image)

'He came for an Xbox, but he left with more than that. Now he's having to deal with the repercussions of this,' she said.

'Now he has to actually face up to what he has done, he won't be able to sweep it under the rug and pretend that nothing happened.'

Mechkor pleaded guilty to sexual assault over the incident.

He was sentenced to 12-month probation and 60 hours of community service. No conviction was recorded.
Cody-Anne Jackson, 20, killed little Macey Hogan after sending her father a message

A 'wicked and appalling' young mother who suffocated her two-year-old daughter after sending the girl's father 'one last picture' of her was today jailed for 16 years.

Cody-Anne Jackson, 20, killed little Macey Hogan after sending her father a message reading: 'Sorry, just thought you deserved one last picture and memory of her.'

Jackson used a dressing gown cord or pillow to 'smother or strangle' Macey a week after the toddler's father, Paul Hogan, 22, had moved out of the family home.

Stafford Crown Court today heard she killed her daughter in an act of 'cold, callous revenge' against her ex-boyfriend.

Police found Macey's body at the house in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, on October 10 last year after Jackson dialled 999 saying the tot was not breathing.

Dramatic video footage shows the moment officers were forced to smash their way into the house where they found the toddler lying dead.

They also found Jackson, who was 19 at the time of the murder, with knife wounds.

Jackson originally denied murder but dramatically changed her plea six days into her trial.

She originally claimed she had taken Macey into her own bed after she failed to settle in her cot.

Jackson later said she woke up to find her daughter lying cold and lifeless between two pillows next to her in bed.

During her trial, the court was told Jackson also wrote a suicide note before the killing, stating: 'There's nothing for me or Macey, life's s***.'

Macey Hogan (pictured with her father Paul Hogan) was found on the floor in a bedroom after her mother phoned 999

The youngster (pictured) was killed after her mother sent her father a message reading: 'Sorry, just thought you deserved one last picture and memory of her'

Jurors heard that Jackson, who has a history of self-harm, sent the child's father a photo of Macey two days before she was found dead with the message: 'Possibly see you in court.'

She was jailed today for life and told she would serve a minimum of 16 years and 114 days behind bars.

Police have released the harrowing 999 call Jackson made, requesting an ambulance because her daughter 'was not breathing'.

When told by the operator she needed to put her daughter on her back, she claimed she couldn't because 'every time she moved it hurt'.

Judge Michael Chambers QC told her: 'For a mother to kill her very young daughter who relies on her for protection above all others is a wicked and appalling act.

'This is not a case where you were suffering from mental illness.

'You thought about killing yourself, and decided to kill Macey to prevent her from having to live without a mother.

'This is a case, as the prosecution have pointed out, of utter self-absorption on your part.

'The impact of what you did upon Paul Hogan and the other parties is, of course, impossible to comprehend.

Macey's father Paul Hogan (left) attended the sentencing on Thursday and saw his daughter's mother get jailed

Paul Hogan (pictured with his daughter Macey) received a text message from Jackson saying: 'Sorry, just thought you deserved one last picture and memory of her'

Jackson (right) had denied murder claiming she had taken Macey (left) into her own bed after she failed to settle in her cot - but she dramatically changed her plea during the trial

'Macey was healthy when she died and had just started nursery. She was a normal, happy child with her whole life ahead of her.

'At the time of the killing you were attending college on a part-time basis, and had even been in college on October 7.

'But your relationship with Paul Hogan had deteriorated. You despaired of the fact that during his hours of relaxation he would go drinking with his friends.

'You, by contrast, were more introverted.

'During the morning of October 8, you argued with him and your relationship ended. You said that he would not be able to see Macey without a court order.

'By the evening of October 9 you had retrieved his house key and you faced a future without him.

'Faced with a probable future alone, isolated and without Macey's father, you chose to take your life and kill Macey.

'I am satisfied from the suicide note that you intended to kill Macey for some time before the actual event.

'By your own admission you killed Macey intending to do so. As to how you actually did it, you have refused to divulge.

'It is clear that this was death by strangulation or suffocation, perhaps by your dressing gown cord, but that is unclear.

HARROWING 999 CALL MADE BY JACKSON AFTER SHE SUFFOCATED HER TWO-YEAR-OLD DAUGHTER Jackson: Can I get an ambulance please? 999 operator: Are you the patient? Jackson: No, my daughter. She's not breathing Operator: She's not breathing? J: No O: She's not breathing at all? J: No O: And how old is your daughter? J: She's two O: And she's not breathing at all? J: No O: OK, help is being arranged, you need to stay on the telephone with me and listen very carefully. I'm going to tell you what to do to help, OK? I need you to lie her flat on her back on the floor. Can you do that for me now? Jackson screams and appears to be crying J: I have. I can't. O: You need to put her onto the floor for me, OK? J: I can't, I can't move. Every time I move it hurts O: Pardon? J: Every time I move it hurts O: Right, but we need to help your daughter if she's not breathing.You need to lie her flat on her back on the floor for me please Advertisement

The court heard that Macey (pictured) was a 'normal, happy child with her whole life ahead of her'

The youngster was found dead at her home in Stoke-on-Trent after her mother smothered her with a towel, cord or pillow

'You stabbed yourself in the chest and attempted to slit your wrists, but when you could not do so, you phoned the police.

'But, of course, by that time it was far too late to save Macey.'

The jury had previously heard how Jackson smothered Macey using either a towel, cord or pillow.

Prosecutor Jonas Hankin QC told the court: 'Cody-Anne Jackson deliberately and forcefully smothered her child. Macey was murdered in her own home by her own mother.

'A significant aggravating factor is the pre-meditated nature of the murder, and in a letter addressed to Mr Craig Jackson, her uncle, the defendant wrote: 'I don't want to live anymore.

'I cannot picture mine or Macey's future. I never have done. I sit here thinking about killing my own daughter and myself. Life is s*** and the world is f*****'.

'It is claimed from the documents and the other evidence in the case that the defendant thought about the killing of Macey for some time before doing so.

'She sent a message to her former partner, Paul Hogan, before the murder.

'The message read: 'Savour the last picture'.

'It was followed four minutes later by another message sent by SMS saying ''sorry, thought you deserved one last picture of her. Possibly see you in court'.

Police attended the scene in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, after Jackson killed her daughter

Officers searched the property after they found the two-year-old girl lying dead in a bedroom

'She was murdered in her own home and there can be no greater breach of trust.

'The 999 call she made was a sham. The defendant had killed Macey hours before and clearly was aware of this.

Macey's father Mr Hogan who was in the public gallery as Jackson was jailed, was too upset to comment after the sentencing.

Alison Hunter QC, defending, said: 'The defendant sort to also end her own life, she had clearly reached a flashpoint that day.'

Detective Inspector Dan Ison, of Staffordshire Police, said: 'This was not a killing that occurred due to a struggling single parent, nor was it a killing where in some perverse way it was felt that Macey was being protected from someone or something, this was a killing that was cold and callous and set to exact revenge on Paul Hogan as he had broken off the relationship with Cody-Anne Jackson.

'It is absolutely unforgivable that a beautiful and healthy child has had her life taken away and I am sorry for the loss that this has left for Paul and his family.

'Our thoughts are all with them at this time.'

An NSPCC spokesman said: 'Macey Hogan, a defenceless toddler, was robbed of a childhood that should have been filled with awe and wonder.

'Instead of bringing this happiness into her daughter's life, Cody-Anne Jackson ended it. It is only right that she has faced the full force of the law.

'If members of the public have worries about a child's safety they should not hesitate to report them. Counsellors at the NSPCC's free helpline service are available to speak to 24/7 on 0808 800 5000 or via email at help@nspcc.org.uk.'
Grenfell Tower will probably be razed to the ground by the end of next year and its scorched remains will be covered in a giant protective wrap within weeks, it was revealed today.

Site manager Michael Lockwood also revealed that some flats remain in 'perfect' condition and those residents will return next month to collect their belongings.

Mr Lockwood, who has been inside the building's black husk five times, estimates the recovery operation could last until mid-November.

The criminal investigation involving material being collected from the cladding and inside the building could go on until January.

Grenfell Tower will probably be brought down by the end of next year - and will be wrapped to preserve it until then

Speaking at the Notting Hill Methodist Church last night, he said: 'I think that to be honest, the building will stay up throughout 2018.

Michael Lockwood, pictured, Grenfell's site manager, says that some of the flats are still perfect and those residents can go back in soon to get their belongings

'Then towards the end of 2018, I think we could start to bring it down, if that is what the community wants, and the scaffolding will help us to do that because we can do that within the wrap.'

Any decision on what happens to the site after the eventual deconstruction would be made with input from the community, Mr Lockwood said.

He added there were some flats in the doomed building that were 'completely untouched and in perfect condition and there are some that are absolutely devastated'.

There are around 33 flats from which personal possessions might now be retrieved. After the meeting, Mr Lockwood said that efforts to get those items back might begin 'in the next week or so'.

He said it would happen 'in consultation with those residents, and at the speed that they want, but we would like to get some of those possessions back to them'.

Mr Lockwood said: 'What we have to be mindful of is that we do that with the sensitivity that further up the building, we are still recovering possessions and remains.'

He pointed out, with the ongoing work moving through the building, that 'if we don't do it soon, we will lose those possessions'.

At least 80 people died after the fire ripped through the 24-storey tower block in north Kensington

Meanwhile, communities secretary Sajid Javid wrote a letter read out at the public meeting in which he said the taskforce assembled in the wake of the disaster will be in place for 'however long is necessary'.

He wrote: 'I envisage them to be in place for however long is necessary to get the job done - in reality, this is likely to mean for at least one year.'

Sir Martin Moore-Bick arrives to speak to Grenfell Tower residents - but many already want him to quit

The outside experts were assembled following outrage over the response to the disaster and took over responsibility for Kensington and Chelsea Council's housing, regeneration, community engagement and governance services.

This week the judge leading the Grenfell Tower public inquiry faced fresh demands to resign last night after survivors said they had no confidence in him.

Sir Martin Moore-Bick was jeered and heckled as he met survivors, the bereaved and local residents to discuss the terms of the inquiry into the deadly blaze.

Campaigners said they did not believe he would give them justice and called on him to stand down.

Sir Martin, a former Appeal Court judge, told the meeting: 'Give us a chance, we are determined to get to the bottom of this.'

Grenfell survivor Chris Imafidon said the Government had already reneged on a commitment that it would not investigate the immigration status of survivors, and told the inquiry chairman: 'Rebuke the Prime Minister. Resign, resign, resign.'

Local resident Niles Hailstones (corr) told Sir Martin: 'We don't recognise you.' Other residents said they felt 'patronised' by the former judge and his team, and questioned why he had been chosen to lead the inquiry.

One man, who did not give his name, accused Sir Martin, of 'supporting the Government policy of social cleansing', a reference to a controversial 2014 ruling when Sir Martin and two other judges ruled Westminster council could rehouse a tenant in Milton Keynes, 50 miles away from her home.

The inquiry chairman was jeered as he said he had spent 20 years working as a judge, adding: 'I think that experience makes me a suitable person to carry out this inquiry.'

He said he would consider residents' demands that he should appoint a panel to advise him, following complaints that his team did not represent the local community.

One woman speaker at the meeting, who did not give her name, said: 'You do not represent us and you do not look like us.' Sir Martin said: 'I am considering whether I should be assisted by other people, and if so, who they should be.'

He offered a 'guarantee' that firms involved in the refurbishment of Grenfell Tower would not be used as official advisers to the inquiry, and pledged to investigate building safety regulations and the role of the tower's cladding and insulation in the spread of the fire.

Local campaigner Samia Badani (corr) called on Sir Martin to investigate the 'history of contempt and neglect' shown to residents by Kensington and Chelsea council, which she said amounted to discrimination against the borough's most disadvantaged residents.

She said: 'That's the reality of discrimination, a process which decides who gets burnt to death and who sleeps safely in their homes.'

The return to Grenfell: Tearful firefighters who were willing to die trying to save lives inside inferno relive the horrors they witnessed in moving documentary as unseen footage shows them breaking down as the scale of the disaster unfolded

Heroic Grenfell firefighters have said they were willing to die in the inferno as they desperately struggled to rescue everyone inside.

They relived their experiences of tackling the horrific fire in a new ITV documentary series exploring the challenges the brigade face every day.

A London Fire Brigade commander said as they battled flames they had 'no intention' of coming out until they had rescued everyone they could, despite their fear the burning building was on the verge of collapse.

Commander Richard Welch said: 'If it was going to collapse...every single person within that building was willing to lose their own life to try to save others. Every single person.'

Heroic Grenfell firefighters have said they were willing to die in the inferno as they desperately struggled to rescue everyone inside

Commander Steve Dudeney (left) was one of the first senior officers to arrive at the scene and was accompanied by Commander Pat Goulbourne (right)

Commander Welch was one of the first senior officers to arrive at the scene and he described how the flames kept raging as more and more firefighers arrived.

He added: 'Initially they had six machines. Then they asked for eight, and then 10, and then 15, 20 and 25.'

Commander Welch said it very quickly became clear that they needed to declare a major incident .

Commander Pat Goulbourne, who was also at the scene, added that he knew Grenfell Tower and had be there before, reports the Mirror.

He said: 'I just knew we had the job of our lives on the go because already I could see fire from the lower floors and I could not believe I was looking at fire to the top floor.

'I've never seen anything like that. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly. You could hear people screaming for help. There were people making signals for help. It was dreadful.'

Commander Goulbourne described 'men, women and children' coming out of the building 'fully sooted'.

The men worked from a bridgehead post two floors below where the fire started on the fourth floor.

Commander Goulbourne said it was the busiest bridgehead he had ever seen.

The disaster has led to a full-scale inquiry, with several high-profile figures from Kensington and Chelsea council resigning

The June 14 fire, which claimed at least 80 lives, is featured in the ITV series: Inside London Fire Brigade.

TV crews followed the London Fire Brigade for 12 months, showing the diverse challenges they face.

Commander Welch described the logistical problems the firefighters faced when they arrived at the 24-storey building in the early hours of the morning.

'We had our hoses going up the staircase, he said. 'We had people trying to get out coming down the staircase.

'We've got firefighters going up the staircase and the staircase was filling with smoke.

'The priority was really to try to reach the flats we knew had people in. The issue we had was the intensity of the fire'.

Inside London Fire Brigade starts tonight at 9pm on ITV.
United States Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit. COLUMBIAN FINANCIAL CORPORATION, Plaintiff - Appellant, THE COLUMBIAN BANK & TRUST COMPANY, Plaintiff, v. JUDI M. STORK, in her official capacity as Deputy Bank Commissioner of Kansas, and in her individual capacity; DERYL K. SCHUSTER, in his official capacity as Acting Bank Commissioner of Kansas, Defendants - Appellees, OFFICE OF THE STATE BANK OF COMMISSIONER OF KANSAS; EDWIN G. SPLICHAL, in his individual capacity; J. THOMAS THULL, in his individual capacity, Defendants. No. 16-3339 Decided: July 25, 2017

Before MATHESON, PHILLIPS, and McHUGH, Circuit Judges.

ORDER AND JUDGMENT*

The district court dismissed Columbian Financial Corporation's first amended complaint for lack of jurisdiction, holding that Columbian's federal-court claims against state officials were precluded by sovereign immunity under the Eleventh Amendment. In reaching this determination, the district court rejected Columbian's contention that it had jurisdiction over Columbian's complaint pursuant to the exception to sovereign immunity enunciated in Ex parte Young, 209 U.S. 123 (1908). Exercising jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C.  1291, we hold that Ex parte Young applies to Columbian's procedural due process claim in which it alleges a failure to provide a meaningful hearing and seeks an injunction ordering a constitutionally adequate hearing. We also hold that this claim is not moot. We therefore reverse and remand for further proceedings consistent with this order and judgment.

I.

Columbian alleged in its first amended complaint that it was the sole shareholder of Columbian Bank and Trust Company (the Bank). In August 2008, the Kansas State Bank Commissioner, Thomas Thull, issued a Declaration of Insolvency and Tender of Receivership (Declaration), under which the Kansas Office of the State Bank Commissioner (OSBC) took charge of the Bank, declared it insolvent under state law, and appointed the FDIC as its receiver. That same day the FDIC sold a substantial portion of the Bank's assets.

The Bank sought judicial review of the Declaration in state court, which remanded the case to the OSBC to provide a post-deprivation hearing. Columbian intervened as a party in the OSBC hearing. Edwin Splichal, who succeeded Thull as Bank Commissioner, presided over the hearing and ultimately granted summary judgment in favor of the OSBC. When Columbian and the Bank again sought judicial review, a Kansas trial court held that the matter was moot and dismissed the appeal for lack of subject matter jurisdiction.

While their appeal of the state-court dismissal was pending, Columbian and the Bank filed this action in federal district court asserting claims under 42 U.S.C.  1983 against Thull, Splichal, and two other OSBC officials, Judi Stork and Deryl Schuster. Alleging a denial of due process, they sought equitable remedies and damages. The district court dismissed the damages claims with prejudice. Applying the abstention principle in Younger v. Harris, 401 U.S. 37 (1971), the court dismissed the equitable claims without prejudice. Columbian appealed, and we vacated dismissal of the equitable claims because the state-court proceedings had terminated. See Columbian Fin. Corp. v. Stork, 811 F.3d 390, 395 (10th Cir. 2016).

On remand, Columbian filed a first amended complaint naming as defendants only Schuster and Stork in their official capacities as Bank Commissioner and Deputy Bank Commissioner, respectively. Columbian alleged, inter alia, that defendants seized the Bank and its assets without providing Columbian with an opportunity to be heard at a meaningful time and in a meaningful manner, in violation of Columbian's Fourteenth Amendment right to due process. In its prayer for relief, Columbian sought:

a. judgment in its favor and against Defendants;

b. an injunction requiring Defendants to provide [Columbian] a hearing before a neutral magistrate at which it may pursue injunctive relief sufficient to remedy the injuries [Columbian] has suffered arising from the issuance of the Declaration, the seizure of the Bank, and the appointment of the FDIC as receiver;

c. the award of attorneys' fees and costs as provided for under 42 U.S.C.  1988(b);

d. the award of such other relief as this Court may deem just and proper.

Aplt. App., Vol. I at 29.

The district court dismissed Columbian's complaint as barred by sovereign immunity. Columbian Fin. Corp. v. Stork, 216 F. Supp. 3d 1267, 1275 (D. Kan. 2016). Regarding the Ex parte Young exception, the court held that Columbian failed to allege an ongoing violation of federal law, nor did it pray for prospective injunctive relief. Id. at 1273. Noting that the Bank had already received a post-deprivation hearing, the court reasoned:

The substance of the plaintiff's claims is completely focused on the pastpast decisions and past proceedings of the OSBC which had a past effect on the plaintiff. The plaintiff does not allege any ongoing or repeated denial of property rights as to trigger future compliance, that is, a new or another due process hearing. Indeed, as the defendants point out, the bank and its assets seized in 2008 no longer exist.

Id. at 1274 (citation and internal quotation marks omitted). The district court stated that, [w]ith the Bank and its assets no longer in existence, the plaintiff does not articulate what prospective injunctive relief could offer a remedy to past injuries. Id. Thus, it concluded that the only relief available to Columbian was a declaratory judgment that the defendants violated [its] due process rights years ago. Id. The court held that such a claim was barred by the Eleventh Amendment. Id.

II.

We review de novo the district court's Eleventh Amendment immunity determination. Reames v. Okla. ex rel. OK Health Care Auth., 411 F.3d 1164, 1167 (10th Cir. 2005). Although states enjoy sovereign immunity from suit in federal court, that immunity is not absolute. Muscogee (Creek) Nation v. Pruitt, 669 F.3d 1159, 1166 (10th Cir. 2012). [U]nder Ex parte Young, a plaintiff may bring suit against individual state officers acting in their official capacities if the complaint alleges an ongoing violation of federal law and the plaintiff seeks prospective relief. Id. (citation omitted). To determine whether the Ex parte Young exception to sovereign immunity applies, a federal court need only conduct this  straightforward inquiry.  Id. at 1167 (quoting Verizon Md. Inc. v. Pub. Serv. Comm'n of Md., 535 U.S. 635, 645 (2002)). Thus, our analysis of subject matter jurisdiction under Ex parte Young does not turn on whether the complaint states a valid cause of action. Id. at 1168 (distinguishing between dismissal for lack of jurisdiction and dismissal on the merits); see also Verizon Md., 535 U.S. at 646 ([T]he inquiry into whether suit lies under Ex parte Young does not include an analysis of the merits of the claim.).

A.

The parties dispute whether Columbian's first amended complaint alleges an ongoing violation of federal law and seeks prospective relief. Columbian argues that the right to be heard in a meaningful manner is a fundamental requirement of due process guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment. It alleges that defendants' violation of its due process rights is ongoing because it still has not received a meaningful hearing. Aplt. App., Vol. I at 26. More specifically, Columbian seeks a hearing before an impartial hearing officer after sufficient opportunity for discovery. It asserts that it requests only prospective relief in this action in the form of an injunction requiring Defendants to comply with federal law by providing a hearing with constitutionally adequate procedural protections. According to Columbian, when a federal plaintiff alleges that a state official has refused to do an act that federal law requires, an injunction requiring the act to be performed has long been held to be proper relief under Ex parte Young.

Defendants argue that Columbian has not identified any ongoing violation of federal law because [a]ll actions giving rise to this case are in the distant past and the Bank no longer exists. Aplee. Br. at 9. They posit that Columbian is seeking relief, not permitted under Ex parte Young, in the form of a declaration that defendants' past conduct violated federal law. Defendants argue that Columbian's requested relief is akin to and would have the same effect as a retrospective damages award.

B.

We conclude that Ex parte Young applies because Columbian alleges an ongoing violation of federal law and seeks from the federal court only prospective relief and other relief ancillary thereto. Contrary to the district court's and defendants' apparent reasoning, the fact that Columbian is seeking to right a previous wrong [does] not disqualify the action from the Ex Parte Young exception. Opala v. Watt, 454 F.3d 1154, 1158 (10th Cir. 2006) (internal quotation marks omitted). For example, in Buchwald v. University of New Mexico School of Medicine, 159 F.3d 487, 496 (10th Cir. 1998), we held that the plaintiff alleged an ongoing constitutional violation in the form of her continued exclusion from [the state medical school]. And her prayer for an injunction ordering her immediate placement in that school qualified as a request for prospective equitable relief from an ongoing constitutional violation. See id. at 495-96. Much like defendants' argument here, the defendants contended in Buchwald that, because the plaintiff [sought] only to remedy past wrongs  the relief requested is exclusively non-prospective. Id. at 495 n.5. We rejected this contention, explaining that

[t]he existence of a past harm does not convert a prospective injunction into retrospective relief barred under the Eleventh Amendment. Just as claims for reinstatement are treated as prospective relief when the plaintiff alleges that he or she was terminated for unconstitutional reasons, so is the claim for an injunction seeking admission to a school that has allegedly denied admission on unconstitutional grounds.

Id. (citations omitted); see also Meiners v. Univ. of Kan., 359 F.3d 1222, 1232 (10th Cir. 2004) (Reinstatement of employment is a form of prospective equitable relief that is within the doctrine of Ex parte Young.).

Defendants fail to distinguish this case from Buchwald and Meiners, both of which involved claims for future injunctive relief to remedy past harms. Regarding whether a violation of federal law is ongoing, we see no distinction between the continuing exclusion of a student in Buchwald, the continuing denial of employment as a tenured faculty member in Meiners, 359 F.3d at 1232, and defendants' alleged ongoing refusal to provide a fair and impartial hearing to Columbian in this case. Moreover, other courts have held that an injunction ordering a hearing qualifies as prospective relief under Ex parte Young. See Brown v. Ga. Dep't of Rev., 881 F.2d 1018, 1023-24 (11th Cir. 1989) (affirming order directing state personnel board members to conduct a hearing as falling within Ex parte Young exception to sovereign immunity); Martin Marietta Materials, Inc. v. Kan. Dep't of Transp., 953 F. Supp. 2d 1176, 1183, 1186-87 (D. Kan. 2013) (holding plaintiffs' claims satisfied the Ex parte Young exception where they alleged an ongoing exclusion from a state's approved vendor list and sought injunctive relief in the form of a hearing and restoration to the list), aff'd, 810 F.3d 1161 (10th Cir. 2016). Furthermore, the fact that defendants afforded Columbian some form of a hearing does not alter our analysis because Columbian alleges that the previous hearing did not satisfy constitutional due process requirements. See Rezaq v. Nalley, 677 F.3d 1001, 1010 (10th Cir. 2012) (notwithstanding a previous hearing, characterizing plaintiff's request for a new hearing with adequate procedural protections as prospective relief). To hold otherwise would permit state actors to avoid an injunction requiring them to comply with federal due process standards simply by providing a sham hearing.

There is also no merit in defendants' bald contention, without any elaboration, that Columbian's requested injunction is akin to a retrospective damages award. Columbian is not asking the federal court to award it damages. An injunction ordering defendants to provide Columbian with a hearing that comports with federal due process requirements would not require the state to compensate Columbian. Nor would the Eleventh Amendment be violated if the state incurs costs ancillary to providing a hearing with adequate procedural protections. See Reames, 411 F.3d at 1167-68 (noting Eleventh Amendment not violated by expenditures ancillary to an order requiring compliance with federal law). Defendants further contend that the relief Columbian seeks is analogous to a request for retrospective declaratory relief, which is barred by the Eleventh Amendment. See Meiners, 359 F.3d at 1232. But to the extent that Columbian's prayer for other relief includes a declaratory judgment that is ancillary to the injunction, defendants are not immune from such a claim. See Buchwald, 159 F.3d at 496 n.8; see also Verizon Md., 535 U.S. at 646 (Insofar as the exposure of the State is concerned, the prayer for declaratory relief adds nothing to the prayer for injunction.).

Finally, defendants argue that in applying the Ex parte Young doctrine a federal court must also consider a state's special sovereignty interests. Idaho v. Coeur d'Alene Tribe of Idaho, 521 U.S. 261, 281 (1997) (We must examine the effect of the Tribe's suit and its impact on these special sovereignty interests in order to decide whether the Ex parte Young fiction is applicable). But we have recognized that, after Verizon Maryland, this inquiry is no longer required. See Muscogee (Creek) Nation, 669 F.3d at 1167 n.4.

C.

Having concluded that Columbian's procedural due process claim is not barred by sovereign immunity, we next must address defendants' contention that the appeal is moot. When it becomes impossible for a court to grant effective relief, a live controversy ceases to exist, and the case becomes moot. Abdulhaseeb v. Calbone, 600 F.3d 1301, 1311 (10th Cir. 2010) (internal quotation marks omitted). Defendants argue that this case is moot because a new hearing could not resurrect the Bank or return its seized and disbursed assets to Columbian. Columbian contends that a claim is not mooted simply because a court is unable to return the parties to the status quo ante; rather, the question is whether a court can fashion some form of meaningful relief [under the] circumstances. Church of Scientology of Cal. v. United States, 506 U.S. 9, 12 (1992) (holding plaintiff's challenge to an IRS summons seeking audio tapes was not mooted by delivery of the tapes to the IRS because a court could effectuate a partial remedy by ordering destruction of the tapes).

Columbian contends that its right to a constitutionally adequate hearing exists independently of its ability to have the Bank's assets restored. Moreover, it maintains that a partial remedy is still available. Columbian notes that, as a consequence of the seizure, it lost not only the Bank's assets but also the Bank's charter to conduct future business in Kansas. And furthermore, Columbian argues that the Declaration's insolvency finding could be held against it in a future application for a Kansas banking charter. Thus, Columbian argues that an opportunity to clear its name in a proper due process hearing would have some effect in the real world sufficient to avoid mootness of its procedural due process claim. Abdulhaseeb, 600 F.3d at 1311 (internal quotation marks omitted).

Although defendants respond that Columbian can address its concerns in a future bank charter application, they fail to address Columbian's argument that, because the district court could grant it partial relief, a live controversy still exits. We addressed a similar mootness claim in Rezaq, in which prisoners challenged their transfer to a maximum security federal prison facility known as the ADX without sufficient due process, see 677 F.3d at 1004. The prisoners were not given pre-transfer hearings, id. at 1005, and they alleged that the retroactive transfer hearings they did receive failed to comply with procedural due process requirements, id. at 1006. While the litigation proceeded, the prisoners were all transferred to less-restrictive facilities. Id.

We rejected the defendants' contention that the prisoners' transfers out of the ADX mooted their claims. Id. at 1009-10. We reasoned that their transfers did not eradicate the effects of the alleged due process deprivations because none of the prisoners had been returned to their pre-ADX placements. Id. at 1009. Additionallyand most relevant to this casewe held that some prospective relief remained available to the prisoners. Id. Assuming that their previous hearings were constitutionally deficient, we held that the court could award them meaningful relief in the form of additional process. Id. Noting that the possibility of a partial remedy is sufficient to prevent a case from being moot, we held that [e]ven if that reliefsuch as new retroactive transfer hearings with adequate procedural protectionsis unlikely to result in transfers to less-restrictive conditions, it is relief nonetheless. Id. at 1010 (internal quotation marks and brackets omitted).

Here, Columbian identifies injuries that could be redressed by its requested reliefspecifically, a new hearing with adequate procedural protectionswhich could overturn the insolvency finding and restore the Bank's charter. Consequently, because it is not impossible for a court to grant Columbian any form of meaningful relief, we hold that Columbian's procedural due process claim is not moot.

III.

The district court's judgment is reversed, and we remand this case for further proceedings consistent with this order and judgment.

Entered for the Court

FOOTNOTES

. The Kansas Court of Appeals affirmed the trial court's judgment. Although it disagreed that Columbian's action was moot, it affirmed the trial court's denial of relief because the Bank and its owner have failed to meet their burden of proving the invalidity of the Commissioner's action under the Kansas Judicial Review Act. Columbian Bank & Trust Co. v. Splichal, 329 P.3d 557, 2014 WL 3732013, at *1 (Kan. Ct. App. July 25, 2014) (per curiam) (unpublished).

. Columbian alleges that Splichal, the Bank Commissioner and head of the OSBC, presided over its post-deprivation hearing. Aplt. App., Vol. I at 22. Columbian seeks a hearing before a neutral judge or magistrate. Id. at 29.

. In particular, Columbian alleges that Thull was the sole decision-maker regarding the Bank's closure, yet Splichal denied Columbian's motion to depose Thull. Aplt. App., Vol. I at 22.

. Columbian likewise construes the district court's dismissal order as based, in part, on a finding that its claims are moot, although the court did not expressly reach that holding.

. We do not address defendants' final contention, that Columbian is not entitled to injunctive relief, because our inquiry under Ex parte Young does not extend to the merits of Columbian's claim for relief. See Verizon Md., 535 U.S. at 646.

Carolyn B. McHugh Circuit Judge
An RAF serviceman's wife has been left shaken after an Amazon delivery driver traipsed through her empty house and left a parcel on the sofa.

Carolanne Lindsay, 39, was horrified when she arrived home on RAF base St Athen in south Wales to find a delivery note through her door and a parcel of coffee pods eerily waiting in the living room.

The social worker, whose husband has just been deployed abroad, thinks the deliveryman failed to enter the locked front and back doors before getting in through the unlocked patio door and walking through her dining room.

Horrified: Carolanne Lindsay, 39, has been left shaken after an Amazon delivery driver traipsed through her empty house

Mother-of-three Mrs Lindsay, who did not want to reveal her husband's role in the RAF, is so shaken that she now locks all her doors even when in the house in case the driver returns.

She said: 'I'm sitting here and I have to locked myself in because my husband has been deployed and I don't feel safe. It's horrendous and Amazon don't give a damn.

'The driver went all the way through my dining room and into my living room before leaving the package.

'We have no idea how he managed to get in the house because both the back and front doors were locked. My five-year-old had obviously left the patio doors unlocked after letting the dog out.

Creepy: The driver left a card saying the parcel was on the sofa

'This one instance when my son left the door unlocked and we didn't check, and this happens.

'What we couldn't understand was there was a large eight-seater dining room table right by the patio door, but he went through there and into the living room.

'This is particularly sensitive for us, with everything that's happened lately with the attempted abductions of RAF personnel. That's what's happening now.

'We are a military family. We go around and check our doors for safety because obviously with the things that are happening in the world at the moment, we have to be secure.

'My first thought, and I know it sounds ridiculous, was what if he'd planted cameras in the house.

'Or he could have gone through my drawers and taken something. I wouldn't know until that one moment we want something and it isn't there.'

After sending numerous emails to Amazon over six weeks, she claims the company told her that the driver in question had been taken off deliveries pending retraining.

According to Amazon, the driver claimed he knocked on Mrs Lindsay's house and got permission to put the parcel through the window.

Carolanne Lindsay (pictured with her husband and sons), 39, was horrified when she arrived home on RAF base St Athen in South Wales to find a parcel of coffee pods on the sofa

The social worker has been offered cash as an apology but demanded confirmation from Amazon that the driver will never return to her home.

Mrs Lindsay said: 'They told me that the driver knocked on the door and "the customer confirmed and asked if they could put the parcel through a living room window".

'Why did he leave a calling card if this is true? They've now said he's been taken off delivery and will be retrained.

'He's trespassed on my property. I don't want any deliveries to come to my home. We are quite upset that the delivery driver has lied.

'Amazon have offered us compensation for the distress but I don't want the money, I want to know what's going on.'

An Amazon spokesman stressed that the driver worked for a third party delivery service and was no longer working on deliveries for them.

The spokesperson said: 'We have very high standards for independent delivery companies who deliver Amazon parcels and how they serve customers.

'We have investigated this matter with the delivery provider and the driver is no longer delivering Amazon parcels.'
Crowds of angry teenagers hurled missiles at police after hundreds were refused entry to a school disco.

Violence erupted on the streets of Leyton, east London, with bottles and rocks launched at officers.

CCTV footage from a resident shows the teens forcing their way onto a bus which was trapped on the street.

One officer was said to have suffered minor injuries in the clash last night, but no arrests have been made.

Chaos: Police form a line and march towards the unruly youths in Leyton, east London

Crowd control: Police wearing helmets and vests gather on the streets as they work to calm the unrest in Leyton

Police said they were called at 9pm by residents concerned about a 'large crowd causing a disturbance'.

Officers tried to ease the tension, but by 11pm the mob, made of youngsters aged 16-18, 'became hostile' and began throwing missiles.

A video of the chaos showed dozens of officers forming a line in the street before advancing on the unruly mob - many of whom turned and sprinted away.

Witnesses spotted more than 15 police cars and vans at the scene, along with a helicopter circling overhead.

Jake Flair said: 'Winging through Leyton and something was defo popping, sirens and helicopters everywhere. Hope everyone is safe.'

A Met Police spokesman said: 'Police were called shortly before 9pm on Wednesday July 26 to reports of a large crowd causing a disturbance in the area of Church Road, Leyton.

Unruly: The teens (pictured) caused trouble after being refused entry to a local school party

Missiles: The mob was seen launching bottles and rocks at police and pictured, they throw them towards a bus

Vandals: Teens were seen jumping on top of cars during the clashes, causing damage to residents windscreens (pictured)

'We understand that many of those in the crowd had been unable to gain access to a party being held at a nearby school.

'Officers sought to disperse the crowd, the majority of whom complied with police, however, at around 11pm a group became hostile, and missiles were thrown at police officers.

'Most of those present had dispersed by midnight.

'There have been no arrests. CCTV footage will be viewed to identify anyone who committed criminal acts.

'One police officer sustained a minor injury.'
The EU's top negotiator has accused the British government of being clueless over Brexit - and warned this looks like it will delay negotiations on a future trade deal.

Michel Barnier yesterday told EU ambassadors that talks on the future relationship between Britain and the bloc are now less likely to start in October because of a lack of progress.

According to briefings from Brussels, he said Britain has 'no position' on the Brexit divorce bill and is unclear in its positions on other crucial issues too.

And it has been claimed that there have been no detailed discussions on the Irish border issue - despite two rounds of formal Brexit talks.

The allegations are likely to spark fury among British government ministers, who have said they hope to get on to the next phase of talks by the autumn.

And Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg slammed the comments telling the Mail Online 'the EU needs a deal more than we do...they are in real trouble without our money'.

Brexit Secretary David Davis, pictured with the EU's chief negotiator Michel Barnier in Brussels last Thursday. The two side shave clashed over the role of the ECJ after Brexit, with Britain insisting the UK must free itself from meddling EU judges when we quit the bloc

The Conservative MP for North East Somerset, said: Well he would say that wouldnt he?

He is the counter party in the negotiation and wishes to influence the process as much as possible.

The difficulty is not that we dont have a position, the difficulty is that the EU has failed to prove that we owe them any money at all.

And under EU and international law, if we leave without a deal we owe them nothing, and that means that the EU needs a deal more than we do.

And Mr Barnier, by overstating his position and being overly demanding, is risking getting a less favourable deal for the European Union.

And the European Union will find life very difficult without a deal because they need our money. They are in real trouble without our money.

Mr Rees Mogg said the leaks of the briefing to ambassadors is a diversion tactic designed to distract from the EUs internal woes.

Recounting Mr Barnier's update to ambassadors yesterday, an EU official involved in Brexit talks said: 'He said the likelihood of starting the future relationship talks in October appeared to be decreasing.'

Tory MP Jacob Rees Mogg said Mr Barnier's comments are intended to be a distraction from the EU's internal woes

According to another official, Mr Barnier tore into the government's position accusing ministers of having no position at all on key issues.

The official said: 'Barnier expressed concerns that sufficient progress in October looked difficult now.

'Mainly because Britain has no position on finances, but also because they don't have positions on other issues as well.

'The more they drag on, the less time is left for second phase and special relationship they want.'

The EU has said that 'sufficient progress' on settling the future right of EU nationals, the Irish border question and the Brexit divorce bill must be made before the next stage of talks can kick off.

But an EU diplomat said very little real progress has been made on the talks.

They said: 'There has still been no kick-off on money, Britain still refuses to accept anything - either the methodology, or the sum.

This blocks everything else, there won't be any real progress over the next two months, clearly that won't create grounds for opening phase two on trade.

'On citizens' acquired rights, it's a mixed picture. We have a list of things we agree on, disagree on and are some way in between. But that at least allows us to negotiate.'

Another official said: 'Diplomats said that on Ireland, talks have not moved beyond restating positions that have already been presented in public.

'They have actually not discussed the Irish border in any detail, there were no technical talks at all.'

IMMIGRATION MINISTER VOWS FREE MOVEMENT RULES WILL END IN MARCH 2019 Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said free movement rules will end in March 2019 The Immigration Minister today said Britain would leave the EU free movement rules in 2019 - but refused to say if it will cut the number of new arrivals. Brandon Lewis said the Government remained committed to cutting net migration to the tens of thousands. But he would not place a timescale on the target. He said new laws would be in place by the time Britain leaves the EU in March 2019 and said free movement would end at that point. He added: 'Our determination to see net migration fall to sustainable levels - and we think that is the tens of thousands - is something we have had and continue to have as our long term aim.' His comments risked plunging Tory immigration policy into confusion after his boss, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, said the UK will remain open to skilled EU citizens after Brexit. Advertisement

Britain and Brussels are locked in a row over the future role of the European Court of Justice in Britain after Brexit.

Theresa May has made it clear that Britain will finally be free form the EU court after we quit the bloc in March 2019 - but Brussels wants it to continue to dictate rules governing the rights of EU nationals.

However, only yesterday Chancellor Philip Hammond said he hoped the next stage of talks - which will include discussion of a future trade deal - will begin in September or October.

The negative briefings from Brussels briefings comes after a British government minister reportedly warned the UK could walk out ofBrexit talks if the EU refuses to back down over the ECJ.

The minster said there is a 'very good chance' the UK will leave the talks unless Brussels drops its uncompromising demand and accepts Britain's courts will be supreme after Brexit.

The government minister said the EU's current stubborn position 'is a very, very big problem indeed'.

The minister told The Express: 'If they [the EU] don't budge on that issue then we will have to walk away'.

Contingency plans are being drawn up by all government departments, the minister said 'there is a very good chance we could walk away' from the talks.

But the minister said a complete breakdown in talks is 'unlikely' because 'they [the EU] are desperate for a deal' and will have to compromise.

Officials in Brussels have said the EU court must continue to be the ultimate arbiter over the rights of EU citizens living in Britain after we quit the bloc March 2019, and other issues.

But they were slapped down by the the Brexit Secretary, who has made it plain that leaving the jurisdiction of EU courts is essential.

Britain's courts - known as the finest in the world - will rule supreme, he has insisted.

Speaking in Prague earlier this week, Mr Davis said: 'The aim, as I understand it, of the European Commission in arguing for the European Court is to give certainty to the citizens we are talking about.

'Now we intend that this should be put in an Act of Parliament, enforced by the British courts  and I don't think anybody has ever argued that the British courts are anything other than trustworthy in terms of defending the rights of individuals.

'And backed up, most importantly backed up by a treaty so that the treaty itself is enforceable as well.

'Now that's the way we are going to do it.'

EU chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt has called for the ECJ to enforce rights in Britain after Brexit (file picture)

But the European Parliament's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt has called for the ECJ to enforce rights in Britain after Brexit.

Meanwhile, the Immigration Minister today said Britain would leave the EU free movement rules in 2019.

But Brandon Lewis refused to to say whether it would actually cut the number of new arrivals.

He said the Government remained committed to cutting net migration to the tens of thousands but would not place a timescale on the target.

Mr Lewis' position appears to differ from an apparent Cabinet agreement last week that backed a transition deal that kept Britain in the single market until 2022 - meaning free movement would continue for three years after Brexit takes place.

The confusion came as Home Secretary Amber Rudd launched a new census on the role of EU migrants already in Britain and working in the economy.

Ms Rudd today insisted Britain would remain open to skilled EU citizens after Brexit amid fears the referendum vote will do little to cut immigration
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President Trump's 97,000-ton aircraft carrier has dropped anchor in the Solent, ahead of a two-week US and UK training exercise in the North Atlantic, during a break from deployment in the fight against ISIS.

The George H.W. Bush carrier arrived this morning, dropping anchor near Stokes Bay, between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, as a modern day warship met the old defences of the south coast.

The 4.7billion ($6.2billion) supercarrier, named after the 41st President, is a Nimitz-class ship, measuring 1,092ft long and has a crew of 5,500 personnel.

It carries 80 or more combat aircraft on a 4.5-acre flight deck, that towers 20 storeys above the waterline.

The modern day carrier, which has played a role in training British personnel before they man the HMS Queen Elizabeth, came face to face with the Victorian sea forts, still out in the waters near Gosport. The forts in the Solent were designed to keep invaders at bay in the 19th century and were built in 1861.

The huge warship has been deployed in operation Inherent Resolve, the fight against ISIS, and its main role has been to provide a base for the airstrikes against the terror group.

USS George Bush Aircraft Carrier laden with fighter jets arriving in the Solent, UK, early this morning. The ship has been a major part of the fight against ISIS and will be the centre of two-weeks of maritime development between the US and the UK

Pictured: A comparison between the aircraft carriers USS George HW Bush and Britain's HMS Queen Elizabeth

Planes on the flightdeck onboard the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush as it lays at anchor off the coastbefore it participates n Exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 in the Northern Atlantic Ocean

US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush is pictured anchored off the coast of Portsmouth earlier today

A crew member walks past 2 F-18 jets, one of which says 'Ragin' Bulls' etched on the side, onboard the USS George H.W. Bush earlier this afternoon

Commodore Andrew Betton (right) walks out on to the USS George H.W. Bush with a member of the crew before speaking to members of the media

Pilot Michael Tremel chats with members of the media earlier this afternoon onboard the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush

THE USS GEORGE HW BUSH v THE HMS QUEEN ELIZABETH: HOW DO THEY COMPARE? Type: Nimitz-class Weight: 97,000 tons Length: 1,092 feet Height: 20 storeys above waterline Capacity: 70-90 aircraft, plus 5,500 personnel across a 4.5-acre deck Power source: two nuclear reactors, that can keep it running for 20 years Cost: 4.7bn ($62.bn) Type: Queen Elizabeth-class Weight: 70,600 tons Length: 918 ft Height: Around 13 storeys above waterline Capacity: 50-70 aircraft, around 1,600 personnel Power source: gas turbine alternators and diesel engines Cost: 3.1bn Advertisement

According to Naval Today, the USS George H.W. Bush was accompanied by the USS Philippine Sea, USS Donald Cook and Norwegian ship HNoMS Helge Insgstad.

It is on its final leg of deployment in an operation against ISIS.

The carrier is being manned by UK personnel, as part of the UK-US Long Lead Specialist Skills Programme that then qualifies them in US carrier operations, as part of the preparation for the arrival of HMS Queen Elizabeth.

The Exercise Saxon Warrior 17 is a joint UK and US two-week major drill that will focus on how the countries work together.

Commander UK Carrier Strike Group Commodore Andrew Betton said: 'Exercise Saxon Warrior is a large, multinational joint exercise which involves fifteen warships from five different nations, submarines, over 100 aircraft and about 9,000 personnel.

'The UK contribution will be two Type 23 frigates supporting the US aircraft carrier, a Royal Navy submarine, the Carrier Strike Group UK battle staff, fixed wing and rotary wing aircraft operating from ashore, and then the central training staff who will based in Faslane in Scotland.'

A sailing boat passes the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush as it lays at anchor off the coast before it participates in Exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 in the Northern Atlantic Ocean

The UECC car transporter ship Auto Eco passes the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier on Thursday morning in the Solent

The exercise, which begins once the group leaves Portsmouth, will also be key to ensuring UK personnel are fully equipped ahead of the arrival of the Royal Navys new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier, HMS Queen Elizabeth.

Over the next fortnight U.S. Naval personnel will train side-by-side with UK pilots, engineers and deck handlers to build combined maritime and aviation capability and capacity.

Colonel Phil Kelly, Royal Marines is the COMUKCSG Strike Commander. He said: 'This exercise is a great demonstration of the UKs relationship with the United States who are helping us in getting back our carrier strike capability and making a success of the Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier programme.'

Exercise Saxon Warrior is a U.S.-United Kingdom co-hosted, joint and multinational maritime exercise which the carrier will join

Aircraft on the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush. The craft is being manned by UK personnel who are training ahead of the arrival of the HMS Queen Elizabeth

A person runs along Pebble Beach in Stokes Bay, Hampshire, as the US Navy Nimitz-class aircraft carrier USS George H.W. Bush lays at anchor off the coast

The 97,000-tonne USS George H. W. Bush aircraft carrier is 1,092 feet long and has a crew of over 5500 personnel, carries 80-plus combat aircraft on the 4.5-acre flight deck and towers 20 stories above the waterline

The Exercise Saxon Warrior 2017 Commander UK Carrier Strike Group Commodore Andrew Betton is embarked with his team for the Exercise Saxon Warrior 2017. The joint maritime exercise will focus how the US and the UK work together during a number of challenging scenarios around the UK coastline. Cdre Betton said: 'Exercise Saxon Warrior is a large, multinational joint exercise which involves fifteen warships from five different nations, submarines, over 100 aircraft and about 9,000 personnel.' It forms part of the training for those who will take on the HMS Queen Elizabeth when it comes into service. Advertisement

Powered by two nuclear reactors, it can operate for more than 20 years without refuelling and can reach speeds of 30+ knots (34.5+ miles per hour) with four bronze propellers, each 21 feet across and weighing more than 30 tonnes.

The huge carrier typically carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days, with 18,150 meals served everyday. It has distillation plants providing 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes and has nearly 30,000 light fixtures.

Nuclear powered Nimitz carriers are named after Chester Nimitz, who was a fleet admiral in the US Navy in World War Two, playing a major role as the Commander in Chief of the Pacific Fleet. His forces inflicted a decisive defeat in Japan in the final phases of the war in the Pacific.

The USS George H.W. Bush has been a leading part of the US bombing campaign in Iraq and Syria, primarily against the Islamic State group but on occasion targeting Syrian government forces and their allies fighting US-backed groups.

The 330-metre ship carries between 70 and 90 aircraft at a time, including a fleet of F-18 fighter jets which are used to strike IS targets in Mosul, Raqa and elsewhere.

The USS George H.W. Bush is powered by two nuclear reactors and can operate for more than 20 years without refuelling reaching speeds of 30+ knots (34.5+ miles per hour) with four bronze propellers, each 21 feet across and weighing more than 30 tons

The aircraft carrier typically carries enough food and supplies to operate for 90 days, 18,150 meals are served daily and has distillation plants providing 400,000 gallons of fresh water from sea water daily, enough for 2,000 homes

The US and the UK will train side-by-side for the next two weeks, with a focus on how the two nations can work together on challenging maritime scenarios

As well as the USS George HW Bush, the USS Philippine Sea, USS Donald Cook and Norwegian ship HNoMS Helge Insgstad arrived in the Solent, as they complete the final leg of the deployment in the fight against ISIS

The training will better equip UK personnel who will man the new HMS Queen Elizabeth, above, the Royal Navy's aircraft carrier

The Royal Navy's carrier, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, above, left Lossiemouth at the beginning of the week for sea trials
Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte faces calls to retract a statement in which he threatened to bomb schools he claimed were teaching children to become Communist rebels.

In a press conference following his annual state of the union speech on Monday, Duterte made the threats against Maoist sympathisers, alleging schools were operating under guerrilla control.

He ranted: 'I will bomb those schools. I will use the Armed Forces, the Philippine Air Force because you're operating illegally and you're teaching the children to rebel against government.'

Duterte (centre) pictured at a military camp on July 20, has threatened to bomb schools which encourage rebellion against the government

Duterte has been warned by Human Rights Watch that carrying the threat through would be a war crime.

The US-based humanitarian group organisation said international law 'prohibits attacks on schools and other civilian structures unless they are being used for military purposes,' adding that deliberate attacks on civilians, including students and teachers, 'is also a war crime'.

Left-wing Rep Emmi de Jesus, of the Gabriela Women's Party, urged the president to retract the threat, saying government troops may use it as a pretext to attack indigenous, or Lumad, schools and communities in the country's south which have come under threat from pro-military militias in recent years.

GOVERNMENTS WARN CITIZENS TO AVOID SOUTH OF COUNTRY Western governments are warning their citizens against travelling to nearly all of the southern third of the Philippines, citing the rising threats of terror attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants. Fresh alerts from Britain, Canada and Australia were released this week after President Rodrigo Duterte extended military rule across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year to combat the militants. The Canadian advisory on Monday warned against visiting any part of Mindanao except for Davao, the biggest city in the south. 'There is a serious risk of terrorist attacks and kidnappings in this region,' the Canadian government said. It also cautioned that people should only visit Davao, where the bombing of a crowded night market last year claimed 15 lives, if it was essential. The British government advisory, released on Tuesday, warned terrorists were 'very likely' to carry out attacks anywhere in the Philippines, including the capital of Manila. Advertisement

Angered by recent communist rebel attacks on government forces, including a gunbattle last week that wounded five members of his elite presidential guards, Duterte has called off peace talks with the Maoist guerrillas and threatened their perceived sympathisers.

In his news conference, Duterte condemned the insurgents for destroying bridges and torching schools in the countryside.

But he said the rebels were sparing Lumad schools, which he alleged were operating under guerrilla control without government permits.

Carlos Conde, of Human Rights Watch, said Duterte, by calling for an attack on schools, 'is directing the military to commit war crimes'.

Conde urged Duterte to sign a 2015 international political statement, the Safe Schools Declaration, that commits governments to supporting the protection of students, teachers and schools in times of armed conflict.

Duterte became president last year after campaigning on his extra-tough approach on crime as a prosecutor and later as mayor of southern Davao city. He has remained popular despite thousands of deaths in his nationwide anti-drug crackdown.

Duterte also called for the abolition of the Commission on Human Rights, an independent agency created under the constitution to investigate rights violations. He demanded that the commission and the ombudsman - an anti-graft prosecutor - route requests to investigate police and military personnel through him and laid down conditions under which he would allow those investigations.

Duterte said if the ombudsman failed to address atrocities committed by insurgents, 'then do not investigate my army and police.'

Junance Fritzi Magbanua, an administrative officer of the Mindanao Interfaith Foundation Inc. which runs indigenous schools in the south, said Duterte's threats have heightened fear among Lumads already affected by attacks by the military and the security forces of big mining companies because of their resistance to mining.

Duterte sparked outrage with his comments, which Human Rights Watch says amounts to inciting war crimes

'The words uttered by President Duterte are frightening because they give a go-signal to the armed forces to bomb our schools,' said Magbanua.

He was among 300 teachers, students and parents who traveled to Manila this week to join street protests and complain before the Commission on Human Rights over reported shootings and troop encampment in their schools.

There are about 200 Lumad schools in the south with about 4,000 students and 88 teachers.

One campus has been recognized by the Department of Education, while the rest have been issued permits to operate, she said, denying that they teach students to become communist rebels.

'We only hold chalk, ball pen and paper,' she said, asking Duterte to visit the schools if he wants to find out.

Save Our Schools Network, a non-government group advocating children's right to education, said there have been at least 68 military attacks affecting 89 Lumad schools since last July.

Military spokesman Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla denied soldiers were behind the attacks and said troops have gone to the tribal communities to secure them and allow government-recognized schools to be established.
A freed Boko Haram 'wife' has returned to the husband who held her captive in Nigeria after hearing he was with another woman.

Aisha Yerima was kidnapped by militants more than four years ago and taken to their Sambisa forest stronghold where she married a commander.

The 25-year-old was among 70 women and children recaptured by the army in a raid in February and was placed in a deradicalisation programme designed specifically for women seized by jihadists.

But in May she is said to have vanished from her family home in Born's state capital Maiduguri, taking the baby boy fathered by her Boko Haram husband and some of her clothes.

A freed Boko Haram 'wife' has returned to the husband who held her captive in Nigeria after hearing he was with another woman, Picture shows activists calling for the return of hundreds of schoolgirls kidnapped by the militant group

Aisha Yerima was kidnapped by militants more than four years ago and taken to their Sambisa forest stronghold where she married a commander (file picture)

Relatives said she had received a phone call from another woman who said she had returned to live with her captors.

Her sister Bintu Yerima said Aisha's 'husband' was now with a woman who had been her rival.

'Before she left ... she had received a phone call from a woman who was with her (in the programme),' 22-year-old Yerima told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Maiduguri. 'The woman said that she had returned to the Sambisa forest.'

Phone calls to Aisha after she disappeared went unanswered, and her mobile has since been switched off, her sister added.

Fatima Akilu, a psychologist and head of the Neem Foundation, an anti-extremism group which ran the state-backed programme, said she had heard that some of the women who were under her care, including Aisha, had gone back to Boko Haram.

'Rehabilitation, reintegration is a long process ... complicated by the fact we have an active, ongoing insurgency.'

Boko Haram's bloody campaign to create an Islamic state is now in its eighth year with little sign of ending, and has claimed more than 20,000 lives and uprooted 2.7 million people.

'When you have fathers, husbands, sons and brothers who are still in the movement, they (the women) want to be reunited ... to go back to a place where they feel they belong,' added Akilu.

The allure of power may be another factor in their return.

Thousands of girls and women have been abducted by Boko Haram since 2009 - most notably the more than 200 Chibok girls (pictured) snatched one night from their school in April 2014 - with many of them used as cooks, sex slaves, and even suicide bombers

Thousands of girls and women have been abducted by Boko Haram since 2009 - most notably the more than 200 Chibok girls snatched one night from their school in April 2014 - with many of them used as cooks, sex slaves, and even suicide bombers.

Yet some of these women, like Aisha, say they managed to gain respect, influence and standing within the militant group.

Aisha told the Thomson Reuters Foundation earlier this year that other women kidnapped by Boko Haram were given to her as 'slaves' because she was married to leading militant Mamman Nur.

Seduced by the power, and disenchanted with the domestic drudgery of their everyday lives, women are far more difficult than men to deradicalise and reintegrate into their communities, said Akilu, who called for more support for the former captives.

'Women often come out successful from deradicalisation programmes, but they struggle in the community,' Akilu said. 'Some face a lot of stigma. They feel like pariahs.'

Many Nigerians fear women abducted by Boko Haram have been radicalised and may recruit others or commit violence once they return home, and that their children born of rape may have been tainted by the 'bad blood' of the militants, according to a 2016 report by charity International Alert and the U.N. children's agency (UNICEF).

'It needs a lot of work to get communities to accept women who have done the almost unthinkable,' said Akilu, who explained how the reintegration process can take several years.

'Trying to reintegrate is especially difficult when Boko Haram are carrying out their atrocities almost every week.'
A white woman has been caught on film unleashing a torrent of racist abuse at three Muslim women in a Walmart parking lot.

Amber Hensley, from Fargo, North Dakota, was filmed by 21-year-old Somali immigrant Sarah Hassan as she verbally abused her in a Walmart parking lot.

Hensley can be heard telling Hassan 'we're gunna kill all of ya, we're going to kill every one of you f***ing Muslims' during the vile rant.

Amber Hensley, from Fargo, North Dakota, was filmed telling three Somali immigrants that 'we're going to kill every one of you f***ing Muslims' during a row over a parking space

On Wednesday accounting firm Horab and Wentz, where Hensley worked as a secretary, announced that she is being let go from her job.

A statement by the firm said: 'Horab & Wentz does not agree with or support the statements expressed by Amber Hensley in the recently posted video.

'She does not reflect the views of Horab & Wentz. Ms. Hensley is no longer employed with Horab & Wentz effective immediately.'

Hensley used her Facebook account to apologize, which victim Sarah Hassan accepted, but has since deleted the account

The firm also clarified that Hensley worked as a secretary, not as an accountant, as was originally reported.

Hassan told Wday 6 that she was out shopping at Walmart on Tuesday with her 20-year-old sister Layla and friend Rowda Soyan, 23, when the incident happened.

Hensley accused the women of parking too close to her car before a row started, during which Hassan admits the group called Hensley a 'fat b****'.

Around halfway through the argument Hassan said she got out her phone and started recording, fearful of what might happen next.

The footage was initially posted on Snapchat before the group sent it to Hukun Dabar, director of the Afro American Development Association, who uploaded it to Facebook where it went viral.

Hensley initially commented on that video, apologizing for the outburst, but later deleted her Facebook account, removing the message. She also deleted a Twitter account on which she had expressed support for President Trump.

Hassan (centre) said Hensley accused her of parking too close to her car in a Walmart parking lot before becoming aggressive

Her apology read: 'I would first like to apologise for the horrible things that I said to the two ladies at Walmart. It was not a Christian-like thing to do at all and I wish I could take it back, but I lost my cool and I can't.'

Hensley said she reprimanded the group, asking them if they knew 'who Jesus was' at which point the group told her 'f*** Jesus, and I lost it.'

Hassan told WDay 6 that she accepts Hensley's apology, adding that 'anyone can have a bad day.'

A shopper who claims to have seen Hensley inside Walmart before the argument broke out said she was also ranting at staff inside, and asked a manager why they don't employ people 'who can speak English'.
Theresa May today admitted the Tories have been 'wrong' on gay rights in the past and that some people will be 'sceptical' about their bid to champion equality.

The Prime Minister said that both she and the Conservatives have 'come a long way' in changing their views.

And she said she is 'proud' of her party's role in tackling discrimination in recent years, but admitted there is 'much more to do'.

She made the comments to mark the 50th anniversary of the Sexual Offences Act, which partially decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales.

Theresa May, pictured in Desenzano del Garda in Italy this week, where she is on holiday with her husband Philip, has admitted her party have been wrong on gay rights in the past

In a comment piece for PinkNews, Mrs May wrote: 'I am proud of the role my party has played in recent years in advocating a Britain which seeks to end discrimination on the grounds of sexuality or gender identity, but I acknowledge where we have been wrong on these issues in the past.

'There will justifiably be scepticism about the positions taken and votes cast down through the years by the Conservative Party, and by me, compared to where we are now.

FOUR IN TEN BRITS STILL THINK GAY SEX IS UNNATURAL Four in 10 Britons believe that gay sex is unnatural - 50 years after homosexuality was partially decriminalised in the UK, a survey has found. The YouGov poll carried out for PinkNews found that, of those who have an opinion, 42% of people think gay sex is not natural. Just under half of those surveyed (48%), believe that primary school children should not be taught about gay relationships in school. More than one third (36%, excluding those who said 'don't know') disapprove of gay men adopting. The poll suggested that Conservative and Brexit supporters were more likely to oppose gay rights than Labour or Remain voters. It found three in five Brexit voters believe gay sex is unnatural, compared to 25% of Remain voters. And 68% of Tory voters who expressed an opinion believe that children should not be taught about gay relationships in primary school. This compared to 70% of Labour and 74% of Liberal Democrat 2017 voters. PinkNews chief executive Benjamin Cohen said: 'It is depressing that 50 years on from the Sexual Offences Act that so many people still think that gay sex is unnatural, and that a third oppose gay couples having children.' Advertisement

'But like the country we serve, my party and I have come a long way.'

Since becoming Prime Minister last June Mrs May has tried to champion gay and transgender rights.

Last weekend, the government announced proposals to make it easier for people to change their gender by knocking away 'demeaning' rules which force people to undergo medical checks.

But the Prime Minister has faced a storm of criticism over her pact at Westminster with the Democratic Unionist Party, which opposes gay marriage.

And she has come under fire for her voting against laws furthering the rights of the gay community during her time in Parliament.

She voted against gay adoption in 2002, and against the repeal of hated Section 28 - which banned councils from 'promoting' homosexuality - in 2000.

Mrs May has previously said distanced herself from this voting record, saying that she has 'changed my own mind' and would cast her vote differently now.

In 2013, Mrs May voted for gay marriage.

Mrs May was joined by former UK prime ministers and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn in writing comment pieces for the website to mark the anniversary of the 1967 Act.

Mr Corbyn urged the Prime Minister to stand up to Donald Trump - who on Wednesday said he wants transgender people banned from serving in the US military - on LGBT issues.

Mr Corbyn said: 'In America, the Trump presidency has incited hatred and discrimination against LGBT people.

'Trump opposes gay marriage and his vice-president, Mike Pence, enacted a religious freedom bill which legalised discrimination against LGBT people.

'Other world leaders have been unequivocal with the US president but not Theresa May, who has failed to challenge this in the strongest terms.

'I am a great believer that through dialogue we can open minds, unite people, and change the world.'

Jeremy Corbyn used his PinkNews editorial to urge the PM to stand up to Donald Trump, who he said has incited hatred and discrimination towards LGBT people. While David Cameron said one of his proudest achievements as PM was legalising same sex marriage

Her predecessor David Cameron said one of his 'proudest achievements' in office was the Same Sex Marriage Act which legalised gay weddings in England and Wales.

He said: 'Marriage is a great institution and I have long believed that it should be there for everybody; it now is and Britain led the way.'

Tony Blair said: 'We have come a long way over the last 50 years and it's right to celebrate, but while there are still challenges, such as pupils subject to homophobic and transphobic bullying or LGBT people having to think twice about even holding their partner's hand walking down the street, there is still further to go.'

Sir John Major warned that 'bigotry' still existed in society but 'most people today - and especially the young - have moved on from the social prejudices of earlier generations'.
A man bearing the infamous Bra Boys gang tattoo and his teenage brother have been charged with the murder of a homeless man near Sydney's Maroubra beach.

Ray and Jackson Travers, aged 20 and 18, were arrested and charged on Thursday over the murder of Peter Hofmann, 68.

Mr Hofmann had been living in a Ford Laser after a series of failed investments, and was found dead in the car with multiple stab wounds on June 21.

Ray, the older brother, has 'My Brother's Keeper' tattooed across his stomach, the motto of the notorious surfing brotherhood.

Ray Travers (right), who bears the infamous Bra Boys gang tattoo, and his teenage brother have been charged with the murder of a homeless man near Sydney's Maroubra beach

The Travers brothers were already in police custody for their alleged role in a gate-crashing and brutal bashing at a party earlier this month

Peter Hofmann had been living in a Ford Laser after a series of failed investments, and was found dead in the car on June 21

Mr Hofmann's friend and former coworker Michelle Cini welcomed the charges, but said 'it won't bring him back'.

'It'll be even worse when people find out they're Bra Boys,' said Ms Cini, who grew up in Maroubra.

'They're supposed to protect people from Maroubra. I'm devastated by the whole thing. I get mutual friends when I bring them up on Facebook.'

An associate of the older brother described him as a 'wannabe' and not a member of the beachside tribe, The Sydney Morning Herald reported.

The arrests follow an appeal for an anonymous caller to come forward after they supplied information about a potential motive for the attack.

The Travers brothers were already in police custody for their alleged role in a gate-crashing and brutal bashing at a party earlier this month.

Police allege the brothers were among a group of uninvited males who entered the party at a home in Matraville - about two weeks after the attack on Mr Hofmann.

After refusing to leave they allegedly punched a 59-year-old man in the face and assaulted a 32-year-old private security guard.

Travers (left) has 'My Brother's Keeper' tattooed across his stomach, the motto of the notorious surfing brotherhood

Mr Hofmann's body was discovered in his 1990s Ford Laser (pictured) in Maroubra last month

A 16-year-old boy, a guest at the party, was allegedly punched to the ground and had his head and neck stomped on, causing serious facial injuries.

They were each charged with reckless grievous bodily harm in company, two counts of assault occasioning actual bodily harm in company, and affray.

Ms Cini said she hoped justice would bring closure to Mr Hofmann's friends and family.

'The people of Maroubra can rest easy,' she said.

The brothers were refused bail to appear in Waverley Local Court on Friday.

Ray Travers (pictured) and his younger brother (not pictured) were arrested and charged on Thursday over the murder of Mr Hofmann, 68
Alleged skiver: Timothy Pawlett is accused of clocking off his night shifts early

Two policemen accused of fraud after bunking off their night shifts are anti-terror officers who were supposed to stop extremists getting into Britain, it has emerged.

Detective Constables Gareth Clement, 55, and Timothy Pawlett, 52, allegedly skived off work when they should have been checking ferries for terrorists at Fishguard port in South Wales.

They are accused of leaving their posts early 126 times in three months but filling in their full hours to still get paid.

But both deny fraud, claiming they needed to leave early due to 'stress, exhaustion and depression'.

The members of the Welsh Extremism and Counter Terrorism Unit were supposed to be scouring passenger lists of ferries coming in from Ireland on shifts from 6pm to 3am, Swansea Crown Court heard today.

Prosecutor Nick Gedge said: 'In the case of each officer these entries were made deliberately incorrectly, and being done dishonestly and with a view of financial gain.'

The detectives were caught leaving their jobs early by their own number plates after fellow officers traced their cars.

They were caught when their supervisor Detective Sergeant Ian Hardy rang their office at 2.30am and there was no answer.

Detective Constables Gareth Clement, 55, and Timothy Pawlett, 52, allegedly skived off work when they should have been checking ferries for extremists at Fishguard port in South Wales

The court heard Det Sgt Hardy began to investigate and even found Pawlett's car parked outside his house before his shift time had finished.

Det Sgt Hardy then used an automatic number plate recognition system to track both officer's cars.

The pair - who worked for Dyfed Powys Police - were were spotted by a camera arriving and leaving Fishguard port at different times to what they had recorded.

Swansea Crown Court heard between October 2015 and February 2016 there were 72 discrepancies in Pawlett's time keeping - around 1,100 of his wage.

In the same time period, there were 54 discrepancies in Clement's time keeping - 720 of his salary.

The two officers are on trial at Swansea Crown Court, pictured, and both deny fraud after they were said to have clocked off early

Mr Gedge said: 'Det Sgt Hardy was the supervisor for one of the shifts that covered the ports of Pembroke Dock and Fishguard.

'On February 4, 2016, both defendants were on duty and were due to finish at 3am.

'At 2.30am DS Hardy phoned the Fishguard office but there was no reply. He then rang another phone number but there was no reply there either.'

The court heard DS Hardy saw that both officers had clocked out before 3am the next day.

Mr Gedge said: 'He made a point of going to Fishguard the following night but didn't let anyone know his suspicions. Both defendants were due to work that night again from 6pm - 3am.

Suspicions arose when an officer called at 2.30am and got no answer. Pictured: Pawlett

'He stayed until just after 2am, driving his car out of the port but parking nearby.

'At 2.20am DS Hardy saw Clement's car drive past him. He then returned to the port and saw that Pawlett's car was not there.

'He then drove to Pawlett's home address and saw his car was parked outside the house. It was a 20 minute drive to his home address from the port.'

Det Sgt Hardy said: 'I believed that they had booked off showing that they had finished at 3am, when in fact they had gone a lot earlier.'

Clement, of Crymych, and Pawlett, of Haverfordwest, both in Pembrokeshire, both deny fraud - saying they had to leave early due to stress.

Detective Pawlett told the court: 'I was not in a fit state to do my job at all.

'My depression was so bad that sometimes my mind was all over the place and I didn't know what I was doing. It's all a result of my ill health.'

Detective Clement said: 'Events in my personal life took me to the brink of a breakdown. I did not tell a soul.

'My head was in such a state I was not thinking straight or thinking about what I was doing. Getting home was my number one thought.'

The trial at Swansea Crown Court continues.
Compartments are usually good things. Cars have glove compartments, although hardly anyone uses them for storing gloves anymore. Now theyre holders for things like operators manuals  also something hardly anyone uses. And maps, which few people use  are we seeing a trend here? They keep receipts, a pen or pencil for those rare occasions when we need to physically write something, maybe a flashlight or first aid kit for emergencies.



Parents of toddlers utilize compartments to separate toys, clothing, crayons, diapers, and other essentials for retrieval at a moments notice.

Purses come with compartments for wallets, checkbooks, cell phones, tissues, makeup, and anything else a woman might need for going to work, the supermarket, or mall.Toolboxes have compartments for sorting things like tools, nails, screws, bolts and nuts. When engaged in a do-it-yourself project, you need to find what you need when you need it. (I dont know much about this personally, but its what Ive heard.)Compartments are helpful in many ways. But not for living out ones faith.Unfortunately, thats not how everyone sees it. A friend who works in a ministry to business and professional people bemoaned the fact that for many of them, when it comes to their faith and their work, the twain never meet. He wrote:I try to encourage and help my groups to integrate their faith in their businesses and within their spheres of influence in the marketplace. Unfortunately, they are very compartmentalized and are righteous on Sundays  and holy terrors the rest of the week.Thats a tough assessment  but experience and observation have shown me this is often the case. At one time, I was among those holding this attitude. I was growing in my faith, but clueless about how to relate what I heard on Sunday mornings to my work at the newspaper office on Monday (or any other time during the week).I didnt doubt the Bible was good for the sweet by and by, but was slow to realize its good for the nasty now and now as well. Thats one reason for my book, Business at Its Best: Timeless Wisdom from Proverbs for Todays Workplace. Once I started reading a chapter of Proverbs as a daily practice, it became clear biblical principles apply not just to ones personal life, but also for our professional life. It addresses common workplace topics like integrity, communication, decision-making, teamwork, honesty, anger, humility and pride, managing finances, finding direction, and many others.My life verse comes from that book of wisdom: Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight (Proverbs 3:5-6).However, workplace wisdom comes from other parts of the Bible as well. My career verse, which inspired the name for my new writing/editing enterprise, ReadyWriter Ink, comes from Psalm 45:1, which states in part, I recite my composition concerning the King; my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.1 Corinthians 3:9 says, For we are Gods fellow workers; you are Gods field, Gods building. Can you imagine being invited to co-labor with God in carrying out His work, the mission He has for His creation?Many other passages are worth citing, but perhaps one verse sums up the imperative not to compartmentalize work from our faith. Colossians 3:23-24 exhorts, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.We all have bosses. Even entrepreneurs owning their own companies are responsible to customers, clients and vendors. But I like to envision the bosss office showcasing a nameplate that simply reads, God. Hes the one we should all be reporting to, ultimately.

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Robert J. Tamasy is a veteran journalist, former newspaper editor and magazine editor. Bob has written hundreds of magazine articles, and authored, co-authored and edited more than 15 books. These include the newly re-published, Business At Its Best, Tufting Legacies, The Heart of Mentoring, and Pursuing Life With a Shepherds Heart. He edits a weekly business meditation, Monday Manna, which is translated into more than 20 languages and distributed via email around the world by CBMC International. To read more of Bob Tamasys writings, you can visit his blog, www.bobtamasy.blogspot.com, or his website (now being completed), www.bobtamasy-readywriterink.com. He can be emailed at btamasy@comcast.net.
This is the shocking moment a motorcycle pillion passenger was flung high into the air when the bike he was travelling on smashed into a stationary car on a motorway.

Video footage shows the devastating moment of impact when the bike's passenger is thrown over the car before making a sickening landing on the motorway surface.

The horrifying crash happened on the Seletar Expressway in Singapore.

The pillion passenger goes flying after the collision

The motorcyclist cannot be seen behind the vehicle but pillion rider starts his ascent

Footage shows the motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic and the overtaking as it tries to get past another slower moving car.

But as the rider switches lanes he fails to spot the stationary car in the outside lane. It is believed the car had broken down.

The rider smashes into the rear of the car as his passenger is sent flying over the roof before landing at least 20 metres (65 feet) further along the motorway.

Emergency services were called and police attended the scene.

The 24-year-old motorcyclist and the 21-year-old pillion rider were taken to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital. Both had leg injuries and are believed to still be under hospital care.

Motorist Manster Wirman captured the entire incident on his dash cam. After the video was uploaded online it was quickly shared thousands of times.

Footage shows the motorcycle weaving in and out of traffic and the overtaking as it tries to get past another slower moving car

The aftermath of the crash, remarkably the pillion driver manages to sit up after the spectacular fall

Social media users were quick to pass their judgment.

'Said Achmad' commented: 'I think the motorcyclist probably thought that the car was moving. Maybe they didn't realise that the car had broken down until it was too late.'

A police spokesman said: 'On July 24, 2017, the police were alerted to an accident involving a car and a motorcycle along SLE towards BKE before Lentor Avenue Exit.

'The 24-year-old male motorcyclist and his 21-year-old male pillion rider were unconscious when conveyed to Khoo Teck Puat Hospital.

'Police investigations are ongoing.'
Police and social services failed to prevent two teenage British Muslims being radicalised before they were killed fighting with extremist forces in Syria.

There was 'no recognition' Abdullah Deghayes, 18, his 17-year-old brother Jaffar and their three siblings were becoming vulnerable to radicalisation in Brighton.

When their elder brother Amer Deghayes, a former finance student, also travelled to Syria to fight for the al-Qaeda linked group Jabhat Al Nusra, they failed to stop his two younger siblings.

A Serious Case Review has now highlighted how the agencies failed to spot the tell-tale signs of radicalisation.

There was 'no recognition' Abdullah Deghayes, 18, (left) his 17-year-old brother Jaffar (right) and their three siblings were becoming vulnerable to radicalisation in Brighton

Abdullah and Jaffar boarded a 59 one-way flight from Luton to Istanbul and then went to Syria.

Both were killed just a few months after their arrival in the war-torn region - Abdullah by a sniper while chasing retreating forces in Lakatia in April 2014, and Jaffar six months later during a close-range firefight amid the ruins of Idlib.

Amer told ITV News in 2014 that he was prepared to suffer the same fate as his brothers, saying he had promised Allah he would continue on the path of jihad 'until I get killed'.

Missed opportunities to intervene in the Brighton siblings' lives were highlighted in the report following the deaths in 2014 of Abdullah and Jaffar, who were referred to as W and X.

In 2013, concern was raised by a school that some young people were converting to Islam and some had been paid by a relative of the brothers to attend a gym behind a place of worship.

The report said no further information was obtained about the activities at the gym.

The second opportunity came in the same year after Jaffar was referred to a panel following an 'emotional' comment he made about Americans when he called them 'terrorists'.

But the panel concluded Jaffar was 'not at risk of being drawn into terror-related activities'.

When their elder brother Amer Deghayes, a former finance student, also travelled to Syria to fight for the al-Qaeda linked group Jabhat Al Nusra, they failed to stop his two younger siblings

The report said: 'Both these instances were missed opportunities to learn more about the activities of the young people and to understand the links between young people in Brighton.'

It added: 'Moreover at that time there was little local or national knowledge or understanding of the risks to children from being exploited into radicalisation to go and fight in wars elsewhere in the world.'

The report's authors said they were unable to point to how the brothers were radicalised and news that Jaffar and Abdullah had gone to Syria came as a 'total surprise and shock' to professionals.

Although the whole family had been monitored for years, there was no recognition the siblings were vulnerable to radicalisation or prepared to fight in a conflict abroad.

Amer Deghayes (centre) was the first of his family to leave for Syria, telling his parents he wanted to be an aid worker. Brother Abdullah (front left) and Jaffar (front right) followed soon after but were both killed in the fighting

The report, commissioned by the city council's local safeguarding children board, also pointed to the family being targeted directly in Brighton.

The Deghayes brothers are the nephews of Omar Deghayes, who was held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay between 2002 and 2007 after he was arrested in Pakistan.

Anti-Islamic graffiti was reported in the area in Brighton where the brothers lived from 2007 onwards, including a 12-inch high daubing stating 'Behead all Muslims' in 2009.

In one instance protesters dressed as Osama bin Laden and draped in KKK robes gathered outside their home.

At their school, Longhill High, where pupils came from some of Brighton's most deprived areas, the boys were targeted by racist bullying and were branded 'terrorists.' Subjected to insults and violence on a daily basis, they formed a gang for protection.

The report also revealed how the siblings had been brought up by an abusive father in a strict Muslim family, where they were subjected to harsh punishments

The gang, with Abdullah and his twin Abdulrahman at its head, became notorious for shoplifting, mugging and violence.

The twins were constantly in trouble with the police for several years but their younger brother Jaffar only came to police attention when he started to become radicalised.

Following his arrest in 2012, Jaffar shouted at officers that they 'would die as they did not follow Allah, that they would burn in hell on judgment day'

The report also revealed how the siblings had been brought up by an abusive father in a strict Muslim family, where they were subjected to harsh punishments.

Their father made them wake up at 4.30am to study the Koran and punished them if he felt they were not studying properly, including whipping them with electrical wire.

Presenting the report Graham Bartlett, chairman of the safeguarding and children board, said: 'The system as a whole failed let these young boys. It's a wake-up call to these agencies to work better together to understand the nature and symptoms of the trauma and how to work with these young people who are at risk of exploitation.'
Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to conduct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former financier as he sought to defeat far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources said.

Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election.

But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not previously been reported.

Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents. Russian President Vladimir Putin is seen above in Belfast on June 17

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents.

US intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them.

It credited a combination of improved automated detection and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

Company officials briefed congressional committee members and staff, among others, about their findings.

Macron defeated far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen (above) and other opponents in the two-round election in May

People involved in the conversations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account closures the company disclosed in April.

Facebook did not dispute the figure.

The spying campaign included Russian agents posing as friends of friends of Macron associates and trying to glean personal information from them, according to the US congressman and two others briefed on the matter.

Facebook employees noticed the efforts during the first round of the presidential election and traced them to tools used in the past by Russias GRU military intelligence unit, said the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were discussing sensitive government and private intelligence.

Facebook told American officials that it did not believe the spies burrowed deep enough to get the targets to download malicious software or give away their login information, which they believe may have been the goal of the operation.

The same GRU unit, dubbed Fancy Bear or APT 28 in the cybersecurity industry, has been blamed for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 US presidential election and many other political targets.

The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.

Email accounts belonging to Macron campaign officials were hacked and their contents dumped online in the final days of the runoff between Macron and Le Pen.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election

French law enforcement and intelligence officials have not publicly accused anyone of the campaign attacks.

Mounir Mahjoubi, who was digital director of Macron's political movement, En Marche, and is now a junior minister for digital issues in his government, told Reuters in May that some security experts blamed the GRU specifically, though they had no proof.

Mahjoubi and En Marche declined to comment.

There are few publicly known examples of sophisticated social media spying efforts.

In 2015, Britain's domestic security service, MI5, warned that hostile powers were using LinkedIn to connect with and try to recruit government workers.

The social media and networking companies themselves rarely comment on such operations when discovered.

Facebook, facing mounting pressure from governments around the world to control 'fake news' and propaganda on the service, took a step toward openness with a report in April on what it termed 'information operations.'

The bulk of that document discussed so-called influence operations, which included 'amplifier' accounts that spread links to slanted or false news stories in order to influence public opinion.
A California deputy attorney general has been charged in San Diego with possession of child pornography.

Raymond Joseph Liddy, 53, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday, was released on $100,000 bond and placed on house arrest with GPS monitoring.

An investigation into Liddy was launched after an electronic service provider sent a tip to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in January that a user had uploaded an image that appeared to be child porn.

Raymond Liddy, 53, pleaded not guilty to possession of child pornography in San Diego, California, on Tuesday and was released on $100,000 bond

A month later another provider sent a similar tip to the organization.

Local and federal authorities said they traced the activity to Liddy's home, where a search uncovered photos on a computer and thumbdrive of minors engaged in sexual conduct.

One image showed a nude girl blindfolded with her hands bound together, arrest documents said.

When FBI agents interviewed Liddy, he admitted to using Internet services and user names associated with the images that had been reported by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Local and federal authorities said they traced the activity to Liddy's home, where a search uncovered photos on a computer and thumbdrive of minors engaged in sexual conduct. Liddy, a reserve Marine colonel, has been a state prosecutor since 2008

He said he used the screen name and other aliases to share sexual fantasies online and later deleting them.

Liddy said most of the images were of adults, though it was possible some were children.

The attorney general's office said on Wednesday that it is aware of the matter and that the 53-year-old Liddy was placed on administrative leave.

Liddy, who received his law degree from Fordham University School of Law, has been a state prosecutor since 2008.

The reserve Marine colonel's focus as a prosecutor has been healthcare, including cases about drug pricing, Medi-Cal fraud, elder abuse, kickbacks and off-label drug marketing.

He is the son of former FBI agent and lawyer G. Gordon Liddy, CBS 8 reported.

His father was a key figure in the Watergate scandal. He organized and directed the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters in June 1972.
Officials in Virginia say a Hampden-Sydney College freshman who was found dead in his dorm room in March died from acute alcohol intoxication.

Jeannette Collins with the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner said Tuesday that 18-year-old Harrison Carter Cole's death has been ruled an accident.

Authorities say Cole was found dead about 9am at the Whitehouse Dorms on March 25. Further details relating to his death have not been released.

Harrison Carter Cole, 18, was found dead in his dorm room at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia

The medical examiner said Tuesday that Cole died of acute alcohol intoxication and that his death was accidental

No further details were released about Cole's death. The college (pictured above) is continuing an investigation into Cole's death

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that Cole was a member of Alpha Chi Sigma, a professional fraternity focused on chemical sciences.

The fraternity's CEO, Jonathan Wenzel, says the chapter at the school was suspended on July 15. However, Wenzel would not comment on whether the suspension is related to Cole's death.

'We suspended the chapter to conduct an investigation,' Wenzel said. 'I actually cannot comment on anything that is pending.'

The college said it also would conduct an inquiry into Cole's death.

Cole was from Jeffersonton, Virginia, and is survived by his parents and brother.

'I was his older brother, and he was always pushing me to do better,' his brother Lee said in his obituary. 'But we never fought. He was the best brother and friend anyone could ever have. He was a friend to all, and everyone who met him loved him.'

He was a member of the school's swim team and planned to go to medical school after graduation.

Hampden-Sydney College is a small, four-year, private liberal arts college with a student body of about 1,027 undergraduate students.

With such a small student body, the school was rocked by Cole's death.

Cole was survived by his parents, Bill and Carole, and older brother Lee

'Sydney is a very small school. So when something like this happens, the whole community reacts to it,' Will French, a freshman who lived in Cole's dorm, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch.

'He was always a happy guy. He was kind of shy, but he always had a huge smile on his face. Literally, I never saw him not smile,' David Fluharty, a freshman and fellow fraternity brother, said. 'He just had a different outlook on the world. He centered on all the good. The world always seemed right to him.'
Embattled attorney general Jeff Sessions says he finds finds President Donald Trump's criticism 'hurtful' but is vowing to stay in his post as long as the president will have him.

'Well, um, it's kind of hurtful but the President of the United States is a strong leader,' Sessions said, asked by Fox News host Tucker Carlson about Trump's extraordinary drumbeat of public criticism.

Sessions made his comments from El Salvador, where he traveled to highlight the government's crackdown on MS-13 gangs after getting daily doses of criticism from the president online and in interviews.

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions walks past a cell during a tour of local Police Station and Detention Center in San Salvador on Thursday

Concerns: President Trump has declared MS-13 to be a priority for law enforcement in the United States

Sessions sang Trump's praises, after the president has repeatedly slammed him for his decision to recuse himself for the Russia probe that has upended Trump's administration.

'The president 'is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again,' Sessions told Fox News host Tucker Carlson in an interview airing Thursday night.

'And he has had a lot of criticism and he's steadfast, determined to get his job done and he wants all of us to do our jobs and that's what I intend to do,' said Sessions.

Sessions told The Associated Press he and Trump have a 'harmony of values and beliefs' and he intends to stay and fight for the president's agenda 'as long as he sees that as appropriate.'

'If he wants to make a change, he has every right,' Sessions said in an interview outside the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador during a mission to increase international cooperation against the MS-13 gang. 'I serve at the pleasure of the president. I've understood that from the day I took the job.'

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions stops to look at cell conditions during a tour of local police station and detention center in San Salvador

El Salvador's President Salvador Sanchez Ceren (L), shakes hands with U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions (R) during a visit in San Salvador, El Salvador on Thursday

Attorney General Jeff Sessions boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017 At Andrews Air Force Base, Md. Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to meet with local leaders and discuss their efforts to fight gangs like MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Sessions was at the White House Wednesday but didn't meet with Trump. On Thursday, he popped up in El Salvador, touting a planned crackdown on MS-13 gangs.

Congressional Republicans have rallied around Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, and expressed mortification at the humiliation visited on him by Trump in several interviews and a series of tweets branding him weak and ineffective.

Trump is upset that Sessions recused himself months ago from the investigation into interactions between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and that he has not taken a tougher line against his defeated Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina warned Thursday there would be 'holy hell' to pay if Trump fired Sessions.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks during an interview with The Associated Press at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Sessions is forging ahead with a tough-on-crime agenda that once endeared him to President Trump, who has since taken to berating him. Sessions is in El Salvador to step up international cooperation against the violent street gang MS-13

Though his future may be in doubt, Sessions forged ahead Thursday with a tough-on-crime agenda that once endeared him to Trump

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders stands in front of pictures of MS-13 gang tattoos during a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 27, 2017

WASHINGTON, DC - JULY 27: Tom Homan, Director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, answers questions in front of gang related photos from the MS-13 gang during a daily briefing at the White House July 27, 2017 in Washington, DC. Homan answered a range of questions during the briefing

After meeting his Salvadoran counterpart, Sessions told AP he was 'thrilled' with the support he's received, presumably from lawmakers.

'I believe we are running a great Department of Justice,' he said. 'I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda.'

Though his future may be in doubt, Sessions forged ahead Thursday with a tough-on-crime agenda that once endeared him to Trump, opening a mission in El Salvador to step up international cooperation against the violent street gang MS-13.

Sessions arrived in San Salvador for a series of meetings with law enforcement officials about a transnational anti-gang task force aimed against MS-13. He planned to meet his Salvadoran counterpart as well as an ex-gang member, and tour a prison.

Back in Washington, lawmakers sized up the fallout over a week of public scorn heaped on Sessions by his boss, Trump, even as the White House suggested the president prefers that his attorney general stay on the job. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that there would be 'holy hell' to pay if Trump were to fire Sessions, a former Alabama senator and early Trump supporter.

Sessions told The Associated Press Thursday that he'll continue to serve as long as the president wants him to.

Sessions told AP in El Salvador that Trump has every right to find another attorney general. He says: 'I serve at the pleasure of the president. I've understood that from the day I took the job.'

As the Trump administration tries to build support for its crackdown on illegal immigration, it has increasingly tried to make the gang with Central American ties the face of the problem. Recent killings tied to its members have stoked the U.S. debate on immigration.

Trump praised Sessions when Sessions announced his mission to eradicate the gang in April. But the attorney general has since fallen out of favor with his onetime political ally.

In day after day of publicly humiliating Sessions, Trump said he rued his decision to choose Sessions for his Cabinet. Trump's intensifying criticism has fueled speculation that the attorney general may step down even if the president stops short of firing him. But Sessions is showing no outward signs that he is planning to quit, and on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump 'wants him to lead the department.'

'Look, you can be disappointed in someone and still want them to continue to do their job,' she said.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017. With his future as the nation's top prosecutor in doubt after a week of blistering public scorn from the president, Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to seek ways to stamp out the brutal street gang MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

MS-13 is an international criminal enterprise with tens of thousands of members in several Central American countries and many U.S. states. The gang originated in immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s then entrenched itself in Central America when its leaders were deported.

MS-13 is known for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes, drug dealing, prostitution and other rackets. Its recruits are middle- and high-school students predominantly in immigrant communities and those who try to leave risk violent retribution, law enforcement officials have said.

Its members have been accused in a spate of bloodshed that included the massacre of four young men in a Long Island, New York, park and the killing of a suspected gang rival inside a deli. The violence has drawn attention from members of Congress and Trump, who has boasted about efforts to arrest and deport MS-13 members across the United States.

Law enforcement officials believe some of the recent violence has been directed by members of the gang imprisoned in El Salvador.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions steps out of vehicle before boarding his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017. Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to meet with local leaders and discuss their efforts to fight gangs like MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Officials in El Salvador, as well as Guatemala and Honduras, have expressed concern about increased deportations of the gangsters back to their countries. Transnational gangs such as MS-13 already are blamed for staggering violence in those so-called Northern Triangle countries.

Both Trump and Sessions have blamed Obama-era border policies for allowing the gang's ranks to flourish in the U.S., though the Obama administration took unprecedented steps to target the gang's finances. Federal prosecutors have gone after MS-13 before but say they've recently seen a resurgence.

Thursday's trip was planned before Trump's broadsides against his attorney general, and it remains to be seen whether his work in El Salvador will help mend their fractured relationship. Their shared view, rare among the American political class, that illegal immigration was the nation's most vexing problem was what united Sessions and Trump.
Charlie Gard should be moved to a hospice as soon as possible and his life support removed soon after, a judge ruled today.

His parents were not granted their wish to spend several days at the hospice with their terminally-ill son under skilled care.

Instead Mr Justice Francis sided with Great Ormond Street Hospital experts who believe extending his life will only cause him more pain.

Charlie's mother, Connie Yates, said the hospital had denied them their 'final wish'.

'We just want some peace with our son, no hospital, no lawyers, no courts, no media just quality time with Charlie away from everything to say goodbye to him in the most loving way,' she said.

'Most people won't ever have to go through what we have been through, we've had no control over our son's life and no control over our son's death.'

This is the first footage of Charlie Gard as his doting parents celebrated his two-week birthday in August last year

Charlie even has a lick of the card as it passes his face in moving footage that emerged today

In a statement Great Ormond Street said doctors had tried 'absolutely everything' to accommodate Connie and Chris Gard's wishes, including exploring 'the unprecedented step of delivering intensive life support away from the hospital'.

A spokesman said: 'We deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlies doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period.

'It has been a uniquely painful and distressing process for all concerned. Charlies parents have tirelessly advocated for what they sincerely believed was right for their son, and nobody could fault them for doing so.

'We have tried absolutely everything to accommodate their final wishes and engaged not only with those who volunteered to treat Charlie but experts from across the health service in close consultation with the NHS to make this happen.

'This included exploring the unprecedented step of delivering intensive life support away from a hospital intensive care unit.'

The spokesman added that the risk of 'an unplanned and chaotic end to Charlies life' was an 'unthinkable outcome' and would rob his parents of precious last moments with their son.

Charlie will now be moved to the hospice in a secret location before his first birthday next week and his life support will be ended a few hours later, meaning he will inevitably die.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard leave the High Court on Monday after making their heartbreaking decision to let him die - today they were told they will not have the week they want with him

His parents' last wishes were to spend several days together there before letting him 'slip away'.

In a statement earlier today Great Ormond Street said: 'There is simply no way that Charlie, a patient with such severe and complex needs, can spend any significant time outside of an intensive care environment safely.

'The risk of an unplanned and chaotic end to Charlies life is an unthinkable outcome for all concerned and would rob his parents of precious last moments with him.'

Despite the judge drawing up a plan it has not been made public and it is not known when he will be moved from the hospital or when treatment will finally be withdrawn.

This poignant footage shows Charlie Gard before it emerged he was suffering from a devastating illness

The tragic news came as poignant home movies of Charlie before it was revealed he was suffering from a devastating illness emerged for the first time.

Mr Justice Francis had said on Wednesday, following the latest in a series of High Court hearings, that Great Ormond Street's plan would take effect if agreement could not be reached by noon on Thursday.

His order release on Thursday indicates that agreement has not been reached.

The judge's order says it is in Charlie's best interests for life-support treatment to be withdrawn.

It says Charlie should receive palliative care.

Charlie Gard's bereft mother Connie Yates leaving court yesterday after no deal was reached with Great Ormond Street

The order says Charlie will continue to be treated at Great Ormond Street for a 'period' of time before being moved to the hospice, which cannot be named for legal reasons.

It says doctors can then withdraw 'artificial ventilation' after a 'period' of time.

The order says everyone involved agrees that the 'arrangements' will 'inevitably result in Charlie's death within a short period thereafter'.

In another film that emerged today the little boy looks up at the camera and makes Connie Yates giggle as he kicks his legs and waves his arms on his changing mat.

The poignant footage shows Charlie before October 2016 tests would reveal he had mitochondrial depletion syndrome and he was only the 16th sufferer in the world of rare strain.

Today - just eight days from his first birthday - the couple are spending their final precious days with their son before he is taken to a hospice to die.

Charlie was taken admitted to hospital at eight weeks old and as his condition deteriorated he has never been allowed home.

Miss Yates and Charlie's father Chris Gard have accepted that they cannot keep their final promise to him and put him to bed in his cot at home and let him 'slip away'.

The deadline for Miss Yates and Chris Gard to make a deal with Great Ormond Street Hospital over when his life support should be removed has now passed.

The couple now agree with his son's doctors that he should die in a hospice - but could not find common ground on the length of time he will have there.

His parents wanted up to a week to say goodbye to their little boy but his medics say he should slip away within a few hours of arriving.

Charlie's nurses made an extraordinary gesture to accompany him to his death.

The staff at Great Ormond Street Hospital stepped forward as their bosses said the baby must be sent to a hospice by tomorrow.

At yet another contentious High Court hearing yesterday, his mother Connie Yates fled, screaming 'What if this was your child?' after being denied her final wish to take her son home to die.

The London hospital insists the family must find six nurses and three specialist doctors to care for him if they want to manage his final days.

Great Ormond Street said it had 'moved heaven and earth' to find a hospice willing to take Charlie but even so his death must take place on the day he arrives, for insurance reasons.

It said the family wanted to spend up to a week saying their goodbyes.

Charlie has not been allowed to leave hospital but has been allowed time on the roof with his parents (pictured)

Chris Gard holds his little boy's hand as he lays in his hospital bed as his health faltered

Charlie Gard's parents Connie (pictured with her son) and Chris had wanted to bring him home but they now accept it isn't possible

The nurses offered to work 12-hour shifts on their days off  facilitating the family's wish.

Grant Armstrong, for the family, told the court: 'Several nurses from Great Ormond Street have volunteered to assist. May I pay tribute to these nurses.'

Last night Miss Yates, 31, issued a global appeal online for help. At court she wore a silver, heart-shaped pendant inscribed simply with Charlie.

The boy's father Chris Gard, 33, was at his bedside.

Charlie, who has a rare form of mitochondrial disease, is expected to die before his first birthday on August 4.

His parents have made the heartbreaking decision to abandon their fight with the hospital over whether life-support should be removed instead of him being allowed experimental treatment in America.

They wanted to take him home to their flat in south-west London. But Fiona Paterson, for the hospital, told the court: 'Sadly, what is suggested is not viable. Further delay merely compounds the misery in this tragic case.'

Mr Justice Francis ordered that, unless there was agreement by midday today, Charlie would be moved to a hospice at some point soon and have his ventilation tube taken out thereafter.

The judge said he wanted to accommodate the parents' final wishes but his 'guiding principle' was Charlie's best interests. 'The time has come when a decision has to be made,' he said.

Charlie Gard's mother Connie Yates (pictured yesterday) has been begging a judge to let them take their son home to die

Miss Yates always wears a heart shaped pendant in honour of her 'warrior' son as well as a blue flower in her hair and blue wrist bands

The judge issued reporting restrictions to prevent the public knowing when Charlie would die.

Mr Armstrong said that Miss Yates was determined to find doctors to help, saying: 'She is not a quitter under any circumstances at all.'

Victoria Butler-Cole, for Charlie's court-appointed guardian, told the court: 'Nobody can stop Charlie's parents from looking for other options, but it seems unlikely that options can be found. Much as everyone would have been happy to approve such a plan, it doesn't exist.

'Anything that can encourage them to spend the last few days with Charlie rather than with lawyers or experts has to be in everyone's best interests.'

'Nobody can fault Charlie's devoted parents': Great Ormond Street on the 'uniquely painful' end Great Ormond Street has said hospital doctors 'deeply regret' the way the case has played out in court. A spokesman for the hospital said medics there 'get up every morning to care for sick children, not to cause further anguish to devoted parents like Chris and Connie'. The statement comes as Charlie's parents were told it would not be impossible for them to take their son home to die. A Great Ormond Street Hospital spokesman said: 'We deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlies doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period. 'It has been a uniquely painful and distressing process for all concerned. 'Charlies parents have tirelessly advocated for what they sincerely believed was right for their son, and nobody could fault them for doing so. 'All of us at Great Ormond Street Hospital get up every morning to care for sick children, not to cause further anguish to devoted parents like Chris and Connie. 'We have tried absolutely everything to accommodate their final wishes and engaged not only with those who volunteered to treat Charlie but experts from across the health service in close consultation with the NHS to make this happen. 'This included exploring the unprecedented step of delivering intensive life support away from a hospital intensive care unit. 'Sadly, as the judge has now ruled, there is simply no way that Charlie, a patient with such severe and complex needs, can spend any significant time outside of an intensive care environment safely. 'The risk of an unplanned and chaotic end to Charlies life is an unthinkable outcome for all concerned and would rob his parents of precious last moments with him. 'As the judge has now ruled, we will arrange for Charlie to be transferred to a specialist childrens hospice, whose remarkable and compassionate staff will support his family at this impossible time. 'This is a very special place who will do all they can to make these last moments as comfortable and peaceful as possible for Charlie and his loved-ones. 'Great Ormond Street Hospital would like to reassure everyone who has followed this heart-breaking story that we always puts the best interests of every single one of our patients above all else. 'While we always respect parents views, we will never do anything that could cause our patients unnecessary and prolonged suffering. 'The priority of our medical staff has always been Charlie. 'Our doctors and nurses have worked tirelessly and done their utmost for him in the months he has been in our care. 'Every single one of us wishes there could have been a less tragic outcome. 'Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to Chris and Connie, and we hope that their privacy is respected at this devastating time for their family.'

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A drunken gang of Muslim men have been jailed for rampaging through a city centre attacking strangers because they were white non-believers.

Amin Mohmed, Mohammed Patel and Faruq Patel were feared to be Islamic State terrorists by one shocked witnessed as they attacked three men in Liverpool.

The drunken yobs targeted three unknown men before Mohmed, 24, and Mohammed Patel, 20, set upon Gary Bohanna when he revealed he was Christian.

Amin Mohmed (left), 24, and Mohammed Patel (right), 20, both admitted racially or religiously aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm following the rampage in Liverpool last March

Laughing Faruq Patel, 19, then filmed Mohmed punching St Helens councillor Paul Lynch to the ground, as his terrified girlfriend tried to protect him.

Liverpool Crown Court heard counter-terrorism officers raided the three men's homes in Bolton, Greater Manchester, after the shocking incident in March 2016.

The judge, Recorder Louise Brandon, said: 'This was a disgraceful and sustained campaign of violence carried out on the streets of this city.'

Paul Treble, prosecuting, said Edris Nosrati, a Muslim, spotted two of the gang attacking a man in Liverpool's Bold Street at around 3.30am.

Laughing Faruq Patel (pictured), 19, who was not convicted of a racial or religious motive, filmed Mohmed punching a local councillor

He said: 'He was concerned because one of them seemed to be using racist language, talking about Muslims and Christians.

'One of them came up to Mr Nosrati and said "are you a Muslim?'" Mr Nosrati said he was, but the man said "well, what's the Muslim word?"'

He said Mr Nosrati replied with a 'well-known' Arabic phrase: 'There is only one God, and Muhammad is a messenger.'

Mr Treble said: 'He said it's a phrase often linked with ISIS. He was concerned as to their exact intent and that they might be associated in some way to an extremist organisation.'

Mr Nosrati was told 'you can go', but when he tried to stop them punching another man, one replied: 'It's none of your business.'

He followed the gang to Renshaw Street, where Mr Bohanna was asked: 'What are you?'

The victim was confused but when one of them said 'I'm a Muslim, what are you?' he answered 'I'm a Christian'.

Two of the gang were spotted attacking a man in Liverpool's Bold Street (file picture) in the early hours of the morning

The attacker shouted 'Why aren't you a Muslim?' before punching him twice, breaking his glasses and causing a 2cm (0.8in) cut above his left eye.

The gang then encountered Mr Lynch, Labour councillor for Moss Bank, and his girlfriend Jill Newton.

Footage taken by Faruq Patel - who was not convicted of a racial or religious motive - captured Mohmed punch Mr Lynch with a 'sickening blow' that could be 'seen and heard'.

No racist comments were used, but Liverpool John Moores University student Faruq Patel could be heard laughing as the victim fell.

Mr Nosrati called police but Faruq Patel fled, so he chased and caught him. The teenager punched Mr Nosrati and struck him in the eye with his phone, but he held on.

Mr Bohanna and Mr Lynch - who suffered bruising and bleeding to his eyes - were taken to hospital.

Mohmed made no comment to police, but later claimed he could not remember anything because he was so drunk.

Mohammed Patel initially denied the assaults and suggested they had been racially abused by other men.

Liverpool Crown Court (pictured) heard counter-terrorism officers raided the three men's homes in Bolton, Greater Manchester, after the shocking incident in March 2016

But he confessed to 'targeting people because they were white and non-Muslim'.

Faruq Patel told officers people called him and his friends a 'dirty P***' and they retaliated.

He admitted filming 'because he thought it was funny' and described it 'as a laugh'.

Mohmed and Mohammed Patel, both of Bolton, admitted racially or religiously aggravated assault causing actual bodily harm.

The pair, along with Faruq Patel, also from Bolton, also admitted assault causing actual bodily harm and affray.

Martine Snowdon, defending Mohammed Patel, said her 'deeply remorseful' client was 'terrified' of being locked up.

The university expelled him but he had re-enrolled at Salford University and asked for 'mercy' to continue his studies.

Andrew Costello, defending Faruq Patel, said his 'ashamed' client was 'very drunk' but maintained he did not hit anyone or use racial abuse.

However, he conceded the 'apologetic' accountancy student 'tried to lie his way out of it'.

Mohmed has previous convictions for criminal damage and battery, relating to a family row last November.

Sarah Johnston, defending Mohmed, said it appeared the group were racially abused but that was not an excuse.

She said: 'He has brought not only shame and embarrassment but also distress to his family.

'The Counter Terrorism Unit became involved in the investigation and the defendants' family homes were turned upside down by the police.'

Recorder Brandon said the group may have suffered racist abuse, but targeted innocent men in 'violent and senseless attacks'.

She said Mohmed and Mohammed Patel's punching and kicking of Mr Bohanna was aggravated by 'hostility based on his religion'.

The judge said: 'References to the fact he was not a Muslim were made and you appeared to justify your actions because of certain beliefs you held.'

Recorder Brandon said after the joint enterprise attack on Mr Lynch, 'frightened' Miss Newton 'had no idea what you were going to do next'.

She said Mohammed Patel 'confirmed those targeted that night were targeted because they were white and non-Muslim.'

Mohmed cried as he was jailed for 42 weeks. Mohammed Patel and Faruq Patel received 42 and 18 weeks respectively in a young offenders institution.
Captain Richard Wilmot (pictured outside London's Appeal Court) and his third wife, Viki Maughan, have been fighting over money ever since they split in 2001

The ex-wife of an airline pilot has begged a court to end Britain's longest divorce battle and force her former husband to pay maintenance for the daughter he has denied is his since their split in 2001.

Four-times married former British Airways captain, Richard Wilmot, and his third wife, Viki Maughan, have been fighting over money ever since their divorce, in a case that a judge said 'beggars belief.'

Captain Wilmot, 62, who now lives in Somerset, claims his ex is 'a liar' and says that her 18-year-old daughter was fathered, not by him, but by a lover she was secretly seeing before they divorced.

He is refusing to comply with a financial settlement reached with his ex 16 years ago and denies he is liable for almost two decades worth of maintenance for the teenager, as he is 'absolutely convinced' she is not his, London's Appeal Court heard.

He also denies 'playing technical games' to avoid his responsibilities for the girl, and insists he has simply been trying to protect his new wife, his fourth, 'from the wreckage of the past.'

But Ms Maughan, 50, is demanding that her ex must 'accept reality' and is asking judges to bring an end to what has become Britain's longest running divorce battle.

Lady Justice Black, Lord Justice Sales and Lord Justice Moylan heard that the former couple lived in idylic 800,000 country pile, Hartley Oast, in Cranbrook, Kent, before they separated in the late 1990s.

Captain Wilmot, who now flies for Turkish Airlines, has since remarried and set his new family up in another swanky 800,000 country home in Alcombe, Somerset.

He also owns a 500,000 18th century, listed house in Dunster, Somerset, and has property in Kirkmichael, on the Isle of Man.

Captain Wilmot says he has paid 390,000 in maintenance since the marriage ended and that he does not owe a penny more.

Captain Wilmot, 62, claims his ex Viki Maughan (pictured outside court) is 'a liar' and that her 18-year-old daughter was fathered by a lover she was secretly seeing before they divorced

He has been arguing for years that the divorce settlement was 'obtained by fraud on the part of Ms Maughan.'

And he now wants the Appeal Court to block Ms Maughan's bid to enforce the 2001 settlement and make him pay maintenance for her daughter.

The pilot claims the girl's birth certificate is a 'fabrication and a forgery' and denies the validity of a DNA test in 2000 which concluded she was his daughter.

He insists that fresh evidence shows that test was flawed.

Captain Wilmot is seeking to torpedo his ex's back-dated child maintenance bid, claiming that he has not been properly served with a string of court orders telling him to pay up, because he was flying.

He says 'slow internet and an inability to download documents' whilst he was working abroad meant he never received a series of court orders requiring him to pay up what his ex says he owes his former family.

Captain Wilmot, who now flies for Turkish Airlines, has since remarried and set his new family up in another swanky 800,000 country home (pictured) in Alcombe, Somerset

The wife's lawyers today slammed him for 'playing technical games' with the court.

But, denying the accusation, Nicholas Bowen QC, for Captain Wilmot, told the court: 'He only comes back to the UK for a few weekends a year. He is based in the air, all over the world.'

He was unwilling to receive documents at his Somerset family home because he didn't want his new life to be affected by the rancour between him and his previous family, the barrister added.

'He didn't want to be pursued by this ghastly case. He wanted his new wife to be insulated from the wreckage of the past.

'He therefore told his wife that if anything turns up (from the ex-wife's lawyers) at Alcombe, just send it back,' he told the court.

The pilot (pictured) claims the girl's birth certificate is a 'fabrication and a forgery' and denies the validity of a DNA test in 2000 which concluded she was his daughter

As a result, legal service of the vital documents and orders was 'never effected as a matter of fact,' the QC added.

'He is not evading service, he is not playing technical games,' Mr Bowen told the court.

The QC added that Captain Wilmot had been wrongly painted as 'a recalcitrant, evasive and deliberate non-payer of child maintenance.'

But Jonathan Swift, for the wife, told the judges that she just wants the money her family is owed, and to be able to get on with her life.

'Her sincere wish is that this court should dispose of this matter with as many restraining directions as possible, so that it may never be resurrected again,' he said.

The barrister bemoaned the 'extreme facts of this case' and 'the husband's refusal to comply with the court ordered obligations to his ex-wife and children stretching back as far as 2001.'

The former couple lived in idylic 800,000 country pile, Hartley Oast (pictured), in Cranbrook, Kent, before they separated in the late 1990s

Slamming the husband for dragging out the bitter fight for 16 years, he added: 'This is a pointless waste of time.

'A significant air of reality needs to descend in this case,' he told the judges.

He dismissed Captain Wilmot's case as 'utter nonsense.'

At a previous hearing, Mr Swift refuted Captain Wilmot's denial that he is the teenager's father, saying: 'The conclusion of the court was that she most certainly was his child.'

At the same hearing Mr Bowen told a judge that Captain Wilmot had been warned that 'this case could bankrupt you.'

'This is an extremely troubling case with severe financial consequences for the husband and his (new) young family,' the QC added.

The judges have now reserved their decision on Captain Wilmot's appeal until a later date.
Smuggler: Prison officer Simon Taylor

Two prison officers have been found guilty of smuggling cocaine and mobile phones packed into pringles tubes for paying inmates.

Ten people including five prisoners, one prisoner's mother and two prisoners' girlfriends were yesterday convicted after a 15-month trafficking operation was uncovered at Lewes Prison in East Sussex.

One of the officers, Ricky Bridger, was caught with a tube of Pringles containing a mobile phone and cocaine in his car boot, claiming he changed his mind about bringing it into the jail.

The 54-year-old, along with fellow prison officer Simon Taylor, was convicted of bringing cocaine, synthetic cannabis known as 'spice', steroids and mobile phones to prisoners Darren Burdfield, Simon Penton, Simon Khalil and former inmate Daniel Sallis.

The goods were paid for by the prisoners' relatives and often sold on to other inmates once inside. A gram of cocaine in jails can fetch up to 200.

A two-month trial at Hover Crown Court, East Sussex, heard the smuggling went on between June 18, 2014 and September 10, 2015.

Taylor, 28, admitted during the trial he had taken the then legal high, spice, into jail but claimed he was not part of a wider plot.

He was found in possession of cocaine when he was arrested in a pub in October 2014, and when police searched his home they found bundles of drugs and two mobile phones.

At around the same time, he had received a payment of 700 from Burdfield's mother Sabrina, the court heard.

Bernard Taylor, a prison officer working at the jail in April 2015, was ordered to carry out a search of the prison gym which was used by staff and inmates at different times.

Guilty: Prison officer Ricky Bridger

He told the court he discovered two Pringles pots filled with prohibited items hidden in the roof of the gym.

Inside the tubes Mr Taylor found two bottles of steroid liquid, four syringes, ten needles, an O2 SIM card and more than 100 grams of spice.

The ten who were convicted yesterday were linked by mobile phone and banking data, showing they had been in contact throughout the plot.

Payments had been made to parties in the case by relatives and girlfriends of serving prisoners, which the court heard were payments for various drugs.

Bridger and Taylor were convicted of conspiracy to convey prohibited items into the prison.

Serving prisoners Burdfield, 33, and Penton, 45, were also convicted, along with former inmate Sallis, 30.

Two other serving prisoners Khalil, 34, and Dorian Henry, 26, admitted the charges before the trial.

Burfield's mother, 61, and inmates' girlfriends Sarah Hall, 32, and Katie Rudd, 26, were convicted for their part in the conspiracy. They will all be sentenced on Friday.

One girlfriend Sheryl Donegan, 30, was cleared, while jurors failed to agree on Henry's sister Danielle Henry, 34, a finance clerk from London, and she was discharged.
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Beijing has detained 18 members of a banned religious cult that believes that Jesus has reincarnated as a Chinese woman.

The cult named 'The Church of Almighty God' became known worldwide after five of its 'disciples' beat a woman to death in a McDonald's after she refused to provide them with her phone number.

According to state media, eight of those detained have denounced their cult beliefs.

Police in east China's Zhejiang province detained the suspects following an investigation into the cult named The Church of Almighty God

The cult was started in the 1990s by Zhao Weishan. He claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin who happens to be his wife

Police in east China's Zhejiang province detained the suspects following an investigation into the cult.

According to Xinhua, police in Changxing County confiscated laptops and books used by the cult.

Of those detained, eight have been 're-educated' and have already denounced their 'cult beliefs' according to police.

The people detained are said to be from the same cult known as 'The Church of Almighty God'.

A father and his daughter were handed the death sentence for their involvement in the murder of a woman in a McDonald's restaurant after she refused to join. Three others were involved

The group became known worldwide after a woman was beaten to death by five of the members in 2014 in a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan

She had reportedly refused to give them her phone number to know more about the group

The group became known worldwide after a woman was beaten to death by five of the members in 2014 in a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan. She had reportedly refused to give them her phone number to know more about the group.

One of the murderers Zhang Lidong said in an interview: 'I beat her with all my might and stamped on her too. She was a demon. We had to destroy her.'

The Church of Almighty God was formed in the 1990s by Zhao Weishan. He claims that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin who happens to be his wife.

The pair moved to the US in September 2000.

Channel 4 news spoke with a member just after the McDonalds attack and claimed that there were at least a million members in the country.

The Church of Almighty God refers to the ruling Communist Party as the 'great red dragon'.

On its website, where one section is headed 'The Maturer the People Become, the Sooner the Great Red Dragon Will Collapse', the group describes the authorities as 'the persecutor of God and the enemy of God'.

China has previously cracked down harshly on groups it labels 'cults', most notably the Falungong spiritual movement, which was banned in the late 1990s.
White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci took his bad blood with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to live TV Thursday morning, calling in to CNN to talk to Chris Cuomo.

Scaramucci told the anchor that he and Priebus had 'odds' and 'differences,' which may or may not be able to be worked out, as he suggested that the former Republican National Committee chairman publicly prove that he did not leak the new communications director's financial disclosure form.

'So if Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that,' Scaramucci said.

Last night, Scaramucci had put out a tweet  and later deleted it  in which he tagged Priebus' Twitter handle while complaining about his financial information showing up in a news report.

'In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,' the communications director wrote.

Before the tweet was removed, the message had been interpreted by White House reporters and others online as a threat to Priebus. On CNN's New Day, Scaramucci suggested that those scribes may be on to something.

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Anthony Scaramucci called into CNN Thursday morning to talk about his bad blood with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus

Scaramucci buzzed CNN's Chris Cuomo to explain why he sent out a tweet last night that seemingly blamed Reince Priebus for leaking his financial disclosure form

The confusion began with this tweet, posted by Scaramucci at around 11pm in which he appeared to accuse Priebus of leaking his financial disclosure to the media. He has since deleted the post

Shortly before 1am, Scaramucci posted a denial. He claimed he only tagged Priebus in the original tweet to prove they were united in tackling the leaks. He promptly deleted the first post

Scaramucci suggested that his relationship with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (pictured) was brotherly, then mentioned the Biblical brothers Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel

'When I put out a tweet and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they all make the assumption that it's him because journalists know who the leakers are,' Scaramucci said, before calling on Priebus to prove he's not one of the high-level leakers in the Trump White House.

Scaramucci also explained his rocky relationship with Priebus.

'Now if you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences,' he admitted. 'When I said we are brothers from the podium that's because we're rough on each other.'

'Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don't know if this is repairable or not, that will be up to the president,' Scaramucci continued.

In the Bible, Cain ended up murdering Abel.

'But he's the chief of staff, he's responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping me do that in the White House and that's why I put that tweet out last night,' Scaramucci explained.

He also claimed that 'a fish rots from the head down' and added: 'I can tell you two fish that dont stink, and thats me and the president. I dont like the activity going on in the White House. I dont like what theyre doing to my friend.'

Last night Scaramucci also tried to correct the record, putting out a 1 am tweet claiming he'd only included Priebus in the tweet to show that they were united in their clampdown on leakers.

'Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45'.

No other senior members of the administration were tagged.

Scaramucci was simmering over details being released to the public over his financial disclosure form.

The form, that was filed with the Office of Government Ethics revealed that the 53-year-old earned $10million between January and June from his private investment firm SkyBridge capital. It showed his total assets to be worth $85million.

The financial disclosures of White House officials including the president are listed on the office's website and any member of the public can request to view a copy of Scaramucci's form once it becomes available.

Despite this, he considered the sharing of his information a crime and believed it was proof of the gushing leaks coming from the administration - something he had spent Wednesday vowing to put an end to during various television interviews.

'I understand the law,' he told Cuomo. 'I know there was a public disclosure mechanism in my financial forms.'

'What i'm upset about is the process and the junk pool, the dirty pool, Chris, in terms of the way this is being done  and the leaking won't stop,' he said.

The severe lapse in communication comes in the middle of his first week as the new White House communications director and on the back of a dinner with President Trump, First Lady Melania, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox exec Bill Shine.

'I can't have a couple of friends up from Fox & Friends, and Sean Hannity, who is one of my closest friends, to have dinner with the president and his first lady without it being leaked in seven minutes,' Scaramucci fumed on CNN.

'It's absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible,' he added.

It was the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza who first reported the president and first lady's dinner with Scaramucci and the Fox News crowd.

Lizza had also tweeted: 'In case there's any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking.'

Lizza, a CNN contributor, had called in to New Day to talk about the bubbling Scaramucci-Priebus mess, when Scaramucci himself got on the line.

'When I was on the phone speaking to you last night I said it was unpatriotic that you weren't telling me who the leakers were,' Scaramucci said, directing his comments at Lizza instead of the CNN hosts.

Cuomo interjected to make sure Scaramucci knew he was saying these things on live television.

He kept going, telling Lizza, 'I was teasing you and it was sarcastic,' seemingly referring to Lizza's tweet that said Sccaramucci was serious about the FBI probing Priebus.

'It was one Italian to the other,' Scaramucci said.

During the Thursday morning interview, Scaramucci confirmed he had spoken with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

After his first post, Twitter users went into overdrive speculating over what Scaramucci meant by tagging Priebus' handle

New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza said Scaramucci wanted the FBI to investigate Priebus for the leak, though later Scaramucci suggested he had been joking on the phone to Lizza when he told the journalist that

Lizza reported earlier that Scaramucci had spent the evening dining with the president, the first lady, Sean Hannity and Bill Shine

Politico reported how Scaramucci earned $10million between January and June this year from his private investment firm, SkyBridge Capital.

The financial disclosure was filed with the US Office of Government Ethics which publishes the financial disclosures of the president and the vice president and lists those of Priebus and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on its website.

After he posted it,The New York Times asked Scaramucci why he believed it was a crime for his to have been shared, pointing out that in theory, because he submitted it on June 23, it is available for request from July 23.

He replied: 'They arent in process yet,' meaning someone had leaked them to Politico before they were supposed to go into the public domain.

The head of the ethics office, Walter M. Shaub Jr, stepped down last Thursday after failing to see eye-to-eye with the Trump administration for months.

Scaramucci's was not listed on the office's website on Wednesday night.

Scaramucci was mocked for believing it was a crime for the information to have been leaked

Politico's report indicates that he holds an ownership stake in SkyBridge Capital, a private investment firm which he founded in 2005.

His ownership stake paid him $4.9million between January and June and he collected another $5million in salary payments during the same period, according to Politico's report.

SkyBridge announced in January that it was being sold to the Chinese conglomerate HNA.

In an announcement of that sale, the company said Scaramucci would be stepping down as one of its managing directors but he is still listed as such on its website.

The deal has still not been finalized and is being looked-over by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

With his sights set on a role in Washington, Scaramucci moved to DC in June as an employee of Export-Import bank.

He immediately took an unpaid leave of absence and has not collected any of his $172,000 salary.

Scaramucci made $10million between January and June this year from his ownership stake in and salary from SkyBridge Capital, the private investment fund he founded in 2005

Before Politico published its report on Wednesday evening, Scaramucci appeared to be on a high from a busy day on the Hill in his new role.

He participated in several television interviews for both British and American networks.

They included an appearance on Hannity where he said he had evidence the leaks - of which there have been 125 since the start of Trump's presidency - appeared to be coming from the top down.

'One of the big problems that Im discovering is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them.

'I'm very proud to be reporting directly to the president so I can hermetically seal off the [communications] team from this sort of nonsense,' Scaramucci said.

'Some people think we're naive. I know I'm in a cesspool called Washington or a swamp called Washington so it'll be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak but we're taking dramatic steps to get rid of the leaks.'

In an interview with the BBC, he told of how he worked for '30 years to join the global elite' in Washington.

He also lamented the 'tough town' and how it appeared to foster backstabbing, telling more than one interviewer proudly: 'I'm a front stabber'.

Watch the latest video at <a href="//video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

Scaramucci appeared on Hannity hours before the tweet to tell of his plan to crackdown on the leaks

Hannity, who spoke with Scaramucci on the subject hours earlier, welcomed his announcement

It had been a busy day for the new White House Communications Director. Earlier, gave a fiery interview with the BBC's Emily Maitlis, during which he said of his new job: 'I'm having a lot of fun'

Priebus was rumored to have been against Scaramucci's hiring from the beginning.

A more establishment member of the GOP, he vouched for Spicer and was disheartened by his sudden resignation last week.

Scaramucci cryptically acknowledged the tensions between them in May, telling Business Insider: 'I have one or two people who obviously don't favor me, but that's okay, that's politics.

'I'm not the first person to get hit in politics, and I won't be the last.'

It was previously reported that the president was unimpressed with Priebus's performance as Chief of Staff.

In June, Politico reported that he'd given him until July 4 to clean up the administration and put an end to the constant leaks and infighting.
A stray cat with a serious eye disease is finally able to see properly after receiving life-changing surgery.

Fei Fei the moggy was found on a busy motorway of Chengdu, China, by animal lovers who took it to the vet.

The brave cat suffered from entropion, a condition where its upper and lower eyelids roll inwards, which can lead to inflammation and eventually complete blindness.

The two pictures above show Fei Fei before (left) and after (right) the eye operation. The stray cat, from China, was helped by animal lovers and a vet from losing its sight

He Jinyi, Fei Fei's vet, told MailOnline that the cat was taken to his clinic in April. The animal is between one and two years old and is a boy.

The 27-year-old vet said Fei Fei, whose name means 'chubby', was such a joy to everyone at the I and You Veterinary Clinic in Chengdu.

Dr He explained: 'We have many animals here, but Fei Fei was especially popular.

'It had a lovely personality and was friendly to everyone. It was not a picky eater and was always very happy.'

Dr He, who has worked as a vet for five years, said when Fei Fei first arrived, its condition was so serious it could barely open its swollen eyes.

After medical examination, Dr He found out that Fei Fei didn't have normal eyelids.

He said both Fei Fei's upper and lower eyelids turned inwards against its eyeballs, and the cat also had fleas and various skin diseases.

Fei Fei's vet, He Jinyi (left), said the moggy was such a joy to everyone at the clinic. He said the cat was not a picky eater and was always very happy. Fei Fei is pictured (right) while recovering

The clinic put Fei Fei under observation for about a month and gave it vaccines. They performed an operation on it at the end of May.

Now Fei Fei can finally see things clearly with its 'big' and 'gorgeous' eyes, said Dr He, who claimed himself to be a big fan of Fei Fei.

The cat was discharged from the clinic in early July after making a full recovery from its eyes and skin diseases.

Mr Chen, one of the animal lovers who found Fei Fei, said the cat was saved on Chengdu's Wuhou Elevated Road on March 16 as it ran between fast cars.

After bringing Fei Fei to a safety area, Mr Chen and his colleague from Qiming Small Animal Protection Association realised its eyes were strange. They took it to the vet.

Mr Chen said his organisation found an owner for Fei Fei on July 8 after posting an advertisement online.

The cat is now living a happy life with its owner, who is a young painter.

An animal protection group from Chengdu has found an owner for Fei Fei (right) after the feline was discharged from the clinic in early July. The cat (left) has fully recovered

Apparently, the life-changing surgery has not only helped Fei Fei save its sight, but also made it an internet star.

A set of pictures showing the cat before and after the operation have been widely shared on Weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

Thousands of people have been impressed by Fei Fei's bright eyes and praised the cat for braving the operation.

Dr He said his clinic reduced the medical bills for Fei Fei and he was 'happy and proud' that he could help improve the life quality for homeless animals.

Mr Chen from Qiming Small Animal Protection Association said he and his colleagues would try their best to provide a shelter to stray dogs and cats.

Mr Chen also called for the establishment of animal protection laws in China as soon as possible.
A brand new SUV discovered buried in an Oklahoma backyard may now be evidence of a nearly 15-year-old crime.

The vehicle, covered in tarp, was found in the middle of a dirt bike trail in a property in the town of Shawnee.

The Green family was adjusting one of the jumps on the trail when they unearthed the 2003 Chevy Trailblazer.

Father-and-son Fredie and Cody Green discovered a brand new 2003 Chevy Trailblazer wrapped in tarp and buried (pictured) on their property in Shawnee, Oklahoma

Cody was adjusting the jump on their dirt bike trail when his tractor stopped. As he dug further, he hit the hood of the vehicle (pictured, buried)

Fredie and Cody (pictured, left) said they've been jumping off the buried SUV for several years with their motocross bikes and ATV without even knowing the vehicle was buried there

Property owner Fredie Green said he and his son, Cody, have been jumping off the buried SUV for several years with their motocross bikes and ATV without even knowing the vehicle was buried there.

Cody was using a tractor to modify the jump when the tractor halted.

'Went down a little deep and the tractor just stopped,' Cody told KFOR.

'I went, "Man, what is this?" Well, I end up digging some more and got to the hood of it.'

He called his father to let him know of the discovery.

'He said, "Dad, we got a car buried six-foot underground". And I told my son, "Stop right there and leave it alone",' Fredie said.

Fredie called authorities, who dug up the car and dragged it out. The doors were ripped off to eliminate worries that there were dead bodies inside.

However, despite the years of packed dirt, the license plate was still intact, which deputies were able to use to discover the previous owner had reported the car stolen.

Fredie (pictured) called authorities, who dug up the car and dragged it out. The doors were ripped off to eliminate worries they there were dead bodies inside

By using the intact license plate, deputies discovered that the SUV was reported stolen by its previous owner 14 years ago. They suspect it could be insurance fraud (Pictured, a 2003 Chevy Trailblazer)

'He had reported it stolen in 2003,' Pottawatomie County Sheriff's Office Lt Robert Stewart told KFOR.

'He at one time owned that property that vehicle was located on.'

No one has been charged yet, but deputies suspect it could be insurance fraud.

'It's amazing that someone could even go that far to bury a brand new car,' Fredie said. 'It's amazing.'
Thank you to the LGBT community! tweeted Donald Trump a year ago. I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

Yesterday, the same Donald Trump tweeted another thank you in relation to the LGBT community.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, he wrote, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military world entail. Thank you.

Im not sure exactly who President Trump was thanking, but its safe to assume every single member of Americas LGBT community would today like him to stick his gratitude in the nearest trash can  and with good reason.

This is a disgraceful announcement.

I don't know who Donald Trump was thanking at the end of his Wednesday announcement, but these tweets are a disgrace

There is no evidence transgender people are any less capable of fighting for their country than anyone else.

To suggest they are is reprehensible.

Today, thousands of American heroes who risk their lives to protect the freedoms of their fellow countrymen are wondering if they are about to be thrown out of the military.

Transgender army reservist Rudy Akbarian, 26, summed up the mood: Everybody is hurt. Everybody is scared. This is peoples lives were talking about.

An unnamed Marine military police officer told the Air Force Times: I have never described myself as trans; Im a mother***ing Marine. Thats all that matters.

Transgender former Navy SEAL Kristen Beck said: Transgender doesnt matter. Do your service. I was defending individual liberty. I defended for Republicans. I defended for Democrats. I defended for everyone.

Exactly.

The whole issue of transgender is very complex.

I fully support anyones right to transgender or transition from male to female or female to male. Those, like former Olympic champion Caitlin Jenner, who go through this process experience extraordinary physical and emotional trauma, not least from the huge social stigma that sadly still exists around this subject.

It takes great courage to do it and I cannot imagine anyone subjecting themselves to such a long, difficult journey unless they absolutely believed they had been born in the wrong sex.

I have less sympathy with those who chose to opt out of gender altogether, the gender neutral brigade that doesnt want to identify as male or female. And with those who identify as gender fluid, presenting themselves as male or female depending on their mood.

There is a police officer in Britain who currently uses separate male and female identities at work, sometimes going by the name Callum, other days as Abi.

I think that is ridiculously confusing for everyone and devalues the struggle that so many endure to transgender or transition.

But I wouldnt seek to ban that police officer from serving.

Nobody has suggested his/her performance is adversely affected by his/her gender identity.

I feel the same about those transgenders serving in the US military.

There are legitimate health issues about them that should be debated without causing outrage, just as they are with people suffering from conditions like asthma or diabetes.

Extensive hormone treatment, for instance, can have adverse effects on some people. Could it affect their ability to fight on a battleground?

It comes down to this one question in the end: is the person physically able to meet the criteria for being a member of the US military? If they pass the normal US military medical tests and the answer is yes then they should be allowed to do so

But in the end, it comes down to this one question: is the person physically able to meet the criteria for being a member of the US military?

If they pass the normal US military medical tests and the answer is yes then they should be allowed to do so.

Trump himself, when interviewed by Advocate magazine in 2000, said he would be supportive of gay people who served in the military.

If a gay person can be a doctor or lawyer or a teacher, or take another position of responsibility, why cant they serve this country in the military? he said.

The same logic should apply to transgenders.

The costs President Trump alluded to in his tweets are relatively tiny.

It is estimated there are as many as 15,000 transgenders serving in the US military, which totals 1.3 million people.

Only around 250 of these are believed to be currently in the process of transitioning, or have been given approval to do so.

Transgender military healthcare expenditure has increased to around $8.4 million a year.

To put this in perspective, the Pentagon spends ten times as much money on erectile dysfunction medication as it does on any costs related to transgender.

The militarys total health care budget is nearly $50 billion a year.

So transgender healthcare costs are the tiniest of tiny drops in a massive ocean.

President Trump also referred to disruption but it has been reported that fewer than 0.1% of military transgender members seek treatments which could delay deployment.

The costs are tiny, the disruption would be minimal. None of Trump's arguments make any sense. The cynics may be right and he has done this purely to pander to his base and distract

So none of the arguments for this ban make any sense.

Nor does it tally with Trumps fairly tolerant view of LGBT issues in the past.

Its hard not to conclude, therefore, that the cynics are right and he has done this purely to pander to his right-wing base and to serve as a useful media distraction from Russia and the healthcare bill debacle.

No wonder, then, that it has so inflamed not just the LGBT community but also every decent, civilised, tolerant and fair human being.

I share that fury.

I hate the fact brave, dedicated transgender members of the military have suddenly been made to feel so worthless.

I hate the fact they have been dismissed by their own President in such a disrespectful and callous way. Three curt tweets to obliterate their entire service? Really?

I hate the fact that bigotry towards transgenders has today been given an official seal of approval by the most powerful man on earth.

I hate all of it.

This has inflamed not just the LGBT community but also every decent, civilised, tolerant and fair human being. I share that fury. I hate all of this. Mr President, you need to reconsider

Mr President, you vowed to protect the rights of the LGBT community, not toss them onto the bonfire of hard right Conservative bigotry.

As your president, you declared at the 2016 Republican National Convention, weeks after the ISIS-inspired attack on a gay club in Orlando that killed 49 people, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBT citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me!

I did believe you, Mr President.

Now I realise that belief was misplaced.

Your ban on transgenders in the military is you wielding your power to wage oppression against LGBT citizens.

This is an ugly, appalling decision and I urge you to reconsider.
Gregory Burleson, 53, was sentenced to 68 years in prison on Wednesday for his involvement in the 2014 armed confrontation with federal authorities in Nevada

One of the men involved in a 2014 armed confrontation led by renegade rancher Cliven Bundy against federal authorities in Nevada has been sentenced to a whopping 68 years in prison.

Gregory Burleson, 53, of Phoenix, was found guilty in April for his role in the standoff.

The Arizona militia group member was convicted on eight felony counts, including charges of threatening and assaulting federal officers, obstruction of justice, interstate travel in aid of extortion and firearms offenses related to a crime of violence.

Burleson, who was sentenced on Wednesday, is the first of 17 people to be tried and sent to prison on government charges in the Bundy revolt.

The uprising at Bundy's ranch near Bunkerville, Nevada - 75 miles northeast of Las Vegas - was triggered by a dispute in which federal agents seized Bundy's cattle over his refusal to pay fees required for grazing his livestock on government land.

The standoff became a flashpoint in long-simmering tensions over federal ownership of vast tracts of public lands in the West, and a rallying point for right-wing militants who challenge the US government's authority in the region.

Burleson was found guilty in April for his role in the armed standoff that centered around the Bureau of Land Management's base camp in Nevada (above) where cattle seized from Cliven Bundy were being held

Burleson (above), who was sentenced on Wednesday, is the first of 17 people to be tried and sent to prison on government charges in the Bundy revolt

Protester Eric Parker from central Idaho was pictured aiming his weapon at federal authorities from a bridge next to the Bureau of Land Management's base camp during the standoff

Burleson fronted court on Wednesday in a wheelchair and spoke of being in the thick of the standoff and acknowledge his previous behavior.

'Yes, I was down in the wash. I went down there with the intention to see what was going on,' he said. 'I did not go down there with the intention of assaulting or killing anyone.'

After the standoff, Burleson posted anti-government messages on his Facebook, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

He also told an undercover officer posing as a documentary maker: 'I was hell bent on killing federal agents that had turned their back on we the people.'

'Yes, I said a lot of crazy things. I'm ashamed of them actually,' he told US District Court Judge Gloria Navarro on Wednesday. 'Looking back at them, it's like, "wow, obviously I shouldn't drink".'

Federal agents had given him two alcoholic drinks prior to the 'documentary interview'.

In sentencing him, Navarro reminded Burleson of the seriousness of his crimes.

The uprising was triggered by a dispute in which federal agents seized Cliven Bundy's (above) cattle over his refusal to pay fees required for grazing his livestock on government land

Protesters on horseback were pictured riding on the hills above the standoff site in Bunkerville, Nevada in 2014

She said the agents involved had been scarred from the events and suffered mental trauma after Bundy supporters pointed guns and shouted at them.

'That isn't something that heals over with a scab,' Navarro said. 'You can't put it in a cast or stitch it up.'

Burleson's co-defendant, who was convicted by the same jury, faces sentencing in September.

Four others for whom the case ended in a mistrial in April are being retried in Nevada, and two other groups of defendants, including Bundy and his sons, are scheduled to go on trial later this year and next.

Two of Bundy's sons and four followers were acquitted of conspiracy charges in a separate trial last October stemming from their armed takeover of a federal wildlife center in Oregon in early 2016.

Burleson was sentenced days before various militia groups and their supporters plan to rally in Colorado for a weekend 'national field training exercise' billed as the largest such gathering ever in the United States.
A schoolgirl battling cancer and heart disease who went to court to claim her right to die only to change her mind has celebrated graduating from university.

Hannah Jones, now 22, from New Quay, Wales, was just 13 when she refused to have a transplant.

Her decision stunned the world when she calmly stated she would rather die than undergo more hospital trauma and simply wanted to live her last days in peace.

Miss Jones has now just celebrated achieving a 2:2 in English and Drama from Aberystwyth University and says she 'regrets nothing' about her decisions.

Schoolgirl Hannah Jones (right in Great Ormond Street after a heart transplant), who battled cancer and heart disease and went to court to claim her right to die only to have a change of heart, has celebrated graduating from university (left)

She made history by fending off a legal bid by medics to force her to have treatment for heart failure.

Her local hospital began High Court proceedings to temporarily remove her from her parents' custody to allow the transplant to go ahead.

Miss Jones was required to plead her case to a child protection officer, who persuaded Herford Hospital to back down.

But her condition deteriorated and aged 14, having changed her mind, she underwent a six-and-a-half-hour transplant operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital.

The donor was a 40-year-old man who died in a motorcycle accident in Scotland.

Miss Jones (left at her graduation with her mother and right during a performance) has now just celebrated achieving a 2:2 degree in English and Drama from Aberystwyth University

She made history by fending off a legal bid by medics to force her to have treatment for heart failure (pictured on a holiday to Euro Disney in 2000)

Miss Jones, who lives with her mother Kirsty, 51, and step-father Daniel Potter, 53, said: 'I can't quite believe how long it was.

'At the time it happened it opened my eyes up to another world - the fact I was making an impact from America to New Zealand.

'At the time it was right for me to do it. I wasn't going to be pushed into making that decision.

'I was exhausted by the drugs and the pressure I was under and I don't regret my decision. It was right for me to challenge the doctors at the time.

'I changed my mind when I was 14 when I started to think of the things I wanted to do with my life and just thought I have to have a transplant in order to do them.

'If I had chosen to have a transplant earlier then I might not be in the position I am in now. I regret nothing about the decisions I made.'

But her condition deteriorated and aged 14, having changed her mind, she underwent a six-and-a-half-hour transplant operation at Great Ormond Street Hospital (pictured with her mother)

Miss Jones' donor was a 40-year-old man who died in a motorcycle accident in Scotland (pictured on a trip to the Magic Kingdom in Florida)

Two years after her transplant, she spent two weeks in intensive care after being struck down with Swine Flu and was forced to take up to 15 pills a day.

She added: 'I have to look after myself. I don't drink alcohol and have to watch what I eat.

'I still take lots of pills every day and have to look after my heart but I have a future.

'I don't know anything about the donor other than it was a man who died in a motorbike accident in Scotland. I am very grateful for the chance to live..'

Miss Jones, who is dating Phd science student Sum Mistry, 28, is now preparing to start a teaching course at Bath University this September.

Two years after her transplant, she spent two weeks in intensive care after being struck down with Swine Flu and was forced to take up to 15 pills a day (pictured on a kayak in Wales)

Her mother Kirsty, who separated from Hannah's father Andrew three years ago, said: 'I am such a proud mum' (pictured at her prom in 2011, left, and riding a horse in 2012)

On top of her studies, she is also spearheading a campaign to save New Quay's lifeboat being downgraded to an inshore craft.

Her mother Kirsty, who separated from Hannah's father Andrew three years ago, said: 'I am such a proud mum.

'We just hope the family of the donor know how much Hannah has benefitted. This is something huge that was done for us.

'Now Hannah can teach and inspire little children and show others that things are possible post-transplant.

'Hannah is now hoping to help save lives at sea with her campaign to keep the all weather lifeboat. Having had her own saved she knows the importance more than most.'

Her mother Kirsty (right) said: 'We just hope the family of the donor know how much Hannah has benefitted. This is something huge that was done for us'
A married assistant head teacher has been sacked from a leading girls' school after boasting about the size of his penis and touching pupils' bottoms.

Roderick Dyson, 62, was dismissed from his role as head of engineering at Skipton Girls' High School in North Yorkshire when the allegations came to light.

Mr Dyson, who was hauled in front of a misconduct panel, bragged about his penis and made lewd remarks, including 'imagine sucking them balls, girls'.

Skipton Girls' High School (pictured) in North Yorkshire was recently named best secondary in Britain for science, technology, engineering and maths

The father was also accused of cupping round moulds to his chest to simulate breasts in the classroom - but this was not proven, the tribunal was told.

The selective grammar school was recently named best secondary in Britain for science, technology, engineering and maths.

Mr Dyson, who had been working at the school since September 2006, had been touching the hips and thighs and tapping the bottoms of some schoolgirls.

A National College of Teaching and Leadership disciplinary hearing found he made inappropriate contact with students' lower bodies when moving behind them.

The tribunal heard from several girls, all but one aged below 18, who told of his habit of touching the 'thigh side of her bottom with the back of his hand with quick taps'.

Mr Dyson - who was dismissed from the school last year - had denied the action but accepted he was a 'tactile and enthusiastic' teacher.

Roderick Dyson, 62, was the head of engineering at Skipton Girls' High School (pictured)

He made sexually suggestive comments towards - or in the presence of - one or more pupils, including saying that a boy might need a small toilet but that you would need a large one with his 'big thing'.

The panel heard oral evidence from Pupil I, Pupil F, Pupil K and Pupil J in relation to this charge. Mr Dyson was said to have appeared to have found the remark funny.

The panel accepted that Mr Dyson had referred to urinals as a reference point when discussing ergonomics and design issues.

But it also found that Mr Dyson made reference to his sexual organs and also made gestures which resulted in pupils having their attention drawn to his genitals.

Pupil F referred to Mr Dyson stating words to the effect of 'imagine sucking on those balls' during a lesson in which moulds and vacuum suction was being discussed.

Pupil I said that Mr Dyson said that 'these'... 'would not be very good for sucking on'.

The panel ruled that the use of the words 'sucking' and 'balls' in combination should have been avoided in the circumstances - and that it was sexually suggestive.

Schoolgirls also gave evidence that sexual jokes were made by Mr Dyson regularly about 'nuts and bolts' fitting together in a sexually suggestive manner.

And the NCTL panel heard that Mr Dyson had been disciplined by the school for allegedly holding spherical vacuum-formed moulds to his chest to simulate breasts.
Martin Palmer, 65, has had an emotional reunion with Sandra Olah (pictured together)

A man who found a baby abandoned under a bush 50 years ago was left stunned after she tracked him down and flew across the world to surprise him for an emotional reunion.

Martin Palmer, 65, was a teenager when he found a tiny baby hidden in the foliage close to the back of his parents house in Highclere, Hampshire on August 27, 1967.

He regularly wondered what had become of the newborn but never expected to find out until Sandra Olah knocked on his door, fifty years later.

Now a grandmother herself Mrs Olah, who lives in Queensland, Australia, tracked Mr Palmer down after being sent a local newspaper report about how she was rescued after being abandoned as a baby.

Despite five decades passing, Mr Palmer said he can recall the day vividly.

'Even now I can remember that day very clearly. I was with a friend and we heard this noise, at first we thought it was a cat,' he said, speaking to MailOnline.

'Then we looked and realised it was a baby, it was quite scary and a real shock.

'I remember very carefully lifting this little thing out from under the brambles and thorns,' he said.

He took the newborn - just hours old with an umbilical cord still attached - to his mother, who ran a nursing home nearby and was a trained nurse. The baby was taken to Sandleford Hospital in Newbury.

'I'd always wondered what had happened and what became of her or where life had taken her. It's something that's crossed my mind.

'My mother wanted to keep her at first but we had to take her to hospital. I've thought about her a lot over the years so this was just a wonderful surprise.'

Mr Palmer had no contact with Sandra and had no idea at all she was coming - she simply arrived in the small village, home to Downton Abbey, and knocked on his door and asked for a hug.

Mr Palmer said: 'It took me by complete surprise. It took a moment to sink in.'

He said he was grateful to learn that Sandra, now a mother to three children and grandmother to five, is well and has had a happy life.

After being rescued by Mr Palmer, Mrs Olah was taken to hospital where she was put into the care of the local authorities.

She was then adopted by a woman in her 40s from a neighbouring village and they emigrated to Australia when she was a child.

Mrs Olah became a graphic designer and married husband Bill, a mechanic, according to Mr Palmer. Mrs Olah returned to Highclere to see Mr Palmer today before flying back to Australia next week.

Mr Palmer had no contact with Sandra and had no idea at all she was coming - she simply arrived in the small village, home to Downton Abbey, and knocked on his door and asked for a hug

Mrs Olah described the reunion as as wonderful and exciting.

She said: 'It has been a very positive experience. It is just nice to know where I was born and where my roots are.'

Of the moment when she was faced with Mr Palmer, who had rescued her, she said it 'just felt right' and was very emotional.

She told the local newspaper The Newbury Weekly News she had managed to trace her biological mother, who no longer lived in the area.

She said their first meeting was good but 'unusual'.

She said: 'Of course there were questions why but it was just down to the circumstances in those days.'

Mrs Olah discovered she had a half brother and sister and was given the name of her father who she hopes to trace before returning to Australia.
A sophisticated drug syndicate has been smashed after police uncovered a stockpile of narcotics and cash in a series of raids across the north of Brisbane.

A total of 27 people were charged with more than 100 drug offences as detectives seized a colossal stash of MDMA pills and powder, cannabis, cocaine and LSD.

The drugs were described as being worth a 'substantial amount of money', while thousands of dollars in cash was also uncovered.

A 27-year-old Lawnton man was charged with a number of drug-related offences, including importing commercial quantities of border controlled substances.

A sophisticated drug syndicate has been smashed after police uncovered a stockpile of narcotics and cash in a series of raids across the north of Brisbane

The drugs were described as being worth a 'substantial amount of money', while thousands of dollars in cash was also uncovered

He also faces seven counts of possessing dangerous drugs, two counts of supplying dangerous drugs and possessing anything used in the commission of crime.

He is due to appear in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Friday.

Detective Inspector Glen Farmer said the operation had been a great success and removed 'dangerous drugs' from the community.

'These seizures and arrests will have a significant impact on the distribution and sale of dangerous drugs within the Brisbane area,' Det Insp Farmer said.

A total of 27 people were charged with more than 100 drug offences as detectives seized a colossal stash of MDMA pills and powder, cannabis, cocaine and LSD

A 27-year-old Lawnton man was charged with a number of drug-related offences including importing commercial quantities of border controlled drugs
As excitement builds for the upcoming solar eclipse on Aug. 21, Bryan College invites the Dayton and Chattanooga communities to view the once-in-a-lifetime event on its campus.

Beginning at 1 p.m., the College will have solar viewing stations set up near the Grassy Bowl, across from Rudd Auditorium, including a solar telescope. To view a map of campus and driving directions, please visit here.

The eclipse will become visible at approximately 2 p.m. with the eclipse reaching totality at 2:33 pm and last approximately two minutes.

There will be two presentations about solar eclipses inside Rudd Auditorium beginning at 1 p.m. Dr. Lyle Smith will present What is an Eclipse? and Dr. Jud Davis will present Eclipses and Scripture: What the Bible says About These occurrences? The presentations will be offered again at 1:30 p.m.

In order to participate in the solar eclipse viewing, guests must wear specially made protective glasses to avoid damaging effects to their vision. The College will have a limited supply of glasses available for use, but guests are encouraged to bring their own.

Guests are also encouraged to bring their own water, sunscreen, umbrellas, chairs, and blankets. When arriving on campus, please use the main entrance located off of US 27.

For more information, please contact Margie Legg at margie.legg@bryan.edu.




A 71-year-old woman and her dog were found thirsty and hungry, but alive and well, six days after heading into Olympic National Park in Washington state to disperse her husband's ashes.

Sajean Geer, of Port Angeles, and her terrier-Chihuahua named Yoda were rescued at about 7.15pm on Sunday by a Coast Guard helicopter after being stranded for six days.

They were found about ten miles south of Port Angeles on Sunday by rangers with the US National Park Service who had been searching for her for nearly a week.

Sajean Geer, of Port Angeles, and her terrier-Chihuahua named Yoda were rescued at about 7.15pm on Sunday by a Coast Guard helicopter after being stranded for six days in Olympic National Park in Washington state

They were found about ten miles south of Port Angeles on Sunday by rangers with the US National Park Service who had been searching for her for nearly a week. She had tried to make her way to Obstruction Point (the view from the spot pictured above) in Olympic National Park when she got lost

Park spokeswoman Penny Wagner says Geer told rescuers she had been in the park since July 17 and survived by eating ants and drinking water she found nearby.

Her brother had reported her missing on Tuesday after a close friend from Hawaii was unable to get in touch with her.

Greer had planned on scattering her husband's ashes at Obstruction Point - one of his favorite places - when she became overwhelmed with emotion and disoriented.

'I couldn't find the car, I couldn't find the road, and I got really disoriented,' she told KIRO.

Greer had planned on scattering her husband's ashes at Obstruction Point - one of his favorite places - when she became overwhelmed with emotion and disoriented

Geer, who has read several books on outdoor survival, spent the first day trying to find her way out of the park, but then made a shelter (picture) for herself and Yoda

Geer said her terrier-Chihuahua named Yoda helped her keep warm on the nights she was stranded in the woods

Geer, who was only wearing a Hawaiian shirt and capri pants at the time, hadn't told anyone she was going to the park because she didn't plan on being there for an extended period of time.

She said that she was upset with herself because she is an experienced hiker and wasn't prepared to become stranded.

While in the park, she had no cell phone service.

Geer, who has read several books on outdoor survival, spent the first day trying to find her way out of the park, but then made a shelter for herself and Yoda.

She ate pine needles and bugs and drank water from a stream to survive.

On July 23, Geer saw a helicopter and started waving 'as much as possible'. She was finally airlifted to safety (pictured)

Geer, who said she survived by keeping a 'positive attitude' was treated for dehydration and a few minor scratches

'This ant bit me,' Geer told KIRO. 'Then I remember watching on television, you can eat ants, and I go, 'Well, I have a bigger mouth then you,' so I ate him when he bit me.'

On July 23, Geer saw a helicopter and started waving 'as much as possible'.

'I go, "Please see me, please see me",' she said. 'Then, finally, they waved at me.'

Geer, who said she survived by keeping a 'positive attitude' was treated for dehydration and a few minor scratches.

The rescue team also found the urn that held Greer's husband's ashes, which they returned to her.
Tragic details have trickled out about the life of the troubled Thai immigrant gunned down by police outside Sydney's Central Station.

Danukul Mokmool, 30, was drug-addled and plagued by mental illness before he attacked a florist store owner and died in a hail of bullets.

But the former prison-inmate was turning his life around, studying at TAFE and going to a church for reformed criminals in his final months.

His half-brother, Charlie Huynh, told Sydney Morning Herald Mr Mokmool left the family's home on Wednesday beset by paranoid delusions.

Danukul Mokmool, 30, was addicted to drugs and plagued by mental illness before he was gunned down by police

Gangster turned church leader, Tony Hoang, said Mr Mokmool spoke candidly of his addiction to ice and will to get his life back on track.

'There were periods and pockets of him doing well while coming to church and getting some structure in life.'

'I always tried to cast that vision of a changed life, that he could do it if he chose. But he had some mental issues going on. He was seeing things and experiencing these supernatural experiences.'

Mr Mokmool had enrolled in TAFE to one day work with computers, and spent most of his final months at home studying.

The tagline on his Facebook profile reads: 'I am nice and friendly. My looks might confuse you, but my heart is pure.'

Mr Huynh said he understood his brother posed a threat at the time, but thought the police response may have been excessive.

Gangster turned church leader Tony Hoang (pictured at one of his church classes) said Mr Mokmool s wanted to get his life back on track.

The 30-year-old was studying at TAFE and attending a church for reformed criminals in his final months

'I don't know why they would shoot a man that was just holding scissors but ... it was a weapon at the end of the day.'

In a chilling turn, Mr Huynh watched footage of the shooting online before realising the grim reality it was his sibling.

Witnesses claim the 30-year-old was armed with multiple pairs of scissors when he charged at police, who opened fire.

Speaking out the front of their family home in Heckenberg hours after Mokmool's death, his half-brother said he believes he must have 'wanted to die'.

Mr Huynh said he wondered if Mokmool, who visited a mental health facility for daily treatment, had intended to die.

'I guess he was trying to make a big scene. He told the cops to obviously shoot him. He just wanted to die I guess,' he said, the ABC reports.

The brother of 'Dan' Mokmool (left), the man gunned down by police after a tense stand-off at a Sydney train station, watched video of the incident online without realising it was his sibling

Mokmool is seen inside the store (left) before he appears to run towards on officer (right). He is shot dead just moments later

Mokmool spent time packing in factories and working as a forklift driver before taking up his studies.

One of his former employers told Daily Mail Australia he worked briefly in Sydney's west before falling off the company's radar.

Gary Walker, the marketing director at Sydney-based Belmont Timber, said Mokmool spent two months driving forklifts for the company in 2014.

That was until one day, out of the blue, he failed to turn up for his shift and was never seen at work again.

'He was forklift driver and one day he just didn't turn up. He wasn't put off, he just didn't turn up,' Mr Walker told Daily Mail Australia.

'It's sad that something like this happened... but nobody remembers anything about him.

His half-brother said he wondered if Mokmool, who previously spent time behind bars and more recently visited a mental health facility for daily treatment, had intended to die

'I guess he was trying to make a big scene. He told the cops to obviously shoot him. He just wanted to die I guess,' Mr Huynh (pictured) said

Emmanuel Theoharis (pictured), the elderly shop owner attacked by a man at Central Station on Wednesday night, has supported the decision by police to shoot Mokmool dead

'It's common with people these days that you have a forklift licences, you put them on (staff) and then unfortunately they leave.'

Mr Huynh said Mokmool's shocked mother was flying to Australia from Thailand to be with her family.

While the horror of the incident has rocked the family, Mr Huynh said he understood why police shot his half-brother.
A 15-year-old boy has been charged with shooting dead three men during a drug robbery in Indianapolis.

Dominique Miller and Jordan Wright, both 25, and 19-year-old Justin Crowder were all killed with multiple gunshots to the head and chest on July 16.

The 15-year-old and possibly several other men were attempting to steal the contents of a safe at the time in a drug-related robbery, Marion County Juvenile Court heard.

Dominique Miller (left) and Jordan Wright, both 25, were shot multiple times in the chest and head during a drug-related robbery in Indianapolis on July 16

The teen is facing seven counts, one of murder for each victim, one of murder for each victim in the course of a robbery, and a final charge of robbery.

Prosecutors have filed an application to have the case waived over to adult court, but a hearing to decide that has not yet been set.

A pre-trial hearing in the case has been scheduled for August 23.

Families of the victims filled the courtroom on Thursday as details of the case were read, visibly wincing when they heard how their loved ones died, the Indy Star said.

Justin Crowder, 19 (left), died alongside Miller and Wright (right). A 15-year-old boy is facing seven felony counts over their deaths

The boy will remain in juvenile detention until his next court appearance. His attorney, who also is his father, declined to comment.

Police are still hunting for at least one, possibly two more suspects, and have not made further details about the case available to the public.

Indianapolis Metropolitan police investigators to urge anyone with information about the incident to call Crime Stoppers of Central Indiana at (317) 262-8477
A McDonald's worker said he was fired because he shared photos of the disgusting conditions inside his restaurant's kitchen.

Nick, who asked Buzzfeed not to release his last name, began uploading the sickening images to his Twitter on July 15 - and they quickly went viral.

The first was a putrefied 'dip tray' he says came from the ice cream machine at his local branch in Laplace, Louisiana.

'I was completely shocked by what I saw,' Nick later told the internet publication, discovering the tray after spilling food on the ground.

A former McDonald's employee uploaded pictures to Twitter showing unsanitary conditions at his workplace. The first was a putrefied 'dip tray' (above) he says came from the ice cream machine at his local branch in Laplace, Louisiana

The ex-employee said that that it was the right thing to do in letting patrons know what they were consuming. One of the images he shared was a part of the floor covered in grease

'I thought [the machine] would be cleaned regularly,' he added.

Nick, 18, also snapped pictures of the kitchen's floors, covered in yellow, moldy grease and a few images of what McDonald's frozen foods look like before they're prepared.

The ex-burger flipper said that he took the photos on his phone earlier in the month, and wrestled with making them public.

He knew that doing so could get him fired.

In the end, Nick decided to share the images, saying it was more important to inform patrons on what they were eating.

'I shared it because I wanted to let people know what theyre consuming, and how disgusting the conditions are,' he told BuzzFeed News.

The pictures showed images moldy trays that collected excess ice cream and greasy floors

The employee was later fired for making the pictures public, a move against company policy

Nick also told Buzzfeed that he believed that these conditions were isolated to only his McDonald's branch, and should not reflect the standard shared by the McDonald's franchise.

In response, a McDonald's representative told Buzzfeed that the fast-food chain is 'committed to running great restaurants' of 'high-quality food, service, and a clean environment.'

The representative also noted that McDonald's ice cream trays are apart of the 'soft serve equipment that does not come into contact with any food and is required to undergo regular and timely cleaning.'

Nick said that he was fired last Wednesday, but is content with the decision he made knowing that it was done to help protect consumers.

'I feel like I did nothing wrong,' he said. 'I sacrificed my job to show people what theyre really eating.'

According to company policy, McDonald's discourages employees from sharing on the Internet any material that may 'undermine the goodwill, reputation, development and/or operation' of its brand.'

'Any deviation from these commitments may be subject to disciplinary or other appropriate action, up to and including termination of employment,' the policy notes.
Boozed-up British tourists have been shaming their friends online by posting pictures of their drunken behaviour on a Greek holiday island.

Photos on the Turns Out Kavos Was Ready For You Facebook page show inebriated revellers looking worse-for-wear in the Corfu party resort.

Embarrassing snaps show young holiday-makers passed out on the beach, asleep on a lawn and naked in packed bars.

Boozed-up British tourists have been shaming their friends online by posting pictures of their drunken behaviour on a Greek holiday island. In this picture, revellers poke fun at a man asleep on a sunlounger

Some of the pictures show Kavos holidaymakers who weren't able to make it all the way to bed

Embarrassing snaps show young holiday-makers passed out on the toilet, naked in packed bars (pictured) and vomiting in the streets

Others show a drinker lying on a pile of bin bags, a woman crashed out on the floor and people asleep outside on the beach (pictured) having failed to make it all the way to their beds

Others show a drinker lying on a pile of bin bags and a woman crashed out on the floor next to a piece of pizza having failed to make it all the way to their beds.

The Facebook page has already attracted more than 5,300 followers.

A profile for the page says: 'Think your ready for Kavos? Think again, Kavos can destroy you in one night. Love Life Love Kavos.'

Photos on the Turns Out Kavos Was Ready For You Facebook page show inebriated revellers looking worse-for-wear in the Corfu party resort. One shows a man lying in a pile of rubbish bags

A group of young women carry their friend home in another image of Britons cavorting in Kavos

A young man slumps over a bowl in a toilet. The picture appeared on the Facebook page 'Turns Out Kavos Was Ready For You'

It comes a day after a controversial Facebook page came under fire for purportedly showing half-dressed British tourists doing a 'walk of shame' after nights out in the Spanish resort of Magaluf.

Holiday reps claim the page, titled The Maga Walk of Shame, is 'a laugh'.

But outraged online commenters have blasted those behind the collection of images for shaming people who are at to enjoy themselves.
A leading hedge fund manager who got kicked out of Russia testified in the Senate that he believes Russian President Vladimir Putin is worth $200 billion  and that a Kremlin-linked lawyer who met with Donald Trump Jr. was heading the Kremlin's effort to roll back a U.S. sanction that Putin despised.

Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder told the Senate Judiciary Committee at a hearing on Thursday that the effort to repeal the sanction, the Magnitsky Act, was an obsession of Putin's even though it would appear highly unlikely to ever be accomplished.

He said the 2012 law cuts to the core of Putin's business model, which he said was to get people to commit 'terrible crimes' with impunity  and be able to stash riches in western banks.

'Vladimir Putin, I believe to be the richest man in the world,' Browder said under questioning. 'I believe hes worth $200 billion dollars. That money is held all over the world in banks in America and all over.'

Russian President Vladimir Putin meets with children while visiting the Sirius Educational Centre for Gifted Children in the Black Sea resort of Sochi, Russia, 21 July 2017

'The purpose of Putin's regime has been to commit terrible crimes in order to get that money,' Browder continued, under questioning by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who wondered why Putin would focus on repeal when there was 'no chance' that it would happen.

'He doesnt want to lose that money by having it frozen. He personally is at risk of the Maginitsky Act. Its a very personal venal issue, which is the first reason why hes so upset,' Browder continued.

'The second reason is that in order to get that $200 billion, hes had to instruct a lot of people working for him, lets say 10,000 people working for him, to do terrible things. To arrest, kidnap, torture and kill to take peoples properties away. As a result, the only way he can get people to do such terrible things is to say if you do such terrible things, there will be no consequence.'

Browder got kicked out of Russia after helping to expose an alleged $230 million fraud, where he claims companies his shareholders owned were essentially stolen and tax revenue taken. The lawyer he hired, Sergei Magnitsky, died in a Russian prison in 2009 under conditions Browder described as horrific.

Congress then passed sanctions legislation in response in order to punish officials believed to be involved in Magnitsky's death.

Browder also speculated about the meeting between Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya, Donald Trump Jr., Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner, and former Trump campaign chair Paul Manafort, along with other Russia-linked figures. The 2016 meeting happened after the president's eldest son was offered potentially damaging information about Hillary Clinton.

Hermitage Capital CEO William Browder waits to testify before a continuation of Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., July 27, 2017

Russian President Vladimir Putin speaks during a news conference after the G20 summit in Hamburg, northern Germany, July 8, 2017

'The interest and the goal in that meeting was to repeal the Magnitsky Act. She [Veselnitskaya] said it. Its been said by people who attended that meeting. And thats the one thing we can conclude with certainty about what happened in that meeting,' Browder testified.

Asked if the meeting was a 'quid pro quo' where Moscow would get something in return, Browder responded: 'I have no evidence or no direct knowledge. However I do know how the Russian government behaves, the Russian security services behave.'

'This was a big ask,' he said. 'To go and ask the possible first future president of the United States to repeal a major piece of human rights legislation  they wouldnt have gone in and say please can you repeal this for us without having something to offer in return.'

President Donald Trump tweeted about Russia as the hearing was underway

President Donald Trump tweeted about Russia as the hearing was underway

Committee Chairman Senator Chuck Grassley questions FBI Director James Comey (not seen) during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, United States on May 3, 2017

Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort was also there

'What they were willing to offer in return I dont know. Whether that offer made any sense to the other side I dont know. But I do know that the (former) KGB, the FSB, the security services  they would have studied their targets carefully they would have constructed an offer that they thought was appealing and sizable enough to be consistent with what they were asking for.'

Trump Jr. has said nothing useful came out of the meeting and that the anti-Clinton information made 'no sense.' He has agreed to be interviewed by the same committee and have his remarks transcribed, panel chairman Sen. Charles Grassley has said.

Browder was testifying at a hearing on a law requiring foreign agents to register. He said enforcement was virtually non-existent. Panel members also have complained about enforcement, noting the small number of prosecutions in recent years, and late filings without penalty.

At about 9:30 am, while the hearing was going on, President Trump tweeted that the Russian investigation was a 'witch hunt.'

"One of the things that has been lost in the politics of this situation is that the Russians collected and spread negative information...about then candidate Trump,' Trump tweeted, referencing a Fox News report. 'So why doesn't Fake News report this? Witch Hunt! Purposely phony reporting.'

Donald Trump Jr. attended a meeting with Russian lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya

Senate Majority whip John Cornyn of Texas spoke of his own place in Putin's doghouse, saying he couldn't get through passport control on a family trip to St. Petersburg.

'While my wife and daughter made it through, I did not. I have no doubt that this is personal to mr Putin and he is trying to lash out.'

Browder testified: 'In a kleptocracy like Russia and other countries, the way that the world works is that the president of that country allows certain people to get rich, he often gets a share of the wealth of those people and then he can rely on those people to do the states bidding in situations where it may not be appropriate or they may not want to show the governments face.'

Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island asked Browder: 'To a Russian agent or official, a conversation with an American about adoptions is a conversation really about what?'

In a kleptocracy like Russia and other countries, the way that the world works is that the president of that country allows certain people to get rich, he often gets a share of the wealth of those people and then he can rely on those people to do the states bidding in situations where it may not be appropriate or they may not want to show the governments face

'About the Magnitsky Act,' he responded.

He added: 'Nobody was talking about adoption, they were talking about the repeal of sanctions so that Russian torturers and murders could freely travel and keep their money in America.'

He told South Carolina Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham he believed Russia was also paying political research firm Fusion GPS in a matter involving himself, when questioned about the partially discredited 'dirty dossier' of salacious material on Trump.

Asked whether the Russians tend to play both sides, he said: 'There is no ideology at all. Theyre just in  Vladimir Putin is in the business of trying to create chaos everywhere.'

Browder said in his prepared testimony: 'Veselnitskaya, through Baker Hostetler, hired Glenn Simpson of the firm Fusion GPS to conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act.'

But he told Sen. Whitehouse he had no evidence that Russia had paid for the dirty dossier, where ex British intelligence officer Christopher Steele compiled potentially compromising material that the document said Russia held over Donald Trump.

Browder also got asked about an email from British music publicist Robert Goldstone to Trump Jr. offering dirt on Clinton and mentioning Russian government support for his father's campaign.

The email referenced information from Russia's 'crown prosecutor' about Clinton and Russia.

He told Sen. Richard Blumenthal he would conclude Putin knew about such information at the time it got offered if it indeed came from Russia's chief prosecutor.

'That would be the impression I would have if I got that email,' he said.
A man has been charged with supplying heroin and fentanyl to a hospitalized mother-of-three who later overdosed and died in her hospital room.

Travis Siuta, 29, was charged on Wednesday in relation to 30-year-old Ciara Hadrick's death at a Pennsylvania hospital in May.

A nurse found Hadrick unresponsive at about 2.30am on May 6 in the bathroom of her room at Einstein Medical Center in East Norriton.

She died shortly after.

Travis Siuta, 29, was charged on Wednesday in relation to 30-year-old Ciara Hadrick's drug overdose death at a Pennsylvania hospital in May

Police said they found a bag containing the heroin hidden in her clothing and two empty bags under her body. They also found drug paraphernalia near her.

The drugs contained traces of fentanyl. An autopsy shows she died from an overdose of fentanyl - a synthetic opioid 40 to 50 times stronger than street-level heroin.

Authorities say Hadrick had arranged the drug delivery via text message.

Siuta was caught on surveillance cameras entering the hospital and signing the after hours sign in log to visit Hadrick.

He was captured on video leaving her room eight minutes later, just hours before her death.

Police found through text message records that Siuta had delivered the three bags of heroin to Hadrick the night she died.

Siuta was caught on surveillance cameras entering the hospital and signing the after hours sign in log to visit Hadrick just hours before she fatally overdosed

An autopsy found Hadrick died from an overdose of fentanyl - a synthetic opioid 40 to 50 times stronger than street-level heroin

A nurse found Hadrick unresponsive at about 2.30am on May 6 in the bathroom of her room at Einstein Medical Center. The hospital is known for treating patients for cardiac related issues

It was allegedly Siuta's fifth drug delivery to the Hadrick's hospital room during her stay. It is not clear how long she was in hospital for, but Siuta's first visit came on May 1.

Police say each delivery was coordinated by text messages and Siuta's arrival and departure from the hospital were captured on camera.

The hospital is known for treating patients for cardiac related issues.

Siuta was charged with drug delivery resulting in death.

Montgomery County district attorney Kevin R. Steele says the man was arraigned Wednesday on the charge that carries a similar penalty to third-degree murder.

'Ciara Hadrick died from being poisoned while in a hospital, surrounded by people trying to help her. And this dealer hand delivers poison to her bedside five times, including in the middle of the night,' Steele said.

'Dealers peddling their poison - delivering right to the victim's door - and preying upon those suffering from the disease of addiction should think twice about doing so in Montgomery County.'
A 20-year-old black man has released shocking photographs of his painful injuries after police broke down the door to his home, tasered him and sicced a K-9 on him for not providing his identification when he was stopped earlier while cutting lawns and handing out business cards.

Marlin Gipson captured the encounter with a Harris County, Texas constable on his cellphone while he and his brothers were providing lawn service in their neighborhood and passing out business cards July 18.

The video begins by showing one officer approach Gipson, who had gone door t to door moments prior leaving his business cards for residents.

'I'm kind of busy, I'm trying to make money,' Gipson can be heard saying in the video to the constable.

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Marlin Gipson (left) captured the encounter with a Harris County constable (right) on his cellphone while he and his brothers were providing lawn service in their neighborhood and passing out business cards.

The video begins by showing one officer approach Gipson, who had gone door to door moments prior leaving his business cards (left) for residents. 'I'm kind of busy, I'm trying to make money,' Gipson can be heard saying in the video to the constable (right)

Gipson (above) exchanged more words with the officer who asked for his ID, which he didn't have but instead gave him his name and birth date before leaving

'Yeah, but when I saw you, you were going from door to door,' the officer tells Gipson, who is a college student majoring in business accounting.

He then asks Gipson for his ID card, to which Gipson told him he did not have it and instead provided his name, age and date of birth.

But then Gipson asked the constable for his information and that's when the situation became tense. Gipson claimed to the officer that he was being racially profiled and that he had done nothing wrong.

'Tell you what, just turn around and put your hands around your back,' the officer tells Gipson.

'For what? Hey! Nope,' Gipson replies. The 20-year-old left the scene instead.

Later that day, constables came to his home, Gipson recorded that encounter as well.

That video shows a different officer than the first one asking Gipson to come outside, but does not provide a reason as to why they would like to speak with him.

Later in the day, another constable showed up at his home and police sicced a K-9 on him as well as using their Taser on him

The K-9 viciously bit Gipson on his right arm (above). He said: 'I can't even lift certain stuff no more. My arm is still numb in certain spots. I can barely lift it up.'

Gipson accuses them repeatedly of harassment and explains that he did nothing wrong.

The two continue to exchange words before Gipson returns back to the inside of his home and the video clip ends.

Gipson told CBS News that the constables later broke down his door, tased him and sicced a K-9 on him that left vicious bite marks on his arm.

'I can't even lift certain stuff no more,' Gipson told CBS news. 'My arm is still numb in certain spots. I can barely lift it up.'

While holding up his business cards, he said: 'I would still be doing this right here. Lawn service, making money that's the goal trying to support our family.'

Gipson (center) runs a business with his family (pictured) by providing lawn care services in their neighborhood as way to earn money. He said: 'Lawn service, making money that's the goal trying to support our family.'

Constable administrator Alan Rosen claims that Gipson left the scene because of an outstanding misdemeanor assault warrant.

'So when originally stopped and questioned by the officer, that was why he really didn't want to say who we was,' Rosen said.

Rosen claims that his officers did nothing wrong in the situation and they believe they have body camera video to back up their side of the story.

They have yet to release the footage.

In the meantime, Gipson lost his job at Walmart as a result of being arrested. He was charged with evading arrest/detention and failure to identify. His brothers were also arrested.

Gipson has since started a YouCaring campaign that's raised over $17,000 to cover medical expenses, pay for school expenses and assist with caring for his family since he's out of a job.

'My brothers and I never wanted any of this to happen. I'm a college student majoring in business accounting,' Gipson wrote on the fundraising site.

But constable administrator Alan Rosen (above) claims hat his officers did nothing wrong in the situation and they believe they have body camera video to back up their side of the story

'I worked a full time job at the local Walmart before I was fired as a result of this arrest. In addition to that my brothers and I started D&M Lawn Services.

'We've been working all summer to grow the business and recently printed out cards to serve as advertisement. We want to continue our efforts.

'The dog attack caused significant injuries to my arm and the incident had caused major damage to our business. Not only did I lose my full time job but my brothers and I were arrested in our most profitable neighborhood, the one we live in.

'Officers told neighbors that there had been break ins and we were suspects. The reputation damage is irreplaceable.

'We are asking for your help in rebuilding our business and recouping the lost wages. Not only did I plan to use the money earned this summer to pay for school expenses, I now have additional medical bills and legal expenses to consider.'

Gipson and his brothers hope to turn the negative incident into a positive outcome.

'We want to grow and expand our business and teach others about opportunities in entrepreneurship over selling drugs. We want to speak out against injustice and police brutality,' he added.

'We want to be sure the officers involved here are held accountable.'
Video footage has caught the bizarre moment a con man tried to scam a policeman by pretending the officer had run him over.

The con man fell to the floor as the police car approached however the officer was taking none of his nonsense.

The officer called for backup from police in Hefei, China's Anhui province before the man then decided to get up.

The man can be seen falling to the ground even before the vehicle hits him

The whole incident was caught on CCTV.

In the footage the man can be seen waiting in the car park as the car approaches. The man then bizarrely walks in front of the vehicle and falls to the floor.

The officer can be seen getting out of the vehicle and calling for backup.

After realising his con trick had failed, the man can be seen getting to his feet.

The man can then be seen on the floor as the officer comes out to take a look

Bizarrely, realising that his trick won't work, the man gets back up off the ground

More police officers arrive at the scene as the man paces around the car park looking worried.

It is unknown if the man was arrested for his actions.

There are many examples of people in China feigning injury in order to gain compensation. Many pretend to have an injury in order to extort more cash from the other party.
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Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at Palestinians following a dispute over a holy site in Jerusalem.

Muslim worshippers retaliated by throwing stones at the Western Wall following days of intense violence in Jerusalem's Old City.

Fighting erupted shortly after Palestinians rushed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was reopened following an 11-day boycott by Muslims over Israeli security measures.

The head of the Arab League warned Thursday that Israeli attempts to control highly sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem by force risk igniting a 'religious war'.

The Red Crescent said tensions rose when Israeli troops closed one of the gates to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, as large numbers of worshippers tried to enter.

Muslim worshippers retaliated to Israeli troops' tear gas attacks by throwing stones at the Western Wall following days of intense violence in Jerusalem's Old City

Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at Palestinians following a dispute over the al-Aqsa mosque

Fighting erupted shortly after Palestinians rushed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was reopened following an 11-day boycott by Muslims over Israeli security measures

The Red Crescent said tensions arose when Israeli troops closed one of the gates to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount

Palestinian paramedics carry an injured woman on a stretcher past the Dome of the Rock, after clashes broke out inside the Al-Aqsa mosque

Witnesses have reported grenades being thrown during the chaos this afternoon, and police fired tear gas and rubber bullets as Palestinians threw stones inside the walled compound that is holy to Muslims and Jews

The aid charity went on to say 37 Palestinians were wounded, including some by rubber bullets and beatings, and that several people suffered broken bones.

The mosque had been at the center of an Israeli-Palestinian standoff over recent Israeli security installations including metal detectors and surveillance cameras, which Israel has since removed.

Israel installed the new security devices at the shrine after Israeli Arabs shot and killed two police officers from within the site.

Palestinians viewed the move as an attempt by Israel to assert further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

They had been praying in Jerusalem's streets outside the shrine to protest the security measures taken since the July 14 attack.

Israel is 'playing with fire and will only ignite a religious war and shift the core of the conflict from politics to religion,' warned Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit.

He added: 'Handling holy sites lightly and with this level of arrogance seriously threatens to ignite a religious war, since not one single Muslim in the world would accept the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque.'

Muslims had refused to enter the compound and prayed in the streets outside after Israel installed the new security measures

The Red Crescent said 37 Palestinians were wounded, including some by rubber bullets and beatings, and that several people suffered broken bones

The al-Aqsa mosque had been at the center of an Israeli-Palestinian standoff over recent Israeli security installations including metal detectors and surveillance cameras

Palestinians had been praying in Jerusalem's streets outside the mosque to protest the security measures taken since the July 14 attack

Israel installed the new security devices at the shrine after Israeli Arabs shot and killed two police officers from within the site

Palestinians waved a national flag after the boycott of the holy site was lifted following the dispute over security measures

Israeli security forces stand guard in front of the Dome of the Rock in the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, in the old city of Jerusalem on July 27, 2017

Don't know what happened. Seemed going ok then sound of stun grenades. Loudspeaker imam telling kids to retreat but they're going to police pic.twitter.com/IGrB09OIQm  Kaamil Ahmed (@KaamilAhmed) July 27, 2017

Thousands of worshippers had earlier streamed into the compound for afternoon prayers, ending a boycott over security measures introduced following a July 14 attack in which two police officers were killed.

DISPUTE OVER NEW SECURITY MEASURES The dispute began after Israel installed metal detectors at Muslim entrances to Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, following the July 14 killing of two Israeli policemen by Arab gunmen who had concealed weapons inside the walled plaza. The unannounced move provoked days of unrest, with violent clashes on the streets of East Jerusalem. Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians, and a Palestinian man stabbed and killed three Israelis in their home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. For the past two weeks, most Muslims have refused to enter, instead praying in the streets around the Old City. Today Muslim elders declared themselves satisfied that Israeli authorities had removed all the new security measures - mainly metal detectors and CCTV cameras - and reverted to the set-up before July 14. Advertisement

Controversial new metal detectors and barriers were removed as a result of the boycott of the site, the third holiest in Islam.

The site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Some worshippers cried as they entered while others shouted 'Allahu Akbar' (God is Greatest).

Muslims had refused to enter the compound and prayed in the streets outside after Israel installed the new security measures. Palestinians viewed the move as Israel asserting further control over the site.

Israeli authorities said the measures, including metal detectors, were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Deadly unrest erupted in the days after the new measures were introduced, with clashes breaking out around the compound and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three of them.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu today called for 19-year-old Palestinian Omar al-Abed to be executed for killing Yosef Salomon, 70, and his children Chaya, 46, and Elad, 36.

The compound is the site of the Temple Mount, where an ancient Jewish temple is believed to have been built by King Solomon in 957BC.

It was later believed to be the site of a temple built by Herod the Great, which is said to have been destroyed in 70AD by the Romans.

The same compound is the third holiest site in Islam, and is believed to be the place from where the Prophet Muhammed ascended to heaven.

The Israeli soldiers are attacking the peaceful worshippers right now Al Aqsa #jerusalem pic.twitter.com/QdU8PjXDgT  Ashira (@AshiraRam) July 27, 2017

Palestinians escort a Sunni Muslim cleric in the Haram al-Sharif compound in the old city of Jerusalem as clashes broke out this afternoon

Once Israel removed metal detectors and cameras Thursday, Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in the compound. Droves of Palestinians entered for afternoon prayers, some waving national flags.

'After extensive discussion and after achieving this victory in this round we call on our people in Jerusalem and inside (Israel) and anyone who can access the Al-Aqsa Mosque to enter ... en masse,' the Islamic leaders said in a statement.

Abdel Azim Salhab of the Waqf, Jordan's religious body that administers the site, had urged imams to close other Jerusalem mosques tomorrow so worshippers will pray only at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Friday prayers are the highlight of the Muslim religious week. Thousands of Muslims typically worship at the holy compound in Jerusalem's Old City.

Salhab said all devices had been removed from the entrances but he didn't know if security cameras that had been mounted on the wall of the compound were also dismantled. He said if they are there, then 'we reject it.'

King Abdullah of Jordan urged Israel to 'respect the historical and legal situation in the holy shrine to prevent the recurrence of these crises.'

Jordan is the Muslim custodian of the shrine - Islam's third holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.

Jews also revere the hilltop compound as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray

Abdel Azim Salhab of the Waqf, Jordan's religious body that administers the site, had urged imams to close other Jerusalem mosques tomorrow so worshippers will pray only at the Al-Aqsa Mosque

Palestinians and Israeli border police officers scuffle inside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound

Muslims believe the site marks the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven

Muslims had refused to enter the compound and prayed in the streets outside after Israel installed the new security measures before the boycott was lifted today

Abdullah also issued blistering criticism of Israel's handling of a deadly altercation at its embassy in Amman involving an Israeli security guard, calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's conduct 'provocative.'

He blasted Netanyahu for hugging an Israeli security guard who killed two Jordanians at the Israeli Embassy in Amman over the weekend after a 16-year-old attacked the guard with a screwdriver.

'Such unacceptable and provocative behavior at all levels infuriates all of us, leads to insecurity and fuels extremism in the region,' Abdullah said in a statement.

The embassy incident has inflamed public opinion in Jordan, where a 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains deeply unpopular. Netanyahu praised the guard upon his return, saying he had acted 'calmly.'

Abdullah told senior officials that Netanyahu needs to take legal measures that 'guarantee the trial of the murderer.'

He said the incident 'will have a direct impact on the nature of our relations.'
The UTC Blue Ribbon Award winners for the first half of 2017 were honored at a luncheon Tuesday.

The winners were Interim University Registrar Sandy Zitkus, Director of New Student and Family Programs Carrie Sherbesman, Associate Registrar Rebecca Dragoo, Associate Director of the University Center Aaron Grisham, Intro Biology Lab Coordinator Cheryl Murphy, Administrative Specialist in Management Michelle Walters and the late Senior Electrician Jerry J.J. Taylor.

Blue Ribbons are given to UTC staff members who go above and beyond in their regular duties.


An Iraqi major has told of the brutal orders he was given as ISIS were flushed out of Mosul - to kill everyone.

Terrorists, soldiers, civilians and children are all among the hundreds of corpses piled up beneath the rubble in the annihilated northern city.

After the liberation, the army officer said he and his comrades were told by their superiors 'to kill anything or anyone that moved', which included Mosul's desperate citizens who have lived through the terror of ISIS' reign.

He said it was the wrong call because the remaining terrorists had surrendered, but the strict orders were obeyed and the now lawless city's devastation continues.

An Iraqi Army soldier - not related to the orders - in the destroyed Old City district beside the Tigris River on July 22, 2017 in Mosul, Iraq, where an an army major revealed he was told to kill everyone - including civilians

Iraqi Civil Defence workers recover the body of a dead civilian in the destroyed Old City of Mosul

Two Iraqi Civil Defence workers next to two bodybags lying on the rubble in front of a battered truck full of bullet holes

Talking to Middle East Eye, the major - who spoke on condition of anonymity - said: 'There are many civilians among the bodies.

'After liberation was announced, the order was given to kill anything or anyone that moved.'

Shockingly, he said the actions of the allied forces in recent days mirrors that of ISIS in the city over the past months with even public executions being witnessed near the River Tigris.

'There is no law here now,' the major said.

'Every day, I see that we are doing the same thing as ISIS.

'People went down to the river to get water because they were dying of thirst and we killed them.'

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the major said the orders were wrong, but the military had to follow them.

A body is carried from the rubble in Mosul, Iraq

'It was not the right thing to do,' he said.

'Most of the ISIS fighters surrendered. They gave themselves up, and we just killed them.'

There had been speculation of prisons in Baghdad being too full to accept any more ISIS prisoners, but the major dismissed it saying coalition forces' tactics had changed since the start of the Battle for Mosul began back in 2016.

'It's not true,' he said. 'We have plenty of prisons, but now we are not treating the prisoners like we did before.'

'Earlier in this war, we arrested a lot of Daesh and brought them to the intelligence services. But now, we make very few arrests.'

A number of journalists witnessed an ISIS fighter being dragged through the streets of the Old City with his arms and legs bound and a noose around his neck.

One of the major's soldiers, talking of the brutality, told MEE: 'We killed them all. ISIS, men, women and children. We killed everyone.'

As the temperature pushes 50C, the stench of rotting flesh is filling the air in Mosul - a city reduced to a wasteland after months of bloody battles.

The missing are everywhere, their families hunting through the ruined Iraqi city for traces of lost husbands and wives, parents and children, brothers and sisters.

Squatting on the edge of a crater under the burning sun of an Iraqi summer, Khaled Fizaali watches as a digger of the Civil Defence service pulls up a jumble of iron bars, concrete and wood.

The smell of decay rises as the excavator reveals human remains and Fizaali quickly descends from his perch of rubble in west Mosul.

But it's not his wife Sarah, 31, or his seven-year-old girl Touqa, who he has been desperate to find for the last two months.

'It's a neighbour, I recognise the clothes,' he says.

'I know they're under there. My brother was with them when it was bombed.'

The destroyed al-Hadba minaret at the Grand al-Nuri Mosque is seen in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq. After the liberation, the army officer and his comrades were told by their superiors 'to kill anything or anyone that moved', which included Mosul's desperate citizens who have lived through the terror of ISIS' reign

The devastation of Mosul is laid bare outside the ruined Grand al-Nuri Mosque in the Old City

Nineteen members of Fizaali's family died in the May 19 air strike on the building, where jihadist fighters had taken up positions on the roof. Only his brother survived.

Seventeen bodies were found in a first search a month ago, including the remains of Fizaali's 10-year-old son.

Fizaali has no illusions - his wife and daughter are dead.

'But what's important for me is to find their bodies, this would bring me peace. I could visit them when I wanted to. When I go to my son's grave, I feel calmer.'

It took more than eight months of heavy fighting, air strikes and shelling to dislodge the Islamic State group from Mosul, Iraq's second largest city and once the jihadists' biggest urban bastion.

In the process significant parts of the city, and especially west Mosul's Old City, were pulverised, leaving months of work ahead for Civil Defence workers to clear out the debris and search for the many still missing.

An Iraqi Civil Defence worker prepares to recover the bodies of dead civilians from the destroyed Old City district

There are likely still hundreds, possibly even thousands, of bodies left to find.

'We don't have any estimates,' says Major Rabia Ibrahim Hassan of the Civil Defence, as his team works in the rubble nearby.

'We can't know, because IS moved people from house to house to use them as human shields.

'People still come to us today to tell us they think they have loved ones buried in this or that place.'

A few minutes later his men pull up a skull, which like the other remains that they find will be sent to the forensic department of the Al-Salam hospital in Mosul's Wadi Hajar district.

Every day 'no less than 30 or 40 bodies' arrive at the hospital, according to Dhiyaeddin Shamseddin, the deputy head of the service.

In the last month, 850 bodies have passed through, of which 180 have not been identified.

A few dozen people arrive every day to enquire about lost friends and family, he says, like Zahraa and Hajar Nashwan who came to ask about their big brother Ahmed.

They have had no news of him since their home was bombed two months ago.

'We made it out alive but we feel like we died,' says Zahraa, the older of the two.

'People say that even if you lose all your money and possessions, it's not so bad, the important thing is that you still have the people you love. But we've lost both.'

Iraqi Army soldiers in the destroyed Old City district beside the Tigris River on July 22, 2017 in Mosul, Iraq. Despite the declared liberation of Mosul Islamic State counter-attacks and Iraqi forces casualties continue

Hajar, 18, says they have done all they can to find their brother.

'We searched in the rubble, we went to the checkpoints, we went to the camp (for the displaced) at Hamam al-Halil, we found nothing,' she says. 'I don't know if we will know some day. It will be up to God.'

But for those spending their days searching the devastated streets of Mosul, there's always some hope.

'The other day we found eight people who survived in a cave under the rubble for 25 days,' Hassan of the Civil Defence says.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., stepped up his own rhetoric as President Trump continued his one-sided feud with Attorney General Jeff Sessions, a move that has put the president at odds with Republicans in Congress.

'If Jeff Sessions is fired, there will be holy hell to pay,' Graham warned Thursday, during an interview with CNN. 'This is not draining the swamp, what he's interjecting is turning democracy upside down,' the South Carolina Republican added.

Members of Trump's own party have voiced their displeasure with the president throughout the week, as he's talked smack on the attorney general during interview and on Twitter.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (left) made a stern warning to President Donald Trump (right) saying there would be 'hell to pay' if the president fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has been under siege by one President Trump, who blasted him over Twitter Wednesday morning for not firing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe over a political donation made to his wife

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, made it clear on Twitter that he would not accommodate confirmation hearings for a new attorney general, if President Trump fired Attorney General Jeff Sessions

As of yesterday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump and Sessions hadn't spoken all week, which likely won't change as the attorney general today headed to El Salvador.

Huckabee Sanders also couched some of Trump's stronger language, telling reporters, 'Look, you can be disappointed in someone, but still want them to continue to do their job and that's where they are.'

Just that morning Trump had admonished Sessions for not firing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe for having a wife who accepted a political donation from a Hillary Clinton-aligned political action committee.

'Drain the swamp!' Trump said at the end of his screed.

Trump's treatment of the former senator from Alabama has gotten his Capitol Hill colleagues riled up.

A number of lawmakers have tweeted in support of Sessions, who served in the upper chamber for 20 years before taking over the Department of Justice earlier this year.

'Jeff Sessions is a friend, former colleague and & honorable person,' said Sen. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, Tuesday on Twitter. 'He's a man of deep conviction & principle who believes in the rule of law.'

His counterpart from Alabama joined the chorus on the same day.

'Jeff Sessions is a man of integrity, loyalty, and extraordinary character,' said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala. 'I join the people of Alabama in giving Jeff Sessions my deep respect and unwavering support,' he said in a series of tweets.

By Wednesday night, Trump was faced with a more sinister Twitter warning.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he would not be scheduling a nomination hearing for any new attorney general.

'Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way,' Grassley wrote in his trademark broken Twitter language.

Graham pointed to that remark when speaking with CNN.

Grassley, Graham pointed out, sent out a 'pretty chilling tweet.'

The South Carolina senator added an additional threat.

'Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency unless Mueller did something wrong,' Graham said, referencing the special counsel by name.

Trump's main beef with Sessions is that the attorney general recused himself from the executive branch's Russia investigation, leaving Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein in charge.

Rosenstein, in turn, appointed Mueller, a former FBI chief, to handle the Russia probe, on the heels of the president's decision to fire FBI Director James Comey.

Sessions told the Associated Press today that he has no plans to resign.
Sir Philip Hampton, 63, has provoked fury by blaming women for the BBC gender pay gap

A City grandee leading a government campaign to get women into more top jobs today provoked fury by blaming women for the BBC gender pay gap.

Sir Philip Hampton, 63, was criticised for claiming women 'let it happen because they weren't doing much about it'.

The GlaxoSmithKline non-executive chairman, who earns 700,000 a year, said many women had reported to him during his career but he had 'never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise'.

He is chairing a review with Dame Helen Alexander into increasing the women in senior roles at FTSE 350 companies.

And the former Royal Bank of Scotland chairman told the London Evening Standard: 'How has this situation arisen at the BBC that these intelligent, high-powered, sometimes formidable women have sat in this situation?

'They are all looking at each other now saying: "how did we let this happen?" I suspect they let it happen because they weren't doing much about it.'

Top female stars: BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg (left) is paid up to 249,999 a year, while Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis (right) did not even make the list last week

It comes after a gulf was revealed between the pay of male and female presenters at the BBC, with some prominent women absent from the list of its top-paid stars.

Just a third of its highest-paid stars are women, with seven male stars earning more than the biggest earning female presenter Claudia Winkleman, who is on 500,000.

Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis, who did not make the list, urged male colleagues to join the gender pay gap fight  as female staff at the BBC went into open revolt.

The BBC admitted paid 96 stars at least 150,000 a year, but more than 40 female stars wrote to BBC boss Lord Hall urging him to take action to close the pay gap.

Sir Philip's comments infuriated Woman's Hour host Jane Garvey (left), who said they were 'peculiarly out of touch'. The highest-paid woman at the BBC is Claudia Winkleman (right)

Radio 5 Live presenter Rachel Burden said yesterday that women who raised gender pay were belittled, adding: 'Few enquiries had a satisfactory outcome.'

And Sir Philip's comments infuriated Woman's Hour presenter Jane Garvey, who has been campaigning for equal pay - and said they were 'peculiarly out of touch'.

Mrs Garvey, quoted in the Standard report by Rosamund Urwin, Nicholas Cecil and Robert Dex, added: 'The likes of Sir Philip Hampton can never begin to understand.'

Former business minister and Liberal Democrat deputy leader Jo Swinson added that the 'comments heap insult on injustice' and were 'astonishingly ill-judged'.
One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts is confident he can survive any High Court challenge to his eligibility.

Pauline Hanson's running mate at last year's federal election did not receive confirmation he had renounced his British citizenship until months after he was elected as a senator for Queensland.

However, he is confident he can withstand any High Court challenge to his eligibility to sit in parliament, following the resignations this month of two Greens senators for being dual citizens.

'Very confident and Ive received advice legally to the same effect. Very pleased with that advice,' he told Sky News presenter Paul Murray on Thursday night.

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Senator Malcolm Roberts told Paul Murray on Sky News he had legal advice backing him

Senator Roberts said he wrote to British officials on May 1 last year asking if he was a UK citizen, given he was born to a Welsh father in India.

He had no reason to believe he was British, but thought it best to double-check while filling out a nomination form for the Senate.

Five weeks later he hadn't received a response, so wrote again on June 6 - three days before nominations closed - saying that if he had British citizenship, he fully renounced it.

'I've taken all steps that I reasonably believe necessary,' Senator Roberts he said.

Pauline Hanson's Queensland Senate ticket running mate renounced his British citizenship

Malcolm Roberts' renunciation of his British citizenship was confirmed after he was elected

The British High Commission only confirmed Senator Roberts had renounced his citizenship on December 5, six months after he nominated as a Senate candidate.

'I persisted and persisted and persistent, just badgered, both me and my wife, and then we got a formal registration of my renunciation,' Senator Roberts said.

Senator Roberts showed the documents supporting his claims to Sky News presenter Paul Murray, but they were not displayed on screen.

It is still unclear if Senator Roberts ever held UK citizenship, or at what point British officials revoked it if he did.

The new timeline adds another twist to the story of Senator Roberts' citizenship. He was born to an Australian mother and Welsh father in India in 1955 and came to Australia when he was aged about 7.

Malcolm Roberts (left with Pauline Hanson) was born in India to an Australian mum in 1955

He became an Australian citizen in 1974 and says he only ever travelled on his Australian passport.

Senator Roberts wrote on Twitter in October 2016 he had 'never held any citizenship other than Australian'.

'When I travelled to UK & India I require a visa,' he wrote.

In another October tweet he wrote: 'I don't have, and never have had, Indian citizenship.'

One Nation leader Pauline Hanson says she can 'hand on heart' assure voters Malcolm Roberts is not a dual citizen, having witnessed him renouncing his UK citizenship before he became a candidate last year.

Malcolm Roberts is facing questions about his eligibility only weeks after Larissa Waters quit

Scott Ludlam resigned as a Greens senator in mid-July after learning he was a dual Kiwi citizen

Senator Roberts wrote in a statutory declaration, witnessed last Friday, that before his nomination he had 'investigated' if he was eligible to be an Australian senator under section 44 of the constitution, which bans dual citizens from being a federal member of parliament.

'As part of my investigation I analysed if I was a British citizen by decent (sic) from my father who was born in Wales ... or if I was an Indian citizen. I can confirm I am not a citizen of the United Kingdom nor am I a citizen of India. I am a citizen of Australia only.'

Adding to the confusion, Senator Roberts tweeted on Tuesday: 'Prior to nominating for the Senate I ensured I was no longer a British or Indian citizen and have necessary documents.'

The comment contradicted his October tweets about never having been anything other than Australian, three months after he was elected on preferences after receiving just 77 primary votes.

Queensland Nationals Senator Matt Canavan's mum applied for him become an Italian citizen

In 1999, the High Court found One Nation candidate Heather Hill to be eligible to be sworn in as a senator for Queensland because she was a dual British citizen.

During the past fortnight, Scott Ludlam has resigned as a senator for Western Australia after he discovered he was dual citizen of New Zealand.

A week later, Larissa Waters quit as a senator for Queensland upon learning she was a dual Canadian citizen.

Queensland Nationals senator Matt Canavan this week quit as resources minister after learning his mother Maria applied for him to become an Italian citizen in 2006 when he was 25.
A cancer-stricken dog who served three tours in Afghanistan with the US Marines has been given a tearful final goodbye in Michigan before being euthanized.

Cena, a 10-year-old black lab, received a hero's farewell on Wednesday just days after his owner Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung completed a bucket list for the dying pooch.

Hundreds of people turned up to farewell Cena, who was wearing a decorated blue Marine vest, in Muskegon before he was euthanized at the USS LST 393 museum ship.

A tearful DeYoung carried Cena's body away covered in a US flag after the dog was put to sleep.

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US Marine veteran Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung carried his cancer-stricken 10-year-old black lab, Cena, to be euthanized in Michigan on Wednesday after a tearful farewell

Cena, who was diagnosed with bone cancer two weeks ago, was a bomb-sniffer for the Marines until his retirement in 2014.

DeYoung, 27, was paired with the dog in 2009 and 2010 while on a combat tour in Afghanistan.

Following their retirement in 2014, DeYoung adopted Cena so he could become his service dog to help with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

'My whole adult life I've had Cena,' DeYoung said. 'When I was 19 overseas learning how to be responsible, I had Cena. And now I'm 27 and I'm having to say goodbye to one of the biggest pieces of my life.'

DeYoung said he has carried Cena across rivers and thrown his body over him while under heavy fire from the Taliban. He said Cena kept DeYoung's body warm during cold desert nights and comforted him when he lost seven friends in three weeks.

Hundreds of people turned up to farewell Cena, who was wearing a decorated blue Marine vest, in Muskegon before he was euthanized

The military service dog was taken on one last ride with his owner Lance Cpl. Jeff DeYoung before being put down aboard the LST 393 in downtown Muskegon, Michigan

Cena, who was diagnosed with bone cancer two weeks ago, was a bomb-sniffer for the Marines until his retirement in 2014

As part of the farewell celebration, DeYoung took his dog on one last ride in a topless Jeep that was decorated and named 'Cancer Response Team', which was top of the bucket list.

'It started off with my basically wanting to go to a dealership and wanting to borrow a Jeep for a day and really small to a community tribute or a community parade for him and he's truly deserved it all,' DeYoung said. 'The support, all the love people are giving him, he can see it and he can feel it.'

The ceremony was attended by the US Marine Corps League, Michigan State Police, Muskegon County Sheriff's Office, Muskegon City Police, Muskegon Fire Department and officers from several other departments, including a canine officer named Rex.

Attendees gave one final three-volley salute with 'Taps' playing in the background for Cena.

'Lord, it is with heavy hearts that we are sending another Marine to you today,' said chaplain Wesley Spyke as he addressed the crowd in prayer.

A GoFundMe page was set up for donations to help build a headstone for Cena.

Cena wore a decorated blue Marine vest on Wednesday. He was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer after his owner realized he wasn't putting any weight on his left front leg

As part of the farewell celebration, DeYoung took his dog on one last ride in a topless Jeep. The ceremony was attended by the US Marine Corps League and a number of other departments

A tearful DeYoung carried Cena's body off the USS LST 393 museum ship draped in a US flag after he was put to sleep

'Any dog that served overseas deserves exactly what I've done for Cena, if not more,' DeYoung said.

DeYong was paired with Cena based on a personality test back in 2009 before they both embarked on their first tour.

'He was very quiet, I was very quiet. We were very mellow and kind of belonged together,' DeYoung told Fox 17.

'Our first day inside the city of Marjah we were clearing an already tilled over corn field,' he said.

'The sun was coming up with the village in front of us so the sun was hitting our eyes. The moment the sun peaked over those buildings we took contact.

'We took machine gun fire from three separate places and I laid on top of Cena and hooked his collar to my flack jacket and laid on him until the threat was neutralized.'

DeYoung said he noticed two weeks ago that Cena was limping and not walking on his back leg. A vet confirmed it was bone cancer.

'To be frank, I hid under the desk in the vet's office, I threw my phone against the wall and the vet had to leave the room until I could compose myself,' DeYoung said.

DeYoung will keep his remains in an ammo can.

DeYong was paired with Cena based on a personality test back in 2009 before they both embarked on their first tour of Afghanistan

DeYoung was paired with the dog in 2009 and 2010 while on a combat tour in Afghanistan when he was just 19 years old
A drunk plane passenger was punched in the face after he hurled abuse and screamed that fellow travellers were the 'sh*ttiest people' ever.

The man, named only as 22-year-old Vitaly, was on a flight heading from the Russian capital of Moscow to Barcelona in north-eastern Spain when the incident happened.

Eyewitnesses say the man was heavily intoxicated when he decided he wanted to smoke a cigarette onboard the plane.

Vitaly yells at passengers (left) before getting a jab on his face by an angered flyer

He was repeatedly told no by flight crew but grew angry at the response and started yelling at other passengers.

It is claimed he said: 'Russian people are the biggest sh*ts. For real. Russian people are the biggest sh*ts.'

But passengers refused to take the abuse, with one jumping up to punch the mouthy drunk in the face.

It is claimed Vitaly then realised he went too far, sat down and promptly fell asleep.

It is reported that prior to the violent outburst, the plane captain was considering making an emergency landing but decided against it when he quietened down.

Vitaly later apologised for the incident.

He said: 'I have a good feeling towards Russians, because it is my motherland. These words were not addressed to the Russian people in general but people on that plane. I had too much to drink and I was punished.

'I feel ashamed.'

But many social media users did not have much sympathy.

One called 'Norma Ray' said: 'Shame that he got punched only once.'

While another, identified as 'Vezhliviye Lyudi' added: 'I bet from now on every time he would say something mean, he would get a punch.'
A 16-year-old boy has been shot and killed by police outside an eastern Arkansas emergency shelter for juveniles.

Aries Clark was shot Tuesday and died a day later after the incident outside East Arkansas Youth Services in Marion.

Officers opened fire shortly after arriving at the facility about ten miles (16 kilometers) northwest of Memphis, Tennessee. No one has said why police were called or whether they felt endangered.

Clark's parents said that doctors told them that their son was shot in the back and the back of his head.

Aries Clark, 16, was shot by police officers on Tuesday and died a day later after the incident outside East Arkansas Youth Services in Marion. It is unclear if Clark was a resident at the facility

Memphis and Little Rock media reported that two Marion officers have been placed on paid administrative leave while the investigation moves forward.

East Arkansas Youth Services is a nonprofit that 'provides positive alternatives to institutionalization' for at-risk children, according to its website.

Boys and girls ages 8 to 18 receive services there, but only boys can live there.

Madelyn Keith, the nonprofit's executive director and CEO, said in a Facebook post that no one in the facility was harmed and that its managers and staff have cooperated with investigators.

'We also request your prayers for our operations and specifically for all individuals and entities involved in this incident. In turn we also offer our sincere prayers for all affected by this event,' wrote Keith, who declined to comment beyond the post.

Clark's parents said that doctors told them that their son was shot in the back and the back of his head

Arkansas State Police said Marion police went to the home at 7.08pm on Tuesday and that 'moments later' reported that a teenager had been shot and wounded by police.

The agency said it was investigating and that its results would be forwarded to area prosecutors to determine whether the shooting was justified.

Officials would not say why Clark was at the home Tuesday night or if he was a resident at the facility, but family members said he ended up there because he was being 'disruptive'.

'He was just being unruly,' the teen's father told WMC. 'He ran away from home twice, so we needed help with him. We just went from needing some help to the next thing we know he's dead.'

His mother, Vicky Clark, wold WMC that they were hoping to get their son, a student at West Memphis High School, help soon.

'I never expected not to see my son again. I had saw him that Thursday, and we were trying to figure out how we were going to do therapy to get help for him,' she said.

The Arkansas Department of Human Services said the shelter contracts with the state to provide services to children in foster care and children who have been involved in the juvenile justice system.

Spokeswoman Amy Webb declined to comment on the shooting or say whether the boy had received services at the youth shelter.

Webb said the facility has had a 'favorable compliance history' without any current issues or concerns.
Detectives hunting two murder suspects who slit a father's throat in the street after demanding his Rolex watch have released CCTV footage of the supposed killers.

Footage from a petrol station camera in Deptford, south London captures two men wearing helmets and tracksuits riding a motorbike just before midnight on 15 July.

Fifteen minutes later construction worker Danny Pearce, 31, was stabbed to death as he walked home from a jazz club with friends.

Tragic: Danny Pearce, 31, was killed. Police have also released an image of the Rolex watch which was taken

He was reportedly approached by two men on a moped in the attack in Greenwich, south-east London.

One was armed with a gun, and the other with a knife in the attack at 12.15am.

Shots were fired in the violent robbery, although none hit the father-of-one, who died at the scene suffering stab wounds to his neck.

The muggers reportedly pulled his valuable Rolex watch from his wrist as he lay bleeding to death on the ground.

Footage from a petrol station camera in Deptford, south London captures two men wearing helmets and tracksuits riding a motorbike just before midnight on 15 July

This image shows the bikers riding away from the petrol station, just minutes before the murder

A grainy image captured from CCTV footage (above) shows two men riding pillion on a moped with helmets on

Shots were fired in the violent robbery, although none hit the father-of-one, who died at the scene suffering stab wounds to his neck

More than a week on from the stabbing, police have still not made any arrests and are appealing for help from the public to trace the attackers.

Police have also released an image of the Rolex watch which was taken from Mr Pearce in the attack, and would like to hear from anyone who may have come across it since it was stolen.

Detective Inspector Jo Sidaway, who is leading the investigation, said: 'We believe that Mr Pearce was approached on King William Walk by two suspects on a moped.

'One suspect is believed to have been in possession of what appeared to be a firearm, the other a knife.

'During an altercation, Danny was stabbed and a firearm was discharged. The suspects fled the scene on the moped. Danny sought help at a nearby address; he was pronounced dead there.

This image shows one of the suspects dismount the bike as the other pulls up to the pump

Tributes have been left for the popular Chelsea fan. A child's felt-tip drawing of a family marked 'to Daddy, love Gracie' nestles among the bouquets of flowers left where he died

'We believe that Danny's Rolex watch was stolen in the attack, and one line of enquiry is that his death was the result of a violent robbery. If you have seen this watch under suspicious circumstances, please get in contact with us.

'We are also releasing images of two men we are eager to trace and speak to.

If you have any information that could help us, we would urge you to come forward as soon as possible.'

A Chelsea scarf tied to the railing nearby reads: 'RIP Pearcey, thanks for all the great memories'

Tributes have been left for the popular Chelsea fan, who was a father to young daughter Grace.

A child's felt-tip drawing of a family marked 'to Daddy, love Gracie' nestles among the bouquets of flowers left at the spot where he died.

Speaking from the family home in Plumstead, south east London, Mr Pearce's grandmother said: 'He was lovely, he was a good boy. He was a wonderful grandson.'

A Chelsea scarf tied to the railing nearby reads: 'RIP Pearcey, thanks for all the great memories.'
A 28-year-old woman who allegedly threatened a 13-year-old boy with a knife has had her bail refused.

She will remain behind bars, charged with attempted murder, after allegedly threatening a teenage boy in Sydney's west.

Dramatic footage has emerged which appeared to show South Wentworthville woman Clara Moussa holding a knife to the 13-year-old boy as he lay on the ground.

A 28-year-old woman who allegedly threatened a 13-year-old boy with a knife has had her bail refused

She will remain behind bars, charged with attempted murder, after allegedly threatening a teenage boy in Sydney's west

NSW Police say officers were called to the suburb on Wednesday afternoon.

It's alleged Moussa assaulted the teenager before she threatened him with the knife.

Police attempted to negotiate with her before an officer approached from behind and dragged her away before removing the knife, the video shows.

She was transferred to Westmead Hospital for assessment, but was released back into police custody a short time later.

She appeared in Fairfield Local court on Thursday where she did not apply for bail and it was formally refused.

She's scheduled to appear at Campbelltown Local Court on Monday July 31.
The young man who lost his life at the Ohio State Fair on Wednesday night had just enlisted in the Marines lat week.

Tyler Jarrell, 18, of Columbus, Ohio has been identified by the State Highway Patrol as the young man who was killed while riding The Fireball.

He was thrown into the air when part of the amusement ride snapped and came down with such force that he was killed upon impact.

The tragedy occurred just five days after Tyler posted a photo to his Facebook page which showed him in a Marines Uniform and holding a plaque that read 'United States Navy' and 'Department of the Marine Corps.'

His decision to enlist meanwhile came a little over a month after he graduated from Franklin Heights High School in Columbus.

Six of the seven victims have also been identified by the State Highway Patrol, with the youngest of the group having his name withheld at this time as he is just 14 and a minor.

Tamika Dunlap, 36, of Reynoldsburg; Russell Franks, 42, of Columbus; Keziah Lewis, 19, of Columbus; Jacob Andrews, 22, of Pataskala; Jennifer Lambert, 18, of Columbus; and Abdihakim Hussein, 19, of Columbus.

Keziah was Tyler's girlfriend, and only learned that he had passed when she woke up in the hospital, where she was admitted in critical condition on Thursday and has already undergone two operations to after badly damaging her pelvis, ankles and ribs.

Meanwhile, documents released on Thursday show that the Ohio Department of Agriculture gave The Fireball passing marks during an inspection that happened just a few hours before the fatal crash.

The Department also released the paperwork they received from Amusements of America showing that both the operator and attendant who were working that day had been trained and were aware of safety/emergency procedures.

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Tragedy: Tyler Jarrell, 18, of Reynoldsburg, Ohio, has been identified as the young man who was killed on Wednesday night at the Ohio State Fair (Tyler above enlisting as a Marine last week)

Big things: Tyler (above with Amber Duffield) had just joined the Marines last week, posting photos of himself in his new uniform on July 21

Dapper: He was killed upon impact after being flung into the air when the ride he was on, 'The Fireball',' suffered a malfunction and snapped (above in April)

Tragedy: Part of the ride snapped off on Wednesday night, sending people flying through the air (above)

Keziah and Tyler went to the carnival on Wednesday after a difficult day for the young woman, who attended her grandfather's funeral.

The University of Cincinnati journalism student, who just finished her second year at the school, wrote on Facebook about her grandparents finally being together again in death.

'It was hard and extremely sad to see you go but it's a blessing to know that you and Nana are reunited and living it up in Heaven,' wrote Keziah.

'Rest In Peace Vincent S. Williams, Sr. You will forever be in our hearts.'

Keziah's grandfather also served, having been a member of the Air Force.

The comments on that post soon filled with wishes of good will after people found out that she was one of the victims.

Keziah and Tyler have been together for approximately one year and worked together at McDonald's for two years, which is how they met.

Her mother Clarissa Williams told The Columbus Dispatch that she was the one who had to tell her daughter the devastating news when she kept asking for Tyler.

When asked what she thought about the accident and if she was angry, Williams said: 'I just feel something went terribly wrong, something was overlooked that they should have secured more.'

Williams revealed in the interview as well that her daughter was heading in for yet another surgery on Friday.

Horrible news: Keziah Lewis (left) was Tyler's (right) girlfriend and learned about his death on Thursday after coming out of surgery as she remains in critical condition

Proud to serve: Tyler's decision to enlist was heralded by Marine Corps Recruiting South Columbus Ohio on Sunday (above)

Model citizen: Tyler was also very involved in the local police force, having joined The Columbus Division of Police Explorer Program (above)

Tyler was also a decorated member of the Boy Scouts (above with Amber and Karina Duffield)

Marine Corps Recruiting South Columbus Ohio even posted a photo of Tyler on their Facebook page Sunday because they were so excited about his enlistment.

'Give him one! Tyler Jarrell is the first senior from Franklin Heights high school to enlist into the United States Marine Corps this year,' read the post.

'I'm proud to call him my brother. #FranklinHeights #Marines.'

Tyler was also very involved in the local police force, having joined The Columbus Division of Police Explorer Program to see if he might be interested in becoming a cop.

Dillon King, who heads up that program, posted a photo on Thursday of Tyler posing in front of a paddy wagon in his police uniform.

He also commented on a photo of the young man by stating how much he looked up to the teenager.

That sentiment was echoed by almost everyone Tyler knew, both young and old, upon hearing the news.

Sharon Payne, who was Tyler's boss at McDonald's posted a photo of the young boy in his Marine uniform and wrote: 'He was a good kid who just passed his physical and was accepted into the marines last Thursday, i thought of him as my son and he called me mom.'

And in addition to his enlisting in the Marines and working with Police Explorer's and holding down a job at McDonald's, Tyler was also very involved in the Boy Scouts.

Work, work, work: Sharon Payne, who was Tyler's boss at McDonald's (above) posted a photo of the young boy in his Marine uniform and wrote: 'He was a good kid ... I thought of him as my son and he called me mom'

Where's the food?: Governon John Kasich talks with fairgoers while he tours the Ohio State Fair on Thursday (above)

Not risking it: All rides were shut down the fairground Thursday in the wake of the incident

Flying high: Many wrote about how much they looked up to Tyler despite being much older than the teen (Keziah left, Tyler right flying a helicopter back in April)

A young woman who was on the amusement ride detailed what happened just before the crash in an interview on Wednesday.

'It started normal, everything started normal, and then it started shaking. It was shaking real bad,' Devray Williams told ABC 6 on Wednesday.

She said that the girl next to her also started to say her seat was shaking just moments before Devray watched the woman go flying off into the air when the machine snapped.

An emotional Devray then said through tears: 'And then the dude hit the ground. He wasn't breathing. None of them was, it was like five people. Nobody was breathing and then they came and tried to give him CPR but nothing was happening.'

Three of the victims are in critical condition, with one being treated at Grant Medical Center and the other two at Wexner Medical Center.

Doctors at Wexner said that the three individuals who were admitted, which includes Keziah, underwent surgery overnight and will have to undergo additional surgeries in the coming days.

In addition to their two critical patients, the hospital also has one in serious condition.

The other three victims were admitted to Grant in fair condition, and two were released from the hospital early Thursday.

Remains: The pieces of The Fireball that broke off laying on the asphalt at the fair (above)

Emotional: Devray Williams (above), who was on the ride when it malfunctioned, said that he seat began shaking uncontrollably just moments before the crash

Meanwhile, the young boy who filmed the fatal ride malfunction that occurred at the fair revealed that bystanders began screaming at the operator to slow down just moments before the crash.

Julian Bellinger was filming The Fireball as he stood in line with his friends to get on the ride when it suddenly broke, killing one person and injuring seven others.

He recounted what happened in an interview with Good Morning America, saying: 'We were just recording each other on Snapchat and we had deleted the video because we heard like commotion on the ride and there was people on the ride like, "Slow it down, it's too fast," and all this. So people on the ground beside me and in front of me in line... they all were like, "whoa, whoa, slow down."'

Julian said at that moment the operator 'pressed the emergency brake,' with the teenager stating that he had to turn his head away when he started to see people fall out of their harnesses and seats on the ride.'

Host Robin Roberts confirmed that Julian did in fact hear people shouting out to the operator to slow down the ride, and the boy against said that was what happened, adding: 'I heard people in front of me in line and then after the fact I talked to them and they were like, "yeah, people on the ride just couldn't take it anymore because I guess they had sped it up.'

He then said that in the wake of the crash people were running away and 'crying.'

Britney Neal and her little sister Kylie also witnessed the crash at the fairground on Wednesday, and told a story very similar to Julian's while appearing on Today.

'Well, the ride was going normal, then all of a sudden you see people flying out and then the guy hit the emergency stop button which then made the seat fly off and other people flew off as well,' said Britney.

'The fireball was working normally. Then it swung to the left and it looked like someone's chair was kind of falling out. Then the guy pushed the emergency stop switch, and then it swings to the right and the whole row broke off and they went flying.'

The teenager later said is 'traumatized' by the incident, while her younger sister Kylie saying nothing and just stared off into the distance during the interview.

Scene: Two of the victims are treated after the crash on Wednesday by first responders

Flung: Some of those on the ride managed to stay in their seats while others flung free

Good move: In the wake of the incident a number of other fairs announced that they would not be operating their Fireball ride and began re-inspecting their machines

One person is pictured being treated for injuries while laying on a gurney after the ride accident

Ohio Governor John Kasich released a statement Wednesday evening, reading: 'I am terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohios fair.

'Our thoughts and prayers go out to those grieving and injured. I have ordered a full investigation into this incident and have ordered that all fair rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed.'

Wednesday was the opening night of the fair.

The Ohio State Fair also released a statement on Thursday, saying: 'Our hearts are heavy for the families of those involved in last night's tragic accident.'

Thursday morning the fair was back in business , though all the rides remained closed to the public.

Few people were in attendance.

In the wake of the incident a number of other fairs announced that they would not be

The Ohio State Fair is currently celebrating its 164th year in operation.
President Trump suggested that he thought the mainstream media was downplaying a story involving a staffer of former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, who was arrested and charged with bank fraud.

On Thursday morning, Trump retweeted a TownHall.com piece that said the big three networks, ABC, NBC and CBS had avoided the story almost entirely.

'Concerning media coverage, Politico has reported something on it, but the big three  ABC, NBC, and CBS  have virtually buried this story, preventing the millions of viewers that tune into these respective networks from learning about it,' wrote Town Hall's Matt Vespa.

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President Trump (left) suggested that he thought the media was under covering a story involving an aide of former Democratic National Committee chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz (right)

President Trump retweeted a story from conservative website TownHall.com, which pointed out that the major broadcast networks barely covered the story

The congresswoman's aide, Imran Arwan (above with Bill Clinton), was arrested trying to board a flight to Qatar at Virginia's Dulles Airport on Tuesday

'NBC and ABC have been silent in their broadcasts, but CBS did devote 37 seconds to it. That's it,' Vespa added.

The aide, Imran Awan, 37, was arrested by the FBI at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on Monday as he attempted to fly to Qatar then Pakistan.

Authorities had been watching him for months as part of an investigation into information and equipment theft.

His wife, Hina Alvi, and two other relatives, Jamal and Abid Awan, were fired as a result of the probe in March but Imran was kept on by Wasserman Schultz.

On Monday, he was arrested on suspicion of banking fraud for allegedly taking out a $165,000 loan with his wife on a house that they did not live in and sending the money back to Pakistan.

He denies the charge and was granted bail on the condition that he surrender his passports and wear an electronic ankle bracelet until his next court date in August.

His lawyer told Politico later on Tuesday: 'This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim.

'A quick glance at what the government filed in court today confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client.'

Arwan's arrest is the culmination of months of investigation by the FBI and local law enforcement agencies. As a result of it, several of the man's relatives were fired.

Arwan has worked on Capitol Hill for more than a decade and has served as a staffer to numerous Democrats.

Authorities launched an investigation earlier this year on the suspicion that he and his family were involved in the procurement of theft.

In March, Arwan's wife was fired from her job working for Rep. Gregory Meeks. She fled the country shortly afterwards with the couple's two daughters, a haul of luggage and $12,000 in cash but was never arrested.

Authorities say they do not believe she intended to return to the US. Her husband had a return flight booked for January next year.

Arwan was fired from Rep. Marcia Fudge's staff but he was kept on by Wasserman Schultz despite having his access to the House network denied.

She said nothing of the investigation into him and instead protested that a laptop which was seized as part of the probe had not been returned to her promptly.

Arwan was a staffer for former DNC Chair Debbie Wasserman Schultz. In May, she was filmed telling US Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa (above) to 'expect consequences' if he did not promptly return a laptop that was part of the investigation

In May, she was filmed scolding the chief of the US Capitol Police at a budget meeting, telling him to 'expect consequences' if the computer wasn't swiftly returned.

On Tuesday, Wasserman Schultz announced that Awan had been fired after his arrest was announced.

'Mr. Awan previously served as a part-time employee but his services have been terminated.

'No charges, evidence or findings from the investigation have been formally shared with our office, so we cannot comment on them,' a spokesman for her said.

Five staffers were being looked in to in total. They included Abid and Jamal Arwan who are believed to be Imran's brothers.

On Tuesday, there was no indication of either man had been arrested or if either was still in the country.

Awan, 37, was arrested trying to board a flight at Virginia's Dulles Airport (pictured). He was on his way to Qatar and then Pakistan

In April, Imran and Abid's stepmother filed a lawsuit against them claiming they had threatening her to try to force her to signing over power of attorney for assets in Pakistan.

According to The New York Post, which obtained her lawsuit, she said they had tapped her phones and threatened to kidnap relatives in Pakistan so that she would sign their father's $50,000 life insurance policy over to them.

Wasserman Schultz stepped down as DNC chair last year after the Committee's email systems were hacked

Mohammad Ashref Shah, their father and her husband, died in January.

Wasserman Schultz was the chair of the Democratic National Committee when its computer systems were hacked in the summer of 2016.

The cyber attack has been traced back to Russian officials and was categorized by the Obama administration as an attempt to influence the election in favor of Donald Trump.

The security breach led to the harvesting of thousands of emails written by Clinton's campaign team.

They were sent to WikiLeaks and dumped in mass and by drip-feed in to the public sphere before the 2016 presidential election. The hack prompted Wasserman Schultz's resignation.

There is no suggestion Arwan's arrest or the investigation in to the alleged fraud is linked to the hack.
Filmmaker Michael Moore says he tried to Hillary Clinton that Michigan and Wisconsin voters might lean toward Donald Trump before the 2016 presidential election but claims no one would listen.

Moore appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night to promote his upcoming one-man Broadway show, The Terms of My Surrender.

But the Michigan resident took time to discuss the current political climate, saying he 'never wanted to be more wrong in my life' when warning people about Trump voters.

Filmmaker Michael Moore appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert on Wednesday night to promote his upcoming one-man Broadway show, The Terms of My Surrender

But the Michigan resident took time to discuss the current political climate, saying he 'never wanted to be more wrong in my life' when warning Hillary Clinton's campaign about Donald Trump voters

'I was trying to warn the rest of the country, out here, people who voted for Obama were telling me they were going to vote for him. And it was like, oh, wow,' he told Colbert. 'And so, you know, I actually contacted the people in the Clinton campaign.

'And I said, "I think you need to spend more time in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania". These are the Brexit states of America. And there's a lot of angry people.

'They don't sort of like Trump that much, but they see him as their human Molotov cocktail that they want to just throw into the system that has hurt them so badly. And I couldn't get anybody to listen to me.'

Six months into Trumps presidency, Moore said he did not expect the 'daily, hourly fire hose of s*** in our face' from the administration.

Colbert also asked Moore his opinion on Trump's choice to ban transgender people from the military on Twitter.

Six months into Trumps presidency, Moore said he did not expect the 'daily, hourly fire hose of s*** in our face' from the administration

Moore said he will continue to fight against the president, saying he needs an 'army of satire' to beat Trump

'What is so disgusting about this is, if you are transgender trying to get by in this society, I couldn't think of any more brave people to have defending this country than transgenders,' Moore said.

'They should refuse to leave. Just say, "We're not going anywhere. Come get us",' he added.

Moore said he will continue to fight against the president, adding: 'I refuse to live in a country where Donald Trump is president and I'm not leaving.'

'We have to form an army of citizens and come at him like a swarm of bees,' Moore said. 'And, frankly, I suggested a few months ago that we have an army of satire, because I think the way to bring him down is with satire.

'His thin skin, as you pointed out so well, is so thin, all we need is 1,000 or a million little comedy shivs - nonviolent, don't hurt him - but just under his skin because he can't take being laughed at.'
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These eerie photos show what remains of an American internment camp used to detain suspected Nazis from South America during the Second World War, which ironically ended up imprisoning more Jews than fascists.

Images from the site in New Orleans, Louisiana show decaying buildings in a state of disrepair, with some reduced to rubble having been left to fall apart - where Jewish refugees were forced to live side-by-side with their Nazi oppressors.

The camp, originally named Camp Algiers, was established in 1941 by the American government as a place to detain suspected Nazis from South America.

A photographer has shared his photos of a decaying former internment camp for suspected Nazis in New Orleans, Louisiana

Camp Algiers was set up to receive suspected Nazis that American officials caught in South American during World War II

But in reality, most of the detainees ended up being Jewish and were let go at the end of the war

But photographer Abandoned Southeast, who took the photos, says that few of those who ended up in the camps actually had ties to the Nazis and it became instead known locally as, 'the camp of innocents'.

'Camp Algiers was a former embarkation facility along the Mississippi River that was used as a Nazi internment camp during World War II,' he says.

'The internees included men, women, and children who had been detained by FBI agents in Latin America and brought back to the United States.

'But most of the internees were actually Jewish refugees who had fled Europe from the Nazis. Roughly, only 15 per cent of the 5,000 internees had at one point been members of the Nazi party.'

After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and the subsequent declarations of war on America from both Germany and Italy, President Roosevelt wanted to ensure that the Axis powers could not open a third front in South America.

The site has since fallen into disrepair, with many of the buildings on the verge of collapsing

'Camp Algiers was a former embarkation facility along the Mississippi River that was used as a Nazi internment camp during World War II,' the photographer says

'The internees included men, women, and children who had been detained by FBI agents in Latin America and brought back to the United States,' the photographer adds

Above, another crumbling building at the site of the old Camp Algiers in New Orleans, Louisiana

FBI agents were therefore sent to various countries across Latin America to track down and detain suspected Nazis, although their method left a lot to be desired. Often it relied on offering money to South Americans who could point out a nearby Nazi. At the time, there were around 1.5 million Germans living on the continent, and anyone heard speaking German in public usually found themselves detained.

It soon became clear that the program had failed to track down many undercover Nazis, however, and many Jewish people fleeing persecution in Europe found themselves in one of the camps. As such, Camp Algiers was eventually turned into what officials called 'the camp of the innocent,' housing thousands of Jewish immigrants until their release to foster homes in 1943.

The photos taken by Abandoned Southeast show the houses where military officials overseeing the camp once lived.

And he says he took a significant risk to gain access to the site.

'The current owner of the property did not want us near the structures,' he said.

'You can see how dangerous the houses are by the missing walls and collapsing roofs. The houses could collapse at any time,' the photographer says

'However, the owner is working to secure financing to renovate the structures, and part of the former internment camp is now used by the city of New Orleans and the Department of Homeland Security,' the photographer adds

'You can see how dangerous the houses are by the missing walls and collapsing roofs. The houses could collapse at any time.

'However, the owner is working to secure financing to renovate the structures, and part of the former internment camp is now used by the city of New Orleans and the Department of Homeland Security.

'Many people were not aware that a Nazi internment camp was in New Orleans, and I hope others can enjoy my photography and learn a little bit of history about these places while doing so.'
A Florida woman had a close call early Thursday morning when a sinkhole opened up in the middle of her driveway and engulfed her car.

Awakened by a loud bang at around 3.30am, Mary Boone, of Spring Hill, went to the restroom but discovered there was no running water in the faucet or the toilet.

She then looked outside and saw the driveway buckling under her car.

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Rude awakening: Mary Boone woke up in her Florida condo to find her car being swallowed by a sinkhole early Thursday morning

Mind the gap: A water main break caused the woman's driveway on Barclay Avenue in Spring Hill to buckle, and eventually a hole opened up measuring six feet in depth

Boone (left) jumped in the driver's seat trying to save her car, but the driveway gave way and she ended up in the sinkhole. She scraped her left leg (right) climbing out

The hole stretches about 30 feet under Boone's home, which had to be evacuated

Boone says she ran out of her rented condominium on Barclay Avenue to move the car out of harm's way, but just as she jumped in the driver's seat, the driveway collapsed and the car fell nose-first into a 6-foot-deep and 10- to 12-foot-wide chasm, reported Tampa Bay Times.

She told local news outlets, including WFLA, that she managed to climb out, injuring her right ankle and scraping her left leg bloody in the process, but now the hole stretches about 30 feet under her home, which had to be evacuated.

Hernando County officials said in an email that water from a broken six-inch pipe washed away sandy soil.

The hole stretches about 30 feet under the woman's rented home, which had to be evacuated

Silver lining: A tow truck quickly pulled Boone's vehicle out of the sinkhole

Work crews and heavy machinery are seen working at the scene of Thursday's driveway collapse in Spring Hill

Officials plan to fix the pipe, fill the hole, and determine any damage to the building.

As for Boone, a tow truck was called in and pulled her trapped vehicle from the hole about 15 minutes after the collapse.

The woman and her next-door neighbor have been barred from entering their homes until inspectors determine the buildings are structurally sound and fit for occupation.
Thomas Maupin, 67, was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday in Memphis, Tennessee after DNA testing linked him to the 2001 brutal rape of a 31-year-old woman

A 67-year-old man whose dentures were found at the scene of a sexual assault in Tennessee 16 years ago has pleaded guilty to raping the woman after finally being linked to the brutal crime.

Thomas Maupin was sentenced to eight years in prison on Monday in Memphis after DNA testing linked him to the 2001 rape.

His dentures, which had his name printed inside of them, and the sex assault kit that included DNA evidence became part of a backlog that was only tested recently.

It is not clear why investigators did not link Maupin to the rape years earlier given the fake teeth spelled out his name.

Maupin attacked the 31-year-old woman in August 2001 while she was walking in the 1200 block of Thomas Street in Memphis.

The victim told police Maupin had gotten out his car and walked towards her, before forcing her into an alley.

The woman was stabbed with a metal object under her chin so forcefully that it struck the roof of her mouth.

Maupin also used to the object to sexually assault her after forcing her to perform oral sex.

Maupin attacked the 31-year-old woman in August 2001 while she was walking in the 1200 block of Thomas Street in Memphis (above)

The dentures were collected and tagged by investigators and placed in the police property room. The sexual assault kit containing DNA evidence was also collected but not tested until years later.

Maupin's dentures were taken to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation in July 2016. A DNA profile was developed that linked the dentures to Maupin.

He pleaded guilty to the rape on Monday. His victim, who is still traumatized by the attack, did not want to relive it by testifying at trial.

Maupin's dentures were made while he was in jail for the 1988 murder of a six-year-old girl in Washington state. He was twice convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

He came to Memphis after serving his 12 year sentence.
Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the death penalty for a Palestinian who killed three Israelis during a period of intense violence in Jerusalem last week.

The Israeli Prime Minister visited the family of Yosef Salomon, 70, and his children Chaya, 46, and Elad, 36, who were stabbed to death by 19-year-old Omar al-Abed.

Netanyahu said his position in the case of al-Abed, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack, 'is that he needs to be put to death'.

Several members of Netanyahu's cabinet issued similar calls in the week since the attack.

Though Israeli law does permit the death penalty, the Israeli government has only ever put one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, who was hung to death in 1962.

Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the death penalty for Palestinian Omar al-Abed (pictured), who killed three Israelis during a period of intense violence in Jerusalem last week

Netanyahu said his position in the case of al-Abed (pictured), who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack, 'is that he needs to be put to death'

Netanyahu said his position in the case of al-Abed, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack, 'is that he needs to be put to death'. Pictured: Israeli troops clash with Palestinians during period of intense violence in Jerusalem

The Israeli government has only ever put one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann (pictured), in 196

Eichmann - said to be one of the architects of the Holocaust - was one of Hitler's most efficient and ruthless killers.

He dispatched orders to murder the smallest Jewish children to stop them growing up and seeking revenge.

He fled to Argentina after escaping a prison camp after the Second World War but was captured in Buenos Aires in May 1960 and smuggled back to Israel, where he was killed two years later.

The deaths of the three Israelis came amid deadly unrest in the days since Israel installed new metal detectors outside the entrance to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, on July 16.

Palestinians saw the move as an attempt by Israel to assert further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Clashes erupted around the compound and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

Al-Abed would be the first man sentenced to death in Israel since Eichmann, said to be one of the architects of the Holocaust, who was hung to death

Eichmann was one of Hitler's most efficient and ruthless killers, dispatching orders to murder the smallest Jewish children to stop them growing up

The deaths of the three Israelis came amid deadly unrest in the days since Israel installed new metal detectors outside the entrance to the Haram al-Sharif compound. Pictured: Israeli troops fire stun grenades at Palestinians

DEATH OF 'HOLOCAUST ARCHITECT' ADOLF EICHMANN Adolf Eichmann was one of Hitler's most efficient and ruthless killers: dispatching orders to murder the smallest Jewish children to stop them growing up and seeking revenge. Although Eichmann did not come up with the 'Final Solution', he was one of its key architects and oversaw mass deportations and extermination in the network of Nazi death camps. He had been a Lt-Col in the SS but fled to Argentina when his role in the final solution was revealed during the Nuremberg Trials in 1946. He was eventually kidnapped by Israeli secret service agents in May 1960 after his son boasted to a girlfriend of his father's horrific Nazi record. Eichmann was later smuggled back to Israel to face trial in 1961, where he was condemned to death by hanging. Controversially, the trial was televised, bringing the twentieth century's defining portrait of evil into homes around the world. After a trial two years later for war crimes he was executed by the Israelis for his role in the Holocaust. Advertisement

Today Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at Palestinians following the dispute over the holy site in Jerusalem.

Muslim worshippers retaliated by throwing stones at the Western Wall following days of intense violence in Jerusalem's Old City.

Fighting erupted shortly after Palestinians rushed to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was reopened following an 11-day boycott by Muslims over Israeli security measures.

The head of the Arab League warned Thursday that Israeli attempts to control highly sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem by force risk igniting a 'religious war'.

The Red Crescent said tensions rose when Israeli troops closed one of the gates to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as Temple Mount, as large numbers of worshippers tried to enter.

The head of the Arab League warned that Israeli attempts to control highly sensitive religious sites in Jerusalem by force risk igniting a 'religious war'.

Today Israeli police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades at Palestinians following the dispute over the holy site in Jerusalem

Muslim worshippers retaliated by throwing stones at the Western Wall following days of intense violence in Jerusalem's Old City

Israel's actions are 'playing with fire, and will only ignite a religious war and shift the core of the conflict from politics to religion,' said Arab League chief Ahmed Abul Gheit.

He added: 'I invite the occupying state (Israel) to carefully learn the lessons from this crisis and the message it holds.

'Handling holy sites lightly and with this level of arrogance seriously threatens to ignite a religious war, since not one single Muslim in the world would accept the desecration of Al-Aqsa mosque.'
Thanks to the kindness of strangers, a terminally ill woman has arrived home in Maryland from Alaska, where she was stuck in a hospital after suffering a respiratory crisis on a cruise ship.

Nancy Greathouse, 71, arrived shortly after 10pm Wednesday at Baltimore-Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport, WRC-TV reported.

Strangers had donated more than $60,000 to a GoFundMe page for her air ambulance from the Anchorage hospital where she'd been for two months.

Greathouse has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, along with an autoimmune disease flare-up.

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Nancy Greathouse (above), 71, has terminal cancer and also suffers from an autoimmune disease. She is back home in Maryland now after being stuck in Alaska where she was evacuated from a cruise ship with her husband due to becoming ill

In order to get home, she needed to fly on a medical evacuation plane (her arrival pictured above), so her son created a GoFundMe to raise money to pay for it. Over $60,000 was raised in a matter of days, allowing Greathouse to come home on Wednesday

She and her husband Paul went to Alaska on a two-week cruise in April.

Sadly, she had to be medically evacuated when she suffered a respiratory crisis called myasthenic.

She was taken from the cruise ship to a hospital in Juneau, but then transferred to a hospital in Anchorage for more treatment.

Greathouse wanted to live out her final days at home in Beltsville, Maryland, but doctors in Alaska said she was not well enough to fly on a commercial flight.

Of the strangers chipping in to raise the money, Greathouse's (above) son, Daniel, said: 'We just want to say thank you. I think it's amazing these people would take this on to help my Mom'

Her insurance would not cover the expensive cost of a medical evacuation flight.

'She didn't want to die in Alaska and she wanted to come home so we were gonna figure something out,' Greathouse's son Daniel Kelley told WRC-TV.

Her son created a GoFundMe page and thousands were raised within a few days for his mother.

'We just want to say thank you,' Kelley told the Alaska Dispatch News. 'I think it's amazing these people would take this on to help Mom.'
An argument over vodka led to the murder of a man who police say was slashed to death in Las Vegas, Nevada earlier this week.

Aaron Park, 39, denied 'stabbing, striking or harming anyone' following his arrest by Las Vegas Metro Police on Friday.

He bragged to investigators about his fighting skills with knives and 'other edged weapons',The Las Vegas Sun reported.

Park was later charged with homicide and remains at Clark County Detention Center without bond.

Police say Aaron Park slashed to death Ronald Anderson in a dispute over vodka earlier this week (pictured: Booking photo of Aaron Park)

Ronald Anderson was found suffering from a wound that extended from his right ear to the left side of his chest when medics were dispatched at about 1.30pm to a shopping center on 4110 Maryland Parkway, near Flamingo Road.

Police said that Anderson died after succumbing to his wounds shortly after arriving at nearby Sunrise Hospital and Medical Center.

Park later told investigators that Anderson had attempted to 'bully his way into some vodka' he and an associate were drinking, leading to the altercation.

That's when police say Park swung at him, prompting the other man to say 'that's what you get,' according to eyewitness testimony.

Anderson later died of his wounds at a nearby hospital. Park denies he hurt Anderson (pictured: Parking lot in Las Vegas where incident occurred)

Security footage captured the altercation, with Park 'casually' grabbing his backpack and walking from Anderson as he lay dying.

Park can then be seen looking at his victim and leaving once again before help arrives.

All of those involved in the incident were apparently homeless. A trial date for Park has yet to be determined.
Top presidential advisor Steve Bannon is pushing the president to get behind a massive tax hike on America's top earners.

If Bannon gets his way, The Intercept has reported, anyone making more than $5 million a year will see their tax rate go up to 44 percent from the present rate of 39.6 percent.

Bannon has been pitching different versions of the tax hike over the last month in preparation for Congress' shift away from Obamacare repeal, which the Senate could pass to Trump and Bannon's delight today, to tax reform.

In a joint statement authored by principles on the tax-writing committees in Congress, GOP leaders in the House and Senate and economic advisors at the White House said Thursday afternoon that they were begin work on a tax package without delay.

Top presidential advisor Steve Bannon is pushing the president to get behind a massive tax hike on America's top earners

'The goal is a plan that reduces tax rates as much as possible, allows unprecedented capital expensing, places a priority on permanence, and creates a system that encourages American companies to bring back jobs and profits trapped overseas,' it said.

The signers committed to reforms that keep the US away from a consumption-based tax system and discarded a plan to put new fees on imports goods.

'There is a viable approach for ensuring a level playing field between American and foreign companies and workers, while protecting American jobs and the U.S. tax base,' it said. 'While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform.'

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council Director Gary Cohn signed the policy statement - that made no direct mention of individual or corporate tax rates - on behalf of the administration.

House Speaker Paul Ryan, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Senate Finance Chairman Orrin Hatch and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady were also signers.

Brady has been pushing the border adjustment tax hard. He lay down his sword today as Republicans joined together to come up a tax package that would appeal to a broader swath of lawmakers.

Axios first reported Bannon's desire raise taxes on America's wealthiest residents at the beginning of July.

A senior administration official confirmed to DailyMail.com then that Bannon was plugging the idea internally and speculated that it could be paired with a deduction for rich Americans who earn their income from sources other than investments.

The tax increase would help offset cuts the president promised the poor and the middle class.

Trump has promised the largest tax cut in US history, but his administration has yet to determine to how to keep up with mandatory spending if it slashes revenues. It's said the tax cut will pay for itself through a anticipated three percent increase in GDP.

The president indicated last week as he spoke to the Wall Street Journal that Bannon's proposal to raise taxes on the rich getting some traction.

'If theres upward revision its going to be on high-income people,' Trump said.

In 2014, IRS data shows 43,000 people in the US reporting annual income of $5 million or more.

According to the Intercept, the 44 percent tax rate would only affect income above $5 million and nothing below and would result in an additional $18 billion per year in tax dollars from the affected. That's $180 billion over 10 years.

Bannon has proposed a tax package that's a radical shift from the Republican base's principles as the White House searches for a way to get a package passed this year.

In layman's terms, his plan to tax earners who get their money from sources other than investments would affect people like Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and National Economic Council head Gary Cohen, before they took jobs in the administration, and leave other rich Americans right where they began.

Axios said in a pre-Fourth of July report that Bannon was asking for a tax increase that would put the nation's top marginal rate above 40 percent for individuals earning more than $418,400 a year and $470,700 for married couples who file jointly.

The Intercept put the number at 44 percent in a report it published on Wednesday.

Bannon's proposal could attract Democratic support to the overhaul that the political party has already characterized as a giveaway to the billionaire president and his rich friends.

Establishment Republicans who have traditionally promoted big business as a conduit for job growth are likely to reject the populist measure, though, putting the White House between a rock and hard place.

The president's cadre of economic advisers, many of whom are millionaires and billionaires in their own right, have already said they want to slash the corporate tax rate in half.

The president indicated last week as he spoke to the Wall Street Journal that Bannon's proposal to raise taxes on the rich getting some traction. 'If theres upward revision its going to be on high-income people,' Trump said

A set of principles for tax reform that the White House released in April called for a 15 percent corporate tax rate, down from 35 percent.

The White House proposed then to cap to taxes for the most fortunate Americans at 35 percent. Other earners would fall into two brackets of 15 and 25 percent, it said.

In another action that Democrats say is a gift to the wealthy, the president wants to get rid of the estate tax - the heavy fee the government imposes on the deceased's assets when they are transferred to a relative.

Trump's vision for tax reform would have Americans filing on a postcard-sized form. All but a handful of deductions would be eliminated, the administration has previously said.

Mnuchin has said time and time again that the plan would pay for itself with a projected three percent increase in economic growth but administration officials have told DailyMail.com that they are looking at additional mechanisms.

Trump has boasted that his tax cut, if he gets it the way he wants it, will be the largest in American history. Republican bickering over health care reform has delayed the introduction of a package, however.

The president's legislative director, Marc Short, has said that the White House still believes it can get something passed this year and is looking to conquer tax relief this fall.
A German passenger jet that was hijacked by Palestinian terrorists in 1977 before ending up in a graveyard for aircraft in Brazil is set to go on show at a museum.

The plane, known as 'Landshut' after the town in Bavaria, became infamous as Lufthansa Flight 181 when it was seized by four Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine fighters.

The terrorists, who were working with the Communist group Red Army Faction, forced the plane to fly around Europe, the Middle East and finally to Somalia before German special forces dramatically rescued all 86 passengers following a four-day ordeal.

But pilot Jurgen Schumann, who was later awarded a medal, was executed in cold blood before he could be saved.

Pictured: The Boeing 737-200, once known as 'Landshut', in the aircraft graveyard at Fortaleza airport, Brazil

The plane (pictured) was retired in 2008 but was made world-famous after it was hijacked in 1977 by Palestinian terrorists

It has now been bought by the German government for 20,000 euros as part of a plan to exhibit it at the Dornier Museum for aircraft in Friedrichshafen. Pictured: The dilapidated plane in Brazil

Now the Boeing 737-200, which was decommissioned in 2008 and left to rot at Fortaleza airport in northeastern Brazil, will be heading back home after the German foreign ministry bought it for 20,000 euros.

It will be restored and then put on display at the Dornier Museum for aircraft in Friedrichshafen.

'To this day, the rescue of the "Landshut" is a living symbol of a free society, which cannot be defeated by fear and terror,' German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel was reported as saying in Deutsche Welle.

THE BLOODY 'GERMAN AUTUMN' Pictured: West Germany's employer federation head Hanns-Martin Schleyer holding a sign reading: 'Captive of RAF (Red Army Faction) for 20 days'. He was later murdered The hijacking is often viewed in the context of the 'German Autumn', a series of events in 1977 involving far-left Cold War revolutionary groups. On April 7 of that year, West German attorney general Siegfried Buback was assassinated by Red Army Faction fighters in Karlsruhe, southwest Germany. Three months later - on July 30 - Jurgen Ponto, the chief of Dresdner Bank, was killed in his home in Oberursel by members of the group. One of the faction's 'commando' units kidnapped and then murdered Hanns Martin Schleyer, the head of the employers' association in Germany, after attacking his car in Cologne in September. The Lufthansa hijacking was seen as the crescendo of the several bloody months. On the same night as the successful operation to free the hostages, three jailed Red Army Faction members - Gudrun Ensslin, Jan-Carl Raspe and Andreas Baader - were found dead in their cells. Pictured: Schleyer's car after the attack by the Red Army Faction fighters The Red Army Faction, known at the beginning of its activity as the Baader-Meinhof Gang, was founded in 1970. Supported by the Stasi, East Germany's security organisation, it was considered a terrorist group by West Germany. The far-left militants are thought to have killed 34 people before their peak in 1977. The group officially dissolved in 1998 after decades of assassinations, bombings, robberies and kidnappings. Another left-wing organisation, Revolutionary Cells, was also involved in the 'German Autumn' and is thought to have committed close to 200 attacks between 1973 and 1993. Advertisement

Pictured: Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen, Germany, where the plane will soon be moved

The plane was hijacked about half an hour into a flight from Palma, Majorca to Frankfurt on October 13 by Zohair Youssif Akache, Souhaila Sami Andrawes, Wabil Harb and Hind Alameh.

Schumann, the pilot, was ordered to fly to Cyprus, but, stressing the plane had insufficient fuel, he took it to Rome instead.

After refuelling, it then headed to Cyprus, Bahrain, Dubai and Aden before reaching its final destination of Mogadishu in Somalia.

Pictured: Two people stand in the doorway of the hijacked Lufthansa 737 while it was parked at Dubai airport on October 17, 1977

Pictured: Food and drinks are delivered to the hijacked plane while parked at Dubai International Airport in the United Arab Emirates

Pictured left: Jurgen Schumann, the captain of the 'Landshut', who was murdered in a cold blood execution by the terrorists. Right: Souhaila Sami Andrawes, the one hijacker that survived

Pictured: Pilot Jurgen Schumann can be seen sitting at the front of the plane while it was on the ground in Dubai

Pictured left: A hijacker can be seen pointing a gun at an airport worker during one of the plane's landings. Right: A woman stands in the doorway while ground staff look on

On October 18, West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt gave the go-ahead to 'Operation Feuerzauber' - a daring early-morning raid that caught the terrorists off-guard and freed the hostages, leaving only four slightly wounded.

Three of the terrorists died in the raid, with only Souhaila Sami Andrawes - who was jailed in Somalia for 22 years but was released a year later - surviving. She was eventually jailed in Germany but released after three years.

The group had demanded the release of ten Red Army Faction members imprisoned in Germany, two Palestinians held in Turkey and $15million in cash.

But on the same night that the crisis was brought to an end, three jailed members of the Red Army Faction were found dead in their cells and the bloody period of left-wing political violence known as the 'German Autumn' was brought to an end.

Pictured: Some of the liberated hostages, partly covered with sheets, leave the Lufthansa aircraft in Frankfurt am Main on October 18

Souhaila Sami Andrawes (pictured) makes a V-sign as she is carried away on a stretcher after the storming of the 'Landshut'

Pictured right in 1977: West German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt, who was praised for his handling of the hostage crisis. Left: Prime Minister James Callaghan

Chancellor Helmut Schmidt was praised for his decisive action and went on to lead Germany until 1982.

The plane itself was sent back into service just weeks after the hijacking, before being sold in 1985 to the US carrier Presidential Airways.

It later ended up with the Brazilian airline TAF Linhas and continued to fly until 2008.

The co-pilot during the 1977 ordeal, Jurgen Vietor, said it was 'great news' that his former aircraft was coming to Dornier Museum.

He added: 'It belongs in Germany.'
A great white shark seen in Shark Clans photo by Andrew Fox for Nature Films Network Sharkfest 2016 Sharkfest 2016 Sharkfest 2016 Sharkfest 2016 Sharkfest 2016 Sharkfest 2016 Previous Next

Whether theyre peering into the toothy maws of Sand Tigers or admiring the delicate patterning of Coral Cats, encounters with sharks at the Tennessee Aquarium are not only awe-inspiring, they also help de-mystify these misunderstood predators.

Chances to educate the public and dispel some widely held misconceptions about sharks are more important than ever in light of the struggle these animals face in the wild, where numbers of all shark species are on a steep decline thanks to human activity.

The Aquarium will host a feeding frenzy of shark knowledge with the return of Sharkfest, one of its most popular annual events, on Friday, Aug. 4. This after hours celebration offers a fin-tastic chance for the public to have fun while learning about one of the oceans most fearsome and threatened animals.

This year, SharkFest will be even more special thanks to a pair of screenings at the IMAX 3D Theater of Shark Clans. Viewers will feel like they are cage diving with massive Great White Sharks prowling beneath the waves off South Australias Neptune Islands. This thrilling underwater documentary follows the work of a team of shark researchers, who have tracked and extensively photographed groups of sharks that return to this area year after year. Their extensive study has led to stunning revelations about families  or clans  of these sharks, which appear to abide by a social hierarchy.

Shark Clans features special local ties. It was filmed and produced by Chattanooga-based Nature Films Network, whose crew traveled to Australia to film the work of a research team led by famed shark conservationist Rodney Fox. In 1963, Fox was almost killed by a Great White Shark, but rather than allow that experience to inspire a fear and hatred of sharks, Fox instead has devoted his life to better understanding and protecting them.

This will be a rare opportunity to view this 2D film on the giant, six-story screen at the Tennessee Aquarium IMAX Theater. Seeing it on the IMAX screen gives audiences a new appreciation for the huge size of these sharks, said Rob Hall, one of the underwater photographers for Nature Films Network. The footage looks amazing. Its the closest thing youll come to actually being underwater in the cage with our team and the sharks.

The filmmakers will have some of their equipment set up in the IMAX Great Hall and will be ready to answer any questions about diving with impossibly huge sharks.

The screenings of Shark Clans are just one of the many exciting activities to take part in during Sharkfest, which runs from 5-8 p.m. in the Ocean Journey building. During this celebration of all things shark-related, guests will be able to:

Get a tough-looking (and temporary) shark tattoo

Have their hair molded into a fin or another fearsome do by stylists from Chattanoogas North Shore Great Clips

Get up close and personal with preserved museum specimens at Dr. Bernies Travelin Shark Show

Enjoy shark-tastic dive show presentations and a special shark feeding session

Peruse a stunning collection of prehistoric shark teeth, including some from the enormous, extinct Megalodon

Learn about smaller sharks and rays in the recently renovated Stingray Bay, courtesy of Cowboy Kyles Shark Round-up

Take a toothsome portrait with fishy props at the Shark Selfie Station

Sink their teeth into a tasty frozen treat from Coldstone Creamery

Tickets to Sharkfest are free for Aquarium members, $9.50 for nonmembers ages 3-12 or $14.50 for nonmember adults.

Screenings of Shark Clans are at 5 and 6 p.m. and will be in 2-D. Tickets are $8 and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

Proceeds from the purchase of tickets to Shark Clans screenings will be directed into the Aquariums ongoing support of Sand Tiger Shark research. OCEARCH, a world-renowned marine research group, is leading the project off the North Carolina coast. The studys aim is to use sonic tags to track mature female Sand Tigers in order to better understand how and where they reproduce. The Aquarium is helping to fund the purchase of these sonic tags, which are similar to the acoustic devices the Tennessee Aquarium Conservation Institute uses to track Lake Sturgeon in the Tennessee River.

For more information or to register for Sharkfest, visit https://community.tnaqua.org/events/member-programs/summer/2017/sharkfest-2017.
A three-year-old girl sustained traumatic injuries earlier this week after a 350-pound pig attacked her in Alabama.

Bella White was playing with her two older brothers at her family's Rogersville home on Monday when the neighbor's pig managed to get into the backyard and pounced on the little girl.

'My boys came running in and said a pig was attacking Bella,' Amber White, Bella's mother, told AL.com.

Bella White (pictured), 3, was attacked this week by a 350-pound pig that belonged to a neighbor

The pig (pictured) inflicted such 'traumatic' injuries that paramedics decided to evacuate Bella to a nearby hospital by helicopter

'I got outside and the pig had her arm in his mouth. I kicked, punched and picked up that pig until he finally let go of my daughter.'

By the time her mother was able to free her from the animal, Bella was left with such severe injuries that paramedics decided to evacuate her by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

'When I saw them take-off with her and I wasnt able to be with her thats when I started crying and broke-down,' White told a local broadcaster.

'There was blood everywhere... The bone was even showing,' she added.

Bella White's mother, Amber (pictured), told a local broadcaster that there 'was blood everywhere' following the attack

The pig was transferred to a nearby animal shelter where it will be euthanized and tested for diseases

Doctors at the Huntsville Hospital children's unit administered more than two-dozen stitches to Bella's forearm and another patch to her back in a procedure that lasted over two hours.

It remains unclear if Bella will need additional surgery following the attack.

Doctors will also assess if she sustained any permanent damage in the ordeal when she visits an orthopedic specialist on Wednesday.

Bella's mother later described the event as 'traumatic,' and said that the large pig has been a nuisance in the neighborhood.

'Everybody in the area knows the pig because it's always loose,' said White.

'Animal Control is called out here all the time telling the owners they have to put the pig up. By now, the owners should have done something.'

Sheriffs deputies transported the pig to the Forence-Lauderdale Animal Shelter and said the pig will have to be euthanized and tested by the State Health Department.

'I am kind of relieved,' Amber White said after learning of the pig's fate.

'I wish it could have turned out differently for the pig, but at least it cant hurt anybody else,' she added.
Six-year-old Owen Schmidt has become the latest member of a northern Illinois family to die in the wake of this weeks crash that killed his pregnant mother and two younger brothers.

Will County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer announced Thursday that the little boy was pronounced dead at 2.39am.

He and his four-year-old brother, Weston, were put into medical induced comas after Mondays accident in the community of Beecher, about 40 miles south of Chicago.

Family wiped out: Lindsey Schmidt, 29, from Beecher, Illinois, (left) and her 21-month-old son, Kaleb, (top right) were killed in a car accident after a pickup truck ran a stop sign. On Thursday, six-year-old Owen Weston (front center) died

Schmidt (left) and Kaleb (not pictured) were pronounced dead at the scene while. Four-year-old Weston (pictured in a stroller) passed away on Tuesday

Schmidt was driving her three sons at about 8.30am on Monday to a vacation Bible camp when the 2002 Chevy S10 pickup truck ran a stop sign and crashed into the 2014 Subaru Outback with an impact so severe that Schmidt's car was sent barreling into a cornfield (above)

Weston Schmidt was pronounced deceased at 5.55pm on Tuesday at Comer Childrens Hospital in Chicago.

The boys' mother, 29-year-old Lindsey Schmidt, and their 21-month-old brother, Kaleb, were pronounced dead at the scene. The woman was four months pregnant with her fourth child at the time of the collision.

Hoffmeyer says the driver of the 2002 Chevy S10 pickup truck that slammed into Schmidt's 2014 Subaru Outback was issued a traffic citation but that investigators are trying to determine if criminal charges should be filed.

Mrs Schmidt was driving her three boys at about 8.30am on Monday to a vacation Bible camp in Beecher, Illinois, when the pickup truck ran a stop sign, police say.

The Chevy crashed into the Subaru with such a force that Schmidt's car was sent barreling into a cornfield.

People attend a prayer vigil Wednesday for the Schmidt family at Firemen's Park in Beecher, Illinois

Happier times: Eddie, Owen and Lindsey Schmidt are pictured together in 2012, celebrating the boy's second birthday

Six-year-old Owen had spent several days in a coma, but doctors could not save him

The two boys were initially taken to St Margaret Hospital in Indiana before being airlifted to Comer Children's Hospital at the University of Chicago, where they had been put into a medically induced coma.

The driver of the pickup truck, a 25-year-old Manteno resident, survived and was first taken to St James Hospital before being transferred to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn.

He is in stable condition after undergoing minor reconstructive surgery for a large laceration to his arm, authorities say.

Investigators are working to determine if the unnamed driver should face charges and will examine his cellphone to determine if he was texting when the crash occurred, said Hoffmeyer.

Schmidt and Kaleb were pronounced dead at the scene (pictured) while the two older boys were taken to the hospital. The six-year-old is in a medically-induced coma, according to the Will County Sheriff's Office

The 25-year-old driver of the truck (pictured, after crash) is in stable condition after undergoing minor reconstructive surgery for a large laceration to his arm, authorities say. He told police he had his cruise control set to 55mph , which is the speed limit

Police say the truck driver is cooperating with the investigation. He told police he had his cruise control set to 55mph, which is the speed limit, reported CLTV.

No charges have been filed as of yet.

A family member told NBC 5 over Facebook: '[Lindsey] was a wonderful woman. We are heartbroken.'

The Schmidt family had built their house in Beecher where neighbors described them as 'the perfect family'. Lindsey's husband, Eddie, was not in the car at the time of the crash.

On Wednesday night, several hundred people came out for a candlelight prayer vigil held at Firemen's Park in Beecher for the Schmidt family.
Ross Cellino appeared in a Buffalo courtroom today in the battle to dismantle his multimillion-dollar injury law firm with Stephen Barnes, but his estranged legal partner was a no-show.

Attorneys for both sides duked out the latest round in the hour-long hearing at Erie Civil Supreme Court. Cellino had filed a petition for dissolution of the personal injury firm, widely known for its catchy '888-8888 jingle', in May.

Cellino sat a row behind his attorneys in court but did not wish to comment.

Barnes's attorney, Gregory Photiadis, asked the court today for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against Cellino. He said they 'vigorously disputed' the petition for dissolution of the firm.

A bitter feud: Ross Cellino Jr (left) and law firm partner, Stephen Barnes, are involved in a legal battle over their multimillion-dollar personal injury law firm

Solo: Ross Cellino (second left) attended the hour-long court hearing in Buffalo, but his estranged partner did not show

Photiadis said his client was making the request because 'unilateral communications from Cellino were sent to the bank to terminate an outstanding $5million credit which was intended to injure Cellino & Barnes'.

He said the law firm would not have been able to make payroll the following week if this move had been successful.

Photiadis also claimed that Cellino has been largely disengaged from the practice of law for the past ten years.

He noted that 30 lawyers from the Cellino & Barnes firm had provided affidavits asking Cellino to withdraw the petition for dissolution.

The attorney said that the success of Cellino & Barnes was down to the calibre and excellence of its lawyers.

Its extremely important for staff and lawyers, that while shareholders argue their differences, it is the status quo, Photiadis said.

Cellinos attorney, Terrence Connors, dismissed Photiadis claim for reinforcing of the status quo as nonsense and said that Barness lawyers did not meet the standards for a preliminary injunction.

Connors said that one of the merits for an injunction was irreparable injury but that was not true in this case because Cellino & Barnes is currently operating at a high level.

Without meeting that criteria, the oppositions claim for a preliminary injunction was dead on arrival, Connors said.

Justice Deborah Chimes denied Barnes's request but said that a 'status quo' order she had put in place on May 15 - requiring that the firm would operate as normal amid the legal proceedings - would remain in place.

She also denied to impose a 'gag order' on speaking to the media which was requested by Barnes's attorneys.

Judge Chimes deferred on the application to appoint a receiver until September 25.

During the hearing, Photiadis described the firm as 'extraordinarily successful' and said it 'functioned as a well-oiled multimillion-dollar machine' which had 12,000 clients and more than 200 employees.

'Shareholders made more than $40million over the last four years,' he said, adding that in 2017, Cellino & Barnes had a record pace of growth.

He said that despite the negative publicity, there was been 8 per cent uptick in business.

Outside of court, Terrence Connors, attorney for Cellino, said that Barnes's lawyers had failed because they 'didnt meet the criteria' for the 'very serious remedy' of an injunction.

Connors said: 'In the relief that was sought by Mr Barnes, they sought to expand the restrictions on the individuals connected with this litigation  who they talk to, what they talk about, how they go about their business.'

Barnes's attorney, Gregory Photiadis, asked the court for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order against Cellino (pictured) but it was denied

Iconic: Cellino & Barnes's catchy jingle, '888 8888' phone number and widespread commercials and billboard ads had infiltrated the New York landscape for 25 years

Earlier today, Cellino's amended petition for dissolution was made public after Judge Chimes had earlier agreed to seal court documents. The papers revealed the philosophical differences between the partners as Barnes sought to expand the firm into a coast-to-coast behemoth while Cellino attempted to keep the practice local and based on 'client-focused dedication'.

The documents read: 'Over the past few years, respondent Barnes - both overtly and covertly  has taken action to exclude petitioner Cellino from his role as owner and direction of Cellino & Barnes P.C.

'Respondent Barnes has attempted to unilaterally usurp control of the firm, diverted funds and opportunities from the firm to an entity in California, and, as recently discovered, formed his own New York Entity, 'The Barnes Firm, LLC' in late 2016.

'As a result, petitioner Cellino has entirely lost trust in respondent Barnes.'

The famed 'ambulance chasers' had spent several months in mediation after Ross M. Cellino first filed a dissolution that rocked the close-knit Buffalo legal community. Attempts to come to a resolution behind closed doors have been unsuccessful.

According to allegations made by Barnes, Cellino was trying to steal lawyers from their successful firm to being a new practice operate by his name alone

The documents go on to say that there is such 'internal dissension' that dissolution 'would be beneficial to the shareholders of the corporation, both financially and especially in terms of their personal well-being and emotional health'.

On Monday, a restraining order was placed on Cellino, ordering him to preserve the 'status quo' of the firm.

According to court documents, Barnes claimed that Cellino's conduct had been 'reprehensible' and that he was causing 'significant harm' by trying to steal lawyers from their successful firm to a new practice operated by Cellino alone.

According to allegations made by Barnes on Monday, Cellino told their employees that a 'Cellino' law firm would be more successful than one named 'Barnes'.

'Another statement that Ross made to the attorneys and employees during his pitch was that the 'Cellino' name was 'better' than the 'Barnes' name  analogizing our firm to Harley-Davidson and telling people 'no one ever calls their motorcycle a Davidson,' court papers read.

Nasty split: Cellino has accused Barnes of 'overtly and covertly' trying to exclude him from him from his role as owner for years

Barnes said clients had become increasingly anxious over their cases in recent weeks due to the upheaval. He also claimed that Cellino on June 6 tried to prevent their COO being able to 'wire or transfer any funds' without sign-off from both partners, which would have rendered the firm unable to make payroll for employees.

According to court documents, emails from Cellino showed he had criticized Barnes' character and said he had been cut off from the work email system.

Legal sources told DailyMail.com in May that Cellino was uncomfortable with how Barnes did business.

One local lawyer, who agreed to talk on condition of anonymity, told DailyMail.com: 'Stephen Barnes is a businessman, he is a shark. He is not a guy that takes no for an answer.

'He is far more aggressive, cold, and calculating than Ross Cellino who is a little bit more laid-back.

'They initially built their reputation on the type of advertising that would attempt to take cases away from other lawyers who were already handling them,' the source added.

Ross Cellino of 'Cellino & Barnes' Injury Attorney's attends a court hearing in Buffalo, NY. His partner Stephen Barnes did not show

'Barnes is very aggressive. Ross Cellino, especially in the last couple of years, has become more: 'Do we really need to do that? Can we try to get along with people more?'

'They have had major blow-ups at the firm. I've heard from a couple of lawyers there about shouting matches taking place in conference rooms and that type of behavior.

'I can't imagine that there's any lawyers in Western New York who are shedding a tear for what's going on.'

The fallout from the law firm's dissolution could be costly.

William F. Savino, a partner at prominent local firm, Woods Oviatt Gilman, told DailyMail.com that the news has rocked the Buffalo legal community.

'Everybody in this town is baffled. With a dissolution, the judicial intervention is going to be potentially disruptive and the press is going to be potentially adverse,' he said.

'It seems like the brand is taking a hit by exposing the law firm to dissolution. It's a very risky strategy because the golden goose is caught in the cross-fire.'

Massive billboards of Cellino & Barnes still dot the New York skyline and their ads with the catchy '888-8888' jingle remain on TV.

Some 56 attorneys work for Cellino & Barnes at their Buffalo headquarters and at satellite offices across New York state.
The father of one of three American Green Berets who were shot dead by a Jordanian soldier in an unprovoked attack on a Jordanian base believes the killer did not act alone, it was reported on Thursday.

Brian McEnroe, whose son, Staff Sgt Kevin J. McEnroe, 30, was shot in the head at point blank range during a rampage at King Faisal Air Base by Jordanian Air Force First Sgt Ma'arik al-Tuwayha, 39, on November 4, 2016, told Fox News that he suspects the Jordanian authorities engaged in a cover-up.

'I don't trust the Jordanians,' he said.

'I don't believe they're being forthcoming about everything that happened.

'Why did they have to lie and place blame and slander the honor of US soldiers?'

McEnroe was referring to the initial claim by Jordanian authorities that the Americans provoked the shooting by violating entry rules, but this claim was later withdrawn.

Brian McEnroe's (left) son, Staff Sgt Kevin J. McEnroe (right), 30, was shot in the head at point blank range during a rampage at King Faisal Air Base by Jordanian Air Force First Sgt Ma'arik al-Tuwayha, 39, last year

Brian McEnroe, left, and Linda Frost, second from left, listen to the firing party as they fire three rifle volleys during the funeral service for their son at Arlington National Cemetery on December 5, 2016

Brian McEnroe believes the killer did not act alone and that Jordanian authorities have engaged in a cover-up. He is seen above placing a rose on his son's casket

'I don't trust the Jordanians,' he said. 'I don't believe they're being forthcoming about everything that happened'

The elder McEnroe said he was angry at Jordan's King Abdullah for allowing his military to promote a false narrative about his son and his fallen comrades in arms.

'I honestly believe that he [the shooter] was not operating on his own,' said McEnroe.

'I believe that Jordan is covering something up and I will always believe that. Whatever that is, we may never know.'

McEnroe, who acknowledges that his assertions may never be proven, spoke to Fox News two days after Jordan released security footage of the six-minute assault.

McEnroe was angered when Jordanian authorities initially claimed that the Americans provoked the shooting by violating entry rules - a claim which was later withdrawn

'I honestly believe that he [the shooter] was not operating on his own,' said McEnroe

'This was an assassination  it wasn't a gunfight,' said Brian McEnroe

'[The shooter] was no more than 5 or 6 feet away from my son when he shot him with an automatic weapon at point-blank range,' McEnroe said. 'Mercifully, my son never knew what was happening. He died instantly'

The soldiers were part of an outfit that was in Jordan to secretly train Syrian rebels fighting the government in the long-running civil war

The video had previously been shown to the families of the US Army Green Berets by US law enforcement but had not been made public until Monday.

A Jordanian military court sentenced al-Tuwayha to life in prison with hard labor last week.

The defendant had said he opened fire because he feared the base was coming under attack and that he had acted in line with open-fire regulations.

Jordan's military said in a statement Monday that the soldier 'had acted against orders and military instructions and had not acted in self-defense.'

The statement was posted by Hala Akhbar, a news site linked to the military that also released the security camera footage.

The victims of the shooting were Kevin McEnroe; Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Kirksville, Missouri; and Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Texas.

The soldiers were part of an outfit that was in Jordan to secretly train Syrian rebels fighting the government in the long-running civil war.

Staff Sgt. James F. Moriarty (left), 27, of Kerrville, Texas, and Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen (right), 27, of Kirksville, Missouri, were the other two US soldiers killed in the incident

The 6-minute-long video was in line with descriptions previously given by the relatives of the American soldiers who had watched the footage.

It shows the US convoy coming under fire at the entrance to the base.

The footage has no sound, but puffs of white-gray smoke indicate gunfire.

At one point, two figures, US forces, are seen getting out of their vehicles to take cover.

They raise their hands and wave from behind a barrier, but the shooting continues.

Another figure, according to past descriptions the Jordanian, chases them and keeps shooting.

According to the descriptions of the relatives, Lewellen and McEnroe, who were in the first vehicle waiting at the gate, were the first to be hit by gunfire.

Moriarty and another soldier jumped out of the next two cars to take cover and returned fire with their pistols.

They yelled that they were friendly forces, the relatives said.

The defendant kept shooting, they said. He was seriously wounded in the exchange.

'This was an assassination  it wasn't a gunfight,' said Brian McEnroe.

McEnroe, who acknowledges that his assertions may never be proven, spoke to Fox News two days after Jordan released security footage of the six-minute assault

The video had previously been shown to the families of the US Army Green Berets by US law enforcement but had not been made public until Monday

'He [al-Tuwayha] was no more than 5 or 6 feet away from my son when he shot him with an automatic weapon at point-blank range.

'Mercifully, my son never knew what was happening. He died instantly.

The assertion that he [al-Tuwayha] thought they were under attack was absurd,' he said.

'All the Jordanians at the gate area knew who was coming back.

There was only one gate at that air base the same crew that was there when the shooting happened was the same crew there at 8 a.m. when our guys left the base.'

Jordan is believed to have released the surveillance footage in order to quell unrest in the kingdom, where public opinion is anti-American.

The public is said to be unhappy over the gunman's prison sentence.
Shabir Ahmed, 64  the ringleader of the Rochdale child sex gang was given 249,707 to clear his name

Members of an Asian Grooming gang are being given legal aid to fight deportation  after it emerged they have already received more than a 1million to unsuccessfully defend criminal charges.

There was outrage last night as it was revealed the paedophiles  who preyed on girls as young as 13  are getting more taxpayers money to battle moves to strip them of their British passports and send them back to Pakistan.

The case is particularly sickening because, despite the depraved nature of their crimes, the men are trying to exploit Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights  which safeguards the right to family life.

The four  who raped, abused and tormented young girls  claim booting them out of the country will harm their families.

Shabir Ahmed, 64  the ringleader of the Rochdale child sex gang  Abdul Aziz, Adil Khan and Abdul Rauf all received hundreds of thousands of pounds in legal aid at their original trial.

By contrast, Chris Gard and Connie Yates were denied any legal aid in their case against Great Ormond Street Hospital to take sick 11-month-old son Charlie to the US for experimental therapy.

Victims of the IRA Hyde Park bomb attack have also been refused legal aid to fund a private prosecution against chief suspect John Downey, 64, who is accused of murdering four soldiers and injuring 31 in the July 1982 atrocity.

David Spencer, of the Centre For Crime Prevention think-tank, said: These men have been convicted of some truly abhorrent offences and it beggars belief that they are now able to run up even bigger taxpayer-funded bills making spurious appeals in an effort to extend their stay in the UK.

These men clearly pose a threat to public safety. If someone is born overseas and commit such crimes in the UK, it is absolutely right that their citizenship should be revoked.

Abdul Aziz, 41, known as 'The Master' (left) and Adil Khan (right), 42, who went by the name Billy, were given 195,277 and 282,289 respectively

Tory MP Philip Davies, a former member of the Commons Justice Select Committee, said: These are astronomical sums and it will rightly appal people who will think the money could be better spent on the justice system rather than subsidising paedophiles chancing their arms on staying in the country.

The four Pakistani men were convicted in May 2012 of preying on girls in Rochdale, plying them with drink and drugs before they were passed around for sex.

Ahmed was given a 19-year sentence for conspiracy, two rapes, aiding and abetting rape, sexual assault and sex trafficking.

The others were given terms of between six and nine years and are already back on the streets after being released from jail.

Figures released to the Daily Mail under the Freedom of Information Act show that they billed the taxpayer 1,009,645 for their unsuccessful court battle.

Abdul Rauf has received 282,370 to fight deportation

Ahmed was granted 249,707, Rauf 282,370, Khan 282,289 and Aziz 195,277.

But the figures are set to rise as three of the men are spending tens of thousands of pounds paying lawyers working on their bid to beat deportation. The gang appealed in the civil courts against Theresa Mays decision as Home Secretary to strip the dual-nationals of their British citizenship as a prelude to deportation proceedings.It emerged that Aziz, 46, Khan, 47, and Rauf, 48, had secured legal aid for this challenge.

In February, Britains most senior immigration judge Mr Justice McCloskey, president of the Upper Immigration Tribunal, rejected the human rights grounds on which the men based their appeals. But they have now been granted permission to continue their fight at the Court of Appeal  meaning the case could drag on.

Divorced father-of-four Ahmed, a takeaway worker, used his trial to launch a series of tirades, including one in which he tried to blame Western society for allowing young girls to parade on the streets where they could be preyed on by men such as him.

Last year he lost a bid to overturn his convictions using human rights laws. He had taken his case to the European Court of Human Rights, claiming his convictions for child sex offences were a conspiracy by police and the jury to scapegoat Muslims.

Mark Tipper, whose younger brother Trooper Simon Tipper was one of four soldiers murdered in the Hyde Park blast in July 1982, said the legal aid payments were disgraceful. Liberal Democrat home affairs spokesman Ed Davey said: This shows the legal aid system is broken and urgently needs to be fixed.

In criminal cases, a person cannot receive legal aid if their household incomes is more than 37,500. For civil cases, they cannot receive if they earn more than 31,884 in pre-tax income or have at least 8,796 in disposable income and 8,000 savings and assets.

Earlier this week it was revealed hate preacher Anjem Choudary received more than 140,000 in legal aid in his bid to dodge prison for gathering support for Islamic State.
Divorce documents of the parents of a five-year-old boy who was allegedly killed by his dad after a trip to Disneyland reveal a bitter custody battle and accusations of possible abductions and molestation allegations.

The body of Aramazd Andressian Jr. was found near Lake Cachuma in Southern California on June 30.

Detectives believe his father Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, murdered the little boy because he wanted revenge against his estranged wife.

Andressian Sr. and Ana Estevez had both been fighting for sole custody of Aramazd, according to divorce documents obtained by the Pasadena Star-News.

Detectives believe Aramazd Andressian Sr., 35, murdered his son Aramazd Andressian Jr. days after a trip to Disneyland because he wanted revenge against his estranged wife

They both feared the other parent would try and flee with Aramazd to another country - Andressian Sr. to Iran and Estevez to Cuba.

Estevez had filed a domestic violence restraining order against Andressian Sr. in November last year. She had claimed her son had told her that his father 'tries to hurt mommy so she can go to the hospital, so he can have me.'

Andressian Sr. had told police that Aramazd was being molested by a 13-year-old boy who was the son of Estevez's boyfriend. That allegation launched an investigation by the child services department.

The court documents say the estranged couple agreed in April to sharing custody of their son by alternating weeks.

Andressian Sr. has pleaded not guilty to his son's murder and is currently being held in prison on a $10 million bond.

Andressian Sr. and Ana Estevez (left) had both been fighting for sole custody of Aramazd, according to their bitter divorce documents

The boy's father, Aramazd Andressian Sr, 35, has pleaded not guilty to murder. The boy's body was found in a lake on June 30, two months after his disappearance

Los Angeles County sheriff's investigators have said they think the boy was killed early April 21 after a family trip to Disneyland. His body was found on June 30 near Lake Cachuma in Santa Barbara County.

Andressian Srs was found passed out in a South Pasadena park on April 22.

He had taken prescription pills and was found in a car doused in gasoline in an apparent suicide attempt, sheriff's officials said.

Andressian told authorities that he drove that day about 145 miles to Lake Cachuma.

Before finding the remains of the boy, authorities had twice previously searched the lake unsuccessfully, using dogs and a dive team.

Authorities haven't disclosed how the boy was killed or what evidence links the boy's father to his death.

When Andressian Sr appeared in court earlier this month, his defense attorney Ambrosio Rodriguez said that a blue smock his client wore during the arraignment was a suicide-prevention garment and that he was being evaluated by a jail psychiatrist.

South Pasadena Police Chief Art Miller comforts Ana Estevez as they watch her son's coffin leave Holy Family Roman Catholic Church on July 18

The boy's funeral took place on July 18 at Holy Family Roman Catholic Church in South Pasadena

Before finding the remains of the boy, authorities had twice previously searched the lake unsuccessfully, using dogs and a dive team

Andressian is 'in a state of shock', said the attorney at the time, who declined to answer questions about the case.

At the boy's funeral held last week, Aramazd's mother praised him as vibrant, sweet and kind.

'Your sensitive nature melted many hearts, your analytical and curious mind amazed many, your imagination took us both away on new adventures,' she said.

'Your kindness and generosity was unparalleled to any child, and your ability to love unconditionally proved that you truly are God's child.'

The boy was last seen by his mother who had a video chat with him on April 18 as he visited with his father during their shared custody agreement.

Aramazd's mother was scheduled to have a video chat with her son on April 20, but that never happened.

Police began investigating after Andressian Sr. failed to drop the boy off with his mother that weekend.

'My heart is shattered and I will miss my son immensely each and every second of every day for the rest of my life,' the boy's mother, Ana Estevez, said in a statement released by the sheriff's department in June.

If convicted on the charges Andressian Sr. faces 25 years to life in prison.

The boy's mother was scheduled to have a video chat with her son on April 20, but that never happened, said South Pasadena Police Chief Art Miller
China has today hit out at Boris Johnson claiming that he is 'determined to stir up trouble over his plan to send two new aircraft carriers to the region.

The Foreign Secretary yesterday said the show of strength was designed to demonstrate Britain's support for free navigation rights in international waters at a time when China is trying to assert its dominance in the South China Sea.

But the Chinese Foreign Ministry angrily denounced the idea, saying 'certain outside countries are determined to stir up trouble' in the region.

HMS Queen Elizabeth, the Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier, sets sail from Lossiemouth

Spokesman Lu Kang said: 'Whatever banners these countries or officials claim to uphold, and whatever excuses they claim to have, their track record of bringing chaos and humanitarian disasters through their so-called moral interventions in other parts of the world is enough to make nations and people in the region maintain high vigilance.

Johnson however insisted that the move was not provocative, but rather designed to 'vindicate our belief in the rules-based international system and in the freedom of navigation through those waterways which are absolutely vital for world trade.

The new 3 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier and its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales are the biggest warships ever commissioned by the Royal Navy.

However, whatever Mr Johnson pledges, the ships will not be operational for years.

Johnson (pictured) said the carrier patrols would vindicate the UK's belief in the rules-based international system

The Queen Elizabeth left Rosyth last month to begin sea trials and is due to begin flight trials with F-34B jets towards the end of next year, reaching operational military capability in 2020.

The Prince of Wales is still in the shipyard and is due to be ready for frontline duties in 2023.

Mr Johnson said they were not only longer than the Palace of Westminster but more persuasive than most of the arguments you will hear in the House of Commons.

He said the warships would sail through the Malacca Straits between Sumatra and Malaysia  a route that currently accommodates a quarter of global trade.

He said: We dont want to see the militarisation of that area.

'We believe that for world trade to prosper there must be a fairness about the way sea lanes are going to operate.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon yesterday confirmed that at least one British warship would be sent to the region next year, although he declined to say which.

In an interview with Reuters, Sir Michael said that, wherever the carriers deploy, 'we won't be constrained by China from sailing through the South China Sea.'

The new 3 billion HMS Queen Elizabeth carrier and its sister ship HMS Prince of Wales are the biggest warships ever commissioned by the Royal Navy

We have the right of freedom of navigation and we will exercise it.

A decision to deploy the warships to the disputed region will be seen as a highly provocative move by Beijing and could undermine efforts to shore up what the two governments have called a golden era in their relationship as Britain heads towards a divorce with the European Union.

China reacted angrily in February this year after the United States deployed the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson to the region, which it claims as its own.

At the time, Chinas Foreign Ministry spokesman Geng Shuang claimed indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and said Beijing firmly opposes any countrys attempt to undermine Chinas sovereignty and security in the name of the freedom of navigation and overflight.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon (pictured on the boat) yesterday confirmed that at least one British warship would be sent to the region next year, although he declined to say which

China has responded to increased Western concern about the region by increasing its own military deployments to the area, raising fears of a possible confrontation.

Chinas construction of islands and military facilities in the South China Sea has provoked international condemnation, and raised concerns that Beijing could try to restrict movement through the area.

Beijing claims sovereignty over a vast area of the South China Sea, despite rival claims from the Philippines, Taiwan, Malaysia, Brunei and Vietnam.

Regional powers Japan and Australia have also clashed with China over its increasingly aggressive stance in the area.

Female Chinese troops practice marching in front of a billboard showing premier Xi Jinping. China has aggressively increased it's own military presence in the South China Sea.

Last year an international tribunal dismissed Beijings claim to the region saying there was no evidence that China had historically exercised exclusive control over the waters or their resources.

The fact that the UK is taking sides in the Asian dispute is likely to further irritate Beijing.

Last month, China's president Xi Jinping spoke on the 20th anniversary of the UK handover of Hong Kong.

He said China 'was again and again beaten by countries having far smaller territories and populations then itself.'
President Donald Trump is allowing two of his top aides to bicker publicly because he 'enjoys healthy competition' among his advisors.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders indicated Thursday that Trump doesn't mind that his incoming White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus are in a public battle for control of the West Wing.

House Speaker Paul Ryan suggested this morning that the Trump aides sit down and hash out their differences.

'I don't know if he has an opinion on what they should do between the two of them,' Huckabee Sanders told DailyMail.com in response, 'I think the president as always enjoys healthy competition and conversation and he sees that as such.'

President Donald Trump is allowing two of his top aides to bicker publicly because he 'enjoys healthy competition' among his advisors

Scaramucci took his bad blood with Priebus to live TV Thursday morning, calling in to CNN to talk to Chris Cuomo after a long phone with the president.

The Trump aide told the anchor that he and Priebus had 'odds' and 'differences,' which may or may not be able to be worked out, as he suggested that the former Republican National Committee chairman publicly prove that he did not leak the new communications director's financial disclosure form.

'So if Reince wants to explain he's not a leaker, let him do that,' Scaramucci said.

Last night, Scaramucci had put out a tweet  and later deleted it  in which he tagged Priebus' Twitter handle while complaining about his financial information showing up in a news report.

'In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45,' the communications director wrote.

Before the tweet was removed, the message had been interpreted by White House reporters and others online as a threat to Priebus. On CNN's New Day, Scaramucci suggested that those scribes may be on to something.

Anthony Scaramucci called into CNN Thursday morning to talk about his bad blood with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus

Scaramucci buzzed CNN's Chris Cuomo to explain why he sent out a tweet last night that seemingly blamed Reince Priebus for leaking his financial disclosure form

The confusion began with this tweet, posted by Scaramucci at around 11pm in which he appeared to accuse Priebus of leaking his financial disclosure to the media. He has since deleted the post

Shortly before 1am, Scaramucci posted a denial. He claimed he only tagged Priebus in the original tweet to prove they were united in tackling the leaks. He promptly deleted the first post

Scaramucci suggested that his relationship with Chief of Staff Reince Priebus (pictured) was brotherly, then mentioned the Biblical brothers Cain and Abel. Cain murdered Abel

'When I put out a tweet and I put Reince's name in a tweet, they all make the assumption that it's him because journalists know who the leakers are,' Scaramucci said, before calling on Priebus to prove he's not one of the high-level leakers in the Trump White House.

Scaramucci also explained his rocky relationship with Priebus.

'Now if you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences,' he admitted. 'When I said we are brothers from the podium that's because we're rough on each other.'

'Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I don't know if this is repairable or not, that will be up to the president,' Scaramucci continued.

In the Bible, Cain ended up murdering Abel.

'But he's the chief of staff, he's responsible for understanding and uncovering and helping me do that in the White House and that's why I put that tweet out last night,' Scaramucci explained.

He also claimed that 'a fish rots from the head down' and added: 'I can tell you two fish that dont stink, and thats me and the president. I dont like the activity going on in the White House. I dont like what theyre doing to my friend.'

Last night Scaramucci also tried to correct the record, putting out a 1 am tweet claiming he'd only included Priebus in the tweet to show that they were united in their clampdown on leakers.

'Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45'.

No other senior members of the administration were tagged.

Scaramucci was simmering over details being released to the public over his financial disclosure form.

The form, that was filed with the Office of Government Ethics revealed that the 53-year-old earned $10million between January and June from his private investment firm SkyBridge capital. It showed his total assets to be worth $85million.

The financial disclosures of White House officials including the president are listed on the office's website and any member of the public can request to view a copy of Scaramucci's form once it becomes available.

Despite this, he considered the sharing of his information a crime and believed it was proof of the gushing leaks coming from the administration - something he had spent Wednesday vowing to put an end to during various television interviews.

'I understand the law,' he told Cuomo. 'I know there was a public disclosure mechanism in my financial forms.'

'What i'm upset about is the process and the junk pool, the dirty pool, Chris, in terms of the way this is being done  and the leaking won't stop,' he said.

The severe lapse in communication comes in the middle of his first week as the new White House communications director and on the back of a dinner with President Trump, First Lady Melania, Fox News host Sean Hannity and former Fox exec Bill Shine.

'I can't have a couple of friends up from Fox & Friends, and Sean Hannity, who is one of my closest friends, to have dinner with the president and his first lady without it being leaked in seven minutes,' Scaramucci fumed on CNN.

'It's absolutely, completely and totally reprehensible,' he added.

It was the New Yorker's Ryan Lizza who first reported the president and first lady's dinner with Scaramucci and the Fox News crowd.

Lizza had also tweeted: 'In case there's any ambiguity in his tweet I can confirm that Scaramucci wants the FBI to investigate Reince for leaking.'

Lizza, a CNN contributor, had called in to New Day to talk about the bubbling Scaramucci-Priebus mess, when Scaramucci himself got on the line.

'When I was on the phone speaking to you last night I said it was unpatriotic that you weren't telling me who the leakers were,' Scaramucci said, directing his comments at Lizza instead of the CNN hosts.

Cuomo interjected to make sure Scaramucci knew he was saying these things on live television.

He kept going, telling Lizza, 'I was teasing you and it was sarcastic,' seemingly referring to Lizza's tweet that said Sccaramucci was serious about the FBI probing Priebus.

'It was one Italian to the other,' Scaramucci said.

During the Thursday morning interview, Scaramucci confirmed he had spoken with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

After his first post, Twitter users went into overdrive speculating over what Scaramucci meant by tagging Priebus' handle

New Yorker writer Ryan Lizza said Scaramucci wanted the FBI to investigate Priebus for the leak, though later Scaramucci suggested he had been joking on the phone to Lizza when he told the journalist that

Lizza reported earlier that Scaramucci had spent the evening dining with the president, the first lady, Sean Hannity and Bill Shine

Politico reported how Scaramucci earned $10million between January and June this year from his private investment firm, SkyBridge Capital.

The financial disclosure was filed with the US Office of Government Ethics which publishes the financial disclosures of the president and the vice president and lists those of Priebus and former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer on its website.

After he posted it,The New York Times asked Scaramucci why he believed it was a crime for his to have been shared, pointing out that in theory, because he submitted it on June 23, it is available for request from July 23.

He replied: 'They arent in process yet,' meaning someone had leaked them to Politico before they were supposed to go into the public domain.

The head of the ethics office, Walter M. Shaub Jr, stepped down last Thursday after failing to see eye-to-eye with the Trump administration for months.

Scaramucci's was not listed on the office's website on Wednesday night.

Scaramucci was mocked for believing it was a crime for the information to have been leaked

Politico's report indicates that he holds an ownership stake in SkyBridge Capital, a private investment firm which he founded in 2005.

His ownership stake paid him $4.9million between January and June and he collected another $5million in salary payments during the same period, according to Politico's report.

SkyBridge announced in January that it was being sold to the Chinese conglomerate HNA.

In an announcement of that sale, the company said Scaramucci would be stepping down as one of its managing directors but he is still listed as such on its website.

The deal has still not been finalized and is being looked-over by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

With his sights set on a role in Washington, Scaramucci moved to DC in June as an employee of Export-Import bank.

He immediately took an unpaid leave of absence and has not collected any of his $172,000 salary.

Scaramucci made $10million between January and June this year from his ownership stake in and salary from SkyBridge Capital, the private investment fund he founded in 2005

Before Politico published its report on Wednesday evening, Scaramucci appeared to be on a high from a busy day on the Hill in his new role.

He participated in several television interviews for both British and American networks.

They included an appearance on Hannity where he said he had evidence the leaks - of which there have been 125 since the start of Trump's presidency - appeared to be coming from the top down.

'One of the big problems that Im discovering is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them.

'I'm very proud to be reporting directly to the president so I can hermetically seal off the [communications] team from this sort of nonsense,' Scaramucci said.

'Some people think we're naive. I know I'm in a cesspool called Washington or a swamp called Washington so it'll be virtually impossible to get rid of every leak but we're taking dramatic steps to get rid of the leaks.'

In an interview with the BBC, he told of how he worked for '30 years to join the global elite' in Washington.

He also lamented the 'tough town' and how it appeared to foster backstabbing, telling more than one interviewer proudly: 'I'm a front stabber'.

Watch the latest video at <a href="//video.foxnews.com">video.foxnews.com</a>

Scaramucci appeared on Hannity hours before the tweet to tell of his plan to crackdown on the leaks

Hannity, who spoke with Scaramucci on the subject hours earlier, welcomed his announcement

It had been a busy day for the new White House Communications Director. Earlier, gave a fiery interview with the BBC's Emily Maitlis, during which he said of his new job: 'I'm having a lot of fun'

Priebus was rumored to have been against Scaramucci's hiring from the beginning.

A more establishment member of the GOP, he vouched for Spicer and was disheartened by his sudden resignation last week.

Scaramucci cryptically acknowledged the tensions between them in May, telling Business Insider: 'I have one or two people who obviously don't favor me, but that's okay, that's politics.

'I'm not the first person to get hit in politics, and I won't be the last.'

It was previously reported that the president was unimpressed with Priebus's performance as Chief of Staff.

In June, Politico reported that he'd given him until July 4 to clean up the administration and put an end to the constant leaks and infighting.
A Colorado landlord who was caught on home surveillance cameras having sex in his tenants' bed pleaded guilty to trespassing last week.

Carlos Quijada-Lara was filmed breaking in to the $1,100-a-month apartment of married couple Logan Pierce and Mikaela DiGiulio in Colorado Springs last November to have sex on their bed with another man.

He was unaware that the couple had installed a surveillance camera in their bedroom which recorded the romp.

Last week, 39-year-old Quijada-Lara pleaded guilty to felony trespassing in a deal with prosecutors, The Smoking Gun reports. He is due to be sentenced at a later date.

Carlos Quijada-Lara, 39, admitted felony trespassing last week after being caught in November breaking in to his tenants' home to have sex on their bed with another man (above). He was filmed by a home surveillance camera that was installed in the couple's bedroom

Quijada-Lara and his male partner (who is not shown above) engaged in oral and anal sex then wiped themselves off with the female tenant's wedding dress

In November last year, Pierce and DiGiulio were both at work when he received a message on his phone from the app which is linked to the surveillance cameras.

It had detected unusual activity in his bedroom and was triggered to alert him.

'I got a notification from one of the cameras on lunch the other day that it detected noise and it was strange because both of us work all day everyday,' he told KKTV at the time.

Carlos Quijada-Lara, 39, is awaiting sentencing for felony trespassing

When he reviewed the footage, he saw his landlord in their bedroom having sex with another man on their bed.

'I opened up the camera and kind of had to like quit the program and like restart it again because I didn't really believe what I saw,' said Pierce.

Afterwards, Quijada-Lara's partner used DiGiulio's wedding dress to wipe his genitals.

The couple alerted police and the landlord was charged with trespassing.

At the time, Lt. Howard Black with the Colorado Springs Police Department said: 'Landlords don't have the ability to go into tenant apartments and do whatever they want to do.'

Quijada-Lara will be sentenced on September 22.

The maximum sentence for first degree felony trespassing in Colorado is four years imprisonment and $100,000.

The incident took place at a $1,100-a-month apartment in this Colorado Springs building last November
A man who was jilted before his wedding went on a fire-fueled frenzy in Plattsburgh, upstate New York, police said.

Jimmy Williams, 35, is alleged to have torched eight cars on the morning of July 9 - one day after his wedding was supposed to have occurred.

He then fled to his hometown Kingwood, Texas, where he was arrested and extradited back to New York for trial, NBC 5 reported.

Jimmy Williams (left, in mugshot) has been arrested for allegedly torching eight cars in Plattsburgh, NY. He was to wed a woman named Kimberly (believed to be Kimberly Fulton, right, with Williams) but the wedding was canceled

The cars were torched along a route from Miller St to Seth Square early in the morning of July 9; the wedding was planned for July 8. Williams was living in Seth Suqare at the time, cops said

Williams, who lived in Seth Square in Plattsburgh, announced his engagement to a woman named Kim - believed to be his friend Kimberly Fulton - on Facebook in March 2015.

But two years of planning fell through when she called it off - for reasons currently unknown to the media - before they could tie the knot in Plattsburgh on July 8.

Instead, Williams spent his former wedding day at the Mayor's Cup regatta, a long-standing boat race in the city.

It's not clear why the wedding was called off. Police said Williams (pictured) was drinking at a boat race on July 8 before the fires were lit. All of the cars were unoccupied

He 'was downtown partaking in all the Mayor's Cup events,' prior to the fires being report Lt. Scott Beebie of the Plattsburgh PD said. 'We do believe alcohol was a factor,' he added.

The first fire was reported at around 3am Sunday, North Country Public Radio reported, with the second following an hour later and the third report coming at about 7:40am. Police later discovered six other damaged cars.

In total eight cars were torched on the mile-long route between Miller Street and Seth Square and two others were damaged by the flames.

At least two of the cars were completely burned out while others sustained lesser damage, Beebie said. All of the fires were started inside the unoccupied vehicles.

'He did live in Seth Square, so on [his] way home [he] allegedly took his anger out on the cars just before he reached his residence,' Beeblie said.

In the wake of the fires, police appealed for help online and scoured 35 hours of security camera footage before settling on Williams as their suspect.

He was picked up in Kingwood, Texas, around 20 miles northeast of central Houston, and extradited to New York.

Police say they expect to be able to release the cars back to their owners by the end of this week.

Williams was arraigned on Wednesday in Plattsburgh City Court, where a judge ordered him to be held on $50,000 cash or $100,000 bond.
Nearly 300 pounds of marijuana were found inside rail cars containing new Ford and Lincoln cars that had been shipped from Mexico to Michigan.

Employees at the Ford Rail Distribution Facility in Woodhaven, Michigan, found the drugs on Wednesday and contacted authorities, who uncovered 277 pounds of marijuana worth $125,000 after a search of about 200 cars,CBS reported.

The discovery came just three weeks after $1million worth of marijuana was found in Ford Fusions that had been manufactured in Hermosillo, Mexico, and shipped to Ohio.

Nearly 300 pounds of marijuana (above) were found inside rail cars containing new Ford and Lincoln cars that had been shipped from Mexico to Michigan

Employees at the distribution center found the drugs inside rail cars that had been imported from Mexico and offloaded in Michigan.

They contacted the police, who in turn reached out to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

The drugs tested positive for marijuana, and an investigation is ongoing. No arrests have been made so far.

'This seizure ensures that these illegal drugs will never be distributed in our communities and offers actionable intelligence that HSI and our partners can now develop into a larger probe,' HSI special agent Steve Francis said.

Ford spokesperson Kelli Felkner told Detroit News: 'We are taking this very seriously.

'We are working closely with a number of law enforcement agencies on this investigation, including the FBI, Customs, Department of Homeland Security and local police. We cannot comment further as this is an active investigation.'

Just earlier this month, about $1million worth of marijuana was found packed in the spare wheel wells in 15 Ford Fusions that had been manufactured in Hermosillo, Mexico, and shipped to Ohio.
A Labour MP who branded grammar schools unequal and damaging was accused of hypocrisy last night after it emerged that she sent both of her children to the schools.

New Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield described grammars as a Tory vanity project and said that they were not the way forward.

But yesterday it emerged that the mother-of-two had sent her two sons to a popular local grammar school  despite publicly insisting that no new ones should be built.

Theresa May had planned a huge expansion of grammar schools and a lifting of the ban  imposed by Labour  on any new ones opening.

New Canterbury MP Rosie Duffield described grammars as a Tory vanity project and said that they were not the way forward - but sent her two children there

However, the proposals were ditched from the Queens Speech in the wake of the Tory failure to win an overall majority at the general election.

Miss Duffield had made history during that election by winning the seat of Canterbury, which had been held by the Tories for 99 years

She sent both of her sons to a grammar school in Kent  the county with the highest concentration of the schools in the country. One still attends the school, but another left to attend a local free school after deciding the grammar was too competitive, she said.

During an election hustings event held at Canterbury Christchurch University in May, she was asked for her views on the selective schools.

We know its not the way forward  its not an equal system, she said.

Though she acknowledged that Kent residents voted to keep grammar entrance exam the Kent Test, she said children found it horrible, divisive and stressful. Then to be given the impression that theyre not good enough or not as good as their peers is just damaging, in my opinion, she added. She did, however, say she wouldnt shut down existing grammars or starve them of funds.

Theresa May (pictured on holiday in Italy) had planned a huge expansion of grammar schools but this was scrapped following the General Election

Last night, Tory MP Andrew Bridgen hit out at the canting hypocrisy of the hard-Left. Rosie Duffield sending her sons to grammar school is just like Diane Abbott sending her son to private school. Its always socialism for everyone else,he said.

The controversy emerged after Daniel Hamilton, a likely Tory challenger at the next election, asked for clarification of her views. How many families and young people in East Kent have benefited from our excellent local grammar schools, he wrote to her.

Mr Hamilton, a former grammar pupil in Canterbury now working as a consultant in London, added: At the general election, you fought  and were elected on  a manifesto which pledged not to waste money on inefficient vanity projects such as grammar schools.

You personally described grammar schools as unequal and damaging and refused to support the expansion of local grammar schools  a move which will increase pressure for places at excellent schools.

He also called for her to condemn insulting remarks by Shadow Education Secretary Angela Rayner that grammar schools constitute an ideological attack on the working class people of this country.

Labour opposes plans for new grammar schools  but almost all of Mr Corbyns top team or their children benefited from the education they provide.

He attended a grammar and sent his children to one, leading Theresa May to tell him during Prime Ministers Questions earlier this year: Typical Labour, take the advantage and pull up the ladder behind you.

Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell, Miss Abbott and Shadow Lord President of the Council Jon Trickett all attended grammars. A spokesman for Miss Duffield said: [Rosie] has worked within the constraints of the system shes been given: Kent is a grammar county. You cant opt out of the system, but you can disagree with it.

Miss Duffield responded to Mr Hamilton: I stood on the Labour manifesto of no new grammar schools. Parents want better funding for schools; parents also want good schools that allow all children to grow, develop and to rise to appropriate challenges in all spheres of learning.
While you may feel fairly comfortable in the belief that you come from planet Earth, a surprising study suggests that this may not be the case.

New research indicates that up to half of the matter in our Milky Way may have come from distant galaxies.

Scientists suggest we should consider ourselves 'extragalactic immigrants', as each one of us may be made in part from matter up to one million light years away.

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Research indicates that up to half of the matter in our Milky Way may have come from distant galaxies. Scientists suggest that we should consider ourselves 'extragalactic immigrants', as each one of us may be made in part from matter up to one million light years away

INTERGALACTIC TRANSFER The researchers used supercomputer simulations, and found an unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including the Milky Way, acquired their matter  intergalactic transfer. Their simulations show that supernova explosions release huge amounts of gas from galaxies, causing atoms to be transported between galaxies via powerful winds. While the idea of intergalactic transfer is new, the researchers believe it will be critical for understanding how galaxies evolve. Despite galactic wind speeds of several hundred kilometres/second, the experts believe that this process occurred over several billion years, as galaxies are very far apart from each other. Advertisement

Astrophysicists from Northwestern University in Illinois used supercomputer simulations, and found an unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including the Milky Way, acquired their matter  intergalactic transfer.

Their simulations show that supernova explosions release huge amounts of gas from galaxies, causing atoms to be transported between galaxies via powerful winds.

While the idea of intergalactic transfer is new, the researchers believe it will be critical for understanding how galaxies evolve.

Dr Daniel Angles-Alcazar, lead author of the study, said: 'Given how much of the matter out of which we formed may have come from other galaxies, we could consider ourselves space travelers or extragalactic immigrants.

'It is likely that much of the Milky Way's matter was in other galaxies before it was kicked out by a powerful wind, travelled across intergalactic space and eventually found its new home in the Milky Way.'

Despite galactic wind speeds of several hundred kilometres/second, the experts believe that this process occurred over several billion years, as galaxies are very far apart from each other.

Professor Claude-Andre Faucher-Giguere, a co-author of the study, said: 'This study transforms our understanding of how galaxies formed from the Big Bang.

'What this new mode implies is that up to one-half of the atoms around us - including in the solar system, on Earth and in each one of us - comes not from our own galaxy but from other galaxies, up to one million light years away.'

Scientists from Northwestern University in Illinois used supercomputer simulations, and found an unexpected new mode for how galaxies, including the Milky Way, acquired their matter  intergalactic transfer. Pictured is the Messier 1 galaxy which is similar to the Milky Way

The computer simulations show that supernova explosions release huge amounts of gas from galaxies, causing atoms to be transported between galaxies via powerful winds

During the simulations, the researchers tracked the complex flows of matter, and found that gas flows from smaller galaxies to larger galaxies, where the gas forms stars.

Dr Angles-Alcazar said: 'In our simulations, we were able to trace the origins of stars in Milky Way-like galaxies and determine if the star formed from matter endemic to the galaxy itself or if it formed instead from gas previously contained in another galaxy.'

The findings open a new line of research in understanding galaxy formation, the researchers say, and the prediction of intergalactic transfer can now be tested.

Professor Faucher-Giguere added: 'Our origins are much less local than we previously thought. This study gives us a sense of how things around us are connected to distant objects in the sky.'
Against a backdrop of cyberattacks that have grown into full-fledged sabotage, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos brought a sobering message Wednesday to hackers and security experts at the Black Hat conference.

In short: it's time for hackers once known for relatively harmless mischief to shoulder responsibility for helping detect and prevent major attacks that threaten billions of internet users around the world.

The Black Hat security gathering, happening this week in Las Vegas, follows a series of attacks and data breaches that have paralyzed hospitals, disrupted commerce, caused blackouts and interfered with national elections.

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Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos gives a keynote address during the Black Hat information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada asking for help from hackers to stop security breaches

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE Stamos challenged the hackers and security experts to address several key areas to find better ways to help people solve the most common vulnerabilities. These include reuse of passwords , email phishing attempts , and not updating devices to patch bugs. Advertisement

Stamos joined Facebook from Yahoo, which last year disclosed breaches of more than a billion user accounts .

'People now know how important it is to build secure systems to underlie our civilization,' Stamos said at a keynote speech.

'A topic that was once considered fringe, a topic that we had to fight for respect for, is now on the front page of every newspaper pretty much once a week.'

Stamos called for a culture change among hackers and more emphasis on defense - and basic digital hygiene - over the thrilling hunt for undiscovered vulnerabilities.

And he called for diversifying an industry that skews white and male, and generally showing more empathy for the people whom security professionals are tasked to protect.

'It's unfair for us to say that users should be better,' said Stamos, challenging his profession to find better ways to help people solve the most common vulnerabilities, such as reuse of passwords , email phishing attempts , and not updating devices to patch bugs.

Black Hat has matured since what Stamos, a longtime attendee of the computer security conference, described as its 'edgy and transgressive' early days.

It has grown more professional and corporate over time.

The Nevada event is known for its spectacular demonstrations, such as a hack to spit cash out of an ATM or take remote control of an internet-connected car.

But many of the 'really sexy, difficult problems' that security researchers dwell on are far more complicated than the problems that usually harm the average user, he said.

The Nevada event is known for its spectacular demonstrations, such as a hack to spit cash out of an ATM or take remote control of an internet-connected car.

Part of that is because of the healthy intellectual curiosity of hackers, but it's also driven by marketing and economic incentives, Stamos said.

'I appreciate the showmanship, but we need a little more thoughtfulness, a little less showmanship in our field,' Stamos told reporters after his speech.

Stamos isn't the only one calling for a broader focus on defensive techniques.

Facebook Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos talks about security in the cloud as gives a keynote address during the Black Hat information security conference in Las Vegas, Nevada,

'We should celebrate defense,' said conference attendee Amit Yoran, CEO of Columbia, Maryland-based security firm Tenable, and a former cybersecurity official during the administration of President George W. Bush.

'We focus on the threat of the day, the attack of the day, instead of focusing on the foundational issues.'

FACEBOOK FUNDS ANTI-HACKING GROUP Facebook Inc will provide initial funding of $500,000 for a nonprofit organization that aims to help protect political parties, voting systems and information providers from hackers and propaganda attacks, the world's largest social network said on Wednesday. The initiative, dubbed Defending Digital Democracy, is led by the former campaign chairs for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney, and will initially be based at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, which announced the project last week. Facebook said it hoped additional participants would turn it into a freestanding information-sharing center controlled by its members. Facebook, with two billion monthly users, bills itself as a vehicle for political debate and education, but was also used as a major platform to spread fake news and propaganda during the U.S. election campaign in 2016. Advertisement

But some attendees - Stamos among them - also point out that the bug-squashing hacker ethos still plays an important foundational role in helping to understand what needs to be fixed.

'Every single hacker is going to start by attacking and trying to hack things,' said Jaime Blasco, a chief scientist at San Mateo, California-based Alienvault, who has been trying to compromise systems since he was a 12-year-old growing up in Spain.

'I don't think it's bad. If you want to be a good defender, you have to understand hackers, and you have to have been one of them to know what you're dealing with.'
Memories apparently destroyed by Alzheimers patients could one day be restored, new research suggests.

The damage to the brain caused by the disease has been thought to permanently wipe memories.

But new research in mice offers evidence that the memories are still there, that the problem is actually with the recall and that music can solve it.

Memories apparently destroyed by Alzheimers patients could one day be restored, new research suggests (stock image)

People with Alzheimers suffer build ups of sticky, toxic plaque called Amyloid Beta on the surface of their brain cells, and tangly fibres called Tau inside their brain cells.

Now, research by scientists at Columbia University suggests that these memories are still there  and could be reawakened.

Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia, who was not part of the research team, said the findings could be revolutionary.

He told New Scientist: It has the potential to lead to novel drug development to help with regaining memories.

He added that there are clues long-lost memories can be reawakened in people with Alzheimers disease.

Music is the best example, which has attracted a lot of attention as a way for retrieving memories of the past in these patients  so it makes sense.

The research, published in the journal Hippocampus, was based on mice whose brain cells have been genetically engineered to glow red when they are storing memories, and yellow when they are being recalled.

The complex technique involves shining a laser on to the mouses brain using a fibre optic cable.

One group of mice were healthy, while the other had a condition that is similar to Alzheimers disease.

In a memory test, both sets of mice were exposed to a lemon scent, followed by an electric shock.

Ralph Martins at Edith Cowan University in Australia, who was not part of the research team, said the findings could be revolutionary (stock image)

The healthy mice would freeze much more often when exposed to the lemon.

The Alzheimers mice would do so much less often, suggesting they did not remember the link between the smell and the unpleasant shock.

When a laser light was shone on the mices brains, it was found that in the healthy mice, the red and yellow cells were linked in the hippocampus, the area of the brain that creates memories.

But in the Alzheimers mice, different cells glowed red, indicating the mice were recalling an unconnected memory.

The findings may help explain why people with Alzheimers often suffer from false memories, the researchers said.

They added that the part of the hippocampus they studied, the dentate gyrus, seems to be a key area to target to prevent mental decline.
Incredible footage has captured the moment that a diver encountered one of the ocean's most elusive creatures.

Penny Bielich, from the Isle of Man, was diving off Indonesia's Komodo Island when she spotted the mysterious megamouth shark.

So-called for its large gaping mouth, little is known about this stunning creature.

There have only been 63 confirmed sightings of the extremely rare shark since it was first discovered in 1976.

Penny Bielich spotted the creature while she was diving off the northernmost part of Komodo island, in an area called Gili Lawa Laut, on Tuesday.

'Megamouth shark! Privileged to see this magnificent creature with Heikki Innanen only 63 sightings ever! 64 now,' Ms Bielich wrote on Instagram.

Her footage shows the shark serenely swimming through the water as it approaches her, with its characteristic mouth in clear view.

While the species is mysterious, the sharks are not a threat to people.

Her companion Heikki Innanen reportedly recommended that she capture the uncommon experience on video.

There have been less than 100 confirmed sightings of the extremely rare sharks (pictured) since it was first discovered in 1976

THE MEGAMOUTH SHARK Incredible footage has captured the moment that a British diver encountered one of the ocean's most elusive creatures, the megamouth shark (pictured) Megamouth sharks can reach to a maximum length of 17 feet (five metres) and have a life span of up to 100 years. The species descend as deep as 525 feet (160 metres) under water during the day before rising to 40 feet (12 metres) during the night to feed. They swim with their huge mouths open to feed, filtering their meals through the inner lining of their gills. Its chief prey is shrimp-like krill. It also feeds on planktonic animals, including euphausiid shrimps, copepods, and the Pancake Jellyfish. The sharks have a bulbous head with a rounded snout and a large mouth. They are thought to have poor swimming skills, and soft, flabby bodies. While the species is mysterious, the sharks are not a threat to people Advertisement

Most have been found in Japan, the Philippines and Taiwan.

But the first confirmed sighting came in 1976, when a deep-sea anchor accidentally caught one off the coast of Hawaii.

Megamouth sharks can reach to a maximum length of 17 feet (five metres) and have a life span of up to 100 years.

The species descend as deep as 525 feet (160 metres) under water during the day before rising to 40 feet (12 metres) during the night to feed.

They swim with their huge mouths open to feed, filtering their meals through the inner lining of their gills.

Its chief prey is shrimp-like krill.

Penny Bielich spotted the creature (pictured) while she was diving on Tuesday with her Her companion Heikki Innanen, who reportedly recommended that she capture the uncommon experience on video

Her footage shows the shark serenely swimming through the water (pictured) as it approaches her, with its characteristic mouth in clear view

It also feeds on planktonic animals, including euphausiid shrimps, copepods, and the Pancake Jellyfish.

The sharks have a bulbous head with a rounded snout and a large mouth.

They are thought to have poor swimming skills, and soft, flabby bodies.

There have been a number of sightings in recent years, including in 2015 when fishermen in the Philippines discovered one of the creatures had washed up on shore.

There have been a number of sightings in recent years, including in 2015 when fishermen in the Philippines discovered one of the creatures had washed up on shore (pictured)

More recently, fishermen in a Japanese village caught a five-metre megamouth shark (pictured) in fishing nets three miles (five kilometres) from the Owase Port in Mie Prefecture in April 2016

A 12-foot (3.6 metre) megamouth shark (pictured) was found on a South African beach where it was washed up April 20, 2002

Speaking to The Washington Post at the time Christopher Bird, then a PHD student studying deep-sea sharks at the University of Southampton, said that we know so very little about the sharks.

'It wasn't discovered really until 1976. It's only really seen when it's accidentally caught in fishermen's nets or when it is stranded on beaches.'

'It's just a mystery', he said.

A 12-foot (3.6 metre) megamouth shark was found on a South African beach where it was washed up April 20, 2002.

More recently, fishermen in a Japanese village caught a five-metre megamouth shark in fishing nets three miles (five kilometres) from the Owase Port in Mie Prefecture in April 2016.

The creature was seen off the northernmost part of Komodo island, Indonesia, in an area called Gili Lawa Laut (pictured)
Facial recognition technology could mean that queuing to buy a train ticket and waiting to go through the barriers may be a thing of the past.

The cameras use high speed infrared lights to capture the shape and texture of the face in detail never seen before - even spotting small blemishes and wrinkles.

Researchers say they could identify passengers as they walk onto the platform and the time-saving technology could be rolled out in the UK by 2020.

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The cameras use high speed infrared lights (pictured) to capture the shape and texture of the face in detail never seen before - even capturing small blemishes and wrinkles

HOW DOES FACIAL RECOGNITION WORK? Facial recognition identifies people by analysing the shape of a persons face. Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points which distinguishes one from another. The cameras measure the distance between various points on the human face, such as the width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, distance between the eyes and shape of the jawline. These details are being picked up by cameras that use high speed infrared lights which can also pick out shape in space. This means they can pick up finer details like blemishes and wrinkles which cannot be picked up by 2D cameras. Researchers at the Bristol Robotics Laboratory say they are currently getting 95 per cent accuracy from the cameras - which they hope will increase further in the coming years. Dr Smith said they system would be in place from 2020. Advertisement

The project, which is being developed by the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, is funded by the Railway Safety and Standards Board and working in collaboration with the Cubic Transportation Systems.

'You can imagine that, if you can get rid of the gate lines in a place like Victoria station, there's a massive potential for increasing throughput', Lyndon Smith from Bristol Robotics Laboratory told BBC Click.

'So we ran an interesting project for [Cubic], which they're installing at their laboratory in Salfords [in Surrey] and the aim is to move it onto the underground', he said.

'You can imagine, for example, paying just by means of presenting your face to a system rather than having to use the card and pin', he said.

Dr Smith said they system could be in place for rail passengers across the UK from 2020.

Facial recognition identifies people by analysing the shape of a persons face.

Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points which distinguishes one from another.

The cameras measure the distance between various points on the human face, such as the width of the nose, depth of the eye sockets, distance between the eyes and shape of the jawline.

These details are being picked up by cameras that use high speed infrared lights which can also sense shape in space.

This means they cannot be fooled by photos of someone.

The technology would initially be available in 'fast-track' lanes for passengers who had had their faces scanned in a registration process.

The scanning capabilities are so advanced it can tell the difference between a photo of someone's face and their face in the flesh (pictured)

Researchers say they could identify passengers without stopping them using this system. It could start replacing ticket gates from 2020

'Everybody's face is unique in three dimensions actually. Even identical twins are unique', Dr Smith said.

The scanning capabilities are so advanced it can tell the difference between a photo of someone's face and their face in the flesh.

'3D imaging can distinguish features like moles and pores which are different on identical twins', Dr Melvyn Smith, Director of the Centre for Machine Vision told MailOnline.

'With a 2D imaging system you could use a picture but to avoid that the 3D information finds shape in space', he said.

'You could only fool it if you could carry a 3D representation of your head', he added.

Facial recognition identifies people by analysing the shape of a persons face. Each face has approximately 80 unique nodal points which distinguishes one from another

The technology (pictured) would initially be available in 'fast-track' lanes for passengers who had had their faces scanned in a registration process. The image in the centre - which looks like a pin diagram - shows the shape of the underlying 3D object

Researchers say they are currently getting 95 per cent accuracy from the cameras - which they hope will increase in the coming years.

'I think the technology is pretty much ready to go. However, if you do away with the barriers there are other issues like people in wheelchairs or children who are at different levels and those are issues we haven't solved yet', he said.

'It's only had limited testing so far - if sunlight is able to come through the roof that could affect how the system images the face and there are lots of real world situations that could affect how it works', Dr Melvyn Smith said.

The project, which is being developed by the Bristol Robotics Laboratory, uses infrared light (pictured) to distinguish between different faces. Using 3D infrared the cameras can identify shape in space, which makes them more sophisticated than other facial recognition systems

'While many passengers may be sceptical about using their face as a means of financing future travel, the idea in its simplest form will already be familiar to those who use e-passports, and the technology that allows us to go hands-free', said Justin Vaughan-Brown, Director of Technology Strategy for EMEA at AppDynamics.

'The future of train ticket validation may lie in facial recognition, but the potential of the technology will only be realised if consumers receive a flawless experience', he said.

'With the current tap-and-go policy so familiar to the majority of commuters, facial recognition must offer something more than what's already on offer'.

The object on the left is a sensor which senses when someone has walked past, the light to the left of the screen flashes to illuminate a person's face and the infrared LED reads the individual's face. The light and the sensor would not be used when it is implemented in a station
Designed to patrol the Arctic Ocean, Russia is building two new 'combat icebreakers' capable of smashing through five feet (1.5 metres) of sea ice.

Rumours suggest that the ships, which are part of 'Project 23550', will be fitted with high-powered 200kW lasers to help cut through the dense ice.

The first ship is expected to be ready by early 2018, and the second in 2020.

They could go some way to cementing Russia's dominance of the Arctic, an area where it's hoping to create a new trading routes.

While the lasers have reportedly just for cutting the ice, some say they may also have military applications.

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In a bid to patrol the Arctic Ocean, Russia is building two new Ivan Papanin icebreakers capable of smashing through five feet (1.5 metres) of sea ice

THE ICEBREAKERS The two Ivan Papanin ships are expected to be used to tow larger ships through the deep sea ice that surrounds many Russian Navy ports in the winter, forging a path through the ice. The ships will be 110 metres long, 20 metres wide, with a displacement of 8,500 metric tons and a range of 6,000 nautical miles, according to Sputnik News. They are also expected to carry one AK-176MA multipurpose deck gun, a search and rescue helicopter, and eight Kalibr anti-ship missiles or longer-range cruise missiles. And the report suggests that in the near future, the ships could also be outfitted with lasers. Advertisement

'The laser can cut through iceand possibly through enemies as well,' Michael Peck from Real Clear Defense wrote.

According to a report in Sputnik News, the Russian Navy ordered the two Ivan Papanin ships in April last year, and construction began last September in St Petersburg.

They will join a fleet of forty Russian icebreakers. The US only has two.

Once completed, the nuclear-powered ships will become the world's largest and most powerful icebreaking vessels.

They are expected to be used to tow larger ships through the deep sea ice that surrounds many Russian Navy ports in the winter, forging a path through the ice.

The ships will be 110 metres long, 20 metres wide, with a displacement of 8,500 metric tons and a range of 6,000 nautical miles, according to Sputnik News.

They are also expected to carry one AK-176MA multipurpose deck gun, a search and rescue helicopter, and eight Kalibr anti-ship missiles or longer-range cruise missiles.

Rumours suggest that the ships, which are part of 'Project 23550', will be fitted with high-powered lasers to help cut through the dense ice (pictured is a similar laser on a US Navy ship)

WHAT COULD A LASER BE USED FOR? While the Russian Navy has not specificed whether the laser could be used for any specific threats, director energy weapons could have a range of used. This includes: - Destroying threatening drones - Shooting down incoming air-to-air missiles - Hitting targets on the ground much like regular aircraft gun Advertisement

And the crew is expected to be made up of 60 sailors, with room for 50 more.

Speaking to Zvezda, Viktor Gromov, a physicist at the Siberian State Industrial University explained that the purpose of the new laser system 'is not to shoot something down or destroy it.

'We're talking about easing as much as possible navigation through northern regions.

'In addition, it's necessary to test empirically calculations, create the system, measure energy consumption and calculate many other parameters.

'For the first stage this is enough.'

The scientists highlight that the laser will not be used to cut all the way through the ice.

Instead, it will make precise cuts to make sure ships can pass easily pass through the ice.

The news comes just months after the US Navy announced that it would be testing a 150kW laser weapon in the next 12 months.

The news comes just months after the US Navy announced that it would be testing a 150kW laser weapon in the next 12 months (artist's impression pictured)

The US Navy plans to deploy the weapon on a test ship, 'then, a year later, we'll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both,' Rear Admiral Boxall explained

Speaking at the Surface Naval Association national symposium in northern Virginia, Rear Admiral Ronald Boxall said that testing of a 150-kW laser weapon could happen soon.

They plan to deploy the weapon on a test ship, 'then, a year later, we'll have that on a carrier or a destroyer or both,' Rear Admiral Boxall explained.

The weapon will be capable of dazzling the enemy, disabling their systems and, if needed, completely destroying vessels.
An observatory in Hawaii has captured the breathtaking moment a massive jet of space lightning broke out above a blanket of storm clouds.

The rarely-seen phenomenon takes place high in the atmosphere, sending bursts of electrical discharge shooting upward from the charged core of the thunderstorm.

In the stunning new video captured Monday night, the lightning can be seen ripping through the clouds in a violent stream of purple and red, as gravity waves ripple nearly 56 miles above Earths surface.

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An observatory in Hawaii has captured the breathtaking moment a massive jet of space lightning broke out above a blanket of storm clouds. The rarely-seen phenomenon takes place high in the atmosphere

JETS AND SPRITES Blue jets are enormous bursts of electrical discharge spiking upward from storm clouds in the upper atmosphere. They emerge from the electrically-charged cores of thunderstorms and rise up to 30 miles upwards in the shape of a cone. Red sprites are electrical bursts of light that occur above highly active thunderstorms. They only last a few milliseconds and are relatively dim compared with other lightning. The late experimental physicist John Winckler accidentally discovered sprites, while helping to test a new low-light video camera in 1989. They show up red at higher altitudes and fade to blue at lower heights Advertisement

The remarkable light show was captured on July 24 by the Gemini Cloudcam at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii.

This amazing lightning-like phenomenon is known as a Gigantic Jet, Frankie Lucena, who processed the video, told SpaceWeather.com.

They are related to sprites, but more powerful and easier to see with the naked eye.

While sprites last only a few milliseconds, and are relatively dim.

But, blue jets are much larger, creating a huge streak in the sky as they burst spaceward.

After downloading the time-lapse footage from the Gemini Cloudcam website, Lucena enhanced the colours to better show the striking phenomenon.

The video also reveals a look at the ripples in the sky that appear high in the sky above storms.

The ripples in the sky high above the storm clouds are what is known as gravity waves, Lucena explained on YouTube.

These gravity waves are located very near the ionosphere at about 90km.

These elusive electrical events have long been subject of wonder, and some have even debated their existence over the years, as they are so fleeting and, thus, often difficult to observe.

In the stunning new video captured Monday night, the lightning can be seen ripping through the clouds in a violent stream of purple and red, as gravity waves ripple through the sky nearly 56 miles above Earths surface

But, stunning footage captured in 2015 by an ESA astronaut aboard the International Space Station confirmed that they do exist  and, a subsequent analysis suggests they may even disrupt the chemistry of the stratosphere.

This, in turn, could affect Earths radiation balance.

Results from a study on the phenomenon were published this past February by Denmark's National Space Institute, which include a video recorded by Mr Mogensen as he flew over the Bay of Bengal at 28,800 km/h.

Mogensen aimed for cloud turrets  pillars of cloud extending into the upper atmosphere  and shot a short video showing 245 blue flashes.

The remarkable light show was captured on July 24 by the Gemini Cloudcam at the Mauna Kea Observatory in Hawaii. The ripples in the sky high above the storm clouds are what is known as gravity waves, Lucena explained on YouTube.

HOW 'UPWARD LIGHTNING' DIFFERS FROM JETS AND SPRITES Upwards lightning is normally caused by a preceding flash moving from the cloud to Earth, and involves a bolt moving from the ground to the clouds. The preceding flash causes an electrical field change, which allows an upward positive leader to originate from a tall object like a building or wind turbine. During winter snow storms, it is possible for tall objects to initiate upwards lightning without preceding flashes. Upwards lightning is very rare - estimates suggest less than one per cent of lightning travels in an 'upwards' direction. Jets and sprites, on the other hand, occur in the upper atmosphere as bursts of electrical discharge occur above active thunderstorms. Advertisement

Mogensen also saw sprites, called C-sprites, that create red-coloured tendrils more than 50 miles (80 km) above the ground.

The astronauts footage marked the first time blue jets had ever been recorded from space.

Each lasted only a few seconds, and stretched a few miles across.

'They were dancing over the top of the cloud, and we called them glimpses,' said Olivier Chanrion of the Danish National Space Institute in Lyngby, at the time.

'We sometimes saw around 100 glimpses per minute, and we think they're integrated between the top and bottom layers of the cloud.

'But it's only a first step and we need to find out more.'
Men were held responsible for the inability to have children in medieval times, a study of medical and religious texts found.

Some of these texts recognized the possibility of male infertility, making references to sterility and 'unsuitable seed,' and there were even records of a urine test to determine if a husband or wife was to blame for a lack of children.

Some medieval recipes to treat infertility in men were devised, including catmint-boiled wine and ground up pig testicles in wine.

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In 13th-15th century England, male infertility was viewed as a possibility not only among people who studied medicine and could read Latin, but also among less-educated people who read English texts. Latin texts were translated, influencing English texts with infertility treatments

MEDIEVAL INFERTILITY REMEDIES A 12th century gynaecological book called 'The Trotula' included information about urine test to see if a man or woman was responsible for infertility. The remedy detailed that both the man and the woman should each urinate in a pot of bran, and the pots should be left for nine or ten days. If worms appeared in one of the pots, than that person was the infertile partner. If it was suspected that the man was responsible, other medieval texts proposed remedies, including: The Liber de Diversis Medicinis (Book of Diverse Medicines), a collection of medical recipes from the 15th century, said: 'If a man wishes that a woman will conceive a child soon take catmint and boil it with wine until it is reduced to a third of its original volume, and give it to him to drink on an empty stomach for three days.'

Another recipe book, located in the Wellcome Library in London, advised that to stop sterility, a person should: 'Take a pig's testicles, dry and grind them, and give them to drink with wine for three days.' Advertisement

The analysis of medical and religious texts from the 13th century, conducted by researchers at the University of Exeter, showed that some of the texts discussing male infertility were widely circulated.

According to the researchers, it's been widely assumed that women in medieval England were blamed for a couple not having children, and that religious preaching about infertility focused on women.

It's also been assumed that when men were considered responsible for a couple not being able to have children, it was because of sexual dysfunction, where the man was unable to have an erection and have intercourse.

Dr Catherine Rider, a historian at the University of Exeter involved with the study, said: 'Although medical texts tended to devote most space to female infertility, male infertility was nonetheless regularly discussed as a possible cause of childlessness in academic texts and by educated medieval medical practitioners, and this information may have been used on occasion when treating childless couples.

'These books show people had accepted long ago that male reproductive disorders were not just about problems that occurred during sex.

Dr Rider found that doctors at the time recognized that sexually-active men might not be able to conceive a child.

In 13th-15th century England, male infertility was viewed as a possibility not only among people who studied medicine and could read Latin, but also among less-educated people who read English texts.

Latin texts were translated, adapted and added to, influencing English recipe collections which include infertility medicine concoctions.

For example, a 12th century gynaecological book called 'The Trotula,' written by an anonymous author, was circulated widely and translated into English and French.

It said that 'conception is impeded as much by the fault of the man as by the fault of the women.'

The widely read book also described male reproductive disorders being about less visible forms of 'sterility' as well as problems relating to erections and sperm emissions.

The Liber de Diversis Medicinis (Book of Diverse Medicines), a collection of medical recipes from the 15th century, said: 'If a man wishes that a woman will conceive a child soon take catmint and boil it with wine until it is reduced to a third of its original volume, and give it to him to drink on an empty stomach for three days'

The book also quoted an earlier book, saying: 'Whether this comes about from a defect of the spirit impelling the seed, or from a defect of spermatic humidity, or from a defect of heat.

'If from a defect of heat, he will not desire intercourseif it happens from defect of the spirits he will have no desire and he will not be able to have an erection.if it is because of a defect of the seed, when they have intercourse they emit little or no semen.'

A 12th century gynaecological book called The Trotula said that 'conception is impeded as much by the fault of the man as by the fault of the women'

And men with excessively cold and dry testicles had seed that was 'useless for generation.'

The Trotula also included a urine test to see if a man or woman was responsible for the 'defect' - a test that was also included in previous medieval texts.

The remedy detailed that both the man and the woman should each urinate in a pot of bran, and the pots should be left for nine or ten days.

If worms appeared in one of the pots, than that person was the infertile partner.

Another medical text, written by John of Mirfield, a cleric associated with St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in the late 14th century, warned: 'It should be noted that when sterility happens between married people, the males are accused by many people of not having suitable seed,'

Some medieval medical books also had advice for men to improve their fertility.

For example, The Liber de Diversis Medicinis (Book of Diverse Medicines), a collection of medical recipes from the 15th century, said: 'If a man wishes that a woman will conceive a child soon take catmint and boil it with wine until it is reduced to a third of its original volume, and give it to him to drink on an empty stomach for three days.'

Another recipe book, located in the Wellcome Library in London, advised that to stop sterility, a person should: 'Take a pig's testicles, dry and grind them, and give them to drink with wine for three days.'

However, it wasn't clear if the man or woman was supposed to drink the remedy.

Through the analysis of these medieval texts, Dr Rider was able to uncover a much wider concept of male infertility than was recognized by medieval marriage laws.

Some medieval medical books had unusual advice to help improve mens fertility including drinking wine boiled with catmint

These laws allowed marriages to be annulled due to sexual impotence, but not infertility.

Dr Rider also found evidence of men being accused of impotence in church courts, but medical ideas about male reproductive disorders went beyond the idea of just impotence.

'We can't fully understand what attitudes were like towards male infertility in the Middle Ages because we have so few records which describe the experiences of people who had reproductive disorders,' Dr Rider said.

'It is hard to know whether men or women were more likely to seek treatment for infertility in practice.

'Most of our evidence comes from doctors who discussed what might happen and how to treat these problems.'
30 local volunteers from around Catoosa County came out to support Catoosa Habitats community clean-up project at a local residence on Saturday.

We are so blessed to have so many volunteers come out and support this day. said Penny Mahon, Catoosa Habitats Executive Director. It is because of volunteers dedication that we are able to do this today and we are so thankful for each and every person here.



Some of the tasks that volunteers performed include pressure washing the home, painting various rooms, doing yard work, and redoing a bathroom. The bathroom was a major undertaking but, with the volunteers we had we were able to help the homeowner have a new, functioning bathroom. Penny said.

Dominos of Ringgold and Chick-fil-a of Fort Oglethorpe donated lunch to the volunteers. Without the donation of food, we would not have been able to accomplish as much as we did because we wouldve had to leave the site for lunch. said Penny. They are great businesses and we thank them tremendously for their donation.

The homeowner expressed gratitude for what the Catoosa Habitat volunteers had accomplished at her home. Im so blessed beyond words what Habitat has done for me and my boys, said the homeowner. We are just thankful for everyone who came out to help us.

To learn more about what Catoosa Habitat is doing in their community, and to volunteer, check out its website at catoosahabitat.org and like Habitat for Humanity of Catoosa County on Facebook.
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It is a stunning view of our planet from 250 miles up.

Sony has revealed it worked with the the Japanese space agency JAXA to install a new camera system including the firm's 7S II, on the International Space Station (ISS)'s Japanese Experiment Module, KIBO.

The camera system, the only one to be mounted outside the station, is controlled from the earth via remote control and transmits image data.

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Sony worked with the the Japanese space agency JAXA to install a new camera system including the firm's 7S II, on the International Space Station (ISS)'s Japanese Experiment Module, KIBO. In this image, Osaka is shown during a clear day with barely a cloud in the sky

'The mission of the outboard camera is to record clear images of the Earth from the International Space Station,' explained Toshitami Ikeda, JAXAs associate senior engineer who was in charge of the outboard camera system.

'By capturing exceptional, immersive images from outer space of something such as a large-scale disaster on the ground, you can grasp aspects of the situation that are unseen from the ground, such as damage and the scope of impact.

This could be looking at color change in the sea by taking pictures of a submarine volcano or watching the movement of drift ice, the agency hopes.

'By recognizing these kinds of changes of the Earth, we can contribute to an understanding of global environmental issues, and we also believe that transmitting images invisible from the ground will lead to an increased interest in space development.'

The camera will capture both still and video during its stay on the station.

'We can also explore environmental changes by taking continuous pictures of a specific place, like a fixed-point observation.'

HOW THE SPACE STATION'S NEW CAMERA WORKS Researchers used a completely standard Sony camera for the project, only wiring it up to a power supply rather than a battery and using its USB controller The camera mount is positioned at the tip of the KIBO Japanese Experiment Module. From here, it's possible to capture both the earth and space. The KIBO module features an airlock and robot arm that allow for experiments and observational equipment to be put in place or switched as needed without the need for extravehicular activity by astronauts. The camera system, the only one to be mounted outside the station, is controlled from the earth via remote control and transmits image data. Previously, the outboard camera attached to the Exposed Facility of KIBO was set up so that it was always facing the Earth. Now, there is a mounting that lets us move in 2 axes, which means that even when directed toward the Earth, we can still move and capture space. This ability to capture the Earth and space from different angles will allow images impossible until now. The camera is a standard model equipped with the power zoom lens (FE PZ 28-135mm F4 G OSS) and was designed to fits into its special holding box unmodified Advertisement

The International Space Station makes one orbit of the earth every 90 minutes, and using the previous system, researchers say they couldnt even consider shooting at night, which comes around every 45 minutes.

'Im looking forward to its performance and the ability to shoot even in very low light at night,' said Ikeda.

This image reveals New York at night, showing the incredible light generated in the area

DC and Baltimore was captured in another image showing off

'Phenomena such as Aurora or meteors, or the earth seen at night from space, are a little different from when seen on the ground, so the high sensitivity capture that the 7S II offers is perfect for night shooting.- I think expectations for 4K video shot in space are also high.'

Of course, being able to record 4K movies is also an important point.

Tokyo, Nagoya, Kyoto and Osaka feature in these historic images captured by the new camera
She's the rhythmic gymnast who's vying for Matthew 'Matty J' Johnson's heart on The Bachelor.

But before she was attempting to find everlasting love with the hunky marketing manager, Akoulina Ktoiants made a huge commitment to another man.

Speaking to OK! magazine on Thursday, the 29-year-old revealed she once walked down the aisle with a previous partner.

'I have been married': The Bachelor's Akoulina Ktoiants (pictured) told OK! on Thursday that had previously tied the knot with an ex before signing up to win Matty J's heart

'I have been married,' Akoulina told the publication, before admitting she also recently came out of a serious two-year relationship in 2016.

'He didn't want to commit to me... It was unstable and I pulled the plug,' she revealed.

The Gold Coast beauty also let it slip about the type of man she's searching for in a partner.

Qualities that topped the list included: not being a party boy, no smoking, no drinkers and definitely no bogans.

'It was unstable and I pulled the plug': The blonde beauty also revealed she recently ended a two-year relationship due to her partner's commitment issues

Looking for love! Akoulina (pictured right with friends) has a long list of qualities she doesn't want in her significant other, including: no smoking, no drinking, no party boys and no bogans

Akoulina made a dramatic entrance on Wednesday's premiere of the popular Channel Ten dating show.

Dressed in a stunning blue ensemble, the blonde beauty danced her way down the red carpet to meet with Matty J, leaving him momentarily speechless.

'Hello, I wrap myself up and I present myself as a present to you,' she told the 30-year-old TV star while batting her eyelashes.

Got the moves! Akoulina unusual entrance left Bachelor Matty J (left) momentarily speechless

Is he 'The One'?: The Gold Coast-based beauty is hoping to win Matty J's (pictured) heart

Later to camera, she confessed she wasn't concerned about the 21 other women also trying to capture Matty's affections.

'I don't worry about the other girls because I'm going to wrap him up in my love and in my ribbon and in my twirling,' she told the camera.

Fellow bachelorettes Stacey Simpson and Monica Brown were the first to be eliminated from the show, with Akoulina among the remaining women attempting to make Matty fall in love with them.

'I'm going to wrap him up in my love and in my ribbon and in my twirling': Akoulina said she wasn't worried about the competition because she had a game plan
In a couple of recent YouTube videos, Britt Nilsson has relayed in detail her battles with addiction to alcohol and drugs, as well as her binge-eating disorder.

She's revealed in the first video that when she was a contestant on the 19th season of The Bachelor - which aired in 2015 - she wasn't drinking, but was bulimic, taking pains to conceal her vomiting to prevent its becoming a TV 'plotline.'

Britt recalled of that period that 'You're mic'ed 24/7, and I would take my mic off, and, you know, try to hide it under towels and stuff so they wouldn't hear me throw up.'

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Honesty: In a couple of recent YouTube videos, Britt Nilsson has relayed in detail her battles with addiction to alcohol and drugs, as well as her binge-eating disorder

She'd said earlier in the video that 'Im an alcoholic, meaning not that I, you know, was drinking a bottle of wine by myself in the bathtub, or waking up and taking shots. But my personality, for better or worse, is a personality that, you know, if a little is good, all is best, and more, more, more, in everything.'

Britt's called drinking 'part of my life off-and-on, but whenever it is a part, I try to control it and I cant. So, you know, right now Im sober. Im almost a year sober, actually, coming right up at the end of this month.'

Her voice cracking with emotion, she confided: 'Its been something that has really drastically affected all of my relationships in a very negative way  relationships with friends, relationships with [fiance] Jeremy [Byrne], with anyone else Ive dated, because  I dont even know how to explain it.'

She gave it a shot, outlining that her 'makeup is basically that I just want it all, all the time, and thats what makes me a really joyful person, and thats what makes me love taking on projects and love meeting people. And, you know, I really like experiencing life. Like, I really, truly enjoy life so much.'

'Only as sick as our secrets': She's revealed in the first video that when she was a contestant on the 19th season of The Bachelor - which aired in 2015 - she wasn't drinking, but was bulimic

The flipside is that 'I also dont know when to stop, and thats just affected the people in my life in a way that I didnt want anymore. So I quit drinking. It was making me act in ways I didnt like. So, I was sober on the show. That was actually a different sobriety, so Ive gone in and out many times, as addicts do.'

She said: 'I was sober on the show, and that was actually really good,' adding, for good measure: 'A lot of people were drinking, and I wasnt, and that was good.'

Yet she went on to add: '[A} harder problem and a longer-standing problem has been my addiction to food and my relationship with food. Its been very complicated for most of my life. So  oh, this is kind of crazy to say; I mean, all my friends know, but  yeah, on the show, even, I was bulimic. I dont remember when that started.'

'It started sometime in college, and throughout college, got worse and worse. And then after college, I was in  well, I dont wanna throw anyone under the bus, but it was just a relationship that was hard on me, and I had a lot of shame,' she said.

Secrecy: Britt recalled of that period that 'You're mic'ed 24/7, and I would take my mic off, and, you know, try to hide it under towels and stuff so they wouldn't hear me throw up'

'And that just kicked it up, cause all addictions are pretty related to shame and pain avoidance,' she said, though she appended quickly: 'I think, in my experience.'

She's remembered 'eating food in secret, throwing up in garbage bags in my car, throwing up in dumpsters, throwing up, you know, behind bushes in weird places.'

Britt's said she 'would throw up in the shower in a garbage can and then try to transfer it to the toilet without anyone finding out' - all this over a period of 'years.'

'I didn't tell anyone, 'cause I just thought it was too shameful, and I was just too embarrassed. And actually the first person that I ever told was Jeremy, when we dated about five or six years ago. We were in a church service, and Holy Spirit just wouldnt let me keep it in. So I told him. So I just was like: "Im bulimic."'

'Letting the secret out': Her counsel for others in her shoes is: to 'Tell somebody,' though she's clarified it should be 'Not someone online, not a chat room,' but rather 'someone that you know

She's held, 'It was the first time it ever came out of my mouth. I couldnt even get it out for, like, literally 10 minutes. I just crying, crying. It was really hard to label myself that way. And then I told him and it actually was a huge release.'

Jeremy 'stuck by me with it, and he would ask me about it and keep me accountable. And it actually got much, much better. I started talking to people about it. I started going to groups about it, and I found out that its not super uncommon.'

She discovered 'That theres ways that you can  you know, accountability was a huge one  and then theres just ways you can eat that dont trigger that stuff. And I just learned a lot. It wasnt completely eradicated, but it wasnt this shameful, horrible secret. And so I kinda came out of it.'

Britt's explained that 'since then, its just been something that Ive struggled against,' detailing that 'Ive always compulsively overate, and then I just have so much fear around, like, keeping it in my body, that I then make myself sick, which starts the whole cycle all over again,' as she's described the situation.

By her side: She's revealed 'the first person I ever told' about her bulimia had been her boyfriend Jeremy Byrne, to whom she's since got engaged

Though 'its been years now, since Ive acted out, since the show,' she's confessed that 'yeah, in full honestly, that was actually happening on the show. And thats how intense my addictive nature is,' she noted, going into the mic story.

She'd endeavored to keep her bulimia private 'Because then that was gonna be the show, and that was gonna be a plotline. And how horrible would that be to be the girl who has an eating disorder, whos  whos cant stop eating and throwing up?'

Back then, 'I had broken blood vessels' and 'would throw up until I was bleeding out of my nose, and then I would just wipe it off. And I just couldnt stop.'

As Britt's recalled, 'I was in the show for about two-and-a-half or three months. And during that time  I actually felt good until about the very end. Thats when I started realizing things were weird. But I didnt even know women were talking about me behind my back. I didnt even actually know that.'

'How horrible would that be': She'd endeavored to keep her bulimia private while on The Bachelor 'Because then that was gonna be the show, and that was gonna be a plotline'

Yet 'I could just probably feel in my spirit. I just had anxiety. And for me, having tons of food everywhere, and youre just a captive audience. You cant go anywhere. It just became too much, and I would just eat to shove down, like  I just had pain and anxiety. I felt insecure. I didnt feel pretty enough. I didnt know what was going on.'

Moreover, 'I missed my family. And I hadnt acted out in that way in a long time. And so that made me feel like: "Oh, no, Im losing all of my progress that Ive made through going to groups." You know, and I was in AA because of drinking, so I had, you know, been working the steps for that,' she pointed out.

'And I felt like I was losing all of my maturity, and all the step-work I had done, because Im acting out, and Im not able to stop eating,' she said.

The upshot was that at this point in time 'I was, you know, totally terrified, that it was gonna be caught on a mic, and that everyone was gonna hear, and then it was gonna be millions of people who knew that I couldnt control myself. And it was really, really hard for me, and it just kept going and going.'

'I like being up': She's also detailed a 'short-lived' cocaine addiction during her college years, cocaine being a drug that had 'magnified my personality in a way that I'd liked'

She's also detailed a 'short-lived' cocaine addiction during her college years, cocaine being a drug that had 'magnified my personality in a way that I'd liked.'

As she's said: 'I like being up. I like being happy, and cocaine made me feel that way. And so I remember, I mean, I was, you know, crawling on the floor, looking through the carpet to see if I could find any little crumbs of coke on days that I ran out.'

Other drugs had entered her life as well, and there'd been a time in her life when she'd 'loved drugs' and 'basically didn't know how to live without drugs' - plus which, her most intense period of drug use was one when she 'wasn't acting out with food.'

These days, as she's said, 'I feel healthier,' though 'I'm not perfect,' having quit drinking and drug-taking and sworn to herself to never again make herself vomit.

'Wasn't acting out with food': Other drugs had entered her life as well, and there'd been a time in her life when she'd 'loved drugs' and 'basically didn't know how to live without drugs'

Her counsel for others in her shoes is: to 'Tell somebody. Not someone online, not a chat room. Tell someone that you know. Because just letting the secret out is the biggest  its the biggest part of it, because were only as sick as our secrets.'

This Tuesday she'd uploaded another YouTube video in which she emotionally confessed to having lapsed into a binge that morning, and offered some of her advice on how to combat the issues she's striven to overcome.

After her stint on The Bachelor, Britt and Kaitlyn Bristowe had competed on the premiere of the 11th season of The Bachelorette for the title role, with Kaitlyn winning the position when it was put to a vote by the male contestants.
Lorraine said the menopause stopped her seeing the joy in things

Her jolly disposition has graced our screens for decades.

But Lorraine Kelly has opened up about how the menopause stopped her seeing the joy in things and how taking HRT gave her mojo back.

The 57-year-old TV presenter said the hormonal changes she experienced meant she no longer recognised herself.

She said: I lost my mojo. I didnt feel like me. It was weird. Things didnt feel quite right. I wouldnt say I was depressed at all but I wasnt seeing much joy in things.

The mother-of-one, who is still going through the menopause, said she would look at her successful career and loving family and feel puzzled as to why she felt so down.

I kept thinking: Hang on a minute, Ive got a brilliant job and, more importantly, Ive got a great family and pals. Whats wrong with me?, she said.

But it was just my hormones were all over the place.

'Its like when youre pregnant and you find yourself sobbing at advert, which is what I used to do.

After speaking to her close friend, TV doctor Hilary Jones, she started using HRT patches which helped her get back to her usual self.

She told Closer magazine: Theyre fantastic and rebalanced me. Now I understand why I wasnt feeling great myself. It was just a blip, but it did feel disheartening.

But when she was feeling confused, Miss Kelly did not confide in her husband of 25 years, Steve Smith, or her daughter Rosie, who is a 23-year-old charity worker in Singapore.

The Scottish star pictured interviewing Marina Fogle on her popular chat show

Im good at hiding things, she said. I tend to plaster a smile on and just get on with it. Thats what most women do.

The Scottish star also praised Carol Vorderman for speaking out about her depression on her show earlier this year.

Im very fond of Carol and she had a terrible time, she said.

She was clinically depressed and at one point she didnt see any point in carrying on. There are very few taboos but its one of the things we dont talk about - and we should.

Miss Kelly was born to a working-class family and grew up in one room, in Gorbals, Glasgow, which had no hot water and an outside toilet.

The mother-of-one, who is still going through the menopause, said she would look at her successful career and loving family and feel puzzled as to why she felt so down

The family later moved to East Kilbride and she started her career on the local newspaper. The broadcaster landed a job at TV-am, where she met her husband, more than 30-years-ago and has worked in breakfast television ever since.

She now lives in Dundee, but spends her working week in London to present Lorraine.

Speaking to OK! about her set up last year, Miss Kelly said splitting her time between two homes was the secret to her happy marriage.

She said: It wouldnt work for everyone but it certainly works for us. In some ways its quite nice as we really look forward to seeing each other and having a massive catch-up at the weekend. Its good.

It definitely keeps the romance alive, for sure. It stops you taking each other for granted.
Former model Jodie Kidd is enjoying a flying start to her unlikely new career as a pub landlady.

The 38-year-old, who recently bought her local, The Half Moon in Kirdford, West Sussex, opened for the first time this week and celebrated getting her alcohol licence by posting a photo of herself online.

The 6ft 2in blonde threw a party at which she supped beer and red wine with her mother, Wendy, by her side.

Jodie could be forgiven for wanting to drown her sorrows. Her first husband, Aidan Butler, left her in 2007 after just 18 months, citing her 'unreasonable behaviour'.

Her second marriage, to David Blakeley in 2014, lasted just four months.

Former model Jodie Kidd is enjoying a flying start to her unlikely new career as a pub landlady

Stick-thin model and it-girl Alexa Chung broke up with her Swedish actor boyfriend Alexander Skarsgard earlier this month, which means she can spend more time with the eponymous fashion line she has just launched.

However, her lackadaisical approach to work doesn't exactly bode well for its longevity.

'I've never had a proper job so I've not learned what you're supposed to be like as a boss,' admits the 33-year-old.

When asked about her management style, she replies: 'I don't know. Probably not very professional?'

Oh dear.

Stick-thin model and it-girl Alexa Chung can now spend more time with the eponymous fashion line she has just launched

Fergus Beeley, Sir David Attenborough's former producer, has pulled out of a talk at the Royal Geographical Society entitled 'Mindfulness In Nature' following a road-rage incident in which he advised a family to 'get ready to die'.

The fate of another of Beeley's commitments 'nature retreats' advertised by Pride of Britain Hotels  is unknown.

These, said its website before the page's removal, are 'Fergus's response to recent research that humans need nature for good health and wellbeing... breathing and listening are also of utmost importance throughout.'

The retreats also offer 'silent meditation on Climping Beach' and a '25-minute indulgent massage'. Essential after a blast of Beeley.

Fergus Beeley, Sir David Attenborough's former producer, has pulled out of a talk at the Royal Geographical Society entitled 'Mindfulness In Nature'

Dame Joan Collins isn't the only prominent Brit inconvenienced by the fires raging in the South of France.

So too is Lord Bamford, JCB chairman and owner of Chateau Leoube in Provence.

The billionaire's vineyard is very popular with the Chipping Norton Set and its rose is a favourite of petrolhead Jeremy Clarkson.

A spokesman for Lord Bamford tells me: 'The Leoube estate has been affected by the fires. All employees and their families are safe.'
She's having the time of her life on vacation on a girlie trip to the Greek island of Mykonos.

And Joanna Krupa was carried by a watermelon in the pool, as she continued to flaunt her bikini bod on Instagram, on Wednesday.

The 38-year-old reality television star posed in a skimpy gold two-piece alongside her pal Christina Kotalik.

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Looking good: Joanna Krupa was carried by a watermelon in the pool, as she continued to flaunt her bikini bod on Instagram, on Wednesday

She captioned: 'Working really hard today with @christinayoga it's tough to be us.'

The Real Housewives Of Miami alum covered her eyes with dark glasses as she set about topping up her already-glowing tan.

Later, she joined friends for a Greek goddess-themed party at her exclusive villa.

White hot! She joined friends for a Greek goddess-themed party at her exclusive villa

She flashed her legs in a white mini-dress, alongside her equally beautiful pals.

The Polish-born beauty has been enjoying her European getaway to Greece in the wake of her split from husband Romain Zago, 44.

The TV personality has been sure to show her estranged husband just what he walked away from - even posting fully naked pictures to her social media.

All glam: She flashed her legs in a white mini-dress, alongside her equally beautiful pals

Having fun: The Polish-born beauty has been enjoying her European getaway to Greece in the wake of her split from husband Romain Zago, 44

In a new interview with In Touch Weekly, she revealed she was 'caught off-guard' when her longtime love asked for a divorce in December.

'I spent many nights crying. It was the worst Christmas imaginable. I felt like my life had been turned upside down, and I couldnt see the light at the end of the tunnel. I cried. I couldnt eat. I probably lost about 7 pounds,' she recalled.

Romain decided to end their marriage because he wanted children.

Moving on: Joanna seems to be recovering after Romain caught her 'off-guard' by asking for a divorce; seen here in 2013

'I was heartbroken. He had wanted a family, but I was always traveling and made work my priority. As time has gone on, Ive realized we were both unhappy,' Joanna told the tabloid.

But, she and her ex are on 'great terms' and talk every day, so the celeb explained she's doing much better now that significant time has passed.

'I feel alive again. I finally woke up one day thinking, "Ive got to get myself together." I had been dead inside. I realized Im healthy, Im successful, I have an amazing family and friends, what am I crying about? Life is too short,' she said.
She came under fire from her loyal fans after sharing a very plump pout selfie on Instagram earlier in the week.

And now Charlotte Crosby's followers have jumped to her defence after vile trolls targeted her saucy bikini snap on the photo-sharing platform, in which they bashed her for being 'skinny' on Tuesday.

The former Geordie Shore, 27, sizzled in the racy figure-flaunting photo which showcased her incredibly flat stomach and narrow waist as she lay strewn across a sun lounger while enjoying her breakaway to Dubai with her boyfriend Stephen Bear.

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Sun-soaked: Charlotte Crosby's followers have jumped to her defence after vile trolls targeted her saucy bikini snap on the photo-sharing platform, in which they bashed her for being 'super skinny' on Tuesday

Despite wowing her cut-out lace-up bandeau bikini, some of her followers were quick to point out that they could see her ribcage and hip bones in a number of body-shaming comments.

One fan wrote: 'Omg I can see all your bones, I'm not hating either I love Charl think it might just be the way she's posing'.

'I do think from other snaps she is looking a little too thin...' another shared. 'She looks healthy and I know she is naturally very petite anyway but she needs to not get any thinner now'.

Despite their worry, many of Charlotte's loyal fanbase were quick to support the Sunderland beauty as they defended her against nasty 'keyboard warriors'.

Under fire: Charlotte was targeted by nasty followers online about her sizzling selfie

Nasty: Despite wowing her cut-out lace-up bandeau bikini, some of her followers were quick to point out that they could see her ribcage and hip bones in a number of body-shaming comments

'All you keyboard warriors commenting on her body seriously need to get a life,' a fan began. 'Charlotte is perfectly healthy, has curves in all the right places and works hard to look the way she does.

'It's all about the angles and you always look skinnier laying down so stop trying to body shame her you bitter twisted cretins.... RANT OVER!!'

While one other posted: '@charlottegshore u look absolutely beautiful and genuinely happy within yourself. I think it's terrible people just can't be happy for others to be happy. Be the amazing person u already are'.

'@charlottegshore bit rude too tell her she too skinny and needs too eat have u seen her Snapchats she always post food and eating on there and she looks amazing it's called healthy food and gym hate body shaming no one is perfect!!!'

Support: Despite their worry, many of Charlotte's loyal fanbase were quick to support the Sunderland beauty as they defended her against nasty 'keyboard warriors'

Before a fan shared: 'She's not all bones, it's how she's laid - anyone with not a lot of fat around their waist laid at the same angle would look similar! If I laid like that you'd see my ribs and hip bones ...she looks fine to me'.

Charlotte's latest Instagram backlash comes after she was been slammed by fans for commenting under a particularly plump-lipped selfie: 'My lips are natural'.

Posting the snap to her Instagram account last week, the reality star is seen to look loved-up with her tattooed beau Bear, but fans were quick to question her claim of filler-free lips.

Bee stung: Charlotte's latest Instagram backlash comes after she was been slammed by fans for commenting under a particularly plump-lipped selfie: 'My lips are natural'

Confusion: Perplexed by her comment, fans told Charlotte that although they had 'no judgement', of her surgical choices, 'lying about it is kind of a joke' (Left photo: May 2011)

Claim: Despite this, Charlotte defiantly commented in response to people pointing out her most voluptuous feature: 'My lips are natural'

Perplexed by her comment, fans told Charlotte that although they had 'no judgement', of her surgical choices, 'lying about it is kind of a joke'.

The doubting fans were referring to the earlier days of Geordie Shore, in which Charlotte can be seen displaying a noticeably thinner lipped pout.

In photos dating back to 2011, during the time she began her climb to reality stardom, the beauty sported more of a fresh-faced look.

Younger years: The doubting fans were referring to the earlier days of Geordie Shore - in photos dating back to 2011, during the time she began her climb to reality stardom, the beauty sported more of a fresh-faced look (Photo taken July 2011)

All grown up: Charlotte appears to have undergone a dramatic transformation over the years

Despite this, Charlotte defiantly commented in response to people pointing out her most voluptuous feature: 'My lips are natural'.

A representative for Charlotte confirmed to MailOnline the star was joking.

Users penned their thoughts underneath the seductive photo: 'I just don't get why you say they're real when there's photos online or if you even watch the first original eps of Geordie you don't have lips like that. No judgement, I'm all for making yourself look/feel better, but lying about it is kind of a joke.'

'Do what you want with your own body but why lie they are natural tho when they obviously aren't. Only need to look at your geordie shore days - lips don't grow twice in size...

'You've ruined your face, you constantly look like you're having an allergic reaction... Please stop messing with your face it doesn't look pretty! U was beautiful before and just a little filler would look better, your lip shape doesn't suit massive lips...

Slammed: Fans questioned Charlotte's claim, commenting 'I just don't get why you say they're real'

However, other fans defended Charlotte, telling her that she looked 'beautiful' in the sultry snap.

'Everyone going off on one saying 'what have you done to your lips' and all that, listen, it's her face she can do what she wants. You look beautiful @charlottegshore...

'Stop being so nasty and trolling others online I'm sure if you wanted to change something about your self and you had the money you would too! @charlottegshore is beautiful, you nasty pigs need to get a life!...

'All the jealous trolls on here... why bother comment like! Loving all your snaps looks like you're having a ball'.

Defence: However, other fans defended Charlotte, telling her that she looked 'beautiful' in the sultry snap

Charlotte previously admitted to having lip fillers when she appeared on Loose Women in 2016 to discuss her nose job.

She was grilled by Janet Street Porter over her decisions, looking uncomfortable when talk turned to her lips.

But when Loose Women panellist Katie Price started sharing her experience of cosmetic surgery with Charlotte, Janet interrupted again, exclaiming 'excuse me but just me how is that work, spending money on surgery?'

Explaining her reasoning behind her decisions, Charlotte said:

'I was kind of bubbly and fun but with boys and when it came to flirting or dating or being sexy, like at a photoshoot with all the girls, I would hate it. I would lock myself in the dressing room and cry.'

'I just never felt confident in a sexy way.'

She also said of nose surgery: A lot of people dont think it looked wrong before, but I had a big arch.'
Claire Danes was a showstopper at the New York premiere of her new film Brigsby Bear, which will be released to movie theaters on Friday.

The 38-year-old Homeland Star had slid into a cleavage-baring dress with yellow and green floral designs spattered across a pale pink background.

Tiny white fabric flowers dotted the straps over her shoulders, as well as sloping about the neckline, which dipped far enough to bare a bit of cleavage.

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Hello, gorgeous: Claire Danes was a showstopper at the New York premiere of her new film Brigsby Bear, which will be released to movie theaters on Friday

Cinched in to emphasize her trim waistline, the lightly pleated dress was hemmed above her ankles, allowing a full view of the pale pink stilettos she'd slid on.

She then added a bit of bling to her outfit in the form of some Eva Fehren jewels.

She got in a bit of posing on the carpet with someone who was dressed as the title bear, who's standing and wearing a T-shirt in red, gold and various shades of blue.

Claire's also stood for photos with the film's leading man Kyle Mooney, who'd tucked a blue patterned dress shirt into black trousers he'd tightened with a black belt.

Beaming: The 38-year-old Homeland Star had slid into a cleavage-baring dress with yellow and green floral designs spattered across a pale pink background

Dynamic duo: She got in a bit of posing on the carpet with someone who was dressed as the title bear, who's standing and wearing a T-shirt in red, gold and various shades of blue

Having a laugh: Claire's also stood for photos with the film's leading man Kyle Mooney, who'd tucked a blue patterned dress shirt into black trousers he'd tightened with a black belt

Leaving a couple of his top's buttons undone over his chest, Kyle had completed his outfit by way of a white and dull-brown pair of shoe and a pair of spectacles.

Kyle, who's also co-written the film with Kevin Costello, has posed with Claire and the bear, the whole trio =themselves flanked by director Dave McCary and Tom Bernard, who's co-president of the film's distributor Sony Pictures Classics.

Vanessa Bayer and Taran Killam - both formerly of Saturday Night Live - posed together for photos on the carpet that day, though neither is actually in the film.

Big smile: Leaving a couple of his top's buttons undone over his chest, Kyle had completed his outfit by way of a white and dull-brown pair of shoe and a pair of spectacles

Alumni: Vanessa Bayer and Taran Killam - both formerly of Saturday Night Live - posed together for photos on the carpet that day, though neither is actually in the film

Beaming: Having slid into a sleeveless black top, Vanessa had tucked it into a high-waisted pair of wide-set grey slacks hemmed above the ankle to reveal open-toe black shoes

Having slid into a sleeveless black top, Vanessa had tucked it into a high-waisted pair of wide-set grey slacks hemmed above the ankle to reveal open-toe black shoes.

Taran had slipped on a charcoal suit with a bit of sheen, and beneath it he'd worn a T-shirt with yellow, blue and green patterns on a white field that matched his sneakers.

Someone called Brittany Burke has also posed at the premiere of the film, which had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Fetsival in January and which also features such names as Mark Hamill and Greg Kinnear.

Top brass: Kyle, who's also co-written the film with Kevin Costello, has posed with Claire and the bear, the whole trio =themselves flanked by director Dave McCary and Tom Bernard, who's co-president of the film's distributor Sony Pictures Classics
Against The Law

Rating:

Long Lost Family

Rating:

Some people dont watch much telly. They prefer to listen to Radio 3 and go to art galleries, so they can tell their friends that theres really nothing much on and, anyway, theyre far too busy.

Thats fine. Their loss. But such people really shouldnt try to make TV themselves.

Against The Law (BBC2), by writer Brian Fillis and director Fergus OBrien, had all the hallmarks of a programme conceived and executed by people who dont watch nearly enough TV. It was clumsy, badly constructed, laboured and monotonous, preaching a message so earnestly that it became suffocating long before the end.

Against The Law (BBC2), by writer Brian Fillis and director Fergus OBrien, had all the hallmarks of a programme conceived and executed by people who dont watch nearly enough TV

The film-makers were so intent on seizing the moral high ground and trampling it that this drama-documentary was devoid of all fun

The story of a Daily Mail journalist, Peter Wildeblood, who was jailed for 18 months in the Fifties for a same-sex relationship with an airman, deserves to be told. Wildeblood was a courageous man, no hero and certainly not a saint, who dared to speak out against an unjust law.

But the film-makers were so intent on seizing the moral high ground and trampling it that this drama-documentary was devoid of all fun. They reduced it to a few seedy love scenes, an interminable court case and some pious dialogue between unlikely inmates at Wormwood Scrubs  interspersed with commentary from gay men in their 80s and 90s who had lived through the era.

Even the opening betrayed how ill prepared Fillis and OBrien were. Typewritten words clattered across the screen and faded away: This is a true story.

That device is the hallmark of the U.S. crime fantasy Fargo, now in its third season. Its practically copyrighted. Any TV director worth his salt ought to know that  they might as well have started with Monty Pythons theme music and a giant cartoon foot.

And any telly fan would have known the format of historical reconstructions broken up by talking heads is best restricted to Channel 5 documentaries about the Tudors. Even then, its rubbish.

The problem is that just as the viewer starts to become enthralled by the drama, the illusion is shattered by soundbites

Their contributions ought to be edited together and shown again, so we can enjoy their insights in a coherent collection

The problem is that just as the viewer starts to become enthralled by the drama, the illusion is shattered by soundbites. Daniel Mays is a fine actor, and he did all he could to transcend the leaden script, but the constant stop- starting wrecked his performance.

High jinks of the night Wild Alaska Live (BBC1) featured agile black bears in the treetops. Better not get stuck  cats are one thing, but theres not a fireman in the world whod fancy rescuing a stranded bear. Advertisement

Leaden is too kind a word, though. Some of this dialogue was heavier than uranium. Scanning a newspaper report about the upcoming inquiry, chaired by Lord Wolfenden and aimed at changing the law on homosexuality, Mays had to declaim (to no one in particular): I must have my say. Wolfenden needs to hear the truth.

All this was a great shame for the interviewees, who were articulate and often witty. Their contributions ought to be edited together and shown again, so we can enjoy their insights in a coherent collection.

For an expert TV production, showcasing a well-honed format to its best advantage, look no further than Long Lost Family (ITV). Now in its seventh season, its an emotional express train, running smoothly on rails to bring us jolts of heartbreak and happiness on schedule.

Even though the pattern does not change, this show never becomes dull, because every family has experienced the pain of separation in its own unique way.

For an expert TV production, showcasing a well-honed format to its best advantage, look no further than Long Lost Family

This time, the researchers had discovered a divorced couple, childhood sweethearts James and Marion, who were united by their aching need to find their son

Now in its seventh season, its an emotional express train, running smoothly on rails to bring us jolts of heartbreak and happiness on schedule

This time, the researchers had discovered a divorced couple, childhood sweethearts James and Marion, who were united by their aching need to find their son: nearly 50 years ago, when they were just 16, they had been forced to give him up for adoption.

We know how the story ends  with tears and heartfelt hugs. Its no less moving for that.
Nikki Lund showed her post-baby body and new child last week while headed to Las Vegas to promote her fashion line.

The 35-year-old fashion designer was spotted at Los Angeles International Airport with her five-month-old son Hendrix.

Nikki stood out in a bright yellow Valentino dress with pink and green floral print.

New addition: Nikki Lund carried her five-month-old son Hendrix last week at Los Angeles International Airport

She stepped out in black wedge heels and carried a black leather purse.

Nikki had her long blonde hair down and accessorized with gold necklaces and sparkling earrings.

She carried Hendrix with one arm while making her way through the airport.

Hendrix wore a light blue onesie that complemented his bright blue eyes.

Fashion line: The close childhood friend of Kim Kardashian was headed to Las Vegas to promote her fashion line Nikki Lund Clothing and its online presence shop.nikkilund.com

The boy is Nikki's first child with musician and producer Jeff Phillips.

She was headed to Las Vegas to promote her new fashion line Nikki Lund Clothing and its online presence shop.nikkilund.com.

Nikki to advance her fashion line has partnered with entrepreneur consultant Greg Writer; Bernt Ullman, who co-founded Star Branding with fashion designer Tommy Hilfiger and Joe Simpson, the father of pop star Jessica Simpson.

Floral print: Nikki stood out at the airport in a bright yellow Valentino floral print dress

Joe previously helped establish the The Jessica Simpson Collection fashion line that has roughly $1 billion in annual sales.

The father of two in a YouTube video last month said he used to be neighbors with Nikki, later became friends with her and photographed her fashion line.

The close childhood friend of Kim Kardashian previously was in a business and personal relationship with Bon Jovi lead guitarist Richie Sambora, 58.
Miller Industries Towing Equipment Inc. unveiled its latest investment aimed at continuing its commitment to providing the worlds best towing and recovery equipment. Its investment includes a $20 million expansion to its existing wrecker manufacturing facility in Ooltewah.

Part of this expansion is the addition of an over 30,000 SQFT new paint facility, which will provide a significant increase in wrecker production ability. Millers new paint facility is truly state-of-the-art, and is equipment with high-tech temperature and moisture controls, as well as an environmentally friendly dual-side downdraft air filtration and collection system.



The addition of Millers new state-of-the-art paint facility comes in the wake of their latest Environmental award from the Tennessee Association of Manufacturers. Increases in personnel were also necessary for each area of the preparation and painting process in order to staff the newly expanded facility.

Being the world leader in towing and recovery equipment is not an overnight accomplishment, said Todd Higdon, Ooltewah general manager. To be and stay a leader in this industry requires years of hard work, engineering, and a steadfast commitment to quality and our customers, said Billy Drane of Millers Heavy-Duty Sales Department.

The Ooltewah plant expansion is only part of a larger investment Miller Industries has committed to across their several U.S. based production facilities.



Miller Industries Towing Equipment (NYSE: MLR) is the worlds largest manufacturer in towing and recovery equipment. Miller Industries offers a variety of products from auto-load units with 8,000 lb. capacities to rotators with 75 ton capacities. All of which fall under the Miller Industries family of brands of Century, Vulcan, Chevron, and Holmes.
Clint Eastwood is hard at work in Atlanta making his new movie based on the true story of three Americans who foil a terrorist plot on a French train.

The legendary filmmaker is directing The 15:17 to Paris and was spotted shooting scenes with actresses Jenna Fischer and Judy Greer on Wednesday.

The movie is based on book of the same title by Anthony Sadler, Alek Skarlatos and Spencer Stone, who together subdued a terrorist who opened fire inside a train traveling from Amsterdam to Paris in 2015.

Hard at work: Clint Eastwood was spotted Wednesday on the Atlanta set of his new movie based on the true story of three Americans who foil a terrorist plot on a French train

Eastwood, 87, appeared relaxed and happy as he walked to the shoot location with crew members.

He wore a loose-fitting blue short-sleeved shirt and gray slacks with matching gray sneakers.

He had a floppy camo sun hat pulled down over his weather-beaten face and carried a plastic bottle of water.

In the director's chair: Eastwood, 87, wearing a camo sun hat, appeared relaxed and happy as he chatted with crew members on the location set

In a rare move, the three real life heroes are playing themselves in Eastwood's film.

Child actors will play them in flashback scenes as the film sets out to explore who the men are and what drove them to react they way they did on that fateful day.

It's not known what parts Greer and Fischer are playing.

Discussing the scene: The legendary filmmaker was spotted with actress Judy Greer who wore a pretty patterned blouse paired with a knee-length blue denim skirt

Greer, famous for her roles on Arrested Development and Two And A Half Men, wore a pretty patterned blouse paired with a knee-length blue denim skirt.

She was bare-legged in sandal flats and her blonde hair was worn loose with a center parting and tucked behind her ears.

She carried a page of script as she walked across a lawn with Eastwood discussing the upcoming scene.

The Office star Fischer wore a stripy cotton shirt loose over a pair of blue jeans.

She carried a bottled beverage, a cell phone and a pair of spectacles as she hung out on set.

Has a role toplay: Also seen on set was The Office star Jenna Fischer who wore a stripy cotton shirt loose over a pair of blue jeans

Sadler, a civilian, Skarlatos, an Oregon Natinal Guardsman, and Stone, an Airman, grew up together in the Sacramento-area of California.

They were vacationing in Europe when they tackled Ayoub El-Khazzani, a man who authorities said had ties to radical Islam. El-Khazzani had boarded the Paris-bound train with a Kalashnikov rifle, pistol and box cutter.

The trio were honored for their heroic acts with Stone receiving the Airman's Medal and Purple Heart; Skarlatos receiving the Soldier's Medal, and Sadler receiving the Secretary of Defense Medal for Valor.
He boasts a dazzling career spanning a whopping 40 years.

Yet Larry Lamb, 69, has no plans of stopping as he revealed exclusively to MailOnline he will only stop acting 'when the phone stops ringing', while he admitted the secret to his youth - working out every day of the week.

And in honour of his insatiable work ethic, the star's latest project has seen him collaborate with Thomson Cruises as he embarked on trips around Barcelona, Palma and Ibiza to meet an eclectic array of locals for the 'Cruise Mates' film series.

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Better than ever: Larry Lamb, 69, has no plans of stopping as he revealed exclusively to MailOnline he will only stop acting 'when the phone stops ringing', while he admitted the secret to his youth - working out every day of the week

Larry's acting career kicked off while he was living in Canada in his youth and he has gone on to become one of the UK's most esteemed stars, famously playing Mick Shipman in Gavin And Stacey and Archie Mitchell in EastEnders.

Moving away from the screen, his project with Thomson has seen Larry embark on a much more relaxed pace of work as he has explored the Mediterranean while meeting locals in each port on his luxury cruise.

With his 70th birthday approaching in October and his already extremely successful career, some may wonder if he is ready to hang up his acting shoes yet Larry is defiant: 'If you're an actor and you get to a certain age the best thing to do is wait for the phone to stop ringing. And that's it. Let it dry naturally. I'll probably die working!'

Among his career highlights, his role in BBC hit Gavin And Stacey was a natural high - and he admits the cast knew from the off the show was destined for greatness. Made even better by his on-screen wife Alison Steadman already being a pal.

The life: And in honour of his insatiable work ethic, the star's latest project has seen him collaborate with Thomson Cruises as he embarked on trips around Barcelona, Palma and Ibiza to meet an eclectic array of locals for the 'Cruise Mates' film series

Back in the day: Larry's acting career kicked off while he was living in Canada in his youth and he has gone on to become one of the UK's most esteemed stars (pictured in The Professionals in 1980)

Great times: Among his career highlights, his role in BBC hit Gavin And Stacey was a natural high - and he admits the cast knew from the off the show was destined for greatness. Made even better by his on-screen wife Alison Steadman (pictured) already being a pal

He said: 'Gavin and Stacey was one of my career highs. The thing was, we knew it was something special. We came together. I knew Alison but she was the only person I knew and the first day comes and we all gather together.

'We knew right then it was something special we all had the script and read it but as actors bring the words to life it was something special from the off. I'm still in touch with Alison and we don't live that far so I still see her at things.'

Since the show rounded out, creator James Corden, who founded the show alongside Ruth Jones, has shot to huge fame after scooping the presenting role on mainstream US chat show The Late Late Show with James Corden.

Larry admits James' success is no shock, as he revealed: 'James' success was extraordinary. He's not an Essex boy at all. He's a West London military boy. He's extremely talented. People forget he's been around for years long before Gavin And Stacey. He's a really experienced performer.'

All good: Since the show rounded out, creator James Corden, who founded the show alongside Ruth Jones, has shot to huge fame after scooping the presenting role on mainstream US chat show The Late Late Show with James Corden

Getting stuck in: Of his trip, Larry said: 'I have been lucky enough to travel the world during my career, meeting a diverse group of people from across the globe, but Ive never had the opportunity to experience a cruise'

Starring role: Larry's role as Archie Mitchell in EastEnders threw him even further into the spotlight

In 2008, it was announced Gavin And Stacey was launching in the US with an array of networks vying for a pilot - although the project never took off.

Speaking of the attempt, Larry said: 'I never saw the US Gavin And Stacey. It was a firework that never went off. They didn't even broadcast the whole series. I did wonder for a while how they'd mark the difference. I lived in America.

'You could set it with two people from two different parts of the US, the language is still there but the sense of humour is not the same as ours. They're very funny but it's not the same as ours and it has to hit a big audience not a niche market. I was sad it didn't work because one would want it to.'

Larry starred on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in December last year, with him being the sixth star voted out of the jungle. Despite many stars complaining of his time in the jungle, Larry insists he had no negatives.

All aboard! The star was exploring far and wide on the series of films with Thomson as he met locals in all corners of the Mediterranean

Exploring: Exploring: With so many great on-screen projects behind him, Larry's thirst for exploring further has truly been quenched with his amazing new experiences whilst sailing on the Discovery 2

In the jungle: Larry starred on I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out Of Here in December last year, with him being the sixth star voted out of the jungle. Despite many stars complaining of his time in the jungle, Larry insists he had no lows

Exploring: He went on: 'The fact there's rats in the camp is b*****ks. Its straight forward - there's no mystery they tell you you'll be eating enough to keep you alive. I lost 10 kilos'

He said: 'I didn't really have any lows. I suppose my lows were suddenly realising people would start going. I was mystified how the whole thing went because I didn't know what it was all about. I didn't realise it was like a competition.

'I suddenly thought people will start going and the strangest thing was looking around at all the empty beds and I thought hang on a minute and it felt very strange. The high was meeting a whole bunch of people.

'You meet these people and you don't spend any time with them. To meet a bunch of young lads, they become extra sons. My gang of boys, it was lovely. They were lovely. I cant pick a favourite. I would not be able to deal with a load of fighting. I'd absolutely do it again.'

On doing another show like I'm A Celeb, it seems Larry has truly ruled out anything of the sort as he said: 'I don't know any other shows like that. I had a great time on I'm A Celeb but I don't think I can push my luck.'

Not again! On doing another show like I'm A Celeb, it seems Larry has truly ruled out anything of the sort as he said: 'I don't know any other shows like that. I had a great time on I'm A Celeb but I don't think I can push my luck'

Larry blasted rumours that the camps are rat infested, while also dismissing Gemma Collins' previous claims that she was starved during her time in the 2014 jungle.

He went on: 'The fact there's rats in the camp is b*****ks. Its straight forward - there's no mystery they tell you you'll be eating enough to keep you alive. I lost 10 kilos.

'The doctor said to me when I went in, he said you're going to lose 10 kilos and when I came out he said I was right. They know your weight and you're carefully monitored. I got out of the habit of eating and it was brilliant as I was giving food away. There was no cruelty.'

With so many great on-screen projects behind him, Larry's thirst for exploring has truly been quenched with his amazing new experiences on his cruises.

Loving life: Speaking of the highlights of heading out in the ports and the pros of travel, he said: 'It's all about what goes on on the shore and finding out what there. I've been trying to find out what people can find when they go on shore

Not true: Larry blasted rumours that the camps are rat infested, while also dismissing Gemma Collins' previous claims that she was starved during her time in the 2014 jungle

Speaking of the highlights of heading out in the ports and the pros of travel, he said: 'It's all about what goes on on the shore and finding out what there. I've been trying to find out what people can find when they go on shore.

'I think I'm always attracted to markets - I'm so not a shopaholic and avoid shops like the plague but I absolutely love to go in markets and make connections with people. You can attract people's attention and the best thing you can do is buy from people and make a connection with him.'

After filming three films at his different ports, he embarked on the challenge to meet remarkable locals follows a recent world-first study from Thomson Cruises and Yale University, which proved Brits who bond with up to five new people from different cultures on holiday can experience a happiness boost of 10%.

Of his trip, Larry said: 'People arent restricted to just staying on the ship  there is a wealth of amazing people from different cultures and backgrounds that cruise-goers can meet when they step ashore at a new destination.'

Follow Larry's journey at www.cruise-mates.co.uk
Forget Lex Luthor or Doomsday  the biggest threat facing Superman right now is the hair on his lip.

Henry Cavill has poked fun at the furor surrounded his recently grown mustache.

The hairy situation was sparked when the 34-year-old sprouted some facial hair for his new role in the upcoming Paramount Mission: Impossible sequel  which caused problems for Warner Bros and its Justice League reshoots, as he plays the traditionally fuzz free Son of Krypton.

Hairy situation: Henry Cavill has poked fun at the furor surrounded his recently grown mustache

Reports claimed Paramount were refusing to let him shave, forcing Warner to employ state-of-the-art digital trickery to erase his face fur.

On Wednesday, the British actor posted a behind the scenes shot of what appeared to be some futuristic gadgetry on the set of M:I6  but he insisted it was something else.

Dear followers, it is time to finally set the record straight in this moustache fiasco,' he wrote. 'Pictured above, is not a set on MI6 but is in fact the latest in a series of weapons being designed by Warner Bros and Paramount Studios to combat the entity known as "Henry Cavill's Moustache".

Mustache fighting weaponry: On Wednesday, the British actor posted a behind the scenes shot of what appeared to be some futuristic gadgetry on the set of M:I6  but he insisted it was something else

We need it: Reports claimed Paramount were refusing to let him shave because of his role in Mission Impossible, forcing Warner to employ state-of-the-art digital trickery to erase his face fur

'There has been no discussion over whether to shave or not to shave for the JL reshoots, simply a relentless campaign to put an end to the seemingly inexorable conquest of this despotic 'stache,' he joked.

'It is not a question of IF I should shave - it is a question of how can we possibly be victorious against such a beast without bringing our own doom raining down upon us.'

His hashtags included #HopeIsAllWeHaveLeft and #MoustacheImpossible.

Pals: Like all comic book characters, he is fully expected to return to help out his super friends Batman (Ben Affleck, pictured), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher)

Dead: Cavill Hasn't appeared in any of the promotional material for the DC film, seeing that he was supposedly killed off in Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice

Cavill Hasn't appeared in any of the promotional material for the DC film, seeing that he was supposedly killed off in Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice.

Like all comic book characters, he is fully expected to return to help out his super friends Batman (Ben Affleck), Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot), Aquaman (Jason Momoa), Flash (Ezra Miller) and Cyborg (Ray Fisher).

The latest trailer, unveiled at Comic Con over the weekend, closed with Jeremy Irons' Alfred Pennyworth speaking with a mystery visitor off screen.
Her younger sister Kim is said to be expecting a third child with Kanye West a surrogate.

And Kourtney Kardashian was keeping mum on the subject as she stepped out in West Hollywood on Thursday.

The 38-year-old reality television star looked top of the crops in her ab-revealing top - which also flashed her black lacy bra.

Top of the crops! Kourtney Kardashian was keeping mum on the subject of her sister becoming a mum for a thridd time as she stepped out in West Hollywood on Thursday

The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star grabbed a green drink while she enjoyed a little light retail therapy.

She showcased her petite frame in the tiny white top which she teamed with blue striped wide-legged trousers.

The 5ft tall daughter of Kris Jenner valiantly attempted to add inches with open-toed heeled sandals.

Sexy: The 38-year-old reality television star looked top of the crops in her ab-revealing top - which also flashed her black lacy bra

Her glossy dark tresses were in a centre parting and left to naturally fall in soft waves around her shoulders.

She covered her eyes with dark glasses, and appeared to be as expertly made-up as ever - even with just her perfectly groomed brows on show.

The mother-of-three stepped out with a pal but without her brood.

Healthy: The Keeping Up With The Kardashians star grabbed a green drink while she enjoyed a little light retail therapy

Diminutive: The 5ft tall daughter of Kris Jenner valiantly attempted to add inches with open-toed heeled sandals

Looking good: She showcased her petite frame in the tiny white top which she teamed with blue striped wide-legged trousers alongside her gal pal

Child-free day: The mother-of-three stepped out with a pal but without her brood

She shares sons Mason, 7; Reign, 2; and daughter Penelope, 5 with ex-boyfriend Scott Disick.

Scott is said to be desperate to win Kourtney back, and has been out partying in a backlash to losing her over his playboy ways.

'He wants her back, but he just isn't taking the steps needed to make that happen,' a source told People on Tuesday.

'In his ideal world, he would still be with Kourtney.'

A source told People on Tuesday: 'He wants her back, but he just isn't taking the steps needed to make that happen. In his ideal world, he would still be with Kourtney' (pictured Saturday)

However, the half-Armenian socialite is still casually dating 23-year-old boxer-turned-model Younes Bendjima.

Her sister Kim, 36, is reportedly expecting her third child with Kanye, 40, via a surrogate.

Following reports that the pair would pay $113,850 (87,228) for a surrogacy deal, UsWeekly have alleged they have now hired a surrogate who is 'three months pregnant'.

Kim - who suffered with life threatening placenta accreta during her first two pregnancies - is said to have begun searching for a surrogate in June and was referred 'by an agency'.
Bikini model Natasha Oakley has been unclothed and disrobed.

The 26-year-old Australian beauty has featured in a series of raunchy snaps for tanning brand St. Tropez, released this week.

Highlights include the Bikini A Day blogger putting on a busty display in a skimpy nude two-piece, and applying a face-mask in a soft bathrobe.

Unclothed and disrobed! 26-year-old Australian bikini model Natasha Oakley has featured in a series of raunchy snaps for tanning brand St. Tropez, released this week

Propped-up by her knees on a tropical beachfront, the model was seen in one snap sporting a nude bikini with white trimming on the bra.

Looking bronzed to perfection, her blonde hair covered her eyes as she flashed a sensual pose.

The skin-tone colour of her skimpy swimwear intentionally blended with her tanned frame, to accentuate elements of the brand.

Later, Natasha wore pink-rimmed sunglasses and soaked up the sun on a leather couch.

Bronzed or natural? The Australian beauty was also pictured in a leather couch, sporting a more natural tan, but looked equally stunning in a much darker shade on the beach

The Australian was clad in yet another revealing outfit, and had been touched-up with one of the brand's more naturalistic hues.

On the other end of the colour spectrum, a shot saw her considerably bronzed, laying on the sand in a white one-piece.

She also slipped into a ravishing red high-waisted two-piece and see-through mesh shirt.

Better safe than sorry! The Bikini A Day blog owner revealed she used temporary tanning products to avoid risking sun-damage, given the endless Summer nature of her job

In an another image, Tash slipped into a loose bath robe, holding her hair back as she applied a clear white face mask to her face.

The collaboration was announced in a press release in April, in which the brand's product development director insisted: 'We couldnt think of anybody more perfect than Natasha.'

Meanwhile, the model insisted she used temporary tanning products to avoid risking sun-damage, given the endless Summer nature of her job.
Star Wars actor John Boyega cringed at a reminder of his early modeling career during an appearance Wednesday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

Fallon, 42, pulled out some old photos of Boyega posing awkwardly for a stock image catalog.

'I needed the moneyI made 50,' laughed the English actor, who said he used his earnings to help pay for drama school, a decision which precipitated his journey to superstardom.

Rising star: John Boyega was reminded of his early modeling career during an appearance Wednesday on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

The 25-year-old Londoner noted that his life has changed massively since his first hit movie The Force Awakens in 2015.

'I don't have my own time like I used to, I have toI get to, travel all over the world and meet great people, it's good, I like it,' he said hesitantly.

Boyega confessed to having a collection of lightsabers in his house.

'But any time I have friends and family members over my parents are like ''yeah you should give one of the lightsabers to the kids'' and that's when my face becomes more straight than it's ever been,' joked the star, who has just covered GQ magazine.

Saber collection: The 25-year-old Star Wars star admitted to having a collection of lightsabers

Boyega is currently appearing in Detroit, a crime drama directed by Kathryn Bigelow.

The film is based on the infamous Algiers Motel incident during Detroit's 12th Street Riot in 1967.

Boyega plays a witness to many of the crimes that occurred in the motel, a character based on a real person.

Good times: John and Jimmy laughed while talking about his modeling career

New movie: The English actor stars in the new Katheryn Bigelow period crime drama Detroit

'It's a tough watch, and it was tough to shoot and unfortunately we're still having a conversation, 50 years [later]we're having issues with race relations, we're having issues with social unrest and it's a conversation that needs to be had. It's a movie that explores racism in a very complex way,' he said.

Fallon's musical guest was another Brit as Ellie Goulding took to the stage.

The 30-year-old British songstress performed her new song First Time - a collaboration with Norwegian mega-producer Kygo (aka Kyrre Grvell-Dahll).

The host: Jimmy welcomed John and You Tube stars Rhett and Link as guests on the show

Kygo, also a musician, DJ and songwriter, is known for his remix of Ed Sheeran's hit I See Fire.

In a game called 'Will It Hotdog?' Fallon put dog food, sushi and chocolate inside hotdog buns, and reluctantly ate it, with You Tube stars Rhett and Link of Good Mythical Morning.

'So disgusting, I feel like I'm finding pieces in my mouth right now,' grimaced the talk show host afterward.

Musical guests: Kygo and Ellie Goulding performed their new collaboration First Time

Rhett and Link say they read all the comments from their fans and haters.

'We learned a lot about ourselves I learned that I have an occasional lazy eye and a smaller than normal mouth and Link has a bigger than normal mouth,' said Rhett, who also discovered that he looks like Velma Dinkley from the Scooby-Doo cartoon.

The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon continues Thursday with Michael Strahan, Jill Kargman and Slayer on NBC.
It is a development that will surely have Star Wars fans breaking out in a cold sweat.

For Ron Howard revealed Warwick Davis is to feature in the forthcoming Han Solo spin-off movie on Wednesday.

Given he only mentioned it in passing on social media, franchise fanatics will surely be eager to discover whether the 47-year-old will be reprising his role as one of the much-hated Ewok characters from 1983's Return Of The Jedi.

Big break: Ron Howard has revealed Warwick Davis will return to the Star Wars universe in the forthcoming Han Solo spin-off

Ron sprang into action when a fan begged to know on Twitter whether he would ever get to work on a sequel to the 80s cult fantasy classic Willow, which acted as a starring vehicle for Warwick.

The Happy Days legend said: 'Glad you are asking for one! I directed @WarwickADavis for the 1st time in 30 years today. It made me happy.'

Clearly delighted at the shout out, the pint-sized actor chimed in: ''Reminded me what a wonderful experience #Willow was, made so by your expert direction & friendship. After 30yrs, you've still got the magic!'

Happy Days indeed: Richie Cunningham let slip after being asked if he would film a Willow sequel

A tree-mendous experience: Warwick chimed in to say how much he enjoyed making Willow

Revenge of the Ewoks? Fans will be sweating over the prospect of Wicket W. Warrick making an unlikely return

But despite Willow being a starring turn, Warwick is perhaps better known for his appearance as pugnacious Ewok Wicket W. Warrick, who fearlessly led the way as the teddy bear-esque creatures somehow helped Han Solo and friends defeat the mighty Empire forces on the forest moon of Endor.

In the re-imagined Disney version of the Star Wars universe, some of the creatures then agreed to travel off-world to help Rebel veterans recuperate by acting as 'therapy Ewoks.'

Duties for these selfless care bears presumably include giving comfort cuddles to the shell-shocked veterans.

Ron took over the reins of the film after the original directors Christopher Miller and Phil Lord were unceremoniously booted from the high-profile job after falling out with producer Kathleen Kennedy, the incumbent president of Lucasfilm.

You'll do Ron, Ron: Howard stepped into the breach after the original directors were fired

The not-so-dynamic duo, the brains behind comedy films The Lego Movie and 21 Jump Street, are said to have been trying to inject more humour into proceedings.

In a move which is said to have infuriated writer and producer Lawrence Kasdan, who also penned The Empire Strikes Back, they were supposedly encouraging improvisation on the set.

Putting a positive spin on things, they said in a statement following their sacking: 'Unfortunately, our vision and process werent aligned with our partners on this project.

'We normally arent fans of the phrase "creative differences" but for once this cliche is true.

Star turn: Warwick played a wannabe wizard in 80s box office flop Willow

'We are really proud of the amazing and world-class work of our cast and crew.'

For their part, the crew are said to have cheered with joy when they learned Oscar-winner Ron was taking over.

He has a string of well-received hits on his resume, including his Oscar-winning work A Beautiful Mind.

However his most recent films - including The Dilemma, In The Heart Of The Sea and Inferno have been critically panned.

Going Solo: Han's younger incarnation is featuring in the latest product of Disney's Star Wars factory production line

Fired: Christopher Miller and Phil Lord were given the sack mid-way through production
She's an exhibitionist, known as much for her relationship with shock jock Kyle Sandilands as she is for baring her assets.

But Imogen Anthony opted to cover up on Wednesday, while attending the Kat Von D makeup launch in Sydney.

The 27-year-old channelled gothic-chic in a head-to-toe black ensemble paired with black and white heels.

Gothic-chic: Imogen Anthony opted to cover up on Wednesday, while attending the Kat Von D makeup launch in Sydney. The 27-year-old paired a faux-fur coat with a rock-style skull-print t-shirt and loose-fitting maxi skirt

She paired a faux-fur coat with a rock-style skull-print t-shirt and loose-fitting maxi skirt.

Adding a pop of colour to the look, the Instagram sensation wore red designer shades and bright green nails.

Her luscious blonde locks were straightened and worn loosely and her flawlessly-applied makeup consisted of foundation, blush and bold red lipstick.

Colourful: Adding a pop of colour to the look, the Instagram sensation wore red designer shades and bright green nails

After the event, the animal lover took to Instagram to praise tattoo artist Kat for her cruelty-free makeup range.

'... Had such a great time at the @katvondbeauty launch  The new #crueltyfree liquid lipstick colours along with the liners are an absolute dream,' she captioned alongside a selfie.

'I can't wait to use them over the coming season #Everlasting Wearing #WTR velvet cape & Dad's speed dealer sunnies I stole from him when he was passed out.'

Imogen's long-term beau Kyle was not pictured at the beauty soiree.

Fight club: John Ibrahim recently revealed he witnessed the first ever fight between Kyle Sandilands and his girlfriend Imogen

Earlier on Wednesday, John Ibrahim revealed on the Kyle and Jackie O show he once witnessed the first ever fight between Kyle and Imogen.

Promoting his new autobiography, Last King of the X, the nightlife identity says he witnessed the aspiring fashion designer leap onto Kyle's car 'like a cat' in order to stop the shock jock leaving their home after an argument.

The incident occurred when Kyle and John were living across the road from one another and John witnessed it all from his balcony.

Witness: Promoting his new autobiography, Last King of the X, the nightlife identity says he witnessed the aspiring fashion designer leap onto Kyle's car 'like a cat' in order to stop the shock jock leaving their home after an argument

The Kings Cross identity told the radio hosts: 'I hear the garage door opening and I see Kyle reversing his big ass Bentley out the driveway. All of a sudden you see Imogen jump on the bonnet, like you would a cat, with Ugg boots on and a singlet'.

Imogen was screaming, 'Where you going you fat c-word?' John added with a laugh.

He continued: 'She stood up on the bonnet with her arms folded, and you see him drive back into the driveway the garage door comes closing down. I almost died'.

Tall tales: The Kings Cross identity told the radio hosts: 'I hear the garage door opening and I see Kyle reversing his big ass Bentley out the driveway. All of a sudden you see Imogen jump on the bonnet, like you would a cat, with Ugg boots on and a singlet'

He continued: 'She stood up on the bonnet with her arms folded, and you see him drive back into the driveway the garage door comes closing down. I almost died'

John was so amused that he was choking with laughter when he called Kyle to confessed he'd witnessed the fracas.

'I rang, and I couldn't talk I was laughing so hard. And he said, "Don't tell me you saw that?" He said, "She weighs 45 kilos but I'm petrified of her!" I knew the party was over there and then,' John concluded.

The pair of close friends had by their own admission been partying hard in the lead up to Kyle meeting and falling in love with his younger fashion designer girlfriend.

Improvements: 'We were single at the same time - it was not good for us. She's moved in (and I thought) thank god I can get some sleep,' John said

John earlier in the segment confessed meeting Imogen was 'good' for the radio host.

'We were single at the same time - it was not good for us. She's moved in (and I thought) thank god I can get some sleep,' John said.

Kyle joked, 'I was only to be seen in cafes after that'.
Eiza Gonzalez was the scene-stealer when her new film Baby Driver threw a premiere in Mexico City, which is where she was born.

The 27-year-old had slid into an enesmble that featured glistening purple, gold, blue and green floral patterns sprayed across a midnight blue background.

Offered up a generous glimpse of her decolletage and her enviably trim midriff, the outfit she'd got on was cinched in at the waist to play up her slender frame.

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Hello, gorgeous: Eiza Gonzalez was the scene-stealer when her new film Baby Driver threw a premiere in Mexico City, which according to IMDb is where she was born

Whilst at the swank premiere, Eiza got in a bit of posing alongside the besuited Ansel Elgort, who stars in Baby Driver as the titular getaway chauffeur.

Pink checks snaked across 23-year-old Ansel's bluish grey suit, matching the pale pink tie that stylishly contrasted to his white dress shirt and black-and-gold shoes.

Ansel and Eiza also stood for the photos while flanking the film's writer and director Edgar Wright, who wore a midnight blue suit with a white dress shirt and no tie.

The look: The 27-year-old had slid into an enesmble that featured glistening purple, gold, blue and green floral patterns sprayed across a midnight blue background

Leading man: Whilst at the premiere, Eiza got in a bit of posing alongside the besuited Ansel Elgort, who stars in Baby Driver as the titular getaway chauffeur

Edgar, Ansel and Eiza - the last of whom had worn a simple black pair of stilettos for the evening's event - were also photographed in chairs onstage at the Cinemex Antara Polanco, which played host to the Wednesday night premiere.

Ansel had swung by the festivities on the arm of his longtime girlfriend Violetta Komyshan, who this Wednesday had pulled on a scarlet ensemble.

Her frilly off-the-shoulder gown featured a hem that curved up above the knee at the front but fell to the floor at the back and matched her ankle-strap shoes.

Swank: Pink checks snaked across 23-year-old Ansel's bluish grey suit, matching the pale pink tie that stylishly contrasted to his white dress shirt and black-and-gold shoes

Premise :Baby Driver sees Ansel's lead character struggling to extricate himself from the grip of Kevin Spacey's character Doc, who orchestrates a gang of bank robbers

Baby Driver sees Ansel's lead character struggling to extricate himself from the grip of Kevin Spacey's character Doc, who orchestrates a gang of bank robbers with an otherwise rotating membership that always includes Baby.

Eiza plays Darling, one of the heist-meisters, who's married to her partner-in-crime Buddy, a menacing character who's been portrayed by the dashing Jon Hamm.

Other cast members in the sixth feature film directed by Edgar include Jamie Foxx as off-his-hinges criminal Bats and Lily James as Baby's sweet love interest Debora.

Top brass: Ansel and Eiza also stood for the photos while flanking the film's writer and director Edgar Wright, who wore a midnight blue suit with a white dress shirt and no tie

Trio: Edgar, Eiza and Ansel were also photographed in chairs onstage at the Cinemex Antara Polanco, which played host to the Wednesday night premiere

Jon Bernthal, Flea and Lanny Joon play other criminals involved in Doc's plots, and CJ Jones plays the elderly deaf wheelchair user who's largely raised the orphaned Baby.

Set in Atlanta, Baby Driver is - after the 2010 film Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World - is the second movie directed by the Dorset-born Edgar to take place in the United States.

After its world premiere at the South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin on March 11, Baby Driver opened in American movie theaters and British cinemas on June 28.
She spends a lot of time in sunny Los Angeles with husband Daniel MacPherson as they expand their international acting careers.

But on Wednesday, Zoe Ventoura swapped the sunshine for the Australian winter as she touched down at Sydney airport.

The 35-year-old was in the New South Wales capital to attend the Stella Artois Sensorium event on Thursday evening and came dressed to handle the mildly chilly climate.

Keeping warm! Actress Zoe Ventoura (pictured) rugged up in a grey scarf and leather jacket as she touched down at Sydney airport on Wednesday ahead of a Stella Artois Sensorium event

Cutting a casual figure, the former Packed To The Rafters star opted for shades of grey as her similarly coloured layers of clothing.

Zoe went for a stylish grey jacket which she wore over a T-shirt in a similar shade and teamed it with a cosy grey scarf.

Topping off the look were simple black pants and a fashionable pair of aviator sunglasses.

Casual chic: The Australian star opted for layers of clothing in similar grey shades

All smiles! While she had a straight-laced expression inside the terminal, as Zoe exited the building she flashed a wide grin and appeared to be in good spirits

Keeping things low-key, the brunette beauty chose to wear minimal makeup and her hair down for the arrival.

The Pirates Of The Carribbean actress also selected a comfortable pair of flat shoes and could be seen toting a number of bags.

While Zoe sported a serious facial expression inside the terminal, as she exited the building she appeared to be in good spirits and flashed a wide grin.

The eyes have it! The former Packed To The Rafter star topped off the ensemble with aviators

Earlier this year, Zoe's husband of two years and former Neighbours star Daniel MacPherson opened up about the struggles the couple had faced since relocating to the US.

The former Dancing With The Stars host revealed to OK! magazine in February that he and Zoe had no where to live at one stage while they attempted to break into the Hollywood scene.

'It's been far from easy,' the 37-year-old told the magazine. 'We were actually homeless. We were moving around [for work],'
Northside Neighborhood House is partnering with school officials, local nonprofit organizations, and churches to host the inaugural Red Bank Way Event. The event will take place Saturday, Aug. 5 from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. at Kids Corner Park (across from Food City) in Red Bank. This event is free for students from Red Bank Elementary, Middle, and High Schools and their families.Im excited for the Red Bank schools, families, and community to come together to celebrate the start of a new school year, says Elaine Harper, Red Bank High School principal.By connecting families to resources and engaging the community, we will support student success for this year and beyond.Local nonprofits, such as Art 120 and United Way of Greater Chattanooga's Project Ready for School, will be on hand to share upcoming opportunities for families this fall. Event attendees will have the opportunity to work together on a community art project that will be displayed at different schools throughout the year. Food and drinks will be available in addition to hands-on activities.In 2016, Northside Neighborhood House partnered with Hamilton County Department of Education to pilot the first Community School in Hamilton County at Red Bank High School. An initiative of Chattanooga 2.0, Community Schools are designed to provide wrap-around supports to meet the physical, social, and emotional needs of the community where the school is located.The Community School supports Red Bank High School students, but also serves as a community meeting space for organizations to bring services to students and their families, says Rachel Gammon, CEO of the Northside Neighborhood House. The Red Bank Way Back to School Bash is part of our commitment to provide a hand up through education to our neighbors living north of the river. We hope to see many Red Bank students and families at this wonderful event.For more information about the Red Bank Way Event, contact Rachel at rgammon@nnhouse.org.
She shot to fame playing Lorna Morello on Orange Is The New Black.

And Yael Stone is excited about her next role in the anticipated Foxtel reboot of classic drama Picnic At Hanging Rock.

The 32-year-old spoke with TheFix about how 'iconic' the original 1967 novel is in Australian culture and how her character Miss Dora Lumley is 'pretty mean'.

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Momentum: Yael Stone is excited about her next role in the anticipated Foxtel reboot of classic drama Picnic At Hanging Rock

'I just finished Picnic At Hanging Rock, which is an iconic Australian story,' she described on the eve of her trip to Australia for the Video Junkee festival.

'Telling Australian stories and being involved in the storytelling community here is really exciting for me,' she continued.

The Sydney-born actress plays the stern mistress of Deportment and Bible Studies Miss Dora Lumley in the mini-series, who she called a 'pretty mean character'.

'Telling Australian stories and being involved in the storytelling community here is really exciting for me,' she continued

She explained how Dora's aim is to please people however that 'manifests in a very ugly way where she's controlling and pretty nasty'.

The petite brunette said it was 'beautiful to be home' in Australia before she heads back to America to film the sixth season of Orange Is The New Black.

Her character found out she was pregnant to her husband Vincent Muccio towards the end of season five, to which Yael opined: 'I hope she's ready to be a mum!'

Breakout role: The petite brunette said it was 'beautiful to be home' in Australia before she heads back to America to film the sixth season of Orange Is The New Black

The hit Netflix series is extremely protective of plot secrets being leaked and cast members are reportedly not given their script before they start filming.

Yael revealed how her and her co-stars previously would guess what the story lines would be in advance.

'Every time we try to predict something, it will come back around and hit you in the back of the head,' she offered.
She's the highest paid female television star in the world.

And Sofia Vergara showcased her multi-tasking abilities as she filmed her latest movie in the Bronx, NYC, on Wednesday.

The 45-year-old actress was spotted on set alongside her hunky husband and co-star Joe Manganiello, as they shot scenes for Stano.

Striding high: Sofia Vergara showcased her multi-tasking abilities as she filmed her latest movie in the Bronx, NYC, on Wednesday

The Modern Family star showed impeccable poise as she balanced on towering wedges, whilst carrying a giant bag of groceries.

The beauty had a loaf of bread poking from the top of her carrier bags, as she flashed her legs in a split maxi dress.

She was joined by real-life other half Joe, 40, who strolled alongside the stunner with one hand in his pocket despite her struggling with the oversized bag.

Eyes for you: She was joined by real-life other half Joe, 40, who strolled alongside the stunner with one hand in his pocket despite her struggling with the oversized bag

Set life: Sofia - who is mother to 24-year-old son Manolo from her first marriage - could hardly keep her eyes off her handsome Magic Mike co-star

Sofia - who is mother to 24-year-old son Manolo from her first marriage - could hardly keep her eyes off her handsome Magic Mike co-star.

Her brunette tresses were straight and glossy and she had a berry lip emphasising her smile.

The married celebrities have crossed the line from pleasure to business as they were seen on set together for the second day running, filming for the movie.

Pretty: Her brunette tresses were straight and glossy and she had a berry lip emphasising her pout

Stepping out: The Modern Family star showed impeccable poise as she balanced on towering wedges, whilst carrying a giant bag of groceries

Leggy display: The beauty had a loaf of bread poking from the top of her carrier bags, as she flashed her legs in a split maxi dress

The 5ft 7in Colombian-American beauty also shared a short video with her biggest fan, to social media.

Wearing an off-the shoulder top, she is seen shaking a fan in front of her face to keep cool.

She captioned: 'Bronx nights. #summernights.'

Biggest fan: The 5ft 7in Colombian-American beauty also shared a video to social media

Fan girling: Wearing an off-the shoulder top, she is seen shaking a fan in front of her face to keep cool

Glam: She captioned: 'Bronx nights. #summernights'

Vergara's second husband - takes the titular role in the movie, which tells the story about a young rising star ball player, played by Manganiello, with the Yankees who lands himself in prison for a terrible accident.

When Stano gets out of prison after 17 years of being behind bars and trying to stay alive, he returns to society and the love of his life - naturally played by his real-life wife Vergara.

Sofia and Joe married in a lavish Palm Beach ceremony in November 2015 after getting engaged on Christmas day 2014 after six months of dating.

Sofia also hits the big screen this month in The Emoji Movie, which unlocks the never-before-seen secret world inside your smartphone.

Gene, a multi-expressional emoji voiced by T.J. Miller, sets out on a journey to become a normal emoji.

Aside from Sofia, Patrick and T.J., the movie features a starry voice cast including James Cordon, Anna Faris, Maya Rudolph, Christina Aguilera and Sean Hayes.

It's due to open on July 28.
Dorit Kemsley put it all out there as she attended the iGo.Live app launch event in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.

The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star showcased her very ample cleavage in a tight sleeveless body suit.

The black number had a slashed-to-the-waist neckline that struggled to contain her assets.

Eyeful: Dorit Kemsley put it all out there as she attended the iGo.Live app launch event in Los Angeles on Wednesday night

The black outfit featured a slashed look and sequins as well as a floor-length semi sheer skirt.

The skirt showed off her shapely legs and also pooled around her feet in a small train.

Dorit wore her dyed blonde hair, with dark roots showing, in loose waves.

She rimmed her eyes with lashings of black liner and mascara while dusting her cheeks with rosy blush and adding pink lip gloss.

Busting out: The Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills star showcased her very ample cleavage in a tight sleeveless body suit with plunging neckline and sheer skirt

Made a statement: Dorit wore her dyed blonde hair, with dark roots showing, in loose waves. She rimmed her eyes with lashings of black liner and mascara and added pink lip gloss

Date night: The reality star was accompanied by her wealthy businessman husband of two years, Paul Kemsley who wore a white tuxedo and shiny black dress shoes

Dorit was accompanied to the event by her husband of two years, Paul Kemsley.

The wealthy businessman wore a white tuxedo and shiny black dress shoes.

The pair, who have two young children, joined the cast of Bravo's Real Housewives Of Beverly Hills in season seven in 2016.
As a journalist and TV presenter, Georgie Gardner has embarked on many international trips.

And for her latest story for the Nine Network, School for Life ambassador Georgie travelled to Uganda and decided to bring her 12-year-old daughter Bronte with her.

Writing for 9Honey on Thursday, the 47-year-old revealed the experience was a 'huge eye-opener' for the pair.

Eye-opening experience: School for Life ambassador Georgie Gardner (pictured) explained she took her 12-year-old daughter Bronte along on a journalism assignment for Channel Nine in order to enlighten and challenge her

Writing for the online publication, Georgie divulged she wanted to take Bronte along in a bid to challenge her world view.

'I decide to extract her from her comfortable world and thrust her into an environment is confronting and challenging, but also hopefully enlightening and uplifting,' the media personality wrote.

Georgie added that her charity role was the perfect opportunity for Bronte to learn about people from a different culture.

'As ambassador for School for Life  an organisation that builds schools in rural Uganda  its been a dream of mine to go and see the schools and students for myself and get a better understanding of how they are run and the impact they are having,' she explained.

'Taking my daughter with me would make the experience even more valuable.'

Stark contrast: Uganda was a world away from the creature comforts Bronte (pictured in 2013) is used to back in Australia

Meeting the locals! In a segment on the Today show on Thursday, 12-year-old Bronte can be seen fetching water with 13-year-old Esther

Georgie explained that her daughter was enthusiastic about the adventure but as a mother, she was still worried about Bronte's safety in Uganda.

Also cause for concern was how the youngster would deal when faced with a world starkly different from her comfortable surroundings back home in Australia.

However, the journalist said she believed the visit would be good for Bronte, a prediction that proved to be true once the mother and daughter stepped foot in Katuuso School, which is built and run by School for Life.

Different world view: During the visit to Uganda, Georgie (right) interviewed African school girl Esther (left)

At the school, Bronte met 13-year-old Esther and in a segment on Today show on Thursday can be seen fetching water with her.

Georgie had previously gushed about the experience in Uganda, posting an image from the assignment to her Instagram account in June.

'Just home from a truly enlightening assignment in Uganda with my 12 yr old daughter. Stories to come,' the blonde beauty wrote alongside the snap.

The news reader is married to Tim Baker and as well as Bronte, the couple also share a son called Angus.
He's the Australian musician who's settling into his new life in Los Angeles.

And on Wednesday night, it was a family affair for Nick Cave, 59, and his son Earl, 15, who turned up in style at the Wind River premiere at the infamous Ace Hotel.

The rare appearance is a welcome sight, after he'd vowed to quit the UK, consumed by grief following son Arthur's (Earl's twin) fatal LSD-fueled clifftop fall in July 2015.

Welcome site! On Wednesday night, it was a family affair for Nick Cave, 59, and his son Earl, 15, who turned up in style at the Wind River premiere at the infamous Ace Hotel

The Bad Seeds frontman's return saw him sporting his signature slicked raven hair and sharp suit, which was paired with a blue shirt.

His stylish outfit was complete via another of his trademarks, in the form of aviator shades resting on button-down top.

Earl also stepped out to support his Dad, who worked with longtime collaborator Warren Ellis on the score for the crime Thriller film.

He looks more like Nick everyday, seen also sporting long locks, but opting to style with a middle-part.

Support: Earl stepped out to support his Dad, who worked with longtime collaborator Warren Ellis on the score for the crime Thriller film

He also flaunted a style that was all his own, blending a preppy collared shirt and jumper look with a pair of colour-matched cropped pants.

Like Nick, he wore several rings on his left hand, while managing to go toe-to-toe with his father on the brooding expression front.

Also in attendance Wednesday was the film's stars, including Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner.

To be by your side: The rare appearance is a welcome sight, after he'd vowed to quit the UK, consumed by grief following son Arthur's (Earl's twin) fatal LSD-fueled clifftop fall in July 2015

'Blank-slate': In May, two-years after the tragic loss of Arthur, Nick moved with Earl and model wife from Brighton to the self-described 'blank-slate' of Los Angeles

In May, two-years after the tragic loss of Arthur Cave, Nick moved with Earl and model wife from Brighton to the self-described 'blank-slate' of Los Angeles.

'When I go out in Brighton these days, there's a sort of feeling that we're all in this together. And it's just a little bit too intense for me,' he told GQ of the move recently.

'It's too many memories, really. We've really tried. But it's just beyond us, in a way, to remain.'

'We're all in this together': 'When I go out in Brighton these days, there's a sort of feeling that we're all in this together. And it's just a little bit too intense for me,' he said of the move recently
Voice actress June Foray passed away at the age of 99-years-old Thursday.

The vocal talent was best known for her work on Rocky And Bullwinkle, where she played chipper Rocky the flying squirrel and Soviet femme-fatale Natasha.

Her death was confirmed by dear friend Dave Nimitz on his Facebook who wrote 'With a heavy heart again I want to let you all know that we lost our little June today at 99 years old.'

In memory: Voice actress June Foray passed away at the age of 99-years-old Thursday

June was a force to be reckoned with in the animation community, with hundreds of credits to her name, including iconic characters like Cindy Lou from How the Grinch Stole Christmas and Looney Tunes' Witch Hazel.

She was also one of the original members of Hollywood's animation guild ASIFA and was essential to the Oscars adding the Best Animated Feature category in 2002.

In 2013 a documentary about the Massachusetts native's life called The One and Only June Foray was released.

Squirrly girly! The vocal talent was best known for her work on Rocky And Bullwinkle, where she played chipper Rocky the flying squirrel and Soviet femme-fatale Natasha

Join the club! Foray was one of the original members of Hollywood's animation guild ASIFA and was essential to the Oscars adding the Best Animated Feature category in 2002. Above she's seen posing with TV legend Ed Sullivan and fellow voice talents Stan Freberg and Daws Butler

What a character! June was a force of nature, with hundreds of credits to her name, including Cindy Lou from How the Grinch Stole Christmas (left) and Looney Tunes' Witch Hazel (right)

ASIFA president Jerry Beck called June 'one of a kind,' adding that she was 'A trailblazer, a great talent and a truly wonderful person. We will never forget her.'

Even in her later years the voice actress kept busy.

In 2000 she returned to the role of Rocky J. Squirrel in the live action-animation hybrid The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle opposite IRL actors Robert De Niro, Jason Alexander, Rene Russo and more.

A real gem! ASIFA president Jerry Beck called June (pictured in 2000 above) 'one of a kind,' adding that she was 'A trailblazer, a great talent and a truly wonderful person'

Veteran voice! Even in her later years the voice actress kept busy, returning to the role of Rocky in 2000's live action-animation hybrid The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle (above)

In 2013 she told Variety 'Im still going,' revealing 'It keeps you thinking young. My body is old, but I think the same as I did when I was 20 years old.'

June also published two bestselling books during her life: a collection of essays titled Perverse, Adverse and Rottenverse and her autobiography Did You Grow Up With Me, Too? The Autobiography of June Foray.

Foray was married twice in her life, first to Bernard Barondess from 1941 to 1945 and later to screenwriter Hobart Donavan from 1954 until his death in 1976, but never had children. She is survived by her sister Geri.
They're the Australian models who have struck up a close friendship.

And Jordan Barrett, 20, and Cheyenne Tozzi, 27, have seemingly been joined at the hip since the 'Bad Boy of Fashion' arrived back home in Australia earlier this week.

Spotted in Sydney on Thursday, the good-looking pair were looking as fashionable as ever as they headed out and about in the city.

Looks to kill! Australian models Jordan Barrett (left) and Cheyenne Tozzi (right) were spotted looking as fashionable as ever as they strolled the streets of Sydney on Thursday

Model and TV personality Cheyenne cut a stylish but demure figure as she stepped out in skintight leather pants.

She added charcoal ballet flats and a black blazer which she wore over a white T-shirt and complemented her attire with an oversized black handbag.

A black fur jacket spilled out of the bag and at one point Cheyenne must have felt a little chilly as she donned the coat instead of stuffing it in her tote.

Black and white: Jordan and Cheyenne were a monochrome delight together

Feeling the cold? At one point, Cheyenne donned the fur jacket which in other photos was stuffed into her oversized handbag

Meanwhile, Jordan - who is notorious for his party lifestyle - was breaking hearts in an all-white ensemble.

The hunky blond went for a strategically ripped cream jumper which he matched with baggy white pants.

His footwear was as equally low-key as his female counterpart's, with the male model selecting white slip-on shoes.

Accessorising the look, Jordan decked out his fingers in a number of rings and also added a necklace.

Genetically blessed duo: The pair often appear together in social media snaps and Cheyenne even greeted Jordan when he arrived at Sydney airport on Tuesday

Jordan, the son of convicted drug dealer Adrian Barrett, was first discovered at age 13 while shoplifting at a convenience store in 2010.

He was trying to steal matches when he was approached by a model scout working for international agency IMG, which he eventually signed to in 2015.

Jordan and Cheyenne are firm friends with the Australia's Next Top Model judge even greeting the 20-year-old at Sydney Airport as he touched down on Tuesday.
They undoubtedly had the rockiest relationship during their time in the villa.

But Love Island stars Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood proved they're giving things a good go in the outside world, paying a visit to Chris' farm on the outskirts of Cheltenham after just two days back in the UK.

The pair took to social media to share some sweet snaps of their trip, cosying up in a field with a herd of cows in the background.

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Home visit: Love Island stars Chris Hughes and Olivia Attwood paid a visit to Chris' farm on the outskirts of Cheltenham after just two days back in the UK

Proving she's not too much of a princess to get down and dirty, glamourpuss Olivia was clad in a grey hoodie and pink wellies.

Chris looked delighted as he gazed lovingly at his girlfriend, showing her the ropes of his rural lifestyle.

'He finally got me to the farm', the fiery-tempered blonde jokingly captioned one snap.

Chris also posted an image of the pair lying in bed during their 'hometown' visit, although Olivia didn't look best pleased to be pictured.

Not moo-dy yet! Proving she's not too much of a princess to get down and dirty, glamourpuss Olivia was clad in a grey hoodie and pink wellies

Silly cow: The pair were photobombed by one of Chris' beloved animals

The lovebirds recently chatted about their upcoming farm visit to MailOnline. Olivia said: 'I think were going to have a little farm visit soon. I'm looking forward to that.

'I actually like the countryside and animals... but I dont want to be up close and personal with any animals. I'm looking forward to seeing where Chris grew up.'

Discussing the possibility of a spin-off show, she said: 'It would be like the Simple Life! Im not milking any cows. Id probably have a tantrum, hed start crying, then wed make up.'

Cheeky: Chris also posted an image of the pair lying in bed during their 'hometown' visit, although Olivia didn't look best pleased to be pictured

The pair also touched upon the possibility of becoming the new Katie Price and Peter Andre, joking that they were big fans of the former married couple in their reality heyday.

'Its not something weve openly talked about, but were open to anything. I thought Katie and Peter were great in their heyday, the reality dream, so Ill take [the comparison] as a compliment', Olivia said.

The posts come as fan favourite Chris has become the most popular Love Island 2017 contestant on Instagram, reaching the 1 million follower mark on Wednesday night - and now tallying over 1.1m.

Winner Amber Davies is in second position with 969k - perhaps somewhat surprisingly - while Jamie Jewitt is the least followed finalist with 497k followers. Camilla boats 898k followers, Kem has 846k, Marcel is on 687k and Gabby has 647k.

Fan favourite: The posts come as Chris has become the most popular Love Island 2017 contestant on Instagram, reaching the 1 million follower mark on Wednesday night - and now tallying over 1.1m

The figures speak volumes about the popularity of Love Island this year and the wide reach its stars have on social media.

Last year's most popular finalist, Olivia Buckland, has garnered 1.2m followers over the space of a year - compared to Chris' 1.1m after just two days of having his phone back.

Comparatively, the likes of Jon Clark - who appeared on the first rebooted series of Love Island in 2015 before joining the cast of TOWIE - has achieved 465k followers in two years.
She received a engagement ring rumoured to be worth $450,000 earlier this month.

And Roxy Jacenko has continued to fuel speculation she will marry husband Oliver Curtis for a second time, trying on diamond necklaces on Thursday afternoon.

It comes after the 37-year-old PR maven sent fans into a frenzy on Wednesday after she shared photos of herself at a bridal shop looking over dress fabric samples.

New bling to match her '$450,000' engagement ring? On Thursday Roxy Jacenko took to Instagram to share a photo of herself trying on diamond necklaces

Taking to Instagram, the publicist shared a snap of herself wearing two diamond necklaces from jeweller Nicholas Haywood.

The elite designer is the same one husband Oliver purchased her custom-designed second engagement ring from.

On Wednesday, Roxy tagged an Instagram photo from Velani, a Sydney-based bridal, evening and christening wear designer.

Plenty to smile about: Earlier this month Roxy's husband Oliver proposed to her for the second time, amid rumours the pair had undergone a period of estrangement

Shopping for a bridal gown? The 37-year-old PR maven sent fans into a frenzy on Wednesday after she shared photos of herself at a bridal shop looking over dress fabric samples

The social media snap sent fans wild with speculation that Roxy was shopping for wedding dresses, however, she later clarified she was looking at materials for a custom tutu for Pixie's forthcoming sixth birthday party.

Earlier this month Roxy's husband Oliver proposed to her for the second time, amid rumours the pair had undergone a period of estrangement.

In April, pictures were published showing the PR queen passionately kissing her ex-boyfriend Nabil Gazal. At the time, Oliver was in prison.

Going down the aisle again? In an interview with Popsugar this week, Roxy told fans to 'watch this space' for news of a second wedding between the couple. Pictured at their 2012 wedding

In June, Oliver was released from Cooma Correctional Centre in southern NSW after serving a 12-month jail sentence for insider trading.

The couple - who share children Pixie, five, and Hunter, three - are believed to have reunited during a family getaway to Bali earlier this month.

In an interview with Popsugar this week, Roxy told fans to 'watch this space' for news of a second wedding between the couple.
His love life has been the subject of public intrigue since his split from wife-of-21-years Cassandra Thorburn last year.

But Today host Karl Stefanovic, 42, has assured fans that he leads a far less exciting lifestyle than it would seem.

Appearing on the The Kyle And Jackie O Show this Thursday, the father-of-three said he is just a 'boring guy' and that his girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough is confused about the amount of paparazzi attention he receives.

'You're not f**king Brad Pitt!' Karl Stefanovic (left) told KIIS FM on Thursday his girlfriend Jasmine Yarbrough (right) doesn't think he deserves to be in the headlines so often

'As Jasmine always points out to me, "You're not f***ing Brad Pitt",' he told hosts Kyle Sandilands and Jackie 'O' Henderson.

When quizzed if the couple would be having children, Karl said: 'We haven't really talked about (babies), and if we had, I'd never tell you.'

Karl already shares three children with his ex-wife - Jackson, 17, Ava, 12 and River, 10.

'We haven't really talked about it': The 42-year-old was also asked if he and Jasmine were planning to have children together. Pictured at Fashion Week in May

Last September, it emerged Karl had split from his wife Cassandra, a former ABC journalist, after 21 years of marriage.

The Channel Nine personality is believed to have met his current girlfriend Jasmine during a yacht party in December.

The pair made their first appearance as a couple at Fashion Week earlier this year, looking smitten and sitting front row.

Split: Karl split from his wife Cassandra (left) last September after 21 years of marriage

Speaking to Stellar recently about his blossoming romance, Karl gushed: 'We have a really lovely relationship but it's got to be slow for a number of reasons.'

He also acknowledged his new relationship sparked anger among female viewers, saying: 'I know maybe there are some women out there who are angry with me, but I've never tried to be anything other than myself.'

He added: 'I have to hope that the audience, and particularly females if that is true, that one day they're OK and they come back and say "I'm giving him another go''.'
She is due to welcome her first child in the autumn.

And Ferne McCann looks to be making the most of her final months before motherhood as she continued to indulge in a sun-soaked Spanish holiday over the weekend.

Giving fans an insight into her balmy break, the 26-year-old star shared a series of close-up bikini snaps, which revealed her changing figure.

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Blossomg bump: Ferne McCann looks to be making the most of her final months before motherhood as she continued to indulge in a sun-soaked Spanish holiday over the weekend

The former TOWIE star looked as though she didn't have a care in the world as she posed in a pretty black two-piece.

With its plunging fit, the scalloped number also allowed Ferne to flaunt her growing assets, which were made more apparent due to the lifted angle of the camera.

But isn't only the This Morning star's bust that appears to be expanding, as the expectant star also revealed her blossoming baby bump in the images.

Busty display: Giving fans an insight into her balmy break, the 26-year-old star shared a series of close-up bikini snaps, which even saw her reference her 'baby boobs'

Flaunting her pregnancy glow, Ferne kept her face of free of make-up, revealing a seemingly flawless complexion.

The snap is just one of a flurry of bikini pictures Ferne has shared during her holiday.

On Tuesday, she slipped into a vibrant orange bikini, which offset her newly tanned skin to perfection.

Last week, it was revealed the TV personality is reportedly in line for a reality show documenting her life as a new mum, with many networks approaching her with pitches.

Feeling good: The former TOWIE star looked as though she didn't have a care in the world as she posed in a pretty black two-piece

Bronzed: On Tuesday, Ferne slipped into a vibrant orange bikini, which offset her newly tanned skin to perfection

Sources tell The Sun that the stunner is in line for her own show having made a fresh start with her imminent arrival - while her ex Arthur Collins awaits trial for his alleged involvement in an acid attack in a London nightclub at Easter.

Ferne, who is six months gone, is undoubtedly delighted at the prospect of the show following the huge success of friend Sam Faiers' shows The Baby Diaries and The Mummy Diaries, which documented her first pregnancy and life as a mother.

Sources told the publication: 'Shes in a good place and has made a fresh start for herself by moving into a new flat and getting her life back on track.

'Several TV companies have been in touch and are keen to document her journey as a new mum. Ferne will return to work once the baby is born and is definitely considering her options.'
She has largely maintained a dignified silence as her estranged husband of eight years sets up home with another woman.

But on Wednesday Melissa Meeks gave a rare insight into her life post-Jeremy Meeks, as she took to Instagram in a lengthy tirade.

The mother-of-three, 38, who shares a seven-year-old son with the 33-year-old felon turned model, let rip just days after he continued to parade his romance with British Topshop heiress Chloe Green, 26.

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No holding back: On Wednesday Melissa Meeks gave a rare insight into her life post-Jeremy Meeks, as she took to Instagram in a lengthy tirade

Taking to Instagram, the nurse- who stayed with Jeremy throughout his prison stint, shared a snapchot which read: 'I fed mouths that talked sh** about me. I wiped tears from the same people that caused mine. Picked up people that tried to knock me down. Did favours for those who couldn't do sh** for me. Been there for the ones that left me. Crazy? Maybe.'

Proving she was taking the high road, the brave beauty concluded: 'But I don't lose myself in the hatred of others. I continue to be me because I can't change who I am. Life ain't easy but through the bullsh** I remain solid. Because I know god got big plans for me.'

'Saw this and felt how REAL it was, so I wanted to share it... #haveablessedday #remember #keepitsolid', she captioned the picture.

Insensitive? The mother-of-three, 38, who shares a 7-year-old son with the 33-year-old felon turned model, let rip just days after he continued to parade his romance with Chloe Green, 26

This comes as Jeremy and Chloe have been publicly parading their blossoming relationship in the spotlight, despite his eight year marriage to estranged wife Melissa Meeks ending just weeks ago.

The duo have made no attempt at keeping their new-found love low-key, with Jeremy posing at Topshop's LA shop window at The Grove on Friday before being pictured on a string of public dates over the last week.

The father-of one's blatant display with the heiress daughter of retail billionaire Sir Philip Green, came as his heartbroken estranged wife Melissa, mother to his seven-year-old son, removed reference to him on her social media bio.

'I don't lose myself in the hatred of others. I continue to be me because I can't change who I am.' Proving she was taking the high road, the brave beauty concluded

Just weeks after separating from stunning mother-of-three Melissa, who stayed with him during his prison stint, Jeremy and Chloe put on another public display as they promoted the retail giant.

Their display came just days after estranged wife Melissa finally removed reference to Jeremy on her Instagram bio.

Previously describing herself as 'Wife to Jeremy Meeks' along with a ring emoji, the pretty nurse removed reference to him, keeping the remainder of the bio as 'Blessed beyond belief.. Dedicated to everything I do... Me and my Fam'.

Former flames: One of the few remaining pictures left on Melissa's Instagram of the duo shows them kissing just weeks before pictures of him with Chloe surfaced

And they have since made no secret of their union, making numerous public appearances.

During a coffee run on Thursday, the duo were filmed by Back Grid enjoying a stroll, and were asked: 'You guys so much in love?' to which Jeremy replied: 'Yes, we are.'

Jeremy sent shock waves across the internet when pictures emerged of him kissing Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey last month.

Last week Jeremy filed for legal separation from mother-of-three Melissa, who he shares her youngest son with.

He was married to the nurse, who stayed with him throughout his stint in prison, for eight years.

No longer 'Wife of Jeremy Meeks': Their display came just days after estranged wife Melissa finally removed reference to Jeremy on her Instagram bio

She later told the Mail of her devastation, admitting that her husband had been seduced by the glamour of his newfound modelling career.

I know it takes two to tango but she knew he was married. To me, thats unforgivable. My whole world has been torn apart by this. What do I tell our children? My heart is broken.

What sort of woman would do something like this to another woman? My marriage wasnt perfect but I thought it could be saved, until this happened.

Of course Im angry at her. What she did is unforgivable. And Im angry at him too. What they did destroyed my entire world.

Life of luxury: Meeks continued to send tongues wagging after pictures emerged of him kissing British Topshop heiress Chloe Green on a yacht in Turkey last month

Did either of them think about the children and how this will affect them? Theyre the innocent victims in this. And so am I.

Melissa is mother to his biological child Jeremy Jr, seven, and Robert, 11, Melissas son from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, 16-year-old Ellie, and says both stepchildren consider Meeks a father figure.

Meeks and Chloe, who is heir to her father Sir Philip's billions, were pictured sharing an intimate kiss last month and snuggling up together as they waited to be taken back to their 112,000-a-week yacht in Bodrum.

First contact after the snaps: Melissa is mother to his biological child Jeremy Jr, seven, and Robert, 11, Melissas son from a previous relationship. She also has a daughter, 16-year-old Ellie, and says both stepchildren consider Meeks a father figure

At the time he was still with his wife of eight years, who was seemingly unaware of his new romance until pictures surfaced.

And fans quickly turned on the duo, accusing Chloe of breaking up a marriage.

Chloe was soon forced to delete her Instagram, after followers trolled a gloating post she shared as she snuggled up to married Jeremy.

However she has since returned to the social media site, changing her settings to private.

Meeks too has edited his account, deleting all photographs of him and Melissa, which has not gone down with the fans who fell in love with his good looks after his California mugshot went viral in 2014.

Holding him hostage? Chloe took to Instagram at the beginning of the month, sharing a a photo with Meeks and his manager, before deleting her account due to the backlash

Meeks, whose looks have earned him a huge fan base, made his first official modelling appearance at New York fashion week this year, and has certainly turned his life around in an impressive way since his release from prison.

However his journey to stardom hasn't been all smooth-sailing, after he was recently barred from entry to the UK after arriving at London's Heathrow airport from New York.

The California native shot to fame in 2014 when the Stockton Police Department posted his mugshot on their website, following his arrest for gang activity and a misdemeanour charge of resisting/obstructing justice.

The photo promptly went viral, with internet users dubbing him 'the hottest convict ever'.
She was recently soaking up the Spanish sun in a number of skimpy bikinis during her sting on ITV2's Love Island.

But back home in Essex, Georgia Harrison posed against a residential backdrop as she headed for a night out with her TOWIE pal Fran Parman.

The 22-year-old personal assistant was dolled up to the nines as she put on a busty display in a plunging blue dress and towering heels before heading to Sheesh Restaurant in Chigwell.

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Back home in Essex: Love Island star Georgia Harrison, 22, posed against a residential backdrop as she headed for a night out with her TOWIE pal Fran Parman on Wednesday

Georgia looked every inch the sex kitten in her skin-tight light blue dress which clung onto the contours of her sensational figure.

The garment plunged down the middle to show off her impressive cleavage as she posed for photographers.

Accentuating her toned legs. the reality star opted for a pair of towering heels and accessorised with earrings and a watch.

Her smokey blue eyeshadow matched her dress and complemented her blonde locks.

Glamorous: The personal assistant was dolled up to the nines as she put on a busty display in a plunging blue dress and towering heels before heading to Sheesh Restaurant in Chigwell

Unwinding: The girls later took to Instagram with a snap of them enjoying their night out with fellow Love Island star Tyla Carr

Joining Georgia was her pal Fran, who flashed her honed pins and trim torso in a stylish co-ord.

The cropped top featured a plunging keyhole design- teasing at her assets, while the tiny shorts showcased her stems.

The girls later took to Instagram with a snap of them enjoying their night out with fellow Love Island star Tyla Carr.

The girls shared a quick boomerang video of them enjoying a shot, before posing for a very glamorous picture.

Love: Georgia proved that the flame she had ignited in Mallorca with Sam Gowland was still burning after they arrived home after hinting they were to continue their romance back on home turf

Trying times: The fun-loving couple had their ups and downs, including a troublesome few days in the villa, which saw Georgia accused of lying by the detector test when she said she could see herself in a relationship with Sam

Meanwhile, Georgia proved that the flame she had ignited in Mallorca with Sam Gowland was still burning after they arrived home after hinting they were to continue their romance back on home turf.

The fun-loving couple had their ups and downs, including a troublesome few days in the villa, which saw Georgia accused of lying by the detector test when she said she could see herself in a relationship with Sam.

They got together after Sam sensationally re-entered the villa with lothario Mike Thalassitis.
They're all hoping to win over Matthew Johnson on The Bachelor.

And on Thursday's episode, Leah Costa, 24, was awkwardly rejected by the marketing manager during a steamy photoshoot in first group date.

Leah straddled Matty on a motorcycle as they re-created a 'first kiss' scene, with Matty pulling away as Leah tried to actually kiss him, telling her it was 'inappropriate'.

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'That's a little bit inappropriate!' The Bachelor's Leah Costa (right) was rejected by Matty J (left) as she tried to kiss him during an awkward photoshoot group date on Thursday's episode

'She pashed and he dashed,' laughed Tara Pavlovic, as she and the other contestants watched Leah's kiss attempt.

'You'd be devo (devastated),' she added.

Student Leah tried to brush off the rejection, telling Matty she 'had to do (it)' as the other girls were watching.

Excuses, excuses! Student Leah tried to brush off the rejection, telling Matty she 'had to do (it)' as the other contestants were watching from a nearby balcony

'She pashed and he dashed!' Tara Pavlovic laughed at Leah's failed attempt to kiss Matty

Matty apologised and said he didn't think they should kiss in full view of the women.

'I don't mean to be rude. I think it'd be a little bit inappropriate in front of the girls,' Matty said diplomatically.

Leah remained confident, saying: 'I'm pretty sure if I had tried five minutes later, I don't think he would have said no.'

'I'm pretty sure if I had tried five minutes later, I don't think he would have said no': 'Villain' Leah remained confident despite being brushed off by The Bachelor

'Class of 89': The photoshoots were for Woman's Day, and had several themes including an '80s high school (pictured), cheerleading try-outs, and the film Grease

The photoshoots were for Woman's Day, and had several themes including an '80s high school, cheerleading try-outs, and the film Grease.

Matty was wearing a biker jacket, while Leah opted for tight black trousers, a plunging top, and a leather blazer.

Other contestants on the date included Laura Byrne, Elizabeth Duncan, Natalie Holmberg, and Sian, who posed for a retro 'prom night' with Matty.

School spirit! Matty played the 'jock' alongside cheerleaders (left to right) Cobie Frost, Simone Ormesher, and Tara Pavlovic in one of the photoshoots
They are known for being a close family unit.

And Phillip Schofield was every inch the proud father as he marked his daughter Ruby's graduation with a fun photo.

The This Morning presenter, 55, posed with Ruby, 21, and wife Stephanie on Wednesday behind giant numbers spelling out 2017.

Proud father: Phillip Schofield marked his daughter Ruby's graduation with a fun group photo with her and his wife Stephanie

While Phillip stuck his head through the centre of the 0, Ruby and Stephanie peeked around either side of the number.

The TV star's youngest daughter graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a 2:1 degree classification.

Phillip captioned the photo: 'Congratulations on your graduation Ruby Schofield. #Proud.'

The family snap, which was posted on Wednesday, received more than 32,500 likes on Instagram, as the presenter's fans flocked to wish Ruby well.

Special day: Phillip posed with Ruby, 21, and wife Stephanie at Leeds Beckett University on Wednesday behind giant numbers spelling out 2017.

One social media user wrote: 'Brilliant photo. Bet you're two very proud parents. Congratulations.'

'Proud daddy moment congratulations to your gorgeous daughter all the best for the future.'

Another parent wrote: 'We were there yesterday morning. It was a lovely ceremony. Congratulations to Ruby.'

Happy graduate: Ruby later posed beside the huge lettering with her friends as she celebrated the important day

Phillip's eldest daughter Molly, 24, who didn't appear in the photograph, is a graduate of Leeds Metropolitan University.

The This Morning star shares his two daughters with wife Stephanie, who he married in 1993.

He told Christine Lampard on Lorraine: 'She worked in television years ago, that was how we met, so she can do it [television], she just doesn't want to these days.

Stephanie met Phil when she worked as a BBC production Assistant and he was working for the BBC Childrens television.

He said at the time: 'You'd have thought someone wouldn't be attracted to a man with a puppet and dodgy jumpers!'

Earlier this year, the pair filmed Schofields South African Adventure, and the presenter said he was so pleased she joined him for filming.
Last year's Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation gala raised $45million for his eponymous environmental charity.

So the Hollywood heavyweight, 42, called in the big guns on Wednesday, in a bid to beat the 2016 total at the 4th annual St Tropez gala evening.

Madonna and Lenny Kravitz performed, Sean Penn chaired the auction and Leo even gave audience members the chance to bid on an intimate dinner with himself and former Titanic co-star Kate Winslet.

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Megastar mates: Leonardo DiCaprio embraced Kate Winslet on Wednesday as he invited her to host the 4th annual Saint-Tropez Gala for the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation

The best friend acting duo - who met when they shared the screen as Jack Dawson and Rose DeWitt Bukater 20 years ago - graced the stage together.

They were arm-in-arm and staring at each other with deep affection as she served as one of the biggest stars to bolster the evening's bidding.

Kate looked classically elegant in a plunging black dress, while he cut a slick figure in a sharp suit.

Helping hand: Leo even called upon musician Madonna, who praised the actor as a 'boss' on Instagram after the 'honour' of performing

Strong friendship: The pair have been friends ever since their roles in Titanic 20 years ago

Career changing roles! The onscreen love interests both rocketed to super-stardom after playing star-crossed lovers Rose DeWitt Bukater and Jack Dawson in the 1997 classic

The pair have maintained a close friendship ever since the Academy Award-winning film.

When Leonardo finally won his own Best Actor Oscar in 2016, Kate was right beside him, saying his praises throughout awards season.

'I keep getting emotional when I talk about Leo,' she admitted, talking to E! News about his success with the film The Revenant.

Friends in high places: Madonna was even invited to perform at the bash

Big stars: Lenny Kravitz was also a top performing at the star-studded event

Surrounded: The actor was sandwiched by musical mega stardom

@leonardodicapriofdn Such an honor to be here supporting Leo's foundation and doing what we can to save Planet Earth!  A post shared by Madonna (@madonna) on Jul 26, 2017 at 4:50pm PDT

Rock on: The event was held at Domaine Bertaud Belieu

'There's the sense of good will behind him,' she continued. 'And that everyone wants it for him. You know, people in the streets.

'It's really really wonderful. I think it's real testament to that fact that he's such a lovely person and that people really not only admire him but also really like him and respect him.'

Not only has he got film fans, but Leonardo seems to have the backing of Hollywood, who turned out in their droves to help raise money for his charity on Wednesday.

Supportive: Kate has always been Leo's biggest champion

Wingman: Having sharpened up for the evening, Leo reunited with his right-hand man Tobey Maguire (right) who is regularly seen partying with Leo

Bringing in the big guns: Leo was also flanked by acting talent like Sean Penn (left)

Pop icon Madonna paid tribute to the actor on Instagram after agreed to perform at the fundraiser - something which she even called 'an honour'.

'This Man is a BOSS!!' she wrote beside a picture. 'Thank you Leo for all you do for Mother Earth! Your generosity and care is beyond measure!'

Leo's foundation is 'dedicated to the long-term health and well-being of all Earths inhabitants.'

Since 2008, the foundation has granted $80 million to environmental causes and organizations.

Icon: The pop icon praised Leo for his actions in helping the planet

Star power: The fundraiser took $45million last year for the cause
She's been experimenting with her fashion ever since landing in Paris for her tour.

And Celine Dion worked her newly found flair for fashion as she stepped out in a chic snakeskin inspired ensemble in the Parisian city on Thursday.

Emerging from the Royal Monceau hotel, the 49-year-old Canadian singer was hard to miss in her statement coat and matching thigh high boots.

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Making hiss-tory! Celine Dion, 49, worked her newly found flair for fashion as she stepped out in a chic snakeskin inspired ensemble Paris on Thursday

Celine oozed confidence as she stepped out from her temporary residence in the animalistic inspired look.

The My Heart Will Go On songstress opted for a basic black figure-hugging black dress as a staple and paired it with a long snakeskin inspired trench coat.

Sticking to the theme, she donned a pair of sexy boots which gave her the pizzazz to strut along in style.

Celine looked every inch the fashionista as she clutched on to a matching boxy clutch from her own fashion line.

Sexy: Emerging from the Royal Monceau hotel, the Canadian singer was hard to miss in her statement coat and matching thigh high boots

Working it: Celine oozed confidence as she stepped out from her temporary residence in the animalistic inspired look

Yes girl! The My Heart Will Go On songstress opted for a basic black figure-hugging black dress as a staple

Sticking to the theme: She donned a pair of sexy boots which gave her the pizzazz to strut along in style

The star kept her other hands free to wave to her adoring and dedicated fans as she headed to her vehicle.

Knowing full well that the emphasis was on her statement look, she scraped back her locks into a slick high bun.

She opted for a natural slick of make-up, focusing on dashings of blusher and hid her peepers behind chic shades.

Earlier on in the day, Celine channelled a futuristic flair in a structured coat, which flared out over her hips and teamed it with a pair of quirky white-rimmed glasses.

Animalistic! Celine looked every inch the fashionista as she clutched on to a matching boxy clutch from her own fashion line

Greetings: The star kept her other hand free to wave to her adoring and dedicated fans as she headed to her vehicle

Beauty: Knowing full well that the emphasis was on her statement look, she scraped back her locks into a slick high bun

Stunning: She opted for a natural slick of make-up, focusing on dashings of blusher and hid her peepers behind chic shades

People pleaser: She ensured everyone got a wave

Celine looked like she was loving life as she made a sartorially savvy display in the fashion capital of the world.

The eye-catching nude coloured outerwear was a combination of a trench coat and biker jacket and featured flower designs throughout.

With the garment flaring out over her hips, the All By Myself songstress teamed the look with a pair of dark grey distressed jeans which were ripped at the knees.

Sticking to the muted colour scheme, Celine accessorised with a cross the body bag and strutted along in a pair of white heels.

Like a pro! Celine worked her angles like a supermodel in the stylish ensemble

Not missing anyone! She waved high up so everyone could see her

Loving it: Celine wasn't in a hurry as she soaked up the spotlight after emerging from her hotel

Looking ahead: Earlier on in the day Celine channelled a futuristic flair as she stepped out for her latest jaunt

Seeing is believing: The defining piece of her look happened to be her quirky white-rimmed glasses

Statement: The Canadian star opted for a structured coat, which flared out over her hips

Probably the most defining part of ensemble was the sensational, over-sized white shades which complemented her low-key make-up and slicked back bun.

Her latest sighting comes after she maintained her single woman status after being spotted enjoying the company of her backing dancer Pepe Munoz at social events.

He has joined Celine on multiple outings, including the Giambattista Valli fashion show, where he used his fashion illustrator skills to sketch some of the fashions on the runway.

'She makes you feel welcome, like you belong to the family, and like youre part of the group,' Pepe recently said in an interview with Vogue about Celine.

Trendy: The eye-catching nude coloured outerwear was a combination of a trench coat and biker jacket and featured flower designs throughout

Edgy: With the garment flaring out over her hips, the All By Myself songstress teamed the look with a pair of dark grey distressed jeans which were ripped at the knees

Futuristic: Probably the most defining part of ensemble was the sensational, over-sized white shades

He added: 'Shes absolutely fearless with her style, her dancing, her performing, and as a person in her clothes.'

The entertainer was also spotted spending time with Pepe last Friday, when she turned heads in a bra-top as she left the Royal Monceau hotel to grab dinner at the Maison Blanche Restaurant in Paris, France.

Celine is relaunching her career after a tough 2016, which saw her lose her husband of 22 years, Rene, to throat cancer, and her brother Daniel two days later, also from cancer.

Celine's tour of Europe will see her jet back to the UK at the end of July, with shows scheduled to take place in London, Birmingham, Leeds and Glasgow.

Stunning: The accessory complemented her low-key make-up and slicked back bun

Beauty: Celine opted for a low-key make-up and slicked back bun

Loving it: She's been experimenting with her fashion ever since landing in Paris for her tour

In May, Celine led the way as famous names have penned open letters to the LGBTQ community to express support for Pride month.

'I've always said that music is a language that has no barriers, and it's also true that love is an emotion that has no barriers,' wrote Celine Dion in a heartfelt note.

The French-Canadian superstar added: 'I hope and pray that our world will continue to better understand that acceptance and tolerance are virtues that we can never have enough of.'

Dion first met husband and manager Angelil, in 1980, when she was 12 and he was 38 and they later got together in 1987. They married in 1994.

They have three children, Rene-Charles, who was born on 25 January 2001, and six-year-old fraternal twins Eddy and Nelson.

Single gal: Her latest sighting comes after she maintained her single woman status after being spotted enjoying the company of her backing dancer Pepe Munoz at social events
He made his television debut as Private John Janovec in Band of Brothers and most recently played RAF pilot Farrier in Christopher Nolan's epic Dunkirk.

But for his next war movie, Tom Hardy is set to play an English journalist working during the Bosnia conflict.

The Hollywood star will also produce the adaptation of My War Gone By, I Miss It So, the 1999 book by war correspondent Anthony Loyd.

Next project: Tom Hardy is set to star as an English war correspondent in a film adaptation of Anthony Loyd's experiences of the Bosnian conflict

Tom, 39, will also produce the drama, which also delves into the Time journalist's heroin addiction.

The actor told Variety: 'My War Gone By, I Miss It So alternates between his experiences in Bosnia and personal reflections of his time in the British army, his parents' divorce, his estrangement from his father, and his heroin addiction.

'My War Gone By is a brutal yet sensitive story which addresses both the nature of addiction and the experience of war.

'I was struck by Anthony's work and words, experiences, and for me his is an important voice and an important book.'

Award-winning reporter: Anthony, 50, has written for the Times from warzones in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Syria

Anthony, now 50, travelled to Bosnia aged 26 in order to cover the conflict and has been a war correspondent for more than two decades.

After he left Bosnia, Anthony covered conflict in Iraq, Sierra Leone and Syria for the Times.

He was captured along with photographer Jack Hill in Syria in 2014, but the pair both managed to escape.

Complex character: The adaptation of My War Gone By, I Miss It So will also delve into Anthony's heroin addiction

Anthony, who still works for the Times, was awarded Foreign Reporter of the Year in March and has written two other books.

He co-wrote 2002 book Evidence with photographer Gary Knight, which looked at Slobodan Milosevic, the politician who was tried for crimes against humanity in Kosovo.

Another Bloody Love Letter, which was written in 2007, recounts the journalist's experiences in Kosovo and Iraq.

Serious actor: Most recently, Tom played RAF pilot Farrier in Christopher Nolan's Second World War epic Dunkirk

The film will be the latest serious flick from Tom.

The actor has forged a career for himself playing gangsters, hard men and soldiers.

After Dunkirk, Tom will play Venom in a 2018 film about the dark alter-ego of Spider-Man.
He proposed this time last summer, after 10 months of dating.

But 14 months on, Duncan Bannatyne, 68, and 37-year-old partner Nigora are beginning chapter as man and wife - and life has never looked sweeter.

Clearly proud of his new wife in her striking red bikini, The Dragons' Den star was beaming from ear-to-ear as they took a romantic beach stroll during their glorious Croatia honeymoon.

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Red hot: Duncan Bannatyne and his new wife Nigora were the picture of newly-wedded bliss when they took a walk along the beach in Croatia, on their recent honeymoon

The picture of newly-wedded bliss, they held hands as they walked along the coastline barefoot and chatting.

A shirtless Duncan looked youthful in jazzy board shorts, but it was Nigora who turned heads with her beach display.

She looked impressively toned in a skimpy red two-piece with shades tipped on her nose for an effortlessly glamorous image.

Get the glow: Filled with love, the duo were both glowing from a week in the sun

Incredible: The brunette showed off her incredible figure in a red bikini

Happy couple: The pair tied the knot in Portugal at the start of June

Whether it was from her time in the sun or a joyous start to their marriage, Nigora looked positively glowing.

The duo tied the knot in Portugal at the start of last month and are now soaking up some quality time together as man and wife.

Talking to MailOnline in June, the 68-year-old said he was thrilled with how the day went, as he gushed about his 'perfect' bride.

He said: 'It was a perfect family wedding and I was overwhelmed by how beautiful Nigora looked. Our wedding was filled with love, laughter and happiness.

Bikini babe: Duncan looked thrilled to walk along the sands with his new wife

Perfect pair: Shirtless Duncan looked quirky in a pair of youthful shorts

'My new Uzbek family are generous, caring, giving people and I am proud to be part of what is to me a wonderful new world. I feel very blessed and look forward to our life together as husband and wife.'

Since the wedding, the couple have been enjoying an extended period of travel since tying the knot last month, having visited such destinations as Monte Carlo, Geneva and Montenegro.

They have also been travelling extensively throughout Croatia, starting their honeymoon in Dubrovnik before their current journey up the coast.

In shape: Duncan's new wife certainly seemed to be in great shape

Busy bees: During their time away they have also been travelling extensively throughout Croatia

Look of love: Duncan proposed to Nigora last May

Hitting the beach: It had been a whirlwind romance of just 10 months

Moving forward: The honeymoon period will not be over for some time

Never been happier: Duncan has never looked happier than when he's been with Nigora

Money can't buy me love: He may have millions in the bank, but love is what's brought Duncan his real happiness

Banna-time of my life! Duncan said the wedding was 'filled with love, laughter and happiness'
She has spent her birthday week in sunny Tulum, topping up her tan with model pal Lais Ribiero.

But Sara Sampaio proved to be quite the jet-setter on Wednesday as she swapped Mexico for the equally stunning Mykonos, to continue celebrations with her boyfriend Oliver Ripley.

The Portuguese model, who turned 26 on Friday, appeared delighted to be back in her beau's arms as she drew him in for a number of passionate kisses, in the stunning Aegean Sea.

Jet-setter: Sara Sampaio swapped Tulum for the equally stunning Mykonos on Wednesday, as she continued birthday celebrations with her boyfriend Oliver Ripley

The Victoria's Secret Angel flaunted the physique that shot her fame in a skimpy lilac bikini, as she cosied up to her beau on the Greek island.

Securing into a single string at the back and cutting to a daring height at her rear, the brunette beauty left plenty of sun-kissed skin and her peachy derriere on show - making it no surprise she has caught Oliver's attention.

Clearly enamoured with each other, Sara appeared to not have a care in the world as she wrapped her arms tightly around her beau's neck, and packed on the PDA with him in the sea.

Pucker up: Sara appeared to not have a care in the world as she wrapped her arms passionately around her beau's neck, and packed on the PDA with him in the sea

Stunning: The VS Angel flaunted the physique that shot her fame in a skimpy lilac bikini, which cut high at the rear and tied into single strings to leave plenty of sun-kissed skin on show

Sara has been dating British hunk Oliver, who is the millionaire founder of the tech firm Black Ocean, since last year.

The pair have been spotted on a number of holidays together in the likes of St Tropez and Ibiza, following his split from Brazillian supermodel Jeisa Chiminazzo, 31, in 2015.

However Sara has jetted to Mykonos for further birthday celebrations, following a sun-soaked getaway to Mexico where she rang in her 26th year.

Taking a break: Sara has jetted to Mykonos for further celebrations, following a sun-soaked getaway to Mexico, where she rang in her 26th year

Captured in front of paradisaical waters and clean, white sands, the Victoria's Secret model shared a snap-by-snap insight into her glorious Tulum trip on Instagram.

In one shot, the 26-year-old seemed in full holiday mode as she posed topless, barefoot and without a scrap of make-up on.

Her natural beauty stole attention as she let her wet hair dry into wispy waves and kicked back in a beach hut, in shade of the sun.

Cheeky: Forever representing brand 'Sampaio' the star wore an 'SS' monogrammed swimsuit in one snap, as she documented the trip on Instagram

Model body: The Victoria's Secret star slipped straight into a bikini to soak up the sun

Sara had been celebrating her birthday with fellow VS Angel Lais at Habitas, Tulum.

Never a million miles away from their day jobs, the models were of course seen soaking up the rays in a series of provocative poses.

And Sara did not miss an opportunity to boost 'Brand Sampaio' as she posed for a gratuitous snap in an 'SS' monogrammed swimsuit.

Water baby: Posing for the camera, the fashion model couldn't resist documenting every moment

Aaand relax: She has been working hard on building up her portfolio

With her peachy behind turned to the camera, Sara's pictures could have been ripped straight out of the pages of a fashion magazine.

Sara has been working hard on similar editorials throughout 2017, having fallen into step with the world's best lingerie models for the first time at 2016's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in Paris, France.

Previously, Sara had been introduced to the fold gradually and walked with the new Angels in 2015, but it was 2016 before the model came into her own.

It was the perfect end to a huge year for the star, who also walked for Jean Paul Gaultier, Balmain, Emanuel Ungaro, Giambista Valli, Miu Miu and Dolce & Gabbana.

Giddy: The stunner didn't seem to be able to take a bad photo
There's less than a week to go before it makes its highly-anticipated return to screens.

And speculation regarding who will enter the Celebrity Big Brother house is as rife as ever, with reality stars Pete Wicks and Jemma Lucy being among those slated to be moving in to the famous Borehamwood bungalow when it re-opens its doors on August 1st.

It's also been suggested that former Page 3 star Rhian Sugden - famed for her sexting scandal with married TV presenter Vernon Kay - could be making an explosive return to the show, which will again be hosted by Emma Willis and Rylan Clark-Neal.

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It's back! Speculation regarding those entering this year's Celebrity Big Brother is rife, with former Page 3 model Rhian Sugden, as well as reality stars Pete Wicks and Jemma Lucy, being among those slated to appear when the show returns on August 1st

Human Ken Doll Rodrigo Alves and former TV presenter John Leslie are also believed to have signed up to the Channel 5 series, according to The Daily Star Sunday.

The stars are just two names that were penned on an alleged leaked list of housemates, which is said to have been released by accident.

Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Brandi Glanville and Geordie Shore's Nathan Henry are also listed on the supposed line-up.

According to The Sun Online, Ex on the Beach star Jemma Lucy will make her debut and has promised to 'sex up the house'.

Spicing things up: Ex on the Beach star Jemma Lucy will reportedly make her debut and has promised to 'sex up the house'

It's claimed she won't be biting her tongue when it comes to dishing the dirt on some of her high-profile exes, who include the likes of Stephen Bear, Gaz Beadle and Chantelle Connelly.

Her appearance would certainly cause a stir if rumours that Stephen and his girlfriend Charlotte Crosby returning are true.

But the love triangles won't necessarily end there, as it's claimed that Jordan Davies, who formerly dated Pete Wicks' girlfriend Megan McKenna, has signed on the dotted line.

To be confirmed... TOWIE star Pete Wicks was among a host of stars who were penned on an alleged leaked list of housemates, which is said to have been released by accident

Shaun Williamson - best known for his role as Barry Evans in EastEnders - will also enter the house.

Despite leaving the show in 2004, after his character was pushed to his death by his cruel wife Janine Butcher, the actor is still one of soap land's most recognised faces.

Former Hollyoaks star Paul Danan will allegedly break his 11 year reality TV hiatus to appear in the upcoming series.

Producers are no doubt hoping that the former Love Island contestant will bring some of the erratic behaviour that saw him thrown off the celebrity edition of the reality show in 2005.

Strong contender: It is believed that ex Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding will also earn her place among the Celebrity Big Brother alumni

Bit of a change! Derek Acorah, of Most Haunted fame, will swap the supernatural for the somewhat superficial after reportedly signing up for the show

But his controversies don't end there, as he was also sacked from playing Jack in a Jack and the Beanstalk pantomime after he swore at children while turning on Christmas lights in 2007.

It is believed that ex Girls Aloud star Sarah Harding will also earn her place among the Celebrity Big Brother alumni.

Derek Acorah, of Most Haunted fame, will swap the supernatural for the somewhat superficial after reportedly signing up for the show.

Drama? It's claimed that Jordan Davies, who formerly dated Pete Wicks' girlfriend Megan McKenna, has signed on the dotted line

Just days ago, it was claimed that bosses were doing all they could to entice actress Shobna Gulati after supposedly meeting with her agents.

Former X Factor star Amelia Lily, Romanian pop duo The Cheeky Girls and Britain's Next Top Model star Tallulah-Ever are also rumoured to be joining, will the likes of Kellie Maloney and Lauren Harries are slated for a return.

Despite earning legions of fans during their stint on last year's Love Island, it's claimed nobody from the 2016 edition of the ITV2 reality show will enter the house after producers allegedly dubbed them 'too boring'.
She's the Australian designer whose swimsuits are worn by the likes of Kim Kardashian and Emily Ratajkowski.

And Bianca Elouise once again proved she was her brand's best ambassador, sizzling in a barely-there one piece on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old founder of Myra Swim soaked up the sun on Miami Beach alongside a glamorous female friend.

That's cheeky! On Wednesday, Myra Swim designer Bianca Elouise (pictured) flaunted her shapely derriere in a very revealing one piece

The Queensland-born beauty flaunted her curves in a daring swimsuit from her own collection.

The revealing one-piece style showcased her tanned legs and ample cleavage as she made her way along the sand.

Bianca's G-string swimsuit also offered a generous display of her famous posterior.

Revealing: Bianca's G-string swimsuit also offered a generous display of her famous posterior

Curves ahead! The Queensland-born beauty flaunted her figure in a daring swimsuit

Throwing shade! Bianca wore a pair of oversized black sunglasses during her day at the beach

Her golden locks back from her face in a bun, Bianca wore a pair of oversized black sunglasses.

The businesswoman also accessorised with gold medallion necklaces and a matching bangle.

Making the most of the summer, Bianca enjoyed a leisurely dip in the ocean.

Overnight success: Gold Coast girl Bianca founded her swimsuit company Myra Swim in 2014

Popular: Her high cut designs have been worn by the likes of Blac Chyna and Kim Kardashian

Afterwards, she made her way to beach for a stroll with a brunette female friend.

Bianca founded her swimsuit company in 2014, telling Daily Mail Australia in April she was shocked at how successful it had become.

'It's quite overwhelming how big it's getting,' Bianca said.

'I started in 2014 with a really small collection aimed at women like me - women with a butt, with cleavage and a small waist.'

Catch up? After a dip, she made her way to beach for a stroll with a brunette female friend
She rang in her 22nd year with a group of gal pals in Las Vegas last week.

And Courtney Green showed no signs of slowing down the birthday celebrations on Monday, as she jetted to the St James Club and Villas at the Elite Island Resorts in Antigua, with her boyfriend Myles Barnett.

The brunette beauty looked more loved-up than ever with her Essex lad beau as they fooled around and enjoyed a number of smooches on the stunning Caribbean beach.

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Coco-nuts for you! Courtney Green showed no signs of slowing down the birthday celebrations on Monday, as she jetted to Antigua, with her boyfriend Myles Barnett

Pucker up: The brunette beauty looked more loved-up than ever with her Essex lad beau as they fooled around and enjoyed a number of smooches on the stunning Caribbean beach

The pair could not keep their hands off each other as they enjoyed a day at the beach together - paddling in the shallows and hiking across the idyllic landscape.

Proving just why she first caught Myles' attention, Courtney showed off her enviable figure in a saucy snakeskin bikini, and an array of accompanying beachwear.

The blue triangle top, embellished with gold gems on the straps, plunged into a deep V at her chest to give a flash of her ample cleavage to all.

Smooch: The pair could not keep their hands off each other as they enjoyed a day at the beach together - paddling in the shallows and hiking across the idyllic landscape

Sexy lady: Proving just why she first caught Myles' attention, Courtney showed off her enviable figure in a saucy snakeskin bikini

He's mine! The pair indulged in a number of kisses on the beach as they sipped on a few cooling beverages

Making memories: Courtney slung a camera around her neck, to document their day on the stunning beach

Peek-a-boob! The blue triangle top, embellished with gold gems on the straps, plunged into a deep V at her chest to give a flash of her ample cleavage to all

Accessorising: Courtney then added a black sarong on top of her bottoms, to emphasise her petite waist

Paired with equally skimpy bottoms, the stunner then confidently flaunted her shapely legs and rounded derriere as she cosied up to her man on the beach.

Known for her glamorous and heavily made-up appearance however, Courtney proved her natural beauty by sweeping her hair into a top knot, to leave her enviably clear and glowing skin on show.

Sporting minimal make-up and adding mirrored sunglasses, the brunette was effortlessly stunning as she relaxed in the sunshine.

Say cheese! Paired with equally skimpy bottoms, the stunner then confidently flaunted her shapely legs and rounded derriere as she cosied up to her man

Refreshing: The pair then headed back to the beach to sip on coconuts on the golden sand

Radiant: Courtney opted for minimal make-up to leave her enviably clear and glowing skin on show

Look what I found! Courtney appeared to be having the time of her life as she posed playfully with some coconuts picked on the beach

All eyes on her: Adding mirrored sunglasses, the brunette was effortlessly stunning as she relaxed in the sunshine

Bold: Myles meanwhile matched his tropical surroundings in a vibrant pair of blue and yellow floral swim shorts, as he posed on the beach

Courtney first layered a black sarong atop her swimwear, as she and Myles sipped on refreshing coconuts on the golden sand.

Myles meanwhile matched his tropical surroundings in a vibrant pair of blue and yellow floral swim shorts, as he posed on the beach with the drink in hand, before capturing more playful shorts of Courtney.

Later upping the glamour of their day however, the pair then boarded a luxurious boat, named the Calypso Cat, and headed out to sea - to soak up more of the blazing rays and stunning island views.

Muscle man: Myles displayed his impressively ripped chest in the swim shorts, as he posed for the camera

Helping hand: The pair enlisted the help of a local to make their coconuts drinkable

Ready to go! They later paired with their new friend as they enjoyed the fresh juices in the sunshine

All aboard! Later upping the glamour of their day however, the pair then boarded a luxurious boat, named the Calypso Cat, and headed out to sea

50 shades of grey: Courtney next changed into a grey cold shoulder playsuit for the blustery boat trip

Stripping off! However as the weather got hotter, Courtney soon folded the look down half way to top up her tan aboard the boat (R)

Whilst out at sea however, the TOWIE star was then seen changing into a slinky black swimsuit, complete with a saucy cut-out at the front, as she embarked on a playful session of paddle boarding with Myles.

The pair kept their balance as they slowly rose up to standing on the board, but Myles soon lost his footing and plunged into the water, to the delight of his girlfriend.

Courtney is proving to be quite the jet-setter - heading to the idyllic Caribbean resort just one week after ringing in her 22nd birthday in Las Vegas.

Wow: Myles could not help but beam as he looked out at the gorgeous crystal blue sea

In he goes! The duo soon embarked on a number of games on board - with Myles happily throwing himself into the ocean

Time to tan: The pair later returned to the beach for a quick change of swimwear before their next activity

Back to black: The TOWIE star next slipped into a slinky black swimsuit as she and Myles embarked on a playful session of paddle boarding

Cut-out for the catwalk: The one-piece featured a cut-out at the front to tease at her enviable figure underneath

Experts: The pair kept their balance as they slowly rose up to standing on the board

After partying up a storm in Sin City with a host of pals, the brunette then travelled up to Los Angeles for another glamorous few days in the sunshine.

However after a busy week, Courtney now seems more relaxed than ever as she celebrates her big day with her beau Myles.

The loved-up pair have been dating for just over six months, though the Essex native told OK! in May that they have already discussed the prospect of marriage and children.

The brunette claimed she would 'obviously' move in if Myles bought a flat, before admitting she was keen to marry young, and that the pair talk about having kids 'all the time'.

But not for long! However Myles soon lost his balance

Going... Courtney looked on laughing as he began to fall

Going... He soon completely lost his footing and plunged into the water

Gone! Myles ended up in the sea on numerous occasions

Let's get physical: The pair were then seen performing some ab exercises on the boards

Playful: Courtney looked more than comfortable with her beau, who she has been dating for six months

The glamorous Essex girl also revealed to the magazine how the duo first met - with hunky Myles catching her attention on social media.

She explained: 'I was stalking Chris Clark on Instagram. He'd shared pictures of Myles and I thought oh my god he's hot, so I started liking Myles's pictures.

'Then, in Faces nightclub in November, I went to Chris: 'You need to set me up with your mate because I really fancy him.' Then I messaged Myles on Instagram with my number saying: 'Text me.'

Despite their loved-up display however, the couple have still endured their fair share of drama during their fleeting romance.

I'm on top of the words! The swimsuit cut to a daring height at her rear as she mastered the skill, displaying Courtney's ample derriere to all

Wobbly: The pair could not contain their giggles as they tried to stay upright

Moving fast: Despite their brief romance, the Essex natives told OK! in May that they have already discussed the prospect of marriage and children

Besotted: The brunette claimed she would 'obviously' move in if Myles bought a flat, before admitting she was keen to marry young

Eye candy: The glamorous Essex girl also revealed to the magazine how the duo first met - with hunky Myles catching her attention on social media

Fit: She explained: 'I was stalking Chris Clark on Instagram. He'd shared pictures of Myles and I thought oh my god he's hot, so I started liking Myles's pictures'

Back in March, TOWIE viewers branded Courtney a 'bunny boiler' after she set him some ground rules after just a week of dating - telling him he must answer his phone whenever she calls no later than the second ring.

She also informed him that he had to have his phone facing upright whenever they were together, to which Myles agreed.

The pair then hit a speed bump in their relationship when Myles discovered Courtney had been texting her ex.

With his pal Chris approaching her about the messages, she proceeded to try and clear the air with Myles - resulting in a teary confrontation.

And the rest is history: She continued: 'Then, in Faces nightclub in November, I went to Chris: 'You need to set me up with your mate because I really fancy him'

Better than ever: Despite their loved-up display however, the couple have still endured their fair share of drama during their fleeting romance

Summer lovin': The pair's loved-up display comes after they reconciled following a short break, instigated by Myles after discovering Courtney had texted her ex

In scenes aired on TOWIE, she pleaded: 'I was with Chloe and we though it would be funny if i messaged my ex off her phone as he blocked me.

'Looking back it wasn't funny, this was before we went to Amsterdam when we weren't that serious and I didn't tell you as I thought it would be made into something bigger.'

But Myles had heard enough and hit back with: 'What else is there I don't know about, what would you have done if he did reply? I don't know what to say, there's unfinished business and I need to go have a think,' before storming out.

However for the rest of the series, Courtney was seen trying to prove herself to Myles - making him gifts and taking him on days out, resulting in a reconciliation.
She was widely considered the most popular girl in the villa during her time on Love Island.

And Montana Brown has now made the candid admission that she took part in the programme in order to become famous and 'influence people'.

Speaking on Friday's episode of Loose Women, the 21-year-old graduate discussed her experience in the villa with boyfriend Alex Beattie, why she decided to have sex on camera and what she really thinks of pal Camilla Thurlow.

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Limelight lover: Montana Brown has made the candid admission that she took part in Love Island in order to become famous and 'influence people'

Her main man: Speaking on Friday's episode of Loose Women, the 21-year-old graduate discussed her experience in the villa with boyfriend Alex Beattie

Montana explained: 'I just thought it could be a great platform do what I want to do, I dont know what yet. I thought it would open doors and opportunities, to be in the public eye and influence public in good way.

'I definitely thought I was going to find a boyfriend. But its not easy have to find real connection with people, you dont have a connection with everyone.'

Montana also discussed her comments about Camilla Thurlow, which contributed to her popularity with the general public declining towards the end of the competition.

Despite counting Camilla as one of her closest friends in the villa, Montana said she found the softly spoken beauty 'draining'.

Drifting apart: Despite counting Camilla among her closest friends in the villa, Montana said she found the softly spoken beauty 'draining'

Montana explained: Camilla is very different from me, she can be very sensitive and thoughtful, and selfless, she's a little bit needy'

She explained: 'Camilla is very different from me, she can be very sensitive and thoughtful, and selfless, she's a little bit needy.

'But shes the most kind natured person, I wanted to support her. But in some ways I couldnt relate to her.

'Im quite thick skinned and don't think she is, so I found it a bit draining at the end.'

Montana and Alex placed fifth with Gabby and Marcel Somerville coming fourth, Olivia Attwood and Chris Hughes in third place, Camilla and Jamie Jewitt in second and Amber Davies and Kem Cetinay taking home the 50,000 prize money.

Missing out: Montana and Alex placed fifth on the ITV2 reality show

Telling all: The TV star joined Andrea McLean, Linda Robson, Saira Khan and Nadia Sawalha on Loose Women

Oops: Montana also discussed why she defied her mother's advice and had sex with Alex on national television, insisting she just couldn't help herself

She laughed: 'Mum was like, "Do not have sex on camera!" When youre in the moment you forget so easily. You're like, "Oh well!" My mum's words went in one ear, out the other ear'

Montana opened up about why she defied her mother's advice and had sex with Alex on national television, insisting she just couldn't help herself.

She laughed: 'Mum was like, "Do not have sex on camera!" When youre in the moment you forget so easily. You're like, "Oh well!" My mum's words went in one ear, out the other.

'When she came to visit in villa, she was like, "Well talk about when we get home". I have zero regrets looking back and seeing journey I went on.

'I never thought I would do have sex but when youre in a relationship with someone It felt right for me at the time.'
Angelina Jolie lived with Brad Pitt for over a decade and during that time he decorated several houses for them: the main one in Los Feliz, California, a weekend place in Santa Barbara as well as the Chateau Miraval villa in France.

But after the 42-year-old actress filed for divorce in September and moved into her own $25m mansion near Hollywood, she was on her own.

And in the September issue of Vanity Fair - on newsstands August 4 - she said needed help with getting her home together. 'Decorating, house stuff, that was always Brads thing. I didnt even know I needed throw pillows,' the Oscar winner joked.

A new way of life: Angelina Jolie told the September issue of Vanity Fair that she has had to learn to be a homemaker after splitting from Brad Pitt in 2016; here is the last time she was seen on the red carpet in January 2016

Wow: The star now lives in a $25 million mansion in Los Feliz, California

New look: Here is a look at the home before the Salt actress remodeled it

Jolie asked a set-decorator friend to get her new mansion, which has 11,000 square feet, to make it pretty.

The result is creamy white sofas and pillow and white candles everywhere.

She shares the Beaux-Arts mansion once owned by filmmaker Cecil B DeMille with her six kids (Maddox, 15; Pax, 13; Shiloh, 11; Zahara, 12; and twins Vivienne and Knox, nine) as well as her Rottweiler, Dusty.

Now all white: In the interview, the reporter said Jolie used white sofas and throw pillows to replace these beige ones

Funny: 'Decorating, house stuff, that was always Brads thing. I didnt even know I needed throw pillows,' the Oscar winner joked

Her lair: The star's master bedroom, which now has a new look

It has six bedrooms and 10 bathrooms. Outside is a lush lawn and a swimming pool.

The Lara Croft: Tomb Raider star said the new house is 'a big jump forward for us, and we're all trying to do our best to heal as a family.'

Life after Brad is very different for the star.

Pasta anyone? Jolie also told the magazine she has been taking cooking classes

Big: She shares the Beaux-Arts mansion once owned by filmmaker Cecil B DeMille with her six kids (Maddox, 15; Pax, 13; Shiloh, 11; Zahara, 12; and twins Vivienne and Knox, nine) as well as her Rottweiler, Dusty

Relaxing: She noted that the library was her favorite room in the Vanity Fair piece

Views: She bought the massive home because she need a private place with a lot of space for her and her kids; Angelina's backyard

Jolie has addressed the split from Pitt in a in-depth interview with Vanity Fair

Not only does she have a new home, but she is also becoming more of a stay-at-home mom.

'I'm just wanting to make the proper breakfast and keep the house. Thats my passion. At the request of my kids, Im taking cooking classes,' she admitted.

'As I go to sleep at night, I think, Did I do a great job as a mom or was that an average day?'

Now she is trying to 'be really good at just being a homemaker and picking up dog poop and cleaning dishes and reading bedtime stories.'

Also in the interview, the siren explained why her marriage to Brad fell apart.

She said things between her and Brad got 'bad' last summer, however she 'didn't want to use that word' and noted that 'things became difficult' in the summer of 2016, adding that 'It's just been the hardest time, and we're just kind of coming up for air.'

Happier times: The Maleficent star and Brad were together for 12 years before they announced their split; pictured in November 2015 at the By The Sea premiere

Adding: 'I think its very important to cry in the shower and not in front of them. They need to know that everythings going to be all right even when youre not sure it is.'

The Golden Globe winner recalled a conversation she had with her son Knox, where she joked that he needs to 'pretend to be normal.'

Angelina said that Knox told her '"Who wants to be normal? We're not normal. Let's never be normal.'' Thank you - yes! We're not normal. Let's embrace being not normal!'

Family: Here the humanitarian is seen with her kids at Disneyland in mid July

The relationship strain occurred in summer 2016 while First They Killed My Father was in post-production; Angelina directed and wrote the film, which takes place in Cambodia.

The Maleficent star and Brad were together for 12 years before they announced their split in September; the divorce has not yet been finalized.

She is seeking sole custody of their children.

His digs: Brad lives in a large compound near Los Feliz. He used to share the property with his big family

In September 2016, there was an alleged 'altercation' that involved Brad and Maddox aboard a private jet that was heading from Nice, France to Los Angeles, California; after they landed, Angelina 'kicked him out,' according to Vanity Fair.

Brad was cleared of any wrongdoing.

Angelina and Brad, who became known as 'Brangelina,' met on the set of their film Mr. And Mrs. Smith in 2004.

Once their love nest: Brad oversaw all the work on Chateau Miraval in France

Lovely: Pitt had the entire property reworked and it's where they wed; it is not known if the exes will sell the estate

They married in an intimate ceremony on August 23, 2014 in Correns, France.

She told the magazine that her and her estranged husband 'care for each other and care for our family, and we are both working towards the same goal.'

Angelina also divulged her feelings about's Brad Pitt's explosive GQ Style interview.

When asked if she was surprised, the star simply said 'no.'

Another piece of real estate: The actor had this Malibu home renovated

His ideas: The Moneyball actor decorated the breathtaking home then sold it

The actress, who is the daughter of Jon Voight and Marcheline Bertrand, said that she doesn't want to show too much emotion in front of the kids.

Explaining that: 'I was worried about my mother, growing upa lot. I do not want my children to be worried about me.'

She said her kids were 'very brave' - 'in times they needed to be' and that everyone is 'healing from the events that led to the filing...'

However the director clarified and said 'they're not healing from the divorce. They're healing from some...from life, from things in life.'

He owned this for a while: The War Machine actor bought then sold this New Orleans home

Angelina gushed about her kids, calling them 'strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly' and that's she 'very proud of them.'

In 2013, Angelina wrote a op-ed column for the New York Times, where she revealed she had undergone a preventative double mastectomy and reconstructive surgery.

She chose to have the surgery after finding out she had the BRCA1 gene.

That specific gene, as well as BRCA2, both greatly increase the risk of developing breast cancer.

He worked on new homes for the needy: Modern eco-friendly homes in Pitt's Make it Right Foundation next to the Industrial Canal in New Orleans lower 9th Ward

Before it all fell apart: The Gia star looked radiant in January 2015; she said her marriage fell apart in the summer of 2016

The actress and her father Jon have had a tumultuous relationship.

But these days, the father-daughter twosome are on much better terms - for the sake of her six kids.

Angelina says of her formerly estranged dad: 'He's been very good at understanding they needed their grandfather at this time.'

She said he 'knows kind of the rule - don't make them play with you,' adding that she wants him to just be a 'cool grandpa who's creative,' hangs out, 'tell stories and read a book in the library.'

The September Issue of Vanity Fair With Angelina Jolie hits newsstands on August 4th.
There has been plenty of conflict among the The Bachelor's contestants this season.

But Florence Alexandra Sophia may have pushed the envelope a too far on Thursday when she said Jen Hawke looked like a 'Jewish banana' during their group date.

The Dutch model mocked Jen's surf lifesaver costume, saying: 'I'm not worried about Jennifer. Dude, you look horrible! I mean, she looks like a Jewish banana.'

She said what? Florence Alexandra Sophia (pictured) may have pushed the envelope a too far on Thursday when she said Jen Hawke looked like a 'Jewish banana' during their group date

Fans took to Twitter to slam Florence's comments, with one remarking: 'Not a fan, but what was with the comment from Flo about her looking like a Yellow Jewish Banana. Unacceptable & inappropriate comment.'

'"She looks like a Jewish banana" when did using someone's religion become an acceptable insult to broadcast on TV? Shocked', tweeted a viewer.

Another Twitter user echoed the sentiment, writing: 'In what way is it okay that Florence said Jen looked like "a Jewish banana"?'

Anger: Fans immediately took to Twitter to slam Florence's comments about Jen (pictured)

'In what way is it okay?' Many viewers were furious at Florence's comment, with one tweeting it was 'unacceptable and inappropriate'

Meanwhile, some fans were baffled by Florence's statement, with one tweeting: 'Did anyone find out what a Jewish Banana is supposed to mean?'

It's not the first time the popular Network Ten dating show has faced criticism.

Earlier this week, fans slammed the program for its lack of diversity among this season's 22 contestants.

Please explain? Meanwhile, some fans were baffled by Florence's statement, with one tweeting: 'Did anyone find out what a Jewish Banana is supposed to mean?'

More controversy! Earlier this week, fans slammed the program for its lack of diversity among this season's 22 contestants. Pictured: The Bachelor 2017 line-up

A majority of the girls are slender and blonde, with the exception of a handful of brunettes.

Last year, producers received a similar backlash over Richie Strahan's season.

As the show kicked off, viewers took to Twitter complaining of an 'all white cast'.
At almost five months along, she is firmly in the second trimester of her pregnancy.

But Sam Faiers didn't let her blossoming baby bump hold her back as she indulged in a spot of bowling while promoting the re-opening of the Lockmeadow shopping centre in Maidstone, Kent, on Thursday.

The 26-year-old star looked to be having the time of her life as she showed off her bowling prowess - as well as her rapidly expanding tummy - at the event.

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Bowling them over! Sam Faiers didn't let her blossoming baby bump hold her back as she indulged in a spot of bowling while promoting the re-opening of the Lockmeadow shopping centre in Maidstone, Kent, on Thursday

Clad in a typically chic ensemble, Sam sported a form-fitting black maxi dress, which was elegantly layered beneath a billowing silk shirt.

Opting for footwear that boasted both comfort and style, the expectant star donned black sandals that featured a block heel and gold studded detailing.

Her ombre tresses were worn in a pin-straight style around her gorgeous face, which looked to be positively glowing.

Blossoming bump: The 26-year-old star looked to be having the time of her life as she showed off her bowling prowess - as well as her rapidly expanding tummy - at the event

Fashionista: Clad in a typically chic ensemble, Sam sported a form-fitting black maxi dress, which was elegantly layered beneath a billowing silk shirt

Best foot forward: Opting for footwear that boasted both comfort and style, the expectant star donned black sandals that featured a block heel and gold studded detailing

It wasn't hard to believe that Sam has only just returned to the UK following a family holiday, as the former TOWIE star also sported a serious tan.

Fully immersing herself in the fun the shopping centre had to offer, the mother-of-one hit the bowling alley, where she was pictured looking pensively down the lane before rolling her ball.

And her concentration seemed to pay off as Sam went on to achieve a strike - and appeared to give herself one heck of a cheer.

The Mummy Diaries star also demonstrated just how broody she is ahead of the arrival of her second child with boyfriend Paul Knightley.

The beauty was pictured cooing over a baby in a pram as she stopped to chat to some of the other mothers at the opening.

Hair envy: Sam's ombre tresses were worn in a pin-straight style around her gorgeous face, which looked to be positively glowing

Bronzed: It wasn't hard to believe that Sam has only just returned to the UK following a family holiday, as the former TOWIE star also sported a serious tan

Play Faiers! Fully immersing herself in the fun the shopping centre had to offer, the mother-of-one hit the bowling alley

Eye on the prize: Sam was pictured looking pensively down the lane before rolling her ball

Chuffed: Her focus seemed to pay off as she gave herself a well-earned cheer after achieving a strike

While the reality star is still four months from her due date, it seems the baby preparations are already well under way.

MailOnline has recently learned that the Essex native has purchased the perfect family home in Hertfordshire, with the property burning a 2.9 million hole in Sam and Paul's pockets.

A source explained: 'Samantha and Paul have been looking for the perfect property for some time and theyve now found a property they believe is perfect to bring up their family.'

Not long now! The Mummy Diaries star also demonstrated how broody she is ahead of the arrival of her second child with boyfriend Paul Knightley

Broody: The beauty was pictured cooing over a baby in a pram as she stopped to chat to some of the other mothers at the opening

No time like the present! While the reality star is still four months from her due date, it seems the baby preparations are already well under way

Settled: MailOnline has recently learned that the Essex native has purchased the perfect family home in Hertfordshire, costing the star 2.9 million

The insider added: 'The property is located in a privately gated road and boasts its own swimming pool along with several acres of land.'

It was previously reported that Sam and Paul were renting the home of One Direction star Niall Horan on a temporary basis while they house hunted.

The move from their native Essex was reportedly prompted by her desire to ditch the TOWIE [The Only Way Is Essex] association.

In the last series of The Mummy Diaries, a series which follows Sam and her family through early family life, fans saw Sam and Paul exploring the idea of life in Los Angeles.

But properties in Venice Beach were not quite up to Samantha's standards, like they were in Beverly Hills.

Life of luxury: It was previously reported that Sam and Paul were renting the home of One Direction star Niall Horan on a temporary basis while they house hunted

Moving on: The move from their native Essex was reportedly prompted by her desire to ditch the TOWIE [The Only Way Is Essex] association
Her PR guru daughter has been making headlines for her gym-honed bikini body.

But it was Roxy Jacenko's mother Doreen who stole the show when she flaunted her age-defying figure in a sleep triangle bikini on Instagram this Thursday.

Doreen was pictured posing with a female pal in an outdoor swimming pool at Santorini's luxury Katikies Hotel.

One hot mama! On Thursday, Roxy Jacenko's mother Doreen (left) revealed her age-defying figure in a triangle bikini on Instagram, while on holiday in Santorini, Greece

Displaying a prominent tan, the glamorous socialite proudly showcased her shapely silhouette in the cleavage-baring ensemble.

Tanning up a storm,' the brunette wrote in the caption.

Doreen's Grecian getaway comes weeks after Roxy announced her second engagement to husband Oliver Curtis.

Two peas in a pod! Roxy and her mother maintain a close relationship and even live in the same apartment building

Raise your glass! On Sunday, Roxy Jacenko (L) had more than just her second engagement to toast to, as she was celebrating her mother Doreen (C) and husband Oliver's (R) birthdays

On Sunday, Doreen celebrated the proposal with Roxy and her family, making sure to document the lavish affair on Instagram.

In one photo, Doreen was seen posing with Roxy and her son-in-law Oliver, 31, at Sydney's exclusive Otto Ristorante.

'Lunch with my favourites,' Doreen cooed in the caption.

Delicious! After an Italian spread at Sydney's Otto Ristorante, the Jacenko-Curtis family made sure they still had room for desserts, courtesy of Spoon And Fork

Expensive taste! And the exquisite cake wasn't the only surprise for Doreen - who celebrated her birthday last Friday - as Roxy also gifted her mother a $5,700 Cartier Love Bracelet

And after an Italian spread at the exclusive Woolloomooloo eatery, the family made sure they still had room for dessert.

Sharing a video to Instagram, Roxy showcased several incredibly detailed and personalised cakes from Spoon And Fork.

And the exquisite cake wasn't the only surprise for the grandmother to Pixie, five, and Hunter, three, who celebrated her birthday last Friday.

Surprising Doreen, Roxy gifted her mother a Cartier Love Bracelet that has a price tag of $5,700 upwards.

Lavish accessories: Taking to Instagram, Roxy posted a photo of her Sunday outfit - which included her $84,000 Hermes Birkin handbag
She shocked everyone by announcing her surprising new romance to Jamie O'Hara.

And Lady Victoria Hervey oozed body confidence as she frolicked in the ocean during her sun-drenched getaway to Cap Antibes, Cannes on Wednesday.

The 40-year-old socialite couldn't resist having a Bond girl moment of her very own as she emerged from the water in a very sexy bikini which flaunted her slim figure.

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Beach babe: Lady Victoria Hervey, 40, oozed body confidence as she frolicked in the ocean during her sun-drenched getaway to Cap Antibes, Cannes on Wednesday

Victoria looked like she was having a blast as she sizzled in the barely there two-piece which showed off her bronzed glow.

The shimmery gold bikini top showed off her cleavage and her toned stomach while the matching bottoms rested low on her hips and flaunted her toned legs.

The Brit model relied on her natural features as she opted for a simple slick of make-up.

Her hair was slicked back and proved that she had taken a lengthy dip in the glistening waters.

Sexy stuff: The socialite couldn't resist having a Bond girl moment of her very own as she emerged from the water in a very sexy bikini which flaunted her slim figure

Hot stuff: Victoria looked like she was having a blast as she sizzled in the barely there two-piece which showed off her bronzed glow

Saucy: The shimmery gold bikini top showed off her cleavage and her toned stomach

Slender frame: The matching bottoms rested low on her hips and flaunted her toned legs

Victoria couldn't help but set pulses racing during her bikini babe display.

She was also joined by a hunky male pal, who displayed his chiselled torso in a pair of blue swim short.

The pals looked in high spirits as they topped up their tans while engaging in lively chatter.

Her fun display comes after appeared to confirm a romance with Celebrity Big Brother star Jamie.

After his brief appearance on her reality show, Living With Lady Victoria, the pair sparked dating rumours with their numerous public outings together.

Stunning: The Brit model relied on her natural features as she opted for a simple slick of make-up

Mane attraction: Her hair was slicked back and proved that she had taken a lengthy dip in the glistening waters

Water babe! Victoria couldn't resist carrying on the sex kitten display as she took a lengthy shower

But on Sunday the unlikely duo appeared to take their relationship to the next level as they were spotted sharing a lingering kiss on the balcony of the historical Castle Goring in Worthing, Sussex.

Packing on the PDA, the father-of-three was also pictured planting a peck on Victoria's cheek when they later sauntered down the street.

Their countryside getaway came just days after they stepped out hand-in-hand during a night on the tiles in London.

Loving life: Victoria took her time to soak in the shower following her dip in the ocean

All eyes on her: She looked sensational as she strutted her stuff

Summer chic: Victoria later shielded herself from the sunny rays with a chic white fedora hat

Good-looking buddy: She was also joined by a hunky male pal, who displayed his chiselled torso in a pair of blue swim short

Days earlier, the twosome were snapped tucking into a grilled mackerel and champagne lunch in Brighton, before Jamie tenderly laid his head in Victoria's lap.

Jamie was then seen stripping off his shirt to reveal his many inkings as a smiling Victoria watched on.

Victoria posted a photo on her Instagram of the duo with a freshly caught mackerel with the caption 'Catch of the day ;) #Gonefishing #newhobby.'

In 2003, after a string of short-term relationships - which reportedly include Mick Hucknall and Jamie Theakston - Victoria moved to Los Angeles.

Having fun: The pals looked in high spirits as they topped up their tans while engaging in lively chatter

Smokin: Victoria couldn't help but set pulses racing during her bikini babe display

Sex appeal: Victoria is no stranger to putting on a sex-kitten display

Figure on form: The bold beauty stretched out her body to show off the rest of her honed limbs

She has remained private about her personal life in recent years, but is thought to be single.

Meanwhile, Jamie and his on-off girlfriend Elizabeth-Jayne Tierney have allegedly parted ways after a six-month romance.

According to The Sun, the sportsman and the brunette beauty had been 'constantly bickering' since his boozy holiday with CBB co-star Calum Best - which led them to realise they were at 'different stages in their lives'.

Love birds: Her fun display comes after appeared to confirm a romance with Celebrity Big Brother star Jamie




They marked their first date in Dumfries with a game of rounders.

And after weeks of being confined to the Love Island villa, Camilla Thurlow, 28, and Jamie Jewitt, 27, appeared to be making the most of the great outdoors as they enjoyed a romantic stroll around Camilla's hometown in Scotland on Thursday.

Sharing snaps from their loved-up outing, the Calvin Klein underwear model quipped on Instagram: 'Morning tour of thurlow manor #loveislandreunion @camillathurlow.'

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Cute couple: After weeks of being confined to the Love Island villa, Camilla Thurlow, 28, and Jamie Jewitt, 27, appeared to be making the most of the great outdoors as they enjoyed a romantic stroll around Camilla's hometown in Scotland on Thursday

Sharing another snap of himself receiving a piggyback, he added: 'What a tour guide'.

Highlighting his model physique for the outing, Jamie donned a tight fitting grey jumper with jeans as well as Muck Boots.

Camilla also looked effortlessly chic as she slipped into a denim shirt teamed with skinny jeans.

Giddy up! Sharing snaps from their loved-up outing, the Calvin Klein underwear model quipped on Instagram: 'What a tour guide'

Hours after they left the Love Island villa in Mallorca, the couple headed north to meet Camilla's nearest and dearest.

The Scottish beauty and her hunky Calvin Klein love sent social media into a frenzy after they shared a couple of candid photos from the tarmac on their respective social media feeds, as they prepared for the exciting trip to her hometown.

The couple first hit things off after the Essex native entered the villa four weeks into the series alongside runner Theo Campbell and the pair have been inseparable ever since.

Homeward bound! Hours after they left the Love Island villa in Mallorca, the couple headed north to meet Camilla's nearest and dearest

Proving their critics wrong, Jamie posted a sweet photo of them together on the plane ahead of take off, writing alongside it: 'Travelling with this little tinker #bringonthehaggis'.

Echoing Jamie's post, Camilla shared a similar sweet photo of them together, waiting to take off as she thanked her followers for their support throughout the series.

She began: 'Homeward bound! Thank you all so much for the incredible support, I will never be able to put into words what it means to me and how grateful I am.

Cute: Camilla shared this sweet picture of herself asleep on Jamie, writing: 'Fingers crossed we don't miss our stop'

Going round! Making her journey back home extra special, the beauty was surprised by her friends and family with a game of rounders during her first date with Jamie, after confessing that it would be her ideal date during their last meal together on the island

Jetting off: Echoing Jamie's post, Camilla shared a similar sweet photo of them together, waiting to take off as she thanked her followers for their support throughout the series

'From the bottom of my heart thank you - you have all given me the best experience ever and the summer of my life.'

Garnering over 172,000 likes, the loved-up pair sent their loyal followers into a frenzy as they commented in their droves about how 'gorgeous' a couple they are, assuming that Jamie was set to meet her parents once again.

One user wrote: 'Two ridiculously photogenic people. Please get your own show.'

'You guys looks amazing together,' another shared. 'How have you two not met before just perfect'. While a follower simple wrote: 'Welcome to Scotland and welcome back Cam'.

Support: Garnering over 172,000 likes, the loved-up pair sent their loyal followers into a frenzy as they commented in their droves about how 'gorgeous' a couple they are, assuming that Jamie was set to meet her parents once again

Making her journey back home extra special, the beauty was surprised by her friends and family with a game of rounders during her first date with Jamie, after confessing that it would be her ideal date during their last meal together on the island.

Blown away by the gesture, she shared a snap of them together, writing: 'The most amazing first date surprise ever! #rounders' alongside a cry-face emoji.

It comes as it has been reported by The Sun that Camilla is set to become the next 'Ross Kemp' as she hopes to travel to warzones and use her celebrity status to draw attention to causes close to her heart.

She said: 'I would literally love to do that. Very interestingly, Jamie mentioned that on our second date as something we should do. While Jamie added: 'It would be a dream job.'

Meanwhile, Camilla has admitted she's happy that her fleeting romance with Prince Harry, 32, didn't work out after meeting Jamie on the ITV2 series.

What a welcome: Camilla's friends welcomed her home to Scotland with a sweet banner

Speaking to The Sun, the bomb disposal expert admitted that she didn't want her previous high-profile relationship from 2015 before she entered the show to get in the way of finding her true prince charming.

She told the publication: 'I didnt want my past relationships in the spotlight to upset having a future with someone. I am very happy with Jamie right now.

'It is nice that something that has happened in the past is in the past  Ive had an opportunity to show people the person I am.'

It comes after Camilla revealed that she is planning to move in with her Island BFF Gabby Allen.

Happy out: Meanwhile, Camilla has admitted she's happy that her fleeting romance with Prince Harry, 32, didn't work out after meeting Jamie on the ITV2 series

In the past: Camilla previously enjoyed a brief fling with Prince Harry in 2015

The pair and their respective partners lost out to Kem Cetinay and Amber Davies in Monday night's final but grew close during their seven week stay.

As the reserved beauty is currently based in Scotland, she revealed that she was planning to move down to London to be nearer to new her partner.

She revealed: 'It's not necessarily that I live in that part of Scotland, it was my base because when I was travelling away and I needed somewhere that I could come back to. I think, and I'm hoping, that it is still the plan to have a base with Gabby here in London.'

When asked if they could get their own spin-off series, the beauty admitted: 'That would be such a fun idea, I love Gabs she was my absolute rock in there, I just think we will be best friends for life now.'
She's has been living her best life ever since touching down in the idyllic French port town earlier in the week.

And Taylor Hill, 21, continued to make the most of her fun-filled breakaway alongside her pal, Dutch model Daphne Groeneveld, 22, as she stepped out in style at St Tropez's Club 55 on Thursday.

The Victoria's Secret Angel showcased her leafy frame in a slinky red sun-dress with delicate white polka dot pattern throughout, while joined by her handsome boyfriend Michael Stephen Shank, 31.

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Sun-soaked: Taylor Hill, 21, continued to make the most of her fun-filled breakaway alongside her pal, Dutch model Daphne Groeneveld, 22, as she stepped out in style at St Tropez's Club 55 on Thursday

The supermodel's thigh-grazing look accentuated her incredible slender pins as she stood on the wooden boardwalk in her on-trend white Converse Chuck Taylor plimsolls.

Taylor - who began her career with the lingerie giant at the tender age of 19 - continued to flash the flesh in her vibrant skimpy number which boasted a plunging neckline that teased at her black bikini top.

While her ensemble was equipped with button detailing on the strap, she drew attention to her pristine decolletage with a number of gold necklaces that offset her hooped earrings.

Getting chic done: The Victoria's Secret Angel showcased her leafy frame in a slinky red sun-dress with delicate white polka dot pattern throughout

Pincredible: The supermodel's thigh-grazing look accentuated her incredible slender pins as she stood on the wooden boardwalk in her on-trend white Converse Chuck Taylor plimsolls

Cosy: Taylor - who began her career with the lingerie giant at the tender age of 19 - continued to flash the flesh in her vibrant skimpy number while joined by her handsome boyfriend Michael Stephen Shank, 31

Working her brunette locks into a loose chignon, she teamed her daytime look with a pair of retro cat-eye shades that featured purple reflective lenses.

Mimicking her pal's laidback style, model Daphne - who is the face of Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Fragrance and Tom Ford Beauty - donned a white and blue stripped sun dress for their afternoon together with their other halves.

The European beauty copied her BFF's stylish top knot while covering her eyes with her oversized classic sunnies as she hugged her muscular other half.

Taylor has been indulging in an array of bikini-clad frolics during her St Tropez jaunt over the past few days.

Staying close: Taylor wrapped her arm around her beau as the sea breeze tousled her locks

Going for gold: While her ensemble was equipped with button detailing on the strap, she drew attention to her pristine decolletage with a number of gold necklaces that offset her hooped earrings

Cheeky: Her skimpy number showcased her pert posterior while she waited for her boat from the French venue

The Illinois-born beauty has enjoyed a hugely successful catwalk career; she was chosen as the face of Lancome in 2016 and appearing in editorials for American Vogue, Harper's Bazaar and LOVE among many others.

Taylor has had a busy time of late, as she travelled to London for the launch of her own denim collection Taylor Hill x Joe's Jeans earlier this month.

She recently opened up about how much she enjoyed the designing process, in an interview with Women's Wear Daily, saying: 'I really loved it,' the beauty enthused. 'I thought it was something different.

Relaxed: Mimicking her pal's laidback style, model Daphne - who is the face of Jean Paul Gaultier Classique Fragrance and Tom Ford Beauty - donned a white and blue stripped sun dress for their afternoon together with their other halves

Red alert: Taylor was sure to stand out in her striking summer ensemble

'As a model, you dont really get to see this part, and I thought it was really cool to be a part of the process, and have an input, and make it my own.'

She revealed that she had brought Pinterest images and moodboards along to creative meetings.

And Taylor also returned to her natural modelling habitat for the line, appearing in the campaign images, shot by famed fashion photographer Mario Sorrenti.

Cosy: The European beauty copied her BFF's stylish top knot while covering her eyes with her oversized classic sunnies as she wrapped her arms around her muscular other half
The Real Housewives of New York City's Jill Zarin was in 'shock' after her second husband Bobby's latest procedure at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan.

'We're hoping for a miracle,' the 53-year-old reality star told People on Thursday.

'His cancer took an unexpected turn, but he is not going down without a fight...[Last week] we found out, after thinking he had pneumonia, that his Papillary Thyroid Disease became anaplastic thyroid cancer, one of the rarest cancers, which resists treatment.'

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'His cancer took an unexpected turn': The Real Housewives of New York City's Jill Zarin was in 'shock' after her second husband Bobby's latest procedure at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in Manhattan

The 71-year-old father-of-four also developed a brain tumor last fall following his initial thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2009, which then spread to his lungs in 2013.

Zarin (born Kamen) continued: 'I'm in physical shock. I've lost eight pounds already. He was doing well for a very, very long time. Then the cancer came back in his brain last fall and since then, it's been one thing after another.'

The Zarin Fabric Warehouse owner has already undergone radioactive iodine treatment and gamma knife radiosurgery.

'He is the most loving and caring person I have ever known besides my father,' Jill said.

The 53-year-old reality star told People: '[Last week] we found out, after thinking he had pneumonia, that his Papillary Thyroid Disease became anaplastic thyroid cancer, one of the rarest cancers, which resists treatment'

'He is the love of my life': The 71-year-old father-of-four also developed a brain tumor last fall following his initial thyroid cancer diagnosis in 2009, which then spread to his lungs in 2013

'Sometimes life just isnt fair': The real estate couple are parents of 24-year-old daughter Allyson (R) and Bobby has three children (Jonathan, David, and Jennifer) from a previous marriage

'Sometimes life just isnt fair. But we have such a great love story. He is the love of my life and I will do everything in my power to heal and care for him.'

The real estate couple are parents of 24-year-old daughter Allyson and Bobby has three children (Jonathan, David, and Jennifer) from a previous marriage.

Tickets range from $1K-$5K for the thyroid cancer philanthropist's fifth annual Luxury Luncheon happening Saturday at their 6K-square-foot waterfront Southampton estate.

'I want everybody to show up on Saturday happy to celebrate Bobby because he is still with us and he is fighting,' Jill said.

'Camp Zarin': Tickets range from $1K-$5K for the thyroid cancer philanthropist's fifth annual Luxury Luncheon happening Saturday at their 6K- square-foot waterfront Southampton estate

Packed: Guests will receive luxury-filled gift bags, dine on fare from Chef Roble, sip on Whispering Angel rose wine and Tito's lemonade, and get their hair styled at beauty bars

Celebs: Zarin is expecting Housewives from nearly every franchise to attend her Long Island bash - including TRHONYC's (L-R) Luann D'Agostino, Dorinda Medley, and Tinsley Mortimer

Guests will receive luxury-filled gift bags, dine on fare from Chef Roble, sip on Whispering Angel rose wine and Tito's lemonade, and get their brows/hair styled at beauty bars.

Zarin is expecting Housewives from nearly every franchise to attend her Long Island bash - including TRHONYC's Luann D'Agostino, Dorinda Medley, and Tinsley Mortimer.

The Simmons College grad last guest-starred on the June 7 episode - titled 'Black Out and Get Out' - of New York's ninth season on Bravo.
She's the curvy bikini model, whose brand is all about body confidence and glamour.

And Natasha Oakley showed off her famous assets in a skimpy red bikini on Thursday.

The 26-year-old shared a sizzling snap to Instagram, in which she looked tanned and relaxed as she basked in the sunshine at a beach in Malibu.

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Sizzling hot! Natasha Oakley showed off her famous assets in a skimpy red bikini on Thursday. The 26-year-old shared a sizzling snap to Instagram, in which she looked tanned and relaxed as she basked in the sunshine at a beach in Malibu

She showed off her taut torso and a hint of cleavage as she posed in what appeared to be an impromptu photo shoot in the shallow water.

Wearing little makeup and a smile, Sydney-born Tash looked to be in high spirits while enjoying the warm weather.

Tash rose to stardom in 2012 after launching the popular blog A Bikini A Day with her best friend Devin Brugman and she is often hailed for her curvy frame.

Role model: Earlier this week she attributed her success to the positive body standards she believes her scantily-clad snaps set for others

Earlier this week she attributed her success to the positive body standards she believes her scantily-clad snaps set for others.

'I am a curvaceous woman,' she told Stellar, claiming that her decision to proudly flaunt her frame has helped fans with their own self-confidence.

The busty beauty runs the popular blog A Bikini A Day, alongside her equally genetically blessed best friend Devin Brugman.

1.9 million followers can't be wrong! The wildly popular Instagram sensation added: 'I think a lot of people have had new-found confidence within themselves from seeing what we do'

'I think a lot of people have had new-found confidence within themselves from seeing what we do,' Natasha told the publication, who corroborated her claim.

'One of the reasons they have struck a chord with their audience is that they avoid showcasing rail-thin models in their work,' Stellar explained.

And while the reward of instilling other 'curvaceous' women with the confidence to follow in her footsteps has been great, it's not all fun in the sun.

'They avoid showcasing rail-thin models': The busty beauty runs the popular blog A Bikini A Day, alongside her equally genetically blessed best friend Devin Brugman

Natasha explained that while fans may only see her in barely-there outfits, a majority of her time is spent sitting behind her laptop, tending to business.

She owns and runs both a swimwear and activewear company, titled Monday Swimwear and Monday Active respectively.

And to cap-off an amazing-yet-busy year, she was announced as the new face of Bonds underwear this month.

More than meets the eye! Natasha also explained that while fans may only see her in barely-there outfits, a majority of her time is spent sitting behind her laptop, tending to business

Busy beauty! She owns and runs both a swimwear and activewear company, titled Monday Swimwear and Monday Active respectively

The news broke via her Instagram account, alongside picture of herself in a salon chair wearing one of the company's matching white underwear sets.

Natasha looked relaxed in the shot, reclining in a chair in nothing but her underwear, while two male stylists worked on her hair and makeup.

The stunning model captioned the photo, 'So excited to be the new face of Australia's most iconic underwear brand.'

She seemed to be taking a fairly casual approach to her new gig, seen taking it easy, with her long, lean legs up on the bench in front of her.
Shops in two towns have closed in Oromia state Ethiopia, similar to this 2016 scene of closed shops in Burayu, Oromia state

Shops closed their doors in Addis Ababa's largest market on Tuesday in protest at a recent hike in business taxes, bringing anger over the policy to the nation's capital.

Small businesses receiving their annual assessments have found themselves taxed at rates up to four times higher than in previous years.

That is according to residents of two towns outside Addis Ababa where strikes started earlier this month.

Both towns are in Oromia, where violent anti-government protests broke out in 2015 that were only quelled when a nationwide state of emergency was imposed last October.

Since then, Oromia has mostly been at peace, but this week's strike is one of the first instance of widespread, organised resistance against the government since the emergency decree.

Shops and bus companies in the Oromia town of Incinni closed for three days last week in protest of the tax hike, a local resident told AFP on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.

Protesters who marched from a market to the district administration to demand the levies be decreased were turned back by security forces, the resident added.

They are "angry because the tax promulgation is unfair, and scared to protest because if they do a shooting might occur," the resident said.

Businesses also closed in Ambo, a flashpoint during the 2015-2016 unrest, a resident there said.

Federal police officers in the town threatened shopkeepers who weren't open during business hours.

On Tuesday, an AFP reporter said a minority of shops in the capital's largest market Mercato hadn't opened, and some striking shopkeepers said they had received letters threatening consequences if they did not come to work.

Many merchants declined to speak in detail about the strike for fear of government retaliation, and around 10 plainclothes security officers forced an AFP reporter to leave Mercato.

The strike comes at a sensitive time for Africa's second most-populous nation, still under emergency rule.

The government has denied raising taxes, with Fasika Belay, a spokesman for the Ethiopian Revenues and Customs Authority (ERCA), saying that perhaps businesses are "confused" on how levies are calculated.
US President Donald Trump never misses a chance to make a political statement, even in front of thousands of Boy Scouts

From publicly attacking a member of his own cabinet to delivering a partisan speech to a gathering of Boy Scouts, Donald Trump has shown once again it's no longer business as usual in Washington.

Trump has rewritten the political rule book since launching his long-shot bid for the White House two years ago, but the Republican president has broken new ground with his actions this week.

Tarring his perceived enemies with mocking nicknames like "Crooked Hillary," "Lying Ted" and "Little Marco" has been part of the Trump playbook since Day One.

But the public ridiculing of his latest target -- his hand-picked attorney general, Jeff Sessions -- has left even some of Trump's own supporters scratching their heads.

"Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes," Trump tweeted on Tuesday in his latest salvo against the former senator from Alabama.

Sessions was one of Trump's earliest allies, backing him at a time when few thought the New York real estate tycoon had a serious shot at winning the Republican nomination -- much less the White House.

Trump hasn't coined an insulting moniker for Sessions yet -- like those above for Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and his Republican primary rivals Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio.

But he has gone after him repeatedly since last week, when he blasted his top law enforcement official over his decision to recuse himself from the federal probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

"Sessions should have never recused himself, and if he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me before he took the job, and I would have picked somebody else," Trump told The New York Times.

"It's extremely unfair, and that's a mild word, to the president."

- 'A little bit discomforting' -

Some Republican lawmakers and pundits say Trump's criticism of Sessions is unseemly

Sessions recused himself from the Russia investigation in March after failing to disclose during his confirmation hearing that he had met twice with Russia's ambassador to the United States.

A special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, is now conducting the Russia probe, and Trump apparently blames Sessions for failing to head off what he considers a "political witch hunt."

Trump's drumbeat of criticism against Sessions has met with some consternation among the president's own conservative supporters.

"You could make a great case that (Sessions) didn't need to (recuse himself)," radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh said Monday.

"But it's also kind of, you know, a little bit discomforting, unseemly, for Trump to go after such a loyal supporter this way."

- 'Inappropriate' speech to Scouts -

Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia's Center for Politics, said it is "unprecedented" for a president to undercut a sitting cabinet member in this fashion.

"This public humiliation, teasing the firing, is unprecedented," Sabato told AFP. "You can't find a president who is this disloyal to someone who was with him from the beginning."

Besides the unrelenting attacks on Sessions, Trump also raised eyebrows with a highly partisan address Monday night to tens of thousands of Boy Scouts attending a "jamboree" in West Virginia.

Trump attacked the "fake news" media, Barack Obama, Clinton and other favorite targets during his address to the Boy Scouts, whose Facebook page was deluged Tuesday with comments critical of the president's appearance.

"You talk to Boy Scouts about patriotism and the flag," Sabato said. "What does he talk about? He turns it into a political rally.

"This is completely inappropriate for a president," Sabato said. "These are kids. It's inappropriate."

Inappropriate was also the word Republican Senator Lindsey Graham used to describe Trump's call for the attorney general to prosecute Hillary Clinton.

During their bitter election battle, Trump had called for Clinton to be brought up on charges over her use of a private email server while secretary of state. A favorite chant of his supporters was "Lock her up" -- one he did not silence.

Trump dropped the idea after reaching the White House, but he has returned to it in recent days as the probe intensifies into his campaign's alleged ties to Russia.

Graham said Trump's tweet "suggesting Attorney General Sessions pursue prosecution of a former political rival is highly inappropriate.

"Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation," Graham said. "To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party."
A second executive of German car maker VW Volkswagen agreed to plead guilty in a US court for his role in the two-year-old 'dieselgate' emissions cheating scandal

A Volkswagen executive charged with fraud and conspiracy for his part in covering up the "dieselgate" emissions-cheating scandal has agreed to plead guilty, US officials said Tuesday.

Oliver Schmidt, who led the German automaker's US regulatory compliance office from 2012 to March 2015, will plead guilty at an August 4 hearing at a US federal court in Michigan, the officials said.

It was the latest development in the two-year old scandal, after VW admitted in 2015 to equipping about 11 million cars worldwide with defeat devices to evade emissions tests, including about 600,000 vehicles in the United States.

Prosecutors and lawyers representing Schmidt told US District Judge Sean Cox of the plea agreement during a morning status conference, court spokesman David Ashenfelter told AFP.

In an email to AFP, the Justice Department confirmed the plea deal, but there were no further details released on its substance of the agreement. Schmidt's attorney did not immediately return requests for comment.

Schmidt would be the second VW employee implicated in the emissions scandal to plead guilty.

James Liang, a former Volkswagen engineer, pleaded guilty last year of helping devise a defeat device used to circumvent emission tests. An FBI affidavit cited him as a cooperating witness in the government's case.

The German automaker pleaded guilty in March to criminal charges that it defrauded the US and conspired to violate the Clean Air Act.

The company agreed to pay $4.3 billion in criminal and civil fines, on top of $17.5 billion the company had already agreed to pay in settlements with car owners, dealers and for environmental cleanup.

Regulators in 2015 discovered that Volkswagen diesel cars marketed as clean in fact spewed up to 40 times the permissible limits of nitrogen oxide during normal driving, but this was hidden during emissions testing.

The company developed the illegal technology in 2009 and prosecutors alleged senior employees attempted a coverup after learning of the scheme in 2015.

Volkswagen still faces an array of legal challenges in Germany and worldwide relating to the scandal.

The global carmaker has so far set aside more than 22 billion euros ($24.4 billion) to cover fines and compensation related to dieselgate, but experts estimate the final bill could be much higher.
A worker unloads a Qatar Airways Cargo plane at Hamad International Airport in Doha on July 20, 2017. Air freight volumes have risen sharply since Saudi Arabia's closure of the emirate's sole land border

Qatar said on Wednesday that a new blacklist released by Saudi Arabia and its allies came as a "disappointing surprise" in a diplomatic crisis that has split the Gulf.

The four Arab governments named 18 organisations and individuals on Tuesday that they accused of links with Islamist extremism and Qatar.

The move by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt and Bahrain came despite mounting international pressure to compromise in their weeks-old boycott of their fellow US ally.

Qatari government communications director Sheikh Saif bin Ahmed Al-Thani official said the blacklist had no basis in fact and was aimed at stripping the emirate of its sovereignty.

"It comes as a disappointing surprise that the blockading countries are still pursuing this story as part of their smear campaign against Qatar," he said in a statement.

"This latest list provides further evidence that the blockading countries are not committed to the fight against terrorism.

"All individuals with links to terrorism in Qatar have been prosecuted. We encourage the blockading countries to spend less time on drafting these fabricated lists and more time on implementing measures to counter the threat of extremism in their own countries."

The four governments issued a previous blacklist of 59 individuals and 12 groups last month. Sheikh Saif said it had been "widely rejected by the international community".

Saudi Arabia and its allies have been boycotting Qatar since June 5 in the region's worst diplomatic crisis in years.

They sealed the emirate's only land border, ordered its citizens to leave and closed their airspace and waters to Qatari flights and shipping.

They demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood, blacklisted as a "terror group" by the four governments although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who last week spent four days in the region trying to broker a settlement of the crisis, has voiced satisfaction with Qatar's efforts to address any suspicion of terror funding.

But after talks with European Union diplomatic chief Federica Mogherini on Tuesday, Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry warned that the four governments would accept no compromise in their dispute with Qatar.

"We cannot compromise with any form of terrorism, we cannot compromise or enter into any form of negotiations," Shoukry told a press conference.
The Dome of the Rock in the old city of Jerusalem

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Wednesday welcomed Israel's removal of metal detectors from a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site but said it was "not enough".

Israel installed metal detectors at entrances to the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, after an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen.

But after protests and intensive international diplomacy to prevent further unrest, the government removed the detectors from the site.

"Israel took the right step to remove the metal detectors to help lower tension," Erdogan said.

"But is it enough according to our wishes? No, it is not," he said at a meeting on further education in the Islamic world in Ankara.

Erdogan said Turkey "cannot tolerate" constraints placed on Muslims visiting the site during Friday prayers.

Palestinians viewed the new security measures as Israel asserting further control over the site, which is central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Clashes broke out during protests, leaving five Palestinians dead.

"The Israeli government want to destroy the Islamic character of Jerusalem with a new practice every day," Erdogan said.

There were tit-for-tat statements from both sides after Erdogan criticised Israel on Tuesday and accused it of "attempting to take the (Al-Aqsa) mosque from Muslim hands".

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement that his comments were "mind-blowing, false and distorted".

Turkish foreign ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu on Wednesday condemned Israel's "arrogant" remarks.
President Donald Trump announced that transgender people may not serve "in any capacity" in the US military, citing the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" their presence would cause

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that transgender people may not serve "in any capacity" in the US military, citing the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" their presence would cause.

In late June, Pentagon chief Jim Mattis delayed for six months a plan put in place under Barack Obama's administration to start accepting transgender recruits.

An estimated 2,500 to 7,000 transgender people are among the 1.3 million active duty service members.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military," Trump tweeted.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

The issue of transgender rights in America has been increasingly in the spotlight in recent months, especially over how states regulate the use of public restrooms.

The Trump administration faced protests earlier this year after it reversed Obama-era federal protections that urged schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, not the gender on their birth certificate.

Last month, the Pentagon said the five armed service branches could delay accepting transgender recruits until January 1 as they "review their accession plans and provide input on the impact to the readiness and lethality of our forces," spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement.

Last week, White explained that the different services were not in agreement on when to accept transgender recruits.

"The service chiefs all had to give their what needed-to-be-done timeframes" for integrating transgender troops, she told reporters.

"Different services had different takes. Some asked for time... there were all kinds of different recommendations."

Perhaps the most famous transgender US soldier is former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served seven years in prison for one of the largest dumps of classified documents in US history.

Manning, who served as Bradley Manning, was initially sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2013 for leaking more than 700,000 classified documents to WikiLeaks three years earlier.

She twice tried to take her own life last year alone, before then-president Obama commuted her sentence just days before he left office in January. Manning walked free in May.

During her incarceration at the Fort Leavenworth military prison, Manning battled for -- and won -- the right to begin hormone treatment to begin transitioning toward her female identity.

Manning, who is still employed by the army and retains its insurance coverage, has become an icon for transgender activists.
South Africa is home to 80 percent of the world's remaining rhinos

South African police Wednesday arrested a 24-year-old woman with 20 kilogrammes of rhino horn before boarding a flight bound for Hong Kong, a spokesman said.

The woman whose nationality has not been revealed, was detained at Johannesburg's O.R. Tambo International Airport while in transit from the Zambian capital Lusaka.

Police said a luggage scanner revealed her suitcase "contained 11 pieces of rhino horn weighing approximately 20 kilogrammes."

She has been charged with contravening laws that protect endangered species.

South Africa is battling a scourge of rhino poaching fuelled by insatiable demand for their horn in Asia, where its powdered form is mistakenly believed to have medicinal powers that could cure cancer or act as an aphrodisiac.

Roughly a quarter of the world rhino population has been killed in South Africa, home to 80 percent of those remaining, in the last eight years.

The South African government this week revealed that 529 rhino were poached for their horns in the first half of the year, a slight decrease from 542 killed during the same period a year ago.
When 10-year-old Liu Jian was studying at a Beijing primary school in the early 1960s, his teacher read a famous poem written by Chairman Mao Zedong to the class.

The site of the Fifth National Congress of the Communist Party of China held in Wuhan, Hubei province, in 1927. [Photo provided to China Daily]

But when the students were confused about the battle depicted in the poem, the teacher asked Liu if he could get details from his grandfather.

Liu is the grandson of Zhu De, one of the founding fathers of New China and the People's Liberation Army.

"My grandfather rarely talked about his feats at home, as he believed the victories belonged to the people," says Liu.

But the late army marshal made an exception for the teacher, inviting her home and speaking about the battle, which was a key one.

This story is featured in the upcoming TV documentary Ni Cong Jinggangshan Zoulai (You Come from Jinggang Mountain), which is based on the early history of the PLA.

Liu and 22 other descendants of the armed forces pioneers, such as the late premier Zhou Enlai's niece Zhou Bingde and the late army marshal Luo Ronghuan's son Luo Dongjin, recently attended an event to promote the series in Beijing.

To mark the 90th anniversary of the founding of the PLA, the six-episode series will air on Beijing Satellite TV from Aug 1, with two episodes every night.

The series, set between 1924 and 1930, chronicles events that shaped the army and Mao's military theories.

The events include the 1927 Nanchang Uprising, the Communist Party of China's first fight against Kuomintang rule, the founding of the Party-led army and the Sanwan Reorganization, which set up a new system to consolidate the Party's leadership of the army in Jiangxi province in 1927.
Nitish Kumar (centre), the leader of India's eastern Bihar state resigned from his post

The leader of India's eastern Bihar state resigned from his post on Wednesday in a surprise move widely expected to strengthen Prime Minister Narendra Modi's grip on power.

Nitish Kumar, the popular chief minister of one of India's most populous and impoverished states, told journalists that it had become "impossible" for him to run the government in an alliance with a regional party led by Lalu Prasad Yadav, a controversial populist.

"My resignation has been accepted. The governor has asked me to continue till other arrangements are made," Kumar said.

Modi's right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the main opposition in the state and observers predict that it could now form the next Bihar government in an alliance with Kumar's party.

Yadav -- a former Bihar chief minister -- was earlier banished from India's lower house in 2013 after he was convicted of defrauding a scheme to help farmers.
A picture of WenJian Liu is displayed during a plaque dedication ceremony at the 84th Precinct in Brooklyn, New York, in December 2015

New York police detective WenJian Liu was ambushed and killed two and a half years ago in a murder that shocked the city. This week, his widow gave birth to his baby daughter.

Angelina was born Tuesday at Weill Cornell Hospital. Her mother, Sanny Liu, asked doctors to freeze her husband's sperm the night he died so that she could one day fulfil their dream of having children.

Liu, 32, and partner Rafael Ramos, 40, were shot dead as they sat in a patrol car in Brooklyn on December 20, 2014.

The night after his death, Sanny dreamt that he handed her a baby girl, police said. She got pregnant through in-vitro fertilization.

"I told my friend, 'It's going to be a baby girl.' My friend said, 'No, you haven't even checked the sonograms,' but I was right!" she said in a statement released by the police department.

Thousands of police officers attended Liu's funeral where Sanny, who had married him just months earlier, fought back tears to tell mourners that she had lost her "soul mate" and a "wonderful husband."

Liu, an only child, moved with his parents to New York from China as a 12-year-old in search of the American dream.

His parents, left heartbroken by his death, were photographed at the hospital welcoming their new granddaughter.

Liu's killer Ismaaiyl Brinsley also shot his ex-girlfriend on December 20 and committed suicide after the double murder.

Hours earlier, he claimed he wanted to avenge the deaths of African Americans during confrontations with police -- incidents that have fueled years of nationwide protests and national debate.
Boris Johnson is attending annual talks in Sydney between the British and Australian foreign and defence ministers, focusing on security and trade

Britain plans to play a bigger role in Asia after Brexit, including deploying aircraft carriers to the region, Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said Thursday.

Johnson backed the campaign to quit the EU and said the decision had given his country the opportunity to "think afresh" about its international role, while maintaining close ties with its European partners.

"One of the purposes of my trip is to get over the message that we are now going to be more committed to the Asia-Pacific region and more committed to Australia," he told The Australian newspaper in a Sydney interview.

"People want the involvement of a country that sticks up for a rules-based international system, that is prepared to deploy its military in the area, as we are."

After attending annual talks in Sydney between the British and Australian foreign and defence ministers, Johnson added that one way his nation would be "stepping up" in the region would be through supporting freedom of navigation.

"You will have seen last year how we sent a squadron of typhoons to Korea and Japan," he told reporters later Thursday.

"One of the first things we will do with the two new colossal aircraft carriers that we have just built is send them on a freedom of navigation operation to this area."

The comments came as British Defence Secretary Michael Fallon made a pitch to build Australia's next fleet of warships, with Spain and Italy also in the running for the lucrative deal to construct nine frigates.

Australia earlier this year detailed a massive Aus$89 billion (US$70.4 billion) shipbuilding strategy in the nation's largest peacetime naval investment.

The big increase in defence spending follows Beijing's assertion of its regional power status through a military build-up in the contested South China Sea.

China asserts sovereignty over almost all of the resource-rich waters despite rival claims from Southeast Asian neighbours and has rapidly built reefs into artificial islands capable of hosting military planes.

"What people need is certainty and stability. We believe that legal certainty in the South China Sea is hugely important," Johnson added to The Australian.

"We don't want to see the militarisation of that area. We believe that for world trade to prosper there must be a fairness about the way sea lanes are going to operate."

Another key issue discussed during the meeting was a free-trade agreement with Australia post-Brexit, with Johnson stressing that Britain's greater regional military involvement went hand-in-hand with an economic pact.

"The increase in our defence budgets that Michael Fallon has alluded to do allow for the UK to step up in this region," Johnson told reporters.

"The change in our circumstances in our relationship with the European Union also allow us now to do a big free trade deal with Australia. The two things go together.

"We believe that it is the guaranteeing of the rules-based international system, the preservation of the security and stability of this region, that allow for economic growth."
Despite winning the election, Donald Trump has not given up on bashing his White House rival Hillary Clinton

Two chants emerged as hallmarks of Donald Trump's campaign rallies as he made his improbable run for the White House.

One was "Build the wall!" and the other was "Lock her up!"

The plan for a wall on the border with Mexico has been slow getting off the ground, but Trump as president has revived the rallying cry for the prosecution of Hillary Clinton.

The move has set off alarm bells in Washington and sparked accusations that Trump, by focusing on his defeated rival, is seeking to divert attention from the widening probe into his own campaign's alleged ties with Russia.

The Washington Post compared it in an editorial to something one would see in a "banana republic," while The Wall Street Journal said Trump is "crossing dangerous legal and political lines."

"Mr. Trump is clearly frustrated that the Russia collusion story is engulfing his own family," the Journal said. "But that frustration has now taken a darker turn.

"Mr. Trump's suggestion that his Attorney General prosecute his defeated opponent is the kind of crude political retribution one expects in Erdogan's Turkey or Duterte's Philippines," the newspaper said.

In a series of tweets since the weekend, Trump has repeatedly attacked Attorney General Jeff Sessions, one of his earliest supporters but now possibly on his way out, for failing to aggressively go after Clinton.

"Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes," Trump said Tuesday, suggesting that an investigation should be reopened into her use of a private email server while secretary of state.

Besides criticizing Sessions for failing to go after Clinton, Trump has expressed frustration with his decision to recuse himself from the probe into alleged collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Trump has denounced the Russia investigation, now in the hands of a special counsel, former FBI director Robert Mueller, as a political witch hunt and questioned why the media and investigators have not focused equivalent resources or attention on Clinton's alleged misdeeds.

"So why aren't the Committees and investigators, and of course our beleaguered (attorney general), looking into Crooked Hillarys crimes & Russia relations?" the president said.

- 'Impeachable offense' -

Several members of Trump's own Republican Party have leapt to Sessions' defense and denounced Trump's bid to get the attorney general to open a criminal probe of Clinton.

Lindsey Graham is one of the many Republicans in the Senate who support Attorney General Jeff Sessions

"Prosecutorial decisions should be based on applying facts to the law without hint of political motivation," said Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina.

"To do otherwise is to run away from the long-standing American tradition of separating the law from politics regardless of party," Graham said.

Richard Painter, who served as White House chief ethics lawyer under president George W. Bush, went so far as to say that Trump's call for Clinton's prosecution was an "impeachable offense."

"Pressuring (the attorney general) to prosecute the person who lost the election is an impeachable offense if we value free elections," Painter said on Twitter.

FBI director James Comey determined last year -- and announced four months before the November election -- that while Clinton had been negligent in her email practices, no crime had been committed.

Trump's renewed push for an investigation into Clinton is a reversal of the position he took in an interview with The New York Times two weeks after winning the presidential vote.

"I don't want to hurt the Clintons, I really don't," Trump said then. "She went through a lot and suffered greatly in many different ways, and I'm not looking to hurt them at all."

If Trump does somehow manage to get the Justice Department to open an investigation into Clinton it's unlikely it would involve Sessions -- assuming he manages to keep his job.

The former senator from Alabama, who served as a surrogate for Trump during the campaign, said he would recuse himself from any eventual investigation of the Democratic presidential candidate.

Sessions also told his Senate confirmation hearing in January that the United States is a country that "does not punish its political enemies."

Trump's push for a renewed probe of Clinton did draw support from Tom Fitton, the president of Judicial Watch, a conservative watchdog group.

"No one's out to get the Clintons per se, but the American people want to be assured that there's been a straightforward investigation by the Justice Department and FBI," Fitton said in an interview with the Fox Business Network.

"We need a new set of eyes looking at this and the president's right to call for it," he said.
An exhibit called "The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America" showcases testimony from descendants of victims, contemporary African American art in response to racism, photographs and an interactive map showing where lynchings took place, the bulk of them in the US South.

A new exhibition is seeking to ignite a painful conversation in the United States about "racial terror" from the past by shedding light on the lynching of more than 4,000 African Americans.

Inspired by post-Apartheid reconciliation efforts in South Africa, memorials to genocide in Rwanda and German rehabilitation after the Holocaust, activists say US reconciliation on slavery and its aftermath is long overdue.

"The Legacy of Lynching: Confronting Racial Terror in America" opened on Wednesday and runs through September 3 at the Brooklyn Museum in New York's most populous borough, home to a large African American population.

The exhibition showcases testimony from descendants of victims, contemporary African American art in response to racism, photographs and an interactive map showing where lynchings took place, the bulk of them in the American South.

There is a moving video about a family who traces a grandfather lynched in Shreveport, Louisiana for allegedly passing a note to a white woman.

More than 4,000 African American men, women and children were lynched in 20 states from 1877 to 1950, according to research carried out by the Equal Justice Initiative, headed by internationally acclaimed Alabama lawyer Bryan Stevenson.

They were often targeted for innocuous offenses, or on little or no evidence. White communities complicit in the violence and torture were never made accountable. More than six million blacks migrated North and West to escape.

"We've really done a poor job in this country in confronting this history of racial violence, this era of terrorism that so profoundly shaped America," Stevenson told AFP.

"We really haven't talked about slavery and its legacy. We haven't talked at all about lynching. So I'm hoping this exhibit provokes a conversation that is long overdue and is necessary," he added.

"We have unarmed African Americans being shot and killed by the police. There's a lot of tension, there's a lot of rage, there's a lot of frustration about our lack of progress in achieving racial equality. And I think a lot of that stems from our failure to deal honestly with the roots of that," he said.

- 'Need to intervene' -

Sara Softness, assistant curator of special projects at the Brooklyn Museum, says her team set up the exhibit with "utmost care and sensitivity"

Sara Softness, assistant curator, special projects at Brooklyn Museum, said the team mounted the exhibition with "the utmost care and sensitivity."

"Perhaps we need to intervene," she told AFP. "Art at its very best has that power to make you question and to challenge certain notions, and in that way culture can really be a catalyst for change."

The exhibition closes with a video rendering of the first national memorial to the victims, which the EJI plans to open in Montgomery, Alabama by May 2018.

There are hundreds of memorials that honor defenders of slavery, champions of racial segregation and white supremacy across the South.

Stevenson draws a direct line between lynching and the fact that black Americans today are disproportionately more likely to be sentenced to death, incarcerated or subjected to police violence.

He calls the death penalty "the step-child of lynching." States with the highest lynching rates are also those with the highest execution rates, he said.

Forty-two percent of those currently on death row are black. Blacks make up 34.5 percent of those executed in the United States since 1976, though blacks make up only 13 percent of the population.

The election of Donald Trump, who targeted Muslims, Mexicans and other population groups on the campaign trail, makes change more urgent than ever, Stevenson said.

"We're not going to be a just society, we're not going to be an evolved society if we allow fear and anger to target and demonize groups based on that group's identity," he said.

Stevenson has helped to win reversals, relief or release for more than 130 wrongly condemned death row prisoners, and won a ruling that mandatory life-without-parole sentences for children 17 or younger are unconstitutional.
Imtiaz Cajee, the nephew of Ahmed Timol, an anti-apartheid activist brutally murdered in police custody in October 1971, holds a portrait of his uncle at his house on May 25, 2017 in Pretoria

Police brutality, "fake news" propaganda and official cover-ups at the height of apartheid have been laid bare in a South African court probing the death of a communist activist 46 years ago.

Ahmed Timol, a 29-year-old anti-apartheid volunteer, was arrested in Johannesburg in October 1971 and after five days in detention he died after plummeting from the city's police headquarters.

Officers at the time said he took his own life -- a verdict endorsed by an inquest -- but his family fought the ruling and campaigned hard to secure a review that finally began on June 26.

A former officer in the feared security branch which held Timol and was involved in sabotaging anti-apartheid groups, has spoken out about his squad's brutal techniques in court.

"(I saw) a man's testicles being crushed like pepper," said Paul Erasmus, now 61, who joined the unit after Timol's death.

"Electric shocks were used very widely... as all the detectives had little shock machines (adapted) from the old telephone system."

Officers referred to the boxes as "Radio Moscow" because of the leftist leanings of many of the detainees, he said.

- 'Physical assault in custody' -

Pathologist Shakeera Holland told the hearing in Pretoria that Timol's body, including his face, was covered in bruises and scratches.

"Most of the bruises... were not consistent with a fall from a height," said Holland. "(He) sustained physical assault while in police custody."

Erasmus told AFP he had personally beaten several detainees during his career.

Significantly for Timol's family, who are convinced he was pushed from the 10th floor window, Erasmus revealed that a brigadier known as "the sweeper" was responsible for covering up police crimes.

This picture taken on June 12, 2017 shows a general view of the Johannesburg Central Police Station, formerly known as John Vorster Square which was the site of the death of political activist and detainee Ahmed Timol

"They'd sweep up the bits and sort it out," said Erasmus, who kept diaries of his 17 year-long service and admitted he was attracted to the work by "the James Bond secret agent thing".

Stephanie Kemp, a communist anti-apartheid fighter, told the court that one of the party's pamphlets appeared to have been doctored following Timol's death to apparently endorse suicide in detention as a resistance tactic.

Erasmus also disclosed that the police investigations branch was headed by a man considered by his colleagues so brutal and anti-semitic that he was given the moniker "Little Hitler".

He then told the court how he became an expert at forging struggle icon Desmond Tutu's signature, using it to reply to a wealthy US heiress who had offered him funds, declining the money.

In his role in the police's psychological warfare unit, Erasmus said he also produced propaganda to persuade foreign leaders to cut ties to the banned African National Congress (ANC) party.

"People call it 'fake news' today. Sometimes to stir the pot, sometimes to create false impressions -- but the heart of it was to sow disunity in the liberation movement," he said.

Erasmus appeared in court with wiry shoulder-length grey hair, carrying a dog-eared year book and wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket.

Former anti-apartheid activist Mohamed Timol, brother of the late Ahmed Timol, who died in police custody in October 1971, shows the Order Of Luthuli Award bestowed posthumously on his brother

His evidence has included some of the most significant disclosures about the apartheid system since the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which concluded in 1998.

Erasmus, granted partial amnesty at the TRC, also revealed that he was involved in efforts to make another activist who died in police custody appear to have been suicidal.

"We were told that Neil Aggett hung himself and told to prove he was suicidal from the day he was born," Erasmus said.

A subsequent inquest found that the white anti-apartheid activist died by hanging and that police were not to blame. But human rights lawyer George Bizos argued at the time that his suicide was induced.

- 'History is on our side' -

Marjorie Jobson of the Khulumani apartheid victim support group described the claim as a major development for the family of Aggett who died in 1982.

The revelation visibly affected Jobson, who was in court, prompting her to describe the review as a "second wave of testimonies".

Bizos, also present for the review, said that criminal charges could still be brought against those implicated in the Timol case.

"The people whose loved ones were killed by the regime want to come to terms with themselves," he said. "They want an acknowledgement that their lives counted."

Bizos, one of Nelson Mandela's closest personal confidants, said that the review could have far-reaching consequences.

"Truth has a way of floating to the top. We are pleased to also reinforce this for people who were in favour of apartheid -- and we encourage them to come forward," he said.

Bizos said that he expected more case reviews, adding "history is on our side."

The court plans to hear evidence next week from policemen present at the scene of Timol's death.
The government in early July began removing the maze of concrete barriers that have proliferated across the Afghan capital in the 16 years since the US invaded Afghanistan at the height of the Taliban's power

The blast walls that cut through Kabul like ramparts are being pulled down, part of a counter-intuitive makeover by local officials who argue the move will give the city's war-weary residents a psychological boost.

The government in early July began removing the maze of concrete barriers that have proliferated across the Afghan capital in the 16 years since the US invaded Afghanistan at the height of the Taliban's power.

The bid to remove the walls is illogical to some, coming as it does after attacks in Kabul have surged in recent years, making it one of the deadliest places in the country for civilians.

But it is civilians who are driving the push, says Najibullah Alokazy, head of the project.

"This problem was raised by the population, for them the city looks like a city at war," he said.

"It will help to decrease the traffic and it will have its tangible effects on the view of the city."

The maze of concrete barricades shield the city's most prominent inhabitants, from government officials to foreign embassy staff

The maze of concrete barricades -- shaped like a wide-based inverted 'T' to provide protection from bomb blasts -- shield the city's most prominent inhabitants, from government officials to foreign embassy staff.

In just one of the 22 districts that make up the city of Kabul, there are more than 3,000 blast walls, according to Alokazay, while the compound that houses the NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan boasts more than 8,000.

But their spread has been poorly regulated, with many of Kabul's most high-profile residents, including former presidents and one-time warlords, building concrete shields that stretch far into the road.

"When a person became a member of the parliament, or the smallest agent of the government, they all had T-Walls to protect their houses," Mustafa Sharify, the head of Beeroj Logistics Services, a firm that installs the blast walls, told AFP.

Residents say the walls -- which block views of once-wide streets and much loved landmarks -- do not make them feel safe. In fact, they represent a threat.

"It doesn't help security in the streets. It helps only for their house," said Kabul resident Yama Rayeen, gesturing towards one of the tall concrete barriers, which range in height from three to seven metres (10 to 23 feet).

"If you block the roads it creates a lot of problems: the more you create traffic congestion, the more you have people trapped in case of an explosion."

Such traffic congestion presents an opportunity for the Taliban and other militant groups, who have targeted Kabul's roads with devastating regularity.

In late May, a truck bomb exploded during morning rush hour inside the city's diplomatic quarter, killing more than 150 people and injuring hundreds, in the most deadly attack to hit the country since 2001.

While on Monday yet another bomb tore through early commuters, killing at least 26 people when it struck a bus full of government employees on their way to work.

- 'Getting rid of the cages' -

The government plans to remove the blast walls that have been put up by private citizens -- many without permission -- but those outside embassies and government buildings, high-value targets for the Taliban insurgency, will remain

The government plans to remove the blast walls that have been put up by private citizens -- many without permission -- but those outside embassies and government buildings, high-value targets for the Taliban insurgency, will remain.

Nine hundred walls have so far been removed, and officials say the process has gone smoothly.

Each section of wall weighs more than a tonne and a battalion of tractors, under police protection, have been deployed across the city to remove the walls.

"We are very happy to get rid of these cages. We are born free, we don't accept restrictions," said shopkeeper Ghulam Daoud Ghamugusar, as he observed a blast wall being dismantled, a cup of sweet tea in hand.

But while the government is tearing down the walls, the deteriorating security situation has prompted NATO to strengthen its own defences, doubling the row of barriers that surround its Kabul headquarters.

The "green zone" -- a restricted area bristling with barbed wire, that ordinary Afghans are barred from entering -- is also expanding as the resurgent Taliban has repeatedly shown its ability to strike inside the capital.

Since January more than 1,500 civilians have died across the country in attacks, with nearly one in five killed in Kabul, according to figures recently released by the United Nations.

"It was a beautiful city," retired teacher Ahmad Jan told AFP wistfully, nostalgic for the days before blast walls and checkpoints.

"You could go from the Ariana Square to the presidential palace without anyone stopping you. I can't imagine we'll ever go back to those days."
A malfunction on a giant pendulum ride at Ohio State Fair killed one person and injured seven others

A malfunction in an amusement ride at the Ohio State Fair sent riders catapulting through the air Wednesday, killing one and injuring seven, US media reported.

Ohio Governor John Kasich ordered all the fair rides shut down after the accident on the Fire Ball ride, a giant pendulum that swings riders in carts from side to side.

A spokesman for the Columbus, Ohio fire department told reporters an 18-year-old male was thrown 50 feet (15 meters) and killed on impact.

Three other people were reported in critical condition and four more were in stable condition.

Rhonda Burgess, who was at the fair with her three children, told CNN the accident involved carts carrying riders that were attached to the end of the pendulum.

A piece on one of the carts "snapped off and the riders came out of the cart," she said.

"At least two (people) flew through the air at least 20 feet before landing on their backs on the concrete," Burgess said.

David Evans, director of the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center where some of the injured were taken, likened the accident to a high speed car crash in which the occupants are ejected from the vehicle.

"This was a great force and a great mechanism," he said.

The accident occurred on the opening day of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus.

The Columbus Dispatch said the ride, built by KMG, was billed as an "aggressive thrill."
Chinese and Indian soldiers stand guard at the Nathu La border crossing in India's northeastern Sikkim state, near the disputed Doklam territory

A border standoff between Chinese and Indian troops on a remote Himalayan plateau has heightened long-standing tensions while ensnaring a tiny kingdom, Bhutan, between the two nuclear-armed powers.

The row has festered for more than a month as India and China refuse to back down in the distant but strategically key territory, reflecting the historic mistrust between the Asian giants.

The area is disputed between China and Bhutan but India's decision to jump into the fray reflects its concerns about Beijing's growing military might and ambitions in the region, analysts say.

The border trouble began in mid-June when Chinese soldiers started to extend a road through the Doklam territory -- known as "Donglang" in Chinese.

India, a close ally of Bhutan, then deployed troops to stop the construction project, prompting Beijing to accuse India of trespassing on Chinese soil.

China, which warned this week that it would step up its deployment, insists that India must withdraw its troops before any proper negotiation takes place. India says said both sides should withdraw their forces.

"The solution to this issue is simple, which is that the Indian troops back out honestly," Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said this week.

While the deadlock may be broached during Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval's visit to Beijing on Thursday, there are no signs that either side is ready to back down.

"It's easier to shake a mountain than to shake the People's Liberation Army (PLA)," Chinese Defence Ministry spokesman Wu Qian boasted at a press conference Monday.

Sarath Chand, India's vice army chief, said on Tuesday: "China is expanding its influence across the Himalayas into our neighbourhood despite being an economy five times the size (of India), with such a large standing army... it is bound to be a threat for us in the years ahead."

- Game of chicken at 'Chicken's Neck' -

Mistrust is hundreds of years old and the pair fought a brief war in 1962 in India's border state of Arunachal Pradesh.

"India views China's road-building as a threat because (the Chinese) have gone against the status quo of behaviour in a disputed territory," Shen Dingli, vice dean of Fudan University's Institute of International Studies, told AFP.

The road was being built close to the "Chicken's Neck," a narrow, essential strip of land connecting India's northeastern provinces with the rest of the country.

India-China border spat

But Beijing maintains that "Doklam has been part of China since ancient times," countering that Indian troops triggered the standoff by crossing a boundary established in an 1890 agreement with Britain.

Zhao Xiaozhuo, a senior Chinese colonel and an analyst at a PLA think tank, said it was "ridiculous" for India to view the road construction as a threat.

"India views infrastructure in the border areas as only for military use with little consideration for their valuable role in economic development," Zhao wrote in the state-run China Daily.

Bhutan has taken a backseat as India and China scuffle.

Jayadeva Ranade, head of the Delhi-based Centre for China Analysis and Strategy, said China is trying to establish a "pro-Beijing lobby" inside Bhutan.

"But Bhutan has limitations on what it can do directly. It has protested to China, issued notes, but more than that, what can they really do but sit and watch?"

- Domestic audiences -

Neither Chinese President Xi Jinping nor Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi can back down without facing a "nationalist backlash" back home, said Huang Jing, a Sino-Indian relations expert at the National University of Singapore.

Xi in particular must exude strength as he consolidates power before a crucial Communist Party congress later this year.

"This situation is very dangerous. I don't think China has much choice if the Indian troops stay where they are -- Xi will have to demonstrate to Chinese people whether he means what he says," Huang told AFP.

India fears that China's "String of Pearls" military and commercial network in the Indian Ocean increasingly undermines its own geopolitical status.

And it has voiced concern about another Chinese project: The China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which will give Beijing access to the Arabian Sea but passes through the hotly disputed Kashmir region.

The project is part of a massive Chinese global trade infrastructure programme dubbed One Belt, One Road, which India has snubbed.

The standoff is a very public sign of India's willingness to push back.

"As this face-off continues, the one who's actually losing ground are the Chinese because they have styled themselves so far as a major power whom no one can challenge," Ranade said.

"So the fact that India has stood up to them is a message to all other countries in the region."
Japan's chief government spokesman Yoshihide Suga said Chinese authorities told Japan that the six Japanese "violated domestic laws" but offered few details

Four Japanese detained in China in March for alleged "illegal activities" have safely returned home, officials said Thursday, though two others are still being held.

Tensions regularly mar Japan-China relations, with a maritime territorial dispute and lingering tensions over Tokyo's history of aggression in the first half of the 20th century the major irritants.

China had already detained five other Japanese citizens since 2015, largely on suspicion of spying.

The four released were among six taken into custody in Shandong and Hainan provinces in March, according to Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief government spokesman.

"While we are making necessary contact with Chinese authorities, I would like to refrain from commenting on details as there are people who are still detained," he told a regular press conference.

Suga also withheld comment on why the six were detained and why some were released.

Japan's foreign ministry would not say exactly when the four returned, only that it was "confirmed" on Thursday that they were back and well.

Earlier this year, Suga said Chinese authorities had told Japan that the six "violated domestic laws" but offered few details.

The Chinese foreign ministry in May said they were being probed for "illegal activities".

The six are Japanese company officials who visited China after a local company or companies asked them to search for hot springs, public broadcaster NHK and other media have reported.

Japanese media have speculated that the presence of military ports in both provinces may have caused them to be suspected of trying to access intelligence.
South Korean President Moon Jae-In (L) poses with dog Tory and animal rights group members at his presidential residence in Seoul, on July 26, 2017

South Korean President Moon Jae-In has welcomed a new member into his family: Tory, a black mutt who was reportedly headed for the dinner table before being rescued two years ago.

The pooch's previous owner was an old man notorious for abusing dogs and eating them, according to CARE, the animal rights group responsible for rescuing Tory.

Moon, an animal lover who had pledged to adopt Tory during his presidential campaign, welcomed the animal home on Wednesday, his office said in a statement, adding that it was the first time a rescued dog had made its way to the presidential Blue House.

The adoption comes after Moon's ousted predecessor, Park Geun-Hye, came under fire for abandoning her nine canine companions when she left the Blue House in disgrace earlier this year.

In contrast the new president, who also owns a Pungsan hunting dog named Maru and a former shelter cat called Jjing-Jjing, has won praise for adopting the pooch, nicknamed "Moon Tory" by social media users.

"Moon Tory, in the arms of its father! Tory, please live a happy life!" said a user on Twitter.

"Tory, you have met the best owner!" tweeted another user.

A small black and grey mongrel with upright ears and sparkling brown eyes, Tory had been beaten and was found tied to a rope at an abandoned farmhouse outside Seoul, Moon's office said.

His former owner had earlier stabbed another dog to death, according to an eyewitness who alerted CARE, the animal rights group said.

Moon visited the animal shelter where Tory was housed in May and vowed to adopt the "so-called ugly dog... on the grounds that all humans and animals hold the right to be free from prejudice and discrimination".

Moon's adoption of the mutt, believed to be around four years old, is unusual because most South Koreans prefer to own purebred dogs.

Dogs deemed "ugly" are often abandoned and rights groups estimate that some 100,000 pooches are deserted by their owners each year, with many ending up at canine meat farms or euthanised.
Palestinians celebrate outside the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on July 27, 2017, after more new Israeli security barriers were removed from the entrance

Israeli police said on Thursday all new security measures installed at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after a July 14 attack and which sparked deadly unrest have been removed.

"The police returned the security measures to how they were before the terrorist attack at the Haram al-Sharif, before July 14," police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP in a statement.

Muslim authorities were meeting on Thursday morning to decide whether to end a boycott of the site over the new security measures and re-enter for prayers.

A tense standoff has been underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site for nearly two weeks despite the removal of metal detectors on Tuesday, with concerns of major unrest surrounding Friday prayers if no resolution is found.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were also removed early on Thursday from the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The compound encompasses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The removal of the installations overnight prompted Palestinian crowds to celebrate in the streets near the site.

Israel installed the new security measures after an attack nearby that killed two policemen on July 14.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control.

Palestinians pray outside Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa compound on July 26, 2017, before Israel announced it had removed all new security installations from the entrances

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Deadly unrest has erupted since the new measures were introduced, with clashes breaking out around the compound and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three of them.
Fresh alerts from Britain, Canada and Australia were released this week after President Rodrigo Duterte extended military rule across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year to combat the militants

Western governments are warning their citizens against travelling to nearly all of the southern third of the Philippines, citing the rising threats of terror attacks and kidnappings by Islamist militants.

Fresh alerts from Britain, Canada and Australia were released this week after President Rodrigo Duterte extended military rule across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year to combat the militants.

The Canadian advisory on Monday warned against visiting any part of Mindanao except for Davao, the biggest city in the south.

"There is a serious risk of terrorist attacks and kidnappings in this region," the Canadian government said.

It also cautioned that people should only visit Davao, where the bombing of a crowded night market last year claimed 15 lives, if it was essential.

Mindanao comprises roughly a third of the Philippine territory and is home to 20 million people.

The region has endured decades of conflict, with Muslim separatists and communists waging deadly rebellions, and a small group of Islamic militants known as the Abu Sayyaf running a lucrative kidnap-for-ransom operation from there.

Western governments have long advised against travelling to parts of Mindanao, but the fresh alerts are more extensive as they warn against visiting almost the whole region.

The new advisories reflect growing concerns that the Islamic State group's influence is rising in Mindanao.

Gunmen who have pledged allegiance to IS occupied Marawi, the main Muslim city in the southern Philippines, in May and security forces have been unable to dislodge them despite fierce battles that have claimed more than 600 lives.

Duterte initially imposed martial law across Mindanao immediately after the fighting erupted in Marawi.

The British government advisory, released on Tuesday, warned terrorists were "very likely" to carry out attacks anywhere in the Philippines, including the capital of Manila.

It said the most acute threat was in the south, and warned against travelling through nearly all of Mindanao.

The British advisory said the threat of kidnappings and terrorism also loomed over the central city of Dumaguete and nearby Siquijor island, both tourist areas.

The Australian government warning largely echoed those issued by Britain and Canada.

In a July 18 advisory that warned against travelling to Mindanao, the US embassy in Manila said it had "credible information" that terrorists also planned to conduct kidnappings on the tourist islands of Palawan, Cebu and Bohol in 2017.
Israeli border guards keep watch as Palestinian worshippers pray outside Jerusalem's Old City overlooking the Al-Aqsa mosque compound on July 28, 2017

Israel barred men under 50 from Friday prayers at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after two weeks of tensions and deadly unrest, leading thousands of Palestinians to hold mass prayers outside.

Thousands of others entered the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, for prayers after Palestinians ended a boycott of the site the previous day.

Despite fears of violent clashes around the compound, which includes Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, the area was largely calm following Friday's midday prayers.

Dozens of young Palestinians shouted and protested near one entrance to the compound and minor scuffles broke out with police.

Clashes did however erupt between Israeli forces and Palestinians in parts of the occupied West Bank, including in the Nablus, Bethlehem and Hebron areas, the Israeli army said.

Jerusalem Old City

A Palestinian also tried to stab soldiers at a junction in the West Bank and was shot dead by Israeli forces, the army said.

And Israeli troops shot dead a Palestinian teenager and wounded seven others during clashes near the border fence in Gaza, Palestinian authorities there said.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said 225 Palestinians were wounded, including at least 87 from live or rubber bullets.

Tensions at the holy site were high -- even after thousands of worshippers returned to the compound Thursday, ending a boycott over new security measures set up following an attack that killed two policemen.

The outside prayers on Friday were due to the Israeli age restrictions and were not the start of a new boycott, after Israel removed the security measures this week.

By the evening, the gates to the mosque compound were open and Palestinians of all ages were allowed in without any restrictions, an Israeli police spokesman and a Palestinian official said.

- Dozens wounded -

"It was a victory for you and for your beliefs and for Jerusalem," Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Muhammad Ahmad Hussein told worshippers at Al-Aqsa mosque of the boycott.

Police earlier barred men under the age of 50 from praying amid fears of disturbances.

Israeli police hold stun grenades launchers following Friday noon prayers outside Jerusalem's Old City on July 28, 2017

Roads around Jerusalem's Old City, where the mosque compound is located, were closed and some 3,500 police were deployed.

Police said people who tried to stay inside Al-Aqsa mosque overnight were removed.

"It is a cowardly act," Amjad Hassoun, a young man from Jerusalem, said of the age restriction.

At least 187 people were wounded inside the mosque compound and in adjacent areas as clashes erupted on Thursday, the Red Crescent said. Police said stones were thrown at officers.

Amnesty International said Israeli security forces fired "stun grenades, tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets into a peaceful crowd" at an entrance to the compound.

The Palestinian Prisoners Club said some 119 people were detained and 21 still in custody, including minors, adding that some were beaten by police.

Thousands of worshippers streamed into the compound for afternoon prayers Thursday for the first time in two weeks, ending a boycott after Israel removed new security measures installed following a July 14 attack that killed two policemen.

In previous days, Muslims refused to enter the compound and prayed in the streets outside to protest against the security measures, which Palestinians viewed as Israel asserting further control over the site.

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Israeli authorities said the measures, including metal detectors, were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to attack the officers.

The United States lauded "the efforts undertaken to de-escalate tensions in Jerusalem".

Jordan, the custodian of Jerusalem's Muslim holy sites, welcomed the removal of the security measures but said Israel should not provoke Palestinians there.

"Unless Israel acts responsibly, then we'll be facing another crisis that will push us all towards the abyss," Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said.

- Rare Palestinian victory -

A Palestinian shouts slogans at Israeli police at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound as clashes break out after the ending of a two-week Muslim boycott on July 27, 2017

Deadly unrest had erupted in the days after the new measures were introduced, with clashes breaking out around the compound, and in the West Bank, leaving six Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank and stabbed four Israelis on July 21, killing three of them.

Israel removed the metal detectors on Tuesday after intense international diplomacy.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were also removed on Thursday.

The removal was seen as a defeat for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had ordered the security measures and was forced to backtrack after warnings the unrest could spiral out of control.

It represented a rare victory for Palestinians, who remained united in their boycott.

Israeli officials said they were to replace the new security measures with "advanced technologies" -- widely believed to be smart cameras with facial recognition technology.

The holy compound lies in east Jerusalem, seized by Israel in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed in a move never recognised by the international community.

The third-holiest site for Muslims and the most sacred for Jews, it is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and has served as a rallying cry for Palestinians.

In 2000, a visit to the compound by then Israeli opposition leader Ariel Sharon helped ignite the second Palestinian intifada, or uprising.
The ruling is seen as a blow to South Korean ousted leader Park Geun-Hye, who has been separately standing trial after being impeached in March and indicted on 18 charges including bribery, coercion and abuse of power

A top aide close to South Korea's disgraced former president was sentenced to three years Thursday for blacklisting nearly 10,000 artists seen as critical of Park Geun-Hye's government.

The ruling is seen as a blow to ex-leader Park, who has been separately standing trial after being impeached in March and indicted on 18 charges including bribery, coercion and abuse of power.

The crackdown against more than 9,000 artists in music, literature, film, dance, fine arts and theatre is among the charges against her.

In Thursday's ruling the Seoul Central District Court convicted Kim Ki-Choon, former chief of staff for the conservative president, of being behind the creation and enforcement of a blacklist of artists.

The list reads like a Who's Who of Seoul's arts scene and was drawn up with the intent of starving many artists of government subsidies and placing them under surveillance.

Among the names included are novelist Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize, and "Oldboy" film director Park Chan-Wook, who won the Grand Prix at Cannes in 2004.

"The exclusion (of the artists from government subsidies) constituted a serious breach of constitutional rights not to be discriminated against in cultural activities," the court said in a statement.

The blacklist included novelist Han Kang, winner of the 2016 Man Booker International Prize

"This move ran against the spirit of the constitution," it said.

Many artists on the list had satirised or criticised Park or her late father, Park Chung-Hee, who ruled with an iron fist from 1961 to 1979.

The blacklist also included artist Hong Sung-Dam, whose painting of the 2014 Sewol ferry sinking was withdrawn from South Korea's largest contemporary art festival allegedly because of pressure from the presidential Blue House.

Park's government was heavily criticised for its handling of the disaster, in which more than 300 people died.

Four other former senior officials were also imprisoned between 18 to 24 months.

But former culture minister Cho Yoon-Sun, who was dubbed "Cinderella" because of her rapid career rise under Park, was given a suspended jail sentence.

She will be immediately released from a detention centre where she has been in custody since January.

Cho was found not guilty of being part of the artist blackballing, but convicted of perjury in parliament.

Prosecution authorities and all the accused except Cho are expected to appeal.
The West Kowloon terminus is in the heart of semi-autonomous Hong Kong, on its famous harbourfront, not near the boundary with China that lies further north

Controversy over a new cross-border rail link which will see mainland laws enforced in a Hong Kong train station escalated Thursday after the justice chief likened China to the city's "landlord".

It comes at a time when fears are worsening that Hong Kong's freedoms are under threat from an increasingly assertive Beijing.

There are already concerns that Chinese operatives are working undercover after the alleged abductions of a city bookseller and a reclusive mainland businessman.

The high-speed rail line between Hong Kong and the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou, 80 miles away, is due to open in 2018.

Its Hong Kong terminus will be in the heart of the semi-autonomous city, on its famous harbourfront, not near the boundary with China that lies further north.

But the Beijing-friendly government wants to create a joint immigration point which would mean parts of the station, the platforms and the train cabins would fall under Chinese jurisdiction and would be patrolled by mainland officials.

Critics say the plan is a clear breach of the city's mini-constitution, the Basic Law, which guarantees freedoms unseen on the mainland and prohibits its law enforcers operating in Hong Kong.

Justice secretary Rimsky Yuen stoked opponents by likening the arrangement to the relationship between a landlord and tenant.

"The landlord has rented a house to me and then realised he didn't have enough space and asks me, can you rent a room to me? He has that right," he said on a radio talk show Wednesday.

Yuen's comments alarmed the pro-democracy camp which has now formed a concern group.

"If China is our landlord, that means they could ask us to give back land any time," opposition lawmaker Tanya Chan told AFP Thursday.

Barrister and former lawmaker Margaret Ng said there was no legal basis for the move to create what the government is calling a "mainland port area" on Hong Kong soil.

The territory's boundaries are protected by its constitution, she said.

"If you choose to carve out part of it and call it something else, then we lose our protection altogether," said Ng.

There are already transport connections between Hong Kong and the mainland, but Chinese immigration checks are done on the other side of the border.

The government insists the plan will save travel time and says it does not breach local laws because Hong Kong's land and natural resources are "state property".

Yuen said the arrangement would not diminish the rights of Hong Kong people, who are used to freedom of expression and accessing social media sites like Facebook, which are banned in China.

But when asked by reporters whether passengers would need to change their behaviour in mainland parts of the station, Yuen said they would be treated as if they had crossed into China at any other Hong Kong border point.

The new high-speed rail line is one of a number of cross-border infrastructure projects which have increased concern that Hong Kong is being swallowed up by the mainland.
Students walk through the rain to pay their respects to late North Korean leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il outside Kumsusan Palace as the country marks 'Victory Day' in Pyongyang

In heavy rain, North Koreans put down their umbrellas to bow before the mausoleum of founder Kim Il Sung and his son on Thursday as the country marked the end of the Korean War, which it calls Victory Day.

There had been widespread speculation in US and South Korean intelligence circles that the North might choose to mark the anniversary with a fresh missile launch, following its first successful test earlier this month of an intercontinental ballistic missile that experts judged capable of reaching Alaska or Hawaii.

As of late Thursday, no such launch had materialised and, in Pyongyang, the day was given over to memorialising the ruling Kim dynasty as the defenders of the nation.

"Our country is ever-victorious because we have the greatest leaders in the world," said Hong Yong-Dok, who was at the Kumsusan Palace with his granddaughters.

The Korean people had suffered at the hands of "US imperialists for ages, and even my parents were killed by them in the Korean war. So we must teach our descendants to take revenge on the US imperialists," he told AFP.

Students clean the steps in front of the statues of late North Korean leaders Kim Il-Sung and Kim Jong-Il at Mansu hill as the country marks 'Victory Day' in Pyongyang

July 27, 1953 marks the signing of the armistice between China, North Korea, and US-backed United Nations forces that had fought each other to a stalemate over three years.

Nonetheless the North - whose invasion of the South started the war, despite its insistence that it was invaded by the United States - regards itself as having won what it calls the Fatherland Liberation War.

The conflict left the peninsula devastated, with the South's capital Seoul changing hands four times.

Korea has been divided ever since, with the now democratic South emerging from the wreckage to enjoy an economic boom that has propelled it to become Asia's fourth-largest economy.

In the absence of a peace treaty the two sides are technically still at war, and under the Kim family dynasty, now in its third generation in leader Kim Jong-Un, the North has embraced an "army first" policy.

It has developed nuclear weapons, detonating five devices so far, and celebrated the recent ICBM test as a giant leap forward in its development of a credible delivery system to threaten the US mainland.

The North occasionally times its missile firings to coincide with significant anniversaries, leading to habitual speculation of an imminent test before each one.

- 'Moved to tears' -

July 27, 1953 marks the signing of the armistice between China, North Korea, and US-backed United Nations forces that had fought each other to a stalemate over three years

Inside the Kumsusan Palace, a sprawling complex of colonnaded marble chambers and chandeliers, Kim and his son and successor Kim Jong-Il lie in state.

Their embalmed bodies rest in glass coffins on biers in separate halls suffused with dim red light, soldiers standing guard in each corner as a steady stream of visitors bows before them three times.

"I was moved to tears when I met the great leaders," retired financial official Ri Sun-Gyong, 71, said afterwards, her voice trembling with emotion. "I always miss them."

Ordinary North Koreans normally only express officially-approved sentiments when talking to international media.

Geopolitical tensions have mounted in recent months over the North's weapons ambitions, which have seen it subjected to multiple rounds of United Nations sanctions, and Washington was expected later Thursday to formally declare a ban on US citizens visiting the country.

North Korean newspapers carried a commentary saying America's "final ruin" was "already sealed" and it had "only one way out" -- "to withdraw the anachronistic hostile policy toward the DPRK and kneel and apologise before its army and people".

Despite his death in 1994, Kim Il-Sung remains Eternal President of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, as the North is officially known, while Kim Jong-Il - who died in 2011 - is Eternal General-Secretary of the ruling Workers' Party.

Pyongyang resident Kim Un-Sil, 40, took her seven-year-old son to Mansu Hill in the centre of the city, where giant statues of the two men look out over the capital, to pay their respects.

"I just wanted to tell my son, the new generation, that our Korean history is the history of victory," she said.
Construction cranes are seen during a groundbreaking ceremony for The Tower at Dubai Creek Harbour on October 10, 2016

Authorities in the United Arab Emirates have banned a leading business website and magazine for one month for allegedly publishing "false news" on failed real estate projects in Dubai.

Arabian Business has withdrawn the report, entitled "51 Dubai projects under liquidation process," and posted an apology stating "the information published related to projects dating from 2010 and as such are now outdated".

Dubai's media regulation office released a statement confirming the Arabian Business website had been "blocked and the distribution of its print edition halted for one month" starting from Wednesday night.

"The magazine committed violation of the rules and regulations of Dubai Creative Clusters Authority (DCCA) by publishing false news that was based on inaccurate information," the statement said.

The DCAA is a government agency that oversees media in the city. The office is "mandated to promote Dubai as one of the world's most attractive cities for creative businesses," according to its website.

Representatives of Arabian Business were not reachable for comment Thursday.

On Friday the government's Dubai Media Office had denied there was any truth to the report, which it noted had been "copied by Qatari media".

The UAE, Saudi Arabia and Egypt in May banned Qatari news giant Al-Jazeera, arguing that the channel and website promote hate speech and extremism.

The UAE is part of a Saudi-led bloc that suspended diplomatic and trade relations with Qatar last month over allegations Doha had ties to Iran and supported Islamist extremism.

Qatar denies the accusations.

Arabian Business is published by Dubai-based ITP Media Group, a Middle East publisher which also produces Cosmopolitan, Harper's Bazaar and Esquire in the region.
A Japanese historian who helped save Cambodia's renowned Angkor Wat temple complex was among the winners of this year's Magsaysay Awards

A Japanese historian who helped save Cambodia's renowned Angkor Wat temple complex was among the winners of this year's Magsaysay Awards, widely regarded as Asia's version of the Nobel prize, organisers said Thursday.

Yoshiaki Ishizawa, 79, was honoured for decades of work in helping preserve the historic landmark after the 12th-century temple complex barely survived years of war and civil strife, the award foundation said.

Aside from rallying international support to preserve the structures, the Japanese scholar was also cited for raising awareness among Cambodians of Angkor Wat's importance to their heritage.

"The protection and restoration of the sites of Cambodia should be carried out by the Cambodians, for the Cambodians," the award foundation quoted him as saying.

The Philippine Educational Theater Association was also honoured for 50 years of work in developing a national theatre, staging "protest" plays during the dictatorship of the late president Ferdinand Marcos and helping other Southeast Asian countries use the arts to advocate for issues related to sexuality, HIV-AIDs and gender.

Gethsie Shanmugam, 83, a Tamil psychological counsellor, also received the award for addressing emotional damage, particularly among women and children, who suffered from violence and disasters in her native Sri Lanka.

Her work covered the brutal Sinhalese-Tamil civil war and the 2004 tsunami, the foundation noted.

Indonesian Abdon Nababan, 53, also received the award for organising indigenous people in his country to assert their rights on issues like the forest lands in their territories.

Tony Tay, 70, received the award for addressing the unseen plight of the poor in wealthy Singapore, setting up "Willing Hearts," in 2003, a charity that distributed packed meals to the needy and has since branched out to providing optical and dental care.

Lawyer Lilia de Lima, 76, was cited for her leadership of a government agency overseeing the Philippines' export processing zones, turning the overstaffed, inefficient institution into one that has won widespread respect while boosting exports and attracting investments, the foundation said.

The Manila-based Ramon Magsaysay Award, named after a Filipino president killed in a plane crash, was established in 1957 to honour people and groups tackling development problems in Asia.
With some exceptions, China will include all central State-owned enterprises that have not been reformed in a modern corporate system by making them legal persons by the end of this year. The exception will be those in the financial and cultural sectors. The move is expected to help clear away institutional barriers for further SOE reform.

The move, giving corporations the same rights and responsibilities as people, was announced by the State Council on Wednesday.

It is part of the implementation plan for company system reform for central SOEs, which refers to those directly administered by the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, the country's top SOE regulator.

It was also the latest move since the reform was mapped out at the Central Economic Work Conference in December and in the Government Work Report that Premier Li Keqiang delivered in March.

"By the end of 2017, all central SOEs, except financial and cultural ones, will be registered as limited liability companies or joint-equity corporations in accordance with the Company Law, which will accelerate the establishment of an effective and balanced corporate governance structure, based on their legal person status, as well as a flexible and efficient marketized management mechanism," the plan said.

The document provides supportive policies on registration, land usage and taxes. New companies can still be kept solely State-owned and the registered capital will be evaluated based on audited net assets. They can be registered as joint-equity companies with State Council permission, and registered capital is assessed via procedures like audits and asset evaluations.

By the end of 2016, more than 92 percent of subsidiaries under 101 central SOEs had been restructured into modern companies. The reform of the remaining companies is expected to involve 3,200 subsidiaries of 69 central SOEs, which have total assets of 8 trillion yuan ($1.18 trillion).

In the first half of 2017, central SOEs made $78.66 billion in net profit, an increase of 18.6 percent compared with the same period last year, according to the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

SOE reform aims to boost efficiency and increase State-owned assets, said Liang Jun, a researcher at the Guangdong Academy of Social Sciences. "But the reform has been obstructed by some historical problems, including hard-to-define registered capital. The plan will clear obstacles and help eligible SOEs eliminate institutional barriers. The corporate legal person status provides a legal foundation to further the campaign such as acquisitions, mergers and mixed ownership reforms," Liang said.

"Though many SOEs have set up the modern company system, there's still room for improvement," said Li Jin, chief researcher at the China Enterprise Research Institute, saying some companies' governing boards existed in name only.

The China General Nuclear Power Group, the country's largest nuclear operator, wrapped up the reform last year. Its spokesman Huang Xiaofei said the company witnessed a strengthened market consciousness and a more flexible company system after being restructured.

Huang also credited reform with the company's initiating new projects worldwide and its potential to be a major nuclear technology supplier.
Renho, a former model and TV anchor, took the reins of the Democratic Party (DP) in September 2016, but announced her resignation on Thursday

The head of Japan's reeling main opposition party announced her resignation on Thursday, less than a year after becoming the first woman to lead the group.

Renho, a former model and TV anchor, took the reins of the Democratic Party (DP) last September in a landslide party election victory.

But her brief spell was dogged by controversy throughout and she was unable to capitalise on scandal-hit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's falling popularity.

In particular Renho -- who goes by one name -- has been unable to shake off citizenship questions arising from her mixed Taiwanese-Japanese parentage.

It emerged just ahead of her election as party leader that she had never officially given up her Taiwan citizenship, even though Japan does not allow adults to hold dual nationality.

The Japan-born Renho apologised at the time, but issues surrounding her former Taiwan status deriving from her father's origins on the island, a former Japanese colony, refused to go away.

Last week, she tried to put the matter to rest by showing official documents proving she now only has Japanese citizenship, but reportedly remained under fire within the party for mishandling the issue.

"I made the decision to resign," she said at a press conference Thursday, without offering specific reasons, though she said the citizenship controversy was not a factor in stepping down.

Her centre-left party -- formerly known as the Democratic Party of Japan -- swept to power in 2009, ousting the long dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

But it was booted from office in late 2012 by the resurgent LDP following a series of mis-steps and policy flip-flops, along with criticism over its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Though still the largest opposition force, it has seen its position in parliament wane further, and was recently stung by a poor performance in local elections for the Tokyo assembly.

It has also been unable to take advantage of growing disapproval of Abe's ruling LDP, which has been hit by a series of scandals.

Renho first came to national prominence in the 1980s as a model and later TV newscaster, reporting from the earthquake-devastated city of Kobe in 1995.

The one-time journalist earned the nickname "Hissatsu" (shoot-to-kill) for her style of grilling bureaucrats over public waste, in a country where the media are often criticised for pulling their punches.

She entered parliament in 2004, and sparked controversy six years later when she posed for a magazine shoot inside parliament for Vogue Nippon, the Japanese version of the international fashion monthly.
After initially rolling out the welcome mat for refugees and demonstrating, as seen here in Munich, against deportations, Germans are feeling more ambivalent about the issue, a development taken up by "Club Europa," a new film by young director Franziska Hoenisch

The biggest grossing German movie last year was a fizzy feel-good summer comedy about the country's refugee influx, "Welcome to the Hartmanns".

Just a year on, German screens are darkening with "Club Europa", a sobering take on the challenges and dilemmas in the newcomers' integration that mirrors a growing national sense of ambivalence.

The new movie by 32-year-old Franziska Hoenisch, to be broadcast on public television ZDF on Thursday, tells the story of a group of young Berlin flatmates who decide to take in a refugee from Cameroon named Samuel.

The Berliners show the newcomer the capital's famous techno scene and demonstrate how to use a potato peeler while explaining to Samuel that he has arrived in "potato country".

But the light tone of the movie soon grows ominous as Samuel's asylum request is rejected by the authorities.

The young adults must now decide if they would keep hosting him even though his residence status is now in limbo.

"We didn't want to just make a movie about people who succeed, which comforts the viewer and gives the impression that all is well," Hoenisch told AFP.

- 'All talk, no action' -

The filmmaker said she deliberately centred the movie around young adults in the hopes of shaking them out of their comfort bubble to take responsibilities for their action.

"The people of my generation talk a lot, we want to be politically correct and involved, but deep down, we don't do much," said the young director.

"We don't channel our energy towards changing things for the better, but more to build our personal happiness," she said.

"It's not enough to just assuage our bad conscience by helping a little."

The director had already begun working with the charity group Refugees Welcome -- which matches people willing to open up their homes to potential refugee flatmates -- in the autumn of 2014.

Berlin hosted a big job fair for refugees and migrants in January -- but Germans' initial enthusiasm at taking in the newcomers has given way to doubts over their country's ability to integrate the migrants, as Hoenisch's film shows

But a year later, the story became Germany's biggest preoccupation as the country saw a record influx of asylum seekers, reaching 1.1 million over 2015 and 2016.

The arrival of tens of thousands of asylum seekers cheered by volunteers handing out food, water and teddy bears at German rail stations became the defining image then.

Chancellor Angela Merkel, who looks set to win a fourth term in September elections, was able to tap into a wellspring of empathy for the asylum seekers, particularly those fleeing war-ravaged Syria.

However, that enthusiasm has turned into doubts about Europe's biggest economy's ability to integrate so many people so quickly, and filmmaking is catching up to that reality.

- Things have changed -

Mareike Geiling, a co-founder of Refugees Welcome, said "Club Europa's" plot is not necessarily representative of how asylum seekers have been received by people who have volunteered their homes through their platform.

"95 percent of flat shares work very well," she said.

But she admitted that a flood of goodwill towards the newcomers in 2015 has faded.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open door policy at the height of the migration crisis won early acclaim but popular goodwill has been on the wane

From offers in the hundreds a month during the peak of the crisis, the number of flatshare proposals has dropped to about a dozen a month.

"People were open to all sorts of people in the beginning. Now they are increasingly picky, sometimes even racist," she said, noting that some are only willing to host women or Christians.

"Things have completely changed. We were talking about the 'welcome culture' in 2015. That no longer exists today," warned Geiling.
A Pakistani villager poses as he points to a house where a teenage girl was raped in the neighbourhood of Raja Ram in Muzaffarabad, a suburb of the central city of Multan

Pakistan police on Thursday arrested four more men involved in the rape of a teenage girl as punishment for a rape committed by her brother.

The latest arrests, which include the man who allegedly committed the 'revenge rape', brings the total number detained to 18, a police source confirmed.

A jirga (village council) in a suburb of the central city of Multan had ordered the rape of the 16-year-old girl as a punishment, after her brother sexually assaulted a 12 year-old.

Family member Muhammad Bilal, 25, told AFP that after they learned of the first rape -- which was committed last week -- they went to the 12-year-old's family to seek forgiveness.

"Their women started shouting and their men asked us to first bring Umar's sister (the 16-year-old) then they will talk about it," he said.

"But when we came back with the girl, the men and the council decided that the same act would be done to the girl. What could we do, in our village disputes are settled like this."

Both the girls are now staying in a women's shelter and were due to meet the provincial chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, brother of the prime minister, later Thursday.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has also ordered an investigation into the incident.

Jirgas, or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.

Such councils are illegal and have been under fire for their controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

"What we did was wrong, but this is the way things are done here. We seek pardon and we promise not to do it again," said Mohammad Amin, 45, a member of the jirga who is now in police custody.

A jirga was involved in one of South Asia's most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. Her attackers walked free but she went on to become a high-profile women's rights activist.

Her story inspired an opera, "Thumbprint", which opened in New York in 2014 and premiered in Los Angeles last month.
An outbreak of swine flu has killed at least six people in Myanmar and many Yangon residents have donned surgical masks in the hope of warding off the virus

Myanmar health authorities have asked the UN's health agency for help to combat a deadly outbreak of swine flu that has sparked alarm in the commercial capital.

At least six people have died and 30 more have been infected over the past week, most of them in the country's biggest city Yangon, a senior health ministry official said Thursday.

Fearful rumours have swirled on social media since the first deaths were reported and many Yangon residents have donned surgical masks in the hope of warding off the virus.

Government officials have called for calm and warned the public to avoid crowded places such as shopping malls.

"We have requested help from the WHO," including diagnosis equipment and medicine, deputy director general of the public health department Than Tun Aung told AFP.

"Thirty people have tested positive for H1N1 as of this afternoon, out of 50 suspected cases registered since July 19. And six patients have died."

The WHO did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Swine flu is the common name for the H1N1 virus, a respiratory disease contracted through contact between humans and pigs and transmitted between people through inhalation.

The infections in Yangon are from the same strain that was first identified in 2009, when a global pandemic broke out that US scientists believe may have killed up to 575,000 people.

Myanmar was caught up in the outbreak, and registered a total of 456 cases of swine flu between 2009-16.

The concerns come as authorities in southern Myanmar on Thursday announced a five-day school shutdown after an outbreak of bird flu at a local poultry farm.

More than 1,000 chickens have reportedly been culled to prevent the spread of the virus.
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French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday unveiled plans to set up migrant registration centres in Libya to help stem an influx that has sparked a crisis in Europe, although his aides said the scheme could not be implemented there immediately for security reasons.

A presidency official said the plan -- for which Macron set the goal of becoming operational "this summer" -- "was not possible at the moment" because of security in Libya.

Instead, France would study the feasibility of setting up migrant "hotspot" centres in Niger and Chad, and aim to open similar sites in Libya "in the short term".

Macron had said earlier Thursday that he wanted to set up processing centres in Libya "to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum".

Speaking during a visit to a refugee shelter in Orleans in central France, Macron said the plan would be put in place "this summer", with or without other EU countries.

Libya is the main launchpad for African migrants trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean in boats operated by smugglers, rickety vessels that frequently sink.

"We have between 800,000 and a million people in Libya -- in camps, hangars, there's not even a minimum of humanity," Macron said.

He said other European countries were "very reticent" to set up registration centres, adding: "We'll try to do it with Europe but we in France will do it."

But his announcement seemed to take the European Commission by surprise and Human Rights Watch expressed serious concerns about the plan.

Judith Sunderland, HRW's Associate Director for Europe, said: "It carries the risk of human rights abuses and loss of dignity for the people involved."

Hours after the original announcement, a French presidency official explained that "Libya is not possible at the moment, but it could be possible in the short term. Does that remove the ambition to create this sort of centre in Libya? No.

"The important thing is to ensure the security of people who will work there and of the migrants," the official added.

Libya is rife with lawlessness since the 2011 uprising ousted longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi and created a power vacuum.

Macron's announcement came two days after he brokered talks in Paris between the leaders of the two rival authorities in Libya.

He said then that he hoped the ceasefire deal between the UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the remote east, would stem the outflow of migrants from Libya.

Since January, more than 100,000 people have made the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM). Over 2,300 have drowned in the attempt.

The vast majority land in Italy, which has complained of a lack of solidarity from its neighbours in dealing with the influx.

Macron on Thursday phoned Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni to discuss events, a presidential aide said.

The two "shared a certain degree of optimism after the (Paris meeting), reaching very similar conclusions," the source said, adding that Macron also briefed Gentiloni on his plans for registration centres.

- More shelters in France -

France's new leader has taken an ambivalent line on migration.

More than 100,000 people have made the perilous voyage across the Mediterranean this year

During his campaign he was fulsome in his praise of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's open-door policy but his government has taken a hard line with young migrants sleeping rough on the streets of the northern French port of Calais.

But in a speech on Thursday at a citizenship ceremony for families in the central city of Orleans, Macron adopted a more compassionate tone.

"I want no one in the streets or in the forests by the end of the year," he said, promising "dignified" accommodation for all those who made it to France while their cases were assessed.

He reiterated a pledge to slash the average processing time for an asylum claim from 18 months to six.

But he also warned that those who were fleeing poverty, rather than war or persecution, faced disappointment.

"No country can take all the economic migrants," he said.
Moroccan police have arrested a British dealer in virtual currency Bitcoin wanted on fraud charges in the United States

Moroccan police have arrested a British dealer in virtual currency Bitcoin wanted on fraud charges in the United States, a source close to the investigation told AFP on Thursday.

Police said only that a 49-year-old Briton had been detained in the northern city of Tangiers on Wednesday in response to a notice issued by Interpol on July 17 and that his extradition would be considered by the Court of Cassation.

But the source identified him as British businessman Renwick Haddow, a former New York resident who was charged with securities fraud in the United states on June 30 for allegedly bilking investors in what turned out to be a fake Bitcoin trading platform.

He appeared before the public prosecutor in Tangiers on Wednesday before being transferred to prison in Sale, near the capital Rabat, the source said.

The US Securities and Exchange Commission charged last month "the clandestine" Haddow, who is alleged to have diverted funds invested in a phony Bitcoin site as well as from flexible workspace firm Bar Works into accounts in Mauritius and Morocco, totalling $5 million.

He touted experienced senior executives as running the operations, who turned out to be phantoms, and misrepresented the details and success of both companies, the SEC alleged.

"Haddow created two trendy companies and misled investors into believing that highly-qualified executives were leading them to quick profitability," said Andrew M. Calamari, director of the SEC's New York Regional Office.

"In reality, Haddow controlled the companies from behind the scenes and they were far from profitable."

Bitcoin Store claimed to be "an easy-to-use and secure way of holding and trading Bitcoin" and had generated several million dollars in gross sales.

The SEC alleges that in fact it never had any operations nor generated the gross sales it touted.

In 2015, Bitcoin Store's bank accounts allegedly received less than $250,000 in incoming transfers, none of which appear to reflect revenue from customers, the SEC said.

Haddow's investors pumped more than $37 million into Bar Works, which claimed to provide workspaces in old bars and restaurants, but in fact "primarily sold leases coupled with sub-leases that together functioned like investment notes," the SEC said in a statement.

And the SEC said throughout he was "hiding his connection" to the companies, given his past with regulators in Britain, where he has faced similar charges for investment schemes.

According to a report in Crain's, 27 investors from China filed suit in the New York State Supreme Court on June 16 seeking repayment of more than $3 million invested in Bar Works, which they called a Ponzi scheme.

Another investment group filed a similar case against Bar Works in Florida.
Washington has donated to the Philippines two Cessna C208B planes to help track Islamist militants as well as patrol maritime borders in the South China Sea

The United States donated surveillance aircraft and began delivering weapons to the Philippines on Thursday to help its Asian ally fight Islamist militants.

The two Cessna C208B planes, which together with their equipment are worth more than $30 million, will track Islamic State group-styled gunmen as well as patrol maritime borders, US ambassador Sung Kim and Philippine Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said.

"These planes are the latest... manifestation of all that our alliance is supposed to be, a partnership of two old friends and two strong allies who work together, fight together and overcome adversity together," Kim said at a handover ceremony in Manila.

The donated planes, along with the sales of defence equipment, are the latest support from Washington to help President Rodrigo Duterte root out militants who have been fighting government troops in the southern city of Marawi for more than two months.

The US has taken a significant support role for Manila in the Marawi conflict, the biggest security challenge of Duterte's government, even as he sought to loosen the 65-year-old alliance and seek closer ties with China.

The US has also flown P3 Orion surveillance aircraft over Marawi while US Special Forces troops based in the southern region of Mindanao have been operating drones, both aimed at helping Philippine forces locate the well-entrenched militants in fighting that has claimed more than 600 lives.

Kim said the US had also begun delivering some 200 227-kilogram (500-pound) bombs, nearly a thousand rockets, and hundreds of pistols and grenade launchers purchased by the Philippines.

Washington will also in the coming months transfer to the Philippine military aerial surveillance systems "to further bolster (Manila's) capabilities to fight those that threaten peace and security of the Philippines", Kim said.

US ambassador Sung Kim, looking into one of Cessna-208B surveillance planes Washington has donated to Manila, says the US has also begun delivering bombs and rockets to bolster the capability of Philippine forces

Lorenzana told reporters the Cessna surveillance planes would see action in Marawi, as well as patrol areas of the South China Sea claimed by Manila but disputed by Beijing.

China claims most of the strategically important and mineral-rich sea, including waters close to the shores of the Philippines and other neighbours.

"For this kind of surveillance plane this is the most modern that we have. We did not have any beforehand," Lorenzana told reporters.

Nearly a month ago Beijing shipped some 50 million yuan ($7.35 million) worth of assault and sniper rifles and ammunition to help the Philippines in its Marawi military operation.

It was the first example of Chinese military aid since Duterte threatened to move away from Manila's traditional ally Washington and seek Beijing's support.
Japan's Defence Minister Tomomi Inada (C) will resign over an alleged coverup involving military documents

Japan's defence minister Tomomi Inada will resign over an alleged coverup involving military documents, local media reported on Thursday, potentially dealing a fresh political blow to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

Public broadcaster NHK reported that Inada, 58, will submit her resignation to Abe as early as Friday before a cabinet reshuffle expected next week.

Inada, a close confidante of Abe who shares his staunchly nationalist views, was appointed as defence minister in August 2016, a time when she was touted as a possible future prime minister.

But her nearly year-long stint has been characterised by controversy, including increasing criticism over an alleged ministry coverup of log reports filed by Japanese peacekeepers in South Sudan showing worsening security.

The troops, part of a United Nations mission, returned to Japan in May after five years.

Inada has staunchly denied any coverup, though she will reportedly resign to take responsibility for the issue, with results of an internal ministry investigation expected on Friday.

Abe, who became prime minister for a second time in December 2012 with a vow to rejuvenate Japan's economy, has seen his popularity plummet in recent weeks due to scandals and comments by members of his ruling Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including Inada.

Days before an election for the Tokyo municipal assembly earlier this month, Inada called on voters to support the LDP in the name of her ministry and the military.

The comments drew widespread condemnation, forcing Inada to retract her remarks, which were seen as a key reason for her party's unprecedently bad drubbing in the poll.

During her tenure, Inada delighted conservatives but drew domestic and international criticism in December when she prayed at a controversial war shrine in Tokyo -- the day after accompanying Abe on a symbolic visit of reconciliation to Pearl Harbor in the United States.

Yasukuni Shrine honours millions of mostly Japanese war dead, but is contentious for lionising senior military and political figures convicted of war crimes by an international tribunal.

Reports of Inada's intention to quit came hours after the head of Japan's main opposition party announced her resignation, less than a year after becoming the first woman to lead the group.

The brief spell of Renho, who goes by a single name, was dogged by controversy over having held dual nationality and she was also unable to capitalise on Abe's falling popularity.
Hamas MP and head of the parliament in Gaza City Ahmad Bahar chairs a Palestinian legislative Council meeting in Gaza City on July 27, 2017, as former senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan attends through video conference from the United Arab Emirates

Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas's exiled rival took part in a public meeting with Hamas members of parliament Thursday for the first time in a decade.

Mohammed Dahlan was Abbas's ally inside the Fatah party until they fell out, with Dahlan expelled in 2011.

He now lives in exile in the United Arab Emirates and has been moving closer to Gaza's rulers Hamas in recent months, with rumours he could join a government in the Palestinian enclave.

Abbas, the internationally recognised leader based in the West Bank, has sought to isolate both Dahlan and Islamist movement Hamas.

A portion of the Palestinian Legislative Council, which has not met in full since Hamas seized Gaza from Fatah in a near civil war in 2007, held an emergency session Thursday.

Dahlan attended via video link, while seven of his allies in Gaza attended in person -- along with 22 Hamas members, according to Hamas's media office.

The 132-member parliament is dominated by Hamas with 74 members, while Fatah has 45.

He said he had been talking with Hamas to reach "understandings which are able to restore hope to the people of Gaza and alleviate their suffering."

He added that talks with the Islamists were going well "but we are still at the beginning of the road."

The meeting comes after a delegation headed by Hamas's Gaza leader Yahya Sinwar met with Dahlan in Cairo in June to discuss ways to resolve the crises in Gaza, according to Palestinian officials.

Reconciliation between Hamas and Dahlan would be seen as a blow for Abbas.

Palestinian militants in Gaza have fought three wars with Israel since 2008 and the enclave has been under an Israeli blockade for a decade.

Egypt's crossing with Gaza has also remained largely closed in recent years.

The strip suffers from severe electricity shortages and a crippled economy which has left it with one of the world's highest unemployment rates.

Faced with deteriorating conditions, isolation and mounting pressure inside the Gaza Strip, Hamas has turned to Egypt and Dahlan.
Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has appealed to Italy to send ships to help combat a phenomenon which has seen thousands of migrants set sail across the Mediterranean to Europe

An Italian government plan to deploy vessels in Libyan territorial waters to help fight human trafficking will be presented to parliament early next week, Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said Thursday.

He said the cabinet was "discussing the details" of a request from Tripoli for help and "will present them on Tuesday", adding that he was "sure parliament will vote in favour".

Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj has appealed to Italy to send ships into Libyan waters to help combat a phenomenon which has seen thousands of migrants set sail across the Mediterranean to Europe.

The European Union has an anti-trafficking operation dubbed "Sophia" that was launched in 2015, but its vessels have not been permitted to enter Libyan waters, severely complicating their task.

Traffickers have been known to accompany migrant boats some way out to sea, but they stop within Libyan waters.

A flagship Italian command ship, at least five smaller vessels and up to 1,000 soldiers could be dispatched to help support the Libyan coastguard in the battle against smugglers, the Corriere della Sera reported Thursday.

Italy is also considering using planes, helicopters and drones, it said.

Close to 94,000 people have been brought to safety in Italy so far this year, according to Italy's interior ministry, an increase of more than five percent compared to the same period last year.

More than 2,370 people have died since January attempting the perilous crossing, the UN refugee agency said.
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Beijing police have detained 63 members of Shanxinhui, a company suspected of organizing and leading a pyramid scheme, who gathered in the city on Monday.

The suspects were held in police custody for allegedly "impairing the administration of social order," police said Wednesday.

Another four people were put under non-criminal detention for "disrupting order in public places," according to police.

Some suspects who "took the lead in creating trouble and refusing to listen to police orders" have been taken away for further investigation.

An earlier police statement said "some members of Shanxinhui were incited by those with ulterior motives to illegally gather in Beijing, seriously disturbing the capital's social order."

The gathering allegedly broke laws and rules, it said.

Chinese police have previously investigated Shanxinhui for allegedly manipulating people into taking part in pyramid selling and cheating them out of huge amounts of property under the guise of helping the poor.
The South African court ruling clears the way for more than 500,000 miners to sue Anglo American for damages resulting from silicosis

British miner Anglo American has set aside $101 million (87 million euros) to cover potential damages for former South African staff who contracted the fatal lung disease silicosis at work, it said Thursday.

The news came after Johannesburg's High Court ruled in May to allow former and current mine workers, employed by South Africa's main gold mining firms since 1965, to proceed with a class action against those companies.

That court decision cleared the way for up to half-a-million miners to sue for damages resulting from silicosis -- a deadly respiratory condition developed from breathing in fine silica dust found in places such as mines.

"We have made an accounting provision within our half year results this morning, acknowledging the progress that is being made towards an agreement as part of the working group of companies in the silicosis litigation in South Africa," an Anglo American spokesman told AFP on Thursday.

"This figure is an estimate at this stage and we will see where the negotiations land in the months ahead."

The miners accuse 30 subsidiaries of seven companies -- including African Rainbow Minerals, Anglo American, AngloGold Ashanti, Harmony Gold, Gold Fields and Sibanye Gold -- of knowingly and systematically failing to protect workers against the disease that inflames and scars the lungs.

In a separate statement on Thursday, Gold Fields Ltd said it had set aside $30 million for the class action lawsuit.

Meanwhile, Anglo American saw its share price jump Thursday after announcing the resumption of shareholder dividends.

The company added in a results statement that it had rebounded into first-half profit on steep cost-cutting and higher commodity prices.

Profit after taxation hit $1.415 billion in the six months to the end of June. That followed a loss of $813 million in the same period a year earlier.

Anglo's share price rallied 3.22 percent to 1,233.50 pence in late afternoon deals on London's falling FTSE 100 index.
A handout picture released by Iran's defence ministry on July 27, 2017 shows a Simorgh satellite rocket at its launch site in the eastern province of Semnan

Iran on Thursday "successfully" tested a satellite-launch rocket, days after warning Washington of a response to new US sanctions over the Islamic republic's ballistic missile programme, state television said.

It said the launch vehicle, named Simorgh after a bird in Iranian mythology, was capable of propelling a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds) to an altitude of 500 kilometres (300 miles) above earth.

The launch marked the official inauguration of Iran's Imam Khomeini space centre, named after the late founder of the Islamic republic, built for sending satellites into space, the television said.

State television broadcast footage of the takeoff from the space centre in eastern Iran's Semnan province, the site of past such launches.

The centre, whose exact location was not disclosed, is on "an immense site used for the preparation, launch, control and guidance of all satellite launch vehicles", said the defence ministry which is in charge of Iran's space programme.

"We can do it," read a slogan on the rocket.

Western states suspect Iran of developing the technology capable of launching long-range ballistic missiles with conventional or nuclear payloads, a charge denied by Tehran which insists its space programme has purely peaceful aims.

Iran's four other launches of domestically produced satellites since 2009 have all sparked condemnation in the West.

Hours after Iran's latest announcement, the United States called the launch an act that undermined regional stability and said it appeared to violate UN Security Council resolutions.

"We consider that to be continued ballistic missile development," US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert told reporters. "We consider this to be provocative action."

Nauert added that if confirmed, the test could be a "violation of UN Security Council resolutions".

Tensions have mounted between Washington and Tehran, which severed diplomatic ties after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, since US President Donald Trump took office six months ago.

President Hassan Rouhani said Wednesday that Iran would respond in kind to any breach by the United States of a 2015 nuclear deal after the House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same too," Rouhani said at a cabinet meeting.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session on Saturday to discuss its formal response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

"We must always develop our defence capability and we will strengthen our defensive weapons regardless of the opinion of others," Rouhani said.

The US House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting the Revolutionary Guards over its missile programme.

As part of its space programme, Iran has also sent two capsules into space, the first in February 2010 carrying a rat, tortoises and insects, and the other in January 2013 when a monkey was sent into space and returned to earth safely, according to official media.
Security forces stand outside the Israeli embassy in the residential Rabiyeh neighbourhood of the Jordanian capital Amman following an 'incident' on July 23, 2017

Jordan's king on Thursday called for Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to ensure a security guard who killed two Jordanians at the Israeli embassy in Amman at the weekend face trial.

Abdullah II urged Netanyahu to "take responsibility and take legal steps including the trial of the killer," a royal court statement reported him as saying.

Jordan allowed the security guard to fly home to Israel on Monday after he was held for questioning over Sunday night's shooting.

The guard was welcomed home and greeted as a hero by Netanyahu, who embraced him and said: "You acted well, calmly and we also had an obligation to get you out."

The Jewish state maintained that the guard had diplomatic immunity.

The king called on the Israeli premier to "implement justice instead of dealing with this crime in the manner of a political show for personal political gains".

"This kind of behaviour -- which is unacceptable and provocative on all levels -- has made us all angry... and feeds extremism in the region," he said.

He vowed Jordan would do everything possible towards obtaining justice for its two slain nationals.

Israel's foreign ministry said the security guard shot dead a Jordanian worker who had come to an apartment to install furniture and had stabbed him in the back with a screwdriver.

A second Jordanian was also killed -- apparently by accident.

Tensions have been high in recent days after Israel put in place security measures at the highly sensitive Al-Haram Al-Sharif mosque compound in east Jerusalem, known to Jews as Temple Mount.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, but it remained unclear if the incident was linked.

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994.
Donald Trump's announcement that transgender people may not serve "in any capacity" in the US military sparked protests in front of the White House

President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender troops are no longer welcome in the US military caught the Pentagon off guard, leaving officials scrambling for a coherent response.

Trump's tweeted decree upended years of progressive personnel reform in the military, which in recent years has opened the door for women to fight in front-line combat roles and lifted a ban on gay people openly serving.

Here's a look at the legal and political minefield the Pentagon must now clear if it is to implement Trump's ban:

- What prompted the ban? -

Trump said the ban would save on the "tremendous" medical costs and disruptions that transgender personnel could create.

But a Rand Corporation study said only a small portion of service members would ever seek gender transition affecting their deployability or health costs, adding between $2.4 million and $8.4 million to the Pentagon's more than $600 billion budget.

According to The New York Times and other US media, Trump's ban was driven by politics.

A spending bill that included money for a wall along the US-Mexico border and other signature Trump pledges also included an amendment barring the military from paying for transgender medical treatment.

The Times cited a source who said Trump was worried the amendment could delay the spending bill.

So, rather than dealing with the issue, Trump made it moot by barring transgender people altogether, the Times reported.

- What's the legal impact? -

On June 30, 2016, then defense secretary Ash Carter said the military could no longer discharge or deny re-enlistment to troops based solely on their gender identity.

That means transgender troops who were encouraged to come out under one administration now face getting booted under another -- a potential legal quagmire for the Pentagon.

Already, advocacy and civil rights groups are drawing up court challenges.

OutServe-SLDN -- which works to end military discrimination -- and civil rights litigators Lambda Legal have said they are ready to sue.

"If this disgraceful tweet actually becomes policy, we will sue in a heartbeat," said Lambda legal director Jon Davidson.

The American Civil Liberties Union said it was examining options on how to fight the ban, and called for anyone affected to contact the organization.

The Pentagon has a long history of exclusionary policies, including racial segregation, bans on gays and barring women from combat roles. Those prohibitions were all scrapped over time.

- Recruitment repercussions? -

The number of transgender troops among America's 1.3 million active duty service members is small, with estimates ranging from between 1,320 and 15,000.

While losing troops would have an impact on some units, observers also worry about the knock-on effects, particularly among millennials who may no longer consider joining an organization with discriminatory policies.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Carter said following Trump's announcement.

"This action would also send the wrong signal to a younger generation thinking about military service."

- What now? -

Trump apparently tweeted his announcement with little or no coordination with the Pentagon.

Public affairs officials on Wednesday refused to return calls or worked behind closed doors, and a promised statement that was supposed to offer clarity on how the ban might be implemented never arrived.

Pentagon chief Jim Mattis was on holiday when the tweets landed and it appears he was informed of the decision only after it was made.

General Joe Dunford, who is Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in a short memo to service heads and senior enlisted leaders Thursday that the current policy should remain in effect until Trump had given formal direction to the Pentagon and Mattis issues new guidance.

"In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect," Dunford wrote.

As of Thursday afternoon, the Pentagon's existing guidelines on transgender policy remained on its website.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos, seen at a conference this month in Sun Valley, Idaho, has become the world's richest individual according to real-time tracking by Forbes magazine

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Thursday became the world's richest person, as a jump in the share price of the US tech giant enabled him to overtake Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Forbes magazine estimated.

The magazine said its real-time tracking of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of $90.5 billion, ahead of the $90 billion for Gates.

Bezos owns around 17 percent of the equity of Amazon, which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.

The company also recently announced plans to acquire US grocer Whole Foods, which could help Amazon expand in that sector.

Amazon shares were up 1.7 percent at $1,070.72 and have risen some 24 percent over the past four months, adding some $17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.

According to Forbes, Gates has been the richest person in the magazine's annual rankings in March for the past four years and 18 of the past 22 years. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to 2013.

Among the billionaires gaining ground is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has an estimated worth of some $72.9 billion.

While most of Bezos's wealth is in Amazon, he also owns the private space firm Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper.
The wife of Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe calls on him to name a successor

President Robert Mugabe's wife Thursday urged her 93-year-old husband to name his chosen successor, fuelling renewed speculation about the race to take over from the world's oldest national leader.

Mugabe has always refused to publicly reveal his favoured heir, but 52-year-old Grace Mugabe -- who is seen by some as a potential candidate -- called for an end to the uncertainty.

"President, don't be afraid. Tell us who is your choice, which horse we should back," she told a meeting of the women's league of the ruling ZANU-PF party.

"If you tell us the horse to back, we will rise in our numbers and openly support that horse. Why should our horse be concealed?" she said in a speech switching between English and local language Shona.

"I live with this elder. He has wisdom. He is not talkative but he knows what he wants," she said, adding "Mark my words, his word will be final."

Mugabe appears to be in increasingly fragile health, but has said he will stand in elections next year that could see him remain in power until aged nearly 100.

He has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.

The succession race is seen as between Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group called "Generation 40" or "G40" because its members are generally younger, which reportedly has Grace's backing.

Mugabe has repeatedly denounced indiscipline among party members who are bitterly divided over who should succeed him and whether he should retire.

Grace has previously denied harbouring ambitions to succeed her husband, but at other times has said she would be prepared to serve in any political position.

She has taken on a larger public role in recent years, speaking regularly at meetings and heading the ZANU-PF women's league.

In 2014, she led a campaign to expel former vice-president Joice Mujuru who had been seen as a possible successor to Mugabe.

Mugabe returned two weeks ago from a trip to Singapore for medical treatment.
US President Donald Trump with Attorney General Jeff Sessions in May 2017 before his online attacks on his top law enforcement officer, who on Thursday headed to El Salvador to discuss immigration, drugs and human trafficking

US Attorney General Jeff Sessions visited El Salvador on Thursday for meetings on violent gang activity and other cross-border law enforcement issues, stepping away from Washington after days of humiliating online and verbal scorn from President Donald Trump.

Sessions was to hold talks on the MS-13 gang active in El Salvador and plaguing parts of the US, as well as on immigration, drugs, and human trafficking, a US Justice Department statement said.

The visit comes on the eve of a major speech by Trump in New York on the scourge of cross-border gang activity, especially by MS-13.

"This visit demonstrates the lengths to which the Trump administration will go in the mission to eradicate this gang and anyone who threatens the safety of our communities," the statement said.

Sessions, a hardline Republican who shares Trump's tough anti-immigration stance, was an early backer of the billionaire president, who appointed him to the post of attorney general.

But over the past week, he has fallen out of favor, with Trump repeatedly and publicly attacking him.

The US president tweeted this week that Sessions was "VERY weak" for not investigating his defeated rival Hillary Clinton for alleged "crimes."

He also expressed frustration at Sessions for recusing himself from a ballooning investigation into suspected collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.

Observers said it appeared Trump was trying to force Sessions from office through public humiliation, rather than firing him outright, which could trigger political blowback and arguments that he was obstructing justice.

- Meeting FBI unit -

Sessions thus far has given no indication he intends to step down. In addition, Trump's onslaught has unsettled some of his Republican supporters who also back Sessions for his hardline policies.

El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala make up the so-called Central American "Northern Triangle," an area riven by gang violence, poverty and corruption that is a major source of undocumented migrants heading to the United States.

The Justice Department statement said Sessions was meeting with his counterparts from the Northern Triangle countries and with an FBI task force stationed there to help battle transnational gangs.

Another statement from the department said Sessions congratulated Salvadoran Attorney General Douglas Menendez on the indictments of more than 700 suspected gang members on Wednesday and Thursday, most of them said to be with MS-13.

Salvadoran officials said Sessions would meet later Thursday with President Salvador Sanchez Ceren and Foreign Minister Hugo Martinez.

The president's secretary for communications, Eygenio Chicas, noted that the number of Salvadorans with criminal records deported from the US has risen recently.

That poses a problem for a government struggling to contain gangs that carry out murders and extortion, and whose ranks often swell with returned members.

Chicas said San Salvador's position was that those who had committed crimes in the US "should be judged and punished in North American prisons."
A picture taken on July 27, 2017 shows the C-Star vessel, hired by far-right activists from a group which calls itself "Generation Identity" to prevent would-be migrants from reaching Europe, anchored in the northern Cyprus port of Famagusta

Turkish Cypriot authorities on Thursday released the captain and crew of a boat hired by far-right activists to prevent would-be migrants from reaching Europe, local media reported.

Kibris Postasi reported earlier that the captain, his second-in-command, the vessel's owner and seven crew members had been detained over accusations of "using and publishing false documents".

The arrests came after Turkish Cypriot authorities stopped their vessel, the "C-Star", at the port of Famagusta on Tuesday.

But BRT television said the crew were released for lack of evidence and their boat would be allowed to set out to sea later on Thursday.

The C-Star was expected to set off across the Mediterranean to Tunisia, Kibris Postasi said.

The "Defend Europe" scheme was announced by anti-immigration campaigners from France, Italy and Germany after they crowd-funded the 76,000 euros ($87,000) needed to hire the vessel.

The far-right group, which calls itself "Generation Identity" (GI), said the 40-metre (130-foot) boat left Djibouti in early July despite heavy criticism from NGOs.

GI says the aim of its initiative is to ensure would-be migrants be returned to Libya rather than be rescued and transported to Europe.

Fifteen of the 20 people on the boat, who said they were students, were taken to the north's Ercan airport, while the other five sought asylum, Kibris Postasi said.

Some of the crew were Sri Lankans undergoing training but had left the ship, GI said.

GI said the vessel previously ran into trouble when it was stuck for a week in the Suez Canal after "left-wing movements and NGOs accused them of transporting arms and mercenaries in a bid to prevent their mission".

It said Egyptian authorities had inspected the boat and not found any arms.

More than 100,000 migrants have crossed the dangerous Mediterranean route to Europe this year, the United Nations said on July 4.

Nearly 2,250 people have died in 2017 attempting the sea crossing from North Africa, it said.
A general view of the road near the Qatari side of the Abu Samrah border crossing with Saudi Arabia on June 23, 2017

Qatar's foreign minister on Thursday accused Gulf neighbors and Egypt of "stubbornness" in their ongoing diplomatic dispute and said the United Nations should step in to help resolve the crisis.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in New York to discuss tensions after Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt cut ties with Qatar on June 5.

The four countries accuse Qatar of backing extremism and have imposed sanctions against Doha in what the foreign minister said was a "serious violation of international law."

"There is a role for the Security Council and for the General Assembly and all the United Nations mechanisms, because of course the violations have continued," the foreign minister told reporters after his meeting with Guterres.

"We are seeing from the other side of the conflict this stubbornness without even taking any forthcoming step to solve this problem," he said.

Last month Al-Thani met with several Security Council members to lobby for support, but the council and Guterres have repeatedly stressed that a solution should be found among regional partners.

Kuwait has been trying to mediate the crisis and several top Western diplomats have toured the region to try to defuse the row, including US Secretary of States Rex Tillerson.

"This is the right place where we have to start to seek all our options in order to find a legal solution," said the foreign minister.

"Qatar has already stated more than ten times that we want to solve this issue by dialogue, and we are not willing to escalate, and they need to retreat from all their illegal actions," he said.

The crisis between the regional allies is the worst to hit the Gulf in decades.

On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia and its allies unveiled a "terrorist" blacklist of 18 organizations and individuals suspected of links to Islamist extremism tied to Qatar.

The countries have demanded that Qatar break its longstanding ties with the Muslim Brotherhood -- blacklisted as a terror group by the four governments, although not by the international community.

They also demanded that it close broadcasting giant Al-Jazeera and a Turkish military base, and fall in line with Saudi-led policy in the region, particularly towards Iran.

Qatar has dismissed the demands as a violation of its sovereignty and has received significant support from its ally Turkey.
The Minusma helicopter that crashed Wednesday was monitoring clashes near the city of Gao, in which dozens of members of a pro-government Gatia force were reportedly killed

A group of former separatist rebels in Mali killed "dozens" of members of a pro-government armed group before a UN helicopter monitoring the fighting crashed in the country's north, sources told AFP Thursday.

The UN has confirmed two German crew members belonging to its MINUSMA peacekeeping mission were killed while observing the area near the city of Gao following the clashes.

UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Jean-Pierre Lacroix said Thursday the helicopter "was conducting surveillance over Tabankort in the aftermath of violent clashes between the signatory armed groups," when it came down in an apparent accident.

German army Vice Admiral Joachim Georg Ruehle said on Wednesday night the helicopter crew did not issue any distress calls and there were no firm indications as to the cause of the crash.

The clashes pitted former rebels of the Coordination of Movements of Azawad (CMA) against the Gatia pro-government group.

Both sides signed a 2015 peace deal aimed at curbing violence in Mali's north and limiting the reach of jihadists, but the United Nations says deadly fighting between the groups has nevertheless increased in recent weeks.

"It was a very painful failure for the Gatia," said a foreign security source. "Several dozen fighters were killed and dozens more taken prisoner," the source added, noting that two CMA members were also killed.

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen announced late on Wednesday that the two German crew members of the helicopter had been killed in the crash

Oumar Ag Acherif of the CMA told AFP that 50 Gatia fighters were killed and 39 more taken prisoner, adding the Red Cross had been asked to monitor the conditions in which the Gatia fighters were being held.

A Gatia base was dismantled afterwards, Ag Acherif added.

The Gatia admitted "losses" when a source who requested anonymity was contacted by AFP, but maintained the CMA had also lost men, and refused to confirm their base had been taken.

A source with the High Islamic Council of Mali, a religious authority, said late Thursday that its president was in the northern city of Kidal, a stronghold of the former rebels, to mediate between the groups.

Northern Mali is the site of frequent clashes between rival armed groups, as well as a haven for jihadist activity.

In 2012, key cities in Mali's north fell under the control of jihadist groups linked to Al-Qaeda, who exploited an ethnic Tuareg-led rebel uprising.

While the Islamists were largely ousted by a French-led military operation, attacks have continued on UN and French forces, civilians and the Malian army.
Authorities in eastern Libya backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar on Thursday ordered the closure of a Sudanese consulate and the expulsion of 12 diplomats, a pro-Haftar news agency announced.

It said the order to shut down the mission in Kufra, an oasis in southern Libya, was taken on the grounds of "damage to Libyan national security".

The consul and 11 consular staff were given 72 hours to leave the country, which has been mired in anarchy since the 2011 revolution that toppled its longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi.

Sudan's embassy in Tripoli is closed but a consulate with limited personnel serves Sudanese living in the capital, according to its Facebook page.

Khartoum summoned the Libyan Charge D'Affaires Ali Muftah Mahroug later on Thursday to protest the mission's closure in Libya, the Sudanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

The ministry told the Libyan diplomat that it expected the Libyan authorities to reconsider the decision in order to allow the consulate to continue with its normal duties, the statement said.

Officials in Khartoum have accused Haftar of enlisting rebels from Sudan's Darfur region to fight alongside his forces. Haftar has accused Sudan of supporting "terrorists" in Libya.

Khartoum recognises the Tripoli-based Government of National Accord of UN-backed prime minister Fayez al-Sarraj, a rival of Haftar and Libya's eastern authorities supported by his forces.

According to officials in Khartoum, dozens of young Sudanese -- both men and women -- have been killed in Libya fighting in the ranks of the Islamic State jihadist group.

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Maldivian soldiers, pictured in February 2012, have been barring members of the opposition party Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) from entering the parliament complex, occasionally resorting to violence

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Thursday urged the government in the Maldives to lift a blockade of parliament where troops have barred the opposition from taking their seats.

Guterres called on the government to uphold free speech, the right of assembly and "refrain from all acts that result in the harassment and intimidation of members of parliament, political parties, civil society and the media."

For the past days, soldiers have barred the main opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) from entering the parliament complex, with witnesses reporting shoving as MPs were forced back from the barricade.

Lawmakers who tried to enter the compound were hit with pepper spray and forcibly evicted.

In a statement, the UN chief expressed concern "with the gradual erosion of basic democratic norms and principles" in the Indian Ocean island country and urged dialogue.

An opposition coalition, united against President Abdulla Yameen, had been threatening to move a no-confidence motion against the speaker in a bid to impeach the president's ally.
Tunisia passed a new law that significantly increases protections for womens' rights, such as criminalizing public sexual harassment, but Human Rights Watch says that the government currently lacks the funding to fully implement the law

Human Rights Watch on Thursday hailed a new law to fight domestic violence in Tunisia as a "landmark step" towards protecting women's rights but called for funding to fully implement it.

The law, passed Wednesday and expected to enter into force next year, provides for help to victims of domestic violence and removes a controversial article that allows rapists to escape punishment if they marry their victim.

The law also criminalises sexual harassment in public places and the employment of children as domestic workers, as well as fines employers paying women less than their male counterparts, HRW said in a statement.

"Tunisia's new law provides women with the measures necessary to seek protection from acts of violence by their husbands, relatives, and others," HRW's Amna Guellali said.

"The government should now fund and support institutions to translate this law into genuine protection."

The New York-based group said that "while the law requires authorities to refer women to shelters if they are in need, it provides no mechanisms for funding either governmental or nongovernmental shelters".

The law recognises "physical, moral and sexual" violence, lawmaker Bochra Belhaj Hmida told AFP after Wednesday's vote.

Tunisia is seen as a pioneer of women's rights in the Arab world but rights groups say women are still discriminated against, and around half say they have been subject to at least one form of violence in their lives.
Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the east, reached agreement on the new initiative during talks hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron

The UN Security Council on Thursday endorsed a plan agreed by Libya's rival leaders for a ceasefire, political talks and elections, in the latest attempt to put an end to six years of chaos in the north African country.

Libya's UN-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj and Khalifa Haftar, the military commander based in the east, reached agreement on the new initiative during talks hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron.

Council members including Russia and Egypt, which back Haftar, said in a statement that they welcomed the meeting on Tuesday in Paris and the joint declaration that it yielded.

The United Nations has been struggling for months to re-launch talks on a deal reached in 2015 on setting up a national unity government that has been rejected by Haftar and other factions.

Appointed last year to lead the new government of national accord, Sarraj has failed to assert authority outside of Tripoli while Haftar's forces this month scored a major military victory when they seized Benghazi, Libya's second city.

"Council members urge all Libyans to support a negotiated political solution, national reconciliation, and an immediate ceasefire, as called for in the joint declaration" reached in Paris, said a council statement.

French Ambassador Francois Delattre briefed council members on Wednesday on the Paris talks and said he would be seeking their support for the outcome of the meeting.

In the 10-point joint declaration, Sarraj and Haftar agreed to work on a roadmap for security and defense, unifying national institutions such as the National Oil Corporation and the central bank, and hold elections as soon as possible.

They pledged to support new UN envoy Ghassan Salame who will lead the political talks.

Oil-rich Libya has been in turmoil since the ouster of longtime leader Moamer Kadhafi in 2011, turning the country into a hub for human trafficking and drawing jihadist groups from the region.
Martin Shkreli, the former Turing Pharmaceuticals executive who became known as "Pharma Bro," faces up to 20 years in prison in convicted of securities fraud

A troubled genius working to save lives or a compulsive liar who defrauded investors? A US jury heard closing arguments Thursday in the securities fraud trial of Martin Shkreli, a pharmaceutical executive dubbed "The Most Hated Man in America."

The 34-year-old, who hunched over in his chair and fiddled with his hair, risks up to 20 years in prison if convicted of lying to investors and running a Ponzi-like scheme across multiple firms.

He stands accused of an eight-count indictment for allegedly stealing $11 million in stock from his first pharmaceutical company Retrophin to pay off investors who lost money in two of his hedge funds.

Assistant US attorney Alixandra Smith spent nearly four hours painstakingly reviewing evidence presented at the month-long trial and walking jurors through testimony from investors in minute detail.

"There's just really overwhelming evidence the defendant lied to investors," the federal prosecutor told the jury in Brooklyn, New York.

"We have shown the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt on all eight of the crimes on which he has been charged."

Smith said the defendant lied to investors for years, chopping and changing his story depending on what he thought they wanted to hear.

To one investor from whom he was trying to get $1 million, he allegedly lied about graduating from Columbia University.

To another, he claimed to have been too poor to graduate.

To a third, he claimed to have dropped out of college "just like Steve Jobs," Smith said.

Shkreli declined to testify and his lawyers -- led by star defense attorney Ben Brafman, whose roster of famous clients include disgraced former IMF boss Dominique Strauss-Kahn -- called no witnesses.

- 'Tough decision' -

In a sweeping summation complete with rhetorical flourishes and a bag of potato chips as a prop, Brafman proved his mettle as one of the most celebrated criminal defense attorneys of his generation.

He portrayed his client as a troubled genius who lived like a hermit in his office in a sleeping bag for two years as he single handedly built a successful pharmaceutical out of nothing, working to make returns for wealthy investors, treat sick children and cure diseases.

"Martin never intended to defraud anyone," said Brafman. Working at a super-human pace, he may have made mistakes but he was "not a Ponzi guy" who took money to buy Cadillacs and yachts.

"Everyone ultimately got repaid... because he saw to it that they did not lose their investments," Brafman said, branding witnesses brought by the government to testify against his client as liars.

He quoted associates who called Shkreli "stunningly brilliant," "a true genius" and a "visionary" despite admitting his client had "impossible" people skills and routinely aggravated associates.

He quoted one witness who compared Shkreli to the Dustin Hoffman character in Oscar-winning 1988 movie "Rain Man," and said he battled depression and anxiety.

Brafman, who is to continue his summation on Friday, urged jurors to use their common sense and keep an open mind, cautioning that it was "a very, very tough decision" to convict anyone.

Shkreli is charged with securities fraud, securities fraud conspiracy and wire fraud conspiracy for orchestrating three inter-related schemes to defraud investors and misappropriate assets.

The ex-boss of Turing Pharmaceuticals, he is best known for increasing the price of HIV drug Daraprim from $13.50 a pill to $750 overnight, earning him the label "the most hated man in America."

While that incident has nothing to do with his securities fraud trial, his notoriety was such that proceedings were initially delayed over difficulties in finding an impartial jury.

Shkreli smirked through a congressional hearing that scrutinized his actions in 2016, and has since earned a reputation for an extravagant, self-publicizing lifestyle.

He resigned from Turing shortly after his indictment in December 2015, after which he was released from prison on bond.
"I share your concerns about Bitcoin and others and them being used for illicit activity," US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in testimony before Congress

US officials Thursday hailed the arrest and indictment of a Russian accused of laundering billions of dollars through a Bitcoin exchange he operated.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said cracking down on illegal uses of the cyber currency is a key goal of US regulators.

"I share your concerns about Bitcoin and others and them being used for illicit activity," Mnuchin said in testimony before Congress.

"This is going to be a big priority of ours," he said, pointing to the "major action" involving the Russian national.

Greek police arrested Alexander Vinnik on Tuesday to face US charges. He was found in the tourist resort of Halkidiki, near the northern city of Thessaloniki.

A US court indicted him Wednesday on 21 charges including money laundering and other crimes using BTC-e, an exchange he operated for the Bitcoin crypto-currency.

Vinnik, 37, "is alleged to have committed and facilitated a wide range of crimes," Don Fort, chief of the Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation, said in a statement by the multiple agencies involved in the investigation.

Among the charges are that "he stole identities, facilitated drug trafficking, and helped to launder criminal proceeds from syndicates around the world."

In addition, BTC-e "was noted for its role in numerous ransomware and other cyber-criminal activity," said Michael D'Ambrosio, head of the Criminal Investigative Division of the US Secret Service, which though best known for protecting the president, was started to investigate counterfeit currency.

Asked about the extradition process from Greece, a US Justice Department spokesman would say only that Vinnik is in Greek custody.

The indictment said Vinnik is a primary owner of BTC-e's managing shell company, Canton Business Corporation, and "was heavily reliant on criminals" engaged in identity theft and drugs, as well as corrupt public officials.

BTC-e, founded in 2011, was one of the worlds largest and most widely used digital currency exchanges, and reaped proceeds "from well-known hacks and thefts from bitcoin exchanges."

"The investigation has revealed that BTC-e received more the $4 billion worth of bitcoin over the course of its operation."

Vinnik also was charged with receiving funds from the infamous hack of Mt. Gox -- an earlier digital currency exchange that eventually failed, in part due to losses attributable to hacking.

In addition to the charges, the Treasury Department fined BTC-e $110 million for "willfully violating" US anti-money laundering laws, and fined Vinnik $12 million.
MADRID (AP) - A man was arrested after he held a large knife against his abdomen and shouted "Allahu Akbar" - "God is Great" in Arabic - at a busy Spanish frontier with Morocco, authorities in the Spanish enclave of Melilla said Tuesday.

Video released by Spain's National Police showed agents encircling the man, who wore shorts and a T-shirt and walked slowly. In the surveillance camera footage, a police officer throws a large plastic bollard at the man, who falls over before other officers subdue him.

One of the officers was treated after he received a small cut to one finger, Spain's Interior Ministry delegate for Melilla, Abdelmalik El Barkani, told reporters at a news conference.

Authorities said the incident happened at 7.35 a.m. at the Beni Enzar access to the Spanish territory in northern Africa, as hundreds gathered to cross the border.

The man, believed to be a 29-year-old Moroccan citizen, was arrested and brought to a police station where he was questioned.

El Barkani said that the investigation into the incident is still open and all hypotheses are being considered.
OAK BROOK, Ill. (AP) - McDonald's is trying to modernize its image by rolling out delivery and promising fresh beef in Quarter Pounders. But for now, $1 sodas are helping get people in the door.

The company said Tuesday that discounted drinks and a new line of pricier burgers helped boost sales in its flagship U.S. market by 3.9 percent at existing locations during the second quarter.

CEO Steve Easterbrook has been working on transforming the chain's menu and stores to get customers visiting more often in an increasingly competitive environment . Customer visits have declined in the U.S. for four straight years at existing locations, and McDonald's is on track to shrink its domestic footprint for the third year in a row.

This Friday, March 17, 2017, photo shows the McDonald's sign outside a restaurant in downtown Pittsburgh. McDonald's Corp. reports earnings, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar)

The latest quarter showed signs of improvement. McDonald's said customer visits increased at existing domestic locations, though there were about 100 fewer U.S. locations than a year ago. It did not specify how much customer visits contributed to the sales increase, but Easterbrook has repeatedly laid out plans to get the figure climbing again by making McDonald's more convenient.

Those efforts in the U.S. include introducing in-store ordering kiosks, expanding delivery through UberEats, and launching a mobile order-and-pay option later this year.

While those plans may boost sales over the long term, the company is relying on deals like $1 sodas and $2 McCafe drinks to attract customers in the short term. Such promotions get people into stores to see other changes and new menu offerings like the "Signature Crafted" burgers, the company said.

Chris Kempczinski, president of McDonald's USA, noted in an interview last month that about three quarters of the people who come in for the drink deals also end up buying food.

"The typical behavior is that they will buy other items," he said.

Bernstein analyst Sara Senatore noted that the company's "impressive" results came even before the full effect of its digital initiatives have been seen.

And Instinet analyst Mark Kalinowski said that other menu news could help boost sales in the coming quarters. The company plans to sell a Sriracha Mac dipping sauce, he noted, and is testing Loaded Bacon & Cheese fries in parts of four U.S. states.

McDonald's is also looking beyond its core menu and offering pastries by registers in some locations, and testing "dessert stations" behind the counter that would let employees make an expanded menu of treats.

In the meantime, the U.S. store count is falling. The Oak Brook, Illinois-based company had 14,079 domestic locations at the end of the quarter. Globally, it expanded and had more than 37,000 locations. Sales on a global basis also rose 6.6 percent at existing locations, with customer visits up in the company's nine biggest markets.

For the three months that ended June 30, McDonald's earned $1.4 billion, or $1.70 per share. Earnings adjusted for non-recurring costs came to $1.73 per share, beating analysts forecast for $1.62, according to a poll by Zacks Investment Research.

McDonald's said total revenue was $6.05 billion, also higher than expected.

Its shares rose more than 4 percent Tuesday. Before the results the stock had climbed more than 25 percent since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen 10 percent.

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Elements of this story were generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on MCD at https://www.zacks.com/ap/MCD

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Keywords: McDonald's, Earnings Report, Priority Earnings
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) - A prosecutor in Virginia has concluded that a police officer was justified in shooting a 15-year-old boy last year because the teen had charged the officer with a knife.

Citing a letter from Commonwealth's Attorney Greg Underwood, The Virginian-Pilot reports that Norfolk officers Christopher Kiene and Ashlea Pittman went to an apartment on July 20, 2016 because the 15-year-old had stabbed his mother and was threatening to burn down the building.

Underwood says that as the officers entered the building, the teen rushed out of a doorway and charged Kiene. He says the boy ignored commands from Kiene to stop, so the officer shot him.

Underwood says Kiene acted in self-defense and won't be charged.

The teen survived the shooting. He has since been committed to a psychiatric treatment program.

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Information from: The Virginian-Pilot, http://pilotonline.com
Ten years ago, "An Inconvenient Truth," the groundbreaking, Oscar-winning film about Al Gore and his passionate climate change activism, ended with a simple challenge: "Are you ready to change the way you live? The climate crisis can be solved."

A decade later, the former vice president and Nobel Peace Prize winner is the first to concede that not enough of the world has met that challenge - and that what IS being done, isn't being done fast enough. "Wow, we could lose this struggle," he recalls thinking at one point.

But that moment of doubt, recounted in "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power," was apparently just that: a moment. The overriding sentiment in this sequel is one of optimism.

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power." (Jensen Walker/Paramount Pictures via AP)

Now, that may come as a surprise to many, especially given what we journalists would call one heck of a news peg: The decision by President Donald Trump, in June, to withdraw the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord - a landmark pact that Gore worked tirelessly to help achieve. (Indeed, directors Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk went back to the editing room to update their movie with this momentous news.)

But, as this sequel makes clear, Gore's not looking to the White House - or the presidential Twitter feed - to fuel his optimism.

He's looking instead to countries like Chile, rapidly increasing its use of renewable energy. In the U.S., he's looking to individual governors, business leaders, mayors - like Dale Ross of Georgetown, Texas, who with one small scene pretty much becomes the breakout star of this film. The jovial Ross is a conservative Republican, and mayor of, in his words, "the reddest city in the reddest county in Texas." But he tells Gore that his city went green because it made economic sense for his constituents.

Plus, he adds, it's only common sense: "The less stuff you put in the air, the better it is." Gore replies happily: "Can I use that line?"

Yes, humor has its place, even in a film that's intended as a warning about, um, the potential death of the planet and all its life forms. Gore's a lot grayer, and still dead serious about his work, but he's also the guy who likes to introduce himself as "Al Gore - I used to be the next president of the United States." People laugh, and then he says he doesn't think it's very funny, and they laugh again. And then he teaches, cajoles, explains - part pastor, part science teacher, part tour guide.

The film begins with a sampling of naysayers - and to be sure, Trump isn't the only one. At a 2007 hearing, Oklahoma Republican Sen. Jim Inhofe asks Gore: "How come you guys never seem to notice when it gets cold?"

The filmmakers track Gore across the globe, to climate leadership training sessions from Tennessee to Asia, or to the glaciers of Greenland, where he treads on melting ice. We watch him negotiate with officials in India, who listen, but also note that the United States should live up to its own commitments before making demands of developing nations. In one of many effective bits of footage, we see pedestrians in India try to navigate streets literally melting in 120-plus degree heat.

Gore gets a chance to silence critics of a scene in the first film, who said he was exaggerating when he projected that ground zero in lower Manhattan could be flooded by rising waters. News footage from Hurricane Sandy in 2012 shows the flooding of the 9/11 Memorial Museum site, then under construction.

In Paris, at the climate conference, Gore's energetic dealmaking includes convincing a U.S. solar energy company to make an offer that convinces India to sign the pact.

The Paris trip is not without humor as well: When Gore and aides are stuck in traffic, they switch to the Metro, where they encounter a student delegation from China that seems convinced he actually won the presidency. "Is he still the president?" they ask.

The message of this sequel is twofold: Urgency and hope. Things are bad, Gore is saying, but here's what's happening that's really exciting. And he has no doubt that mankind will save the planet. He may have wanted to be president, but Gore has surely found his calling, and his own energy seems more renewable than ever.

"An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power," a Paramount Pictures release, is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America "for thematic elements and some troubling images." Running time: 98 minutes. Three stars out of four.

This image released by Paramount Pictures shows Al Gore in "An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power." (Jensen Walker/Paramount Pictures via AP)
NEW YORK (AP) - After a packed, hot summer of family vacations, camp or kids underfoot, what's a parent or caregiver to do with all that free time on the first day of school?

For some, the first drop-off of the new year will mean the usual: Head to work. Others plan to double down on organizing and cleaning their summer-traumatized homes. How about a nap?

Los Angeles mom Jill Simonian, with the youngest of her two daughters starting kindergarten, will be doing most of the above, with a breakfast bash thrown in for her mom friends in mid-August.

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2014 file photo, a student prepares to leave the Enterprise Attendance Center, southeast of Brookhaven, Miss. The long, hot summer will soon be over for many parents, with the first day of school hitting in mid-August. Others will wait until after Labor Day to ship out their little ones for the new school year, so exactly how do parents spend their time on the milestone first day back? Some simply head to work. Others will be celebrating with mimosas, hit the gym or plan to put their homes back together after the chaos of two months with kids underfoot. Some couples will make a date out of their long-awaited alone time, heading to spas or taking in movies. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis, File)

"Nothing like a good party with girlfriends to boost our happiness, motivation and to commemorate this new chapter of having a little bit more freedom with all our kids in school," she said. "I always feel reinvigorated when I spend time with friends and us moms don't do enough of that. Getting the kids back in school means we can celebrate our lives and friendships, too."

Latisha Jones in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, is a lawyer, professor and mother of three, including a year-old son. Her other two kids, 5 and 11, head back to school Aug. 9. She'll be mourning a little as she puts "vacation mom" into hibernation.

"Immediately after I drop my kids off for the first day of school, I cry at the thought of them growing up and another year of milestones," she said. "Five minutes later I rejoice at the thought of some alone time. Ten minutes after that it's back home to prep for them coming home and then off to work. The start of school signals the return of planning and prepping and order," she said.

In Newport, Pennsylvania, Lisa Batra will have a kindergartner and a second grader next school year, but they don't go back until after Labor Day.

"Camps end in the beginning of August and the boredom definitely sets in," she said. "For the first time, my youngest will ride the bus and I'll be at the bus stop taking photos and most likely shedding a tear or two. Afterwards, I'm getting that mani-pedi that I've been putting off. I deserve some me time!"

Avalon, California, mom Brittany Arnold has three kids: 5, 10 and 15. She's looking forward to reuniting with her fellow school parents.

"After taking the kids to school, we head to a local restaurant and spend a good hour catching up," she said. "It's great seeing our friends, too, since summer can be hectic. Most take the mornings off on the first day, so it's a great time to reconnect."

Allyson and her husband in Scottsdale, Arizona, have a date after the Aug. 9 school drop for their two kids, an 8-year-old daughter and a 5-year-old son going into kindergarten.

"We started a tradition two years ago on the first day of school to take the day off of work, go to breakfast with mimosas and go see a movie! Afterward, we come home and relax and then pick up the kids when school is out," she said.

Other couples plan date time as well, including trips to the spa. Several moms said it's back to the gym for them or simply enjoying a long overdue uninterrupted shower.

Wanda Thomas in Philadelphia said she and her husband - the parents of a 6-year-old boy and an 8-year-old daughter - spent one first day of school "sitting in the house doing nothing but appreciating the peace and quiet, 'til hunger set in." They may catch a movie this time around, time permitting.

Things aren't looking quite that way for Amanda Spencer in Berwyn, Pennsylvania.

She has a 2-year-old starting two days of preschool in September. Her 4-year-old will be in pre-kindergarten five days week. Both will be going half days, until noon. She's already breathless:

"We'll probably just make it out the door on time for drop-off in the car line, one or both will be crying for the first day and I'll wind up walking both of them in, then head out to the grocery store and halfway there I'll remember I forgot the grocery store list but will continue there to see what I can recall from the list, then head to another grocery store for the balance of the food, go home and unpack the food, attempt to get the laundry downstairs and one load started, check my email on my phone, reply to any work emails, then get lunch ready for the kids and head out to pick them up. If there's time leftover, I'll get the sheets changed on the beds, and/or wipe as many counters as possible or dust one room."

Enough said.
ROCKVILLE, Md. (AP) - A statue of a Confederate cavalryman has been removed from outside a courthouse in Maryland and placed near where a privately run Potomac River ferry named for a Confederate general docks.

Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett tells local media the statue was moved Saturday. Bethesda Beat first reported the move.

The bronze soldier cost about $100,000 to relocate.

County officials struck a deal in February with White's Ferry in Dickerson to take the 13-ton (12-metric ton) statue. The White's Ferry boat is named for Confederate Maj. Gen. Jubal A. Early.

The United Daughters of the Confederacy donated the statue to the county in 1913. Leggett issued an order in 2015 to remove it from government property.

The move comes as other communities are scrutinizing public displays of Old South symbols.
WASHINGTON (AP) - In invoking Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and complaining that his own attorney general is not holding her accountable, President Donald Trump rehashed concerns that have preoccupied him since the campaign last year.

But his series of tweets about Clinton, Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe misstated key facts and omitted others, including one very relevant one: Sessions has had little to say about Clinton because he recused himself earlier this year from any investigation of her. Taken together, the tweets point to Trump's inability even now to turn his attention from Clinton, and also harken back to suggestions in the campaign that he might use the Justice Department as a mechanism to punish a political opponent.

A look at the statements and how they hold up to scrutiny:

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump listens as Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, after Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to Sessions. In invoking Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and complaining that his own attorney general is not holding her accountable, Trump rehashed concerns that have preoccupied him since the campaign last year. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

WHAT DID TRUMP MEAN WHEN HE SAID SESSIONS HAD TAKEN A "VERY WEAK POSITION" ON CLINTON'S "CRIMES" AND ON INTELLIGENCE LEAKERS?

The tweet covers a lot of ground, but it seems to be, in part, a clear reference to Clinton's use of a private email server as secretary of state.

It is true that Clinton wasn't prosecuted for mishandling classified information, but that had nothing to do with Sessions.

James Comey as FBI director last July declined to recommend charges against Clinton, saying neither she nor her aides had intentionally broken any laws regarding the handling of classified material. The Justice Department under Attorney General Loretta Lynch accepted the FBI's conclusion.

In asking "where are the emails," Trump seems to be referring to the tens of thousands of emails that Clinton deleted because she said they were personal in nature. Trump has repeatedly suggested that Clinton should be investigated over the missing emails. In the 2016 campaign, he even seemed to invite the Russians to look for them.

Paradoxically, Comey's treatment of Clinton - including a news conference where he criticized her and a public disclosure months later that the FBI was revisiting the Clinton case - was initially cited by Trump's White House as a basis for the president's decision to fire Comey in May.

Trump also conveyed his frustration over leaks of classified intelligence that in some cases have embarrassed him and his administration. But the Justice Department under Sessions actually has brought a case - charging a U.S. government contractor in June of leaking classified documents to a news organization.

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WHAT DOES ANY OF THIS HAVE TO DO WITH SESSIONS?

It's not clear if Trump remembers this, but Sessions at his January confirmation hearing actually forfeited his right to be involved in any Clinton-related investigation.

The Alabama Republican was the first U.S. senator to endorse Trump and was a loyal and reliable presence on campaign stops. Video online shows him smiling from a stage as a crowd chants "Lock her up" in reference to Clinton.

So when Sessions was asked at the hearing what role he would have in any Clinton-related investigations - Trump, after all, had floated the idea of reopening the email investigation and of appointing a special prosecutor - the senator said he would recuse himself.

"It was a highly contentious campaign," Sessions said at the time. "I, like a lot of people, made comments about the issues in that campaign." He said: "With regard to Secretary Clinton and some of the comments I made, I do believe that that could place my objectivity in question."

Unstated in these tweets but central to Trump's dissatisfaction with Sessions: The attorney general also recused himself from the continuing investigation into Russian interference in the election and possible coordination between Russian officials and the Trump campaign.

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WHY WAS TRUMP TWEETING ABOUT MCCABE RECEIVING $700,000 FROM CLINTON FOR HIS WIFE? WHAT'S THAT ABOUT?

The tweet in question - "Problem is that the acting head of the FBI & the person in charge of the Hillary investigation, Andrew McCabe, got $700,000 from H for wife!" - is a misstatement of fact.

McCabe's wife, Jill McCabe, ran for the Virginia Senate in 2015 and received routine donations from Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and ally of Clinton. McAuliffe's political action committee and the Democratic Party of Virginia gave her campaign $700,000, an unremarkable amount for a competitive Senate race that year.

Those donations also happened before the FBI says McCabe was promoted to deputy director of the FBI and took a supervisory role in the email investigation. He became acting director in May after Trump fired Comey.

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Associated Press writer Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia, contributed to this report.

FILE - In this June 13, 2017, file photo, Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks on Capitol Hill in Washington, as he testifies before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing about his role in the firing of James Comey, his Russian contacts during the campaign and his decision to recuse from an investigation into possible ties between Moscow and associates of President Donald Trump. Trump's withering invective about Sessions over the last week suggests an effort to pressure the attorney general into resigning with a possible eye toward replacing him and ending the Justice Department investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.(AP Photo/Alex Brandon, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) - The maverick stood with his party on Tuesday, casting a crucial vote in the Republican drive to repeal "Obamacare." But then, like an angry prophet, Sen. John McCain condemned the tribal politics besetting the nation.

Confronting an aggressive brain cancer, the 80-year-old Arizonan served notice he would not vote for the GOP legislation as it stands now. McCain's impassioned speech held the rapt attention of his colleagues in the Senate chamber.

"Stop listening to the bombastic loudmouths on the radio, television and the internet," he intoned. "To hell with them! They don't want anything done for the public good. Our incapacity is their livelihood."

In this image from video provided by C-SPAN2, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. is embraced by Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer of N.Y. as he arrives of the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (C-SPAN2 via AP)

A few minutes earlier, McCain dramatically entered the chamber for the pivotal vote, his first since surgery and his cancer diagnosis in Arizona. Unified for once, Republicans and Democrats applauded and whooped for the six-term lawmaker. "Aye," he said, thumbs up with both hands, for the GOP vote to move ahead on debate.

After he voted, McCain stood at his seat and accepted hugs and handshakes from senators in both parties, drawing laughter from the spectators' gallery when he and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders exchanged an awkward embrace.

McCain then spoke his mind. His face was pale, cheek bruised, a red scar and stitches above his left eye where doctors had removed a blood clot. But his voice was strong. He offered a bit of self-deprecation, saying he was "looking a little worse for wear."

He bemoaned the lack of legislative accomplishments in the current Congress and the GOP's secretive process in working on repealing Obamacare. He issued a plea for Democrats and Republicans to work together.

Obama and the Democrats shouldn't have pushed the Affordable Care Act through on party-line votes when they controlled Washington back in 2010, McCain said, "and we shouldn't do the same with ours. Why don't we try the old way of legislating in the Senate?"

That would involve committee hearings and testimony from experts and interested parties, an incremental process that could take months.

He blasted the path taken by Republican leaders "coming up with a proposal behind closed doors in consultation with the administration, then springing it on skeptical members, trying to convince them that it was better than nothing.

"I don't think that's going to work in the end, and it probably shouldn't," he said.

Debates in the Senate have become "more partisan, more tribal, more of the time than at any time I can remember," he lamented.

With President Donald Trump threatening electoral retribution for Republicans who don't toe the line, McCain urged senators to stand up for their own constitutional status.

"Whether or not we are of the same party, we are not the president's subordinates," he said. "We are his equal!"

People with health care problems had speculated on social media how McCain would vote, and his decision disappointed many. Addressing concerns that tens of millions will lose coverage if the Republican bill becomes law, McCain said the process is far from over.

"I voted for the motion to proceed to allow debate to continue," he said. "I will not vote for this bill as it is today. It's a shell of a bill right now."

Arizona is one of 31 states that expanded Medicaid under President Barack Obama's health care law, and Republican Gov. Doug Ducey is worried about tens of thousands losing their health insurance. That has to be addressed, said McCain.

The Arizona senator has emerged as one of Trump's most outspoken GOP critics. During the presidential campaign Trump had mocked McCain for his capture by the Vietnamese.

The speech Tuesday received a standing ovation.

"He's tough as a boot," said Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana. "Many people understandably would be curled up in bed in the fetal position."

McCain's return was reminiscent of a similar scenario involving McCain's good friend, the late Democratic Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts, who returned to the Senate in July 2008 while battling brain cancer to vote on Medicare legislation, his dramatic entry in the chamber eliciting cheers and applause. Kennedy died in August 2009. (The current Sen. Kennedy is no relation.)

McCain himself campaigned heavily on the "Obamacare" repeal issue last year as he won re-election to a sixth and almost certainly final Senate term. But he has not been a booster of the GOP health bill.

His best friend in the Senate, Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, said he's been impatient to get back to work.

"Is it surprising that he would get out of a hospital bed and go to work? No," Graham said. "It's surprising he's been in the hospital this long."

___

Associated Press writers Erica Werner, Kevin Freking and Matthew Daly contributed to this report.

In this image from video provided by C-SPAN2, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. is is applauded as he arrives of the floor of the Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (C-SPAN2 via AP)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, as the Senate was to vote on moving head on health care with the goal of erasing much of Barack Obama's law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, as the Senate was to vote on moving head on health care with the goal of erasing much of Barack Obama's law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. arrives on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017, as the Senate was to vote on moving head on health care with the goal of erasing much of Barack Obama's law. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
RANCHO CUCAMONGA, Calif. (AP) - A group of 32 current and former inmates of a jail in the Los Angeles suburbs will get $2.5 million as part of a settlement of their lawsuits against the San Bernardino County government and sheriff's department, the Los Angeles Times reports (http://lat.ms/2vHKZb8 .)

Their attorneys tell the Times that inmates at the West Valley Detention Center in Rancho Cucamonga were stunned with Tasers while delivering meals to other inmates, which led to trays of food splattering on the floor. The attorneys also said the inmates were held at gunpoint while deputies jerked their handcuffed wrists above their heads in a move called "chicken winging."

The settlement agreement is connected to five federal lawsuits against the county and sheriff's department, which runs the jail. The Times reports that on Tuesday, under the terms of the settlement, the lawsuits were dismissed.

The Times said it could not immediately reach a spokesperson for the sheriff's department.
NEW YORK (AP) - U.S. Muslims say they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, but also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society, a new survey finds.

Nearly three-quarters of U.S. Muslims view Trump as unfriendly to them, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday. Sixty-two percent say Americans do not view Islam as part of the mainstream after a presidential election that saw a surge in hostility toward Muslims and immigrants.

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

FILE - In this Sunday, Sept. 25 2016, photo, marchers carry the national flags of Pakistan, top left, Lebanon, bottom left, Iran, top center, Egypt, bottom center and the American flag, right, during the Muslim Day Parade on Madison Avenue in New York. U.S. Muslims said they have experienced widespread suspicion about their faith in the first months of Donald Trump's presidency, but also have received more support from individual Americans, and remain hopeful they can eventually be fully accepted in American society, according to a Pew Research Center report released Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Craig Ruttle, File)

"There's a sense among the American Muslim population that others are beginning to understand them and beginning to sympathize with them,'" said Amaney Jamal, a Princeton University political scientist and adviser to Pew researchers. Prejudice against Muslims has "pushed the average American to say, 'This is really not fair. I'm going to knock on my neighbor's door to see if they're all right," Jamal said.

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

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

The last several months have seen an uptick in reports of anti-Muslim harassment, including arson and vandalism at mosques and bullying at schools. In the Pew survey, nearly half of U.S. Muslims say they have faced some discrimination in the last year, such as being treated with distrust, threatened or called an offensive name. That percentage is only a slight increase over previous surveys.

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

Still, the survey found evidence of a growing sense of Muslim belonging in the United States. Eighty-nine percent said they were proud be both Muslim and American and nearly two-thirds said there was no conflict between Islam and democracy.

A larger share of American Muslims told Pew they had registered to vote and actually voted. Forty-four percent of Muslims eligible to vote cast ballots in last year's presidential election, compared to 37 percent in 2007. Those numbers on Muslim voting are compared to 60 percent of eligible voters overall who cast ballots in 2016."

American Muslim leaders, alarmed by anti-Muslim rhetoric in the campaign, made an unprecedented push to register voters in mosques and at community events. Turnout overall was higher after the highly contested 2016 campaign.

Muslims overwhelmingly backed Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton, who drew 78 percent of their vote compared to 8 percent for Trump.

Following a trend found in other American faith groups, a slight majority of U.S. Muslims now accept homosexuality, a dramatic reversal from a decade ago when 61 percent said same-sex relationships should be discouraged.

Pew researchers estimate the number of U.S. Muslims has been growing by 100,000 per year, reaching 3.35 million, or 1 percent of the American population. Just over half of U.S. Muslims identify as Sunni, while 16 percent say they are Shiite. Nearly six in 10 adult American Muslims were born outside the U.S.

The largest share of immigrants come from South Asian countries such as Pakistan, India and Bangladesh, while others have come from Iraq, Iran, sub-Saharan Africa and Europe. American-born blacks comprise about 13 percent of all Muslims in America, but their share is shrinking. Overall, eight in 10 are U.S. citizens, according to the survey.

Eight in 10 American Muslims said they were concerned about Islamic extremism, and more than 70 percent said they were very or somewhat concerned about Islamic extremism in the U.S. However, three of 10 said that most of those arrested recently on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack had been tricked by law enforcement authorities and did not represent a real threat.
MAIDUGURI, Nigeria (AP) - Around 10 military personnel were killed and a similar number of geological surveyors were missing after Boko Haram extremists attacked an oil convoy in northern Nigeria, authorities said Wednesday. A local official said at least seven people were rescued after a confrontation that killed a large number of extremists.

The ambush came several weeks after the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation's management announced it was resuming oil exploration around Lake Chad following assurances by Nigeria's military that the security situation had improved in the area once under Boko Haram's control.

The secretary of the Hunters Association in Borno State, Bunu Bukar, said members of the self-defense group saw the bodies of military personnel after the ambush Tuesday.

"What I can confidently confirm to you is that the insurgents came in new vehicles and fully dressed in military uniforms," Bukar said.

The military and self-defense group were providing security for the oil exploration workers. Nigeria's military did not immediately comment on the ambush.

NNPC spokesman Ndu Ughamadu said only one of 10 geological surveyors who were abducted had been found. But the council chairman of Magumeri local government area, Zanna Modu, said soldiers were able to rescue four self-defense workers, two NNPC personnel and a staffer with the University of Maiduguri.

A large number of Boko Haram fighters were killed in the shootout, Modu said.

Boko Haram's eight-year insurgency has killed more than 20,000 people and continues to carry out deadly attacks despite the government's declaration late last year that the extremists had been "crushed."
BERLIN (AP) - Heavy rains led to flooding Wednesday in some parts of northern Germany, forcing some evacuations and prompting residents to pile sandbags in front of their homes to protect themselves from a swollen river.

The center of the town of Goslar, in the mountainous Harz region of northern Germany, west of Berlin, was closed off and a hotel and a home for the elderly were evacuated as its central market square was flooded.

Elsewhere, streets were flooded and basements had to be pumped dry of water in the Harz region, and two stretches of railway lines were closed.

Tables and chairs of a cafe stand on the flooded Marktplatz square in Goslar, Germany, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Heavy rain in Germany has led to flooding in some areas, with people in one northern city piling sand bags in front of their homes to protect themselves against a swollen river. (Swen Pfoertner/dpa via AP)

In nearby Hildesheim, people stacked sand bags along the banks of the swelling Innerste River. The fire department in Hildesheim was ready to evacuate more than 1,000 people from a neighborhood threatened by the flooding, the German news agency dpa reported.

A street is flooded by the river Nette in Rhuden, Germany, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Continuous rains have lead to floodings in several cities in southern Lower Saxony. (Swen Pfoertner/dpa via AP)

A street is flooded by the river Nette in Rhuden, Germany, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Continuous rains have lead to floodings in several cities in southern Lower Saxony. (Swen Pfoertner/dpa via AP)
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) - Hospital staff in Romania say 28 people have received hospital treatment for bruises and broken bones following a violent storm that ripped down trees, damaged cars and electric lines.

Dr. Angel Trifan told The Associated Press Wednesday that 22 people were treated at the Galati County Hospital for head injuries, bruises and panic attacks after trees and branches fell during Tuesday's storm in eastern Romania. He said a 57-year-old man with a fractured hip remained in intensive care.

Lidia Sandru, a doctor at the same hospital, told national news agency Agerpres that another six people were admitted Wednesday for treatment.

Dozens of workers were working to fix power outages in the area after electric company Electrica Galati said the storm knocked out power cables.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (L) meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Astana, Kazakhstan, June 8, 2017. [Xinhua]

Symbolizing the growing China-Russia strategic alliance, joint military exercises are being held in the Baltic Sea with Chinas most advanced guided missile destroyers participating along with a Russian flotilla.

Making a bold statement, the week-long Joint Sea 2017 exercise integrates naval combat tactical developments, co-ordination capabilities, air defense, anti-piracy and emergency rescue operations for the first time.

Starting with simulated drills, two tactical mixed assault groups were deployed by a joint control center constituting of commanders from both countries so that the air and sea forces involved would be under unified guidance.

Wang Xiaoyong, deputy captain of a Chinese destroyer detachment, explained: "The simulation exercise was conducted for two purposes, namely, assisting commanders at all levels to become more familiar with drill objectives and procedures, as well as enhancing coordination and tacit understanding between naval commanders of the two countries.

Stable Russia-China relations provide much-needed balance on current unpredictable global stage.

Facing political challenges of mutual concern, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping have met at least 20 times in the last four years and worked to ensure win-win co-operation and common development. Just before their recent meeting in Moscow, Putin described it as the years major event in bilateral relations.

During his state visit, President Xi observed that China-Russia relations were at their best in history and stressed that both countries have a great potential to be unlocked in economic and trade cooperation.

Speaking to the Russian media, the President noted that border issues left over by history had been completely resolved so that the 4,300-km common border formed a bond of friendship between two peoples. He further stated that the two nations were each others most trustworthy strategic partners having built high-level mutual trust.

Steadily growing in terms of potential and magnitude, the China-Russia strategic partnership is solidly based on common interests in terms of national security, territorial integrity and sovereignty.

Playing a major role at various international forums, such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Belt and Road Initiative and BRICS, both countries are moving ahead decisively. At the Moscow meeting, the two sides also decided to link the BRI with Russias Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU). Most notably, the Chinese and Russian foreign ministries issued a joint statement regarding North Koreas missile test on July 3.

Commencing just as the U.S. and its allies were winding up a massive exercise named Saber Guardian, focused on countering Russian aggression, these Joint Sea 2017 exercises are also a show of strength.

Providing details, Beijing naval expert Li Jie said: "By sending its most advanced guided-missile destroyers, China is expressing its sincerity to Russia and also sends a strong signal to other countries who plan to provoke us.

Discussing the larger picture, political analyst Chris Bambery believes the Russian-Chinese alliance has the potential to offset America militarily. Amid a current global scenario replete with unpredictable power politics, both nations represent stability and unlimited scope for dialogue.

In one significant move, last year, they announced their mutual oil trading activities would be conducted in their own national currencies; this works out well as China is the worlds largest oil importer while Russia is the largest fuel exporter with oil and gas making up more than half of its total exports and providing one-third of government revenues.

Constricted by various sanctions, Russia is increasingly reliant on the yuan as an international trade settlement currency, and, in the past year, cross-border transactions saw 27.7 percent year-on-year growth to 30.46 billion yuan.

Not only that, the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China has begun operating as a yuan-clearing bank in Moscow. During President Xis visit to Moscow, multiple deals collectively worth over US$10 billion were finalized in various fields between the two nations.

Evaluating current Russia-China synergy, Sergei Ordzhonikidze, chairman of the Russian Public Council for International Cooperation and Public Diplomacy under the Public Chamber of Russia, has said: Russia and China now have this understanding. Russia and China also have a clear understanding of how they can help each other.

In UN Security Council voting, China and Russia often vote together and use a veto together on most serious and major issues. In regard to the Syrian crisis, Iraq and the demilitarization of the Korean Peninsula, Russia and China share similar positions. I do not see areas of potential friction in the interstate relations.

Sabena Siddiqui (Twitter: @sabena_siddiqi) is a foreign affairs journalist and lawyer based in Pakistan.

Opinion articles reflect the views of their authors, not necessarily those of China.org.cn.
Don't expect an apology from Michael Phelps to TV viewers who were disappointed with his race against a simulated great white shark for a Discovery Channel Shark Week special.

The winningest athlete in Olympic history was bested by two seconds Sunday night in "Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White." The race didn't pit Phelps against a real shark, but rather a computer-simulated fish based on data on the swimming speed of sharks.

Phelps responded to critics in a Facebook Live video Tuesday. He notes that a shark doesn't swim in a straight line and suggested that a side-by-side race with the predator would be impossible. He later added that he made it clear before the show aired that he wouldn't be racing a real shark.

FILE - In this July 13, 2017 file photo, retired Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps arrives at the Kids' Choice Sports Awards at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion in Los Angeles. Phelps lost to a shark in the Discovery Channel's Shark Week special "Phelps vs. Shark: Great Gold vs. Great White," which aired on July 23, 2017. It was billed as a race between Phelps and the predator but much to the disappointment of some Twitter users, Phelps didn't actually swim in the water next to the shark.(Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Comedian Kyle Mooney excels at playing sheepish, oddball man children on "Saturday Night Live."

They're not obnoxious, inappropriate bros which made his buddy Andy Samberg famous. Rather, Mooney embodies sensitivity, adding empathy to men instinctively patronized as sad sacks.

Mooney successfully returns to the well in "Brigsby Bear." He stars as James, a sheltered young adult living with his overly protective parents Ted (Mark Hamill) and April (Jane Adams). James hasn't grown up, still reading by flashlight or sneaking out of his room after his bedtime. However after a traumatic night, James quickly learns Ted and April kidnapped him as a child. He remembers nothing and doesn't particularly care his faux-parents abducted him.

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Kyle Mooney in a scene from "Brigsby Bear." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

All that matters for James is the fictional children's program Brigsby Bear.

The setup works. Mooney and co-writer Kevin Costello poke fun at cheesy children's programs like "Barney & Friends" or "Teletubbies" that drill moral lessons into simplistic everyday conundrums.

"Brigsby Bear" the movie is certainly no everyday conundrum. First time screenwriters Costello and Mooney offer a new perspective on the captivity film. Namely, they take what could be a three-minute "SNL" parody, remove the condescending tone and add sympathy. James never knew he'd been kidnapped as a baby, so of course he has little reason to despise his captors. They raised him as a healthy, loved child. It's the sensational, aggressive American culture that scares him.

Both director Dave McCary and Mooney are members of the sketch comedy group Good Neighbor and work at "SNL." ''Brigsby Bear" is McCary's first feature-length directorial debut, and he takes smart risks. McCary interweaves stop-animation drawings into the live-action film which adds to the theme of legitimacy in childhood interests. While minimal, it works.

It's the other Good Neighbor involvements that don't. Comedian Nick Rutherford is little more than just a plot point as Excited Man, an overzealous fan. The fourth and final member Beck Bennett plays Deputy Bander, a cop investigating James' abduction. Bennett is having a career high playing the shirtless Vladimir Putin on "SNL," but none of his comedic chops are displayed in the film. He serves only as a contrast to his partner, the loveable Detective Vogel (Greg Kinnear) who bonds with James. The castings feel more like Mooney pleasing his friends with film roles rather than marrying dynamic actors to developed characters.

Fortunately, the rest of the cast excels. Fans coming for the comedians will likely recognize Hamill as the guy from "Star Wars." A heartbreaking scene between the newly jailed Ted and James cements Hamill as a legendary actor outside of an iconic franchise which often fails to indulge his emotional range.

Ted is not a vicious kidnapper; he's a man who just wanted to be a father and illicitly succeeded. It's the same desire of James' birth parents played by Michaela Watkins and Matt Walsh who transcend at wrangling their trauma alongside James' apathy. Watkins proves once again a short tenure on "SNL" isn't career destruction.

The film offers no true surprises, following many kidnapping cliches. And yet it's highly-aware by intentionally finding humor and happiness in a dark tale. "Brigsby Bear" offers a glimpse on what makes Mooney and his man-child persona work. There's strength in embracing awkward, childlike wonder.

"Brigsby Bear," a Sony Pictures Classics release, is rated PG-13 by the Motion Picture Association of America for "thematic elements, brief sexuality, drug material and teen partying." Running time: 97 minutes. Three stars out of four.

___

MPAA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.

___

Follow Joseph Longo on Twitter at www.twitter.com/josephlongo_

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Kyle Mooney in a scene from "Brigsby Bear." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)

This image released by Sony Pictures Classics shows Mark Hamill, left, and Kyle Mooney in a scene from "Brigsby Bear." (Sony Pictures Classics via AP)
SYDNEY (AP) - Australian police on Wednesday fatally shot a man in Sydney's main train station who was suspected of attempting to rob a florist, police said. Witnesses said the man was armed with a pair of scissors.

Officers were called to the florist's shop in Central station following reports of a robbery, police said. They said the suspect confronted the officers and was killed after a brief standoff.

Witnesses said the man was armed with scissors and had injured the elderly florist. The identity of the suspect was not immediately known.

Police Acting Assistant Commissioner Mark Walton said police will conduct an internal investigation of the shooting.

Police said they did not believe the incident was terrorism-related.
MADRID (AP) - Catalonia's Parliament has approved procedural changes that will fast-track a declaration of independence if the region's voters choose to secede from Spain in an Oct. 1 referendum the Spanish government maintains is illegal.

The new procedure allowing the wealthy region to declare independence within 48 hours of the referendum's passage deepens the tension between Barcelona authorities and the central government in Madrid.

Catalan lawmakers approved the change on a 72-63 vote Wednesday.

The Spanish government has challenged in Spain's Constitutional Court nearly every step toward independence taken by the Catalan government and has succeeded in blocking most of them. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy's government made no immediate comment.

Catalonia and Spain have been at loggerheads for years because of the regional government's plans to hold a secession vote.
NEW YORK (AP) - After her brassy start at NBC News, viewers are taking a wait-and-see attitude toward Megyn Kelly in anticipation of her big test this fall.

Kelly's newsmagazine ends its eight-episode summer run this weekend, featuring her interview with Ricky Gervais. That's a light sign-off after her June debut with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Kelly's show isn't as popular as its predecessor in the time slot, "Dateline NBC," and lost viewers each week. But many shows are seeing audience declines, including direct competitor "60 Minutes." NBC says it is proud of the range and ability Kelly showed with her interviews.

Now the former Fox News Channel anchor turns her attention to a one-hour weekday morning show that premieres on Sept. 25.
The Colorado Rapids have signed German midfielder Stefan Aigner to a multi-year contract.

Aigner comes to the Rapids after spending this past season with 1860 Munich of the second-tier Bundesliga 2. His former team has been plunged into chaos after relegation to Germany's third division and alleged mismanagement of the club.

The Rapids announced the 3-year deal Wednesday . It is pending completion of his physical.

FILE - In this May 7, 2016, file photo, Eintracht Frankfurt's Stefan Aigner, center, celebrates his teams opening goal against Borussia Dortmund, in Frankfurt, Germany. The Colorado Rapids have signed German midfielder Stefan Aigner to a multi-year contract. The Rapids announced the 3-year deal Wednesday, July 26, 2017. It is pending completion of his physical. (AP Photo/Michael Probst, File)

Before his latest stint with 1860 Munich, Aigner played for the top-division Eintracht Frankfurt from 2012-16. He had 28 goals and 27 assists in 136 matches with Frankfurt.

He also played for his hometown 1960 Munich from 2009-12, scoring 25 goals with 21 assists in 101 matches.

He'll occupy an international roster spot for the Rapids, who could use his help as an attacking midfielder. Nana Boateng, Mohammed Saied and Shkelzen Gashi have all dealt with injuries at times this season.

It is expected that Marlon Hairston, who's played on the wing, will move to right back with Aigner's arrival.

"We're excited to add a player of Stefan's caliber to our roster for the next three-and-a-half years," Rapids sporting director and interim general manager Padraig Smith said in a statement. "As an organization we are committed to fielding a forward thinking side and bringing in Stefan - a technical and versatile player who can excel in multiple attacking roles - will help us achieve that vision."

After 1860 Munich lost its relegation playoff to Regensburg, it was announced that the team had failed to secure a license to play in the third tier.
FREEHOLD, N.J. (AP) - An 18-year-old New Jersey man charged with killing his 11-year-old neighbor will remain in jail until his trial.

A judge issued the ruling Wednesday during a bail hearing for Andreas Erazo. He faces murder charges and two weapons counts in the death of Abbiegail Smith.

Abbie was reported missing July 12, and her body was found the next morning wrapped in a comforter near the apartment building where both lived in Keansburg.

Monmouth County prosecutors said Wednesday that Erazo admitted stabbing the girl and binding her with a computer cord.

Abbie's father lives in Jamaica and was unable to attend her funeral because he was deported from the U.S. after a marijuana arrest in 2001.

A phone message left for Erazo's public defender on Wednesday was not immediately returned.
NEW YORK (AP) - Authorities say a New York City drug gang has gone on a conspicuous spending spree that included buying a $3,000 Versace baby stroller.

Federal prosecutors announced the arrests of six gang suspects on Wednesday. They say they've seized four luxury cars and a stash of heroin worth $900,000.

The gang suspects are accused of smuggling large amounts of heroin from Los Angeles and Chicago to New York. Court papers say the men also traveled to Mexico for meetings with a drug cartel there.

The papers say besides the stroller the men bought a Rolls-Royce Ghost and other vehicles worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The papers say the men boasted about their purchases on social media.
HBO's programming chief said the cable channel erred in how it unveiled plans for a series envisioning modern Southern slavery, but he defended 'Confederate' against sharp criticism it drew on social media.

'I would file this under, "hindsight is 20-20,''' programming president Casey Bloys said Wednesday.

HBO was misguided in expecting that 'we would be able to announce an idea that is so sensitive and requires so much care and thought on the part of the producers in a press release'.

If HBO got a do-over, it would have given producers the chance to publicly detail why they wanted to do the series, an understanding that HBO executives had gained before greenlighting the series from Game of Thrones masterminds David Benioff and D.B. Weiss.

HBO's programming chief Casey Bloys said the cable channel erred in how it unveiled plans for a series envisioning modern Southern slavery, but defended Confederate against criticism

If HBO got a do-over, it would have given producers the chance to detail why they wanted to do the series, an understanding that HBO executives had gained before greenlighting the series from Game of Thrones masterminds David Benioff (left) and D.B. Weiss (right)

Benioff and Weiss will also serve as showrunners on the series.

They'll work with producer and writer Malcolm Spellman of Empire and producer Nichelle Tramble Spellman from Justified and The Good Wife. The husband-and-wife TV veterans will be fellow executive producers and writers on the new series.

Confederate will take place in an alternate timeline where the Southern states have successfully seceded from the Union, forming a nation in which legalized slavery has been modernized.

The show won't be 'whips and plantations', Bloys said.

It's important to draw a line between America today and its past and try to advance the discussion on race relations, Bloys told a TV critics' meeting Wednesday.

Bloys said he's placing his faith in the producers and their passion, calling it a risk worth taking.

He said the more producers can weigh in about why the project is important, the more it will make sense.

While people may still not like the idea of the show, at least they'll understand the motivation behind it, Bloys said. 'All we ask is that people judge the final product,' he added.

Benioff and Weiss will work with Malcolm Spellman (right) of Empire and Nichelle Tramble Spellman (left) from Justified and The Good Wife. The husband-and-wife TV veterans will be fellow executive producers and writers on the new series

As part of its announcement last week, HBO described the story as following 'a broad swath of characters on both sides of the Mason-Dixon Demilitarized Zone,' including freedom fighters, politicians, abolitionists and executives of a slave-holding conglomerate.

In an interview with the creative team posted to address the backlash that quickly followed, Nichelle told Vulture that the drama isn't going to be 'the big 'Gone With the Wind' mansion'.

She said it is 'present day, or close to present day, and how the world would have evolved if the South had been successful seceding from the Union'.

Confederate isn't expected to start production for at least a year.

Bloys noted that Benioff and Weiss are hard at work on the final season of Game of Thrones, with the premiere date yet to be settled.

The fantasy drama's seventh and penultimate season just began showing.
LAS VEGAS (AP) - Against a backdrop of cyberattacks that amount to full-fledged sabotage, Facebook chief security officer Alex Stamos brought a sobering message to the hackers and security experts assembled at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas. In effect, he said, it's time to grow up.

Too many security researchers, he suggested, are focused on "really sexy, difficult problems" that don't address the common vulnerabilities that allow malware attacks to wreak havoc. And too many security-minded hackers seem intent on demonstrating newly discovered hacks, such as making an ATM spit out cash or taking remote control of an internet-controlled car, rather than shoring up more mundane defenses.

While part of that reflects the healthy intellectual curiosity of hackers, it's also driven by marketing and economic incentives, Stamos said. "I appreciate the showmanship, but we need a little more thoughtfulness, a little less showmanship in our field," he told reporters after his speech.

FILE - In this photo taken Friday, June 8, 2012 Alex Stamos CTO of Artemis Internet, an NCC Group Company, poses by a domain name poster at their offices in San Francisco. Some 2,000 proposals have been submitted as part of the largest expansion of the Internet address system since its creation in the 1980s. These suffixes would rival ".com" and about 250 others now in use. The organization behind it, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, will announce a full list and other details in London on Wednesday, July 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)

GLOBAL ATTACKS, SERIOUS DAMAGE

Since May, the world has been rocked by two major international cyberattacks - the ransomware WannaCry and a likely state-sponsored attack called NotPetya that spread out of Ukraine. Those and other recent digital assaults have paralyzed hospitals, disrupted commerce, caused blackouts and interfered with national elections.

Stamos himself was formerly the chief security officer at Yahoo, which last year disclosed breaches of more than a billion user accounts that dated back to 2013 and 2014.

Black Hat, now in its 20th year, has matured since what Stamos, a longtime attendee of the computer security conference, described as its "edgy and transgressive" early days. It has grown more professional and corporate over time.

Stamos called for a culture change among hackers and more emphasis on defense - and basic digital hygiene - over the thrilling hunt for undiscovered vulnerabilities. And he called for diversifying an industry that skews white and male, and generally showing more empathy for the people whom security professionals are tasked to protect.

"It's unfair for us to say that users should be better," said Stamos, challenging his profession to find better ways to help people solve the most common vulnerabilities, such as reuse of passwords , email phishing attempts , and not updating devices to patch bugs.

BUILDING A WALL, METAPHORICALLY

Stamos announced that Facebook is investing $1 million to encourage defensive security research through an upcoming contest.

He also revealed the company will contribute $500,000 to a Harvard University-based bipartisan election-security project. That effort will be co-led by former presidential campaign officials for Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Mitt Romney. Facebook and its rival Google will help create an information-sharing and analysis hub that Stamos said could help local officials and campaigns prevent attacks.

Stamos isn't the only one calling for a broader focus on defensive techniques.

"We should celebrate defense," said conference attendee Amit Yoran, CEO of Columbia, Maryland-based security firm Tenable, and a former cybersecurity official during the administration of President George W. Bush. "We focus on the threat of the day, the attack of the day, instead of focusing on the foundational issues."

But some attendees - Stamos among them - also point out that the bug-squashing hacker ethos still plays an important foundational role in helping to understand what needs to be fixed.

"Every single hacker is going to start by attacking and trying to hack things," said Jaime Blasco, a chief scientist at San Mateo, California-based Alienvault, who has been trying to compromise systems since he was a 12-year-old growing up in Spain. "I don't think it's bad. If you want to be a good defender, you have to understand hackers, and you have to have been one of them to know what you're dealing with."
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Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev co-chair the 13th round of strategic security consultation between China and Russia in Beijing, capital of China, July 26, 2017. (Xinhua/Cui Xinyu)

China and Russia agreed to strengthen communication and coordination as the two sides Wednesday held the 13th round of strategic security consultation in Beijing.

The consultation was co-chaired by Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi and Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Hailing the strong momentum of bilateral ties as "their best in history," Yang called on the two sides to further enhance strategic mutual trust and coordination, promote cooperation in security, and strengthen support on issues of each other's core interest.

During Chinese President Xi Jinping's state visit to Russia early this month, Xi and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin signed a joint statement on deepening the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination.

"The two sides should implement the important consensus reached by the two heads of state, promote bilateral ties, safeguard their common strategic security interests," Yang said.

"Promoting the two countries' comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination is a priority in Russia's diplomacy," Patrushev said, pledging more cooperation with China in strategic security and further coordination in international affairs.

The two sides also agreed to strengthen coordination for the success of the seventh meeting of BRICS High Representatives for Security Issues, which will be held in Beijing Thursday to Friday.

Yang will chair the meeting, which will be attended by senior representatives on security issues from BRICS countries, including Patrushev.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - A 16-year-old has been charged as an adult with capital murder in the shooting death of an Arkansas police officer.

The teen was being held Wednesday at a juvenile detention center in the death of Newport police Lt. Patrick Weatherford. The teen's name wasn't immediately released by authorities. The charges filed Wednesday also include possession of a handgun by a minor.

An 18-year-old had previously been accused in the June 12 shooting, but Prosecutor Henry Boyce said that man will now just face charges of breaking or entering, theft of property and furnishing a deadly weapon to a minor.

Police say Weatherford was shot while investigating a vehicle break-in at Newport, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) northeast of Little Rock. Weatherford died at a hospital that night.
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) - Four former federal judges in Argentina were sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the country's last dictatorship in a ruling human rights groups are calling historic for punishing the regime's civilian accomplices.

The court in Mendoza province ruled that ex-judges Rolando Carrizo, Guillermo Petra Recabarren, Luis Miret and Otilio Romano participated in kidnappings, torture and murders. The men were tried for their failure to investigate petitions of habeas corpus filed by relatives of dissidents who disappeared during the 1976-1983 dictatorship.

During the trial, which began in 2014, prosecutors asked to change the charges against the four from being accomplices to primary participants in crimes, arguing their inaction on the petitions preceded the disappearance of more than 20 dissidents.

FILE - In this Aug. 23, 2013 file photo, former Argentine Judge Otilio Romano, center, who fled his home country to avoid trial on charges of crimes against humanity, is escorted by police out of court in Santiago, Chile. Romano is one of four former federal judges in Argentina sentenced to life in prison for crimes against humanity committed during the country's last dictatorship, in a July 26, 2017 ruling human rights groups are calling historic for shedding light on the regime's civilian accomplices. (AP Photo/Luis Andres Henao, File)

"HISTORIC: members of the judicial body of state terrorism sentenced to life," read a tweet from the group Sons And Daughters For Identity And Justice Against Forgetfulness And Silence.

Other human rights groups like the Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo also expressed their satisfaction with the sentence since they had long been demanding justice for the civilian accomplices of the military regime.

One of the judges, Romano, served on the Mendoza Federal Chamber until his dismissal in 2011. He fled to Chile but was extradited back to Argentina in 2013.

Official estimates say about 7,600 people were killed or disappeared during the dictatorship, but rights activists believe the number was actually as high as 30,000.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - The Latest on protests against President Donald Trump's declared ban on transgender people serving in the military (all times local):

7:45 p.m.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered at a plaza named after the late San Francisco gay rights activist Harvey Milk to protest President Donald Trump's declaration that he will ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Protestors gather in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. President Donald Trump declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Demonstrators waved pink and blue flags, held signs reading "Trans lives are not a burden" and chanted "Stand up! Fight back!"

A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla addressed the crowd Wednesday night and said she's tired of being told who she can or cannot be, and asked for others in the LGBTQ community to support trans people as they fight for respect.

Protesters against the policy Trump declared on Twitter also gathered in New York and Los Angeles.

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4:45 p.m.

Demonstrators have flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City to protest President Donald Trump's abrupt ban on transgender troops in the military.

A crowd of at least a couple of hundred people gathered around the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square on Wednesday. They held signs saying "Resist!" and listened to speakers who denounced the ban, which Trump announced on Twitter.

Demonstrator Yael Leberman says transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental." She says it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.

It's unclear what the ban will mean for currently serving transgender soldiers.

Protestors gather in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. President Donald Trump declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Protestors gather in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. President Donald Trump declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Protestors react as New York City Public Advocate Letitia James speaks during a rally in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. The rally was held in protest of President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

Protestors gather in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. A rally was held in Times Square after President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer speaks to protestors gathered in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. A rally was held in Times Square after President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
BEIJING (AP) - Police said three people were killed and four injured in a rampage by a knife-wielding man in central China on Thursday morning.

Three of the victims were attacked by 40-year-old Wang Xiang at an office where he worked following a disagreement between him and his co-workers, the Wuhan city police force said in a statement posted on its microblog.

Wang then drove to another spot in the city where he attacked passers-by before police shot him and subdued him, the police statement said. It didn't mention his condition.

China bans private gun ownership, making knives and homemade bombs the most common weapons in violent attacks.

Such rampage killings have grown increasingly common in China, blamed in part on failures in diagnosing mental illness and stress caused by rapid social and economic changes.
MANILA, Philippines (AP) - Police have arrested the suspected gunman in the fatal shooting of a New Zealander on a central Philippine island, officials said Thursday. Another suspect is being sought.

One of two men on a motorcycle shot dead Simon Rawlinson, 63, in Biliran island's capital town of Naval on Wednesday, said Senior Police Officer Jimmy de Lima. The perpetrators took Rawlinson's bag containing money, a laptop and the victim's documents, he added.

Rawlinson, a long-time resident of nearby Maripipi island, was in Naval for a trip to the market when attacked.

De Lima said a witness led police to the suspected gunman, a local farmer. Found in the suspect's house were a pistol, bullets and clothes he was seen wearing on CCTV footage during the shooting. The motorcycle driver is still at large.

After taking the bag, the gunman approached Rawlinson who was sprawled on the sidewalk and fired a third shot, hitting him in the head, de Lima said, raising doubt about robbery as a motive for the attack.
SYDNEY (AP) - British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson says he supports a proposed free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia, as his country looks to strengthen its relationships with allies ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union.

Johnson was in Sydney on Thursday for an annual meeting with his Australian counterpart, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, and the defense ministers of both countries. Johnson says the two nations agreed at the meeting to boost their trade, intelligence-sharing and military ties.

Johnson said any deal would include an "open and generous" visa regime for Australians looking to travel to the U.K.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop look at each other during a press conference following their meeting in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson said that he supports a proposed free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia, as his country looks to strengthen its relationships with allies ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Thursday's meeting also focused on counterterrorism efforts and the nuclear threat posed by North Korea.

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference with his Australian counterpart Julie Bishop following their meeting in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson said that he supports a proposed free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia, as his country looks to strengthen its relationships with allies ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, right, laughs as British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson speaks during a press conference following their meeting in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson said that he supports a proposed free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia, as his country looks to strengthen its relationships with allies ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, right, puts her arm around British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson as he speaks during a press conference following their meeting in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson said that he supports a proposed free trade agreement between the United Kingdom and Australia, as his country looks to strengthen its relationships with allies ahead of Britain's departure from the European Union. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, center, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, back to camera, sit down for talks in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne for annual talks focusing on counterterrorism, Europe's future and the threat posed by North Korea, as well as British and Australian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Brendon Thorne/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, second left, meets Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, unseen, in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne for annual talks focusing on counterterrorism, Europe's future and the threat posed by North Korea, as well as British and Australian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Brendon Thorne/Pool Photo via AP)

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, left, and Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop arrive for talks in Sydney, Thursday, July 27, 2017. Johnson and Bishop will be joined by British Defense Secretary Michael Fallon and Australian Defense Minister Marise Payne for annual talks focusing on counterterrorism, Europe's future and the threat posed by North Korea, as well as British and Australian military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. (Brendon Thorne/Pool Photo via AP)
WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is likely to sign a tough new sanctions bill that includes proposed measures targeting Russia - a remarkable concession that the president has yet to sell his party on his hopes for forging a warmer relationship with Moscow.

Trump's vow to extend a hand of cooperation to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been met with resistance as skeptical lawmakers look to limit the executive power's leeway to go easy on Moscow over its meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The House this week passed the legislation, 419-3, to enact new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, clearing the far-reaching measure for action by the Senate, where its future is less certain. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., had said he wants to re-examine the bill's North Korea portion, potentially delaying it before legislators take their August recess. But late Wednesday he announced that he sees "a path forward on legislation to sanction Iran, Russia and North Korea" following "very productive discussions."

In this July 25, 2017, photo, President Donald Trump sits in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. Trump is likely to sign a tough new sanctions bill that includes proposed measures targeting Russia _ a remarkable concession that the president has yet to sell his party on his hopes for forging a warmer relationship with Moscow. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The proposed measures target Russia's energy sector as part of legislation that prevents Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without congressional approval.

Two administration officials say that Trump is likely to sign the bill, despite ongoing wrangling over language and bureaucracy. Faced with near-unanimous bipartisan support for the bill in both the House and Senate, the president finds his hands are tied, according to two administration officials and two advisers with knowledge of the discussions.

The officials added that the president has been reluctant to proceed with the bill, even after it was revised last week to include some changes that American and European companies sought to ensure that business deals were not stifled by new sanctions. Trump has privately expressed frustration over Congress' ability to limit or override the power of the White House on national security matters, saying that it is complicating efforts to coordinate with allies - particularly those in Europe that have taken a different approach to sanctions.

The administration officials and advisers demanded anonymity to discuss the private sanctions deliberations. Trump's new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, hedged the inevitability that Trump will sign, telling CNN's New Day on Thursday that the president "may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians."

"There is a tremendous and unprecedented effort by Congress to assert its influence on Russia and foreign policy because it does not trust the president," said Elizabeth Rosenberg, senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security and a former senior adviser at the Treasury Department.

"Lawmakers are so distrustful of the administration that they are imposing requirements to conduct congressional review of attempts by the president to roll back sanctions, and in some instances prevent him from doing so," Rosenberg said.

Lawmakers have been keen to implement a sturdy clampdown on North Korea's confrontational actions - most recently after its first test of an intercontinental ballistic missile. They've also traditionally favored a policy that keeps Moscow in check for its own aggressive measures in Eastern Europe and Syria, as well as its efforts to disrupt elections in the U.S. and across Europe.

"The message coming from Congress on a bipartisan basis is these are hostile regimes and sanctions are warranted - sanctions are called for," Ryan told reporters Thursday. "And we want to make sure that they're tough sanctions and that they're durable sanctions. It took us a while to figure this out and come together to get the policy right . . . and we all agreed we believe these tough hostile regimes deserve sanctions and this is the bipartisan compromise that produces that."

Trump hasn't threatened to reject the bill even though Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other senior administration officials had objected to a mandated congressional review should the president attempt to ease or lift the sanctions on Russia. They've argued it would infringe on the president's executive authority and tie his hands as he explores avenues of communication and cooperation between the two former Cold War foes.

Russia's ambitions to be on equal footing with the U.S. suffered a setback in 2014 when the Obama administration authorized sanctions against sectors of the Russian economy, including financial services, energy, mining and defense. The administration also sanctioned people in Putin's inner circle accused of undermining peace in Ukraine. Add to that falling oil prices and a weak ruble, and Russia's economy was shackled.

Sanctions relief is important to Russia's broader objective of superpower status, shown by its bullish Syria policy. Syria's Russian-backed military made major gains in rebel-held eastern Aleppo in recent days and rebel resistance appeared to be crumbling. While Moscow and Washington are continuously at odds over Syria, the Obama administration did not impose any Syria-related sanctions.

Trump's positions on Russia are generally hard to assess because he's often stepped away from his more controversial proposals. In his meeting this month with Putin on the sidelines of the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations summit in Germany, Trump said he repeatedly addressed the topic of Russia's meddling in the U.S. election. But he never directly answered questions about whether he believed Putin's claims that Russia had nothing to do with it.

"There is a bipartisan consensus to confront Russia across the board - from its actions in Ukraine, Syria, cyber, its election meddling - you name it," said Boris Zilberman, a Russia sanctions expert with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies.

"Russia is the driving force in the sanctions bill," he added. "So we see the legislative branch now trying to send a clear message to the executive branch on where they stand on the issue."

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AP writer Richard Lardner contributed to this report.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A Twitter admonishment from President Donald Trump didn't seem to faze U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski, a moderate Republican whose vote is key for the GOP's hoped-for health care overhaul.

The Alaska lawmaker and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins of Maine were the only two Republicans who on Tuesday opposed moving forward with allowing debate on GOP legislation to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act, the health care law passed under former President Barack Obama. Vice President Mike Pence stepped in to break the 50-50 tie.

"Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!" Trump tweeted Wednesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, center, is followed by reporters as she arrives to vote on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Murkowski voted no, and Vice President Mike Pence then broke a 50-50 tie to start debating Republican legislation to tear down much of the Obama health care law. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

Murkowski defended her vote. She repeatedly has expressed concerns about deep Medicaid cuts in the GOP bill. She's also has called for a bipartisan process to address shortcomings of the current health care law and to stabilize individual markets.

"You know I am comfortable with the decision that I made yesterday in working to advance Alaska's interests and working today to do the same," she said Wednesday.

"I don't' really follow Twitter that much," she added.

Alaska's senior senator holds a unique place in the health care battle, given the vast state's remote location and small population. A quarter of Alaska's 740,000 residents are covered by Medicaid, which Gov. Bill Walker, an independent, expanded as part of the Affordable Care Act to include more lower-income people. Only about 20,000 Alaskans get insurance on the individual market, resulting in a tiny pool across which insurers can spread costs. The number of insurance companies writing individual policies in Alaska has dropped from five to one.

Before this week's vote, Murkowski said she made it clear to Trump that her first commitment was to Alaskans.

"There may be pressures that come at me from, whether it's the president or others, there may be those who say, 'As a Republican, you need to stand with the president without question," she said last week. "But my commitment is to try to do the best that I can for the people that I work for."

Murkowski, 60, is in her fourth term representing the nation's largest state and she chairs the powerful Senate Energy Committee. Murkowski, whose father served as a U.S. senator and governor, survived a near-death political experience in 2010 when she lost her party's primary to tea party favorite Joe Miller but retained her seat as a write-in candidate. Last year, she again defeated Miller, who ran then as a Libertarian.

"The senator has lied numerous times to Alaskans about where she stands on repeal. This is nothing new to her constituents, as she has done the same on the question of life, homosexual marriage, and many other issues," Miller said in an email to The Associated Press. "Murkowski is a poster child for all that is wrong with America's corrupt political system, and remains an embarrassment to the State of Alaska."

However, he said another challenge to Murkowski in 2022 seems "unlikely," citing what he calls voting irregularities in the state.

Tuckerman Babcock, state GOP chairman, urged Republicans to write or call Murkowski. "We do expect the Republican team to keep its promise to repeal Obamacare," he said. Babcock was "dismayed" by her vote Tuesday, he said.

Judy Eledge, president of the Alaska Republican Women's Club, slammed Murkowski for refusing to vote on an outright repeal. Eledge said club members, who have been writing Murkowski, aren't happy about the senator's decision to buck the party stance, but said they're used to it. They've never been able to depend on her for a conservative Republican vote, according to Eledge.

"She normally doesn't disappoint. She normally votes with the Democrats," Eledge said.

Malena Marvin recently finished a round of chemotherapy for breast cancer, treatment she was able to receive through insurance under the current health care law.

Marvin, an independent who lives in a small southeast Alaska fishing community of Petersburg, said Murkowski has been sensitive to feedback from constituents. In an interview before this week's vote, she said she was glad that Murkowski has stood up to Republican Party leaders and to Trump on the issue.

"I think that takes a lot of courage, and I think we should all be grateful for her boldness," she said.

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Associated Press writers Becky Bohrer in Juneau and Mark Thiessen in Anchorage contributed to this report.
BERLIN (AP) - German experts are investigating the cause of the crash of a German military helicopter taking part in U.N. peacekeeping activities in northern Mali, killing the two crew. Germany has suspended routine flights with similar helicopters.

The German Tiger helicopter crashed Wednesday south of Tabankort in the Gao region. The military's deputy chief of staff, Vice Admiral Joachim Ruehle, said Wednesday night that the aircraft's crew didn't send a distress call.

Ruehle said the cause of the crash remains open but there is no indication of foul play.

A German team was headed to Gao Thursday to search for the flight data recorder. Ruehle said routine Tiger flights are suspended until further notice and the aircraft will only fly in cases where "life and limb absolutely demand deployment."
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) - President Donald Trump has very strong support in Alabama, but his public flogging of Attorney General Jeff Sessions is dismaying Republicans who consider the conservative stalwart to be a home state hero.

Trump's near-daily Twitter humiliation of Sessions, an apparent effort to force him out, puts Trump supporters in awkward positions ahead of next month's special primary election for the U.S. Senate seat Sessions vacated.

Congressman Mo Brooks is one of three candidates in the race. He calls Trump's treatment of Sessions a "public waterboarding of one of the greatest people Alabama has ever produced."

Attorney General Jeff Sessions leaves the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July, 26, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

One Trump voter, Joe Aikin of Birmingham, says "you just don't treat people like this."

FILE - In this Feb. 9, 2017, file photo, President Donald Trump listens as Attorney General Jeff Sessions speaks in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, after Vice President Mike Pence administered the oath of office to Sessions. In invoking Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server, and complaining that his own attorney general is not holding her accountable, Trump rehashed concerns that have preoccupied him since the campaign last year. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)
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The U.S. Treasury Department on Wednesday slapped sanctions on 13 current or former senior officials of the Venezuelan government amid political turmoil in the South American country.

The Venezuelan officials were blacklisted for their association with the election of the controversial National Constituent Assembly (ANC) and their government's "rampant violence against opposition protesters and its corruption," the U.S. Treasury Department said in a statement.

As a result of the move, all assets of these individuals subject to U.S. jurisdiction are frozen, and U.S. persons are prohibited from dealing with them.

The sanctions come ahead of the planned July 30 election of the ANC that the U.S. Treasury Department says "will have the power to rewrite the Venezuelan constitution and may choose to dissolve Venezuelan state institutions."

"As our sanctions demonstrate, the United States is standing by the Venezuelan people in their quest to restore their country to a full and prosperous democracy," U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in the statement.

"Anyone elected to the National Constituent Assembly should know that their role in undermining democratic processes and institutions in Venezuela could expose them to potential U.S. sanctions," he added.

Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump threatened to "take strong and swift economic actions" against Venezuela's government if Venezuela goes ahead to pursue the creation of the ANC.

According to a strongly worded statement released by the White House, Trump warned that if Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro "imposes" the ANC on July 30, the U.S. will "take strong and swift economic actions."

In response, the Venezuelan government rejected the U.S. pressure to cancel the constitutional initiative.

The Venezuelan Foreign Ministry said, "it is not the first time we have denounced and confronted crazy threats such as those contained in this unusual document," and vowed to hold the vote as planned, despite this latest "brutal threat."

Venezuelans will go to the polls on July 30 to elect the 545 members of the ANC. The vote comes at a time of high tension in Venezuela, with the anti-government protests organized by the opposition, Democratic Unity Roundtable (MUD), having led to more than 90 deaths since early April.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate debate over health care has made it painfully clear: behind their self-confident "repeal and replace" slogan, Republicans were never united around an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.

Rolling back a government program that's benefiting millions of people is hard enough, and maybe next to impossible. But Republicans compounded their own difficulties with factional divisions, a president who lacked a policy of his own, and a mission that became a Medicaid overhaul unacceptable to GOP governors.

Republican leaders say they remain confident they push through a bill. But they acknowledge they don't yet know how that will happen or what will be in it.

Sen. John Kennedy, R-La., leaves the chamber as the Republican-run Senate rejected a GOP proposal to scuttle President Barack Obama's health care law and give Congress two years to devise a replacement, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, at the Capitol in Washington. President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., have been stymied by opposition from within the Republican ranks. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

The turmoil could endanger other GOP priorities such as overhauling the tax system, not to mention basic government functions such as keeping agencies running or raising the federal borrowing limit.

Health care was supposed to be relatively easy, given that Republicans control the White House and Congress.

Hoping to score a quick victory on repealing and replacing the Obama-era health law, Republicans worked in private to hammer out their proposals. But that ignored the complexity of the health care industry; powerful interest groups including hospitals, doctors, and insurers were alienated.

The strategy foreclosed chances of co-opting any Democrats, some of whom share concerns about high premiums and shaky insurance markets.

As polls showed alarmingly low public support for their legislation, Republicans only dug in. President Donald Trump threatened retribution for lawmakers who broke ranks.

As a result, Republicans have managed to "make more popular a policy that wasn't very popular when we started trying to get rid of it," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz. The lack of bipartisanship on health care was an object lesson in McCain's impassioned floor speech upon returning to the Senate following a cancer diagnosis.

It was easy for Republicans to oppose former President Barack Obama's law when their party did not bear responsibility for governing. Now that they're in power, Republicans are divided in three broad groups.

Some would make revisions, cutting or replacing unpopular provisions and rebranding that as "repeal."

Others, fiscal conservatives, view the debate as the springboard for bigger curbs to government health insurance programs such as Medicaid and Medicare.

A third group questions government involvement with health care, arguing that a true market will only emerge when individuals bear more responsibility for costs.

The three strands are visible in proposals that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., has tried to steer through the Senate. While Obama's law extended coverage to some 20 million people, nonpartisan analyses estimate the GOP proposals would make millions more uninsured.

Similar kinds of divisions could emerge on other issues, particularly if the health care debate leaves Republicans nursing grievances against one another.

During the 2016 presidential campaign, many Republicans hoped a consensus plan could be forged. But Trump never delved deeply into health care, basically issuing a series of talking points. At times, he sounded like a Democrat, promising "insurance for everybody."

"He is obviously working this from a political standpoint; what I don't see is him working it from a policy standpoint - fashioning that compromise for all Republicans," said Dan Mendelson, CEO of Avalere Health, a consulting firm. "There's no evidence of thought leadership."

Trump hinted that he would come out with his own plan, but that didn't happen. The congressional proposals that followed drove a wedge between Capitol Hill Republicans and GOP governors, chiefly over Medicaid.

Beyond repealing Obama's expansion of Medicaid, congressional Republicans proposed to limit overall federal financing for the federal-state program. Medicaid's 70 million low-income beneficiaries include many pregnant women and infants, severely disabled adults and people battling addiction, and many elderly nursing home residents.

The GOP legislation translated to hundreds of billions of dollars in cuts in projected federal payments to states.

"That joined a number of moderate Republicans to the interests of Democrats in not cutting or curtailing Medicaid in a dramatic way," said economist Gail Wilensky, a Republican. "I think what happened is there was a big overreach."

The National Association of Medicaid Directors, a nonpartisan group whose current members mainly represent Republican-led states, went on record opposing the Senate "repeal and replace" bill.

"Two-thirds of our members work for Republican governors," said Matt Salo, the group's executive director. "What we have here is Republican state executives saying there are fatal flaws."

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., who ranks third in the leadership, said Republicans are not giving up.

"It has proven to be quite challenging to get 50 Republicans on board with one solution," he said. "We just haven't gotten there yet."

In his floor speech, McCain offered a possible way forward. He called it "regular order," the plodding work of legislating by committee.

"What have we to lose by trying to work together to find those solutions?" he asked. "We're not getting much done apart."

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EDITOR'S NOTE - Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar covers health care for The Associated Press.
The Trump administration is pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites in a bid to test the strength of the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump desperately wants to cancel, senior U.S. officials said.

The inspections are one element of what is designed to be a more aggressive approach to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

While the Trump administration seeks to police the existing deal more strictly, it is also working to fix what Trump's aides have called 'serious flaws' in the landmark deal that - if not resolved quickly - will likely lead Trump to pull out.

That effort also includes discussions with European countries to negotiate a follow-up agreement to prevent Iran from resuming nuclear development after the deal's restrictions expire in about a decade, the officials said.

The Trump administration is pushing for more inspections of Iranian military sites - a proposal that Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would likely resist

The officials weren't authorized to discuss the efforts publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The inspections requests, which Iran would likely resist, could play heavily into Trump's much-anticipated decision about whether to stick with the deal he's long derided.

If Iran refuses inspections, the argument goes, Trump finally will have a solid basis to say Iran is breaching the deal, setting up Tehran to take most of the blame if the agreement collapses.

If Iran agrees to inspections, those in Trump's administration who want to preserve the deal will be emboldened to argue it's advancing U.S. national security effectively.

The campaign gained fresh urgency this month following a dramatic clash within the administration about whether to certify Iran's compliance, as is required every 90 days.

Trump was eager to declare Tehran in violation, even though the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors compliance says its infractions are minor.

At the urging of top Cabinet members, Trump begrudgingly agreed at the last minute to avoid a showdown for another three months - but only with assurances the U.S. would increase pressure on Iran to test whether the deal is truly capable of addressing its nuclear ambitions and other troublesome activities.

Trump faces another certification deadline in three months, and it's far from clear that either new inspections or any 'fixes' to address whether his concerns will be in place by then.

Trump told The Wall Street Journal this week he expects to say Iran isn't complying, setting a high bar for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other aides to persuade him otherwise.

'If it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago,' Trump said.

If Rouhani does deny access to inspectors, Trump could use that as a basis to argue the nuclear deal struck with Obama is not working, and withdraw from it

To that end, the administration is seeking to force Iran to let in IAEA inspectors to military sites where the U.S. intelligence community believes the Islamic Republic may be cheating on the deal, several officials said.

Access to Iran's military sites was one of the most contentious issues in the 2015 deal, in which Tehran agreed to roll back its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

Last week in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon floated the proposal to the European members of the Joint Commission that oversees the deal, one official said.

Britain, France and Germany joined the U.S., Russia, China and the European Union two years ago in brokering the deal with Iran.

To force inspections of new sites in Iran, the U.S. would need to enlist the support of the IAEA and a majority of the countries in the deal. But the U.S. has run into early resistance over concerns it has yet to produce a 'smoking gun' - compelling evidence of illicit activity at a military site that the IAEA could use to justify inspections, officials said.

Among the concerns about a rush toward inspections is that if they fail to uncover evidence of violations, it would undermine the IAEA's credibility and its ability to demand future inspections. So the U.S. is working to produce foolproof intelligence about illicit activity, officials said.

The officials declined to describe the intelligence activities or the Iranian sites the U.S. believes are involved.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alluded to the strategy during an event hosted Wednesday by The Washington Post. Corker said the U.S. was trying to 'radically enforce' the deal by asking for access to 'various facilities' in Iran.

'If they don't let us in, boom,' Corker said. 'You want the breakup of this deal to be about Iran. You don't want it to be about the U.S., because we want our allies with us.'

As a candidate, Trump threatened to rip up the deal that President Barack Obama brokered. As president, Trump has yet to take that step, as his administration finishes a broader Iran policy review expected to conclude in August.

The other major step to try to address what Trump has deemed flaws in the deal involves ensuring that Iran can't revert to old behavior once the limitations on its program 'sunset' over the next decade-plus.

The State Department said Trump has directed his administration to 'work with allies to explore options' for dealing with that and other shortcomings.

Talks are underway with the European countries about a supplemental deal, though it's unclear how Iran could be persuaded to sign on.

The deal's provisions for inspections of military facilities, or 'undeclared sites,' involve a complex process with plenty of opportunities for Iran to stall.

Tehran can propose alternatives to on-site inspections, or reject the request, which would trigger a 24-day process for the Joint Commission countries to override the rejection.

That could drag on for months. And under ambiguities built into the deal, it's unclear whether Iran must allow IAEA inspectors into military sites, or whether the Iranians can take their own environmental samples and send them to the IAEA for testing, as was allowed under a 2015 side agreement that let Iran use its own experts to inspect the Parchin military site.

Even if Trump declares Iran in violation of the deal - a move that would invigorate his conservative base - he could still leave Iran's sanctions relief in place.

American businesses are eager for the deal to survive so they can pursue lucrative opportunities in Iran. The aviation industry recently signed billions of dollars of contracts to sell passenger plans to Iranian airlines, including a $16.6 billion deal for Boeing.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Justin Bieber left a photographer with minor injuries after police in California say the singer accidentally hit the man with his pickup truck.

Beverly Hills police Sgt. Matthew Stout tells The Associated Press the 57-year-old photographer was hospitalized following the Wednesday night incident.

Video posted by ABC News shows Bieber getting into a large pickup truck with a crowd of photographers around him. As he pulls away, one of them steps toward the truck and is hit by the front wheel on the passenger side. Another clip shows Bieber kneeling beside the injured man asking him what he needs.

FILE - In this Nov. 7, 2015 file photo, Justin Bieber arrives at the Cannes festival palace in Cannes, southeastern France. Police say Bieber has accidentally struck a photographer with his pickup truck Wednesday night in Beverly Hills. (AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau, File)

At one point Bieber turns to paparazzi and sarcastically asks them if they're getting enough footage of the man lying on the ground. The man is eventually put on a stretcher and wheeled to an ambulance.

Photos show Bieber calmly standing by the man with his hands in his pockets and also talking with police.

Stout says Bieber "fully cooperated" with officers at the scene. He was not issued a citation, but Stout says police will continue to investigate and it's "too early to say" if the singer will face any legal ramifications.

Interest in Bieber has ratcheted up this week following the singer's announcement that he was canceling the remainder of his Purpose world tour earlier this week "due to unforeseen circumstances." Bieber hasn't explained the nature of those circumstances.

Messages seeking comment from Bieber's manager and attorney were not immediately returned early Thursday morning.
BERLIN (AP) - The Latest on the relationship between Turkey and the European Union (all times local):

11:20 a.m.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim has met with representatives of 19 German companies operating in Turkey and reassured them that no German firm is under investigation.

This week, Turkey withdrew a request via Interpol for information on a number of German companies with ties to Turkish firms that are under investigation for alleged terror financing. Turkey claimed there was a "communications problem."

Yildirim told company executives: "There definitely is no such investigation."

Thursday's meeting was organized amid a spat between the two countries following Turkey's jailing of human rights activists, including a German national.

The German government increased pressure on Turkey following the activists' arrests, telling all citizens to exercise caution when traveling to the country and threatening to withhold backing for German investments in Turkey.

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9:20 a.m.

Austria's chancellor says the European Union could "never, ever" digest the economic impact of Turkey joining, underlining his country's hard line against membership.

Austria has been among Ankara's most outspoken critics in the 28-nation EU and argued for freezing membership talks with Turkey.

Chancellor Christian Kern told Thursday's edition of German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung that "it must be legitimate to say: 'You simply are not a membership candidate'." He added that Austria has advanced not only arguments about the state of Turkish democracy but also economic ones.

Kern said: "In purely economic terms, Europe could never, ever digest Turkey's accession. How is that supposed to work?"

He also said that "Turkey has crossed almost all red lines" on issues such as its treatment of journalists and lawmakers.
Senate GOP seeks assurances House won't make health bill law

WASHINGTON (AP) - Three Republican senators on Thursday threatened to hold up health legislation in the Senate unless they got assurances from Speaker Paul Ryan that the House would negotiate a more comprehensive replacement to "Obamacare" and not vote to make the Senate bill law.

Ryan responded that "the House is willing" to convene a conference committee with the Senate to that end. But it was unclear whether the speaker's response would satisfy the senators' demands, leaving health legislation in limbo once again at a crucial moment.

The convoluted developments played out as a divided Senate debated legislation to repeal and replace Democrat Barack Obama's Affordable Care Act. With Democrats unanimously opposed, the slender GOP majority was divided among itself over what it could agree to.

After a comprehensive bill failed on the Senate floor, and a straight-up repeal failed too, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his top lieutenants turned toward a lowest-common-denominator solution known as "skinny repeal." It would package repeal of a few of the most unpopular pieces of the 2010 law, along with a few other measures, with the goal of getting something, anything, out of the Senate.

That would be the ticket to negotiations with the House, which passed its own legislation in May.

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Scaramucci threats, insults inflame fierce White House fight

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump's new communications director exploded the smoldering tensions at the White House into a full-fledged conflagration Thursday, angrily daring Trump's chief of staff to deny he's a "leaker" and exposing West Wing backstabbing in language more suitable to a mobster movie than a seat of presidential stability.

In a pull-no-punches, impromptu CNN interview that he said was authorized by the president, Anthony Scaramucci went after chief of staff Reince Priebus in graphic terms. "The fish stinks from the head down," he said. "I can tell you two fish that don't stink, and that's me and the president."

Not even a week into his new job, Scaramucci accused unidentified senior officials of trying to sabotage him and committing a felony by leaking information. But the personal financial information that he said someone had "leaked" about him had simply been obtained through a public records request.

Then in an interview published by The New Yorker late Thursday, an angry Scaramucci used an expletive to accuse Priebus of being a "f------ paranoid schizophrenic" and White House chief strategist Steve Bannon of trying to burnish his own reputation.

He also threatened to fire White House staffers who leaked about a dinner he had with the president.

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AP EXCLUSIVE: Sessions not leaving unless pushed

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - His loyalty to the boss severely tested but seemingly intact, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he will stay in the job for as long as President Donald Trump wants him to serve.

Sessions told The Associated Press he and Trump have a "harmony of values and beliefs" and he intends to stay and fight for the president's agenda "as long as he sees that as appropriate." This, after a week of being berated by Trump in the most public fashion as weak and ineffective.

"If he wants to make a change, he has every right," Sessions said in an interview outside the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador during a mission to increase international cooperation against the MS-13 gang. "I serve at the pleasure of the president. I've understood that from the day I took the job."

Congressional Republicans have rallied around Sessions, a former senator from Alabama, and expressed mortification at the humiliation visited on him by Trump in several interviews and a series of tweets.

Trump is upset that Sessions recused himself months ago from the investigation into interactions between Russian officials and the Trump campaign, and that he has not taken a tougher line against his defeated Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.

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Russia sanctions bill exposes Trump's legislative tug of war

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Donald Trump is likely to sign a tough new sanctions bill that includes proposed measures targeting Russia - a remarkable concession that the president has yet to sell his party on his hopes for forging a warmer relationship with Moscow.

Trump's vow to extend a hand of cooperation to Russian President Vladimir Putin has been met with resistance as skeptical lawmakers look to limit the executive power's leeway to go easy on Moscow over its meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

The Senate voted decisively on Thursday to approve the new package of financial sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea two days after the House pushed the measure through by an overwhelming margin.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., had said he wanted to re-examine the bill's North Korea portion, potentially delaying it before legislators take their August recess. But late Wednesday he announced that he sees "a path forward on legislation to sanction Iran, Russia and North Korea" following "very productive discussions."

The proposed measures target Russia's energy sector as part of legislation that prevents Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without congressional approval.

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Deaths in Venezuela unrest hit 102 as polarizing vote nears

CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - Days before a polarizing vote to start rewriting its constitution, Venezuela is convulsing to a rhythm of daytime strikes and nocturnal clashes. The most recent violence drove the death toll from nearly four months of unrest above 100 Thursday.

Most of the dead in anti-government protests that began in early April have been young men killed by gunfire. The toll also includes looters, police allegedly attacked by protesters and civilians killed in accidents related to roadblocks set up during demonstrations.

The count by the county's chief prosecutor has been highly politicized, with the opposition and other government agencies reporting varying tolls and causes of death that focus blame on the other side.

When Neomar Lander, 17, was rushed bloody and lifeless to a hospital in early June, officials came out within hours to say he had been killed by a homemade bomb he was carrying. Opposition leaders maintained he was hit by a canister of tear gas fired by National Guard troops standing above the bridge where he was found dead.

"They try to question the humanity of the other side as a political tactic, and I think that ends up discouraging and dismaying people," said David Smilde, a Tulane University expert on Venezuela.

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Scaramucci reports more than $50m in assets

NEW YORK (AP) - He vows to be a fresh voice in the Trump administration, but in one way he is like many of the others: He is wealthy, with a vast and complicated array of assets.

New White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci owns property and businesses worth more than $50 million, according to a financial disclosure report filed with the government's chief ethics agency. The biggest source of his wealth is an ownership stake in an investment fund he founded, SkyBridge Capital.

The fund is in the process of being sold to a division of Chinese company HNA Group, a deal that has drawn scrutiny and dashed Scaramucci's hopes to move to the White House much earlier in the year. He was turned down as chief liaison to the business community in February.

"In any administration there are always some really extraordinary wealthy individuals, but in this White House, there are so many," said Don Fox, who stepped down as general counsel at the Office of Government Ethics in 2013. "Their finances, their potential conflicts, become exponentially more complicated to manage."

Scaramucci joins a long list of former Goldman Sachs employees in the administration, including economic adviser Gary Cohn, chief strategist Steve Bannon and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

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Transgender troops: A presidential tweet is not an order

WASHINGTON (AP) - Unmoved by President Donald Trump's proclamation-by-Twitter, top Pentagon leaders declared on Thursday they'll allow transgender troops to remain in uniform until Defense Secretary Jim Mattis receives an authoritative directive to remove them.

For now, "there will be no modifications" to current policy, Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in an internal memo to all military service chiefs, commanders and enlisted leaders. That was despite Trump's announcement Wednesday on Twitter that he will not "accept or allow" transgender people to serve in the U.S. military.

By late Thursday, the Pentagon still had nothing more to go on than the tweets, a highly irregular circumstance that put Mattis and others in the chain of command in a position of awkward unease, if not paralysis. A commander in chief normally works out policy changes of this magnitude in advance in order to preserve order and morale.

Trump's tweets drew quick, sometimes scathing criticism from many lawmakers, both Democratic and Republican, as well as many military troops and retirees. But social conservatives applauded. Protesters demonstrated in several cities as well as outside the White House.

Dunford began his memo to the nation's military leaders: "I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement." He said nothing would change until the president's direction had been received and developed by Mattis into written "implementation guidance."

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FBI: Utah man says he killed wife because she laughed at him

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - A Utah man killed his wife aboard an Alaska cruise and told an acquaintance who later walked into the couple's blood-splattered room that he did it because she laughed at him, the FBI said in documents released Thursday.

Kenneth Manzanares of Santa Clara, Utah, was charged with murder after he was found with blood on his hands and clothes, and with blood spread throughout the cabin on the Princess Cruises ship Tuesday night, according to a criminal complaint by FBI Special Agent Michael L. Watson.

Kristy Manzanares, 39, had a severe head wound, but authorities have declined to release other details in the case, including how many people were traveling with the couple on the 3,400-passenger Emerald Princess that left Sunday from Seattle.

A man and other people went into the room before medical workers and security officers had arrived and saw the woman on the floor covered in blood, according to court documents.

The man asked Manzanares what happened, and the suspect said, "'She would not stop laughing at me,'" according to the FBI complaint.

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On anniversary of war, young North Koreans talk of tensions

PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) - Are the United States and North Korea moving closer to another war?

Though often referred to as the "Forgotten War" in the United States, it is anything but forgotten in North Korea. The July 27 anniversary of the Korean War armistice is celebrated as a major national holiday called "Victory in the Fatherland Liberation War Day" and is the culmination of "Anti-American Imperialist Month," which begins on June 23, the day the 1950-53 Korean War began.

As young North Koreans took to plazas and public spaces across the capital on Thursday to join in mass dancing and other celebrations, The Associated Press asked several university students what they thought of the possibility that another war could break out in their lifetime.

Not surprisingly, their answers closely reflect the North Korean government's official statements.

From one, the suggestion that peace talks might work.

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In US first, scientists edit genes of human embryos

For the first time in the United States, scientists have edited the genes of human embryos, a controversial step toward someday helping babies avoid inherited diseases.

The experiment was just an exercise in science - the embryos were not allowed to develop for more than a few days and were never intended to be implanted into a womb, according to MIT Technology Review, which first reported the news.

Officials at Oregon Health & Science University confirmed Thursday that the work took place there and said results would be published in a journal soon. It is thought to be the first such work in the U.S.; previous experiments like this have been reported from China. How many embryos were created and edited in the experiments has not been revealed.

The Oregon scientists reportedly used a technique called CRISPR, which allows specific sections of DNA to be altered or replaced. It's like using a molecular scissors to cut and paste DNA, and is much more precise than some types of gene therapy that cannot ensure that desired changes will take place exactly where and as intended. With gene editing, these so-called "germline" changes are permanent and would be passed down to any offspring.

The approach holds great potential to avoid many genetic diseases, but has raised fears of "designer babies" if done for less lofty reasons, such as producing desirable traits.
DENVER (AP) - Michelle Obama says breaking the glass ceiling in becoming the first black first lady left a few lasting emotional scars.

Obama spoke at an event for the Women's Foundation of Colorado in Denver on Wednesday night. The Denver Post reports Obama (http://dpo.st/2uYFY04 ) said she was hurt "knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won't see me for what I am because of my skin color." The Post says she referenced people calling her an ape and talking about her body.

Obama says she wants the world to know women endure "small tiny cuts" every day "and we're still getting up."

FILE - In this Friday, May 12, 2017, file photo, former first lady Michelle Obama smiles while speaking at the Partnership for a Healthier American 2017 Healthier Future Summit in Washington. Obama said at an event for the Women's Foundation of Colorado in Denver on Wednesday, July 26, that breaking the glass ceiling in becoming the first black first lady left a few lasting emotional scars. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File)

She reiterated she wouldn't seek public office but she and former President Barack Obama would remain in public service.
KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - A suspect in two slayings in Michigan who was arrested after he surrendered to police in Indiana now faces charges in both deaths.

Murder and other charges were authorized Wednesday against 32-year-old Zachary Patten in Kalamazoo County District Court in the July 20 fatal shooting of 31-year-old Graciela Portillo-Esparza.

Authorities say Patten killed her during an argument involving someone else in Kalamazoo before driving about 30 miles (50 kilometers) and killing 29-year-old Shane Richardson, the husband of Patten's ex-wife, in Florence Township.

Zachary Patten appears during a video arraignment in St. Joseph County District Court Monday, July 24, 2017, in Centreville, Mich. Felony murder and three more charges were filed against Patten, the suspect in a pair of homicides. Patten, 32, of Portage, is charged with felony murder, open murder, first-degree home invasion and felony firearm in connection with the shooting death of Shane Richardson, who was shot on Thursday, July 20 in Florence Township, just north of the Indiana state line. Patten also is a suspect in the fatal shooting of a woman in Kalamazoo. (Mark Bugnaski/Kalamazoo Gazette-MLive Media Group via AP)

Patten appeared Monday in St. Joseph County District Court on charges including murder in Richardson's slaying.

Patten is getting a court-appointed lawyer.

Patten was arrested July 21 after he approached officers in South Bend, Indiana, and told them he "needed to be arrested."
NORRISTOWN, Pa. (AP) - Authorities say a Pennsylvania man has been charged with supplying drugs to a hospitalized woman who later overdosed in her hospital room.

Police say a nurse found 30-year-old Ciara Hadrick unresponsive around 2:30 a.m. May 6 in the bathroom of her room at Einstein Medical Center in East Norriton. She died shortly afterward.

Police say they found drug paraphernalia near her. An autopsy shows she died from an overdose of fentanyl.

Authorities say Hadrick arranged the drug delivery through text message. They say video surveillance shows the man leaving her hospital room hours before her death.

A 29-year-old man has been charged with drug delivery resulting in death.

The Montgomery County district attorney says the man was arraigned Wednesday on the charge that carries a similar penalty to third-degree murder.
TOKYO (AP) - Japan's beleaguered defense minister, a protege of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, will step down in connection with an alleged cover-up of military documents from U.N. peacekeeping operations, media reports said Thursday.

Defense Minister Tomomi Inada will announce her resignation on Friday when results of an internal probe of the scandal are issued, public broadcaster NHK and other media reported.

The defense ministry is accused of hiding parts of a daily log of activities by Japanese U.N. peacekeepers in South Sudan that referred to dangers faced by the troops, a sensitive topic.

In this June 3, 2017, file photo, Japanese Defense Minister Tomomi Inada speaks at the second plenary session at the 2017 International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) Shangri-la Dialogue, an annual defense and security forum in Asia, in Singapore. (AP Photo/Joseph Nair)

The popularity of Abe's administration has plunged over a series of recent scandals, including accusations of misuse of power and cronyism.

Abe is expected to reshuffle his Cabinet next week to regain public support, but has been criticized for defending Inada for too long. Opposition lawmakers plan to grill Abe over his appointment of Inada, who had little expertise in national security.

In the alleged cover-up, media reports said defense officials tried to conceal logs containing references to worsening safety in the area where Japanese peacekeeping troops were repairing roads. Defense officials initially denied a public information disclosure request, saying the documents had been destroyed, but a subsequent probe in March found that the data actually existed.

A whistleblower recently revealed that Inada had approved a plan to reject the request despite knowing the documents existed. Inada has denied she gave consent.

Inada, a lawyer, has also come under fire for an election campaign speech in which she sought support for a ruling party candidate on behalf of her ministry and military troops, an alleged violation of a law requiring political neutrality for government employees. She has also been criticized for links to an ultra-nationalist school operator now under criminal investigation for an allegedly fraudulent state land transaction.

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Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said on Wednesday that Kiev supports the U.S. House of Representatives' decision to back a draft bill on new sanctions against Russia.

In a statement on Facebook, Poroshenko described the move as an "important decision" for Ukraine.

Meanwhile, some Ukrainian experts suggested that the possible sanctions may bring uncertainties to the European and global trade, affecting Ukraine.

On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the bill that would lead to stricter economic sanctions against Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

The bill reportedly allows sanctions against Russia for its alleged role in Ukraine's crisis and the U.S. presidential election, the claims that Moscow has repeatedly denied.

The Kremlin had said earlier that they viewed the sanctions bill "negatively," warning that fresh restrictions would adversely affect both Russia and the U.S.

To come into effect, the legislation on sanctions has to pass the Senate and be signed by U.S. President Donald Trump.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) - Turkey's parliament on Thursday approved a series of contentious changes to its bylaws, which critics say aim to further curtail opposition voices.

The amendments to parliament's internal rules, among other things, reduce the time for legislators to speak during debates on bills and other discussions - a move opposition parties call an affront to democracy that is aimed at muzzling the opposition.

The government insists the changes will render parliament more effective. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who is accused of increasing authoritarianism, has long criticized the opposition for allegedly obstructing the work of parliament.

The changes come as Turkey is engaged in an unprecedented crackdown on the alleged perpetrators of last year's failed military coup, which human rights group say has been broadened to include all government opponents. More than 50,000 people have been arrested and over 110,000 have been sacked from their government jobs.

Earlier Thursday, the Turkish parliament also voted to strip two legislators - Faysal Sariyildiz and Tugba Hezer - from the country's pro-Kurdish party of their parliamentary seat for absenteeism. The voting reduced the party's seats in the 550-member parliament to 55.

A dozen legislators from the Democratic People's Party, or HDP, have been arrested on terror-related charges, including the party's co-chairs, Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag. The latter also lost her parliamentary seat earlier this year.

HDP legislators protested the vote by banging on desks, accusing the ruling party of double standards because it didn't take action against other lawmakers who fail to regularly attend sessions.

With the changes to the parliament's bylaws, legislators will now be punished for using certain words, including "Kurdistan" or "Kurdish province" - expressions frequently used by HDP legislators. Nationalists who backed the amendments regard the terms as an expression of separatist sentiment.

The amendments also changed parliament's dress code to allow the parliament speaker to wear a regular suit instead of a white tie and tailcoat. The parliament's speaker, a pro-Islamic politician, is known to be opposed to the tailcoat, which is seen as a symbol of Western culture.
NEW YORK (AP) - A former New York City police officer has been sentenced to 20 years in prison for moonlighting in the drug trade.

The New York Times (http://nyti.ms/2w34JFz ) says Merlin Alston started driving his friend to cocaine transactions in 2010 then branched out.

Investigators say he carried his police gun to drug deals, tipped off his friend to law enforcement raids and flashed his badge to keep other officers away. They say he also served as an armed bodyguard and lookout.

Acting U.S. Attorney Joon Kim said Alston "betrayed his city and his shield."

The friend, who has not yet gone to trial, testified that Alston helped transport cocaine, ecstasy and other drugs about 30 times. He said the deals totaled about 90 pounds of cocaine.

Alston said the dealer lied.

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Information from: The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com
PARIS (AP) - The French government is temporarily nationalizing the country's emblematic Saint-Nazaire shipyard to prevent an Italian company from taking it over at the end of the week and to give France time to negotiate more guarantees in the case of an eventual deal.

The unexpected decision prompted anger in Italy, but French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire insisted the move was temporary and that negotiations with the Italian state-owned group Fincantieri would continue. He said he was going to Rome on Tuesday for more talks.

The decision to nationalize the Saint-Nazaire shipyard on the Atlantic coast is the first major foray into the industrial sector for President Emmanuel Macron and runs counter to the free-market image Macron has sought to project.

FILE - In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 file picture, French President Emmanuel Macron poses for selfies as he visits the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship at the STX shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France. The French government is nationalizing the country's emblematic Saint Nazaire shipyard to ensure an Italian company does not take it over at the end of the week. (Stephane Mahe/Pool Photo via AP, File)

Le Maire said the action was motivated by France's need to defend its strategic and military interests, to guarantee the preservation of thousands of jobs, and to ensure that French know-how is not transferred outside Europe.

Le Maire didn't use the word "nationalize" during his announcement, speaking only of the "right of pre-emption." But he did say that the French state now "will be a 100 percent shareholder" of the shipyard, which last year turned out the world's largest cruise ship, the Harmony of the Seas, and created the Queen Mary II.

The minister said nationalizing the shipyard would cost the French government 80 million euros ($93 million), but that the facility would not remain under state control permanently.

France's main goal is "to defend the strategic interests of France," Le Maire said, adding that the Saint-Nazaire shipyard is the only one in France capable of making hulls for military ships, including aircraft carriers.

France, trying to beat back a 10 percent unemployment rate, also wants to guarantee jobs for the shipyard workers on its soil.

Current orders mean there are job prospects for 11 years in Saint-Nazaire. But Le Maire said he wants to "strengthen" job guarantees in any sale in case there is a market reversal in the future.

The decision came only days before Fincantieri was supposed to take a majority stake in the shipyards.

The Italians have rejected a proposal that would have given France and Italy each 50 percent, with operational control being held by state-owned Fincantieri. But time was running out for Paris.

France held 33 percent of the shares in the shipyard, with a weekend deadline before Fincantieri bought it. The current majority owner, STX France, a subsidiary of South-Korean group STX Offshore & Shipbuilding, decided to sell the shipyard months ago. The Italian company made the only buyout offer.

Le Maire said the 50-50 French proposal is still on the table and that he thinks France and Italy will be able to find an agreement that works for both sides "in the coming weeks."

However, Italy slammed the French move. Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Economic Development Minister Carlo Calenda, in a joint statement Thursday evening, labeled as "grave and incomprehensible the French government's decision to not carry out already agreed upon accords."

They said they would meet with Le Maire on Tuesday in Rome, but warned that "nationalism and protectionism are not acceptable bases upon which to regulate relations between two great European nations."

Italian Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano said earlier that his country "doesn't accept ultimatums."

___

Frances D'Emilio in Rome contributed to this report.

FILE - In this Wednesday, May 31, 2017 file picture, French President Emmanuel Macron attends a visit on the MSC Meraviglia cruise ship at the STX shipyard site in Saint-Nazaire, western France. The French government is nationalizing the country's emblematic Saint Nazaire shipyard to ensure an Italian company does not take it over at the end of the week. (Stephane Mahe/Pool Photo via AP, File)
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) - The Latest on Attorney General Jeff Sessions' trip to El Salvador (all times local):

10:30 a.m.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is on a mission to El Salvador that aims to strengthen international cooperation in the fight against the street gang MS-13.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions steps out of vehicle before boarding his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017. Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to meet with local leaders and discuss their efforts to fight gangs like MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Sessions left early Thursday, taking no questions as he boarded. He's traveling with leaders of the Justice Department's criminal division who are seeking ways to stamp out MS-13. The violent gang has plagued many U.S. cities.

The journey comes after a week of blistering criticism from President Donald Trump of Sessions' performance as attorney general.

Combating narcotics trafficking and human smuggling is also on Sessions' agenda during the two-day trip.

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7:17 a.m.

U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions is flying to El Salvador to talk about gang violence, with his future as the nation's top prosecutor still in doubt.

He left Thursday after a week of blistering public scorn from President Donald Trump about Sessions' performance. Trump called Sessions "beleaguered" and "very weak." He said he never would have hired him if he had known he would recuse himself from the Russia investigation.

All of this has fueled speculation that Sessions might resign. But he continues to forge ahead on his priorities. In El Salvador, he will meet local law enforcement officials and former MS-13 gang members and tour a prison. Sessions has promised to get tough on MS-13. He's called the gang a top threat to public safety in the U.S.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017. With his future as the nation's top prosecutor in doubt after a week of blistering public scorn from the president, Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to seek ways to stamp out the brutal street gang MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

Attorney General Jeff Sessions boards his plane at Andrews Air Force Base, Md., Thursday, July 27, 2017. With his future as the nation's top prosecutor in doubt after a week of blistering public scorn from the president, Sessions is traveling to El Salvador to seek ways to stamp out the brutal street gang MS-13. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)
VISTA, Calif. (AP) - A Southern California woman who embezzled about $1 million from the Jazzercise company has been sentenced to more than seven-and-a-half years in prison.

The San Diego Union-Tribune says (http://bit.ly/2h3MkWv ) Sherri Potts was sentenced Tuesday.

Potts was finance director of the Carlsbad-based exercise business for about nine years.

Authorities say the Fallbrook woman embezzled to finance personal expenses and a gambling habit.

The thefts were discovered after Potts was let go from the company in 2014.

She was arrested last fall and pleaded guilty in March to grand theft, forgery and fraudulent appropriation.

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Information from: The San Diego Union-Tribune, http://www.utsandiego.com
FORT LEE, N.J. (AP) - Police have arrested a New Jersey man who is accused of evading nearly $88,000 in tolls and fees.

A Port Authority of New Jersey and New York officer pulled over 60-year-old Anthony Cotugno, of Newark, after they say he drove through an E-ZPass lane on the George Washington Bridge without paying a toll on Wednesday.

Police say a records check showed he owes more than $40,700 in tolls and fees at Port Authority crossings and an additional $47,000 in unpaid tolls and fees on the New Jersey Turnpike.

Cotugno is charged with theft of service, toll evasion and a traffic violation. No telephone number was available to seek comment.
A four-year-old boy is dead after his father restrained him and his mother with zip ties and stabbed them both repeatedly before killing himself.

Nova Knaub was killed in Las Vegas on Wednesday night after his father forced his way into the home where the boy lived with his mother.

The suspect, aged in his 20s, was the boyfriend of the child's mother.

The father was found dead with self-inflicted stab wounds in a bathroom in the home on the 8700 block of Norton Peak Avenue.

Four-year-old Nova Knaub was killed in Las Vegas on Wednesday night after his father forced his way into the home where the boy lived with his mother

Nova's grandmother was home at the time but was not injured. She called 911 at about 7pm before managing to get the victims out of the house.

She rushed the boy and his mother to the hospital where the four-year-old died a short time later.

His mother suffered significant stab wounds to her face and neck but is expected to survive.

Police Lt. Dan McGrath called the deaths an inexplicable tragedy.

Police were called to the home at about 7pm on Wednesday and shut down the street (above) as they investigated

'I don't have words to explain another incident like this,' McGrath said, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

'We've had too many of these. As a community I think, we really need to come together because of innocent people and children losing their lives.'

There had been one previous domestic violence call at the house in 2015, according to police.

The names of those involved were not immediately released.
ROME (AP) - The Latest on Europe's response to the large numbers of migrants and refugees trying to reach the continent (all times local):

8:30 p.m.

French President Emmanuel Macron says he would like to create "hotspots" this summer where migrants in Libya would be pre-screened for asylum claims.

A man reacts during an Italian Police blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

French press reports quoted Macron making the remark on the sidelines of a visit Wednesday with refugees in Orleans before he presided over a citizenship ceremony.

An official in the presidential entourage said later that Macron was referring to "advance points" in southern Libya, as well as in neighboring Niger and Chad. The official could not be named in keeping with presidential policy.

In a speech, Macron said France wants to create ways for Africans to seek asylum "on African soil" to avoid perilous sea journeys to Europe. - By Elaine Ganley

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6:25 p.m.

A Cyprus aid group says the captain and crew of a ship chartered by an anti-immigrant group has been ordered to leave the island after being detained on suspicion of forging the documents of 20 Sri Lankans on board.

Refugee Rights Association advocate Faika Deniz Pasha said the captain of the Defend Europe-chartered ship and his eight-person crew were detained after some Sri Lankans on the boat said they paid a trafficker to take them to Italy.

A Defend Europe spokeswoman denied the claim, saying the 20 were apprentice sailors who were bribed by non-governmental organizations to claim they were asylum-seekers.

Pasha says the captain and crew would depart later Thursday from the northern port of Famagusta after authorities ordered their deportation.

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5:25 p.m.

Human rights activists have criticized the European Union for looking to Libya for help in curbing migration from Africa, but Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni says he thinks those worries can be addressed.

Libya's prime minister has asked Italy to send some naval ships to assist Libya's coast guard in combatting migrant trafficking. Gentiloni said Thursday his center-left government would brief parliamentary commissions on the request next week.

The premier acknowledged the problem of what happens to migrants if they are returned to Libya. Rescued migrants have told Italian authorities and humanitarian organizations about torture, rape, beatings and other atrocities they have suffered in Libyan camps..

Gentiloni said international organizations on the ground in Libya could help guarantee the proper treatment of those forced to return to Libya and their eventual repatriation to their homelands.

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2:55 p.m.

Italian Premier Paolo Gentiloni says sending Italian naval units to help Libya's coast guard could be a "turning point" in combating migrant trafficking.

Gentiloni told reporters Thursday that next week his center-left government will brief parliamentary commissions about Libya's request.

Libya's prime minister met in Rome with Gentiloni on Wednesday and asked Italy to send some naval ships. Gentiloni noted that Italy already has helped Libya's coast guard with motorboats and training aimed at improving Libyan patrols along its Mediterranean shores. Traffickers, exploiting widespread lawlessness in Libya, have sent hundreds of thousands of migrants in unseaworthy smuggling boats toward Italy.

Gentiloni said his government was working out the details of a possible naval mission, saying he's "certain" Parliament would approve Libya's request for "collaboration and assistance" in combating traffickers.

Italian Police check people during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italian Police check people during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

A plain clothes policeman, right, chases a man during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

Italian Police check people during a blitz outside Milan's main train station, Italy, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Authorities have detained several dozen people in response to an increasing public security issue as the city deals with a new wave of migrants. (AP Photo/Luca Bruno)

FILE - In this Monday, May 29, 2017 file photo, Syrian women with their children speak, at the refugee camp of Ritsona about 86 kilometers (53 miles) north of Athens. The European Commission announced on Thursday, July 27, 2017 a euro209 million-euro ($243 million) package includes a 151 million-euro program to help refugee families rent accommodation in Greek cities and provide them with money in an effort to help them move out of refugee camps. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris, File)

FILE - In this Thursday, Sept. 22, 2016 file photo, a boy uses his cell phone as the other members of his family sit inside a giant tent at a refugee camp in the western Athens' suburb of Schisto.The European Commission announced on Thursday, July 27, 2017 a euro209 million ($243 million) package includes a 151 million-euro program to help refugee families rent accommodation in Greek cities and provide them with money in an effort to help them move out of refugee camps. (AP Photo/Thanassis Stavrakis, File)

French President Emmanuel Macron gestures as he delivers a speech during a citizenship ceremony in Orleans, central France, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

Mayor of Orleans Olivier Carre, left, French President Emmanuel Macron, center, pose for a group photo with people who become French citizen during a citizenship ceremony in Orleans, central France, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

Zhou El Wafi, center, reacts as she becomes a French citizen while French President Emmanuel Macron, left, and French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb stands next to her during a citizenship ceremony in Orleans, central France, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

French President Emmanuel Macron, left, shakes hands with Francesco Stella as he becomes a French citizen during a citizenship ceremony in Orleans, central France, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb, left, and French President Emmanuel Macron, center, poses with Aurelie Dion, as she becomes a French citizen during a citizenship ceremony in Orleans, central France, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Michel Euler, Pool)

In this photo provided by the Turkish Cypriot Activist, Turkish Cypriot breakaway police officers walk in front of the C Star ship docked at Famagusta port in Turkish Cypriots breakaway northern part of the island of Cyprus, Thursday, July 27, 2017. An official says Turkish Cypriot authorities in the breakaway north of ethnically split Cyprus have ordered the captain and crew of a ship chartered by an anti-immigrant group to leave the island after being detained on suspicion of forging the documents of 20 Sri Lankans said to be apprentice sailors. (Turkish Cypriot Activist via AP)
THOMPSON, Conn. (AP) - Brian Butler is a tripointer.

The 63-year-old lives in Holliston, Massachusetts, about 20 miles from the Connecticut and Rhode Island borders. That's where he picked up the unusual hobby of visiting spots where at least three states or three Canadian providences meet.

Butler says he was hiking near his home in the Douglas State Forest with a topographical map in 1998 when he decided to look for the point where the three southern New England states meet.

This July 12, 2017 photo shows the granite monument that marks the spot where Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island meet in Thompson, Conn. There's an unusual travel hobby that has people visiting the woods of Thompson, and other remote spots across the country. The visitors are looking for tripoints, spots where three states meet. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

He found it at the top of a rocky hill, in the middle of the forest, near an old railroad bed. It was marked by a 4-foot granite obelisk engraved with the abbreviations for Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, and the date 1883.

"As soon as you see that thing, you're hooked," he said. "You say, 'Wow, I wonder if there are more of these things."

There are.

Butler did some research and found 65 such spots where at least three state borders intersect and another four in Canada, where provinces meet. Some are marked with monuments, others with survey markers, and some aren't marked at all. There are 38 on land, and most are in remote areas.

Butler estimates he and his brother, Gregg, have visited between 35 and 40 tripoints. There have been some adventures along the way - hiking, boating and sometimes flying into remote areas.

They had to use metal rods to poke in the sand to find the marker for the Massachusetts-Vermont-New Hampshire tripoint, which was buried when a dam was built along the Connecticut River. They had to talk their way into a refinery, which sits on the intersection of New Jersey, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

They took an inflatable kayak down the Mississippi to find several tripoints located on the water.

The capstone of his adventures, Butler said, was a trip to Canada to find where Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and Nunavut meet.

"You drive as far north as you can on pavement in Saskatchewan," he said "Then you drive on a gravel road for 260 miles to an airport. Then you take a seaplane to a lake. Then you hike," he said. "I don't think we're ever going to beat that one."

Butler documents the adventures on his website, the Corner Corner .

Surprisingly, he has never been to the most famous multipoint on the list, the Four Corners monument where Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico come together.

There is no one governmental body responsible for the upkeep of monuments, and some, like Four Corners, are in much better shape than others.

Dan Webb, the chief border surveyor with the U.S. Bureau of Land Management in Utah, helped place a granite monument on the Utah-Arizona-Nevada corner last fall with cooperation from all three states. It replaced a deteriorating sandstone monument that was erected in 1901.

The spot is about 15 miles off Interstate 70 and hard to access, even with a four-wheel drive vehicle, he said. But there were flags in the ground and other indications that tourists had found the spot.

"Just in the few-month period that we were working on this, we would have a group of ATVers come up almost every day to talk to us about it," he said. "And they were there just to find that corner."

In Thompson, Connecticut, town officials have worked for the last several years to improve access to the southern New England tripoint, where Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts meet.

Visitors can now hike or ride a bicycle down the stone-dust covered Airline Trail to a hiking trail created by the town that leads to the tripoint.

"It used to be very hard to find," said Charlie Obert, with the town of Thompson's Trails Committee. "Now there is a very nice sign at the bottom of the hill pointing the way."
LONDON (AP) - A British judge ordered Thursday that critically ill infant Charlie Gard should be moved from a hospital to a hospice, where he will "inevitably" die within a short time.

Judge Nicholas Francis made the order after Charlie's parents and the hospital treating him failed to meet a deadline to agree on an end-of-life care plan that could have seen the baby kept alive for several more days.

The judge said that meant 11-month-old Charlie, who has a rare genetic disease called mitochondrial depletion syndrome, should now be transferred to a hospice and have the ventilator that keeps him alive removed.

Connie Yates, mother of critically ill baby Charlie Gard arrives at the Royal Courts of Justice in London, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. A British judge is set to rule on where Charlie Gard, a baby with a rare genetic disease, will spend the last days of his life. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)

The judge said that "will inevitably result in Charlie's death within a short period of time thereafter."

He barred identification of the hospice or any of the medical staff treating Charlie, and ordered that there should be no reporting of when Charlie is moved.

Charlie has brain damage and is unable to breathe or move his limbs unaided.

His parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, spent months trying to persuade London's Great Ormond Street Hospital to let Charlie go to the United States for an experimental treatment they believed could help him. Charlie's doctors opposed the idea, saying it would not help and could cause Charlie more suffering.

British courts and the European Court of Human Rights all sided with the hospital in its bid to remove life support and allow Charlie to die naturally.

Earlier this week Charlie's parents gave up their legal fight, saying the baby's condition had deteriorated so far that the window of opportunity to help him had closed.

They then sought to take their son home to die, but Great Ormond Street Hospital said Charlie's complex needs made that impractical. At an emotional hearing on Wednesday, the judge said Charlie would, inevitably, end his days in a hospice. Yates left the hearing in tears, as the hospital and Charlie's parents continued to disagree on how long he should be kept on life support once he was taken to the hospice.

The case attracted international attention after U.S. President Donald Trump and Pope Francis expressed support for Charlie's parents. U.S.-based religious and anti-abortion activists flew to London to support the family's battle.

Charlie's case has become the catalyst for often emotional debates about health care funding, medical intervention, the role of the state and the rights of the child.

The judge this week condemned social-media commentators who discuss the case without knowing the facts.

Great Ormond Street, one of the world's leading children's hospitals, said the case had been "a uniquely painful and distressing process for all concerned," and it was sorry it had been played out in public.

"As the judge has now ruled, we will arrange for Charlie to be transferred to a specialist children's hospice, whose remarkable and compassionate staff will support his family at this impossible time," the hospital said in a statement.

"Every single one of us wishes there could have been a less tragic outcome," it said. "Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to Chris and Connie, and we hope that their privacy is respected at this devastating time for their family."
 Flash

Facebook Inc., an online social media and social networking service, said Wednesday it will work with a Harvard University project against hackers who target elections in the United States.

The company headquartered in Menlo Park, Northern California, said it will provide initial funding of 500,000 U.S. dollars for the project, called Defending Digital Democracy (DDD), launched a week ago by the Belfer Center at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard.

At the time, the Belfer Center said the project will include Facebook and Google to "identify and recommend strategies, tools, and technology to protect democratic processes and systems from cyber and information attacks." Facebook made its move Wednesday during Black Hat, an annual security event held in Las Vegas.

The project will be co-led by Robby Mook, Democrat Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign manager, and Matt Rhoades, Republican Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign manager. "By creating a unique and bipartisan team comprised of top-notch political operatives and leaders in the cyber and national security world, DDD intends to offer concrete solutions to an urgent problem," the center stated in a news release.

"Americans across the political spectrum agree that political contests should be decided by the power of ideas, not the skill of foreign hackers," Eric Rosenbach, Co-Director of the Belfer Center and former assistant secretary of defense, was quoted as saying. "Cyber deterrence starts with strong cyber defense - and this project brings together key partners in politics, national security, and technology to generate innovative ideas to safeguard our key democratic institutions."

The project aims to develop solutions to share threat information with technology providers, governments and political organizations; provide election administrators, election infrastructure providers, and campaign organizations with "playbooks" to improve their cybersecurity; assess emerging technologies that may improve the integrity of systems and processes vital to elections; and convene civic, technology, and media leaders to develop best practices that can shield public discourse from "adversarial information operations."

The efforts are based on the assumption, according to the center, that foreign nations and non-state actors are not backing down in their efforts to hack, alter the outcome and undermine confidence in U.S. elections.
MOSCOW (AP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed veteran diplomat Vasily Nebeznya as the country's new ambassador to the United Nations.

Nebeznya's appointment, to replace Vitaly Churkin, who died in February, had been expected for months. The decree formally naming him as ambassador was published on the Kremlin website on Thursday.

Nebeznya had been a deputy foreign minister since 2013. He previously was an adviser to Russia's UN delegation and deputy Russian representative at the UN office in Geneva.

State news agency RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying that in his new post, "I have hopes that the fog will dissipate and settle, and then many of the things for which they are trying to nail Russia to the pillar of shame will appear completely otherwise."
FRANKLIN, Tenn. (AP) - Financial personality Dave Ramsey has broken ground on a new corporate headquarters in Tennessee.

Ramsey Solutions celebrated the groundbreaking Thursday at the Franklin site where its more than 223,000 square-foot (20,717 sq. meter) building will stand. The estimated move-in date is August 2019.

The personal financial advice company known for a radio show, live events and other offerings expects to add 175 employees in the next year. Currently, more than 600 people work for the company.

Ramsey Solutions says the city of Franklin and Williamson County are offering tax breaks dependent on hiring about 400 people by 2023 and another 400 employees by 2028.

Gov. Bill Haslam attended the event and helped break ground on the project.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House is debating a $788 billion spending measure that combines funding for the departments of Defense, Veterans Affairs, and Energy, along with money for construction of three segments of a wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. The security-focused measure is the first spending bill for the budget year that begins Oct. 1 to pass either the House or Senate.

The measure is expected to pass the House on Friday mostly along party lines. Highlights include:

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BOOSTING THE PENTAGON

The measure is anchored by a $659 billion defense funding bill that increases funding for the core Pentagon budget and emergency war accounts by $60 billion over current-year levels and exceeds Trump's request by $28 billion. The huge increase is a win for GOP defense hawks, with the bulk of the increase going into procurement of new weapons systems, including 84 next-generation F-35 fighters and three ships above the president's request. War funding exceeds President Donald Trump's request by $10 billion.

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BUILDING THE WALL

Almost $1.6 billion is included for three segments of border wall and fencing on the U.S. border with Mexico, including $784 million for 32 miles of new border fencing and $498 million for 28 miles of levee wall in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas; another $251 million would building back-up fencing in the heavily fortified San Diego area. The administration is still devising its plans for the remainder of the multi-billion-dollar project and is reviewing proposals by contractors.

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INCREASES FOR VETERANS

Includes $78.3 billion for the VA, almost $4 billion above current spending. Veterans' medical care alone takes up $69 billion, enough to treat about 7 million patients. Funding is also included for longtime projects to modernize VA medical records and reduced a backlog of VA disability claims.

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GOP ENERGY PRIORITIES

The measure cuts spending on renewable energy programs favored by Democrats by almost $1 billion while rejecting most of Trump's proposed cuts to fossil fuels. Nuclear power would be largely shielded from cuts as well. The bill also includes an almost $1 billion increase for nuclear weapons activities at the Energy Department to modernize the nuclear arsenal. It also seeks clear the way to open the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository, which has been the subject of a bitter battle for decades.

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CAPITOL HILL HOUSEKEEPING

Another $3.6 billion would fund Capitol Hill's own operating budget, including additional funding for lawmakers' security. It would also continue a longstanding freeze on lawmakers' salaries at $174,000 per year.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called Alaska's two Republican senators to warn them of repercussions for the nation's largest state if they failed to toe the Trump administration line on health care, according to a published report.

The Alaska Dispatch News reported Thursday that Zinke called Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and complained that Murkowski's vote against proceeding on legislation to repeal 'Obamacare' had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy. Vice President Mike Pence broke a 50-50 tie to advance the measure earlier this week.

Sullivan told the newspaper that the call from Zinke heralded a 'troubling message.' Questioned by reporters on Thursday, Sullivan declined to discuss his conversations with administration officials.

Murkowski confirmed that she received a call from Zinke, but said she did not perceive the call as a threat against her or Alaska.

Revelation: Ryan Zinke called Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan and complained that Murkowski's vote against proceeding on legislation to repeal 'Obamacare' had put Alaska's future with the administration in jeopardy

Scout's dishonor: Ryan Zinke was last seen in public dressed as a scout at the National Boy Scout Jamboree on Monday night. Now he is revealed to have threatened Alaskan senators over Obamacare

Telling what happened: Dan Sullivan disclosed the call from Ryan Zinke

'He was just sharing the concern that the president expressed to him to pass on to me,' Murkowski said Thursday. She and Zinke, a former Montana congressman, have a 'cordial, respectful and friendly relationship,' Murkowski added. 'I don't think that will change one bit.'

The Interior Department and the White House had no comment on the report.

The notion of a Cabinet official warning senators of retribution over health care is highly unusual, even as Trump has lashed out at GOP members of Congress for balking at his policies.

On Wednesday, Trump tweeted at Murkowski: 'Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!'

Murkowski, who was re-elected to a new six-year term last year, chairs the powerful Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which has say over Interior business and nominations.

She also leads an Appropriations subcommittee with authority over the Interior Department budget.

On Thursday, an energy committee hearing on nominations was postponed, with a spokeswoman citing 'scheduling uncertainties.'

Alaska has a range of issues affected by the federal government, including proposals to build a road through a remote wildlife refuge and drill for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Several Alaskans also have been nominated for key posts at Interior, and Murkowski and Sullivan have pushed to expand drilling on federal land in Alaska's North Slope near the Arctic Ocean.

Sullivan told the newspaper: 'I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop.'

Made a call: Murkowski said the president had been on the phone and suggested his tone was not positive. 'He was very direct, in terms of encouraging me to vote to proceed,' she said.

'I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. We're facing some difficult times and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear,' Sullivan said.

Sullivan told reporters on Thursday that resource development is critical for his state, which he said is in recession.

'From my perspective, the sooner we can get back to cooperation between the administration and the chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the better,' he said, referring to Murkowski.

Murkowski, who talked to Trump before her vote on Tuesday, said she has no problem with the administration's efforts to persuade her on the health care bill.

'The president wants to get a health care bill. He's going to make calls. That's understood. ... That's kind of his job. I don't have a hardship with that.

'I don't have heartburn with that at all,' she said, adding that she made her position clear to Trump when they talked before the initial vote on Tuesday.

'He was very direct, in terms of encouraging me to vote to proceed,' Murkowski said of Trump. 'It was a difficult conversation.'

In the end, she decided to vote against moving forward, saying the bill was not ready and would make unacceptable cuts to Medicaid.

Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said any threat against Murkowski was a mistake.

'Always. Tomorrow's another day,' Shelby said. 'We vote thousands of times ... I'd never threaten anybody because they didn't vote with me on some issue because tomorrow, we might have another issue.'
NEW YORK (AP) - Geraldo Rivera dates the low point of modern New York City history to August 9, 1977.

That was the day before police arrested David Berkowitz, the serial killer who called himself "Son of Sam." Berkowitz had terrorized the city for a year with late-night shootings, killing six and wounding seven.

That time is vividly brought to life in the Smithsonian Channel documentary, "The Lost Tapes: Son of Sam," debuting Sunday. Producer Tom Jennings tells the story through television news reports of the era. It offers a rich portrait of a very different New York City, one that was grubby and crime-ridden and in the midst of a sticky summer that also included a blackout-induced night of lawlessness.

Rivera, now at Fox News, was a swashbuckling New York City reporter then.
CHICAGO (AP) - The fiancee of a 25-year-old black man who was fatally shot by Chicago police last year is suing the department and the two officers involved.

Police say Joshua Beal's death in 2016 occurred after an off-duty Chicago firefighter argued with motorists who were blocking a fire lane during a funeral procession. They say two officers, one of whom was off-duty, opened fire when Beal grabbed a gun from a car and pointed it at the officers.

Police records of the shooting were later released. In a 911 recording the off-duty officer tells the dispatcher that the group cut him off, and then one car pulled up next to him while another car was behind him.

FILE - In this Nov. 8, 2017, file photo, Black Lives Matter demonstrators and supporters of Joshua Beal, who was shot to death by an off duty Chicago police officer, and a group supporting Blue Lives Matter gather in the Mount Greenwood neighborhood of Chicago. The fiancee of Beal who was fatally shot by the Chicago police is suing the department and the two officers involved in the shooting. The suit filed on behalf of Beal's fiancee and two children said an off-duty officer didn't properly identify himself before shooting Beal. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune via AP, File)

"And now they are running up on another person," the officer said. "I'm telling you, you better get the police here now."

According to a police report, Beal suffered eight gunshot wounds.

The suit filed on behalf of Beal's fiancee and two children says the off-duty officer didn't properly identify himself before shooting Beal, of Indianapolis. It also says the officer's actions "created a chain of events which gave rise to an excessive and unreasonable use of force and ultimate battery upon Joshua Beal."

The suit seeks more than $100,000 in damages.

City of Chicago Law Department spokesman Bill McCaffrey didn't comment on the suit because he said his office has yet to see it.

Beal's death sparked demonstrations by those who denounced the shooting and others who supported the officers. It followed the release of the video of Officer Jason Van Dyke shooting African-American teenager Laquan McDonald 16 times.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Latest on White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci and his complaints about White House leaks to the news media (all times local):

6:50 p.m.

The White House communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, is speaking out after an expletive-laced interview, saying he sometimes uses "colorful language" and pledging to refrain.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci speaks to members of the media outside the White House in Washington, Tuesday, July 25, 2017. (AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

The interview appears on the website of The New Yorker magazine. In it, an angry Scaramucci uses expletives to accuse White House chief of staff Reince Priebus of being a "paranoid schizophrenic." He also accuses White House chief strategist Steve Bannon of trying to burnish his own reputation.

Scaramucci later tweeted, in part: "I sometimes use colorful language. I will refrain in this arena but not give up the passionate fight" for President Donald Trump's agenda.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says she has nothing to add to Scaramucci's tweet.

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3:10 p.m.

The White House's chief spokeswoman is dodging a question about whether the president has full confidence in his embattled chief of staff, Reince Priebus (ryns PREE'-bus).

Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders won't say for sure. But she repeats an often-used line that the president would dismiss him if he didn't have full confidence.

She also says the president has purposely brought together senior staffers who have a "lot of different perspectives" to foster "healthy competition."

She adds, "this isn't group think," and says that works best.

White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci suggested in a late-night tweet Wednesday that Priebus has been leaking to the media.

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8:10 a.m.

The president's new communications director is doubling down on his complaints of leaks within the White House.

Anthony Scaramucci tells CNN's "New Day" that sometimes administration officials "leak things to reporters to help shape policy."

But he says he wants to stop what he calls "nefarious, unnecessary, backstabbing, palace intrigue-like leaks."

Scaramucci tweeted about leaks late Wednesday and mentioned the Twitter handle of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus. That tweet has since been deleted.

Asked what he meant by including Priebus, Scaramucci says, "If Reince wants to explain he's not the leaker, he can do that."

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6:49 a.m.

Newly-appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has promised to contact investigators over what he says is an illegal leak of his financial disclosure form. The comment came in a since-deleted tweet that mentioned the Twitter handle of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Scaramucci tweeted Wednesday night: "In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, I will be contacting @FBI and the @JusticeDept #swamp @Reince45." After removing the tweet, Scaramucci denied that it was a threat to Priebus, writing that the deleted tweet was "was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks."

Politico reported earlier Wednesday on the former Wall Street financier's financial holdings. The report was based off of Scaramucci's financial disclosure form.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders participates in a press briefing at the White House in Washington, Thursday, July 27, 2017. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - The Latest on a woman's death in what authorities called a domestic dispute on a cruise ship off the coast of Alaska (all times local):

3 p.m.

A federal judge has appointed a public defender for a Utah man charged with murder in the death of his wife aboard an Alaska cruise ship.

Passengers of the Emerald Princess cruise ship disembark on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in Juneau, Alaska, hours after arriving at port. A domestic dispute aboard the cruise ship led to the death of a 39-year-old Utah woman, and the FBI is investigating what happened in U.S. waters off Alaska, the agency said Wednesday. (AP Photo/Becky Bohrer)

Kenneth Manzanares of Santa Clara, Utah, appeared to be crying at times before the start of the hearing and near the start, when U.S. Magistrate Judge Kevin F. McCoy began speaking.

He dabbed at his eyes and nose with tissues.

Manzanares participated via teleconference in his first court appearance from Juneau. He is being held in connection with the Tuesday death of 39-year-old Kristy Manzanares.

Kenneth Manzanares was wearing an orange jumpsuit during the proceedings. He had his ankles shackled and was wearing slip-on shoes.

McCoy appointed assistant federal defender Jamie McGrady, who was not at the hearing. She did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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1:45 p.m.

The employer of a Utah woman who was killed in what authorities called a domestic dispute aboard an Alaska cruise ship says she was a dedicated and loving mother who put her children ahead of her career in real estate.

Summit Sotheby's International Realty says Kristy Manzanares was a trusted adviser and valued sales associate in the St. George, Utah, office.

Her husband, Kenneth Manzanares, has been charged with murder in the death Tuesday aboard the Emerald Princess.

The FBI investigated the death because it occurred in U.S. waters.

Kenneth Manzanares was expected to make his first court appearance later Thursday. He doesn't have any criminal record in Utah, according to online state records.

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11:20 a.m.

U.S. prosecutors say a Utah man has been charged with murder in the death of his wife aboard an Alaska cruise.

Acting U.S. Attorney for Alaska Bryan Schroder said Thursday that Kenneth Manzanares was charged after his wife, Kristy, was found dead with a severe head wound in their cabin aboard the Princess Cruises ship.

An FBI criminal complaint says Kenneth Manzanares told an acquaintance who later walked into the blood-splattered room that he killed his wife because she wouldn't stop laughing at him.

Manzanares is scheduled to appear in federal court by videoconference from Juneau later Thursday.

Utah court records show that he has no criminal history.

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9:15 a.m.

Authorities say a Utah man killed his wife aboard a cruise ship and told an acquaintance who later walked into the blood-splattered cabin that he did it because she wouldn't stop laughing at him.

A criminal complaint by an FBI special agent says Kenneth Manzanares was found in the couple's room on the Emerald Princess on Tuesday night with blood on his hands and clothes and blood spread throughout the cabin.

The FBI says the woman, identified only as K.M., had a severe head wound. Manzanares has been arrested.

Court documents say a man entered the cabin and saw the woman on the floor covered in blood. Records say Manzanares grabbed his wife's body and dragged her to the balcony before the witness stopped him.

The FBI is investigating because the death occurred in U.S. waters.

___

12:01 a.m.

Federal authorities plan to announce charges in what has been described as a domestic dispute aboard a cruise ship in U.S. waters off Alaska that led to the death of a 39-year-old Utah woman. The FBI said a suspect is in custody.

Princess Cruises says the woman died Tuesday night on the Emerald Princess, which was on a weeklong trip that left Sunday from Seattle. The ship docked in Juneau, Alaska, on Wednesday morning.

Few details about the case were released as investigators went about their work. Passengers were kept aboard the ship for much of the day Wednesday.

The U.S. attorney's office announced that it would hold a news conference with representatives of the FBI and Coast Guard Thursday in Anchorage to announce the filing of federal charges in the case.

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Bohrer reported from Juneau, Alaska.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House has passed a $788 billion spending bill that combines a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump's controversial border wall with Mexico with a whopping budget increase for the Pentagon.

The 235-192 vote both eases a large backlog of unfinished spending bills and gives Trump and his House GOP allies political wins heading into the August recess. Challenging hurdles remain because the measure will meet with more powerful Democratic opposition in the Senate.

The 326-page measure would make good on longtime GOP promises to reverse an erosion in military readiness. It would give veterans programs a 5 percent increase and fund a 2.4 percent military pay raise.

FILE - In this Nov. 13, 2016 file photo, a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent passes along a section of border wall in Hidalgo, Texas. The GOP-controlled House is plowing ahead on legislation to give the Pentagon a massive spending boost and deliver a $1.6 billion down payment for President Donald Trump's oft-promised wall along the U.S.-Mexico border. (AP Photo/Eric Gay, File)

GOP leaders used the popularity of the Pentagon and veterans programs to power through money for Trump's border wall.

"Every single dime the President requested to start building a wall on our southern border he's going to get," said House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. "Most importantly, we're sending more to the VA to fix veterans' health care and reform outdated VA systems."

Still, a potential government shutdown battle over the U.S.-Mexico wall looms with Senate Democrats this fall. The generous defense spending increases also run afoul of strict spending limits set by an earlier budget law, and there's been no progress on a bipartisan budget deal that would be a prerequisite for the higher spending to take full effect.

The House added Trump's wall funding by a 230-196 procedural vote that denied angry Democrats an up-or-down vote. The wall gets low marks in public opinion polls and is opposed by many of the GOP's more moderate lawmakers.

Trump promised at nearly every rally and campaign event that Mexico would pay for the wall. Mexico said no, and U.S. taxpayers will have to provide the money.

"The president has promised this funding, the American people want this funding, and today the House is making good on that promise," said Rep. Steven Palazzo, R-Miss.

Critics say that existing fencing is more than enough and that the portions of the border without it are too remote for crossings and that tribal law, environmental requirements, and personal property rights have blocked fencing for most of the rest.

"Nobody would know it from the President's hysterical rhetoric, but there are already 700 miles of fence down there on the border - vehicular fencing, pedestrian fencing," said Rep. David Price, D-N.C. "I know about it because most of that fencing was built when I was chairman of the homeland security appropriations subcommittee."

At issue are the spending bills passed by Congress each year to fund the day-to-day operations of federal agencies. Trump is pushing for a sweeping increase for the Pentagon and commensurate cuts of more than $50 billion, or 10 percent, from domestic agencies and foreign aid. House Republicans are responding by adding even more for defense but have significantly scaled back Trump's cuts to domestic programs like community development grants and medical research.

GOP leaders had hoped to advance a broader "omnibus" package that would have included each of the 12 individual spending measures. But the GOP rank and file balked, so Republicans devised a smaller bill anchored by the Pentagon budget, funding for veterans programs, and money for the wall.

But most of the sweeping Pentagon increases - which total about $60 billion above current levels and almost $30 billion higher than Trump's budget - would evaporate next year unless there's a bipartisan agreement to raise budget "caps" set by a 2011 budget pact. A two-year agreement that eased those "sequestration" spending limits expires in September.

Both Democrats and Republicans in the Senate want additional funding for domestic programs. Democrats have lots of leverage because their votes are needed to pass the funding measures. For now, the Senate is working in a bipartisan fashion on a sharply different set of bills that, on average, are frozen at current levels.

Earlier this year, Congress and Trump came together on spending bills for the current budget year that largely stuck to work done last year under former President Barack Obama. Trump reluctantly signed a $1.2 trillion catchall spending bill in May after his demand for border wall money looked like it would stall the measure.

The current bill, however, reflects the changed balance of power in GOP-controlled Washington. Weapons procurement is a top priority, including two additional littoral combat ships above Trump's request and 14 unrequested next-generation F-35 fighters.

Democrats said the big gains for now are illusory since automatic budget cuts known as sequestration remain in place.

"We do not give certainty to our defense or confidence to our troops when we legislate with phony numbers, when we refuse to make honest choices about our Defense budget," said Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Instead of giving certainty to our heroes in uniform, this bill would breach the sequester spending limit by more than $70 billion, forcing a mandatory 13 percent cut to all defense accounts."
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) - World Rugby has ruled that All Blacks center Sonny Bill Williams should miss the first Bledisloe Cup test against Australia next month while serving a disciplinary suspension.

Williams was banned for four matches after being sent off during the second test against the British and Irish Lions on July 1 for a dangerous shoulder charge on Lions winger Anthony Watson.

He missed the third test of the Lions series, a Super Rugby match for the Auckland-based Blues and is due to sit out a match for his Counties-Manukau province against North Harbour.

The All Blacks hoped a further match involving the Counties team would be taken into consideration as part of Williams' suspension. But World Rugby has ruled the match is not "meaningful" and Williams' suspension will end on Aug. 20, the day after the Bledisloe Cup test.
 Flash

Airstrikes killed at least 43 civilians in areas under the Islamic State (IS) control in northern and eastern Syria on Wednesday, activists said.

At least 14 people were killed by an airstrike in the eastern province of Deir al-Zour, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Five children under 18 and four women were among those killed when the airstrike targeted the city of Mayadeen in the countryside of Deir al-Zour, said the Observatory for Human Rights.

The UK-based watchdog group has stopped short of identifying the warplane carrying out the airstrike, saying it's not clear whether by the U.S. or Russia.

It added that the death toll could likely rise due to the number of critically wounded people.

Even though the Observatory couldn't determine the party behind the strike, activists and state media outlets have recently accused the U.S.-led coalition of striking civilian targets, killing tens of people.

Meanwhile, the Observatory said that airstrikes on Wednesday killed at least 29 civilians in the northern city of Raqqa, the de facto capital of IS.
TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Jeff Colyer is preparing to become Kansas' next governor after nearly a decade helping fellow conservative Republicans shape health care policy by drawing on his background as a plastic surgeon who squeezed in medical relief missions to disaster and war zones.

Loyal to GOP Gov. Sam Brownback, Colyer would be elevated when his two-term running mate resigns to become President Donald Trump's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Trump nominated Brownback for the post.

Brownback wouldn't say Thursday whether he'll wait to be confirmed by the U.S. Senate to step down as governor or resign earlier. Colyer kept a low profile, turning down a request for an interview and not attending a Statehouse news conference at which Brownback discussed his nomination and tenure as governor.

FILE - In this March 9, 2017, file photo, Kansas Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, left, and Gov. Sam Brownback participate in a humanitarian award ceremony at the statehouse in Topeka, Kan. Colyer is preparing to become Kansas' next governor after nearly a decade helping fellow conservative Republicans shape health care policy. Colyer would be elevated when Brownback, his two-term running mate, resigns to become President Donald Trump's ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. (Thad Allton/Topeka Capital-Journal via AP, File)

Colyer would serve the remainder of Brownback's term, which ends in January 2019. The 57-year-old Colyer already was seen as a potential Republican candidate for governor next year because Brownback was term-limited. He was often the administration's spokesman on health issues and served in the Legislature before first running on Brownback's ticket in 2010.

Colyer may deviate little from Brownback's policies on fiscal and social issues. In an Associated Press interview in December, Colyer described himself in classic "Star Trek" terms as a first-officer Spock to Brownback as Captain Kirk, saying, "We're working for the same goals."

But Brownback told reporters: "He's his own man, his own person. He's an accomplished physician, an accomplished public policy person."

Brownback is known nationally for aggressive personal income tax cuts in 2012 and 2013 designed to stimulate the economy. Kansas has struggled to balance its budget since.

The GOP-controlled Legislature in early June enacted income tax increases over a Brownback veto that would raise $1.2 billion over two years. Their changes will increase income tax rates, end an exemption for more than 330,000 farmers and business owners and largely roll back the past cuts Brownback championed as pro-growth policies.

If Colyer runs as expected for a full, four-year term as governor in 2018, he's likely face a crowded field. His ties to Brownback would be a liability in a general election campaign and "a mixed bag" even in a GOP primary, said Patrick Miller, an assistant political science professor at the University of Kansas.

"I don't sense that he has really strong name recognition or a really strong personal brand," Miller said.

State Sen. Laura Kelly, a Topeka Democrat, who is part of a working group Colyer formed on Medicaid issues, said she thinks he will be "a little more open" to working with his political opponents than Brownback.

House Speaker Ron Ryckman Jr., an Olathe Republican, said he doesn't yet have a feel for how Colyer would govern but said the lieutenant governor would be guided by "a different set of life experiences."

"Ideologically, I think he's aligned with Gov. Brownback," Ryckman said.

Colyer would face formidable opposition for the Republican nomination. Secretary of State Kris Kobach is running for governor, and at least five other GOP candidates are running or considering a run. Two Democrats have launched campaigns for governor as well.

While Colyer has been influential on health care policy and is personable, he's not as dynamic a stump speaker as Kobach and does not have as high a national profile. Kobach is vice chairman of a presidential commission on election fraud.

Yet Colyer's tenure as lieutenant governor has seen its own waves of attention and controversy. He oversaw an initiative that in 2013 turned over the administration of the state's Medicaid health coverage for the poor and disabled to three private companies.

He also made three $500,000 loans to Brownback's and his re-election campaign in 2013 and 2014 that were highly unusual for their size and timing; two were paid back within days. Prosecutors ended a grand jury investigation in 2015 without plans for criminal charges.

Colyer's friendship with Brownback began more than 20 years ago, when both were White House fellows; they occasionally attended Mass together.

Colyer owns a plastic surgery practice in Overland Park that performs cosmetic procedures as well as reconstructive surgery. He remains on call at multiple Kansas City-area hospitals to help trauma victims.

He also has continued going overseas with the International Medical Corps, a group with whom he's been affiliated since the mid-1980s. He's performed trauma and reconstructive surgery and trained local doctors in countries including Afghanistan, South Sudan, Rwanda and Iraq.

Colyer gained a reputation with the group for being adept at handling high-pressure, life-and-death situations.

The father of three daughters, Colyer ran unsuccessfully for Congress in 2002. He served in the Kansas House in 2007 and 2008, where he helped draft health care legislation. He won a state Senate seat in 2008.

Colyer was a vocal critic of the 2010 federal health care overhaul championed by former President Barack Obama, a Democrat, and still opposes expanding the state's Medicaid program as contemplated by that law.

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Follow John Hanna on Twitter at https://twitter.com/apjdhanna .
WASHINGTON (AP) - The number of violent attacks and incidents of bullying in American public schools has gone down in recent years, according to a federal report published Thursday.

Violence and bullying were more frequent in middle schools than in high schools or elementary schools, said the study by the Education Department's National Center for Education Statistics.

The report said the rate of violent incidents in middle schools dropped from 40 incidents per 1,000 students in the 2009-2010 school year to 27 incidents in 2015-2016. Bullying in middle schools was observed in 39 percent of schools in 2009-2010, compared to 22 percent last school year.

In 2009-2010, when the previous such survey was conducted, about 46 percent of schools reported that their students were threatened without a weapon and 8 percent with a weapon, compared to 39 percent and 9 percent respectively during the last school year.

Substance abuse stayed unchanged. Last school year, 25 percent of schools reported at least one drug-related incident, same as in the previous study.

The survey was based on a random sample of some 3,500 schools. It did not provide an explanation for the trends.
WASHINGTON (AP) - The House Ethics Committee says it is investigating a complaint against Del. Madeleine Bordallo of Guam, following a report by the independent Office of Congressional Ethics.

The committee did not specify the nature of the allegation against Bordallo, but a spokesman for the delegate said the inquiry was the result of a politically motivated complaint regarding her lodging on Guam. Bordallo, a Democrat, is in her eighth term as the territory's non-voting member of Congress.

Spokesman Adam Carbullido said Bordallo is cooperating fully with the ethics panel and is committed to abiding by House rules and federal law. Bordallo denies any wrongdoing.

The ethics panel says in a statement that the inquiry alone does not reflect any judgment of wrongdoing.

The panel will announce further steps by Sept. 11.
Theresa Mays holiday snaps with husband Philip in northern Italy are the latest in a long line of prime ministerial photocalls which reflect changes in both political presentation and tourism trends.

Back in the 1960s and 1970s, like the majority of voters, prime ministers tended to take their holidays in Britain. But the kind of breaks they took said a lot about their political style.

Harold Macmillan walking with the Duchess of Devonshire at Barden High Moor, Yorkshire

True to his patrician, old Etonian background, Harold Macmillan could be seen in tweeds and plus-fours stalking the grouse moors with aristocratic friends on a shooting holiday.

Harold Wilson sitting on a rock during his summer holiday in the Isle of Scilly

Labours Harold Wilson, by contrast, was pictured in shorts and sandals, enjoying a pipe on the beaches of the Isles of Scilly, a venue he returned to repeatedly and where he was laid to rest after his death in 1995.

Margaret Thatcher took more up-market breaks at the lakeside home of friends in Switzerland  also a favourite destination of the Mays.

Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher with her husband Denis at Constantine Bay, near Padstow, at the start of their annual Cornish holiday

But she also made regular trips with husband Denis to Cornwall, where she was pictured walking dogs on the beach and enjoying walks by the seaside.

As Prime Minister, John Major repeatedly returned to the quiet Spanish town of Candeleda, a long way off the tourist trail in rural Avila province, between Madrid and the Portuguese border. His loyalty to the modest municipality led to a road being named Avenida de John Major in his honour in 2013.

Tony Blair and his wife Cherie sheltering under an umbrella at St Bees in Cumbria whilst on holiday (Owen Humphreys/PA Wire)

In stark contrast to the low-key breaks favoured by his Tory predecessor, Tony Blairs holidays took in glitzy locations, celebrity friends and occasionally bizarre pastimes.

The Labour PM holidayed as the guest of Silvio Berlusconi in Sardinia, at Cliff Richards home in Barbados and in luxury hotels on Egypts Red Sea coast. He and wife Cherie reportedly underwent a Mayan rebirthing ritual in a Mexican steam bath. As the UK tourist industry reeled following the foot-and-mouth outbreak of 2001, however, he broke off from a Tuscan holiday to spend a week in Cornwall on a rare staycation.

Gordon Browns holidays reflected his image as a man who would rather be at his desk than on the beach.

Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah walking through Whitlingham Country Park in Trowse, Norfolk, whilst on holiday (Darren Staples/PA Wire)

Invariably taking his summer break in Britain, he would be pictured in formal jacket and sensible shoes, his only concession to the holiday spirit apparently being to remove his tie and undo his top button.

Always ready to be called back from his breaks, he once returned from a holiday in Dorset after just four hours to take charge of the response to another foot-and-mouth crisis.

David Cameron and his wife Samantha sitting on a bench outside a cafe overlooking the beach at Polzeath

His successor David Cameron took a decidedly more laid-back approach, chillaxing with wife Samantha in popular resorts from Ibiza to the Cornish Riviera, often dressed in his holiday uniform of navy-blue polo shirt and chinos or shorts and sometimes even photographed taking a dip in the sea in his swimming shorts.

Mrs Mays walking holidays in the Alps possibly betray a more serious-minded approach to her leisure-time, with healthy activity in mountain settings taking the place of relaxation on the beach.

But she may rue not relaxing a little more during a hiking break with Philip in Snowdonia earlier this year, when she took the fateful decision to call the snap election which cost her Commons majority.
Broadcasting giant ITV has reported a fall in half-year sales and profits as advertising revenue continues to dip following the Brexit vote and economic uncertainty.

The group, home to shows such as The X Factor and Broadchurch, said net advertising revenues dropped 8% to 769 million as it pointed to continued economic and political uncertainty.

ITVs total external revenues, including advertising, programme sales and online, fell 3% to 1.45 billion in the six months to June 30.

The X Factor is one of ITV's most popular shows

Statutory pre-tax profit slumped 16% to 259 million in the period as chairman Peter Bazalgette said advertising revenue is again likely to continue its downward trajectory.

ITVs performance in the first six months of the year is very much as we anticipated and our guidance for the full year remains unchanged.

We expect ITV Family net advertising revenues in quarter three to be down around 4%, again impacted by wider economic uncertainty, and over the full year we expect to outperform the TV advertising market, he added.

ITV Studios revenue rose by 7% to 697 million as it benefited from new dramas including Unforgotten, Little Boy Blue and The Loch.

Carolyn McCall will join ITV as it's first ever chief executive in January

In March, ITV blamed Brexit vote uncertainty for its first drop in full-year advertising revenues since 2009 and warned over further falls as ad spending remains under pressure.

Earlier this month, ITV announced that easyJet boss Carolyn McCall is to join the firm as the broadcasters first ever female chief executive in January after Adam Crozier stepped down at the end of June.

The firm said it is on track to deliver 25 million of cost savings and a 25 million reduction in its programme budget over the full year and signalled a strong slate of new and returning programmes including Victoria, Cold Feet, Liar and Im A Celebrity.
Chlorine-washed chickens will not be allowed to enter the UK market under any post-Brexit trade deal with the US, Environment Secretary Michael Gove has insisted.

The intervention came after International Trade Secretary Liam Fox said there was no health issue with the controversial practice.

Dr Fox, in Washington for talks with US trade representatives, said it was too early to comment on the specifics of a free trade agreement.

Intl Trade Sec @LiamFox has productive meeting with @SpeakerRyan discussing current and future UK-US trade relations pic.twitter.com/y32nWNtqJB  Department for International Trade (@tradegovuk) July 26, 2017

However, asked if chlorinated chickens would be allowed, his Cabinet colleague Mr Gove told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: No. I have made it perfectly clear, and indeed this is something on which all members of the Government are agreed, that we are not going to dilute our high animal welfare standards, or our high environmental standards, in pursuit of any trade deal.

Pressed on whether Britain would say no to a US free trade deal if America insisted on access for its farmers, the Cabinet minister said: Yes, critically, we need to ensure that we do not compromise those standards.

Mr Gove added: The Trade Secretary, quite rightly, pointed out that, of course, this issue is important, but we mustnt concentrate just on this one issue when we look at the huge potential that a trade deal can bring.

Michael Gove (Steve Parsons/PA)

Earlier Dr Fox said it was too early to comment on the specifics of a free trade agreement.

Asked about the practice of washing poultry carcasses in chlorinated water, he said: There is no health issue with that  the European Union has said that is perfectly safe.

The issue lies around some of the secondary issues of animal welfare and its perfectly reasonable for people to raise that but it will come much further down the road.

We will want to ensure that the scientific advice that we have ensures proper protection for British consumers because dropping our standards is not the way for Britain.

Chicken (Joe Giddens/PA)

His comments came after the House of Lords Energy and Environment sub-committee warned that animal welfare standards could be undermined if post-Brexit trade deals left UK farmers competing against less-regulated foreign rivals.

Meanwhile, Mr Gove insisted he favoured a pragmatic approach on the question of EU migrants coming to the UK in a transitional period after Brexit.

He said: Yes, ultimately, the important point is that we are leaving, and there will be a point when we are outside the European Union, and then fully outside, master of our own destiny when we have taken back the control of our laws and of our borders.

(Owen Humphreys/PA)

But, provided we know that we are going to get to that destination, then I will want to ensure that we take as pragmatic an approach as possible, consistent with ensuring that we have access to the talent that we need in agriculture and other areas, and that we also give business the confidence that it needs to plan.

Those comments came after Nigel Farage claimed the Tories have sold out their supporters and said Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn is offering a tougher line on free movement than the Government.

In what he described as the great Brexit betrayal, the former Ukip leader said those who voted to leave the European Union in last years referendum would feel cheated by a transitional Brexit deal.
US President Donald Trump is barring transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity.

Mr Trumps announcement on Twitter did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

The president tweeted that after consulting with Generals and military experts, the government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military.

At the Pentagon, members of the staff of defence secretary Jim Mattis appeared to have been caught unaware by Mr Trumps tweets.

A Pentagon spokesman, Navy Captain Jeff Davis, declined to answer questions about what Mr Trumps tweets mean for the current policy, including whether transgender people already serving in the military will be kicked out. Call the White House, he said.

There are already as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagons personnel system, according to several defence officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops currently serving. A Rand Corporation study estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Mr Trumps decision drew swift reaction from critics.

House minority leader Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, called the move a cruel and arbitrary decision designed to humiliate transgender Americans who stepped forward to serve our country.

Here's the link to our full 2016 report on the implications of allowing transgender personnel to serve openly: https://t.co/rt8KQ0WnjB  RAND Corporation (@RANDCorporation) July 26, 2017

Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-SLDN, which represents the LGBT population in the military, said thousands have been serving in the US armed forces without causing any issues.

Its an absolute absurdity and another overstep, Mr Thorn said. He threatened legal action if Wednesdays decision is not reversed.

Victoria Rodriguez-Roldan, director of the Trans/Gender Non-Conforming Justice Project, National LGBTQ Task Force, said Mr Trump has stood against the trans community with this decision and is harming lives for the sake of political gains.

69 years ago, President Truman desegregated the US Military. This morning, @POTUS turned anti-#trans prejudice into policy.  Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 26, 2017

The military is often the last resort for people who cant find jobs because of discrimination, Ms Rodriguez-Roldan said. She said the transgender community will not stop fighting for justice.

Some conservative organisations and politicians hailed the decision.

so, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people  but funds the F-35?  sounds like cowardice  #WeGotThis  Chelsea E. Manning (@xychelsea) July 26, 2017

Family Research Council president Tony Perkins applauded Mr Trump for keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nations military.

Iowa representative Steve King said Mr Trumps supporters will be happy to hear it. We dont need to be experimenting with the military. Plus theres no reason to take on that kind of financial burden.

I applaud the president for keeping his word to restore military priorities, ending the social experimentation that's crippled our military.  Tony Perkins (@tperkins) July 26, 2017

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former defence secretary Ash Carter ended the ban.

Since October 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagons personnel system.

Ash Carter (Stefan Rousseau/PA)

Mr Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military.

Mr Mattis announced earlier this month that he was giving military chiefs another six months to conduct a review to determine if allowing transgender individuals to enlist in the armed services would affect the readiness or lethality of the force.
Heathrows landing fees are likely to be frozen despite the building of a third runway, the airport has announced.

The west London hub said it is confident it can keep charges  passed on to passengers in ticket prices  near existing rates despite the expansion project by delaying the building of a new terminal.

The Department for Transport has said it expects the industry to drive down costs and aim to keep charges close to current levels.

Heathrow's landing fees are likely to be frozen despite the building of a third runway

A Heathrow spokesman said: We are confident that we can now meet that challenge.

Effectively well be able to expand the airport and passengers will continue paying what they pay today.

It was key for the Government that this gets done affordably, but also its been a key issue for our airline partners as well.

Heathrows half-year results show the airport increased turnover by 4.1% compared with the first six months of 2016, and recorded a profit after tax of 246 million.

Passenger numbers rose 3.9% to 37.1 million due to the use of larger, fuller aircraft.

Willie Walsh, the boss of British Airways parent company IAG, has repeatedly warned that expansion must be cheaper than the 17.6 billion budget estimated by the Government-commissioned Airports Commission.

Heathrow currently charges around 22 per passenger (Steve Parsons/PA)

He fears that landing fees could be raised and has insisted airlines are not going to pay for inefficient expansion.

Heathrow currently charges around 22 per passenger.

The airport said it has worked with carriers in a bid to develop an affordable strategy for building the third runway.

Although specific plans will not be released until a consultation is launched later this year, the airport is proposing to delay some of the more expensive aspects of the work.

Terminal capacity will initially be increased by modifying existing facilities rather than through new buildings.

The airport spokesman said: Its not necessarily that these things wont be built.

Its just that we can do some clever things to add additional capacity to our existing terminals up front.

We can get more passengers in to help spread the cost.
Two suspects are still at large after a man was shot and stabbed to death for his Rolex watch.

Police are hunting the thieves who rode up to Danny Pearce, 31, on a moped and launched a horrendous attack when he refused to hand over his property.

He had been on a night out with his girlfriend and was walking home from Olivers Jazz Club, in Greenwich, south-east London, when he was confronted by the two men on King William Walk at 12.15am.

CCTV of 2 suspects minutes before they launch a violent attack that resulted in a mans death. Can you help? Call 0208 721 4005/tweet @MetCC pic.twitter.com/DNlORv2txq  Metropolitan Police (@metpoliceuk) July 27, 2017

The men demanded Mr Pearce hand over his Silver Rolex Datejust 2 2017 Rolex watch, worth thousands of pounds.

When he refused to give in to their demands, one of the men chased and stabbed him with a large knife, while the second suspect started shooting at him with a handgun as he ran for his life.

The men only ceased their assault when Mr Pearces girlfriend shouted to tell them she would give them the watch if they stopped.

CCTV footage taken moments before the murder shows the men  both dressed in dark clothing and wearing helmets  at a Texaco petrol station in Creek Road.

Two suspects on mopeds

Metropolitan Police Detective Inspector Jo Sidaway said: The level of violence used against Danny was horrendous.

She added: Danny sought help at a nearby address but was fatally attacked by the suspects who showed no mercy and only stopped their attack when the victims girlfriend shouted out to them that she would give them the watch if they ceased their attack.

Without a hint of remorse they then took the watch and fled the scene in the direction of Nevada Street, SE10.

Mr Pearce, of Bromley, was pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics shortly after the attack on July 15.

Another view of a man police wish to speak to (Met Police/PA)

A post-mortem examination gave the cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

Ms Sidaway said investigations had led police to believe the suspects are also connected to two other robberies, one in Greenwich on July 11, and another in Southwark on July 13.

On both of those occasions individuals were targeted for their watches and threatened with weapons which were not used.
Controversy reigned at Yarmouth when it was discovered that the Charlie McBride-trained Mandarin Princess, winner of the opening two-year-old race, was in fact stablemate Millies Kiss.

The mistake was only discovered after the 50-1 outsider had overturned the 4-6 hot-pot Fyre Cay on her racecourse debut in the six-furlong novice auction stakes for juveniles.

Millies Kiss, a three-year-old with plenty of racecourse experience, was due to run in the nine-furlong handicap later on the card but was subsequently withdrawn.

Racecourse rails

Dramatic news - the 'winner' of Yarmouth's opener, 2yo Mandarin Princess, was in fact 3yo stablemate Millie's Kiss. More to follow... pic.twitter.com/nbmK7rpc8l  At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 27, 2017

A report issued by the British Horseracing Authority: The stewards held an inquiry to consider the circumstances surrounding the identification of the winner, Mandarin Princess, trained by Philip (Charlie) McBride, which was presented at the sampling unit for routine testing.

The scan identified the horse to be Millies Kiss, the trainers other runner in race four.

They interviewed the trainer, the stable groom, the veterinary officer and the equine welfare integrity officer responsible for the sampling unit.

BHA statement regarding the incident @GTYarmouthRaces involving Mandarin Princess



Link to stewards report here: https://t.co/pWDaJZBbx8 pic.twitter.com/2KLQgvUJft  British Horseracing Authority (@BHAHorseracing) July 27, 2017

Having heard their evidence they referred the matter to the head office of the British Horseracing Authority and ordered Millies Kiss to be withdrawn from race four.

Despite the wrong horse having won the race, the result is set to stand - for the time being.

Stipendiary steward Tony McGlone told At The Races: As all horses are, they are brought into the stables and they are scanned and are allocated into their boxes. These two horses, trained by Charlie McBride, were given a box each.

The Racecourse has been made aware of a report to the BHA regarding the winner of the first race, Stewards report:https://t.co/2XmMDMzcCu  Great Yarmouth Races (@GTYarmouthRaces) July 27, 2017

Mr McBride went over to the weighing room to collect the saddle and was slightly delayed collecting it. He rushed over.

The stable girl had taken the horse out of the stables and put it in the saddling boxes. Mr McBride put the saddle on, the horse ran, it won.

We then sent the horse for routine testing as per normal. The integrity officer scanned the horse and found it to be the wrong horse.

Racecourse commentator @tommoracing calls for greater accountability in aid of racegoers after events this afternoon at Yarmouth: pic.twitter.com/6SNIIjRtvi  At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 27, 2017

We have referred it to the British Horseracing Authority for further consideration. I think the BHA have got 14 days to lodge an objection to the winner.

Well obviously send a report from here and they will look into the matter.

The BHA issued the following statement: The incident at Great Yarmouth has been referred to the BHAs head office in order that we can carry out an investigation, in accordance with our rules.

"I can't believe what's happened" - Nicholas Quinn gives the punter's perspective to @SimonMapletoft after the wrong horse wins at Yarmouth: pic.twitter.com/98dQMW2Ijs  At The Races (@AtTheRaces) July 27, 2017

Since we introduced the microchipping identification system an incident such as this is, as far as we are aware, unprecedented.

The issue had not been established until after the result had been made official. After the weighed in has been declared on the racecourse, the result cannot be amended by the stewards.

The responsibility lies with the trainer to present and run the correct horse in the race. Having said that, and while we have not seen an incident of this nature in recent times, we will of course determine what steps need to be put in place to prevent it from happening again.

We sympathise with the betting operators and betting public who have potentially been affected by this incident.

A host of bookmakers are paying out on the second-past-the-post, Fyre Cay.

If you backed Fyre Cay @coral in the Yarmouth mix-up race, you will get paid out. Another fine mess, tweeted Coral spokesman David Stephens.

We're resettling the 1.40 Yarmouth as effectively 'Betting without Mandarin Princess'.



So if you backed Fyre Cay, you win. pic.twitter.com/6nQfMdFqor  Coral (@Coral) July 27, 2017

Also, bets placed on Mandarin Princess in the 1.40 Yarmouth will remain as winners.  Coral (@Coral) July 27, 2017

Paddy Power said: We are paying out on 2yo! Mandarin Princess and odds-on 2nd FyreCay in the 140 Yarmouth and voiding all losers.

Sky Bet tweeted: We are paying out on Mandarin Princess AND Fyre Cay in Yarmouths 4.10. Take Shelter has been settled as runner-up.
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China will provide Iraq with humanitarian aids, according to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in Baghdad on Wednesday.

Chinese ambassador Chen Weiqing and Iraqi Interior Minister Qasim al-Araji attended the signing ceremony of the MoU on economic and technical cooperation between both countries.

The aids provided by China will be used on implementation of humanitarian projects in Iraq.

Chen Weiqing congratulated Iraqi government for the victory in the fight against terrorism and said that Chinese government will encourage Chinese companies to participate in Iraq's post-war reconstruction.

Qasim al-Araji praised the good bilateral relations and said that Iraq appreciated the support of Chinese government and Chinese people.

Large part of territories in northern and western Iraq came under the control of extremist Islamic State group in 2014, including the second largest city Mosul.

On Oct. 17, 2016, Iraqi forces launched a major offensive to retake Mosul. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi formally announced the liberation of Mosul on July 10, 2017.

According to Iraqi government's statistics, nearly a million civilians were displaced during the battles for Mosul.
The Post Offices abandoned underground railway has a Mary Celeste quality ahead of its reopening, according to one of the attractions bosses.

Passengers will travel on a section of the 6.5-mile network 70ft below Londons streets when services resume on September 4, some 14 years after the last letter was carried by the railway.

The Mail Rail will be part of the new Postal Museum which opens its doors on Friday to provide an insight into the history of the postal service.

Visitors will descend into the railways former central London engineering depot and board a miniature train for a 20-minute journey through narrow tunnels.

Trains will stop at original Mount Pleasant sorting office station platforms, where audio-visual displays will show what it was like to work on the network.

The Postal Museums deputy director, Tim Ellison, told the Press Association: It has that slight Mary Celeste quality, as everybody walked out in 2003 and only now are people walking back in.

The railway was built in 1927 and stretched from Whitechapel in the east to Paddington in the west.

Between four and 12 million items of mail were conveyed through the tunnels each year.

Post Office designs of the past

Mr Ellison added: The network was driverless and completely electrified, which was way ahead of its time. Theres no other system quite like it in the world.

Exhibits at the Postal Museum include the sculpture of the Queen used to produce the image replicated more than 220 billion times on stamps, one of the few remaining sheets of the worlds first stamps  the Penny Black  and a gold Olympic post box.

Fifteen thousand tickets for the attraction have been sold in the first week since they became available.

The UKs postal service is close to peoples hearts, Mr Ellison said, adding: Its a vital service. We call it the worlds first social network.
The Duke of Cambridge has paid a personal tribute to the nations emergency services, speaking of his profound respect for its men and women, ahead of his final air ambulance pilot shift.

William also said he had been so proud to serve with his East Anglian Air Ambulance (EAAA) crew mates and colleagues and thanked the local community that funds and supports the charity.

His life as a full-time working royal will begin after his final shift ends at about midnight, with the expectation the future king will carry out more royal duties in support of the Queen and his own charity work and causes.

Prince William

Writing in the East Anglian Daily Times, William said: As part of the team, I have been invited into peoples homes to share moments of extreme emotion, from relief that we have given someone a fighting chance, to profound grief.

I have watched as incredibly skilled doctors and paramedics have saved peoples lives. These experiences have instilled in me a profound respect for the men and women who serve in our emergency services

Out of the many emergencies he has attended he highlighted two: One of the first call-outs I made was to a young man who had committed suicide; it was an incredibly tough day and had a profound effect on all of us, not least in my determination now to draw attention to this issue.

The Duke of Cambridge has arrrived @EastAngliAirAmb and is running Anglia One through its final checks as he commences his last shift. pic.twitter.com/lItEfn7anT  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) July 27, 2017

He also mentioned another young man involved in a road traffic accident: His uncle in the car with him sadly didnt survive, and I was sure that from what we were faced with he wouldnt either - but thanks to the skills of our medical team he is alive today.

We were first on scene and in such circumstances we all had to pitch in to fight to save the young mans life. It is days like this, when you know you have made a difference, that give you the determination to keep going.

William announced in January he would be leaving the EAAA and has clocked up more than two years flying medical crews to emergencies from a base at Cambridge Airport.

The Duke said his two years serving with this team of pilots and medics has given him the utmost respect for the emergency services. pic.twitter.com/P7bibthkkI  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) July 27, 2017

The Duke joined the organisation as a pilot in March 2015 and after completing an initial period of job specific training involving simulator, aircraft and in-flight skills training, he began piloting his first operational missions in July that year.

He has flown as part of a team including specialist doctors, critical care paramedics and pilots providing emergency medical services across Bedfordshire, Cambridgeshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Patrick Peal, EAAAs chief executive, said about the duke: To us, he has simply been another hard-working member of the team; one of eleven highly respected pilots who help us to save hundreds of lives each year.

The Duke of Cambridge on leaving @EastAngliAirAmb: pic.twitter.com/ch30YfS1OU  The Prince and Princess of Wales (@KensingtonRoyal) July 27, 2017

On his final day at work William will arrive for a night shift, and attend the handover briefings from the day team as usual.

He will then join his team-mates at the helicopter he has flown for the past two years for a group photograph.
Wayne Rooneys Everton return threatened to turn into embarrassment before captain Leighton Baines struck to give his side a slender first leg lead in their Europa League third qualifying round clash with Ruzemberok.

The Slovakian minnows hit the bar prior to Baines 65th minute intervention and almost grabbed an equaliser to take into next weeks second leg when substitute Milos Lacny missed a glorious chance late on.

Rooney had a handful of chances to mark his second competitive debut for his boyhood club with a goal, but there was no mistaking the frustration of a side who started with 100million of new signings in their starting line-up.

Everton

Third in last seasons Fortuna Liga, Ruzemberok had been expected to roll over but instead their quest to puncture Evertons mood of pre-season optimism is alive and well for next weeks trip to the Futbalovy Stadion.

There were no suggestions of the struggle to follow when Rooney and his fellow new boys were given a tumultuous welcome before kick-off, nor in the opening minutes in which the home side looked in cruise control.

Ruzomberok captain Dominik Kruzliak almost screwed an attempted clearance over the head of his keeper Matus Macik in a comical third minute opening, and for the most part of the first quarter-hour the visitors were pinned back.

Rooneys tireless work off the ball almost paid off in the 20th minute when he drifted unchallenged across the box to pick up a neat through-ball by Baines, before turning to fire a rising left-foot shot over the bar.

Rooney and the impressive Davy Klaassen would also have chances but Ruzomberok served a warning when Dalibor Takac fired just wide on a rare counter-attack.

The hosts frustration began to mount, with Cuco Martina completely mis-kicking from a central position and Idrissa Gueyes long-range effort easily held by Macik.

35' Klaassen, Rooney and Gana have gone close for the Blues, but it's still 0-0. #EFCmatchday ( @itvfootball) pic.twitter.com/KdPI0PxVzW  Everton (@Everton) July 27, 2017

Two blunders by Ashley Williams almost gifted the Slovakians the lead, first a mis-placed pass which handed Erik Daniel a clear shot which was well saved by Maarten Stekelenburg, then a second mistake which served up a chance for Peter Maslo.

And Ruzomberok were not finished after the break, causing another major scare in the 56th minute when Stekelenburg had to tip a Maslo header against the bar from a Takac free-kick.

The introduction of Sandro on the hour helped swing things in Evertons direction and Baines finally lifted the frustration five minutes later when he drilled home a heavily deflected shot from the edge of the box after the visitors only half-cleared a corner.

Kevin Mirallas was only denied a second for Everton 10 minutes later by a brilliant fingertip save from Macik and Ruzemberok will still fancy their chances in the return leg next week.
TAIPEI, July 27 (Reuters) - Taiwan has lodged a protest against Cambodia's decision to send suspects in a telecoms fraud scheme, including seven Taiwanese nationals, to China for investigation, the self-ruled island's foreign ministry said on Thursday.

Cambodia is one of China's closest allies in Southeast Asia and does not recognise Taiwan's government.

It sent four Taiwanese suspects to China on Wednesday night, Taiwan foreign ministry spokeswoman Eleanor Wang told a regular media briefing on Thursday. Another three remain in Cambodia,

Taiwan "expresses solemn concerns and deep regrets about its Taiwan nationals being sent to China", Wang said.

She said Taiwan had called on Cambodia to "truly guarantee our nationals' judicial rights and interests and access to assistance" and for the Taiwanese suspects to be sent back to Taiwan for investigation.

The ministry said last week there were seven Taiwanese nationals among a total of 31 suspects.

Cambodia's head of police investigation, Uk Heisela, told Reuters in Phnom Penh that a group of 17 suspects were sent to China on Wednesday night, and another group of 14 would be sent on Saturday.

"There is no Taiwanese national, they are all Chinese," he said on Thursday. "When we detained them, they didn't have any documents, China provided them with Chinese passports."

Cambodia deported 13 people from Taiwan to mainland China, where they were wanted on suspicion of telecoms fraud, last year despite opposition from Taipei, which accused Beijing of "abducting" its citizens.

China regards Taiwan as a wayward province and has never renounced the use of force to bring it under its control. China's Nationalists fled to the island after losing a civil war with the Communists in 1949. (Reporting by Jess Macy Yu in TAIPEI and Chan Thul Prak in PHNOM PENH; Editing by Paul Tait)
July 27 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Romanian financial markets on Thursday.

DEBT TENDER

Finance ministry plans to sell 300 million lei ($76.54 million) of March 2022 treasury bonds.

DEBT PLANS

The finance ministry might unveil August domestic debt issuance plans.

TAX PLAN

The Social Democrat-led government holds weekly meeting.

Prime Minister Mihai Tudose may unveil details of an assessment of a planned tax overhaul for 2018, including a cut in income tax to 10 percent from 16, and a move to cut social security contributions.

EU FOOD

Romania on Wednesday urged the European Union to address the "double standards" used by food companies in selling different products under identical labels in the bloc's eastern and western regions.

CITY COUNCIL

Capital Bucharest's city council put up for public debate only 10 of the 327 local legal initiatives it approved in the year since it took office, a study by civic rights groups Active Watch, CeRe and alternative tourism group OPTAR showed.

In addition to lack of transparency, the study found that the council, dominated by the ruling Social Democrats kickstarted very few investment projects to address traffic and social concerns.

CEE MARKETS

Central European currencies eased as the European Commission said it would start legal action against Poland over an overhaul of the judiciary that it says undermines the independence of judges.

TELECOMS

President Klaus Iohannis issued a reserve retirement decree for General Marcel Opris, head of the Country's Special Telecommunication Service STS.

VACCINATION

Romania needs to pass a vaccination law and overhaul medical services to prevent the spread of a measles outbreak that has already claimed 32 deaths, the most of any European country, the health ministry said late on Wednesday.

For the long-term Romanian diary, click on

For emerging markets economic events, click on

For an index of all diaries, click on

For other related news, double click on: --------------------------------------------------------------- Romanian equities RO-E E.Europe equities .CEE Romanian money RO-M Romanian debt RO-D Eastern Europe EEU All emerging markets EMRG Hot stocks HOT Stock markets STX Market debt news DBT Forex news FRX For real-time index quotes, double click on: Bucharest BETI Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX ---------------------------------------------------------------- ($1 = 3.9194 lei)
SOFIA, July 27 (Reuters) - These are some of the main stories in Bulgarian newspapers on Thursday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

-- The Bulgarian government approved a draft friendship treaty with Macedonia aimed at resolving years of dispute and tension. The treaty is expected to be signed on Aug. 1 in Skopje. (24 Chasa, Trud, 24 Chasa, Standart)

-- The Bulgarian government approved two memorandums of understanding with Macedonia aimed at building a natural gas link and railway between the two neighbouring countries. (24 Chasa, Trud, Sega, Monitor, Standart, Capital Daily)

24 CHASA - Bulgarian Bank for Development launches a 300 million euro credit programme aimed at supporting small and medium enterprises to apply European Union's Investment Plan for Europe, the so-called Juncker Plan. (24 Chasa)

-- The ruling centre-right GERB party withdrew proposals for legal changes to ban foreign financing for magistrates' associations after protests of non-governmental organisations. The move comes days after U.S. State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary Hoyt Yee expressed concerns over the changes. (24 Chasa, Sega, Duma)
BRATISLAVA, July 27 (Reuters) - Here are news stories, press reports and events to watch which may affect Slovak financial markets on Thursday. ALL TIMES GMT (Slovak Republic: GMT + 2 hours) =========================ECONOMIC DATA======================== Real-time economic data releases.................. Summary of economic data and forecasts......... Recently released economic data................ Previous stories on Slovak data.......... **For a schedule of corporate and economic events: http://emea1.apps.cp.thomsonreuters.com/Apps/CountryWeb/#/1C/events-overview ======================NEWS==================================== IMMIGRATION: The top European Union court's adviser on Wednesday dismissed a challenge brought by Slovakia and Hungary against the obligatory relocation of refugees across the bloc, dealing a blow to the easterners' migration battles that upset their EU peers. Story: Related stories: FOOD QUALITY: Romania on Wednesday urged the European Union to address the "double standards" used by food companies in selling different products under identical labels in the bloc's eastern and western regions. Story: Related stories: ======================PRESS DIGEST============================== OPINION POLL: Prime Minister Robert Fico's leftist party Smer would win an election with 26.4 percent of the vote, according to a Focus poll. However, the ruling coalition it leads would lose its parliamentary majority after a drop in support for a junior coalition member Slovak National Party. SME, page 3 (Reuters has not verified the stories, nor does it vouch for their accuracy.) For real-time stock market index quotes click in brackets: Warsaw WIG20 Budapest BUX Prague PX Main currency report TOP NEWS -- Emerging markets News editor of the day: Jason Hovet on +420 224 190 476 E-mail: prague.newsroom@thomsonreuters.com (Reporting by Prague Newsroom)
By Leigh Thomas and Crispian Balmer

PARIS/ROME, July 27 (Reuters) - France will nationalise the STX France shipyard to prevent an Italian firm taking majority control, the economy minister said on Thursday, triggering an angry response from Rome to President Emmanuel Macron's first big industrial policy decision.

As France's most avowedly pro-business leader in decades, few would have predicted the former investment banker's first big move in the corporate sector would be a nationalisation, even if the government says it will only be temporary.

However, his action, which added further strain to France's relationship with Italy, fits with the interventionist style of other postwar French leaders. It also crosses into the defence sector, where many national governments prefer to wield influence over ownership.

The Italian state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri had reached an agreement in May to pay 79.5 million euros ($93.20 million) for two-thirds of STX France, which is being sold because of the collapse of its South Korean parent, STX.

This week it rejected a French government proposal to settle for 50-50 ownership instead.

That prompted the French state, which had a minority stake, to exercise pre-emption rights to buy out other shareholders before those rights expire at the end of the month, in effect giving Paris more time to come up with another solution.

"This decision is in line with the economic strategy that we want to build with the president of the Republic and the prime minister," Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told a news conference.

"We want to free up France's exceptional productive capacities and protect our strategic interests," he said, adding that the 50-50 ownership offer was still on the table and that he would visit Rome on Tuesday.

While Italy's government warmly welcomed the election of Macron in May, viewing the pro-European centrist as someone who could help Rome on an array of issues, the STX move added to other decisions that have upset it.

Macron's talks this week with Libyan leaders irritated Rome, which had previously taken the lead in efforts to bring peace to its former North African colony, and was already disappointed by the new president's migration policies.

"INCOMPREHENSIBLE"

The STX nationalisation also goes to the heart of Italy's long-held view that French companies' acquisitions on its territory are a one-way street.

Italian Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan and Industry Minister Carlo Calenda called France's decision to nationalise the shipyard "grave and incomprehensible".

"Nationalism and protectionism are not an acceptable basis for establishing relations between two great European countries," they said in a joint statement.

The prospect of a Fincantieri takeover had raised fears in France about jobs at the Saint-Nazaire site, and the government was also concerned about the strategic importance of the yard, the only one in the country big enough to build aircraft carriers and other large warships.

"The Saint-Nazaire shipyards are not destined to remain under state control," Le Maire said. "The pre-emption decision is temporary and should give us the time to negotiate in the best conditions."

The decision, which was welcomed by French politicians of all political stripes, flies in the face of any expectations that Macron, who in his former post as economy minister sought to liberalise swathes of the economy, would break with the French state's tradition of intervention in business.

Even while economy minister, Macron forced through a shareholder vote that increased the government's power over carmaker Renault. Since becoming president in May, he has also forced carmakers to help fund a failing parts manufacturer. (Additional reporting by Myriam Rivet and Ingrid Melander; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - Japanese Defence Minister Tomomi Inada will resign, broadcaster NHK said on Thursday, after a series of missteps, gaffes and a suspected coverup that critics say contributed to a plunge in Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's support.

Inada, a conservative protege of Abe who was once floated as his possible successor, had already been expected to be replaced in a cabinet reshuffle planned for next month.

Inada in March launched a probe into media reports that defense officials had tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan, where Japanese troops were taking part in a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation. She has denied reports she was directly involved in the coverup. (Writing by Linda Sieg; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
By Elaine Lies and Stanley White

TOKYO, July 27 (Reuters) - Japan's embattled Defence Minister Tomomi Inada will resign on Friday over the suspected cover-up of information related to a U.N. peacekeeping mission and a former defence minister is already lined up to take her place, media said.

A spokeswoman at Inada's office on Thursday declined to comment on whether she would resign, which was first reported by broadcaster NHK.

Inada had launched an investigation into media reports that defence officials had tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan, where Japanese troops were taking part in a U.N.-led peacekeeping operation.

Inada will resign after Friday's publication of the results of the investigation to take responsibility for the affair, according to NHK.

Inada, a protege of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had denied reports of involvement in the cover-up but had been expected to be replaced in a cabinet reshuffle likely early next month because of the scandal, and a series of missteps that critics say contributed to a plunge in support for Abe.

Kyodo news agency said Abe was likely to choose as her successor somebody who had already served in the post, trying to project an image of stability as he battles a number of scandals.

Potential candidates include Itsunori Onodera, Kyodo said, who served as defence minister for nearly two years from 2012, when Abe returned to power, and is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands for the job.

The cover-up scandal has also led General Toshiya Okabe, chief of staff of the Ground Self Defence Forces, to decide to resign, media reported. A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment. (Reporting by Elaine Lies; Editing by Paul Tait and Clarence Fernandez)
ATHENS, July 27 (Reuters) - A ship an anti-migrant group planned to use as part of its campaign to protect Europe's shores from mass migration has been detained in Cyprus while the status of a group of Sri Lankans on board is being investigated.

Members of the Identarian movement, which says it wants to protect Europe's identity from mass immigration, last week said they had chartered the C-Star which would set sail towards the Libyan coast to monitor humanitarian operations there.

But the vessel was impounded en route to Italy in Cyprus, because of conflicting accounts of whether the Sri Lankans were trainees or migrants, several Turkish Cypriot sources said.

Five Sri Lankans on board have since sought asylum, human rights activists said.

At the port of Famagusta, Turkish Cypriot authorities were told that the 20 Sri Lankans had ended their training period and would be returning to Sri Lanka via Ercan airport in northern Cyprus.

But Faika Deniz Pasha, an associate of the Refugee Rights Association in Northern Cyprus told Reuters, that at the airport the Sri Lankans said they had paid money to be taken to Italy.

"They said they were not seamen and had paid something like 10,000 euros," she said.

Fifteen of them had left, but five said they did not wish to return to Sri Lanka and had asked for asylum, said Pasha, who said she was present at some of the encounters.

The Identarian movement, which calls its project 'Defend Europe', disputed that version of accounts.

It said NGOs had approached the trainees and 'offered them to stay in Europe and apply for asylum, in exchange for promises and money'.

"Fifteen apprentices refused, five accepted this act of bribery and are now making false accusations against the owner of the ship," it said in a statement.

The trainees were supposed to disembark in Egypt, but it was 'ultimately impossible', it said, without stating the reason.

The Identarian movement is tapping into growing unease, particularly in Italy, over immigration from North Africa.

Cyprus, an island about 100 km (60 miles) at its closest point from war-ravaged Syria, has barely been affected by the hundreds of thousands on the move over the past three years. (Reporting By Michele Kambas and Ece Toksabay; Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Jeffrey Moyo

NORTON, Zimbabwe, July 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - J abulani Zilawe lost all 11 of his children to AIDS. Now he is the only one left to care for their orphans.

"This has become my life - with my grandchildren. All their parents died. AIDS killed them. I had 11 children, six of them were girls who had moved to South Africa to seek better life, but they all came back dead - one after the other," Zilawe told the Thomson Reuters Foundation as he surveyed his small grandchildren scrabbling around him.

Zilawe lives in a dilapidated homestead just outside Norton, a town lying 40 kilometers outside Harare, the Zimbabwean capital.

His bedroom is a thatched mud hut that sits near 12 mounds marking the remains of his wife and children.

"My sons, who became illegal gold miners, also suffered from AIDS before they died. You can see the graves here; the additional one belongs to my wife, who also died some two years ago, leaving me to look after our orphaned grandchildren," said the 76-year-old grandfather, as he craned skywards for more sun.

Nearby, a scattering of his grandchildren wrestled over a pot of leftover porridge. None is in school; instead, like their grandfather, each child passes the day at the homestead, idling and seeking a spot to bask in the sunshine.

Some of the little ones fall ill - regularly, said Zilawe, who didn't know if any carried the virus that had killed their parents.

"I dont know anything about my grandchildrens HIV status; maybe they have the disease or maybe not," said Zilawe.

OLD AND ILL

His life is tough. Yet many other Zimbabweans in Zilawe's age bracket are not just care-givers but are also coping with AIDS diagnoses of their own.

"Its sad. Its worrying when you look at the rate of HIV/AIDS amongst aged persons here. The percentage of elderly persons aged 60 years and above living with HIV is around 15.3 percent," said Marck Chikanza, national coordinator of the National Age Network of Zimbabwe (NANZ), an organisation that caters for older people's needs.

NANZ said more than 115,000 older people are living with HIV and AIDS in Zimbabwe, one in ten of the 1.2 million Zimbaweans who the United Nations says are living with HIV/AIDS.

"There has been a decline in the rate of people living with HIV across all age groups except in the 50+ age group where there has been a rise from 13.8 percent to around 14.3 percent," said Tadiwa Pfupa-Nyatanga of the NAC organisation, which coordinates the government's response to HIV/AIDS.

According to 2016 official statistics, about 185,000 AIDS-orphaned Zimbabwean children are living under the guardianship of their grandparents. Men like Zilawe, who struggle to cope.

"Most aged persons here hardly have the capacity to produce nor buy food on their own. And most of the orphaned kids they look after are far too young to be working to produce food for their families. And the burden, at the end of the day, rests with the grandparents - who, in a true sense, are also dependents," Anatalia Mabeza, who chairs an HIV/AIDS support group in Norton, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

CRY FOR HELP

Some orphaned children say their grandparents offer little or no medical help for the health problems they inherited.

"I was openly told by my mother before she died that I was born with the HIV/AIDS condition, but now as I live with my grandmother, who is in her sixties, she has never bothered to monitor my condition," said Lillian Muranda, 14, who lives in Caledonia informal settlement, 25 kilometers east of Harare.

"She tells me I was bewitched, but Im always ill and absent from school most of the time," Muranda told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

As Muranda delved deeper into the bewitching story, her grandmother stepped in sharply to intervene:

"Why do you bother her? You news men are very bad. You want to rule out witchcraft from my granddaughter's illness. Leave us," ordered Agnes Muranda.

Superstitious beliefs like this hinder government efforts to combat AIDS, and even if a grandparent has good information and plenty of intent, it doesn't mean that help will follow.

"We have no means to support our AIDS-orphaned grandchildren besides the treatment drugs they receive from government health care centres. What we can only do is to make sure they take their medication. Remember, we are also victims of a failing economy and there are also many amongst aged persons who are living with HIV," said Jonathan Mandaza, who chairs the Zimbabwe Older Persons' Organisation.

As Zilawe sees it, he is shunned as an ageing irrelevance yet is left to pick up the pieces of his children's lost lives.

"As older persons, we are not consulted on HIV and AIDS issues, yet there is also a strong misconception that sex matters dont concern us. As such, access points for condoms and other HIV/AIDS services only favour younger people, leaving us out," said Zilawe. (Editing by Lyndsay Griffiths. Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org to see more stories.)
By Roli Srivastava

MUMBAI, July 27 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - India's financial capital Mumbai - often known as the city of opportunities - has emerged as a major destination for global sex trafficking with girls from distant countries being trafficked to the city, officials said on Thursday.

At an international conference on the trafficking of women and girls in Mumbai, officials announced more robust policing and plans to invoke a stringent Indian law against organised crime to snare traffickers.

"Earlier, girls were being trafficked to Mumbai from the poorer states of India and also from Bangladesh, Nepal and Myanmar," said Vijaya Rahatkar, chair of Maharashtra State Women's Commission, that organised the Mumbai conference along with anti-trafficking charity International Justice Mission.

"Now girls from Philippines, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan are being brought to Mumbai," Rahatkar told the Thomson Reuters Foundation on the sidelines of the conference attended by delegates from countries battling trafficking including Ghana, Kenya and Bolivia.

The western state of Maharashtra, India's second most populous state with Mumbai as its capital, has for years been a major destination of sex trafficking victims who are lured with the promise of jobs but sold into sex slavery or domestic servitude.

Campaigners said this was the one of the first times India had addressed the issue publicly, gathering representatives from other Indian states and countries to learn about their strategies to combat trafficking.

The Maharashtra Director General of Police, Satish Mathur, said each of the state's 36 districts would now have an anti-trafficking unit supervised by a senior officer, up from 12 units currently.

Using more stringent laws - specifically the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act - to prosecute traffickers is also under consideration and tougher punishments under the law may act as a deterrent.

Mathur said trafficking could qualify as an organised crime if links between the procurer, seller, buyer and the person or the gang enjoying the profits from the crime are established.

Maharashtra has been reviving task forces that were set up to tackle trafficking and working on defunct agreements with neighbour countries such a Bangladesh to send their girls who were sex trafficked home.

"We used to think that the poor and vulnerable are the only victims but now after the penetration of the internet and communication systems, human trafficking is at the doorstep of every family," said Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis. (Reporting by Roli Srivastava @Rolionaroll; Editing by Ros Russell. Please credit Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, womens rights, trafficking, property rights, climate change and resilience. Visit news.trust.org)
July 27 (Reuters) - Total

* Total's Chief Finance Officer (CFO) Patrick de la Chevardiere told analysts in a call following the company's second quarter results that it was making good progress on its final investments decisions (FID) on several projects

* De la Chevardiere said Total was evaluating commercial bids for Brazil's Libra project, FID expected by the end of the year. It said in February that it planned to make FIDs on about 10 projects by August 2018.

* De la Chevardiere said need to see higher oil price before eliminating discount on scrip dividend scheme.

* The CFO said first oil from Angola's Kaombo project expected around March-April 2018, while Australia Ichthys LNG project was making steady progress.

* He said very little capital was employed in the Qatar Al Shaheen deal and the investment would be recovered quickly.

* He said in short term, Total "does not see any reason which could explain higher oil prices."

* Asked about the geopolitical impact of dispute between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he said both countries were pragmatic and the Saudis knew, and gave Total the go-ahead, before it signed a major gas deal with Iran.

* Source text for Eikon: Further company coverage: (Reporting by Bate Felix; Editing by Gus Trompiz)
By Padraic Halpin

DUBLIN, July 27 (Reuters) - Ireland is confident that other foreign lenders will follow Bank of America and relocate their broker-dealer services to Dublin after Brexit, the head of the agency competing to win foreign business said.

Bank of America last week became the first Wall Street lender to pick Dublin as the new base for its European Union operations as banks start to lay out plans for how they intend to continue to serve clients after Britain leaves the bloc.

Securing a broker-dealer - the division where most market trading is conducted - was a major boost for Dublin which is seeking to add more front office activity to a financial centre more associated with back office functions such as settling transactions.

"There are definitely more to be decided still," IDA Ireland's Chief Executive Martin Shanahan told Reuters in a telephone interview on Thursday, adding that he was optimistic that one or more broker-dealers would end up in Ireland.

International banks are planning to set up subsidiaries in the EU to ensure they can trade unimpeded if their London operations lose the ability to operate across all member states once Britain leaves in March 2019.

Frankfurt and Dublin are emerging as early winners for banks' post-Brexit operations.

U.S. banks Citigroup Inc. and Morgan Stanley have both picked Frankfurt as bases for their broker-dealers, although Citi said it would also increase its already sizable footprint in Dublin as part of its expansion in other EU cities.

JPMorgan Chase & Co plans to hire a significant number of people in Dublin in its expanding custody and funds service, while Barclays is talking with regulators about extending its activities in the city.

Shanahan said he was confident that there was more to come across the sector for Ireland, particularly as banks seek to operate with a "more distributed model" rather than favouring one jurisdiction for all activities moving out of London.

"All three of the announcements were extremely positive from a signalling perspective. They are big brands who have chosen Ireland, that can only be positive," Shanahan said.

"There is a lot still to play out in this, we are still at the early stages. I think we can expect to see more announcements right through Q3." (Reporting by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Susan Fenton)
By David Alire Garcia

MEXICO CITY, July 27 (Reuters) - Mexico's state run oil company, Pemex, on Thursday reported a 32.8 billion peso ($1.8 billion) second-quarter profit, helped by higher sales and lower financial costs.

It was the oil giant's third straight quarter in the black, and it previously reported three continuous profitable quarters in 2006.

Revenue at the company, officially Petroleos Mexicanos, jumped to nearly 322.5 billion pesos in the quarter, up 26 percent from 255.7 billion last year.

During the quarter, the average price for Mexico's crude export mix rose to $42.80 per barrel from $36.59 a year earlier.

"Our net accumulated positive result of 121 billion pesos during the first half of this year is a clear signal that we've improved; our finances are on the right path," said Juan Pablo Newman, the chief financial officer, on a call with analysts.

Crude exports were up 4.3 percent during the quarter to reach about 107,000 barrels per day (bpd).

Total crude production for the quarter, however, averaged 2.013 million bpd, down 7.5 percent compared to output during the same period last year.

Pemex hit peak crude output in 2004 with 3.4 million bpd.

Meanwhile, natural gas output fell about 12 percent during the quarter to average 4.336 billion cubic feet per day.

On the plus side, the company reported higher financial income and lower financial costs during the quarter.

Crude processing at the company's six domestic refineries stood at 905,000 bpd in the quarter, a level described as "relatively stable" despite being far bellow the plants' processing capacity.

Company officials reiterated that the Salina Cruz refinery, Pemex's biggest, will resume operations on July 30 following an explosion and flooding that forced it offline last month.

Prior to revising its fourth-quarter earnings report last year, which originally showed a loss, the company had suffered a five-year stretch of losses amid a dozen years of declining crude production and a global slump in oil prices since late 2014.

Pemex's total tax bill for the quarter stood at 100 billion pesos, up 47 percent compared to the 68 billion pesos in taxes the company paid in the previous April to June period.

Long a major source of tax revenue for the government, Pemex now contributes less than a fifth of federal revenue, down from more than a third a few years ago. ($1 = 18.143 Mexican pesos on June 30) (Additional reporting by Michael O'Boyle and Adriana Barrera; editing by Steve Orlofsky)
By Andrea Shalal

BERLIN, July 27 (Reuters) - Germany's defence ministry on Thursday defended the performance of its Tiger helicopters as part of a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali amid indications that Wednesday's deadly crash of one of the aircraft was due to technical factors.

Two crew members were killed when one of Germany's four Tiger helicopters crashed in the West African nation's desert north on Wednesday, but there were no signs that it was downed by an attack, German officials said.

It was the first deadly accident involving Germany's Tiger helicopters. Two crew members escaped with minor injuries during an earlier crash in 2013 during a training flight in Bavaria. There was no indication that the two crashes were related.

The Tiger helicopters, which first began flying in Mali earlier this year, required extra maintenance given the high heat and other environmental conditions, but had been completing all tasks required by the United Nations, a ministry spokesman said. He said the helicopters had been performing well.

A team of 15 German military officials was due to arrive in Mali late on Thursday to search for the flight data recorder from the crashed helicopter which went down suddenly with no distress call, according to military officials.

A ministry report submitted to parliament in November showed the total fleet of 27 German Tiger helicopters had a readiness of just 44 percent. But it said the aircraft hit readiness rates of 90 percent during a deployment to Afghanistan for 18 months in 2012 and 2013.

One source familiar with the issue said readiness rates had been similar, if not quite as high in Mali, but gave no details.

The manufacturer, Airbus, said it was supporting the German army in its investigation, but declined to provide any additional comment.

Germany agreed to deploy the four Tiger and four NH-90 transport helicopters to Mali earlier this year after the Dutch military said it could not continue the work.

But Germany's increased support was heavily debated in parliament, and required a waiver from the German military allowing the helicopters to operate in higher temperatures.

Heat was likely not a factor in the accident, however, since the temperature on Wednesday was around 36 degrees Celsius, below normally accepted levels, the source said.

The German military grounded the Tiger fleet for routine flights, and said it would decide on urgent missions on a case-by-case basis. Military officials said such a grounding was standard procedure in the event of aircraft accidents.

Thomas Oppermann, head of the centre-left Social Democrats in parliament, said: "Only when we know the exact reason and circumstances can we draw the necessary consequences." (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Mark Weinraub

CHICAGO, July 27 (Reuters) - U.S. wheat futures rose on Thursday, led by gains in MGEX spring wheat contracts, supported by results from a tour that illustrated the damage done to the crop in a key growing area, traders said.

Corn and soybeans were also higher as uncertainty over the impact of dryness in parts of the U.S. Midwest underpinned prices despite rainfall and milder temperatures this week.

Traders also noted bargain buying following declines in corn and wheat that pushed those commodities to July lows earlier this week.

MGEX spring wheat for September delivery was up 6-1/2 cents at $7.36-1/2 a bushel. Chicago Board of Trade September soft red winter wheat futures were 2 cents higher at $4.79-3/4 a bushel.

The 2017 U.S. hard red spring wheat crop was projected to yield 38.1 bushels per acre (bpa), scouts on the Wheat Quality Council's annual crop tour said on Thursday, down from the tour's 2016 forecast of 45.7 bpa and the tour's prior five-year average of 46.8 bpa.

"The premium due to the threat to spring wheat had come off a little in the last few weeks as people realized major downgrades would alter the supply and demand fundamentals, though the crop tour has propelled the issue back into focus," National Australia Bank agribusiness economist Phin Ziebell said.

CBOT December corn futures were 1-3/4 cents higher at $3.87-3/4 a bushel and CBOT November soybeans were up 7-1/4 cents at $10.07-1/2 a bushel.

"(There was) less rain than hoped for in Iowa, with not much (expected) the rest of the week," Kevin Stockard, market analyst at CHS Hedging, said in a note to clients. "Traders (are) looking for a reason to buy near recent lows."

Traders continued to closely monitor U.S. weather as both corn and soybean crops are in key development periods.

"Iowa, southern Minnesota, Nebraska, and Upper Midwest look to stay dry through early August; cool temperatures will slow moisture loss, but threats to U.S. corn and soybean yields remain," Thomson Reuters Agriculture Research analysts said in a daily update. (Additional reporting by Colin Packham in Sydney and Gus Trompiz in Paris; Editing by Jonathan Oatis and Chris Reese)
By Marcin Goettig and Pawel Sobczak

WARSAW, July 27 (Reuters) - Poland's ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party is sticking to its flagship plans for "radical" reform of the judiciary, despite seeing two bills vetoed by the president this week, PiS head Jaroslaw Kaczynski said on Thursday.

Kaczynski, who holds no government post but is widely seen as Poland's de facto leader, also promised legislation to reduce the concentration of ownership in private media, in the face of what was likely to be "strong resistance".

In his first public comments since President Andrzej Duda's veto of two bills designed to give the government direct influence over the make-up of the Supreme Court, he told TV Trwam in an interview that Duda had made a "very serious mistake", but the focus needed to be on how to proceed.

"This means there will be a reform, a radical reform ... Partial reform won't change anything," Kaczynski said, without saying exactly what he planned to do.

PiS argues that the courts are too slow and unaccountable to the people, and tainted with communist-era thinking. Duda had said he will present his own versions of the bills within two months.

"The president has clearly said that he wants to take the initiative here and under no circumstances will we disturb him in this," Kaczynski said.

The European Commission on Wednesday announced fresh legal action against Poland because it said the reforms would undermine the independence of judges and break EU rules, accusations denied by Warsaw.

The Commission gave Poland a month to respond to its concerns for the rule of law, warning that it may start an Article 7 censure process. This could eventually lead to Poland's voting rights being suspended, if all the other 27 member states agree.

MEDIA THE NEXT TARGET

Kaczynski, whose eurosceptic, nationalist-minded party has alienated much of the liberal urban population since coming to power in 2015, but remains popular among its core small-town voters, dismissed the threat.

"We will wait this month out. In the second phase of this procedure, a unanimous position is needed. And I am convinced that it will not be achieved," Kaczynski said. "These are attempts to exert psychological pressure."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has promised to block any such move, to defend Poland against an EU "inquisition".

Kaczynski also said PiS planned to reduce the concentration of ownership in Poland's private media sector.

"With respect to big reforms, then with all certainty we have the issue of reducing concentration in the media. There will also be very strong resistance here," Kaczynski said.

Foreign-owned firms such as German publisher Axel Springer , Swiss-based Ringier and the U.S. firm Scripps Network Interactive, which owns Poland's biggest private television network, TVN, have a large presence in Poland.

There are also private Polish-owned broadcasters such as Polsat, controlled by one of Poland's richest men, Zygmunt Solorz-Zak.

Since coming to power, the PiS has not only increased government influence over courts but also brought prosecutors and state media under direct government control and introduced some restrictions on public gatherings. (Writing by Marcin Goettig; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
By Riham Alkousaa

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) - Britain pressed Syria and its ally Russia on Thursday to allow access to humanitarian aid in the war-torn country as a senior U.N. official told the Security Council that aid convoys had not been able to reach 540,000 people in besieged areas during July.

"We're not asking for humanitarian access as a favor. We're asking for it because it's a legal and moral obligation," Britain's U.N. Ambassador Matthew Rycroft told reporters. Russia should use its influence over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to ensure access to aid, he said.

Syrian U.N. Ambassador Bashar Ja'afari accused U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres of slandering the Syrian government in his monthly report to the Security Council on aid access.

"Humanitarian aid convoys very often go to armed terrorist groups instead of reaching the Syrian people who need them. This only aggravates the crisis, it only encourages terrorists who use civilians as human shields," Ja'afari told the council.

The deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Michele Sison, responded: "The Syrian government continues to terrorize the Syrian people and cause unimaginable suffering."

Fourteen Geneva-based ambassadors, including the United States, Britain and France, have sent a letter to the Security Council to demand that it take action to ensure aid convoys reach millions of needy Syrians.

The 15-member council has long been divided on how to end the war, with Russia - backed by China - pitted against the United States, France, Britain. Those five countries are veto-wielding Security Council members.

Russia has vetoed eight resolutions on Syria to shield Assad's government from action, including a referral of the situation in Syria to the International Criminal Court for a possible investigation into war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity. China has backed Russia to veto six resolutions.

The humanitarian situation in many parts of Syria remains extremely difficult, said deputy U.N. aid chief Ursula Mueller, despite a deal in May by Russia, Turkey and Iran to establish several de-escalation zones to allow access to aid.

"There have been no convoys to besieged areas in July," Mueller said.

Obstacles included lack of approvals, lack of facilitation letters by the Syrian government and administrative delays, as well as insecurity and fighting, she told the council. (Reporting by Riham Alkousaa; Editing by Frances Kerry)
GENEVA, July 27 (Reuters) - Pakistan must address a catalogue of human rights failings including state-sponsored abductions and a death penalty that amounts to torture, but its national watchdog is muzzled, the U.N. Human Rights Committee said on Thursday.

Human Rights Minister Kamran Michael defended Pakistan's record before the committee earlier this month, but members of the committee said his delegation had given few responses to their questions and very general answers.

They were also concerned at a no-show by the chairman of Pakistan's National Commission for Human Rights, who was allegedly barred from travelling to Geneva to meet them and was not able to probe wrongdoing, they said.

"The Commission is prevented from fully cooperating with United Nations human rights mechanisms, cannot inquire into the practices of the intelligence agencies, and is not authorized to undertake full inquiries into reports of human rights violations by members of the armed forces," the U.N. committee report said.

Pakistani officials in Islamabad could not immediately be reached for comment on the committee's findings.

At the top of a long list of human rights concerns were Pakistan's renewed use of the death penalty, its blasphemy laws, and "enforced disappearances" and extrajudicial killings.

Enforced disappearances, seen in tribal areas and Baluchistan for the past 15 years, have become widespread across Pakistan, committee member Olivier de Frouville told reporters.

"This is an admitted fact even within the country that this is carried out by agents of the state," he said, adding that the government's own investigations were insufficient.

A high number of people were allegedly in secret detention in military internment centres, the committee's report said. Killings were allegedly perpetrated by the police, military and security forces but there was no law explicitly against such practices.

The committee also lambasted Pakistan's widespread use of hanging since it lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in 2014, following an attack on a school in which more than 150 people, mainly children, were killed.

Death sentences were passed on mentally disabled people and suspects who were minors at the time of the crime, and the method of execution amounted to torture.

"There have been reports of botched executions, failed executions, with grave consequences on physical integrity," de Frouville said.

Pakistan has executed 468 prisoners since 2014 and has 1,500 people on death row, the report said.

Capital punishment was mandatory under blasphemy laws, which often led to false accusations and "mob vengeance", the committee said, calling for those laws to be repealed. (Reporting by Tom Miles; Additional reporting by Saad Sayeed in Islamabad; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
By Anthony Boadle

BRASILIA, July 27 (Reuters) - With a spreadsheet listing undecided lawmakers, Brazilian President Michel Temer is working the phones to nail down support to block a corruption charge in a crucial congressional vote next week that will decide his political future, close aides said.

The lower house will decide on Wednesday whether Temer should be put on trial by the Supreme Court for allegedly taking bribes from the world's largest meatpacker, JBS SA.

Even though Temer is widely expected to survive the vote, the country's top prosecutor has said he will file at least two more graft-related charges against Temer in coming weeks.

Wednesday's vote will be a gauge of how much support the unpopular president has to press ahead with reform of the costly pension system that is needed to overcome Brazil's fiscal crisis and help Latin America's largest economy out of deep recession.

Temer is taking no chances.

The Contas Abertas watchdog group, citing Finance Ministry data, says he has freed up funding for lawmakers' districts at an unprecedented rate to secure their support to bury the corruption charges, with outlays soaring to 4.2 billion reais ($1.33 billion) since June, compared to just 100 million reais in the first five months of this year.

Some members of his governing coalition, including his closest ally the Brazilian Social Democracy Party (PSDB) are split over whether it is time to abandon the corruption-plagued president even if they fully back his economic policies.

"Last week we had 261 lawmakers for Temer and 171 against him," said Beto Mansur, the government's deputy whip in the lower chamber, who said he handed the president a computer spreadsheet with the names of the 80 undecided politicians. "He managed by phone to convince 20 to vote for him."

"We have to win with a large margin to show Brazilian society that the charges are not a threat to Temer, so we can put this behind us and get on with the pension reforms and other economic measures Brazil needs," Mansur told Reuters.

Under Brazil's constitution, two-thirds of the lower house deputies (342 of 513) must vote in favor of the charge for it to proceed to the Supreme Court, which in turn must rule on whether to go ahead with a trial. Temer would be suspended for 180 days pending the outcome of a trial.

The corruption scandal has undermined the scant popularity Temer had, making it harder for lawmakers to support him ahead of next year's elections. A poll published on Thursday showed his government's approval rating fell to just 5 percent, and 87 percent of those surveyed say they do not trust him.

In Temer's presidential offices, staffers are worried but confident the government has the votes to prevail.

"We have 280 votes for sure, and could pass 300. Any absences among lawmakers will help the president," Marco de Freitas, Temer's chief spokesman, said in an interview.

"The charge lacks enough proof to put a president on trial. And the other charges are even less solid," he said.

Several lawmakers, however, have told Reuters the next votes on two additional charges Prosecutor General Rodrigo Janot plans to file, including racketeering and obstruction of justice, will be a closer call for Temer due to the media spotlight shining on them and the proximity of an approaching election year.

Temer will meet with dozens of lawmakers on Monday and Tuesday when Congress returns from recess to press his case on the eve of the vote, de Freitas said.

Political analyst Thiago de Aragao expects a cabinet reshuffle after the vote to reward coalition parties that most solidly backed Temer and consolidate the president's realigned political base to move forward with his reform agenda.

"The question is will the Temer government have the power it had in May, before the JBS scandal, to pass pension reform, or will it have to water down the bill with more concessions," said Aragao, partner at Brasilia consultancy ARKO Advice. ($1 = 3.1504 reais) (Reporting by Anthony Boadle; Editing by James Dalgleish)
By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS, July 27 (Reuters) - Qatar's foreign minister on Thursday accused Arab states of violating international law in their boycott of the country and described the United Nations as the "right place" for Doha to seek options to overcome measures imposed against it.

Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Bahrain severed relations with Qatar on June 5, accusing the major gas-exporting Gulf state of financing terrorism and cozying up to their arch-rival Iran. Doha denies the charges.

The four states have cut air and sea links with Qatar and sanctioned dozens of groups and individuals. The United Arab Emirates said on Saturday that Doha needed to change its policies before a dialogue could take place.

"The entire campaign represents a series of violations of international law," Qatar Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani told reporters after meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

"The state of Qatar is not going to spare any effort in order to overcome those violations and try to solve it through the right channels. The United Nations is the right platform to start from," he said without giving further details.

UAE Ambassador to the United Nations Lana Nusseibeh said the measures taken were "entirely legal, justified and proportionate" and accused Qatar of grave violations.

"We hope to see a diplomatic solution at the regional level through genuine engagement from their side," she told Reuters, adding that the United Nations has an important role to play in countering terrorism and that the countries would keep Guterres and the Security Council updated.

In June, Qatar asked the Montreal-based U.N. aviation agency to intervene after its Gulf neighbors closed their airspace to Qatar flights.

While Egypt last week accused Qatar of adopting a "pro-terrorist" policy that violated U.N. Security Council resolutions and described it as "shameful," that the 15-member body has not held Qatar accountable.

Any push to impose U.N. sanctions would likely be difficult as it needs either consensus approval behind closed doors by the Security Council or a vote on a resolution, which would need nine votes in favor and no vetoes.

Efforts by Kuwait to mediate in the dispute have so far yielded little progress.

The boycotting countries want Qatar to cut back ties with Iran, close a Turkish military base in Qatar and shut the Al Jazeera TV channel.

"We want to solve this issue by dialogue and we are not willing to escalate and they need to retreat from all their legal actions," said Al-Thani, who also met with U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson in Washington on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols)
WASHINGTON, July 27 (Reuters) - Former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to release him from a Florida jail while he fights Panama's efforts to extradite him.

Martinelli was jailed last month in a federal detention center in Miami after Panama asked the United States to extradite him on charges that he conducted illegal surveillance and stole state funds while president -- charges he has repeatedly denied.

Attorneys for Martinelli filed an emergency petition with the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday seeking his release while he fights extradition, after a federal magistrate judge in Florida denied his request to be freed on bail and 24-hour monitoring.

Panamanian authorities accuse Martinelli of using public money to spy on more than 150 people, including politicians, activists and union members. The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The supermarket magnate was arrested in June, almost eight months after Panama said it sent an extradition request to the U.S. State Department.

Martinelli, who was president from 2009 until 2014, fled Panama in January 2015 to the United States as government prosecutors stepped up an investigation into his term. Since then Martinelli has lived in a condo in Miami until his arrest by U.S. authorities last month.

Current President Juan Carlos Varela helped Martinelli win the presidency in 2009 and was his vice president.

In 2015, Reuters reported that a U.S. federal judge identified Martinelli as one of several alleged co-conspirators in a bribery scheme that helped software company SAP win millions of dollars of business with his government. The United States has not charged Martinelli and he has denied involvement with the scheme.

In an interview on Thursday, David Markus, an attorney for Martinelli, acknowledged it is unusual to seek intervention from the Supreme Court, without first appealing to lower courts.

But the motion would stand little chance in district or appeals courts, said Markus, which have almost always ruled against granting bail to those facing extradition -- a stance the attorney said is based on a misreading of the law.

"Only (the Supreme) Court can resolve the confusion at this point", Markus said in the motion.

Markus said the legal precedent against allowing bail in extradition cases is from a century-old ruling when "the world was a much bigger place."

"This was before GPS monitoring. This is a former president. It's not that he can go and hide somewhere," Markus said. (Reporting by Joel Schectman in Washington and Christine Murray in New York; Editing by Lisa Shumaker)
For obvious reasons, the government wants to convince us that its enemies and friends are also the peoples. Obvious, because in equalising the one with the other we are on firm ground. Obvious, because if my enemy is your enemy, the world is easier to simplify, and the decision by an official body is easier to rationalise. Obvious, because if you kill your enemy and he or she happens to be my enemy as well, everything becomes a whole lot easier to sweep under the carpet. That is how totalitarian dictatorships work. And to an extent, that is also how democracies work.



When a movement, an ideology, or an individual is hard to define, harder to oppose or support on the political plane, he or she or it is portrayed rather ambivalently by the government and the opposition. Much of the hype around the SAITM crisis (born of the previous regime), for instance, can be rooted in how we, the people, and those whom we have elected vilify or valorise the student movement. The government is suffering from a headache due to that movement. The Joint Opposition is having a field day. Lahiru Weerasekara is, on that count, a contemporary Rohana Wijeweera to both sides. He is a hero to the State University student population regardless of their politics, a convenience to the JO, and a pain to the government.



If theres anything that can aggravate a social ill beyond its limits, its ambivalence. Ambivalence in negotiation and agreement, in identification and resolution, in diagnosis and prognosis. It was ambivalence which prolonged a conflict which could have been easily done away with to a 30-year war. It was ambivalence which took away 100,000 lives within three years, far greater than the number killed in that civil war. And it was ambivalence which led us to this cul-de-sac between private and public education. Weerasekara is the perfect symbol of all that. He is despised by those who hate him and only mildly liked by those who hate his opponents.

Our political culture has thrived on rhetoric for too long. We are awed by what our leaders say, and then get tired of finding out that what they say isnt what they do.

Popular culture has worsened this cul-de-sac. But then thats to be expected. Popular culture knows how to distort reality to achieve its arbitrary ends. This isnt something particular to Sri Lanka only, after all even the United States of America suffers from it when it comes to its own president, depicted on the one hand as a harbinger against elitism by the same people who oppose him, and on the other as a populist demagogue whos hiding that same elitism he rants against (in both instances, he sells). But we are a small country, small enough for even the smallest act of ambiguity to spell out drastic consequences. Which is why, when the ruckus over SAITM is spelt out in vague terms, we should be wary of those consequences.



And its not just the SAITM crisis, of course. Just look at how we are handling our PR when it comes to the international community. On the one hand, we have a set of representatives who seem to be conceding to the process of capitulation we are giving into with respect to institutions skewed against us. On the other hand, you have another set of representatives, sometimes even from the same political party, lambasting (mildly or otherwise) those same institutions. Whos saying what, and what should we believe? Isnt this just like the war years, when capitulation was described horrendously as negotiation and when negotiation was robbed of its meaning via an unhelpfully vague series of discussions and peace talks?



The biggest thorn on the side of the government is its lack of clarity. The previous regime had a convenient tool at its disposal to make us forget this. Nationalism. Rabble-rousing, populist, irrational nationalism. The current regime doesnt have that privilege, especially since despite the many representatives who (claim they) are for a unitary state, freedom from external interference etc, we are led by a set of leaders who are more pragmatic than nationalist (whether or not it constitutes actual pragmatism being another debate altogether). In effect, consequently, theres nothing the government can resort to so as to hide their indefiniteness.



And to top it all, the regime is trying to please everyone without pleasing anyone. It doesnt take a political scientist to figure out that when federalists, nationalists, and members of that self-labelled intelligentsia which operates in Colombo want a piece of the pie shouting We voted you in, give us what we want! theres bound to be a lack of focus. In this process of trying to give everything to everyone, there are winners and there are losers. The winners are the rent-seekers. The losers are the people. And the moment compelling social problems are swept under the carpet, unresolved and etched in uncertain terms, they lose even more. This we ought to know.



Getting back to my earlier point, the student movement, like Donald Trump, sells whichever way and however positively or negatively you view them. They sell because, as heroes, they are pelted by what Marxists and other ideologues would call a police state and, as villains, they themselves pelt those they disagree with. In both cases, theres publicity involved. Publicity, ladies and gentlemen. The kind that prolongs an issue because, for interested parties, theres money and popularity to be milked. Clarity can be a wonderful thing. Unfortunately, we lack it in this case.



Our political culture has thrived on rhetoric for too long. We are awed by what our leaders say, and then get tired of finding out that what they say isnt what they do. A pragmatic government wouldnt have, for instance, dithered over the Office of Missing Persons with vague declarations. A pragmatic government would have marketed the OMP notwithstanding the hype for and against it. Like the Right to Information Act, the OMP Bill, even with the presidents signature, was born prematurely, disliked even by those who agree with its provisions simply because of the way it was brought through. When vagueness and confusion take over the process of crystallising Acts of Parliament, we cant really blame those who lambast them.



Rhetoric is one thing, however. Lack of focus is another. When we put the two together, we get what Gunadasa Amarasekara once cogently described as a kavandaya (or headless corpse): borrowing a Sinhala phrase, eheth naha, meheth naha (neither here nor there). Making matters worse is the fact that this government is handling the sins of the past. With a serious communications problem, and despite the statements made condemning the preceding regime, we convenient lay that aside and instead condemn this regime. Despite your feelings about the matter, theres no denying that the ruckus over SAITM, and those development projects and their environmental impact, was born from Mahinda Rajapaksas government. But what do we have today? An outfit headed by Mahinda Rajapaksa eating into the governments popularity (what little of it there is left, anyway) over its handling of the same problems traceable to the time he was in power! Can it get any more absurd than that?



So whats the solution? First and foremost, to do away this culture of ambivalence that has gripped us for so long. Its not only the government that has compelled this culture, moreover. Its also us. The people. Popular culture. The many industries that operate on making money out of social problems. The intellectuals who are cut off from the same people they are supposed to help out in the first place. And of course those outfits which are hell-bent against the government. Given all that, we have a clear choice between us. Either we continue with the vague, indefinite, and non-committal way of looking at social ills, or we identify a problem for what it really is, minus our personal feelings, and get our representatives to solve them (or in the least try solving them for ourselves). Feel-good protest campaigns and vigils wont do much. Positive, committed action will. It all depends on what we choose. And the drastic consequences which follow our choices, both now and to the future.
The stereotypical nature of the human mind may cause the term adoption to pop into thought

Concerned authorities call for Child care reforms due to the presence of institutes not conducive to the healthy development of children

Foster care is parenting given to a child by an adult who may or may not be related as a member of the family.

Devastation struck Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004 leaving behind a morbid atmosphere in the country. That was the year of the tidal wave. The tsunami brought in waves of destruction, drowning the entire island in cries of grievances and tears of lamentations. Among those lost in the lamentations of the departure of loved ones and engulfed in a sense of destitution and despair were children. Many children were left displaced due to the untimely demise of their family members whose lives had been engulfed by the depths of the dark water catastrophe.



2017 has been yet another year where the people have been facing a string of natural catastrophes where many lives were once again lost. The eruption of natural calamities in the country leaves us with restlessness, as a country smack in the middle of the Indian Ocean is very much prone to facing the fury of Mother Nature. We can be assured that this isnt the last time that we will hear of such events. In the wake of disaster, the vulnerable victims to suffer emotionally are women and children. Children are especially at risk when disaster strikes as they face the probability of being displaced when the lives of their parents or caregivers are taken away. The past turn up of adverse natural phenomena this year has rung the alarming bells calling for the promotion of child care reforms. This is largely due to a proper care mechanism for children not being in operation in the country. This can be an inconvenience especially when a child displacement occurs during a natural disaster, something we have experienced in the bygone days this year.



SOS Childrens homes Sri Lanka (SOS CVSL), an organization ever engaged in endeavours carried out for the betterment of children throughout the island, yet again pursues another advocacy effort. This organization is calling to attention the appalling need in the promotion of care reforms to be exercised in the case of children displaced or orphaned in the country, especially at a time of natural calamity. SOS CVSL National Advisor for Advocacy Chathuri Jayasooriya, stressed that its during times of disaster that the importance of child care reforms are most highlighted and called for. Care reforms are a dire need for child welfare in the country as a whole. The recent natural disasters which have left many children displaced, call for them urgently, stressed Jayasooriya.

The present mechanism of alternative care we find here isnt child friendly, especially within the context of institutionalization. Secondary victimization within institutionalization is also not uncommon

Basically, a child receives the care and protection of its parents or guardian. But in the instance that a child is deprived of its caregiver- be it a parent or a guardian-due to an unfortunate event, the child has to be placed in alternative care. There are various forms of alternative care that a child can be placed under. These forms vary according to the needs of the child. Section 35 of the Children and Young Persons Ordinance (CYPO) articulates two forms of alternative care for children deprived of their present caregivers and thereby deprived of care and protection. One alternative is the most resorted to residential care in a childrens home while the other is the placement of the child with a fit person. A fit person, as we call it, is referred to as one who provides foster care to a child who could either be a relative or non-relative willing to undertake care of the child. Foster care is parenting given to a child by an adult who may or may not be related as a member of the family. Although parental care is provided to the child in foster care, its only a temporary assumption of parental responsibility. However, the duration of the fostering period could range from a short period to as long as a number of years. Unlike in the case of adoption, permanent parental rights wont be acquired by the caregivers under both methods of alternative care. These caregivers also wont acquire the legal status of the child nor will the status of parents be altered. During the duration of placement, the parental responsibility of the child will be temporarily transferred to the manager of the childrens home or the fit person.



According to Jayasooriya, the existing predominant form of alternative care in the country- which is the placement of children in childrens homes- has created a sense of institutionalization within its framework. This has provided an ill wind on the holistic development of the child, stunting it in the process. The present mechanism of alternative care we find here isnt child friendly, especially within the context of institutionalization. Secondary victimization within institutionalization is also not uncommon. Although the UN guidelines discourage children under three years being institutionalized, this is rampant in our setting,explained Jayasooriya.



Exploring other methods of alternative care is essential to move away from institutionalization. Foster care has yet to be given serious consideration. The national advocacy advisor of SOS CVSL stated that while foster care provided to a child under a relative is practiced in the country, foster care by a non-relative isnt much in effect in our social setting due to the obstacle of monitoring limitations. Despite legal provisions being made in the CYPO for the implementation of children being placed with fit persons-through the probationary care procedure- the actual implementation lacks muscle. Although the mechanism is presently used in kinship foster care, its virtually not exploited in the case of non-kinship care due to monitoring challenges, she said. But Jayasooriya envisions foster care as a concept that could be encouraged, but must be properly monitored especially in the wake of natural catastrophes that displace many children by depriving them of their families and homes. She further stated that foster care has proven to be a successful form of alternative care in countries such like Georgia, Malawi and Moldova.



Avoiding institutionalization isnt easy, but when horizons are broadened, practical possibilities do cross the mind. Group foster care is one such child friendly method. Its model is similar to that adopted by the SOS childrens villages. It enables children to enjoy the comfort of a family, though not necessarily a biological one, said Jayasooriya further adding that the sense of kinship created within such a system with fellow siblings has a positive psychological impact on children.

The stereotypical nature of the human mind may cause the term adoption to pop into thought when the subject of alternative care is brought up. Adoption is considered another form of alternative care for children, but this option involves a permanent change in the legal state of the child and the parent. Adoption in certain scenarios also proves to be emotionally exhausting. This is a very lengthy judicial process which could cause psychological dilemma to both the child and the adoptive parents,explained Jayasooriya.



No form of alternative care outshines the other and no form of alternative care is deemed better than the rest. Each option is withheld in its own ground of benefits and which alternative is decided most suitable depends on the circumstance and differs from child to child. What has to be ensured is that the sprouting of such institutions isnt created within the framework of these child care alternatives, reinforced with systemic surveillance. Its indeed a very ambitious move with a lot of dialogue and commitment required from the state and other relevant stakeholders especially in terms of determining what kind of care is required and following up, assuring the best interest of the child, she said.

National Child Protection Authority (NCPA) Chairperson Marini De Livera too elaborated on the urgency of care reforms and the withdrawal from institutionalization. She asserted that the NCPA receives several complaints regarding various forms of abuse and anomalies taking place in childrens homes almost every day. She further stated that its crucial to move away from institutionalization and to explore other care options for children who have lost family care. For the year 2017, nine complaints have been made to the NCPA with regard to abuse and anomalies in children homes. After taking up my position as chairperson of the NCPA, I visited the SOS villages in Sri Lanka and spent some time there. I was very impressed with the system of care that was being followed by SOS CVSL. The SOS concept is a far cry from most of the orphanages that are functioning in Sri Lanka which are sadly not conducive to the healthy development of the children who are living there. I fully endorse the need for child care reforms and this richly deserves unstinted support,

De Livera said.
Ruwan Waidyaratne (left) being congratulated by Captain Ajith Peiris

The Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents (CASA) announced that Mr. Ruwan Waidyaratne, Managing Director  Hayleys Advantis Limited, had been unanimously elected as its Chairman for 2017/18 at the Associations 51stAnnual General Meeting (AGM) held on the 26thof July, 2017.Having served as the Vice Chairman of CASA from the year 2014/15, Ruwan will be taking over as Chairman from Capt. Ajith Peiris, Group Managing Director of Ceyline Agencies.

Commenting on his appointment, Ruwan said, I am honoured to have been elected as the Chairman of CASA and would like to thank the members for placing their trust in me.With the support of my executive committee, I hope to continue the good work done by the past Chairmen and their respective Executive Committees in shaping the shipping industry in Sri Lanka.

Ruwan is a Board Member of Hayleys PLC and holds responsibility for its Transportation and Logistics arm Hayleys Advantis. He has contributed to the shipping and logistics industry for over three decades and he is a former Chairman and member of the Advisory Council of the Sri Lanka Freight Forwarders Association (SLFFA). He has also served in related committees such as the Steering Committee on Ports, Shipping, Aviation and Logistics affiliated to the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce. With his election as the Chairman of CASA yesterday, he becomes the only person to have held the Chairmanship of both CASA and SLFFA, two of the leading industry bodies in the shipping and logistics sphere.

Addressing the Associations members and other key stakeholders at a cocktail held later that day, Ruwan said, We are all aware that the shipping industry plays an important role in our countrys economy. Statistics show that the transportation and logistics industry alone accounts for 12% of the countrys GDP. I firmly believe that the sector can make greater contributions to the national economy. We need to work together with all stakeholders, including the Government, on capitalizing on our strengths and emerging opportunities to realize our true potential.

Speaking on one such area of growth, he said, We can anticipate high demand for deep water terminals given the wave of new generation ships that are rolling out. Therefore, we appeal to the authorities to make use of this opportunity by operationalizing the East Container Terminal (ECT) as soon as possible. We need to act fast, before the Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT) reaches capacity which could lead to potential berthing congestion and loss of business.

Welcoming the new Maritime and Logistics Policy, he extended the Associations support to it and commended the Hon. Minister and his team who are working tirelessly to develop this legislation. I sincerely hope that the opinions of our industry experts will be given due consideration, and we can collaborate our strengths and work together to come up with a pragmatic policy document that will help us achieve the countrys goal of becoming the maritime hub in the region, he added.

Ruwan also touched on several issues plaguing the shipping industry in Sri Lanka today. He noted that the removal of the terminal handling charge four years ago had affected shipping agencies and said at a time when the country is aspiring to be a regional Maritime Hub, Colombo cannot afford to be the only hub in the world that doesn't permit lines to recover a local terminal handling charge.

Speaking at the event the Chairman of SLPA Dr. Parakrama Dissanayake commented that there are many changes taking place in the shipping industry in Sri Lanka and that the industry needs to be prepared to embrace change. Acknowledging Ruwans thoughts on considering industry opinions for the Maritime and Logistics Policy he said It is an inclusive approach that we have, and we are engaging all the stakeholders in the process. He added,We can see a Minister who is trying to walk the talk and who is trying to make things happen. Hambantota port is also becoming a reality and we have received cabinet approval to pursue the concessionary agreement on the Port with the establishment of two Sri Lankan companies. At the same time we have realized that we have an issue with the congestion of deep draft berths and the Minister has already given direction for the SLPA to launch the ECT as soon as possible.

Formed back in 1944, the Ceylon Association of Shipping Agents, acts as a leading voice for the Shipping Industry of Sri Lanka. With its ever expanding membership CASA has become stronger over the years and plays a major role in shaping the Shipping and Logistics industry of the country. CASAs importance has grown over the years, especially with the country moving towards establishing itself as a Maritime Hub in the region.
The Ceylon Electricity Board (CEB) said today that unexpected power failures could be experienced across the country due to several reasons including a decrease of hydro-power generation.

CEB media spokesman Sulakshana Jayawardana said power failures could occur whenever there is a high electricity demand in a given area.

However, he said the power cuts would not affect areas where there are hospitals.

Commenting on the reasons behind power failures, he said a 300 MW phase at the Norochcholai power plant is yet to be repaired. We are hoping to restore the Norochcholai power plant by the first week of August, Mr. Jayawardana said.

He said several private owned power plants at Embilipitiya (100MW), Pallekale (23MW) and Galle (07MW) were shut down on Wednesday due to a fuel shortage.

Meanwhile, a 110 MW gas turbine plant at Kelanitissa Power Station had tripped today. Due to the prevailing dry weather in most parts of the country, the power generation capacity of the hydropower stations have also been decreased, he said.

He said the CEB was planning to add small power plants to the system in coming days. (By Darshana Sanjeewa)
REUTERS, 26th JULY, 2017

Indias federal counter-terrorism agency arrested seven members of Kashmirs main separatist alliance on Monday on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan-based militant groups to wage attacks, the agency said, the first such case against the group. The National Investigation Agency (NIA) said it had found cash and valuables worth millions of rupees, electronic devices and incriminating documents during raids on the seven members of All Parties Hurriyat Conference.

The Hurriyat is an umbrella group of political and religious groups fighting for Kashmirs secession from India.



The accused could not be reached for comment. Top leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Mohammad Yasin Malik condemned the arrests as arbitrary and called for a strike on Tuesday to protests the action.



Separatist violence and street protests have increased in Kashmir since last year when security forces killed a popular young separatist commander.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would not allow transgender individuals to serve in the U.S. military in any capacity.



After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, Trump wrote in a series of Twitter posts.



Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, the Republican president wrote.



The Pentagon ended its ban on openly transgender people serving in the U.S. military in 2016 under Democratic President Barack Obamas administration. It was expected to start allowing transgender people to begin enlisting this year, provided they had been stable in their preferred gender for 18 months.



Last month, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis approved a six-month delay in allowing transgender recruits to join the U.S. armed forces.

REUTERS, 26th JULY, 2017
Villagers have had common paddy tracts in the lowlands and consumed their own paddy

Reading the article Glyphosate Weed killer now destroys health in the plantations! in the Features Section of the Daily Mirror of July 18, 2017 by Kalani Kumarasinghe reminds us of the proverbial elephant and the blind men, each superficially touching the subject of glyphosate and making various assumptions and prognostications.

The sentimental assertions of representatives of three NGOs, Peoples Planning National forum, Movement of Land and Agriculture Reforms and the Peoples Movement of Plantation Lands Right with little or no factual substance on the matter of the ban are ridiculous. There were also the comments of a few others including those of a professor holding extremist views on the matter. He once wrote an article referring to glyphosate as a cobra! This cobra is living funnily freely in every country other than our motherland of foolish politicians and the like. It may of course be poisonous if mishandled!

The hypothesis, that hard water, metal ions and glyphosate was probably the cause of CKDu was propounded by a few scientists in the Rajarata University

All substances are poisons said the founder of the science of pharmacology over 600 years ago. What matters is the quantity and how it is used. It applies not only to agrochemicals, but pharmaceuticals too. If you swallow 50 pills of aspirin you may drop dead. Statins, for example, the cholesterol lowering drug now taken by nearly a quarter of the elderly population of the world, and once thought to be absolutely safe, is now known to cause diabetes!

There are various alleged etiolating agents such as heavy metals(arsenic, cadmium), hard water, fluoride and ionicity ( dissolved salts) just to name a few. What is hitherto known, however, with a degree of certainty in that people who drank water from dug wells in the affected areas of the North Central Province and some neighbouring areas contacted the disease, but not the people who drank river, reservoir, or spring water. This fact has been elegantly established by a study of two adjoining villages, Sarabumi and Badulupura in Girandurukotte. People in the highlands of Badulapura drink water from dug wells, whereas those in Sarabumi from the river or reservoirs. Villagers from both areas had common paddy tracts in the lowlands, and consumed their own paddy. In fact it is reported that one person in the Sarabumi area who was diagnosed with the disease had previously lived for a long period in Badulupura before moving to Sarabumi. The disease wasnt there before people were settled in the Mahaweli Scheme. The increasing population and settlements thereafter necessitated digging of wells for drinking water in homesteads. There are supposedly some 172, 000 such wells in the Anuradhapura and Polonnaruwa Districts alone, and the governments urgent task should be to give potable water to the people of all affected areas. Is it happening?

The hypothesis, that hard water, metal ions and glyphosate was probably the cause of CKDu was propounded by a few scientists in the Rajarata University. In fact on top of that publication, which appeared in a fee-levying, open access journal in 2014, the word Hypothesis was written in bold letters! Several reputed chemists have been very critical of the hypothesis and no other scientific journal had any publication supportive of it. It has been argued that if such metal complexes formed in hard water, they should precipitate making the metals unavailable in solution.

There were two comprehensive WHO studies on CKDu in Sri Lanka, one was in 2013 and the other 2016, the latter being an International Expert Consultation of 54 participants, including local experts. None of those studies implicated glyphosate in CKDu. In fact the first study among other things reported that 3.5% of the CKDu patients had glyphosate above reference limits. However, for some unknown reason the percentage of control patients with urine glyphosate values exceeding the reference level wasnt reported. On re-analysis of the raw data again in 2016, it was revealed that double (7.0%) the non-CKDu subjects had urine glyphosate levels exceeding reference limits! In fact the percentage of non-CKDu subjects with pesticide residue levels above reference limits was significantly higher than that of the CKDu subjects.

The association of the disease with farming communities naturally tempts one to think of an involvement of agrochemicals in the disease. But the fact is that the great majority of people living in these areas are farmers, and the clue that it is probably associated with drinking water is what must be pursued in the pursuit for identification of the aetiology.

It is unfortunate that we live in a country that scientific decisions are made by politicians. We need an organisation of professionals

The glyphosate levels reported by a study of the Registrar of Pesticides in 2016 are very low, being less than 1 part per billion in samples of soil, water and vegetables analysed. The maximum allowable limit in drinking water in the European Union is as much as 700 parts per billion! So there is no question of glyphosate pollution of our food, water or soil.

Ganeshalingam of the Peoples Movement for Plantation Land Rights speaking at this press meeting has even claimed that he has information of victims of CKDu in all estates. This is the first time we are hearing of the disease in the hill country! Has he brought this to the attention of the health authorities in the country? So far, the evidence is that the disease is confined only to the Dry Zone.

It is unimaginable that all these representatives of organisations that have made various utterances, havent been mindful of the key issue of the tea plantations, and that is the grave scarcity of labour. Its impossible to use labour for weeding because of the shortage. Moreover, although a learned professor speaks of alternative weeding technologies, can he demonstrate them in tea lands? The only alternative other than chemical weeding is physical weeding with implements such as the mammoty and the sorandiya which, prior to the 1960s, caused serious soil erosion which led even to abandonment of vast tracts tea of land especially from the mid-country. It has been estimated that losses due to crop-weed competition and weed interference in field operations such as plucking and manuring has cost over Rs six billion in 2015 alone.

Its true that rice can be cultivated without glyphosate, but weed control prior to land preparation needs substantial water use for impounding. It is estimated that some 20% of the water has to be used for weed control in rice, and water has a cost.

There is clear evidence that the acreage under field crops has declined after the ban of glyphosate.

In particular ploughing and harrowing cannot control the noxious weed Cyperus which must be killed with a contact herbicide, and glyphosate is ideal for this purpose. The corn farmers complain that their pre-plant weed control has shot up from Rs. 3,000 to Rs. 10,000 after the glyphosate ban, especially because of the need to uproot mana grass by mamoty. Eight labour units are required each costing Rs. 1,250. Many of the dry zone farmers have been hoodwinked by the anti-glyphosate lobby that it causes CKDu. When explained to them that there is no evidence to associate glyphosate with the disease, they were aghast!

It is unfortunate that we live in a country that scientific decisions are made by politicians. We need an organisation of professionals that make evidence-based decisions. India has an excellent one, the National Technology Commission which would have been the organisation making the decision on a matter such as the glyphosate issue were it necessary.

The writer, has 45 years of experience in research and development in the Agri and crop development sector, currently, the Chairman of the review committee of the Rubber Research Institute, Dr Waidyanada has held several key positions in Department of Agriculture, Coconut Research Board and was Director General of the National Agri-Business Council. Some of the other key positions he has held are - Consultant to World Bank/ IICA Project on Rubber Development in Brazil, Consultant to FAO on Rubber Development in Bolivia, Consultant to ADB on Perennial Crop Development in Sri Lanka, among a host of significant other positions.
National Security Advisor (NSA) Ajit Doval, in Beijing today for the BRICS security conference beginning July 27, will have to mix toughness with tact. The standoff near the Doklam plateau at the tri-junction between India, Bhutan, and China is now in its second month. Doval has no illusions about China. It jails dissidents. It has no press freedom. It props up international pariah North Korea. It protects Pakistan-sponsored terrorist Masood Azhar.

Malevolent

China's state-controlled media is malevolent. By calling external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj a liar, Global Times, the Chinese government's English-language mouthpiece, has crossed the red line into yellow journalism. But make no mistake: Global Times and newspapers like The People's Daily as well as the Chinese news agency Xinhua reflect Beijing's official policy.

Swaraj was right to call China's bluff in her statement to Parliament last week. Till then the spokesperson of the ministry of external affairs (MEA) had used timid bureaucratese in the face of war-mongering rhetoric by China's foreign ministry spokesperson Geng Shuang.

Global Times was cruder: "India's invasion of Chinese territory is a plain fact. New Delhi's impetuous action stuns the international community. No other country will support India's aggression. Second, India's military strength is far behind that of China. If the conflict between China and India escalates to the intensity where their row has to be resolved through military means, India will surely lose."

In sharp contrast, India's timorous MEA establishment, citing the sensitivity of the Doklam standoff, spoke as if treading on eggshells. It took Swaraj - who is no pushover as her strong riposte to Sartaj Aziz, the de facto foreign minister of Pakistan, on PoK showed - to put the Chinese in their place.

Used to dealing with the supine Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi government, Beijing expected India to stay silent after its troops occupied Bhutanese territory at the key tri-junction between India, Bhutan, and China. The tri-junction overlooks Chicken's Neck, the narrow Siliguri corridor in West Bengal that connects India with its northeastern states. Doklam is, therefore, critical to India's security interests.

China's foreign ministry has lied about three pieces of "evidence" that Beijing says it produced before the international community. Doval will have to counter these untruths while keeping open the door for negotiations. The first evidence presented is the 1890 treaty between the British colonial government and China on Sikkim and Tibet. Bhutan is not a signatory to this Sino-British agreement. Its validity in the current dispute over Doklam is questionable, a fact Beijing hid in its presentation to diplomats of over 20 countries in the Chinese capital.

The second piece of evidence Beijing proffered to stake its claim on Doklam was the exchange of letters between then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai in 1959. Again China did not disclose that Nehru had in that correspondence expressed reservations over the 1890 Sino-British treaty on Sikkim and Tibet, saying the matter was far from settled.

Treaty

Nehru, in fact, wrote that the 1890 treaty "defined only the northern part of the Sikkim border and not the tri-junction area" encompassing Bhutan. This is what Nehru wrote in his two letters to Zhou: "Rectification of errors in Chinese maps regarding the boundary of Bhutan with Tibet is, therefore, a matter which has to be discussed along with the boundary of India with the Tibet region of China in the same sector."

The third sleight of hand by the Chinese while placing its evidence over the Doklam standoff in public was ignoring the 2012 agreement between India and China to not unilaterally change tri-junction points at borders with third countries without full consultation with all parties concerned. By moving troops near the Doklam plateau in disputed Bhutanese-Chinese territory to build roads and infrastructure which tanks and artillery could later use, China has violated the 2012 agreement.

Despite being on the right side of history, India's MEA has not been able to make its case on Doklam with the same force as China - an old MEA failing disguised as "sensitive diplomacy". It is nothing of the sort. It is pusillanimous diplomacy that has long been India's bane.

Terror

By openly threatening to "interfere" in PoK, China is now additionally complicit in Pakistan's policy of using terror as state policy. If a state harbours terrorists, as Pakistan does, it needs to be designated as a state sponsor of terrorism. If another state is complicit with a state sponsor of terrorism - as China now clearly is with Pakistan - it too must fall within the same definition. Abetting terrorism is as serious a crime as terrorism. China's complicity will carry a heavy cost.

Will China attack India militarily over Doklam? No. Indian troops have the mountain heights, the equipment, and the numbers. Besides, the Chinese don't want to get sucked into a war which could end in a bloody nose of the kind tiny Vietnam gave it in 1979 when Beijing attacked its southern neighbour. Recognising reality, Xinhua put out this conciliatory release on the eve of Doval's visit to Beijing: "India and China need to enhance communication and nurture trust between them."

India's diplomacy with China must now be both robust and rational. India must focus on building its economic strength and conventional military capability. It has already established a nuclear triad - air, sea, and land. The Chinese may not understand English, but they certainly understand military and economic strength.
About a couple of months ago Shekhar Gupta, while interviewing Sadguru Jaggi Vasudev for Of The Cuff, asked him about the propriety of Indian Army major Leetul Gogoi tying up a Kashmiri youth in front of his Jeep and using him as a human shield for "protection" against stone-pelters and taking him around several villages for over seven to eight hours.

The founder of Isha Foundation replied to the effect that the decisions made in the battlefield should be left to commanders on spot because they are the best judge of the situation. No one else has any business to advise him.

The video soon went viral on social media with the caption "Sadguru Vasudev Ji ka Shekhar Gupta ko karara jawab".

Well, Sadguru is right. Local commander sure does not have the luxury of seeking advice because he may be facing life-threatening situation and delay of even a split second may put his and the life of his command in jeopardy. But analysis of incidents after they have happened is essential to draw lessons. Failing to do so will be ruinous as we will then be condemned to commit same mistakes again and again.

Photo: Indiatoday.in

Major Gogoi has been awarded with commendation by the Army chief even though the action of the officer is seen as blatant violation of principles of human rights by many, and even though an inquiry is pending in the matter.

The young assistant commandant, Anubhav Atrey, of the BSF, however, is not so fortunate even though all his actions in an operation against Bangladeshi criminals were in good faith in accordance with law.

The case in brief: a patrol lead by an officer on IndoBangladesh border last year came under mortal threat, he followed the letter and spirit of law by exercising maximum restraint and did not open lethal fire on a group of Bangladeshi criminals, who armed with sharp edged weapons, had entered the Indian territory with criminal intention of smuggling gold and other contraband, about which the officer had prior information.

The officer resorted to the use of the less lethal pump action gun in right to private defence while trying to protect the life of a fellow patrol member. In fact, inquiries reveal that he even fired a warning round in air before firing at the criminals. Pump action gun, which normally is not lethal, resulted in injury to one criminal (well inside the Indian territory) who later succumbed to the injuries after fleeing back to Bangladesh.

It has been over a year since this bright youngster, who in his short career of about five years excelled professionally and has the distinction of representing the BSF in several professional competitions including commando competition, is facing the torturous process of inquiry and perhaps a court martial. The officer also was the "poster boy" of the National Geographic Channel documentary on BSF.

To make matters worse, the incident occurred during the biennial talks between DG BSF and DG Bangladesh Border Guards in Dhaka. The officer was placed under suspension immediately. The suspension was revoked only after about two months. Inquiry ordered in accordance with normal procedure for all cases of unnatural death has said that the officer planned the operation improperly.

It has been over one year since the incident occurred, yet the entire procedure is not complete. Each passing day brings additional pressure on the officer and thus demoralisation.

The rank and file of the BSF specially, the junior leaders are naturally making comparisons with the case of major Gogoi. Difference in the manner in which two organisations have dealt with these cases is stark.

Photo: National Geographic

Gogoi has complete backing of his organisation, even though he is prima facie guilty of blatant violation of human rights. On the other hand, Atrey, who apparently played by the book has been left to fend for himself and is facing prolonged agony.

It is a fact that very capable officers may sometimes commit mistakes, but how and under what circumstances has that mistake been made has to be weighed properly before subjecting someone to the type of action being faced by Atrey.

A perfectly fine officer who was professionally shaping extremely well is now a mental wreck and has probably been left with a scar for a life time.

More important than the agony of an individual is the larger message that has gone to the junior cutting-edge leaders and constabulary. There is a palpable sense of fear among them that they may be hauled up even for genuine acts of omission in the process of conduct of an operation as there is no one to protect them. They are more likely to simply stop taking initiative and let the matters drift.

Such state of affair does not reflect positively on the human resource management practices in a sensitive and important armed force of the Union like the Border Security Force as it adversely effects the morale and initiative of the force personnel.

This can be rectified only when the leadership of the organisation is familiar with the ground realities like the hierarchy in the Indian Army is.
The loans will be offered using algorithms, which will analyse a particular small business' repayment capacity.

Mumbai: With an eye on small businesses, Singaporean lender DBS on July 26 announced a tie-up with accountancy software maker Tally, which it hopes will help expand its local loan-book by SGD 500 million in 2018.

"The tie-up will give us access to newer customers. We have been able to add 2,000 customers due to this already who are transacting with us and expect to be at 10,000 by end of the year, when we shall start selling loans to them," its institutional banking head Niraj Mittal told PTI.

It is targeting to have Rs 25 lakh as the average loan requirement for each of these customers, which should take the loans sold to SGD 500 million within 12 months of introduction, he said.

Under the tie-up, DBS' banking application has been integrated with Tally offering which allows users to transact directly without having to visit its website separately. The loans will be offered using algorithms, which will analyse a particular small business' repayment capacity.

Conceding that there may be issues of privacy, Mittal said the bank will be taking customer consent to access to data beyond the one which is shared with the bank.

He said the bank is piloting such partnerships in emerging markets of India and Indonesia for serving small businesses digitally. Mittal said the bank is targeting the sub-Rs 100 crore revenue companies under the tie-up initially and the loans will be both secured and unsecured.

He said DBS does not share the system-wide concerns on asset quality issues from the SME exposures, saying its bias towards serving companies which act as suppliers to better rated corproates and restriction to seven select sectors help.

DBS feels introduction of such a digital product is timely given the thrust on digitisation and also the introduction which has gotten more businesses to the formal system and also increased Tally's licensed user base to one million, he said.
Stock of the bank closed 0.16 per cent up at Rs 91.65 on BSE.

New Delhi: Pubic sector Central Bank of India on July 26 said a downgrade rating by Moody's Investor Service on the lender has been "unsolicited" as the former didn't approach for any such rating.

Earlier this week on Monday, the global rating agency Moody's had downgraded ratings on Central Bank of India and Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) to Ba3 from Ba1, while affirming ratings on nine peer banks including Bank of India, Punjab National Bank and Axis Bank, at Baa3/Prime-3.

Central Bank said there is no diminution in government support to the bank post the ratings downgrade. "We would like to inform that the bank also came to know the news from releases/media reports.

We inform that the captioned rating was unsolicited and Central Bank of India has not approached Moody's Investor Service for any such rating," the bank said in a regulatory filing.

The stock exchanges had sought clarity from the bank and few of its peers on July 25 on the said news item.

"We do not see any diminution in government support as apprehended in the rating report, on account on which the rating has been downgraded," it said further.

Central Bank of India said it has been fully complying with applicable provisions of the Regulation 30 of Sebi on listing and disclosure requirements in its true letter and spirit.

"All events, information, developments which have bearing on the performance/operations of the bank as well as price sensitive information are submitted forthwith to stock exchanges," it said in the filing.

Stock of the bank closed 0.16 per cent up at Rs 91.65 on BSE.
The Khan Pataudi family welcomed baby boy Taimur Ali Khan Pataudi on December 20'16. Taimur is Saif's third child from his second marriage with Kareena Kapoor.

Mumbai: Kind eyes, chiseled face and the innocence of a Ali Khan Pataudi, Saif Ali Khans son Ibrahim Ali Khan is a constant reminder of his father's younger days.

The star kid was recently in New York, supporting his father during an awards show which the star had co-hosted alongside director-producer Karan Johar. Ibrahims elder sister, starlet Sara Ali Khan, was also part of the mini family get-together.

On Wednesday, the Pataudi scion shared a picture on Instagram, of him soaking in the New York sun, in bed, without a shirt. His striking features will definitely leave you reminiscing of a much younger Saif, who became a rage with films like Kya Kehna and Kachche Dhaage.

While the young lad has not revealed any aspirations of joining Bollywood yet, his elder sibling, Sara Ali Khan, will be launching her film career with Abhishek Kapoors Kedarnath opposite Sushant Singh Rajput.
In the six months as brand ambassador, the actor only shot once for the commercial.

Mumbai: A few months ago, the ever-so-energetic Ranveer Singh had replaced the superstar Salman Khan as the brand ambassador of a leading soft drink brand.

The actor was taken on board considering his popularity post the success of his film Bajirao Mastani (2015).

However, according to a leading tabloid, in the six months tenure of his as the brand ambassador, the actor managed to shoot only one advertisement for the product citing date issues.

Ranveer is entirely engrossed and occupied with Sanjay Leela Bhansalis magnum opus Padmavati with Deepika Padukone and Shahid Kapoor, due to which he was unable to devote time to the cola brand.

A source reveals that Ranveer Singh also interferes in the creative space and has requested the cola drink owners to up their ante. This hasn't gone down well with the brand. Rumours are rife that the actor may no longer endorse the product, considering his contract expires soon.

Apparently, the brands management are looking out for a young face with a big star value. Their options include Ranbir Kapoor and Varun Dhawan.
Mumbai: The Supreme Court on Thursday cleared the decks for the release of Bollywood movie 'Indu Sarkar' on Friday by dismissing a plea of a woman, who claims to be the biological daughter of late Sanjay Gandhi, for a stay on its screening.

A three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra said the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed movie, which is based on the 1975-1977 Emergency period, is an "artistic expression" within the parameters of law and there was no justification to stall its scheduled release on Friday.

Bhandarkar's counsel told the bench, also comprising justices Amitava Roy and A M Khanwilkar, that they have already carried out the cuts suggested by a committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the disclaimer put forth in the movie was absolutely clear that it has no resemblance with any person, living or dead.

"As far as exhibition of the movie is concerned, we are of the convinced opinion that it is an artistic expression within the parameters of law and there is no justification to curtail the same," the bench said.

The apex court said the plea filed by the woman challenging the Bombay High Court's July 24 judgement was "devoid of merits".

Priya Singh Paul, who claims to be the biological daughter of late Sanjay Gandhi, had moved the apex court against the Bombay High Court's verdict dismissing her plea to quash the certificate granted to the movie by the CBFC.

During the hearing on Thursday, her counsel alleged that the film contains concocted facts and maligned the image of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her son Sanjay.
Mumbai: Katrina Kaif, who is currently in Morocco filming 'Tiger Zinda Hai' with Salman Khan, is enjoying every moment at the Morocco's hip town - Essaouira!

The star who has earlier shot at the port city, was happy to visit the place for the second time. Apart from hitting the beaches and learning to surf, Katrina has been walking around the quaint city which has been listed as a UNESCO Heritage site and enjoying the local markets and eateries.

Says a source, "The Moroccan town of Essaouira is well-known to water-sports fans and Katrina is a complete water baby, making it the perfect location to try her hand at surfing and other water sports. Though the schedule has been quite hectic, she has been making the time to explore the city and popular local spots. She has been taking surfing lessons at Explora Watersports, which is the best surf and kite school in Essaouira and is right across Katrinas hotel .She takes lessons early mornings before the shoot".

When contacted Katrina, she said, "I'm loving every bit of Essaouira. It's my second time here so I know the medina ,the local places and the beaches."

Check out few pictures of the actress from the city:

Back out again.......  A post shared by Katrina Kaif (@katrinakaif) on Jul 23, 2017 at 10:51pm PDT

Surfs up ..... @explorawatersports A post shared by Katrina Kaif (@katrinakaif) on Jul 21, 2017 at 12:57pm PDT
Rating:

Director: Syed Ahmad Afzal

Cast: Ranveer Kumar, Sandeepa Dhar, Anurita Jha, Vishal Kanwar,

Indian cinemas twisted relationship with dramatic weddings is eternity old, and many feel-good family dramas are a perfect example of that. Though Youngistaan fame Syed Ahmed Afzals Baaraat Company drives towards the same destination, its the directors clever choice of taking a different route that saves the film from becoming a victim of commercial cinema.

The film is about Imaan Singh aka Immu, who runs his grandfathers unique wedding company that prevents girls and guys from eloping with their respective lovers by making sure they say their vows to the partners their families sees fit, until ironically Immu falls in the same pit.

Immu (Ranveer Kumar) is really close to his 'dada' (grandfather) and has always followed his footsteps, thus, he has never been in love. Baaraat Company has separated many lovers and given their clients no-drama, hassle-free weddings. Everything is going smoothly until another landsman contacts Immu for his sisters wedding contract. This is when things take a wild turn for Immu. Ranveers Immu is at the soon-to-be-bride, Yasmins (Anurita Jha), house when he sees her bestfriend Mehek (Sandeepa Dhar) for the first time and voila, our stubborn protagonist is finally hit by the cupid. At this point, you may think its going to be a same old done and dusted story of bad guy going good followed by a 'happily ever after', which is kind of a perfect prediction, but its the how that makes it an interesting journey. What follows is surely a fresh take on a rom-com drama that revolves around weddings.

Considering that its a small budget film, Baaraat Company could have been an absolute paisa vasool entertainer, had a major element in the film hadnt gone terribly wrong. From the films smooth story to the frames that give us beautiful glimpses of Lucknow, Baaraat Company is a pretty watch but its the films lead actor, Ranveer Kumar, that stands out and no, not for the right reasons. Apart from his weirdly cakey face, its his slow dialogue delivery that drags the film for about 20 more long minutes. With rest of the casting on point, it was Ranveers character that looked out of place so much that anyone and everyone sharing frame with him, stole the limelight off the debutant actor easily.

Sandeepa Dhar, who essays the role of a brave heart, independent girl Mehek, looks lovely in each frame, whereas Anurita Jha totally owns her character as Yasmin, who is a Lucknowi hot-blooded witty girl. Vishal Karwal, who plays the role of Abhay to whom Sandeepa is engaged and set to marry, puts his Splitsvilla charm to good use and thats where it all ends. Playing a tough cop, Vishal didnt look as convincing as the role demanded, which was already too little. Even the actors who had a small but pivotal roles in the film shined bright and contributed their bits to the film. Rani (Jai Hind Kumar) and Diljala (Kumar Saurabh) deliver commendable performances as they add the much needed and also the only humour elements in the film while also simultaneously helping Ranveers character get to the shore. While Rohit Bhatnagar, who plays the role of Vinod Khanna, a scared roommate of Yasmins boyfriend, has his quirky moments in the film as we see the poor fellow being dragged in somebody elses mess every now and then.

Leaving out few awkward scenes such as Immu and his fathers reunion, the stand-off outside dargah and sloppy kisses between Immu and Mehek, Baaraat Company sails through with its eccentric script and perfectly put casting, and if you are a sucker for Bollywood wedding dramas, then who knows? It might just make it to your guilty pleasure of Bollywood flicks list.
Rating:

Director: Tigmanshu Dhulia

Cast: Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mohit Marwah, Mrudula Murali, Keneth Desai

Having last directed Bullet Raja in 2013, writer-director Tigmanshu Dhulia brings you his first ever patriotic film, Raag Desh, which is based on the INA Trials that took place in 1946. Known for making raw films, Tigmanshu unfolds the journey of three soldiers who were found guilty of murders.

Captain Shah Nawaz Khan (Kunal Kapoor), Captain Gurbaksh Dhillon (Amit Sadh) and Captain P K Sahgal (Mohit Marwah) heads the INA (Azad Hind Fauj) in 1942 which had been founded by Subhash Chandra Bose. The mission of INA was to fight against British Indian Army and make India a free nation. Unfortunately, Subhash Chandra Bose dies in a plane crash leaving the INA behind.

Meanwhile, Shah Nawaz, P. K. Sahgal and Gurbaksh appeal to their fellow soldiers to join INA but unfortunately have to kill a few of them who don't agree to go against the British empire. In return, the British Indian Army convict the three and announce the trial against them to prove them guilty. Bhulabhai Desai, a well known judge fights the case in their defense.

The three lose the case but to avoid further aggression of INA members and communal disturbance, the British Indian Army let them go freely.

Director Tigmanshu Dhulia has a knack of handling small town, brash plots. Though his last Bullet Raja was a disaster, with films like Haasil and Paan Singh Tomar, Dhulia had proved his mettle. For the first time, he tells the untold story of the INA trials on celluloid which is watchable. The dialogues are strong and moving but the pace of the film in the second half is exceptionally slow. But then, one needs to be patient while watching a patriotic film since it has to be factual and not fictional.

However, Raag Desh is not much thrilling as a film. In the past, several films have been made on historical events which are quite engaging, like Rang De Basanti, The Legend of Bhagat Singh to name a few. Raag Desh is not in the same league. Even the court room drama in the second half is not heart wrenching but Tigmanshu is a fairly good director to hold a weak screenplay with conviction till the end.

The noticeable thing in the film is its cast. They all not only resembles the actual people but also perform highly well. Kunal Kapoor who plays Captain Shah Nawaz Khan is outstanding in his act. His body language very much reflected that of a freedom fighter from the bygone era. Though he will remind you of his character in Rang De Basanti as he has the same aggression in this one, guess that makes him shine bright. Mohit Marwah, who marked his acting debut with Fugly in 2013, is surprisingly good as Captain P K Sahgal. His dialogue delivery, emotions and expressions are excellent. Looks like he has very much arrived. Luckily he got a nice screen presence too. It shows that Mohit is completely a director's actor. Amit Sadh, who plays the role of Captain Gurbaksh Dhillon is convincing as a Sikh. His fluency in speaking raw Punjabi is wow. Rest of the star cast is good too. Be it Bose or Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru or Jinnah, every performer resembled their real-life counterparts.

On the whole, Raag Desh is an average film with an untold factual story. The film could have been much better plus in the era of commercial films, Raag Desh is a niche in its own genre. If you are still patriotic to watch such a film in 2017, then Raag Desh isn't a bad watch.
Hubballi: When humans make their advent into hitherto unexplored terrain, the first creatures to make a hasty exit are snakes. Not in Rangasamudra, a little hamlet in Hungund taluk of Bagalkote district, which wears a deserted look with the people vanishing after many lost their lives to snake bites!

The snakes and stone idols representing the snake gods are found in abundance here. More than 200 families lived in Rangasamudra two decades ago doing farming. They now return to the village only during Nag Panchami (being celebrated on Thursday) to worship the idols and ward off the 'curse' of the snake god.

And why did the snakes go on a killing spree scaring the wits out of the populace? Natives blame it on the cruel antics of a few miscreants, who killed snakes after seeing them entering their houses. Soon, many died of snake bite and the superstitious villagers fled the place.

They aver that they will return only if the government builds proper houses for them under the Ashraya scheme. And maybe save them from the snakes.
The news of Leo Eric Varadkar assuming the office of the Prime Minister of Ireland made many headlines in the last month. While a few concentrated on the qualifications and vision of the new Taoiseach (Irish PM), for many what stood out was his ethnicity and sexual orientation. Varadkar is a half-Indian, openly gay Prime Minister.

Popularly referred to as the Celtic Tiger, Varadkar has come to embody the liberalisation of a country that was once regarded as one of the most socially conservative in Europe. His rise to the top of Irish politics makes him Irelands first and one of the five openly gay heads of government in modern times, which includes Ana Brnabic (Serbia), Johanna Sigurardottir (Iceland), Elio Di Rupo (Belgium) and Xavier Bettel (Luxembourg).

The appointment of these politicians as heads of their respective states has started a global debate about how and why every democratic country should be open to someone with a vision to develop the country, irrespective of their caste, creed, ethnicity and sexual orientation.

While many nations in the West are opening up to these ideals, the LGBTQ community in India is still struggling with Section 377. Not many politicians were ready to make any comment about these European nations accepting LGBTQ communities in their politics or about India having a long way to go for any such development to take place here.

Explaining the political scenario in the country, well-known journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, says, Looking at the current political and social situation prevailing in India, one shouldnt be surprised that there is considerable intolerance towards people with a different sexual orientation.

He adds, However, I really hope that Indian society becomes more tolerant and accepting, because for a nation like ours, it is necessary to include various points of view, irrespective of their economic, social and sexual background.

The battle for the LGBTQ community is, however, far from over. In a shocking statement, the US President Donald Trump recently announced that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the US Armed Forces.

Although many big celebrities and politicians have condemned this, it proves that life is not rosy for the LGBTQ community even in one of the most developed nations in the world.

The Gay Heads of State

World leaders who are openly gay

Ana Brnabic

1 Ana Brnabic, who was sworn in as the Prime Minister of Serbia on June 29, 2017. She is the first openly LGBT head of government in Eastern Europe and the second female LGBT head of government overall.

Johanna Sigurardottir

2 Johanna Sigurardottir was the Prime Minister of Iceland from 2009 to 2013. In 1994, when she lost a bid to head the Social Democratic Party, she raised her fist and declared Minn timi mun koma! (My time will come!), a phrase that became a popular Icelandic expression.

Xavier Bettel

3 Xavier Bettel, the 24th and current Prime Minister of Luxembourg. Bettel is one of the openly gay world leaders, and once stated that increasingly in Luxembourg, people do not consider the fact whether someone is gay or not.

Elio Di Rupo,

4 Elio Di Rupo, the Prime Minister of Belgium from 2011 to 2014. Not only was he Belgiums first openly gay Prime Minister, but also the first head of state

of non-Belgian descent.

Khushbu, Actress

Its nice to see leaders who are open about their sexual orientation get accepted by the people. This is not restricted to politicians alone; people around the world should embrace it. Sexual orientation does not matter, what is important is how well they serve their people.

Whenever an Indian comes out in the open about his/her sexual orientation, we are ready to serve them brickbats. If we can accept foreign nationals, why are we not fighting for the LGBT community here?

With our so called culture, were denying them their basic rights. We can only be considered large-hearted the day we start accepting people with different mindsets and sexual orientation.

Tehseen PoonaWalla, Congress activist

When we speak about diversity, we must also accept people with different sexual orientations and its high time that in politics, legitimacy is given to it. Section 377 must go and we must accept people, no matter what their religious, cultural, food or sexual preferences are.

It is not about a country drawing inspiration from countries like Ireland or Serbia. We need to send a message to our citizens, and anybody who has studied Indian culture and mythology will understand that alternate sexuality was not just accepted, but even celebrated.

Jay Galla, TDP MP

I respect the right of any person to love who they choose. The government should not dictate what happens in your bedroom or kitchen. Its shameful, in this day and age, for homosexuality to be criminalised. I support equal rights.

Shaina NC, BJP leader

The fact that the Serbian and Irish Prime Ministers are homosexual is a reflection of the liberal attitude of the voters. They are only judged according to their performance and not by what happens behind closed doors in their private lives. In India, we are still far from having a similar kind of acceptance and there arent any openly gay politicians. Prime Minister Narendra Modi often says perform or perish and I think that is the only parameter that leaders should be judged upon. So long as what you are doing in your private life does not hamper your capacity as a leader, there should be no point of contention.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. (Photo: PTI)

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday hailed the resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, saying in doing so he has joined the fight against corruption.

Immediately after Kumar announced his resignation, Modi tweeted: "Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption."

"1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," he said in a series of tweets.

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

Kumar on Wednesday resigned as chief minister, citing differences with ally RJD over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, son of Lalu Prasad.
New Delhi: The Bharatiya Janata Party on Thursday made it clear that it does not favour mid-term polls in Bihar even as the Congress expressed disappointment over the resignation of chief minister Nitish Kumar and said it will strive to resolve differences within the 'grand alliance'.

Emerging from the meeting of BJP Parliamentary Board, party leader JP Nadda said the board is against mid-term polls in the state.

It has formed a three-member committee to talk to party MLAs in the state and report to the central leadership to allow it take a final call.

The Congress, on the other hand, said it was disappointed at the development.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the 'grand alliance' was given a mandate of five years by the people of Bihar and the party will strive for respecting that.

"We are deeply disappointed by the news of resignation of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar...," he said.

Union Law Minister and party leader Ravi Shankar Prasad said the breakup was "bound to happen" as Nitish was cautious about his image and for Lalu Prasad corruption was more important.

JD (U) leader KC Tyagi defended Nitish's move saying he was not allowed to work independently and in favour of Bihar.

"He is a man of different metal, he had already taken resignations of his own ministers on the issue of corruption. The party and Kumar cannot compromise on this issue.

"There were expectations from Rahulji as he had torn the ordinance (protecting convicted lawmakers from immediate disqualification)..., but somehow Gandhi forgot that," he said.

Senior CPI leader Atul Kumar Anjaan demanded that elections be held afresh in the state after Nitish staged the "high-voltage" drama by tendering resignation.

"Now, there should be no underhand dealing after what the BJP did in Manipur and Goa. The BJP has broken the public mandate in Bihar in its own style. We demand elections be held afresh in the state," Anjaan said.

The AAP, which coordinates with the JD(U) over several issues, appeared to be?cautious on giving any reaction.

"We are observing the situation,"Saurabh Bharadwaj, party's chief spokesperson of the Delhi unit said. Kumar and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal are known to share a good equation.
MEA Spokesperson Gopal Baglay said the Astana convention had two components and as per the first component relation between India and China is significant not only for both countries, but also for the world. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on Thursday affirmed that India would like to strengthen its relationship with China and the issues between both the countries will be solved on the basis of Astana consensus.

"India would like to strengthen its relationship with China that was established in the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping in September 2014. Indian would like to strengthen the relations on the basis of the Astana consensus which was reached between the Chinese President and Prime Minister Narendra Modi when they met on the margins of the Shanghai cooperation," MEA officials spokesperson Gopal Baglay said in a press briefing in New Delhi.

Baglay said the Astana convention had two components and as per the first component relation between India and China is significant not only for both countries, but also for the world.

He further said as per the second component, the differences between India and China should be addressed in a manner that is does not become a dispute.

"We wish to proceed in accordance with the Astana consensus to strengthen the closer development between the partnerships we have. There are numerous components - economic cooperation and people to people interaction and the idea is to make them more vibrant and strong in keeping with the Astana consensus," Baglay said.

He however, refused to provide any details on the Doklam stand-off, but added that even the international community believes that the matter between New Delhi and Beijing should be handled peacefully and through diplomatic channels.

Indian National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is currently in Beijing to attend the BRICS NSA's meeting.

The latest stand-off between two nuclear armed countries started when China started building a motorable road in the Doklam area near Sikkim on June 16. India as well as Bhutan have raised strong objection to the Chinese aggression on the border.

China on June 26 alleged that Indian troops crossed the boundary line in the Sikkim sector of the China-India boundary. Since then there is a tension between two countries.

India on June 30 told China that its attempt to construct a road in the Doklam area in Bhutan will cause a "significant change of status quo", is a "violation of a 2012 understanding", and will lead to "serious security implications."

On July 20, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said all the countries, including Bhutan, are with India on the issue of the Doklam stand-off.

Sushma said the issue is due to the "tri-junction point that is between India, China and Bhutan" and that if Beijing unilaterally tries to change the status quo at the tri-junction, then it will pose a threat to New Delhi's security.

"India wants that troops are removed from the tri-junction point to discuss the issue together. All countries, including Bhutan, are with us," Sushma said in Rajya Sabha on the fourth day of the Parliament Monsoon Session.
DIG (Prisons) D Roopa grabbed headlines when she, in a report, said that VK Sasikala availed VIP treatment in the Bengaluru Central prison by bribing jail officials. (File photo)

New Delhi: A day after a legal notice was served to former deputy inspector general of police (DIG) (Prisons) D Roopa for defaming Director General (Prisons) G Sathyanarayan Rao, the latter's lawyer on Thursday stated that they would initiate civil and criminal proceedings in this matter.

Speaking to ANI, Ramesh Putege said, "She (Roopa) has made several allegations, but none are true. Initially, my client wanted to ignore these allegations, but things went serious. The government in this matter wants to seek a report from another retired official. We will initiate both civil and criminal proceedings in this matter."

"Roopa is a senior police officer. She should know rules better. She can't act only on basis of legal power; proof is needed. I request her to be more vigilant if she makes allegations on senior officers again," he added.

A legal notice was served to Roopa on Wednesday. She has been given three days of time to reply an unconditional apology.

Roopa grabbed headlines when she, in a report, said that All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) leader VK Sasikala availed VIP treatment in the Parappana Agrahara Central prison by bribing jail officials.

The notice said that DIG Roopa tried to "damage the integrity and reputation of Sathyanarayan Rao," which according to law comes under defamation.

The notice also said that Rao will also be approaching the concerned Income Tax Department to find out the source from where the "alleged Rs. 2 crore were mobilised."

The notice further said that Roopa also alleged that Sasikala had set up a private kitchen, where special food could be made for her, but as she failed to take snaps of the place, it only shows that the place was "non-existent" although she (Roopa) claims that the evidence was erased.

The notice said that Roopa has tried to defame the "whole system" of this country, including the President of the nation.

The six page notice extensively talked about various issues concerning the case.

DIG Roopa has confirmed that she has received the notice.

Roopa, in a report to the Director General (Prisons), had said there are speculations that Sasikala paid bribe to prison officials to get special facilities for herself with rumours also of the DG being a beneficiary himself.

The report by the DIG (Prisons) had asserted that a bribe worth Rs. 2 crore was given to the prison officials by AIADMK chief VK Sasikala for, including the DG (Prisons), in order to avail special facilities in Parappana Agrahara central prison.

She was transferred to the traffic department as the Inspector General of Police and Commissioner for Traffic and Road Safety, after the statement.

Earlier on July 14, Roopa had also said she is being unnecessarily targetted and singled out for exposing irregularities at the Parappana Agrahara Central prison.

The DG (Prisons) categorically denied all the charges, where Roopa, maintained her stand, saying that she has no issue with an inquiry taking place into it.
Its a possibility repairs on the northbound Highway 124 bridge in downtown Chippewa Falls will have to wait until next year.

There are some issues with the (bridges) footing concrete, said Brian Kelley, Chippewa County highway commissioner. Kelley gave an update of the project Tuesday to the countys Highway Committee.

They probably wont get to the second bridge (going northbound) this year, said Kelley, who added the county is not involved in the project.

He said the Wisconsin Department of Transportation was scheduled to meet Tuesday with the projects prime contractor, Zenith Tech of Rothschild.

Currently two lanes, one heading in each direction, are being used on the southbound bridge.

Kelley said both the northbound and southbound bridges will be open for the winter.

Work started in April on the $2.3 million project, with the expectation it would be done by September.

For a brief time during construction, traffic was switched from the southbound bridge to the northbound bridge. Then both bridges were closed for a short period in June, when the DOT reported finding erosion near the northbound bridges foundation.

After that, traffic resumed using the southbound bridge.

Right now were reviewing the structure, DOT spokeswoman Diana Maas said late Tuesday afternoon. She said she had no details on the bridge projects timeline.

Last week the city of Chippewa Falls issued an advisory on the bridge construction: Work is still on standby while analysis is done on the northbound bridge Pier 3.

When it announced the project, the DOT said: Proposed improvements include removing deteriorated concrete pavement, resurfacing the Summit Avenue intersection with an asphalt surface, bridge deck repairs and a polymer overlay...The project will also include improvements to curb and gutter, beam guard, signing and pavement marking.

Eighty percent of the work is being paid for the work by federal transportation funds, and the remainder with state funds.

Work is still on standby while analysis is done on the northbound bridge Pier 3.  City of Chippewa Falls
Patna: The Janata Dal (United) (JD) (U) on Thursday announced that it will support the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led NDA government in both the houses of Parliament, shortly after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's chief minister.

JD(U)'s national spokesperson KC Tyagi also hit out at the Congress saying it does not have any credibility and accused it of not being serious about fighting corruption.

"We will support the BJP-led NDA government in both houses of Parliament," he told said.

Tyagi said, "The Congress was neither serious about fighting corruption nor about any opposition bloc. It was a blunder on our part to trust the Congress, which does not have any credibility."

Asked whether the JD(U) will join the Modi government, he said, "It is for the party leadership to decide. Let our party president and senior BJP leaders discuss the matter. Only after that we can make a comment on it."

Hitting back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the JD(U) spokesperson accused him of "not being serious" in fighting corruption.

The JD(U)'s comment came after Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kumar accusing him of acting for "selfish political motives" and going back to the BJP even as Bihar had given an "anti-communal" mandate.

"The difference between Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi is that Nitish Kumar does not want to compromise on corruption but Rahul Gandhi has compromised on it. Rahul Gandhi is not serious in fighting corruption, he is only interested in making tall claims but does not follow what he says," the JD (U) leader said.

"The Congress has compromised on corruption and that is why it is facing such a situation today. It wants the JD(U) to compromise on corruption and face a similar situation. But we will never ever compromise with corruption," Tyagi said.
Hyderabad: City cardiologists have asked the AP government to repeal their decision of not allowing NTR Vaidyaseva patients from seeking cardiac care in Hyderabad hospitals. NTR Vaidyaseva is the AP version of Aarogyasri.

The AP government order will put heart patients at immense risk, trauma and discomfort, the doctors said.

Dr Sridhar Kasturi, president of Cardiology Society of India (Telangana), said, People who opt for Vaidyaseva are from economically and socially backward sections. These people come to Hyderabad as the best of treatment can be provided to them here. If the Vaidyaseva services are stopped, the patient is denied his right of seeking the best possible care.

The patients already under treatment in Hyderabad, will now be compelled to change their doctor midway due to the abrupt decision.

According to the data available with doctors, 70 per cent of NTR Vaid-yaseva patients come to Hyderabad for treatment.

Senior cardiologist Dr Sarat Chandra said, Several patients are not aware of this decision and continue to se-ek treatment in Hyderabad. They are now being forced to pay and they are having difficulty mobilising the money. There are people domiciled in Andhra Pradesh but living in Hyderabad who are denied the right of seeking treatment in their city.



The doctors stated that the priority of the government should be to facilitate better care, rather than restricting care.

Senior cardiologist Dr Vijay Kumar Reddy said, The decision for now is taken only for cardiology and other specialties have not been included in the order. This is bad for cardiac patients of AP state.

A senior doctor said, The hospitals of Andhra Pradesh are aggressively catering to Telangana Aarogyasri patients from the districts of Khammam and Nalagonda. This is being openly done but there is no hue and cry raised by Telangana Aarogyasri, as it is considered to be in the interest of the patient.

Ministers, MLAs ask AP to restore Vaidya Seva in Hyderabad

Ministers and MLAs are under pressure from the public of their respective districts and constituencies on the withdrawal of Dr. NTR Vaidya Seva (Aaro-gyasri) in network hospitals in Hyderabad as there is no well-advanced hospital with the latest medical technologies in AP.

According to the AP Reorganisation Act, Hyderabad is the common capital for both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh for 10 years.

The ministers are requesting the government to restore Aaro-gyasri services upto 2024 in Hyderabad.

The ministers are requesting the government to restore Aaro-gyasri services upto 2024 in Hyderabad.

An MLA said the Aarogyasri services were halted in Hyderabad to support few hospitals and doctors in AP, which belongs to ruling party community. On July 13, the Andhra Pradesh state government withdrew the Aarogyasri services in network hospitals across Telangana
New Delhi/Beijing: Even as visiting National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on Thursday held talks with his Chinese Counterpart and State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS

NSAs meeting in Beijing in the wake of the Doklam stand-off, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told Parliament on India's stand on Tibet, "We used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear." The comment conveys the Indian Government's stand that it will never compromise on the territorial integrity of India.

There is also a likelihood that Mr. Doval, along with other BRICS NSAs, may meet Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. Later in the day in New Delhi, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said India has an approach to "resolve issues through peaceful means".

On Thursday evening, the MEA said India would like to strengthen the close development partnership (with China) based on the Astana concerns, adding that Sino-Indian ties are a factor of stability for the region.

Foreign policy observers feel that despite Beijings belligerent rhetoric on the Doklam stand-off, New Delhi is also trying to keep the focus on positive, constructive issues while trying to find a peaceful solution to the Doklam stand-off. Ms Swaraj informed the Rajya Sabha that there is no quid pro quo with China on the issue of sufferings of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing. On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the Minister said We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them.

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and we allowed him to do so. She added, Whatever issue that is there that goes against Indias interest, we lodge our protest.

Meanwhile, in Beijing, Yang Jiechi met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported. Yang separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth Chinas position on bilateral issues and major problems, the report said, without giving further details. Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism. Doval had arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to take part in the two-day BRICS NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.
Hyderabad: Excise minister T. Padma Rao Goud on Thursday said the excise departments clean-up operation against drugs would continue till Hyderabad was made a drug-free city.

He said Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had given excise department the task of making Hyderabad drug-free and the department would not stop till this goal was achieved.

Speaking to mediapersons at the Secretariat, Mr Goud said 15 people had been arrested in the drugs case so far and the SIT investigation into the case was going on in a transparent manner. He condemened allegations that the state government was targetting some film personalities on the pretext of drug hauls.

This is a serious case involving drugs. There is no need for government to target anyone. Our aim is only to check this drug menace and make Hyderabad and Telangana state a drug free city and state. The government will not spare anyone how influential they may be, if they are found to be guilty in drugs case, Mr Goud said.

He added that notices for interrogation on drug links were served on 12 film personalities, 11 bars and pubs so far.

The minister said the inquiries revealed that students of 26 schools and 27 colleges besides employees of 25 IT companies obtained drugs from those who were arrested in drugs case.
Hyderabad: The Hyderabad High Court on Thursday made it clear that it was for the state government to take a decision in accordance with the law on handing over children born of surrogacy to their commissioned parents.

A division bench comprising Acting Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and Justice T. Rajani was dealing with a suo motu taken up case based on a letter by Justice Suresh Kumar Kait to the Chief Justice of High Court referring to reports published in this newspaper on June 19, 2017 with regard to police raids on Sai Kiran Hospital and Kiran Infertility Centre in the city following a tip off that the hospital was conducting surrogacy procedures without following due norms.

During the hearing of the case, counsel appearing for one of commissioned parents brought to the notice of the bench that some of the surrogate mothers have recently given birth to baby girls and the commissioned parents were prepared to take custody of these newborns and the surrogate mothers were also prepared to hand them over to their commissioned parents.

He urged the court to direct the state government to hand over the babies.

The bench said that it would not pass any such order as it was for the government to take a decision keeping safety and security of the surrogate mothers and babies in view.

B.S. Prasad, counsel for the medical and health department informed the court that the government has arranged ultra scanning machines in the hospital and a team of doctors was visiting the centre every week to monitor the facilities providing to 48 surrogate mothers and also conducting health checks.

When counsels for the hospital and commissioned parents complained to the court that certain vernacular TV channels aired visuals of the surrogate mothers, the bench said that the media has to maintain restrain with regard to the privacy of surrogate mothers and their babies.

Counsel for the hospital submitted that they are maintaining the infertility centre in accordance with rules.
Hyderabad: Retired High Court judges on Thursday demanded scrapping of Section 321 of the Criminal Procedure Code that allows withdrawal of prosecution of ministers.

Justice Chandra Kumar and Justice Lakshman Reddy and former RTI commissioner P. Vijaya Babau demanded that the AP government release a white paper on the withdrawal of prosecution in criminal cases.

Section 321 of the CrPC has to be scrapped by the Centre. This is enabling the states withdraw prosecution even in serious cases. It is undemocratic to withdraw cases against the TD leaders, said Justice Lakshman Reddy.

He said no case against opposition leaders was withdrawn. On the contrary, cases under the SC, ST Atrocities Act were filed against them. We will be representing to the Election Comm-ission regarding withdrawal of poll-related cases. There is some rationale in withdrawal of cases pertaining to the agitations for public causes. But lifting cases against individuals like molestation and attempt to murder is not acceptable, he said.

Guv must intervene: Ex-judges

Recently, the AP government had withdrawn cases against five ministers, Assembly Speaker and eight TD MLAs and several other leaders.

The MHA had written to the secretary, Election Commission on June 27 regarding the withdrawal of cases and sought action.

Mr Vijaya Babu said, The Governor should immediately intervene and stop this. Justice Chandra Kumar said, Those with criminal background are getting elected to law-making bodies. While NGOs are working against those with criminal background, the other hand government is withdrawing the cases.
Hyderabad: Ration shop dealers are queuing up before the state government to withdraw their licences and close shops.

The state has 17,500 ration shops. Of these, nearly 1,200 dealers have submitted applications seeking closure of the shops, claiming that they are unable to continue running them due to the mounting losses.

The government has stopped the supply of all essential commodities barring rice through the public distribution system due to which the commission earned by dealers has come down drastically.

Besides, the TS government has tightened the rules to check diversion of PDS rice and black marketing by installing GPS on ration transport vehicles and biometric devices in ration shops that are connected to the central server in civil supplies head office.

Diversion and black marketing, which were once major revenue earners for the dealers, have now been brought down to a minimum.

As running of ration shops has therefore become financially unviable, the dealers have decided to go on a strike from August 1.

Their two-forked demand states that the government should either increase their commission or take over the shops and give them a monthly stipend of Rs 30,000 to run it, thereby treating them as government employees.
Twenty-three-year-old Regina Gurung, who was one of the three organisers for 'Fight with Art' believes that it is the newest form of non-violence to this generation. It stems from the belief that loud rallies are hardly remembered.

Bengaluru: Art in its purest form brings out one's deepest emotions. It becomes a medium that carries their voices forward in more than just words.

Recently, more than a hundred artistes gathered together to protest against the violence in the town of Darjeeling due to the Gorkhaland unrest. Called Fight with Art, it was these artistes' own way to support the cause for their fellow Gorkhas suffering back home.

About a month earlier, artistes from all over the city came together to protest against the felling of ninety two old trees at the Government Veterinary Hospital at Queens Road. Performing arts is becoming increasingly popular amongst young Bengalureans as a choice of weapon to fight for what they believe in.

Performing arts as a form of social protest has existed for many years, but it being the first choice amongst the younger folk shows that we are heading in the right direction, says popular Bengaluru based artist S.G. Vasudev.

It is heartwarming that the younger generation is picking up the likes of poetry and art to speak up about things they feel needs to be improved. Art is visual and reaches much more people than it intends to, he said.

Citing the example of Pablo Picasso's Guernica, a painting he created in an attic in Paris to depict the atrocities of World War II, he said, It is very much relevant, even after almost 80 years of its creation. The thought is understood much better through art.

Twenty-three-year-old Regina Gurung, who was one of the three organisers for 'Fight with Art' believes that it is the newest form of non-violence to this generation. It stems from the belief that loud rallies are hardly remembered.

We have successfully rallied a thousand times, but what is the outcome? This form of protest brings with it creation. We are left behind with something to showcase the movement, she said.

In the era of smart phones, art is a great way to keep the momentum going, she added.

Especially on digital media, something like this keeps being shared. It helps motivate the youth to fight on.

Using poetry to allay myths about metal illness

Bengaluru's poets are also using their creativity to speak about mental health. Twelve poets gathered at Atta Galatta on Wednesday and spoke about the ignorance and myths surrounding mental health through poetry and prose. Called Nobody Reads the Fine Print, it was organised in collaboration with Open Sky Slam and Hann Nun Institute, a not-for-profit organisation that works for the cause of mental health. It is non-threatening. It is interactive. And since it is something that has a certain stigma attached, art makes it easier to talk about. It doesnt pose a direct question, it gives you a very non judgemental space to let your voice be heard, said Shama from the Hank Nunn
Chennai: Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami on Wednesday opposed any move to merge the Central Institute of Classical Tamil (CICT) in Chennai with the Central University of Tamil Nadu (CUT) in Tiruvarur.

At a meeting of the Governing Board of Central Institute of Classical Tamil here chaired by him, Palaniswami opposed the move saying the institute should not lose its autonomous status.

Adopting a resolution opposing the merger, the governing board asked the Centre to ensure that the autonomy of the CICT is protected.

Citing recent reports in a section of media that CICT will come under the ambit of Tiruvarur-based Central University of Tamil Nadu, a press release said, The institute should not lose its autonomous status due to any reason.

Palaniswami also referred to reports that had claimed that CICT, set up by the Centre in 2008 four years after Tamil was accorded with Classical Language status, would lose its autonomy if it came under the administrative control of the central varsity.

Functioning under the Union Human Resources Development Ministry, the CICT is focused on Classical Tamil research till circa 600 AD. CICT must not be moved out of Chennai, the resolution passed at the fifth Governing Board meeting said.

Also, the Union HRD ministry should allot funds to strengthen research on Tamil literature and to new schemes for Tamil development, the resolution added.

As the controversy raged on the issue, the HRD Ministry had stepped into clarify that there was no proposal to merge the two institutes. From March 2006 to May 18, 2008, the institute was functioning from the Central Institute of Indian Languages campus in Mysuru and in 2008, it was renamed as Centre for Excellence of Classical Tamil and its premises shifted to Chennai.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday. (Photo: ANI | Twitter)

Patna: In a little over 12 hours after he resigned as chief minister of Bihar  pulling out of the mahagathbandhan with the RJD and the Congress  Nitish Kumar was back in the chair on Thursday morning with a different but familiar partner  the NDA.

Sharp at 10 am, Nitish Kumar was administered the oath by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, heralding his sixth term in power.

BJP leader Sushil Modi was sworn in as the deputy chief minister of Bihar, a post he had held before from 2005 to 2013.

Other ministers will be sworn in after Nitish Kumar proves majority on Friday.

Nitish ended his two-year grand alliance with the RJD and Congress on Wednesday evening, citing a call of conscience over corruption charges slapped against his former deputy and Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejaswi Yadav. Lalu, his wife Rabri Devi and Tejaswi are central to a CBI inquiry into the land-for-hotels deal when Lalu was the Union railways minister.

Nitish had nearly a decade alliance with the NDA before he split in 2013 as soon as Narendra Modi was announced the face of the BJP campaign for the 2014 general elections.

After the JD(U) was reduced to two seats in the 2014 general polls, Nitish teamed up with Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Congress and the alliance made the NDA taste its first big defeat in the 2015 state polls.

Nitish has since campaigned in Uttar Pradesh calling for a Sangh Mukt Bharat and a Sharab Mukht Samaj. After the grand alliance had formed, he had called out the BJP for playing the politics of dividing be it in the name of caste or religion.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lauded Nitish last night for choosing honesty over corruption, had hit out at the leader in 2015, caustically suggesting there was something wrong with his DNA for deserting his friends.

Nitish quit on Wednesday after a few-day staredown with alliance partner Lalu Prasad Yadav over Tejaswi quitting his post as deputy chief minister. Lalu called a meeting of his party leaders Wednesday afternoon and made it clear his son would not quit, and also reminded Nitish that the RJD had made him chief minister.

That seemed to be the last straw for a relationship that was withering, given Nitishs decision last week to skip Sonia Gandhis lunch and dine with the Prime Minister instead. He had also supported demonetisation, the surgical strikes and BJPs candidate Ram Nath Kovind as President. Lalu Prasad called Nitishs exit a setting of the RSS and the BJP.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar said outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi on Wednesday evening.

It had become difficult for me to work, Kumar had said, adding, In taking this decision, I have listened to my conscience.

A few hours after he had quit, Nitish had got the BJPs support to form the new government.

Nitishs JD(U) has 71 MLAs, RJD 80, Congress 27 and NDA 58 in the 243-seat Assembly. JD(U) and NDA have the clear majority while the RJD-Congress is 15 short of a simple.

It is advantage BJP once again with this return back to power in Bihar, while the Opposition struggles to keep its flock together.

It is advantage BJP all the more because Nitish Kumar  with his very clean image and intolerance for corruption -- was being seen as the tallest leader in the secular front that could challenge Narendra Modi.
Trump Says No 'Transgenders' in the Military

Contact: Liberty Counsel, 407-875-1776, Media@LC.org; Press Kit

WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- President Donald J. Trump announced yesterday that the U.S. government will not allow so-called transgender people "to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military." President Trump's announcement came just weeks after Defense Secretary James Mattis announced that he will defer implementation of the transgender policy until January 1, 2018. The Obama-era policy would have allowed incoming service members identifying as "transgender" to enlist if they have been "stable" in their gender identity for 18 months.

"Transgender" service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and receive taxpayer-fund medical treatment that includes hormone therapy, counseling, and body mutilating plastic surgery.

In a series of tweets today, President Trump wrote: "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allowtransgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

Liberty Counsel has been involved in this military issue by meeting with White House officials and others about the need to reverse the Obama policy. Last Friday, Jonathan Alexandre, Director of Public Policy at Liberty Counsel, met with White House officials and discussed this issue, stressing the importance of the President's power to direct his generals to prioritize unit cohesion and military readiness rather than sacrificing them to the demands of the transgender lobby.

Several Army soldiers and civilian employees also recently contacted Liberty Counsel for assistance for objecting to being forced to participate in LGBT training based upon their religious beliefs and conscientious objections. These include an Army Major and graduate of West Point, a former Special Ops high level DoD employee, Aerospace Engineers, and other military and civilian employees who objected to the Obama transgender policies.

"I applaud President Trump for making America safe again," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. "The military is a lethal weapon designed to protect America and our allies. It is not a social club, a social experimentation petri dish, or ClubMed. The focus should be military readiness and unit cohesion. The President has kept his promise to return to military priorities by not continuing the 'transgender' policy that undermines unit cohesion, preparedness, and morale. The duty of military officers is to appropriately lead and prepare their personnel to serve and protect, and they cannot do that when there is confusion, dysfunction, and safety issues within the barracks," said Staver.

Liberty Counsel is an international nonprofit, litigation, education, and policy organization dedicated to advancing religious freedom, the sanctity of life, and the family since 1989, by providing pro bono assistance and representation on these and related topics.
BENGALURU: N. Dharam Singh, known popularly as the Ajatashatru of Karnataka politics, and a veteran Congress leader with close links with the late prime minister Mrs Indira Gandhi, breathed his last here on Thursday, plunging Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where he held sway for over four decades, into deep grief.

The former chief minister was 81, and leaves behind wife, Prabhavathi, sons Dr Ajay Singh and Vijay Singh and daughter Priyadarshini.

Mr Singh, who was indisposed, had returned to his Sadashivanagar residence after undergoing treatment at a local hospital, a few days ago. On Thursday morning, he complained of chest pain and collapsed. He was rushed to M S Ramaiah Hospital where doctors could not revive him. He died of cardiac arrest, sources in the family said.



Born on December 25, 1935 at Nelogi in Jewargi taluk of the erstwhile Gulbarga district, Singh completed his education in Hyderabad before commencing his career as lawyer. Known for his affable character and his ability to win friends and admirers across the political spectrum, Singh soon earned the title Ajatashatru and entered politics representing his home constituency, Jewargi, eight times.

He was minister in governments headed by the late chief ministers D Devaraj Urs, Veerendra Patil, R Gundu Rao and S Bangarappa, and Veerappa Moily and S.M. Krishna handling important portfolios including home, PWD and excise. He served as KPCC chief between 1996 and 1999 before Mr Krishna replaced him and the Congress swung back to power in 1999.

The high point of his career was in 2004 when, following a fractured verdict in the Assembly polls, the Congress and JD(S), came together to form a coalition with Singh taking over as Chief Minister.

The coalition government, however, survived for only 20 months with JD(S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy executing a coup to dethrone him and head a JD(S)-BJP government instead. Singh was MP twice in 1980 when he represented Gulbarga and in 2009 when he won from Bidar.
In the 15th anniversary year of Gaya Lal, an obscure Haryana legislator who defected back and forth thrice between two parties in a matter of days, birthing one of the lasting metaphorical phrases in Indian politics  Aaya Ram, Gaya Ram, it is time for a makeover: Aaya Kumar, Gaya Kumar. Indians use the act of defection, elucidated in various dictionaries as desertion of ones country or cause, conscious abandonment of allegiance or the act of leaving a country, political party, etc, to describe instances of politicians quitting one party to join another. It is time, however, to use it for shifting ideological stance or dumping fight against one evil for another one. If this new usage is accepted, Bihar chief minister is undoubtedly the new serial defector. The Bihar chief minister, who responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modis claim of ushering in Congress-mukt Bharat by declaring that he would ensure Sangh-mukt Bharat, has chosen to end his battle against communal forces. By effectively contending that he had to choose between corruption and communalism and in his assessment, the latter is a lesser danger to Indias polity, Nitish Kumar has betrayed the mandate for Bihars Mahagathbandhan. Let it not be forgotten that the humiliating defeat that Bihars electorate heaped on Mr Modi, was not just because of correct political arithmetic, but also for its articulated anti-sectarian plank, bolstered by the lynching of Mohammad Akhlaq in Dadri. Moreover, public sentiment in Bihar also turned against the Modi-Shah duo due to their aggressive campaign that bordered on the personal. In July 2015, when Mr Modi questioned Mr Kumars political DNA, the chief minister shot off a letter. Of Mr Modis accusation, he wrote: These statements have disrespected the lineage of our people and have denigrated the great legacy of the state. This also gives credence to the feeling that perhaps you and your party hold a prejudice against the people of Bihar.

There is a certain hollowness in Mr Kumars claims that he was disallowed to function effectively. It is not that the chief minister was unaware of Lalu Prasad Yadavs brusqueness and propensity to be overbearing  the two after all, have a now-on, now-off political relationship since the mid-1970s. In fact, at one point Mr Kumar was the astute backroom expert shepherding Mr Yadavs dramatic rise. When Mr Kumar chose to swallow past venom against the old bete noire in the run up to the 2015 polls, the latter was already debarred from contesting elections after conviction in corruption cases. At that time, Rahul Gandhi, who famously tore an ordinance at a press conference prepared by the Manmohan Singh government because it provided for convicted politicians to contest elections, was not enthusiastic about appearing alongside Mr Yadav. The bitter truth is that Mr Kumar chose to cohabit with Mr Yadav despite the taint of corruption charges because it was the only path to his political resurrection. With the Rashtriya Janata Dal chief and his family under fire from Central agencies now, Mr Kumar ditched ship and hitched himself to the BJP bandwagon, because he does not end up as collateral damage in Mr Modis attack on Mr Yadav. The Bihar chief minister was previously motivated solely by pursuit of survival and by cuddling up with Mr Modi, he demonstrated that there is little change in his basic characteristics. If Mr Kumar hopes for greater elbowroom in partnership with the BJP, he is either sadly mistaken or is fooling himself. Mr Modis BJP is not the party that it used to be and to which Mr Kumar is used to. This is a ruthless organisation driven by a duo who believes that no one is indispensible and allies are only for making tactical gains and discarded later.

Mr Kumar will not be unaware of the scant independence that the Prime Minister has allowed ministers from his coalition partners. The alacrity with which Mr Modi responded to Mr Kumars resignation and the haste with which the chief minister was sworn in again with Sushil Modi suggests that neither of the two parties are confident of facing the people once again. For a moment even if one accepts that there was indeed substance in Mr Kumars charge that Mr Yadavs dominance had made his tenure suffocating and that he had no way to check corruption in the government, there was no stopping him from recommending to the governor that the state Assembly be dissolved and fresh elections held. Given the peculiar arithmetic of the Bihar Assembly, it requires at least two of the three big parties to join hands to provide a stable government. Not just Mr Kumar, but even the BJP is not sure if an immediate election would not have been to its benefit substantially.

By deciding to join hands and revive the old alliance between the BJP and JD(U) at all levels, the two have betrayed their assessment that it is too early to write an epitaph for Mr Yadav and his party. In fact, whatever little one has seen and heard of Tejashwi Yadav post Mr Kumars defection, it is evident that he has political ambition and fight in his belly. By changing sides Mr Kumar has undoubtedly delivered a body blow to Opposition efforts to pose a challenge to Mr Modi. It is in Mr Modis nature not to be kind towards those who once deserted him. He is also aware that Mr Kumar solicited support from the BJP only when he was certain that the Congress was unwilling to yield the position of principal challenger to Mr Modi. This leaves the Bihar regime in an unsettled state till one of the three major players asserts complete hegemony. Because in this objective, odds are currently in favour of the BJP, Mr Kumar will not have to just safeguard credibility but also hone his cunning. His success or failure will have a bearing in the run up to the next parliamentary polls.
Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday only to return as CM  this time in the company of the BJP  first thing on Thursday morning. While effecting this extraordinary somersault, Mr Kumar did the ordinary thing. He said he had switched back to the saffron side in the best interests of his state. But the CMs subliminal message was no different from the tagline of BJPs propaganda that only the saffron party is capable of ushering in development. With Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the outgoing CM, who within hours became the incoming CM, has clearly adopted a forgive-and-forget policy. In 2013, the JD(U) leader had made a violent break with the BJP after sailing with it for 17 years, including during the 2002 anti-Muslim pogrom in Gujarat. This was only because he could not stomach the idea that Mr Modi should be projected as the BJPs prime ministerial candidate.

After breaking ties, Mr Kumar even gave a call for Sangh-mukt Bharat or an India freed from the influence of the RSS, BJPs progenitor. BJPs verdict at the time was prescient. It held that the saffron party and Mr Kumar were natural allies, and the latters effort to go with Lalu Prasad Yadavs RJD and the Congress amounted to politics of opportunism. BJP leaders even predicted that such an alliance, which went under the name of Bihars Mahagathbandhan or Grand Alliance, simply could not last. Mr Kumar had earned respect in recent years for being clean. Even so, he had chosen with his eyes open to sever ties with the BJP to join hands with Mr Yadav, who has gone to jail for orchestrating Bihars fodder scam. This had raised eyebrows, but Mr Kumars image took only a minor hit. Alas, now the image the Bihar CM is projecting is of being a quick-change artist  another name for self-promotion.

The CBI, which has built for itself the reputation for being in the service of the establishment, has for months targeted the Mahagathbandhan deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, Mr Lalu Yadavs son, for corruption, filing an FIR against him. Mr Kumar made it his mission to oust the younger Yadav. His action might have carried weight as upholder of good governance if he had simultaneously asked the PM questions about persisting with Union minister Uma Bharti although she is facing trial in the Ayodhya case. With Mr Kumars somersault, the idea of a combined Opposition challenging Mr Modis BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls has received a jolt. Needless to say, nothing remains static in politics.
There is no shortage of science news but there is little as a framework to explain it or locate it. There is no paucity of scientific information. Our information is rarely located within wider paradigms of knowledge. In fact, the very talk of the information revolution hides the fact that a lot of science is today secret, lost in the labyrinth of the military-industrial complex. Sadly, the debates, the controversies around science are hardly cited today and when the popular mind thinks of controversy, it goes back to Galileo and Darwin, because there is little sense of choice on alternatives. A lot of biography is sheer hagiography and it conveys little of the everydayness of science. In fact, in an odd way, despite the development of science journalism and the success of science studies, science is haunted by a failure of storytelling, where information marginalises meaning. The very unreflective tone of science and the failure of the democratic imagination demand that we open up the black box called science. This column is directed to that debate. Years ago, journalist Robert Park who later went to establish The legendary Chicago School of Sociology reputed for its understanding of crime in the city, described sociology as the Big News. Big to Park was not about sensationalism, and news was not about scandal. Big was a question of implication, a different sense of language and storytelling.

If science is to become the big news in India, it needs better reporting, more textured interpretation and a deeper sense of critical enquiry. One cannot take experts for granted or policy as inevitable. One has to see science not as ideology or table manners but as a tentative, hypothetical, experimental exercise. There is a necessity for us to be open-ended about science for science to remain scientific. Such an ecology of critical enquiry has been a part of the democratic tradition. Oddly, Indian democracy, at least civil society and the social movements, have tenaciously debated science. The debates around Bhopal, the Emergency, which was seen as a scientific experiment, the genetic revolution and the BT cotton and mustard debates, the paradoxes of the Green Revolution are monuments to this consciousness. But this has not been enough as these often demonstrated the contempt of the expert for any lay revolt or doubt about science. Yet there is a stark illiteracy about ethics in science. Ideas about ethics focus more on honesty but display little reflections about risk, complexity or security.

Dissenting imaginations like those of renowned scientist Amulya K.N. Reddy, C.V. Seshadri have not been too welcome in science. In fact, the irony is that while science is hailed as public knowledge, articulate doubt hardly enters the public domain of science. Science news need not necessarily be a fifth column that the security establishment suspects it to inevitability be. Such a column need not be only about an apocalyptic science. It could and should capture a sense of play and the inherent diversity of science. Secondly, scientists should portray science as a pluralist enterprise. The myths of science often emphasise of a world of fang and claw, but one needs to talk of cooperation, diversity and explore their implications for science as a cognitive system as Alfred Wallace, J.B.S. Haldane, Patrick Geddes and Peter Kropotkin did. Science has multiple genealogies which we need to invoke and understand. It is in this context that the historian of science Thomas Kuhn had hinted that a text raises alternatives in a way a textbook cannot. A textbook can even rewrite history to align the past to the present. But dissent, doubt and diversity are also built in thought and one needs the right kind of history to highlight them.

I remember there were and are rationalist groups in science determined to decimate superstition. Yet, few examined the relation between inquisition and science, or dared to question the so-called opposition between science and religion, which might have been restricted to the battle between Catholicism and science. Few dare to say that what we call Western science is an Arabic creation  that if the Arabs had not translated Greek texts and annotated, there would be little of this West today. One has to re-examine the myth of the value neutrality of science which Arthur Koestler called the great myth of the 20th century. The dialogues of science and religion is an encounter that has to be replayed and enacted so that we capture the new experiments that the Dalai Lama and French monk Matthieu Ricard, who holds a PhD in molecular biology, are creating between Buddhism and modern science. Some of the annals of this debate need to be retold. One of them is the encounter between Matthieu Ricard and his father Jean-Francois Revel, the philosopher. Ricard was a promising biologist working with Nobel Laureate Francois Jacob. The day he finished his thesis, Ricard decided to become a Buddhist monk. Ricards father, the famous French philosopher, Jean-Francois Revel, questioned the decision. The Monk and the Philosopher, a record of those conversations, requires a broader audience in India.

One has to emphasise that the science column is not a mere act of reportage. It has to be seen as something more creative. I remember literary criticism lost its umbilical tie to literature when Bakhtin, Jacobsen and Barthes transformed the subject. Similarly, science studies today go beyond an ideological validation of science. As a discipline, it is autonomous. The dynamics of knowledge systems is a story societies have to understand and reflect on. In a small way, the science column contributes to that greater enterprise. At moments of crisis, during moments of controversy, where choices have to be clarified, the nature of complexity summons the storyteller, the ethicist and the philosopher become critical to the understanding of science. The science column stands at the confluence of three great efforts. It is a modest way for understanding an immodest subject. But more than that it is a constant effort to keep the public mind and public space open to the claims of science. By listening and by reporting it creates a reciprocal flow between two great inventions  science and democracy. This might be the beginning of an experiment between the two great institutions of the 21st century.
Punjabis have a feline thirst for blood. When the Lion of the Punjab  Maharaja Ranjit Singh  predicted that, after him, his kingdom would be overrun by the red of British occupation, he had not anticipated how deep that colour would seep into the soil of his beloved Punjab. It tinctures even today, 175 years after his death, the politics of this region. The release of a film titled The Black Prince is a reminder of how much or how little the politics of Punjab has changed. This low-budget film (about $5 million worth) recounts the life of Ranjit Singhs accepted son Maharaja Duleep Singh, from his turbulent accession to Ranjit Singhs golden throne in 1843 to his death as an indebted pauper in a seedy hotel in Paris in 1893. Gifted with nothing more than a contested lineage inherited from his father Ranjit Singh and from his mother Rani Jindan a pair of beautiful eyes (an admirer described them as magnificent orbs), Duleep Singh, still a child, witnessed the murderous convulsions that followed Ranjit Singhs death. Understandably, he converted from Sikhism which he associated with barbarism to the more genteel alternative  Christianity.

Transported to England, he became a bejewelled, colourful ornament at the court of Queen Victoria. He acquired a huge unaffordable estate in Norfolk where he could indulge himself in a sport in which he excelled. He was regarded as one of the top five shots in the United Kingdom. He returned to India in 1861 and being reunited with his mother, by then almost half-blind, he brought her back with him to London. Within two years, the redoubtable rani managed to dismantle the Christian persona his tutor Dr John Login and Queen Victoria had assiduously fabricated. From being three-quarters British/one-quarter Sikh, he became a full-blooded Punjabi determined to reclaim his sovereignty. His ambitions, however, exceeded his resources. Dismayed by the ennui of the czar of Russia who he had hoped would assist him organise an uprising against the British, Duleep Singh retreated penniless to Paris where he died, un-mourned, a footnote in Punjabs history.

To modern Sikhs, hungry for heroes, Duleep Singhs reversion to his paternal faith is a case study in belated nationalism, ripe for resurrection. Ignoring the advice of the writer Khushwant Singh not to make a heroic figure out of Duleep Singh (he could see the fault lines in the marble they proposed to use), reconstructions of his life such as the film The Black Prince serve Punjabis as a moveable Wailing Wall, a reminder of their lost heritage, of glories squandered, of nationhood forfeited. The producers of the film, like Duleep Singh himself, face an uphill task in reawakening Punjabi nationalism. One reason may be the attitude of Punjabis on either side of the border. The only Sikh visible in Lahores Cineplex cinema, where the film was recently screened, had bought a ticket to see a 3D action thriller showing in an adjacent hall, because he had no idea what The Black Prince or who Maharaja Duleep Singh were. History has shown that blood flows like the sixth river of Punjab. Its banks are murder and mayhem. Pakistans first prime minister Liaquat Ali Khan was assassinated in Rawalpindi in 1951. Pakistans first post-1971 prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was hanged in Rawalpindi jail in 1979. His daughter Benazir Bhutto  herself twice prime minister  lost her life in Rawalpindi in 2007. A sitting governor of Punjab, Salmaan Taseer, was gunned down in Islamabad in 2011. And in 2015, the Punjab home minister Shuja Khanzada was murdered. One has lost count of those hundreds of others  civilians and officials  who have been martyred in suicide attacks or bomb blasts because they happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Future historians will detect a level of sophistication Punjabis have perfected in recent years. Todays political assassinations use weapons that leave no smell of cordite or trace of gunpowder. They are cloaked in a lawyers brief. Liquidations are conducted in broad daylight, amplified by the media. There can be no rational-minded Pakistani who predicts a productive outcome of the gladiatorial contest between the PTI and Jamaat-i-Islami and their victim Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Should Nawaz Sharif be disqualified for being unable to justify his wealth, so will Imran Khan. Both could be faulted by the Supreme Court for suffering from accounting amnesia. Whatever may be the decision of the Supreme Court in either case, one thing is clear. Pakistan is flying on autopilot. Its cockpit is overcrowded with would-be pilots determined to snatch the joystick from the designated captain. Napoleon, a contemporary of Ranjit Singh, once explained: Anarchy is the stepping stone to absolute power. Our high-flying suicidal litigants might heed that canny Frenchmans warning.

By arrangement with Dawn
(Photo illustration) During the upcoming total solar eclipse, a team of NASA-funded scientists will observe the solar corona using stabilized telescopes aboard two of NASAs WB-57F research aircraft. This vantage point provides distinct advantages over ground-based observations, as illustrated by this composite photo of the aircraft and the 2015 total solar eclipse at the Faroe Islands. Credits: NASA/Faroe Islands/SwRI

For most viewers, the Aug. 21, 2017, total solar eclipse will last less than two and half minutes. But for one team of NASA-funded scientists, the eclipse will last over seven minutes. Their secret? Following the shadow of the Moon in two retrofitted WB-57F jet planes.

Amir Caspi of the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and his team will use two of NASAs WB-57F research jets to chase the darkness across America on Aug. 21. Taking observations from twin telescopes mounted on the noses of the planes, Caspi will capture the clearest images of the Suns outer atmosphere  the corona  to date and the first-ever thermal images of Mercury, revealing how temperature varies across the planets surface.

These could well turn out to be the best ever observations of high frequency phenomena in the corona, says Dan Seaton, co-investigator of the project and researcher at the University of Colorado in Boulder, Colorado. Extending the observing time and going to very high altitude might allow us to see a few events or track waves that would be essentially invisible in just two minutes of observations from the ground.

The total solar eclipse provides a rare opportunity for scientists to study the Sun, particularly its atmosphere. As the Moon completely covers the Sun and perfectly blocks its light during an eclipse, the typically faint corona is easily seen against the dark sky. NASA is funding 11 science projects across America for scientists to take advantage of the unique astronomical event to learn more about the Sun and its effects on Earths upper atmosphere.

The corona is heated to millions of degrees, yet the lower atmospheric layers like the photosphere  the visible surface of the Sun  are only heated to a few thousand degrees. Scientists arent sure how this inversion happens. One theory proposes that magnetic waves called Alfven waves steadily convey energy into the Suns outer atmosphere, where it is then dissipated as heat. Alternatively, micro explosions, termed nanoflares  too small and frequent to detect individually, but with a large collective effect  might release heat into the corona.

Due to technological limitations, no one has yet directly seen nanoflares, but the high-resolution and high-speed images to be taken from the WB-57F jets might reveal their effects on the corona. The high-definition pictures, captured 30 times per second, will be analyzed for wave motion in the corona to see if waves move towards or away from the surface of the Sun, and with what strengths and sizes.

We see the evidence of nanoflare heating, but we dont know where they occur, Caspi said. If they occur higher up in the corona, we might expect to see waves moving downwards, as the little explosions occur and collectively reconfigure the magnetic fields.

In this way, nanoflares may also be the missing link responsible for untangling the chaotic mess of magnetic field lines on the surface of the Sun, explaining why the corona has neat loops and smooth fans of magnetic fields. The direction and nature of the waves observed will also help distinguish between competing models of coronal heating.

The two planes, launching from Ellington Field near NASAs Johnson Space Center in Houston will observe the total eclipse for about three and a half minutes each as they fly over Missouri, Illinois and Tennessee. By flying high in the stratosphere, observations taken with onboard telescopes will avoid looking through the majority of Earths atmosphere, greatly improving image quality. At the planes cruising altitude of 50,000 feet, the sky is 20-30 times darker than as seen from the ground, and there is much less atmospheric turbulence, allowing fine structures and motions in the Suns corona to be visible.

Images of the Sun will primarily be captured at visible light wavelengths, specifically the green light given off by highly ionized iron, superheated by the corona. This light is best for showing the fine structures in the Suns outer atmosphere. These images are complementary to space-based telescopes, like NASAs Solar Dynamics Observatory, which takes images primarily in ultraviolet light and does not have the capacity for the high-speed imagery that can be captured aboard the WB-57F.

Observations of Mercury will also be taken a half-hour before and after totality, when the sky is still relatively dark. These images, taken in the infrared, will be the first attempt to map the variation of temperature across the surface of the planet.

Mercury rotates much slower than Earth  one Mercurial day is approximately 59 Earth days  so the night side cools to a few hundred degrees below zero while the dayside bakes at a toasty 800 F. The images will show how quickly the surface cools, allowing scientists to know what the soil is made of and how dense it is. These results will give scientists insight into how Mercury and other rocky planets may have formed.

The images of the corona will also allow the team to search for a hypothesized family of asteroids called vulcanoids. Its thought these objects orbit between the Sun and Mercury, and are leftover from the formation of the solar system. If discovered, vulcanoids could change what scientists understand about planet formation.

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The most natural way to extract carbon from the air is to plant forests that absorb the gas as they grow.

Scientists are sucking carbon dioxide from the air with giant fans and preparing to release chemicals from a balloon to dim the sun's rays as part of a climate engineering push to cool the planet.

Backers say the risky, often expensive projects are urgently needed to find ways of meeting the goals of the Paris climate deal to curb global warming that researchers blame for causing more heatwaves, downpours and rising sea levels.

The United Nations says the targets are way off track and will not be met simply by reducing emissions for example from factories or cars - particularly after US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the 2015 pact.

They are pushing for other ways to keep temperatures down.

In the countryside near Zurich, Swiss company Climeworks began to suck greenhouse gases from thin air in May with giant fans and filters in a $23 million project that it calls the world's first "commercial carbon dioxide capture plant".

Worldwide, "direct air capture" research by a handful of companies such as Climeworks has gained tens of millions of dollars in recent years from sources including governments, Microsoft founder Bill Gates and the European Space Agency.

If buried underground, vast amounts of greenhouse gases extracted from the air would help reduce global temperatures, a radical step beyond cuts in emissions that are the main focus of the Paris Agreement.

Climeworks reckons it now costs about $600 to extract a tonne of carbon dioxide from the air and the plant's full capacity due by the end of 2017 is only 900 tonnes a year. That's equivalent to the annual emissions of only 45 Americans.

And Climeworks sells the gas, at a loss, to nearby greenhouses as a fertiliser to grow tomatoes and cucumbers and has a partnership with carmaker Audi, which hopes to use carbon in greener fuels.

Jan Wurzbacher, director and founder of Climeworks, says the company has planet-altering ambitions by cutting costs to about $100 a tonne and capturing one percent of global man-made carbon emissions a year by 2025.

"Since the Paris Agreement, the business substantially changed," he said, with a shift in investor and shareholder interest away from industrial uses of carbon to curbing climate change.

But penalties for factories, power plants and cars to emit carbon dioxide into the atmosphere are low or non-existent. It costs 5 euros ($5.82) a tonne in the European Union.

And isolating carbon dioxide is complex because the gas makes up just 0.04 percent of the air. Pure carbon dioxide delivered by trucks, for use in greenhouses or to make drinks fizzy, costs up to about $300 a tonne in Switzerland.

Other companies involved in direct air capture include Carbon Engineering in Canada, Global Thermostat in the United States and Skytree in the Netherlands, a spinoff of the European Space Agency originally set up to find ways to filter out carbon dioxide breathed out by astronauts in spacecrafts.

Not Science Fiction

The Paris Agreement seeks to limit a rise in world temperatures this century to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit), ideally 1.5C (2.7F) above pre-industrial times.

But U.N. data show that current plans for cuts in emissions will be insufficient, especially without the United States, and that the world will have to switch to net "negative emissions" this century by extracting carbon from nature.

Riskier "geo-engineering" solutions could be a backstop, such as dimming the world's sunshine, dumping iron into the oceans to soak up carbon, or trying to create clouds.

Among new university research, a Harvard geo-engineering project into dimming sunlight to cool the planet set up in 2016 has raised $7.5 million from private donors. It plans a first outdoor experiment in 2018 above Arizona.

"If you want to be confident to get to 1.5 degrees you need to have solar geo-engineering," said David Keith, of Harvard.

Keith's team aims to release about 1 kilo (2.2 lbs) of sun dimming material, perhaps calcium carbonate, from a high-altitude balloon above Arizona next year in a tiny experiment to see how it affects the microphysics of the stratosphere.

"I don't think it's science fiction ... to me it's normal atmospheric science," he said.

Some research has suggested that geo-engineering with sun-dimming chemicals, for instance, could affect global weather patterns and disrupt vital Monsoons.

And many experts fear that pinning hopes on any technology to fix climate change is a distraction from cuts in emissions blamed for heating the planet.

"Relying on big future deployments of carbon removal technologies is like eating lots of dessert today, with great hopes for liposuction tomorrow," Christopher Field, a Stanford University professor of climate change, wrote in May.

Jim Thomas of ETC Group in Canada, which opposes climate engineering, said direct air capture could create "the illusion of a fix that can be used cynically or naively to entertain policy ideas such as 'overshoot'" of the Paris goals.

But governments face a dilemma. Average surface temperatures are already about 1C (1.8F) above pre-industrial levels and hit record highs last year.

"We're in trouble," said Janos Pasztor, head of the new Carnegie Climate Geoengineering Governance Project. "The question is not whether or not there will be an overshoot but by how many degrees and for how many decades."

Faced with hard choices, many experts say that extracting carbon from the atmosphere is among the less risky options. Leaders of major economies, except Trump, said at a summit in Germany this month that the Paris accord was "irreversible."

Barking Mad

Raymond Pierrehumbert, a professor of physics at Oxford University, said solar geo-engineering projects seemed "barking mad".

By contrast, he said "carbon dioxide removal is challenging technologically, but deserves investment and trial."

The most natural way to extract carbon from the air is to plant forests that absorb the gas as they grow, but that would divert vast tracts of land from farming. Another option is to build power plants that burn wood and bury the carbon dioxide released.

Carbon Engineering, set up in 2009 with support from Gates and Murray Edwards, chairman of oil and gas group Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, has raised about $40 million and extracts about a tonne of carbon dioxide a day with turbines and filters.

"We're mainly looking to synthesise fuels" for markets such as California with high carbon prices, said Geoffrey Holmes, business development manager at Carbon Engineering.

But he added that "the Paris Agreement helps" with longer-term options of sucking large amounts from the air.

Among other possible geo-engineering techniques are to create clouds that reflect sunlight back into space, perhaps by using a mist of sea spray.

That might be used locally, for instance, to protect the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, said Kelly Wanser, principal director of the U.S.-based Marine Cloud Brightening Project.

Among new ideas, Wurzbacher at Climeworks is sounding out investors on what he says is the first offer to capture and bury 50 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air, for $500 a tonne.

That might appeal to a company wanting to be on forefront of a new green technology, he said, even though it makes no apparent economic sense.

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Googles next flagship device Pixel 2 and its variant Pixel 2XL will come without the 3.5mm headphone jack, joining the ranks of other smartphones such as iPhone 7, HTC U 11 and Moto Z, new render leaks revealed.

MySmartPrice, a comparison and product discover platform for e-products, in collaboration with popular tipster @onleaks has released a video, revealing the design of the upcoming Google Pixel models.

In the video, the models are shown to sport a USB Type-C port at the bottom, but no 3.5mm audio jack. According to the renders used to compile the video, the two models also appear to have a brushed metallic finish and a fingerprint sensor on the back. A SIM-tray slot is seen located on the left edge, while the right edge is equipped with power and volume keys.

Apart from this, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL are rumoured to feature a 4.95-inch full HD and 5.99-inch QHD display, respectively. The smartphones are also expected to be the first two smartphones to run on Qualcomms Snapdragon 836 processor, coupled with 4GB of RAM and 128GB/64GB of memory storage options. Earlier reports have suggested that the flagships are likely to feature a squeezable frame and an Always on Display, but Google has yet to officially reveal hardware specifications of the models.

The Pixel line-up is Google's first ever self-designed hardware to compete against two dominant smartphone smartphone makersSamsung and Apple. If Google decides to stick to its last years release cycle, the next Google flagships may get released in October, a month after two major players would have already announced their flagship smartphones.

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According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Mr Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers. (File Photo)

Washington: An Indian in the US has been jailed for 30 months for illegally selling silencers, used to reduce the sound of guns, and planning to smuggle more, an American attorney said on Thursday.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, a resident of Pitampura in New Delhi, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said.

The sentencing came after he pleaded guilty before US District Judge Elizabeth Foote in Louisiana to one count of dealing firearms without a license.

According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Mr Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers.

Mr Chauhan discussed the manufacturing of silencers with the potential client by email and phone calls. He also discussed importing more silencers and parts by labelling them as "auto parts" to evade US Customs.

After they set up a meeting, he arrived in Shreveport on December 1 last year to meet the buyer and brought silencer parts with him.

He travelled to a restaurant in Louisiana's Bossier City to discuss the sale details with the buyer. Agents recorded the meeting.

Mr Chauhan did not have a license to deal or conduct a business involving silencers and parts as required by law, and the silencers and parts had travelled in foreign commerce, according to a statement by the department.
US President Donald Trump is well known for his outlandish comments on Twitter. (Photo: AFP)

New York: Most LGBT-rights activists never believed Donald Trump's campaign promises to be their friend. But with his move Wednesday to ban transgender people from military service, on top of other actions and appointments, they now see him as openly hostile.

Leaders of major advocacy groups depicted Trump's Twitter pronouncement as an appeal to the portion of his conservative base that opposes the recent civil-rights gains by the LGBT community.

"His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government - even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group GLAAD.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter. Trump's vow to end that policy was the latest, and perhaps the most stinging, of a string of actions since his election that have dismayed supporters of LGBT rights.

The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBT-rights group, depicted Trump's early-morning tweets Wednesday as a "heinous and disgusting" attack on transgender service members.

"It is also the latest effort by Trump and Mike Pence to undo our progress and drag LGBTQ people back into the closet by using our lives as political pawns," said the group's president, Chad Griffin.

Trump's pronouncement was hailed by some conservatives who have long complained that the military was undermining its effectiveness by allowing gays, lesbians and transgender people to serve openly. Opponents also have contended that the military should not bear the cost of any medical procedures related to gender transition.

"Our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically correct distractions like this one," said Tony Perkins, a former Marine who heads the conservative Family Research Council.

Mara Keisling, executive director of the National Center for Transgender Equality, denounced Trump's declaration as "simple bigotry."

"This attack has nothing to do with military readiness, reason or science," she said. "It is indefensible."

Among those dismayed by Trump's tweets was Lt. Cmdr. Blake Dremann, a transgender man who's served in the Navy for 11 years and received his latest promotion after the policy change last year.

"Trans service members are continuing to do our jobs," Dremann said. "People know who we are now and it becomes personal, especially when you've got families that are going to be affected by this."

"There are isolated cases where trans service members are treated differently because their commanders don't agree (with them serving)," he said. "We have worked with our commanders to get those incidents corrected."

Another active-duty transgender soldier, Army Capt. Jennifer Peace, said she was concerned how a possible ban would affect her and her family, as well as other transgender service members.

"My command has told me in the past the only thing that we should discriminate on is job performance, and I hope that military leadership will handle this issue the same way," Peace said in an email.

Capt. Jacob Eleazer, a transgender man who serves in the Kentucky Army National Guard, said he was stunned by Trump's action.

"Fired by tweet. It was honestly pretty shocking," said Eleazer, who took the day off from his job as a therapist in Lexington, Kentucky, to assess the situation. It's not clear yet whether Eleazer's career will be affected.

Eleazer, 31, has been in the military since 2006. In 2014, he told his superior officer he was transgender, and got full support.

Attorney Sasha Buchert, a transgender woman who works for the LGBT-rights group Lambda Legal, recalled feelings of fear and isolation while serving in the Marines in the 1980s, decades before her gender transition.

"It's not a question of whether transgender people will serve," she said. "It's a question of whether they'll be serving openly or will be hiding like they did in the old days."

Another transgender veteran, retired Army Col. Sheri Swokowski, said it's important for transgender people and their allies to push back against Trump's decree.

Swokowski, 67, of Windsor, Wisconsin, transitioned to female after retiring from the military in 2004.

"The military has taught us to fight and this administration shouldn't be surprised when we do," she said. "We need to impress upon the administration that we're not living in the dark ages."

Some examples:

-The administration rescinded federal guidance advising school districts to let transgender students use the bathrooms and locker rooms of their choice. It said state and local officials should decide the issue.

-Several of Trump's high-level appointees have solid records as opponents of LGBT-rights advances, including Vice President Mike Pence, Attorney General Jeff Sessions, and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price.

-At Trump's direction, Sessions is developing new guidance on religious liberty for federal agencies that is expected to make it easier for people with religious objections to refuse to recognize LGBT rights.

-Six members of the Presidential Advisory Council on HIV/AIDS resigned, asserting that Trump "simply does not care" about combating HIV and AIDS as it continues to beset the LGBT community.
Foundation Applauds Trump Transgender Order Contact: John Eidsmoe, Foundation for Moral Law , 334-262-1245



In 2016 President Obama announced that he was lifting the ban and allowing transgendered persons to serve in the military. But President Trump, after consulting with top military officials, determined that the admission of transgendered person could hurt military readiness and could tax an already-strained military budget.



Foundation President Kayla Moore echoed President Trump's statement, saying, "The role of the military is to win the nation's wars and defend our freedom, not engage in risky social experimentation." She added, "The Foundation has taken the lead in urging the Trump Administration to reinstate the transgender ban. Earlier this year we filed two amicus briefs on behalf of the Gloucester VA School Board in the case involving high school transgender bathrooms, and in May we wrote to Secretary of Defense Mattis urging the Department of Defense not to take this drastic step. We initiated a campaign urging our supporters to send postcards to Secretary Mattis opposing this move. We thank God that the Trump Administration has listened to our concerns and acted positively."



Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe added, "The Foundation recognizes that the Constitution delegates to Congress and the President the duty to raise and support armies and maintain and equip navies, and this implies a duty to make sure the military is a fit fighting force. Our Founder Judge Moore is a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, and I am a retired U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate. The military is dear to our hearts, and we are grateful that President Trump has ended what could have been a disastrous social experiment."

MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 27, 2017 / Christian Newswire / -- The Foundation for Moral Law, an Alabama legal foundation dedicated to the defense of the United States Constitution and traditional Judeo-Christian values, applauded President Trump's announcement today that he is reinstating the ban on transgendered persons serving in the armed forces.In 2016 President Obama announced that he was lifting the ban and allowing transgendered persons to serve in the military. But President Trump, after consulting with top military officials, determined that the admission of transgendered person could hurt military readiness and could tax an already-strained military budget.Foundation President Kayla Moore echoed President Trump's statement, saying, "The role of the military is to win the nation's wars and defend our freedom, not engage in risky social experimentation." She added, "The Foundation has taken the lead in urging the Trump Administration to reinstate the transgender ban. Earlier this year we filed two amicus briefs on behalf of the Gloucester VA School Board in the case involving high school transgender bathrooms, and in May we wrote to Secretary of Defense Mattis urging the Department of Defense not to take this drastic step. We initiated a campaign urging our supporters to send postcards to Secretary Mattis opposing this move. We thank God that the Trump Administration has listened to our concerns and acted positively."Foundation Senior Counsel John Eidsmoe added, "The Foundation recognizes that the Constitution delegates to Congress and the President the duty to raise and support armies and maintain and equip navies, and this implies a duty to make sure the military is a fit fighting force. Our Founder Judge Moore is a West Point graduate and Vietnam veteran, and I am a retired U.S. Air Force Judge Advocate. The military is dear to our hearts, and we are grateful that President Trump has ended what could have been a disastrous social experiment."

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San Francisco: Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to conduct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former financier as he sought to defeat far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources said. Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election. But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not previously been reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents. US intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them. It credited a combination of improved automated detection and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

Company officials briefed congressional committee members and staff, among others, about their findings. People involved in the conversations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account closures the company disclosed in April. Facebook did not dispute the figure.

Seeking Friends of Friends

The spying campaign included Russian agents posing as friends of friends of Macron associates and trying to glean personal information from them, according to the US congressman and two others briefed on the matter.

Facebook employees noticed the efforts during the first round of the presidential election and traced them to tools used in the past by Russias GRU military intelligence unit, said the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were discussing sensitive government and private intelligence.

Facebook told American officials that it did not believe the spies burrowed deep enough to get the targets to download malicious software or give away their login information, which they believe may have been the goal of the operation.

The same GRU unit, dubbed Fancy Bear or APT 28 in the cybersecurity industry, has been blamed for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 US presidential election and many other political targets. The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.

Email accounts belonging to Macron campaign officials were hacked and their contents dumped online in the final days of the runoff between Macron and Le Pen.

French law enforcement and intelligence officials have not publicly accused anyone of the campaign attacks.

Mounir Mahjoubi, who was digital director of Macron's political movement, En Marche, and is now a junior minister for digital issues in his government, told Reuters in May that some security experts blamed the GRU specifically, though they had no proof. Mahjoubi and En Marche declined to comment.

There are few publicly known examples of sophisticated social media spying efforts. In 2015, Britain's domestic security service, MI5, warned that hostile powers were using LinkedIn to connect with and try to recruit government workers.

The social media and networking companies themselves rarely comment on such operations when discovered.

Facebook, facing mounting pressure from governments around the world to control "fake news' and propaganda on the service, took a step toward openness with a report in April on what it termed information operations.

The bulk of that document discussed so-called influence operations, which included amplifier accounts that spread links to slanted or false news stories in order to influence public opinion.
Tejashwi Yadav today met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi here to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.



Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath at 10 AM today.



Kumar resigned as the chief minister last night. The ostensible reason for him to quit was his falling out with Tejashwi, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down as the deputy chief minister despite Kumar's exhortations.



After Kumar's meeting with the governor late last night, Tejashwi, accompanied by some RJD MLAs and leaders, marched to the Raj Bhawan to meet Tripathi.



"RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he told reporters after the meeting.



He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance the mandate to run its government for 5 years which Kumar "betrayed".



He also threatened of protests across the state against Kumar "who will find it difficult to move around".



Tejashwi claimed he had support of most JD(U) MLAs. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor- test," he said.



He said the governor told him that he has already invited Kumar for taking oath and it is not possible to take back the invitation letter.



Tejashwi was accompanied by brother Tej Pratap Yadav and senior party leaders -- Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh, and party spokesman Manoj Jha in the meeting.



He described Kumar's resignation as a "pre-planned conspiracy" between the former and the NDA, and also questioned the advancing of the oath ceremony timing from 5 PM to 10 AM.



"This whole drama was planned and Tejashwi was just an excuse for him (Kumar) to go with BJP," Tejashwi told reporters after the meeting.
With India-China military face-off in western Bhutan continuing on its 39th day, New Delhi said that it was committed to finding an amicable resolution acceptable to all the three countries.



V K Singh, Minister of State for External Affairs, told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that India was engaged with China through diplomatic channels to maintain peace and tranquillity in accordance with various bilateral agreements, Memorandums of Understanding, protocols and joint statements of 1993, 1996, 2003, 2005, 2012 and 2013.



In a written reply to questions from several MPs in the Lok Sabha, Singh said that India was committed to finding an amicable resolution acceptable to concerned countries.



His comment came even as Beijing indicated that India must withdraw its troops from Doklam Plateau in western Bhutan if it wanted to have meaningful dialogue with China.



The face-off started on June 18 when Indian Army soldiers from Doka La in Sikkim went to Doklam Plateau along the disputed China-Bhutan border to stop the personnel of Chinese People's Liberation Army from constructing a road, which would have serious security implications for India. The Chinese PLA personnel had started construction of the road two days ago brushing aside protests from the soldiers of Royal Bhutanese Army.



Singh informed the Lok Sabha that New Delhi had also conveyed to Beijing that the PLA's actions in Doklam Plateau area amounted to a significant change in the status quo in India.



He also informed that the Chinese PLA's move to build the road was not in consonance with the bilateral understandings reached between India and China under the framework of the Special Representatives on the Boundary Question since the Doklam (Plateau) area was directly relevant for determination of the tri-junction point between India, China and Bhutan.



The Minister of State for External Affairs also referred to the press-release issued by the Royal Government of Bhutan on June 29. Bhutan, according to the press release, had conveyed to China, both on the ground and through the diplomatic channel, that the construction of the road in its territory was a direct violation of the agreements between China and Bhutan signed in 1988 and 1998.



Bhutan demanded the restoration of the status quo as it had existed at Doklam Plateau, before the PLA personnel came and started building the road on June 16. India has maintained constant communication with Bhutan, said Singh.




The benchmark BSE Sensex retreated from record high levels to close flat at 32,383.30 due to selling in IT, pharma, oil and gas and technology stocks.



The Sensex closed marginally higher by 0.84 point at 32,383.30.





During the day, the barometer rallied over 260 points to touch fresh high of 32,642.91 following buying spree in financials, banks, realty, auto, IT, FMCG and oil and gas stocks.



However, late selling in blue-chips like Reliance Industries, ITC, Infosys, TCS and Bharti Airtel dragged down the index from the record level to close flat.



The 50-share Nifty of NSE scaled all-time high of 10,114.85 in day trade, but closed flat at 10,020.55 as 33 index constituents ended with losses.



Markets pared gains due to late sell-off on expiry of July series derivatives contracts and profit-booking at record levels amid disappointing earnings by some blue-chip companies, brokers said.



Dr Reddy's that reported over 57 per cent drop in net profit fell over 3 per cent and was the biggest loser among index scrips.

RIL, ITC, Infosys, TCS and Bharti Airtel fell up to 2.76 per cent.



However, strong gains in banking stocks like HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, SBI and HDFC helped the index limit losses.
Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time at the Raj Bhavan here on Thursday. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the deputy chief minister.



No other member from either the JD(U) or the BJP was sworn in. Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has asked Nitish to prove his majority in the Assembly by Saturday. The swearing-in took place a day after Nitish snapped ties with the RJD and the Congress.



Nitish will seek a trust vote in the Assembly on Friday. A one-day session has been convened during which he will move a vote of confidence.



Meanwhile, the RJD has decided to move court after it was denied the chance to form the government despite being the single-largest party in the Assembly.



In a dramatic turn of events, the swearing-in was advanced from 5 pm to 10 am as leader of the RJD Legislature Party Tejashwi Yadav was scheduled to meet the governor at 11 am.



When this news came in, Nitish, along with Sushil Modi, met Tripathi on Wednesday midnight and is believed to have urged the governor to advance the ceremony.



This was done to pre-empt any move by Tejashwi, who claimed that being the single-largest party in the Assembly (with 80 MLAs), the governor should first invite the RJD to form the government.



But Tejashwi did meet the governor in the early hours of Thursday, at 2.30 am. We will seek the courts intervention as we, despite having the majority (with Congress, CPI-ML and Independents), were denied the chance to form the government, said Tejashwi, who marched to Raj Bhavan with a five-member delegation.



Later, RJD chief Lalu Prasad appealed to his partymen not to take out any protest march to Raj Bhavan or indulge in any road blockades. His instructions came after reports poured in on the RJD supporters blocking the Ganga Bridge near Hajipur and other roads in north Bihar.



SIXTH INNINGS:

March 2000: Nitish sworn-in as CM for the first time. Quits within seven days after he fails to muster support.



November 2005: Sworn in as CM.



Nov 2010: Sworn in as CM for the third time.



Feb 2015: Replaces Jitan Ram Manjhi as CM.



Nov 2015: Takes oath as CM for the fifth time.



July 27, 2017: Sworn in as Bihar CM for the sixth time.
Three unidentified militants were killed along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of north Kashmir's Bandipora district on Thursday as army foiled yet another infiltration bid.



Defence spokesman Col Rajesh Kalia said that an infiltration bid was foiled in Gurez sector in which three militant were killed. The search operation in the area is in progress," he said.



Sources said on the intervening night of Wednesday and Thursday, Armys 13 Sikh regiments guarding the LoC near Bagtore area of Gurez noticed the movement of five to six heavily armed militants, who were trying to infiltrate into Indian territory under the cover of darkness.



As the troops challenged the infiltrators, they opened fire and tried to hide in nearby forests. The army tightened the cordon around the area and in the morning a massive search operation was launched and contact was established with the hiding militants," they said and added that three unidentified militants have been killed in the encounter so far.



Sources said the operation is still underway as additional reinforcement from other army units have been rushed to the area and vast forest area has been cordoned off.



A senior army officer said the deployment of additional troops on the LoC along the traditional infiltration routes in north Kashmirs Baramulla and Kupwara districts this year has forced the militants to infiltrate from new routes.



With additional troops, the army have placed ambush parties at new locations and places which militants and their guides don't know till they are trapped. It has helped in bringing down infiltration levels," the officer said and added that Pakistan is now trying to push the militants through the Gurez area which is jointly guarded by army and the Border Security Force (BSF).



Last week two militants were killed in the same sector while trying to infiltrate into Indian territory. In the coming weeks we expect more infiltration attempts by the militants from Gurez route and troops are ready to tackle the challenge, the officer said.



Gurez, which is more than 200 km north of Srinagar, shares a long LoC with Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK).
TMS Global Leader's Move Adds to Ranks of African Americans Serving in International Cross-cultural Mission

Richard Coleman stepping down as senior director of mobilization and candidacy to serve in Ethiopia



Contact: Ty Mays,

770-256-8710



NORCROSS, Ga., July 27, 2017 /Christian Newswire/ -- A forthcoming leadership transition at missions agency TMS Global comes at a time when it is pursuing a heightened commitment to seeing more non-whites serving in world evangelization.



After more than a decade recruiting others for service with the group, the Rev. Richard Coleman is stepping down as senior director of mobilization and candidacy to prepare for a first-hand role overseas himself. Together with his wife, Amanda, and their four children, he plans to move later this year to Ethiopia, where he will support national and regional church leaders.



During his time with TMS Global, Rev. Coleman has been influential in the organization's growing commitment to seeing more African Americans like him, and other minorities, broadening the scope of the missions workforce. Believing such an emphasis is crucial in fulfilling the "Great Commission," the organization last year announced a new commitment to diversity, better reflecting the rich breadth of God's church and kingdom.



"It makes our message more authentic," said Coleman, who leaves his position at TMS Global's Norcross, Ga., headquarters in July to join the organization's almost 200-strong team of workers serving in a wide range of ministries. "There are certain parts of the world where people have said, 'We will not believe this message until we hear it from the mouths of other people of color,'" he said. "Having that same message of hope and truth coming from another person of color can be reassuring and even add credibility to our witness."



Coleman has been committed to missions since 1998, when he went on his first short-term trip to Uganda while a student at Oral Roberts University. Upon graduation he served as the director of missions at an Atlanta megachurch before joining TMS Global in 2006, initially as manager of recruitment.



In addition to helping scores of people find their place in God's global mission, both with TMS Global and other organizations, Coleman has taught the "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement" course and led short-term missions teams to various places around the globe, including Africa and Central America. Additionally, he has also been involved in global leadership in the missions community, serving on the planning team as the global selection chair for the 2016 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering.



Coleman's commitment to seeing more believers of color serving in missions was significant in TMS Global's own diversity push. That initiative has included the 2016 appointment of the Rev. Romal Tune as full-time senior adviser to TMS Global president and CEO the Rev. Max Wilkins, and the founding earlier this year of an African American Mobilization Advisory Board comprising influential leaders representing a broad range of African American churches.



Ordained by the Evangelical Church Alliance International in 2014,Coleman has been encouraged to see others embrace the work of diversifying the North American sending force. Knowing that others are stepping up helped him to step out into his own desire to serve abroad.



"Knowing that African Americans made up less than 0.6 percent of the full-time sending force from America, I felt like maybe my calling was to stay behind and help change that reality," he said. "But over the years I began to feel I was fulfilling a role that others could now fulfill."



Wilkins paid tribute to Coleman's contributions to TMS Global and the wider missions community:

"We're grateful for the way Richard has championed the need for greater diversity in missions, and having pointed the way for others, is now showing the way personally," he said. "We hope we can help many others follow his example, so that as a global church we more fully embody and reflect the truth of the message we proclaim -- that the good news of Jesus is for everyone, everywhere."

TMS Global (www.tms-global.org) mobilizes and equips the body of Christ to share the good news of the gospel, with an emphasis on the least-reached peoples of the world. Workers are engaged in a wide range of dynamic, culturally-sensitive ministries, from training and leadership development to literacy, medical care and relief aid.



To schedule an interview with a representative of TMS Global, contact Ty Mays at (770) 256-8710 or tmays@inchristcommunications.com.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will seek a trust vote in the Assembly on Friday. A one-day session has been convened on July 28 where Nitish, now heading an NDA government, will move a vote of confidence.



This was decided at a Cabinet meeting here chaired by Nitish and attended by his deputy Sushil Kumar Modi. Since no other ministers were sworn in on Thursday, there was no other politician at the meet. The Cabinet annulled its earlier order to convene Monsoon session of Assembly from July 28. Under the new dispensation, it was decided to hold a one-day House session on Friday where trust vote would take place, said Principal Secretary, Cabinet Coordination, Brajesh Mehrotra.



Nitish enjoys the support of 71 JD (U) MLAs besides 53 BJP legislators, two MLAs each from LJP and RLSP and one HAM legislator, Jitan Ram Manjhi, in the 243-member House. The RJD, which has 80 MLAs, has decided to move court after it was denied the chance to form the government despite being single largest party in the Assembly.
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today said the frequent change of stand by Nitish Kumar does not show him in good light.



Singh was in the national capital to attend the court proceedings in a disproportionate assets case against him, his wife Pratibha Singh and others.





Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned yesterday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.



Kumar was today sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also administered the oath by Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi in Patna.



"I do not want to comment much on this issue. However, his continuous change of stand does not show him in good light," Singh said.



Meanwhile, special CBI judge Virender Kumar Goel directed the central probe agency to hand over certain documents, filed along with the charge sheet, to the accused persons.
The Lok Sabha today saw a verbal clash between the ruling side and the opposition, with the Congress demanding immediate debate on the lynching issue while the BJP sought apology from the Congress members suspended for throwing papers towards the Speaker.



Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said his party had given a notice on June 5 for a discussion on the lynching issue and has been giving adjournment notices.



He claimed that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was ready for it but not the government.



Seeking an immediate debate, he said his party would not raise the issue of the revocation of its six members' suspension if the House took up the lynching issue for discussion.



Mohammad Salim (CPI-M) wondered if the concept of adjournment notice should be removed from the rule book, leading to a brief uproar.



"If an adjournment notice is not accepted on such an issue (lynching), then what is the point of having it," he asked, claiming that over 50 people have been killed in mob violence.





Mahajan said Salim could not challenge the Speaker as she noted that she only disallowed the notices for suspending the Question Hour but never denied a discussion on the issue.



"I have always been willing to allow a debate," she said.



Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool Congress) also supported the demand for a discussion on lynchings, saying it was the most important issue. "Let's start a discussion," he said.



Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government was always ready for a debate on the issue but it was the House's decision to take up the matter of agriculture crisis first.



He then launched a sharp attack on the Congress for its members' protest in the House during which they threw paper balls towards the Chair, a charge denied by Opposition members.



Had he thrown paper balls towards a woman Speaker outside Parliament, it would have invited a criminal case, Kumar claimed, saying Parliament was the temple of democracy and the Opposition party should tender an apology.



He made another comment aimed at the Congress but it was expunged by the Speaker.

Congress members later trooped into the Well, raising slogans and carrying placards even as the Speaker carried on with the proceedings.
In what would give the sleepless night to Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, the Maharashtra government on Thursday told the Bombay High Court that if prison rules were flouted in his early release he could be sent back to jail.



If there are any discrepancies (in remission and subsequent early release) and (we) realise that rules have been flouted by the state in Sanjay Dutts case then they will send him back to the jail, advocate general Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said.



He, however, said that the actor was not given any preferential treatment.



However, the division bench comprising justice R M Savant and Justice Sadhana Jadhav, which is hearing a PIL challenging his early release, orally observed: We do not have any such intentionbut we wish to reaffirm that the due process of law has been followed or notwe do not want to set the clock back in time.



Earlier this year, a PIL was filed by Nitin Shivram Satpute challenging the release of the actor from jail ahead of eight months.



Dutt, 57, the son of the actor-politician couple, late Sunil Dutt and Nargis, was convicted of keeping an AK-56 rifle that was part of the consignment that landed ahead of the 12 March 1993 serial blasts in Mumbai. He walked free on 25 February 2016, after completing his sentence in Punes Yerawada jail.



"We only want to know on what basis and criteria he was granted early remission on good conduct? How is this good conduct and behaviour ascertained? Our conscience has to be satisfied that all this was done in accordance with law," the justice Savant wanted to know.



"Dutt got furlough first for his wife's illness, then parole on grounds of his daughter's illness. We have seen cases where the convict's mother is ill and on her death bed but still parole or furlough is not given," justice Jadhav pointed out and directed the Maharashtra government to file a detailed affidavit within two weeks.
As many as 122 children from Kota and Bundi districts, who had gone missing, have been rescued under an ongoing special drive, 'Operation Muskan III', officials have said.





Many of these children have been reunited with their families under the month-long initiative, they said.



As many as 79 minors have been rescued in Kota, which included 42 children who were working as labourers, said in- charge of the anti-human trafficking cell in the district Dharmraj Singh Ranawat.



In Bundi, 43 children have been rescued, said in-charge of the district's anti-human trafficking cell Kaniz Fatima.



She said 11-year-old Pooja and her brother (8) were allegedly forced to work as bonded labourers for over a year by a woman identified as Suman Sharma (60).



The boy was rescued on July 22 from Ramganjbalaji after he managed to flee Sharma's home.



Based on his information, officials of the anti-human trafficking cell rescued his sister and arrested the accused woman, Fatima said, adding the two siblings were reunited with their mother.



The accused was on Monday produced before a local court that sent her to judicial custody, she said.



'Operation MuskanIII' started on July 1 across Rajasthan to rescue children who had either gone missing or fled home.
A day after Nitish Kumar pulled out of Grand Alliance in Bihar, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) said it has registered a case of money laundering against RJD chief Lalu Prasad and family members in connection with "irregularities" in handing over two hotels when he was Railway Minister.



The ED case is based on a CBI FIR filed on July 7 against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, their son Tejashwi Yadav, who was Deputy Chief Minister, and five others, in the case linked to allotting BNR hotels to Patna-based hoteliers. Sources said the ED action came after taking cognisance of the CBI FIR.



Sources said the ED officials may soon summon the accused to record their statements.



According to the CBI, Prasad allegedly conspired with others to grant Sujata Hotel Pvt Ltd (SHPL) the control of BNR hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006 by circumventing procedures and for a consideration of a three-acre prime plot in Patna, which could now fetch around Rs 94 crore. The plot was first given to a firm in which his close aide Prem Chand Gupta's wife Sarla is a Director and later transferred to Prasad's family.



Other accused are Sarla, former IRCTC Managing Director P K Goel, SHPL Directors Vijay and Vinay Kochhar and LARA Projects LLP.



The FIR filed by CBI has precipitated the crisis in the JD(U)-RJD-Congress alliance government after Chief Minister Kumar insisted that Tejashwi should quit in light of the FIR. However, after Prasad rejected the demand, Kumar resigned. He was sworn in on Thursday with the support of BJP.



Kumar has been maintaining that probity in public life is important and if Tejashwi needed to continue in the Cabinet, he should defend himself satisfactorily in public.
India struck a conciliatory note on the 42nd day of its miliary face-off with China near the Bhutan tri-junction border, stating that it wanted to strengthen its development partnership with Beijing.



External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that India would like to strengthen the closer development partnership that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping launched in September 2014.



She dismissed Congress MP T Subbarami Reddy's allegation that India was playing the role of a mute spectator to the atrocities committed on Tibetans by China.



We have never been a mute spectator. Whenever India had differences with China, we have put forward our views, Sushma said during the Question Hour.



Her remarks came on a day when National Security Advisor Ajit Doval was in Beijing to attend a meeting of the BRICS (a bloc comprising Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) High Representatives responsible for national security. Doval had a bilateral meeting with China's state councillor Yang Jiechi on the sideline of the BRICS meeting.



Doval and Yang are also Special Representatives of India and China, respectively, for negotiations to resolve the boundary dispute. During Xi's maiden visit to New Delhi in September 2014 had seen him and Modi agreeing to build a closer developmental partnership.



They had also agreed to make it a core component of India-China strategic and cooperative partnership for peace and prosperity.



Sushma on Thursday referred to the Xi-Modi agreement for closer development partnership in a written reply to a question by AIADMK Rajya Sabha member N Gokulakrishnan, who had asked if the Union government was aware that China had of late cancelled a proposed visit by journalists from India to the Tibet Autonomous Region.



Both sides agree that stronger people to people relationship contributes to enhanced mutual trust and understanding and provides a durable foundation for the continuous development of the bilateral partnership, said Sushma. Vibrant and diversified exchanges in the field of media, including mutual visits of journalists, is an important component of the agreed template between India and China.
Pakistan's Supreme Court today concluded hearing the sensitive Panama Papers case against beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption and money laundering, but reserved its verdict that could jeopardise his political future.



The judgment was reserved after counsels of both sides concluded their arguments before a three-judge bench of the apex court headed by Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan. The bench did not immediately give any date to give its judgement.



Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed observed that the court will not deviate from any law while delivering its judgement. "We are conscious of the fundamental rights of petitioners and respondents," he said.



The apex court also opened the final part of the 10- Volume report submitted by the Joint

Investigation Team it had set up to probe the allegations of money laundering by Sharif.



The six-member JIT was set up in May by the Supreme Court with the mandate to probe the Sharif family for allegedly failing to provide the trail of money used to buy properties in London in 1990s.



The JIT has recommended that the report's Volume-X should be treated as confidential as it contains the details of correspondence with other countries.



Sharif's legal team has objected to it. Sharif, 67, has rejected all the allegations of corruption against him and his family.



But the JIT report is turning into a major challenge to Sharif, the three-time prime minister. Opposition parties accuse his family of using their political influence to amass wealth by unlawful means and are demanding his resignation.



So far Sharif has refused to quit, calling the investigators' report a compilation of "allegations and assumptions". His decision to stay in power was endorsed by the federal Cabinet last week.



Exercising their right to respond to the arguments by defence lawyers, the petitioners in their brief remarks urged the apex court to disqualify Sharif and order a trial against him for allegedly hiding assets and failing to disclose the sources of income used to set up businesses by his children.



"The prime minister has failed to give satisfactory answer to the allegation of money laundering and should be disqualified," argued the lawyer of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan, one of the petitioners against Sharif.



The opposition parties in Pakistan have taken on Sharif seeking his disqualification after the Panama Papers last year revealed that he and his sons - Hassan and Hussain - and his daughter Maryam - owned offshore companies which managed their family's properties. The assets in question include four expensive flats in Park Lane, London.



But the judges hearing the case have made observations that Sharif and his children have been unable to satisfy the court about the sources of money used to buy these properties.



The Supreme Court decision in the case is keenly awaited as it would determine the course of Pakistan's polity and with it Sharif's. An adverse decision may result in Sharif's disqualification and even snap elections.



The scandal surfaced when the Panama Papers leaks last year revealed that Sharif's sons -- Hassan Nawaz and Hussain Nawaz -- and his daughter Maryam -- owned offshore companies which managed their family's properties.
The district administration of Kendrapara today shifted a mentally deranged chained stage actress to government-run mental health institute in Cuttack for treatment.





The parents of the sick actress had put her in chains as she often displayed into abnormal and violent behaviour. The sick woman was shifted to Cuttack for psychiatric treatment.



The administration took up the case in a humanitarian gesture because her parents were impoverished. The cost of treatment is being borne by the district administration from the District Red Cross Society funds.



The Chief District Medical Officer has been directed to keep health update of the sick woman, said Kendrapara Collector, Reghu G.



Not long back, her good looks and brilliant character portrayal on stage won her both money and accolades. But with destiny playing cruel joke upon her, the 25-year-old tribal woman from seaside Baraja village in Kendrapara district is now in chains!



The village actress who performed lead roles in drama troupes and operas is hit by psychiatric disorder. And abject poverty has forced impoverished parents to chain their daughter for nearly three years, as the cost of treating the psychiatric disorder was too exorbitant on their part.



"I am a landless person. I toil in the field to earn livelihood. With my limited resources, I tried my level best to treat her. But cost of treatment was too high. Due to lack of medication, her condition aggravated. We are now forced to put her in chains as she is turning violent," said Siba Lodha Sasmal, father of the mentally-ill woman.



The rights activists, however, maintained that a lunatic man has the right for a decent living. In such cases, the government agencies are duty bound to shoulder the responsibility of extending medical aid to these people and rescue them from the ignominy of 'caged animal', said rights activist Binayak Swain.
As north Gujarat recovers from heavy rain and floods, the focus of the monsoon seems to have turned towards the south from late Wednesday night.



Residents of state capital Gandhinagar and its commercial hub Ahmedabad woke up to a veritable deluge as the downpour in both the cities left 7 and 7.5 inches of water overnight.



Several parts of the city were submerged as water rose to waist level in the housing societies on the east side.



Local authorities engaged rubber boats to provide food packets and water pouches to marooned citizens.



Authorities ordered closure of educational institutions and appealed to the residents not to leave their homes.



Incessant rain has also forced commercial establishments and offices to remain closed until the second half of Thursday.



Aircraft were left stranded at the waterlogged Sardar Patel International Airport. About five flights were diverted to Mumbai on Thursday morning, while a few others were delayed by up to an hour, though authorities claimed there were no problems in flight schedule.



Twenty-one trains were cancelled at the Ahmedabad division of the Western Railways and 14 of them short-terminated. The Met department has predicted heavy to very heavy rain for the next two days in Central and North Gujarat, including districts of Patan, Mehsana, Sabarkantha, Panchmahal, Aravalli, Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Kheda, Anand, Saurashtra and Kutch.



Gujarat Deputy Chief Minister said eight more teams of the NDRF would join 18 NDRF, 11 SDRF, six Army columns, 25 IAF helicopters, six teams of BSF jawans and other local government officials in rescue operations, especially in the north Gujarat districts deluged for the past few days.



Over 54,000 people were evacuated and 126 people have died in the rains that continued to batter the state.



Heavy rains in Rajasthan up north has raised the prospect of floods in several villages and Dhanera town in Banaskantha district, especially after release of water from the Sipu dam on Thursday evening.



The state has announced Rs 4 lakh financial compensation to the next of kin of those killed in the rains, which will be in addition to the Rs 2 lakh announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this week.



Floods claim 600 lives

At least 600 people died in the floods and 2.26 lakh were rendered homeless, the Centre informed Parliament on Thursday.



Responding to a calling attention motion on the flood situation in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju assured the lawmakers that the NDA government would not discriminate among the states in disbursing additional funding support once the damage assessment was made by a central panel.



Six hundred people died in the flood...the number of inmates in the flood relief camp are 2,25,998. More than 2.40 lakh hectares of crop land has been affected, he said.



As many as 20 states, including Assam and Arunachal Pradesh in the northeast, and Gujarat and Rajasthan in the west, are ravaged by flood waters.



As several leaders alleged discrimination by the Centre in the wake of Prime Minister Narendra Modis Rs 500-crore flood relief announcement for Gujarat, Rijiju clarified that the money was due to the state.



No allocation has been made from the National Disaster Relief Fund. All states have emergency money to deal with natural calamities. There is no pending case at the Centre, Rijiju said. The junior home minister pointed out that most states have failed to utilise the entire money allocated for disaster relief and mitigation.


British liquor giant Diageo today said it has asked beleaguered businessman Vijay Mallya to return USD 40 million paid to him as part of the USD 75 million (Rs 515 crore) sweetheart deal for his exit from United Spirits Ltd.



Diageo has stopped payment of USD 7 million a year to Mallya as part of the deal and sought compensation for the losses incurred by it.



The British firm had agreed to pay Mallya, who now lives in the UK after Indian banks approached courts to recover money lent to his now defunct airline, USD 75 million over five years as global non-compete and non-interference fee post his exit from United Spirits Ltd (USL).



Citing violation of the agreement by Mallya, Diageo has also ruled out the future instalments to him, saying "it was not liable to pay such amount."



"Diageo and other group companies have demanded from Mallya the repayment of USD 40 million which was paid by Diageo on 25 February 2016, and also sought compensation from him for various losses incurred by the relevant members of the Diageo group on account of the breaches committed by him," Diageo said in its Preliminary Results for the year ended June 30, 2017.



Diageo has paid USD 40 million of the total USD 75 million on signing of the Agreement on February 25, 2016, while the balance USD 35 million was to be paid in equal instalments of USD 7 million a year over five years.

This was subject to and conditional on Mallyas compliance, with certain terms of the agreement, it added.



"While the first instalment of USD 7 million would have become due on 25 February 2017, owing to various reasons, including breaches of several provisions of the 25 February Agreement committed by Mallya, Diageo believes that it was not liable to pay such amount, and is very unlikely to become liable to pay future instalments, to Mallya," said Diageo.



Diageo's agreement with Mallya also provided for the five-year global non-compete, non-interference, non- solicitation and standstill commitments.



This also had clauses as Mallya's resignation from USL and the termination of his USL-related appointment and governance rights, the relinquishing of rights and benefits attached to his position at USL, and his agreement not to pursue claims against Diageo and USL.



In July 2016, United Spirits disclosed Rs 1,225.3 crore worth fund diversion and improper transactions with entities associated with Mallya, including Kingfisher Airlines and his Formula One team.



Making it clear that the settlement reached earlier with Mallya would cover the latest disclosures, USL -- now controlled by Diageo -- had said the former Chairman would be liable for claims over the amount.



Several banks have declared him wilful defaulter for failing to pay back loans amounting to thousands of crores. A consortium of 17 banks led by SBI has been trying to recover dues of over Rs 9,000 crore from the now defunct Kingfisher Airlines, which was promoted by Mallya.
National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi on Thursday discussed major problems in bilateral ties, the foreign ministry here said.



This is the first high-level meeting between India and China since the military standoff erupted in the Sikkim Sector on June 16.



The Chinese foreign ministry, in a brief readout, said Yang elaborated Chinas position on bilateral issues and major problems, which is being seen as an apparent reference to the standoff in the Dokalam area. Chinas state-run Xinhua news agency also reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil.



Though there were no direct references to the Sikkim standoff in the Xinhua report, it said the talks between Doval and Yang included bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs.



Though China had maintained that there wont be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, India has been arguing that the unilateral action by China to build a road in the area was altering the status quo and had serious security implications for India.



India has also been pitching for diplomatic solution to resolve the standoff but sought simultaneous withdrawal of troops of both the sides from the tri-junction with Bhutan.



However, the Chinese official media has been carrying a blistering campaign accusing India of trespassing into the Chinese territory.
When Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Chief Minister of Bihar here on Thursday, it was for the sixth time in the last 17 years that he was administered the oath of office. Of these six occasions, he has donned the mantle with the support of BJP on four times.



Known as an able administrator who established the rule of law in an otherwise lawless State, Nitishs gamble of aligning with estranged partners may not fetch him rich political dividends anymore in future. After all, his credibility has been widely eroded if one takes into account the developments in the last 24 hours here in Bihar.



The hush-hush manner in which he first submitted his resignation to the Governor and then invited BJP leaders for dinner, followed by confabulations with an ailing Governor in the midnight (of Wednesday) where he preponed his swearing-in, shows his lack of confidence in self as well as his new-found ally  the BJP.



Political observers, who have covered Nitish for the last three decades, argue that so rattled was Nitish on Wednesday that he wanted to be sworn-in as early as possible and prove his wafer-thin majority in the House before the return of Lalu Prasad from Ranchi.



Lalu was in Jharkhand capital to attend proceedings in a CBI court hearing fodder scam cases. Lalu, whose RJD is the single largest party in the Assembly, was originally supposed to return on Saturday but came back to Patna on Thursday evening after the case was adjourned.



Nitish had apparently some kind of apprehension that if Lalus RJD stakes claim to form the Government with the support of Congress and others, there could be a political turmoil in the State where governance has already taken a backseat, said political commentator Ajay Kumar.



His observation was not wide off the mark as Lalu, addressing a press conference in Ranchi, cited the SR Bommai judgement and said being the single largest party (80 RJD MLAs in 243-member Assembly), the RJD should have been invited first to form the Government.



The Governors action, as well as Nitishs decision (to jettison RJD and join hands with BJP), made RJD supporters so angry that it spilled over on to the streets. Roads were blocked since 4 am in North Bihar to protest Nitishs action till Lalu called upon his supporters to abandon their agitation plan.



Such anger was visible in June 2013 too when Nitish severed ties with his 17-year-old ally the BJP, with whose support he served as Union Minister as well as Bihar Chief Minister. The way Nitish Kumar has betrayed the mandate does not augur well. One cant befool all the people all the time, lamented Bihar Congress president Ashok Choudhary who till yesterday was Education Minister in Nitishs Cabinet.



Lalu was more forthcoming. Nitish has been trapped by the BJP. The way he deserts his alliance partners every now and then, no body is going to trust Nitish anymore. This will be his last innings as the Chief Minister as he an opportunist of the highest order, said Lalu, who has known Nitish since his student days in the mid-70s.
The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed stormy exchanges between BJP and Congress MP after MPs from the ruling party raised the issue of Samjhauta Express train blast of 2005.



During Zero Hour, BJP MP Shiv Pratap Shukla referred to a video of purported narco-test related to the train blast being shown on a TV channel and said the blast on Samjhauta Express took place because of involvement of Pakistan. The train plies between New Delhi and Lahore and was carried out by Lashkar-e-Taiba and SIMI jointly, he said.



He alleged that the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the then UPA government coined a new name "Hindu terrorism" and said the then UPA government had "betryaed" the country.



Another BJP MP Subramanian Swamy said the House has the right to know whether it is a "fact that there is a video" and demanded an explanation from the government.



Congress' Digvijay Singh intervened and said the BJP is trying to save the accused in the blast. Though Pakistan-based terrorists were initially blamed for the terror strike, NIA arrested several Hindutva activists for the blast, including Swami Aseemanand.



Singh's remarks resulted in a heated argument and another BJP MP La Ganesan demanded that Congress should publicly apologise for coining the term "Hindu terrorism".



Singh again intervened and said that there was a "collusion" between the government and the TV channel which has played out the video. He said the Ministry of Home Affairs should authenticate the points raised by BJP members.



Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said he would go through the records and if something has been quoted, it should be authenticated.
The announcement of Kashmiri militant Zakir Musa taking over as the head of an al-Qaida cell has virtually divided the militant ranks in the Valley with Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Hizb-ul-Mujahideen categorically rejecting any role of the international terror organization in the state.



According to The Guardian, Musa, a former Hizbul commander, has been announced as the head of a newly created al-Qaida cell, Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind, in Jammu and Kashmir and it was revealed in a statement released on Thursday by "Global Islamic Media Front, an al-Qaida-affiliated information network.



After the martyrdom of heroic Mujahid Burhan Wani the Jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening, as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir has committed to carry the flag of Jihad to repel the aggression of tyrant Indian invaders, and through Jihad, and with the aid of Allah only, we will liberate our homeland Kashmir, it said.



For this goal, a new movement of Jihad has been founded by the companions of martyr Burhan Wani under the leadership of Mujahid Zakir Musa, the statement added.



J&K Police confirms announcement



State Police chief Shesh Pal Vaid confirmed the announcement by the social media cell of the terror group. Something has come on social media, we are looking into the matter, he said. However, Vaid added: For us a terrorist is a terrorist, no matter what organization he belongs to.



LeT, Hizbul reject role of international terror organization



Hours after the Qaida announcement, LeT chief Mahmood Shah in an emailed statement to local news gathering agencies claimed that India was trying to label the legitimate freedom struggle of Kashmir as terrorism by implying al-Qaida and ISIS into the Valley. Al-Qaida and ISIS thrive on takfeer (infidelity). All they have done has just greatly affected the Muslims and brought upon the injustice, brutality and oppression, he said.



After LeT, Pakistan based United Jihad Council (UJC) also rejected role of al-Qaida, ISIS type terror organizations in Kashmir. The UJC chief, Syed Salah-ud-Din, who was recently declared as a terrorist by US State Department, in a video released on social networking sites said, It is an Indian ploy to create Syria and Iraq type of bloodshed in Kashmir so as to demonize and fail the Kashmiris struggle for Azadi for Islam.



Musa, who had taken over as Hizbul chief after its previous commander, Burhan Wani, was killed by security forces in an encounter on July 8, 2016, had stirred up a hornets nest in May when he threatened to chop off heads of those separatist leaders who claim the Kashmir struggle as political and not Islamic.



Consequently, Hizbul commanders based in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir termed his statement as unacceptable and termed it as his personal opinion. Following the snub, Musa disassociated from the militant outfit.



On June 6, Musa, an engineering college dropout, dropped first hints of joining the al-Qaida when he urged Indian Muslims to join Islamic jihad for 'Ghazwa-e-Hind' (the final and last battle for the conquest of India). Against a black al-Qaeda banner, with a world map added along with and two Kalashnikovs rifles emblazoned on two sides, Musa urged Indian Muslims to stand up against oppression and launch jihad against gau rakshaks (cow protectors). It's a war between Islam and the infidels, he declared in his first direct address to Indian Muslims.
In secret, behind locked gates, our Nation's Oldest City dumped a landfill in a lake (Old City Reservoir), while emitting sewage in our rivers and salt marsh. Organized citizens exposed and defeated pollution, racism and cronyism. We elected a new Mayor. We're transforming our City -- advanced citizenship. Ask questions. Make disclosures. Demand answers. Be involved. Expect democracy. Report and expose corruption. Smile! Help enact a St. Augustine National Park and Seashore. We shall overcome!
Bengaluru-based bio-pharma major Biocon on Thursday reported a steep 51% year-on-year decline in net profit at Rs 81 crore for the first quarter ended June 30, 2017 compared with Rs 167 crore in the corresponding quarter last year.



The decline in profits is mainly attributed to higher staff costs and inclusion of operational and fixed costs related to Malaysia facility. The net profit margin also declined to 8% against 15% in the year ago quarter.



The companys revenues witnessed a marginal decline of 4% at Rs 988 crore compared with Rs 1,033 crore in the first quarter last year due to the combined impact of a stronger rupee, GST and the one-time positive impact in Q1FY17 on account of the transition to IndAS. Its EBITDA declined 19% to Rs 246 crore during the quarter compared with Rs 304 crore in June quarter last year. The Core EBITDA margin was lower by 4 percentage at 29% from 33% a year ago. Interest and depreciation costs increased 60% to Rs 115 crore for the quarter, largely attributable to the Malaysia facility.



Our Biologics business had a strong quarter led by insulins sales. Financial performance was muted largely due to a combination of factors such as weakening of US dollar, GST impact, and inclusion of operational and fixed costs of Malaysia, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, CMD, Biocon said.



A major milestone during this quarter was the USFDA Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee (ODAC) recommendation for approval of its biosimilar Trastuzumab. It also received regulatory approvals from the Indian regulator for biosimilar Bevacizumab.


The Lok Sabha on Thursday passed Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016 that seeks to improve the Ease of Doing Business through simplifying capital raising by companies.



The bill that proposes to remove the restrictions on layers of investment in companies and its subsidiaries was passed through a voice vote.



Replying to discussions on the Bill, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal said that the changes in companies law would help the country move higher in the rankings in the Ease of Doing Business index.



The bill proposes stringent punishment for defaulting companies and makes compliance easier. It facilitates greater flexibility in incorporation of companies and allows independent directors to have pecuniary interest up to 10% in companies.



It proposes to amend section 42 which lays down the framework for private placement of securities. Private placement refers to offer of securities by a company to a select group of persons, as opposed to a public offer.



With the aim to simplify the filing process, the bill proposes to do away with the requirement of issuing a separate offer letter to private individuals. It also proposes to do away with the requirement of recording such offers with the Registrar of Companies.



The other important proposals in the bill include deletion of provisions related to insider trading, definition of beneficial interest and limiting the liability of auditors and audit firms in fraud cases.
The CBI on Thursday arrested two engineers of Military Engineer Services (MES) on charges of graft. The arrested are - Lt Colonel Jesweer Singh B, a garrison engineer, and Chowhan, an assistant garrison engineer, both working at MES, Karwar.



The complainant, a civil contractor, stated that the officials demanded Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, for clearing the pending bills and the payments. The complainant had executed civil works on the MES premises.



It was stated that as first instalment, the accused officials had respectively demanded Rs 50,000 in the form of gold and cash. The CBI laid a trap and Jesweer Singh was caught red-handed while accepting 30 gold coins, weighing 15 gm and a single malt Scotch whiskey bottle and the assistant garrison engineer was caught red-handed while accepting Rs 50,000 from the complainant. Searches are being conducted on the premises of the accused officials. The officials will be produced before the competent court, an official said.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars decision to walk out of the Grand Alliance and form a government with the BJP has surprised the JD(U) leaders.



Rajya Sabha MP Ali Anwar Ansari says the decision will harm the party.

The JD(U) leader spoke to DHs Shemin Joy. Excerpts:



Q: How do you see this development?

A: It is unfortunate. It was not discussed in the party forum. A meeting was scheduled for July 23 but it did not happen. If it was held and the issue had come up, I would have said it is a wrong move. In the next meeting, I will express my views.



Q: Do you think Nitish is an opportunist?

A: I respect him. I will not make such comments. That is not right. But I will say the move will cause greater harm and lesser gain. He listened to his inner voice (to go to the NDA) and I will listen to mine.



Q: Why do you object the move?

A: The issues on which we parted ways with the BJP still stand and those reasons have become stronger. When we joined the NDA, Nitish told us that the BJP was changing.

He said the BJP was getting softer. But when Modi rose to power, Nitish said the BJP was getting aggressive.



Now, what has changed? The aggression by the BJP has increased...there is mob lynching, farmer suicides and Dalit atrocities.



Q: How will Nitishs move affect the country?

A: People of India had high hopes on Nitish. Those hopes have been dashed. He had once managed to dent Modis popularity.
Chief of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) Bimal Gurung warning that the agitation for a separate state, a Gorkhaland, will turn terrible, now rolling for over a month, must rekindle the dark days of Darjeeling when it was reeling under curfews for months on end under the Left Front dispensation.



Gurung, as part of the Gorkha Volunteer Corps in 1980s, cut his teeth on the Gorkhaland agitation during 1986-88, the most violent phase that saw a bloodbath with 1,200 people losing their lives. That was the heyday of Subhash Ghising of Gorkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) calling the shots.



After a peace pact was brokered, presided trilaterally by the Centre, West Bengal government and the GNLF in 1988, the Darjeeling Hill District Council (DHDC) was set up, later to be brought under the sixth schedule of the Constitution giving it autonomy and protection as tribal area.



Unhappy over the eventual sell-out of Ghising and his act of betrayal on the demand of statehood, Gurung, once his protege, fell out with him. Gurung then formed the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM). The GJM also fell foul of Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) as it was way short of the quantum of autonomy promised to it.



Now rallying around a fresh demand for statehood, it looks like the agitation is in for a long haul going by the solidarity of GJM and other hill parties, including the GNLF. The GNLF is an ally of the ruling Trinamool Congress in West Bengal. All the hill parties have adopted an unanimous resolution seeking the separate state of Gorkhaland.



While the GJM is an ally of the BJP and part of the NDA, and now viscerally opposed to the ruling TMC in West Bengal, its joining hands with GNLF should occasion enough heartburn to the TMC. The ruling party is loath to the idea of a further division of West Bengal.



In the 2014 elections, BJP leader S S Ahluwalia became a Member of Parliament from Darjeeling with the GJM support. While condemning state-sponsored oppression and urging Mamata to take corrective measures, Ahluwalia has been diplomatic enough to reserve his comments on whether the BJP favours the demand for statehood, which being so, is liable to seriously dent whatever headway the BJP has gained in the plains of West Bengal.



Since the niggling question of statehood continues to surface over and

over again, the BJP must come clean on its stand. It has always hobnobbed with Darjeeling and with the sentiments of the Gorkhas. Former BJP heavyweight Jaswant Singh, a total stranger to

Darjeeling, won on the specious plea that he would serve as an advocate for Gorkhaland.



One reason for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) hesitating to commit itself now, might be that it nurses electoral ambitions to reap an electoral windfall in West Bengal, with the shrewd understanding that conceding statehood and thus bifurcating West Bengal, one of two Indian states bearing the brunt of Partition, might not go down well the electorate in the rest of the state.



In the 1980s, the demand for statehood in Jharkhand and Uttarakhand became strident by which time the Congress dominance was replaced by the emergence of the BJP as a national party capable of challenging the Congress erstwhile political hegemony.



The movement for a separate Jharkhand was rejuvenated during this period by responses to the efforts of the Congress to co-opt within its organisation less radical elements of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) social movement, and by backing the demand for statehood received from the BJP as they craved increased political support and power in the regions electoral sphere.



It is interesting to see that the last time around, the long-dormant agitation for a Gorkhaland state was triggered in 2013 by the decision taken by the UPA government to create Indias 29th state, Telangana. The Congress concession inspired regional leaders to seize the moment and use the run-up to parliamentary election in 2014 as leverage to drive home their claims for separate statehood.



More demands



The Congress conceded Telangana with a lust for most of that regions 17 parliamentary seats in the next election, either directly or through an alliance with the local political party that has led the agitation for statehood.



According to an estimate, India may have at least 50 states in future, compared to todays 29, should the home ministry pay heed to all the representations for creation of more than 20 states. They include Kukiland in Manipur to Kongu Nadu in Tamil Nadu, for Kamatapur in North Bengal to Kodagu in Karnataka  besides the demand for statehood for the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra, for the Bodoland region of Assam, for creation of Awadh Pradesh, Poorvanchal, Bundelkhand and Pachimanchal or Harit Pradesh in Uttar Pradesh.



The demand for Bodoland, an area inhabited by ethnic minority Bodos, part of the north-eastern state of Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh is somewhat akin to the demand for Gorkhaland for Gorkhas, a majority ethnic group with Nepalese ancestry.



Before the ruling dispensation ponders over the feasibility of whether a measly area of about 3,149 sq km with three Assembly seats and only a part of a Lok Sabha seat comprising a population of 12 lakh can be granted statehood, it must desist from petty politicking and carefully consider the policy implications about making concessions of statehood because it can literally open a can of worms.


Amid the buzz of a Cabinet berth or governors post for him, unhappy veteran leader Sharad Yadav met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at Jawahar Bhawan on Thursday.



The move added fuel to the fire within the JD(U) that cropped up over Nitish Kumar's decision to side with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar.



Sharad is crestfallen over Nitishs decision to quit the secular ruling Grand Alliance of JD(U)-RJD-Congress after former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadavs refusal to resign, despite facing graft charges. Sharad has remained incommunicado after Wednesday nights political crisis hit Patna, shaking the grand Opposition unity formed ahead of the Presidential poll to checkmate the saffron surge.



To mollify the disgruntled JD(U) leaders a day before the trust vote takes place in Bihar Assembly on Friday, the BJP pressed its senior leader and Union minister Arun Jaitley to meet Sharad and convince him that his concerns will be taken care of, said BJP sources.



Throughout the day, the JD(U), too, attempted to address growing voices of dissent with another party MP Ali Anwar openly criticising Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumars decision to dump the RJD-led coalition.



JD(U) sources said its leader K C Tyagi called up Sharad in his attempt to placate the sulking veteran socialist Rajya Sabha MP. Sources close to Tyagi expressed confidence that Sharad is unlikely to leave the party.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will remove a map of East and South East Asia in the Class XII Political Science textbook, which depicts Aksai Chin as a disputed area.



It has already removed the controversial map from the e-edition of the textbook, which is titled Contemporary World Politics and was published in February 2007. The new edition of the textbook will have a new map.



The decision was taken after a controversy erupted on social media a few months ago.



In the map, the border between India and China, near Aksai Chin is marked in dotted lines to indicate the dispute. As soon as objections were raised against the map, the NCERT examined the matter and decided to replace it. The map already stands deleted in the online version, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Upendra Kushwaha told the Rajya Sabha in a reply to a written question on Thursday.



The map, which was used in the textbook with a disclaimer that the boundary representation is not necessarily authoritative, was taken from the map collection of the University of Texas. However, Aksai Chin was shown as an integral part of India in the map of India and its neighbours on page 149 of the original textbook.


A political stalwart from Hyderabad-Karnataka region, former chief minister N Dharam Singh, who belonged to the microscopic Rajaput (Kshatriya) community, was born in Nelogi village of Jewargi taluk in the district on December 25, 1936.



After initial schooling in Nelogi village, Singh studied at Government High School in Asif Ganj in Kalaburagi and obtained a degree in Arts from the lone Government Degree College in the city. He went on to obtain MA (Hindi) and LLB degrees from Osmania University in Hyderabad.

Singh, who had a penchant for Shayaris, showed his leadership qualities from college days when he was student leader. However, his political career began when he was elected as councillor of the Gulbarga Town Municipal Council in 1968 as an Independent candidate.



A year later, he joined the Congress party (Indira faction) and remained a staunch party loyalist till his death. He won the Assembly election for the first time from the Jewargi constituency in 1972 and from then was elected to the Assembly for seven consecutive times till his defeat in 2008. He had also held the post of KPCC president.



A loyal party leader, in 1980 he gave up his MP seat from Gulbarga to accomodate Congress leader from Kerala C M Stephen, then a Union minister, on the directions of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.



The soft-spoken Singh is also known to have not sent anybody empty handed from this house. He is said to have helped even his rivals without carrying any animosity.



When the 2004 elections threw up a hung Assembly, the Congress-JD(S) coalition government came into existence with Singh being sworn in as the 17th chief minister of the state. He was chief minister for 20 months. Singh was the second politician from Kalaburagi district after the late Veerendra Patil to become chief minister.



In a major political set back, he lost the Assembly election from Jewargi to BJPs Doddappagouda Patil Naribol by a wafer thin margin (70 votes) in 2008. A year later, he successfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from Bidar. However, he lost the election in 2014. Singh had served as a minister under various chief ministers, including D Devaraj Urs, R Gundu Rao, S Bangarappa, M Veerappa Moily and S M Krishna.




The Supreme Courts nine-judge bench on Thursday pointed to an entire chapter in the Aadhaar Act on the protection of data and personal details of citizens and asked the government if it was not in recognition of the right to privacy as a fundamental right.



The government has dedicated an entire chapter in the 2016 Act to the protection of privacy and security. Is this not a statutory recognition of privacy as a fundamental right, the bench, presided over by Chief Justice J S Khehar, asked Attorney General K K Venugopal, who maintained there is no fundamental right to privacy as it has got several facets.



Venugopal, however, responded by contending that a law may specifically provide for the protection of privacy, but it cannot be recognised as a fundamental right.



The bench, hearing the question if the right to privacy was a fundamental right, said the privacy relating to informational data was important as some details of the citizens were already in the public domain.



Venugopal admitted that some data may fall within the constitutionally protected rights, but informational privacy can never be a part of fundamental rights.



There is no informational privacy against compelling state interests and public utility for which the state can ask for fingerprints and iris scans. But again, individuals can refuse if the information sought is totally irrelevant. For example, the question whether you have an extramarital affair during Aadhaar enrolment is absurd. So, the question of informational privacy has to be decided on a case-by-case basis, he said. The top law officer submitted that the state has got legitimate interest to keep personal data secure as this would make Aadhaar acceptable to one and all.



In his submission, Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Unique Identification Authority of India, the agency issuing Aadhaar cards, submitted, Privacy is non-negotiable, confidentiality is non-negotiable under the Aadhaar Act.



Senior advocate C A Sundaram, appearing for Maharashtra, submitted that the question of the right to privacy must be examined in the context of Aadhaar. He said privacy cannot be regarded as a standalone right in absence of direct and tangible action.



Even the concept of liberty as a fundamental right was qualified as personal liberty by the Constitution makers, he said.
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The Union government on Thursday informed the High Court of Karnataka that it has forwarded the state governments request of denotifying national highways that fall within the city limits to the Ministry of Law and Justice to seek legal opinion in the matter.



Assistant Solicitor General Prabhulinga K Navadgi, filing a memo, has also sought details from the state government about the number of roads where bypasses have been constructed and if national highway standards have been maintained.



Further, it has said that the state government, which is proposing to denotify the roads, has to maintain the roads according to national highway standards even if no bypass is constructed.



Justice Vineet Kothari was hearing a batch of petitions filed by liquor licence holders who had moved the court following the Excise departments refusal to renew their licences following the Supreme Court order. The Apex Court, in its order on December, 2016 had prohibited the functioning of liquor outlets on highways and directed the Excise department not to renew liquor licences of outlets on highways.



The state government has proposed to denotify the roads within the city and has placed a proposal before the Union government. The judge adjourned the next hearing of the matter on August 3.



OCI medical seats case



The High Court of Karnataka on Thursday dropped contempt proceedings against Manjula V, principal secretary, Medical Education and Manjunath D, executive director, Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) after the state government informed the court that they would allow Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) students to apply for medical seats in all categories except in government seats.



OCI students had moved the court contending that KEA was not allowing them to apply for medical seats in all categories and were insisting on allotting only NRI quota seats.



The students questioned the government notification dated July 19 wherein it said that 15% of the total intake of medical colleges will be filled by students including NRIs, OCIs, PIO (Persons of Indian Origin) and foreigners. These students will not be eligible for admissions in any other category of seats.



Despite the high court directing the state government to allow OCI students to apply for medical seats in all category of seats other then NRI and government seats, the KEA failed to comply with the court orders.



A division bench comprising Justice Jayant Patel and Justice S Sujatha disposed of the petition following the state governments submission allowing OCI students to apply in all categories other than government seats.
The inflow to Tungabhadra reservoir at Hosapete in Ballari district increased to 19,052 cusecs on Thursday, up from 18,653 cusecs on Wednesday. The dam received 2 tmc ft of water on a single day, with the storage going up to 34.247 tmc ft. But the storage is 6 tmc ft less than that on the corresponding day last year.



The outflow was 1,243 cusecs. Showers lashed Kalaburagi and surrounding areas for some time in the afternoon. With rain receding in Sakleshpur, Hassan district and Mudigere taluk of Chikkamagaluru district, inflow to Hemavathi dam has come down. The inflow, which was 13,224 cusecs on Tuesday, reduced to 5,084 cusecs on Wednesday. It was 4,433 cusecs on Thursday. While the total capacity of Hemavathy dam is 37.103 tmc ft, current storage is 15.205 tmc ft.



With the Cauvery river water sharing case being heard by the Supreme Court, the farmers are anxious that water may be released to Tamil Nadu any moment. Hence, farmers of the district have submitted a memorandum to Hemavathi chief engineer G T Venkatesh, urging him to release water from the dam to the canals immediately. They have also warned of a severe protest, if their demand is not met.



The water level was 2,892.05 ft against the maximum of 2,922 ft. The inflow was 4,433 cusecs and outflow 150 cusecs.



The water level at KRS dam in Mandya district was 89.50 ft against maximum level of 124.80 ft. While inflow was 5,508 cusecs, outflow was 4,072 cusecs. The Kabini dam level was 2,274.40 ft on Thursday, with an inflow of 5,000 cusecs and outflow 6,000 cusecs. The maximum level is 2,284 ft.



Madikeri district received moderate showers. While it drizzled at noon, parts of the district received good showers in the evening. In the last 24 hours, the district received 6.66 mm rain. From January till date, the region has received 1,192 mm rain against 1,140 mm last year in the same period.



Intermittent rain lashed Malnad region in Shivamogga district. Thirthahalli, Hosanagar, Shivamogga and Bhadravathi received showers intermittently. But the intensity was less.
The Supreme Court on Thursday refused to grant any protection to former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy from arrest in the cases relating to illegal grant of mining lease and lifting of minerals in favour of two miners and receipt of Rs 150 crore bribe.



A bench of Justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan just recorded a statement by Karnataka Lokayuktas counsel, senior advocate Vikas Singh and advocate Joseph Aristotle, and Kumaraswamys counsel that the matter is coming up for consideration for anticipatory bail before the High Court of Karnataka on Friday. The court said the parties would be free to raise their plea before the high court.



In a relief to Kumaraswamy, the bench, however, said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) formed by the Lokayukta was permitted to carry out its investigation but the final report (charge sheet or closure) would not be filed without permission from the apex court.



However, Kumaraswamys anticipatory bail plea came up for hearing in the High Court of Karnataka on Thursday and the court extended the interim relief to him by directing SIT not to arrest him for the next two weeks. Justice Rathnakala adjourned the hearing by two weeks after the SIT informed the court that the mining matter is coming up for hearing in the Supreme Court and sought time.



In the Supreme Court, senior advocates Raju Ramachandran and Huzefa Ahmadi, appearing for the JD(S) leader, contended that the investigating agency has gone on to register separate FIRs in the matter under the garb of the apex court's direction for investigation, in March this year.



The petitioner is being harassed. They (SIT) are trying to arrest him at any cost. There are three allegations, one related to grant of mining lease in favour of Sri Sai Venkateshwara Minerals, second, renewal of mining lease to Janthakal Enterprises and third, about payment of Rs 150 crore bribe. But, all these were related to one transaction. There cannot be separate FIRs, they contended.



In respect of Venkateswara Minerals, the high court had already stayed the proceedings, nevertheless the petitioner was being subjected to investigation, Ramachandran submitted.



The cases pertaining to Janthakal Enterprises and payment of bribe was already quashed by the high court but the investigating agency was re-registering FIRs, forcing the petitioner to seek anticipatory bail, Ahmadi contended, seeking the apex court's intervention.



The SIT counsel opposed the plea for any protection, contending the investigation was being conducted on the direction of the Supreme Court only. They also pointed out that the petitioner was seeking anticipatory bail from the high court, despite a clear-cut direction by the apex court that no other court would interfere into the matter.



Declining any protection to Kumaraswamy for now, the court put the plea by former chief minister S M Krishna, represented by senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, in the case related to de-reservation of forest land for consideration on September 12.



The apex court in 2012 had stayed the investigation against Krishna.



Activist T J Abraham had filed a complaint in the matter by relying upon a report prepared by the then Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde, indicting the then chief ministers and bureaucrats in de-reservation of 11,797 square kilometres of forest land in 2002-03 in Ballari district and grant of illegal lease, resulting in huge losses to the government. Meanwhile, the court directed handing over a copy of the SIT report to all the parties.


The staff of Baldwin Girls School protested on Thursday in front of the institutes chairman, Bishop N L Karkares residence, demanding the resignation of the schools principal.



The protest was triggered by an incident on Wednesday in which a teacher collapsed in the principals office of after a stroke.



Some teachers were called to the principals office and she was demanding an explanation why they had not stayed back in school on Saturday to complete data entry work. She made them stand for a long time and this teacher, who has health issues, collapsed. She is in the ICU now because she had a minor stroke, one teacher explained.



The incident has stoked the growing anger of the staff against the principal, who has taken over the post only two months ago.



For the past two months, we are being asked to stay back to complete data entry work. We have been teaching in the school for several years but we have never had to do any such clerical work. It is usually outsourced to a company. Now, we are being forced to skip classes and even stay back for this,  another teacher said.



They even complained that the principal never spoke to the teachers with respect. She referred to them by the colour of their clothes instead of addressing them by name, they said.



The staff gathered in front of the residence of Bishop Karkare and demanded the principals resignation.



First they said that they would ask the principal to resign. If she refuses, they will conduct an inquiry. But we were not satisfied with the response.



Later, they told us that she would be asked to step down tomorrow, a staff member said.



Staffers said that they have been having issues with the management and the Bishop. They say that many changes are being introduced and being forced upon the staff.



Teachers said that if the promise is not kept on Friday, they would protest again.



Retired DGP and former MP H T Sangliana has pledged his support to the teachers and is expected to meet them on Friday, a staff member said.
The Kannada Development Authority (KDA) has written to the government, asking it to initiate action against Namma Metro for violating the language policy.



In a letter addressed to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, KDA chairman S G Siddaramaiah said Namma Metro had been violating the language policy since 2011 and recommended that action be taken against all officers concerned. In the letter, copy of which is available with DH, the KDA chairman said a two-language policy should be adopted (Kannada and English), while Kannada should be the primary language for all administrative matters.



Metro is a state-funded project. The present managing director Pradeep Singh Kharola had clearly communicated this in a letter to the Union urban development secretary on July 2, 2016, the chairman said, stressing the need for giving primacy to Kannada.

A copy of the letter is also sent to chief secretary Subash C Khuntia and additional chief secretary to the urban development department Mahendra Jain. The KDA has recommended that seven chief engineers who are non-Kanandigas be relieved from their posts. Karnataka has the highest number of engineering graduates in the country. Despite that, appointing people of other languages as chief engineers is a clear violation of the Sarojini Mahishi report, he said.



S G Siddaramaiah also expressed concern over a large number non-Kannada speaking persons being hired in various other levels, including those outsourced for cleaning and security.
It was the first time that many of the 13-, 14- and 15-year-olds visited Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum to see models of Wright Brothers Flyer Kitty Hawk, Science on a Sphere among others.



Although their science classes have introduced them to these concepts, experiencing a working model was possible only in the museum.



I did not understand the importance of these machines till I saw them here, said Anshi, 14, who visited the museum with her classmates and teachers.



The museum was opened for students of schools in Bengaluru on its 52nd anniversary on Thursday.



Pavithra S, a science teacher at JGKV school, Kalyan Nagar, said they were looking forward to a curriculum where students can visit such museums once a year so that they have real-time experience of what they are taught. She said it is important they see the working models so that they understand the concepts better.



Dr K G Kumar, director of the museum, said, My son is in class 11, and when he asks for explanation of certain mechanics taught in class, I am able to show them to him by bringing him to the museum, but not all students get that chance.



He said, from this year, the museum will organise demonstrations in schools so that those children who cannot make it to the museum too have an opportunity to learn.



The occasion saw interactive demonstrations of concepts such as frictional force and intermolecular force. I did not know it was so much fun to learn physics, said Ravith, class IX student from JGKV school.



The director of the museum said they will expand the museum by opening a new gallery spread across 7,000 sq ft for space technology, which will house models of flight mechanics, rocket launch, history of Indian space programme, etc.


Close to two months after the onset of the monsoon, Bengaluru has not received even one fourth of the average monsoon rains.



On an average, Bengaluru gets 549.6 mm rain during the four-month monsoon season (June 1 to September 30). This year, the city has received just 60.5 mm rain in the first two months as against 401 mm in 2016 and 179 mm in 2015 for the same period. India Meteorological Department (IMD) Bengaluru director-in-charge Sunder M Metri, while expressing concern over the decreasing rainfall in the city, expressed hope that it will improve in the next two months.



According to him, the south west monsoon is all about wind patterns and currents. Low pressure in the coastal areas and in surface areas plays a vital role. These factors have not been constant this year so far. The IMD head office had forecast good monsoon with an average of 98% this year.



If data of the last three years is compared, then it shows that the city received good rainfall in 2014 with 694 mm. But it declined in 2015 and 2016. Normally, during this season (June to September), rainfall is good in the Ghats and coastal areas. South interior Karnataka, including Bengaluru, receives good rainfall during the north east monsoon (October-November) and at the end of the south west monsoon season (in September). Thus, all hope is not lost, Metri explained.



The state as a whole received 349 mm rainfall against the normal of 429 mm, which is a deficit of 19%.




One of the last pieces of agricultural land in Solana Beach is on its way to becoming luxury housing under a proposal that would subdivide the 4-acre plot on South Nardo Avenue into plots for eight single-family homes.

More than a decade in the making, Ocean Ranch Estates is the brainchild of San Diego-based developer Nicholas P. Nicholas. He has split the project into two phases. The first phase seeks to clear the site, subdivide the 4.2 acres into lots ranging from 14,000 to 35,000 square feet and create building pads for eight single-family homes. Phase 1 also includes upgrading the unnamed street on the parcels northern edge into Bell Ranch Road with curbs, sidewalks, parking and Olive trees.

The second phase would build the eight homes. With separate approval and construction, Nicholas expects it could be more than two years before the first of the homes is ready.

The public comment period remains open until July 31 for the initial environmental study for the proposal, which looked at a wide range of factors, including air and water quality, noise, soil and traffic. On all those factors, the study deemed the project to have the two least-severe impacts. Only for cultural resources did it raise a flag. The city is requiring that Nicholas hire an archeologist and a Native American monitor in case construction crews unearth heretofore unknown artifacts.

A required public meeting has not yet been scheduled.

For more than 50 years, Elda Bell Garner owned and lived on the property. She wrote pilot safety instructions for Convair before turning her attentions fully toward agriculture. She built a grow house on the property and a hothouse for champion orchids.

Nicholas bought the first of the parcels more than a decade ago and worked with Garner on the plans until her death at the end of 2011. It is in her memory that the street is being named.

She had very specific ideas for what her land would become, Nicholas said. I feel that I am holding very true to what she wouldve liked to have seen. She wanted me to be the one to carry it forward.

Nicholas is trying to evoke a rustic sense of early California that blends into mature olive trees along South Nardo.

The vision is to have this be like the streets of old Solana Beach. I feel a tremendous responsibility to get it right. Its an important location and it needs to be executed correctly, he said. Its going to be keeping in spirit with the agrarian, quiet, peaceful history of the place. Ive worked very hard [to ensure] that the history is remembered in this project.

The project coincides with two efforts that would further transform the neighborhood. Larna Hartnack is looking to expand her property on the north side of the unnamed road into a Napa Valley-style farm ranch. She is also helping lead a campaign to rouse support to underground the neighborhoods utility lines.

Were really excited about it. We think its just continued progress in Solana Beach while keeping the old charm, she said. All of the newer, younger families here are excited to see things looking better and nicer. I just like to see stuff happening, but at the same time without turning Solana Beach into Newport Beach.

Part of what has taken the Ocean Ranch project this long to move forward was resolving the affordable housing component. Under the citys regulations, the land wouldve needed to be carved into 14 lots in order to make room for affordable housing on site. After talking to the neighbors and hearing feedback, Nicholas scaled the project back to the eight parcels with no on-site affordable units. As such, he will purchase a townhome or condominium somewhere else in Solana Beach, deed-restrict it for 55 years, then hand it over to an affordable housing group to administer. He has to do so before building permits are issued for the fourth of the eight homes.

Comments must be made in writing and received by 5 p.m. on July 31. Comments should be addressed to Corey Andrews, principal planner, 635 South Highway 101, Solana Beach, CA 92075 or via e-mail at candrews@cosb.org.
By Chris DAngelo

24 July 2017

WASHINGTON (Huffington Post)  Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas)  who has spent his career cozying up to fossil fuel interests, dismissing the threat of climate change and harassing federal climate scientists  is now arguing that pumping the atmosphere full of carbon dioxide is beneficial to global trade, crop production and the lushness of the planet. Rather than buying into hysteria, Americans should be celebrating the plus sides of a changing climate, Smith argues in an op-ed published on 24 July 2017 in The Daily Signal, a news website published by the conservative Heritage Foundation [Dont Believe the Hysteria Over Carbon Dioxide].Smith  who has used his power as chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology to push his anti-science views  kicks off his op-ed by claiming Americans perception of the phenomenon is too often determined by their hearing just one side of the story.The benefits of a changing climate are often ignored and under-researched, Smith said. Our climate is too complex and the consequences of misguided policies too harsh to discount the positive effects of carbon enrichment. []Smith goes as far as to make a case for why a rapidly melting Arctic, which scientists warn could cost tens of trillions of dollars by the end of this century, is a positive thing.Also, as the Earth warms, we are seeing beneficial changes to the earths geography, he writes. For instance, Arctic sea ice is decreasing. This development will create new commercial shipping lanes that provide faster, more convenient, and less costly routes between ports in Asia, Europe, and eastern North America. This will increase international trade and strengthen the world economy. []Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania State University who sparred with Smith during a March hearing on climate science, told HuffPost via email that it is clear Smith is slowly advancing through the stages of denial  having apparently now moved from its not happening, to okits happening, but IT WILL BE GOOD FOR US!One step at a time I suppose, Mann wrote, but at least there is some apparent progress toward the truth (that climate change is real, human-caused, and already a problem). [more]
WATCH: The Entire Cast Does Some Bhangra In Mubarakan's Goggle Song!
An Australian youngster with type 1 diabetes has become one of the worlds youngest chief executives.

William Gramen, 12, from Canberra, invented a test strip disposal unit to stop him getting in trouble for leaving blood glucose test strips scattered around the house.

William impressed some high-profile entrepreneurs along the way, with the product helping him to scoop a prestigious award at a national childrens innovation competition in 2015.

The Canberra schoolboy created the device in the space of just three days aged 10 with the help of a 3D printer at school.

The product  which costs seven Australian dollars per unit with two dollars donated to JDRF per sale  won first prize and a trip to NASA in the Little Big Ideas Awards. William is also one of the 12 finalists picked from a total of 850 entries bidding to secure an innovation grant from the Australian government.

The big challenge of being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged five and the continuous need to balance his blood glucose levels has made William even more determined to be a success.

He told The Canberra Times: I always get in trouble for leaving my test strips everywhere and I wanted something to keep them together. You put the strip i, pull it back and roll it in. I want to sell my product to every diabetic in the world. Its really exciting for me.

Diabetes Domination is a family affair, with brother and mother being installed as co-CEOs and also his sister appointed head of spending and social media.

Liz Kobald-Gramen, his mum, said: He can tell you about patents, injection moulding, pricing a product. We try to keep a good balance and make it a bit of fun. Hes good at switching on and off.

William follows in the footsteps of fellow Australian innovator Stanley Clark who, in 1979, created the worlds first portable battery-operated blood glucose monitor so people did not need to go into hospital to check their sugar levels.
Indian smartphone market registered its first year over year decline in shipments during the second quarter of 2017. Samsung continues to lead with a market share of 25 percent while Xiaomi registers quadruple growth in shipments.

India's smartphone market contracted for the first time while Chinese smartphone vendors strengthened their position. According to Canalys, the Indian smartphone market registered its first decline in shipments during the second quarter of 2017. The overall smartphone shipments came in at 27 million units, a marginal decline of 4 percent from the same period last year.

The decline resembles the sentiment of Chinese smartphone industry, which also registered a 3 percent year over year decline in shipments during Q2 2017. Samsung maintains its leadership position with 25 percent market share but it is facing stiff competition from Chinese players. The report indicates that Samsung is sustaining its position due to strong sales of its low-end J-series devices but its mid-range devices are under pressure from Chinese offerings. The South Korean smartphone maker has also managed to regain its share in the premium segment with the launch of Galaxy S8 and S8+.

Xiaomi holds onto its second position with a shipment of 4.8 million units in the second quarter. Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun recently confirmed that his company saw 328 percent growth in its India revenue during the first six months of this year. Canalys adds that Xiaomi's shipments more than quadrupled in this quarter and it is inching closer to dethroning Samsung as the leader.

Vivo took the third position with an all-time high shipment of 3.4 million units and it continues to grow its popularity in the tier-two and tier-three cities. Oppo dethroned Lenovo as the fourth largest smartphone brand in India while Lenovo took the fifth spot with 1.9 million smartphone shipments. "With China suffering its own decline this quarter, India is a market of huge strategic importance to Chinese smartphone vendors," said Canalys Research Analyst Ishan Dutt. He added that Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, Gionee and Lenovo collectively control over 50 percent of India's smartphone market.

While the second quarter registered a marginal decline, the third quarter could see continued downward trend due to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout. Canalys notes that there is general confusion in the market over GST and the lack of awareness is leading to a wait-and-see policy. "The market will emerge stronger post-GST. Vendors can look forward to a leaner distribution, faster delivery and increased demand from local retailers and distributors," said Canalys Analyst Rushabh Doshi.
Kaspersky has started to roll out the free version of its anti-virus software globally. The software will provide an ad-free antivirus solution for protection across files, emails, browsing and more.

After a year of testing, Kaspersky Lab has finally started to roll out the free version of its anti-virus software globally. Called Kaspersky Free, the software is being rolled out in phases and should be available in India sometime in the later half of September. The company notes that the free version will not compete with its paid versions as those versions offer a bunch of extra features like Parental Control, Online Payment Protection, and Secure. However, the free version will offer basic protection features such as file, email, and web antivirus, automatic updates, Self-Defence, quarantine and more. The company also notes that while Kaspersky Free is based on the same technologies as the paid versions, the software is lighter and faster than them.

Eugene Kaspersky, the companys founder said in a blog post, Last year the product successfully piloted in the Russia-Ukraine-Belarus region, in China, and also in the Nordic countries (thats Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland, in case you were wondering). I say successfully  that would be an understatement; for with practically zero promo activity Kaspersky Free was installed several million times, in doing so cranking up our market share considerably. Not that increasing market share is our aim; our aim is to raise the overall level of protection on the Internet. Anyway, heres thanks to all Kaspersky Free users for helping us save the world!

The launch of Kaspersky Free should come as welcome news to anyone looking for a free antivirus service from a reputed company. We've already seen two major attacks on a global scale in the form of WannaCry and Petya and this new software should help people sleep a little more peacefully at night.
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Trump announces $10B Foxconn plant in Wisconsin

The Taiwanese company's campus would cover nearly 1.6 square miles, making LCD panels used in televisions and computer screens.



By SCOTT BAUER and PAUL WISEMAN

Associated Press

WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump said Wednesday that electronics giant Foxconn will build a $10 billion factory in Wisconsin that's expected to initially create 3,000 jobs, the largest economic development project in state history. The announcement comes at a critical juncture for a Trump administration that pledged to generate manufacturing jobs but has struggled to deliver results as quickly as the president promised. Trump's plans for health care and tax cuts face a murky future in Congress, while his administration is bogged down by an investigation into Russia's possible ties with his presidential campaign.



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Chinese media on Wednesday accused the US and other countries of trying to escalate the India-China standoff in Doklam to replicate the "South China Sea trick" and seek strategic benefits. "More than five weeks into the border standoff between China and India, some countries other than the two directly involved are trying to step in," an op-ed article in the state-run Global Times said, directly mentioning the US and Australia. The article titled 'Instigating Sino-India confrontation won't benefit US' referred to commentaries in the US media calling on Washington to provide to support India to "deter and counter" China and rally the world against Beijing. It also took exception to Australian foreign minister Julie Bishop's call for resolving the Doklam issue peacefully, saying "Bishop intends to blur the nature of the face-off and shows disguised support for India." The article said, "So far, the Donald Trump administration has paid little attention to the US-India ties, and their divergences over issues like trade and immigration remain" "The Americans may think they can copy their South China Sea trick. But what did the US get from the maritime disputes? Likewise, Washington won't get any benefits from the escalation of the Sino-India confrontation. China won't give up safeguarding its territory because of US interference." The article said the US seems to be everywhere when conflicts come up and it seldom takes an impartial posture to help address the problems. "There are certain forces in the West that are instigating a military clash between China and India, from which they can seek strategic benefits at no cost to themselves. Washington applied this scheme in the South China Sea disputes," it said. China claims nearly all of the strategically vital South China Sea. The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia and Brunei, as well as Taiwan, also claim parts of the sea. While the US is not a claimant, it has criticised what it has termed Chinese "militarisation" of the sea. The article also blamed the US and the erstwhile Soviet Union for the 1962 India-China war. "It's necessary to note that half a century ago behind the border war between China and India, there were the invisible hands of the US and the Soviet Union," it said, adding "neither China nor India wants a war''.








James & Sikes Funeral Home Maddox Chapel Marianna, Florida 850.482.2332

Robert Ellis Ringer was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, to Mr. and Mrs. R.E. Ringer on August 30, 1928. When he was a child, the family moved to nearby Valley Head, Alabama, and he graduated from Valley Head High School and then earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Jacksonville State Normal College, now Jacksonville State University. Mertice Baker Ringer was born in Clanton, Alabama on November 23, 1928, to Mr. and Mrs. Lee Andrew Baker. Before graduating from Clanton High School, she discovered it had no alma mater, so she wrote one. She then completed a Bachelor of Arts degree at Blue Mountain College in Blue Mountain, Mississippi.

While a student at Blue Mountain, Mertice worked at a summer camp in Sand Mountain, Alabama, where she was introduced to Robert, who was home from school for the summer. They began dating that summer and continued to correspond when they returned to school. When Robert graduated, he began to serve in the United States Army as the Korean War began. Before he deployed to Korea, Robert went to Clanton to ask Mr. Baker for Mertice's hand in marriage. With Mr. Baker's blessing, he traveled to Mississippi to visit Mertice. He proposed to her, and she initially declined because she intended to graduate from college before she married. He pointed out that he was about to deploy to Korea and that if they married before he deployed, he would be able to help her pay expenses at Blue Mountain. Mertice saw the logic in this. They went to the Jackson County, Mississippi, courthouse and obtained a marriage license. On Sunday morning, August 6, 1950, they went to a Baptist church in Jackson County before services began. They were married in the office of the minister. Then they went into the sanctuary of the church and attended services.

Robert served in Korea with the 151st Combat Engineering Batallion as a Supply Sargent from 1950-1951. While in Korea, he was involved primarily with the construction of bridges needed by American troops to cross inland waterways. One night on patrol, Robert prayed that he would be able to return home, to see his wife, and to become the father of a son. Mertice continued her studies at Blue Mountain so she could pursue a career in education. Robert was given his orders to return home on Christmas Day of 1951. Mertice and Robert moved to Jackson, Mississippi, where Robert was employed by Filtrol Chemical Company. On December 29, 1952, they welcomed their only child, Robert David Ringer, called "David" by the family. Robert began a Master of Education program at nearby Mississippi College in Clinton, Mississippi, and Mertice soon joined the program as well. Upon their graduations, they were both employed at Hinds Community College in Raymond, Mississippi, where Robert taught chemistry and Mertice taught English and history courses. The family then moved to Oxford, Mississippi, where Robert worked on a Doctorate of Education from the University of Mississippi. Robert and Mertice were then both hired by Chipola Junior College in Marianna, Florida, where they both worked until their retirement. During this time, they became an integral part of the Marianna and Chipola communities. They were members of the First United Methodist Church, where both served on many committiees, including Mertice's serving as Chairman of the Board during the building campaign that created the Wesley Center. She was also actively involved in the United Methodist Women and taught Sunday School. During their tenure at Chipola, both touched the lives of countless students. Mertice worked in the English department and helped to develop programs to help students with reading and writing and sponsored student publications. Robert taught in the Natural Science department, mainly focusing on Chemistry. His teaching helped many students go on to careers in pharmacy and medicine, among other fields. He served as Chairman of the Natural Sciences Department, and he was named Professor of the Year in 1967.

Mertice and Robert were grandparents to four beloved grandchildren with whom they spent time almost every school holiday. "Granny Mert" and "Grandpa Budro", as they were known, took time to make each of their grandchildren feel special. During summer holidays, they would spend time with all four at once, and then took time to take the children on individual trips, sharing priceless memories with each one. Their extended family also included friends Josephine Story and Robert McReynolds, whom they saw on a near-daily basis. The Ringers spent their final years in Mississippi to be close to their son, David. Mertice passed from this life on July 7, 2017, and Robert on July 25, 2017, just weeks shy of what would have been their 67th wedding anniversary.

The Ringers are preceded in death by their parents, by Mrs. Ringer's brothers, Mr. Lewis Baker and Mr. Gene Baker, and by Dr. Ringer's sister, Mrs. Joyce Ringer Allen. They are survived by Dr. Ringer's brother, Mr. R.E. Ringer of Valley Head, Alabama, their son, Mr. Robert David Ringer and daughter-in-law Mrs. Susan Spencer Ringer of Florence, Mississippi; grandchildren Dr. Amanda Ringer, J.D., of Huntsville, Alabama; Dr. Ashley Ringer McDonald, Ph.D. (Robert) of San Luis Obispo, California; Mr. Spencer Ringer of Brandon, Mississippi; and Mrs. Laura Ringer Holland (Wesley) of San Diego, California; one great-grandchild, Spencer Ringer-Alday, Dr. Ringer's niece, Sara Allen Schmitt, Mrs. Ringer's nieces, Connie Baker Robinson, Patti Baker Smith, and Stephie Baker Johnson, and friends Miss Josephine Story and Mr. Robert D. McReynolds, of Marianna, Florida, numerous cousins, and countless students and friends.

A memorial service will be held at the Waterford Activity Center in Ridgeland, Mississippi, on Thursday, July 27, at 3:15 p.m. Visitation will be on Saturday, July 29, at 10:00 a.m., at the First United Methodist Church of Marianna, Florida, with memorial service to follow beginning at 11 a.m.

In lieu of flowers, memorials may be made to the Mertice Baker Ringer Scholarship, Blue Mountain College, P.O. Box 160, Blue Mountain, Mississippi, 38610 and to the Dr. Robert Ringer Science Scholarship, Chipola College Foundation, 3094 Indian Circle, Marianna, Florida, 32446.
Joyner Sims, 74, passed away Wednesday, July 26, 2017 in Tallahassee, Florida from unexpected complications following a heart surgery. Joyner was a native of Jackson County Florida. He completed a Master of Science degree at Florida State University in 1966 and began an academic career as a college professor of Organic Chemistry, Analytical Chemistry, and Engineering Physics. He completed a Doctor of Philosophy degree in Chemistry at Louisiana State University while on sabbatical in 1973 and returned to Florida college work with successive assignments at Chipola College as a professor, Management Information System Coordinator, Department Chairman, Registrar and Admissions Officer, and Dean. He later transitioned to a career in public health where his roles included: Director of the Jackson County Health Department, the first Bureau Chief of the Florida Public Health HIV/AIDS Program, Director of the Hillsborough County Health Department, Assistant (Commissioner of Health) Health Officer, and Research Associate Professor at the University of South Florida College of Public Health. Joyner also served as State Public Health Service liaison with military units and personnel in South Dade County following Hurricane Andrew. In 1993 Joyner provided leadership to establish a statewide Tobacco-Free Florida Coalition. In 1997, Joyner began a private-sector career as Associate Director of Public Policy at DuPont Pharmaceuticals Company and Associate Director of Virology Policy at Bristol Myers-Squibb. Joyners final career was 10 years of service at The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention where he served as an Education Program Specialist, a Sex Risk Behaviors Specialist, an Acting Branch Chief for Program Development and Services, an Acting Goal Team Leader for Healthy Schools, as a Public Health Advisor, and a Scientific Program Official.
Alabama marks its 200th anniversary in December 2019, but the planning and celebrating is already underway.

And whether its a music festival or a cemetery survey or a tour of historic homes, the skys the limit when it comes to how local communities can commemorate the states bicentennial.

Its really in terms of thinking outside the box, said Connor Lowry, the Alabama Bicentennial Commissions communications and community programming consultant. For bicentennial, its not just about history. Its about culture, its about foodways, and its about people and showing whats unique about your area to the rest of the folks around the state. Not only the stories that have been told many times over, but creating new stories.

The Alabama Bicentennial Commission held a regional workshop in Dothan on Thursday, gathering people from across the area to brainstorm about ways local communities can participate.

Lowry said the commission wants local communities to know they have access to grants and traveling exhibitions as part of the bicentennial.

Alabamas actual 200th statehood anniversary is Dec. 14, 2019. The three-year bicentennial celebration, which officially started this year with a May kick-off in Mobile, incorporates Alabamas two years as a territory before declaring statehood in 1819.

The longer celebration also allows more time for events to be held across the state.

We really want to make it a statewide event and not just something happening in Montgomery, Lowry said. And you really cant do all of that and plan it and get communities involved in a short amount of time.

The Alabama Bicentennial Commission formed in 2014 and started planning, fundraising and getting the word out about how communities can participate.

Each year of the bicentennial celebration has a theme. For 2017, the theme is Discovering Our Places. In 2018, the theme will be Honoring Our People. And 2019 will be the year of Sharing Our Stories.

At the Wiregrass Museum of Art in Dothan, exhibitions are being held based on the statewide celebrations themes. Currently, Butch Anthonys Museum of Wonder exhibit is at the museum, celebrating Anthonys hometown of Seale.

There will be a few larger events like the kick-off Mobile, chosen for the first year since it is the states oldest city. Birmingham will be the focus of a statewide event in 2018, celebrating with a cultural festival featuring all things Alabama, Lowry said. Huntsville, where the states Constitutional Convention convened, will be in the spotlight in 2019. That also coincides with the 50th anniversary of the moon landing.

Huntsville is ready to blow it out in 19 and well finish up in Montgomery in December with birthday cake and fireworks, Lowry said.
Britain will ban the sale of all new petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as part of a push to improve air quality and ward off climate change.

Authorities in the UK have outlined the bones of a program that will see the nation transition away from petrol and diesel cars in coming years, providing funding to local governments to encourage improvements in air quality.

Environment secretary Michael Gove told reporters on Wednesday that the team led by Prime Minister Theresa May was making good on its commitment to reduce pollution.

We have to get petrol and diesel cars off our roads, Gove said.

Today were confirming as part of our plan to deal with air pollution that we will go ahead with getting rid of these polluting cars.

Its critically important for government to help the car industry do the right thing.

Gove praised Volvo for its commitment only to offer electric or hybrid powered vehicles from 2019, as well as acknowledging Minis plan to build an electric-powered hatch at its UK plant in Oxford from 2019.

Diesel has proved far more popular in Britain than Australia, helped by a tax structure that encourages consumers to choose cars with low C02 emissions  vehicles that burn fewer litres of fuel per kilometre travelled. But diesel cars also produce more nitrogen oxides and harmful particulates than petrol cars, leading health experts to estimate that as many as 40,000 people die in the UK each year as a result of pollution caused by cars and trucks.

While authorities have not pointed to recent diesel emissions scandals in the car industry as a reason to ban the fuel type, the issues will not have built confidence in the car industry as governments become more mindful of public health.

Critics of the UK scheme say it will not do enough to address climate change, and that the UK electric infrastructure will not be able to support millions of electric cars.

While Australian governments have not openly telegraphed such a move, the UK push for electric cars is likely to have a flow-on effect locally as Britain is the worlds largest consumer of right-hand-drive models. Some electric models such as the Chevrolet Bolt are only built in left-hand-drive, which mean they cannot be sold in Australia.
Honda Australia has pledged to make its advanced safety systems standard on all models after coming under pressure by reserving the potentially life-saving technology to just flagship models.

Speaking to Drive at the launch of the fifth-generation CR-V in Canberra this week, Honda Australia Director Stephen Collins confirmed the local division is working with its Japanese counterparts to include its Honda Sensing safety system, which includes automated emergency braking, forward collision warning, lane keeping assistance and adaptive cruise control, on every new model variant in the near future.

"It will depend on each model, model upgrade and where they are in the lifecycle but it is our intention to introduce [Honda Sensing] across everything as soon as we can," Collins said.

"Some will take longer than others, but were trying to get it across the entire line-up as soon as possible."

Collins conceded that it is most likely the HR-V small SUV and CR-V will receive the upgrade first, potentially before the end of 2017, with the Civic sedan and hatch to follow early next year.

Considering the complexity of the camera-based system, he could not guarantee that prices would remain static for entry-level models which are currently unavailable with the suite of electronic driver aids, but said the brand could subiside some of the additional costs.

"There is a significant investment involved now [with the technology] and we're not putting cost ahead of safety in any way. We want to remain competitive on price, and we may be able to absorb some of the cost but we've still got work to do."

Honda's safety swing comes after the Australian New Car Assessment Program said it was "disappointed" by the brand's decision to only offer the latest driver aids in its top-of-the-range variants, particularly considering rival brands offer it across their ranges within the same segments.

- For more information visit our Honda showroom
Home Four wheelers Kia Dealer Roadshow To Meet Prospective Dealers In India oi-Kennedy Paul

Kia Motors, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motors, will host a series of roadshows in India to meet prospective dealers through August and September 2017.

The South Korean company which announced an investment of $1.1 billion to set up a manufacturing plant in Andhra Pradesh will start selling cars in India by mid-2019.

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The Kia Dealer Roadshow offers prospective dealers the opportunity to meet executives of Kia Motors India and get to understand about the cars due to go on sale in India.

Also, dealers attending the Kia Dealer Roadshow will learn about the company's business strategy in India as well as its plans for establishing its new Indian dealership network.

The Kia Dealer Roadshow will visit four of the country's largest cities: Delhi (JW Marriott Aerocity, August 8-9, 2017), Mumbai (ITC Maratha, August 16-17, 2017), Bangalore (Taj West End, August 23-24, 2017), Kolkata )Taj Bengal, September 1, 2017).

Kia Motors has officially launched its Indian website on July 26, 2017. Automobile dealers can register for the Kia Dealer Roadshow at www.kiaroadshowindia.com.

In April 2017, Kia Motors signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Andhra Pradesh state government to set up a new manufacturing facility in Anantapur District. The plant is spread over 23 million square feet (536 acres) and will include facilities for stamping, welding, painting and assembly.

Kia Motors India is expected to launch a compact sedan and compact SUV, particularly for the Indian market.

According to Yong S Kim, head of sales and marketing, Kia Motors India, said: "India ranks very high on our list of priorities, and Kia Motors India is looking for dealers who want to be leaders - passionate and talented businesses who want to grow and succeed in partnership with the brand. India is a unique market, and it's important to Kia that we learn from those who have a deep understanding of local buyers and their needs. Like other regions where Kia already has a presence, we will offer Indian customers the highest levels of satisfaction. Our dealer partners hold the key to achieving this aim."

"There is no clearer sign of our commitment to the Indian market than the establishment of our new manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh. This new facility will be able to produce up to 3,00,000 new cars each year, with a range of vehicles built exclusively for the Indian market. Worldwide demand for Kia cars is growing, and combined with the start of sales in India; the new facility marks our latest step in becoming a leading global car manufacturer."

DriveSpark Thinks!

Kia Motors India has begun early and seems to be very serious about the current fifth largest automobile market in the world. It is expected that India will move to the third largest automobile market by 2020, and Kia's strategy to launch vehicles in 2019 is well planned.
The final of Miss Louth 2017 will take place at The Four Seasons Hotel in Carlingford August 22nd.

On August 5th interviews will be held from 11am- 2pm and 3pm-7pm. The girl who wins will represent Louth in the Miss Ireland final which will take place in Dublin October 2017.

The organiser of Miss Louth Niamh McKeever explained what she is looking for.

"I'm looking for ladies between the ages of 17- 27. On the night of the final I will be holding a fashion show for local boutiques.

"Miss Ireland is the longest running pageant in Ireland which was established in 1947. From the very beginning, Miss Ireland has been the starting point for many young women who have gone on to create successful careers. Many described the experience as empowering, helping to build their confidence, self-esteem, interview and media skills.

"If anyone is interested in competing or want to feature their boutiques collection in the fashion show they can contact me on the facebook site Miss Louth - Miss Ireland or by email niamhmckeevernyc@gmail.com."
A new visitor centre and lace gallery to showcase the internationally renowned local craft, is to be developed this year in Carrickmacross town.

According to Northern Sound radio, works are to begin this October on the new development.

Talking to Northern Sound radio, Sinn Fein Councillor Colm Carthy explained that the new centre is to consist of two main units.

The first unit will consist of a craft shop and visitor centre, where one can purchase locally produced products and get information on Carrickmacross.

The second unit will be a lace gallery, where one can purchase lace pieces as well as get information on different types of lace.

Carrickmacross Lace hit the international headlines earlier this year, when former Taoiseach Enda Kenny presented a piece to US First Lady, Melania Trump when he visited New York as part of the Saint Patrick's Day trip.

To find out more about Carrickmacross Lace, go to their website here

For more on the presentation to Melania Trump read here
Today, most Australians carry at least one Wi-Fi-enabled device at all times and according to Ciscos 2016 VNI report, more than 540 million public hotspots are expected to be online by 2021 to support smart devices worldwide further propelling their proliferation.

While most retail businesses have realised offering a reliable Wi-Fi network for guests is a fundamental cost of doing business, Wi-Fi has also become more than just a tool used to connect to the internet. You cant just set it and forget it if you want to truly benefit from your wireless network.

Below are the key mistakes retail businesses make when offering free Wi-Fi to customers:

1. No splash page or captive portal:

Dont forget to enable splash pages or captive portals when setting up your guest Wi-Fi networks. Many organisations simply offer free Wi-Fi with outdated looking click here to accept terms and conditions forms. Guests are able to quickly bypass these forms to access the internet while in your retail location, but it leaves a lot of valuable customer information and potential leads on the table.

Customisable splash pages and captive portals can collect valuable customer information such as email addresses, mobile telephone numbers, social network accounts, and more in exchange for internet access. This process helps you better target your audience and to support efforts to engage with a larger customer base. Enabling authentication through popular social media channels like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram will provide opportunities to access a wider range of useful information such as hometown, schools attended, buying habits, and more.

At the very minimum, ensure your Wi-Fi network access page secures basic demographic data like customer gender and age.

2. Exposing customers to fraudsters and hackers:

As youre probably well aware, no organisation can afford to ignore cybersecurity best practices. Public Wi-Fi hotspots are attractive hunting grounds for Wi-Fi hackers. If youre not utilising proper Wi-Fi security protection, hackers can easily intercept your guests personal information, such as email credentials, credit card numbers, and other sensitive information. But, Wi-Fi security isnt just about protecting your guests. Its also an important method of protecting your brands reputation as well.

How exactly does Wi-Fi security work? Wireless Intrusion Prevention Systems (WIPS) are a common wireless network security solution designed to defend Wi-Fi networks against cyber snooping. The problem is most of these solutions are expensive, and while discovering and blocking hackers within your airspace is relatively easy, most WIPS solutions cant accurately distinguish between truly malicious devices or access points (APs) and legitimate neighboring APs from the business next door. This issue of false-positives can cause WIPS to inadvertently shut down harmless neighboring devices or APs  a mistake that can result in a damaged reputation and even legal consequences. Many companies actually disable the prevention feature of their WIPS in order to mitigate these risks.

Fortunately, enterprise-grade Wi-Fi security solutions are no longer reserved for Australias biggest companies with unlimited resources, and theres new technology that virtually eliminates WIPS false positives. Protect your wireless network and your customers with a WIPS that can automatically and accurately classify connected devices and APs as either authorised, external or rogue, and react accordingly.

Additionally, as every retail organisation knows, maintaining Payment Card Industry (PCI) compliance is an essential for your business  even if the standards are getting tougher each year. That said, compliance alone doesnt ensure the security of your customers or your business itself. In fact, one PCI standard for securing wireless networks requires only that you perform regular scans for rogue APs once each quarter. Thats just one single scan every 90 days! So again, compliance is important, but should be coupled with 24/7/365 full WIPS protection.

3. Losing sales to those E-commerce giants:

Are you doing all you can to ensure customers arent using your retail location as a showroom to see merchandise before going online to price hunt on competing e-commerce sites? You can use many mobile engagement techniques to communicate with your guests once theyve connected to your Wi-Fi network. These tools allow you to extend your engagement strategies past the splash page and provide a rich, personalised experience for your guests that informs them with relevant details precisely when they want it most.

For example, URL interception tools can allow you present price shoppers on your Wi-Fi network with coupons, discount codes or customised messages offering when they compare your prices with those of online retailers. You can also use you Wi-Fi network as a channel to communicate directly with customers in the form of SMS, MMS, and their social network of choice. Wi-Fi-delivered surveys and polls will help you to directly and accurately gauge customer feedback that can help you adjust marketing and business tactics, while communicating that you care.

4. Letting Wi-Fi analytics gather dust:

A customer stepping into one of your physical locations is just like one visiting your website. Information about how they got there, where they go, how long they stay, and what they purchase can be crucial for immediate and long-term marketing and business decision-making.

Many retail businesses fail to utilise analytics from their Wi-Fi networks to understand customer footfall, dwell time, and other metrics that can help with store optimisation and layout. Your wireless network is capable of providing massive amounts of customer data collected via passive scans, active scans and user connections in and around your Wi-Fi networks. When analysed properly, these insights can reveal traffic patterns, behavior, and demographics of your Wi-Fi users, which can all be used to better optimise your floor plan and offerings.

5. Not prioritising internet safety for families:

In addition to ensuring that Wi-Fi experience is safe from hackers, make sure youre taking the necessary precautions to allow guests of all ages to enjoy internet access without the risk of encountering distasteful content.

The bottom line

Wi-Fi can be a boon for your business but if left unprotected, a guest Wi-Fi network can unintentionally expose your customers personal information to hackers. Conversely, a secure and fully leveraged Wi-Fi network can provide a safe and efficient online experience for your customers, that also helps you create a compelling consumer experience.

About the Author:

David Higgins was appointed WatchGuard Technologies ANZ Country Manager in 2014 and is responsible for managing the companys market presence in Australia and New Zealand, overseeing new revenue opportunities, and managing local customer and partner relationships. He has more than 30 years experience in the IT industry in both direct sales and channel development for organisations including Trend Micro, Sophos, 3Com, ASK Solutions, Tech Pacific Australia and NEC Australia.
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(Photo: ELCJHL/Ben Gray)Holy Land Lutheran Bishop Munib A. Younan accepting the 34th Niwano Peace Prize from Rev. Nichiko Niwano, honorary president of the Niwano Peace Foundation, during a ceremony on July 27, 2017 in Tokyo, Japan.

Palestinian Lutheran Bishop Munib A. Younan has received the Niwano Peace Prize, issuing a plea for greater engagement of faith leaders in confronting extremism and "the sick ideologies which pervert our religions."

The bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land became the 34th recipient of the prize, which is sometimes viewed as akin to the Nobel Prize for religious leaders seeking peace, during a July 27 ceremony in the Japanese capital Tokyo.

In his acceptance speech, Younan insisted that leaders of all faith traditions should confront the extremists in their midst "through a witness of robust moderation, rejecting that extremism is somehow the measure of faithfulness."

The Niwano Peace Foundation recognized Younan for his tireless work toward interreligious dialogue among Christians, Muslims and Jews in Jerusalem and around the world, for long-standing commitment to moderation, and compassion to all sides involved in conflicts.

"As a strong believer in the power of dialogue, you have persistently worked to create spaces where people of different faiths can meet in peace and develop mutual trust," the foundation stated in its citation for the prize.

The honorary president of the Niwano Peace Foundation, Rev. Nichiko Niwano presented the award to Younan.

The Lutheran World Federation for which Younan served as president from July 2010 to May 2017 was represented by General Secretary Rev. Martin Junge.

The new LWF President Archbishop Musa Panti Filibus sent a congratulatory message to the Holy Land church leader.

YOUNAN MEETS CATHOLICS IN JAPAN

During his visit to Tokyo, Bishop Younan, met on July 24 with local Catholic and Lutheran communities to speak about his most recent meeting with Pope Francis in October, Vatican Radio reported.

Their encounter came during a joint commemoration of the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in the Swedish cities of Lund and Malmo.

In his acceptance speech, Younan said, "Moderates are not wishy-washy. The moderate is not a person without identity. If we are going to challenge extremist theologies and the extremist politics they support, we must reclaim the center within our respective traditions."

The ELCJHL bishop described the alliance between political interests and religiously sanctioned extremism as a dangerous trend today.

He cited examples from his own region, the Middle East, he noted that no single religion has a monopoly on extremism.

Jerusalem, Younan said, is challenged daily by extremism from Jewish settlers who with politicians' support "seize land in the name of the Bible; [...] by Muslims who think the darkest interpretations of Islam are the only way to confront an opponent [...]; and by Christian Zionists who come to our city to view it as an Armageddon playground where their visions of the End Times will one day unfold."

Such voices, he noted, promote an apocalyptic war not only in the city but in the whole world.

At the Tokyo ceremony, the LWF general secretary Rev Martin Junge paid tribute to Younan's constant efforts for peace in a world marked more than ever by unrest, fragmentation and rupture.

Junge lauded the Palestinian bishop, who was educated in Finland, for carrying out this ministry in the difficult context of the Holy Land, where many of his neighbors have given up hope of achieving peace or reconciliation.

"He [Younan] has remained steadfast to his calling, drawing from the deep wells of faith. He advocates and speaks out, meets and talks, challenges and encourages for the sake of peace."

LWF President Archbishop Musa Panti Filibus expressed the Lutheran communion's joy over what he described as the well-deserved recognition for the Palestinian bishop.

"You have been a strong voice denouncing the underlying causes for conflict and violence, and sharing your vision about building peace with justice in that very context in which the Prince of Peace came to transform the world," said Filibus, archbishop of the Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria.

Filibus prayed that the awarding of the Niwano Peace Prize would promote peace in the Holy Land, thereby encouraging others toward reconciliation worldwide.
(Photo: Peter Prove / WCC)WCC general secretary Rev. Dr Olav Fykse Tveit and president of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in on May 30, 2017 in Seoul.

Both North and South Korean churches councils are urging churches across the world to show solidarity on Aug. 13 with Korean churches by joining a "Sunday of Prayer for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula."

The theme for the prayer is based on the book of Romans 14:19 in the Bible: "Let us then pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding."

The day of prayer occurs two days before Liberation Day in Korea (15 August), during which people celebrate Korea's liberation from Japanese colonization, the World Council of Churches said in a statement.

The joint prayer was prepared by the Korean Christian Federation from North Korea and the National Council of Churches in Korea from South Korea.

The unification calls come at a time of lingering tension in the Korean Peninsula over North Korea's nuclear program and its repeated missile tests in recent months.

North Korea will be able to field a reliable, nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile as early as next year, The Washington Post reported July 25.

It cited U.S. officials concluding in a confidential assessment that dramatically shrinks the timeline for when Pyongyang could strike North American cities with atomic weapons.

The Post reported that the new assessment by the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which cuts a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Korea's ICBM program.

It triggered by recent missile tests showing surprising technical advances by the country's weapons scientists, at a pace beyond what many analysts believed was possible for the isolated communist regime.

The two Koreas are technically still at war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice with a cease-fire still to be signed.

World Council of Churches general secretary Rev. Olav Fykse Tveit and World Communion of Reformed Churches general secretary Rev. Chris Ferguson in a letter to their churches invited parishes and individuals across the world to pray for the reconciliation and healing of their divided Korean Peninsula.

"The prayer is an important part of our growing movement to overcome the antagonism that divides the Korean Peninsula and continue to open interaction between communities, churches and people," the letter reads.

"We believe churches across the world can, through prayer, help foster an environment in which peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula can flourish."
(Photo: Reuters / Lee Jae-Won)A North Korean defector living in Seoul conducts a choir during a divine service held to pray for peace and reunification of the divided Korean Peninsula at a church in Seoul April 7, 2013. North Korea, angry about new U.N. sanctions imposed for its third nuclear weapon test in February, has made increasingly strident warnings of an imminent war with South Korea and the United States.

The latest missile firing by North Korea and military exercises involving the United States and South Korea have "raised tensions in the region to a dangerously new high, says the World Council of Churches.

So, the WCC has reiterated an urgent appeal by its executive committee in June for all States engaged in the "perilously escalating military confrontation" in the Korean region to refrain from further escalation.

The council which represents 560 million Christians worldwide is calling for countries engaged in the Koran region to "pursue instead initiatives to reduce tensions and to create a window for new dialogue initiatives."

It noted the reportedly successful intercontinental ballistic missile test by North Korea on July 4, and the joint US-South Korean ballistic missile drills it provoked.

The BBC reported July 5 that the United States has confirmed that North Korea tested a long-range missile which some experts believe could reach Alaska.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called it a "new escalation of the threat" and warned that Washington "will never accept a nuclear-armed North Korea".

Pyongyang had claimed the day before to have successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM).

In response the United States and South Korea conducted a joint military exercise on July 5.

A statement by the two countries' militaries warned that "self-restraint, which is a choice, is all that separates armistice and war" and that their drills showed "we are able to change our choice".

(Korean Peninsula)

The two Koreas are technically still at war as the 1950-1953 Korean War ended in an armistice with a cease-fire still to be signed.

Peter Prove, director of the WCC's Commission of the Churches on International Affairs said the latest missile firing and exercises have "raised tensions in the region to a dangerously new high."

As the WCC Executive Committee has recently observed", noted Prove, "confrontation by military or other means carries far higher risks of conflict  with catastrophic consequences for all people of the peninsula and the region  than prospects of leading to peace."

A sustainable peace, and the peaceful denuclearization of the region, cannot be achieved through mutual provocation, but only through dialogue, the WCC said.

"In this particularly dangerous moment, self-restraint is indeed all that separates armistice and war. We call on all parties to beware of this perilous threshold."

In a statement it released on June 11, the WCC noted that it has long been engaged in efforts for peace, reconciliation, reunification and development cooperation on the Korean peninsula.

"Especially since the 'Tozanso Consultation' in 1984, the WCC  in partnership with the National Council of Churches in [South] Korea (NCCK), the Korean Christians Federation in North Korea (KCF), the Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) and several other ecumenical partners  has encouraged and facilitated encounters between Christians from North and South Korea," said the WCC.
VALLEY  Citing a need for more choices, convenience and superb customer service, First Nebraska Bank has added interactive teller service with extended banking hours to its service offerings. With interactive tellers, First Nebraska Bank customers will be able to conduct up to 95 percent of typical teller transactions with a live teller through a video interface. The first interactive tellers went live at the Valley branch on July 13, and the bank will roll out the service at its other locations over the next 12 months.

First Nebraska Bank has always been dedicated to implementing services designed to give customers flexible banking options. Although interactive tellers are the latest addition, the bank was an early adopter of online banking, a mobile banking app and online bill payment, among other services.

We are committed to bringing our customers quality financial products with personalized service, said Lydell L. Woodbury, President, First Nebraska Bank. For almost 140 years, weve given our customers the products and services they want so they can bank the way they want. Its something thats always been important to us, and its important to our customers.

First Nebraska Banks interactive tellers will be staffed in the banks Valley location and remotely service and support customers at any of the banks locations throughout the state. The interactive tellers will be available for extended hours from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. on weekdays, and from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. on Saturdays. There will also be additional holiday hours added on some bank holidays. Interactive tellers will offer customers the personal experience of banking with a live teller without standing in traditional teller lines or trying to work around traditional lobby hours.

Bank customers will be able to use the ITMs without the interactive teller feature for simple ATM withdrawals and transactions 24/7.

Todays bank customers are busy, Woodbury said. They need more flexibility in their banking hours, and First Nebraska Bank is using the efficiency and convenience of interactive tellers along with our other mobile banking services to better serve our customers whenever and wherever they need it.

To improve customer awareness of its interactive tellers and flexible banking options, First Nebraska Bank has launched a Your Bank, Your Way campaign, which includes a drawing for a $500 Visa prepaid card. For more information about the promotion and the contest, please visit FirstNebraska.Bank/Your-Bank <http://www.firstnebraska.bank/your-bank> .

About First Nebraska Bank

First Nebraska Bank is a locally owned full-service community bank with 10 locations throughout central and eastern Nebraska. Our history in Nebraska banking can be traced all the way back to 1879, so our roots are firmly planted in our state and in our communities. Were proud that our commitment to the success of our customers and the economic growth of the communities we serve has remained strong for more than a century. We believe that our growth and success has been a direct result of our hometown commitment and our investment in our communities.

With locations in Arcadia, Bennet, Brainard, Columbus, Decatur, Emerson, Nebraska City, Stanton, Valley and Weeping Water, we hope you will stop in soon to visit about how we can best serve you. For information about our services, products and locations, please visit FirstNebraska.Bank <http://www.firstnebraska.bank/> .
There are reports in the Nicaraguan press that Salvadoran who wish to enter the neighboring country will have to apply for permission in advance. Reportedly this is due to the high levels of gang violence in El Salvador. Nicaragua has much lower levels of gang violence than its neighbors in the Northern Triangle.This restriction would seem to contradict the terms of the regional border control agreement among the CA-4 countries of El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala and Nicaragua. The citizens of those countries are entitled under that agreement to pass freely across land border checkpoints within the four country zone.In the past year, Nicaragua has also been blocking the entrance of protestant Christian pastors from other CA-4 countries. This is reputedly for purposes of preventing inappropriate evangelization by Christian groups.Meanwhile, El Salvador's first left wing president, Mauricio Funes, remains in Nicaragua under a grant of political asylum from that country, while he is investigated for illicit enrichment back home.
COLUMBUS  A Wisconsin man who teamed up with an Omahan while passing forged checks at two Columbus banks last fall pleaded no contest to the crime Wednesday in Platte County Court.

Judge Frank Skorupa then sentenced 44-year-old Andreas Moore of Madison, Wisconsin, to 120 days in jail for the forgery scheme and gave him credit for 41 days already served in the case.

Moore, who was sought by authorities for more than six months before his arrest in Wisconsin, was also ordered to pay $13,825 in restitution to Pinnacle Bank, Columbus Bank and Trust and the Platte County Sheriff's Office.

The theft by deception charge, a Class I misdemeanor, was punishable by up to a year in jail and a $1,000 fine. Moore was initially charged with second-degree forgery, a Class 2A felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison, before reaching a plea bargain with the prosecution.

Moore and 43-year-old William Virden of Omaha were accused of cashing $18,008 in checks at the local banks written on the accounts of Columbus-based Re/Max Total Realty Inc. and Wilke Cattle Company and Fremont-based Barta Cattle LLC.

One of the bogus checks was written to Moore, with his drivers license number recorded on the check when it was cashed.

Virden was released from the county jail in April after serving a 75-day term. He was also ordered to pay restitution to the banks where the forged checks were cashed.
COLUMBUS  Mayor Jim Bulkley has selected the man he believes should lead the Columbus Fire Department.

Daniel Miller, a battalion chief with the Omaha Fire Department, emerged as the mayors top choice from among three finalists for the local fire chief position.

We had three great candidates, very well-qualified, great backgrounds, Bulkley said.

Millers background and experience separated him from the other candidates, according to the mayor.

The Yutan man has 36 years of firefighting experience, starting in 1980 with the Yutan Volunteer Fire Department, where he has served as chief and assistant chief and as an elected member of the board. He is still involved with that department.

Miller joined the Millard Fire District, a combination career/volunteer department, in 1991, advancing to captain before the district merged with Omaha in 1998. He has been with the Omaha Fire Department since 1998, serving as a captain, chief of training and special operations and battalion chief.

As battalion chief, a position he was promoted to in 2012, Miller supervises six fire captains and oversees four fire stations and 28 firefighters and EMS personnel, according to his application for the Columbus job.

Bulkley said Millers time with both volunteer and career fire departments, as well as the combination department in Millard, makes him a good fit for the Columbus model.

I really think his background lent itself to what weve got coming up, Bulkley said.

The Columbus Fire Department is currently led by a volunteer fire chief  Dean Hefti, who plans to retire in January  but the city council voted in April to move the position to full-time. The department includes 15 career firefighters and rescue personnel and roughly 55 volunteers.

City officials want to keep the volunteer force intact after the full-time chief takes over, something Miller believes he can do.

My goal is to improve the mission-focused outlook and cooperative mindset of the career and volunteer members of the fire department by bringing together the members into a cohesive task force, highly consistent in its ability to carry out the first response needs of the city, its industry and its people, he wrote in his application.

Miller, who graduated from Yutan High School before earning associate degrees in electronics and fire science technology from Metropolitan Community College in Omaha, also referenced his experience with budgeting and ability to identify priorities and maximize tax dollars when purchasing equipment.

I know budgets and budgeting and the value of a dollar, he wrote. I know where the money comes from and how to set priorities on where it must go to meet the needs of the city.

Miller, an EMT since 1984 who spent 19 years as a part-time instructor for the Nebraska State Fire Marshals Office, also helped establish the E911 and accompanying street address system in Saunders County.

He has experience hiring career firefighting and recruiting volunteers and served on the building committee for two fire stations, something that could come in handy as Columbus moves forward with a project that will replace the aging downtown fire station.

The fire chief nominee also runs his own business, Training Under Fire, which teaches firefighting, technical rescue, command and leadership skills, and previously served as an adjunct instructor in fire science technology at Metropolitan Community College.

He was named the Nebraska Veterans of Foreign Wars Firefighter of the Year in 2000 and Nebraska Society of Fire Service Instructors Instructor of the Year in 2012.

Miller has accepted the fire chief position here, but City Administrator Tara Vasicek and Human Resources Director Mike Oglevie still need to work out the details of his contract, including the start date and salary.

Bulkley expects the contract to go before the city council next month, possibly as early as the Aug. 7 meeting.

We want to get our system moving forward as quickly as we can, the mayor said.

Miller, who currently earns $120,000 a year, plans to retire from the Omaha Fire Department before fully transitioning to the Columbus position, according to his application.

The other finalists for the fire chief job were Aaron Anderson of Ralston, who is a captain with the Papillion Fire Department and adjunct firefighter and hazardous materials instructor at Southeast Community College; and Joseph Grainger of Fredericksburg, Virginia, who is the assistant fire and EMS chief and chief of operations with the Stafford County Fire and Rescue Department in Virginia.
The EU-Turkey relationship has gone through many ups and downs during the last 50 years. While Turkey has become a strategic partner for the EU who is still formally engaged in its accession talks, the developments in the last four years have caused numerous cracks and frictions in the relationship. Since further degradation would, however, be undesirable, both sides should contemplate four ways to improve their relationship both in a short and medium run: revamp the EU-Turkey Customs Union; deepen the partnership on asylum and refugees; materialize key EU programs to support Turkeys modernization; and pursue dialogues in areas of mutual interest.

The EU-Turkey Customs Union is one of those areas that might be improved to further boost its obvious advantages for the Turkish economy. When the union came into effect on the last day of 1995, the Turkish manufacturing sector was forced to go through a major overhaul in preparation for the eventual EU membership talks. The painful adjustment was, however, extremely beneficial  it brought a lot of foreign direct investment and helped establish a production base. However, by virtue of the customs union, Ankara must accept the terms of free-trade agreements negotiated by the EU with third parties, even though it does not have a say in the talks. The EU could address this legitimate issue and take into account the interests of the Turkish economy when negotiating further deals.

Another area for possible improvements is the EU membership process launched in 2004. After 13 years of negotiations, the accession talks with Turkey have been protracted for two reasons  the EU Council of Ministers and the Cyprus issue. Moreover, in 2007, the French president argued that Turkey did not belong to Europe, which resulted in several negotiation chapters being frozen. Despite these problems, Turkey has been always eager to absorb EU standards and the EU has always been ready to support Ankara in this endeavor through generous funding. The modernization process in the country is supported by the instrument for pre-accession assistance that has provided 4.45 billion in grants for the period 20142020 coupled with additional funding from the European Investment Bank (2.3 billion) in 2015 alone.

The migrant deal between Ankara and Brussels currently worth 3 billion ($3.4 billion) has become the most successful humanitarian aid program in EU history. The package had benefited both refugees and host communities in many ways  from humanitarian assistance, through education, healthcare to job training and socioeconomic support. In return for the generous support, Ankara has been working harder to police the Aegean coast, which resulted in a drastic drop in migrant arrivals. The refugee program is a major target for populists who use it to criticize the countrys leadership. However, scrapping it would deprive Turkey of a successful humanitarian program since most migrants who are currently residing in the country have no plans of moving to the EU.

Last but not the least, talks between the EU and Turkey on liberalizing visa arrangement for Turkish citizens travelling to the EU still see no end at the end of the tunnel. Ankara and Brussels agreed on more than 70 benchmarks at the start of the negotiations, and to date only seven remain to be met by Turkey. However, the outstanding ones are those most complex and problematic, including Turkeys antiterrorism law, which, according to the EU, is in urgent need of revision.

Four Steps to an EU-Turkey Reset  Analysis by Marc Pierini  Carnegie Europe.

(The Analysis can be downloaded here)
Mediterranean countries are joining their forces to intensify their cooperation to combat illegal migration and migrants smuggling and human trafficking networks  a thriving business that is undermining peace and stability in North Africa. The interior ministers of the Mediterranean countries met in Tunis yesterday (26 July) to discuss the issue of migration and emphasize the importance of addressing the roots of illegal migration and initiate a human approach in migration management.

The leaders also developed a plan to regularize the flow of refugees from Africa to Europe and to deport illegal migrants from Italy on top of fighting smuggling. Their plan that got a full support of the UNHCR aims to set up screening systems for migrants heading for Europe in the most frequent countries of origin such as Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia Faso, Ethiopia, Chad and Sudan. The European Union has allocated funding for 40,000 regularized refugees with as many as half coming from Syria and the rest from African countries.

Italy is especially keen on moving forward with this issue as more than 90,000 migrants have arrived on its shores since January. UNHCRs newly appointed special envoy to the Central Mediterranean Vincent Cochetel commented that we need to regularize the system and stop these dangerous journeys into Libya. Italy also needs to be able to process claimants so the economic migrants are returned much more quickly, or else there will be no deterrent to travel to Italy. Only a third of the migrants reaching Italy are found to be in need of international protection.

It is estimated that about 300,000 Africans are trying to reach Libya, in an attempt to ultimately get to Europe or to get some work in Libya. They are living in Libyan detention centers or alternatively in so-called connection houses handled by traffickers. The number of people arriving in Europe from Africa through Libya is rising and, with it, the risks they face while crossing the Sahara Desert and the Mediterranean Sea. Between January and June this year, 2,171 refugees and migrants died or went missing while many others are thought to have died trying to get to Libya.
Hello, I am an American citizen who has recently married a man from the UK (we currently live together in the UK while I'm finishing my masters). We have decided to move to the US when my visa here expires. He should have no issues obtaining a visa as we are a legitimate couple with plenty of evidence and we have proper financial backing through my father who has agreed to sponsor us. However we do have a few questions for people who either have the knowledge or have done this before.Trying to look this all up ourselves has left us both confused (I'm attempting to write a dissertation at the same time so that doesn't help). What are the best straightforward resources for this, will an immigration lawyer be necessary? Also, is it possible for us to file for this visa while I'm still in the UK? Would this be better for the UK forum? I'm honestly not sure.Thank you guys in advance for your time.
If you need have work done on a house, be aware that this is very regulated and you will find labour costs very high (certainly higher than both the UK and Spain). If you need to employ other staff, eg. around the home (whether through a company or direct), you will find this expensive, however there are currently tax credits for services at the home).



Not sure that cost should be a major driver for relocating to France - if your budget is tight, I suggest you don't move here, especially if you don't feel some particular connection to France.



Also, there is no equivalent of a 'gestor' here and you will have to navigate all things administrative yourselves - and mostly in French.
I think about your only route to obtaining the appropriate visa would be as a student. One issue being, however, that to attend a French university, you pretty much have to have one year of US college under your belt. (There is an extra year of French public education, and university in France is subject oriented - no "general requirements" to fulfill in your freshman and sophomore years.)Any visa is going to require you to have the financial means to carry you through your intended stay - though the requirements are somewhat less for a student visa. Tuition fees are very low (actually, mostly an "administrative fee") for the French public universities and there is an expectation that you can get by on a "student income." The "trick" is that French universities require you to have a certain level of French.You may want to take a look at the Campus France website here: USA Cheers,Bev
Sen. Ben Sasse described Wednesday's failure by Republicans in the Senate to vote to repeal Obamacare as "a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal."

"Today's repeal-and-delay amendment should have been an easy, kept promise," Nebraska's Republican senator said.

The amendment failed on a 45-55 vote, with seven Republicans joining all Democrats in voting against the proposal.

"Here are two whoppers," Sasse said in a written statement. "Democrats promised 'if you like your plan you can keep your plan' and Republicans promised to 'fully repeal Obamacare.'"

As the Senate continues to debate health care, Sasse said, "I'll dig into every amendment my colleagues -- both Republican and Democrat -- offer, but make no mistake."

Failure of Wednesday's amendment ranks as a huge disappointment, he said.

Both Sasse and Sen. Deb Fischer voted for the amendment.

Meanwhile, the Nebraska Farm Bureau urged the Senate to replace the Affordable Care Act with new health care legislation that would include creation of a Medicaid block grant program that "reduces federal liabilities" for the program.

The 61,000-member statewide organization also urged senators to eliminate many of the mandatory coverage requirements included in Obamacare, including the individual mandate to purchase health insurance and penalties for employers who do not provide health insurance coverage for their employees.

The Farm Bureau urged the Senate to expand the program of health care savings accounts and establish authority for new small business association health insurance plans.

"Time and again, we receive calls and have had conversations with members who indicate the cost of health insurance has now become either their number one or two family living expense," Farm Bureau President Steve Nelson wrote in a letter sent to Senate leadership.

"This is unacceptable and unsustainable," he stated.

"With Nebraska now only having one health insurance provider in the health insurance exchange marketplace, it is clear the promises made by the ACA are failing to live up to expectations."

The letter was dispatched to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Minority Leader Charles Schumer on Tuesday in advance of the beginning of the Senate health care debate.
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When most of us tackle a home makeover, we might start at Home Depot and end up at IKEA. Not Erin Lobosco.

A DIY decorator with an uncanny capacity for creative visualization, a sharp eye for a quality bargain and the impish charm of a good haggler, she hits everything from flea markets and estate sales to charity resale stores and even shopper extravaganzas such as the Round Top Antiques Fair. Very near and dear to her heart is the Habitat for Humanity Home Center.

The people that work at there know me by name, said Lobosco, 56, whose ice-blue eyes are offset by a neat auburn pageboy. Its a fun house. But more than that, its very ... I dont know ... validating. People think that if youre buying used, youre somehow not getting quality. I think used means quality. And it has a history to go with it. Youre buying local history to have a house you can be proud of, that youve put your own blood, sweat and tears into  thats very satisfying.

After selling her Marmon Mok Architecture-designed Colonial Hills home of 26 years in 2015, Lobosco and her husband Gerard, a retired lawyer, wanted something that didnt come with a half acre to mow.

But she did want some green space, said Ellen Hagan, Loboscos realtor. They wanted a garage, outdoor space, a community where everybody knows each other, and that can be hard to find in a condo.

Last year, they discovered a 2,200-square-foot, two-story condominium in the Medical Center area. The downside: It was like a trip back to my childhood in the 70s, Hagan said. It was very dark.

It was brown, Lobosco said. But the rooms were all big, and it had high ceilings. It was well built, constructed by H.B. Zachry in 1972. Not a crack in it anywhere. It had good bones.

The condo, which has three bedrooms and three baths, including upstairs and downstairs master suites, was built on a good foundation of timeless terra cotta tile floors. Otherwise, it was a time warp of spindled arches and carpeted stairs.

It had miles and miles of popcorn ceilings, and the fireplace was white, with niches for art, I guess, very Southwestern, Lobosco said.

For around $45,000, including furniture, Lobosco has completely transformed a shadowy space oddity into a bright, classically modern, retro-funky home that is both comfortable and conversation-worthy.

Original art on her walls includes paintings by Franco Mondini-Ruiz and Robert Tatum, two maverick San Antonio artists who see very little light between lowbrow and highbrow.

Its unbelievable, Gerard said. Im very happy. My wife did just an incredible job.

Its a miracle that Erin Lobosco was around to make her mark on the condo.

I suffered a massive stroke when I was 43, said Lobosco, who was a paralegal for 27 years. I lost all my speech, and my left side was paralyzed. I did months and months of therapy, and still do some therapy because I still have a lot of cognitive difficulties that I struggle through all the time. I cant do math, for example, like a tip in a restaurant. I can type, but I cant write. So, doing this house was just exhausting. It was a real test of will. But, if I dont have a creative outlet, I go a little bit nuts.

Almost everything in the condo has an origin story, which Lobosco is proud to share.

The industrial kitchen countertops, for example, were once galvanized metal doors in a commercial warehouse, found at the Habitat for Humanity Home Center, as was the wood-grained ceramic tile used in a fireplace facelift and a headboard in the downstairs master suite.

An anti-gravity Contour chair in the den was the result of a prolonged negotiation with a seller at a flea market in Arkansas (He didnt know what he had, and I got a really good deal, Erin said), and a turquoise vinyl armchair, as well as all the living room furniture, came from the Childrens Shelter Thrift Boutique on South St. Marys Street.

A barn door sliding on a black metal trolley system in the dining room is another Habitat find. It was $75, Lobosco explained. But I didnt like the handle that was on it, so I bought another door for $10 just for the handle.

Loboscos vision is unique, said Bianca Peralta, a marketing associate for Habitat for Humanity.

To see someone transform something and use it for a totally different purpose is incredible, she said. Erin has a vision that not everybody has.

Through material procured by liquidators and its own Wrecking Crew, Habitat Home Centers sell new and used building supplies, furniture, cabinets, appliances and housewares at discounted prices to the public. Proceeds pay administrative costs so that monetary donations go directly to the organizations home-building program.

It comes full circle, said Sarah Inez Arredondo, a Home Center marketing associate. We keep things out of the landfill and offer them to the public at discounted prices. And the thing about our stores is that our inventory is always turning over, so its new stuff.

A Corpus Christi native, Lobosco champions the sustainability factor of repurposing and reusing items and building materials in her home, like her vintage kitchen appliances, all bought at a Habitat Home Center, including an oven/stove/microwave combo ($45), a dishwasher ($10), a refrigerator with icemaker in the door ($215) and a garbage disposal ($15). Theyre dated, but feel right at home.

I even bought the kitchen sink there  its a Koehler, she said. Ten bucks!

Her mom would be proud.

My mom was the original recycler, Lobosco said. With five kids, we lived very frugally. Instead of buying new furniture, my mom would take an upholstery class at the local college. Until middle school, she sewed every stitch of clothing I wore. She even made my dads clothes. I guess I get a lot of it from her.

Realtor Hagan is amazed at the dramatic transfiguration of the condo.

Ive seen so many homes in San Antonio, which cost millions and were professionally decorated, and theyre beautiful, she said. But the quality of this home equals them. And theres so much more because there are so many stories here.

sbennett@express-news.net
President Donald Trump announced in three tweets Wednesday morning that transgender Americans would be banned from military service due to the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Angela Jenkins, 32, served as a Navy seaman from 2004 to 2007. A Houston native, she worked with the military police at Lackland AFB for several months before being stationed at the Naval Submarine Base Kings Bay in Georgia, where she served in the first ever Navy-Marine hybrid command. Jenkins now lives in Fredericksburg.

Though she knew she was transgender when she entered the military at 19, she remained closeted and presented outwardly as a man until she left three years later. The Express-News spoke with her about Trumps decision and its implications. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was your reaction when you saw what President Trump announced this morning about banning transgender people from the military?

I would say frustrated and angry. Trans people  weve been going through a lot the past couple weeks here in Texas, with the Senate hearing and SB 3 (Senate Bill 3, also known as the bathroom bill) passing yesterday. This definitely didnt make things better.

It used to be  we would really just try to just blend into society and just try to live our lives. Its definitely a different environment now, unfortunately.

I know multiple people that are in the military right now. I cant imagine what theyre feeling right now. As angry as I am, they must be terrified. It seems like theyre about to lose their jobs. Hopefully things will change before that happens, but it certainly doesnt look that way.

How did your realization that you were transgender relate to your decision to join the military?

Id already made the decision to just pretend to be a male. I made that decision when I was a senior in high school. I was very gender nonconforming. Things were very difficult. I was being bullied daily. I almost dropped out of school.

From the time I graduated to the time I joined the military, I was just working a menial job. I had developed the feeling that I was kind of wasting my life, so I figured that maybe I could put my physical body to good use by serving in the military. If I had just been allowed to transition, I would see the military as my lifesaver. I would have made a career out it.

What was it like to enter the military?

I unfortunately still thought I could fake it, and eventually you cant. And if you think that doesnt hurt military readiness, youre crazy.

When I was in, you couldnt even go outside of the military to talk to a civilian doctor. Thats illegal, according to the UCMJ (the Uniform Code of Military Justice). And the only mental health counselors you have are chaplains. And chaplains are not going to be sympathetic to a transgender person, or even a gay person.

When I was in the military, Dont Ask, Dont Tell was still in place. Theyre supposed to not ask you if youre gay. I was asked. There was certainly some questions on my recruiters part, it seems like. He was pretty adamant, trying to figure out if I was LGBT and if he had, I wouldnt have been able to get into the military.

Even with really ridiculous pressure to not join by one or two of the recruiters, just by how they were treating me, I still ended up in the military, even with the ban in place. This isnt anything new. Theyre just going to repeat the same mistakes.

What was your service like?

I really didnt encounter any homophobia. Kind of the opposite. People understood that gay people and trans people werent allowed to serve in the military. But nobody wants to fire somebody for no reason. They spend all of this money training you. No commander or senior in the military that oversees other personnel, they dont want to fire people. They dont want to separate people. Even when you do terrible things in the military, they latch onto you and hold on.

It wasnt necessarily how I was being treated as much as it was developing this inner pressure that youre wasting your life. When youre in, the military has very strict grooming standards and theyre very binary, and for a trans person that can be utter hell.

Can you talk about the way Trump framed the argument in terms of medical costs?

Hes definitely echoing a lot of right-wing propaganda that are trumped up numbers. I think theyre claiming that its going to cost billions of dollars. Trans peoples medical costs are not that expensive, aside from hormone treatments, which can run  you can get it down to $50 if you just go with all generics. And thats nothing.

Having surgery, its not a walk in the park. There are additional complications that can come from having surgery. Its a very serious decision, and its not one that anyone makes lightly, and a lot of people dont go through with it.

Have you had any conversations with any other transgender veterans or service members?

I got in touch with somebody that I know thats a veteran. Shes an Army veteran. She got me in touch with other veterans. We talked about it a little bit. We dont want to go too crazy. Nothing has been formally announced yet. Theres no necessarily official policy yet. Its kind of hard to react when the president says a lot of nonsensical things. Were just kind of in a wait and see mode.

Was there any anger or fear in those conversations?

I think its really bad. Im really scared for the people that I know that are in the military. I know multiple trans people that were extremely enthusiastic about getting to sign up and serve. So this is all very, very devastating news, Im sure, for them. And the people that are in the military right now are being threatened. Their jobs are being threatened.

lcaruba@express-news.net
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Jennifer Ibarra, 34, stood looking over a growing South Side memorial and empathized with the immigrants who died and were hospitalized after being left in a broiling trailer over the weekend.

She was there for about 10 minutes and pointed out that she was already starting to sweat.

I can only imagine how hot they were in there, Ibarra said, wiping her brow.

San Antonio Police Department investigators said eight people were found dead inside the trailer at the Walmart parking lot at 8538 South Interstate 35 after midnight Sunday. Federal officials who took over the investigation later said two more immigrants died after they and the rest of the injured were taken to area hospitals for heat-related complications.

RELATED: 13 found in sweltering truck being held as material witnesses

Maria Garcia, who was at a vigil for the victims Monday, said its important to mourn the victims and pray for those recovering on behalf of the families who are still in Mexico.

She and friends of hers from a worship group along with a stranger she met at the memorial hosted a candlelight vigil Wednesday evening at the Walmart parking lot. Nearly 100 people showed up to pay their respects.

Debora Torres, 52, said she was driving Monday with daughter Erica Gomez, 23, near the makeshift memorial in the stores parking lot. She stopped to leave some candles and flowers. While there, she met Garcia, 39, and they decided to organize the vigil.

I told her, Lets organize and see who comes and who listens to us, Garcia said in Spanish.

Its a very difficult time for families who arent able to come to U.S. to be with their loved ones that are hospitalized, Garcia said. We all deserve dignity and compassion regardless of whatever their status is.

RELATED: San Antonio death toll in 'horrific' human trafficking reaches 10

For Torres, organizing the vigil hit close to home. Her husband, she said, is a Mexican immigrant.

I know the suffering they go through to get over here, Torres said.

Mike and Patricia Snyder attended the Wednesday evening vigil. They said what happened Sunday could be preventable.

I just wished there was less praying and more talking about why this happened, said Mike Snyder, 71.

Patricia Snyder, 57, said there should be a way to help these immigrants.

We understand perfectly why people want a better life, she said.

Ibarra and her friend Gloria Suarez, 64, dont live far from where the incident occurred. They, like many others who stopped by earlier in the day, were still in disbelief and trying to understand everything that occurred.

Ibarra said she had parked in a spot on Saturday just across from the trailer as she ran inside the Walmart hours before the discovery.

How are we supposed to know that humans are inside of a (trailer)? she asked.

For Suarez, seeing the memorial brought forth the memory of losing her grandson, 18-year-old Joseph Rene Macias, last year.

He was fatally shot during a botched drug deal on Aug. 7, 2016, that was set up via Snapchat in the 6400 block of Tahoka Road. Two other teens were critically injured in the incident, according to a previous report.

Its devastating, Suarez said. I feel for the ones that died. I really do.

While some passed in cars to pay their respects, others left candles, flowers and other religious items.

A woman who wished only to be identified as Pauline, 42, was there with family as they brought bread and water bottles, leaving them open.

We saw all the bottles closed. People may not realize this but the spirits are like humans, if the bottles are closed they cannot drink water, she said.

She and her family hoped the items would nourish the spirits of the dead.

Meanwhile, as Suarez took one last look at the memorial before leaving, she offered up some advice.

Its always good to tell your loved ones in the morning that you love them, because you dont always know if thats the last time youre going to see them, Suarez said.

JBeltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @JBfromSA

SMartinez-Beltran@express-news.net

Twitter: @SergioMarBel
President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets posted on the 69th anniversary of the executive order that desegregated the military, said Wednesday the government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, ending Pentagon plans to start recruiting them.

The White House offered no details about how such a policy would be implemented, but forcing out thousands of transgender troops already in the military would mark a dramatic turn from an Obama-era decision to allow them to openly serve. Trumps comments appeared to catch some in the Pentagon by surprise and came while Defense Secretary James Mattis, who only weeks ago ordered a six-month delay in accepting new transgender recruits, was on vacation.

The announcement stunned many in the transgender community, one of them a former sailor who had been in Austin this week watching lawmakers advance a bill to restrict peoples ability to choose what public restroom to use.

I know multiple trans people that were extremely enthusiastic about getting to sign up and serve, said Angela Jenkins, 32, a former Houstonian who was in the Navy from 2004 to 2007 and now lives in Fredericksburg. So this is all very, very devastating news, Im sure, for them. And the people that are in the military right now are being threatened. Their jobs are being threatened.

The Pentagon last year allowed transgender troops to serve openly, part of a series of policy changes starting in 2010 that protected servicemen and women from being kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. It followed the end of Dont ask, dont tell, a much-maligned Clinton-era policy that had allowed gay troops to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation. The action by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter was likened to President Harry Trumans decision to issue Executive Order 9981, which racially integrated a military that had long been segregated.

A RAND Corp. study done for the Pentagon found last years decision affected up to 7,000 active-duty and 4,000 reserve component troops, a small fraction of the total force, while UCLAs Williams Institute put the number of transgender personnel at 15,500. Carter said the decision to let transgender troops serve openly was made in part to allow them to obtain medical care through the military, including surgeries, and that it would allow talented Americans who are serving with distinction or who want the opportunity to serve.

Before Carters action, transgender troops had to go to private care providers at their own expense. RAND found the costs of extending gender transition-related health care would rise between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year. The Center for Military Readiness, a Michigan-based organization that has opposed the expansion of women into the infantry, gays serving in the military and allowing transgender troops to openly serve, has called the Pentagons cost projections deeply flawed.

The centers president, Elaine Donnelly, said Wednesday that RANDs work was influenced by sources in the LGBT community and cited a Family Research Council study that asserted the true cost of transgender medical care could run to billions of dollars over 10 years. The conservative groups study said costs were hard to estimate because of variables ranging from gender reassignment surgery to hormone replacement therapy.

This is not about fairness to individuals, this is about combat effectiveness and lethality, Donnelly said when asked if it was right to kick transgender troops out of the military after allowing them to serve. To make this cohort of people eligible to serve to imposes heavy burdens, starting with doctors and nurses to carry out and authorize medical treatments that many people consider unethical.

In ending the transgender troop ban, Carter laid out a timetable for action through this year that would lead to accepting transgender troops by this summer for basic training. Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland had been poised to take its first transgender recruits early this month.

Trump upended all that while raising the issue of cost in three tweets in a span of 13 minutes, the first at 7:55 a.m., saying he had decided to bar transgender personnel from the military after discussing the matter with generals and his experts.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..... ....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he wrote.

The announcement appeared to surprise defense officials, who referred all questions about it to the White House  a highly unusual move on matters of such magnitude and complexity.

Transgender advocates fumed.

You dont tweet federal policy in this country, so your guess is as good as mine as to what the presidents next step is going to be, said Matt Thorn, executive director of OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a longtime transgender advocacy group. But I will say this: If he goes beyond Twitter and actually does ban individuals, we will take him to court.

Nick Morrow, the Human Rights Campaigns press secretary for Southern states, said transgender rights are under systematic attack. Trumps announcement came less than 12 hours after the Texas Senate passed its so-called bathroom bill, an issue that has consumed the Legislature all year.

From Texas to the White House, unfortunately, it seems like trans Americans are definitely under siege, he said.

Daniel Pons, who pronounces her name dan-YEL', said she felt betrayed by her home state and the federal government and that banning people like her from the military was completely insulting. A ban, she added, also would needlessly eliminate talented service members who want to serve their country.

Were an easy target. But what people dont understand is that their freedom depends upon ours, said Pons, 63, a veteran of the Army Reserve and National Guard who served in Gulf War I and came out as transgender more than a decade ago. If you can get rid of people in the LGBT community in the service, what that means is we lose out on our right to speak out and say that we served.

San Antonio Mayor Ron Nirenberg castigated Trump as well, calling his tweets certainly discriminatory in an interview. He questioned both the decisions constitutionality and added that the notion that ones gender has any bearing on ones patriotism or service to the country is an offense to people that wear the uniform.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended the action, which was a U-turn from a pledge Trump had made as a candidate 13 months ago, saying in a tweet, Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary (Clinton) brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, but hes also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy, Sanders said. And based on consultation that hes had with his national security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, and made the decision based on that.

But retired Air Force Col. Don Christensen, president of Protect Our Defenders, a group that supports sexual trauma victims in the military, decried Trumps decision.

I think there will be a legal battle, but it appears that is what the president wants to do, and to me thats a particularly cruel thing to do after it had been made clear that transgenders are going to be accepted and allowed to serve, he said.

Theyre not a political pawn. They should not have to be caught up in Trumps politics  Trumps desire to reverse what had been done before. Theyre not the ones who should be paying the price for this.
Digitized microfilm / Digitized microfilm

Tuesday marks the grim anniversary of the sniper attack by Charles Whitman from the University of Texas Tower on Aug. 1, 1966.

Tuesday marks the grim anniversary of the sniper attack by Charles Whitman from the University of Texas Tower on Aug. 1, 1966. Whitman, a former Marine and Eagle Scout, commandeered the tower's observation deck with an arsenal of assorted weapons and picked off targets on campus and the nearby area until he was taken down 96 minutes later by two patrolmen who had made their way to the observation desk. Including his mother and his wife that he had murdered in separate locations earlier that morning, Whitman was responsible for seventeen deaths: Fifteen died on Aug. 1, another on Aug. 8th, and the last from a gunshot-related wound in 2001.
The unusual doorway at the church of Mission Espada has long been a curiosity to visitors and historical researchers struggling to explain its distinctive form.

For years, scholars have said the doorways irregular form was the likely result of a mistake. Newer research suggests clever creativity in the face of a limited budget and a scaled-down church design led to its appearance.

Espada, the southernmost mission of the five with structures and ruins still standing in San Antonio, was the only one that extensively produced bricks and used them in construction. Thinner and wider than todays bricks, the 18th-century ladrillos resembled blocks used in Roman construction more than 2,000 years ago.

According to James E. Ivey, a longtime archaeologist, historian and researcher of Spanish colonial missions in the Southwest, the earliest known description of the unique doorway, in 1890, was by guidebook writer William Corner, who described it as unmistakably Moorish. He did not suggest it was the product of a construction flaw. But by the early 1900s, the doorways appearance, with stones of differing width assembled around its upper frame, were leaving historians believing the stones had been misplaced.

In 1933, journalist Will N. Noonan wrote in the San Antonio Express that the church entrance was not at all displeasing. But he noted that on a closer study, one could see there was something actually wrong in its assembly. Had the stone been arranged differently, the doorway would have been two feet wider, with outer lines of the arch above it forming a continuous semicircle, rather that jutting inward, Noonan wrote.

Architectural historian Charles Mattoon Brooks, in his 1936 book, Texas Missions: Their Romance and Architecture, also noted that the top of the arch appeared nicked, with two small right angles adding a quaint haphazard note to the form.

Some students insist these breaks are the result of ignorance on the part of the native craftsmen who misplaced the pre-cut stone, thus making an error in the arch. But it is more pleasant to believe that it was a purposeful whim in design, Brooks wrote.

Ivey believes missions architect Antonio Tello probably began construction on the church at Espada soon after the cornerstone of a church at Mission San Antonio de Valero  todays Alamo  was laid on May 8, 1744.

Work at Espada went somewhat slower because the mission was father from the quarry at Concepcion, Ivey wrote in a summary of his research for the Express-News.

In The Alamo: An Illustrated History, author George Nelson chronicled an alleged crime of passion that affected work at the missions. Tello fatally shot his lovers husband in August 1744, then barricaded himself in the church at Valero, then sent for his love. But she was arrested. Tellos, who claimed the shooting was accident, fled during a standoff.

By this time, the foundation of a sacristy at Espada that was to abut a larger, cross-shaped church had been completed, and work on the walls had begun, according to Ivey. Foundation work for the church had only started.

Signage at Espada now notes that shortages of workers and materials halted construction of the planned west-facing church. The sacristy, intended as a room where priests would prepare for Mass, has served as the mission church for well over 200 years. Although the church fell into disrepair and was reconstructed in the late 1800s, its east-facing facade and curious doorway are original mission-era features. The church measures about 65 feet long and 25 feet wide, according to the San Antonio Missions 2015 UNESCO World Heritage nomination.

Ivey believes Tello intended the original church doorway to look more like the one at the Alamo, framed by a semicircular outer arch and ornately carved rectangular panel, known in Spanish architecture as an alfiz.

Several 20th century scholars speculated on reasons for the appearance of todays Espada doorway  that they were assembled as intended, accidentally placed incorrectly or intentionally set in a pattern deviating from the original design. Ivey noted that the construction history of the church and design history of the doorway were not known until about 1980  and then by a very small group of people.

Although evidence has been found of missing pieces in the lower doorway design, and partly chiseled-away traces of an alfiz, Ivey said he found that stone pieces used in the doorway began as the first rough-carved components of the main doorway of the intended main church but were put in storage and never fine-carved for decorative detail. They were installed on the sacristy when it was remodeled in the late 1700s, intentionally rearranged so the doorway would be lower and narrower, to fit the facade of this makeshift church, Ivey said. He attributed the work to Antonio Salazar, an associate and friend of Pedro Huizar who worked on the San Antonio missions, as the craftsman responsible for todays doorway.

The late art and architectural historian Jacinto Quirarte, author of the 2002 book, The Art and Architecture of the Texas Missions, noted that some had said called the doorway a product of ignorance on the part of the masons, who presumably did not know how to fit the stone together. Ivey believes Salazar, faced with a very tight budget for the Espada churchs reconstruction, found ways to build an attractive doorway and facade without overspending. Rather than employing Huizars stone-carving skills, he used period brick where needed; had an uncompleted alfiz chiseled away; and covered the reshaped doorway with a coat of plaster, so a substituted section would be indistinguishable from the rest of the doorframe, Ivey wrote.

Ultimately, it was thoughtfulness and a concern with the budget on the part of one of San Antonios great colonial architects that produced this striking and unique main doorway, Ivey added.

Today, the church is used for worship, having rebounded from a 1998 fire that damaged its ceiling and wooden beams. Its disposition provides for a solar phenomenon on or around Oct. 4  the feast day of St. Francis of Assisi, with light from the rising sun shining through a window above the doorway, illuminating the rear wall behind the altar, according to the UNESCO application.

shuddleston@express-news.net

Twitter: @shuddlestonSA

COMING SATURDAY: 1839 map in General Land Office archives shows crossroads in early San Antonio.
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When he arrived in San Antonio in the summer of 1932 to become the first Jesuit pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic Church, Father Carmelo A. Tranchese must have hoped it would be his last post.

After spending two or three years ministering to parishioners of the West Side church, Tranchese, who had taught physics and literature at the Jesuit College of Naples in his native Italy, hoped to devote himself to what he really wanted to do: conduct scientific research, maybe in astronomy.

But in 1932 came the assignment that was to occupy his most creative years and bring him national fame: He was sent to Guadalupe Church, where for 22 years he was the apostle of the poor, according to a history of Tranchese published in the Woodstock Letters, a publication of the Society of Jesus named after Woodstock College, a Jesuit seminary in Maryland.

The letters, published from 1872 until 1969, offer historical perspective on work done by Jesuits in North and South America.

Tranchese had seen poverty in previous stints in churches in El Paso; San Jose, California; Albuquerque, New Mexico; and Colorado but the wretched conditions he found on the West Side must have been shattering.

Residents of the neighborhood were among the poorest in San Antonio, whose Mexican American population numbers at the time were second only to those for Los Angeles.

The majority of residents in what was known as the Mexican Quarter lived in small, dilapidated, overcrowded hovels that had once been stables. Few had indoor toilets or running water. There were no paved streets and when it rained, the roads flooded.

Cruelly, postcards of the era referred to the shacks as Mexican mansions and to their inhabitants as happy Mexicans.

Victims of the terror and lawlessness that broke out during the 1910 Mexican Revolution, entire families fled across the U.S.-Mexico border with little more than the clothes on their back. By the thousands, they streamed into San Antonio and South Texas.

Illiterate and uneducated, the immigrants who could find work in San Antonio did menial labor or became pecan shellers, earning as little as $2 a week.

The priest also found that there was a shocking number of infant deaths and infectious diseases with high rates of tuberculosis, smallpox, typhus, diphtheria and typhoid fever.

That, along with Our Lady of Guadalupes debt and general indifference from the public and local authorities, were some of the challenges Tranchese faced in his first years at the parish.

A walkout by pecan shellers because their wages were to be reduced from 6 or 7 cents a pound to 5 or 6 cents led to a 37-day strike in 1938. Hundreds of protesters were arrested. Implementation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act setting the minimum wage at 25 cents an hour led owners of the pecan shelling companies to replace workers with new machinery or close down.

Seeing thousands of people out of work and facing starvation, Tranchese began to seek donations of stale bread or tortillas, vegetables on the verge of decay, and money, note the Woodstock Letters.

According to the Jesuits, Mayor C.K. Quin ordered two squad cars and four policemen to help Tranchese collect the food.

A daily bread line was set up in the church yard for parishioners. Through the Catholic Relief Association, people received donated food and clothing.

In 1935, Tranchese founded La Voz de la Parroquia, a weekly newspaper in English and Spanish used to educate parishioners about health issues.

After Congress passed the Housing Act of 1937 that established the U.S. Housing Authority and provided funds for construction of public housing and clearing slums, Tranchese began a letter-writing campaign to officials in Washington to bring some of that money to San Antonio.

Those two goals  securing public housing for the poor and demolishing the slums  moved Tranchese to seek help wherever he could. He won a few allies: Maury Maverick, who represented Texas 20th District in the U.S. House of Representatives, and civil rights activist Alonso S. Perales.

In 1937, the City Council named Tranchese to serve on the newly-created San Antonio Housing Authority.

The Roosevelt administration approved funds for a housing project in San Antonio but then the U.S. Supreme Court declared national housing projects unconstitutional.

Eventually, the project resumed. But it nearly fell apart again when Nathan Strauss, head of the National Housing Authority, learned unscrupulous slum owners had extracted $1.2 million from SAHA for 30 acres of slum land.

Tranchese appealed to first lady Eleanor Roosevelt who got Strauss to continue the work and she even traveled to San Antonio to meet Tranchese and see for herself what was going on.

The city and state regulate stables for horses and cows; why not regulate human habitations also, Tranchese is said to have told Mrs. Roosevelt.

Between 1938 and 1941, Alazan Courts, Apache Courts extension to Alazan, Victoria Courts, Wheatley Courts and Lincoln Heights Courts were built by SAHA.

As a thank you for the president, Tranchese composed a poem in Latin.

This poem has been written in the slums where I live, and where I try to help those who suffer, the priest wrote Roosevelt, adding that he hoped the modest tribute of admiration and gratitude come as a drop of balm to your heart.

Tranchese, who once admitted that he had been put to do the work he least wanted, continued working for the poor. In 1943, he helped establish the Guadalupe Community Center at 1801 W. Durango St., where people could receive medical attention, attend prenatal classes and obtain food and clothing.

In 1953, Tranchese had a nervous breakdown and was sent to the Jesuit Novitiate at Grand Coteau, Louisiana. He recovered and began helping students.

He would have celebrated his golden jubilee in the Society of Jesus in December 1956 but he had two separate heart attacks on July 13, 1956, and died that same day.

Julia Castellano-Hoyt, who met the priest when she was a child, said she would like to see Tranchese attain sainthood someday.

He blessed our home in the Alazan-Apache Courts, she recalled. My recollection is that my father, who worked for Kelly, and mother thought a lot of him.

A retired City of San Antonio employee, she still has a framed print of the Sacred Heart of Jesus signed by Tranchese.

I treasure it because he did so much for San Antonio, she said.

COMING FRIDAY: The curious doorway at Mission Espada.
To grow even closer to the customers and to further strengthen our presence in Russia and Ukraine, Vaderstad enters into a regional dealer partnership with John Deere. The partnership means same dealer network for Vaderstad and John Deere products in the two countries.



Russia and Ukraine are important markets for Vaderstad. Today nearly 4,000 high quality Vaderstad machines are successfully assisting famers in these markets.



To take the next step and to grow even closer to farmers in Russia and Ukraine, Vaderstad enters a partnership with John Deere in the region. The agreement means that the John Deere dealers in Russia and Ukraine are granted an exclusive right to sell Vaderstad products in their region.



This partnership enables us at Vaderstad to both strengthen and to geographically expand our presence in two important markets. Our customers in Russia and Ukraine will benefit from a broad service and support network of skilled and well-trained dealerships, says Mattias Hovnert, Sales & Marketing Director at Vaderstad.



To provide additional support for the customers, the Vaderstad subsidiaries, Vaderstad Russia and Vaderstad Ukraine, will continue their important task of being the local Vaderstad sales and service specialists working close to customers in the markets.



It is important to point out that this is a distribution partnership between Vaderstad and John Deere for the Russian and Ukrainian market. Vaderstad is a family-owned Swedish company with no intention to be acquired or merged.



John Deere has a great reputation as a global supplier of agricultural machinery with high quality, thus making a good fit for a partnership with Vaderstad in these markets.



The high quality Vaderstad products and John Deere tractors and products will fit well together and this partnership will strengthen both our brands in the region, says Hovnert.



The partnership enables John Deere dealerships to provide a more complete portfolio of implements to Russian and Ukrainian customers. The dealers will have access to a broad range of John Deere machines as well as Vaderstad seed drills, planters and tillage equipment, says Christoph Wigger, Vice President Sales & Marketing Region 2, at John Deere.



The partnership between Vaderstad and John Deere in Russia and Ukraine is effective July 25, 2017.

Source: Vaderstad
Cowaramup, which installed a herd of fibreglass cows in its shopping centre in 2011 after local dairy farmers and community members donated funds to buy them, was recently named as one of eight LEGENDAIRY capitals of dairy regions across Australia.
Professor Howieson said the genesis of what they were doing, which had been proven in a five-year pilot study they had done with growers and was funded by the MLA, goes back to 1993 when vacuum-harvesting sub clovers was going out the back door, sounding the death knell to clover farming in an era of more intensified cropping.
Biddeford-Saco-OOB Courier

"When you shake a veteran's hand today, look them in the eye and give them a heartfelt thank you," said USAF Ret. Col. Jen Fullmer, parade grand marshal, who spoke at the event.
Halliburton Company paid the SEC $29.2 million in disgorgement and penalties Thursday for violating the FCPAs books and records and internal accounting controls provisions.

The SEC said Halliburton gave business to a friend of an Angolan official. The official eventually approved the award to Halliburton of seven oilfield services contracts.

In the settlement, Halliburton paid the SEC $14 million in disgorgement plus $1.2 million in prejudgment interest, and a $14 million penalty.

The company will retain an independent compliance consultant for 18 months.

Halliburton said in a statement Thursday that the DOJ advised the company that it has closed its investigation and will not be taking any action.

Halliburton made about $14 million in profit from the Angola deals, the SEC said.

In a related enforcement action Thursday, Halliburtons former vice president, Jeannot Lorenz, agreed to pay a $75,000 penalty for causing the companys violations, circumventing internal accounting controls, and falsifying books and records, the SEC said.

In 2010, a whistleblower alerted Halliburton to potential FCPA and conflict violations through an Angolan vendor. The company then launched an investigation into the allegations.

In February 2009, Halliburton and its former subsidiary KBR settled FCPA violations for $579 million. Thats still the third biggest FCPA-related settlement of all time. KBR admitted paying Nigerian officials at least $182 million in bribes on behalf of itself and three partners for contracts to build liquefied natural gas facilities on Bonny Island, Nigeria.

Houston-based Halliburton has about 50,000 employees in 70 countries. Revenues last year were nearly $16 billion.

The SEC and Halliburton settled Thursdays enforcement action through an administrative action and without going to court. The company didnt admit or deny the SECs findings.

According to the SECs order (pdf), officials at Angolas state oil company Sonangol told Halliburton in 2008 that it was required to partner with more local Angolan-owned businesses to satisfy local content regulations.

Lorenz, the former Halliburton executive also charged Thursday, retained an Angolan company owned by a former Halliburton employee. The former employee was a friend and neighbor of the Sonangol official who would ultimately approve the award of the contracts, the SEC said.

Halliburton outsourced more than $13 million worth of business to the local Angolan company, according to the SEC.

Sonangol eventually approved the award of seven lucrative subcontracts to Halliburton.

Lorenz violated Halliburtons internal accounting controls by starting with the local Angolan company and then backing into a list of contract services rather than first determining the services and then selecting an appropriate supplier, the SEC said.

Lorenz didnt conduct competitive bidding or substantiate the need for a single source of supply. He avoided an internal accounting control that required contracts of more than $10,000 in countries like Angola with high corruption risks to be reviewed and approved by a special committee within Halliburton, the SEC said.

Lorenz also settled with the SEC without admitting or denying the agencys findings.

____

Richard L. Cassin is the publisher and editor of the FCPA Blog.
Lesley Downer is the author of The Shogun Quartet, four historical novels about Japanese women - a concubine, a courtesan, and a woman samurai. Her new novel, The Shoguns Queen, comes out this week in paperback and is a prequel, the first of the four.

Lesley Downer

Im the product of a series of accidents. If my Chinese Granddad hadnt happened to move to Canada and if my Canadian Dad hadnt happened to sit next to my Chinese Canadian Mum on a train between Ottawa and Toronto, I wouldnt exist. My Dad then moved to London and my mother followed him, making me British.

Im obsessed with exploring the most remote and far flung places I can think of. Lying on the beach is not for me. When I lived in Japan it was a great hopping off point for Bali, China, India and all places east.

When I was nineteen I gave away my teddy bear to my then boyfriend, who was going to Peru. The boyfriend and the bear never came back. I can hardly remember the boyfriend but I still miss my bear (last seen at Lake Titicaca). One of these days I intend to go to Peru and look for him (the bear, not the boyfriend).

When I finished university I travelled overland to India. I nearly ran out of money and had to swallow my pride and contact my father, who sent me a one-way ticket home. A few years later I arranged a teaching job in Japan. The real reason was to make money to get back to India. But then I fell in love with Japan.

Ive lost track of how many years I lived in Japan. Lets say fifteen. I learnt tea ceremony and flower arrangement, tried the incense game, made pottery. I also learnt Japanese. Its a huge job. Im still learning.

I did Zen meditation for three years, trying to find out what happens when you let your thoughts quieten down - a very tough form of mindfulness. But as I finally realised, Im Taurus. I love good food and beautiful clothes and the pleasures of the flesh. In the end I gave up, came back to England and started writing and have been wildly happy ever since.

My first book, on Japanese cooking, won the Glenfiddich Food Book of the Year award. The prize was a medal and a crate of Glenfiddich whiskey. I thought I didnt like whiskey so I gave all but one bottle away. Then I opened that one bottle and had a sip and discovered Id made a terrible mistake.

I spent six months living in a geisha house in Kyoto. The great geisha skill is to twist a man around ones little finger. I pride myself Im rather good at it. That helped me dream my way into the mind of Princess Atsu, the heroine of The Shoguns Queen. She had to operate as a woman in a mans world, using all her feminine charms to get what she wanted.

I gave lectures on a huge ship travelling around the coast of Japan and was utterly thrilled when we sailed into Tokyo Bay and dropped anchor. Seeing the world from the sea was an amazing experience.

I spend a lot of time immersed in nineteenth century Japan, reading books and poring over woodblock prints by Hokusai and Hiroshige. When I have the chance I visit castles and palaces there, imagining myself gliding along the shadowy corridors in a multi-layered kimono, swirling perfume. Physically Im at my desk. But in my thoughts Im far away, in old Japan.
My novel, Maggies Kitchen, is inspired by real events from the Second World War and the British Restaurants that the Ministry of Food established to help overcome the food shortages.

Caroline Beecham

Working in family restaurants growing up showed me how strong a restaurant community can be and the close relationships that can develop between customers, staff and locals; I imagined how this must have been even more pronounced during wartime.

In the novel, Maggies restaurant becomes an antidote to the turmoil of the times and she plays an important role in nurturing the community while she struggles with her own grief. Initially I thought it would be problematic writing a novel about a restaurant during wartime given the difficulties with food supply but then I realized that was an important part of the story. Also, what could be more important than providing people with their basic need and how even more pronounced this would be when life was so precious and resources scarce? We know the restorative power of food in nurturing our senses, giving comfort, and being the focus of our celebrations as well as providing the right nutrition; for Maggie, offering food was her way of making a difference and helping Robbie and Janek as well as the wider community.

Initially I was surprised that I hadnt heard about these British Restaurants and then discovered that whilst food was scarce, what they ate was healthy, simple unprocessed food. By 1941 there were two hundred restaurants and by 1943 there were over two thousand run by local government with the menus and operating rules centralized. Surprisingly, the recipes and ingredients are not dissimilar to what we eat now, particularly with the popularity of paddock-to-plate and nose-to-tail eating. A few of these recipes are included at the back of the novelupdated and testedso they will suit contemporary tastes! Woolton Pie for instance was created in honour of Lord Woolton, the Minister of Food; essentially it was a lentil and vegetable pie with added oatmeal to give extra vitamins and minerals. Its this combination that makes it one of the most significant dishes from the Second World War; not only were the vegetables and oatmeal home-grown and full of nutrition, but they made meals go further. There was a lot of concern then over getting enough nutrition, particularly vitamin C because of the lack of fruit.

Researching and writing this book made me realise how much we can learn from our past; from how much they ate and what they cooked, to how to value what we often take for granted. People seem more interested in where their food comes from now and mindful of what they are eating so some readers might recognise the parallels with the food issues then and now. I hope readers will try some of the recipes but more than anything I hope they will enjoy the story of a young woman who nurtures her community and finds courage in friendship and food.

To see the background that inspired the book, as well as more recipes go to www.maggieskitchennovel.com or https://au.pinterest.com/CarolineBeecha/maggies-kitchen-novel/
I am currently working on book 5 of the Mark King series of books and plan to write 19. Initially I wrote it as a script for a TV series but after a long list of rejections, my wife suggested I turn it into a book. At first, I was reluctant, preferring to perceiver with the process of contacting yet more and more producers and directors, mostly of my favourite TV series and mostly in the US. I adored these shows and felt that if I liked them, surely they would want some of my material? Unfortunately I was wrong and so proceeded to turn the script into a book.

Hit

When I write, I write to music, especially in battle scenes, tense scenes or scenes which require a high level of emotion. Classical and atmospheric music has often contributed to a sudden burst of creativity as I found I could build scenes around the music and then feed off the music to grow each scene. For example, in one of my later book manuscripts, I was writing a ballroom scene and it was at a point when Adele had just released When We Were Young, and it was a perfect reflection of what was happening in that scene. So when I wrote the scene, I had the song on repeat until I had finished writing. It really inspired emotional creativity.

I was heavily involved in the theatre from a young age. Mainly trained in classical ballet, I once performed with the English National Ballet in Derek Deans Swan Lake. It was fantastic, although growing up as a dancer and attending an all-boys school had its downsides. I came in for an awful lot of trouble once my very closely guarded secret was finally revealed in Year 9, and it continued until the day I left school. It was true that, then, if you learned how to dance, you learned how to fight. However, once I left school I was free to pursue it without fear of persecution.

When I wasnt at the dance studio rehearsing, my mum and I used to ride, hacking through the Hampshire countryside twice a week on a variety of horses. My mums regular horse was called Star and mine was a Welsh Cob called Heathcliff who would only let males ride him. I also took part in gymkhanas, winning in quite a few disciplines. My main event though was and always will be jumping, although I never quite clinched a 1st place, mostly finishing 2nd, but I loved it.

Nearly all of the characters in my books are based on real people I have met. This includes those heavily involved in the criminal world. When I am in need of a new character, more often than not I will venture out to city centres and listen in on people, sometimes unintentionally, and look around for inspiration. Ive always loved being a people watcher and I am usually able to spot either a potential character, or a scenario which I think would make a great scene which I can expand on.

I used to work in the legal and financial industry which is where the character of Mark King was born. Actually, he was created whilst on my lunch break wandering around Ocean Village Marina in Southampton! After working with many legal figures in my career, I often wondered how they would react if their lives were so drastically changed in an event such as the one which sets my main character Mark King, on the path to professional killer. What intrigued me most was how much would it take for them to take the law into their own hands, I dont know why, but I suppose I was just daydreaming and suddenly an idea was born.

Hit was actually a TV series Id written long before it was turned into a book. I even planned which actors and actresses would play each character. I was a massive fan of many US shows and once I began to invent new characters, I instantly wanted the actors who I had seen, to play them. It was fun recording each and every episode so I was almost auditioning them from my living room, making notes about them and wondering how much they would charge to appear should it be taken on as a TV series.

While my mum was undergoing chemotherapy for Endometrial Cancer, she would ask me to sit with her with the laptop and to take her mind off the pain; we would write chapters and scenes together. She would suggest edits, tell me my character wouldnt say certain things, critique, and suggest improvements. An awful lot of work came from my mum. Shortly after the Christmas of that same year, sadly mum passed away. She never got to see the completed work.

The most common question I am asked is, is Mark King based on me? No it isnt, although there are similarities. He is an amalgamation of several legal figures I have worked with over my career. I was lucky enough to be mentored at the start of my career by some seriously talented legal representatives, and I got to watch some great men and women at work both in and out of court. I guess Marks personality came out of all the research both from memory and online, of these people, some of whom I hadnt seen for over 10 years. One in particular, was once a member of the Army, taking part in regular tours in arenas such as Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Northern Ireland and always wanted to be a marksman. That was where the idea for Mark Kings background came from.

I am part of a group in the Guinness Book of Records which holds the current record for the most people singing Sing Star on a sofa. Off the back of this, two friends and I planned to drive from Landsend to John OGroats on the back of a drop side long distance container lorry singing a song called The 4 Chord Song which basically describes every pop song can be linked to the same 4 chords. As yet we havent done it, but it is planned, with any money raised to go to various Cancer research charities.

About the author: Living in Hampshire, right on the edge of Southampton Water, P.S Bridge has spent over a decade working in the private financial and legal sector. Away from his professional life, he embraces his creative side and is often found writing stories whilst listening to music. An avid reader from a young age he counts author Scott Mariani as one of the many influences that finally encouraged him to put the finishing touches to the first in his Mark King thriller series. Hit by P.S Bridge (published by Clink Street Publishing 27th July 2017 RRP 9.99 paperback and RRP 3.99 ebook) is available to purchase from online retailers including amazon.co.uk and to order from all good bookstores.
Warwick Davis has been cast in the upcoming Han Solo movie.

Warwick Davis

The film's director subtly revealed the 47-year-old actor will appear in the hotly-anticipated movie in a currently unspecified part.

Responding to a fan on Twitter, the movie's director Ron Howard wrote: "Glad you are asking for one! I directed @WarwickADavis for the 1st time in 30 years today. It made me happy. (sic)"

And Davis was also full of praise for Ron, adding on his own social media account: "Reminded me what a wonderful experience #Willow was, made so by your expert direction & friendship. After 30yrs, you've still got the magic! (sic)"

It is not known what role Davis will take on in the movie but he previously appeared in other 'Star Wars' films including 1983's 'Return of the Jedi', 1999's 'Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace' and 2015's 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'. He will also appear in 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi', which is slated for release in December 2017.

Much is being kept secret about the upcoming Han Solo movie, but it has been confirmed that Alden Ehrenreich will take on the titular role of a young Han Solo, following in the footsteps of Harrison Ford. Emilia Clarke, Donald Glover and Woody Harrelson will also star in the film alongside Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Thandie Newton, whilst Joonas Suotamo will play Chewbacca.

Ron announced in June that he was helming the movie after Phil Lord and Christopher Miller stepped down due to "creative differences".

He wrote at the time: "I'm beyond grateful to add my voice to the Star Wars Universe after being a fan since 5/25/77. I hope to honor the great work already done & help deliver on the promise of a Han Solo film. (sic)"

Whilst Kathleen Kennedy, president of Lucasfilm, added: "At Lucasfilm, we believe the highest goal of each film is to delight, carrying forward the spirit of the saga that George Lucas began 40 years ago.

"With that in mind, we're thrilled to announce that Ron Howard will step in to direct the untitled Han Solo film. We have a wonderful script, an incredible cast and crew and the absolute commitment to make a great movie."
Bollywoods littlest star Taimur Ali Khan took off for his first summer vacation to an undisclosed location in Europe with father Saif Ali Khan, mother Kareena Kapoor Khan and nanny in tow yesterday evening. Baby Taimur was fast asleep and wrapped up in a soft and stylish blanket when he arrived at Mumbais CSI Airport. But soon woke up when flashbulbs went off and fellow travelers expressed their delight with oohs and aahs. Once the family of three finished their photo op, they went straight to the check-in counter. Scroll down to see more photos from last night.
When styled with casual separates, the distressed denims add an edge to the entire ensemble. Distressed denim is a star-favourite and our leading ladies make the most of it. As exemplified the Bollywood women, the ripped jeans can be layered and accessorized quite effortlessly. Anushka Sharma wore the sweetest pair of ripped denims and we cant stop swooning over her look. She wore a shimmering Tommy Hilfiger blouse with Pull & Bear denims and Aquazurra sandals. Alia Bhatt added oodles of charm to her look by pairing her pair of distressed denims with a floral off-shoulder Masaba blouse. How cute are those pom-pom sandals! Jhanvi Kapoor makes a knit crop top work with a pair of distressed denims. Here is a round-up of our favourite looks to get some great styling ideas on how to style your next pair:

Anushka Sharma truly knows how to slay in this style. She paired her Asos denims with an Urban Outfitters shirt and Givenchy heels.
Garment exporters from Nigeria need to establish their brands in order to boost trade, said Musa Rubin, consultant, USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub. He further said that as Nigeria is close to the US compared to Asia, it has a geographic advantage and the relatively low wage cost in Nigeria is also an advantage for the country.

The market in the US is diverse and more than 50 million people spend $1,000 each on an average, annually on garments, said Rubin while speaking at a workshop in Lagos organised by the Trade Hub and Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).

Rubin added that garment manufacturers can increase their trade with the US market by improving their productivity and quality, thanks to relatively low wages in Nigeria. The culture and designs of the country can help create demands in niche markets, said Nigerian media reports quoting him.

Garment exporters from Nigeria need to establish their brands in order to boost trade, said Musa Rubin, consultant, USAID West Africa Trade and Investment Hub. He further said that as Nigeria is close to the US compared to Asia, it has a geographic advantage and the relatively low wage cost in Nigeria is also an advantage for the country.#

The importance of certification was addressed by Emmanuel Odonkor, Trade Hub apparel value chain specialist. He along with William Addo, finance and investment specialist, informed the participants about the importance of Worldwide Responsible Accredited Production (WRAP) certification, which is a requirement for a number of international apparel retailers.

They also educated participants regarding the preparations for trade shows and how to get finance to expand operations.

The workshop concluded with the participants coming together to form the Nigerian Association of Apparel Manufacturers (NAAM) and electing members for its committee. NAAM will work towards engaging the government of the country and other stakeholders to sensitise them regarding opportunities such as job creation and revenue generation.

The workshop was organised to teach apparel stakeholders about entering international markets and expanding their business, mainly in the US through the African Growth Opportunity Act (AGOA). (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
The Fashion & Leather Goods business group recorded organic revenue growth of 14 per cent in the first half of 2017 at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the worlds leading luxury products group. On a reported basis, revenue rose 17 per cent and profit from recurring operations was up 34 per cent. The Groups revenue increased 15 per cent to 19.7 billion.

The momentum at Louis Vuittons Fashion & Leather Goods business, driven by its exceptional creativity, was demonstrated across all its product categories. The Cruise Collection presented at the Miho Museum in Kyoto, Japan, was a great illustration of this. The launch of new models resulting from the collaboration with the artist Jeff Koons and the cult New York skatewear brand, Supreme, were the highlights of the first half, LVMH said.

Fendi continued its strong growth and enriched its leather goods lines, the company said. Loro Piana strengthened its presence in Asia with several openings. Celine, Loewe and Kenzo experienced good growth. Marc Jacobs strengthened its product offering and continued its restructuring. Other brands continued to grow. Rimowa, which joined the LVMH Group, is consolidated for the first time in the first half-year accounts.

The Fashion & Leather Goods business group recorded organic revenue growth of 14 per cent in the first half of 2017 at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton, the world's leading luxury products group. On a reported basis, revenue rose 17 per cent and profit from recurring operations was up 34 per cent. The Group's revenue increased 15 per cent to 19.7 billion.#

Organic revenue growth for LVMH Group was 12 per cent compared to the same period in 2016. During the first half of the year, the Group benefited from a favourable comparison base, particularly in Asia but also in France, where activity was impacted last year by a decline in tourism.

Profit from recurring operations was 3.640 billion for the first half of 2017, an increase of 23 per cent. Operating margin reached 18.5 per cent, an increase of 1 percentage point. Group share of net profit amounted to  2.119 billion, an increase of 24 per cent.

Commenting on the results, Bernard Arnault, chairman and CEO of LVMH, said, LVMH has enjoyed an excellent first half, to which all our businesses contributed. In the current climate of geopolitical and economic instability, creativity and quality, the founding values of our Group, have more than ever become benchmarks for all. The increasing digitalisation of our activities furthermore reinforces the quality of the experience we bring to our customers.

In an environment that remains uncertain, we approach the second half of the year with caution. We will remain vigilant and rely on the entrepreneurial spirit and talent of our teams to further increase our leadership in the world of high quality products in 2017, Arnault added. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
New research by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will focus on the fungal disease Verticillium wilt to help the Australian cotton industry manage the risk associated with the disease. The key to combating this pathogen will be increasing the understanding of the genetic makeup and how diverse symptoms are in Australian cotton crops.NSW DPI Plant Pathologist Dr Karen Kirkby and her team, based at the Australian Cotton Research Institute in Narrabri, will collaborate with DPI Research Scientist Dr. Toni Chapman at the Elizabeth Macarthur Agricultural Institute to develop a tool for cotton growers to determine the level of Verticillium dahliae in soil.

New research by the NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) will focus on the fungal disease Verticillium wilt to help the Australian cotton industry manage the risk associated with the disease. The key to combating this pathogen will be increasing the understanding of the genetic makeup and how diverse symptoms are in Australian cotton crops.#

Kirkby said Verticillium dahliae is a widespread soil-borne fungal plant pathogen that causes wilt disease on many important crops and trees, including cotton.Verticillium wilt is a high-priority disease in the cotton industry biosecurity plan, and when the right environmental conditions occur for the disease it can reduce yields by 30-40 per cent, she said.The Australian cotton industry is worth $2 billion annually to the Australian economy. Our aim is to assist cotton growers to implement practices that reduce the impact of Verticillium wilt, assisted by a new tool that can quantify the inoculum levels in the soils, she added.Kirkby said the incidence and severity of the Verticillium wilt determined through field surveys, and inoculum levels estimated from soil samples collected at the same time, will be assessed to determine the potential risk to crops.New knowledge developed through this project, combined with extensive NSW DPI survey data, will allow the team to use their expertise in cotton pathology to develop decision-making processes that will help growers and managers to assess the risk of where and when to plant cotton, Kirkby said.The objective of this project is to develop a fast and accurate fee-for-service diagnostic test that will identify the strains of the pathogen that cause Verticillium wilt in cotton. The test will also be capable of estimating the pathogen levels in soil, according to Kirkby.Knowing what strain, and what level of inoculum, is present in a particular field will enable growers and consultants to make informed planting decisions to minimise the risk of yield losses associated with Verticillium wilt. The results from this project will also assist other industries that are affected by Verticillium wilt, Kirkby said.This project is being undertaken as part of the Digital Technologies for Dynamic Management of Disease, Stress and Yield Programme, supported by Wine Australia and Cotton Research and Development Corporation, through funding from the Australian Government Department of Agriculture and Water Resources as part of its rural research and development for profit programme and NSW DPI. (SV)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
In 2016, India became the United States 9th-largest single-country trading partner (based on two-way merchandise trade), rising from 10th-largest in 2015. US two-way merchandise trade with India increased 2.2 per cent to $67.7 billion in 2016, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) said in its The Year in Trade 2016 report.

Last year, Indias share of total US merchandise trade with the world rose to 1.9 per cent, up from 1.8 per cent in 2015, continuing a slow but steady increase in Indias share of US merchandise trade with the world over recent years, the report said.

Although US exports to India went up slightly in 2016, the US merchandise trade deficit with India rose 4.2 per cent to $24.3 billion in 2016 as imports grew even more than exports.

In 2016, India became the United States' 9th-largest single-country trading partner (based on two-way merchandise trade), rising from 10th-largest in 2015. US two-way merchandise trade with India increased 2.2 per cent to $67.7 billion in 2016, the United States International Trade Commission (USITC) said in its 'The Year in Trade 2016' report.#

US merchandise exports to India increased 1.1 per cent from $21.5 billion in 2015 to $21.7 billion in 2016. Leading US exports to India in 2016 were non-industrial diamonds; non-monetary gold; civilian aircraft, engines, and parts; almonds; and petroleum coke.

US merchandise imports from India increased 2.7 per cent in 2016 to $46.0 billion. Leading US imports from India in 2016 were non-industrial diamonds, medicaments, gold jewellery, light oils, and frozen shrimp. (RKS)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Textile Corporation of America Inc, a leading textile manufacturer, has announced that it will locate its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Pikeville, Tennessee. The company will invest approximately $27.1 million and create 1,000 new jobs in Bledsoe County, representing the largest private investment in Bledsoe Countys history.

Tennessee governor Bill Haslam, department of economic and community development commissioner Bob Rolfe and Textile Corporation of America officials recently made the announcement regarding the new manufacturing facility.

Textile Corporation of America utilises state-of-the-art plants and machinery to produce quality industrial and institutional textile products including apparel, bedding, healthcare, hospitality, and kitchen linens. It will locate its headquarters and manufacturing facility in the Bledsoe County Industrial Building in Pikeville. The existing building is 186,000 square feet, including offices, and sits on 16 acres.

Textile Corporation of America Inc, a leading textile manufacturer, has announced that it will locate its headquarters and manufacturing facility in Pikeville, Tennessee. The company will invest approximately $27.1 million and create 1,000 new jobs in Bledsoe County, representing the largest private investment in Bledsoe County's history.#

We want to welcome Textile Corporation of America to Tennessee and thank the company for locating its new operations here, creating 1,000 jobs in Pikeville and making this historic investment for not only Bledsoe County but Tennessee as a whole, Haslam said.

Tennessees central location and established workforce make it a prime location for companies like Textile Corporation of America to set up manufacturing operations. By choosing Pikeville, Textile Corporation of America is helping us get one step closer to our goal of making Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs, added Haslam.

The leadership team of Textile Corporation of America has an experience in manufacturing textiles around the world for the past four decades and is committed towards restoring Americas historic place as a global manufacturing centre.

Governor Haslam had also announced recently that Tennessees unemployment rate for June was the lowest in recorded state history. At 3.6 per cent, Junes rate declined from the revised rate of 4 per cent in May. Meanwhile, US jobless rate increased to 4.4 per cent in June from 4.3 per cent in May. Bledsoe Countys current unemployment rate is 4.5 per cent.

Textile Corporation of Americas commitment to create 1,000 jobs in Bledsoe County, a tier 4 distressed county, will have an incredible impact on the community and surrounding area. We appreciate the companys investment in our state and look forward to building a lasting partnership in the future, Rolfe said.

I could not be happier that my home state of Tennessee is leading the renaissance of American manufacturing with the announcement of this facility today, Chattanooga businessman and Textile Corporation of America owner Ed Cagle said. We are proud to call Pikeville, Tennessee home to our new mill. Millions of dollars of investment and the creation of a thousand jobs will be transformative to this county and region.

This is an exciting time for Bledsoe County, Bledsoe County mayor Gregg Ridley said. As mayor of a tier 4 economically distressed county, getting 1,000 local jobs is a pivotal moment in time for our citizens and an answer to many prayers. I welcome Textile Corporation of America to our community and trust they will experience many years of prosperity.

We are so excited about the recent news for our town and county. It has been a long time coming and we want to thank everyone for their hard work and not giving up on bringing jobs to our area, Pikeville Mayor Philip Cagle said. (KD)

Fibre2Fashion News Desk  India
Chinas resolve to bring financial risks under control has strengthened since mid-2016, but the likelihood of success remains uncertain, according to S&P Global Ratings.

Can this round of credit control in China succeed?

Chinas latest effort to control credit growth has better chances of success than before, in our view. Most importantly, it's because we now see better coordination among government agencies. The May 2017 policy document on local government financing published signals this. Although it mainly concerns fiscal policy, it was undersigned by five agencies -- including the key financial regulators -- other than the Finance Ministry. This is likely to mean fewer obstructions to policy measures aimed at curbing credit growth arising from differences in departmental objectives.

How is the political setting more conducive for tightening credit policy?

Many senior party leaders will change in the run-up to the party congress this autumn. These changes bring considerable personal risk to officials who implement unpopular policy changes that have doubtful support from future influential leaders. Developments in the past year or so may have reduced this risk. Many key government personnel changes have already been made. And, this close to the party congress, many analysts expect that most of the new top party leadership posts have been decided even if they are not yet announced. Current policies likely already reflect the views of these new leaders. Consequently, attitude toward measures implemented to augment financial stability are unlikely to change significantly in the near future.

Is the central government more able to rein in local government financing today?

Fiscal reforms of recent years have made possible better control of local government financing. A likely concern of policymakers is that restricting local government borrowing could cause a sharp drop in public investment and an abrupt fall in economic growth. The smooth implementation of the revised Budget Law goes some way to reducing that risk. Local governments can now issue bonds to fund their investments even if off-budget borrowing through their financing vehicles is stopped.

Also, the central government has a much better idea of the scale and variety of local government borrowings. This came from the audits of recent years that have focused on this issue. In addition, new requirements were inserted into the revised Budget Law to require more information disclosures by local governments. Building on the information gathered, the Ministry of Finance is able to monitor financing behavior of lower level governments better than before.

What obstacles do policymakers face?



The favorable conditions today do not come close to guaranteeing success in lowering financial risk. Structural factors stand in the way of any policy change to curb credit growth in China. Some of these factors reflect the characteristics of the Chinese economy. Others are related to the policy framework and the government's response function to fluctuations in economic growth.

The key factor that makes possible such a long period of high credit growth in China is the economy's strong capacity to generate savings. This is reflected in its current account surplus despite a very high level of investment. This situation is unlikely to change any time soon, and reflects the excess of domestic savings generation over investment funding needs. Due to the slowdown of capital outflows engineered by policymakers, the surplus is contributing to liquidity in the Chinese financial sector. In turn, deposit growth that result from this creates pressure on banks' profits if they cannot be lent out. The fact that household credit growth remained strong even as corporate lending growth slowed is a reflection of this.

How do State-owned enterprises (SOEs) amplify this pressure?

Other high-saving economies with even larger current account surpluses (relative to GDP) have managed to avoid very strong credit growth. In part, it's because lenders worry more about credit risks than in China. So, as firms become more indebted and credit metrics deteriorate, lenders will hesitate to lend significantly more even if deposits keep building up. Because of implicit state support, Chinese lenders have a higher tolerance for weak stand-alone credit quality at SOEs.

Consequently, leverage could build to a higher level than in more market-oriented economies.

The large state-owned sector also complicates credit policy implementation in another way. Higher funding costs to hold down credit growth are likely to hurt private sector borrowers than SOEs. This reflects the rational tendency for lenders' to prefer to lend to government-supported borrowers, which intensifies when economic uncertainties increase in a tight credit environment. This limits the room for conventional monetary policy in curbing credit growth. We expect that much of the policy tightening to be implemented with direct measures, such as selected credit restrictions on lenders and borrowers.

What other concerns stand in the way of lower financial risks?

One is the governments reliance on direct policy tools. Exercising these tools in an opaque manner increases the risk of misunderstanding policy intentions and over-reaction by market participants. Chinese policymakers' track record of policy communication highlights this risk. From the interbank tightening of 2013 to the handling of the stock market correction in 2015 to the change to the exchange rate fixing system the same year, a lack of transparency and insufficient communications had created economic uncertainty and financial volatility in China. The current credit tightening could also create similar situations if policymakers are not careful.

And their persistence could be called into question if economic performance is significantly affected by the tightening measures. The government employs its economic growth projection as an anchor for expectations. That is why it has historically been averse to underperforming these annual real GDP growth projections (that some call targets). If, for any reason, China's economic growth threatens to come in significantly below target, it is possible that policymakers will ease credit constraints significantly again.

Finally, local governments continue to have incentives to pursue economic growth and this will need more credit growth. In recent years, the central government has made local officials accountable for excessive government debt growth in their jurisdiction. However, local officials are still likely to prioritize growth. After all, the most likely trigger for a rise in nonperforming loans in their jurisdiction is still a sharp fall in growth. The ingenuity of local officials in getting around central government restrictions on their borrowing has been a key reason why credit growth has been so high for so long.

Will slowing credit growth aid Chinas sovereign credit quality?

Our negative outlook on the long-term credit ratings on China partly reflects the risk to financial stability that high credit growth brings. S&P Global Ratings believes that the resolve of China to bring financial risks under control has strengthened since mid-2016. If this stabilizes the risks related to strong credit growth, especially in the local government-related sector, it could slow or stem the deterioration in sovereign credit support. However, the obstacles to bringing down financial risks in the country remain significant. Whether the Chinese government can stabilize overall financial risks is still uncertain.

The greater seriousness of policymakers this time increases the likelihood that credit growth could be brought down to or below income growth eventually. However, this success is not certain and may also come over a relatively long time. The degree to which this policy tightening benefits sovereign rating support is also likely to be unclear for some time.

This article is authored by S&P Global Ratings sovereign analyst Kim Eng Tan


TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/26/17 -- Galane Gold Ltd. ("Galane" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: GG) is pleased to provide an update on its proposed acquisition of Vantage Goldfields Limited ("Vantage"), a gold mining company with operations in the Mpumalanga Province of South Africa (the "Acquisition").

As previously announced, Galane and Vantage entered into a letter of intent, as amended, with respect to the Acquisition. The parties have agreed to further extend the date on which a binding acquisition agreement is to be executed to August 8, 2017.

About Galane

Galane is an un-hedged gold producer and explorer with mining operations and exploration tenements in Botswana and South Africa. Galane is a public company and its shares are quoted on the TSX Venture Exchange and the Botswana Stock Exchange under the symbol "GG". Galane's management team is comprised of senior mining professionals with extensive experience in managing mining and processing operations and large-scale exploration programmes. Galane is committed to operating at world-class standards and is focused on the safety of its employees, respecting the environment, and contributing to the communities in which it operates.

Cautionary Notes

Certain statements contained in this press release constitute "forward-looking statements". All statements other than statements of historical fact contained in this press release, including, without limitation, those regarding the Company's future financial position and results of operations, strategy, proposed acquisitions, plans, objectives, goals and targets, and any statements preceded by, followed by or that include the words "believe", "expect", "aim", "intend", "plan", "continue", "will", "may", "would", "anticipate", "estimate", "forecast", "predict", "project", "seek", "should" or similar expressions or the negative thereof, are forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts but instead represent only the Company's expectations, estimates and projections regarding future events. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks and uncertainties that are difficult to predict. Therefore, actual results may differ materially from what is expressed, implied or forecasted in such forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this press release and the Company assumes no obligation to update or revise them to reflect subsequent information, events or circumstances or otherwise, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its regulation services provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Galane Gold Ltd.

Nick Brodie

CEO

+ 44 7905 089878

Nick.Brodie@GalaneGold.com

www.GalaneGold.com




The 2,709 Hectares Lithium Brine-clay Prospect is Located within the Salar de Arizaro in Salta Province, Argentina

VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 26, 2017 / Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: NRM / FSE: N7R / OTC PINK: NRVTF) ("Noram" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has closed the acquisition of the 2,709 hectares Arizaro East mineral claim is located in the eastern portion of the Salar de Arizaro in north-western Argentina in Los Andes Department, Salta Province (see: Photo/Map).

In keeping with the terms of the Option Agreement previously announced July 21, 2017, the Company has now issued 28,500,000 common shares to earn a 90% interest in the Property and can earn the remaining 10% by making a payment of US$150,000 on or before July 31, 2018.

"We are very pleased to have closed on the 90% acquisition of a land position in Argentina, which will diversify and compliment our existing asset mix of lithium and graphite properties," said Noram's President Mark Ireton. Our focus is not only on finding and developing lithium and graphite deposits, but also on sourcing and supporting new, environmentally-friendly, processing techniques to produce our lithium and graphite products."

About Noram Ventures Inc.

Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V: NRM Frankfurt: N7R) is a Canadian based junior exploration company, with a goal of becoming a force in the Green Energy Revolution through the development of lithium and graphite deposits and becoming a low-cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry. The Company's primary business focus since formation has been the exploration of mineral projects that include lithium projects in the Clayton Valley in Nevada, the Hector Lode in San Bernardino county, California, the Arizaro East mineral claim located in the eastern portion of the Salar de Arizaro in north-western Argentina and the Jumbo graphite property in British Columbia. Noram's long term strategy is to build a multi-national lithium-graphite dominant industrial minerals company to produce and sell lithium and graphite into the markets of Europe, North America and Asia.

For further information, please visit www.noramventures.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

s/ "Mark Ireton"

President & Director

Direct: (604) 761-9994

This news release contains projections and forward-looking information that involve various risks and uncertainties regarding future events. Such forward-looking information can include without limitation statements based on current expectations involving a number of risks and uncertainties and are not guarantees of future performance of the Company. The following are important factors that could cause the Company's actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements; the uncertainty of future profitability; and the uncertainty of access to additional capital. These risks and uncertainties could cause actual results and the Company's plans and objectives to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking information. Actual results and future events could differ materially from anticipated in such information. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking information are based on estimates and opinions of management on the dates they are made and expressed qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking information should circumstance or management's estimates or opinions change.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE: Noram Ventures Inc.
LAS VEGAS, January 4, 2018 /PRNewswire/ --

Napster, a provider of streaming music services and solutions, and Voxtok, which recently joined the Netgem Group as its dedicated Sound Division for innovative musical entertainment in TV and audio sectors, are joining their expertise and complementary offerings to create a unique new musical experience based on multiple sources and contextualized services.

(Logo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/624750/Voxtok_Napster_Logo.jpg )



This global partnership with Napster enables Voxtok to further innovate and reinforce its two flagship products, Voxtok Music and SoundBox.

Voxtok Music enhances the listener's music experience with its openness to all music sources (such as streaming, files, radio, and podcasts), gathering related content that includes music videos, concert streaming and ticketing, and music listening to build an entirely new experience.

SoundBox is a smart soundbar, a breakthrough product merging TV, video, and music services and content, including vinyl! Fully integrated with Voxtok Music, this compact multi-room device integrates advanced TV and video capabilities, with features such as wireless connectivity, multi-screen apps, and support for Alexa voice control. SoundBox recognizes the vinyl record you are currently playing and provides additional content and services related to the album or artist.

Napster recently integrated its music catalog and rich metadata for over 40 million titles in to the Voxtok environment, creating an enhanced experience and seamless integration of all Voxtok Music features. Service-content features are "cross-contextualized", meaning that they are linked to other content if they share common ground, regardless of the source.

"We are pleased to work with Voxtok to bring better entertainment experiences to users with unique, easy-to-use device and music service integrations. Napster's commitment to powering innovative music solutions on behalf of partners is further demonstrated by this new relationship," says Bill Patrizio, CEO of Napster

"We are proud to work with Napster and share the same goal, which is to make music services better and more accessible while offering greater performance. We are pleased to share a preview of this solution with our partners and customers at CES in Las Vegas," adds Joel Reboul, CEO and co-founder of Voxtok.

Voxtok Music is available for TVs, set-top boxes, and mobile terminals such as smartphones and tablets. Voxtok has taken great care to ensure service availability in TV environments, for both over-the-top content (OTT) and operators, making the solution flexible and capable of integrating into mixed offerings featuring TV, video, and music.

SoundBox blends very complex and advanced technologies to rival the most evolved set-top box solutions, while offering a wide range of connectivity options in a small-footprint audio casing. Voxtok has begun deploying some of its SoundBox products through its parent company, Netgem.

Powered by Napster enables powering your brand with music streaming easier than ever. Offering a robust platform, open APIs, extensive consumer expertise and reliable partner support to an existing or new music ecosystem.

Come meet us in Las Vegas, at CES 2018, and see our previews and demos!

Venetian Suite number 30-129

About Voxtok

As the Sound Division of Netgem Group, we are driven by our love for music, our ambition to build a user-centric experience, and our passion for the best possible music-playing devices.

Voxtok develops Voxtok Music, its breakthrough music service, and SoundBox, a new segment in the TV and audio ecosystems. The company was designated as a 2015 CES Innovation Award Honoree for High Performance Home Audio/Video services.

Voxtok is a wholly owned subsidiary of Netgem. Netgem Group is listed on NYSE Euronext Paris, Compartment C (ISIN: FR0004154060, Reuters: ETGM.PA, Bloomberg: NTG FP)

More info about SoundBox: DiscoverSoundBox.com

http://www.voxtok.com - press@voxtok.com

About Napster

Napster is a leading streaming music service and streaming music technology platform business. Whether you are a consumer who wants a popular and premium music subscription for ad-free access to millions of songs or a business looking for a branded end-to-end music streaming experience or specific services to extend your business, Napster can provide the right solution for you.

napster.com

business.napster.com

Thibaut Dabonneville, press@voxtok.com, +33(0)601-198-305


DENVER, Nov. 13, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TYAN, an industry-leading server platform design manufacturer and subsidiary of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation, exhibits its new line-up of HPC and storage server platforms at SC17 from November 13th-16th in Denver's Colorado Convention Center.

"TYAN's leading portfolio of HPC server platforms are based on the IntelXeonScalable Processors and are designed to accelerate data-intensive and cognitive computing workloads for HPC, artificial intelligence and technical computing markets," said Danny Hsu, Vice President of MiTAC Computing Technology Corporation's TYAN Business Unit. "TYAN empowers its HPC customers with flexibility, providing a range of servers and motherboards designed to let our customers build their own solutions or deploy directly into existing IT environments."

Thunder HX Product Line Optimized for HPC and Artificial Intelligence Applications

Featuring inference performance and a high level of data accuracy in real-time, TYAN's Thunder HX FA77-B7119 and Thunder HX GA88-B5631 are optimized for many of today's emerging cognitive computing workloads such as machine learning and artificial intelligence. The 4U FA77-B7119 supports two Intel Xeon Scalable Processors, 24 DIMM slots and up to 11 PCIe x16 (or 21 PCIe x8) slots; The GA88-B5631 is a 1U server with 12 DIMM slots, up to 5 PCIe x16 slots, and a single Intel Xeon Scalable Processor, which is among the industry's highest density HPC servers available on the market.

TheThunder HX FT77D-B7109 allows a 9th PCIe x16 slot to be installed next to 8 double-wide high performance accelerator cards. The design is ideal for NVMe deployment or high speed networking like 100 Gigabit EDR Infiniband, 100 Gigabit Ethernet, or 100 Gigabit Intel Omni-Path fabric. The platform specializes in massively parallel workloads including scientific computing, genetic sequencing, oil & gas discovery, large scale facial recognition, and cryptography.

TYAN's Thunder HX FT48T-B7105 is a pedestal workstation platform with dual-socket Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and a total of 6 PCIe x 16 slots and support for up to five high performance workstation graphics cards. This high-end workstation gives maximum I/O to the professional power user, and is aimed at 3D rendering and image processing. TheThunder HX FT48B-B7100 is a 4U dual-socket Intel Xeon Scalable Processor-based platform with 7 total PCIe slots, including 4 in x16 lanes and 3 in x8 lanes. The platform is ideal for industrial automation and large scale video capture applications.

Thunder SX Product Line Highlights Extreme Performance, Density and Scalability for Datacenter, Enterprise and Cloud

TYAN's storage platforms span a wide range of hardware specifications. The Thunder SX FA100-B7118 is TYAN's flagship storage server supporting dual socket Intel Xeon Scalable Processors and 100 3.5" drives in a 4U rackmount form factor. The platform is designed for both cold storage and large-scale object storage applications such as Lustre.

TYAN's Thunder SX TN76-B7102 is a 2U dual-socket Intel Xeon Scalable Processor-based storage platform. With the maximum expansion up to 8 PCIe slots, the TN76-B7102 allows users to mix and match combinations of a variety of expansion cards. The platform is designed to support Intel's on-CPU 100Gb/s Omni-Path networking fabric, and is ideal for many Big Data applications, including big data analytics, in-memory databases and data visualization.

The Thunder SX GT62F-B5630 is a 1U server platform designed for hybrid NVMe/SATA cache data storage with support for up to 8 hot-swap NVMe U.2 drives along with an OCP v2.0 LAN Mezzanine. The single CPU socket design makes it an ideal platform for workloads that work best within a single NUMA domain and require large amounts of high-speed flash, such as many media streaming applications.


WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The following are some of the biotech stocks that made their way onto the Day's Gainers & Losers' list of August 7, 2017.



GAINERS



1. Myokardia Inc. (MYOK)



Gained 83.38% to close Monday's (Aug.7) trading at $31.45.



News: The Company reported positive topline data from the first patient cohort of its phase II study of Mavacamten in symptomatic, obstructive hypertrophic cardiomyopathy patients, dubbed PIONEER-HCM.



The first patient cohort of the study met the primary endpoint of change in post-exercise peak left ventricular outflow tract (LVOT) gradient from baseline to week 12 as well as key secondary endpoints, including peak oxygen consumption (peak VO2). MyoKardia is planning to initiate a pivotal study of Mavacamten, dubbed EXPLORER-HCM, by the end of this year.



When we alerted our premium subscribers to MYOK on April 5, 2017, the stock was trading around $12.50.



2. NxStage Medical Inc. (NXTM)



Gained 28.22% to close Monday's trading at $29.67.



News: The Company is all set to be acquired by Fresenius Medical Care for $30.00 per common share, in a transaction valued at approximately $2.0 billion.



The acquisition enables Fresenius Medical Care to further leverage its manufacturing, supply chain and marketing competencies across the dialysis products, services and care coordination businesses in a less labor- and capital-intensive care setting. The deal is expected to close in 2018.



3. Marinus Pharmaceuticals Inc. (MRNS)



Gained 12.79% to close Monday's trading at $2.39.



News: No news



Near-term catalysts:



-- Top-line data from phase II trial of Ganaxolone in children with CDKL5 genetic disorder are expected to be reported this quarter. -- A phase II study of Ganaxolone IV in women diagnosed with severe postpartum depression, dubbed Magnolia study, is underway - with data expected in the second half of this year. -- A phase II study of Ganaxolone capsules in women with moderate postpartum depression, dubbed Amaryllis Study, is expected to be initiated later this year. -- A phase II study of Ganaxolone in patients with Status Epilepticus is also planned for initiation later this year.



4. Pacific Biosciences of California Inc. (PACB)



Gained 11.47% to close Monday's trading at $4.47.



News: No news



Recent event:



On August 3, 2017, Pacific Biosciences and Novogene Corp. inked a new agreement, under which, Novogene will purchase 10 more Sequel Systems for DNA sequencing services.



Novogene purchased 10 Sequel Systems from Pacific Biosciences in January of this year.



5. Arrowhead Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ARWR)



Gained 10.87% to close Monday's trading at $2.04.



News: No news



Recent event:



On August 3, 2017, the Company reported fiscal 2017 third quarter results.



The net loss for the three months ended June 30, 2017 narrowed to $5.3 million or $0.07 per share from $19.4 million or $0.32 per share in the comparable year-ago period.



Revenue for the three months ended June 30, 2017 rose to $9.4 million from $40 thousand for the three months ended June 30, 2016. This increase is driven by the upfront payments received from collaboration agreements with Amgen, and these payments will be recognized as revenue over the next several quarters, the Company noted.



The Company had cash of $75.1 million at June 30, 2017.



6. Paratek Pharmaceuticals Inc. (PRTK)



Gained 10.51% to close Monday's trading at $21.55.



News: No news



Recent event:



On August 2, 2017, the Company reported second quarter 2017 financial results and provided clinical update.



The net loss shrunk to $18.2 million or $0.66 per share in Q2, 2017 on revenue of $7.5 million. This compared with a net loss of $30.3 million or $1.69 per share and nil revenue in the year-ago quarter.



Rolling submission of NDA for Omadacycline, the Company's oral investigational antibiotic, is expected to begin in December 2017. Omadacycline is being developed for the treatment of acute bacterial skin and skin structure infections (ABSSSI).



NDA submission completion expected in the first quarter of 2018.



7. Editas Medicine Inc. (EDIT)



Gained 9.09% to close Monday's trading at $18.61.



News: The gene editing company is expected to provide a corporate update and results for the second quarter of 2017 on Wednesday, August 9th, 2017.



LOSERS



1. Zynerba Pharmaceuticals Inc. (ZYNE)



Lost 55.71% to close Monday's trading at $6.61.



News: The Company's phase II study of ZYN002 cannabidiol (CBD) gel in adult epilepsy patients with refractory focal seizures, dubbed STAR 1, did not meet the primary endpoint.



ZYN002 cannabidiol (CBD) gel did not demonstrate a statistically significant reduction of focal seizures during the treatment period compared to placebo.



Near-term catalysts:



-- Top line data from a phase II study of ZYN002 CBD gel for the treatment of osteoarthritis, dubbed STOP, are expected to be reported soon. -- Top line data from a phase II trial of ZYN002 CBD Gel in pediatric Fragile X Syndrome patients, called FAB-C, are expected to be released in September.



2. Gemphire Therapeutics Inc. (GEMP)



Lost 46.78% to close Monday's trading at $9.93.



News: The Company reported top-line results from phase 2b trial of Gemcabene in hypercholesterolemia patients, dubbed ROYAL-1.



In ROYAL-1, Gemcabene met the primary endpoint and demonstrated a statistically significant lowering in LDL-C, but the magnitude of LDL-C lowering was less than observed in certain prior studies of Gemcabene.



Near-term catalysts:



-- Top-line results from phase 2b trial of Gemcabene in subjects with severe hypertriglyceridemia, dubbed INDIGO-1, are targeted for the first quarter of 2018 based on current pace of enrollment. -- Initiate phase 2 clinical development program of Gemcabene in nonalcoholic steatohepatitis, known as AZURE-1, in the second half of 2017 with top-line results targeted for second half of 2018.



3. Fluidigm Corp. (FLDM)



Lost 13.97% to close Monday's trading at $2.71.



News: No news



Recent event:



On August 3, 2017, the Company reported financial results for the second quarter ended June 30, 2017.



Non-GAAP net loss for the second quarter of 2017 slightly narrowed to $9.0 million or $0.31 per share from $9.9 million or $0.34 per share for the second quarter of 2016. Revenue for the recent second quarter declined 15% to $23.9 million from $28.2 million in the second quarter of 2016.



4. Cara Therapeutics Inc. (CARA)



Lost 8.63% to close Monday's trading at $14.93.



News: No news



Near-term catalysts:



-- End of Phase 2 meeting with the FDA in the third quarter of 2017 to finalize pivotal program for I.V CR845 for the treatment of chronic kidney disease-associated pruritus (CKD-aP) in hemodialysis patients; initiation of a Phase 3 pivotal trial expected in the fourth quarter of 2017. -- Initiation of a Phase 1 trial of Oral CR845 in CKD-aP non-hemodialysis patients expected in fourth quarter of 2017. -- Investigational New Drug application submission for Oral CR845 in patients with chronic liver disease-associated pruritus expected in the fourth quarter of 2017. -- Completion of enrollment for CLIN-3001, the Company's ongoing adaptive pivotal Phase 3 trial of I.V. CR845 for the treatment of acute postoperative pain, expected in the fourth quarter of 2017.



5. Dicerna Pharmaceuticals Inc. (DRNA)



Lost 6.94% to close Monday's trading at $3.35.



News: No news



Near-term catalyst:



The Company is slated to release its second quarter 2017 financial results after market close on Thursday, August 10, 2017.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
SEATTLE (dpa-AFX) - Amazon.com, Inc. (AMZN) announced Thursday plans to open its second Michigan fulfillment center in Romulus. The facility will create more than 1,500 new full-time associate roles with benefits. In the 855,000-square-foot fulfillment center, Amazon employees will work alongside innovative technologies, picking, packing, and shipping smaller customer items, such as books, electronics and toys. Full-time employees at Amazon receive highly-competitive pay, health insurance, disability insurance, retirement savings plans and company stock. The company also offers up to 20 weeks of maternal and parental paid leave and benefits including Leave Share and Ramp Back, which give new parents flexibility with their growing families. Amazon also offers full-time employees innovative programs like Career Choice. Since the program's launch, over 10,000 employees have pursued degrees. Romulus Mayor LeRoy Burcroff, said, 'Romulus is proud to welcome Amazon to our Home of Opportunity. We look forward to working together to grow our region's economy and providing more than 1,500 new jobs to area residents.' Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Gothenburg, Sweden, 2017-07-27 08:30 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) --



First six months



-- Net turnover amounted to SEK 14,004 M (11,866). -- Profit for the period was SEK 364 M (336) and earnings per share SEK 3.55 (3.30). -- Operating cash flow amounted to SEK 186 M (423).



Second quarter



-- Net turnover amounted to SEK 7,189 M (6,433). -- Operational earnings amounted to SEK 261 M (240). -- Profit for the period was SEK 183 M (193) and earnings per share SEK 1.80 (1.90).



In a comment on the second quarter, Bilia's Managing Director Per Avander says:



"Demand for both cars and service was on par with last year, and we reported better operational earnings. The improvement was mainly attributable to the Car Business . The Service Business also reported a strong profit, considering that the Easter holiday fell during the second quarter this year. It is gratifying to report that, after a weak start of the year, operations in Western Europe are now showing earnings on a par with our expectations. The order backlog of new cars declined seasonally during the quarter, but was underlying more than 550 cars higher than last year. The Group's operating cash flow was at a lower level compared with previous quarters, but its financial position remains strong. We expect that demand for our cars will be at the same level during the third quarter of 2017, while demand for service will be slightly better compared with the same quarter last year."



For further information, please contact Per Avander, Managing Director and CEO, or Gunnar Blomkvist, CFO, telephone +46 10 497 70 00.



Attachment:

https://cns.omxgroup.com/cds/DisclosureAttachmentServlet?messageAttachmentId=639547

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Vilnius, Lithuania, 2017-07-27 08:32 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On 26 July 2017 the real estate investment company INVL Baltic Real Estate has signed an agreement on the sale of 3,000 square metres of office and warehouse premises on Kirtimu Street in Vilnius. The value of the transaction is EUR 1 million. The property on Kirtimu Street was valued at EUR 0.8 million at the end of 2016, so the transaction will have a positive impact of EUR 0.2 million on 2017 results. After the sale of the property on Kirtimu Street, INVL Baltic Real Estate will hold real estate with an area of 55 thousand square metres and a value, based on valuation at the end of 2016, of EUR 51.5 million The company manages real estate in Vilnius and Riga: office and commercial premises at the Vilnius Gates complex in the Lithuanian capital, the IBC Business Centre near Konstitucijos Avenue, office buildings in the Old Town on Vilniaus Street and in Siaures Miestelis, and the Dommo Business Park manufacturing, warehouse and office complex beside the Riga bypass. The person authorised to provide additional information: Real Estate Fund Manager of Management Company Vytautas Baksinskas E-mail vytautas.baksinskas@invl.com

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
Regulatory News:

This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006551/en/

Shareholders' equity 1Changes in shareholders' equity without any impact on net income

H1 2017 results :

Internet revenues: 323 million, +1% 1

EBITDA2: 91 million, -18%1, EBITDA3 to revenue margin of 24%

Outlook for 2017 revised downward :

Internet revenue growth: +1% to +3% 1

EBITDA2: 200 million

As announced, the Internet growth of this last quarter has been impacted negatively by uncertainty related to the financial restructuring of end 2016. Furthermore, the sales order dynamic has been slowed down over recent weeks by a slower adoption of our higher value Search products, which will ultimately make our audiences more profitable. The engaged action plan to foster these new solution adoption by our clients give early positive signs. At the same time, our Digital Marketing offerings continue to be a source of strong growth.

The Board of Directors welcomes the quality of the candidates for the position of SoLocal's CEO and will be able to announce the name of the new CEO at the end of the summer.

1 In H1 2017 vs H1 2016 (scope: continued activities)

2 Total recurring EBITDA (Internet Print Voice)

3 EBITDA to revenue margin : EBITDA total revenues, before non recurring items

I. Revenues and EBITDA

The Board of Directors approved the Group's consolidated accounts as of 30 June 2017.

In millions of euros H1 2016 H1 2017 Change Internet revenues 322 323 +1% Local Search 243 235 -3% Number of visits (in million) 1,206 1,256 +4% ARPA1 (in ) 485 492 +1% Number of clients (in thousand) 501 477 -5% Digital Marketing 78 88 +13% Penetration rate (in number of clients) 23% 24% +1pt Print Voice revenues 83 62 -25% Revenues 405 386 -5%

1 Average Revenue Per Advertiser

The Group recorded revenues of 386 million in H1 2017, down -5% vs H1 2016.

Internet revenues of 323 million in H1 2017 were up +1% vs H1 2016, the strong Digital Marketing growth being partly offset by short-term decrease of Local Search.

Audience growth : a steady audience growth of +4% in H1 2017 vs H1 2016, of which a mobile audience growth of +17% 1

: a steady audience growth of +4% in H1 2017 vs H1 2016, of which a mobile audience growth of +17% Local search revenues: -3% in H1 2017 vs H1 2016

Local Search ARPA3 +1%1, a growth slowdown related to the end of offering upgrade effect and to the impact of financial restructuring on commercial activity in Q4 2016

Client base: -5%1, slowdown of client base decrease reflecting the early improvement of retention

Digital Marketing revenues: +13%1, acceleration of Digital Marketing with great successes of Booster contact and Sites privileges (high-end websites) offerings. The Digital Marketing revenues represent 27% of Internet revenues this half-year.

Print Voice revenues of 62 million in H1 2017 decreased by -25% vs H1 2016. This business accounts for 16% of total revenues this half-year.

In millions of euros H1 2016 H1 2017 Change Internet recurring EBITDA 90 81 -9% EBITDA revenue margin 28% 25% -3 pts Print Voice recurring EBITDA 22 10 -56% EBITDA revenue margin 27% 15% -11 pts Recurring EBITDA 112 91 -18% EBITDA revenue margin 28% 24% -4 pts

Note: Table concerning the continued activities

Recurring EBITDAwas 91 million in H1 2017, down -18% vs H1 2016 (the EBITDA to revenue margin reached 24% in H1 2017, down by 4 points vs H1 2016), mainly due to the reduction of Print Voice contribution (EBITDA to revenue margin declined from 27% to 15% for this business line) and the Local Search revenue decrease, leading to a contraction of Internet EBITDA margin from 28% to 25%.

1 In H1 2017 vs H1 2016 (scope: continued activities)

2EBITDA to revenue margin : EBITDA total revenues, before non recurring items



II. Net income and financial structure

In millions of euros H1 2016 1 H1 2017 Change Recurring EBITDA 112 91 -18% Depreciation and amortisation 1 (27) (30) +11% Net financial expense before debt restructuring (37) (11) +71% Corporate income tax 1 (21) (21) -2% Recurring income 27 29 +11% Contribution to net income from non recurring items (1) (2) +37% Net gain from debt restructuring 278 na Net income 25 306 na

1 restated for the retrospective application of IAS 20 concerning the CIR

Depreciation and amortisation amounted to -30 million in H1 2017, up +11% vs H1 2016, mainly related to the launch of new intelligent search engine.

The financial result before debt restructuring was -11 million in H1 2017an improvement of +71% compared to H1 2016, mainly resulting from debt reduction.

Corporate income tax amounted to -21 million in H1 2017, a decrease of 2% vs H1 2016.

Recurring income from continued activities amounted to 29 million in H1 2017, up +11% compared to H1 2016.

In H1 2017, the group recorded a net gain of 278 million resulting from the restructuring of its debt. This gain resulted mainly from a positive non-monetary difference of 298 million (without any tax impact) between the carrying amount of the debt converted into equity instruments and the fair value of these instruments in accordance with IFRIC 19.

The Group's net income totalled 306 million in H1 2017, compared to net income of 25 million in H1 2016.

Net debt3 totalled 355 million as of 30 June 2017. The financial leverage covenant was 1.71x at this date.

The Group's net cash flow from continued activities was -46 million in H1 2017, -14m excluding 2016 interests related to the debt before financial restructuring (32 million), down 48m reflecting an increase of corporate income tax paid, the decrease of EBITDA and a temporarily higher deterioration of working capital needs related to the product mix evolution.

As of 30 June 2017, the Group had a net cash position of 48 million4.

1 Net debt is the gross financial debt plus or minus the fair net asset value of asset and/or liability derivative instruments used for cash flow hedging purposes, minus cash and cash equivalents.

III. Outlook

The sales order trend slowed down in Q2 2017. Indeed, the upgrade of our customers' Search offerings towards higher value products, which will ultimately make our audiences more profitable, takes longer than originally planned. Expenses and investments are managed accordingly.

Therefore, the Group revised downward its outlook for 2017

2016 2017 former new outlook outlook Internet revenue growth +1% +3% to +5% +1% to +3% EBITDA1 229m 210 to 225m = 200m

1 Total recurring EBITDA (Internet Print Voice)

About SoLocal Group

SoLocal Group, European leader in local online communication, reveals local know-how, and boosts local revenues of businesses. The Internet activities of the Group are structured around two business lines: Local Search and Digital Marketing. With Local Search, the Group offers digital services and solutions to clients which enable them to enhance their visibility and develop their local contacts. Thanks to its expertise, SoLocal Group earned the trust of some 490,000 clients of those services and over 2.4 billions of visits via its 4 flagship brands (PagesJaunes, Mappy, Ooreka and A Vendre A Louer) but also through its partnerships. With Digital Marketing, SoLocal Group creates and provides the best local and customised content about professionals. With over 4,400 employees, including a new orders force of 1,900 local communication advisors specialised in five verticals (Home, Services, Retail, Health Public, BtoB) and Internationally (France, Spain, Austria, United Kingdom), the Group generated in 2016 revenues of 812 millions euros, of which 80% on Internet and ranks amongst the first European players in terms of Internet advertising revenues. SoLocal Group is listed on Euronext Paris (LOCAL). More information may be obtained at www.solocalgroup.com.

3 Net debt is the gross financial debt plus or minus the fair net asset value of asset and/or liability derivative instruments used for cash flow hedging purposes, minus cash and cash equivalents.

4 Net of bank overdrafts

IV. AppendicesConsolidated Income Statement

In million euros As at 30 June 2016 As at 30 June 2017 Total Recurring Non recurring Total Recurring Non recurring Change Recurring Revenues 405 405 386 386 -5% Net external expenses (105) (105) (101) (101) -4% Staff expenses (188) (188) (193) (193) 3% Recurring EBITDA 112 112 91 91 -18% EBITDA 110 112 (2) 88 91 (3) -18% Depreciation and amortization (27) (27) (30) (30) 11% Operating income 83 85 (2) 58 61 (3) -28% Net gain from debt restructuring as at 13 March 2017 266 266 na Other financial income 1 1 na Financial expenses (38) (38) (11) (11) -71% Financial income (37) (37) 255 (11) 266 71% Income before tax 46 48 (2) 313 50 263 5% Corporate income tax (21) (21) 1 (8) (21) 13 -2% Income for the period 25 27 (1) 306 29 276 11% (*) restated for the retrospective application of IAS 20 concerning the Credit impot recherche

Consolidated Cash Flow Statement

In millions of euros H1 2016 H1 2017 Recurring EBITDA 112 91 Non monetary items included in EBITDA and other 0 (1) Net change in working capital (19) (30) Acquisition of tangible and intangible fixed assets (36) (26) Cash financial income (18) (41) Non recurring items (15) (11) Acquisition costs of shares Corporate income tax paid 11 (27) Net cash flow 35 (46) Increase (decrease) in borrowings and bank overdrafts 15 (270) Capital increase 273 Other 5 1 Net cash variation 54 (43) Net cash and cash equivalents at beginning of period 53 91 Net cash and cash equivalents at end of period 108 48

Consolidated Balance Sheet

In million of euros ASSETS 30-Jun-16 31-Dec-16 30-Jun-17 Total non-current assets 263 264 259 Net goodwill 95 96 96 Other net intangible fixed assets 126 128 127 Net tangible fixed assets 33 33 28 Other non-current assets of which deferred tax assets 8 7 8 Total current assets 489 506 402 Net trade accounts receivable 293 321 282 Acquisition costs of contracts 32 35 30 Prepaid expenses 12 6 9 Cash and cash equivalents 111 91 49 Other current assets 41 53 32 TOTAL ASSETS 752 769 660 LIABILITIES Total equity (1,310) (1,286) (511) Total non-current liabilities 122 127 517 Non-current financial liabilities and derivatives 3 1 399 Employee benefits (non-current) 100 88 103 Other non-current liabilities 20 38 15 Total current liabilities 1,941 1,928 654 Bank overdrafts and other short-term borrowings 1,177 1,186 7 Deferred income 435 408 370 Employee benefits (current) 100 116 98 Trade accounts payable 102 99 84 Other current liabilities 127 118 95 TOTAL LIABILITIES 752 769 660

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006551/en/

Contacts:

SoLocal Group

Press

Delphine Penalva, +33 (0)1 46 23 35 31

dpenalva@solocal.com

Edwige Druon, +33 (0)1 46 23 37 56

edruon@solocal.com

Alexandra Kunysz, +33 (0)1 46 23 47

45akunysz@solocal.com

or

Investors

Emmanuelle Vinel, +33 (0)1 46 99 41 80

evinel@solocal.com

Sebastien Nony, +33 (0) 1 46 23 49 03

snony@solocal.com
Innovative product advances, the ability to cater to changing retailer and consumer needs

SANTA CLARA, California, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Based on its recent analysis of the self-checkout (SCO) systems market, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Diebold Nixdorf with the 2017 Global Frost & Sullivan Award for Growth Excellence Leadership. Compelling product innovation capabilities, coupled with decades of rich industry experience, make the company a powerful player in the point-of-sale (POS) industry. Following Diebold's acquisition of Wincor Nixdorf in 2016, the combined entity continues to grow impressively in both the United States and Europe.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/536284/Diebold_Nixdorf_Award.jpg

"Few companies in the SCO market have been able to balance business and product strategies to match customer expectations across retailer categories and geographies," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Aravindh Vanchesan. "Through its unique value proposition in terms of cost-effective and innovative self-service technology, Diebold Nixdorf is transforming retail and rejuvenating its own growth trajectory."

Outstanding features of Diebold Nixdorf's industry-leading self-checkout and BEETLE product lines include:

Modular and scalable systems enabling customization, easy POS integration, user-friendly interfaces, and a compact footprint

Consulting as an incremental asset to raise efficiency of the checkout zone

Lowest TCO that appeals to all categories of retailers

Innovations that enhance the value proposition by adding short- and long-term revenue streams, establishing customer loyalty

Strong technical support and maintenance services to effectively implement best practices and manage an SCO project from concept to deployment

Diebold Nixdorf focuses on quality rather than quantity, maintaining a price advantage in an otherwise competitive market. As a result of its healthy sales relationships with not only its retail customers but also mobility, security, and segment-specific software providers, Diebold Nixdorf has built a brand name associated with quality, reliability, and security.

Above all, Diebold Nixdorf's end-to-end game-changing technologies and services have helped its growth. For instance, the Red Dot Design Award-winning BEETLE /iSCAN EASY self-checkout portfolio enables consumers to scan and quickly pay for items using cards, mobile wallets, or near-field communication (NFC)-enabled smartphones. At this year's NRF show, the company showcased a new terminal that is less than 10 inches wide, features a highly secure EMV chip reader, and can be used as an ATM, POS terminal, and an SCO unit. Its TPiSHOP application allows retailers to offer smartphone-enabled shopping in-store and from customers' homes.

In a market with limited number of turnkey solution providers, Diebold Nixdorf dominates due to its global presence; it has more than 14,500 field service engineers operating in over 130 countries. In recognition of its continued growth leadership, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Diebold Nixdorf with the 2017 Growth Excellence Leadership Award.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in growth and customer value. It recognizes the superiority of the product/service as well as the overall customer purchase, ownership, and service experience that has resulted in the recipient seeing above-market growth and increased share of wallet. The award lauds the company's growth, diversification, and sustainability strategies.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce for millions of consumers each day across the financial and retail industries. Its software-defined solutions bridge the physical and digital worlds of cash and consumer transactions conveniently, securely and efficiently. As an innovation partner for nearly all of the world's top 100 financial institutions and a majority of the top 25 global retailers, Diebold Nixdorf delivers unparalleled services and technology that are essential to evolve in an 'always on' and changing consumer landscape.

Diebold Nixdorf has a presence in more than 130 countries with approximately 24,000 employees worldwide. The organization is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio, USA. Shares are traded on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol 'DBD'. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.247.2426

F: 210.348.1003

E: samantha.park@frost.com
VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2017 / Friday Night Inc. (Friday Night or the Company) (CNSX: TGIF) (FSE: 1QF) (OTC PINK: VPGDF) is pleased to announce that the Company has entered into a non-binding letter of intent (the LOI) with one of California's most popular cannabis brands, SuicideGirls Cannabis (SGC), to expand their brand into Nevada.

The SuicideGirls Cannabis Highlights

One of the fastest growing cannabis brands in California

Launched in 2017, and they are in approximately 200 dispensaries in California

One of the largest social media presences of any cannabis brand

SuicideGirls is the largest alternative community on the internet, with over 6.7M Instagram followers

Transaction Highlights

Friday Night Inc. will acquire an exclusive license for the SGC product line-up for all of Nevada;

Friday Night Inc. will have the option to create a SuicideGirls vape lounge in the city of Las Vegas;

AMA will be the exclusive provider/distributor for all SGC products and events in Nevada; and

Friday Night Inc. will have a "right of first refusal" for the exclusive license for the Canadian Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta, once new regulations permit operations there

Pursuant to the terms of the LOI, in exchange for a 15% production royalty on gross sales and the issuance of 1 million common shares in the capital of the Company (Common Shares), Friday Night, through its 91% owned subsidiary, Alternative Medicine Association LC (AMA), will be the exclusive manufacturer and distributor of all SGC products within the State of Nevada. In addition, at such time as Canadian law permits, Friday Night will be granted exclusive rights to sell, manufacture and distribute SGC products in the Provinces of British Columbia and Alberta upon the issuance of a further 500,000 Common Shares. If and when AMA is granted a license to establish a "Vape Lounge" in the City of Las Vegas in which SGC products may be legally consumed, Friday Night has agreed to issue a further 500,000 Common Shares. The term of the licensing arrangement is three years and may be renewed by the parties for additional one-year terms.

A representative of SuicideGirls stated, "With the success of what we have seen with the SuicideGirls Cannabis brand in California, and Nevada recently going recreational, Las Vegas is the obvious next move for SGC. SuicideGirls has a huge presence in Las Vegas, and we are thrilled to partner with the outstanding Friday Night team to help extend our brand to our first new market outside of California."

About Friday Night Inc.

Friday Night Inc. is a Canadian public company, which owns and controls cannabis and hemp based assets in Las Vegas Nevada. The company owns 91% of Alternative Medicine Association, LC (AMA), a licensed medical and adult-use cannabis cultivation and production facility that produces its own line of unique cannabis-based products and manufactures other third-party brands. Infused MFG, also a 91% owned subsidiary, produces hemp-based, CBD products, thoughtfully crafted of high quality organic botanical ingredients. Friday Night Inc. is focused on strengthening and expanding these operations within and outside of the state.

About SuicideGirls Cannabis

SuicideGirls, the largest alternative community on the internet is now one of the fastest growing cannabis brands in California. In 2017, SuicideGirls Cannabis introduced their new effect based line of Cannabis vape Cartridges: Chill, Hustle, and Zero. Chill is an indica, specifically formulated to calm the mind and body. Hustle is a Sativa, that was created to boost energy and creativity. Zero is a hybrid that contains THCV, a compound found in cannabis that suppresses hunger, and gives the user a feeling of focus & clarity.

For further information please contact:



Joe Bleackley, Corporate Communications

604-674-4756

Joe@FridayNightInc.com

Notice regarding Forward Looking Statements: This news release contains forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "project", "should", "believe" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Although the Company believes that the expectations and assumptions on which the forward-looking statements are based are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on the forward-looking statements because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct. This news release includes forward-looking statements with respect to the entering into a definitive agreement, the future exercise of the option regarding the vape lounge and the regulatory environment in Canada. Since forward-looking statements address future events and conditions, by their very nature they involve inherent risks and uncertainties. These statements speak only as of the date of this news release. Actual results could differ materially from those currently anticipated due to a number of factors and risks including failure to enter into a definitive agreement, inability to attract new customers in Nevada as a result of the license, the inability of the Company to take advantage of the license arrangement and various risk factors discussed in the Company's disclosure documents, which can be found under the Company's profile on www.sedar.com. Friday Night undertakes no obligation to update publicly or revise any forward-looking information, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law or the Canadian Securities Exchange.

SOURCE: Friday Night Inc.
BIELEFELD, Germany, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

itelligence AG, one of the successful global SAP partners, has been selected by SAP to present its solutions on the SAP Best Practices Explorer site (https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/browse/categories/partner_solutions). The news was announced at the recent SAPPHIRE NOW conference in Orlando, Florida. The first three solutions developed by the Bielefeld-based experts at itelligence have been available on the platform since May 15, 2017.

To be included in SAP Best Practices Explorer, on-premise solutions from partners must undergo a strict two-step qualification process that evaluates both the solutions and the services.

Norbert Rotter, CEO of itelligence AG, commented: "Being invited to and qualifying for SAP Best Practices Explorer is confirmation of the high quality of development work we invest in our solutions. itelligence solutions for SAP S/4HANA products are based on a high standard of quality and meet the requirements laid out by SAP. This allows us to promote the digitization of organizations and processes throughout the world."

The SAP online showcase is targeted to all of its customers around the globe. The two-step qualification process aims to ensure that the solutions can be implemented in any existing system running on SAP S/4HANA.

Mark Albrecht, Vice President of itelligence AG, said: "We believe utilizing SAP Best Practices Explorer to develop the next generation of preconfigured processes running in SAP software is a major benefit for many customers. Customers can utilize these preconfigured processes to design their individual processes in line with future innovations provided by SAP and itelligence. It is the right approach to support digital transformation in a dynamic and agile age to stay competitive and lead their markets."

itelligence currently provides the following solutions on the platform: it.service - Baseline for Professional Service, it.trade - Baseline for Wholesale Distribution and it.metal - Blending (casting) + Non Ferrous Metals.

For partners, the benefits of SAP Best Practices Explorer (https://rapid.sap.com/bp/#/browse/categories/partner_solutions) include the ability to position their solutions alongside SAP offerings, and expose the solution scope with standardized documentation that is structured according to self-contained business processes. Prospective customers can get in direct contact with the partner for an easy way to begin collaboration.

About itelligence

itelligence is one of the leading international full-service providers of solutions in support of SAP solutions, employing about 6.000 highly qualified employees in 24 countries. As a frequently awarded SAP partner, among others global value-added reseller, SAP Certified in Cloud Services, SAP-Certified Provider of Hosting Services for SAP HANA Enterprise Cloud and SAP Platinum Partner, itelligence realizes complex projects in the SAP solution-based environment worldwide. The company's services in support of SAP solutions range from consulting and licensing to application management services and hosting services to proprietary industry-specific SAP. In 2016, itelligence generated total sales of EUR 777.9 million.

Head of Corporate Public Relations itelligence AG



Silvia Dicke

itelligence AG

Konigsbreede 1

D-33605 Bielefeld

E: silvia.dicke@itelligence.de

T: +49-(0)-521 / 9-14-48 - 107





W: http://itelligencegroup.com/de/



SAP, SAP S/4HANA and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP SE (or an SAP affiliate company) in Germany and other countries. See http://www.sap.com/corporate-en/legal/copyright/index.epx for additional trademark information and notices.

All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.
DUBLIN (dpa-AFX) - Allied Irish Banks Plc (AIBYY.PK, ALBK.L) reported that its first-half pre-tax profit was 761 million euros, down 25 percent from 1.02 billion euros a year ago. Profit for the period after taxation from continuing operations attributable to owners of the parent declined to 652 million euros from 823 million euros last year. Earnings per share were 23.3 cents, compared to 29.6 cents last year. Net interest income for the period rose 14 percent to 1.08 billion euros, while other income grew 53 percent to 459 million euros. The company said that it has returned a total of 10.2 billion euros to the State, including the proceeds from the recent IPO and 250 million euros ordinary dividend payment. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
PARIS and YOKOHAMA, Japan, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Combined sales exceed 5.27 million units from Renault, Nissan and Mitsubishi Motors in six months to June 30, 2017 , rose 7 percent

Cumulative volume of electric vehicle sales exceeds 480,000 units

Enlarged Alliance set to become industry's number-one sales group for full year 2017

Unit sales at the Alliance rose seven percent to 5,268,079 vehicles in the first half of the calendar year resulting from an increased demand for models from the French and Japanese brands, and the first semester sales contribution from new Alliance member Mitsubishi Motors.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20140130/666713-a )



The Alliance saw increased sales of Renault models including Clio, Sandero, Megane, Captur and Duster, while Nissan reported strong orders for models such as the X-Trail/Rogue, Sentra/Sylphy, Qashqai and Altima/Teana. Unit sales at Mitsubishi Motors, which became part of Alliance in late 2016, reached close to 495,000 vehicles amid solid demand for its Outlander SUV globally and the Pajero Sport in the ASEAN region.

Cumulative sales of electric vehicles by the companies also rose significantly to 481,151 units, reaffirming the Alliance's role as the leading electric car manufacturer for the mass-market segment. The increase was driven primarily by demand for the Nissan LEAF and the Renault ZOE, which remains the #1 EV sold in Europe, and Mitsubishi's i-Miev. On the hybrid side, the plug-in hybrid electric versions of the Mitsubishi Outlander reached over 13,000 units.

Carlos Ghosn, chairman and chief executive of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, said: "The Alliance has delivered record sales during the first semester of 2017 reaching 5,268,079 vehicles sold. We will continue to leverage our significant economies of scale and global market presence to deliver valuable synergies for our member companies this year, while maintaining a strong technology lineup and offering customers breakthrough electric models."

"Our enlarged Alliance is well placed to realize its full potential, not only in terms of unit volumes, but also by providing next-generation mobility services to customers around the world."

Groupe Renault sold 1.879,288 million vehicles in the first half of 2017, which represents a raise of 10.4 percent in a market that grew 2.6 percent. All group brands posted increases in sales volumes and market share. The Renault and Dacia brands set half-year sales records and Renault ranks as the second most sold brand in Europe. Furthermore, all regions increased their sales volumes and market share.

http://www.media.blog.alliance-renault-nissan.com/news/6686
TORONTO, ONTARIO and LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) today announced that its wholly owned subsidiary, CPPIB Credit Investments Inc., has agreed to provide a GBP 250 million subordinated facility to intu properties plc (intu). The subordinated facility will support intu's corporate business plans and is indirectly secured by intu Trafford Centre in Manchester, U.K.

Manchester's intu Trafford Centre is a 1.9-million-square-foot super-regional, prime shopping centre, and one of the U.K.'s top five shopping centres, counting many leading global retailers among its tenants. The property houses more than 230 stores, as well as more than 65 catering and leisure units, across its four arcades and two floors.

"This investment fits well with our strategy of providing customized, large-scale funding solutions to best-in-class operators of high-quality underlying real estate assets," said Geoff Souter, Managing Director, Head of Private Real Estate Debt. "intu is a valued CPPIB partner and we look forward to continue partnering with them to support their growth objectives, while at the same time, delivering solid risk-adjusted returns for the CPP Fund."

CPPIB and intu have joint ownerships in leading shopping centres in Spain, including intu Asturias in Oviedo and Puerto Venecia in Zaragoza.

"We are delighted to build on our relationship with CPPIB and this facility gives us further flexibility to progress our development pipeline, extending and enhancing our centres," said Matthew Roberts, Chief Financial Officer, intu.

About CPPIB Credit Investments Inc.

CPPIB Credit Investment Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of CPPIB, is comprised of CPPIB's Principal Credit Investments (PCI) group and its Private Real Estate Debt group. CPPIB Credit's Private Real Estate Debt group invests directly in diverse types of private real estate debt including first-mortgages, b-notes, mezzanine loans, preferred equity and single-asset commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS). With 12 debt professionals based in Toronto and London, the group targets positions from C$50 million to over C$500 million that are backed by high-quality real estate and feature a tenor, leverage profile or an asset specific consideration that requires a customized solution. Since its formation in 2010, the group has invested or committed more than C$8.7 billion into commercial real estate credit transactions.

About Canada Pension Plan Investment Board

Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) is a professional investment management organization that invests the funds not needed by the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) to pay current benefits on behalf of 20 million contributors and beneficiaries. In order to build a diversified portfolio of CPP assets, CPPIB invests in public equities, private equities, real estate, infrastructure and fixed income instruments. Headquartered in Toronto, with offices in Hong Kong, London, Luxembourg, Mumbai, New York City, Sao Paulo and Sydney, CPPIB is governed and managed independently of the Canada Pension Plan and at arm's length from governments. At March 31, 2017, the CPP Fund totalled $316.7 billion. For more information about CPPIB, please visit www.cppib.com or follow us on LinkedIn or Twitter.

About intu

intu is the UK's leading owner, manager and developer of prime regional shopping centres with a growing presence in Spain. We are passionate about creating uniquely compelling experiences, in centre and online, that attract customers, delivering enhanced footfall, dwell time and loyalty. This helps our retailers flourish, driving occupancy and income growth.

We own many of the UK's largest and most popular retail destinations, with super regional centres such as intu Trafford Centre and intu Lakeside and vibrant city centre locations from Newcastle to Watford.

We are focused on four strategic objectives: optimising the performance of our assets to deliver attractive long term total property returns, progressing our UK development pipeline to add value to our portfolio, leveraging the strength of our brand and seizing the opportunity in Spain to create a business of scale.

We are committed to our local communities, our centres support over 120,000 jobs representing about 4% of the total UK retail workforce, and to operating with environmental responsibility.

Our success creates value for our retailers, investors and the communities we serve.

Contacts:

CPPIB:

Dan Madge

Senior Manager, Media Relations

+1 416 868 8629

dmadge@cppib.com



Mei Mavin

Director, Global Corporate Communications

+1 646 564 4920

mmavin@cppib.com



intu:

Adrian Croft

Head of Investor Relations

+44 (0)20 7960 1212

adrian.croft@intu.co.uk




VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2017 / Canadian Zeolite Corp. (the 'Company') (TSX-V: CNZ) (OTCQB: CNZCF) (FSE: ZEON) announces the appointment of Aman Parmar to the Board of Directors. The appointment is effective July 27, 2017 and expands the Company's Board to four directors.

Mr. Parmar's corporate experience includes over 12 years working with both public and private companies in the health care, resource, manufacturing and real estate sectors. Aman has extensive experience in capital markets and has been involved in corporate restructuring and financing for both public and private companies. He has significant experience in developing international manufacturing and distribution channels and will be pivotal to the Company's international expansion. He obtained a Chartered Accountant designation in 2012, and holds a Bachelor of Technology in Accounting from the British Columbia Institute of Technology.

'Aman is an excellent complement to our existing Board, bringing new innovative marketing ideas, an in-depth knowledge of capital markets with a focus for new zeolite product development. We believe his combined experience and open- minded approach will deliver value to our shareholders, benefit our operations and increase the Company's continued growth,' commented Canadian Zeolite's CEO, Ray Paquette.

About Canadian Zeolite Corp.

Canadian Zeolite Corp. is a Vancouver based company involved in the exploration, development and production of the industrial mineral, zeolite. We are a producer of natural zeolite from our deposits in British Columbia, Canada.

On behalf of the Board of Directors

'Ray Paquette'

President & CEO

604.684.3301

www.canadianzeolite.com

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information. These statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to future expenditures. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, among others, the ability to complete contemplated work programs and the timing and amount of expenditures. Canadian Zeolite does not assume the obligation to update any forward-looking statement.

SOURCE: Canadian Zeolite Corp.
FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: Norges Bank (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. N/A (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Paysafe Group PLC (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: N/A (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure Dealing Disclosure 26/07/2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" No (not required)

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security: 0.01p ordinary Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 12,658,687 2.61 (2) Cash-settled derivatives: (3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:

TOTAL: 12,658,687* 2.61

*Norges Bank does not have discretion regarding dealing and offer acceptance decisions in respect of 5,508,134 shares that are included in the total above.

All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale Number of securities Price per unit 0.01p ordinary Purchase 33,063 GBP 5.8275

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit

(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit

(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)

4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"



(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? NO

Date of disclosure: 27/07/2017 Contact name: Philippe Chiaroni Telephone number: +4724073297

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service and must also be emailed to the Takeover Panel at monitoring@disclosure.org.uk. The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Humana Inc. (HUM) Wednesday said it has raised guidance for fiscal 2017 earnings on a reported and adjusted basis. For the year, the company now expects earnings of approximately $17.83, higher than previous guidance of at least $16.91, while adjusted earnings per share is now expected to be approximately $11.50, higher than at least $11.10 expected earlier. On average, 20 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect earnings of $11.15 per share for the year. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items. In the year 2016, the company's reported earnings were $4.07 per share and adjusted earnings as recast were $10.92 per share. The company attributed the increase in outlook primarily to the strong results in the Retail segment, largely attributable to individual Medicare Advantage business. These were partially offset by lower than expected Healthcare Services segment pretax income due to lower than anticipated pharmacy utilization and the continued optimization of our chronic care management programs. The company said the individual Medicare Advantage business is exceeding its operational targets, experiencing lower than anticipated utilization, higher than expected revenue on a per member basis and favorable medical fee-for-service claims reserve development. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 10/03/17 -- Serengeti Resources Inc. (TSX VENTURE: SIR)(FRANKFURT: 34S) announces that substantive agreement having been reached between the negotiating teams on all of the business terms and form and makeup of joint venture agreement for the next stage of the Kwanika project earn-in, it has granted Daewoo Minerals Canada (DMC) a thirty day extension until October 25th to provide for ratification by Daewoo's internal approval process and signature of the definitive agreement. The final agreement also remains subject to ratification by the board of Serengeti Resources and approval by the TSX-V Exchange.

Upon signature of the definitive agreement, DMC will contribute $7 million in cash plus their current 5% interest in the Kwanika project and Serengeti will contribute the balance of its Kwanika property interest to a new joint venture company to be named the Kwanika Copper Corporation (KCC), owned 65% by Serengeti and 35% by DMC. Final closing of the transaction including receipt of funds by KCC is expected within 10 days of signing at which point Serengeti will be entitled to immediately receive its Operator's fee of $700,000, representing 10% of DMC's next contribution.

"We are pleased that we have been able to settle the final terms of the Kwanika joint venture agreement with Posco Daewoo. This will be a far reaching agreement covering project advancement from completion of a Pre-Feasibility Study which is the next step, through Feasibility Study, Mine Development and Mine Operation activities from production through to eventual closure." We understand that an organization as large as Posco Daewoo has a formal decision making process that they must adhere to and are confident that the final agreement will be approved and signed within the extension timeframe," stated David Moore, Serengeti Resources President & CEO.

About Serengeti Resources Inc.

Serengeti is a mineral exploration company managed by an experienced team of professionals with a solid track record of exploration success. The Company is currently advancing its Kwanika copper-gold project in partnership with Daewoo Minerals Canada and exploring its extensive portfolio of properties in the highly prospective Quesnel Trough of British Columbia. A number of these other projects are available for option or joint venture and additional information can be found on the Company's website at www.serengetiresources.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

David W. Moore, P. Geo., President, CEO and Director

Cautionary Statement

This document contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities regulations. All statements other than statements of historical fact herein, including, without limitation, statements regarding exploration plans and other future plans and objectives, are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate and future events and actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations as well as a comprehensive list of risk factors are disclosed in the Company's documents filed from time to time via SEDAR with the Canadian regulatory agencies to whose policies we are bound. Forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of management on the date the statements are made, and we do not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements should conditions or our estimates change, other than as required by law and readers are further advised not to place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. The information in this News Release related to the Kwanika Copper/Gold Project was derived from the PEA. Statements pertaining to projected revenues and cash flows, quantity and grade of mineralized materials, estimated mineral prices are forward-looking statements. The Company cautions that this PEA is preliminary in nature, and is based on technical and economic assumptions which will be evaluated in further studies. The PEA is based on the current (as at January 2017) Kwanika estimated resource model, which consists of material in both the indicated and inferred classifications. Inferred mineral resources are considered too speculative geologically to have technical and economic considerations applied to them. The current basis of project information is not sufficient to convert the mineral resources to mineral reserves, and mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Accordingly, there can be no certainty that the results estimated in the PEA will be realized.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

Paradox Public Relations

514-341-0408

Toll free (in North America) 1-866-460-0408

info@paradox-pr.ca



Serengeti Resources Inc.

604-605-1300

info@serengetiresources.com

www.serengetiresources.com




CALGARY, ALBERTA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- ATCO Ltd. (TSX: ACO.X, ACO.Y)

ATCO Ltd. today announced second quarter adjusted earnings for 2017 of $71 million compared to $81 million in 2016. In June 2017, the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) released a retroactive regulatory decision that adversely impacted Electric Transmission's adjusted earnings. Without the prior period impact from this decision, adjusted earnings in the second quarter of 2017 would have been $74 million.

Earnings growth in the Electricity and Pipelines & Liquids global business units, mainly due to continued capital investment in our Regulated Utilities, was more than offset by lower earnings in Structures & Logistics Modular Structures major project activity. Earnings were also impacted by the timing of operating costs in Electric Distribution and the earnings impact of the 2015 to 2017 General Tariff Application (GTA) Compliance Filing decision in Electric Transmission.

ATCO invested $419 million in capital growth projects in the second quarter and $717 million in the first half of 2017, of which 96 per cent was invested in assets that earn a return under a regulatory business model or are secured under long-term contracts. This capital investment is expected to contribute significant earnings and cash flow and create long-term value for share owners.

On July 13, 2017, ATCO declared a third quarter dividend for 2017 of 32.75 cents per Class I Non-Voting and Class II Voting Share, a 15 per cent increase over the quarterly dividends declared in the same period of 2016. ATCO's annual dividend per share has increased for 24 consecutive years.

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS

-- On June 19, 2017, the AUC issued a decision on Electric Transmission's Compliance Filing relating to its 2015 to 2017 GTA. This decision adjusted Electric Transmission's 2016 and 2017 forecast allocation of labour costs between O&M expense and capital, and reduced second quarter 2017 adjusted earnings by $4 million. Without the one-time earnings adjustment from this decision related to 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, ATCO's adjusted earnings in the second quarter of 2017 were $74 million on a normalized basis. -- On July 13, 2017, Dominion Bond Rating Service affirmed its 'A (high)' long-term corporate credit rating and stable outlook on ATCO subsidiary CU Inc. -- On July 25, 2017, Standard & Poor's Ratings Service revised its long- term corporate credit rating from 'A' with a negative outlook to 'A-' with a stable outlook on ATCO Ltd. and our subsidiaries Canadian Utilities Limited and CU Inc. -- On July 26, 2017, Standard & Poor's Ratings Service revised its long- term corporate credit rating from 'A-' to 'BBB+' with a stable outlook for ATCO Gas Australia LP.

FINANCIAL SUMMARY AND RECONCILIATION OF ADJUSTED EARNINGS

A financial summary and reconciliation of adjusted earnings to earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares is provided below:

For the Three Months For the Six Months Ended June 30 Ended June 30 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ($ millions except share data) 2017 2016 2017 2016 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Adjusted earnings (1) 71 81 188 202 Gain on sale of joint operation (2) - - - 7 Unrealized losses on mark-to- market forward commodity contracts (2) (13) - (16) - Rate-regulated activities (2) (16) (20) (29) (39) Other (3) 2 - 2 - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares 44 61 145 170 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Weighted average shares outstanding (millions of shares) 114.3 114.3 114.3 114.5 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (1) Adjusted earnings are earnings attributable to Class I and Class II Shares after adjusting for the timing of revenues and expenses associated with rate-regulated activities and unrealized gains or losses on mark-to-market forward commodity contracts. Adjusted earnings also exclude one-time gains and losses, significant impairments and items that are not in the normal course of business or a result of day-to-day operations. Adjusted earnings present earnings on the same basis as was used prior to adopting International Financial Reporting Standards ( IFRS) - that basis being the U.S. accounting principles for rate- regulated entities - and they are a key measure used to assess segme nt performance, to reflect the economics of rate regulation and to facilitate comparability of ATCO's earnings with other Canadian rate- regulated companies. (2) Refer to Note 3 of the consolidated financial statements for detailed descriptions of the adjustments. (3) The Company adjusted for the deferred tax asset which was recognized as a result of the Tula Pipeline Project impairment. The adjustment is due to a difference between the tax base currency, which is Mexican pesos, and the U.S. dollar functional currency.

This news release should be used as a preparation for reading the full disclosure documents. ATCO's consolidated financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 will be available on the ATCO website (www.ATCO.com), via SEDAR (www.sedar.com) or can be requested from the Company.

With approximately 7,000 employees and assets of $20 billion, ATCO is a diversified global corporation delivering service excellence and innovative business solutions in Structures & Logistics (workforce housing, innovative modular facilities, construction, site support services, and logistics and operations management); Electricity (electricity generation, transmission, and distribution); Pipelines & Liquids (natural gas transmission, distribution and infrastructure development, energy storage, and industrial water solutions); and Retail Energy (electricity and natural gas retail sales). More information can be found at www.ATCO.com.

Forward-Looking Information:

Certain statements contained in this news release may constitute forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate", "plan", "estimate", "expect", "may", "will", "intend", "should", and similar expressions.

Forward-looking information involves known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking information.

The Company's actual results could differ materially from those anticipated in this forward-looking information as a result of regulatory decisions, competitive factors in the industries in which the Company operates, prevailing economic conditions, and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company.

The Company believes that the expectations reflected in the forward-looking information are reasonable, but no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking information should not be unduly relied upon.

Any forward-looking information contained in this news release represents the Company's expectations as of the date hereof, and is subject to change after such date. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities legislation.

Contacts:

Media & Investor Inquiries:

D.A. (Dennis) DeChamplain

Senior Vice President &

Chief Financial Officer

403-292-7502




VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 09/21/17 -- Irving Resources Inc. (CSE: IRV)(CSE: IRV.CN)(CNSX: IRV) ("Irving" or the "Company") is pleased to announce it has received high grade gold and silver grade assays from surface samples recently collected at its 100%-controlled Omu gold-silver project, Hokkaido, Japan (Figures 1 and 2).

Omui Mining License

Exploration work at Omu is being undertaken by Mitsui Mineral Development Engineering Co., Ltd. ("MINDECO") under the supervision of Irving personnel. At the Omui mine site and surrounding areas, detailed soil sampling on a 50x50 meter staggered grid is nearing completion. In the course of extracting soil samples, pieces of mineralized rock float are sometimes encountered and sampled.

At the Honpi ("Main Vein" in English) prospect, recent rock float samples have returned 186.5 gpt Au and 353 gpt Ag, 11.75 gpt Au and 71.1 gpt Ag, 6.77 gpt Au and 33.3 gpt Ag, and 5.27 gpt Au and 177 gpt Ag. In addition, a new vein was encountered in a hand dug trench and a chip channel sample returned 203 gpt Au and 5,310 gpt Ag over a true width of 0.8 m. Irving believes mineralized float material is derived from underlying weathered bedrock and that these new results indicate potential for multiple sub-parallel east-west trending veins across a 200-meter wide corridor surrounding Honpi.

At the Nanko prospect, recent rock float samples have greatly expanded the area of known mineralization. Notable samples include 691 gpt Au and 515 gpt Ag, 42.5 gpt Au and 539 gpt Ag, 3.98 gpt Au and 3.92 gpt Ag in areas south of Nanko. Northeast of Nanko, notable samples include 39.3 gpt Au and 20.2 gpt Ag, 16.55 gpt Au and 40.9 gpt Ag and 7.09 gpt Au and 10 gpt Ag. Like Honpi, Irving believes mineralized float material is derived from underlying weathered bedrock and that these results indicate potential for multiple sub-parallel east-west trending veins across a 350-meter wide corridor at Nanko.

While these assay results are encouraging, Irving is awaiting return of other data sets to more fully evaluate potential drill targets at Omui. Soil sampling is nearing completion, and analytical results are expected back over the next few weeks. A detailed gravity survey has recently been completed and data is currently being processed. Lastly, a detailed drone-based magnetic survey is soon to commence and should be completed by the end of October.

Omu Sinter

Late in 2016, Irving personnel discovered a large terrace of laminated silica sinter, remnants of a fossil hot spring, approximately 10 km north of Omui mine. In a news release dated December 15, 2016, Irving discussed the significance of one sample of sulfide-bearing silica (3.8 gpt Au and 14 gpt Ag) collected near the base of the terrace. Recently, a second sample of similar sulfide-bearing sinter was collected from the base of the terrace approximately 300 meters northeast of the previous sample (Figure 3). This new sample grades 14.6 gpt Au and 50.8 gpt Ag along with strongly elevated arsenic (676 ppm), mercury (greater than 100 ppm), antimony (1,675 ppm) and selenium (93 ppm), all elements indicative of hot spring mineralization. Irving considers results encouraging and may indicate the structural feeder system for this hot spring may contain appreciable precious metals. Given this sinter terrace is at least 1 km along strike, very large for such a deposit, Irving considers the Omu sinter terrace a very important target.

Greater Omu Project Area

Cobbles of mineralized vein material were collected from several streams during stream sediment sampling. One noteworthy sample grading 5.12 gpt Au and 5 gpt Ag was collected from a stream approximately 5 km northwest of Omui mine area near a major northeast-trending structure extending from Hokuryu mine in the southwest to Omu sinter terrace in the northeast. This sample suggests further vein mineralization is present along this important structure. A second sample grading 5.54 gpt Au and 8 gpt Ag was taken from a 0.5 m wide outcropping vein exposed along a creek bank approximately 2 km southeast of Omui mine. Irving plans follow up sampling in both areas later this season.

With the exception of a chip channel sample collected near Honpi and the spot rock chip samples collected at the Omu sinter terrace and the outcropping vein southeast of Omui, all samples discussed in this news release are taken from pieces of float or stream cobbles. They are not necessarily representative. Irving submitted rock samples to ALS Laboratory, Vancouver, BC, for analysis. Au and Ag were analyzed by fire assay with gravimetric finish. Multielements were analyzed by MS following three acid digestion.

Quinton Hennigh (Ph.D., P.Geo.) is the Qualified Person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101 responsible for, and having reviewed and approved, the technical information contained in this news release. Dr. Hennigh is a technical advisor and director of Irving Resources Inc.

About Irving Resources Inc.:

Irving is a junior exploration company with a focus on gold in Japan. Irving also holds, through a subsidiary, Project Venture Agreements with Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) for joint regional exploration programs in the United Republic of Tanzania, the Republic of Malawi and the Republic of Madagascar. JOGMEC is a government organization established under the law of Japan, administrated by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan, and is responsible for stable supply of various resources to Japan through the discovery of sizable economic deposits of base, precious and rare metals.

Additional information can be found on the Company's website: www.IRVresources.com.

Akiko Levinson, President & Director

Forward-looking information

Some statements in this news release contain forward-looking information (within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation) including, without limitation, the statement as to the expected receipt of results from various exploration and testing activities. These statements address future events and conditions and, as such, involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by the statements. Such factors include, without limitation, customary risks of the mineral resource exploration industry as well as Irving having sufficient cash to fund the planned exploration activities.

THE CSE HAS NOT REVIEWED AND DOES NOT ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ACCURACY OR ADEQUACY OF THIS RELEASE.

Contacts:

Irving Resources Inc.

(604) 682-3234

Toll free: 1 (888) 242-3234

(604) 641-1214 (FAX)

info@IRVresources.com

www.IRVresources.com




WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The rally in crude oil prices petered out Thursday morning amid speculation recent gains were overdone in light of the global supply glut. Global markets remain oversupplied despite OPEC's production quotas and signs that U.S. output may be dwindling. U.S. inventories have plunged in July, with the EIA's latest figures showing a 7 million barrel drop last week. Oil challenged $49 on the news, but has since pulled back. WTI light sweet oil for September was down 48 cents at $48.27 a barrel, easing from 2-month highs. On Monday, Saudi Arabia announced it would cut August exports to 6.6 million barrels a day. Also, Nigeria will no longer be exempt from OPEC's supply quota deal with Russia. The Federal Reserve will start to sell its $4.25 trillion holdings of Treasurys and mortgage-related debt 'relatively soon,' it was announced yesterday. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The US Senate has rejected a Republican proposal to repeal Obama-era health care plan without replacing it. A bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care was defeated with a 55-45 vote in the Republican-majority Upper House. The second set back for President Donald Trump's top legislative priority in as many days was caused by a opposition from seven Republican Senators, who voted against the repeal-only plan on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the first amendment - to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BRCA) - failed to pass as nine moderate Republicans joined all Democrats on a 43-57 vote that effectively killed the measure. The failure of Wednesday's bill, which called for a two-year delay on a replacement in the hope of finding agreement in the meantime, underscores sharp divisions within the Republican Party over a Trump health care plan. Senators will now consider a so-called 'skinny' repeal, which would eliminate some of the more controversial and unpopular provisions of Obama-era health care. But the passage of that bill too is not certain as GOP centrists and conservatives are skeptical of the measure. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
NOT FOR RELEASE, PUBLICATION OR DISTRIBUTION, IN WHOLE OR IN PART, DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IN, INTO OR FROM ANY JURISDICTION (INCLUDING THE UNITED STATES) WHERE TO DO SO WOULD CONSTITUTE A VIOLATION OF THE RELEVANT LAWS OR REGULATIONS OF SUCH JURISDICTION. THIS ANNOUNCEMENT CONTAINS INSIDE INFORMATION.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

27 July 2017

RECOMMENDED ALL-SHARE OFFER

for

THE PROSPECT JAPAN FUND LIMITED

(a non-cellular company incorporated in Guernsey with registration number 28863)

by

PROSPECT CO., LTD.

(a company incorporated in Japan)

being implemented by means of a scheme of arrangement

under Part VIII of the Companies (Guernsey) Law, 2008

Scheme of arrangement becomes Effective



The independent directors of The Prospect Japan Fund Limited ("TPJF" or the "Company") announce that the Court has today sanctioned the scheme of arrangement under Part VIII of the Companies Law (the "Scheme") in connection with the recommended share for share exchange offer made by Prospect for the entire issued and to be issued share capital of TPJF (the "Offer").

An office copy of the Court Order sanctioning the Scheme was today delivered to the Guernsey Registry and, accordingly, the Scheme has now become Effective in accordance with its terms.

Under the terms of the Scheme, Scheme Shareholders on the register at the Scheme Record Time, being 6.00 p.m. (London Time) on 26 July 2017 will receive 2.5 New Prospect Shares for each Scheme Share held, subject to any adjustments for fractional entitlements.

The latest date for the settlement and admission to trading of the New Prospect Shares due under the Scheme is 10 August 2017.

Following an application by the Company to the London Stock Exchange, as was previously announced on 19 July 2017, the listing of, and trading in, TPJF Shares was suspended with effect from 7.30 a.m. (London time) this morning.

Applications have also been made to the London Stock Exchange to cancel trading in TPJF Shares on its Main Market for listed securities and to the UK Listing Authority to cancel the listing of the TPJF Shares on the Official List. These cancellations are expected to take effect at 8.00 a.m. (London time) on 28 July 2017. As a result of the Scheme becoming Effective, share certificates in respect of TPJF Shares will cease to be valid documents of title and entitlements to TPJF Shares held in uncertificated form in CREST are being cancelled.

Forms of Settlement for New Prospect Shares

In the Scheme Document, the latest time for lodging Forms of Settlement (White Form A or Green Form B) was stated to be 10.30 a.m. on 17 July 2017, which was the deadline by which Forms of Settlement must be received in order for TPJF Shareholders to receive their New Prospect Shares on the Settlement Date either:

(a) directly into their nominated JASDEC Account (if Form A is completed); or

(b) into a Personal Sub-Account to be opened in the name of such TPJF Shareholder with Equiniti as the Fiduciary (if Form B is completed).

The Settlement Date is expected to be 10 August 2017.

For the avoidance of doubt, TPJF Shareholders who do not want their New Prospect Shares to be sold pursuant to the Sales Process referred to in the Scheme Document ("No Action Shareholders") (which is currently expected to commence on 8 September 2017) will have until 10.30 a.m. on 29 August 2017 to lodge their Forms of Settlement (White Form A or Green Form B), in which case the New Prospect Shares to which such TPJF Shareholders are entitled will be transferred out of the No Action Sub-Account prior to the commencement of the Sales Process and into either:

(a) such TPJF Shareholders' nominated JASDEC Account (if Form A is completed); or

(b) into a Personal Sub-Account to be opened in the name of such TPJF Shareholder with Equiniti as the Fiduciary(if Form B is completed).

For any queries, please contact the Receiving Agent's Helpline between 8.30 a.m. and 5.30 p.m. during Monday to Friday (except public holidays in England and Wales and Guernsey) on 0371 384 2050 (from within the UK) or +44 121 415 0259 (from outside the UK).

Defined terms used but not defined in this announcement have the meanings set out in the Scheme Document dated 27 June 2017.



Enquiries:

The Prospect Japan Fund Limited

John Hawkins, Non-Executive Chairman

Tel: +44 (0)1481 745 918 Prospect Co., Ltd.

Curtis Freeze, President

Tel: +1 808 383 3833 Stockdale Securities Limited

(Financial Adviser to TPJF)

Daniel Harris

David Coaten

Tel: +44 (0) 20 7601 6100 Strand Hanson Limited

(Joint Financial Adviser to Prospect)

Stuart Faulkner

Matthew Chandler

James Dance

Tel: +44 (0)207 409 3494 Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Corporate Advisory department)

(Joint Financial Adviser to Prospect)

Eiichi Igarashi

Tel: +81 (0) 3 3284 1655

Important Notices

Stockdale Securities Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, is acting exclusively for TPJF as financial adviser in connection with the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement and for no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than TPJF for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement. Neither Stockdale Securities Limited nor any of its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Stockdale Securities Limited in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

Strand Hanson Limited, which is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority in the United Kingdom, is acting exclusively for Prospect as joint financial adviser in connection with the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement and for no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Prospect for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement. Neither Strand Hanson Limited nor any of its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Strand Hanson Limited in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Corporate Advisory department), an investment banking arm of Mizuho Financial Group, which is regulated by the Japanese Financial Services Agency, is acting exclusively for Prospect as joint financial adviser in connection with the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement and for no one else and will not be responsible to anyone other than Prospect for providing the protections afforded to its clients or for providing advice in relation to the Offer and other matters set out in this Announcement. Neither Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Corporate Advisory department) nor any of its subsidiaries, branches or affiliates owes or accepts any duty, liability or responsibility whatsoever (whether direct or indirect, whether in contract, in tort, under statute or otherwise) to any person who is not a client of Mizuho Bank, Ltd. (Corporate Advisory department) in connection with this Announcement, any statement contained herein or otherwise.

Further information

This Announcement is for information purposes only and is not intended to, and does not, constitute or form part of any offer or invitation, or the solicitation of an offer, to purchase, otherwise acquire, subscribe for, sell or otherwise dispose of, any securities or the solicitation of any vote or approval in any jurisdiction pursuant to the Offer or otherwise nor will there be any sale, issuance or transfer of securities in any jurisdiction in contravention of applicable law. This Announcement does not constitute a prospectus or prospectus equivalent document.

Overseas jurisdictions

The ability of persons who are not resident in the UK or Guernsey to participate in the Offer may be affected by the laws of the relevant jurisdictions in which they are located.

The release, publication or distribution of this Announcement in jurisdictions other than the UK and Guernsey may be restricted by law and therefore any persons who are subject to the laws of any jurisdiction other than the UK and Guernsey should inform themselves about, and observe any applicable requirements. This Announcement has been prepared for the purpose of complying with English law, Guernsey law and the Code and the information disclosed may not be the same as that which would have been disclosed if this Announcement had been prepared in accordance with the laws of jurisdictions outside the UK and Guernsey.

The Offer is subject to the applicable requirements of the Companies Law, the Court (as a result of TPJF being incorporated in Guernsey) and the GFSC (as a result of TPJF being an authorised closed-ended investment scheme in Guernsey), with the applicable requirements of English law, the Code, the Panel, the London Stock Exchange and the FCA (as a result of TPJF being listed on the London Stock Exchange) and also with the applicable requirements of Japanese laws, JASDEC, the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the Japanese Financial Services Agency (as a result of Prospect being a Japanese company, listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange).

Copies of this Announcement, the Scheme Document, the Notices of Court Meeting and TPJF General Meeting, the Forms of Proxy and all other documents relating to the Offer are not being, and must not be, directly or indirectly, mailed or otherwise forwarded, distributed or sent in or into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction, or any jurisdiction where to do so would violate the laws of that jurisdiction, and persons receiving such documents (including custodians, nominees and trustees) must not mail or otherwise forward, distribute or send them in or into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction. All persons receiving this Announcement (including, without limitation, custodians, nominees and trustees) should observe these restrictions and any applicable legal or regulatory requirements of their jurisdiction and must not mail or otherwise forward, send or distribute this Announcement in, into or from any Restricted Jurisdiction.

The receipt of securities pursuant to the Offer by Overseas Shareholders may be a taxable transaction under applicable national, state and local, as well as foreign and other tax laws. Each Overseas Shareholder is urged to consult their independent professional adviser regarding the tax consequences of accepting the Offer.

Further details in relation to Overseas Shareholders is contained in the Scheme Document.

Additional information for US investors

These materials are not for distribution, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States (as defined in the Scheme Document). These materials do not constitute or form a part of any offer or solicitation to purchase or subscribe for securities in the United States.

The New Prospect Shares have not been and will not be registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 (the "US Securities Act") or under the securities laws of any State or other jurisdiction of the United States. Accordingly, the New Prospect Shares may not be offered, sold, resold, delivered, distributed or otherwise transferred, directly or indirectly, in or into the United States absent registration under the US Securities Act or an exemption therefrom. The New Prospect Shares issued pursuant to the Offer are expected to be issued in reliance upon the exemption from the registration requirements of the US Securities Act provided by Section 3(a)(10) thereof. There has been no public offer of New Prospect Shares in the United States.

TPJF is organised under the laws of Guernsey and Prospect is organised under the laws of Japan. All of the officers and directors of TPJF are residents of countries other than the United States, and most of the officers and directors of Prospect are residents of countries other than the United States. It may not be possible to sue TPJF and Prospect in a non-US court for violations of US securities laws. It may be difficult to compel TPJF, Prospect and their respective affiliates to subject themselves to the jurisdiction and judgment of a US court.

A transaction effected by way of a scheme of arrangement is not subject to the proxy solicitation or tender offer rules under the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the "US Exchange Act"). Accordingly, the Scheme is subject to the disclosure requirements, rules and practices applicable in the UK and Guernsey to schemes of arrangement and takeover offers, which differ from the disclosure requirements, style and format of US tender offer and proxy solicitation rules. If Prospect determines to extend the offer into the US, the Offer will be made in compliance with applicable US laws and regulations. Financial information included in this Announcement and the Scheme Document has been or will have been prepared in accordance with non-US accounting standards that may not be comparable to financial information of US companies or companies whose financial statements are prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the US.

Neither the US Securities and Exchange Commission nor any securities commission of any state of the United States has approved or disapproved the Offer, nor have such authorities passed upon or determined the fairness of the Offer or the adequacy or accuracy of the information contained in this Announcement. Any representation to the contrary is a criminal offence in the United States.

If the Offer is required to be made in the US, it will be done in compliance with the applicable tender offer rules under the US Exchange Act.

Publication on website and availability of hard copies

A copy of this Announcement and the documents required to be published pursuant to Rule 26.1 of the Code will be made available free of charge, subject to certain restrictions relating to persons resident in Restricted Jurisdictions, on TPJF's website at www.prospectjapanfund.com by no later than 12.00 p.m. (London time) on the Business Day following this Announcement. For the avoidance of doubt, the contents of this website is not incorporated by reference and does not form part of this Announcement.

Neither the content of any website referred to in this Announcement nor the content of any website accessible from hyperlinks is incorporated into, or forms part of, this Announcement.

In accordance with Rule 30.3 of the Code, a person so entitled may request a hard copy of this Announcement by contacting TPJF's company secretary, Northern Trust International Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited, on +44 (0) 1481 745 918 or by submitting a request in writing to Northern Trust Fund Administration Services (Guernsey) Limited at PO Box 255 Trafalgar Court, Les Banques, St Peter Port, Guernsey, GY1 3QL. You may also request that all future documents, announcements and information to be sent to you in relation to the Offer should be in hard copy form.

Time

All times shown in this Announcement are London times, unless otherwise stated.
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Amex Exploration Inc. ("Amex") (TSX VENTURE: AMX) is pleased to announce the conclusive results of the 2017 winter drill program confirming the gold potential of its 100% owned Eastmain River North property ("ERN") (see PR 2017-04-11). This program consisted of 9 diamond drill holes (DDH) that were selected and planned accordingly from the combined results of an airborne Magnetic and Time Domain Electromagnetic (TDEM) survey (see PR 2016-08-02) and a winter ground induced polarization survey (see PR 2017-02-27).

The 26 km-IP survey covered an area of 3.8 km by 1 km of the same volcano-sedimentary assemblage hosting the newly discovered gold and base metals showings of SOQUEM's Lac Harbour property (see SOQUEM website) where rock, channel and boulder samples have returned values up to 24.38 g/t Au (rock) and 9.14 g/t Au over 0.5 m (channel). Additionally, some past drilling reported base metal values up 1.9% Zn over 0.86 m and 1.85% Cu over 0.49 m in two distinct drilled holes. The airborne geophysical survey conducted in August 2016 had clearly demonstrated the continuity of the same magnetic pattern from Soquem to Amex's ERN property, pattern characterized by NE-SW trending horizons of high and low magnetic conformable anomalies. The airborne survey also allowed to identify some crosscutting structures where the magnetic pattern abruptly disappears or is displaced.

The highlights of the Amex 2017 winter program consist of the confirmation of the gold potential of the ERN property having intersected various anomalous gold intersect in 3 out of 9 first phase drill holes ever drilled on this property. Two distinct types of gold mineralization were encountered, namely a fine pyritic and magnetetic stratabound gold mineralization hosted in a narrow cherty finely laminated tuffaceous horizon (0.19 g/t Au over 0.30 meter in hole AMX-17-03) located at the interface of two volcanic units, and a disseminated gold mineralization hosted in some altered pyritized and hematized felsic intrusive (0.27 g/t Au over 1.0 meter in hole AMX-17-06 and 0.69 g/t Au over 1.0 meter in hole AMX-17-07). Although relatively narrow, these intersects not only confirm the gold potential of this property, but opens new never explored favorable grounds to host various gold type deposits. As for a first phase of exploration, these results are quite positive and warrant follow up exploration work.

"Our first pass of drilling at the ERN property has confirmed gold mineralization and we are pleased to have follow up targets to pursue," commented Victor Cantore, President and CEO of Amex. "In addition to this follow up, we will start ground work on our promising Eastmain River South property which is contiguous to the Eastmain Mine. Amex has a large land position in the Eastmain camp. The area is actively being explored by numerous companies and multiple discoveries are possible." Cantore continued "We are also reviewing the data received from Agnico Eagle on our Perron property which has recently reverted back to Amex. With more than $7.5M already spent on Perron, we will create a focused exploration program following data interpretation and 3D modelling. With numerous highly prospective properties we have multiple exploration targets which we will be prioritizing over the coming months and we are well financed for our immediate exploration plans."

The Eastmain River North property is situated in the Eeyou Istchee Territory, James Bay, Quebec, approximately 350 km North of the town of Chibougamau. The claims are accessible from Chibougamau by the new 243-kilometer-long all-season road to Stornoway's Renard diamond mine (route 167 extension from Temiscamie). Amex acquired the property by staking in 2016 and in August 2016 carried out an airborne Magnetic and Time Domain Electromagnetic survey. The 2017 winter IP survey has been carried by Geophysics TMC of Val D'Or, Quebec while supervision and interpretation of the survey was under the responsibility of Joel Dube, P. Eng registered in Quebec.

About Amex

Amex Exploration Inc. is a junior mining exploration company which primary objective is to develop and bring into production viable gold and base metals deposits in mining-friendly jurisdictions. Amex has two main projects: the 100% owned Perron gold project located 110 kilometres north of Rouyn-Noranda, Quebec, consisting of 116 adjacent claims covering 4518 hectares; and the 100% owned Eastmain River gold properties consisting of four distinct properties totalling 135 claims covering 7,102 hectares.

Alain Vachon, P.Eng., who is a Qualified Person as defined by Canadian NI 43-101, have approved the technical information reported in this news release. The drilling campaign and the quality control program has been planned and supervised by Alain Vachon and Amex's management. The QAQC include insertion of blank, standard or duplicate every 20 samples. The gold value is estimated by Fire Assay AA finish by Laboratoire d'Analyse Bourlamaque in Val d'Or. 17 samples were submitted to ALS Mineral for check assay and assays for base metals and major and trace elements. The logging and sampling was realized by Laurentian Exploration Inc, a mining service company based in Saguenay.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Contacts:

Amex Exploration

Victor Cantore

President and Chief Executive Officer

514-866-8209




TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- BWR Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE: BWR) ("BWR") is pleased to provide an update on its Little Stull Lake Gold Project, located in Northeastern Manitoba. BWR acquired the project from Puma Exploration Inc. (TSX VENTURE: PUM) ("Puma"), announced in December 2016 and has been invited to work with the Manitoba Ministry of Growth Enterprise and Trade ("MGET") in order to proceed with the issuance of two Mineral Exploration Licenses ("MEL") that Puma had previously applied for. After a period of Council and Community consultation between BWR, the Ministry and two First Nation Communities, the Ministry issued the two MEL'S to Puma on June 27, 2017, valid for three years, the portions of the MEL's that remain in good standing are renewable for another 3 years.

The two Puma MEL's are currently in the process of being transferred to BWR. Under the terms of the acquisition agreement with Puma, upon notification of the transfer of the MEL's to BWR by MGET, BWR must make a $50,000 payment to Puma for each MEL within 30 days. This process is now underway.

The two MEL's effectively cover the Manitoba extension of a vast area of favorable geology totaling 36,006 hectares, described as the Wolf Bay Shear Zone. The Wolf Bay Shear Zone has been likened to the Cadillac break in the Abitibi greenstone belt of Ontario and Quebec. The Wolf Bay Shear Zone is a very long (+80 km) geological structure that extends from Stull Lake in Ontario, across the Ontario - Manitoba border, surrounding and through the 20 staked claims already held by BWR for approximately 40 kilometers into Manitoba. The 20 staked claims cover the five main gold occurrences on the project comprise an area of 2,837 hectares, bringing the total exploration area to 38,843 hectares (388 square kilometers).

BWR is currently planning and preparing for an exploration program focussed on the West Zone that will replicate some selected holes as needed to validate the previous drill results, prior to incorporating the historical information into an updated resource estimate.

Neil Novak, President and CEO of BWR states: "It was about a year ago when we started the process of acquiring this exciting gold project from Puma. The 20 staked claims we initially acquired upon signing the agreement covered the historical exploration areas where five gold occurrences were identified, however the two MEL's were the real target for BWR's style of regional exploration. Acquiring the two MEL's was an interesting process, where BWR met many wonderful people both in the Ministry and the two First Nation communities that have traditional land entitlement in our area of interest. BWR looks forward to working with God's River First Nation and God's Lake First Nation and the Ministry as we begin our multi-year exploration program on the Little Stull Lake Gold Project."

As previously reported (December 6, 2016), historical drilling was carried out in three separate campaigns between 1984 and 2008, including; Westmin Resources Inc. (1984-89), Wolfden Resources Inc.(2001) and Puma Exploration Inc. (2007). 219 drill holes represent an aggregate of 37,421 metres were completed by these three explorers, the analysis of which resulted in the delineation of five separate zones of gold mineralization along a 6.2 kilometre geological structure. Most of the early drilling focussed on the West Zone that was reported by Westmin in 1991 to contain a potential resource estimate of 750,000 tons averaging 10.5 g/t Au as recorded in Open file 90-2 by Manitoba Department of Energy and Mines (p 58), this was also reported in Canadian Intergovernmental Working Group on Mineral Industry, in 2008. The Westmin resource estimate is considered historical in nature and was done prior to the implementation of NI 43-101 reporting requirements and adoption of CIM Guidelines for Estimation of Mineral Resources and Reserves, however the reported resource estimate is considered relevant as it has been used as reference to the gold potential of the region in various technical reports about the area by government agencies. A Qualified Person has not done sufficient work to classify this historical estimate and the Company is not treating this historical estimate as a current mineral resource estimate.

BWR Exploration Inc. is a public company focused on exploring for base and precious metals, with its flagship Little Stull Lake Gold Project in NE Manitoba along with other exploration projects in Northern Ontario, and Northern Quebec, Canada. Management of BWR includes an accomplished group of exploration/mining specialists with many decades of operational experience in the junior resource sector. There are currently 55,727,461 shares issued in BWR.

This press release may contain forward-looking statements. Such forward-looking statements involve a number of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of BWR Exploration Inc. to be materially different from actual future results and achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements which speak only as of the date the statements were made, except as required by law. BWR Exploration Inc. undertakes no responsibility to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include: the uncertainty of obtaining the MELs or that actual results obtained by BWR in the future may differ materially from the historical results described in this press release, which historical results have not been verified by BWR. In addition, readers of this press release should review the risks and uncertainties that are described in the quarterly and annual reports and in the documents submitted to the securities administration. Neither the Toronto Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

For information about BWR Exploration Inc. please visit our website: http://www.bwrexploration.com.

Contacts:

BWR Exploration Inc.

Neil Novak, P.Geo.

President, CEO & Director

Office: (416) 848 6866

nnovak@bwrexploration.com



Paradox Public Relations

Carl Desjardins

Office: (514) 341 0408

carldesjardins@paradox-pr.ca




BALLERUP, Denmark and HURLEY, England, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

New top 50 list ranks LEO Pharma in second position, leading the global pharma industry in commitments to increase access to clinical trials information

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130221/595427 )



The AllTrials audit on clinical trial transparency findings has been published ranking LEO Pharma as leaders in the industry.

LEO Pharma is ranked at number two out of the 50 pharmaceutical companies evaluated. AllTrials is an international campaign that calls for every clinical trial, past and present, to be registered and their results reported. The rankings assess companies' policy commitments on disclosing trial registrations, summary findings of studies, comprehensive clinical study reports (CSRs) and individual patient data (IPD).

As one of the companies in the forefront of data transparency LEO Pharma was early off the mark to globally commit to increased disclosure. Since making this commitment in 2013, LEO Pharma has made its clinical trials results dating back to 1990 available to the public and will share individual patient-level data upon request from qualified third-party researchers. The company's commitment to transparency and patient focus has also evolved with the completion of an innovative project to develop lay summaries for patients and interested parties in easy to understand language.

Commenting on the publication from AllTrials, Katherine Murphy, former CEO of The Patients Association (now Independent Care Consultant) said:

"I very much welcome these audit findings and greater transparency in clinical trials, as well as research and development generally. It is really pleasing to see more information on clinical trials becoming increasingly available in the public domain with companies like LEO Pharma amongst the leaders. The more information that patients and members of the public have will support them to become better placed to make informed decisions and treatment choices."

Kim Kjoeller, Executive Vice President Global Research and Development, LEO Pharma, said:

"The AllTrials rankings are a robust overview which, while grounded in empirical data, casts new light on the attitudes and approaches to transparency across our industry. LEO Pharma welcomes the AllTrials audit and we are delighted to see this positive recognition for our commitment to making our scientific evidence base freely available for scrutiny and study. Having just entered the biologics arena LEO Pharma is at a turning point in our company's history, and we are excited by the promise that our pipeline holds. Maintaining this commitment to openly sharing our vision through timely disclosure of trial information has never been more important to us, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the scientific community to drive the clinical trial transparency agenda to the next level."

For more information on LEO Pharma's commitment to transparency, please see the company's Position on Public Access to Clinical Trials Information at http://www.leo-pharma.com.

About LEO Pharma

LEO Pharma helps people achieve healthy skin. By offering care solutions to patients in more than 100 countries globally, the company supports people in managing their skin conditions.

Founded in 1908 and owned by the LEO Foundation, LEO Pharma has devoted decades of research and development to delivering products and solutions to people suffering from skin diseases.

LEO Pharma is globally headquartered in Denmark and employs around 4,800 people worldwide.
XUZHOU, China, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Global leading manufacturer XCMG has kicked start the fourth Global Excellent Operator program (the "Program") at the XCMG Technician College, a total of 71 trainees from nine countries have joined the series of training sessions led by experienced experts and instructors.

In addition to the classic training courses such as simulated operation and component assembly training, the fourth Program has shifted the focus to intelligent technologies in the construction machinery. The trainees visited XCMG's two smart manufacturing bases of loader and concrete machineries and gained deep understandings of the XCMG quality.

"The trainees of this session will experience XCMG's smart and integrated training system, manufacturing system in the internet era. We wish that they could be inspired by XCMG's 'craftsmanship and innovation' attitude and persistent pursuit, witnessing our company's strength in smart manufacturing and world-class quality," said Wang Min, chairman of XCMG.

The Program features three classes of loader operation, pump truck operation and overseas service engineer with durations of eight to 25 days. XCMG has designed customized training models for all trainees that include corporate culture orientation, theory teaching, field practice, exchange forum with industry experts and special experience activities.

The international trainees who have enrolled in this session come from Canada, Mongolia, Uganda, Kenya, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia and United Arab Emirates. XCMG prepared additional team building and cultural experience activities to introduce the history, culture and folk customs of Xuzhou while making new friends.

"Here is a fine tuned XCMG, everywhere reflects the fine management of XCMG in characteristic culture, humane care, and staff with good professional quality," said Issac Muisyo, an overseas service engineer trainee from Kenya.

The Program is part of XCMG's 14 precisely positioned projects in the "For Better Life" global public welfare campaign which has benefited 303 trainees worldwide, including 149 operators and 156 international service engineers. XCMG has also worked with 54 overseas dealers and local vocational colleges to host 76 product maintenance skill workshops per the company's commitment to education.

About XCMG

XCMG is a multinational heavy machinery manufacturing company with a history of 74 years. It currently ranks ninth in the world's construction machinery industry. The company exports to more than 177 countries and regions around the world.

For more information, please visit:www.xcmg.com, or XCMG pages onFacebook,Twitter,YouTube,LinkedInandInstagram.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539701/XCMG.jpg
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, CA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Natren, known as The Probiotic Pioneer since 1982, launches today a two-part Facebook Live video series explaining the benefits of using probiotics to improve skin health. The first video airs live today, Thursday, July 27, 2017 with the second part airing on Thursday, August 31, 2017, both beginning at 4pm Pacific Time. Company Founder & President, Natasha Trenev, will co-host the series with Melissa Ramos, the founder of Sexy Food Therapy.

Part-1 of the series will focus on probiotics for skin health, explaining how users can improve their health from the inside out. Part-2 of the series will discuss and show users how to use Digesta-Lac, one of Natren's probiotic powders, to make a homemade face mask for topical use. The Facebook Live videos will air on Melissa Ramos' Facebook page and both events will include a giveaway contest.

"Our goal at Natren has always been to provide heightened education to consumers about the many health benefits of probiotics," said Natasha Trenev, Founder and President of Natren, Inc. "Not many people understand how probiotics, when ingested or used topically, can greatly and positively impact skin health. It is a unique skincare remedy that we are excited to share with an audience of avid healthcare enthusiasts looking for different ways to help fight skin issues."

Natren has been manufacturing pharmaceutical grade probiotic products for over 35 years. With a level of focus and expertise that comes from over three decades of continuous probiotic cultivation and production, Natren has complete hands-on control of their probiotic manufacturing process lending to the creation of some of the strongest and most powerful probiotic strains available.

Watch Natren's Facebook Live video series at Facebook.com/sexyfoodtherapy on Thursday, July 27, 2017 and Thursday, August 31, 2017, at 4pm Pacific Time/7pm Eastern Time.

To learn more about Natren, visit www.Natren.com.

About Natren, Inc.

Natren, Inc., founded in 1982 and headquartered in Westlake Village, California, is the leading manufacturer of probiotics worldwide. Internationally recognized for its pioneering work and research in the probiotics industry, Natren produces the finest pharmaceutical grade quality probiotics, or "beneficial bacteria" in its cGMP facility. Natren probiotics are distributed in health food stores across the nation as well as directly to consumers. The company also has both an international and professional division selling to healthcare practitioners. Natren is committed to promoting the overall health and wellbeing of their customers. Founder, Natasha Trenev, an educator, author and expert in the field of probiotics, has spent over 50 years researching the benefits of probiotics as they relate to human health.

Image Available: http://www2.marketwire.com/mw/frame_mw?attachid=3158671



MEDIA CONTACT:

Brittany Galvan

(310) 405-0346

Brittany@marketingmavenpr.com




First patient enrolled into VOLTAIRE-X; an interchangeability study designed to assess whether BI 695501 is interchangeable with Humira 1

First study in the U.S. to investigate an interchangeability designation for an adalimumab biosimilar candidate

BI 695501 is currently under review by regulatory authorities2

Boehringer Ingelheim announced today that the first patient has been enrolled into its VOLTAIRE-X interchangeability study. The goal of the study is to demonstrate that BI 695501 is interchangeable with the U.S.-marketed formulation of Humira* 40mg/0.8mL. This is the first study in the U.S. to investigate an interchangeability designation for an adalimumab biosimilar candidate.

The study will compare the pharmacokinetics and clinical outcomes between patients receiving Humira continuously, versus those who switch repeatedly between Humira and BI 695501, Boehringer Ingelheim's adalimumab biosimilar candidate.1 The study will also assess safety, immunogenicity and efficacy.1

"We are pleased that the first patient has now been enrolled in VOLTAIRE-X, and look forward to continued recruitment and patient follow-up," said Ivan Blanarik, Senior Vice President and Head of Therapeutic Area Biosimilars at Boehringer Ingelheim. "The initiation of this study reinforces our commitment to improving the lives of patients suffering from serious chronic or life-threatening diseases through biosimilars. With biosimilars, we will have the opportunity to expand treatment options while at the same time providing value to the healthcare system."

The VOLTAIRE-X study (NCT03210259)1, is being conducted in 240 patients with moderate-to-severe chronic plaque psoriasis. Results from the study are expected in the second half of 2019.1

BI 695501 has been accepted for regulatory review by the European Medicines Agency and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.2 Phase III results demonstrating clinical equivalence of BI 695501 to Humira in people living with rheumatoid arthritis were recently presented at the annual European Congress of Rheumatology.3

Intended audiences:

This press release is issued from our Corporate Headquarters in Ingelheim, Germany and is intended to provide information about our global business. Please be aware that information relating to the approval status and labels of approved products may vary from country to country, and a country-specific press release on this topic may have been issued in the countries where we do business.

For references and notes to editors, please visit: http://www.boehringer-ingelheim.com/press-release/interchangeability-study-bi-695501-vs-humira

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005789/en/

Contacts:

Boehringer Ingelheim

Corporate Communications

Media PR

Dr. Julia Knebel

Phone: +49 6132 77 95614

Fax: +49 6132 77 6601

Email: press@boehringer-ingelheim.com

www.boehringer-ingelheim.com
MONTREAL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Aurvista Gold Corporation ("Aurvista" or the "Company") (TSX VENTURE: AVA)(OTCQB: ARVSF)(FRANKFURT: AV2) is pleased to announce that the Company has formed a Technical Advisory Committee (the "Committee") to help guide all future exploration, drilling and project management at the Douay Gold Project.

Aurvista's President and CEO, Matthew Hornor, stated: "We are in a period of growth and transition and will continue putting the best people, processes and systems in place. We are going to take a hard look at all of the project data and results to-date and complete the necessary exploration and preparation work to ensure our technical decision makers have the information and resources required to succeed."

The initial Committee members are highlighted below:

David W Broughton: David was Executive Vice-President Exploration with Ivanplats Ltd (now Ivanhoe Mines) from January 2008 through October 2016, and was co-awarded PDAC's Thayer Lindsley and AME BC's Colin Spence awards for world-class discoveries at Kamoa, DRC and Flatreef, SA. Closer to home, David has worked extensively on exploration, development stage and mining projects throughout the Abitibi including in the Casa Berardi and Joutel areas, both very close to Aurvista's Douay Gold Project.

Maurice A. Tagami: Maurice has served as the Vice President, Mining Operations for Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. since February, 2012. He is a Metallurgical Engineer from the University of British Colombia with 35 years of experience. He is responsible for maintaining partnerships with 21 operating mines and 8 development projects from which Wheaton Precious Metals Corp. has silver and/or gold streaming agreements. Prior to July 2012, Mr. Tagami was President & CEO and Director of Keegan Resources Inc.

R. Dennis Bergen: Dennis is a Mining Engineer with over 40 years of experience. Mr. Bergen, P. Eng has held senior operating responsibilities at a number of mines and projects in northern Canada, including General Manager of the Golden Bear Mine, General Manager at the Tungsten Mine of North American Tungsten, and Manager of the Ketza River Mine.

John V Casson: John is an Electrical Engineer with over 35 years of experience in the non-ferrous and ferrous mining and metals processing sectors. John specializes in infrastructure design, project evaluation and implementation analysis in the development of world class capital mining and beneficiation projects. He has held senior positions on major capital projects including Voisey's Bay, El Aouj and Mary River.

Jean Lafleur: Jean will be transitioning from his current position as the Company's VP, Exploration and has accepted reassignment to join the Company's Technical Advisory Committee. During his time with McWatters Mining Inc., Mr. Lafleur was instrumental in the discovery of new ore reserves for the company's gold projects in the Val-d'Or and Malartic Mining camps, including developing the bulk gold exploration program at the Canadian Malartic Gold Property. Jean's extensive experience working in the Abitibi Greenstone Belt and intimate knowledge of the Douay Gold Project will be a major asset to the Committee.

Aurvista's President and CEO, Matthew Hornor, stated: "I would like to personally thank Jean Lafleur for all of his hard work and dedication over the years in various leadership positions. He has done an admirable job leading exploration and will continue to be a key contributor as we shift to a committee-approach to integrate some of the brightest minds in the industry into our exploration planning and strategy going forward." Hornor added, "I would also like to acknowledge the board members that are retiring or stepping down as of August 15, 2017. Thank you to Jean Lafleur, Bryan Keeler and Robert A. Mitchell for your service and contributions as directors of the Company."

Douay Gold Project and Company Profile:

Aurvista Gold Corporation is a well-funded gold exploration and development company focused on advancing one of the largest undeveloped gold projects in Quebec. The Company's district-scale 305 km2 Douay Gold Project is located along a 40km segment of the Casa Berardi Deformation Zone within the prolific Abitibi Greenstone Belt in northern Quebec. The Project hosts a multi-million ounce gold deposit that remains open in several directions, with excellent infrastructure and several large scale operating mines within 150 km. The Douay Gold Project's high-grade zones have never been mined, the Project is virtually royalty-free and the Company has aggressive property-wide exploration and drilling plans to continue making new discoveries and building high-quality ounces in one of the best mining jurisdictions in the world.

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER (AS THAT TERM IS DEFINED IN THE POLICIES OF THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE) ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THIS PRESS RELEASE.

Forward Looking Statements:

This news release contains forward-looking statements, including in particular the closing of the second tranche of the CFT Unit offering. Forward-looking statements are based on assumptions, uncertainties and management's best estimate of future events. Actual events or results could differ materially from the Company's expectations and projections. Investors are cautioned that forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements. When used herein, words such as "anticipate", "will", "intend" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. For a more detailed discussion of such risks and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements, refer to Aurvista Gold Corporation's filings with Canadian securities regulators available on www.sedar.com or the Company's website at www.aurvistagold.com. The Company does not intend, and expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to, update or revise any forward-looking statements whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

Contacts:

Mr. Joness Lang

VP, Corporate Development

+1 416.682.2674

jlang@aurvistagold.com




DALLAS, TX -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- XCPCNL Business Services Corporation (OTC PINK: XCPL), announced today the introduction of a series of Low-Cost Benefit programs for its business clients.

The Company, operating from its offices in Dallas TX, Orlando, FL and Chicago IL, will offer up to thirty innovative benefit programs in forty-six states and Puerto Rico. These benefits include plans such as Telehealth, Doctors on Line, Nurseline, Pharmacy, Medical Bill Saver and Health Advocacy. This package costs less than $15.00 per month for a family.

For more information on XCPCNL, please visit: www.XCPCNL.com.

Safe Harbor Act: This release includes forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 that involves risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, the impact of competitive products, the ability to meet customer demand, the ability to manage growth, acquisitions of technology, equipment, or human resources, the effect of economic business conditions and the ability to attract and retain skilled personnel. The Company is not obligated to revise or update any forward-looking statements in order to reflect events or circumstances that may arise after the date of this release.

Investor Relations Contact:

Jack Eversull

President

The Eversull Group, Inc.

Phone: (972) 571-1624

Fax: (214) 469-2361

Email Contact

www.theeversullgroup.com




LONGUEUIL, QUEBEC -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Reunion Gold Corporation (TSX VENTURE: RGD) (the "Company" or "Reunion") is pleased to announce that it has entered into a three-year option agreement to acquire from Compagnie Miniere de Boulanger ("CMB"), an arm's length private company, a 100% interest in certain mineral properties located in French Guiana. The CMB properties include the Boulanger, Central Brief, Devez North, and Devez South mineral concessions along with the Carapa (formerly known as Ste Marie) exploration permit.

On closing, Reunion made an initial payment of EUR500,000. An additional payment of EUR500,000 will be payable on the first anniversary of the initial payment. As a condition to exercise the option, Reunion is required to (1) have spent at least US$4,000,000 on exploration and development on the properties and (2) pay EUR1,000,000 to CMB. Reunion will have to pay an additional EUR1,000,000 following approval of the transfer to Reunion of the concessions and exploration permit by the French regulatory authorities. Upon exercise of the option by Reunion, CMB will retain a 2% net smelter returns royalty on the properties. The option can be exercised any time between January 1, 2019 and three years from closing. Reunion can terminate the option agreement at any time upon a 30-day notice to CMB, provided that the first anniversary payment of EUR500,000 has been paid.

The CMB properties consists of a 78.2 km2 of mineral concessions and a 24 km2 exploration permit located in the north-central part of French Guiana, approximately 40 km south of the capital Cayenne. The CMB properties are easily accessible by National Road No. 2 and a network of gravel roads. The CMB land holdings are underlain by a Proterozoic greenstone belt formed by the Armina and Paramaca Formations, composed by volcanic and sedimentary rocks, intruded by granites. This greenstone belt extends westwards and hosts most of the known gold mineralization and operating mines in French Guiana and Surinam. The BRGM (French geological survey) and previous property titleholders conducted extensive geological mapping, soil geochemistry, trenching and diamond drilling, confirming the presence of several gold occurrences related to shear zones and hydrothermal alteration. Numerous geochemical anomalies remain unexplored. Portions of the CMB properties were explored by ASARCO in the 1990's, followed by Cambior and IAMGOLD. The properties host numerous artisanal alluvial and primary gold workings. CMB has been conducting small-scale alluvial gold mining operations on the mining concessions that produced around 200,000 ounces of gold between 1994 and 2016.

The four concessions were originally granted to CMB by the French government in the late 1880s and early 1920s. Due to recent amendments to the French mining code, all concessions will expire on December 31, 2018. CMB has filed applications to renew the concessions for a period of 15 years.

Reunion intends to begin an exploration program on the CMB properties this fall. This program will follow-up previous work and include geological mapping, trenching and systematic surface sampling to confirm the continuity and geometry of the mineralized quartz veining on the property. The program will initially be focused on the Carapa and Doyle prospect areas, where artisanal mining occurred in the past. The program will define the relationship between these two mineralized areas and identify targets for a diamond drill program to commence in 2018.

French Guiana is an overseas department of France located in northern South America. Geologically, it is part of the Guiana Shield of South America, which encompasses Guyana and Suriname, as well as parts of Venezuela and northeastern Brazil. The Guiana Shield hosts a number of substantial gold deposits and has produced gold for more than 300 years.

Reunion is assembling a portfolio of gold prospects in the Guiana Shield. In addition to the option to acquire the CMB properties, Reunion has entered into option agreements to acquire a 75% interest in the Dorlin gold project and an 80% interest in the Haute Mana gold project, both projects in French Guiana. All three projects are located within zones where mining activities are allowed under certain guidelines, conditions and restrictions described in the Schema Departemental d'Orientation Miniere of French Guiana. In addition, Reunion has entered into agreements to acquire options on small scale, early stage projects in Guyana.

Carlos Bertoni, P. Geo., a consultant to Reunion and a qualified person pursuant to National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical data contained in this press release.

Cautionary Statement

This news release contains certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking" statements. Forward looking statements are statements that are not historical facts and are generally, but not always, identified by the words "expects", "plans", "anticipates", "believes", "intends", "estimates", "projects", "potential" and similar expressions, or that events or conditions "will", "would", "may", "could" or "should" occur. Although we believe the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results may differ materially from those in forward looking statements. Forward looking statements are based on the beliefs, estimates and opinions of our management on the date the statements are made. Reunion Gold Corporation undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements in the event that management's beliefs, estimates or opinions, or other factors, should change, except as required by law.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this press release.

Additional information about Reunion Gold Corporation is available on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and on its website (www.reuniongold.com).

Contacts:

Reunion Gold Corporation

Rejean Gourde, President & CEO, or

David Charles CFA, Investor Relations

+1 450.677.2585

info@reuniongold.com

www.reuniongold.com




VANCOUVER, BC / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2017 / Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. ("Cielo" or the "Company") (CSE: CMC) announces the signing of a multi-year feedstock agreement with Mountainview Eco Products ("Mountainview"). This agreement will provide Cielo, at a fixed cost, with an ample supply of sawdust and wood shavings to fulfill 100% of the feedstock requirements for the Company's first commercial waste to renewable diesel refinery, which is currently under construction on the Company's High River, Alberta property.

Don Allan, President and CEO of Cielo, states, "This agreement provides an excellent source of feedstock for not only our first refinery but also potentially for future planned refineries in Alberta. While Mountainview can supply 100% of our initial projected requirements, we will continue to diversify our feedstock inputs to include a wide range of garbage-derived waste streams, including municipal blue box solid waste (garbage), plastics and tires. The quality of Mountainview's sawdust and wood shavings exceeds our requirements and will allow for our feedstock costs to be significantly lower than the costs being paid by conventional biodiesel facilities for their feedstocks, which includes food-derived materials, animal tallow and or yellow/brown grease. We look forward to working with Mountainview in Alberta as we expand our refinery footprint beyond our first refinery."

Mark Haldane, President of Mountainview, commented, "We are very excited to be able to participate in such a green project with Cielo, and sell a waste product into a new industry sector. Cielo's strategy of converting waste products into high grade renewable diesel makes total sense to us from both a business and an environmental standpoint. We are extremely pleased to be a part of Cielo's strategic plan."

Cielo's technology has been proven to work in the Company's demonstration refinery ("Demo Refinery") utilizing multiple different waste feedstock streams, including garbage, tires, plastics and wood waste converting all of them, on a cost-effective basis, into high grade renewable diesel fuel, in batches of up to 50 liters an hour. Having been granted a development permit from the municipal district, which is subject to customary conditions, Cielo is now in the process of moving its Demo Refinery to High River, where it will be retrofitted into about a 356 liter per hour (2.9 million liter per year) continuous flow refinery at a projected cost of under $2 million. Once Cielo validates that the retrofitted refinery can operate on a continuous flow basis, Cielo plans to scale up the size of its refineries to produce about 2,000 liters an hour (16 million liters a year) of high grade renewable diesel and build multiple modular refineries around the world, offsetting landfills and other feedstock supplies. Cielo intends to focus initially on building additional refineries in Alberta to fill the Canadian mandated demand for renewable diesel, almost all of which is currently having to be imported into Canada, due to the high feedstock costs and product quality issues being experienced by Canadian biodiesel producers. In the coming months and years, Cielo's goal is to replace as much as possible of the imported mandated demand, of about 650 million liters a year, with its high grade renewable fuel.

About Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.

Cielo Waste Solutions Corp. is a publicly traded company with its shares listed to trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange ("CSE") under the symbol "CMC." Cielo is commercializing a transformational, patent-pending, technology that can convert multiple different waste streams into renewable diesel, at a significantly lower cost than biofuel companies. Landfills are one of the world's leading contributors to Green House Gas emissions and are projected to double in size over the next seven years. Cielo can potentially resolve this crisis, on a cost-effective basis, by converting multiple different waste-derived feedstocks, including sorted municipal solid waste (garbage), wood and agriculture waste, tires, blue-box waste, all plastics and virtually any other cellulous waste product into high grade renewable diesel.

For more information, please contact:



Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.

Don Allan, President & CEO

(403) 348-2972 Ext. 2

donallan@cielows.com

www.cielows.com

Cautionary Note Regarding Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains certain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information (collectively referred to herein as "forward-looking statements") within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities laws. All statements other than statements of present or historical fact are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are often, but not always, identified by the use of words such as "anticipate," "achieve," "could," "believe," "plan," "intend," "objective," "continuous," "ongoing," "estimate," "outlook," "expect," "may," "will," "project," "should," or similar words, including negatives thereof, suggesting future outcomes.

Forward looking statements are subject to both known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, many of which are beyond the control of the Company, that may cause the actual results, level of activity, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from those expressed or implied by such forward looking statements, including but not limited to: the use of proceeds of the offering, receipt of all necessary approvals of the offering, general business, economic, competitive, political and social uncertainties; negotiation uncertainties and other risks of the grocery industry. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements are not a guarantee of future performance and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, some of which are described herein. Such forward-looking statements necessarily involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, which may cause the Company's actual performance and results to differ materially from any projections of future performance or results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Any forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and, except as required by law, neither the Company assumes no obligation to publicly update or revise such statements to reflect new information, subsequent or otherwise.

CSE has not reviewed and does not accept responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of the content of this news release.

SOURCE: Cielo Waste Solutions Corp.
Regulatory News:

Philip Morris International Inc. (NYSE/Euronext Paris: PM) informs its shareholders that its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 has been filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC").

PMI makes available free of charge on its website at www.pmi.com, its Annual Reports on Form 10-K, Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q, Current Reports on Form 8-K, reports filed pursuant to Section 16 of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and amendments to those reports as soon as reasonably practicable after PMI electronically files or furnishes such materials to the SEC. All of these documents will be provided free of charge to any shareholder requesting a copy by writing to: Philip Morris International Inc., 120 Park Avenue, New York, New York 10017, U.S.A., attention: Corporate Secretary. These documents are also available on the SEC's website at www.sec.gov.

About Philip Morris International Inc. ("PMI")

PMI is a leading international tobacco company, with six of the world's top 15 international brands and products sold in more than 180 markets. In addition to the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, including Marlboro, the number one global cigarette brand, and other tobacco products, PMI is engaged in the development and commercialization of Reduced-Risk Products ("RRPs"). RRPs is the term PMI uses to refer to products that present, are likely to present, or have the potential to present less risk of harm to smokers who switch to these products versus continued smoking. Through multidisciplinary capabilities in product development, state-of-the-art facilities, and industry-leading scientific substantiation, PMI aims to provide an RRP portfolio that meets a broad spectrum of adult smoker preferences and rigorous regulatory requirements. For more information, see www.pmi.com and www.pmiscience.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005910/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations:

New York: +1 (917) 663 2233

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4666

or

Media:

Lausanne: +41 (0)58 242 4500
AI Expected to Replace Nearly 10% of Jobs in 10 Years; Training, Screening and Workforce Planning Anticipated to Benefit to Similar Degrees

HANOVER, Maryland, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Allegis Group, the global leader in talent solutions, recently surveyed more than 300 human resources (HR) professionals, senior-manager level and above, who reported mixed feelings about AI and its impact on the future of work. Survey participants see AI as something to be excited about (21%) and as both disrupting and enabling (17%), yet a low number of HR professionals indicate that AI is not being adopted fast enough (8%). Additional findings indicated that a low number (9%) believe AI will displace most jobs in 10 years.

These findings, coupled with insighton AI's implications for tomorrow's talent and workforce strategies, are available in a new research report, "AI and the World of Work: Embracing the Promises and Realities." Ready for download at https://www.allegisgroup.com/insights/AI, the paper offers background on the development of AI, its major players, and its influence on workers and businesses.

"We're still in the early stages of understanding how AI will displace old jobs and create new ones. Without question, though, it will have a major impact on how companies compete for talent and get work done," says Andy Hilger, president of Allegis Group. "Innovations in AI will become more and more integral to business success, impacting strategic priorities, technology adoption, and, maybe most important, the overall evolution of the workforce. Our industry, as well as the clients and talent with whom we partner, needs to understand the implications and have a plan to capitalize on what will be a disruptive force."

HR Professionals Take Stock of AI

When asked to identify areas of talent management that will benefit from AI, top responses from HR professionals surveyed included training talent (26%), screening talent (24%) and workforce planning (22%).

Regarding the skill types most susceptible to automation, HR professionals pointed to data collection/processing (36%), predictable, physical work (27%), analytical/quantitative skills (23%) and customer services/administration (22%).

The top roadblocks to adoption include budgets needed to upgrade or maintain AI (32%), a lack of people to build or manage AI (26%) and training the AI (24%).

Overall, findings indicate AI will not replace the need for talent professionals; instead, it will change the nature of what they need to do to succeed. "When you speak with a person, you trust that she is listening to you, learning from you, and sharing with you out of some level of genuine interest," says Tanya Axenson, global head of human resources for Allegis Group. "But will you fully trust a machine designed to calculate everything you say toward making a decision? Probably not. That's why people will remain essential to the high-trust aspects of HR - closing deals, solving tough employee issues, building relationships and creating the organizational strategy."

"A variety of AI niche solutions are emerging in the talent tech market," says Rachel Russell, head of corporate strategy for Allegis Group. "Competitive advantage will come from adopting the right set of solutions to automate, augment and enhance the experience."

Additional trends regarding the adoption of AI that expand to the market as a whole include:

Expect Increased Demand for AI Skills: While AI is taking on many skills formerly attributed to humans, new jobs will emerge. Likely candidates include AI ethicists to manage the risks and liabilities associated with AI, as well as transparency requirements. Needs will also emerge for AI trainers, and individuals to support data science, the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as capabilities related to modeling, computational intelligence, machine learning, mathematics, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience.

While AI is taking on many skills formerly attributed to humans, new jobs will emerge. Likely candidates include AI ethicists to manage the risks and liabilities associated with AI, as well as transparency requirements. Needs will also emerge for AI trainers, and individuals to support data science, the Internet of Things (IoT), as well as capabilities related to modeling, computational intelligence, machine learning, mathematics, psychology, linguistics and neuroscience. Constraints Will Influence the Pace of Innovation: Machine learning-driven AI systems require human guidance and programming, and a shortage of skills to provide this guidance may hinder progress. Also, today's AI systems require deep sets of data and information. While data is abundant, it is not always available in pools that can be used to support an AI application. Other constraints include cost, the need for buy-in and adoption, and regulation.

Machine learning-driven AI systems require human guidance and programming, and a shortage of skills to provide this guidance may hinder progress. Also, today's AI systems require deep sets of data and information. While data is abundant, it is not always available in pools that can be used to support an AI application. Other constraints include cost, the need for buy-in and adoption, and regulation. New Challenges Will Influence AI's Effectiveness: Can AI be prevented from exploiting vulnerabilities in existing data systems or stopped from acting on low-quality data? While these issues, coupled with the impact of failure, product liability, perpetual obsolescence and malicious use are concerns, the research holds that most of these near-term issues will be solved or mitigated over time.

For those who lead and execute talent strategy, gaining an understanding of the forces of change is the first step in rising to the new demands of an AI-enabled workplace. Download the report today at https://www.allegisgroup.com/insights/AI.

About Allegis Group

Allegis Group is the global leader in talent solutions focused on working harder and caring more than any other provider. We'll go further to understand the needs of our people - our clients, our candidates and our employees - and to consistently deliver on our promise of an unsurpassed quality experience. That's the Allegis Group difference, and it's consistent across every Allegis Group company. With more than $11 billion in annual revenues and over 500 locations across the globe, our network provides businesses with a comprehensive suite of talent solutions - without sacrificing the niche expertise required to ensure a successful partnership. Our specialized group of companies includes: Aerotek; TEKsystems; Aston Carter; Allegis Global Solutions; Major, Lindsey & Africa; Allegis Partners; MarketSource; EASi; The Stamford Group; and GettingHired. Visit www.AllegisGroup.com to learn more.

Contact:

Julie McClure

410-694-5215

jmcclure@allegisgroup.com

allegisgroup.com
The Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) is pleased to announce the availability of a new Therapeutic Area Standard for Diabetic Kidney Disease in the form of a User Guide for data managers, statisticians, programmers and study managers, which is freely available on the CDISC website. Therapeutic Area User Guides provide research professionals with guidance on how to represent patient data in clinical research to improve quality, efficiency and cost effectiveness, enabling smarter research to unlock cures.

As of 2014, an estimated 422 million people around the world were afflicted with diabetes. Among them, approximately 25 percent will also suffer from related diabetic kidney disease. Diabetic kidney disease is the most common cause of end-stage renal disease (i.e., kidney disease severe enough to require treatment with dialysis or transplantation) and is increasing in prevalence, according to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK) at the U.S. National Institutes of Health.

"With an increasing number of therapies in development for diabetic kidney disease this is an exciting time, which highlights the importance of data standards which will facilitate the exchange of information and bringing them into clinical practice," said Richard Haynes, Associate Professor at the MRC Population Health Research Unit, University of Oxford and co-chair of the Kidney Health Initiative's expert advisory group, which contributed to the development of the guidelines.

"This data standards effort brought together academia, regulatory, consortia, industry and non-profit organizations," said Rachael Zirkle, data sciences and solutions transformation advisor at Eli Lilly and Company. "Our focus was on delivering a much-needed guide that will help drive diabetic kidney disease research forward."

This CDISC Therapeutic Area User Guide was developed with support from the Kidney Health Initiative, a public-private partnership by the American Society of Nephrology (ASN) and U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Coalition For Accelerating Standards and Therapies (CFAST) initiative, a partnership of CDISC and the Critical Path Institute (C-Path), with participation from the U.S. NIH National Cancer Institute Enterprise Vocabulary Services (NCI-EVS), FDA, TransCelerate, the Japan Pharmaceutical and Medical Devices Agency (PMDA) and other stakeholders to accelerate clinical research and medical product development by creating and maintaining data standards, tools and methods for conducting research in therapeutic areas that are important to public health.

CDISC standards have been adopted and used in more than 90 countries, and are required for submissions to the U.S. FDA and Japan PMDA. To date, Therapeutic Area standards have been developed for over 30 disease areas.

About CDISC

CDISC is a 501(c)(3) global, non-profit organization that develops data standards to foster smarter research and enable connections to healthcare. CDISC standards allow data to speak the same language, by providing common formats for data collection, data sharing and data analyses to make the most of the valuable information offered by patients participating in research studies around the globe, enabling researchers to discover new treatments, find breakthroughs, and unlock cures. CDISC standards are required for regulatory submissions to the U.S. FDA and Japan PMDA, endorsed by the China CFDA, and requested for use by the European Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI). The suite of CDISC standards is freely available on the CDISC website.

CDISC is funded through the generous support of over 400 member organizations from pharmaceutical, biotech, clinical research organizations, regulatory agencies, academia, and healthcare, as well as through grants, authorized CDISC Education courses, events and charitable contributions. To find out more about how to support CDISC and get involved, please visit www.cdisc.org and www.unlockcures.org.

About TransCelerate BioPharma Inc.

TransCelerate BioPharma Inc. is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health of people around the world by accelerating and simplifying the research and development (R&D) of innovative new therapies. The organization's mission is to collaborate across the global biopharmaceutical R&D community to identify, prioritize, design and facilitate implementation of solutions designed to drive the efficient, effective and high quality delivery of new medicines. TransCelerate evolved from conversations at various forums for executive R&D leadership to discuss current issues facing the industry, and examine solutions for addressing agreed-upon common challenges. The founding member companies are AbbVie, AstraZeneca, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Eli Lilly and Company, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson Johnson, Pfizer, the Roche Group, and Sanofi. Additional members that have joined since the inception of TransCelerate include Allergan, Inc., Amgen, Astellas Pharma Inc., EMD Serono, Inc. (a subsidiary of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany), Merck Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk, Shionogi Co., Ltd. and UCB.

Membership in TransCelerate is open to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with Research Development operations. Executive offices are located in Conshohocken, PA. For more information, please visit http://www.transceleratebiopharmainc.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005067/en/

Contacts:

CDISC

Ann P. White, +1-512-363-5826

awhite@cdisc.org


BEIJING (dpa-AFX) - A bipartisan group of Senators have called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to press the Chinese government to end its ban on import of American poultry products.



China imposed ban on import of U.S. poultry products in 2015 after the detection of a wild duck with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).



37 Senators have signed a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, challenging the ban. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) authored the letter. The ban contradicts World Health Organization for Animal Health standards, they argue.



The letter points out that the reopening of the Chinese market would provide a huge boost for rural communities in the U.S., as poultry industry provides thousands of high quality jobs in these rural areas.



The United States is the largest poultry producer in the world and the second biggest poultry meat exporter, with nearly 18 percent of its product shipped to foreign markets.



The ban prevents Mississippi egg and poultry products from being exported to Chinese markets. Mississippi is the fifth-largest producer of broilers in the U.S., with 736 million chickens worth $2.82 billion produced in 2016. The state also produced more than 1.36 billion eggs last year, valued at $104 million. Mississippi's producers rely on strong export markets for its broilers and eggs produced and processed in the state.



Beijing had lifted a ban on import of beef from the United States last month after the two sides settled the conditions for American exports.



Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

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About SoLocal Group SoLocal Group, European leader in local online communication, reveals local know-how, and boosts local revenues of businesses. The Internet activities of the Group are structured around two business lines: Local Search and Digital Marketing. With Local Search, the Group offers digital services and solutions to clients which enable them to enhance their visibility and develop their local contacts. Thanks to its expertise, SoLocal Group earned the trust of some 490,000 clients of those services and over 2.4 billions of visits via its 4 flagship brands (PagesJaunes, Mappy, Ooreka and A Vendre A Louer) but also through its partnerships. With Digital Marketing, SoLocal Group creates and provides the best local and customised content about professionals. With over 4,400 employees, including a new orders force of 1,900 local communication advisors specialised in five verticals (Home, Services, Retail, Health Public, BtoB) and Internationally (France, Spain, Austria, United Kingdom), the Group generated in 2016 revenues of 812 millions euros, of which 80% on Internet and ranks amongst the first European players in terms of Internet advertising revenues. SoLocal Group is listed on Euronext Paris (LOCAL). More information may be obtained at www.solocalgroup.com.

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
SINGAPORE / ACCESSWIRE / November 13, 2017 / Jadestone Energy Inc. (TSXV: "JSE") (the "Company") is pleased to announce that it intends to change its fiscal year end from March 31 to December 31. This notice is given pursuant to Section 4.8(2) of National Instrument 51-102-Continuous Disclosure Obligations ("NI 51-102").

Chief Financial Officer, Dan Young said "This change will bring Jadestone into line with most of its peers, simplify our financial processes, and better align with regulatory reporting and host nations' planning periods. Most of our subsidiaries are required to report on a calendar year basis for local regulators, meaning this change will result in efficiency gains and hence cost savings."

The Company will begin transitioning to the new fiscal year end immediately. The length and ending date of the periods, including the comparative periods, of each interim and annual financial report will be as follows:

Transition Year Comparat-ive Annual Financial Statements to Transition Year New Financial Year Comparat-ive Annual Financial Statements to New Financial Year Interim Period for Transition Year Comparat-ive Interim Periods to Interim Periods in Transition Year Interim Periods for New Financial Year Comparat-ive Interim Periods to Interim Periods in New Financial Year 9 months ended December 31, 2017 12 months ended March 31, 2017 12 months ended December 31, 2018 9 months ended December 31, 2017 3 months ended

June 30, 2017 3 months

ended

June 30, 2016 3 months ended March 31, 2018 3 months ended March 31, 2017 6 months ended September 30, 2017 6 months ended September 30, 2016 6 months ended

June 30, 2018 6 months ended

June 30, 2017 9 months ended September 30, 2018 9 months ended September 30, 2017

The Company intends to release its interim financial report for the three months ended September 30, 2017, on November 28, 2017. Further details on the investor webcast will be provided in due course. The financial report for the transitional period ended December 31, 2017, will be issued on or before the filing deadline of April 30, 2018, as prescribed by sections 4.2 and 4.4 of NI 51-102.



About Jadestone

Jadestone Energy Inc. is TSX-V listed oil and gas company headquartered in Singapore. The Company is currently engaged in production, development and exploration and appraisal activities in Australia, Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Following a recent strategic review, the Company is focusing on acquiring assets with production in the near term, and where significant follow-on reinvestment opportunities exist to enhance value, as well as undeveloped discoveries which may be rapidly brought to production.



For further information, please contact:



Media and General Enquiries

Email: contact@jadestone-energy.com

Phone: +65 6324 0359



Investor Enquiries

Email: IR@jadestone-energy.com

Phone: +1 (403) 975-6752



Website

www.jadestone-energy.com



Cautionary Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements and information (collectively "forward-looking statements"), within the meaning of the applicable Canadian securities legislation, as well as other applicable international securities laws. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are forward-looking and not historical facts. Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This information is provided by RNS; The company news service from the London Stock Exchange.

SOURCE: Jadestone Energy Inc.
Washington D.C.--(Newsfile Corp. - September 21, 2017) - Sweden-based telecommunications provider Telia Company AB has agreed to pay $965 million in a global settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission, U.S. Department of Justice, and Dutch and Swedish law enforcement to resolve charges related to violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) to win business in Uzbekistan.

According to the SEC's order, Telia entered the Uzbek telecommunications market by offering and paying at least $330 million in bribes to a shell company under the guise of payments for lobbying and consulting services that never actually occurred. The shell company was controlled by an Uzbek government official who was a family member of the President of Uzbekistan and in a position to exert significant influence over other Uzbek officials, causing them to take official actions to benefit Telia's business in Uzbekistan.

"Corporate bribery is not just unfair and illegal, it has terribly corrosive effects on business, government, and society," said Stephanie Avakian, Co-Director of the SEC's Enforcement Division. "As this global settlement demonstrates, the SEC continues to work closely with our counterparts at home and abroad to expose and pursue such corruption."

Telia consented to the SEC's order requiring the company to pay $457 million in disgorgement, and the company also agreed to pay a criminal fine of more than $508 million imposed by the Department of Justice. Portions of each amount could be offset by payments made in overseas settlements or proceedings brought by the Dutch Openbaar Ministerie or the Swedish Aklagarmyndigheten. Telia's overall payment to the four agencies must be at least $965 million.

The SEC appreciates the assistance of the Department of Justice Criminal Division's Fraud and Money Laundering and Asset Recovery Sections as well as the Internal Revenue Service, Department of Homeland Security, Dutch Openbaar Ministerie, National Authority for Investigation and Prosecution of Economic and Environmental Crime in Norway, Swedish Prosecution Authority, Office of the Attorney General in Switzerland, and Corruption Prevention and Combating Bureau in Latvia. The SEC also appreciates the assistance from regulators and law enforcement in France, Spain, and Hong Kong as well as the Financial Conduct Authority, British Virgin Islands Financial Services Commission, Cayman Islands Monetary Authority, Bermuda Monetary Authority, Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission, and Central Bank of Ireland.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Focus Ventures Ltd. (TSX VENTURE: FCV) is pleased to announce that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding ("MOU") with established fertilizer trading company, Indagro S.A., for the off-take of phosphate rock from the Company's Bayovar 12 phosphate project in northern Peru.

Highlights of the MOU are:

-- Bayovar 12 rock phosphate product to be purchased by well-established international fertilizer merchant. -- Volume is up to 1,000,000 tons per annum of the planned annual production. -- Initial 5 year term. -- Product destined for the direct application agricultural plantation business and phosphate fertilizer producer markets.

Under the MOU, Indagro will purchase, on an FOB Incoterms basis, up to 1,000,000 metric tons per annum of rock phosphate from future production from the Bayovar 12 project. Product will be delivered by Indagro for direct application use by plantations markets and downstream phosphate fertilizer producers.

Focus President, Gordon Tainton, commented: "Securing our second off-take MOU, this time with Indagro, provides expanded market access for rock phosphate product from Bayovar 12's planned production.

We look forward to beginning the work with two international fertilizer trading companies to develop customized off-shore marketing strategies which can be implemented within future commercial purchase contracts."

About Indagro S.A.

Indagro is a privately held merchant of fertilizers, intermediates and raw materials founded in 1981. It has four main trade support divisions which are; Technical & Agronomic Advisory, Shipping & Logistics, Trade Finance and Marketing & Distribution. Indagro sources fertilizer products in 32 countries and physically delivers to over 240 companies located in 54 countries.

About Focus

Focus is developing the Bayovar 12 phosphate deposit located 40 km from the coast in the Sechura District of northern Peru. Bayovar 12 hosts a large resource of highly-reactive sedimentary phosphate rock - a key raw material input for phosphate fertilizers and vital to world food production. Reactive phosphate rock from Sechura is a natural, slow-release source of phosphorus that can be applied directly to crops. Once of Focus's objectives is to supply direct application phosphate rock to the agricultural regions of Central and South and Southeast Asia.

For further information, please visit our web site www.focusventuresltd.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Simon Ridgway, Chief Executive Officer

Symbol: TSXV-FCV

Shares Issued: 233.1-million

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements and include, without limitation, statements about the Company's Bayovar 12 project and possible future production therefrom. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "estimates", "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "upgraded", "offset", "limited", "contained", "reflecting", "containing", "remaining", "to be", "periodically", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking Statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors relate to, among other things, information regarding the Company's plans for the Bayovar 12 project and possible future production therefrom; changes in general economic conditions and financial markets; the Company or any joint venture partner not having the financial ability to meet its exploration and development goals; risks associated with the results of exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the Company's stated goals for the Bayovar 12 project will be achieved; that the Company will obtain all necessary approvals to, and complete, the private placement on the terms stated; that the Company will spend the financing proceeds as planed; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

Focus Ventures Ltd.

Gordon Tainton

President

604-248-8380

604-682-1514 (FAX)

info@focusventuresltd.com

www.focusventuresltd.com




Regulatory News:

Total Gabon (Paris:EC):

Main Financial Indicators

Q2 17 Q1 17 Q2 17

vs.

Q1 17 H1 17 H1 16 H1 17

vs.

H1 16 Average Brent price $/b 49.6 53.7 -8% 51.7 39.8 +30% Average Total Gabon crude price $/b 45.5 48.7 -7% 46.9 34.2 +37% Crude oil production from fields

operated by Total Gabon kb/d1 52.3 53.7 -3% 53.0 55.3 -4% Crude oil production from Total Gabon

interests2 kb/d 44.2 46.0 -4% 45.1 46.5 -3% Sales volumes Mb3 4.62 3.79 +22% 8.40 9.24 -9% Revenues $M 225 201 +12% 426 355 +20% Funds generated from operations $M 111 95 +17% 206 51 x4 Capital expenditures $M 73 18 x 4 91 73 +25% Net income (loss) $M 1 11 -91% 12 (12) N/A

(1) kb/d: Thousand barrels per day

(2) Including tax oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts.

(3) Mb: Million barrels.

Second-Quarter 2017 Results

Selling Prices

Reflecting the lower Brent price, in second-quarter 2017 the selling price of the Mandji and Rabi Light crude oil grades marketed by Total Gabon averaged 45.5 $/b, down 7% compared to first quarter 2017.

Production

Total Gabon's equity share of operated and non-operated oil production1 declined 4%, due mainly to a lower availability of facilities.

Revenues

Second quarter revenues were 225 Million USD (M$), up 12% compared to first quarter 2017, thanks mainly to higher volumes sold over the period linked to the lifting schedule (+830 kb or +39 M$), partly offset by a lower average selling price (-3,2 $/b or -13 M$) and lower revenues from third parties (-2 M$).

Funds generated from operations

Funds generated from operations were up 16 M$ compared to first quarter 2017, thanks to higher revenues, partly offset by non-recurring operating costs related to the necessary transformation plan implemented by the Company following the transaction to refocus on its principal offshore assets (see Highlights below).

Capital expenditures

Capital expenditures were 73 M$. The 55 M$ increase compared to first quarter 2017 mainly reflects the acquisition of an additional 50% interest in the Baudroie-Merou license held by Mitsubishi Petroleum Development Company (MPDC) GABON Co., Ltd as mentioned below under Highlights, and the start-up of a campaign to improve wells productivity (coiled tubing) on Anguille.

Net Income

Net income is 1 M$, a 10 M$ decrease over first quarter 2017 (11M$) primarily due to lower prices and the transformation plan implemented by the Company following the transaction to refocus on its principal offshore assets.

First-Half 2017 Results

Selling Prices

Reflecting the higher Brent price, the selling price of the Mandji and Rabi Light crude oil grades marketed by Total Gabon averaged 46.9 $/b, up 37% compared to first half 2016.

Production

Total Gabon's equity share of operated and non-operated oil production2 declined 3%, due mainly to an increase of Anguille's produced water content, partly offset by a better availability of facilities.

Revenues

Revenues were 426 M$, up 20% over the first half 2016 thanks mainly to higher selling prices of the crude oil grades marketed (+12.7 $/b or +112 M$), partly offset by lower volumes sold over the period, linked to the lifting schedule (-840 kb or -34 M$), and lower revenues from third parties (-8 M$).

Funds generated from operations

Funds generated from operations were 206 M$, four times higher than in first half 2016 thanks to higher revenues and lower operating costs as a result of the cost-cutting program implemented by the Company.

Capital expenditures

Capital expenditures were 91 M$, up 25% compared to first half 2016. This includes the acquisition of an additional 50% interest in the Baudroie-Merou license held by MPDC GABON Co., Ltd as mentioned below, integrity works Offshore (Anguille, Torpille, Grondin) and Onshore (Cap Lopez terminal), start-up of the coiled tubing campaign on Anguille, and development and geosciences studies.

Net Income

Net income for the first half 2017 was 12 M$, a significant improvement over the first half 2016 (-12M$) thanks primarily to higher revenues in the context of higher crude prices and to the cost-cutting program implemented by the Company.

Highlights since the beginning of 2017

Refocusing of Total Gabon on its principal offshore assets

On February 27, 2017 Total Gabon announced its refocusing on its principal offshore assets via the sale to Perenco of interests in five mature fields and the Rabi-Coucal-Cap Lopez pipeline network. Production from the fields being divested represents about 5,000 b/d, or 10% of Total Gabon's 2016 production. The transaction represents a value of 177 M$ before adjustments and is subject to approval by the authorities, expected in second half 2017.

Corporate Governance

Total Gabon's ordinary Annual Shareholders' Meeting was held on May 19, 2017 in Libreville and approved the 2016 annual accounts and the payment of a net dividend of 4.5 dollars per share related to the financial year 2016, representing 20.25 M$.

This dividend was paid on June 9, 2017 in an equivalent amount of 4.03 per share based on the European Central Bank's rate of 0.8945 per $1 on May 19, 2017.

Pre-emption rights exercised on the Baudroie-Merou license

As announced on April 24, 2017, Total Gabon finalized on June 30, 2017 the exercise of its pre-emption right to acquire the 50% interest in the Baudroie-Merou license held by MPDC GABON Co., Ltd. Total Gabon, operator of the license, is now 100% owner of the license. The value of the transaction is 40 M$. It confirms Total Gabon's decision to refocus on its strategic offshore assets and demonstrates its continued commitment to Gabon.

1 Including tax oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts.

2 Including tax oil reverting to the Gabonese Republic as per production sharing contracts.

Societe anonyme incorporated in Gabon with a Board of Directors and share capital of $76,500,000

Headquarters: Boulevard Hourcq, Port-Gentil, BP 525, Gabonese Republic

www.total.ga

Registered in Port-Gentil: 2000 B 00011

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005990/en/

Contacts:

Total Gabon

Media Contact:

Florent CAILLET

florent.caillet@total.com
Regulatory News:

NextStage, an investment platform listed on the Euronext Paris regulated exchange (ISIN: FR0012789386, Symbol: NEXTS) and specialized in long-term investments in mid-sized companies (MSC) is pleased to announce, with shipyard Fountaine Pajot (ISIN: FR0010485268, Symbol: ALFPC), that it entered into exclusive negotiations with Dream Yacht Charter, with the objective of acquiring a controlling equity stake which would represent a first step in their industrial and long-term support of the group. This will allow Dream Yacht Charter to reinforce its position as a leading player in the leisure boat charter market and continue its growth.

Founded in 2001 by Loic Bonnet with an initial charter base of only six boats in the Seychelles islands, Dream Yacht Charter is now present in the world's main sailing areas, with a fleet counting over 850 boats located in the 47 charter bases managed by the group around the world.

With the support of Loic Bonnet, joined in 2012 by Romuald Caillaud, Dream Yacht Charter was able to self-finance its development, thanks to both organic growth (opening of new locations and development of innovative offers) and targeted acquisitions. This ambitious strategy, combined with well thought-out structuring, has allowed the group to experience continuous annual growth between +15% and +20% over the last decade, and 2016 total revenues close to 90 million.

Today, boat rental schemes and innovative leisure boat chartering offers are addressing a growing demand in the tourism market and the prevailing trend toward the 'on demand' economy. The rental market for leisure boats, which proved to be much more resilient in periods of economic downturn, is in the midst of a profound change (development of new collaborative rental models, boat clubs etc.). The Dream Yacht Charter group is now seeking to capitalise on the global footprint and leading position of its platform to play an active role in the market's transformation and preempt the tremendous growth opportunities to come.

'The current challenge facing the market is how to make leisure yachting accessible to all and ensure sailors an exceptional sailing experience that perfectly meets their expectations' explained Loic Bonnet. 'Thanks to its expertise and world-renowned brand, Dream Yacht Charter is ideally positioned to offer a broad catalogue of offers (destinations, boats, on-board facilities, booking solutions, packaged cruises, management solutions for privately-owned boats, and more) serving experienced sailors and new comers alike'.

Loic Bonnet and Romuald Caillaud have selected NextStage and Fountaine Pajot to accompany them in the reinforcement of the group's fundamentals and the development of innovative offers ideally suited to the current market.

'Convinced by Dream Yacht Charter's strategic positioning within its market and the ability of Loic Bonnet to have successfully built a team and turned Dream Yacht Charter into the 2nd leisure boat charter company worldwide, we have chosen to come aboard with Loic Bonnet, whom we first met in 2011, and Romuald Caillaud, in the long term and enable the group to continue its expansion,' announced Gregoire Sentilhes, CEO of NextStage AM and Managing Director of NextStage. 'Dream Yacht Charter is a key player in the 'on-demand' economy, which positions client experience at the very heart of designing service offerings. The group's vision is perfectly in line with NextStage investment strategy', added Julien Potier, Investment Director at NextStage AM.

"This partnership with Dream Yacht Charter and NextStage is totally in line with Fountaine Pajot's growth strategy. It reinforces the position of our company in the world of boat chartering, where Dream Yacht Charter has a leading positioning, especially on the segment of the catamaran. This alliance will benefit from the remarkable dynamics of each of our two companies and the development of all possible complementarities" said Nicolas Gardies, Managing Director of Fountaine Pajot.

This operation, in which NextStage would invest more than 14 million, is expected to be closed by October 2017.

DEAL TEAM

Entrepreneurs: Loic Bonnet (CEO and Founder), Romuald Caillaud (Deputy CEO in charge of Finance)

NextStageAM Gregoire Sentilhes (Chairman), Julien Potier (Investment Director), Marie-Lea Soury (Analyst)

Fountaine Pajot: Claire Fountaine, Nicolas Gardies, Romain Motteau

Investor Counsel: Latournerie Wolfrom (Christian Wolfrom, Anne-Cecile Deville, Justine Conrard)

Dream Yacht Charter Counsel: Chammas Marcheteau (Denis Marcheteau)

Financial and accounting, legal, tax and social Due Diligence: Ernst Young (Jean-Francois Nadaud, Guilhem de Montmarin)

About Dream Yacht Charter

Loic Bonnet created Dream Yacht Charter in the Seychelles islands in 2001 with six boats. Thanks to its dynamic leadership, the company developed, then extended through Indian Ocean, the Mediterranean Sea, Caribbean, Australia, the Pacific and more recently in North America and in the Bahamas. Dream Yacht Charter has more than 850 boats in 47 destinations today all around the world and is world leader trademark in yacht charter industry. Dream Yacht Charter is also the world leader of 'By the Cabin' cruises with destinations over the world on sailing catamarans.

The Group has also developed some innovating management and financing programs for monohulls and catamarans owners.

About Fountaine Pajot

Founded in 1976 by Jean-Francois Fountaine and Yves Pajot, the iconic brand FOUNTAINE PAJOT has been producing cruising catamarans since 1983. Thanks to its unique savoir-faire in the area of designing and building comfortable catamarans, FOUNTAINE PAJOT has released 40 different models and delivered close to 3,000 catamarans to destinations all over the world. FOUNTAINE PAJOT offers a complete and up-to-date range of catamarans, both sailing catamarans (Lucia 40, Helia 44, Saona 47, Saba 50, Ipanema 58 and Victoria 67) and motor yacht catamarans (MY 37, MY 44 and Queensland MY 55). For fiscal year 2015/2016 (as at 31 August 2016), FOUNTAINE PAJOT had revenues of 70.6M.

Alternext Paris, ISIN: FR0010485268 Symbol: ALFPC Eligible PEA/PME

About NextStage

NextStage is an investment platform created in March 2015 and listed on the Euronext Paris market (Compartment C) since December 2016. At March 31, 2017, it had an Adjusted Net Asset Value of 156.8 million. NextStage specializes in Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSEs), which allows access to an unlisted and often inaccessible class of asset that drives growth and performance. The investments it makes are equity investments with little or no leverage over an unlimited time frame to provide funding for the growth of MSEs that work alongside visionary entrepreneurs. NextStage is backed by the know-how and stablity of the asset management firm NextStage AM, which was founded in 2002. NextStage has already closed eight investment transactions since its inception. It is governed by the tax laws for SCR1. Its capital is held by prominent shareholders such as Artemis, Tethys, AXA, Ardian and Amundi. NextStage has built a novel and ambitious approach whose aim is to accelerate the growth of top-flight MSEs around four long-term trends of the 3rd industrial revolution: the emotion-driven economy and the quality of the customer experience, the on-demand and sharing economy, the industrial internet and the positive economy (or green growth).

www.nextstage.com/sca

1 SCR: Societe de Capital Risque (Venture Capital Company)

More information available at info-investor@nextstage.com

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727006057/en/

Contacts:

Contacts

NextStage

Gwenael Hedoux

gh@nextstage.com

+33 1 53 93 49 40

or

Stephanie Nizard

sn@nextstage.com

+33 1 44 29 99 01

or

Shan

Diane de Brisis

diane.debrisis@shan.fr

+33 1 47 03 47 36
Children whose sexual characteristics dont neatly align with the norm have for decades faced surgery to rearrange their anatomy to resemble that of more typical boys and girls  long before they were old enough to have a say in the decision.

But now the practice is under assault, as never before. The American Medical Association is considering a proposal discouraging it. Three former U.S. surgeons general say its unjustified. And on Tuesday, Human Rights Watch and InterACT a group advocating for intersex youth  are releasing a detailed report assailing the practice and urging Congress to ban it.

The results are often catastrophic, says the report, asserting that the surgeries can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm.

The pressure to fit in and live a normal life is real, said Kyle Knight, a Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote the report. But there is no evidence that surgery delivers on the promise of making that easier.

One of multiple reasons for the concern: Some intersex children may undergo surgery aimed at assigning them as male or female, yet grow up to identify as the other sex  a potentially traumatic situation.

Intersex is an umbrella term encompassing various conditions in which internal sex organs and external genitalia develop differently than for a typical boy or girl. Experts say roughly one of every 2,000 newborns has so-called differences of sex development that might prompt a doctors recommendation for surgery or other medical intervention.

Internationally, theres been vocal opposition to such surgeries. In 2015, they were condemned by several United Nations agencies, and Malta became the first country to ban them.

Major U.S. medical associations havent gone that far, but the Human Rights Watch/InterACT report urges them to toughen their policies. The American Academy of Pediatrics says its reviewing the issue, and wants parents to understand the risks and benefits of any course of action. The AMAs Board of Trustees is proposing a new policy statement urging doctors to defer intersex surgery on infants and young children except when life-threatening circumstances require emergency intervention.

Adding to the momentum was a statement in June from former surgeons general Joycelyn Elders, David Satcher and Richard Carmona, who said the surgery is not justified absent a need to ensure physical functioning, they wrote. We hope that professionals and parents who face this difficult decision will heed the growing consensus that the practice should stop.

There are no comprehensive statistics on intersex surgeries. The new report says most of the 21 health professionals who were interviewed suggested that medically unnecessary surgeries were becoming less common, but none said their clinic had stopped doing them altogether.

Even as the new report was being compiled, it came under fire from the CARES Foundation , which advocates on behalf of families with children born with abnormal genitalia due to a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia, or CAH.

Girls with this condition sometimes undergo reconstructive surgery, often to reduce the size of the clitoris. The foundation, which has more than 20 physicians as advisers, asserted that the new report represents an unwarranted attempt to eliminate that option.

The choices available to parents and patients should not be limited, the foundation said. Medical decisions are difficult enough for parents without having to contend with the moral and philosophical agendas of certain movements.

The new report includes input from an unidentified 20-year-old woman with CAH who said she was glad her parents made her look like all the other girls her age when she was growing up.

However, Kyle Knight said theres no evidence that this type of abnormal genitalia poses a health threat.

There are limits to what parents can do to their kids, he said. Medically unnecessary irreversible surgery that carries a risk of lifelong harm should be one of those things.

For families with intersex children, one welcome development has been the formation of specialized teams at some hospitals that address a wide range of physical and psychological concerns.

Among the acclaimed programs is the SOAR Clinic, created in 2012 at Childrens Hospital Colorado near Denver. Its team  which includes specialists in urology, genetics, psychology and other fields  develops an individualized treatment plan for each family, and encourages parents to participate in decision-making.

The issue of surgery for infants and young children is one of the toughest facing the team.

These are really difficult, challenging decisions, said Dr. Jennifer Barker, who specializes in hormonal and glandular complications affecting children. Weve seen families decide to move forward to surgery, and some who choose not to.

Barker guessed that most of the teams physicians would feel unduly restricted by a ban, even as early surgery becomes less common.

The clinic deploys intersex people as patient advocates who can offer support based on personal experience. The most active volunteer is 40-year-old Noi Liang.

At birth, Liang appeared to be a normal baby girl. As she grew older, doctors discovered that  because of a rare chromosome condition  she lacked a uterus, and had internal testes rather than ovaries. When she was a teenager, doctors removed the testes, telling her they were removing potentially cancerous ovaries. Not until her early 30s did she discover the truth.

As a patient advocate, she sees parents worrying whether their children will be accepted by their peers.

Isolation is a big piece of what they struggle with  they feel like theres no one else to talk to, Liang said. They say it gives them a feeling of relief to speak with someone like me who more fully understands what they and their children are going through.

Several parents of intersex children have become activists, advocating against early surgery. Among them is Dr. Arlene Baratz, a Pittsburgh-based radiologist with two adult daughters born with the same condition as Liang.

If there is a secret to raising healthy children, Baratz contends, it is to accept and focus on what they are, instead of what theyre not.
ASKER, Norway, 2017-07-27 18:08 CEST (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TGS will release its Q2 2017 results at approximately 07:00 CEST on 3 August 2017. CEO Kristian Johansen and CFO Sven Brre Larsen will present the results at 09:00 CEST at the Hotel Continental, Stortingsgata 24/26 in Oslo, Norway. The presentation is open to the public and can be followed live on the internet at www.tgs.com.



The slides from the presentation will also be available in PDF format at both the TGS and Oslo Stock Exchange websites.



CEO Kristian Johansen and CFO Sven Brre Larsen will host a conference call on 3 August 2017 at 15:00 CEST (09:00 EDT). Attendees may want to call 5-10 minutes before to ensure registration and access.



 Norwegian attendees are invited to call + 800 51084 or + 47 2100 2610



 International attendees are invited to call 0800 358 6377 or + 44 (0)330 336 9105



 US attendees are invited to call +1 866-548-4713 or +1 719-325-2213



Participants will need to quote the following confirmation code when dialing into the conference: 5950879.



A Q&A session will follow a short introduction, based upon the presentation issued in the morning. To pose a question, please press *1.



A replay of the conference call will be available shortly after.



To access replay of the TGS conference call:



 dial + 47 23 50 00 77 or + 800 196 72 (Norway), + 44 (0) 207 660 0134 or + 0 808 101 1153 (International) or +1 1 719-457-0820 or + 888-203-1112 (US)



 replay access code 5950879 followed by # (pound-sign).



A replay of the conference call will also be available at www.tgs.com.



Company summary



TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company (TGS) provides multi-client geoscience data to oil and gas Exploration and Production companies worldwide. In addition to extensive global geophysical and geological data libraries that include multi-client seismic data, magnetic and gravity data, digital well logs, production data and directional surveys, TGS also offers advanced processing and imaging services, interpretation products, and data integration solutions.



For more information visit TGS online at www.tgs.com.



Forward-looking statements and contact information



All statements in this press release other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements, which are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict, and are based upon assumptions as to future events that may not prove accurate. These factors include TGS' reliance on a cyclical industry and principle customers, TGS' ability to continue to expand markets for licensing of data, and TGS' ability to acquire and process data products at costs commensurate with profitability. Actual results may differ materially from those expected or projected in the forward-looking statements. TGS undertakes no responsibility or obligation to update or alter forward-looking statements for any reason.



TGS-NOPEC Geophysical Company ASA is listed on the Oslo Stock Exchange (OSLO:TGS).



TGS sponsored American Depositary Shares trade on the U.S. over-the-counter market under the symbol "TGSGY".



For additional information about this press release please contact: Sven Brre Larsen Chief Financial Officer Tel: +47 90 94 36 73 Email: sven.larsen@tgs.com Will Ashby VP HR & Communication Tel: +1 713 860 2184 Email: will.ashby@tgs.com

Kostenloser Wertpapierhandel auf Smartbroker.de
DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Industrial Speed Monitoring Systems Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global industrial speed monitoring systems market to grow at a CAGR of 5.42% during the period 2017-2021.

The report, Global Industrial Speed Monitoring Systems Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is Increasing use of non-contact, non-vibrating devices. The increasing use of non-contact industrial speed monitoring systems is the current trend. Non-contact monitoring devices reduce vibration and wear and tear on the equipment and the device itself. These devices use methods such as the displacement technique to calculate the speed of a rotating component.



According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is minimal repair cost. Industrial speed monitoring systems are sturdy, have a long lifespan, and are designed to withstand wear and tear in an industrial environment. These devices are often exposed to dust, moisture, and heat in industrial workplaces, which might affect the performance. In such conditions, the industrial speed monitoring devices are required to provide accurate data and enable operators to take actions accordingly.



Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is need for multi-functional industrial speed monitoring systems. The growing need for devices that have multi-functional characteristics poses a challenge for the global industrial speed monitoring systems market. Devices such as tachometers or speed switches are limited and can perform a single function.

Key vendors



ABB

Electro-Sensors

Process Control Systems

Rockwell Automation

Siemens



Other prominent vendors



Woodward

Eaton

Schmersal

Barksdale

SIGMATEK

ifm

Enercorp Instruments

Banner Engineering



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive Summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by product type



PART 07: Geographical segmentation



PART 08: Decision framework



PART 09: Drivers and challenges



PART 10: Market trends



PART 11: Vendor landscape



PART 12: Key vendor analysis



PART 13: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/qpfkph/global_industrial

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Industrial Battery Market for Material Handling Equipment 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global industrial battery market for material handling equipment to grow at a CAGR of 8.84% during the period 2017-2021.

The report, Global Industrial Battery Market for Material Handling Equipment 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

One trend in the market is declining Li-ion battery prices. Li-ion batteries offer higher energy densities than lead-acid or nickel-metal hydride batteries. Having a high energy density means that the battery can store more electricity in the same size cell. This is what makes the Li-ion batteries suitable for use in electric vehicles (EVs).

According to the report, one driver in the market is growth in global e-commerce. The global e-commerce market is anticipated to grow steadily and post an impressive CAGR of more than 12% by 2021. One of the crucial factors contributing to the development of the e-commerce market is the diverse portfolio in several product segments such as apparel, books, electronic gadgets, and cosmetics. E-commerce websites regularly update these categories, which not only attracts new customers but also retains customer loyalty.



Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is high initial investment and maintenance cost for material handling equipment. Material handling equipment require constant technical support and maintenance for smooth and effective operation. The maintenance cost of industrial trucks such as pallet trucks and forklifts can be particularly high in the manufacturing and construction sectors where they are exposed to hazardous conditions continuously, which accelerate the wear and tear and can lead to severe damage. This has made many end-users reluctant to use forklift trucks.

Key vendors



East Penn Manufacturing

EnerSys

Exide Technologies

Trojan Battery

Valence Technology



Other prominent vendors



Chloride Exide

Crown Battery

EverExceed

Exide Industries

HOPPECKE

MIDAC Batteries

Navitas System



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by battery



PART 07: Geographical segmentation



PART 08: Decision framework



PART 09: Drivers and challenges



PART 10: Market trends



PART 11: Vendor landscape



PART 12: Key vendor analysis



PART 13: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/mr5rs6/global_industrial

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

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U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
LONDON (dpa-AFX) - British manufacturing growth accelerated more-than-expected in July, survey data from IHS Markit and Chartered Institute of Procurement & Supply showed Tuesday. The Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers' Index for the manufacturing sector rose to 55.1 in July from 54.2 in June. Economists had expected the index to climb to 54.5. Any reading above 50 indicates expansion in the sector. In July, the acceleration in growth was boosted by stronger inflows of new work, higher levels of production, improved job creation, longer supplier delivery times and a slight increase in inventory holdings. On the price front, costs pressures softened in July. Input prices rose at the slowest pace in over a year and selling pries rose for the fifteenth successive month. Copyright RTT News/dpa-AFX

Werbehinweise: Die Billigung des Basisprospekts durch die BaFin ist nicht als ihre Befurwortung der angebotenen Wertpapiere zu verstehen. Wir empfehlen Interessenten und potenziellen Anlegern den Basisprospekt und die Endgultigen Bedingungen zu lesen, bevor sie eine Anlageentscheidung treffen, um sich moglichst umfassend zu informieren, insbesondere uber die potenziellen Risiken und Chancen des Wertpapiers. Sie sind im Begriff, ein Produkt zu erwerben, das nicht einfach ist und schwer zu verstehen sein kann.
VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- Medgold Resources Corp. (TSX VENTURE: MED) (the "Company") announces that in accordance with the Company's agreement to issue common shares to Dan James in part consideration for his ongoing services as the Company's President, an installment of 97,727 shares has been issued to Mr. James for services rendered during the six months ended June 30, 2017. The shares have a resale restriction which expires on November 28, 2017.

About Medgold

Medgold is a European-focused, TSX-V listed, exploration and development company targeting gold properties in Serbia. Run by a highly experienced management team with a successful track record of building value in resource companies, Medgold is aiming to become a leading European gold exploration company.

Additional information on Medgold can be found on the Company's website at www.medgoldresources.com and by reviewing the Company's page on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

Simon Ridgway, Chief Executive Officer

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor the Investment Industry Regulatory Organization of Canada accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Forward-looking statements

Certain statements contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of Canadian securities legislation. All statements included herein, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking statements. Often, but not always, these forward looking statements can be identified by the use of words such as "estimate", "estimates", "estimated", "potential", "open", "future", "assumed", "projected", "used", "detailed", "has been", "gain", "upgraded", "offset", "limited", "contained", "reflecting", "containing", "remaining", "to be", "periodically", or statements that events, "could" or "should" occur or be achieved and similar expressions, including negative variations.

Forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by forward-looking statements. Such uncertainties and factors may include, among others, risks associated with the results of the Company's exploration and development activities, estimation of mineral resources and the geology, grade and continuity of mineral deposits; unanticipated costs and expenses; and such other risks detailed from time to time in the Company's quarterly and annual filings with securities regulators and available under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those described in forward-looking statements, there may be other factors that cause actions, events or results to differ from those anticipated, estimated or intended.

Forward-looking statements contained herein are based on the assumptions, beliefs, expectations and opinions of management, including but not limited to: that the Company's stated goals and planned exploration and development activities will be achieved; that there will be no material adverse change affecting the Company or its properties; and such other assumptions as set out herein. Forward-looking statements are made as of the date hereof and the Company disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise, except as required by law. There can be no assurance that forward-looking statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements.

Contacts:

President

Dan James (UK)

+44 7972 579188

dj@medgoldresources.com

www.medgoldresources.com/s/contact.asp




DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Intelligent Pump and Control Systems Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global intelligent pump and control systems market to grow at a CAGR of 7.68% during the period 2017-2021.



The report, Global Intelligent Pump and Control Systems Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.



The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is wireless control and monitoring. Intelligent pumps come with a variable frequency drive (VFD) with digital control capabilities. The other control systems that are connected to these intelligent pumps are generally connected with hard wires to provide the facility of real-time data collection. There have been situations in which vendors face difficulty in managing the different wires connected to control systems. Therefore, manufacturers in the market are looking toward developing intelligent pumps and control systems that work on wireless technology. Digital control capabilities of these intelligent pumps make it easier for real-time data collection and help in maintaining the ease in operations within facilities. With the help of wireless control and monitoring feature, pumps can be managed through a remote control system. This feature increases the operational control of intelligent pumps.



According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is cost and energy savings for industries. Intelligent pumps come with the feature of enhanced control of flow or pressure over traditional pumps. Moreover, these pumps are able to regulate the flow in accordance with the requirements of different processes, thereby consuming less energy and saving time. This enables the companies to cut costs incurred in energy use within facilities. In addition, these pumps complete the work in less time, achieving the production excellence required. The energy saving feature not only cuts the overall cost but also helps in delivering improved performance. As these pumps are controlled through software, the chances of their getting damaged due to overload or from the variability in parameters such as temperature and pressure become low.

Key vendors



Emerson

Flowserve

Grundfos

Sulzer

Rockwell Automation



Other prominent vendors



Bosch Rexroth

YASKAWA

ROHM

ABB

Dana Brevini

ifm

Delphi Automotive



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by type



PART 07: Market segmentation by component



PART 08: Market segmentation by end-user



PART 09: Geographical segmentation



PART 10: Decision framework



PART 11: Drivers and challenges



PART 12: Market trends



PART 13: Vendor landscape



PART 14: Key vendor analysis



PART 15: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/28gtsd/global

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Metal Packaging Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global metal packaging market to grow at a CAGR of 3.48% during the period 2017-2021.

The report, Global Metal Packaging Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.



One trend in the market is rising popularity of metal packaging for alcoholic beverages. The alcohol beverage market has been experimenting with cans to increase sales of spirits and wine. It is being observed that the sales of wine have been decreasing. In the US, the per capita wine consumption dropped in 2016 after 20 years. This is due to the shift of consumer preferences.



According to the report, one driver in the market is rising demand for aerosol containers. Aerosol spray is a dispensing system that creates aerosol mist of liquid particles. This can be achieved with a can or a metal bottle that has a propellant under pressure. The production of aerosol containers in North America was around 4.5-5 billion units in 2016, which was around 0.5%-1% increase compared with that in 2015. Around 15%-20% of those cans were made of aluminum. The aerosol can market in Europe is also growing steadily over the years. It is observed that in Europe, the production of aerosol cans was more than 5.2 billion in 2016, a calculated increase of around 2%-4% when compared with the 2010 production level.



Further, the report states that one challenge in the market is rising popularity of plastic packaging. It is observed that Polyethylene terephthalate (PET), a form of plastic, is continuing to gain popularity across almost all the markets. It was observed that PET accounted for 30%-35% market share in 2016 in all beverage packaging. PET packaging has been successfully implemented in the beer sector. In Romania around 45%-50% of the breweries use PET bottles to package beer. This is because the consumers in this country find PET bottles convenient and aesthetically appealing.

Key vendors



Amcor

Ardagh Group

Ball Corporation

Crown Holdings

Sonoco



Other prominent vendors



BWAY

Can Pack Group

CPMC HOLDINGS

Greif

HUBER Packaging

Kian Joo

Silgan

Tata Steel Group

Toyo Seikan



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by end-users



PART 07: Geographical segmentation



PART 08: Key leading countries



PART 09: Decision framework



PART 10: Drivers and challenges



PART 11: Market trends



PART 12: Vendor landscape



PART 13: Appendix

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/m9fhws/global_metal

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
NEW YORK, NY / ACCESSWIRE / July 27, 2017 / Pomerantz LLP is investigating claims on behalf of investors of Halliburton Company ("Halliburton" or the "Company") (NYSE: HAL). Such investors are advised to contact Robert S. Willoughby at rswilloughby@pomlaw.com or 888-476-6529, ext. 9980.

The investigation concerns whether Halliburton and certain of its officers and/or directors have engaged in securities fraud or other unlawful business practices.

[Click here to join a class action]

On October 21, 2011, Halliburton disclosed an internal investigation into possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act ("FCPA") by Halliburton personnel in Angola. On this news, Halliburton's share price fell $0.97, or 2.1%, to close at $33.50 on October 21, 2011. On July 27, 2017, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced that Halliburton would pay $29.2 million in fines and penalties to settle allegations of FCPA violations in connection with the Company's Angolan operations.

On this news, Halliburton's share price has fallen as much as $0.54, or 1.22%, during intraday trading on July 27, 2017.

The Pomerantz Firm, with offices in New York, Chicago, Florida, and Los Angeles, is acknowledged as one of the premier firms in the areas of corporate, securities, and antitrust class litigation. Founded by the late Abraham L. Pomerantz, known as the dean of the class action bar, the Pomerantz Firm pioneered the field of securities class actions. Today, more than 80 years later, the Pomerantz Firm continues in the tradition he established, fighting for the rights of the victims of securities fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and corporate misconduct. The Firm has recovered numerous multimillion-dollar damages awards on behalf of class members. See www.pomerantzlaw.com.

SOURCE: Pomerantz LLP
Toronto, Ontario--(Newsfile Corp. - July 27, 2017) - The Board of Directors of Pancontinental Gold Corporation (TSXV: PUC) ("Pancon Gold", "Pancon" or the "Company") is pleased to provide an update on the Company's progress over the last two years, and an overview of its strategic plan going forward.

During the past year, Pancon Gold has successfully transitioned from a uranium/rare earths exploration company focused in Australia into a gold exploration company focused in the southeastern United States.

In Q4 of 2015, the Company sold its joint venture interest in a rare earths discovery for cash plus a 1% gross overriding royalty on production from 100% of the project. In Q3 of 2016, Pancon Gold acquired a 100% interest in the Jefferson Gold Project in Chesterfield County, South Carolina. The Jefferson Gold Project is adjacent to the former Brewer Gold Mine and 10 km northeast of the producing Haile Gold Mine on trend along the historically gold-rich Carolina Gold Belt.

Subsequent to the acquisition of the Jefferson Project, Pancon Gold completed a C$1 million dollar financing in September 2016, and then graduated to the Toronto Stock Exchange's Venture Exchange (TSX-V) on October 24, 2016.

Pancon Gold restructured its management and established a technical team, appointing Dr. Dennis LaPoint as Vice President of Exploration and Dr. Laurence (Laurie) Curtis as Chairman of the Technical Advisory Committee, with an oversight role of the Company's exploration programs and activities. Mr. Layton Croft was appointed a director of the Company in March 2017 and then its President/CEO in April 2017. Layton previously joined the Pancon Gold team in October 2016, and since then has used his executive leadership skills to make a significant contribution to the successful evolution of Pancon Gold with its new gold focus. Layton has spent 15 years in executive and strategic advisory roles in the minerals exploration and energy sectors in North America, Asia and Africa, with companies including Ivanhoe Mines, Rio Tinto, Duke Energy and Erdene Resource Development. Layton has deep roots in the Carolinas and his home base is Charlotte, North Carolina.

Earlier this year, Pancon Gold completed a six-hole diamond drilling program at our flagship Jefferson Gold Project, as a follow up to the four core holes drilled by the previous owner in 2011 (see Pancon's news release from April 4, 2017). These holes have been focused on one target, Anomaly A. All four of the 2011 holes encountered gold mineralization, with the best hole averaging 1.27 grams of gold per tonne over a core length of 164.3 meters (from depth of 25.9 meters to 190.2 meters). Our technical analysis indicates that the best 2011 hole was drilled down-plunge on a sub-vertical zone that defines a fluid pathway containing breccia, gold and sulfides (fine-grained pyrite) with structural control, and with an estimated width for the gold mineralization of between 10 and 25 meters. Anomaly A has geologic similarities to mined zones within the adjacent former Brewer gold mine.

In the recent drill program (2016/2017), five of the six Pancon-drilled holes intersected anomalous mineralization, with the two best being:

JEF-108 which intersected 22.9 meters averaging 1.3 grams per tonne, including 8.5 meters of 1.8 grams per tonne (from depth of 100.6 meters to 123.4 meters); and,

JEF-109 which intersected 12.2 meters of 1.55 grams per tonne (from depth of 79.2 meters to 91.4 meters).

As a result of our 2016-17 drilling to date, Pancon is better positioned to vector these structurally controlled targets and now has a better sense of the chemistry and mineralogy of the system. For instance, drilling indicates a previously unrecognized northwest-trending mineralized zone, and more detailed drilling will be required to define its exact dimensions and true width. In all, multiple targets have been identified, and will now be prioritized and expanded based on this knowledge.

In late April 2017, our Pancon Technical Advisory Committee, together with additional technical experts, convened in South Carolina to review drilling and to discuss the area geology and structures. Our team members participated in a site trip to the Haile Gold Mine, owned by OceanaGold Corporation. They gained valuable insights into the mode of occurrence at that excellent gold mine, and into the striking geological similarities between Haile core and Jefferson Project core. They also visited the former Brewer Gold Mine, adjacent to the Jefferson Project.

During the last few months, the Pancon Gold technical team has been dedicated to researching historical data and reprocessing existing geophysical data using proprietary techniques to enhance our understanding of the exploration potential within our current land package, as well as to identify prospective new properties for acquisition.

To date, drilling at the Jefferson Gold Project has been focused on only one target, Anomaly A, out of multiple targets. Pancon Gold's strategic plan, going forward, is to:

utilize geophysics to better define existing targets, including Pipeline, Taylor Hill, Anomaly B and Anomaly C, as well as to define new targets beneath shallow sand cover;

acquire exploration rights on additional land where good potential is indicated; and,

drill the best targets as funding permits.

Pancon Gold CEO, Layton Croft, said: "Pancon's team of exploration geologists, technical experts and seasoned business veterans have demonstrated their ability, for more than three decades, to discover gold deposits and develop gold mines in North America and around the world. At Pancon Gold, we believe that a new bull market in gold has begun, and that the historically gold-rich and under-explored Carolina Gold Belt is a premier, low-risk jurisdiction for new gold discoveries and mines. Pancon Gold's management and directors, together with their families, own in excess of 20% of the Company's issued common shares, and have a strong vested interest in seeing Pancon Gold succeed."

Qualified Person

Dr. Dennis LaPoint, PhD, LGeo, is a Qualified Person (QP) under National Instrument 43-101 "Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects" and has approved the technical information contained in this news release. Dr. LaPoint is not independent of Pancon Gold, as he is Pancon's Vice President of Exploration. Dr. LaPoint has verified all the technical data in this release.

About Pancontinental Gold Corporation

Pancontinental Gold Corporation (www.pancongold.com) is a Canadian-based mining company focused on the exploration and development of the Jefferson Gold Project in South Carolina, USA, and on acquiring additional prospective properties. The Company's shares are listed on the TSX Venture Exchange, trading under the symbol PUC. In 2015, Pancon Gold sold its interest in its Australian rare earth element (REE) and uranium properties, formerly held through a joint venture, and retains a 1% gross overriding royalty on 100% of future production.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Layton Croft

For further information, please contact:

Layton Croft

President and CEO

1-416-293-8437 or laytoncroft@pancongold.com

For additional information please visit our web site: www.pancongold.com, and our Twitter feed: @PanconGold.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

Cautionary Language and Forward Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking information which is not comprised of historical facts. Forward-looking information is characterized by words such as "plan", "expect", "project", "intend", "believe", "anticipate", "estimate" and other similar words, or statements that certain events or conditions "may" or "will" occur. Forward-looking information involves risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events, results, and opportunities to differ materially from those expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from such forward-looking information include, but are not limited to, changes in the state of equity and debt markets, fluctuations in commodity prices, delays in obtaining required regulatory or governmental approvals, and other risks involved in the mineral exploration and development industry, including those risks set out in the Company's management's discussion and analysis as filed under the Company's profile at www.sedar.com. Forward-looking information in this news release is based on the opinions and assumptions of management considered reasonable as of the date hereof, including that all necessary governmental and regulatory approvals will be received as and when expected. Although the Company believes that the assumptions and factors used in preparing the forward-looking information in this news release are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on such information. The Company disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking information, other than as required by applicable securities laws.
2017 BRICS Labour and Employment Ministers' meeting held in Chongqing

Published: July 27, 2017

BRICS countries-Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa have agreed to work together to ensure stable employment and better quality of life for their people.

Decision in this regard was taken at the 2017 Labour and Employment Ministers meeting held in Chongqing, China. The meeting comes ahead of 2017 BRICS Summit to be held in Xiamen, China in September 2017.

Key Highlights of meeting

Labour and Employment Ministers from BRICS counters discussed topics ranging from skills-driven development to a universally sustainable social security system. They passed BRICS Labour and Employment Ministerial Declaration. It covers a variety of areas that are of critical importance to all BRICS countries including India and called upon strengthening collaboration and cooperation on these through appropriate institutionalisation.

These areas covered under the declaration consist of Governance in the Future of Work, Universal and sustainable social security systems, Skills for development in BRICS, BRICS Social Security Cooperation Framework, BRICS Network of Labour Research Institutions and BRICS entrepreneurship research.

They also presented four documents, including one on common ground in labour market governance and an action plan on skills-driven poverty alleviation. They also held that they should work together to boost employment and inclusive growth, enhancing the skills of professionals to alleviate poverty.

BIRCS

BRICS is the acronym for an association of five major emerging national economies: Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The BRICS members are all developing or newly industrialised countries and all five are G-20 members. They are distinguished by their large, fast-growing economies and significant influence on regional and global affairs.

It was established in 2009. The BRIC idea was first conceived by Jim ONeill of Goldman Sachs. In 2011, South Africa joined this informal group and BRIC became BRICS. So far, eight BRICS summits have taken place. The first formal summit was held in Yekaterinburg, Russia in 2009.

Month: Current Affairs - July, 2017

Topics: BRICS  China  Labour Ministry

Latest E-Books
Orion Engineered Carbons S.A. (NYSE: OEC), a worldwide supplier of specialty and high-performance Carbon Black, today announced that effective September 1, 2017 or as contracts allow, Orion is increasing prices by five cents (5) per pound on all Rubber Carbon Blacks sold in the U.S.

"We are increasing prices in order to continue the substantial investments in our North American rubber black production network essential to sustain safety of supply," said Chris Erickson, Orion's Vice President, Rubber Carbon Black Business Line, Americas. "This increase in pricing and the investments in production are necessary to ensure our long term supply capability."

In addition, Orion announced the idling of one Rubber Carbon Black production line at its Orange, Texas facility, effective at year end 2017. Orion is taking this action because current price levels of Rubber Carbon Blacks in North America do not adequately address the costs of maintaining this production capacity. The company is assisting affected customers through the appropriate transition plans.

About Orion Engineered Carbons

Orion is a worldwide supplier of Carbon Black. We produce a broad range of Carbon Blacks that include high-performance Specialty Gas Blacks, Furnace Blacks, Lamp Blacks, Thermal Blacks and other Carbon Blacks that tint, colorize and enhance the performance of polymers, plastics, paints and coatings, inks and toners, textile fibers, adhesives and sealants, tires, and mechanical rubber goods such as automotive belts and hoses. Orion runs 14 global production sites and four Applied Technology Centers. The group has approximately 1,440 employees worldwide. For more information please visit our website www.orioncarbons.com.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727006463/en/

Contacts:

Investor Relations Contact:

Orion Engineered Carbons S.A.

Diana Downey, +1 832-445-3865

Investor-relations@orioncarbons.com
TORONTO, ONTARIO -- (Marketwired) -- 07/27/17 -- (All amounts are expressed in United States dollars unless otherwise indicated.)

YAMANA GOLD INC. (TSX: YRI)(NYSE: AUY) ("Yamana" or the "Company") declares a third quarter 2017 dividend of $0.005 per share. Shareholders of record at the close of business on September 29, 2017 will be entitled to receive payment of this dividend on October 13, 2017. The dividend is an "eligible dividend" for Canadian tax purposes.

About Yamana

Yamana is a Canadian-based gold producer with significant gold production, gold development stage properties, exploration properties, and land positions throughout the Americas including Canada, Brazil, Chile and Argentina. Yamana plans to continue to build on this base through existing operating mine expansions, throughput increases, development of new mines, the advancement of its exploration properties and, at times, by targeting other gold consolidation opportunities with a primary focus in the Americas.

Contacts:

Yamana Gold Inc.

Investor Relations

416-815-0220 or 1-888-809-0925

investor@yamana.com




DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy (CRRT) Market - Forecast to 2022" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The global CRRT market is projected to reach USD 1.53 Billion by 2022 from USD 1.09 Billion in 2017, at a CAGR of 7.0%. Growing number of ICU patients, increasing incidence of sepsis, rising incidence of acute kidney injuries, technological advancements, and clinical advantages of CRRT over intermittent blood purification techniques are some of the key factors driving the growth of the market.

This CRRT market is segmented based on product, and modality. On the basis of product, the CRRT market is segmented into CRRT systems, disposables, and dialysates & replacement fluids, in which dialysates and replacement fluids is expected to account for the largest share of the market. This is attributed to the large volume of these products required during CRRT procedures.

Based on modality, the CRRT market is segmented into slow continuous ultrafiltration (SCUF), continuous venovenous hemofiltration (CVVH), continuous venovenous hemodialysis (CVVHD), and continuous venovenous hemodiafiltration (CVVHDF). The CVVH segment is estimated to command the larger share of the global CRRT market due to the wide adoption of this modality among healthcare providers owing to its wide range of advantages (such as removal of solutes in large quantities, easy fluid balance maintenance, and superior outcomes) over other CRRT modalities.

The report covers the CRRT market across four major geographies, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Rest of the World (RoW). Europe is expected to command the largest share of the market in 2017. However, Asia-Pacific is expected to register the highest growth rate during the forecast period due to the large acute kidney injury patient population, high utilization of CRRT in Australia and Japan, and improving healthcare infrastructure across Asian countries.

However, high procedural cost of CRRT and stringent regulatory guidelines for CRRT in North America are the major factors restraining the growth of this market.



Companies Mentioned



Anjue Medical Equipment



Asahi Kasei Medical



B. Braun Melsungen Ag

Baxter International Inc.

Bellco S.R.L.



Biomedica Spol. S R.O.



Bl Lifesciences



Cytopherx, Inc.

Cytosorbents Corporation



Dialysis Solutions Inc.



Fresenius Medical Care Ag & Co. Kgaa

Infomed Sa

Jiangxi Sanxin Medtec



Kimal Electronics Ltd



Medica S.P.A.

Medical Components, Inc.

Medites Pharma Spol. S.R.O.

Medtronic Plc

Nikkiso Co., Ltd.

Ningbo Tianyi Medical Appliance Co.

Nipro Corporation



Nxstage Medical, Inc.

Proxima Medicare



Sws Hemodialysis Care Co. Ltd.

Toray Medical Co.



Key Topics Covered:



1 Introduction



2 Research Methodology



3 Executive Summary



4 Premium Insights



5 Market Overview



6 Industry Insights



7 Adoption of Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy, By Region



8 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market, By Product



9 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market, By Modality



10 Continuous Renal Replacement Therapy Market, By Region



11 Competitive Landscape



12 Company Profiles



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/q522cd/continuous_renal

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

(In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise)

First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM")today announced a comparative loss[1]of $18 million ($0.03 per share[1]) and cash flows from continuing operating activities of $205 million ($0.30 per share[1]) for the three months ended June 30, 2017. The comparative loss includes a $97 million loss realized under the copper sales hedge program for which no tax credit is available.

Net loss from continuing operations attributable to shareholders of the Company[1]amounted to $35 million ($0.05 per share) inclusive of the loss under the sales hedge program for which no tax credit is available.

SECOND QUARTER 2017 HIGHLIGHTS[2]

STRONG OPERATING RESULTS : Continued growth in copper production [ 3 ] : 8% over Q2 2016 and 7% over Q1 2017 from the ramp-up of commercial operations at the Sentinel mine and strong production at the Kansanshi mine. Record throughput of 334,269 tonnes of concentrate at the Kansanshi copper smelter. Maintained low unit copper production cost [ 4 ] : Cash cost ("C1") = $1.12 per pound; All-in sustaining ("AISC") = $1.50 per pound; Total cost ("C3") = $1.95 per pound

: MARKET GUIDANCE MAINTAINED: Previously-disclosed market guidance for total production, production cost and capital expenditures for the years 2017 to 2019 has been maintained however, copper production guidance by operation for 2017 has been adjusted: Kansanshi increased to 248,000 tonnes Sentinel reduced to 185,000 tonnes Las Cruces increased to 72,000 tonnes

COBRE PANAMA DEVELOPMENT ON TRACK : Advanced to over 58% completion: Pre-commissioning activities continued on the first 150 MW unit of the power station and associated infrastructure. Power generation into the Panamanian electricity grid now targeted for the first quarter of 2018. Entire project remains scheduled for phased commissioning during 2018, with continued ramp-up over 2019.

: FINANCIAL : Realized an average price for copper of $2.24 per pound, approximately $0.33 per pound below the average LME price for the period, mainly on account of the copper sales hedge program. As at June 30, 2017 , there were unsettled and unmargined copper hedges for 285,000 tonnes with maturities to February 2018 at an average price of $2.34 per pound in addition to zero cost collar unmargined copper sales hedges for 61,000 tonnes at prices ranging from low side (or put) prices of $2.50 per pound to high side (or call) prices of $2.86 per pound with maturities to June 2018 . Sales hedge positions outstanding as at July 27, 2017 totaled 359,000 tonnes of copper at an average price of $2.43 per pound. Remained in full compliance with all financial covenants and ended the quarter with $838 million of committed undrawn facilities and $450 million in net unrestricted cash. The process to put in place project financing for the Cobre Panama project continues. Market sounding of banks and export credit agencies was recently undertaken. Total process completion currently targeted for the end of 2017. Continuing to take action to manage operational and price risk and further strengthen the balance sheet. Commenced the process to refinance the existing facilities, aimed at extending the tenor and maintaining liquidity at the corporate level.

: CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT : Declared an interim dividend of CDN$0.005 per share in respect of the financial year ended December 31, 2017 . The dividend will be paid onSeptember 19, 2017to shareholders of record onAugust 28, 2017. The ex-dividend date is August 24, 2017 .

:

[1]Net earnings (loss) attributable to shareholders of the Company and Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and impairment ("EBITDA") have been adjusted to exclude items which are not reflective of underlying performance to arrive at comparative earnings (loss) and comparative EBITDA. EBITDA, comparative earnings (loss), comparative earnings (loss) per share, comparative EBITDA and cash flows per share are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. The Company has disclosed these measures to assist with the understanding of results and to provide further financial information about the results to investors. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 for further information.

[2]On June 1, 2016 the sale of the Kevitsa mine was completed. In accordance with the requirements of IFRS 5 - Non-current assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations, the financial and operating information presented for 2016 exclude the Kevitsa mine.

[3 ]Production is presented on a copper contained basis, and is presented prior to processing through the Kansanshi smelter.

[4]C1, AISC and C3 cost per pound are not recognized under IFRS. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 for further information.

CEO'S COMMENTS

"We are pleased with the overall performance in the quarter and half year," noted Philip Pascall, Chairman and CEO.

"Operationally, our Kansanshi complex and Las Cruces mine turned in good results as margin improvement measures, implemented last year at Las Cruces and ongoing at Kansanshi, are making a considerable positive difference. Pyhasalmi continued to operate profitably despite later-stage mine life conditions, Aayeli began its recovery from first quarter difficulties and Sentinel is moving progressively to steady-state operations with solid months in June and July. Ravensthorpe however, continues to face an ongoing challenging nickel price market.

"Development of our tier-one Cobre Panama project continues to advance strongly. With some challenging aspects of the project now behind us and phased commissioning within 18 months, we are building the team that will be operating the mine and processing facilities, port and power plant. This project, when in operation, will add significant geographic diversification to the Company.

"First Quantum's financial position is much improved. Its debt maturity structure has been greatly strengthened following the liability management initiatives undertaken. With the cash generated by our operations, cash on hand, committed, undrawn credit facilities and continuing initiatives to further strengthen the balance sheet, the Company is well-positioned to continue to execute its strategy," Mr. Pascall concluded.

OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS[4] Three months ended Six months ended June 30 June 30 (U.S. dollars where applicable) 2017 2016 2017 2016 COPPER - Production (tonnes) 141,912 131,349 274,268 250,636 - Sales (tonnes) 139,521 132,030 279,331 263,297 - Cost of production: o C1 (per lb) $1.12 $0.98 $1.19 $1.00 o AISC (per lb) $1.50 $1.32 $1.54 $1.33 o C3 (per lb) $1.95 $1.80 $2.00 $1.83 - Realized price (per lb) $2.24 $2.21 $2.22 $2.29 NICKEL - Production (contained tonnes) 5,920 4,982 11,512 12,088 - Sales (contained tonnes) 5,522 5,415 10,719 14,355 - Cost of production: o C1 (per lb) $4.43 $4.73 $4.63 $4.59 o AISC (per lb) $5.60 $5.49 $5.70 $5.17 o C3 (per lb) $6.09 $6.63 $6.32 $6.26 - Realized price (per payable lb) $4.17 $4.15 $4.54 $3.98 GOLD - Production (ounces) 50,040 50,630 100,619 106,821 - Sales (ounces) 52,020 69,898 98,924 133,039 FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS Three months ended Six months ended June 30 June 30 (U.S. dollars millions, except where noted otherwise) 2017 2016 2017 2016 Sales revenues 782 659 1,548 1,379 Gross profit 66 102 135 207 Net earnings (loss) from continuing operations attributable to shareholders of the Company (35) 125 (149) 174 Net earnings (loss) from discontinued operations - (1) - (267) Net earnings (loss) per share from continuing operations attributable to shareholders of the Company ($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) $0.25 Net earnings (loss) per share[5] ($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) ($0.14) Basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share[5] ($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) ($0.14) Comparative EBITDA 267 257 532 526 Comparative earnings (loss) (18) 38 (47) 101 Comparative earnings (loss) per share ($0.03) $0.06 ($0.07) $0.15 Cash flows from continuing operating activities 205 304 444 558 [5 ]2016 figures include discontinued operations.

CONFERENCE CALL & WEBCAST

Conference call and webcast details are as follows:

Date: July 28, 2017 Time: 9:00 am (EDT); 2:00 pm (BST); 6:00 am (PDT) Webcast: http://www.first-quantum.com Dial in: North America: (toll free) 1 877 291 4570 North America and international: 1 647 788 4919 United Kingdom: (toll free) 0 800 051 7107 Available from noon (EDT) on July 28 until 11:59 pm (EDT) on August 3, Replay: 2017 North America: (toll free) 1 800 585 8367 North America and international: 1 416 621 4642 Passcode: 51930862

COMPLETE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

The complete unaudited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 are available athttp://www.first-quantum.comand should be read in conjunction with this news release.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

G. Clive Newall

President

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material.

See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.

visit our website at http://www.first-quantum.com; North American contact: Sharon Loung, Director, Investor Relations, Tel: +1(647)346-3934 Fax: (604) 688-3818, Toll Free: +1(888)688-6577, E-Mail: sharon.loung@fqml.com; United Kingdom contact: Clive Newall, President, Tel: +44-140-327-3484, Fax: +44-140-327-3494, E-Mail: clive.newall@fqml.com
DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Chemical Indicator Inks Market 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The Global Chemical Indicator Inks Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.99% during the period 2017-2021.

The report, Global Chemical Indicator Inks Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.

The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is rising investment in medical industry. The increase in the spending in the medical sector is mainly dependent on the rise in population and change in lifestyle. The growing investment in the medical sector from countries such as the US, Germany, India, and China is expected to drive the demand for chemical indicator inks during the forecast period.



According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is increased demand from medical industry. The chemical indicator inks are mainly used in the sterilization monitoring process. They act as visual indicators and change colors when exposed to certain sterilants and specific conditions. The sterilization procedures are predominantly used in surgical instruments, as they come in direct contact with the patient during any surgical procedure. Surgical instruments are commonly used for therapeutic segments such as dermatology, oncology, cardiology, neurology, general surgery, dentistry, and gastroenterology.



Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is volatility in raw material prices. Main raw materials used for the production of chemical indicator ink are solvent, resins, colorants, and additives. One of the principal suppliers of raw materials for the global chemical indicator inks market is the oil and gas industry. The volatility in the crude oil prices has a severe effect on the prices of byproducts produced from crude oil, affecting the costs of petroleum solvents and resins, which in turn will affect the price of chemical indicator inks. The price of crude oil per barrel decreased at a rate of approximately 60% in 2016 as compared with 2015. High inventory levels and relatively high production lowered crude oil prices in 2016.

Key vendors



3M

Getinge

LA-CO Industries

NOF Corporation

Riken Chemical



Other prominent vendors



Crosstex International

Etigam

gke

North American Science Associates

Propper Manufacturing

STERIS

Terragene



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by product



PART 07: Market segmentation by printing process



PART 08: Market segmentation by sterilization process



PART 09: Market segmentation by application



PART 10: Geographical segmentation



PART 11: Decision framework



PART 12: Drivers and challenges



PART 13: Market trends



PART 14: Vendor landscape



PART 15: Key vendor analysis



PART 16: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/86pbsq/global_chemical

Media Contact:

Research and Markets

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

press@researchandmarkets.com



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716
GI Partners, a San Francisco, CA-based private equity firm, added Philip Yau as Managing Director.

Mr. Yau will pursue strategic origination and business development opportunities, oversee the investor relations team, and manage the firms co-investment efforts.

Mr. Yau has joined GI Partners after 24 years in investment banking, including 12 years in the UBS Private Funds Group, a global fund placement and secondary LP advisory practice. In his role as Managing Director and co-Head of the North American team, Mr. Yau advised numerous private equity, infrastructure, distressed, and venture capital firms, as well as limited partners around the world.

Led by Rick Magnuson, Founder and Executive Managing Director, GI Partners is a private investment firm which manages $16 billion in capital through private equity and real estate strategies from institutional investors across the globe.

GI Partners private equity team is active in a number of key sectors, including IT Infrastructure, Healthcare, Software, and Services.

FinSMEs

27/07/2017
SimilarWeb, a San Francisco, CAbased digital market intelligence company, raised $47M in growth equity funding.

The round was led by Viola Growth, with participation from Saban Ventures, and CE Ventures, among others. As part of the round, Bill Macaitis, former CMO of Slack and Zendesk, joined as a member of SimilarWebs advisory board.

The company, which has raised $112M in total funding, intends to use the capital to grow its team in San Francisco, New York, London, Tokyo and Tel Aviv, open new international offices, expand its current offerings with highly customized and integrated products that provide customers with the most actionable and granular insights, invest in its team of strategic analysts and in data coverage.

Led by Or Offer, CEO, SimilarWeb provides market intelligence solutions to inform business strategy, build user acquisition plans, increase conversions, and retain customers, which offer insights on over 80 million websites and three million apps across more than 190 countries. Its thousands of customers include CMOs, digital marketers, investors, strategy professionals and business analysts at the worlds leading brands, agencies, and consulting firms.

SimilarWeb has 350 employees across eight global offices.

FinSMEs

27/07/2017
TA Associates, a global growth private equity firm, hired and promoted investment staff in its Boston and London offices.

Jessica Cohen rejoined the firm as a Vice President in Boston, and Stefan Dandl and Jeremy Drean were promoted to Vice President in London.

Jessica Cohen focuses on investments in consumer companies across North America. Prior to attending graduate school, she served as an Associate in the Boston office of TA Associates. Ms. Cohen previously served as an Analyst in the Investment Banking, Mergers & Acquisitions Group at Sagent Advisors, LLC. She received a BS, magna cum laude, in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis and an MBA from Harvard Business School.

Stefan Dandl focuses on investments in technology and financial services companies in EMEA, and leads TAs efforts in German-speaking countries across sectors. He is based in the London office of TA Associates (UK), LLP. Mr. Dandl serves on the Boards of 10bis and thinkproject!. Prior to joining TA, he worked in the Investment Banking Division, Media & Technology Group at J.P. Morgan. Mr. Dandl received a BA in Business Administration from the University of St. Gallen (HSG) and is a Scholar of the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung des dt. Volkes).

Jeremy Drean focuses on investments in financial and business services companies across Europe, and is part of the team leading TAs efforts in French-speaking Europe. He is based in the London office of TA Associates (UK), LLP. Prior to joining TA, Mr. Drean worked in the EMEA Consumer Group at Morgan Stanley and at GSV Asset Management (fka NeXt AM). He received a BA, magna cum laude, in Business Economics from UCLA and an MSc in Management from the HEC School of Management, Paris.

FinSMEs

27/07/2017
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.  State Treasurer Eric Schmitt issued a tax scam alert Friday warning of a new telephone scam targeting Missouri residents. The fraud consists of scammers posing as intelligence officers or special agents with the Missouri State Treasurers Office and demanding payment on overdue taxes.

I have zero tolerance for any fraudster who tries to scam taxpayers by impersonating my team, said Schmitt. All Missourians should know my office is not involved in collecting taxes and will never call demanding payment. Anyone who receives such a call should immediately report it to the proper authorities.

The scammers use a fake caller-ID featuring a phone number that belongs to the Missouri State Treasurers Office to disguise their true phone number. Citizens are urged to not provide any information to these callers.

Anyone who receives a call from someone claiming to be from the Missouri State Treasurers Office and asking for tax payment should hang up immediately and contact the Missouri Attorney Generals Office at 866-289-9633 and the United States Treasury Inspector General at 800-366-4484. Victims may also report fraudulent phone calls to any FBI field office.

Federal and state law enforcement officials were notified of the scam earlier Friday.
New Delhi: The government has begun deliberations over the methodology for disinvesting stake in Air India and its subsidiaries. IndiGo, Indias largest airline by passengers, has said it would be interested in the main airline and just one of its subsidiaries  Air India Express. Even here, IndiGos interest would perhaps be limited to the combined international operations of AI and AI Express. Will the government actually carve out the lucrative international operations of AI and AI Express for the convenience of just one potential bidder, this remains to be seen. But IndiGos pick of the lot is interesting, since these are the only two parts of the whole Air India pie which have reported improved financial performance last fiscal. Air Indias subsidiaries are Air India Express, Alliance Air, Hotel Corporation of India, AIATSL and AIESL.

Remember, the disinvestment of Air India is a long and difficult task since the airline has assets in terms of routes, international airport slots and bilateral flying rights as well as owned aircraft but is also saddled with Rs 48,876. 81 crore of debt. It has been losing domestic market share to nimble private airlines despite surviving on government dole for the last many years. There has been some talk of the government writing off a large part of the debt or even the entire thing but this wouldnt be an easy decision to take. Either way, the Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, tasked with laying the disinvestment roadmap, has only held one meeting till date. And sources tell us senior officials of the ministry of civil aviation have sought independent studies from two aviation consultants, with suggestions on how to carve out the assets of the airline and get more than just one bidder interested in the sale.

In this backdrop, it is interesting to see that only Air India and Air India Express reported improved financial performance last fiscal  the other subsidiaries remained mired in red ink. According to a written reply in Lok Sabha on Thursday, while Air India could show a nominal operational profit and a narrower net loss compared to the previous fiscal, Air India Express could also show a net profit though lower than what was reported in 2015-16. Hotel Corporation of India, AI Engineering Services, Alliance Air remained loss making in 2016-17. Will buyers then want the airline along with all of its subsidiaries?

A senior Air India official said the figures given in Lok Sabha on Thursday were provisional and the accounts had not yet been finalised. According to these figures, Air Indias operating profit last fiscal may be Rs 215 crore, not Rs 300 crore as reported earlier. Why the figures differ within a matter of weeks  both operating profit have been taken from written replies in Parliament in the current session  is a mystery. The lower, Rs 215 crore figure may be more realistic this official said. Also, the airline could report a narrower net loss at Rs 3,728 crore versus Rs 3,836 crore in 2015-16. That still translates to over Rs 10 crore net loss each day!

Air India Express could report a net profit of Rs 297 crore for FY17 versus Rs 362 crore last fiscal.

This piece in Hindu Business Line quotes AI Express CEO K Shyam Sundar as saying the net profit in 2016-17 was significant as the competition from Indian private carriers increased considerably during the year, added to that was the sluggishness of Gulf economies. The airlines revenue increased by 14 percent to Rs 3,335 crore on better utilisation of assets, lowering unit costs by about 5-7 percent. The average daily aircraft utilisation rose to 12.2 hours. Air India Express operates in the lucrative Gulf region besides other middle eastern destinations as well as South East Asian stations.

The remaining subsidiaries continue to report losses. Hotel Corporation of India could report a net loss of Rs 42 crore in 2016-17 against Rs 57.75 crore in the previous fiscal, an improvement but still a net loss. HCI owns and operates the Centaur Hotels at Delhi and Srinagar besides flight catering units.

Alliance Air is expected to report a net loss of Rs 200 crore last fiscal against Rs 198.75 crore. Alliance Air operates in smaller, tier II and tier III cities, acting as a feeder for Air India and Air India Express. For the engineering (AIESL) subsidiary, the net loss has widened to Rs 652.78 crore, from Rs 558.62 crore in the previous fiscal. For the ground handling (AITSL) subsidiary, likely operational profit figure is Rs 105 crore, similar to the previous fiscal.

It is clear from the pace at which the Air India disinvestment processes are progressing that any serious bidder outside of IndiGo would likely throw its hat in the ring only when the contours of the sale are clear. There have been indications that the Tatas  the first private party informally sounded out by the government  may not be keen on bidding for Air India despite the airlines Tata legacy and the common history binding the group and Indias national carrier.

In this situation, the government needs to be clear on some significant caveats in the sale process: Will it allow foreign airlines to bid at all, will it sell out completely or retain equity share in Air India, will it carve out international operations separately and finally, how much of the debt will be written off, if at all.
Mumbai: Seeking to rest speculation, Axis Bank on Thursday re-appointed Shikha Sharma as the managing director and chief executive of the third largest private lender for a

third term that will last till June 2021.

"The board, at its meeting held on 26 July, approved the re-appointment of Shikha Sharma as the managing director and chief executive of the bank for a period of three years, with effect from 1 June, 2018," the bank said in a regulatory filing this afternoon.

The unusual announcement comes over 11 months ahead of the 59-year-old banker's current term and within a couple of hours of her own comments earlier in the day that left everyone guessing about her next move.

"You should wait to hear that announcement from the board at the appropriate time. My job right now is to focus on working with the team and doing the best we can for our customers and other stakeholders," he told reporters earlier in the day.

A section of the media had first reported appointment of an executive search firm by the bank to find her successor, which was followed by another report that Tata Sons sounded her out with an offer.

"The appointment of a search firm is in the interest of best governance, given that I'd have done nine years in 2018 with the bank and it doesn't preclude anything about whether I will do another term or not," Sharma told reporters, after announcing a Rs 385-crore acquisition of wallet company Freecharge in an all-cash deal.

The veteran banker is serving the second term that comes to an end in June 2018. She joined Axis Bank in 2009 with a five-year mandate which was subsequently extended.

According to a recent media report, subsequently denied by the bank, she has been sounded out by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran to head the conglomerate multiple financial services verticals.

"All I can say is that I'm deeply excited about the opportunity of what's possible in the financial services space in the country," she told reporters.

However, she was quick to add that right now the focus is on building the bank. "We believe that Axis Bank has created some very strong capability in it, we have a strong brand which all customer surveys suggest people who experienced it have liked it. So I think there are lots of exciting things to do in the bank."

She, however, did not spell out her plans when specifically asked about her future with the bank, saying, "I think the bank has given its comment on the reports. I have nothing more to add as far as that is concerned."

She joined Axis from ICICI Prudential Life where she was the first managing director and chief executive and replaced PJ Nayak, Axis Bank's first chairman and CEO.

Sharma began her career with the erstwhile infra lender ICICI Ltd in 1980 and played a key role in setting up the group's investment banking business.
New Delhi: Private sector lender Axis Bank is believed to have finalised a deal to buy Freecharge from Snapdeal for Rs 350-400 crore, according to sources.

The deal is almost through and an announcement is likely to be made in the next few days, two people familiar with the development said.

They did not wish to be identified as the deal is yet to be announced and they are not authorised to speak on the matter.

Interestingly, Axis Bank has sent out an invite for a press conference tomorrow to "announce a strategic business initiative".

When contacted, Snapdeal and Axis Bank did not respond to emailed queries.

Snapdeal is also looking at selling its e-commerce business and has been engaged in discussions with larger rival Flipkart for the past few months.

The city-based firm had bought Freecharge in April 2015, for an estimated $400 million. At that time, this was touted as the largest deal in the nascent start-up ecosystem in India.

Earlier, Freecharge was reported to be in discussions with Paytm for a sell-off.

However, the deal did not go through as the Alibaba-backed company was offering a much lesser price of about $15 million, one of the sources said.

Acquiring Freecharge's business would give Axis Bank access to about 50 million mobile wallet holders of Freecharge as well as about 150-200 professionals.

Post demonetisation, there has been a strong growth in usage of digital payment channels, including mobile wallets.

Industry watchers said it would be interesting to see how Axis Bank integrates Freecharge as it already has its own mobile wallet, Lime.

Axis Bank had, yesterday, reported a 16 per cent year-on-year decline in its June 2017 quarter net profit at Rs. 1,306 crore. However, the lender said it expects better days ahead as non-performing assets have peaked.

For Snapdeal, the transaction would provide it the much-needed cash, giving it a breather for a few more months, industry watchers said.

The turnaround in the fortunes of Snapdeal seems to have also had a drastic effect on FreeCharge that has seen a fall in the volume and value of transactions on its platform, they added.
New Delhi: Food regulator Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has banned use of staple pins in tea bags from January next year as it can cause serious health hazards, its CEO Pawan Agarwal said on Wednesday.

"We were getting complaints about the use of staple pins in tea bags. If these pins consumed inadvertently with tea, it may cause serious health hazards," he said on the sidelines of a CII conference on health supplements and nutraceuticals sector.

Agarwal said the industry has the timelines till January 2018 to replace production line for adhering this order.

As per the FSSAI order, at present, there are two types of tea bags available in the market viz stapled tea bags and knotted tea bags.

"Use of staple pins in tea bags poses potential hazards to consumers since any loose staple pin consumed inadvertently with tea may cause serious health hazards," FSSAI order said.

It directed the food business operators to discontinue the manufacture, storage, distribution, sale and import of stapled tea bags on January 2018.

Asked about food quality in railways, Agarwal said it is working with Railways authorities to make a robust food safety system.

FSSAI's CEO said that the draft regulations of labelling would be issued soon.
The good news first. If the new wage code Bill approved by the Cabinet on Wednesday is passed in its entirety by Parliament, it will certainly benefit an estimated 4 crore employees in the country across all sectors. According to labour law experts, until now, only the wages of workers in the central sphere was being decided by the central government while that in the state sphere by different states. Consequently, there was no uniformity.

There was no proper methodology to arrive at the wages of unskilled workers across sectors factoring in the changes in cost of living. What the new wage code Bill primarily does is to empower the Centre to set a higher minimum wage that is uniform for all employees across all sectors in the country. States will be bound to maintain the threshold decided by the Centre. Hopefully, this will work in a more scientific manner considering all parameters concerning this segment.

Technically, the new code roll is four different Acts rolled into one -- the Minimum Wages Act, 1948; the Payment of Wages Act, 1936; the Payment of Bonus Act, 1965; and the Equal Remuneration Act, 1976. Traditionally, the wage conditions of unskilled workers who are outside the central sphere are pathetic. Hence this Bill comes as good news to them. It is not clear whether the new wage code will benefit contract workers as well besides employees who are on the rolls. Ideally it should, said Anshul Prakash, Partner at Khaitan & Co. A worker may be on rolls or on contract, but if the minimum wage rule is properly implemented, the employer will have to treat the contract labourer at par with regular employee, said Prakash.

According to government data, as on 31 March 2015, the number of contract workers engaged in the central sphere was 19,03,170 while the figure for contract workers working in the state sphere was not centrally maintained. The contract workers are governed by the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970 that covers only those establishments and contractors that employ 20 or more workmen on any day of the preceding 12 months. The new Bill will benefit not just those earning less than Rs 18,000 but all category of workers. Right now, the minimum wage rules are applied to only those who earn less than Rs 18,000 both at central and state spheres. Hence, the workers across states and sectors should be happy about the new wage code.

But, they should be prepared for potential bad news too.

For one, majority of Indian companies are smaller in size with less than 50 employees. As this Financial Express report highlights, the latest Economic Survey had some figures on this. Going by it, about 78 percent of Indian firms employ under 50 workers and just 10 percent employ more than 500  the comparable figures for China are 15 percent and 28 percent.

The smaller companies falling under the employee-threshold operate in different states and varying business environments, may not be in a position to comply with the minimum wage rules, particularly those in economically backward states like North East region. These firms are already struggling on account of a prolonged slowdown in the economy, demonetisation-induced cash crunch and the short-term pain of migrating to the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime. Industries may also face severe financial difficulties that will force them to take drastic steps.

If these firms are pushed to the corner on the minimum wage issue, they may simply go for large-scale staff layoffs and automation, cautioned Prakash of Khaitan & Co.

Secondly, implementation of the minimum wage rule across sectors and states will be a tricky challenge. Labour is a subject in the concurrent list and states take into account different parameters while deciding the wage structure of workers. There is a possibility that some state governments may raise objections.

Since more number of states are now ruled by the BJP or parties with whom it has bargaining power, states resistance may not be a big issue. But ensuring that all companies across sectors follow the minimum wage rules will be a herculean task, even with the deployment of wage inspectors. We dont have the machinery as of now to do this. The infrastructure for implementation of the rule needs to be created to ensure that employees get the benefit of the new wage code. Asking companies to make all payments directly to beneficiary bank accounts could help.

This time, the Modi government may not have any issues with the trade unions on this since the unions will be more than happy to see a centralised minimum wage structure taking shape. Looking at the larger picture, the new wage code is one part of the reforms needed to modernize the archaic labour laws in India, and hence a step in the right direction.

To make the new wage code a reality, the Modi government will have to, a) generate political consensus; b) work on creating an infrastructure to ensure implementation; and c) talk to state governments about the nuances of the new wage structure. It is a long process. Until then, the four crore employees will have to keep their fingers crossed.
Mumbai: The benchmark BSE Sensex on Thursday edged up to a new closing record high at 32,383.30, but the Nifty was little changed with a negative bias.

The Sensex closed marginally higher by 0.84 point at 32,383.30.

During the day, the barometer rallied over 290 points to touch fresh high of 32,672.66 following buying spree in financials, banks, realty, auto, IT, FMCG and oil and gas stocks.

The 50-share Nifty of NSE scaled all-time high of 10,114.85 in day trade, but closed flat at 10,020.55 as 33 index constituents ended with losses.

Markets pared gains due to late sell-off on expiry of July series derivatives contracts and profit-booking at record levels amid disappointing earnings by some blue-chip companies, brokers said.

Dr Reddy's that reported over 57 percent drop in net profit fell over 3 percent and was the biggest loser among index scrips.

RIL, ITC, Infosys, TCS and Bharti Airtel fell up to 2.76 percent.

However, strong gains in banking stocks like HDFC Bank, Kotak Bank, SBI and HDFC helped the index limit losses.
It was forty-two-years ago, when Ramesh Sippy's film Sholay released with an array of to-be superstars in the cast  Amitabh Bachchan, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini and Jaya Bhaduri [Bachchan]. And then there was Amjad Khan, who was relatively new and wasn't a known actor then. The film released on 15 August, 1975 and to the filmmaker and writer's surprise, it didn't fare well at the box-office immediately.

And, then with the turn of days, it picked up and as they say, "The rest is history..."

Sholay, by far, remains one (or maybe the only one) of those Bollywood films which has been able to transcend the boundaries of time, generation, content or treatment. Films have come and gone, but Sholay remains where it was, even today. While undoubtedly Bachchan's Jai, Dharmendra's Veeru, Malini's Basanti or Kumar's Thakur have become synonymous to their real names, but the way Amjad Khan's Gabbar act has penetrated the psyche of Indian masses is really something unprecendented.

"Beta so ja, warna Gabbar aa jayega"  one of the many iconic lines of the dacoit still lurks somewhere deep down in the hearts and minds of people. With Sholay, many careers catapulted; but Amjad Khan's saw the steepest ascent. Today, 27 July 2017 marks 25 years of his untimely demise  a real loss to the Indian film industry.

Gabbar, undoubtedly holds an integral part of the Indian pop-culture  Be it caricatures, mimicry, advertisements, inspirations, spin-offs and even a graphic novel.

Britannia even roped in the actor to do a commercial to promote their glucose biscuits. The video is a treasure for today's generation:

There is something in the character of Gabbar that draws attention and pulls one in. He's not the scariest villain, but the most engaging one. His sheer evilness sometimes gets undermined by his childish dialogue delivery and crackling laughter.

While speaking to news18, Amitabh Bachchan had once said, "When I first heard the script of Sholay I told Salim-Javed (the scripwriters) 'I want to do the role of Gabbar'. But Ramesh Sippy (the director) decided to cast me as Jai," he said, adding, "I never thought he (Amjad Khan) would not be able to do it. It was his voice... as Gabbar...the dialogues became famous."

Gabbar Singh's dialogues are indeed the most memorable and frequently used and rephrased (in form of memes) ones today. Remember "Kitne aadmi they?" or "Tera kya hoga, Kaliya?" or "Bahut yaarana lagta hai" or the iconic "Jo darr gaya...samjho marr gaya." Leading film critic, Anupama Chopra says, "When you speak a line from Sholay, you open up a whole world, and can't agree less.

But would Gabbar Singh be 'The Gabbar' without Amjad Khan? How much of Gabbar is Khan and how much of Khan is Gabbar, is a question many have pondered upon.

The actor worked in around 130 films before his sudden death in 1992. Seeing his body of work in these years, one can easily say that he was much more than just an iconic villain.

From donning the comedy hat in films like Des Pardes (1978), Chameli Ki Shaadi (1986) or Malamaal (1988) to play the quintessential Bollywood villain (although the degree of vileness was not extreme unlike the typical Bollywood villains) in films like Inkaar (1977), Muqaddar Ka Sikandar (1978), Kaalia (1981) or even Mr Natwarlal (1979).

His contributions in films like Satyajit Ray's only Hindi movie, Shatranj Ke Khilari (1977) where Khan enacted the part of the indifferent Nawab of Lucknow, Wajid Ali Shah who liked to indulge more in arts than the matters of state. Or, his portrayal of Kamasutra writer Vatsyayan in Girish Karnads Utsav (1984) which is again a remarkable performance in his short-yet-illustrious career. He made an appearance in Merchant-Ivory productions' English film, The Perfect Murder (1988) where he was seen as the wealthy bad man with underworld liaisons.

Today, even after these many years, the actor Amjad Khan still holds relevance and reverence within the minds and hearts of all Bollywood fans.
Anne Hathaway is in the frame to star in the Barbie film. The 34-year-old actress is wanted by Sony and Mattel to take on the role of a character expelled from 'Barbieland' for failing to live up to the perfection expected of its residents, according to website The Ankler.

The part was initially going to played by Amy Schumer but she has pulled out of the project, intended for cinemas in 2018, due to "scheduling conflicts".

Hathaway is said to be interested in the role and talks have been progressing well.

Director Alethea Jones is in talks to helm the movie which Sony and Mattel want to send a positive message to young girls about body image and self-esteem.

Schumer, 36, admitted she was totally "bummed" to drop out of the Barbie film, even though she had been targeted by trolls in the wake of her casting, an online attack which she laughed off with her usual wit.

In a statement, she said, "Sadly, I'm no longer able to commit to Barbie due to scheduling conflicts. The film has so much promise, and Sony and Mattel have been great partners. I'm bummed, but look forward to seeing Barbie on the big screen."

Hathaway will next bee seen in the all-female led crime caper Ocean's Eight and is currently shooting Steven Knight's new thriller Serenity.
Filmmaker Anurag Basu, whose latest movie Jagga Jasoos has not fared as expected, has sent out "hugs" to the detractors as he says rejection doesn't mean dejection for him.

"Thank you so much for your love and appreciation for Jagga Jasoos. It's like oxygen for me right now. Tight hugs... And for those who disliked it, hugs for them too, coz your rejection paves the way for my next and I promise I'll try not to disappoint you," Basu tweeted on Wednesday evening.

Here are the tweets:

Sorry i ws out of radar Thank U so much for ur love and appreciation for #JaggaJassos its like oxygen for Me Right now.Tight Hugs!  anurag basu (@basuanurag) July 26, 2017

& for those who disliked it ,hugs for them too,cuz ur rejection paves the way for my next and I promise ill try not to disappoint you.  anurag basu (@basuanurag) July 26, 2017

Jagga Jasoos, presented in a musical format, banks on the emotional ups and downs of Jagga's and Shruti's life as they embark on a mission to hunt for Jagga's father.

The film, which had been in the making for three years, features Ranbir Kapoor and Katrina Kaif.

Ranbir's father and veteran actor Rishi Kapoor had also lashed out at Basu for delaying the film, and called the director "irresponsible" with money and time. Rishi blamed Basu and his unprofessional ways which ultimately, took a toll on the film. Be it finishing the editing a day before the release or chopping Govinda's cameo, Rishi did not hide his displeasure.

Govinda, who was also miffed with Basu for snipping out his cameo appearance at the last moment, had thanked Rishi for standing up for him.

The actor, known for his impeccable comic timing and eccentric dance moves, had reportedly traveled all the way to South Africa to shoot for Jagga Jasoos even while he wasn't keeping well.

With inputs from IANS.
If youre in the mood for a terrific, claustrophobic thriller with excellent performances, foreboding atmosphere and an increasingly unpredictable plot  Berlin Syndrome is the film to watch this week. The film first garnered good reviews at Sundance earlier this year and were lucky that we get to see it in theaters in India.

Directed by Australian filmmaker Cate Shortland, Berlin Syndrome is a film that takes indie cinema sensibilities and expertly paints them onto a mainstream canvas.

Its hard to describe the plot without giving away a crucial piece of information that would affect the way you perceive the film. The film is best enjoyed if you know practically nothing about it  so if youre smart you should take my word for it, stop reading the rest of this review and go to the theater.

Those who want to know more, however, should only know that the film chronicles a young and attractive Australian girl named Clare (Teresa Palmer) who arrives in Berlin as a tourist. Clare is a stereotypical loner in search for something meaningful on her holiday, and seems to find what she was looking for in a local German man named Andi (Max Riemelt). Clare and Andi hook up, and their feelings for each other are so strong it seems like theyre at the onset of a whirlwind romance. Things of course, go extremely wrong.

The film has a slow burn buildup in the first twenty minutes or so, making you wonder where all this is leading to, but when director Shortland drops the hammer its a rather powerful and unsettling hit. That moment is so strong it sucks out the air around you, placing you firmly in Clares shoes as she tries and fails to battle the worst possible nightmare she is thrust into.

As the story progresses and the layers are peeled away every revelation seems more and more messed up, and Clares reactions to whatever she is facing are disturbingly realistic.

Germain McMickings cinematography is appropriately suffocating and the music by Bryony Marks walks that fine line between emotional and terrifying. Shortands unique direction often makes you wonder whether you should feel for persons who commit atrocities because theyre humans too. And she executes this philosophical question without dialogue but with silences powerful imagery.

A lot of credit goes to both Palmer and Riemelt who simply disappear into their characters, and whose dymanics are so convincing its creepy.

The second half of the film will make you squirm in your seats as a race against time is initiated, leading to a finale that is both satisfying and also thought provoking.

Berlin Syndrome is ultimately a genre film, and you may have seen other films that deal with the themes explored here before, but youll be hard pressed to find another film that executes the themes in the poetic, almost painterly way that Shortland does.

Its definitely not a film for the faint hearted, and but those willing to stick with the film for the sluggish first twenty minutes will be rewarded with one of the most memorable thrillers of the year.
Konkona Sen Sharma and Kalki Koechlin's upcoming film Scholarship, directed by Raman Bharadwaj, has landed in trouble, as there it is facing a lack of financial backing. In what can only be considered unfortunate, the film has been indefinitely stalled, because investors are not willing to come on board citing the lack of a popular male lead, reports Mumbai Mirror.

Television and film actor Sid Makkar has been cast opposite Kalki. Scholarship went on floors in January 2017, and the shoot began in Jharkhand; the makers are hoping to resume shooting in the coming months.

"We started with the idea that a lot of women-centric films are getting made nowadays with proper releases and are being appreciated. Initially, a few investors backed out citing demonetisation as the reason but its been six-seven months. We approached a lot of other investors after that but all of them turned us down as our film doesnt have a big male actor. We had shot for only 15-20 days in January. Weve found some new investors but were still short of the budget we need to complete the film," said producer Aditi Gupta in the same Mumbai Mirror report.

Gupta said that the women-centric nature of the plot was made clear from the very start, adding that the makers had always maintained that they would not change it. Scholarship tells the story of a venture capitalist, played by Kalki, and her help, played by Konkona, and the issues they face in their lives.

This problem of lack of funding faced by directors who wish to make women-centric films is hardly new. In an interview to Firstpost, Dear Maya director Sunaina Bhatnagar talked about the difficulty of finding a producer for her film which starred Manisha Koirala and two young female actors. She mentioned that no studio thought that her film was commercially viable, and that they suggested she pick someone younger or more commercially successful.

She said, "Audiences have proven that they like women-centric films, such as Piku or Queen. Producers haven't evolved as much as the audience has. I think the audience is more ready than producers are when it comes to taking risks. Producers judge films only by their return on investment, and that too is based on a formula by which they value someone in monetary terms."

Also read: Lipstick Under My Burkha, Mom, Phillauri: Why are there so few 'women-centric' films?
Farhan Akhar's portrayal of the lead vocalist-guitarist in the 2008 film Rock On is one of his most memorable characters. His character in Lucknow Central, a film about escape from jail, also has a rock star avatar, but of a very different type: the kind that grew up in a small town with big ambitions.

In the trailer of the film, Akhar, in his characteristic husky voice with an added-on accent, talks about his ambitions to start a band. You can tell how ambitious he is, in a shot where he tells his father, "Sheher chhote hote hai, sapne nahi".

Cut to a scene where he is found guilty of murder, which he says he has been wrongly blamed for. You truly want to sympathise with his character as he is dragged to Lucknow Central jail, to be hanged eventually.

Now, Akhtar's character reshapes his ambitions to start a band, instead using this as a ploy to escape from the jail, with support from other prisoners. But there's also a twist in the plot; will his need to escape be overshadowed by his passion for music? This is encapsulated in the film's subtitle "Plan kuch aur hai".

The antagonists of Lucknow Central are menacing to say the least, whether it is Ronit Roy 'welcoming' Akhtar to the jail or the shot where the politician cuts a cake with a sword. The film also makes political comments through dialogues such as, "Sarkar bhi paanch saalon mein badal jaati hai, yeh toh jail hai."

The film's look has been compared to the Arjun Rampal-starrer Daddy, which is a film on Arun Gawli, and its plot bears resemblances to Qaidi Band, which is about undertrials given the chance to start a band in jail.

Recently, two new posters of the film were released.

Presenting the first look posters of #LucknowCentral... Directed by Ranjit Tiwari... 15 Sept 2017 release. pic.twitter.com/4KhSQWjtgL  taran adarsh (@taran_adarsh) July 26, 2017

Directed by Ranjit Tiwari, the film also stars Diana Penty, Gippy Grewal, Ronit Roy, Deepak Dobriyal, InaamUlHaq & Rajesh Sharma alongside Akhtar. It is slated to release on 15 September.

Watch the trailer here:


There are four huge releases in Bollywood this week to counter two releases from Hollywood.

There's a lot to choose from in Bollywood  right from the light-hearted comedy Mubarakan to the historical Indu Sarkar, patriotic Raag Desh to the rom-com Baaraat Company.

Sci-fi fantasy film Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets is the chief contender from Hollywood this week.

Bollywood Films

Mubarakan

What's it about: Twin cousin brothers Karan and Charan (played by Arjun Kapoor) are poles apart: while Charan was raised in Punjab, Karan has a more modern upbringing in the UK. Will their uncle (played by Anil Kapoor) help them get married to the love of their lives even with their disapproving families?

Who's in it: Anil Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Ileana D'Cruz and Athiya Shetty

Why it may work: If light, frothy, 'leave-your-sense-of-logic' at home comedies are your thing, this one is definitely for you.

Who wouldn't want to watch a comedy film after a hectic work week?

Indu Sarkar

What's it about: Madhur Bhandarkar's next is about the Indian emergency of 1975.

Who's in it: Kirti Kulhari, Neil Nitin Mukesh, Anupam Kher.

Why it may work: Whether the audience was interested in the subject of India's emergency of 1975 is questionable, but thanks to Pahlaj Nihalani and CBFC's histrionics with the film, people will surely flock to the theaters to see what the commotion was about.

Baaraat Company

What's it about: Imaan Singh aka 'Immu' takes over his ailing grandfather's business of weddings: it's their job to make sure weddings go as planned. They stop runaway grooms, ex-lovers from sabotaging a would-be happy marriage.

But will things go as planned when Immu follows in love with the bride-to-be?

Who's in it: Ranveer Kumar, Sandeepa Dhar, Vishal Karwal and Anurita Jha.

Why it may work: Who doesn't love a good old fashioned Bollywood masala rom-com? Also the cast is fresh  which means the audience has a lot of new talent to look forward to.

Raag Desh

What's it about: National Award winning Director Tigmanshu Dhulia brings us the story of three officers from India National Army (set up by Subhash Chandra Bose) who are on trial for treason. An ailing lawyer helps them face the consequence of their courage during World War II.

Who's in it: Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh, Mohit Marwah, Kenneth Desai

Why it may work: A good patriotic story never goes wrong with our audience  and since Raag Desh is based on the real Red Fort trials of 1945, history buffs will be lining up for this as well.

Hollywood films

Valerian And The City Of A Thousand Planets

What's it about: Adapted from a french graphic novel of the same name, the film takes us to 28th century where different species inhabit the universe peacefully.

Who's in it: Cara Delevingne, Dane DeHaan, Rihanna

Why it may work: The film has beautiful visual effects that depict aliens, other planets and you see brilliant shots of out of space. It that's not enough, see it if you are a fan of Rihanna.

Berlin Syndrome

What's it about: A young tourist, Clare, who is holidaying in Berlin alone, is taken hostage by the man she has a whirlwind romance with. But as days, weeks turn into months it looks like she might be there permanently. Will she be able to escape?

Who's in it: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt, Emma Bading

Why it may work: Teresa Palmer's brilliance in the horror/thriller genre is unprecedented and though the plot might seem like a really old one, indie film director Cate Shortland is likely to give a brilliant take to it.
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on 27 July refused to stay the release of filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's movie Indu Sarkar, which deals with the Emergency imposed in 1975 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

A bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitav Roy and Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, dismissed the plea filed by a woman who claims to be the biological daughter of late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi.

"The movie is an artistic expression within the parameters of law," said the bench while dismissing the plea of Priya Singh Paul.

SC further adds saying that the right to know and the collective ational interest is far more important than an individual's claim of reputation, as reported by news18.

Paul has told the court that the film was "full of concoction and totally derogatory" to malign the image of Sanjay Gandhi and his mother, Indira Gandhi.

The petitioner moved the top court as Bombay High Court had dismissed her plea on 24 July, saying no "known descendant" of Sanjay Gandhi has objected to the movie.

The HC had also said, "The filmmaker has submitted a disclaimer that will be shown before the movie saying all characters and incidents of the movie are fictitious and bears no resemblance to any living or dead person. The censor board has also already granted certificate to the movie after initially asking the filmmaker to cut some scenes," reports news18.

In her petition, the woman has claimed that Sanjay Gandhi was her biological father and the movie points fingers at him.

(With inputs from IANS)
For more than a week, the special investigation team (SIT), led by Akun Sabharwal, has been making headlines for grilling several celebrities from Telugu film industry over their alleged links with drug suppliers in Hyderabad. After the team arrested Calvin Mascarenhas, an event manager, who is at the centre of the scandal, scores of people in the industry were issued notices to appear before SIT.

Puri Jagannadh, Shyam K Naidu, Subbaraju, Tharun, Navdeep, Charmme, art director Chinna were some of the celebs who were interrogated by SIT and few others like Ravi Teja, Mumait Khan are expected to meet the team in the next few days.

So far, none of the celebrities have come forward to confess about what exactly transpired at these 10-hour long interrogation sessions, except for accepting that they co-operated with the probe and answered all the questions.

Recently, Charmme approached the High Court alleging that the SIT was trying to collect her blood sample without her permission. The High Court ordered SIT to interrogate Charmme at a location of her choice between 10 am - 5 pm and that she shouldnt be forced to give her blood sample, and also added that, she must be interrogated in the presence of police-women.

After all the brouhaha, Charmme met the SIT officials in their office in Hyderabad, while the media scampered to get a reaction from her just when she was about to enter the office.

In yet another surprising twist in this probe, Kajal Aggarwals manager Ronnie was taken into custody for possession of narcotics. Soon, Kajal made a public statement that she has zero tolerance for such activities which hamper the society and that she has got nothing to do with Ronnies personal life, although he does run errands for her in South.

While SIT has been doing a commendable job in going after all those who they suspect of having connections with Calvin Mascarenhas, the question which people have begun asking is - Whats the extent of influence of drugs in film industry, in particular, and what could have led to this situation?

Its clearly not a new phenomenon. In a recent interview, Bhanu Chander, who was hugely popular in the 80s and early 90s, confessed that in the beginning of his career when he used to live in Mumbai, he became habituated to drugs. I was saved by my elder brother who promptly weaned me away from the habit by introducing me to martial arts, Bhanuchander said.

The lives of celebrities are once again out in the open and everyone has an opinion or two about them. And the scandal has turned into a massive TRP-churning machine for everyone who has been tracking the scandal. A popular opinion about why some people in the industry indulge in drug abuse in the first place points fingers at the extravagant lifestyle which some people live.

Goa, Bangkok, Pattaya and Phuket are some of the popular hangouts for actors, writers and directors in Tollywood, and over the years, these places have become synonymous with hedonism. On top of that, the stereotypes attached to people and the places they frequent have further complicated the issue where you cant look at the scandal objectively.

So, what could have led to this situation? And is substance abuse a form of fighting against emotional distress? Whether its Bollywood or Tollywood, its an open secret that usage of marijuana is rampant. In fact, some people have come to believe that it helps you to clear your mind and come up with more ideas, especially while writing.

Okka joint kodithe chaalu (One joint is enough) - is often quoted as an antidote to writers block. And then, theres a small set of people who believe in the magical qualities of MDMA (Ecstasy), which is said to open floodgate of thoughts shortly after its consumption.

However, the nexus between drug suppliers and Telugu film industry hasnt been spoken about with such enthusiasm in a very long time.

Hyderabad was once a quaint city, which didnt feature prominently on the national map for an active nightlife. And then, everything changed in the early 2000s. With the advent of IT industry, the city went through a major makeover and the real estate boom made a lot of people rich in a short span of time. Scores of nightclubs, bars sprouted in various nooks and corners of the city. Then came big scale music concerts, events which attracted people from all corners of life.

Not surprisingly, SIT has also issued a serious warning to several pubs in the city and even went on to cancel licences of few places which had come under their scanner during the investigation. This is also a case of Hyderabadis imitating everything thats a result of pop-culture. The rave parties that tourist destinations like Goa and Gokarna were once synonymous with became rampant in the outskirts of Hyderabad.

Every time a drug racket is busted in the city, the police have named at least one foreign national as a culprit in the case. A rise in number of such incidents had become a cause of concern for the police officials. Incidentally, the customs officials, especially at the airports, have come across several cases over the years which hinted at Hyderabad, slowly, becoming a hub for drug trade in South Asia and South East Asia.

In April earlier this year, customs officials arrested a Hyderabad passenger who was trying to smuggle Ketamine, worth Rs 2.37 crores, to Malaysia. Further investigation, according to several media reports, revealed that he was part of a racket, which pours synthetic drugs worth millions of dollars into the foreign market. Hyderabad is these criminals manufacturing hub. They take orders from their counterparts abroad and produce Methamphetamine, Ketamine, Ephedrine and even Methaqualone (meth) in Hyderabad and smuggle it to South East Asian countries through air flights.

In another shocking incident, which occurred in 2015, a South African national, Mosiea Moosa was arrested at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad when the customs officials found narcotics hidden in her belly and urogenital tract. This was one of the few incidents which made headlines; however, a significant amount of narcotics seem to have slipped under the radar and made its way into the city.

This isnt the first time that Tollywood has come under the scanner for drug abuse. Back in 2010, a similar drug scandal rocked Tollywood and names of several A-list celebrities popped up during the investigation.

While most of them werent charged with any crimes, it was evident that Hyderabad and particularly the film industry had few rotten apples who were peddling drugs and established connections with drug suppliers in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore. Back then, the police investigation established that the names of few celebrities were being used as an alias for drugs.

For instance, 'Har Har Mahadev' became a generic term for narcotic drugs. According to a Times of India report, expensive drugs like Ecstasy go under the code of Anushka; Opium is Trisha at some places while cheap drugs are called Mumaith.

Seven years later, the ghosts of the past have come back to haunt Telugu film industry. While the police officials havent filed a charge sheet against anyone from the industry who is being interrogated right now, this hasnt stopped rumour-mongers to take on celebrities without any solid evidence. Rumours and unverified information are being packaged as undeniable truths and the constant media glare has evidently cornered several celebrities.

Although the film industry has been dealing with the probe with restraint, the probe itself has put the industry under severe pressure to come clean. Not just that, it has also exposed the chinks in the armour of an industry where people tread a fine line between their lives as public figures and private individuals.

With their reputation and credibility at stake, itll take a while before everyone, under the scanner right now, can bring normalcy back to their daily lives.

Telugu film industry commands a loyal fanbase and the ongoing investigation has turned into a point of discussion satiating the general penchant for drama in life. Its unlikely that this scandal will have an impact on the industry in the long term, but as long as it continues, its proving to be an unnecessary distraction for those who love movies above everything else.

Already, the earnest appeal by Puri Jagannadh, to stop the barrage of negative reports about him, has earned him a legion of sympathisers that hes being unfairly targeted by the media.

In any case, what a select few individuals do in their personal life, within the confines of their home, isnt a reflection of what the industry stands for.

But its also high time that we question ourselves if the personal lives of public figures are so important in the first place and if all this will make us change the way we watch films. The answer might very well be a resounding no, and in that case, theres hardly a reason why we must invest all our energy and time into something that were likely to forget in a short time.
Clearing all the speculations around his next project, South superstar Kamal Haasan revealed the title of his next film and it is called Thalaivan Irukkiraan. It will release after Haasan's other two projects  Vishwaroopam 2 and Sabash Naidu, the actor told the Tamil magazine Vikatan, reports IndiaToday.

"We're planning to release Vishwaroopam 2 first. Then, Sabash Naidu. If I reveal the title of my next film, people may think that I'm using the current political scenario. However, I had registered the title four years back. My next film is Thalaivan Irukkiraan," the actor reportedly told Vikatan.

Ramesh Bala, film trade analyst, posted about the same on Twitter:

Official: Ulaganayagan @ikamalhaasan has announced the title of his new project - #ThalaivanIrukkiraan pic.twitter.com/NuNYHmvWkn  Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) July 27, 2017

Two months back, in May, Haasan had also shared poster of his upcoming Vishwaroopam 2, saying that the film's production would kick start some time soon. It is reported to be a spy thriller written and directed by Kamal Haasan, who plays a RAW agent in it. The film also stars Rahul Bose, Pooja Kumar and Andrea Jeremiah in important roles, and is slated to release in 2017.

His other project Sabash Naidu is also in the pipeline. It is reported to be a spin-off of Haasan's character Balram Naidu which featured in his super-hit film, Dasavatharam (2008).

The India Today report also suggests that Haasan had previously announced that Thalaivan Irukkirran would be reportedly titled Amar Hai also featuring Saif Ali Khan in a leading role. It was initially planned to be made in two languages  Hindi and Tamil. However, no concrete information is available regarding Khan's presence in the film. The film is expected to kick start some time during next year.

Thalaivan Irukkiraan, is supposed to be a political thriller which would be set in the backdrop of politics and underworld. Apparently, Haasan himself is penning down the script.

Haasan is currently busy shooting for his super-hit reality show Bigg Boss, the Tamil version of the Salman Khan-anchored Hindi reality show. It also marks the debut of the Southern superstar on television.
Contemporary Indian jurispudence has often witnessed questions over rights of the unborn foetus versus rights of the pregnant woman. Time and again, concerns regarding the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act (MTPA), 1971, have been brought to the fore  the fact that an archaic law that strikes at the roots of the sexual and reproductive rights of women. The law came into effect after recommendations from the Shantilal Shah Committee Report in 1966, which said that reproductive rights, especially the right and procedure to abortion, should be regulated by law.

The law went through amendments in 2002, which decentralised it by allowing penal sanctions for unapproved and illegal forms of abortion. Medical termination of pregnancy rules were formulated in 2003.

Under the MTPA, 1971, the permissible and legal limit for terminating a pregnancy is 20 weeks. In exceptional cases, where it can be proved that the life of the mother or child is in grave danger, the limit can be extended to 24 weeks, but after the consideration and report from a specialised medical board. The legally-mandated exception to the permissible limit is contained in Section 5 of the MTPA, wherein medical termination of pregnancy is allowed when it is "immediately necessary to save the life of the pregnant woman". A number of recent judgments have discussed how there is a need to review present circumstances and amend the law in a way that an unambiguous rights-based approach is adopted.

This controversial legislation was in the news again when a lower court denied permission to a 10-year-old rape survivor to medically terminate her 26-week foetus. The Supreme Court stepped in and ordered a full examination of the girl by the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) in Chandigarh to comprehend the implications of carrying the pregnancy to term on the girl's and the unborn child's health. The report of the medical board would then be submitted to a special bench of the Supreme Court on 28 July, after which it would decide whether or not the law can mandate an exception in this case. The fact that a 10-year-old girl has to wait for the apex court to debate on questions of law and legal procedure, at a point when she is carrying an unwanted foetus  the product of heinous sexual abuse  seems like a travesty of justice.

And this is not the first time the courts are discussing the issue of a rape survivor with regard to the MTPA. In R versus Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana High Court denied permission to the petitioner, a rape survivor, to terminate her pregnancy because the medical board's recommendations did not give a go-ahead to the abortion. The court asked doctors from AIIMS to reassess the possibility of medical termination, but the petitioner gave birth to the baby while proceedings were still on.

In a landmark judgment in July 2016, the Supreme Court, while deciding a case where a rape survivor wanted to legally terminate her pregnancy beyond 20 weeks, stated that it was a question of "life versus life".

But in the present case, it is more than a just a question of following legal procedure and treading on questions of life of the unborn child versus life of the pregnant mother. In this case, the petitioner is a child herself, and with every procedural stage, continues to endure grave mental and physical torture.

Moreover, it has been noted by the lower courts that a medical termination beyond the legally-mandated limit can be dangerous for the 10-year-old, but the burden of giving birth to a baby spawned by rape and sexual abuse is also a disturbing fact. The fact that the girl was raped by her uncle makes it even more unacceptable for us, the audience, to sit back while the judiciary debates procedure and morality.

What is needed at this stage is an urgent hearing of the case, instead of this procedural back and forth. The court's arbitrariness and strict, pedantic reading of a 45-year-old legislation seems to be normalising child sexual abuse, and the violation of the right to life under Article 21 of the Constitution. The present case is not only about the medical termination of pregnancy and legally mandated limits on abortion, but about how the health of a young girl has been jeopardised by sexual abuse.

Moreover, the court's refusal to delve on questions of child sexual abuse is a dangerous precedent, and in the absence of a yardstick provided by the MTPA on pregnancy in cases of children, disabled, or mentally-challenged, where concepts of free will and consent are debatable, the fact that the legislation is problematic has only been reinforced.

The legislation and procedure under the legislation is moot at this juncture. A special hearing by the Supreme Court bench is necessary, where it assumes parens patriae jurisdiction, and any judgment must keep the health of the child at the centre of it.

Debate between law and morality, rights of unborn child versus rights of the pregnant mother are unnecessary. It would be a travesty of justice if this child is forced to go through this pregnancy and carry the foetus to its full term. In addition to the protecting the health of the child, the Supreme Court should consider that the child sexual abuse and rape of children is not covered under MTPA regulations and guidelines around these issues would save the lives of many.
New Delhi: Widening its probe, the NIA Thursday issued summons to Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani's elder son Nayeem, asking him to appear before it for questioning on Monday in connection with its probe in the terror funding case in the Kashmir Valley.

NIA has summoned Separatist Syed Ali Shah Geelani's elder son Naeem Gilani in connection with terror funding case: NIA Sources  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

A surgeon by profession, Nayeem had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years there. He is tipped as the natural successor to the Geelani-led Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro-Pakistan hardline groups.

Officials privy to the developments said the summons has been issued to Nayeem to appear before the NIA on 31 July in connection with the case of terror funding in the valley.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh has already been arrested by the NIA and was being interrogated in the same case, they said.

Besides him, Geelani's close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also spokesman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and Peer Saifullah were also arrested by the NIA from the Valley earlier this week.

Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, as also Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyat's Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate' have also been arrested, the officials said.

All of them have been remanded to 10 days of NIA custody. Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ul-Dawah, the front of another proscribed outfit Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and all-woman outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

The NIA had registered a case on 30 May against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of the HM, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, LeT, other outfits and gangs.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in Kashmir valley by way of pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

In pursuance of this case, the NIA had conducted widespread searches on the suspected persons in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana and incriminating documents, electronic devices, cash and other valuables worth crore of rupees were unearthed.

For the the first time since the rise of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s, a central probe agency had carried out raids in connection with the funding of separatists and carried out arrests.
Al-Qaeda's propaganda channel on Thursday announced on social media that Zakir Musa, former commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, will head Kashmir-based operations of the terror outfit, according to The Guardian.

News18 reported that a statement released by Al-Qaeda's online propaganda channel, the Global Islamic Media Front, said, "After the heroic martyrdom of mujahid Burhan Wani, the Jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening, as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir is committed to carry the flag of Jihad... for this goal, a new movement of Jihad has been founded by the companions of martyr Burhan Wani under the leadership of mujahid Zakir Musa."

The announcement of Zakir Musa as the head of the terror group marks the entry of Al-Qaeda into Indian territory. Despite Al-Qaeda chief Zayman al Zawahiri's declaration of setting up operations in 2014, the group did not garner enough support to officially set up a base.

The announcement comes after Zakir Musa quit the Hizbul Mujahideen in May after differences with the group.

In an audio clip, Musa had threatened to behead Hurriyat leaders for terming the Kashmir struggle as a political movement. He had also demanded the creation of an Islamic state and said that once freedom was achieved, the fight would be against those who pushed for a secular state.

He showed his support for the creation of a state that would enforce Sharia law. The group's top leadership did not support his statement, which lead to him quitting the Hizbul Mujahideen.

In a statement, Hizbul spokesman Saleem Hashmi, said that Musa's comments were not acceptable and the outfit had nothing to do with it. "This is the personal opinion of Zakir Musa. The resistance leadership and Kashmiri people were taking the movement ahead through united efforts. In these circumstances, any provocative statement or step could prove deadly for the movement," said Hashmi.

Around the same time, the Al-Qaeda had released a 20-page 'Code of Conduct' for its fighters which had several references to Kashmir, The Economic Times reported. This could have hinted at further expanding operations in the Valley.

Interestingly, Hizbul Mujahideen commander Syed Salahuddin, who is based in Pakistan, released a video statement on Wednesday urging Kashmiris "not to join any global jihadi movement", reported IANS.

"Some of our friends are playing in the hands of our enemy and trying to create divide between people and their leadership. Our movement is an indigenous movement. The freedom movement of Jammu and Kashmir has no worldwide agenda, no links with organisations like Islamic State or Al-Qaeda.

"Such organisations have no role in Kashmir," Salahuddin said in a five-minute video clip.

With inputs from IANS
Srinagar: The army on Wednesday foiled an infiltration bid along the Line of Control (LoC) in Gurez sector of north Kashmir's Bandipora district, killing three militants.

According to a defence spokesperson, the troops noticed suspicious movement along the LoC and challenged the intruders which led to a firefight.

"An infiltration bid has been foiled in Gurez sector. Three terrorists have been killed," he said.

"The operation against terrorists is still on," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said at 11.45 am.

On Sunday, security forces killed a militant was killed after an infiltration bid was foiled along the Line of Control in Machil sector in Jammu and Kashmirs Kupwara district.

In 2017, the Indian Army has foiled a total of 22 infiltration bids along the LoC in Jammu and Kashmir, and 38 armed intruders have been eliminated in such operations,
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Washington: Supporting India's membership bid to the Nuclear Suppliers Group, Donald Trump's administration has urged all the members of the elite club to support New Delhi's long-pending application.

India has applied for the membership of the 48-member Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) which controls the nuclear trade.

"The United States welcomed India's application to join the NSG and it continues to re-affirm that India is ready for the membership. The United States has called on NSG members to support India's application," the Department of Defence and Department of State said in a joint report.

In the report submitted to Congress as required under National Defence Authorisation Act (NDAA) 2017, the Trump administration also re-affirmed its support for India's membership in the Australia Group and Wassenaar Arrangement as soon as India meets each group's membership criteria.

The US and India share a commitment to preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their means of delivery, the report said.

"Since 2010, the US has supported India's membership in the four multilateral export control regimes Wassenaar Arrangement, NSG, Australia Group, and the Missile Technology Control Regime as India prepared to take the steps required for membership in each one," it said.

The US, the report said, welcomed India as a member of the Missile Technology Control Regime and its subscription to the Hague Code of Conduct Against Ballistic Missile Proliferation in June 2016.

The report notes that the future leadership of Defence Technology and Trade Initiative (DTTI) will consist of an individual with experience in defence acquisition and technology to reinforce and ensure the success of the US-India defence relationship. This individual will help resolve remaining issues impeding bilateral defence trade and other cooperation, it said.

The NDAA for FY 2017 also directs the Department to reorganise the Office of the USD (AT&L) into two new Under Secretary positions one for Research and Engineering (USD (R&E)) and one for Acquisition and Sustainment (USD (A&S)).

"This change will take effect no later than February 2018. The organisational responsibility for DTTI will be determined as part of the reorganisation of AT&L; however, this determination will not affect DTTI's ongoing work," the report said.

The US defence industry has provided India with proposals for F-16 Block 70 and F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter aircraft, the report said.

"These proposals will help create and maintain jobs in both countries and demonstrate the depth of our commitment to defence cooperation," it said.

Since 2008, the US and India have concluded more than USD 15 billion in defence trade, including the transfer from the US to India of C-130J and C-17 transport aircraft, P-8I maritime patrol aircraft, Harpoon missiles, Apache and Chinook helicopters, and M777 light-weight Howitzers.

India operates the second largest C-17 and P-8 fleets in the world, recently using its C-17s to deliver humanitarian assistance to Nepal and evacuate civilians from Yemen, the report added.

While India has garnered the support of a majority of the group's members, China has stuck to its stand that new members should sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT), making India's entry difficult as the group is guided by the consensus principle.

India is not a signatory to the NPT.
Mumbai: Residents of the Sai Darshan building in suburban Ghatkopar which collapsed on Tuesday met Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis and demanded strict punishment for the culprits.

An official from the chief minister's office said the residents also told Fadnavis about their rehabilitation requirements.

"The chief minister assured them of all necessary action, and directed the housing department to provide them with temporary shelter," the official said.

Fadnavis had announced in Legislative Council on Wednesday that the kin of those killed in the incident will be given an exgratia amount of Rs 5 lakh each.

The residential building collapsed on 25 July, killing 17 people.

Police have arrested local Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap for carrying out illegal structural changes in his ground-floor flats which allegedly led to the collapse.
New Delhi: The Centre Thursday rushed 10 additional NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) teams to Gujarat, which is reeling under floods and heavy rains, a senior official said.

Twenty-two teams, each with a strength of 45 personnel, are already operating in the state, and the additional ones will reach there Thursday night.

"Three teams each from the NDRF base in Ghaziabad and Mundali (Odisha), and four teams from Araokkonam in Tamil Nadu are being airlifted to strengthen relief and rescue efforts. All these teams are self-contained and shall be operational in worst flood affected areas of Gujarat by tomorrow morning," the official said.

10 additional flood rescue teams of NDRF being airlifted from UP, Odisha & TN for rescue & relief ops in flood affected areas of Gujarat pic.twitter.com/kqLRoNGOvc  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

The NDRF teams present in the state are engaged in rescue and relief operations in Ahmedabad, Gandhinagar, Aravalli, Bhuj, Banaskantha, Dwarka, Rajkot, Patan, Surat, Valsad and Morbi districts of the state.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had recently conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas and announced interim assistance of Rs 500 crore for the state.

In Gujarat, I also conducted an aerial survey of flood affected areas. https://t.co/l2RgNa6AXe pic.twitter.com/x8ofi9qOYP  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 25, 2017

Heavy rains had triggered floods in Banaskantha and Patan districts of Gujarat after which the Army, Indian Air Force and NDRF were called in for rescue and relief operations.

The death toll due to heavy rains and floods across the state stood at 123 till Wednesday.

Banaskantha and Patan are the worst-hit districts due to incessant downpour and the swelling Banas and Sipu rivers.
New Delhi: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq government's help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy VK Singh to Badush.

She also expressed India's support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their country's sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said on Thursday.

Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs.

"Swaraj reiterated Indian government's request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraq's continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi foreign minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken," the spokesperson said.

He also said Swaraj requested the Iraqi leader to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush whenever there was more information, to which the visiting dignitary readily agreed.

The visit by Singh will be more meaningful if there is more information with the Iraqi government, he said when asked when will the minister travel to Iraq.

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

Swaraj also congratulated the Iraqi minister over the liberation of the strategic city of Mosul on 9 July by Iraqi forces from the control of the terrorist organisation Islamic State.

She assured her Iraqi counterpart that India had always been, and remained strongly committed to a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, a ministry release said.

The minister also thanked Iraq for contributing significantly to India's energy security, being the second-largest supplier of crude oil to us.

The visiting minister appreciated India's steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the ITEC programme.

He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment.

The Iraqi foreign minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Swaraj welcomed, the release said.

The visiting minister thanked Swaraj for her letter of congratulations and for visit of Singh, who was the first senior foreign dignitary to visit Iraq after the liberation of Mosul.
"Slaughtering cows is banned in Cuba and those who violate the rule will be jailed for seven years. Cadres of Democratic Youth Federation of India (youth wing of Communist Party of India-Marxist) should realise this.

"Iran also has banned cow slaughter. And in Myanmar, those who slaughter cows will be deported.

"The habit of beef consumption was inculcated by the British. It was in 1760, the then East India Company Bengal Governor Robert Clive who had set up the first abattoir in Calcutta with a capacity of slaughtering 30,000 cows per day.

"Before 1760, there was not even one slaughterhouse in the country and cow slaughter, prostitution and drinking were deemed as major sins.

"The British East India Company, through an education system moulded by them, taught us that Aryans ate beef."

These are a few excerpts from a handbook titled Madangam Gramathilekk, Gowilekku, Krishiyilekku, Prakrithiyilekku (Lets return to the village, the cow, farming and nature) brought out by the Rashtriya Swayam Sevak (RSS) Keralas GoSeva Vibhagam for sensitising people on the need of protecting cows.

The book, which cautions against the colonial overhang in food habits, mainly beef consumption, stresses the need for a constitutional amendment to ban cow slaughter. Interestingly, the book also says that beef eating makes people fall sick.

The book claims that it is the drug manufacturing companies that benefit from beef festivals conducted in the country. "In 1948, the turnover of the drug manufacturing companies in the country Rs 12 crore. It rose to Rs 300 crore in 1971 and in 1990-91 the price of drugs sold across the country was to the tune of Rs 4,300 crore," the book says.

The book also claims that consumption of beef and red meat increases chances of developing prostate cancer by 9.5 percent for men and breast cancer for women. Kerala, which is the land of people who eat beef the most in Bharatham, has now become patients own land. Hospitals have flourished like mushrooms and are still houseful, it says.

The book says that using cows for farming gives better yield than using tractors and other machines.

When a tractor weighing 2,700 kg runs on a land, it will harm to living organs in the earth. It will harden the soil. Eventually, it will turn soil good for nothing, the book adds.

The book even states cultural reasons to stop eating beef. As per the report of the National Commission appointed by the Union government in 2002, beef is not the cultural food of Islam considering the fact that beef is not available in plenty in Saudi Arabia. There is legislation in England against selecting butcher as peoples representatives, the book says.

MS Giri, Thiruvananthapuram district prachar pramukh (publicity head) of the RSS, told Firstpost that the book aims to educate people who are participating in debates on cow slaughter ban. "When they present RSS stand on cow slaughter, they should be well aware of the issue. If they are clear, we would be able to convey a clear message to people and garner momentum for our ideology," Giri said. "Cow slaughter is not permissible in Indian culture. We are taught to worship the cow. There are umpteen number of reasons to do so," he said.

Last May, the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests imposed a ban on the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter at animal markets across India, under Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Statutes.

The decision was challenged by several groups at different high courts and even in the Supreme Court stating that the Centre is dictating eating habits and is an encroachment on state powers.

Subash Chandran, a Supreme Court lawyer who sought a stay on the government order which bans cow slaughter, told Firstpost that the parent Act, which government refers itself says that cattle can be slaughtered for food and religious purposes.

Currently, the stay is in place. However, a right wing organisation has filed an objection seeking a modification. So, the next hearing is on 4 August. We are confident that Supreme Court will stick to the facts, rules and laws and continue the stay," the advocate said.

Currently, 24 out of 29 states in India have various regulations prohibiting either the slaughter or sale of cows. And Kerala, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim are the states where there are no restrictions on cow slaughter.

Even though many see the cow slaughter ban as beef consumption ban, the Central government justifies it as only regulation of cattle trade in the country to ensure 'unfit and infected cattle' are not sold.

Many believe that the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre is imposing Brahmanical food practices among Indians. When the Central government issued the cattle slaughter ban in May, Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi demanding that the restrictions on cattle trade by the centre be repealed.

As a symbolic defiance, Congress and Communist activists in Kerala conducted 'beef fests' across the state, cooking and eating beef in public places in symbolic defiance.

In his letter, Pinarayi cautioned Modi about the serious impact the decision would have on the livelihoods of millions of Indians and how it violated fundamental principles of our Constitution. May I remind you that meat is the primary source of protein for millions of poor and ordinary people in this country, particularly Dalits, he said. Beef is also the preferred meat in northeastern states like Nagaland and Meghalaya.

Meanwhile, reports claim that violence centred on bovine issues is on the rise in India. According to a survey, in the first six months of 2017, 20 cow-terror attacks were reported which is more than 75 percent of the 2016 figure, which was the worst year for such violence since 2010. The attacks include mob lynching, attacks by vigilantes, murder and attempt to murder, harassment, assault and gang-rape.

In two attacks, the victims/survivors were chained, stripped and beaten, while in two others, the victims were hanged. These attacks  sometimes collectively referred to as gautankwad, a portmanteau of the Hindi words for cow and terrorism, on social media  were reported from 19 of 29 Indian states.
New Delhi: The response to floods in states like Assam and Gujarat has been the "quickest ever possible", the government said on Thursday while making it clear that there was no "bias" in its approach and intent in providing rescue teams and relief funds.

Replying to a call attention motion in the Rajya Sabha on the situation arising out of recent floods in the country, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said strict instructions have been issued to NDRF teams that there should be no delay in providing relief because of "human error".

Paramilitary forces have also been told to be ready to respond to the situation, he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a direction that top priority should be given to tackle the disaster, be it manmade or natural.

Rijiju also said that states have enough funds in their kitty to tackle disasters and the Centre only supplements with additional relief amount when it gets exhausted.

"I can assure this House that the government is fully committed to ensure that nobody suffers due to want of the action from the Government of India. We are fully committed. We reassure state governments that we will be there whenever you require us," he said.

"Whether it is Assam or the current problem being faced in Gujarat, the disaster response has been quickest ever possible," he said, adding that relief work was in progress.

As many as 20 states, including Assam, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal, have been affected by heavy rains or floods during the current southwest monsoon season.

As per the information of damages received from states, 600 people have lost their lives, 24,811 cattle heads have perished, 63,215 houses/huts damaged and about 2.8 lakh hectare of crop reportedly affected due to heavy rains, floods and landslides, he said in response to 20 members who participated in the discussion.

Stating that declaring natural calamity as national disaster was "not enough", Rijiju said "We have to treat the problem in the manner which it deserves."

"The problem in Assam and surrounding states of Arunchal Pradesh and Manipur are of severe nature. When it is a disaster of severe nature, the response of the government is also correspoding to the requirement on the ground," he said, adding he was satisfied with the efforts

"The Government of India cannot be biased in its approach and its intent. It is very clear," he said, adding that the prime minister cannot visit every place and even the minister cannot go and settle the issues on the ground.

On the Opposition charges that the Centre was washing its hands off from its responsibility, Rijiju said, "The primary responsibility to deal with natural calamities rests with states. This is not the question of relieve responsibility."

The Centre cannot take over the district administration. Naturally the state has to respond. The Centre supplements the efforts of the state governments by providing financial and logistic support to effectively deal with such exigent situations, he added.

Clearing some members' misgivings that the Centre was not releasing or delaying relief funds, he said "it is not the case. Morever, it is not the political issue. We cannot afford to just sit back and respond whenever it is required."

Earlier, some Opposition members had charged the government with ignoring its responsibilities and mismanagement in dealing with the situation.

He also said that the concerned states are taking necessary relief measures and state authorities are monitoring rainfall, water level of rivers and dams in coordination with IMD and Central Water Commission as well as issuing weather advisories to all vulnerable districts.

On charges of delay in release of central relief funds, the Rijiju said, "The provision is very clear and simple and it is streamlined. Every state been given funds and released in every first week of April of the year. That is in the kitty of the state government. That is the advance money."

The Centre releases the second installment after assessing the nature of the disaster, he said. "It is not easy to assess the total cost of damage at one go. It takes time. There are systems. To say that the systems get very late may not be appropriate," he said.

He also said that the Rs 500 crore relief fund announced for Gujarat floods was part of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) which was due to the state. It has not been given from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF).

The Centre has deployed about 88 specialised NDRF teams in 26 states/UTs with 304 boats another necessary search and rescue equipments. Based on vulnerability profile of different regions, the NDRF teams have been presently stationed/deployed in 12 headquarters.

Highlighting the relief measures undertaken in Assam, Rijiju said the Centre has given adequate funds to state and there was no pending amount.

"For the present situation, total of 61,299 quintal of rice, 11,574 quintals of dals, 3,708 quintals of salt and 20,308 quintals of oil has been distributed," he said and expressed satisfication over the way the state government is dealing with the disaster.

Stating that there are bound to be misery when any severe natural disaster strikes, he said that one needs to be clear that the impact of natural disaster is going to be on the ground even in countries like the US and Japan who are supposed to be efficient in dealing with such situations.

"When disaster strikes, there are bound to be miseries and effect on the ground. That is why, we have to bear with it and that is why the government is there for."

So, clear instruction been given to Natural Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams not to delay in providing relief because of "human error or any intentional cause should be there which affects any of the victim."

Pointing out that states have not used funds provided under the SDRF fully, Rijiju said despite that, the Centre has been supporting them with additional funds.

"Maximum amount been given under NDRF is to Karnataka for drought...There is no zero balance in the account of any state under SDRF. There are money left with every state government," he said adding that additional grant will be given after SDRF is exhausted.

For the 2017-18 fiscal, Rs 9,382.80 crore has been allocated as central share to all states in their SDRF accounts. Of which, an amount of Rs 3,387.15 crore has so far been released to 21 states.

That apart, additional assistance from NDRF amounting Rs 1,555.84 crore has been provided this year to different states affected by calamities of severe nature.

On cloud burst forecast, Rijiju said it was difficult to predict though scientists across the world are making efforts and the government is more focusing on mitigating disaster risk.
The Madras High Court is a court in whose jurisdiction hundreds of thousands of cases of murder, rape, theft, arson, family disputes, property disputes and various other issues pertaining to the real world are pending with no sign of backlog getting cleared. In its esteemed view, the court has decided that given this state of affairs, the best use of its time is to prioritise orders on making the singing of a song mandatory by hearing a case that has nothing to do with singing.

The Madras High Court has ordered the people of Tamil Nadu, among whom Tamils are a huge majority, to compulsorily demonstrate their patriotism by singing a Bangla song Bande Mataram (not Vande Mataram as it is erroneously called) written by a Bengali addressing the people of then-Bengal (a majority of which is now a sovereign nation state called the Peoples Republic of Bangladesh). This is not ridiculous. This is not absurd. This is not crossing the limits of ones powers. This is not anything that might be deemed to be disrespectful towards the Madras High Courts order.

The court order makes compulsory the playing and singing of Vande Mataram, the corrupted version of Bande Mataram, in a variety of places at various frequencies. The order states:

"The National Song Vande Mataram shall be played and sung in all schools/colleges/universities and other educational institutions at least once a week (preferably on Monday or Friday). The National Song Vande Mataram shall be played and sung in all government offices and institutions/private companies/factories and industries at least once a month. The Director of Public Information is directed to upload and circulate the translated version of Vande Mataram in Tamil and English thereby making it available on government websites and social media.

Let a copy of this order be marked to the chief secretary of the government of Tamil Nadu, who shall issue appropriate instructions to the concerned authorities. In the event, any person/organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the National Song, he or she shall not be compelled or forced to sing it, provided there are valid reasons for not doing so. The youth of this country are the future of tomorrow. This court hopes and trusts that this order shall be taken in the right spirit and also implemented in letter and spirit by the citizenry of this great nation."

Earlier, such mandatory singing of certain songs or making certain postures was largely limited to Hindi-belt politicians of the Hindutva ilk. Now the judiciary seems to like what these Hindi-belt Hindutva-types have preached for long. Whether that is purely coincidental after 2014 is not something on which I would be able to speculate.

It just so happens that is Bande Mataram song is not at all a song about the Indian Union in any form. It is a song about Bengal and in the song, the author Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is rather explicit about that fact. The full version of the song mentions seven crore children of the motherland (which was approximately undivided Bengals population at the time  the population of British acquisitions in South Asia that were packaged as India had a population of 23 crore then). Chattopadhyay could imagine Bengalis only hailing Mother Bengal  there will be people today who will take such an invocation in West Bengal today as treasonous. Even the so-called "Bharat Mata" concept is a repackaged and renamed version of Mother Bengal of Abanindranath Thakur .

Now, all of this can hopefully be erased from public memory via NCERT in times to come, but as of now these facts exist in the public domain for verification. To the chagrin of many, both Chattopadhyay and Thakur have already made their respective marks and passed away, hence, they cant be included in committees or given election tickets so that they can revise what they have already created. It is unfortunate that non-Bengalis have taken as their touchstone of patriotism and motherland love a song that is not about their motherland, but about a land where the major part is now known as Bangladesh. That reflects a serious lack of imagination.

If that was not enough, the high court has now decided that Tamils must demonstrate their patriotism and loyalty to the Indian Union by singing paeans to undivided Bengal, and hence, Bangladesh. That must be a very weird test or demonstration of patriotism for ones own homeland  especially so when the court, in its judgment, insists that they also sing a Hindi-pronunciation corrupted version of the song written by Chattopadhyay.

As is clear from the Madras High Courts order, it recognises that the song itself is not widely known in Tamil Nadu and for the song to be widely known in Tamil Nadu, it has to be in Tamil. Note how when the issue is about actually getting people to know something as opposed to excluding people from it, Hindi becomes irrelevant in Tamil Nadu. If the Madras High Court recognises this, how come the Union government offices and institutions in non-Hindi states insist on Hindi? I do not expect the Madras High Court to pass any order making the dominant non-Hindi language of a non-Hindi state mandatory in Union government offices of a non-Hindi state.

Courts are part of a system and do not stand outside the system. The same court that has directed a Tamil version for Bande Mataram has not showed much inclination to make Tamil the language of the Madras High Court. Neither has the Madras High Court ever directed the Union government to produce an official Tamil version of the Constitution of India, without which there is no concept of a national song. The priorities of the Madras High Court are quite clear. Incidentally, the official English translator of Bande Mataram, the revolutionary turned ascetic Aurobindo Ghosh had called for this very song to be the National Anthem of Bengal. Bande Mataram is only national when the nation in question is Bengal. As of now, no one has prosecuted Aurobindo posthumously for treason.

The courts job is to give pronouncements according to the laws of the land. From which law of the land do these singing frequencies of once a month or Monday/Friday originate? What is a valid reason for not singing the song? Is the refusal of a Tamil to compulsorily sing praises of Mother Bengal a valid reason? The song is in Bangla. Which article of the Constitution states that a Tamil must know a certain Bangla song? If a Tamil doesnt know a Bangla song (a Bangla song translated into Tamil is still a Bangla song) or refuses to learn it, what article of the Constitution forces anyone to learn Bangla? None, as far as I know.

Now, if this person is prosecuted, is not the person being prosecuted for knowing only Tamil? What about those Tamils who are illiterate and only know one spoken language  their mother tongue. Why are standards on patriotism then different between Bangla speakers (who sing a song in their language) or a Tamil speaker, a literate person or an illiterate one? Why are such demonstrations of patriotism to be limited to schools given the huge drop-out rates of schools? Why only two-days? Why not every day? Why not every hour or every waking moment? Can constant demonstration of patriotism ever be a bad thing? If so, singing of Bande Mataram compulsorily how many times is good and when does it become bad, if it is bad at all? Why dont all Indian citizens sing Bande Mataram all the time?

Why is the site of singing limited to offices? What about work sites? The domestic helps worksite is the moneyed persons home. Shouldnt the domestic help be singing, once a month? Should the woman carrying a load of cement doing contract work on real estate projects be singing, once a month, as she unloads. May be the court should also pass an order which would direct employers that no salary can be deducted for "National Song singing time" given that most labourers have chunks deducted from their salaries for peeing for too long or arriving five minutes late or being sick like other human beings. Should farmers in the arid lands of drought-hit areas and deserts also sing a song about some "Sujola, Sufola (water-filled, fruit-filled)" mother by taking a break from suicide contemplation? What if West Bengalis start singing this song with the actual meaning of the song in mind? Will they be prosecuted for partial loyalty to Bangladesh? Or will some deeper test of deeper loyalty be devised then? And mind you, the order says nothing about compulsory singing in courts.

Prior to 1947, the British wanted natives to compulsorily sing God Save the King/Queen. There was a compulsion because natives were not citizens, but subjects. The Indian Union has been a republic since 1950. How can any man-made Constitution force any citizen to be a certain way mentally as long as that is not causing any harm to any living being? What if a person is not too enamoured by Mother India or Mother Bengal? What is the kind of love that one has to perform under duress? You can answer that question.
Mumbai: Kicking off a fresh controversy over "Vande Mataram", BJP Maharashtra lawmaker Raj Purohit on Thursday announced that he would ask the state government to introduce a policy making the national song's singing compulsory.

"I will urge Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis that Maharashtra should adopt a policy on the lines of the Madras High Court judgement making singing of 'Vande Mataram' compulsory," Purohit told media persons.

Immediately reacting, state Samajwadi Party President and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said that though he had great respect for 'Vande Mataram', he would not sing it under any circumstances, come what may.

"When India was partitioned, nowhere it was said that if we (Muslims) stayed back in India, we would be forced to sing it. You may shoot me or throw me out of the country, but we will not sing it," he said.

Joining him, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Waris Pathan declared he would not comply to sing 'Vande Mataram' even at gun-point or if a knife was put to his throat.

He said the AIMIM has always opposed it and will continue so if it raised in the legislature.

The two said nobody should be forced to prove their "nationalism" by singing the song and no true Muslim will sing it as Islam does not permit it.

Transport Minister Diwakar Raote, of the Shiv Sena, joined the issue by terming the duo "traitors."

"They are traitors. They should be aware that 'Vande Mataram' symbolises nationalism and our soldiers are laying down their lives for the country. If they feel so ashamed and don't want to sing, they better go to Pakistan," Raote said.

In his interactions with media, Purohit said that he would urge the chief minister to make a rule making it compulsory to sing 'Vande Mataram' in schools, colleges, government offices and other places on the lines of the Madras HC judgement, and even raise the matter in the legislature, if required.

There have been no reactions from the two main opposition parties  the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party  on the issue so far.
Mumbai: Human trafficking, especially of children, is a big menace for the society and the Maharashtra government has taken a slew of steps to deal with the issue, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said.

The cases of child trafficking have come down drastically in the state, where special cells have been set up in vulnerable districts to curb the menace, he said.

"I must say that human trafficking, especially of children, is a big menace. The Maharashtra government has acted strictly due to which the cases of child trafficking have come down drastically," he said.

Fadnavis was speaking at the inaugural session of a two-day international conference on women trafficking that began in Mumbai.

"The state government has constituted special cells in 12 vulnerable districts and set up special courts for speedy trial of trafficking cases. The conviction rate in such cases is 50 per cent (in Maharashtra), which is very good compared to the other states of the country," he said.

The chief minister hailed the efforts of police in rescuing children from the clutches of traffickers.

Fadnavis, who also holds the home portfolio, said 10,000 children have been freed by police under a special initiative called 'Operation Muskan'.

He appealed to the international community to come forward and forge an alliance to curb trafficking of women, which has cross-border implications.

Over 300 delegates from 20 countries are attending the conference.

Addressing the delegates, Fadnavis said, "I would like to assure you all that whatever is the outcome of the conference, whatever strategy you devise, we will be a part of it and implement it."

The Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW), in partnership with an NGO, the International Justice Mission, India chapter, has organised the seminar.

During the meet, the speakers will deliberate on various aspects of the trade of humans and discuss strategies on preventing and combating it.
New Delhi: Rebutting charges that some schools were teaching Sanskrit but not the regional languages, HRD Minister Prakash Javedkar on Thursday said the government has not imposed any language on any student in the country.

He was responding to KK Ragesh of CPM in the Rajya Sabha who said some schools were not teaching the regional language, but Sanskrit.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Ragesh said Sanskrit was being made compulsory in schools.

"Government is trying to make Sanskrit compulsory up to Class X," the CPM member said, demanding the HRD Minister's response.

To this, Javedkar replied that he has said several times that "we are not imposing any language on any student" and the schools follow the 3-Indian language formula. He also stressed that no language has been made compulsory.

Deputy chairman PJ Kurien said Sanskrit too is an Indian language.

Earlier, Sanjeev Kumar (JMM) alleged that tribals were being killed or made to surrender in the name of eliminating the Naxals. Referring to the killing of one Motilal Baske in Jharkhand, Kumar sought an enquiry into the matter.

Agreeing with him, D Raja (CPI) said it was a serious issue.

Vijila Sathyananth (AIADMK) demanded that the government should not go ahead with the privatisation of the Salem steel plant in Tamil Nadu. She said the state-owned company should be given a chance to improve and turn around.

In his mention, Tiruchi Siva (DMK) demanded that GST rate on restaurants should be lowered from the current 28 percent, and sanitary napkins should be taken out of the ambit of the new indirect tax regime.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to flood-hit Gujarat and announcement of Rs 500-crore package for the state has drawn flak from various sections in Assam, who have alleged neglect of their state by the central government.

While Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a prominent farmers' organisation in Assam, has condemned the attitude of the prime minister, Congress spokesman and former state minister Pradyut Bordoloi blasted the prime minister and the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre for Assam's neglect.

They alleged that the central government was neglecting devastating floods in Assam that have led to 76 persons' death and affected over 25 lakh residents. The ASDMA said around 90,000 people suffered in Lakhimpur, Biswanath, Barpeta, Morigaon, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Golaghat, Jorhat, Sivasagar, Karimganj and Cachar districts.

"We do not have any objection to the prime minister announcing Rs 500 crore for the state of Gujarat. But people of Assam are also suffering from devastating floods. What stopped him from announcing a package for Assam to tide over the situation?" asked KMSS president Akhil Gogoi.

"The prime minister often delivers emotional dialogues regarding Assam and the Northeast. But he should have considered Assam even when the state is witnessing one of its worst ever floods. The central government has sent a team now when the water has started receding. What will they see and assess now?" asked Gogoi.

Bordoloi said the people of Assam and Northeast had long been suffering from the Centre's neglect. "Earlier, prime ministers at least made attempts to reach out to people here in times of crisis. But Modi visits Assam only during elections or to inaugurate a bridge which was originally constructed by the Congress," Bordoloi said.

"He is a good actor and he has shown his true colours with his visit to Gujarat, which is economically stronger than Assam. He did not even have time to visit Assam, he sent a junior minister to take stock of the situation here," said Bordoloi, adding that this showed the government's seriousness towards the issue.

Modi, who flew over Banaskantha, Sabarkantha and Patan districts of north Gujarat, had said a team of the union urban development and rural development ministries would visit the state to assess the extent of damage and suggest short-term as well as long-term measures.

Modi told reporters at the Ahmedabad airport, "In such situations, it is the farmers who suffer the most. Insurance companies may be advised to quickly organise assessment of damage to crops and assets of farmers to initiate immediate steps to settle claims."

Modi was accompanied by Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani and deputy chief minister Nitin Patel during the aerial survey.

However, Assam's BJP leader and state health and education minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said that the people of the state were not a showpiece that leaders needed to come here to see them. "We have the power to withstand our sorrows. We'll call the prime minister to the state whenever we achieve something," said Sarma, rebutting the criticism.

At least 25 persons, including 14 members of one family, were found dead on Wednesday in two villages of Gujarat's Banaskantha district due to floods following torrential rains.

According to the state emergency operation centre, the death toll across the state in the current monsoon stood at 94. In all, Gujarat has registered 534 mm of rain, which is 66 percent of its total seasonal average of 810 mm. "Three persons lost their lives in the last 24 hours in Banaskantha," Patel said.

As many as 46,000 people have been moved to safety in Banaskantha till Tuesday evening, even as 1,000 more were rescued. A total of 472 villages in the district are without electricity, with six national highways, 61 other roads and 287 panchayat roads closed for vehicular traffic.

With inputs from agencies
Angry at not being invited to form the government, the RJD on Thursday threatened it will not allow the monsoon session of the Bihar Assembly to be run unless new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi resign.

The monsoon session of the state Assembly begins on Friday.

Nitish Kumar, who along with the BJP formed a new government on Thursday, will have to prove his majority in the next two days on the floor of the House.

Demanding that Nitish Kumar and Modi resign, senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh said: "RJD is the largest party in the state Assembly. We have majority but were not invited by the Governor to form government. The RJD will not allow the Assembly to function," Singh said.

Singh, a former Minister, said the RJD will reply to Nitish Kumar for his "cheating and betrayal" at its August 27 party rally.

RJD leader Manoj Jha said Nitish Kumar has acted against the people's mandate by joining hands with the BJP to form government. "Mandate of the 2015 Assembly polls was against the BJP. It is like dacoity," Jha, RJD spokesperson, said.

Another senior RJD leader Abdul Bari Siddiqui said it is an "old habit" of Nitish Kumar to dump one party to join hands with another to form the government. "Earlier he dumped the BJP and joined hands with RJD to be in power, now he again joined hands with BJP and formed the government," he said.

Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, senior RJD leader and former Union Minister, said Nitish Kumar has betrayed the people and acted against the wishes of people. "Nitish Kumar will face the anger of people and its consequence," he said.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad's wife and former Chief Minister Rabri Devi said "Nitish Kumar used to talk to Laluji in the day time and with BJP leaders at night".
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Thursday agreed to examine a plea which has alleged that two questions in the 2017 preliminary examination of the prestigious Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) were "wrong".

A three-judge bench, headed by Justice Dipak Misra, asked the petitioner, who was arguing the matter in-person, to serve a copy of the plea to the Centre's counsel and fixed it for hearing on 1 August.

However, when the petitioner asked the bench, also comprising Justices Amitava Roy and AM Khanwilkar, as to what will happen if the results of the UPSC prelims exam, 2017 is declared by 1 August, the court said, "Do you think we will stay the result? We will see what is to be done".

UPSC aspirant Ashita Chawla, who has filed the petition, claimed before the apex court that a "couple of questions" in the UPSC preliminary examination were "wrong".

"There are rules for determining whether the questions are wrong? The result is yet to be declared. It (result) will come out any day," she told the bench.

The bench observed that her plea cannot be treated as a public interest litigation (PIL) as she had only put forth her grievance in the personal capacity.

The UPSC had conducted the civil service preliminary exam 2017 on 18 June. The preliminary examination consisted of two papers having objective type questions and they carried a maximum of 400 marks.

The petitioner has claimed that this year's preliminary examination paper had questions with multiple answers and many of them could have been answered on the subjective interpretation of the examinees.

She has also referred to earlier judgements of the apex court which had said that a question has two or more corrects answers should be considered as incorrect.
Shiv Sena worker Sunil Shitap who has emerged as the main accused in the collapse of Ghatkopar's Siddhi Sai Apartment on Tuesday morning, in which 17 people died and 6 injured, is known as a land grabber who runs a syndicate with BMC and police for illegal construction in Ghatkopar, Vikroli and Powai area.

Shitap, who was produced in Vikhroli court, was remanded to police custody till 2 August on Wednesday. According to Joint Police Commissioner (Law and Order) Deven Bharti, Shitap was booked for culpable homicide. An FIR has been registered at Vikhroli's Parksite Police Station.

When Firstpost visited the spot where Siddhi Sai Apartment collapsed, the locals and survivors alleged that extensive repairs were carried out in ground floor maternity home, which is owned by Shitap. Some residents also said that Shitap had removed the load bearing pillar, due to this the four storey building collapsed.

Though Shitap is not in the list of Shiv Sena office bearer  as several Shiv Sena MLAs have claimed  he has been using his contacts to enter in politics. In the last Assembly election, Shitap sought a Shiv Sena ticket from Raigad, but the party rejected him. Shitap's wife Swati contested the BMC poll in February 2016 on a Shiv Sena ticket from Damodar park in Ghatkopar, but lost to Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's Archana Bhalerao. Interestingly, Sai Siddhi Apartment which collapsed on Tuesday falls in the same area.

Shitap is also considered close to several Shiv Sena MLAs, divisional leaders and corporators. Shitap also helps Senas Ghatkopar unit in party activities. But unlike his political career, Shitap has been a successful businessman. The Shiv Sena worker started as a newspaper vendor and then entered in cable networking field. The cable business helped Shitap become popular in a short span of time.

According to sources, Shitap runs three hotels, two bars and restaurants, and more than two dozen flats, shops and commercial activities in Ghatkopar, Vikroli and Powai, sources said. The Rude Lounge in Powai, also constructed in an open place, is owned by Shitap.

Sources at Ghatkopar's BMC office told Firstpost that Shitap had encroached the open space under Siddhi Sai Apartment, and constructed a permanent structure with help from local BMC officer and the police.

In 2009, the BMC had allowed to change land use for the ground floor to become a nursing home. Bhagyashree Kapse, Assistant Commissioner of BMC N ward, told Firstpost that Shitap didnt ask for permissions to carry out new renovations. Kapse said that the renovations  during which some of the main pillars supporting the building were removed  are being investigated.

Local residents, however, told Firstpost that Shitap is closely connected with the BMC, the police and political parties. Shitap owned three of the five flats in the apartments, which were amalgamated into the nursing home. For this too, Shitap didn't take permission from the BMC or the local residents, sources said.

But this is not the only case of encroachment against Shitap, and chances are that the Shiv Sena worker may just be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to illegal encroachments in Mumbai, and the close nexus between politicians, the BMC and the police.

In April 2017, Shitap constructed a 5,000 square feet structure at Sainath Nagar in Ghatkopar west. At that time the BMC demolished the structure. But Shitap's political connections came to his rescue. Surprisingly while the BMC suspended assistant commissioner SM Dwivedi in May 2017 in the case, Sub Engineer Vishal Sakharkar who is also involved in the encroachment case is still working in BMC's Ghatkopar office. According to sources, Sakharkar is considered to be working in close nexus with Shitap.
Amid the daily dose of bellicose rhetoric from Chinese state-controlled media on the standoff at Sikkim sector, one editorial stood out for its oddity. It seemed unbalanced by even the 'exalted' standards of Global Times but nevertheless gave an interesting peek into Chinese strategic thinking on India.

The writer suggested that "rising Hindu nationalism" is pushing India to the brink of a war against China. According to the writer, "Modi took advantage of rising Hindu nationalism to come to power In diplomacy, New Delhi is demanded to act tougher in foreign relations, especially toward countries like Pakistan and China. The border row this time is an action targeted at China that caters to the demand of India's religious nationalists." Not stopping here, Yu Ning added, "Modi government can do nothing if religious nationalism becomes extreme, as shown in its failure to curb violent incidents against Muslims since he came to power in 2014."

Border skirmishes with China trace back to almost the emergence of India as a sovereign nation. We have fought one war in 1962 and clashed several other times over 3,488 kilometres of undefined border. To suddenly attribute a tri-national border dispute in the high Himalayas to compulsions of India's domestic politics and to try and create fissures within India's civil society by sly suggestions of dissension cannot be put down to the fertile imagination of one writer or one newspaper. Dig a little deeper and minor, almost obscure clues emerge of a Chinese grand stratagem.

Ever since Indian troops, since June, prevented a Chinese road-constructing party led by the PLA from unilaterally changing the status quo at the Dolam plateau  a geographically and strategically sensitive tri-junction  China has threatened all-out war and launched an intense media-driven psy-op. It has also been taking some unconventional steps.

YouTube is banned in China, but that didn't stop Li Ya, political counsellor of the Chinese Embassy in India, from uploading a video claiming that Doka La is Chinese territory. It has briefed P5 envoys about PLA "running out of patience", claimed that India has "admitted to trespassing inside China", and has demanded unconditional withdrawal  knowing well that such an action would jeopardize India's relationship with Bhutan and expose a strategic vulnerability in Siliguri.

Warnings have also been issued against India growing "too close to the US" and it didn't escape anyone's attention that the current impasse coincided with Modi's maiden meeting with US President Donald Trump. Chinese scholars have also pointed out that India's US alliance will bring no tangible benefits.

Simultaneously, its ambassador to India Luo Zhaohui has chosen this particular time to meet Opposition leaders inimical to Modi, discussed Doka La standoff with Pakistan envoy Abdul Basit and sent his wife to Bhutan to meet the royalty. Some Indian leaders such as Mamata Banerjee and Mehbooba Mufti have voiced concerns about growing Chinese interference in the border regions of West Bengal and Jammu and Kashmir. All hands point towards China's attempts to tap India's political, ethnic and religious fault lines in an effort to weaken the hand of current Indian leadership. The question is, why?

To understand China's discomfort with the Modi-led NDA government, we need to look beyond the immediate and trace the prime minister's course of action since getting elected to the chair in 2014. Modi has recognised that India's strategic vulnerability in the border regions, due to a mismatch in infrastructure development, makes our military strength appear smaller in comparison than it really is. And he has also been quick to realise that the best bet against China's 'not-so-peaceful' rise lies in scaling up of our own game in terms of regional (and eventually global) commercial influence.

To take the second point first, India has criminally neglected spreading its economic influence in the South Asian and Asia Pacific regions despite having a long coastline that facilitates maritime trade and commerce. Decades of little or no effort, coinciding with China's aggressive building of capacities, has created an ever-increasing gap of geo-economic advantage that China has demonstrably exploited.

Landlocked China has had a trade flow of $380 billion with ASEAN nations in 2014 while India, which should have dominated maritime trade, have an annual trade of a meager of $58.5 billion (in 2015) to boast of. China has translated this economic influence into geopolitical advantage and has gone into a position where it can further dictate the flow of trade through its ambitious Belt and Road project.

Modi has sought to aggressively address this anomaly, and has taken a string of steps to prop up economic integration through a 'Neighbourhood First' policy. For instance, as Ellen L Frost, senior adviser at the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University, notes in her piece for Carnegie India, "Owing to various disputes with Bangladesh, New Delhi had been unable to obtain approval from Dhaka for transit and transport rights until Modis visit to Bangladesh in June 2016. Before the agreement was concluded, it took weeks for a container to be transported from Delhi to Dhaka, whereas transport by rail through Bangladesh would take only two or three days."

Modi has also taken other initiatives like the Motor Vehicle Agreement involving Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, and Nepal (BBIN) in 2015. Towards this end, India recently joined the United Nations TIR Convention  the 71st nation to do so  to place itself as a regional trading and transit hub through an international customs transit system with the widest geographical coverage, as Indrani Bagchi notes in Economic Times. This is expected to iron out, for instance, the policy incompatibilities of the BBIN group, says the report.

These are fundamental steps. They won't throw up immediate results but will eventually increase India's geopolitical and geo-economic influence and consequently limit, to a certain extent, China's influence over smaller nations around the two Asian giants.

It is possible that China is aware of the transitional steps being taken by the Modi government, and in conjunction with India's refusal to be a part of the vaunted BRI platform, interprets India's overall policy direction being aimed at ultimately limiting China's rise.

In May this year, India and Japan proposed the forming of an Asia-Africa sea corridor  a maritime route to link African continent with India, South Asia and South-East Asia through "rediscovering of ancient sea-routes" and by "creating new sea corridors" that will draw on India's expertise in Africa and Japan's capacity in technology and infrastructure-building.

As the Indian Express report notes, "...apart from India and Japan, South Africa, Mozambique, Indonesia, Singapore, and Australia sent representatives for the consultation process." On the infrastructure side, Modi government is rapidly scaling up road-building along the strategic Himalayan border areas, long neglected by India due to a fatal cocktail of wrong policy, lack of capacity and bureaucratic red tape.

Some of these roads are being built in inhospitable and mind-bogglingly difficult terrain where a bulldozer needs to be dismantled into several parts and flown in by choppers in absence of any other logistical options. The mountains in these regions are tricky, and advances are frequently reversed by landslides. Relocating tribes in these regions provide another logistical and humanitarian challenge.

As Niharika Mandhana, reporting from such an inhospitable clime in Arunachal Pradesh where road-building is going on right earnest under the aegis of India's military planners, writes in Wall Street Journal, "...to assert its sovereignty and develop Arunachal Pradesh the Modi administration awarded $900 million in road contracts in 2016-17, a fivefold jump from the two preceding years. A new government company is acquiring land and hiring private builders to complete 400 miles by 2020.

The prime minister recently inaugurated India's longest bridge at 9.2 kilometre across the Brahmaputra in Arunachal Pradesh, which is expected to facilitate smooth movement of troops. Defense analyst KV Kuber told Bloomberg that the "bridge is a great strategic shift in the thinking in the Indian defense establishment regarding infrastructure development in the borders with China (and) will. help the Indian military to be prepared for a decent rebuttal to ward off any misadventure from the Chinese side."

Modi has also speeded up the building of 73 roads in the Himalayan border region which have been hanging fire since Manmohan Singh's time, new tunnels are coming up in western Arunachal Pradesh and border roads are being built in Ladakh region to provide Indian Army with crucial logistical advantage.

This road-building spree and stress on maritime trade and commerce have obviously raised China's threat perception about India. Chinese warfare strategy, drawing from its ancient military traditions, is reliant on deceit and perception control. The germination of Doka La standoff may well lie in its apprehensions about the Modi regime.
Raipur: Six Naxals, including a section commander carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head, on Thursday surrendered in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, citing disappointment with the "hollow" Maoist ideology, police said.

The cadres, including a woman, turned themselves in before the senior police and administrative officials in Bijapur town, Superintendent of Police KL Dhruv told PTI.

Hapka Payku (25), one of the Naxals who surrendered, was active as the section commander of military platoon No. 13 of the Maoists. He was carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head, the SP said.

Besides, Madvi Sonu (27), an local organisation squad member, had a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, he said.

The other Naxals who surrendered were identified as Kadti Bheema (25), Raju Ram Modiyam (22), Podiyam Moti (27) and the woman rebel, Vekko Aytu (27).

While Bheema was a janmilitia commander, Aytu was operating as the head of the Janatana Sarkar group of Maoists in Bhairamgarh area, the SP said.

The police officer claimed that in their statements, all the ultras expressed disappointment over the hollow ideology of the outlawed Naxal movement and violence.

Moreover, they were impressed with the provisions of the state government's surrender and rehabilitation policy which compelled them to join the mainstream, he said.

The rebels who surrendered were given Rs 10,000 cash each as 'encouragement money', he added.
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After two MLAs resigned from Gujarat Congress earlier on Thursday, another legislator has also quit the party. The development comes as the state will go for poll later this year.

Another Gujarat Congress MLA P I Patel resigns from the party. Balwantsinh Rajput and Tejashree Patel had resigned earlier pic.twitter.com/q7GYbF8IlF  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

According to The Hindu, the two leaders  Balwantsinh Rajput and Tejashree Patel  resigned as legislators in the middle of elections for three Rajya Sabha seats. Rajput and Patel submitted their resignation to Assembly Speaker Ramanlal Vora. ANI reported that all three MLAs joined BJP.

The move comes after senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela resigned from the party during his 77th birthday on Friday, 21 July, according to a previous Firstpost article.

The article mentioned that Vaghela's resignation comes as shock news for the Congress party, a party that is already battling fighting among its senior leaders.

In the article, Vidyut Joshi, a political analyst said, "Vaghela's exit weakens the party in north Gujarat. He alone could have been advantage Congress in at least a dozen seats in north Gujarat, where the BJP is in a sticky wicket because of the Patel agitation."

Vaghela claimed to be a victim of conspiracy, because of which Congress had shown him the door, as reported by Hindustan Times. However, Congress denied any such notions. No action was taken against Shankersingh Vaghelaji nor was he expelled.These are baseless arguments.Its his decision, said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

PTI reported that Vaghela enjoys substantial support in northern Gujarat. However, the leader did not clearly mention whether he would be joining the BJP.
National Democratic Alliance's vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu lived up to his colourful style of speaking on Thursday. The senior BJP leader said that the initials of former president Dr APJ Abdul Kalam stand for "Anything is Possible with Just Attitude and Karma."

He made the comment at the inauguration ceremony of the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial. Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the memorial at Pei Karumbu in Rameswaram on Thursday. The inauguration took place on the occasion of Kalam's second death anniversary.

The NDA vice-presidential candidate described both Modi and Kalam as "selfless workers" committed to the growth of the country. "Kalam and Modi are great karma yogis dedicated to the development of the nation," Naidu said, in his welcome address at a function after the inauguration of the memorial of the late president.

He even invented an abbreviation for Modi. Saying that Modi was "the worthiest person" to open the memorial for the former president, he said that the prime minister always stays in Modi-mode i.e. "Making of Developed India". As Kalam "dreamt of a developed India", the choice was only natural.

Paying tributes to Kalam, Naidu said the scientist was the soul of India. Naidu also hailed late Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa and said two great souls  one Abdul Kalam and the other 'Puratchi Thalaivi' (revolutionary leader) J Jayalalithaa. "God has taken away the two great souls from Tamil Nadu," he said.

Recalling his discussions with Jayalalithaa when he was the coordinator for the memorial project, Naidu said she was "kind enough" to immediately allot the land for the project. She had also felt it was necessary to have such a memorial for Kalam, he added.

With inputs from agencies
Lucknow: There have been no riots under the BJP regime in Uttar Pradesh and incidents of crime have decreased, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath said on Thursday, accusing the Samajwadi Party of failing on the law-and-order front during its tenure.

"In the previous regime, riot-accused people were brought in state plane to meet the chief minister (Akhilesh Yadav) at his residence. Its (SP) ministers were involved in the Muzaffarnagar riots. In past three years there were 450 riots in the state but in the past four months there were no riots," Yogi Adityanath said in the state Assembly.

Citing data, the chief minister also said that cases of murder, dowry and crimes related to scheduled castes and scheduled tribes have seen a decline in his tenure.

"No FIRs were lodged in previous SP and BSP regimes. We have given directives to lodge FIRs in all cases. Solving of cases related to murder, dacoity and other crimes have increased. The opposition did not want this," the chief minister said.

Attacking Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath said political patronage was given to criminal elements during his tenure as chief minister.

Adityanath cited cases like the Jewar gangrape and kidnapping of two traders in Jhansi and said they were solved in a timely manner.

"It is our ideology that no guilty person should be spared. The opposition has objections as to why the Azamgarh liquor tragedy case was solved and why the name of the accused and his party was taken. A hardened criminal was arrested in Ambedkar Nagar. If his background is revealed, it will make many uneasy," the chief minister said.

Trying to corner the opposition, which has been boycotting the proceedings of the House from 20 July, Adityanath said, "Truth is bitter. They are not ready to hear the truth and are not hesitating in violating the dignity of the House."

On Akhilesh's Dial 100 project, the CM said it was made into "a tool for extortion" and his government has initiated a number of measures to "make it accountable".

While highlighting budgetary provisions of the Home department under different heads, Adityanath said a State Disaster Response Force would be set up on the lines of the NDRF and financial provision has been made for this.

"The opposition had objections over the constitution of anti-Romeo squads for women security, they objected to the state following NGT and SC guidelines on slaughterhouses and also objected to the anti-land mafia task force which is identifying mafias who were until now working under political patronage," he said.

The chief minister also announced the recruitment of 30 thousand constables in police and said that the process will be transparent, unlike the previous regime.

He said model police stations would be set up in all districts and the ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) and STF (Special Task Force) of the state police will be strengthened.
Contemporary: Living or occurring at the same time.

Google's definition of 'contemporary' gives the word gravitas, a deeper meaning if you like, especially when you pair it with art.

The two words are like a warm handshake, a glove that fits perfectly. We also imagine the creators of contemporary art to be melancholy souls behind their (now digital) paintbrushes, trying to dictate sentiment and create stories through their imagery. Sneha Dasgupta, however, couldn't be further from that stereotype.

The 23-year-old lives by a simple philosophy: To evoke, and not dictate.

"Ive learnt that as an artist, you have to be willing to keep experimenting with your work and to take risks with it," she says. "Every year, I would look for some kind of inspiration that would make me draw anytime and anywhere. Whether it was an artist online, whether it was some fancy new pen in the market or whether it was just some wacky idea I had, I would push myself to pick up different tools and give it a shot."

Sneha's artwork is inspired by her personal experiences, the people around her and just the daily strangeness of real life.

Sneha however, has not created a Facebook page or a website dedicated solely to her artwork, because she does not want any degree of separation between her personal life and her art. Instead, she posts her works on Instagram, under the handle  @the.inkpot. "I would have changed it to Quack if I could," she says, chuckling aloud. "But I think over time, people just remember you by your Instagram handle as an artist so I havent felt the need to change it".

The pressure of pleasing her followers also does not deter her, unlike a few others who have succumbed to the audience's demands and ended up compromising on their work. "I used to feel hesitant to upload anything before, contemplating inevitable judgments, but over time Ive become extremely transparent with my followers. And I wouldnt have it any other way."

Her latest series "Pretty Unpretty" was created by her for a collaborative art space between artists of India and Pakistan called The Pind Collective. The main aim was to "depict women exploring themselves without adhering to the social norms of beauty."

"Women can be beautiful even when they are unabashedly being themselves. In todays time, its just important to realise that, seeing the kind of outdated visuals that are adopted to depict women. I guess the overall look of this is quite far from what I usually illustrate." Her style can change quite a bit from artwork to artwork, as is evident in every piece she creates. "I myself still dont know what Id like my work to be known for. All I know is that I want to keep drawing to join my thoughts together and keep surprising my viewers and myself along the way."

Her personality reflects her art and vice versa. A person who describes herself as 'cows and sprinkles, yaar' is definitely an artist with the perfect amount of fun, control and passion. Check out more of her works here!
Nitish Kumar has made a historical blunder by cosying up to the BJP. While the entire country was looking up to him to lead an anti-BJP alliance in the 2019 elections, he has chosen to betray his own destiny by becoming a minion of India's ruling clique, giving up the opportunity to become the leader of its opposition and a possible shot at greatness.

Several decades later, when the history of Indian politics is written, the current chapter of politics is revisited in the light of facts  not fiction or hyperbole  Kumar would be mentioned in a footnote as someone who promised greatness but embraced opportunism, bringing about his own political demise.

Kumar's decision to resign as Bihar's chief minister, though understandable, is shocking. It smacks not just of hypocrisy but also of opportunism on steroids. That he decided to quit as Bihar's chief minister and then return within a few hours with the support of the BJP points at a scripted drama whose denouement was decided in consultation with his one time rivals to the detriment of his current allies.

Why exactly did Kumar quit? Is the charge of corruption against Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family the new god particle of our times -- a phenomenon that was believed but never proved till the Large Hadron Collider proved its existence? When Kumar stitched together his Mahagathbandhan, Yadav was the only prominent leader to have been barred from public office because of indictment for corruption. Back then too, the RJD was considered an avatar of Yadav's politics of graft, casteism and dynastic privileges.

When he had walked out of the NDA, he had objected to the BJP's politics of Hindutva, arguing famously that this is India where you have to wear both the topi (skullcap) and tilak, setting himself up as a patron of secularism. He had broken up with Narendra Modi ostensibly to protest, belatedly though, the riots in Gujarat, refusing even to accept cheques sent by Gujarat in 2010 for flood relief.

So, what exactly has changed since then to push Kumar back into the BJP's eager embrace? Perhaps the realisation that a Bihar in hand is better than two Delhis in the bush. The creeping realisation that his ambition of becoming India's prime minister was like the proverbial bridge of Arnhem, a target too far. That he may lose what he has in the hand because of his quest for what he once had on his mind. Or, just the freedom to run Bihar without the overbearing influence of Lalu Yadav & Sons.

Lalu Yadav's politics of parivarvad (dynastic politics) and patronage is, of course, to be blamed for his own predicament. The charges against his son Tejaswi Yadav, Kumar's deputy, were indeed serious. Investigations into transactions of the Lalu family pointed at serious irregularities, misuse of power. His heft and bullying in the face of graft charges were not just politically puerile but also indicative of the family's reluctance to learn from Lalu Yadav's incarceration and subsequent downfall because of his role in the fodder scam. If Kumar had asked his deputy to quit while the probe was pending, Lalu Prasad should have reined in his hubris and putra-moha (love for son) and obliged the chief minister.

But, what exactly does Kumar gain by running into the BJP's embrace? No doubt he will now have a free hand to run Bihar. He will become Lalu Prasad's regional foe once again after a few months of being one-half of what journalist Sankarshan Thakur describes as The Brothers Bihari. And, he will also enjoy the privilege of being offered the front seat in the NDA regime, the honour of being the primus among pares in the pantheon of chief ministers. But, is this what Kumar would be happy with?

When he beat the BJP in the 2015 assembly elections in Bihar, Kumar's politics was seen as the model for anti-BJPism in India. He was seen as a Modi's rival in 2019, the fulcrum of opposition unity with his pioneering idea of Mahagathbandhan, a grand alliance to beat the BJP's divisive politics. In many ways, he was seen as the exact ideological rival of Modi's brand of politics. With age, integrity and mandate by his side, he was destined to be the alternative India may have considered. That moment, with Kumar's acceptance of the BJP's lifeline, is gone.

For many, Kumar could be to Indian politics what Philippe Petain was to the French in World War II. When the French were beaten and bruised by the Germans, they asked Petain to lead the war because of his credentials as a hero of World War I. The French believed Petain would resurrect the French morale and lead a fightback. Instead, when Paris fell, Petain became the head of the Vichy government, playing an active role in the persecution of Jews and advancement of Nazi interests. Though Petain later claimed he was playing a double game for the benefit of the French, he lost his credibility, aura and freedom.

Kumar was similarly propped up by the opposition to lead the offensive against a rampaging BJP. Just a few months ago, he was the principal architect of the opposition's blueprint for finding a presidential candidate. And now, like Petain, he is comfortably ensconced in the BJP's lap.

Kumar may like to argue that his resignation and subsequent return is aimed at guarding his image of Mr Clean and waging a war against corruption. But, his volte face after, ironically, fighting the election in an alliance with a tainted, convicted politician is just an opportunistic realignment aimed at securing his present at the cost of jeopardising his future.

History recognises either the victors, or their arch, uncompromising rivals. Kumar, by virtue of sometimes being Modi's rival, sometimes his acolyte, is destined to be neither.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
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N itish Kumar on his way to meet Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi after meeting with Lalu Prasad Yadav

There are questions of what happens if he resigns? Will there be a JDU-BJP alliance?- CNN News-18

BJP is planning a meeting at 7 pm on whether they would support Nitish or not

Nitish Kumar took the first step by resigning and this could mean a bigger merger between Nitish and BJP. The BJP core committee meeting will reveal more details as to whether BJP would help to support the government from outside. -CNN-News18

Sushil Modi had given enough indications that BJP is ready to back Nitish Kumar

Nitish says he has submitted his resignation to the governor and has quit in the interest of Bihar. He also says that they never expected anyone's resignation.

The two leaders, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, had been at loggerheads ever since the CBI launched raids against Lalu's son and family. While the chief minister Nitish always demanded the Deputy CM of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, to resign, RJD supremo Lalu always maintained that there was no possibility of his son resigning from the post of Bihar deputy chief minister.

He, however, didn't refute the speculations of forming next government. He said that whatever that will be required for Bihar will be done.

"I am not blaming anyone. But for me. I have done as much as it was possible. I thank everyone. The 20 months were not easy. I have run the govt for its 1/3rd period. I have faced many difficulties. But I always kept development in mind," Nitish Kumar said.

With the resignation of Nitish Kumar, there is the possibility of new political realignment in the state

Now that Nitish Kumar has resigned, the question is what could be his next move

Even as NDA remains locked in a core committee meeting on Wednesday to discuss Bihar developments, prime minister Narendra Modi took just 20 minutes in welcoming Kumar's move. Modi's congratulatory message, thanking Nitish for his "move to join the fight against corruption", clears the routes for Kumar to join hands. It remains to be seen what form will BJP's support take, whether from outside or part of the cabinet, but there's no doubt that Nitish's ghar wapsi to NDA is imminent.

The fast-paced events would put even Christopher Nolan's scripts to shame but amid the resignation drama in Bihar, it seems fairly certain now that Nitish Kumar may return to the NDA fold. Nitish, shortly after tendering his resignation to the governor, met the media for an impromptu press conference outside Raj Bhavan and said a decision will be taken in Bihar's interest.

However Modi didn't clarify whether BJP will actually be part of the next govt, or offer outside suppor to JD(U).

BJP is likely to support Nitish Kumar in forming the next government in Bihar. Speaking with mediapersons on Wednesday, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said that the BJP is not in favour of mid-term elections. "We don't want mid-term polls. We are happy that Bihar CM didn't compromise on issue of corruption and didn't kneel down before RJD. We welcome Nitish Kumar's decision,"he said.

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

The RJD leader also reminded Nitish Kumar about his pledge to make an RSS-free India, and never to join BJP.

"I still have chara ghotala case agaisnt me. There is court conviction in the case, and an appeal has been made. Nitish Kumar knew about the corruption allegations against me," Lalu Prasad Yadav said.

Union minister and Lok Janshakti Party chief Ram Vilas Paswan on Wednesday welcomed Nitish Kumar's decision to resign as Chief Minister of Bihar, saying it was a move against corruption, reports IANS. "When the (coalition) government was formed, I had said it would not last for more than two and a half years," Paswan tweeted.

Addressing a gathering of media persons, the BJP said that it welcomes Nitish Kumar's battle against corruption. "A three-member committee of the BJP will report of its views on the Bihar situation. We are committed to development in Bihar," the party said.

The resignation might be 'sushashan babu's' last-ditch attempt to save what little is left of his political capital.

There were enough indications for some time now that the strains in the Bihar Mahagathbandhan were taking a heavy toll on Kumar who was running out of options even as Lalu and his son, Tejashwi Yadav, Bihar's deputy chief minister, dug in their heels. Pushed to a corner, Nitish chose probity over power but this decision may not be enough in dispelling the notion that he has already compromised his "incorruptible and clean" image by deciding to tie up with Lalu in 2015.

In his fist comments since tendering the resignation as Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi in saying that the world has enough for everyone's needs but not for their greed. It is was an obvious reference to Lalu Prasad Yadav's corrupt empire that threatened to wipe out Nitish's political capital by way of association.

Will divorce from Lalu Yadav be enough to save Nitish Kumar's image?

Better to resign than to rub shoulder with the corrupt: Vasundhara Raje | CNN-News18

Nitish Kumar did not inform Rahul Gandhi about his intention to resign: sources | ANI

While Nitish's decision comes as a shock, recent reports of Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad facing an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) for amassing benami properties had not come as a shock to many in the state, who have long suffered the goonda raj that prevailed in Bihar when RJD was in power.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar's resignation on Wednesday lays bare the spectre of corruption looming large in the form of Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members.

"There was no need of Tejashwi's resignation as CBI action was politically motivated and orchestrated by BJP central leadership", he added.

Lalu Yadav hit back at Nitish Kumar's comment on zero tolerance against corruption stating that Nitish Kumar was aware of the corruption allegations against him while forming the alliance. Speaking about his son and Tejashwi Yadav, Lalu said that the deputy chief minister of Bihar was ready to go to public on 27 August, the day the RJD has called an anti-BJP rally in Patna.

Tejashwi Yadav was ready to go public about corruption allegations on 27 August: Lalu Yadav

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das congratulated Nitish Kumar for his decision to end the Mahagathbandhan government following corruption allegations against Lalu Prasad Yadav family including deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav. "The country is fighting against corruption. The courageous steps of Nitish Kumar will take Bihar forward. It's everybody's responsibility to fight against corruption," he tweeted on Wednesday.

One doesn't know what transpired in the meeting but Nitish's frustration with Rahul's inaction was evident and this may have played no small part in pushing him over the brink. This is a deeper defeat for Congress than is immediately apparent because the fading grand old party loses one more chance to remain in power in one of the key states in the Hindi heartland. Contrast Rahul with prime minister Narendra Modi, who wasted no time in extending a hand of support towards Nitish, eyes firmly set on the future.

The developments in Bihar reflect poorly on Congress and its vice-president's leadership qualities. Soon after emerging from Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening, Nitish Kumar claimed that he had done everything he could to save the alliance, including meeting Rahul Gandhi over the deadlock that arose out of Tejashwi Yadav's decision to stay put. It was sufficient hint that Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as Congress vice-president and a partner in the Mahagathbandhan, could have done more. Perhaps impress upon Lalu Yadav that his son must step down in the larger interest of sustaining the Opposition as a viable political force.

Nitish Kumar thanks Narendra Modi for supporting his decision to resign as Bihar CM

Watching the Bihar developments unfold, it is difficult to avoid the impression that Nitish Kumar and BJP played out an intricately detailed, perfectly laid-out script. Consider the moves which started not on Wednesday but a day before when Nitish, unlike any other Opposition leaders except Sonia Gandhi, got a first-row seat during Ram Nath Kovind's swearing-in as 14th President of India. Mamata Banerjee was seated in the last row while Arvind Kejriwal was left high and dry. On Wednesday, minutes after Nitish had resigned as Bihar chief minister, Narendra Modi sent out two tweets to congratulate him. Simultaneously, BJP's state unit went into a core committee meeting while another meeting was going on in New Delhi. Shortly thereafter, BJP announced unconditional support to Nitish while he thanked prime minisiter on Twitter. Minutes later, all 53 BJP MLAs walked over to 1, Anne Marg, the official residence of the chief minister, and announced their support. The latest CNN News18 reports say that Nitish could stake claim for forming the government on Wednesday night itself. Janata Dal (United) has 71 MLAs. NDA's 58 seats give Nitish enough numbers to form the government. One could say that it stretches credulity to think that there is no premeditation in these turn of events. It's one more indication of how nimble-footed BJP is under the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah duopoly.

JD (U) leader KC Tyagi said the decision of forming the Grand Alliance government in Bihar was "a mistake" and ruled out any possibility of patch-up with the RJD. Speaking to reporters after Lalu Prasad Yadav addressed the media in Patna, Tyagi said: "After such allegations, there is no point of going along with them. They (RJD) are now untouchable for us." The JD-U spokesperson said that Nitish Kumar had never used harsh language against Lalu Prasad Yadav but the latter "used disrespectful words" for the JD-U president. "It is shameful. We regret our decision to run the government with such person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months.

Nitish Kumar to take oath as chief minister of Bihar at 5 pm on Thursday, reports ANI

10 am: Shivanand Tiwari's sharp criticism of Nitish Kumar after meeting Lalu Prasad Yadav was one of the earliest signs of split in Mahagathbandhan

He also said that they have given 10 am as the time for swearing-in, which initially was 5 pm.

According to reports, Nitish and Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Sushil Modi will take oath as Bihar Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Thursday at 10 am. Modi confirmed the time and said that they had submitted a letter, with support of 132 MLAs.

After the stunning political manoeuvre of former Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Prasad tweeted late on Wednesday night slamming Nitish for pre-poning his swearing-in ceremony.

"Each development seemed planned. It was all pre-decided. Why was everything done in such rush? His resignation, followed by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) backing him, and staking claim to form government within hours of resignation, proves it," Tejashwi said, after meeting the Governor.

Tagging Nitish Kumar's resignation and the developments following it as pre-planned, Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday said that they have requested Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to stall the swearing-in ceremony and give the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) a chance to prove majority on the floor.

The deputy chief minister of Bihar Tejashwi Prasad was livid when the time of swearing-in was changed from 5 pm to 10 am. An angry Tejashwi, in a series of tweets, charged Nitish of pretending to be "honest and moral."

Reiterating his party's stand, Tejashwi said, he was only an excuse for Nitish to join hands with the BJP. "Tejashwi ek bahaana tha, case, investigation ek bahana tha, inko (Nitish) BJP ke sath jana tha (I was an excuse, the investigation was an excuse. He just wanted to go with BJP)," Tejashwi told ANI.

Tripathi had earlier invited Tejashwi Yadav and five other RJD MLAs for discussion.

RJD offices offices across all districts in Bihar will hold protest march at 12 pm on Thursday, RJD leader Ram Chandra Purve told ANI. Party leaders and Lalu loyalists are livid after Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi for pre-poning the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish at 10 am on Thursday.

The numbers are, however, stacked against him. The JD(U) and NDA allies together have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122. support.

"Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejashwi tweeted.

The JD(U)-BJP combine may have the numbers in the Bihar Assembly to prove its majority, but RJD appeared in no mood to give up without a fight, with Tejashwi Yadav saying he would stake claim to form the next government.

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

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

But in a series of fast-paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner. First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's JD(U) MLAs.

In what will be remembered as one of the quickest political developments and manoeuvering, Nitish Kumar quit as Bihar chief minister on Wednesday only to stage a dramatic comeback. "In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan after submitting his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi.

RECAP How Nitish stunned Bihar | Tejashwi says RJD will stake claim to government too

In one of the first negative reaction coming from the JD(U) camp, MP Ali Anwar on Thursday told ANI, "Nitishji has taken the decision of going with BJP because his conscience allowed him. Mine does not. My conscience does not allow me to support his move."

He also threatened of protests across the state against Kumar "who will find it difficult to move around". Tejashwi claimed he had support of most JD(U) MLAs. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor-test," he said. He said the governor told him that he has already invited Kumar for taking oath and it is not possible to take back the invitation letter.

He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance the mandate to run its government for 5 years which Kumar "betrayed".

"RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he told reporters after the meeting.

After Kumar's meeting with the governor late last night, Tejashwi, accompanied by some RJD MLAs and leaders, marched to the Raj Bhawan to meet Tripathi.

Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath at 10 am today.

Tejashwi Yadav met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.

In June, Nitish decided to back Ram Nath Kovind for president and called to inform Sonia and Lalu that he was doing so because he shared a great rapport with Kovind.

In another move that raised eyebrows, at the end of September, Nitish broke with his comrades and praised the Centre's surgical strikes

In January 2016, RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh hit out at the chief minister, blaming him for the state's deteriorating security situation.

Nitish and lalu together may have managed to stop the BJP juggernaut but theirs was an uncomfortable alliance. Here are a few instnaces, when the alliance was rocked in the past.

Take a look back at last night's developments that say the political turf in Bihar change completely.

It all started after news channels reported that the strain in ties within the Mahagathbandhan has reached a point where the beleaguered allies were not even having a joint legislators meet ahead of the Bihar Assembly's Monsoon Session, which was scheduled to begin on Friday.

Wednesday evening saw the metamorphosis of Bihar political crisis, with Nitish Kumar tendering his resignation merely an hour after Lalu Prasad Yadav reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance. In a span of less then five hours, Nitish desecrated the Bihar Grand Alliance, and made a dramatic return with the support of former ally, Bharatiya Janata Party.

While on one hand, Tejashwi will march to the governor's house with all RJD MLAs, RJD supporters will block Mahatma Gandhi Setu. RJD offices across Bihar will also hold protests at 12pm, News 18 reported.

RJD supporters have started gathering at Rabri Devi's residence in Patna as the party leaders have given clear indications that they are not going to take "the betrayal" lying low.

Congress legislative meet will take place at 2 pm today. Congress leader CP Joshi will be attending the meet.

On Wednesday, just before Nitish was to meet his legislative members, MLA Poonam Devi, who is also from the Yadav community, openly said that he would defend Tejashwi in the meeting. Out of the 71 JD(U) MLAs, 18 of them are Muslims or Yadavs. Both communities have always supported Lalu.

Bijendra Yadav, MLA and commerce minister in Nitish's cabinet, warned the JD(U) chief against joining hands with the BJP. He said, "Nitishji, (the) people of Bihar have elected you and Lalu both. Any attempt to scuttle the alliance would have serious repercussions."

In a meeting held to discuss the land graft case involving Lalu Prasad's son and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, against whom CBI has filed an FIR in a land graft case, many JD(U) leaders voiced their concerns amid opposition from some party men.

After resigning from the post of chief minister, Nitish Kumar's biggest challenge would be to keep his own party united. Leaders from Congress and RJD have already started criticising his move, alleging that the JD(U) leader always intended to join hands with BJP.

Preparations underway as Nitish Kumar all set to be sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister for the 6th time today

While RJD has 80 MLAs, even if it tries to form alliance with Congress, which has 27 MLAs, and CPI-ML, which has three, their number would only add up to 110. There are four independent MLAs who are likely to throw their weight behind the coalition which enjoys majority support.

The JD(U)-BJP combination has the numbers in the Bihar Assembly to prove its majority. Together, the JD(U) and NDA allies have 129 MLAs in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, seven more than the magic figure of 122.

With BJP's backing, Nitish intends to stake claim to form the government. On Thursday, he will take oath as Bihar chief minister to return to his seat, while BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi will also swear-in, but as the deputy chief minister to replace Tejashwi Yadav. Even though Nitish's masterstroke has not gone down well with Tejashwi, there is nothing that the RJD supremo's son can do about it.

Nitish Kumar's resignation on Wednesday witnessed several seasoned journalists and political analysts hailing the former chief minister as an "opportunist". Rajdeep Sardesai marvelled at Nitish's political manoeuvering where he passed off an opportunistic decision as a "moral dilemma."

BJP leader Sushil Modi will be sworn-in as the deputy chief minister of Bihar today at 10 am

Kumar's decision to resign as Bihar's chief minister, though understandable, is shocking. It smacks not just of hypocrisy but also of opportunism on steroids. That he decided to quit as Bihar's chief minister and then return within a few hours with the support of the BJP points at a scripted drama whose denouement was decided in consultation with his one time rivals to the detriment of his current allies.

Several decades later, when the history of Indian politics is written, the current chapter of politics is revisited in the light of facts  not fiction or hyperbole  Kumar would be mentioned in a footnote as someone who promised greatness but embraced opportunism, bringing about his own political demise.

Nitish Kumar has made a historical blunder by cosying up to the BJP. While the entire country was looking up to him to lead an anti-BJP alliance in the 2019 elections, he has chosen to betray his own destiny by becoming a minion of India's ruling clique, giving up the opportunity to become the leader of its opposition and a possible shot at greatness.

Kumar will be sworn-in at 10am along with BJP leader Sushil Modi who wil lbe his new deputy, replacing Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejashwi Yadav who has been accused of corruption. Nitish changed the political equation in Bihar when he resigned on Wednesday evening, citing the failure of his Mahagathbandhan allies  the RJD and the Congress  to act on demands of Tejashwis resignation.

The political landscape of Bihar changed in a matter of hours when Nitish formally staked claim to form the government with the backing of the BJP, marking his return to the NDA fold.

Meanwhile, a trust vote will be held in the Bihar Assembly on Saturday. Nitish Kumar, whose JD(U) has 71 MLAs, should have no problem crossing the majority mark given the NDA support.

Former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav is unhappy with Nitish Kumar decision to break away from the Mahagathbandhan and ally with the BJP again, reports CNN-News18. Political Editor Marya Shakil reported that Yadav was probably not even kept in the loop ahead of Nitish's big decision.

A more compelling platform has emerged in its place. Championed by BJP, the magnetism of 'anti-corruption' as a political slogan is evident. So strong is its appeal that from Ram Vilas Paswan to Nitish Kumar, all self-styled champions of 'secularism' are reneging on their stated positions on 'communalism' and joining hands with BJP under the 'anti-corruption' umbrella. Politics follows the power principle, not moral codes. Suddenly, Narendra Modi and BJP are no longer political untouchables, but the fulcrum around which national politics revolves.

A plethora of narratives emerged from the potboiler, none as striking as the futility of 'secularism' as a political platform. When Nitish Kumar walked over to the BJP ditching his 'grand alliance' with RJD and Congress, the death knell for 'secularism' as a political slogan was well and truly sounded. It has now become a corrupted, discredited word  a totem for everything between Congress-style mediocrity to RJD-style corruption.

Amid a fast-paced turn of events that would put even Christopher Nolan's movies to shame, Bihar's ex-chief minister Nitish Kumar is slated to be sworn in as the state's next chief minister at 10 am on Thursday morning. The evening that started with the JD(U) chief tendering his resignation from the chief minister's post and dealing a fatal blow to the Mahagathbandhan, ended with him firmly in the driver's seat, poised to return as chief minister this time with NDA's support. It was easier perhaps to keep track of the wickets that fell during India's last 10 overs against England in the final of ICC Women's World Cup last Sunday.

BJP's Sushil Modi reaches Raj Bhavan in Patna. Leader set to be sworn in as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar reaches Raj Bhawan in Patna, to be sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister shortly.

This is the sixth time that Nitish has taken oath as the chief minister in the last 12 years.

Patna's Raj Bhavan echoed with chants of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad" as Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi administered oath to Nitish Kumar as the chief minister and Sushil Kumar Modi as the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi sworn in as Chief Minister and Deputy CM of Bihar respectively, at Raj Bhawan in Patna

- Congress legislative meet will take place at 2 pm today. Congress leader CP Joshi will be attending the meet.

- RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, however, told supporters to postpone the protests without citing any reasons.

- RJD party offices across all districts in Bihar had planned protests across the state. However, after Section 144 was imposed outside Raj Bhavan in Patna, reports said that the protests have been put on hold

Now, that Nitish Kumar's oath-taking ceremony is over and the JD(U) leader is back in the NDA fold, the rest of the day is expected to be packed with press conferences, party meetings and planned protests across Bihar.

Speaking to reporters, Rahul further said that he knew that Nitish would jump ships for the past three-fourt months. "I knew this will happen. There is no credibility in politics, people will do anything for selfish reasons," Rahul added.

In a first reaction that came from the Congress leadership, vice-president Rahul Gandhi slammed chief minister Nitish Kumar and said that the JD(U) cheated Congress and the people of Bihar. "His mandate was anti-communal. He (Nitish) promised the people of Bihar that he will not join hands with the communal, divisive powers in the country. Nitish Kumar has cheated us," Rahul said.

Prime Minister tweeted after the JD(U) chief was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar on Thursday. "Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity," Modi tweeted.

In a series of tweets a little after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar, former deputy chief minister Tejashwi tweeted out saying, "I entered in government with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!" Tejashwi further said that despite "past baggage", it did not stop him in carrying out the duties in the "role of DyCM!"

On asking what he has to say about Rahul Gandhi's "cheating" jibe, Nitish said, "I will respond to Rahul Gandhi in a proper way."

After being sworn-in as the chief minister, Nitish Kumar said that his decision is in Bihar's interest and its developments. Speaking to reporters outside the Raj Bhavan in Patna, Nitish said that whatever was happening in Bihar was not good for the state's development.

Quitting RJD coalition was for Bihar's progress; will respond to Rahul Gandhi in a proper manner: Nitish Kumar

JUST IN: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's first cabinet meeting to take place at 11:30 am

"Conspiratorial treachery & rank political opportunism is the real DNA," the grand old party said of its former ally.

Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala took potshots at newly sworn-in Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, alleging that he has unsatiable 'lust for power'.

"They (BJP) wanted to pin the blame on Tejashwi. They were afraid that Tejashwi would come up as a worthy opponent in 2019. This is a conspiracy by Amit Shah and Narendra Modi. This is nothing but political vendetta."

Lalu Prasad Yadav is in Ranchi for hearing in the fodder scam case. "I am a man of principles. How will Nitish show his face to the people of Bihar? He used to swear that he will not return to BJP. This is a huge betrayal for the people of Bihar and for us."

How will Nitish show his face to people of Bihar, asks Lalu Prasad Yadav

Political parties across the country were shocked when the bihar chief minister resigned on Wednesday.

In a jolt to Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Grand Alliance, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday tenderd his resignation merely an hour after Lalu reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance.

On 22 February 2015, Nitish took oath as the Bihar chief minister for the fourth time. Nitish had succeeded Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had resigned from his office on 20 February, 2015.

Presiding over the top most post in the state, Nitish Kumar on 26 November 2010 became Bihar chief minister for the second consecutive time.

On 24 November, 2005, Nitish staged a comeback as state chief minister with the support of BJP.

On 3 March, 2000 the then Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar chief minister.

Nitish Kumar has been sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time in 12 years. The Janata Dal (United) chief, in a surprising move, deserted the Grand Alliance and is all set to form the government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The resignation might be 'sushashan babu's' last-ditch attempt to save what little is left of his political capital.

There were enough indications for some time now that the strains of the alliance was taking heavy toll on Kumar who was running out of options even as Lalu and his son, Tejasvi, Bihar's deputy CM, dug in their heels. Pushed to a corner, Nitish chose probity over power but this decision may not be enough in dispelling the notion that he has already compromised his "incorruptible and clean" image by deciding to tie up with Lalu in 2015.

In his first comments since tendering the resignation as Bihar chief minister , Nitish Kumar quoted Mahatma Gandhi in saying that the world has enough for everyone's needs but not for their greed. It is was an obvious reference to Lalu Prasad Yadav's corrupt empire that threatened to wipe out Nitish's political capital by way of association.

Will divorce from Lalu be enough to save Nitish's image?

Perhaps impress upon Lalu Yadav that his son must step down in larger interest of sustaining the Opposition as a viable political force. One doesn't know what transpired in the meeting but Nitish's frustration with Rahul's inaction was evident and this may have played no small part in pushing him over the brink. This is a deeper defeat for Congress than is immediately apparent because the fading GoP loses one more chance to remain in power in one of the key states in Hindi heartland. Contrast the leaden-footed Rahul Gandhi with PM Modi, who wasted no time in extending a hand of support towards Nitish, eyes firmly set on future.

It was hint enough that Rahul Gandhi, in his capacity as Congress vice-president and a partner in the mahagathbandhan, could have done more.

The developments in Bihar reflect poorly on Congress and its vice president's leadership qualities. Soon after emerging from Raj Bhavan on Wednesday evening, Nitish Kumar claimed that he had done everything he could to save the alliance, including meeting Rahul Gandhi over the deadlock that arose out of Tejashwi Yadav's decision to stay put.

Reacting to Rahul Gandhis allegation of Nitish Kumars betrayal, JD (U) leader KC Tyagi said, "Rahul has disappointed JD(U). Congress' approach towards corruption is anyway not great and that's why they had expected Nitish Kumar to overlook Tejashwis blatant corruption. But JD (U) and Nitish Kumar have always come down heavily on all those involved in corrupution."

"We have Mayawati, Akhilesh, Mamata... we will get them all together. So what if Nitish has gone to BJP?"

Addressing a press conference after Nitish was sworn-in as the chief minister, Lalu recounted everything that transpired between the JD(U) and the RJD leader. Lalu concluded the press conference by saying that the Opposition, which is being dubbed faceless, has many capable leaders even now.

After Tejashwi's march failed to stop the inevitable and Nitish Kumar was sworn-in on Thursday at 10 am as the Chief Minister of Bihar, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's son tweeted out his rage to slam his former ally-turned 'opportunistic rival' Nitish Kumar.

"Ache din are in store for Bihar. RJD is itself responsible for the breaking of Grand Alliance," Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Modi told ANI

The Janata Dal (United) in Kerala announced it was severing ties with Nitish Kumar. The JD(U) Kerala's chief, MP Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters here that he was even ready to resign from the Upper House in his fight against "fascist forces".

"Nitish Kumar has cheated the people of Bihar. I charge that he (Nitish Kumar) colluded with BJP to file CBI cases against me and my family," Lalu Prasad told after appearing before a CBI court in a fodder scam case.

"Lalu considered him as brother. We are not afraid of anybody. We will teach Nitish Kumar, BJP and JD(U) a lesson," Rabri Devi told India Today.

The SR Bommai case verdict stated that the largest party should be invited to form government.

RJD is consulting legal experts and might approach the Supreme Court as the verdict in the SR Bommai case has not been followed while inviting Nitish Kumar to form government in Bihar.

"Nitish Kumar had never compromised on certain issues. Narendra Modi and Nitish share a chemistry (on zero toleration against corruption). They' ve become icons of good governance. The Grand Alliance was unnatural. I know Nitish. Anti-Congressism is in his blood," Sushil Modi tells CNN News18.

"To decimate democracy and denigrate people's mandate has become the accepted way forward for the ruling BJP," Congress' Randeep S Surjewala said in a statement. He said that every "political and democratic principle was murdered" in Bihar because of the forming of the BJP-JD(U) government.

Because of this difference, BJP was able to grab power in five out of the ten states (including Uttar Pradesh) and union territory that witnessed elections after Bihar.

In a way, Bihar polls turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the BJP and would ultimately point out a key difference between the ruling party and the Opposition: BJP learnt from its mistakes.

While Kumar seems to have shared a love-hate relationship with Lalu, his ties with Modi have only continued to bloom since last year. Despite the fact that Modi and his elevation as the prime ministerial candidate of the NDA in 2014 were the primary reasons behind Kumar's resentment, the bonhomie between the two leaders in recent time is something which can never be matched by Lalu.

Between Modi's warmth and Lalu's passive hostility, the choice for Nitish Kumar was inevitable

After reports that an unhappy Sharad Yadav has got in touch with the Congress and even met Rahul Gandhi, Union minister Arun Jaitley will meet Yadav, according to News18.

Under Lalu, Bihar was so mired in crime and corruption  often by the politicians themselves  that the byword it became Jungle Raj. And when Lalu was an accused in the fodder scam, he simply handed over the levers of power to his wife Rabri Devi. It was business as usual.

IBN reported that the government cars of Tejashwi yadav have been withdrawn following the swearing-in of the new government in Bihar.

The House had to be adjourned for 25 minutes, just five minutes after it met for the day at 11 am.

Proceedings of the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Thursday as some Opposition parties created uproar over the political developments in Bihar and some other issues.

According to News18, Sharad Yadav is meeting rebel JD(U) MPs Ali Anwar and Veerendra Kumar in Delhi.

The Bihar Grand Alliance has always laboured over the often patchy relationship between Nitish Kumar and the BJP. The occasional camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish had often rocked the coalition boat, with speculations rife that the Bihar chief minister is cosying up with the saffron party to get rid of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

The return of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar to the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) fold will strengthen, in every likelihood, Prime Minister Narendra Modis campaign for a renewed mandate in the 2019 General Elections to Lok Sabha. However, in the process, Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will have to pay a price for Nitishs return. Its onward march in Bihar is going to be arrested, thereby impacting its long-term prospects in one of the more politically significant states of the country.

Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi will travel to Delhi after the floor test, reports CNN News18. Modi will decide the names of ministers in the Bihar Legislative Assembly with central leaders. The floor test will be held on Friday at 11 am.

Veerendra Kumar said he expected JD-U senior leader Sharad Yadav and its MLAs in Bihar not to accept Nitish Kumar's decision. "I call upon Sharad Yadav and JD-U MLAs to say that we won't accept it."

"We are not accepting the JD(U) joining the NDA and our relations with Nitish Kumar have ended. It's shocking that Nitish Kumar has joined the NDA. We all thought that he will fight the fascist tendencies but he has now become a part of it."

"Whatever the price, we're ready to pay," he said.

The Janata Dal(United)(JD(U) unit in Kerala on Thursday opposed Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar for tying up with the BJP and announced it was severing ties with him. The chief of the party's Kerala unit, MP Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters in Delhi that he was even ready to quit the Upper House to pursue his fight against "fascist forces".

Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the deputy chief minister, the post he occupied before Nitish Kumar ended their alliance in 2013. "The JD(U)-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights... At the time, people used to take pride in saying 'I am a Bihari'. In the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD(U)-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights," the deputy chief minister said.

In the 243-member Assembly, Nitish Kumar needs the support of 122 members for a majority. The Chief Minister's party has 71 legislators, the BJP 53. BJP allies have 5 seats  Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP has 2 seats, RLSP has 2 seats and HAM has 1. There are 4 Independents and 4 CPI-ML lawmakers. Between them, the RJD and Congress have 107 seats.

According to vote share BJP has been the states most popular party and no more than 17 voters chose to vote only for JD(U), according to IndiaSpend analysis of electoral results over six elections since 2004.

Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister of Bihar, is a very popular leader in that state. Do actual voters in Bihar think the same? Not according to our analysis. JD(U) has only been above the Congress in electoral popularity.

However, in a surprise move, Nitish has announced that he will keep his word on supporting Opposition vice-presidential candidate Gopalkrishna Gandhi and not NDA's Venkaiah Naidu. The move seems to be aimed at dampening Opposition's 'opportunist' label on himself, as Kumar seeks to convey that he indeed listens to his conscience voice in decission making.

Back-stabber, cheater, crooked politician, opportunist, Bhasmasur: These were all monikers awarded to Nitish Kumar by frenemies, who he recently dumped to join NDA.

Predictability definitely doesn't seem to be a characteristics of Nitish's political decisions.

Despite realigned friendships, Nitish Kumar to vote for Gopalkrishna Gandhi, not Venkaiah Naidu in V-P polls

Apparently, the widespread sentiment amid party's local leaders is that the central leadership didn't do enough to save the alliance even though it had ample opportunities.

Bihar Congress MLAs are in huddle ahead of Nitish Kumar's floor test in Assembly. Media reports suggest that as many as 10 MLAs may defect to the JD(U) amid growing resentment against the Congress top leadership, India Today reported. CNN-News 18 quoted sources claiming that several Congress MLAs could vote in favour of the new NDA government.

The secular image which he has fostered through the months might not resonate with the Modi and Amit Shah-led BJP. By jumping on the BJP bandwagon yet again and breaking an alliance which was considered as a marriage of equals, Nitish will now have to play second-fiddle to the BJP and demonstrate a greater readiness to accept its terms and conditions than he did before.

After days of speculations, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has embraced the once estranged ally BJP, marking his Ghar Vapasi to NDA.

In-post Vajpayee BJP, will Bihar CM be able to blend in with Narendra Modi's ideology?

The RJD too, on the other claimed support of Left MLAs and independents. Moreover, the party is also "banking on conscience vote of six Muslim and 11 Yadav MLAs within the JD(U)," Hindustan Times reported.

Amid reports of widespread resentment in Bihar Congress, CNN-News18 reported that several Congress MLAs may vote for JD(U).

- News reports say that dissent within Congress is brewing as local leaders blame Rahul Gandhi for not doing enough. Several MLAs may cross-vote in favour of Nitish.

- Sharad Yadav reportedly unhappy with Nitish's decision. He met Rahul Gandhi on Thursday and met JD(U) leaders, reportedly unhappy with the new alliance.

- Unrest boils in JD(U) ranks with several leaders openly declaring discontent over Nitish's decision to join forces with 'communal BJP.

- The 'reunited' NDA claims to have the support of 132 legislators in the 243-member assembly. Nitish Kumar needs 122 votes to win today's trust vote.

- Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar will take the floor test today at 11 am.

RJD has appealed to the Muslim and Yadav MLAs from BJP and JD(U) to vote listening to the call of their conscience. The party has warned the NDA of a stormy Assembly session, claiming that they won't let a governent that had 'murdered the mandate' function in the House.

Meanwhile, Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi also reached the Assembly, who were booed at by the Opposition MLAs.

Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav today hit out at Nitish Kumar calling him a snake who betrayed his party's trust and used them to gain power. RJD MLAs also held protests outside the Vidhansabha, with placards reading "Murderers of democracy".

While JD(U)+NDA is expected to sail through the trust vote as they claim to have the support of 132 MLAs, discontent among JD(U) cannot be ruled out. RJD has also appealed to the Muslim and Yadav MLAs from BJP and JD(U) to vote listening to the call of their conscience. The party has warned the NDA of a stormy Assembly session, claiming that they won't let a governent that had 'murdered the mandate' function in the House.

Firing fresh salvos at his erstwhile ally and Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tejashwi Yadav today claimed that people hav suffered greatly under Nitish Raj. He said that Nitish couldn't dare to sack me even with a 'greedy BJP' behind him.

"Nitish is still my uncle. I would have even considered resigning if he would have asked. But he had preplanned everything and was just waiting to betray us," Tejashwi said.

Tejashwi Yadav is taking on Nitish Kumar in the Bihar Assembly ahead of the floor test.

Could have considered resigning if Nitish Kumar would have asked: Tejashwi

Tejashwi Yadav alleged that Nitish Kumar was in cahoots with the BJP since months while he was only used as a pawn and an excuse to justify the flip-flop. He said that how was it possible that Narendra Modi tweeted so quickly when the prime minister doesn't seem to be so quick in responding to other political matters.

Sushil Kumar Modi too is facing cases, why did Nitish side with him: Tejashwi Yadav

"Everyone can see how he switched sides. Earlier he used to speak of Sangh-mukt Bharat and now he is the chief minister of the Sangh. He has changed his stand from 'Hey Ram' to 'Jai Shri Ram'." He also told reporters that he would raise the issue inside the House. He accused the BJP of corruption charges.

"He cheated and betrayed the people of the state who gave him massive mandate. He played dirty politics. He just looked for an excuse to defame us and join the NDA", Tejashwi Yadav said before entering the House.

Nitish Kumar should feel ashamed that he is sitting near Sushil Modi, says Tejashwi Yadav

You conduct 'Champaran Yatra' and then sit in the lap of Mahatma Gandhi's killers: Tejashwi Yadav

"If Lalu Prasad didnt have putra moh, Abdul Bari Siddiqui would have been Bihar deputy chief minister," Yadav said.

Hitting back at Tejashwi Yadav, Yadav reminded Tejashwi that he was not the deputy chief minister due to his calibre, but due to Lalu's 'putra moh'.

From a saap (snake) to dhokebaaz (deciever), Nitish Kumar has been called names and taunted for his political volte-face by the Opposition. However, the Bihar Chief Minister has maintained his calm, without showing any signs of retort. Nitish is known to speak with carefully chosen words and avoid making personal attacks.

"They protected Shahabuddin, the never explained corruption cases agaist them. The coallition broke because of their corruption not because of me," Nitish said.

After Tejashwi Yadav's livid speech, Nitish Kumar rose to address the House. He said that he tried very hard to run a government but RJD never followed the coallition dharma.

Power given to serve people, not to amass wealth: Nitish Kumar's barbs on RJD corruption charges

Not sparing the ertwhile junior partner in alliance, Nitish Kumar said that given the Congress' party's situation in the country, they would not have had got 15 seats in any coallition. "I gave them 40 seats," Nitish said.

Congress would not have got 15 seats; I gave them 40: Nitish Kumar

"My decision to quit was taken in the interest of Bihar. We had the mandate to serve the people, not one particular family," Nitish said.

Decided to quit in interest of Bihar; mandate was to serve people not one family

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar won the trust vote with the support of 131 MLAs against Opposition's 108 votes. 122 votes were needed to cross the half-way mark in the 243-member Assembly.

"I should ththankful to RJD and Congress. I wouldn't have been here if Tejashwi Yadv would have resigned. The mandate was not for corruption and building 26 benami properties in 26 years." said Sushil Kumar Modi.

Nitish Kumar did all the drama to sit in the lap of RSS-BJP: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav blamed Nitish Kumar for bringing insatbility to Bihar. He said that if Nitish had to make the government with BJP's support why did he waste so much time and public funds on election.

Bihar had to see four governments in four years, only because of one man: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi was just an excuse, Nitish plotted to bring down government: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi said that the people of the Bihar are feeling cheated, adding that RJD will take the fight to every village. He said, "I asked many questions to the CM but he had no answers. Will he now pass a law with the BJP that every person who has an FIR should resign from public office? Will he bring liquor ban across the nation" Tejashwi asked. He said that Sushil Modi too had a case against him, how is it that he is fit to be deputy chief minister in Nitish's eye then.

Tejashwi Yadav questions Nitish Modi's intention, says Sushil Modi too has FIR against him

"An unnatural alliance died natural death," Sushil Modi said as he lauded Nitish for not 'bending the knee' to keep the alliance alive. He said that the RJD was seeking vote through secret ballot but if that would have happened "then at least 10-12 people from RJD would have crossed over to our side," Modi said.

At least 10 RJD MLAs would have voted for us if there was secret ballot: Sushil Modi

Nitish Kumar did all the drama to sit in the lap of RSS-BJP: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi Yadav blamed Nitish Kumar for bringing insatbility to Bihar. He said that if Nitish had to make the government with BJP's support why did he waste so much time and public funds on election.

Bihar had to see four governments in four years, only because of one man: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi was just an excuse, Nitish plotted to bring down government: Tejashwi Yadav

Tejashwi said that the people of the Bihar are feeling cheated, adding that RJD will take the fight to every village. He said, "I asked many questions to the CM but he had no answers. Will he now pass a law with the BJP that every person who has an FIR should resign from public office? Will he bring liquor ban across the nation" Tejashwi asked. He said that Sushil Modi too had a case against him, how is it that he is fit to be deputy chief minister in Nitish's eye then.

Tejashwi Yadav questions Nitish Modi's intention, says Sushil Modi too has FIR against him

People of Bihar will teach them a lesson; when they couldn't answer my questions in assembly, then how will they answer the people?:Tejashwi pic.twitter.com/1057HXIRUJ

"An unnatural alliance died natural death," Sushil Modi said as he lauded Nitish for not 'bending the knee' to keep the alliance alive. He said that the RJD was seeking vote through secret ballot but if that would have happened "then at least 10-12 people from RJD would have crossed over to our side," Modi said.

At least 10 RJD MLAs would have voted for us if there was secret ballot: Sushil Modi

Exactly....this time he joined within minutes. He has done this 6 times in last 12 years https://t.co/7knq7h7X1A

Tejashwi Yadav pulls out old Sushil Modi, Nitish Kumar tweets to take a dig in NDA govt

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

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

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

But in a series of fast paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours it became clear that Kumar was going to be the ultimate winner. First, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's JD(U) MLAs. After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

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

He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10 am tomorrow. It would be Kumar's 6th term as chief minister.

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

However, in no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi Yadav earlier said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.

"Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejashwi tweeted.

However, the numbers are stacked against him. The JD(U), BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110.

Reacting sharply to the governor inviting Nitish Kumar for the swearing-in at 10 am after giving him an appointment for 11 am, Tejashwi said RJD would stage a dharna outside Raj Bhavan against it.

"Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?" he tweeted well past midnight.

"If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values & honesty, He would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for govt. Honest man doesn't fear," he said in a series of tweets.

He claimed half of JD(U) MLAs were in touch with him which forced Kumar to rush to Raj Bhavan at midnight to stake claim to form the government.

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

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

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

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

As suspense mounted over Kumar's next step following his resignation, BJP quickly seized upon the opportunity to reunite with its old ally, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi praising Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption", saying the entire nation supports his honesty.

Kumar responded quickly tweeting: "I thank the prime minister from the core of my heart for praising my decision (of quitting)."

The state and central BJP leadership swiftly got in touch and Sushil Kumar Modi, who was Kumar's deputy when the two parties ran a coalition government, said his party was not in favour of a mid-term election.

Modi said BJP has decided to back the JD(U) leader in forming the next government and will be a part of it.

The development has left Tejashwi out of the government, and his father emasculated, at least for now. Also, the Congress, part of the grand alliance, stands diminished politically.

Earlier, after putting in his papers, Kumar told reporters outside Raj Bhavan he had favoured opposition unity but that was not possible when it only had a "reactive agenda".

"I favoured opposition unity...but what kind of opposition unity was going to be there...there was no discourse, no agenda. Having a reactive agenda will not do," he said.

"Needs can be met, but not greed," he said, apparently referring to graft charges against Tejashwi and other members of Lalu Prasad's family.

Kumar also said that while supporting demonetisation he had called for a crackdown on benami properties and that he cannot back out now.

Several members of Lalu Prasad's family, including his MP daughter Misa Bharti and son-in-law Shailesh Kumar, are embroiled in cases related to possessing benami properties (immovable properties not registered in the name of the real owners) bought with tainted money.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on developments in Bihar
Steven R Weisman, commenting on Bihar, wrote for The New York Times: "Bihar is not merely India's poorest state; it is also its most corrupt, violent and lawless state. Desperately poor and struggling under barriers of caste, Bihar ranks at the bottom of all the country's indexes of handicaps. It is a state that cannot feed itself, with an annual per capita income of $111, lower than in the poorest countries of the world."

That was written in 1987.

Sadly, the people of Bihar would continue to suffer for almost two more decades. Just three short years later, Lalu Prasad Yadav would take power and rule from 1990 to 2005. Under Lalu, Bihar was so mired in crime and corruption  often by the politicians themselves  that the byword it became Jungle Raj.

Mohammad Shahabuddin, who was convicted for criminal conspiracy, kidnapping and murder in 2004, was one of Lalu's main men, according to a report in Catch News. Lalu refused to distance himself from Shahabuddin and even accused the BJP of creating controversy around the matter.

Journalists were murdered in broad daylight. The incidents of rape and murder increased manifold. And when Lalu was an accused in the fodder scam, he simply handed over the levers of power to his wife Rabri Devi. It was business as usual.

Shiv Visvanathan, writing for Open, summed up Lalu's time in power thus: "His linkages with dacoitry and kidnapping as ways of deficit financing, represented governance as a new kind of lawlessness. Lalu Raj became Gunda Raj and Jungle Raj... The fodder scam, in fact, was the example of Lalus governance. As one investigator confessed, corruption in Bihar was like a chain of being. One could not violate an individual and punish him. Each implicated another and the chain of connectivity flowed into society."

By 2010, Bihar announced it had achieved 11 percent growth rate, making it the second-fastest growing state in India. So what changed? Nitish Kumar took over as chief minister  with an assist from the BJP  vowing to dismantle Lalu's legacy of Jungle Raj.

Much like another political figure who promised 'Saabka Saath Saabka Vikas', Nitish's buzzword was development. He promised jobs, education and safety. It was not a case of bad governance, Nitish told the NYT in a 2010 interview. Governance was completely absent from the state of Bihar.

A report in The New York Times described Nitish's first term thus: "He tackled crime first. The order went down to the lowliest constable  the law was to be enforced, and criminals would be punished, no matter their political connections. Powerful men were arrested, many of them sitting members of Parliament and the state assembly. They were convicted quickly in fast-track courts."

"Next came schools and hospitals. More than 2.5 million school-age children were not attending classes; by 2010 that number was reduced to fewer than 800,000. Clinics that had been seeing 30 patients a month because they had no medicine or doctors were staffed up and restocked. By 2006, the patient load had increased tenfold," the report added.

The results showed. Historian Ramchandra Guha, fearing a return to the bad old days of Jungle Raj before the 2016 election, wrote in The Telegraph: "Later, I visited the state myself. I was impressed by how safe Patna had become since the National Democratic Alliance government had come to power. Speaking to officials and social workers, I was moved by their zest and energy. The most able bureaucrats had been put in charge of the crucial sector of education. The hope was that once social peace was restored, and a citizenry appropriately skilled, the conditions would be ripe for investors to come into the state, to build factories and generate employment."

In 2015, Nitish broke faith with the BJP, objecting over the ascent of Narendra Modi as prime minister. He tied up with the RJD and Congress, hoping to form a bulkwark against the Narendra Modi juggernaut. The political results were an unquestionable triumph: The Grand Alliance thumped the BJP, winning 178 of 243 Assembly seats.

However, while they achieved a major political victory, they didn't have much to write about legislatively: Other than the implementation of a complete ban on liquor, fulfilling a poll promise Nitish made before the 2015 Assembly elections, no real progress was made. Meanwhile, a series of unfortunate events frayed the Mahagathbandhan, before it completely broke on Wednesday.

Only time will tell if the renewed partnership between Modi and Nitish will bear fruit.

The people of Bihar would certainly hope so.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
A livid Tejashwi Yadav, who was in the eye of the storm that ended up desecrating the Bihar Mahagathbandhan, took to Twitter on Thursday to slam his former ally-turned 'opportunistic rival' Nitish Kumar. He took to the social media platform to express his anger over the political volte-face by Nitish as the latter canned the RJD-Congress alliance for siding with BJP, which was ironically formed to stall the saffron party.

Initially, after reports of Nitish Kumar's decision became public, Tejashwi announced that he would visit the governor's office to launch a dharna against the decision.

We are going to governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

The march failed to stop the inevitable and Nitish Kumar was sworn-in on Thursday at 10 am as the chief minister of Bihar.

March to Governor house pic.twitter.com/Rp4KHugj9X  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

I've been defamed. People of Bihar are watching. Being the largest party we should have been invited (to form govt in Bihar): Tejashwi Yadav pic.twitter.com/igfY4eDYZL  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Tejashwi said that RJD being the single largest party in Bihar should have been considered for forming the government and called Kumar an "opportunistic rival."

I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017

He went on to say that his performance as deputy chief minister of Bihar unsettled the BJP and this move exposed their viciousness and a personal vendetta against him. The move was even coined as 'opportunistic politics' and he added that BJP had reached new lows in their vindictiveness.

I delivered manifolds than wat was expected of me. My performance perturbed our ally & BJP. Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness.  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017

Much to their dismay,they wer unable to point a single lacuna in my performance.So resorted to low level vindictive & opportunistic politics  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017

Yadav questioned the governor Keshari Nath Tripathi honesty and asked him why the 11 am deadline of the swearing-in ceremony was changed to 10 am.

Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

He said that people would see through BJP's 'power grab' mentality and this attitude will spell doom for the party.

Vicious greed for power of opportunism will spell it's own doom. People are not fools that they digest their penchant for wicked power grab  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017

In his latest tweets, he questioned the government's attitude towards dissent and claimed that the growing voice of the 'marginalized section' of the society contributed to the move. He also added that RSS and BJP were 'hell bent to impose past caste based order in society with the help of the JDU.'

People frm marginalized sections were voicing their opinion wth sense of equality,power to ask,retort & confront.That's wat they didn't like  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017
On Wednesday morning, many hours before news of Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar chief minister broke, Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to Twitter and congratulated Kumar for taking a stand against corruption:

            - 

             Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

 ,                    ,        Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 26, 2017

Even to the casual observer, the timing of Modi's tweets are both interesting and instructive. It hints that much has been going on in the corridors of power, out of public view.

After Nitish resigned, Lalu Prasad Yadav took to Twitter, accusing him of hypocrisy:

                     ?  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 26, 2017

Congress leaders Salman Nizami and Digvijaya Singh also slammed Nitish:

#NitishKumar betraying d mandate of an election is the biggest corruption.The Bihar mandate ws against the BJP &RSS. U just corruptd urself!  Salman Nizami (@SalmanNizami_) July 26, 2017

                     ?  digvijaya singh (@digvijaya_28) July 27, 2017

But many say this split was inevitable. Ever since Nitish and Lalu put aside their differences and joined hands with the Congress to form the Mahagathbandhan in 2015, tensions have been bubbling under the surface. This Grand Alliance, projecting Nitish as its face, was a wall built specifically to stem the tide of the Modi wave ahead of the Bihar legislative elections. It was a matter of survival.

And it paid off, big time. The Grand Alliance routed the BJP, winning 178 out of 243 Assembly seats. But right off the bat, tensions ran high.

A series of unfortunate events for Grand Alliance

In January 2016, RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh hit out at the chief minister, blaming him for the state's deteriorating security situation. In September 2016, just minutes after politician Mohammad Shahabuddin was released from jail, he took a shot at Nitish, calling him a "chief minister of circumstances".

The chief minister responded to the verbal dig and quipped that the people of Bihar had given him a mandate and that they knew whom they had lent their support to. In a move that raised eyebrows, at the end of September, Nitish broke with his comrades and praised the Centre's surgical strikes.

In November 2016, Nitish bucked the Grand Alliance yet again, calling demonetisation a direct strike on black money and saying that he supported Modi's move.

In January 2017, Modi returned the compliment when he shared a stage with Nitish, praising him for the prohibition drive and calling it an inspiration. Nitish responded by praising Modi as "our honourable prime minister" and complimented him on keeping Gujarat a dry state.

In March, JD(U) leader Ajay Alok took to Twitter, slamming the alliance partners RJD and Congress for the lack of development in Bihar:

182 project ? Not a single penny spent!! 11000 cr lapsed ,do u know most dept from Cong and Rjd but responsibility is ours @NitishKumar  Dr Ajay Alok (@alok_ajay) March 28, 2017

Things began heating up in May, when Nitish skipped lunch organised by Congress chief Sonia Gandhi for Opposition leaders to discuss their presidential candidate and instead had a meeting with Modi. He deputed senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav to attend the Opposition lunch in his stead.

In May, Lalu's son Tejashwi and BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi traded barbs on Twitter after Sushil raised questions over two RJD leaders protesting the Grand Alliance. Sushil tweeted:

  MLA               ?       Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) May 29, 2017

Tejashwi replied:

             ? ,      ?  Super CM  ,    https://t.co/KpzTPpym68  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) May 29, 2017

On 30 May, Tejashwi, taking umbrage at allegations of corruption levelled against his family by Sushil, slammed the BJP leader on Twitter and challenged him to choose any seat in municipal or ward polls and said any person nominated by Lalu Prasad would trounce him.



In June, Nitish decided to back Ram Nath Kovind for president and called to inform Sonia and Lalu that he was doing so because he shared a great rapport with Kovind. In July, the CBI raided Lalu's Patna home, among a dozen other places in an alleged land scam and named his wife Rabri Devi in their police complaint.

The very next day, Lalu's daughter Misa Bharti saw Enforcement Directorate (ED) raids conducted at three different places owner by her in connection with a Rs 1,000 crore benami scam. Two days later, the RJD chief held a meeting of party legislators in Patna and ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi as the Bihar's deputy chief minister.

Sonia then reportedly called both Lalu and Nitish over the phone  at the urging of JD(U) leaders who did not want the crisis to spiral out of control  in an attempt to save the Grand Alliance.

On 18 July, Tejashwi, along with his brother Tej Pratap and Congress minister Ashok Choudhary, attended a Cabinet meeting chaired by Nitish.

While it was not clear exactly what transpired during the meeting, it seemed that the Grand Alliance was intact. However, after the closed-door meet, JD(U) leaders stated that corruption charges against Tejashwi were not discussed and that the party was still awaiting for his explanation.

On Wednesday, Lalu emphatically stated that Tejashwi would not resign and stated that Nitish had not asked for his resignation.

Later that day, Nitish quit the Grand Alliance and tendered his resignation as chief minister. Lalu responded by alleging that Nitish had broken the Grand Alliance and had signed up with the BJP because he was facing trial for murdering a man in 1991.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, resigned on Wednesday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that could relegate his alliance partner RJD to the Opposition.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 10 am on Thurday said a tweet by ANI . This will take place at Bihar Assembly. The rest of the cabinet will take oath after vote of confidence.

#TopStory #NitishKumar to take oath as #Bihar Chief Minister at 10 am today, Sushil Modi to be sworn in as Deputy CM. pic.twitter.com/OS5cqXvbhc  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Here is a link to Doordarshan National 's Youtube channel where Live events are telecast and a watch DD News live:

Narendra Modi told journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents according to a report by PTI.

He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10 am on Thursday. It would be Kumar's 6th term as chief minister.

Guv invited us for oath ceremony at 10 am today. 2 ppl to take oath, Nitish Kumar as CM, Sushil Modi as Dy CM: Nityanand Rai, BJP Bihar Pres pic.twitter.com/ppPPVu51FU  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

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

Here is a link to the live coverage by Firstpost of latest developements.
The current twist and turn in Bihar politics throw open three major possibilities not just for Bihar but for national politics at large. The role of the governor and that of allies also get highlighted time and again in the wake of such political junctures. Before getting to the possibilities arising from the breaking of the Mahagathabandhan it should be wiser to see at the outset few instances to recall the present Bihar governors credibility issues. Tejashwi Yadav kept tweeting about governors bias in bypassing the conventional invitation to the single largest party, however, this time Keshari Nath Tripathis action is comprehensible. The governors discretion regarding the possibilities of formation of the government to avoid the futile exercise of inviting one after another is usually considered to be correct.

Having this said, Tripathis past records are quite questionable in two previous instances  one, as the Speaker of Uttar Pradesh Assembly when he gave a controversial interpretation of Anti-defection Act, which gave enough time to Kalyan Singh to manage the BSP MLAs and offer ministerial posts to them. The second instance is that of JDU rebel Jitan Ram Manjhi whom Tripathi in his capacity as the governor of Bihar had given more than enough time to gather support from different quarters. Nitish Kumar who, after the fall of Manjhi government, intending to form the government, had questioned and criticised Tripathi's role.

Back to the latest development in Bihars political scene, three probabilities have to be looked into. First, would it be safe to assume that Lalu Prasads politics is back to its position where it was before the elections? 2015 Bihar elections witnessed RJDs huge comeback, therefore this split in the alliance looks like a major political loss for the RJD but can it be written off that easily given Lalus face as a mass leader? There is a possibility in future that Muslim vote consolidation happens in favour of RJD considering Nitishs present stand. Nitish might again need Lalu for the base vote, as BJP will possibly be looking for chances to demolish Janata Dal United [JD(U)] after crippling Lalu and family.

Some of Lalus supporters optimistically feel that after Nitish siding with the BJP, RJD will have bigger gains and stronger ground for bargains in future. Nevertheless, they also lament the lack of stronger projection of Lalus politics and leadership since coming to power in 2015. This strain of thought that forecasts Nitishs loss, in the long run, draws its inference from Amit Shah-Modi duos past record of crushing the competition, both within and outside the party. JD(U)s position might weaken on its own, considering the conflict rising within the party due to Nitishs pattern of overruling the disagreements of party members in which Sharad Yadav is not the only dissenting voice. BJP will get a lot of clout in its current alliance with JD(U) and will not go for a compromised politics. There is a possibility that BJP might detach itself from JD(U) for 2019 Lok Sabha elections leaving Nitish alone with his limitations at the national level electoral competition.

Another noteworthy possibility that predicts a safe present and future for Nitish depends on the layered political realities and considerations. One of the considerations is that RJD with its tarnished image falling further in the mire of its own corruption will never be able to walk alone to the path of success. This makes Nitishs case stronger as he will have the option of anytime getting back with RJD making it a political imperative for RJD to join together. RJD might end up with a status of partner in waiting. This option further builds a strong ground for Nitishs consistent power consolidation, as BJP will always be wary of the possibility of JDU-RJDs re-alliance, which proved to be a serious impediment to their success in Bihar assembly election of 2015. Hence BJP will always try to keep Nitish together in fighting elections even if it gains more ground in Bihar. A share of Muslim vote might also remain with Nitish despite BJPs presence as he has individually earned respect among the Muslim community. Looking at the track, Nitish had responded relatively more to the dynamics on the ground than most other contemporaries in the field, whether it is on the question of caste, community or development. In this situation, Nitish stands to gain both in 2019 Lok Sabha elections as well as in 2021 Assembly elections. In 2021 Nitish might be able to retain command in his hand and restrict BJP to a secondary position in Bihar.

The third and more pragmatic aspect of Nitish joining hands with BJP is that he might be able to keep a check on the present pattern of BJP with his presence as a partner since he has a strong voice and a persona unlike others who went with BJP in the past. BJP is strong enough presently and has grown to the extent that it cannot be shaken from outside. On the flip side, that makes its internal tugs and dynamics even more critical now. Recently Shiva Sena president Uddhav Thackeray, despite being an ally of National Democratic Alliance, accused Modi of centralising power on the issues of demonetisation and Goods and Services Tax. Pragmatists are beginning to believe that the dictatorial single-loud-face cut-out Modi reign will be weakened once the allies start producing consistent friction through their games for gains and bargains in power share. Hence Nitish joining hands with BJP can be viewed prospectively effecting at least few turns further in the process of democratic decentralisation of power. Initially, it may seem that Bihar will be saffronised but Nitish would not let BJP overpower his strength. He is a different bargainer who will continue to assert himself as he does not have any family based politics or history of sycophancy.

Tarushikha Sarvesh is an assistant professor at Aligarh Muslim University; Abdur Rahoof Ottathingal is a research staff with Leiden University Institute for History, Netherlands and Rakesh Kumar Ranjan is a PhD from School of International Studies, Centre for West Asian Studies.
Hyderabad: Expressing shock over the political developments in Bihar, the Communist Party of India (CPI) on Thursday said Nitish Kumar should have waited till the court verdict on corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday but joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

Kumar had a fall out with the RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy chief minister in the previous dispensation.

"It's an unfortunate, negative development. We are all shocked though we knew the crisis was deepening," CPI general secretary Suravaram Sudhakar Reddy told PTI.

Kumar was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state alongside senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna on Thursday.

"We believe his urge for clean government...that is understandable but just an allegation (against Tejashwi Yadav) with political motive by the Central government need not be taken as a confirmation of corruption case," Reddy said.

"I think he (Nitish Kumar) should have waited till the court decides on these issues," he added.

He was also asked if Bihar's political developments are a huge setback to the opposition's unity.

"Definitely to some extent. But in other states, it will not have any effect. Only in Bihar, it will have an effect. It's an advantage for BJP, naturally."

Reddy also said he is sure the people of Bihar would not accept the new JD(U)-BJP dispensation under Nitish Kumar.

"Definitely, people will rally behind secular forces. We are confident of this."
New Delhi: The Election Commission (EC) on Thursday announced bypolls to four assembly seats, including Panaji, from where Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is likely to contest.

The by-elections in Bawana (Delhi), Panaji and Valpoi (Goa) and Nandyal (Andhra Pradesh) will be held on 23 August.

The notification for the by-elections would be issued on 29 July, Saturday, beginning the nomination process.

While 5 August is the last date of filing nominations, 9 August is the last date of withdrawing from the electoral battle, an EC statement said.

The counting will take place on 28 August.

The Bawana seat was vacated after AAP MLA Ved Prakash had resigned to join the BJP.

Parrikar had represented the Panaji assembly seat in the Goa assembly till he was appointed defence minister in the Modi government.

With Parrikar becoming the chief minister again after the recent assembly polls, he should become a MLA within six months of taking oath.

Siddharth Kuncalienkar (BJP) had recently resigned from the Panaji seat to make way for Parrikar's election as MLA. Parrikar continues to be a Rajya Sabha member.

The bypoll to Valpoi seat in Goa was necessitated after sitting Congress MLA Vishwajeet Rane had resigned to join the BJP.

The bypoll to the Nandyal seat is taking place as the sitting MLA from TDP had passed away following a cardiac arrest.
Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday congratulated Nitish Kumar on being sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar, saying a new era has dawned in the north Indian state.

Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

"By resigning over the issue of corruption, Nitish Kumar gave a message that there won't be any compromise over the issue of corruption," Fadnavis told reporters outside the Vidhan Bhawan, where the monsoon session of the state Legislature is underway.

"Our party president Amit Shah and prime minister Narendra Modi responded (to him) and as a result, an NDA government under Nitish Kumar's leadership was sworn in Bihar on Thursday," he said.

"While resigning, Nitish Kumar displayed his honesty," Fadnavis said.

"A new era has dawned in Bihar. I congratulate Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi, the new deputy CM," he further said.

Kumar had quit the CM's post on Wednesday night after a fallout with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the previous dispensation.

He was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state alongside senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna on Thursday.
Mumbai: Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday said that the farmers whose debts were restructured in 2016 will also be eligible for the farm loan waiver of up to Rs 1.50 lakh.

Announcing this in the state Legislative Assembly, he also said that the loan waiver benefit will be extended to the families of serving army jawans who are engaged in farming.

"The government would make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers, whose loans were restructured, and tweak the norms to make serving army jawans eligible to avail of the scheme," he said during a discussion on loan waiver.

On 24 June, the state government had announced that loans taken between 1 April, 2012 and 30 Jun 30, 2016 would be written off. However, it later announced that farmers who have taken loans from 2009 onwards would also be covered under the scheme.

The BJP-led state government had earlier said that 89 lakh farmers would be benefited by the scheme that would cost Maharashtra Rs 34,022 crore.

"The farmers whose loans were restructured, became eligible for fresh loans. However, they are facing financial burden. Therefore, we will make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers whose loans were restructured," Fadnavis said.

He also announced that a mobile application would be launched in a couple of days for the farmers to fill their forms to avail the loan waiver scheme.

He said if farmers do not have access to computers to fill the forms, they could use a mobile app to submit the required information.

Fadnavis also appealed to the MLAs in the state to assist local farmers in submitting the information.

"The form is not difficult to fill. We have set up 26,000 centres for the farmers to fill the forms. An app will be launched so that the farmers do it from their mobiles," he added.

There are 1.36 crore account holders, of which 49 percent possess less than one hectare of land.

According to Fadnavis, there are three lakh farmers in the state with outstanding loan between Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs two lakh; 1.50 lakh farmers with Rs two lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh outstanding debts; 37,000 farmers with loan in the range of Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs three lakh; 26,000 in the range of Rs 3.50 lakh to Rs four lakh and 35,000 farmers between outstanding loan ranging between Rs 4.50 lakh and Rs five lakh.

"There are 46,000 farmers in Maharashtra, who have an outstanding loan amount of over Rs five lakh," he said.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar had on Wednesday pointed out that the loan waiver scheme would be extended to the families of army jawans engaged in farming.

Responding to it, Fadnavis said, "We will tweak the norms to make the serving army jawans eligible for the loan waiver scheme."

Currently, army jawans are not eligible for the waiver.

Taking a dig at the loan waiver scheme given by the erstwhile UPA government in 2008, Fadnavis said debts secured for shops, vehicles and lands were also written off that time.

"Even Mumbai got Rs 208 crore loan waiver and Vidarbha got Rs 286 crore. Many people got very little waiver, while few others got even Rs 60 lakh waived," he said.

Fadnavis also pointed out the "loopholes" in the 2008 loan waiver scheme.

"CAG officials had taken a sample for assessing the implementation of loan waiver in the state. As many as nine per cent account holders, who were non-eligible, got their loans waived. Personal loans, vehicle loans, and those for the purchase of shops, were also got waived. There were around 2,000 cases, where people not related to agriculture also got benefited. Surprisingly, no information is available with the banks about the beneficiaries across the state," he said.

The BJP-led state government is also under criticism over the advertisements about the loan waiver scheme.

Responding to it, he said, "We are being criticised for spending money on the advertisements, but the UPA had spent Rs 1.60 crore for the loan waiver of Rs 4,000 crore. But we spent only Rs 36 lakh for Rs 34,000 crore waiver".

Advertisements are necessary to convey about the government schemes to people, he added.

The chief minister also slammed the Congress and NCP over their 'Sangharsh Yatra' they had taken out over the farmers' issues.

"I know the response the Sangharsh Yatra got. I have the report," he said.

He also told the House that the Centre had asked the insurance companies to submit the data about crop insurance online.

"Banks in the state failed to submit this data online effectively. Therefore, the Maharashtra government had approached the Centre with a demand that the data be allowed to be presented offline. However, the Centre turned down the demand. The Centre pointed out that if states like Bihar and Assam could shift their functioning online, Maharashtra can also follow suit," Fadnavis said.
Editor's Note: Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who walked out of the Bihar Grand Alliance recently and realigned with the BJP, recently said that there would be "no challenge" to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 general elections. This article, originally published on 27 July, 2017, is being republished in the view of the latest remark from Nitish.

The erstwhile Bihar Grand Alliance had always laboured over the often patchy relationship between Nitish Kumar and the BJP. The occasional camaraderie between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish had often rocked the coalition boat, with speculations rife that the Bihar chief minister is cosying up with the saffron party to get rid of Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Now that Nitish is back in the NDA fold, the chief minister of Bihar is quite optimistic of working around their differences for the development of Bihar. "It is not necessary that everybody always agrees on everything. One can have divergent views," Nitish said. He even conceded that Modi is now almost invincible as far as 2019 elections are concerned.

Nitish, till recently seen as a potential challenger to Modi, said, "Nobody else (other than Modi) can occupy the PM's post. Now nobody has the strength to beat Modi."

However, things have not been the same since the start. If Lalu and Nitish's coming together made for an 'unnatural alliance,' it's interesting to recall how Modi was Nitish's bete noire not too long ago. It's a well-documented fact that Nitish had snapped his 17-year-old alliance with the BJP because it had nominated Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate.

Modi and Nitish over the years have had a politically most gripping love-hate relationship.

The animosity between the two leaders dates back to 2009. Nitish was never known to have liked Modi, whom he branded as a communal and divisive politician. However, his presence in a distant state ruled by ally BJP did not bother him much. It was in 2009 that Nitish was first forced to acknowledge Modi's presence, and in a way which will come back to haunt him even till this date.

Both Modi and Nitish were at a rally in Punjab's Ludhiana as NDA chief ministers and the antipathy between two leaders was common knowledge. However, as a report in The Indian Express states, Modi walked over to Nitish and hold his hand aloft to make for a politically charged image that would be plastered on to the first page of newspapers the next day.

This became the poster image for Modi-Nitish bitter-sour relationship: It eventually became the reason Nitish snapped ties with BJP on 16 June, 2013 and was even raked up by Lalu Prasad Yadav today (on Thursday) as he took potshots at his erstwhile ally for siding with "communal forces."

Then in June 2010, the same image cropped up to again haunt the Bihar chief minister. Nitish was irate when posters began to appear in Bihar flanking the same image, thanking Modi for his kind donation during 2009 Bihar floods. In fact Nitish was so upset that he not only returned Modi's Rs 5 crore cheque, but he also cancelled a dinner party, he had arranged to host at his 1 Anne Marg residence.

Modi-Nitish relations had hit the lowest ebb, finally culminating in Nitish severing ties with the BJP in 2013 after it was announced that Modi would lead the 2014 parliamentary campaign. As journalist Sankarshan Thakur recounts in his book, The Brother's Bihari, that Nitish had by this point was "reconciled to breaking with the BJP".

After getting decimated by the Modi wave in 2014 general election, Nitish decided to join hands with Lalu Prasad's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) whom he had derided for over two decades  such was his abhorrence for Lalu.

It is then only ironical that Modi, who was the reason behind a 17-year-old alliance's divorce, is now proudly touting a refreshed alliance with the same man.

In between were the much animated electoral campaigns of 2014 general elections and the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections  many barbs were traded, much animosity exchanged.

According to The Times of India from the time of Bihar elections, Nitish had given special instructions to his JD(U)'s youth wing to counter "killers of Mahatma Gandhi" and curb the rise of "divisive forces."

Modi too has come down heavily on Nitish many a times, before the BJP decided to start wooing him back into NDA folds for political gains. In a famous controversy from June 2015, Modi slammed Nitish for frequently changing political allegiance. Nothing then could be in starker irony from Wednesday night's developments.

Modi, while attacking Nitish at a rally in Muzaffarpur on 25 July 2015, had said that it seemed that there was some problem with Nitish Kumars DNA."

"Most of us feel these statements have gone beyond questioning my own descent. They have disrespected the lineage of our people and denigrated the great legacy of the state," Nitish had retorted in an open letter.

JD(U) had even collected a bunch of hair samples and nail clippings from people of Bihar to send to 7 Race Course for the prime minister to examine the DNA of Biharis, an ANI report reproduced in Yahoo News states.

Fast forward a couple of years and one would find ample instances of camaraderie between the two leaders. From Nitish colouring a lotus in full public view to Modi and Nitish sharing a chopper ride between Patna and Hajipur on 14 March 2016, as reported in The Indian Express.

Nitish breaking ranks with Opposition to first support the BJP on demonetisation, then on its presidential nominee is still fresh in news and, much to the despair of a stinged Lalu, the indication that 'conspiracy against RJD was being hatched since long.'

Nitish Kumar is an astute politician. Aside the 'clean image of Sushasan Babu' he knows where his political interests lie. In 2013, when the Kurmi leader was wooing Muslim population, it was against his interests to be seen sharing stage with "communal" Modi. Today, his anti-corruption image would have been compromised if he continued to be associated with Lalu, knee-deep in corruption-related controversies.

However, further reflection shows that Nitish has little to gain with this volte-face. He not only comes across as a political opportunist, but he has also burnt his bridges with the Congress and RJD, especially at a time when many speculated that he could be a big face in the united Opposition to take on Modi.

This will also dent any prime ministerial ambitions that Nitish may have had, despite denying them on several occasions: Modi will be NDA's face in 2019 and beyond, there is no questioning that.

Besides, Nitish knows he has a sizeable support base in Muslims in Bihar. With the BJP earning the ire of the Opposition over cow slaughter, attacks on minorities and beef ban, Nitish embracing the BJP won't be taken kindly by the community.
After Bihar, Congress, in all likelihood, is set to receive another jolt in the forthcoming Rajya Sabha elections. This time it's Ahmed Patel, the confidante and political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi.

Ahmed is contesting for a fifth term in the Rajya Sabha.

The trouble for Gujarat Congress started last week when senior Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela resigned from the party and announced his resignation as the Leader of the Opposition from the Gujarat Assembly. Vaghela, however has not announced his resignation as an MLA, thus continuing to hold the right to vote during the Rajya Sabha election.

With Vaghela, or Bapu, as he is popularly known, declaring his dissent for Congress, three other party MLAs  Balwantsinh Rajput, Tejashri Patel and PI Patel  have also resigned from Congress. Interestingly, Rajput, former chief whip of Congress, and a relative of Vaghela, is now BJP's third candidate for the forthcoming elections of the Upper House. All of this has left Ahmed as the lone Congress candidate in the Rajya Sabha election.

With a strength of 121 MLAs in the 182-seat Gujarat Assembly, BJP is confident of sending party president Amit Shah as well as information and broadcasting minister Smriti Irani to the Upper House. The proposal of Rajput as the third candidate is to ensure that Ahmed gets a tough fight in the upcoming election.

After the resignation of the three MLAs from Congress on Thursday, the party's strength has come down to 54, a figure which should be enough for Ahmed to get through comfortably. Ahmed has to secure just 47 votes to ensure his entry to the Upper House. But considering 11 Congress MLAs cross-voted during the recently-concluded presidential election, a repeat might be in the offing. It's likely that Ahmed will not be able to secure the required 47 votes.

The BJP, which is already facing a crunch of numbers in the Upper House is going all out to ensure that they get the maximum numbers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state. But that may not be the only objective.

Ahmed is credited with Congress performance in the 2004 and 2009 General Elections to Lok Sabha. The only Muslim parliamentarian from Gujarat, Ahmed is considered a troubleshooter for Congress, and ensured that he remains a troublemaker for BJP. Though Ahmed has remained out of government and maintained a low profile, he is a known strategist for the party and has always remained at the helm of affairs in Congress.

For BJP, ensuring that Ahmed loses the Rajya Sabha election is not only a matter of adding numbers in the Upper House, but also a prestige battle of pinning down the enemy.

During the Rajya Sabha election, which is scheduled to take place on 8 August, the BJP will try and ensure that a few more deflections come from Congress.

"The BJP is also hoping that Vaghela's son and an MLA, Mahendrasinh Vaghela, Vaghela sympathiser Raghavji Patel will also vote in favour of BJP candidate Rajput," said a senior state Congress leader.

In the days to come, political hobnobbing will surely dominate the headlines in Gujarat. It remains to be seen if Ahmed will be able to sail through amidst all the resignations and dissensions. For BJP Ahmed's defeat in the Rajya Sabha election would mean a big political victory not only in terms of a number, but also in terms of a statement.
New Delhi: The corruption charges against BJP leaders in Kerala should not be seen as a state phenomenon and "it is only a matter of time before the skeletons come tumbling out of the cupboards of the Modi government", the CPM has said.

"It would be a mistake to consider the corruption scandals within the BJP in Kerala as a purely localised state phenomenon," said an editorial in the CPM journal People's Democracy.

"The allocations and permissions from central government departments require 'middle-men' of the party at the Centre.

"Moreover, if the party men can go on the make (money), even when they are in the opposition (in Kerala), one can imagine the scale of bribery and corruption which is affecting the state governments and central government run by the BJP," the editorial said.

"It is only a matter of time before the skeletons come tumbling out of the cupboards of the Modi government," it added.

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that despite its minimal influence in Kerala, the state leaders of the BJP had utilized the opportunities presented by the BJP being the ruling party to take bribes to get work done under the purview of central institutions.

The bribery and corruption affecting the Bharatiya Janata Party erupted after the leakage of a report of an enquiry committee set up by the party regarding charges against one of its leaders, RS Vinod.

He was accused of taking a bribe of Rs 5.6 crore from the owner of a private medical college for getting recognition from the Medical Council of India. It was reported that the money was transferred to Delhi through a hawala transaction.

Another BJP leader in Kerala, MT Ramesh, was accused of taking a bribe of a similar amount from another medical college owner to get recognition. The BJP expelled Vinod from the party.

"This exposure came after the news that some BJP leaders in Thrissur had been arrested for printing of fake currency notes. A BJP leader of Malappuram was arrested on a complaint of taking a bribe of Rs 10 lakh for a bank appointment," it said.

The editorial also stated that this showed the degeneration of the Hindutva party.
Ranchi: RJD chief Lalu Prasad on Thursday said his party was consulting legal experts and may approach the Supreme Court as the verdict in the SR Bommai case has not been followed while inviting Nitish Kumar to form government in Bihar.

"The SR Bommai case verdict clearly states that the largest party should be invited to form government. The majority is proved on the floor of the House. The RJD should have been invited. We have sought the opinion of Supreme Court lawyer Ram Jethmalani," Lalu Prasad told reporters in Ranchi on Thursday.

"We suspected foul play when Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi was called to Patna on Wednesday. We were given the time by Raj Bhavan at 11 am today (Thursday) by spreading the rumour that the oath taking ceremony is at 5 pm. But the oath ceremony was scheduled for 10 am," said Lalu Prasad.

"We had sought time to stake claim to form the government. When our leaders met the Governor on Wednesday night he told us that the letter of oath taking was given to Nitish Kumar. The SR. Bommai case directive has been overlooked in the case," Lalu Prasad said.

In the SR Bommai vs Union of India case in 1994, the Centre's capacity to dismiss a state government was curbed as per constitutional necessities. The judgement laid down that the only way to resolve internal issues within a state's administrative functioning would be by means of a floor test determining the support enjoyed by the party in power.

Lalu Prasad alleged that the entire political episode was fixed between the BJP and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar.

"The script was written six months ago. Nitish Kumar had met Narendra Modi and (BJP chief) Amit Shah. Nitish colluded with the BJP for my conviction in the fodder scam case."

He also alleged that Nitish Kumar is a murder accused. "Nitish is an accused in the murder of Sitaram Singh in 1991. The court has taken cognisance. Nitish Kumar must resign on moral grounds," he said.
Amid high political drama on Thursday, Lalu Prasad Yadav hurled allegations of his own against one-time ally Nitish Kumar, releasing the Bihar chief minister's affidavit released at the time he filed his nomination papers. In it is mentioned a list of criminal cases filed against Nitish Kumar.

            affidavite             pic.twitter.com/MUmOkKgV3q  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 27, 2017

He wrote in the tweet: "Nitish has murder cases against him. He has himself admitted so in the affidavit."

Lalu Prasad had earlier brought up Nitish Kumar's criminal cases saying they were more serious than the corruption charges against his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

"There is a case of murder under sections 302 and 307 of the IPC against Nitish Kumar, which dates back to 1991. It can lead him to life imprisonment. We knew about it. The charge against Nitish Kumar is much more serious and bigger than the charge of corruption (against Tejashwi Yadav)," Lalu said, in an attempt to discredit Nitish and protect his son from the corruption charges.

The image of the affidavit tweeted out by Lalu shows the different sections of the IPC under which Nitish has been charged: sections 147 (punishment for rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon), 149 (unlawful assembly), 302 (punishment for murder) and 307 (attempt to murder).

Nitish was accused of the murder of Congress leader Sitaram Singh and injuring four others ahead of the Barh Lok Sabha by-election in November 1991.

It was alleged that Nitish, along with other party members, created disturbance at the polling booth which led to clashes between villagers. The police initially dropped the charges against Nitish, but they were levelled against him again in 2009, reported The Times of India.

Lalu had on Wednesday told the media that Nitish had not brought up the resignation when they last spoke. "I talked with Nitishji last night (Tuesday) and asked him to clear all the misunderstandings. We talked for 40 minutes and he did not mention about his resignation for once. He also advised me to clarify the corruption charges through the media. Nitish Kumar knew that he is an accused in a murder case and an Arms Act case under sections 302 and 307 of the IPC. He also declared this in elections affidavit. Nitish knew that if he would ask Tejashwi to resign his crimes will also be exposed," Deccan Chronicle reported Lalu as saying.

The Nitish Kumar-led JD(U), is not unfamiliar with its leaders being charged with criminal cases. In a report published in 2013, India Today researched election affidavits filed ahead of the 2010 Assembly polls to say that 58 out of 118 MLAs in the Bihar JD(U) had criminal cases against them. Of these, 43 had serious criminal offences, including 23 murder charges and 35 attempt to murder cases.
Whether it was the row over support to the presidential candidate or the income tax department's raids to probe alleged benami deals, the once strong Mahagathbandhan was hardly ever stable.

And now that Lalu Prasad has lost the support of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, the voices and possibly action against him are going to grow stronger, adding to an already high number of troubles.

Even though Kumar had been either silent or vague in his answers whenever questioned about the corruption charges against Lalu and family because of the Mahagathbandhan, he will now have no qualms about directly speaking against him.

This will make life tougher for Lalu and his family. Now that Kumar is back in the NDA and son Tejashwi is no longer deputy chief minister, Lalu will not get political protection or even words of support from the Bihar government.

Earlier on 7 July, CBI had conducted raids across four cities in a corruption case in which Lalu's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi are among the accused.

The case relates to alleged manipulation in award of contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways  IRCTC  when the RJD chief was railway minister in the UPA government.

The searches, which started at 7 am on that day and included Rabri Devi's Circular Road residence in Patna, were spread across 12 locations in Patna, Ranchi, Gurgaon and Bhubaneswar. The raids included the premises of the Yadav family as well as those of his confidante Prem Chand Gupta, a former Union minister, whose wife Sarla Gupta is listed as an accused in the FIR.

The fresh case against Lalu came barely two months after the Supreme Court restored the criminal conspiracy charge against him in the fodder scam and ordered separate trial in all the four cases against him.

The apex court, while setting aside the 2014 order which had stayed the trial against Yadav after conviction in one of the cases, said the Jharkhand High Court should have been consistent in its findings and not have given different views for different sets of accused in a case.

It also pulled up the CBI for the delay in filing an appeal against the high court order in the case and said the probe agency's director should have looked into this important matter and deputed an officer to pursue the case.

The CBI had challenged the 2014 order of the Jharkhand High Court quashing four pending fodder scam cases against him on the grounds that a person convicted in one case could not be tried in similar cases based on same witnesses and evidence.

Moreover, the Enforcement Directorate had also issued summons to Lalu's daughter and RJD MP Misa Bharti after it recently conducted raids against her and her husband in connection with a Rs8,000 crore money laundering case. Three farmhouses of Bharti, her husband and one registered in the name of Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were searched by the ED.

With the high number of allegations against him and his family members and the exit of Kumar from the Grand Alliance, the days ahead are probably going to get tough for Lalu Prasad.

With inputs from PTI
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BJP's Tikamgarh MP Virendra Kumar claimed during Zero Hour on Monday that the Congress MP got a hospital in his parliamentary constituency Guna in Madhya Pradesh "purified" by sprinkling Ganga water and re-inaugurated it even though it had been earlier inaugurated by a Dalit BJP MLA.

Besides, the Lok Sabha also witnessed heated exchanges Jyotiraditya Scindia denied he was "anti-Dalit" and demanded an apology from BJP members who said so a day earlier.

It was an uneventful seventh day of the Monsoon Session of Parliament, with the Lok Sabha unable to get any substantial legislative business done following two adjournments. The first adjournment was called to allow ministers to partake in the swearing-in ceremony of the 14th President of India and Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the Lower House for the day after the Opposition started demanding the revocation of suspension of the six members of Parliament who were suspended on Monday.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data, presented by Minister of State for Home Affairs Hansraj Gangaram Ahir, 336 cases related to offences promoting enmity between different groups on the ground of religion, race, place of birth were registered in 2014, which has risen to 475 in the year 2016, an increase of over 41 percent.

The number of offences promoting enmity on communal and racial lines has gone up by 41 percent in the country in the last three years, the government told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Progress of renovation of 141 railway stations taken up in Lok Sabha

"You claim to follow the principle of 'justice for all appeasement of none'. So, now when you have granted constitutional status to SC/ST and OBC commissions, will you also grant constitutional status to the minorities welfare commisiion," Owaisi asked.

All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen leader Asaduddin Owaisi asked the minorities affairs minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi whether the government planned to grant constitutional status to the minorities rights commission.

Jaitley then urged the deputy chairman to expunge Sharma's speech for being irrelevant.

Sharma had raised President Ram Nath Kovind's maiden address, saying that Kovind failed to mention Jawaharlal Nehru. He had also attacked Kovind for comparing Deen Dayal to Mahatma Gandhi.

The defence minister slammed INC's Anand Sharma for "dragging" Mahatma Gandhi into the zero hour.

You can't be running a Zero Hour only for the television cameras: Arun Jaitley

"Until I have evidence, I will keep searching. Without proof, declaring a person dead is a sin. I wait for the day when the truth will be revealed," she says.

The external affairs minister said she was not trying to fool the public.

On Wednesday the Opposition had raised concern over President Ram Nath Kovind's address after swearing in. Congress alleged in Lok Sabha that Kovind had insulted Nehru and Mahatma Gandhi in his speech.

"When Gandhiji is compared to another person, which shouldn't happen, the history feels to be affected," Sibal told ANI.

 Congress MPs chant slogans demanding the revocation of the suspension of six MPs.

Need to look at employment of IT professionals because jobs are not increasing: M Srinivas Rao, TDP pic.twitter.com/negsTVqjlS

Most ministers were of the opinion that the law could not be enacted without the approval of Jammu and Kashmir Assembly. A common concern was that the bill would overiding Article 370 of the Constitution.

Leader of Opposition Ghulam Nabi Azad requested the Parliamentary affairs ministry to keep the decision on The Collection of Statistics (Amendment) Bill, 2017 pending. Since the amendment will include Jammu and Kashmir, he said that it is a sensitive issue. Azad asked the Parliament to address the sensitivity and assured that the Opposition would extend support in passing the bill in state.

Whatever Cong MPs are doing in the House in unparliamentary: Parliamentary Affairs Minister @AnanthKumar_BJP pic.twitter.com/Tq0FDk59ol

Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Ananth Kumar criticised the Congress party for creating an uproar in the Lok Sabha, calling their behaviour 'unparliamentary.' The monsoon session in the Lower House will resume on Thursday.

The day I get proof of whereabouts of 39 missing Indians,I will come here if the session is on or inform via Twitter:EAM Swaraj in RS #Mosul pic.twitter.com/2ysTnuuLm9

 Congress MPs chant slogans demanding the revocation of the suspension of six MPs.

Parliament will meet on the ninth day of the Monsoon Session as key bills, including The Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Public-Private Partnership) Bill 2017, The Constitution (123rd Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the National Commission for Backward Classes (Repeal) Bill, 2017, Companies (A)Bill, NABARD (A) Bill, IIM Bill and Banking Regulation Bill are listed for discussion and passing.

Rajya Sabha members are expected to call the attention of the House to the floods in various parts of the country, particularly Assam.

On Wednesday, the proceedings in the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Wednesday by angry Congress members who raised anti-government slogans over a range of issues, including revocation of suspension of six of its members, forcing its adjournment for the day.

The House, which saw two adjournments in the afternoon due to the noisy protests, was adjourned for the day at around 3.45 pm.

For most part of the day, many Congress members were in the Well raising slogans like "Pradhan Mantri jawab do (PM should reply)", "tanashahi nahin chalegi (end dictatorship)", "jaat ke nam par rajniti band karo (End politics in the name of caste)" and "Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Isai, aapas me hain bhai-bhai".

On the suspension of six Congress MPs, the members, including KC Venugopal and Ravneet Singh Bittu, also shouted "Speaker saheb, nyay karo (Speaker, do justice)". At one point of time, they were also joined by members of Trinamool Congress.

Amidst the day-long slogan-shouting by Congress and other Opposition members with many of them in the Well, the House took up the Question Hour, proceeded partially with the Zero Hour and then debated and passed the Indian Institutes of Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2017.

As soon as the bill was passed in the afternoon, Minister of State for Finance Arjun Ram Meghwal initiated a discussion on the Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016, which was listed in the day's agenda. This bill has been listed for discussion since last week.

As the the din continued, Deputy Speaker M Thambidurai adjourned the House for the day.
After almost a week, the two Houses of Parliament witnessed smooth proceedings that led onto a few meaningful discussions. While Lok Sabha witnessed sloganeering and protests in the morning session, with the Congress demanding withdrawal of suspension of its six MPs and a debate on mob lynchings, peaceful proceedings returned in its post-lunch sitting.

Soon after the House met, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav of RJD raised the issue of the Janata Dal(U) leaving the "grand alliance" in Bihar and forming a new government with BJP. Yadav shouted from his seat, calling it a "murder of democracy".

Soon after, Congress members were seen raising slogans demanding revocation of the suspension on their six MPs, and demanding a debate on mob lynchings.

The House saw a brief adjournment of around 25 minutes.

As the House met again, Question Hour proceeded amid sloganeering, and Congress members who were standing near the Speaker's podium were seen displaying placards.

After Question Hour, the Speaker allowed Opposition members to speak on the issue. She said she was not against the debate on mob lynchings.

Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge said the party had first given a notice for a short duration debate under Rule 193 on 5 June, and subsequently notices were given under adjournment motion.

Kharge also said that the Speaker, during a meeting with Congress members, had said that she is ready for debate, but the government needs to be convinced.

Mahajan said Kharge was twisting her words, and added, "I said I am ready for debate but everyone has to be ready."

Kharge interrupted, saying the Congress would not ask for revoking the suspension of their six MPs, "We will not ask about revoking suspension," to which Mahajan said they have "not yet apologised".

"What do you mean by saying you will not ask about it? You have not even apologised yet," Mahajan said.

As Kharge asked for the debate, he was joined by Sudip Bandyopadhyay of Trinamool Congress, who said that if possible, the discussion should start on Thursday itself. "Mob lynching is a serious issue. We must start the discussion immediately, if possible, on Thursday," he said.

Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM) member Mohammed Salim, meanwhile, raised his pitch and questioned why the issue was not being debated under the adjournment motion despite it being an important issue.

"For the last two weeks, we have been submitting notices under adjournment motions. Fifty persons have been killed in mob lynchings. People are living in fear. If we don't discuss it who will?" asked Salim. "Should we take adjournment motion out of the rule books? A 16-year-old boy is being killed and we are not discussing it... what are we doing here?"

Mahajan replied, "I have not denied debate on any issue. I did not say adjournment motions should not be admitted, I only said I will not suspend Question Hour. In matters as this, everyone should be taken on board," she said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar, meanwhile, said that the Opposition wanted to discuss violence that was occurring outside, but did not want to speak on the incident that took place in the House when paper bits were thrown at the Speaker.

"Just asking to revoke suspension will not help... I would also request Mohammed Salim, you want to discuss the violence outside, but what happened in the House, was it right? This is a temple of democracy, the Speaker is the head, and on her paper bits were thrown. If they would have done it outside, they would have been charged under IPC. We are ready for debate but we will not allow this in the House," he said.

The Speaker then took up Zero Hour mentions, as Opposition members continued to raise slogans. The House was later adjourned for lunch.

Post-lunch, the House resumed proceedings in peace for the first time in the week, and The Companies (Amendment) Bill 2016 was passed.

The Lok Sabha passed the bill that seeks to strengthen corporate governance standards, initiate strict action against defaulting companies and help improve the ease of doing business in the country.

Piloting the Companies (Amendment) Bill, 2016, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Arjun Ram Meghwal also said that NSEL and PACL scams were a legacy of the previous regime which the current government is trying to address.

The bill, which was passed by a voice vote, provides for more than 40 amendments to the Companies Act, 2013, which was passed during the previous UPA regime.

Meanwhile, in the Rajya Sabha, there was a discussion on how there can be no compromise on the issue of cross-border terrorism and that the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and comprehensive bilateral dialogue, the government told the Rajya Sabha.

In response to a question, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said India's consistent position has been that entire state of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and a part of the territory of the state has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan. "India is committed to addressing all outstanding issues, including Jammu and Kashmir, bilaterally and through peaceful means in accordance with the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration," he said.

On the issue of the Sikkim standoff, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that India is not a "mute spectator" to the sufferings of the Tibetan people and the issue of stapled visas given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China.

Replying to supplementaries in the Rajya Sabha, Swaraj said there is "no quid pro quo" with China as far as the question of the latter recognising Arunachal Pradesh as part of India is concerned.

"We used to earlier talk of 'One China' policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want China to also recognise this. Our policy has been very clear," she said.

The minister said the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China has been raised "in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or by the prime minister".

However, a section of Rajya Sabha members belonging to the Congress, DMK, TMC and CPI staged a demonstration in Parliament, demanding exemptions to Tamil Nadu from the purview of the NEET exam.

Speaking to reporters after the protest, Tamil Nadu MP MK Kanimozhi said as a principal opposition party in the state, the DMK was demanding a permanent solution for students in all fronts. "We will be persistently raising the issue in Parliament with the help of like-minded parties," she said.
New Delhi: Lok Sabha on Thursday saw a verbal clash between the ruling side and the opposition, with the Congress demanding an immediate debate on the lynching issue while the BJP sought an apology from the Congress members suspended for throwing papers towards the Speaker.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Leader of the Congress Mallikarjun Kharge said his party had given a notice on 5 June for a discussion on the lynching issue and has been giving adjournment notices.

He claimed that Speaker Sumitra Mahajan was ready for it but not the government.

Seeking an immediate debate, he said his party would not raise the issue of the revocation of its six members' suspension if the House took up the lynching issue for discussion.

Mohammad Salim (CPM) wondered if the concept of adjournment notice should be removed from the rule book, leading to a brief uproar.

"If an adjournment notice is not accepted on such an issue (lynching), then what is the point of having it," he asked, claiming that over 50 people have been killed in mob violence.

Mahajan said Salim could not challenge the Speaker as she noted that she only disallowed the notices for suspending the Question Hour but never denied a discussion on the issue.

"I have always been willing to allow a debate," she said.

Sudip Bandyopadhyay (Trinamool Congress) also supported the demand for a discussion on lynchings, saying it was the most important issue. "Let's start a discussion," he said.

Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar said the government was always ready for a debate on the issue but it was the House's decision to take up the matter of agriculture crisis first.

He then launched a sharp attack on the Congress for its members' protest in the House during which they threw paper balls towards the Chair, a charge denied by Opposition members.

Had he thrown paper balls towards a woman Speaker outside Parliament, it would have invited a criminal case, Kumar claimed, saying Parliament was the temple of democracy and the Opposition party should tender an apology.

He made another comment aimed at the Congress but it was expunged by the Speaker.

Congress members later trooped into the Well, raising slogans and carrying placards even as the Speaker carried on with the proceedings.
After months of troubled rule, marred by the corruption charges on RJD, JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar has come a full circle. He has abandoned his alliance partners in Bihar only to go back to his former ally, the NDA. Now, some may say that the decision to resign as the chief minister was spurred by the countless corruption charges against RJD leader Lalu Prasad and his family. However, a little credit must also be given to the improving dynamic between Kumar and Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the last few months.

While Kumar seems to have shared a love-hate relationship with Lalu, his ties with Modi have only continued to bloom since last year. Despite the fact that Modi and his elevation as the prime ministerial candidate of the NDA in 2014 were the primary reasons behind Kumar's resentment, the bonhomie between the two leaders in recent time is something which can never be matched by Lalu.

According to India Today, it was a dinner invitation in 2010 that threw the relationship between Kumar and Modi into rough weather. Kumar had extended a lunch invitation to the top brass of the BJP leadership in Patna. However, after posters of then Gujarat chief minister Modi's flood relief aid to Bihar cropped up, Kumar felt insulted and immediately withdrew the invitation.

Compare this to Kumar skipping the luncheon meeting organised by Congress president Sonia Gandhi for Opposition leaders and instead attending a lunch hosted by Modi. Tables seemed to have turned. Kumar and Modi shared a meal together after almost seven years and it sent ripples through the Opposition and analysts predicted that it sounded a death knell for the Opposition unity.

Firstpost had noted earlier that one of the reasons for Kumar to stay away from the Opposition meet was because Lalu's presence would have been counted prominently and his voice would have been impactful. Neither Kumar nor any other leader of the JD(U) had defended the corruption charges against Lalu and his family members. The JD(U) leaders have been silent because Kumar didn't think that his party should be seen defending his ally's misdeeds.

Kumar's attempt to salvage the Mahagathbandhan and his political ties with the RJD were tainted by the corruption charges against the entire Lalu clan. However, assuming that the two leaders never shared a close relationship would not be accurate. Rather, there was a time when Kumar was looked up to Lalu

In the 1970s, when Lalu was the president of the Patna University Students' Union, Kumar was awestruck by Lalu's crowd-pulling ability and his speeches that would later become his trademark, according to India Today. Kumar was also known as Lalu's chanakya in the political circles at one time.

Differences started emerging after Kumar joined a Janata Dal faction's internal revolt against Lalu at Gandhi Maidan in Patna in 1994. Everything went downhill from there. Kumar joined hands with the BJP and became a political rival for the RJD, The Quint reported.

They joined hands again for political purposes after suffering major electoral defeats in Bihar in two Assembly elections and also the 2014 general election. The only reason why he got Lalu on board was for the all-important caste card, The Indian Express quoted Kumar's aide Prem Kumar Mani as saying.

While the political relationship of Kumar and Lalu had its own incorrigible flaws, the problems between Kumar and Modi continued to diminish with the two leaders praising each other on several occasions.

The ice between Modi and Kumar seemed to have started melting after the Bihar chief minister met the prime minister to seek special relief package for his state. Later, Kumar was the only Opposition leader to have unquestioningly supported the NDA-led central government in the surgical strike against Pakistan. Kumar also praised Modi's demonetisation move, which instigated protests across the country by all other political parties. Modi in return praised Kumar's liquor ban in Bihar.

I want to appreciate @NitishKumar ji for the effort he has undertaken to save future generations from alcoholism: PM @narendramodi  PMO India (@PMOIndia) January 5, 2017

Then in January, at the 350th Prakash Parv, Modi and Kumar were seen wearing saffron turbans and animatedly chatting with each other. The India Today report suggests that there was no sign of any past bitterness between them. The last show of support by Kumar came during the Presidential election.

Kumar publicly backed NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind despite protests from Lalu and other Opposition parties. This was also a public show of the hostility between the RJD and the JD(U). Lalu went further and made offensive remarks against Kumar and his son Tejashwi soon joined the politcal slugfest, albeit without naming the chief minister. Other RJD leaders too pounced on Kumar.

The growing interference from Lalu in running the Bihar government has slowly been inching the JD(U) leader closer to his former ally. Kumar and NDA go way back. He was a Union minister in the NDA government and therefore, a significant part of the government alongside the BJP. However, with the RJD, Kumar felt restricted in running a government. According to The Quint report, there has been constant chatter of the increasing intimacy between Modi and Kumar and analysts who understand the politics at play have long speculated a coalition of JD(U) and NDA.
Ahead of the 2015 Assembly elections in Bihar, a political catchphrase caught everybody's eye when it came up on a giant hoarding at the Income Tax-Birchand Patel Path roundabout in Patna  'Bihar me bahaar hai, phir se Nitish Kumar hai,' it said.

When the RJD-JD(U) combine won the elections handsomely, Nitish was back as chief minister. However, in the last two years, there has been nothing for him to even remotely suggest there was a bahaar (flourish) in Bihar. By Nitish's own admission after submitting his resignation to the Bihar governor on Tuesday evening, one-third of the government's term had already expired and people were talking not about the work done but about corruption charges against alliance partner RJD and his colleagues in the Cabinet, Tejashwi and Tej Pratap Yadav.

Other JD(U) leaders had been privately expressing concerns that whatever goodwill and credibility Nitish had as a leader and an administrator dated back to his 17-year alliance with BJP, when he was Union railway and agriculture minister and then Bihar chief minister from 2005 to 2013. Had he continued this alliance with RJD till the conclusion of his government's tenure in 2020, his consciously cultivated clean image and credibility would be reduced to ashes, they felt. He thus made peace with BJP once again, and a ghar wapsi of sorts took place, exactly four years after he severed ties with BJP over Narendra Modi's pick as the party's prime ministerial candidate.

But this is not just about the return of the time-tested JD(U)-BJP combine in Bihar, or about the Nitish Kumar-Sushil Modi government in the state; it's also about a realignment of political forces at the national level, and an instant rise in NDA's numbers in the Rajya Sabha.

JD(U) has 10 members in Rajya Sabha and two in the Lok Sabha. The NDA already had an absolute majority in the Lok Sabha, but it would be the boost it receives with 10 additional Rajya Sabha members that would sweeten the deal for Modi and party president Amit Shah. Although two of these 10 Rajya Sabha MPs  Sharad Yadav and Ali Anwar  are opposed to Nitish's reunion with BJP, they will eventually have to relent and abide by the party whip. For they risk losing membership of the House, allowing Nitish to nominate members of his own choosing in their place.

Nitish's return to the NDA fold comes at a time when Congress and its allies, as also the liberal intelligentsia, were on an overdrive to paint a picture of gloom, particularly on social issues like intolerance, cow vigilantism, hate crime lynchings, etc. Though award wapsi had become a thing of the past, the debate associated with it was also making a comeback in a different form with renewed vigour. By deciding to make friends with Modi at this stagte, Nitish has given a big jolt to those who had pinned their hopes on him as a potential counter to Modi.

By resigning from the chief minister's post on Tuesday, Nitish not only brought down the mahagathbandhan government, but also dashed hopes of a grand coalition of opposition force against Modi for the 2019 parliamentary election.

With Nitish Kumar now on his side, Modi's road to success in 2019 has become much easier. Nitish was the only credible face in the Opposition ranks. His switching sides has changed the atmospherics and the political dynamics.

It should be recalled that ahead of the 2014 parliamentary election, LJP leader Ram Vilas Paswan pledging his faith in Narendra Modi's leadership had become a big news. Paswan was a known Modi baiter, but correctly read which way the wind was blowing. Like Paswan, Nitish's influence too is limited to Bihar, but they are both leaders of national fame and their switching sides makes a big impact on the thought process of the electorate.

On his part, Nitish has nothing to lose but everything to gain for himself and for Bihar. He will remain chief minister but will have an alliance partner which is equally focussed on the development of the state, rather than one that looks only to serve the personal agenda of an individual and his family. Furthermore, since he is part of NDA and a Cabinet expansion is imminent at the Centre after 15 August, it is also likely that some JD(U) nominees will find way into the Council of Ministers. A close relationship with Modi will always be helpful in seeking central assistance for the state on a variety of issues.

Electorally, BJP and JD(U) had gained over a three-fourth majority (206 out of 243 seats) in the state Assembly in 2010, reducing Lalu's RJD to just 22 seats. Rabri Devi lost elections from both Assembly constituencies she contested from. Even in 2015, when JD(U) and RJD contested the polls together, their alliance could still only get 178 seats.

When Lok Sabha and Assembly elections next take place in 2019 and 2020 respectively, Nitish would now have BJP's support base on his side and it would be boosted by Modi's charisma. It is a win-win situation for both.
The underlying cause behind Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars interminable twists and turns is that his ambition is far bigger than his mass base. To turn his ambition into reality, he must therefore forever be on the lookout for allies who can enhance his political strength and ensure his hope to capture power isnt crushed.

This is precisely why Nitish has had to resort to political manoeuvres to build alliances over the past two decades. These were punctuated by his attempts to go solo, but each time he discovered that his own support base couldnt deliver him electoral victories. In 2014, for instance, his party  the Janata Dal (United)  went it alone and won just two parliamentary seats. With the decision to revive the JD (U)s earlier alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party, Nitish has most likely shut the door on fresh manoeuvres in the future.

He will have to play second-fiddle to the BJP and demonstrate a greater readiness to accept its terms and conditions than he did before, including the number of seats his party should contest in 2019, the year in which Indias next Lok Sabha elections will be fought. Over the past 25 years, Nitish has tried several options. He broke away from the Janata Parivar to float his own outfit to challenge Lalu Prasad Yadav, whose domination over Bihar, as also his monopolistic approach to power, left the former with little political scope. Unable to dislodge Lalu on his own, Nitish then combined with the BJP to become chief minister for 10 years.

He snapped his alliance with the BJP because it had nominated Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate. After a humiliating defeat in 2014, he became the face of the Grand Alliance that comprised the Congress and the JD (U) and returned to power. Barely two years later, hes back to holding the BJPs hands and ditching the Grand Alliance, which, as of now, lies in tatters.

Nitishs perpetual search for allies stems from the fact that the only social group on whose support he can count is that of his Kurmi caste. But Kurmis make up just about five percent of Bihars population, thus making his task of luring different social groups to his side infinitely more complex. He has tried to make inroads into the Mahadalits, a category hived out of the larger Dalit community.

Nitish has also tried to forge a new constituency of women supporters. He had, until the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, worked on the upper castes' fear of 'Yadav Rule' to woo them as well. But Nitishs social engineering is intrinsically unstable. Do women vote without their choice being determined by the factors of caste, class, and family? Then again, identity politics has a sharp edge that often cuts its practitioner. Given that Kumar isnt a Dalit, a percentage of Mahadalits would rally behind their leaders with whom they share caste affinity. All this renders Kumar crucially dependent on his allies.

The instability of his support base is why Kumar has to constantly devise strategies to overcome Bihars caste divide. He has to consequently emphasise more than any other Bihar leader on good governance, boast of having zero tolerance for corruption, and initiate measures such as prohibition, which is designed to endear him to women. Indeed, Nitishs decision to break away from Lalu dates back to the months after the Grand Alliance notched a stupendous victory in 2015. Presumably carried away by the media projection of being a possible prime ministerial candidate, Nitish unilaterally sought to widen his turf  he made forays into Uttar Pradesh, spoke of building a Grand Alliance countrywide to thwart the BJP in 2019 and having a Sangh-free India.

Nitish offered support to the Patel movement in Gujarat, and said the JD(U) wouldnt contest in Punjab because he didnt wish to harm the chances of either the Congress or the Aam Aadmi Party, both parties with which he claimed to have good relations. Striving to build a pan-India anti-BJP alliance, Nitish strove to create the perception that he was the man uniting the disparate Opposition parties. It was therefore he who should become the Oppositions face, or so he seemed to think.

The BJPs sweep of Uttar Pradesh brought into play new dynamics in the politics of the Hindi heartland. Lalu made it known that he wasnt averse to getting Mayawati elected to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar. She had little chance of entering the Upper House from Uttar Pradesh. It certainly seemed a push for Opposition unity when Lalu had Mayawati and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav accept his invitation to together attend the 27 August rally in Patna.

In other words, there ensued competition between Lalu and Kumar to become the principal architect of Opposition unity. Due to his conviction in the fodder scam case, Lalu cant possibly hope to aspire for the prime ministerial post. But he wished to deny Nitish the chance as it would have catapulted him as Bihars supreme leader. Lalu wouldnt want that. He has a more stable support base.

His Yadav caste accounts for 14 percent of Bihars population. They are an assertive, dominant group. He still commands the greater allegiance of Muslims, who form 17 percent of the state. Then again, the growing proximity between Lalu and Mayawati implies that Nitish cant even bank upon the support of Mahadalits. To ensure he wasnt weakened or rendered helpless in the future, Nitish had to sooner than later return to the BJP, the corruption issue dogging Lalus family notwithstanding.

Having chosen to take the BJPs support, Nitish has to keep the BJP in good humour now. Hes dependent on its mercies.

Why? For one, although Bihars upper castes prefer Nitish over Lalu, they love the BJP and Modi infinitely more. Nitish can hope for their unstinting support only through an alliance with the BJP. For the other, even among segments of the Other Backward Castes, Modi with his own OBC identity will have greater resonance than Nitish. His decision to take the BJPs support will likely also see the desertion of his Muslim supporters, who must feel apprehensive that Hindutva footsoldiers will feel emboldened now.

Certainly, Nitish wouldnt have re-forged an alliance with the BJP had he been made the Grand Alliances face of 2019. Failing to bag this honour, he wasnt willing to become subservient to Lalu, who is seeking to widen his support base through Mayawati and Akhilesh.

But now he will find he must play second-fiddle to the BJP. This is the price he has to pay to remain Bihars chief minister. It is uncertain whether he will continue to remain chief minister should the BJP win the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Much will depend on the extent to which Nitish would be willing to accept the shrinking of his autonomy and implementing the Hindutva agenda.

For sure, Modi and the BJP have cut Nitish down to size. After all, the Bihar chief minister has to take the support from the very man against whom he railed incessantly four years ago, because of whom he broke the earlier alliance with the BJP.

Bihar is the BJPs victory, not Nitishs. Until he springs a surprise, he has been weakened for all time to come.

The author is a journalist in Delhi. His novel, The Hour Before Dawn, has as its backdrop the demolition of the Babri Masjid.

Click here to follow LIVE updates on developments in Bihar
In an evening of high political drama befitting an engrossing television soap opera, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav late on Wednesday dug out a charge of murder against former Bihar chief minister and his ally of the past 20 months Nitish Kumar, who had pulled up a surprise and stunned the former by submitting his resignation to the governor. In doing so, he sounded the death-knell of the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan) that had seen the two ride to power in the elections to Bihar Assembly in 2015.

There is a case of murder under section 302 and 307 of IPC booked against Nitish Kumar, which dates back to 1991. It can lead him to gallows or lifetime imprisonment. We knew about it. The charge against Nitish Kumar is much more serious and bigger than the charge of corruption (against Tejashwi Yadav), said Lalu Prasad in a desperate attempt to malign Nitish and protect his son from corruption charges.

However, the truth is that Nitish, an astute politician with a clean image, had been waiting for an opportune moment to get rid of Lalu and his clan.

Joining hands with the RJD and the Congress might have been a compulsion for Nitish during Bihar election, as JD(U) alone would not have got the success it needed to form the government alone. But, thereafter, Lalus interference and corruption charges that cropped up against him and his son Tejashwi became an albatross around Nitishs neck.

Nitish, who is known as one of the rare breed of politicians who have the courage to take political risks, grabbed the opportunity and resigned.

Lalu might not ever admit, but he may have never dreamt even in the wildest of his dreams that Nitish would quit the government. And here, he faulted.

Nitish Kumar is one of the rare politicians in the country, with an upright image and has the courage to take political risk. He did it in the past as well. JD(U), despite being a regional Bihar-based party, continues to have a national recall due to his clean and no nonsense image. Like Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nitish Kumar too is against corruption and he had supported Modis moves like demonetisation and surgical strike. Given this fact, the BJP in all likelihood will provide support to Nitish, Jagdish Upasane, former editor of India Today, Hindi, told Firstpost immediately after Nitish Kumar resigned.

As anticipated by political analysts, BJP has announced its support to Nitish Kumar who will next meet the governor to stake claim to form the government.

Lalu, who is still toying with the idea of keeping the Mahagathbandhan alive minus Nitish Kumar, has finally been checkmated at a game that he is good at. In this battle of who is a shrewder politician, has Lalu been defeated by Nitish Kumar? What were Lalu's mistakes that led to this day that he didn't see coming?

Lalu Prasad's five mistakes in assessing Nitish Kumar

1. Lalu never anticipated that Nitish Kumar would quit his government. He thought Nitish wouldnt dare to disassociate himself from the Grand Alliance (Mahagathbandhan). Because without the support of RJD and the Congress, it wasnt possible for JD(U) to win the a majority in the election.

2. The RJD chief thought Nitish Kumar wont leave the secular camp, as he has been considered a leader with a national recall from the secular, non-BJP block, with an aspiration to become a national leader.

3. Lalu thought that even if Nitish quits, he would lose support of Yadavs and Muslims, which Lalu enjoys.

4. Lalu Prasad thought Nitish Kumar wont be able to run the government without the support of RJD.

5. As Nitish didnt say anything against Tejashwi Yadav even after cases of corruption came up against the latter, Lalu thought everything would get sorted once his son gave an explanation.

Mitti mein mitth jayenge, BJP se haath nahi milayenge. Sangh-mukt Bharat banayenge (Even if we perish, we wont join hands with BJP. We will build Sangh-free India). This is what Nitish had said in the past. Now if he joins BJP, he will betray, quipped Lalu after Nitish resigned.

But, Lalu faulted here as he failed to read the fine prints. He should have understood that a person like Nitish had, during his first tenure as chief minister, made his intentions clear on hooliganism, corruption and anti-social activities in Bihar. Over the years, the condition of Bihar improved from the worst condition the state suffered under Lalu-Rabri Devi regime.

Nitish, right from the beginning, has been very conscious about his political image. There is not a single case of corruption against him, whereas Lalu and his family got embroiled into several cases of corruption. This parting of ways was inevitable, as Nitish was looking for an opportune moment to get rid of Lalu, added Upasane.

While, hectic parleys are going on in Patna for a new coalition, only time will tell who benefits.

BJP will support Nitish Kumar, with an eye on 2019 general election. The split in Grand Alliance will be beneficial for BJP and it is going to be a good alliance. The collapse of Grand Alliance in Bihar will also have an impact on UP politics. It will be clear that coalition of this kind (with roots of Janata party) wont survive, remarked political analyst Prof MD Nalapat. As the drama now gets to the constitutional stage where new-found partnership is preparing to stake claim to form the next government, the fate that awaits Lalu Prasad Yadav remains to be seen.

Click here for LIVE updates on the Bihar political crisis.
Wednesday evening saw the metamorphosis of Bihar political crisis, with Nitish Kumar tendering his resignation merely an hour after Lalu Prasad Yadav reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance. In a span of less then five hours, Nitish desecrated the Bihar Grand Alliance, and made a dramatic return with the support of former ally, Bharatiya Janata Party. Here is a look back at last night's developments that say the political turf in Bihar change completely.

It all started after news channels reported that the strain in ties within the Mahagathbandhan has reached a point where the beleaguered allies were not even having a joint legislators meet ahead of the Bihar Assembly's Monsoon Session, which was scheduled to begin on Friday.

2.30 pm: Lalu Prasad Yadav calls a press conference to 'clear the air' over the grand alliance. Lalu blames media for kicking up a storm where there is none as he reasserts that all is well within the alliance. Lalu also reiterates his stand that Tejashwi Yadav's resignation is out of question.

3.45 pm: News breaks out that Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, who was scheduled to leave for Kolkata in the evening, has decided to stay overnight in the Bihar capital. On any other day, the decision would have blended in the daily news flow, but given the politically charged situation in Bihar, speculations begins that the move could signal big change.

5.30 pm: Nitish Kumar chairs a meeting of all JD(U) MLAs to discuss the future of alliance in the wake of Lalu's fresh assertion that his son adn Bihar deputy chief minister will not resign. Nitish had been insisting that either RJD give a clarification on the CBI case against Tejashwi, regarding a land-for-contract scam, or Tejashwi should step down on moral grounds.

6.00 pm: It was shortly after 6.00 pm that Nitish Kumar was seen leaving 1 Anne Marg, and heading towards the Raj Bhawan, which is barely a kilometre away from the chief minister's official residence.

6.50 pm: Nitish Kumar says he has resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar citing irreconcilable differences with ally RJD. He said he "knocked every door" to salvage the alliance, but in vain. "In the circumstances obtaining in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," Nitish said.

07.09 pm: Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweets lauding Nitish Kumar for "joining the fight against corruption." "Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty," Modi said. "For the bright future of the country, and especially

Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption," the prime minister added.

07.20 pm: BJP MLAs in Bihar hold a meeting to discuss developments in the state politics.

07.24 pm: BJP's Parliamentary board meeting begins. Although the meeting of BJP central leadership in Delhi was pre-scheduled. In light of the developments in Bihar as we know it, the meeting holds importance.

07.35 pm: Sushil Modi, Bihar BJP state unit chief says that the The BJP does not favour mid-term polls in Bihar and wants all legislators to complete their term.

07.49 pm: A stung Lalu, in a dramatic press conference claims that Nitish's decision to break the alliance is because he is facing trial for murdering a man in 1991. He accused Kumar of working slyly with the BJP-led NDA to destabilise the coalition.

08.22 pm: BJP senior leader JP Nadda announces that a three-member panel is formed in Bihar to talk to BJP MLAs and report to leadership for final call on the Bihar political crisis.

08.25 pm: First reaction from Congress, the junior partner in the alliance. The party expressed disappointment over Nitish's resignation and said it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the 'grand alliance.' "Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion," he said.

09.23 pm: BJP announces support for JD(U) and Nitish Kumar as chief minister. The party also adds that it will be part of the government.

09.50 pm: News breaks that Sushil Modi will be the deputy chief minister of Bihar and will take oath will Nitish on Thursday.

10.10 pm: BJP hands over the letter extending support to Nitish Kumar for forming the next government to Governor KN Tripathi.

10.26 pm: Bihar Governor KN Tripathi hospitalised in Patna, due to an ENT problem.

10.36 pm: News breaks that Nitish will be sworn-in as Bihar chief minister at 10.00 am on Thursday.

11.55 pm: Nitish Kumar reaches residence of Bihar governor to stake claim as Bihar's new chief minister.

12.03 am: Tejashwi Yadav seeks appointment with governor and says that he will also stake claim to form the next government.

01.29 am: Nitish's swearing-in ceremony preponed to Thursday, 10.oo am from 5.00 pm.

2.30 am: Tejashwi Yadav marches to the governor's house. The RJP leader requests the governor to postpone the oath-taking ceremon but draws a blank. "RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he told reporters after the meeting. He described Kumar's resignation as a "pre-planned conspiracy" between the former and the NDA, and also questioned the advancing of the oath ceremony timing from 5 pm to 10 am.

03.00 am: Lalu Prasad Yadav says Nitish had "betrayed" him. He said that Nitish was afraid of his son Tejashwi's rise in politics.

9.00 am: Lalu postpones protest march to governor's house after Section 144 is imposed outside Raj Bhawan. RJD chief also appeals to supporters to maintain law and order across state as state-wide protests are planned across all RJD offices in Bihar.

10.00 am: Nitish takes oath as Chief Minister of Bihar; BJP's Sushil Modi back as his deputy. News reports suggest that the BJP has handed over a list of 14 MLAs for ministerial posts. However, other ministers will take oath only after the trust vote, which is scheduled for Friday.
Nitish Kumar has been sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time in 12 years. The Janata Dal (United) chief, in a surprising move, deserted the Grand Alliance and is all set to form the government in Bihar with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Here is a look at Nitish's political career:

On 3 March, 2000 the then Samata Party leader Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar chief minister. The then Bihar governor, VC Pande's move to invite Nitish to form the government had come under criticism from Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), the Congress and the CPM.

On 24 November, 2005, Nitish staged a comeback as state chief minister with the support of BJP. He was elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Patna. He became the 33rd chief minister of Bihar with BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi as the deputy chief minister of the JD(U)-BJP coalition government.

Presiding over the top most post in the state, Nitish Kumar on 26 November 2010 became Bihar chief minister for the second consecutive time. Nitish-led National Democratic Alliance, had won the polls in the state, bagging 206 of the 243 seats. The BJP had said that it made Nitish the chief minister then in recognition of "his popularity and credibility on which it rode" on to bag 91 seats.

On 22 February 2015, Nitish took oath as the Bihar chief minister for the fourth time. Nitish had succeeded Jitan Ram Manjhi, who had resigned from his office on 20 February, 2015.

On 20 November, 2015, Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihars 35th chief minister. The Grand Alliance had won 178 of the 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. The Nitish Kumar-led Grand Alliance emerged as the clear winner, with the largest vote share of nearly 46 percent as against NDA's nearly 34 percent. JD-U had forged the Grand Alliance with the RJD and the Congress, both of which have made remarkable turnarounds.

In a jolt to Lalu Prasad Yadav and the Grand Alliance, Nitish Kumar on Wednesday tendered his resignation merely an hour after Lalu reasserted that their was no bitterness in the alliance.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here.
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Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar on Thursday, less than 24 hours after he stepped down from the post, leaving the mahagathbandhan in tatters and raising questions over the Opposition's ability to counter BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Nitish Kumar's unexpected resignation was a stunning political manoeuvre with numerous repercussions. Here are some key developments that unfolded over the course of Thursday in Bihar.

6:55 am: Media sources claim that Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as Bihar chief minister at 10 am. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi later confirms the news on Twitter, adding that the decision was made with the support of 132 MLAs. Reports state that Nitish and Sushil will take oath as chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively.

7:18 am: RJD supporters block the Mahatma Gandhi Setu, connecting north Bihar with Patna, over Nitish's resignation.

8:19 am: JD(U) leader Ali Anwar expresses discontent over Nitish Kumar's decision to align with BJP, saying, "My conscience does not allow me to support his move." He was one of the first voices of dissent within the party.

8:25 am: Incumbent deputy chief minister and Lalu Prasad Yadav's son Tejashwi meets Bihar governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, expressing outrage over Nitish being invited to form a government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly. He adds that he will move court against this decision, claiming he has the support of most JD(U) MLAs regarding this development. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor-test," he said.

8:43 am: Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav takes a jibe at Nitish on Twitter for his coalition with BJP.

9:58 am: Nitish reaches Raj Bhavan in Patna for the swearing in ceremony, eight minutes after Sushil Kumar Modi did.

10:01 am: Nitish Kumar's swearing-in ceremony as Bihar chief minister takes place at Raj Bhavan. Watch the ceremony here.

10:28 am: Section 144 imposed outside Raj Bhavan in Patna. Reports add that protests have been put on hold temporarily. According to ANI, RJD party offices across Bihar were planning to hold a protest march at 12 noon.

10:45 am: Rahul Gandhi breaks his silence about Nitish Kumar's decision to break the grand alliance. The Congress vice-president said JD(U) "cheated" Congress and the people of Bihar, "His mandate was anti-communal. He (Nitish) promised the people of Bihar that he will not join hands with the communal, divisive powers in the country. Nitish Kumar has cheated us," Rahul said.

10.50 am: Narendra Modi congratulates Nitish Kumar on Twitter for the second time in the past two days. "Looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress and prosperity," Modi said, after the JD(U) supremo was sworn in as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time.

10:59 am: Tejashwi Yadav fires a number of tweets against the JD(U) leader, calling him an "opportunist rival". He added that their vendetta against him exposed the party's "viciousness".

11:14 am: After the swearing-in ceremony, Nitish tells reporters that he took his decision because "whatever was happening in Bihar was not good for the state's development". Giving a cryptic response to Rahul's accusations of betrayal, he said, "I will respond to Rahul Gandhi in a proper way." Sushil Kumar Modi also spoke to the press, saying that in his role, development will "be a priority". He added that he will take Bihar "to greater heights".

11:30 am: Nitish Kumar holds his first Cabinet meeting.

12:18 pm: Amit Shah congratulates the "new Bihar government". BJP leaders including Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley and others take to Twitter to congratulate Nitish.

12:52 pm: In a press conference, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav slams Nitish Kumar for "opportunism and betrayal".

1:37 pm: Mayawati says the developments in Bihar are "not a good sign for democracy".

1:39 pm: JD(U) reacts to Rahul Gandhis allegations of betrayal. JD(U) leader KC Tyagi says, "Rahul has disappointed JD(U). Congress' approach towards corruption is anyway not great and that's why they had expected Nitish Kumar to overlook Tejashwi's blatant corruption. But JD(U) and Nitish Kumar have always come down heavily on all those involved in corruption." He on Wednesday had said that there was no question of a patch-up with RJD.

1:42 pm: Similar to Wednesday's developments, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar replied to Narendra Modi's tweet, saying that there will be no compromise on corruption.

1:46 pm: Addressing another press conference on Thursday, Lalu Prasad Yadav said the "faceless Opposition" has many capable leaders even now. RJD workers also hold a protest against Nitish Kumar in Patna.

2:23 pm: Kerala JD(U) opposes Nitish Kumar's decision of joining BJP. JD(U) Kerala chief Veerendra Kumar went on to tell reporters that he was ready to resign from Rajya Sabha in his battle against "fascist forces".

2:39 pm: Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad criticises Nitish Kumar's political manoeuvre, saying the chief minister has a "habit of changing parties and stands every few years". Congress leader Shashi Tharoor also decrief the move, saying the political developments in Goa, Manipur and now in Bihar show democracy "in poor light".

3:19 pm: Taking another shot against Nitish, Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala released a press release titled 'Rank Opportunism & Treachery with People's Mandate', in which he called the development a "black day for democracy".

Things to come: Trust vote in Bihar to be held on Friday, 28 July.

Follow live updates of the Bihar political crisis here.

With inputs from agencies.


After calling it quits as Bihar chief minister and breaking the Grand Alliance between Janata Dal (United), Rashtriya Janata Dal (JDU) and the Congress, Nitish Kumar is all set to be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday, with the support of BJP to form the next government in the state.

BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi will also be taking the oath on Thursday, but as the deputy chief minister to replace Tejaswi Yadav. A floor test in the Bihar Assembly will be held on Friday, as Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has given Nitish two days to prove majority.

#TopStory #NitishKumar to take oath as #Bihar Chief Minister at 10 am today, Sushil Modi to be sworn in as Deputy CM. pic.twitter.com/OS5cqXvbhc  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Nitish unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday night, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the Opposition.

Nitish's reason for resigning was apparently his fallout with RJD supremo Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav, who is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down despite the JDU leader's exhortations.

"In the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the grand alliance government," he had told reporters outside Raj Bhavan on Wednesday after submitting his resignation to Tripathi.

But in a series of fast-paced developments that unfolded over the next few hours, it became clear that Nitish was going to be the ultimate winner. Initially, Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for standing up against corruption. Later, the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Nitish's JD(U) MLAs.

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

The JD(U) chief then handed over a list of 132 MLAs whose support he had, to Tripathi. These include 71 of the JD(U), 53 of BJP, 2 of RLSP, 2 of LJP, one of Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM) and three Independents.

Guv invited us for oath ceremony at 10 am today. 2 ppl to take oath, Nitish Kumar as CM, Sushil Modi as Dy CM: Nityanand Rai, BJP Bihar Pres pic.twitter.com/ppPPVu51FU  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

Meanwhile, in no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.

However, the numbers are stacked against RJD. The JD(U), BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122. RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110.

Reacting sharply to the governor inviting Nitish Kumar for the swearing-in at 10 am after giving him an appointment for 11 am, Tejashwi staged a protest outside Raj Bhavan against it on Thursday.

Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

We are going to governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party.  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

The RJD also slammed Tripathi, saying that the governor "can't ignore single largest party and largest pre-poll alliance".

A Governor should act as custodian of constitution, not as Centre's stooge. He can't ignore single largest party & largest prepoll alliance.  Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) July 26, 2017

Nitish's resignation capped days of stand-off between JD(U) and the RJD, with the former insisting that Tejashwi defend himself against the allegations.

Follow Live updates on the Bihar political crisis

With inputs from PTI
Let's take a look at the results of the state Assembly elections that have taken place since the Narendra Modi government came to power in 2014.

Soon after the Modi wave uprooted the UPA government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won elections one after the other in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand and became a part of the BJP-Peoples Democratic Alliance (PDP) alliance which formed the government in Jammu and Kashmir.

Just as the saffron party's winning spree was gaining momentum, it suffered two massive jolts, definitely the most damaging it has suffered till now.

The first was in Delhi polls, in which Arvind Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) won 67 out of 70 seats, leaving only three for BJP.

The second was in Bihar, in which the combined forces of mainly Nitish Kumar's JD(U), Lalu Prasad's RJD and Congress defeated the Narendra Modi-Amit Shah juggernaut.

Political analysts, experts and news anchors at that time started talking about how a unified Opposition could defeat BJP in 2019. They correctly pointed out how Nitish was successfully able to create a 'Bahari' image of BJP because of the lack of any local leader.

In a way, Bihar polls turned out to be a blessing in disguise for the BJP and would ultimately point out a key difference between the ruling party and the Opposition: BJP learnt from its mistakes.

Because of this difference, BJP was able to grab power in five out of the ten states (including Uttar Pradesh) and union territory that witnessed elections after Bihar.

Even in some of the other states like West Bengal and Kerala, BJP was actually able to increase its vote share.

With AAP facing infighting and humiliating defeat in the Delhi civic polls, a unified alliance like the Mahagathbandhan  possibly led by Nitish  was the best option the Opposition had till Wednesday.

But now that he has left the Mahagathbandhan, the national reach of the leaders who remain in the Opposition has become so low that it wouldn't be too much of an exaggeration to say that the Opposition exists only in name in India.

Congress itself is aware of how desperately the Opposition needed someone like Nitish because until Nitish was sworn-in as chief minister on Thursday, Congress had been talking about its "affection" for him, despite the fact that the party was dumped by Nitish.

Maybe Rahul and Sonia Gandhi are aware of the party's declining influence. After all, the only major victory which the Congress has had since 2014 has been in Punjab, which was more because of a local leader like Captain Amarinder Singh and the anti-incumbency sentiment against the previous Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD)-BJP government.

Unless the Opposition learns some very important lessons, it has almost no hope of overthrowing the NDA government in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.

First off, if an alliance between three parties ended after the alliance came to power and formed a stable government in the state, this should tell the political parties a lot about how tough it is to actually form a unified Opposition.

Instead of making compromises, politicians from the Opposition have been making selfish demands. For example, in December 2015, when Akhilesh Yadav was asked whether Samajwadi Party would be open to an alliance with Congress, he had told NDTV: "If Mulayam Singhji is prime minister and Rahul Gandhi is deputy prime minister, I will say yes to the alliance right now."

Hilariously enough, Rahul was seen grinning and shifting in his seat, according to the report.

As pointed out in this article by The Economic Times, all the three grand alliances of opposition parties that have been formed at a national level in India could not complete their terms after coming to power.

The government formed out of the movement led by Jayaprakash Narayan in 1977 lasted only two years. The other alliances under the Janata Dal banner in 1989 and the United Front banner in 1996 also could not complete their terms after coming to power.

Another takeaway is that corruption has become such an important issue in the country that even politicians like Nitish are leaving successful alliances because of it.

The Opposition has failed to realise so far that it needs to distance itself from any party or politician indulging in corruption. It needs to realise that corruption is generally a more hated evil than the same old rant about communalism, something which a lot of Opposition parties themselves indulge in.

The issue of corruption also makes things more complicated for the Opposition now because till Thursday, Nitish was the one of the few politicians who had a clean image in the country. With his departure, the Opposition will find it extremely challenging to project a leader as popular and honest as Nitish.

If the Opposition does not clean its own image and willing to make realistic compromises, it will be practically non-existent after 2019.
On Nitish Kumar's 66th birthday on 1 March this year, the Bihar chief minister received wishes from an unlikely source  Prime Minister Narendra Modi. And with this came about speculation that relations between the BJP and JD(U), which had been strained ever since Nitish split from NDA in 2014, could be mended once again.

That got closer to reality after the CBI raided properties owned by Lalu Prasad Yadav and his relatives earlier this year. Although Nitish Kumar was cautious to react, initially maintaining a prolonged silence and only later demanding Lalu come clean on the corruption allegations raised against him, just the mere association of having a scam-tainted Lalu Prasad in his administration was enough to get tongues wagging about the future of the Mahagathbandhan in Bihar.

In fact, though Nitish Kumar chose to stay away from the controversy, the third party in the Grand Alliance, Congress, vociferously defended Lalu, calling the raids part of BJP's "vendetta politics". Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told the press that the Opposition will not be "cowed down by BJP's vendetta politics". "The truth is that revenge has become the DNA of the BJP government. We want to reiterate that neither Chidambaram, nor any Congress leader or any other leader of the opposition, would be deterred or cowed down by fear of the politics of revenge and vendetta," he said.

Mamata Banerjee also backed Lalu in the debate, targeting the Centre on the issue. "If you do not like someone, then you send CBI, then put him in jail.... Some political vendetta is going on. Whatever is happening today, sometimes with (Samajwadi Party leader) Akhilesh Yadav, sometimes with (Odisha chief minister) Naveen Patnaik, sometimes with Laluji, Chidamabaram, (Delhi chief minister Arvind) Kejriwal," Mamata had said.

In an apparent message to the Modi government, the TMC chief asked, "If you fight with everybody then who is left out?"

Without naming anyone, she said political fight should be fought politically. "It does not behove anyone. Political fight, ideological fight should be fought politically," she said.

Despite all of this, however, Nitish Kumar remained silent. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, in a bid to save the alliance, called for a lunch meeting, but the Bihar chief minister skipped that as well. But more importantly, the day after he skipped the lunch, he met Modi.

BJP leaders sought to downplay speculations linking their party with JD(U), instead hurled grave accusations against the Nitish government. Rajeev Pratap Rudy said he is playing "caste politics", and the saffron party would never join hands with a man who does so. "Bihar's politics is an antithesis of the BJP's political philosophy which is opposed to casteism, dynastic and appeasement politics. Both (Kumar and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav) practise politics of casteism and appeasement. I do not have a simple analysis of Bihar's politics. It will be hard for me to analyse the politics of Kumar."

At the same time, the party also demanded Nitish resign over the topper scam, which had hit Bihar. Nitish too hit back at the BJP, saying the party was doing nothing concrete for cows despite claiming to care for the animal, and later saying the Centre has reneged on its promise on minimum support price for farmers.

But none of this was remembered when Nitish supported NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind for the presidential election. He cited his amicable relations with Kovind when the latter was Bihar governor, "In my capacity as the Bihar chief minister, it is a matter of happiness that our governor has been declared as the candidate for the next president of India," he had said. Even when the Congress-led Opposition announced 'Bihar ki beti' Meira Kumar as its candidate, Nitish didn't relent.

This started off a series of comments signifying mutual admiration between Nitish and Modi, including praise for the Centre's Goods and Services Tax (GST), while Modi himself praised Nitish for enacting total liquor prohibition in Bihar.

But while the Congress firmly backed Lalu and decried Nitish for appearing to move away from the Grand Alliance, Nitish just stopped short of demanding Lalu's son, Bihar's deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, offer his resignation. And he didn't go back on his word, even when BJP's Sushil Modi said the saffron party will not offer its support to a Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) if it were to back out of the Grand Alliance.

Rahul Gandhi then stepped in to save the alliance, meeting an increasingly defiant and belligerent Nitish in New Delhi last week. But the meeting didn't go well, and Nitish asked the Congress vice-president to clarify the party's stand on RJD, which had clearly decided to back Tejashwi Yadav to the hilt.

On Tuesday evening, Lalu put the ball in Nitish's court, and asked the chief minister to take a call on whether or not he wanted to save the alliance. "There is no question of Tejashwi's resignation. All of this is BJP's propaganda and everyone knows this," Lalu said, adding that Nitish may pull out of the alliance if he wants to.

At this point on, there could have been only one way the story would ultimately pan out.

Follow live updates of the Bihar political crisis here.
New Delhi: The BJP on Thursday accused Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik of "lying under oath" and approached the Election Commission to seek his disqualification as an MLA.

A BJP delegation, led by its spokesperson Sambit Patra, submitted a memorandum with the EC alleging that the Patnaik-led Biju Janata Dal may have used chit fund scam money to contest elections in 2014.

The memorandum referred to Patnaik's election affidavit filed in 2014 when he had contested from Hinjli constituency in Ganjam district of Odisha.

"It's astonishing to find that the RTGS number claimed by Naveen Patnaik is also the RTGS number of Ramchandra Hansda, the BJD MP who is behind bars because of his involvement in a chit fund scam," the BJP said in a statement.

"The delegation demanded disqualification of Naveen Patnaik as an MLA under Section 77 of People's Representation Act, 1951. It also demanded that the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the CBDT should investigate into the RTGS number," it said.

The BJP delegation, which included party MLAs from the state and other office-bearers, also claimed that there was a mismatch in the amount he actually received and what he claimed to have received.

However, the BJD has rejected the allegation and in turn, accused the BJP of attempting to tarnish the image of Patnaik, a four-time MLA and chief minister since 2000.

"The man who was defeated in the election in 2014 from Hinjili assembly segment did not make any such complaint. Now after three-and-half years after the election, the BJP has is making these allegations," BJD spokesperson P K Deb had said last week.
New Delhi: The Rajya Sabha on Thursday witnessed heated exchanges between treasury benches and Congress members as three BJP lawmakers, including Subramanian Swamy, raised the issue of Samjhauta Express train blast of 2005.

Referring to a video of purported narco-test related to the train blast being shown on a TV channel, Shiv Pratap Shukla (BJP) said the blast took place because of involvement of Pakistan.

He said the blast on the train which plies between New Delhi and Lahore in Pakistan was carried out by Pakistan-based terror outfit Lashkar-e-Taiba and SIMI jointly.

However, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and the then UPA government coined a new name "Hindu terrorism", the BJP member said.

Insisting that Hindus cannot be terrorists, Shukla said the then UPA government had "betrayed" the country. Joining the issue, Swamy said the House has the right to know whether it is a "fact that there is a video" and demanded an answer from the government.

As he tried to make his point, Digvijaya Singh (Congress) said it was an effort to save the accused in the blast.

This led to heated verbal exchanges between members of the two sides.

Another BJP member La Ganesan demanded that Congress should openly tender an apology for coining the term "Hindu terrorism".

While he was speaking, Digvijaya Singh again tried to make his point. To this, Ganesan said, "Why are you bothered? I am talking about SIMI".

Singh alleged that there was a "collusion" between the government and the TV channel which has played out the video and said the home ministry should authenticate the points raised by BJP members.To this, Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien said he would go through the record and if something has been quoted, it should be authenticated.

Pointing to rules, Anand Sharma (Congress) said matters which are pending judicial decisions should not be raised in the House.

However, Kurien said it is not possible for the Rajya Sabha office to find if a matter is sub-judice or not.
Patna: Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday met Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi in Patna to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD, which is the single largest party in the state Assembly.

Kumar has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath at 10 am on Thursday.

Kumar resigned as the chief minister last night. The ostensible reason for him to quit was his falling out with Tejashwi, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad. Yadav is facing corruption charges but had refused to step down as the deputy chief minister despite Kumar's exhortations.

After Kumar's meeting with the governor late last night, Tejashwi, accompanied by some RJD MLAs and leaders, marched to the Raj Bhawan to meet Tripathi.

"RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision," he told reporters after the meeting.

He said the people of Bihar had given the grand alliance the mandate to run its government for 5 years which Kumar "betrayed".

He also threatened of protests across the state against Kumar "who will find it difficult to move around".

Tejashwi claimed he had support of most JD(U) MLAs.

"I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor-test," he said.

He said the governor told him that he has already invited Kumar for taking oath and it is not possible to take back the invitation letter.

Tejashwi was accompanied by brother Tej Pratap Yadav and senior party leaders - Abdul Bari Siddiqui, Raghuvansh Prasad Singh, Jagdanand Singh, and party spokesman Manoj Jha in the meeting.

He described Kumar's resignation as a "pre-planned conspiracy" between the former and the NDA, and also questioned the advancing of the oath ceremony timing from 5 pm to 10 am.

"This whole drama was planned and Tejashwi was just an excuse for him (Kumar) to go with BJP," Tejashwi told reporters after the meeting.

Follow live blog on Bihar political crisis here
Beijing: Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on Thursday held talks with his Chinese counterpart and state councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs meeting in Beijing.

Yang met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

Yang separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems, the report said, without giving further details.

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

Doval arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a solution to the over a month-long standoff at Doka La area in the Sikkim sector.

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

China claimed that it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.
Beijing: Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to attend BRICS top security officials meeting during which he is expected to hold talks with China's state councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.

Doval will take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing which is due to take place on 27-28 July.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in Sikkim sector.

As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese president Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese president for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries. The BRICS NSAs meeting is being hosted by Yang.

Both Doval and Yang are special representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Yang to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Though China continued to maintain that there wont be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

Both sides acknowledged talks through diplomatic channels to ease tensions.

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

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border stand.ast Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border stand.
Washington: President Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the US military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance."

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

"Please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," the commander-in-chief tweeted.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention defense secretary Jim Mattis, the retired marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corporation study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

His action is "harmful, misguided and weakens, not strengthens our military," said Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," he said. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military -- regardless of their gender identity."

Not everyone at the Capitol agreed.

Representative Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "The president's decision was the absolute right decision. ... It's about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the US military to get back to business."

Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next.

"Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared," said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.

Akbarian, who said his chain of command was supportive as he transitioned from female to male, said his time to re-enlist is coming up and he might stay to ensure there is a strong voice for transgender troops like himself.

"I'm going to remain hopeful," he said. "America is really progressive and definitely smart, and there are a lot of transgender members serving in critical roles."

Shane Ortega, a 30-year-old retired staff sergeant in Los Angeles, said he's concerned more for civilians than transgender troops.

Ortega, who transitioned to male while serving in the army and served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "When Donald Trump attacks what America calls its heroes or its warrior class, it means it's only a matter of time before he starts attacking and disassembling the American public, and that's what I have the most fear of."

Hours after Trump's tweets, defense secretary Mattis, who has been on vacation this week, was publicly silent and the Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.

Navy Captain Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon was working with the White House to "address the new guidance" from Trump. That suggested there is not yet any new written policy or executive order.

Trump's sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalising policy on transgender troops was the next step.

Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, General Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so." He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since 1 October, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until 1 July to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the 1 July deadline to next 1 January, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." That is the prism through which Mattis has viewed most, if not all, personnel issues. Just last week he ordered a high-level Pentagon review aimed at verifying that all military personnel policies "support and enhance warfighting readiness and force lethality."

In a series of tweets, Trump said allowing transgender troops to serve is an unacceptable burden on the military's ability to fight and win wars.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he wrote.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for an estimate of these costs. The Rand Corporation, a federally funded think tank, has estimated that each year between 29 and 129 service members will seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy.

It also estimated that extending gender transition-related health care coverage to transgender personnel would cost the military $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, out of a yearly Pentagon budget of more than $600 billion.

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2016

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

Sanders said the "president's national security team was part of this consultation" and that Trump "informed" Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday.

Carter, who served as defense secretary the last two years of Obama's presidency, issued a statement criticising Trump's move.

"I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified," Carter wrote. "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military."

Trump's tweets followed a fight in Congress over federal funding of gender transition surgeries. Earlier this month, the Republican-led House rejected a proposal to end the Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay such costs.
Washington: President Donald Trump has decided to donate his second quarter salary to the US education department to help American students get access to high quality education, the White House said on Wednesday.

"In this quarter, the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education", White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on Wednesday.

She presented a check of $100,000 to the Education Secretary Betsy Devos.

Trump's salary in first quarter was donated for restoration of two projects at a national battlefield.

Other donors donors quickly stepped up to bring the total donation over $ 260,000 to the education department.

Devos said Trump is committed to nation's students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their zip code, has access to a high-quality education.

"He and I have had many conversations about how best to put students' needs first, and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success. There's much work to be done, but we are certainly on the right track, thanks to the president's leadership", she said.

"Ivanka Trump and I hosted a summer reading event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the focus was on getting young girls, age six to ten, excited about learning science, technology, engineering, and maths."

"It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment", Devos said.

She said the department has decided to use Trump's second-quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education.

"We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields", she said.

Trump, a real estate tycoon, had announced during his election campaign that he would not take salary if he wins the presidential elections. But under the US law, the president has to take their salary.

Hence, he decided to donate all his salary for charity purposes.
Jerusalem: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

"The Al-Jazeera channel continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount," Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, referring to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

"I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem. If this is not possible because of legal interpretation, I am going to seek to have the necessary legislation adopted to expel Al-Jazeera from Israel."

Israel has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since the new security measures were installed at the holy site.

A tense standoff was still underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the Jerusalem holy site despite the removal of metal detectors there, with concerns the situation could deteriorate into major unrest.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures at the compound.

The Israeli measures followed an attack that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the security move as Israel asserting further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Netanyahu's remarks come as Gulf states seek Al-Jazeera's closure.

Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeera's closure.

Netanyahu has sought to improve ties with countries in the region, where it is heavily criticised over its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

Egypt and Jordan are currently the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.
Islamabad: Pakistan said on Thursday that India's stipulation for granting visa to Pakistani nationals were "highly regrettable" and was against diplomatic norms.

"It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses," foreign office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said.

Only a letter of recommendation by Pakistan foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the external affairs ministry announced in May.

The Pakistani spokesperson said asking for a letter from the foreign affairs advisor was "against diplomatic norms".

"Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries," Zakaria added.

India's decision to impose the condition on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the backdrop of growing tensions between the two countries.
Islamabad: Pakistan interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday vowed to quit politics and end his association with the ruling PML-Nawaz if and when the Supreme Court rules on the Panama Papers case involving prime minister Nawaz Sharif.

"The day the Supreme Court announces its verdict, I will resign and will never fight any election (after that)," Khan said, adding he was addressing an "extremely difficult" press conference of his life.

"Someone who gave 33 years to (PML-N) cannot leave it just like that. But my 33 years worth of service seems to be reaching an end. It gives me great satisfaction that nobody believed I would leave: even my opponents wouldn't believe it," Geo TV quoted him as saying.

Khan said he was a victim of internal intrigues and for the past month and a half, "I was suddenly excluded from the PML-N meetings...I was not invited to consultative meetings".

The news conference came hours after Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, the beleaguered prime minister's brother met Khan in Islamabad, a second meeting between the two party leaders in less than 24 hours.

Shahbaz Sharif was reportedly accompanied by other PML-N leaders including finance minister Ishaq Dar, railway minister Khawaja Saad Rafique and Minister for Petroleum Shahid Khaqan Abbasi.

"I was told by senior leaders not to do this press conference. I told them I had to," said the minister.

Pakistan's top court has reserved its verdict in the case relating to the Sharif family's alleged illegal offshore wealth revealed by the Panama Papers. The Sharif family has denied any wrongdoing.
Islamabad: Pakistan's Supreme Court may not announce the verdict before 15 August in the Panamagate case against beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption and money laundering, it emerged on Thursday after the court issued roster of cases for next two weeks.

According to the Cause List, the court has set up benches to hear all cases till 11 August and it does not include the three-member bench which reserved the judgement last week after the conclusion of the hearings in the Panama Papers case.

The roster shows that two of the three judges on the special Panama case implementation bench will be out of Islamabad from next week until 11 August.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed will be hearing cases in the apex court's Lahore Registry while Justice Ijazul Ahsan will be proceeding on leave, reveals the roster.

Only Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who heads the bench, will be available in the capital.

The court will be closed from 12 to 14 August due to the weekend, followed by the Independence Day which is observed in Pakistan on 14 August.

A six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate charges of money laundering against 67-year-old Sharif and his family had submitted the report on 10 July to the court, which could cost him his job.

The apex court concluded hearing the case on 21 July, but reserved its verdict.

The delay could be shocking to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party after its chief Imran Khan on Wednesday urged the apex court to issue the verdict without any further delay.

"The public is awaiting the Supreme Court's verdict," he had said.

Some of the PTI leaders are still hopeful for an early judgement, and Babar Awan said that the court may issue a supplementary cause list on Friday and announce judgement. He said the court can also work and issue orders on the weekend.

But it is believed that the chances of any judgment before 15 August are slim as the judges would like to see and analyse all documents and evidence before the crucial judgment.

Last year, the Panama Papers revealed that three of Prime Minister Sharif's children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his family's wealth statement. The assets in question include four expensive flats in Park Lane, London.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Supreme Court's decision in the case is keenly awaited as it would determine the course of Pakistan's polity and with it Sharif's. An adverse decision may result in Sharif's disqualification and even snap elections.
Islamabad: Pakistan's interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan on Thursday said that he would resign and quit politics after the Supreme Court judgement on the Panamagate case in which embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family have been named for alleged corruption.

His announcement, which comes a day before the verdict in the high-profile case, stunned his supporters and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

Khan expressed serious disappointment over the way he was kept away from Sharif by his rivals.

"I have decided to resign from the cabinet and Parliament after the (Panama) decision, whether it is in favour of the prime minister or against him," he told reporters.

Khan, who has 33 years of association with Sharif, did not target the prime minister but criticised some of the party leaders who have been speaking against him (Khan) in presence of Sharif with an objective to create differences.

"I had no one-to-one meeting with the prime minister during the last about six weeks," Khan said as he complained that he was kept out of the crucial consultations on t

The Panama case which now hangs over Sharif's head like a sword.

Khan, known as a hardcore ideologue within the party, rejected the impression that he may join a new party, saying he can not even think of joining any other political outfit.

Speaking on civil-military relations, Khan said he had "never compromised on civilian supremacy" even though he had strong ties with the military.

"Ask any military or intelligence leader if I have ever attempted to undermine the government for political gain," said Khan whose grandfather, father, elder brother, nephews and several other relatives have been in army.

He said that he always supported civilian supremacy over armed forces and occasionally ran into troubles for criticising senior generals.

He also ruled out speculation that he was hoping to become the prime minister in case Sharif was disqualified.

"I am not in this race," Khan said.

Khan, respected for his outspokenness, puts Sharif in an awkward situation at a time when he is passing through the toughest time of his political career.

Sharif critics are using the press conference to portray that demise of PML-N had started even before the court verdict.

"It shows the internal rift in the party," said Skeikh Rashid Ahmad, a former associate of Sharif and now his fierce critic.

Earlier, Sharif's younger brother and Punjab chief minister Shehbaz Sharif met Khan for the second time today in as many days to win him back but failed.

A six-member joint investigation team (JIT) set up by the court to investigate the charges the 67-year-old Sharif and his family submitted its report to the court on July 10. It has said the lifestyle of Sharif and his children were beyond their known sources of income, and recommended filing of a new corruption case against them.
Riyadh: Saudi Arabia said on Thursday King Salman had been in contact with the United States and other world powers to try to prevent Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in Jerusalem's Old City being closed to Muslims and to defuse political and religious tensions.

Israel overnight removed all security infrastructure it had put in place in July at Muslim entrances to the Al-Aqsa mosque compound. On Thursday Muslim elders urged worshippers to return there to pray.

"The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, has held contacts with many world leaders over the past few days," the announcement from the Saudi royal court, published by state news agency SPA, said.

Saudi Arabia is custodian of Islam's most revered places in Mecca and Medina while Jordan is the custodian of Al-Aqsa mosque, its third holiest site, which is also revered by Jews.

King Salman contacted the US government and called for an end to restrictions on entry to the mosque, the statement said, saying that developments showed this push had been successful.

The king "stressed the need for the return of calm," and called for respect for the sanctity of the compound, it said.
Washington: Hundreds of demonstrators gathered in New York City, Washington, San Francisco and Portland to protest President Donald Trump's ban on transgenders in the US military.

The protests came just hours after Trump announced the ban on Twitter on Wednesday.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the US government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," tweeted the president, who said on the campaign trail that he supported the rights of LGBTQ Americans.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

More than a hundred people gathered at the White House. They included transgender service members and veterans who said they were "shocked and angry", ABC News reported.

"I was actually really shocked and angry, I don't know how he came to that conclusion so fast," said Kara Zajac, a transgender woman and a navy veteran.

The demonstrators carried anti-Trump signs and faced the White House as they chanted "Trans rights are human rights".

Major Kimberly Moore, a transgender woman who served in the army for 20 years, said it's "disgusting" that the country isn't protecting the rights of its transgender citizens.

"The previous administration came up with a sensible plan for allowing transgender people to openly serve and that plan needs to be openly respected," said Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, Director of External Relations for the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Hundreds of protesters, many carrying signs that read "Resist!" descended upon the US Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square to denounce the ban, according to reports.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered at San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza  named after gay rights icon and the country's first openly-gay elected official Harvey Bernard Milk  and urged people to "stand up" and "fight back".

Some demonstrators waved pink and blue flags. Protesters also gathered at the Los Angeles LGBT Centre in Hollywood. Some carried signs that read "Proud Trans Vet" and "LGBT Solidarity".

The American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said it will sue the Trump administration to stop the ban if it actually becomes a policy.

Senator Scott Weiner called Trump's announcement a "bigoted move".

Republican Senator John McCain said: "The president's tweet regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter."

"We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so," he added.
Washington: The Pentagon has picked up signs that North Korea is prepping for another missile test, a US defense official said on Wednesday, as the United States cited progress in pushing China to impose tough new UN sanctions.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the official told AFP that if the test goes ahead, it would "probably" occur on 27 July, which is the 64 anniversary of the signing of the Korean Armistice Agreement.

The date is a public holiday in the nuclear-armed North and celebrated as Victory Day.

The official said the test would be of either an intermediate-range missile or North Korea's ICBM  known as a KN-20 or a Hwasong-14.

That would be the second time Pyongyang has tested an ICBM, after its 4 July rocket launch that caused global alarm.

Experts assessed it could have put Alaska in range, bringing Pyongyang's long-held dream of a missile that can deliver an atomic warhead to the United States within reach, and presenting president Donald Trump with a stark challenge.

South Korea's news agency Yonhap quoted a government source as saying Seoul had seen North Korea moving transporter erector launchers carrying ICBM launch tubes in North Pyongan province.

"They're setting up for something," a second US defense official told AFP.

After North Korea's 4 July test, the United States launched a push at the United Nations for tougher measures against Pyongyang.

US Ambassador Nikki Haley today cited progress in talks with China on imposing what she termed as "pretty serious" new UN sanctions.

The United States has been locked in negotiations with China for nearly three weeks on a new raft of measures, and Haley said China was negotiating with Russia separately on possible tougher sanctions.

"I think we are making progress," Haley said.

"It's not as fast as I would like but these are pretty serious sanctions and so I think that there is a lot of thought going into this."

Haley told the UN Security Council after the test that she hoped to present new measures in a few days, such as cutting off oil supplies, banning North Korean guest workers or imposing new air and maritime restrictions on North Korea.

In all, six sets of UN sanctions have been imposed on North Korea since it first tested an atomic device in 2006, but two resolutions adopted last year significantly toughened the sanctions regime.

Haley said the true test will be Russia's role. Moscow maintains the 4 July launch was not an ICBM, citing its defense ministry's assessment.

Moscow has also argued that sanctions are not the answer to rein in North Korea, and that talks, as advocated by Beijing, were needed.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un, who personally oversaw the 4 July launch, described it as a gift to the "American bastards."

CNN cited a US defense official saying transporter vehicles carrying launching equipment were seen arriving at Kusong in North Pyongan last Friday.

Kusong has been the scene of past tests, including in May when an intermediate-range ballistic missile traveled more than 700 kilometers (435 miles).

The North last week refused to respond to the South's offer to open dialogue to ease tension.
Washington: US Senate Republicans suffered a second stinging setback in as many days on Wednesday, in their efforts to uproot Obamacare, when a plan to repeal the health care law  with no replacement at the ready  failed to advance in the chamber.

The washout has left Republicans  who only a day early rejoiced when the Senate agreed to proceed to a formal debate on health care  struggling to find consensus on how to fulfill president Donald Trump's pledge to scrap the 2010 Affordable Care Act.

Senate leaders have said they intend to pass a bill by the end of this week, but that path remained murky  and the outcome in doubt.

Seven Republicans joined Democrats in opposing Wednesday's proposal, which would have ended Obamacare's insurance exchanges and its taxes on the wealthy; rolled back the expansion of Medicaid, the health insurance program for the poor and the disabled; and ended mandates compelling individuals to have insurance and for companies to provide it.

The non-partisan US Congressional Budget Office had forecasted that 32 million Americans would become uninsured over the next decade should the bill become law.

The defeat came just hours after the Senate voted down a broader Republican plan to repeal and replace Barack Obama's signature health care reforms.

It was a bleak set of outcomes for Republicans after a whirlwind session Tuesday at which senator John McCain, recently diagnosed with brain cancer, earned a warm ovation as he returned to the Senate to cast key votes.

While Trump had applauded Republicans for finally moving to a debate that could lead to "truly great health care for the American people," the moment of victory proved temporary.

Under pressure to emerge with tangible results, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was putting a variety of options forward.

"I know members in both parties have health care ideas they'd like to offer," he said. "If you've got one, bring it to the floor."

'No good way out'

Frustration was setting in with some members including senator Ben Sasse, who raked fellow Republicans over the coals for failing to follow through on their seven-year promise to dismantle Obamacare.

"Make no mistake: Today's vote is a major disappointment to people who were promised full repeal," he said in a statement.

"We still have a long, long way to go."

One new approach in order to keep the effort afloat was gaining traction: a limited dismantling of Obamacare.

The so-called "skinny repeal" would ditch the provision that fines individuals for not having insurance and companies that don't offer it. It also would eliminate a tax on medical-device manufacturers.

The Republican leadership does not expect the pared-down bill to become law. But should it pass the US Senate, it could be used as a placeholder, a basis for negotiating broader legislation with the House of Representatives.

The approach drew sharp criticism from Democrats, who have warned that an Obamacare repeal would result in deep cuts to Medicaid and prohibitively high insurance premiums for people with pre-existing conditions.

"It's a Trojan horse, designed to get the House and Senate into conference, where the hard right flank of the House Republicans, the Freedom Caucus, will demand full repeal, or something very close to it," top US Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer warned.

"There's no good way out of this," he added.

The House passed its Obamacare repeal and replace bill in May, but it stalled in the Senate, which was intent on crafting its own version.

The two would need to be reconciled and a final bill passed by both chambers before it reaches the president's desk.

But with deep fissures within the Republican Party, a failure to approve any health reform plan remained a possibility.

With the pressure building, the White House sounded vexed about Republicans' powerlessness, especially since the party controls both chambers of Congress.

Trump is "hoping they'll join him in pushing forward a lot of the policies that most of those people campaigned on, like repealing and replacing Obamacare," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said.

Republicans need to "step up to commitments that they made during the campaign and since being elected."
Washington: US president Donald Trump supports imposing tougher new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, the White House has stressed, a day after the House of Representatives voted in favour of a bill that seeks to limit his ability to lift many of the sanctions on Moscow.

The House voted 419-3 to pass the bill that seeks to punish Russia for allegedly meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.

Other than Russia, the legislation also seeks to make Iran pay for its "continued support of terrorism", and includes provisions to curb North Korea's nuclear programme.

The bill has in recent weeks attracted controversy.

The Trump administration opposes the legislation as it requires congressional approval for the president to lift previous sanctions on Russia, according to US media reports.

However, press secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters: "The White House, the president, and the entire administration strongly support sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea."

The bill now heads to the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign it into a law.

If enacted, it could put strain on Trump's ability to improve ties with Russia, which he has vocally pursued, but has been restrained by the allegations that his associates had contacts with Russian officials during the election campaign.

Trump has denied any collusion between his associates and Moscow and termed the Russian investigation "a witch hunt".

Congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer have urged the Senate to pass the legislation without delay.

"Yesterday (Wednesday), the House of Representatives passed, nearly unanimously, a sanctions bill that was a product of bicameral, bipartisan negotiations and includes strong sanctions against Russia, Iran, North Korea. The Senate must act quickly on the legislation from the House," Schumer said.

Senator and chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker has indicated he plans to strip out a section of this package that relates to North Korea, he said, calling it "yet another delay" by Republicans to prevent this bill from landing on the Trump's desk before "we leave for the recess."

Mark Warner, vice chairman of the Senate select committee on Intelligence, said the bipartisan congressional support for increased sanctions on Russia sends a message to the Kremlin that attacks on the American democracy will not be tolerated.

"I expect this bill will pass the Senate in short order. At that point, it is incumbent upon President Trump to immediately sign this legislation into law, or risk endorsing Moscow's interference in future elections," he said.

"We must also make clear to Iran and North Korea that they will be held accountable for their actions," Warner said.

Later, Corker announced a path forward on the bill.

"Following very productive discussions with leader McCarthy, I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the president's desk," he said.

"The Senate will move to approve the Iran and Russia sanctions it originally passed six weeks ago, as well as the North Korea sanctions developed by the House," he added.
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Ground workers who maintain American Airlines (NASDAQ:AAL) planes are protesting Wednesday over a contract issue over outsourcing jobs and contract negotiations.

Three Transport Workers Union locals demonstrated at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport which are pressing the airline to keep jobs from being moved overseas to Brazil, Chile and China, and to start contract bargaining in good faith for the unionized employees.

American plans to open a $100 million facility in the South American country, according to Reuters.

Its quite clear that theres a serious disconnect between the leadership at American and their negotiating teams, said Gary Peterson, president of Local 591, one of the groups picketing at the airport. After a year and a half of negotiations, the companys latest effort fell short of the industry standard by every measure."

Other organizations voiced their support for the hundreds of TWU members rallying at the Texas airport, which is the largest hub for Dallas-based airline. The American Federation of Government Employeesthe largest federal employee union as well as the AFL-CIO and members of the Allied Pilots Association, the collective bargaining agent of pilots flying for American.

APA pilots are at DFW in support of our @transportworker brothers and sisters. pic.twitter.com/QEFvMhry0X  Allied Pilots (@AlliedPilots) July 26, 2017

In a statement to FOX Business, an airline spokesperson said:

American is incredibly thankful for our skilled and well-trained maintenance and fleet service team. We have a shared goal with the TWU-IAM [International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers] Association to make sure our team members are well compensated and work for a company that values them immensely. That was the motivation for last summers unprecedented pay raises outside of negotiations, which gave our teams the highest wages in the industry. A lot of progress has been made in negotiations recently. Were back at the bargaining table with the Association this week with dates scheduled through August, and look forward to reaching an agreement as soon as possible, an airline spokesperson told FOX Business.
WASHINGTON, July 26 (Reuters) - A Russian national suspected of being the mastermind behind a crypto-currency exchange has been indicted by a grand jury in California on money laundering charges, the U.S. Justice Department said on Wednesday.

Alexander Vinnik, who was arrested in Greece on Tuesday, allegedly operated the BTC-e virtual currency exchange and used it to launder money, including funds from the hack of Mt. Gox, an earlier digital currency exchange that eventually failed, the Justice Department said in a statement.

(Reporting by Eric Beech; Editing by Leslie AdlerEditing by Leslie Adler)
July 25 (Reuters) - Viacom Inc has informed Scripps Networks Interactive it is willing to pay all cash to acquire the U.S. TV network operator, people familiar with the matter told Reuters exclusively on Tuesday.

The move by Viacom, which had $12.17 billion in debt as of March 31, could potentially mean that the $14.3 billion media company would lose its investment-grade status to buy the $10.6 billionScripps. Last year Moody's downgraded Viacom's debt to the lowest level of investment grade - a status they would likely lose as a result of the deal.

Viacom is bidding for Scripps, which owns channels such as HGTV, Food Network and Travel Channel, against Discovery Communications, which is not expected to make an all-cash bid, according to the sources, all of whom wished to remain anonymous because they are not permitted to speak to the media.

A Viacom spokeswoman declined to comment. A Discovery spokesman declined to comment.

It is not clear what the bids were valued at or whether Viacom or Discovery has won the bidding for Scripps, but a decision was expected within the next few days, according to the sources.

It is also possible that a deal may not happen.

Making all-cash bid would mark an aggressive move for newly-minted Viacom Chief Executive Bob Bakish, who took on his role late last year and has pledged to turn around the struggling media company, which owns MTV, Nickelodeon and Paramount Pictures.

A deal with Scripps would create a $24.9 billion cable network that brings together non-scripted and scripted children's programming and a movie studio.

Bakish was named to his role late last year after discussions between CBS Corp and Viacom about a possible recombination ended. Viacom has spent the past months focusing resources on six of its brands, including the soon-to-be-launched Paramount Network. New York-based Viacom has also been selling assets, like its stake in premium channel Epix to MGM Holdings Inc, in order to reduce debt.

(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel in New York, additional reporting by Greg Roumeliotis in New York, editing by G Crosse)
A former strategist for Bill and Hillary Clinton told FOX Business on Thursday that surveys about the Republicans plan to repeal ObamaCare revealed Democrats have the upper hand.

Right now, the Democrats have the edge on the health care issue, Mark Penn said. If you ask whether ObamaCare is failing, we got in this months poll  53% say its not failing and in fact voters want to keep a lot of the elements of ObamaCare except for the mandate.

Penn, now the chairman of Harris Poll, also discussed Americans perception of the House Judiciary Committees investigations of former FBI Director James Comey and the 2016 Hillary Clinton campaign. He said there are two different viewpoints on these matters.

Almost two-thirds say these investigations are hurting the country  all of them, he said. When I ask them should they investigate something like Clintons Uranium One deal, two-thirds also say yes. Just as 75% said yes to an independent counsel.

The veteran pollster noted Americans think there are too many investigations.

The public says yes investigateleaksClintons Uranium One deal investigate Trump, then they turn around and say weve got too many investigations I really want taxes and infrastructure and all those good things that will keep our economy growing, he said.
The Dutch company KMG that manufactured the Fire Ball ride that snapped mid-air, killing one and injuring several others at the Ohio State Fair Wednesday, has ordered all similar attractions in the Netherlands to be shut down, pending a full investigation, the Dutch newspaper Nu.nl reports. Similar rides in the U.S. are also being shut down by fair operators as a precaution, according to FOX News.

Albert Kroon, KMGs project leader told the paper that he was shocked when he saw the video of passengers getting thrown in the air after the ride malfunctioned.

Attractions are not built to cause accidents, he said, adding that this is the first accident in the 28 years of the company. Additionally, he said while KMG does do maintenance on their rides, the ultimate responsibility falls on the operator, citing that they havent done any maintenance on the ride in question in a few years.

The Chief Ride Inspector with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, Michael Vartorella, told reporters Wednesday night during a press conference that the ride was inspected three to four times over the past few days. Additionally, The Fire Ball ride was also inspected by a third party inspector," Vartorella said.

FOX Business requests to Ohio State Fair officials about who provided maintenance for the Fire Ball and other rides were not returned at the time of publication.

A New Jersey-based company called Amusements of America are the ones who actually provided the ride that ultimately malfunctioned. The company, however, did not return FOX Business request for a comment. But according to its website, Fire Ball, first debuted in 2002 and has rapidly become one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway. Additionally, The Fire Ball is described by AOA as an Aggressive Thrill attraction, spinning riders at 13 revolutions per minute.
Hillary Clinton will delve into the memories and experiences of her surprise loss to Donald Trump in the 2016 presidential election in a new book entitled What Happened, publisher Simon & Schuster said.

"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net," Clinton writes in the introduction, according to publisher Simon & Schuster. "Now I'm letting my guard down."

Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press on Thursday that Clinton's book will be a highly personal work that also is a "cautionary tale" about Russian interference in last year's election and its threat to democracy. In public remarks since last fall, the Democrat has cited Russia as a factor in her defeat to her Republican opponent, along with a letter sent by then-FBI Director James Comey less than two weeks before the election.

Clintons publishing deal with Simon & Schuster was first announced in February 2017. Financial terms were not disclosed, but the deal is likely worth several million dollars. Former President Barack Obama and first lady Michelle Obama signed a joint book deal with Penguin Random House last February reportedly worth more than $65 million.

Comey's letter, sent to Congress on Oct. 28, said the FBI "learned of the existence of emails that appear to be pertinent to the investigation" into the private email server that Clinton used as secretary of state. Days later, Comey wrote that the FBI did not find anything new.

"Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules," according to Simon & Schuster. "In these pages, she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterwards."

"What Happened" is scheduled to come out Sept. 12 and has evolved since first announced, in February. It was originally billed as a book of essays that would "tell stories from her life, up to and including her experiences in the 2016 presidential campaign," as opposed to a memoir centered on the race. Clinton's loss has already been the subject of the best-selling "Shattered," a highly critical book by Jonathan Allen and Amie Parnes, and a more sympathetic account, Susan Bordo's "The Destruction of Hillary Clinton."

Clinton's previous works include the 2003 memoir "Living History," published while she was a U.S. senator from New York, and a book about her years as secretary of state, "Hard Choices," which came out in 2014 as she prepared to launch her presidential candidacy. She also wrote "It Takes a Village: And Other Lessons Children Teach Us" when she was first lady.

Her upcoming memoir isn't the first political book to be called "What Happened." Scott McClellan, a former White House press secretary during the George W. Bush administration, released a book with the same title in 2008. McClellan's memoir was an unexpectedly critical take on his former boss that became a best-seller.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Trumps ongoing public clash with his embattled U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions highlights a challenge many workers face every day in the corporate world  how to remain a productive member of the team despite a contentious relationship with their boss.

Trump has drawn widespread criticism for publicly attacking Sessions, one of his first political supporters, on social media and at official press briefings. The president has taken issue with Sessions decision to recuse himself from an FBI investigation into purported Russian interference in the 2016 election, as well as to perceived weakness in Sessions approach to Hillary Clinton.

"It's clear that President Trump is trying to bully his attorney general out of office. How can anyone draw a different conclusion?" Sen. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said Tuesday. "He wants him out."

If Sessions feels as though hes being bullied by his boss, statistics show he isnt alone. A 2014 CareerBuilder study of more than 3,000 adult private-sector employees found 28% of workers felt they had been bullied in the workplace. Of that total, 45% said their boss was the chief bully.

Workplace bullying takes three forms: aggressive communication, humiliation, and manipulation, Catherine Mattice Zundel, a workplace bullying expert for Civility Partners consulting firm in San Diego, told FOX Business. Usually a bully includes all of three of these categories in their behavior, but most often uses manipulation. I'd say Trump's overtly aggressive style is actually less common than the under the radar manipulation.

While Trumps one-sided feud with Sessions is far more public than the average workplace dispute, combative situations can play out in similar fashion in more traditional offices. Here are some steps on how to resolve instances of workplace bullying in corporate America.

Talk It Out

When dealing with a workplace dispute, reopening lines of communication is a natural starting point, according to Gene Marks, a small business expert and president of the Marks Group. That way, both the superior and the subordinate can discuss the source of their differences and take steps to reach common ground over time.

I have this situation at a client right now, Marks told FOX Business. A sales manager is not getting along with his boss. I've heard the stories from both sides - neither of them particularly like each other. I advised they talk about this directly to each other and professionally air their grievances. Then give it another 30 days.

Change Their Mind (If You Can)

If a boss has specific complaints about an employees job performance, Mattice Zundel says it is possible that the employee can take steps to address their concerns and re-establish positive relations  particularly in workplaces that encourage dialogue between management and the rank-and-file. However, companies that rely on more autocratic management styles can make disputes more difficult to navigate.

If the organization focuses on collaborative performance management, then the manager would be open to hearing how the employee's work is improving, and thus, over time, the employee could change management's mind, Mattice Zundel said. But if the organization has a hierarchical structure and culture, I would bet the employee doesn't stand a chance at changing the manager's mind.

Get Human Resources Attention

In situations where a boss actions turn from combative to outwardly hostile, employees can alert their human resources department about the situation. However, Mattice Zundel advises employees to be careful how they explain the situation to HR.

Often employees tell HR that it's a hostile work environment - and this often works against them. HR is so caught up in the law and compliance, that when they hear those words they go looking for harassment or discrimination, which is bullying focused on a protected class, she said. If HR finds no evidence of the bullying being focused on a protected class, then they will tell the worker, I don't see a hostile work environment, so get back to work.

If HR is unwilling or unable to step in and the situation is untenable, employees can approach upper management and ask them to review the boss behavior.

If the leaders won't help, then quit. Negativity affects us so profoundly that it literally does damage to our brain and body. Get out of there and go somewhere that cares about your well-being, Mattice Zundel said.

Have a Backup Plan

If, as in Sessions case, the boss does not have a superior, workers can simply look for other employment  either by quitting their job or by quietly looking for a new one while continuing their current duties. This is especially true in the current economic environment, where unemployment is hovering at less than 5%.

There are plenty of companies that would be interested in [hiring] - unemployment is low and it's competitive for good employees, Marks said. Besides, life is too short to work with people - particularly your boss - that you don't enjoy being around.

Not to mention, Mattice Zundel adds, remaining in a hostile work environment can impact your health.

Negativity affects us so profoundly that it literally does damage to our brain and body. Get out of there and go somewhere that cares about your well-being, she said.
The Boy Scouts of America anticipated President Donald Trump would spark controversy with a politically tinged speech at its national jamboree in West Virginia but felt obliged to invite him out of respect for his office, its leader said Wednesday in his first public comments on the furor over Trump's remarks.

"If I suggested I was surprised by the president's comments, I would be disingenuous," Boy Scouts of America president Randall Stephenson, who's also the CEO of AT&T, said in a phone call with The Associated Press.

Other U.S. presidents have addressed past jamborees with speeches steering clear of partisan politics. To the dismay of many parents and former scouts, Trump, a Republican, promoted his political agenda and assailed his enemies in his speech Monday evening, inducing some of the more than 30,000 scouts in attendance to boo at the mention of Barack Obama, his Democratic predecessor.

Stephenson noted that every U.S. president since Franklin Delano Roosevelt has been invited to address the jamboree and said the Boy Scouts leadership gave "a lot of thought about Donald Trump coming to speak."

"Anyone knows his speeches get highly political  we anticipated that this could be the case," Stephenson said. "Do I wish the president hadn't gone there and hadn't been political? Of course."

Hoping to minimize friction, the Boy Scouts of America, which is based in Irving, Texas, issued what Stephenson called "stringent guidelines" to adult staff members for how the audience should react to the speech.

"You can help make the president's visit a success by ensuring that any reactions to the president's address are, as we state in our Scout Law, friendly, courteous, and kind," the guidance said. "This includes understanding that chants of certain phrases heard during the campaign (e.g. 'build the wall,' 'lock her up') are considered divisive by many members of our audience, and may cause unnecessary friction between individuals and units.

"Please help us ensure that all Scouts can enjoy this historical address by making sure that your troop members are respectful not only of the president, but of the wide variety of viewpoints held by Scouts and Scouters in the audience tonight," the guidance said.

Stephenson, who was not in attendance at Trump's speech, said the guidance wasn't followed impeccably.

"There were some areas where perhaps they were not in compliance with what we instructed," he said. "There's probably criticism that could be leveled."

Stephenson has been a senior Boy Scout official through several of its recent controversies, including decisions to admit gay and transgender youths as scouts and to accept openly gay adults as unit leaders. He said he wasn't surprised by the negative reactions to Trump's speech.

"We anticipated there might be some people upset," he said.

Would the Scouts invite Trump back to address the next national jamboree if he wins re-election?

"I don't see why we would break with tradition, whoever is holding office," Stephenson said. "We are not to going to censor or edit the president of the United States. That's beyond our pay grade regardless of who it is."

The controversy occurred as AT&T, which is based in Dallas, is seeking the approval of Trump administration regulators for its proposed $85 billion purchase of Time Warner.

___

Follow David Crary on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraryAP
House and Senate Republicans have worked out a deal to move quickly on a package of new financial sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, clearing the way for Congress to send the far-reaching legislation to President Donald Trump.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., chairman of Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement late Wednesday that he and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy had reached an agreement that removed the last obstacle to passing the bill. The measure hits the three U.S. foes with additional penalties.

The House had overwhelmingly approved the legislation Tuesday, 419-3. But Corker had objected to including the sanctions targeting Pyongyang in the legislation. He wanted to keep the North Korea penalties in a separate bill that the Senate would consider. But Corker dropped his objections. He said the Senate will "move to approve" the House-passed bill after receiving assurances the North Korea sections would be fine-tuned at a later date.

"Going forward, the House has committed to expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future," he said.

The sanctions against Moscow are punishment for its meddling in the 2016 presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. According to the bill, Trump would be barred from easing the Russia sanctions without first getting permission from Congress, a demand that could imperil his bid for better relations with Moscow.

A version of the sanctions legislation that only addressed Russia and Iran cleared the Senate nearly six weeks ago with 98 votes.

"Not a word of the North Korea bill has been looked at over here. Not a word," Corker told reporters earlier on Wednesday as he explained his concerns.

But House lawmakers fired back, noting that the House had decisively passed a North Korea-only sanctions bill in May, yet the Senate never took that bill up. They added that it's all the more important to push ahead with the North Korea sanctions following a report that U.S. intelligence officials believe Pyongyang will have a reliable, intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon as early as next year.

"That is why the House added the previously House-passed North Korea sanctions bill  which has been languishing in the Senate for over two months  to the Senate bill," said Matt Sparks, a spokesman for McCarthy.

Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland, the top Democrat on the Foreign Relations Committee, said he and other Democrats had no objections to making the North Korea sanctions part of the overall package.

"There's nothing in the bill that I find problematic," he said. "I hope we pass it the way it is."

___

Contact Richard Lardner on Twitter: http://twitter.com/rplardner
British regulators suggest that the end is near for Libor, the financial benchmark that was at the heart of a global market-rigging scandal.

The Financial Conduct Authority is urging banks to find an alternate to the London Interbank Offered Rate after 2021 as a dearth of financial transactions puts its relevance into question.

The rate has been steeped in scandal, but FCA chief Andrew Bailey said Thursday it's the sustainability of the rate that is in question "not because we suspect further wrongdoing or have any evidence of such."

Libor is the rate banks use to borrow from each other and is used to price services like mortgages, bonds and consumer loans globally. In 2012, it emerged that employees at several global banks had colluded to manipulate the rate to their own advantage. Investigations in the U.S., Britain and elsewhere led to fines as well as the resignation of Barclays CEO Bob Diamond, among others.

The Bank of England has suggested it be replaced with another index average.

Bailey said that having moving to another system after 2021 would give banks enough time to adapt and "reduce the risks and costs of a more sudden change."

"The planning and the transition must now begin," he said in a speech in London.
Cameco Corporation (NYSE: CCJ) is the world's largest pure-play uranium miner. That hasn't been a great business to be in lately, but the outlook for uranium appears pretty enticing. For aggressive investors, Cameco's nearly 80% price decline over the past decade could be a huge buying opportunity. But what if the bull case doesn't pan out? While I'm optimistic, here's what could go wrong from a bull's perspective.

It's been tough

The first thing to note about Cameco and uranium is that the miner has actually managed to weather a deep industry downturn pretty well. To give you a feel for the pain, uranium prices hit a 12-year low in 2016. But last year was the only year of the last 10 that the company dipped into the red. And that $0.16 per share loss was largely driven by one-time charges to adjust the business to the difficult market environment.

So even Cameco will tell you times have been tough. The outlook, however, remains bright. That's because of increasing demand for power and the increasing preference for carbon-free energy sources. In fact, there are over 50 nuclear reactors being built right now. That should help to soak up the oversupply in the uranium market today. Add in Japan's slow march toward restarting nuclear power plants shut after the Fukushima disaster and there's even more reason to be positive.

In fact, if you are a uranium bull, Cameco could be a great buy today. But before you jump in, you might want to think like a bear.

A dour view of things

For example, look at Cameco's impressive streak of profits in the face of a deep fall in the price of uranium. A big reason for that is the company's use of long-term contracts. It's a very big deal. The company's realized price for uranium in 2016 was 60% higher than the average spot price for the year. Those contracts simply won't last forever. If demand doesn't pick up before its current contracts expire, it will be forced to sell on the spot market at much lower prices.

Demand growth is going to be important. Those 50 new plants being built and Japan's push to restart its nuclear fleet are big positives. But there are plants being shuttered, too. For example, after Fukushima ocurred, Germany swore off nuclear power.It's in the process of phasing nuclear out completely with little to stop the process because there's virtually no support for nuclear in the country. Japan is feeling the heat of negative public opinion, too, which is one reason why the restarting process is taking so long. And never forget that just because someone says they are going to build a nuclear power plant doesn't mean that they will. In the end, nuclear has a bad image and that could easily leave demand weaker than expected today.

Uranium prices, however, are a mix of supply and demand. And supply could be a bigger problem than you think. Cameco pulled back production in 2016 by 5% and is likely to rein production in even more this year. But money-losing Denison Mines and NexGen Energy Ltd. (NYSEMKT: NXE) are both working to develop new uranium mines from the ground up. In fact, NexGen could end up developing Canada's largest uranium deposit. That means that even as Cameco is reducing production, new sources of uranium are looming on the horizon that could leave the nuclear power industry with more than enough supply to keep uranium prices low.

Food for thought

I tend to be an optimist, so I believe that carbon-free nuclear power will continue to be an important and growing part of the world's power grid. That, in turn, will lead to higher prices for uranium as supply and demand balance out. I'm also of the opinion that Cameco's management team will deftly handle whatever the industry dishes out.

But that doesn't mean you should go in blind to what could go wrong. A few of the big ones are Cameco's contracts rolling off before it has a chance to replace them, the potential for continued weak uranium demand, and new uranium supplies creating a headwind to higher commodity prices. Even if you're an optimist like me, these are issues you should be keeping an eye on, just in case.

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A four-star Kentucky hotel has discovered a data breach threatening guests' credit card information.

News outlets report The Galt House hotel in Louisville said Wednesday that an internal investigation found malware had been stealing information from a payment card processing system. The hotel says guests who stayed at the hotel between Dec. 21, 2016, and April 11 could be affected.

The malware copied guest payment information, including names and account numbers, as well as credit card expiration dates and verification codes.

The hotel says it has resolved the issue and is working to strengthen its cybersecurity.
The Benton County Historical Society and Museum, 1101 Main St. in Philomath, is presenting a summer lecture series titled "A World of Ideas" on Mondays at noon. The program is free to society members; a $5 admission is charged for nonmembers.

On Monday, July 31, Robert J. Lillie will draw on his experience as a photographer, graphic illustrator and park ranger to tell the geologic story of the tallest peak in the coast range, "Oregon's Island in the Sky: The Geological Story of Marys Peak."

On Monday, Aug. 7, Nancy Bryant will get Dressed for the 18th Century." Bryant and her assistant will demonstrate the complications, details and cultural expectations of womens apparel in the 1700s. Nancy is a retired professor of apparel design at Oregon State University; she built her own replica costume from an extant English gown.

On Monday Aug. 14, Richard Engeman presents Chop Suey for All: Chinese Cooks in Oregon. A former manuscript and archives head and public historian at the Oregon Historical Society, Engeman will talk about the history of Chinese immigrants to Oregon and their adaptation to the American food landscape. Engeman is a writer, speaker and consultant in the field of Oregon and Pacific Northwest history, with a particular expertise in food history.

Closing out the series on Monday, Aug. 28, Richard W. Etulain, son of a Basque immigrant, will present The Basques: Mystery People of the American West." Etualin provides the Old World background of this culture as well as the American experience of Amerikanuak (American Basques).

There will be no lecture on Monday, Aug. 21st due to the eclipse.

Lectures will be held in the Moreland Gallery at the Benton County Museum in Philomath. Presentations begin at noon and attendees are invited to bring a brown bag lunch. Beverages will be served. For information, see bentoncountymuseum.org or call 541-929-6230.
While Republican lawmakers in the Senate struggle to flesh out their next step toward repealing ObamaCare, White House officials and GOP congressional leaders turned their attention toward tax reform Thursday, officially killing the proposal for a border-adjusted tax.

We are now confident that, without transitioning to a new domestic consumption-based tax system, there is a viable approach for ensuring a level playing field between American and foreign companies and workers  While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform, a press release signed by Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, National Economic Director Gary Cohn and Republican Congressional leadership said Thursday.

The border-adjustment tax, a proposed 20% tax on imports, caused concern among some in the business community, particularly retailers who rely on imports to manufacture goods. The Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) praised the decision to drop the BAT Thursday, calling it "victory for American families and businesses." Uncertainties related to how the tax may have impacted the U.S. dollar and consumer prices had divided lawmakers on Capitol Hill as well.

The note also outlines key proposals that will be contained in the legislation that Congressional leaders are set to begin working on, including lowering the business tax rate, reducing tax rates as much as possible, increasing capital expensing and making sure the legislation is permanent. President Donald Trump is on board with the agreed upon principles, according to the officials.

Another key part of the release Thursday involved tax reform timing. While previously, lawmakers had said to expect a bill by September, on Thursday lawmakers broadened the timeframe to the fall.

Our expectation is for this [tax reform] legislation to move through the committees this fall, under regular order, followed by consideration on the House and Senate floors, the release read.
Fiat Chrysler's CEO is expressing "disgust" at the conduct of former FCA employees now indicted in the United States for misappropriating funds and funneling gifts and cash to union officials.

Sergio Marchionne addressed the alleged conspiracy in a letter to company employees on Thursday, the day after two former employees were charged with looting a training center for blue-collar workers and giving $1.2 million in various forms to the UAW leader, his wife and other senior union officials.

Marchionne said former employees facing charges "used those funds to enrich themselves and their families at the expense of their fellow employees."

He also said the conduct had no bearing on union contracts "but rather involved two bad actors, who apparently saw an opportunity to misappropriate funds entrusted to their control."
A defense attorney and a courtroom full of supporters depicted a woman who ran a methadone clinic for 20 years as a cross between a den mother and an angel of mercy to southwestern Pennsylvania's growing population of opioid addicts, but a federal prosecutor countered that she was a "greedy" businesswoman who defrauded Medicaid to feed a gambling habit.

U.S. District Judge Nora Barry Fischer opted for the middle ground Thursday.

The judge sentenced Rosalind Sugarmann, 62, to a year and a day in federal prison for her December guilty plea to health care fraud and illegally distributing the drug Suboxone, which can be used to wean addicts off heroin. In doing so, the judge rejected Assistant U.S. Attorney Shaun Sweeney's request for at least 2 1/2 years in prison and defense attorney Efrem Grail's arguments for probation.

Pittsburgh psychologist Thomas Petrone, who specializes in addiction, was called as a character witness by the defense.

"I think Ros is a game changer," Petrone testified. "I think she was a mom to hundreds of people."

Sweeney painted a different picture, relying on a couple of federal grand jury indictments returned since Sugarmann's Addiction Specialists clinic was raided by federal agents in October 2015.

Sugarmann and Dr. Dominic Dileo have pleaded guilty to unlawfully dispensing Suboxone, which, besides helping heroin addicts, can be abused by addicts to get high. The indictment accused them of illegally supplying the drug on scores of occasions from January 2013 to July 2015.

Dileo, 69, pleaded guilty last July and will be sentenced Aug. 2.

Sugarmann, in her plea last year, acknowledged aiding and abetting Dileo, who gave the Suboxone to her under the alias Larry Greene. In a tearful apology read to the court, Sugarmann claimed she did that to protect the reputation of her clinic's former chief financial officer, whose anonymity she was trying to guard while treating him for drug addiction.

Sweeney argued Sugarmann, of Allison Park, was motivated by "greed," noting she and her husband claimed nearly $1 million in salary on their 2013 tax return.

Despite that, Sugarmann's husband has twice filed for personal bankruptcy and Sugarmann once in recent years. Both also have tax liabilities and "substantial gambling losses" from 2009 to 2013, including more than $2 million in one year, Sweeney told the judge.

Sugarmann's decision to hire Dileo showed her motives weren't pure, Sweeney said.

Dileo was sentenced to 10 years in prison for Medicare fraud in the 1990s and lost his medical license, which was reinstated in 2005. In that case, Dileo was convicted of writing illegal painkiller prescriptions and taking kickbacks that he spent on extramarital affairs. He also faked medical tests so he could claim patients needed oxygen, which he sold through a medical supply company he co-owned by submitting fraudulent bills to insurers.

"Who hires such a doctor to be the medical director of an addiction treatment clinic?" Sweeney said.

Sugarmann must pay $400,000 in restitution and serve three years of probation after prison.

___

This story has been corrected by removing a reference to the clinic's former chief financial officer pleading guilty in the case; that man was never indicted and did not plead guilty.
Starbucks Corp on Thursday posted lower quarterly profit, tempered expectations for the current quarter amid softness in the U.S. retail and restaurant industries, and announced plans to close all 379 of its Teavana stores.

Net income fell to $691.6 million, or 47 cents per share, for the third quarter ended July 2. That was down from $754.1 million, or 51 cents per share, in the year earlier quarter.

U.S. restaurants are locked in a bitter fight for market share, battling new competition from non-traditional rivals such as meal kit sellers and convenience stores.

"The combination of trends in the quarter and ongoing macro pressures impacting the retail and restaurant sectors has us a bit more cautious going into Q4," Starbucks Chief Financial Officer Scott Maw said in a statement.

Starbucks is closing all of its Teavana stores after buying Teavana in 2012. It will continue selling Teavana branded products in its stores. (Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles; Editing by Bernard Orr)
Starbucks is shutting down its struggling Teavana chain, and relying on customers who spend more on pricier drinks and food to drive up sales at its namesake coffee stores.

The company reported disappointing global sales growth on Thursday, and said it will close all 379 Teavana locations over the coming year. It had acquired the U.S. mall-based chain in 2012, with then-CEO Howard Schultz citing the huge potential for the tea market. But in April, the company said it was reviewing options for the chain.

Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson on Thursday noted declining foot traffic at malls.

"We felt it was an appropriate time to take the decision and begin shutting down those stores," he said.

The announcement came as Starbucks said global sales at its flagship chain rose 4 percent at established locations for the quarter ended July 2, fueled by higher average spending per visit. In the U.S., sales rose 5 percent at established locations, also driven mostly by higher spending versus an increase in customer visits.

Competition has intensified in the U.S. restaurant industry, making it challenging for chains to get customers to visit their stores more often. Dunkin' Donuts said earlier in the day that customer traffic fell again at its established U.S. locations. McDonald's, meanwhile, has been promoting $1 sodas and $2 McCafe smoothies, frappes and shakes, a strategy the burger chain says helped bring in customers during the second quarter.

Johnson dismissed the idea that such promotions affect Starbucks, saying that the "value players" are competing in a different segment.

Still, the Seattle-based company cited pressure in the retail and restaurant sectors that have made it more cautious going into the next quarter. It cut its profit forecast for the year for the second time.

In its Asia unit, Starbucks' sales rose just 1 percent at established locations during the three-month period. Starbucks has announced plans to acquire the remaining 50 percent stake of its East China joint venture that it does not already own. That makes it the operator of all Starbucks stores in mainland China, which it says is a fast-growing market.

For the quarter, Starbucks Corp. earned $691.6 million, or 47 cents per share. Excluding one-time items, it earned 55 cents per share, in line with Wall Street expectations. New store openings helped lift revenue 8 percent to $5.66 billion. But that was still less than analysts expected.

The company trimmed its adjusted earnings per share forecast to between $2.05 and $2.06 per share.

Starbucks shares fell 5.6 percent to $56.15 in extended trading.
Congress is expected to pass legislation this week that could include $1.6 billion in funding for construction of President Donald Trumps long-awaited wall along the U.S.-Mexico border.

GOP leaders have sprung a plan to lump the wall funding in with a massive $788 billion spending bill that includes money for the military and the Department of Veterans Affairs, which provides political cover for any Republicans that might have qualms. The measure, expected to pass on Friday, combines four appropriations bills into one. The wall money would be added in a procedural vote on Thursday.

The measure, put forth by House Republicans earlier this month, is likely to receive some pushback from Democrats  who have opposed funding the wall along the United States southern border. Democrats have said they will fight the inclusion of funding for the border wall in any legislation and successfully did so during a spat over spending in April that nearly resulted in a government shutdown around the end of Trumps first 100 days in office.

In his May budget, Trump requested $1.6 billion to construct three segments of wall totaling 74 miles, including 14 miles of secondary fencing in San Diego and 60 miles of fencing and levee wall in Texas' Rio Grande Valley. That averages $21 million per mile.

The Trump administration is still trying to figure out design issues and where to construct the wall, since it's impractical to build everywhere along the almost 2,000-mile border. And despite the political appeal of the fence for Trump partisans, opponents say a wall interferes with property rights of landowners along the border, is too expensive, and damages the environment.

Meanwhile, lawmakers have a host of other imminent bills to deal with before the onset of the new fiscal year in October, including raising the debt ceiling and potentially passing a health care reform bill before Republicans lose the reconciliation mandate.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Former Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultzs aide, Imran Awan, was arrested on Wednesday on bank fraud charges, but The Hill reporter Joe Concha says the story has been lacking coverage in the mainstream media.

This is a story that ABC and NBC decided they werent going to cover. Thats called the bias of omission or the sin of omission, and CNN and MSNBC same deal, Concha told FBNs Stuart Varney.

Awan, a Pakistani native, was the IT man for Schultz and was paid over four million dollars for his work. He also had access to eight other Congressmans laptops, along with his brothers.

Soon after this guy Imran started working for Debbie Wasserman Schultz all of his relatives appeared on the payroll and they collected $4 million, very unusual The Daily Callers Luke Rosiak told the FOX Business Networks Stuart Varney earlier this week.

Concha believes the lack of reporting from media outlets comes from political bias.

Our political media is broken, Stuart. When this story gets ignored because of party affiliation and nothing more, he said.

Awan was kept on payroll after being barred from the House system in February of this year by Wasserman Schultz office, but has recently been fired.

Its troubling if when the facts do come out what people knew and what people didnt do about it if they allowed this person to remain. This is not a good thing, said former Whitewater Independent Counsel Robert Ray during an appearance on the FOX Business program Mornings With Maria.

Concha reports that 91 percent of Republicans dont trust the media and 57 percent of democrats believe that the media is too negative towards Trump.

Its not so much the coverage in this case, its the omission that people see. And they say, What are you doing? Youre not doing your jobs political media, he said.

Awan was arrested yesterday at Dulles International Airport, while trying to flee the country to Pakistan, and plead not guilty.

Christopher Gowen, an attorney for Imran Awan, tells FOX News his client is devastated but that federal authorities have no evidence of misconduct by Awan relating to his IT duties. In a telephone interview Wednesday, Gowen said that Awan had purchased his flight ticket to Doha, Qatar two weeks ago, after securing assurances from Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Marando that the government had no objections to, and was placing no restrictions on, his travel abroad.

Gowen disputed a Daily Caller report that alleged that federal authorities seized smashed hard drives from a property Awan has rented out. Gowen said the authorities had indeed confiscated various items of old and unusable computer equipment from the property, in Lorton, Virginia, but he said there was nothing on it and there was nothing smashed or anything like that. There was a mistake on every line, Gowen said of the Daily Callers reporting on the story.

In a separate statement, Gowens firm defended their client:

Because we are confident in the integrity of the U.S. justice system, we are confident that Mr. Awan will soon be able to clear his name and get on with his life. Neither Mr. Awan nor his wife have ever had any intention to flee the United States. They are U.S. citizens who have built a full life and have a strong community life in this country. They will stand and fight whatever charges are presented. Once they have prevailed, we will have a chance to more closely examine the ugly political and media dynamics that have driven this controversy from the beginning - Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, PLLC
Amid blossoming tensions with President Donald Trump in D.C., Attorney General Jeff Sessions flew to El Salvador on Thursday to further the administrations fight against the violent street gang MS-13.

Sessions boarded a plane Thursday morning with several aides and leaders of the Justice Department's criminal division but did not take questions from the news media traveling with him.

Forging ahead with the tough-on-crime agenda that once endeared him to Trump, Sessions plans to meet his Salvadoran counterpart, Attorney General Douglas Melendez, before convening with other law enforcement officials on what his program calls a transnational anti-gang task force. He will tour a detention center and meet former members of MS-13, also known as Mara Salvatrucha, which Sessions has called a top threat to public safety in the U.S.

MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics  notably using machetes to hack victims. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the countrys civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gangs membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department.

MS-13 is on one of its most deadly tears through Long Island, New York since it took root there 20-30 years ago, linked to at least eleven murders in the region since mid-2016. Recently, the gang is believed to be connected to four brutal killings in Central Islip, N.Y. in April.

Law enforcement officials believe some of the recent violence has been directed by members of the gang imprisoned in El Salvador.

Both Trump and Sessions have blamed Obama-era border policies for allowing the gang's ranks to flourish in the U.S., though the Obama administration took unprecedented steps to target the gang's finances. Federal prosecutors have gone after MS-13 before but say they've recently seen a resurgence.

Trump praised Sessions when he announced his mission to eradicate the gang in April. But the attorney general has since fallen out of favor with his onetime political ally.

In day after day of public humiliation, Trump said he rued his decision to choose Sessions for his Cabinet and left the former Alabama senator's prospects dangling. Trump's intensifying criticism has fueled speculation that the attorney general may step down even if the president stops short of firing him. But Sessions is showing no outward signs that he is planning to quit, and on Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said that Trump "wants him to lead the department."

"Look, you can be disappointed in someone and still want them to continue to do their job," she said.

Thursday's trip was planned before Trump's broadsides against his attorney general, and it remains to be seen whether his work in El Salvador will help mend their fractured relationship. Their shared view, rare among the political class, that illegal immigration was the nation's most vexing problem was what united Sessions and Trump.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia would be forced to retaliate if Washington pressed ahead with what he called illegal new sanctions against Moscow, describing U.S. conduct towards his country as boorish and unreasonable.

Putin, speaking on a visit to Finland, was commenting on a vote by the U.S. House of Representatives which on Tuesday decided to impose new sanctions on Moscow and to force President Donald Trump to obtain lawmakers' permission before easing any sanctions on Russia.

The sanctions have yet to be approved by the Senate or Trump, and a top White House aide said on Thursday that Trump could veto the legislation in order to push for a tougher deal.

Putin, who has repeatedly denied U.S. allegations that Russia interfered with last year's U.S. presidential election, said Moscow would only decide on how to retaliate against Washington once it had seen the final text of the proposed law.

"As you know, we are exercising restraint and patience, but at some moment we'll have to retaliate. It's impossible to endlessly tolerate this boorishness towards our country," Putin told a joint news conference with his Finnish counterpart.

"When will our response follow? What will it be? That will depend on the final version of the draft law which is now being debated in the U.S. Senate."

Putin also spoke about an ongoing diplomatic row between Moscow and Washington which erupted last December when then U.S. President Barack Obama ordered the seizure of Russian diplomatic property in the United States and the expulsion of 35 Russian diplomats.

"This goes beyond all reasonable bounds," said Putin. "And now these sanctions - they are also absolutely unlawful from the point of view of international law."

Calling the proposed sanctions "extremely cynical," Putin said the demarche looked like an attempt by Washington to use its "geopolitical advantages ... to safeguard its economic interests at the expense of its allies".

He dismissed Congressional investigations into Russia's alleged meddling in last year's U.S. presidential election, calling them a symptom of growing anti-Russian hysteria in the United States and a result of U.S. domestic politics.

"It's very sad that U.S.-Russian relations are being sacrificed to resolve internal policy issues in the U.S," said Putin. "It's a pity, because acting together we could be solving jointly the most acute problems that worry the peoples of Russia and the United States much more efficiently."

However, Putin said that Moscow had "many friends" in the United States and hoped that one day the situation would right itself.

(Writing by Dmitry Solovyov; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
Retired Gen. Jack Keane on Thursday said the Pentagon was surprised by President Trumpas decision to ban transgender people from serving in the United States military.

aThe military did not come forward and ask for the transgender ban to be lifted. That was imposed on the military by Secretary of Defense [Ash] Carter last June, literally six months before the end of the Obama administration,a Keane told FOX Businessa Stuart Varney.

Mr. Carter commissioned a study by the RAND Corporation that measured the impact of transgender personnel on readiness and health care costs in the U.S. military.

According to Keane, after Carter lifted the military ban on transgender people in June of 2016, several thousand soldiers opted to change their gender, receiving medical treatment as of October 1st of 20016.

Last month, Defense Secretary James Mattis delayed a plan to allow transgender recruits to join the military to review whether the policy of allowing transgender individuals to enlist will affect the areadiness or lethalitya of the armed forces.

aI think what the president should do is talk to Secretary Mattis, take no adverse action against those who are serving honorably and faithfully who are now transgender soldiers and let Secretary Mattis come back and tell him [Trump] how is this program working and should we go forward with it,a Keane said.

On Wednesday, Trump issued via Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) a ban on transgender people serving in the military.

"The United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," Trump tweeted.

aPolicy by Twitter, it doesnat work very well particularly something as complex as the United States military,a Keane said.

The retired four star general said the U.S. military is not a social welfare organization and individual rights must be sacrificed for the purpose of readiness.

aWe exist for one reason only and that is to protect the American people and our national interest, and thankfully, we have people who volunteer as American patriots to that very thing and put their life on the line,a Keane said.
Movies playing in mid-valley theaters as of Friday. Complete and updated Movie Scene listings can be found online. Also online this week: Reviews of Atomic Blonde and The Emoji Movie.

NEW

ATOMIC BLONDE

3  stars

(Action thriller, R, 115 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) On the strength of this ultra-violent and deliriously entertaining thriller and "Mad Max: Fury Road," Charlize Theron now is officially an A-list action star. The camerawork in one brutally funny fight sequence is cinematic jazz  amazing to behold. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

THE EMOJI MOVIE

(Animated comedy, PG, 90 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12). In a world set inside a smartphone, an emoji named Gene (voiced by T.J. Miller) is ashamed that he has multiple facial expressions while his colleagues only have one each. So he sets out on an adventure to be like everyone else. Other voices are provided by James Corden, Anna Faris, Jennifer Coolidge, Patrick Stewart, Sofia Vergara, and Maya Rudolph.

NEITHER WOLF NOR DOG

(Drama, no MPAA rating, 110 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) A white author is summoned by a Lakota elder who wants him to write a book from his perspective. Eventually, the writer is sucked into a road trip into the heart of the contemporary Native American landscape. This independent flick is based on a novel by Portland author Kent Nerburn.

THE ORNITHOLOGIST

(Drama, no MPAA rating, 118 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) Fernando, a solitary ornithologist, is looking for black storks when he is swept away by the rapids in this flick from Portugal. Rescued by a couple of Chinese pilgrims, he plunges into an eerie and dark forest, trying to get back on track.

CONTINUING

DUNKIRK

4 stars

(War drama, PG-13, 106 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany, the Regal 4 in Corvallis and the AMC Corvallis 12) Christopher Nolan's faithful and deeply respectful retelling of one of the most pivotal battles in World War II is a gripping, deeply involving and unforgettable film that ranks among the best war movies of the decade. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

GIRLS TRIP

(Comedy, R, 122 minutes, playing at the Regal 4 in Corvallis) Four black girlfriends (Regina Hall, Tiffany Haddish, Jada Pinkett Smith and Queen Latifah) decide to get back together after five years apart, and set their sights on partying at the Essence Festival. Larenz Tate, Mike Colter and Kate Walsh co-star in director Malcolm D. Lees new flick.

MAUDIE

3  stars

(Biography, PG-13, 117 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) Treated as an outcast, a fisherman's housekeeper (Sally Hawkins) in Nova Scotia becomes something of a celebrity for her paintings. This is one of the most beautiful, life-affirming, uplifting movies of the year, capable of moving us to tears of appreciation for getting to know the title subject. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS

(Sci-fi fantasy, PG-13, 137 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 and the AMC Corvallis 12) Based on a series of French comic books, the new film from director Luc Besson follows adventurers Valerian (Dane DeHaan) and Laureline (Cara Delevingne) as they try to stop villains from destroying Alpha, an intergalactic metropolis where thousands of alien species live in harmony. Clive Owen, Rihanna, Elizabeth Debicki and Ethan Hawke also star.

THE BIG SICK

4 stars

(Romantic comedy, R, 119 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) In a fictionalized version of real events in his life, Kumail Nanjiani plays a comedian whose new girlfriend (Zoe Kazan) falls ill and goes into a medically induced coma. Funny and smart and wise and silly, it is without a doubt one of the best romantic comedies I have seen in a long time. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

THE LITTLE HOURS

3 stars

(Comedy, R, 90 minutes, playing at the Darkside in Corvallis) Aubrey Plaza knocks it out of the park as the most foul-mouthed of the nuns at a convent offering refuge to a man on the run (Dave Franco). The ribald tale has some wonderfully anachronistic and tart dialogue, an outstanding ensemble cast and, yes, a few salient albeit obvious points about organized religion. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

3  stars

(Sci-fi action, PG-13, 133 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany, the Regal 4 in Corvallis and the AMC Corvallis 12) Vengeful after a human attack on their compound, Caesar (Andy Serkis, brilliant and heartbreaking) and his ape allies go on a mission to take out the officer responsible (Woody Harrelson). The result is a war movie more serious and much darker than most big-budget midsummer blockbusters. And a whole lot more captivating. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

3  stars

(Action adventure, PG-13, 133 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany, the Regal 4 in Corvallis and the AMC Corvallis 12). The best thing about the latest Spider-Man (the terrific and well-cast Tom Holland) is that he's still more of a kid than a man. Even with a goodly amount of explosions and action, this scaled-down adventure plays less like an ultimate-stakes battle than a John Hughes teen-angst romance/comedy meshed with a superhero saga. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

BABY DRIVER

4 stars

(Action, R, 113 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) Edgar Wright's "Baby Driver," about a savant of a getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) working for a criminal mastermind (Kevin Spacey), crackles with originality and dark humor and teems with perfectly timed action sequences. If you see this movie and tell me you didn't have a great time, we're going to have to talk about your idea of a great time. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

DESPICABLE ME 3

1  stars

(Animated, PG, 90 minutes, playing at the Regal 7 in Albany and the AMC Corvallis 12) Gru, the lovable villain from the first two Despicable movies, must cope not just with a long-long brother but a new baddie: Balthazar Bratt, a former child star. Steve Carell returns to voice Gru and Trey Parker of South Park voices Balthazar. Other voices include Russell Brand, Miranda Cosgrove, Kristen Wiig and Steve Coogan. There are Minions as well, but the overall film is less than the sum of its parts: Its wacky but dull. (Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

WONDER WOMAN

3  stars

(Fantasy/action-adventure, PG-13, 141 minutes, playing at the AMC Corvallis 12) Director Patty Jenkins' origin story is packed with heart and empathy, and we have the endearing lead performance of Gal Gadot to thank for that. It's a fully realized, three-dimensional characterization of a superhero that has never gotten her due  until now. (Richard Roeper, Universal Press Syndicate)

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY VOL. 2

3 stars

(Sci-fi action comedy, PG-13, 136 minutes, playing at the Pix in Albany) Writer-director James Gunns sequel to his surprise hit featuring a motley band of Marvel Comics backbenchers actually may be an improvement over the original; its a silly, soupy spectacle and it doesnt seem quite as pleased with itself as the first outing. Chris Pratt and Zoe Saldana lead a big cast, and newcomers include Kurt Russell and Sylvester Stallone. It packs a bright and shiny and sweet punch. (Jake Coyle, Associated Press)
President Donald Trump will travel to Suffolk County, New York, on Friday, in what one lawmaker is calling an ahistorica trip to a regional hot bed and breeding spot for individuals belonging to the violent street gang MS-13.

aThis is a vicious gang of murderers a brutal a just an absolute disgrace,a Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), who represents the Long Island district heavily affected by recent killings, said during an interview with FOX Business. aTo have the president come here, two months after we had the attorney general come in a I canat emphasize how important it is a to give hope to the community that the United States government and literally the most powerful person in the world, stands with [them].a

Trumpas visit follows the arrests of more than 15 suspected members of MS-13 earlier this month, some of whom are believed to be connected to the violent deaths of four individuals in April.

MS-13 is on one of its most deadly tears through Long Island, New York since it took root there about 30 years ago, linked to 17 murders in the past 16 months, according to Rep. King. However, King says the situation has started to improve over the past two to three months, a timeframe during which local communities have seen a amassivea number of arrests and MS-13 operatives taken into police custody.

King attributes recent improvements in the fight against MS-13 to increased support from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which has been helping to close a key immigration loophole in the Unaccompanied Refugee Minors program that gang members have exploited in order to shuttle in and recruit new members. Additionally, he says increasing the number of raids and deporting illegal immigrants who have committed crimes are two other key pieces of the strategy.

However, Michael Balboni, founder of securities firm Redland Strategies and former homeland security advisor for New York State, told FOX Business that the increased enforcement effort may be driving members aundergrounda, which could mean they will come back one day. aItas about sustainability a for the safety of the people, you canat walk away from this,a he said.

MS-13, a group that was started by Central American immigrants in Los Angeles in the 1980s, is known for its ruthless and violent tactics a notably using machetes to hack victims. Most of the founding members were from El Salvador and fled to the U.S. during the countryas civil war that lasted 12 years, from 1980-92. Since then the gangas membership has ballooned to at least 10,000 members in the United States and more than 30,000 worldwide, according to the FBI and Treasury Department.

For years, MS-13 flourished by feeding off of immigrant communities that have suffered in silence, according to Balboni. The aperpetuation of that processa had made this a really challenging effort for law enforcement, he said.

MS-13 is not a particularly well-funded organization and it traditionally resorts to theft, human trafficking, sex trafficking, selling drugs and extortion for financing, as previously reported by FOX Business. However, on Long Island the group has fostered an underground economy that law enforcement officials have largely been unable to reach for the past 20 to 30 years.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken the lead on fighting MS-13, visiting Long Island in April as a show of support to local communities. However, amid rising tensions with President Trump, Sessions flew to El Salvador on Thursday, where he is reportedly tackling MS-13 at its source.

King, who is meeting with the president Friday, confirmed Sessions has been working with contacts in El Salvador to combat the MS-13 threat. He also said the United States is taking action in the Central American country to stop domestic MS-13 gang members, though he declined to comment further on exactly what that action is.
The chief of staff of the U.S. Army, General Mark Milley, said on Thursday he had no advance knowledge of President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender individuals from the military before his announcement via Twitter on Wednesday, but added that was not unusual.

"I personally did not, but nor would I have expected to," Milley said.

(Reporting by Idrees Ali and Phil Stewart; Editing by Jonathan Oatis)
Sean Spicer is taking his first steps to transition from the White House briefing room to the bright lights of a TV news studio  but hes also being courted by Dancing with the Stars, Page Six has learned.

The outgoing press secretary spent the day in New York City in talks with major broadcasters about a new career in TV where he can share his insider knowledge of President Trump.

Spicer, who announced his resignation Friday, was seen coming out of high-level meetings at ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox News in Manhattan, according to sources. A source told us some news execs made the full-court press as they competed to woo the high-profile spokesman  who brought in solid ratings and plenty of late-night fodder  while others just kicked the tires.

But theres also speculation 45-year-old Spicers next stop could be showing off some spicy dance moves on ABCs Dancing with the Stars. Actor Zach Braff jokingly tweeted when Spicer stepped down, Cant wait to see Sean Spicer waltz on Dancing With the Stars.

But a TV insider confirmed to Page Six that the dancing competition show has indeed reached out to the Beltway insider. That has legs, the source said.

Viewers will recall that current energy secretary and former Texas Gov. Rick Perry turned in politics for the Texas cha-cha on the show last year after losing to Trump in the GOP primary. (If Spicer does join the show, hopefully hell be better at cutting a rug than Perry, who was the second contestant booted off last season.)

The embattled press secretary Spicer stepped down after Trump named Anthony Scaramucci his new communications director. Scaramucci, a millionaire financier, predicted Spicer would not be hurting for offers. Hes done an amazing job, Scaramucci said last week. I wish him well and I hope he goes on to make a tremendous amount of money.

Reached by phone on Wednesday, Spicer said: I have no comment. An ABC rep said, We dont comment on casting.

This article originally appeared on Page Six
When Girls Trip star Tiffany Haddish told the Los Angeles Times last week that disgraced star Bill Cosby was one of her comedic inspirations, she ignited a social media firestorm.

I still want to work with Bill Cosby, the 37-year-old actress-comedian said. I dont care, Ill drink the juice. Ill drink the juice. Ill take a nap. I dont give a damn. But seriously, I would love for him to play my grandfather in something.

If it was a joke, it fell flat. One person who didnt get it was Gloria Allred, the attorney for several women who in recent years have accused the 80-year-old TV icon of sexual assault.

Ms. Haddish appears to have made a laughing matter of the serious issue of drugging and sexual assault, but drugging and sexual assault are not a laughing matter, Allred told Fox News on Wednesday.

These allegations against Mr. Cosby are serious and not funny and should not be made the subject matter of attempted humor. Ms. Haddish should consider apologizing to those individuals who have been victims of sexual assault after being drugged.

Brian Pacheco, director of public relations at Safe Horizon, a non-profit organization that helps victims of sexual assault, was similarly unamused.

"Given the allegations against Cosby, he said, I think her comments are insensitive and not funny. Sexual assault is no laughing matter and shouldn't be someone's punchline."

Haddish took a pounding on social media, too.

One user wrote on Twitter, I've been rooting hard for Tiffany Haddish but I find nothing funny about her making light of Bill Cosby drugging women.

Another user wrote, Waiting for @TiffanyHaddish to issue her apology lol. One more chimed in, I really wish Tiffany Haddish hadn't said that about Bill Cosby.

But others defended the actress.

One of her fans tweeted, I hate the world is so damn politically correct. You're mad at Tiffany Haddish for what? It was a damn joke!!



Haddish has yet to speak out about the backlash.
Recent photos of Nicolas Cage posing in traditional nomadic garb while visiting Kazakhstan transformed him into a hilarious meme that has gone viral, but the Human Rights Foundation isnt laughing.

PHOTOS: NICOLAS CAGE BECOMES A NEW VIRAL MEME

The Hollywood Reporter revealed Wednesday that despite reported violations of human rights in the country, the 53-year-old Hollywood actor attended the Eurasia Film Festival as a VIP guest.

He told journalists, I would be pleased to participate in some film project on the territory of Kazakhstan. I enjoyed the architecture of your capital. What I saw reminded me of an old black-and-white film that depicted the future.

HRF president Thor Halvorssen was outraged by the statement.

His glowing review gave Kazakhstans dictatorship much-needed PR, and his photos boosted the regimes visibility on the international stage, he told the magazine. Cage should be mortified that he participated in a whitewashing stunt for a murderous tyrant.

HRF Chief Strategy Officer Alex Gladstein added: Cage and his publicity team could have determined from a quick online search that Kazakhstan is ruled by a brutal dictator.

"Celebrities could be playing a key role in the struggle for human rights, especially in places like Kazakhstan where artistic freedom is most under threat. To see role models like Nicolas Cage instead take the side of dictators is profoundly disappointing and a sign that human rights arent a consideration for Hollywood stars.

According to the nonprofit, which aims to promote human rights globally, Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev shut down independent news outlets and arrested critics during his 26-year rule. They also revealed government forces killed more than a dozen peaceful protestors during the Zhanaozen massacre in 2011.

Cages reps did not immediately respond to the publications request for comment.
A graduate student has sued five men, including child actor-turned-firefighter Michael Anthony Vitar, who starred in Sandlot and the Mighty Ducks, over a Halloween 2015 attack that left him with permanent brain damage.

A video of the incident shows victim Samuel Chang, then 23, struggling with the men as he was being held in a choke hold with his hands chained behind his back. Chang can be heard struggling to breathe before going silent when his heart stops beating. He appears lifeless as Vitar and co-defendant Eric Carpenter roll him onto his back and begin chest compressions.

Several seconds later Chang starts breathing again as one of the men says, There you go, keep breathing!

Carpenter would later tell paramedics that Chang was pulseless, not breathing and had dilated pupils. Chang was hospitalized for two weeks suffering from traumatic brain injury and kidney failure, according to a press release.

The lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court alleges assault, battery and false imprisonment against Vitar and four of his friends, including Carpenter. Both Vitar and Carpenter work for the Los Angeles Fire Department.

Samuel was doing something millions of people do every year  [handing] out candy to children on Halloween. But the defendants chased him down the street and beat him until he was actually dead, said Changs attorney, David Ring, in a statement. Its a miracle I didn't file a wrongful death case today. This is one of the most horrific events I have seen in my long career representing victims.

Vitar and two others were charged with felony assault in December 2016, but were all allowed to plead guilty to misdemeanor charges and did not spend any time in jail, according to Rings office. The other defendants were not charged. Vitar and Carpenter were suspended for six months by Los Angeles Fire Department and returned to work last month.

The events unfolded when Chang decided to hand out Halloween candy at his grandmothers house  a neighborhood where he grew up -- in the Los Angeles suburb of Chatsworth. After a while, Chang decided to walk around the neighborhood to pass out more candy and take photos, the lawsuit said.

Chang walked by a house where the defendants were attending a party. The men, wearing costumes, approached Chang and demanded to know what he was doing in the neighborhood. Chang started to videotape the defendants as they became increasingly hostile, following him down the street accusing him of passing out drug-laced candy and carrying a weapon.

I don't know what's in your pocket? Do you have a weapon? What's under your hat? Have a weapon? Carpenter can be heard saying. I dont need free candy, I pay for my candy.

Chang repeatedly asked the group to stop following him, but the group chased him and Chang yelled out for help from neighbors as he was tackled and his camera went dark. At this point, a third-party began taping the incident as Carpenter held him in a chokehold while the others tied his hands behind his back with a chain and sat on him, the video shows.

They continued to interrogate him as Vitar, along with another man, called 911, saying they were restraining a person who was combative and passing out drug-laced candy, the video shows.

Theres weapons, tell them theres weapons, the third-party filming the incident chimed in.

The video ended with paramedics arriving and giving Chang oxygen before placing him on a gurney and into an ambulance.

Police later tested Changs candy and found no evidence of drugs and Chang was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, Ring said.

The events left Chang with cognitive problems, debilitating headaches and recurring nightmares. Before the assault, he had graduated from college with honors and was interning at a physical rehabilitation facility. It is now a struggle for Chang to continue in his graduate work to be a physical therapist, Rings office said.

Vitar, who is married and has three children, started acting when he was 12 after a casting agent spotted him at a school carnival, his IMDB profile states. During the 1990s he appeared in Sandlot, D2: The Mighty Ducks, and D3: The Mighty Ducks. His last acting job was Chicago Hope in 1997 before becoming a firefighter in 2002.
Coca-Cola Co. announced this week that Coke Zero will get a makeover and be revamped as Coca-Cola Zero Sugar  but not everyone is happy about the changes.

Coca-Cola Zero Sugars taste has been improved by optimizing the unique blend of flavors that gave Coke Zero its real Coca-Cola taste, the soda giant said in a Wednesday post on its website.

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It said the drinks name change was to be as clear and descriptive as possible about the product and the promise that it delivers great Coca-Cola taste without sugar.

"We've used our in-house innovation capabilities to make the great taste of Coke Zero even better and a lot like a Coke, Stuart Kronauge, the senior vice president for marketing of Coca-Cola North America, said in a statement.

Next month, Coca-Cola Zero Sugar is going to be available throughout the U.S., according to the soda maker. Its already available in other countries like Mexico.

Though Coca-Cola said that it was confident that loyal Coke Zero fans will love the new-and-improved recipe, Twitter users have expressed their displeasure online.

As seen in the example above, the company has also been busy replying to tweets critical of the announcement.
A Florida restaurant overrun by cockroaches has reportedly been busted for trying to cover up warnings from health officials about the ongoing bug invasion.

Jaxon Social in Jacksonville Beach, which advertises itself as an eatery that serves up globally inspired, but locally sourced, quality food and cocktails, was shut down on July 18 when investigators found 23 live roaches and 35 dead ones in the kitchen, Action News Jax reported Wednesday.

MAR-A-LAGO RESTAURANTS SLAPPED WITH 15 HEALTH CODE VIOLATIONS

But during a follow-up visit, an inspector noticed that the original sign  which was placed on the door to notify the public that the restaurant had been shut down by officials over health concerns  was covered up. A piece of paper placed over the sign had a message reading, closed for technical difficulties."

Not surprisingly, this didn't fly with health officials.

"The inspector applied a new sign to the door and explained the potential consequences of removing the sign to the operator. Since that time, the sign has been visible at each follow-up visit, said Kathleen Keenan, the Florida Department of Business and Professional Regulations deputy director of communications.

ATLANTA RESTAURANT OWN BY 2-CHAINZ FAILS HEALTH INSPECTION DUE TO 'MOLD-LIKE SUBSTANCE'

The restaurant has been inspected seven times since its closure, and as of Wednesday, was still crawling with roaches, Action News Jax reported.

If you open one of the refrigerator doors and pop open the seal, they fall out like, its like youve torn the corner off a bag of Skittles. Its disgusting, Jaxon Social cook Brian Lee told the station, adding that the owner owes him and his wife money.

The restaurant and its owner did not return calls for comment from Action News Jax.
The Pizza Nazi of New York has finally ticked off the wrong people.

Whitney Aycock, who operated the Whits End pizza shop in Rockaway, was recently ousted from his outpost at Riis Park Beach after beachgoers and park staffers complained of his hostile and vulgar behavior to the National Park Service, some of which included his proclivity for playing profane music and displaying lewd artwork in public, reports DNA Info New York.

NYC NEWEST PIZZA RAT FILMED STEALING AN ENTIRE PIE

In an eviction notice, which Aycock photographed alongside a package of hash-infused candy and posted to Instagram, the Gateway National Recreation Area described Aycocks actions as not in keeping with the mission and values of the National Park Service.

The notice goes on to describe at least four complaints filed against Aycock  who was given his Pizza Nazi nickname after a string of earlier incidents  as reasons for terminating the lease of his beachside pizzeria.

In the first complaint, a patron alleges that she asked Aycock to turn down the volume on the profanity laced music he was blaring in his shop, only for Aycock to become hostile and confrontational and instead blast the music in her face. He was also cited for blaring his music during a partner-sponsored event at the park, despite being informed that he would not be allowed to do so on that particular evening.

The parks staff also told officials that they once found a lewd painting in a part of his shop that was in full visibility to children, family and other park patrons on the public beach.

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In a separate Instagram post, Aycock confirmed to followers that his shop would no longer be open as of Monday.

As of today this awesome place is closed! wrote Aycock. The small simple-minded fools that oversee this beautiful national park have deemed us federally offensive.

So be it, he added. Happily so! F--- em!

ARIZONA HIKER NEARLY DIES TRYING TO EARN FREE PIZZA

Aycocks most recent troubles arent nearly the first time hes made headlines for his questionable behavior. According to DNA Info, Aycock allegedly tried to cut a hole in the wall of his former restaurant in January, in an attempt to steal an oven he leased along with the space. In 2016, he was also caught  and later pleaded guilty to  growing marijuana on the grounds near a former location.
A mother battling breast cancer is suing the New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, after she claims an employee demanded she remove her head scarf for a new photograph instead of using her old one while renewing her license.

You have to take that thing off, Jennifer Giordano claims an employee at the Eatontown office said, according to Asbury Park Press.

MOM BEFRIENDS STRANGER WHO DONATED LIFE-SAVING KIDNEY

Giordano, who was diagnosed with breast cancer in February, was wearing the scarf because she was self-conscious about her hair loss. In court documents filed over the June 14 incident, 40-year-old Giordano said she felt discriminated against and was caused emotional distress, Asbury Park Press reported.

Giordano compared the experience to someone being told to take their shirt off and walk around.

Its like exposing yourself in a very raw way thats not necessary, and then to have that picture on my license for years, she told the news outlet. If youre going through a chemotherapy regimen that causes you to lose your hair, you shouldnt be made to feel that way by anybody, especially a state agency.

According to the Asbury Park Press, New Jersey state law states that residents whose appearance may change during medical treatment can renew their license with an old photo, but medical documentation from a doctor is required, and it cannot exceed a year from the licenses expiration date.

GEORGIA WOMAN CELEBRATES 104TH BIRTHDAY

Another employee reportedly intervened and granted Giordano a new license with her old photo. Giordano alleges that the manager explained the policy allows people with headscarves for medical or religious reasons.

The New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission declined to comment on the case to the Asbury Park Press.
SWEET HOME  Eleanor Hewitt, a 2017 Sweet Home High School graduate who plans to attend Yale University in the fall, has received the Zonta Club of Corvallis Young Women in Public Affairs Award, which includes a $3,000 scholarship.

The programs goal is to encourage more young women to participate in public affairs by recognizing commitment to the volunteer sector, evidence of volunteer leadership achievements and a dedication to the empowerment of women.

Applicants are asked to reflect on their voluntary commitment to their school and their community and the problems limiting the empowerment of women in their own country and worldwide.

Eleanor was an outstanding leader in her high school and community, serving on the Sportsmans Holiday Court, being named Linn County Junior First Citizen and was selected as one of the communitys VIPs by the Sweet Home Chamber of Commerce.

She has been active with the Sweet Home City Councils Youth Advisory Council, the Youth Watershed Council, the Rural Development Initiative sponsored by the Ford Family Foundation, and Sweet Home Emergency Ministries.

She was active on the Class Board, editor of the school newspaper The Huskian, Key Club president, and active in several sports.

Eleanor intends to pursue a degree in Biomedical or Biological Engineering, and a minor in International Relations, and to become an Ophthalmologist providing services in developing countries.

She also wishes to eventually run for office at the national level. She believes that education, political equality, equal job opportunities and wages, effective family planning methods, and child care services can help eradicate gender inequalities.

The Zonta Club of Corvallis improves the status of women through service activities, advocacy and legislative awareness, recognition of outstanding women and men in the club and in the community.

Eleanor is eligible for additional awards at the District and International levels.
A Texas toddler and a deputy who helped deliver her at a gas station parking lot reunited one year later to celebrate the girl's birthday with an adorable tea party.

Destiny and Caleb Hall of Granbury, Texas, were racing to the hospital on July 18, 2016, when they were forced to stop at a gas station parking lot, according to The Huffington Post.

"Caleb told me, 'Youre going to have the baby in the back of the ambulance, isnt that exciting?'" Destiny Hall told the news site. "I replied, 'No, Im having her NOW.'"

FLORIDA WOMAN LOCATED USING BOTTLE OF HER SCENT

The couple recalled Texas Deputy Constable Mark Diebold flagging them down earlier for speeding, but then realized they were rushing because of the emergency. He followed them until they pulled over, then stepped in to help deliver the couple's second daughter, Evelyn.

"Caleb pulled my pants down, and they didnt even make it to my knees before she started coming!" she said.

Hall recalled one year later to WIS-TV that Diebold's willingness to help the couple out along the way was "beautiful."

"How it has changed me was seeing his reaction to it. Evelyn's birth was a sign to him that he was exactly where God placed him to be," Destiny Hall told WIS-TV.

"He is serving in a role which is his calling. The pure joy I saw in his face is a look I will never forget," she added.

NYPD COPS SAVE WOMAN, GRANDSON FROM HOUSE FIRE

Photographer Cyndi Williams offered to take the newborn's photo for free after hearing about the deputy and couple's story in the news when she was just born. One year later, she photographed Diebold and Evelyn, who have become great friends, to illustrate the special bond they share.

"The tea party was definitely a bonding moment for her and Uncle Mark," Hall said. "She thoroughly enjoyed clinking her tea cup with him and she continued laughing with him after the photo shoot. It was fun to watch!"
Can government deny Americans one of our most important rights, specifically protected by the Constitutions Bill of Rights, unless we can prove that we really, really need and deserve it? Thankfully, a federal appeals court has ruled in favor of our rights and against government overreach.

The 2-1 decision Monday came from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The court issued a permanent injunction stopping the local Washington, D.C., government from denying people the right to carry concealed handguns in the nations capital unless they could convince local officials they had a special and compelling need to protect themselves.

Though this ruling only affects Washington, D.C., it might have national consequences.

Just last month, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a case (Peruta v. California) that addressed this very question, arising out of a local policy in San Diego, Calif. California, Maryland, New Jersey and New York have concealed-carry rules similar to those struck down by the appeals court in Washington.

The Supreme Court can only hear a case if four justices agree to review it. Only Justices Neil Gorsuch and Clarence Thomas said the high court should hear the Peruta case. When the court denied a hearing, Justices Gorsuch and Thomas wrote an eight-page dissent so filled with passion that it doesnt seem a leap to imagine the late Justice Antonin Scalia whispering as a muse in their ears.

Justice Thomas wrote: Even if other Members of the Court do not agree that the Second Amendment likely protects a right to public carry, the time has come for the Court to answer this important question definitively.

Thomas then pointed out that in the county where petitioners reside, the sheriff has interpreted good cause to require an applicant to show that he has a particularized need, substantiated by documentary evidence, to carry a firearm for self-defense. The sheriffs policy specifies that concern for ones personal safety does not alone satisfy this requirement.

The dissenting justices were asking a critically important question regarding the San Diego case: Is there is a right to bear arms  as the Second Amendment to the Constitution clearly states  or isnt there?

Edward Peruta and the other plaintiffs in the San Diego case werent able to obtain concealed-carry handgun permits because they couldnt prove to the local sheriffs satisfaction that they needed to protect themselves. In fact, San Diego County Sheriff William Gore had barred almost everyone from exercising their constitutional right to bear arms.

The few people who received permits had to beg, plead and show imminent danger to their lives through restraining orders and other legal documentation before Sheriff Gore was compelled to grant a woman being stalked or some other unfortunate person their right to bear arms.

Now, imagine if a local sheriff or other official was permitted to treat other constitutionally protected rights this way.

Could a police officer search your home without a warrant if you dont have some state documentation showing you particularly need your Fourth Amendment rights?

Could a district attorney require you to testify against yourself unless you somehow proved to his or her satisfaction that you really, really need your Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination?

Would you need to justify your First Amendment right to freedom of religion by showing that exercising your particular religious beliefs was absolutely necessary?

This absurd treatment of the U.S. Bill of Rights obviously doesnt even pass the laugh test and would endanger our basic liberties.

Nevertheless, this is where some want to take government. While history clearly shows that the Bill of Rights was adopted to place limits on government, some on the left incorrectly believe the document actually gives government broad powers over the American people unless those powers are specifically denied.

I researched and wrote my new novel Kill Big Brother to alert the public to the dangers posed by this view, which threatens our freedom in the digital age.

In the new appeals court decision upholding Second Amendment rights in the nations capital, (Wrenn v. District of Columbia) two out of three judges got it right. The ruling was authored by Judge Thomas Beall Griffith, a 2005 George W. Bush appointee, and Senior Judge Stephen F. Williams, a 1986 Ronald Reagan appointee.

In the majority opinion, Judge Griffith wrote: At the Second Amendments core lies the right of responsible citizens to carry firearms for personal self-defense beyond the home, subject to longstanding restrictions. The Districts good-reason law is necessarily a total ban on exercises of that constitutional right for most D.C. residents. Thats enough to sink this law under (the 2008 U.S. Supreme Courts Heller ruling).
During the past two weeks, President Donald Trump has made no secret of his unhappiness at the management of the Department of Justice under Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Actually, Trump seems most agitated at the growing parts of the DOJ that are not under Sessions' management.

He is also angry that the trail of the well-known evidence of the crimes of his former opponent Hillary Clinton seems to have been vacated by the DOJ.

How is it that parts of the DOJ cannot be controlled by the attorney general, whom Trump appointed to run the DOJ? And with a mountain of evidence of Clinton's espionage -- her failure to safeguard state secrets, crimes far more treacherous than those alleged against Trump's campaign -- why has she not been prosecuted?

Here is the back story.

Shortly before he left office, President Barack Obama quietly changed a DOJ regulation so as to permit any federal intelligence agency -- there are 16 of them that the federal government acknowledges -- that lawfully possesses raw intelligence data to share it with any one or more of the other intelligence agencies. For generations, this had been prohibited.

Raw intelligence data is the untouched fruit of government surveillance, such as copies of emails, text messages and fiber-optic data, as well as digital copies of telephone conversations. We know today that -- notwithstanding the Constitution, federal statutes and federal judicial rulings -- the National Security Agency captures all communications into, out of and within the United States of every person and entity in the U.S., in real time, 24/7/365.

Among the raw data captured and shared with politicians and the press (such sharing can often be a felony) were transcripts of a series of telephone conversations between Trump's first national security adviser, former Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, and then-Russian Ambassador to the U.S. Sergey Kislyak.

When portions of those transcripts were revealed to the press, it appeared that then-FBI Director James Comey thought there may have been a relationship between the Trump presidential campaign and the Russian government worth investigating. The FBI was also aware of British and NSA surveillance of the Trump campaign going back to the summer of 2015, selected portions of which had been made available to it.

When Sessions became attorney general and learned whatever it is that the FBI learned about the Russians, he concluded that he might become a reluctant witness in the FBI investigation of the Russians because he had been involved in the management of the Trump campaign. Fearing this conflict and rejecting the toughness demanded of his office, Sessions recused himself from the management of all DOJ matters involving the Russians. Then Rod Rosenstein, the deputy attorney general, overreacted and appointed former FBI Director Robert Mueller as an independent counsel to investigate the Russians and all related matters.

Thus was born a now growing part of the DOJ, which is lawfully independent of the president and which has challenged him. On the very day the president warned Mueller to steer clear of investigating Trump's businesses, Mueller subpoenaed many of their banks' records.

Shortly before all of this took place, Trump fired Comey because in July 2016, he had dropped the ball by declining to recommend the prosecution of Clinton for destroying 30,000 government emails and for failing to safeguard the secrets contained in the thousands of emails she failed to destroy. Trump was very critical of Comey for usurping the role of the DOJ itself and announcing publicly that Clinton would not be prosecuted -- a decision and an announcement that were not Comey's to make.

At this writing, Sessions is still the attorney general of the United States. Were he to be replaced with an attorney general who has not recused himself from the most significant DOJ investigation since Watergate, there would be no need for an independent counsel.

Whether Sessions stays or goes, the attorney general should not feel bound by Comey's decision to let Clinton go. He should put the evidence of her crimes before a fresh team of prosecutors and instruct them to present it to a grand jury for indictment.

And he should also identify and indict those in the Obama administration who started this mess with their leaks of raw intelligence data. I have condemned universal surveillance since we first learned of it in 2005. Now we know how horrific the unlawful political use of it can be.

The president is frustrated because he wants to do what he was elected to do. Instead, the DOJ's lethargy and the independent counsel's zeal have him at bay.

I have argued in this column and elsewhere that a fair reading of the Constitution and a reasonable understanding of the separation of powers militate in favor of the doctrine of the unitary executive. That doctrine, which was well-accepted by the Framers, states succinctly that when it comes to the executive branch of the federal government, since only the president is accountable to the voters, only he can run the executive branch. The doctrine further articulates that since the consent of the governed is the base line for the government's moral legitimacy, we should not have agents in the government to whom the voters have never given consent.

Look for a break in the dark clouds soon.
In an exclusive interview with Fox News' "Tucker Carlson Tonight" Wednesday, Vice President Mike Pence touted President Trump's "candor" in airing his frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

"I know the Washington way is to talk behind people's backs. But that's not President Donald Trump's approach," Pence told Fox News' Tucker Carlson. "One of the great things about this president is you always know where you stand ... I think one of the president's virtues is his candor."

Trump has repeatedly vented this week about Sessions' self-recusal from the investigation into Russian activities during the 2016 presidential campaign in a series of media interviews as well as on his Twitter account. At one point Monday, Trump referred to Sessions in a Twitter post as "our beleagured A.G."

Trump continued the onslaught Wednesday with a tweet wondering why Sessions didn't "replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe," who succeeded James Comey after Trump fired him May 9.

Pence acknowledged that Trump was "disappointed" in Sessions' recusal, saying "there's no attempt to hide his feelings and his expressed disappointment here is very sincere." But he also said that Trump's frustration "doesn't mean that we don't recognize the good work the Justice Department has been doing under the attorney general's leadership."

Pence refused to speculate on Sessions' future in the administration, saying only "we'll see what happens in the future."

A source told Fox News earlier this week that Sessions' chief of staff, Jody Hunt, recently informed White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus that the attorney general had no intention of resigning. Separately, Department of Justice officials have told Fox News that Sessions is in "good spirits."

Late Tuesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted that the committee would not consider a replacement for Sessions this year if the attorney general was fired or resigned.

Fox News also has learned that Sessions is planning to announce several criminal leak investigations after a series of news reports that have publicized sensitive intelligence material.

Fox News' Jake Gibson contributed to this report.
The stench is the first thing you notice.

The smell of Brooklyns Gowanus Canal is a mix of raw sewage, industrial chemicals and stagnant salt water that assaults the nostrils and  especially for anyone visiting the area on a full stomach  can be nausea-inducing. On certain hot and humid summer afternoons, the stench is so pervasive that it can be detected blocks away.

Its always been a smelly mess, its disgusting, August Garbellotto, a 77-year-old Brooklyn resident who has lived his entire life within walking distance of the canal, told Fox News. Some of the things you flush away go in there.

The 1.8-mile-long canal, which since 1850 has been a dumping ground for the waste and heavy metals generated by nearby gas plants, chemical plants, tanneries and other industries  is one of the nations most seriously contaminated bodies of water and has led the Environmental Protection Agency in 2010 to declare the waterway a Superfund site.

Since then, however, the cleanup process has progressed at a glacial pace as the EPA fights with the city of New York and the companies responsible for some of the environmental damage. So far dredgers have removed some old tires and boat parts from the canal and there are plans to start scooping out the toxic sludge known as black mayonnaise from the canals bottom sometime in the next two years, but sewage still continues to flow into the water and locals are increasingly concerned about the health risks of living so close to the site.

The Gowanus Canal is one of the most densely populated toxic waste sites in the entire country, Joseph Alexiou, the author of Gowanus: Brooklyns Curious Canal, told Fox News. In the immediate neighborhood there are approximately 30,000 to 40,000 people here.

The canal and the hundreds of other Superfund sites that have languished for years amid government red tape have become the major focus of EPA Administrator Scott Pruitts back to basics approach to the agency that he outlined in April during a visit to a Pennsylvania coal mine.

Whats very important in my estimation is that we look at what this agency does and that we actually show tremendous progress and meaningful progress with respect to those Superfund sites across the country, Pruitt told Fox News in an interview at EPA headquarters. To reenergize that focus, to get leadership in place to focus on real progress is something that I think the American citizens deserve.

Superfund sites were first established by Congress in 1980 in part as a response to large-scale environmental pollution disasters like the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, N.Y., and the Valley of the Drums toxic waste site near Louisville, Ky. Since then, the number of sites designated by the federal government has ballooned to more than 1,300 despite Congress allocating about $1.26 billion of general revenue to the program each year from 2000 to 2015.

According to a study conducted by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, the number of Superfund cleanups completed each year has decreased from 88 in 1997 to just eight in 2014.

Labeling himself as an EPA originalist, Pruitt wants to narrow the focus of the agencys work to what he sees as its original mission. That means focusing efforts at Superfund, Brownfield and other polluted sites while cutting back numerous Obama-era regulations aimed at curbing climate change and allow for greater economic growth and engagement on the state level.

This is a matter of focus and priority, Pruitt said. Its a matter of saying that its unacceptable for bureaucrats in Washington D.C. to let these sites languish. This is a call to really do something about the leadership to serve Americans interest across the country.

To that end, Pruitt established the Superfund Task Force in May to map a new direction for the decades-old program. Earlier this week, Pruitt signed a directive on 11 specific actions that the EPA should implement to hasten the pace of cleanup at Superfund sites.

Pruitts call to speed up the Superfund process has generally been met with positive reviews  no small feat for an EPA administrator maligned by many for his climate change skepticism and close ties to oil and gas heavyweights.

Whats important is that the environmental impact is properly monitored, Mark Templeton, the director of the Abrams Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Chicago Law School, told Fox News. The Superfund process has been very slow, so it needs to be sped up but it also needs to be done safely.

But there is still a concern that a rush to check off sites on the ever-expanding list could lead to shoddy work at best and, at worst, cause more environmental harm than good.

Superfund Stats

Superfund sites were first established by Congress in 1980 in part as a response to largescale environmental pollution disasters like the Love Canal in Niagara Falls, New York and the Valley of the Drums toxic waste site near Louisville, Kentucky.

The number of sites designated by the federal government has ballooned to more than 1,300 despite Congress allocating about $1.26 billion of general revenue to the program each year from 2000 to 2015.

According to a study conducted by the Center for Health, Environment and Justice, the number of Superfund cleanups completed each year has decreased from 88 in 1997 to just 8 in 2014.

That concern is magnified by Pruitts own record prior to taking the helm at the agency. During his tenure as the Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt sued the EPA more than a dozen time and also coordinated with major oil and gas producers, electric utilities and political groups with ties to the libertarian billionaires the Koch brothers to roll back environmental regulations. In his first few months at the EPA, he was instrumental in convincing President Donald Trump to pull out of the Paris Climate Agreement and recently challenged climate scientists to prove the threat of global warming.

Many skeptics of Pruitt argue that the scope of the EPA has expanded since its formation in 1970 and it should now tackle issues like climate change alongside environmental cleanups.

I dont think it has to be an either-or, nor should it be, Christine Todd Whitman, former President George W. Bushs first EPA administrator, told Politico. Superfund is not the only issue for human health. Water pollution is a huge issue and very important and you need to work on it, but its not the only issue. Air is an issue too. Even if you dont want to believe in climate change, you've got to believe that carbon and mercury are not good for you.

When questioned about Whitmans comments, Pruitt said that focusing on Superfund sites was not about ignoring air or water quality, but about making progress on projects that can be completed. Pruitt argued that the Obama administration left many projects untouched and it was his job to tackle those issues.

Were moving forward with a positive agenda, setting clear metrics and objectives and thats far different than what the last administration did, Pruitt added. When I came in, there were 700 chemicals that were just waiting there for someone to make a decision on. Guess what, that backlog of chemicals is going to be gone by next month.

One of those issues Pruitt wants to tackle is the former USS Lead Superfund site in East Chicago, Ill.

Located just across the state line from Chicago and along the shores of Lake Michigan, the site of the former lead smelter has left dangerously high levels of lead and arsenic in the soil of nearby low-income neighborhoods.

Residents in East Chicago say they are particularly concerned with the safety of their drinking water, especially in light of the crisis in Flint, Michigan and want to be kept up-to-date on any of the developments at a Superfund site that has been on the EPAs worst contaminated list since 2009.

There is also a simmering anger in East Chicago that despite Pruitt making the site appear to be one if his top priorities, the EPA has stalled its crackdown on Indiana Harbor Coke  the company that continues to spew out illegal-amounts of lead that caused the area to gain Superfund status in the first place.

Pruitt promised that the EPA would institute better communication programs as the cleanup continues in the town and plans to take a more hands-on approach in regards to the oversight of the project.

Progress is being made there by ensuring there is safe drinking water through filters and making sure that lead is being addressed in the soil, Pruitt said. The objective is to finalize the plan, finalize whats actually going to be necessary to cleanup [the site].

Perhaps more than the concerns of speeding up the cleanup efforts or the shift away from battling climate change, Pruitts critics wonder where he plans to get the money to follow through on his back to basics projects given that the Trump administration has proposed cutting the agencys budget.

One White House budget proposal that the EPA wanted aims to reduce EPA funding by more than 31 percent  eliminating several regional programs, nearly halving categorical grants and slashing funding to the Superfund program

This isnt a budget  its a road map for the President, EPA Administrator Pruitt and polluters to see that millions of Americans drink dirtier water, breathe more polluted air and dont have enough nutritious food to lead healthy lives, Ken Cook, president of the Environmental Working Group, said in a statement back in May. With each cut in EPA funding, each regulatory rollback, each special favor for polluters, it becomes more clear that for President Trump, public health protection is not a priority, but a target.

The House Appropriations Committee approved last week a spending bill that would begin the process of cutting the EPA budget, but also keep intact vital environmental programs. While the bill cuts the EPA's budget by $528 million for fiscal 2018, it is still far less than Trump had proposed.

Pruitt told detractors that the federal budget hasnt kept Superfund sites from getting cleaned up because 60 percent of our portfolio approximately of Superfund sites is funded through private parties. The EPA administrator added that he will take the same approach against the companies responsible for the environmental damage that he took toward the agency when he was Oklahoma Attorney General hell take them to court.

You go to them and say look, this is what the remediation is, heres the timeline. Youre responsible for paying for it and youre going to pay for it, Pruitt said. If they say no, youre going to enforce it.

In the case of the Gowanus Canal, the two biggest Potentially Responsible Parties  entities accountable for the environmental damage  are the city of New York itself and utility company National Grid. The city has already committed $80 million toward that project and there is an additional $735 million for it in the 10-year capital plan, but National Grid said it plans to raise monthly heating bills in the Big Apple to help cover its share of cleanup costs.

Despite the costs of the cleanup being covered, New York City lawmakers say that the EPA budget cuts could hinder the effort. The cuts could see 3,500 EPA employees laid off from their jobs and the shuttering of many regional programs.

"We don't need the federal government money to actually clean the canal, the polluters pay to clean the canal, but of course that only works if the EPA can administer the program," New York City Councilman Brad Lander told DNA Info. "[EPA staff] has to be able to get the ball across the finish line  and get the cleanup underway."
The Trump administration is pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites in a bid to test the strength of the nuclear deal that President Donald Trump desperately wants to cancel, senior U.S. officials said.

The inspections are one element of what is designed to be a more aggressive approach to preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. While the Trump administration seeks to police the existing deal more strictly, it is also working to fix what Trump's aides have called "serious flaws" in the landmark deal that -- if not resolved quickly -- will likely lead Trump to pull out.

That effort also includes discussions with European countries to negotiate a follow-up agreement to prevent Iran from resuming nuclear development after the deal's restrictions expire in about a decade, the officials said. The officials weren't authorized to discuss the efforts publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The inspections requests, which Iran would likely resist, could play heavily into Trump's much-anticipated decision about whether to stick with the deal he's long derided.

If Iran refuses inspections, Trump would finally have a solid basis to say Iran is breaching the deal, setting up Tehran to take most of the blame if the agreement collapses. If Iran agrees to inspections, those in Trump's administration who want to preserve the deal would be emboldened to argue it's advancing U.S. national security effectively.

The campaign gained fresh urgency this month following a dramatic clash within the administration about whether to certify Iran's compliance, as is required every 90 days.

Trump was eager to declare Tehran in violation, even though the International Atomic Energy Agency that monitors compliance says its infractions are minor. At the urging of top Cabinet members, Trump begrudgingly agreed at the last-minute to avoid a showdown for another three months -- but only with assurances the U.S. would increase pressure on Iran to test whether the deal is truly capable of addressing its nuclear ambitions and other troublesome activities.

Trump faces another certification deadline in three months, and it's far from clear that either new inspections or any "fixes" to address whether his concerns will be in place by then. Trump told the Wall Street Journal this week he expects to say Iran isn't complying, setting a high bar for Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and other aides to persuade him otherwise.

"If it was up to me, I would have had them noncompliant 180 days ago," Trump said.

To that end, the administration is seeking to force Iran to let in IAEA inspectors to military sites where the U.S. intelligence community believes the Islamic Republic may be cheating on the deal, several officials said. Access to Iran's military sites was one of the most contentious issues in the 2015 deal, in which Tehran agreed to roll back its nuclear program in exchange for billions of dollars in sanctions relief.

Last week in Vienna, where the International Atomic Energy Agency is based, Undersecretary of State Thomas Shannon floated the proposal to the European members of the Joint Commission that oversees the deal, one official said. Britain, France and Germany joined the U.S., Russia, China and the European Union two years ago in brokering the deal with Iran.

To force inspections of new sites in Iran, the U.S. would need to enlist the support of the IAEA and a majority of the countries in the deal. But the U.S. has run into early resistance over concerns it has yet to produce a "smoking gun" -- compelling evidence of illicit activity at a military site that the IAEA could use to justify inspections, officials said.

Among the concerns about a rush toward inspections is that if they fail to uncover evidence of violations, it would undermine the IAEA's credibility and its ability to demand future inspections. So the U.S. is working to produce foolproof intelligence about illicit activity, officials said. The officials declined to describe the intelligence activities or the Iranian sites the U.S. believes are involved.

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, alluded to the strategy during an event hosted Wednesday by The Washington Post. Corker said the U.S. was trying to "radically enforce" the deal by asking for access to "various facilities" in Iran.

"If they don't let us in, boom," Corker said. "You want the breakup of this deal to be about Iran. You don't want it to be about the U.S., because we want our allies with us."

As a candidate, Trump threatened to rip up the deal that President Barack Obama brokered. As president, Trump has yet to take that step, as his administration finishes a broader Iran policy review expected to conclude in August.

The other major step to try and address what Trump has deemed flaws in the deal involves ensuring that Iran can't revert to old behavior once the limitations on its program "sunset" over the next decade-plus. The State Department said Trump has directed his administration to "work with allies to explore options" for dealing with that and other shortcomings. Talks are under way with the European countries about a supplemental deal, though it's unclear how Iran could be persuaded to sign on.

The deal's provisions for inspections of military facilities, or "undeclared sites," involve a complex process with plenty of opportunities for Iran to stall. Tehran can propose alternatives to on-site inspections, or reject the request, which would trigger a 24-day process for the Joint Commission countries to override the rejection.

That could drag on for months. And under ambiguities built into the deal, it's unclear whether Iran must allow IAEA inspectors into military sites, or whether the Iranians can take their own environmental samples and send them to the IAEA for testing, as was allowed under a 2015 side agreement that let Iran use its own experts to inspect the Parchin military site.

Even if Trump declares Iran in violation of the deal -- a move that would invigorate his conservative base -- he could still leave Iran's sanctions relief in place.

American businesses are eager for the deal to survive so they can pursue lucrative opportunities in Iran. The aviation industry recently signed billions of dollars of contracts to sell passenger plans to Iranian airlines, including a $16.6 billion deal for Boeing.
Lawmakers in Washington are nearing an agreement on funding in an effort to save a nearly bankrupt Department of Veterans Affairs program.

The VA announced Wednesday that lawmakers in both the House and Senate have come to terms in keeping the Veterans Choice program funded, Stars and Stripes reported.

The new legislation earmarks $2.1 billion for the Choice program, which permits veterans to receive health care from private medical facilities. The bill would also invest in the leases of 28 VA facilities and include provisions that would make it easier for the VA to hire medical personnel, according to a statement released Wednesday. Current department data show there are more than 45,000 vacancies in the VA health care system.

I urge the House of Representatives to act swiftly, so this legislation can be considered in the Senate before the August recess begins, VA Secretary David Shulkin said in the statement.

While there is a consensus among lawmakers on Capitol Hill, final approval has not been reached.

Tiffany Haverly, spokeswoman for Rep. Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday that a firm agreement hadnt been reached but negotiations are ongoing.

The Veterans Choice program will run out of money by mid-August and lawmakers in the House have only two days left before their August recess to approve the solution. A lack of funding could cause thousands of lapses in medical care for vets.

Last week, Roe and Rep. Tim Walz, D-Minn., worked on a proposal to fund the Choice program while investing more money in the VA and establishing a nationwide review of the departments infrastructure.

Negotiations stalled after they presented the idea to veterans groups and members of their committee. The proposal included funding for VA personnel vacancies and 27 leases for more VA clinics and research locations, which the eight veterans groups said the VA urgently needs.

On Monday, Roe said he wanted to pass only the urgently needed funding for the Choice program and work on solutions for the other issues later, according to Stars and Stripes. But Walz said the group was close to a compromise and should wait to pass legislation that had bipartisan support in the House and Senate and that veterans groups could rally behind.

After Mondays vote, the veterans groups -- AMVETS, Disabled American Veterans, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Military Officers Association of America, Military Order of the Purple Heart, Veterans of Foreign Wars and Vietnam Veterans of America  released a joint statement.

With tonights vote result, there is now a new opening for the House and Senate to work together in a bipartisan, bicameral manner to rapidly reach agreement to continue funding the Choice program uninterrupted in the short term  without forcing veterans themselves to pay for it  while also making long overdue and urgent investments in VA health care capacity for the long term, reads the joint statement.

Click here for more from Stars and Stripes
Conservative watchdog organization Judicial Watch has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Justice asking for the metadata of the memos written by former FBI Director James Comey about his meetings with President Trump.

We want to figure out when Mr. Comey wrote or edited his memos and how his records were created and managed by the FBI, Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said Thursday.

The group said the lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia on Thursday. Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act request for the information last month but said the Department of Justice didn't respond.

Comey, who was fired as FBI director by Trump in May, acknowledged during a congressional hearing last month that he wrote memos after his meetings with the president. He also admitting having a friend, Columbia Law professor Daniel Richman, leak information from the memos to the media after his firing.

Comey was fired by the president amid tensions over the Russia investigation.

Judicial Watch said they are also asking for records about Comeys FBI-issued laptop computer or other electronic devices and records about how Comey managed his records while he was FBI director.

The group said it is pursuing numerous other Freedom of Information Act lawsuits related to the surveillance, unmasking, and illegal leaking targeting President Trump and his associates during the FBIs investigation of potential Russian involvement in the 2016 presidential election.
The Department of Defense declared Thursday there will be no modifications to the current policy on transgender service members for now, a day after President Trump issued a surprise three-tweet directive banning those troops from the military.

In a memo to service chiefs and commanders, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr. declared no changes to the policy until "the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance" -- which has not yet happened.

In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, Dunford said in the memo obtained by Fox News. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions.

Dunfords statement suggests Defense Secretary James Mattis wasnt given any significant heads up on the policy change. Mattis was on vacation when Trump tweeted. Mattis has also been publicly silent amid questions about Trumps announced ban, though the White House said Wednesday that Mattis was "immediately informed" of Trump's decision.

Dunford himself was not aware that Trump was going to announce the ban, a U.S. official said.

Trumps Wednesday morning tweets reversed an Obama-era policy of allowing transgender troops to serve. Trump wrote:

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow...Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming...victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you."

TRUMP ANNOUNCES BAN ON TRANSGENDER INDIVIDUALS SERVING IN THE MILITARY

Trump did not mention Mattis, the retired Marine general who recently told the service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders seemed unable to provide basic details on the rollout of the change on Wednesday, saying the implementation would be worked out "lawfully."

Civil liberty and LGBTQ groups quickly condemned Trumps decision but were left in limbo trying to decipher the tweets. Was Trump enacting new policy or simply saying what hed like to see happen?

If youre a transgender service member anywhere in the world, you are very nervous about what youre hearing, former Army Chief Eric Fanning, the first openly gay head of a U.S. military service, told NBC's "Today" show. Now youre probably very confused and very frightened about what the future holds for you, when your commander in chief tweets a message like this.

GLAAD President Sarah Kate Ellis said the president is calling for a witch hunt & purge of 15,000 trans military Americans.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly in the military since last year, when former Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the prior ban. Some lawmakers including Reps. Steve King, R-Iowa, and Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., backed the president's move.

Sanders said Trump made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

But experts told Fox News that from a legal standpoint, Trumps tweets for now have all the merit of a public service announcement.

In the short term, nothing changes until a policy is drafted or some type of formal modification is made to military regulations. Lawsuits cannot be filed, and transgender troops cannot be yanked out of service or denied health care benefits.

Until formal guidance is issued, nothing is going to change, one U.S. defense official told Fox News, adding that tweets dont count as formal guidance.

Separately, the Navy announced it would continue to provide transgender individuals medical treatment.

The Pentagon has not released data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Former President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve, only under the controversial "don't ask, don't tell" policy. In December 2015, former President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women.

Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step. Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they meet normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces."

Fox News' Lucas Tomlinson and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The company behind an infamous anti-Trump dossier also worked "on behalf of the Russian government" to fight U.S. sanctions that had enraged Moscow's elite, a key witness testified to a Senate committee on Thursday.

The testimony of Bill Browder, the CEO and co-founder of Hermitage Capital, shed new light on the dealings of the controversial company Fusion GPS -- which was tied to the dossier of spurious claims about President Trump. According to Browder, the company also conducted a "smear campaign" against him in a bid to fight Russia sanctions.

Further adding to the complexity, Browder also testified that this campaign was orchestrated by Natalia Veselnitskaya  the same Russian attorney who sought the highly scrutinized Trump Tower meeting last June with Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner and then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort.

"They were talking about a repeal of sanctions so that Russian torturers and murderers could keep their money in America," he testified.

The dramatic testimony had been blocked a day earlier by Senate Democrats, as part of delay tactics executed in protest of ObamaCare repeal efforts.

But Browder's comments could raise problems for both pro- and anti-Trump camps.

On one hand, his written testimony detailed how the Russian lawyer with whom Trump's eldest son met was involved with the same company linked to the shady dossier smearing the now-president. Trump Jr. already has faced intense bipartisan criticism for taking that meeting, apparently after being told the lawyer had dirt on Hillary Clinton

But more broadly, Browder's testimony skewered the Fusion firm itself, along with co-founder Glenn Simpson.

He said the Russian lawyer, working through an intermediary, hired Simpson to "conduct a smear campaign against me and Sergei Magnitsky in advance of a congressional hearing on the Global Magnitsky Act."

RUSSIA PROBE: DEMOCRATS BLOCK KEY WITNESS AGAINST SHADOWY FIRM FUSION GPS

Browder had hired the late Sergei Magnitsky to uncover details of massive financial fraud in Russia involving corrupt Russian government officials. Magnitsky was imprisoned and ultimately beaten to death by Russian officers in Moscow. In the wake of his death, the U.S. passed a law in his name that brought sanctions against Russian oligarchs suspected of money laundering.

Browder described the tactics Simpson allegedly used to discredit him and Magnitsky.

Glenn Simpson was pitching a story to journalists that Magnitsky had not been murdered, but died of natural causes; that he wasnt a whistleblower, but a criminal, and that the story I told Congress was incorrect, Browder said Thursday, adding they were unsuccessful for the most part in getting that story written.

Left unclear in Thursday's hearing was what connection there might have been between the Russians and the anti-Trump dossier commissioned by Fusion GPS.

Browder was questioned by multiple senators Thursday on that issue -- but said he was a bystander in regard to the dossier and the crude allegations against Trump, as he had only read reports in the press.

What Im familiar with is Fusion GPS and Glenn Simpsons role working on behalf of the Russian government to overturn the Magnitsky Act, Browder said. The steps they took there compromised their integrity.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., originally had wanted to hear testimony this week from Simpson as well as Trump Jr. and Manafort. All three witnesses have since reached arrangements to interview with the committee, for now, in private.

A human rights advocate with the Human Rights Foundation, Thor Halvorssen, also submitted documents for the record with regard to Fusion GPS, though he did not appear at the hearing. He told Fox News the company is notorious for running smear campaigns in return for large enough retainers.

Its the sort of thing they specialize inmainstreaming false smears, allegations that are so salacious and over the top that people assume they must be true, Halvorssen told Fox News.

Browders testimony was rich with knowledge of the Russian government and corruption within, giving details of Veselnitskayas relationship with Russian President Vladimir Putin and other officials.

Browder said that Veselnitskaya had worked for the FSB, which is a successor to the KGB.

MYSTERY SOLVED? TIMELINE SHOWS HOW RUSSIAN LAWYER GOT INTO US FOR TRUMP JR. MEETING

There is no such thing as a former KGB agent, Browder said, adding that there was also no such thing as a former intelligence officer, mentioning Rinat Akhmetshin who attended the Trump Tower meeting with Veselnitskaya. Its like Hotel Californiayou can check out any time you like, but never leave.

Later Thursday, Fusion GPS responded to the allegations raised in the hearing.

Fusion GPS has complied with the law. It is a matter of public record that Fusion GPS worked for and under the supervision of an American law firm to provide support for civil litigation in New York. It was not required to register under FARA, and it did not spread false information about William Browder or Sergei Magnitsky," the company said in a statement to Fox News. What is clear is that the president and his allies are desperately trying to smear Fusion GPS because it investigated Donald Trump's ties to Russia. They have pulled out all the stops, including this false allegation about FARA."

The statement said: "At todays hearing, not even Mr. Browder could understand or adopt the Republicans' nonsensical argument that Russia had an agent investigate and expose the Russians influence on the election. Fusion GPS is cooperating with Congress and looks forward to sharing the truth.

The June 9, 2016 meeting was billed to the Trump campaign as one to discuss Russian adoption and potentially get dirt on Clinton, but Browder said adoption was code for talking about the Magnitsky Act.

EIGHTH PARTICIPANT IN TRUMP TOWER MEETING IDENTIFIED

Go and ask the possible future president of the United States to repeal a major piece of human rights legislation. What were they willing to offer in return? I dont know. And whether that offer made sense to the other side, I dont know, he said.

But Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., seemingly defended the Trump campaign saying, I dont think that in June 2016 they knew adoption meant Magnitsky Act. Graham asked Browder about the Russian tactics and their ability to play both sides against the middle.

I am not certain that they wouldnt have made the same attempt with the Democratic candidate if there was any opening, or receptivity therethey are nonpartisan, Browder said. The Russians would try to bribe and blackmail anybody.

Fox News' Catherine Herridge and Pamela K. Browne contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Do you have a problem  trouble at work, relationship stress, or just some really hard math homework  that you can't resolve on your own? You should turn to the man who is fixing problems for more than 300 million Americans.

You should ask Jared Kushner.

President Trump does it. When he needed somebody to negotiate peace in the Middle East, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to be his point man with China and with Mexico, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to solve the opioid epidemic, reform veterans' care, overhaul the criminal justice system and reinvent the entire federal government, Trump again turned to Kushner. Even when he just needed somebody to strap a flak jacket over his navy blazer and fly off to Baghdad, Kushner was the one he asked.

The president's 36-year-old son-in-law has done all this and more, even while keeping up with a demanding family life since the election: a beach trip to Hawaii, a ski trip to Aspen, another ski trip to British Columbia. Clearly he has time to help you, too. Kid has a fever? Rattle in the transmission? Weeds in the lawn? Ring around the collar? Ask JK.

But what happens when Jared Kushner has a problem? What happens if  and I'm speaking strictly hypothetically here  Kushner were to neglect to mention in his security-clearance forms that he had had more than 100 meetings with foreigners, including some Russians? Sure, you can ask him. But he won't have a good answer.

The seen-but-not-heard Kushner met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday (at a session closed to the public, naturally). He explained his repeated lapses  he had to amend one disclosure form three times  by saying, essentially, that he was new to politics and so terribly busy that he couldn't keep up with everything. And he used the hoariest excuse of all: He blamed his assistant.

"My experience was in business, not politics," he said in a written statement, and described himself as overwhelmed. "I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States," he wrote, and "I could not be responsive to everyone." He explained that he just didn't know he was sitting down with people promising dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government because it "was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one."

Kushner explained how a full accounting of his foreign contacts fell through the cracks "amid the scramble of finalizing the unwinding of my involvement from my company, moving my family to Washington, completing the paper work to divest assets and resign from my outside positions and complete my security and financial disclosure forms." A "miscommunication" led his assistant to file his form prematurely.

That's the trouble with Kushner's defense in the Russia imbroglio. He's essentially arguing that he isn't corrupt  he's just in over his head. He didn't really know what he was doing, and he was too busy. Coming from the man charged with handling everything from Middle East peace to opioids, this isn't reassuring.

This inexperience defense is consistent with Kushner's filing Friday showing that he had previously neglected to disclose more than 70 assets, as required, including an art collection (with wife Ivanka Trump) worth as much as $25 million. The Middle East peace negotiator also did not disclose that he held Israeli government bonds.

Yet Kushner's father-in-law entrusted him with what is arguably the most difficult portfolio ever to be assigned to a White House aide. His previous experience: running his family real estate business, which he took over in 2005 when his father was convicted of tax evasion. The next year, Kushner bought a $1.8 billion Manhattan building, near the top of the real estate cycle, and his family has been trying to find investors to keep the project afloat.

So now Kushner is defending himself by playing the ingenue: "All of these were tasks that I had never performed on a campaign previously," and "I could not even remember the name of the Russian ambassador." Kushner, arguing that he didn't seek to create a "back channel" with Russia, explained that he merely asked the Russian ambassador if he "had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use."

The defense leaves one big question unanswered: Why is a man of such inexperience in charge of so much?

Don't ask.
The attorney for a House IT staffer arrested this week as he was trying to leave the country fired back at the feds in an interview with Fox News, while also speculating that the bank fraud count he faces could be a placeholder for more charges.

Imran Awan -- a former IT aide for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who had kept him on the payroll for months -- has been at the center of a congressional computer equipment scandal. Law enforcement officials from multiple federal agencies were involved in his arrest at Dulles International Airport on Monday, as he was set to fly to Pakistan.

But attorney Christopher Gowen told Fox News that federal authorities have no evidence of misconduct by Awan relating to his IT duties.

Awan, 37, of Virginia, pleaded not guilty on Tuesday to the single count of bank fraud, which focused on loan application filings he and his wife made and was unrelated to computer services he and his family performed for House Democrats.

FEDS ARREST IT STAFFER TRYING TO LEAVE COUNTRY

Gowen speculated the charge could be a placeholder designed to secure Awans arrest, with the intention that it will be supplemented, or supplanted, by additional bank fraud-related charges. But the attorney said six months of federal investigation into the IT work in the House had turned up nothing on procurement.

Law enforcement authorities for months have been looking into how Awan may have double-billed the House for equipment like computers, iPads, monitors, keyboards and routers.

The case nevertheless has put additional scrutiny on Wasserman Schultz, who kept Awan on staff for months even as relatives of Awan who worked for House Democrats were fired.

After Awan was arrested, Wasserman Schultz announced she had let him go.

"Mr. Awan previously served as a part-time employee but his services have been terminated. No charges, evidence or findings from the investigation have been formally shared with our office, so we cannot comment on them, spokesman David Damron said Tuesday in a statement.

The criminal complaint and affidavit said Awan had bought a ticket to fly Monday to Doha, Qatar, and then Lahore, Pakistan, with a return flight booked for early January.

But Gowen said Awan had bought that ticket two weeks ago after securing assurances that the government had no objections to, and was placing no restrictions on, his travel abroad.

A statement from the law firm, Gowen Rhoades Winograd & Silva, PLLC, also echoed some Democrats claims that the attention on Awan is tied to bias over his Pakistani ethnicity.

The attacks on Mr. Awan and his family began as part of a frenzy of anti-Muslim bigotry in the literal heart of our democracy, the House of Representatives, the statement said.  Now we have the Justice Department showing up with a complaint about disclosures on a modest real estate matter. To an extent, the situation speaks for itself.

The statement said Awan, in buying the plane ticket, was trying to see his family and not trying to flee the country. [W]e are confident that Mr. Awan will soon be able to clear his name, the statement said.

Fox News James Rosen and Chad Pergram contributed to this report.
White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci vowed Wednesday to take a hard line against leaks from the West Wing, telling Fox News' "Hannity," "we're going to let people go if we have to."

"One of the big problems that Im discovering," said Scaramucci, who was named communications director Friday, which led to the resignation of press secretary Sean Spicer, "is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them.

"Im very proud to be reporting directly to the president so I can hermetically seal off the [communications] team from this sort of nonsense," Scaramucci added.

WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ASSISTANT PRESS SECRETARY MICHAEL SHORT RESIGNS

Scaramucci spoke to Fox News' Sean Hannity one day after the resignation of senior assistant press secretary Michael Short, who claimed he offered to step down of his own accord. Short's departure came as sources told Fox News that Republican National Committee officials who followed Spicer and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus to the White House feared for their jobs.

"We let somebody go yesterday, but Ive told people that if theres a civil war, and people are fighting internally, we have to dial that down," Scaramucci said. "I dont think you can let people go ... just for the sake of letting them go. I think we have to give them ... some level of amnesty to see if theyll stop and work together.

"But Ill move very quickly if they cannot do that, because I have the presidents authority to do so."

Earlier Wednesday evening, Scaramucci tweeted that he planned to contact the FBI and the Justice Department, claiming that his own financial disclosure information had been leaked. But the tweet was later deleted.

Scaramucci also claimed that some leaks from other executive agencies came from what he called "political holdovers from the Obama administration that want to put a hurt on the Trump administration." In response, he said he was planning to meet with communications people from those agencies in an effort to "curtail leaks on their side."

After Scaramucci appeared on "Hannity," Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores issued the following statement:

"We have seen an astonishing increase in the number of leaks of classified national security information in recent months. We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country. Like the Attorney General has said, 'whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail,' and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead."
Attorney General Jeff Sessions has admitted that President Trump's criticism over his recusal from the Russia investigation has been "kind of hurtful," but insists he will continue in the job.

"The President of the United States is a strong leader," Sessions told Fox News' Tucker Carlson in El Salvador. "He has had a lot of criticisms and hes steadfastly determined to get his job done, and he wants all of us to do our jobs and thats what I intend to do."

WATCH TUCKER CARLSON'S FULL INTERVIEW WITH ATTORNEY GENERAL JEFF SESSIONS AT 8 P.M. ET ON FOX NEWS CHANNEL

Trump has repeatedly slammed Sessions in media interviews and on Twitter over the attorney general's decision to recuse himself from the FBI's investigation into Russian activities during last year's election campaign. Sources have previously indicated to Fox News that Sessions will not resign over Trump's criticism.

Sessions was in El Salvador Thursday as part of a two-day trip meant to bolster cooperation with the Central American nation in the fight against the MS-13 street gang, which Sessions has described as a top security threat to the United States.
Tensions between White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci and Chief of Staff Reince Priebus escalated Thursday, after the new communications boss vowed overnight to contact investigators over what he called a felony leak of his financial information, and made a cryptic reference to Priebus.

"In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45, he tweeted, including Priebus handle.

The tweet followed a Politico report on the former Wall Street financier's financial holdings. Scaramucci has since deleted the tweet and denied reports that the vow was a message to Priebus.

Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45, he later tweeted, next to one such allegedly misleading report.

Scaramucci reiterated on CNN Thursday morning that he had mentioned Priebus in his original tweet because hes responsible for helping uncover leaks.

But he kept speculation alive about a deepening rift with Priebus by saying, If Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that."

Scaramucci made clear in the interview he and the chief of staff have odds and differences that might not go away.

When I said we were brothers from the podium  some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not, that will be up to the president, he said.

A senior administration official also suggested the tensions were real. One of the worst things you can do to President Trump is to show insecurity. [Attorney General Jeff] Sessions showed that. Reince has showed that," the official said.

The comments were the latest escalation in the war on leaks from the very top of the White House, now that Scaramucci has taken over the communications shop, reporting directly to President Trump.

SCARAMUCCI VOWS LEAK CRACKDOWN

In an interview with Fox News Hannity on Wednesday, he said, "we're going to let people go if we have to."

"One of the big problems that Im discovering is that senior people are really the guys doing the leaking and they ask junior people to leak for them, he said.

Following his appearance, Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores issued the following statement pledging to pursue these cases:

"We have seen an astonishing increase in the number of leaks of classified national security information in recent months. We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country. Like the Attorney General has said, 'whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail,' and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead."

The Politico report on Scaramuccis profits was based on a form described as publicly available upon request  so its unclear what about the dissemination of that information would constitute a felony, as Scaramucci initially claimed.

The report said the communications director stands to profit from his ownership stake in investment firm SkyBridge Capital and that he earned $4.9 million from that  on top of a salary worth roughly the same amount  between the beginning of January 2016 and June.

Fox News' Doug McKelway and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A top Middle East adviser to President Trump has been ousted from his job on the National Security Council amid fresh rumors of more White House shake-ups, Fox News has confirmed.

Derek Harvey, who served as special assistant to the president and senior director for the Middle East on the National Security Council, was relieved of his duties Thursday.

The Weekly Standard, which first reported Harveys firing, said Harvey was a key player in the administrations policies toward Iran, Syria and Iraq. Sources told the magazine Harvey was close to White House senior adviser Steve Bannon.



Harvey is a longtime intelligence professional with expertise in the Middle East. He previously worked as director of the Afghanistan-Pakistan Center for U.S. Central Command from 2009 to 2013, according to his LinkedIn page.

TENSIONS FLARE BETWEEN SCARAMUCCI, PRIEBUS AMID LEAK ALLEGATIONS



A statement from the National Security Council didn't cite the reasoning for the firing but said the administration is looking to install Harvey into a new position.

General McMaster greatly appreciates Derek Harveys service to his country as a career Army officer, where he served his country bravely in the field and played a crucial role in the successful surge in Iraq, and also for his service on Capitol Hill and in the Trump administration, NSC spokesman Michael Anton said in a statement. The administration is working with Colonel Harvey to identify positions in which his background and expertise can be best utilized.

Harvey on Thursday confirmed he is leaving the National Security Council and taking a new role, though he didn't say what the position will be. In a statement, Harvey said he is excited about the opportunities to advance American interests in the Middle East under President Trump's leadership.

Fox News Bret Baier and Kristin Brown contributed to this report.


President Donald Trump is donating his second-quarter salary to the Department of Education.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders says Trump chose to give the department $100,000. His first-quarter salary donation went to the Department of Interior.

"It's that time again, as many of you have probably noticed, for us to announce where the president will be donating his quarterly salary," Sanders said Wednesday during the daily White House press briefing. "This quarter the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education."

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos says the donation is being used to pay for a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) camp sponsored by the department.

As a candidate, Trump had promised not to take a salary if elected. But by law he must be paid, so he is donating the money. Taxpayers can write off such donations, potentially lowering their income taxes.

DeVos says she is grateful for the donation.

"The president is committed to our nations students, and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education," she said after receiving the check from Sanders during the briefing.

The Trump administration has also proposed a 13 percent cut to the Education Department's budget, slashing it by $9.2 billion.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.
One year ago today, then-candidate Donald Trump raised the issue of Russian election meddling in remarks that had critics crying treason and apparently landed him on the radar of the FBI.

It also became a subject that has dogged him relentlessly. In just three days this week, congressional investigators have spoken to his son, Donald Trump, Jr., his son-in-law, Jared Kushner and the former manager of his presidential campaign about Russian interference in the U.S. election.

On July 27, 2016, Trump was speaking to a crowd in Doral, Florida, when he said: "Russia, if you're listening, I hope you're able to find the 30,000 (Clinton) emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press."

Trump doubled down on Twitter later that day, writing "If Russia or any other country or person has Hillary Clinton's 33,000 illegally deleted emails, perhaps they should share them with the FBI!"

Trump was referring to emails from Hillary Clinton's time at the State Department that were found to have been deleted by Clinton's team after being deemed personal, and not work-related. Clinton's emails, and her use of a private server, had become a focal point in the investigations into both the Benghazi terror attacks and the cyberattack on the Democratic National Committee.

The FBI has suggested there was no cover-up attempt by Clinton, although some of those deleted emails were later found to be work related after being recovered by investigators. However, it was Trump's apparent invitation for someone else, namely Russia, to uncover those emails, that caught the attention of his critics and apparently the FBI.

Former CIA director Leon Panetta suggested Trump's remarks were "beyond the pale," and a "threat to our national security." William Inboden, who served on the NSC during the George W. Bush administration, told Politico that they were "tantamount to treason."

A spokesperson for then-Sen. Kelly Ayotte, R-N.H., responded to Trump's remarks by saying "its critical that all our political leaders focus on keeping our country's communications systems safe from hackers," especially considering Clinton's use of a personal email server.

Trump characterized his remarks at the time as "sarcastic." Asked about them more recently, then-White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer told reporters in June that Trump "was joking... we all know."

While the president claims he was joking, it appears federal investigators were taking his remarks seriously. A federal court filing from earlier this year seems to confirm the existence of FBI records pertaining to Trump's July 27 remarks.

The filing was a response to a FOIA request for "any and all records, including investigative records," relating specifically to Trump's July 27 remarks. In response to the request, the FBI suggests "releasing any responsive records (or portions thereof) "could reasonably be expected to interfere with enforcement proceedings."

Ryan Shapiro, one of the men behind the FOIA request and a PhD candidate at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, told The Guardian in May that he believes "The DoJ/FBIs latest filing makes plain that Donald Trumps campaign trail call for Russian hacking of Secretary Clintons emails is of investigative interest to the FBI.
A British crew discovered a chest inside wreckage of a German cargo ship -- and the chest may hold $130 million worth of Nazi gold, The Sun reported this week.

The purported find follows a number of other notable discoveries. Here are some that you should know about.

Florida family finds $1 million worth of treasure

In June 2015, the Schmitt family, together with a company named 1715 Fleet  Queens Jewels LLC, found $1 million in Spanish treasure off Fort Pierce, Florida Today reported. Eleven Spanish ships traveling to Havana, Cuba, sank in July 1715, when a hurricane took place.

More than 50 gold coins, along with 40 feet of gold chain and a coin known as a Tricentennial Royal that was created for Spain's King Philip V were discovered, the newspaper said.

The Schmitt family are subcontractors with 1715 Fleet  Queens Jewels LLC, and earlier found treasure in 2013, including 50 feet of gold chain, according to the report.

EXPERTS UNCOVER EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT JERUSALEM'S DESTRUCTION BY THE BABYLONIANS

The Esmeralda

Omans Ministry of Heritage & Culture (MHC) and the British company Blue Water Recoveries Ltd. announced in March 2016 that The Esmeralda, a ship linked to Portuguese explorer Vasco da Gama, had been found.

The ship, which was piloted by da Gamas uncle, Vicente Sodre, sank during a violent storm near al-Hallaniyah Island in the Indian Ocean in May 1503, killing everyone aboard.

The site was initially discovered in 1998, according to the MHC and Blue Water Recoveries press release. Starting in 2013, a team from Blue Water Recoveries and the MHC explored a site in the island's Ghubbat ar Rahib Bay. They later determined the debris found there came from the long-missing ship, one of two lost in the storm from da Gama's second voyage to India.

More than 2,800 artifacts were recovered, the release said, including a rare silver coin called an Indio - only two of which have been found.

EXPERTS HUNT FOR BIBLICAL TABERNACLE THAT HOUSED THE ARK OF THE COVENANT

Anchor belonging to Christopher Columbus ship

An anchor weighing 1,200 to 1,500 pounds was found underwater off of Turks and Caicos -- and may have come from a Christopher Columbus ship, it was reported earlier this year.

A treasure map created by a late NASA astronaut, who had spotted anomalies from space he thought could be sunken ships, was used to find the anchor by treasure seeker Darrell Miklos and his crew. The anchor was featured in the Discovery program Coopers Treasure this spring.

Miklos told Newsweek, As soon as I saw it, I knew what it was: an early 1500s anchor. I knew in my mind that we were onto something so historically significant, just by the first line of site.

Vicente Yanez Pinzon was captain of the Nina for Columbus 1492 expedition to the New World. A hurricane took place in July 1500 while his ships were around Turks and Caicos, and two of them were wrecked, Fox reported.

Chest of Nazi gold found in wreckage of SS Minden off of Iceland

A British crew found the chest in the SS Mindens post room, according to The Sun. It may hold as much as four tons of gold from South American banks that were on the way to Germany in 1939, the newspaper said. The ship left Brazil in September 1939.

Advanced Marine Services has reportedly asked the Icelandic government for permission to make a hole in SS Mindens hull and take the box out.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
An 8-inch-long marine worm that lives in the waters near Antarctica has an oval body ringed with shiny golden bristles and topped with a sharp-toothed maw. It somewhat resembles a decoration for the Christmas season  if holiday ornaments included bulbous, extendable throats tipped with pointy teeth.

The unusual creature is Eulagisca gigantea, and though it recently circulated online in photos that appeared on social media, it is more frequently found in the Southern Ocean waters, near Antarctica.

E. gigantea belongs to a class of marine worms called polychaetes, also known as bristle worms (their name means "many bristles" in Latin). The group's bristles can have a range of uses  swimming, crawling along the ocean floor, or even for defense, according to the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI). [In Photos: Weird Bristle Worm Calls Antarctica Home]

Little is known about the habits and biology of this peculiar worm, which was first discovered in 1939, the World Register of Marine Species reported. What appears to be a "head" in images is actually a retractable pharynx that is generally housed within its body, as in other polychaete marine worms. When the animal feeds, this section of its throat  tipped by its jaws  extends outward, to a length of about 2 inches (5 centimeters), according to a photo in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History's collection.

And its sharp teeth suggest that it preys on other animals or scavenges their remains, the marine biology blog Deep Sea News reported in 2012. A photo shared in a July 7 Facebook post shows a specimen with extruded jaws that was found in the Antarctic Ocean at a depth of 1,706 to 2,198 feet (520 to 670 meters) and highlights the brilliant golden color of its bristles.

This giant-scale worm, which belongs to a species called Eulagisca gigantean and a family called Polynoidae, was found in the Antarctic Ocean at the depth of 520-670 m (1706-2198 ft). (Credit: JC Mendoza/NMNH)

Posted by Hashem Al-Ghaili on Friday, July 7, 2017

Polychaete worms represent a range of sizes and colors and are distributed across a variety of habitats  from extreme environments like hydrothermal vents to shallow tide pools and coral reefs, MBARI reported. Scientists have thus far described 80 families and 8,000 species of polychaete worms, but there may be many more, according to MBARI.

In fact, researchers recently used DNA analyses to estimate that there could be more than twice as many marine worm species in the oceans than previously suspected, scientists reported in a study published November 2016 in the journal Royal Society Open Science. E. gigantea and other bizarre marine worms may be strange to our eyes, but they likely play a vital role in ocean ecosystems, and may inform scientists' understanding of life in the deep ocean, the researchers wrote in the study.

Original article on Live Science .
The SS Minden, a German cargo ship scuttled in waters near Iceland during the early days of World War II, may contain a huge trove of Nazi gold.

The merchant vessel, which is 120 nautical miles south of Iceland, is in the international spotlight following the reported discovery of a chest containing up to four tons of Nazi gold on the wreck. The horde is valued at 100 million British pounds (approximately $130 million), according to news reports.

U.K. salvage company Advanced Marine Services (AMS) has reportedly requested permission from Icelandic authorities to cut a hole in the ships hull and remove the chest.

TROVE OF SUSPECTED NAZI ARTIFACTS FOUND IN ARGENTINA

A spokesman for the Icelandic Environmental Agency told Fox News that an application has been received. However, it could be some weeks before a decision is made on whether permission will be given, and if so, under which terms. An update may be issued next month, he added.

In April, Iceland Monitor reported that Seabed Constructor, the salvage vessel hired by AMS, was directed to dock at Reykjavik after catching the attention of Icelands Coast Guard. The companys lawyer reportedly told the Coast Guard that the crew of the Seabed Constructor was looking for the Minden.

A representative for the company confirmed to Fox News that Seabed Constructor was requested into Reykjavik on April 8. The company co-operated fully with the Icelandic Coast Guard and, having clarified its legitimate activity, was quickly able to return to sea, he explained, via email. AMS complies fully with international maritime law and has at no time conducted any activity without the requisite permits.

TREASURE HUNTERS UNVEIL PLAN TO FIND NAZI GOLD TRAIN

The Minden is not in Icelands territorial waters, but is within the countrys exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from Icelands coast. This means that, while, the Icelandic authorities cannot make claim to any salvage from the wreck, it can enforce pollution controls and environmental impact measures at the shipwreck site.

Wrecksite notes that the Minden was scuttled by her crew on Sept. 24 1939 to prevent her valuable cargo from falling into the hands of the Royal Navy. The ship was returning to Germany from South America.

The hunt for Nazi gold continues to be a source of fascination, as evidenced by recent efforts to locate a purportedly treasure-laden Nazi train buried in Poland.

NAZI CODE MACHINE BOUGHT AT FLEA MARKET SELLS FOR $51G

Last month a trove of suspected Nazi artifacts were found in Argentina. Other Nazi artifacts have also been discovered in other parts of the world. Last year, for example, a time capsule buried by Nazis was unearthed in Poland.

Follow James Rogers on Twitter @jamesjrogers
Could something in shark blood help American soldiers detect invisible, dangerous weapons and defeat them?

With advanced senses, sharks can hunt their prey by detecting even the tiniest of traces. Just one drop of blood in an Olympic-sized swimming pool would get the attention of a shark.

USS GERALD FORD IN PICTURES

Now the U.S. military is investigating whether a protein in shark blood can help hunt for chemical and biological weapons and reveal them before they harm military personnel.

U.S. Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) scientists are using these shark antibodies to create new ways to protect American warfighters against these horrific threats. Funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency's Joint Science and Technology Office, the research could lead to new detection and treatment tools.

Early detection is vital because it helps ensure early and correct treatment which can be the difference between life and death. It can also be critical to ensuring soldiers who are not yet exposed can be given protective medications in some instances.

But detection is difficult because these weapons can be far too small to be seen by the naked eye. Many of them are also odorless, presenting another problem for detection. These tiny threats can travel invisibly through the air to attack U.S. warriors and cause agonizing suffering - and in many cases, death.

Chemical weapons can cause horrible varied symptoms from blistering on the skin, suffocating sensations, lungs filling with fluid through to convulsions, coma and with some, death within minutes of exposure. Depending on the agent, biological warfare also causes a range of cruel symptoms from nausea and rash through to boils, hemorrhaging, paralysis and slow, painful death.

3 POWERFUL AMERICAN PLANES FEATURED AT THE ROYAL INTERNATIONAL AIR SHOW

Is the key in shark blood?

US forces deserve the best solution possible to detect these threats. Sharks have ancient antibodies and these special antibodies have great potential.

Shark antibodies could be integrated into sensors the military can use to identify and warn of a chemical or biological threat. They could also be used in devices to figure out if a warfighter has been exposed to a chemical or biological agent.

Antibodies are protective proteins that the immune system makes in response to antigens, which can be a wide range of foreign substances, including toxic materials.

Eventually, this component in shark blood could help to warn U.S. service members they are under threat and at risk from biological and chemical weapons on the battlefield.

NEW KING STALLION HELICOPTER BOOSTS MARINES' AERIAL POWER

What is the threat of chemical and biological weapons?

Chemical and biological weapons have the potential to kill vast amounts of people, military and civilian alike.

Although the use of chemical weapons has been banned since the Geneva Protocol of 1925, they continue to be developed and used.

Syria, for example, is believed to have mustard gas, sarin and chlorine. It is also believed they are working on toxic nerve agents like VX gas. They could also unleash these threats U.S. forces, using artillery rockets, ballistic missiles and aircraft.

The United Nations confirmed sarin gas was used in the Syrian capital Damascus in 2013. Under pressure that year, Syria agreed to destroy their chemical weapons in an agreement negotiated between Russia and the United States.

And yet in 2015, the UN Security Council believes a third chemical weapon attack occurred using chlorine gas. And this year, there was another suspected attack.

The shark advantage?

Many detection and treatment approaches tend to use mammal antibodies. Using shark antibodies instead provide advantages like the fact they are smaller and are also more stable. They could prove a lot more suitable for the field.

Chemical and biological threat detection tools can come at a hefty price tag.

This shark project is a great example of out of the box thinking that may improve the safety of US warfighters at a lower cost.
NASA launched its newest app this week designed to motivate the average person to be a citizen scientist during the upcoming solar eclipse.

Space Scientist Elizabeth Macdonald told Fox News the Globe Observer app was designed by a NASA-supported research program called the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment, better known as GLOBE. The initiative encourages students and members of the public to collect and analyze environmental observations.

This is apart of a citizens' science project - so that people all across the country can report all the changes they see, Macdonald explained. Those can help us understand better how these clouds change and occur during a rare event like a solar eclipse.

'GREAT AMERICAN ECLIPSE' 2017: WHAT IT IS, WHEN IT'S HAPPENING AND WHY YOU HAVE TO SEE IT

A video on the GLOBE Program Twitter feed explains how data compiled through the app is used after the solar eclipse.

The data will go into the GLOBE Programs database where it is accessible to students and scientists from all over the world.

Scientists can later use the collected data to compare it with satellite observations. This helps with future studies of the Earth and global environment.

SOLAR ECLIPSE 2017: NASA ISSUES SAFETY WARNING

What you can do with this app is observe clouds, temperature changes you will experience as a part of the total solar eclipse on Aug. 21, the NASA spokeswoman said.

The experiment was also created to help solar eclipse enthusiast and others understand their surroundings. Its really going to be a spectacular event in many ways so you want to look all around at the ways that the atmosphere is changing and this is one of the ways you can participate, Macdonald said.


Legend has it that the victims of a mysterious plague haunt this lonely motel in the middle of Nevada. But thats not even the creepiest thing about it.

The Clown Motel in Tonopah, a tiny former mining town halfway between Las Vegas and Reno, is, as its name suggests, home to hundreds of clowns.

They decorate the reception, bedrooms, hallways and walls and have been attracting and terrifying tourists around the globe for the past two decades. Some of the clowns even dangle above the beds and visitors have been known to cover them with towels to avoid nightmares.

Oh, and the motel is also right next to the Tonopah Cemetery.

The historic burial ground was established in 1901 and is the final resting place of the victims of the deadly Tonopah Plague which swept through the town in the 1902, along with the miners who lost their lives in the deadly Tonopah-Belmont Mine Fire in 1911  many of whom were also pioneer residents of the town. It is these souls which are believed to haunt the guests of the motel.

According to Travel Channels television series, Ghost Adventures, whose team was called in to investigate, the eerie motel has experienced unusually high amounts of paranormal activity.

A housekeeper at The Clown Motel, Andrea Selig, told the ghost hunters that she has experienced extreme anxiety in all of the motels rooms before and has seen doors shut by themselves.

And a front-desk worker told Las Vegas Weekly that a medium who stayed there said that when he arrived there was a woman standing behind the woman checking him in. When shown photos of an employees deceased mother, he confirmed it was her.

But reviewers on TripAdvisor say it is just a fun, kitschy place for a unique travel experience.

Either way, after 20 years of running the iconic residence, the motels owner Bob Perchetti has just put it up for sale.

But dont worry, a condition of any historic site sale is that it must keep its heritage, so the new owners can upgrade it but The Clown Motel wont lose what the people love  whether that be a haunting or quirky experience.

This article originally appeared on news.com.au
Virgin Atlantic is apologizing for the latest incident in a long line of airline industry bungles involving removing passengers from pre-booked seats.

This time, Virgin Atlantic removed a summer camp-bound 11-year-old boy from a flight from Shanghai to London because the category he was flying under was full, according to The Telegraph.

The boys mother, identified as Mrs. Liu, said he had already boarded and taken his seat on the July 9 flight when he was booted from the aircraft.

My son was clearly scared, Mrs. Liu told The Telegraph. He cried for long hours and woke up with nightmares.

According to Virgin Atlantic, the flight had too many unaccompanied minors  the category the boy was flying under  and as a result the airline had to remove the last booked passenger. People's Daily reported that the airline had nine unaccompanied minors checked into the flight, but they could only accommodate up to eight.

One of those minors was the boy's friend, who was also headed off to camp. "Since the two kids were traveling without any adults, we checked repeatedly with Virgin Atlantic to make sure that the crew members can take care of them," Mrs. Liu said.

While the airline acknowledged they should have informed the boy and his family of the situation before boarding, a Virgin Atlantic spokesperson said he was taken care of.

"This decision was made with the customer's wellbeing in mind, and our airport team looked after the child until their parents returned to the airport," the spokesperson said in a statement.

The airline has offered the family free flights to London, however Mrs. Liu called the gesture useless, adding: Three free round trip tickets are useless for us. My husband and I are busy with work every day. We definitely have no time for London."

Instead of flights, View From The Wing pointed out that the boy should have been offered 600 euros ($701) in cash for being involuntarily denied boarding causing him to arrive at his destination more than four hours late while traveling over 3,500 kilometers thanks to a European Union regulation known as 261/2004, which established common rules on compensation and assistance to passengers in these situations.
Four people were killed when a small plane crashed on I-15 northbound at Riverdale Rd. in Weber County Wednesday afternoon.

Officials said the plane was a Beech A36 Bonanza.

Weber County authorities have closed I-15 NB at 5600 S. and said the southbound lanes are affected as well.

Traffic is stopped; drivers should avoid the area.

"My husband said, 'That's a plane,' and he didn't even get that out of his mouth and it hit the ground and exploded," witness Marcia Steele said.

The Utah Highway Patrol has not said when drivers can expect the highway to reopen.

Read more from Fox 13 Salt Lake City.
Ohio Gov. John Kasich ordered all rides at the state fair in Columbus to be shut down until thorough inspections are completed after a ride malfunction Wednesday left one man dead and at least seven people injured.

Two of the seven injured were in critical condition, the Ohio State Medical Center said Thursday.

It was going for a minute and it was at its highest point and I saw somebody fall on the ride and then a minute later the whole like row of seats fell off and hit the ground, Kaylie Bellomy, who witnessed the accident, told NBC4i.

Everybody was running. I got ran over trying to get out of the way.

The man who was killed was one of several thrown from the Fire Ball ride when it malfunctioned, Columbus Fire Battalion Chief Steve Martin said. The victims range in age from 13 to 41 years old, Fox 28 reported.

Crews shut down other rides at the fair.

I am terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohio's fair. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those grieving and injured, Kasich said in a statement.

I have ordered a full investigation into this incident and have ordered that all fair rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed."

William Brown said his wife had just gotten off the ride before the deadly accident, according to NBC News.

I was in total disbelief, Brown told NBC News. My wife just got off that ride before the accident happened. It could have been her.

Hours later, some witnesses were still shaken by the incident.

We cried our eyes last night until our heads hurt, Britney Neal told the Today Show. We are truly traumatized.

Dr. David Evans of Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center watched video of the accident and said the victims were likely thrown 20 to 30 feet.

Multiple passengers were ejected at high speed with high energy, many feet  at least 20 or 30, if not more  into the air and then crashed at a significant distance from the ride," he said.

The cause of the malfunction was unclear. Recent storms and flooding forced inspectors to work long hours in recent days, ensuring the rides were in good working shape, the Columbus Dispatch reported.

The rain slowed us down a little bit. Usually a lot of this stuff would be up a lot faster, inspector Ron Dean told the newspaper.

Its a very tough day. Its a very tough night for the people of our state because of the loss of our citizens, Kasich said at a news conference Wednesday night.

Sen. Rob Portman, R-Oh., tweeted: Jane and I send our prayers and deepest sympathies to all those who were impacted by the accident at the Ohio State Fair this evening."

Wednesday marked the state fair's opening day. The fair was initially scheduled to run through Aug. 6. Eleven rides in the fair didnt initially open because inspection work wasnt completed, officials said. The ride that malfunctioned was inspected multiple times, including by a third-party inspector, an official said.

Names of the victims were not immediately released, pending family notification.

We will get to the bottom of this. We will investigate it. There will be complete transparency, Kasich said. Make no mistake about it, it is a very, very sad night for all of us.

Fox News Ruth Ravve and Perry Chiaramonte and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Latest on President Donald Trump's plans to nominate Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback as ambassador at large for international religious freedom (all times local):

8:55 p.m.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback has tweeted that religious freedom is "the first freedom" and he is honored that President Donald Trump plans to nominate him for a related ambassadorship.

The White House announced Wednesday that Trump will nominate Brownback to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Brownback is expected to step down as governor to take the post, but his office wasn't saying when.

Brownback tweeted from his official governor's account that religious freedom is "the choice of what you do with your own soul."

He said he is honored to "serve such an important cause."

___

7:45 p.m.

The chairman of the Kansas Republican Party says Gov. Sam Brownback will be remembered as a governor who advanced conservative goals on abortion, gun rights and tax cuts.

But a top Democrat says Brownback will be thought of as an unpopular governor who engineered a failed tax-cutting experiment.

President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that he plans to nominate Brownback to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom. Brownback isn't saying when he would step down as governor.

Kansas Senate Democratic Leader Anthony Hensley of Topeka says Brownback's legacy will be the budget problems caused by income tax cuts the governor advocated.

But state GOP Chairman Kelly Arnold says no one will know how well the tax cuts would have worked because lawmakers rolled them back this year over Brownback's veto.

___

7:30 p.m.

Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback's office isn't saying when he plans to leave office because President Donald Trump plans to nominate him to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

Brownback spokeswoman Melika Willoughby said the two-term Republican governor would hold a news conference on Thursday.

But Kansas Republican Party Chairman Kelly Arnold said Wednesday he would expect Brownback to resign as governor once he's confirmed by the U.S. Senate. Arnold said that would likely be in the fall.

Brownback's departure would elevate Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer to governor.

The White House announced Wednesday that Trump's would nominate Brownback.

___

7:15 p.m.

President Donald Trump will nominate Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to serve as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

If confirmed by the Senate, he'll run the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom.

Brownback is a former U.S. senator and representative. The White House says he worked on the issue of religious freedom while in Washington.

Officials in Kansas expect Brownback to step down when he's confirmed, but his office would not immediately discuss future plans Wednesday evening.
Demonstrators flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City and gathered at a plaza named for a San Francisco gay-rights icon on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump's abrupt ban on transgender troops in the military.

A crowd of at least a few hundred people gathered around the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square. They held signs saying "Resist!" and listened to speakers who denounced the ban, which Trump announced on Twitter.

Demonstrator Yael Leberman says transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental" abilities. She says it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.

It's unclear what the ban will mean for currently serving transgender soldiers.

Several hundred demonstrators gathered later Wednesday in San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza. They waved pink and blue flags, held signs reading "Trans lives are not a burden" and chanted "Stand up! Fight back!"

A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla told the crowd she's tired of being told who she can or cannot be, and asked for others in the LGBT community to support trans people as they fight for respect.

Doug Thorogood and Nick Rondoletto, a couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign that read "The only reason transgenders are being banned from the military is for bigotry."

"Haven't transgender people gone through enough? I'm over it!" Thorogood said, as they marched with the crowd from the Castro neighborhood to City Hall.

"When (Trump) goes for the people with the least rights, I just can't sit back and let that happen," Rondoletto added.

At a smaller gathering at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood, U.S. Army Reserve member and transgender man Rudy Akbarian, 27, said at first he thought the news of the President's order was a joke. The five-year military veteran said he was "heartbroken" to learn it was real.

"There are people who are retiring in the military, there are people who've done 18, 19 years and are about to retire and now it's all taken away from them," he said. "It's not fair."

"I know it's not over," he said. "I know we're not going to give up."

___

Associated Press writers Robert Jablon in Los Angeles and Deepti Hajela contributed to this report.
Law enforcement authorities are searching for an inmate who apparently escaped a facility at Rikers Island Wednesday.

The NYPD confirmed that officers are "assisting in the search for an individual."

The New York Post reported that police are searching the waters near LaGuardia Airport and elsewhere nearby.

Read more from Fox 5 New York.
A twisted Colorado father was driven to allegedly murder his son when the teen discovered disgusting photos of the deviant dad eating feces from a diaper while dressed in womens clothes, according to reports.

Mark Redwine allegedly flew into a rage when his 13-year-old son, Dylan, and his older brother Cory unearthed the embarrassing snaps, ABC 7 in Denver reported.

DYLAN REDWINE'S MOM SAYS SHE'S KNOWN SINCE 'DAY 1' HER EX WAS THEIR SON'S KILLER

The two boys planned on confronting their dad about the photos  ultimately leading to Dylans sudden disappearance from his dads home in Vallecito in November 2012.

I have seen the photos, Cory Redwine told ABC 7. It shows him wearing womens clothes and makeup and a diaper and then eating his feces from the diaper. It was disgusting. We couldnt believe it.

On Saturday, following a five-year investigation, Mark Redwine was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, and charged with Dylans death. He is being held on $1 million bail.

Read more from the New York Post.
Las Vegas Metro police said a 4-year-old girl and the suspect died after a murder-suicide in southwest Las Vegas Wednesday.

Officers responded to the incident at 7:06 p.m. in the 8700 block of Norton Peak Avenue, near Blue Diamond Road and Durango Drive.

Police said a 4-year-old girl was taken to a local hospital with stab wounds but later succumbed to her injuries. The suspect was found dead inside the home with self-inflicted stab wounds.

Police said the incident is domestic-related.

An investigation is ongoing.

Further details were not immediately released.

The Clark County Coroner's Office will later release the identities of the victims.

Click for more from Fox 5 Vegas.
A Jamaican man accused of masterminding a lottery scam that defrauded dozens of mostly elderly Americans out of millions of dollars has pleaded guilty to conspiracy, and a federal prosecutor says more defendants in the case might do the same.

Lavrick Willocks, 28, reached an agreement with federal prosecutors in North Dakota earlier this month and appeared in court Thursday to enter his plea. Prosecutors dropped 65 other counts of wire fraud, mail fraud and money laundering.

Willocks faces up to 40 years in prison, though prosecutors have agreed to recommend a much lighter punishment of about 10 years because he cooperated with authorities. The government also will recommend that he pay restitution. U.S. District Judge Daniel Hovland didn't immediately schedule sentencing.

Willocks, who has a bachelor's degree in hospitality administration from Southern New Hampshire University, told Hovland that he got involved in lottery scams in October 2009 when he returned to Jamaica and wanted to help his mother through financial problems.

"If you don't know somebody, it's hard to get a job," Willocks said.

Authorities say the scam operated out of a Kingston, Jamaica, mansion where Willocks lived with his mother, Dahlia Hunter, who also is charged. At least 90 mostly elderly Americans lost a total of more than $5.7 million.

The case has a total of 15 defendants, including Willocks and his mother.

One of them, Alrick McLeod, signed a plea deal Wednesday similar to the one Willocks signed. Eight others who also have been extradited to North Dakota and have pleaded not guilty are still scheduled for trial beginning Jan. 22, 2018, though Assistant U.S. Attorney Clare Hochhalter said in court that plea deal talks are in the works with many of them.

"I'm hopeful we can really move forward with this case and have some closure," he said.

Another defendant, Gregory Gooden, who was arrested in Jamaica last month, has an initial appearance scheduled Friday in federal court in Bismarck. Another is still in Jamaica awaiting extradition, and three others remain fugitives.

The scam began to unravel when a woman in the North Dakota town of Harvey lost her life savings of more than $300,000 in 2011. Federal authorities began investigating in 2012. Authorities have dubbed the case "Operation Hard Copy," a reference to lists of prospective victims' contact information used by scammers.

Variations of the scam continue to victimize people in the U.S. and other countries, according to federal prosecutors. The Federal Trade Commission estimates lottery scams could be a billion-dollar-a-year industry in Jamaica.

Sanjay Williams, of Montego Bay, Jamaica, who authorities say was a cohort of Willock's and ran a separate scam, was convicted by a U.S. jury in 2015 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. Willocks said in court Thursday that he had never met Williams.

___

Follow Blake Nicholson on Twitter at: http://twitter.com/NicholsonBlake
A California man was sentenced to 115 years behind bars this week for impersonating a police officer and fondling two women.

Authorities said 41-year-old Christoph Moore, of Anaheim, stopped at least two women, on two separate occasions, in Hollywood in November 2015, pretending to be a police officer during the encounters and touching the women inappropriately, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Prosecutors said Moore flashed a badge, pulled out a handgun and threatened one of the women. Less than a week later, he showed another woman a badge and groped her.

Additionally, in October of that year, Moore locked himself inside a store with the store's owner and forced her to take off her clothes before her ex-husband arrived and he fled.

Moore was convicted of multiple counts of assault with intent to commit a sexual assault, criminal threats, grand theft, second-degree burglary and two counts of false imprisonment by violence.

He was also convicted of three counts of unlawful use of a badge and one count of sexual battery.
Christine Niles, a Vietnamese immigrant who helps run a parachurch organization in Michigan that promotes Roman Catholic teaching, expected to spend this week preparing theological materials and getting ready for the groups annual conference for men.

Instead, Niles, who is editor-in-chief of Church Militant, has been in consultations with local law enforcement after learning that a left-wing group is drumming up support to shut down the conference, which will take place on Aug. 4-6 at locations in Ferndale and Sterling Heights, Mich.

Police have reached out to both sides and will have patrol cars observing, Niles told Fox News. But we dont know who the activists are associated with and we dont know what will happen.

The theological conference causing controversy, titled Strength and Honor, is billed as offering talks on the essential role of sacrificial masculinity of Catholic men to be good husbands and fathers and to equip attendees with tools to gain the spiritual and mental tools to be strong leaders among the faithful.

But according to the Michigan Peoples Defense Network (MPDN), since the conference run by Church Militant -- which adheres diligently to centuries-old Roman Catholic teaching -- is exclusively for men, it promotes a hateful, anti-woman message.

And therefore it must be shut down.

Many of the churchs points are lifted from or are identical to mens rights discourse, which focuses on reducing womens agency and reproductive rights, said a Facebook post calling for local activists to join them at planned demonstrations. The community will picket and protest to shut down the hateful messages spread at this conference.

Step One for the MPDN, a self-proclaimed anti-racist, anti-fascist, action group dedicated to fighting all forms of oppression, is calling on others to join them at a press conference Friday outside the Church Militant offices in Ferndale, a Detroit suburb, to announce action countering a mens rights conference. This will be followed by a picket and protest outside the conference in Sterling Heights on Aug. 5.

The network was founded late last year in response to Trumps election under the guise that his rise has emboldened the most right-wing, racist elements and encouraged a culture of hate. MPDN thus vows that it is now necessary to come out in defense of anyone under attacks by racists and fascists. In their view, Church Militant fits that bill.

The church also peddles racist, anti-Muslim rhetoric, painting Muslim migrants and refugees as sexual predators, the group stated. As the radical Christian right rises in America, having supported Donald Trumps campaign of hatred against the most marginalized, it is more vital than ever that the community stands against hate draped in a cross.

Niles, who has degrees from Notre Dame University and Oxford University, and her colleagues at Church Militant contend that this could not be further from the truth.

The real bone of contention that MPDN has with Church Militant is not the spurious claims and lies its telling, but the positions we take on morality and decency, the Catholic group said in a statement. Church Militant is not a hate group; MPDN is the real hate group, trying to intimidate religious organizations into silence and shut down a conference meant to help men by fostering the virtues of humility, charity and sacrifice.

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SYRIANS DESCRIBE TORTURE INSIDE ASSAD PRISONS: 'DEATH IS MUCH BETTER THAN THIS'

Adel Hawkins, a member of MPDN, told Fox News they are expecting around 50-100 people to attend Friday's gathering, and rebuffed suggestions that Church Militant was "pro-immigrant" and "pro-women."

"LGBT women are women, too, and to be pro-life means that you aren't giving women full autonomy at all," she said. "To us, that isn't very pro-women at all."

Dan Gainor, vice president of business and culture at the Media Research Center, concurred that the religious outfit is hardly the radical one in this matter.

The radical left is following the lead of the liberal media and attacking Church Militant. Now, even having a mens conference on how to be good husbands and fathers generates liberal protests, he said. Sometimes I wonder if the same protesters just move from one event to another  never actually holding down a real job.

This isnt the first time Church Militant has found itself at the center of controversy in recent months.

The New York Times profiled Church Militant as having right-wing stances against globalism, immigration, social-welfare programs and abortion, as well as driving a depiction of an existential war against radical Islam. The Atlantic referred to the conservative Catholic outfit as a news organization on the fringes of the Catholic world run by a group of radical Catholics.

Even allies of Pope Francis distanced themselves in a Vatican-reviewed publication, calling out Church Militant and other pro-Trump church groups as composed mainly of whites from the deep American South, and adopting shocking rhetoric that uses Christian symbols to impose itself.

According to Niles, who maintains that Church Militant is "proudly pro-life, pro-women and pro-immigrant," the sudden spotlight has been a mixed bag. On one hand, their conference numbers have been bolstered by supporters upset at the effort to squash their First Amendment and religious freedom. But on the other, abuse has become commonplace.

We now have cars driving past yelling epithets at myself and other women, she added. The attention on us has been ramping up quite a bit.
A 67-year-old man who previously served prison time in the murder of a 6-year-old child, pleaded guilty to a 2001 rape after investigators linked him to the scene of that crime through a pair of dentures he left behind.

The dentures were part of a sex assault kit backlog that wasn't tested until recently, though authorities may have been able to identify Thomas Maupin sooner -- his name was printed on the inside of the false teeth.

Maupin was sentenced to eight years in prison for raping the 31-year-old woman in Memphis in August 2001, FOX 13 Memphis reported.

At the time, police said the victim was approached by a motorist who got out of his car and started walking to her. A pair of dentures recovered at the scene were collected and tagged by investigators as part of the sexual assault kit.

The kit was later placed in the police property room, but became part of a backlog that was not tested until July 2016, WREG reported.

Officials from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation were able to eventually match the dentures to a partial DNA profile of Maupin -- and also discovered his name printed inside.

The dentures were originally made while Maupin served time in Washington state for the 1988 murder of a 6-year-old girl. He was twice convicted and sentenced to 40 years in prison, but the convictions were overturned on appeal.

He then came to Memphis after serving 12 years in jail.
A federal appeals court in New York City is getting conflicting advice from the government over whether a civil rights law covers sexual orientation.

The Department of Justice told the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in court papers Wednesday that sexual orientation is not covered by Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law bans workplace discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission enforces the law against private employers and says sexual orientation is covered, offering multiple theories on why that is so.

The Justice Department said its position is consistent with prior court rulings and the will of Congress, which has never explicitly included sexual orientation in the law. The papers were filed in a case brought by a skydiving instructor who said his employer violated Title VII by firing him in 2010 over his sexual orientation.

"The sole question here is whether, as a matter of law, Title VII reaches sexual orientation discrimination," said the Justice Department, which is not a party in the case. "It does not, as has been settled for decades. Any efforts to amend Title VII's scope should be directed to Congress rather than the courts."

The entire 2nd Circuit is taking the rare step of considering the appeal after an appeals court panel in April upheld a lower-court decision finding sexual orientation discrimination was not covered by the law.

Justice Department lawyers wrote flatly that the EEOC in its court papers "is not speaking for the United States and its position about the scope of Title VII." It added that the EEOC "is entitled to no deference beyond its power to persuade."

The Justice Department arguments came the same day President Donald Trump said he was banning transgender people from military service.

Civil rights advocates took note.

David Dinielli, deputy legal director at the Southern Poverty Law Center, said Thursday that the brief demonstrates that the Trump administration "is determined to impose retrograde policies that roll back the civil rights of our most marginalized populations."

James Esseks, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's LGBT & HIV Project, said, "Fortunately, courts will decide whether the Civil Rights Act protects LGBT people, not an attorney general and a White House that are hell-bent on playing politics with people's lives."

Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said the department's arguments were consistent with its longstanding position and the holdings of 10 Courts of Appeals.

"The brief also reaffirms the department's fundamental belief that the courts cannot expand the law beyond what Congress has provided," he said. "This department remains committed to protecting the civil and constitutional rights of all individuals and will continue to enforce the numerous laws Congress has enacted that prohibit discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation."

In its papers, the Justice Department noted that Title VII "prohibits employers from applying impermissible sex stereotypes to homosexual employees."

It said, for instance, that gay and straight employees may invoke the law if they are subjected to gender-based stereotypes such as "that a particular homosexual man is too effeminate  that cause them to be treated worse than similarly situated employees of the opposite sex."

___

Associated Press Writer Eric Tucker in Washington contributed to this report.
An inmate who escaped Wednesday from the Rikers Island jail complex in New York City has been apprehended, authorities said early Thursday.

The inmate was identified as Naquan Hill, 24. He was caught about 3 a.m. Thursday on the island by personnel from the New York City Department of Correction.

Authorities say Hill went missing from an outdoor recreation session Wednesday, sparking an all-out manhunt and lockdown of the island. Staff members noted the disappearance around 7:30 p.m. when a headcount of inmates was off by one, officials said.

I would like to thank the men and women of DOC, the NYPD, the Port Authority Police and New York State Police for their time and effort in locating this individual, Dept. of Correction spokesman Peter Thorne said, New Yorks WNBC-TV reported. Their coordinated actions helped safely return this inmate to custody.

No further information was available about Hill.

Rikers Island is located in the northern portion of the East River, between the New York City boroughs of the Bronx and Queens, not far from LaGuardia Airport in Queens. It is accessible by a bridge from northern Queens.

The city's jail system has been plagued for years by a culture of violence and corruption.

A lawsuit filed by lawyers for inmates who were beaten by jail guards and joined by federal prosecutors who investigated brutality against 16- to 18-year-old inmates resulted in 2015 in a consent decree mandating the city implement a series of wide-ranging reforms.
A former U.S. naval combat-tested officer said she feels angry that President Donald Trump is saying transgender veterans like her should be considered unfit to serve.

Another transgender service member said he will not be kicked out without a fight.

Transgender veterans and active-duty troops spoke Wednesday about Trump's Twitter pronouncement banning transgender people from military service.

Here are their stories:

_____

OFFENSIVE TO MILITARY VALUES

Paula M. Neira, who left the Navy in 1991 and transitioned to female after leaving active duty, said she was angry at Trump's announcement. It brought up bad memories for the naval officer, who served on Sept. 11, 2001.

She said the commander in chief is sending the message that the country does not want transgender troops.

"Nobody who is willing to volunteer to defend our country should ever be told that they're not fit because of other people's prejudice, and not because of any military necessity," she said.

_____

VOWING TO FIGHT

Rudy Akbarian, 26, said he will not leave the armed forces without a fight.

"I'm just serving as a soldier just like anybody else," Akbarian said.

His chain-of-command was supportive of him as he transitioned from female to male.

"Everybody is hurt. Everybody is scared," he said. "This is people's lives we're talking about. People who enlisted nearly 20 years ago and now 18 or 19 years in, now that's being taken away and they don't get to retire?"

_____

'HEARTBREAK'

Alaina Kupec, a Navy intelligence officer from 1992 until 1995, said she felt "heartbreak" after she heard about Trump's tweet. The 48-year-old transitioned to life as a woman in 2013.

"It just really saddened me for the transgender sailors and soldiers who are serving around the world today and are selflessly giving themselves to protect our country," said Kupec, who lives in Orange, New Jersey.

_____

'FORCED BACK INTO THE CLOSET'

Air Force veteran Vanessa Sheridan said transgender people have always served in the military but now they are going to have to hide their identities if there is a new policy.

"My biggest concern now is going to be that transgender people are going to be forced back into the closet," said Sheridan, who is director of transgender relations and community engagement at Center on Halsted in Chicago.

_____

'FIRED BY TWEET'

Capt. Jacob Eleazer, 31, who serves in the Kentucky Army National Guard, took the day off from his job as a therapist in Lexington to figure out the situation.

"Fired by tweet. It was honestly pretty shocking," he said.

_____

FEAR OF THE FUTURE

Combat veteran Shane Ortega, a transgender man in Los Angeles who served in the Army and Marines for more than a decade, said troops who are forced out may get a bad conduct discharge for being transgender, jeopardizing their VA benefits and future.

"That's the equivalent of being a convicted felon in American society," said Ortega, 30, who transitioned to a male in 2009, seven years before leaving the military after serving multiple combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. "They will not get gainful employment."

_____

'PEOPLE KNOW WHO WE ARE NOW'

Blake Dremann, a transgender, active-duty Navy lieutenant commander in Washington, said he will continue to serve "regardless of what was said today."

"Trans service members are continuing to do our jobs," said Dremann 36, president of SPARTA a trans advocacy group. "People know who we are now and it becomes personal, especially when you've got families that are going to be affected by this."

_____

WHAT MATTERS MOST

Emma Shinn, 41, a transgender woman who served in the Marine Corps for 20 years before retiring in 2014, said it was incredibly stressful to work under the military's previous policy that banned LGBT service members.

"It creates a gulf between the service member and his or her fellow Marines," said Shinn, who lives in Castle Rock, Colorado.

What matters most is if "you have my back in a firefight," Shinn said.

_____

Associated Press writers Dylan Lovan in Louisville, Kentucky; Teresa Crawford in Chicago; Jennifer McDermott in Providence, Rhode Island; Tatiana Flowers in Denver; Jonathan Drew in Raleigh, North Carolina; and Cathy Bussewitz in Honolulu contributed to this report.
A Florida police officer can now add "alligator wrestler" to his resume after he wrangled a hissing gator from the front porch of a home during an encounter caught on video earlier this month.

Boynton Beach Police released bodycam footage Wednesday of Officer Alfredo Vargas responding to a call on July 10 from a resident complaining about an alligator laying outside his front door.

When Vargas arrived at the scene, police said he called the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and learned it would take about 30 minutes for a trapper to arrive. The officer was then told the trapper would most likely kill the gator.

Vargas didn't want to see the animal killed, and was told by FWC he could release the reptile elsewhere if he wanted. It turned out he previously learned how to handle alligators at the Native Village in Hollywood, Fla. and was mentored by two of the Gator Boys," who have a show on Animal Planet.

Initially, I took a tour of the facility back in 04, and I thought, Wow, this is pretty cool. I want to learn how to do it, so I did," Vargas said at a press conference. "I volunteered at the facility, and they showed me how to actually properly hand-catch an alligator."

WHY ALLIGATOR ATTACKS ARE SPIKING IN FLORIDA

In the video, Vargas is seen trying to subdue the alligator as it bares its teeth and thrashes around on the floor. Vargas eventually made a makeshift catch pole.

I was making a little clicking sound, making just, like, a little baby gators noise," Vargas told reporters. "It normally gets alligators to react because theyre very protective of their young."

Vargas was eventually able to wrestle the gator, and with the help of another officer, tape the reptile's mouth shut.

Its not the safest thing to do, but if you do it properly you learn the alligators behavior," he said. "You make it as safe as possible."

The gator was then placed in the back of his patrol car and released in a canal a few miles away.
An Alabama toddler is recovering after her neighbor's monster pet pig bit off a "chunk" of her arm on Monday, the family said.

Bella White, 3, and her two older brothers were playing in their yard at their Rogersville home when the pet pig, named Booger, escaped his pen and waddled over, WAFF reported. The 400-pound pig then chomped on and gobbled up a piece of the girl's arm, mother Amber White told the news station.

"The chunk that he took out was massive, down to the bone, and then on the back of her arm he took out another piece," White said.

"I was telling 911 dispatchers that...a 400-pound pig was on my daughter," White recalled.

BOATERS IDENTIFIED IN SHARK-DRAGGING VIDEO, FLORIDA OFFICIALS SAY

The girl was airlifted to the hospital, and White said it took some time to process what happened in the moment.

"It was horrific. I didn't have time to think or anything until after she was in the air and then it hit me what all had happened," White told WAFF.

The girl remains in a lot of pain and needs more surgery after the wound became infected, according to her mother, who also said her daughter is now scared to go play outside.

FLORIDA COUPLE ALLEGEDLY KILLS TRAPPED ALLIGATOR, TRIES TO SELL TAIL DOOR-TO-DOOR

The pig is being tested for possible diseases, WAFF reported. The health department ordered the pig to be euthanized.

"I wish it would have came out differently for the pig, but at least it can't hurt anybody else," White said.

Other residents in the neighborhood have called Florence Animal Control in the last few years to have the pet pig locked in its pen after the animal escaped. The owner told WAFF the pig was a Valentine's Day gift from her fiance two years ago.
A 21-year-old Montana man on Wednesday was sentenced to almost 42 years in prison after kidnapping, raping and leaving a 4-year-old girl for dead on the Fort Peck Indian Reservation.

John William Lieba II was accused of chasing down the 4-year-old girl at night in a park last year, raping and strangling her, and then leaving her for dead in an abandoned pickup truck where she was not found for two days. The rape left her with an incurable sexually transmitted disease.

Lieba, through his actions, forced every parent in Montana to confront their worst nightmare," Assistant U.S. Attorney Ryan G. Weldon stated in a sentencing memo filed in federal court.

DENTURES LEFT AT SCENE LEAD TO TENNESSEE MAN'S RAPE CONVICTION 16 YEARS LATER

When found by a sheriffs deputy, the girl was alive but had bruises and burst blood vessels on her head and neck, indicating that Lieba had attempted to strangle her.

The sexual assault not only injured the girl but also infected her with the incurable STD, said Dr. Cynthia Brewer of the Billings Clinic, who examined the girl and testified at Liebas April trial, The Sun reported.

A friend of the victim testified at the trial that she saw Lieba take the young girl after theyd been playing in a park on the reservation, according to court records.

CHILD KILLER PUT TO DEATH IN FIRST OHIO EXECUTION IN 3 YEARS

When interviewed, Lieba initially denied knowing of the kidnapping and never showed contrition or remorse for his actions, authorities said.

A jury convicted him on counts of kidnapping a minor, aggravated sexual abuse and assault resulting in serious bodily injury on a minor.

Defense attorneys said Lieba had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication prior to the kidnapping and could not remember the events.

Judge Brian Morris sentenced Lieba, in U.S. District Court in Great Falls, to 500 months in prison on each count, to be served concurrently, five years of supervised release, and a $300 special assessment, according to a release from the Department of Justice.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Newly appointed White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci spoke out against leaks Wednesday, telling Fox News Hannity, were going to let people go if we have to. Scaramucci claimed that some leaks are coming from senior people who are handing down information to lower level individuals to disclose. Vowing to move quickly, Scaramucci said he plans to seal off the [communications] team from this sort of nonsense.

KASICH ORDERS RIDES SHUT DOWN AFTER DEADLY OHIO STATE FAIR ACCIDENT

At least one person was killed and seven more were injured Wednesday night after an amusement park ride malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair in Columbus. Three of those injured were in critical condition, investigators said. Ohio Gov. John Kasich ordered all rides at the state fair to be shut down until thorough inspections are completed. I am terribly saddened by this accident, by the loss of life and that people were injured enjoying Ohio's fair. Our thoughts and prayers go out to those grieving and injured, Kasich said in a statement.

OHIO TRAGEDY LATEST IN STRING OF US AMUSEMENT PARK MISHAPS

PENCE PRAISES TRUMP'S 'CANDOR' IN SESSIONS CONFRONTATION

Vice President Mike Pence commended President Donald Trumps candor Wednesday night regarding Trumps frustration with Attorney General Jeff Sessions. In an exclusive interview with Fox News Tucker Carlson Tonight, Pence acknowledged that the president was not attempting to hide his disappointment. "I know the Washington way is to talk behind people's backs. But that's not President Donald Trump's approach."

TRUMP-SESSIONS FEUD JOLTS ALABAMA SENATE PRIMARY

KID ROCK TABLES US SENATE RUN, STRESSES VOTER REGISTRATION

Musician Kid Rock left his fans still guessing Wednesday regarding the possibility of a 2018 U.S. Senate run. Rock released statement on his website announcing a new initiative that would promote voter registration but refused to deny the chance of running for Senate in his home state of Michigan. As part of the excitement surrounding this possible campaign, I decided to take a hard look to see if there was real support for me as a candidate and my message or if it was just because it was a fresh new news story, Rock said. He will be holding a news conference in roughly six weeks to address the possibility of a campaign.

VIDEO: IS KID ROCK'S RUN FOR SENATE MORE THAN A PR STUNT?

COMING UP ON FNC

8:00 a.m. ET - Mark Steyn, journalist and author, will be on Fox and Friends

10:00 p.m. ET - Eric Trump, Executive Vice President of the Trump Organization and son of President Trump, will be on "Hannity."

FBN COVERAGE

WHY MILLENNIAL MORTGAGES ARE LITERALLY GOING TO THE DOGS

CORPORATE TAX RATE MAY END UP HIGHER THAN TRUMP WANTS: REP PAUL RYAN

COMING UP FBN

6:30 a.m. ET - Harris Poll, former HRC 2008 Presidential Campaign Chief Strategist will be on "Mornings with Maria."

10:30 a.m. ET - Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the President, will be on "Varney & Company."

1:00 p.m. ET - Fmr. Gov. Tim Pawlenty will be on "Cavuto: Coast to Coast."
The 18-year-old man killed Wednesday when a thrill ride broke apart at the Ohio State Fair had joined the Marines less than a week before the tragedy.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol identified the lone person who was killed Thursday as Tyler Jarrell of Columbus. Seven others, who ranged in age from 14 to 42 years old, were injured when the Fire Ball ride malfunctioned and sent riders flying into the air.

The Marine Corps said in a statement that Jarrell, 18, enlisted on July 21 and wanted to be in the infantry or serve as a combat engineer. He was scheduled to attend basic training at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, S.C. in June 2018.

"Our heartfelt condolences go out to Poolee Tyler Jarrell's family and all of those affected by his loss," the statement said. "The Marines here are greatly saddened by this tragedy. We are truly proud to have known him as one of the brave few willing to step up and serve his country in the United States Marine Corps."

On Saturday, Jarrell's local Marine Corps recruitment station posted to Facebook that he was the first senior from his high school to enlist into the Marine Corps this year.

"Give him one! Tyler Jarrell is the first senior from Franklin Heights high school to enlist into the United States Marine Corps this year. I'm proud to call him my brother," the post read.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich on Thursday promised a thorough investigation into what caused the thrill ride to send riders suddenly tumbling through the air.

KASICH ORDERS RIDES SHUT DOWN AFTER DEADLY OHIO STATE FAIR ACCIDENT

Kasich said he didn't want to speculate about whether inspectors may have missed something or if there was a mechanical failure.

Thats a nightmare, a terrible situation, Kasich told reporters, adding that state officials will do everything they can to make sure the fair is safe.

I dont have a message other than were going to do the best we can, Kasich said.

The fair opened Thursday, but all the rides were shut down and will go through another inspection.

The Dutch manufacturer of the fairground ride involved in the accident, KMG, told The Associated Press in an email that the ride was built in 1998 in the Netherlands and that there are 43 such rides around the world, including 11 in the United States.

OHIO STATE FAIR ACCIDENT SPURS OTHER FAIRS TO CLOSE 'FIRE BALL' RIDES

Bas Derkink told the AP the Ohio accident was the first such serious malfunction on one of the rides, and that KMG technicians are not involved in maintaining the Ohio ride.

Albert Kroon, of KMG, told Dutch National broadcaster NOS that the company was on the phone with rescuers to help them figure out how to free those still in the seats after the accident. Kroon said he was shocked by the accident, and that the company's first priority was "freeing the injured people who were still in the seats."

The deadly accident has spurred some other ride operators and fair officials to shut down similar rides until investigators figure out what went wrong.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Having brought a rugged, six-day North Carolina manhunt to an end, authorities are now desperately searching for the missing owner of the stolen truck the captured fugitive was driving.

Investigators aren't sure how Phillip Michael Stroupe II spent his time since he stole a mountain bike at gunpoint Saturday and pedaled into the Pisgah National Forest, but authorities have put those questions on the back burner as they try to retrace Stroupe's final 17 hours of freedom and find the missing 68-year-old man, Henderson County Sheriff Charles McDonald said.

"We are still in a search mode for Mr. Tommy Bryson. We are holding out hope we will be able to locate him," McDonald said. "But time is of the essence."

Bryson was last seen around 8:40 a.m. Wednesday on a surveillance camera driving away from his home in Mills River to pick up a family member for a medical appointment. He never made it there.

Stroupe was arrested after a two-county chase at 1:30 a.m. Thursday on U.S. Highway 70, west of Marion, about 50 miles (80 kilometers) away. He ran into a tomato field before he was taken into custody. Officers found a gun nearby, McDowell County sheriff's spokeswoman Richelle Bailey said.

The sheriff wouldn't call Stroupe a survivalist, but said he was in good shape and likely had been able to find food and water after he slipped into the woods Saturday. Stroupe was fleeing Transylvania County deputies who wanted him on a break-in charge.

Stroupe also had relatives near where he was arrested, including an aunt who was taken into custody after refusing to leave a law enforcement barricade, authorities said.

Stroupe was a "product of an enabling family and that's been a problem for us," McDonald said. He declined to give further details.

Phone messages left with the families of Bryson and Stroupe were not returned Thursday.

Stroupe faces drug, weapons and fleeing police charges in McDowell County. More charges will likely be filed in Transylvania and Henderson counties from his escape Saturday and what may have happened to Bryson on Wednesday, authorities said.

The search for Stroupe included hundreds of miles in the Pisgah National Forest, parts of which were closed to visitors. The U.S. Forest Service had two camps and two roads closed late Wednesday. It was not immediately clear when those areas would reopen.

An even bigger search area was being used to try to find Bryson, McDonald said at a news conference.

"He had a lot of time to cover a lot more ground. There are things we just aren't certain of at this time," the sheriff said.

Stroupe had just been released from the Yancey County jail July 20 and has spent most of the past two decades behind bars, according to North Carolina prison records.

In 1999, Stroupe was sentenced to more than 18 years, the maximum allowed, for felony robbery with a deadly weapon and as well as breaking and entering and false imprisonment. He was released from prison in April 2015.

Last month, Stroupe was named as a suspect in the armed robbery of a store in Weaverville. A few days later, he was attempting to flee authorities when he rammed a stolen car into a Buncombe County sheriff's deputy's vehicle, authorities said.
The father of one of three U.S. Army Green Berets killed in cold blood by a Jordanian soldier said he does not believe the shooter acted alone, calling the murders an assassination that may have been ordered by someone else.

He acknowledged his suspicions might never be proven, but he said he thinks Jordan is engaged in a cover-up.

I dont trust the Jordanians, said Brian McEnroe, whose son Staff Sgt. Kevin J. McEnroe was killed when a Jordanian security guard shot him at point-blank range on Nov. 4, 2016, as McEnroe and three other U.S. Special Forces soldiers were entering King Faisal Air Base in Jordan, a longtime Arab ally of the United States.

I dont believe theyre being forthcoming about everything that happened, McEnroe said in an extensive interview with Fox News Wednesday. Why did they have to lie and place blame and slander the honor of U.S. soldiers?

I honestly believe that he [the shooter] was not operating on his own, said McEnroe. I believe that Jordan is covering something up and I will always believe that. Whatever that is, we may never know.

McEnroe spoke two days after shocking surveillance video was released by the Jordanian military showing 39-year-old First Sgt. Maarik al-Tuwayha, a member of the Jordanian Air Force, firing rounds of ammunition at the four-vehicle U.S. convoy, even as the American soldiers waved their arms in surrender during the six-minute assault.

McEnroe, however, noted U.S. officials were unable to find a link between the gunman and any terrorist groups.

Kevin McEnroe, 30, of Tucson, died instantly from a bullet to the head, his father said. Staff Sgt. Matthew C. Lewellen, 27, of Kirksville, Mo., and James F. Moriarty, 27, of Kerrville, Tex., were also killed, while a fourth U.S. soldier survived the attack.

Jordan initially said al-Tuwayha fired at the U.S. soldiers because they failed to stop at the gate, claiming certain entry protocols were not followed. The Jordanian military later said the Americans accidentally fired a weapon, prompting the Jordanian guard to believe the base was under attack. The surveillance video as well as the investigation proved both narratives to be false.

Jordan eventually changed its position and charged al-Tuwayha with premeditated murder. The guard pleaded not guilty and insisted he was acting in accordance with open-fire regulations. He said during his testimony he heard a pistol shot and feared the base was being attacked.

The Jordanian Embassy did not immediately respond to a Fox News request for comment.

McEnroe and the other U.S. soldiers were working for the Central Intelligence Agency as part of a covert program training Syrian rebels. The elder McEnroe described in great detail a text message exchange with his son on Nov. 3, the day before he was killed.

I was driving in the car and sent him a quick message and asked if everything was OK, McEnroe said.

He responded immediately and said, Yeah Im fine. Im just very busy here and he said, Tell mom and the boys Ill reach out to them around Thanksgiving and that Im OK.

When the elder McEnroe  accustomed to receiving limited information from his son while overseas -- asked if he was in a safe place, he replied, Oh yeah, its no big deal. Im in Jordan.

In the days following the shooting, McEnroe said military officials told him and other families not to believe Jordanian news reports claiming the U.S. soldiers failed to follow protocols.

Our boys did nothing wrong, McEnroe quoted the officials as saying.

McEnroe  who attended parts of al-Tuwayhas trial in Jordan -- also condemned King Abdullah for allowing his military to push a false narrative that faulted the American soldiers and dishonored their names.

This was an assassination  it wasnt a gunfight, said McEnroe. He [al-Tuwayha] was no more than 5 or 6 feet away from my son when he shot him with an automatic weapon at point-blank range. Mercifully, my son never knew what was happening. He died instantly.

The assertion that he [al-Tuwayha] thought they were under attack was absurd, he said. All the Jordanians at the gate area knew who was coming back. There was only one gate at that air base the same crew that was there when the shooting happened was the same crew there at 8 a.m. when our guys left the base.

The surveillance video was released on Monday in an effort to calm unrest among al-Tuwayhas supporters, who claim hes being unjustly punished by Jordan to appease the United States.

Al-Tuwayha was sentenced on July 17 to life in prison -- a sentence that, in Jordan, can mean 20 years, with time off for good behavior. At his trial, al-Tuwayha said he did not resent the Americans at the base and insisted he opened fire because he feared the base was coming under attack, the Associated Press reported.

As he was led out of the courtroom, al-Tuwayha said: "I have all the respect for the king, but I was doing my job," according to the AP.

The Pentagon, meanwhile, called Jordan a strategic partner on Wednesday and declined to comment on whether any changes were made to force protection measures in the wake of the deadly shooting.

We are reassured to see the perpetrator brought to justice, Defense Department spokesman Adam Stump said in a statement.

We appreciate the access provided to us and to the families of the victims, as well as the expedience and seriousness of the court proceedings, consistent with Jordanian law, Stump said. Despite this tragedy, Jordan remains a strategic partner."

The deadly shooting at the King Faisal Air Base is not the first time U.S. soldiers have come under attack by a soldier of an allied force. Similar incidents have occurred in Afghanistan, including a June 11 shooting in which an Afghan soldier opened fire at a base in eastern Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, killing three U.S. soldiers and wounding a fourth.

Brian McEnroe described the senseless killing of his son  the eldest of three boys  as a stab in the heart of the family.

He was a hero to his twin brothers, he said.

Kevin was a loving person. He had a heart of gold, McEnroe said. He would give anybody the shirt off his back.
A Texas man, who may not have been taking his required medication, is accused of using an ax to destroy several police cars -- in one case leaving the weapon sticking out of a vehicle's smashed windshield.

Jeassy Bobby Cruz, 31, was taken into custody Wednesday after police said he committed a string of crimes over the past week, including slamming an ax into windshields, emergency lights and the body of two marked Keene police cruisers.

Investigators said Cruz may have been off medication he takes to treat a mental illness, which could have contributed to his actions.

Lt. Pat Jones told Fox 4 News an officer was driving past the police station around 2:30 a.m. on Wednesday when he spotted Cruz attacking a cruiser. The officer quickly called for backup.

Fortunately, the subject responded to verbal commands, Jones said. And officers were able to take him into custody without injury to himself or the officers.

The attack on Wednesday marked the end of a crime spree that spanned 10 days, police said.

[Cruz] was involved in a couple of thefts that occurred at some of our restaurants where he would order food and not pay for the food, Jones said, who added that Cruz was also cited for throwing a rock at a neighbors windshield.

Im glad that wasnt my head or another Keene officers head or any other officers head anywhere, Jones said.

Cruz was taken into custody and charged with criminal mischief, however, additional charges could be filed against him. Police have asked a judge to order a mental health evaluation.
A Utah man who was discovered with his dead wife in their blood-splattered cabin aboard an Alaska cruise ship Tuesday night told an acquaintance he killed her because "she wouldn't stop laughing" at him, the FBI revealed in a criminal complaint on Thursday.

Kenneth Manzanares, 39, was charged with murder in the death of his wife Kristy Manzanares, FOX13 reported. An acquaintance came into the cabin and found Manzanares' hands and clothes as well as the walls of the cabin covered in blood, the FBI said.

"She would not stop laughing at me," Manzanares allegedly told the acquaintance.

It's unclear what caused the woman's death, but she was discovered with a severe head wound. Her body was found on the cabin floor covered in blood, court documents stated.

TEACHER, 28, BANNED FROM CLASSROOM AFTER ALLEGEDLY HAVING SEX WITH STUDENT ON PLANE

The couple was aboard the Emerald Princess cruise ship when the man and his wife started fighting about 9 p.m., according to FOX13. The ship was in the middle of a seven-day Alaskan cruise that left on Sunday from Seattle. Passengers said they heard screams through the hallway, and then the captain's voice on the ship's intercom requesting all medical, security and other personnel to the ship's deck 9 and deck 14.

"People were running through the hall with blood all over them and trying to get security," passenger Megan Morr said.

Passenger Brian Eckstrom told KTUU he saw a man walking in the hallway with his jeans soaked in blood and muttering, "It's not good, it's not good."

RECORDS: CHILD'S BODY DECOMPOSING ON ARRIVAL AT HOSPITAL

Witnesses told authorities they saw Manzanares grab his wife's body and drag her to the balcony before bystanders stopped him, according to court documents. Manzanares then allegedly tried jumping off the ship before officers restrained him.

"They were on deck 7 and he tried to run up to deck 9 to jump off the ship, but security grabbed him before he could jump," Morr said.

Manzanares told investigators his "life is over" as they were searching him, according to court documents.

FBI agents swarmed the ship when it docked in Juneau Wednesday morning. Passengers were kept on board for hours before the cruise departed again late that night for the southeast Alaskan town of Skagway.

Princess Cruises said in a statement Thursday that passengers would receive $150 of onboard credit due to the disruptions.

"You feel sorry for the family but a lot of people had to wait," said Lloyd Barrows, a passenger from Alberta, Canada.

Click here for more from Fox 13.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A British teacher accused of recommending a female student masturbate in order to relieve tension has been permitted to keep his job.

The student, who was in Paul Gibbinsons design and technology class at the Magna Carta School in Staines, Surrey, near London, allegedly was told that masturbating was scientifically proven to work for stress relief.

Gibbinson, 49, allegedly later followed up with the student, asking her if she tried that thing yet.

OKLAHOMA SCHOOL DISTRICT PAYS $125,000 TO FAMILY AFTER TEACHER HAD SEX WITH STUDENT

During a misconduct panel with education officials, Gibbinson denied telling the girl to keep the suggestion secret, which was later found to be proven. The panel also proved that he asked her if she had tried it, according to The Sun.

According to a document detailing the incident completed by the National College for Teaching & Leadership, the panel heard evidence from Pupil A that she confided in Mr. Gibbinson as to difficulties she was experiencing at home, and with her boyfriend at the time.

According to the panel, Over the course of the academic year she would regularly speak to Mr. Gibbinson alone in a classroom about her ongoing difficulties.

Gibbinson had been the subject of previous misconduct hearings, but the panel considered them irrelevant. The panel did convict the teacher of unprofessional conduct but said he could continue working because the nature and severity of the behavior was at the less serious end of the possible spectrum.
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The Latest on the escalation in Israel and the Palestinian territories over a contested Jerusalem holy site (all times local):

5:20 p.m.

Israel's Foreign Ministry has issued a scathing response to Turkey's criticism of its security measures at a contested Jerusalem holy site.

The statement is the latest in an intensifying war of words between the two former allies.

Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon says that "it's absurd that the Turkish government, which occupies Northern Cyprus, brutally represses the Kurdish minority and jails journalists, lectures Israel, the only true democracy in the region."

He added that "the days of the Ottoman Empire have passed."

Wednesday's remarks came after Turkey accused Israel of making "arrogant" statements by calling Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's criticism of Israeli security measures at a Jerusalem shrine "delusional, baseless and distorted."

Israel and Turkey re-established diplomatic ties last year, six years after relations were put on hold over the deaths of 10 Turkish citizens in a 2010 Israeli raid on a ship attempting to break a naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

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3:40 p.m.

Israel's police force is acknowledging it is preventing journalists from entering parts of the Old City of Jerusalem as part of its efforts to lower tensions around a contested holy site.

Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld says Wednesday that "journalists are being prevented from coming in those specific areas where there have been disturbances and riots." He says it is a decision made by the Jerusalem police district.

Reporters have complained this week that they were being preventing from covering the unrest around the shrine while tourists were able to freely move about the city and film with their mobile phones.

The Foreign Press Association says journalists have been shoved and it has created "a dangerous situation" where accredited journalists were blocked from doing their jobs.

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1:35 p.m.

The foreign ministries of Turkey and Israel are trading barbs over the crisis at a holy site in Jerusalem.

Turkish Foreign Ministry Spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu on Wednesday accused Israel of making "arrogant" statements after the country's foreign ministry called remarks by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan a day earlier "delusional, baseless and distorted."

In an e-mailed statement, Muftuoglu "condemned" the Israeli ministry's comments and called on Israel to fulfil its responsibilities by "acting with good sense, restoring the status quo (at the holy site) and lifting all hurdles to the freedom of worship."

Mufuoglu said: "Trying to cover up the fact that East Jerusalem is under occupation will not serve peace and stability in the region or the resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict."

On Tuesday, Erdogan had accused Israel of using security measures as a pretext to take over holy sites in Jerusalem from Muslims.

Palestinians claim Israel is trying to cement control over the site. Israel emphatically denies the claims insisting the security measures are in order to prevent further attacks.

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10:15 a.m.

A senior Muslim official in Jerusalem says worshippers won't return to a contested shrine until Israel removes new railings and cameras it installed after a deadly attack there.

Ikrema Sabri says Wednesday that even after Israel removed metal detectors more steps were required. He says mass prayer protests would continue outside the site until the gates of the compound were opened and the metal railings and an iron bridge with cameras on it were removed.

Sabri, the head of the Supreme Islamic Committee, says a lawyer on behalf of the Muslim administration of the holy site will be in touch with Israeli police to demand the changes.

Israel installed new security measures after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site. Under international pressure, Israel removed the metal detectors.

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9:30 a.m.

Muslim worshippers have once again held their morning prayers outside Jerusalem's most contested holy site despite Israel's removal of the metal detectors that sparked the protest.

Wednesday's prayers came a day after Israel seemingly capitulated to the demands of protesters. But Muslim religious leaders have called for prayers to continue outside until delicate arrangements at the site, holy to both Jews and Muslims, return to what they were before Israel installed new security measures. Those measures came after Arab gunmen shot and killed two police officers from within the site.

Israel says the measures are necessary to prevent further attacks while Palestinians claim Israel is trying to expand its control.

Israel decided to remove the metal detectors it installed. It says it plans to install new security cameras instead.
The string of horrific acid attacks that have plagued London continued unabated Tuesday, with the most recent assault sending a pair of victims to the hospital after a corrosive liquid was reportedly sprayed on their bodies while the men walked down a busy street.

Two men, who appeared to be in their late teens, were attacked about 7 p.m. on a busy street in east London, Sky News reported. Video surfaced of the pair stripped to their underwear as firefighters doused them with water for more than 20 minutes in a desperate attempt to wash off the liquid and ease the men's pain.

"They were shouting and I gave them water and they were washing their faces. They said: Weve got acid on us,'" a shopkeeper told The Evening Standard.

"I was really scared. They were crying and saying: Put the water on me,'" the shopkeeper added.

LONDON ACID ATTACKS: BOY, 16, CHARGED AS UK PLANS CRACKDOWN

A police officer at the scene said "the color of [the teens'] faces had changed" after the incident. The two men were hospitalized with non-life threatening injuries, Tower Hamlets police said.

LONDON ACID ATTACKS: VICTIM DESCRIBES 'EXCRUCIATING' ASSAULT, SUPPORTS TOUGHER SENTENCING

The latest incident follows five previous attacks in the the British city earlier this month. In one assault, five men on mopeds were sprayed with the corrosive liquid in separate incidents. One of the five victims was described as being left with "life-changing" facial injuries.

A 16-year-old boy was arrested and charged with 15 offenses in that attack.

The gruesome -- and more frequent -- attacks have prompted UK residents to call for tougher sentences for the perpetrators. The British government said it is considering increasing sentences for acid attacks to a maximum of life in prison.

Click here for more from Sky News.
A 17-year-old British girl who allegedly married an ISIS fighter through Skype was in court Wednesday after police accused her of attempting to assist her Jihadi "husband" in launching a terror attack in the UK.

The teenager, who was not identified to the press, appeared with her lawyer, Vajahat Sharif, who said the girl would plead not guilty to the charges, which also included communicating with an ISIS fighter. The defendant wore a Nike tracksuit and only spoke to confirm her name and age.

The teen allegedly married an ISIS soldier -- through Skype -- who was preparing her for a terrorist attack. The two allegedly discussed the type of weapons to be used, and the teen was suspected of receiving instructions on how to train and use weapons according to the Metropolitan Police. She was also charged with "reaching out to another [person] to receive assistance in completing [the] plan," according to the Guardian.

US SOLDIER ACCUSED OF AIDING ISIS PLEADS NOT GUILTY

The teen was allegedly set to receive pineapples  slang for hand grenades  and a firearm for the pending attack. The Westminster Magistrates' Court said she originally planned to travel to Syria in August 2016.

District Judge Tan Ikram ordered the teen appear in court again on Aug. 11 to face the current charges, as well as another terror offense she was previously charged with.
The Czech Foreign Ministry says a Czech woman who was wounded in a knife attack at a hotel in the popular Egyptian Red Sea resort of Hurghada earlier in July has died.

Thursday's announcement comes a day after authorities said the 36-year-old was on the brink of death and only life support was keeping her alive in a Cairo hospital.

In the July 14 attack, an Egyptian university graduate first stabbed two German women to death and later attacked and wounded four other female tourists who, according to local media reports, were two Armenians, one Ukrainian and the Czech.

The woman was hospitalized with back and leg injuries after the attack.

The ministry says the family doesn't want to reveal any more details.

Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek and Health Minister Miloslav Ludvik offered their condolences.
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A South Korean court on Thursday sentenced the former presidential chief of staff and the former culture minister to prison for blacklisting thousands of artists and denying them state support because they were believed to be unfriendly to ousted President Park Geun-hye.

They are the latest convictions from the corruption scandal surrounding Park, who is jailed and being tried for bribery and other criminal charges.

The Seoul Central District Court sentenced Park's former aide Kim Ki-choon to three years behind bars and former Culture Minister Kim Jong-deok to two years for abuse of authority and other charges.

The court sentenced five other former presidential and government officials to shorter or suspended prison terms over the case.

Following months of massive protests by millions and an impeachment vote in December, Park was formally removed from office and arrested in March over allegations that she colluded with a friend to take tens of millions of dollars from the country's largest companies through bribes and extortion.

Park was indicted in April on bribery and other charges. Prosecutors expanded their investigation to include the blacklisting allegations late last year following a complaint submitted by a group of artists. Prosecutors later said about 9,000 artists were on the presidential blacklist, which reportedly included writers, poets, actors, musicians, painters, and film and theater directors.

The Seoul court agreed with prosecutors that many of the blacklisted artists were unjustly excluded from government funding or participating in government-backed culture projects.
Israeli police and stone-throwing Palestinians on Thursday clashed at a contested shrine in Jerusalem as it reopened 11 days after security installations sparked a Muslim prayer boycott and deepened already fraught tensions between the two sides.



The Old City complex, known as Haram al-Sharif to Muslims and Temple Mount to Jews, reopened in East Jerusalem after Israeli officials removed all security devices from the entrance of the site. Israel had installed the new security measures after a Palestinian terrorist shot and killed two Israeli police officers from within the shrine on July 14.

On Thursday, Muslim leaders urged worshipers to return to the site, but the reopening took a violent turn when Palestinians threw stones at Israeli officers stationed at the entrance gates. Israeli police retaliated by firing tear gas and rubber bullets. The violence escalated when troops closed the gates to the compound.

HAMAS CLAIMS VICTORY OVER ISRAEL IN MOSQUE DISPUTE, CALLS FOR 'DAY OF RAGE'

At least 37 Palestinians were injured by rubber bullets and beatings, The Palestinian Red Crescent told The Associated Press. Several people also reportedly suffered broken bones.

Israel's decision to add security measures, such as metal detectors and cameras, at the site outraged the Muslim community and caused protests in the area. Israeli officials claimed the measures were standard procedures after deadly attacks. Palestinian leaders rejected the claim and called the move a way for the Israeli government to gain more power over the site.

ISRAEL REMOVES OVERHEAD BRIDGE, RAILINGS NEAR HOLY SITE

Palestinians prayed in Jerusalem's streets outside the shrine in the Old City to protest the security measures, and Israel eventually agreed to remove the installations after intense pressure.

Elsewhere in Israel Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called for the death penalty for a Palestinian man who sneaked into a West Bank settlement home last week and killed three Israelis.

Netanyahu on Thursday visited the family of the three Israelis stabbed to death and said that "the time has come for the death penalty for terrorists in extreme cases."

Though Israeli law permits the death penalty, the Israeli government has only put one person to death: Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, in 1962.

Netanyahu said his position in the case of the 19-year-old Palestinian attacker, who was wounded by an off-duty soldier during Friday night's attack, "is that he needs to be put to death."

Several members of Netanyahu's cabinet issued similar calls in the week since the attack.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Let them drink beer?

As North Koreas people starve and its tourism industry takes a hit amid new U.S. restrictions, the rogue regime has canceled a popular beer fest -- while also rolling out a new brew for its people.

Although North Korea abruptly canceled the monthlong festival, people won't be going thirsty in a country where brews are cheap and carry the ruling family's seal of approval.

Last year's inaugural festival along the Taedong River was a surprise hit with tourists and Pyongyang residents alike. This year's event, scheduled to begin Wednesday, was scrapped for unknown reasons at a time when international criticism over the death of an American tourist and the July 4 test of Pyongyang's first intercontinental ballistic missile have left the country's nascent tourism industry in limbo.

North Korea's premier brewery had crafted a new beer for the festival, and unveiled it Wednesday. Taedonggang Brewery's eighth specialty brew has not been bottled yet and does not even have a formal name, but it's available in kegs as draft. Taedonggang beers are generally reputed to be world-class, which is a matter of national pride among many North Koreans.

The isolated dictatorship has been pushing tourism hard as a revenue stream, but the case of Otto Warmbier and others has raised safety and ethical concerns among potential foreign customers.

President Trump is expected to soon formally announce a ban on travel to the country by American citizens after the death of Warmbier, a college student who was jailed for allegedly trying to steal a propaganda banner while visiting North Korea. He fell into a coma soon after his March 2016 sentencing, yet Pyongyang revealed nothing about his condition for more than a year. The North allowed him to return to the U.S. last month, but he died days after coming home.

Han Hyong Chol, head of quality management, told The Associated Press that Taedonggang's brewery pumps out 53,000 gallons of beer every day to meet the demand of beer drinkers in the North Korean capital  a city of about 3 million  where it's distributed to 160 beer halls.

According to brewery history, the plant on Pyongyang's outskirts was built at the order of Kim Jong Il, current leader Kim Jong Un's father, in 2001 and began production the following year.

The brewery courtyard features a large mural of Kim Jong Il wearing a white lab coat and holding a trademark green Taedonggang bottle while smiling broadly before a production line. Several larger-than-life photos of Kim conducting "on-the-spot guidance" hang in brewery production halls.

"He instructed our managers and technicians that as a socialist country we must provide the people with the best beer in the world," a guide replied when asked what kind of guidance Kim had to offer.

The state-run brewery employs about 700 people, but is mostly automated. It takes about 20 days to produce each batch of beer.

Han also had no comment on the sudden cancellation of the beer festival, though it's certainly another serious hit to the reputation of tourism in North Korea.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Russia used fake Facebook accounts to try to access personal data on associates of candidate Emmanuel Macron during Frances 2017 presidential election, a report says.

Citing unnamed sources, Reuters reported a total of 12 bogus Facebook accounts were created, in the names of friends of members of the Macron camp, in a bid to spy on the election's eventual winner, the report said.

Reuters said it received the information from an unnamed U.S. congressman and two other people who were briefed on the matter.

Although Russia has continued to deny allegations of election meddling, U.S. intelligence agencies confirmed Russias involvement in a May conversation with Reuters. However, those intelligence officials could not verify that the Kremlin was behind the hacking.

Facebook employees became aware of spying during the first round of the French election, and the social networking company confirmed to Reuters the presence of bogus accounts in France that were subsequently deactivated and deleted. It is not believed the hackers were able to give away any personal information or download malicious software.

However, Macron campaign officials had content of their emails leaked online in the final days of the runoff portion of the election.

A unit of the Russian intelligence agency GRU -- the same group believed to be behind U.S. election meddling -- is believed responsible for the effort targeting Macrons campaign, Reuters reported.

The news came as the U.S. House passed legislation Tuesday intended to crack down on Russia, as well as North Korea and Iran. The bill is expected to pass the Senate as well, and await President Trumps signature.

According to the White House, Trump supports a plan to place sanctions on Russia, though that could interfere with his goal of achieving a better relationship with the country.
The bizarre assassination of North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un's estranged half-brother -- a plot that appeared to be ripped straight out of a spy novel -- will reveal a new chapter Friday, when the two women accused of pulling off the caper are expected to plead not guilty to the crime.

Siti Aisyah, of Indonesia, and Doan Thi Huong, of Vietnam, are alleged to have smeared a liquid across Kim Jong Nam's face while he waited for a flight to Macau at the Kuala Lampur airport on Feb. 13.

The liquid was later identified as a banned VX nerve agent that authorities said killed Kim within 15-20 minutes. Pyongyang is suspected of being behind the murder.

"VX only requires 10 milligrams to be absorbed into the system to be lethal, so I presume that the amount of dose that went in is more than that," Malaysian Health Minister Subramaniam Sathasivam told reporters in February. "The doses were so high and it did it so fast and all over the body so it would have affected his heart, it would have affected his lungs, it would have affected everything."

Kim died en route to the airport after falling ill at the airport.

The women, who are the only suspects in the case and face a possible death penalty if convicted, claim they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank on unsuspecting men for a hidden-camera TV show.

Aisyah, 25, was recruited by a North Korean man known as "James" in early January to star in prank videos, her lawyer, Gooi Soon Seong, has said.

Huong, 29, was caught on airport surveillance video on the day of the murder wearing a white jumper emblazoned with the letters "LOL"  an acronym for "laughing out loud."

Security video showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in the crowded terminal.

A South Korean spy agency said the assassination was part of a five-year plot by Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. Kim Jong Nam had spoken out publicly against his familys dynastic control of the nuclear-armed nation.

North Korea has refused to publicly accept that the dead man was the leaders half-brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korea and other "hostile forces" in blaming the North.

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
A 28-year-old British physics teacher was indefinitely banned from the classroom after she was reportedly caught having drunken sex with a student in a plane bathroom -- and on Thursday police said they were investigating the allegations.

Eleanor Wilson, of South Gloucestershire, was coming back from a July 2015 school trip to Switzerland with students when she started flirting with a boy near the back of the plane while she was taking care of another student who was sick, Metro UK reported.

Wilson, who was intoxicated, and the boy - whose age has not been revealed - went into the planes bathroom and engaged in several sexual acts including unprotected sex, a disciplinary panel heard.

The boy was also reportedly drunk after having at least five mini bottles of wine.

Their tryst did not end there and the two allegedly continued the relationship with texts and meetings for drinks. The student admitted to the panel that they were in a relationship and that he loved her.

The head of the school allegedly learned of the relationship in September 2015 and, after speaking to Wilson, no action was taken because there was no corroborating evidence. Several months later, she again denied meeting with the student outside of school and having sex with him.

The student told the panel that Wilson told him to keep quiet about their relationship and to delete all his texts from her while the school investigated.

The relationship eventually came to light eight months later, when Wilson received an email from another student who said he would reveal everything unless she had sex with him.

Wilson had previously denied allegations that the pair had sex and claimed they simply hugged on occasion. She also admitted that they met up outside of school, but denied they drank alcohol.

She was not in attendance at the panels hearing.

Wilson had worked at the school since 2013. After returning from Switzerland, she told a school newsletter: The trip will provide a real source of inspiration for our young people as they continue with their studies and think about their future career paths.

She was dismissed in May 2016.

The disciplinary found Wilson guilty of all but two allegations. They concluded that while she did let students drink and consumed alcohol herself on the school trip, it was not sexually motivated.

The panel banned Wilson from teaching indefinitely in any school and ordered she cannot apply to a teaching job.

But The Bristol Post on Thursday said police were now looking into the allegations.
EXCLUSIVE: Despite years of zero tolerance of the sexual abuse crisis by United Nations peacekeepers, the U.N. peacekeeping mission in the Central African Republic (CAR), which has been at the center of the worst U.N. sexual abuse scandal in years, is still a bureaucratic shambles when it comes to recording, investigating and keeping track of those crimes, as well as training its personnel to avoid them, according to a U.N. internal report.

Among other things, the 23-page document itemizes the controversial missions spotty and often-delayed record-keeping of sex abuse allegations, glacial follow-up on investigations, lack of risk assessment examinations of potential problems at more than half of its 37 operating bases where sexual abuse allegations have occurred, and other jaw-dropping issues of delay and neglect.

The leadership of the 10,700-member peacekeeping force, known by its acronym of MINUSCA, has not yet even come up with a final version of a communications campaign to encourage the battered citizens of CAR to repel and report peacekeeper sexual abuse -- or enough safe places where alleged victims of such crimes can report the abuse in private.

The main reason, the report says, is that the vital outreach program had to be included in the mission-wide communication strategy that was still pending finalization by the MINUSCA Public Information Office.

The snapshot provided by members of the U.N.s watchdog Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) of MINUSCAs sloppy and erratic efforts to handle the sexual abuse crisis go a substantial way to illustrate what U.N. critics have long called its pernicious culture of impunity regarding sexual abuse, which the U.N.s top leadership has said repeatedly it intends to eradicate.

The most recent battle cry was offered by the current Secretary General, Antonio Buterres, who launched his anti-sexual abuse campaign in March, little more than two months after taking office.

The OIOS probe of MINUSCAs so-called conduct and discipline function: includes a promise by the missions own top officials that the problems of lack of oversight, chronic understaffing of units supposedly battling the abuses, and blatant neglect are supposed to be cleared up by Oct. 31, 2017.

That will be more than three years after ugly revelations of sexual exploitation of young children by non-U.N. peacekeepers in what was then a U.N.-mandated mission in CAR first detonated. It also will be nearly two years after an independent panel of experts excoriated a number of then-Secretary General Ban Ki-moons top officials for trying to cover up the scandal and punish whistleblowers who tried to stop the abuse by stepping outside the U.N.s closed reporting systems.

The October cleanup deadline also will be nearly eight months after Guterres launched his zero-tolerance campaign, which has involved virtually endless internal U.N. dialogue as well as discussions at two ponderous high-level international meetings.

Another of these events is yet to come: a High-Level Meeting on the Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse on Sept. 18, alongside the opening session of this years U.N. General Assembly.

The event will feature dignitaries from countries that contribute peacekeepers who have signed a Voluntary Compact to fortify strictures against sexual abuse, and a lengthy session on identified gaps, solutions and sustaining efforts to prevent and response to the ugly crimes, which have so badly dented the U.N.s blue-helmeted reputation.

Whether the paper-signing will solve anything is another matter, observes Paula Donovan, co-director of AIDS-Free World, a non-government organization whose Code Blue campaign has been at the forefront of pressing the U.N. to end its culture of impunity on sexual abuse.

When asked by Member States, U.N. headquarters points to new guidelines and procedures as proof of its progress, Donovan notes. But policies are useless unless theyre implemented.

All the more so, as Code Blue has argued, when disciplinary measures for sexual abuse and much of its investigation lie with the countries that supply peacekeeping troops. The gadfly organization has lobbied for an independent panel of investigators and legal experts to take over those functions, and end a U.N. conflict of interest on the sexual abuse nightmare.

The OIOS report on MINUSCAs conduct and discipline function surrounding sexual abuse and other crimes offers proof that effective implementation hasnt arrived in one of the most turbulent countries in the ravaged center of Africa, where marauding political factions and warlords once again threaten a tissue-thin fabric of stability.

OIOS took two months to carry out its conduct and discipline auditfrom September to December 2016, two years after MINUSCA became a fully-controlled U.N. peacekeeping force in September 2014.

By then, the independent panel report excoriating the U.N. for its earlier buck-passing and cover-up was nearly a year old. Concerns about continuing rampant sexual abuse in CAR, however, was still on the rise: 120 members of one Congolese peacekeeping battalion in CAR were repatriated in February 2016 on sexual abuse-related disciplinary grounds.

The rest of that unit is still in operation in CAR even though the top U.N. commander there has called the troops unable and even unwilling to fulfill operational tasks.

Bureaucratically, at least, MINUSCAs leadership could claim to be trying to cope with the problem. In November 2015 -- more than a year after the U.N. took over full control of peacekeeping in CAR -- a special SEA prevention task force was established, along with a joint SEA prevention team operating at the missions headquarters.

As the report delicately put it, MINUSCA 'did not prioritize the allocation' of reporting space, despite repeated requests from its own conduct and discipline team to do so.

That was three months after then-Secretary General Ban Ki-moon fired the head of the U.N.s peacekeeping mission in CAR and pronounced himself angered and ashamed by the continuing reports of sexual abuse.

In response to questions from Fox News, the U.N.s Department of Peacekeeping Operations declared that a sample of cases reviewed by the OIOS auditors revealed a decreasing trend in the number of reported allegations from the establishment date of these preventive measures.

Creation of the new headquarters task force and team evidently allowed the OIOS investigators to observe blandly in the early pages of their report that MINUSCA took preventive measures to maintain discipline among uniformed personnel. They also said diplomatically that the mission participated in a program to implement a victim assistance mechanism as part of the Organizations strategy on remedial action to address misconduct.

But actual communication of the program to potential victims, they revealed, is still on the waiting list. And when it comes to offering potential victims efficient, safe, confidential, transparent and accessible mechanisms to make allegations -- including private meeting rooms, and secure email addresses -- only two of four outposts visited by OIOS auditors actually had such things. One conduct and discipline officer used his living quarters for such confidential meetings instead.

As the report delicately put it, MINUSCA did not prioritize the allocation of reporting space, despite repeated requests from its own conduct and discipline team to do so.

The same attitude apparently applied to educating peacekeepers against sexual abuse.

According to the report, MINUSCA is supposed to provide adequate and effective training on standards of conduct, and keep records of the training. OIOS declared instead that 58 percent of MINUSCAs military personnel and 50 percent of its civilian staff failed to attend the sessions.

When MINUSCAs own small conduct and discipline team objected to the numbers, OIOS found that the peacekeeping mission was unable to provide attendance sheets for 54 percent of those who supposedly went to the sessions.

The same went for risk assessments of locations, especially troop bases, where sexual and other misconduct might occur.

According to the report, no risk assessments were carried out on 19 of 37 operating bases where incidents of SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] had been previously reported and investigated.

Those bases, many apparently in far flung and conflicted areas of the country, hosted roughly 10 percent of the entire MINUSCA military force.

(One of the areas where risk assessments were skipped was a town named Bangassou --where two U.N. peacekeepers were killed last week by marauding elements. All told, according to the U.N., nine peacekeepers have been killed around the town since January.)

Moreover, even when recommendations for change were made, they were apparently ignored. According to the report, nine recommendations involving U.N. camps in three CAR towns were not implemented -- including serious security measures, such as fencing of the perimeter of troop encampments, which also serve defensive purposes.

The same difference between actions on paper and actions in the real world apparently applied to keeping track of actual allegations of sexual misconduct or other wrongdoing.

According to the OIOS inspectors, they reviewed one-third -- 40 -- of 120 cases of serious allegations over the two-year period, and discovered that MINUSCA did not upload required supporting documents to an automated tracking system-- a 40 percent rate of neglect.

Some of the lapses were far from small: In ten cases, the auditors noted, MINUSCA did not record the date of receipt-- which would be the baseline for any investigation.

Result: the tracking system was unreliable, as the auditors primly put it, and there was a risk of delays in conducting investigations or allegations not being investigated due to the lack of evidence.

(The U.N.s public tracking system for sexual exploitation and abuse so far lists 29 incidents for 2017, including nine from MINUSCA -- about one-third of the total.)

MINUSCAs conduct and discipline officers are supposed to follow up on sexual abuse investigations every three months, or six months if the effort was being made by a troop-providing country, to make sure that the probes are expeditiously carried out. But the OIOS report says MINUSCA had not set up a tracking system to keep the investigations in the spotlight, so in five cases where the U.N. was investigating, any follow-up took anywhere from eight to 15 months, while in other cases it took around half a year.

When it came to reviewing actual investigation reports -- the stage when decisions about what to do next would be made -- there was similar lethargy. MINUSCAs conduct and discipline unit managed to review four sexual abuse investigation reports within a mandated 15 days; another eight took an average of 42 days each.

CLICK HERE FOR THE MINUSCA REPORT

In its defense, MINUSCAs managers noted that they were under-budgeted for their conduct and discipline functions in 2014-2015, when the sexual abuse scandal in CAR began its most furious boil, and declared that the resultant understaffing was a substantial part of the problem.

The budget was hiked from $1.3 million to $4 million the following year (U.N. peacekeeping budgets extend from mid-year to mid-year], and its discipline staff apparently is more than doubling, from 7 to 16.

The peacekeeping missions management noted that a full-time dedicated reporting officer, responsible for keeping track of SEA allegations, was also appointed in October 2016 -- which, as it happens, was about a month after the OIOS inspectors started their examination of how MINUSCA was faring.

What none of the management defenses note, however, is why grave and reputation-damaging crimes such as sexual abuse, including the rape of children, had to wait on the slow grinding of the UN budgetary cycle rather than get immediate emergency financial attention.

What none of the management defenses note, however, is why grave and reputation-damaging crimes such as sexual abuse, including the rape of children, had to wait on the slow grinding of the U.N. budgetary cycle rather than get immediate emergency financial attention.

In response to questions from Fox News, U.N. peacekeeping officials indicated in carefully worded general terms that the kind of lapses, delays and bizarre lack of attention spotlighted in the watchdog OIOS report on MINUSCA were not happening at the other 15 U.N. peacekeeping missions around the world.

As their response put it: All finalized OIOS internal audit reports on Conduct and Discipline are in line with the implementation of our . . . strategy, including public outreach activities. There are no audits of Conduct and Discipline in progress.
Dulles-based electrical engineering and systems integration firm M.C. Dean has announced a $10 million expansion of its Caroline County operation that could result in 60 new hires this year, according to county officials.

For a decade, M.C. Dean has owned a 172-acre property with a 62,000-square-foot fabrication facility and about 200,000 square feet of warehouse space off Colemans Mill Road.

To increase prefabrication capabilities at the facility, M.C. Dean has invested more than $1 million into site improvements in the last year, along with the planned expansion. In June, the firm purchased an additional 146 acres for expansion.

M.C. Dean is incredibly proud of its Caroline County operations, said Sharon Hawkins, M.C. Dean marketing director. There are obvious benefits in terms of construction quality and safety, and the facility allows the firm to perform testing and simulation activities to verify and validate a system design long before it is scheduled for installation on the project site. Clients are blown away by what we are doing in Caroline.

According to a press release from Caroline officials, M.C. Dean is in talks with the Caroline County Public Schools vocational and education program, and the countys Department of Economic Development regarding initiatives to encourage apprenticeship.

Apprentices working in M.C. Deans Caroline County facility are registered with the Virginia Department of Labor and attend school through Associated Builders and Contractors, Virginia Chapter. The four-year program gives students the opportunity to receive a journeyman license.

Caroline County Board of Supervisors Chairman Jeff Black said in a press release about M.C. Deans investment, As an educator, I recognize that the graduation-to-work project being developed is a major win for our youth, and yet another win for our public schools. Our students will know what they are studying for: a great career at a great company.
FREDERICKSBURG

Christ Lutheran Church, 1300 Augustine Ave., is accepting registration for the 2017-18 school year. For more information or to schedule a tour, contact Martha Coleman at 540/373-5087 or preschool@christ-lutheran-church.org; or visit christ-lutheran-church.org/ministries/preschool.

First Christian Church, 1501 Washington Ave., offers Drive-Thru Prayer and Dial-A-Prayer on Wednesdays from 6-7 p.m. The Drive-Thru Prayer is held under the carport in the parking lot. To reach Dial-A-Prayer call 540/373-7716. 1stchristianchurchfredva.org.

Fredericksburg United Methodist Church, 308 Hanover St., will host Children of Eden in Kobler Hall today at 2 and 7:30 p.m., Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m., and Aug. 5 at 2 p.m. $15 for adults and $10 for students. Tickets available at stagedoorproductions.org or at the door.

Lifepoint Church, 1400 Central Park Blvd., will hold a pop-up praise and worship/prayer event today at Market Square, 907 Princess Anne St. The DJ will start at 1 p.m., and the show will be 1:30-2:30 p.m. 540/786-5111; info@lifepoint.org; lifepoint.org.

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 309 Wolfe St., will conduct baptism on Sunday at 10 a.m., followed immediately by its regular fifth Sunday service.

The Presbyterian Church, 810 Princess Anne St., will host Out of Chaos, a music concert, Thursday at 7:30 p.m. to benefit the Presbyterian Disaster Assistance. Four local flautists will perform the music of Handel, Stamitz, Taktakishvili, Gade and Piazzolla.

Women in Worship Ministries Excel Awards Honors Luncheon will be held at the Fredericksburg Expo Center, 2371 Carl D. Silver Parkway, on Sept. 9, 11:30 a.m. The guest speaker is Caressa Cameron. $45 adults, $25 students with ID. Limited tickets available until Aug. 31 at 540/661-2013; womeninworshipministries.org; or Eventbrite.

SPOTSYLVANIA COUNTY

Eastland United Methodist Church, 10718 Courthouse Road, will host a gospel sing today at 6 p.m., featuring The Masters Hand Quartet. Free admission. Food will be available in the church annex.

Goshen Baptist Church, 9800 Gordon Road, holds meeting on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month for American Heritage Girls or Trail Life. 540/786-7500.

Hope Aglow Empowerment Church, 125 Olde Greenwich Drive, will provide food assistance to those in need every first and third Saturday 9-10 a.m. 540/899-2191; hopeaglow.org.

Piney Branch Baptist Church, 10727 Piney Branch Road. The Christian Womens Ministry will sponsor a free Outdoor Moving Night, today at 8:30 p.m. Bring blankets or lawn chairs to enjoy the inspirational movie On Angels Wings. Hot dogs, popcorn, chips and drinks will be served. The Spotsylvania Sunday School Union Rites of Passage Graduation will be held Sunday at 10 a.m., followed by Sunday school at 11 a.m. Worship service will begin at noon. Lunch will be served immediately following the worship service. There will be no Hour of Power morning service. 540/786-7045.

St. Judes Catholic Church, 10725 Courthouse Road. A new season of the program Seasons of Hope, to help those persons who are grieving the loss of a spouse, will start on Aug. 8 at 10 a.m. in the Activity Center and run for six consecutive Tuesdays. Members of other parishes and faiths are welcome. For more information or to register, call 540/891-7350.

Trinity Bible Church, 6331 Campus Drive, holds a midweek Bible study Wednesday at 7 p.m. on the Book of Revelation. The church will also continue to host Sunday evening AWANA ministry from 5-7 p.m. admin@tbc.me.

Zion United Methodist Church, 8700 Courthouse Road, the early Celtic worship service, a half-hour service based on the Celtic Daily Prayer Book 2, is changing to 8:45 a.m. Messy Church, a creative, hands-on church that isnt church, meets the last Sunday of each month in the fellowship hall from 4-6 p.m. A simple meal is included. All ages welcome. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Free. 540/582-6532.

STAFFORD

Andrew Chapel United Methodist Church, 1732 Brooke Road, Stafford, will host Vacation Bible School Aug. 7-11 from 9 a.m. until noon for children ages 3 to 11. 540/659-2461; andrewchapelumc-staffordva.com.

Berea Baptist Church, 28 Fleet Road, welcomes Zach Farrow, minister of music and youth, as speaker for the 11 a.m. worship services on Sunday and Aug. 6. A called business meeting will follow Sundays service. The mission project for July is collecting full-size backpacks for homeless children within the Rappahannock region through Loisanns Hope House. 540/752-4406; berea-baptist.org.

Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church, 135 Chapel Green Road, will have Family and Friends Day service Sunday at 10 a.m. The Rev. Perry Scranage of Restoration Worship Center, King George, will be guest preacher.

Regester Chapel, 85 Bells Hill Road. The Childrens Center has openings for the morning out program for twos and threes. Preschool is ages 3, 4 and 5. 540/720-7860.

St. Matthias United Methodist Church, 426 Deacon Road, will hold Hero Central Vacation Bible School from Aug. 7-11, from 9 a.m. to noon, for kids from age 4, as of Sept. 30, through rising fifth grade. Register at cokesburyvbs.com/stmatthias; or 540/373-8759. stmatthiasumc.org.

KING GEORGE COUNTY

Shiloh Baptist Church, 13457 Kings Highway. The Rev. Dr. Joel Nelson, pastor of New Destiny Baptist Church, Spotsylvania, will lead revival, Aug. 4-6. This years theme is Shine, Jesus, Shine. A free supper will be held Friday night at 6:15 p.m., with revival and music by Anthony Campbell at 7 p.m. A prayer breakfast will be held Aug. 5 at 9 a.m., followed by a free community car wash and an opportunity to fill a pickup truck with food and toiletries for King George Social Services; a free supper will be served at 5:15 p.m., followed by revival with music by the New Destiny Choir. On Aug. 6 at 11 a.m., Dr. Nelson concludes with a homecoming service and music by the Shiloh Music Ministry. A homecoming luncheon follows. 540/7754646; kgshiloh.org.

St. Stephens Baptist Church, 9142 Comorn Road, will host its annual homecoming revival celebration services starting on Aug. 13 with Pastor Robert J. Williams Jr., assistant pastor of St. Paul Baptist Church, Capitol Heights, Md. Fellowship and lunch at 1:30 p.m., worship at 3 p.m., and Monday through Friday with Pastor Alfred Jones, Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Triangle, at 7:30 p.m. No Sunday school.

Trinity United Methodist Church, 9425 Kings Highway, will hold Vacation Bible School Sunday through Thursday at 6 p.m. A free supper will be provided nightly at 5:30 p.m. Information and registration may be found at trinitykg.org/vbs.html.

CAROLINE

Jericho Baptist Church, 8435 Jericho Road, Ruther Glen, will have homecoming on Aug. 6 at 11 a.m. Pastor Raleigh Harris will bring the message that morning; Pastor Alfred Jones and Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Triangle, will be the guests at 3 p.m. Revival will be held Aug. 8-11 at 7 p.m. Pastor John Kenney of Third Baptist Church, Hampton, will be the guest speaker.

Long Branch Baptist Church, 14297 Long Branch Road, Woodford, will observe Family and Friends Day on Sunday, starting with breakfast at 9 a.m. Sunday school will be held at 10 a.m., and at 11 a.m. Pastor Morris Oliver will bring the morning message. The combined choirs will render the music. 540/373-0690.

Round Oak Baptist Church, 15025 Pepmeier Hill Road, Woodford, will provide Snack Packs for kids every Thursday evening through Aug. 10. From 6-7 p.m., families who regularly rely on school lunches to help feed their children throughout the school year can come and get a Snack Pack for free. roundoakchurch.org.

St. Stephens Baptist Church, 29436 Sparta Road, Milford, will celebrate homecoming on Aug. 13. The recipients of the Amazing Grace Scholarships and the P.E Boyd Byrd Scholarship will be announced during the 11 a.m. service. Dinner will be served following the morning service. The Rev. Stephen Pugh, pastor of the Mt. Poole Baptist Church, Dinwiddie, will bring the message at 2:30 p.m., and music will be rendered by the Mt. Poole Baptist Church Choir. The 145th church anniversary will be celebrated Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. with worship leader Jeremie Zjae Roberts, music from Just Believe and laughter led by comedians TinMan, Boogie and Moe Freeman of Richmond.

ORANGE COUNTY

Mt. Zion Baptist Church, 4288 Governor Almond Road, Locust Grove, will celebrate homecoming on Aug. 6. Pastor Sanford Reaves Jr., will lead the 11 a.m. service. Dinner will be served immediately following the morning service. The Rev. Bobby Ford of Free Union Baptist Church, Culpeper, will lead the 3 p.m. service. Revival will be held Aug. 7-11, beginning with Devotion at 7:30 p.m. Service is at 8 p.m. 540/854-5575.

New Hope Baptist Church, 32250 Old Plank Road, will host its annual homecoming celebration on Aug. 6 at 11 a.m., marking 160 years of worship. Revival services will be held Aug. 7-11 at 7 p.m. 540/854-4454; info@newhopebapt.org; newhopebapt.org.

Rhoadesville Baptist Church, 26042 Lafayette Drive, will host a Car, Truck & Bike Show on Aug. 19 from 10 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Vehicle entry is $10 in advance, $15 on the day of the show. Vendor space is available for $20. Trophies, raffles and concessions will be available. Proceeds benefit the churchs capital improvement fund. 540/854-4060 or 540/229-9337. Rain date is Aug. 26.

CULPEPER COUNTY

Beulah Baptist Church, 9297 Eggbornsville Road, Rixeyville, will host a Youth Lock-In from Friday at 7 p.m. to Saturday at 7 a.m. Pre-K to teenagers are welcome. 540/937-5563; bbc9297@gmail.com. Dr. Kenneth Pitts, pastor, hosts a conference call Bible study every Wednesday from 7-7:30 p.m. Free dial-in 302/202-1118; access code: 862090.

New Salem Baptist Church, 8233 Sperryville Pike. Church youth will hold a car wash today at the Tractor Supply, 588 Culpeper Town Square, from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. 540/825-6614; nsbaptistchurch.org.

St. Stephens Episcopal Church, 115 N. East St. (parking at 120 N. Commerce St.) A Healing and Holy Communion service is held each Wednesday at noon. All are welcome to receive anointing oil and healing prayers. For more information contact 540/825-8786 or ssec@ststephensculpeper.net. ststephensculpeper.net.

REGIONAL

First Baptist Church, 5340 Tidewater Trail, Loretto, will observe Trustee Day on Sunday. Bishop Darryl K. Williams will preach the 12:30 p.m. service. Lunch will be served at 2:30 p.m., and Pastor Antonio Baker from Third Mt. Zion Baptist Church, Woodford, will bring the Word of God accompanied by his choir, ushers, officers and congregation at 3:30 p.m. Trustees should come in their attire.
Aug. 11-13: Virginia Outdoor Sportsman Show. Richmond Raceway Complex. Presentations by. Virginia Deer Classic contest. More than 175 exhibitor booths. Loads of seminars. Free parking. $5 on Friday. $10 Saturday and Sunday daily/$15 for 3-day pass. Kids 15 and under free. For full schedules see sportsmanshow.com.

Aug. 23: Meeting of the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. 9 a.m. 7870 Villa Park Dr, Suite 400, Henrico.

October 19: Meeting of the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries. 9 a.m. 7870 Villa Park Dr, Suite 400, Henrico.

Oct. 21: Virginia Trappers Association seminar. Learn basic trapping skills from certified instructors. Skills include types of traps, trap selection for various species, demonstrations of different sets and techniques (including coyote); and fur handling. Held 8 a.m.  5 p.m. at Meherrin Volunteer Fire Department, 64 Moores Ordinary Rd, Meherrin, VA. Free. Pre-registration required. Call 434/392-9645 by October 15.

HOW TO SUBMIT:

Email facts, with subject line stating Outdoor Calendar to Ken Perrotte at outdoors@freelancestar.com or mail them to P.O. Box 1069 King George, VA 22485. Send submissions at least two weeks in advance.
The Stafford Sheriffs Office has infiltrated a suspected killers email account in an effort to stop possible witness- and evidence-tampering, court records show.

Ronald A. Silvestre Torres, 23, and Juan Pablo Rubio, 21, both face first-degree murder and other charges in connection with the Jan. 22 slaying of Jorge Leonardo Melo in North Stafford. Melo, 26, was shot and killed on Madison Court during what authorities allege was a drug ripoff.

Both suspects were arraigned Monday in Stafford Circuit Court and a three-day trial is scheduled to start Nov. 28.

According to an affidavit for a search warrant filed recently in Circuit Court by Deputy Moises J. Martinez, investigators requested that Microsoft Corp. provide the email records of Silvestre Torres.

Martinez wrote that Silvestre Torres phone calls from the Rappahannock Regional Jail have been constantly monitored and that the suspect has been heard trying to get an associate to remove names and images from his account. Silvestre Torres told the associate that the information could hinder his case, Martinez alleged.

Martinez also wrote that Silvestre Torres and his associates are members of the MS-13 street gang and that Silvestre Torres has been an active member in the jail. The affidavit states that Silvestre Torres is connected with the Normandie Locos Salvatrucha chapter in Virginia and police claim to have written and oral communications in which he stated his affiliation to the group.

In a preliminary hearing last month, Rubio was also described as an MS-13 member. A witness testified that the two suspects had discussed robbing somebody before leaving for a nearby meeting with Melo.

A friend who was with Melo that evening said Melo was intending to make a marijuana sale. He said Melo was shot after wrapping his arms around one of the suspects who tried to grab the marijuana out of his hand.
Some of the younger members of St. Georges Episcopal Church may soon be walking to the historic Renwick Courthouse building for Sunday Schoolif the church gets City Councils approval.

The Rev. Joe Hensley, the churchs rector, has approached the city about temporarily leasing space on the first floor for religious instruction for grades three through six on Sunday mornings. He said the church has the good problem of having too many people to fit comfortably in its building at 905 Princess Anne St.

City Council will hold a public hearing on St. Georges request when it meets at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 8 in Council Chambers in City Hall, 715 Princess Anne St. Hensley said there is plenty of precedent for a church to temporarily lease space in a government-owned building since a number of churches lease space in schools for services and religious instruction.

He said that he decided to contact the city about leasing space in one of its buildings after learning that the city school systems central office was moving from the former Wallace Library at 817 Princess Anne St. to the WalkerGrant Center at 210 Ferdinand St. He was offered the former records room at the Renwick building at 815 Princess Anne St. instead.

Its across the street, Hensley said. We need something that families can walk to easily. We looked at a variety of options around us and that was one of them.

The lease agreement is still being negotiated, but will probably be for a year and then month-to-month, said Assistant City Manager Doug Fawcett. He said either party would be able to cancel the lease on short notice if necessary.

We understand that the city is likely going to have other plans for that building, Hensley said.

He added that St. Georges lease would be a short-term solution to its overcrowding problem, and the church is considering a number of long-term options. These include rearranging space in its own building or moving some things off the church campus.

There are a lot of different ways that it could go, he said. Were definitely looking.

The Renwick Building was designed by renowned architect James Renwick Jr., who also drew up the plans for the Smithsonian Castle in Washington and St. Patricks Cathedral in New York City. It was constructed in 1852 and served as Fredericksburgs courthouse until the new one was completed in 2014. It has been vacant ever since.

The city hired Commonwealth Architects the following year to perform a historic structure report on the former courthouse building, the old jail, which is located behind it, and the Wallace Library building. A community meeting was held Dec. 7, 2015, to present the Richmond firms findings.

Its not easy to decide what to do with the [Renwick] building, Fawcett said. The building is historical and has certain characteristics that the city government, acting on behalf of the community, wants to retain.

He said that there is no plan for reuse or adaptation of the building, but determining what to do with it is one of the citys priorities over the next three years.

The first step will be to hold a community forum this fall, Fawcett said. Theres not a date yet, but it will probably be in October.
CHINCOTEAGUE  For firefighter James Taylor, its the one day of the year nobody likes him.

The 43-year-old works as the Chincoteague Volunteer Fire Co.s security guard manning one of the reserved docks with a prime view of the 92nd Chinco- teague Island Pony Swim.

Starting at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday, Taylor turned dozens of people away from the dock, used by the fire department and media, and directed them to the marshland below.

Sorry, youve got to go through it, he told several disappointed attendees.

For spectators wanting to get to the nearby shore, wading through soggy, tall grass was the only way. In near darkness, swarms of people slowly made their way, shuffling through the sometimes knee-deep, muddy water.

They lined up along a fence, waiting for the ponies to make the quick 150-yard swim across the Assateague Channel to the east side of the island.

Marley Smith, 11, from Austin, Texas, couldnt contain her excitement. She loves the movie Misty, based on Marguerite Henrys beloved childrens book Misty of Chincoteague. She spent the night before tossing and turning, said her mother, Chris Smith.

At 7 a.m., the moment finally arrived.

Theyre coming, theyre coming! Marley said.

In one of the earliest swim starts many could remember because of the timing of slack tide, the citys famous saltwater cowboys guided about 100 ponies across the water toward a cheering crowd. Slack tide occurs between tides and doesnt have a current.

The swim was over in just four minutes, but worth it, Chris Smith said.

Seeing the pony swim was her daughters dream.

It was so beautiful. It was magical. Even I got a little emotional.

The day before the swim, veterinarian Charles Cameron checked on the ponies, which were corralled on Assateague Island. Dozens of people lined up to see them, their elbows slung over fences, arms pointing at foals lounging in the sun.

This year marked Camerons 28th pony swim. The resident of a small town about 40 miles south spends each spring helping to deworm, vaccinate and do blood tests on the ponies to make sure theyre fit for sale at the annual auction.

Proceeds go to the volunteer fire company. Last years auction brought in $151,550, with 57 ponies sold.

This year we have a younger, healthier herd than weve seen, he said.

On Wednesday, he spent the morning on a boat watching them swim, on standby in case anything went wrong.

After the swim, the ponies took a short rest before walking in the annual parade down Main Street. People dotted the streets along the half-mile parade route. Some spotted ponies they planned to bid on during todays auction.

Teresa Hemphill was at the pony auction a couple of years ago when she fell in love with a colt and told her husband she wanted one. Without missing a beat, he told her that if she found a farm, hed move so they could get a pony.

They returned home to Tennessee that weekend on a Saturday, and by Sunday shed found the farm theyd later move to. They bought it the next week.

At the following years auction, they beat out seven other bids that topped $10,000 for Twinkie, a blue-eyed colt.

My heart was palpitating, Hemphill said. I was so stressed out.

She still tears up watching a video of the couple placing their bids at the auction. She said the moment they won was pure joy.

Back at Chincoteague for the fifth year in a row, Hemphill sported a shirt with Twinkies photo and Twinkies mom written across the back. Her husband, along with aunts and uncles, have shirts to match.

This year, Hemphills husband will be the one bidding on a pony at the auction.

If all goes well, Twinkie will have a friend.



2017 The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.)

Visit The Virginian-Pilot (Norfolk, Va.) at pilotonline.com

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Virginia officials are accepting comments by email until Aug. 25 about whether simple possession of marijuana should no longer be a crime, and advocates for changing the law are encouraging participation.

The study being conducted this year by the Virginia State Crime Commission came at the request of the legislature. Comments or material relevant to the study can be emailed to the Crime Commission at vsccinfo@vscc.virginia.gov. The commission will present study findings on Oct. 5.

Jenn Michelle Pedini, the executive director of Virginia NORMLwhich advocates for reform of marijuana lawssaid the group wants the state to hear the concerns of everyday people.

Seventy-eight percent of Virginians support this type of reform, she said.

Senate Republican Majority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City County led the effort for a study and has said hes open to decriminalization.

Whats being discussed is not legalization of marijuana, but rather changing the penalty for possession of small amounts from a criminal misdemeanor to a civil fine. Some lawmakers have said theyre concerned about the impact of giving someone a criminal record because they had marijuana.

I think that Senator Norment outlined some very salient points to look at. Hes perfectly aware of the data so he wasnt shooting in the dark, Pedini said.

Virginia NORML wants people to avoid diatribes in comments to the state.

What we do want is for you to include a brief personal account of how a marijuana possession charge has collaterally impacted yourself and/or your family, the group wrote in an email to followers this month. Did you lose your scholarship? Your job? Your housing? Your children? Have you had difficulty finding meaningful employment simply because you have a misdemeanor possession conviction?

Separately from the Crime Commission study, the states Joint Commission on Health Care is studying whether marijuana oil is beneficial for treating certain diseases and whether it has any detrimental effects.

The General Assembly has already allowed people with intractable epilepsy to legally use those oils. Lawmakers are considering expanding that to other types of illnesses.

In this years governors race, Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic nominee, said he supports decriminalization of small amounts of marijuana. Libertarian candidate Cliff Hyra wants to legalize marijuana and put it on a level playing field with tobacco and alcohol, thus generating tax revenue, according to his website. GOP candidate Ed Gillespie has said hes opposed to decriminalization.
AMONG other things, Charlottesvilles Weldon Cooper Center for Public Service tries to look into the future. For the Fredericksburg area, that future is bright. It also is challenging.

The Cooper Center recently came out with population projections for Virginia localities in 2025, 2035 and 2045. Looking nearly 30 years down the road is an inexact science, but the projected trends are hard to ignore.

The states "Golden Crescent," stretching down Interstate 95 from Northern Virginia to Richmond and then east on I64 to Hampton Roads, will boom. The Eastern Shore, Southside and Southwest Virginia will shrink. The population of the commonwealth will be demonstrably more urban and suburban and less rural. Its a trend playing out all across the nation.

Martinsville, near the North Carolina border, is projected to shrink from 13,500 residents to 9,500 from the 2016 census estimate to the 2045 projection. Northampton County on the Eastern Shore is projected to go from 12,000 to 10,000. In coal country, Buchanan Countys population is seen as tumbling from 22,500 to 14,673.

In the Fredericksburg area, the trend is just the opposite. The populations of the city and Spotsylvania, Stafford, Caroline and King George counties is projected to rise about 50 percent between 2016 and 2045. The whole state, by comparison, is projected to grow about 25 percent.

If the Cooper Center is correct, there will be about 535,000 of us here in 2045. (Projected 2045 populations: Fredericksburg, 40,944; Stafford, 222,554; Spotsylvania, 192,503; Caroline, 42,177; King George, 37,185.)

Growth is good, but it brings problems if not managed correctly.

Transportation issues will continue to bedevil us unless something changes drastically. A huge number of Fredericksburg-area residents commute to Northern Virginia and D.C. In 2015, according to the Census Bureau, the mean travel time to work for Stafford residents was just over 40 minutes. Imagine I95 with 50 percent more cars on it. All the lanes in the world wont take care of that in 28 years.

We need more good-paying jobs in the area, more reasons for people to get off the interstate and work closer to home.

For those who have to commute, we need better mass transportation. We need buses, ride-shares, more VRE trains and more people who want to ride them.

The Fredericksburg region is lucky. It is not slowly dying away like some areas of Virginia. In order for 2045 to be a very good year for our region, though, that luck needs to be combined with good planning. And it is not too early to start.
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Fujitsu Limited has yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with PT. Telekomunikasi Indonesia, Tbk. regarding a two-year strategic partnership, in which they will pursue the co-creation of digital businesses that leverage advanced network infrastructure in Indonesia.

Based on the MoU, the two companies will move forward to apply cutting-edge technologies, such as the Internet of Things (IoT), to various fields, including smart cities, healthcare, manufacturing and logistics. Their joint initiatives will start from market research, planning and review of digital solutions that utilize the companies' respective strengths, and based on this groundwork, the development, verification, and co-creation of digital businesses.

Background

The prevalence of smartphones and broadband networking that enables high-capacity communications have in recent years led to an enormous expansion in Internet usage in Indonesia. Being a country with a population of over 250 million, even further growth in the digitalization of society as a whole is expected.

Now, working toward this development of Indonesia's digital society, Fujitsu, which continues to provide information and communication technology (ICT) solutions worldwide with the knowledge cultivated from 80 years of experience in network systems, and Telekomunikasi Indonesia, the largest telecommunications services company in the country, have agreed to co-create digital businesses.

Implementation based on MoU

Based on this MoU, Fujitsu Limited and PT. Fujitsu Indonesia (Managing DirectorOdi Handoko) will work together in partnership with Telekomunikasi Indonesia on the following initiatives:

Verification of technical specifications, systems, and service performance related to advanced technology and solutions, such as IoT Assessment of business and service models, including market research Concept verification Service co-creation based on research and review
WASHINGTON (AP)  Westeros is no longer a mans world.

Women are finally calling most of the shots during the seventh season of Game of Thrones. And if recent economic history is any guide, greater gender equality could help make everyone better off. In a peacetime economy, adding women workers increases the pace of growth. But in wartime, adding women workers is a competitive edge.

From her new perch in Dragonstone, Daenerys has gathered the three royal houses supporting her quest to become queen  with each house led by a fellow woman. Up north, Sansa will rule while her kinsman Jon Snow hits the road. Meanwhile in Kings Landing, Cersei is preparing for war with fierce shoulder pads and a giant crossbow in hopes of preserving her crown.

The Associated Press economics team discusses the rise of women in the latest episode of our audio show, The Wealth of Westeros. Stream it here.

Its a sharp transformation for the HBO series that oozed testosterone in earlier seasons. Back then women were often the primary victims of mens constant cruelties. But the ascent of women could be a huge positive for Westeros, just as it was for the U.S. economy. Equality among the sexes is about more than social justice  its often a source of prosperity.

Joining the AP on its latest episode is Neera Tanden, the president and chief executive of the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank. Tanden is a major Game of Thrones fan and said that women sometimes have gotten big strides in economic and political rights during periods of crisis.

But the big question for Daenerys is whether shell decide to order her three dragons to destroy Cersei  an act seemingly in line with the men who were previously king. Daenerys female advisers have encouraged greater aggression, while her male advisers, Tyrion and Varys, pushed for a more restrained approach.

It was like gender roles were reversed, right? Tanden said. The women wanted to come in and use the dragons to slaughter everyone in Kings Landing. The male advisers, said, you know, you dont really want to kill all those people.

Economic growth comes from two major factors. The first is how productive people are for each hour worked  one of the big reasons why Westeros general lack of innovation leaves so many peasants struggling to feed themselves. But the other big factor is how many workers an economy can add, since more people earning daily wages leads to faster growth.

Its the addition of workers where women matter so much. Much of the economic gains from the 1980s and 1990s came because a greater proportion of women started working  and more them started taking jobs that had traditionally been reserved for men. Womens participation rate in the job market peaked around 2001 and has since slipped as the overall growth rate has slowed.

Jon Snow seems to have taken this principle to heart for battling the supernatural White Walkers.

He wants every woman and girl fighting this ghostly brood, not just every man and boy. He also wants women helping to mine for dragonglass, the one obsidian-like material known to kill White Walkers.

The women leading Westeros face the challenge of emulating the men who came before them or blazing their own course.

One of Daenerys allies, the shrewd but grandmotherly Lady Olenna, told her not to follow the advice of wise men but her own instincts as a woman  one with three fire-breathing dragons at her beck and call.

Ive known a great many clever men, Olenna said. Ive outlived them all. You know why? I ignored them. The lords of Westeros are sheep. Are you a sheep? No. Youre a dragon. Be a dragon.

The women wanted to come in and use the dragons to slaughter everyone in Kings Landing. The male advisers, said, you know, you dont really want to kill all those people.  Neera Tanden
If UK farmers are going to tap into Chinas growing middle classes, they need to understand what those consumers and buyers want.

Chinese people like to eat. But what and how they do this is changing rapidly as incomes rise, aspirations change and travel within and outside China becomes easier.

Farmers Weeklys deputy business editor takes a closer look in the second of our Trading with China series. Read the first in the series on opportunities for British farmers .

Imported grocery products are performing strongly as a result, and the consumption of meat, dairy, wine and bakery products is growing rapidly.

This all offers UK farmers export opportunities  both in wholesale and branded products.

But producers  and those making the UKs farming policies after Brexit  will need to understand what drives Chinese consumers if they are to make the most of it (see Why Chinese consumers buy imported food).

See also: China: What opportunity does it offer British farmers?

The first thing to understand is that China is not one homogeneous market, but multiple markets with a mix of lifestyles, cultures, tastes and consumer behaviours, says the China-Britain Business Council (CBBC).

Secondly, exporters should not underestimate the sophistication of many Chinese consumers, or assume that everyone wants to buy Western brands.

China is not a cookie-cutter approach, says Nick Miles, head of Asia Pacific at international grocery research organisation IGD. You have to really tailor what youre doing regionally.

See also: Video: Why China offers UK farmers opportunity

For example, Beijing is hot in the summer and biting in the winter, whereas Guangzhou, more than 2,000km south, has a tropical climate  so what people eat is very different, he says.

Solid market research is therefore vital for any aspiring UK food exporter.

Why Chinese consumers buy imported food

Although there are regional differences, there are still key reasons why Chinese consumers buy imported food. Understanding these is vital to effectively develop and market a product that appeals to one or several of these drivers.

Safety

Many Chinese consumers are deeply anxious about domestically produced food after a number of serious food scandals. Imported food is often seen as safer because of the tough regulations and standards in places such as the EU.

Health and well-being

Chinese people are traditionally very aware of their health, but the country is suffering from heavy pollution, so many are seeking out green, natural and organic products.

Foreign food often commands a premium as it is seen as coming from somewhere with clean air and clean soil, says Karen Morgan, food counsellor at AHDB and Defra in Beijing.

Buying a story or status

Western food and brands are a status symbol for many in the middle class.

Food brands with a strong story to tell and heritage are appealing  and cultural exports can also have a big effect on food trends.

Quality

However, consumers in the more developed cities are becoming more discerning and sophisticated in their spending, says a report by CBBC and Mintel. As a result, such consumers are becoming less brand-loyal and more driven by quality.

Convenience and leisure

More people are accessing foreign brands and food by buying groceries online (see E-commerce  a way in?) and eating out.

The majority of imported food and drink consumed in China is through the food service industry, so there is big opportunity to supply this market with ingredients such as cheese, as consumers increasingly eat in Western-style restaurants.

Welfare

Animal welfare is starting to become a bigger concern for middle and higher earners  something which the UK excels at.

E-commerce  a way in?

One route to market with additional support for smaller companies is Chinas e-commerce sector, which is forecast to grow by 32% every year to 2020, according to IGD.

Driven by increased smartphone use and apps such as WeChat, the countrys biggest social media platform, China now has the largest online grocery market in the world by value.

E-commerce companies include Alibaba (the largest such company in the world), Tmall, Taobao (both owned by Alibaba) and JD.com. And more British companies, such as Sainsburys, and even producers and small processors, are using them as a way in.

We are always looking for new brands of all sizes to work with to help make the most of the Chinese opportunity, says Leah Zhang, international business development manager for Alibaba Group.

However, it is important for these brands to first consider whether there is a demand within China for the products they are offering.

Major UK brands such as Waitrose are already exploiting an enormous Chinese consumer base hungry for UK brands.

How can British brands stand out?

Leah Zhang, international business development manager, Alibaba Group

The greatest allure that UK brands have in China is their link to British culture, which Chinese consumers may have experienced on holiday or got to know through music or films.

Products from the UK are also attractive because theyre commonly perceived as being of a high quality, while Chinese consumers are more open than ever before to trying new things.

Its therefore important that UK food and drink brands really market their distinctiveness, their British authenticity and, most of all, the quality of their products.

What consumers and buyers say

The supermarket buyer: Stay true to quality and Britishness

The most important thing for foreign food producers and brands to focus on is cost and quality, says Scarlet Wang at high-end, Shanghai-based retailer City Shop.

The supermarkets product lines are 70-80% imported, coming from up to 50 countries, including the UK, Germany, France, New Zealand, Singapore and Canada.

Many more people travel and are therefore curious to try new food and drink, says Ms Wang.

In Shanghai its hard to find anyone who has not travelled  its such an open city.

Food is always associated with culture [in China] and the UK is rich in tradition and culture  Chinese people like the UK.

UK food brands therefore need to stay true to their roots and culture when they enter China, because Chinese people recognise these.

The classics remain classic and the quality remains quality.

The young professional: Convenience and safety are most important

Like many of his friends and colleagues, Julian Wang does all his food shopping  including lots of takeaway meals  on his phone using various e-commerce platforms, because he says its easy and convenient.

Its the same price, but I can get it delivered to me in 30 minutes, he says.

Like many young Chinese professionals, he travels for work and has lived abroad  so his tastes are more international, although he mainly eats traditional Chinese food.

However, unlike many middle-income consumers in richer cities such as Shanghai, Julian, who lives in western city Chengdu, is not driven to buy 100% imported food. Most of his meat and fresh produce is domestically produced.

However, he buys all his childrens milk and infant formula online, direct from a New Zealand company, so the quality is guaranteed

The traditional shopper: Imported food is wasteful and not fresh

Its worth understanding who is not a target market for imported and premium foods.

Simply known as Aunty, this retired lady and her husband in Chengdu, western China, are typical of a more traditional, older Chinese shopper.

She gets up early every day to shop at the local market, which is packed with fresh produce and meat from surrounding Sichuan province.

Freshness (and therefore health) and value are the most important things for her and she eats with the seasons.

She thinks imported food is not only lacking in freshness, but is expensive, while eating out is rather excessive and a waste of money.

Her grown-up children, however, who work in the city, buy and eat all sorts of foods and also eat out.
Many show stalwarts returned to the rings of the Royal Welsh Show in style this year (24-27 July) to claim the coveted silverware.

The Wilson familiys Tregibby herd from Ceredigion scooped the dairy double for the second time to make it their seventh interbreed win since 2000.

Taking the champion sash was their five times All Britain nominee Willsbro Goldwyn Kitty 5, out of Ridgefield Allwin Kitty and bought by Hefin Wilson as a yearling for 2,000gns.

See also: Video: 7 weird and wonderful caravans at the Royal Welsh Show

She won interbreed at the show as a second calver and returned to the Royal Welsh ring to reclaim the title, having calved with her sixth in May and giving 60 litres daily.

Pipped to the post by Kitty was the reigning breed champion Jersey and 2015 maiden heifer winner, Tregibby Panama Tequlia.

Exhibited by Hefins 19-year-old son Ifan, she is sired by Tower Vue Prime Tequila and is out of Tregibby Comercia Panama. She calved in October and is due with her third calf in September, currently giving 25 litres.

Beef

It was a female affair in the beef interbreed ring, with two show stalwarts returning to claim the silverware.

Claiming the top spot and retaining her Great Yorkshire interbreed title was the Simmental Popes Princess Cleo, from Jimmy and Vikki Wood, Preston.

The home-bred six-year-old cow went one better than last years Royal Welsh when she took reserve in the interbreed finale.

Sired by Banwy Wonderboy, she is out of Popes Nellys Princess and was shown alongside her two-month-old heifer calf, Immie, by the 20,000gns Kilbride Farm Comber, purchased at Stirling in 2011.

Led by their 20-year-old daughter Hannah Wood, Cleo has earned the family their third breed champion at the Welsh to date.

In reserve was Beef Shorthorn Westhide Zoe, owned in partnership between Mary Cormack, Richard Bartle and Paul Dawes of Dinmore, Hereford.

Sired by Chapelton Waverley and out of Grafton Zoe, she was shown by Mary and Richard with her eight-week-old heifer calf, by Meonhill Firefox, at foot.

It was the second year on the bounce she won breed champion, but her first interbreed title.

Pigs

In the pig ring, the red ticket went to Gwynys Daffodil 1843 R004710WE. It was third time lucky for Huw and Ela Roberts, after coming second in the Royal Welsh Show pig interbreed competition for the last two years.

The 23-month-old champion, sired by Braemor Victor 2, who was bred by Phil Fowlie of Anglesey, has had two litters and is currently in-pig, due to farrow in October.

Mr and Mrs Roberts have 35 sows at home in Pwllheli, Gwynedd, where they also farm beef and sheep. All pigs are sold under their own brand Oinc Oink, largely to farm shops and restaurants.

Daffodil is now off to Anglesey Show, starting on 15 August.

In reserve was Knighton Queen 24284 owned by Julian Collings and shown by his daughter Emma.

Born in July 2014 and purchased privately, Queen was bred by Messrs Tippett and Schofield from Cornwall. She has raised 49 pigs from four litters and is currently in-pig, due to farrow in September.

Mr Collings has 10 British Lop sows at home in Cornwall and has shown seven pigs at the Royal Welsh Show this year.

Sheep

The interbreed champion in the sheep ring was given to a Texel ewe shown by Robert Bennett of DN Bennett and Son, Meifod, Powys.

The five-month-old home-bred ewe is sired by Eden Valley Wiz Kid and this is her first red ticket, having only previously been shown at the Shropshire and Borders Texel Club Progeny Show. Mr Bennett runs his own flock of 35 Texel ewes.

The reserve went to a Beulah Speckled Face sheep owned by Alun and Eirwyn Richards from Cwmcelynen Farm, Pumpsaint.

It was the first time out for the home-bred yearling ewe sired by a ram bought from Mervyn and Jackie Price of Llanafan.
July 26

Brandon M. Alen, 32, of Meridian, Idaho was arrested on a warrant at 2015 Idaho St. for theft; burglary; three counts of intent to utter fictitious bill, note or check; and three counts of obtaining money, property or labor under false pretense. Bail: $96,140

  

Richard W. Bird, 25, of Elko was arrested at Fifth and Wilson streets for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor, possession of a controlled substance, and use or possession of drug paraphernalia. Bail: $6,640

  

Cesar Bravo-Castaneda, 24, of Elko was arrested on a warrant at the Elko County Jail for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. Bail: $495

  

Kaylee M. Danison, 20, of Elko was arrested on a warrant at the Elko County Jail for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. Bail: $490

  

Lee E. Elenz, 24, of Kearnes, Utah was arrested by a citizen for trespass not amounting to burglary. Bail: $355

  

Jason Garcia, 26, of Wendover, Utah was arrested for two counts of failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. No bail listed.

  

Brent E. Hanks, 45, of Elko was arrested at 161 Adams St. for two counts of domestic battery. Bail: $6,280

  

Colleen N. Hustead, 49, of Carlin was arrested on a warrant at 310 Cedar St. for failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. No bail listed.

  

Dylan E. Jerome, 22, of Spring Creek was arrested at the Elko County Jail for two counts of failure to appear after bail on a felony. Bail: $55,000

  

Alex M. Knudson, 24, of Elko was arrested on a warrant on Court and Second street for two counts of failure to appear after bail on a misdemeanor. Bail: $1,430

  

Anthony J. Martinez, 20, of Spring Creek was arrested on a warrant at 3019 Idaho St. for failure to appear after bail on a felony. Bail: $10,000

  

Jonathan D. Martinez , 20, of Wells was arrested at the Elko County Jail on a warrant for assault with a deadly weapon and aiming gun at a person. Bail: $22,500

  

David J. Nelson, 50, of Elko was arrested at 2582 Idaho St. for buying, possessing, or receiving stolen property. Bail: $1,140
Story Highlights Americans perceive the military as effective, well-run and skilled

Many are confident in the military because of its important role

Americans see military leaders as courageous and professional

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Americans have given the military the highest confidence rating of any institution in American society for nearly two decades. Asked to explain these positive views, Americans cite their perceptions of the professional and competent way in which the military has executed its responsibilities, followed by a focus on the importance of what the military does for the country.

What are some of the reasons why you have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military? Asked of those with a great deal/quite a lot of confidence in the military Great deal/Quite a lot of confidence % Competence; How well they do their job History/Past experiences/Has been effective/Good execution 9 Good leadership/Properly run/Good structure 7 Properly trained/Skilled 6 Best in the world/Strongest 5 Good funding 4 Good equipment, weapons, technology 1 The importance of what they do Protects us, our rights/Keeps us safe/Defends freedom 26 Personal connection -- self or friend Friend/family member served in military 13 Respondent served in military 9 Positives about the people who serve Volunteers/Selfless/Willing to give up lives/Brave 12 Good/Reliable/Committed/Disciplined people 10 Other 9 None/No opinion 2 Note: Responses will add to more than 100% since multiple responses were allowed Gallup, July 5-9, 2017

These results are based on an open-ended question included in Gallup's July 5-9 national survey, asking Americans who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the military to explain, in their own words, why they are confident. Overall, 78% of respondents had a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence, roughly similar to the 72% in Gallup's annual June update.

Americans' explanations focused on the competency of the military include references to its historical effectiveness in accomplishing its objectives, its leadership, the skills of its members, and perceptions that the U.S. military is the world's best. About a quarter say their confidence in the military is based on the importance of the job they do in keeping the nation safe.

Many Americans also cite personal experiences with the military, involving themselves or their families and friends. Still others discuss the positive virtues of the service members, including views that those in the military are selfless and brave, committed and disciplined.

Courage and Professionalism Top List of Military Leadership Virtues

A question included in a late March, early April Gallup survey sheds additional light on the public's view of the military. Americans were asked to indicate how well each of six terms described military leadership today. Almost seven in 10 agreed that the descriptor "personally courageous" described military leadership very well, followed by 56% who said the same about the term "professional." Fewer Americans said the terms "trustworthy," "innovative," "honest," and "ethical" described military leadership very well, although most said these terms described them somewhat well.

How well do each of the following terms describe military leadership today? Very well Somewhat Not much Not at all % % % % Personally courageous 68 25 3 3 Professional 56 35 4 4 Trustworthy 42 42 9 6 Innovative 41 39 10 6 Honest 37 45 9 7 Ethical 37 45 9 6 Gallup, April 24-May 2, 2017

These responses were focused on leadership, rather than the military as a whole, but underscore two of the main results of the open-ended question -- positive characteristics of people who are in the military and the competent way in which these people execute their responsibilities.

Implications

The American military clearly is not flawless, but it has a two-decade track record of besting any other major institution in American society on Gallup's confidence rating system. This accomplishment certainly underscores the value of studying what is behind its strong positioning in the minds of the American people.

For example, what could members of Congress who are worried about their low standing in the public's eye learn from the military? One insight simply comes down to competence -- that is getting the job done well -- obviously a trait many Americans ascribe to the military, but few to Congress, with the latter's current 20% job approval rating.

Another insight comes from the public's view of members of the military as being courageous, selfless and being willing to sacrifice themselves for the greater good. Previous research shows that Americans, in contrast, view members of Congress as being responsive not to the collective will of the people, but to special interests, lobbyists and partisan leaders.

There are other lessons to be learned, but the bottom line is the real value of perceived competency and professionalism for any institution that seeks to establish legitimacy and to better its standing in the eyes of the people it serves.

These data are available in Gallup Analytics.
ELKO  A tractor-trailer rig that was fully engulfed in flames started a wildland fire around 2 p.m. Wednesday along Interstate 80.

The semi had been traveling in the westbound lane near mile marker 304.

City firefighters responded and county firefighters were called for backup.

The fire was near the scenes of two wildland fires last week, one of which blocked freeway traffic for several hours.

On Tuesday, lightning started two large fires in Elko County as a storm system delivered rain showers to the parched landscape.

The Black Point Fire has burned nearly 12,000 acres about 20 miles northwest of Tuscarora. The Potato Fire burned an estimated 830 acres southest of Crescent Valley.

The Associated Press reported that dozens of homes were among about 100 structures threatened by two fires south of Denio.

Its a mixture of homes and barns and outbuildings, but there have been no evacuation orders at all, U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Pam Sichting said Wednesday afternoon from the command post set up at Denio Elementary School.

Fire officials said Nevada Highway 140 could be closed periodically south of Denio due to blowing smoke and dusty winds restricting visibility.
AUDITIONS

Auditions will be held for Burton Bumgarners play No Body Like Jimmy, directed by Scott Harvey, 7:30 p.m. July 31 and Aug. 1, at Albany Civic Theater, 111 First Ave. W., Albany. Call backs will come Aug. 2. The comedy will have performances Oct. 20, 21, 27, 28, 29 (matinee), Nov. 2, 3 and 4.

Here is the description: On the evening of Ralph and Eloise Vanlandingham's political fundraising dinner, Ralph's best friend from college shows up with a problem. Harold has a dead body in the back of his van and he needs a place to stash Jimmy. Harold's timing couldn't be more awful as the Vanlandinghams are expecting a house full of major campaign donors in about five, four, three, two...

The cast has roles for both men and women. For more information, email nobobylikejimmy@gmail.com.

The Majestic Theatre is holding opening auditions at 7:30 p.m. Aug. 7 and 8 for the Fall Majestic Readers Theatre Company performances in the lab theatre, 115 SW Second St., Corvallis. The auditions will be for the following productions: The Cemetery Club by Ivan Menchell, directed by Leigh Matthews Bock. Show dates: Sept. 24 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Description: Three Jewish widows  Doris, Lucille and Ida  meet once a month for tea before visiting their husbands, who are all buried in the same cemetery. Each woman is in a different stage of healing and moving on with her life. Lucille and Doris are at odds over how to handle widowhood as Ida longs to give love another chance. When Sam, a recent widower, meets the three widows at the cemetery, Ida is given a chance for new love until Doris and Lucille interfere. This dramatic comedy has just the right amount of poignant drama, loads of laughs and plenty of heart.

The 39 Steps by Patrick Barlow, directed by Richard Wagner. Show Dates: October 22 at 3 and 7p.m.

Richard Hannay, a man with an unexciting life is forced on the lam after helping a woman who is murdered in his apartment. In order to clear himself he must find a deadly group of spies called The 39 Steps. From the ethereal streets of 1930s London to the moors of Scotland Richard races to keep government secrets out of the wrong hands. Along the way he comes across an assortment of unusual characters and is reluctantly accompanied by Pamela, who inadvertently finds herself handcuffed to Hannay.

Orphans by Lyle Kessler, directed by Maxine Agather. Show Dates: November 26 at 3 and 7 p.m.

Two young men who have lost their parents survive alone in a Philadelphia row house. The oldest, Treat, supplies a subsistence living by petty thievery. The youngest, Phillip, is confined to the house by fear of his brother and an allergy that makes it impossible to travel outdoors. Treat kidnaps a drunken man, Harold, with a briefcase full of stocks and bonds and starts looking for someone to pay them a ransom. Harold is also an orphan and when no one offers to purchase his freedom he helps the two boys; supporting them with parental care, a job for Treat and confidence building for Phillip. But is Harold really a kindly rich uncle or just a common criminal with a sinister motive? Even though all three characters come from rough backgrounds, one can identify with them because we all need someone to care for us.

For more information, see majestic.org.
Shannon Jones began paying his debt to society on Wednesday when he surrendered to authorities at the federal prison complex for men in Sheridan.

The 46-year-old Corvallis car dealer pleaded guilty to a single count of wire fraud in U.S. District Court in Eugene on May 16. In a plea deal negotiated with prosecutors, Jones admitted to fleecing dozens of victims out of nearly $1.4 million over several years through his dealership, Jones 5 Auto Sales, and was ordered to serve 2 years behind bars.

He initially was instructed to report to prison by 2 p.m. on July 5 but was granted a three-week reprieve.

On Wednesday, however, Jones turned himself in to begin doing his time, an employee at the Federal Correctional Institution at Sheridan confirmed. The employee would not disclose what part of the prison compound Jones will be incarcerated in, citing privacy and security reasons.

The facilitys public information officer, Kyle Olson, did not return repeated phone calls this week seeking more detailed information about the conditions of Jones incarceration.

Located a few miles southwest of McMinnville on Highway 18, the 182-acre Bureau of Prisons complex consists of a medium-security correctional institution, medium-security detention center and minimum-security prison camp. As of Wednesday, the facilitys website listed a total census of 1,706 inmates, with 1,187 assigned to the prison and detention center and 519 to the lower-security camp.

As a reward for Jones cooperation in the investigation, prosecutors asked that he be incarcerated in the prison camp, a request that Judge Ann Aiken made part of her sentencing recommendation to the Bureau of Prisons.

Until now, Jones had not spent a day in jail since his elaborate web of deception unraveled on Nov. 18, 2015, when angry creditors descended on his used car lot to begin hauling off inventory and police arrived to shut down the business and seize computers and financial records as evidence.

Eventually, investigators pieced together a picture of Jones fraudulent schemes dating back to early 2012. Among other things, they found, Jones would sell cars left with him on consignment and keep the proceeds for himself, in some cases selling the same vehicle to more than one buyer. Sometimes he would deliver a vehicle to the purchaser but withhold the title, signing it over to himself and using it as collateral to fraudulently obtain a loan.

He also misrepresented the health of his business to lenders, claiming that he owned all the cars on his Ninth Street lot when in fact most, if not all, were on consignment from individual owners. In at least one instance, Assistant U.S. Attorney Gavin Bruce said at the sentencing hearing, Jones persuaded people who had bought cars from him to bring them back to the dealership in order to fool a lender into believing the vehicles were still part of his inventory.

The prosecutor said Jones defrauded 43 victims  many of them Corvallis-area residents  out of a total of $1,377,915.68 through his crooked dealings, with some individuals owed between $100,000 and $200,000.

The biggest single victim in the case, however, appears to be NextGear Capital, an Indiana-based company that provides so-called flooring loans to automobile dealers across the country. The loans, used by dealers to finance their operations, are secured by the titles to cars on the showroom floor.

NextGear officials have not returned calls from the Gazette-Times seeking comment on the case. But people involved in the mid-valley auto industry, speaking on condition of anonymity, told the newspaper that NextGear may have been holding up to $1.25 million in paper on loans to Jones 5 Auto Sales at the time the dealership shut down, and the plea agreement in the case specified that Jones had fraudulently obtained more than $800,000 in loans.

Jones sentence is for 30 months, but according to Kevin Sonoff, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorneys Office in Oregon, he may qualify for early release under federal guidelines. If he meets the requirements, that could knock as much as 135 days, or about 4 months, off his prison time.

After his release from federal custody, Jones will be required to submit to three years of post-prison supervision. He must also pay financial restitution for his crimes. So far, according to Sonoff, Jones has repaid 26 victims a total of $194,000, leaving more than $1.1 million still owed.
Ideally, there should be a sharp, bright line defining the boundary between addressing Boy Scouts, aged 12 to 18, and a political rally.

But it seems our president has no concept of what is an appropriate message to send to this particular male segment of our society. I would have expected an uplifting and modest speech about honor, trust, doing our best, or the immeasurable fulfillment we feel when we volunteer in our communities. He might even have invoked a higher power or alluded to the sacrifices we must make at times to help all of humanity. That would have been enough.

But, no. A third of his speech was generously interspersed with self-adoration and political rhetoric. He ridiculed the false media." He took jabs at Obama and Hillary Clinton while goading the scouts to boo. He bragged yet again about his incredible election victory. He called our Capitol a cesspool while proclaiming that Obamacare is a horrible thing that must be killed. He even brought up the point that, because of him, we can all say Merry Christmas." The icing on the cake was a weird reference to his being at a cocktail party with the hottest people in New York and insinuating the salacious behavior of a multimillionaires interesting life on a yacht in the south of France.

In short, he arrogated the Jamboree to glorify himself and to propagandize his agenda. Whether intended or not, his cultivating impressionable adolescents is repulsive. Dare I whisper Trumpjugend?

This man has no sense of propriety or self-control. But we knew that. This is just more proof.

Jan Napack

Corvallis (July 27)
On July 23, Mike Johnsons letter to the editor stated, Rules dont change because you are on a bike. He correctly noted that under Oregon Law (specifically ORS 814.400), a rider of a bicycle is considered to be operating a vehicle and thus subject to the rules of the road.

The second point of his letter, rules dont change because you are on a bike, shows that he is unaware of another Oregon law- the Vulnerable Roadway User law (see ORS 811.135 and ORS 801.608). In Oregon, we consider other roadway users to be worthy of additional protections due to their vulnerability. Vulnerable roadway users include pedestrians, equestrians, skaters, farm equipment, scooters and bicycles.

The roads are NOT only for cars. They are for many forms of transportation, and drivers of cars need to be alert and aware of their responsibility to other roadway users. Depending on the circumstances, hitting a vulnerable roadway user with your car can be seen as vehicular assault, and charged as such.

Wendy Byrne

Corvallis (July 27)
Sen. Ron Wyden has co-sponsored a bill, S. 720, the Israel Anti-Boycott Act, to criminalize advocating a boycott of Israel, with "a maximum criminal penalty of $1 million and 20 years in prison. That would include the Oregon Pacific Green Party, which has long supported the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, all its thousands of Oregon members  his constituents  along with further thousands of Oregonians active in the BDS movement, as well as the U.S. Green Party.

Criminalizing a rival political party is the most extreme violation of civil liberties. If officials can imprison members of a rival political party for their beliefs and political actions, we are well on our way to a dictatorship, not a democracy. This is precisely what the Bill of Rights was meant to prevent.

The ACLU has issued a letter condemning the bill as obviously unconstitutional and an assault on democracy. Boycotts were a crucial element in the American independence movement, as well as the civil rights movement and the campaign against apartheid. Today, it serves as nonviolent resistance to Israeli apartheid.

Supporting this bill is a violation of every senator's oath of office. And since it sacrifices the rights of Americans for the benefit of a foreign nation, it is disloyal to the United States.

The only Oregon representatives to support it are Kurt Schrader from Salem and Greg Walden. As his constituents, we need Sen. Wyden to immediately revoke his co-sponsorship and announce his opposition to S. 720.

Charles Newlin

Corvallis (July 26)
ELKO  Both drivers in a head-on collision 12 miles north of Wells were transported to a hospital Wednesday afternoon.

The driver of the car was attempting to pass a semi on U.S. Highway 93 when he ran into another passenger car driving the opposite direction.

Both drivers suffered non-life threatening injuries and were transported to Idaho and Utah for medical treatment. Debris from the accident caused Nevada Highway Patrol to close the road for about an hour.

NHP Sgt. Jeff Howell said its import to operate with caution when passing slower moving vehicles on that section of the road.

From a safety standpoint we want to remind people to keep their headlights on in that section, have patience and pass with care, he said.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP)  A man accused of accidentally sparking a massive Utah wildfire that forced some 1,500 people from their homes last month and cost about $34 million to fight was charged Tuesday.

Iron County prosecutor Scott Garrett told The Associated Press that his office charged Robert Ray Lyman, 60, with two misdemeanors. Garrett declined further comment, but authorities have said the fire started when a man set a pile of weeds on fire and it raged out of control near a cabin in the ski town of Brian Head on June 17.

The blaze forced hundreds of evacuations at homes and cabins near Brian Head, known for weekend getaway houses for Las Vegas residents, and spread several miles east to an area around Panguitch Lake, a popular spot for fishing. More than a dozen buildings were destroyed.

The fire torched more than 100 square miles and burned for nearly a month in hot, dry conditions.

If convicted on a reckless burning charge, Lyman could face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine. A count of burning without a permit carries up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

Officials have said the person who started the fire could be responsible for the costs of fighting it, though any move to recoup firefighting costs would come after an investigation is complete.

The tab of nearly $34 million puts it among the states most expensive fires, officials have said.
CARSON CITY  Ignoring a 2004 AG advisory opinion, a 1967 binding Nevada Supreme Court precedent and the plain language of the state constitution, District Judge James Russell Tuesday dismissed a separation of powers lawsuit against State Senator Heidi Gansert.

Judge Russell seemed determined to protect a member of the political class, irrespective of what the law says, commented Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation Director Joseph Becker.

Representing plaintiff Doug French, The Nevada Policy Research Institutes Center for Justice and Constitutional Litigation filed the suit in February, alleging Gansert is violating Article 3, Section 1 of Nevadas State Constitution by occupying a seat in the state legislature while also working in Nevadas executive branch.

Judge Russell dismissed the lawsuit in a bench ruling, saying in part that because other legislators would be negatively impacted by any potential ruling, the suit should have named every single lawmaker similarly employed in the executive branch as necessary parties.

Essentially, we were told that in order to sue Senator Gansert for a constitutional violation, the Plaintiff must file similar suits against every other potential violator. explained Becker. However, in 2004, the Nevada Supreme Court ruled in Heller v. Nevada Legislature that such is simply not the case.

Becker further stated that Judge Russells dismissal flatly ignored the legal arguments put forward in the case, instead choosing to adopt as law a Legislative Counsel Bureau opinion.

A 1967 Nevada Supreme Court decision, on the other hand, makes it clear that strict adherence to the separation of powers provision is vital to preservation of individual liberty. The court explained that even ministerial function by persons conducted across branches violates Nevadas separation of powers clause. And a 2004 Attorney General Advisory Opinion authored by then-Attorney General Brian Sandoval advised that attempts to hold positions in more than one constitutional branch, as Gansert is attempting, are patently unconstitutional.

Rather than following binding legal authority, however, the judge treated a proffered LCB opinion as law, explained Becker. Apparently the non-binding LCB opinion held more weight with Judge Russell than the actual text of the Nevada constitution or the Nevada Supreme Court opinions, which interpreted that constitutional provision in Plaintiffs favor.

The Judges order will likely be filed within the next two weeks, at which time CJCL and Plaintiff Douglas French will determine whether or not to appeal this issue of critical importance to all Nevadans.
bayonel3 at 26-07-2017 02:10 PM (5 years ago) (m)

According to a report, it cost taxpayers in Nigeria a whopping N50 million for nine governors; both from All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party, including the APC chairman, John Oyegun and Aviation Minister Rotimi Amaechi to visit President Muhammadu Buhari in London who has been on medical vacation in London since May 7.

According to a report, it cost taxpayers in Nigeria a whopping N50 million for nine governors; both from All Progressives Congress (APC) and Peoples Democratic Party, including the APC chairman, John Oyegun and Aviation Minister Rotimi Amaechi to visit President Muhammadu Buhari in London who has been on medical vacation in London since May 7. The report while analysing more details further revealed that the same amount could have been used to pay for the West Africa Examination Council fee of over 4,000 candidates in Kogi or Zamfara State, or build at least two blocks of 10 classrooms in Oyo State.

Also, the estimated amount spent by six governors who left yesterday to see Buhari in London led by the Zamfara governor who is the chairman of the Governors Forum is said to cost $9800 just for a first class British Airway return ticket per person. At the official rate of N315 to a dollar, the airfare of each governor amounts to N3 million. For the 12 visitors, the airfare therefore adds up to N37 million.

Meanwhile, It was learnt that most Nigerian politicians, who visit metropolitan London, lodge at Hilton Hotel on Parklane. And the Abuja House, the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom where President Buhari is being accommodated since May, is 17 minutes drive to the Hilton hotel on Parklane.

The least room rate at Hilton is 332 pounds per night. But Hilton Cosmopolitan Suite is considered the preference of most Nigerian VIPs. Currently, the rate is 2000 pounds per night. At N411 to a pound, each governor would be spending over N800, 000 per night.

For the 12 visitors, the total rent is almost N10 million. By the time the feeding expenses are added, the governors visit to London would cost Nigerians about N50 million.

Other public officials who have recently visited Buhari in London were the acting President Yemi Osinbajo and the Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun.

Early in the year, the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, had said it was needless for state governors to abandon their responsibilities and travel to London to visit the ailing president. Yari has gone back on his words. He led his fellow governors to Abuja House in London yesterday.

List of governors and other party leaders who have visited President Buhari in London are:



Rochas Okorocha (Imo)

Umaru Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa)

Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna)

Yahaya Bello (Kogi)

Aviation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi

Party Chairman, John Oyegun

Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom),

Dave Umahi (Ebonyi),

Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) and

Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo).

Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun)

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo. The report while analysing more details further revealed that the same amount could have been used to pay for the West Africa Examination Council fee of over 4,000 candidates in Kogi or Zamfara State, or build at least two blocks of 10 classrooms in Oyo State.Also, the estimated amount spent by six governors who left yesterday to see Buhari in London led by the Zamfara governor who is the chairman of the Governors Forum is said to cost $9800 just for a first class British Airway return ticket per person. At the official rate of N315 to a dollar, the airfare of each governor amounts to N3 million. For the 12 visitors, the airfare therefore adds up to N37 million.Meanwhile, It was learnt that most Nigerian politicians, who visit metropolitan London, lodge at Hilton Hotel on Parklane. And the Abuja House, the Nigerian High Commission in the United Kingdom where President Buhari is being accommodated since May, is 17 minutes drive to the Hilton hotel on Parklane.The least room rate at Hilton is 332 pounds per night. But Hilton Cosmopolitan Suite is considered the preference of most Nigerian VIPs. Currently, the rate is 2000 pounds per night. At N411 to a pound, each governor would be spending over N800, 000 per night.For the 12 visitors, the total rent is almost N10 million. By the time the feeding expenses are added, the governors visit to London would cost Nigerians about N50 million.Other public officials who have recently visited Buhari in London were the acting President Yemi Osinbajo and the Ogun State Governor Ibikunle Amosun.Early in the year, the Chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF), Abdulaziz Yari of Zamfara State, had said it was needless for state governors to abandon their responsibilities and travel to London to visit the ailing president. Yari has gone back on his words. He led his fellow governors to Abuja House in London yesterday.List of governors and other party leaders who have visited President Buhari in London are:Rochas Okorocha (Imo)Umaru Tanko Al-Makura (Nasarawa)Nasir El-Rufai (Kaduna)Yahaya Bello (Kogi)Aviation Minister, Rotimi AmaechiParty Chairman, John OyegunUdom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom),Dave Umahi (Ebonyi),Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara) andAbiola Ajimobi (Oyo).Ibikunle Amosun (Ogun)Acting President Yemi Osinbajo.

Post Reply I scour the world wide web to bring you interesting stories from around the globe. [email protected] Posted: at 26-07-2017 02:10 PM (5 years ago) | Hero
What has Lydian hidden and what has the Armenian government been unaware of?

For years Armenian scientists, specialists and environmentalists presented from their field of expertise the dangers of gold project in Amulsar planned by Lydian International. They insisted that this project should not be realized. Many times it was mentioned that researches and assessments presented by this inexperienced offshore company stating that all possible risks are manageable not only pose doubts, but also they do not correspond to the reality. It was also mentioned that Armenias government did not carry out its own expertise and instead it relied on Lydians assumptions written in the documents neglecting all other objections and justifications brought by independent experts. Now international acclaimed experts in the field have also joined Armenian experts and based on the proposal of the US-based Harout Bronozian, they presented results of three different expertises on this gold project. The results of these researches once again confirm the statement voiced for many years that gold project in Amulsar should not be launched since the assessment carried out by Lydian are extremely incomplete, while the government is basically uninformed about the unmanageable risks posed to our water resources. The first one of these researches is by Blue Minerals Consultancy company about Evaluation of Lydian Amulsar Gold Mining Project: Assessment of Acid Rock Drainage Potential and Effects on Surface Water and Groundwater. It was prepared by the principals of the company Dr. Andrea Gerson and Dr. Roger Smart based on the study of more than dozen of documents found on Lydian Internationals official website. These experts have combined experience of 45 years in minerals processing and acid rock drainage scientific research and development. The abovementioned research is 125 pages and its English version can be found here, while the summary is here. We would like to draw attention particularly of the decision makers in Armenia, as well as the shareholders and creditors of offshore Lydian to the main conclusions of the research. In the foreword, the Australian scientists mention that acid rock drainage (ARD) is internationally the biggest environmental issue facing closed and abandoned mines and mine site rehabilitation. It presents an impending liability to current and future mining operations worldwide and also poses a challenge to the environmental and social acceptance of mining activities. Total cost estimates for remediating ARD-impacted sites in the USA and Canada combined runs into tens of billions of dollars. Besides, ARD can continue for hundreds of years after a mine is closed and so has potentially long-term and serious environmental impact on downstream water quality, agriculture, fauna and flora. Acidic drainage with associated dissolved metal species some damaging to human health and toxic to biota (e.g. Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, As, Hg, Se) can result from the weathering of sulfide minerals in mine waste rock and process tailings. The iron sulfide mineral pyrite (FeS2), found throughout the Amulsar deposit, is the main generator of acid drainage. For effective ARD control and mitigation the rates of release of acid must be understood in advance. But it is only through understanding the evolution of the rate of acid release that an effective and long-lasting environmental management plan can be put in place. This has not been done adequately in the Amulsar ARD planning. The main questions and conclusions of the experts are as follows:

Area of Amulsar is part of the catchment basin of Armenias largest water resources. In the project area the underground waters feed springs and fill the rivers, such as Vorotan, Arpa and Darb, as well as Kechut and Spandaryan water reservoirs and Vorotan-Arpa-Sevan tunnel, which transfers water to Sevan lake.

Lydian acknowledges that the mine will produce ARD but lack sufficient, credible testing of the sources, amounts, rates of release or mitigation measures. There are significant contradictions with missing and inadequate information on the mineralogy, geochemical testing and modeling of surface and groundwater impacts. The geochemical assessment and modeling contains inadequate data on which to base planning for control of acid generation. No details on the geochemical modeling methodology are provided.

Humidity cell tests for measurement of rates of acid release were conducted on only 5 Lower Volcanic (greater risk) and 3 Upper Volcanic samples (lesser risk) coinciding with 8 samples on which mineralogy had been carried out. This number of samples is manifestly insufficient to be acceptable in international practice.

There are scientific inaccuracies. There is no evidence for the recurring statement justifying an incorrect conclusion of mild ARD. The samples chosen to justify this conclusion simply had low sulfide content whereas other samples produced strong acid (pH <3) in a few

Jarosite and alunite are found in the Lower Volcanic (LV) and Upper Volcanic (UV) mineralogy. Acid generation from alunite leaching is discounted by Lydian as not being significant, while acid generation from jarosite leaching is not recognized at all. On-going lime treatment will be required to neutralize acid release from jarosite and alunite in the barren rock storage facility until they are exhausted, as recognized by major international companies. This process is likely to take more than 20 years at Amulsar site.

The ARD from Soviet era waste rock piles is incorrectly interpreted and there are discrepancies in assessments. ARD with pH 3.5 is found after 65 years of storage and weathering. This is strong ARD that contains dissolved toxic heavy metals under in situ conditions confirming the requirement for proper management as set out in the International Network for Acid Prevention Global ARD Guide (http://www.gardguide.com) and international practice.

The only treatment proposed for seepage and runoff is a Passive Treatment Water System (PWTS) to be constructed in 2019. There are major concerns that this PWTS will not be able to neutralize and treat the release, particularly as this has been inadequately characterized, with consequent ARD and metal release to the streams, rivers and water storage below the mine.

On closure of the major mining pits, ARD is recognized in runoff but no treatment or mitigation is proposed before release to local streams or drainage to springs. This is unacceptable.

In the Lydian Environmental and Social Management Plan (ESMP) to operationalize the commitments to environmental and social (as well as occupational health and safety) management and mitigation, there is no mention of direct responsibility for ARD control in the document. This fault is common in poor ARD control in many mines where the Mine Manager, with primary focus on production, can and does override the Environmental Manager in correct dumping, encapsulation and dump management. This is a serious omission requiring correction.

The Armenian governments Environmental Impact Report on this project does not mention ARD in any form, the need to prevent or control ARD, the potential long-term pollution of streams, rivers and water supplies or the environmental or health consequences found downstream of ARD release. It appears that there is no expertise within the Armenian Government to recognize, assess, monitor the Amulsar ARD mitigation or control this potential release for the Armenian people.

Given that acid seepage is likely to peak after this 5 year interval and may continue for decades or centuries, this duration of monitoring is insufficient. As pit seepage will make its way into spring waters these also should be monitored both off and on-site. Moreover, it is not stated what will be done and by whom if these waters fall to below acceptable standard.

this cost of treatment after the mine closure is likely to fall to the Armenian Government. In closure phase, the risk from hundreds of examples internationally is that the company profits decline to below debt level and the local (Armenian) company declares bankruptcy leaving the ARD control for many decades to the government. The major issue shown by these examples is that the on-going cost to the Government of Armenia after life of mine may exceed income to the State during operation. Fifty to sixty tonnes of acid per kT of barren waste will require on-going neutralization. Estimates of acid generation and neutralization rates, not just amounts based on sulfide assays, as assessed in these reports, are required to quantify treatment costs.

The reports on the geochemical testing suggest that Lydian lacks the experience and expertise to adequately define the ARD risk, and to construct and operate the geochemical and engineering required to control the ARD that will result from the Amulsar mine. In this combination of inadequate testing, planning and operation by Lydian with absence of government oversight and control, a primary risk is not only extensive pollution of streams, rivers and agricultural practice but also class actions by groups of stakeholders who have been misled (as in the action against BHP Billiton at Ok Tedi).

The potential impacts of improperly-controlled ARD on streams, agriculture, fish, other biota and, in some cases, human health are well known. Based on international examples, the scale of cost to the Armenian Government from post-closure control of ARD release could be in the hundreds of millions of dollars. In the assessments made of ground and surface water impact it has been assumed that leachate from the barren rock storage facility (BRSF) will be effectively treated to acceptable standards for release by the passive treatment system (PTS). The acceptability of such an assumption is questioned as the pH and dissolved solids content of the in-flow to the PTS is based on in-correct and in-complete analyses. Failure of the PTS would have very significant detrimental impacts on down-steam catchment (edit.  in closure phase Lydian plans to clean the emerging water-flows and release them into environment and Arpa rivers stream).

Significant impact to water quality at springs located around the pits is predicted with respect to beryllium, cobalt, nickel and nitrate as a result of leakage from the pits. These elements are present in the minerals but are released by the acid reactions in the pits and BRSF. These major additions to apparently already high levels should not be acceptable. Design mitigation measures are proposed, i.e. encapsulation, to limit the leakage from the pits but no further groundwater mitigation options are presented. Given the inadequate characterization of ARD potential and rate there is potential for these impacts to be greater than stated in the Lydian assessments.

The mineralogy is not complete. Mineralogy is required on both low and high sulfide S samples with corresponding acid base accounting and standard kinetic leach column tests over at least 1 year for international acceptance of ARD potential.

The leach studies should be in the form of kinetic leach columns (not humidity cells as has been undertaken to date). This would provide a reasonable measure of net acid generation rate since it is this (not net acid generating potential) that will determine requirements for initial and on-going treatment. This is not measured or discussed. In addition on-site drum tests should be initiated immediately to definitely ascertain the effect of local climatic conditions on rates of acid and species release.

Timing is also problematic since 12-20 week long testing is insufficient. Lydian states that it will start this testing as soon as bulk samples of materials are available from the mine. This testing will be too late to modify waste rock dumping practice and needs to be done now using the more relevant conditions of kinetic leach columns rather than the humidity cell test procedure, most particularly on the Lower Volcanic wastes.

Abovementioned requirement also refers to Upper Volcanics, which also requires much more complete information on mineralogy and kinetic leach column testing on higher sulfide S containing samples (>0.5 wt.%S).

Further examination of the leach rate of alunite and jarosite and their impact on pH are necessary. The percentages of alunite and jarosite in both Upper Volcanic and Lower Volcanic samples need to be properly analysed and incorporated into ARD control estimation.

Thirteen tasks are identified to be required to advance the heap leaching facility (HLF) to detailed design level.

Fourteen tasks, several major and long-term, are identified for the detailed BRSF design in Section 26.5

Three tasks, two of which are long-term , will be required to advance the geochemical characterization and ARD management to the detailed design level. These and our recommendations show that the geochemical characterization and ARD management are not acceptable in present testing and documentation .

, will be required to advance the geochemical characterization and ARD management to the detailed design level. . In Section 26.6 Water Treatment part, it says,

In Section 26.7 Water Balance part, it states:

Later it is mentioned that there is a lack of understanding of the rates and amounts of ARD release from this mine site with potentially serious downstream consequences. Without proper definition it is not possible to ensure that adequate mitigation is in place to ensure minimal impact on the environment and human endeavors including potable water, agriculture and tourism.. Additionally the independent experts studied Resources and Reserves of Armenia section of Amulsar NI 43-101 refined technical report by Samuels Engineering prepared on March 30, 2017 on the order of Lydian company. These sections are about ARD description, mitigation and management. The recommendations in Chapter 26 show the incompleteness of this characterization and detailed planning.Unlike active treatment systems, a Passive Treatment System (PTS) must be designed to function under site-specific conditions... Changes after production have carry-over consequences for ARD control.Additional studies are required to verify predictive models that were used within the water balance.. The mine should not have been approved until these tasks and verification were complete. The detailed ARD assessment and control design has not been done.Responsibility for this concealment lies on dividend holders or financiers of the project (especially Armenians), Armenian scientific community, acting according to Lydians request, international organizations, that pressures local authorities (World Bank, EBRD etc.), also foreign embassies, namely US and UK. Also, a huge responsibility lies on press, that again, forgot its own mission and acts according to Lydians orders, and most importantly  Armenian government, that subordinates environmental safety, public interest and its accountability towards the community to private interests.
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Believe me, as a representative of a country which uses the Schengen system very often, it is quite important. Vardanyan

I really look forward to having answers from the Azerbaijani side for these alleged gross human rights violations: Secretary General

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I call on Armenian and Azerbaijani parliamentarians to use this Assembly as an agora of opportunities President Tiny Kox

UCOMS SPECIAL OFFER OF THE UNLIMITED INTERNET IS NOW TERMLESS

There is no place for the death penalty in a State that respects human rights: PACE General Rapporteur

EU and CoE call on two Member States that have not yet acceded to this Protocol  Armenia and Azerbaijan  to do so without delay

An urgent debate requested on "The military hostilities between Armenia and Azerbaijan".

UCOM AND PES-PES CONTINUE COOPERATION WITHIN THE FRAMEWORK OF EDUCATIONAL PROJECT

The statement of the meeting between Prime Minister Pashinyan, President Aliyev, President Macron and President Michel of October 6, 2022

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LEVEL UP ONLY FOR STUDENTS: UCOM OFFERS X2 AND X3 MORE INTERNET

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This criminal act is another proof that the Armenophobia policy. Tatoyan

Nikol Pashinyan, Nancy Pelosi discuss a number of issues related to the Armenian-American agenda and regional developments
VOA Exclusive: ASEAN, China Expected to Endorse Initial Code of Conduct in South China Sea

By Sok Khemara July 25, 2017

After more than 15 years of intermittent talks, ASEAN member nations and China are expected to endorse the draft framework for a non-binding code of conduct that commits to cooperation rather than confrontations in the contested South China Sea, the Voice of America Khmer service has learned.

The draft framework is expected to be endorsed by ASEAN foreign ministers and China's foreign minister at the weeklong post-ministerial conference hosted by the Philippines, the current holder of ASEAN's revolving chairmanship. The meeting in Manila begins August 2.

A regional official who did not want to be named provided VOA Khmer with the draft framework of the code of conduct (COC), which would "establish rules-based framework containing a set of norms" to guide the conduct of parties and promote maritime cooperation in the South China Sea. The document is the outgrowth of talks called by China and held in May in Guiyang in Guizhou.

And while the draft framework is a move forward in a process that began in 2002, Tang Siew Mun, head of the ASEAN Studies Center at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said "this does not mean that the strategic trust gaps would narrow overnight."

Although the draft framework suggests that ASEAN and China can work together on a "sensitive issue," the draft framework is the first of many steps, Tang said, adding that the COC itself will take time to finalize, if it ever reaches that stage.

"The COC would only have meaning if it were legally binding, but it is unsure if the negotiating parties would be agreeable to a fair and just structure of managing relations in the South China Sea," Tang said.

The draft framework for the code of conduct calls for ASEAN members "to promote mutual trust, cooperation and confidence, prevent incidents, manage incidents should they occur, and create a favorable environment for the peaceful settlement of the disputes; to ensure maritime security and safety and freedom of navigation and overflight."

Work on the code was discussed at a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and ASEAN foreign ministers in May. In a formal statement, the State Department said Tillerson and the ministers had "stressed the need for ASEAN Member States and China to ensure the full and effective implementation of the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea in its entirety, and took note of efforts towards the early conclusion of a meaningful Code of Conduct in the South China Sea."

At a subsequent briefing, State Department spokesman W. Patrick Murphy said the United States "of course, encourages the achievement of a full code of conduct in the South China Sea. But while that process is going, let's give it room, let's give it space, so it's unencumbered by the very kind of actions in the disputed area that gives rise to tension and complicates a lasting solution."

2002 document

The draft framework refers to the Declaration on the Conduct of Parties in the South China Sea (DOC) adopted in 2002, calling for "commitment to full and effective implementation of the DOC, respect for each other's independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity in accordance with international law, and the principle of non-interference in the internal affairs of other states." The COC, if finalized and signed, would supersede the DOC, which remains in force today.

ASEAN, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is a regional group that promotes economic, political and security cooperation among its 10 members: Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. ASEAN foreign ministers will join their counterparts from Japan, China and South Korea, a group which is known as ASEAN + 3. Foreign ministers from New Zealand, India and Australia will also attend next week's Manila sessions.

The ASEAN annual summit and the annual East Asia Summit are scheduled for November in the Philippines.

The widespread interest in the COC is due to the strategic and commercial importance of the energy-rich South China Sea. It is critical to the economies of ASEAN members Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines. U.S. allies Japan and South Korea use the sea's shipping lanes, over which about $5 trillion in trade passes annually. China has reinforced its claims to the sea with the construction of artificial islands, which the United States and others have criticized.

Territorial disputes over the South China Sea extend beyond each nation's exclusive economic zone, which is internationally accepted to be no more than 200 nautical miles from shore. Fear of an accidental military action is real enough that in June 2016, ASEAN and China agreed to establish a hotline linking their foreign ministries.

The draft framework specifically states that it is "not an instrument to settle territorial disputes or maritime delimitation issues," which could lessen its effectiveness if agreed upon. Many ASEAN nations have advocated a multiparty solution to resolving the territorial disputes, but Beijing has said it will only engage in bilateral talks over these arguments.

Role of China

On Monday, while on an official visit to Bangkok, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi said that China wants to "maintain stability in the South China Sea, abiding by the terms that have been agreed on the Declaration of Conduct and Code of Conduct in near future," Reuters reported.

Although China pushed for the draft framework, in the past it has failed to play by the rules established by ASEAN on fishing, building and energy exploration in the binding 2002 DOC.

Shihoko Goto, the senior northeast Asia associate at the Woodrow Wilson Center's Asia Program told VOA Khmer that the latest agreement to establish a draft framework has defused recent tensions in the region after discussions for a COC had been held on and off since 2000.

"The latest development means that not only have ASEAN member countries and China identified what the sources of conflict may be, but they are also committed to working together to find common ground to ensure that tensions do not escalate," Goto said. "That is progress, as worries about territorial claims continue."

She pointed out two problems facing the COC. China, the biggest player, "will dominate the rule-making process as well as the actual rules of the framework itself."

The other problem is that "U.S. reluctance to be engaged in the rule-making process in the South China Sea has become even clearer," Goto said. "That bodes ill for Washington's broader commitment to ensuring security in the region, and exemplifies Beijing's ever-growing influence in the region."

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B-52 testers complete leaflet bomb drops

By Kenji Thuloweit, 412th Test Wing Public Affairs / Published July 26, 2017

An important part of U.S. military operations overseas is communicating with the local population. This can be done in a number of ways including something as simple as distributing leaflets.

In psychological operations, leaflets with messages are often dropped from aircraft in order to reach a wide area.

Testers from the 419th Flight Test Squadron are looking to see if B-52 Stratofortress bombers can accomplish this task.

The squadron recently completed two successful sorties where a B-52 released eight PDU-5/B leaflet bombs over the Point Mugu Sea Test Range and eight more over the Precision Impact Range Area on Edwards Air Force Base.

"We are primarily looking to see safe separation from the external Heavy Stores Adapter Beam," said Kevin Thorn, a 419th FLTS B-52 Stratofortress air vehicle manager. "We are ensuring that the bombs do not contact the aircraft, and/or each other, creating an unsafe condition. Additionally we are tracking the reliability of the bomb functioning."

The PDU-5/B is a new-use or variant of an older Cluster Bomb Unit. The original designation for the weapon was the MK-20 Rockeye II, SUU-76B/B, and/or CBU-99/100. The designator changes depending on the type of filler used in the bomb, said Thorn. Having leaflets as a filler designates the bomb as a PDU-5/B.

According to the Air Force, PDU-5/B canisters can deliver about 60,000 leaflets and were deployed in Operation Iraqi Freedom before any Air Force munitions began hitting targets in Baghdad.

The dispenser bomb can be dropped from helicopters and fighter jets, and now the 419th FTS is trying to see if the B-52 fleet can be used as well.

"The PDU-5/B is just another tool that the B-52 uses in its vast and reliable tool box," said Earl Johnson, the B-52 PDU-5/B project manager. "Without the capability to carry PDU-5s on the B-52 aircraft, the impending shortfall on leaflet dispersal capability will jeopardize Air Force Central Command information operations."

Johnson said testing the PDU-5/B on the B-52 is complete for now. The program is forecasted to return at a future date to test PDU-5/B releases from the B-52's internal weapons bay.

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SecAF visits Nellis AFB Airmen, experiences Red Flag exercise

By Senior Airman Kevin Tanenbaum, 99th Air Base Wing Public Affairs / Published July 26, 2017

NELLIS AIR FORCE BASE, Nev.(AFNS) -- Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson visited Nellis and Creech Air Force Bases, Nevada from July 17-21, 2017 to meet with Airmen and witness Red Flag, the U.S. Air Force's premiere multi-domain integration training exercise.

Wilson's priorities of readiness and innovation were bolstered through the experiences she had during her week in southern Nevada.

"Nellis [AFB] is where we bring readiness together," said Wilson. "Not only is it where we test new things, but it's where Airmen have a chance to come together and practice the high-end fight."

Not only was Wilson able to see how Red Flag readies the Air Force for future threats, but she also saw firsthand how Nellis AFB remains at the forefront of modernization.

"I spent three days here at Nellis [AFB], and test and evaluation is a big part of the mission," said Wilson. "This is where we test the newest things we've developed, and we push the envelope on innovation. We're seeing innovation by Airmen every day here, and it's great to witness."

Wilson came to Nellis AFB at the peak of its training exercises, giving her the opportunity to see how the Airmen and joint partners at Red Flag are training through innovation.

"Multi-domain command and control is one of the areas in which we need to innovate," said Wilson. "It starts to come together here first. Those are the things that were most evident to me witnessing Red Flag, the complexity of it, integrating all kinds of air, space and cyber power in order to prevail in very difficult high-end fights."

Training the warfighter in all aspects of air, space and cyber was just part of the experience of watching the exercise. Wilson also took time to talk about how fascinated she was by Airmen.

"The amount of responsibility and the amount of training that we give to young Airmen, and then the responsibility we put on their shoulders for decision-making is impressive to me," she said. "They shoulder the burden, and they protect the country."

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Military Strikes Continue Against ISIS in Syria, Iraq

From a Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve News Release

SOUTHWEST ASIA, July 26, 2017  U.S. and coalition military forces continued to attack the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria yesterday, conducting 27 strikes consisting of 32 engagements , Combined Joint Task Force Operation Inherent Resolve officials reported today.

Officials reported details of yesterday's strikes, noting that assessments of results are based on initial reports.

Strikes in Syria

In Syria, coalition military forces conducted 25 strikes consisting of 30 engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Dayr Az Zawr, a strike destroyed an ISIS oil tanker trailer and a wellhead.

-- Near Raqqa, 24 strikes engaged 14 ISIS tactical units; destroyed six fighting positions, four observation points, three sniper positions, two command-and-control nodes, two supply caches, two mortar systems, a vehicle-borne bomb, an ISIS communication tower, a front-end loader, an ammunition cache, a tactical vehicle and a heavy machine gun; and suppressed a supply route.

Strikes in Iraq

In Iraq, coalition military forces conducted two strikes consisting of two engagements against ISIS targets:

-- Near Huwayjah, a strike engaged an ISIS tactical unit and destroyed a vehicle.

-- Near Kisik, a strike destroyed six ISIS rocket systems and an ISIS-held building.

Additional July 24 Strikes

Officials also provided details today on 13 strikes in Syria and Iraq on July 24 for which the information was not available in time for yesterday's report:

-- Near Kisik, a strike damaged four ISIS vehicles.

-- Near Qayyarah, Iraq, a strike suppressed an ISIS tactical unit.

-- Near Raqqa, 10 strikes engaged five ISIS tactical units and destroyed five fighting positions, three oil refinement stills, a vehicle, a command-and-control node and a weapons cache.

-- Near Abu Kamal, Syria, a strike destroyed three ISIS oil stills and a vehicle.

Part of Operation Inherent Resolve

These strikes were conducted as part of Operation Inherent Resolve, the operation to destroy ISIS in Iraq and Syria. The destruction of ISIS targets in Iraq and Syria also further limits the group's ability to project terror and conduct external operations throughout the region and the rest of the world, task force officials said.

The list above contains all strikes conducted by fighter, attack, bomber, rotary-wing or remotely piloted aircraft; rocket-propelled artillery; and some ground-based tactical artillery when fired on planned targets, officials noted.

Ground-based artillery fired in counterfire or in fire support to maneuver roles is not classified as a strike, they added. A strike, as defined by the coalition, refers to one or more kinetic engagements that occur in roughly the same geographic location to produce a single or cumulative effect.

For example, task force officials explained, a single aircraft delivering a single weapon against a lone ISIS vehicle is one strike, but so is multiple aircraft delivering dozens of weapons against a group of ISIS-held buildings and weapon systems in a compound, having the cumulative effect of making that facility harder or impossible to use. Strike assessments are based on initial reports and may be refined, officials said.

The task force does not report the number or type of aircraft employed in a strike, the number of munitions dropped in each strike, or the number of individual munition impact points against a target.

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Cavalry reconfigures time-tested tactics for 21st century battlefields

By Staff Sgt. Leah Kilpatrick July 26, 2017

CAMP BUEHRING, Kuwait -- Visible waves of intense heat radiated off of the sand at the Udairi Range Complex as teams maneuvered the lanes, scanned their sectors, communicated among each other, and engaged targets.

The cavalry scouts and tankers of the 6th Squadron, 9th Cavalry Regiment "Saber," 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st Cavalry Division arranged into Hunter-Killer teams, adapting a time-tested concept to make the most efficient use of the capabilities of each branch.

"This training is very much, in some ways, back to the future," said Saber Commander Lt. Col. Niel Smith. "We did Hunter-Killer concepts for a number of years ever since the 1950s in the cavalry branch. Changes to doctrine, changes to organizations have created an ebb and flow of the concepts."

The reconfiguration of assets during the brigade redesign, completed in the winter of 2016, introduced a new capability to the reconnaissance squadron. Saber gained a tank company -- Dakota Company from 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry Regiment, 3rd Armored Brigade Combat Team.

Since the addition of Dakota Company, Saber leadership began experimenting with ways to integrate heavily armored assets to make the most prudent use of their immense firepower to support the squadron's mission.

"The cavalry squadron is charged with being the eyes and ears of a combat brigade," said Smith, a native of Richmond, Virginia. "We're supposed to go out, locate the enemy, fix them, make contact, and then be able to transition those targets over to other forces in the brigade for further prosecution."

While the reconnaissance element has traditionally been up front with heavy forces to the rear, leaders started toying with the idea of bringing some of that heavy firepower forward to help reinforce the cavalry scouts.

"Frequently how it's done is, we'll have the recon forces up, and the combined arms battalions will potentially be kilometers behind, and so we'll do a forward passage of lines, but that takes a lot of time, a lot of effort and we're not always correct about where the enemy might be, so with this design it gives us more firepower with our forward recon element so that when we do gain enemy contact, we can maintain it," said 1st Lt. Aaron Scarborough, platoon leader assigned to Dakota Company, Saber Squadron.

"We can, if we need to, arrange direct fires with not just Bradleys, but also tanks, and that'll give us more time and maneuver space, so the combined arms battalions can move forward, and they can finish the fight," he added.

"We've also never really done it in this configuration, where we have one tank company attached the three cavalry troops and then mixing those elements together to be effective on the battlefield as a reconnaissance organization, and it's required an adaptation beyond what existing doctrine and our [tactics, techniques and procedures], the techniques we use to do missions and also recognizing the capabilities of each platform," said Smith.

The Hunter-Killer strategy is designed to be effective against any number of threats in various types of terrain.

"There are a lot of conventional threats out there," said Scarborough. "We have been fighting in asymmetric warfare for the past 15 or so years, and those threats still exist, but there are threats that are peer or near-peer that we need to be prepared for, and we need to be able to arrange our most powerful ground forces together swiftly, accurately, report and then be able to destroy the enemy on the ground."

Saber has brought a handful of its assets into the employment of the Hunter-Killer concept, to include unmanned aerial systems and mortars, all to increase the commander's options by giving him a clear picture of the battle space and the enemy capability.

"It can help you engage all kinds of threats you can find on the battlefield, because also we have indirect fire that we can use. We have UAS -- Predator, Shadow -- our reconnaissance assets that will help us be more decisive in battle," said Sgt. 1st Class Michael DeJesus, assistant operations noncommissioned officer.

"When we do the Hunter-Killer teams, what they provide us is an enabler to meet the commander's intent. If we have tanks coming with us within striking distance, we can identify the enemy, cover and conceal ourselves, battle hand-over to the tank, they move forward to the battle position and engage and destroy the [enemy]," DeJesus said.

The employment of the concept has been months in the planning, and while it seems intuitive to the senior enlisted leaders who have seen it in execution, many of the junior troops were not yet familiar with the concept. The Soldiers had classroom instruction to introduce the concept and then familiarization between the tankers and cavalry scouts to help build cohesion.

"This is the first time most of the Soldiers have done this," said DeJesus, a native of Caguas, Puerto Rico. "We combined a tank section with a scout platoon section, so they could start conducting their troop-leading procedures, so they could get to know each other and understand each other's capabilities and limitations to see what they can bring to the fight."

Smith said the Soldiers are having to rethink some of their pre-conceived notions as they actually execute the concept.

"What's been interesting watching this is learning the scouts initially thought, 'Oh, we're going to be in front. We're going to lead the tanks,' and what they're kind of learning is that sometimes the tanks need to be in front, and sometimes the scouts need to be in front, and sometimes they need to split off together into different combinations in order to get the mission done," Smith said.

"They're developing a lot of these new TTPs [tactics, techniques and procedures], if you will, or these new techniques to be able to adjust. How do we work together and take advantage of the strengths of each platform, and they're not necessarily the ones they thought they would be in the beginning," Smith added.

So even though temperatures topped out at 118 degrees, the Soldiers saw the value of this training opportunity and remained focused.

"The Soldiers are motivated to do this training," DeJesus said. "They are eager to learn and understand. It's more motivating, and it gives them more confidence to know that they see the enemy and can call the tanks, and they will come up and destroy the enemy."

"The tankers and cavalrymen are absolutely attacking the lanes," Smith added. "They're using fire control and distribution, using the tanks to hit tank targets, using the scouts to engage lighter targets and dismounting their scout reconnaissance teams to evaluate terrain, obstacles and sometimes to engage dismounted personnel of the enemy, so they've been doing fantastic out there.

A lot of learning [is] going on. It's really a great experience that we haven't done this type of training in a while, and we're learning a lot of really fantastic lessons," Smith said.

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NATO Deputy Secretary General and US Special Representative Kurt Volker hold talks on Ukraine

NATO - North Atlantic Treaty Organisation

26 Jul. 2017

NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller welcomed Ambassador Kurt Volker, U.S. Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations, to NATO Headquarters on Wednesday (26 July 2017). Ms. Gottemoeller and Ambassador Volker discussed the security situation in eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's reforms, and NATO's support for Ukraine.

"I was pleased to meet with Kurt Volker today. We agreed that the situation in eastern Ukraine and Russia's military build-up in Crimea continue to be of great concern. Russia must respect the Minsk Agreements, which are vital for Ukraine's security and stability," said the Deputy Secretary General. NATO continues to provide strong political and practical support for Ukraine. Through ten different Trust Funds, NATO Allies have pledged almost forty million euros to support Ukraine  in areas such as command and control, cyber defence and medical rehabilitation.

Ambassador Volker previously served as the U.S. Permanent Representative to NATO from 2008 to 2009.

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USS Ross Completes Fifth FDNF Patrol July 26, 2017

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170726-11

Release Date: 7/26/2017 11:34:00 AM

By Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Robert S. Price

NAVAL STATION ROTA, Spain (NNS) -- The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ross (DDG 71) returned to Naval Station Rota, Spain, after completing a four month patrol that began April 3, 2017.

Ross deployed in the U.S. 6th Fleet area of operations to advance U.S. national interests to enhance regional security and stability, and to demonstrate a continued commitment to NATO under Operation Atlantic Resolve.

At the beginning of the ship's fifth forward-deployed patrol, Ross and the Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Porter (DDG 78) conducted a cruise missile strike against Shayrat airfield in western Syria, April 7, 2017. Ross then continued on with routine operations in the Mediterranean Sea working with NATO allies and partners, including ten days of joint operations with French Cassard-class anti-air frigate Jean Bart, to maintain regional security and work toward mutual goals.

Ross transited the Atlantic Ocean during the second half of the patrol to operate in the North Sea. During this time, Ross visited Reykjavik, Iceland, Troms and Trondheim, Norway, and Rotterdam, Netherlands to strengthen U.S. partnerships and demonstrate enduring relationships and a shared commitment to safety and stability in the region.

Ross completed a rare "Blue Nose" naval line-crossing ceremony July 2, 2017, by entering into the Arctic Circle. The blue nose ceremony marked the first time Ross had ever crossed this geographic line.

Quote:

"We began this patrol racing across the Mediterranean to execute national tasking in Syria. We celebrated the 20th anniversary of Ross' commissioning, crossed the Arctic Circle for the first time, and completed several major certifications. I'm very proud of our crew for keeping Ross ready to respond to any mission at a minute's notice and for maintaining the highest levels of professionalism throughout our fifth patrol."

Cmdr. Bryan S. Gallo

Commanding Officer USS Ross (DDG 71)

Quick Facts:

* During patrol, Ross made port calls in Larnaca, Cyprus; Haifa, Israel; Reykjavik, Iceland; Troms, Norway; Trondheim, Norway; Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Souda Bay, Greece.

* Ross traveled more than 20,000 miles, received more than 7,500lbs of mail, used more than 2.3 million gallons of fuel, consumed more than 920 gallons of milk and 33,000 eggs, and purchased more than $1.9 million worth of vital mission-oriented supplies.

* Ross worked with allies and regional partners to help maintain regional security and work toward mutual goals in order to advance security and stability in Europe.

* U.S. 6th Fleet, headquartered in Naples, Italy, conducts the full spectrum of joint and naval operations, often in concert with allied, joint, and interagency partners, in order to advance U.S. national interests and security and stability in Europe and Africa.

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SPS-EPF 17 Engagements Begin in Honduras

Navy News Service

Story Number: NNS170726-02

Release Date: 7/26/2017 8:20:00 AM

From Southern Partnership Station 2017 Public Affairs

PUERTO CASTILLA, Honduras (NNS) -- U.S. service members and Honduran civilian and military officials commemorated the start of Southern Partnership Station-Expeditionary Fast Transport 2017 (SPS-EPF 17) events July 24, at the Honduran naval base in Puerto Castilla.

Coln Department Governor Carlos Ramn Aguilar Guifarro and Trujillo City Mayor Jose Antonio Lanez gave remarks in an opening ceremony and welcomed the SPS-EPF 17 team to Honduras.

"Thank you for the forces and support that we are receiving for Southern Partnership Station," said Aguilar. "This mission is not the first, nor will it be the last."

Capt. Steven Stacy, SPS-EPF 17 mission commander, also spoke at the event and expressed the significance of the mission and the opportunity to strengthen relationships in the Caribbean region.

"The key concept for Southern Partnership Station is just that-partnership," said Stacy, as he addressed the audience, including Honduran civilian and military guests. "But beyond that, we care about what we are doing here with each and every one of you."

The goal of SPS-EPF 17 is enhancing cooperative partnerships through preventative medicine collaboration, subject matter expert exchanges and humanitarian activities. This year's activities include community relations projects to improve local schools and well drilling operations, which will provide thousands of local citizens with access to fresh water.

Southern Partnership Station is one of the many operations and exercises conducted with Central and South American partner nations. The Continuing Promise 2017 mission also included several engagements in Honduras.

"Our countries have shared interests in the Caribbean, from maritime security, to humanitarian activities, to countering illicit trafficking," said Stacy. "Honduras and the U.S. have worked together over the years and we established an amazing partnership."

Honduras is the first country visit of the three month SPS-EPF 17 mission. In addition, SPS-EPF 17 service members are scheduled to conduct activities in Guatemala, Chile and Colombia.

USNAVSO/FOURTHFLT supports USSOUTHCOM's joint and combined military operations by employing maritime forces in cooperative maritime security operations to maintain access, enhance interoperability, and build enduring partnerships in order to enhance regional security and promote peace, stability, and prosperity in the Caribbean, Central, and South American regions.

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Nasrallah says Arsal operation decided solely by Hezbollah

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:13PM

The secretary general of Lebanon's resistance movement Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah says a recent military operation by the group against terrorists in the Syria-Lebanon border region, which resulted in significant victories for the Lebanese forces, was solely an internal issue and no other party outside Lebanon was involved in the case.

"The Arsal operation was solely decided by Hezbollah," Nasrallah said in a televised speech on Wednesday, making a reference to the Lebanese border town, which was the epicenter of an anti-terror fight on the Syria-Lebanon border over the past week.

Elaborating on the significance of the operation, Nasrallah said the area that straddles the Lebanese-Syrian border was known for its harsh geographical features, saying Hezbollah forces and allies in the Lebanese and Syrian army made a great achievement by liberating key positions from the militants.

Nasrallah hailed the sacrifices made by the Lebanese military in the fight against terrorists, saying the army proved that it was a real partner for the resistance.

He said Lebanon's military and security officials played a major role in the operation, adding that they facilitated victories against terrorists of al-Nusra Front in the Syria-Lebanon region.

Nasrallah said the operation to recapture the border area from Nusra, which is currently known as Jabhat Fatah al-Sham, was almost complete and nearly 100 percent of the territories that used to be controlled by the Takfiri terrorists were now liberated.

Hezbollah said on Tuesday that resistance fighters had regained control over Komail plains as well as Hamoudi, Baidar and Shoabat al-Nihla areas on the outskirts of the northeastern border town of Arsal, located 124 kilometers (77 miles) northeast of the capital Beirut.

Hezbollah launched a major push last Friday to clear both sides of Lebanon's border with Syria of "armed terrorists."

In August 2014, Jabhat Fateh al-Sham and Daesh Takfiri terrorist groups overran Arsal, killing a number of Lebanese forces. They took 30 soldiers hostage, most of whom have been released.

Since then, Hezbollah and the Lebanese military have been defending Lebanon on the country's northeastern frontier against foreign-backed terrorist groups from neighboring Syria.

Hezbollah fighters have fended off several Daesh attacks inside Lebanon. They have also been providing assistance to Syrian army forces to counter the ongoing foreign-sponsored militancy.

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UN: Saudi-led alliance responsible for refugee boat attack off Yemen

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:50PM

UN investigators have censured as a violation of humanitarian law a deadly March attack by the Saudi-led military alliance fighting Yemen on a boat carrying Somali refugees off the coast of the impoverished country.

More than 40 people, including women and children, were killed and dozens of others were wounded after a Saudi-led strike hit the refugee boat near the Bab el-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea.

The coalition has denied striking the boat near the port of Hudaydah.

"This civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a 7.62 mm caliber weapon from an armed utility helicopter," the investigators wrote in a 185-page report to the UN Security Council on Monday, Reuters reported on Wednesday, adding that the helicopter was likely operating from a naval vessel.

The UN report said the attack violated international humanitarian law and threatened the peace, security and stability of Yemen.

Saudi Arabia, along with some of its allies, has been pounding Yemen since March 2015 in a bid to undermined the Houthi Ansarullah movement and reinstate resigned president Abd Rabbuh Mansur Hadi.

The Saudi-led coalition, which receives US arms and logistical support, includes Riyadh's allies, including Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.

The UN investigators said the coalition had become a cover for its members to "hide behind 'the entity' of the coalition to shield themselves from state responsibility for violations committed by their forces."

"Attempts to divert responsibility in this manner from individual states to the Saudi Arabia-led coalition may contribute to further violations continuing with impunity," they wrote.

Human Rights Watch also censured the attack on the Somali refugee boast as a "war crime."

"The coalition's apparent firing on a boat filled with fleeing refugees is only the latest likely war crime in Yemen's two-year-long war," said Sarah Leah Whitson, the Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, in March.

"Reckless disregard for the lives of civilians has reached a new level of depravity," she added.

The strike was reportedly carried out by an Apache helicopter, which is only used by Saudi Arabia in the war on Yemen.

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Venezuela's opposition leader calls for nationwide strike

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:7PM

Leopoldo Lopez, the top figure of Venezuela's opposition movement, has called for a general strike in the country to protest against government plans for carrying out reforms in the constitution.

Lopez issued a video message on Wednesday, calling on all Venezuelans to contribute to the strike, which began overnight.

The former Caracas-area mayor, who has recently been released from prison, also urged Venezuela's army to refrain from deploying troops to a controversial constituent assembly meeting on Sunday, which is expected to finalize changes to the constitution.

"We are on the brink of their trying to annihilate the republic that you swore to defend ... I ask you not to be accomplices in the annihilation of the republic," Lopez said in the 15-minute video message.

Many residents in the capital Caracas heeded the call on Wednesday and stayed home. Streets were mostly empty and shops were closed.

Lopez was sentenced to 14 years in 2015 for inciting violence on the streets. He was freed in early July after authorities said his case had irregularities. He is currently monitored at his home with an electronic bracelet.

In his message, Lopez urged Venezuelans to take to the streets for protests planned in the run-up to the Sunday vote, saying he would attend and lead the "takeover of Caracas" protest on Friday if he could.

"And you all know that if I could, I would physically be at the front," Lopez said, adding, "I want to tell the Venezuelan people that in mind, spirit and conviction, I have accompanied you in this fight on the streets."

President Nicolas Maduro has touted changes in Venezuela's constitution as necessary for resolving the widening political crisis in the country. He says the rewrite would also help the nation to weather an economic crisis that many say was the main reason behind the current standoff.

Maduro has repeatedly blamed the crisis on foreign governments, mainly the United States, saying Washington has supported and funded an opposition, which has consistently capitalized on economic woes of Venezuela as the oil-rich country keeps struggling with a slump in global prices.

The US government on Wednesday imposed a fresh round of sanctions on individuals in Venezuela's government, military and state oil company PDVSA, in an apparent bid to increase pressure on Maduro and allies in the government.

The list of 13 persons included army and police chiefs, the national director of elections and a PDVSA vice president.

Sources in the White House said the US government had avoided, at least for now, to impose broader financial or "sectoral" sanctions against Venezuela's vital oil industry, although the source said such measures are still under consideration.

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Taliban militants kill 26 Afghan troops in raid on Kandahar army base

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 10:6AM

Taliban militants have killed at least 26 Afghan soldiers and injured 30 more in an attack on an army base in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar Province.

The militants "attacked an army camp in the Karzali area of the Khakrez district of Kandahar last night," General Dawlat Waziri, a spokesman for the Afghan Defense Ministry, said on Wednesday.

Waziri said the soldiers "bravely resisted" and killed over 80 of the assailants.

The Taliban have claimed responsibility for the attack.

Meanwhile, at least 50 Taliban militants were reportedly killed in Baghlan-e-Markazi district of northern Baghlan Province during an ongoing operation by Afghan troops on Tuesday night, Afghan media reported on Wednesday.

More than 20 villages were purged of Taliban militants during the operation, which was launched eight days ago in a bid to clear the area of militants.

Some 70 more Taliban members were also wounded in the operation.

"The Taliban are on the run from the district after suffering heavy casualties," said Deputy Defense Minister General Shoaor Gul.

They had attacked the district eight days ago and gotten close to the center of the district.

According to authorities, the Afghan Air Force provided support for ground forces in the operation, and the militants suffered most of the casualties in the aerial operations.

Insecurity has gripped Afghanistan since 2001, when the United States and its allies invaded the country as part of Washington's so-called war on terror. Many parts of the country remain plagued by militancy despite the presence of foreign troops.

In addition to the Taliban, the Takfiri Daesh terrorist group  which is mainly active in Syria and Iraq  has managed to gain a foothold in Afghanistan.

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Saudi-led bloc of states undermining mediation efforts: Qatar FM

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 6:52AM

Qatar's foreign minister, who is on a visit to the US, says the "negative behavior" of the Saudi-led bloc of blockaders is undermining the mediation efforts aimed at settling the unprecedented diplomatic crisis gripping the Persian Gulf region.

In an interview with Qatari broadcaster Al Jazeera late Tuesday, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani reiterated that Doha was open to dialog on issues of concern, but that its international affairs would not be up for negotiations.

"We see there is a negative behavior aimed at influencing the mediation, either through statements or through (media) leaks which they launch at critical moments," the top diplomat added.

He said his visit to Washington is part of the US-Kuwait efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the row between Doha and the Saudi-led bloc boycotting his country  Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

Sheikh Mohammed noted that his trip is also "aimed at informing politicians, senators and MPs in the United States about the negative impacts of this crisis on the region."

Since the outbreak of the crisis, he said, the US has demanded "the rapid lifting of the unjust siege against Qatar ... but the contradictory statements of" the blockaders have "prevented" this from happening.

Last month, the Saudi-led quartet imposed a trade and diplomatic embargo on Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.

They presented Qatar with a list of 13 wide-ranging demands and gave it an ultimatum to comply with them or face unspecified consequences.

The demands included shutting down the broadcaster Al Jazeera, removing Turkish troops from Qatar's soil, scaling back cooperation with Iran and ending ties with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood movement.

Doha, however, denounced the demands as unreasonable, refused to meet them, and said that they were meant to force the country to surrender its sovereignty.

The Qatari minister's comments came after the quartet of Arab countries unveiled a new terrorist blacklist of 18 entities and individuals, six of them from Yemen, over having suspected "direct or indirect" ties with Qatari authorities.

In another development on Wednesday, the Qatari Compensation Claims Committee, which is tasked with pursuing compensation for damages stemming from the siege on the country, said it had received 2,945 individual cases from the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC).

Ahmed bin Hassan Al-Hammadi, the Qatari Foreign Ministry secretary general and member of the claims committee, told Al Jazeera that the body had received about 100-160 complaints and 60 calls a day.

The committee looks into the difficulties faced by Qatari citizens, traders and government institutions as a result of the blockade.

Qatar, US, Turkey set to hold joint drills

Separately, Qatari Minister of State for Defense Affairs Khalid bin Mohammad al-Attiyah announced that his country's military is in the final stages of preparations for joint exercises with the US and Turkish forces.

"The drills involving the three nations [Qatar, the US and Turkey] will start in the shortest time," Attiyah told RT Arabic.

He also hailed the "special strategic relationship" between Qatar and Turkey, adding that the 2015 military agreement between the two states "can't be annulled only because some countries decided to announce a blockade of Qatar."

The Qatari defense minister further described Doha's relations with Washington as "friendly and firm."

Touching on the demands from the Saudi-led bloc, Attiyah stressed that the removal of the siege on Qatar was a pre-requisite for dialogue between the conflicting sides.

If Saudi Arabia and its allies "stall lifting the blockade, Qatar will have to resort to means available to it internationally, should we find that this blockade violates international law. Therefore, Qatar will be forced to opt for international procedures to legally lift the blockade," he pointed out.

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Dozens Killed In Taliban Attack On Afghan Military Base

RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan July 26, 2017

Afghanistan's Defense Ministry says 26 soldiers were killed and 13 wounded in a Taliban attack on a military base in the southern province of Kandahar, although other government officials said the death toll was at least 30.

Defense Ministry spokesman Dawlat Waziri said 80 Taliban militants were also killed or wounded in the attack on the Karzyalay military base in Kandahar's Khakrez district early on July 26.

The attack came amid a deadly surge of violence in Afghanistan, where government forces are struggling to fend off a resurgent Taliban that controls more territory than at any time since the U.S.-led invasion in 2001.

Government sources who spoke on condition of anonymity told RFE/RL's Radio Free Afghanistan that at least 30 soldiers were killed in the attack.

Sediq Esa, a spokesman for the 205th Corps in Kandahar, also said at least 30 Afghan military personnel were killed.

Esa said the militants seized the base and captured weapons and vehicles.

In a statement, the Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying that it had killed 74 soldiers and captured six others.

The Defense Ministry said government forces, backed by the air force, recaptured the base after several hours.

Kandahar has been the scene of constant militant attacks since 2001. The province is the spiritual heartland of the Taliban and located on the porous border with Pakistan, where the militant group's leadership is believed to be based.

Taliban militants have ramped up their attacks on military bases across the country, challenging the thinly stretched security forces.

The U.S. Special Inspector-General for Reconstruction (SIGAR) has called the casualty rate among Afghan forces "shockingly high." Last year, more than 6,800 were killed and another 12,000 wounded, according to a SIGAR report this year.

In April, at least 140 soldiers were killed on a base outside the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif, one of the deadliest-ever Taliban attacks on a military installation.

In March, gunmen disguised as doctors stormed the Sardar Daud Khan hospital -- the country's largest military hospital -- in Kabul, killing 50 people.

The Taliban is threatening to overrun districts in Baghlan, Badakhshan, Kunduz, Helmand, Farah, and Uruzgan provinces, according to officials.

The militants captured three districts in the past seek, although the ministry said Kohistan district in the northwestern province of Faryab was recaptured late on July 25.

On July 24, a Taliban suicide car bombing killed at least 26 people and wounded 41 others in the capital, Kabul, many of them employees of the Ministry of Mines and Petroleum.

The Taliban was driven from power in Afghanistan after the U.S.-led invasion that followed the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States.

With reporting by BBC Persian and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/afghanistan-attack- kandahar-taliban/28638763.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Chinese Navy Expands Submarine Detection Testing in the South China Sea

Sputnik News

22:01 26.07.2017(updated 23:39 26.07.2017)

The Chinese navy will conduct a massive experiment with underwater drones equipped with "real-time data transmission technology," in hopes of building up Beijing's capacity to detect hostile submarines in the South China Sea.

Beijing wants to accelerate the development of underwater monitoring technology, the South China Morning Post report said, in response to US President Donald Trump's sanctioning the US Navy to conduct more freedom-of-navigation operations.

Twelve undersea "gliders" positioned in undisclosed locations in the South China Sea will transmit data back to control centers, SCMP noted. The unmanned sea drones will cruise around for a month to gather data on water temperature, salinity, cleanliness, oxygen levels and sea current velocity, a Chinese Academy of Sciences official told the Post.

If the tests achieve the expected results it will "definitely" be a "breakthrough,' said Yin Jingwei, a dean at Harbin Engineering University. "Real-time data transmission" has proven "extremely difficult for underwater gliders," Yin added.

Beijing has successfully installed military assets and new capabilities throughout the disputed South China Sea in recent years as it aims at full-on hegemony in the strategic body of water. "New missile shelters, radio/communications facilities, and other infrastructure are going in on the Fiery Cross, Mischief and Subi Reefs," in the Spratly archipelago, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies' Asia Maritime Transparency Initiative.

Satellite imagery taken in May showed the deployment of a new Y-8X maritime patrol aircraft, armed with a seven-meter long Magnetic Anomaly Detector for picking up magnetic signatures from submarine hulls, on Hainan Island. Stationing the sub-hunting aircraft at the Lingshui Air Base on the island offers the Chinese navy close proximity for monitoring submarine activity in the South China Sea.

 Sputnik

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Moscow Calls Reports of Russia's Alleged Arms Supplies to Taliban 'Groundless'

Sputnik News

15:32 26.07.2017(updated 18:03 26.07.2017)

The Russian Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that the claims that Russia is allegedly supplying weapons to the Taliban movement (banned in Russia) in Afghanistan were groundless.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  On Tuesday, CNN claimed that it had exclusive videos purporting to show that the Taliban had allegedly received weaponry in Afghanistan which appeared to have been supplied by Russia, however, presented no proof.

According to CNN, two separate Taliban groups say they got hold of weapons, which were allegedly supplied by the Russian government. One group said it took the weapons after defeating a rival group, while the other claims it got pistols for free that were smuggled through Tajik border. Experts say the weapons have no identification markings hence it is impossible to trace their origins.

"We have repeatedly stated that accusations of a series of Western and  Afghan media regarding Russia's alleged support of the Taliban movement are groundless We reiterate, Russia does not support the Taliban movement, and only maintains contacts with the Taliban to ensure the safety of Russian nationals in Afghanistan and to incentivise this group to join the process of national reconciliation," the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry stressed that it is impossible to trace the country of origin of the weapons demonstrated in the video, as they were common and manufactured by many countries.

"It is hardly possible to seriously perceive the video materials, in which old, small arms of unknown and untraceable origin are demonstrated. [The weapons are] not stamped by the manufacturer, serial numbers are knocked down. In addition, the shown weapons are typical. As it is known, such samples were produced not only in Russia, but also in other countries, including [those in] Eastern Europe, from where the Americans imported them massively to Afghanistan in the early 2000s. Recently, the Taliban attacked the Afghan national security forces' base in Helmand province using American Humvee armored vehicles. What conclusion can be made based on this information using the logic of the CNN?" the statement read.

The ministry strongly noted that neither Afghan authorities, nor US command or NATO in Afghanistan have provided evidence that would confirm these speculations.

Earlier, US and Afghan officials accused Russia of supporting the Taliban. Moscow denounced the claim, calling it utterly false. The Kremlin said that these accusations are made to cover up US failures in Afghanistan and noted that it maintains contact with the terrorist group only to promote peace talks.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that Moscow is only working with the Taliban in order to assist the implementation of a UN Security Council decision requested by the Afghan government that would allow the group to take a role in the political process. Lavrov also called accusations from the United States that it is supplying the Taliban with weapons baseless and unprofessional.

Earlier, Director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart said in his testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee said that there was no evidence Russia had transferred weapons or money to the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Taliban is an Islamist terror organization that seeks to establish a strict Sharia law in Afghanistan.

 Sputnik

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Taliban Storms Base in Afghan Kandahar, Killing at Least 26 Soldiers

Sputnik News

12:32 26.07.2017(updated 12:34 26.07.2017)

The Taliban terrorist group (outlawed in Russia) stormed a base in Afghanistan's southern Kandahar province, killing at least 26 Afghan soldiers and injuring 30 others, local media reported Wednesday, citing sources.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The clashes in Khakrez district of Kandahar province continued for almost five hours, the TOLO news broadcaster reported. According to one of the media outlet's sources, 82 soldiers were at the base when the Taliban launched its attack. Besides, eight soldiers are missing.

"82 soldiers were at the base when the Taliban attacked. The remaining soldiers were not hurt in the attack," the source was quoted as saying by the broadcaster.

The Afghan authorities have not yet commented on the incident. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The Taliban terrorist group has recently intensified its activity in Afghanistan. On July 6, the Taliban carried out a mortar shelling attack in the Nangarhar province, injuring 14 people, including women and children. On July 19, the radical movement launched an offensive on the Afghan security service checkpoints in the southern Helmand province. Taliban's most recent attack occurred on Monday in Kabul, and it claimed lives of 24 people.

Afghanistan has been suffering significant political, social and security-related provoked by the activity of the Taliban and Daesh terrorist groups for decades. The Afghan National Defense and Security Forces have been acting together to combat terrorism in the country.

 Sputnik

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Beijing Confirms Putting Pressure on Hanoi to Stop South China Sea Oil Drilling

Sputnik News

03:29 26.07.2017(updated 10:32 26.07.2017)

The Chinese Foreign Ministry verified media reports that Beijing pressured Hanoi to terminate an oil expedition in the South China Sea.

"China urges the relevant parties to cease the relevant unilateral infringing activities" spokesman Lu Kang told reporters on Tuesday, adding that China, "with practical action, safeguards the hard-earned positive situation in the South China Sea."Kang didn't disclose what "practical actions" were taken.

Repsol, the Spanish oil firm cooperating with Hanoi on the project, had spent $300 million developing an oil field near the disputed waters. While Repsol seems to have wanted to make Block 136-03 commercially viable, Beijing reportedly vowed to Vietnam that drilling would lead to an attack.

Beijing reportedly threatened to use force against Vietnamese bases in the Spratly Islands if Hanoi did not promptly call the oil expedition off on Monday. Vietnam leased the waters under dispute to Repsol subsidiary Talisman-Vietnam, while officials in China, which also claims the area, sold rights to explore part of the area to another firm.

The South China Sea is rich hydrocarbons in addition to providing passage for $5 trillion worth of maritime trade on an annual basis.

Estimates of just how much oil and natural gas exist in the strategic body of water differ considerably. The US Geological Survey forecasts that the South China Sea "may contain anywhere between 5 and 22 billion barrels of oil and between 70 and 290 trillion cubic feet of gas in as-yet undiscovered resources."

"The Chinese National Offshore Oil Company estimated the area holds around 125 billion barrels of oil and 500 trillion cubic feet of natural gas in undiscovered resources," according to the US Energy Information Administration's research.

 Sputnik

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Malnutrition and cholera 'a vicious combination' in war-torn Yemen - UN agency chiefs

26 July 2017  In Yemen, the world's worst cholera outbreak is unfolding amid the world's largest humanitarian crisis, crippling health, water and sanitation facilities in the country, and creating ideal conditions for diseases to spread, according to the heads of three United Nations agencies.

"The country is on the brink of famine, with over 60 per cent of the population not knowing where their next meal will come from," said UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Wrapping up their joint visit to the crisis-torn nation, the agency chiefs pointed out that nearly two million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, and "malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera; diseases create more malnutrition [] a vicious combination."

Together in Yemen they witnessed the scale of the humanitarian crisis, observing that over the last three months, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded.

"At one hospital, we visited children who can barely gather the strength to breathe. We spoke with families overcome with sorrow for their ill loved ones and struggling to feed their families," they lamented, adding that as they drove through the city, "we saw how vital infrastructure, such as health and water facilities, have been damaged or destroyed."

Thousands of health workers, unpaid for nearly a year, still show up for duty

Amid the chaos, some 16,000 volunteers go from house to house, educating families on how to protect themselves from diarrhoea and cholera while doctors, nurses and other health staff work around the clock to save lives.

Highlighting that in spite of not having been paid for over 10 months, many of the 30,000 health workers continue to labour, the senior UN officials said they have asked the authorities to pay them.

"As for our agencies, we will do our best to support these extremely dedicated health workers with incentives and stipends," they stated.

"We also saw the vital work being done by local authorities and NGOs (non-governmental organization), supported by international humanitarian agencies, including our own. We have set up more than 1,000 diarrhoea treatment centres and oral rehydration corners," they noted.

The UN agency heads underscored that the delivery of food supplements and medical supplies is ongoing, as is the rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals, health centres and the water- sanitation network.

"We are working with the World Bank in an innovative partnership that responds to needs on the ground and helps maintain the local health institutions," they continued.

While the UN officials also offered hope  noting that more than 99 per cent of cholera-infected people with access to health services are surviving and the number of children afflicted with severe acute malnutrition this year was estimated to be 385,000  they maintained that as thousands fall sick every day, the situation remains dire.

They flagged that nearly 80 per cent of Yemen's children need immediate humanitarian assistance, underlining the importance of sustained efforts to stop the spread of disease.

Drawing attention to their meeting with Yemeni leaders in Aden and Sana'a, the UN officials pressed for humanitarian access to fighting-affected areas and urged for a peaceful political solution.

"The Yemeni crisis requires an unprecedented response," they stressed, explaining that the three agencies have teamed up with the Yemeni authorities and other partners "to coordinate activities in new ways of working to save lives and to prepare for future emergencies."

"We now call on the international community to redouble its support for the people of Yemen. If we fail to do so, the catastrophe we have seen unfolding before our eyes will not only continue to claim lives but will scar future generations and the country for years to come," concluded the UN heads.

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DR Congo: UN rights chief names international investigators in Kasai abuses

26 July 2017  The United Nations human rights chief today named three international experts to investigate reports of killings, mutilations, rapes and other abuses in the Democratic Republic of the Congo's (DRC) restive Kasai provinces.

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein named Bacre Ndiaye, a Senegal national, to lead a team of experts that includes Luc Cote, a Canadian who has worked on human rights violations in the DRC, and Mauritania's Fatimata M'Baye.

The team of experts is expected "to collect and preserve information, to determine the facts and circumstances in accordance with international standards and practice, and while ensuring the protection of all persons who will cooperate with the team, in cooperation with the Government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," as stipulated in a mandate by the UN Human Rights Council resolution adopted on 22 June 2017.

The cooperation with the Government includes "facilitating visits and access to the country, sites and persons, concerning alleged human rights violations and abuses, and violations of international humanitarian law in the Kasai regions," according to the Council.

The resolution refers to reports of the "recruitment and use of child soldiers, sexual and gender-based violence, destruction of houses, schools, places of worship, and State infrastructure by local militias, as well as of mass graves."

The team's findings are due to be presented to the Human Rights Council in June 2018.

Ahead of the report, the High Commissioner is scheduled to present an oral update on the situation in the Kasais to the Human Rights Council in March of next year.

Violence flared up in the DRC's Kasai regions in August 2016, when a customary chief was killed by Forces armees de la Republique democratique du Congo (FARDC), as DRC's armed forces are known. The Kamuina Nsapu militia (named after the chief) then set about avenging the killing, committing widespread atrocities as well as recruiting children into its ranks.

The gravity of the situation was further underscored by the discovery (in April, this year) of forty-two mass graves by OHCHR and the UN mission (known by its French acronym, MONUSCO).

More than 1.3 million people have since been displaced within the country as well as thousands forced to flee across its borders.

Security Council urges progress on political agreement

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council today warned that unless politicians in DRC demonstrate renewed efforts to deliver on an agreement to hold elections by the end of this year, the country and the wider region faces an increased risk of instability.

"The Security Council further calls upon all political parties, their supporters, and other political actors to remain calm and refrain from violence of any kind," according to the statement signed by Ambassador Liu Jieyi, who holds the rotating presidency for the month of July.

The presidential statement  which has a tone similar to a Security Council resolution but is not legally binding  expresses concern about "the slow implementation of the 31 December agreement.

The agreement  facilitated by Conference Episcopale Nationale du Congo (CENCO) mediators, and reached in DRC's capital, Kinshasa, on 31 December 2016  allowed President Joseph Kabila to stay in power beyond the end of his term.

In today's statement, the Council also welcomed progress made in the voter registration process led by the National Electoral Commission (CENI), and called for continued efforts "to ensure that voters throughout the country, including in the Kasai provinces, are duly registered."

The Council also called on the Government to set aside a budget for the elections and come up with a timetable for preparations.

In the same agreement, the Council reiterated its condemnation of the violence in the Kasai region and expressed "serious concern" about cases of sexual violence and recent reports of more alleged mass graves.

"The Security Council underscores the primary responsibility of the DRC Government for ensuring security in its territory and protecting its population, with respect for the rule of law, human rights and international humanitarian law," the statement said, cautioning that some of the reported violations could constitute war crimes under international law.

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UN refugee agency seeks $9.5 million to assist Nigerian returnees from Cameroon

26 July 2017  The UN refugee agency is seeking an additional $9.5 million to scale up its activities in northeast Nigeria, as a result of an unexpected surge in self-organized returns of Nigerian refugees mainly from Cameroon since the beginning of the year.

"This is a new emergency, which requires urgent attention," said Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a press release.

Between January and June 2017, nearly 135,000 refugees returned to Nigeria, mainly women and children. The majority left Minawao and Kolofata refugee settlements, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

"Many of these returnees are unable to go back to their homes due to security concerns and end up being displaced again, in dire humanitarian conditions," he added.

The situation is particularly difficult in the town of Banki, where many are forced to live outdoors and have limited access to drinking water, food and medicine.

"During my recent visit to the region, I was not only appalled by the scale of the humanitarian needs, but also deeply shocked at the level of trauma, social division and distrust," said Mr. Turk, who visited both Nigeria and Cameroon over the past three weeks.

"We urge the international community to pay more attention to this highly complex and challenging humanitarian and security situation," he added.

As vulnerabilities increase over time, funding is, unfortunately, lagging behind needs. So far, UNHCR has received $41.1 million from donors out of a total funding requirement of $179.5 million for 2017 for Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Additional funding would allow UNHCR to increase its presence in border locations and improve border and protection monitoring. The agency also plans to expand reception facilities and launch mass information campaigns to ensure that Nigerian refugees in Cameroon's Far North have accurate and updated information on the situation prevailing in areas of return in Nigeria.

Mr. Turk said that the Governments of both countries gave him assurances that action has been taken to stop involuntary returns.

The first meeting of the Tripartite Commission, comprising representatives from UNHCR, Nigeria and Cameroon, is expected to take place early August. The Commission was set up after the signature, last March, of a tripartite agreement on voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees.

It will be "a positive step forward," Mr. Turk said.

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Burundi: UN envoy reiterates inclusive dialogue, regional support to political process

26 July 2017  The United Nations Special Envoy to Burundi today urged African leaders, in solidarity with the UN, to support an inclusive dialogue between the Government and the opposition in a country where political upheaval has resulted in insecurity since April 2015.

Addressing the UN Security Council, Michel Kafando, recounted his recent efforts to support the inter-Burundian dialogue, including through a visit to President Pierre Nkurunziza last month.

"We would like to see an atmosphere of peace in Burundi. But under what conditions and at what price can this be achieved?" he asked the Council in New York.

"The first requirement is to give priority to inclusive dialogue, a prerequisite for any resolution of the crisis. It becomes imperative that the Government of Burundi accedes to the request of the countries in the sub-region and the African Union, supported by the United Nations, to engage in an inclusive dialogue; that means involving the exiled opposition as well as the opposition in the country."

He underscored the importance of regional efforts, in particular by former Tanzanian President Benjamin Mkapa, the East African Community's mediator heading the inter-Burundian dialogue.

Mr. Mkapa was due to brief the Council alongside Mr. Kafando but was unable to due to health reasons, the UN official said.

Mr. Kafando noted that authorities in Burundi and the opposition have diverging views on the political situation in the country, in a difficult socio-economic context, but consider the situation calm and seek to preserve their national sovereignty in managing internal affairs.

He did note, however, that representatives of the political opposition and some of the civil society are concerned about what they call "authoritarian" moves by the Government.

Mr. Kafando had met with civil society leaders and political parties during his second recent visit to Burundi, from 7 to 13 July.

Highlighting his discussions during that visit, Mr. Kafando reiterated calls for greater involvement of the regional and the international community in favor of an inclusive dialogue, without preconditions, and with the participation of all Burundians.

"I deeply believe in the sub-region's commitment to work for peace in Burundi with the support of the African Union and I strongly recommend that the United Nations accompany them and resolutely support these efforts. In the end, even if we still need a little patience, we will certainly arrive at a dynamic compromise," the Special Envoy said.

In late June, Assistant Secretary-General Taye-Brook Zerihoun told the Council that the security situation in the country was "fragile" and noted a series of grenade attacks in the capital, Bujumbura.

Insecurity has been a concern in the country since 2015, when violence emerged around the President's decision to run for a third consecutive term. Some three million people are in need of humanitarian aid, with some 2.6 million others hungry, and more than 600,000 displaced from their homes.

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Trump: Transgender People Barred from US Military

By Ken Bredemeier July 26, 2017

President Donald Trump says the U.S. military will no longer let transgender people serve in any capacity, reversing a policy former President Barack Obama's administration announced a year ago.

In a string of Twitter comments, Trump said Wednesday that after consulting with generals and military experts, he was ordering the armed forces to stop accepting transgender recruits.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump wrote.

What happens now?

Trump did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the U.S. military  about 4,000 personnel, according to research by the Rand Corp.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later that Trump will "have to work together" with the Defense Department to "lawfully determine" the fate of transgender service personnel already in the military.

She rebuffed reporters' inquiries suggesting that Trump had broken an election-campaign vow to support the transgender community. The president felt his decision was "the best one for the military," Sanders said.

In addition to service members known to be transgender, defense officials said there are about 250 military personnel who are believed to be transitioning to a gender other than the one they were identified with at birth.

Trump's announcement came one day ahead of a deadline for the military to update its medical regulations to accommodate transgender personnel, but the Pentagon appeared to be caught off-guard when the president issued his Twitter comments.

The Defense Department said it was referring all questions about the change in policy to the White House. The Pentagon said it would "continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief," and then brief military officials.

Sharp criticism

Trump's action drew an immediate rebuke from a leading group supporting transgender rights and lawmakers who had favored last year's policy change.

Human Rights Campaign president Chad Griffin said, "I know transgender service members and vets who have done more to serve their country than @realdonaldtrump has in his entire life."

One of the country's most prominent transgender activists, Chelsea Manning, an Army intelligence analyst freed recently from prison for leaking classified military documents to the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks, said, "So not only do you want to ban trans people, now you want to throw us in prison ?? sounds familiar."

Some other former military personnel took to social media in support of Trump's decision.

A senior Republican lawmaker, Senator John McCain, held as a prisoner of war in Vietnam in the 1960s, chided Trump for taking up such a serious issue on Twitter, and said the statement was unclear: "The Department of Defense has already decided to allow currently serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honorably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving."

Florida Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican, said, "No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from the honor + privilege of serving our nation."

"Thousands of transgender service members defend our country," Democratic Senator Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire said in a tweet. "They're patriots & should be applauded not discriminated against by Pres Trump."

Another Democrat, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, said: "The thousands of transgender Americans serving in our #military are courage incarnate. They are patriots. And they deserve better than this."

Pentagon policy change

In June 2016, former Defense Secretary Ash Carter said the Pentagon was ending what he said were policies that discriminated against transgender people, and would start by revoking a rule that transgender people could be involuntarily discharged from military service.

Carter said at the time he was "confident that we have reason to be proud today of what this will mean for our military because it is the right thing to do, and it is another step in ensuring that we continue to recruit and retain the most qualified people  and good people are the key to the best military in the world. Our military, and the nation it defends, will be stronger."

Under Carter's order, the military had planned to start allowing transgender people to enlist this year, provided they had been "stable" in their preferred gender for 18 months.

Ahead of Trump's announcement, his defense chief, Jim Mattis, said recently the Pentagon would delay Carter's order through the remainder of 2017 in order to review the impact of the shift.

"Since becoming the Secretary of Defense," Mattis said, "I have emphasized that the Department of Defense must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: Will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force? Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America's military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military services."

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this report

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Rebel Leader Excluded From South Sudan Peace Process

By Waakhe Simon Wudu July 26, 2017

Civil society activists say a move to exclude South Sudan rebel leader Riek Machar from a regional peace process will ensure that South Sudan remains engulfed in war.

Ministers of the East African bloc IGAD said Monday that Machar will not be invited to the next meeting for the peace process, which is aimed at revitalizing a 2015 peace agreement between the rebels and South Sudanese government.

"We already agreed that the process, all opposition groups including Riek Machar's ideas, the representatives of Riek Machar, can be involved in this process. For the time being, physically we are not inviting Riek Machar," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Workneh Gebeyehu said at the end of the ministers' meeting in South Sudan's capital, Juba.

Machar, a former South Sudanese vice president, currently lives in exile in South Africa, where he fled after an outbreak of violence in Juba in July 2016 killed nearly 300 people.

Talks could fail

South Sudanese activists said the IGAD decision not to invite Machar is wrong-headed, and throws into question whether the regional bloc is operating as a neutral entity.

Rajab Muhandis, executive director of the South Sudanese Network for Democracy and Elections, or SSuNDE, said any revitalization process that excludes certain parties to the agreement risks failure.

"It will be very challenging if the peace agreement that is going to be revitalized does not adequately include all the parties to the conflict. If half of the parties are included (and) others are not, there's likelihood that those not involved may not have other options but violence as an option to find their way to the political process," Muhandis told VOA's South Sudan in Focus.

Top leaders need to be included

Activist Jame David Kolok, executive director for the Foundation for Democracy and Accountable Governance, said excluding key leaders is not wise.

"If there are any avenues through which people like Dr. Machar are part of this process then this is a sign that this country is moving towards the path of stability," Kolok told South Sudan in Focus. Those "people" would include former Sudanese foreign minister Lam Akol and renegade General Thomas Cirillo, he said.

More than four million South Sudanese have been displaced from their homes during a war triggered by violence between supporters of Machar and backers of President Salva Kiir in December 2013.

Key problems still to be addressed

Kolok said it is high time IGAD leaders renew efforts to restore calm in South Sudan and called IGAD resolutions passed on Monday nothing new.

"We have seen emphasis being made in regards to this country stopping the war, emphasis being made in terms of question of inclusivity, emphasis being made in terms of ensuring that there is respect for cease-fire. Unfortunately, time is going and these things are not being realized," he said.

Muhandis said the resolutions from the IGAD Council of Ministers do not outline the key problems that need to be fixed.

"There are clear challenges to the implementation. There are clear causes which South Sudan is in crisis and we would love to see IGAD and its council of ministers coming out very clear to outline the issues," Muhandis said.

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Extension of Philippine Martial Law Signals Long Fight Against Muslim Rebels

By Ralph Jennings July 26, 2017

An extension of martial law in the Philippine south through December indicates the government lacks a quick way out of its armed conflict against a group of ISIS-inspired Muslim rebels, but underscores how seriously it's taking the fight.

On Saturday, the Philippine Congress voted 261-18 to put the southern island of Mindanao under martial law through the end of the year and give troops a new edge in their fight against the Maute Group in battles characterized by ambushes and executions of civilians.

"The war is still ongoing and it's difficult for people in Manila to know what's going on," said Rhona Canoy, president of an international school and part of a political family in the Mindanao city Cagayan de Oro. "The president or the military, they have to make an instant decision," she said, speaking hypothetically. "Mindanao being under martial law would make that an easier situation to deal with."

Protracted battle against Muslim rebels

Troops have been fighting in Marawi city since May 23 to rout the rebels suspected of forming ties with Abu Sayyaf, a Philippine group known for kidnapping and beheading foreign tourists. ISIS, the Muslim terrorist group based in Iraq and Syria, has tapped an Abu Sayyaf leader to be its Southeast Asia emir, news media and academic studies say.

Gunfire in Marawi has killed 105 troops, 428 militants and 45 civilians, domestic media said Sunday.

Officials from the government of President Rodrigo Duterte said in June the Maute Group had been confined to four neighborhoods of Marawi, a city of 200,000 people before civilians began fleeing the battle scene. But that month the Armed Forces of the Philippines apologized that the war was taking so long and hinted at a longer struggle.

Fighting could endure because, per military accounts, the rebels have received help from sympathizers in fellow Muslim countries such as Indonesia. Scholars believe the Maute Group also has enough money to arm itself for longer than the government might expect.

The Maute Group, which formed in 2013 by two brothers said to dislike non-Muslims, may be getting money from trade in illegal drugs such as the methamphetamine strain "shabu," a professor in Mindanao told Philippines-based ABS-CBN News in June. "Weak governance structures and institutions" on the island make it "easy for drug lords and even war lords," the news report said.

How martial law helps troops fight militants

Martial law lets troops make some staffing and resource decisions without checks and balances that could set back plans. Road checkpoints and curfews give troops an idea of who's where.

"The rebellion in Marawi continues to persist and we want to stop the spread of the evil ideology of terrorism and free the people of Mindanao from the tyranny of lawlessness and violent extremism," Duterte's spokesman Ernesto Abella said on the presidential office website. The Constitution allows for martial law to handle "invasion or rebellion," he added.

As of Sunday, 1,723 people had been rescued from villages hit by fighting. Some reports say militants have killed civilians for giving sensitive information to troops.

Martial law gives troops the option to broaden its fight to other parts of Mindanao that might pick up the Maute Group's cause if it's quashed.

Previous defeats in Mindanao, where 20 Muslim rebel groups are based, tend only to anger sympathizers into regrouping according to Eduardo Araral, Mindanao native and an associate professor at the National University of Singapore's public policy school.

Muslims who settled on Mindanao and along the adjacent Sulu Sea centuries ago resent the Philippine Catholic majority for what they see as control of national resources. Many in their region live in poverty, seeding armed rebellions that have left about 120,000 people dead since the 1960s.

"In the long history of warfare in Mindanao, when the leader is killed, usually the organization would splinter into different smaller groups," Araral said. "It's like an amoeba, they just break up. You whack it and then they just splinter into smaller groups and they form again."

Public support for martial law

An opinion poll by the Metro Manila-based research institution Social Weather Stations found that 57 percent of Filipinos support the extension of martial law.

People in Cagayan de Oro face a major highway checkpoint on the way to the local airport and hear air force helicopters overhead, Canoy said. But for most people there, she said, "life is going on."

Outsiders such as investors may be heartened that Congress backed up Duterte's request for an extension of martial law, showing that checks and balances work, but may worry about whether the government can get a grip on rebels after an optimistic start in May, said Christian de Guzman, vice president and senior credit officer with Moody's in Singapore.

He added sentiment toward Mindanao was never strong.

"From the outsider point of view, I think the bar has been so low at the outset that failures to meet (the government's) desired objective didn't come as a surprise, so I don't think there's been a big change from their outsider perspective," de Guzman said. "It's always been kind of negative."

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Drought, Conflict Displace 800,000 in Somalia: IOM

By Salem Solomon July 26, 2017

Somalia is suffering from a renewed displacement crisis as people flee drought and conflict, particularly in the country's southern region.

Gerard Waite, chief of mission for the International Organization for Migration Somalia, told VOA that about 800,000 people have fled their homes in response to the drought over the past seven months. That is in addition to the 1.1 million people who were previously displaced in the country.

"We have a displacement crisis on top of a drought crisis," Waite said. "The 800,000 new IDPs [internally displaced persons] that have resulted from the drought have put incredible pressure on the existing camps. The formation of new camps has developed, [and] these camps are, by and large, not very well managed. They are normally on private land in very cramped conditions. They do not have the basic services in these camps."

A side effect of this displacement is people living in squalid conditions and being forced to drink unclean water. This has resulted in over 71,000 cases of cholera or acute watery diarrhea in 2017, resulting in nearly 1,100 deaths.

"The acute water shortages have meant that people are drinking higher-risk water, taking water which they know to be contaminated but they drink it anyway," Waite said.

Climatologists report that the "Gu" rainy season, which lasts from April to June, was well below average this year. The next rainy season is not expected until October, and analysts are warning about significant crop losses.

Worse still, climate models forecast a 45 percent chance of an El Nino weather event late in 2017, which could have a further negative effect on rain patterns.

Waite said about 6.7 million people in Somalia are either in a situation of food crisis or on the edge of crisis.

Learning from lessons past

IOM and other organizations have learned lessons from Somalia's 2011 drought, he said, which resulted in over 200,000 deaths.

"The need to deliver health systems to these places is extremely pressing, but, at the same time, we are managing and trying to manage the situation and working with the government to establish spaces that are more controlled or more managed," he said.

"We also do this with a view to looking at the post-crisis period because, if we can manage the displacement, then we also have a better opportunity to manage the post-crisis period and to manage the return," Waite said.

In a May interview with VOA, Somalia's finance minister, Abdirahman Duale Beyle, said the droughts are frustratingly cyclical in Somalia, and it's time for a change.

"Other countries, they have addressed the issues of water management, of human and livestock management, resettlements, settlements of people and building schools and infrastructures for them. We have been busy doing something else," he said.

Beyle said he believes Somalia has become overly reliant on external aid.

"Our issue is always there will be no rain today, there will be the same problem, the international community will come, even feed our people, we would run around a bit, the rains will come, we will forget it and then tomorrow the same thing happens. We have to change that kind of attitude," Beyle said.

Projects are underway to improve resilience, including an effort by the IOM to introduce drought-resistant potatoes. The U.N. Development Program is helping with several projects, including an effort in Somaliland to install below-surface water tanks, wells and community water storage ponds.

Beyle said now is the time for Somalis themselves to take ownership and solve the problem.

"We have the technology, the intelligence and the know-how to break the link between drought and famine. It's the fragility of our society," he said. "It doesn't rain one year, and people are dying so close to each other. It doesn't happen elsewhere because we have not made any investment in the rural areas."

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North Korean missile could reach US in a year: Intelligence officials

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 8:6AM

American intelligence agencies say that it will take only one year for North Korea to have missiles capable of reaching the United States.

In the new estimate, which is 3 years shorter than the previous one, an intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear weapon would survive the stresses of re-entry, according to several administration officials briefed on the new assessment.

This comes as earlier this month Pyongyang test-fired its first ICBM, which experts believe can reach Alaska.

The North said the missile, that was launched on July 4, the US Independence Day, could hit anywhere in the world.

The officials also said that the new assessment shows they underestimated the determination of North Korean leader Kim Jung-un to race ahead with a weapon that could reach the US soil, even if it is not accurately engineered.

Last week, General Paul Selva, the vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee, saying the most recent test did not show that North Korea possesses "the capacity to strike the United States with any degree of accuracy or reasonable confidence of success."

However, Selva's statement went far beyond what most officials at the Pentagon had been allowed to reveal for the public before the most recent test.

It also reflects a growing notion, from the Defense Intelligence Agency to the CIA, that Kim's missile engineers have been able to clear most of the major hurdles, even though they are still refining the technology.

According to one senior intelligence official, the best the US can do now is delay the day when North Korea demonstrates its missiles can reach beyond Alaska and Hawaii.

"It's a big long supply chain to build this thing out," the director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Mike Pompeo, said last week at the Aspen Security Forum, the first public reference to a long-running covert program to undermine the parts and technologies being taken into North Korea.

"As for the regime, I am hopeful we will find a way to separate it" from its missile and nuclear capabilities, he added.

A spokesperson for the Office of the Director of National Intelligence issued a statement from Scott Bray, the national intelligence manager for East Asia, which somewhat acknowledged that judgments are shifting.

"North Korea's recent test of an intercontinental range ballistic missile  which was not a surprise to the Intelligence Community  is one of the milestones that we have expected would help refine our timeline and judgments on the threats that Kim Jong-un poses to the continental United States," Bray wrote.

"This test, and its impact on our assessments, highlight the threat that North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programs pose to the United States, to our allies in the region, and to the whole world."

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N Korea Threatens to 'Wipe US From the Face of the Earth' With Nuclear Strike

Sputnik News

21:24 26.07.2017

North Korea has threatened to deliver a pre-emptive nuclear strike against the US. The threat came on the eve of the 64th anniversary of the end of the Korean War, North Korean agency KCNA reported.

The North Korean Minister of Armed Forces Pak Yong-sik warned Washington on Wednesday not to "misjudge" Pyongyang, amid growing speculations of additional missile provocations.

"If the enemies follow a dangerous path of a pre-emptive nuclear attack and continue to underestimate the strategic position of the DPRK, the undefeated Revolutionary Army,  without any warning, will carry out the most fundamental pre-emptive nuclear strike in the heart of the American empire, wiping it from the face of the Earth and will finish till the end the historic reunification of the homeland," Yong-sik said.

The minister also said that the US is plotting its own preventive nuclear strike against the DPRK, fearing the growth of the military power of this country.

North Korea and the United States are formally at war, as there was no peace treaty between them, and a cease-fire agreement in the DPRK has long been considered meaningless because of the military preparations of the US and South Korea.

North Koreans, however, believe that they defeated the United States in the Korean War 64 years ago and celebrate the day of the cease-fire on July 27 as a victorious day.

Currently, Pyongyang is intensively developing nuclear and missile weapons, conducting tests, despite the sanctions of the UN Security Council and individual countries.

The new round of hostile rhetoric comes in the wake of comments from CIA Director Mike Pompeo during the July 21 Aspen Security Forum.

"It would be a great thing to denuclearize the [Korean] Peninsula, to get those weapons off of that, but the thing that is most dangerous about it is the character who holds the control over them today," Pompeo told The New York Times.

Pompeo did not directly state that the US or the CIA was seeking regime change in North Korea, but he strongly implied it. This provoked furor in Pyongyang.

A spokesman from the DPRK's Foreign Ministry said that the US officials are crossing the line with such statements and it "has now become clear that the ultimate aim of the Trump administration's hostile policy towards the DPRK  is 'regime change.'"

"Should the US dare to show even the slightest sign of an attempt to remove our supreme leadership," the spokesman added, "we will strike a merciless blow at the heart of the US with our powerful nuclear hammer, honed and hardened over time."

 Sputnik

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Indian Air Force Looks to Get Eyes in Skies

Sputnik News

17:19 26.07.2017

The Indian Air Force (IAF) has revived a five-years-old requirement of seven snooping aircraft to conduct signal intelligence and communications jamming (COMJAM) duties.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  The IAF has issued a request for information for the same to purchase the turbofan twin-engine aircraft with prolonged operations capability in heat, dust, and high humidity conditions as prevalent in India. The document shows five aircraft will be equipped with signal intelligence and communications jamming systems while others will only play signal intelligence role. The IAF will operate the planes and their mission will be supervised by the country's principal technical intelligence unit NTRO.

As the aircraft will be deployed near the border, the IAF demands good maneuverability aircraft to bypass threats including good low-speed maneuverability for a safe getaway. According to the document, the aircraft will have the capacity to provide work stations for at least 10 passengers.

"The aircraft should have a baggage compartment with a minimum capacity of 3.25 cu meters by volume and 1000 kg of weight," it added. The aircraft will be able to fly nonstop for minimum eight hours with a range of 4000 nautical miles or more.

The global tender is expected to be issued in the second quarter of 2018 with the tentative delivery set 24 months from the effective date of contract. An earlier bid of 2012 for the same kind of aircraft was not reached at tender level.

"The aircraft should be of proven design and be capable of operation by aircrew complement of just two pilots. The aircraft must be certified for operations from airfields up to an elevation of 3300 meters in signal intelligence and communication jamming roles, to be operated by the user in both roles together, with the respective payloads, and a minimum of 50% fuel carriage. The aircraft should have an internal start capability up to 40C and +30C," RFI issued by IAF reads.

Aircraft manufacturers will have to provide airborne signal intelligence system capable of monitoring surveillance, acquisition, early warning, tracking, missile guidance, airborne, shipborne and recording of voice and data transmission with decoding/demodulation capability in the range of better than 400 kilometers with a 360-degree azimuth coverage. The IAF seeks product support for a period of 40 years or more for the aircraft and 20 years or more for SIGINT and COMJAM equipment. Currently, IAF operates Embraer EMB-145 and Boeing 737 for these roles.

 Sputnik

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Amid Ammo Shortage, Indian General Seeks More Funds to Counter China

Sputnik News

15:32 26.07.2017

Stressing for more defense expenditure in the backdrop of China's expansionist approach, India's top army general has said Delhi has to be prepared for the threat from Beijing in the coming years.

New Delhi (Sputnik)  Lieutenant General Sarath Chand, the vice-chief of the Indian Army, said a large part of Chinese defense expenditure is not included in account books, which means China spends much more than what it declares.

"China is expanding its influence across the Himalayas into our neighborhood despite being an economy five times the size of India, with such a large standing army, and despite having the Himalayas between us, it is bound to be a threat for us in the years ahead," Chand said.

Chand said that more attention needs to be paid towards military strength to ensure unthreatened economic development. "You are aware of the tensions building up on our borders near Sikkim. You are aware of the trans-border engagements we are having. Last week alone, we lost seven lives. You are also aware of the insurgencies taking place in various parts of the country," Chand said.

The Army general's comments to spend more and pay essential attention towards strengthening military build-up comes in the light of a report tabled by the country's top auditor. The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which was placed in Parliament on July 21, pointed at a critical shortage of ammunition with the Indian Army including 83% shortage of fuses essential for the operation of tanks and howitzers. The report pointed out that the available stock can't sustain a 10-day war.

 Sputnik

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Iran: US should fulfill JCPOA commitments

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Tehran, July 26, IRNA -- Iran Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qasemi said on Wednesday that Washington should fulfill its obligations under the nuclear deal signed between Iran and the major world powers.

'The United States has some commitments under the deal between Iran and G5+1 nations that should be fulfilled,' Qasemi said.

'National laws of countries cannot be an excuse to escape the principle of international responsibilities,' he added.

Condemning ratification of an 'illegal and insulting' anti-Iranian sanction bill in the US House of Representatives, Qasemi said the US Congress, by imposing the non-nuclear sanctions, has turned a blind eye on the nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and put at risk the successful implementation of the multilateral, international agreement.

He referred to the 'longstanding hostility' of the US Congress toward Iran, and said, 'Iran has acted in compliance with the deal, as acknowledged by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and G5+1.

'So we expect other parties of the deal to fulfill their commitments,' the Foreign Ministry spokesman said.

Iran has reviewed the bill and found its content against the spirit and letter of the JCPOA, Qasemi said.

'Therefore, as announced earlier, to safeguard its national interests, Iran reserves itself the right to take appropriate reciprocal measures,' he said.

He said that the Islamic Republic of Iran, as far as its military power and development of missile capabilities are concerned, regards the contents of the US sanction bill as illegal, illegitimate and baseless.

'The principled regional policy followed by Iran has been promoting good neighborliness, safeguarding security, and fighting terrorism,' Qasemi added.

He also said that the missile program of Iran is in accordance to the Resolution 2231, and nothing can stop Iran from pursuing its principled policy of bolstering its defense capabilities.

Qasemi also said the US Congress accuses Iran of destabilizing the region while it was the US that attacked Iraq in 2003, and this I while, it has played an important role in promoting Daesh (ISIS) Takfiri terrorists.

The increase in the level of extremism we witness today in the region is the consequence of uncalculated and irresponsible policies followed by the US and its regional allies, he added.

9417**2044

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Iran to retaliate U.S. new sanctions, breach of nuclear deal

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 18:29, July 26, 2017

Iran's President Rouhani said Wednesday Iran would respond in kind to any breach of the nuclear deal by the U.S. after its House of Representatives passed a new sanctions bill, state broadcaster IRIB reported.

The Iranian parliament's national security and foreign affairs committee said it would hold an extraordinary session to discuss its response.

The parliament voted earlier this month to fast-track a bill introduced in June that would increase funds for Iran's missile programme and Revolutionary Guards.

The U.S. House passed a new sanctions bill on Tuesday targeting Iran's Revolutionary Guards, as well as Russia and North Korea.

Iran's deputy foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill was "very clearly a hostile measure" even if it was only "a compilation of previous U.S. sanctions in the non-nuclear fields."

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Iran warns fresh U.S. sanctions harm nuclear deal implementation

People's Daily Online

(Xinhua) 16:25, July 26, 2017

A senior Iranian official said Wednesday the fresh sanctions by the U.S. against Iran will have adverse impacts on the "successful" implementation of the nuclear deal, official IRNA news agency reported.

Given the U.S. commitments, "they should have implemented the JCOPA with goodwill and in constructive atmosphere, and they should have avoided the measures which might have (negative) impacts on the successful implementation of the deal," Abbas Araqchi, senior Iranian nuclear negotiator and deputy foreign minister, was quoted as saying.

However, the recent move of the U.S. congress to impose sanctions on Iran runs counter to the U.S. commitments, Araqchi told reporters.

"Iran will definitely respond to the U.S. hostile move," he noted.

The U.S. House of Representatives on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved a bill that will slap tougher sanctions on Russia, Iran and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Sanctions against Iran is in response to Tehran's growing missile program.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said Iran maintains its right to respond to the U.S. if the latter does not comply with the nuclear deal.

On Friday, Araqchi told media in Austria's capital Vienna that the 2015 Iran nuclear deal should be fully implemented in all aspects, and Tehran is not satisfied with the U.S. because of the sanctions imposed on Iran over its ballistic missile program.

During his U.S. presidential campaign, Donald Trump quarrelled with the Iranian nuclear deal which was achieved during the Barack Obama Administration. The Trump Administration is now reviewing U.S. policy on Iran.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Wednesday that new U.S. sanctions contravene the nuclear deal after a lot of diplomatic efforts made with world major countries in 2015.

Iran and six world powers, namely Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States, reached an agreement on the Iranian nuclear issue in July 2015, which put Tehran on the path of sanctions relief but with more strict limits on its nuclear program.

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Iran's missile program no breach of UN resolution: Foreign Ministry

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:38PM

Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi says the country's missile program is no breach of UN Security Council Resolution 2231, which endorses the 2015 nuclear agreement between Tehran and the P5+1 group.

"The Islamic Republic of Iran's missile program is in accordance with Resolution 2231 and nothing can prevent Iran from pursuing and implementing its principled policy to boost defense capabilities," Qassemi said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted 419-3 in favor of a bill imposing new sanctions on Iran over its missile program and alleged destabilizing role in the Middle East.

The bill must pass the US Senate before it can be sent to the White House for President Donald Trump to veto or sign into law.

The Iranian official said that if approved and implemented, the bill would undermine the successful implementation of the Iranian nuclear agreement, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which he referred to as an international multilateral agreement.

Qassemi said that under the JCPOA, the US had obligations that needed to be fulfilled, stressing that the countries' rules and laws could not act as an excuse for governments to shirk their international responsibilities.

"Since the Islamic Republic of Iran has been fully committed to and fulfilled its obligations, as verified by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and admitted by the P5+1 group of countries, it expects other parties to the JCPOA , including the US government, to follow suit," he said.

He added that the US bill was against the spirit and text of the JCPOA, stressing that Iran would reciprocate to ensure the interests of the country.

Qassemi also rejected claims in the bill that Iran destabilized the region and sponsored terrorism.

He said the American lawmakers accused Iran of destabilizing the region while the US government had played a key role in forming terrorist groups, including Daesh, by launching military aggression against Iraq, adding that the growing insecurity and extremism in the region were the results of "unwise and irresponsible" policies of the US and its allies in the Middle East.

Iran to counter any US mischief

Meanwhile, Deputy Chief of Staff of Iran's Armed Forces Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri (seen below) warned that the Islamic Republic would confront any mischievous act by the US.

Jazayeri said the Trump administration should be cautious more than ever about the US military approach towards the Islamic Republic.

Iran's Armed Forces will strongly confront any mischief by the US, which would make them regret, he warned.

"In our country's Armed Forces, the principle of relying on own [capabilities] and  self-sufficiency have been the key factors in neutralizing the US sanctions in the past and this policy will continue with strength," Jazayeri said.

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Iran to face 'big problems' if it does not adhere to nuclear deal: Trump

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 4:34AM

US President Donald Trump has threatened Iran with "big, big problems" if Tehran fails to comply with the 2015 nuclear agreement.

His veiled warning comes a week after the White House certified to Congress that the Islamic Republic was complying with the agreement it signed with the P5+1 group of countries -- the US, Britain, France, China and Russia plus Germany.

"If that deal doesn't conform to what it's supposed to conform to, it's going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me," Trump said during a speech in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday.

"You would have thought they would have said 'thank you United States. We really love you very much.' Instead, they've become emboldened. That won't take place much longer," he added.

Meanwhile, the Republican president told The Wall Street Journal on the same day that he would be surprised if Iran is in compliance with the nuclear deal when he should re-certify it in three months.

"We'll talk about the subject in 90 days but I would be surprised if they were in compliance," he told the Journal in an interview.

The Trump administration notified Congress of Iran's compliance for the first time in April. The certification that Iran is technically complying with the nuclear agreement clears the way for sanctions to remain lifted.

Under the agreement, limits were put on Iran's nuclear activities in exchange for, among other things, the removal of all nuclear-related bans against the Islamic Republic.

The UN Security Council later unanimously endorsed a resolution that effectively turned the accord known as the JCPOA into international law.

On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled House of Representatives voted to impose new sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea. In a 419 to 3 vote, the lower chamber of the US Congress passed the sanctions package.

The bill includes sanctions against Iran and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for allegedly supporting terrorism, which it vehemently denies, and North Korea, for its missile tests.

The legislation also aims to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 presidential election and annexation of Crimea.

Elsewhere in his remarks, Trump, who is routinely criticized for his tweets, rejected the notion that he still lacks a presidential style.

"I'd say with the exception of the late great Abraham Lincoln, I can be more presidential than any president that's held this office," he said. "But we have to move a little faster than that. We will never be beholden to the lobbyists or the special interests."

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Trump Warns Iran Faces 'Big Problems' If Doesn't Keep Honoring Nuclear Deal

RFE/RL July 26, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump issued another warning to Iran late on July 25, saying Tehran must honor its nuclear deal with world powers or face "big, big problems."

It was the latest in a series of high-level warnings exchanged between Washington and Tehran and came after the U.S. Navy announced on July 25 that it fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel in the Persian Gulf.

Trump last week certified that Iran is complying with the 2015 nuclear agreement, which requires it to curb nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

But Trump told thousands of supporters at a rally in the U.S. state of Ohio that he remains wary of Tehran.

"If that deal doesn't conform to what it's supposed to conform to, it's going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me," he said.

Rather than be grateful for the sanctions relief granted by the deal, Trump said Iran has become more aggressive.

"You would have thought they would have said, 'Thank you, United States. We really love you very much.' Instead, they've become emboldened. That won't take place much longer," he said.

Separately, Trump told The Wall Street Journal in an interview published on July 25 that he would be "surprised" if Iran is found in compliance with the nuclear deal when time for recertification comes up in three months.

Trump's harsh rhetoric against Iran, which was a feature of his campaign and has continued since he took office, recently has provoked equally harsh responses from Tehran.

Last week, a senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) commander warned that the United States should move its military bases in the Persian Gulf region and keep its forces at a 1,000-kilometer distance from Iran.

Mohammad Ali Jafari was quoted by Iranian news agencies as saying that the United States would pay a "high price" for any "miscalculations" in the region.

On July 25, the U.S. military said a U.S. Navy patrol boat fired warning shots at one of the IRGC's patrol boats because it came dangerously close to the American warship during exercises in international waters.

The Pentagon said the close encounter carried a "risk of collision," but it was averted after the Iranian boat veered off its collision course.

With reporting by AP, Reuters, CNBC, and The Wall Street Journal

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-warns-iran-faces- big-problems-doesnt-keep-honoring- nuclear-deal/28638395.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Rohani Says Iran Will Respond If U.S. Enacts New Sanctions Bill

RFE/RL July 26, 2017

Iranian President Hassan Rohani says his country will respond if the United States enacts a new sanctions bill.

The new legislation would impose mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic-missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organization and enforce an arms embargo against Iran.

The U.S. House of Representatives passed the bill by a vote of 419-3 on July 25 and now it goes to the Senate for a vote.

Iranian officials say the bill violates the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers under which Tehran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same, too," Rohani said at a cabinet meeting aired by state broadcaster IRIB on July 26.

"If Americans want this sensitive region to be a stable and more secure regionthey should stop pursuing the policy," he said.

Deputy Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said the bill could "affect successful implementation" of the agreement and reduce Iran's benefits from it.

If passed as expected by the U.S. Senate, the bill would require the signature of U.S. President Donald Trump.

Trump has expressed opposition to the legislation, which also calls for increased sanctions on Russia and North Korea.

Trump has said the legislation would tie his hands in dealing with Russia in regard to future policy on sanctions and his ability to make adjustments.

Administration spokeswoman Sarah Sanders on July 25 said that while "the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk."

If Trump rejects the bill, Congress still could override his veto if there is enough support for the legislation.

The new sanctions bill also targets Russia and North Korea.

With reporting by AP and AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-rohani- united-states-sanctions-bill- nuclear-deal/28639220.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Iraqi PM Promises Tal Afar, Hawija Liberation to Match Mosul's

Sputnik News

23:18 26.07.2017

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi pledged to liberate both the city of Tal Afar and Al-Hawija district from Daesh terrorist group in the same manner in which the liberation of Mosul was conducted.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Abadi on Wednesday pledged to liberate both the city of Tal Afar and Al-Hawija district from the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group in the same resolute manner in which the liberation of Mosul was conducted.

Tal Afar is located in the Nineveh Province close to Mosul and the border with Syria. Al-Hawija is located in Kirkuk Province. In May, a source in the Kirkuk province security services told Sputnik that Daeshhad relocated its headquarters from Mosul to Hawija city.

"For us as Iraqis, it is an honor to destroy the Daesh and we will continue liberating the remaining districts in Tal Afar, Hawija and in the west of the Anbar province with the same strength and determination," Abadi said at a meeting of the coordination committee of Iraqi provinces, as quoted by his press service.

On July 9, Abadi officially announced that Iraqi security forces had finally liberated Mosul, the second largest Iraqi city, after months of fighting against Daesh.

The Daesh terrorist group took over Mosul in June 2014. The operation aimed at liberating the city from terrorists began in October 2016. The eastern part of the city was rid of terrorists by Iraqi and US-led coalition forces in late January.

 Sputnik

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Italy Loses Patience With France's Macron Over Migrants, Libya

By Jamie Dettmer July 26, 2017

In the first flush of enthusiasm for France's Emmanuel Macron, the fresh young politician who upended French politics and snatched his country's presidency this year, Italian politicians were no different from European counterparts in seeing him as a JFK-type figure who'd help Europe overcome major challenges  from Brexit to the migrant crisis.

But Italy is quickly falling out of love with Macron and irritation with France's president is mounting in Rome.

Tensions have crept into diplomatic relations between France and the government of Paolo Gentiloni, prompted by Macron's response to Italian pleas for more European assistance with the mainly sub-Saharan migrants crossing the Mediterranean in record numbers and his largely uncoordinated diplomatic intervention this week in the Libya crisis.

On Tuesday, Macron oversaw a meeting in Paris of the leaders of two of war-torn Libya's rival factions to discuss a political power-sharing deal to reunite the fractured north African country.

The meeting between the head of the U.N.-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, which has failed to assert authority, even in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and General Khalifa Haftar, a warlord who largely controls the east of the lawless country, was not coordinated with the Italian government.

Gentiloni's ministers took the unusual step of openly criticizing the French president this week, voicing their frustration with Macron's efforts, which they argue distract from a coordinated U.N. and European Union effort to engineer a political deal in Libya between three rival governments and dozens of militias.

"There are too many open formats in Libya, too many mediators, too many initiatives," Italy's foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

He and other ministers are dismissive of the progress the Elysee Palace claimed Tuesday to have made in the search for a deal in Libya. According to the French government, al-Sarraj and Haftar have committed to a cease-fire as well as to a continued political dialogue in an effort to achieve national reconciliation.

The Italians believe Macron has fallen into a trap set by General Haftar, who has refused to accept the legitimacy of Fayez al-Sarraj's government. Italian officials complain that the Macron-brokered meeting helps to legitimize Haftar, whom they see as a warlord and a strongman-in-the-making.

Officials in the Italian capital say Italy is far more of a "front-line" state when it comes to Libya and suffers more immediate impact than France when it comes to political developments on the other side of the Mediterranean.

'Juvenile authoritarianism'

And they accuse Macron of brashness in waiving off Italian objections, arguing he's being too high-handed. The charge of high-handedness has been echoed this month, too, in France, on his approach to a range of issues, domestic and foreign, with one retired general, Vincent Desportes, accusing Macron of "juvenile authoritarianism."

French officials counter that the Italians are being naive if they think there can be any lasting deal in Libya that excludes Haftar, who's backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. "Haftar is not going away  he has to be part of the solution," an official in France's Foreign Ministry told VOA.

Macron's Libya diplomacy is just one irritant in increasingly tension-filled Franco-Italian relations. In May, after meeting Gentiloni in Paris, Macron announced: "We have not listened enough to Italy's cry for help on the migration crisis." But Macron's position since hasn't changed much from Francois Hollande, his predecessor in the Elysee Palace, to the Italian government's rising anger.

Burden-sharing

Italian pleas for more burden-sharing by other EU countries have, so far, fallen on deaf ears. Italy's refugee centers and shelters have reached their capacity of 200,000. So far this year nearly 100,000 asylum seekers have crossed the Mediterranean from Libya  a 17 percent increase over the same period last year  and with months more of good weather, another 100,000 asylum seekers are likely to land at Italian ports.

This month, Italy's deputy foreign minister, Mario Giro, complained, "it doesn't seem like France wants to help us concretely."

French police are blocking hundreds of migrants on the Italian side of the border at Ventimiglia from entering France; the French government is refusing to allow asylum seekers rescued in the Mediterranean from landing at French ports and, like nearly every other EU country, France hasn't come anywhere near meeting its quota of migrants as agreed to under a 2015 EU refugee relocation scheme.

Macron this month talked of distinguishing between war refugees and economic migrants, indicating that France won't admit any asylum-seekers who are just escaping poverty and hunger. But that doesn't help Italy as it tries to cope with a mounting influx of mainly economic migrants, who, under EU rule, it has little alternative but to admit, at least for processing and to save lives.

Paris has also scorned an Italian proposal for an EU military mission to monitor and interdict migrants along Libya's southern border. Italians question why a large French military mission in Niger isn't being used to disrupt migrant trafficking when it is right by the main route being used by smugglers and would-be asylum seekers traveling north.

Last month, the European Parliament's most senior left-wing politician, Italian Gianni Pittella, launched a scathing attack on Macron after French police frogmarched back into Italy more than 100 migrants who'd crossed into France.

"The situation is shameful. Italy and the Italians are being abandoned, they're being expected to deal with all these migrants on their own with no support," he said.

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New US sanctions on Russia worries Brussels

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:44PM

The European Union has expressed deep concern about a draft law of sanctions against Russia being debated in the US Congress, saying if it passes through, it could seriously affect the critical flow of energy from Russia to Europe.

Top officials in the European Commission, the powerful executive arm of the EU, said on Wednesday that they would be ready to act if the EU interests were not eventually addressed in the US legislation on Russia.

Lawmakers in the US House of Representatives unanimously ratified the bill, a package of sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, on Tuesday only to move it forward for passage in the Senate. The sanctions are meant to punish Russia over a series of issues, including its alleged role in the US presidential election last year and Moscow's continued meddling in Ukraine. Russia says the new bans would harm bilateral interests while again denying Washington's allegations of interference in other countries.

The EU commissioners, who met in Brussels to discuss the issue, said in a statement following the talks that they were concerned about the sanctions "notably because of the draft bill's possible impact on EU energy independence." They said if US lawmakers do not address those concerns, as once raised by European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker in May, they would stand on no ceremony to act.

The draft of US sanctions on Russia has reportedly been modified to alley the EU's concerns. The bill that passed the House on Tuesday only targets pipelines originating in Russia and those passing through, like the Caspian pipeline that carries oil from Kazakhstan to Europe, are spared.

The EU is not satisfied yet as it says European firms that contribute to the development of Russia's energy sector could also be penalized by the wave of new measures.

EU Commission's Wednesday statement said the bill "demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account" but it said that "any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernization or repair of energy export pipelines" of Russia, could still be subject to sanctions. It said that even the energy infrastructure transiting through Ukraine could be affected by the bill "depending on its implementation." It also warned over the impacts of the new law on a major natural gas project out of the Baltic states.

The statement concluded that United States' unilateral decision to impose tough sanctions on Russia was a blow to previous close cooperation between the two sides of the Atlantic on maintaining a united front against Russia.

European governments have individually expressed dismay at the new US sanctions on Russia, saying they run counter to accepted international norms.

Germany on Wednesday called for a closer cooperation between Berlin and Washington on the issue, saying the United States was in fact using the sanctions as a tool of industrial policy against Russia.

A German Foreign Ministry spokesman said Germany "could not accept" Washington's practice of carrying out industrial policy under the guise of sanctions, adding that in his view the sanctions would not necessarily be adopted.

The United States and the European Union started introducing bans on Russia in March 2014 after Crimea, a former Ukrainian peninsula on the Black Sea, decided to rejoin Russia after the fall of a Russia-backed government in Kiev. In July that year, the EU imposed a new round of economic sanctions on Moscow after a passenger plane was shot down above volatile territories in eastern Ukraine.

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Russia gives solemn warning over US sanctions bill

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 9:36AM

Russia says the recent approval of a sanctions bill against Moscow at the United States House of Representatives is a serious step toward destroying any chance for the improvement of ties with Washington.

Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said on Wednesday that Moscow had warned "dozens of times" that new sanctions would "not go unanswered."

He said Moscow was growing tired of exercising restraint and that the sanctions were pushing Russia and the US "into uncharted territory both in a political and diplomatic sense."

The US House of Representative on Tuesday voted to approve a bill that would slap new sanctions on Russia and force President Donald Trump to obtain Congress' approval for the potential lifting of any sanctions on Moscow.

The bill would now head to the Senate, and a likely approval there would then send it to Trump's desk for approval.

The Trump administration has been perceived as friendly to Russia and inherently opposed to sanctions on Moscow. But the administration has recently been sending mixed messages about whether or not Trump would sign the bill into law.

Ryabkov said the vote for the sanctions bill "goes beyond the realms of common sense."

"The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step toward destroying the possibilities for normalizing relations with Russia," he said.

A prominent member of the upper house of Russia's parliament, meanwhile, said Moscow should prepare a "painful" response to the move.

"In fact, [the] further degradation of bilateral cooperation is becoming inevitable," Konstantin Kosachyov wrote in a message on his Facebook page.

The sanctions have been proposed over Russia's alleged meddling in the US 2016 presidential election, which saw Trump winning the presidency. Moscow is accused of having colluded with the Trump campaign team in an effort to change the outcome of the election in his favor. Moscow has consistently denied the allegations.

An independent investigation is quietly underway in the US to probe the allegations of links between Trump and Russia.

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Kadyrov's Evolving Role In A Chechen-Avar Standoff In Daghestan

Liz Fuller July 26, 2017

Chechen Republic head Ramzan Kadyrov appears to have capitalized on Daghestani authorities' perceived failure to address grievances that led to a brawl between Chechens and Avars last month in order to cast Chechnya's controversial parliamentary chairman in the role of peacemaker.

The chairman, Magomed Daudov, is currently the subject of a probe by Russia's largest bank, Sberbank, after the head of its office in Chechnya accused Daudov, a former Chechen resistance commander, of trying last month to extort 30 million rubles ($507,140) from him.

The village standoff that Daudov is reported to have successfully averted has its roots in the uneasy coexistence of Chechens and Avars in the former Aukh district of western Daghestan that was part of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic prior to the deportation to Central Asia in 1944 on orders from then-Soviet leader Josef Stalin of the entire Chechen and Ingush nations.

In 1956, the deported peoples were exonerated from the charge of collaborating with advancing Nazi forces and formally permitted to return to their homes. But by then, the border between Chechnya and Daghestan had been redrawn, thousands of Laks (Daghestan's fifth-largest ethnic group) had been forcibly resettled in the Chechens' abandoned homes, and the Aukh district had been formally renamed Novolak.

For the past 30 years, since then-Soviet Communist Party General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev launched his policy of glasnost to promote the discussion of hitherto taboo topics, Daghestan's Chechens have been lobbying to get their property back and for Novolak to revert to its previous name.

In 1991, the third Congress of Peoples of Daghestan formally approved the Chechens' right to their lawful property, and the following year, the Russian government duly adopted a program to resettle some 13,000 Laks from nine villages in Novolak district where they had lived for almost half a century.

That resettlement process is still in process, however, due to a combination of factors, including the Laks' reluctance to leave Novolak and the lack of federal funding to provide them with adequate housing elsewhere in Daghestan.

Mass Brawl

Meanwhile, the Chechens have come up with a further demand: the revision of the border between Novolak and the neighboring Kazbekov district to incorporate into the reconstituted Aukh district the Kazbekov villages of Leninaul and Kalininaul. Technically, that is not feasible, however, given that under Russian law any change to the borders of a municipality must be put to a referendum and the Kazbekov Avars would be likely to vote "unanimously" against.

The population of the two villages is approximately two-thirds Avar and one-third Chechen, and the tensions between the two nationalities have spilled over into violence on a number of occasions. The most recent was on June 25, the Islamic holiday marking the end of Ramadan, when an altercation between two adolescents escalated into a mass brawl that was eventually suppressed by police.

According to senior members of the Council of Elders of Chechens of Daghestan, nine young Chechens were savagely beaten by police officers; three policemen were also reported injured. Ten people were arrested, of whom six face criminal charges.

A few days later, Republic of Daghestan head Ramazan Abdulatipov, himself an Avar, convened a meeting of local officials in the nearby town of Khasavyurt, at which he affirmed that the Chechens and Avars have always lived peacefully together and warned that "provocateurs" who seek to destabilize the situation will have to answer for their actions in court.

Some Chechens construed those remarks as a threat. Calls by the Council of Elders of Chechens of Daghestan for a formal probe into the allegedly brutal police reaction were ignored.

Meanwhile, the Chechen Republic leadership, which on previous occasions has retaliated swiftly and forcefully to any perceived unjust treatment of Chechens in Daghestan, refrained from any public comment. In footage posted to YouTube on July 3, one young Chechen activist deplored that silence, asking whether Grozny needed to obtain permission from Moscow before making a public statement.

Chechen Convoy

Whether in response to that rhetorical question or to similar posts on social media, on July 7 up to 1,000 Chechens and Ingush gathered at a Grozny mosque and set forth in a convoy of up to 500 vehicles for Leninaul to "support" the village's embattled Chechen population, the news portal Caucasian Knot reported on July 10, quoting a participant.

In light of the security measures Kadyrov has put in place to contain the perceived threat from Islamic militants, it is unlikely that any such convoy could have assembled in Grozny and then driven across Chechnya without Kadyrov's personal permission, if not his orders.

The convoy reportedly crossed the border between Chechnya and Daghestan without incident but was intercepted by Daghestani traffic police on the outskirts of Leninaul, giving rise to a massive traffic jam.

At that juncture, Kadyrov reportedly dispatched parliament speaker Daudov, together with Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov and presidential-administration head Vakhit Usmayev, to Leninaul to defuse the rising tensions between the Chechen visitors and the local Avars. According to Daudov, his intervention was agreed on during a phone conversation between Kadyrov and his Daghestan counterpart, Abdulatipov.

Caucasian Knot quoted eyewitnesses as saying that stones were thrown at Daudov's motorcade and that his bodyguards then fired into the air as a warning. Daudov subsequently contacted Caucasian Knot and provided his version of what happened. He said the stone-throwing took place before his arrival on the scene and that he met with village elders and appealed for calm, and went with them to the mosque to pray.

Daudov also said he spoke with Daghestan Security Council secretary Abdulmuslim Muslimov, whom Abdulatipov had apparently dispatched from Makhachkala together with Deputy Interior Minister Sergei Karpov. According to Daudov, Karpov agreed to raise with his superiors the Leninaul Chechens' demand that the local Avar police officers be replaced by a contingent from elsewhere within the Russian Federation.

Destructive Forces

Having seemingly wrested the initiative from the Republic of Daghestan leadership, Kadyrov then received a delegation of Chechens from Leninaul in Grozny late on July 8. Like Daudov, he reportedly warned that resorting to violence in an attempt to resolve grievances is inadmissible. Then on July 13, Kadyrov cited the standoff in a bid to discredit his longtime enemy, Republic of Daghestan Transport, Energy, and Communications Minister Saygidpasha Umakhanov, whom he once publicly branded "a bandit."

Umakhanov is an Avar and served for many years as Khasavyurt mayor. He is said to enjoy the respect of the Avar population of western Daghestan, and reportedly traveled to Leninaul on July 7 but arrived only after Daudov had left.

In a July 10 post on his Instagram account, Umakhanov acknowledged that there is a history of tensions and violence in Leninaul for which, he said, both Avar and Chechen activists bear the blame. He stressed the need to resolve disputes peacefully, but in an apparent reference to Daudov's intervention, concluded with the observation that "there are enough wise politicians in Daghestan capable of resolving the thorniest problems without interference from outside."

Kadyrov responded by claiming Umakhanov had publicly commented apropos to Daudov's arrival in Leninaul that "our enemies have arrived." He further implied that Umakhanov is positioning himself as a possible successor to Abdulatipov, in which case "he needs to tone down his language and leave us in peace."

In Makhachkala, Daghestan's Nationalities Ministry issued a brief statement blaming the July 7 standoff in Leninaul on "destructive forces" that circulated on social media an appeal to Chechens to converge on the village to engage in "illegal actions." Republican Prosecutor-General Ramazan Shakhnavazov has since traveled to Leninaul, where he undertook to launch a probe to establish the identity of those responsible. Meanwhile, Abdulatipov continues to refrain from any public comment on the altercation, a failure that has elicited widespread criticism.

The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL.

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/caucasus-report -kadyrov-chechen-avar-daghestan- standoff/28639262.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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EU Adds Russians, Entities To Crimea Sanctions Over Siemens Case

Rikard Jozwiak July 26, 2017

BRUSSELS -- RFE/RL has learned that the European Union has added four Russian individuals and three Russian entities to its sanctions list after revelations that four gas turbines from the German company Siemens were "illegally" diverted from Russia to Ukraine's occupied Crimean Peninsula.

Sources in Brussels on July 26 told RFE/RL that EU ambassadors had backed a push by Germany for the additions to the EU's existing sanctions list.

Those sources told RFE/RL that the fresh sanctions will likely go into force next week.

The identities of the individuals and entities have not been released, but a person familiar with the matter told RFE/RL that they are likely to include Russian firms and corporate leaders responsible for transferring the Siemens turbines from Russia to Russia-occupied Crimea.

Crimea has been subjected to EU sanctions on energy technology since Russian military forces seized control of the Ukrainian region in March 2014 and the Kremlin staged a referendum that has been deemed as illegitimate by most countries in the world.

The EU has 150 people and 37 entities on a current sanctions list that has been in place since 2014.

That list was renewed in March 2017 for six months and is expected to be extended again in September.

Siemens has said the turbines were "illegally" diverted "against our will" to Crimea and that it was cutting some of its ties to Russia following revelations of the illegal shipments.

It said the turbines originally had been sold for use at the Taman power plant in southern Russia.

Siemens on July 21 said it would halt deliveries of power-generation equipment under its existing contracts with Russia's state-controlled entities "for the time being" in response to the revelations.

With reporting by AFP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-russia--sanctions- crimea-siemens-turbines/28641664.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Russia, EU Criticize U.S. Sanctions Legislation

RFE/RL July 26, 2017

Russian officials and lawmakers are sharply criticizing U.S. legislation that would impose new sanctions on Moscow and make it harder for President Donald Trump to ease or lift punitive measures.

The European Union also voiced concern on July 26, saying it is ready to take swift action if the legislation passed by the U.S. House of Representatives a day earlier ends up undermining EU energy security.

In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said the House vote was a "step toward the destruction of prospects for the normalization of relations" between Washington and Moscow.

"We have said dozens of times that these actions will not be left without a response," state-run Russian news agency TASS quoted Ryabkov, the Foreign Ministry's point man for relations with the United States, as saying.

Ryabkov told the Interfax news agency the new sanctions are pushing Russia and the United States "into uncharted territory both in the political and diplomatic sense."

The bill, which would also impose new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, passed in a near-unanimous vote of 419-3 on July 25.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said news of its passage was "very sad from the point of view of Russian-American relations and the prospects of their development."

The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it was "no less discouraging from the point of view of international law and international trade relations."

It is not clear when the U.S. Senate will address the bill.

After initially indicating Trump would sign the bill, White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said on July 25 that while "the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk."

If Trump rejects the bill, Congress could override his veto if there is enough support for the legislation.

meanwhile, Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the international affairs committee in Russia's upper parliament house, said the U.S. legislation would do further harm to relations and called for a response that would be "painful" for the United States.

Strong bipartisan support for the sanctions legislation adds to pressure on Trump, whose presidency has been clouded by allegations that Russia meddled in the election on his behalf.

The Justice Department and Congress are conducting separate investigations into Moscow's alleged interference and whether there was any collusion between Trump's campaign and Russia.

Trump repeatedly indicated during the campaign that he would seek to improve ties with Moscow, which have been badly damaged by Russia's seizure of the Crimean Peninsula and aggression in eastern Ukraine, where it supports separatists in a war that has killed more than 10,000 people since April 2014.

But relations have remained severely strained amid the multiple investigations into what the U.S. intelligence community says was an "influence campaign" of cyberattacks and propaganda ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin in an attempt to help Trump and denigrate his Democratic rival on the November 8 ballot, Hillary Clinton.

The new sanctions would add to punitive measures, mostly targeting the Russian economy and associates of Putin, imposed by the administration of former President Barack Obama in response to Russia's interference in Ukraine.

Passage by such a large margin in the House indicates many lawmakers from both parties want to punish Russia for its alleged attempts to interfere in the U.S. election as well as its actions in Ukraine and in Syria, where it has given President Bashar al-Assad's forces crucial support in a war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

"It is well past time that we forcibly respond," said House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Ed Royce, a Republican from California. "Left unchecked, Russia is sure to continue its aggression."

Republican House speaker Paul Ryan said the sanctions package "tightens the screws on our most dangerous adversaries in order to keep Americans safe."

Some members of Trump's Republican Party saw the bill as a mild rebuff of what one suggested was his excessive eagerness to improve relations with Russia.

Trump's "rhetoric toward the Russians has been far too accommodating and conciliatory up to this point," said Representative Charlie Dent, a Republican from Pennsylvania.

"Russian behavior has been atrocious," he said. "They deserve these enhanced sanctions. Relations with Russia will improve when Russian behavior changes and they start to fall back into the family of nations."

Under the bill, Trump would be required to send Congress a report explaining why he wants to suspend or terminate sanctions imposed on Russia. Lawmakers would then have 30 days to decide whether to allow him to act.

The bill has drawn criticism from European Union allies, who have warned it could end up penalizing European firms that work with Russia on joint energy projects like the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to carry natural gas from Russia to Europe under the Baltic Sea.

House leaders said that they had altered language in the bill to try to address those concerns, but the EU indicated on July 26 that it still was worried.

In a statement, the European Commission said that the wording of the bill endorsed by the House "demonstrates that a number of these concerns are being taken into account.

"It nevertheless foresees the imposition of sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernization, or repair of energy export pipelines by the Russian Federation. Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe -- for instance, the maintenance and upgrade of pipelines in Russia that feed the Ukraine gas-transit system. It could also have an impact on projects crucial to the EU's diversification objectives, such as the Baltic Liquefied Natural Gas project," the statement said.

The bill "could have unintended unilateral effects that impact the EU's energy security interests. This is why the commission concluded today that if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days," it quoted European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as saying. "America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last."

The bill's sanctions on North Korea would bar ships owned by Pyongyang or by countries that refuse to comply with UN sanctions against North Korea from operating in American waters or docking at U.S. ports. Goods produced by North Korea's forced labor would be prohibited from entering the United States.

Iranian President Hassan Rohani said his country would respond if the United States enacts the bill.

The sanctions against Iran would impose mandatory penalties on people involved in Iran's ballistic-missile program and anyone who does business with them. The measure would designate the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a terrorist organization and enforce an arms embargo against Iran.

Iranian officials say the bill violates the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and world powers under which Tehran curbed its nuclear activities in exchange for international sanctions relief.

"If the enemy steps over part of the agreement, we will do the same, and if they step over the entire deal, we will do the same, too," Rohani said at a cabinet meeting aired by state broadcaster IRIB on July 26.

With reporting by RFE/RL Correspondent Rikard Jozwiak in Brussels, TASS, Interfax, RIA, Reuters, AFP, and AP

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/russia-us-sanctions -ukraine-ryabkov/28638747.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Number of States 'Building Up Military Presence' Near Russian Borders Increases

Sputnik News

16:37 26.07.2017(updated 16:39 26.07.2017)

A number of foreign states are stepping up their military presence near Russia's borders citing the alleged threat of Russian actions in the Middle East and South Caucasus regions, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Russia is forced to increase the combat capabilities of the Southern Military District and take symmetrical measures to neutralize threats to national security on its southern borders, Shoigu said.

"Under these circumstances, Russia is forced to take symmetric measures to neutralize emerging threats to its national security, conduct strategic deterrence measures, and increase the combat capabilities of the Southern Military District."

"Our active efforts to stabilize the situation in the Middle East and maintain peace in Transcaucasia are considered by some countries as a threat to their national and coalition interests," Shoigu said at a meeting with senior military commanders in Moscow.

"Aiming to block Russia's participation in solving global and regional problems, a number of states do not abandon attempts to use military force to achieve geopolitical goals and are building up a military presence near the Russian borders," the minister stressed.

According to Shoigu, 16 US and British tactical aircraft have been permanently stationed in Romania since April. The US planes alone have carried out more than 130 reconnaissance flights at Russia's southern borders since the beginning of 2017.

In addition, large-scale NATO exercises have been recently held in the western part of the Black Sea, in which more than 25,000 servicemen from 22 countries have taken part.

Moscow has repeatedly criticized the increased presence of the alliance's troops and military facilities near the Russian border. Moscow has said Russia had never planned and does not plan to attack any NATO member.

 Sputnik

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Four Russian Military Police Battalions Carrying Out Tasks in Syria Safe Zones

Sputnik News

16:27 26.07.2017(updated 16:28 26.07.2017)

Four battalions of the Russian military police formed in the Southern Military District are currently carrying out tasks in the Syria de-escalation zones, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  Earlier, the head of the Russian delegation at Syria peace talks in Astana said that Russia's military police in the de-escalation zones in Syria will carry only light weapons.

"Four military battalions were formed, which are currently carrying out tasks in security areas of the de-escalation zones on the Syrian territory," Shoigu said at a ministerial meeting.

Earlier, Viktor Ozerov, the chairman of the defense and security committee of the Federation Council, the upper house of Russia's parliament, said that if necessary, Russia may boost its military police contingent in Syria for work in de-escalation zones.

For the first time, Russia deployed a military police unit to Aleppo in the end of 2016.

The fourth meeting in Astana format in May was a breakthrough, as the three ceasefire guarantor states signed a memorandum on the establishment of four de-escalation zones in Syria. Monitoring over the de-escalation zones is now the main topic on the agenda of the fifth meeting in the Kazakh capital.

 Sputnik

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Russian Army Receives Iskander Missile System, Kalibr Cruise Missiles

Sputnik News

12:41 26.07.2017(updated 15:51 26.07.2017)

The Russian defense industry has supplied the Russian Armed Forces with an Iskander-M missile system brigade set and 60 Kalibr cruise missiles alongside 17 planes and helicopters in May-June this year, Russian Defense Ninister Sergei Shoigu said Wednesday.

MOSCOW (Sputnik)  The list includes 11 jets and six helicopters, nine radar systems, Steregushchy-class Sovershennyy corvette, two inshore patrol vessels, as well as a heavy offshore platform for a Borey-class nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine.

"Over this period, defense industry enterprises have supplied more than 600 new and 300 repaired weapons, military and special equipment," Shoigu said on single military production acceptance day.

"As for today, the state defense order for modern weapons has been implemented by 34.2 percent, while [state order] for repairs  by 42.2 percent, and it indicates a satisfactory rate of production of defense industry enterprises," Shoigu said.

The minister noted that in general, the defense industry enterprises had been faithfully fulfilling their obligations.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Defense Minister Yuri Borisov said the Russian Navy has received 42 torpedoes, three submarines, a counter sabotage boat and two naval fighters in the second quarter of 2017. The deputy defense minister also indicated that the ground forces have received new equipment, in particular, 35 new and 155 repaired tanks, as well as armored combat vehicles.

Russian ground forces now have at their disposal 500 new and 273 repaired vehicles, 10 self-propelled howitzers and nearly 9,000 items of ammunition for various purposes, according to Borisov.

The share of advanced weapons in service with the Russian Armed Forces has grown over six months to reach nearly 60 percent, Borisov said during the event.

"Taking into account the armament and military equipment supplied since the start of the year, the troops' level of equipment with modern, advanced models in the first half of the year increased by more than 0.5 percent and now stands at 58.8 percent."

Moreover, the Russian Aerospace Forces received in the second quarter of 2017 over 70 new and repaired planes and helicopters, Borisov said.

One of the most effective and widely known Russian cruise missiles, Kalibr, was first used in combat by the Russian Caspian Flotilla against Daesh targets in Syria in November 2015.

Kalibr missiles have been repeatedly fired from Russia's Buyan-M-class ships and Varshavyanka-class submarines against Daesh targets in Syria. Since the Kalibr missile has an operational range of up to 2,500 km, the launches were carried out from the Caspian Sea and the Mediterranean Sea.

The Iskander is a mobile ballistic missile system designed to destroy a wide variety of ground targets at a range of up to 500 kilometers (over 300 miles).

 Sputnik

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Prince Salman seeking to remove head of Saudi national guard: Report

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 5:28PM

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman, who became the next in line for the throne by sweeping aside his father's nephew Mohammed bin Nayef, is now planning to secure his path to power by removing the kingdom's National Guard Minister Mutaib bin Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud , according to a new report.

Wary of a possible coup down the road, the 33-year-old prince thinks removing Abdullah and dismantling the powerful national guard allows him to take control over at least 80 percent of the country's military and security forces, the Lebanese al-Nabaa TV reported Wednesday.

Under the new plan, the national guard would lose its ministerial status and operate instead under the command of the Defense Ministry, which is also headed by Salman.

However, the task only looks easy on paper since the national guard has evolved from a small government entity into an influential organization that specializes in protecting the royal family from internal dangers such as, ironically enough, a coup, the report added.

Founded in 1911, the force entered its golden era in the early 1960s, thanks to strong support from late King Abdullah.

Mutaib entered the national guard in 1990 and was appointed as its new commander some 20 years later. The powerful prince managed to overhaul the force through a $3 billion program that began less than a year later.

In 2013, he was appointed the minister of the national guard, a position that was solely created for him.

The guards are extremely loyal to Mutaib, making him a tough opponent even for a hothead young royal like Salman, who emerged victorious from a long-running power struggle with 57-year-old Nayef.

The brash son of ailing King Salman was declared the new Crown Prince on June 21, after the so-called Allegiance Council, a body of princes who oversee succession changes, voted 31 to 3 to approve his replacement.

Following Nayef's removal from power, Riyadh launched what appeared to be a smear campaign to "finish him off," to borrow the words of British analyst David Hearst.

According to a report by The New York Times, the former crown prince was forced to make way for Salman's rise to power after a carefully planned plot that involved inviting the diabetic prince to a palace and keeping him there until he was filmed giving an oath of allegiance to his younger cousin.

"To add insult to injury, there followed a media campaign defaming him as a morphine addict," Hearst wrote in a Middle East Eye article on Monday.

However, there is a consensus among experts that it takes much more than what Salman tried against Nayef to bring Mutaib down.

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One killed as Saudi forces shell homes in Shia town

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 2:29PM

Saudi regime forces have launched a fresh wave of shelling attacks against a besieged town in Saudi Arabia's Shia-populated Eastern Province, killing at least one person and damaging several houses.

On Wednesday, a series of video footage circulating on social media websites showed Saudi troops, equipped with heavy weapons, waging a new offensive against Awamiyah, located some 390 kilometers northeast of the capital, Riyadh.

Several homes, business and historical have been totally destroyed or partially damaged after Saudi forces shelled al-Jamima neighborhood and al-Mosara, the old quarter of the town of Awamiyah.

A Shia resident identified as Mohsen el-Aojami lost his life after he was sprayed with bullets by Saudi forces.

There are reportedly at least two Indian migrant workers among those injured in the raids.

Main entrances to the region have been closed and the regime forces have imposed heavy restrictions on movement of the citizens.

Residents have been forced to stay indoors as the regime has deployed snipers across the entire region.

The Riyadh regime forces in riot gear have also set up barricades and security checkpoint to prevent people from organizing any gathering or protest rally.

Local residents complain that police deployed at the checkpoints are snatching and stealing their personal belongings.

Authorities also shut down internet and mobile services across the area.

Earlier reports said that garbage has piled up as Saudi forces continue to prevent relevant authorities from collecting trash across several areas.

The developments come as a fierce crackdown on protesters there enters its 76th day.

Dozens of civilians have lost their lives in the ongoing heavy-tactic crackdown by the Riyadh regime since then.

Security forces equipped with heavy weapons have been deployed in Eastern Province's Awamiyah since May 10, following fierce clashes between the regime forces and locals protesting against the destruction.

On May 24, UN experts criticized the ongoing attempts to demolish Mosara and accused the Saudi kingdom of erasing cultural heritage, violating human rights, and forcing residents to flee their homes.

According to a statement issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Karima Bennoune, the UN Special Rapporteur accused Saudi security forces of "irreparably burning down" historic buildings and forcing residents to flee their homes.

Bulldozers escorted by heavily armored military vehicles have demolished several houses, business and historical sites across the Shia-majority region over the past few weeks.

A number of human rights groups and activists have expressed deep concern about the living conditions of people in Awamiyah who are suffering from a severe water shortage and are using private generators to produce electricity.

Also in late May, a Saudi court handed down death sentences to over a dozen young Shia activists from the restive Qatif region, which has been the scene of peaceful protest rallies against the ruling Al Saudi regime in recent years.

Eastern Province has been the scene of anti-regime protests since early 2011. Riyadh has stepped up security measures in the Shia-majority region. Protesters want freedom of speech, the release of political prisoners, and an end to economic and religious discrimination exercise by authorities.

Demonstrations intensified in the province after the January 2016 execution by the regime of respected Shia cleric Sheikh Nimr al-Nimr. The protests have been met with a heavy-handed crackdown by the regime.

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Trump Blames Iran, Hizballah For 'Humanitarian Catastrophe' In Syria

RFE/RL July 26, 2017

U.S. President Donald Trump attacked Iran and the Hizballah militia that it backs in Syria and Lebanon, blaming them for creating a "humanitarian catastrophe" and threatening peace throughout the region.

"Hizballah is a menace to the Lebanese state, the Lebanese people, and the entire region," Trump said at a White House news conference with visiting Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri on July 25.

"The group continues to increase its military arsenal, which threatens to start yet another conflict with Israel," Trump said. "With the support of Iran, the organization is also fueling humanitarian catastrophe in Syria."

Hizballah's "true interests are those of itself and its sponsor, Iran," Trump said.

Trump said former President Barack Obama should have taken action against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Iran and Hizballah after he drew a "red line in the sand" against Assad's alleged use of chemical weapons early in the six-year civil war.

"Had president Obama gone across that line and done what he should have done, I don't believe you'd have Russia, and I don't believe you'd have Iran, anywhere near the extent and maybe not at all, in Syria today," Trump said.

Trump, who ordered cruise-missile strikes against a Syrian air base after Assad's last alleged use of chemical weapons in April, said he won't stand idle if Assad tries using such weapons again.

"I am not somebody that will stand by and let him get away with what he tried to do," he said. "I'm no fan of Assad. I certainly think that what he's done to that country and to humanity is horrible."

Trump made his remarks as he pledged solidarity and support for Lebanon as it deals with the influx of thousands of refugees from the Syrian civil war.

"Our approach supporting the humanitarian needs of displaced Syrian citizens as close to their home country as possible is the best way to help most people," said Trump.

With reporting by AP, AFP, and Reuters

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/trump-blames-iran-hizballah- humanitarian-catastrophe-syria-lebanon/28638505.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Turkey Wants to 'Ease Dependence on NATO' by Purchasing Russian S-400

Sputnik News

21:31 26.07.2017

Russia and Turkey are currently at the final stage of negotiations regarding the delivery of the Russian-made S-400 missile defense systems to Ankara. The US signaled that Turkey buying the missiles would become a major concern for Washington.

Turkish military expert Turan Oguz told Anadolu news agency that Turkey's purchase of S-400 air defense missile systems from Russia does not mean Turkey's opposition to NATO or its withdrawal from the alliance, but it does seem like Ankara seeks to ease its dependence on the alliance in the military sphere.

Speaking on the eve of a meeting of the parliamentary faction of the ruling Justice and Development Party in Ankara, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan announced the signing of documents with Russia on the delivery of the S-400 missile defense systems.

Following the announcement the Pentagon chief, James Mattis, said that the possible deal raises questions about the technical and operational compatibility of the S-400 with NATO's standards and Turkey would have to explain for itself the choice of the Russian-made weapon.

"If Turkey decides to leave NATO in the future, at least it will not seem to be impossible militarily. That is what Ankara aims at," Oguz told Anadolu in a comment.

He noted that the advantages of the S-400 systems are greater than the shortcomings, and their purchase is a forced measure aimed at covering the country's needs in the foreseeable future.

Oguz also commented on the statements of the US authorities, which in recent days have expressed concern about the purchase of the S-400 by Ankara.

"It is interesting that there are fewer objections to the purchase of Russian anti-missile systems than when Ankara discussed the purchase of the Chinese FD-2000 air defense system. I think that after Turkey declares the development of a national HISAR [surface-to-air missile system] in the future, the discontent will increase. The reason for that is simple: Turkey is moving beyond the 'permissible,'" Oguz said.

The expert further said that the S-400 would be produced in Russia and delivered to Turkey.

Turkey will not contribute to the production of the S-400, but the specialists from Russia will come and train the local Turkish personnel to operate the complex, "thus, for the first time Turkey will gain experience in using long-range SAM [surface-to-air] systems not manufactured in a NATO country and we will be able to use this experience in the future for maintenance of national systems," Oguz said.

The negotiations on the matter between Russia and Turkey have taken place since 2016. In March, Sergei Chemezov, CEO of Russia's Rostec Corporation, said Ankara was ready to buy the S-400 systems with a loan granted by Moscow.

On July 18, Chemezov said the technical issues of the contract for the supply of the S-400 systems to Turkey had been resolved, with only administrative ones remaining.

The S-400 Triumph is a next-generation mobile surface-to-air missile system that can carry three different types of missiles capable of destroying aerial targets at a short to extremely long range. It is designed to track and destroy various types of aerial targets, from reconnaissance aircraft to ballistic missiles.

As of today, Russia has a deal on supplying the system only with China. In addition to Turkey, talks are also underway with India.

 Sputnik

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Turkey Hoping for Easing of Russian Sanctions With Missile Deal

By Dorian Jones July 26, 2017

Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says Ankara has agreed to purchase Russia's S-400 missile systems, despite NATO concerns.

The controversial purchase comes as Ankara tries to court Moscow, after a Turkish jet downed a Russian bomber operating from Syria in 2015.

"We have now taken steps with Russia about this issue [buying S-400 systems]. Deals have been inked," Erdogan announced Tuesday to his parliamentary deputies. "In God's will, we will see S-400 missiles in our country and precede the process with joint production."

The Turkish president did not miss an opportunity to dismiss concerns of his NATO partners. "Why will it cause tension? A country should be in search for the ideal ways for its own security," he said.

Turkey's allegiances questioned

Ankara is at loggerheads with its Western allies over their support for Syrian Kurdish groups fighting Islamic State militants, the former considered to be terrorists by Turkey, along with growing criticism over human rights.

Ankara's NATO partners have voiced concern about the compatibility of the Russian system with its technology, along with fears that Moscow could use the S-400 as a Trojan horse to compromise NATO systems. The controversy will only add to growing questions over Ankara's allegiances.

"NATO and EU member Greece purchased the S-300 [an earlier version of the Russian missile system] a couple of years ago," said Zaur Gasimov, an Istanbul-based research fellow at the Max Weber Foundation working in the field of Russian-Turkish relations. "However, it is an expensive measure of the Turkish side to demonstrate its sovereignty. It is a signal to the U.S., EU and Germany ... by buying the S-400, Ankara demonstrates it's willing to get closer to Moscow."

The Pentagon weighed in, telling VOA that the United States has "an open dialog" with Turkey on the issue. Spokesman Johnny Michael told VOA on Wednesday: "We have concerns about the purchasing of the S-400 systems, which we have relayed to the government of Turkey."

Michael said the United States emphasizes the importance of remaining compatible with the NATO system on any major defense system procurements. But he noted that "the United States and Turkey have a robust and significant defense trade and military sales relationship" and said the U.S. "is committed to expediting the delivery of equipment purchased by Turkey, when possible."

Ankara insists the missile system, which is acknowledged as being one of most effective on the market, offers the best value for its money. The deal, worth $2.4 billion, is bolstered by Russia's commitment to transfer technology, which also is a Turkish government priority.

Sanctions factor

There may be more than defense considerations, though, behind the missile purchase. Ankara is trying to persuade Moscow to end all of the economic sanctions imposed after the Turkish jet downed the Russian bomber.

Some of those sanctions have been scaled back following a succession of meetings between Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin. Russia has lifted an embargo pertaining to the import of some Turkish goods and has ended a ban on Russian tourists visiting Turkey, which had devastated Turkey's lucrative tourism industry.

But Moscow is extracting a heavy price from Ankara.

"All the rest of the concessions are actually demands, which are advantageous to the Russian side. These are the sale of the S-400 air defense systems to Turkey [and] the completion of Akkuyu, the nuclear plant by Rosatom [a Russian company]," pointed out former senior Turkish diplomat Aydin Selcen, who is now an analyst. "Export of [Turkish] tomatoes is not solved yet. The issue of visas for Turkish citizens is not solved yet."

Russia was once Turkey's biggest export market for tomatoes, with the trade valued at $250 million annually.

During Erdogan's March meeting with Putin, the Turkish president reportedly lobbied hard for an end to the tomato ban, to no avail. But a breakthrough may be in the offing. On the same day Erdogan announced the decision to buy the S-400, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich announced negotiations on the tomato ban would resume August 18.

But Moscow's reluctance to make speedy concessions offers an insight into the wider nature of bilateral relations.

With multiple outstanding differences between Moscow and Ankara  in particular over Syria, with the two nations backing rival sides in the civil war  and Russia's support for Syrian Kurdish rebels that Ankara calls terrorists, the possibility of a re-emergence of tensions remains.

VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb contributed to this story.

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UK warplanes track Russian bombers over Black Sea

Iran Press TV

Wed Jul 26, 2017 1:48PM

A British Royal Air Force fighter jet based in Romania was launched to track two Russian strategic bombers operating near NATO airspace over the Black Sea.

The British military announced that the RAF Typhoon combat aircraft sortied from a Romanian air base near Constanta on Tuesday, in response to two Russian Tu-22 strategic bombers flying over the western Black Sea.

The Russian supersonic bombers, code-named Backfire by NATO, were tracked as they departed south but the jets did not come within visual range of each other.

"This was a routine operation and is no different to what NATO aircraft do in other areas on a regular basis," said Andrew Coe, commanding officer of 135 Expeditionary Air Wing based in Romania.

"The RAF have a long tradition and experience of conducting such activities in the UK and it is a normal peacetime activity to monitor flights in airspace of interest," he added.

In a statement on Wednesday, Russia's military confirmed Tuesday's flight over the Black Sea, adding that the Tu-22 bombers were flanked by Su-27 fighter jets.

However, the Russian Defense Ministry said "not a single foreign military aircraft" approached the Russian bombers. RAF said the reason for that is likely because the Typhoon tracked the Russian aircraft at a distance and "the jets did not come within visual range of each other."

Russian officials have repeatedly warned against the deployment of "non-regional" forces above the Black Sea, a priority area for Russia since its reunification with Crimea following a referendum in March 2014.

Western countries have moved to step up their military presence in Eastern Europe to deter what they call Russian "aggression."

The United States has deployed a contingent of troops to Eastern Europe since Russia's reunification with the Crimean peninsula. The US deployments have been supplemented by four NATO battle groups of more than 1,000 soldiers.

Around 3,500 US troops arrived in Poland in January, one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the end of the Cold War in 1991.

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UK Destroyer visits Ukraine after completing multi-national naval exercise

26 July 2017

HMS Duncan visited the Ukrainian port of Odessa this week in the first visit by a Royal Navy ship in eight years  the latest in a series of port visits and exercises conducted by the state of the art warship in the region.

The Royal Navy Type 45 destroyer is leading NATO's Standing Maritime Naval Group 2 (SNMG2), providing reassurance and deterrence in the Black Sea, as well as commanding NATO's counter migration activity in the Aegean. For the next 12 months the Royal Navy is commanding two of the four NATO Standing Naval Forces, demonstrating the UK's commitment to and leadership within the alliance.

The visit follows the announcement last week by the Defence Secretary that the UK is expanding its training of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with new military courses on countering threats from snipers, armoured vehicles and mortars.

Defence Secretary Sir Michael Fallon said:

"HMS Duncan's visit to Odessa this week is a symbol of our unwavering support to our Ukrainian friends in the face of Russian belligerence and aggression."

"We are also stepping up our work with NATO this year, leading half of NATO's standing maritime forces, one of the four enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroups and have deployed Typhoon fast jets to Romania, in a tangible demonstration of our commitment to European security."

Before docking in Odessa, HMS Duncan led the NATO task force through one of the largest naval exercises staged in the Black Sea near the Bulgarian port of Varna.

Exercise Breeze 17 tested naval forces from Bulgaria, Turkey, USA, Italy, Poland, Romania and Greece alongside UK military personnel in their ability to safeguard Black Sea shores and shipping, strengthening the Alliance's readiness and experience of joint operating.

This year, the UK is also leading Standing NATO Mine Countermeasures Group 2 (SNMCMG2). HMS Enterprise will be the flagship of the multinational force responsible for searching for and disposing of explosive ordnance. The group will be based mainly in the Mediterranean, and will be joined by HMS Pembroke in the second half of 2017.



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Ukraine Strips Ex-Georgian President Saakashvili Of Citizenship

RFE/RL July 26, 2017

KYIV -- Ukraine's migration agency says Mikheil Saakashvili, the former Georgian president who later served as governor of Ukraine's Odesa region, has been stripped of his Ukrainian citizenship.

In a statement posted on July 26 on its website, the State Migration Service said the decision to revoke a person's citizenship could be made only by Ukraine's president.

It also explicitly mentioned Saakashvili, and suggested that paperwork received from Georgian officials had been included in the decision.

Ukraine's TSN news agency quoted unnamed officials in the migration agency as saying that Saakashvili gave false information when he filled out application forms to obtain citizenship in 2015.

There was no comment or announcement by President Petro Poroshenko about the migration statement, or Saakashvili in particular.

Saakashvili also did not immediately offer any public comment about the development.

But officials with the Ukrainian political party he headed, called the "Movement of New Forces," said in a post to Facebook that "Poroshenko, in the spirit of his predecessor, has irrevocably gone down the path of unconstitutional action for usurpation and holding onto power at all costs."

Davit Sakvarelidze, a former deputy prosecutor-general and a representative of the Movement of New Forces, said Poroshenko's decision to revoke Saakashvili's citizenship would not impede the activities of the party.

"Ukraine is on the brink of survival and preserving itself as a state," Sakvarelidze said in a Facebook post on July 26. "The man who had spoken about that louder than anyone else was left without Ukrainian citizenship and the right to enter Ukraine today. But it will by no means stop us... We will coordinate with the established headquarters in terms of further joint actions and go forward, taking all necessary measures."

Sakvarelidze also said Poroshenko's decision would "bring the end of the regime under his leadership closer."

Georgian Criminal Charges

Poroshenko's order is the latest setback to Saakashvili, a U.S.-educated lawyer who helped lead Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution -- promising to reform the ex-Soviet republic and draw it closer to the West.

His policies angered Russia, however, and the growing acrimony paved the way for a brief, disastrous war in 2008 when Russia's army invaded Georgia, humiliated Georgia's U.S.-trained forces, and seized control of two of Georgia's breakaway regions -- South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

Saakashvili was widely unpopular when he left the Georgian presidency.

Georgian officials stripped him of his Georgian citizenship in December 2015 after he received a Ukrainian passport.

Saakashvili is now wanted in Tbilisi on criminal charges related to his activities when he was Georgia's president, charges he has called politically motivated.

In Ukraine, Saakashvili had been seen as an ally of Poroshenko when he was appointed governor of Ukraine's largest and most important port, Odesa, in May 2015.

He resigned from that post in November 2016, openly accusing Poroshenko of dishonesty and charging that the central government in Kyiv was sabotaging crucial reforms.

With reporting by RFE/RL's Mike Eckel, Interfax, Strana.ua, TSN, and RIA

Source: https://www.rferl.org/a/saakashvili-stripped -ukraine-citizenship- georgia-odesa/28641522.html

Copyright (c) 2017. RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.

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Poroshenko Strips Ex-Georgian President Saakashvili of Ukrainian Citizenship

Sputnik News

19:11 26.07.2017(updated 21:42 26.07.2017)

President Petro Poroshenko has issued a decree on revoking Ukrainian citizenship of the former leader of Georgia, ex-governor of the Odessa region Mikheil Saakashvili, Ukraine's State Migration Service said on Wednesday.

KIEV (Sputnik)  Saakashvili resigned from the position of the Odessa region governor on November 7, 2016, citing Kiev's reluctance to fight corruption as the reason for his resignation and accusing the Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko of protecting the criminals.

"The President of Ukraine has issued a decree on stripping [Saakashvili] of Ukrainian citizenship Materials on Saakashvili, provided by the General Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine, processed by the State Migration Service of Ukraine, and sent to the Commission on Citizenship under the President of Ukraine, were considered in due course at a meeting of the commission," the service said in a statement posted on its website.

Saakashvili, a fugitive from prosecution in his homeland Georgia, was granted Ukrainian citizenship and appointed the governor of the Odessa Region in 2015.

He served as Georgia's president between 2004 and 2013. Saakashvili left Georgia after incumbent president Giorgi Margvelashvili took the office in November 2013. In July, the prosecutor's office in Georgia pressed several criminal charges against the ex-president, particularly accusing him of embezzling $5 million form state coffers for personal purposes.

On Tuesday, Saakashvili said he was in the United States in a Facebook post. Later, Saakashvili's "Movement of New Forces" party of Ukraine confirmed this information. The former Georgian leader cannot return to Ukraine, as he would be immediately sent to Georgia as a non-Ukranian citizen, Petro Poroshenko Bloc Solidarity member and lawmaker Serhiy Leshchenko said earlier on Wednesday.

The revocation of Saakashvili's citizenship was met with criticism by some Ukrainian politicians with ex-Prime Minister and Batkivshchina (Fatherland) Party leader Yulia Tymoshenko believing that this move was another step toward dictatorship in Ukraine.

The Georgian prosecutor's office repeatedly called for Kiev to extradite Saakashvili, but the Ukrainian side rejected the appeals at least twice. In 2015, Saakashvili was stripped of his Georgian citizenship due to receiving a Ukrainian passport.

 Sputnik

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(In United States dollars, except where noted otherwise)

TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ - First Quantum Minerals Ltd. ("First Quantum" or the "Company", TSX Symbol "FM") today announced a comparative loss1 of $18 million ($0.03 per share1) and cash flows from continuing operating activities of $205 million ($0.30 per share1) for the three months ended June 30, 2017. The comparative loss includes a $97 million loss realized under the copper sales hedge program for which no tax credit is available.

Net loss from continuing operations attributable to shareholders of the Company1 amounted to $35 million ($0.05 per share) inclusive of the loss under the sales hedge program for which no tax credit is available.

SECOND QUARTER 2017 HIGHLIGHTS2

STRONG OPERATING RESULTS:

Continued growth in copper production 3 : 8% over Q2 2016 and 7% over Q1 2017 from the ramp-up of commercial operations at the Sentinel mine and strong production at the Kansanshi mine. Record throughput of 334,269 tonnes of concentrate at the Kansanshi copper smelter. Maintained low unit copper production cost 4 : Cash cost ("C1") = $1.12 per pound; All-in sustaining ("AISC") = $1.50 per pound; Total cost ("C3") = $1.95 per pound





MARKET GUIDANCE MAINTAINED:

Previously-disclosed market guidance for total production, production cost and capital expenditures for the years 2017 to 2019 has been maintained however, copper production guidance by operation for 2017 has been adjusted: Kansanshi increased to 248,000 tonnes Sentinel reduced to 185,000 tonnes Las Cruces increased to 72,000 tonnes





COBRE PANAMA DEVELOPMENT ON TRACK:

Advanced to over 58% completion: Pre-commissioning activities continued on the first 150 MW unit of the power station and associated infrastructure. Power generation into the Panamanian electricity grid now targeted for the first quarter of 2018. Entire project remains scheduled for phased commissioning during 2018, with continued ramp-up over 2019.





FINANCIAL:

Realized an average price for copper of $2.24 per pound, approximately $0.33 per pound below the average LME price for the period, mainly on account of the copper sales hedge program. As at June 30, 2017, there were unsettled and unmargined copper hedges for 285,000 tonnes with maturities to February 2018 at an average price of $2.34 per pound in addition to zero cost collar unmargined copper sales hedges for 61,000 tonnes at prices ranging from low side (or put) prices of $2.50 per pound to high side (or call) prices of $2.86 per pound with maturities to June 2018. Sales hedge positions outstanding as at July 27, 2017 totaled 359,000 tonnes of copper at an average price of $2.43 per pound. Remained in full compliance with all financial covenants and ended the quarter with $838 million of committed undrawn facilities and $450 million in net unrestricted cash. The process to put in place project financing for the Cobre Panama project continues. Market sounding of banks and export credit agencies was recently undertaken. Total process completion currently targeted for the end of 2017. Continuing to take action to manage operational and price risk and further strengthen the balance sheet. Commenced the process to refinance the existing facilities, aimed at extending the tenor and maintaining liquidity at the corporate level.





CORPORATE DEVELOPMENT:

Declared an interim dividend of CDN$0.005 per share in respect of the financial year ended December 31, 2017. The dividend will be paid on September 19, 2017 to shareholders of record on August 28, 2017. The ex-dividend date is August 24, 2017.



1 Net earnings (loss) attributable to shareholders of the Company and Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, amortization and impairment ("EBITDA") have been adjusted to exclude items which are not reflective of underlying performance to arrive at comparative earnings (loss) and comparative EBITDA. EBITDA, comparative earnings (loss), comparative earnings (loss) per share, comparative EBITDA and cash flows per share are not measures recognized under IFRS and do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS. The Company has disclosed these measures to assist with the understanding of results and to provide further financial information about the results to investors. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 for further information.

2 On June 1, 2016 the sale of the Kevitsa mine was completed. In accordance with the requirements of IFRS 5 - Non-current assets Held for Sale and Discontinued Operations, the financial and operating information presented for 2016 exclude the Kevitsa mine.

3 Production is presented on a copper contained basis, and is presented prior to processing through the Kansanshi smelter.

4 C1, AISC and C3 cost per pound are not recognized under IFRS. Refer to the "Regulatory Disclosures" section in the MD&A for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 for further information.

CEO'S COMMENTS

"We are pleased with the overall performance in the quarter and half year," noted Philip Pascall, Chairman and CEO.

"Operationally, our Kansanshi complex and Las Cruces mine turned in good results as margin improvement measures, implemented last year at Las Cruces and ongoing at Kansanshi, are making a considerable positive difference. Pyhasalmi continued to operate profitably despite later-stage mine life conditions, Cayeli began its recovery from first quarter difficulties and Sentinel is moving progressively to steady-state operations with solid months in June and July. Ravensthorpe however, continues to face an ongoing challenging nickel price market.

"Development of our tier-one Cobre Panama project continues to advance strongly. With some challenging aspects of the project now behind us and phased commissioning within 18 months, we are building the team that will be operating the mine and processing facilities, port and power plant. This project, when in operation, will add significant geographic diversification to the Company.

"First Quantum's financial position is much improved. Its debt maturity structure has been greatly strengthened following the liability management initiatives undertaken. With the cash generated by our operations, cash on hand, committed, undrawn credit facilities and continuing initiatives to further strengthen the balance sheet, the Company is well-positioned to continue to execute its strategy," Mr. Pascall concluded.

OPERATING HIGHLIGHTS4

















Three months ended

June 30 Six months ended

June 30 (U.S. dollars where applicable)

2017 2016 2017 2016 COPPER - Production (tonnes)

141,912 131,349 274,268 250,636 - Sales (tonnes)

139,521 132,030 279,331 263,297 - Cost of production:











o C1 (per lb)

$1.12 $0.98 $1.19 $1.00

o AISC (per lb)

$1.50 $1.32 $1.54 $1.33

o C3 (per lb)

$1.95 $1.80 $2.00 $1.83 - Realized price (per lb)

$2.24 $2.21 $2.22 $2.29











NICKEL









- Production (contained tonnes)

5,920 4,982 11,512 12,088 - Sales (contained tonnes)

5,522 5,415 10,719 14,355 - Cost of production:











o C1 (per lb)

$4.43 $4.73 $4.63 $4.59

o AISC (per lb)

$5.60 $5.49 $5.70 $5.17

o C3 (per lb)

$6.09 $6.63 $6.32 $6.26 - Realized price (per payable lb)

$4.17 $4.15 $4.54 $3.98











GOLD









- Production (ounces)

50,040 50,630 100,619 106,821 - Sales (ounces)

52,020 69,898 98,924 133,039























FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

































Three months ended

June 30 Six months ended

June 30 (U.S. dollars millions, except where noted otherwise)

2017 2016 2017 2016 Sales revenues

782 659 1,548 1,379 Gross profit

66 102 135 207











Net earnings (loss) from continuing operations









attributable to shareholders of the Company

(35) 125 (149) 174 Net earnings (loss) from discontinued operations

- (1) - (267)











Net earnings (loss) per share from continuing









operations attributable to shareholders of the









Company

($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) $0.25 Net earnings (loss) per share5

($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) ($0.14) Basic and diluted earnings (loss) per share5

($0.05) $0.18 ($0.22) ($0.14)











Comparative EBITDA

267 257 532 526 Comparative earnings (loss)

(18) 38 (47) 101 Comparative earnings (loss) per share

($0.03) $0.06 ($0.07) $0.15 Cash flows from continuing operating activities

205 304 444 558











5 2016 figures include discontinued operations.







CONFERENCE CALL & WEBCAST

Conference call and webcast details are as follows:

Date: July 28, 2017 Time: 9:00 am (EDT); 2:00 pm (BST); 6:00 am (PDT)



Webcast: www.first-quantum.com



Dial in: North America: (toll free) 1 877 291 4570

North America and international: 1 647 788 4919

United Kingdom: (toll free) 0 800 051 7107



Replay: Available from noon (EDT) on July 28 until 11:59 pm (EDT) on August 3, 2017

North America: (toll free) 1 800 585 8367

North America and international: 1 416 621 4642



Passcode: 51930862

COMPLETE FINANCIAL STATEMENTS AND MANAGEMENT'S DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS

The complete unaudited consolidated financial statements and Management's Discussion and Analysis for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 are available at www.first-quantum.com and should be read in conjunction with this news release.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors of First Quantum Minerals Ltd.

G. Clive Newall

President

CAUTIONARY STATEMENT ON FORWARD-LOOKING INFORMATION

Certain statements and information herein, including all statements that are not historical facts, contain forward-looking statements and forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws. The forward-looking statements include estimates, forecasts and statements as to the Company's expectations of production and sales volumes, and expected timing of completion of project development at Cobre Panama and Enterprise and are subject to the impact of ore grades on future production, the potential of production disruptions, capital expenditure and mine production costs, the outcome of mine permitting, the outcome of legal proceedings which involve the Company, information with respect to the future price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt and sulphuric acid, estimated mineral reserves and mineral resources, First Quantum's exploration and development program, estimated future expenses, exploration and development capital requirements, the Company's hedging policy, and goals and strategies. Often, but not always, forward-looking statements or information can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects" or "does not expect", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates" or "does not anticipate" or "believes" or variations of such words and phrases or statements that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will" be taken, occur or be achieved.

With respect to forward-looking statements and information contained herein, the Company has made numerous assumptions including among other things, assumptions about continuing production at all operating facilities, the price of copper, gold, nickel, zinc, pyrite, cobalt and sulphuric acid, anticipated costs and expenditures and the ability to achieve the Company's goals. Forward-looking statements and information by their nature are based on assumptions and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual results, performance or achievements, or industry results, to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements or information. These factors include, but are not limited to, future production volumes and costs, the temporary or permanent closure of uneconomic operations, costs for inputs such as oil, power and sulphur, political stability in Zambia, Peru, Mauritania, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Panama, Argentina and Australia, adverse weather conditions in Zambia, Finland, Spain, Turkey, Mauritania and Panama, labour disruptions, power supply, mechanical failures, water supply, procurement and delivery of parts and supplies to the operations, and the production of off-spec material.

See the Company's Annual Information Form for additional information on risks, uncertainties and other factors relating to the forward-looking statements and information. Although the Company has attempted to identify factors that would cause actual actions, events or results to differ materially from those disclosed in the forward-looking statements or information, there may be other factors that cause actual results, performances, achievements or events not to be anticipated, estimated or intended. Also, many of these factors are beyond First Quantum's control. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to reissue or update forward-looking statements or information as a result of new information or events after the date hereof except as may be required by law. All forward-looking statements and information made herein are qualified by this cautionary statement.

SOURCE First Quantum Minerals Ltd.
President Donald Trump has appointed Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback to an ambassadorship, a little more than a month after the Kansas governor saw his signature tax policy dismantled by the state's Legislature.Trump announced Brownback's appointment as ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom Wednesday evening. Brownback had long been expected to be named to the post."Religious Freedom is the first freedom," the governor said on Twitter Wednesday evening. "The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause."Brownback was first elected governor in 2010 after a failed presidential run and 15 years in the U.S. Senate, overseeing Kansas' transformation into one of the leading laboratories for conservative policies.He ushered into law new abortion restrictions, controversial welfare reforms and an aggressive tax-cutting strategy. He entered office with more than 60 percent of the vote, but he'll leave office as one of the least popular governors in the nation.Brownback will be succeeded by Lt. Gov. Jeff Colyer, a Johnson County plastic surgeon who played a key role in Brownback's decision to privatize the state's Medicaid system during his first term.The ambassador serves as the United States' main spokesman for oppressed religious minorities around the globe. Brownback had been a top choice for religious leaders because of his advocacy on the issue during his tenure in the U.S. Senate.The position requires Senate confirmation."Senator Brownback will, I sincerely hope, see this position as contributing to the national security of the United States," said Tom Farr, the president of the Religious Freedom Institute in Washington, D.C."Advancing religious freedom in our foreign policy will help Christians and other religious minorities around the world who are suffering persecution," said Farr, who served under two of the previous ambassadors. "It will at the same time undermine religion-based extremism and terrorism. He has an extraordinary opportunity, at low cost, to advance the fundamental national security interests of our nation."The last person to hold the position was David Saperstein, a rabbi and attorney who held the post from January 2015 to January 2017.Brownback's selection was criticized by Equality Kansas, the state's leading LGBT rights group that has repeatedly clashed with Brownback on the issue of religious freedom."Governor Brownback is unsuited to represent American values of freedom, liberty and justice, whether at home or abroad," said Tom Witt, the group's executive director. "His use of religion is little different than that of a bully wielding a club. His goal is not to use religion as a way to expand freedom, but to use a narrow, bigoted interpretation of religion to deny freedom to his fellow citizens."Former Virginia congressman Frank Wolf drafted the bill that created the ambassadorship for religious freedom in 1998. He now serves as a distinguished senior fellow for the 21st Century Wilberforce Initiative.Wolf said Brownback's appointment will raise the profile of the post and bring more attention to religious freedom concerns."I think it's a great appointment," Wolf said in an interview on Wednesday. "Sam is such a good guy. This job is really made for Sam. On all these issues he's been there before almost anybody else."Wolf said he and Brownback were the first two members of Congress to go to Darfur, Sudan, during the genocide there, and when they came back they pushed to have the U.S. recognize the violence there as a genocide.His appointment "ought to send a message around the world that America cares very very deeply" about religious freedom, Wolf said.Brownback's own faith will play a big role in his new position, Wolf said.A bill passed by Congress in December strengthened the office of religious freedom that Brownback will lead, Wolf said.The legislation "gives the office a lot more power and funding and authority," he said."It's a pretty big office _ probably has 20-25 maybe even 30 plus the new law that was passed in December really enhances the office ... This office now reports directly to the secretary (of State) so Sam will be Tillerson's right hand on these issues, and I think Sam will complement Tillerson very well."Wolf said Brownback should have little trouble getting Senate confirmation because "Sam was well liked and well thought of by members on both sides of the aisle."He said Brownback will be the first publicly elected official to hold the ambassadorship, which previously has been held by heads of non-governmental organizations and religious leaders.Having a former governor and member of Congress in the role "will raise the profile," Wolf said.Wolf rejected that the ambassadorship could be seen by some as a step down for the governor."Oh my goodness no ... .I understand maybe somebody in Kansas hasn't heard of it, but it is an important job ... 70 some percent of the people are living in a religiously oppressed environment."Brian Hart, a former deputy chief of staff for Brownback in Washington, said accepting the appointment was a difficult decision for the governor "but when the president of the United States asks, it's hard not to answer the call to serve."Hart said Brownback is the best person for this job, and in many ways, the position was created with someone like him in mind."Sam is a man of deep integrity, strong faith, and knows how to get things done," he said. "He was the singular champion for advancing religious freedom and human dignity while in the U.S. Senate where he was the chairman of the Helsinki Commission and authored the North Korea Human Rights Act, which is now law."
About the Data

Rats, it seems, are running rampant in the nation's capital. Thanks in part to a mild winter, requests for rodent abatement in Washington, D.C., jumped more than 50 percent last year. City officials recently responded by unveiling a large-scale initiative that aims to contain the growing rat population by strategically deploying rat-proof trash cans in problem areas and conducting outreach to property owners, among other things.Local governments in the same boat are also stepping up efforts to combat rat infestations. Earlier this month, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio announced a $32 million investment targeting the citys three most rat-infested areas. Chicago and other jurisdictions are experimenting with a new dry ice pest extermination product that experts say holds promise in the war on rats.Rodents arent just a nuisance; they're a public health problem. Leptospirosisa bacterial infection that most often spreads via rat urine, was blamed earlier this year for killing one Bronx resident and infecting two others. Reported cases directly linking illnesses or deaths to rats are extremely rare, though. Rodents are also responsible for property damage, wreaking havoc on car engines or chewing on wires inside homes, potentially sparking electrical fires.A little-known dataset in the Census Bureaus American Housing Survey provides clues as to where rodent problems are most severe, with the latest survey finding about 11 percent of U.S. households reported seeing signs of rats or mice within the past year.The issue is particularly bad in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic. "The corridor from Boston to Washington, D.C., has some of the rattiest cities in the world," says urban rodentologist Robert Corrigan.Indeed, just under 18 percent of Philadelphia-area households reported rodent sightings -- the highest share of the 25 metro areas included in the Census survey . Boston (16.9 percent), New York (15.3 percent) and Washington, D.C., (13.1 percent) metro areas also reported higher rates. By contrast, less than 5 percent of households in four Sun Belt regions saw signs of rodents in their homes.A number of factors explain why mice and rats are far more common in Northern urban areas. For one, these places tend to be much more densely populated, so rodents have an easier time finding food sources. For another, old infrastructure found in places like Boston or New York make for ideal habitats. Rodents thrive, Corrigan says, in outdated sewer systems, subways, parks and in the foundations of old homes or apartment buildings.Although some cities are reporting recent increases in rat sightings, problems have plagued these same places for more than a century. These old cities have had entrenched rat populations since colonial times, says Jim Fredericks, chief entomologist at the National Pest Management Association.If cities want to make headway in stemming rat infestations, Fredericks says, theyll need a comprehensive approach that spans multiple city departments. The National Association of County and City Health Officials (NACCHO) reviewed local rodent control programs across the country in 2015 and found that successful programs collaborated with other city departments or outside organizations. These programs also incorporated a public outreach component.Fluctuations in funding, however, limited rodent programs' ability to sustain positive gains over the long term. A lack of training opportunities further presented a continual challenge," the NACCHO report noted.Gerard Brown, who manages D.C.s rodent control program, says there's no magic bullet. Fixing the problem, he says, requires a comprehensive approach that includes improving human behaviorssanitation, among other components. The District's Department of Small and Local Business Development launched a grant program that provides rodent-proof commercial waste compactors in rat hotspots. Additionally, public works crews will receive real-time data from 400 new smart litter bins alerting them when they're full and need to be picked up.The single most effective deterrent, report officials like D.C.'s Brown, is simply getting people to properly dispose of their trash. New York City, for instance, is set to explore potential legislation requiring trash to be placed out shortly before pickup.In addition, New York has greatly expanded its rat reservoir program targeting areas of the city particularly prone to rats. Case managers canvas neighborhoods and work with property owners and building managers to resolve underlying conditions contributing to rat infestations. They monitor inspection and compliance, and provide training or technical assistance if needed. Eleven areas of the city are expected to "graduate" from the program after recording drops in rat activity between 60 and 90 percent, reports the city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene.We think of it as a neighborhood intervention, says Corinne Schiff, deputy commissioner for environmental health. Rats dont share the boundaries we have, and it takes everyone working together to control rats in a neighborhood.Its worth noting the Census data covers entire metro areas rather than individual cities, and vast differences in the severity of the issue exist within certain neighborhoods. Schiff says the situation tends to be worse around business districts and areas near parks, or pretty much any place near plenty of food and water. Research from the State University of New York reported Census tracts with high concentrations of rat sightings were associated with older housing, vacant units, low educations levels and close proximity to subways and parks. Another Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health study highlighted problems exacerbated by rats in poorer neighborhoods, reporting about half of residents in Baltimores low-income neighborhoods reported seeing rats on at least a weekly basis on their block.Some nonprofits have promoted feral cats as a way to control rodent populations in cities such as Chicago , Portland and Washington, D.C. But no published research demonstrates theyre actually effective. Corrigan says feral cats pose their own public health problems, and theyre not likely to take on fully grown rats.Instead, Corrigan recommends cities take a scientific approach to combating rat problems. This might include, for instance, analyzing 311 calls and other data to identify specific sewers or parks serving as breeding grounds. The key to this is to have a scientific coalition in the cities to address these problems, he says.Cities could soon add two new products to their arsenal. Chicago, D.C., and others have tested a product that works by scooping dry ice into rat burrows and then covering the holes to suffocate the rats. Experts say its a more humane way of killing rodents and, unlike other products, doesnt risk poisoning birds or other animals.Companies are also experimenting with traps and bait boxes equipped with remote sensors, alerting health inspectors or property owners when theyre breached. Corrigan says initial field trials yielded promising results and he expects cities to initiate pilot programs later this year. Knowing the exact time and location of where rats are congregating would yield better data than the often-unreliable 311 call logs cities typically rely on.Corrigan, who works as a consultant with several local governments, views both the dry ice and sensor devices as major breakthroughs that should help cities push back against their rodent populations. But ultimately, a change in human behaviors is what's most needed if cities are to make substantial lasting progress. The city government is only one tiny piece of controlling rats in a city, he says. Controlling rats is every persons responsibility.Presented data are calculated figures from the Census Bureaus 2015 American Housing Survey. Respondents were asked whether they saw any rats or mice or signs of their presence inside homes during the previous 12 months. The Census methodology utilizes a sample for each area representative of numbers of renter, owner-occupied, trailer, vacant and other types of units. The survey, conducted once every two years, includes the 15 largest metro areas and a rotating group of 10 other selected regions.
On Wednesday, in the morning, at Marist College Ashgrove, His Excellency the Honourable Paul de Jersey AC and Mrs Kaye de Jersey attended the Colleges NAIDOC assembly there Governor addressed guests.

In the afternoon, at Government House, the Governor received Her Excellency Ms Beryl Sisulu, High Commissioner for the Republic of South Africa to Australia.

In the evening, at Brisbane Girls Grammar School, the Governor attended the National Council of Women Queensland 2017 Bursaries Presentation where His Excellency addressed guests and presented bursaries.
Las Vegas is in talks to expand a pilot program that uses sensors with computer vision technology to count vehicle and pedestrian traffic, thereby creating a sort of Google Analytics for information about the citys streets.

This program is made possible by a partnership between Las Vegas and Motionloft, a private company that provides the sensor tech with an accompanying dashboard to make data they collect accessible and easy to interpret for public servants. Las Vegas CIO Michael Sherwood said the pilot with Motionlofts tech started with four intersections and eight total sensors, and his department is currently in talks to expand it.

The data being provided by these sensors  which includes how many cars pass through intersections at certain times of day, when and how long cars idle at individual lights, and where in the city the most jaywalkers are scrambling through the roads, to name a few  is new data that the city was unable to collect in the past. Sherwood said the dashboard that conveys the collect info makes the nuanced and immense data that sensors collect easy to interpret.

To me, its simple, Sherwood said. Im a technologist and a futurist, Im not a traffic analyst, but I can look at these reports. Theyre easy to understand.

The project is currently being used to gather info, and Sherwood has a host of ideas for how the info can influence life in Las Vegas, both for the citys permanent residents as well as the scores of international visitors that regularly descend upon it. Potential uses include positioning increased police resources at intersections when traffic flow is highest, or placing natural barriers in areas where pedestrians most tend to illegally cross streets.

Sherwood and Las Vegas also envision the sensors data as being useful for attracting new business owners to the city, as it can be used to show entrepreneurs locations and times that traffic in certain areas is highest, thereby enticing them to invest in those places.

For its part, this is not the first public partnership that Motionloft has engaged in, said CEO Joyce Reitman. The business has so far deployed its tech in several cities, including New Orleans, where it has proved useful for redevelopment and reinvigoration. Reitman stressed that Las Vegas presents a unique opportunity for these sensors to contribute to city services.

Las Vegas is a special place, Reitman said. Its known worldwide, and what [Sherwood] and his team are doing is so forward-thinking. 'Smart' city is an oft-used word, but theyre putting their actions where it takes place.

So far, Sherwood and his team have three main ways in which they plan to use the data: to reduce traffic safety; promote walkability; and increase the efficiency of city services that affect the streets, such as sanitation, maintenance and police. Sherwood emphasized, however, that there may soon be many other benefits to this tech.

Ive said several times: Data is the new oil, and what Motionloft does is not only drill the oil out of the ground, it refines it and allows us to make unique policy and business decisions based on that refined product, Sherwood said.Motionloft is
(TNS) -- The Anchorage Assembly voted in favor Tuesday night of spending several million more dollars to finish the beleaguered city software upgrade project known as SAP.But several Assembly members pointedly warned it was the last time. The project has cost more than $81 million to date."I will not vote for one more penny after this," said Assemblywoman Amy Demboski of Chugiak-Eagle River, a longtime critic of SAP.SAP, named after the German company that built the software, replaces the city's aging business software system. The new software will handle critical municipal functions such as payroll, timekeeping and payments to companies that do business with the city.The project started in 2011 with a $9 million budget. By the time Mayor Ethan Berkowitz inherited the project in the middle of 2015, the amount of money spent so far was nearing $50 million. In October 2015, after a "pause," an external committee concluded that the project was salvageable, and too much had been invested to turn back . A pair of reviews earlier that year blamed the failures on a crisis in leadership, organization and project management, not technological failures or the software itself. The Assembly on Tuesday night voted to spend another $5.8 million on the project. This March, Berkowitz told Assembly members that nearly all of the money spent so far on the project had "no measurable benefit."Assembly members Felix Rivera and Christopher Constant said they'd both heard a tidal wave of complaints from constituents in recent days about the expense of SAP. Assemblywoman Suzanne LaFrance of South Anchorage said she understood this to be the last large appropriation, and that she'd have trouble supporting another one in the short term.But Zig Berzins, who has served as the Assembly's independent consultant for the SAP project, pointed out to Assembly members Tuesday night that if the city didn't finish the project, it would have to be paid back through the operating budget  an immediate cost to taxpayers."And that could be a real problem," Berzins said.The system is slated to start operating in early October.
(TNS) -- The city of Colorado Springs is joining with the Southern Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce, Catalyst Campus and a Washington, D.C.-based group, to become part of a network of more than 20 "Smart Gigabit Communities" and develop new ways to use ultra-fast internet connections for business, education and health.Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers announced the effort Tuesday during a meeting at Catalyst Campus with more than 80 business, government and nonprofit leaders to join the network within the next few months. Other members include Albuquerque, N.M., Austin, Texas, San Diego and Washington, D.C.. The program is led by US Ignite,a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that operates the Smart Gigabit Communities program, which helps cities get wider availability of 1-gigabit-per-second internet access, and to develop software and devices for new ways of using that access."We see it as a way to improve delivery of public services through devices like body-worn cameras for police, smart traffic signals and electric vehicle charging stations. We want to use it for internal operations but the network also will attract private-sector companies to the area," said Ryan Trujillo, the city's sustainability and support services manager, who is leading the Smart Gigabit Communities effort. "It is a multi-decade, long-term journey to become a smart community. It won't happen overnight, though we expect to be part of the program by year's end."The local effort has been pushed by Susan Spradley, a Colorado Springs consultant and former technology executive who is chair of US Ignite. The goal is to make the group's technical assistance, industry partnerships and national visibility available to the city and to help make it a leader in developing and using internet-connected devices. The Smart Gigabit Communities program was started two years ago through a three-year, $6 million grant from the National Science Foundation and requires each of the cities to develop two applications a year to use the gigabit access."This will enable the community to have the network and applications needed to give citizens more access to data, to allow the city to better monitor and control water, power and other services and open new ways of learning in public education," Spradley said. "I can't think of a better community in which to do this with the connections that already exist between the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, the Air Force Academy, the mayor, women's chamber, entrepreneurs and the Catalyst Campus. It takes two years for the average community to pull that together."Austin, Cleveland, Kansas City and others in the Smart Gigabit Communities program have installed sensors and developed software to connect those devices either through fiber-optic or wireless networks to existing computer networks to enable new uses in advanced manufacturing, education, energy, health, public safety and transportation."A number of cities have decided to see how they could provide more and better services to their communities. These smart cities will be more livable and likable and operate with greater accuracy and efficiency," said Glenn Ricart, an internet pioneer who started US Ignite to "build the foundation for smart communities."
(TNS) - On a typical day, students and teachers fill the halls of Shirley C. Heim Middle School in Stafford County. But on Wednesday morning, hordes of residents playing the role of survivors of an EF3 tornado strike filed off a bus and crowded into the school, which served as an emergency shelter for the day.Volunteers greeted the survivors at the entrance, directed them to sign in and fielded numerous questions, including where to take those with life-threatening injuries and whether dogs could be taken into the shelter.The events at the school were part of a countywide full-scale mass-care exercise involving more than 200 participants and multiple local and state agencies. County participants included the school system and departments including Human Services, Social Services, Fire and Rescue, Community Emergency Response Team, Stafford Emergency Management Communications, Sheriffs Office, Animal Control, and Parks, Recreation and Community Facilities.Personnel from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management and American Red Cross also participated.The drill tested the countys ability to set up and coordinate a reception center and shelter in the wake of a large-scale disaster. In this case, a hypothetical EF3 tornado with wind speeds up to 140 mph has swept through, destroying homes and businesses and leaving numerous injuries and fatalities in its wake.The exercise began at St. Peters Lutheran Church, which served as a reception center. Volunteers manned folding tables set up at the church entrance and assessed disaster survivors as they arrived. Those with life-threatening injuries were transported to the hospital.All others were led to a rest area, where they could find snacks, clothes and blankets. Periodically, a social worker would come in and take families one by one to a room reserved for interviews. Families were asked who they were, what happened and what resources they needed.Afterward, families were taken to different areas of the center depending on their assessments. Some were sent back to the rest area and others went to counseling or the first aid station. There was also a computer room with internet access and a nursery where unaccompanied minors could wait with a social worker.Families whose homes had been destroyed were transported to the shelter.Donna Krauss, director of Human Services, said the church would serve as an actual reception center in the event of a real-world disaster. More than two dozen volunteers from the church participated in the drill.It takes a lot of people to make this happen, Krauss said. We havent had to use the church in a real-world scenario yet, but exercises like this ensure we are ready.Back at the school, local Eagle Scout candidate Patrick Cleland Griffin orchestrated the waves of survivors entering the building. He used Zello, a push-to-talk radio application, to communicate with other volunteers.The 16-year-old Colonial Forge student played an instrumental role in the events leading up to the exercise. In order to attain his Eagle Scout rank, he recruited more than 50 Scouts and their families to act as role players in the exercise. The last time the county held a similar exercise, only a handful of role players participated.Coordinating dozens of survivors and their pets was no easy task, so Patrick kept his dads sage advice in mind when he arrived bright and early Wednesday and encountered some challenges to his initial plans.My dad always says, No plan ever survives first contact,  Griffin explained. We had a few missteps starting the very first moment we walked through the door this morning, but we rolled with the punches to make the project as successful as it could it be.Meanwhile, Deputy Emergency Management Coordinator Virgil Gray oversaw activities at the Emergency Operations Center at the countys Public Safety Building.After the simulated tornado warning, the EOC was partially activated and Community Emergency Response Team volunteers arrived to support response and recovery efforts, Gray explained. A screen at the front of the room featured a live weather feed and traffic information through the Virginia 511 system.Gray and Krauss began talking about the possibility of a countywide mass- care exercise last summer. Earlier this year, they decided to put those ideas into motion. They spent the past several months developing plans for the exercise.It takes a while to put an exercise of this size together, Gray said.The mass-care exercise is just one of many events in the county designed to improve emergency preparedness. In addition to quarterly drills and state exercises, the county also participates in events hosted by its local partners.Gray said partnerships are the foundation of an effective emergency management plan, and the opportunity to practice the response to a real-world disaster scenario with VDEM and other partners will go a long way toward enhancing Staffords disaster readiness.Working together is essential, Gray said. We try to build that muscle memory for response and recovery while working in collaboration with our partners at every levellocal, state and federal.2017 The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.)Visit The Free Lance-Star (Fredericksburg, Va.) at www.fredericksburg.com/flshomeDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
(TNS)  Gov. Rick Snyder has opened a Disaster and Emergency Contingency Fund to provide financial assistance to Bay, Isabella, Gladwin and Midland counties after severe flooding caused significant and widespread damages on June 22-23."While great progress has been made, many of the counties' resources have been depleted," Snyder said. "Money from this fund will help cover some of the costs incurred while responding to and recovering from this disaster."Eligible local governments affected by the flooding can apply for assistance grants for up to $100,000 or 10 percent of the previous year's operating budget, whichever is less.The Disaster and Emergency Contingency Fund is used when communities demonstrate an exhaustion of local resources during a disaster or emergency. The money can be applied toward the immediate prevention, response and recovery of a disaster or emergency, as well as cover overtime for public employees, contracts used during the response, shelter supplies, gasoline used during the response and repair of public buildings and infrastructure.The Michigan State Police's Emergency Management and Homeland Security Division will administer the grant program and assist local governments with applying for the funds.Separately, Midland County residents may also receive assistance for those items damaged during the flood, such as water heaters, washing machines, clothes dryers, furnaces or mattresses, may receive assistance for replacing these items."Due to the overwhelming support of our neighbors and community partners, some help is now available for those who have been impacted by the recent flood  regardless of income," stated County Emergency Management Coordinator Jennifer Boyer in an email.Residents must dial 2-1-1 by Monday, July 31 to register for this assistance."We are grateful to be part of a community where our residents help each other in times of need," Boyer said. "Thank you to all who have made donations and volunteered their time thus far to assist in flood recovery efforts."Midland County is hopeful to hear an announcement soon from President Donald Trump about the availability of federal assistance programs following Snyder's request for assistance on Friday.Due to the severity and magnitude of the incident, Snyder requested supplementary federal aid to help Michigan residents in recovery efforts. The request did not include assistance for costs incurred by state and local governments due to uninsured damage to public facilities and infrastructures, as those costs did not meet the federal threshold for assistance. The request came at the conclusion of an in-depth assessment of damage to the area.2017 the Midland Daily News (Midland, Mich.)Visit the Midland Daily News (Midland, Mich.) at www.ourmidland.comDistributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Stage 1: Targeting

Stage 2: Distribution

Stage 3: Encryption

Stage 4: Recovery

Your Ransomware Protection Plan

Cybersecurity threats, like ransomware, are a growing concern for the government sector. While the recent Petya ransomware attack hasnt impacted the U.S., there are plenty of reports of ransomware attacks against police departments across the U.S. and local government municipalities.Ransomware is a cybersecurity threat where the attacker seeks to make money by unlocking data held hostage only if victims pay a hefty fee. Lets take a look at each stage in the ransomware attack cycle and what you can do to protect and defend your network.At this phase, attackers zero in on their victim(s) and decide on their method of attack. They will send realistic looking emails to your staff disguised as phishing attacks, buy an ad on a highly trafficked public site (this is called malvertising) or upload an exploit kit to a vulnerable WordPress site. Their goal is to get your staff to click on a link for them so they can start to do their dirty deeds.The best way to protect your organization at this stage is by being aware of these types of attacks and educating your users about phishing and malware, including ransomware.Conduct regular security training organizationwide to explain the dangers of ransomware and phishing, what these attacks look like, and how employees can report potential threats. With a process in place, you enable employees to become front-line defenders, an important layer of protection many organizations overlook.Because human error and oversight can and will happen, you should also ensure that your email provider performs phishing and spam filtering, along with having a malware protection solution that can automatically be on the lookout for intrusions from all sources.Next, the attacker will attempt to get the malware onto your machine(s). When users open a phishing email, the action they take runs malware on their system. Clickless threats, a new technique thats emerging, do not require users to do anything in order for the malware to install itself.Despite sophisticated new methods, there are still ways organizations can effectively protect themselves.First, its critical to patch software vulnerabilities. This means keeping applications and operating systems up-to-date, and even automating these updates if possible so they are not forgotten. This is basic information security hygiene.Next, by using Web filtering, your organization can interrupt this distribution phase so employees never visit those malicious sites and the malicious code never lands on their machines.Once ransomware is on a users machine, its goal is to encrypt the files and hold the data and systems hostage until you pay up.Malware protection, such as antivirus software, is paramount at this step. Once the ransomware makes it this far, youre living in the danger zone. This is your last chance to protect yourself by disarming the ransomware and preventing it from completing its final step. If the malware is successful at this point, youre going into expensive recovery mode.The attacker has you cornered. They already have your data and are demanding you pay a ransom in exchange for getting your organization back online. If the attacker does get to this point, you have two options: pay up or refuse to pay and instead restore from a backup (if you have one).While many sources recommend just paying up, we actually recommend against this, because its what keeps these criminal operations in business. Not only that, but knowing that a victim is willing to pay up makes them a more attractive target in the future. Attackers will often take it so far as demanding a second ransom before returning your files because they know most organizations will do it  or theyll hit you again a month later. Whats to stop you paying up a second time?To counter this, we encourage people to take a more proactive approach by developing a comprehensive incident response plan in advance of a ransomware attack. Three steps you need to do to prepare for a ransomware attack include identifying files and systems critical to your organization, backing these files up every day and testing the restore process at least once a month. When investing in malware protection, make sure you investigate how the solution neutralizes threats like ransomware, if employee devices are locked down and how much time you need to spend on cleaning up any infections.While it becomes increasingly difficult (and expensive) for attackers to get past each stage in the ransomware attack cycle, it also gets more expensive for your agency to respond the further along the attacker gets. Thats why we encourage you to implement detection and protection at every step, particularly in the public sector, where funds are often limited. By taking a proactive stance against ransomware, both through employee education and automated tools and processes, you can be better prepared against these ever-present cybersecurity threats.
Thats right. While that Wi-Fi-connected Roomba was scooting from room to room cleaning up your messes, it was also collecting data about the layout of your home. And iRobot CEO Colin Angle sees huge potential in home robots helping to enable the smart home of the future, and the devices within.When used in conjunction with personal assistant devices, like the Amazon Alexa or the upcoming Apple HomePod speaker, the robot vacuum CEO said the data could be extremely valuable.The data, however, will not be sold, nor will it be shared without permission, The Verge reports
Max Verstappen is not ruling out a future switch to top teams Ferrari or Mercedes.

Amid obvious frustration with the performance and reliability of his Red Bull this year, speculation has suggested the young Dutchman is looking for a way out of his 2018-2019 contract.

When asked about the Ferrari rumour in particular, 19-year-old Verstappen told Germany's Sport Bild: "I know Ferrari has a great story in formula one.

"It's the same for Mercedes, by the way," he admitted. "Quite honestly, I only want to sit in the best possible car. The colour doesn't really matter."

However, he acknowledged that he is still firmly committed to Red Bull for now.

"I believe in the strength of Red Bull," said Verstappen. "We're on the right track. The car and the engine are constantly improving."

Verstappen is admired not only for his speed but also his daring and aggression wheel-to-wheel, even though he is regularly criticised by Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel.

"They can call me what they want," Max insisted, referring to his critics. "'Mad Max' or whatever.

"I say that on the track you have to be an assh*le. Look at Michael Schumacher! At the end of the day, a F1 driver needs to know how to win races and titles, not how to be a nice guy."

As for Vettel in particular, Verstappen said: "I do not expect him to send me a Christmas card or invite me to his birthday."

And he said he has a bigger challenge to worry about than Vettel, anyway.

"Daniel (Ricciardo) is a bigger challenge for me," Max insisted. "When the two of them drove for the same team in 2014, Daniel was stronger."

(GMM)
Christian Horner has acknowledged that Red Bull needs to give Max Verstappen a winning car for 2018.

Recently, the 19-year-old Dutchman and his surly father Jos have not categorically rejected rumours Verstappen is linked with a future switch to Ferrari.

At the same time, even though an often clearly frustrated Verstappen is locked in a Red Bull contract until 2019, his car this year has been regularly breaking down.

So when asked if he was relieved when Verstappen finally finished a race recently at Silverstone, Red Bull team boss Horner admitted: "You could say that."

When asked about Verstappen's recent outbursts, he told Algemeen Dagblad newspaper: "Of course he has shown some emotion, especially when you stick a microphone under his chin after a bad race, but he has also always been under control.

"This phase in his career is still character building for him, because F1 is not a sport that relies simply on a racquet, bat or ball. So he will only get stronger and more complete," Horner explained.

He said Red Bull is at least making serious progress with pace and performance, after a less than impressive start to 2017.

"Since Barcelona, there has been real progress in every race with the possible exception of Silverstone, but we're clearly on the right track," said Horner.

He said there is no doubt Verstappen will still be a Red Bull driver next year, but admitted that the energy drink-owned team needs to make a step for 2018.

"It's up to us to give Max a car with which he can win before we talk about the future," said Horner.

"If we do that, I'm sure there's no team Max wants to race for other than ours."

(GMM)
Nico Rosberg is being lined up as the team boss for Mercedes' brand new Formula E foray for 2019.

The German carmaker shocked the racing world this week by announcing that it will quit DTM after next year to race instead in the all-electric single seater series.

And Germany's Auto Bild now reports that Rosberg, the recently retired reigning F1 world champion, is first in line to lead the new Mercedes Formula E team.

The publication said a source "in the Rosberg circle" admitted that Rosberg's involvement in a management capacity is not ruled out.

"Rosberg has already met with series boss Alajandro Agag in Monaco," the publication claimed.

If true, Rosberg would become the second F1 world champion running a Formula E team, alongside quadruple title winner Alain Prost who is involved with Renault.

"The involvement of the car manufacturers is a strong message," Prost, also an advisor for Renault's F1 project, said this week at the Formula E race in Montreal.

Asked whether Formula E is gaining so much strength that it might one day replace F1, Prost told Le Journal de Montreal newspaper: "No, I don't think so.

"There is not only no reason to believe that this situation will ever occur, but also no desire.

"If Formula E has gained so much credibility, it's partly because the races are in big cities like New York, Paris and now Montreal," the Frenchman added.

"It's also a way to stand out from F1," said Prost.

(GMM)
Mercedes is not the certain winner of this weekend's Hungarian grand prix.

That is the view of former Ferrari driver and regular F1 steward Mika Salo, who thinks Ferrari could bounce back at the Hungaroring after a difficult recent period.

The Finn told Ilta Sanomat newspaper that Red Bull is also expected to be strong on the tight, twisty circuit near Budapest.

"And I think Ferrari will be strong," said Salo. "Mercedes could have a bit of trouble again because of their long wheelbase.

"But of course, Mercedes is always strong on every track, and so much will come down to qualifying because you can't really pass there," he explained.

"If you quality well, that's already a big part of the race," said Salo.

Indeed, Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel said after Silverstone that it is Saturday afternoons on which the Italian team needs to improve.

But Mercedes boss Toto Wolff is not willing to say the German team is definitely the favourite for Hungary.

"First I'd like to see how our car works there on a slower, high-temperature track. That could give us a more complete picture," he said.

(GMM)
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A Green River man will serve time in prison for beating up his wife.

Darrel Lee Montez, 42, appeared in the Third District Court of Judge Richard Lavery at a change of plea and sentencing hearing to two felony counts of aggravated assault and battery and one misdemeanor charge of domestic battery.

In exchange for Montez guilty plea to one count of aggravated assault and battery and one misdemeanor charge of domestic battery, the other felony charge of aggravated assault and battery was dismissed.

Montez was given an eight-to-10-year prison sentence with credit given for 207 days served f...
Despite the 2018 primary election being more than a year away, a Sheridan man has already announced his intent to run for Wyomings highest office.

Bill Dahlin announced his candidacy in a media release sent Tuesday evening. Dahlin created the Dahlin for Governor committee June 20, despite not being able to file for the election with the Wyoming Secretary of States Office until May 17, 2018.

Dahlin, a businessman and Republican, believes more should be done in diversifying the state economy, saying the politicians from both parties have done little to address the problem and diversify...
Old Sarum, in Wiltshire, England, had seven voters, none of whom lived there, and two seats in the House of Commons. No one had actually lived there for two centuries. Elections were held under a tree in the Election Acre. Old Sarum came to be known as a rotten borough. Manchester had 180,000 people, and not a single seat in parliament. It was the early 1800s, and this situation was not to be corrected till the Reform Act of 1832. So, what does this have to do with Wyoming? Ill get to that.

Complaining about Big Government has become a major pastime. This big-government...
U.S. Senator John Barrasso, R-Wyo., is currently accepting applications for internships in his Washington, D.C., and Wyoming offices, for fall 2017. The program, which lasts four months, is designed to give Wyomings students a unique opportunity to view their government firsthand.

In both Wyoming and D.C., interns will participate in a wide array of activities ranging from constituent relations to legislative research. Applicants are generally college students, 19 years of age and older, from the state of Wyoming. Each intern is given a monthly stipend to help with living expenses.

For s...
Peyton Keelen tries his best to cut a wooden skewer in half with his butter knife. Left: Aurora Hudson is ready to add a chocolate, hazelnut flavoring to her snake, which was made out of strawberries and bananas.

Summer classes help keep children learning, being creative and most of all having fun.

Each year, the Sweetwater Board of Cooperative Educational Services offers Summer Programs in both Green River and Rock Springs. The classes fill up fast and this year was no different.

This week, children in second through sixth grades in the Hawaiian Vacation class at Lincoln Middle School were busy looking at photos of Hawaii their two teachers, Sheila Syvrud and Nanette McCurdy, brought. The teachers also told the students about Hawaii since they had both recently visited the state.

"We try to make th...
GREENSBORO  North Carolina lawmakers, chastised Thursday by a federal judicial panel for not redrawing districts found unconstitutional last year, are being asked how quickly they can create new maps.

You dont seem serious, U.S. Middle District Judge Catherine Eagles told Phillip Strach, an attorney representing the General Assembly, during a hearing. What are our assurances that you are serious about remedying this?

Eagles sat on a three-judge panel Thursday with U.S. Court of Appeals Judge James Wynn Jr. and U.S. Middle District Judge Thomas Schroeder to decide a timeline for when lawmakers need to complete the new maps and whether to hold a special election. The judges did not say when they would make their decision.

Eagles ruled last year that 28 N.C. House and Senate districts violated the Constitution because lawmakers packed black voters into specific districts to dilute the Democratic vote and increase the weight given to Republican voters. She ordered lawmakers to redraw the districts.

That decision had been tied up in a court battle until seven weeks ago, when U.S. Supreme Court justices upheld Eagles ruling.

Lawmakers want to wait until November to redraw the maps.

Attorneys for the plaintiffs, Anita Earls with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice and Edwin Speas with Poyner Spruill, argued that the General Assembly has intentionally not created the new maps as a means to put Democratic candidates at a disadvantage.

Earls and Speas asked the judges to force lawmakers to create the new maps by Aug. 11. They also requested a special election be held March 6 using the new maps.

Strach said that lawmakers are taking their time creating the new maps to ensure voters have input and that the redistricting abides by the Constitution. Strachs wife, Kim Westbrook Strach, testified for the defense during the hearing in her role as executive director of the Bipartisan State Board of Elections and Ethics Enforcement.

Phillip Strach said the plaintiffs timeline did not give lawmakers the ability to create the new maps efficiently.

You created this problem by not doing anything for the past year, Eagles told Strach. You could have been creating the maps, holding public hearings. The General Assembly could have done something when six federal judges told them the maps were wrong.

Wynn told Strach he was not convinced the plaintiffs time frame was reasonable, but waiting until November to create new maps did not give the judges enough time for review and to order any possible changes before candidates began filing in February for the 2018 election.

What concerns, at least me, is the seriousness of how this is being taken by the legislature, Wynn said. This is serious.

Testimony before the judges Thursday morning revealed that possible candidates are feeling pressure not knowing in what districts they might run.

Rep. Grier Martin (D-Raleigh) testified that without new maps Democratic candidates can not announce their run for office. Martin serves as co-chairman of the House Democratic Conference and recruits potential candidates to run.

Normally we would begin the campaign process now, he said. Instead, Im telling them to lie low until the districts are drawn.

Martin said he fears that if Republicans learn who the Democratic candidates are now theyll draw them out of their districts or draw them into districts where they cant compete.

Milo Pyne, one of the plaintiffs who serves in several Democratic groups in Durham, said candidates there dont know if theyll keep their districts, if theyll end up running against each other or how theyll raise money.

At this stage in the cycle they would be knocking on doors and asking for money, Pyne said.

The plaintiffs and judges also raised concerns that 28 lawmakers working to create the maps are serving in unconstitutional districts.

Technically, the judges could order that the General Assembly stop working until the new districts are drawn and another election is held.

The lack of districts denies interested candidates and political parties the opportunity to perform the function for which they exist: to ID a candidate, to support a candidate and to get those candidates elected, Speas said. It is to the advantage of defendants that the maps are not drawn and its to the disadvantage of the Democratic Party and Democratic voters.

Wynn asked Speas if he felt the judges should appoint someone independent from the General Assembly to redraw the districts.

Speas urged him to do so.

As long as we as dont have maps there are a lot of variables unanswered, Wynn said. Were not going to get into the business of redrawing maps but we want the General Assembly to do their jobs.

Strach reminded the judges the last time lawmakers tried to draw maps in two weeks those too were deemed unconstitutional.

Bring us something to review, Wynn said. Well tell you if we dont like it.

Eagles asked Strach if legislators could create new maps by Aug. 11. He said his clients would do whatever the judges ordered.

We want to feel something from the state that you understand the seriousness of this, Wynn told Strach.
What: Guilford County Board of Education meeting

When: 6 p.m., Thursday

Where: Guilford County Schools Central Office, 712 N. Eugene St. in Greensboro

On TV: Meetings are broadcast live on Spectrum (Channel 2). Replays air at 1 and 7 p.m. the next day and at 1 p.m. Saturday. You can also watch online at http://media.gcsnc.net/gcstv.

Whats going on?

The board will meet in open session starting at 6 p.m., following a 4 p.m. closed session. Board members are set to discuss the 2017-18 budget and a new proposed policy about public records requests.

Want to be heard? Speakers can address the board for three minutes during the comment period. Speakers must sign up before the meeting or by calling 336-370-8100 before 5 p.m.

Read it: Meeting agenda available at http://bit.ly/2u0dQWa

Follow along: Get live news updates by following @JessiePounds on Twitter.
Even those who dont like our president have to acknowledge that hes a man of his word. He said, for example, that he would build a border wall and Mexico would pay for it. Well, OK  thats not going to happen, and any wall-building that does occur will be paid for by American taxpayers (and a wall would do almost nothing to reduce illegal immigration). Maybe thats a bad example.

How about his promise to repeal Obamacare and replace it with a cheaper, better program? Instead hes supported a plan that would cover fewer people with lower-quality insurance, costing some people much more money, would not include the Obamacare preexisting condition protections and would decimate Medicaid. Another bad example, I guess.

But at least hes drained the swamp in Washington. Except  no. His administration is filled with Goldman Sachs alums, he and his family are enriching themselves, and hes granted a record number of ethics waivers. Pretty swampy, actually.

But he also said during the campaign that he could do anything (including openly commit murder) and his supporters wouldnt turn against him. Were now seeing how true that statement is. So yes  hes a man of his word.

Robert Guttentag

Greensboro
Get your fill. Photo: lacaosa/Getty Images

Good news, home buyers: Avocado toast is maybe going to get a little cheaper. After a long and difficult summer, it seems that avocado prices may be dropping at last! Prices for the creamy little fruit hit a record high, thanks to bad weather in Mexico during what was already an off year for avocado trees. (Avocados develop on a two-year cycle; this was not our year.) But Bloomberg says we can all settle down, because reprieve is coming: The wholesale cost of Hass avocados has already dropped more than 6 percent since reaching a record-breaking high in July.

Prices in the foreseeable future will stabilize a little, and you wont see a sharp incline, said Robert Bonghi, the director of procurement and pricing at the Produce Alliance. Growers are trying to put more trees in the ground to keep up, he said, but dont get too excited just yet. Youre not going to see 10 avocados for a dollar. After all: Its a reprieve, not a miracle.

Still, there is hope in the world, at least regarding avocados. While there are no signs that demand will slow anytime soon  Americans have a seemingly insatiable appetite for the fruit, eating more than double what they ate a decade ago, according to the latest USDA figures, and the global market is booming , too the supply crunch is expected to ease up. For one thing, 2018 is an on year for avocado trees, and according to at least one California avocado farmer, its shaping up to be a good crop, thanks to rain this past winter.
Photo: Dan DeLuca/CC/flickr After tonight, Great Jones Cafe will be no more.

Once upon a time in 1985, an influential restaurant called Arizona 206 helped make southwestern food the thing in New York. A few years later, a red-headed kid named Bobby Flay would crash the scene with Mesa Grill. And before those restaurants, there was the Great Jones Cafe, a casual spot that opened off the Bowery back in 83. Affordable and by this point normcore, the restaurant weathered the neighborhoods transformation from gritty to glistening. But the days of jambalaya are over. Tonights service will be its last, neighborhood blog EV Grieve reports.

According to the website, the closure is the result of simmering tension. Its former longtime GM Bill Judkins wrote to EV Grieve back in April that he didnt see eye to eye with his partners. While he saw the restaurant as unique and special, one of a vanishing breed, they wanted to change it to appeal to the neighborhoods newer, more moneyed residents and droves of tourists.

If it seems like a lot of old-school downtown spots have been disappearing, thats because, well, they are. The restaurants shuttering comes on the heel of the abrupt closing of the West Villages French Roast and Chinatown diner Cup & Saucer, both neighborhood fixtures.

But not all is lost for the lovers of old(er) New York. Owner Tone Balzano Johansen announced that Red Hook dive Sunnys, which needed to raise $50,000 to stay open, will not close. The bar has been open in various forms since the 1890s, and over that time has become enmeshed into the fabric of Brooklyn.
Back in May Google revealed that Spain would be one of the next markets to get Android Pay, and today this has become reality. The mobile payments service is now live in the country, although at the moment it only works with Visa and MasterCard credit and debit cards issued by BBVA.

While supporting only the customers of one bank might not be that impressive, the good news is that over one million stores across Spain will accept Android Pay as a method of payment. A short list of some of the places where you can use Android Pay in Spain is available here.

Of course the service also works on your phone inside certain apps. This way you don't need to enter your payment information every time you make a transaction. This works in such apps as Vueling, Deliveroo, Zara, Fancy, HotelTonight, and TransferWise, and will be available soon for Privalia and Just Eat.

Source (in Spanish) | Via
If you use and love Google's Fi, the company's own MVNO (Mobile Virtual Network Operator), why not spread the word? Refer a friend or two? You may have done that already, but from this point on referrals come with goodies for you.

If you refer two people to Fi and they become customers (and stick around for at least 30 days), you will receive $20 in Google Play credit as well as $40 Fi credit. When you reach five referrals you will get a Fi weekender bag plus $100 Fi credit. The credit will come in around three weeks after the person you referred has been active for 30 days. The bags will be shipped by November.

The top three referrers in the country will be taken to the next level, with up to $2,000 in Fi credit and a paid trip to the Google HQ in California. This trip will take place next year. The live contest leaderboard is available here. The top three winners will be known by November 2017. To start referring people, go to the Share the Fi Love section of your account and choose Enter Contest.

Via
By William Schwartz | Published on 2017/07/26

In the opener to "Criminal Minds", we meet Hyeon-joon (played by Lee Joon-gi), and his experience during a very unfortunate terrorist bomb threat. Flash forward a year later, and Hyeon-joon is a normal cop. Then, the special criminal profiling division in South Korean law enforcement takes an interest in Hyeon-joon's case, involving a serial killer. While Gi-hyeong (played by Son Hyun-joo) is the man in charge, Seon-woo (played by Moon Chae-won) is the team member who does the most talking with Hyeon-joon.

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I've never been a big fan of the original American version of "Criminal Minds", even if (in contrast to "The Good Wife") reruns of the drama are popular on Korean cable. For me, the main issue was just the grisly way the serial killers are fetishized, and the grotesque voyeurism shown by the camera with the victims. That aspect is definitely a part of the Korean version too. Any scenes involving the victims will make the more squeamish among us rather uncomfortable.

But by and large I was pleasantly surprised to find that, so far at least, the Korean version actually improves upon the American formula. For starters, we already have the rumblings of a character arc with Hyeon-joon, a man who is skeptical of the value criminal profiling holds. As far as he's concerned, these people are evil. End of story- just follow the evidence. Seon-woo has to actually convince Gi-hyeong that they know what they're doing, and it's telling how so far, at least, her arguments aren't all that convincing.

"Criminal Minds" also benefits a lot from how this story, which was an hour long in the original American version, is being stretched out to two episodes in the Korean remake. This gives us a lot more time for characterization and navigating various twists and turns. This surprised and intrigued me- while the serial killer is found relatively easily, for example, this was mainly by virtue of dumb luck. The question of how, exactly, he commits the crimes remains open-ended.

At minimum the production team of "Criminal Minds" clearly knows how to structure an engaging mystery. They've already figured out that the real drama isn't in how this story ends, but how the main characters get to that point. Even the cheesy cliffhanger really sells this, because this is very much a "now how is she going to get out of this one" situation. Will Seon-woo survive through luck, or through a demonstration of hitherto unknown skill?

Review by William Schwartz

"Criminal Minds" is directed by Lee Jeong-hyo and Yang Yoon-ho, written by Hong Seung-hyeon and features Son Hyun-joo, Lee Joon-gi, Moon Chae-won, Lee Sun-bin, Yoo Sun and Go Yoon.
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Ukraine's Minister of Infrastructure Volodymyr Omelyan has stated Ukraine International Airlines (UIA, Kyiv) has a debt to the national budget in the amount of UAH 400 million and advises the company management to focus on this issue, the press service of the ministry has reported.

"I would sincerely advise the UIA owners and management to focus on the issue of paying UAH 400 million to the national budget, the development of Dnipro airport, Dniproavia and many other issues," Omelyan said.

He stated the UIA's lawsuits against the agreement between Lviv airport and Ryanair low cost carrier and a number of other issues are direct interference in the arrangements of another airline with the airports, they are unreasonable and groundless.

According to the minister, the issues of establishing discriminatory conditions and violations of competition rules are within the competence of the Antimonopoly Committee of Ukraine but not the court, whereas "now there are only mandatory recommendations to Boryspil airport from the AMC, which state that only the UIA had discounts there for several years and this issue is being investigated."
Guy Woodward: Alcohol - the elephant in the cellar

By Guy Woodward

Throughout my time around the wine trade, one fundamental aspect of its make-up has been constantly swept under the carpet. Alcohol. I have seen members of the trade battle addiction issues; engage in drink-driving, embarrass themselves through over-indulgence. And thats before one turns to the damage wreaked in wider society. Yet never have I heard the topic discussed at any length or in any depth; wed sooner spend hours debating terroir and tartaric acid.

I can only conclude that the reason for this reticence is guilt, born of the knowledge that the wine and spirits trade is in the business of manufacturing and selling a product that kills people. Think Im being melodramatic? Consider this. Alcohol misuse is the biggest risk factor for death, ill-health and disability among 15-49 year-olds in the UK; the malaise is estimated to cost the NHS 3.5 billion a year. In 2015, there were 8,758 deaths in which alcohol was the primary cause; thats 24 a day.

Against this backdrop, the Supreme Court recently met to deliver a final verdict on the Scottish parliaments plan to introduce a 50p minimum unit price for alcohol. The legal battle has been running for years, and the sole reason the measure isnt already on the statute book is the opposition of the drinks industry, notably the Scotch Whisky Association (SWA). Laughably, the SWA argued in court that tax was a fairer way of tackling alcohol abuse in deprived areas; four months ago it was bemoaning tax rises as damaging, a major blow and something that distillers will find it hard to understand. In response, the Scottish government claimed that minimum pricing is clearly targeted because it focuses on excessive consumption of cheap booze, which is disproportionately bought by hazardous drinkers.

If the law lords pass the bill (as I write, the court has retired to consider its verdict), Scotland will become the first of the home nations to do so. Wales is set to follow suit, while Northern Ireland has expressed interest in doing the same. Then the pressure will turn to Westminster.

By chance, two days before the chief justices gathered in Parliament Square, a group of senior medics and health charities released a report claiming more than 60,000 people in England will die from problems linked to heavy drinking over the next five years unless ministers tackle the scourge of cheap alcohol. It called on the government to bring in minimum pricing to tackle this public health crisis.

We have seen very little [government] action to prevent liver disease, one of the top causes of avoidable deaths, said Katherine Brown, director of the Institute of Alcohol Studies. Billions of pounds are spent each year [on combatting alcohol-related issues]. The evidence is clear: raise the price of the cheapest alcohol to save lives and money.

The reports calculations have it that, if a 50p minimum unit price were introduced in England (home to an estimated 595,000 alcoholics) within five years it would mean 1,150 fewer deaths due to drink, 74,500 fewer hospital admissions, a 326m saving to the NHS and a 711m drop in the value of alcohol-fueled crime.

That, to my mind, seems worthy of focusing industry minds. Yet for the most part, the response has been silence. The WSTA remains officially opposed to minimum pricing; among the reasons cited is that it has never been tried and is inconsistent with the operation of the free market in the EU. I would love to hear a law lords response to such arguments. As for the WSTAs claim that minimum pricing would result in considerable costs to businesses, through complex and costly new systems, even the SWA admits the extra income will go largely to producers and retailers.

If Scotland goes ahead, the WSTAs support of lower priced alcohol wont look great. But the WSTA is in the tricky position of having to represent both the wine and spirits industry. Under minimum pricing, the cheapest wine would retail at 4.69. Wines average price in the UK has already broached 5.50; sales of cheap plonk have plummeted  Blossom Hill by 17.5%, Lindemans by 30%. As Helen Stares of market research firm Nielsen says: People are drinking less, but theyre drinking more premium products. So whats the problem? Well, look at whisky, with its average bottle price of 12.90 (of which 10.20 is tax, meaning the average amount spent on packaging, transport, marketing, margins and  did I forget anything? oh yes, the whisky  is a risible 2.70). Under minimum pricing, a bottle of whisky would cost at least 14, hence the SWAs concern.

From my vantage point, the WSTAs position representing both industries is invidious; certainly the wine trades aspirational ambitions are not being helped by association with the SWAs shabby stance. So what will the WSTA opt to do? Either way, it would be best advised to formulate a stance sooner rather than later. Continuing to ignore the issue in the hope that it goes away isnt going to work.
FTA between Ukraine and Canada comes into effect on August 1

The free trade agreement between Ukraine and Canada will start working on August 1, 2017; Ukrainian ambassador to Canada Andriy Shevchenko will give a briefing on topical issues prior to this event.

"On Tuesday, August 1, free trade between Ukraine and Canada officially starts: our free trade agreement will come into force," Ukraine's embassy in Canada quotes Shevchenko as saying.

The day before, on July 31, the ambassador will hold a thematic briefing for Ukrainian journalists.

"We will discuss the following issues: the main provisions of the Free Trade Agreement, new opportunities for Ukrainian companies, and prospects for Ukrainian-Canadian trade," the diplomat said.

As earlier reported, the agreement from August 1 will cancel 98% of tariffs for Ukrainian exports to Canada and 72% of tariffs from Canada to Ukraine. Over the next seven years the latter will increase to 98%. Moreover, markets for state purchases are also included. Parts of the agreement safeguard electronic commerce and intellectual property rights.

The trade agreement between Canada and Ukraine was signed in Kyiv on July 11, 2016. Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada ratified the deal on March 14, 2017. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law on ratification on April 3, 2017.
Jim Chien-Ching Chang, a former Brisbane 7-Eleven operator, has been penalised $168,000 by the Federal Circuit Court for short-changing workers and falsifying records to conceal the underpayments.



The orders were the result of litigation by the Fair Work Ombudsman and followed admissions by Chang that his company had underpaid eight staff a combined $19,937.



Chang has been ordered to pay $28,000, while his company JS Top Pty Ltd has been ordered to pay $140,000.



Chang and his company sold the 7-Eleven franchise late last year and the franchise is now operated by an entity thats not related to these contraventions.



Court imposed penalties against 7-Eleven operators have now topped $1 million in litigations by the FWO.



Chang admitted his company had paid flat hourly rates as low as $13 an hour, resulting in significant underpayment of the minimum hourly rate, casual loadings and penalty rates for shift and weekend work that employees were owed under the General Retail Award 2010.



One employee was underpaid $13,962 between July, 2013 and August, 2014, while the others were underpaid amounts ranging from $203 to $1835 for shorter periods of work. All underpayments have now been rectified.



Chang also made false and misleading entries into the 7-Eleven payroll system and provided false records to the FWO.



In his penalty judgment, Judge Michael Jarrett found that Chang knew the relevant Award that applied but had  established a business model that relied upon a deliberate disregard of the employees workplace entitlements and a course of conduct designed to conceal that deliberate disregard.



Judge Jarrett found no evidence that the companys contraventions were motivated by poor cash flow saying: rather, it seems, the companys profit has been enhanced by the underpayments concerned.



The store was one of 20 7-Eleven outlets targeted for surprise night-time visits by the FWO as part of a tri-State operation in September, 2014.



The FWO has taken legal action against nine 7-Eleven operators since 2009 with litigations involving three operators still before the courts.



Fair Work Ombudsman Natalie James said the significant penalties imposed send a clear message that exploiting overseas workers is very serious and wont be tolerated.



Businesses should be in no doubt that lawful obligations to pay minimum wage rates, keep appropriate employment records and issue pay slips apply to all employers in Australia and they are not negotiable, said James.



The deliberate nature of the underpayments and the lengths that Mr Chang went to in order to hide his conduct from us and from the 7-Eleven head office is of grave concern. Mr Chang was fully aware of his lawful obligations and chose to manipulate the system in order to undercut the entitlements of vulnerable workers.



We are pleased that the Court has seen fit to penalise such blatant conduct and hope that this serves as a warning that such behaviour will be penalised, said James.



7-Eleven entered into a Proactive Compliance Deed with the FWO in late 2016. Under the conditions of the Deed, 7-Eleven has committed to a range of measures designed to ensure all its workers receive their lawful entitlements through strong accountability for all operators across its franchise network and supervision by the FWO.




In practice, many consumers continue to pay extra for roaming when travelling around the Union. Things are especially complicated for customers of the Finnish telecom providers that have been granted special permission to not comply with roam like at home regulations, and thus continue to charge extra fees for roaming.

After fighting to reduce roaming charges for ten years, the European Commission finally succeeded in abolishing such fees on 15 June 2017. With the Roam Like at Home regulations, you can now call, text and use data all across the European Union and European Economic Area for the exact same price as you would in your country of residence. Except, not really.

When you use your mobile phone abroad  whether you are calling, texting, or using data  you are roaming. When you are roaming, the telecom provider you are a customer of is paying another provider in the country where you are located for you to use their services.

Quick facts Finnish operators Telia, DNA, Elisa, and Moi Mobiili have been granted special permission to continue applying surcharges for roaming.

If you have an unlimited data package domestically, your data volume in the EU and EEA should be twice the quotient of the monthly price of your mobile bundle (excl. VAT) divided by 7.70.

The price for roaming in the EU and EEA is currently capped at 7.70/GB  expected to gradually decrease to 2.50 by 2022.

To use roam like at home you need to spend more time in your country of residence than abroad, generally calculated in four-month periods.

Calling abroad from Finland is not considered roaming, and thus not included in roam like at home.

Roaming has traditionally been quite expensive when travelling abroad, especially in terms of data usage, and many travellers have returned home with surprisingly high phone bills. Now, such negative surprises should be a thing of the past. To the dissatisfaction of many telecom providers, however, the revenue stream from roaming has simultaneously been significantly reduced.

To shield telecom providers from substantial losses, and to prevent operators from subsequently raising their fees for calling, texting and using data domestically, the Finnish Communications Regulatory Authority, FICORA, has granted four of the most popular Finnish mobile operators permission to continue charging extra fees for roaming beyond all deadlines set out by the Commission.

Thus, if you have a contract with a Finnish mobile phone operator, and have planned to take advantage of roam like at home with no additional cost when travelling in Europe this summer, you may have to think again.

Caveats do not only exist for Finnish operators and their users, however. Indeed, the name, roam like at home, is somewhat misleading as the new regulations do not require operators to offer the exact same amount of data abroad as paid for domestically.

How does roam like at home work?

If you have paid for unlimited data for your mobile subscription in France, for example, your operator is not required to offer you unlimited data when you travel to Sweden. Instead, the amount of data you can use without an extra cost when in Sweden depends on the monthly price of your mobile subscription.

According to the regulations, your data volume in the EU and EEA should be twice the quotient of the monthly price of your mobile bundle (excl. VAT) divided by 7.70. In other words, if the French mobile subscription costs you 30 a month, excluding VAT, you should receive a minimum of around 8GB of data per month when travelling in Sweden.

If, on the other hand, you are paying for a limited data package domestically, and your domestic unit price for data is 7.70/GB or more, you should be able to use exactly as much data abroad as you would at home. If your domestic unit price is cheaper, you can calculate the gigabytes you are eligible for per month by dividing the price of your mobile package (excl. VAT) by the maximum capped price for roaming of 7.70/GB.

According to the European Commission, the cap for roaming will continue to gradually decrease up until 2022, at the point of which each gigabyte of data will cost a maximum of 2.50. In other words, in five years time, you will only receive less data abroad than you have paid for domestically if your domestic unit price is less than 2.50/GB.

To prevent individuals from shopping around for the cheapest mobile subscriptions across the EU, and then using them in their countries of residence with roam like at home, the European Commission added a so-called fair use policy to their regulations. In other words, you can only use roam like at home as long as you spend more time in your country of residence than abroad, generally calculated in four-month periods. Operators are allowed to track your phone usage and can ask you for an explanation if you seem to have exceeded the fair use limit.

Do customers of Finnish mobile operators benefit from roam like at home?

Telia, DNA, Elisa and Moi Mobiili are the four Finnish mobile operators that have been granted special permission by FICORA to continue applying surcharges for roaming, or, in other words, to not comply with roam like at home regulations.

Nevertheless, all of the operators have significantly reduced their roaming charges this year alone, and some subscription packages do not apply extra fees at all. Thus, consumers who wish to benefit from roam like at home while using Finnish mobile operators need to carefully consider what the various subscription packages offer.

Most operators seem to have generously adopted the new regulations to their most advanced subscription packages. DNA, Telia, and Elisa all offer packages with unlimited domestic data and an additional 10GB data in the EU/EEA without extra cost, thus significantly exceeding the required amount of gigabytes they would have to offer according to the EU regulations.

On the other hand, Moi Mobiili offers a maximum 2GB of data in the EU and EEA without an extra cost  far less than what is required by the new EU regulations when calculated in relation to the price of Moi Mobiilis subscriptions.

Beyond the newest and most advanced subscription packages, DNA, Telia, and Elisa do not fully comply with the regulations either. DNA, for example, charges 5.70/GB from the moment you start using data abroad, unless you have one of their newer 4G packages offering either 10GB or 600MB data free of extra charge.

It is similar with Elisa. Unless you subscribe to one of their packages with 10GB of EU/EEA data included, you will have to pay 7.44 per each gigabyte of data used abroad. Additionally, calls and text messages are slightly more expensive than the equivalent within Finland if you have one of the subscription packages with no EU/EEA data included without extra charge.

Telia is perhaps the operator that has adopted the EU regulations most thoroughly out of the four. All of their so-called Yhteys subscriptions  with either unlimited, 10GB or 5GB of domestic data  offer more EU and EEA data than required by roam like at home. As for the rest of their subscription packages, they will all be up to date with the new EU regulations by 31 August this year.

Calling abroad is not roaming

There are two additional things related to the new regulations that are important to remember.

First, if you call abroad from Finland with a Finnish mobile subscription package it is not considered roaming, and operators still charge an additional fee for all such calls. It is only when you travel to another EU or EEA country, and your subscription respects the roam like at home regulations, that you can call all EU and EEA member states without an extra charge.

Second, Switzerland, despite being part of the Single Market, is neither part of the EU nor the EEA, and thus not part of the roam like at home regulations. Many other small European countries and holiday destinations similarly fall outside the scope of roam like at home. While some operators have included countries outside the EU and EEA in their roaming packages, this varies greatly between both operators as well as the packages they offer, and thus needs to be separately confirmed with each.

In general, the type of mobile phone subscription one finds useful varies greatly among people. Some spend a lot of time calling, others texting, and yet others need a great amount of data. The new roaming rules in the EU and EEA have simply added another dimension to take into consideration when selecting a mobile subscription package.

Nicole Berglund

Helsinki Times
Gareth Chubb was sentenced to six months in jail by the court

Kinahan cartel thug Gareth Chubb has been sentenced to six months in jail after he was convicted of pulling a loaded gun out in an Amsterdam cafe.

However, the convicted cocaine dealer was a no-show in a Dutch court yesterday to hear judges of the offence on February 5 this year.

He reportedly pulled the gun in revenge after being sold baking soda in a drug deal.

Chubb had been free to return to Ireland to await the outcome of his trial and was not obliged to attend yesterday, a court official confirmed.

His lawyer did attend at Amsterdam District Court.

The Dublin gangster had 3,071 in cash at the time of his arrest, it emerged, as the court ruled that his property - the money and a Gucci cap - be returned to him.

Trigger

Chubb, said to be a close associate of the notorious Kinahan cartel, was cleared by the three-judge court of a charge of attempted manslaughter, due to insufficient evidence relating to the incident.

The intended victim, a Nigerian-Dutch national, told police that Chubb pointed a pistol, with a silencer attached, at him - and he heard the trigger of the Walther PKK click five times.

Judges decided that the noise the victim heard could have been from the gun's barrel or handle and not necessarily that of the trigger's release.

The gun had jammed during the botched shooting attempt and he ran for his life, the victim told the examining magistrate, according to court files.

It is believed that a row may have erupted over a fake drugs deal. Dutch media reported the motive as revenge, claiming that Chubb and three of his friends, who had been in Amsterdam partying for several days, were sold bread soda instead of cocaine by the victim.

CCTV footage showed Chubb (29), of Keeper Road, Drimnagh, pointing the gun, with a silencer attached, at his victim in the Smokey cafe.

During interrogation he admitted being in possession of the weapon.

The public prosecutor had demanded that Chubb be jailed for four years, citing "the terror he inflicted on his victim", who was "in a state of extreme shock" and "in fear of his life" when he fled the cafe and contacted police. According to witnesses, the victim was lucky to escape with his life.

Storming the bar, Dutch police discovered the Walther PKK and silencer, a Glock pistol and another pistol.

The location beside Rembrandtplein, one of the Dutch capital's main squares, was crowded with sightseers and people having a night out when Chubb "recklessly and nonchalantly" pulled a loaded gun, "gravely endangering public safety and public order", the Dutch prosecutor said.

Authorities

After Chubb was sentenced to six months, less any time he had spent in pre-trial custody, a court spokesman said it was up to the prison authorities in the Netherlands to ensure that the sentence is served.

"He will be contacted via his lawyer and told he has to report to serve out his sentence, less the time he spent in pre-trial detention," the spokesman said.

"If he ignores that then he will have to go to jail on entering the Netherlands again, unless they decide to appeal this verdict and he is cleared by a higher court."

Chubb, believed to be a significant figure within the Kinahan cartel - which has been waging war against the Hutch gang - was a close friend of David Byrne, who was gunned down in the Regency Hotel attack on February 5, 2016.
Police officers removing the children of Jason Corbett from the house where he was killed tried to keep them from seeing the gruesome scene where he was bludgeoned to death.

Mr Corbett's two children were urged to close their eyes and bury their heads as they were carried past the blood-spattered room.

Davidson County Sheriff's Department officer Corporal Clayton Dagenhardt told the murder trial that he saw blood on the walls, floor, bed, hallway and bedroom.

Cpl Dagenhardt was the first officer to enter the master bedroom at the family's home in Panther Creek, North Carolina, after the alarm was raised.

Mr Corbett (39) was struck repeatedly with such force over the head that part of his scalp detached from his skull.

His wife Molly Martens (33) and her father, retired FBI agent Thomas Michael Martens (67), both deny his second degree murder on August 2, 2015.

They have argued self-defence, claiming Mr Corbett was attacking his wife.

The trial heard the Limerick father suffered a minimum of 12 major blows to the head.

Parts of his skull broke loose in two different areas.

Startled

A pathologist said the sheer extent of the damage to Mr Corbett's skull was similar to the degree of injuries suffered "in falls from a great height or in car crashes".

Cpl Dagenhardt used his mobile phone to photograph the scene where Mr Corbett's naked and blood-stained body was lying on the floor.

After paramedics removed the body, he went upstairs with another policeman to determine who else was in the property.

Mr Corbett's two children, Jack and Sarah, both aged under 10, were asleep in separate bedrooms.

He went into Sarah's bedroom. "She was asleep - she had not been disturbed in any way," Cpl Dagenhardt said.

His colleague awoke Sarah's brother, Jack.

"She was startled when I woke her," added Cpl Dagenhardt. "I said I wanted her to close her eyes (when he brought her downstairs)."

Sarah agreed with the policeman's suggestion that he carry her downstairs.

"I told her to turn her face into my neck and I told her to close her eyes," Cpl Dagenhardt said. "I then walked backwards so she didn't open her eyes and she wouldn't be exposed to anything."

A blood trail had been left from their father's body.

With his colleague, Cpl Dagenhardt then brought the two children downstairs where he found Sharon Martens, Thomas Martens's wife, standing by a downstairs bedroom door.

"(She was) calm," he said. "I advised her we had an active investigation and we had to leave the children in her care."

Cpl Dagenhardt said blood that comes from a body is "runny". However, he said some of the blood he saw appeared to be congealed like Jell-O.

The trial also heard graphic evidence from North Carolina pathologist Dr Craig Nelson about the precise injuries suffered by Mr Corbett.

The hearing had to briefly pause after a juror became ill when post-mortem photographs showing the extensive damage to his skull were shown.

She began retching in the jury box and had to briefly leave Courtroom C of Davidson County Superior Court.

Dr Nelson offered testimony as to the extent of the head injuries suffered by Mr Corbett.

Complex injuries were sustained to both the left and right sides of his skull.

The blows were sufficiently forceful to drive fragments of skull into his brain, and when a pathologist touched his scalp during the post-mortem examination parts of his skull fell out on to the surgical table.

His nose was also broken and there were injuries to his torso and extremities.

Dr Nelson told the eighth day of the trial that it was clear Mr Corbett suffered blunt-force trauma blows to the head rather than sharp-force blows.

"It [a post-mortem examination photo] shows detachment of scalp from the skull and the connecting tissues," he said.

"It illustrates the depth and underscores that this was a laceration and therefore a blunt-force trauma injury rather than a sharp-force injury."

In one photograph, Mr Corbett's scalp was effectively "drooping with gravity".

"Two sites [of the skull] showed areas of repeated blows," he said. "There is a triangular area where parts of the skull are missing."

Dr Nelson said it appeared one injury was sustained after Mr Corbett was already dead.

"It has the appearance of a post-mortem injury," he added.

Unconscious

"There was very little bleeding, suggesting it was after death, after the heart stopped beating."

Any eight of the 12 blows to the head could have rendered Mr Corbett unconscious.

However, in two areas where the skull had sustained complex injuries it was impossible to tell precisely how many blows had been sustained.

"It indicates more than one blow [to two areas] but it cannot tell you precisely how many blows [were sustained]," Dr Nelson added.

In cross-examination with the defence, Dr Nelson said he couldn't determine precisely what had caused the injuries.

"The injuries don't have any specific features to tell me exactly what object caused them," he said.

Dr Nelson ruled that death was due to blunt-force trauma to the head and was a homicide.

He said toxicology tests showed a low level of alcohol in Mr Corbett's system as well as traces of the sleep medication trazodone.

Nurse Katie Wingate-Scott of the KPC health centre, confirmed to the trial that Ms Martens was prescribed trazodone in 50mg doses on July 30 - three days before her husband's death.

The prescription was given after the Tennessee woman complained she could not sleep owing to a congenital circulatory problem with her foot.

Trazodone is also used as an anti-depressant and has sedative properties.

Ms Wingate-Scott treated both Ms Martens and Mr Corbett who were patients of the centre. The medication was never prescribed for Mr Corbett.

Pharmacist James Hiatt confirmed that the prescription in Ms Martens's name was filled and collected.

Mr Martens claimed the father-of-two was attacking his daughter. The trial continues before a jury of nine women and three men.
France's Engie intends to obtain license for gas supply in Ukraine

Engie Energy Management Ukraine LLC (Kyiv) has applied for a license to supply natural gas in Ukraine.

The decision to grant a license to the Ukrainian subsidiary of Engie (formerly GDF Suez, France) will be considered at a meeting of the National Commission for Energy, Housing and Utilities Services Regulation (NCER) scheduled for August 1, 2017.

Engie Energy Management Ukraine, in addition to gas trading, in the classification of activities also formalized the possibility of gas and oil production, distribution and trade in electricity.

GDF International owns 99% of Engie Energy Management Ukraine, 1% belongs to Sopranor (both registered at the same address in France).

As reported, in June-July 2017 Trafigura Ukraine LLC, a subsidiary of Trafigura, the world's major commodity trader, and MET Ukraine, a subsidiary of Swiss MET Holding AG, obtained licenses for gas supply in Ukraine.

As of June 14, 2017 the NCER had issued 276 licenses for gas supply in Ukraine.
Dundon gangsters are suspected of being behind a number of serious threats made against three senior Irish Prison Service officials.

The threats have been described as "extremely credible" and gardai are providing 24/7 protection to some of the individuals involved.

They stem from the separation of the thugs in the prison system, after they were busted with a huge haul of contraband in Portlaoise on May 19.

The highly respected officials have been the victims of a chilling campaign of harassment, including anonymous letters with terrifying threats.

Gardai are taking the situation so seriously that they have placed a constant armed presence at the home of one official following a recent arson attack at the property.

The incident happened weeks after thugs broke a window at the house and dumped a letter into the property threatening it would be burnt down unless the Dundon mobsters were allowed to be together in prison.

Another senior Prison Service employee has also been threatened in anonymous letters and their home is also being monitored by armed gardai.

Furthermore, a third senior prison official has also received sinister threats.

Steroids

Gardai have launched a major investigation into the disturbing incidents and have drawn up a special safety plan for the officials, who have all been given detailed security advice.

"This is a very, very serious situation and is something of a wake-up call for people who may have thought that the Dundon gang no longer had these capabilities," a source warned.

"This is very distressing for the officials who are under threat and, of course, for their families."

Gardai are also investigating a number of threats against several other Prison Service employees.

They believe those at the centre of the plot are killer brothers Wayne, John, and Dessie Dundon as well as close associate Nathan Killeen (27).

The gang are suspected of orchestrating their terrifying campaign from behind bars.

When contacted by the Herald, the Prison Service refused to comment.

At 1am on May 19, the four Dundon gangsters were caught with a massive haul of electronic devices, weapons and drugs inside the country's maximum-security prison.

A major garda investigation and an internal Prison Service probe are under way into how the contraband reached the Limerick gangsters.

"Questions need to be answered about how this contraband got in, when you consider that some of these individuals were the subject of screened visitations," the source said.

The contraband recovered included mobile phones, SIM cards, Stanley knife blades, Google Chromecast media-streaming devices, syringes and a haul of steroids.

After the bust the four mobsters were moved away from each other.

Wayne and Dessie Dundon were transferred to Mountjoy Prison where they were placed in the Challenging Behaviour Unit (CBU) as punishment.

The CBU is used to house troublesome inmates and separate them from the wider prison population when they become disruptive.

Gardai have had major success in dismantling the McCarthy/Dundon gang, with virtually all the main players locked up.

However, the threats against the prison officials show that they still pose a significant security threat and have "clout" on the outside, sources said.

Dessie (34) was sentenced along with four others to life in prison in December 2003 for the murder of Limerick crime boss Kieran Keane, and the attempted murder of his nephew Owen Treacy in Limerick a year earlier.

Wayne (39), of Lenihan Avenue, Prospect, Limerick, and Nathan Killeen (27), of Hyde Road, Prospect, were sentenced to life for the murder of innocent businessman Roy Collins in Limerick in 2009.

Shootings

John Dundon (34) is behind bars for his involvement in the mistaken identity murder of another innocent man, talented rugby player Shane Geoghegan, in 2008.

The Dundon gang were the main protagonists in the deadly Limerick gang feud which claimed up to 20 lives after Eddie Ryan was shot dead in 2010.

It also led to hundreds of shootings, stabbings and pipe bomb attacks.
Michael Rowland says the emergency call system at Mellowes Court, Finglas, has been out of order for several months

Older residents of a local authority housing scheme are in fear for their lives after a breakdown of the emergency call system in their homes.

The emergency system at Mellowes Court, Finglas, has now been out of order for several months. It consists of pull cords that act as a means for elderly residents to contact emergency services.

Resident Michael Rowland (66) told the Herald the devices had been disconnected in all 62 residents' homes.

He said many residents were living alone and some were ill, with no way of calling for help if they were the victim of an attack or found themselves in an emergency situation.

Mr Rowland revealed that some unwell residents could not leave their homes and the emergency call system was vital for them.

Fixed

He said people were "scared" of what may happen to them if the disconnected emergency cords were not fixed.

Many were particularly fearful after hearing reports of assaults on elderly citizens, such as Wicklow woman Eva Sutton, he added.

Two men were jailed this week for the violent attack on Ms Sutton in her Bray home in September 2015.

With the emergency cords not working in the bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens of the homes, Mr Rowland feared that if an incident occurred, an elderly victim would not be able to alert anyone.

He has reported the situation to Dublin City Council, the fire brigade and gardai.

"I've been going from Billy to Jack to get this sorted," he said.

"Other people are a lot older than me and some of them could not get out of their homes if something was to happen.

"It's like a bomb waiting to go off," he added.

Dublin City Council confirmed that the cords were not working.

While Mr Rowland said the problem first arose three months ago, a council spokesperson denied this and said it was later than that.

A request for further clarification on the issue went unreturned last night.

Mr Rowland described himself as the "handyman" resident of the estate and said he usually made sure the cords were in reach of other residents at all times.

"I would usually call around and make sure the cords reached the whole way to the ground," he said.

"That way, if someone was on the ground as a result of a fall, they could still hopefully pull the cord."

Fianna Fail spokesperson for older people, Mary Butler, said she had been "shocked and disgusted" by the recent attack on Ms Sutton. The party has called for a stronger legal response.

"There can be no toleration of these types of attack and it is clear that those who perpetrate them should feel the full rigours of the justice system," Ms Butler said.

"Vulnerable older people should never be fearful about staying in their homes.

"There needs to be a discussion in this country about how we deal with people who engage in abhorrent and senseless attacks on vulnerable people."

She said she would work closely with the party's spokesman on justice, Jim O'Callaghan, to "identify ways in which the legal system can act as a stronger deterrent to those considering attacking older people".

Neil Garvey, chief executive of the community development organisation Muintir na Tire, told RTE's Morning Ireland yesterday that there had been an underspend in the funding allocation for the Seniors Alert Scheme, which funds the protection of older people in their homes.

Emergency

Mr Garvey wanted a portion of State funding utilised to promote the scheme to ensure that pensioners were aware of its existence.

Age Action echoed the concerns and said that many older people were not aware of the scheme as a large number did not go online.

The charity suggested that the elderly should be informed in print and via other sources.

The scheme funds alarms for the elderly to wear around their necks and panic buttons on wrists, to facilitate the raising of the alarm in an emergency.
Sean Clinton brings his dog Bertie for a drink in Clogherhead, where Willie Molloy is manning the water tanker. Photo: Doug O'Connor

Water is slowly refilling a reservoir in the north-east after workers completed the first phase of installing a specially-made pipe to repair a burst main.

The Staleen Water Treatment Plant in Co Meath was yesterday back in production.

Locals in Co Meath and Co Louth have been without water since Friday.

A large metal pipe was lowered more than four metres into the ground to bridge the gap made by the fracture in the existing, 50-year-old main.

Irish Water said water was running through the pipe following the temporary patch.

A permanent fix will be completed in two weeks time - and it could be days before a full water supply is restored.

Faith

Meanwhile, calls have been made to reopen a reservoir on the outskirts of Drogheda that was closed two years ago.

Local politicians have said they have no faith that yesterday's repair on the fractured main will provide a long-lasting solution.

Representatives said only the total replacement of the main will provide a permanent fix to secure the region's water supply.

Independent councillor Kevin Callan said Drogheda had suffered a water shortage problem 30 years ago, but at the time had two treatment plants, including one at Rosehall which has now been decommissioned.

"Now we have one treatment plant and the population is five or six times what it was. Irish Water need to open a second treatment plant in Drogheda," Cllr Callan said.

"I was told on Tuesday there was not sufficient manpower in Irish Water to do that and I am absolutely shocked," he added.

"I'm getting several different reasons why they won't open it."

He said these reasons included pH levels, as well as claims that the water isn't safe and that the water level might not be high enough.

"But I'm told reliably by former council staff that plant could be operational within two days. Turn on the filters and the plant is operational," he told the Herald.

"I've no confidence in the statements I'm getting. I was at a meeting on Tuesday with Irish Water with the elected representatives.

"One person said at the start of the meeting Rosehall would not reopen, and later on another person said they will now look at opening it again.

"They have no contingency plan in my view. If they turn on the water after the fix and the pipe fails 6ft down the line, we are back to where we were last Friday," he added.

A statement from Irish Water discounted the option of opening the Rosehall plant.

"The Rosehall reservoir and plant were decommissioned as the raw water source was prone to running dry during summer months and the Staleen Water Treatment Plant had to take over the supply," it said.

Insufficient

In addition to this the source water was identified as having a potential issue with THM's (trihalomethanes), it added.

"As an old plant, Rosehall's treatment processes were also deemed to be insufficient. For these reasons Irish Water is not considering recommissioning the plant," the statement said.

Louth Fine Gael TD Fergus O'Dowd called on the Government to introduce incentives for householders to conserve rainwater.
Claims filed by Ukraine International Airlines (UIA) to court do not concern the operation of Ireland's low cost airline Ryanair in Ukraine or any obstacles to their operations, but they concern the discriminative conditions towards other airlines.

An Interfax-Ukraine correspondent reported that UIA President Yuriy Miroshnykov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

Managing partner of Ecovis Bondar and Bondar law firm Oleh Bondar said that two claims were filed to courts: one seeking to declare unlawful the memorandum signed by the Infrastructure Ministry and Ryanair and to declare unlawful the conditions for servicing at the Lviv airport. Defenders in the first claim are the ministry and Ryanair and in the second claim  the Lviv airport and Ryanair.

"We see violation of legislation in signing the memorandum with the ministry and a commercial company. This is surprising when a government official signs such agreements," Miroshnykov said.

He named this memo a dangerous precedent for the aviation sector and the Ukrainian economy in general.

"This is a dangerous precedent and an attempt to interfere and press on economic entities. If this precedent is not assessed, and this can be done only by court, it would have negative consequences for he sector and the economy," Miroshnykov said.

As reported, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Volodymyr Omelyan said that UIA has filed several claims to court, and in one of them the airline demands to annul a contract between the leading low cost airline in Europe Ryanair and the Lviv International Airport.

  
Public joint-stock company VTB Bank (Kyiv) has waived a loan of bankrupt company Ukrainian Hotel Management LLC (Dnipro) as uncollectable debt, the financial institution has reported on its website.

"The loan in the amount of around $15 million was reserved by VTB Bank and waived at the end of 2016," the bank said.

The bank also said that it stopped claim-related work seeking to collect the property of Dnipro military hospital, which was used as collateral for this loan.

"In 2017, the bank did not put forward any claims to the hospital's building and does not plan to do this in the future," VTB Bank said.

The financial institution said that at the moment when the loan was issued the borrower was part of Westa Group, which ultimate beneficiaries are Denys Dzenzersky and his father Viktor Dzenzersky.

"When the bank issued the loan it hoped that the borrower would honestly meet the financial commitments taken. The bankruptcy procedure for Ukrainian Hotel Business could be finished in 2017-2018," the bank said.

The Polish Financial Supervision Authority (PFSA) is suspecting Ukrainian lawmaker Denys Dzenzersky (People's Front parliamentary faction) of deceiving investors on the Warsaw Stock Exchange (WSE).

PFSA jointly with Luxembourg authorities is investigating into the unauthorized use of investment raised on the WSE by WESTA ISIC S.. (Luxembourg).

In addition, systemic violation of accounting standards was revealed at Westa ISIC.

The Polish Pension Fund saw PLN 5 million of loss ($1.37 million at the exchange rate of the National Bank of Poland).

Dzenzersky could be imprisoned for the term of up to five years for the above-mentioned steps.

Westa Corporation was one of the largest producers of lead-acid batteries in the CIS.
BLOUNTVILLE, Tenn.  Northeast State Community College interim President James King announced Wednesday the development of a corrective action plan for the schools 2017-18 budget, which includes $5 million in cuts.

The plan hasnt been finalized, but King said some employees will lose their jobs within the next two weeks because salaries and benefits make up 75 percent of the colleges budget. He said it hasnt been decided yet what positions will be cut, or how many, but some will be cut through attrition.

It takes a lot of $24,000 decisions, but it may not take as many upper-level positions, so its a money issue versus a number of people issue, said King. Were reducing some adjunct [positions]. Were not filling some positions that are retired. Its a pretty broad spectrum. Right now, the least impacted will be faculty until we have the student numbers. After fall starts and the numbers are there, well take a look at that.

King informed faculty and staff of the cuts in an emailed statement on Wednesday.

In Northeast States current financial situation, our overall revenues and expenses and cash flow have become a cause for concern, he wrote. In the past few years, our annual expenses have exceeded our revenues, which has caused us to exhaust all available reserves to cover the difference. Our expenses have to be realigned to match our revenues.

He also told faculty and staff in the email that TBR recently approved a 3 percent across-the-board salary increase for employees but only funded a 1.7 percent increase. The rest is left up to its institutions.

Subject to TBR Board approval, the remaining 1.3 percent increase, which would have to come from the colleges budget, will not be funded, he wrote. We are doing this to reduce personnel cuts.

The colleges operating, travel and equipment budgets for all departments have been cut by $2.8 million.

Construction of the colleges Emerging Technologies Complex will halt after the groundwork is completed. The $3.2 million that would have funded further construction will go toward managing the colleges basic operations. Current construction has already been contracted and needs to be finished, but, according to King, the college will continue building the facility at a later date  [We are] postponing it; not eliminating it, he said.

King said that over the next year all departments, campuses and everything about Northeast State will be looked at.

Its been a pretty difficult period, he said. Were in the right-sizing process.

The cuts come amid an ongoing investigation of the college and former President Janice Gilliam by the Tennessee Board of Regents, which is slated to come to a close in three to four weeks, according to TBR spokesman Rick Locker.

The probe came after a vote of no-confidence in the presidents leadership by Northeast State faculty. The colleges faculty Senate called for the vote on Jan. 30, citing unrealistic expansion projections, enrollment issues and loss of key staff during Gilliams tenure.

TBR stepped in on Feb. 3 to begin its investigation. A strategic team of six TBR officials visited the Blountville campus on Feb. 9-10 to gather information. On Feb. 23 the team recommended three interim actions to address financial and academic management and governance of the campus, which Gilliam began implementing.

The faculty Senate asked TBR Chancellor Flora Tydings on April 5 to place Gilliam on paid administrative leave. The request was denied.

Gilliam announced her retirement on June 8. The same day, TBR Chancellor Flora Tydings appointed TBR Executive Vice Chancellor James King interim president of the college. He began on July 1.

I think the financial issue was ultimately the big reason why the decision was made for Dr. Gilliam to resign, said King. This didnt happen overnight. This has been a two- or three-year process. It just crept up, and then the perfect storm hit this year, but were going to do whats right. Its going to be a thoughtful process.

King said faculty members' claims werent unfounded.

The faculty is pretty much on target in a lot of that, he said. Theyve known that their budgets may have been cut because all of a sudden this off-campus site opened. Youre robbing Peter to pay Paul a little bit.

Northeast State operates five other campuses in Bristol, Johnson City, Kingsport, Gray and Elizabethton. King said there are no plans to close any of those sites, but faculty may be reduced.

The colleges faculty Senate said Wednesday they support the decisions made.

The faculty Senate is saddened to learn about impending personnel losses, yet we also understand that these cuts are necessary to the institutions stability, said President Francis Canedo in an emailed statement. The faculty Senate supports President Kings decision to prioritize the colleges mission and focus on students in the face of these budgetary challenges.

TBR approved the colleges 2017-18 fiscal year budget in June. More than 51 percent of Northeast States revenue comes from tuition and fees. Based on current figures, enrollment for the fall semester is up 4 percent compared to this time last year, according to King.

King said the budget cuts are the result of five years of enrollment figures that were lower than projected, especially during the nations Great Recession from 2007-2009.

We did have some big numbers during the recession, so we hired on people, but we never right-sized after that was over, said King. To balance the budget after that, they pretty consistently dipped into reserves. ... We have pretty much depleted the reserves. ... [They] woke up with a budget thats in the red with no reserves to cover that [expenses].

Downsizing and stabilizing the colleges finances is the primary goal right now, he added.

Tydings said via email Wednesday that budget reductions are always cause for concern.

The corrective actions are necessary to get Northeasts finances back on track, and I have complete confidence that Interim President James King and the finance teams at Northeast and TBR are doing all they can to minimize the impacts on faculty, staff and students, she said. Northeast is and will remain a strong, vibrant, fully accredited public community college totally focused on the success of its students and the Northeast Tennessee region it serves.
Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe said Wednesday that JennChem, LLC, a manufacturer of chemical roof support and sealing products and an affiliate of the JENNMAR family of companies, will invest $5 million to establish a manufacturing operation for heavy duty conveyor systems in Russell County.

The conveyor system structures will primarily be used for the mining industry, in addition to the automotive, aviation, construction, electronics, and transportation industries, according to a news release from the governor's office. JENNMAR companies also operate Virginia facilities in Giles County and Tazewell County.

The governor said Virginia competed against Pennsylvania and West Virginia for the project, which will create 40 new jobs.

Growing the advanced manufacturing industry is integral to building the new Virginia economy, and JennChems decision to grow its operations in the Commonwealth is evidence that our efforts are working, said Governor McAuliffe. The JENNMAR family of companies have been important corporate partners and employers for more than 20 years, enriching Southwest Virginias rebounding economy and adding valuable jobs. We look forward to continuing this strong partnership among JennChem, Russell County, and the Commonwealth.

JennChem designs, develops and manufactures chemical roof support, rock stabilization, and ventilation sealing products, which include mine seals and non-metal structural cribs, grouts, sealants, and insulating resins and foams. JennChem is affiliated with the JENNMAR family of companies, a global, family-owned set of companies that are leading the way in ground control technology for the mining and tunneling industries.

For more than 40 years, JENNMARs focus has been on manufacturing products and creating ground control solutions that help keep workers safe and productive. JENNMARs network of affiliates includes engineering services, resin manufacturing, rolled-steel and drill-steel manufacturing, custom manufacturing, chemical roof support, and sealing products.

JennChems decision to invest in Russell County is great win for the county and a testament to the dedicated workforce and assets in Southwest Virginia that encouraged JennChem to once again choose the Commonwealth, said Secretary of Commerce and Trade Todd Haymore. The advanced manufacturing industry continues its growth in Virginia, which is home to 5,700 manufacturers employing over 242,000 workers. We applaud JennChems further expansion and investment in Virginia and look forward to its continued growth and success.

The Virginia Economic Development Partnership (VEDP) worked with Russell County and the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority (VCEDA) to secure the project for the Commonwealth. VCEDA approved a loan up to $1.5 million to the Industrial Development Authority of Russell County for the purchase and up-fit of the building for this project. Governor McAuliffe approved a $100,000 grant from the Commonwealths Opportunity Fund to assist the County with the project. In addition, the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission approved $215,000 in Tobacco Region Opportunity Funds for the company. Funding and services to support JennChems employee training activities will be provided through the Virginia Jobs Investment Program, administered by VEDP.

The JennChem company has been great to work with since the inception of this project. The combined efforts of Governor McAuliffe, VCEDA, the Tobacco Commission, VEDP, the Russell County Board of Supervisors, the Town of Lebanon, and New Peoples Bank all played a vital role in making this an attractive location for the company. We are excited to have them in our community, said Ernie McFaddin, Chairman of the Russell County Industrial Development Authority. This manufacturing facility will be a valuable addition to our county and the state by capitalizing on the strong workforce we have available in Southwest Virginia.

The Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority was pleased to assist on this project, said Jonathan Belcher, Executive Director and General Counsel for the Virginia Coalfield Economic Development Authority. The JENNMAR family of companies have been excellent corporate citizens in our region for many years, and we would like to thank and congratulate them on their latest project in the coalfields of Virginia.

Assisting businesses in the mining and manufacturing industries in Southwest Virginia is key to growing the economy in Southwest Virginia, said Senator Ben Chafin, R-Lebanon, a Commissioner of the Virginia Tobacco Region Revitalization Commission. Forty new jobs created by JennChem is great news for Russell County and the entire region. I want to thank JENNMAR for its commitment to the region as a great corporate partner. I am proud of the work the Tobacco Commission has accomplished along with the other partners in this economic development effort."

"This announcement is exciting news for Russell County and all of Southwest Virginia, said Delegate Todd Pillion, R-Abingdon. JennChem's decision to invest a new manufacturing operation in our region is a testament to our skilled workforce and strong background in mining and manufacturing. In addition to 40 new jobs, this project is a great opportunity to build upon efforts to diversify the economy with the mining, transportation, automotive, electronics, construction, and aviation industries being served by this facility. JENNMAR Corporation has been a great asset to our region and I appreciate their ongoing commitment to Southwest Virginia."
The termination of Ukrainian citizenship of ex-president of Georgia, former head of Odesa regional state administration Mikheil Saakashvili is due to false information provided by him when registering citizenship, the presidential administration of Ukraine said.

"Upon submission of the State Migration Service, which provided convincing facts about filing inaccurate information when filing the application, the Citizenship Commission under the President of Ukraine decided to support the motion for stripping Mikheil Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship and recommended the president take an appropriate decision," the press service's response says on the relevant request of the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

According to the information, the president signed an appropriate decree on the basis of these recommendations.

"In accordance with the legislation on the protection of personal data, this normative act is not subject to publication, since it contains confidential information, in particular personal data," the presidential administration said.
Some 20 soldiers from the 51st Separate Mechanized Brigade (SMB) who in July 2014 were forced to surrender and returned to Ukraine via Russia continue to be charged by Ukrainian courts of dereliction of duty, according to defenders of the servicemen.

"[Ukraine's] Military Prosecutor's Office for three years has been attempting to prove that they are criminals. Unfortunately, we are not talking about fair court trials or about justice regarding these defenders of Ukraine," Oleksandr Olenchenko said on Wednesday during a press conference hosted by the Kyiv-based Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

Olenchneko said military prosecutors were predisposed negatively towards SMB members during their investigation of the tragedy.

"Political shenanigans involving the Ilovaisk tragedy and SMB have reached the point where they are trying to convict the soldiers in court. Prosecutors, instead of putting an end to the disgrace and refusing to present state charges in court, continue to press their case stubbornly," the lawyers said.

Olenchenko said chief of Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office (PGO) Yuriy Lutsenko earlier said criminal charges brought against SMB soldiers would be dropped.

"He kept the promise, with the exception of 42 soldiers from the brigade," Olenchenko said, noting that 20 of the 40 soldiers were sentenced after acknowledging their guilt in plea bargains with military prosecutors. They were officials found guilty and given three-year suspended sentences," Olenchenko said.

Lawyer Serhiy Hryshko said currently 20 servicemen from the unit are accused of shirking their military responsibilities.

As earlier reported, Ukrainian soldiers from the unit entered Russian territory in June 2014 after they ran out of ammunition, food and water. According to SMB commanders and the soldiers, the soldiers did so after being shelled with GRAD rockets and mortars and after they ran out of food and water. In order not to be taken prisoner by Russia-backed militants, the servicemen were forced to cross the Ukraine-Russia border at the Izvarino border crossing point.

The PGO announced on May 20 [2016] that it had dropped criminal charges against almost 150 members of the brigade from Volodymyr-Volynskoho, Volyn region, who in 2014 absented the unit. The PGO at the time said "it is necessary to conduct additional investigatory work, including receiving explanations for why the servicemen absented their unit."

"We call on servicemen wanted by law-enforcement agencies for dereliction of military duty and ask that they independently and willingly report to the nearest military prosecutor's office," the PGO said then.

In May 2016 Lutsenko said investigators had asked soldiers from the unit to explain why they entered Russian territory in order to close the case against them.

"Investigators as of today have made this appeal, and I want to repeat it for 170 soldiers of the Volyn SMB, so that they go to Lutsk [Volyn region] and provide an explanation of what happened during June 2014. The case will then be closed," Lutsenko said on Monday during a press briefing in Kyiv.

Lutsenko said soldiers who fought against the aggressor with weapons in their hands would not be charged of wrongdoing.

"Those who were forced to surrender and who returned to Ukraine via Russia will probably get a notice about changed circumstances  an opportunity for the case against them to be closed. Those who cooperated with the terrorists, unfortunately, and there are several of them, will be punished," Lutsenko said.
After Parrott's lead disappears, Trone takes 6th District race

Republican state Del. Neil Parrott conceded on Friday after close race. Trone to return as congressman for 6th District.
Travels of French MPs to Crimea and Donbas do not call into question France's position on supporting Ukraine's integrity, French ambassador to Ukraine Isabelle Dumont has said.

"Regarding the visits of certain French parliamentarians to Donbas and Crimea, I would like to recall that we are talking about private initiatives that we can not prevent, within the framework of the rule of law, although we tried, as far as possible, to dissuade them from realizing this intention," Dumont said in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine news agency.

"In the framework of such trips, the deputies do not use state funds, and their actions do not impose any obligations on the official authorities. Such initiatives, regrettable, do not call into question the position of France, which confirms firm and unchanged support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, the diplomat said.

She said that the creation of the so-called representation office of the DPR in Marseille is also a private initiative. "On June 9, 2017, an organization called the Center for the Official Representation of the Donetsk People's Republic (DPR) in France was registered in the prefecture of Aix-en-Provence in France. But we must clarify that this is a private initiative of a local nature. We certainly do not have bilateral contacts with the actual leadership of this territory and we remain committed to the sovereignty of Ukraine within the recognized borders," the ambassador said.

"The above mentioned organization is by no means a representation of the DPR for the French state. And the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs called upon the relevant authorities to study the case of this newly formed organization," Dumont said.
A rally in support of Mikheil Saakashvili, former president of Georgia and former head of Odesa Region State Administration, who was deprived of his Ukrainian citizenship, is being held in central Kyiv.

Several dozens of Saakashvili supporters have gathered at a stele on Independence Square, an Interfax-Ukraine correspondent has reported.

The organizers of the rally are calling on the people who have come to the rally to sign an address to Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko and the parliament stating that they disagree with the deprivation of Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship.

At the same time, the organizers said the rally is a peaceful one, they are collecting signatures for an address to the president and the parliament to express "their legal position on the decisions made yesterday."

The protesters are holding banners with the words 'Citizenship, dignity, freedom,' 'Encroachment on freedom,' and 'Saakashvili is a citizen of Ukraine' on them.

Independent parliamentarian Yuriy Derevianko said at the rally: "We have just come from the Prosecutor General's Office. And Prosecutor General Yuriy Lutsenko said very clearly that there are no criminal cases against Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili on the territory of Ukraine. He also told us there are currently no other extradition cases against Ukrainian citizen Mikheil Saakashvili."

Saakashvili received Ukrainian citizenship under Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decree from May 30, 2015. On the same day Poroshenko appointed Saakashvili as head of Odesa Regional State Administration.

On November 7, 2016, Saakashvili announced his resignation as Odesa region governor because he was "tired of constant deceit and corruption," including on the part of authorities in Kyiv. On November 9, 2016, Poroshenko signed a decree dismissing Saakashvili.

On July 26, 2017, the Ukrainian Migration Service announced that Poroshenko had signed a decree depriving Saakashvili of Ukrainian citizenship.

The Ukrainian presidential administration said the termination of Saakashvili's Ukrainian citizenship is connected to the false information provided by him when he obtained Ukrainian citizenship.

Saakashvili said earlier on Facebook that he is in the United States. He said he would seek a lawful right to return to Ukraine.

Several criminal cases against Saakashvili are being probed in Georgia. He is charged with embezzlement of state funds and abuse of office.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has called upon the international community to condemn the actions of Russian courts in connection with the ruling of the Russian Supreme Court to increase the term of imprisonment by three years for the citizen of Ukraine, Ruslan Zeytullaev.

"The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine expresses its strong protest in connection with the ruling of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation dated July 27, 2017 to prolong the period of imprisonment of Ukrainian citizen Ruslan Zeytullaev illegally convicted on trumped up charges of organizing a terrorist organization and carrying out terrorist activities on the territory of the temporarily occupied Crimea," the ministry in a statement issued on Thursday.

The Foreign Ministry said Zeytullaev's trial "is a glaring example of the use by the occupation authorities of repressions against the Crimean Tatar people and violation of fundamental human rights and freedoms."

The Foreign Ministry of Ukraine demands Russia immediately stop the prosecution of Ukrainian civilians, as well as comply with the ruling of the International Court of Justice to stop illegal actions against representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.

"We call on the international community to condemn the anti-human and illegal activities of the judicial agencies of the Russian Federation and to increase political and diplomatic pressure on the aggressor state with the goal of freeing all Ukrainian citizens who are illegally detained in Russia and on the territory of the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea," the statement says.
NEWTON  Students at the Catawba Valley Community College furniture academy have a leg up on others looking for work in the industry.

They can put on their resume some practical, real-world experience after being part of a project to build more than 50 loveseats for the North Carolina capital building in Raleigh this year.

Members of the North Carolina General Assembly made their support clear for this kind of manufacturing education this week when Speaker of the House Tim Moore along with state Representatives for Catawba County Jay Adams and Mitchell Setzer visited the Catawba Valley Furniture Academy (CVFA) to thank the students and their instructors.

They replaced furniture thats been in the building since 1963. The order from the furniture academy was for 55 loveseats at $250 each.

Its good to see examples where government gets it right, Moore said. This partnership with the community college and with the industries who support it is something we ought to see more of, and what its doing is giving the folks here jobs.

Moore said he appreciated the way the opportunities created by the academy is improving the lives of people and helping the economy grow overall. He also thanked Representatives Adams and Setzer for their support of the program in the general assembly.

When we go through the budget process they make sure to fight for the funds to fund this project, Moore said.

Looking ahead

Adams worked in furniture manufacturing in the 1970s and 80s.

I wonder to myself if wed had a facility like this where innovation can blossom, where techniques can be developed, what the industry would be like today if we had this forty years ago, Adams said.

When this was being discussed, I thought it was a great idea and to see it come to fruition like this is just really terrific. This is the beginning for a lot of people, and its not a shot in the dark. They will have jobs when they finish here.

The Catawba Valley Furniture Academy (CVFA) is an industry-driven training program designed by local furniture manufacturers to prepare students for skilled positions that are in high demand by one of the region's largest employers, according to cvcc.edu.

It has a one hundred percent job placement rate for the students who finish the program, Lori Price, CVCC director of furniture workforce development said.

The CVCC academy first opened in 2014 on the main campus in Hickory and then in Alexander Co. in 2016. The founding partners included: Century Furniture, Lee Industries, Lexington Home Brands, Sherrill Furniture and Vanguard Furniture. Other partners in the CVFA project included: Bassett, Valdese Weavers, Snyder, Leggett/Platt, Preferred and CR Laine.

The furniture academy offers classes in various areas of the industry including: pattern making, manual cutting, automated cutting, sewing, inside upholstery and outside upholstery. Currently, there are 50 students enrolled in the program with no shortage of further interest from future students.

Our students are very prepared to move on and when we have students come back to visit us, theres excitement in their voice because when they go into a new job they already have experience and they're able to start at a different, higher level, Cindy Fulbright, CVFA project manager said.

Jean Grindstaff is one of the students who helped build the loveseats for the General Assembly. She and her instructor Kim Privette, who is also a Lexington employee, were thankful for the visit from the members of the state legislature. They work on the next-generation automated cutting system, the GERBERcutter Z1.

Privette has been in the business for more than 20 years and sees it steadily coming back.

Im excited because Im seeing a newer generation excited about coming out and working in furniture, she said. It went downhill for awhile but now that its coming back up, its good to see people so interested, and when they see these machines they get even more excited.

Making connections

The idea to use the furniture academy to build replacements for the capital building started with conversation between Adams and Bill McBrayer with Lexington Home Brands and a member of the state board of community colleges.

A larger celebration will be held later this summer at the capital to recognize the work of the furniture academy, but since many of the students and the other ten partners in the project wouldnt be able to make the trip, McBrayer suggested a visit to the academy.

Catawba County Schools board member Tommy Luckadoo said hes been encouraged seeing the current focus on vocational and trade education.

In many ways this seamlessly fits into what the K-12 schools systems are doing in Catawba County, but it also gives a lot of folks who are looking to change careers a chance to come back and get a guaranteed job after this program, Luckadoo said.

Catawba Valley Community College President Garrett Hinshaw said CVFA is a business driven next step in manufacturing education.

When our elected officials begin to see how the community college system in North Carolina can work with its local business partners to solve problems it brings a lot of credibility to what we do, Hinshaw said. That helps us when theyre back in Raleigh making decisions about funding.

Its a very important evening for us and were pleased to have Speaker Moore and of course our local representatives Setzer and Adams who helped secure this visit.

Setzer said it was good to have this kind of mechanism to train the next generation of furniture manufacturing employees in Catawba County.

Its a valid skill that will provide for families in the county and in the area, Setzer said.

For more information about the CVCC Catawba Valley Furniture Academy, visit cvcc.edu or call 828-327-7000, ext. 4294.
LINCOLNTON  The Lincoln County Sheriffs Office charged four Statesville residents Tuesday with selling or conspiring to sell cocaine and marijuana to undercover detectives, among other charges, according to a press release.

The charges came after one of the suspects contacted an undercover detective offering to sell cocaine and marijuana, according to the release.

The undercover detective arranged a meeting at an undisclosed location in Lincoln County, and detectives set up a surveillance operation and waited for the suspects to arrive.

The suspects sold cocaine and marijuana to the undercover detective, and surveillance officers arrived to arrest the suspects.

One of the suspects attempted to destroy the evidence by throwing powder cocaine into the grass nearby, according to the release.

Detectives seized several grams of cocaine, a small amount of heroin, and more than 24 grams of marijuana during the undercover operation, according to the release.

Myles Alexander Foote, 23, was charged with one felony count each of selling and delivering a schedule II controlled substance, selling and delivering a schedule VI controlled substance, possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance, and possession with intent to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance. Foote also was charged with two felony counts each of conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance and conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance.

Martevis Jashawn Simpson, 22, was charged with two felony counts each of conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance and conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance. Simpson also was charged with one felony count each of possession of a schedule II controlled substance and altering, destroying, or stealing evidence of criminal conduct.

Brandi Nicole Brown, 33, was charged with two felony counts each of conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance and conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance. Brown also was charged with one felony count each of possession of a schedule I controlled substance and possession of a schedule II controlled substance. Brown also was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Elizabeth Ann Hicks, 43, was charged with two felony counts each of conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule II controlled substance and conspiring to sell and deliver a schedule VI controlled substance. Hicks also was charged with one misdemeanor count of possession of drug paraphernalia.

Foote, Simpson and Brown were all issued $25,000 secured bonds, while Hicks was issued a $20,000 secured bond.

All four suspects were set to appear in Lincoln County District Court on Wednesday.
I admire people who must work outside no matter what the temperature. The hot spell has slowed me considerably. I dont tolerate heat  especially in open sun  as I once did.

I know journalists seem to work in air-conditioned offices most of the time, and thats fairly accurate. From time to time, however, we have to tolerate the sun, high humidity, rain, snow, and weather extremes. News wont wait for decent weather.

Neither will jobs. Construction workers, emergency personnel, delivery people, and many others have deadlines to keep, just like reporters. They go and work where they must. Even the stereotypical guy leaning on the shovel will sweat or shiver just like everybody else who must cope with extreme heat and cold.

Lightning, high wind, the most extreme temperatures, ice and flood may keep them away from work a little while, but they will return to their labors  sooner than later. An interruption in work with a time factor (thats just about everything, actually) is not a holiday. Its merely an interval to prepare ones self to make up the lost time and not compromise quality.

I see roofers, road crews, farmers and lots of other people out in the hot sun, and I admire them because I cant do what they do. My hats off to them. The majority of us abhor that brand of sweat equity.

Directly or indirectly, most of these folks are making my life better. Ive witnessed firefighters and rescue workers doing their jobs in spite of the heat, the cold, the stifling air. Line workers go aloft just as soon as the lightning goes away and the wind dies down.

Some people who work outdoors can adjust their schedules so they work early in the morning, late in the evening or even after dark in an effort to beat the heat. Even so, they have promises to keep.

People took water and refreshments to the firefighters at the old Shuford mill in Granite Falls that went up in massive walls of flame. Thats good. Ive done that before, even before bottled water. Yes, I was on the job as a reporter, but that didnt get me a free pass inside an emergency scene.

A cool drink doesnt get you across a fire line or up close to the scene of the crime. Not while the action remains hot. But you do get smiles and thanks. Its a way of paying respect in a job that is sometimes adversarial.

There arent many occupations that dont require having to choose  and on the other hand accept  yes, no or later.

This heat curbs my outdoor activities. To me, its easier to dress for cold weather. Years ago, I worked an indoor job that could get hot as blazes, and we were mostly underground. But I didnt have to worry about sunburn or heat stroke.

These days, I run and hide when the heat index tops 95. Nevertheless, you and I depend on people who work outdoors in the heat with little or no shade.

WELL, THERE IS a gadget that turns on car and body cams when a law officer turns on the patrol cars blue lights and siren. I heard about it from Minneapolis, MN, officials who were commenting on the officer-involved fatal shooting of a woman who called 911.

The officer and his partner never activated their car and body cams. Minneapolis officials say the automatic turn-on gizmo might be the ticket, but equipping the police force would take time and cost a lot of money.

Hmmm. I recall that the initial reports on the shooting claimed the two officers went in dark to the scene where the woman was killed. Whatever the actual chain of events, I have a solution to the cam issue that could be put in place immediately.

Make the use of car and body cams a condition of employment. Policies often are debated by the rank and file in any profession. Make something a condition of employment, and recalcitrant employees hearing, memory and ability to read improve dramatically.

Policies that detail shipping offenses are nothing new. Everybody I know has worked under one or more sometime in their careers.

Gadgetry is good. Gadgetry helps us do our jobs better. Gadgetry is no substitute for good decision-making and policy-crafting.

Use gadgets if you must, but remember that video-recording devices frequently reveal how well  or not  jobs are being done.

Theyve also shown that some policies are lacking or simply non-existent.

Reach Larry Clark at wryturlc@yahoo.com.
NEWTON  In 1895, Andy Ramsour built the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge to span Lyles Creek in Claremont. Its one of only two remaining in the state.

During the spring semester, Bunker Hill High students in William Farnsworths advance placement U.S. History class built a virtual reality (VR) experience for anyone interested in the bridge, anywhere in the world.

Earlier this month, the Catawba County Schools (CCS) system presented the project to the Historical Association of Catawba County (HACC) as part of a new partnership utilizing the historical sites the association manages and the school districts skills using virtual reality.

Marty Sharpe, CCS chief technology officer, said the marriage of the VR technology with HACCs content from its different sites is a natural next step.

Its about trying to align some goals, Sharpe said.

He sees the partnership with the HACC developing around internship opportunities for CCS students who could create even more VR experiences for other historical sites in the county.

Bunker Hill High wasnt the only school in the district to expand their students learning experience with VR. Fred T. Foard students created a similar VR package for Union Square and Old St. Pauls Lutheran Church in Hickory. Along with the 360 degree views of the sites, students from both schools used pop-up information boxes and audio to add historical background.

The district utilizes Street View to create and then upload content to different services and uses Google Expeditions to access hundreds of already created virtual-reality tours for its classrooms.

Amber Clawson Albert, HACC Executive Director said they were recently working with Charter to get internet connectivity at the bridge.

Its not a manned site, so it would be helpful. We have very little signage there, so youd be able to listen to information with this, Albert said.

It would benefit people whove never been to Catawba County and would be interested in seeing sites like the covered bridge and those who grew up in the county and moved away and want to see what it looks like today.

I got into this field because I believe in the power of place and objects, Albert said. This is the closest Ive seen or experienced to that power of place without physically being there and thats why we do preservation and thats why we do education so that people understand what happened, where it happened and why.

Donna Rudisill, Instructional Technology Facilitator at Bunker Hill High has lived in Catawba County her entire life and remembers visiting the bridge when she was a child.

There was a rest stop there and our church would go there periodically for outings and play in the creek, Rudisill said.

She sees VR as a passport to the county for local students.

I think about what our kids miss out locally, like the Bunker Hill Covered Bridge, Rudisill said. I dont know of any of my schools that go to the covered bridge.

William Farnsworth was the Bunker Hill High AP U.S. History class teacher who oversaw the VR video project at the bridge.

He immediately saw relevant ways to connect his coursework with the technology of virtual reality when it was first introduced to him by Rudisill.

I went back to my classroom and I literally found every single one of the programs that had anything to do with history and I signed up for every one of them, Farnsworth said.

He said it was a good place to end the year for his class after using Google Expeditions to explore different points in history, including World War One and the Salem witch trials.

Some of them are great because some had sound effects. Youre looking at a battle scene in 360 and you can hear explosions and men yelling in the background, so its very immersive in that way, Farnsworth said.

If you have some type of stimulus based question or activity after each individual scene, its as if those kids are running around those places.

After seeing so many examples, the students were able to take those experiences into a project to create their own, one with a closer, more personal connection with Catawba County.

Logan Starnes was a junior in Farnsworths AP U.S. History class that worked on the project.

It was a different experience, something Ive never done before. It was really fun and fun getting that experience, Starnes said.

The last time he visited the bridge was when he was 10 years old.

Alexis Brefka, a recent Bunker Hill High graduate, plans on attending Campbell University in Buies Creek, N.C. She intends on studying to be a teacher and the VR project in the AP U.S. History class opened her eyes to how technology can impact a classroom shell be teaching in some day.

To experience the VR project created by Bunker Hill High, visit catawbaschools.net.

For more information about the History Museum of Catawba County, visit catawbahistory.org or call 828-465-0383. The museum is located at 30 N. College Ave., in Newton.
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The BJP is the real winner in the breakup of the so-called grand alliance, or Mahagathbandhan, in Bihar.

Chief minister Nitish Kumars decision to walk out of the coalition halfway through his term has helped the BJP neutralise the one real threat it faced ahead of the 2019 national election.

The grand alliance -- between Kumars Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress -- was a model that the opposition was keen to replicate and expand to take on the BJP in the next Lok Sabha election.

And yet again, the BJP has managed to snatch another vital state from the opposition, which is increasingly finding its political space shrinking.

Kumars return less than four years after he walked out of the NDA will help the BJP-led alliance to win over more regional allies. Its decision to extend unconditional support to Kumar is a signal that regional players will get their space to work.

Bihar, too, in the bag

Bihar was one state that withstood the Modi wave. Riding high on the success of the 2014 Lok Sabha election, the BJP was humiliated in Bihar election the very next year. Kumar was toasted as the hero who could take on the might of the Modi-Shah combine.

The Bihar success comes a few months ahead of the next round of state elections. Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and Himachal Pradesh, one of the few states where the Congress is in power, are due for election in November and December. Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan and Tripura pick new governments in 2018.

Big blow

The disintegration of the grand alliance also compromises the opposition camp in other ways. Lalu Prasads frantic bid to cobble up a secular resistance to the BJP by reaching out to the Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati is far from done without a Kumar by his side.

Kumars decision to switch sides makes it easier for the BJP to take on the opposition leaders on the issue of corruption. He was one of the few opposition chief ministers who could stand up to the BJPs claim of providing a corruption-free government under Modi.

West Bengal chief minister and Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee, who has a running feud with the Modi government, has several senior party colleagues named in chit fund scams. Senior Congress leader and Himachal CM Virbhadra Singh is being tried for allegedly acquiring assets through dubious means. Ditto for RJD chief Lalu Prasad and his family members.

Kumar has a lot to lose

While the BJP has a lot to cheer for, Kumars position has been weakened.

He may have successfully broken out of the graft-tainted RJD prison to breathe freely, as JD(U) spokespersons put it, the fact remains he has gone back to a party he had vowed to take on to defeat its communal agenda. Kumar will have a hard time explaining his change of heart, yet again.

An angry Lalu Prasad called Kumar an opportunist and the label is likely to stick. Questions will also be asked about the timing of CBI raids and cases against the RJD chief and his family and also why Kumar suddenly felt uncomfortable with the accusations which his JD(U) until recently said were the same as the ones made 10 years ago.

Also, Kumars Muslim supporters are likely to take a dim view of his dalliances with the BJP. His decision to go with the RJD and the Congress to oppose the communal agenda of the BJP saw the minority community support him in 2015 state election. A repeat is unlikely.

The caste math

Kumar is a Kurmi, a caste that accounts for only three per cent of Bihars population. Compare it to RJDs support base of Yadavs (15% ) and Muslims (13% ) and Kumar is way behind.

His attempts to gain support among Dalits (29%) and women could help but this arithmetic is yet untested. Women voted in large numbers for the grand alliance in 2015 and Kumar is known to enjoy support among them.

Lalu Prasad said Kumar and NDA played to a script. Kumars support for demonetisation, skipping Congress president Sonia Gandhis lunch and breaking ranks with the opposition to support Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election were all part of a larger design to provoke the RJD, Prasad said.

JD(U) has said Kumar stood for probity in public life, with zero tolerance for corruption. But if that was the case then why did he join hands with the RJD in 2015, Prasad has asked, reminding Kumar of his conviction in a fodder scam case.

For NDA, Kumars return strengthens the alliance. The BJP that secured 29% of the votes in the 2014 Lok Sabha sweep of Bihar recorded a 4% drop in support in the next years assembly election, resulting in humiliating defeat.

The state BJP can now hope to push its advantage with Kumars clean image and effective governance to repeat the success of 2005, when it managed to increase its assembly tally from 53 to 91.

When Kumar joined the grand alliance, the BJP tally slipped to 53, a clear indication that on its own the party couldnt pull much weight in Bihar.

The state made rapid gains in 2005 and 2010 under Kumar but he hasnt managed to get much done in this term and that will be a challenge.

With BJP back under Kumars excellent leadership model Bihar will be back on growth path, BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said.

Harvard scholar Jonathan Phillips, who examined data from 314 Bihar villages that border UP and Bengal, said people were losing faith in governments ability to deliver.

Bihar has experienced a decade of extensive governance, but its sustainability is now uncertain, Phillips said at a seminar last week.

Investment in education and health infrastructure has dropped, while obsession with prohibition and anti-dowry campaigns has brought development and policing to a standstill.

Will Kumar manage to put Bihar back on fast track to growth by the 2020 state election remains to be seen. With the BJP on his side, he may finally get Bihar a special status that will get him funds for development, something that the BJP could use to its advantage in 2019.

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Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars decision to dump the grand alliance and waltz back into the BJPs eager arms may have come as a surprise but some hard-nosed political calculations have gone into the 66-year-old JD (U) chiefs decision. (Live updates)

On the face of it, Kumar was uncomfortable with corruption charges against RJD chief Lalu Prasad, his deputy chief minister son Tejashwi Yadav and other family members.

Kumar stood for probity in public life, while the senior alliance partner was not even willing to explain the accusations of corruption, the JD (U) has said.

Away from these public statements, Kumar had realised his fling with the RJD and rest of the anti-BJP parties was not going anywhere.

Impressed with his skills that saw opposition Janata Dal stitch together a ruling coalition in Bihar in 1990s, Prasad had called Kumar Chanakya, the Indian statesman and philosopher who is celebrated for his political acumen.

It was the Chanakya in Kumar that called for a joint opposition to take on Narendra Modi and his BJP in the 2019 national election.

He was best placed to say so. It was he who had withstood the Modi wave to humiliate the BJP in the state election a year after the saffron party clinched a huge win in the national election.

UP blow

But his efforts met with resistance and Kumar was humiliated, his loyalists say.

Uttar Pradesh is a case in point, they argue. Ahead of the state election earlier this year, Prasad managed to convince the ruling Samajwadi Party, with whom he shares family ties, to keep Kumar out of the equation though there was a talk of Bihar-like alliance in UP.

The Congress and the SP tied up. The JD(U) was not offered a single seat in the 403-member assembly. Kumar was in favour of roping in Mayawatis Bahujan Samaj Party to broad-base the alliance but found no takers.

Though his efforts failed in UP, Kumar was still the best person to take on Modi, as a majority of the opposition leaders battled corruption charges, something that the BJP would have made the most of.

Kumar also realised that while Prasad was a partner in Bihar, he was working overtime to ensure the JD (U) or he didnt get a larger play in national politics.

The RJD chiefs decision to hold an anti-BJP rally on August 27 in Bihar and project it as a gathering of a larger opposition front didnt go down well with Kumar. Prasad then offered Mayawati a Rajya Sabha seat from Bihar, another signal that the RJD was preparing for life beyond the JD(U).

That he had doubts about the opposition coming together became obvious when he broke ranks to back NDAs presidential candidate Ram Nath Govind. The opposition cannot be reactive but must have a substantive policy to fight NDA, Kumar said when the Congress and the RJD questioned his decision to back Kovind.

That was also the time he ruled himself out of the race for 2019, saying he was not interested in being prime minister.

Things were not too smooth with the Congress as well, which accused Kumar of changing stance over his support to Kovind.

Choking situation

The CBI raids against Prasad and his family offered him a perfect opportunity to end the coalition, which was fraying.

JD(U) spokesperson Ajay Alok said the RJD was hampering governance.

We were very uncomfortable. Development was at a standstill. The RJD was stonewalling JD(U)s attempts to move forward, carry on development works and act against crime and corruption, Alok said. We were not comfortable with the RJD as we were with the BJP in 2005.

Kumar said as much.

The situation was choking us. The simple fact that the governments policy to be transparent, clean and pursuit of zero tolerance for corruption was not acceptable to the RJD, the chief minister said hours after announcing his resignation.

I had never asked for Tejashwis resignation, only an explanation in public domain. Had the RJD accepted and stepped aside and not shown the intransigence, the grand alliance would have survived.

The Nitish-BJP alliance, from 2005-2013, was by all accounts a success. Bihar made steady progress, crime was down and women and Dalits were two sections that benefitted from emphasis on governance. The NDA partners also managed to bridge some of the caste divide.

But the reverse happened after the tie-up with the RJD, JD (U) leaders say. All the gains were squandered away. Crime was up and administration was being run along caste lines. The split was just a matter of time, they say.

Kumars ghar wapsi will compromise his support among minorities and make it difficult for him to explain his dalliance with corruption-tainted Prasad and BJP but if he manages to put Bihar back on growth path, he will have a credible explanation for switching sides, feels the JD(U).

Back as his deputy, senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said, We will re-script the Bihars development post-2005 to emerge stronger. Of that, there is no doubt.

Whether the break-up is a masterstroke from Chanakya or a huge miscalculation, only time  and voters -- will tell.

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It is simple.

Two of Indias sharpest politicians have come together. Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar have embraced. And a partnership-turned-rivalry-turned friendship is renewed.

Leave the ethical imperatives aside, for all that matters is how did Nitish Kumar acquire, and now preserve power. Only three questions matter. Why did he and Modi break up at all? Why did they make up? What happens now?

The first two are easily answered.

They broke up because of personal and political rivalry. Nitish had national ambitions of his own - both a section of the BJP, and the liberal intelligentsia, encouraged him to think that these could be met if he broke ranks with BJP on the issue of Narendra Modis prime ministerial elevation. He also prioritised the secularism card in 2013. This meant protecting and expanding his Muslim vote. But in 2014, he realised, that by itself, this was not sufficient and thus entered into an alliance with his old friend-turned-rival Lalu Prasad.

Together, they swept Bihar in 2015. But it is important to remember that they did so not just on the secular-communal binary  indeed, they underplayed secularism, and even Muslims told them not to overemphasise their minority backing because of the fear of majoritarian consolidation  but on the forward-backward binary  where the issue of caste was given prominence. In this, their ally was the RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat whose statement on the need to review reservations was interpreted as anti-reservations, and thus was used to consolidate backwards.

But if Nitish and Lalu had won comfortably, why did he and Modi begin making up?

Even before Nitish was sworn in, he realised that he had a problem on his hand at the state level. Lalu was the much bigger party. Because of his conviction, and because his children were young and raw, Lalu had reconciled to Nitish being the CM for this term. But Nitish knew it was a matter of time, at best till the next election in 2020, that Lalu would extract his pound of flesh - which meant the leadership position. Nitish also waited to see how national politics would turn out. If the Modi appeal began crumbling, and if a national opposition began shaping up, one way to save himself from the Lalu demands would be to seek a larger national role - and ideally become the 2019 face of the opposition as PM.

But Nitish could see that in Bihar, Lalu was beginning to become a liability - and at the national level, the opposition alliance showed no signs of taking off. He had always been clear that Congress would have to play a key role in this grand alliance. But its leadership was disappointing; its ability to challenge Modi was weak. And the UP election was a pointer that secularism by itself would not be enough to win elections. Indeed, in a crisp statement issued after the UP election, Nitish pointed out that it was the oppositions inability to reach out to backward castes that was a big factor in the defeat. Remember Nitishs strength was always backward castes. Indeed, BJP had tapped his formula on consolidating the non politically privileged backward castes (ati pichdha in his grammar) and non- privileged Dalits (Mahadalits in the Bihar context) in UP.

Nitish, seeing this political climate, had begun, slowly, opening the doors for the BJP. His support for demonetisation, silence on Yogi Adityanaths appointment or breaking ranks with the rest to support Ram Nath Kovind constituted a pattern.

So what does this mean?

In Bihar, it marks the return of the pre-2013 arrangement and the BJP to power  ensuring that along with UP, it is in power in two of Indias biggest states. It once again leads to an upper-caste/non Yadav backward/Dalit alliance. And it positions the NDA on way for a win in 2019.

Nationally, it demoralises the opposition. The breaking away of one of their most credible faces shows yet again the Congress inability to act as the mediator, and leaves them on the side of corruption as the NDA steals the moral high ground. And it marks the embrace of two men, who, till four years ago, could not stand each other. Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar are the new best friends of Indian politics.

prashant.jha1@hindustantimes.com

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To the many firsts to his credit, Narendra Modi might add another in 2019. He could be the first Prime Minister to seek a fresh mandate on the issue of corruption against opposition parties.

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar gave it a bolster Wednesday evening when he and Modi spoke in synchrony, virtually projecting the collapse of JD(U)-RJD-Congress mahagathbandhan or grand alliance as another manifestation of the PMs war against corruption. The JD(U) leader had no compunction in joining hands with Lalu Prasad in 2014, a fodder scam convict even then.

For Kumar, his political somersault serves his immediate objective, that is to place him firmly in the saddle with the Yadav family no longer pulling the reins. It might also mean an end to his prime ministerial ambition  howsoever putative  in 2019. But the Bihar chief minister obviously read the writing on the wall. Or so his friends in political circles think.

For the BJP, the implications of Kumars return to the NDA fold go beyond the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar. Even without him, the BJP and its allies had won 31 of them in 2014.

His entry into the NDA fold delivers a blow to the Congress-led efforts to forge a Bihar-type grand alliance at the national level. CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechurys tweets Wednesday evening betrayed frustration. A point to ponder. Bihar CMs resignation at this moment, when atrocities against Dalits and minorities are rising across India, helps whom? he asked.

He must have similar questions for his party comrades, too. At a time there are few listeners to the Lefts voice, Yechury has made it heard through his forceful interventions in Parliament. He looked set for another term in the Rajya Sabha but the partys central committee met on Tuesday to veto it. The reason: the Left cant take Congress support for the RS polls.

While comrades obviously did a favour to the BJP, their stance vindicated the skeptics who see a national mahagathbandhan as a non-starter. It has proved easier for the BJP to shed its political untouchability than for the Congress to emerge as the conscience-keeper of a motley group of parties whose genesis was in anti-Congressism.

Die-hard optimists in the opposition camp, the advocates of mahagathbandhan at the national level, are not wrong about their arithmetic: 31% voters for Modi and 69% for others in 2014 Lok Sabha elections. But politics is about chemistry, too. If Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad couldnt stick even with the glue of power, how will Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, Mamata Banerjee and Yechury/Adhir Ranjan Choudhury, or Arvind Kejriwal and Sheila Dikshit?

One often hears clarion calls for parties to come together for the sake of secularism. But secular-versus-communal debates have gone in favour of the BJP in the past few elections.

In todays context, the CBI, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and income tax department might be more effective in making a mahagathbandhan a reality. If these agencies stay on the heels of opposition leaders, they might see the need for an alliance  on ideological grounds, obviously  in 2019.

Modi has already fixed 2022 for his New India to realise its dreams. Busy with Hindutva-versus-secularism debate, opposition parties dont seem inclined to talk about jobs, education, economy, or foreign policy. Lest they should in 2019, the BJP already has its plank ready: how can the corrupt ask questions about development?

Modi caught the entire opposition on the wrong foot in the rich-versus-poor fight through demonetisation. They might find themselves on the same side in a corruption-versus-development debate in 2019. The template has already been set in Bihar.

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Fans of the controversial reality show, Bigg Boss, have just got some good news -- the eleventh season of the show will be aired earlier than usual this time. The show normally begins in October but reports suggest that it will start airing from September this year. Salman Khan, who will be hosting the show for the seventh time, will shoot the promo on July 30 in Morocco.

A DNA quoted a source as saying, Salman will be shooting for the promos this Sunday. He is flying down from Morocco especially for this shoot. It will have a whole new theme, which will be unveiled with the first promo soon. This time, the channel might start with the show earlier than other years. So, it will mostly air in September, instead of October.

The registrations for commoners closed on July 21.

While the contestants for the new season are yet to be finalised, there are a few names that are being speculated as most likely to be a part of the show. Cringe pop sensation Dhinchak Pooja, TV actors Nia Sharma and Sana Saeed are the front runners for celeb slot in the house this year.

Another report in DNA After Hours also claimed that there is a new twist in the commoners selection for Bigg Boss this year. They want to have pairs of mother-daughter, father-son, siblings, to make it (the show) more interesting and create a spark as they will be able to reveal something about each others past, which could be spicy and controversial, it quoted a source as saying.

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Ali Fazal has been super-excited ever since he started shooting for his film Victoria and Abdul that also stars British actor Judi Dench in the lead role. Adapted from author Shrabani Basus book by the same name and directed by British filmmaker Stephen Frears, the film is set to release in September this year.

According to a source, Ali didnt even read the book before or while shooting for the film, as he wanted to focus on the adaptation instead. However, this didnt stop him from doing thorough research to be able to play his part with more conviction. In fact, Ali read eight or nine other books on the history of the Victorian era. He crunched 100 years of British history in two months of reading time and would sit in a room in London, reading and absorbing everything and refrained from meeting anyone or doing anything else while researching, informs the source.

Ali portrays the character of Abdul Karim, a man from Agra who was appointed as an attendant to Queen Victoria and went on to become one of her closest confidantes.

Asked him about why he didnt choose to read the book instead, the actor says, There were times when I regretted the choice, but there was no other way to know. Its hard to summarise 100 odd years in one book. But there were other facets, which I thought I mustnt ignore. So I read whatever I could get my hands on. I think sometimes a part requires more than one approach or thought... I took all (laughs).

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Media was abuzz with reports for the past week that Bollywood star Ranbir Kapoor and Pakistani actor Mahira Khan are dating. The Pak actor, who made her Bollywood debut opposite Shah Rukh Khan in Raees, however, refuted the rumours late on Wednesday.

In a report filed last week, Mumbai Mirror quoted a source as saying, Ranbir and Mahira met during one of their trips abroad and got along like a house on fire. They have stayed in touch ever since.

Reacting to the report, Mahira posted a picture on Instagram late on Wednesday, that seems to be a reply. She wrote, For mostly everything.

For mostly everything  A post shared by Mahira Khan (@mahirahkhan) on Jul 26, 2017 at 3:19pm PDT

The reports linking the two actors reminded readers of the March video that went viral because it showed Mahira apparently pleading with Ranbir for something. Ranbir and Mahira attended the Global Teacher Prize ceremony in Dubai and a video showed the two actors engaged in animated conversations. It left fans wondering what was brewing between them.

Ranbir Kapoor and Mahira Khan backstage at the Global Teacher Prize Ceremony - 2 #RanbirKapoor #Ranbir #MahiraKhan #GlobalTeacherPrizeCeremony A post shared by Ranbir Kapoor Universe (@ranbirkapooruniverse) on Mar 19, 2017 at 9:08am PDT

Earlier, when asked about the Bollywood star, Mahira had told Hindustan Times, Among the younger lot, I would say Ranbir Kapoor. He is a brilliant actor.

While Mahira was last seen in Raees, Ranbir appeared in Jagga Jasoos opposite Katrina Kaif.

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The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected a petition seeking a stay on release of director Madhur Bhandarkars next, Indu Sarkar.

Dismissing the petition, a bench of justices including, Dipak Misra, Amitav Roy and AM Khanwilkar, said the movie is an artistic expression within the parameters of law.

The movie, which releases on Friday, deals with the controversial subject of Emergency imposed in 1975 by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The petition filed by Priya Singh Paul, who cliams to be the daughter of Sanjay Gandhi, alleges the movie is full of concocted facts and is totally derogatory.

On July 24, the Bombay High Court had dismissed the petition saying no known descendant of Sanjay Gandhi has objected to the movie.

The Court said that the petitioner had not made out any case for the court to interfere and stay the release of the movie after the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) granted certificate to the film.

Priya, in her petition, has claimed that Sanjay Gandhi was her biological father and the movie points fingers at him.

Sanjay Gandhis widow, Maneka Gandhi, and their son, Varun, are BJP leaders and they have not commented on the issue.

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Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar has said his upcoming film, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha was offered to many other heroes, who rejected the movie, before it landed on his plate.

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis Maharashtra minister for Women and Child Development Pankaja Munde and actor Akshay Kumar during an international conference on women trafficking in Mumbai on Thursday. (PTI)

Directed by Shree Narayan Singh and co-produced by Akshay and Neeraj Pandey, the film stars Akshay and Bhumi Pednekar. The writers brought the subject to me. Interestingly, this script was doing the rounds in the industry for over four years. It went to a lot of heroes, a lot of people but nobody picked it up, Akshay told reporters.

I liked it and I asked Neeraj Pandey with folded hands to give it to me. Earlier, the film was named Sandaas: Ek Prem Katha but later the title was changed.

Actor Akshay Kumar at the Kargil Vijay Diwas programme at Yashwantrao Chavan Pratishthan, Nariman Point in Mumbai on July 26. (IANS)

The actor said the film is based on a true incident and is essentially a love story. This film is primarily a love story. The toilet construction just forms the backdrop. The film is about Keshav and Jaya. It is based on a true story.

When the films trailer came out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised it and called the movie a commendable effort to promote cleanliness.

When asked if he has any plans to hold a special screening for Modi, the actor said, I would love to.

The film is scheduled to release on August 11.

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A day after two men were found murdered under a flyover in Turbhe, the Sanpada police on Thursday arrested a 38-year-old man.

Prabhakar Dhotre alias Prabhu from Turbhe works as a guide for truck drivers in the MIDC areas. Prabhu allegedly smashed the heads of the two men with a stone as they were trying to get him to part with his money and other things, the police said.

Prashant Burde, joint commissioner of police of Navi Mumbai, said, The two men allegedly harassed Prabhu, asking for money. A few days ago, they snatched Rs260 from him. On Tuesday night, when he was sleeping under the bridge, they came drunk and demanded money for a chillum. Angry, Prabhu smashed their heads with a stone.

On Wednesday morning, local residents spotted the bodies of Sandeep Moshiram Gaikwad, 22, a resident of Anand Nagar slum, and Sameer Aslam Shaikh, 20, a resident of Hanuman Nagar slum under the flyover on Thane-Belpaur road.

Gaikwad and Shaikh had no permanent source of income. Gaikwad used to drive auto and Shaikh was unemployed, said Suraj Padvi, senior inspector of Sanpada police station.

During investigation, the police learnt that a man named Prabhu was missing since the murder.

They formed several teams and started searching for him. He was arrested from Sanpada railway station at night. The police said he had confessed to have killed Gaikwad and Shaikh.

READ

Bodies of 2 Mumbai youngsters with their heads smashed with a stone found under flyover

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Several picturesque locations of Uttarakhand, including the majestic British era Forest Research Institute (FRI) building, will feature on the Bollywood film Raag Desh that releases on July 28.

The film that depicts Indias freedom struggle under Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was shot for about a month at locations in and around Dehradun in November last year. It is based on the famous Red Fort trials of the Indian National Army officers -- Colonel Prem Sehgal, Colonel Gurbaksh Singh Dhillon and Major General Shah Nawaz Khan.

The film also has another connection with Uttarakhand: it is directed by filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia who hails from the hill state.

Over 60% of the film shooting took place in Uttarakhand at locations like FRI, Maldevta, Dakra, Sahastradhara, Suddhowala, Rajpur and Raipur. In fact, over 200 locals got a chance to play small roles in the film, Abhinav Thapar, who helped with the Uttarakhand leg of the films production, told Hindustan Times.

The movie, which is based on real events, will not only give a rich glimpse of the state to cine goers around the country but will also give a boost to tourism and film business in Uttarakhand, said Thapar, who has essayed the role of a general in the film.

The films shooting, which began in Uttarakhand on November 3, was hit hard by the high denomination currency roll-back by the Centre announced on November 8. The films unit faced huge problems because of demonetisation but my unit showed true grit, Dhulia, who has also shot portions of his films Paan Singh Tomar and Yaara in Uttarakhand in the past, said.

Produced by Rajya Sabha TV, the film features actors Kunal Kapoor, Amit Sadh and Mohit Marwah. It became the first film trailer to be launched inside Parliament and was also recently screened for former President Pranab Mukherjee. A proposal has also been sent to the Centre for making it tax-free in Uttarakhand, Thapar said.

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The Uttarakhand unit of Congress is unwilling to let farmers suicide issue die soon as the party has decided to hold farmers conclaves across the state in coming days.

The opposition party will rope in farmers for its sustainable campaign against the state government on the issue, party sources said.

Party leaders said meetings of Congress delegations with governor, former president Pranab Mukharjee and chief minister Trivendra Singh Rawat were a part of long term plan to keep the issue alive.

Senior party leader Lalachand Sharma, a close associate of PCC president Pritam Singh, said: After meetings with authorities, now the party has planned to hold farmers meetings across the state and expose the state government of promises made by the BJP during assembly elections.

We have already started protests at district units on increasing number of farmers suicides in the state. This will be followed by farmers conclaves and rallies in different parts of the state including Terai and hill areas of Kumaon region, he said.

The Congress leadership will intensify its campaign against the ruling party and expose the BJP government for deceiving the people of Uttarakhand, said Sharma.

Former PCC president Kishore Upadhaya said: They (government) are trying to ignore repeated suicides by farmers in the state and trying to put the blame on the Congress. The BJP and its government cannot run away from the truth.

Pritam Singh and former chief minister Harish Rawat on Thursday meet the family of deceased farmer Raj Kumar in Suvadi Village of Tehri district to express their solidarity.

This was the sixth suicide by a farmer in the state. The farmers committed suicide allegedly due to their inability to payback debt.
DEHRADUN: The BJP government claimed to have put an end to corruption in official transfers and postings which, it alleged, had become a virtual industry under the Congress rule.

Not surprising, the opposition party shot back saying there were large scale revocations of transfers carried out by the BJP government within just days, weeks or months.

We have completely checked corruption in transfers of personnel--right from top officials to lower level employees, which had become a virtual industry under the previous Congress regime, Cabinet minister and government spokesperson Madan Kaushik said.

He alleged that huge sums of money used to be collected in lieu of transferring officials to the places of their choice, or, in return of plum posts during the previous Congress government.

The Congress rubbished the allegations, dubbing the BJP government a roll back government. Since it came to power, this government has carried out mass transfers of officials and, in most cases, cancelled them subsequently, which shows there is a rampant corruption in transfer postings, Surendra Kumar, a senior Congress leader and the media in-charge of former chief minister Harish Rawat, said.

There should be some justification behind the large scale revocations of officials transfers within just days, weeks or months. It s all done for dhandha pani (bribes).

Kumar accused the BJP government of deferring the Annual Transfer for Public Servants Bill it had promised to pass in the budget session. The way its been ignoring the proposed law, shows the level of its seriousness in checking corruption in transfer postings.

Kaushik, however, asserted that the Bill was referred to the standing committee due to some technical reasons. We are going to get that law passed in the next assembly session. Once this foolproof Bill gets enacted, transfers will be carried out on a rotation basis and there will be no room left for corruption in transfer and postings.

BJP state president Ajay Bhatt alleged that the rates of transfers of all top officials, right from executive engineers to chief engineers and senior superintendents of police to district magistrates, were fixed in the Congress rule. In other words, under that regime, officials used to get places of their choice or plum postings, Bhatt said, adding officials would mostly seek transfers in plain districts of Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar.

Officials had no fear of the governmentWas this state created for this kind of rampant corruption?

Bhatt said the BJP had openly alleged on the floor of the House that the previous Congress regime had fixed rates for postings in different police stations. Thane bikte thae (police stations were up for sale) under the Congress regimethis was our open allegation.

He alleged that the policemen would extort money from the people to recover bribes they paid to get postings. Similarly, other officials too would get busy recovering the money they paid to get postings in areas of their choice instead of focusing on development.

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DEHRADUN: No less than 33,000 trees will be felled across four districts in Uttarakhand to give life to the ambitious Char Dham all-weather road project announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi last year.

Of these 18,969 trees will be axed in the Narendranagar forest division, which covers the area around the Rishikesh-Badrinath national highway stretch. Different species, including silver oak and deodar, which take several years to grow, will be cut, as per documents submitted by the forest department.

Modi laid the foundation stone of the all-weather 11,700-crore road project in Dehradun on December 27, days before the assembly elections were announced. The project seeks to link all the four pilgrimage centres  the shrines at Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunotri and Gangotri via dependable roads.

Seven new roads will be constructed, 15 big bridges, 101 small bridges, 5,596 culverts and 12 by-passes. The government has set March 2019 as the deadline for the project.

Some 7,000 trees are coming on the way of the project in Rudrapryag forest division, which saw immense ecological loss during 2013 flash floods  for which deforestation has been cited as the major reason  in which 5,000 people lost their lives.

Rajeev Dheeman, divisional forest officer (DFO) of Rudraprayag told HT that two levels of clearances are needed.  The monitoring of the project is going at different levels and there should be no delay, he said.

NN Pande, DFO of Badrinath said they are yet to count the trees. The estimated number of trees that will be chopped is somewhere around 5,000 for 50 km stretch, he said.

A maximum of 18,969 trees will be cut in the Narendranagar forest division, said Rahul, the DFO. He does not use a surname.

Conservator (forests) of the Garhwal region, AK Rastogi, said the as per norms, trees can be felled only after double the affected land is provided for reforestation. Trees have to be cut for development works. But we do it after a long process. For instance, we plant 200 saplings if we cut 100 trees in a bid to maintain the green cover, Rastogi told HT.

According to the 2015 report of Forest Survey of India, the total forest cover in Uttarakhand is 24,240 sq km, against the total geographical area of 53,683 sq km.

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Amid a heightened security threat, the Delhi airport security has new Explosive Trace Detectors (ETD) that can trace if any item in the bag was in contact with any explosive in the past 24 hours.

Shaped like a handheld card swipe machine, the new device is used on random passengers coming to Delhis Indira Gandhi International Airport (IGIA).

Since passengers spend considerable time before the security check at the airport, the CISF stops passengers on a random basis just after they enter the terminal building. Based on profiling, they were taken to a separate enclosure and ETD check was carried on.

The device is passed through the baggage and hands of passengers and through colours, it can tell whether the person has packed explosive or any such item. Since passengers and their bags are not checked till they reach the security point, through ETD checks, the CISF wants to ensure better security at the check-in area.

Read: Bomb alert! How Delhi airport security failed to detect explosives in a bag

Now, we have an improved version of the device. It can penetrate into the bag and check if there is any trace of any explosive. We dont need to open the bag in that case. While our staff is highly trained, through better use of technology we try to minimise terror-related incident, said an official of the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF).Officials said there will be some trace of the explosive on a persons hand if he has touched it before coming to the airport.

At Delhi airport, the CISF has separate enclosures just after the entry gate and passengers with suspicious activities are taken there. First their baggage is scanned, then they are frisked and then check with ETD is conducted. The handheld device is quite handy and we have about a dozen of them. They are easy to carry and success rate is also very good, the official added.

The CISF is also planning to use handheld ETD to check passengers with artificial limb so that they do not have to go through the trauma of removing it during security check. Usually ETD is used to check the prosthetic limbs but the CISF says it is meant only for detection of explosives and there is always a chance that a person may try to use prosthetic limb to hide a weapon or for smuggling. Now, the CISF has requested for an upgraded version of ETD so that passengers dont have to go through the trauma of removing it.

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The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) on Thursday again alleged that the Delhi police was filing baseless and fabricated charges against its leaders. The cases, they said, were failing to stand under the courts scrutiny.

AAP leader Atishi Marlena, while addressing reporters at the party office on Thursday  a day after Deoli MLA Prakash Jarwal got anticipatory bail in an alleged molestation case  hit out at Delhi Police for invoking stringent sections of criminal procedure, despite being in the know that the complaints are politically motivated.

It was clear from the beginning that the complainant was a BJP worker. Still the police invoked section 354 (molestation) deliberately, which was later struck down by the court while granting anticipatory bail to Prakash Jarwal, said Marlena.

The AAP leader argued that the police in the past have repeatedly invoked wrong sections in complaints against other AAP legislators as well, and the cases could not stand court scrutiny.

Marlena cited the bail order, which struck down molestation charges, in Jarwals case to buttress the partys charge.

The complaint to the police for registration of FIR says that the accused touched the dupatta of the complainant and had a scuffle with her. This statement of the complainant not at all suggests that offence u/s 354 IPC has been committed, the court order reads.

The complaint itself suggests that the applicant came to the house of the complainant along with 40-50 other persons and started threatening her and her husband and in these facts it is very difficult to assume that the applicant had any intention to outrage the modesty of complainant or had any lust in his mind, it added.
Delhi could soon lose all its seven elephants with the state forest department planning to shift them to a sanctuary outside the national capital.

It would be wiser to shift them to safer confines with relatively larger natural environs away from human habitation, said a report prepared by the forest department. The report has been submitted to the high court earlier this month.

The city has seven domesticated elephants owned by four people. While six are kept at Sangam Vihar in Wazirabad, one is kept at a JJ cluster in Laxmi Nagar.

The owners of the elephants have requested the forest officials not to separate them from the elephants as the animals would die without them. They have instead requested the forest department to give them a plot of land where they can move with the animals.

We have asked the owners to respond within four weeks. If they dont respond, we would shift the elephants to some area outside Delhi, said AK Shukla, chief wildlife warden of Delhi

In 2016, a committee comprising wildlife officials had recommended that all the elephants should be confiscated as their health was poor and the animals were kept in bad conditions. The owners, however, moved court challenging the committees report.

In May 2017, a separate committee was formed on the orders of the court which inspected the elephants again. The report was submitted earlier this month. The five-member committee comprised officials of the forest department, the central zoo authority and the vet of the National Zoological Park in New Delhi.

The committee, after inspecting the animals, found that not only the elephants were kept in poor conditions but it was also risky to keep the elephants in crowded localities. A number of cases have been earlier reported where domesticated elephants have gone on a rampage killing people.

Housing elephants inside a crowded and congested colony is a high-risk affair. The risk was compounded as there were neither any secondary barriers to restrain the elephants in case they broke the chain with which they are tied, nor there were any tranquilising guns or medicines to restrict them, the report said.

The committee found that most of the animals were suffering from poor health which suggests that they were not properly fed and dont undertake exercises such as long walks. They have cracked nails which suggest they have very poor foot care.

Sometimes they are made to walk through a maze of traffic dust and exhaust fumes which they may find terrifying the report states.

The committee has also raised questions about their ownerships. The report states that most of the elephants have no proper ownership certificates.

The elephants are like our family members. We would die without them. We have proper license to keep them. It is only because of some animal right activists and influential NGOs that we are being made victims. We will again approach the court if necessary, said Yusuf Ali, whose family owns three elephants.

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Two interstate dealers and suppliers of firearms were arrested on Tuesday by the Delhi Police special cell with a cache of illegal consignment meant for criminals in the Capital and its adjoining states.

A total of 35 high quality semi-automatic pistols, 69 magazines, and four cartridges were recovered from their possession.

Police said the two were caught after a brief gunbattle. A round fired by one of them hit the bulletproof jacket worn by head constable Ajay, who escaped unhurt.

Those arrested men were Mohammad Manouar, 26, and Mohammad Shahid Alam, both from Bihars Munger, which is known for manufacture and supply of illegal firearms for years.

Sanjeev Kumar Yadav, deputy commissioner of police (special cell), said they got information about a Munger-based syndicate of criminals involved in illegal manufacture and supply of firearms to various states.

The police then learnt about Mohammad Manouar who was active in the illegal trade.

We gathered inputs about him and his syndicate and learnt that he along with his aide would be in Delhi to deliver a consignment of sophisticated countrymade pistols and magazines, said Yadav.

The consignment.

On Tuesday, the team was tipped off about Manouars presence on the Azadpur-Mukundpur road to deliver a consignment. A trap was laid and he was found with his associate. When the duo started to move, the raiding team asked them to surrender.

Manouar whipped out a pistol and started running. He fired a bullet that hit head constable Ajays bullet-proof jacket.

Before he could fire again, the other policemen overpowered him and snatched his pistol. His associate, Shahid Alam, was caught with a backpack that contained 34 countrymade pistols and 68 magazines.

During interrogation, Manouar said he was into the trade for the past three years. He worked on the instructions of one Sonu, a gunrunner who operates from Malda in West Bengal and Munger in Bihar.

Sonu has supplied more than 600 firearms to criminals in Delhi-NCR and western Uttar Pradesh, said Yadav. .
He dragged me from the bed each night after he came home drunk and thrashed me. Humiliated me in front of the neighbours. I threatened him that I would kill him. He did not listen. He did not leave me an option, this is what 32-year-old Shilpi Adhikari, who was arrested on July 25 for allegedly killing her husband, has told Delhi Police.

When she did not know what to do with the body after the murder, she slept beside it for two nights inside her one-room house in Kapashera in southwest Delhi. On the third day, she informed her neighbours and tried to pass the incident off as natural death. She almost managed to get away with it too but a police informer, who noticed strangulation marks on the mans neck minutes before the body was to be cremated, informed the police and she was arrested.

She said that her husband snatched the money she earned and spent it all on buying alcohol. Whenever she refused to give him her earnings he would thrash her mercilessly for hours. She said he beat her one night for seven hours straight before he got tired and slept, an investigating official said.

Adhikari, a native of West Bengal, worked as a housekeeping employee at the Royal Bank of Scotland and was married for 12 years. Her kids  a daughter and a son  study in their village in Midnapur. She told the police that she had to send her children back as her husband would refuse to give their school fees and spent all the money to buy alcohol.

Adhikari told the police that she threatened to kill him several times but could not do it. On July 22, she said, she decided to end her misery for good. According to investigating officials, on Saturday evening after dinner, she offered Nitish alcohol that she had bought from a local shop near her house.

She told her husband that it was her treat and she continued giving him alcohol till late in the night, an official said. Around midnight, when he passed out, she allegedly smothered and strangulated him. Unsure about what to do next, she continued to sleep in the same 8x10 feet room with the body, the officer said.

For more than 48 hours, Shilpi did not step out. On Monday morning, at around 9am, locals in the Kapashera village heard Shilpi crying outside her house. She told locals that her husband had suffered a heart attack and died in his sleep. Nobody suspected her and took the body for cremation.

By noon, the locals reached the crematorium with the body. Shilpi too was there. An officer said that Nitishs body was on pyre when a police informer noticed marks on it and felt that the smell emanating from the body wasnt normal. The informer then secretly called inspector Ashish Dalal, posted at the Kapashera police station.

Dalal and his team immediately rushed to the crematorium and stopped the locals from cremating the body. Had we been 10-15 minutes late, the body would have reduced to ashes. We took the body and sent it for post mortem, an officer told HT.

Doctors told the police on Tuesday morning that the man had died of strangulation. Shilpi, who was detained from the spot, was formally arrested.

She thought she would get away with murder once her husbands body was taken for cremation but the alert police personnel noticed the marks on his neck and stopped the cremation. When questioned, Adhikari broke down and confessed to the crime, a senior police officer said.

The police have registered a case of murder in the matter but sources said that the sections may eventually be changed to culpable homicide not amounting to murder. A medical examination of the woman too was carried out which proved that she was beaten up and thrashed on several occasions, sources said.

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Tired of doing the rounds of the dealers store or the licensing office to get your new car registered? You can just sit back and relax now as the registration certificate (RC) for your car will soon be delivered right at your doorstep.

Starting next week, the Delhi government is going to put in place a new system in which RCs will be delivered at the vehicle owners residence via speed post. At present, people have to visit either the dealers showrooms or the Motor Licensing Offices (MLOs) to get the mandatory document that establishes the ownership of a vehicle and ensures that it is part of the count kept by the transport department of a state.

With the new system in place, once the dealers or buyers deposit documents with the MLOs the registration certificates will be directly sent by post to car owners.

The move assumes significance as over 10 lakh RCs are issued in the national Capital annually. Of this, nearly seven lakh are issued against new cars and 2.1 lakh are those under transfer of ownership or on resale of used cars. Besides, approximately 55000 additional RCs issued under the duplicate category for those who have lost the document.

According to officials in the transport department the new system will not only make things easier for the vehicle owner, but is aimed at eliminating corruption as well. We were getting feedback that some licensing officers have been engaging in corrupt practices with the car or bike dealers. This system would remove the contact between the dealers and the licensing officers as all documents will collectively reach for dispatch and there shall be no preference given to anybody, a transport official said.

Vehicle owners will also get alerts through SMS about the status of their RC.

Apart from this, the process of transfer of ownership of vehicles is also going to be simplified with the government planning to introduce an online portal for the same.

Hindustan Times spoke to people to know if they liked the idea. Many of them said it would be much easier for them to receive the RC at home. However, some had doubts about how much time the delivery would take. What if the parcel gets lost in transit? Anyway, it takes several days now to get an RC. Introduction of the postal system might delay it further as it would take at least a week or 15 days to reach us, said Kritika Manchanda, a resident of Panchsheel Park.

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For Delhi parents, the risk of road accidents is the greatest fear they have, followed by fear of bullying and teasing while sending their kids to schools, a study has revealed.

The study titled How Safe Are Our Kids was released on Thursday by Sustainable Environment and Ecological Development Society (SEEDS). The study is based on 1,035 responses collected from parents and students residing in East Delhi on perception of risk and understanding of safety measures.

Ironically, most parents feared road accidents and bullying, but failed to recognize more serious life risks from natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods, the study found.

The study also found that 53% schools in Delhi are at highest risk from earthquakes, including all 624 schools in East Delhi.

SEEDS also launched the Honeywell Safe Schools programme, which will be focussed on 50 schools in the east Delhi area for the next three years and is looking to empower 25,000 students, 40,000 parents, and 1,000 teachers.

The three-year programme will focus on orienting staff based on risk assessment of each participating school and conducting exercises to make aware the students, teachers and parents in a such situations.

SEEDS will begin its programme with 32 Delhi government and 18 East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) schools in the first phase and has plans to make it a city-wide campaign after three years.

Manu Gupta, executive director of SEEDS, said there was a need to create awareness among students, teachers, parents and civic authorities about high potential risks.

Often high potential risks are not recognised as imminent threats. Most parents, in our study, expressed worry about threats at hand like road safety, bullying and even fire. So there is a need to create awareness among various stakeholders to mitigate the impact of disasters, Gupta said.

Kamal Kishore, member of National Disaster Management Authority, said focusing on school safety is important to achieve the aim of overall disaster risk reduction.
The government is looking at giving flexible pay packages to faculty in the proposed 20 world class universities to nurture talent in the education field within the country, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar said on Wednesday.

He was replying to an observation made by Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman PJ Kurien who pointed out that brilliant students in the country either migrate to other countries or choose to become administrative officers due to lack of support in term of remuneration.

You should know that bright students, even those who come out of the engineering colleges, prefer to go outside the country or they go to IAS. What is the reason, Kurien asked.

The observation came after Javadekar and Minister of State for HRD Mahendra Nath Pandey replied to a brief debate on the National Institutes of Technology, Science Education and Research (Amendment) Bill 2017.

Responding to Kuriens query, Javadekar said: Issue is very simple. We have already tracked the problem and we want to address it. Instead of bran drain, we will have brain gain in the years to come.

Not content with the response, Kurien added: The point is that scientists and IIT professors, they are intellectual cream of the society. They are not properly paid when compared with those in the administration.

He further said: You should put scientists at the top and they should not be subordinate to others. This is the basic problem in the country.

To this, Javadekar said: We are offering flexibility in packages and that we are offering in the 20 world class universities. So we will issue the guidelines.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) had in February this year passed a new set of regulations to set up 20 world class institutions - 10 in public sector and 10 others in private sector.

Of the 20 universities, 10 state-supported institutions are expected to receive public funding of up to Rs 500 crore each.

HRDs separate rules --UGC (Declaration of Educational Institutions as World Class Institutions) Guidelines-- also these institutes to fix their own fees for feeing students and decide salaries for foreign faculty, as well as freedom to choose admission procedures.

Existing universities dont have much freedom and are guided by the detailed UGC rules. Javadekar also said that his ministry is trying to bring Indians who are teaching abroad back to the country.

The bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, gives the status of national importance to the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) at Tirupati and Behrampur.

The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha on March 28 this year.

Earlier, during the discussion, various members raised the issue of large number of vacancies in the premier education institutes like IITs and NITs in the country.

On questions regarding raising of fees in the IITs and NITs, Javedekar said the government has actually reduced fee for people with income up to Rs 5 lakh.

For people in Rs 5-9 lakh income bracket, the government is offering interest-free loans and only with people having more than Rs 10 lakh income, the fee has gone up, he said.

Pandey said the government is working on measures to increase participation of girls in the engineering courses.

Harivansh of JDU, D Raja of CPI, Ritabrata Banerjee of CPI-M, AV Singh Deo of BJD, Rajaram of BSP, Vandana Chavan of NCP and Vijaysai Reddy of YSR Congress also participated in the discussion.
A top American education official will visit India to develop an international teacher and student exchange program among Indian states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and US state of Indiana.

This will be the very first initiative by Indiana with India. Currently there are only a few exchange programs with other countries across the globe, Chairman of Sikhs PAC Gurinder Singh Khalsa said after his meeting in this connection with Indiana State Superintendent of Education Jennifer McCormic on Wednesday.

McCormicks visit to India is expected to be later this fall, he said, adding the exchange program among school students and teachers would have a long-term impact in building people-to-people relationship between the two countries.

We should have a mechanism of exchange programs for school students and teachers. This will give exposure to our students and teachers, Khalsa said.

Indiana is currently working on producing a 90-minute documentary to inform student residents about the diversity of cultures, and showcase international citizen communities in Indiana.

According to the Indiana Department of Education, there are currently 375 spoken languages registered with the State.

Last year, former Indiana Superintendent of Education Glenda Ritz announced the introduction of Sikh History in the states high school history curriculum by sending immediate text supplements until history books are republished.

Since 2016, Indiana is the second state after California where Sikh history has become part of public schools history books curriculum.
A year ago, on July 28, it rained in Gurgaon. And all hell broke loose. Though no one knows how much it rained that day, weatherman and residents agree that it was incessant enough to make city both gridlocked and waterlogged. The jam of nightmarish proportions  it lasted almost 20 hours  had no equivalent in the citys history.

Residents who suffered through Gurujam are nowhere near forgetting the ordeal of spending the night on the inundated roads without food and shelter. So much so that each time the monsoon clouds gather, they hope that its not a rerun of July 28.

Read | Gurgaons stormy mess: How civic systems crumbled under monsoon showers

The fear is not unfounded, considering that despite the administrations tall claims much is left to be done on the ground to tackle waterlogging. So far, a repeat has not happened, largely because it has not rained as much this year.

The district administration and the state government insist that they have learned their lessons and have attempted measures to ensure that the city sees no Gurujam 2.0.

Given the lie of the land, waterlogging is a real and perennial problem for the district administration which has failed to adopt larger remedial steps till date. Experts say the water flow, which in Gurgaon is from east to west, has to be streamlined with the master plan.

Rainwater flows off the Aravallis in the east, enter the main city and NH-8 and moves towards Najfgarh drain. Most of the smaller drains from the hills are also located in the east and merge with the Badshahpur drain. The district administration does not have a master plan to streamline the stormwater flow and use it to recharge the water table. The main drain is rarely desilted and many sewer lines are also connected to it leading to the deposit of more sludge. In Khandsa, a 600-metre stretch is a chicken neck and the main reason for the flooding of the NH-8 every year, said Prof Gauhar Mehmud, HoD, civil engineering, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi.

Temporary arrangements simply wont work, he said.

The Manohar Lal Khattar government had warned the three major stakeholders  Haryana Urban Development Authority (Huda), Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) and the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) to ensure that all measures are in place this year to tackle waterlogging.

The administration is fully prepared. Steps such as desilting of drains, deploying adequate staff for emergency and installing motor pumps have been taken, said Vinay Pratap Singh, DC Gurgaon.

Huda is the custodian of the citys main drain, the 25km Badshahpur drain that passes via Ghata in Gwal Pahari, Sohna Road, NH-8 and Khandsa to merge with Najafgarh Drain. There are several subsidiary channels to Badshahpur drain that put pressure on the main drain throughout the year.

We have closed four subsidiary channels which flow into Badshahpur. We have also desilted 18km of the drain and created a culvert in Khandsa, said Sweta Sharma, executive engineer, Huda.

Seven motor pumps are in place near Khandsa drain to drain out water. Huda has placed two additional 650-metre pipes across the Khandsa village which will take out flood water, Sharma said.

To prevent rainwater from accumulating at Hero Honda Chowk, administration has earmarked 19 locations to install pumps.

Badshahpur drain is 30 metres wide except for a 600 metre stretch in Khandsa where it narrows down to 10 metres. Huda has failed to widen it so far. Additional pipes would not help in the long run. Huda does not have check dams across the Aravalli foothills which are essential to hold the run-off rainwater. The government should form team of experts of environmentalists, engineers and officials to find a permanent solution, said Darshan Singh, an expert on rainwater.

Gurgaons average rainfall is 595mm of which 90% goes waste. Lack of rainwater harvesting systems is another big lacuna on part of the district administration.

Desilting Najafgarh drain

Following a meeting of officials of Delhi and Haryana, a joint inspection of the Najafgarh drain was carried out and a report was prepared and submitted to the ministry of urban development.

The report exposed a glaring fact several points in the Najafgarh drain were blocked by silt deposits.

This meant that the natural course of rainwater from Aravallis through Badshahpur drain to the Najafgarh drain, which empties into the Yamuna, was affected.

The silt deposits had caused the stream bed to rise, affecting the natural flow of water at the junction of the two drains. That, in a nutshell, explained the backflow which flooded Gurgaon roads.

To clear the blockages, officials engaged earthmoving and suction machines this yea rand restored the natural flow of water.

Hero Honda Chowk

Hero Honda Chowk, a low-lying area, is prone to waterlogging. The fact that it is right next to the Badshahpur drain also doesnt help. Backflow during peak monsoon often floods this crucial junction on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway, throwing traffic out of gear.

To prevent rainwater from accumulating at the chowk, authorities installed 19 pumps to remove the excess water but without formulating a plan on where the water will be channelled.

Last year, authorities installed pumps and channelled water towards residential areas in sectors 37 and 10, flooding the ground-level houses there.

Given that the Badshahpur drain is not an option the drain is susceptible to overflowing  it remains to be seen where the authorities will divert the water this year.
The 50-year-old father of Ramesh Bisht, a student from Uttarakhand who died after being allegedly pushed from the fifth floor of a paying guest (PG) accommodation in DLF Phase 3 on July 5, came to Gurgaon on Thursday with a last hope to get justice.

On July 5, 20-year-old Ramesh Singh Bisht died after he was allegedly thrown off the fifth floor of the PG in which he was staying in DLF Phase 3 with at least 20 others.

Rameshs father, Ratan Singh Bisht, his relatives, and members of four organisations working for the welfare of people of Uttarakhand in Gurgaon, went to the Mini Secretariat here on Thursday afternoon and submitted a memorandum to the subdivisional magistrate Bharat Bhushan Gogia.

While the memorandum had various demands, the primary one being the shifting of the case from Gurgaon to Nainital.

The owner of the PG, Satbir Singh, is powerful. He has political connections and a lot of money and muscle power. He was arrested only after 15 days and a lot of protests in Nanital. If the case isnt transferred, he will certainly influence the verdict here and we wont get justice, retired army officer Ratan Singh said.

Rameshs paternal uncle, Jaswant Singh, said Satbir has till now been protecting himself and his sons.

His two sons Rahul and Rohit who also beat up Ramesh and his friends are still absconding. It shows how powerful Satbir is. We will never get justice if the case remains here, Jaswant said.

Rameshs neighbor Kamal Singh Rathore, who was also in Gurgaon on Thursday morning, claimed that since Ramesh was not a local, he would not get justice.

If the case is transferred to Nainital, at least we wont be discriminated against for being pahadis ( mountain dwellers), 43-year-old Rathore said.

Apart from the transfer of case, the delegation has also demanded the arrest of all accused, including the PG owners two sons, and a proper compensation to Bishts family.

About 25 members of four welfare organizations Kumau Bhratri Mangal, Garhwal Sabha, Devbhumi Jagriti Manch and Devbhumi Pragiti Manch met the SDM and submitted the memorandum.

We wanted to meet the DC but he was not available. So we met the SDM and told him our memorandum. A copy was given to the personal assistant of the DC as well, Devender Rawat, president of the Garhwal Sabha, said.

KD Sharma, president of the Kumaun Mandal, said of the other PG inmates, who are eyewitnesses to the murder, 10 have returned to Nainital.

They have left their studies. They say they will remain unemployed but will never return to Gurgaon. If the case is transferred to Nainital, they will be able to freely tell the judge what had happened. But here, they wont even come to record their statements, Sharma said.

Bharat Bhushan Gogia, SDM North, said he has received the memorandum but the required action will only be taken by the DCs office.

Sons still absconding

Satbir Singh, the owner of the PG, who used to stay on the first floor of the PG and is a local from Nathupur village, was arrested on Monday.

Two others, Vijay and Yogender, who worked in the PG , were also arrested from Nathupur, said sub-inspector Manoj Kumar, chowki- incharge of DLF Phase 2.

Three teams had been conducting searches to nab the accused. Singh was arrested from Nathupur on Monday, Kumar said. The trio was remanded in judicial custody for 14 days.

A total of six arrests have been made in the case while two others Rohit and Rahul Satbirs sons are still absconding.
Angelina Jolies new film as director, First They Killed My Father, will be a departure for her - its set in a foreign country, is about living under oppressive rule, and stars untrained child actors. But how she cast her young actors is attracting controversy.

In her interview to Vanity Fair, in which Jolie spoke about her life after breaking up with husband Brad Pitt and her health troubles, the actors casting methods are also revealed.

Jolie wanted to find children who had experienced real hardship in their lives, and devised a game to find the perfect actor.

In order to find their lead, the casting directors set up a game: they put money on the table and asked the child to think of something she needed the money for, and then to snatch it away. The director would pretend to catch the child, and the child would have to come up with a lie, the article said.

Jolie eventually settled on Sareum Srey Moch because she was the only child that stared at the money for a very, very long time. When she was forced to give it back, she became overwhelmed with emotion. All these different things came flooding back. When she was asked later what the money was for, she said her grandfather had died, and they didnt have enough money for a nice funeral.

First They Killed My Father will be released on Netflix, like Brad Pitts last film, War Machine. Her son, Maddox, was adopted from Cambodia, and the country holds a special place in Jolies heart.

If Angelina Jolie wanted to cast destitute children adept at lying to foreigners, she should have gone with the Pub Street milk-scam girls  Lina Goldberg (@MovetoCambodia) July 27, 2017

I've previously held the minority opinion that Jolie is quite good, smart and careful re Cambodia, but...well...this whole article is a mess  Harriet Fitch Little (@HarrietFL) July 27, 2017

angelina jolie cast her latest movie by taunting poor children with cash https://t.co/vXRxnorU4R  Jessica Roy (@JessicaKRoy) July 26, 2017

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In a sprawling interview with Vanity Fair, Angelina Jolie spoke, among other things, about how her life has changed post her split from husband Brad Pitt. I never woke up and thought, I really want to live a bold life. I just cant do the other. Its the same as I cant make a casserole. I cannot sit still, she said.

The trouble began in the summer of 2016, when she was working on her new film, First They Killed My Father, scheduled to release, like Pitts last film, War Machine, on Netflix.

Angelina Jolie opens up about putting her family first, life after Brad, health issues & her most personal film yet https://t.co/nKyf4dO8ls pic.twitter.com/WkXCgWR1PV  VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) July 26, 2017

Things got bad, Jolie said. I didnt want to use that word. ... Things became difficult.

According to the interviewer, Jolie became slightly defensive at the mention of the familys globe-trotting lifestyle, which reportedly had been grating on Pitt.

(The lifestyle) was not in any way a negative, she asserted. That was not the problem. That is and will remain one of the wonderful opportunities we are able to give our children. ... Theyre six very strong-minded, thoughtful, worldly individuals. Im very proud of them.

Jolie abruptly filed for divorce in September 2016, which was followed by months of custody battles, and mud-slinging. Earlier this year, it was mutually decided that no details of the proceedings would be made public.

Brad Pitt arrives at the Los Angeles premiere of The Lost City of Z at the ArcLight Hollywood. (Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP)

While Pitt, in his own tell-all interview (to GQ Style in March), said that he had spent the next few weeks on friends couches, Jolie and their six children moved into a rental property for nine months before settling into a new home.

Its just been the hardest time, and were just kind of coming up for air. (This house) is a big jump forward for us, and were all trying to do our best to heal our family.

Jolie said that she took the step for the health of the family. Pitt, meanwhile admitted to boozing too much.

He was also investigated for child abuse, after an incident aboard their private plane which compelled Jolie to take the ultimate step. He was cleared.



Read | Brad Pitts first interview post Angelina Jolie split: Our family was ripped apart

Read | Brad Pitt says he quit drinking, in therapy after split with Angelina Jolie

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Days after announcing that a new James Bond film will be released in November, 2019, three directors have been shortlisted to helm the film. Deadline reports that Denis Villeneuve, Yann Demange, and David Mackenzie are in the running.

French Canadian Denis Villeneuve is currently in post production on Blade Runner 2049, due out in theatres in October. He was nominated for a Best Director Oscar for his 2016 science-fiction film, Arrival. He was, however, linked to a remake of Dune, which he was scheduled to direct next.

Ryan Gosling in a still from Blade Runner 2049.

French filmmaker Yann Demange made a splash with his debut feature, 71, starring Jack OConnell, for which he won the British Independent Film Award for Best Director. He is also known for his work in TV, with shows like Dead Set and Top Boy.

Jack OConnell in a still from71.

Scot David Mackenzie has made a career out of diverse films. He most recently directed Chris Pine and Ben Foster in neo-Western Hell or High Water, which was nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Like Demange, he also directed OConnell, this time in prison movie, Starred Up.

Chris Pine and Ben Foster in a still from Hell or High Water.

While there has been no official word on Daniel Craigs return, the New York Times confidently reported that he would indeed be coming back for the fifth time as the iconic spy. There is also no mention of Christopher Nolan, who was previously linked to the project, and admitted to having had talks with the producers.

Who would you like to see direct the new James Bond movie? Cast your vote down below...

Here are the three filmmakers shortlisted to direct the new #JamesBond movie.

Who's your pick?  HT Entertainment (@htshowbiz) July 27, 2017

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Approximately 600 people have died in floods and landslides across the country this year, and several state governments are yet to fully utilise funds meant for relief and rehabilitation, the Union government said on Thursday, denying charges of bias in how it was offering financial assistance.

The governments claim, made by junior home minister Kiren Rijiju in Rajya Sabha, comes after rival parties criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to give Rs 500 crore for Gujarat, where heavy rain and rising waters left nearly 100 people dead.

In addition to Gujarat, Rajasthan, Assam and Odisha are among states badly hit by floods.

Leaders in several of these states have sought for more funds, but central government sources said many are yet to use the money they already have.

Rescuers carry out relief work in a flooded locality after heavy rains in Ahmedabad on Thursday. (PTI)

Assam, for instance, has over Rs 500 crore which has not been used, even as it wants around Rs 3,000 crore as interim relief. Similarly, Odisha has Rs 824 crore. Many other states have enough money lying with them. An inter-ministerial group is now visiting Assam to take stock of the situation. If it finds the requirement of more money, we will provide it, said a government official, wishing not to be identified.

The disclosure was similar to what Rijiju said in Parliament.

If you look at the data, you will realise every state has not completely used the amount provided under SDRF and NDRF, which as an additional amount, Rijiju said, referring to the state and national disaster relief funds.

The minister was responding to a calling attention motion  a parliamentary procedure by which members can raise matters of public importance and seek responses from the government.

The Centre cannot be biased, the minister told the House. The Rs 500 crore sanctioned to Gujarat was what was due to them under SDRF.

The sanction had prompted members of the Opposition in Assam  a BJP-ruled state  to criticise the government.

Assam Congress MP Nipun Bora accused the Union government of step-motherly treatment and criticised the Prime Minister for not visiting the state as he had done in the case of Gujarat.

In response, Rijiju said that primary responsibility to deal with natural calamities lies with state governments and the Centre only supplements their efforts by offering financial and logistical support.

He asserted that states have adequate funds to tackle disasters, which are replenished with additional relief amount when exhausted.

I can assure this House that the government is fully committed to ensure that nobody suffers due to want of the action from the Government of India. We are fully committed. We reassure state governments that we will be there whenever you require us, he said.
Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said the collective decision to part ways with the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was taken in the interest of the state and its people.

Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I assure that our commitment is to the people of Bihar, Kumar told reporters after taking oath, amid reports that senior leaders like Sharad Yadav and party MP Ali Anwar were among those unhappy with his decision to align with the BJP.

On Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhis criticism of him, Kumar said he will give reply to all his queries and those of others at the right time.

Gandhi had alleged that Kumar had returned to communal forces for selfish political motives.

Kumar was on Thursday sworn in as the chief minister of the state. Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, also took oath.

Kumar had resigned as chief minister of the Grand Allaince government on Wednesday night after a fall out with the partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy chief minister.
The Allahabad high court on Thursday fixed July 28 for the final hearing in the 2007 Gorakhpur riots case, in which chief minister Yogi Adityanath is an accused.

The division bench of justice Krishna Murari and justice Akhilesh Chandra Sharma was hearing the writ petition filed by Parvez Parwaz and Asad Hayat and passed the above order after the petitioners filed a rejoinder affidavit to the counter affidavit filed by the state government on July 7.

One person was killed and several others were injured in Gorakhpur after an alleged provocative speech by Adityanath, who is also the head of a powerful local Hindu sect, outside the railway station. The then MP was reacting to the killing of a Hindu youth Raj Kumar Agrahri, who was stabbed to death in a clash between Hindu and Muslim groups during a Moharram procession.

Earlier, the state government said in its counter affidavit that the CD containing hate speech of politicians was doctored and that the petition was politically motivated. Principal secretary (home) on May 3 declined to grant prosecution sanction against the accused in the case. The decision was taken by the principal secretary (home) as per the opinion of the law department on the basis of forensic report and other evidence collected by investigating officer.

Read: Yogi Adityanath cant be prosecuted in Gorakhpur riots case: UP govt to HC

The petitioners in their rejoinder affidavit said the state governments claim that the CD was doctored was false. They also said the principal secretary (home) was not the competent official who could take a decision on a request to grant sanction against a sitting CM.

Parwaz filed the FIR in the case while other petitioner Asad Hayat is a witness to the decade old incident.

The petitioners requested the court to direct an investigation by an independent agency into the FIR registered in 2008 in Gorakhpur against the then local MP Yogi Adityanath and three others.

In the FIR lodged with the Cantonment police station of Gorakhpur, Parvez Parwaz accused Adityanath, the then city mayor Anju Chaudhri, the then MLA Radha Mohan Agarwal and one more person of inciting communal violence.

The petitioners expressed the apprehension that the state police may not be impartial in the probing the matter.
Parliamentary affairs minister Ananth Kumar sought an apology on Thursday from Congress leaders for misbehaving with Speaker Sumitra Mahajan when they were demanding discussion on lynchings across the country.

He said the way suspended Congress MPs behaved with Mahajan, they would have invited serious charges under the law had they been outside the House.

I appeal to the Congress leaders, they should apologise to the Speaker and admit the actions were against democracy. This is the temple of democracy and she is the head. She is a womanIf you did this outside, you would have invited sections of the IPC, Kumar said, after MPs from both sides stood at their seats protesting loudly against each other.

Mahajan expunged a phrase Kumar used. The House was adjourned for 25 minutes during Question Hour due to commotion over the break up of the grand alliance in Bihar and opposition MPs demanding discussion on lynching.

At noon, Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wanted the Speaker to start a discussion after she rejected the adjournment motions moved by different members.

As many as 50 people have been killed. If we cant discuss it here, where will we do it? Are we going to take out adjournment motions from the rule book? Salim said loudly, prompting several BJP MPs to stand at their places and shouting back.
Voices of dissent within Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars Janata Dal (United) to taking the support of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) for government formation have started coming in loud and clear.

JD(U) Rajya Sabha member Ali Anwar was the first to express his opposition, saying he did not support Kumars decision.

Political commentators said more voices of dissent could be expected from around JD(U)s 20 legislators (MLAs and MLCs) belonging to the Muslim-Yadav community.

Anwar told ANI on Thursday just as Kumar had heard the voice of his atma (soul) to go with the BJP, his zameer (conscience) did not allow him to support the CM on this move. Anwar added he would explain his stand before the party if he got an opportunity.

Anwar said the reasons why Kumar had severed ties with the NDA in 2013 had still not changed.

Senior JD(U) leader Sharad Yadav, also a Rajya Sabha member, also hit a discordant note barely an hour before Kumar was sworn in as chief minister.

Criticising Prime Minister Narendra Modis farmers insurance policy, Yadav tweeted, Fasal Bima Yojana is big failure as farmers are not aware about insurers but premium deducted from their loans,benefit goes to only insurers. He followed it up with another tweet, saying, Amongst others Fasal Bima Yojana is another unsuccessful scheme of d Govt through which only private insurance companies being benefitted.

Kumar resigned on Wednesday, ending his so-called Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) with Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress.

His surprise decision came hours after Lalu ruled out the resignation of his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi, who is facing an investigation over an alleged land-for-hotels scandal.

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A teenagers reckless Facebook post on July 2 offended Muslims and triggered riots in West Bengals Basirhat subdivision, and the communal bitterness continues to fester.

Police acted promptly. So did the mobs, which torched his family home. The police wrote 18+ for his age when he was charged, without mentioning the date of birth. Just four days before he turned 17, the Class XI student was detained and sent to Basirhat sub-jail.

He continues to be there, though the law forbids keeping any offender or suspect below 18 in a jail for adults. The law also says an underage suspect must be tried by the Juvenile Justice Board (JJB) and kept in a detention centre for children.

He was born on July 6, 2000, according to his birth certificate issued by the Baduria municipal agency and the admit card for the Class X finals conducted by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education.

Activists of the Hindu Samhati allegedly found the documents from debris of his gutted home in a village about 70km northeast of Kolkata.

Police didnt take him to the Juvenile Justice Board because his date of birth could not be ascertained. Now that we have verified it, we will tell the court in the next hearing that the accused may be sent for trial by the board, said C Sudhakar, the police superintendent of North 24 Parganas district.

The court is scheduled to hear the case on August 3.

After his arrest on the night of July 2, the police produced him before an additional chief judicial magistrates court the next morning. He was remanded in police custody for three days. On July 6, the court sent him to jail for two weeks.

When the court examined him again on July 20, his lawyers said he should not be tried as an adult.

The boy appeared for secondary exams in January. It is well-known that around 90% of the examinees were 16 years old. It should not have taken police more than a few hours to ascertain his age, said Brajendranath Ray, one of three lawyers representing the teenager.

The judge ordered verification of the certificates and remanded him in judicial custody for two more weeks.

The law says suspects aged between 16 and 18 can be treated as adults for heinous crimes such as rape and murder, which attract a maximum punishment exceeding seven years in jail.

But the Basirhat teen is charged with legal sections that warrant imprisonment of five years at the most. The police registered cases against him for deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings, and for publishing obscene material.

West Bengals human rights groups have been unusually quiet about the juvenile in jail.

It is illegal to keep a minor in jail if he has not committed a heinous crime. If the rights organisations overlooked the issue, it has to be admitted as a lapse that should not recur, said Sujato Bhadra, a leading human rights activist. According to Ranjit Sur, vice-president of the Association for Protection of Democratic Rights, activists should identify the overlook as a mistake and it should serve as an eye-opener.

There were mixed feelings about aiding someone involved in spreading communal hatred, he said.

But Sur, associated with the states largest human rights group, believes the nature of his crime or his social background shouldnt have taken precedence over the fact that he was still a boy.

The teens social media post triggered the states worst communal flare-up in years. A 65-year-old man was knifed to death and dozens of people were wounded in clashes.

Violence swept the communally sensitive Basirhat region, barely 12km from the Bangladesh border.

Mobs torched shops, houses and police vehicles.

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Nitish Kumar has been a pivotal figure in Bihar politics even before he became the chief minister for the first time in 2000, a short term that lasted merely barely a week in a hung assembly. Since then, he has been in charge for many years, growing in stature and even being seen as the oppositions challenger to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2019. But four years after challenging Modi, political compulsions forced Nitish to take the support of the same BJP to stay in power.

A timeline of Nitish Kumars political journey...

1994

February: Internal revolt in ruling Janata Dal in Bihar. Nitish Kumar joins the faction opposed to then chief minister Lalu Prasad. We seek our rightful share, not charity, a government that ignores our interests cannot be allowed to remain in power, he says.

June: Nitish quits Janata Dal and floats Samta Party with George Fernandes.

2000

March 3: Nitish becomes chief minister for the first time after assembly elections throw up a hung house. But he lasts only till March 10, barely a week.

Lalu Yadav hugs Nitish Kumar during the oath taking ceremony on November 20, 2015. (Arun Abhi/Hindustan Times))

2003

October 30: Janata Dal, led by Sharad Yadav, merges with Samta Party, forming Janata Dal (United).

2005

November 24: CM Nitishs begins second term that lasts till November 24, 2010. Ahead of taking charge, Nitish says: People are anxious for a change and would throw Lalu out forever

2010

November 26: Returns to power for third term.

2013

June 16: Breaks alliance with BJP after BJP names Narendra Modi as the NDAs prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. He says defiantly, We decided not to compromise on our basic principles and whatever happens I am not worried about the consequences.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar during the 350th birth anniversary celebrations of Guru Gobind Singh in Patna in January, 2017. (PTI)

2014

May 17: Resigns as CM a day after the Modi-led NDA wins a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha elections. The NDA bags 31 of the 40 Lok Sabha seats in Bihar and Nitishs JD (U) manages just two. I take moral responsibility for the defeatI should, he says.

May 20: Nitish annoints colleague Jitan Ram Manjhi as Bihar CM. Nitish and Manjhi fall apart after 276 days.

2015

June 5: Nitish Kumar named CM candidate of the JD (U)-led grand alliance (GA) that includes RJD and Congress.

November 8: Nitish-led alliance wins 178 out of 243 assembly seats, forms government.

2016

January 21: First signs of trouble in GA with RJD national vice-president Raghuvansh Prasad Singh blaming Nitish for law and order situation in Bihar

September 10: Former Siwan MP and controversial RJD politician Shahabuddin released from jail. He praises Lalu Prasad and terms Nitish a chief minister of circumstances.

September 11: Nitish hits back at Shahabuddin, saying people of Bihar know whom they have pledged support to. Everybody knows what (the) mandate of the people of Bihar is. Should I go by the peoples mandate or pay attention to what someone is saying?

September 29: Nitish praises surgical strike by army across LoC

November 9: A day after demonetisation, Nitish and Lalu differ on Modis step. Nitish calls it as a move to wipe out black money, while the RJD chief calls it a fraud

2017

January 5: Prime minister Narendra Modi shares stage with Nitish Kumar in Patna. Modi praises Nitish on total prohibition and says it will inspire others

May 26: Nitish skips lunch hosted by Congress president Sonia Gandhi to discuss joint Opposition candidate for presidential post

May 27: Nitish attends lunch hosted by Modi in honour of visiting Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth. Nitish also holds private meeting with PM.

June 21: Nitish pledges support to former Bihar governor, Ram Nath Kovind, NDAs candidate for presidents poll.

July 7: CBI raids 12 locations related to Lalu Prasad in connection with the alleged land-for-hotel scam. His son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav, wife Rabri Devi and business associates named in FIR.

July 8: Residence and properties of Lalus daughter Misa Bharti in New Delhi raided.

July 10: RJD rules out Tejashwis resignation

July 11: Nitish breaks silence, tells Tejashwi to reply fact-wise in public. He says : I shall not compromise with my principles. I am firm on my resolve of zero tolerance against corruption.

July 15: Tejashwi skips an official function in Patna chaired by Nitish. His nameplate on the dias is first covered with a cloth and later removed.

July 18: Tejashwi meets Nitish after Cabinet meeting to explain his stand on the CBI charges.

July 26: Lalu reiterates Tejashwi will not resign, says Nitish has not asked him to quit. Nitish meets governor after JD(U) legislature party meeting, submits resignation. BJP extends support to Nitish for forming next government.

July 27: Nitish sworn in as chief minister. Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar, he says after taking oath.

Patna: Newly sworn-in Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and cabinet minister Sushil Kumar Modi after their swearing-in ceremony at the Gandhi Maidan in Patna on Friday. Modi will be the Deputy chief minister in the new ministry. (PTI)
Less than a day after resigning as Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar took oath on Thursday as the head of the government for the sixth time with Sushil Kumar Modi sworn in as deputy chief minister.

Kumar met governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with support of 132 MLAs. He has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath.

Here are the updates:

9:39pm: RJDs Bhai Virender says the party will demand for secret ballot in the assembly. Then, well know who won and who lost, ANI reported him saying after RJD MLAs meet in Patna

8:52 pm: RJD supporters threw stones on the Saran district magistrate and superintendent of police Aunsuiya Ransingh Sahu during protests against Nitish Kumar. The protestors were shouting slogans in favour of RJD on Jay Prakash Narayan overbridge in the district, PTI reported.

An FIR has been registered in this connection.

Reports of road blockade and protest march by RJD supporters also poured in from Hajipur and Begusarai among others during the day.

8:35 pm: Meanwhile, senior Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader and Panchayati Raj Minister Pradip Maharathy said the party will not return to the NDA fold, IANS reported.

Talk of a possible BJP-BJD alliance gained ground in the wake of BJD president Naveen Patnaiks recent stand backing the NDA governments demonetisation move, GST and the latest presidential choice.

Nitish Kumar may have believed in Jod-tod Ki Sarkar, we are not going to have any alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). We are strong enough in Odisha and can counter any party in the ensuing elections, said Maharathy.

8:30 pm: Two petitions have been filed in the Patna High Court, challenging the formation of the new government, IANS reports.

One petition was filed by Jitender Kumar and the second by RJD legislator Saroj Yadav and Chandan Kumar Verma, contended that the mandate in 2015 Bihar assembly polls was given to Grand Alliance of JD-U, RJD and Congress led by Nitish Kumar against the BJP and it was to rule for five years.

8:17 pm: Bihar Assembly to meet at 11 am on Friday for the trust vote by Nitish Kumar, PTI reports.

8:15 pm:

Patna: Lalu Prasad Yadav with family members at his residence. Party MLAs also present pic.twitter.com/ItmPnGgJHd  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

7:45pm: Dharmendra Pradhan, Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas, says he spoke to Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi and congratulated them.

Petroleum Ministry is fully committed to complete projects worth Rs. 21,476 Crores, covered under 'Bihar Package' announced by Hon'ble PM.  Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) July 27, 2017

7:30 pm: JD(U) Maharashtra unit head Kapil Patil has criticised Nitishs decision to go with the BJP. He says the party will decide future course of action in a meet soon.

6:55 pm: The official Rashtriya Janata Dal Twitter account claims Nitish Kumar was threatened by Tejashwis popularity.

He is new youth icon of Indian politics and flag bearer of social justice politics. #BiharWithTejashwi pic.twitter.com/5hGCpL4fQ1  Rashtriya Janata Dal (@RJDforIndia) July 27, 2017

Tejashwi proved himself on all fronts and thats what perturbed Nitish and BJP. Tejashwi Yadavs performance forced BJP and Nitish to come together so they can collectively fight against him. Nitish was envy of his Deputy as Tejashwi was drawing more crowds and acceptance than Nitish, the party tweeted.

6:50 pm: Sitaram Yechury tells ANI, Every few years Nitish Kumar takes oath as CM from different alliances. Quite a record. Straightforward political opportunism.

6:25 pm: Samajwadi Partys Akhilesh Yadav and Azam Khan reacted to the developments in Bihar.

Party supremo Akhilesh Yadav struck a musical note, quoting 1965 Bollywood film Jab Jab Phool Khile, to mock Nitish for allying with BJP.

  ,     

        

Bihar Today  Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 27, 2017

Azam Khan said the Bihar CMs name should be Nitish Tyagi. First, he made sacrifice and came in power. This time also, he sacrificed and again came in power. He is a kind of man who sacrifices a lot. He should be named Nitish Tyagi, Khan told ANI.

6:22pm: After meeting with Sharad Yadav, JD(U)s Ali Anwar says, We, including Sharad ji, had no idea that such a big development would happen overnight. We are surprised.

6: 12 pm: Arun Kumar of JD(U) says, Sharad (Yadav) ji is concerned over Nitish Kumars decision.In 1-2 days Sharad ji will talk to senior leaders of all national parties.

5:40 pm: JD(U) MPs Veerendra Kumar and Ali Anwar reach Sharad Yadavs residence in Delhi, ANI reports.

5:20 pm: Sushil Kumar Modi tweets, With the swearing-in of NDA-2 government in Bihar, the state has also been rid of 20 months of a bad phase. We will not step back from prosecuting criminals and the mafia. We will have inclusive growth with the help of collective effort.

He adds, After 37 years, with the same alliance in power both in the state and at the Centre, this is a historic moment for Bihar. With mutual cooperation we will give development new life in every sector. This is the beginning of acche din for 11 crore people.

  NDA-2   -    20       -        .  Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) July 27, 2017

2/1..                 Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) July 27, 2017

      ,  37                     2/n  Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) July 27, 2017

2/2..    11            Sushil Kumar Modi (@SushilModi) July 27, 2017

5:10 pm: Meanwhile in Kerala, as the state JD(U) unit voiced disapproval of Nitish Kumars move, the CPI-M made another bid to woo the party.

State Communist Party of India-Marxist Secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan said his party welcomed the right reaction of Rajya Sabha member and Kerala JD(U) chief Veerendra Kumar, who had frowned upon the Bihar developments.

Now, what the state JD(U) should do is to quit the Congress-led United Democratic Front (in Kerala). Once it is done, the Left Democratic Front (LDF) will discuss taking back JD(U) into its fold, Balakrishnan told reporters in the Kerala capital.

It is the second time within weeks that Balakrishnan has extended an open invite to the state JD(U) to return to the LDF fold.

5:00 pm: Senior RJD leader Jagdanand Singh says: RJD is the largest party in the state Assembly. We have majority but were not invited by the Governor to form government. The RJD will not allow the Assembly to function.

4:50 pm: Lalu Prasad tweets:

 ,                    -      Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 27, 2017

4:45 pm: RJD MLA Maheshwar Yadav tells ANI that most party MLAs wanted Tejashwi Yadav to resign so that the alliance and the govt could be saved.

Nitish ji ki aadat hai ki wo apne gathbandhan mein daagi vyakti ko nahi rakhte hain, isiliye gathbandhan toot gaya ( It is Nitish jis habit to remove tainted people from the alliance. This is why the mahagathbandhan broke), he says.

Affection of children and family makes person weak in politics. Nitish Kumar walks alone and with honesty. That is why he is successful, Yadav adds.

4:14 pm: The developments in Bihar found mention in the Lok Sabha earlier in the day, IANS reported.

As the House met and took up Question Hour, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav of RJD raised the issue of the JD(U)leaving the Grand Alliance and forming a new government with the BJP.

Yadav was seen shouting from his seat, calling it a murder of democracy.

4:12 pm: The JD(U) unit in Kerala opposed Nitish Kumar for tying up with the BJP and announced it was severing ties with him, IANS reported.

The chief of the partys Kerala unit, MP Veerendra Kumar, a Rajya Sabha member, told reporters in Delhi that he was even ready to quit the Upper House to pursue his fight against fascist forces. Whatever the price, were ready to pay, he said.

We are not accepting the JD(U) joining the NDA and our relations with Nitish Kumar have ended. Its shocking that Nitish Kumar has joined the NDA. We all thought that he will fight the fascist tendencies but he has now become a part of it.

Veerendra Kumar said he expected JD(U) senior leader Sharad Yadav and its MLAs in Bihar not to accept Nitish Kumars decision. I call upon Sharad Yadav and JD(U) MLAs to say that we wont accept it.

3: 30 pm: ED registers money laundering case against Lalu Prasad and his family members in a railway hotel allotment corruption case: Official

2:38 pm: JD(U) hits back at Lalu Yadavs accusation against Nitish Kumar in a murder case.

2:36 pm: Lalu Prasad has a habit of twisting facts: JD(U) leader at press conference.

2:33 pm: Lalu Yadav tweets picture of Nitish Kumars affidavit filed with his nomination papers.

            affidavite             pic.twitter.com/MUmOkKgV3q  Lalu Prasad Yadav (@laluprasadrjd) July 27, 2017

2: 30 pm: Sharad Yadav, former JD (U) president, calls a meeting of disgruntled party legislators in Patna in the afternoon.

Around half of the 71 JD(U) legislators are Muslims and Yadavs.

2:20 pm: This, indeed, is a black day for democracy: Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala on Nitish Kumar switching sides.

PM questioned political DNA of Nitish Kumar. it has been proved that DNAs of JDU & BJP are identical, its opportunism, says Surjewala.

2:12 pm: Congress MP Ghulam Nabi Azad says, I think it has become Nitish jis habit to change parties and stand every few years.

2:05 pm: JDU member Ajay Alok questions Congress claims that his party betrayed them.

Congress says we betrayed them, also says this was going on since 3-4 months. How can it be betrayal if they already knew? he asks.

2:02 pm: Deputy CM Sushil Modi says good days for Bihar will usher in the future, holds Congress and RJD responsible for collapse of grand alliance.

1:45 pm: RJD workers protest against Nitish Kumar in Patna.

1:44 pm: Nitish Kumar thanks PM Modi for his wishes over Twitter.

There will be no compromise on corruption. Im confident that with the cooperation of the centre, developement in the state will get a boost, tweets Nitish.

1:39 pm: RJD MLA Jagadanand Singh says CM & deputy CM must resign, until they dont, we will not let the Vidhan Sabha to function.

1: 10 pm: Reaction of opposition party members

Mayawati says whatever is happening doesnt bode well for democracy. People of the country have to come forward to protect this institution from weakening.

Shashi Tharoor tweets, If after campaigning against BJP you want to join BJP, spirit of democracy requires you2resign&seek a fresh mandate. This is amoral politics.

This is now the 3rd time that BJP has formed a state government after losing an election. Goa, Manipur&Bihar show our democracy in poor light

1:08 pm: We didnt push them, they went there on their own: Lalu Yadav

This is all fake news from Delhi , says Lalu Yadav when asked if he was approached to break unity in lieu of some incentive.

1:04 pm: So what if Nitish has gone to the BJP, we will get Mayawati, Akhilesh, Mamata together: Lalu Yadav on Opposition unity.

12: 59 pm: Nitish Kumar government to seek trust vote tomorrow: says Brajesh Mehrotra, principal secretary, Cabinet Coordination Department of Bihar govt.

12:50 pm: Nitish Kumar, the CM of Bihar, my younger brother is accused of murder under sections 147, 148, 149, 302, 307: Lalu Yadav

12: 49 pm: Lalu Yadav says considering to appeal in Supreme Court against governors decision.

UP Assembly passes resolution congratulating Nitish Kumar on becoming Bihar CM again.

12:44 pm: Nitish Kumar to prove his majority in a special session of the Bihar Assembly on July 28.

12: 35 pm: Some media who we had thought were good, they took supari. See how the US media is fighting Trump, here media fights opposition.

Amit Shah is the super editor, he decides how news should be & he tells owners of media, who tells editors, not reporters fault: alleges Lalu Yadav

12: 29 pm: This match was fixed. I have not caused any inconvenience for Nitish. On many occasions, Nitish met PM Modi, had lunch. The timing of whatever happened was already fixed: Lalu Yadav

12:27 pm: I charge Nitish Kumar that he collided with BJP to conduct the raids by CBI, ED on RJD leaders and to malign them: Lalu Yadav.

12:23 pm: If I was greedy I would not have made Nitish Kumar the chief minister. He used to say that Ill perish but never tie up with BJP: Lalu Yadav.

Narendra Modi put up a charade of achhe din and of giving jobs. The BJP is fooling India: Lalu Prasad Yadav

12:21 pm: Nitish Kumar is huge opportunist. The mandate was against BJP, to throw out Modi-Shah out of Bihar: Lalu Yadav

12: 17 pm: PM Modi attacks below the belt, had said that there was fault in Nitish Kumars DNA. BJP and Nitish Kumar had a divorce.

Past 15-20 year, I have been fighting cases in courts. I was sentenced in a hurry. There was a conspiracy between Nitish Kumar and BJP: Lalu Yadav

12:15 pm: Will support Modi government in both houses of Parliament: JD(U) spokesperson K C Tyagi.

12:11 pm: The state of Bihar is a very aware; today everyone in very angry :Lalu Prasad Yadav to reports.

He says it is regrettable there is no Gandhiji among us to unite this country. Amit Shah & Modis khandan of Godse - RSS killed him.

11: 51 am: A person can do anything for his greed- there is no limit, no credibility. They do anything for power: Rahul Gandhi on Twitter.

11:50 am: He (Nitish) had joined hands with us in the anti- communal fight, but Nitish Kumar, for his personal politics, joined hands with those against whom he had fought, Gandhi says in a seething tweet.

11: 45 am: Dalits,OBCs & EBCs intact & consolidated in Bihar thts y RSS & BJP hell bent to reimpose past caste based order in society wth help of JDU: tweets Tejashwi.

11: 41 am: BJP president Amit Shah congratulates Nitish Kumar and Dy chief minister Sushil Modi for unitedly standing against corruption.

11:40 am: Frequent change of stand by Nitish Kumar doesnt show him in good light: tweets Himachal Pradesh CM Virbhadra Singh.

11:23 am: Digvijaya Singh says if JD(U) had problems with Tejashwi, they could have suspended him, called a RJD-JDU-Cong meeting, there was no need to cheat the grand alliance.

11:11 am: In a series of strongly-worded tweets, Tejashwi Yadav lashes out at Nitish Kumar.

Vicious greed for power of opportunism will spell its own doom. People are not fools that they digest their penchant for wicked power grab, tweets Tejashwi

11: 05 am: Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge alleges that BJP tried all tactics to destabilize states where Opposition had government.

11: 03 am: Development will be a priority, will take Bihar to greater heights: Sushil Modi after being sworn in as Bihar deputy CM.

11: 00 am: After taking oath, Nitish Kumar says his decision is in Bihars interest and for its development.

11:00 am: Tejashwi tweets saying ally and BJP resorted to low level vindictive & opportunistic politics

Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness: Tejashwi.

10:55 am: Scandal- tainted RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav joins the fray in tweeting, says: Entered in govt with clean slate,keen desire of writing a positive story for Bihar ppl, only to find opportunist rival.

Allegations against Tejashwi and Lalu triggered the crisis in Bihar, with CM Nitish Kumar claiming he couldnt stay in the Grand Alliance because his conscience didnt allow it.

10:50 am: Shortly after the swearing-in ceremony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulates Nitish Kumar and Dy CM Sushil Modi.

Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity, tweets PM Modi.

10:40am: Nitish Kumar does not care about Indians or the people of Bihar. He only cares about his seat: ANI quotes RJD MLA Bhai Birendra

10:30am: We knew about Nitish Kumar planning to join NDA for the past three to four months. This is the problem with Indian politics, people can do anything for their selfishness... Nitish Kumar has cheated us: TV quotes Rahul Gandhi as saying on Nitish Kumar switching sides.

Mandate was given to Nitish ji for the anti-communal fight but now he has joined hands with them (BJP) for his personal politics.

10:07 am: Sushil Kumar Modi takes oath as deputy chief minister for the third time.

10:03 am: Nitish Kumar takes oath as chief minister of Bihar.

10:02 am: RJD protest march cancelled after section 144 imposed around Raj Bhawan in Patna

10:00 am: Governor arrives at Raj Bhawan, ceremony begins.

9:51 am: Nitish Kumar reaches Raj Bhawan in Patna.

9:49 am: Sushil Modi reaches Raj Bhawan in Patna, set to be sworn in as Bihar deputy chief minister.

9:45 am: Will raise the issue in Parliament strongly, will also speak to other parties and protest in front of Gandhi statue: RJD MP JP Yadav.

9: 45 am: JDU MP Sharad Yadav refuses to comment on Bihar political tussle, NDA-JDU tie up.

9:37 am: Nitish jis step against corruption is a courageous one. BJP wants development and wants to help bring stability in Bihar: JP Nadda in Patna

9:33 am: BJP MLA Nitin Navin says Lalu is anxious, there is going to be revolt within the RJD.

9:27 am: Bihar governor invites Nitish Kumar to form government.

9:09 am: Preparations underway at Raj Bhavan for oath-taking ceremony of Nitish Kumar.

7:50 am: JD(U) MP Ali Anwar says his conscience doesnt allow him to support the decision of Nitish Kumar. He says will voice his opinion in the party if given an opportunity.

7: 15 am: RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu, connecting north Bihar with Patna, over Nitish Kumars resignation and forming government.

4:00 am: RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governors decision, Tejashwi tells reporters after the meeting.

This whole drama was planned and Tejashwi was just an excuse for him (Kumar) to go with BJP: Tejashwi Yadav

2:40 am: Tejashwi Yadav meets Bihar governor Keshri Nath Tripathi in Patna to register protest over Nitish Kumar being invited to form his government ahead of RJD.

Governor gave us time of 11 a.m. and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10 a.m. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral? Tejashwi Yadav had tweeted.

2:37 am:

#FLASH Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi invites Tejashwi Yadav & 5 RJD MLAs for discussion. pic.twitter.com/sicW9oRVqn  ANI (@ANI_news) July 26, 2017

2:30 am: RJD leaders attempt to storm the Raj Bhawan with Tejashwi Yadav and his brother Tej Pratap and ten other former ministers in the Nitish cabinet. The strong security force deployed in the area wall them back.

12.30am: Lalu Prasad says: Nitish Kumar has underlined that he is an opportunist. Having done what he has, he cannot stake claim without a challenge. The Congress, CPI-ML and independents will back our claims to form the next government... Struggle is my life. I have to be in Ranchi for the next three days. However, Tejashwi has been asked to present the claim to the governor in the forenoon tomorrow.

12.07am: Taking a letter of support to governor to stake claim for forming government: Prem Kumar, BJP, on Sushil Modi and Nitish Kumars meet with governor Keshari Nath Tripathi.

(With inputs from agencies)
The CRPF has decided to put more boots on grounds with better firepower to tackle the Maoists in their stronghold of Bastar in Chhattisgarh where federal forces suffered a string of fatal setbacks earlier this year.

We are going to deploy one more battalion in that area soon while one has just moved in, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF)s director general RR Bhatnagar said on Wednesday in New Delhi on the eve of the 78th Raising Day of the paramilitary force.

A battalion consists of 1,000 personnel.

The new deployment will be in Sukma and Bijapur  two districts in the states Bastar division, a Maoist hotbedfor area domination.

The CRPF lost 25 of its personnel in a Maoist ambush in south Sukma region in May this year, serving a chilling reminder of their striking capabilities that was on display in March when the rebels killed 12 troopers of the force. In 2010, Maoists killed 75 CRPF men in the same region.

New camps will be established inside the Abhujmadh jungle areas of these two districts to effectively deal with the red rebels in their strongholds, said CRPF officials.

Abhujhmadh or Madh is at the tri-junction of Chhattishgarh, Mahrashtra and Andhra Pradesh and considered the strongest base of the Maoists.

The CRPF has also decided to replace with the AK series rifles the traditional INSAS weapons used by its personnel to counter Maoist activities spread over 10 states in the country.

South Bastar remains one of the last Maoist bastions where we have to plan how to reduce their influence, added Bhatnagar.

The CRPF officials said their troops deployed in the Maoist-hit areas will soon get Ak-47 and AK-56 rifles.

The INSAS has been the standard weapon of the force but faced with a formidable enemy, it now needs quick and heavy fire power, which AK series rifles are capable of providing.

The force is also taking measures to keep its personnel safe by providing them better equipments.

We are now having close coordination with the state police...the security of our troops in terms of their preparedness, equipments, rations and others, is foremost, said Bhatnagar.

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The political turmoil that saw re-emergence of a BJP-backed government led by Nitish Kumar in Bihar has pushed the Congress back in 2005 erafrom an ally in power to a pillion rider of the RJD-led opposition in the assembly.

After being ousted by the JD(U)-BJP dispensation from power, the Congress had to be settled down in the opposition with its pack of nine legislators and 55 MLAs of RJD in the assembly of 243 seats.

No wonder that a Congress veteran and Congress legislator party leader Sadanand Singh summed up the scenario as the worst case for the party in Bihar. I have never seen such a disappointing state for the party in my 48 years political career, remarked Singh, who had donned the posts of president of Bihar Pradesh Congress Committee (BPCC) and assembly speaker.

A section of the senior BPCC leaders attributed the fall in Congress status either to complacency of party seniors in All India Congress Committee (AICC) or the partys manoeuvrability to deal with complex political moves.

Nitish Kumar to went ahead to revive its ties with the BJP, as the Congress failed to read his mind and moves. There is strong possibility that AICC chief Sonia Gandhi might be kept in dark about ground realities complicated by surreptitious moves of the JD(U) to rake up old cases against its trusted ally and RJD chief Lalu Prasad, said former Union minister Akhilesh Prasad Singh, who was the first senior party leader to blast against Nitish Kumar in the midst of political turmoil.

Apparently emboldened by AICC vice president Rahul Gandhis tirade against Nitish Kumar as an opportunist and man with no principle, Akhilesh intensified his attack on the Bihar CM saying that he had fallen back in the lap of Sangh.

Sangh mukt Bharat ka nara dene wale aaj Sangham sharanamm gachhami ho liye (the man who spearheaded a campaign against RSS has joined hands with the communal brigade), said Akhilesh obliquely referring to his inclination towards things associated Lord Budhha.

Sources in the AICC said the Congress, which had once played a pivotal role in formation of Grand Alliance (GA) comprising JD(U) and RJD, withdraw itself from the burgeoning differences in the coalition after it realised that Nitish Kumar had made up his mind to walk out of it.

Nitish gave his first obvious hint of walking out of GA when he declined AICC chief Sonia Gandhis invite to decide the oppositions nominee for presidential candidate and attended Prime Minister Narendra Modis dinner a day later. Nitish had realised that the Congress would not project him as the oppositions face as PM for 2019 poll, and hence he adopted the best political move, said a senior AICC leader.

Wary of Nitish Kumars ability to engineer crack in the opposition, the Congress has rushed AICC in-charge for Bihar CP Joshi to keep its flock together ahead of the crucial trust vote. Joshi will be holding meeting of the party legislators and seniors to contemplate the best suited strategy for revival of the party.

However, AICC media panellist Prem Chandra Mishra said the party should focus more attention on rejuvenating the organisation than relying back on the alliance. Alliance is important at this juncture, but the party should also acknowledge a strong party was a prerequisite for respectable position in the alliance. Congress kept on losing its ground owing to its dependency on the allies, he said.

Stressing for immediate revamping of the organisation to bolster its image among the masses, a former BPCC vice president said it was unfortunate that the party failed to capitalise its position in power to strengthen the organisation.

In its 20-month stint in power, the Congress failed to live either as a negotiator to avoid fall of GA or used the opportunity to establish itself as a party to reckon with. It also failed to take the initiative to ensure restructuring of various boards, corporation other government bodies like 20-point programme committees to accommodate party functionaries in them, lest it could displease the chief minister, said the Congress leader.
The Congress will make one last ditch effort to persuade Bihar chief minister and Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar to withdraw his resignation and save Bihars grand alliance from collapse.

Congress sources did not rule out party chief Sonia Gandhi and vice-president Rahul Gandhi speaking to Kumar in their bid to prevent him from going back to the NDA fold.

Congress general secretary in-charge of Bihar CP Joshi is rushing back to the national capital from Jaipur for consultations with the party leadership.

Reacting to the development, the Congress expressed disappointment over Kumars resignation and insisted it will continue to strive to resolve the differences in the grand alliance.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala said the grand alliance was given a mandate by the people of Bihar for five years based on the policies, principles and cumulative leadership that was presented. We are disappointed by the news of resignation of Nitish Kumar. The Congress president and the vice-president hold Nitish Kumar in great respect and affection, he said.

The Congress leader said the 2015 Bihar poll outcome was also a mandate against the BJP and Prime Minister Narender Modi, who challenged the honour of Bihar.

Responsibility lies upon each one of us to respect this mandate. Congress party will do everything within its means that this mandate is honoured, Surjewala said. We will try and sort any differences of opinion that may have cropped up by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion.

On Saturday, Kumar had met Rahul and reportedly discussed the continuance of RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav as deputy chief minister against the backdrop of alleged corruption cases against him.

But Congress sources said Kumar did not inform Rahul about his intentions to resign if Tejashwi is not asked to go.

A Congress leader said Kumar informed Joshi only when he was entering the Raj Bhavan in Patna to submit his resignation. For his part, Joshi requested Kumar to wait and not take a hasty decision. Joshi also told the JD(U) leader that he will get back to him after speaking to Sonia and Rahul. But Kumar didnt wait, the Congress leader said.

But a section in the Congress is not hopeful of Kumar reversing his decision given that the JD(U) leader praised demonetisation and also thanked the Prime Minister for his tweets hailing his move. This section also feels that the uphill task for the Congress leadership will be to pacify the RJD chief to ask his son to give up the ministerial post in order to salvage the grand alliance.

Keen on retaining his clean image, Kumar had taken a tough stand against the allegations of corruption against alliance partner RJDs chief Lalu Prasad and his family members and made it clear that Tejashwis exit from the coalition government was important for the survival of the mahagathbandan (grand alliance). For its part, the Congress has all along backed Tejashwi.

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A special court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to hand over certain documents to Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh and others in connection with a nearly Rs 10-crore disproportionate assets case against him.

Special judge Virender Kumar Goyal passed the directions after the advocate for Virbhadra, his wife Pratibha Singh, and others, submitted that they have not received documents filed along with the chargesheet.

The couple, who have not been arrested so far, and other accused persons  Universal Apple Associate owner Chunni Lal Chauhan, stamp paper vendor Joginder Singh Ghalta, managing director of Tarani Infrastructure Vakamulla Chandrasekhar, and co-accused Lawan Kumar Roach, Prem Raj and Ram Prakash Bhatia  were present before the court during the days proceedings.

The chargesheet also names as accused LIC agent Anand Chauhan, who was arrested in the case and is currently in judicial custody. He was produced before the court from jail.

The court had granted them bail on May 29 after they appeared before it in pursuance to the summons issued against them by the court.

The court had on May 8 summoned them after taking cognisance of the charge sheet filed by the CBI.

The CBI chargesheet, running into over 500 pages having the statements of around 225 witnesses and containing 442 documents, has claimed that Virbhadra had amassed assets worth around Rs 10 crore which were disproportionate to his total income during his tenure as a Union minister.

Chauhan was arrested by the Enforcement Directorate on July 9 last year in a separate money laundering case related to the disproportionate assets case.

The matter was transferred by the Supreme Court to the Delhi high court, which on April 6, 2016, had asked the CBI not to arrest Virbhadra and directed him to join the probe.

On November 5 last year, the apex court had transferred Virbhadras plea from the Himachal Pradesh high court to the Delhi high court, saying it was not expressing any opinion on the merits of the case, but simply transferring the petition in the interest of justice and to save the institution (judiciary) from any embarrassment.
In fresh trouble for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, the ED has registered a money laundering case against him and his family members in a railway hotels allotment corruption case dating back to the UPA tenure, officials said on Thursday.

The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central probe agency has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.

Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

The Enforcement Directorate will investigate the alleged proceeds of crime generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials said.

Prasads wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report (ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.

The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.

The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a benami company owned by Sarla Gupta.

The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as quid pro quo.

The ED, under the PMLA, has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets and it is expected that the agency will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case.
Heavy rains led to flood-like situations in several parts of the country with at least 29 people dead in Gujarat on Thursday and four of a family swept away by gushing waters in Jharkhand even as things improved slightly in deluge-affected Assam.

According to the MeT department, several parts of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh are expected to receive heavy to very heavy rainfall till Friday.

Gujarat

The death toll in the current monsoon season in Gujarat stood at 123, officials said. The Centre rushed 10 additional NDRF teams to the state on Thursday.

Prior to the 29 deaths, reported from Kankrej and Dhanera talukas of Banaskantha on Thursday, 94 people had lost their lives in various rain-related reasons in the state till Wednesday, said principal secretary, revenue, Pankaj Kumar.

The bodies of 17 people, including 14 of a family, were found at Kharia and a nearby village of the Kankrej taluka today. At Dhanera, the authorities found seven bodies in the early hours from Sihori village, while two more bodies were found later, Kumar told a press conference.

Besides, two persons lost their lives in Palanpur town of Banaskantha due to a wall collapse, while one more person died in a similar incident at a nearby village, he added.

The police found 25 bodies, while another body was found by the locals later.

More bodies are likely to be found as the water recedes in over a dozen villages located along the banks of the Banas river, said AD Parmar, inspector, Thara Police Station, under which Kharia falls.

Kharia and Sihori, both situated along the banks of the Banas, were severely inundated after water from the Dantiwada dam on the river was released on Tuesday.

Revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the state had already received 555.02 mm of rain, which is around 68.52% of the expected annual rainfall of Gujarat.

In the last two days, as many as 1,930 people have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Air Force, Army, BSF and our own administration in north Gujarat. Over the last one week, as many as 53,004 people were also shifted to safer locations, said Chudasama.

The Gujarat government announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of the deceased, in addition to the Rs 2 lakh compensation announced by the Centre.

Rajasthan

Around 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released from the dam following heavy rains in neighbouring Rajasthan, which resulted in inundation of several villages along the banks of the river in Banaskantha.

State emergency operation centre officials said as per the latest figures available with them - excluding the 25 deaths reported today - eight people had died in Banaskantha and Patan districts in the last two days due to the floods.

In Rajasthan, the army rescued 27 people from areas which faced flood-like situation over the last two days due to heavy downpour even as the situation improved gradually.

As many as 15 people were killed in rain-related incidents, 640 were rescued and 2,225 evacuated to safer places in Jalore, Sirohi, Pali and Barmer districts since Monday, an official has said.

JArmy personnel carry out rescue operation during floods in Rajasthan on Tuesday. (PTI)

Meanwhile, heavy to extremely heavy rainfall occurred at isolated places in Jodhpur and Udaipur divisions since Wednesday while the weatherman has warned of heavy rainfall in southeast and southwest parts of the state till Friday.

Assam

The flood situation in Assam improved substantially even as over 13,000 people across seven districts in the state were still affected. Altogether 79 people have lost their lives in flood-related incidents.

Till Wednesday, 23,000 people in nine districts were affected by the deluge.

The authorities are running 14 relief camps and distribution centres in five districts.

Currently, waters of Dhansiri river was flowing above the danger mark at Numaligarh in Golaghat.

Other states

In West Bengal, West Burdwan, Bankura and Purulia have received very heavy rains since Saturday, leading to inundation of several areas, with the rivers in this region are in spate.

In Himachal Pradesh, the under-construction south portal of Rohtang Tunnel near Dhundi, 25 km from Manali, was damaged by a massive landslide triggered by rains leading to blocking of the Manali-Rohtang highway.

In Jharkhand, an ambulance with four members of a family were washed away by the waters from the overflowing Koel river in Lohardaga district.
Former Karnataka chief minister N Dharam Singh died of a heart attack at a private hospital in Bengaluru on Thursday morning. He was 80.

Ailing for the last few months, Singh fainted at his home and was rushed to the hospital where doctors declared him dead around 11.30am, family sources said.

He is survived by his wife and two sons, one of whom, Ajay Singh, is a sitting Congress MLA.

A seven-time MLA and a former member of parliament, Singh served as a chief minister from May 2004 to February 2006 heading a Congress- Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government.

However, the government fell after the JD(S) withdrew support and formed an alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

He joined the Congress in late 1960s and went on to represent Jewargi constituency seven times between 1978 and 2008.

He was elected to the Lok Sabha from Bidar in 2009.

Singh was born on December 25, 1936, at Nelogi village in Kalaburagi district.

The state government has announced three days state mourning as a mark of respect to the veteran leader.

Condolences poured in on his death from across the political spectrum. Singh, was a very close friend of Mallikarjun Kharge, leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted that he was Saddened by the demise of former Karnataka CM Shri N. Dharam Singh. My thoughts are with his family & supporters in this sad hour.

Shri N. Dharam Singh had rich experience in Karnataka & national politics. His dedicated service towards society will be remembered, the Prime Minister said.

Speaking about Singhs long political career, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara said: He had been president of the KPCC, had handled various portfolios in governments, and had even served in the Lok Sabha.

The developmental and people-oriented programmes initiated by him during his tenure as chief minister are bearing fruit today, Parameshwara added.

Karnataka BJP chief BS Yeddyurapa in his condolence message said: Mild mannered and soft spoken, Singh has left an indelible impression on the political history of Karnataka through his genuine commitment to all sections of the people.

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The Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU), a government recognised institution that offers distance education courses is set to start degree and certificate programmes in Vedic and Indic studies.

The course in Vedic studies will be offered in association with a religious faction, the Swaminarayan Sect.

The university will also set up a chair, named after SectSwaminarayan Chair, for which a MoU has been signed with the organisation that was founded in Gujarat and is a subsect of Vaishnava Hinduism.

According to sources, the University will offer certificate and degree courses in the study of Vedas and Indic studies in three languages Hindi, English and Gujarati.

The courses that will begin next month will be offered to applicants not only in India, but overseas as well. Infrastructure of the Swaminarayan Sect, will be used as study centres, sources told HT.

The Swaminarayan sect has followers in many countries, especially in the United States of America, United Kingdom, South Africa and Kenya.

A senior official of the University said the courses in Vedic and Indic studies are aimed at creating awareness about knowledge of the native people.

There are not many who can even tell the time sequence of the four Vedas and not many realise what is a Ved. General perception is it a collection of hymns. .Vedas are a reflection of Indian civilisation and offer an insight into what society was all about, an official told HT.

The official said Indic studies will focus on the geographic, social, religious aspects of ancient Indian civilization. It will also take into account other spiritual sects and faiths such as Sufism.

Since the days of colonialism we have been taught history with a particular shade; more than 70% of the time we were talking ill of the Indian societyDalits and women were ill-treated and it was a decrepit society. If that were true, why are there illustrious accounts of Greek people, who talk so highly of Indian society? the official said.

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Tejashwi Yadav, the man at the heart of the Bihar crisis, did everything he could to stonewall Nitish Kumars return as the chief minister.

In an overnight high drama, Tejashwi led a large group of RJD leaders and supporters to the Raj Bhavan at around 2.30 am on Thursday, attempting to storm the governors official residence in a bid to stake claim to form the government.

The RJD group included Tejashwis brother Tej Pratap, ten other former ministers in the Nitish cabinet and more than 50 party legislators.

They were pushed back by the strong security contingent.

Let them arrest us, if they so dare, Tejashwi told reporters at the Raj Bhavan gate.

This is murder of democracy, added RJD chief Lalu Prasads son, facing corruption charges in a land-for-hotel deal.

The governor had agreed to receive an UPA delegation staking claim to power at 11, but has now backed out, Tejashwi said even as party legislators jostled with policemen.

He proceeded to stage a sit-in demonstration in front of the Raj Bhavan.

We are not going to buckle or leave the fight.... This is backstabbing of the people of Bihar and our mandate to rule. This is plain dictatorship, Tejashwi was heard telling his supporters while rallying them to be at the Raj Bhawan and resist the illegal takeover of the government by the BJP.

Hordes of RJD supporters joined a march from Rabri Devis official residence at 10, Circular Road to the Raj Bhavan, barely three furlongs away and close to Nitish Kumars chief ministerial residence at 1, Aney Marg.

Lalu Yadav, who was in Ranchi for appearance in a fodder scam case, accused Nitish Kumar of being an opportunist.

Sources in the RJD camp said Lalu spoke to JD-U leader Sharad Yadav, who is said to be cut up with the party decision to break the grand alliance.

The RJD was banking on 16 Yadav and Muslim legislators in the JD(U) to break away from Nitish and stay away from the NDA grouping and pitch in for what Lalu claims is a secular alliance.

With Congress calling for black day protests, the UPA combine is pitching hard to take the issue to the people.

The RJD has 80 members in the Bihar house of 243 legislators, besides 27 of the Congress, 3 CPI-ML and four independent members who voted for the BJP in support of President Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar governor.

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Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised on Thursday that his central government will support housing programmes and schemes for fishermen in Tamil Nadu, reaching out to a state where his Bharatiya Janata Party is eyeing a foothold.

Modis speech came at the inauguration of a memorial for former President and one of Indias most celebrated scientists, APJ Abdul Kalam.

A new India, without a new Tamil Nadu is not possible. Which is why, the central government is helping the state with funds, the prime minister said, after assuring funds for housing schemes and for loans to help the states fishermen buy bigger boats.

Modis BJP has been eyeing a bigger presence in the state, where observers say a political vacuum has been left by the death of former chief minister J Jayalalithaa last year.

The PM mentioned Jayalalithaa  revered by her followers as Amma  multiple times during his speech, and said that he was sad that God had taken her away.

Had Amma been here, she would have been very happy and blessed us, Modi said, referring to the work done on Kalams memorial.

Modi was speaking in Hindi, while senior state BJP leader H Raja translated it in Tamil alongside, during the function at Mani Mandapam, which at Pei Karumbu at Rameswaram, the birthplace of Kalam. Thursday was the second death anniversary of the former President.

Last year, we took a decision to build a fitting memorial for him (Kalam). Now I feel proud that we have achieved what he had set out to. The DRDO is worthy of all praise for completing the memorial in such a short time, the prime minister said.

There is a secret behind the success of the Kalam memorial  because each special skill needed for the project was brought in. Workers were working extra time and did not take money for the work and it is our homage to the great man  Dr Kalam, he said.

Tamil Nadus acting governor C Vidyasagar Rao, chief minister Edapaddi Palanisami and several Union and state ministers were present at the function.

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Pakistan said on Thursday that Indias stipulation for grating visa to Pakistani nationals were highly regrettable and was against diplomatic norms.

It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses, Foreign Office spokesperson Nafees Zakaria said.

Only a letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the External Affairs Ministry announced in May.

The Pakistani spokesperson said asking for a letter from the Foreign Affairs Adviser was against diplomatic norms.

Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries, Zakaria added.

Indias decision to impose the condition on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the backdrop of growing tensions between the two countries.
With Iraq assuring all cooperation in tracing the 39 missing Indians, Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh is to travel to Badush near Mosul, which was freed from Islamic State control earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

During a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari here, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reiterated Indias request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraqs continued assistance in this regard.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed the External Affairs Minister of the efforts being undertaken, the statement said. Sushma Swaraj requested the Iraqi Minister to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush.

The development comes as Sushma Swaraj on Thursday told Parliament that she would not declare the 39 Indians as dead till she has concrete evidence to that effect.

I repeat, I will not declare them (the missing Indians) dead until we have concrete evidence to that effect, she told Rajya Sabha.

The Minister said that she never said in Parliament or outside that they are alive, as being claimed by some Congress MPs.

She said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.

The Minister said that all the information was culled from different sources and there was no evidence to support any of the claims.

Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the Minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians.

V.K. Singh had visited Iraq earlier this month after Iraqi forces aided by an international coalition liberated Mosul on July 9 after 266 days of fierce battles, ending three years of IS rule.

Singh first went to Erbil and then on July 12 visited the Kurdih Pershmerga frontline in Mosul area to seek information about the missing Indians.

At his weekly media briefing here on Thursday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that Singhs visit to Badush will be useful only when there is more information.

Sushma Swaraj also congratulated al-Jaafari over the liberation of Mosul.

She also thanked Iraq for contributing significantly to Indias energy security, being the second-largest supplier of crude oil to us.

On his part, al-Jaafari appreciated Indias steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.

He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment, the statement said.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Sushma Swaraj welcomed.
More than fifty politicians who hold elected office in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies face charges in criminal cases related to inciting religious violence or stoking communal hatred, according to HTs analysis of more than 50,000 candidates who contested elections in the past five years.

Though they comprise only a tiny fraction of all political nominees, candidates who have been accused or convicted of communal crimes win the elections they compete in far more often than those who have not been charged with any crimes, the analysis found, suggesting that voters see communalism as a reason to vote for a candidate rather than a political liability.

Appealing to social divisions is a hallmark of so-called criminal candidacy in India, said Milan Vaishnav, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment of International Peace and author of a recent book on criminality in Indian politics. Criminal candidates typically use their criminality as a way to signal their credibility to protect their own community.

The list of politicians formally accused of communal crimes includes high-profile leaders such as Union cabinet minister Uma Bharti; current Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath; his deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya; and the Owaisi brothers of the All-India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, Hyderabad MP Asaduddin and his younger brother, Akbaruddin, an MLA in Telangana.

Laws against stoking communal violence and offending communal sentiments are contained in sections 153A, 153B, 295, 295A, 505(1)(c), 505(2), and 505(3) of the Indian Penal Code, as well as in section 125 of the Representation of the People Act, which criminalises the promotion of feelings of enmity or hatred between communities in connection with an election.

Most of the cases remain pending in Indias clogged courts. HTs analysis found only one political candidate who had been convicted of a communal crime. That was Azmi Abu Asim, who won a seat in the Maharashtra assembly in 2014.

While courts tend not to penalize candidates for the criminal charges they face, voters often reward them.

In April, for instance, police booked T. Raja Singh, a BJP MLA who represents the Goshamahal constituency in Hyderabad, under section 295A. This section penalises deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs and can result in a three-year prison sentence.

The complaint against Singh stemmed from a speech he made in which he threatened to behead the traitors opposed to the construction of a Ram temple in Ayodhya.

When he last ran for office in 2014, Singh had already been charged with eight other communal crimes, according to the affidavit he filed with the Election Commission of India. That did not prevent him from winning the election by more than twice as many votes as the runner-up, Congresss M. Mukesh Goud.

Interviews with voters indicated that Singhs communal history enhanced his appeal. Raja Singh stands for Hindutva, so we vote for him, said Krishnamachari, 50, a government worker who supported Singh in 2014. There are two sides to the coin. Someones criminal may be someone elses saviour.

Singhs story fits a pattern of allegedly criminal communalism and electoral success. Candidates accused of communal crimes win their elections at a rate more than four times greater than those who have not been accused of any crimes.

Of the 41,488 candidates who had never faced criminal charges who ran in the 2014 Lok Sabha election and each states most recent assembly election, 2,550 of them (6%) won. But of the 187 candidates who had faced charges with at least one communal crime, 53 of them (28%) won.

The data for this analysis came from the self-reported affidavits that political hopefuls must file upon declaring their candidacies. The Association for Democratic Reforms, a government watchdog organisation, reads through the thousands of affidavits and posts the information online. HT wrote software to collect and analyse the data from ADRs website, MyNeta.info.

Most of the countrys political candidates did not face any communal criminal charges at the time they ran for office. Of the 50,324 candidates included in HTs analysis, 187 of them  less than one-half of one percent  stood accused or had been convicted of communal crimes.

Of the 3,727 candidates the BJP nominated for state and national elections, 48 stood accused of at least one communal crime. Thats about 1.3%, the highest percentage of any party that nominated at least 500 candidates. Congress, by contrast, nominated 3,553 candidates, of whom 12 (0.3%) had been charged with a communal crime.

BJP spokesman G.V.L. Narasimha Rao dismissed the findings. Most of these charges have been levelled with a spurious understanding of what constitutes communalism, he said.

Supporters of BJP candidates accused in communal cases also played down the significance of the charges. Being accused of communal charges and actually inciting communal violence can be different, said Kuldeep Maurya, 36, who voted for Adityanath in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

More accused communalists have come from UP than anywhere else. Yet the phenomenon is not unique to Indias largest state. Candidates with communal criminal records also ran relatively frequently in northern Telangana, coastal Karnataka, along the southern coast of Tamil Nadu, and in states such as Assam and West Bengal along Bangladeshs northern border.

Each of these places has seen its share of religious strife in recent years, offering a clue as to how accused communalists appeal to voters.

(With inputs from Niha Masih)

This is Part 4 of Lets Talk About Hate, an HT series that looks at the different complexions of hate crimes such as race, religion, identity. Follow us at @httweets for updates or send your suggestions at hatetracker@hindustantimes.com.

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Two masked men on Thursday threw acid on a lawyer in the advocates chamber at the districts court in Sonepat.

The lawyer, Surender Malik, was rushed to hospital for treatment. He received injuries on his eyes. Police rushed to the spot and started investigation into the matter.

Reports said Malik was studying a clients case in chamber number 71 around 8am when two men with their faces covered entered the chamber and threw acid on him before fleeing on a motorcycle.

Angry over the incident, the victims fellow lawyers suspended work and blocked the Sonipat-Gohana road for a while. They lifted the blockade after Sonepat superintendent of police (SP) Ashwin Shenvi, who reached the spot with heavy police force, assured them of action against the culprits.

Talking to mediapersons, SP Shenvi said, Teams have been formed to nab the accused. The police have started investigation into the matter and we will arrest the accused soon.

The district Bar association demanded strict action against those behind the incident and also demanded proper security in the court complex.
Zakir Musa, one of the most prominent faces of the Kashmir militancy, has been named by the al-Qaeda as the head of its first branch in the Valley, according to The Guardian.

The announcement, made by an al-Qaeda-affiliated propaganda channel, represents the first time a major international militant group has declared its presence in Kashmir, which saw one of its worst periods of violence since the last year.

According to the Guardian, the Global Islamic Media Front said the cell will be called Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind and it was set up as a step taken after Burhan Wanis death.

Jammu and Kashmir director general of police, SP Vaid confirmed the announcement by the social media cell of the militancy group. Something has come on social media, we are looking into the matter, he told Hindustan Times.

This is a first but for us it doesnt change anything... For us a terrorist is a terrorist, no matter what organisation he belongs to, Vaid said.

So far, Kashmir police has denied the presence of any international terror outfits, be it Al-Qaeda or the Islamic State, the flag of which was often used by stone-pelting protesters in the Valley

Not welcome, says Hizbul Mujahideen

Musa, who was regarded as being close to Wani and belonged to the same outfit Hizbul Mujahideen, has been an advocate of establishing Islamic law  Sharia  in Kashmir.

Hours after the Qaeda announcement, Syed Salahuddin  the current leader of Hizbul and the head of United Jihad Council  said, there is no scope or room for any international organisations like Daesh (Islamic State) and Al Qaeda, we dont need them nor is there any necessity for their presence.

The UJC is an umbrella body of militant organisations in Kashmir.

We fight for azadi and Islam. We denounce those who are creating hurdles and misguide people in the name of sharia and sahadat, Salahuddin said, alleging that groups like Qaeda are harming the freedom movement.

Musa broke away from the Hizbul Mujahideen on May 14, a week after he drew criticism from within for calling for the beheading Hurriyat leaders. Since his exit, he has advocated for sharia or sahadat (establishing Islamic rule or attaining martyrdom). His comments against the Hurriyat leaders  seen as the political face of the Kashmiri separatism  came after they said the struggle in Kashmir has nothing to do with ISIS and al-Qaeda.

Before his falling out with Hizbul leadership, which is based in Pakistan, Musa reportedly held the reins of the group after the killing of Wani by security forces last year. Wanis death sparked violence that lasted for months, leading to the deaths of at least 100 civilians.

Musa is in his early twenties, and studied engineering at a college in Chandigarh before he took up arms against the Indian administration. He belongs to an educated family as his father is an engineer and brother an orthopaedic surgeon at a Srinagar hospital.

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Nagaland chief minister TR Zeliang has denied helping the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) push Hinduism in Christian-majority Nagaland through Heraka, an indigenous faith developed by some Naga tribes in the 1920s to counter conversion to Christianity.

Some sections allege that the RSS is patronising Hinduism-like indigenous faiths such as Heraka that has some 2,000 followers in Nagaland where Christians constitute 88% of the population. Assam and Manipur have more Naga adherents of this faith.

The 65-year-old Zeliang was baptised in 1973, three years before he joined active politics. But rivals within his Naga Peoples Front (NPF) have accused him of replacing Shurhozelie Liezietsu with a Hindutva agenda in collusion with governor PB Acharya.

The NPF group headed by Shurhozelie even issued a statement saying Acharya helped Zeliangs RSS-friendly dispensation drive the trishul into the heartland of Christ.

My village was 100% Heraka but they began converting to Christianity since the 1960s. We are all devout Christians today. I fail to understand why he (Shurhozelie) branded me as Heraka, Zeliang told HT at his residence in state capital Kohima.

According to him (Shurhozelie), the governor has a soft corner for me because I am Heraka, and not because I had absolute majority. I did have an association with Rani Gaidinliu since my college days, but only because she was a freedom fighter. Associating with a freedom fighter recognised by the government is not a sin, the chief minister said.

The BJP has allegedly been appropriating Gaidinliu, who led a Naga army against the British in the 1930s and propagated Heraka, as an icon of Hindutva.

Zeliang also defended the NPFs alliance with the BJP. Our association is older than the pre-poll alliance of 2003. It is a friendship for peace and development, not interfering in religious beliefs. Had that been the case, none of our BJP legislators would have remained Christians, he said.

The chief minister also ruled out the merger of his faction of NPF  most of who are expelled or suspended by the Shurhozelie faction  with the BJP or with the Democratic Progressive Party formed some time ago by some NPF dissidents.

NPF is our roots and we will make the party stronger in the assembly election next year, he said.

Before the fortnight-long power struggle that saw him lose the CMs chair, Shurhozelie, too, said the BJP is a natural ally of the NPF but did not explain why his NPF faction severed ties with the saffron party.

We will go on our own now, but I will continue to support (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi and treat the BJP well, he said on the final day of his campaign for the bye-election to the Northern Angami-1 assembly seat on July 29.

The bypoll became necessary after Shurhozelies son Khriehu Liezietsu quit to enable his father to contest and win for continuing as the chief minister. But Shurhozelies ouster is said to have made the bypoll a mere formality.

I had retired from politics in 2012, but the party asked me to continue as president and the post of chief minister was thrust upon me in February (after a violent agitation against women quota in civic polls made Zeliang resign). I am now compelled to contest the election, said the 81-year-old Shurhozelie, a scholar of Naga literature.

His lone rival is Kekhrie Yhome, a rights activist and academician who is a guest lecturer at Nagaland University.

There is hardly any buzz around the by-poll, but hardliners in NPF believe this could be the trial for the assembly election expected to be Christianity versus Hindutva contest.

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Widening its probe, the NIA issued summons to Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelanis elder son Nayeem on Thursday, asking him to appear before it for questioning on Monday in connection with its probe in the terror funding case in the Kashmir Valley.

A surgeon by profession, Nayeem had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years there.

He is tipped as the natural successor to the Geelani-led Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro- Pakistan hardline groups.

Officials privy to the developments said the summons has been issued to Nayeem to appear before the NIA on July 31 in connection with the case of terror funding in the valley.

Geelanis son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh has already been arrested by the NIA and was being interrogated in the same case, they said.

Besides him, Geelanis close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also spokesman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and Peer Saifullah were also arrested by the NIA from the Valley earlier this week.

Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, as also Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyats Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate have also been arrested, the officials said.

All of them have been remanded to 10 days of NIA custody.

Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ul-Dawah, the front of another proscribed outfit Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and all-woman outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of the HM, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, LeT, other outfits and gangs.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in Kashmir valley by way of pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

In pursuance of this case, the NIA had conducted widespread searches on the suspected persons in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana and incriminating documents, electronic devices, cash and other valuables worth crore of rupees were unearthed.

For the the first time since the rise of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s, a central probe agency had carried out raids in connection with the funding of separatists and carried out arrests.
The 19th-century German statesman Otto von Bismarck said politics is the art of the possible, the attainable ... the art of the next best and it aptly describes Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumars yet another political somersault to seek renewal of ties with a friend-turned-foe-turned-friend -- the BJP. (LIVE UPDATES)

Kumar had taken a moral high ground in June 2013 when he broke his 17-year tie with the Bharatiya Janata Party over the naming of Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

In August 2014, he joined hands with one of his bitter rivals of two decades and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad for assembly by-polls in Bihar after their respective parties were routed in that years Lok Sabha elections. The Congress too became a part of the so-called secular formation.

Kumar then insisted the alliance between his Janata Dal (United) and the RJD was the need of the hour as the country was in danger with the Modi government out to spread religious passion to grab power in states.

The Mahagathbandhanor grand alliance of the JD(U), RJD and the Congress defied the Modi wave to register a stupendous victory in the 2015 assembly elections, which saw vicious campaigning.

At a rally in Muzaffarpur on July 25, 2015, Modi attacked the JD(U) leader over his frequent change of political allegiances, saying it seemed that there was some problem with Nitish Kumars DNA.

I was hurt when he withdrew his support. But when he did the same thing to a Mahadalit such as Jitan Manjhi, then I figured out there is something wrong in his political DNA, Modi had said.

Kumar termed the remarks as an insult to the people of Bihar and insisted that this gave credence to the feeling that Modi and his party hold a prejudice against the people of the state.

Two years later on Tuesday, Kumar whole-heartedly thanked Modi for congratulating him on his decision to resign as the chief minister of the Mahagathbandhan over allegations of corruption against Prasads family members.

Maintaining that he listened to his inner conscience, Kumar within minutes met BJP leaders to formalise his return to the NDA fold after a gap of nearly four years and finalise the shape of his new government.

But Kumar is not alone in such flip-flops in politics.

On September 27, 2013, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi stormed the Press Club of India at Delhis Raisina Road unannounced to criticise the UPA governments ordinance that sought to reverse a Supreme Court judgment on the immediate disqualification of lawmakers convicted in a criminal case carrying jail terms of more than two years.

The move could have helped Prasad, who in September-October 2013 was rendered ineligible from contesting elections for 11 years after being convicted in a corruption case and sentenced to five years in prison by a special CBI court in Ranchi.

The ordinance is complete nonsense and should be torn up and thrown out, he had said. Gandhi later justified his partys alliance with Prasad, saying the tie-up was with a political party, with an idea and not an individual.

Again in 2016, the Congress struck an alliance with arch-rivals Left Front against Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal but fought a bitter electoral battle against each other in Kerala. The grand old party performed badly in both the states.

Prior to that in Jammu and Kashmir, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the BJP were at each others throats in November-December 2014 elections. Modi repeatedly attacked PDP founder Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti in his election campaign.

But in March 2015, the two diametrically opposite ideologies joined hands to form a coalition government, a move Sayeed had then equated to bringing together of the North Pole and the South Pole.

Perhaps these are not the only the examples. Politics makes for strange bedfellows explains best the changing affiliation of the political class.

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Within 18 hours of resigning as Bihar chief minister, Nitish Kumar took oath on Thursday as the head of the government for the sixth time with the BJPs Sushil Kumar Modi as his deputy.

He will seek a trust vote on Friday after re-forging a partnership with the BJP, four years after he walked out of the NDA.

His surprise resignation sank the three-party grand alliance of his Janata Dal (United), Lalu Prasads Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress that defeated the BJP in the 2015 state elections.

Kumars switch upset several leaders of the JD(U) as well, including parliamentarians and local unit heads. Sharad Yadav, who led the party before Kumar, is also said to be displeased with the chief ministers unilateral decisions.

RJD chief Prasad accused Kumar of cheating the people of Bihar and said in Ranchi he could challenge in the Supreme Court the governors action of disallowing his party, the single largest with 80 legislators, to stake claim to form a new government.

Numbers seems to favour Kumar. The JD(U) has 71 MLAs, the BJP 53, other NDA partners five. Besides, two of the four independents have backed the NDA, making a bloc of 131, which is nine more than the majority mark in the 243-member assembly.

The RJD-led grouping has 107 members, including the Congresss 27. Two independents and three CPI-ML members are unattached.

Law experts believe a legal fight against Kumar may fall flat as the Goa and Manipur instances proved this year. The Congress won more seats in both states in the 2017 state elections, but the BJP tied together bigger combinations. The top court dismissed the Congresss challenge.

They said Bihar governor KN Tripathis action was not illegal.

After a crisis the concept of who has the larger and a stable combination comes. So the governor has the discretion to call a combination or party who will enjoy majority on the floor of the House, senior advocate Rajeev Dhawan said.

Governor Tripathi, who was admitted to hospital on Wednesday when the political drama played out in Patna, returned to Raj Bhavan and administered the oath to Kumar at 10am.

The cabinet would be expanded after Fridays vote, sources said.

Sources said the JD(U) could get a ministerial position in the Narendra Modi government during a reshuffle planned after Parliaments monsoon session. The move would make the alliance complete at the Centre and the state, and check rumblings within the party.

JD(U) leaders, including Rajya Sabha members Ali Anwar and Veerendra Kumar, attempted to persuade Sharad Yadav on Thursday to take the lead to oppose Kumar for allegedly not taking the party into confidence.

Veerendra Kumar said: He (Sharad Yadav) told me there is no question of accepting the current stand of Nitish Kumar.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi also criticised Kumar for dumping the grand alliance and joining the BJP.

The mandate was against the communal stand of the BJP but Nitish has chosen to embrace them. We were aware of what was going on for three-four months. This is the problem with Indian politics. For the sake of power and personal gains, they compromise with anything.

BSP chief Mayawati accused Kumar of betraying the people of Bihar. Democracy will be weakened. This is another example of hunger for power.

For his part, Kumar thanked Prime Minister Modi for his congratulatory message after being sworn-in.

He said his administration would not compromise on corruption and was hopeful that Bihars development agenda would gather momentum with the Centres support.

Kumars decision to quit came hours after the RJD chief ruled out the resignation of his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi, who is facing an investigation over an alleged land-for-hotels scandal.

Speaker Vijay Kumar Choudhary told reporters that in view of the trust vote, a day-long special sitting of the assembly has been convened on Friday.

The BJP sent party secretary Anil Jain and health minister JP Nadda to the swearing-in.

Nadda said: Kumars step is courageous and will send a positive message against corruption ... We will contribute to the states development with him.

The Kumar-Modi reunion makes the BJP-led NDAs bid to retain power in the 2019 general election stronger. The BJP and its allies rule 12 states that send 20 or more MPs to the Lok Sabha.

The oppositions attempts at forging a united front against the NDA took a hard hit after the exit of Kumar, identified with good governance and probity.

Who will be key faces in any such opposition front in 2019? Akhilesh Yadav, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Lalu Prasad? None of them can corner us on the issue of corruption or good governance. Nitish was a different matter, a BJP leader said.

(with agency inputs)

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Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar chief minister for the sixth time on Thursday, marking a dramatic transition of the state from a Grand Alliance government to an NDA regime.

Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi invited Nitish to form the government late on Wednesday night, hours after the JD (U) leader resigned citing differences with former ally, Lalu Prasad, over corruption charges against the RJD supremos son Tejashwi Yadav.

According to a Raj Bhawan statement, Nitish has to prove his majority within two days.

Kumar presented a letter of support by 131 members, including the BJP, two independents and legislators of BJP allies Hindustani Awam Morcha (HAM)-Secular and Rashtriya Lok Samata party (RLSP), the comminique issued from Raj Bhawan at 2.51 am said.

Governor has taken a decision after due deliberations following the submission of letter of support, it said.

It will be a homecoming of sorts for Kumar who had broken off a long alliance with the BJP in 2014, shortly after Narendra Modi was named as the NDAs prime ministerial candidate for the general elections.

He then cobbled together the so-called grand alliance with the RJD and Congress to win the assembly polls in 2015.

Kumars resignation ended a month-long uncertainly following the CBI filing an FIR against Tejashwi, the former deputy chief minister in the Nitish cabinet.

Along with Kumar, a BJP leader is also likely to take oath as deputy CM. Union health minister and senior BJP leader, JP Nadda, is expected to arrive in the state capital in the morning.

The BJP quickly extended support to Kumar, apparently to thwart any chance for the RJD claiming to be the single largest party with 80 members.

Though Tejashwi also met the governor to stake claim to the government, it was rejected.

BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said in a tweet that the NDA had the support of 132 members in the 243-member House, which means it also got support from the 4 independents. The JD-U has 71 legislators and the NDA 57.

While the RJD has 80 members, the Congress 27 and CPI-ML 3.

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Nitish Kumar resigns in blow to Mahagathbandhan, will return as Bihar CM with BJP support

Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday, torpedoing his so-called grand alliance with troubled allies Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress, and setting the stage for a new ruling partnership with the Bharatiya Janata Party. On a day of high political drama, Kumars surprise decision came hours after RJD chief Lalu Prasad ruled out the resignation of his son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi, who is facing an investigation over an alleged land-for-hotels scandal. They would have grown in stature had they explained, resigned I heard the voice of my conscience and decided to pull myself out of this coalition, Kumar said, referring to Lalu and his sons alleged involvement in corruption. Read the story here.

As Nitish, Sushil meet governor, Lalu says RJD too will stake claim to form Bihar govt

The RJD will stake claim to form the government in Bihar, the partys chief Lalu Prasad said late on Wednesday, hours after Nitish Kumar resigned as the chief minister. Kumar is expected to stake claim to form the new government on Thursday. Sushil Kumar Modi is likely to return as the deputy chief minister. Nitish Kumar has underlined that he is an opportunist. Having done what he has, he cannot stake claim without a challenge. The Congress, CPI-ML and independents will back our claims to form the next government, Prasad told reporters late on Thursday while travelling to Ranchi to appear at a fodder scam court hearing. Read the story here.

Nitishs resignation as Bihar CM hits idea of Grand Alliance at national level

Nitish Kumars decision to resign as chief minister on Wednesday dealt a blow to the Congress and the opposition parties that have been trying to cobble up a Bihar-type mahagathbandhan, or Grand Alliance, ahead of the 2019 general elections. Kumars exit from a coalition with RJDs Lalu Prasad and the Congress underscores the challenges of such pacts, where once rival regional parties attempt joining hands, often as secular coalitions, to take on the Bharatiya Janata Party. A premise has come to exist that the BJP will win the 2019 elections as well. This is attracting fence sitters and leaders of smaller regional parties. The grand alliance idea at the national level is in complete disarray, said political scientist CP Bhambri. Read the story here.

BJP chief Amit Shah, Smriti Irani to contest Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Wednesday fielded its president Amit Shah for the August 8 Rajya Sabha election in Gujarat. Shah is currently a member of the Gujarat legislative assembly and this is for the first time that he will become a member of Parliament. Union minister Smriti Irani, too, has got a BJP ticket to contest the poll for membership of the upper house. Three Rajya Sabha members from the western state  Irani, Dilipbhai Pandya and Congress Ahmed Patel  are retiring next month. Patel filed his nomination papers on Wednesday. Read the story here.

Privacy a fundamental right, but it is conditional: Centre to Supreme Court

Privacy is a fundamental right but it is conditional, the central government said in the Supreme Court on Wednesday, retreating from its previous position that the privilege isnt guaranteed by the Constitution. Attorney general KK Venugopal stated the governments revised stand before a nine-judge bench led by Chief justice JS Khehar that will decide if the Constitution guarantees privacy to citizens. It is conditional right and should be determined on a case-to-case basis, Venugopal said. He argued that Indias constitution-makers deliberately omitted privacy as a fundamental right, but it is similar to the right to liberty that Article 21 of the statute guarantees. Therefore, every aspect of it cannot be elevated as a fundamental right. Read the story here.

33 die, including 17 of family, in the past 48 hrs as floods lash Gujarat

At least 33 people, including 17 members of a family, have died in the past 48 hours in Banaskantha district of north Gujarat, officials said on Wednesday, where tens of thousands of people have been affected by one of the worst floods in the recent times. Almost the entire Thakor family at Khariya village drowned in floods caused by incessant rains that have lashed the district in the past three days. The dead include six brothers and their families. Dasaji Thakor was the only survivor from the ill-fated family. Read the story here.

Subtle fear pervades politics: Gopalkrishna Gandhi

Gopalkrishna Gandhi, the oppositions vice-presidential candidate, has expressed concern over the prevailing political atmosphere in the country, saying a subtle fear pervades our politics today that converts a majority from an honest weightage of democratic opinion into majoritarianism. Two ways of life are now before us. One, that which wants Indians to have freedom of conscience, thought and speech so that the best ideas and energies can be devoted to raising the poor, the marginalised and the discriminated, making India a Republic for all its citizens, he wrote in a letter to Members of Parliament (MPs). Second, that which wants India to be dominated by one political ideology, one religious order, one majoritarian grip on all, making India a nation of stark, severe and strict uniformity, he said. Read the story here.

PM Modi flew non-official trips to rallies in IAF planes at rates fixed in 1999

The Prime Ministers Office has paid around Rs 89 lakh to the Indian Air Force for flying Narendra Modi on 128 non-official domestic trips since he took office, an expense that was lower than what it would have been had the PM used through commercial providers. The trips were largely for electioneering, and Indias election code makes it must for ministers  including the PM  to reimburse the government if its machinery is used in such cases. The flights provided by IAF were mostly when the Prime Minister had to fly out to remote locations in helicopters or small planes. The rates for these flights were last revised by the defence ministry in 1999. Read the story here.

Venkaiah Naidus response to corruption charges raises more questions

The Congress on Wednesday kept up its attack on NDA vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu over the allegation of corruption against him and his family members, and questioned the silence of PM Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah on the issue of probity and transparency in public life. The party claimed that Naidus response to its allegations against him on the issue of probity had raised more questions. Caesars wife must be above suspicion. People of India demand answers. It is time PM, BJP chief and Naidu break silence and answer questions instead of hiding behind platitudes, said Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala. Read the story here.

Small traders reluctant to accept Rs 2,000 notes

Small traders and business people are reluctant to accept the new Rs2,000 currency notes fearing the government might withdraw them and because of high possibility of they being fake, HT has found. Where will the traders go if the government withdraws Rs2,000 note? asked Sandeep Bansal, president of Uttar Pradesh Udyog Vyapar Mandal. Rishi Pal, a trader in Haryanas Hisar, recalled the problems business community faced after Rs1,000 and Rs500 notes were culled on November 2016 and said they didnt want to undergo a similar pain again. Read the story here.

Donald Trump bans transgender people from US military

US President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in the US military in any capacity any longer, reversing a 2016 order by the Barack Obama administration. Trump made this announcement in a string of tweets, taking even the Pentagon by surprise. There are an estimated 6,630 transgender individuals in active military service out of 1.3 million personnel. Read the story here.
External affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that there was no quid pro quo with China on the issues of "sufferings" of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to residents of Arunachal Pradesh by Beijing.

Responding to supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal residents by China, she said the issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or that of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The issue has been raised by us.

Asked about India's stand on Tibet, she said We used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear.

On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the minister said, We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them.

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and the government allowed him to do so.

This is not the first time but the fifth or sixth time that he is visiting that place, she said.

Whatever issue that is there and goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," Swaraj added.

To a question, she said there was no policy under which Chinese companies are denied security permission. She also objected to a member raising the issue of a particular Chinese company in the House.

She said that denial of security permission to one particular company cannot determine the relations between the two countries. The minister said it is done under a process and if a Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.

To another question on the cancellation of a visit of Indian journalists to Tibet by China, minister of state for external affairs M J Akbar said there is no official information from China about it.

He said Indian journalists are independent and take their decisions independently and it was between them and the Chinese authorities about the visit to Tibet.

Akbar said in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Xi Jinping in Astana, a close development partnership issue was raised and both countries decided to increase people-to-people and media contacts and decided to do everything to bring the two countries together.

We will continue to make such efforts and take them forward," he said, adding that a high-level media forum has been established to further strengthen media exchanges.

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Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi discussed major problems in bilateral relations during a meeting in Beijing on Thursday, the first substantial contact since the two sides became engaged in a military standoff in Doklam (Donglang) area near the Sikkim border in mid-June.

Details of their discussions were not immediately available but a brief readout from the Chinese side said Yang brought up bilateral issues and major problems during the meeting.

Doval is in Beijing to attend a two-day BRICS security summit but the focus has been on his bilateral interactions with the Chinese leadership against the backdrop of the standoff and intense speculation on whether the two sides would begin a conversation to ease tensions, if not resolve the impasse.

Earlier, there was a question mark on whether Doval and Yang would have a one-on-one meeting given that China had set the withdrawal of Indian troops from Donglang as a precondition for a meaningful dialogue on the standoff.

Official Xinhua news agency didnt share details of the meeting between Doval and Yang but gave a broad outline.

Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi Thursday met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, Xinhua reported.

Yang also separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems, it added.

Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had briefly met president Xi Jinping where they reportedly discussed a range of issues during an informal gathering of BRICS leaders in Hamburg.

China has blamed India for the standoff at Donglang or Doklam, accusing Indian soldiers of trespass and preventing Chinese soldiers from building a road in the area. The region is under the control of China but claimed by Bhutan.

India said it acted in coordination with Bhutan to oppose the road construction, which would represent a significant change of status quo with serious security implications.

Foreign minister Wang Yi told reporters Bangkok earlier this week the problem was very straightforward and even Indian officials publicly said that Chinese soldiers didnt enter the Indian territory. In other words, (the) Indian side admitted (crossing) into Chinese territory.

The resolution of the problem is very simple, he said: Indian troops have to go out.

Doval and Yang are also the officials currently leading the talks under the special representatives mechanism between India and China to resolve the boundary issue. As many as 19 rounds of talks have been held under the mechanism.
The Odisha government on Thursday issued a gazette notification renaming Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district as Abdul Kalam Island to mark the second death anniversary of the former President.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had died on July 27 in 2015 while delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya.

With the view to paying a humble tribute to the former President of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the state government on obtaining no objection certificate from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, do hereby rename the Outer Wheeler as APJ Abdul Kalam Island, read the notification.

Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that the island will be renamed after the Missile Man, who had worked as a scientist at the Integrated Test Range, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Balasore.

Meanwhile, sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created five sand sculpture of Kalam at Puri beach with the messages Tribute to common man, Missile Man, Bharat Ratna, Peoples President, Students Icon.

The artist has created five faces of Kalam with five messages using six tonnes of sand.

It was a great honour for me when Kalam gave me a cheque of Rs 3,000 from his personal account. It was today that we lost the nations Missile Man, Peoples President with a simple heart and beautiful mind and soul who was an inspiration to the nations youth, he said.
Just before the last assembly elections, Sushil Kumar Modi sat in his war room at 1, Polo Road residence, close to the Loknayak Jayprakash Narayan international airport, pondering over reams of paper churned out by his staff seated in another room. Party chief Amit Shah was about to unleash a barnstorming of Bihar; so was Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Where would I fit in and how, he may have wondered even as party supporters crammed every nook and corner of the expansive house and spilling onto the manicured lawns.

Never the reclusive, despite, chief minister Nitish Kumar turning him and his party into a pariah in 2013 by splitting the hugely successful NDA regime since 2005, the challenges ahead were clear: Would he be able to charm the Bihar constituency so riven by caste and against such a formidable opposition unleashed by his former friends of Jayprakash Narayan days in 1973 - Lalu Prasad and Nitish Kumar - who had so unpredictably come together.

Sushil Modi or SuMo, as he is often called, had been the most visible face of the BJP, rising steadily through the ranks to become Bihars deputy chief minister after the party won 91 seats of the 100 it fought in 2005 in alliance with Mr Development Nitish Kumar.

But in 2015, his party lost to the caste arithmetic despite that fact that Modi attended over 1200 rallies through the 40 constituencies and 242 segments relentlessly for over three months flying and walking over 35,000 miles across Bihar, as he recalled. The saffron chant of Yahan bhi Modi, wahan bhi Modi (A modi here, a Modi there), a slogan that sowed more envy in his own ranks and unexpressed anger, also did not work.

He spoke relentlessly of political perfidy, wondered how Kumar, who had opposed scam-tainted Prasad to win two elections in 2005 and 2010, could go back to the same person again? Non-charismatic but straightforward and sharp on analytics, his stoic rendering of his politics failed to work. The BJP, which had just 53 seats before it joined Kumar, had fallen to exactly to the same number and its NDA allies secured another 5 seats  far short to ensure a shot at governance or even a future.

That started SuMos slide in the eyes of his party and his relegation to the second tier within, as younger leaders were pitchforked, his assignments cut down and his role limited to Bihar, even as much less articulate or efficient became prime movers in UP elections and elsewhere.

He wistfully watched the development and feared that his over 47 years of dedication to the ABVP, the Janata Party, and the BJP, stood wasted. His big backer and Bhisma, LK Advani too was out of favour and his backing of Kumar, even describing his dost (friend) as a future prime minister, seemed to have done him the ultimate harm as anti-groups within the BJP now openly gunned for him.

Lesser mortals would have baulked just thinking about tracking a climb back. Then, as he does best, the thinker in him plotted his return to the centre stage.

I have had an uncertain childhood and I have seen poverty and want. In the political years, my party emerged as the family to keep me strong, he averred, wishing away any bitterness he may have had at the turn of events. If he thought otherwise, he never showed.

Reluctantly recounting his father Moti Lal Modis struggles on the pavements of Patna Market in Nauhatta, selling inner garments laid out on an upturned umbrella after the Marwari Bania family had to migrate to India during Partition, he talked of the struggles for an education and money to keep the soul alive.

Money was hard to come by and despite mother Ratnas aspiration to see SuMo in best of schools, he had to change several schools. He then joined Patna University to top the botany stream before he plunged into student politics in 1973, even as the Gujarat students movement was making an impact to sow a whirlwind a year on under the iconic leadership of JP.

He shared space with his now bete noire Prasad, then president of Patna University students union, two years older than him. He also knew Kumar, a law student nearby, and the same age as him. We were a threesome, he recalls and letting escape a smile.

The JP movement was his big launch into politics and the experience at the ABVP helped him refine the nuances. He was detained under Maintenance of Internal Security Act (MISA) in 1974 and during Emergency in 1975 but emerged as a legislator from Kumhrar constituency in Patna in 1990  a path that would take him to heights of power.

After 2014 - after the Bihar drubbing - Modi, who had been a deputy chief minister and chairman of the central committee on GST, would have expected some leeway. He was ignored, sidelined, and not offered a Rajya Sabha seat, or even a minor ministership at the Centre, which he may have expected. The blow came when his supporters were selectively removed from party posts  few survived. The marginalisation had seemed complete.

Then came the Lalu papers, which SuMo, the man with an eye for detail unearthed. The series of exposes over 100 days and running into 3000 pages of documents unerringly hit back at Prasad and his family successfully cornering the Yadav first family and rendering it speechless.

Modi unearthed the land, which was registered in the familys name in lieu of farming out of railway land, the illegal farmhouses in Delhi amassed by Prasads daughter and Rajya Sabha MP, Misa Yadav, and her husband Shailesh, the illegal petrol pump of Tej Pratap Yadav, his older son, and 26 properties of former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, half of which he acquired by transfer in benami or proxy deals.

The impact on Bihar was numbing. Modi exposed one by one the role of former Union ministers from the RJD in fattening Prasads purse and expanding his landed possessions and how the RJD chief made his followers transfer land for a slice of pelf and power. With law enforcing agencies such as CBI and the Enforcement Directorate picking up the scent and lodging FIRs, Modi re-established himself as the numero uno politician in the state BJP once again to the discomfiture of his detractors.

His old friend Kumar may have ensured he is back as the deputy chief minister, but Modis efficiency in managing difficult departments such as finance and being a valuable aide to guide the government in the first two Bihar NDA stints have had a part in his return.

His relevance to Bihar and the BJP has just been re-established and revalidated.

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The brutal gangrape and murder of a 16- year-old student in Shimla districts Kotkhai tehsil has pointed fingers at the increasing rate in crimes against women in Himachal Pradesh.

Figures sourced from police records reveal that there has been a gradual increase in crimes against women in the last five years. In 2012, a total of 183 rape cases were registered in the state. By 2014, it increased to 284, but fell to 244 in 2016. This year, so far 104 rape cases have been registered.

Similarly, cases related to molestation have also seen an upward trend. In 2012, there were 248 molestation cases registered in the state. By 2014, this clocked to 519 and fell to 405 in 2016. The figure for this year stands at 191 cases so far. However, on the other hand, there has been a general decline in the case of eve teasing. In 2012, there were 63 cases of eve teasing. This increased to 76 in 2014 but fell down to 50 in 2016. The figure for 2017 stands at 27 cases.

Speaking to HT about the increase in the number of registered cases related to crimes against women, director general of police (DGP), Somesh Goyal said this increase is a reflection that the women are getting more aware and are coming forward to file these cases.

The rising trend that you see can be attributed to more and more women coming out and reporting these crimes. It also shows the willingness of the police to freely register crimes. We have established eight women police stations in the state at Shimla, Mandi, Dharamshala, Baddi, Kullu, Sirmour, Una and Bilaspur. More such police stations will be set up in other districts shortly, the DGP said.

He added that police have also set up anti human trafficking units in Shimla, Kangra, Sirmour and Kullu.

However, social activists differ from the DGPs interpretation of the increasing trend.

Falma Chauhan, vice-president of All India Democratic Youth Federation, said, Crimes against women have increased in the recent past due to an overall deteriorating law and order situation in the state. The police does not have the required manpower to keep crimes under control. The government must act at the earliest.

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A bomb that smells like sewage and was intended to be used on protesters in Kashmir and elsewhere has been found to be a dud. Reason: the high threshold of Indians to tolerate stench.

Israeli security forces have been using the bomb on Palestinian protesters through water cannons since 2008, but it didnt meet the standards of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).

It is called Skunk and is in liquid form. It can be mixed with water for spraying on mobs, said a senior CRPF official who didnt want to be named because he isnt authorised to speak to the media.

The CRPF decided to test a few samples of the Israeli product a few months back. Tests were conducted and the stink bomb was found ineffective. The tests were carried out in Delhi.

The official said the liquid used in the bomb is harmless. Those who can ignore smell can drink the liquid also, said the official who has seen a report of the test.

The bombs smell takes days to fade even after showers.

We used it on a captive crowd consisting of CRPF personnel and general public. But they managed to tolerate the smell without much difficulty. Maybe Indians have a higher threshold of tolerating stench, said another official who was part of the team which tested the bomb.

Asked for a comment, CRPF director general RR Bhatnagar told Hindustan Times: We do not share reports such tests.

CRPF is searching for non-lethal methods to control mobs in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country.

Security forces in Kashmir used pellet guns on protesters in Kashmir after militant commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter on July 8 last year, but the small metal balls in the weapons injured people and blinded many.

The government then decided to look for alternative measures to control protesters, like using shells made of an organic compound found in natural chilli and deflectors fitted on pellet guns to avoid injuries to the upper body.

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Three militants were killed as Army foiled an infiltration attempt along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday .

Infiltration bid eliminated in Gurez Sector this morning. Two terrorists killed, an official army handle tweeted.

Minutes later, another militant was gunned down. The operation is in progress and further details are awaited.

In June, five militants were killed in north Kashmirs Uri sector while trying to enter the Valley.

The infiltration bid in Gurez comes at a time of increased cross-border hostility between India and Pakistan marked by shelling.
The Uttar Pradesh government will conduct walk-in interviews, apart from its regular recruitment process, to fill the shortage of general physicians and specialists in various state-run hospitals.

Uttar Pradesh Health Minister Sidhartha Nath Singh today informed the UP Legislative Council that there is a shortage of 7,338 doctors in different government hospitals in the state.

To fill the shortage, the government has decided to raise the retirement age of doctors from 60 to 62. Apart from this, the process to recruit doctors through the UP Public Service Commission is on, he said in a written reply

The government is going to start recruitment of doctors through walk-in interviews, the minister said.

This way 500 specialist doctors and as many general MBBS doctors will be recruited. The doctors will get good pay- scale, and the government hospitals will get good doctors, Singh said.
The nine-judge constitution bench of the Supreme Court hearing the privacy case asked the UIDAI on Thursday to explain how a chapter was dedicated to privacy in the Aadhaar law if it was not a fundamental right.

Justice RF Nariman, a member of the bench led by Chief Justice JS Khehar, posed the question to additional solicitor general Tushar Mehta who said he would place the authoritys stand before the court on August 1, the next date of hearing in the matter.

A one whole chapter in the Aadhaar Act deals with privacy interest. Is this not another legitimate recognition of it (privacy) being a fundamental right? Justice Nariman inquired from Mehta.

On his part, the law officer submitted that privacy and confidentiality were non-negotiable. There is no question of a compromise here, Mehta assured, saying he would place his arguments on the next date.

During the day-long hearing, the bench expressed concern over Aadhaar, which the government says is a tool to provide social welfare measures to the millions of poor in the country without any leakages.

Justice DY Chandrachud reminded Attorney General KK Venugopal that the petitioners challenging Aadhaar have not questioned the objective but raised fear of data breach.

Nobody claims it is not a social justice welfare scheme. What they are worried about is that whether information given to the agencies will be safe and for that do you have a robust law. And if you dont then you must have one, Justice Chandrachud told the law officer.

The judges remark came as Venugopal reiterated the government stand that privacy was multifaceted and every facet of it cannot be considered a fundamental right.

Informational privacy cannot be claimed in a situation where fundamental right of others will be defeated, he told the bench. While the Centre concluded its arguments on the privacy issue, the Maharashtra government took off from where the attorney general left.

It submitted that privacy is not a fundamental right and the Supreme Court should refrain from injecting it into the constitution.

Senior advocate A Sundaram, representing the Maharashtra government, told the court that Privacy can mean a lot of things. Moreover, right to privacy was considered by the Constitution makers but they decided to drop it as a fundamental right.
The BJP wasted no time on Wednesday to come to the support of Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, who resigned from the post citing certain circumstances that prevailed in Bihar. (Live updates)

Less than an hour after the partys high command announced the formation of a three member panel to consult MLAs over its next course of action, partys Bihar unit accepted Nitish as its leader.

We are not in favour of mid-term elections, Union minister JP Nadda had said after BJPs parliamentary board meeting. The BJP is committed to politics of development and stability. We welcome the fight against corruption in Bihar.

A three-member committee has been formed to chalk out the future course of action, Nadda said, adding that the central leadership will take a call based on the panels report.

Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was quick to announce partys support for Nitish. BJP will join the government, he said.

The likely reunion of the two parties will restore Nitish as the Bihar chief minister and put another state in BJPs kitty.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was first off the blocks to congratulate Kumar after he tendered his resignation. Congratulations! Mr Nitish Kumar for joining the fight against corruption. 1.25 crore people are welcoming and supporting his honesty, he said in a series of tweets. For the bright future of the country, and especially Bihar, it is the need of the hour to rise above political differences and join the fight against corruption, Modi said.

It was Modis rise as BJPs campaign committee chief in 2013 that prompted Nitish to break ranks with the NDA. As Bihar chief minister between 2005 and 2013  when BJP was part of the alliance  Nitish never allowed Modi to enter his territory for political rallies.

Modi defeated Nitish on his turf in 2014 Lok Sabha polls, and the Bihar leader settled score with the Prime Minister in Bihar assembly election in 2015.

But 2017 is different. You can add two and two, a BJP leader said. Our remarks on political instability and Nitishs hint that he cannot continue in the opposition camp any more.

A formal agreement between Nitish and Modi will deal a blow to the Oppositions effort to cobble together a front against the BJP in 2019.

Nitish was the brains behind the move, having first floated the idea of the merger of offshoots of erstwhile Janta Dal. It did not work.

Sources close to Nitish said he was getting impatient at how Opposition was approaching the next parliamentary election. The burden of running a government whose deputy CM is allegedly involved in corruption was too heavy for Nitish to carry on his shoulder, they said.

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In 2015, Burhan Wani, a 21-year-old militant commander from south Kashmirs Tral area, redefined militancy in Kashmir when he posted a picture of 11 gun-toting men dressed in army fatigues. For the first time, the militants were unmasked, in what seemed an open dare to the security forces in the Valley.

Two years later, most of the militants in the Valley, including Wani, have been killed in various encounters with security forces. The three surviving militants include Zakir Musa, who after Wani has become one of the most dreaded militant. But unlike Wani, Musa is making news for different reasons.

While Wani was a considerable moderate, whose last video message asked people to welcome tourists and Amarnath Yatris with open heart, Musa is known for more radical Sharia and Sahadat slogan.

The open radicalisation forced Musa to sever ties with the Hizbul Mujahideen, as the outfit trashed his threat to behead separatist Hurriyat leaders, a development that had the potential to impact militancy in Kashmir.

Musas decision signalled serious differences among home-grown militants and the outfits leadership, based in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

Islamic Kashmir, Not Secular One

Musa said the armed insurgencywhich has claimed the lives of thousands of civilians and security forces since 1989was aimed at the creation of an Islamic Kashmir, unlike the stated position of militants whose aim is to separate Kashmir from India.

...If Hizbul Mujahideen doesnt represent me, then I also dont represent them. From today onwards, I have no association with Hizbul Mujahideen, Musa had said in an audiovisual statement after facing criticism for his Hurriyat threat.

...Our intention should be that, we have to achieve azadi (freedom) to establish Islamic rule and not for secular state. If we are fighting for secular state, then my blood wont be spilled for that purpose.

The rift surfaced after Musa had called leaders of the Hurriyat Conference hypocrites, infidels, followers of evil and threatened to chop off their heads if they create hurdles in the path of making Kashmir an Islamic State.

He had said their heads will be hanged in Srinagars Lal Chowk, as Hurriyat leaders, including hardliner Syed Ali Shah Geelani and moderates Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik, had denounced Islamist organisations such as the ISIS and al-Qaeda, saying they had no role in Kashmir.

Analysts said separatists in Kashmir have always disassociated themselves from radical Islamist groups, mainly to maintain legitimacy as a political struggle that carried Kashmiris support and have always insisted that the struggle was indigenous.

Not only in the current geo-political situation, Kashmiri separatists have always distanced themselves from radicalised hardliners and groups such the ISIS and al-Qaeda, said senior journalist Sheikh Mushtaq.

Even incidents of waving ISIS flags in Kashmir were aimed at riling the government, police in Kashmir had always maintained.

Shift After Split

After the spilt, Musa did not restrict himself to the politics of Kashmir only, not only did he praise terror outfits like al-Qaeda , he also asked Indians to wage a holy war on those who claim to be gau rakshasks (cow protectors). The 4-minute audio clip was the first public statement by a Kashmiri militant on the self-styled vigilante groups.

Although DGP S P Vaid said nothing on the ground changes for the security establishment after al-Qaeda announcement, sources say the pattern of violence might change post the announcement.

He (Musa) represents the rabid element in militancy. He wants justification for robberies, civilian killings which he wants to find in radicalisation, said an official, who did not want to be named.

Born Zakir Rashid Bhat in July 1994, he was reportedly appointed commander after Wani was killed security forceswhich led to the 2016 Kashmir unrest in which at least 100 people lost their lives and thousands were injured.

He is of economically sound family from a family of professionals with an engineer father and a surgeon brother. No one though knows the reasons for his joining militancy.

Then a student of BTech in Chandigarh, he had come home for vacations with his friends from college and he decided to stay back. Days later, he left home to join Wani in the jungles. Musa has been classified as A++ category (the most dreaded according to police) and carries a bounty of Rs 10 lakh on his head.

While Musa has not been able to garner much support among the ranks of militants, slogans in his support have been heard in many funerals of militants lately.

Video evidence showed that pro-Musa slogans were raised even while an unruly mob was beating a police officer to death on Islams holiest night, Shab-e-Qadr during Ramzan this year.

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Siksha Sanskriti Utthan Nyas on Wednesday denied having suggested removal of Rabindranath Tagores works from NCERT text books, an allegation that opposition parties raised in Parliament on Monday and created a storm in West Bengal where Tagore is the greatest literary icon of all times.

The Nyas is headed by Dina Nath Batra, former head of Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Defending itself against criticism from Bengals intellectuals and the masses, the Nyas held a press conference in Kolkata on Wednesday where it even disassociated itself from the RSS.

Read: No plans to remove Tagore from school books: Javadekar

We never wanted removal of poems by Tagore for whom we have great respect. It is a deliberate attempt to malign us, said Sushanta Sengupta, a lawyer representing the Nyas.

The Tagore poem in question is part of the English syllabus, whereas all our suggestions are for history, political science and Hindi, said Shiva Shankar Das, West Bengal secretary of the Nyas.

Following protest in the Lok Sabha by opposition parties over alleged suggestions to the NCERT by the Nyas  widely considered a pro-RSS organisation  Hindutva outfits in West Bengal faced widespread criticism from top Bengali intellectuals and social media users.

The NCERT has a target of publishing 4.25 crore books in 2017. (HT File Photo)

Tagore wanted a society where the mind is without fear. Its understandable that Tagore questions the interests of the RSS. This attempt to remove his poems calls for nationwide protest, said poet Shankha Ghosh, a Jnanpith winner.

On Wednesday morning, RSS south Bengal prant pracharak Bidyut Mukherjee issued a statement saying the Sangh had no links with the Nyas and activities of the outfit could not be attributed to the RSS.

In the afternoon, Nyas representatives met the media and claimed that they had nothing to do with RSS. We categorically deny having any link with RSS. Linking us with the RSS is a conspiracy, said Sengupta.

This surprised most of the journalists because they were invited to the press conference by Bengal RSS functionaries.

Former principal, Dina Nath Batra, at Sarsawati Bal Mandir school at Naraina Vihar in New Delhi India, on Monday, July 28, 2014. (HT File Photo)

In a written statement, National secretary of the Nyas, Atul Kothari, said the organisation had suggested removal of non-Hindi words from Hindi text books.

A lot of words from English, Urdu and Persian have been used in Hindi textbooks, which is against the countrys laws on use of language. On the other hand, Hindi and other Indian languages have not been used so much in English and Urdu books, Kothari said in the statement.

Read: RSS Dina Nath Batra wants Tagore, Urdu words removed from NCERT textbooks

The Nyas recommendations reportedly came in response to NCERTs call for suggestions for changes and corrections. The five-page recommendation titled Distortions in History Books seeks several changes in the way the Hindus have been portrayed.

In the class XI book titled Rajnitik Siddhant, the Nyas has objected to the use of the sentence: Nearly 2000 Muslims died in Gujarat in 2002 (page 105) and has remarked that the riots have been unnecessarily mentioned several times in the book.

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Flood situation in Bengal got worse on Thursday after Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) released more water from its dams and sounded a red alert in the lower catchment areas of the Damodar river.

An additional 2,49,450 cusecs of water was released from Durgapur barrage on Thursday morning. As a result, more areas in east Burdwan, Hooghly and Howrah were hit by flood. Two people died in the Barjora area of Bankura district and Baroan in Murshidabad district, taking the toll to eight.

Read: Bengal flood: Six killed; govt, DVC squabble over release of water from dams

Chief minister Mamata Banerjee visited flood-hit areas in Amta and Udaynarayanpur in Howrah. She accused the DVC of releasing water indiscriminately. The state government is doing whatever it can to save the people. The DVC should be more responsible and inform us before releasing water, she said in Howrah.

DVC officials said they informed the government on Wednesday evening that additional water would be released from the river dams because the upper catchment areas were overflowing. Irrigation minister Rajib Banerjee was however not ready to buy any explanation. We are tired of pleading with the DVC. They have been told several times to exercise control while releasing water. It seems DVC will break all records this year, said Banerjee.

Udaynarayanpur in Howrah district on Thursday witnessed the worst flood in recent years. (HT Photo)

Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy raised the issue in the Lok Sabha and said Bengal was witnessing a man- made flood caused by DVC authorities. CPI (M) Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee also raised the issue.

On Thursday, around 90 villages in Udaynarayanpur and Amta blocks of Howrah district got inundated. Embankments along the Rupnarayan river were breached. Situation in some pockets in the Arambag area of Hooghly district was described as critical by government officials.

In West Midnapore district, villages in Ghatal got flooded following a breach in embankment on the Silabati river on Thursday morning. Villagers in Chandrakona and Daspur areas were marooned. Bus services had to be suspended after roads were inundated.

Certain parts of Mohammad Bazar and Suri in Birbhum district were affected badly after more water was released from Tilpara barrage. Custodians of the century-old Kankalitala temple had to shift the idol of Kali to a safer place when flood water gushed inside.
Chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Wednesday advised people from both Hindu and Muslim communities to honour the advice of Supreme Court and come forward for a positive talk on out of court settlement of the Ayodhya issue.

In the temple town to attend the 14th death anniversary event of Mahant Ram Chandra Paramhansa Das, the first president of Ram Janam Bhumi Nyas, Yogi said he was close to Ayodhya and visits to the spiritual place could continue in future too.

Is it crime for me to visit Ayodhya as the CM, he said on objections raised by various parties on his frequent visit here.

Addressing the gathering at Digambar Akhada, Yogi said his Guru Mahant Avaidyanath and Mahant Paramhansa Das were close friends, another reason that brought him to Ayodhya quite often when he was not the CM.

He also visited Digambar Akhada to attend a condolence meeting organised on the 14th death anniversary of Paramhans.

He said Paramhansa was the key person of the Ram Mandir movement.

Addressing saints, he said his government was committed for the development of Ayodhya and Kashi, cities known worldwide as established centres of knowledge, traditions and culture.

He urged saints to work for the preservation of Indian culture and traditions and to spread the message of peace and non-violence from the land of Lord Rama. He said soon after his visit, the work of the renovation of Saryu Ghats will begin.

He informed that his government was also working to re-establish the tradition of Ram Leela at Ayodhya.
It is the best of times but also the worst of times for visually-challenged people like Xue Hong (pseudonym).

After living 50 years with a pair of beautiful eyes with perfect eyesight, she lost all sense of light in March due to a brain tumor. Had it happened years earlier, Xue would have to live with a cane, or if she can afford it, a guide dog. But now all she needs is a pair of special glasses.

In Hangzhou, a batch of special glasses is being prepared for its first delivery in late August.

The glasses, branded Intoer, from Hangzhou-based KR-Vision, can provide navigation support to blind people, including route and barrier detection, down to a few centimeters. With its help, blind people can avoid obstacles and walk up and down stairs.

(Photo/Courtesy of KR-Vision)

More than 200 of the first batch of 500 have been reserved. Later versions will add more functionality to help users see traffic lights, crossroads, cash, and even human faces or medical transcripts, according to Yu Honglei, CEO of KR-Vision.

Our core technology is acoustic coding, said Yu, founder of the company, which was born out of a laboratory at the College of Optical Science and Engineering at Zhejiang University. Associate Professor Wang Kaiwei from the university also serves as the chief scientist at KR-Vision, the only Chinese company focused on developing visual support glasses.

3D information of surroundings is collected and then converted into different sounds. Currently, the glasses use the sounds of seven musical instruments to mark out the environment. The company also provides an app called Ting You, or Hearing Pal, which allows users to customize their sounds to better see their environment.

Likewise, a US company is producing glasses based on a similar method, one which stimulates the tongue as a way to assist visually challenged people.

Located in the state of Wisconsin, the US medical device company Wicab has been boasting its BrainPort V100 Vision Aid since 2009. It first made a name for itself in China in 2015, when a young boy from Shanxi province who had lost his eyes was trained to see with the help of the device.

(File photo of a woman using Brainport V100 Vision Aid)

In 2016, the company set up operation in China. The company is currently collaborating with the China Disabled Persons Federation (CFDA) to help blind people train with the BrainPort device. It intends to apply for CFDA approval and start manufacturing the device in China, Kenny Min Zhou, general manager of Wicab China, told Peoples Daily Online.

BrainPort was cleared for distribution in the U.S. by the Food and Drug Administration in June 2015 and is commercially available in the U.S., E.U., and Hong Kong.

The companys founder, Professor Paul Bach-y-Rita, believed you don't see with your eyes, you see with your brain,said Zhou. According to the theory of neuroplasticity, the visual cortex is able to process the visual information by using sensory substitution.

Globally, more than 450 blind people have used BrainPort. Within an hour, most people can point to different shapes. After a few more hours, they can usually identify familiar objects and avoid obstacles, according to Zhou.

Wicab is also working with the Beijing Blind School to demonstrate the technology. Several children using BrainPort are now able to navigate the neighborhood, run on the track, and even throw darts. Though they remain unable to read books due to the limited acuity  it only has a resolution of 20x20 pixels, some can read simple Chinese characters in large print, Zhou revealed.

We expect future product development to include sensory technologies to provide users with additional information while making our products more efficient and affordable, he noted.

Technologies such as retinal implants, or bionic eyes, are limited to patients with retinitis pigmentosa and require special surgery. Our product provides similar if not better results and spares the eye in the event that a cure is later found. Also, the cost for our product is 1/15th that of a retinal implant, allowing us to serve more individuals, Zhou said.

A BrainPort device is priced at around 30,000 yuan  a good price for many patients. But compared to the Chinese device, it does not stand a chance, as Intoer is only priced at around 5,000 yuan.

We are similar to the U.S.-based Wicab, but our hardware is simpler and the core of our technology is the software. A user who has tried both products gave ours a thumb up for better interaction with the brain, Yu told Peoples Daily Online, adding that the Hearing Pal app also created a unique community for visually-challenged people, allowing them to better adapt to the product and express their support and encouragement.

Blind people need more than an assistive device in life. They must first be confident that they can do it, in addition to the professional training offered by us and by authorities as well. Then they will be gradually able to leave their house and meet the outside world, Yu said.

He added that the company also hopes to work with CDPF to add Intoer training to assistive programs.

It is delightful to see more and more companies across the world focus on solutions for visually-challenged people, because different people can come up with different approaches. The advancement of technology now grants easier access to solutions with open source software. China can especially stand out here, as we hold dear to the Internet way, of thinking which puts user experience at the core. We have been talking with different users during our trial phase so that we know how they really feel and what they really need, Yu said.
Two senior professors of Lucknow University have locked horns over entry of cars on the campus.

On Wednesday, Proctor Prof Vinod Singh issued a notice to Prof Nishi Pandey, which said entry of vehicles on the campus had been banned to ensure peace. Still she brought her vehicle inside which was not justified.

You are therefore requested to park your vehicle at the parking stand and walk inside like other respectable teachers, to help LU administration to effectively put a ban on entry of vehicles on the campus, reads the notice.

In reply, Prof Nishi Pandey wrote, I entered the campus on the basis of a pass carrying your signature which was duly placed on my vehicle.

Today I was told by the guard that Vishwajeet, a supervisor, had said no vehicle would be allowed to enter the campus. I showed him the pass and said there was no notice from the proctor about cancellation of the pass so I should be allowed to go in, reads her reply.

It is unfortunate that when you could have picked up the phone and spoken to me about cancelling my pass, you chose to issue me a notice of this nature. I have served with utmost integrity and discipline for the past 30 years and I strongly protest this treatment. I too have been a proctor and understand your compulsions but cannot understand your lack of personal courtesy towards a fellow colleague you have known for years, reads the reply.

Prof Nishi Pandey, who was the first woman proctor of the university, further said in her reply, I am deeply pained and saddened by your letter and attitude towards a fellow teacher.
Samajwadi Party (SP) president Akhilesh Yadav on Wednesday launched a bitter attack on the Yogi Adityanath government while speaking on the general budget in the Vidhan Parishad.

In a speech running around one-and-a-half hour, former chief minister tried to put the government in the dock on various issues, while recounting development works done during his government.

Drawing the attention of the house to the deteriorating law and order in the state, he said the crime situation was so bad that the government had nothing to speak about it.

Citing specific criminal incidents and cases of lawlessness by BJP leaders, he reminded the house how his government was used to be dubbed as government of goons.

Now, let us know as to how we should address your government, he asked turning to leader of the house and deputy chief minister, Dinesh Sharma.

He said his government was also accused of giving prime postings to officers belonging to a particular caste.

But what about your government, he asked.

Raising a question mark over the genuineness of the incident of discovery of an explosive substance which he termed as a puriya in the assembly, Yadav demanded the government to make the Agra and Hyderabad lab reports public.

He alleged the recovery of the puriya had to do with stopping movement of ex-MLAs and others on the Vidhan Sabha premise.

Insisting that it was unfortunate to kill human beings to save cows, he accused the BJP of spreading hatred in the society in the name of cow protection.

He said the BJPs love for cow was a sham and the government must explain as to how meet export from UP had increased despite ban on beef.

CBI PROBE INTO RIVERFRONT PROJECT

Akhilesh Yadav alleged the state government has recommended the CBI probe into his governments riverfront project because it happened to be superior to Sabarmati riverfront development project in Gujarat.

They are not able to digest this fact and hence the CBI probe. He said the architect of both the projects was same. Taking a dig at the central and the state governments plan to clean the Ganga by making villages open defecation free, he said making toilets were not enough unless people use them.

If not today, the government will realise tomorrow the key to the cleaning of the rivers lay in the Gomti riverfront-like projects, he said.

CBI CLUB IS EXPANDING

The former CM said there had been a tendency of the government at the Centre to misuse the CBI against opponents. The NDA government has now unleashed the CBI after Lalu Prasad Yadav. We are also the members of the CBI club and the club is expanding, he said.

Taking a dig at rumours about BJPs state president and deputy chief minister, Keshav Prasad Maurya being shifted to Centre as a minister, Akhilesh said he learnt someone was moving to Delhi. We are yet to become friend. Just imagine what will happen if we all three (SP, BSP and Congress) come together, he said.

BUDGET IS ANTI-DEVELOPMENT

He said the BJP governments first general budget was anti-development and aimed at cutting costs. He also asked the government why it delayed presentation of the budget. He regretted the government having discontinued previous regimes Smajwadi Pension Yojana adversely affecting 55 lakh poor women.

Yadav said the loan waiver announced by the government was inadequate for farmers.

He said the GST and the demonetisation had hit the economy hard. He asked the government to explain as to why rates of sand and maurang were increasing after introduction of e-tendering in mining projects. He questioned why Lucknow metro was not being started and dared the government to make an expressway better than the Lucknow-Agra expressway made by his government.

He signed off by reciting a couplet, Main sach kahoonga magar phir bhi haar jaunga, Wo jhooth bolega aur la jawab kar dega.
The two suspected Islamic State (IS) operatives, arrested from Kanpur by National Investigation Agency (NIA) on Tuesday, were sent to jail after a city court remanded them in 30-day judicial custody on Wednesday.

The NIA is likely to apply for their police custody to question them about their links with the self-radicalised IS module busted in March.

The NIA officials claimed that one of the two suspects Asif Iqbal is the cousin of Saifullah, who was gunned down in encounter with security agencies in Kanpur on March 7.

The officials also claimed he was involved in the plan to plant a bomb during Prime Minister Narendra Modis visit to the Aishbagh Ram Lila ground on Dusshera last year (October 11, 2016) but the security agencies foiled the attempt.

The second suspect Mohammed Atif was allegedly involved in supplying firearms to the group, the officials said. He was quizzed by the NIA in March but released after no substantial evidence was found against him at the time.

A source said the central agency produced them in the court of the district magistrate, Lucknow. They were sent to the Lucknow district jail after being remanded in judicial custody till August 24.

He said the NIA team had been keeping vigil on four youths of Kanpur after taking over the investigation in March this year. He said Mohammed Atifs role was under suspicion since the beginning but the agency initially had no substantial evidence to arrest him.

The source said Atifs role was confirmed in firearms apply when it cross-checked with Asif Iqbal, who had confessed to planting a bomb during the PMs visit to Aishbagh Ram Lila ground on Dusshera.

The Kanpur-based self radicalised IS module was busted after a pipe bomb blast on the Bhopal-Ujjain express on March 7. Saifullah, allegedly the groups main shooter and second-in-command, was holed up in a rented house in Haji colony of Kakori and gunned down after a 12-hour gunfight with ATS commandos that day. Nearly seven people including the group leader, Atif Muzaffar and key motivator, Gaus Mohammed Khan were arrested in the matter.
The opposition members, who have been boycotting the state assembly proceedings, will soon be given notices to explain the unavoidable circumstances that led to their move of running a parallel assembly in the central hall of the Vidhan Sabha.

State assembly speaker Hridaya Narain Dixit on Wednesday said: The oppositions move to run a parallel house is unfortunate. The law of natural justice requires hearing the oppositions point as well We will issue notices to those who ran a parallel house to know why they resorted to this step.

The speaker put forth this view when some members from the treasury benches demanded that the oppositions act be condemned and action be taken against its members for running a parallel house.

Manish Asija, a BJP member, raised the issue, saying the opposition members stayed away from the proceedings even when the house was mourning the death of its member Mathura Prasad Pal on Monday. He said the oppositions act was an issue of concern and must be condemned.

He said an opposition member had even acted as the speaker of the mock assembly. There was no justification for having an opposition member as the speaker when the house had its own speaker, said Ashija.

Read more: Opposition holds mock assembly in Vidhan Sabha Lucknow

Another BJP member Mayankeshwar Sharan Singh, along with some others, said senior members of opposition were present at the parallel house and punitive action should be taken against them.

Minister for parliamentary affairs Suresh Khanna said the assembly only had a condolence on its agenda on Monday. He said the Opposition had many options to express their anguish in the house. Khanna said the opposition members had been sent to the house to raise issues concerning the people. They were not able to give any valid reason for the boycott, he said.

They did not return to the house despite his appeal to them, said Khanna.
Upset over the Supreme Court ruling which cancelled the appointment of 1.69 lakh shiksha mitras as assistant teachers in government junior schools, a large number of contractual teachers staged demonstrations across the state on Wednesday.

PROTEST TURNS VIOLENT GORAKHPUR: The protest turned violent in Khalilabad where shiksha mitras damaged an air conditioner at the basic shiksha adhikari (BSA) office and set furniture afire in anger.

The protesters gave a memorandum to basic education miniser Anupama Jaiswal, stating that the Supreme Court observation asking shiksha mitras to clear the teachers eligibility test (TET) in two years will make the teachers jobless.

The minister said, Our legal team will study the order. We will follow the apex court order but will remain sympathetic towards para teachers. In Gorakhpur, teachers converged outside Gorakhnath temple to seek help from chief minister Yogi Adityanath, who is expected to arrive there on Thursday on the occasion of Nag Panchami. Some women protesters fainted during the agitation and were taken to hospital.

Over 500 shiksha mitras, including women, also tried to enter the temple. But they were stopped by the police. The protest continued for hours.

We respect the SC observation, but oppose such a move as the decision will render thousands of shiksha mitras jobless, said Sawan Kumar, a protester.

In Bahraich too, thousands of shiksha mitras held a protest at the office of the Bahraich district magistrate and blocked the Lucknow-Bahraich NH 28 C for hours. They raised slogans against the state and central governments.

Finally, the district administration managed to persuade the shiksha mitras to clear the blockade.

Despite the Right to Education Act 2009 that debarred untrained teachers from teaching in government schools, the Akhilesh government merged the post of shiksha mitras with the post of assistant teacher in 2014 and 2015.

On September 12, 2015, the Allahabad high court cancelled the merger. However, the Akhilesh government moved the apex court against the verdict of the Allahabad high court.

In the meantime, all the shiksha mitras continued working and drawing salary as assistant teachers.

In Lakhimpur Kheri, hundreds of Shiksha Mitras boycotted work and held a massive yet peaceful demonstration at the district basic education office on Wednesday.

Owing to boycott of work by shiksha mitras, hundreds of primary schools of the district remained closed on Wednesday.
Minister for prisons Jai Kumar Singh Jackie on Wednesday said jails in Uttar Pradesh were being equipped with 4G jammers to prevent misuse of mobile phones by inmates.

The minister, who was visiting the city, said new jails will come up in the state to relieve overcrowded prisons. Construction of new jails has already started at some places, he said.

He said employment programmes had been launched for prisoners to bring them into the mainstream.

Singh added that recruitment for the vacant posts in prisons will start soon.

The state government is serious for the welfare and rehabilitation of the prisoners.
A US photographer has taken photography of newborn children a notch higher with an adorable photo shoot of tiny babies dressed up as Disney princesses.

The photoshoot features six babies portrayed as various Disney characters, including Ariel from The Little Mermaid, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Belle from Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, and Jasmine from Aladdin.

Maternity nurse turned photographer Karen Marie, of Belly Beautiful Portraits, used her lens to give life to her love for Disney. I grew up watching the classic Disney movies and just have always been a big fan, she told the InsideEdition.com

I have two daughters who are growing up and getting older. It was something that we enjoyed together when they were little, the Californian added.

From outfits to props and background, Marie took care of every little detail in the photo shoot and roped in a specialist designer from Sew Trendy Accessories to create the custom-made gowns.

The photos have been getting a lot of attention on social media after she shared them on Facebook and Instagram.

I think the reaction to the photos is more than I had ever imagined, she said.

Scroll down to view all the adorable mini princesses.

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Thanks to Google, plagiarising has now become a childs play. With a large number of sources available online, everyone has the liberty to lift content for their article, book or research paper. The recent case of chef Sunil Soni, author of Jashn-E-Oudh: Romance of the Cuisine, is a clear indication of how deeply ingrained copy- pasting is in our world today. Raj Kumar Saxena, who is the former principal of Institute of Hotel Management (IHM) Lucknow and Mumbai, accused Soni of plagiarism . Sonis book came out in 2015 whereas Saxenas two books on Awadhi cuisine came out in 2006 and 2015. However, its only now that Saxena realised that Soni had copied 42 recipes, 4 explanatory notes of recipes and 12 chapters notes from his own book. Thanks to social media, Saxenas plight came to light. A legal case was filed and the fight for justice is going on.

In the fight against plagiarism, social media has now emerged as a platform to fight those who shamelessly practise plagiarism. And one such person, who is leading the fight is the 45- year-old Rhea Mitra-Dalal. Mumbai based- Rhea is a blogger, food writer and caterer, who started a Facebook page- Food Bloggers Hall of Shame. The purpose of the group is to fight plagiarism in food writing and photography in India. In a conversation with HT, Rhea reveals why she started the group and how one can protect their work against plagiarism.

How the blog came to be

I started the group Food Bloggers Hall of Shame, a few years ago out of sheer frustration and because of rising incidents of plagiarism from blogs. There was a need for a space where one could discuss these incidents and deal with them. Most bloggers, myself included, had no idea how to tackle plagiarism or how to protect oneself from it. The group was a space to educate ourselves and to come together to fight plagiarism, instead of just venting our anger and frustrations without actually doing anything constructive.

The rampant problem of plagiarism and how to spread awareness against it

Plagiarism is rampant indeed and its not limited to written content. One sees innumerable instances of stolen photographs, too. And its not limited to food blogs and food-related content only, its a problem in many industries, though my knowledge of it is limited to the food industry. There are lazy bloggers who want quick growth (large follower numbers) and dont want to put in the effort of creating original content themselves  it takes effort, expense, and time.

Similarly there are lazy PR people who find it easier to simply use images and content that they find online rather than put in the effort of creating original content. The basic attitude is, I can do this and get away with it because the chances of getting caught are quite low. Then there are aggregator sites that collate content and serve it up without permissions or credit to the creator. You will see hundreds of these with generic names like Best Recipes, Easy Indian Food, Top Desi Recipes, etc., that simply copy and paste recipes from blogs. Sometimes they might mention the source, but rarely do they link back to the blog (thus generating traffic to the blog) and its even rarer that they have actually taken permission to use that content.

Spreading awareness is harder than you would believe. Most consumers of content dont really care where the content came from as long as they have access to it. Thats another thing plagiarists bank on  that they will get likes and views , even though it is a known fact that their content is stolen. It is only the creators of the content who are losing out and are constantly battling plagiarism.

Another problem is brands that engage with bloggers dont care if the blogger is a plagiarist, as long as the blogger has good numbers and a large enough audience. Is it any wonder that there is such a scramble to get ahead and grab plump contracts by any means possible?

How to protect ones work from getting plagiarised

Frankly, you cant really protect yourself. The Internet is huge and its very easy to crop out watermarks and ignore copyright warnings. Once you publish your content, it is out there accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. And of course plagiarism isnt restricted to the online space, books and publications arent spared either.

But just because its difficult and frustrating doesnt mean we do nothing about it. We have won many small battles by simply posting and reposting on social media  especially against celebrity chef fan pages and brand pages on Facebook. Though we have rarely got an apology from the offending page (these lapses are always blamed on the PR exec!) at least the stolen content has been taken down.

The legal loopholes that make copy- pasting easy

From the legal point of view, the content creator is always at a disadvantage. Not only are there so many loopholes that plagiarists take advantage of, but legal expenses and long drawn out cases also discourage bloggers from going the legal route. The only way to help bloggers and content creators is to revise the laws, make them tighter, so victims of plagiarism at least feel that the legal route will be worth the expense and time. As things stand today, we are on our own fighting plagiarism in a limitedly successful way using social media to expose thieves.

Recent cases of plagiarism

A few bloggers took The Frying Pan app (an aggregator app) to court for using their content without permission. We, as the blogger community, also came together and created a lot of awareness about this case across Facebook and Twitter. The matter was ultimately settled out of court and The Frying Pan has also changed its way of functioning to a more transparent format.

Hebbars Kitchen is a popular recipe video channel and there are innumerable bloggers who have found their content on this channel without requisite permissions. The channel however thrives because, as I said earlier, the consuming public doesnt care where the content comes from as long as they have easy access to it.

More recently, there was the case of the book Dastarkhwan-e-Awadh by Sangeeta Bhatnagar and R K Saxena being plagiarised by Sunil Soni in his book Jashn-e-Oudh. The case is in court as far as I know.

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Mubarakan

Cast: Anil Kapoor, Arjun Kapoor, Ileana DCruz, Athiya Shetty

Director: Anees Bazmee

Rating: 2.5/5

Anees Bazmees Welcome is one of the most underrated comedies of recent times. However, over the years, it has become one of the most watched films on TV.

In fact, its situational comedy is a lesson in comic timing and how to carry off a slapstick humour. This amazingly funny film revolves around an eligible bachelor who falls in love with a gangsters sister, and how he creates confusion to have his way. Since then, Bazmee has directed Singh Is Kinng, No Problem, Thank You, Ready and Welcome Back. All these films had the theme of marriage at the centre.

Watch: Our Facebook Live discussion on Mubarakan, Indu Sarkar and Raag Desh

Bazmees latest Mubarakan follows a similar trajectory, with a double-role angle. Separated in childhood, twins, Karan and Charan (both played by Arjun Kapoor) are expected to marry as per their guardians wishes, but they are already in love with Sweety (Ileana DCruz) and Nafisa (Neha Sharma).

Things get complicated when Charan gets engaged to a another girl, Binkal (Athiya Shetty) in London. The shy guy couldnt gather the courage to tell his parents about his love life and that leads to a big-intra family feud that ends when Charans uncle swears to marry him off in exactly one month.

However, Kartar Singh (Anil Kapoor) is yet to arrive and add more confusion to the already-messed up affair.

Mubarakan is a typical Bazmee film which starts with loud background music and solid bass. The hero walks in slow motion and dances to peppy tunes, but shows a docile attitude in front of the heroine. Arjun Kapoor takes a cue from Akshay Kumar in Welcome and jumps into this mad-caper wholeheartedly. Its just that Anil Kapoor is a pro at it and steals all the limelight from him.

His character drives a vehicle that has slogans like Buri nazar wale tera muh gora and You are chasing a Punjabi written all over it. He then employs an English man who mouths dialogues like Baadshaho tussi lassi pio and Meri pagar padhao.

Most of us dont expect any sort of explanations from such a film, so it keeps moving from Chandigarh to London in a jiffy with songs thrown in occasionally. Theyre anyway needed to hold attention in this 156-minute film.

You also find dialogues like, Ye zaroor druggie hai? Ye Punjab se aaya hai. Then somebody casually mentions, Udta Punjab, and everybody starts laughing.

Anil Kapoor, however, tries his best to hold the family and the story together. As someone who unknowingly keeps creating chaos, he has been rightly given a good screen time. The only actor who outperforms in a couple of scenes is Pavan Malhotra. As an always angry hotelier who hates to be seen down upon, he is hilarious.

Mubarakan shows some witty character sketches before losing its charm in the later half. The indecisive Arjun Kapoor and self-musing Anil Kapoor successfully establish a mood where you dont mind dialogues like, Iss baar Christmas 25 ko hai? or, Ye mooli, maamooli nahi hai. In fact, you laugh when somebody falls off a window while trying to find the mobile network. Well, I did.

Unfortunately, such moments keep getting fewer in number in the second half as the film gets totally centred on Anil Kapoor and his antics. Unlike Welcome, he doesnt get much support from his co-actors and gigs become repetitive in nature.

Some of Priyadarshans most likeable comedies also deal with an army of actors and a confusing thread in the climax, but he doesnt waste much time in clearing the confusion. Bazmee takes time here as some of his characters go for long monologues. This slows down the pace and gives the audience a chance to realise the loopholes in the otherwise over-simplified story.

Mubarakan is designed as a family film where comedy is generated through quarrelling relatives. This works initially but goes out of control later.

But that doesnt mean you wont be entertained. Youll be occasionally laughing, but probably wont be leaving the theatre with a big smile on your face.

Interact with Rohit Vats at Twitter/@nawabjha

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BERLIN SYNDROME Direction: Cate Shortland Actors: Teresa Palmer, Max Riemelt Rating: 2.5 / 5

One of the rare Australian films to be accorded a commercial release here, Berlin Syndrome is a woman in jeopardy thriller.

A young photographer (Teresa Palmer) newly arrived from Brisbane strikes up a friendship with an English teacher (Max Riemelt) in the former East Berlin. But their one-night tryst turns into a nightmare when she discovers the next morning that her lover has imprisoned her in his soundproof apartment.

After numerous unsuccessful attempts at escape, the captive gradually begins to redevelop feelings towards her tormentor.

The action is largely confined to the single claustrophobic location, but the shifting alliance between the hapless victim and her psychotic abductor isnt exploited as well as it could have been, as the script grinds down to its embarrassingly pat conclusion.

Director Cate Shortland shows restraint while handling the scenes of sex and violence, but some of her artsy flourishes, including repeated spurts of slow-motion, are very jarring.

Palmer brings conviction to her role; as the deceptively mild-mannered antagonist, German actor Riemelt fits the bill adequately.

Berlin Syndrome is worth a watch but only for want of a more rewarding alternative at the multiplexes this week.

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Two junior KG students were injured after a coconut tree fell on their class at Joymax School, Ghatkopar (East) in Mumbai. The tree was recently pruned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC).

Last week, a 57-year-old yoga teacher succumbed to her injuries after a tree fell on her in Chembur, while another tree fall in Parel injured two people  a 75- year-old and a 65 -year-old - injured on Sunday.

The woman was returning home from her yoga classes last week when the tree fell on her, injuring her neck, at Kurla Road near Swastik Park at Chembur (East). Nath was rushed to the hospital by vendors who witnessed the incident.

The woman was in a coma for two days, before she succumbed to her injuries.

All these incidents have put the BMCs tree pruning exercise under the scanner.

According to data released by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), it had pruned 60,000 trees in the city ahead of monsoon.
Four days before Siddhi Sai building in Ghatkopar collapsed, officials from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporations N ward office visited the spot to initiate the procedure to cancel the licence of Sena leader Sunil Shitaps nursing home on the ground floor.

The closure report for the licence submitted by the team did not mention any renovation work being undertaken on the ground floor, which the residents claimed started around 10 days ago.

While Shitap has been arrested for carrying out illegal alterations to the building which allegedly led to the collapse, a question remains unanswered  did BMC ignore the work on purpose?

Seventeen people died as the five-storey building near Shreyas cinema in Ghatkopar collapsed on Tuesday.

Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis has ordered a probe into the incident, which will be headed by a senior IAS officer.

Bhagyashree Kapse, the officer who headed Ghatkopar ward office of the BMC, said the report her office received from the team did not mention any renovation work. Further, the residents of the building too did not lodge any complaint against Shitap.

Even if there were changes made to the structure three days after the inspection, residents should have complained to the ward office. We did not receive any complaints, said Kapse.

Residents alleged Shitap told them he had received permission from the civic body to carry out the work.

Birendra Singh, a resident who survived the collapse, said Shitap had called for a meeting 10 days ago where announced he had the permission to carry out the work. We objected to it. I was trying to register a complaint with the N ward, but was unable to reach the right person, he said.

Kapse said a user-change permission (to convert the ground floor use from residential to a nursing home) was granted in 2009, but a structural audit was not conducted.

A senior civic official said, Under section 314 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act, the owners have to seek permission for any additions or alterations to the structure.

BMC officials said the cause of the building collapse is yet to be ascertained. Kapse said, The building was a 1983 structure. We have sent the debris for testing to ascertain the condition of the building.

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The University of Mumbai (MU) has extended lecture-free days for commerce, arts and law faculties till July 31 to allow them to finish assessing papers before the deadline. University officials also prepared a list of teachers who have not logged on to the assessment website even once despite no lectures being held since July 24.

The largest chunk of papers left to be assessed is from commerce and arts faculties, so we have decided to extend the lecture-free days. Meanwhile, those teachers who have still not reported for assessment despite being asked to should be ready to face the music, said MA Khan, registrar, MU.

He added that colleges have been informed that every teacher has to complete 40 hours of assessment work between July 24 and 31.

According to figures released by the university on Thursday evening, around four lakh papers are yet to be evaluated. Of the 11,800 teachers eligible for assessment this semester, only 4,522 reported for duty on Thursday.

While the university was busy drawing up a list of teachers who are yet to report for assessment, the redressal cell at the examination house continued to receive complaints from teachers facing difficulties in evaluations. After numerous complaints, Im still receiving answer papers in Marathi. Whats the use of cancelling lectures if the system is still riddled with errors, said a professor who did not wish to be named.

Earlier this week, MU vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh had met governor and chancellor of the university Ch Vidyasagar Rao to ask for an extension of deadline to announce results. The governor, however, insisted on the July 31 deadline.

Officials from the examination department told HT that while results of select courses from science and engineering departments would be released by Friday, commerce and arts courses results might take some more time.

If all teachers eligible for assessment get to work, we will clear this backlog before July 31, said Vinayak Dalvie, officer on special duty to the examination section of the varsity.

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Kicking off a fresh controversy over Vande Mataram, BJP Maharashtra lawmaker Raj Purohit on Thursday announced that he will ask the state government to introduce a policy making the national songs singing compulsory.

I will urge chief minister Devendra Fadnavis that Maharashtra should adopt a policy on the lines of the Madras High Court judgement making singing of Vande Mataram compulsory, Purohit told media persons here.

Immediately reacting, state Samajwadi Party President and MLA Abu Asim Azmi said that though he had great respect for Vande Mataram, he would not sing it under any circumstances, come what may.

When India was partitioned, nowhere it was said that if we (Muslims) stayed back in India, we would be forced to sing it. You may shoot me or throw me out of the country, but we will not sing it, he said.

Joining him, All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) legislator Waris Pathan declared he would not comply to sing Vande Mataram even at gun-point or if a knife was put to his throat.

He said the AIMIM has always opposed it and will continue so if it raised in the legislature.

The two said nobody should be forced to prove their nationalism by singing the song and no true Muslim will sing it as Islam does not permit it.

Transport minister Diwakar Raote, of the Shiv Sena, joined the issue by terming the duo traitors.

They are traitors. They should be aware that Vande Mataram symbolises nationalism and our soldiers are laying down their lives for the country. If they feel so ashamed and dont want to sing, they better go to Pakistan, Raote said.

In his interactions with media, Purohit said that he would urge the chief minister to make a rule making it compulsory to sing Vande Mataram in schools, colleges, government offices and other places on the lines of the Madras HC judgement, and even raise the matter in the legislature, if required.

There have been no reactions from the two main Opposition parties - the Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party - on the issue so far.
After the building collapse in Ghatkopar on Tuesday, the police have assigned an officer to ensure the safety of jewellery, cash, books, utensils and other belongings found in the rubble of Siddhi Sai building. A week after former DD anchors death after a tree fell on her, two junior KG students were injured after a coconut tree fell on their class at Joymax School in Ghatkopar. The Maharashtra government told the Bombay high court that although it had not flouted any norms in remitting actor Sanjay Dutts sentence in the 1993 blasts case, yet, if the court disagreed, it could order for Dutt to be sent back to jail. Parked your vehicle at a spot not meant for it? Be prepared to pay more, thanks to the goods and services tax. Also, the man who made the huge Ganesh idols for Mumbais Lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal (Ganesh Galli), Chinchpoklicha Chintamani, Chandanwadi, Tulsiwadi and Khetwadi mandals, Vijay Khatu, 63,died of heart attack on Wednesday, a month before Ganesh Chaturthi (August 25).

Here are todays top five picks:

1. Mumbai building collapse: Police to protect jewellery, utensils found at Ghatkopar site

The Mumbai police have assigned an officer to ensure the safety of jewellery, cash, books, utensils and other belongings found in the rubble of Siddhi Sai building, which collapsed on Tuesday. We have made a list of the belongings found from the rubble and those that are still to be found, said a senior police officer. Nine families lived in the building which collapsed. We will return their belongings.

2. Send Sanjay Dutt to jail if you think we broke rules: Maharashtra govt to HC

The Maharashtra government told the Bombay high court on Thursday that although it had not flouted any norms in remitting actor Sanjay Dutts sentence in the 1993 blasts case, yet, if the court disagreed, and detected a mistake, it could order for Dutt to be sent back to jail. A bench of justices RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav, however, said that the court had no such intention, and that it only wished to affirm that the due process of law was followed, in permitting Dutt to walk out of jail eight months before the completion of his five-year sentence.

3. GST impact: Pay more for illegal parking in Mumbai

Parked your vehicle at a spot not meant for it? Be prepared to pay more, thanks to the goods and services tax. The 18% GST has pushed the amount for four-wheelers to Rs672, from the earlier Rs660. Two-wheeler owners will have to shell out Rs436, from the earlier Rs430. According to sources, more than 30,000 four-wheeler owners and 45,000 two-wheeler owners are fined every month for illegal parking.

4. A week after ex-DD anchors death, another coconut tree falls in Mumbai, 2 KG students hurt

Two junior KG students were injured after a coconut tree fell on their class at Joymax School, Ghatkopar (East) in Mumbai. The tree was recently pruned by the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). Last week, a 57-year-old yoga teacher succumbed to her injuries after a tree fell on her in Chembur, while another tree fall in Parel injured two people  a 75- year-old and a 65 -year-old - injured on Sunday.

5. Man who gave Mumbai its huge Ganesh idols passes away a month before Ganpati

Vijay Khatu, 63, the man who made the huge Ganesh idols for Mumbais Lalbaug Sarvajanik Utsav Mandal (Ganesh Galli), Chinchpoklicha Chintamani, Chandanwadi, Tulsiwadi and Khetwadi mandals, died of heart attack on Wednesday, a month before Ganesh Chaturthi (August 25). Making idols from the age of 12 with his father, well-known idol-maker Ramkrishna, Khatu did a course in sculpting from Sir JJ School of Arts.
Thane mayor blamed environmentalist and petitioner Pradeep Indulkar for a lawyers death. Kishore Paware died last week after a tree fell on him in Thane.

In a letter to the municipal commissioner, Meenakshi Shinde pulled up civic administration for not filing a case of culpable homicide against Indulkar.

She said it was Indulkar had approached the National Green Tribunal (NGT) against tree cutting in Thane and based on his petition, the NGT refused permission to prune trees before monsoon.

Shinde said, The NGT passed its orders based on the petition filed by Indulkar, who sought a ban on TMC cutting or pruning trees. The NGT only heard the petitioners side. It should have given the civic body the opportunity of presenting its side as well. The loss of life and property in the city is all because of the NGTs decision. Hence, the municipal commissioner must answer why shouldnt the TMC not file a case of culpable homicide against Indulkar.

She said considering the recent fatality, the civic commissioner should permit trimming and pruning of trees to avoid similar accidents.

Speaking to HT Indulkar said he approached the NGT only to stop unscientific trimming of trees.

The corporation lacks policy and method to identify dangerous trees or how to trim overgrown branches. The rise in the cases of tree fall were owing to the haphazard trimming of trees, Indulkar said.

I can prove that there is no policy in place regarding tree cutting. In addition, the NGTs decision has no mention about not cutting trees. It refrained the civic body from trimming trees until it had a policy in place, for which the TMC was given two months. But the civic body did nothing, he added.

Indulkar said he has done nothing illegal and hence the NGT upheld his petition.Im not against tree cutting, but only against rampant and unscientific hacking.

More than 403 trees have fallen since May across Thane, of which 202 fell in July.

While Pawre lost his life, three women were injured after tress fell on them in different incidents.

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The father of a 13-year-old boy, who consumed rat poison on July 13 owing to repeated sexual assaults, has recorded the childs description of the accused in a one-minute video. While the video is unclear and does not give many details, the police said the boy told them the name of the accused starts with a Z.

According to the police, the 13-year-old and his 10-year-old best friend and neighbour were raped repeatedly in Filterpada in Powai on July 6. Feeling humiliated, the kids drank rat poison. While the 10-year-old died on July 13, the 13-year-old died on Tuesday morning.

My son told me the accused took them to separate rooms in Filterpada. For days after the incident, he looked scared. On July 12, he told me they had consumed rat poison near a temple. I rushed him to a hospital. His friend died early next day, the father told HT.

The distraught man asked his son about the culprits and recorded it.

The video which shows the boy struggling to give clear answers to his fathers queries has been handed over to the police.

Read: Unsafe Mumbai: After sexual abuse, children fear trauma of facing police, family, society

The video, the police said, shows the boy saying he was trying to run away, but someone is chasing him. He says the accuseds eyes were scary, said police.

A Powai police official told HT they couldnt record the boys statement due to his deteriorating condition.

The police have questioned all his friends and are trying to identify the accused. They are also questioning several people from Filterpada.

The father said the 13-year-old stopped going to tuition classes since July 6. He claimed the tuition class homework done on the last day may have been done by someone else as the handwriting is different. The police are checking whose handwriting it is, as the person might have some information about the incident.

The body of the 10-year-old, who was buried thinking he died of dehydration, has been exhumed.

ND Reddy, zonal DCP, told HT: We are trying to find the accused.

The local crime branch unit is running a parallel probe.

Read: Child sexual abuse: Parents, stop saying dont tell anyone, you provoked it, go to police in time
Additional municipal commissioner (eastern suburbs) Vijay Singhal will head a committee of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) that will investigate the collapse of the Siddhi Sai building in Ghatkopar, killing 17 people on Tuesday.

The three-member committee comprising Singhal, deputy municipal commissioner (improvement) Chandrashekhar Chore and director of the BMCs engineering services, VP Chitore, has 15 days to determine the causes of the collapse and take disciplinary action against civic officials found guilty of dereliction of duty. The committee would also suggest recommendations to prevent similar incidents.

Following the disaster, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis had ordered a probe. Accordingly, a committee was constituted by municipal commissioner Ajoy Mehta on Wednesday.

Local residents have alleged that illegal alterations carried out by Shiv Sena leader Sunil Shitap in his ground floor nursing home led to the collapse.

The BMC will also put a system in place to hinder unauthorised structural changes based on the committees recommendation.

A similar committee had been formed after the 2013 Dockyard building collapse that killed 61. The panel had submitted 15 recommendations. It had said that building owners must compile architectural drawings of all construction stages and also procure structural audit reports.

It had clearly specified that no resident or owner of any building can make changes such as breaking down walls or constructing new ones, extending balconies or any other cosmetic renovations that can add a load to the structure  without permissions from the building proposal department.

Read

Mumbai building collapse: Police to protect jewellery, utensils found at Ghatkopar site

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The Mumbai police on Thursday sent debris samples collected from the Ghatkopar building collapse site to forensic analysis in order to check content quality.

According to a source, the samples of concrete, metal and plaster will help analysts ascertain the strength of the building at the time of the collapse. The samples have been sent to the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL), which will submit a report. We have asked for the content quality, said an officer, adding that all possible measures have been taken to build a strong case.

Meanwhile, the police are trying to trace the architect of the building, Ranjeet S.

According to a source, the main accused, Shiv Sena leader Sunil Sitap, had hired Ranjeet for the alleged illegal alteration that led to the collapse.

We are also investigating who was the contractor and if more people were involved in any tampering of the structure, said the officer.

The Parksite police have formed three teams to record detailed statements of survivors.

Local residents have come forward to provide help to the bereaved and make arrangements for them.

Shitap, who owned three flats on the ground floor and allegedly made structural changes that weakened the building, was charged under section 304(II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Read

Sena man arrested for Ghatkopar building collapse named in 6 illegal construction cases in Mumbai

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While pothole-ridden roads across the city are a constant every monsoon, Bandra deserves a special mention, according its residents and activists.

Though the civic body said it has been fixing potholes regularly, one need not travel far into Bandra to realise their efforts have largely been in vain, said residents.

The road opposite the bus depot at Bandra (West) is one of numerous pothole-ridden stretches in the area.

The 28-km long Swami Vivekananda (SV) Road has potholes at many places. While the civic body filled potholes at Hill Road junction on Wednesday, Linking Road junction is still riddled with potholes.

Corporator Asif Zakaria said, Roads like St Paul Road, Chapel Road and Waroda Road were partially fixed before the monsoon, but are in bad shape now. The road outside Bhabha Hospital was in pathetic condition until recently.

Around 50 members of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) gathered outside the Bandra (West) ward office of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to demand pothole-free roads in the ward on Wednesday. Parvez Shaikh, Bandra Taluka president, NCP, said, The road outside Lilavati Hospital is in very bad shape. Potholes are a nuisance for senior citizens and also are a health concern as they are filled with water in the monsoon.

Activist Nicholas Almeida said, I have seen only one road  Mount Mary Road  that is free of potholes in Bandra. Why cant the BMC make every road like that?

16th Khar Road is the worst-affected in Khar (W). According to residents, other pothole-ridden areas include Khar danda and 4th and 5th roads.

Activist and architect Nitin Killawala said the condition has worsened because the BMC does not follow the road repairs manual. The patch-work on roads is just a temporary solution. It does not matter what the BMC uses to fill the potholes. The entire stretch of roads should be attended to and it should be done as soon as small potholes are detected, he added.

Bandra MLA and the BJPs Mumbai chief Ashish Shelar said he would raise the issue in the assembly. Potholes in Bandra have always been an issue. BMC needs to upgrade its technology, manpower and material used for repairs, he said. Vinod Chithore, chief engineer (road repairs), told HT, The potholes that showed up last monsoon have been repaired. The main reason for recurring potholes is the digging up of roads for utility trenches.

Read

Bumpy ride on western express highway? MMRDA says 685 potholes filled this month
Hukou Waterfalls on the Yellow River is seen in this photo taken in Linfen, north China's Shanxi Province, July 26, 2017. The Hukou Waterfalls enter a summer flood period due to heavy rainfall in the upstream regions. (Xinhua/Lyu Guiming)
The MIDC police on Monday arrested a courier boy for stealing 150 mobile phones of various brands worth Rs.13,52,283.

The accused, identified as Abdul Salam Abdul Momin Shaikh, 24, worked as a courier boy in Gati Courier Company located at Andheri (East) and used to deliver mobile phones discarded by online websites like Amazon and Flipkart back to the wholesale shop, Hardtrac Services. Hardtrac Services used to supply mobile phones to online websites like Amazon and Flipkart. The complainant, Vimal Maheshchandra Zaveri, 50, is the director of Hardtrac Services.

According to sub-inspector Dhavan, Online websites like Amazon and Flipkart had a contract with the courier company through which they used to send back discarded mobile phones to the wholesale company Hardtrac services. The wholesale company then used to send all the mobile phones back to their original companies. The accused started stealing one or two phones at each delivery back to the wholesaler and realised that nobody noticed the missing mobile phones. By the time Hardtrac Services realised that several phones were missing, it was too late.

It was a huge negligence on the part of the wholesaler that they failed to keep a check on the discarded pieces. Abdul took advantage of this, and succeeded in stealing such a large number of mobile phones, he added.

The accused fled the city as soon as he came to know that an FIR was registered against him. We tried tracing his mobile number, but to no avail. We then interrogated his family in Saki Naka, where he stays, and came to know that he had gone to his native place in Uttar Pradesh. We tried tracing him in Uttar Pradesh but we couldnt get to him. After looking out for him for quite some days, we received a tip-off that he was back in the city at Saki Naka, said a police official.

A team led by senior police inspector Pasalwar, crime police inspector Devre, sub-inspectors Dhavan and Lokre nabbed Abdul from Saki Naka on Monday at around 5pm.

We suspect that there may be more people involved; we are investigating that angle too, he said.

Abdul has been booked under the sections of 120B and 379 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and is in police custody till 29th July.
Around 43% seats of first year junior college (FYJC) sections in colleges remained vacant after the second round of admissions got over on Wednesday. Of the total 2.4 lakh seats, more than 1.05 lakh did not find any takers when around 98,000 students were left without a seat. Reason: most of these seats are in lesser-known colleges.

The states education department released a list of vacancies in city colleges on Wednesday. It was uploaded online for students to refer to while applying for the third round of admissions that will begin on Friday.

The list showed that lesser-known colleges have a lot of seats but no takers. Nirmala Memorial College of Commerce and Science has 1,076 vacant seats in commerce stream and Pratham College has 224 in commerce and 91 in science. Since these seats are in smaller junior colleges, generally only low scorers opt for them, said BB Chavan, deputy director of education, Mumbai region. They usually remain vacant throughout the admission process.

Another reason is that students securing unaided seats have to pay more for the same courses compared to their counterparts in aided divisions. The annual fee for aided courses is around Rs 700, but for unaided courses colleges charge Rs10,000. So students do not want to pay so much to study in lesser-known colleges, said Chavan.

Most students have taken admissions to coveted city colleges, where very few seats are left for the third round. At HR College, Churchgate, one of the most sought after institutes for commerce, all the seats are filled.

Its a similar story across other commerce colleges. Only three seats are available in Narsee Monjee College, Vile Parle in the aided section, while its a full house for their vocational courses such as tourism, hospitality management and marketing and retail management.

Only Vaze Kelkar, Mulund, has 23 seats left in the stream, but those too are in its unaided section, for which the college charges higher fees. There is only one seat vacant in science, and none in arts. We are expecting more seats in arts stream to become vacant towards the end after colleges surrender unfilled quota seats, said Vidyadhar Joshi, vice-principal of the college.

Compared to arts and commerce, more seats are vacant in the science stream. St Xaviers, Fort, has only a couple of seats vacant in arts, but there is room for 25 students in science. Similarly, Jai Hind, Churchgate, has only nine seats left in arts and but 46 in science. This year, arts courses are in demand, while not many want to opt for science, said Ashok Wadia, principal, Jai Hind.

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A building just 500 metres from the Siddhi Sai apartment that collapsed on Tuesday is one of 63 listed as dangerous in Ghatkopar.

But residents continue to live at Kamla Bhavan, despite notices from the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to vacate. There are 602 such dangerous buildings in Mumbai currently, and Ghatkopar houses the second highest number of them.

A list of dangerous buildings were made as part of the BMCs pre-monsoon preparedness drive  602 buildings fall in the C-1 category, or the most dangerous. Of these, the BMC has demolished 186 (23%) buildings and have evacuated 117 (14%) as of March-end, according to data obtained by HT.

There are also s C-2 and C-3 buildings . the first require major structural repairs, while the second need minor repairs.

BMC sources said once identified as dangerous, the buildings are sent notices under section 354 of the Mumbai Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1888. Under the Act, residents are asked to vacate the premises within seven days.

But the problem lies not in identifying the buildings or evacuating them. Residents of Kamla Bhavan said they had nowhere else to go. We have been waiting for redevelopment for more than 14 years now. Yes, the building received notices from the BMC, but we also have no other option, one resident told HT.

There are several such old buildings in the Damodar park area alone, where the five-storeyed Siddhi Sai building collapsed , but none of them appear on the list of dangerous structures.

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State education minister Vinod Tawde said the government will conduct a comprehensive inquiry into the delay in paper assessment and declaration of results by the University of Mumbai (MU) and assured that all results will be declared by July 31.

With members of the state legislative council pressing for action against vice-chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh, Tawde said the government will convey the sentiments of the house to governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, who would be a competent authority to take any action.

Responding to a calling attention motion in the upper house on Wednesday, Tawde said, We will thoroughly investigate the paper correction mechanism and the concerned persons. We will take strict action against anyone found guilty. The government will convey the sentiments of the house to the governor."

This is the first time the MU has moved to an online assessment process, leading to major delays in completion of assessment and announcement of results of examinations held in April-May. Tawde said once the government meets the July 31 deadline to declare results, it will look into if there were any shortcomings by the company appointed to facilitate the online assessment and take action.

Tawde said so far, of 477 examinations, the university has declared results for 104 and the rest will be announced by July 31. I assure the house that there will be no impact on the quality of assessment despite the delay. The university has finished the assessment of 70% answer papers and about 5.29 lakh are left," he said.

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The Maharashtra government has decided to speed up the transfer of land lease from the Slum Redevelopment Authority (SRA) to residents of slum colonies who have been rehabilitated.

This will benefit 132 slum societies in the city where new buildings have been built under the redevelopment project. The transfer of land will make slum dwellers virtual owners of their plots and bring in more transparency, an official said on the condition of anonymity.

The decision to expedite the transfer was taken in the state legislature by urban development minister Ranjit Patil. He assured that this would be done within a month.

According to BJP legislator Ashish Shelar, there were 132 slums in which various government agencies  the Briahnmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA)  have not transferred the land lease to residents.

Ideally, the government agencies should first transfer the lease to SRA, which in turn hands it over to the residents.

As many as 42 plots owned by the BMC are being redeveloped by SRA. The civic body has transferred lease of all these plots to SRA, which is yet to transfer them to slum societies. In case of MHADA, 16 of the 61 plots were transferred to SRA but it has not handed them over to concerned societies.

Ramesh Prabhu of the Maharashtra Societies Welfare Association said the governments move would turn slum dwellers into virtual land owners.

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The Maharashtra government told the Bombay High Court on Thursday that although it had not flouted any norms in remitting actor Sanjay Dutts sentence in the 1993 blasts case, yet, if the court disagreed, and detected a mistake, it could order for Dutt to be sent back to jail.

A bench of justices RM Savant and Sadhana Jadhav, however, said that the court had no such intention, and that it only wished to affirm that the due process of law was followed, in permitting Dutt to walk out of jail eight months before the completion of his five-year sentence.

The bench also questioned the decision of the state and prison authorities to grant frequent paroles and furloughs to Dutt while he was serving his sentence in Punes Yerwada jail.

Read: Sanjay Dutt was out on parole half the time, why did govt still release him early: Bombay HC

It noted on one instance, just two months into his sentence, Dutt had been granted parole, and furlough concurrently  a practice rarely followed for regular convicts.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, who appeared for the state government, however, said the prison authorities and the state government routinely granted parole to most convicts to encourage good conduct, and to reward good behaviour.

Kumbhakoni argued he had searched the origins of the word parole on Google and affirmed the word indeed meant to offer a reward of sorts.

He argued it was just in cases involving high-profile convicts, even a days delay or remission was made a big deal of.

The bench has directed the state to file a detailed affidavit within two weeks, explaining the reasons for granting the frequent paroles and furlough and remission to Dutt.

Read: Paroles, furloughs: How Sanjay Dutt walked in and out of jail in 5 yrs

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Industries minister Satish Mahana has directed the three industrial authorities  Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway  to encourage industrialists and entrepreneurs to invest in their respective industrial schemes to boost the local economy and create jobs for youth.

Mahanas direction came at a meeting held in Lucknow on Wednesday. Top officials, including Noida authority chief executive officer (CEO) Amit Mohan Prasad, Greater Noida authority CEO Debasish Panda and Yamuna Expressway authority CEO Arun Vir Singh were present in the meeting.

The heads of the authorities informed the minister about the land bank available in their respective areas.

Greater Noida has around 1,000 acres of industrial land, Noida has 500 hectares and the Yamuna Expressway industrial development authority (YEIDA) said it has earmarked 600 acres of agricultural land for industrial purpose.

The minister asked us to ensure speedy clearances for industrial projects. The idea is that if anyone wants to invest here the authorities must ensure that investors have ease of doing business. We need to handhold and provide required assistance so that an entrepreneur can start business quickly without any inconvenience related to clearances, be it environmental, map sanction or any other approval, said Panda.

Mahana also discussed Noidas industrial scheme in the meeting. Out of its 500 acres of industrial land, the Noida authority has decided to carve out small plots in Sector 155 for industrial use. Apart from this, the authority will also come up with two more such sectors  156 and 157  both along the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway.

We will launch the industrial plot scheme in August-end. With this scheme, we want to encourage industrialists to invest here and create jobs, said Prasad.

After the Jewar airport project got the green signal from the Union civil aviation ministry, YEIDA hopes that demand for industrial schemes will increase.

We have adequate land available along the Yamuna Expressway. If any corporate house wants the land, we can make it available, said Singh.

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The Ghaziabad police has lodged an FIR against four constables of the crime team of the Indirapuram police station after they allegedly picked up four men from a BPO in Sector 64, Noida, and placed them under wrongful confinement.

The four constables were identified as Sudhir Kumar, Srikant, Narayan and Shamim.

The four men were allegedly picked up over the suspicion that they were involved in extortion of money.

The officials said the FIR was lodged based on a complaint forwarded by the family members of one of the four men, who were allegedly picked up around 1am on Sunday from their office.



The officials said that two of the constables were from Kavi Nagar, while one each was from Sahibabad police station and police lines. They were part of the team formed to control crime and had also recently busted a gang of vehicle-lifters and recovered 25 motorcycles.

The constables picked up the four who had just completed their college and were running the BPO. They were brought to a police post and confined illegally. Upon information, we rushed to the police post and found the men there. Thereafter, the information was passed on to the senior superintendent of police, who immediately suspended the four policemen, said Sudesh Gupta, circle officer (Indirapuram).

After the suspension, the officials also lodged an FIR under Sections of wrongful confinement and putting a person in fear of injury in order to commit extortion at the Indirapuram police station.

They (the policemen) had gone to a different district (GB Nagar) after receiving information about a fake BPO being run there. They did not inform any officer concerned. Further action will also be initiated against the four constables, Gupta said.

The incident comes just days after the suspension of eight police personnel of the Sahibabad police station in connection with the death of one Mandeep Singh Negi, who was picked up by the police in a theft case.

Negi was detained at the police station and he later died at the hospital and was cremated as an unidentified person despite a missing complaint being lodged by his parents at the Sahibabad police station.

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The Ghaziabad police on Wednesday initiated an inquiry into a live police encounter, a video of which showed some officers nabbing a criminal late on July 20 in the presence of mediapersons.

The inquiry was initiated nearly six days after a video of the incident surfaced. The policemen allegedly nabbed a criminal named Deepak Sharma, who carried a reward of Rs 25,000 on him.

The video showed that in a dramatic chain of events, a team of Ghaziabad police flagging down a bike near Kamla Nehru Nagar, firing multiple shots in the air and nabbing one of the fleeing bikers after a 100 metre chase. The entire sequence of events were captured by a group of mediapersons, who were present at the scene beforehand, leading to claims from some quarters that the event might have been staged.

However, the matter snowballed into a controversy when later it came to light that the man was already arrested from Muzaffarnagar earlier that day, according to an FIR lodged at Kavi Nagar police station.

The FIR number 1069/2017 lodged at Kavi Nagar police station stated that the team had arrested Deepak Sharma at noon from Lak village in Muzaffarnagar, nearly nine hours before the late night encounter.

The inquiry is being monitored by top officials of Uttar Pradesh police. There is no scope for escape for any team member who was part of the encounter. All the members of the team have been summoned to get their statements recorded. We have even called up the staff of the Kavi Nagar police station, where the FIR was registered and the documentation took place, said Shyam Narayan Singh, superintendent of police (traffic), the inquiry officer.

The incident on the night of July 20 allegedly involves use of weapons by the team and also the arrest of an accused already under police custody.

Once the statements of the police officials are recorded, the report will be submitted to senior superintendent of police (SSP) for further action. In case any team member denies his involvement, he will have to clarify and support his claim with ample evidence, Singh added.

The team that carried out the encounter and arrest included officers from special operation group, which is headed by city superintendent of police Akash Tomar.

Following the alleged live encounter, which gained widespread media coverage in television and also in print media, Tomar had broadcasted a message about two criminals on bike opening fire on the police team at Kamla Nehru Nagar.

Gzb. Ps kavinagar, Encounter between police and criminals in Kamla Nehru nagar. There was 2 criminals on bike fired on police team. 7 to 8 round firing between police and criminals. One arrested, 1 pistal and bike recoverd. Combing is continue for other criminal (sic), Tomar had flashed the message through WhatsApp around 10.30pm on July 20. An hour later, he also flashed the picture of arrested accused, Deepak.

Now with the team members allegedly involved in the live encounter facing an inquiry, Tomar maintains that I was given the information and immediately went to the spot. Later, through media reports, I came to know that there were other angles to the story than what was claimed by the arresting team.

After the top brass of the UP police came to know about the live encounter and the arrest of Deepak Sharma as documented in the FIR, they ordered an inquiry.

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A day after chief minister Yogi Adityanath launched the real estate regulatory authority (RERA) website, officials at the Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities hoped homebuyers would come forward to file complaints at the portal and get issues resolved.

The Real Estate (regulation and development) Act, 2016, came into force on May 1 to protect homebuyers from unscrupulous developers.

Under the Act, all states have to set up a real estate regulatory authority, a website and hire officials for the timebound disposal of homebuyers grievances.

The act makes it mandatory for builders to register with RERA before launching or even advertising a project. Uttar Pradesh has formed a website where builders can get their projects registered and buyers can file grievances. But the state is yet to hire officials and set up bodies at the district level to address issues relating to the realty sector.

Before RERA came into effect, homebuyers had to visit offices of Noida, Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway authorities to file a complaint or get the attention of government officials towards their problems.

Now they have the option to file complaints at the RERA website, so obviously they will not have to visit our office. But, which (old and new) realty projects will come in its ambit will be clear when the state government notifies the revised RERA rules, said Santosh Kumar, officer on special duty for group housing, Noida authority.

Around 1,000 complaints related to homebuyers are pending in the Noida authority.

The UP government has started the website but is yet to hire officials at the district and state level to address complaints. I do not understand how complaints will be resolved if the body is not in place, said Rajesh Purohit, a homebuyer.

Greater Noida and Yamuna Expressway officials, who were yet to solve buyers issues, hoped they would not be disturbed with complaints anymore.

Now buyers will file complaints on the website. The builders will also launch projects after registering at the site, said Debasish Panda, chief executive officer of the Greater Noida authority.

An officials in the housing and urban planning department, which is handling the website, said over one lakh people had visited it till 7 pm on Thursday.

So far, 300 builders and 80 realty projects have been registered at the website, www.up-rera.in, said the official of the UP urban housing and planning department.

As of now, 40 complaints have been registered from across the state. Thirty-nine builders have registered their projects from Noida and Greater Noida. The website has received 19 complaints from Lucknow, 12 from Ghaziabad, 3 from Meerut, 1 each from Mathura and Allahabad, said Mukul Singhal, principal secretary, UP housing and urban planning department.

Some buyers complained that the website is not up to the mark, unlike in Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

Singhal countered, Our website is working perfectly. We will keep adding more columns as per need and make it more informative and user-friendly. RERA bodies will soon be in place to address issues and monitor realty projects.

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Chinese President Xi Jinping, also general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, addresses the opening session of a workshop in Beijing, capital of China. A workshop for provincial and ministerial officials was held from Wednesday to Thursday in preparation for the 19th National Congress of the CPC. (Xinhua/Ma Zhancheng)

Chinese President Xi Jinping called for unswerving adherence to and improvement of the Communist Party of China (CPC) leadership, at a high-level workshop in preparation for the 19th CPC National Congress.

Xi, also general secretary of the CPC Central Committee and chairman of the Central Military Commission, made the call at the workshop attended by provincial and ministerial officials.

Xi called for the building of a stronger Party, noting that only by ensuring the strong vitality and strength of the CPC, can the Party lead the people to successfully deal with major challenges, resist major risks, overcome major obstacles and resolve major conflicts, in order to claim one victory after another.

"Practice has told us that the governance of the CPC concerns not only the future and destiny of the Party, but also that of our nation," he said. "We must improve the governance of the Party with greater determination, courage and effort."
A mathematics teacher from Mahamaya Balika Inter College has lodged a police complaint against the principal of the institute for harassment.

A complaint was registered with the Sector 39 police station on Wednesday. The teacher has alleged that the principal has been harassing her by interfering with her work.

The woman also alleged that the principal has been spying on her personal life which has caused her mental trauma.

Ruchika has alleged that there have been wrong entries in the attendance register to make it look like wrong persons have been visiting her. We are investigating the matter to verify her claims. She lives within the college compound, said Abhinandan, Circle Officer, Noida City-1.

The complainant has also alleged that the principal is troubling her on the directions of her husband as she had filed for divorce . These are the allegations and we have to investigate the matter, said Ajay Kumar Singh, station house officer, Sector 39 police station.

Principal Pratibha Chaudhary, There is a department enquiry on against her and one more woman. I am not aware of the motive behind her complaint. I dont even know about any complaint being registered. I will look into the matter.

Police took a legal opinion on the allegations made by Ruchika before registering an FIR. We took the opinion of legal experts to see if we can act on the complaint, Abhinandan said.

Police have registered a case under Section 193 (punishment for false evidence), 500 (punishment for defamation) and 509 (word, gesture or act intended to insult the modesty of a woman).

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The Uttar Pradesh civil aviation department has written to the state government asking it to discuss the funding pattern of the Noida International Airport at Jewar with the Centre at the earliest.

The Union civil aviation ministry had on June 24 given its approval to build an international airport at Jewar. Now, the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA) has sought Rs2,000 crore from the state government to acquire the initial 1,000 hectares of agricultural land for the project. On the whole, the project requires 5,000 hectares.

YEIDA does not have the funds to begin land acquisition, and hence, requires financial help from the Uttar Pradesh (UP) government, which wants the Centre to fund this project that needs an investment of a whopping Rs20,000 crore, according to officials of the YEIDA.

UP civil aviation department has suggested three options to funding land acquisition for the project. The first option is that the Centre gives Rs2,000 crore for land acquisition. The second is that UP and the Centre share 50% each of the Rs2,000 crore amount. The third option is that the YEIDA and the Airports Authority of India sign a memorandum of understanding to raise Rs200 crore, and raise the remaining Rs1,800 crore through loans, said Arun Vir Singh, chief executive officer, YEIDA.

The YEIDA is facing a fund crunch as it owes Rs3,000 crore to various government bodies and banks. Immediately after approval of the Jewar airport project, it had written to the chief minister seeking funds to begin land acquisition. However, the state government wants the Centres help for it.

As per the third option, YEIDA and the Airports Authority of India will contribute Rs100 crore each so that the two can seek a loan of Rs1,800 crore. However, we do not want to fund Rs100 crore either. Now, the UP government will discuss these issues with the Central government and expedite the project, said Singh.

Officials at YEIDA said that issues between the state and Central governments regarding the funding pattern should be finalised at the earliest to fast-track the project. If these issues take a long time, then the project is bound to be delayed, they added.

We need to hire a private consultant to prepare a techno-feasibility study of the airport project. This study is crucial to take it to next stage. However, the consultant will be roped in only after funding pattern is finalised, Singh said.

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Amid tight security provided by the police and private security guards, violence-hit Vivo manufacturing plant in Greater Noida shut for the day on Wednesday, hoping to resume operations Thursday.

The police have so far made six arrests in the matter and are looking for more persons who were involved in the violence.

The arrested men were identified as Nakul, Yashpal, Bhupendra, Pushpendra, Somdev and Sonu. The police have booked them under Sections 147 (rioting), 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapon) and 504 (Intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of peace) of the Indian Penal Code.

A notice pasted at the entrance of the manufacturing plant read: Due to some special situation, it is hereby to announce 26th July as a holiday for all people. And all people shall resume work on 27th July normally unless with further notification (sic).

The companys manufacturing plant in Techzone (IT Park) in Greater Noida had come under attack of some disgruntled employees on Tuesday afternoon on apprehensions that they were being handed out pink slips without notice. The workers reportedly ransacked a section of the plant, entered into a scuffle with security personnel and stole some mobile phone consignments from a truck. The company is still assessing the total damage caused by the workers and has lodged a police complaint.

Gautam Budh Nagars superintendent of police (rural), Suniti said, Six persons have been arrested so far in the matter. We have asked the company officials to give us access to CCTV footage to identify more men involved in the violence.

We are also in touch with the contractor, who had men working in the company, to provide us details of the workers who created trouble on the premises on Tuesday, she said.

A company official on Wednesday told the police that they were not sacking workers, but had asked them to move from one section to another in order to provide them training. He said, The workers got confused with the word move with remove.

However, it is also a fact that hundreds of contractual workers in the company have been sacked in the last couple of months.

The police have asked company officials to inform them about their retrenchment plans, so that they are ready in advance to handle any situation like the one on Tuesday.

The police have also agreed to deploy more men near the manufacturing plant in the days to comes so that no untoward incident takes place.
Representatives of the Chinese embassy approached Gautam Budh Nagar police on Wednesday seeking protection of Chinese establishments and its nationals working in the region.

The move comes a day after violence broke out at Vivos manufacturing plant due to labour unrest in Greater Noida.

The Chinese embassy representatives, along with a team of Vivo officials, met senior police officials in the district and expressed their concern about the violence at Vivos handset manufacturing unit on Tuesday.

The police in turn assured their support to the delegation. They also urged the delegation to provide them details of other Chinese establishments in the area so that police can react swiftly in the future.

Chinese handset maker, Vivo, has been operating a plant in Greater Noida for almost two years. Since its inception, the company has employed more than 15,000 workers (a mix of both Chinese and Indian nationals) in its Greater Noidas unit.

While the company had employed some of the men on its pay rolls, a major section of workers are employed in the factory on a contractual basis.

According to sources, during the 10th edition of IPL T20 tournament this year, the company had hired a large chunk of workers on contracts, but started retrenchment after the end of the IPL season.

Furthermore, company sources revealed that their sales have come down in the last couple of months. So far, about 700 contractual employees have been handed pink slips without any notice and more layoffs are in the pipeline.

Tuesdays incident, where about 60-70 workers ransacked the factory and reportedly stole cell phone consignments, posed a serious threat to their business, Vivo officials said.
The standoff between Indian and Chinese forces at the Doklam plateau in Bhutan is now over a month old and though diplomatic efforts have continued, no early solution appears to be in sight. Indias national security adviser, Ajit Doval, is in Beijing for the BRICS NSAs meeting. It is possible that on the sidelines, he will be able to engage with Yang Jiechi, his counterpart in the special representative mechanism between the two countries. One should remain hopeful that these talks in Beijing will lead to a satisfactory resolution of the impasse and pave the way for relaxing tensions between the two countries. Confrontation will be damaging to the interests of both countries and is best not allowed to persist.

Such confrontation is also not in the interest of Bhutan, Indias neighbour with which there is a special relationship of mutual trust and understanding. The two countries have shared security interests, acknowledged in the revised bilateral treaty concluded in 2007. Any threat to Bhutans security will always be a major concern to India and similarly a security challenge to India will impact Bhutan as well. Chinas encroachment on Doklam is often characterised as a security threat to India, particularly to the narrow Siliguri corridor linking Indias North-East to the rest of the country. But it is also a threat to Bhutan whose main communication links south also traverse the same Siliguri corridor. The action taken by Indian forces in Doklam is in response to a serious security threat to both countries. Any notion that India has drawn a reluctant Bhutan into a crisis which is specific to Indias security interest alone, ignores this ground reality.

It is also important to keep Bhutans interests foremost while talking about the legal basis for the Sikkim-Tibet border. Bhutan was not a party to the 1890 Anglo-Chinese convention, nor to the subsequent 1906 convention. The Bhutanese claim on Doklam cannot be dismissed by reference to treaties or conventions to which it was not a party. Despite this, China has itself recognised in border talks with Bhutan that the Doklam plateau is disputed territory and had agreed not to disturb the status quo in the area. Furthermore, in the special representatives (SR) talks, both India and China had agreed that notwithstanding historical and documentary evidence, both sides needed to consult with the third country involved in determining the trijunction among respective borders. This figures in the minutes of the SR talks of 2012. India has observed this understanding faithfully. It has confirmed the alignment of the Sikkim-Tibet boundary as defined in the 1890 convention but reserved the issue of the trijunction keeping Bhutans interests in mind. China, on the contrary, has tried to assert its claim unilaterally through its road building activity in the area.

China has objected to India getting involved in an issue that is between China and Bhutan and that Indias action violates Bhutans sovereignty. The injured party, as per Chinese reckoning, that is Bhutan, has made no such complaint. In fact an official statement from Bhutan has, on the contrary, protested at Chinese incursion into Doklam and has termed this a violation of a bilateral understanding reached between the two sides not to disturb the status quo until the territorial disputes have been settled. By all accounts, India and Bhutan have acted in close consultation in terms of their treaty obligations. This is not a case of big brother India coming to the rescue of a tiny neighbour.

The 2007 treaty was between two sovereign and independent nations which celebrated their longstanding relationship of mutual trust and close friendship and acknowledged the need to cooperate closely in upholding their shared security concerns. It is this spirit which must prevail as we continue to grapple with the challenge both our nations confront on our sensitive borders. We must not allow China or misinformed opinion to create misunderstanding between our two countries because we need to be seen as being united as governments and peoples in meeting Chinas aggressive posturing on our borders.

Just as India seeks good relations with China and peace and tranquillity on our borders, it has every reason to wish for the same on the China-Bhutan border. Good neighbourly relations between Bhutan and China are in Indias interest just as good relations between India and China is in Bhutans.

Unfortunately, recent Chinese actions appear to reflect a competitive frame within which it looks at its relations with countries in the subcontinent. Just as it has tried to sow discord among Asean members through intimidation and blandishments, it is seeking to do the same in our neighbourhood. Both Bhutan and India understand this strategy very well even if some others in our region do not.

Indian diplomacy needs to engage more intensively with all our neighbouring countries not only to expose Chinese strategy and risks for countries of the region, but also to expand our relationship with them much beyond current levels. This is irrespective of how the Doklam impasse eventually gets resolved.

Shyam Saran is a former foreign secretary and is senior fellow, CPR

The views expressed are personal
In February, Shiv Sena MP Anandrao Adsul criticised Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Parliament and slammed the BJP as being dictatorial. If the younger brother has four children and the elder has only two, does the younger brother become elder? he asked.

Adsuls outburst sums up the reason why the Shiv Sena has been targeting the BJP despite being an ally. The party is squirming in the role of a junior partner after historically having an upper hand in the saffron alliance in Maharashtra. In 2014, the BJP dwarfed the Sena by winning 122 seats in the Maharashtra assembly  the Sena won 63. That election, and subsequent ones to district councils, municipal councils and municipal corporations, shattered the unsaid understanding that while the BJP spreads its wings as a national party, Maharashtra remains the Senas citadel.

With its space shrinking and its vote-bank under threat, the Sena has been doing what it does best  being the party of rebellion, occupying the vacant space of a strong Opposition, but from the treasury benches.

At the Centre, Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray has slammed the Modi government on a range of issues  the Ram temple in Ayodhya, border security, demonetisation, and excessive spend on publicity, painting his own party as more Hindutva-oriented, more patriotic and more populist over the BJP. In Maharashtra, the protests have been more nuanced, trying to mould its image as the governments conscience-keeper, an identity that the Sena plans to count on in the 2019 assembly polls.

Thus, the Sena joins the Opposition in bitter criticism of the government, distancing itself from the government on all unpopular issues such as the agrarian crisis, farmers suicides, or the acquisition of agricultural land for the Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis pet Mumbai-Nagpur corridor. This approach also helps the party take credit for every popular move, projecting itself as the only entity within the government that looks out for the larger interest of the people. So, recently, after about a month of joining farmers groups in protests for a loan waiver, the Sena rushed to take credit when the state announced its Rs 34,022-crore loan waiver package, before taking to the streets again to beat the government on its implementation.

Political analysts are doubtful if this strategy will work; something that even a few Sena members covertly admit. They think, the Senas blow hot and cold tactic is conveying an image of hypocrisy, and the party and its cadre will be much stronger if Thackeray takes an assertive stand and snaps ties with the BJP.

However, the Sena cannot afford a mid-term poll as it is still not electorally strong in rural Maharashtra. Also, analysts say the partys core leadership is cautious about upsetting a section of its leaders who aspire to remain in power, and worry that walking out of the government might open the doors for some high-profile defections.

Meanwhile, the party is packaging its inability to walk out of the government too as a sacrificial trait, stemming from its deep-rooted commitment to Maharashtra and concern for the states stability. manasi.phadke@hindustantimes.com

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The man, accused of raping and impregnating a 10-year-old girl, had tried to molest a niece in Delhi as well.

This is not the first time he has done this. He tried to violate his relatives daughter in Delhi too. But no complaint was filed, said an agitated aunt of the victim.

Working as a security guard on daily wage at a hotel at Sector 35, the accused is a distant relative of the victim from her maternal side. He has two children  a son and a daughter, who is married. His family stays in Nepal, while he has been residing in the servants quarters with his brother, sister-in-law and their son in a government house at Sector 37.

The victim, too, stayed in the servants quarters with her family in the same sector. He used to visit the girls house during the day after she returned from school, said sources. He used to come on the pretext of meeting his brother who stayed in the adjoining house. The girls elder sister used to be at a friends place while her parents used to be at work.

The accused allegedly raped the victim more than seven times. He always threatened her later, saying her family will reprimand her if she complains, said sources.

The crime finally came to light on July 14 after the girl complained of stomach ache. When taken to hospital, it was found that she is nearly eight-months pregnant. The accused was sent to police custody the next day. He is in jail at present.

Was always polite

Even though the accused had been repeatedly exploiting the girl and there has been an accusation of a previous such incident as well, those close to him said he was very protective of women in his family, including wife, daughter and brothers wife.

Be it his close relatives, acquaintances or employers, it is diffcult for them to come to terms with the fact that he could commit such a heinous crime. A picture that they draw is that of an introvert person, who preferred to keep to himself. The family that resides in the government bungalow where the accused had been staying for the past eight years is in shock.

He was always so polite, said the landlady. We never heard him say anything inappropriate, let alone give us a reason to complain.

He spoke only when it was required, said his sister-in-law, sitting in the servants quarter of the house. We want death penalty for him. Hes ruined a familys life. Soon after the crime came to light, she had informed the accuseds wife over phone. She is devasted and wants to commit suicide, said the sister-in-law.

The accused has a similar reputation among his employers and fellow staffers too. He has been working at the hotel for seven years. A receptionist said he never noticed any odd behavior that could suggest the accused could commit such a crime.
Actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan has once again set his eyes on one of his own project. In 2015, he had announced a Hindi-Tamil bilingual action flick -- titled Thalaivan Irukkiran in Tamil and Amar Hain in Hindi -- with Saif Ali Khan, and it was supposed to be written and helmed by Haasan himself. After being announced with much fanfare, the film never took for reasons which remain yet unknown. In his latest interview to a Tamil magazine, the Dasavatharam star has revealed he plans to revive Thalaivan Irukkiran after the release of his long-delayed Vishwaroopam 2 and currently stalled Sabash Naidu.

The film, according to the statement released during the announcement of the project, will be a modern-day action-thriller and will touch upon politics, finance and the underworld. Amar Hain is special to us in many ways. One, it is that iconic project which is sure to mark the much awaited Kamal Haasan working for Hindi cinema. Two, the film will see Kamal Haasan wearing multiple hats, that of an actor and a director on a story penned by him, the statement had read.

The statement had further added that the story travels from Mumbai to North India and traverses some picturesque international cities as the plot progresses. The producers, along with the films mastermind Kamal, had planned to explore shooting locations in Mumbai, Delhi, London, Dubai, Jordan and parts of the US. Haasan, interestingly, was supposed to play the antagonist in the film.

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Akshara Haasan is kicked about her Tamil debut with Thala Ajith in Vivegam, a spy thriller slated for August 10 release. The film marks the third consecutive time collaboration of Ajith and director Siva and the expectations are running wild on the film, tipped to be made on a lavish budget. The film introduces Vivek Oberoi to Tamil filmdom as the antagonist and he is quite kicked about the opportunity to share screen space alongside Ajith. Akshara Haasan, too, is thrilled to be part of the project and she cant stop gushing about the working experience.

Talking about the project, Akshara said in a statement: I was thoroughly impressed with my character when Siva sir narrated it to me. It had so much importance and it plays such a vital role in taking the story forward. It has multiple layers and I just loved doing this role and this movie. Siva sir was so encouraging and the whole unit was filled with positivity throughout, she said. On teaming up with Ajith, a jubilant Akshara said, Ajith sir was a delight to work with. He is so unassuming and helpful to everyone. Since our common interest was photography we spoke and discussed a lot about it during the break times. I must say Vivegam is the most positive set I have been on so far. The weather conditions were extreme in Bulgaria and Serbia. The whole team had to work extra hard to shoot in such locales and the fantastic results will be there for everyone to see soon. I am extremely excited and thrilled about the movies release.

Akshara Haasan in a still from Siva-directed Vivegam.

The film has been predominantly shot across exotic locations in Europe, especially in places such as Serbia, Austria, Georgia and Slovenia among others. Going by the promos, Ajith looks his stylish best in the film and has also set an example by sporting six-pack abs despite a long history of medical condition. Produced by Sathya Jyothi Films, Vivegam has music by Anirudh Ravichander and it is loosely based on Liam Neesons Taken, according to industry grapevine. The films audio is likely to be release this month-end.

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Bangladeshi twins born conjoined at the skull will undergo a difficult and potentially dangerous operation to separate them, surgeons said Wednesday as they appealed for help from global medical experts.

Doctors are trying to establish whether the one-year-old girls, born otherwise healthy in northwest Bangladesh, share the same brain, something that would vastly complicate the surgery.

It would be a very delicate and sensitive surgery, said Ruhul Amin, chief paediatric surgeon at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University in the capital Dhaka.

Were evaluating their condition and trying to contact experts across the world for opinions and help.

Their parents, both schoolteachers, came to Dhaka shortly after Rabia and Rukia were born, to seek medical help.

Amin said the girls were healthy and playful but he wanted more time to study their condition to minimise the risks of surgery as much as possible.

The parents did not even know they were having twins before the birth, with scans not revealing any abnormalities or indications of two children, said their father Rafiqul Islam.

The doctor only said it was a baby with a bigger head, he told AFP.

The parents wanted to ensure a better life for their daughters -- despite the potentially fatal ramifications of the surgery.

Most people come to visit my daughters -- either with sympathy or joke in their eyes -- which is intolerable to watch as a father, he said.

I want to keep my faith in Allah and the surgeons so that my daughters will have a successful surgery and eventually lead a normal life.

In rare cases, identical twins can be born with skin and internal organs fused together. About half are stillborn, and the survival rate is between five and 25 per cent.

In 2008 a baby born in Bangladesh with two heads died.
The Chinese Embassy in Laos has held a reception here dedicated to the 90th anniversary of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China.

Chinese military attache to Laos, Senior Colonel Chen Yongjing introduced the history of PLA and its recent development when addressing the reception on Wednesday evening.

Chen said Chinese armed forces stick to the military strategy of active defense, and adhere to the principle featuring defensive operations, self-defense, and gaining advantage by striking only after the enemy has struck.

"Meanwhile, we know that China's security and development is closely linked with the peace and prosperity of the world. The Chinese armed forces are a strong pillar supporting regional security and stability, an important driving force for world peace and development," said the Chinese military officer.

According to Chen, the cooperation in constructing the Integrated Outpatient Building of 103 Hospital and the ASEAN Light Weapons Shooting Range is progressing smoothly, contributing to the friendly cooperation between the two militaries.

The reception was attended by more than 300 guests, representatives of Lao party, government and army, military attaches from foreign embassies in Laos and overseas Chinese.
Kristen Beck was a US Navy SEAL who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and came out as transgender in 2011 after leaving the military. She has said President Donald Trumps ban on transgender people from serving in US military is disrespectful.

I fight for every religion. I fight for every colour. Every race, every everything, she told CNN. And if he (Donald Trump) is going to pick and choose, thats a wrong thing. Thats not what we believe in.

Backlash to Trumps Wednesday tweet has been fierce from all around.

We are indebted to all who serve. Discrimination against anyone holds everyone back. #LetThemServe, Tim Cook, Apples CEO who came out as gay in 2014, tweeted. Googles Sundar Pichai, wrote I am grateful to the transgender members of the military for their service. #LetThemServe.

Even Republicans have criticised the ban. I dont think we should be discriminating against anyone, Senator Orrin Hatch said in a statement. Transgender people are people, and deserve the best we can do for them.

Chelsea Manning, a transgender US military personnel jailed for seven years for leaking classified information, tweeted, So, biggest, baddest most $$ (costliest, presumably) military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? Sounds like cowardice. #WeGotThis

The Pentagon, which has to enforce the ban, was completely taken by surprise, as were lawmakers and others in the administration. Though there was no word yet from defence secretary James Mattis, who is on vacation, people close to have been reported to have said he is appalled.

Mattis was told of the ban just a day before Trump tweeted it out, and the department of defence is waiting for clarity on related issues of how to implement it. Such as: what will happen to transgender people already serving in military? Will they fired? Can they stay? There are an estimated 6,630 transgender individuals on active duty in the US military, according to a RAND corporation study from 2016.

Reuters reported, citing officials, that chairman of the joint chief of staff, Gen Joseph Dunford, told the military that the ban will be not be notified till further orders from Trump.

Calling the presidents tweet unclear, Senator John McCain, a Republican who heads the powerful senate armed services committee, said in a statement, The department of defence has already decided to allow currently-serving transgender individuals to stay in the military, and many are serving honourably today. Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving.

The White House has not been forthcoming with details either, adding to the confusion. Press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders told reporters the precise rules and regulations will be worked out by the White House and the department of defence.

Trump is reported to have rushed the decision to pre-empt a potential problem in passing a $690 billion defence spending bill over provisions to fund gender transition and hormone therapy for transgender military personnel, which some Republican have opposed. The legislation also provides funding of $1billion for Trumps wall along the border with Mexico, a key campaign promise.
A top Democratic lawmakers Pakistan-born former IT aide has been arrested by the FBI on charges of bank fraud as he tried to leave the US, officials have said.

Imran Awan, 37, an information technology administrator of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was arrested from the Dulles International Airport on Monday while he was about to board a flight to Lahore, federal investigators have said.

FBI has seized smashed computer hard drive from his home, they said. Awans wife, Hina Alvi, had earlier left for Pakistan with their children. The FBI said they do not believe she and their kids would return to the US.

Awan was at the centre of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of lawmakers, with possible security breach into their emails and computer systems. He pleaded not guilty, and was released on Tuesday on a high intensity supervision programme, the department of justice said.

Capitol Police is investigating this criminal incident into serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network by Awan and three of his relatives who had access to the emails and files of the more than two dozen House Democrats who employed them on a part-time basis, said the Daily Caller which has been carrying out investigative reports in the case for the past several months.

In its complaint, the FBI accused Awan of attempting to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by obtaining a $165,000 home equity loan for a rental property. This is against the credit unions policies since it is not the owners primary residence.

Those funds were then included as part of a wire transfer to two individuals in Pakistans Faisalabad, the FBI alleged in its chargesheet.

Bank records show that $165,000 of $283,000 wired to Pakistan. Alvi had numerous pieces of luggage with her, including cardboard boxes. A secondary search of those items revealed that the boxes contained household goods, clothing, and food items. US customs and border protection conducted a search of Alvis bags immediately prior to her boarding the plane and located a total of $12,400 in US cash inside, FBI said.

Awans attorney Chris Gowen, in an email statement to Politico, said: This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States attorneys office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim. A quick glance at what the government filed in court confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client.

However, the Republican National Committee has accused Congresswoman Schultz of not being truthful on this matter.

We have to get to the bottom of this, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz has obstructed at every level on something that affects potentially our national security. So to have this gentlemen try and leave the country, and now we know there is bank fraud and we know he destroyed these hard drives, when you read story about the Marine that found them in the apartment he was trying to rent, the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairperson Ronna McDaniel said.

RNC said that the criminal investigation alleges the stealing equipment from members offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network.

Awan allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment from House offices and funnelled sensitive congressional data offsite as part of a massive cybersecurity breach, RNC said, adding that last year Awan worked for as many as 13 House Democrats.

According to Politico, most Democratic lawmakers cut ties with Awan and his family after the criminal investigation came to light in early February.

But Awan continued to be employed by Wasserman Schultz, although it is unclear what his job duties were, given he had been barred from accessing the House IT system for months, it added.
A collection of yawing mouths and extracted teeth, booming stereo speakers and colourful hookah pipes adorn shop fronts in Somalia, a colourful contrast to the airbrushed artworks of big business.

Muawiye Hussein Sidow, also known as Shik Shik, stands in front of a mural he painted on a shop wall in Mogadishu. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

Somali mural artist Muawiye Hussein Sidow, also known as Shik Shik, is the man responsible for the art that features on more than 100 shops, including barbers, tea shops and supermarkets across Mogadishu.

A mural showing spare parts for vehicles is seen on a wall of a shop in Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

Sidows work has a hand-drawn simplicity, usually involving bright, eye-catching colours. Some pieces stretch over several metres.

An illustration prohibiting weapons, broken bottles, cigarettes and military is seen on a wall of a stadium in Mogadishus Hodan district. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

Sidows father was a commercial artist, who passed his knowledge and skills on to his son.

A mural depicting lions advertises Shik Shiks services outside his art shop in Hamarweyne district of Mogadishu. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

Sidow, 31, took on his fathers business in 1998 and his painting supports not only his own family, but helps sustain his dad as well as many others.

I make the pictures to get daily food for my wife and three kids, he told Reuters.

One of Sidows murals on the wall of a fast food store illustrating food and drinks in Wabari district of Mogadishu. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

I also give daily food to (my) retired old father. Now I have become an art teacher there are many artists whom I taught how to make pictures, and they also get their daily food.

A mural is seen on a wall of a shop in Hodan district of Mogadishu, Somalia. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

Sidow said he never duplicated murals and that inspiration came from Somali daily life.

Aside from feeding his family and brightening up the urban landscape, Sidow still has ambitions to do more with his art.

A shop front mural advertises traditional Somali tools and equipment in the Hamarweyne district of Mogadishu, Somalia. (Feisal Omar / REUTERS)

God willing, I hope I will also make pictures in the neighbouring countries.
Muslim elders urged worshippers to return to pray at Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem on Thursday after Israel backed down in the face of 10 days of often violent protests and removed all security measures it had installed at the site.

Israels decision marks a significant climbdown by Benjamin Netanyahus government and comes after days of diplomatic effort by the United Nations, the involvement of US President Donald Trumps Middle East envoy and pressure from countries in the region, including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.

The dispute began after Israel installed metal detectors, cameras and steel barriers at Muslim entrances to Al-Aqsa compound, also known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, following the July 14 killing of two Israeli policemen by Arab gunmen who had concealed weapons there.

The extra security provoked days of unrest, with violent clashes on the streets of East Jerusalem. Israeli forces shot and killed four Palestinians in the fighting, and a Palestinian man stabbed and killed three Israelis in their home.

Most Muslims have refused to enter the compound for the past two weeks, instead praying in the streets around the Old City.

Palestinian men pray outside the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, just outside Jerusalem's Old City, on July 27, 2017. (Reuters)

But Muslim elders declared themselves satisfied that Israeli authorities had reverted to how security was before July 14.

The technical report showed that all obstacles the occupation (Israel) put outside Al-Aqsa Mosque were removed, said Abdel-Azeem Salhab, head of the Waqf, the Jordanian-funded trust that oversees Jerusalems Muslim holy sites.

We praise this stand in the past two weeks outside Al-Aqsa and we want this stand to continue outside Al-Aqsa and now inside Al-Aqsa, he said, urging worshippers to return to pray.

Palestinian political factions issued statements supporting the Waqf announcement, which may help quell the unrest. Before the announcement, factions had been calling for a day of rage on Friday, which would probably have fuelled the violence.

Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 and has been custodian of holy sites in Jerusalem since 1924, said Israels removal of the security measures was an essential step to calm the situation.

Saudi Arabia said King Salman had been in contact with the US and other world powers to try to defuse the tensions and had stressed the need for the return of calm. It called for respect for the sanctity of the compound.

King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, has held contacts with many world leaders over the past few days, an announcement from the Saudi royal court, published by state news agency SPA, said.

Multi-faceted dispute

Palestinian political factions were quick to highlight what they saw as a victory over Israel, with Netanyahu regarded as having backed down. A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to comment on the decision, but the right-wing criticised him.

Israel is emerging weakened from this crisis, to my regret, said education minister Naftali Bennett, whose right-wing faction is in Netanyahus coalition and is a potential challenger for the leadership.

The truth must be stated. Instead of bolstering our sovereignty in Jerusalem, a message was relayed that our sovereignty can be shaken, he said.

Netanyahu had insisted that the extra security was needed to ensure safety at the site, which is also popular with tourists. But by taking the steps to bolster security, Israel was materially changing the sensitive status quo, which has governed movement and religious practice for decades.

German tourists, one wearing a keffiyeh or traditional Arabic headdress, prepare to take selfies in front of the Dome of the Rock at the compound known to Muslims as Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, in Jerusalem's Old City, on July 27, 2017. (Reuters)

The Noble Sanctuary contains Al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest shrine in Islam, and the golden Dome of the Rock. The area, which sits on a tree-lined marble plateau in the heart of the Old City, is also holy in Judaism, as the site of two ancient temples and is referred to by Jews as Temple Mount.

The dispute, like many in the Holy Land, is about more than security devices, taking in issues of sovereignty, religious freedom, occupation and Palestinian nationalism.

Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the holy compound, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area and declared it part of its indivisible capital.

That has never been recognised internationally, with the UN and others regarding East Jerusalem as occupied by Israel and maintaining that the status of the city can only be determined through negotiations between the parties.

Palestinians do not recognise Israels authority in East Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and are extremely sensitive to the presence of Israeli security forces in and around the Noble Sanctuary.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said late Wednesday he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site.

The Al-Jazeera channel continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount, Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post, referring to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem. If this is not possible because of legal interpretation, I am going to seek to have the necessary legislation adopted to expel Al-Jazeera from Israel.

Israel has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Netanyahu also did not respond to a request for further comment on the post.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since new security measures were installed at the holy site.

A tense standoff was still underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the Jerusalem holy site despite the removal of metal detectors and other installations there, with concerns the situation could deteriorate into major unrest.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures at the compound.

The Israeli measures followed an attack that killed two policemen on July 14.

Palestinians view the security move as Israel asserting further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Netanyahus remarks come as Gulf states seek Al-Jazeeras closure.

Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeeras closure.

Netanyahu has sought to improve ties with countries in the region, where it is heavily criticised over its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

Egypt and Jordan are currently the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.

The prime minister has also faced backlash among Israelis for his decision to install the metal detectors after the attack at such an ultra-sensitive site, with many calling it a miscalculation that he was forced to back down from.

Netanyahu heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

He has frequently criticised the news media, accusing it of seeking to undermine his government.
Two Pakistani diplomats who had been kidnapped were recovered from captivity by Afghan security forces and handed over to the Pakistan embassy in Kabul.

President Ashraf Ghani broke protocol to phone the Pakistan charge d'affaires at the embassy to convey the news of the recovery of the duo employed in the Pakistani consulate in Jalalabad.

Jan Khan and Muhammad Ejaz were abducted in Afghanistans restive eastern province of Nangarhar on June 16, while travelling from Jalalabad to Torkham.

Afghan officials informed the local media that their security forces on Wednesday conducted a successful intelligence-based operation and recovered the two diplomatic staffers who were then handed over to Pakistan by the Afghan foreign ministry.

Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Dr Omar Zakhilwal had earlier assured the Pakistani government that Afghanistan's security institutions and intelligence agencies were looking for the officials.

Pakistani foreign secretary Tehmina Janjua conveyed the Pakistani government's gratitude over the recovery of the staffers to Afghan deputy foreign minister Hekmat Karzai.

Afghan government forces are fighting both the main Taliban insurgents and fighters loyal to Islamic State for control of territory in Nangarhar.

The officials were expected to be flown back to Pakistan as soon as possible.

Their recovery marked a welcome news among the strained relations between the two countries.

Afghanistan has accused Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Afghan Taliban commanders based within its borders and of supporting the militant group, something Islamabad denies.

Islamabad has claimed that Kabul is not doing enough to tackle Pakistani Taliban militants who have been driven out of Pakistan, but who still carry out attacks across the border. (with inputs from Reuters)
Most Muslim Americans believe President Donald Trump is not a friend of the community and worry on account of him and fear that the country was going in the wrong direction, according to a new survey by Pew Research Center.

A large number of them said they have felt discriminated against a lot and believe most Americans dont consider them a part of the mainstream. And being Muslim remains hard in America, but not any harder than its been in the last decade.

The survey also found a disturbingly high level of distrust Americans felt for Muslims  though a majority (54%) of them said there was little or no support for extremism among Muslim Americans, 46% felt there was between fair amount and great deal of support for extremism in the community, something that could explain the harsh scrutiny Muslims here have felt after every terrorist attack.

Candidate Trumps proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States temporarily came in the immediate aftermath of the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, in which a Pakistani-origin couple gunned down 14 people at an office holiday party.

Trump toned down that extreme proposal in the face of criticism, but not the rhetoric, which he carried through the election, engaging in a cringe-worthy public spat with parents of a fallen Pakistani Muslim American US soldier. And with within few days of taking office, he ordered a ban on the entry of travellers from seven Muslim-majority nations, which he subsequently brought down to six.

Trumps first six months in office also witnessed a notable spike in hate crimes against the Muslim American community  as well as other religious and ethnic minorities. The Council for American Islamic Relations (CAIR), a leading advocacy body for the community, said in a report in early July that anti-Muslim hate crimes went up by 91% over the corresponding period in 2016.

And, it warned, If acts of bias impacting the American Muslim community continue as they have been, 2017 could be one of the worst years ever for such incidents.

Not surprising then that a staggering 74% of Muslim in the Pew survey said they believed the president was unfriendly towards the community and 68% said they felt worried on account of him and 48% felt angered by him.

Their feelings about the president were not, however, much different from that of the rest of the country, the survey pointed out: Trump evokes similar levels of worry (60%) and anger (39%) among the general public as he does among Muslims.

Muslim Americans had felt far better and more hopeful about their prospects and that of the country at large under the presidency of Barack Obama, with most of them saying America was headed in the right direction in 2011, in a similar but last such survey of the community by Pew.

According to Pew, there are about 3.3 million Muslims in America  compared to 5.3 million Jewish people  which is about the same as Indian Americans.

Muslim American respondents of the survey traced their origins to 75 countries, and varied widely in their religious affiliations and observances  55% of them identified themselves as Sunnis, 16% as Shia and 14% as just Muslim.
Pakistans former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf contemplated the use of nuclear weapons against India amid tensions following the December 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, but decided against doing so out of fear of retaliation, according to a media report.

Musharraf, 73, also recalled that he had many sleepless nights, asking himself whether he would or could deploy nuclear weapons, the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun said. When tensions were high in 2002, there was a danger when (the) nuclear threshold could have been crossed, the paper quoted Musharraf as saying.

At the time, Musharraf had publicly said that he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Musharraf also said, however, that at the time, neither India nor Pakistan had nuclear warheads on their missiles, so it would have taken one or two days to make them launch-ready.

Asked whether he had ordered that missiles be equipped with nuclear warheads and put into firing position, he said, We didnt do that and we dont think India also did that, thank God  pointing, perhaps, to a fear of retaliation, the paper reported.

The two countries subsequently avoided an all-out clash and tensions subsided.

Musharraf ousted then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup in October 1999, serving as president from 2001 to 2008.

Musharraf was subsequently charged with being involved in the murder of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007. He has been living in Dubai since 2016, after he was allowed to leave Pakistan for medical treatment.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Moscow will ultimately have to respond to sanctions imposed by the United States that he condemned as insolent towards Russia.

We are behaving in a very restrained and patient way, but at some moment we will need to respond, Putin said at a news conference after talks with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto.

He complained that its impossible to endlessly tolerate this kind of insolence towards our country, referring to tougher US sanctions that were backed by the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

This practice is unacceptable -- it destroys internatioanl relations and international law, Putin said of sanctions.

Nevertheless he did not give any detail on what Russias response could be, saying simply: we will see, adding that he had not seen the final version of the US sanctions bill.

The US legislation is aimed at punishing the Kremlin for allegedly meddling in the 2016 US presidential election, and Russias annexation of Crimea.

It is expected to be passed by the Senate, after which US President Donald Trump will face the tricky choice of whether to veto the legislation.

The Russian strongman criticised the probe into Russian meddling in the US presidential election, saying that he does not see this as an investigation.

Instead he said, the probe bears witness to a rise in anti-Russian hysteria in Washington.

At the same time he said he regretted Russias worsening relations with the United States.

In answer to your question on whether I regret the worsening of relations with the US, I can give a direct answer: of course, we do regret it very much, he told a journalist.

Its a great pity that Russian-US relations are being sacrificed to resolve questions of domestic politics, Putin said, specifying that in this case, it is the battle between President Trump and his political opponents.

The two countries acting in agreement could solve very acute problems much more effectively that concern the people both of Russia and the US, Putin said, specifying the settlement of acute international crises (and) the fight with terrorism.

He said he hoped todays state of affairs will end at some point and we will move on to a new quality of relations, we will strengthen them and build them up in the interests of the peoples of the US and Russia.
At least five people have been killed in eastern Saudi Arabia in two days, activists and a family member said on Thursday, as security forces begin an operation to flush out suspected Shia militants from the town of Awamiya in Qatif province.

Saudi interior ministry spokesmen could not immediately be reached by telephone for comment on the reports by community and political activists on social media about the violence in Awamiya.

The area, part of the oil-producing Qatif province where some of the countrys Shiite Muslim minority live, has seen unrest and occasional armed attacks by suspected militants on security forces since the 2011 Arab Spring protests.

Residents of the town complain of marginalisation by the Sunni-led Saudi government, a charge Riyadh denies.

Activists who write on community websites and use social media said three local residents and two expatriate workers have died since the security operation began early on Wednesday when a column of armoured vehicles entered Awamiya.

Since May, workers have also been tearing down structures in the 200-year-old walled old town district of al-Musawara, in what officials say is a plan to deny militants places to hide.

Several policemen have been killed in attacks by militants since that demolition work began.

Since the security forces advanced into the town, residents have reported the sounds of extensive shooting and explosions.

It was not immediately clear if armed men wanted by the authorities had fired back at the security forces.

Activists posted photos of several people they said had been hit, including the dead. Others have been wounded, but no precise figures were immediately available.

They identified the three local residents killed as Mohsen al-Awjami, Mohammed al-Faraj and Hussein Abu Abdullah, but gave no details on the expatriates.

A relative of Awjami said the 42-year-old man was returning home from work when he was shot by security forces.

When he got out of the car, he was hit by a salvo of gunfire from security forces. He was struck in the abdomen..., a family member told Reuters.

He was outside for 2-1/2 hours before people managed to pull him inside and for an ambulance to take to hospital. He is now at the morgue at Qatif hospital.

Officials from the regions main Qatif Central Hospital declined to comment when reached by telephone, saying they were not authorised to speak to the media.

Activists posted a picture of another dead man they identified as Faraj, a bearded young man on a dark road with a bulge in his side, apparently from a projectile that hit him.

The authenticity of the posting could not be verified.

Authorities accuse militants in the area of a wave of attacks on security forces and a campaign of intimidation against local Shiites whom they accuse of cooperating with Saudi authorities.
The Chinese People's Liberation Army Air Force has entered a stage of carrying out systematic, routine and actual combat drills on the high seas, air force spokesperson Shen Jinke said Thursday.

The air force has dealt with various disturbances and tested its blue water war capabilities since it started carrying out routine drills on the high seas three years ago, Shen told a news briefing on "Army Games 2017" in Wuhan, capital city of central China's Hubei Province.

Stating that China's high-sea drills have increased in frequency over the past three years, Shen said the recent flight of various warplanes over the Bashi Channel and Miyako Strait has tested the air force's actual combat capabilities on the high seas.

The spokesperson said such drills accord with international laws and practice. They are legitimate, reasonable and justified, he said.

The drills are not meant to target any countries or regions, but are the requirement of China's military and national defense building, Shen said.

The air force aims to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, as well as the interests of the country's air safety through carrying out actual combat drills, he said.
Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macrons election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to conduct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former financier as he sought to defeat far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources said. Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election. But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not previously been reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents. US intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them. It credited a combination of improved automated detection and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

Company officials briefed congressional committee members and staff, among others, about their findings. People involved in the conversations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account closures the company disclosed in April.

Facebook did not dispute the figure.

Seeking friends of friends

The spying campaign included Russian agents posing as friends of friends of Macron associates and trying to glean personal information from them, according to the US congressman and two others briefed on the matter.

Facebook employees noticed the efforts during the first round of the presidential election and traced them to tools used in the past by Russias GRU military intelligence unit, said the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were discussing sensitive government and private intelligence.

Facebook told American officials that it did not believe the spies burrowed deep enough to get the targets to download malicious software or give away their login information, which they believe may have been the goal of the operation.

The same GRU unit, dubbed Fancy Bear or APT 28 in the cybersecurity industry, has been blamed for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and many other political targets. The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.

Email accounts belonging to Macron campaign officials were hacked and their contents dumped online in the final days of the runoff between Macron and Le Pen.

French law enforcement and intelligence officials have not publicly accused anyone of the campaign attacks.

Mounir Mahjoubi, who was digital director of Macrons political movement, En Marche, and is now a junior minister for digital issues in his government, told Reuters in May that some security experts blamed the GRU specifically, though they had no proof.

Mahjoubi and En Marche declined to comment.

There are few publicly known examples of sophisticated social media spying efforts. In 2015, Britains domestic security service, MI5, warned that hostile powers were using LinkedIn to connect with and try to recruit government workers.

The social media and networking companies themselves rarely comment on such operations when discovered.

Facebook, facing mounting pressure from governments around the world to control fake news and propaganda on the service, took a step toward openness with a report in April on what it termed information operations.

The bulk of that document discussed so-called influence operations, which included amplifier accounts that spread links to slanted or false news stories in order to influence public opinion.
An attack on a boat carrying refugees off the coast of war-torn Yemen in March was almost certainly carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, according to a confidential UN report seen by AFP on Wednesday.

A helicopter opened fire on the vessel carrying over 140 passengers, killing 42 civilians and wounding 34, in an attack the report said was a violation of international humanitarian law.

This civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a 7.62mm caliber weapon from an armed utility helicopter, said the report by the UN panel of experts presented to the council this week.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces are the only parties to the conflict that have the capability to operate armed utility helicopters in the area.

The helicopter was most likely operating from a naval vessel deployed by the coalition backing Yemens government.

The coalition has denied that its forces were operating in the area of Hodeida when the vessel carrying Somali refugees in the Red Sea came under attack.

Major General Ahmed Assiri, spokesman for the coalition, dismissed the accusation and then told AFP there has been no firing by the coalition in this zone.

Despite requests from the UN panel, the coalition, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the 31-nation Combined Maritime Forces have not shared information on the incident, the report said.

The panel finds that the attack on this civilian vessel resulted in IHL violations ... and thus constitute a threat to peace, security and stability of Yemen, the report said.

Two other attacks by helicopters or naval vessels on March 15 and 16 on fishing vessels left 11 dead and 8 injured, it added.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition backing the Yemeni government in a violent war against Yemens Iran-allied Huthi rebels since March 2015.

The conflict has brought Yemen to its knees, with more than 60 percent of the population on the brink of famine and facing the worlds worst cholera outbreak.

UN aid chief Stephen OBrien this month blamed Yemens warring sides and their foreign backers for a cholera outbreak that he described as man-made and a direct result of the conflict.

There are now more than 400,000 suspected cases of cholera in Yemen and nearly 1,900 people have died.
A Sikh family in Australia has launched a legal battle against a Christian school in Melbourne for denying admission to their five-year-old son because he wears patka, a chidrens turban, according to a media report.

Sidhak Singh Arora was due to start prep at Melton Christian College, in Melbournes north-west, this year.

But his patka does not comply with the schools uniform policy which prohibits students from wearing any type of religious head covering, ABC news reported.

His family have taken their fight to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), claiming the school had breached the states Equal Opportunity Act by discriminating against their son on religious grounds.

The boys father Sagardeep Singh Arora said he was surprised the school would not make an exemption for his son.

I was very surprised in an advanced country like Australia, they are still not allowing us to wear patka in the school, he said.

On the basis of that they are not giving enrolment in the school. I believe students should be allowed to practice their religion and should be allowed to wear their article of faith, he said.

Sidhak has enrolled at another school, but his parents hope Melton Christian College will be forced to change its policy so he can enrol there instead.

The VCAT hearing was told the college had an open enrolment policy which allowed children of all faiths to enrol.

Former college council member Stephen Liefting told the hearing they were inclusive of people of all faiths.

As long as they dont wear clothing that promotes other religions, he said.

Principal David Gleeson gave evidence that a number of Sikh students attend the school but do not wear the patka.
Indias national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval might not have much room to maneuvre when, and if, he sits down with Chinese officials on Thursday or Friday to start a conversation to resolve the military stand-off near the Sikkim border.

Doval landed in Beijing on Wednesday afternoon to attend a BRICS security summit and is scheduled to meet President Xi Jinping on Friday along with his NSA counterparts from the BRICS countries, including Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.

But the focus will be on whether Dovals separate meetings with Chinese officials, including state councilor Yang Jiechi, will be able to resolve  or at least begin to ease -- the Donglang (Doklam) standoff, which is now into its second month.

What is likely to complicate the situation further is the Peoples Liberation Armys (PLA) 90th anniversary on August 1.

A Chinese academic indicated that there is unease and anger within the PLA hierarchy about allowing foreign troops on Chinese soil even as the worlds largest armed forces gather to mark their raising day.

Donglang is under Chinas control but claimed by Bhutan. Beijing has repeatedly said it belonged to China from ancient times.

According to reports, President Xi Jinping  the general secretary of the Communist Party of China (CPEC) and the chairperson of the Central Military Commission -- will observe the war games at Zhurihe Combined Tactics Training Base, 400km northwest of Beijing in Inner Mongolia, on August 1.

The PLA will certainly not be comfortable with the message that will go out if trespassing Indian troops continue to be present in Donglang while Xi -- the all-powerful Communist party general secretary -- is observing PLAs wargames on its birthday.

Its easier to shake a mountain than the PLA, Wu Qian, spokesperson for the ministry of national defence (MoD), said Monday.

Referring to Wus comments, the countrys official news agency, Xinhua, said, ...these words illustrated Chinas unwavering resolution to build a stronger army and guard the countrys sovereignty.

The Chinese academic indicated the possibility of a disaster if Indian troops dont withdraw before the day.

Doval would have been aware of this when he arrived here.

It is one of the longest-running face-offs between the militaries of India and China in recent history  and the one in which Beijing has been most aggressive in decades.

The show of belligerence from China has so far comprised three main acts  strong statements from the ministry of foreign affairs (MFA) and the MoD, a constant salvo of hostile editorials and articles from state-controlled media outlets and the calibrated release of information, photos and videos of military exercises in and around the Tibet Autonomous Region

Doval seems to have little scope to maneuvre as Beijing has made it clear what it wants for the standoff to end: withdrawal of Indian troops.

So far, foreign minister, Wang Yi has been the highest ranking Chinese politician to have commented on the military impasse.

Wang told reporters in Bangkok earlier this week that the problem was very straightforward.

...Even Indian officials publicly said that Chinese soldiers didnt enter the Indian territory. In other words, Indian side admitted (crossing) into Chinese territory.

Hu Shisheng, director of the Institute of South and Southeast Asian and Oceanian Studies at the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations, said the tension will be quickly reduced once Indian troops pull out from Donglang.

This time, China and its top leaders feel humiliated badly by Indias adventurism and invasion, he said, adding, How can China withdraw? It (the standoff) is in Chinese territory according to the 1890 treaty (signed between Chinas Qing dynasty and British India).

Dovals visit is important in the run-up to the BRICS summit to be held in Chinas Xiamen city in the first week of September, which will be attended by Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

On Friday, the five heads of security delegations from the BRICS countries will formally meet to discuss on global governance, counter-terrorism, cyber security and energy security, international and regional hotspots, and national security and development.

--
South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday welcomed a rescue dog to his official Blue House residence, delivering on a campaign promise to boost awareness of the fast-growing numbers of abandoned animals accompanying a surge in pet ownership.

Tori, a four-year-old black mixed breed, becomes the first shelter dog to attain the title of First Dog, joining Moons two other pets, a 10-year-old Korean-breed Pungsan dog called Maru and a former stray cat, Jjing-jing.

As a society, we need to pay more attention to abandoned animals and care for them, Moon told animal rights advocates at the welcome ceremony, his office said, adding that as many as 300,000 animals had been abandoned.

Like many shelter animals, Tori suffered the double stigma of being abandoned and having darker fur in a country that favours lighter-coloured animals as pets, and avoids those with black pelts out of superstition.

Tori had to wait for two years to be adopted while his lighter-furred friends easily found new homes, said Park Soyoun, president of Seoul-based animal shelter Coexistence of Animal Rights on Earth (CARE).

South Korean President Moon Jae-in welcomes a rescue dog to his official Blue House residence in Seoul, South Korea July 26, 2017. (REUTERS)

Before his rescue, Tori was kept on a short leash in a deserted farmhouse and fed scraps.

We wish Tori all the best in the Blue House, unlike the nine dogs abandoned by the former President Park Geun-hye in March after she was removed from office, added Park.

Moons predecessor had faced criticism for leaving behind nine Korean Jindo breed dogs at the Blue House when she was removed from office over a corruption scandal.

South Korea has often been criticized for its custom of consuming dog meat, although the trade has fallen off in recent years.

Pet ownership has grown rapidly, with nearly a quarter of all homes having one, but the trend has also boosted the flock of abandoned animals in shelters nationwide.

The government spent nearly 11.5 billion won ($10.3 million)on care for about 87,100 such animals in 2016.

A change in perception is long overdue, say some pet owners.

It is the key to improve animal welfare in South Korea, as many treat pets merely as possessions, something to purchase, said Song Chanwoo, a doctor who adopted a mixed-breed dog three years ago.
A top official in the Arab quartet isolating Qatar says the bloc must go on without it and pursue new regional relationships  phrases that hint at a more severe break with the tiny energy-rich Gulf state.

The United Arab Emirates Minister of State for Foreign Relations Anwar al-Gargash made the comments on Wednesday on Twitter, saying its time to think about a new set of relations in (the) Gulf replacing old ones.

The UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Bahrain cut diplomatic ties and transport links with Qatar in early June, accusing it of supporting extremists. Qatar denies the charge and sees it as politically motivated.

All but Egypt are members of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council, a decades-old alliance including Qatar that has been strained by the crisis.
Britains Prince William will give up his day job on Thursday when he completes his last shift as an air ambulance pilot before focusing full-time on his royal duties.

The 35-year-old prince, the second-in-line to the throne after his father, Charles, announced in January he would quit his role as a pilot with the East Anglia Air Ambulance (EAAA) to take more of the official roles relinquished by Queen Elizabeth who since turning 90 last year has eased up on her workload.

Williams office said the prince would perform a night shift at Cambridge Airport in central England where he has been based since joining the EAAA in 2015, before posing for a photograph with his colleagues.

Following on from my time in the military, I have had experiences in this job I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that will add a valuable perspective to my royal work for decades to come, he said in January.

William served in Britains armed forces from 2006 until 2013, and worked latterly as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.

As well as quitting his air ambulance job, William is moving with wife Kate, and children George and Charlotte from Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the queens Sandringham estate in eastern England, to Kensington Palace, their official London residence.
A US trained Iraqi army division allegedly executed several dozen men in the final throes of the battle against Islamic State militants in Mosuls Old City, Human Rights Watch said on Thursday.

The watchdog urged the U.S. government to suspend all support for the 16th Division of the Iraqi army pending an investigation into what it called war crimes, evidence of which was seen by two international observers.

Reuters could not independently verify the claims because Iraqi authorities have restricted media access to the Old City since Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi declared victory over Islamic State on July 10. Spokesmen for the Iraqi government and military could not be reached for comment.

Islamic State made its last stand in the Old City after nine months of urban warfare with Iraqi forces who are backed by a U.S.-led coalition.

Fighting continued there for several days after victory was declared in mid-July and videos emerged of Iraqi forces beating unarmed men and pushing one off a precipice to his death.

Given the widespread abuses by Iraqi forces and the governments abysmal record on accountability, the U.S. should take a hard look at its involvement with Iraqi forces, said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch.

Iraq has promised to investigate previous accusations of abuses and hold perpetrators to account.

The observers cited by HRW said they had seen a group of Iraqi soldiers who identified themselves as members of the 16th Division lead four naked men down an alleyway, after which they heard multiple gunshots.

They were told by other soldiers that the four men were Islamic State fighters.

As they were leaving the area, one of the observers saw the bodies of a number of naked men lying in a doorway, one of whom appeared to have been handcuffed and had a rope tied around his legs.

The U.S. military should find out why a force that it trained and supported is committing ghastly war crimes, Whitson said. US taxpayer dollars should be helping to curtail abuses,not enable them.
The US Pacific Fleet commander said on Thursday he would launch a nuclear strike against China next week if President Donald Trump ordered it, and warned against the military ever shifting its allegiance from its commander-in-chief.

Admiral Scott Swift was responding to a hypothetical question at an Australian National University security conference following a major joint US- Australia military exercise off the Australian coast. The drills were monitored by a Chinese intelligence-gathering ship off northeast Australia.

Asked by an academic in the audience whether he would make a nuclear attack on China next week if Trump ordered it, Swift replied: The answer would be: Yes.

He said, Every member of the US military has sworn an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic and to obey the officers and the president of the US as commander and chief appointed over us.

Swift added: This is core to the American democracy and any time you have a military that is moving away from a focus and an allegiance to civilian control, then we really have a significant problem.

Pacific Fleet spokesman Capt Charlie Brown later said Swifts answer reaffirmed the principle of civilian control over the military.

The admiral was not addressing the premise of the question, he was addressing the principle of civilian authority of the military, Brown said. The premise of the question was ridiculous.

The biennial Talisman Saber exercise involved 36 warships including the aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan, 220 aircraft and 33,000 military personnel.

It was monitored by a Chinese Peoples Liberation Army-Navy Type 815 Dongdiao-class auxiliary general intelligence vessel from within Australias 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

Swift said China had similarly sent an intelligence ship into the US exclusive economic zone around Hawaii during the Pacific Fleet-hosted multinational naval exercise in 2014.

China had a legal right to enter the American economic zone for military purposes under the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea - or UNCLOS- which defines the rights and responsibilities of nations sailing the worlds oceans, he said.

Governments needed to engage with Beijing to understand why the Chinese did not accept that the US had the same access rights within Chinas exclusive economic zone, Swift said.

The dichotomy in my mind is why is there a different rules-set applied with respect to taking advantage of UNCLOS in other EEZs, but theres this perspective that theres a different rules-set that applies within another nations (Chinas) EEZ?  he said.
Portuguese Minister of Planning and Infrastructure Pedro Marques speaks at the inaugural ceremony of the first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to Portuguese capital Lisbon via Beijing, capital of China on July 26, 2017. The flight landed at the Humberto Delgado Airport, Lisbon on Wednesday. An air route between Hangzhou, Beijing and Lisbon was inaugurated Tuesday, the first direct flight connecting the capitals of China and Portugal. (Xinhua/Zhang Liyun)

An airbus A300 aircraft on its first direct flight from China's Hangzhou to the Portuguese capital via Beijing landed on Wednesday at Humberto Delgado airport after a 13-hour flight.

Portuguese minister of planning and infrastructure Pedro Marques said at a ceremony marking the event that the launching of the first direct flight route between the two countries had been the government's dream for many years.

He said he hoped the route would strengthen the role Portugal has been playing as a bridge between China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Chinese Ambassador to Portugal Cai Run said in his speech that the direct flight path between China and Portugal was of great significance to the development of bilateral relations as it would promote economy, trade, investment, and tourism between the two countries.

Additionally, the opening of the route is more convenient for cooperation between China and Portuguese-speaking countries, he said.

Nearly 200,000 Chinese tourists came to Portugal last year.

A Portuguese family was busy with check-in for the aircraft's return flight from Lisbon to Beijing, also on Wednesday. Lona, a prosecutor in his late forties, told Xinhua that he and his family had a strong interest in China as it is a big and important country.

"As summer vacation is going on, my wife and I, together with my son and daughter, will visit Beijing and Tianjin for ten days. We want to see the world-famous Great Wall, the Forbidden City, and famous Olympic buildings like bird's nest and water cube," he said.

The first Hangzhou-Beijing-Lisbon flight was carried out by Beijing Capital Airlines. Both flights were 90 percent full. Currently, there are three flights per week and one more will be added in winter of this year.
VIDEO Ucraina a recunoscut pentru prima oara ca a atacat cu drone maritime flota Rusiei din Crimeea. Primul USV achizitionat prin United24 se va numi Herson
The punky folk bands will play on September 10.

Flogging Molly have been ploughing a rollicking, rambunctious furrow for 20 years.

The combination of Irish traditional music with gutbucket rock'n'roll is something they share with Blood Or Whiskey, who they have invited to open their upcoming Irish gig.

The bands play the Olympia Theatre, Dublin on September 10.

Flooging Molly are touring in support of their sixth studio album Life Is Good, which is due to be released on June 2.

Understandably likened to The Pogues, but the Blood or Whiskeys influences lead their sound to be their upcoming new album LIFE IS GOOD out on June 2nd (Vanguard Records). Their sixth studio album, LIFE IS GOOD is the bands strongest release to date highlighting their finesse to tell meticulously crafted stories with fierce and bravado arrangements.

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Molly main man Daver King likens his band's live attack to a comradely booze-up. "In Ireland," King says, "you go to the pub to have a conversation. That's what we do every night on stage, go to the pub and trade stories."

Let's hope there are plenty of tales told and tunes played at the Olympia.

Here's a barn-burner from their new album:
When I think back to reviewing books as a 22-year-old pup and slagging off some writer who was in their sixties and whod been writing for years, I have to laugh at my own arrogance, Nick Laird reminisces.

A book critic himself in his younger and more vulnerable years, Nick Laird has learnt from experience never to read reviews. After a career of being humbled by teaching the written word, the Northern Irish novelist and poet stands by the dictum first given by Ezra Pound, then later repeated by fellow Mid-Ulster poet Seamus Heaney  Pay no attention to the opinions of those who have themselves produced no notable work.

Giving himself the widest possible berth from the opinions of critics, Nick Laird has upped and left his home in New York City  where he teaches a course in Creative Writing at NYU  to holiday in the quiet repose of the Irish countryside (NB: for the teeming hordes of literary paparazzi out there whove ever wondered where successful novelist-couple Nick Laird and Zadie Smith spend their summers, its in a cottage in West Cork).
The County Wicklow trio has a treat in store for attendees of their single launch party.

Fans of Wyvern Lingo will be even more keen to buy their tickets for the indie-pop groups 25 August single release launch at Grand Social now, with the announcement of an exclusive aftershow party at a secret location. Caoimhe Barry (vocals, drums), Karen Cowley (vocals, keys, bass synth) and Saoirse Duane (vocals, guitar) will be spinning records late into the night for the private after-show audience.

The Grand Social performance is a celebration of Wyvern Lingos newest single, I Love You Sadie  a song about loving the feminine qualities of a man, and encouraging him not to worry about fitting into the male stereotype and just to be himself, according to the band.

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TRENTON, N.J. - Top U.S. drug wholesaler McKesson agreed Wednesday to create an independent board chairman, responding to a Teamsters-led shareholder protest over its role in distributing opioids.

McKesson Corp. is dealing with lawsuits, government investigations and fines for its handling of suspicious opioid orders to U.S. communities. Wholesalers buy drugs from manufacturers and sell them to pharmacies, hospitals and nursing homes.

The company's move came even though shareholders at Wednesday's meeting didn't back the Teamsters' proposal to split the CEO and board chairman jobs to provide more oversight and protect the company's reputation. The change won't take effect until after longtime CEO John Hammergren leaves.

The union, a longtime McKesson shareholder, also opposed the company's executive pay package. In an advisory vote, shareholders rejected it but the company said it will review its compensation policies and consider changes.

"These reforms will not bring back the lives taken by the opioid crisis, but hopefully will provide greater oversight and accountability for how prescription drugs are distributed in this country," Teamsters general secretary Ken Hall said in a statement.

Union members protested before the start of the annual shareholders meeting in Irving in suburban Dallas.

Last January, San Francisco-based McKesson agreed to pay a record $150 million settlement with the Justice Department over allegations it violated the Controlled Substances Act by not reporting frequent or suspiciously large shipments of opioids. That was required under the company's $13.3 million settlement with the government in 2008 over similar allegations.

The January settlement also required McKesson to stop sales of controlled substances from four warehouses.

"The company is doing everything it can to help address this crisis in close partnership with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and other organizations," McKesson said in a statement after Wednesday's meeting.

The Teamsters' shareholder proposal was backed by Institutional Shareholder Services, the world's biggest advisory service on corporate governance issues.

According to the group's calculations, McKesson gave Hammergren a total of $21.7 million in compensation for the 2017 fiscal year.

Hammergren, 58, has been McKesson's chief executive since 2001 and board chairman since 2002.
WASHINGTON - The Chinese solar panel industry, flooding U.S. markets with cheap solar panels, has a engaged in a musical chairs-type effort in recent years to avoid tariffs on their products by periodically shifting production to Malaysia, Thailand and other Southeast Asian nations.

So far, the U.S. government has held back on further tariffs as it has tried to balance the competing interests of American panel makers struggling to survive the Chinese onslaught against rooftop installers and solar farm developers that are prospering from cheap panels as they expand the nation's solar energy capacity. But the prospect that the pro-fossil fuel, "America first" President Donald Trump could upend the status quo has solar developers and environmentalists increasingly worried as the White House reviews a series of trade and energy policies.

The White House has offered little indication for its plans on solar, but the president's tough-on-trade rhetoric and support for coal raises the possibility that Trump would increase tariffs - and thus prices - on imported panels to protect domestic manufacturers while weakening federal incentives that have encouraged the growth of solar energy across the country. On a recent trip to Washington to lobby Congress, John Berger, CEO of Houston rooftop solar financing company Sunnova, said Trump's promises to bring back the coal sector and protect American manufacturing jobs could come at the expense of companies like his.

"If they go ahead," with the tariffs," Berger said, "it decimates the utility-scale solar industry and hurts us."

Four-year tariff sought

Panel prices have plunged roughly 70 percent since 2010, making solar power increasingly affordable and driving growth of solar energy in the United States. But those falling prices have also have driven domestic manufacturers out of business, most famously the California panel maker Solyndra, which burned through some $500 million in taxpayer money before filing for bankruptcy.

Last year solar accounted for almost 40 percent of new generation on the U.S. power grid, more than any other source, according to data compiled by GTM Research. Solar capacity in Texas doubled last year to 1.2 gigawatts, enough to power more than 200,000 Texas homes.

The centerpiece of the decisions moving towards Trump's desk is a petition filed earlier this year with the U.S. International Trade Commission. The Georgia-based manufacturer Suniva, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year, claims that tariffs imposed by the Obama administration in 2012 and 2014 failed to raise prices on the flood of cheap panels flowing into the U.S. market because Chinese companies moved manufacturing to other countries. Now, to prevent China from shifting its manufacturing hubs again, Suniva wants a four-year tariff on foreign solar panels - of the type it makes and is most in-demand.

Such a move could devastate the country's solar power industry, wiping out more than one-third of the industry's 250,000 jobs, according to an estimate from the Solar Energy Industries Association, a trade group.

The White House declined to comment on the case.

For Trump, a tariff on Chinese solar could serve as a win, win. He could slow down solar developers that are steadily taking market share from the coal power plants he promises to keep open, while cementing his pro-manufacturing rhetoric.

Changed priorities

But building the U.S. solar manufacturing sector represents a colossal hurdle. Despite loan guarantees and other support from the Obama administration, the U.S. solar manufacturing industry is struggling to keep up with the Chinese companies that have come to dominate the global market, with many of the world's largest solar manufacturers headquartered there. While some of that growth stems from low labor costs and government financing for the industry, it is primarily built around the same massive supply chains that allowed the Chinese to dominate the manufacturing of technology like the iPhone, said MJ Shiao, head of Americas research at GTM Research.

"Scale is a huge factor of driving down the cost of solar module manufacturing," he said. "We've never matched the scale of manufacturing in China. And the question is do we even want to? Can we?"

Trump and his administration, meanwhile, have signalled that expanding renewable energy is no longer a priority in the nation's energy policy. Trump last month pulled the United States out of the Paris climate while trumpeting a policy of American "energy dominance" that focuses almost exclusively on coal, oil and natural gas. Earlier this year Energy Secretary Rick Perry, asked if the administration would interfere with state policies that require utilities to buy electricity from renewable sources, said, "That's a conversation that will occur over the next few years."

Perry in April ordered a study into whether federal tax credits for wind and solar were threatening the reliability of the U.S. power grid by driving out coal and nuclear plants. An early draft of the report leaked to the media said no, but the department has yet to release an official version.

Then in May the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission - which is chaired by Obama appointee Cheryl A. LaFleur - held a meeting to examine how state efforts to shift towards cleaner forms of electrical generation are affecting power markets. That raises the specter of a change to a decades-old federal law requiring utilities to buy electricity from outside generators such as solar farms and small hydroelectric projects.

All this is happening as China, United States and Europe compete to develop and advance carbon-free technology that most economists see as the future of energy as governments impose ever stricter rules on fossil fuels and carbon dioxide emissions to combat climate change. The competition has already come close to sparking trade wars: When the European Union was considering tariffs on Chinese solar panels in 2013, the Beijing government threatened to take punitive action against European exports to China until the EU relented.

China looms large

In determining a solar policy going forward, China looms particularly large for Trump. The president has criticized his predecessors' trade deals with China as a poor deal for American workers and question remains whether the administration is willing to further antagonize China over protecting solar panel manufacturers.

"There are large forces at work," said Mark D. Herlach, a Washington-based trade attorney who represents solar companies.. "If you're looking at our global economic situation and you have an industry asking for relief, the president should take into account a broader range of interests."
LONDON - Scrambling to combat a growing air pollution crisis, Britain announced Wednesday that sales of new diesel and gasoline cars would reach the end of the road by 2040, the latest step in Europe's battle against the damaging environmental impact of the internal combustion engine.

Britain's plans match a similar pledge made this month by France, and are part of a growing global push to curb emissions and fight climate change by promoting electric cars. Automakers are also adjusting, with Volvo notably saying recently that it would phase out the internal combustion engine in coming years and BMW deciding to build an electric version of its popular Mini car in Britain.

But the shift to electric vehicles will be gradual, and the target set by Britain is less ambitious than some of the efforts elsewhere. President Donald Trump's decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord has also dented optimism.

Britain's new clean air strategy, published Wednesday, calls for sales of new gas and diesel cars and vans to end by 2040. The government will also make more 255 million pounds, or $332 million, available for local governments to take short-term action, such as retrofitting buses, to reduce air pollution.

"It is important that we all gear up for a significant change which deals not just with the problems to health caused by emissions, but the broader problems caused in terms of accelerating climate change," Michael Gove, the country's environment secretary, told the BBC.

Chris Grayling, the transport secretary, promised a "green revolution in transport."

The strategy document was published after a protracted legal battle in which ministers were ordered by the courts to produce new plans to tackle illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide.

In France, the promise to end sales of traditional cars was made as part of a renewed commitment to the Paris accord.

In Britain, which is also committed to the Paris treaty, the measures have particular political significance because of rising concern over the level of air pollution, particularly in large cities like London. Poor air quality, much of it a result of pollution from vehicles, is estimated to cause between 23,000 and 40,000 deaths nationwide every year.

Cars typically have a life span of around 15 years, so even if Britain follows through with its target, conventional engines are likely to be on the country's roads more than a decade later.

Britain's decision is, however, the latest indication of how swiftly governments and the public in Europe have turned against diesel and internal combustion engines in general.

Automakers, though reluctant to abandon technologies that have served them well for more than a century, are increasingly resigned to the demise of engines that run on fossil fuels. They are investing heavily in battery-powered cars as they realize their traditional business is threatened by Tesla or emerging Chinese companies, which have a lead in electric car technology.

The shift away from internal combustion engines is in large part a result of growing awareness of the health hazards of diesel.

Cities like Madrid, Munich and Stuttgart are considering diesel bans. Sales of diesel cars are plunging. Political leaders are under pressure to end the de facto subsidies of diesel fuel that prevail in Europe.

European countries kept taxes on diesel lower than on gasoline in the belief that it was kinder to the planet. Diesel engines do spew less carbon dioxide, a cause of global warming, than gasoline engines. But they produce more nitrogen oxides, a family of gases that cause asthma and are responsible for the smog that sometimes blankets London and other major cities.
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Former Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst isn't making a political comeback, but he's ready to buy into the booming Permian Basin oil fields.

Dewhurst's 36-year-old Houston energy business, Falcon Seaboard, is seeking outside investors for the first time to lease or buy acreage in overlooked areas throughout West Texas. He's started the new Falcon Seaboard Permian Fund I to oversee the investments. In an interview, Dewhurst said he hopes to raise anywhere from $145 million to $300 million initially.

Rather than bid against the oil majors like Exxon Mobil Corp. or big independent exploration and production players like EOG Resources, Dewhurst said the goal is to instead focus on "contrarian niche plays" that are found in overlooked areas of the Permian, including land that's already drilled but still has value.

The strategy includes buying acreage from financially struggling companies still hurting from the two-year oil bust that need to turn a quick buck to stay afloat.

"That niche small play works," Dewhurst said. "It has higher returns, I think, and it's easier to compete than going into bidding wars."

Dewhurst served as lieutenant governor for 12 years, but he never abandoned his energy business.

The mild-mannered Dewhurst ran for a U.S. Senate seat in 2012 but lost unexpectedly to Sen. Ted Cruz, who had the backing of the conservative tea party movement.

Then he lost his lieutenant governor post after a primary defeat in 2014 by another ideological firebrand, current Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick.

Dewhurst was an oilman long before he became a politician. A Houston native, Dewhurst worked as a CIA officer before leaving government to enter the energy sector in the 1970s. He quickly found success and became a multimillionaire.

Like most people working and investing in oil, he suffered a setback during the 1980s oil crash. But he, like the industry, rebounded. He further built his wealth in the 1990s by developing and selling co-generation power plants. His net worth eventually exceeded $200 million.

Dewhurst holds a large natural gas acreage position in the Piceance Basin on Colorado's Western Slope. With a lot of money tied up in Colorado, Dewhurst said he needed to reach out to external investors to grow in the Permian. He just finalized the creation of the new fund.

"We're just now reaching out to investors," he said. "I've never accepted outside investments in the past. I wish it weren't so, but I'm not big enough to carry two major investments at the same time."

Despite the crowd in the Permian, Dewhurst said he still sees opportunities for success. Just the Wolfcamp Shale portion of the Permian Basin holds an estimated 20 billion barrels of recoverable oil, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

"What's not to like?" Dewhurst said.

Dewhurst said he has solid verbal commitments from investors, and Falcon Seaboard has begun contract negotiations on certain acreage. In many cases, the company will drill acreage and then sell it for a profit. It will also hold onto some acreage and manage its own wells, he said.

The plan is to work with a separate exploration and production company to produce the wells on Falcon Seaboard's behalf. Dewhurst, however, said the company hasn't ruled out running wells without the outside help.

"We're perfectly willing to operate again," he said.
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The Houston Food Bank has moved on from its longtime digs along Interstate 45, but its "End Hunger" message will live on as the Peli Peli restaurant group takes over the building that over the past decade became a colorful landmark for commuters just north of downtown.

The message, highly visible in green lettering, will stay on the building. Peli Peli may at some point put its stamp on the building with a some type of mural or artwork reflecting Houston's diverse culture, but does not plan on its name being a big component.

"I would like to follow the message they started, not only ending hunger, but something that would pay tribute to the diversity of Houston," said Thomas Nguyen, one of three partners in Peli Peli Restaurant Group.

"Our concept is about diversity of flavors and cultures and people. That's what Houston has become."

RELATED: 'End Hunger' building, part of the I-45 commute, is sold

Peli Peli took the keys to the 15,000-square-foot Mary Barden Keegan Center, 2445 North Freeway, this week after a year-plus search for a space to centralize food preparation for its five South African fusion restaurants in the area. The building will also house Peli Peli's growing catering operation, which was becoming difficult to manage from the kitchens inside its restaurants.

"If you have a catering job, it's hard to be able to do that and then handle the business we get at dinner and on the weekends," Nguyen said.

The meals will continue to be prepared on-site in the kitchens, which take up more than 20 percent of the space in each restaurant, Nguyen said.

Last year, Houston-based Virgata Property Co. purchased the building from the Houston Food Bank, which has since consolidated to 535 Portwall in east Houston.

Virgata cited the prominent location along the North Freeway as a selling point for potential tenants. Possible uses ranged from food-service or brew-pub operations to fitness concepts.

With the new deal, the kitchen that used to prepare 5,000 meals a day for the needy will remain intact. The leased location also will enable Peli Peli to expand production of its bottled spices and sauces, making them available for purchase in all of its restaurants, and possibly in grocery stores as it ramps up capacity. The spices and sauces are currently available at the Galleria location.

That includes piri piri pepper, also known as bird's-eye chili, which is used to flavor chicken and seafood and to rim martini glasses.

"We take it and mix it with different fruits and seasoning to kind of meet the heat so it's more of a flavorful spice than a hot spice," Nguyen said.

Peli Peli, which first opened in Vintage Park in northwest Houston in 2009, has other locations in the Galleria, LaCenterra at Cinco Ranch in Katy, the more casual Peli Peli Kitchen at 9090 Katy Freeway in Spring Branch, and Peli Deli, a pop-up in downtown's Esperson building. A location in Austin is upcoming.

The move to a central commissary will enable Peli Peli to save on both labor and food costs, and those savings could be passed on to customers, the company said. Peli Peli will get better pricing from distributor Sysco Corp. by purchasing products in larger quantities for delivery to one location.

Nguyen called the "End Hunger" message emblazoned on the new building "a very important message and a very important cause."

"We're not messing with it," he said. "If anything, we would like to enhance it later on."
A total of 124 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, have been arrested in southwest China's Sichuan Province and Cambodia for cross-border telecom fraud.

In February, major telecom fraud cases were reported to police in Sichuan. Suspects, disguised as court or police officials, claimed that the victims' bank accounts had been breached, inducing them to transfer their money to a so-called "safe account" in panic.

After investigation, police located the gang's den in Cambodia.

Eighteen people were first arrested in an April raid in Sichuan. Another 74 people were captured on July 1 by Chinese and Cambodian police during raids on several locations in Phnom Penh. Cambodia deported the suspects to China on July 6.

On July 17, another 32 suspects, including seven Taiwan residents, were caught in similar telecom fraud cases in Cambodia. A large number of mobile phones and laptops were seized during the crackdowns. Seventeen of the 32 suspects were sent to China by Cambodian authorities on Thursday.
Oddly in synch with the narrative strategy, though without the imposing visual panache, of "Dunkirk," the other historical drama of the moment, director Kathryn Bigelow's "Detroit," is an artfully frazzled mosaic of suffering, putting the audience through the wringer in the name of truth, injustice and what many see, still, as the American way with police brutality.

At its best the movie, written by Mark Boal, Bigelow's collaborator on "The Hurt Locker" and "Zero Dark Thirty," evokes a spirit of mournful provocation, as the bloody Detroit events of July 1967 unfold. There are significant limitations, however, with Bigelow's latest film, and they prevent "Detroit" - a war chronicle no less than her previously mentioned masterworks - from measuring up to those exceptional standards.

In various, depressing ways, the film speaks to our present-day rage-fueled American divisions, clear echoes of where we were 50 years ago. Audiences are responding to "Dunkirk" because it's a reassuring period piece, about grace under pressure and never giving up. "Detroit" is a tougher sell for a Friday night at the movies, because it's about people who never had a chance at justice in the first place.

The events are well known in some circles, less so in others. On July 23, 1967, police raided an illegal after-hours bar (a "blind pig") on Detroit's Near West Side. This sparked riots that, as one character in the film notes, exceeded the destruction of the 1943 Detroit clashes between police and African-American citizens. In the movie Anthony Mackie plays a key supporting character, real-life Vietnam War veteran Robert Greene, caught up in the blind pig raid and the ensuing nightmare. He later described it as worse than anything he endured in Vietnam.

Some characters are pulled from the historical record; the key fictionalized character (for legal reasons), a venal, sociopathic police officer played by Will Poulter, is based on an officer found not guilty in court by an all-white jury.

The excruciating centerpiece of "Detroit" concerns what happened at the Algiers Motel, an 11-dollar-a-night dive, home to hookers and johns and all kinds of transients. A group of officers, mistaking a starter's pistol for sniper fire, turned against innocent suspects in a show of outlandish, illegal force. With the tacit cooperation of state police and the National Guard, the interrogation turned on a sick game of pretend-killings (pretend for a while, anyway) in a room adjoining the hallway where various, battered and abused suspects were being held while police searched for a sniper's rifle that did not exist.

It's one hell of a sequence to endure and Bigelow does not cut out anything for the sake of going easy on the audience. The film's audience surrogate, who remains watchful on the margins of this long scene, is real-life security guard Melvin Dismukes, played by John Boyega of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens." He's a singular note of decency amid an indecently cruel scenario.

More Information "Detroit" Rated R: for strong violence and pervasive language Running time: 143 minutes 3.5 out of 5 stars 'Detroit' Rated R: for strong violence and pervasive language Running time: 143 minutes xxx1/2 See More Collapse

This protracted Algiers Motel nightmare raises a question: Is there a way to dramatize a gut-grinding scene so that the audience stays rapt instead of checking out emotionally? Bigelow knows the answer is affirmative, but it's extraordinarily tricky. Here she cannily cuts in and out of the scene for rhythmic variety, picking up other plot strands for a while, then returning.

But Poulter is miscast, and one-note, and it seriously hurts "Detroit." As written and as acted, the vicious cop here called Krauss (whom we first see shooting a looter in the back) serves as the embodiment of all law enforcement evil, a scared, racist, paranoid bully acting with impunity, pulling his partners (one willing, the other reluctant) into the escalating carnage. Screenwriter Boal has done copious research and read through various accounts of the evening, as recalled by various parties, but the scene is missing something. What should be impossible to look away from grows too easy to tune out.

I watched "Detroit" with one eye on a movie yet to be made. If anyone is ever to take on a major piece of cinematic historical fiction dealing with Chicago in August 1968, Bigelow's "Detroit" offers intriguing signposts about what might, and might not, work. A handful of films have met the challenge of dramatizing civil unrest and law enforcement outrages, memorably. "Detroit" comes close.
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It's July, and you know what that means. Hot, sunny days that morph into muggy nights.

Even after a dip in the pool or a run through the sprinkler, you and your kids are probably hot. You need something cold and tasty to cool off.

We have the answer: homemade ice pops.

Simple enough for even the youngest cooks to lend a hand, these frozen treats have helped people beat the heat since 1905, when 11-year-old Frank Epperson left a cup filled with powdered soda, water and a stirring stick on his San Francisco back porch, and the mixture froze in the chilly night air. He'd debut his "Epsicles" at a California park in 1923, start distributing them across the U.S. two years later and in the years since built a frosty empire. Today, some 2 billion Popsicle brand ice pops are sold each year in multiple flavors and colors.

While it's easy to pick up a box of pops at the grocery, it's almost as easy - and way more fun - to make them in your own kitchen, especially if you have little hands to help. All it takes is a handful of ingredients, a blender or food processor to whirl them into a freezable liquid, and some sort of mold with a stick.

More Information TIPS FOR MAKING ICE POPS Puree the heck out of the ingredients or you'll end up with a chunky ice pop. If you're using fruit with small seeds, strain it after it is pureed in the blender. Cold liquids freeze quicker, so always start with a chilled mixture. That includes bringing syrups to room temperature. When making ice pops with separate layers, be sure to freeze each layer until it's set or it will bleed into the next. When filling, always leave about a quarter inch at the top of the mold to allow for expansion during freezing. Remember to wipe excess liquid from the top of the mold as frozen residue can complicate the unmolding process. To unmold a frozen pop without pulling out the stick, turn warm water on the outside of the mold for 10 to 15 seconds, or until you feel the pop begin to release. Or, use a towel dampened in warm water. Ice pop molds with built-in stick holders take the worry out of positioning the stick. But if you're going old school with a Dixie cup and wooden stick, freeze the pop until it's partially frozen (about an hour) so the stick will stand up on its own. Then, return the pops to the freezer until it's completely frozen. The back of the freezer is the coldest, so that's where the molds should go. Freezing times will vary but it generally takes at least four hours. When well wrapped in sealable plastic bags or airtight plastic containers, ice pops will last in the freezer for about a month. See More Collapse

It could be as simple as blending some fruit with a little sugar in water and popping the mixture into the freezer, or you could spend a couple hours layering different colored purees into a striped masterpiece.

Why go to the trouble? Making ice pops at home allows you to control the amount of sugar in the treats and also puts the kibosh on artificial flavors and preservatives. Plus, it allows you to add your own creative touch in the form of herbs and spices.

Websites such as Amazon have dozens of plastic and silicon molds in all prices ranges and colors to choose from, and you'll also find them at big box stores like Target. You can also make ice pops in any type of freezable container. Think paper Dixie cups, spare ice-cube trays, plastic drink cups or even yogurt containers.

And you don't even have to limit yourself to Popsicle's all-time favorite cherry flavor, because almost any fruit or vegetable that can be pureed can be turned into an ice pop. If you want fresh and fruity, go for strawberries, peaches, melons or tropical fruits such as pineapple or kiwi; think spinach, carrots and roasted beets if you're trying to get a serving of vegetables into your kid.

For an adults-only treat, add some alcohol and a flavored simple syrup to re-create your favorite frozen cocktail - for instance, vodka and ginger-infused syrup for a Moscow mule pop. Just know that doing so will lower the melting point of the mixture, resulting in a softer ice pop.

SPINACH-BANANA

PG tested

These sound like they'd appeal only to health nuts, but they're surprisingly yummy. You won't taste the spinach at all, but you'll enjoy all of the vegetable's nutrients.

1 cup pineapple

1  cups fresh spinach

1 large overripe banana

 cup water, milk or juice from pineapple

Place all the ingredients into the blender. Process until completely smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.

Pour into the molds and freeze until set, 3 to 4 hours.

Makes 6 to 8 pops.

- Gretchen McKay

CANTALOUPE-BASIL

PG tested

I used basil in this refreshing melon pop, but mint or thyme also pair nicely with cantaloupe. To tell if the fruit is ripe, give it a sniff - it should smell sweet, as well as feel heavy for its size.

 cup cold water

 cup plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar

15 fresh basil leaves

1  pounds (from 1 medium melon) cantaloupe melon chunks

4 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice

Dump the water and sugar in a small saucepan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Add herbs, and cook just until the sugar has dissolved. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature.

Place cantaloupe chunks in a food processor and blend to a smooth puree. Add cooled mixture and lime or lemon juice and blend again.

Pour syrup mixture into your molds, leaving -inch space at the top of each mold to allow the mixture to expand when it freezes. Insert a stick into the molds and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

Makes 6 to 8 ice pops.

- Adapted from leitesculinaria.com

FRESH GINGER MOSCOW MULE

PG tested

Ice pops aren't just for kids. This adults-only treat is a lickable version of the Moscow mule, a popular cocktail made with vodka, spicy ginger beer and lime juice.

3  ounces vodka

Juice of 1 lime

1 thumb-size piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated

2 ounces ginger syrup (recipe follows)

8 pieces of ginger from ginger syrup

13  ounces club soda

In a jug, mix the vodka, lime juice, grated ginger, ginger syrup and club soda.

Divide mixture between ice pop molds, place lid on tray and freeze for 30 minutes.

Add ginger pieces from the syrup to the molds, slide ice pop sticks into the lid slots and freeze for a further 12 to 14 hours, until solid.

Makes 8 ice pops.

For ginger syrup

8  ounces boiling water

3  ounces (7 tablespoons)super-fine sugar

Large piece (about 1 ounce) fresh ginger, peeled and cut into thin rounds

Stir boiling water and sugar together until sugar has completely dissolved.

Add ginger and leave until cool. Cooled syrup will keep in the fridge to 4 weeks.

- Adapted from "The Poptail Manual: Over 90 Delicious Frozen Cocktails" by Kathy Kordalis (Hardie Grant, May 2017, $14.99)

PINEAPPLE CHIPOTLE

PG tested

These are on the spicy side but so refreshing! The recipe also would be terrific with mango or papaya.

1 pound pineapple chunks, frozen

3 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon lime juice

 teaspoon minced canned chipotle chiles, or more to taste

1 pinch salt

In a food processor or blender, puree together the pineapple (and any of its juice), honey and lime juice. You may need to add some water to make it smooth.

Add chipotle peppers and salt with a few quick pulses of the processor or blender until it's mixed in (you should see bits and specks of the peppers in the mixture). At this point, you can taste the mixture and add more chipotle peppers, if you wish.

Divide mixture among 6 frozen pop molds (about / cup per mold). Freeze for 4 to 6 hours or until completely frozen.

Makes 6 ice pops.

- Homecookingmemories.com

CARROT AND GREEN FRUIT JUICE

PG tested

Yes, you can make ice pops with just about any ingredient that can be pureed, including vegetables. The star of this healthful pop is carrots spiced with ginger and cinnamon. As for the green layer, the original recipe called for wheatgrass juice, but it proved illusive. So I substituted a bottled "green goodness" fruit juice smoothie.

This pop takes some time, as you have to separately freeze the individual layers. Be sure to use a mold without snap-on tops, as you want to be able to pour the ingredients around the stick. (I didn't, and had to use a hot knife blade to cut a slot for the sticks.)

3  cups apple juice

 cup brown sugar

1  cups peeled and diced carrots

1 teaspoon ground ginger

 teaspoon cinnamon

1 cup coconut milk, homemade or canned, divided

1 cup green fruit juice smoothie

In a saucepan, combine apple juice and brown sugar and stir over low heat for 5 minutes to dissolve the sugar. Set aside 1cups of the mixture.

To remaining apple juice mixture in the saucepan, add the carrots, ginger and cinnamon. Bring to a boil over high heat, then lower heat and pour into a bowl to cool to room temperature.

In a food processor or blender, puree the carrot mixture until smooth. Add  cup of the coconut milk and process to combine.

In a bowl, combine green fruit juice,  cup of reserved apple juice mixture and remaining  cup coconut milk.

Partially fill the ice pop molds with the carrot mixture. Insert the sticks. Freeze for at least 2 hours. Add a layer of green juice mixture, freeze for 2 hours, then add a layer of the remaining reserved apple juice mixture.

Repeat layers, freezing for at least 2 hours between layers, until the pop molds are full. Freeze for at least 4 hours.

Remove from the freezer; let stand at room temperature for 5 minutes before removing the pops from the molds.

- "Pops! Icy Treats for Everyone" by Krystina Castella (Quirk Books, 2008)

STRAWBERRY PALETAS (MEXICAN ICE POPS)

PG tested

Whoever said no to a strawberry ice pop? No one, ever. These Mexican paletas, made with fresh fruit and a moderate amount of sugar, are a snap to whip up. Just be sure to puree the fruit with enough liquid so that it's very smooth. Lemon juice adds a zippy finish and also helps keep the pops bright.

4 cups fresh strawberries, hulled and cut into quarters

 cup sugar

 cup water

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Combine strawberries and sugar in a bowl. Let sit until strawberries start releasing natural juices, 20 to 30 minutes. Place in a saucepan with the water over medium heat, simmer until they are slightly softened, about 5 minutes.

Transfer mixture to a blender or food processor, add the lemon juice and puree until smooth; alternatively, you could leave some chunks in if you like.

If using conventional molds, divide the mixture among the molds, add sticks and freeze until solid, about 6 hours. If using unconventional molds, freeze until the pops are beginning to set (1 1/2 to 2 hours), then insert the sticks and freeze until solid, 4 to 5 hours. If using an instant ice-pop maker, follow manufacturer's instructions.

Makes 8 to 10 pops.

- "Paletas: Authentic Recipes for Mexican Ice Pops, Shaved Ice and Aguas Frescas" by Fany Gerson (Ten Speed Press, 2010)
When Jen Smedley first became a mom four years ago, she was convinced she was doing it all wrong. So she called her longtime friend, Kristin Hensley, who became a mom two years prior, in search of comfort.

"I would go to her and tell her what a bad job I was doing, and she would reassure me that everyone was doing the same bad job, by telling me what she was doing," Smedley says. "And we thought we're not the only ones doing it this way. And it's true. People put up really beautiful pictures on social media, but in reality, we're all struggling."

A recent survey by the yogurt company Yoplait found that 74 percent of today's moms feel they are judged more than moms of previous generations were judged. And social media is a chief culprit: About one in three feel inadequate as a mom because of comments others have made on social media.

Smedley doesn't think that's cool.

More Information 'Mom's Night Out' When: 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday Where: Cullen Performace Hall, 4800 Calhoun Information: $37; 832-842-3131; uh.edu/cullen-performance-hall 'Mom's Night Out' When: 3 and 7 p.m. Sunday Where: Cullen Performace Hall, 4800 Calhoun Information: $37; 832-842-3131;uh.edu/cullen-performance-hall See More Collapse

Between her and Hensley, the pair has more than 40 years of experience in comedy. So the duo decided to launch a Facebook channel in which they dish about the challenges of mom life through their signature blend of empathy, humor and self-deprecation. As a result, the videos they post to their page, IMOMSOHARD, have been viewed more than 100 million times. And now, they're cruising on a tour bus around the country, with plans for two comedy shows in Houston this Sunday.

"It can be everything from wet wipes to post-partum," Hensley says about the topics.

At the Sunday event, Hensley and Smedley will play a few of their videos, riff on mom life in a stand-up set and offer audience members opportunities to revel in the everyday struggles that can come with being a mom.

In one of their videos, "The Best Parenting Advice You Didn't Ask For," Hensley discusses her frustration with the expectation that every meal has to be healthy, saying "It's too hard. Sometimes, you need a drive-thru. If your kids are screaming in the back of the car, I'm sorry."

"Who are you saying sorry to?" Smedley asks.

They sip their mimosas.

"You want to know the real hard part of it all, is that whenever we go through the drive-thru, my kids want to take those toys to show and tell," Smedley continues. "And I'm like, 'No! That's evidence!' "

Their Houston set will be rife with such anecdotes and "confessions."

"The idea is let's talk honestly and be a little funny. And as long as everyone is happy and healthy, you're doing great," Hensley says.

That can be tough to remember at times. Yoplait found that 75 percent of moms would be happier if they felt less judged.

"It seems like with the increase in social media in the last 10 to 15 years, people are putting their parenting out there for people to see," says Leslie Frankel, an assistant professor in the Human Development and Family Studies Program at the University of Houston. "And it can be helpful, because you can get support in so many ways. But it can also be hurtful, when people are needing support, but 1,000 people are criticizing them - or even just a few people."

And those casting stones often don't even have the right answers.

"It seems like sometimes the people who are the loudest aren't necessarily the people who are the most correct," says Frankel, who also is the mother of a 2-year-old. "What I find the most harmful is people who have parented a few decades ago, and they're just not caught up on the right advice. And they have a lot of advice to give, information to share. And they're really passionate, and often critical of other people's decisions. But it's not new or right information."

If a parent is looking for an answer about what's best for their child, he or she would likely find better advice through online resources like the CDC's website, or the American Academy of Pediatrics, which Frankel says is a great source of up-to-date information for parents. And there's always your pediatrician.

"If you're in a mom group, and you're being criticized, you might want to think about who's criticizing you," Frankel says. "If it's your pediatrician criticizing you, then that you should care about. But if it's a stranger - or a friend - criticizing you, they don't know your child, or you, and maybe it's not even the right information."

It's solid advice, but it's not always easy to follow. Yoplait found that 29 percent of moms adjust their parenting decisions in public because they worry others will judge them. And 32 percent say they choose not to post, share or comment on social media for the same reason.

"Moms are tired of measuring themselves to a perfect image. It stops you from living in the moment," Hensley says.

But she sees a change happening. Lately, there has been more focus on comically imperfect moms. Consider last summer's "Bad Moms," starring Mila Kunis, or Chrissy Tiegen's irreverent Twitter account of her messy mom moments. Hensley points to the hope she feels when she hears Gal Gadot, of "Wonder Woman" fame, is openly exhausted and flustered by motherhood.

"I do think there's a change happening, and I think Jen and I are lucky enough to be a part of it," Hensley says.
Authorities recently discovered a horrific scene in the parking lot of a San Antonio Walmart: At least 39 people were packed into the back of a sweltering tractor-trailer, eight of them already dead from the conditions.

Two more have since died.

This is a particularly horrific case involving human smuggling, a crime that is unfortunately common in Houston and throughout Texas. Just earlier this month, HPD officers discovered 12 people locked in the back of another truck in Houston in very hot conditions, almost certainly saving their lives.

While there is increasing community awareness about human trafficking and a great deal of bipartisan support for addressing the crime and for providing support for the recovery and restoration of victims of trafficking, our goodwill is not often extended to people who become victimized during the course of a smuggling incident.

There seems to be an attitude that complicity to come to the United States illegally means a person is deserving of whatever happens during the journey.

More for you Fewer cross, but many still die

Even when migrants are abused or otherwise victimized during their journey, it is often they who are targeted for law enforcement response, rather than the smugglers or the larger organized criminal networks smugglers might represent.

For the sake of clarity, it might be helpful to distinguish between human trafficking and human smuggling. Human smuggling is a crime against a border. Human trafficking is a crime against a person. Smuggling, by definition, involves transportation. Human trafficking, in contrast, often does not involve transportation.

In Houston, there are hundreds of known cases of human trafficking involving victims who were born and raised right here. Human trafficking also involves compelling a victim to engage in commercial sex or other labor activities under force, fraud or coercion.

The two crimes can, and often do, overlap. As human rights lawyer Radhika Coomaraswamy once said, "Traffickers fish in the stream of migration."

This is true for legal immigrants, who enter the U.S. with proper documentation, as well as those who enter illegally. They often face language barriers and might be unfamiliar with American laws and their rights in this country. They might be fearful of law enforcement and will often have no support network to call upon for help.

They are incredibly vulnerable to exploitation.

Eric Gay/Associated Press

In initial interviews with authorities, the driver of the truck, James M. Bradley, Jr., claimed not to have known the contents of the trailer, though he did acknowledge that the refrigerator system and the vents in the trailer were not working properly.

He was simply transporting the cargo from one place to another, he claimed, without any idea of what was inside.

LATEST: 34-year-old Mexican citizen among dead immigrants

Yet video footage from the parking lot showed various vehicles stopping and picking people up from the back of the truck. Authorities estimate that as many as 100 people might have been in there at some point.

We don't know where those other people went. We don't know whether they are adults or children. We don't know whether some of them also died after they were released from the back of the trailer. And we don't know whether some or all of them are now in situations of human trafficking, compelled to engage in prostitution or other forms of labor.

We can be fairly certain of this: Had the contents of the trailer been produce  say, apples, strawberries or tomatoes  Bradley, Jr. would not have willingly transported them in a truck with inadequate cold air circulation. That would have hurt the company's bottom line.

He now faces potential capital charges for his role in the dangerous harboring, and death, of those in the back of his truck.

But we are better than a community that could allow for greater accountability for a couple of pallets of rotten tomatoes than for the negligent murder of at least 10 human beings, which could have been the case, if not for the brave actions of the Walmart employee who called the police.

Regardless of whether those individuals began their journeys to the United States willingly, none of them deserved to die, terrified and dehydrated, in the back of a tractor-trailer.

Dr. Rebecca Pfeffer is an assistant professor of criminal justice at the University of Houston  Downtown. Her research focuses generally on the victimization of vulnerable populations, including victims with special needs and victims of human trafficking.

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This story ran in the Houston Post on April 2, 1967, just a year after U.S. banks joined together to create the first general purpose credit card. Consumer credit wasn't new - department stores offered charge plates for their customers in the 1920s, Diners Club debuted in 1950 and American Express launched its version in 1958 - but the new bank-issued products in the 1960s hoped to expand the practice of instant credit to well-heeled consumers. Today, about 72 percent of all U.S. adult consumers have at least one credit card.

Bank of the Southwest will begin offering certain qualified Houstonians an immediate line of credit around the world Tuesday when the bank initiates its Executive Credit program.

The banking service in conjunction with American Express Company's bank credit card program, will give card holders world-wide credit of at least $2,000, charge privileges and services of the American Express credit card, A.G. McNeese Jr, Bank of the Southwest board chairman, announced Saturday.

"Executive Credit was designed for the convenience of professional, management and sales people who travel and entertain extensively and who need immediate cash or credit without having to make separate applications each time a loan is needed," McNeese said.

IN 1959, TEXAS National Bank introduced a credit card service called Charge Plan. It was sold by the bank shortly after the bank merged with the National Bank of Commerce.

Under the new Executive Credit Plan, Bank of the Southwest will activate an unsecured loan at any time and in any amount up to the credit limit established when the card was issued.

Card holders can have funds transferred to their checking account or can purchase cash or travelers cheques at any American Express Co office, drawing on their line of established credit, McNeese said.

American Express will continue its regular credit card program, he said. Holders of these cards can apply for the newer Executive card at the Bank of the Southwest without any additional charge. Persons without American Express credit cards can obtain them through an application for Executive Credit.

Executive credit will be established, upon application, to individuals who meet the bank's qualification which include an annual income of $10,000 or more or a personal net worth of $40,000 or more," McNeese said.

Persons using the Executive Credit account will be billed each month by Bank of the Southwest. The statement will include an interest charge calculated at 1 per cent on the average monthly outstanding balance. There are no other charges, McNeese said.

If the American Express card is used, persons holding the Executive Credit card have the option to pay the bill in full or convert the Express statement into a loan against the credit if the bill is more than $100.

The Executive Credit balance will have the protection of Life Insurance which provides for full repayment of any unpaid balance to the bank in the event of death during the term of the loan. The account is also covered with a $100 deductible liability insurance policy which is free.

THE MINIMUM monthly payment on the account is $100 unless, of course, the unpaid balance in less than that amount. Otherwise, a payment of 1-10 of the balance owing after the last advance.

Upon signing an authorization form with the Loan Department of Bank of the Southwest, monthly payments will be automatically deducted from the user's checking account and a notice of the amount forwarded him.

McNeese said the Executive Credit program does not give the user automatic overdraft privileges on his checking account. If the line of credit is exceeded, the bank will in some cases authorize a slight excess, he said.

AT PRESENT corporate accounts or cards issued in the names of companies are not eligible for the Executive Credit program. Card holders may supply supplementary regular American Express cards for members of their immediate family at an additional cost of $7 per card.

There is now a $12 yearly fee for the use of the American Express card. There is no charge for the Executive Credit card until it is used.

McNeese said only the basic card holder will have an Executive Credit Card. Supplementary card holders may not draw drafts in American Express offices for the purchase of travelers cheques but may cash personal checks up to $300 domestically and $500 overseas. In all other respects the supplementary credit cards carry all the privileges of an American Express Credit Card.

E.H. Deininger, vice president of Bank of the Southwest, will be in charge of the Executive Credit program.

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San Jacinto Precinct 3 Constable's Office

A Cleveland man has been jailed after returning to an area store the day after authorities gave him a criminal trespassing warning, a spokesman for the Precinct 3 San Jacinto County Constables Office said Wednesday.

Employees of the Bear Creek Feed and Grocery Store called Constable Sam Houston on Friday complaining that Gregory Kocian was causing problems because his Lone Star Card was not working.
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A Pasadena family is raising money for a funeral after a young father was murdered by a suspect who appears to have been a complete stranger.

Pasadena police spokesman Vance Mitchell said Steven Torrez, 29, was outside his home with his girlfriend on Sunday, July 23 at about 2:30 a.m., when the suspect rode up on a bicycle.

The suspect, Omari Chambers, allegedly confronted Torrez for no apparent reason. An altercation ensued, and Chambers allegedly stabbed Torrez in the leg, then left on his bicycle.

"It appeared that they did not know each other," Mitchell said.

Torrez' brother, Gilbert Torrez, said the victim was set to graduate this week from a pipefitter certification program at Alvin Community College.

JOSUE FLORES CASE: Murder charge dropped against homeless man accused in stabbing

Steven Torrez had planned to return to the Corpus Christi area soon, to work on a plant construction project and be near his three children, 11-year-old Alyssah, 8-year-old Michael and 2-year-old Alexa.

The children live in Refugio, Texas with their mother, Gilbert Torrez said. Steven Torrez grew up in the Manvel area, where his extended family still lives.

"He loved those children immensely," Gilbert Torrez said. "He lived for those children."

Torrez was taken to Bayshore Medical Center and underwent surgery on his leg early Sunday morning. He died later that day due to complications from his injury, Mitchell said.

After Torrez' girlfriend called 9-1-1 and provided a description of the suspect, patrol officers listening to the call on the radio were able to find Chambers quickly and arrest him, Mitchell said.

DENNY'S DEATH: Sheriff fires deputy after weeks-long investigation

A GoFundMe page set up for Torrez' funeral expenses says he leaves behind three children, Alyssah, Michael and Alexa.

"We're hoping to raise enough money for his funeral service and some mementos to place ashes in for his children," says the page owned by Gilbert Torrez. "We believe it would only be fitting if we could give them a piece of their father that they could wear forever, as his love for them was boundless."

Chambers, a Pasadena resident, is being held in the Harris County Jail with bond set at $150,000. He was previously convicted of robbery in New York State in 2001.

Pasadena Police Officer Jessica Ramirez said the case is still under investigation.
A leader of the Boy Scouts of America apologized Thursday for a speech that President Donald Trump gave to thousands of teenage Scouts earlier this week - in which Trump broke with the Scouts' earnest traditions by criticizing his political opponents, recounting his election victory and talking about parties on yachts.

"I want to extend my sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. That was never our intent," Michael Surbaugh, whose title is chief Scout executive, wrote in a message posted online.

That was a break from the Boy Scouts' earlier statements about Trump's speech, issued the day afterward. Those merely noted that the Scouts were "respectful of the wide variety of viewpoints in this country" but made no mention of what Trump actually said.

On Thursday, Surbaugh wrote, "We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program."

"I was at that event, and I saw nothing but roughly 40 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, and I think that they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them," Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, said when asked about the statement at the news briefing on Thursday afternoon.

When pressed again on the topic and asked whether the president also needed to apologize, Sanders said: "Again, I was at that event and heard nothing but a lot of cheering and probably one of the most energetic crowds I've seen in front of the president, and so I don't have anything to add. I haven't seen the statement from the Boy Scouts, so I can't comment any further than what I saw firsthand, and that was a lot of individuals, roughly 40 to 45,000, as reported, cheering the president on."

Presidents are usually invited to address the National Scout Jamboree, a gathering that draws tens of thousands every four years. In the past, those presidential speeches dealt with broad themes such as service, cooperation and the evils of drug use.

Trump's talk in Mount Hope, West Virginia, began with a similar message - "Never quit. Persevere. Never, ever quit" - but then it veered away toward other themes.

Trump said he wouldn't talk about politics: "I said, who the hell wants to speak about politics when I'm in front of the Boy Scouts? Right?"

But he did.

Trump called the news media "fake news" and said the media would underplay the size of this crowd - as if the Boy Scouts were a crowd at a political rally. Trump told the Scouts about watching the U.S. map turn red on election night and blasted President Barack Obama for never attending a jamboree. Some in the crowd booed.

Trump also told stories about events rarely discussed from the rostrum at a Scout Jamboree, such as a New York cocktail party - "the hottest people in New York were at this party," he said - and a friend who got rich in real estate.

"He went out and bought a big yacht, and he had a very interesting life," Trump said. "I won't go any more than that, because you're Boy Scouts, so I'm not going to tell you what he did."

In his statement, Surbaugh said that - outside of Trump's talk - this year's jamboree was the same as in past years, with Scouts trading patches, climbing rockwalls and making new friends.

But, he said, "we know the past few days have been overshadowed by the remarks offered by the President of the United States."

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The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson contributed to this report.

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Video: President Trump's speech to thousands of Boy Scouts at the National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va., on July 24, took an unexpected turn. (Taylor Turner/The Washington Post)

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WASHINGTON - President Trump has discussed with confidants and advisers in recent days the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Jeff Sessions leaves the job, but he has been warned not to move to push him out because of the political and legal ramifications, according to people briefed on the conversations.

Still raging over Sessions' recusal from the Justice Department's escalating Russia investigation, Trump has been talking privately about how he might replace Sessions and possibly sidestep Senate oversight, four people familiar with the issue said.

Two of those people, however, described Trump as musing about the idea rather than outlining a plan of action, and a senior White House official said no action is imminent. Several people familiar with the discussions said that Trump's fury peaked over the weekend and that he and Sessions now seem to be heading toward an uneasy detente.

When asked Wednesday about the president's discussions of a recess appointment, the White House released a one-sentence denial from Trump: "More fake news from the Amazon Washington Post." The Washington Post is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.

Those who have discussed Sessions this week with Trump or with top West Wing officials have drawn different conclusions from their conversations - in part because the president ruminates aloud and floats hypotheticals, often changing his views hour to hour.

Some advisers have come away convinced that Trump is determined to ultimately remove Sessions and is seriously considering a recess appointment to replace him - an idea that has been discussed on some of the cable news shows the president watches. These advisers said Trump would prefer that the attorney general resign rather than have to be fired.

"My understanding is the Sessions thing ends with Sessions leaving the attorney general job to go spend more time with his family," said one outside counselor to the White House, who, like many other people interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject is highly sensitive.

But others involved in the discussions have concluded that Trump is merely venting with his continued assault against Sessions - one described it as "an emotional exercise," while another called it "just a rough-up job." They said Trump has neither fully articulated nor set in motion a plan to replace Sessions.

The president has the power to make a recess appointment when the Senate adjourns for a long break of more than a week, allowing the appointee to avoid Senate confirmation and serve through the end of next year. But Democrats have already signaled that they will use parliamentary stalling tactics to prevent the Senate from formally adjourning throughout the upcoming August break - in part to prevent Trump from being able to unilaterally install a new attorney general.

Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, tweeted a warning to Trump that his committee's schedule already is "set" for the remainder of the year. It will consider judges and subcabinet nominees first, he wrote, adding, "AG no way."

More for you The GOP's cowardice invites Trump to fire Sessions

Trump has long confided privately what he began to say publicly last week - that he blames Sessions' recusal for setting in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as the special counsel of the Russia probe, which the president sees as unfair and a metastasizing problem for himself and his family.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily and was at the White House on Wednesday for unrelated meetings with other officials.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters Wednesday that Trump was "disappointed" in Sessions but also said, "You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job, and that's where they are."

Sanders added, "He wants him to lead the Department of Justice. . . . He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, R, who has spoken with Trump this week, said he believes the president's attacks will quiet down. "My read of him and the people around him is probably, in the end, it will be calm and we'll move forward," he said.

Asked whether he believes Sessions will leave the Justice Department, Gingrich said, "No, no . . . I really don't think so." But he acknowledged that he cannot be certain until the president makes up his mind. "He is really mad," Gingrich added.

Several lawyers around Trump have been urging the president to stop his saber-rattling against Sessions and Mueller, according to three advisers. The president has countered that he believes the probe is a mere political attack - a "witch hunt" and "hoax," as he often says on Twitter - and that he has no legal jeopardy to worry about.

But several lawyers have told Trump that his comments send a signal to Mueller that the president is trying to shut down or curtail the investigation, as though he does have something to hide.

Trump has largely shrugged off these concerns. "In his mind, he is his own best advocate, his own best lawyer," one adviser said. "He's not willing to let the Mueller probe and other events unfold without taking action himself. "

Replacing Sessions could be a precursor to firing Mueller as special counsel. But several of Trump's White House advisers - including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon - have strongly counseled him against ordering the dismissal of Mueller, which they have warned would be a political, if not legal, catastrophe, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Furthermore, Trump's advisers have argued that replacing the attorney general would be a political distraction from the big-ticket items the administration is pushing in the Senate, including health care, taxes and the budget.

The discussions about Sessions' fate come during a period of heightened anxiety inside the West Wing. The president has begun a staff overhaul, including empowering Anthony Scaramucci with a broad mandate as communications director and all-around adviser.

Priebus is fighting to maintain his influence with the president. The former Republican National Committee chairman has privately touted his ability to raise money from wealthy donors, suggesting he could bring in funds to a legal-defense fund, according to two people familiar with his appeal.

There has been tension in recent weeks between some in Trump's orbit who want the RNC to absorb Russia-related legal fees and RNC officials who believe that would be an inappropriate use of party resources.

Trump, who has called Sessions "beleaguered" and "very weak," renewed his rhetorical attacks on Wednesday by questioning why Sessions had not replaced the acting FBI director.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote: "Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!"

The attack was curious considering the president has the authority to remove McCabe himself without Sessions. After Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with four candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, but the administration decided to stick with McCabe.

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The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jenna Johnson, Paul Kane, Abby Phillip, Karen Tumulty and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.

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Video: President Trump turned on his longtime surrogate Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other members of the Justice Department over the ongoing Russia investigation, and Sessions' recusal from it. (Jenny Starrs / The Washington Post)

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The Panamanian Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday that it has opened an embassy in Beijing after establishing diplomatic ties with China in June.

In a statement, the ministry said that the opening of the embassy had been done in accordance with principles governing diplomatic relations between the two countries.

It added that the embassy was already functioning, although an ambassador had yet to be installed.

President Juan Carlos Varela announces the establishment of diplomatic ties between Panama and China, June 13, 2017. /Official twitter of Panama president

The Chinese Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday that China's embassy in Panama has also started business.

Spokesperson Lu Kang said China's office of commercial development in Panama was transformed into an embassy on July 13.

China and Panama established formal diplomatic relations on June 13 after Panama severed ties with Taiwan.

(With input from Xinhua)
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The transgender community - in Texas and beyond - viewed President Donald Trump's announcement Wednesday that he is banning transgender people from serving in the military as a setback for equal rights.

"It appears the transgender community has become the newest smaller minority for hateful people to target," said Phyllis Frye, an associate judge for Houston municipal courts who was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1972 for "sexual deviation."

She transitioned in 1976 and became the nation's first openly transgender judge.

In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, Trump announced the U.S. government will not "accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity," citing "the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 2015 that same-sex marriage is legal, and transgender people are serving in the military already. Trump's declaration reverses a policy announced by the Obama administration last year.

A 2016 RAND study estimates that as many as 6,630 of 1.3 million active-duty military personnel are transgender.

The same study concluded that the cost of gender transition-related medical care is an "exceedingly small proportion" of Department of Defense health care spending - between $2.4 million and $8.4 million, or 0.005 percent to 0.017 percent of annual expenditures.

That cost is nothing more than "a rounding error" in the defense budget, said American Medical Association president David O. Barbe, "and should not be used as an excuse to deny patriotic Americans an opportunity to serve their country."

Barbe issued a statement Wednesday in response to Trump's tweets, arguing that there's "no medically valid reason to exclude transgender individuals from military service."

Eighteen other countries allow transgender people to serve in the military, including Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom.

"There seems to be a war against our transgender brothers, sisters and friends, whether it be in Austin or in Washington," said Mike Laster, one of two openly gay members of Houston's city council.

"Why would we start picking on people who are sacrificing their lives for our country?" said Fiona Dawson, the co-director and executive producer of "TransMilitary," a documentary about transgender service members set to release in January. "To me, it feels like the president woke up this morning and said, 'Who can I pick on? Who's the most vulnerable?'"

Trump's decision will put her subjects' livelihoods in jeopardy, she said - current and former military personnel who have spoken publicly about their transitions.

Army veteran Laila Ireland is featured in Dawson's documentary. She and her husband, Logan Ireland - an Air Force staff sergeant from North Texas - both made their transitions while serving in the military.

"When I woke up this morning, I had a million and one messages on my phone and on Facebook," Ireland said. Ireland works as the membership director for SPARTA, a support organization for the LGBT military community.

The decision is "frightening" for transgender military personnel, including her husband, Ireland said. They married last year and want to have a family, she said, but "now we really have to hunker down" and see what happens to his career.

Trump hasn't indicated how - or whether - current transgender military personnel, who are serving legally, might be removed. But the sudden policy change will be "absolutely disruptive" if current personnel are removed from their units, Ireland said.

"So what does this do?" she said. 'This causes great harm to people who want to serve their country and want to be seen as their authentic selves."

"These people should be able to serve based on their ability, not based on their gender identity," said Lou Weaver, the statewide transgender programs coordinator for Equality Texas.

Weaver predicts that Trump's decree will force transgender people to hide their identity if they want to enter or remain in the military.

"It's contrary to everything the military believes in to ask someone to lie about who they are in order to serve," he said. "The military values honesty and integrity and readiness."

Mike Morris contributed to this story.
AUSTIN - Dangerous. Discriminatory. Chilling. Hurtful.

Those are words used by House State Affairs Chairman Byron Cook to describe bathroom legislation headed to his committee in the Texas House in the coming days.

The Republican from Corsicana said legislation that would force transgender people to use bathrooms in line with their birth sex "puts people at risk," but stopped short of saying what he plans to do with the bills headed to his committee during the special legislative session.

"Requiring those people to go to the women's restroom when they look like men, that can be dangerous. Requiring men who are trans women and wear dresses and makeup and look just like women, requiring them to go to the men's room creates a dangerous situation," he said.

The Texas Senate voted Wednesday to approve Senate Bill 3, a bill backed by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a tea party Republican from Houston who has championed it as a way to protect women's privacy and safety while using the bathroom or locker room. After eight hours of debate, the legislation sailed through the Republican-led Senate after midnight. The bill is expected to crash land in the House, where GOP members are more aligned with the interests of businesses that came out in force last week to cast the bill as a discriminatory measure that will hurt the state's economy and efforts to recruit a quality workforce.

The State Affairs Committee, considered the gatekeeper to control whether the bathroom bill advances to the House floor, will "try to do what is in the best interest in the state of Texas," said Cook. "That's what we always try to do."

Cook on Wednesday walked a careful line on his stance on bathroom legislation in an essay on Texas GOP Vote, a Republican website that serves as a community forum on issues before the Legislature.

"As for my position on the 'bathroom' bill, I support legislation that limits admittance (based on gender at birth) to multi-stall bathrooms and locker rooms in our schools and requires local school districts to develop single-stall bathroom policies for its transgender students," he wrote. "Beyond clarifying this policy for our public schools, we already have strong laws in Texas against sexual predators. Therefore, I do not condone duplicitous grandstanding on this issue and/or discriminatory legislation; nor do I support laws that will adversely affect our state's economy."

No crime data

Asked for more detail about his position on the bill, he told the Houston Chronicle a bathroom bill would hurt the state's economy. He added that Texas has laws on the books to address people who cause others harm and said there is no crime data to justify a bathroom law.

"I think common sense tells us this is not legislation that would ultimately prove even necessary or beneficial to the state," he said.

His committee heard from hundreds of people during the regular legislative session urging lawmakers to kill bathroom legislation. The bill the House considered at the time was never voted on, but once the bill was all but dead, Republican members signed on to it in droves to show their support for the measure without being forced to vote on it. In total, 79 members became co-authors of the bill.

House lawmakers later managed to tack on a watered-down version of the Senate's preferred bill on the House floor, requiring school districts to establish bathroom policies for situations where students are uncomfortable using multi-stall bathrooms.

No version ever passed both chambers during the regular session. Patrick wanted more far-reaching legislation, and House Speaker Joe Straus, a Republican from San Antonio who has remained a steadfast opponent to bathroom bill, said the House would go no further.

Rep. Ron Simmons hopes this session will be different. After watching his last bathroom bill wither away in the House committee, he is now sponsoring two bathroom bills that would restrict local governments and schools from setting bathroom policies to protect people from discrimination unless the federal or state government steps in with its own rules.

'Thread the needle'

"Transgender discrimination? I don't see it like that," said Simmons, who said he is concerned with forcing children of different sexes to share space in situations of undress. "I'm hoping we can thread the needle with something related to schools."

The Republican from Carrollton said he likes aspects of the Senate bill that restrict transgender girls from competing on girls teams, and added he is willing to make changes to his legislation or at least push the study the issue before the next regular session.

Gov. Greg Abbott called lawmakers back to Austin this month to take up 20 issues in a special legislative session that runs through mid-August. While the Senate worked through the weekend to review and pass the largely conservative-slate of issues, the House has taken its time. Leaders in the chamber say they will be "deliberate" in hearing bills and have shown little appetite to pass a bathroom bill.

Business leaders from large companies like IBM, American Airlines and AT&T have also voiced opposition to the legislation, either by sending letters to the governor, speaking out on the steps of the Texas Capitol or roaming the halls meeting with lawmakers. Others have said the state has lost $66 million in convention business over the state's contemplation of a bathroom bill.

Andrea Zelinski writes about politics and education for the Chronicle. Follow her on Twitter and Facebook. Send her tips at andrea.zelinski@chron.com.
FALFURRIAS - The deaths of 10 immigrants trapped inside a tractor-trailer in San Antonio has thrown a harsh spotlight on the persistent humanitarian crisis that tests the limits of agents whose mission is to catch immigrants entering the country illegally - and rescue them when they are in danger.

The Department of Homeland Security regularly warns migrants against nefarious smugglers and the perils of the journey, but the message has done little to deter migrants fleeing violence and extreme poverty.

"Bottom line, there is more of an incentive for them to take on those risks," said Robert C. Gilloon, deputy patrol agent in charge of the Falfurrias station of the U.S. Border Patrol, which has borne the brunt of immigrant deaths and rescues in Texas. "They'll hide in a tractor-trailer if they think that's going to increase their chances."

Far fewer immigrants have been attempting to cross the border illegally in recent years as the border security agency has seen staffing and technology grow dramatically over the past decade, but still hundreds of migrants are dying every year in a desperate bid to reach the U.S.

During the 2016 fiscal year, the Rio Grande Valley registered 130 immigrant deaths, more than any other border sector. Texas accounted for nearly 67 percent of all migrant deaths across the Southwest border last year and 74 percent of deaths since October, the start of the fiscal year. Rescues in the Valley, the busiest stretch of border, are roughly the same as a year ago - around 800 since October.

During one brutal stretch of 100-degree days this summer, Border Patrol agents recovered the bodies of six migrants who died in the South Texas brush.

Last week a body was discovered on a ranch near Falfurrias, and two were pulled from the Rio Grande - one near Brownsville and the other recovered upriver by Mexican authorities.

Deterrence policy

Thomas Homan, the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, called the migrant deaths a "stark reminder of why human smuggling networks must be pursued, caught and punished."

The driver of the tractor-trailer in this weekend's tragedy, 60-year-old James Matthew Bradley Jr., faces up to life in prison or the death penalty on one count of transporting immigrants who are in the country illegally.

Gov. Greg Abbott said human trafficking is an epidemic that Texas intends to eradicate, touting Senate Bill 128, which he signed into law this year. The new law instructs the trucking industry on how to recognize and report signs of human trafficking.

But immigrant advocates say this hardline rhetoric ignores the cost of ramped-up enforcement and the failure of Congress to enact immigration reform, leaving migrants no alternative but to cast their lot with smuggling operations who exploit them.

More Information Texas numbers 67 percent: The amount of Southwest border migrant deaths in Texas in 2016.74 percent: The amount of Southwest border migrant deaths in Texas since October.800: Rescues in the Rio Grande Valley since October. See More Collapse

Some Central Americans now pay $10,000 or more to reach the U.S. border. They're kept in crowded stash houses for days, crammed into vehicles and forced to march through desert and sweltering heat. Those who cannot keep up are left behind.

"Border enforcement has been using the same strategy for the past 20 years, that of prevention through deterrence," said Robin Reineke, of the Colibri Center for Human Rights, based in Arizona. "Those who died in the tractor-trailer in San Antonio undoubtedly would have preferred to immigrate safely and legally."

More than 7,000 immigrants have died across the Southwest border since 1998, even as immigrant apprehensions have declined precipitously.

Responding to the deaths, the Border Patrol launched an initiative to string together the disparate efforts of authorities, forensic scientists and humanitarian organizations to identify the dead and return them to their families. The Missing Migrant Program got its start in Arizona and has since been launched nationwide.

Tactics of smuggling

Manny Padilla Jr., the Border Patrol's sector chief in the Rio Grande Valley, assigned Hugo E. Vega the task of implementing the program's four objectives: prevent deaths, locate missing people, identify those who perish and return remains to their families.

The program has not been easily replicated in Texas. While Texas law requires all counties send a DNA sample of unidentified human remains to an FBI program known as the Combined DNA Index System, there is no centralized method, as there is in Arizona, for handling remains found along the border. Some counties rely on pathologists; others have medical examiners.

In addition, human remains found in Brooks County are taken to the medical examiner in Laredo, which falls under a different sector of the Border Patrol.

Vega's program aims to resolve those differences.

"We are that link when it comes to forensics," Vega said. "That's what we bring to the table."

Complicating the job of rank and file agents are the ever-changing tactics of smuggling operations. Until recently, smugglers used landmarks to guide immigrants through the South Texas brush. Now they make use of GPS to cut unpredictable and hard-to-find paths through ranches. Even when agents are deployed on a rescue mission, immigrants often run at first sight of them.

Forging a partnership

This month, agents pursued a group of immigrants as they scattered into the brush near Falfurrias. They caught a 17-year-old, but his 13-year-old sister got away. She had no water and nothing to guide her to safety. Over three consecutive shifts agents scoured the area until she was found.

"If they didn't come up with that 13-year-old, what do you think would have happened?" asked Tomas W. Slowinski, deputy patrol agent in charge of the Falfurrias station. "That's a certain death."

Ranchers give border agents access to patrol their sprawling properties, but the agents often don't know to search for the missing because families avoid contact with immigration officials. The humanitarian organizations find out about the missing from families but don't have access to the property or resources to go searching the brushland.

"We realize the NGOs (nongovernmental organizations) are key because they are the direct connection with the families," Vega acknowledged. "Many times, those families don't want to talk with us. They're afraid."

As a result, the two sides have forged a complicated partnership that is essential to saving lives.

"Their effort to mitigate or prevent deaths is welcome, but it's also a contradiction because their deterrence policy causes deaths," said Eddie Canales, director of the South Texas Human Rights Center, a community-based organization in Falfurrias.
AUSTIN - The Texas Senate's conservative majority took aim Wednesday at local laws its members feel infringe on freedom and property rights, rushing through bills that place new limits on cities' ability to annex land and protect trees on private lots.

The passage of those bills limiting local control, and a third that conversely requires local governments to speed up the issuance of building permits, came during an action-packed, contentious day at the state Capitol.

Police arrested immigration protesters, and gay rights activists and abortion rights supporters also demonstrated against the Senate Republicans' aggressive tactics aimed at passing as much of Gov. Greg Abbott's highly conservative special session agenda as quickly as possible.

Abbott, a Republican, has argued that cities are adopting "California-like" policies that are threatening the Texas brand. The Senate Republicans, led by Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick of Houston, say local government regulations are stifling Texas citizens and businesses.

Sen. Donna Campbell, R-New Braunfels, who sponsored the bill requiring cities in counties with more than 125,000 people to have an election before a city can annex new lands, said during floor debate that "forced annexation is never right."

"Today's vote is a victory for the property rights of all citizens, and I applaud my colleagues in the Senate for giving Texans a voice in the annexation process," Campbell said.

Under current law, a city can annex territory without support from the people who would be annexed.

Similarly, state Sen. Bob Hall, R-Edgewood, said tree ordinances that block homeowners from cutting down trees on their own property isn't right. His bill would prevent cities from enacting tree ordinances that block homeowners and small residential developers from cutting trees.

"This bill is really about private property rights," Hall said.

Attack 'out of control'

Sen. Jose Menedez, D-San Antonio, opposed Hall's bill, arguing that it blocks his city from being able to keep some developers from clear-cutting trees. Hall's bill would allow developers with 25 lots or fewer to be exempt from city ordinances that ban cutting of trees.

"You don't like trees?" Juan Hinojosa, D-McAllen, asked Hall during questioning.

Hall snapped back that he does, but "I also love liberty."

Sen. Sylvia Garcia, D-Houston, said the Republican attack on local control "is just out of control."

The flurry of bills aimed at cubing city governments, which included legislation that prohibited local governments like Austin from regulating cellphone usage in vehicles, capped a whirlwind 24 hours as the Texas Senate passed 18 of Abbott's legislative priorities.

Sen. Paul Bettencourt, R-Houston, called it a "legislative tour de force" that had lawmakers meeting until 2 a.m. on Wednesday morning, then returning to the Capitol for more at 10 a.m. In all, the Senate was in session for nearly 36 hours over three days.

Just after midnight Wednesday, the Senate gave final passage to new paperwork regulations on abortion facilities, a property tax reform bill and a new so-called bathroom bill that would have the effect of blocking transgender children from using changing rooms or bathrooms they are most comfortable with.

"We've accomplished a tremendous amount of work in a week," Patrick told lawmakers as they wrapped up the session on Wednesday afternoon.

The scene offered a stark contrast to the Texas House of Representatives, where just one piece of legislation has made it to final passage - a bill reauthorizing the Texas Medical Board and four other government agencies.

For any of the bills to become law, the Texas House has to pass identical proposals. Whether any of the bills ultimately will become law has been an open question ever since House Speaker Joe Straus, R-San Antonio, last month called the special session agenda "manure."

Protesters out in droves

The action-packed special session agenda in the Senate brought out more protesters Wednesday. State police arrested 15 immigration protesters outside the state Capitol after they blocked traffic at a key intersection.

For nearly a week, gay rights groups, public school teachers, abortion rights supporters and law enforcement groups marched on the Capitol to register their opposition to various parts of the agenda.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials at the Capitol complex said the immigration demonstrators, who were protesting Attorney General Ken Paxton's opposition to a federal policy protecting children from deportation, staged a peaceful sit-in outside his office at mid-morning.

Marching afterward to the Capitol, they blocked traffic at the intersection of 15th Street and Congress Avenue, just north of the Capitol. Troopers then moved in and forcibly removed the demonstrators - several of them in handcuffs - to clear the street, DPS and bystanders said.

Authorities said they could not immediately say whether charges would be filed. No injuries were reported, officials said.

Protesters supporting Planned Parenthood and objecting to legislative attempts to further restrict abortions also were at the Capitol on Wednesday. They filled the Capitol with people wearing pink shirts declaring, "I stand with Planned Parenthood."
President Donald Trump, in a series of tweets posted on the 69th anniversary of the executive order that desegregated the military, said Wednesday the government "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military," ending Pentagon plans to start recruiting them.

The White House offered no details about how such a policy would be implemented, but forcing out thousands of transgender troops already in the military would mark a dramatic turn from an Obama-era decision to allow them to openly serve.

Trump's comments appeared to catch some in the Pentagon by surprise and came while Defense Secretary James Mattis, who only weeks ago ordered a six-month delay in accepting new transgender recruits, was on vacation.

The announcement stunned many in the transgender community, one of them a former sailor who had been in Austin watching lawmakers advance a bill to restrict people's ability to choose what public restroom to use.

"I know multiple trans people that were extremely enthusiastic about getting to sign up and serve," said Angela Jenkins, 32, a former Houstonian who was in the Navy from 2004 to 2007 and now lives in Fredericksburg. "So this is all very, very devastating news, I'm sure, for them. And the people that are in the military right now are being threatened. Their jobs are being threatened."

White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders defended Trump's action.

"The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, but he's also voiced that this is a very expensive and disruptive policy," she said. "And based on consultation that he's had with his national security team, came to the conclusion that it erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, and made the decision based on that."

The Pentagon in 2016 allowed transgender troops to serve openly, part of a series of policy changes starting in 2010 that protected servicemen and women from being kicked out of the military because of their sexual orientation. It followed the end of "Don't ask, don't tell," a much-maligned Clinton-era policy that had allowed gay troops to serve as long as they did not reveal their sexual orientation. The action last year by then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter was likened to President Harry Truman's decision to racially integrate a military that had long been segregated.

'Deeply flawed' projections

A RAND study done for the Pentagon found last year's decision affected up to 7,000 active-duty and 4,000 Reserve troops, while UCLA's Williams Institute put the number of transgender personnel at 15,500. Carter said the decision to let transgender troops serve openly was made in part to allow them to obtain medical care through the military, including surgeries, and that it would allow "talented Americans who are serving with distinction or who want the opportunity to serve."

Before Carter's action, transgender troops had to go to private care providers at their own expense. RAND found the costs of extending gender transition-related health care would rise between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year.

The Center for Military Readiness, a Michigan-based organization that has opposed the expansion of women into the infantry, gays serving in the military and allowing transgender troops to openly serve, has called the Pentagon's cost projections "deeply flawed." The center's president, Elaine Donnelly, said Wednesday that RAND's work was influenced by sources in the LGBT community and cited a Family Research Council study that asserted the true cost of transgender medical care could run to billions of dollars over 10 years.

'We're an easy target'

In ending the transgender troop ban, Carter laid out a timetable for action through this year that would lead to accepting transgender troops by this summer for basic training. Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland had been poised to take its first transgender recruits early this month.

Trump upended all that while raising the issue of cost in three tweets in a span of 13 minutes.

The announcement appeared to surprise defense officials, who referred all questions about it to the White House - a highly unusual move on matters of such magnitude and complexity.

The transgender community - in Texas and beyond - viewed Trump's announcement as a setback for equal rights.

"It appears the transgender community has become the newest smaller minority for hateful people to target," said Phyllis Frye, an associate judge for Houston municipal courts who was discharged from the U.S. Army in 1972 for "sexual deviation."

She transitioned in 1976 and became the nation's first openly transgender judge.

Eighteen other countries allow transgender people to serve in the military, including Canada, Israel and the United Kingdom.

"There seems to be a war against our transgender brothers, sisters and friends, whether it be in Austin or in Washington," said Mike Laster, one of two openly gay members of the Houston City Council.

"Why would we start picking on people who are sacrificing their lives for our country?" said Fiona Dawson, the co-director and executive producer of "TransMilitary," a documentary set to be released in January. "To me, it feels like the president woke up this morning and said, 'Who can I pick on? Who's the most vulnerable?'"

Daniel Pons, who pronounces her name "Danielle," said she felt betrayed by the government and that banning people like her from the military was "completely insulting." A ban, she added, also would needlessly eliminate talented service members who want to serve their country.

"We're an easy target. But what people don't understand is that their freedom depends upon ours," said Pons, 63, a veteran of the Army Reserve and National Guard who served in the Gulf War and came out as a transgender woman more than a decade ago. "If you can get rid of people in the LGBT community in the service, what that means is we lose out on our right to speak out and say that we served."
The driver of a tractor-trailer in which several immigrants died has a criminal record that dates to 1997 and a life as mobile as his job.

James Matthew Bear Bradley Jr., 60, said little when informed by U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney that the human trafficking charge he faces carries a maximum life sentence and the possibility of death.

Bradley was scheduled for a bail hearing Thursday, when his criminal history could come into play and keep him jailed, as prosecutors are expected to argue that he is a danger to the community and a flight risk because he faces a possible stiff sentence and has a record of not appearing at scheduled court hearings or not complying with the law.

RELATED: Survivor connects Zetas Cartel to bodies found inside trailer

According to public records, Bradley has compiled a criminal record at least since 1997, with arrests in multiple states on charges including menacing others, assault, grand theft, escape and several traffic offenses.

Most recently, he lived in Louisville, Kentucky, according to public records and his recent employer, Pyle Transportation of Iowa.

Bradleys fiancee, Darnisha Rose, also of Louisville, told the Associated Press that Bradley had no idea how the immigrants got into his trailer.

I just cant believe it. Im stunned, shocked. He is too good a person to do anything like this, Rose said. He helps people, he doesnt hurt people.

RELATED: Statement: Walmart employees' 'quick actions' saved lives

Neighbors said Bradley lives with a relative but that they keep to themselves. For more than a month, a truck matching the description of the one located at the deadly scene in San Antonio had been parked outside the house.

Theyre just not very friendly, said one of his Louisville neighbors, Irene Poynter. They dont talk to you or have anything to say to you.

Court records show that Bradley was arrested in 1997 in Arapahoe County, Colorado, on charges of felony menacing, menacing with a deadly weapon and third-degree assault. He pleaded guilty in 1998 to the felony menacing charge, and the others were dropped, records show. He was sentenced to 60 days in jail and two years of probation.

The probation was revoked in 2003 and he was arrested a year later on a felony escape warrant while in Hillsborough County, Florida. He was also charged in Florida with grand theft, but the charge was dropped after he spent more than a month in jail. He was then extradited to Colorado, where he received one year in prison on the escape charge.

His probation was revoked again, in 2005, and he was again sent to prison in Colorado, court records show.

He has also been convicted of several driving offenses in various states, including speeding, being over weight on his axles, misuse of equipment and driving without evidence of financial responsibility (insurance), according to court records.

Though public records and his latest employer say Bradley, who has been married twice, most recently lived in Louisville, federal agents and prosecutors identified him as being from Clearwater, Florida.

He has also lived in Sacramento and Rancho Cordova, California, along with Denver, Aurora and Broomfield, Colorado.

Bradley has been a truck driver for several years, according to court records. When he was arrested in 2004 in Florida, he listed his employment as a trucker for IBS Transportation. His Florida drivers license information page also said he has endorsements to haul dual trailers.

According to federal records, he was one of 15 drivers for Pyle Transportation, which is authorized to haul general freight, fresh produce, meat, refrigerated foods and paper products.

Pyle company officials have described Bradley as an owner-operator, who made his own decisions and bought his own fuel, though he was covered under the companys insurance.

GContreras@express-news.net

Twitter: @gmaninfedland

Staff Writer Caleb Downs contributed to this report.
This story was co-published with ProPublica.

When Amy Jones' dad, Paul, was diagnosed with glioblastoma last month, she wondered whether it might be tied to his time in Vietnam.

Then, last week, when Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, also a Vietnam veteran, was diagnosed with the same aggressive brain cancer, Jones searched online for glioblastoma and Vietnam vets.

She soon learned the disease is one of a growing list of ailments that some Vietnam veterans and their relatives believe is caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide sprayed during the war.

"Honestly, it's not easy to even admit that this is happening, let alone to even talk about it," said Jones, whose 68-year-old father has had surgery to remove a brain tumor and now is receiving radiation treatments. "It's only been six weeks. It's such a devastating diagnosis."

RELATED: Living with glioblastoma: Houston nurse vows to make the most of the time left

McCain's diagnosis comes as the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is under increased pressure to broaden who's eligible for Agent Orange-related compensation. During the war, the military sprayed millions of gallons of the herbicide in Vietnam to kill enemy-covering jungle brush, and in the process, may have exposed as many as 2.6 million U.S. service members  including McCain.

News of his illness has prompted Jones and others to call on the VA to study a possible connection between their loved ones' Agent Orange exposure and glioblastoma.

Under current policy, the agency makes disability payments to veterans who develop one of 14 health conditions, but only if they can prove they served on the ground in Vietnam, where the chemicals were sprayed. Veterans who served off the coast in the Navy and those with other diseases not on the list  such as brain cancer  are left to fight the agency for compensation on a case-by-case basis.

Those with glioblastoma  or widows seeking survivor benefits  must prove the disease was "at least as likely as not" caused by Agent Orange, a cumbersome process that often takes years and more times than not results in denial.

Although McCain primarily served at sea from the deck of an aircraft carrier  and survived more than five years in a prison camp after his plane was shot down over North Vietnam  the VA would presume he was exposed to Agent Orange because he also spent time on the ground in Saigon.

Library of Congress

Still, McCain never has sought to connect any of his health troubles, including prior bouts with skin cancer, with Agent Orange exposure and has a mixed record when it comes to compensating fellow veterans for wartime exposures. His office did not respond to emailed questions about a possible link between glioblastoma and the chemical.

As a senator, McCain voted to approve the original 1991 law that directed the VA to presume every veteran who served in Vietnam was exposed and to begin compensating those with illnesses scientifically linked to it.

In 2011, however, as many Vietnam veterans aged into their 60s and 70s and annual disability payments to them swelled to more than $17 billion, McCain spoke in favor of an amendment that would have required a higher standard of scientific proof before any new illnesses would be covered.

The goal, McCain said in a floor speech, was to ensure that veterans who actually deserved compensation received it, "but at the same time not have a situation where it is an open-ended expenditure of taxpayers' dollars." The amendment was defeated  and since then, Vietnam vet disability payments have grown to $24 billion a year  but the episode still damaged McCain's reputation with veterans groups.

In a statement, a VA spokesman said the agency currently does not recognize a connection between Agent Orange exposure and brain cancer but is examining the topic anew in light of the questions that have been raised. In March, the VA asked a National Academy of Medicine panel studying the effects of Agent Orange to focus special attention on glioblastoma. (Previous reports by the group have not found a connection.) The VA also is asking about brain cancer in a sweeping survey of Vietnam veterans now underway.

VA data provided to ProPublica last fall shows that more than 500 Vietnam-era veterans have been diagnosed with glioblastoma at VA health facilities since 2000. That doesn't include the unknown number diagnosed at private facilities.

ProPublica reported last year how widows of Vietnam vets were banding together to push the VA to add glioblastoma to its list of diseases linked to Agent Orange. Through a Facebook group, they support one another and offer advice on navigating the VA's labyrinthian process for seeking disability and survivor benefits.

Dick Swanson/Getty Images

Since news of McCain's illness broke last week, dozens like Jones have joined the group, whose members mostly include widows and surviving relatives, but also some veterans living with the disease. "Every one of us, our phones were blowing up the day it came out" that McCain had glioblastoma, said Kathy Carroll-Josenhans, one of the group's leaders.

The group now has some 450 members, about double its size in December.

One of their challenges is that the VA's handling of claims related to glioblastoma has been somewhat inconsistent. Between 2009 and last fall, the Board of Veterans' Appeals, the VA's in-house tribunal for adjudicating benefit denials, issued more than 100 decisions in cases in which widows have appealed benefits denials related to their husbands' brain cancer, according to a ProPublica analysis of board decisions. About two dozen won. (At least two additional claims have been approved this year.)

Brad Riddell, a 35-year-old communications specialist living in Austin, is not a member of the Facebook group but immediately thought of his father when he heard about McCain's illness. His dad, Jerry Riddell, served in a Navy construction battalion in Da Nang during the war and routinely came in contact with Agent Orange, which was used to clear brush before paving roads and runways.

Riddell was in high school when his father had a seizure while driving from work one day. A brain scan later that day revealed a tumor the size of a grapefruit and a medical term that still makes Riddell shudder: glioblastoma.

His father endured three surgeries  including two at MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston  before doctors told him there was nothing more they could do. He entered hospice and died in February 1999, just 14 months after the diagnosis.

READ: At MD Anderson, this bell rings with relief and hope

"I absolutely thought about dad when I heard about McCain," Riddell said. "Anytime I hear that diagnosis, it just feels like, 'man, that person is a goner.' It's terrible."

After his father's death, Riddell's mother gave him a bag of his military records and told him to hold onto them: "She said, 'You need to have all these records in case there's ever a connection made between your dad's cancer and Agent Orange.'"

In the wake of the McCain news, Riddell wonders if it's time to pull the records out.

Heidi Spencer had a similar revelation a year ago. Her father, Jack Niedermeyer, died of glioblastoma at age 58 in June 2004. Her mother didn't think to apply for benefits until last year when someone at the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post where she works suggested it. Spencer helped her mom fill out the application and the VA approved it in March.

"He never knew his cancer came from Agent Orange. He never talked about his service," she said of her dad, who worked in a steel mill in Pittsburgh and had six kids.

Spencer, 42, found her dad's commanding officer in the Marine Corps, who wrote a letter saying her dad had been sprayed by Agent Orange.

"The more you research it, the more it comes into light," she said. "The VA needs to look at this, they need to link it and they need to look at his [McCain's] diagnosis and whether or not the Vietnam War played a role in him getting his disease."

In approving her mom's claim, the VA wrote that glioblastoma was not recognized as a disease that automatically warranted benefits linked to Agent Orange but that "current medical research has shown a causal relationship between herbicide exposure and glioblastoma multiforme." This is contrary to the VA's official policy.

Regardless of McCain's position on the matter, advocates hope his diagnosis will spark a conversation.

In a statement last week, John Rowan, the president of Vietnam Veterans of America, said he was saddened to learn "yet another Vietnam veteran" had been diagnosed with glioblastoma:

"Unfortunately, brain cancer is not on the presumptive list for exposure to Agent Orange," Rowan said in the statement, "despite the efforts of our fellow veterans and their family members."

___

Mike Hixenbaugh spent two years investigating the effects of Agent Orange on veterans and their children in partnership with ProPublica and The Virginian-Pilot. Now he writes about health care and medicine for the Chronicle. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. Send him tips at mike.hixenbaugh@chron.com.


A French-led effort to reunify fractured Libya failed to consult powerful local forces and risks achieving little beyond boosting the legitimacy of a renegade general who has recently racked up significant battlefield gains.

On paper, the step taken by Libya's rival leaders - guided by French President Emmanuel Macron and a United Nations envoy - was their boldest yet toward resolving Libya's six-year crisis. After talks at a country mansion outside Paris, U.N.-backed Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and eastern military strongman Khalifa Haftar agreed to a ceasefire, to combine the North African nation's divided state oil company and to hold elections "as soon as possible." The deal was not signed.

'Good photo op'

The accord will struggle to survive Libya's fiercely contested politics, according to analysts including Riccardo Fabiani at Eurasia Group.

"All we have is a very good photo op, which Macron and Haftar exploited very well," said Fabiani, senior analyst for the Middle East and North Africa.

The agreement accorded Haftar a "veneer of respect" on the international arena - a major achievement for a leader whose authority has so far been backed largely by Russia's Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi. It was, though, reached without input from regional officials, or myriad militias and political parties whose cooperation will be needed, he said.

Playing out just across the Mediterranean Sea, Libya's descent into chaos since the uprising that toppled Moammar Gadhafi in 2011 has fueled the two most severe cross-border challenges facing many European leaders - the flow of poor migrants and the opportunist movement of Islamic State extremists.

While a U.N.-mediated peace deal was meant to unite Libya, Serraj has struggled to expand his influence outside the capital since arriving in Tripoli in March 2016. Haftar's Libyan National Army controls large parts of the country from its base in the east, this month capturing the key city of Benghazi after years of fighting with Islamist militias and earlier Islamic State jihadists.

"There is a political legitimacy that's in the hands of Prime Minister Al-Serraj and a military legitimacy that's held by General Haftar," Macron said. "They have decided to work together on a political process, on a security process, and for a unified economy that will benefit the Libyan people."

Stalemate remains

Serraj and Haftar met in Abu Dhabi in May for the first time since early last year. Initially hailed as a breakthrough, analysts said later the meeting was fruitless.

With his military dominance now cemented, Haftar appears to have gone further in the talks at the Chateau de la Celle than he did in Abu Dhabi in a search for more political recognition from European countries, according to an aide to Macron.

Even so, it's unlikely to "breach the political stalemate" that has endured in Libya for years, said Oded Berkowitz, senior analyst for the Middle East and North Africa with geopolitical risk consultancy Max Security in Israel.
WASHINGTON - The Senate on Wednesday soundly rejected a measure that would repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without providing a replacement, leaving Republicans still searching for a path forward to fulfill their promise of dismantling President Barack Obama's signature health law.

Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to vote against the measure, which had been embraced by conservatives but could have left millions of people without health coverage.

The rejection of "clean repeal" pushed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., laid bare the deep divisions within the Republican caucus about how best to proceed. The night before, nine Republicans, including both conservatives and moderates, voted against comprehensive legislation to repeal the health law and provide a replacement.

Without the votes to replace the health law or to simply repeal it, Senate Republicans appeared increasingly likely to try to pass a modest measure that could repeal only a few provisions of the health law, such as the tax on medical devices and the requirements that most individuals have health coverage and that large employers offer coverage to their employees.

But even that narrow bill could have a dramatic effect on the nation's health care system. Democrats on Wednesday night released a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the effects of repealing several provisions that could be part of a "skinny" repeal measure. The analysis found that the number of people who are uninsured would increase by 15 million next year compared with current law, and Democrats said they were told that premiums would be roughly 20 percent higher.

But the point of the narrow repeal measure would not be to enact it. Instead, Republicans are simply trying to get some measure to bring to negotiations with the House.

"I think people would look at it not necessarily based on its content, but as a forcing mechanism to cause the two sides of the building to try to solve it together," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, called that "a ruse to get to full repeal" and warned that hard-line Republicans in the House would apply pressure to reluctant moderate Republicans in the Senate.

Cracks in strategy

A scaled-down bill would fall far short of what Senate leaders had aspired to pass. But if 50 senators could agree, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking any tie, such a bill would at least keep alive the party's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, under which about 20 million people have gained coverage.

"What we need to do in the Senate is figure out what the lowest common denominator is - what gets us to 50 votes so that we can move forward on health care reform legislation," Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, said on CNBC.

That strategy would require conservatives like Paul and Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah to vote for a measure that leaves the basic structure of the Affordable Care Act in place, hoping that House-Senate negotiations could produce a more ambitious repeal. Such senators have argued that far broader replacement bills did too little to eradicate the health law.

And cracks are already showing.

"The skinny plan is not a replacement of Obamacare," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said. "Would it be better than Obamacare? Yeah. But that's not the goal. The goal is to replace Obamacare."

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, a major trade group, warned senators Wednesday about the possible consequences of repealing the mandate that most people have health coverage. "A system that allows people to purchase coverage only when they need it drives up costs for everyone," the association said.

With two legislative approaches having been rejected by Republicans - the comprehensive measure and then the repeal-only measure - Democrats were left wondering what exactly Republican leaders were cooking up and how they could reasonably expect senators to vote on that legislation in just a day or two. Republican leaders have been plotting strategy and drafting legislation largely behind closed doors, with a final vote likely by Friday.

Republicans are seeking to pass a repeal bill under special budget rules that limit debate to 20 hours and preclude a Democratic filibuster.

Senators' challenge

Senate Republican leaders, including the majority leader, Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, have emphasized that senators would be free to offer any amendments they see fit. But Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., highlighted a major challenge that he and other senators face: How can they prepare amendments to legislation without knowing what they are amending?

"What is the bill that we are considering?" he asked. "It's not the bill that Sen. McConnell brought forward because that bill was defeated. It's not the 'repeal and we're starting from a blank slate' because that was defeated."

Just a week ago, McConnell seemed to have failed in putting together a health bill that could pass the Senate. But he managed to persuade enough of his reluctant members to agree Tuesday to vote for a procedural motion to take up the repeal bill that passed the House in May, and on Wednesday, he vowed to press forward with the repeal effort.

Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., the chairman of the Senate health committee, was among the Republican senators who voted against the measure Wednesday. He said he did not believe his constituents would like the idea of "canceling insurance" for millions of Americans and then "trusting Congress to find a replacement in two years."

"Pilots like to know where they're going to land when they take off," Alexander said, "and we should too."
A house is a house is a house is a house is a house, as architects like to say.

A housing bond, on the other hand, is apparently a gimmick. Or so the politicians admit.

Houston has been caught sitting on more than $30 million in bond approvals for affordable housing. No, money wasn't misplaced - unlike the $46 million in TIRZ dollars that Chronicle reporters Rebecca Elliott and Mike Morris discovered in their "Lost Money" investigation.

The brain trust at City Hall that cooked up the scheme over the past 16 years, it seems, never intended to take advantage of the approvals in the first place. They put just affordable housing bonds on the ballot three times to gin up turnout for other issues and appease political pressure.

"You need to have affordable housing on there as part of the package so that it's sellable out in the community," Annise Parker told the Chronicle in a surprising moment of candor. "I don't want to say that we did it with the expectation of not using it, but that's in essence what we did."

When people say they want honest politicians, they don't mean after the fact.

This news is a slap in the face to voters, and should act as a kick in the seat to make City Hall finally take housing seriously in Houston.

For years, our region could get away with responding to questions about the cost of living by simply pointing down the freeway. Endless sprawl ensured that housing supply could always keep up with demand and each suburban development or feeder-road apartment complex was less expensive than the last.

But we're running out of sprawl. Workers' commutes start to become untenable - especially if people are spending hours in traffic for minimum wage jobs. Closer to downtown, we're seeing families being priced out of once-affordable neighborhoods as gentrification sends rents and property tax bills skyrocketing. Attempts to build mixed-income units near job centers - such as a subsidized multi-family complex at 2640 Fountainview in the Galleria-area - have been shut down by a "Not In My Backyard" philosophy.

Meanwhile, 10 percent of Harris County residents spend a majority of their paychecks on housing, according to a report by the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. And the number of high-poverty areas in Houston's suburbs has more than doubled, according to a recent Harvard University study.

So what can we do?

There aren't many sticks in the Houston planner's toolbox, but we're experts at using carrots. Houston spent $75 million in tax credits on the downtown living initiative to help draw apartments to the urban core. Not a single unit built qualifies as affordable. Folks on the ground can, however, peer at a 44-story high hanging pool at Market Square Tower. One-bedroom apartments are available for $3,000 per month.

We spare no expense for the wealthy.

City Council was at least willing to spend $4 million on the poor last week by expanding the "blue tarp" program. Those funds help Houstonians patch homes in disrepair and preempt the search for new housing to begin with.

It can't end there.

Houston should spend funds on rental assistance and help finance mixed-income units near job centers or along transit lines. The planning commission, too, can exert pressure on private-sector affordability when developers come asking for variances.

Metro also has a role to play as the regional transit agency plans its future. This means connecting low-cost, far-out suburbs with key job centers.

Finally, the Midtown Redevelopment Authority needs to accelerate construction of mixed-income housing throughout its extensive Third Ward land bank. Each empty plot owned by the quasi-governmental entity represents an unfulfilled opportunity. If that board won't act, City Hall needs to step in.

Houston's leaders have to start showing some actual results on affordable housing. The time for gimmicks is over.
On the anniversary of the day President Truman integrated our nation's armed forces, our current president has slammed the door on a group of American citizens whose minority status will deny them the opportunity to serve in their country's defense.

President Trump has announced a ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military. This shameful proclamation not only insults thousands of men and women currently serving in uniform, it also denigrates a misunderstood minority group solely for political purposes. And it does nothing to make our country safer.

Although Trump claims he reached his decision after consulting with leaders of the armed forces, his announcement apparently caught the Pentagon by surprise. On orders from Defense Secretary James Mattis, military officials had been conducting a study on transgender troops in the armed forces, and Mattis himself had announced he would delay a decision on the matter until the end of the year. What's more, recruiters had been scrambling to sign people up for service, so eliminating a pool of potential candidates seemed counter-productive to the president's stated goal of building up the nation's military forces.

Trump cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" as justifications for reinstating the transgender ban that was lifted under President Obama, but those excuses don't hold up under scrutiny. A study conducted by the RAND Corporation last year concluded allowing transgender people into the armed forces would have a minimal impact on health care costs and military readiness. About 2,400 of our nation's 1.3 million active-duty members of the military are transgender, the study concluded, raising health care expenses an estimated $2.4 million to $8.4 million; that's an increase of about one-tenth of one percent. Other countries that recruit transgender personnel - like the United Kingdom, Israel and Australia - reported little or no impact on military readiness.

Trump's announcement amounts to a betrayal of campaign promises made during his race for the presidency. At the Republican National Convention, he vowed he would "do everything in my power to protect our LGBT community." As a candidate, he wrote a message on Twitter saying, "Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you " But after his inauguration, the White House has rolled back protections for transgender schoolchildren and didn't even recognize LGBT Pride Month. Now, a president who promised to fight for transgender Americans has slapped them in the face by essentially declaring them unfit to fight for their country.

The motive seems entirely political. A president who's a master of media distraction instantly deflected attention from his bullying of the attorney general and his frantic efforts to stop the investigation into his campaign's contacts with Russia. The move also throws red meat to a base of voters who backed Trump because they were uncomfortable with the pace of cultural change during the Obama years.

It also cruelly denies transgender Americans the honor of wearing their nation's uniform and bearing arms in defense of our country. Amid the avalanche of criticism prompted by the ban, U.S. Sen. Jack Reed, D-Rhode Island, said it best: "In the land of the free and the home of the brave, every American who is brave enough to serve their country should be free to do so."
For pregnant women in America, there is no more dangerous state than Texas. While U.S. Sens. John Cornyn and Ted Cruz push proposals on the federal level that would cut Medicaid and take away access to maternity care, the state they are supposed to represent remains the deadliest in which to give birth, and the deadliest state for new mothers.

Last year, the maternal mortality rate was found to be rising in the United States, despite death rates dropping by nearly half in the past several decades globally - with Texas leading not only our country, but most of the developed world, in the number of women who die from pregnancy-related complications during or up to a year after birth.

There is a devastating story to tell for every one of these maternal deaths. Several years ago, one of us, Donna Kruezer of Austin lost her daughter, Kristi, to postpartum depression - found to be a leading cause of maternal mortality by the Texas Maternal Mortality and Morbidity Task Force. Kristi had hidden her condition for weeks, trying to be strong and all too aware of the stigma that comes from mental illness.

In April, we testified before the Texas Legislature in support of a bill that would have helped address this crisis. In addition to keeping the task force running, the bill would have directed the state to examine ways to lower the rate of maternal mortality, including treatment for postpartum depression for low-income women. While Donna shared her daughter's story, I discussed the public health and economic consequences of maternal death. What I didn't tell the state Legislature is that I had just found out I was pregnant with my first child.

In the aftermath of her personal tragedy, Donna has become a powerful advocate for all mothers in Texas suffering from postpartum depression, serving as a board member of Pregnancy and Postpartum Health Alliance of Texas. Donna often says she is doing the work that Kristi would have done if she had survived. As she spoke to lawmakers about her daughter, who sounded so much like me - a lawyer with a loving family, focused on addressing social inequalities - I imagined myself in Kristi's place.

The New York Times has called the record number of maternal deaths in Texas "shocking." Many of Texas' leaders have claimed to feel the same - including an "alarmed" Gov. Greg Abbott. But the bill Donna and I testified in favor of was blocked in the final days of the legislative session because some at the Texas Capitol insisted on passing a bathroom discrimination bill. Among our U.S. senators attempting to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the subject hasn't come up.

On the state level, the bathroom-focused legislators ran out the clock and got their wish of another chance to pass their bill: A special session of the Texas Legislature, which began last week. The silver lining is that maternal mortality also has a chance to be considered again.

State policymakers did advance some legislation on postpartum depression - incremental, though still vital, steps forward. But in addition to failing to pass the bill Donna and I testified about, the Legislature neglected to send any proposals to the governor that would have actually provided for greater coverage for the treatment and care of women struggling financially. And the U.S. Senate's "health care" proposal would only worsen mortality rates.

Kristi's condition was identified too late, even though she and her family had the means to pay for treatment. Donna told me she shudders to think, however, of the many other women who may even receive a timely diagnosis but do not have the ability to access care. And there are many. Even if the Senate health-care proposal never goes into effect, parents of two children in Texas must earn less than $386 a month to qualify for Medicaid coverage. The monthly income of a family of four living at the federal poverty level is $2,050.

Maternal deaths affect families of all incomes, races and ethnicities, but there are clear disparities that should serve as guideposts for state lawmakers.

The state has found that African-American and low-income women are disproportionately likely to experience maternal death. These women didn't want to die any more than Kristi wanted to - or than I do, as I spend my evenings reading up on swaddling techniques and sleeping schedules.

Expectant parents everywhere worry about coping with the newborn months. Too many mothers-to-be in Texas, however, must also wake up worried about whether they will even survive those months. This reality cannot continue. The U.S. Senate - including Cornyn and Cruz - must drop their attack on the health care of financially struggling families and women.

And the state must use the special session to pay more than lip service to the issue. Our federal and state officials have a responsibility to turn their supposed concern over the deaths of Texas mothers into meaningful, life-saving action.

Buchanan is southern director of Young Invincibles, a national nonpartisan organization that advocates for the economic security of young adults. Kreuzer, of Austin, recently lost her daughter, Kristi, to postpartum depression.
WASHINGTON - Eventually, everyone in this town seems to wind up with the word "poor" in front of his or her name.

Such a fate is especially likely if one has associated with Donald Trump. As in, Poor Attorney General Jeff Sessions. He is latest to the firing line that has included such formerlys as FBI Director James Comey, national security adviser Michael Flynn and acting-Attorney General Sally Yates, as well as the "voluntarily resigned" - press secretary Sean Spicer, and Communications Director Michael Dubke.

Trump has begun making inquiries about firing Sessions, barring a resignation prompted by the president's tweeted attempts at shaming him into resigning. His crime? A perceived lack of loyalty. Having recused himself from involvement in the FBI's Trump-Russia investigation - and, therefore, from defending the president, as Trump sees it - Sessions is no longer useful. (For the record, Sessions did reportedly offer to resign at one point.)

Speaking of loyalty, Trump offers little of what he expects from others. Way back in early 2016, when few were willing to sidle up to the Republican front-runner, Sessions bet the farm on this reality-show celebrity. He was the first sitting senator to endorse Trump, trading his legacy for the near-certain promise of a top position in the new administration.

Whatever Sessions' hopes for the job, Trump apparently assumed that the attorney general would serve at his pleasure, regardless of what inconvenient ethics might preclude Sessions from also acting as the president's personal defense attorney - that is, should any pre-emptive measures prove inadequate to thwart unwanted scrutiny.

Sessions' recusal wasn't only correct but probably unavoidable. It was revealed the day before his announcement that he had twice met with then-Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak, in July and September of 2016, despite having said during his confirmation hearing that he hadn't. Like so many others who joined the Trump White House, Sessions seemed to have forgotten the meetings.

Kislyak must be one forgettable fellow. Everyone he meets from Trump World suffers amnesia, recalling not so much as a handshake. Though I've not had the pleasure, Kislyak looks like a jovial sort who enjoys a hearty chuckle. His sides must be splitting these days as Trump repeals and replaces officials who are investigating Russia or who deny knowing any Russians.

Testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Sessions has said that his meetings with Kislyak, come to think of it, were routine and part of his activities as senator, not as campaign operative. Except for the fact that Sessions was part of the campaign at the time of those meetings, there's no reason to doubt him.

Trump seems less bothered that Sessions, Donald Trump Jr. and Jared Kushner all have contradicted his claims that none of his campaign people had ever met with any Russians associated with the government than by the realization that Sessions isn't protecting his backside. To the nation's chief executive, the latter spells kaputzkah In recent tweets, the president called the attorney general "beleaguered," accused him of being "very weak" on Hillary Clinton (why now?), and questioned his competence, saying: "Ukrainian efforts to sabotage Trump campaign - 'quietly working to boost Clinton.' So where is the investigation A.G." (Say this for Trump: He has resisted servitude to punctuation and grammar.)

Sure, Trump must know that Sessions vowed during his confirmation hearing that, if confirmed, he would recuse himself from any matters concerning Hillary Clinton. After all, the hearing was televised. But why mention Clinton in this episode of Trump's reality presidency? Because when the heat is on, Trump always sprinkles a little Clinton in the mix.

How better to turn his supporters against Sessions and create momentum for him to resign than to remind Republican voters that Sessions let Clinton get away with (fill in the blank).

In the latest in his series of off-the-cuff true confessions, Trump last week told The New York Times that he never would have nominated Sessions as attorney general had he known he'd recuse himself. Recall that he also said he fired Comey because of the Russia investigation. Nobody ever accused the president of subtlety. The question now is, who's next?

We'll know soon enough, but Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price might want to keep his medical license current. As the Senate was preparing to vote again on the Obamacare repeal bill, Trump gave a rousing speech, saying he knew Price, who formerly sat on the House Ways and Means subcommittee on health, would get out there and get those votes.

If not, Trump quipped, "You're fired!"

Poor Price.

Parker's email address is kathleenparkerwashpost.com.
One of the cornerstones of Donald Trump's campaign for president was a promise to boost American manufacturing and work with U.S. businesses on "Made in America" jobs. When he was elected, President Trump cemented that commitment by meeting with top manufacturing CEOs to develop a pro jobs-agenda and visiting workers at iconic American manufacturers.

In April, the president took another step in support of U.S. manufacturers by announcing his support for the U.S. Export-Import Bank. President Trump knows a good deal when he sees one - the Ex-Im Bank levels the playing field for American exports while generating a profit for U.S. taxpayers - so it shouldn't come as a surprise that he would come down in favor of a fully-functioning bank.

But what has been surprising is his decision to nominate former New Jersey Congressman Scott Garrett as president of the bank.

The Ex-Im Bank is a lynchpin of U.S. manufacturing and an engine driving growth in American jobs. It helps U.S. businesses sell their products overseas, offering insurance, credit, and vital "know how" to help them crack foreign markets, while serving as a "lender of last resort" to finance U.S. export deals when no other source of financing is available.

This work has supported 1.4 million American jobs in the past eight years with $186 billion in total export value just last year. In Texas, the nation's top exporting state for 14 years running, the bank has provided competitive financing in support of $22 billion in exports over the past five years, with small businesses making up half of participating exporters. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, the value of these export sales creates or sustains 132,000 U.S. jobs. For a state like Texas where manufacturing accounts for more than 14 percent of the state economy and 848,000 local jobs, this boost to exports is vital.

Yet inexplicably, former Congressman Garrett strongly opposes the Ex-Im Bank. He has voted more than a dozen times to shut it down and argued that the bank's support for American manufacturers and small businesses is not necessary.

In reality, Ex-Im is a small agency with just 400 staff members that actually runs a surplus - returning the fees and interest it charges for its services to the public Treasury, nearly $4 billion since 2009.

Congress has made its views clear with repeated, bipartisan votes in support of the U.S. Ex-Im Bank - one of the few areas it seems Republicans and Democrats can agree on these days. Certainly, Trump should have the freedom to nominate a skeptic who plans to further reform or strictly manage the bank. Even if we disagreed with such a nominee on some of the particulars - the bank, after all is one of the most efficient, well-managed agencies in the federal government today - we would support him or her in keeping with the president's traditional prerogatives on personnel.

But we cannot support a nominee who is flatly opposed to the existence of the bank - one who would destroy the Texas jobs the bank helps create and unilaterally disarm American businesses on the global stage out of misguided ideology. Nor can we understand why someone who has a track record of voting against the bank's reauthorization and who has said that "Congress should put the Export-Import Bank out of businesses" would want to lead this agency.

Putting such a committed opponent of the bank in charge of its operations will only yield more of the dysfunction and gridlock that the American people rejected when they voted to change business as usual in Washington by electing Trump.

American manufacturers and their U.S. suppliers need a committed leader at the helm of the Export-Import Bank - someone who will support their ability to compete against more than 90 foreign export credit agencies around the world. For that reason, we believe the best path forward in fulfilling the president's support for Ex-Im, as well as the bank's mission of supporting American jobs and competitiveness - is with the withdrawal of Scott Garrett's nomination.

Bennett is president & CEO of Texas Association of Manufacturers, and Wallace is president, Texas Association of Business.
A speeding motorcyclist who refused to stop for a law enforcement officer crashed Wednesday night in northwest Texas County.

The man led a state patrol officer on a chase before crashing at Slab Town Road and Highway 17 north of Roby.

Emergency responders were called at about 7:20 p.m. A medical helicopter was dispatched to the scene.
The Czech foreign ministry says a Czech woman who was wounded in a knife attack at a hotel in the popular Egyptian Red Sea resort town of Hurghada earlier in July has died.

Thursday's announcement comes a day after authorities said the 36-year-old was on the brink of death and only life support was keeping her alive in a Cairo hospital.

In the July 14 attack, an Egyptian university graduate first stabbed two German women to death and later attacked and wounded four other female tourists who, according to local media reports, were two Armenians, one Ukrainian and the Czech.

The woman was hospitalised with back and leg injuries after the attack.

The ministry says the family doesn't want to reveal any more details.

Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek and Health Minister Miloslav Ludvik offered their condolences.

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The Ministry of Manpower (MOM) has chosen to focus on five industries that it thinks are at risk of technology disruption while having potential for job growth.



The Minister for Manpower Lim Swee Say said last week that MOM will make targeted efforts for the healthcare, infocomm and media, wholesale trade, professional services and financial services industries. Five government officers, including a Cabinet minister, will work on the initiative which seeks to match Singaporean workers to jobs in the industries, The Straits Times reported.



About a million workers are currently employed by businesses across the five industries. However, higher-skilled workers may need guidance in adapting to these industries given future developments. The ministrys move also aims to help PMETs face increasing risk of job loss.



The programs will be led by Second Minister for Manpower Josephine Teo with senior ministers of state overseeing each growth sector. Teo said in a Facebook post that about half of the 25,000 to 40,000 jobs to be created annually in the coming years are expected to be in one of the five industries, which already employ more than half a million Singaporean PMETs.



The ministers have begun coordinating with other agencies to determine skill requirements for specific job openings. The Monetary Authority of Singapore, Economic Development Board, Infocomm Media Development Authority, Health Ministry and International Enterprise Singapore have been tapped to support to project.



Senior Minister of State for Finance and Law Indranee Rajah, who will oversee the professional services and financial services industries, said in a Facebook post that they expect jobs in the field of asset and wealth management and data analytics and machine learning. Rajah also said that her team plans to effectively match workers to roles they are most suited for.



Koh Poh Koon, Senior Minister of State for Trade and Industry, will oversee the wholesale trade industry. He said PMEs should be ready to enter regional roles and learn regional market needs as the industry is diverse and has an international component.



Amy Khor will oversee the healthcare sector, while Janil Puthucheary will manage the infocomm and media industry initiative.



Lim said that the government will work with employers and unions to consider how changes in the industries will affect workers. He added that Adapt & Grow schemes such as professional conversion programmes will be looked into as ways of retraining workers for new jobs.




Kirk Hope  chief executive of advocacy group BusinessNZ  said the changes strike a balance between ensuring jobs for Kiwis without overly restricting businesses.

Every year, employers of lower-skilled migrants will have to prove to Immigration NZ that there are no New Zealanders available to do their jobs  as they currently have to do via the labour market test, said Hope.

Where there are no New Zealanders available, employers will still be able to access migrants for those jobs  both skilled and unskilled, he continued. This is helpful, as many businesses in many industries are struggling to fill job vacancies.

Hope also praised the government for involving employers in the process.

Its good that government has listened to business and industry while developing these changes, he said. The revised salary threshold is more realistic for migrant workers to go from a lower-skilled role to a mid-skilled role with training and more experience, and will be more workable in the regions.
These are clear breaches of the employers obligation to keep accurate time and wage records, and pay minimum wage for every hour worked, said Labour Inspectorate national manager Stu Lumsden.

What this meant in practice was that on average, these 16 Indonesian employees were only being paid for half the hours they actually worked, he continued.

In addition to the $40,000 fine, the company also repaid $82,252 to those affected.

While we are pleased this employer has since paid back the arrears to the workers, the exploitative nature of these breaches is disappointing, said Lumsden.

The Inspectorate takes these breaches very seriously as these employees were in a vulnerable position, with it being unlikely they wouldve been aware of their rights and entitlements.
Egyptian Prime Minister Sherif Ismail said on Thursday at a meeting of a high-level Egyptian-Jordanian commission in Amman that his country aims to bolster its investment and economic ties with Jordan.

Ismail during his speech at the 27th round of the commission said that Cairo aims to push forward trade and investment relations with Amman, adding that the Egyptian government seeks to amend investment legislation to streamline doing business in Egypt.

Egypt's trade exchange with Jordan stood at $587 million in 2016.

Jordanian investment in Egypt amounted to $526 million until early 2017, while Egyptian investments in Jordan stood at $310 million until the end of 2016, figures Ismail says are unsatisfactory and should be "greatly boosted."

He also highlighted cooperation between Cairo and Amman in counterterrorism efforts.

On Thursday, the two countries signed seven memorandums of understanding in several fields, including investment, small and medium-sized projects, higher education and stock markets, investment minister Sahar Nasr was quoted as saying by Egypt's state news agency MENA.

She said the two countries also agreed to create an Egyptian-Jordanian investment council whose primary task will be holding forums and fairs in all fields including tourism, oil and agriculture.

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I love working at Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter, whether it's the early shift starting at 7am or the later shift starting at 11am. No two days are ever the same. I mostly work with the dogs but some days I might be looking after cats, rabbits or even our pigs, sheep, goats, donkeys or ponies. We work outdoors in all weather and in Newcastle that means a lot of rain and soggy socks.

Whilst a large part of the day is spent cleaning the kennels, picking up poop and feeding, there is a lot more fun to be had. I love working with the animals, helping to find them new homes and helping them to have a second chance at happiness. I get to meet loads of different animals, spending time with them learning their unique personalities, traits and likes and dislikes makes every day exciting and different.

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I also get to meet lots of new people who want to adopt and talking to them about what sort of animal they want and what sort of home they can offer is always interesting and fun. Having undertaken behaviour training, I get a real buzz helping to train more difficult dogs who may have had no previous training or who might be finding kennel life difficult. Watching a dog learn new skills and develop their confidence is a great feeling. I love learning random fun facts about animals so I can help to educate people and help more of our animals to find the right homes.

I love being part of a great team all working towards a common goal. Whilst it can be hardwork, being surrounded by such an enthusiastic, positive group of people makes each day fun and rewarding. It's a great job being outdoors and constantly active. I could never sit behind a desk when I get so much more from being out and about meeting animals and people and always doing different activities.

My favourite animals have to be the donkeys, especially Snowy as he is a really cheeky boy who is full of character. He always shouts if people walk past and ignore him and he loves a bit of attention.

One of the best parts of my day is doing dog socialisations, it is nice to let people see the dog outside having fun and not just in a kennel environment. Dogs behave differently in their kennels, often becoming subdued or sometimes noisy. They definitely show their best side when they are out having fun and I love showing adopters what their potential new dog can do and what a fantastic pet they would make.

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Most memorable moment

Helping a lovely little Staffie called Roxy to gain confidence and recover from illness. Her new family came in several times to socialise and get to know her before they adopted her. A few weeks after they rehomed her they brought her in for a visit so I could see how well she had settled in. I actually got quite emotional seeing how well she had bonded with her new family and they left me a cup with the phrase 'tea always tastes better with a dog hair in it'. I've still got the cup and I use it at work every day.

Funniest moment

Whilst on a dog behaviour course I had to pretend to be a dog for demonstration purposes. I was on all fours demonstrating clicker training but I have to admit the dog treat reward wasn't really for me. If it helps us to learn and help our dogs then I'll try just about anything.

Worst part of the job

Snow! It makes work so much harder and layering up against the cold is not much fun and it's harder to move around. It's not all bad though as playing in the snow with the dogs is always a great way to end the day.

Best part of the job

Seeing one of the animals I've worked with going off to a new home. Dogs like Dougal, a six month old German Shepherd who was very nervous and frightened. I spent every day with him slowly gaining his trust and after a number of weeks he had developed his confidence and was finally ready to start a new life with a family of his own.

To see him grow from the frightened little dog who arrived to a happy, playful puppy going off to a new home and a second chance makes me really proud. Knowing I helped to improve his life in a small way makes my job worthwhile. It just goes to show that a little time, patience and effort is all it takes to change the life of a dog and being part of that is an amazing feeling.

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Steve Jones, Kate Quilton and Professor Noel Fitzpatrick present a brand new, week-long animal rescue series, Animal Rescue Live: Supervet Special from The Newcastle Dog & Cat Shelter Monday to Friday, 7 - 11 August, Channel 4.
The student funding crisis is not going anywhere.

Over the past week, there has been no end of hot-air over Jeremy Corbyn's supposed 'U-turn' on student debt. The claim is that the Labour leader, an interview with on the Marr Show, had backtracked on a pre-election pledge to write-off student debt. The Daily Mail, the venerable guardian of student rights, screamed 'Corbyn Student Debt Humiliation', and politicians and pundits of all stripes queued up outside television studios to bemoan Labour's grand deception of our nation's youth.

You would think that, as the elected representative of millions of students studying in higher education across the UK, I would be justifiably outraged.

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Except I'm not. That's because a pledge to abolish student debt couldn't have been broken, because it was never made in the first place.

And you know what the funny thing is? I'd hedge my bets that most students will know it. Young people are less susceptible to the kind of manufactured hysteria generated by the tabloids, and not as 'impressionable' as some have recently suggested. To contrary, I believe that the political awakening during the recent general election inspired a generation that does think critically, that is able to engage with policy proposals and consider who is best placed to offer an alternative to the inter-generational inequalities that plague our current system.

If this recent claim is just a crude attempt to quell the desire for fairer funding system, it will most likely backfire. A recent poll by YouGov shows only 17% of 18-24 year olds thought that Labour were planning to write off historic debt. Many students will see through this cynical attempt to pull wool over their eyes; to tell us that there is no alternative to our unjust education funding model, and that we were fools for ever believing there could be.

The barely-concealed glee with which many of our political class and professional punditry have gone about this endeavour is eye-opening - particularly from those who failed to offer anything of substance for themselves - and now act with blatant disdain towards students that dared to challenge our deeply unfair funding model.

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So, if the claim itself isn't true, and students are unlikely to believe it - then what is the point?

What we are witnessing is an exercise in political point-scoring in its most unscrupulous form. As with a certain president from across the pond, it is now clear that the truth of a claim is of less importance than a good headline.

But it is about more than that: it represents a desperate gambit from a government that is suffering from a paucity of ideas. With each passing day, the consensus grows on the need for reform. Yet the government buries its head in the sand, stubbornly heading on down a road that students do not want to be on at all.

Recent announcements by the Universities Minister, Jo Johnson: student contracts, a new system for measuring graduate earnings, subject level rankings and some vague guidance on Vice Chancellors' pay, are all just window dressing on a smashed facade. We need to talk about the real challenges facing students and our sector: the uncertain impact of Brexit, rising levels of student poverty, and the unsustainability of our education funding model following the findings of the Institute of Fiscal Studies Report (IFS).

The Conservatives, like on pretty much any policy stance, are divided on this issue. Government Minister Damian Green - effectively the Prime Minister's right hand man - recognised the need to listen to our young people when he called for a "national debate" on the future of our education funding model. This week I spoke on radio with a Conservative counsellor who claimed that there is now a widespread belief amongst their grassroots activists that the current system is untenable, and that something be done spiralling levels of student debt.

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Unfortunately, that reality is yet to dawn on the government, who are instead choosing to indulge in a desperate defence of a broken system.

Rather than indulging in whataboutery, what we need is a sensible and clear conversation about how we provide a better and fairer funding model for students. Instead of dismissing students as naive or gullible, politicians of all hues should try to understand our disillusionment, and offer their own alternatives to our clearly ailing system.

Above all, the government should start acting like it is government. It should accept the indisputable evidence in front of it, and show the courage to admit that they are wrong - and talking about how we can provide a fairer, more progressive funding model for students.
Thursday's announcement by Amber Rudd to launch a major assessment of migration from the European Union is welcome news. It vital to have an independent view on what future immigration policies should look like. For us, the3million, it does open the question though why this is done one year after the referendum and not one year before. The referendum was heavily fought on the issue of immigration and we are now wondering how the government was able to fight this referendum without understanding the basic demographics and sectoral make up of the 3.2 million EU nationals already here.

The assessment will cover many areas such as:

The current patterns of European Economic Area (EEA) migration, including which sectors are most reliant on EU labour;

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The economic and social costs and benefits of EU migration to the UK economy

The potential impact of a reduction in EU migration and the ways in which both business and the Government could adjust to this change;

The current impact of immigration, from both EU and non-EU countries, on the competitiveness of UK industry and skills and training;

Whether there is any evidence that the availability of unskilled labour has led to low UK investment in certain sectors;

If there are advantages to focusing migrant labour on high-skilled jobs.

The enquiry is heavily focused on the economic needs and costs of a future immigration system but omits two vital aspects.

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Firstly, it solely looks at immigration but ignores the potential impact of emigration which has been on the increase since the referendum. A recent survey by Baker McKenzie shows that 56% of EU employees consider leaving the UK. The number is even higher in the NHS with 84% of EU employees considering to leave the UK. Thus, it is paramount for the government to understand what kind of environment they need to create for the 3 million fully integrated EU nationals already here to convince them to stay. The assessment completely ignores this.

Secondly, the enquiry focuses on the public and private employer needs in terms of workforce. Currently 45% of EU nationals are coming to the UK with a job already secured filling existing job openings.

This is only half of the picture though. Many are not coming here because of the job openings alone but for the overall package of opportunities working in Great Britain is providing. The UK is the gateway to the EU for many multinational employers, who currently can draw on a diverse European workforce to service all of Europe from the UK. This makes the UK an attractive place to work for many young people. At the moment it is as easy and safe for these young people to take a job and build their lives in York or Birmingham as it is to accept a job in Munich or Milan.

With strict visa regulations aimed to reduce number of net migration to the 10s of thousands and policy of hostile environment as introduced by Theresa May as Home Secretary it is questionable though whether the employment needs as identified in the upcoming assessment will be matched with enough applicants willing to make the move from the EU into the UK where their status will be questioned on a permanent basis.
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New IPPR research finds younger workers in 'flexible' job-types more likely to experience mental health problems

Politicians of all stripes have set off on their summer holidays, recovering from the upheaval of a momentous spring in British politics. When they return in the autumn, we can expect Brexit to once again take top billing, as the Article 50 countdown clock ticks slowly on.

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But, despite the loss of her majority, the Prime Minister looks determined to continue to address the 'burning injustices' she talked about on the steps of Downing Street on her very first day in the job.

In particular, we can expect to hear more about the world of work, and the state of the nation's mental health.

A few weeks ago, the PM used the publication of the government-commissioned Taylor Review to recommit to protect those affected by the changing nature of work. And in the autumn, another government-commissioned independent review (led by Lord Stevenson and Paul Farmer) will look to identify ways to support those who experience mental health problems at work.

A record number of people in the UK are in work. But, at the same time, demand for mental health services is soaring. 1 in 4 adults in the UK experience a diagnosable mental health problem each year.

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We know that fulfilling employment can minimise the risk of developing poorer mental health, and that negative experiences of work can have the opposite effect.

But beyond this, how well do we understand the interactions between the way we work and our mental health?

New IPPR analysis - published today - suggests that it is today's generation of younger workers who are getting a particularly raw deal in the modern UK labour market.

Comparing millennials to those who entered the labour market a decade before, it finds the former are more likely to be in part-time work, more likely to be self-employed and equally likely to be on a temporary contract.

On its own, this is not evidence of a 'raw deal'. After all, millennials may be choosing to work part-time or to be self-employed in order to benefit from greater flexibility and achieve a better work-life balance.

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However, the analysis also shows that, compared to the previous generation of younger workers, millennials are 60 per cent more likely to be underemployed, and so work fewer hours than they would like. And they are twice as likely to be overqualified, and so work in a non-graduate role despite having a degree. And on top of that, the proportion of employees aged 21-25 in low-paid work increased by 82 per cent between 1990 and 2015.

It's hard to imagine millennials choosing to be underemployed, overqualified or in low-pay.

But what are the implications of this changing world of work on millennials' mental health and wellbeing?

Our newly-published analysis show that millennials in temporary work are 29 per cent more likely to experience mental health problems than those in permanent work, while millennials in part-time work are 43 per cent more likely than those in full-time work to experience problems.

Millennials who are overqualified are 38 per cent more likely to report being anxious or depressed than those who are graduates working in graduate-roles. And those in low-paid work are 31 per cent more likely than those in higher-paid work to experience problems.

This suggests that, for a significant number of young people, their experiences of the modern world of work would appear to be putting their mental health and wellbeing at greater risk.

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So, what can be done?

Employers are increasingly introducing initiatives which aim to protect employees' mental health and ensure that those who need support are able to access it. While anti-stigma campaigns such as Time to Change are helping create working environments in which people are more comfortable to talk openly about their mental health.

But, as worthwhile as these initiatives are, they are unlikely to provide more than a sticking plaster on the problem unless government and employers work together to recognise and address the fundamental interrelationship between work and mental health. That means contract-types, pay, progression and security.

Speaking at the launch of the Taylor Review, the Prime Minister argued that the labour market's flexibility is a source of strength and we must 'do nothing' to weaken it.

But the question we should be asking is 'flexibility for who?'

If we prioritise flexibility for employers at the expense of control for employees, we are storing up problems which will result in low productivity, increased rates of sickness absence, and more young people falling out of work altogether.

Instead, government and employers should work together to promote better quality jobs which maximise the benefits of flexibility, while ensuring that employees feel in control of their own working lives.

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This is the only way to prevent a significant number of younger workers becoming trapped in a cycle of low-pay, with few prospects and low wellbeing.
Balearians have been quite cunning with this one.

On Monday 24th July 2014 the Parliament of the Balearic Islands, a devolved nation within Spain in the Mediterranean Sea which includes Majorca, Menorca and Ibiza, passed a new Act to regulate bullfighting within the framework of the islands' animal protection legislation. The vote was passed with 33 votes in favour, 19 against and two abstentions.

But regulation is not a ban, you may say. Well, you are correct, but let me explain. Those politicians and NGOs who have been promoting this law were aiming for a complete ban on all types of bullfighting, but in 2016 something happened that made them pause and regroup.

Last year the Spanish Constitutional Court declared, after years of deliberation, that the bullfighting ban that had been in place in Catalonia (another devolved nation) since 2010 was unconstitutional. This verdict had very little effect in Catalonia as the Catalan Government, backed by their Parliament, are firm supporters of the ban, so they said that they would ignore the Spanish court ruling and keep the ban "no matter what".

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However this ruling made those politicians in the neighbouring Balearic Islands, who were trying to get a ban on very much the same terms as in Catalonia, think tactically to see if they could achieve the same result but without the threat of the Spanish Constitutional Court. And they found a way.

They realised that one of the main arguments of the Court was that although it recognised that Catalonia had the power to regulate bullfighting, it claimed no devolved nation has the power to ban it since bullfighting was declared a Spanish national "cultural" asset a few years ago. So here is the clever bit: what about creating a regulation that modifies bullfighting to such an extreme that the bullfighters themselves decide it is no longer worth organising a bullfight anymore? And they did exactly that!

The new regulations change many things:

For starters killing the bull is now banned; something that many bullfighters will say is essential

It also bans injuring the bull in any way, which means that the use of the traditional barbed harpoons (banderillas), and lances (pica), both weapons used to wound and weaken the bull prior the kill, will now be prohibited

It reduces the time the bull will be in the arena from 20-30 minutes to 10

It reduces the number of bulls in a bullfight from six to three, which means that the entire bullfight will only last 30 minutes (and therefore unlikely to be cost effective for a bullfighting promoter)

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It bans the use of bulls under four years old, which means that a series of types of bullfights with young bulls (becerradas, novilladas, etc) will now be banned

It bans bullfights in mobile bullrings (like circuses)

Bullfights where the bull has not rested at least 48 hours after transport from mainland Spain will no longer be allowed

It also makes it compulsory to have a vet examine the bull after the event to ensure that it has not been hurt in any way

It bans the attendance of people under 18 years of age (a big deal for the industry as this is the only way they can recruit new aficionados)

And for good measure, they added a ban on the selling of alcohol!

Unsurprisingly bullfighters have already said that all these changes would make it impossible to stage cost effective bullfights in the islands anymore, which means that this regulation may turn out to be, in effect, a kind of "indirect" ban. eh?!

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Additionally, with this new law the Balearic Islands Parliament has also banned the use of wild animals in circuses and the cruel sport of pigeon shooting.. Quite good going...

What happens next? Of course there will be legal challenges, and the Spanish Constitutional Court will have to think hard if they want to find a way to try to stop this one, but this is quite a good move by the anti-bullfighting movement, because if it works and no more bullfights are staged in the islands, other devolved nations in Spain may try to do the same.

At the moment, we have three devolved nations within Spain with bans of different types, but still 15 more to go.... And then Portugal, France, Colombia, Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, USA and Mexico, all of them countries with very strong anti-bullfighting movements that have already won the support of the majority of the population.
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The last few days have seen a media frenzy over Liam Fox's comments on chlorinated chicken and whether or not the UK would allow the process, as part of a future UK-US trade deal, post Brexit.

As an MEP I have spent a large amount of time working on, and scrutinizing, the EU-US trade deal commonly known as TTIP. During this process I saw first-hand how far apart the EU and US are on key issues like food, environmental and animal welfare standards.

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The EU, negotiating as the single biggest economic block in the world, and on behalf of 500million potential new consumers for American business, were unable to get any major concessions from the Americans on these, and many other, key differences.

Does anyone think a post Brexit Britain, desperate for a trade deal after cutting ourselves off from our largest trading partner (the EU), will have more luck overcoming these hurdles? Or, will Liam Fox, David Davis and Boris Johnson bite Trump's hand off for whatever scraps are thrown our way?

This band of merry neo-liberal Brexiteers seem to think that trade deals are drawn up on the back of a fag packet and secured over a glass of whisky, a cigar and a hand shake. The reality is very different.

Trade deals involve compromise, they involve give and take, and they have winners and losers. If we want access to the American financial service industry we have to give them something in return. So what will that be? Chlorinated chicken is only the start and surely hormone-fed beef and genetically modified crops, both common in the U.S but currently banned under EU regulation, will follow.

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Chlorinated chicken is a fifth cheaper to produce than British chicken (mainly because US producers can bypass "farm to fork" hygiene protocols and just blast the end product with a chemical rinse). Therefore, if we allow it into the UK we will instantly be putting UK famers at a disadvantage. The same goes for other U.S agricultural products produced to a lower standard than those within the EU. The only logical next step would be to allow British farmers to use the same practices as their US counterparts in order to level the playing field.

My colleague Paul Brannen MEP, Labour's European spokesperson on Agriculture, has warned against this very approach: "If Britain has lower environmental or animal health standards then our food produce will simply be denied access to the EU market, our farmers' main external market. Farmers in our region adhere to extremely high standards, ensuring that our food is safe and of good quality. "Slashing regulations" could put livelihoods at risk."

The EU will not allow produce into the single market of a lower standard, and rightly so. If we want to dance with Donald Trump, and his chlorinated chicken, then we will have to do so at the expense of the trade relationship with our EU neighbours. Bearing in mind we sell 60% of UK agricultural produce to the EU this would be catastrophic for British farming.

It is also worth mentioning that food standards were not even the most controversial areas of discussion between the EU and US negotiators. The American medical industry would be delighted to get its hands on the NHS, along with other UK public services, and the U.S is also insistent on arbitration courts known as the Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) scheme - which sit outside of the normal legal system and allow large corporations to sue national governments, something that is fundamentally unacceptable in a free and open society.

What is of greater concern is that during the TTIP negotiations the current Conservative government actively supported ISDS and made very little objection to the inclusion of public services in the deal. Meanwhile, since the Brexit vote, Andrea Leadsom has talked about "slashing regulation" on farmers, Liam Fox has refused to rule out chlorinated chicken, Boris Johnson had told our EU allies to "'go whistle'" and Theresa May has taken every possible opportunity to ingratiate herself to Trump and avoided any criticism of him or his policies.

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Six months into 2017, the digital weather remains unsettled. Various crises brought occasional storms. Internet growth and innovation triggered a few sunny spells. The digital weather remains similar to the annual forecast for 2017 .

This mid-year review provides an analysis of the main policy trends. It is based on the GIP Digital Watch observatorys ongoing analysis of digital developments, summarised during the GIP briefings on the last Tuesday of every month and the Geneva Digital Watch newsletter.

For each of ten major trends, the number in brackets indicates their original ranking in January 2017. Each of the trends includes what to expect in Internet governance until the end of the year.

1. (10) Digital realpolitik: from values to interests

Realpolitik dominated digital policy since the start of the year. Interest and power came into sharper focus. Major actors are adopting bottom line positions on money or power.

Governments worldwide are taxing the Internet industry and imposing fines for monopoly practices. The Internet industry cannot be shielded any longer by the narrative of being a different part of the economy. Tax authorities are following the creation of value in the digital economy and looking for ways to increase tax income. From 1 July, Australia is applying a 10% goods and services tax on digital products and services from overseas that are bought in Australia. When they cannot tax directly, governments are tending to strike tax deals as Italy and Indonesia have done. In the anti-monopoly field, the major development was the European Commision fine of 2.42 billion against Google for non-compliance with EU antitrust rules.

The first six months reinforced the trend of shifting from global discussions towards bilateral deals and plurilateral arrangements (Figure 1). This trend is already noticeable in the area of cybersecurity, where the last two years saw a fast growth in bilateral agreements and plurilateral arrangements (e.g. G20 states agreeing not to conduct economic cyber-espionage against each other).

Figure 1. Rise in bilateral cyber agreements

As it is typical for any realpolitik, citizens are becoming less relevant in digital realpolitik. They are personally targeted in advertising and surveillance efforts by corporations and governments. Individuals per se are getting lost in big numbers. The individual is just one amongst billions of Facebook users, and just one amongst billions of contributors to Google searches. Governments are increasingly speaking about digital sovereignty and less about the empowerment of individuals. Citizens are becoming more and more the object of digital growth and less and less the engine behind it, as it has been since the early days of the Internet.

On a promising note, realpolitik provides a more realistic picture of interests and risks as well as winners and losers resulting from Internet developments. It is in this way that realpolitik can contribute to creating the basis for more solid and sustainable Internet development.

What to expect?

Governments are likely to continue striking deals with Internet companies in order to recuperate some taxes. The bilateral deals could be the building blocks for a more structured approach to revenues from the digital economy. Follow Taxation updates on the observatory.

We can also expect more bilateral, regional, and plurilateral deals, especially on cybersecurity and e-commerce. For example, some countries are arguing for a plurilateral deal on e-commerce at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires later this year.

2. (1) Cyber geopolitics: between conflict and cooperation

The cyber-driven tension between the USA and Russia has dominated cybersecurity discussions since the beginning of the year. Globally, ransomware attacks, and increasingly sophisticated attacks by cybercriminals, have been a major concern.

See more: Wikileaks discloses the CIA hacking arsenal. New ransomware infects hundreds of thousands of computers around the world.

The search for cyber stability and certainty continues. While cybersecurity has featured strongly in most international meetings, we are far from reaching concrete solutions that can properly address cybersecurity risks.



Global level

On the global level, the fifth UN GGE failed to achieve consensus on a final report at its last session in June. Questions, such as what options states might have to respond to cyber-attacks, and if and how to take the cybersecurity process further under the UN, remain open. It seems, however, that discussions are still on the table, and as the UN GGE Chair recently indicated, there are still some options to be explored towards a possible compromise.

See more: UN GGE: Quo Vadis? (Digital Watch newsletter, Issue 22, June 2017)

At the G7 summit, the Taormina communique does not mention cybersecurity explicitly, but refers to the leaders commitment to work together and with other partners to tackle cyber attacks and mitigate their impact on our critical infrastructures and the well-being of our societies.

Cyber issues achieved higher prominence at the G7 Foreign Ministers meeting (1011 April 2017, Lucca, Italy) which adopted two important documents. The first document, a Joint Communique, recognised the risks for critical infrastructure as well as for interference in democratic processes. It acknowledged the applicability of existing international law in cyberspace, including taking measures against wrongful acts, and invited states to publicly explain their views on how existing international law applies to States activities in cyberspace to the greatest extent possible. The second document, the Declaration on Responsible States Behavior in Cyberspace reminds states that international law also provides a framework for responses to attacks which are under the threshold of armed attacks. It underlines that the customary international law of State responsibility supplies the standards for attributing acts to States, which can be applicable to activities in cyberspace.

The G20 Leaders Summit in Hamburg, Germany (78 July 2017) that focused mainly on digital economy, also made reference to cybersecurity.

The Astana Declaration from the Summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (78 June 2017) reinforced a request for an international legal instrument in the field of cybersecurity.



National level

In the United States, President Trumps cybersecurity executive order (11 May 2017) highlighted three key strategies: moving government services to a cloud, implementing a set of cybersecurity best practices known as the NIST Framework, and developing plans for protecting critical infrastructure. The executive order was criticised, however, for not addressing key issues, such as the security of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, data breaches, or responsible disclosure of vulnerabilities  issues that could have a major impact on the global IoT market, and users around the world.

The international cyber strategy that the State Department was supposed to prepare by late September as part of the cyber executive order will likely be delayed after the announcements that the cyber office of the State Department might be downgraded, and that the US coordinator for cyber issues Christopher Painter is leaving his job.

In China, a new cybersecurity law came into force on 1 June 2017. The law has special provisions on countering cyberthreats, hacking, and terrorism. The main criticism was about requirements related to security reviews and data storage in Chinese territory that could discourage foreign companies from operating in China.



Bilateral and regional

Trends towards bilateral and regional cyber arrangements have continued. In addition to a growing number of bilateral cyber agreements, we observed an increasing dynamism at regional level in, for example, the OSCE, ASEAN Regional Forum, Organisation of American States, and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It remains to be seen how the shift from multilateral to bilateral/regional approaches will affect the Internet industry, which is global in its outreach and market approaches.



Private sector initiatives

A new shift in digital policy came from the private sector, which started supporting international conventions and rules. Microsoft proposed the adoption of a Digital Geneva Convention consisting of three main segments: the substantive rules, principles for the engagement of technical sector, and an attribution organisation for assigning responsibility for cyber-attacks. Google proposed new norms for providing digital evidence to foreign governments. This would allow law enforcement to request digital evidence directly from Internet companies, thanks to bilateral agreements with the USA, bypassing the need to go through the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT)  the traditional diplomatic channel for requesting international cooperation.

What to expect?

Discussions on the future of the UN GGE are wide open. In October, the First Committee of the UN General Assembly will discuss the next steps in global cybersecurity policy. The various proposals range between two major positions.

On one hand, mainly OECD countries will argue for continuation of the UN GGE work aimed at addressing how existing international law applies in the cyber domain. Even among OECD countries, there are divergent opinions on whether the UN should remain the main platform, or whether efforts should be invested in the coalition of likeminded to explore options of responding to breaching the agreed norms, as the USA suggests.

On the other hand, mainly Shanghai Cooperation Organisation countries will argue for the establishment of an open-ended working group aimed at, eventually, drafting an international cyber convention with the new rules. Positions are very divided and it is not clear if and how compromise solutions can be found.

On 23 and 24 November 2017, The Global Conference on Cyberspace (GCCS) in New Delhi, India, will address cybersecurity issues in a comprehensive way. The GCCS aims to act as a track-two dialogue, bringing together high-level representatives of states, the corporate sector, and civil society. The Indian government announced the following priorities for GCCS 2017: Goal of GCCS 2017 is to promote an inclusive Cyber Space with focus on policies and frameworks for inclusivity, sustainability, development, security, safety & freedom, technology and partnerships for upholding digital democracy, maximizing collaboration for strengthening security and safety and advocating dialogue for digital diplomacy. The GCCSs track-two process may be supported through the work of the newly inaugurated Global Commission on Stability of CyberSpace (GCSCS), which looks into facilitating research and discussions about the possible options for future dialogue.

Microsofts proposal for a Digital Geneva Convention triggered a larger debate by drawing a parallel to the traditional Geneva Conventions, which focus on the protection of the individual in times of war. These developments create a context for discussion on the ways in which Genevas expertise and experience can help to ensure human-centred digital growth. In the autumn, this topic will be in the focus of series of research and policy discussions which will lead up to the 12th Internet Governance Forum (IGF) (1821 December).

Follow at the GIP Digital Watch latest updates on the UN GGE, Cybersecurity, and Cyberconflict.

3. (8) Digital policy shaped by court decisions

In the first six months, a trend of courts-driven digital policy accelerated. Internet users and organisations increasingly referred to courts in the search for solutions to their digital problems. In the absence of rules customised to digital problems, judges are becoming de facto rule-makers in the field of digital policy.

Figure 2. Digital Justicia (Concept & design: DiploFoundation)

The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) has already played a prominent role in the rulings on the right to be forgotten, the Safe Harbour framework, and mass surveillance.

It will play a similar role with regard to the sharing economy around the Asociacion Profesional Elite Taxi vs Uber Systems Spain, S.L. case. On the main case, the question whether Uber is a transportation or an information society services company, the CJEUs Advocate Generals opinion is that Uber is a transportation company. The final ruling on the Uber case is expected in the autumn.

Courts worldwide are busy dealing with other digital issues. Courts in Austria requested Facebook to remove legally prohibited content not only in Austria but also worldwide. Courts in Canada and France requested Google to remove search results worldwide for legally prohibited content. It prompted Google to ask if it is fair and appropriate for the national authorities of any single country to decide what should be accessed in other countries beyond their jurisdiction.

What to expect?

The CJEUs decision on Uber will firmly establish whether the company is a transportation company. If the court upholds the Advocate Generals view, Uber and similar companies will have to obey all rules applying to, for example, taxi companies. We may also expect similar legal battles in other sharing economy sectors, such as rental and hotel businesses.

Check our Mapping Uber study as we update it with newer cases, and follow the latest updates on E-commerce, Jurisdiction, and Intermediaries.

4. (3) Content policy, fake news, and violent extremism content

Content policy has always been an important digital issue, impacting the role of intermediaries as gate-keepers and affecting basic human rights. In 2017, content policy debates have focused mainly on two areas: violent extremism content and fake news.

The need to combat violent extremism online exacerbated after terrorist attacks in recent years. Recent terrorist attacks in London and Manchester triggered major calls-for-action from governments. The Internet industry has come increasingly under fire for allowing the use of Internet platforms to spread violent extremism, and the recruitment and coordination of terrorist activities. The British Prime Minister called for new rules to deprive extremists of their safe spaces online, and the Australian Prime Minister requested Internet companies to react more promptly to requests from governments for access to encrypted information in the fight against terrorism and violent extremism.

See more: From October onwards, social media platforms with more than two million German users need to remove 'obviously illegal' content within 24 hours or risk a fine that could rise to 50 million.

In response to public pressure, several initiatives were created, such as joint campaigns by the UK and France, and initiatives by Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube.

See more: Internet companies join forces with French news organisations to combat 'fake news'; Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter, and YouTube form a Global Internet Forum to Counter Terrorism, collaborating with the ICT4Peace Foundation to establish the knowledge-sharing network techagainstterrorism.org. The UK and France launch a joint campaign to combat terrorist content. Facebook talks about using both AI and human expertise to tackle online terrorism content.

In addition to violent extremism content, last years US presidential election triggered concerns over the surge in fake news and its spread through online platforms. Despite the furore in the USA, debates on fake news have so far taken a backseat in other parts of the world.

What to expect?

Governments worldwide are likely to increase responsibility of Internet platforms for content they host. Some proposals argue that social networks should be regulated like traditional media, such as newspapers and TV stations. This would impose strict rules on Internet companies, which they oppose, insisting that they act as neutral information providers. Another approach is to use special fines against intermediaries that host extremist and fake news, as was recently introduced in Germany.

A broader and longer-term approach, discussed at a few IGF 2016 workshops, is to focus more on improving social media literacy, which would help Internet users to validate information and build a more solid public debate space. Discussions are expected to continue at the 12th IGF in December, and at other policy events throughout the year.

Follow the upcoming events, and our page dedicated to fake news.

5. (6) Digital commerce and Internet economy

Digital commerce discussions have surged since the beginning of the year in the World Trade Organisation and G20 among other policy spaces.

Under the German presidency, the Declaration of the first G20 Meeting of Digital Ministers, held in April in Dusseldorf, Germany, accompanied by a roadmap, focuses on expanding access and developing a better digital infrastructure, alongside efforts to improve digital skills. The priority issues regarding digital trade include how to quantify digital trade, how to develop international policy framework for digital trade, and how to address the needs of developing countries.

The importance of digital commerce for the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development was highlighted in discussions during the UNCTAD e-commerce week. Technical advances, such as 5G, and the digital growth framework around them, remain critical to fostering mobile commerce. In the first half of the year, the emphasis was also on innovative technologies, such as fintech and blockchain applications. The growth of virtual currencies (BitCoin, Ethereum) has opened new policy and regulatory issues.

Internet giants came under closer scrutiny for competition practices in the online marketplace. Google was fined by EU regulators at the end of a long investigation finding a violation of the antitrust rules in shopping services. Facebook was also fined for lack of compliance with the EU merger rules, after announcing that it would combine its user data with that of WhatsApp, that it acquired in 2014.

In a pre-emptive regulatory attempt, the World Committee on Tourism Ethics (WCTE), in collaboration with TripAdvisor, Minube, and Yelp, designed Recommendations on the Responsible Use of Ratings and Reviews on digital platforms.

What to expect?

Digital trade will continue to increase in relevance in preparation for the WTO Ministerial Conference, 1013 December 2017, in Buenos Aires. The tension remains between countries, mainly developing ones, which argue that it is premature to have more WTO rules on e-commerce, and mainly developed countries arguing that the growth of e-commerce must be supported by more robust WTO rules. These dynamics have shaped many digital trade discussions since the start of the year. An outcome of e-commerce discussion at the WTO Buenos Aires could be from, less likely, a full mandate to negotiate e-commerce roles via a plurilateral initiative to, most likely, the continuation of informal discussions on e-commerce leading towards developing an e-commerce roadmap in 2018.

In the EU, the digital single market is becoming one of the main engines for future integration. During Maltas EU presidency, roaming charges were removed. Estonia, who presides in the second half of 2017, will focus on free data flows across Europe.

Follow more updates on our dedicated pages: E-commerce, Taxation, and E-money and virtual currencies

6. (2) Encryption: security and privacy

Encryption remains in focus of debates in academic and policy circles. Although we did not experience any crisis on the scale of 2016 Apple/FBI crisis, governments continue to exert pressure on Internet companies to provide backdoor access to user data or to reduce levels of encryption. The Internet industry continues to resist. User data is the industrys main commodity, and losing user trust could endanger the business model (Figure 3). Some human rights organisations argue that the right to encrypt may be a derivative right of the basic human rights to privacy and freedom of expression.



Figure 3. Internet business model

In the first six months of 2017, the Internet industry started to look for more predictable and formal arrangements that would deal with governments requests for access to data in criminal investigations and the fight against terrorism. For example, Google proposed a new legal framework aimed at helping foreign governments to obtain digital evidence in a simpler, faster, and more organised way.

What to expect?

The pattern of increasing discussion after a major crisis and terrorist attack is likely to continue. It could lead towards developing national regulations that would request Internet companies to open a backdoor to access to encrypted communication. Faced with legal requirements and the risk of losing markets, Internet companies are likely to be more proactive in finding an acceptable compromise between using encryption for protecting privacy of users and answering requirements by investigators and security agencies.

This gradual evolution could be changed by a digital Titanic moment, a major global crisis triggered by a cyber-attack. Such a crisis could lead towards the adoption of new cybersecurity regulations analogous to what happened back in 1912, when the Titanic catastrophe led to fast adoption of the international regulation of radio-communication.

Follow the developments on our observatory: Encryption, and Privacy and data protection

7. (4) Powerful interplay: AI  IoT  Big data

The interplay among three technologies  artificial intelligence (AI), IoT, and big data (Figure 4)  has created a new dynamism since the start of the year.



Figure 4. Interplay between artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, and big Data

(for more information visit https://dig.watch/ai)

Major Internet companies that process significant amounts of data (such as Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft) have increased their efforts to become prominent players in the field of AI. In addition, they have numerous initiatives aimed at AI and public good. For example, Microsoft launched an AI for Earth initiative and a Research AI lab. Facebook is using AI to tackle online content related to terrorism. Google has been undertaking research on issues such as addressing privacy concerns in AI solutions.

Governments also have become more aware of the significant potential that AI and the IoT have for development, and are looking into ways to support the evolution of these fields. China, for example, who has long supported research in the field of AI, has recently released a national AI development plan, intended to make the country the world leader in the field by 2030.

As the interplay between AI, the IoT, and big data becomes increasingly powerful, concerns are also growing about its implications for the economy, social welfare, privacy, safety and security, and ethics, among others.

There are more and more calls for guidelines and even government intervention to set the scene for how such challenges could be addressed. In a rather alarming way, Tesla CEO Elon Musk told US governors that AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation, and that there should be proactive government intervention. While Musks views are seen by some as being too focused on future possible challenges rather than on current ones, he is not the only one asking for regulatory and legislative intervention.

In April, the UKs Royal Society called for careful stewardship of machine learning (the technology that allows AI to learn from data) to ensure that the dividends from [this technology] benefit all in the [...] society. A report issued in the same month by the International Bar Association Global Employment Institute argued that current labour and employment legislation needs to be adapted to an emerging AI-driven workplace. In June, researchers from the UK Alan Turing Institute published a paper stating that current regulations are not sufficient to address issues such as transparency and accountability in AI systems, and called for guidelines.

What to expect?

In 2017, the security and data implications of AI and IoT developments will be in focus for governments and industry (as already requested in the USA and planned by the EU). The main question is if industry standards and self-regulation will be sufficient to address the security challenges that the growth of AI and IoT open. If self-regulation will not be sufficient, it is very likely that governments will step in with liability regulation for IoT and AI, as they have done with cars, airplanes, and other technical devices that can endanger public safety.

Follow the updates on the observatory: Privacy and data protection, Internet of Things, Convergence, and AI trends

8. (5) Data governance and data localisation

Figure 5. Interdisciplinary data governance

Data has become a salient issue in digital policy, with the realisation that data is at the centre of our online interactions, Internet business models, and negotiations related to privacy rights (Figure 5).

In Europe, the main dynamics is around preparation for 28 May 2018 when the EUs General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) will become enforceable. Businesses and institutions are gearing up to bring their practices in line with the rules. Since the GDPRs applicability extends beyond the EUs shores for data of EU citizens wherever they are located, pressure is also mounting on companies and institutions in other regions, amid strong fears that one year is a major challenge to bring practices up to speed with the new requirements.

Data continues to shape the Internet business model. The motivations for data localisation  the practice which requires service providers and/or the data they store to be located within national borders  include protectionist trade policy, national security considerations, protection of citizens privacy, and politically driven filtering.

What to expect?

Data flow and risks of data localisation will be in the focus of Estonian EU Presidency (JulyDecember 2017). Throughout the rest of the year and in the first quarter in 2018, we can expect a major push  together with raised awareness  on the applicability of the GDPR and on how to get in line with the requirements.

Follow our updates: Privacy and data protection, Intermediaries, and Content policy.

9. (9) Connecting the dots among digital policy silos

Policy silos are becoming a major problem in developing effective digital policy. Namely, the multidisciplinary nature of digital policy (Figure 6) affects a wide range of policy areas beyond the digital sphere. For example, current discussions on data flows in the context of trade is both affected by and can affect human rights, security, and standardisation aspects of data policy. When it comes to human rights, the more privacy protection is requested, the less access to data for commercial purposes is possible.

Data flow is essential for national security and stability. For example, cutting access to Facebook or Google could affect the lives of millions with an enormous impact on social, political, and economic stability. Data standards specifying how data are used, stored, and exchanged can also affect the data-driven economy. Thus trade negotiations on data flow and e-commerce are not effective without taking into consideration human rights, security, and standardisation aspects of data policy. Similarly, the cross-silos policy impacts applies to most other digital policy issues.

For example, the IoT  previously tackled as a technological and economic issue  has received attention for its security vulnerabilities following recent cyber-attacks.



Figure 6. Multidisciplinary digital policy

There are ongoing discussions on ways and means to create interlinkages among different digital policy areas. The CSTD Working Group on Enhanced Cooperation addresses Internet public policy issues, including the question of their cross-cutting aspects. The Working Group will host the next meeting in September, on the way to submit its report in 2018.

The most evident need for overcoming policy silos is in the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs). The Internet, as a common element for all SDGs, could also play an important role in connecting the dots among various SDGs.

The interlinkages among digital policy issues and various SDGs was one of the topics at the second Multi-stakeholder Forum on Science, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals, 1516 May in New York; at the WSIS Forum, 1216 June in Geneva; and at the High-Level Political Forum on Sustainable Development, 1019 July, also in New York. The WTO Public Forum, to be held in Geneva, 2628 September, will most likely address Internet-related topics at their intersection with trade and commerce. At the end of the year, the 12th IGF will feature many discussions underlining the interconnections between the various Internet governance and digital policy issues.

What to expect?

Any action should recognise the reality that policy silos are here to stay. E-commerce is discussed in the WTO. Online privacy is discussed in the UN Human Rights Council. Standardisation issues are discussed in the Internet standardisation bodies. Starting from reality of policy silos, initiatives should focus on boundary spanners that will create the necessary linkages and convergences. Boundary spanners could emerge in various contexts from individuals and organisations that could link a few policy areas (e.g. trade and Internet governance) to nudging new processes (requesting multidisciplinary workshops at Internet governance forum) and supporting multidisciplinary research and information analysis. Follow the updates: SDGs and the Internet, and the Internet Governance Forum.

10. (7) ICANN after the IANA transition

ICANN has had a rather quiet time since the start of the year. This is a continuation of the trend that started with the completion of the IANA stewardship transition (1 October 2016), which transferred the supervision of the IANA functions from the US government to the global multistakeholder community. While the surface appears calm, the underlying tensions remain. As the entity responsible for the overall coordination of the domain name system (DNS), ICANN deals with the question of online identities (as reflected in top level domains  TLDs), which is likely to remain a controversial policy issue. In addition, ICANNs governance construct has numerous constructive ambiguities, which may remain constructive or turn into conflict and crisis (e.g. relations between the Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) and ICANNs Board).

Following the transition, the Cross Community Working Group on ICANN Accountability (CCWG-Accountability) has continued working on additional mechanisms to help ensure that ICANN is fully accountable to the global Internet community. The level of accountability will be perceived as a half-empty or half-full glass, depending on the views of various actors about ICANN.

The discussion on jurisdiction within the dedicated sub-group of the CCWG-Accountability focused on two main issues: relocating ICANN from California to a new jurisdiction, and providing total/partial immunity to ICANN. Reports from the most recent ICANN meeting show that it is unlikely that there could be a consensus position in the group on these issues, which probably means that the current status quo will be maintained.

We also said in January that ICANN would focus on new gTLDs over the year. This has proven to be the case at the first two ICANN meetings in 2017: ICANN58, 1116 March in Copenhagen, Denmark; ICANN59, 2629 June in Johannesburg, South Africa. And it shows that, after the lengthy IANA stewardship transition process, the organisation is now strongly re-focusing on its policy development work.

What to expect:

On the identity agenda, intense debates have already resurfaced over the .amazon gTLD. In 2014, the ICANN Board decided to reject the application for .amazon, submitted by the Internet company Amazon, owner of the trademark Amazon. The decision was made based on advice from the GAC, which objected to .amazon being delegated to the company. The objection relied on the view of countries of the Amazon River Basin, which have been arguing that the name and domain Amazon belongs to people and countries of the Amazon region.

On 11 July 2017, an Independent Review Panel (IRP) recommended that the ICANN Board re-evaluates the application for .amazon. This report will trigger a response by Amazon Basin countries and will lead to intensification of the discussions on several sensitive issues, such as the protection of geographical names and the relations between the GAC and the ICANN Board and the rest of the ICANN community. The ICANN Boards decision with regard to the IRP recommendation will be one of the major stress tests of the new ICANN governance architecture.

Discussions on jurisdiction-related issues will continue without clear consensus or compromise in sight. Considering the concerns raised by several governments at the recent ICANN meeting in Johannesburg, it is expected that the GAC will suggest broader cross-community discussions on these issues.

When it comes to ICANNs policy development processes, the topics that will likely be mostly debated in the upcoming months include registry and registrars compliance with the EU General Data Protection Regulation, the revision of the WHOIS policy (the so-called Next-Generation gTLD Registration Directory Services), and the review of the new gTLD programme.

Follow the updates: The new generic top-level domains | IANA transition and ICANN accountability | Domain Name System | Root zone

Follow-up

The GIP Digital Watch observatory will continue to provide comprehensive and just-in-time coverage of major Internet governance trends and events. A few tools can assist you in following the busy digital agenda.

Firstly, you can use DeadlineR  available on each event page  in order to ensure that you do not miss important deadlines prior to major events (submitting workshop proposals, registration, etc.). DeadlineR will remind you via e-mail about important deadlines.

Secondly, the Geneva Digital Watch newsletter will provide you with a monthly summary of major Internet governance and digital policy developments. You can subscribe to the GIP news mailing list to receive notifications about new issues of the newsletter.

Thirdly, on the last Tuesday of every month, at the monthly briefings, we give a zoomed-out update of the major digital developments from the previous month. Register and join us for the next monthly briefing on 29 August 2017.

What relevance do the 10 trends have in your region? Are there other trends that are more prominent in your country or region? Comments are welcome.

Source: https://www.diplomacy.edu/blog/ten-major-trends-internet-governance-2017-mid-year-review
Egyptian foreign minister Sameh Shoukry said on Thursday that the situation in Jerusalem could escalate if Israel continues to impose illegal security measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Shoukry made the comments in a speech at an urgent meeting of Arab FMs convened to discuss the situation in Jerusalem.

Shoukry said that Egypt has been in contact with the concerned parties to help defuse the tension.

The foreign minister said that Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah has asserted that Israel should guarantee the freedom of the Palestinian people to practice their religion as well as ensure the security of all holy places, especially Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Israel is provoking Arabs and Muslims around the world with the escalatory and illegal steps it has taken, Shoukry said, adding that Egypt stresses the importance of Israel abiding by the Geneva Conventions, which prohibit aggressive actions against places of worship.

"The continuation of the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories without a clear plan for peace based on the two-state solution will spread extreme frustration among Palestinians and will heavily impact the region," Shoukry said, adding that terrorist organisations will attempt to use this frustration to recruit youth in the Arab region.

Earlier on Thursday, Israeli forces removed all security measures that had been set up by occupation forces at Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem.

Shortly after, thousands of Palestinians convened at the mosque, which is considered the third-holiest site in Islam, with clashes erupting between Palestinians and Israeli forces. At least 100 Palestinian were reportedly injured in the clashes.

Last week, Israel closed the mosque to Palestinians for Friday prayers for the first time since Israel occupied Jerusalem in 1967, installing metal detectors and cameras at the entrance to the Haram Al-Sharif Compound following the killing of two Israeli policemen at the site.

Palestinians then boycotted the holy compound for three days in protest against the new security measures, preferring to pray outside the mosque in order not to pass through the metal detectors.

Confrontations and scuffles have erupted between Israeli occupation forces and Palestinians camping outside the holy site, leaving dozens of Palestinians injured by rubber bullets and tear gas.

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Updated: Wednesday, July 26, 2017 at 7 p.m.

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  Authorities have ruled that 39-year-old Celeste Kordana died from a blunt force trauma to the head. John Kordana, 53, died from asphyxiation and loss of blood from multiple superficial wounds.

John Kordana's injuries appear to be self-inflicted, according to District Attorney David Capeless' office. The autopsies were conducted on Wednesday by Associate Medical Examiner Robert Welton at the Holyoke Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.

The couple was found dead inside their Harryel Street home on Monday afternoon after Police were asked to do a well-being check. Firefighters were called to force entry into the home at about 2:50 p.m.

The district attorney's office had said on Tuesday that there was no indication that a third party was involved.

The investigation is being conducted by members of the Pittsfield Police Department with the assistance of State Police Detectives assigned to the Berkshire District Attorneys Office and troopers assigned to the Crime Scene Services Section.
Williamstown, North Adams Police Seek Reports of Stolen Jewelry

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.  Police are asking area residents to report recent losses of jewelry that may be connected to a North Adams woman who was arraigned on Wednesday.

Jessica Morgan, 30, of Gregory Avenue, was arraigned in Northern Berkshire District Court on one count of larceny over $250, Williamstown Police reported on Wednesday.

"On July 3, 2017, a Williamstown resident contacted the police department to report a significant amount of jewelry missing from her residence," the police news release read. "A subsequent investigation revealed that Morgan worked as a home health care worker in this home. It was later determined that jewelry matching the same description was pawned by Morgan.

"Unfortunately, a significant amount of the jewelry was later transferred and melted down prior to it being discovered missing."

Williamstown Police questioned Morgan in connection with the case, police said.

"This investigation prompted the report of similar larcenies from other area residences where Morgan worked," the police news release read. "A large amount of jewelry and property remain missing. The [Williamstown Police Department] is seeking public assistance with any additional reports or information regarding Jessica Morgan or missing or found jewelry."

Police ask anyone with information to contact either Sgt. Scott McGowan of the Williamstown Police at 413-458-5733 or Officer Josh Zustra of the North Adams Police at 413-664-4944.

"At this time, the investigation is continuing and at the conclusion, further criminal charges will be filed," McGowan said on Wednesday. "The majority of these crimes appear to be from April through July of 2017. However, I am also looking back as far as January of 2015."
The registered nurses at Berkshire Medical Center have been in difficult contract negotiations for months.

BMC Nurses Give Bargaining Committee Authority to Call Strike

PITTSFIELD, Mass.  The registered nurses at Berkshire Medical Center are willing to strike over what they say is chronic understaffing.

By Wednesday, more than two-thirds of nurses eligible to vote had said "yes" to give the bargaining committee the authority to call a one-day strike should it feel one is necessary. The vote was taken over two days, this week and last week. Should a strike be called, the hospital would have a 10-day notice.

"Berkshire Medical Center nurses are standing up together for our patients, our colleagues, and our community because we care," reads a statement from Alex Neary, co-chair of the local bargaining committee for the local chapter of the Massachusetts Nurses Association. "We have been working hard to negotiate a fair agreement with our hospital since last September. BMC has refused to be held accountable for safe nurse staffing levels that protect our patients, even as we have made numerous reasonable proposals and overwhelmingly rejected the hospital's 'best and final offer.' This strike authorization vote shows that BMC nurses are united for safe patient care." Hospital officials said they are disappointed with the results but should a strike occur, the hospital will remain focused on providing uninterrupted care. "We are naturally disappointed that the MNA has taken this action, but the results are not surprising given the union's record across Massachusetts in taking hospitals out on strike to support their statewide political agenda," BMC spokesman Michael Leary wrote in a statement Wednesday night. "In the event of a strike, Berkshire Medical Center is fully prepared to provide all services, procedures, and programs, uninterrupted. We have two additional sessions with the MNA currently scheduled and are hopeful that they will result in a final contract." Nurse Barbara Connor sits on the bargaining committee and called Wednesday's results a show of unity. She hopes the authorization will push the hospital closer to their position regarding staffing levels. "It means the nurses of BMC are united on their work to get safe staffing. Every nurse wants to do her job just as she is trained to do," Connor said. "We're hoping this will bring management back to the table." She believes the overwhelming yes vote is a sign that all of the nurses feel the same way about the issue. The vote set a record turnout, the union says, with 85 percent of the 627 eligible voters casting ballots; 83 percent of those voted yes. "I'm very proud the nurses participated the way they did," Connor said.

The union has been without a contract since September and has been involved in testy negotiations with the hospital for months.

The union had been pushing for fixed ratios for the number of nurses based on situations and times. The nurses say they have documented hundreds of occasions when low staffing levels have jeopardized patient care and say they've brought their concerns to the administration to no avail.

"Our nurses are telling BMC loud and clear to return to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair agreement," reads a statement from Gerri Jakacky, co-chair of bargaining committee, issued Wednesday night.

"BMC nurses care deeply for our patients. Hospital administrators know this and have taken advantage, routinely pushing nurses beyond our ability to provide safe patient care. Without enough RNs and other team members available, corners get cut, communication gets lost, and key aspects of patient care get missed. Patient and family education is sidelined. Call lights go unanswered. This is why BMC nurses are fighting for safe staffing  because we care."

At the latest bargaining session, on July 20, the union said it presented a proposal that moves away from fixed ratios and instead calls for language and other staffing changes such as having charge nurses in each unit operate without patient care assignments  freeing them up to lend a hand to other nurses and manage the unit.

"Safe staffing that protects patient care remains our top issue during negotiations ... BMC management said they needed more time to review the proposal and did not offer a counter," reads a statement from the bargaining committee on July 20.

"We are planning to negotiate again on Aug. 1. In the meantime, BMC nurses will complete our second and final day of a strike authorization vote next week. We are standing up for each other and our patients."

The hospital says the union's calls for "safe staffing" isn't so much a local issue but rather part of a statewide agenda, and part of a push for a memorandum ballot question in 2018.

BMC has already given the nurses what it calls its "best and final offer," which the nurses rejected via a vote. The administration argues that by putting fixed ratios into the contract, it takes away the flexibility in staffing. Hospital officials say the staffing office currently takes into account other staff, including doctors and specialists, who attend to patients.

The hospital's offer was to create a staffing committee that includes union officials and nurses to review data and make recommendations. That plan replicated suggestions from the American Nurses Association and had been used in other hospitals in the country to tackle staffing issues.

"It brings the leadership and the staff together on a regular basis, looking at data, and making decisions based on work environment, the population on the unit, the experience of the nurse, the other resources they have," Chief Operating Officer Diane Kelly said last week.

"I welcome their input. I think the voice of the nurse at the bedside is important to us. We do want to have a formal process in which we can hear that and discuss the data together, and they can understand our rationale and we can understand their rationale. We don't think this should just be by the book, one number, and that's it. We need flexibility but it would be better to come to that in a shared way."

Going into July 20, hospital officials were asking the union to reconsider the offer. Meanwhile, the nurses had already taken one day worth of voting on the strike authorization. The negotiations have been difficult and has included an informational picket and accusations being hurled both ways.

The nurses filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board against the hospital and Vice President of Human Resources Arthur Milano. The complaint alleges that Milano sent a letter "misrepresenting" the consequences of a strike and threatening an additional four days of lockouts, halting health insurance coverage, and more, as well as "implying that the charging party [the union] would deliberately miscount the votes so that a strike could occur even though a majority of the nurses did not vote to do so."

Hospital officials say the letter followed the law and the current contract.

Should there be a strike, the hospital has a plan to bring in replacement nurses. That is similar to what happened with strikes at Tufts and Baystate hospitals, when nurses each held a strike.

The union says a hospital can't run without registered nurses and a strike is a piece of strength the workers have.

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The Public Arts Commission met Tuesday at the Eclipse Mill.

North Adams Arts Commission Urges Bridge Artists Work Together



The Public Arts Commission is urging the community arts group that created the mill children murals to work with the museum. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  The Public Arts Commission is asking both sets of artists whose work is under the Veterans Memorial Bridge to find some kind of compromise.

Two months ago, community-sponsored murals on the bridge's pillars were painted over by Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art to restore a previous work, "Harmonic Bridge."

Both pieces predate the establishment of the commission and neither had more than a verbal agreement with city. Nor did the museum approach the commission for permission to paint over the murals, despite applying for two other works on city property.

On Tuesday, the community group's application to test the pillars to see if its works could be restored was rejected.

"Three wrongs don't make a right," Commissioner Eric Kerns said in trying to encourage the artists to partner.

William Oberst, the lead artist on the community effort several years ago, submitted an application  based on the commission's advice  to test a patch of one of the pillars to see if the artwork underneath could restored. He also supplied a budget and scope of work for restoration that he estimated at $1,200, with the inspection by a conservationist at $200 to $400.

The murals of textile patterns and mill children had been treated with a top coat to protect them and the community artists believe it may be possible to remove the gray top coat applied by Mass MoCA.

"The restorer will, I assume, take some solvent and apply it to the column ... that's the first phase," Oberst said. "If it doesn't work, it's a moot point, this entire project."

Oberst also said museum director Joseph Thompson was trying to put together a meeting with the community artists and "Harmonic Bridge" artists Bruce Odland and Sam Auinger, a point he'd raised at the last meeting.

He said Thompson has seemed sympathetic to the community work and thought the sound artists would be amenable to changes.

Larry Smallwood, Mass MoCA's deputy director, however, asked that the commission "work with us to find a new place for this work to exist."

"What I'm hearing is you saying other people's views," Kerns said to Oberst, and that he was hearing something completely different from Smallwood.

He also pushed Oberst to provide data to back up at statement on his application that said the artwork helped draw visitors toward the downtown. Oberst said the feedback had been anecdotal but felt the work was an attraction.

Commissioner Nancy Ziter cautioned that the commission had no money to aid the group, and that the total application could not be approved. In her mind, the group was asking permission to do a test sample to see if the restoration was feasible.

"How big does it have to be?" she asked, because the sample size was not in the application. Oberst said a 2-inch square, based on his own expertise.

Ziter asked that the person doing the testing provide the size; Commissioner Gail Sellers motioned that the commission approve the testing with a condition it not be more than 6 inches square. That motion failed with only Ziter voting with her.

Chairwoman Julia Dixon sided with Kerns in believing that any application related to either work be submitted by both groups of artists.

"There are two different artworks on these pillars," she said. "It should come from both of you."

Sellers felt Oberst and his group had been misled because the commission had told him to make an application since it had authority over any art on the bridge. Kerns thought the situation was too complex to right with a single applicant.

Resident Vincent Melito, from the audience, thought the onus was on Mass MoCA to fix the situation, including paying for any test or restoration.

Dixon said the group needed to come back with something from Mass MoCA, "which is your partner, for better or worse."

The controversy had been dumped in the lap of a commission still feeling out its role in the city's heirarchy. The commissioners spent about a half-hour discussing their relationship with other commissions and city boards  both the Parks & Recreation and Airport commissions had recently approved "ornamentations" that could be construed as falling under the art commission's purview. Or at least worth notifying the commission of their decisions. And other projects are being publicly discussed that have yet to make their way to the commission.

Some members thought it may be a case of the commission not being known or its mission understood.

One option, they decided, was to have the mayor's office send a letter from the commissioners introducing them to other boards. Nixon also thought it important to develop a cultural plan with a list of priorities to better communicate its mission, and possibly promote its own public art project.

They talked about sounding out local businesses and organizations to develop partnerships for creating or supporting public art projects. That way, said Kerns, the commission would not have to deal with funds.

"We're here to help facilitate and I think having an idea is great but a lot of people don't know we exist," Sellers said. "We need to get out and say we're a resource and can be a facilitator. There are artists out there who can write grants and we can support them."

The commission had lobbied for an amendment last year to give it more authority on supporting art, rather than just overseeing inventory and contracts. Members thought the commission should be more proactive in line with those changes.

"We need to do something so the community knows we exist," said Vice Chairwoman Erica Manville.
Thread Ensemble of Boston is the convergence of three musicians: Abigale Reisman and Rachel Panitch on violins, and Andria Nicodemou on vibraphone and percussion.

Downstreet Art July Event Features Performances, Exhibits, Bike Ride



Like Riding a Bicycle Library, photo by Brett Hunter. NORTH ADAMS, Mass.  DownStreet Art returns on Thursday for its July events.

A program of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts' Berkshire Cultural Resource Center, the arts fest will feature a variety of musical performances, new art exhibitions, and a community bike ride.

Thread Ensemble of Boston is the convergence of three musicians: Abigale Reisman and Rachel Panitch on violins, and Andria Nicodemou on vibraphone and percussion. Thread formed via an Ensemble Fellowship at New England Conservatory's Community Performances and Partnerships Department in 2012. They will perform original, improvised compositions created in the moment through the use of listeners' experiences.

BOOM Music Stage performers will be The Matchstick Architects and Heart of Gold. Heart of Gold is an acoustic emo project started at MCLA in 2010 by Devan Gardner and wife Brittany Gardner, of Pittsfield.

The Matchstick Architects perform blend of country, blues, folk, jazz and Americana, influenced by an eclectic mix of artists ranging from Lucinda Williams and Aimee Mann to purveyors of the American indie scene, such as The Decemberists. The band is fronted by Dar Maloney (Pleasant Valley, N.Y.) on guitar and lead vocals, and features Tom Conklin (Pittsfield) on lead guitar. DiDi Davis (Barkhamsted, Conn.) plays the six-string bass, and Dave Willey (Becket) plays the drums.

Local writer and rapper Seth Brown also will perform freestyle raps. These raps will be created spontaneously and originally, based largely on suggestions from the people inhabiting the public space of the performance. Freestyle improvisation brings engagement on multiple levels, through rhyme, through freestyle, and through direct interaction.

Katie Hargrave and Brett Hunter will present their Like Riding a Bicycle residency project and performance July 24-27 with events, interviews and a group bike ride.

The aim of this project is to create a convivial space for neighbors to learn from each other and respect each other, to explore the unseen resources of personal knowledge while participating in a lighthearted activity.

Also outdoors, completed parklets will be on display. Inside the galleries, an opening will be held at MCLA Gallery 51 for "3 Second Stories," the work of flipbook artist Tom Olson.

On the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art campus, a site-specific sound installation by Cuban artist Mabel Poblet, in collaboration with composer Andres Levin, "Cynthia-Reeves" will be on display. The Ferrin Contemporary will feature selected work by Kurt Weiser, rhythmical black-and-white designs on large-format linoleum cut prints and ceramic forms, as well as Sergei Isupov's larger-than-life figural sculptures and smaller works.

The Eclipse Mill Gallery is featuring "Sound Machines," which showcases unique, handmade instruments made by local, regional and national artists and luthiers. This group show was curated by Julia Dixon.

At the Berkshire Art Museum is "Volume," a group sculpture exhibition that includes the work of 30 artists.

DSA Thursday events will continue on Aug. 31 and Sept. 28.
Algerian security forces have foiled a "terrorist plot" masterminded by a militant with links to France-based jihadist Amedy Coulibaly and the Islamic State group, the Al-Khabar daily reported Thursday.

Citing "well-placed security sources", the newspaper said early results of an investigation "show a strong link between the head of the terrorist cell" and Coulibaly, who in 2015 killed a municipal police officer then four hostages in a Jewish supermarket in Paris before being killed.

The alleged head of the Algerian cell, Mohamed Yacine Aknouche, was sentenced by a French court in 2004 to eight years in prison for taking part in a failed plan to blow up a Christmas market in the eastern city of Strasbourg.

The French-Algerian dual national was arrested Tuesday along with a minor and a third person whose identity has not been revealed, in Ain Tagourait, 60 kilometres (40 miles) west of Algiers, Al-Khabar said.

During a raid on Aknouche's apartment, security forces found "dozens of photos" of places he was hoping to attack, including army installations, it said.

Algerian security forces are "trying to determine the type of relationship" between Aknouche and Coulibaly after discovering electronic conversations between the two men, Al-Khabar said.

It said the investigation had uncovered a link between Aknouche and "murderous attacks in European countries... committed by Daesh", an Arabic acronym for IS group.

Algerian authorities declined to give AFP further details.



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Huge fires that forced mass evacuations of residents and holidaymakers in southern France were being brought under control Thursday, firefighters said, although they warned new blazes were still starting.

As firefighters in France fought for a fourth day to put out the flames, the situation was improving in central Portugal where fires had raged across large areas of tinder-dry forest on Wednesday.

Parts of southern Europe are experiencing a scorching summer, leaving forests and bushland highly vulnerable to fire.

In the French village of Bormes-les-Mimosas, near beaches popular with tourists on the Cote d'Azur, fires that led to the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight Tuesday were largely extinguished.

"The fire is not completely under control but we are winning the fight," said Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Bernier, the civil security officer leading the emergency effort in the village.

"Things are going in the right direction but new fires are starting caused by gusts of wind," he said.

Of those forced to flee, 1,500 spent a second night in emergency accommodation centres in Bormes-les-Mimosas and hundreds of people chose to sleep on the beach rather than return to their campsites.

Miguel Goncalves, a 30-year-old Portuguese tourist who spent the night on the beach, told AFP: "We had not planned for this, but it is not too serious. The most important thing is not to be in danger."

In the neighbouring Bouches-du-Rhone region, three major fires were also under control or being dampened down on Thursday, firefighters told AFP.

Authorities remained on high alert, fearing that new blazes could start in the hot, dry conditions, fanned by the strong Mistral wind.

"In such dry conditions, we really fear that fires could start again," one firefighter said.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe visited an emergency shelter in Bormes-les-Mimosas on Wednesday and paid tribute to the efforts of firefighters.

Over 6,000 troops, soldiers and civil security officials are involved in efforts to put out the flames, backed up by 19 planes that have made more than 500 drops of water on the burning trees and bushes.

"It is an extremely intense use of both material and human resources," Philippe said.

Italy responded to France's call for help, sending a water-bombing plane which began work on Thursday.

More than 7,000 hectares of pine forest and bushes have been burned in southern France and on the island of Corsica.

The population of France's Cote d'Azur swells massively in July and August as millions of holidaymakers flood in.

The area is experiencing a particularly hot and dry summer that has made it especially prone to fires.

Authorities are investigating whether some of the blazes were started deliberately.

Experts say said a drop-off in farming in southeast France since the 1970s has allowed forests and wild areas of bush to proliferate, making the region more prone to fires.

An increase in the numbers of homes, roads and power lines has also increased the risk of fires.

Portugal was also battling forest fires that cut off roads in the centre of the country and forced thousands to flee just a month after deadly blazes left more than 60 people dead.

More than 3,000 firefighters -- more than a quarter of the country's total -- helped bring the fires under control, focusing their efforts on the biggest blaze in Serta, in the Castelo Branco region.

A village of 2,000 people was evacuated on Wednesday after fast-moving flames licked at its outskirts, but firefighters said the situation was under control 24 hours later.

"The weather is still against us and we remain on alert even in the areas where the fires have been brought under control," said Patricia Gaspar, spokeswoman for the civil protection authorities.

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Russian President Vladimir Putin has appointed veteran diplomat Vasily Nebeznya as the country's new ambassador to the United Nations.

Nebeznya's appointment, to replace Vitaly Churkin, who died in February, had been expected for months. The decree formally naming him as ambassador was published on the Kremlin website on Thursday.

Nebeznya had been a deputy foreign minister since 2013. He previously was an adviser to Russia's UN delegation and deputy Russian representative at the UN office in Geneva.

State news agency RIA-Novosti quoted him as saying that in his new post, "I have hopes that the fog will dissipate and settle, and then many of the things for which they are trying to nail Russia to the pillar of shame will appear completely otherwise."

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28 July marks World HCV day, as declared by the World Health Organization (WHO). Experts gathered ahead of the occasion to shed more light on the virus in Egypt and call for more social awareness

Related Egypt launches new program to test and treat Hepatitis C in recovered drug addicts

Dr Fatima Nassar, professor of Clinical Immunology at the Cancer Institute, said at a press conference yesterday that treating up to 328,000 patients with Hepatitis C each year starting 2018 could reduce the spread of infection by 94 percent and liver-related deaths by 75 percent by 2030.

With ongoing efforts in Egypt, we can even surpass these numbers, Nassar said, referring to efforts by the government in recent years that saw Egypt gain global recognition for its fight against Hepatitis C, with the World Health Organization (WHO) celebrating World Hepatitis C Day in Cairo in 2015.

The press conference was held in Cairo on 26 July  two days ahead of World Hepatitis C Day  by several medical organisations from the private sector, as well as the regional office of the World Hepatitis Alliance, an NGO that works with governments and other key partners to raise awareness of viral hepatitis and advocate the elimination of stigma around the disease in some societies.

Egypt has the highest prevalence of the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) in the world, according to the WHO. In 2015, it was recorded that every year sees 170,000 to 200,000 new HCV cases in Egypt.

A number of Egyptian companies have started manufacturing medications similar to Sovaldi, which increases chances of survival for those infected by 90 percent. This started three years ago when Gilead Sciences worked to provide the drug for one percent of its market price.

With the increased availability of the drug, the challenge has become to diagnose those infected and increase awareness.

Dr Ammal Mokhtar, regional director of the World Hepatitis Alliance in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, highlighted the importance of awareness.

"In collaboration with the Ministry of Health, we toured many villages in Egypt to shed light on the importance of early detection, and we talked to women and children, dedicating several animated films to the latter in order to address the issue in the simplest way possible."

Mokhtar stressed that in many remote places in Egypt, stigma still prevails, and people are confused about how to handle someone with the virus.

"We explain that HCV is transmitted through blood, and is spread through many practices that are conducted carelessly, such as the circumcision of kids. But we stress that food, drink and sexual interaction do not spread the virus, which is a common misconception."

Mokhtar explained that although breakthroughs have been made, challenges still remain.

"Despite the reduction of the virus from 14.6 percent in 2008 to 7.5 percent in 2015 for the age group 15 to 60, it is still considered one of the highest rates in the world, especially in rural areas," she said.

It is important to point out that screening is the only way to detect Hepatitis B and C, and the chances of success for the treatment of virus C depend on periodical testing and early treatment.

Nassar told media representatives that the media is the key to reaching a wider audience.

Nassar added that people should also understand that although a cure is possible with currently available drugs, these medications do not provide immunity, and re-infection can occur.

We are calling on people to conduct tests periodically, depending on their profession and circumstances. For example, those undergoing treatment by dialysis are more prone to infection than others.

Nassar, who heads El-Borg  one of the most prominent laboratories in the field of HCV testing  shed light on the latest statistics from the facility revealing the lack of awareness in some of Egypt's rural areas, especially in Upper Egypt.

"Over 450,000 Egyptians have undergone Hepatitis C screening tests across the labs branches throughout 2016-2017. The vast majority of those who took the tests (46 percent) are aged 25 to 45, and 36 percent are between the ages of 46 and 60. Thirty-seven percent were from the Delta region, while Cairo represented 35 percent. Eighteen percent were from Upper Egypt and 10 percent were from Alexandria.

There is a need to spread awareness outside the major cities to encourage more individuals to undergo early detection tests, Nassar concluded.

Mokhtar also said that the media needs to urge more people to test for HCV.

"Unfortunately, only 10 percent [of the overall population] are tested, and HCV has no vaccination and its symptoms could be mistaken for any common illness, until the matter deteriorates, Mokhtar said.

"We call on the media to help make people more aware of the importance of early testing, and to encourage citizens to adopt the correct lifestyle, including maintaining high hygiene standards, using medical facilities that ensure proper sterilisation, and taking the vaccine for HBV to avoid the problem of combined infection, which aggravates the matter further."

The WHO defines Hepatitis C as "a blood borne virus, and the most common modes of infection are through unsafe injection practices, inadequate sterilisation of medical equipment, and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products."

At least 12 million Egyptians suffer from HCV, the Egyptian health ministry said last year.

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A woman described as the most influential book critic in the English-speaking world, is stepping down because she wants to instead write about politics and culture under the administration of Donald Trump.

After 38 years at the New York Times, Michiko Kakutani has decided to step down as the newspapers chief book critic.

Ms Kakutani began her career at the paper in 1979 as a reporter covering cultural news. Vanity Fair - which broke the news of her stepping down - said she was by a wide margin, the most powerful book critic in the English-speaking world.

But Ms Kakutani has made clear she has no plans to stop writing. Rather, she wants to write more about culture and politics under the presidency of Donald Trump.

My gratitude & thanks to the NYT, she said on Twitter. Moving on to focus on longer pieces about politics & culture, though I will always love & write about books.

Hundreds of Rare and Forbidden Masonic Books Auctioned Off in Moscow

The critic was apparently feared by many authors who believed a review Ms Kakutani could make or break their reputation. Among those writers she helped to bring to national and international attention, were Brett Easton Ellis, David Foster Wallace, George Saunders and Zadie Smith - the latter whom Ms Kakutani described as a preternaturally gifted new writer.

Yet she was not afraid to criticise some of the literary worlds biggest names, among them Gore Vidal and Norman Mailer, who were both infuriated by her.

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The changing of the guard among critics at the New York Times is always a momentous occasion, but in the world of letters, it is hard to imagine a more seismic change than this one, the newspaper said in a press release.

Ms Sehgal is joining the paper's team as a critic (New York Times ) (New York Times)

After 38 years at the Times, Michiko Kakutani has decided to step down as chief book critic. It is with profound gratitude for her tremendous service to readers of the Times and readers of books everywhere that we take a moment to recognise her remarkable contributions over the past four decades.

Executive Editor Dean Baquet wrote in a memo to staff: No one has played a larger role in guiding readers through the country's literary life over the past four decades than Michi.

Meanwhile, the paper also announced that Parul Sehgal, a senior editor and columnist, is joining as a book critic. We are thrilled to welcome Parul as a new voice on fiction and nonfiction in our daily report, joining our superb team of critics, the paper said.
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The worlds most destructive mud volcano was born near the town of Sidoarjo, on the island of Java, Indonesia, just over 11 years ago  and to this day it has not stopped erupting.

The mud volcano known as Lusi started on May 29, 2006, and at its peak disgorged a staggering 180,000 cubic metres of mud every day, burying villages in mud up to 40 metres thick.

The worst event of its kind in recorded history, the eruption took 13 lives and destroyed the homes of 60,000 people. But although the mud is still flowing more than a decade later, scientists are not yet agreed on its cause.

The debate is whether the eruption of Lusi was due to an earthquake several days previously, or down to a catastrophic failure of the Banjar Panji 1 gas exploration well that was being drilled nearby at the time.

Given the huge impact of the volcano on the communities nearby and the fields that were their livelihoods, why are we still unsure of the cause?

Mud volcanoes are extremely common on Earth, with thousands of examples known worldwide.

They come in many shapes and sizes and behave a little like their molten-rock counterparts, going through long periods of inactivity with periodic violent eruptions. Mud volcanoes, however, spew out not molten hot lava from the Earths mantle, but usually a cold mixture of gas, water and solids.

Nasa false colour image, where red represents vegetation in fields, of Sidorajo town in 2004, before Lusis eruption (Nasa)

Some of the most spectacular examples of mud volcanoes are in Azerbaijan where they can range from a few metres across to the size of a small mountain. They are commonly found at tectonic plate boundaries, and also underwater at river deltas where sediment is buried rapidly, causing unusually high pressures to build up underground. The muddy mix is also pushed to the surface by the buoyant gas it contains. Usually mud volcanoes grow slowly, through layer upon layer of mud. What happened in Sidoarjo in 2006 is unique, with Lusi by far the fastest growing mud volcano we know of, having drowned surrounding houses, factories, places of worship and schools in a foul-smelling, emulsion-like mud.

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Getty Science news in pictures Over 400 species discovered this year by Natural History Museum The ancient invertabrate worm-like species rhenopyrgus viviani (pictured) is one of over 400 species previously unknown to science that were discovered by experts at the Natural History Museum this year PA Science news in pictures Jackdaws can identify 'dangerous' humans Jackdaws can identify dangerous humans from listening to each others warning calls, scientists say. The highly social birds will also remember that person if they come near their nests again, according to researchers from the University of Exeter. In the study, a person unknown to the wild jackdaws approached their nest. At the same time scientists played a recording of a warning call (threatening) or contact calls (non-threatening). The next time jackdaws saw this same person, the birds that had previously heard the warning call were defensive and returned to their nests more than twice as quickly on average. Getty Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the Goldilocks Zone which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal Ye et al/Current Biology Science news in pictures Elephant poaching rates drop in Africa African elephant poaching rates have dropped by 60 per cent in six years, an international study has found. It is thought the decline could be associated with the ivory trade ban introduced in China in 2017. Reuters Science news in pictures Ancient four-legged whale discovered in Peru Scientists have identified a four-legged creature with webbed feet to be an ancestor of the whale. Fossils unearthed in Peru have led scientists to conclude that the enormous creatures that traverse the planets oceans today are descended from small hoofed ancestors that lived in south Asia 50 million years ago A. Gennari Science news in pictures Animal with transient anus discovered A scientist has stumbled upon a creature with a transient anus that appears only when it is needed, before vanishing completely. Dr Sidney Tamm of the Marine Biological Laboratory could not initially find any trace of an anus on the species. However, as the animal gets full, a pore opens up to dispose of waste Steven G Johnson Science news in pictures Giant bee spotted Feared extinct, the Wallace's Giant bee has been spotted for the first time in nearly 40 years. An international team of conservationists spotted the bee, that is four times the size of a typical honeybee, on an expedition to a group of Indonesian Islands Clay Bolt Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal New Mexico Museum of Natural History Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold Faye Levine, University of Maryland Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males Getty Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase Getty Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies Getty/AFP Science news in pictures Nobel prize for laser physicists The nobel prize for physics has been awarded to three physicists working with lasers. Arthur Ashkin (L) was awarded for his "optical tweezers" which use lasers to grab particles, atoms, viruses and other living cells. Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou were jointly awarded the prize for developing chirped-pulse amplification of lasers Reuters/AP Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn" Viktor Radermacher / SWNS Science news in pictures Birth of a planet Scientists have witnessed the birth of a planet for the first time ever. This spectacular image from the SPHERE instrument on ESO's Very Large Telescope is the first clear image of a planet caught in the very act of formation around the dwarf star PDS 70. The planet stands clearly out, visible as a bright point to the right of the center of the image, which is blacked out by the coronagraph mask used to block the blinding light of the central star. ESO/A. Muller et al Science news in pictures New human organ discovered that was previously missed by scientists Layers long thought to be dense, connective tissue are actually a series of fluid-filled compartments researchers have termed the interstitium. 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NASA false colour image, where red represents vegetation in fields, from 2008 showing containment banks around Lusis mud flow that has destroyed part of Sidorajo town. NASA/ASTER

Drilling or earthquake?

The journal Marine and Petroleum Geology is publishing a special issue that examines the ways this amazing phenomena is developing. It includes one paper by geoscientists Stephen Miller and Adriano Mazzini ([More than ten years of Lusi: A review of facts, coincidences, and past and future studies) that exhumes the debate of what caused the eruption, offering strong support for the earthquake as the trigger and dismissing the idea the borehole was responsible.

The explanation implicating the drilling is that water from surrounding bedrock entered the 2,834 metre-deep Banjar Panji 1 well, which for its lowest 1,743 metres was unprotected by steel and cement casing. The pressure the water exerted was enough to fracture surrounding rock or pre-existing faults. Mixing with underground mud from the Kalibeng Formation, which makes up part of Javas geology, this pressurised water and mud rushed to the surface through a fault, forming the Lusi mud volcano just 200 metres from the drilling site.

The alternative explanation is that despite its proximity the drilling well was coincidental, and that the 6.3 magnitude Yogyakarta earthquake on May 27, 260km away had sent vibrations into the Kalibeng Formations mud layer, causing it to liquefy and rise to the surface under pressure.

A town lies under layers of mud

That earthquakes can trigger eruptions has been documented as far back as Plinys Encyclopedia in the first century. Its also the case that the eruption started as a series of small eruptions, all aligned along a geological fault, so the role of the earthquake certainly deserves full consideration. But in comparison with other eruptions triggered by earthquakes such as in Azerbaijan, Pakistan and California, the Yogyakarta earthquake was very far away given its size. More compelling still is that there have been bigger and closer earthquakes that have not triggered eruptions, while other earthquakes have caused greater shaking and vibrations right at the site of Lusi, yet nothing happened on those occasions. If the earthquake caused liquefaction we would expect to see the widespread release of gas from the liquefied layer  but a study by Mark Tingay and colleagues in 2015 showed this did not happen.

The well was drilled by the Indonesian company PT Lapindo Brantas, which blamed the earthquake. Information on the borehole was passed to us at the time, which showed there was an influx of water that we estimated was sufficient to cause the rocks around the uncased borehole to crack. So the new paper by Miller and Mazzini doesnt bring any new information or reasoning to the debate, which will now probably remained mired unless new data from the borehole or from the critical period at the end of May 2006 comes to light, and this is unlikely.

Distinguishing between two hypotheses for a unique event can be a challenge. We cannot go back in time and collect the ideal set of data and samples to test the hypotheses, nor can we make direct comparisons with other similar phenomena for which we know the cause. There are other major disasters that we still cannot be certain had a man-made cause, such as earthquakes potentially triggered by filling dams with water.

In the case of Lusi, we very strongly favour the argument that the drilling was responsible, but neither of us were at the site of the incident almost two kilometres underground at the time to witness it, and more than ten years on its clear the data and reasoning behind our argument have yet to convince everyone.

Richard Davies is a pro-vice chancellor for engagement and internationalisation, Newcastle University, Michael Manga is a professor of earth and planetary sciences, University of California, Berkeley. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)
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If you like beer or wine, probably dont bother visiting bartender Tom Zyankalis cocktail bar, which is one of the oldest in the German capital of Berlin. But if chicken skin and fermented fish are up your street, read on.

Zyankali first found himself behind a bar in 1978 when he says he was studying "RocknRoll dance", when he poured drinks at Sunday afternoon parties to fund his studies. By 1991, hed completed a degree in chemistry and worked as a chemical engineer. He was bored. Bored of his job and bored of the bar scene. So, he opened his own joint. Long before themed pop-ups, he filled his bar with test tubes and scientific equipment like liquid nitrogen cannisters.

At that time, there were just stiff hotel bars or pubs virtually. I wanted a quality drink in a student bar atmosphere where one should feel like in ones extended living room and having more than just a beer, he tells The Independent.

Fermented fish, blue cheese, chicken skin: its all on the menu at Zyankali Bar in the bohemian Kreuzberg neighbourhood. Zyankali says his background in science gave him the edge on other bartenders at a time when they were playing about with old fashioneds and mojitos.

Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Show all 9 1 /9 Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures Zyankali's bar in Berlin - In pictures

Meanwhile, Zyankali barrel-ageing cocktails. And fat-washing drinks. This is where liquid like melted butter or oil is mixed into a cocktail at room temperature. The cocktail is then chilled, and the fat is skimmed off the top: leaving behind a rich flavour.

With the renaissance of bar culture in the last 10 to 15 years came a lot of modern techniques, many of them derived from techniques used in laboratories.

My education gives me the advantage of understanding the physics and basic science, so by understanding how things work I can have an influence on it in opposition to most of my colleagues who have to rely on trial and error.

Zyankali claims the skills hes honed over the past three decades mean he can make guests the perfect drink by having a quick chat about their favourite food, perfume, or holiday destination. OK, so, how about someone who likes peanuts and sushi?

I would go for the ginger and horseradish from the sushi, add some kaffir lime and or lemongrass. Not having a peanut liquor I'd use a little bit of Frangelico and a caramelly rum like Gosling Gold Seal, probably balanced with a little bit of pineapple, so we end up with something like a Tom Yum. Straight from our menu I'd suggest a Tamarotti with tamarind and date chutney, chili-balsamico, white chocolate, dark rum, carrot juice.

When Zyankali is able to play with so many flavours, its understandable why he hates wine and beer.

In a cocktail bar drinking beer and wine is just missing the point," he argues. "A cocktail bar should be about experiencing complex and sometimes unexpected flavour combinations and not just quench thirst. If you want to spend a cheap evening out you're better off in a pub or a wine bar. He doesnt even like the taste, he adds.

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What he does enjoy, however, is rum- or brandy- Manhattans. "In the summer I like a refreshing New York Sour. If I'm in danger of catching a cold I love to have a hot Dark and Stormy."

Lime juice, meanwhile, is the ingredient he can't live without. I also work quite a lot with absinthe and I'm a big fan of aged cachacas since they are allowed to age in more than 25 different woods, which gives it flavours no other spirit has."

His parting words of advice for anyone tempted to open their own experimental bar? "If you are working with laboratory techniques be aware of scientifically knowing what you want and do. If you dont have a proper education (and I dont mean a four hour workshop or a two week class at community school) stay away from liquid nitrogen, rotoray evaporators and centrifuges. These are dangerous devices that might kill you, your workmates and customers."
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A network of fake Facebook accounts were trying to spy on Emmanuel Macron during the election.

Russian intelligence agencies create phony accounts on the social network to allow them to watch the then presidential candidate.

More than 20 accounts were made to conduct surveillance on people close to Mr Macron's campaign as he took on Marine le Pen, who he would go on to convincingly defeat.

It was long known that the French election was hit by disinformation campaigns and attacks on social media. But the new network of fake, zombie social networks had not been revealed until the Reuters report.

11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Show all 11 1 /11 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Go Facebook-free One of the best things about Messenger being split from the main Facebook app is that you can use it without actually having an active Facebook account. Simply log in with your phone number, rather than your Facebook profile. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Share music If you use your Facebook account to log in to Spotify, you can use Messenger to easily share songs with your friends. Just tap the + icon in a chat and tap the Spotify button that pops up. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Protect your privacy Privacy is important, and Messenger lets you protect your chats by switching on encryption. Just open a conversation, hit the options key and select Secret Conversation. You can even choose to make your messages disappear, by tapping the clock icon in the text box and setting a timer. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Plans and polls A lot of people use Messenger primarily to organise events, and the app has a dedicated tool for making plans. In a chat, hit the options key, select Start A Plan and enter the right time and date. In group chats, you can also create polls by tapping the + key in the bottom left-hand corner. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Games You can play games on Messenger by tapping the joystick icon that sits in the bottom right-hand corner of the home screen. Classics including Pac-Man, Space Invaders and Snake are available alongside newer titles, and you can also play against your friends. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Hidden messages Like email providers, Messenger has its own spam filter that keeps messages from people who arent your friends on Facebook away from your inbox. You can find them by tapping the phone book icon at the bottom of the screen and selecting Message Requests. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Themes and nicknames Blue is Messengers default theme, but you can change this by opening a chat, hitting the options button and selecting colour. It wont change your life, but its nice to have the option. You can also create nicknames for yourself and your friends. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Messenger Day Messenger Day is almost exactly like Snapchat Stories, letting you post edited pictures and videos that disappear after 24 hours. Just tap Add To Your Day or the circular icon at the bottom of the Messenger home screen, take a picture or video, edit it and post it to Messenger. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Resize emoji If you ever get really bored, you can try resizing emoji by tapping and holding them to make them swell up. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Chatbots Facebook wants you to start using Messenger to speak to businesses, and you can do this by having a conversation with one of tens of thousands of chatbots. Its a strange feature you can access by tapping the search bar at the top of the app and either browsing the list of suggested bots or looking for a specific one by typing in a company name. 11 useful Facebook Messenger features you didn't know existed Transfer money You can even send and receive money through Messenger, but only in the US right now. In chat, just hit the + icon in a chat, tap the $ key, type the amount you want to transfer and enter your card details.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents. U.S. intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them. It credited a combination of improved automated detection and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

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Company officials briefed congressional committee members and staff, among others, about their findings. People involved in the conversations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account closures the company disclosed in April.

Facebook did not dispute the figure.

The spying campaign included Russian agents posing as friends of friends of Macron associates and trying to glean personal information from them, according to the U.S. congressman and two others briefed on the matter.

Facebook employees noticed the efforts during the first round of the presidential election and traced them to tools used in the past by Russiaas GRU military intelligence unit, said the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were discussing sensitive government and private intelligence.

Facebook told American officials that it did not believe the spies burrowed deep enough to get the targets to download malicious software or give away their login information, which they believe may have been the goal of the operation.

The same GRU unit, dubbed Fancy Bear or APT 28 in the cybersecurity industry, has been blamed for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 U.S. presidential election and many other political targets. The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.

Email accounts belonging to Macron campaign officials were hacked and their contents dumped online in the final days of the runoff between Macron and Le Pen.

French law enforcement and intelligence officials have not publicly accused anyone of the campaign attacks.

Mounir Mahjoubi, who was digital director of Macron's political movement, En Marche, and is now a junior minister for digital issues in his government, told Reuters in May that some security experts blamed the GRU specifically, though they had no proof.

Mahjoubi and En Marche declined to comment.

There are few publicly known examples of sophisticated social media spying efforts. In 2015, Britain's domestic security service, MI5, warned that hostile powers were using LinkedIn to connect with and try to recruit government workers.

The social media and networking companies themselves rarely comment on such operations when discovered.

Facebook, facing mounting pressure from governments around the world to control "fake news' and propaganda on the service, took a step toward openness with a report in April on what it termed "information operations".

The bulk of that document discussed so-called influence operations, which included "amplifier" accounts that spread links to slanted or false news stories in order to influence public opinion.

Additional reporting by Reuters
Restorers at the Monastery of St. Bishoy near Cairo have uncovered frescoes depicting saints, martyrs and angels

Restorers working at the Monastery of St. Bishoy in the Wadi El-Natroun area have uncovered a number of medieval-era wall-paintings and architectural elements in the monastery's old church.

While removing the modern layer of mortar from the walls of the monastery's old church, several coloured wall-paintings were uncovered, Mohamed Abdellatif, deputy antiquities minister for archaeological sites, told Ahram Online.

He explained that the paintings date from between the 9th and 13th centuries AD, which will help archaeologists to determine the original architectural style of the church and the dates of its construction.

According to historical books and religious documents, he said, the church was subjected to changes and modifications in its architecture in 840 AD, during the Abbasid era, and in 1069 AD, during the Fatimid caliphate.

Ahmed El-Nemr, a member of the ministrys scientific bureau, said that the newly discovered wall-paintings are frescoes, and depict scenes of saints and angels with Coptic religious inscriptions below.

The most distinguished paintings are those on the western and eastern walls of the church, he said, describing the painting on the western wall as showing a woman named as Refka and her five sons, who were martyred during the persecution of Christians by the Roman empire.

The painting on the eastern wall depicts three saints and an archangel, and features Coptic writings below.

El-Nemr explained that when restorers removed the modern additions they stumbled upon the ambon, an elevated platform that is a feature of many orthodox churches.

The newly discovered ambon is made of mud-brick covered with a layer of mortar and decorated with a red cross.

Some geometric drawings, crosses and lettering were also found in various parts of the church.

The conservation project by the antiquities ministry has been ongoing since 2015, when a number of monasteries in the Wadi El-Natroun area experienced flooding.

The Monastery of St. Bishoy is around 100 kilometres north-west of Cairo, and is located along the Cairo-Alexandria highway.

It has a collection of buildings, including five churches and a fort, as well as the tomb of the late Coptic Orthodox Pope Shenouda III, who died in 2012.

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A group of sorority sisters have come together to create a photoshoot that celebrates the beauty of black women.

To celebrate their 10th anniversary of joining the sorority, Delta Sigma Theta, alumnus from spring 2007 reunited for a three-day trip to Costa Rica where they chartered a catamaran to a private beach.

Here, the sisters donned bathing suits that matched their skin tones and posed in the sea and sand for an empowering photoshoot which they have dubbed Melanin Illustrated.

The shoot which consisted of 56 women, aged 29 to 35, was coordinated by LaToya Owens, one of the first of the sororitys chapter at A&M and set out to highlight all types of black beauty regardless of shape and size.

Being in a sisterhood means having a support system and someone always there to count on, Owens told Yahoo Style.

Black women are often overlooked in beauty. This was our way to shine a light on all types of black beauty.

Our sorority is all about black excellence,  she added

We want to serve as an example and [show] appreciation of black women. Our commitment is to scholarship and service, and this was to honor the sisterhood.

Using the hashtags #MelaninIllustrated and #TITEtakescostarica, the women have shared photos of their breathtaking trip to the Central American country on Instagram which have since gone viral and received a flood of adoration from supporters.

Black beauty in all shades & tones of our culture & heritage! Much love Sorors, one person wrote.

Another added,Gorgeous ladies! Thank you for putting this beautiful image out for the world to smile at.
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UK households could face considerable and unpredictable fluctuations in food prices after Brexit thanks to increased trade barriers and a weak pound, according to a think tank.

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said that the future of food prices will remain highly uncertain until the outcome of trade negotiations is known.

If no free trade deal between the UK and the EU is agreed before the March 2019 divorce date, the UK will trade under World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules. In this scenario food prices are likely to rise significantly, according to the think tank.

It pointed out that the UK would not be able to set tariffs that discriminate between its various trading partners, except as part of a free trade agreement or to give developing countries special access to its market.

This means the the UK would have to place tariffs on EU imports unless it chose to charge zero tariffs to all WTO members - an option which is seen as highly unlikely.

Tariffs would raise the price of food imported from the EU and the bloc accounts for 70 per cent of the UKs gross food imports, the IFS said.

Food will be more vulnerable to tariff increases than other sectors because around 30 per cent of the value of food purchased by households in the UK is imported, compared to just 17 per cent of overall consumer spending, according to the IFS figures.

The UK could mitigate the effects of tariff barriers by accepting cheaper food imports that do not meet current EU standards, it said.

However, the recent backlash against the prospect of chlorine-washed chicken and hormone-injected beef from America, suggests that this may be politically unpalatable.

Business news: In pictures Show all 13 1 /13 Business news: In pictures Business news: In pictures Flybe collapses Airline Flybe has collapsed. All future flights on the Exeter-based airline have been cancelled  leaving more than 2,300 staff facing an uncertain future, and wrecking the travel plans of hundreds of thousands of passengers. The chief executive, Mark Anderson, said: Europes largest independent regional airline has been unable to overcome significant funding challenges to its business. AFP via Getty Business news: In pictures Future product placement will be 'tailored to individual viewers' Marketing executives say that product placement in films and televison shows on streaming services such as Netflix may be tailored to individuals in future. For instance, if data shows that a viewer is a fan of pepsi, a billboard in the background of a shot would host an advert for pepsi, while for a viewer known to have different tastes it could be for Coca-Cola Paramount Business news: In pictures Corbyn wishes Amazon a happy birthday In a card sent to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on the company's 25th birthday, Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn writes: "You owe the British people millions in taxes that pay for the public services that we all rely on. Please pay your fair share" Business news: In pictures No deal, no tariffs The government has announced that it would slash almost all tariffs in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Notable exceptions include cars and meat, which will see tariffs in place to protect British farmers Getty Business news: In pictures Fingerprint payment NatWest is trialling a new bank card that will allow people to touch their hand to the card when paying rather than typing in a PIN number. The card will work by recognising the user's fingerprint NatWest/PA Wire Business news: In pictures Mahabis bust High-end slipper retailer Mahabis has gone into administration. 2 Jan 2019 Mahabis Business news: In pictures Costa Cola Coca-Cola has paid 3.9bn for Costa Coffee. A cafe chain is a new venture for the global soft drinks giant PA Business news: In pictures RIP Payday Loans A funeral procession for payday loans was held in London on September 2. The future of pay day lenders is in doubt after Wonga, Britain's biggest, went into administration on August 30 PA Business news: In pictures Musk irks investors and directors Elon Musk has concluded that Tesla will remain public. Investors and company directors were angry at Musk for tweeting unexpectedly that he was considering taking Tesla private and share prices had taken a tumble in the following weeks Getty Business news: In pictures Jaguar warning Iconic British car maker Jaguar Land Rover warned on July 5, 2018 that a "bad" Brexit deal could jeopardise planned investment of more than $100 billion, upping corporate pressure as the government heads into crucial talks AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures Spotif-IPO Spotify traded publically for the first time on the New York Stock Exchange on Tuesday. However, the company isn't issuing shares, but rather, shares held by Spotify's private investors will be sold AFP/Getty Business news: In pictures French blue passports The deadline to award a contract to make blue British passports after Brexit has been extended by two weeks following a request by bidder De La Rue. The move comes after anger at the announcement British passports would be produced by Franco-Dutch firm Gemalto when De La Rues contract ends in July. The British firm said Gemalto was chosen only because it undercut the competition, but the UK company also admitted that it was not the cheapest choice in the tendering process. Business news: In pictures Beast from the east economic impact The Beast from the East wiped 4m off of Flybes revenues due to flight cancellations, airport closures and delays, according to the budget airlines estimates. Flybe said it cancelled 994 flights in the three months to 31 March, compared to 372 in the same period last year.

The effect of the weak pound has not yet filtered through to shop food prices but it is likely to do so in future, the IFS said.

It looked at the last major sterling devaluation which occurred between the beginning of 2007 to the end of 2008, when the currency depreciated by 21 per cent. Over the same period, prices overall rose by 6 per cent, but food prices jumped 15 per cent. Though other factors were at play, this demonstrates the sensitivity of food prices to exchange rates, the IFS said.

The poorest households spend a higher proportion of their income on food, so will be hardest hit by price increases, the think tank said.
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The President of the Philippines, Rodrigo Duterte, has labelled Oxford University as a school for stupid people following a disagreement over a research paper detailing his social media habits.

According to the universitys report Troops, Trolls and Troublemakers: A Global Inventory of Organised Social Media Manipulation, Mr Duterte has spent the equivalent of hundreds of thousands of pounds on hiring social media trolls to promote and defend him on Twitter.

Academics Samantha Bradshaw and Professor Philip N. Howard found Mr Duterte had used automated bot accounts to post supportive messages on social media during his 2016 president campaign, and continues to do so now he is in power.

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In a press conference on Monday, the president admitted to spending around 10 million Philippine pesos (around 153,000) on social media campaigning during the elections last year, but denied that it was ongoing.

According to local news network ABS-CBN he went on to say: I dont need to defend myself from attacks, Im not anymore eligible for reelection.

Oxford University? Thats a school for stupid people, he added in Filipino.

QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Show all 10 1 /10 QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Cambridge University Flickr (Mihnea Maftei) QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Oxford University Picture: Getty QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions University College London University College London (Getty Images) QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Imperial College, London Imperial College, London Flickr/Andrew Crump QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Kings College London Kings College London iStock QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Edinburgh University Edinburgh University expects staff to report to their department whenever they leave the office Getty QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Manchester University Manchester University Rex QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions London School of Economics London School of Economics Rex QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions University of Bristol University of Bristol Ben Birchall/PA Wire QS World University Rankings: top 10 UK institutions Warwick University Flickr/Nicholas Smale

The Oxford research paper looked at 27 other countries besides the Philippines to examine the prevalence of military or political parties commitment to using social media to influence the public.

It is said to be a global phenomenon, with every authoritarian regime studied using social media campaigns to target their own populations.

Only a few of the countries targeted foreign populations, researchers found.

Over time, the primary mode for organizing cyber troops has gone from involving military units that experiment with manipulating public opinion over social media networks to strategic communication firms that take contracts from governments for social media campaigns.

The report documents how so-called cyber troops have been used to silence political dissent online and on how the methods used can lead to real-life threats and reputational damage.

In the Philippines, it states, many of the so-called keyboard trolls hired to spread propaganda for presidential candidate Duterte during the election continue to spread and amplify messages in support of his policies now hes in power."

An Oxford University spokesperson said the institution would not be commenting on the matter.
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Government estimates of how many foreign students stay in the UK after finishing their studies are based on data that is potentially misleading, the statistics watchdog has warned.

Official figures from the Office for National Statistics suggest around 100,000 international students stay in the UK illegally once they have finished studying  a statistic quoted by the Prime Minister to argue the case for introducing student visa restrictions.

Experts undertaking a regulatory review of the ONS figures have expressed concerns that the data cited is unreliable, however, as student emigration numbers are based on surveys that do not provide an accurate overall picture of migration patterns.

The revelation comes amid increasing pressure placed on the British Government to remove foreign students from immigration figures and abandon plans to tighten restrictions on student visas.

The Independent and the Open Britain group, which urges a soft Brexit, are running a Drop the Target campaign calling for the net migration goal of fewer than 100,000 to be abandoned.

Despite its omission in the Queens Speech, Downing Street said it remained absolutely committed to the target, and the Prime Minister has showed no sign of wavering on the inclusion of students within that figure.

However, a review by the Office for Statistics Regulation published on Thursday found the ONS data may not provide a complete and coherent picture of former-student emigration and is not of sufficiently high quality to meet the needs of users.

Summarising the findings, the body's director general, Ed Humpherson, said: I am concerned that the former-student emigration estimate does not bear the weight that is put on it in public debate.

This estimate should add clarity on the pattern of student migration in the UK.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 A villager cooks roti bread at the site of the annual Camel Fair in Pushkar, in India's desert state of Rajasthan AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA UK news in pictures 22 September 2022 Woody Woodmansey, Lee Bennett, Kevin Armstrong, Nick Moran and Clifford Slapper attend the unveiling of a stone for David Bowie on the Music Walk of Fame at Camden, north London PA UK news in pictures 21 September 2022 A flock of birds in the sky as the sun rises over Dungeness in Kent PA UK news in pictures 20 September 2022 Flowers which were laid by members of the public in tribute to Queen Elizabeth II at Hillsborough Castle in Northern Ireland are collected by the Hillsborough Gardening Team and volunteers to be replanted for those that can be saved or composted PA UK news in pictures 19 September 2022 The ceremonial procession of the coffin of Queen Elizabeth II travels down the long walk as it arrives at Windsor Castle for the committal service at St Georges Chapel AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 18 September 2022 A man stands among campers on The Mall ahead of the Queens funeral Reuters UK news in pictures 17 September 2022 Wolverhampton Wanderers Nathan Collins fouls Manchester Citys Jack Grealish leading to a red card. City went on to win the match at Molineux Stadium three goals to nil. Action Images/Reuters UK news in pictures 16 September 2022 Members of the public stand in the queue near Tower Bridge, and opposite the Tower of London, as they wait in line to pay their respects to the late Queen Elizabeth II, in London AFP via Getty Images

Instead, it creates doubts by not providing a complete and coherent picture of former-student emigration, as these figures alone do not provide information on all the different outcomes for international students.

New emigration data collected by the Home Office last year suggested the true number of students overstaying their academic visas was closer to around 1 per cent of the official estimate of 100,000  equating to 1,500 per year.

Writing for The Independent on Thursday, Liberal Democrat leader Sir Vince Cable said wrongly inflated migration numbers had fuelled immigration panic to the detriment of much-needed international students.

The case of overseas students illustrates the absurdity of the [net migration] target and the malign consequences of it, he said.

The vast majority of students return home  apart from a few who have special skills and are recruited for post-study work, and some others who illegally overstay.

The problem is that we dont know how many overstay because the Border Agency did not, until recently, count people out as it counts people in.

It operates on guesswork and on the basis of an airport survey which is laughably inaccurate and wildly exaggerates the numbers of over-stayers.

Courts have ruled that 48,000 overseas students have wrongly been sent home without completing their courses, he added, in some cases sacrificing a lifetime of earnings and borrowings by a poor family.

One of Britains most successful export industries  higher education  was, and is, being sacrificed by Theresa Mays Home Office in pursuit of the immigration target.

Summarising its review, the Office for Statistics Regulation said the emigration estimate for students should represent the best available estimate of student emigration and should clarity on the student migration gap.

Instead, it creates doubt about the pattern of student migration and generates a narrative that is potentially misleading for a topic of major public interest and policy sensitivity.

James Pitman, head of Destination for Education, which prepares international students for study in the UK, said: Immigration policy is being based on flawed data which does not accurately represent the nature of international students, who are not long-term migrants and contribute to both the UKs economy and soft power.

Higher Education is the second biggest contributor to the UKs balance of payments, with 26bn of gross output for the UK economy.

"In order to achieve the Governments ambition for a truly Global Britain, we need to encourage international students to come to the UK so that our local and national economies can continue to benefit and improving the data we have on international students is the first step in the right direction.
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Patients are often reminded they should complete each course of antibiotics to prevent bacteria becoming drug-resistant  but this advice is a myth that should be dropped, experts have argued.

Official guidance from the NHS says its essential to finish taking a prescribed course of antibiotics, even if you feel better, unless a healthcare professional tells you otherwise.

Now scientists have challenged this piece of received wisdom, which they say is not backed by evidence, warning unnecessary exposure to antibiotics could in fact make resistance worse.

It may in fact be best for people to stop taking the drugs when they feel better, wrote a team of researchers in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

However, GPs have indicated they do not intend to remove advice to patients to finish their antibiotics, as changing this will simply confuse people and could cause patients to fall ill again, because an improvement of symptoms does not always mean an infection has been eradicated.

Oxford professor Tim Peto said he was taught about the importance of finishing a course of antibiotics as a medical student, but when he began discussing the origin of the idea with his colleagues, no one could work out where it came from.

This is slow-motion fake news. It went through word of mouth, before the internet, he told The Independent. Yes, its an urban myth.

Professor Peto and the group of experts led by Professor Martin Llewelyn, from Brighton and Sussex Medical School, traced our concern over giving too little treatment to the period of very early antibiotic innovation.

It may be attributable to unproven speculation by Alexander Fleming, the biologist who discovered penicillin, they said.

When he accepted the Nobel Prize for his work in 1945, Fleming, who had noted that bacteria could mutate when exposed to the new drugs, delivered a vivid speech describing an imaginary patient with a throat infection who had failed to complete his course of antibiotics.

Sir Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) in his laboratory at St Marys Hospital in Paddington, London, in October 1943 (Getty) (Getty Images)

This was an emotive story in which the man got better, resistance emerged, then his wife got the bug and died, said Professor Peto. We think it became embedded in peoples minds and became part of the known facts.

It has now been shown that the bacteria Fleming named in his tale, Streptococcus pyogenes, never actually developed resistance to penicillin, casting his hypothesis further into doubt.

Antimicrobial resistance is caused when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change through continued exposure to drugs, which then become ineffective against them.

Over time, excessive use of antibiotics could lead to minor infections causing serious health complications, making surgery and treatment for diseases such as cancer much riskier.

Englands chief medical officer Dame Sally Davies has warned that 50,000 people die each year in Europe and the US from infections that have developed resistance against antibiotics.

The relation between antibiotic exposure and antibiotic resistance is unambiguous both at the population level and in individual patients. Reducing unnecessary antibiotic use is therefore essential to mitigate antibiotic resistance, wrote the researchers.

They also recommended that doctors should be able to change the duration of antibiotic treatment based on the patients responses to the medication.

But Professor Helen Stokes-Lampard, chair of the Royal College of GPs, said recommended courses of antibiotics are not random and are tailored to individual conditions.

In many cases courses are quite short, for example for urinary tract infections, three days is often enough to cure the infection, she said.

We are concerned about the concept of patients stopping taking their medication mid-way through a course once they feel better, because improvement in symptoms does not necessarily mean the infection has been completely eradicated.

Its important that patients have clear messages and the mantra to always take the full course of antibiotics is well known  changing this will simply confuse people.

We agree with the researchers that more high quality, clinical trials are needed  and when guidelines are updated, they should take all new evidence into account. But were not at that stage yet.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

Professor Stokes-Lampard added that while antibiotic resistance was one of the biggest global challenges, we cannot advocate widespread behaviour change on the results of just one study.

Alison Holmes, director of Infection Prevention and Control at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, said the dogma of telling patients to complete the course of antibiotics has been pervasive and persistent.

Whilst there has been an enormous focus on developing new agents to combat AMR, there is just not enough existing data and current research to optimise the prescribing of existing antibiotics in terms of dosage and duration, she said.

The complete the course message also directly conflicts with the societal messages regarding the changes needed in behaviour and attitudes to minimise unnecessary exposure to antibiotics.
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Women with advanced stages of breast cancer could receive potentially life-extending personalised treatment after taking a new blood test that detects tumour DNA.

The test, known as a liquid biopsy, can detect and track alterations in 13 different genes, including some of the most important drivers of the disease.

Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer in the UK, with around 150 new cases diagnosed every day.

For patients whose cancer has spread beyond the breast and nearby glands  the most deadly stage of the disease  the new test could be used to improve and individualise their treatment as the disease progresses, researchers have said.

Around 10 per cent of women have metastatic, or stage four, breast cancer at the time of their diagnosis, according to cancer support charity Macmillan. The average survival rate is around two years.

This is the first time scientists have been able to analyse two kinds of acquired DNA mutation in a single blood test.

The study, published in the journal Clinical Chemistry, described how the researchers first looked at cells grown in a laboratory before analysing DNA in blood donated by 42 women with advanced breast cancer.

 Five nutrition lies ruining your health

Cancer-specific genetic changes were detected in half the women. In the case of one in five patients, information from the tumour DNA could have been used to alter treatment.

None of the mutations were found in the blood of nine healthy women that was also tested.

One gene that can be examined for changes using the new blood test is called HER2. It usually makes proteins that control the growth of healthy breast cells, but also plays a role in the development of around 15 to 25 per cent of breast cancer cases.

These HER2 positive breast cancers can be targeted with the drug Herceptin.

In addition, the test can spot mutations in the oestrogen receptor gene ESR1, linked to resistance to anti-hormone therapies such as aromatase inhibitors.

Once a patient is known to have these mutations, she can be offered other forms of treatment such as chemotherapy.

By analysing blood plasma to measure for cancer-specific changes to key breast cancer genes  including the HER2 and oestrogen receptor genes  we hope this test could help doctors and patients choose the best treatment at the best time, said Dr David Guttery, from the University of Leicester.

Somatic point mutations occur when DNA molecules are shuffled in the wrong order. Copy number alterations (CNA) are another type of mutation involving extra copies of genes that produce too much protein.

We have developed a novel blood test that can simultaneously detect somatic mutations and copy number alterations that are integral in driving the growth of breast cancer, said Dr Guttery.

This study represents proof of concept, and further validation is now needed to confirm the clinical usefulness of this test before any test could be rolled out.

Health news in pictures Show all 40 1 /40 Health news in pictures Health news in pictures Coronavirus outbreak The coronavirus Covid-19 has hit the UK leading to the deaths of two people so far and prompting warnings from the Department of Health AFP via Getty Health news in pictures Thousands of emergency patients told to take taxi to hospital Thousands of 999 patients in England are being told to get a taxi to hospital, figures have showed. The number of patients outside London who were refused an ambulance rose by 83 per cent in the past year as demand for services grows Getty Health news in pictures Vape related deaths spike A vaping-related lung disease has claimed the lives of 11 people in the US in recent weeks. The US Centre for Disease Control and Prevention has more than 100 officials investigating the cause of the mystery illness, and has warned citizens against smoking e-cigarette products until more is known, particularly if modified or bought off the street Getty Health news in pictures Baldness cure looks to be a step closer Researchers in the US claim to have overcome one of the major hurdles to cultivating human follicles from stem cells. The new system allows cells to grow in a structured tuft and emerge from the skin Sanford Burnham Preybs Health news in pictures Two hours a week spent in nature can improve health A study in the journal Scientific Reports suggests that a dose of nature of just two hours a week is associated with better health and psychological wellbeing Shutterstock Health news in pictures Air pollution linked to fertility issues in women Exposure to air from traffic-clogged streets could leave women with fewer years to have children, a study has found. Italian researchers found women living in the most polluted areas were three times more likely to show signs they were running low on eggs than those who lived in cleaner surroundings, potentially triggering an earlier menopause Getty/iStock Health news in pictures Junk food ads could be banned before watershed Junk food adverts on TV and online could be banned before 9pm as part of Government plans to fight the "epidemic" of childhood obesity. Plans for the new watershed have been put out for public consultation in a bid to combat the growing crisis, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said PA Health news in pictures Breeding with neanderthals helped humans fight diseases On migrating from Africa around 70,000 years ago, humans bumped into the neanderthals of Eurasia. While humans were weak to the diseases of the new lands, breeding with the resident neanderthals made for a better equipped immune system PA Health news in pictures Cancer breath test to be trialled in Britain The breath biopsy device is designed to detect cancer hallmarks in molecules exhaled by patients Getty Health news in pictures Average 10 year old has consumed the recommended amount of sugar for an adult By their 10th birthdy, children have on average already eaten more sugar than the recommended amount for an 18 year old. The average 10 year old consumes the equivalent to 13 sugar cubes a day, 8 more than is recommended PA Health news in pictures Child health experts advise switching off screens an hour before bed While there is not enough evidence of harm to recommend UK-wide limits on screen use, the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have advised that children should avoid screens for an hour before bed time to avoid disrupting their sleep Getty Health news in pictures Daily aspirin is unnecessary for older people in good health, study finds A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine has found that many elderly people are taking daily aspirin to little or no avail Getty Health news in pictures Vaping could lead to cancer, US study finds A study by the University of Minnesota's Masonic Cancer Centre has found that the carcinogenic chemicals formaldehyde, acrolein, and methylglyoxal are present in the saliva of E-cigarette users Reuters Health news in pictures More children are obese and diabetic There has been a 41% increase in children with type 2 diabetes since 2014, the National Paediatric Diabetes Audit has found. Obesity is a leading cause Reuters Health news in pictures Most child antidepressants are ineffective and can lead to suicidal thoughts The majority of antidepressants are ineffective and may be unsafe, for children and teenager with major depression, experts have warned. In what is the most comprehensive comparison of 14 commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs to date, researchers found that only one brand was more effective at relieving symptoms of depression than a placebo. Another popular drug, venlafaxine, was shown increase the risk users engaging in suicidal thoughts and attempts at suicide Getty Health news in pictures Gay, lesbian and bisexual adults at higher risk of heart disease, study claims Researchers at the Baptist Health South Florida Clinic in Miami focused on seven areas of controllable heart health and found these minority groups were particularly likely to be smokers and to have poorly controlled blood sugar iStock Health news in pictures Breakfast cereals targeted at children contain 'steadily high' sugar levels since 1992 despite producer claims A major pressure group has issued a fresh warning about perilously high amounts of sugar in breakfast cereals, specifically those designed for children, and has said that levels have barely been cut at all in the last two and a half decades Getty Health news in pictures Potholes are making us fat, NHS watchdog warns New guidance by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the body which determines what treatment the NHS should fund, said lax road repairs and car-dominated streets were contributing to the obesity epidemic by preventing members of the public from keeping active PA Health news in pictures New menopause drugs offer women relief from 'debilitating' hot flushes A new class of treatments for women going through the menopause is able to reduce numbers of debilitating hot flushes by as much as three quarters in a matter of days, a trial has found. The drug used in the trial belongs to a group known as NKB antagonists (blockers), which were developed as a treatment for schizophrenia but have been sitting on a shelf unused, according to Professor Waljit Dhillo, a professor of endocrinology and metabolism REX Health news in pictures Doctors should prescribe more antidepressants for people with mental health problems, study finds Research from Oxford University found that more than one million extra people suffering from mental health problems would benefit from being prescribed drugs and criticised ideological reasons doctors use to avoid doing so. Getty Health news in pictures Student dies of flu after NHS advice to stay at home and avoid A&E The family of a teenager who died from flu has urged people not to delay going to A&E if they are worried about their symptoms. Melissa Whiteley, an 18-year-old engineering student from Hanford in Stoke-on-Trent, fell ill at Christmas and died in hospital a month later. Just Giving Health news in pictures Government to review thousands of harmful vaginal mesh implants The Government has pledged to review tens of thousands of cases where women have been given harmful vaginal mesh implants. Getty Health news in pictures Jeremy Hunt announces 'zero suicides ambition' for the NHS The NHS will be asked to go further to prevent the deaths of patients in its care as part of a zero suicide ambition being launched today Getty Health news in pictures Human trials start with cancer treatment that primes immune system to kill off tumours Human trials have begun with a new cancer therapy that can prime the immune system to eradicate tumours. The treatment, that works similarly to a vaccine, is a combination of two existing drugs, of which tiny amounts are injected into the solid bulk of a tumour. Nephron Health news in pictures Babies' health suffers from being born near fracking sites, finds major study Mothers living within a kilometre of a fracking site were 25 per cent more likely to have a child born at low birth weight, which increase their chances of asthma, ADHD and other issues Getty Health news in pictures NHS reviewing thousands of cervical cancer smear tests after women wrongly given all-clear Thousands of cervical cancer screening results are under review after failings at a laboratory meant some women were incorrectly given the all-clear. A number of women have already been told to contact their doctors following the identification of procedural issues in the service provided by Pathology First Laboratory. Rex Health news in pictures Potential key to halting breast cancer's spread discovered by scientists Most breast cancer patients do not die from their initial tumour, but from secondary malignant growths (metastases), where cancer cells are able to enter the blood and survive to invade new sites. Asparagine, a molecule named after asparagus where it was first identified in high quantities, has now been shown to be an essential ingredient for tumour cells to gain these migratory properties. Getty Health news in pictures NHS nursing vacancies at record high with more than 34,000 roles advertised A record number of nursing and midwifery positions are currently being advertised by the NHS, with more than 34,000 positions currently vacant, according to the latest data. Demand for nurses was 19 per cent higher between July and September 2017 than the same period two years ago. REX Health news in pictures Cannabis extract could provide new class of treatment for psychosis CBD has a broadly opposite effect to delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), the main active component in cannabis and the substance that causes paranoia and anxiety. Getty Health news in pictures Over 75,000 sign petition calling for Richard Branson's Virgin Care to hand settlement money back to NHS Mr Bransons company sued the NHS last year after it lost out on an 82m contract to provide childrens health services across Surrey, citing concerns over serious flaws in the way the contract was awarded PA Health news in pictures More than 700 fewer nurses training in England in first year after NHS bursary scrapped The numbers of people accepted to study nursing in England fell 3 per cent in 2017, while the numbers accepted in Wales and Scotland, where the bursaries were kept, increased 8.4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively Getty Health news in pictures Landmark study links Tory austerity to 120,000 deaths The paper found that there were 45,000 more deaths in the first four years of Tory-led efficiencies than would have been expected if funding had stayed at pre-election levels. On this trajectory that could rise to nearly 200,000 excess deaths by the end of 2020, even with the extra funding that has been earmarked for public sector services this year. Reuters Health news in pictures Long commutes carry health risks Hours of commuting may be mind-numbingly dull, but new research shows that it might also be having an adverse effect on both your health and performance at work. Longer commutes also appear to have a significant impact on mental wellbeing, with those commuting longer 33 per cent more likely to suffer from depression Shutterstock Health news in pictures You cannot be fit and fat It is not possible to be overweight and healthy, a major new study has concluded. The study of 3.5 million Britons found that even metabolically healthy obese people are still at a higher risk of heart disease or a stroke than those with a normal weight range Getty Health news in pictures Sleep deprivation When you feel particularly exhausted, it can definitely feel like you are also lacking in brain capacity. Now, a new study has suggested this could be because chronic sleep deprivation can actually cause the brain to eat itself Shutterstock Health news in pictures Exercise classes offering 45 minute naps launch David Lloyd Gyms have launched a new health and fitness class which is essentially a bunch of people taking a nap for 45 minutes. The fitness group was spurred to launch the napercise class after research revealed 86 per cent of parents said they were fatigued. The class is therefore predominantly aimed at parents but you actually do not have to have children to take part Getty Health news in pictures 'Fundamental right to health' to be axed after Brexit, lawyers warn Tobacco and alcohol companies could win more easily in court cases such as the recent battle over plain cigarette packaging if the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is abandoned, a barrister and public health professor have said Getty Health news in pictures 'Thousands dying' due to fear over non-existent statin side-effects A major new study into the side effects of the cholesterol-lowering medicine suggests common symptoms such as muscle pain and weakness are not caused by the drugs themselves Getty Health news in pictures Babies born to fathers aged under 25 have higher risk of autism New research has found that babies born to fathers under the age of 25 or over 51 are at higher risk of developing autism and other social disorders. The study, conducted by the Seaver Autism Center for Research and Treatment at Mount Sinai, found that these children are actually more advanced than their peers as infants, but then fall behind by the time they hit their teenage years Getty Health news in pictures Cycling to work could halve risk of cancer and heart disease Commuters who swap their car or bus pass for a bike could cut their risk of developing heart disease and cancer by almost half, new research suggests  but campaigners have warned there is still an urgent need to improve road conditions for cyclists. Cycling to work is linked to a lower risk of developing cancer by 45 per cent and cardiovascular disease by 46 per cent, according to a study of a quarter of a million people. Walking to work also brought health benefits, the University of Glasgow researchers found, but not to the same degree as cycling. Getty

The study was funded by two charities, Breast Cancer Now and Cancer Research UK.

Baroness Delyth Morgan, chief executive of Breast Cancer Now, said: If validated by further research, this blood test could help tell us how a patient's secondary breast cancer is evolving.

Analysing the genetic make-up of tumours could enable us to identify women who might benefit from changing their treatment, ensuring that breast cancer patients receive the most personalised therapy possible.

Dr Justine Alford, senior science information officer at Cancer Research UK, said: While survival for women with early breast cancer has greatly improved, the outlook for patients with advanced disease is still poor, something we urgently need to change. This early research could help achieve this.

The researchers may have developed a way to track breast cancer as it grows, allowing doctors to act swiftly and give patients the treatments that are right for them as early as possible. On top of that, such a tailored approach could spare patients receiving drugs, and the side effects that go with them, that aren't likely to work.

Additional reporting from Press Association
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Leaving Europes nuclear regulator will put patients in the UK at risk of losing access to vital medical treatments, a leading doctor has warned.

Withdrawal from the European Atomic Energy Community (Euratom) as part of Brexit would make it harder for the UK to access nuclear isotopes used in cancer treatments and medical imaging, according to Martin McKee, Professor of European Public Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Euratom is responsible for coordinating and regulating the transport, use and disposal of nuclear materials in Europe, including many of the isotopes used in radiotherapy and some kinds of body scans.

Professor McKee said some of the most widely used medical isotopes can only be produced in specialised reactors, none of which are in the UK. The materials currently used in Britain are mostly manufactured in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.

Writing in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), he said there was no excuse for government ministers failure to foresee the problems that leaving Euratom would cause.

Although it may be possible for the UK to remain within existing arrangements, it will be exceptionally complicated and the UKs position will inevitably be weakened, he wrote.

Crucially, the government has offered no real clarity on how any agreement might be achieved. The position paper on Euratom published by the government in July 2017 contained little detail even on nuclear power and did not mention medical isotopes.

Ministers have no excuse for failing to anticipate this controversy. The problems were highlighted clearly in an article in the Financial Times in February 2017 and in briefings by nuclear industry experts.

Yet, as with all aspects of the Brexit negotiations, there is no evidence of any serious planning.

Brexit Concerns Show all 26 1 /26 Brexit Concerns Brexit Concerns Brexit will put British patients at 'back of the queue' for new drugs Brexit will put British patients at the back of the queue for vital new drugs, the Government has been warned  forcing them to wait up to two years longer A medicines regulator has raised the alarm over a likely decision to pull out of the European Medicines Agency (EMA), as well as the EU itself. ealth Secretary Jeremy Hunt dropped the bombshell , when he said he expected the UK would quit the EMA  because it is subject to rulings by the European Court of Justice. Getty Images Brexit Concerns London to lose status as 'gateway to Europe' for banks One of Germanys top banking regulators has warned that London could lose its status as gateway to Europe for the banking sector after Britain quits the European trading bloc. Andreas Dombret, who is an executive board member for the BundesbankGermanys central banktold a private meeting of German businesses and banks earlier this week in Frankfurt that even if banking rules were equivalent between the UK and the rest of the EU, that was still miles away from [Britain having] access to the single market, the BBC reports. Jason Hawkes Brexit Concerns Exodus The number of financial sector professionals in Britain and continental Europe looking for jobs in Ireland rocketed in the months after the UK voted to leave the European Union Shutterstock Brexit Concerns Brexit is making FTSE 100 executives richer Pay packages of many FTSE 100 chief executive officers are partly tied to how well share prices are doing rather than the CEOs performance -- and some stocks are soaring. ritish equities got a boost since the June vote because the likes of Rio Tinto, Smiths Group and WPP generate most sales abroad and earn a fortune when they convert these revenues back into the weakened pound. Sterlings fall also made UK stocks more affordable for overseas investors. Rex Brexit Concerns Theresa May: UK to leave single market Theresa May has said the UK "cannot possibly" remain within the European single market, as staying in it would mean "not leaving the EU at all". Getty Brexit Concerns Lead campaigner Gina Miller and her team outside the High Court Getty Brexit Concerns Raymond McCord holds up his newly issued Irish passport alongside his British passport outside the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns SDLP leader Colum Eastwood leaving the High Court in Belfast following a judges dismissal of the UK's first legal challenges to Brexit PA wire Brexit Concerns Migrants with luggage walk past a graffiti on a wall as they leave the 'Jungle' migrant camp, as part of a major three-day operation planned to clear the camp in Calais Getty Brexit Concerns Migrants leave messages on their tents in the Jungle migrant camp Getty Brexit Concerns The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (Adra) which distributes approximately 700 meals daily in the northern Paris camp states that it is noticing a spike in new migrant arrivals this week, potentially linked the the Calais 'jungle' camp closure - with around 1000 meals distributed today EPA Brexit Concerns Migrant workers pick apples at Stocks Farm in Suckley, Britain Reuters Brexit Concerns Many farmers across the country are voicing concerns that Brexit could be a dangerous step into the unknown for the farming industry Getty Brexit Concerns Bank of England governor Mark Carney who said the long-term outlook for the UK economy is positive, but growth was slowing in the wake of the Brexit vote PA Brexit Concerns The Dow Jones industrial average closed down over 600 points on the news with markets around the globe pluninging Getty Brexit Concerns Immigration officers deal with each member of the public seeking entry into the United Kingdom but on average, 10 a day are refused entry at this London airport and between 2008 and 2009, 33,100 people were detained at the airport for mainly passport irregularities Getty Brexit Concerns A number of global investment giants have threatened to move their European operations out of London if Brexit proves to have a negative impact on their businesses Getty Brexit Concerns Following the possibility of a Brexit the UK would be released from its renewable energy targets under the EU Renewable Energy Directive and from EU state aid restrictions, potentially giving the government more freedom both in the design and phasing out of renewable energy support regimes Getty Brexit Concerns A woman looking at a chart showing the drop in the pound (Sterling) against the US Dollar in London after Britain voted to leave the EU Getty Brexit Concerns Young protesters outside the Houses of Parliament in Westminster, to protest against the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU following the referendum Getty Brexit Concerns Applications from Northern Ireland citizens for Irish Passports has soared to a record high after the UK Voted in favour of Leaving the EU Getty Brexit Concerns NFU Vice President Minette Batters with Secretary of State, Andrea Leadsome at the National Farmers Union (NFU) took machinery, produce, farmers and staff to Westminster to encourage Members of Parliament to back British farming, post Brexit Getty Brexit Concerns The latest reports released by the UK Cabinet Office warn that expats would lose a range of specific rights to live, to work and to access pensions, healthcare and public services. The same reports added that UK citizens abroad would not be able to assume that these rights will be guaranteed in the future Getty Brexit Concerns A British resident living in Spain asks questions during an informative Brexit talk by the "Brexpats in Spain" group, about Spanish legal issues to become Spanish citizens, at the town hall in Benalmadena, Spain Reuters Brexit Concerns The collapse of Great Britain appears to have been greatly exaggerated given the late summer crowds visiting city museums, hotels, and other important tourist attractions Getty Brexit Concerns The U.K. should maintain European Union regulations covering everything from working hours to chemicals until after the government sets out its plans for Brexit, said British manufacturers anxious to avoid a policy vacuum and safeguard access to their biggest export market Getty

Professor McKees comments follow warnings from expert groups about the risks of leaving Euratom. Earlier this month the Royal College of Radiologists said it was seriously concerned about access to medical isotopes after Brexit and demanded assurances that current Euratom regulations will continue.

The British Nuclear Medicine Society, meanwhile, said leaving Euratom will impact on the supply and cost of medical radioisotopes and called for greater clarity regarding the future arrangements.

Government ministers have suggested the UK could remain an associate member of Euratom even after it leaves the EU.

However, the organisation falls under the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice, which the UK Government has insisted Britain must leave as part of Brexit.

Professor McKee said the Governments failure to foresee the heath-related consequences of leaving the EU was evidence for EU Commission President Jean-Claude Junckers reported claim that Theresa May is in a different galaxy when it comes to Brexit.

Recent events suggest that nothing has changed, he said, adding that the Government must act immediately to involve the Department of Health in Brexit negotiations and appoint a chief scientific adviser to the Department for Exiting the EU.
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Progress made in reducing the difference in life expectancy between the poorest people in England and the rest of the population may have been derailed by austerity, new research has shown.

An analysis of the health gap between people living in the most deprived 20 per cent of the countrys local authorities and those elsewhere in the country found health inequality has increased since 2010, when a national initiative to reduce the gap came to an end.

A team of scientists from the University of Liverpool said the new study provides the first evidence indicating that the English Health Inequalities Strategy may have reduced geographical health inequalities in life expectancy.

It also raises concerns that current policies are reversing these gains, they said in the study, published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ).

The news comes after health expert Sir Michael Marmot said last week that improvements in life expectancy in Britain have almost ground to a halt since 2010, citing figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The Health Inequalities Strategy ran from 1997 to 2010 and included broad efforts to improve public health in Englands poorest regions by reducing child poverty, regenerating areas and introducing a national minimum wage.

Before this strategy, the gap increased at a rate of around 0.4 months a year on average  0.57 months each year for men and 0.3 months each year for women, according to the researchers.

After 1997, this trend reversed and the gap in life expectancy for men reduced by 0.91 months each year and for women by half a month each year  but since 2010, it has begun to increase again at a rate of 0.68 months each year for men and 0.31 months each year for women.

In the entire period between 1983 and 2015, life expectancy generally increased over this period for all groups; however, between 2012 and 2015 life expectancy declined slightly, particularly in the most deprived local authorities, said the study.

The downturn in life expectancy from 2012 affected both deprived areas and the rest of the country, but this change in trend was greatest in more deprived areas, widening inequalities.

 Five nutrition lies ruining your health

The study, led by Ben Barr, a senior clinical lecturer in applied public health, could be explained through delayed effects of the 2008 financial crash and the recession that followed.

But a more likely explanation is that this is related to the reductions in public spending that occurred since 2010 as part of the Governments austerity programme, they said.

Kate Pickett, a professor in the Department of Health Sciences at the University of York, told The Independent that chronic stress caused by stagnant wages and growing financial inequality can have a rapid effect on peoples mental and physical health.

Austerity increases peoples chronic stress, which is a massive cause of morbidity and mortality. Were seeing increases in stress-related disease, she said.

Cuts to Sure Start centres that provide real support to parents are harmful and stressful. The social care cuts mean that the elderly are spending longer in hospital than they need to, which is a stressful experience, and their health often deteriorates she added.

This one study is part of a growing picture. Things are becoming clearer. There have been similar trends in Spain and Greece of worsening health linked to austerity.

Justin Madders, Labours shadow health minister, said that over a decade of progress has been reversed under this Tory Governments extreme austerity programme, culminating in the inequality gap increasing at an utterly unacceptable rate.

But a spokesperson for the Department of Health said: As the study itself points out, it is impossible to attribute changes in health inequalities to one cause alone  and this Government has taken targeted action with income inequality falling since 2010.

We are investing more than 16bn in local government services over the current spending period to help tackle public health issues  we also have world leading plans to tackle childhood obesity and smoking  major causes of poor health.

The worst jobs for your health Show all 10 1 /10 The worst jobs for your health The worst jobs for your health 10. Surgical and medical assistants, technologists, and technicians Overall unhealthiness score: 57.3 What they do: Assist in operations, under the supervision of surgeons, registered nurses, or other surgical personnel and perform medical laboratory tests. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 88 2. Exposure to contaminants: 80 3. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 69 The worst jobs for your health 9. Stationary engineers and boiler operators Overall unhealthiness score: 57.7 What they do: Operate or maintain stationary engines, boilers, or other mechanical equipment to provide utilities for buildings or industrial processes. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 99 2. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 89 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 84 The worst jobs for your health 8. Water and wastewater treatment plant and system operators Overall unhealthiness score: 58.2 What they do: Operate or control an entire process or system of machines, often through the use of control boards, to transfer or treat water or wastewater. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 97 2. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 80 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 74 The worst jobs for your health 7. Histotechnologists and histologic technicians Overall unhealthiness score: 59.0 What they do: Prepare histologic slides from tissue sections for microscopic examination and diagnosis by pathologists. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to hazardous conditions: 88 2. Exposure to contaminants: 76 3. Exposure to disease and infections: 75 The worst jobs for your health 6. Immigration and customs inspectors Overall unhealthiness score: 59.3 What they do: Investigate and inspect people, common carriers, goods, and merchandise, arriving in or departing from the US or between states to detect violations of immigration and customs laws and regulations. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 78 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 63 3. Exposure to radiation: 62 The worst jobs for your health 5. Podiatrists Overall unhealthiness score: 60.2 What they do: Diagnose and treat diseases and deformities of the human foot. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 87 2. Exposure to radiation: 69 3. Exposure to contaminants: 67 The worst jobs for your health 4. Veterinarians, veterinary assistants, and laboratory animal caretakers and veterinary technologists and technicians What they do: Diagnose, treat, or research diseases and injuries of animals and perform medical tests in a laboratory environment for use in the treatment and diagnosis of diseases in animals. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 81 2. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 75 3. Exposure to contaminants: 74 The worst jobs for your health 3. Anesthesiologists, nurse anesthetists, and anesthesiologist assistants Overall unhealthiness score: 62.3 What they do: Administer anesthetics or sedatives during medical procedures, and help patients in recovering from anesthesia. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to disease and infections: 94 2. Exposure to contaminants: 80 3. Exposure to radiation: 74 The worst jobs for your health 2. Flight attendants What they do: Provide personal services to ensure the safety, security, and comfort of airline passengers during flight. Greet passengers, verify tickets, explain use of safety equipment, and serve food or beverages. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 88 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 77 3. Exposure to minor burns, cuts, bites, or stings: 69 The worst jobs for your health 1. Dentists, dental surgeons, and dental assistants Overall unhealthiness score: 65.4 What they do: Examine, diagnose, and treat diseases, injuries, and malformations of teeth and gums. May treat diseases of nerve, pulp, and other dental tissues affecting oral hygiene and retention of teeth. May fit dental appliances or provide preventive care. Top three health risks: 1. Exposure to contaminants: 84 2. Exposure to disease and infections: 75 3. Time spent sitting: 67

Following Mr Marmots claims, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt challenged the facts on social media, saying that life expectancy was continuing to rise significantly and citing the same statistics quoted by Sir Michael.

Respect Marmot but his graph shows life expectancy for newborn boy is already 61 minutes longer than it was at time of his Today prog interview, wrote the Health Secretary alongside a diagram from UCLs Institute of Health Equity, led by the professor.

Sir Michael responded angrily to the tweet, writing: What are you saying? That ONS got its figures wrong and rise of life expectancy has NOT slowed since 2010? If ONS is correct, lets discuss.
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Nearly twice as many senior nurses left the profession last year than during the same period three years ago, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said.

In the past 12 months, 591 nurses who had been working for 10 years or more decided to quit, compared to 323 in the same months in 2013-14.

Janet Davies, the RCNs chief executive, said staff shortages, relentless pressure and poor pay were to blame for the apparent exodus of experienced nurses revealed by analysis of the organisations membership data.

When these people leave nursing, they are taking years of knowledge and hands-on experience with them, she said.

Patients get the best care when the most experienced nurses work alongside the newly trained. That practice is now at risk.

The news comes after official figures showed staff vacancies across the NHS have risen by more than 10 per cent in the last year, with nearly 40 per cent of unfilled positions for nursing and midwifery jobs.

In March 2017, 30,613 vacant full-time positions were advertised by NHS England  up from 26,424 in the same month in 2016 and 26,406 in 2015.

But Ms Davies said the true number of unfilled jobs is far higher than the number of online adverts, citing a figure of 40,000 in England alone.

 Jeremy Hunt asked why nurses are having to go to food banks

According to the RCN, in 2012-13 only 36 senior nurses among their members left the profession. It said after 10 years of service, the average nurse will earn around 29,000.

Figures released earlier this month by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) show that for the first time in recent history more midwives and nurses are leaving the profession than are joining.

Between 2016 and 2017, 20 per cent more people left the register than joined it. Among nurses first registered in the UK, the figure was 45 per cent.

Nurses are threatening to strike for the first time in history over staff shortages and low pay, which has been subject to the Governments 1 per cent public sector pay freeze since 2010. Around 40 nurses protests will be held across the country today to demand the pay cap be lifted.

Tensions are simmering among ministers over the policy, which has been attacked by the Governments own experts.

The senior civil servants union, the FDA, said the pay freeze, in place until 2020, meant the UKs ability to fill jobs in teaching and the health service could deteriorate rapidly.

Ms May has defended the pay freeze despite senior cabinet ministers calling for it to lifted to ease pressures faced by public sector workers, with Downing Street saying the Government would consider potential wage increases for nurses, police officers and firefighters on a case by case basis.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

Student nurses who started their courses last September and in previous years have had their tuition fees paid by the NHS and could apply for a bursary and grant to help with living costs, as well as accessing a reduced rate student finance loan.

But from this upcoming academic year, they will have to borrow money to cover standard tuition fees of up to 9000 a year  a factor that has been blamed for a 23 per cent slump in applications to nursing and midwifery degree courses.

Between January 2017 and March 2017, a total of 86,055 NHS staff vacancies were advertised, up from 78,112 in the first quarter of 2016.

However, each advert may stand for multiple vacancies or an ongoing recruitment programme, meaning the overall figure is likely to be higher.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: As the Secretary of State has made clear, the support and welfare of NHS staff is a top priority as they do a fantastic job  the Government is committed to ensuring they can continue to deliver world-class patient care.
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Members of the US House of Representatives may have to stay in Washington longer than expected as they await the results of efforts by Senate Republicans to dismantle Obamacare.

The House had been scheduled to start its August recess on Friday afternoon, but House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has instructed members to keep their schedules flexible.

While last votes are currently scheduled to take place tomorrow, Members are advised that  pending Senate action on health care  the House schedule is subject to change, Mr McCarthy's announcement to members reads. All Members should remain flexible in their travel plans over the next few days. Further information regarding potential additional items will be relayed as soon as possible.

Recommended Republican healthcare bill passes crucial hurdle

The House passed a measure in May to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare, but the Senate has been struggling to follow suit.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's current plan is to try to pass a skinny repeal, which would roll back three parts of the ACA: the individual and employer mandates, and the tax that was imposed on medical devices to help fund Obamacare. He can only afford to lose two Republican votes on the bill, which no Democrats are expected to support.

Majority Whip John Cornyn told reporters that the slimmed down repeal probably wouldnt touch Medicaid  a healthcare programme for the poor that moderate Republicans have been concerned about cutting  and that lawmakers would address Medicaid when we conference with the House.

But Mr Cornyn then later suggested that House members could just take whatever limited bill the Senate passes and send it to Donald Trump to sign into law.

Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Show all 10 1 /10 Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images

There doesnt need to be a conference, Mr Cornyn said. There could be an informal conference. The House could take up the Senate bill and pass that, or they could amend it and send it back.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said he fears that the skinny bill  which he called a disaster  will go to the President's desk, rather than to a conference where both chambers of Congress can hammer out an improved measure.

The skinny bill as a replacement for Obamacare is a fraud, Mr Graham said at a news conference with Republican colleagues John McCain and Ron Johnson. All three senators  more than enough to tank the legislation  declared that they will not vote for the skinny bill unless they receive assurances that the measure will go into a conference committee if passed in the Senate.

The slimmed-down Obamacare repeal bill could lead to 16 million more uninsured Americans, according to estimates by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, and increase premiums by about 20 per cent.

A few hours after the senators voiced their concerns, House Speaker Paul Ryan said the lower chamber would be willing to go to conference on the healthcare bill. It is unclear whether his comments have assuaged the Republicans' fears, as they had wanted a guarantee that the House would negotiate the healthcare bill with the Senate if it passed the skinny bill.

After the Senate narrowly voted this week to open up debate on a healthcare bill, Republican leaders have suffered multiple setbacks in their efforts to repeal a pillar of former Democratic President Barack Obama's legacy.

On Tuesday night, Mr McConnells most comprehensive plan to repeal and replace the ACA failed when he only received 43 votes out of the necessary 60.

The Republicans have a 52-member majority in the 100-member Senate.

Then, in a 45-55 vote on Wednesday, senators rejected a measure that would have rolled back major parts of Obamacare without an immediate replacement. That time, Mr McConnell only needed 50 votes to pass the bill.

Mr McConnells multiple failed attempts to pass a healthcare bill show how difficult it has been for him to garner support from members of his own party on a single plan that will uproot the ACA, which Republicans say has driven up premiums and forced consumers to buy insurance they do not want and cannot afford.

Over the past few weeks, moderate Republicans continuously expressed concern about how different versions of the legislation would have caused millions to lose their health insurance following cuts to Medicaid. Meanwhile, conservatives said the proposals did not do enough to erase Obamacare.
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It was a summer evening in 1954 and the Home Secretary, David Maxwell Fyfe, was travelling on the Liverpool to London sleeper train. His accompanying security detail passed him a note from a man called John Wolfenden. Fyfe had been due to meet with Wolfenden the following week but Wolfenden  on seeing Fyfe on the passenger manifest  suggested that he might pop by his compartment and have the conversation now. A half-dressed Fyfe put on an overcoat and invited Wolfenden in.

The conversation that these two men would have  sat side by side on the Home Secretarys sleeping berth  would set in motion a series of events that would lead to Sexual Offences Act 1967 and the partial decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales.

Wolfenden, who recounted this story in his 1976 memoir, discovered that night that he was being invited to chair a new committee to consider the law relating to both prostitution and homosexuality. Both areas brought together issues of morality, legality and debates about the role of the state in regulating sexual behaviour.

John Wolfenden didnt call himself an expert on homosexuality, but got on with the job nonetheless (PA) (PA Archive/PA Images)

A review of the law relating to prostitution was prompted, Wolfenden subsequently wrote, by a growing visibility and persistence of soliciting (prostitution per se was not a criminal offence in itself but a number of 19th-century laws did serve to outlaw loitering or importuning) and a fear that the law was being brought into disrepute. Homosexual behaviour on the other hand was regarded as an unnatural vice  a threat to individuals and society  but also a behaviour attracting a range of different police responses, including the use of agent provocateurs. There was also considerable scope to blackmail homosexual men.

The reason for Wolfendens selection to chair the committee remains unclear. Then vice-chancellor of the University of Reading and a former Oxford don, he speculated that this academic independence perhaps enabled him to be a committee chair. But he was also careful to note in his memoirs that it cannot have been because I was an expert in either of these two subjects [of prostitution and homosexuality].

Despite the historic public silence around homosexuality, it was increasingly breaking through into the public imagination. There were frequent arrests for public sex offences prior to the Sexual Offences Act 1956 drawing upon a combination of 19th-century laws and the common law. This legal landscape prompted a growing number of cases of men being threatened with extortion via fake or real accusations of homosexuality, along with the high-profile trial of journalist Peter Wildeblood and peer Lord Montagu in the 1950s.

In 1953, the actor John Gielgud would find himself in what he would later describe as a disagreeable incident in which he was arrested for cottaging in London. The story of Gielgud soliciting in a public lavatory for sex would be covered in the press but would not ultimately harm his career. He was cheered as he appeared in a new play in Liverpool and then later in London. This suggested the public  albeit the theatre-going one  appeared rather more supportive than the media.

Into this mix, dropped the Wolfenden report in 1957, recommending that homosexual behaviour between consulting adult men in private should no longer be criminalised. The report also indicated that it expected gross indecency to continue to exist as an offence. The permanent secretary at the Home Office told Wolfenden: Dont expect legislation quickly. Ministers, upon being presented with the report, told Wolfenden that he was way out in front of public opinion.

The 1967 act

The civil servants prediction proved pretty accurate. It took 10 years for legislation to transform the Wolfenden recommendations into law. In the meantime, the 1961 film Victim, starring Dirk Bogarde and Sylvia Syms would depict  in a bold cinematic intervention  the very extortion of gay men that Wolfenden had been set up in part to tackle.

The reforming Labour home secretary, Roy Jenkins, would provide private encouragement in order to allow a backbench law to enact Wolfendens recommendations to gain parliamentary time and ultimately, support in the late 1960s. At the third reading, the Sexual Offences Bill 1967 was passed by 101 votes to 16, overcoming a decade of debate and resistance since the Wolfenden report.

With just 11 sections, the 1967 act was a relatively short piece of legislation. Its long title indicated that it was an act to amend the law of England and Wales relating to homosexual acts. The first section would indicate that a homosexual act in private would no longer be an offence, provided that the parties were 21 years of age or older. The second section contained two further caveats that would signify a broader attitude to homosexuality. First, it would be offence when more than two persons took part or are present, and it would be an offence if an act took place in a lavatory to which the public have or are permitted to have access, whether on payment or otherwise.

It is worth noting that the legislation was focused on male homosexuality. Traditionally, the law had been preoccupied with acts of buggery and sodomy and conceptualised these acts as solely male-based. While lesbianism was also considered an unnatural vice, sex between two women was never actually illegal in the UK.

The 1967 act was not a sudden embracing of homosexuality by the law. It was, at best, tentative. The law had found itself intervening when gay men were being either the victims of blackmail or being visible. This law was designed to put male homosexuality out of sight and end it being an issue of public debate. The law on public lavatories regarding the ongoing acts of cottaging, or seeking sex in public toilets, may perhaps seem a historic curiosity today. Yet, the section was restated as recently as 2003 and remains in force. Taken together with the common law on outraging public decency, the law continues to operate today: no two men may have sex in a public lavatory.

In February 2017, two men were arrested in a Newcastle shopping centre toilet, found guilty of sex in a public lavatory by local magistrates and fined 180 and 120 respectively. No reports indicated that any actual sex activity had been witnessed by the public or shopping centre workers but their public naming, shaming and, significantly for both mens futures, criminalising was evocative of an earlier age. It showed that this darker side of the 1967 act continues to have a legacy today in determining what homosexual acts are acceptable under the law and which are not.

The act described homosexual acts as being either buggery or gross indecency, a concept introduced into law in 1885 and restated in the Sexual Offences Act 1956. Gross indecency was designed to criminalise those men where buggery could not be proven and would be the offence that would lead to the criminal convictions of both Oscar Wilde and Alan Turing. The offence remained on the statute book until 2004 when the Sexual Offences Act 2003 came into force, repealing the 1956 act offence. This was the same year that the Civil Partnership Act was passed.

Lord Arran, who had been the shepherd of the 1967 law in the House of Lords, famously stated when the act was passed that gay men should now show their thanks by comporting themselves quietly and with dignity. The quote is sometimes now seen as suggesting his words reflected a broad conservative sentiment. This is true, but Lord Arran, in a collection of his journalistic writing published in 1964, would offer jokes about infidelity and sex, noting that: Sex is the greatest possible fun. But not something to be taken too seriously.

Homosexuality was not just sex, it was in a different category and although it had been decriminalised, it was still very much something to be taken seriously.

The rights era

The 1967 act only decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales. It would take until the passing of the Criminal Justice (Scotland) Act in 1980 for Scotland to come in line, and it would take the Dudgeon v United Kingdom case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg in 1981 for the law to be changed in Northern Ireland in 1982. That case  which found that the continued criminalisation of homosexuality in Northern Ireland breached Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights  would later be cited in the 2003 US Supreme Court decision of Lawrence v Texas, a case that struck down the sodomy laws of 14 states.

The first decade following the passing of the Sexual Offences Act was uneventful. It would be a conflict between the Thatcher government of the 1980s and a growing radicalism on gender and sexuality from Labour-controlled councils in the great cities that would lead to the next major spark in statutory reform.

Rights activist Peter Tatchell campaigning for the repeal of Section 28 in 2000 (PA)

Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988 set out to ban material or teaching that would promote homosexuality. The law, which we might today better associate with Putins Russia, was repealed in 2003. You would have to be currently aged 14 or under to have not been affected by this legislation. It contained two key provisions, stating: a local authority shall not (a) intentionally promote homosexuality or publish material with the intention of promoting homosexuality; and (b) promote the teaching in any maintained school of the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship.

The law simultaneously sent out the government-mandated signal that homosexuality was not something to be promoted and that it could not constitute a real family, only a pretend one.

While the law was never used as part of a prosecution, it had a chilling effect on the freedom of expression relating to homosexuality. The National Council for Civil Liberties, the forerunner to Liberty, sought to catalogue this impact in its 1989 guide to the law. They noted plays cancelled and LGBT student groups banned from college premises as a result of the law.

The legislation was also significant for sparking the formation of the cross-party LGB (and later LGBT) campaign organisation, Stonewall. The organisation brought together Labours Michael Cashman with the Conservative Matthew Parris along with celebrities including the actor Ian McKellen. It would be this organisation that would be in the campaigning vanguard in the years that followed, often being a lead organisation for consultations between government and the LGBT community.

The Human Rights Act 1998, made law 10 years on from the Local Government Act, was another turning point, signalling the start of a rights-based approach that would ultimately lead to the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Act 2013. In the years following 1998, significant legal reform followed. The age of consent for gay sex would finally be lowered from 18 to 16-years-old in 2000, new employment protections would be passed in 2003, and goods and services protections would come in 2006. Civil partnerships were made law in 2004, the same year as the Gender Recognition Act, followed by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Act in 2008 and subsequent laws to address historic wrongs.

Militant dreams

For some, the same-sex marriage law signalled the end of a journey that had begun in 1967. The then head of gay rights campaign organisation, Stonewall, Ben Summerskill, described the law as the final piece of the legislative jigsaw.

Yet who decided that this was the final picture, the endpoint of gay rights? There was no vote, or consultation on what gay rights should look like. In the march from 1967 to the present day, few stopped to ask where are we going?. In a sense, it speaks to the transformed legal landscape that there are now growing numbers of voices asking this question.

The fight goes on: societal attitudes towards LGBT people can still be improved

Shifting attitudes towards gender and sexuality, notably in the increased embracing of gender-fluid and queer identities is creating a social and political driver for re-evaluating our laws. During the passing of same-sex marriage the then MP, Gerald Howarth referred in Parliament to aggressive homosexuals, later amending it to militant, fearing that the act would lead to further radical reforms. He would subsequently justify his remarks based on the activism of Peter Tatchell, and my own writing.

This radical or militant agenda is activists and academics asking the questions that will shape our next steps following 1967. This shift to greater emphasis on the fluidity of gender and sexuality enables us to now shift the conversation surrounding how we seek to regulate both sex and gender rather than to continue the previous narrative of LGBT rights. In doing so, it also shifts the attitude from something to be bestowed from the state via positive rights to a radical assertion of freedom; of liberation.

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 remains a major watershed in the legal status of homosexuals in the UK, which is why its 50th anniversary has been celebrated so widely in 2017. But it also signalled the start of a journey that has not, and arguably never will, end. A half-dressed home secretary and an academic would change the world from a shared bed. I need to take more rail journeys.

Chris Ashford is a professor of law and society at Northumbria University, Newcastle. This article was originally published on The Conversation (www.theconversation.com)
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It is a command that led the leading atheist Richard Dawkins to claim that the God of the Old Testament was a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser  a genocidal  megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.

For God had ordered the Israelites to slaughter the apparently sinful Canaanites, saying: You shall not leave alive anything that breathes. But you shall utterly destroy them. And, according to a passage in the Old Testament's Book of Joshua, they did just that:

Thus Joshua struck all the land, the hill country and the Negev and the lowland and the slopes and all their kings. He left no survivor, but he utterly destroyed all who breathed, just as the Lord, the God of Israel, had commanded. He left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Moses. (Joshua. 10:40, 11:15)

However, a new genetic study has found that the Canaanites actually managed to survive this purge of their traditional homeland, passing on their DNA over the centuries to their numerous descendants in modern-day Lebanon.

Scientists managed to extract enough DNA from the remains of five people  found in the former Canaanite city state of Sidon and dated to about 3,700 years ago  to sequence their entire genome.

They then compared this to 99 modern Lebanese people and discovered they had inherited about 90 per cent of their genetic ancestry from their ancient forebears.

A paper about the study in the American Journal of Human Genetics said that there had been uncertainties about the fate of the Canaanites.

The Bible reports the destruction of the Canaanite cities and the annihilation of its people; if true, the Canaanites could not have directly contributed genetically to present-day populations, the researchers wrote.

However, no archaeological evidence has so far been found to support widespread destruction of Canaanite cities between the Bronze and Iron Ages: cities on the Levant coast such as Sidon and Tyre show continuity of occupation until the present day.

We show that present-day Lebanese derive most of their ancestry from a Canaanite-related population, which therefore implies substantial genetic continuity in the Levant since at least the Bronze Age.

The degree of genetic closeness between the ancient Canaanites and modern Lebanese people was something of a surprise as the area was repeatedly fought over and conquered by various different groups throughout history, although some of them did leave genetic traces that survive to this day.

Recommended Richard Dawkins responds to the suggestion atheists are violent

One of the researchers, Dr Marc Haber, of The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "The present-day Lebanese are likely to be direct descendants of the Canaanites, but they have in addition a small proportion of Eurasian ancestry that may have arrived via conquests by distant populations such as the Assyrians, Persians, or Macedonians.

He added that it had been a pleasant surprise to be able to extract and analyse DNA from human remains that were nearly 4,000 years old, particularly as they were found in a hot environment.

The Canaanites are roundly condemned in the Old Testament  they were the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, two cities destroyed with fire and brimstone directly by God, according to the Book of Genesis.

While the Bible suggests they were wiped out by the Israelites under Joshua in the land of Canaan, later passages appear to contradict this and state that there were survivors. Some Biblical scholars have argued the passages describing the Canaanites wholesale destruction are hyperbole and inconclusive, and the genetic research would indeed appear to indicate the slaughter was much less extensive than described.

Also known as the Phoenicians, the Canaanites proved to be great seafaring traders and established colonies across the Mediterranean.

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They are also credited with inventing the first alphabet, although ironically few written records have survived the passage of time, so accounts describing them largely come from enemies and rivals, such as the Israelites, Egyptians and Greeks.

The researchers said they hoped genetic techniques could help shed more light on the regions history.

Dr Claude Doumet-Serhal, a co-author of the paper and director of the Sidon excavation site in Lebanon, said: For the first time we have genetic evidence for substantial continuity in the region, from the Bronze Age Canaanite population through to the present day.

These results agree with the continuity seen by archaeologists. Collaborations between archaeologists and geneticists greatly enrich both fields of study and can answer questions about ancestry in ways that experts in neither field can answer alone.
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Tributes have poured in for a young woman whose body was found stuffed in a freezer after she was brutally raped and murdered.

Although the murder of 20-year-old Celine Dookhran has been described as a suspected honour killing, many have taken issue with the term and said that murder should be called just that.

Friends as well as those who had never met Ms Dookhran took to Twitter and Facebook to express their sorrow over the killing of the beautiful aspiring make-up artist, whose body was found at a house in south London.

One woman said: My heart is breaking for #celinedookhran. There is nothing honourable about murdering and raping a young girl for being in love. F**k religion.

Another said: A beautiful young woman lost. Rest well spiritual daughter.

Majahid Arshid, 33, is charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of Ms Dookhran and with the kidnap, rape and attempted murder of a second woman, who survived. Vincent Tappu, 28, is charged with the kidnap of both young women.

The second woman escaped with stab or slash wounds after a terrifying kidnap ordeal which began when she was reportedly dragged from the shower at her home near Wimbledon by two masked men.

Ms Dookhran, an Indian Muslim, is reported to have been in a relationship with an Arab Muslim, who she was planning to marry  a situation which is said to have angered some members of her family.

The teenager was the eldest of three children and was born in Wandsworth, south London. Her cache of nearly 3,500 tweets is packed with beauty advice as well as references to her religion.

Her last tweet, posted eight days before her death, said: Alhamdullilah [praise God] for everything, thats all I can say.

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Followers of Muslim and western backgrounds left messages, including: Innalillahe wainna ilaye rajeeon [We belong to Allah and to Him we shall return.]

Another said: RIP Celine, You did not deserve what has happened, May Allah grant you a place in Paradise. Inshallah.

While another user posted: RIP Celine, you were very beautiful and you will never be forgotten.

Family members described her as a talented and loving daughter who brought them joy and happiness.

We are proud of Celine for everything she had achieved, her family said in a statement.

We were looking forward to seeing a loving, caring and innocent young girl fulfil her potential in life and carry on making us proud, her family added.

We have sincere belief and full confidence that the perpetrators will face the full force of the law.

We ask everyone to pray for both victims and their immediate families, and that the vile individuals involved face the full weight of justice upon them.

Her body was found at a six bedroom property in the leafy suburb of Kingston-upon-Thames on 19 July.

A post mortem examination revealed the cause of Ms Dookhrans death to be a neck wound.

The two accused men appeared at the Old Bailey for a preliminary hearing on Wednesday. Neither entered a plea.

Prosecutor Binita Roscoe told the court the women were attacked by men in balaclavas wielding a taser, who then bundled them into a vehicle.

Describing the terrifying ordeal of the survivor, Ms Roscoe said: Her face and mouth were covered in duct tape. Her hands were tied with cable ties and her feet were tied with rope.

She believes a sock was placed in her mouth. She had heard the deceased who was in the shower screaming. The deceased was brought down tied up.

A provisional trial date has been set for 17 January 2018.

A 29-year-old woman arrested on suspicion of assisting an offender has been released as the investigation continues, the Metropolitan Police said.

A separate investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission is underway because of the short time between the two women being reported missing to police and Ms Dookhrans body being discovered.
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Police investigating the Grenfell Tower fire have concluded there are reasonable grounds to suspect the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and the councils tenant management organisation (TMO) may have committed corporate manslaughter.

Chiefs from both organisations will be formally interviewed by officers as part of the criminal investigation into the tragedy that claimed at least 80 lives.

The Metropolitan Police confirmed to The Independent it had updated those affected by the fire today.

A statement circulated to those involved said an initial assessment of seized material and witness statements had allowed police to conclude that each organisation may have committed the offence.

Both organisations will be questioned under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

We have seized a huge amount of material and taken a large number of witness statements, the letter to those affected by the disaster said.

After an initial assessment of that information, the officer leading the investigation has today notified Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea TMO that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that each organisation may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter under the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Act 2007.

In due course, a senior representative fo each corporation will be formally interviewed by police in relation to the potential offence.

It was unclear which senior figures will be interviewed by police and the legislation does not allow for the arrest of any individual.

A Met Police spokesperson told The Independent: This is a complex and far reaching investigation that by its very nature will take a considerable time to complete.

The Met has made a commitment to the families who lost loved ones in the fire and survivors that they will be kept updated, as far as we possibly can, as the investigation continues.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

As is routine, we will not give a running commentary on this investigation.

Samia Badani, residents association chair for Bramley House  a block that overlooks the tower  told The Independent the move was a positive step forward for the community.

Im very pleased, I think over the years we have had a very good relationship with local police and the relationship with the council is the opposite, she said.

We are so bruised in the community that we needed some reassurances so its a step forward.

It comes after a number of stakeholders from both RBKC and the TMO resigned in the wake of the tragedy over accusations they ignored a catalogue of warnings over fire safety.

The councils chief executive Nicholas Holgate was the first to step down in the aftermath over the boroughs handling of the fire.

Despite my wish to have continued, in very challenging circumstances, to lead on the executive responsibilities of the council, I have decided that it is better to step down from my role, once an appropriate successor has been appointed, he said in a statement on 21 June.

Recommended Grenfell Tower residents confront new Kensington council leader

A week later, TMO leader Robert Black stepped aside to concentrate on assisting with the investigation and inquiry, followed by RBKC leader Nick Paget-Brown and deputy leader Rock Feilding-Mellen just hours later.

Council leader Elizabeth Campbell said she would fully support the Mets investigation.

Our residents deserve answers about the Grenfell Tower fire and the police investigation will provide these. We fully support the Metropolitan Police investigation and we will cooperate in every way we can, she said.

It would not be appropriate to comment further on matters subject to the police investigation.

The news comes after family and friends of five of those killed in the blaze, including two child victims, gathered to remember their loved ones.

The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, joined a congregation in north Kensington, little more than half a mile from the scene of the disaster.

Family members of five of those who died, including Mary Mendy, were joined by the Archbishop of York John Semantu during a memorial service (AFP/Getty) (AFP/Getty Images)

The lives of artist Khadija Saye, her mother Mary Mendy, Berkti Haftom and her 12-year-old son Beruk, as well as five-year-old Isaac Paulos were being celebrated at the ecumenical service in St Helens Church.

The service opened with a recording of Michael Jacksons Heal The World, and the Gospel For Grenfell choir later sang a number of well-known songs including Something Inside So Strong.

Ms Sayes cousin Adelaide Mendy recalled the fear and panic on the night of the fire, and her desperate hope that her relatives would not be caught up in it.

She told those gathered: I felt an excruciating and an almost unbearable pain. I felt powerless at the thought that there was nothing else that I could have done.
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British armed forces heads tweeted their support for transgender soldiers on Wednesday after Donald Trump said he would ban them from serving in the US military.

In a series of tweets, Mr Trump said he had taken the decision because US forces cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

The move reverses former President Barack Obama's policy that loosened restrictions on transgender people serving in the US armed forces.

The Presidents comments were opposed by Rear Admiral Alex Burton, Commander UK Maritime Forces, who tweeted: As a Royal Navy LGBT champion and senior warfighter I am so glad we are not going this way.

He added: We have a justifiably rigorous selection process but it doesn't include discrimination and we're a better fighting force for it.

Second Sea Lord Vice Admiral Jonathan Woodcock said on Twitter he was proud of the Royal Navy's transgender personnel.

They bring diversity to our Royal Navy and I will always support their desire to serve their country, he wrote.

I suspect many who doubt the abilities of our diverse service personnel might be more reluctant to serve than they are to comment.

Mr Trump's move also drew swift condemnation from rights groups as raw prejudice with purely political motives, but it was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.

The White House said it did not know what will happen to transgender service members currently serving in the US military following the announcement.

A Ministry of Defence spokesman said it did not comment on US military recruitment policy.

LGBT+ rights around the globe Show all 9 1 /9 LGBT+ rights around the globe LGBT+ rights around the globe Russia Russias antipathy towards homosexuality has been well established following the efforts of human rights campaigners. However, while it is legal to be homosexual, LGBT couples are offered no protections from discrimination. They are also actively discriminated against by a 2013 law criminalising LGBT propaganda allowing the arrest of numerous Russian LGBT activists. AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Brunei Brunei recently introduced a law to make sodomy punishable by stoning to death. It was already illegal and punishable by up to 10 years in prison AFP/Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Mauritania Men who are found having sex with other men face stoning, while lesbians can be imprisoned, under Sharia law. However, the state has reportedly not executed anyone for this crime since 1987 Alamy LGBT+ rights around the globe Sudan Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal under Sudanese law. Men can be executed on their third offence, women on their fourth Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Saudi Arabia Homosexuality and gender realignment is illegal and punishable by death, imprisonment, whipping and chemical castration Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Yemen The official position within the country is that there are no gays. LGBT inviduals, if discovered by the government, are likely to face intense pressure. Punishments range from flogging to the death penalty Getty LGBT+ rights around the globe Nigeria Both male and female same-sex sexual activity is illegal and in some northern states punishable with death by stoning. This is not a policy enacted across the entire country, although there is a prevalent anti-LGBT agenda pushed by the government. In 2007 a Pew survey established that 97% of the population felt that homosexuality should not be accepted. It is punishable by 14 years in prison Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Somalia Homosexuality was established as a crime in 1888 and under new Somali Penal Code established in 1973 homosexual sex can be punishable by three years in prison. A person can be put to death for being a homosexual Reuters LGBT+ rights around the globe Iraq Although same-sex relationships have been decriminalised, much of the population still suffer from intense discrimination. Additionally, in some of the country over-run by the extremist organisation Isis, LGBT individuals can face death by stoning Getty

But the spokesman added: We are clear that all LGBT+ members of our armed forces play a vital role in keeping our nation safe.

We will continue to welcome people from a diverse range of backgrounds, including transgender personnel.

The MoD said it was unable to confirm how many transgender people served in the UK military.

Additional reporting by agencies
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Thousands of care home residents are being wrongly charged fees of up to 100 a week, in what has been branded a stealth tax on elderly people and their families.

One in four pensioners who are entitled to free care  48,400 people  are being told to contribute towards their care costs to subsidise gaps in care home funding from councils, according to a report by charity Age UK.

The findings suggest families of older people who are eligible for free care  which applies to those with assets of less than 23,250  are being charged thousands of pounds a year in top-up fees  designed only for those who choose a more expensive care home than their council would pay for.

It states that top-ups are at risk of being unfairly exploited, with pensioners families being the biggest losers due to an underfunded care system in which cash-strapped councils in England and Wales are struggling to fulfil their legal duties and provide decent care for older people on council rates.

The law requires that local authorities must ensure that at least one accommodation option is available and affordable within a persons personal budget. Top-up fees are intended to give older people the choice of a higher standard of care home, provided that they or a third party  usually a friend or relative  are able to pay the difference.

But Age UK said it has dealt with hundreds of cases in the past year where an inadequate choice of care homes at the council rate meant families felt they had no real option but to pay top-up fees  ranging from 25 to more than 100 a week  in order to secure a care home place for their loved one.

In one case seen by the charity, the son of an elderly woman arranged a 18-a-week top-up with the council when she moved into a new home, but the new care home then asked him for a separate 300 a week top-up and told him not to tell the council.

The man did tell the council and they contacted the care home staff, who claimed the man had misunderstood.

In another case, the daughter of an elderly woman said her mother had moved into a care home in 2015, where she was funded by her council and was not required to pay a top-up.

But four weeks later, the woman was told her mother could only remain if a top-up of 120 a month was paid  a figure that has since increased to 160 a month. The council said if she couldnt pay the top-up she must look for a home that doesnt require one.

The largest volume of inquiries about top-ups that Age UK received over the past year involved situations where the choice of care home placement at the rate offered by a council was so grossly poor that families felt they had no option but to pay a top-up to secure better accommodation for their elderly relative.

In some circumstances it may be possible for a family to persuade a council to change its mind about what is acceptable accommodation, but in order to do this a family needs to understand the older persons rights  often requiring specialist advice. Age UK urged families to understand their legal rights if they are asked for a top-up.

Caroline Abrahams, the charitys director, said: Families are finding themselves in horrible situations, such as knowing that unless they pay up their older relative will have to live in a care home that is so far away they will be cut off from everyone they know.

In some cases families are being asked to pay a lot more than they can afford and in others we have heard of families under pressure not to dispute an unfair request for a top-up, when their loved one is in hospital and ready to leave, because otherwise it would take even longer for them to be discharged.

She added: In todays cash-strapped care system we fear that third-party top-ups are increasingly a form of stealth tax on families, unfairly exploiting their desire to do right by their loved ones if they need to move into a care home.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 2022 Handout photo issued by Just Stop Oil of a protester who has climbed a gantry on the M25 between junctions six and seven in Surrey, leading to the closure of the motorway PA UK news in pictures 6 November 2022 A grey seal with its pup, at the Donna Nook National Nature Reserve in north Lincolnshire, where they come every year in late October, November and December to give birth to their pups near the sand dunes, the wildlife spectacle attracts visitors from across the UK PA UK news in pictures 5 November 2022 Demonstrators with placards calling for a General Election march near the Houses of Parliament AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 4 November 2022 A peacock is seen in the early winter sunshine in the Dutch Gardens in Holland Park AFP via Getty Images UK news in pictures 3 November 2022 Florence Kasumba, Letitia Wright, Tenoch Huerta and Lupita Nyongo attend the European Premiere of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in London Getty UK news in pictures 2 November 2022 A red squirrel gathers nuts in Pitlochry, Scotland Reuters UK news in pictures 1 November 2022 Englands Tara-Jane Stanley scores their sides seventh try against Brazil during the Womens Rugby League World Cup group A match at Headingley Stadium, Leeds PA UK news in pictures 31 October 2022 GBs James Hall competes during the mens parallel bars qualification at the World Gymnastics Championships in Liverpool AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 October 2022 People dressed in Halloween costumes paddle board along the river Avon in Christchurch, Dorset PA UK news in pictures 29 October 2022 Members of the public take pictures as police officers remove activists from a road during a Just Stop Oil protest, in London Reuters UK news in pictures 28 October 2022 A cosplayer attends the MCM Comic Con London 2022 at the ExCel Centre in London Reuters UK news in pictures 27 October 2022 98-year-old D-Day Veteran Bernard Morgan, whose story is among those featured on the giant poppy wall, during the launch of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

This is hugely unfair and its yet another reason why the Government must live up to its commitment to consult on new proposals on social care later this year.

A Department of Health spokesperson said: This Government is committed to ensuring those in old age receive affordable and dignified care, which is why we backed the sector with an extra 2bn of dedicated funding over the next three years, and committed to consult on new proposals on social care.

While some people choose to top-up their care in order to have a more expensive service, legally the local authority must ensure that people have a genuine choice of accommodation by making at least one option available and affordable within the persons budget.
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Firefighters who battled the Grenfell Tower blaze have spoken of how they were prepared to lay down their own lives to save as many residents from the burning building as they could.

Commanders from the London Fire Brigade recalled the hellish scenes that faced them last month when the 24-storey west London block was engulfed in an inferno of unprecedented scale.

Senior officers Pat Goulbourne and Richard Welch were at the scene and described how every member of their team was prepared to die that night.

Every single person within that building was willing to lose their own life to try to save others. Every single person, Mr Welch told ITV documentary Inside London Fire Brigade.

He said he was first alerted to the disaster early in the morning and knew quickly that the incident was serious.

My pager went off at 1.18am to inform me of a flat fire at Grenfell Tower, he said.

Initially they had six machines there. Then they asked for eight, and then 10, and then 15, 20 and then 25. Im hearing that on the way there, so its becoming really clear that weve got quite a serious incident going on.

One of the first things I did was actually declare it a major incident because I knew we were going to need a lot of help.

In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Show all 51 1 /51 In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police have released images from inside the tower where at least 58 people have died Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by polices what appears to be a stationary bicycle sitting among the ashes In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A still from a video shared by police shows the remnants of a burnt-out bathroom In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Picture showing the lifts on an unknown floor Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency crews outside the front entrance to the tower Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Fire crews inspecting flats in the burnt out tower London Metropolitan Police In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Grenfell Tower is seen in the distance PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A drone flies near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire 'Theresa May Stay Away' message written on the messages of support at Latymer Community Church for those affected by the fire Ray Tang/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire An aerial view of the area surrounding Grenfall tower Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Donated shoes sit in the Westway Sports Centre near to the site of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of support for those affected by the massive fire in Grenfell Tower are displayed on a well near the tower in London AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A local resident stands on her balcony by the gutted Grenfell Tower in Latimer Road Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Messages of condolence are left at a relief centre close to the scene of the fire that broke out at Grenfell Tower, EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A police officer stands by a security cordon outside Latimer Road station Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firemen examine the scorched facade of the Grenfell Tower in London on a huge ladder AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A search dog is led through the rubble of the Grenfell Tower in London as firefighting continue to damp-down the deadly fire AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn comforts a local resident (name not given) at St Clement's Church in west London where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn hugs councillor Mushtaq Lasharie as he arrives at St Clement's Church in Latimer Road, where volunteers have provided shelter and support for people affected by the fire at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn meeting staff and volunteers at St Clementis Church in Latimer Road David Mirzoeff/PA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Firefighters with a dog walk around the base of the Grenfell Tower REUTERS/Peter Nicholls In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emotions run high as people attend a candle lit vigil outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near the 24 storey residential Grenfell Tower block in Latimer Road, West London Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Debris hangs from the blackened exterior of Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman speaks to Mayor of London Sadiq Khan outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman holds a missing person posters near the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Sadiq Khan speaking with a resident James Gourley/REX In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Ken Livingstone walks near the scene of the Grenfell Tower fire Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan is confronted by Kai Ramos, 7, near Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Mayor of London Sadiq Khan speaks to a woman outside Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Yui Mok/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers distribute aid near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Family and friends of missing Jessica Urbano, 12, wearing photographs of Jessica pinned to their t-shirts gather near Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People gather to observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People light candles as they observe a vigil outside St Clement's Church following the blaze at Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People attend a vigil at Notting Hill Methodist Church near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man distributes food from the back of a van near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A firefighter is cheered near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A T-shirt with a written message from the London Fire Brigade hangs from a fence near The Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A young girl on her way to lay flowers near Grenfell Tower Getty Images In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire The remains of residential tower block Grenfell Tower are seen from Dixon House a nearby tower block Getty In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers prepare supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block which was destroyed in a fire REUTERS/Neil Hall In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Volunteers move a car to make space for a lorry picking up supplies for people affected by the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire People distribute boxes of food near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower bloc REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A woman touches a missing poster for 12-year-old Jessica Urbano on a tribute wall after laying flowers on the side of Latymer Community Church next to the fire-gutted Grenfell Tower AP In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire A man looks at messages written on a wall near the scene of the fire which destroyed the Grenfell Tower block REUTERS/Paul Hackett In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Candles and messages of condolence near where the fire broke out at Grenfell Tower EPA In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry a stretcher towards Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Emergency services at Grenfell Tower Rick Findler/PA Wire In Pictures: Grenfell Tower after the fire Police carry out a body from Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building Rick Findler/PA Wire

Mr Goulbourne said he knew on the approach that it would be the job of our lives as he saw flames reaching from the lower floors to the very top of the block.

As I was approaching it, I just knew we had probably the job of our lives on the go because already I could see fire from the lower floors and I couldnt believe I was looking at fire to the top floor, he said.

Ive never seen anything like that, ever. The fire was changing, it was moving rapidly.

You could hear people screaming for help. There were people making signals for help.

It was dreadful. There are hundreds of people in there. Men, women, children were coming out fully sooted. Black. They had been through a layer of smoke in complete distress.

Hundreds of residents were inside the tower when it erupted into flames on 14 June. Many followed the stay put guidance issued by the fire service.

Others fled as choking fumes began to envelope the corridors.

Mr Goulbourne said: We had our hoses going up the staircase. We had people trying to get out coming down the staircase.

Weve got firefighters going up the staircase and the staircase was filling with smoke. So the priority was really to try to reach the flats we knew had people in. The issue we had was the intensity of the fire.

There was the potential for the building to collapse.

At least 80 people died in the blaze of unprecedented scale, with identification efforts still ongoing.

Recommended Grenfell Tower residents confront new Kensington council leader

Commander for the London Borough Steve Dudeney said: There were firefighters laying about with haunted looks in their eyes.

After 30 years in the London Fire Brigade I didnt ever expect to see anything like that. And I pray to God I never will again.

London Fire Commissioner Dany Cotton warned many emergency workers were likely to face psychological trauma following the tragedy.

She said the tough conditions and shocking scenes they faced, including a child being thrown from an upper storey window, had left many traumatised.

She also told how many were forced to make decisions about who to save, as it became clear not everyone would make it out of the building alive.

Inside London Fire Brigade will be broadcast on Thursday at 9pm on ITV.
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More than four in 10 Britons still believe gay sex is "unnatural" half a century after homosexuality was partially decriminalised in the UK, a survey has found.

Forty-two per cent of people who have an opinion on the subject think gay sex is not natural, according to a YouGov poll for Pink News.

Forty-eight per cent believe primary school children should not be taught about same-sex relationships at school and 36 per cent disprove of gay men becoming parents by surrogate, adoption or other methods, the research found.

Pink News chief executive Benjamin Cohen described the results as "depressing".

The Sexual Offences Act 1967 decriminalised sex between men aged over 21 in England and Wales.

It is depressing that 50 years on from the Sexual Offences Act that so many people still think that gay sex is unnatural and that a third oppose gay couples having children," Mr Cohen said.

The poll found supporters of the Conservatives and Brexit were more likely to oppose gay rights than Labour or Remain voters.

Among Brexit voters, 59 per cent said gay sex was unnatural, compared to a quarter of Remain voters.

Sixty-eight per cent of Brexit supporters said children should not be taught about gay relationships in primary school, compared to 29 per cent of Remain voters.

Half of Leave voters did not approve of gay men becoming parents, compared to 78 per cent of Remain voters who generally approved.

The survey found 68 per cent of Conservative voters thought children should not be taught about gay relationships in primary school, compared to 70 per cent of Labour voters and 74 per cent of Liberal Democrat voters who think they should.

London Pride 2017 Show all 14 1 /14 London Pride 2017 London Pride 2017 Revellers in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Portrait gallery take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London EPA London Pride 2017 A man wearing two hats attends the Pride in London Festival Getty London Pride 2017 Protesters demonstrate during the Pride in London Festival in London. This year's London Pride event marks 50 years since homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales under the 1967 Sexual Offences Getty London Pride 2017 The parade passes Nelson's Column as revellers take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London, EPA London Pride 2017 Members of the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) community take part in the annual Pride Parade in London on July 8 AFP London Pride 2017 Revelers enjoy the Pride London Parade in London. The Parade attracts an estimated crowd of 1 million onlookers, while around 26,500 people are taking part in the annual Parade making this the city's biggest one-day event and one of the world's biggest LGBT+ celebrations. AP London Pride 2017 Revellers take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London EPA London Pride 2017 A participant sits on a rainbow coloured flag during the Pride in London Parade in central London PA London Pride 2017 Two men sit on a rainbow flag painted on the pavement at Oxford Circus as revellers take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London, Britain EPA London Pride 2017 Revellers take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London EPA London Pride 2017 A woman from the homeless charity 'Crisis' takes part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London EPA London Pride 2017 Revellers wave their flags as they take part in London Pride, the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) parade in London EPA London Pride 2017 A woman walks past a shop front decorated with the Pride flag colours Getty London Pride 2017 People ride a tube escalator decorated with the Pride flag colours Getty

The poll came as Theresa May acknowledged that people may be sceptical about the Tory record on gay rights but insisted that both she and the party had "come a long way" on the issue.

In comments to mark the 50th anniversary of the Act, the Prime Minister acknowledged "we have been wrong on these issues in the past" but insisted she was proud of the role the Conservatives had played in tackling discrimination in recent years.

The YouGov survey also revealed generational divides in attitudes towards gay rights - with older people less likely to support gay sex, same-sex parenthood, and inclusive relationship education.

Seventy-eight per cent of people aged 18 to 24 said that gay sex was natural, while 69 per cent of those aged 65 and above believe it is not.

Three quarters of those aged above 65 were opposed to same-sex inclusive relationship education compared with 74 per cent of those aged 18 to 24 who supported the policy.

Meanwhile, 64 per cent of those aged 65 plus opposed gay men becoming parents, compared to 84 per cent of those aged 18-24 who were in favour.

"It is gratifying though to know that for younger people, gay relationships are considered perfectly natural and they strongly support gay parents and teaching young people about gay relationships," Mr Cohen said.

He added: "It has long been suggested that Brexit supporters would be likely to be anti-LGBT rights but now we know that there is a potential correlation with voting for Brexit and opposing gay rights."

Gay sex was legalised in Scotland in 1980 and Northern Ireland two years later. The age of consent for gay and homosexual couples became equal in 2000.

The YouGov poll of 1,609 adults was carried out online between July 23 and 24.
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His cell door opened and he jumped straight onto the railings. The prison officer tried to grab him, but he fell head-first. A 10-foot fall. I heard the crack of his neck. Blood coming from his ears and his head. He was in a bad way.

Cody Lachey got used to witnessing disturbing scenes in prison. During his two years behind bars, he found himself cleaning up after an inmate had slashed themselves in their cell, running to the aid of another who had thrown themselves off a balcony and watching countless prisoners suffer mental breakdowns.

The 33-year-old served time in two Manchester prisons  HMP Strangeways and Forest Bank  for charges of witness intimidation, an assault on police and threats to kill. He was released five months ago and has been clear of the crime world since, describing himself as a changed man.

But the agony he witnessed inside, he said, will stay with him forever.

New data revealed on Thursday that the past year has seen an all-time high in prisoner assaults and self-harm, prompting claims the Government has turned prisons into powder kegs. Almost a quarter of prisoners were being held in conditions officially classified as crowded and the number of positive random drug tests reached 9.3 per cent.

Released on 10 February, Mr Lachey provides testimony from beyond the headlines and behind prison bars. During his time in Strangeways, where he spent three months, he was locked up for 23 hours a day. At Forest Bank, he became quickly trusted by senior officers, and was offered a job as a cleaner on the wing.

Being a cleaner meant I wasnt confined to my cell and I saw what went on, he told The Independent. They try their best to stop stories getting out, but the statistics today speak for themselves. The Ministry of Justice is failing prisoners, prisoner officer and prison families alike. Ive seen it with my own eyes.

While working on the wings, Mr Lachey watched a man attempt suicide  and fail with agonising consequences.

It was a normal day, mid-afternoon. The lads were locked up, which was standard procedure, he said. It was a guy known to be a vulnerable prisoner  he was a rapist or a sex offender. Theyre normally housed on their own wing, but because of the overspill, they often end up on general population.

Other prisoners had got wind that he was a sex offender. They had been terrorising him from behind his door, shouting threats, some would try to throw urine through his hatch.

A prison officer opened the door for a visit, and as he opened his cell, the prisoner jumped straight onto the high railings, which are about 10 feet from the ground floor. The prison officer went to grab him by his waist, but he ended up hanging, just dangling from on the railing.

The officer had him by the legs. But as the gravity took hold, the prisoner slipped out of his trousers. He fell  head first. You heard it; the sickening impact. I ran down. He landed just next to the pool table. He was in a bad way. His skull was indented. Blood coming from his ears and his head.

The man was taken to the hospital on a spinal board with fractures to his skull, and Mr Lachey never saw him again. But he was informed by officers that he returned to the same prison several months later, this time in the separate ward  where he should have been placed initially.

Self-harm in prisons reached a new record high of 40,414 incidents in the year to March, up by more than 5,700, while 113 prisoners took their own lives in the 12 months to March 2017  one every three days.

Mr Lachey said he saw many cases of inmates harming themselves, describing one case in which a young man had been left in his cell with thick blood spraying out of his wrists.

This lad was locked up and he wanted to get out of his cell. He had mental health issues. I heard his buzzer was going off but no one had come. I went to look through the hatch on his door, he recalled.

His artery was bleeding. It was spraying out from his wrist. It wasnt trickling out, it was thick, and you could see that the colour was drained from his face.

The scars on his arms from previous self-harm incidents were meaty. His arm had thick, meaty scars. He had smashed his cell up, smashed up his TV. And he was standing there, with his buzzer going. Because of how often these alarms get pressed, prison officers ignore them. He was saying my heads all over the place, I need a nurse, I need meds.

Mr Lachey went down to senior officer and told them. Nurses attended the scene and the young man was taken to hospital.

He said the man had come into the prison as a high-risk inmate, but there hadnt been enough cells designated for high risk prisoners due to over-crowding, so he wasnt placed in one.

This kid was a paranoid schizophrenic, had a personality disorder and he was bipolar, he said. Prison is a scary place as it is. Theyre very volatile and violent places, and if you lock somebody up in that environment, where theyve lost all control and theyre not getting properly medicated, then these things are going to happen.

If the officers wouldve listened to the alarm, he mightve been okay. Its just lucky I was able to look through his flap at that point.

Prison is counterproductive. It doesnt work. Rehabilitation and reform doesnt take place, Mr Lachey said. When I was made a cleaner I thought, because Im in a position of trust; Ill get skills and training to use in the outside world. It didnt happen. I worked seven days a week for 11.25 a week, and got no training.

Last week, the UK prison watchdogs annual report revealed that the dramatic rise in violence, self-harm and drug use in jails over the past year had been coupled with a decline in activities designed to encourage rehabilitation  with education and employment classes in youth jails hitting a seven-year low.

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Speaking at the launch of the report, Peter Clarke, HM Chief Inspector of Prisons, warned that any hope for prison reform would be in vain unless the issues were addressed as a matter of urgency with fundamental shifts in the way local and training prisons are run.

Mr Lachey added: Ive seen a lot of things in my life, but prison for anyone  seeing what you see  can make you feel physically sick.

The things Ive seen inside will stay with me. Ive lived a hard life anyway, but if I said prison hadnt affected me massively, Id be lying. Ive seen so many people get worse once theyre inside. Things need to change.
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The Government has been accused of turning prisons into powder kegs with underfunding, overcrowding and staff shortages as new figures reveal record levels of violence.

Assaults and self-harm reached an all-time high in the past year, according to concerning statistics that also showed that more than 80 inmates were released by mistake or escaped.

Data for England and Wales in the 2016-17 financial year showed 71 prisoners were released in error  the highest number since records started in 2006.

On average, inmates were freed because of blunders more than once a week, including 58 who were released from jail and 13 during escort or at courts.

Another 15 prisoners escaped from custody  four from prisons, eight from contractor escort, and three from National Offender Management Service escort, but none involving the most dangerous category of prisoner.

Escapees are pursued by police but prisoners released in error are not considered to be unlawfully at large, according to the Ministry of Justices report on the figures.

They are not culpable and may be unaware that they have not completed their sentence or have outstanding warrant, it said.

Depending on the circumstances of the case, they may not be actively pursued for return to custody.

 Liz Truss says 'barking dogs' will stop illegal drone deliveries to prisons

A prisoner is officially classed as having been released in error if they are wrongly discharged from an establishment or court when they should have remained in custody.

Examples of errors can include misplaced warrants for imprisonment or remand, recall notices not being acted on, sentence miscalculations or discharging the wrong person on escort.

Assaults increased to a new high of 26,643 incidents in the year to March 2017, mostly between prisoners but including a record 7,159 attacks on prison staff.

Recommended Prison officers permanently banned from striking

The Liberal Democrats accused the Government of turning prisons into powder kegs with scandalous underfunding.

Alistair Carmichael, the partys chief whip, said: What should be places of rehabilitation are now dangerous hotbeds of violence, self-harm and drug abuse.

No prison guard should have to go to work in fear of being seriously assaulted while being outnumbered six to one.

The Government has lost control of our prisons and urgently needs to get a grip.

About 14 per cent of all assaults were classified as serious, with serious assaults on staff have trebling since 2013 to reach 805 in the year to March.

There were 97 suicides, including six women  a small decrease of 10 from the previous year  but self-harm reached a new record high of 40,414 incidents in the year to March, up by more than 5,700.

The figures showed that self-harm is twice as prevalent in female prisons, but incidents in male-only jails were more likely to result in hospital treatment.

There were a total of 316 deaths in prison custody in the 12 months to June, down from 322 in the previous year, including two murders, 189 deaths due to natural causes and 25 that have not yet been classified.

The Liberal Democrats said the Government has lost control of prisons (PA)

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice said the cause of some deaths remained uncertain following toxicology tests and post-mortems, meaning they would not be determined until inquests that can take several months.

The Howard League for Penal Reform said chronic overcrowding and staff shortages were driving a rising tide of violence, human misery [and] chaos.

How many people have to die before action is taken? asked chief executive Frances Crook.

The first step to recovery is to recognise that there is a problem. The second step is to do something about the problem.

By taking bold but sensible steps to reduce the prison population, we can save lives and prevent more people being swept away into deeper currents of crime and despair.

Almost a quarter of prisoners were being held in conditions officially classified as crowded and the number of positive random drug tests reached 9.3 per cent.

The Ministry of Justice said the figure was at its highest level since 2006 but is predominantly driven by more prevalent cannabis use.

The report warned of a resurgence of the drug, with inmates also taking opiates, like heroin and methadone, and buprenorphine, while new testing is being introduced for new psychoactive substances, formerly known as legal highs.

Annual performance rankings show that the number of prisons with the lowest possible rating has risen from six to 10.

The lowest-ranked jails  Bedford, Birmingham, Bristol, Brixton, Guys Marsh, Hindley, Liverpool, Pentonville, Wandsworth and Wormwood Scrubs  are performing at a level that causes serious concern.

The Prison Reform Trust said the latest figures showed that the prison system is nowhere near being safe for those who live and work within it.

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Peter Dawson, the campaign groups director, said: The appalling loss of life and toll of despair requires something more immediate than the promise of more staff and new prisons.

In the short term, the provision of much cheaper and easier access to a legitimate phone system would make a day to day difference  and provide some consolation to the families of prisoners wondering if their loved ones are safe inside.

Campaigners and watchdogs have issued a catalogue of warnings about the state of prisons as safety measures have deteriorated.

Last week, Peter Clarke, the chief inspector of prisons, said staffing levels in many establishments are too low to maintain order and described the conditions some inmates are held in as squalid, dirty and disgraceful.

Ministers have launched a recruitment drive to add 2,500 frontline officers and put in place new measures to tackle the availability of mobile phones and drugs in jails as part of a reform drive.

David Lidington, the Justice Secretary, said improving safety was his top priority after just a month in the post.

These figures reinforce how crucial it is that we make progress as quickly as possible, he added.

As the chief inspector of prisons rightly observed in his annual report last week, we cannot achieve successful reform and rehabilitation unless our prisons are safe and secure  and this is something I am committed to achieving.

I have seen first-hand the challenges our dedicated and hardworking prison staff face. Boosting the frontline is critical to achieving safety and the number of prison officers we are recruiting is rising, with the number of new prison officers joining the service at its highest level since 2010.
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Government plans for immigration after Brexit have been thrown into chaos after immigration minister Brandon Lewis contradicted earlier indications that free movement would continue after March 2019.

Insisting that Britain would no longer adhere to the free movement of people  one of the EUs four freedoms  when it leaves the bloc in spring 2019, Mr Lewis said the UK would have a new immigration system in place in just 20 months time.

There will be a new immigration system in place from the spring of 2019 and that will be outlined in the Immigration Bill that will go through Parliament next year, he vowed.

Just hours earlier, Home Secretary Amber Rudd, his superior, said the flow of EU workers would continue for an implementation period after Britain formally leaves the EU, to ensure that there is no cliff edge for employers  a move welcomed by business leaders.

And, last Friday, Michael Gove, the Environment Secretary, said the UK is willing to allow EU citizens to enjoy free movement for a transitional period after Brexit, expected to last two years.

The impression of confusion at the heart of Government was heightened as it emerged the major report on the impact of changes to the immigration system would not be published until September 2018  just six months before Brexit.

But Mr Lewis told BBC Radio 4s Today programme: Free movement of labour ends when we leave the European Union in the spring of 2019  were very clear about that.

Asked why free trade and single market access would not also end then, Mr Lewis said: Theres a period of negotiation were going through with the European Union at the moment, but were very clear that free movement ends  its part of the core principles, the four key principles, of the European Union  when we leave.

Pressed on whether it was a red line to end free movement in March 2019, he said: Its a simple matter of fact that the four key principles of the European Union include free movement  we wont be a member of the European Union when we leave.

In the interview, the immigration minister also repeatedly failed to say whether the Conservatives would achieve their manifesto pledge to bring migration down to the tens of thousands by the end of this Parliament, in 2022.

Asked several times on Radio 4 whether his department would achieve its manifesto commitment, he replied: Its not a straight-forward issue. We cannot control our net migration levels fully until we leave the European Union.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

The latest statistics show that net long-term migration for EU citizens  the balance between arrivals and departures  was running at an estimated 133,000 last year, a fall of more than a quarter on 2015. But, overall international net migration, including from outside the EU, stood at 248,000 in 2016  considerably above the Governments target.

Diane Abbott, the Shadow Home Secretary, said: There is far too much heat and not enough light about immigration, so any truly objective and well-informed analysis must be welcome.

We already know that immigrants, both EU and non-EU, make a huge contribution to the economy and to wider society. They occupy both high-skilled, high-wage jobs and lower-skilled, lower-paid ones, adding value across a wide range of economic sectors. They help make the UK more internationally competitive, and sectors with staff shortages, such as the NHS, social care and agriculture, would be in serious difficulty without them.

The report should be published. There must be no repeat of the buried Home Office reports into international students, or the Saudi funding of terrorism. And there should be no attempt to reform the immigration system until the report has been published and debated.
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The flow of EU workers will continue for an implementation period after Brexit, the Home Secretary has announced, scrapping plans for tough new rules from March 2019.

In a bid to calm the fears of businesses, Amber Rudd has bowed to pressure to accept the Government cannot have a new immigration system ready for Brexit Day.

Instead, there will be an implementation period when the UK leaves the EU, to ensure there is no cliff edge for employers, the Home Office said. However, officials were unable to provide any detail of how the temporary rules will operate before a consultation in the autumn  which itself has been delayed from the summer.

Nevertheless, the Government  contrary to earlier reports  is still insisting the free movement of EU citizens will end when Britain leaves the EU, in March 2019. That pledge appears to rule out the UK adopting an off-the-shelf model during the transition period, as urged by business leaders worried about a looming worker shortage.

Both membership of the European Economic Area (EEA) and the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) involve accepting free movement.

Despite the confusion, the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) welcomed the promise that a cliff edge will be avoided. Amber Rudd has given EU nationals and their employers some much-needed reassurance, by signalling that any significant changes to the immigration rules for EU citizens will take place in an orderly fashion over time, said Adam Marshall, its director general.

Businesses need clear information to support their existing employees  and to know, right now, who they can hire with confidence over the coming years.

Mr Marshall urged Ms Rudd to make decisions based on firm evidence, input from employers, and a clear understanding of the different requirements facing each region and nation.

However, the uncertainty is set to continue, after the Home Office revealed that a long-promised consultation on a new immigration system has been put back from the summer until the autumn.It is understood that ministers and officials have been unable to agree on the details of the proposals, one of the most crucial and controversial aspects of Brexit.

During and after the referendum campaign, Brexit supporters have repeatedly promised control of our borders, without being able to say how this will be achieved  or which migrants will be turned away. At her Lancaster House speech in January, Mrs May promised control of the number of people who come to Britain from Europe.

Instead, Ms Rudd has commissioned her independent advisers on migration to carry out a detailed assessment of the role of EU nationals in the UK economy and society.

The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) will examine the overall role of migration in the wider economy and how the UKs immigration system should be aligned with a modern industrial strategy.

Ms Rudd said: Leaving the European Union gives us the opportunity to take control of immigration from the EU. We will ensure we continue to attract those who benefit us economically, socially and culturally. But, at the same time, our new immigration system will give us control of the volume of people coming here  giving the public confidence we are applying our own rules on who we want to come to the UK and helping us to bring down net migration to sustainable levels.

The latest statistics show net long-term migration for EU citizens  the balance between arrivals and departures  was running at an estimated 133,000 last year, a fall of more than a quarter on 2015.

Overall international net migration, including from outside the EU, was also down at 248,000 in 2016, but well above the Government's target of below 100,000.
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The EU has reportedly threatened a two-month delay to talks on a post-Brexit trade deal after exit negotiations stalled, in a further blow to Theresa May.

Michel Barnier, the EUs chief negotiator, made the warning at a private meeting in Brussels with EU ambassadors over the divorce bill  a highly contentious issue in the talks.

Mr Barnier reportedly told the ambassadors it would very unlikely that sufficient progress would be made on the exit talks by October and that the councils judgement on beginning trade talks  Theresa Mays priority  could be delayed by two months.

He said the likelihood of starting the future relationship talks in October appeared to be decreasing, one EU official involved in the talks told Reuters.

The official added: Barnier expressed concerns that sufficient progress in October looked difficult now. Mainly because Britain has no position on finances, but also because they dont have positions on other issues as well.

The more they drag on, the less time is left for second phase and special relationship they want.

Asked about the report, a spokesperson for Mr Barnier declined to comment. But in a statement, the Department for Exiting the European Union said it had made good progress on a number of issues.

It added: As the Secretary of State said, it is important that both sides demonstrate a dynamic and flexible approach to these negotiations. Government officials are working at pace and we are confident we will have made sufficient progress by October to advance the talks to the next phase.

On the financial settlement, we have been clear that we recognise the UK has obligations to the EU and that the EU also has obligations to the UK.

In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Show all 12 1 /12 In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier listens at the President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Frank-Walter Steinmeier, President of the Federal Republic of Germany, delivers his speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Michel Barnier, European Chief Negotiator for Brexit reacts during a meeting at the European Parliament in Strasbourg EPA In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Member of the European Parliament and former leader of the anti-EU UK Independence Party (UKIP) Nigel Farage wears socks with Union Jack flag at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty Images In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Nigel Farage, United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) member and MEP, addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcoming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier gestures during speeches at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker (L) speaks with European commission member in charge of Brexit negotiations with Britain, French Michel Barnier at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions European Union's chief Brexit negotiator Guy Verhofstadt, President of the Group of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE), addresses the European Parliament during a debate on Brexit priorities and the upcomming talks on the UK's withdrawal from the EU Reuters In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier delivers a speech during a plenary session at the European Parliament in Strasbourg Getty In pictures: European parliament Brexit discussions The European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France Getty Images

While there has been no official figure on the financial settlement, some estimates have placed the bill as 100bn. So far, the European Commissions Brexit taskforce has not requested a figure  and Britain has not offered one.

It comes after the second round of Brexit talks failed to produce a breakthrough on the issue and on the status of EU citizens. Mr Barnier then warned that talks could not move onto a future trade deal until Britain had provided the clarification needed on both citizens and the divorce bill.

Laying bare his frustration that the UK was not accepting its accounts must be settled, he added: As soon as the UK is ready to clarify the nature of its commitments, we will be prepared to discuss this with the British negotiators.

I know one has to compromise in negotiations but we are not there yet. Thats the financial settlement, lets be very clear. We want clarity on that because we need to be able to work more until we come to areas of compromise.
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Sir Vince Cable has accused Theresa May of being obsessed by an arbitrary target to cut immigration, warning that her posturing has fuelled a dangerous and misleading impression that the issue is out of control.

The new leader of the Liberal Democrats attacked the Governments goal of reducing net immigration below 100,000 a year as amateurish, absurd and having malign consequences including economic and social damage.

Writing in The Independent, Sir Vince argued that the tough line on immigration on which Ms May has built her career has now backfired because she has failed to cut net migration, which is still running at 248,000 a year.

Sir Vince, the former Business Secretary, lifted the lid on his battles with Ms May during the 2010-15 Coalition, when she was Home Secretary.

He claimed she delayed Lib Dem plans for exit checks at borders which would have ensured much more accurate figures on the number of people leaving the UK than the laughably inaccurate airport survey used until recently.

He said her crackdown on overseas students saw 48,000 wrongly and illegally sent home.

Although his Department for Business stopped the more draconian controls, large numbers of foreign students were deterred from coming to the UK, depriving British firms of engineers and scientists.

One of Britains most successful export industries  higher education  was, and is, being sacrificed by Theresa Mays Home Office in pursuit of the immigration target, he said.

The Lib Dem leader respected Ms May as a formidable cabinet opponent, but believes her narrow obsession with the headline immigration figure clouded her judgement.

 David Davis suggests immigration target won't happen during next parliament

He thinks Ms May is acting today as if she were still Home Secretary instead of taking a wider cross-government view of the economic and social impact of immigration that any prime minister should.

Sir Vince, who will make immigration a key theme of his leadership, announced his support for the Drop the Target campaign run by The Independent and Open Britain, the successor to the Remain campaign in last years referendum.

Arguing that the government target to reduce net immigration to the tens of thousands has no remaining credibility, he said: The figure seems to have been plucked out of the air with no evidence base and with no realistic prospect of meeting it.

Recommended May under pressure to drop migration target after Brexit warning

The most damaging consequence of choosing a target in this amateurish and arbitrary way, and then hopelessly missing it year after year, has been a deepening public cynicism feeding the narrative that immigration is out of control.

Sir Vince accused Ms May of causing real anguish for the three million EU citizens living in the UK, by using them as bargaining chips in the Brexit negotiations rather than giving them an unqualified guarantee to remain.

He warned that attempts to curb recruitment overseas to meet the target will lead to economic slowdown as production is disrupted.

A Conservative spokesman said: The Liberal Democrats are desperately trying to re-write history in an attempt to cover up for the fact they have no credible policy on immigration and are completely out of touch with the British people on this issue.

We are putting forward sensible measures that mean we can take advantage of Brexit, gain control of our immigration system and reduce numbers while providing firms with the workforce they need.

The former Business Secretary during his first speech as Lib Dem leader earlier this month

Ministers insist the UK will continue to be an open and tolerant country that welcomes the best and brightest.

They point out that since 2010, there has been a 47 per cent rise in international students applying to Russell Group universities.

Brandon Lewis, the immigration minister, said it remained the Governments long-term aim to bring immigration down to sustainable levels, but could not say when that would be achieved or whether it would happen in the current five-year parliament.

Recommended Thank God the Tories have never said anything about immigration before

He told BBC Radio 4: [It is] our determination to see net migration fall to sustainable levels and we think that is around tens of thousands  its something weve had and continue to have as our long-term aim.

He added: If this was an easy thing to do we would have already done it. We cannot, people know, control our net migration levels fully until we leave the EU.

Ministers argue that a review of EU migration after Brexit by the independent Migration Advisory Committee will ensure the long-term approach demanded by Sir Vince.

Alison McGovern MP, a leading supporter of Open Britain, said: Its hugely encouraging to see MPs from different parties backing this important campaign.

MPs from across Parliament need to make clear to the Government their opposition to the damaging and divisive immigration target.

By rightly seeing the need for a Brexit transitional arrangement, ministers have effectively conceded that the target is unachievable in this Parliament.

They should be straight with the public, drop the target, and acknowledge the vital work EU citizens do in our businesses and our NHS.
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We tend to assume that law is objective and disembodied, but the story of the decriminalisation of homosexuality in the UK shows that it is in fact, like the people who create it, an emotional creature: animated by visceral human feelings  and as far as sexuality is concerned, the chief emotion at work is often disgust.

You dont have to look very hard to see how much it was disgust, not a concern for morality or justice, that shaped the laws governing homosexual activity. In fact, in the UK, homosexuality was long deemed so perverse that to even speak of it in public would stain your character.

Criminal punishments for homosexual activity, which included the death penalty, thrived on disgust for centuries. Introduced by Henry VIII in 1533, the Buggery Act 1533 criminalised the abominable vice of anal sex between men. In his commentaries on the common law of England published in 1765, jurist William Blackstone described buggery as an offence of so dark a nature that the very mention of [it] is a disgrace to human nature.

Colonial statutes (which are still in effect in a number of Commonwealth countries today) referred to sex between men as an act against the order of nature.

In 1895, writer Oscar Wilde was put on trial for gross indecency, a statutory offence introduced in 1885 to punish individuals who engaged in same-sex relationships, without having to prove they had anal sex. In sentencing Wilde for gross indecency, Justice Wills noted:

The crime of which you have been convicted is so bad that one has to put stern restraint upon ones self to prevent ones self from describing, in language which I would rather not use, the sentiments which must rise in the breast of every man of honour who has heard the details of these two horrible trials.

Disgust, again, was the animating principle. In writing about the Wilde trial, philosopher and legal scholar Martha Nussbaum observes that disgust was not simply an excess or unintended consequence of prosecuting sexual offences; it was central to it. Criminal penalties were contingent on the extent to which the person, and the activity they engaged in, could elicit public disgust.

Dealing with disgust

Unsurprisingly, then, the process of decriminalising homosexuality that began in the mid-20th century involved rethinking and redirecting disgust in the law. Following the convictions of famous British citizens such as Alan Turing and Lord Montagu, the UK government commissioned Sir John Wolfenden in 1954 to head up an inquiry to consider the appropriateness of criminalising homosexuality and the treatment of those who were convicted as a result.

In its powerful and widely celebrated report, the Wolfenden Committee noted that revulsion towards homosexuals was an insufficient basis to criminalise their behaviour, since it breached their right to privacy: Moral conviction or instinctive feeling, however strong, is not a valid basis for overriding the individuals privacy.

LGBT in Istanbul Show all 8 1 /8 LGBT in Istanbul LGBT in Istanbul Hakan, 20, is a student of medicine at the university, and after discovering cross-dressing he's currently in a transition process to define his sexual identity, seeing himself either as a gay man or gender queer. His special place is Macka Park, in the central part of Istanbul (Turkey), where he used to have encounters during the night, after the parties around the area of Istiklal Road and Taksim Square. The park is still one of the few locations in the city where straight and homosexual couples meet up during the night for some outdoor sex, in this side of the city. LGBT in Istanbul Celik, 41, is an activist, member of Beyoglu City Council and a Sisli municipality worker at the department of social equality. He chose to be portrayed in Gezi Park, in the heart of Istanbul, where heavy protests happened in the spring of 2013. It was at that time, when he was still a manager for an international company in the retail sector, that he realised it was time for a change: he decided to leave his job and get involved in politics and human rights. Nowadays, Celik is working with lgbti+ refugees, and on lgbti+ rights, in collaboration with the Republican People's Party, the main opposition party in Turkey. LGBT in Istanbul Remi (fake name), 22, was recently exempted from the army conscription service because he is gay and HIV positive, and got the so-called "Pink Paper" (a document certifying the discharge for reasons concerning homosexuality). He decided to hide his face for security reasons. Remi choose Mis Sokak (Mis Street) as his special place: 'It's a famous road full of bars, near Taksim square, and most of them are or were gay friendly.' LGBT in Istanbul Seyhan, 37, theatre actress and performance artist. As a transgender woman both her private and professional life have been complicated by a widespread trans-phobia. Being an artist, though, helped her in many different ways, and years of hard work on stage taught her confidence in herself. Instead of having her picture taken in a place related to a memory, she chose to portrayed in a random street of Istanbul, because to her any public space is important: being visible, being able to walk every single street of the city in total freedom, without any trouble, is the key to every other right. LGBT in Istanbul Avdil, 20, originally from Diyarbakr is a student of Arabic language and culture, activist at HEVI LGBT, an NGO based in Istanbul that supports especially Kurdish LGBT individuals. His special place in the city is the garden of this cafe near Taksim Square, where he met his first love a year ago. When his family discovered he was gay there were big fights between them, but things gradually improved and when Avdil love story finished, after a few months, he could even speak with his mother about his feelings and the problems he had with his former boyfriend. Avdil and his first love remained good friends, though, and are still in touch with each other. LGBT in Istanbul Emre, 35, is an interior designer. He decided to have his portrait taken in Gezi Park, looking on the buildings on Taksim Square because of its symbolic importance. For him and many others, Gezi Protests were a key moment in the history of the LGBTQ movement in the city of Istanbul, when the different souls of the liberal society and the LGBTQ community came together and found in each other the energy to organize, protest and advocate for their rights. LGBT in Istanbul Gokhan, 34, is a video editor for a media company in Istanbul. His special place here is a strip of rocks near the harbor of Kadikoy, on the Asian side of the city, that terminates with a small unmanned radar tower. A few years ago Gokhan was chatting with a possible date on an app, and they decided to meet, all of a sudden and in the in the middle of the night, here. It eventually didn't work between them, in the long run, but the view from this place and the memories of that night stuck with him through the years. Gokhan still goes there, from time to time, sitting on the rocks and thinking about that night, while watching the sun setting behind the golden horn. LGBT in Istanbul Cagla, 27, is the daughter of Zuleyha, a LGBT rights activist. Her special place in Istanbul is this sea walk in the area of Bakirkoy, near where she lives. She decided to have her portrait taken ere, together with her mother, because time ago they had an important discussion in this place: Zuleyha had to get some help because of a momentary nervous breakdown, as At that time she couldn't accept Cagla being a transgender woman. After an afternoon at the hospital, on their way home they stopped in this area, and Zuleyha told Cagla that even if it was going to be difficult, even it it was going to take time, she was not going to give up, because they were family. now Zuleyha is part of LISTAG, a peer support group that helps parents to understand their LGBT kids.

On paper, this was a breakthrough. But instead of liberating homosexuality, the notion of protecting privacy became a legal container for public disgust.

The committee also noted that by confining homosexuality to the bedroom, it could be zoned away to a space where the public would not have to bear the disgust of witnessing it. In fact, the committee emphasised the need to protect children from this corrupting vice; it recommended this be done by setting the age of consent for homosexual activity at 21, several years above the heterosexual boundary.

Ten years after the report, parliament gave effect to these recommendations when it passed the Sexual Offences Act 1967 and partially decriminalised homosexuality in England and Wales. Criminal law still prohibited sexual activity between men aged under 21, and those who had (group) sex in the company of other adults.

Homosexuality, in short, was not cleansed of public disgust. Rather, legal notions of privacy allowed the state to contain homosexuality in a way that would avoid offending the moral sensibilities of a normal (read: heterosexual) public. Disgusting sex was safely confined to the private sphere.

Happily ever after?

Over the last 50 years, the British gay rights landscape has been dramatically reshaped. Same-sex couples have gone from being revolting outlaws to dignified in-laws. They can have anal sex at the same age as those who can have vaginal-penile intercourse; they can get married and have children.

Many of us who are directly affected sentimentalise these as milestones on a march towards a happy ending  a world where we are no longer abused because of who we are or what we do.

Thats perfectly understandable, but we should treat this legalistic narrative of progress with caution. Disgust, after all, is still used to regulate sexual minorities.

Various laws still police public sex and sex work. Thanks largely to the judgement in the notorious Operation Spanner trial of 1990, people who enjoy consensual sadomasochism risk prosecution when their kinky activities result in what the law deems actual bodily harm. Those who find kinship outside the conventional couple remain on the peripheries of legal recognition.

The law is still used to stigmatise and punish identities and forms of intimacy that dont conform to the mainstreams romanticised expectations. Yes, its right to celebrate the legal progress in this area over the last five decades; many of us who would once have been kept in the shadows no longer think of our desires as disgusting or shameful.

But it must be remembered that this was made possible by changes in public emotion, not just the law  and if we want to see further progress, we must ask ourselves why some sexualities still disgust us.

Senthorun Raj is a lecturer at Keele Law School, Keele University. This article first appeared on The Conversation (theconversation.com)
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A young mother has been arrested after her son died after allegedly spending days strapped to a car seat in her home without food.

Lovily K Johnson has been charged with felony murder and first-degree child abuse following the death of her son Noah Edward Johnson at their apartment in Wyoming, Michigan.

Police said Johnson had arrived at the local hospital last week with Noah who was already clearly deceased and had been for some time.

In a statement the force said: Johnson . . . admitted that Noah was under her care and no one elses care for the last four days.

Johnson admitted to being at home multiple times a day during that time frame.

She knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life by not feeding him since Monday evening.

During this time, Noah remained buckled in a car seat on the upper floor of Johnsons apartment with no air conditioning.

The 22-year-old, who is on probation from a conviction for embezzlement from a local business, also has a two-year-old daughter has been placed in temporary social care until she can be put in her paternal grandmothers custody.

The grandmother, who did not want to be named, said she believed Johnson was mentally ill and the system failed her.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

She told Wood TV 8: Its like Im looking at a Law and Order movie. Its not my life.

I think the system failed her. I think the people she wanted to love her failed her.

It feels like people did not do their job. It feels like theyre still not doing their job.

A court petition to remove her daughter from her home revealed Childrens Protective Services had already raised concerns about Johnson.

Following the birth of her daughter in 2015, Johnson reportedly admitted smoking marijuana during her pregnancy and tests showed it in both her daughters, and later Noahs, bloodstream.

It is understood that Johnson has limited contact with the father of her daughter, Marshall White, who pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic violence last year, the Detroit Free Press reported.

The man is believed to be the biological father of Noah but is getting DNA testing done to be sure.

Johnson is believed to have filed a personal protection order against him and a petition for child support.

Lovily appeared in court at Wyoming District Court via video link last week and was remanded in custody.
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Michelle Obama might have been bolstered by enduringly high popularity ratings as First Lady but this does not mean her time in the White House was devoid of difficulties.

Americas first black First Lady endured repeated racism while in the White House. From being branded an ape in heels by a West Virginia official to being told she had a gorilla face by a local Washington mayor, Ms Obama was subject to countless spiteful racially-charged remarks from politicians and commentators.

The 53-year-old, who married Barack Obama in 1992, has now addressed this racism head on during an appearance in Denver on Tuesday.

Sat in an armchair on stage, Ms Obama was pressed about which shards of glass had cut her deepest during her eight years in the White House. She referred to the incident cited above where she was called an ape in heels.

"The shards that cut me the deepest were the ones that intended to cut," the Chicago native replied, according to the Denver Post. "Knowing that after eight years of working really hard for this country, there are still people who won't see me for what I am because of my skin colour."

Michelle Obama as the First Lady Show all 11 1 /11 Michelle Obama as the First Lady Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty Michelle Obama as the First Lady Getty

She added: "Women, we endure those cuts in so many ways that we don't even notice we're cut. We are living with small tiny cuts, and we are bleeding every single day. And we're still getting up."

She restated previous statements that she has no plans to run for President despite many calls for her to do so, prompting boos from the audience, but said her and her husband plan to remain committed to public service.

Recommended Michelle Obama reveals husband wore same tuxedo for eight years

"The people in this country are universally good and kind and honest and decent," she told the audience. "Don't be afraid of the country you live in. The folks here are good."

Ms Obama made the remarks at an event which was part of the Women's Foundation of Colorado's 30th-anniversary fundraising celebration.

This is not the first time Ms Obama has addressed issues of race. In a speech at Jackson State University, a historically black institution in the capital of Mississippi last year, she addressed the persistent shadows of racism. She began by citing personal, quotidian examples of racism before going on to address macro-level structural prejudice.

Ms Obama talked of being pulled over for driving while black, being closely scrutinised while shopping and even having random passers-by actively cross the street to avoid coming into contact with you. But then she drew attention to institutionalised forms of racism.

She said: "Maybe its when the early voting location in your neighbourhood just happens to be closed, or law after law is passed about the kind of ID you need to cast your vote. Maybe its all those schools that, despite the laws, are still very much separate and unequal. Or the criminal justice system that still doesnt provide truly equal justice for far too many!
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North Koreas ability to launch a missile capable of reaching the US is advancing significantly and faster than expected, a top US army official has said.

US general Mark Milley, the chief of staff of the Army, cautioned that "time is running out for a diplomatic solution to the North Korean crisis.

"North Korea is extremely dangerous and more dangerous as the weeks go by, he said in remarks at the National Press Club in Washington DC.

The General pointed specifically to North Koreas launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) earlier this month. Pentagon officials said at the time that the missile, which experts believe is capable of reaching Alaska, was something they had "never seen before".

While that missile is likely not capable of transporting a nuclear warhead, the Pentagon has warned that it could become nuclear-capable as early as 2018  two years earlier than originally predicted. Pentagon officials moved the timeline up in light of the shocking 4 July missile test.

In the wake of that test, US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said America is prepared to use military force against North Korea if necessary.

"One of our capabilities lies with our considerable military forces," Ms Haley said. "We will use them if we must, but we prefer not to have to go in that direction."

In pictures: North Korea military drill Show all 8 1 /8 In pictures: North Korea military drill In pictures: North Korea military drill North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un watches a military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) is seen in this handout photo by North Korea's Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill A military drill marking the 85th anniversary of the establishment of the Korean People's Army (KPA) KCNA/Handout via REUTERS In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video In pictures: North Korea military drill This image made from video of still images broadcast in a news bulletin by North Korea's KRT, shows what was said to be a 'Combined Fire Demonstration' held to celebrate the 85th anniversary of the North Korean army, in Wonsan, North Korea. KRT via AP Video

In testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee earlier this year, Mr Milley warned that war with North Korea would be tragic on an unbelievable scale.

The levels of violence would be immense, the likes of which the world hasnt seen since the Second World War, he said.

The US is currently testing non-military strategies for containing the North Korean threat, including imposing new economic sanctions. A bill passed earlier this week by the House of Representatives would impose fresh sanctions on the country for their ICBM programme.

President Donald Trump has prioritised working with China to solve the crisis, but progress has been mixed.

Earlier this month, upon learning that trade between China and North Korea had grown in the last quarter, the US president tweeted: So much for China working with us - but we had to give it a try!

Just days later, however, he boasted: Just left Chinas President Xi where we had an excellent meeting on trade & North Korea.

Chinas UN Ambassador Liu Jieyi said the two countries are making progress and working hard on a UN resolution for additional sanctions.
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The racial biases of white members of a community have a direct link to the number of black people shot and killed by police officers in that same area, new research indicates.

A study published last year found that African Americans are almost three times more likely than white people to be killed by the polices use of force. Indigenous Americans are also almost three times as likely to suffer such a fate, while Hispanic men are twice as likely.

Now, a new report suggests the biases and prejudices held by white residents in an area has a close correlation to the number of black people who will lose their lives at the hands of officers.

 Black Lives Matter March Thousands Strong Through Manhattan

We expected many economic or demographic variables such as the overall wealth of an area, residential segregation, average levels of education in the area, or overall crime levels, to be involved, said the report's lead author, Eric Hehman.

Yet the researchers - Mr Hehman from Ryerson University in Toronto, Jessica Flake from Torontos York University, and Jimmy Calanchini of Germanys Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg - found implicit bias, or the strength of someones association between specific social groups and threat, was the primary indictor as to the level of lethal force.

Specifically, they added, regional implicit biases toward black people, or the implicit stereotypical association between black people and weapons, predicted African Americans being more likely to be killed by police. Where these biases were stronger, African-Americans were more likely to be killed by police.

[The results] indicate that this is not specifically a problem of police officers, but reveals that there is something about the broader communities and contexts in which these officers make speeded, life and death decisions that is associated with killing more African-Americans, said Mr Hehman.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

The report, published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science (SPPS), considered the ways in which attitudes and stereotypes can spread through conversations, facial expressions and even body language.

To the extent that police officer are exposed to the biases of their fellow residents in their region, they may adopt those attitudes themselves, the report says.

Accordingly, one possibility is that prevailing regional biases might shape police officers own attitudes and their behaviour on the job are a result of those attitudes.

As part of their research, Mr Hehman and colleagues looked at use of lethal force against whites and blacks, and linked it with bias data from Project Implicit at Harvard, a non-profit group attacked to the university that seeks to educate the public about hidden biases and to provide a virtual laboratory for collecting data, and demographics from the 2010 US Census.

In all, they looked at 875 deaths from January 1, 2015 to September 30, 2015. Among these data, black people represented 22.76 per cent of all deaths, but made up just 11.76 per cent of the population.

The research is likely to be seized on by those working to reform a criminal justice system that has been shown to discriminate against men and women of colour.

Yet the researchers say their work needs to be the trigger for more research. They also raise issues that are likely to be controversial.

One interpretation of these results is that white peoples biases create a racially charged atmosphere that contributes to police killing black people disproportionately, they write.

Alternatively, black people in some regions may be more violent when interacting with police, resulting in more justifiable lethal force, in turn influencing the prejudice and stereotypes about black people held by people in the region.

They added: Because of the correlational nature of the analyses, we cannot rule out either interpretation.
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The White House's new head of communications compared repealing Obamacare to the abolition of slavery when he was questioned about Donald Trump's struggle to amend US healthcare legislation.

Anthony Scaramucci insisted the President would be able to push past opposition in Congress to scrap his predecessor's landmark law, which has extended insurance coverage to millions more Americans.

In his first UK television interview, he cited Abraham Lincoln's fight to end slavery as a precedent for Mr Trump's difficulties with Congress.

"It took Lincoln three or four times to get what he wanted from the Senate and the House of Representatives, which was the full abolition of slavery," he told BBC Newsnight's Emily Maitlis.

He added: "That was a much tougher thing to get done than what were working on right now.

Republicans were set to begin their final push on Thursday to unravel Obamacare, seeking to wrap up their seven-year offensive on the Democrat's health reforms.

The leaders hope a pared-down "skinny" bill that repeals several key Obama provisions can gain enough support to pass after several attempts at broader legislation failed to win approval earlier this week.

They were expected to propose scrapping requirements for individuals and employers to obtain or provide health insurance, and abolishing a tax on medical device manufacturers.

Asked about Mr Trump's struggle to secure repeals, Mr Scaramucci said: "It took 22 months for President Obama to get what he wanted from the legislature. Were in the six months of the Presidents presidency. So think about the things we are trying to accomplish inside of one year.

"If we get Obamacare repealed and replaced, which I predict will still happen, and we get a level of tax reform that we havent seen since 1986 and we do that inside of a 12-month period of the presidency, I think that will be remarkable.

The communications director also praised Mr Trump's controversial style, describing him as "a very straight-shooter" who does not indulge in Washington "back-stabbing".

"Where I grew up, in the neighbourhood Im from, were front-stabbers," Mr Scaramucci added.

The White House spokesman added he was "100 per cent" certain there will be a US-UK trade deal after Brexit.

International Trade Secretary Liam Fox has been in Washington to discuss a potential trade agreement and Mr Trump talked up the prospects of a "very big and exciting" deal with the UK.

Asked by Ms Maitlis whether a deal was on the cards, Mr Scaramucci said: "100 per cent. He loves the United Kingdom.

"Think about the special relationship we've had since the inception of this great nation."

He said he had "no idea" about whether a deal would involve chlorine-washed chicken, but added Mr Trump was "about reciprocity, he is about fair and equal trade".
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Donald Trumps administration has reportedly threatened to isolate Alaska after a senator from the state voted against the Presidents health care motion.

Senator Lisa Murkowski was one of seven Republicans who rejected the measure to repeal parts of the Affordable Care Act, one of Mr Trumps key policy pledges, during a vote on Tuesday.

The President reacted angrily to the news, writing on Twitter: Senator Lisa Murkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!

 Trump spokesman compares attempt to repeal Obamacare to abolition of slavery

Later in the day Ms Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, the other Republican senator for Alaska, allegedly received calls from the Department of the Interior warning them that the states future was now under consideration.

The messages, which came directly from the Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, were troubling, Mr Sullivan told Alaska Dispatch News.

"I'm not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop," he said.

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans. We're facing some difficult times, but the message was pretty clear.

Alaskan regulatory issues which require support from the federal government, including permission to expand oil drilling in the National Petroleum Reserve, may now not be approved, it is feared.

Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Show all 10 1 /10 Iran's 'Trumpism' contest Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images Iran's 'Trumpism' contest AFP/Getty Images

Ms Murkowski did not comment on the call, but said she rejected the motion as she believed it had been rushed and did not adhere to a transparent legislative process.

"I base my votes on what I believe is in Alaska's best interest," she said. "So I know that there are those who wish that I would be more in line with following the party platform, but I don't think it should come as any surprise that there have been occasions that I have not followed the lead of the party."

Republican senators voted 51-50 to begin the debate on legislation to dismantle Obamacare, with Vice President Mike Pence casting the deciding vote.

Mr Trump, who seemingly threatened senators to support the bill, praised the result as a major victory.
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Donald Trump's approval rating has slipped below 50 per cent in more than a third of the states that voted for him in last year's election.

A majority of people in 11 Republican-voting states believe he is performing poorly, according to polls carried out by Gallup since the President's inauguration.

Less than half of people in 33 states nationwide think he is doing a good job, the research found.

Those include Texas and Indiana, where Mr Trump comfortably beat Hillary Clinton in November's election, as well as states where he achieved slimmer margins of victory, such as Arizona and North Carolina.

He was given a 40 per cent average approval rating by the 81,000 Americans polled by Gallup between his inauguration and June 30.

The President's worst rating was 26 per cent in Vermont, followed by 29 per cent in Massachusetts. Six in 10 people surveyed in West Virginia and 59 per cent in North Dakota said he was doing a good job, his best ratings.

Mr Trump polled 46 per cent of the nationwide vote in the 2016 election, winning in 30 states.

Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Show all 33 1 /33 Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first 100 days in office were marred by a string of scandals, many of which caught the eye of the Independent's cartoonists Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's first 100 days have seen him aggressively ramp up tensions with his nuclear rivals in North Korea Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has warned of a "major, major conflict" with the pariah nation lead by Kim Jong Un Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump dropped the "mother of all bombs" on alleged ISIS-linked militants in Afghanistan, amid an escalation of US military intervention around the globe Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been accused of falling short of the standards set by his predecessors in the Oval Office, including Franklin D Roosevelt Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The tycoon's ascension to the White House came at a time when the balance of power is shifting away from Western nations like those in the G7 group Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Western politicians, including the British Conservative party, have been accused of falling in line behind Mr Trump's proposals Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Brexit is seen to have weakened Britain, reducing still further any political will to resist American leadership Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump's leadership has been marked by sudden and unexpected shifts in global policy Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Trump's controversial missile strike on Syria, which killed several citizens, was seen by some analysts as an attempt to distract from his policy elsewhere Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The President has also spent a large majority of his weekends golfing, rather than attending to matters of state Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Though free of gaffes, a visit from Chinese president Xi Jinping spotlighted trade tensions between the two states Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One major and unexpected setback came when Mr Trump's Healthcare Bill was struck down by members of his own party Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Mr Trump has been a figure of fun in the media, with his approval at record lows Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A string of revelations about Mr Trump's financial indiscretions did not mar his surge to the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Outgoing President Barack Obama was accused of wiretapping Trump Tower by his successor in America's highest office Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The alleged involvement of Russian intelligence operatives in securing Mr Trump the presidency prompted harsh criticism Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons The explosive resignation of Security Adviser Michael Flynn, who lied about his links to the Russian ambassador, was just one scandal to hit the President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Many scandals, such as the accusation Barack Obama was implicated in phone-hacking, first broke on Mr Trump's Twitter feed Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's election provoked mass protests in the UK, with millions signing a petition to ban him from the country Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump cited a non-existent terror attack in Sweden during a campaign rally Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump stands accused of stoking regional tensions in Eastern Asia Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons North Korea has launched a number of failed nuclear tests since Mr Trump took power Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Theresa May formally rejected the petition calling for Mr Trump to be banned from the UK Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons When Mr Trump's initial so-called Muslim ban was struck down by a federal justice, the President mocked the 69-year-old as a "ridiculous", "so-called judge" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons A week after his inauguration, Theresa May met with Mr Trump at the White House Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's first days in office were marked by a hasty attempt to follow through on many of his campaign promises, including the so-called Muslim ban Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's decision to ban citizens of many majority-Muslim countries from the US sparked mass protests Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Revelations about Donald Trump's sexual improprieties were not enough to keep him from being elected President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was criticised by many in the press for cosying up to the new President Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons One of Mr Trump's top aides, Kelly Anne Conway, was mocked for describing mistruths as "alternative facts" Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons British PM Theresa May was quick to demonstrate that her political aims did not hugely differ from Mr Trump's Donald Trump's first 100 days: in cartoons Donald Trump's inauguration, on 20 January 2017, sparked protests both at home and abroad

His first six months in the White House have been dogged by controversies, including allegations of Russian meddling in the election. He has also struggled to push through key policy pledges, such as the repeal of ObamaCare.

Mr Trump had the worst six-month approval rating of any US President since surveys began, a poll for the Washington Post and ABC News found earlier this month.

He later insisted the 36 per cent rating was "not bad at this time", while also claiming the survey was "just about the most inaccurate poll".
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A former Watergate prosecutor has said that Donald Trumps behaviour in response to investigations into his campaigns alleged ties to Russia cries out guilt.

Nick Akerman, who was part of the Watergate special prosecutor team that eventually brought down Richard Nixon in the 1970s, likened statements coming from the White House and the Presidents son, Donald Trump Jr, to that of Mr Nixons cover-up operation during his scandal.

Everything this president had done cries out guilt, Mr Akerman said in an interview with MSNBC.

The whole investigation, and whats going on here, and the statements being made by the White House people  Kushner, Don Jr, the President  its all being orchestrated by the President, he added. Its not being driven by the lawyers. This is different than a normal criminal investigation.

If they come out and they tell the truth  actually what happened  theyre going to lose their positions of influence. This is the same thing that happened with the Nixon White House and the people on top.

Earlier this week, Mr Trumps son-in-law and White House adviser, Jared Kushner, met with the Senate Intelligence Committee, telling investigators that he neither colluded with Russians nor knew anyone in the campaign who did.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

During the presidential campaign, Mr Kushner attended a meeting in June 2016 meeting with Russians, then-campaign manager Paul Manafort and his brother-in-law, Mr Trump Jr.

Mr Trump Jr released emails revealing that he had agreed to meet with a Russian government lawyer after being promised official documents and information that would incriminate Hillary [Clinton] and her dealings with Russia. In a statement, Mr Trump Jr said the lawyer they met with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, had no information about Ms Clinton and instead wanted to talk about a law that had sanctioned Russians.

In his opening statement to the Senate Intelligence Committee, Mr Kushner said he arrived late to Mr Trump Jrs meeting with Ms Veselnitskaya and quickly determined that his time was not being well-spent by being there.

If you look at the statements that Kushner made and you look at the statement that Don Jr made  what you can see is a very clever setup, whereby Don Jr is taking the fall, Mr Akerman said. He had no choice because he was the one that was on these emails. But yet, he says nothing happened out of that.

Then youve got Jared Kushner, Mr Akerman continued, who minimizes his involvement by saying he came in after they were talking about these incriminating documents and who left before anything else was said, even though he knew he was in a meeting with a bunch of people speaking Russian with a Russian interpreter.

And on top of all of that, you have to look at what happened before and after. It just doesnt make sense.
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Transgender soldiers are daring Donald Trump to kick them out of the military and criticising him for being a "war dodger".

The abrupt ban on transgender people serving in the US military was announced by the US President on Twitter.

At least one openly transgender member of the military has vowed to keep serving despite the ban.

I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military, Staff Sergeant Logan Ireland, of the Air Force, told the Air Force Times.

You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.

We have pilots, we have doctors, we have combat medics, we have security forces members like myself, Mr Ireland, who is married to Army Corporal. Laila Villanueva, a transgender woman, said.

We are everywhere in the military, and for our president to not have a military members back that is willing to die for him blows my mind. And it just makes me very motivated today to continue my training.

Retired Army Sergeant Shane Ortega, who was the first out transgender soldier to serve in the US military, denounced Mr Trump as a "war dodger" with "no connection to reality."

He told Mic: To be quite frank, my first thought was, F**k!

"Trump is a man who is literally a war-dodger, who comes from a life of privilege and silver spoon, who has no connection to reality whatsoever, and I dont know how much more the American public needs to see that.

Mr Trump received five deferments from the military draft during the Vietnam War, four for educational purposes, and one for having a bad foot.

Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP

It is unclear what the ban will mean for currently-serving transgender soldiers.

A Rand Corporation study estimated there were between 1,320 to 6,630 transgender people currently serving in the US military.

Major advocacy groups depicted Mr Trump's pronouncement as an appeal to the portion of his conservative base that opposes the recent civil-rights gains by the LGBT community.

"His administration will stop at nothing to implement its anti-LGBTQ ideology within our government - even if it means denying some of our bravest Americans the right to serve and protect our nation," said Sarah Kate Ellis, president of the LGBT-rights group Glaad.

Transgender military members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-defence secretary Ash Carter.

Mr Trump's vow to end that policy was the latest, and perhaps the most stinging, of a string of actions since his election which have dismayed supporters of LGBT rights.

Additional reporting by AP
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A top military official has said there will be no modification to the military's transgender policy after President Donald Trump announced a ban on transgender service via Twitter.

"There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance," General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a message to military leaders.

He added: "In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect.

Recommended Donald Trump bans transgender people from serving in US army

Mr Trump sparked outcry on Wednesday when he tweeted that the US government would not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

The announcement seemed to take the Pentagon by surprise, despite Mr Trumps claims that he consulted with generals and military experts. Sources told Buzzfeed that many at the Pentagon watched Mr Trumps tweets roll out in suspense, fearing he was preparing to announce military action against North Korea. The Pentagon directed all requests for comment to the White House.

General Mark Milley, the chief of staff of the US Army, said on Thursday he had no advance knowledge of Mr Trump's decision. He added that was not unusual.

"I personally did not, but nor would I have expected to," Milley said while speaking at the National Press Club.

At a press briefing on Wednesday afternoon, Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the White House had not determined what would happen to the more than 2,500 transgender people serving on active duty in the US military.

Implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and the Department of Defense have to work together to lawfully determine, she said, adding that the Department of Defense would keep you posted as that takes place.

Pressed for more detail on the policy, Ms Huckabee Sanders threatened to shut the press briefing down.

Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Show all 8 1 /8 Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AFP/Getty Images Thousands march against Donald Trump in LGBT rights parade AP

Mr Trumps decision ends an Obama-era policy that sought to fully integrate the military by June of 2017. The policy was to be rolled out in waves, first allowing current transgender service members to serve openly and receive medical care.

The Trump administration was in the process of considering the final wave  allowing new transgender recruits to enlist  when Mr Trump made his announcement.

Defense Secretary James Mattis was troubled by the surprise announcement, according to Politico. Sources said he felt no need to rush to a decision, and was awaiting the results of an extensive Defense Department policy review. He had recently requested six more months to consider the roll-out.

Tony Johnson, a national security researcher and former Pentagon adviser, predicted the decision would not go over well with the larger military community, either.

This is a complex issue for the uniformed services, and it is a complex and difficult issue for the policy makers, he told The Independent. But it should be said that in my experience, all those people have been dedicated to the principles and values that the US purports to have, and [purports] to defend across the world.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that Russia will have to "retaliate" against proposed new US sanctions that he has labelled "extremely cynical".

Mr Putin said a response would have to come "at some point," but would depend on the final text of the bill being discussed in the US Senate.

The bill, which passed the House by a wide margin this week, targets Russia for alleged interference in the recent US election. It also proposes sanctions on North Korea and Iran for their ballistic missile programmes.

Recommended Vladimir Putin says he may not leave Russian presidency

Mr Putin, speaking in Finland on Thursday, said the sanctions are "absolutely illegal from the point of view on international law".

The Russian leader is not alone in his thinking.

European Union chief executive Jean-Claude Juncker warned against passing the bill on Wednesday, saying: "America First cannot mean that Europe's interests come last."

If our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days," he said.

The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Show all 17 1 /17 The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Paul Manafort Mr Manafort is a Republican strategist and former Trump campaign manager. He resigned from that post over questions about his extensive lobbying overseas, including in Ukraine where he represented pro-Russian interests. Mr Manafort turned himself in at FBI headquarters to special counsel Robert Muellers team on Oct 30, 2017, after he was indicted under seal on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. Getty The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rick Gates Mr Gates joined the Trump team in spring 2016, and served as a top aide until he left to work at the Republican National Committee after the departure of former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort. Mr Gates' had previously worked on several presidential campaigns, on international political campaigns in Europe and Africa, and had 15 years of political or financial experience with multinational firms, according to his bio. Mr Gates was indicted alongside Mr Manafort by special counsel Robert Mueller's team on charges that include conspiracy against the United States, conspiracy to launder money, unregistered agent of a foreign principal, false and misleading US Foreign Agents Registration Act statements, false statements, and seven counts of failure to file reports of foreign bank and financial accounts. AP The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation George Papadopoulos George Papadopoulos was a former foreign policy adviser for the Trump campaign, having joined around March 2016. Mr Papadopoulos plead guilty to federal charges for lying to the FBI as a part of a cooperation agreement with Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. Mr Papadopoulos claimed in an interview with the FBI that he had made contacts with Russian sources before joining the Trump campaign, but he actually began working with them after joining the team. Mr Papadopoulos allegedly took a meeting with a professor in London who reportedly told him that Russians had "dirt" on Hillary Clinton. The professor also allegedly introduced Mr Papadopoulos to a Russian who was said to have close ties to officials at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Mr Papadopoulos also allegedly was in contact with a woman whom he incorrectly described in one email to others in the campaign as the "niece" to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Twitter The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Donald Trump Jr The President's eldest son met with a Russian lawyer - Natalia Veselnitskaya - on 9 June 2016 at Trump Tower in New York. He said in an initial statement that the meeting was about Russia halting adoptions of its children by US citizens. Then, he said it was regarding the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. In a final statement, Mr Trump Jr released a chain of emails that revealed he took the meeting in hopes of getting information Ms Veselnitskaya had about Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. He and the President called it standard "opposition research" in the course of campaigning and that no information came from the meeting. The meeting was set up by an intermediary, Rob Goldstone. Jared Kushner and Paul Manafort were also at the same meeting. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jared Kushner Mr Kushner is President Donald Trump's son-in-law and a key adviser to the White House. He met with a Russian banker appointed by Russian President Vladimir Putin in December. Mr Kushner has said he did so in his role as an adviser to Mr Trump while the bank says he did so as a private developer. Mr Kushner has also volunteered to testify in the Senate about his role helping to arrange meetings between Trump advisers and Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Rob Goldstone Former tabloid journalist and now music publicist Rob Goldstone is a contact of the Trump family through the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant, which took place in Moscow. In June 2016, he wrote to Donald Trump Jr offering a meeting with a Russian lawyer, Natalya Veselnitskaya, who had information about Hillary Clinton. Mr Goldstone was the intermediary for Russian pop star Emin Agalaraov and his father, real estate magnate Aras, who played a role in putting on the 2013 pageant. In an email chain released by Mr Trump Jr, Mr Goldstone seemed to indicate Russian government's support of Donald Trump's campaign. AP images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Aras and Emin Agalarov Aras Agalarov (R) is a wealthy Moscow-based real estate magnate and son Emin (L) is a pop star. Both played a role in putting on the previously Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow. They allegedly had information about Hillary Clinton and offered that information to the Trump campaign through a lawyer with whom they had worked with, Natalia Veselnitskaya, and music publicist Rob Goldstone. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Natalia Veselnitskaya Natalia Veselnitskaya is a Russian lawyer with ties to the Kremlin. She has worked on real estate issues and reportedly counted the FSB as a client in the past. She has ties to a Trump family connection, real estate magnate Aras Agalarov, who had helped set up the Trump-owned 2013 Miss Universe pageant which took place in Moscow. Ms Veselnitskaya met with Donald Trump Jr, Jared Kushner, and Paul Manafort in Trump Tower on 9 June 2016 but denies the allegation that she went there promising information on Hillary Clinton's alleged financial ties to Russia. She contends that the meeting was about the US adoptions of Russian children being stopped by Moscow as a reaction to the Magnitsky Act, a US law blacklisting Russian human rights abusers. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Mike Flynn Mr Flynn was named as Trump's national security adviser but was forced to resign from his post for inappropriate communication with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. He had misrepresented a conversation he had with Mr Kislyak to Vice President Mike Pence, telling him wrongly that he had not discussed sanctions with the Russian. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sergey Kislyak Mr Kislyak, the former longtime Russian ambassador to the US, is at the centre of the web said to connect President Donald Trump's campaign with Russia. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Roger Stone Mr Stone is a former Trump adviser who worked on the political campaigns of Richard Nixon, George HW Bush, and Ronald Reagan. Mr Stone claimed repeatedly in the final months of the campaign that he had backchannel communications with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and that he knew the group was going to dump damaging documents to the campaign of Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton - which did happen. Mr Stone also had contacts with the hacker Guccier 2.0 on Twitter, who claimed to have hacked the DNC and is linked to Russian intelligence services. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeff Sessions The US attorney general was forced to recuse himself from the Trump-Russia investigation after it was learned that he had lied about meeting with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Carter Page Mr Page is a former advisor to the Trump campaign and has a background working as an investment banker at Merrill Lynch. Mr Page met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland. Mr Page had invested in oil companies connected to Russia and had admitted that US Russia sanctions had hurt his bottom line. Reuters The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Jeffrey "JD" Gorden Mr Gordon met with Russian Ambassador to the US Sergey Kislyak during the 2016 Republian National Convention to discuss how the US and Russia could work together to combat Islamist extremism should then-Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump win the election. The meeting came days before a massive leak of DNC emails that has been connected to Russia. Creative Commons The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation James Comey Mr Comey was fired from his post as head of the FBI by President Donald Trump. The timing of Mr Comey's firing raised questions around whether or not the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign may have played a role in the decision. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Preet Bharara Mr Bahara refused, alongside 46 other US district attorney's across the country, to resign once President Donald Trump took office after previous assurances from Mr Trump that he would keep his job. Mr Bahara had been heading up several investigations including one into one of President Donald Trump's favorite cable television channels Fox News. Several investigations would lead back to that district, too, including those into Mr Trump's campaign ties to Russia, and Mr Trump's assertion that Trump Tower was wiretapped on orders from his predecessor. Getty Images The biggest names involved in the Trump-Russia investigation Sally Yates Ms Yates, a former Deputy Attorney General, was running the Justice Department while President Donald Trump's pick for attorney general awaited confirmation. Ms Yates was later fired by Mr Trump from her temporary post over her refusal to implement Mr Trump's first travel ban. She had also warned the White House about potential ties former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn to Russia after discovering those ties during the FBI's investigation into the Trump campaign's connections to Russia. Getty Images

The bill would allow the US to sanction any company involved in Russia's energy export pipelines  a threat to the construction of a major natural gas pipeline between Russia and Germany, which boasts several European investors.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also condemned the sanctions via a spokesman, calling it "peculiar" that sanctions aimed at Russia could wind up hurting European companies. Berlin has deemed the penalties illegal extraterritorial sanctions against European companies".

House and Senate leaders arrived at an agreement on the bill on Thursday, meaning it will likely be taken up by the Senate before their August recess.

US President Donald Trump has not indicated whether or not he will veto the bill, which reduces his power to relieve sanctions on Russia. Anthony Scaramucci, the white house communications director, suggested on CNN that the President may veto the measure in an attempt to "negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians" himself.

The Senate, however, has already passed an earlier version of their bill by a 98-2 margin  enough to override a presidential veto.

"Passing the bill on a bipartisan basis will send a strong signal to the White House that the Kremlin needs to be held accountable for meddling in last year's election, Senator Chuck Schumer said.

Three US intelligence agencies have determined with "high confidence" that Russia endeavoured to influence the 2016 election, through a combination of hacking and media messaging. The House, Senate and Justice Department are also investigating whether the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to sway the election in their favour.

Mr Trump has rebuffed all allegations of collusion, and Mr Putin has denied any interference in the US election.

On Thursday, Mr Putin said investigations into Russian hacking were only a symptom of growing anti-Russian hysteria in the United States.
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A woman told three Somali-American women she wanted to kill all Muslims while ordering them to go home during an argument over parking.

Amber Hensley shouted at Rowda Soyan, Sarah Hassan and Laleyla Hassan in the car park of a Walmart in Fargo, North Dakota, as she believed they had parked too close to her car.

Ms Hassan recorded a video of Hensley delivering an angry tirade, which was sent to the police and circulated widely on social media.

Go home, go home, Hensley was heard saying. Were going to kill every one of you f****** Muslims.Why are you in our country? Im an American, youre not.

When Ms Hassan warned she was going to report the incident to the police, Hensley said Do you think the police care?

Hensley said she was terribly sorry for threatening the women in an interview with KVVR but explained when she had become angry. "She had parked way too close to my car and I couldnt get in, when I asked her to move she refused, she said.

I asked her again and she swore at me calling me a fat b****. I informed her that I was a Christian and asked her if she knew who Jesus was, she said f*** Jesus and I lost it.

"But there are absolutely no excuses. I am in tears with regret and will take any form of punishment deemed fit. It was not a Christian-like thing to do at all and wish I could take it back.

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Ms Hassan refuted Hensleys version of events, claiming Hensley initiated the insults and saying they would never insult Jesus in the way she described.

Hensley was reportedly fired from her job at Horab & Wentz, the accountancy firm, in the aftermath of the incident. The company said it had received dozens of complaints about her behaviour.
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A girl aged just five has reportedly been forced into marriage with a 22-year-old man in Pakistan.

Police were called to the ceremony in the village of Raman Shar near Dakhan Town but arrived too late to halt the marriage, according to Pakistani newspaper Dawn.

The groom was reportedly arrested along with his father and the registrar. The little girl is believed to have also been taken into custody along with her mother.

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The newspaper reported that the child and her mother are also set to be prosecuted under the Child Marriages Restraint Act, which sets the minimum marriageable age of a female at 16.

Child, early and forced marriage is widespread in the Islamic country, although there is a lack of reliable data on the issue.

Some surveys have estimated that up to 30 per cent of weddings taking place in the country's Sindh province are forced, child marriages.

Recommended Pakistan council orders rape of girl for crime committed by brother

The charity Girls not Brides believes that 21 per cent of Pakistani women are married by the age of 18, often with little say in the matter.

The Pakistani National Assembly rejected a proposal to raise the minimum marriageable age for females to 18, in line with that for males.

In a recent series of widely criticised rulings, the Council of Islamic Ideology, a constitutional body which gives Islamic legal advice to the Pakistani Government, declared that laws prohibiting child marriage are un-Islamic.
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Thousands of worshippers have returned to the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem after a two-week standoff over Israeli security measures imposed on the site.

There were clashes with police as Muslims entered the holy compound  known as Temple Mount in Judaism and Haram al-Sharif in Islam  with security forces using stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets in an attempt to control the crowd, injuring 113 people.

Sound bombs were also used as the crowd tried to surge through both the Hutta and Lion's Gates. The violence reportedly broke out after one of the gates was closed in an attempt to control the crowd flow.

Worshippers were urged to return for afternoon prayers on Thursday after the site's religious authority Waqf declared that it was satisfied Israel had removed new security measures such as metal detectors and CCTV cameras.

 Metal detectors removed from holy site by Israel authorities

The Israeli authorities had argued the new security measures were necessary after Palestinian gunmen killed two Israeli police officers near the compound on 14 July.

The decision was met with uproar by Palestinians and Muslims across the world, who viewed it as an Israeli attempt to exert more control over the politically sensitive site.

Muslims pray inside the Haram al-Sharif compound yesterday, known to Jews as the Temple Mount (Getty)

Almost two weeks of tension have followed, including worshippers praying outside al-Aqsa in protest and street clashes which have left at least four Palestinians dead. In the occupied West Bank, a Palestinian attacker killed three Israeli settlers in their home, an attack Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday warranted the death penalty.

In an effort to deescalate the growing crisis  some of the worst bloodshed in Jerusalem in recent years  Mr Netanyahu's cabinet voted to dismantle the security on Monday. The move was seen as a rare victory for Palestinians.

International observers, including the UNs Middle East envoy Nickolay Mladenov, had urged both sides to come to a resolution before Friday prayers, which usually draw tens of thousands worshippers.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada 26973.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26974.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26975.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26976.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26977.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26985.bin Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada 26986.bin Robert Capa/Magnum

Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas had previously called for a day of rage if the status quo at the site had not been reinstated by Friday.

It is not clear if the Waqf's approval  which was supported by the Palestinian political factions  will be enough to diffuse the tensions. The Israeli security forces remain on high alert.

Access to the Temple Mount, or Haram al-Sharif, has always been a hugely contentious issue. While it is located in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967, the Muslim-administered site is operated by neighbouring Jordan in order to avoid conflict.
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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expel Arabic news station Al Jazeera from Israel, claiming the network is "inciting" violence.

Tensions in Jersusalem have flared in recent days, as Palestinians resisted Israel's heightened security measures near the holy Temple Mount compound.

Al Jazeera  which has long been accused of bias against Israel  has covered the issue.

"The Al Jazeera network continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount," Mr Netanyahu wrote in Hebrew in a Facebook post.

I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem.

"If this does not happen because of legal reasons, I will work to legislate the laws required to remove Al Jazeera from Israel.

Israel's introduction of metal detectors outside the holy site prompted deadly clashes.

The government said the measures were needed to prevent weapons entering the holy grounds, following the killing of two Israeli policemen.

Security services said the gunmen had hidden their weapons on the site, which Jews call Temple Mount and Muslims know as Haram al-Sharif.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Four Palestinians were killed in East Jerusalem and the occupied West Bank during angry protests, while three Israelis were killed by a Palestinian claiming retribution.

On Tuesday, Israel removed the metal detectors, saying it planned on replacing them with less obtrusive surveillance.

Al-Jazeera has also faced government censure in neighbouring Egypt when in 2014, the Arab state jailed three al-Jazeera journalistsfor seven years and closed the network's offices. Two have been released but a third remains in prison.

Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emitares and Bahrain, has called for Qatar to close Al Jazeera.
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A militia fighting on behalf of Libyas UN-backed government has warned that Isis militants are regrouping in order to launch a new attack on the city of Misrata, the countrys trade capital.

We have spotted movements by Daesh in the south of Sirte, where they are trying to regroup and break through our forces lines in the south, Mohamed Ghasri, spokesperson and senior commander of the Misrata-based al-Bunyan al-Marsous forces, said on Wednesday.

The militia was a key force in helping drive Isis out of the coastal city of Sirte last year after a gruelling six-month-long campaign aided by US air strikes.

 British MPs hold Cameron responsible over Libya intervention

Al-Bunyan al-Marsous now believes an attack on the port city is imminent as Mr Ghasri warned that his troops have lacked international support to fend off Isis since driving them from Sirte city in 2015.

Isiss leaders in the country are now operating in the southern Sirte countryside. Mr Ghasri did not give details on how many fighters Isis is believed to be readying for a fresh assault on Misrata.

The civil war that has engulfed Libya since the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011 has allowed warlords and extremists to gain footholds across the country.

In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Show all 10 1 /10 In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Isis fighters parade through in Sirte in 2015 In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Islamic State (IS) group jihadists on the outskirts of Libya's western city of Sirte AFP/Getty In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte A photo of a billboard in Sirte, Libya, listing seven rules for women's clothing, saying they must be loose-fitting and undecorated HRW/social media In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Isis militants process down a street in the coastal city of Sirte in Libya this week; the group has heralded Libya as its strategic gateway to attack Europe AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte An Isis lecture on Sharia at the Ouagadougou complex in Sirte, Libya, in 2016. HRW/social media In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte A sign reading "The city of Sirte, under the shadow of Sharia" as smoke rises in the background while forces aligned with Libya's new unity government advance on the eastern and southern outskirts of the Islamic State stronghold of Sirte on 9 June. Reuters In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Fighters loyal to Libya's GNA prepare to launch attacks against Isis as they continue their resistance on the outskirts of the western city of Sirte Getty In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government are seen during clashes with jihadists of the Islamic State (IS) on the western outskirts of Sirte on June 2, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Sirte Forces loyal to Libya's UN-backed unity government fire during clashes with Isis around 14 miles west of Sirte on June 2, 2016. AFP/Getty Images In pictures: Isis' Libyan stronghold of Sirte Isis in Libya

A new round of diplomacy between the internationally recognised government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Serraj and rival eastern commander Khalifa Haftar began on Tuesday. A ceasefire has been implemented  except in the fight against terrorist organisations  and elections are possibly on the table in talks in Paris by the French government.

Faced with a string of military defeats in its caliphate across Syria and Iraq, observers believe Isis will concentrate on its operations in countries such as Libya, which face power vacuums, and step up terror attacks on civilians worldwide.

News agencies contributed to this report
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Jordan's King Abdullah II has slammed Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of a shooting incident in the capital of Amman, calling his behaviour "unacceptable and provocative".

An Israeli guard shot and killed two Jordanians after one of them attacked him with a screwdriver at the Israeli embassy on Monday.

The two countries have been engaged in a diplomatic stand off over Israel's decision to recall the guard home, after the Jordanian authorities said they wanted him for questioning.

 Metal detectors removed from holy site by Israel authorities

Mr Netanyahu's conduct "angers us all, threatens regional security and fuels extremism," the king told a meeting of Jordan's National Policies Council (NPC) meeting at Al Husseiniya Palace on Thursday, calling for the shooter to stand trial.

The Israeli prime minister is required to honour his responsibilities and take the necessary legal measures to ensure that the killer is tried and justice is served, rather than exhibiting political showmanship in dealing with this crime to score personal political points."

Israel shielded the guard in question under the Vienna convention, claiming diplomatic immunity, and Mr Netanyahu praised him for acting "calmly".

The incident has led to protests in Jordan, where a 1994 peace deal with the Jewish state remains deeply unpopular.

Israel: From independence to intifada Show all 7 1 /7 Israel: From independence to intifada Israel: From independence to intifada 26973.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26974.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26975.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26976.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26977.bin Israel: From independence to intifada 26985.bin Robert Capa/Magnum Israel: From independence to intifada 26986.bin Robert Capa/Magnum

The guard and the other embassy staff returned to Jerusalem, where the Israeli authorities were also dealing with a crisis with the Palestinians over access to the holy site known as the Temple Mount to Jews and Haram al-Sharif to Muslims.

The site - a recurrent flash point for Arab-Israeli violence - is located in East Jerusalem, which was annexed by Israel in 1967, but is administered under the auspices of Jordan to avoid conflict.

Tensions have been running high in the city since 14 July, when Palestinian gunmen shot and killed two Israeli police officers, prompting the authorities to install new security measures at the site such as metal detectors and CCTV cameras.

"We have managed the crisis at... Haram Al Sharif after continuous efforts... to contain its ramifications and reopen the mosque in its entirety through our common stand with our Palestinian brethren. It is important to stress the need to ensure full respect of the historical and legal status quo at Al Haram Al Sharif to prevent the recurrence of such crises, the king added.

While the Palestinian authority and the site's religious body Waqf said on Thursday morning they were satisfied Israel had removed the new measures, urging worshippers to end protests outside the al-Aqsa mosque and return to pray inside, fresh clashes erupted during the afternoon's prayers, injuring at least 37.

Observers had hoped the issue would be resolved before Friday, the Muslim holy day, which usually attracts thousands more worshippers and often sees heightened religious violence.

The Israeli security forces remain on high alert.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law ratifying a deal with the Syrian government to allow Russia to keep its airbase in Syria for almost half a century.

The original deal, signed in Damascus in January, set out the terms under which Russia can use its Hmeymim air base in Latakia Province, which it has used to carry out air strikes against forces opposing President Bashar al-Assad.

Mr Putin approved the agreement after the two chambers of the Russian parliament backed it earlier this month, according to the government's official information portal.

 Michael Fallon says UK will support further action in Syria to stop chemical attacks

The document says Russian forces will be deployed at the Hmeymim base for 49 years with the option of extending that arrangement for 25-year periods.

The base has been at the heart of Moscow's military foray since it intervened in the conflict in September 2015, helping turn the tide in favour of Assad, one of Russia's closest Middle East allies.

Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Show all 8 1 /8 Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Sifting through plastic: the workshop uses plastic from bottles and other waste materials to produce liquid and gas fuels. The liquid is refined into gasoline, diesel and benzene fuels, which in turn are sold for domestic and commercial use Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor, 20, at the workshop in the rebel-held and besieged neighbourhood of Douma, Damascus Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Back to basics: a man checks the heat of a pipe pouring with fuel Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor, 20, must keep an eye on the burning plastic inside the workshop in Douma Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste A young man takes a container of the locally made fuel, which can be used for domestic heating and on farms and bakeries Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Abu Fahad on a rest break with his colleagues inside the workshop, where the air is heavy with toxic fumes Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Fuel drips into a container at the workshop. Most locals are glad of the family-run business, which has restored a degree of normality to the region Reuters Syrians make fuel from plastic waste Khodor extracts fuel from plastic in the workshop Reuters

Last week, the Syrian president visited the airfield to inspect weapons, personnel and armoured vehicles.

He was pictured sitting in the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi SU-35.

Additional reporting by Reuters
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The Supreme Court of Saudi Arabia has upheld the death sentences of 14 men who were found guilty of various charges in proceedings which brazenly flouted international fair trial standards, Amnesty International has said.

The 14 individuals were convicted of a range of offences, including armed rebellion against the ruler by participating in shooting at security personnel, security vehicles, preparing and using Molotov Cocktail bombs, theft and armed robbery and inciting chaos, organising and participating in riots, court documents showed.

The men - who were tried en masse, and told the court they had been subjected to lengthy pre-trial detention in which they were tortured into confession - were originally sentenced on 1 June.

The news of the Supreme Courts decision to uphold the lower Specialised Criminal Courts decision became public this week.

By confirming these sentences, Saudi Arabias authorities have displayed their ruthless commitment to the use of the death penalty as a weapon to crush dissent and neutralise political opponents, said Samah Hadid, the organisations director of campaigns for the Middle East.

 What happened when US officials were asked why they criticised Iran but not Saudi Arabia

King Salmans signature is now all that stands between them and their execution. He must immediately quash these death sentences which are a result of sham court proceedings that brazenly flout international fair trial standards.

Saudi Arabia has dealt with unrest - particular in the eastern province of Qatif, home to many of the majority Sunni countrys Shia minority - since the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.

The oil-producing region has been hit by a wave of violence in recent months, including car bombs and shoot outs between armed protesters and soldiers, over plans to demolish and redevelop a 400-year-old traditionally Shia neighbourhood in the town of Awamiya.

Riyadh says terrorists hide in buildings there in order to launch attacks on the security services. Earlier this month, four men from the area were executed on terrorism charges.

10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Show all 10 1 /10 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In October 2014, three lawyers, Dr Abdulrahman al-Subaihi, Bander al-Nogaithan and Abdulrahman al-Rumaih , were sentenced to up to eight years in prison for using Twitter to criticize the Ministry of Justice. AFP/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2015, Yemens Sunni President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi was forced into exile after a Shia-led insurgency. A Saudi Arabia-led coalition has responded with air strikes in order to reinstate Mr Hadi. It has since been accused of committing war crimes in the country. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Women who supported the Women2Drive campaign, launched in 2011 to challenge the ban on women driving vehicles, faced harassment and intimidation by the authorities. The government warned that women drivers would face arrest. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Members of the Kingdoms Shia minority, most of whom live in the oil-rich Eastern Province, continue to face discrimination that limits their access to government services and employment. Activists have received death sentences or long prison terms for their alleged participation in protests in 2011 and 2012. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses All public gatherings are prohibited under an order issued by the Interior Ministry in 2011. Those defy the ban face arrest, prosecution and imprisonment on charges such as inciting people against the authorities. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses In March 2014, the Interior Ministry stated that authorities had deported over 370,000 foreign migrants and that 18,000 others were in detention. Thousands of workers were returned to Somalia and other states where they were at risk of human rights abuses, with large numbers also returned to Yemen, in order to open more jobs to Saudi Arabians. Many migrants reported that prior to their deportation they had been packed into overcrowded makeshift detention facilities where they received little food and water and were abused by guards. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses The Saudi Arabian authorities continue to deny access to independent human rights organisations like Amnesty International, and they have been known to take punitive action, including through the courts, against activists and family members of victims who contact Amnesty. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Raif Badawi was sentenced to 1000 lashes and 10 years in prison for using his liberal blog to criticise Saudi Arabias clerics. He has already received 50 lashes, which have reportedly left him in poor health. Carsten Koall/Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Dawood al-Marhoon was arrested aged 17 for participating in an anti-government protest. After refusing to spy on his fellow protestors, he was tortured and forced to sign a blank document that would later contain his confession. At Dawoods trial, the prosecution requested death by crucifixion while refusing him a lawyer. Getty Images 10 examples of Saudi Arabia's human rights abuses Ali Mohammed al-Nimr was arrested in 2012 aged either 16 or 17 for participating in protests during the Arab spring. His sentence includes beheading and crucifixion. The international community has spoken out against the punishment and has called on Saudi Arabia to stop. He is the nephew of a prominent government dissident. Getty

In May, Awamiyah was placed under siege-like conditions by the army; residents say several people have been injured or killed in ongoing violence between protesters and the state.

International human rights watchdogs have consistently condemned Saudi Arabias human rights record.

Under the conservative Kingdoms strict Islamic laws, crimes such as murder, rape, drug offences and apostasy all carry the death penalty.

Is it thought the Saudi authorities have executed 66 people so far in 2017 - among the highest death penalty rate in the world.
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Every year in August, a small rural village outside of Mandalay transforms into Burmas unofficial gay village.

Its a chance to meet guys from all across the country, says Moe Kyaw, when its normally hard to find one! He travelled here to Taung Pyone from Bagan five days ago, and is clearly smitten with new boyfriend, Nay Lin. They met here  Nay Lin is the Chair of Myanmar MSM [Men who have Sex with Men] Network, and a font of knowledge about the festival we are here to attend. He points at a plate of fish and sticky rice left on a shrine. Thats for the nat who loves gays, and the gays love her. He adds, She doesnt drink, by way of explaining a lone can of Fanta next to the dish, amidst a tapestry of decorated offerings and booze.

Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Show all 17 1 /17 Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Nat-kadaws or mediums, keep the returned spirits happy, by dancing... Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival ...chain smoking... Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival ...and drinking Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival A new nat-kadaw is compelled to dance as she responds to the spirits whims. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival The festival has become an unofficial gay Pride, a place where gay and transgender people can express their identity more freely. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Mg Mg Kyi, sitting at his shrine, shows how he dresses when possessed by the nat. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival A new nat-kadaw is compelled to dance as she responds to the spirits whims. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival A punk on his way out of the festival at the end of the day. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Mother and son at the festival Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Linn Linn, a nat-kadaw, with his assistant. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival You have to get push through the crowds to leave your offering at the temple. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival A plate of fish and sticky rice is left at a shrine for a nat. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival The festival celebrates two brothers who were executed in the 11th century for failing to provide a brick each for the pagoda wall. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival The public make offerings to the nat-kadaws. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Blessings are exchanged for offerings of alcohol, food and money. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival Being a nat-kadaw is expensive. Gemma Taylor Inside the Taung Pyone Spirit Festival An estimated 250,000 people visit the village for the festival. Gemma Taylor

An estimated 250,000 visitors descend on Taung Pyone Nat Pwe (Spirit Festival), the largest of its kind in Burmas calendar. Nats are spirits which have existed alongside Burmese Buddhist culture since the 11th century. Worshipped across the country, there are 37 in total and they have a little more cheek  and more vices  than the Buddhas.

Most nats, so tradition goes, have met a violent death, and when they revisit earth, they must be kept happy. The Taung Pyone Nat Pwe does that by celebrating two of them  brothers Min Gyi and Min Lay. Its believed they were executed for failing to provide a brick each for the Taung Pyone pagoda, leaving gaps in the walls.

And apparently what keeps Min Gyi and Min Lay happy is chain smoking, dancing, and drinking their favourite tipple.

My nat likes to drink beer, wine, Johnny Walker and champagne, says Mg Mg Kyi, who has been a nat-kadaw, or spirit medium, for 40 years  since he was 13. His first husband fell in love with him when he saw him dance.

Recommended Why banning temple climbing is a good thing for Burma

Most nat-kadaws are gay or transgender. Gay relationships are illegal in Burma, so the festival offers kadaws a few days each year during which they are not just accepted but adored, too. They each set up a shrine for the duration of the festival. Its expensive to be a nat-kadaw, says Kyi. It has to be a new outfit every time  and of course we want to out-bling each other! Along with travel and board, costs soon tot up. Luckily, offerings of food, alcohol, cigarettes and money are happily exchanged for blessings. It pays off in other ways too: Kyis nat-possessed dancing also attracted husbands number two and three. Hes still with all three.

But not everyone believes that nats should be worshipped, perhaps because the carefree partying is incongruous with traditional Buddhism. Chit Ko Ko received reports last year of monks beating gay visitors and nat dancers at the festival. Ko Ko is the founder of the MSM Network, and has set up shop at the festival, offering HIV testing and support to gay and trans people.

One of his friends, Linn Linn, is a nat-kadaw. My family is disappointed as they wanted a strong man, he says, gesturing with his muscles. Linn Linn has been a monk twice, once when I was seven and then again in my twenties. Thankfully theres no sign of hostility this year, and from novice monks to punks, believers, non-believers, young and old, everyone is here to enjoy whats on offer, with delight rather than judgement.

New nat-kadaws are compelled to dance as the spirit takes over (Gemma Taylor)

For visitors like me, the real treat is the dancing. This doesnt get going until the opening ceremony, four days into the festival. It takes place in the main temple, which gets uncomfortably packed. Its not for everyone  Nay Lin and Ko Ko refuse to come with me, saying its too busy, and I soon see what they mean. As I reach the temple, Im swept along by the jostling crowd. Inside I can hardly see a thing  nor can my Go-Pro which conks out under the heat. I make my exit twice: first, being swept down the temple steps by the undercurrent of crowds; second, being pulled out of the fray by a police officer who decides that, as a tourist I need rescuing.

The day after the ceremony is a better time to visit  with fewer crowds Im able to wander round the pop-up streets and happen across performances. Youre meant to tip  or make offerings to  the nat-kadaws as they dance, and a guy from the village checks what I hold in my hand, before nodding approvingly. Cash offerings must be a minimum of 10,000 kyat (5). Anything less will be thrown back at the offerer with mock disdain.

Most kadaws are in their fifties, but new ones emerge every year  and I find myself in the right place at the right time to witness a new embodiment. New mediums are compelled to dance as the nat enters their body  it looks spontaneous to be as outsider, though I would imagine conversations take place about whose turn it is to perform. One guys attempt fails (apparently getting squiffy on Burmese beer before claiming to be embodied is a no-no). He looks on despondently as a trans woman goes next. She needs to be supported, wavering as she adjusts to the spirits whims. Her dance is more salubrious than the other guys though, plus she ignores the pile of money thrown up in the air for spectators to grab, making her a dead cert for a genuine kadaw.

Nat-kadaw Mg Mg Kyi adds a cash offering to his shrine (Gemma Taylor)

As well as money, scents and stifling heat in the air, theres love. Whether with love for a new partner, or simply gratitude for the new experiences, its not just the nat-kadaws who leave richer.

Travel essentials

Getting there

Thai Airways flies from Heathrow to Mandalay via Bangkok from around 800. Mandalay to Taung Pyone usually takes 45 minutes, but this can become anything from four to eight hours by car during the festival. Taking a motorbike taxi can halve your journey time. Ask your hotel in Mandalay to call you one, and take your drivers mobile number and fix a meeting time and place for the return journey. It should cost between 5-8 for the return journey.

Where to stay

There are no guesthouses at Taung Pyone, so youll need to make a day trip from Mandalay. Dreamlands, an art studio and guesthouse, has dorms and private ensuites. Doubles from 12, B&B.

More information

This years festival is slated for 31 July  7 August (it ends on a full moon, which is 8 August this year). However, expect to hear contradictory dates, and do ask around when youre in Mandalay so you can confirm when the opening ceremony is taking place.
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Hitchin to Kings Cross, East Croydon to London Bridge and Manchester to Wigan: those are the most uncomfortable commuter journeys in Britain.

The Independent has conducted exclusive analysis to calculate the degree of discomfort endured by commuters. The Department for Transport (DfT) has published data on overcrowded trains for Autumn 2016, but it has two significant shortcomings.

The first is that no train with a gap of 20 minutes or less between the busiest stations is included. The second is that no account is taken of the length of the journey. So by multiplying the journey time in minutes by the factor by which the train is overcrowded (1 signifies there are as many standing passengers as seats), The Independent has been able to specify the train on which conditions are most inhuman.

1. 8.35am, Hitchin to King's Cross : 28 minutes, crowd factor 1.11, score 31.08

2. 7.59am, East Croydon to London Bridge : 21 minutes, crowd factor 1.13, score 23.73

3. 4.19pm Manchester Oxford Road to Wigan North Western: 24 minutes, crowd factor .87, score 20.88

4. 7.54am East Croydon to London Blackfriars : 21 minutes, crowd factor .93, score 19.53

5. 8.02am, East Croydon to London Bridge : 22 minutes, crowd factor .84, score 18.48

The worst is the 8.35am from Hitchin to London Kings Cross, which has more than twice as many passengers than available seats for the 28-minute journey to the capital. The DfT says: This service is currently operated as a four-car train. Once the government funded Thameslink Programme has been completed in 2018 services from Cambridge will transfer to the Thameslink route, and services will be operated as eight- and 12-car trains.

The journeys from East Croydon to London Bridge appears in second and fifth place; the 7.59am departure has 113 per cent more standing passengers than seats, while someone waiting three extra minutes would find slightly more breathing space aboard the 8.02am  which has only 84 per cent more passengers than seats.

Third place is taken by the only train that does not serve the capital. The 4.19pm from Manchester Oxford Road to Wigan Northwestern takes 24 minutes, with 87 standing passengers for every 100 seated. The DfT says: The train departs Manchester at the beginning of the peak and is considerably faster than alternative stopping services so is very attractive for commuters as well as long-distance passengers to the Lake District and Scotland; the service continues to Edinburgh.

East Croydon, the main intermediate station on the London-Gatwick-Brighton line, makes yet another appearance at fourth, with the 7.54am to London Blackfriars overloaded by 93 per cent.

This service operates as a 12-car train and cannot be lengthened further, says the DfT.

"In 2018 more trains will be provided on routes from south of London to central London and beyond, this additional capacity should relieve pressure on many services.
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Britains second-biggest tour operator is set to run package holidays to Tunisia towards the spring, according to the companys boss.

On Wednesday the Foreign Office took Tunisia of the no-go list, giving a green light to UK holiday companies to run trips to the North African destination once more. The ban had been in force for two years following the murder of 38 people, including 30 British holidaymakers, at a hotel in the resort of Sousse.

Peter Fankhauser, chief executive of Thomas Cook, said: The Foreign Office came to the conclusion that it is again safe to travel. We are setting up a really good-quality offer for Tunisia and this is going to take some time. I suppose that we are going to start during the winter season, but more towards the spring.

Prior to the ban, Thomas Cook was the market leader to Tunisia, sending more than 200,000 passengers a year.

Mounira Ben Cherifa, director of the Tunisian National Tourist Office in the UK, said: We will be communicating with all of our tour operators to see how quickly we can get airlift reinstated. Tunisair has continued to fly from the UK to the capital, Tunis, and currently flies daily from either Heathrow or Gatwick.

Just Sunshine, the leading Tunisian specialist operator, hopes to have holidays on sale by next week. The managing director, Can Deniz, told The Independent: Weve had calls coming in from people enquiring about when tours are going to start. All the hotel contracts are in place. We are in talks with Tunisair to seek allocation on their services into Tunis.

French, German and Italian tourists have returned in large numbers in 2017, with 228,000 from France alone up to 10 July this year. The Tunisian National Tourist Office says almost 12,000 British travellers have arrived in the country. Until now, most will have found that their travel insurance is not valid because of the Foreign Office warning.

Mr Fankhauser was speaking after Thomas Cook released its third-quarter financial results. He said that holidaymakers were returning in large numbers to Turkey, after the country saw a slump due to security concerns. "The pick-up in demand for Turkey we reported earlier in the year has continued, as customers are attracted to the quality and value on offer," he said.
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Air France has bought a large slice of Britains second-biggest long-haul airline, Virgin Atlantic  which has blamed the negative effect of Brexit for the present tough market conditions.

The French airline, which also owns KLM of the Netherlands, is to buy a 31 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic for 220m.

It leaves the Virgin Group with just one-fifth of the airlines equity. Delta will keep a 49 per cent stake in Virgin Atlantic.

The airline founded by Sir Richard Branson in 1984 will retain its identity and independence as a British carrier with a UK operating certificate.

Sir Richard said: This is a fantastic opportunity to extend our network and create a stronger customer champion, as well as being extremely beneficial to our people and the Virgin Atlantic brand that our customers love dearly.

In a separate letter to staff, the Virgin Atlantic president said: Weve had to endure a consistently uneven playing field with British Airways keeping a stranglehold on Heathrow slots, enabling it to feed its long-haul operation from a myriad of short-haul flights across the UK and Europe.

And now we have Brexit, which before its even happened, has had a negative effect on the financial performance of both our holiday company and the airline, principally due to the collapse in the value of the pound.

Jean-Marc Janaillac, chief executive of Air France-KLM, said: With our partners Delta and Virgin Atlantic, we are pleased to reinforce our transatlantic partnership, offering our customers even more choice between Europe, UK and the United States via 12 hubs on both sides of the Atlantic.

Some further convoluted financial transactions are taking place as links between airlines deepen. Delta and the Shanghai-based airline, China Eastern, will each acquire a 10 per cent holding in Air France-KLM, effectively by pumping in a total of 751m (670m).

The plan is likely to get the go-ahead early in 2019.
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Its strange to think but Virgin Atlantic has now been flying for half my lifetime, wrote Sir Richard Branson in his letter to the airlines staff about the sale of 31 per cent to Air France.

I can still remember the day we started when Lord King from British Airways forecasted our early demise, claiming we were too old to rock n roll, too young to fly. Well, together we proved how wrong he was.

Fresh, distinctive, innovative: that sums up the airline created against all the odds by a young record-company mogul.

Recommended Virgin Atlantic sells 31 per cent stake to Air France

Virgin Atlantic has made a massive difference to peoples flying experience and changed the airline industry for the better, says Sir Richard. Hes right. Starting with a single Boeing 747, Virgin Atlantic transformed transatlantic travel: an exclusive bubble on the Jumbo jets for Upper Class passengers, with free inflight massages, and free ice-cream with the movies down below. Europes first premium economy soon followed.

By moving from Gatwick to Heathrow and cherry-picking British Airways prime routes, Virgin Atlantic became a thorn in the flag-carriers side.

BA responded with the so-called Dirty Tricks campaign, hacking into Virgin Atlantics reservations to divert business passengers from Virgins Upper Class to its own cabins; it resulted in what Sir Richard calls the largest libel settlement in British history, divvied up among Virgin employees as a BA Christmas Bonus.

At the turn of the Millennium, the founder pocketed a cool billion pounds by selling a 49 per cent share to Singapore Airlines.

But as the traditional airlines upped their games, and US carriers freshened up financially with Chapter 11 bankruptcy, the skies became more turbulent. After 9/11 and the 2008 economic dive, Virgin Atlantic struggled. Singapore Airlines sold on its holding to Delta, and frequent flyers began to complain that the shots were being called from Atlanta (Deltas HQ) rather than Crawley, where Virgin Atlantic has always had its base. But the airline retained its identity.

Willie Walsh predicted that the Virgin Atlantic brand would disappear within five years as a result, said Sir Richard. Whether childishly or bravely, he also said hed accept a knee in the groin from me if it didnt. Well Willie, that five year point is up this December. And Virgin Atlantic is still flying strong.

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With 80 per cent of the airline in foreign hands, though, it will be a different airline.

Its an industrial-logic led transaction, is how Shai Weiss, chief commercial officer of Virgin Atlantic, described the Air France deal. That leaves little room for a spark of romance. As the move was announced, executives from Air France and Delta talked of removing the seams from air travel  of a common experience across the partners.

Anyone who has endured economy class on Air Frances Caribbean configuration Boeing 777s will be dreading the prospect that Virgin Atlantic might emulate it from Gatwick to Antigua and Barbados. They will hope that Sir Richards vow to keep Virgin Atlantic a British carrier will be more than a geo-political necessity post-Brexit, and that he will keep a hand in guiding the airline he designed as the one hed like to fly on.
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Its not even been two months since mainstream political commentators were found to be desperately out of touch with the British public, but already they are at it again, hyping up false controversies that virtually nobody cares about outside of the Westminster bubble.

The faux outrage generated by the Conservatives, based on their outright lie that Jeremy Corbyn promised to write off historic student debt during the general election campaign, has been carried by some media outlets like the Mail Online, exacerbated by their desperation to find something to write about while Parliament is in recess.

While the press have been happy to regurgitate these attack lines unchallenged, they are yet to make the point that the decision by the Conservatives to focus on student debt is not based on Theresa May, or any other Conservative, actually caring about the debt burden on graduates. Rather, it is a concerted effort to now attempt to undermine Jeremy Corbyns strengths rather than his weaknesses.

During the general election campaign, the Conservatives relentlessly attacked Corbyn for what they perceived were his failings: on his history, on defence, and on security. But the problem with focussing on an opponents weaknesses is that they tend to be priced in by the electorate already, particularly when, as was the case with Jeremy Corbyn, they have been attacked relentlessly on those very issues for a substantial period of time.

 Shadow Chancellor rows back on Jeremy Corbyn's pre-election pledge to 'deal with' student debt

By falsely claiming that Corbyn lied, the strength the Conservatives are attempting to undermine is his honesty. It is indicative of just how far Corbyn has come that the Conservatives see his personal character traits as a threat, building their entire attack strategy around attempting to convince young people that he is just like any other politician, in the hope that this will suppress voter turnout at the next election.

But if their plan is to create disillusionment using the press it will fail, and for a number of reasons. Firstly, young people are less likely to read the Daily Mail, which has been carrying these attacks, but those that do read it are more likely to see through what is blatant propaganda, having done their own research. Some may have even simply googled the NME interview where Corbyn didnt commit to writing off all student debt.

Secondly, Conservative policy  to not even abolish tuition fees let alone look at ways of ameliorating historic student debt  is much worse than Labours. If the attacks carry on all summer, all Labour would have to do when Parliament resumes is call an Opposition Day debate on abolishing tuition fees, forcing a vote. The Conservatives would look absolutely ridiculous voting against the motion, having virtue signalled for weeks by claiming Corbyn is letting down young people.

Instead of making young people feel disillusioned, all that will happen is the demographic the Conservatives are targeting will end up trusting them even less. YouGov found that demographic to be just 17 per cent of 18-24 year olds  as only that proportion thought Corbyn had committed to writing off all student debt before the election. Some of whom wouldnt even have voted Labour anyway.

UK news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 UK news in pictures UK news in pictures 12 November 2022 The City of London Pride Group take part in the parade during the Lord Mayor's Show PA UK news in pictures 11 November 2022 City workers attend a Remembrance Day ceremony at Lloyd's of London, in the City of London, to mark Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of the First World War PA UK news in pictures 10 November 2022 A grey heron lands on the river Dodder in Dublin on a sunny autumn morning PA UK news in pictures 9 November 2022 Australia and Spain play during the Wheelchair Rugby League World Cup group A match at the Copper Box Arena, London PA UK news in pictures 8 November 2022 A migrant attempting to communicate with journalists is pinned against a fence by members of staff, before being taken out of view, at the Manston immigration short-term holding facility, located at the former Defence Fire Training and Development Centre in Thanet, Kent PA UK news in pictures 7 November 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of The Royal British Legion 2022 Poppy Appeal, at Hay's Galleria in central London PA UK news in pictures 26 October 2022 A meerkat explores a pumpkin in the enclosure at Wild Place, Bristol, where some of the animals are having pumpkin treats as part of their environmental enrichment PA UK news in pictures 25 October 2022 King Charles III welcomes Rishi Sunak during an audience at Buckingham Palace, where he invited the newly elected leader of the Conservative Party to become Prime Minister and form a new government PA UK news in pictures 24 October 2022 Rishi Sunak celebrates with Tory MPs outside the Conservative Campaign Headquarters after becoming the new leader of the Conservative Party Reuters UK news in pictures 23 October 2022 The Green Man at October Plenty, Borough Market's annual Autumn Harvest festival, in London, which returns for the first time post pandemic PA UK news in pictures 21 October 2022 Sculptor Peter McKenna puts the finishing touches to a pumpkin that will form part of the Planet A Hebden Bridge Pumpkin Trail in the West Yorkshire town PA UK news in pictures 20 October 2022 Britains Prime Minister Liz Truss delivers a speech outside of 10 Downing Street in central London to announce her resignation AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 19 October 2022 Salmon leap up Stainforth Force on the River Ribble in the Yorkshire Dales as they swim upriver to their spawning grounds during the annual Salmon migration PA UK news in pictures 18 October 2022 Just Stop Oil protesters continue their protest for a second day on the Queen Elizabeth II Bridge, which links Kent and Essex and which remains closed for traffic, after it was scaled by two climbers from the group PA UK news in pictures 17 October 2022 Hundreds of students take part in the traditional Raisin Monday foam fight on St Salvator's Lower College Lawn at the University of St Andrews in Fife PA UK news in pictures 16 October 2022 A protester holds a placard during a march into central London at a demonstration by the climate change protest group Extinction Rebellion AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 15 October 2022 A member of the public drags an activist who is blocking the road during a "Just Stop Oil" protest, in London, Britain REUTERS UK news in pictures 14 October 2022 Germanys Womens double skulls during day one of the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals at Saundersfoot beach, Pembrokeshire PA UK news in pictures 13 October 2022 Family and mourners arrive at St Michael's Church, in Creeslough, for the funeral mass of 49-year-old mother of four Martina Martin, who died following an explosion at the Applegreen service station in the village of Creeslough in Co Donegal on Friday PA UK news in pictures 12 October 2022 Motorists in Coventry pass trees showing autumnal colour PA UK news in pictures 11 October 2022 A woman and her dog in the the North Sea at Tynemouth Longsands beach before sunrise PA UK news in pictures 10 October 2022 Police officers remove a campaigner from a Just Stop Oil protest on The Mall, near Buckingham Palace, London PA UK news in pictures 9 October 2022 A drummer plays during the Diwali on the Square celebration, in Trafalgar Square, London PA UK news in pictures 8 October 2022 Timothee Chalamet attending the UK premiere of Bones and All during the BFI London Film Festival 2022 at the Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre, London PA UK news in pictures 7 October 2022 Two young male fallow deer lock antlers in Dublins Phoenix park as rutting season begins PA UK news in pictures 6 October 2022 The Princess of Wales during a cocktail making competition during a visit to Trademarket, a new outdoor street-food and retail market situated in Belfast city centre, as part of the royal visit to Northern Ireland PA UK news in pictures 5 October 2022 Greenpeace protesters interrupt Prime Minister Liz Truss as she delivers her keynote speech to the Conservative Party annual conference PA UK news in pictures 4 October 2022 Prime Minister Liz Truss and Britains Chancellor of the Exchequer Kwasi Kwarteng wearing hard hats and hi-vis jackets, visit a construction site for a medical innovation campus in Birmingham AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 3 October 2022 British artist Sam Cox, aka Mr Doodle, reveals the Doodle House, a twelve-room mansion at Tenterden, in Kent, which has been covered, inside and out in the artist's trademark monochrome, cartoonish hand-drawn doodles PA UK news in pictures 2 October 2022 Erling Haaland celebrates after scoring Manchester City's second goal against Manchester United at Etihad Stadium. Haaland went on to score a hattrick, his third of the season in the Premier League. City beat United 6-3. Manchester City FC/Getty UK news in pictures 1 October 2022 Protesters hold up flags and placards at a protest in London. A variety of protest groups including Enough is Enough, Don't Pay and Just Stop Oil all demonstrated on the day AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 30 September 2022 British Prime Minister Liz Truss, who has not been seen in days, leaves the back of Downing Street after a meeting with Office For Budget Responsibility following the release of her governments mini-budget Getty UK news in pictures 29 September 2022 The Virginia creeper foliage on the Tu Hwnt i'r Bont (Beyond the Bridge) Llanwrst, Conwy North Wales, has changed colour from green to red in at the start of Autumn. The building was built in 1480 as a residential dwelling but has been a tearoom for over 50 years PA UK news in pictures 28 September 2022 Criminal barristers from the Criminal Bar Association (CBA), demonstrates outside the Royal Courts of Justice in London, as part of their ongoing pay row with the Government PA UK news in pictures 27 September 2022 David White, Garter King of Arms, poses with an envelope franked with the new cypher of King Charles III 'CIIIR', after it was printed in the Court Post Office at Buckingham Palace in central London AFP/Getty UK news in pictures 26 September 2022 A gallery staff member poses next to a painting by Lucian Freud - Self-portrait (Fragment), 1956 - on show at a photocall for the Credit Suisse exhibition - Lucian Freud: New Perspectives at the National Gallery in London PA UK news in pictures 25 September 2022 Labour leader, Sir Keir Starmer is interviewed by Laura Kuenssberg in Liverpool before the start of the Labour Party annual Conference which he opened with a tribute to Queen Elizabeth II and sang the national anthem PA UK news in pictures 24 September 2022 Handout photo issued by Buckingham Palace of the ledger stone at the King George VI Memorial Chapel, St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle PA UK news in pictures 23 September 2022 A climate change activist protests against UK private jets while lighting his right arm on fire during the Laver Cup tennis tournament at the O2 Arena in London EPA

In this new era, where social media acts as a fact-checker, where the electorate are more engaged in politics and are more inclined to do their own research, particularly near election time, and the delivery of political messages can bypass mainstream media channels, it is authenticity and coherence that are the most important attributes for politicians. When people are just about managing, it is a positive, transformative vision that appeals. Baseless, negative attacks are no substitute for that.

The Scottish Conservative leader Ruth Davidson recognises this, having recently argued that capitalism needs a re-boot and that her party must boldly make the case for Conservatism. Davidsons prescription is based on the correct analysis that the system is no longer working for most people. This is best illustrated by the rapid decline in owner-occupancy in the last twenty years. In 1997, around 60 per cent of 30-somethings owned a property, and in 2017 that figure has dropped to just 20 per cent.

The problem for Davidsons party is that there are limits to what the Conservatives can do to reform capitalism, given that they are funded by the very corporate and vested interests that want to maintain the status quo, or the rigged system as Corbyn describes it. Being in government is not the ideal place for soul searching, but if the Conservatives want to have any chance of challenging Labour at the next election, they need to work out what they stand for if it isnt austerity, and quickly. But given they cant even decide between them whether they think chlorinated chicken is acceptable, I dont think well see that any time soon.
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One of my fondest political memories on either side of the Atlantic is watching John McCain tell a bigoted woman who called then Senator Barack Obama an Arab, saying no maam, hes an honourable man, and that they just disagree. Leaving aside the fact that he didnt correct her that Arab isnt a pejorative, he stood up for his opponent against a racist attack  and demonstrated a civility that sorely lacks in politics today.

It was a sharp contrast to the response on Twitter yesterday. Senator McCain, ailing from brain cancer, interrupted his treatment and flew across the country to vote to strip healthcare from millions of Americans. He received a standing ovation at the Capitol, but the response online was brutal. Many people openly hoped the cancer kills him. Predictably, folks on both sides of the aisle condemned this personal attack on an American war hero who famously refused release from a POW camp unless his comrades were also released.

Hoping that cancer kills McCain is crass, shocking and of course unjustifiable  but anger is understandable when the man just voted to strip health insurance from millions of his fellow citizens whilst he himself receives world-class treatment on the taxpayer dime. People are angry, and with good reason. The Congressional Budget Office scored the latest iteration of the Republicans plan and found it would leave 22 million people uninsured and roll back Medicaid expansion whilst cutting funding to state healthcare exchanges. This is what John McCain flew back to vote for.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

To be accurate, the vote on Tuesday was only to open debate, and Senator McCain said his vote in no way guaranteed he would vote for the final bill. But the Republicans have shown they plan to gut Obamacare and send millions of Americans to an early grave by taking away what limited healthcare they have. People in my own life are fretting over whether theyll be able to get their medicine on Medicaid, keep the insurance they got under Obamacare, or even continue to be able to afford their cancer treatment. John McCain doesnt have to worry about any of that.

While so much of policy feels abstract and remote, healthcare is very different. There is a human face to it that cannot be ignored. People might not understand exactly how tax reform or financial regulations will affect their day-to-day lives, but they know that taking away their health insurance is going to hurt them. Thats why you see so much righteous anger from people who feel as though they are literally fighting for their lives.

America is the only developed nation that doesnt guarantee healthcare as a right of its people. Obamacare isnt a perfect law, and as a socialist, it didnt go nearly as far as I think it should (no public option, for example). But it was a step in the right direction.

 John McCain returns to Senate and tears into Republicans 'All we've done is make Obamacare more popular'

The Republican proposals are all several steps backwards and vary in their cruelty from spiteful to murderous. This is what John McCain, himself receiving the best healthcare taxpayer money can buy, flew back to Washington in order vote on  a debate on whether Republicans are just going to be mean to poor people or if theyre going to try to kill them.

Thats what has so many people  myself included  disgusted with his vote. It highlights the sheer injustice of the GOPs healthcare policies, and of American healthcare in general. The average American will never have coverage as good as John McCain gets. No, we must pay hundreds of dollars a month for the privilege of being able to pay thousands of dollars instead of tens of thousands of dollars should we get sick. That this man has the gall to leave the hospital bed were paying for to come vote to make us pay even more is galling, and thats why so many of us are angry.

John McCain served his country admirably in Vietnam and has been a beacon of civil political discourse for decades. There are many things to admire about the man. But his vote yesterday is most certainly not one of them, and when lives are at stake, the time for civil discourse may well be over.
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So dominated has Washington politics been by the frenzy over Russias supposed interference in the US election, that is easy to neglect another, perhaps more important, Trump-Russia question. What, if anything, is actually happening in relations between the two? Is Donald Trump pursuing his oft-stated campaign pledge to try to improve the climate with Moscow, or has the whole project been derailed by his enemies at home? Might it actually have gone into reverse?

The reason for asking this now stems from comments made this week in Brussels and in a BBC interview in Kiev by Kurt Volker, a former US ambassador to Nato who was recently appointed to the new post of US special envoy on Ukraine. Volker, as his former role at Nato and his current research position at the McCain Institute would suggest, is a long-standing hawk on Russian matters, and his words showed no softening of his views.

Speaking after a visit to the east of Ukraine, where Ukrainian government forces are confronting pro-Russia rebels, Volker insisted that Russia, despite its denials, was directly involved and that far from being a frozen conflict, what was going on was a hot war, with more deaths and more violations of the 2015 ceasefire this year than last.

World news in pictures Show all 50 1 /50 World news in pictures World news in pictures 30 September 2020 Pope Francis prays with priests at the end of a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 29 September 2020 A girl's silhouette is seen from behind a fabric in a tent along a beach by Beit Lahia in the northern Gaza Strip AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 September 2020 A Chinese woman takes a photo of herself in front of a flower display dedicated to frontline health care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic in Beijing, China. China will celebrate national day marking the founding of the People's Republic of China on October 1st Getty World news in pictures 27 September 2020 The Glass Mountain Inn burns as the Glass Fire moves through the area in St. Helena, California. The fast moving Glass fire has burned over 1,000 acres and has destroyed homes Getty World news in pictures 26 September 2020 A villager along with a child offers prayers next to a carcass of a wild elephant that officials say was electrocuted in Rani Reserve Forest on the outskirts of Guwahati, India AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 September 2020 The casket of late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is seen in Statuary Hall in the US Capitol to lie in state in Washington, DC AFP via Getty World news in pictures 24 September 2020 An anti-government protester holds up an image of a pro-democracy commemorative plaque at a rally outside Thailand's parliament in Bangkok, as activists gathered to demand a new constitution AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 September 2020 A whale stranded on a beach in Macquarie Harbour on the rugged west coast of Tasmania, as hundreds of pilot whales have died in a mass stranding in southern Australia despite efforts to save them, with rescuers racing to free a few dozen survivors The Mercury/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 22 September 2020 State civil employee candidates wearing face masks and shields take a test in Surabaya AFP via Getty World news in pictures 21 September 2020 A man sweeps at the Taj Mahal monument on the day of its reopening after being closed for more than six months due to the coronavirus pandemic AP World news in pictures 20 September 2020 A deer looks for food in a burnt area, caused by the Bobcat fire, in Pearblossom, California EPA World news in pictures 19 September 2020 Anti-government protesters hold their mobile phones aloft as they take part in a pro-democracy rally in Bangkok. Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters massed close to Thailand's royal palace, in a huge rally calling for PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha to step down and demanding reforms to the monarchy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 September 2020 Supporters of Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr maintain social distancing as they attend Friday prayers after the coronavirus disease restrictions were eased, in Kufa mosque, near Najaf, Iraq Reuters World news in pictures 17 September 2020 A protester climbs on The Triumph of the Republic at 'the Place de la Nation' as thousands of protesters take part in a demonstration during a national day strike called by labor unions asking for better salary and against jobs cut in Paris, France EPA World news in pictures 16 September 2020 A fire raging near the Lazzaretto of Ancona in Italy. The huge blaze broke out overnight at the port of Ancona. Firefighters have brought the fire under control but they expected to keep working through the day EPA World news in pictures 15 September 2020 Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny posing for a selfie with his family at Berlin's Charite hospital. In an Instagram post he said he could now breathe independently following his suspected poisoning last month Alexei Navalny/Instagram/AFP World news in pictures 14 September 2020 Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga, former Defense Minister Shigeru Ishiba and former Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida celebrate after Suga was elected as new head of the ruling party at the Liberal Democratic Party's leadership election in Tokyo Reuters World news in pictures 13 September 2020 A man stands behind a burning barricade during the fifth straight day of protests against police brutality in Bogota AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 September 2020 Police officers block and detain protesters during an opposition rally to protest the official presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus. Daily protests calling for the authoritarian president's resignation are now in their second month AP World news in pictures 11 September 2020 Members of 'Omnium Cultural' celebrate the 20th 'Festa per la llibertat' ('Fiesta for the freedom') to mark the Day of Catalonia in Barcelona. Omnion Cultural fights for the independence of Catalonia EPA World news in pictures 10 September 2020 The Moria refugee camp, two days after Greece's biggest migrant camp, was destroyed by fire. Thousands of asylum seekers on the island of Lesbos are now homeless AFP via Getty World news in pictures 9 September 2020 Pope Francis takes off his face mask as he arrives by car to hold a limited public audience at the San Damaso courtyard in The Vatican AFP via Getty World news in pictures 8 September 2020 A home is engulfed in flames during the "Creek Fire" in the Tollhouse area of California AFP via Getty World news in pictures 7 September 2020 A couple take photos along a sea wall of the waves brought by Typhoon Haishen in the eastern port city of Sokcho AFP via Getty World news in pictures 6 September 2020 Novak Djokovic and a tournament official tends to a linesperson who was struck with a ball by Djokovic during his match against Pablo Carreno Busta at the US Open USA Today Sports/Reuters World news in pictures 5 September 2020 Protesters confront police at the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, Australia, during an anti-lockdown rally AFP via Getty World news in pictures 4 September 2020 A woman looks on from a rooftop as rescue workers dig through the rubble of a damaged building in Beirut. A search began for possible survivors after a scanner detected a pulse one month after the mega-blast at the adjacent port AFP via Getty World news in pictures 3 September 2020 A full moon next to the Virgen del Panecillo statue in Quito, Ecuador EPA World news in pictures 2 September 2020 A Palestinian woman reacts as Israeli forces demolish her animal shed near Hebron in the Israeli-occupied West Bank Reuters World news in pictures 1 September 2020 Students protest against presidential elections results in Minsk TUT.BY/AFP via Getty World news in pictures 31 August 2020 The pack rides during the 3rd stage of the Tour de France between Nice and Sisteron AFP via Getty World news in pictures 30 August 2020 Law enforcement officers block a street during a rally of opposition supporters protesting against presidential election results in Minsk, Belarus Reuters World news in pictures 29 August 2020 A woman holding a placard reading "Stop Censorship - Yes to the Freedom of Expression" shouts in a megaphone during a protest against the mandatory wearing of face masks in Paris. Masks, which were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites, were made mandatory outdoors citywide on August 28 to fight the rising coronavirus infections AFP via Getty World news in pictures 28 August 2020 Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe bows to the national flag at the start of a press conference at the prime minister official residence in Tokyo. Abe announced he will resign over health problems, in a bombshell development that kicks off a leadership contest in the world's third-largest economy AFP via Getty World news in pictures 27 August 2020 Residents take cover behind a tree trunk from rubber bullets fired by South African Police Service (SAPS) in Eldorado Park, near Johannesburg, during a protest by community members after a 16-year old boy was reported dead AFP via Getty World news in pictures 26 August 2020 People scatter rose petals on a statue of Mother Teresa marking her 110th birth anniversary in Ahmedabad AFP via Getty World news in pictures 25 August 2020 An aerial view shows beach-goers standing on salt formations in the Dead Sea near Ein Bokeq, Israel Reuters World news in pictures 24 August 2020 Health workers use a fingertip pulse oximeter and check the body temperature of a fisherwoman inside the Dharavi slum during a door-to-door Covid-19 coronavirus screening in Mumbai AFP via Getty World news in pictures 23 August 2020 People carry an idol of the Hindu god Ganesh, the deity of prosperity, to immerse it off the coast of the Arabian sea during the Ganesh Chaturthi festival in Mumbai, India Reuters World news in pictures 22 August 2020 Firefighters watch as flames from the LNU Lightning Complex fires approach a home in Napa County, California AP World news in pictures 21 August 2020 Members of the Israeli security forces arrest a Palestinian demonstrator during a rally to protest against Israel's plan to annex parts of the occupied West Bank AFP via Getty World news in pictures 20 August 2020 A man pushes his bicycle through a deserted road after prohibitory orders were imposed by district officials for a week to contain the spread of the Covid-19 in Kathmandu AFP via Getty World news in pictures 19 August 2020 A car burns while parked at a residence in Vacaville, California. Dozens of fires are burning out of control throughout Northern California as fire resources are spread thin AFP via Getty World news in pictures 18 August 2020 Students use their mobile phones as flashlights at an anti-government rally at Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom. Thailand has seen near-daily protests in recent weeks by students demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha AFP via Getty World news in pictures 17 August 2020 Members of the Kayapo tribe block the BR163 highway during a protest outside Novo Progresso in Para state, Brazil. Indigenous protesters blocked a major transamazonian highway to protest against the lack of governmental support during the COVID-19 novel coronavirus pandemic and illegal deforestation in and around their territories AFP via Getty World news in pictures 16 August 2020 Lightning forks over the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge as a storm passes over Oakland AP World news in pictures 15 August 2020 Belarus opposition supporters gather near the Pushkinskaya metro station where Alexander Taraikovsky, a 34-year-old protester died on August 10, during their protest rally in central Minsk AFP via Getty World news in pictures 14 August 2020 AlphaTauri's driver Daniil Kvyat takes part in the second practice session at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmelo near Barcelona ahead of the Spanish F1 Grand Prix AFP via Getty World news in pictures 13 August 2020 Soldiers of the Brazilian Armed Forces during a disinfection of the Christ The Redeemer statue at the Corcovado mountain prior to the opening of the touristic attraction in Rio AFP via Getty World news in pictures 12 August 2020 Young elephant bulls tussle playfully on World Elephant Day at the Amboseli National Park in Kenya AFP via Getty

Most striking of all, however, was his disclosure that the new US administration was actively reviewing whether to supply weapons to the Kiev government. Kiev had repeatedly asked the Obama administration for weapons, but was always turned down on the grounds that the US wanted to do nothing that risked escalating the conflict. If the Trump administration now overturns that policy, it would be hailed by Kiev as a big victory and could hardly be seen as a friendly act by Moscow. Volker for his part denied Russia would regard it as provocative, saying instead that it could help change its calculations. In what direction, of course, might be another matter.

Whether or not it actually happens, even mooting such a policy change could signal that the Trump administration has given up on any rapprochement with Moscow in the near future. Relations, it would seem, are destined to return to their frosty state under Obama  or worse.

Nor is this the only indication of the wide gap that seems to have opened up between Trumps early ambitions towards Russia and todays reality. The US Congress is in the process of passing a new set of sanctions against Russia, North Korea and Iran, one of whose effects will be to make it impossible for Trump to lift existing Russia sanctions unilaterally, even if he wanted to. What is more, there has been no suggestion (yet) of any presidential veto.

Before this, there was Trumps speech in Poland before the G20 summit in Hamburg, where he affirmed his commitment not just to Nato, but to Article 5  an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. He also called on Russia to halt what he called its destabilising activities in Ukraine and elsewhere.

And two months before that, in April, Trump had ordered a multiple missile strike on the Shayrat air base in Syria, in response to a reported chemical attack on civilians. The attack was blamed on Syrian government forces, with Russia  though it denied any involvement  implicated by virtue of its support for Bashar al-Assad.

 Donald Trump: I can be more presidential than any former president

One by one, all these actions can be seen as bringing the Trump administration more and more into line with the virulently anti-Russia mood in Congress. But are things quite what they seem? Take a look at each seemingly anti-Russia move more closely.

The Syria air strike was notified to the Russians in advance and there were few Syrian and no Russian casualties. Meanwhile, it recently emerged, the CIA has quietly ended four years of covert support for some Syria rebel groups, with the consequence that a ceasefire across southern Syria is largely holding. It may be, as has been argued, that the CIA programme had little effect, but ending it sends a signal.

Trumps speech in Warsaw offered the barest minimum on Nato and Russia that any US President visiting Poland could reasonably offer. It was regarded by many Poles as a huge disappointment.

The sanctions bill going through Congress  and likely to pass into law by September  is an initiative not of Trump, but of Congress and reflects both its hostility towards Russia and its suspicion that Trump has wanted to do a deal with the Kremlin on sanctions behind the legislatures back. This complicates any plan for better relations with Moscow, but need not impede progress in other areas. It would appear, for instance, that in spite of condemnation and ridicule, US-Russia talks on cyber-security at some level have been convened.

And so to Ukraine. The Obama administration pretty much left Ukraine as a problem to be solved, or not, by the Europeans. In appointing a special envoy on Ukraine  on Ukraine, not to Ukraine  Trump, or at least his Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, is making his interest known. The choice of a cold warrior for the post could be astute, in that  as his recent visit shows  he appears to command the trust of President Piotr Poroshenko and the Kiev government.

That, however, is not all. It appears that the creation of the post was the brainchild not of Trump or Tillerson, but of Russias President Vladimir Putin. It is hard to believe that Putin would have been overjoyed at the naming of Volker. But if it Putins thought it a good idea for the US to appoint a special envoy, this suggests that Russia wants some diplomatic movement on Ukraine, too.

Volkers talk about arms sales might then be a gambit to help things along  because this was not all he said during his travels this week. He spoke about wanting to make a push towards a solution, of trying to start the right strategic dialogue with Moscow, and  crucially  of a new window of opportunity because both Trump and Frances President Macron wanted to end the conflict.

And perhaps not just Trump and Macron, but Putin, too. In the six months that Russia-fever has raged in Washington, Putin has kept his cool, saying nothing beyond simple denials. He delegated anger over the US air strike in Syria to others. And when rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine declared a new state of Malorossiya last week, they got no joy from the Kremlin whatsoever. Compare that with Russias instant recognition of two separatist enclaves in Georgia in 2008. Plus, the talks with Trump at Hamburg overran, and the two  as is now known  picked up where they had left off at dinner. They must have discussed something in all that time.

All of which suggests that US-Russia relations  in the real, rather than the Washington, world  may not be as stalled in negativity as they seem. And if this is so, then Donald Trumps hope for greater trust with Moscow as a key to solving other problems may not  yet  have run out.
Members of the Birmingham pub bombings campaign group, Justice4the21, outside Birmingham Priory Courts where pre-inquest reviews were held

Gardai have been asked to interview self-confessed IRA bomber Michael Hayes by lawyers acting for the Birmingham pub bombings inquests.

Mr Hayes, 69, recently told a BBC interview that he accepted "collective responsibility" for the 1974 double bombing in the UK but did not know who planted the devices which killed 21 people.

A pre-inquest review in Birmingham on Thursday was told by lawyers for coroner Peter Thornton QC that "a request to gardai to interview Mr Hayes" had been made.

Peter Skelton QC, counsel to the inquests, added: "We're discussing our involvement in any interview with West Midlands Police."

The force also confirmed in the hearing that it was "also considering an application for My Hayes to be interviewed".

Footage of the interview has already been requested.

The news came as the campaign group Justice4the21, whose work brought about the fresh inquests, announced it was boycotting the hearings.

In a statement, campaigners said they will "no longer participate" after Mr Thornton ruled out naming alleged suspects in evidence at the inquest.

Lawyers for 10 families, in a joint statement, said they would try to crowd-fund a judicial review of the coroner's ruling on what is known as the perpetrator issue.

The legal team representing the family of brothers Eugene and Desmond Reilly were present for the latest inquest review hearing.

Also present was the youngest victim Jane Davis's brother Brian Davis, from Ilkley, near Leeds.

He spoke of his "dismay" the other families had decided not to attend but understood why.

Mr Davis, who left Birmingham in the 1980s, "absolutely" welcomed the decision to ask Irish police to interview Mr Hayes.

He told the coroner: "It seems bizarre to me that journalists and serving MPs can track down these people and name them publicly, on TV, but the police and judiciary fail to be able to do the same thing."

Heather Williams, barrister for the Reilly brothers' loved ones, said her instructing solicitors had not had any advance notice of the other families' decision not to attend.

Speaking at the hearing, which began an hour later than planned after news of the relatives' boycott was digested, Mr Thornton said "the door will always be open".

He added: "Clearly the inquest into the deaths of the 21 who died on November 21 1974 will proceed in any event.

"I have a public duty to conduct them and was appointed by the Lord Chief Justice to do so."

Concluding the hearing, Mr Thornton said it was "unlikely the inquests will commence until certainly December, maybe later - maybe substantially later - I just cannot say at the moment".

He said the inquests would have to await the outcome of the judicial review application process.

In the statement, Justice4the21 said its boycott was based on the fact that material held by Devon and Cornwall Police, who reviewed the original criminal investigation, had not been disclosed to the families.

The relatives also made reference to the Hayes interview, saying "it remains unclear how the information provided by PIRA (Provisional IRA) bomb-maker Mick Hayes, will be investigated and by who".

After the hearing, Brian Hambleton, whose sister Maxine died in the bombings, said the police needed to speak to Hayes.

He said: "We have West Midlands Police telling people the case is still open.

"They've had an opportunity - they've got a man (Hayes) speaking out over two weeks ago now and no-one appears to be doing anything it.

"If the case is still open, you've got someone there who needs to be spoken to."

Bill Craig, whose brother James died in the bombings, said: "We want the inquest jury to hear the full scope - what happened from the moment James McDade blew himself up in Coventry.

"Otherwise how can they make a decision?

"We're not asking for a criminal trial or to find anybody guilty but, like the Hillsborough hearings, if any action does need to be taken, then the Crown Prosecution Service can do that.

"That is all we are asking."

The next pre-inquest review will be held on September 14.

Meanwhile, a West Midlands Police spokeswoman said the force was waiting for the full footage of Mr Hayes' interview to be supplied so it could be reviewed.

She added: "Michael Hayes is outside the UK and the force is currently liaising with Crown Prosecution Service about making an application for Mr Hayes to be interviewed."
Brexit Secretary David Davis is confident EU withdrawal negotiations will continue as planned after reports that Brussels may delay trade talks because of a lack of progress on the financial "divorce" settlement.

The upbeat Government assessment followed a report in the Daily Telegraph which said the EU's chief negotiator, Michel Barnier, had told a private meeting of ambassadors that the next phase of negotiations would be delayed by two months because of the wrangle over how much the UK owes the bloc.

The report stated that Mr Barnier said the EU would not talk about trade or the UK's future relationship with Brussels until "sufficient progress" had been made on the exit payment, citizens' rights and the Northern Ireland border issue.

The EU had planned to assess whether the negotiations could move on to post-Brexit trade relations in October, but this could now slip back to December, the newspaper said.

However, the Department for Exiting the EU said the Government expected the next stage to begin in October as planned.

A spokesman said: "Negotiations to leave the EU are under way and we have already made good progress on a number of issues.

"As the secretary of state said, it is important that both sides demonstrate a dynamic and flexible approach to these negotiations.

"Government officials are working at pace and we are confident we will have made sufficient progress by October to advance the talks to the next phase.

"On the financial settlement, we have been clear that we recognise the UK has obligations to the EU and that the EU also has obligations to the UK."

European Commission spokeswoman Mina Andreeva would not be drawn on what was said at the meeting with ambassadors.

At a press briefing in Brussels she said Mr Barnier had publicly acknowledged that "so far limited progress has been achieved in the negotiations" but EU officials were ready to work on the issues over the summer if the UK side provided further updates.

She said European Commission president Jean-Claude Juncker was committed to engaging with the UK.

"President Juncker has asked, specifically, the task force on Article 50 to be ready every day throughout the coming weeks, throughout the month of August, to engage with our British counterparts should the UK wish to substantiate their position in some of the cases where it has not happened yet," she said.

"The commission stands ready, we are ready to work and I cannot, beyond that, speculate on any timetable because that will depend on the pace of the progress being made."
The head of the UK-headquartered shopping centre giant, Hammerson, has dismissed the suggestion that the record rents now being paid for housing in Dublin might have a negative impact on the performance of its Irish portfolio even as shoppers find themselves with less and less disposable income.

Speaking to the Irish Independent following the release of Hammerson's half-year results yesterday, CEO David Atkins said he remained "confident" over the medium term that the prospects for Ireland "remain on track" with the projections Hammerson had made when it bought into the Dundrum Town Centre and other Irish retail assets in October 2015.

Mr Atkins downplayed the potential significance of the spiralling cost of accommodation on consumers' spending power.

"Clearly as the economy grows, you can get imbalances coming through particularly around real estate in the short term as demand can outstrip supply. That normally readjusts as developers start to build," he said.

Mr Atkins pointed to Ireland's overall rate of economic growth, "positive consumer sentiment and healthy retail sales" as well as recent announcements by legal and financial services firms of their intentions to expand their Irish operations as supportive of the retail sector generally.

"Whether that's simply down to the skilled labour force or the desire to expand or adjust because of Brexit; the net result is more people and that brings prosperity to all," he said.

Hammerson's director of retail in Ireland, Simon Betty, also downplayed the potential impact of rising residential rents on Hammerson's tenants at Dundrum Town Centre, the Ilac Centre and the Pavilions in Swords. "To give some context across our portfolio in Dublin, we have something in the order of 50 million visitors per annum.

"While some of those may well be subject to increased rents and increased deposit requirements; at a fundamental level the Irish economy is doing very well, Dublin is doing very well, consumption is growing.

"Clearly a by-product of that is that the supply side of the residential market hasn't been delivering as quickly as demand has come through," he said.
A 1.5m crop crisis fund has opened after lengthy negotiations with tillage farmers left devastated by last year's severe crop losses.

Cereal farmers had staged a six-day sit-in at the Department of Agriculture offices over the initial upper limits of 5,000 proposed for the fund.

Agriculture Minister Michael Creed said cereal farmers had experienced severe losses following the wet harvest conditions last September.

He pointed out there was always a "will to support these farmers", but the challenge was to find a way that ensured support was focused and targeted at those most impacted.

Farmers will get a contribution from the crop loss support measure towards the cost of spring cereal crop losses in excess of 30pc based on yields.

A payment rate will apply of 200 a hectare up to 35ha to deliver up to 7,000. However, a further 100/ha will be available where farmers lost half their crops, which brings the full payment up to 10,500.

To prove the losses farmers will have to provide evidence of sales from 2013 to 2016 to highlight the drop-off in income before August 25.

The Irish Farmers' Association (IFA) had estimated that more than 250 farmers had experienced grain losses of 3m, with straw pushing this up to almost 4m.

The worst affected were in counties Clare, Cork, Donegal, Galway, Kerry, Mayo, Meath, Roscommon and Tipperary.

IFA president Joe Healy said it was vital to get the scheme up and running as soon as possible. It comes as Teagasc figures show lower yields and lower prices last year led to a drop in the gross margins on farms. However, there has been a slight spike in prices this year, driven by concerns over a drought in the wheat-growing areas of the US hampering crops.
The UK remained Ireland's largest trading partner with almost 40pc (4,804m) of total exports by value in 2016, a decrease of 6.1pc from 2015.

Figures from the Departments Annual Review and Outlook for Agriculture, Food and the Marine show that Irish agri-food goods were exported to over 160 countries in 2016 including new (or enhanced access) market opportunities for beef in USA, Canada, and Saudi Arabia. Pork and pork products were introduced to the South African market.

The UK (Britain and Northern Ireland) remains Irelands largest trading partner with almost 40pc of total agri-food and over 60pc of prepared consumer food (PCF) products exported to the UK in 2016.

The top 20 trading countries accounted for almost 90pc of total trade for Irish exports in 2016. Trade among the Top 20 destinations increased by 1.4pc to 10,850m in 2016.

The highest increase was recorded in Japan where exports increased by almost 50pc to 56m.

In 2016 total agri-food exports to the UK totalled 4,804m while imports were 3,730m with a trade surplus of 1,073m.

In 2016 49pc of total beef exports and 78pc of total forestry exports were to the UK. Dairy exports totalling 857m (22pc) in 2016 were to UK markets, including 52pc of cheddar exports. Similarly 86pc of fruit and vegetables (which includes 99pc of total mushroom exports) were destined for UK markets in 2016.

While overall trade to the United Kingdom fell by 6.1pc in 2016 in comparison to 2015, fisheries, forestry, pigmeat and sheepmeat all increased their exports to the UK in this period.

United States

Total agri-food exports to the US increased by 17.5pc in 2016 to a high of 1,022m. Trade in the previous five year period rose by over 50pc from 518m in 2012.

This figure of 1,022m includes 511m in beverage and 172m in dairy exports which cumulatively account for almost 70pc of total US trade.

Enhanced access to the beef market in the US for beef intended for grinding led to an increase of 80pc between 2015 and 2016 from 5m to 9m.

China

China (including Hong Kong and Macau) remains Irelands third biggest market in terms of total exports accounting for 946m in exports in 2016 an increase of 25pc from 2015 and more than doubling in value since 349m in 2012.

China is Irelands second largest market in terms of dairy produce totalling 643m (69,000t), with Food preparations for infant use responsible for over 50pc of total value of trade to China in 2016 with almost 40,000t exported.

China is also the second largest market for Irish pigmeat worth over 121m, and sixth in seafood exports at 36m.
THOSE with either factory fit, heifers, bullocks or bulls to sell can take heart from reports that factory buyers continue to knock each other out in their pursuit of cull cows and out of spec bullocks at marts.

This is leading to a belief that prices for better beef should remain at stable to firm in the short term.

Reports such as those from Ballinakill mart last week show cull cows sold to a top of 2.15/kg off a 1.40/kg base as factory agents bought for a continuing strong manufacturing beef market.

In Ballymahon out of spec 2014 and 2015 heavy bullocks were fit to make anything from 2.00-2.40/kg.

Meanwhile, the number of cows going through the factories continues to climb as they always do at this time of year, up 210 at 7,756 for the week ending July 15 compared to 7,546 for the same week in 2016. Prices are running anywhere from 40-50c/kg ahead of last year.

Back then your R grade cow was on 3.15-3.20/kg back to 2.90-2.80/kg for the better P grade.

Yesterday quotes for cows remained stable at 3.60- 3.65/kg for R grades with Os on 3.40-3.45/kg. The better P+ type was on 3.30/kg with the scale then gradually sliding back to around 3.00/ kg for other Ps.

Moving to the bullocks and heifers its largely as you were with quotes for bullocks staying in the 4.00-4.05/kg bracket while heifer quotes continue to run at between 4.10-4.15/kg.

However, a feeling seems to have crept into the market place that while the factories are very keen on buying both cows and heavy out of spec bullocks at the marts to feed their need for manufacturing beef, they are less inclined to go over the line on price where prime stock are concerned.

One factory agent told me: We want everything, but at a price. While the factories give clear indications that they want beef at a price and are concentrating in the very public arena of the marts and kicking up a great deal of dust in the process, I still think the underlying strength of the market has remained largely unchanged.

Order book

What is really going on is that a lot of factories are operating on a short-term order book.

They are paying more when they have to or when the numbers warrant it but numbers are not breaking down the door.

On the issue of numbers the young bull kill for the year is running at 6.9pc below the 2016 figure, which is doing no harm to their prices.

In general, prices for the heavier over 16-month bull are running at 4.10-415/kg for Us with Rs on 4.05/kg with Os on 3.95/kg. Under 16 months the R grade base price is 4.05/kg with bonuses above this plus quality assurance also to be added.

Next weekend is the August bank holiday which means a four-day factory week. Some cattlemen I know were targeting to shift a load or two ahead of that break from a long way out. I can see some of these boys heading to the Galway races armed with a factory cheque.

All these factors may quieten cattle supplies in early August.
A farmer charged with the murder of a Kerry neighbour using a teleporter agri-machine has been sent forward for trial at the Central Criminal Court.

The Kerryman reports that Michael 'Mike' Ferris (62) with an address at Rattoo, Ballyduff, appeared at Tralee District Court briefly last week when the book of evidence in the case was served.

Mr Ferris is accused of murdering tillage farmer Anthony O'Mahony (74) of Ardoughter at Rattoo, Ballyduff shortly before 9am on April 4, 2017.

Mr O'Mahony died from multiple trauma injuries after his vehicle was in collision with a teleporter agri-machine.

Judge James O'Connor ordered that Mr Ferris - who is currently in custody in Cork Prison - be returned for trial at the Central Criminal Court.

During the brief hearing, which lasted no more than five minutes, the paper reports that Mr Ferris' solicitor Frank Buttimer told Judge O'Connor that his client has been granted bail by the High Court but that he "hasn't taken it up yet".

Michael Ferris has been in custody since his arrest on April 4. Mr Ferris, who appeared in court wearing a jeans and blue shirt, did not speak during the short hearing.

Mr O'Mahony was pronounced dead at the scene before he could be rushed to Tralee hospital.

He farmed a holding directly across the road from Mr Ferris' home.

However, Mr O'Mahony lived around 3km away on the other side of Ballyduff village in Causeway.

Both men were known to each other for years.

Mr O'Mahony, who was described locally as "a genius" in the tillage farming sector, was unmarried and had no children.

However, he has a large extended family in the Causeway area.
THE short message is that the price of lamb continues to slide, with official factory quotes back by 15-30c/kg this week.

Official quotes across the various plants now run from a top of 5.15/kg plus 10c/kg bonus at Kildare Chilling while at the bottom of the table sit Dawn Ballyhaunis on a straight 5.00/kg for lamb.

The only positive that can be taken out of the trade overall is that cull ewe numbers remain tight, with Kepak Athleague actually upping their quote for ewes by 10c/kg to 2.75/kg plus 5c/kg bonus while all the rest with an interest in this end of the market remain unchanged from last week at 2.70/kg. Prices on the ground are reported as running from 2.80-3.00/kg.

Neither the IFA nor ICSA are taking the latest round of cuts lying down, with both organisations saying factories had to pay between 5.30-5.40/kg over the weekend to secure supplies.

John Lynskey of IFA points to a strong mart trade with factory buyers active while ICSAs John Brooks says that some plants that were only operating a four-day shift have now gone to a five-day rota.

Brooks was also positive on the longer-term outlook pointing out that with new developments in both the processing and marketing side of the business, Irish factories are in a good place to be able to exploit developing EU markets. The factories are better able to break lamb and process lamb and lamb products for export to developing markets such as that in Germany, thus reducing our dependence on the French, he said.

The overall picture in the short term seems to be that factories are intent on pushing prices down close to where they were this time last year  in the range of 4.70-4.90/kg.

Whether farmers are prepared to carry the factories at those prices remains to be seen. One sheep farmer I spoke with yesterday said: Weve known for the whole year that there was extra sheep in the system, and it was just a question of when they would come out.

The number of sheep killed this year is running at nearly 10pc above the figure for 2016 to the middle of July at 1,250,217 versus 1,141,474, although the supply for the week ending July 15 eased back in line with 2016.

With serious live shipping expected to start in advance of the Muslim Eid-al-Adha festival and our factories no doubt gearing up to fill additional orders its fair to assume that those additional numbers will be eaten into.

Dead weight lamb prices as calculated by Bord Bia show that for the middle of July France was leading the table on 5.94/kg with Britain second on 5.18 and Ireland third on 4.75/kg. Northern Ireland came in at 4.68/kg.
The chief executive of the UK-headquartered shopping centre giant Hammerson has dismissed the suggestion that the record rents now being paid for housing in Dublin might have a negative impact on the performance of its Irish portfolio, even as shoppers find themselves with less and less disposable income.

Speaking to the Irish Independent following the release of Hammerson's half-year results yesterday, the company's ceo, David Atkins, said he remained "confident" over the medium term that the prospects for Ireland "remain on track" with the projections Hammerson had made when it acquired its interest in the Dundrum Town Centre and other Irish retail assets in October 2015.

Mr Atkins downplayed the potental significance of the spiralling cost of accommodation on consumers' spending power, saying: "Clearly as the economy grows, you can get imbalances coming through, particularly around real estate in the short term as demand can outstrip supply. That normally readjusts as developers start to build."

Mr Atkins pointed to Ireland's overall rate of economic growth, "positive consumer sentiment and healthy retail sales" as well as recent announcements by legal and financial services firms of their intentions to expand their Irish operations as supportive of the retail sector generally. He said: "Whether that's simply down to the skilled labour force or the desire to expand or adjust because of Brexit; the net result is more people and that brings prosperity to all."

Hammerson's director of retail in Ireland, Simon Betty, also downplayed the potential impact of rising residential rents on the retail sector, and more particularly Hammerson's tenants at Dundrum Town Centre, the Ilac Centre and the Pavilions in Swords.

He said: "There certainly seem to be a lot of headlines around the stresses in the Irish residential market, and around affordability metrics. To give some context across our portfolio in Dublin, we have something in the order of 50 million visitors per annum. While some of those may well be subject to increased rents and increased deposit requirements; at a fundamental level the Irish economy is doing very well, Dublin is doing very well, consumption is growing. Clearly a by-product of that is that the supply side of the residential market hasn't been delivering as quickly as demand has come through. At this stage, we don't necessarily see that increased rents in some of the isolated examples making the headlines being a downward force on the trading potential of our centres."

Mr Betty added: "As far as we're concerned, based on the conversations we're having with our retailers, consumers are spending well and retailers are very happy with their position in Dundrum."

Hammerson's latest results covering the six-month period to the end of June show that it generated net rental income of 17.4m from its Irish portfolio, which is comprised mainly of the Dundrum Town Centre, which it owns in a 50:50 joint venture with the German insurer Allianz, its 50pc share in the Ilac Centre and its share in the Pavilions shopping centre in Swords. The company's Irish reach is set to grow considerably in the coming years with the development of its holding in Dublin central.

While Hammerson's Irish rental income was largely derived in 2016 in the form of finance income from the property assets secured against the debt, on a pro-forma basis, it said its like-for-like net rental income growth would be 12pc for the first half of 2017. Underpinning that performance was the additional income arising from the settlement of rent reviews and new lettings undertaken, as well as additional non-rental revenues from car park and commercialisation activities at Dundrum Town Centre. In the first half of this year, Hammerson signed leases representing 1.5m of annual rental income, at 3pc above previous passing rents, and 5,700 sq m (61,354 sq ft) of space at the centre, which is 99.9pc let.
Senior Central Bank officials raised concerns internally about attempts to have it assigned responsibility for a national database of motor insurance claims.

Documents released under Freedom of Information to the Irish Independent show the regulator believed it would be inappropriate for it to be given the task, as it is independent from Government.

The prospect of a national claims register or database emerged in the autumn of last year, and it was speculated that it could be housed in the Central Bank.

In an email to Governor Philip Lane in November, former deputy governor Cyril Roux said assigning responsibility for the database to the Central Bank would "not fall under the supervisory tasks of the bank, nor under its statistical mandate". He said Gerry Cross, the director of policy and risk, also had concerns.

"Such a register would be completely foreign to the role and responsibility of a central bank," Mr Roux wrote.

He argued that an insurance claims register would face "insuperable logistical difficulties".

Governor Lane said he generally agreed.

In a letter drafted on behalf of Governor Lane, and intended for then junior Finance Minister Eoghan Murphy, the bank noted that assigning responsibility for the database to the Central Bank as problematic.

"Such register would likely face significant challenges in terms of, inter alia, data protection legislation, requiring proprietary commercial sensitive information, accessing information from insurance undertakings operating in Ireland on a cross border basis, significant systems changes and development costs both for insurance undertakings and the body establishing it," the letter noted.

"The lead-in time for the establishment for such a register would be significant, measured in multiple years. The scale of the challenges for insurers could influence firms' decisions on business models in the Irish market and the resultant industry costs may be passed on to policyholders."

It said that several countries have developed a database of national claims statistics compiled by an industry or professional body.

"In any case, I do not consider it appropriate that the Central Bank be assigned responsibility for the establishment or administration of such systems, as it would be ascribing a governmental task to an institution that is accountable to the Oireachtas, but independent from Government."

A Central Bank spokesman said the letter was not sent, but an alternative was on December 6. The spokesman said it set out "how the Central Bank will assist in bringing forward more granular information on motor claims into the public domain, while setting out the challenges associated with setting up a national claims register".

In January, a Government-backed report recommended a database be set up, administered by the Central Bank.

It noted that the bank had highlighted the implications with regard to its mandate, and said legislative change would be needed.
AN Irish pharmaceutical company has failed to get a High Court order revoking a patent for an invention related to an inhalation capsule used in the treatment of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The capsule is used in an inhalation device which has generated worldwide sales of more than 3.5bn.

Norton (Waterford) Ltd, trading as Teva Pharmaceuticals Ireland, sought the revocation of the "220 Patent" issued in Ireland in 2002 to Boehringer Ingelheim International GMBH under which it produces "Spiriva" medication used with its its "Handihaler" device. Teva argued none of the claims of the patent relate to a "patentable invention" in that it did not involve an inventive step obvious to a person skilled in the art, and having regard to the state of the art at the time it was patented.

Teva also claimed the specification of the patent did not disclose the alleged invention "clearly and completely enough for it to be performed by a person skilled in the art".

Boehringer denied all the claims.

Boehringer said, among other things, that Teva's objective in seeking revocation is to ensure it (Teva) can make or market a product which will compete with the Spiriva Handihaler.

It also said this will mean Teva, as a generics company, will be able to compete without having had to carry out research and development work. Yesterday, Mr Justice Max Barrett said the challenge failed in its invalidity claim that the specification of the 220 Patent did not disclose the invention clearly and completely enough for it to be performed by a person skilled in the art, or what is called the "insufficiency challenge".

The claim by Teva that the patent was invalid because the invention protected was obvious in light of prior publications in this area also failed, he said..

It also failed in its claim that the patent was invalid because the invention protected was obvious for lack of technical contribution to this particular art.

None of the grounds put forward by Teva were accepted by the court and the judge therefore declined to grant the order sought.
Almost one in two male directors claim that the pool of suitably qualified women is not large enough to allow for greater numbers of women on boards.

And one in five male directors believes there are no barriers to women being appointed to boards.

This is according to the 'Diversity in the Boardroom' report released by the Institute of Directors Ireland (IoD) and based on a survey of directors.

The CEO of the IoD, Maura Quinn, said the notion of a lack of qualified women is not supported by evidence, in the IoD's view.

"There is a suitable pool of women, women in the survey are much more qualified then men so we all know that this [lack of qualified women] is not the case, and women certainly don't feel it is the case," Ms Quinn said.

She said boards' tendency to appoint people like themselves and people they know means that there is little opportunity to achieve meaningful diversity in Irish boardrooms, even aside from the gender issue.

Two-thirds of women directors saw unconscious bias as the main obstacle to accessing boardrooms, followed by interlocking directorships (52pc) and a lack of access to networks (44pc).

In addition, 72pc of female directors admitted that they believe it is more difficult for females to be appointed to boards than it is for men.

The report, carried out among over 300 IoD members in Ireland, found that more than one in four boards has less than 10pc female membership, while two-thirds of directors report less than 30pc female representation on their boards.

When it comes to how appointments are made, the survey found men are more likely than women to be appointed to boards through networks of contacts, with one in two men recruited through direct approach by a member of the board, compared to just 19pc of women.

However, Ms Quinn said that the IoD does not favour gender quotas for boards.

"When you look at the research findings, in all of the cases both men and females came back saying they prefer targets rather than quotas as both men and women feel that [in the absence of quotas] the best possible candidate gets appointed," Ms Quinn said.
Ryanair has about 400 Boeing aircraft in its fleet, a figure that will hit 600 by 2023 as it expands its capacity. Photo: Bloomberg

Ryanair will triple the size of its new Poland-based charter service between 2018 and 2019, it has confirmed.

The charter business - Ryanair Sun - will launch next year with five jets. But in its newly-published annual report, Ryanair said it plans to add 10 more aircraft to the service in time for summer 2019.

"This will significantly boost our presence in Poland where Ryanair is already the number one scheduled airline," Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary told shareholders in the annual report.

"We expect Ryanair Sun to become Poland's number one charter airline as it grows to over 15 dedicated aircraft by summer 2019," he added.

Releasing first-quarter results earlier this week, Ryanair said it had extended leases on 10 aircraft, which will provide it with three additional jets for the summer 2018 and 2019 seasons. Ryanair also ordered 10 more aircraft in June, five of which will be delivered in spring 2019.

The airline noted that the extra aircraft orders coupled with lease extensions would address a temporary capacity shortage in summer 2019.

The annual report also shows that Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary saw his pay rise marginally to 3.26m in the airline's last financial year, from 3.16m a year earlier.

Mr O'Leary, is on a five-year contract that expires in 2019. Last year he earned a base salary of 1.05m, a 950,000 bonus, and share-based payments of 1.25m.

Ryanair has made Mr O'Leary a billionaire. His shares in the airline are worth more than 800m and he has sold 300m worth of shares in the carrier over the past 15 years.

He's been chief executive of the airline since 1994, having joined the board not long after the airline's 1985 launch.

The latest annual report also shows that Ryanair's staff numbers rose to 13,026 at the end of last March from 11,458 a year earlier. Of those, 4,058 are pilots and 7,684 are flight attendants.

The figures include thousands of staff who are actually employees of contract firms, primarily Dublin-based Crewlink.

Ryanair cabin crew typically earn about 40pc of their annual earnings from productivity-based incentive payments, while pilots earn an average of 31pc of their remuneration from such payments.

Mr O'Leary also warned again in the annual report about the possible negative impact of a hard Brexit on the airline.

"We remain worried at the continuing uncertainty which prevails over the terms of the UK's departure from the EU in March 2019," he told shareholders.
Greencore has reported revenue increase of 636.5m (713m) for the three months to 30 June 2017, according to the latest trading statement from the company.

The performance is a 76pc increase in revenue on the same period last year on a reported basis. On a pro forma basis revenue has increased 11.8pc.

Year-to-date, the group recorded revenue of 1,646.8m, 56.5pc ahead of the prior year, and 8.8pc ahead on a pro forma basis.

The increased revenue was driven by strong sales of convenience foods in the UK, Ireland and the US.

Read more: Greencore boss targets 3bn sales and higher profits

In Ireland and the UK, revenue from the companys convenience foods division grew by 20.9pc on a reported basis to 370.6m in the three months to 30 June.

The strong growth momentum delivered in the period was driven by the food-to-go business, which accounted for more than 60pc of divisional revenue.

To help meet the demand in the UK for convenience foods the group last month purchased a sandwich manufacturing facility in West Drayton, near Heathrow.

According to Greencore the "modest" acquisition will enable the company to add additional high quality manufacturing capacity to meet its food to go growth agenda.

In the other parts of the convenience foods UK & Ireland division (which include the Prepared Meals and Grocery set of businesses in the UK, and the edible oils and molasses trading businesses in Ireland), reported revenue grew by 6.4pc in the three month period.

Meanwhile in the US convenience food sales recorded revenue growth of a massive 393.3pc to 265.9m in the three month period on a reported basis, however on a pro forma basis the increase was a modest 6.6pc.

The revenue growth primarily reflects the acquisition of Peacock Foods at the end of December 2016.

Peacock Foods, which Greencore acquired for $747m, has annual sales of around $1bn.

Read more: How Simon Coveney's big brother dodged politics to manage the world's largest sandwich-maker

The group said it its statement that the integration of its US business is on track and that it is "encouraged by the pipeline of commercial opportunities being explored with existing and new customers".

Greencore has in recent months been targeting increased investment in the US, where customers include 7-Eleven, Starbucks, Dole, Nestle and Kellogg's.

Despite the companys large presence in the UK as well as its reporting in sterling there was no mention of Brexit or foreign exchange fluctuations in the trading update. When questioned on this a spokesperson for Greencore said that the company had nothing further to add to the query.
The new chief executive of Tullow Oil, Paul McDade, has said he hopes the company will not have to incur any further impairment charges, after low oil prices forced it to take a $642m non-cash charge during the first half of the year.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, Mr McDade said the impairment recorded by the Africa-focused company was taken when oil was priced around the mid-$40 a barrel range. The price of Brent oil is currently hovering around $50 a barrel.

"We'd like to think there won't be further (impairments)," he said. "But if oil prices head back down again, the marks will be where they are and there might be a little bit further."

Around $572m of the impairment related to Tullow's so-called TEN (Tweneboa, Enyenra, Ntomme) fields off the Ghana coast.

The impairment resulted in Tullow Oil reporting a $518.8m loss in the first half of the year.

That compared to a $24.1m profit in the first six months of 2016.

Revenue at the group rose 46pc to $788m and it generated $200m in free cash flow.

Mr McDade, who recently succeeded Aidan Heavey as chief executive, also increased the guided amount of cost savings Tullow expects to make over a three-year period from $500m to $650m. The company has so far saved $415m.

That boosted investor sentiment, despite the bigger than expected loss, with shares in the company soaring more than 7pc at one stage yesterday in London.

Tullow has undergone significant restructuring over the past couple of years as low oil prices weighed on producers and explorers.

Earlier this year, the company - which is also exploring in Kenya, Jamaica and Suriname - raised $750m in a rights issue and cut its debt from $4.8bn to $3.8bn. The $3.8bn figure represents gearing of 3.3 times.

Tullow's aim is to reduce gearing to 2.5 times, but Mr McDade said that while reducing debt remains a priority for the group, the "urgency has gone away".

He added: "Although we have a target of 2.5 times, we also want to invest in the business."
A large majority of PAYE taxpayers are in favour of a new automatic pension scheme being introduced for those who have no occupational pension.

The survey from tax specialists Taxback.com found that 84pc of people would be in favour of an auto-enrolment type scheme.

The Government has plans to bring in this type of scheme, with the Taoiseach recently telling the Dail he intends to bring forward proposals for an auto-enrolment scheme. But he gave no time frame for this.

Auto-enrolment involves people being automatically signed up to a pension scheme and having to actively opt out of such an arrangement.

Only a third of private sector workers have a pension. This means an estimated one million workers will only have the State pension when they retire as they have no occupational scheme in place.

A study of the pension systems in this country, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2014, commissioned by the Government, recommended an auto-enrolment system.

The Taxback.com survey found most people here would be in favour of an auto-enrolment similar to the one in Australia.

That scheme sees 9.5pc of a worker's salary contributed by their employer into a retirement fund.

The survey was conducted among 800 of the tax firm's clients, and its findings are in line with other polls on the same subject.

Auto-enrolment was introduced in the UK in 2012. By the end of March last year, more than 6.1 million workers had been enrolled, an increase of nearly one million on a year earlier.

Barry Flanagan, of Taxback.com, said: "The results were pretty definitive - there would be widespread acceptance of a compulsory pension savings scheme in Ireland, though there may be some issues to iron out surrounding contribution rates."

A spokeswoman for Social Protection Minister Regina Doherty said it is intended in the coming months to publish and commence an action plan for pension reform, which will include a time frame.
Camera sales have collapsed over the last five years. It's no surprise why. Our phones all now have decent lenses that can instantly share images with the world. Indeed, 98pc of all cameras sold today are those on phones. Does this mean camera companies should give up the ghost? Millions hope they won't: many still want dedicated devices that can take extraordinary images outside the capabilities of handsets. But Canon, Nikon, Sony, Fuji and the rest aren't helping themselves. They appear to be more interested in serving evermore specialised niches rather than appealing to ordinary non-experts. If they're bothered, here are three things they could do to boost their sales.

1. Make it much easier to share photos from cameras

This is one of the biggest thing holding people back from using cameras once they actually own one. It's simply too difficult to quickly share photos from a standalone camera. It typically involves a complicated procedure between cameras and phones that incorporates clunky apps, user-unfriendly language, multiple screens and a small prayer that the actual connection works. I know this from experience: I've used the wireless photo transfer systems from all the big camera companies and none of them is nearly simple enough. Camera companies need to look at how Apple has done its wireless connection system between iPhones and Airpods - just open the lid of the box and a prompt on your phone asks you to confirm the connection. That's it; there's no ridiculous long device IP numbers or multiple app screens asking you to confirm things four times.

Stop making the sharing of photos an afterthought, companies. Make it utterly easy. Your customers want to share photos immediately.

2. Make an idiot-proof high-quality camera

Camera companies are obsessed with serving professional users and serious hobbyists. So none of them makes the equivalent of an iPhone - a camera that's really well built and takes amazing photos but which almost anyone can pick up and use. Models that are marketed as consumer-friendly are still too technical, with too many dials, buttons and switches. Flick one of these buttons by mistake and it might take a novice ages to correct the problem. Why isn't there an idiot-proof camera with just five or six controls that anyone can pick up and use? Ridiculously, it's now easier to use a drone - a flying camera - than most of the features on an actual camera.

One reason for the technical elitism may be that camera companies fear making such a device would kill demand for many of their existing lines. "We can't make one really good, simple camera," they say. "We have carefully thought out tiers of product lines to maximise revenue."

This is dangerously self-deluding. It is the same rationale that Nokia used when it had 50 or 60 different models of mobile phone. In 2007, Apple came out with one simple, killer device and Nokia (together with an entire legacy cellular industry) was toast.

What camera companies are saying to non-expert customers is that you have to swot up on technical knowledge if you want to own or take advantage of a camera. If you don't know about ISO, aperture, shutter speeds, white balance, continuous autofocusing and a host of other controls, our machines aren't really for you, is the message.

One might argue that Samsung tried this approach with its NX series of cameras, which used an Android touchscreen system as well as other controls. But it still had too many knobs and dials, trying to appeal to both camps. Samsung has gradually pulled back support for these cameras. But that doesn't mean that the idea was wrong.

The downward direction of global sales figures clearly shows that camera firms have to be willing to cannibalise their own products to grow their overall business.

But honestly, what have they got to lose?

Nikon, a company in serious trouble from falling sales, is a prime candidate for this approach. It has a stellar brand name. Why doesn't it surprise everyone with a killer, high-quality camera that is utterly idiot-proof? It could positively disrupt the camera market and bring in millions of customers who wouldn't previously have thought of getting 'a camera'. And it's not like those who love twiddling around with settings wouldn't still plump for the all-manual knobs-and-dials models anyway. The possible downside is surely way thinner than the potential upside.

After all, there has never been a stronger market for high-quality photos. But in an age of Instagram, you shouldn't have to be a technical expert to dream about travelling to far off places to shoot deserts or glaciers.

3. Camera companies may need to be dragged kicking and screaming into a more profitable future

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Canon's big launch this week illustrates the problem nicely. The world's leading camera company launched two cameras, the 6D Mark ii and the 200D. Neither does anything to expand interest in photography among a wider group of people. The 6D Mark ii will hold its own among existing hobbyists (like me - I may buy one) and professional photographers but will interest absolutely no-one else. It looks almost identical to any other Canon DSLR and costs from 2,500, a professional's price. The 200D is a slightly smaller, slightly lighter version of umpteen cameras that Canon already sells. In other words, it's too intimidating for most people. It's more of the same - a further signal that cameras aren't for ordinary folks.
If you're thinking of moving to the United States, you might be concerned that now isn't a good time.

The wall hasn't been built, but President Donald Trump has kept his promise to crack down on immigration into the country.

Those measures come on top of what is already a maze of an entry system that politicians on both sides have long called broken.

A crop of technology companies now aim to ease these problems.

They've developed software to make the process easier to navigate, and are promising to save users time or money versus working through a regular immigration attorney on their c ases.

"That type of technological development would greatly lower the cost, because right now it's generally regarded as the second-most complicated portion of American law after the income tax," said Alex Nowrasteh, an immigration policy analyst at the Cato Institute think tank. Here's a look at a few:

Visabot

Visabot is an automated service that generates completed US immigration documents after having text conversations with applicants.

The bot chats with customers over Facebook Messenger and the company's website. It asks simple questions and helps complete the application. Users pay to print the documents, which they mail to the government.

San Francisco-based Visabot has helped more than 70,000 customers apply for immigration services since launching in late 2016, many of them tech workers. Visabot's founders said their product costs 10pc of the usual legal fees.

The value sold Maksym Klishevych, a Ukrainian software developer who needed to extend his visa on a recent business trip to the US. Klishevych consulted a lawyer who would have charged him $500.

A friend of his suggested he try Visabot.

"At the beginning I was worried that it wouldn't work for me and I would have to fill all the forms all by myself.

"However questions from the bot were easier to understand than the ones in the form and in general it was simple," Klishevych said.

Envoy Global

Founded in 1998, Envoy Global was one of the pioneers of the immigration tech ecosystem. The Chicago- based company helps corporate clients manage the immigration statuses of global employees.

The main thing that distinguishes Envoy from newer rivals is that it isn't an attorney alternative. In fact, companies must hire its partner, law firm Global Immigration Associates, to use the software.

Envoy says it's a full-service option for the 30,000 individuals it has helped. It drafts and files the documents, and offers a portal and app that shows updates to the individual applicant, human resources, the hiring manager and others. CEO Dick Burke said Trump's immigration policies had already forced businesses to make quicker decisions.

"Companies are going faster, trying to get their foreign nationals up to higher ground, thinking if there is reform, or restriction, in the H-1B program, the green card might be the way to go."

Boundless

Boundless is in the process of preparing its first product for the green card process. The company raised $3.5m in funding in April, led by Trilogy Equity Partners.

The Seattle-based startup, founded by Amazon alum Xiao Wang, focuses on family immigration. The site gives people more information on their visa eligibility, cost and wait time. The service fills out forms for customers and sends them to a lawyer for review. Boundless can't give legal advice.

Chinese-born Wang said he was inspired to start the company because of his own immigration to the US as a toddler. As he was growing up, he saw the high cost his parents paid to immigrate.

"The process is confusing enough and high-stakes enough that we ended up paying five months of rent for an immigration lawyer," he said. (Bloomberg)
Unicredit says accounts of some 400,000 customers in Italy have been hacked (AP)

Italy's biggest lender, UniCredit, said hackers accessed about 400,000 client bank accounts in Italy in one of the biggest breaches in Europe to date.

Borrowers' personal and loan date was taken in two breaches that occurred in September and October of 2016 and June to July of this year, the bank said yesterday in an emailed statement.

The bank said it doesn't know who was behind the attacks or what they wanted to gain from them.

Unauthorised access through an Italian third party provider gave access to some customer data related to personal loans, with the lender saying IBAN numbers and other personal data may also have been accessed.

Banks everywhere are having to boost cyber-defence budgets, even hiring former intelligence and law enforcement officials to build up defences against hackers as lenders open their networks to connect with new money-management apps and other fintech offerings.

In the UK, banks such as Barclays and HSBC have joined forces with law enforcement in a unit called the Cyber Defence Alliance.

Prominent hacker attacks such as WannaCry in May and Petya in June that penetrated 80 Ukrainian banks, government agencies and multinational firms such as shipping giant AP Moller-Maersk have raised awareness of the vulnerability of some companies. "There aren't material damages for the bank and its clients from these attacks," Daniele Tonella, CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions, the IT unit of the bank, said.

"No data, such as passwords allowing access to customer accounts or allowing for unauthorised transactions, has been affected," he said.

The breach involved customers with financing and consumer-credit loans with UniCredit, said Mr Tonella.

The bank's IT department discovered anomalies while conducting checks, finding that some users from an external commercial partner were accessing client data.

UniCredit immediately blocked the intruders, closed the breaches and upgraded the system, he said.

UniCredit, which is investing 2.3bn in upgrading and strengthening its IT systems, has started an audit and will file a report with the Milan prosecutor, it said.

The bank's IT investments include the strengthening of infrastructure through digitalisation activities, technological development of core systems and the continuous updating of the infrastructure, while ensuring compliance with regulatory requirements.

Attacks on banks are becoming increasingly sophisticated and costly.

As well as data breaches, where information can be accessed and stolen. so-called denial-of-service attacks can knock out access to online banking services altogether. (Bloomberg)
The company managed to shave down its pre-tax loss to 178m (199m),

Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) says it will offload more than 130 of its non-core brands, as it extends a major cost cutting programme that saw it announce 320 job cuts last week.

It is one of the first major moves by GSK under new chief executive Emma Walmsley, and is meant to help deliver an additional 1bn (1.1bn) in annual cost savings by 2020.

"A key driver of the new savings will be through realising efficiency improvements in the Groups supply chain," GSK said.

The company also said it would be terminating select development programmes which are unlikely to generate sufficient returns, and had so far taken the decision to cut more than 30 pre-clinical and clinical programmes  including those involved in treatments of hepatitis C, psoriasis, rheumatoid arthritis, and solid tumours.

Read more: UDG Healthcare seals $32m deal for Vynamic

"The Group has also undertaken a strategic review of its rare diseases unit and is now considering options for future ownership of these assets," the company said.

GSK added that savings from its raft of divestments are earmarked for funding new product launches, research and development, and for offsetting price pressures.

The pharmaceutical giant last week outlined plans sell off its malt drink Horlicks brand in the UK and close the associated manufacturing site in Slough, while outsourcing some of the antibiotics manufacturing activity at its plant in Worthing.

It also backtracked on plans to invest in a biopharmaceutical facility in Cumbria, saying it "no longer needs the additional capacity"  adding that a strategic review of its antibiotics division could result in a sale of the business and its related manufacturing plants.

Last weeks proposals are expected to result in 320 permanent GSK staff losing their jobs over the next four years.

GSK announced the additional cuts as part of its second quarter results, which showed a 12pc rise in revenue to 7.3bn (8.2bn). However, when stripped of currency effects including the weak pound, turnover grew just 3pc.

The company also managed to shave down its pre-tax loss to 178m (199m), compared to 318m (356m) last year.

However, GSK has cut its full-year guidance for earnings per share (EPS) by around two percentage points due to costs linked to the launch of a new HIV drug treatment.

It now forecasts adjusted EPS growth of between 3pc and 5pc on a constant currency basis.

Ms Walmsley welcomed the results, saying it was "another quarter of progress for GSK".

"Our priority for the second half of the year is to maintain this momentum and prepare for the successful execution of several important near-term launches in respiratory, vaccines and HIV," she added.
It was Vincent Brownes second last night on TV3 and, to mark the occasion, the Taoiseach had been cajoled into the hot seat. In one corner harrumphed a left wing presenter with scary eye-brows  in the other sat a beaming boy-politician. Sparks would surely fly.

Yet what had been billed an epic tussle turned out to be more a game of current affairs slap-and-tickle. Browne delivered his traditional Marxist debating society talking points, Varadkar batted away the insinuation that he was a right wing loon without ever saying much of substance.

The broadcast threatened to come alive just once as, right at the start, Browne quipped that Enda Kenny would be coming on to assess his successors performance. A glimmer of existential terror flashed across Varadkars face, replaced by relief when Vincent revealed he was joking.

There was a cuddly conclusion, meanwhile, with Varadkar praising Browne for his tenacity as a journalist and the TV3 arch inquisitor congratulating the Taoiseach for having once admitted he was wrong about something on radio.

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Browne has always been a spiky interrogator but unlike broadcasters to whom he is frequently compared, such as former BBC attack dog Jeremy Paxman, he isnt afraid to take sides.

These Rottweiler tendencies can make for amusing late night spectacle. However, sometimes he merely resembles a dog with a bone, such as when he hounded Varadakar for getting up at a tardy-ish 6.45 am.

Still, as theatre his penultimate TV3 show had its moments. Browne sighed and huffed whenever Varadkar prevaricated, then smiled like a kindly uncle when wishing the young politician well. Irish current affairs broadcasting often resembles a pulseless echo chamber  regardless of whether you agree with Browne and his willingness to advocate on behalf of a particular perspective, the airwaves will be far duller when hes gone.
Actor Tim Roth has criticised the BBCs move to reveal the pay of its highest earning employees as he suggested that it could allow the broadcaster to lower pay rates all round.

The recently revealed list, topped by Radio 2 presenter Chris Evans seven-figure sum, sparked heated public debate, with many saying that it highlighted the industry-wide gender pay gap.

But the Twin Peaks star, 56, said that making the numbers public would do nothing to help even the balance.

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He told the audience at a Q&A event on Thursday: The BBC should not have been forced to do that.

You want to watch out with moves like that, from any organisation that does such extraordinary work, that they dont drop all rates down to the womens level.

He continued: Thats bullshit.

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They need to raise everybodys pay to the mens level because, if there is a disparity, then everybody should travel first class.

The BBC need to sort out that issue or people will just get up and go somewhere else.

It would be too easy for them to just drop the pay and then say theyve created parity.

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His comments came as he attended a launch for upcoming series, Tin Star, at Londons Bafta headquarters.

Roth takes the lead role as a British police officer and father transferred to a small Canadian town in Rowan Joffes dark but comical drama.

He explained that, while initially drawn to the bonkers script, he had reservations about travelling to film in Calgary, a part of Alberta where he has previously worked and described as Trump-land in Canada.

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Roth and Joffe both commented on the horrific issues that have arisen from the invasion of local culture in the areas history and said that diversity plays a key role in the plot.

Tin Star airs on Sky Atlantic on September 7.
Amy Huberman and Brian O'Driscoll attend day five of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 7, 2017 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Karwai Tang/WireImage)

PLANS by golden couple Brian ODriscoll and Amy Huberman to revamp their 1.8m dream home in south Dublin have been hit by a major setback.

Donald and Isabel Fitzmaurice, the couples new nextdoor neighbours on tree-lined Palmerston Road, Rathmines, have lodged an appeal with An Bord Pleanala against Dublin City Councils decision to allow them to redevelop the property.

It places a question mark over whether the works will receive approval  and at the very least delays the ODriscoll/ Huberman plan by four months.

The Fitzmaurices were unsuccessful in opposing the plan when it was before the council.

In an objection lodged on their behalf, Coda Architects director Brian ODonnell claimed that the impact and overbearing nature of the proposed development will be hugely detrimental to the amenity of the Fitzmaurice home.

Mr ODonnell also took issue with a statement by planning consultants for the couple that the Fitzmaurices were consulted throughout the design stages and are satisfied that appropriate measures have been taken to ensure that the proposal will not result in the dis-amenity to their property.

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Mr ODonnell said: We would like to correct this statement. Whilst some consultation did take place, the applicantsin the end declined to amend their scheme to accommodate the concerns of my clients.

ODriscoll and Huberman have yet to move in and their application includes a new three-storey rear extension to replace an existing two-storey extension.

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Last year, the former Ireland rugby captain and his actress wife bought the Victorian property for 1.8m, less than half the 4.3m the previous owners paid for the protected structure in 2006.

A decision is due on the appeal in November.
The Cabinet has agreed that the 'digital age of consent' for children to sign up to online services without parental approval should be set at 13.

The selected age is at the lower end of the 13 to 16 scale set under European law for consent by minors for online companies including social media to process their personal information.

The planned legislation is part of the process of harmonising Irish law with the EU's General Data Protection Regulation, which must be finished by May 25 next year.

Earlier this month the special rapporteur for child protection, Dr Geoffrey Shannon, said the age should be set at 13.

The age has also been recommended by the Children's Rights Alliance.

Mr Shannon told the Oireachtas justice committee that the goal of the EU law was to protect young people from online marketing.

He said the current situation where the same data practices were being used to target teenagers as those used to target adults was "absolutely unacceptable and needs to be tackled".

Mr Shannon also said there was an obligation to protect children from dangers on the internet.

He said the State must "ensure that it does not unreasonably restrict children's civil and political rights, such as the right to freedom of information and expression".

He said the prospect of setting the age at 16 should be "approached with caution and the varying rights at play must be borne in mind".

A senior Government source said the special rapporteur's view was taken into account in coming to the decision on setting the digital age of consent at 13.

Ian Power, of website SpunOut.ie, also argued in favour of the age being set at 13.

"Some might think it's too young, but rather than enforcing age checks we need to encourage children to be sensible social media citizens," he said.
Stand off at St Agnes Church in Crumlin, South Dublin ends peacefully after armed gardai and negotiators attend. Picture: Arthur Carron

A 51-year-old man arrested after Garda negotiators and emergency services responded to a stand-off at St Agnes Church in Crumlin in Dublin has been freed on bail.

Ian Kidd from Daytona, Brittas, Co. Dublin appeared in court on Thursday and gave an undertaking to stay away from all churches before he was ordered by Judge Michael Walsh to appear again in September.

Trained Garda negotiators and emergency services rushed to St Agnes' Church at about 6:30pm on Wednesday evening after reports of a man threatening to start a fire.

Two Dublin Fire Brigade units, an ambulance and several garda units were at the scene which was sealed off from the public before the incident ended peacefully.

Garda Darren Swan told Dublin District Court that Mr Kidd was charged on Thursday at Crumlin Garda station at 1.10pm. Mr Kidd is accused of causing criminal damage to a Carrara marble altar, a crucifix and a Pashcal candle at the church.

He has not yet indicated how he will plead.

He made no reply to the charge after caution, said Garda Swan and he added that there was no objection to bail with conditions which were then read out in court.

He has to sign on twice weekly at his local Garda station and do no enter any church or church grounds, be contactable by mobile phone on a number he has already given to gardai, reside at his current address and notify gardai of any chance of address.

Defence solicitor Brian Keenan told Judge Walsh his client has no intention of going to any church or church grounds and he knew the consequences of breaching the bail conditions which were imposed by the court.

Judge Walsh asked what allegedly happened in this case and was told by Garda Swan that the accused walked into the church and poured a flammable substance and caused damage to the altar, the candle and the crucifix.

He said directions from the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) have not yet been obtained. Judge Michael Walsh agreed to Garda Swans request to grant an eight-week adjournment.

Mr Kidd, who was wearing a blue T-shirt, grey tracksuit bottoms and blue runners for his court appearance, said Yes, your honour when he was asked if he understood the bail terms.

He then said I will your honour when asked if would he give an undertaking to stay away from all church properties and their grounds and to comply with the conditions.

Legal aid was granted after the court heard he is out of work and on social welfare.
A CONVICTED Islamic terrorist cannot be deported from Ireland after the Supreme Court ruled the Justice Minister must re-examine his case.

Former Justice Minister Frances Fitzgerald ordered the deportation of the Algerian, who has been linked to al-Qaida.

But following a lengthy legal battle the Supreme Court today quashed a decision by the minister not to revoke the order.

It concluded the matter should be considered again by the new Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan, taking into account up-to-date information on whether there was a threat the man would be subject to inhuman or degrading treatment if he was to be returned to Algeria.

His legal team maintains he is at risk of torture if he is sent home.

In a written judgment, Mr Justice Donal ODonnell said that if the minister decided to go ahead with the deportation following a fresh appraisal of the mans case, his legal team can again mount a challenge in the High Court.

Solicitor Gavin Booth of human rights law firm KRW Law, who represents the Algerian, said it had always been his clients case that he could not be deported without his rights under Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights being breached.

The 53-year-old man at the centre of the case is currently being held in Cloverhill Prison.

During the case it emerged he had used six different names since arriving here 20 years ago.

The man, linked by French authorities to al-Qaida, used his own name and five aliases at various points.

Department of Justice officials have alleged the man is involved in terrorism and his activities and associates are of serious concern and contrary to the States security.

The man was a supporter of the banned political movement Front Islamique du Salut, which sought to establish an Islamic state governed by sharia law.

He fled Algeria in or around 1994 and was convicted in his absence of murder and formation of a terrorist group.

The man ended up in Ireland in 1997 and gained refugee status in 2000.

He later turned up in France where he was jailed in 2005 for his role in a plot to commit terror offences there and in Spain, Andorra, Ireland and England.

A Paris court heard he had been fundraising for jihadists.

After being released early from a French prison he was refused asylum there and illegally re-entered Ireland in 2009.

He was arrested at Dublin Airport last year with a false Belgian passport seeking to board a flight to Athens and served a term in prison for this offence.

On completion of that sentence earlier this year he was immediately arrested and detained on foot of the deportation order.

In his ruling, Mr Justice ODonnell said the man was still in custody and it was desirable for the matter to be dealt with promptly by the minister.
A former financier who sexually assaulted three women in Dublin city centre while high on a party drug has been jailed for two and half years.

Ryan Lee Thomas (25) was under the influence of GBL, a controlled drug he bought online, when he sexually assaulted the young women in separate incidents over an hour-and-a-half period on December 30, 2016.

Thomas, of Albert College Grove, Glasnevin, Dublin, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to three counts of sexually assaulting three women in the city centre and two counts of possessing a controlled drug.

A Welsh man who lived in Australia for some time, Thomas has 10 previous convictions in Melbourne, Australia for sexual offending while under the influence of the same drug, the court heard.

Garda John Carroll told Maddie Grant BL, prosecuting, at a sentence hearing earlier this month, that Thomas was at a house party in Lower Gardiner Street on the evening in question when he approached a young woman and told her: You're f***ing beautiful.

He then hugged her and tried to kiss her, before she pushed him away. Thomas then followed the woman into a bedroom, grabbed her buttocks and breast and thrust himself against her, telling her: You're coming home with me tonight.

The woman pushed him away and Thomas was asked to leave the party.

Shortly afterwards, at 10.55pm, a 19-year-old woman was walking along Gardiner Street Lower when Thomas appeared in front of her and grabbed her breasts. As she tried to run away from him, he grabbed her buttocks and followed her to an apartment building door.

She screamed and he told her to shut the f*** up before a passing delivery man intervened and Thomas fled the scene.

Gardai were called to the scene and the woman agreed to go with them in a car to see if they could identify the assailant. They then spotted Thomas on O'Connell Street with his arms around another woman.

The third victim, who was in court for the hearing, told gardai she was in town with her boyfriend. When her boyfriend went to buy cigarettes, the woman was approached by Thomas, who asked her for a light and then her for a hug, adding It's Christmas.

He then leaned in to hug her before grabbing her vagina and buttocks. The woman fought him off and tried to walk away, but Thomas followed her. He was arrested by gardai who arrived on the scene shortly afterwards.

In a victim impact statement which she read out in court, the woman said she had been sexually abused as a child and the attack by Thomas brought it all back. The woman cried as she described how she suffered from depression and was withdrawn after the attack.

She said it negatively impacted her relationship with her boyfriend and she now found it extremely hard to trust people.

I own my body. How dare you? she said to Thomas.

Victim impact statements from the two other women were handed in to court but not read out.

The court heard that when questioned by gardai, Thomas made some admissions to possessing GBL but said he could not remember the events of that night.

More GBL was found in his home the following day after gardai searched it. He told them he had ordered it online from a Lithuanian company for about 90, although it later emerged the drugs came from the Netherlands.

The 10 previous convictions in Australia relate to two incidents involving the sexual assault and indecent assault of women in 2014, the court heard.

Defence barrister, Cathal McGreal BL, said his client took full responsibility for his actions and wished to apologise to each of his victims. He said Thomas had been in custody since the night of the attacks and knew he was facing a custodial sentence.

Mr McGreal said the start of Thomas's offending coincided with him starting to use the drug GBL in Melbourne. He submitted the drug has a number of effects, including a loss of sexual inhibition.

He said Thomas had expressed regret and embarrassment and had no history of hostility towards women.

He said Thomas had a normal upbringing and a good education, including an honours degree in economics. He previously worked in stockbroking and fraud detection, Mr McGreal said.

Thomas was aware that these achievements would now be set at nought due to his actions, the court heard.

Judge Karen O'Connor accepted that Thomas had apologised to all of the victims and had a good history of employment.

She said these were women going about their normal business when all three were violated over an hour and half. She noted that Thomas had continued to use the drug even though it had led to similar convictions in Australia.

Judge O'Connor also ordered that Thomas undergo two years post release supervision under the care of the Probation Service having noted that he was considered to be at a high risk of re-offending.
The former CEO of Irish Life and Permanent, jailed for his role in a 7.2 billion fraud about the true health of Anglo Irish Bank in 2008, has withdrawn an appeal against the severity of his prison sentence.

Last month, the Court of Appeal upheld the criminal convictions of Denis Casey and John Bowe, who were found guilty by a jury at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in July 2016 of conspiring to mislead investors by using interbank loans to make Anglo appear 7.2bn more valuable between March 1 and September 30, 2008.

Both men had denied the charge throughout one of the longest criminal trials in the history of the State.

Judge Martin Nolan sentenced Casey (57), the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent from Raheny in Dublin, to two years and nine months imprisonment and Bowe (53), the former head of capital markets with Anglo Irish Bank from Glasnevin in Dublin, to two years imprisonment on July 29, 2016.

Casey was due to appeal against the severity of his sentence in the Court of Appeal. However, his barrister, Michael O'Higgins SC, formally withdrew his client's appeal against sentence today.

Mr O'Higgins has asked three-judge court to amend a particular point in its 138-page judgment dismissing the men's appeal because, Mr O'Higgins said, his side wished to litigate the point in the Supreme Court.

Mr O'Higgins said he was concerned the Supreme Court would not have jurisdiction to entertain the point if it was not in the Court of Appeal's judgment.

He said it was a technical point and wished to emphasis in the strongest possible terms that he was not seeking to reopen or reargue the appeal which was heard over five days in the Court of Appeal in March.

President of the Court of Appeal Mr Justice Sean Ryan told Mr O'Higgins today that the three-judge court was considering the matter and would respond in a manner the court deemed appropriate.

Mr Justice Ryan said it was the first time he had come across such a request. In circumstances where the appeal would not be reopened, Mr Justice Ryan said the court would consider the matter as it was laid before them and deliver its decision in the next legal term.
A bungling robber held up a gift store with a bayonet knife wearing household Marigold gloves and a balaclava.

James Gleeson (32) left his getaway car running with the keys still in the ignition at 2.30pm on February 15 last outside The Blarney Woollen Mills at Bunratty, Co Clare.

However, Gleeson's getaway was thwarted after a quick-thinking pensioner, who was having lunch at the nearby Creamery pub, ran over and took the keys out of the ignition and pocketed them after hearing a robbery was taking place.

In evidence at Ennis Circuit Court, Garda Pat Harte said when Gleeson got into his car and discovered the keys were gone he started "to shake the steering wheel", then got out and asked onlookers, "Who took the keys?"

No one replied, and Gleeson, of Kilnasoola Park, Newmarket-on-Fergus, made off by foot towards the well-known Durty Nelly's pub and down Low Road where visitors enter Bunratty Castle and Folk Park.

The 'have-a-go hero' 67-year-old pensioner from Bunratty who had pocketed the car keys gave chase with other witnesses.

According to Gda Harte, the pensioner "was shouting at bystanders to move away from their cars as he was fearful that Gleeson might attempt to hi-jack another car".

Gda Harte said that himself and Sgt Seamus Mulligan were at the scene within a couple of minutes and arrested Gleeson.

Father-of-one Gleeson told Gda Harte after caution: "I am sorry. I was forced into doing it. I am not sure if I dropped the knife or left it in the car."

Judge Gerald Keys said that only for the quick thinking and bravery of the man who took the car keys, Gleeson may not have been caught.

Judge Keys jailed Gleeson for three years, suspending the final year after he pleaded guilty to robbery and production of a knife at Bunratty, on February 15. He backdated the sentence to the date of the offence when Gleeson was first brought into custody.

In a letter to Judge Keys, read out in court by his counsel, Brian McInerney BL, Gleeson stated: "What I did was not in my nature. I am not a criminal mastermind. I am just an addict who acted out of desperation, but I know there is no excuse for my actions."

Mr McInerney admitted his client "in terms of execution didn't display a particular expertise in the offence".

Mr McInerney said Gleeson effectively put an advert and a flashing light over his head saying "I'm up to no good", by driving to the door of the shop and leaving his car running and entering the establishment wearing Marigolds.

Inside the Meadows & Byrne store, wearing a green hoodie and tracksuit pants along with the balaclava and gloves, Gleeson told shocked staff: "Open the till. Open the till. I promise no one will get hurt if you just open the till."

Gleeson was unable to open the till with his knife and another member of staff walked over and opened the till for him.

He made off with 128 of which 108 was recovered.

Gleeson said he wanted to apologise to the staff at Meadows & Byrne and Mr McInerney said his client wanted to apologise publicly in abject terms for the stress, upset, worry and fear staff members suffered.

Mr McInerney said Gleeson, who has 11 previous convictions, was genuinely remorseful and "is a chronic heroin addict who was forced into doing this".

Mr McInerney said: "He owed money to wicked and evil people involved in drug dealing who effectively instructed him to do this. He would have been in genuine fear for his safety if he had not complied."
A 40-YEAR-OLD man has appeared in court charged with the murder of a man whose body was found on a country laneway in south Dublin over two years ago.

Stephen Tynan (40) had nothing to say after he was charged with the murder of 37-year-old Andrew Guerrine.

Judge Patricia McNamara remanded Mr Tynan in custody on the charge.

He must apply to the High Court for bail on a murder charge.

The accused, with an address at Knockmore Park in Tallaght, appeared before Tallaght District Court charged with the murder of Andrew Guerrine, at a place unknown between Knockmore and Killinarden estates in Tallaght on May 23, 2015.

Mr Guerrine's body was found at Steelstown Lane in Rathcoole in the early hours of May 23, 2015. He had multiple stab wounds and his throat had been slashed.

Detective Inspector Colum O'Malley said Mr Tynan was arrested before the court and charged with the offence of murder.

Insp O'Malley said the accused was handed a true copy of the charge sheet and he made no reply to the charge after caution.

Defence barrister Stephen Montgomery applied for free legal aid, saying the offence before the court was serious.

Judge McNamara assigned defence solicitor Simon Fleming on free legal aid.

The judge remanded Mr Tynan in custody to appear before Cloverhill District Court next Thursday.

Mr Tynan, who was tanned and wearing a grey polo t-shirt, did not address the court during the short hearing.
An elderly Dublin man who spent time in jail for indecently assaulting two brothers has returned to prison to serve a further year for similar abuse of a third brother.

An elderly Dublin man who spent time in jail for indecently assaulting two brothers has returned to prison to serve a further year for similar abuse of a third brother.

The 72-year-old man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, told gardai he was so drunk he couldn't recall sexually abusing his victim in the early 1980s.

The court heard the man would invite the then seven-year-old into his bed and indecently assault him.

He pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to six counts of indecently assaulting the victim at a location in the city on dates between September 1981 and October 1982.

He received a four year prison sentence in 2012 for indecently assaulting the two other males in a similar manner.

Judge Elma Sheahan said these were serious offences which involved a breach of trust. She noted the plea of guilty, his expression of remorse and the fact of the late complaint. She said, however, it was understandable why the complainant was not in a position to come forward earlier.

Judge Sheahan imposed a four year sentence and suspended the final three years.

Prosecution counsel Gerardine Small BL read out a victim impact statement in which the man, now in his 40s, described himself as empty, lost and sad after experiencing abuse as a child.

He said the indecent assaults meant that he has never been able to hug or kiss his children goodnight without feeling that he was doing something wrong.

He revealed that as a result it had always been easier not to show them any affection.

He said he didn't know if his alcoholism was the result of being abused but his drinking had cost him a job and that he cried regularly when he was alone.

Garda Paul Flood told Ms Small that the 72-year-old had been in a relationship with the victim's mother and introduced heavy alcohol consumption to their house.

After each indecent assault the man would give the child money and tell him to go play outside.

Gda Flood said the victim told gardai he blocked out the abuse and never talked about it because he was ashamed.

The garda said the elderly man was arrested in May last year after his victim had made a formal complaint. He entered an early guilty plea.

Gda Flood agreed with Garnet Orange SC, defending, that his client had 5,000 in cash to offer his victim as a token of remorse.

Mr Orange asked Judge Sheahan to have regard to the fact his client had already served a sentence on similar matters.

He submitted that the man looked older than his 72 years and this was the legacy of a lifetime of alcoholism.
A man who made allegations about a State solicitor on Facebook is under investigation for harassment, the trial of a detective for harassing the same solicitor has heard.

Eve Doherty (49), a detective sergeant based in Dublin, denies harassing Elizabeth Howlin between September 2011 and March 2013 and making false statements on two dates in March 2013 claiming Ms Howlin was perverting the course of justice.

At the time Ms Howlin worked with the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) where she was involved in deciding whether or not to direct prosecutions in criminal cases.

Over an 18 month period letters and emails were sent to Ms Howlin's home, her place of work and to her GP calling her a corrupt bitch and an incompetent useless hobbit.

The material, which included A4 posters left around her housing estate, falsely claimed that Ms Howlin was a political appointee and that she would pull files to prevent the prosecution of anyone connected to her or the Government. Ms Howlin is a distant cousin of the TD Brendan Howlin.

Michael O'Higgins SC, defending, told the jury that the allegations contained in the materials were hideous and defamatory but said his client denies being the author of any of it.

On day 13 of the trial at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court Mr O'Higgins asked Chief Superintendent John O'Driscoll about a man who Mr O'Higgins said had written posts on Facebook repeating the meat and veg of these claims similar to the ones allegedly made by the defendant.

The man cannot be identified because he is facing trial. He is the subject of an ongoing investigation for alleged harassment of a garda member, the court heard.

Chief Supt O'Driscoll confirmed that an ongoing prosecution of this man for allegedly making a threat to kill a garda involves the use of Facebook posts.

The man's previous convictions include one for harassment and one for assault. These District Court convictions were overturned on appeal, the court heard.

Chief Supt O'Driscoll agreed with Mr O'Higgins that this person would have been a person of interest to the investigation into the harassment of Ms Howlin if he had known about him at the time.

The superintendent said though that the modus operandi of this man was different to that used in the case against Ms Doherty. He said in the man's activities he used his own name and there was no use of hiding behind anonymity.

He said there was also no evidence of any emails, posters or letters.

He told Fiona Murphy BL, prosecuting, that the Facebook posts dated to August 2015. He told Mr O'Higgins that if another line of inquiry opened up after a person has been charged it would not be ignored.

The trial continues before Judge Melanie Greally and a jury.
AN APPEAL over a 900,000 defamation award was settled just ten minutes before a seven-judge Supreme Court was about to deliver a majority judgment which would have substituted the award with a figure as low as 75,000.

The development came yesterday (Thurs) in the long running libel case involving Sligo man Martin McDonagh and the Sunday World newspaper.

In 2008, a High Court jury awarded him 900,000 over a 1999 article describing him as a "Traveller drug king".

The story was carried after gardai seized IR500,000 worth of cannabis and amphetamines in August, 1999, in Tubbercurry, Co Sligo and was published during Mr McDonaghs seven day detention for questioning in connection with that seizure.

Mr McDonagh denied any involvement in drugs and was ultimately released without charge. He claimed the story tore up his family and led to him being shunned in Sligo.

The Sunday World denied libel and pleaded the article was true.

The newspaper appealed the jury award and a condition of being allowed appeal was that it would pay Mr McDonagh one-tenth (90,000) of the award.

In 2015, the Court of Appeal ruled the jury decision was perverse and found that Mr McDonagh was a drug dealer.

Mr McDonagh then appealed to the Supreme Court which said the appeal court was incorrect and its order must be reversed in full.

As the Supreme Court was about to deliver its decision on whether the case should go back to the High Court, or whether it should substitute its own award for the 900,000, Declan Doyle SC, for Mr McDonagh said the case had been "settled ten minutes ago". He apologised to the court for putting it to so much work.

Asked by Chief Justice Susan Denham how long the case had been going on, Mr Doyle said 17 years. "And ten minutes ago you settle it", a clearly annoyed Chief Justice said.

After Mr Doyle, and Eoin McCullough SC, for the newspaper, asked that the judgment not be delivered, the court retired for a short time to consider what it would do.

When the court resumed, the Chief Justice said the court had decided to deliver its judgment which would be available later with the substituted award figure redacted.

All the judges said the 900,000 was excessive or disproportionate.

Chief Justice Denham said Mr McDonagh had a criminal record, evaded tax, made a settlement with the Criminal Assets Bureau and there was evidence at the trial, which was not disputed, in relation to Mr McDonagh and drugs.

He did not enjoy a good reputation and while this did not give a licence to defame him, those matters were relevant to the assessment of damages, she said.

She was satisfied a fair, reasonable and proportionate award would be much nearer the figure which had been proposed by the newspaper (75,000).

Mr Justice Donal O'Donnell, who agreed with the Chief Justice, said the 75,000 figure provided considerable support for the assessment to which his colleagues had come although, for his part, he would have given some consideration to a lower figure.

Ms Justice Elizabeth Dunne, Mr Justice Peter Charleton and Ms Justice Iseult O'Malley agreed with the Chief Justice.

Mr Justice William McKechnie said in his written judgment before the settlement was announced he had said "this case is a mess". He had decided the only course was for a re-trial.

"Whilst I am relieved that matters have been resolved, the fact it took almost 18 years to do so and was arrived at only minutes before judgment was due is added testament to the view I have just expressed".

In light of his conclusion that the failure of the jury to answer one of the questions on the issue paper it was presented with was vital to the case, and in light of the "disproportionate damages award", he was satisfied the case must go back for retrial on all issues.

Mr Justice John MacMenamin agreed with Mr Justice McKechnie.
A man who escaped from an open prison and was at large for almost five years, during which time he collected social welfare and fathered a child, faces arrest and a return to prison to complete his sentence.

Mark Finnegan, whose family home is in Jobstown in Tallaght, was convicted in November 2008 of allowing himself be carried in a mechanically propelled vehicle without the consent of the owner.

He was sentenced to 16 months imprisonment on May 27, 2009, the first two months of which were spent in Wheatfield prison at which point he was transferred to Shelton Abbey open prison.

He escaped from Shelton Abbey on October 31, 2009 and remained unlawfully at large until his arrest in November 2014.

The High Court held that the arrest and detention of Finnegan in November 2014 was in breach of constitutional justice and not according to law. Ms Justice Una Ni Raifeartaigh noted that the delay was on the wrong side of the notional dividing line between acceptable and unacceptable delay.

Lawyers for the State successfully appealed the High Court's judgment today and, as a result, Finnnegan faces arrest and a return to prison.

Setting aside the High Court's judgment today, Mr Justice John Hedigan said it was hard to see how issues of fair procedure could arise in the case of returning an escaped prisoner to custody.

There was no process, no inquiry, no trial where fairness might be endangered by the passage of time, no decision making procedure, no discretion for the gardai to exercise and no judicial intervention required. The role of the gardai is to catch such an escapee and hand him over to the prison authorities as quickly as possible, he said.

Giving background, Mr Justice Hedigan said that upon simply walking out of Shelton Abbey open prison, his absence was immediately notified to gardai in Arklow.

Mr Justice Hedigan said details of his absconding should have been, but were not, entered onto the Garda PULSE system. The reason is not known but plainly is due to human error. Such errors should not, but in the real world, do actually occur, the judge said.

As a result no nationwide notification to gardai was made  specifically, gardai in Tallaght were not put on notice. Had they been, it is reasonable to assume that a visit to Finnegan's family home in Jobstown, would have followed quickly but as it was they had no reason to do so, the judge said.

Finnegan returned to his family home in Tallaght where he had lived prior to his imprisonment.

In 2011, he moved to a different address in Tallaght with his partner and had a child in 2013. He collected social welfare in Tallaght.

A garda Inspector admitted that there was no good explanation for what happened and that Finnegan took no steps to conceal his whereabouts.

Mr Justice Hedigan said a reason had in fact been given by the authorities for the delay in finding and recommitting Finnegan to prison albeit not one which does much credit to the same authorities.

He said the simple human error of failing to enter details on the PULSE system reasonably resulted in Finnegan not being pursued.

Whatever about the failings of the authorities  little credit may be accorded to Finnegan, the judge said, other than that he has not offended since his escape from custody.

Mr Justice Hedigan said Finnegan's failure to report to the authorities constituted a lengthy period of simply ignoring the lawful sentence imposed on him and a protracted evasion of justice.

There was no evidence the gardai were aware of Finnegan's presence at large in the Tallaght area during those years or of any capricious or other motivation in leaving him at large until sometime as they might choose to pick him up and re-imprison him.

He said the authorities have an obligation to implement prison sentences and that duty includes returning an escaped prisoner promptly to custody.

It was equally clear that any person sentenced to a term of imprisonment has an obligation to serve that sentence.

Mr Justice Hedigan said he found the arrest and imprisonment of Finnegan was made in accordance with law. The appeal was allowed and the High Court judgment was set aside.

Mr Justice George Birmingham and Mr Justice John Edwards said they agreed with Mr Justice Hedigan's decision.

Lawyers for the State undertook not to arrest Mr Finnegan in the event his solicitor, Michael Staines, lodges a Supreme Court appeal.
The recent court cases involving attacks on the elderly show we need to adopt a more caring and protective attitude when it comes to the most vulnerable in our society.

We have seen the attack by a person just released from prison on two elderly brothers with special needs in Mayo in 2013.

The Blaine bothers lived a very simple life. They were, as one cousin put it, "slaughtered" in their own home by a fantasist and an extremely violent young man. They were beaten mercilessly and scalded. That young thug received a life sentence this week.

We also saw the case of Eva Sutton, in Bray, who was attacked by two criminals in her own home in 2015. She was dragged and punched, suffered broken ribs, a punctured lung and broken nose. She has never returned to her home of 50 years. These two thugs were given 10 and eight-year sentences, but will serve much less than that.

In 2013, the Arnold sisters, Suzy and Isa, were attacked in their home between Letterkenny and Lifford, Co Donegal.

They both died, some believe as a result of the attack on them. This case is ongoing.

In 2014, an elderly man in west Clare cycled 30 miles from his home after being terrorised by a group of thugs. One man was imprisoned for three years while two others received suspended sentences. The elderly man never returned to his home.

In February 2017 Paddy Lyons, a frail old pensioner who lived on his own in Co Waterford, was the victim of an attack. That matter is before the courts.

On May 8 we saw an incident where an elderly couple in their 80s and 90s were attacked in their home in Co Tipperary.

This is only a snippet of the attacks on the elderly over many years, but we as a society must take the reins and start to assist and inform gardai of people acting unusually or suspiciously in our areas.

We do this through the community alert text scheme or neighbourhood watch.

We should also be setting up community watch officers, volunteers who are screened, to patrol areas not frequented by gardai but by the travelling criminals who invade our communities. This could be funded through various community programmes.

The thugs who perpetrate these types of crimes should be given very lengthy sentences, without remission or suspended sentences, while participating in compulsory anger management classes before their release back into society because, unfortunately, they will be released.

They then should be made, on post release supervision, to work with the elderly and vulnerable, as part of their post-release rehabilitation.

Any deviation and they should be returned to prison on breaching the post supervision order.

The National Council for Ageing released stats that showed in 1984, 432 elderly people were attacked in their homes.

This fell to 66 in 1991 and 1992 and again increased to 121 in 1997.

This is an indicator of the number of our most vulnerable who are living in fear.

Those who perpetrate these crimes have no empathy or understanding of the physical, emotional or psychological damage they do.

They don't care. These cowards offer nothing to society but their own hatred for the vulnerable in order to get a quick few bob.

While we are concerned for people's rights and the right to defend themselves before our courts, there is also the right to life and the right to be left alone in one's home without fear of attack.

Christy Galligan is a retired garda sergeant
A biker who shot a member of a rival motorcycle club dead saw an opportunity for retribution and murdered an innocent man, a barrister told a jury at the Central Criminal Court today.

The accused man's barrister said his client was acting in defence of himself and his family after members of the rival club threatened to kill him and burn down his home.

The jury heard closing speeches in the trial of 51-year-old biker Alan 'Cookie' McNamara, of Mountfune, Murroe, Co Limerick who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew 'AOD' O'Donoghue at Mountfune on June 20, 2015. The trial has heard that Mr McNamara was a member of the Caballeros Motorcycle Club while the deceased was a member of the Road Tramps.

Michael Delaney SC, for the prosecution, told the jury that the details of the case may have brought to mind American television dramas, but in this case the location is not California, but Limerick, and it involves middle aged men some of whom have health issues.

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He said some acted with a misguided sense of "code and honour" and that the "colour" in the case may tempt them towards the facetious. But, he reminded them: "A man has lost his life."

There is no doubt, he told the jurors, that Mr McNamara shot Andrew O'Donoghue. They must now decide if he intended to kill or cause serious injury to Mr O'Donoghue and whether he was acting in defence of himself and his family.

If the accused used excessive force but believed he was using reasonable force then the jury must find him guilty of manslaughter and not murder. If they believe that he was not entitled to use any force or that he knew the force he was using was excessive, then the appropriate verdict is murder. If he used only reasonable force, then he should be acquitted.

"We say self defence doesn't get off the ground," said Mr Delaney. "There were no circumstances which necessitated the use of any force, let alone the force he did use."

Going over the evidence in the case, counsel reminded the jury that Mr McNamara had been assaulted the previous day in Doon, Co Limerick, after he entered a pub wearing a waistcoat with the colours of the Caballeros sewn into the back.

On leaving the pub, two members of the Road Tramps took his waistcoat off him and one of them punched him in the face. A third member held back his wife.

In garda interviews Mr McNamara said that later that same evening, soon after he arrived home, three members of the Road Tramps pulled up outside his home and, in front of his wife and children, threatened to kill him and burn down his house. But Mr Delaney asked the jury to consider whether that happened at all and reminded them that one of the men named by Mr McNamara was Jim McInerney, who denied it outright. He invited the jury to assess Mr McInerney's demeanour as a witness.

On the morning of the shooting he said Mr McNamara told gardai he was "out of my mind" and in a panic.

"It didn't stop him making two phone calls to his insurance company for routine matters," said Mr Delaney, referring to phone records obtained by gardai.

That afternoon the accused received a call from his stepson Robert Cusack who told him he was in a car with two other Caballeros and they were chasing a member of the Road Tramps.

He said Mr McNamara then went to the Road Tramps clubhouse knowing that one of the Road Tramps was being pursued in that direction. Mr Delaney said the accused man brought a gun with him because this was an opportunity for him to obtain some form of retribution.

Mr McNamara told gardai that when he got to the clubhouse he saw men carrying what he thought were guns. Mr Delaney asked the jury why he did not just keep going. He added: "Because, he saw an opportunity to shoot a Road Tramp and he wasn't going to pass that up."

Mr Delaney said the prosecution does not stand over the attack at Doon or the alleged threats or the presence of an arsenal of weapons at the Road Tramps clubhouse, but he added: "You are not entitled to take the law into your own hands and shoot an innocent man."

He said there was no evidence Mr O'Donoghue had been involved in any of the incidents leading up to the shooting and said that he was an innocent man. He concluded: "He was shot by a man bent on retribution and his killing was murder and that is the verdict that I urge you to bring."

Hugh Hartnett SC, for the defence, said the killing was tragic because Andrew O'Donoghue is dead and his client, a father, a family man with an interest in horses, dogs and motorbikes, was on trial for murder.

He asked the jury to consider what caused this to happen. He said they had heard that the Road Tramps wanted to make his client feel unwelcome in the area but, unfortunately for him, he lived within three minutes of the Road Tramps clubhouse. He had been attacked and three of them, one of them waving a gun, had threatened him and his family with being burnt out of their home.

"Would that have an effect on the mind of an average man?" he asked the jury, adding that his client knew what the Road Tramps were capable of. He reminded the jury of the weapons found at their clubhouse and that one of the Road Tramps, Kevin Ryan, had a conviction for a firearms offence.

Knowing all this, and knowing that he might have to defend himself and his family, he asked the jury to consider Mr McNamara's state of mind "on this awful day".

He told the jury that if it were a planned murder, Mr McNamara would not have done it in front of a CCTV camera that he knew was pointing at him when he fired the shot at the gates of the Road Tramps clubhouse.

When he received the call from his stepson to say that they were heading towards the clubhouse in pursuit of one of the Road Tramps, he was worried because he knew what these people were capable of.

Mr Hartnett said it was wrong for him to bring a gun but he was a "panicked and frightened man" and feared that his family could be attacked at any time. In his fear, he believed the men at the clubhouse had guns.

He added that the ballistics showed that only one third of the pellets in the cartridge that he fired struck the deceased, which he said was consistent with what Mr McNamara told gardai - that he didn't aim the gun and that he didn't intend to kill anyone.

He asked the jurors to put themselves in the mind of his client and ask themselves how they would feel if threats were made to their family.

He concluded that Mr McNamara had no intention to kill and believed he was acting in defence of himself and his family. Justice Paul McDermott will deliver his charge to the jury of seven men and four women tomorrow.
An investigation into a charity for people with a serious brain condition has found it wrongly made payments of 84,009 to two former trustees.

The investigation was carried out by the Charities Regulator into the charity Ataxia Ireland.

The irregularities were first reported by Independent.ie in September of last year

The report found the chief executive Barbara Flynn did not inform the charitys other trustees between January 2014 and June 2015 of the existence of the payments.

The payments were made to two founding trustees who were the chief executives parents.

Ataxia is a term for a group of disorders that affect co-ordination balance and speech.

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The report also found there was a fundamental weakness in the financial management and control of the charity between 2014 and mid-June 2015.

Evidence of this was the fact that the charity paid the employee pension contributions of 38,500 of the chief executive and another staff member-totalling approximately 900- rather than deducting these payments from their salaries.

This began in July 2010 and was not identified until October 2016

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The Charities Regulator John Farrelly has written to the trustees requiring the implementation of a series of corrective actions, identified by the inspectors following their investigation.

The Charities Regulator appointed two inspectors in November 2016 to investigate the affairs of the charity following concerns it received.

The charity trustees have been given 21 days to respond to the Charities Regulator following the publication of the inspectors report today. We have written to the charity trustees to instruct them that we require an action plan which addresses the inspectors recommendations, said Mr Farrelly.

If we are not satisfied with the response from the charity trustees we reserve the right to intervene under section 74 of the Charities Act 2009 to ensure the charity is protected.

Section 74 provides the Charities Regulator with the power to apply to the High Court for a range of measures to protect a charity.

Among the findings and conclusions of the inspectors report were:

* The two founding trustees did not disclose to the wider management committee that served between January 2014 and mid-2015 details of any payments they received;

* The two founding trustees and the CEO, given her knowledge of the payments and her position within the charity, potentially undermined the management committees obligations to consider the disclosure of such payments within the financial statements;

* The absence of the disclosure of the payments to the former founding trustees within the financial statements inhibited the ability of any potential users of the financial statements (including funders or members of the charity at the AGM) to have any knowledge of the existence of any actual payments to trustees or to understand the nature or value of them;

* The charity did not fully operate in accordance with governance best practice in a number of key areas.

The regulator wants the charity trustees to determine if the payments made to the two founding former trustees are recoverable;

 Develop, document and implement suitable procedures for the recruitment of senior roles

 Implement more formal monitoring and reporting arrangements in respect of the role of the CEO;

 Agree and implement a formal arrangement with the CEO to recover the overpayment of employee pension contributions.

A spokesperson for the charity was not available today.
Terry Leyden & FormerTaoiseach Bertie Ahern during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Chancellor of the National university of Ireland Maurice Manning & Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern & Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen has claimed credit for setting the context of the economic recovery in Ireland.

In a rare public appearance at Dublin Castle yesterday, Mr Cowen reflected upon the arduous task he faced as Taoiseach.

He was speaking during a ceremony in which he received a law doctorate in recognition of his role in Irish politics by the National University of Ireland.

The greatest hardship of the recession was the loss of employment for so many of our people - something which I deeply regret, he said.

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"Two hundred and fifty thousand of our two million workforce lost jobs, the vast majority in construction and related industries and in retail."

Mr Cowen added: "We knew that the required action would understandably be more unpopular than almost any policies in recent Irish history and that this threatened the survival of the Government and our hopes of election.

"However, we also know that to avoid taking the decisions would mean that future recovery could be put off by decades."

Recognition of the scale of the problems Ireland faced and introducing measures to address them facilitated the remarkable recent turnaround in the Irish economy.

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These measures by us included a radically changed system of financial regulation, major cuts in public expenditure and the recapitalisation of the Irish banking system.

Widespread reductions in pay levels were also introduced. These measures provided a basis for the return to economic growth, he said.

The former Taoiseach added that he accepts the problems should have been identified earlier and policy should have changed prior to the crisis.

He said the governments decision to capitalise the losses in the Irish banks up front by setting up a national asset management agency.

This had a very significant negative impact on the economy but pushing the problem out would have damaged our long term ability to recover, he said.

Referring to a media headline stating that the former Taoiseach threw others under the bus, Mr Cowen said that the buck stopped with me

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Despite making this clear in a statement I made to the banking inquiry and that nothing I would say in answering questions should in anyway be interpreted as shifting responsibility elsewhere, and saying so explicitly, we still had some sub editor in a national newspaper at the time giving a headline that I was throwing others under the bus.

That has never been my style and I defy anyone involved in the media who has covered politics during my career to come forward and give me even one instance where I did that, he said.

Mr Cowen added that he thinks the Government should bring our housing policy in line with the UK for three to four years.

If we do that I am of the view that the housing sector will come back much more quickly and in the necessary volume to deal with present day demand.

Clearly, a social housing programme needs to be put in place as well for those who cannot get a mortgage to buy their own home, he said.
Business owners in Kilkee have said that the closure of the town's beach during peak season is "disgraceful".

The beach has been closed for the last four days due to a pipe malfunction discharging bacterial wastewater from a nearby stream into Kilkee.

According to Irish Water, the bathing restriction "is likely to be in place for a number of days" as they will need to ensure that the water meets quality standards.

Owner of the Strand Bistro and Guesthouse, Johnny Redmond told Independent.ie that the closure was "disgraceful" and harmful to his business which is located on the town's seafront.

"It's disgraceful and not good enough. At this time of year and in this day and age for it to happen to one of the most beautiful beaches in Ireland, it's detrimental to our business," he said.

Mary Hickie, who owns the Pier restaurant, added that the closure of the beach will lead to a reduction of day trippers who may have visited the seaside town.

"It's a disgrace. Kilkee has always been noted for its beach. If this happened in March or April it wouldn't matter as much but this is our peak season. Day trippers with kids will go elsewhere as they're not going to walk the streets of Kilkee."

On the other hand Fine Gael West Clare Councillor Gabriel Keating doesn't believe that the beach closure will "affect too many" and is confident that the beach will be open by the weekend.

He said: "I feel sorry for people on holidays because it's an ideal location for a swim. I don't think it will affect too many and hopefully it'll be sorted by the weekend. I've every confidence in the staff at Clare County Council."

This is not the first time that the beach in Kilkee has been forced to close.

In December, Irish Water and Clare County Council issued a "no swim" notice due to storm water being discharged on to the beach. It did not reopen until May 2017 due to new pipework having to be installed.
Divers have recovered the main telegraph from the sunken RMS Lusitania off the coast of Kinsale, Co Cork.

The ship was struck by a torpedo from a German U-boat off the Head of Kinsale on May 7, 1915, while en route from New York to Liverpool.

Previous attempts to raise the telegraph had proven unsuccessful. However, recreational divers, licensed by Culture, Heritage and the Gaeltacht Minister Heather Humphreys, located the telegraph and marked it on the sea bed in recent days.

It was brought to surface on Tuesday in "undamaged and excellent condition" according to Ms Humphreys.

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"I also understand that the owner of wreck, Gregg Bemis, intends to place the telegraph, and the pedestal successfully recovered last year, on display in a local museum, along with other artefacts he has recovered during earlier dives, which is great news for the local community," the minister said. The cause of a second explosion which sunk the vessel and led to the loss of 1,198 lives is still being probed.
Craft brewers are to be allowed to sell their produce directly to tourists under new laws.

The Cabinet has agreed people who go on brewery tours should be able to buy beer at the end. Microbreweries operate in 23 counties, but until now have been banned from selling alcohol on-site. The changes announced by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan are aimed at facilitating the tourist market and sales will be permitted between 10am and 6pm.

Mr Flanagan will progress the Intoxicating Liquor (Breweries and Distilleries) Bill 2016, by approving the drafting of a series of amendments to proposals brought forward by Labour TD Alan Kelly. The Bill provides for the automatic grant by the Revenue Commissioners of a licence authorising the sale of intoxicating liquor produced on the premises to visitors at craft breweries and distilleries.

Mr Flanagan said: "The Government is fully committed to supporting regional and local development and fully exploiting the job-creation potential of artisan food production and local tourism initiatives."
Alan Dowley speaks to Prime Time about the case of his missing father. Picture: RTE

Alan Dowley speaks to Prime Time about the case of his missing father Brendan (inset). Picture: RTE

A retired Garda has claimed that a body buried unidentified in Wales 32 years ago may be his father.

Alan Dowley's father Brendan was last seen getting on a bus in Kilkenny in October 1985. The bus was heading for the ferry in Dun Laoghaire for onward travel to Holyhead in Wales.

Speaking on tonights RTE Prime Time Alan revealed that he has recently given a DNA sample to Gardai to be compared with a body washed up in Wales in November 1985.

The development follows a re-investigation of the case by Welsh police which has established that a number of surgical scars on the unidentified body seem to match Brendan Dowleys medical history.

We were aware back at the time of the body found in Wales, but this was a time before DNA, Alan told the show.

A total of 600 unidentified bodies are buried cemeteries across the UK and 114 of these were recovered from the western British seaboard - fuelling a belief that some may be Irish.

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A Garda initiative, called Operation Runabay, is now seeking to establish how many Irish bodies may be among the unidentified.

Alan Dowley, who now works with the Association of Garda Sergeants and Inspectors (AGSI), told the show the family had been aware in the mid 1980s of the body found in Wales, but forensics were not as advanced at that time to allow for it to be identified.

In 1986 Welsh police had looked for my fathers dental records but we did not have them. Things seemed to fizzle out after that. There was no way to identify the body," he told reporter Barry Cummins.

Mr Dowley, who spent 32 years with the gardai in Drogheda and Dunboyne, explained that he dealt with many missing persons cases in his career, while having his own fathers case at the back of his mind.

When my father went missing I had conducted my own enquiries and then submitted a file to Garda Headquarters, and they had sent it to Interpol.

In recent months Alan Dowley contacted Welsh police once again to enquire about the unidentified case.

I gave my DNA recently to Sergeant Richie Lynch in the Garda Missing Persons Bureau and Im now waiting to see when the body in Wales might be exhumed for a DNA comparison to be carried out. I would encourage any other family of a missing person to give their DNA if they havent done so yet. Each of these unidentified bodies is someones loved one.

Detective Superintendent Michael Daly told the show that a number of cases of missing Irish people were currently being examined to see if they might be among the unidentified bodies in Britain.

I would appeal to any family missing a loved one who has not yet given a DNA sample to contact us. Its a non invasive process and we are working with police in Britain to try and resolve any cases we can. I believe some of the bodies in Britain are Irish.

Anyone wishing to contact the Garda Missing Persons Bureau can do so at missing_persons@garda.ie
The UK and France are planning to ban sales of petrol and diesel by 2040. Norway says 2025. So what are the Irish governments plans?

Transport Minister Shane Ross has already detailed the Departments vision to get rid of fossil fuelled cars by 2050 and heres everything you need to know:

How realistic is this?

The Department of Transport has laid out a policy ambition to have all new cars and vans sold in Ireland to be zero-emissions capable by 2030, with a further aim to decarbonise transport by 2050.

That 2030 deadline also involves seeing 800,000 electric vehicles on our roads, according to their National Framework on Alternative Fuels Infrastructure.

However, their past record on such goals may raise doubts.

How many electric cars are there in Ireland?

A target of 50,000 electric vehicles on our roads by 2020 was previously set in 2014, but in reality uptake has been much lower with indications showing that the figure will be only 8,000.

There are 2.5 million vehicles on our roads and despite the availability of VRT relief, lower motor tax rates and a grant of up to 5,000, only 2,200 are electric.

Is the technology ready?

The Department believes low uptake rates could change due to advancements in low carbon alternative technologies.

They say improvements in these technologies will continue to make alternative fuel solutions more affordable to consumers.

The biggest obstacle preventing consumers adopting electric vehicles in Ireland is range anxiety, which is the fear of running out of power far from the nearest charging point or destination, according to a representative from the Department of Finance.

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Manufacturers are keen to address these fears through increasing battery life, however, for long distance driving the technology will need to be proven before large scale adoption, Brian Meenan added.

Does Ireland have the right infrastructure for this?

The Department of Transport argue that Ireland already has strong characteristics for electric vehicles including a relatively short distance between our cities, a mild climate and a single electricity network company.

Ireland has over 1,200 charging points including one in every town with a population of over 1,500.

In response to the EU establishing a minimum provision standard for refuelling infrastructure, Minister Shane Ross said infrastructure will not be a barrier for their commitments to greater uptake of low emission vehicles (LEVs).

This Framework provides a supportive environment for suppliers and consumers alike, and provides increased confidence and reassurance in our commitment to this emerging market, Minister Ross said.

What does this mean for motor tax and fuel excise?

As the Government intends to become a leader in electric vehicles, a Low Emission Vehicles taskforce has been established to make recommendations ahead of the next Budget.

This taskforce is expected to make recommendations on the role of motor taxation and fuel excise while the Tax Strategy Group will also publish a paper on Environmental and Energy Taxes later this summer.

The recommendations are likely to consider potential reductions in revenue from fuel excise, on which the Government made over 2bn last year (Diesel: 1.447bn; petrol: 721m).

Large-scale adoption of electric vehicles could also have an impact on revenue sourced from motor tax (approximately 1bn annually) which has been calculated on CO2 emissions since July 2008.

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While a move to electric vehicles should have an impact on mineral oil duties the figures show that significant reductions are some way off, Mr Meenan added.

Some other potential policy instruments being analysed by the taskforce include: reduced charges or exemptions on toll roads for EVs; availability and focus of benefit-in-kind relief; EV public parking charges; current public procurement policy; and the effectiveness of the current incentives in place.

How will this help the environment?

The ambitious framework will also help towards tackling the Governments commitments to climate change policies.

Currently, Ireland has the fourth highest dependency on crude oil in Europe and projections show that greenhouse emissions from the transport sector are set to increase by 10-16% over the 2014-2020 period.

All of our oil is imported and this cost 4.4bn in 2014 alone.

The Department states that achieving the goal of 800,000 electric vehicles by 2030 could result in a reduction of CO2 emissions by 7 megatonnes.

Minister Ross said this will actively set Ireland on the right path to decarbonisation and cleaner air.
The inside of a car involved in crash on Malahide Road. Picture: Dublin Fire Brigade

Dublin Fire Brigade have released images of a crushed car after a serious road traffic collision on Wednesday night.

The crash took place on the Malahide Road in North Dublin shortly before the Artane roundabout.

The road was closed in both directions as emergency workers attended to those injured in the incident.

A total of three ambulances and three fire engines attended the smash.

There were multiple casualties as a result of the horror crash.

Gardai say they also attended the scene and the patients were removed to hospital.

Dublin Fire Brigade shared the images on social media today.

They wrote on Twitter: Yesterday evening we responded to this RTC. Multi-system trauma and multiple patients.

Three ambulances (2 DFB, 1 NAS) and three fire EMS appliances.
The remains are carried from church followed by family members with a guard of honour from the Blackball Association of Ireland and St. Colmcille's GAA Club. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The remains are carried from church with a guard of honour from the Blackball Association of Ireland and St. Colmcille's GAA Club. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Members of St. Colmcilles GAA club hold bicycle wheels as they form a guard of honour. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

Members of the Blackball Association of Ireland walk with the hearse. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The funeral cortege makes its way to church flanked by members of St. Colmciles GAA club, left and members of The Blackball Association of Ireland (in green). Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The remains are carried from church with a guard of honour from the Blackball Association of Ireland and St. Colmcille's GAA Club. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The remains are carried from church with a guard of honour from the Blackball Association of Ireland and St. Colmcille's GAA Club. Photo: Colin Keegan, Collins Dublin.

The Dublin man who was beaten to death on a street in Swords has been remembered as a kind, hard-working man who would put others needs before his own.

Innocent father-of-three Dermot Byrne (56) was attacked on North Street in the north Dublin town on July 16 as he made his way home after a night out.

His body was found by a shocked passer-by, and although emergency crews battled to save his life his injuries were too grave.

Dermots remains were brought to St Colmcilles Church in Swords yesterday for his funeral, where many of the mourners had to listen to the service on loudspeakers in the car park because the church was so full.

As Dermots coffin was brought to the church behind a lone piper, a walking guard of honour was formed on each side of the hearse by members of the Irish Blackball Association and St Colmcilles GAA Club.

Symbols brought to the altar to represent his life included his pool cue, cigarettes and his Zippo lighter, brought by his daughter Shawna; a Dublin jersey and match tickets brought by his daughter Emma, and some of his favourite CDs, including David Bowie, Led Zeppelin and Aslan, brought by his daughter Rebecca.

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Fr Paul Thornton told the mourners that what everyone woke up to on July 16 was news of a brutal and callous killing that left a man dead on the streets of our town.

This act of violence doesnt just affect us today, its part of the viciousness that eats away at the fabric of our society and removes from us that which we value - respect for one another, and the freedom to be able to walk through our town without fear, he explained.

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Dermot worked in a bicycle sales and distribution company with his brothers.

He was described as a man who was kind, hard working, and who would do anything for you especially if you were stuck. He put others before himself, said Fr Thornton.

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There were smiles amid the tears too, when Fr Thornton told how Dermot could give celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay a run for his money.

Daughter Shawna spoke emotionally at the end of the mass, and how at her 21st when she was just about to blow the candles out on her cake her dad could not be found, but after a brief search he was discovered downstairs playing a game of pool.

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When we told him to come up he actually turned around and said can I finish this game first?, Shawna said with a smile.

Dermots brother Paul too spoke emotionally of his familys love for him, and their thanks to the emergency services and gardai.

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He had his own memories of Dermot as a child and growing up and how Dermot would look out for his younger brother.

After the funeral mass Dermots remains were brought to Dardistown cemetery for burial.

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One man has been arrested and charged with his murder and is before the courts.
Eugene Dreghiciu, who drove the Guinness truck filled with water to the Termonfeckin Reservoir Photos: Doug OConnor

A Guinness tanker brought 90,000 litres of water instead of 'the black stuff' to thirsty villages in Co Louth.

The shiny 'silver bullet' Guinness tanker made three trips to help replenish a reservoir on high ground overlooking the villages of Clogherhead and Termonfeckin.

The drinks company offered the services of two of its 30,000 litre tankers free of charge to Irish Water to help alleviate the shortage in Louth and east Meath caused by a major pipe burst.

Driver Eugene Dreghiciu (47) said: "I'm glad to help bring water to so many families in the area who need it so badly."

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He ferried truckloads of water to the area from Ardee, where water was plentiful.

Several firms have been engaged in hauling water into the region. In Clogherhead village, tanker driver Willie Molloy was dispensing water directly into the plastic containers and bottles of villagers.

"People are very glad to get it. I must have heard 90pc of people telling me 'you never miss the water 'til the well runs dry'. Some of the people are starting to get some water back in their taps but they're still afraid to use it," said Mr Molloy.

Local man Sean Clinton (52) was out for a walk with his dog Bertie and was happy that his pet was offered a drink of water from a bowl at the back of the tanker.

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"It's great that the trucks are helping out. I heard the sound of water going into our tank in the attic this morning. It was a very welcome sound. I've been looking forward to having a shower," said the father-of-two.

Ricki Griffiths (34), manager of the local Corr's Pharmacy, and her colleague Shaneece Heavey (22) were busy topping up five-litre containers of water from Mr Molloy's tanker.

"It's really bad not having water in the pharmacy but we're doing our best. The customers are getting fed up with having no water at home," said Ms Griffiths.

"At least I'm getting a good workout carrying 15 litres of water at a time."

In nearby Termonfeckin, tanker driver Timothy Caddell (56) was manning a Northern Ireland Water truck as he dispensed water.

"The community spirit is absolutely fantastic here. I see people living in housing estates who only knew each other to see. But now they are chatting and giving each other lifts to bring water home," said Mr Caddell, who brought 23,000 litres from Poyntzpass, Co Down.

He filled containers for mother-of-three Josephine Mulholland (42).

She said "There is no sign of water in our taps yet - nothing, zero."
Brian O'Driscoll and Amy Huberman have received the green light to extend their new 1.8m Rathmines home.

The extension plans for the couple's new home seemed to stall last month when their neighbours lodged a complaint about the scale of the build which they believed was "overbearing".

However, Huberman and O'Driscoll were granted planning permission by Dublin City Council last Friday.

Donald and Isabel Fitzmaurice have four weeks to appeal the decision to An Bord Pleanala.

Last month, the Fitzmaurices lodged an objection claiming that O'Driscoll and Huberman's proposed development would "be hugely detrimental to the amenity" of their home.

The couple said while they had been consulted in the early stages of the planning, their new neighbours had declined to amend their scheme to accommodate their concerns.

O'Driscoll and Huberman paid less than half the 4.3m paid by the previous owners for their dream home on Palmerstown Road.

The couple plan to demolish a small two-storey extension and replace it with a larger three-storey extension that will allow for the creation of a new kitchen area, an additional bedroom and a study.

The couple also plan on upgrading the facade and removing the PVC windows in the property.

The architects working on O'Driscoll and Huberman's new home said the extension will "only serve to further enhance the appearance and character of the building with the aim of ensuring the long-term integrity of the protected structure is conserved".
Taoiseach Leo Varadkar with Vincent Browne on his show on TV3. Photo: Arthur Carron

TAOISEACH Leo Varadkar has been accused of 'plucking statistics from the air' after he claimed that 70 per cent of the public are middle class.

Dublin West TD Jack Chambers told Independent.ie that Mr Varadkar is trying to "divide communities" rather than unite them.

Labour Party senator Kevin Humphreys also strongly criticised Mr Varadkar following comments he made in an interview with veteran broadcaster Vincent Browne on his TV3 programme this week.

Mr Varadkar told the outgoing presenter that people on minimum wage see themselves as being middle class.

He also said 70pc of the public classify themselves as falling into this bracket.

"Its essentially the big centre of Irish society. Ive never put figures on it. I would include people on the minimum wage. Over 70pc of people describe themselves as middle class, he said.

Asked by Mr Browne where the 70pc figure came from, Mr Varadkar replied that it was a standard statistic.

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On Wednesday night, Mr Varadkar's constituency colleague, Fianna Fail TD Jack Chambers, accused the Taoiseach of making up the figure of 70pc.

"I think his comments reflect a worrying disconnect from those on the minimum wage who I think would define themselves as anything but middle class. A simple conversation with someone from our own Dublin West constituency, rather than a plucked statistic, would drive that home to the Taoiseach," Mr Chambers said.

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"The Taoiseach seems unaware of the struggles of the parents earning less than 10 an hour who are trying to put food on tables every night, pay monthly heat and electricity bills, cover the spiralling costs of education and other outgoings - all of which causes great worry and sleepless nights for hard-pressed families.

Some of these families now have to rely on income supplement and a range of supports to stay above the poverty line.

I actually think the reverse is true and that fewer people than ever would define themselves as middle class due to the high tax burden and slow delivery of public services. In fact Fine Gael in government have create a new working poor.

"In my view we should be getting away from a class-based argument and trying to unite communities rather than dividing them."

Meanwhile, Labour Party senator Kevin Humphreys said he believes the comments illustrate how Mr Varadkar needs to spend "more time outside of Castleknock," which is on his constituency of Dublin West.

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"It's extraordinary how out of touch this Taoiseach is - the same Taoiseach who claims credit for Labour proposals like raising the minimum wage and free GP care for young children, " the Dublin Bay South politician said.
Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen with his wife Mary at Dublin Castle, where he accepted an honorary doctorate yesterday. Photo: Gerry Mooney

Since he quietly left office as Taoiseach in March 2011, Brian Cowen has avoided publicity and got back to normal life.

Last night he stepped briefly into the limelight to accept an honorary doctorate from the National University of Ireland at Dublin Castle. Bar a long appearance before the Dail banking inquiry in summer 2015, this was the most comprehensive defence of his controversial political stewardship.

He was Ireland's 12th head of government, probably its unluckiest, and for a time its most publicly reviled. While the Offaly man was Taoiseach, from May 7, 2008, until March 9, 2011, the global banking system fell asunder and the world economy tipped into deep recession.

The impact on an ill-prepared Ireland was vicious, reaching its low-point in November 2010 when the infamous EU-IMF-ECB Troika landed in Dublin to take control of the national purse-strings. From then on he was only nominally the head of government, and from January 2011 he ceased to lead Fianna Fail, remaining as caretaker Taoiseach until after the February 2011 electoral slaughter of the party his father and grandfather had served.

So, accepting this 'NUI gong', the big question was would he deal with such matters? To listen to the introduction delivered by Professor Mary E Daly, of NUI, Mr Cowen's career had been largely onwards and upwards, bar the odd challenge.

Flashes of the old Brian Cowen were back on display. He said all Fianna Fail leaders had got an NUI doctorate, bar the party's founder Eamon de Valera, who was actually the head of that august body for years.

Out of respect for students who slogged years to get their PhD in whatever discipline, he would be 'Dr Cowen' for the purposes of this ceremony only.

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The circumstances of his departure make it easy to forget that he is the only Irish politician to have been by turns foreign affairs minister, finance minister, Tanaiste and Taoiseach. He was TD for his native Offaly for 28 years and also served as labour minister and health minister.

And it was as part of two of Albert Reynolds's and three of Bertie Ahern's governments, over the years 1992-94 and 1997-2008 respectively, that he has most questions to answer.

As Prof Daly noted, perhaps the focus might be mainly on the years 2004-2008, when he was finance minister.

These were all years of solid economic growth and development - but also the years when an over-reliance on transitory property boom taxes, and weak bank regulation, among other problems, crept in.

These were among the uniquely damaging Irish problems when recession struck in mid-2008.

In fairness to Cowen he did deal with those appalling years as Taoiseach and insisted that he never sought to dodge his responsibilities which, as government leader, rested entirely with him. "I accept that the problems should have been identified earlier and policy should have changed prior to the crisis," he told his Dublin Castle audience.

But he also rightly said the 2007 General Election was effectively a bidding war between the main parties. "The consensus about the future of the Irish economy continued to be optimistic. The critique at the time of my budgets as minister for finance prior to taking office as Taoiseach describe them as measly and did not give people enough. Some other Opposition parties described spending as hopelessly inadequate and totally insufficient," he argued.

This is all true. So, too, is the reality that his Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition front-loaded horrendous cutbacks from late 2008 onwards. They got them through with minimal social conflict and the Fianna Fail rapport with the public service unions delivered the Croke Park Agreement in June 2010, curbing public pay and numbers.

Publicly, Fine Gael and Labour will reject Cowen's claims that he had done much of the heavy-lifting on cutbacks before Enda Kenny became Taoiseach in March 2011. But that is also true.

Mr Cowen's own Fianna Fail colleagues can ruefully attest to his assertion that they did delay dishing out the tough medicine. Party stalwarts need no reminding of the resultant meltdown.

It's probably too much for ordinary voters to accept his assertion that he helped build the current recovery.
Former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern & Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen with his wife Mary at Dublin Castle, where he accepted an honorary doctorate yesterday. Photo: Gerry Mooney

Brian Cowens rare return to the public spotlight has generated a somewhat feverish response.

Independent.ie Political Editor Kevin Doyle dissects his 50-minute speech to bring you the 10 talking points that have the former Taoiseach back in the headlines - and how the internet reacted to Mr Cowen's award.

1. It was only a matter of time before Brian Cowen got this award

Eyebrows were raised when it was announced by Brian Cowen was to be conferred with an honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the National University of Ireland. However, insiders say it was only a matter of time.

In his speech Mr Cowen noted that every Taoiseach except Eamon De Valera and John A Costello were granted a similar honour. Mr De Valera was a distinguished Chancellor of the NUI for many years so was unlikely to give himself an award. The absence of Mr Costello from the role of honour is unexplained.

Bertie Ahern, who attended yesterdays ceremony, received his doctorate while still in the Taoiseachs office.

During his speech Mr Cowen said: "As an alumnus of U.C.D, I look back on my student days there with great fondness. Looking back now, the Ireland of the late 1970s and early 1980s was a very different place to the country we see today, with many high and low points in between."

2. Cowen 'never briefed against colleagues'

Politics is a fickle sport where everybody has to defend their own patch even if it means doing down allies. Ministers regularly brief against their colleagues  but Mr Cowen says he never did.

"I was always observant of the principle of collective responsibility in government. I never briefed against a colleague or sought to influence a prospective decision by government through media leaks or otherwise," he said.

He also said he never threw anybody under a bus. "That has never been my style and I defy anyone involved in media who has covered politics during my career to come forward and give me even one instance where I did that."

3. Cowen describes his own time as Taoiseach as "arduous"

Brian Cowens terms as Taoiseach from May 2008 until March 2011 coincided with the arrival of the Troika. In his speech the Offaly man said the job was "arduous task with the onset of the financial crisis and the economic recession we experienced as a result."

He says he "confronted the problems."

He added; "We did not delay or defer a change of course, and as a people we kept our nerve under the most trying circumstances."

Expand Close Former Taoiseach Brian Cowen TD during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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4. Celtic Tiger weaknesses were "not sufficiently recognised"

Mr Cowen described what he saw as the background to the economic crash, saying behind the high growth and international praise of the Celtic Tiger were "built in weaknesses in the Irish economy which were not sufficient recognised."

"The weaknesses were seen as risks but the extent of the risks were underestimated," he said, adding there was an over dependence on indirect/transactional taxes like VAT and Stamp Duty.

"The bottom line was that Ireland was uniquely vulnerable to any international economic crisis," he said.

5. His government recognised "the magnitude of the crisis" as taxation collapsed

Many analysts have argued that Brian Cowens government were paralysed in the face of economic doom but the former Taoiseach said they "recognised the magnitude of the crisis hitting the Irish economy as taxation collapsed, home building stopped, domestic demand dramatically declined and consumer and investor confidence hit the floor."

6. Cowen "deeply regrets" that 250,000 lost their jobs

It was the closest Mr Cowen came to saying sorry during his speech. He outlines that the "greatest hardship" of the recession was the loss of employment  "something I deeply regret."

"Hardworking men and women who ask only for the chance to work to support themselves and their families were denied that opportunity by the cruel reality of an economic downturn that impacted upon millions across the world.

"250,000 of our 2 million workforce lost jobs, the vast majority in construction and related industries and in retail," he said.

Expand Close Former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern & Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins / Facebook

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Whatsapp Former Taoisigh Bertie Ahern & Brian Cowen during a Conferring of Honorary Degree by the National University of Ireland to Brian Cowen in Dublin Castle, Dublin. Photo: Gareth Chaney Collins

7. Fianna Fail "made the hard decisions" that led to economic recovery

History will judge this argument but Mr Cowen is "crystal clear" that his government put the steps in place for the economic upturn. He says the Fianna Fail-Green Party coalition knew they had to take decisions "more unpopular than almost any policies in recent Irish history and that this threatened the survival of the Government and our hopes of election."

"However, we also know that to avoid taking the decisions would mean that future recovery could be put off by decades," he said.

8. They were all as bad as each other

One point thats hard to argue against is Mr Cowens claim that any other political party would have done the same as Fianna Fail during the boom years. He noted that "a cursory look" at the 2007 election manifestos shows the consensus about the future economic progress was "optimistic."

"The critique at the time of my budgets as Minister for Finance prior to taking office as Taoiseach describe them as 'measly' and 'did not give people enough'," he said.

9. He praised the Government for their Brexit response

Its unusual for anybody in Fianna Fail to praise Fine Gael, but Mr Cowen said the Government "is to be commended for ensuring that Ireland's concerns regarding the operation of the border in a post Brexit situation is clarified and dealt with satisfactorily before moving on to the next phase of the negotiating mandate given to Michel Barnier and his team by the European Council."

10. A few ideas for fixing the housing crisis

Mr Cowen told the audience he would make just one comment on the current housing problem.

"I think that if we revert to common building standards with the UK even say just for the next three to four years, we can get the housing market back moving again, particularly lower-priced affordable starter homes for our young people," he said.

"If we do that I am of the view that the housing sector will come back much more quickly and in the necessary volume to deal with present day demand."

Our readers give their verdict
There's a theory that life is 10pc what happens to us and 90pc how we react to it. The same could be said of politics, where 'damage limitation' is often the order of the day.

When newly minted Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy got in his car and headed off to Drogheda on Tuesday, he set about trying to manage a situation that had been festering for four days.

It's a decades old rule of thumb for politicians that they should be seen "on the ground" in a time of crisis.

Enda Kenny suffered a major backlash when he was slow to appear during the floods of Christmas 2015 while former Green Party leader John Gormley was dubbed the 'Minister for Snow' after the government's inept attempts to reassure the public during the big freeze of 2010.

So with his sleeves rolled up (Justin Trudeau-style), Mr Murphy went to see what the problem was.

A burst pipe sounds predictable enough in a country where water charges were abandoned on the back of angry protests and a large-scale boycott.

A quick scan of the utility's Twitter feed shows that pipes burst most days but generally are fixed within 24 hours.

Government figures, including the minister, have pointed out that Irish Water was set up for exactly this type of situation.

But in the words of Mr Murphy, this is "the biggest crisis that Irish Water has faced".

At the same time, officials from Irish Water have been warning a similar situation could develop anywhere in the country. It's not a scare tactic. Around 10pc of our very disparate piping network is at risk of bursting. It could be you buying bottled water to flush down the toilet tomorrow.

Of course this is a debate we should have had before water charges were introduced, and by the time efforts were made to inform people of our Victorian and asbestos-ridden system they were drowned out by the pied piper of protest Paul Murphy.

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Sinn Fein danced to his tune and Fianna Fail got lost in a flood of inexplicable U-turns that saw its 2016 election manifesto promise to abolish Irish Water because it had "failed to achieve basic public legitimacy".

So now Eoghan Murphy must try to do the impossible: convince people that Irish Water is a nimble, efficient public body.

The 35-year-old is set for a steep learning curve, one that his Cabinet colleague in health Simon Harris has sometimes struggled with over the past year.

The public, and indeed the media, needs a 'fall guy'. Somebody to focus their ire on in times of hardship.

By taking over the portfolio that carries both housing and water, Mr Murphy will be in the firing line more often than not.

He will need to come up with better lines than: "I am very sorry for all of the people who have experienced these severe water shortages."

The Dublin Bay South TD also argued the lack of communication with householders added to the stress and anger being felt over the water shortage. This in itself is unforgivable in an era of 24-hour news and social media.

It seems even the minister didn't become aware of the seriousness of the situation until Sunday - two days after the pipe burst.

"Since then I and my officials have been working with Irish Water to make sure that everything that needs to be done is being done," he said.

The tankers have rolled in and the Defence Forces belatedly called upon to help.

But all sides need now to look at the bigger picture. Later this year almost one million households will have water charges refunded at a cost of 178m.

Simultaneously all parties in the Dail will be calling for increased spending on water infrastructure.

Nobody in Leinster House has a leg to stand on when it comes to this issue - but it now falls on Eoghan Murphy to respond and deliver.

Welcome to the big leagues, minister.
THE problems in housing and health will not be solved in the lifetime of this government, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said.

The new leader of Fine Gael said he has ambitious plans for his tenure, starting with a capital investment plan in the region of 80bn.

In an interview on Tonight With Vincent Browne, Mr Varadkar also indicated that he intends to introduce penalties for people who leave properties vacant.

And he defended his support for 'people who get up early in the morning'.

VIDEO: Taoiseach and Vincent discuss housing crisis #vinb pic.twitter.com/facDs6yMRd  Vincent Browne TV3 (@TonightWithVinB) July 26, 2017

However, Mr Varadkar struggled to define what he means by the middle-class. He claimed 70per cent of people, including those on the minimum wage, are middle-class.

Its a metaphor of course. It applies just as much to somebody who works late. What it refers to is effectively two million people who work in Ireland now. Its the middle class, its middle Ireland. People who feel they contribute a lot to society but dont get much back, he said.

Mr Varadkar said this class of person deserve more representation even though they are essentially the big centre of Irish society.

The Taoiseach also repeated his aim of creating a Republic of Opportunities.

Its big stuff and its ambitious and its going to take time but I really want to do it, he said.

For the first time, Mr Varadkar gave some insight into why he left the Department of Health with unfinished business after the last election.

I think I did get some things done. What I didnt manage to do was get on top of the very serious problem we have of access to services, he said.

Browne, who was presenting his penultimate show, asked Mr Varadkar if he previously asked to be moved from the difficult Health ministry. Mr Varadkar responded: I didnt. I didnt ask to leave either by the way. I was appointed to Cabinet three times, on no occasion did I pitch for what position I wanted.

He appeared to blame former Taoiseach Enda Kenny, saying: We did have a conversation about the kind of things I thought needed to be done if we were really going to turn things around. There was never any real response or reply to that and I was moved to a different department.
While not an immediate cause for concern, the fact that Irish Water is closely monitoring water levels in more than 50 parts of the country highlights why the ageing network is in such dire need of upgrading.

A lack of winter rainfall has resulted in the amount of water stored in reservoirs falling to low levels, putting regional towns and parts of Dublin city at risk.

But there are also concerns about supplies of 'raw' water being available, typically drawn from ground and surface water sources.

Exceptionally low winter and spring rainfall has meant that water is less abundant than this time last year, with reservoirs not replenishing to the level required to provide an adequate buffer.

The utility has confirmed that levels are being monitored across 46 so-called 'water supply zones' across 15 counties, with restrictions also in place on Inis Oirr on the Aran Islands.

The public is being asked to conserve water on Inis Mor, also in Aran, and Williamstown in Galway. Conservation measures are also in place in areas served by Lough Colm and Lough Fad in Donegal including Milford, Ramelton and Quigley's Point.

It comes amid growing fears that a lack of investment in the water network over years is resulting not only in concerns about mains pipes rupturing, as occurred in Louth, but also about the ability of the network to cope with unforeseen outages or shortages caused during periods of low rainfall.

Worst affected

Among the worst affected counties is Cork, where 11 water supply zones are being monitored. It is followed by six in Laois, five each in Kerry and Galway, four in Offaly, three each in Roscommon and Westmeath, two each in Mayo and Longford and one each in Louth, Clare, Limerick and Tipperary.

A zone in Dublin city is also being closely watched.

The company is engaged in a 13.5bn upgrade of the network, which includes new storage reservoirs, replacement of ageing mains and amalgamation of smaller drinking water plants, which often draw supplies from unsustainable sources.

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A spokesperson said people should not be concerned about water being cut-off, but said lack of rainfall over the winter had resulted in concerns about levels of water in storage, and supplies from groundwater and surface water sources.

"I would say people don't need to be worried, we're managing it. We're managing it so it doesn't become a problem. Rainfall is so low. It's a problem across here and the UK. Rainfall over the winter months is what replenishes raw water levels in reservoirs and ground water sources. We know it's lower than it should be. The majority of our (drinking water) sources are also surface waters, so that has an impact.

"We need better resilience built into the system, and raw water storage. There are plans for more reservoirs.

"Drought conditions are exceptional and there's similar problems in the UK. We can look at a national level, which local authorities could only have done on a regional basis. We also have an ability to divert (water from other sources)."

Met Eireann says last winter was "much drier than normal", with the driest levels in 25 years reported in parts of Dublin and Cork. All weather stations recorded below average levels, particularly in the west, north-west and east. Rainfall totals for spring were also below long-term averages. Changing weather patterns forecast unless climate change is tackled could also result in more problems in the future.

Water is also in short supply in the UK, where farmers have warned water may have to be transferred across Britain after the dry winter left many rivers unable to support production. Here, Irish Water has been forced to ship water to some of the Aran Islands due to a lack of storage capacity, which is being addressed. In parts of Westmeath served by Lough Owel, including Mullingar, the public has also been asked to conserve water.

But the utility has warned households and businesses not to change their behaviour and begin stockpiling water, as it could lead to bigger problems.

It has a weekly meeting where it examines the overall national picture, including the need for contingency planning in the event that problems reach the point that conservation measures are needed, or restrictions imposed.

The lack of resilience in the system is exemplified by Dublin, which had just 2pc headroom - or additional capacity - until relatively recently. This has since increased to 10pc, but a new supply from the Shannon is needed.
Elderly and victims' groups are calling on judges to implement tougher sentences and for more gardai to be deployed to protect the elderly from "acts of barbarism" and "animals".

Two recent cases have caused shockwaves: the double murder of two elderly brothers with special needs in Co Mayo and the assault of an 89-year-old Bray, Co Wicklow, woman. Both incidents took place in the elderly people's homes.

"These are acts of barbarism committed by thugs and cowards," Age Action's Justin Moran said.

On Tuesday, Alan Cawley, of Corrinbla, Co Mayo, was sentenced to life for the double murder of brothers Thomas Blaine (69) and John (Jack) Blaine (76) in July 2013.

On the same day, Michael Cash (25), of Ballybrack, Dublin, was imprisoned for 10 years, with two suspended, for what a judge described as the "savage and brutal" beating of Eva Sutton in September 2015.

Jamie O'Brien (23), of Hazelwood, Bray, received the same sentence last April for the attack on Ms Sutton, now 91.

"I don't think the impact on the vulnerable and frail is taken into account in sentencing," Mr Moran said. "The fact this is elderly people should be a factor in sentencing. But tough sentencing alone won't work.

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"These criminals don't believe they'll be caught, so what we really need to see is where there was a reduction in gardai, especially in our rural communities, those numbers being built up again.

"We need a clear, visible presence of gardai to give the elderly peace of mind. We need to ensure criminals are afraid of being caught - it's the best deterrent - and gardai need to be given the resources they need."

Sally Hanlon, from Support After Crime Services, applauded the bravery of Ms Sutton for speaking out after she was attacked.

"Anyone who attacks a defenceless, elderly person should be shunned by our society and the sentences handed down need to reflect this heinous crime. The victims and the impact on their lives needs to be taken into account by judges," said Ms Hanlon, who labelled the murder of the two Mayo brothers as "animalistic".

She said high-profile court cases caused increased fear among isolated older people and that it was vital gardai numbers were increased on the ground to restore confidence.

Sean Moynihan, CEO for Alone, said attacks on elderly people had a "disproportionate" effect and that the "fear factor is much deeper and higher".

"Ladies like Ms Sutton never go home because of the fear," Mr Moynihan said. "We feel the impact statements should be taken into account.

"If older people are disproportionately impacted by the attacks, judges need to take this into account."

Fianna Fail spokesperson on older people Mary Butler said: "Vulnerable older people should never be fearful about staying in their homes. There needs to be a discussion about how we deal with people who engage in abhorrent and senseless attacks."
Laura Cafferty and her husband Karl with their daughter Maya (nine months)

Friends of a Mayo woman who was told she has two years to live after welcoming her first baby are raising funds to support alternative treatment in an effort to save her life.

Laura Cafferty (34) was diagnosed a rare form of cancer in March, five months after welcoming her first baby with her husband Karl in October.

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Whatsapp Laura Cafferty with her daughter Maya (nine months).

Laura, from Kilmovee in Co. Mayo, had been undergoing intensive chemotherapy to battle leiomyosarcoma, a cancer of the body's connective tissues in Southampton, UK as the couple are currently based in Jersey.

Earlier this month, the new mum and her husband, from Charlestown, were given the devastating news that Laura's body had not responded to the treatment and that the cancer had spread to her pelvis and back.

Speaking to Independent.ie, Laura's sister-in-law Aimee Cafferty said there are no further treatments available for Laura on the NHS and doctors said she "would be lucky" to live for another two years.

However, Laura's family and friends are now fundraising to explore alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, which may offer hope to the mum.

"Laura and my brother Karl have been together for over 12 years, such a long time and they have been through so much together," Aimee said.

"A few years ago when they were living in Charlestown, Laura was diagnosed with MS, and although it was devastating, she never let it get the better of her. She always lives life to the full. They went to Toronto together for as few years before she was offered a position in Jersey Island.

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"When she was pregnant with Maya she began to have a bit of trouble with her leg, but Laura put it down to her MS. After she had the baby, the symptoms began to get progressively worse.

"She underwent tests in January and February of this year, and in March they discovered a cancerous tumour in her leg. Laura was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, which is an aggressive cancer of the connective tissues. Laura has in in her bones which is extremely rare," she said.

Laura's diagnosis has been exceptionally difficult for the couple being so far from home and Karl continues to work full-time and care for baby Maya (nine months). Aimee said the funds will also be used to support Laura's ongoing medical expenses.

Aimee said: "Two weeks ago Laura was told that the chemo hadn't worked and that the cancer has spread. Doctors said she has two years to live if she is lucky."

"Unfortunately there is no other treatment available on the NHS. It's devastating for our family.

"She has been looking into alternative treatments, including immunotherapy, possibly in Germany but they're very expensive, which is why we've set up this GoFundMe page. We just want to have a fund for future medical treatment."

Speaking of her sister-in-law, Aimee said she has never met anyone with such a "warm heart".

"Laura has such a warm heart and she has such a huge network of friends, more than anyone I know. We just want to give her the best chance to fight this cancer for her little daughter.

"If the tables were turned, she would be out campaigning to help anyone in the same situation," she said.

To support Laura's campaign visit: www.gofundme.com
Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government Eoghan Murphy pictured during a visit to Stameen Estate, Drogheda, which has been struck by water shortages. Photo: Collins

Water takes on the shape of whatever holds it - any wonder it is all over the place, just like the Government charged with containing it.

If ever an issue crystallised the appalling lack of political leadership in this country it is the water crisis. Yesterday, Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy warned it was entirely possible that similar leaks to the one in Drogheda - which has left almost 70,000 high and dry - could happen elsewhere. Irish Water believes there could be 46 potential flashpoints.

Mr Murphy revealed that there is "no funding certainty" for Irish Water, or the minimum 3.5bn urgently required to guarantee delivery for the future. It is competing with health and education. With no eye to irony, Mr Murphy further waffled on about "revenue streams", even as 50pc of our drinking water is lost to leaks.

There may be no guarantee where the funding will come from to deliver the one resource we cannot live without, yet Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is quite confident he can deliver 170m to refund those who paid their water charges. Those who got the tens of millions paid out in the 100 conservation grant but refused to pay their charges can also hang on to their cash.

Meanwhile, a chorus from the hard left, which led the protest against what would have amounted to a 3-a-week per household charge, are now baying for more investment in water infrastructure.

Have we really turned our backs on "leprechaun economics" only to embrace "pixie politics", where a magic wand can be waved to meet every wish with no thought to social or environmental cost? The hard left has always preferred fable to fact, but responsibility for this fiasco goes across the full political spectrum. The silence from Micheal Martin and Fianna Fail is telling.

Safely watching from the wings, as Messrs Murphy and Varadkar flounder in the aftermath of a shambles they helped create through years of failure to invest, followed by a craven opportunistic U-turn on the water charges, hardly confers moral authority on the issue.

We have responsibility to protect our elderly

The growing savagery and wanton violence visited on the elderly asks the most searching questions of our society.

Such attacks terrorise and scar for life the most vulnerable and most deserving of protection in our community.

The brutal murder of two elderly brothers and the barbarous attack on an elderly woman are just the most recent reminders of a descent into depraved inhumanity that must be met with abhorrence.

It scarcely requires repeating that these shameful attacks threaten all our values and must be stopped.

Those who harm the old have to face the consequences, and the call by Age Action for judges to implement tougher sentences and for more gardai to be deployed to protect the elderly must therefore be heeded.

Those who target and terrorise the frail and infirm have to know that the punishment will be severe. Coincidentally, yesterday also heard an appeal from rural groups not to cut text alert systems as it emerged that 800,000 unspent on personal alarms for the elderly could be reallocated. This cannot be allowed.

We have a societal responsibility to make sure that funding for vital services to the elderly is sacrosanct.
We're all guilty of allowing social media to dictate some of our most important day to day decisions.

Delicious Instagram pictures influence our food choices, while friends' online restaurant reviews often tell us where to eat.

The amount of likes we receive on an OOTD (outfit of the day) post can force us to make different wardrobe choices and even when it comes to business our opinions of a utility company can be altered depending on the way they handled their latest Twitter meltdown.

But the bigger life choices tend to require a little more thought and consideration, one would think.

Not so it seems for the apprehensive Stuart Gunn however, whose soon-to-be wife (!) Amanda Barr is about to call his bluff on a social-media-based bet he made that's gone viral.

After he put off for ten years asking her to marry him, Amanda, from Blackpool, finally managed to get partner Stuart to agree to take her hand in matrimony - if she received 500 likes on a Facebook post asking friends and family if they thought it was time for the two to make it legal.

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"So as many of you already know me and Stuart has Been together now for 13 years we have 3 amazing beautiful children, a lovely home, we are happy and content," Amanda wrote on Facebook.

She said because she wasn't "getting any younger", she was hoping to be married by next year, and that if her post received 500 likes and 50 shares by the end of this month, her partner would finally propose.

"So I need all mine and Stuarts family and friends to share and like the hell out of this post. LETS GET ME DOWN THE AISLE GUYS," she said.

Of course within minutes she had the required likes to call her partner's bluff, and the post has since racked up more than 22,000 likes.

Video of the Day

"I cant believe it has gone like it has," Amanda told Metro UK. "Ive had messages from Australia, Poland, and America."

With the phenomenal response to the post, now groom-to-be Stuart was forced to put his hands up and it seems is ready to make good on his promise.

"If 22,000 people reckon I should marry Amanda then I should get on with it. Its about time," he said.
The authenticity of a letter apparently sent to President Donald Trump by a nine-year-old fan has been questioned online.

The White House shared the letter from Dylan at the start of a briefing session with journalists. While reading the letter, deputy press secretary Sarah Sanders also attempted to answer some of the boys easier questions about how old the president is and the size of the White House.

She then shared an image of the letter on Twitter.

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But people immediately questioned the authenticity of the letter, with some going as far as calling it propaganda from the Trump administration and claiming it was written in-house.

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Among the chatter about the letters authenticity, people turned detective to question the lack of fold marks on the paper, the appearance of the hole-punch marks, and the actual handwriting.

Some teachers even waded into the debate.

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But for all those questioning tweets there were also voices praising the letter, and accepting Dylan, who gets known as Pickle, is a real boy. They hope to see Pickle at the White House with his new friend.

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Hillary Clinton is releasing one tell-all book well be clambering to read this autumn.

The former presidential candidate, who lost out to Donald Trump in the US election in November, will be reflecting on exactly what went wrong in her campaign.

Entitled What Happened, Clinton will share her thoughts on the historic election which ended in her winning the popular vote but losing out in the all-important Electoral College.

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Its the most personal book Ive ever written. It will also give readers an idea of what its really like to run for president, especially if youre a woman, Clinton told a conference of the American Library Association this week.

Publishers Simon & Schuster told the Associated Press the book will connect the dots concerning Russian interference in the poll.

Clinton will also be revealing what it was like to run against Trump, and the sexism she encountered during her bid for the White House.

The memoir is set for a September 12 release, and Twitter users are eager to see whats inside.

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Although it was only announced by the publishers on Thursday, the book cover has already been subjected to the meme treatment.

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The former US secretary of state kept a low profile in the months following her defeat, but was spotted a couple of times taking a stroll in the woods near her home in New York.
Silent but defiant, Cardinal George Pell made his first court appearance in Australia yesterday, on charges of sexual abuse, vowing through his lawyer to fight the allegations that have rocked Rome and threatened the Pope's image as a crusader against abusive clergy.

Cardinal Pell, Australia's highest-ranking Catholic and Pope Francis's top financial adviser, is accused of sexually abusing multiple people years ago in his Australian home state of Victoria, making him the most senior Vatican official ever charged in the Catholic Church sex abuse crisis. Details of the charges have yet to be released to the public, though police have described them as "historical" sexual assault offences - meaning crimes that occurred years ago.

He has not yet entered a plea, but yesterday his lawyer told the court that the 76-year-old cardinal plans to formally plead not guilty at a future court date.

"For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," lawyer Robert Richter told Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Cardinal Pell entered the courtroom in a black suit, his face devoid of expression as he took a seat behind his legal team. He said nothing during the hearing, or to the hordes of journalists who swarmed around him as he left the courthouse.

The hearing itself lasted just minutes and was remarkably routine. Yet the image of one of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church standing before a cramped courtroom overflowing with reporters and spectators was anything but.

In recent years, the cardinal's actions as archbishop came under particular scrutiny by a government-authorised investigation into how the Catholic Church and other institutions have responded to child sex abuse. Australia's Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse - the nation's highest form of inquiry - revealed earlier this year that 7pc of Catholic priests were accused of sexually abusing children in Australia over the past several decades.

Mistakes

In testimony to the commission last year, Cardinal Pell conceded he had made mistakes by often believing priests over those who said they had been abused. He also vowed to help end a rash of suicides that has plagued abuse victims in his hometown of Ballarat. But over the past year, the allegations against him moved beyond the way he had handled cases of clergy abuse to accusations he had committed abuse. Australian detectives flew to the Vatican to interview him last year, and last month he was formally charged.

As he left the courthouse, a dozen Victoria police officers formed a circle around him, pushing their way through a media scrum as protesters and supporters shouted at him. "We love you Cardinal Pell," one woman yelled, while another screamed: "You were supposed to protect the children."

The cardinal is next expected in court on October 6.
Scientists in the US have developed a film from the DNA of salmon which gets better at protecting the skin from ultraviolet light the more it is exposed to the sun.

It also helps lock in moisture beneath the surface, which is usually lost during tanning.

"Ultraviolet (UV) light can actually damage DNA, and that's not good for the skin," said Dr Guy German, assistant professor of biomedical engineering at Binghamton University, New York.

"We thought, let's flip it. What happens instead if we actually used DNA as a sacrificial layer?

"So instead of damaging DNA within the skin, we damage a layer on top of the skin."

Mixture

The film was made from a mixture of the DNA from salmon sperm, water and ethanol to create sheets of a transparent crystalline material.

The second skin is derived from the DNA of salmon sperm.

They found that the more they exposed the film to UV light, the better the film got at absorbing it.

"If you translate that, it means to me that if you use this as a topical cream or sunscreen, the longer that you stay out on the beach, the better it gets at being a sunscreen," said Dr German.

The DNA coating can also store and hold water much more than uncoated skin. When applied to human skin, it is capable of slowing water evaporation and keeping the tissue hydrated for extended periods of time.

The scientists also want to test whether the material could also be useful as a wound covering.

Because it is transparent, doctors would be able to monitor how well a wound was healing without removing the dressing.

"Not only do we think this might have applications for sunscreen and moisturisers directly, but if it's optically transparent and prevents tissue damage from the sun and it's good at keeping the skin hydrated, we think this might be potentially exploitable as a wound covering for extreme environments," he added.

The research was published in the journal 'Scientific Reports'.
In the cult 1986 film starring Matthew Broderick, a Ferrari belonging to Ferris Buellers best friend Cameron is destroyed in a crash

A son went on a real-life 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'-style outing after "borrowing" his father's Ferrari, but had it seized by police for not having insurance.

The 28-year-old man was pulled over by officers while driving the black Ferrari California while his family were on holiday.

He was caught in the supercar, worth at least 250,000 (279,000), by police in Bromley, south east London, on Tuesday.

The car was pictured being loaded onto a recovery truck, before being taken to the police station where officers posed with it. However, the force said it will not be crushed.

Police in Bromley tweeted: "Don't take dad's Ferrari without the right insurance! No Insurance = No Car!"

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Bromley Safer Transport Team were patrolling in Bromley when they came across a black Ferrari.

"It transpired that the driver had 'borrowed' it from his dad whilst his parents were away on holiday.

"Insurance checks came back showing that he was not covered by his family's insurance policy on that car.

"As a result the driver has been reported for driving without insurance and police seized the car."

In the cult 1986 film starring Matthew Broderick, a Ferrari belonging to Ferris Bueller's best friend Cameron is destroyed in a crash. ( Daily Telegraph, London)

Telegraph Media Group Limited [2022]
The Ohio State Fair will open one day after a man was killed and seven other people were injured when a thrill ride broke apart, but the rides will not be running until they all are deemed safe.

Video captured by a bystander at the fair on Wednesday evening shows the Fire Ball ride swinging back and forth like a pendulum and spinning in the air when it crashes into something and part of the ride flies off. Screams are heard as passengers are thrown to the ground.

"The fair is about the best things in life, and tonight with this accident it becomes a terrible, terrible tragedy," said Republican governor John Kasich.

Officials said the man who was killed was one of several people who were thrown to the ground when the ride malfunctioned. They have not released his name. Ohio State Medical Centre said three of the injured were being treated there. Two of them were in critical condition, the hospital said.

Officials did not know what caused the ride to break apart, saying the investigation was ongoing.

"Of course we want to get to the bottom of this," Mr Kasich said, noting that there could be things to be learned that could help other fairs and amusement parks. "Make no mistake about it, it's a very, very sad night for all of us."

Kaylie Bellomy was in the next group waiting to board the Fire Ball.

"It was going for a minute and it was at its highest point and I saw somebody fall on the ride, and then a minute later the whole like row of seats fell off and hit the ground," she told TV reporters.

"Everybody was running. I got ran over trying to get out of the way."

A company providing rides at the Ohio State Fair this year describes the Fire Ball as an "aggressive thrill ride".

The accident prompted California State Fair officials to shut down the Fire Ball ride there. Barry Schaible, an inspector with a company hired by the fair, told reporters in Sacramento, "We shut down the ride immediately, unloaded it and it's closed right now."

On its website, Amusements of America said that since its debut in 2002, the Fire Ball, which was manufactured by KMG, had become "one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway." The company's description of the ride said it swings riders 40 feet above the midway, while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.

Ride inspectors did not notice anything out of the ordinary when they conducted their inspections and cleared the Fire Ball for passengers, said director of agriculture David Daniels. All of the rides at the fair are checked several times when they are being set up to ensure they are set up the way the manufacturer intended, he said.

"We started out today with 11 rides that did not open because the inspection work was not done on them," said Mr Daniels. Four rides will not be operating because they do not meet the mechanical test, he said.

Officials said none of the rides would be open until they are all fully inspected.

"Our hearts are heavy for the families of those involved in last night's tragic accident," the fair said early on Thursday morning in a statement posted on its Twitter page. "We have shut down all rides until the state has inspected each and every ride again and deemed them to be safe."

The Ohio State Fair, which is one of the largest state fairs in the US, runs until August 6.

AP
General Rupert Jones, Deputy Commanding General of the Coalition Joint Task Force, right, speaks during a press conference at the Civil Council of Raqqa, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria, Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

A displaced child who fled fighting in Raqqa, carries a boy on her back in a refugee camp, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

US-backed Syrian fighters have captured almost half of Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa, but the push into the city has slowed due to stiff resistance and large amounts of explosives planted by the extremists, a spokeswoman has said.

The assault on Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led fighting group, began on June 6 backed by US-led coalition air strikes and American troops advising the local forces.

Since then, the SDF has made steady advances from the eastern and western sides of the city, reaching the walled old quarter.

The fall of Raqqa, IS's self-proclaimed capital, would be a huge loss for the extremist group, which earlier this month lost the Iraqi city of Mosul. But much tougher fighting still lies ahead.

Army Col Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition fighting Islamic State, said 45 percent of Raqqa is now under the control of the SDF.

In a series of tweets, he said the SDF cleared about nine square miles of terrain this past week fighting against "stiff, sporadic resistance" from IS militants entrenched in Raqqa.

Expand Close General Rupert Jones, Deputy Commanding General of the Coalition Joint Task Force, right, speaks during a press conference at the Civil Council of Raqqa, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria, Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) / Facebook

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Whatsapp General Rupert Jones, Deputy Commanding General of the Coalition Joint Task Force, right, speaks during a press conference at the Civil Council of Raqqa, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria, Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

Meanwhile, senior UN humanitarian official Ursula Mueller told the Security Council by video from Jordan on Thursday that an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain in Raqqa.

She said the city is encircled and "there is no way for them to get out".

Since April 1, more than 200,000 people have fled their homes in the area around Raqqa, she said. The figure includes more than 30,000 displaced just this month as Syrian fighters try to oust the extremists.

Nisreen Abdullah, the Kurdish spokeswoman, said the pace of the advance into Raqqa has slowed because of massive amounts of explosives laid by IS fighters.

Expand Close A displaced child who fled fighting in Raqqa, carries a boy on her back in a refugee camp, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla) / Facebook

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Whatsapp A displaced child who fled fighting in Raqqa, carries a boy on her back in a refugee camp, in Ain Issa, northeast Syria. (AP Photo/Hussein Malla)

As the extremists become more surrounded, they have increased their suicide attacks against fighters of the SDF, she added.

"Raqqa has become a booby-trapped city and this shows their (IS's) weakness," said Ms Abdullah, of the Women's Protection Units or YPJ, speaking from northern Syria.

"They are also using civilians as human shields and this is slowing the push as well."

She said the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish YPJ women fighters, now controls 45% of Raqqa and since the offensive began, SDF fighters have fully captured eight neighbourhoods.

Mustafa Bali, who heads the SDF media centre, confirmed on Thursday that the group now has half of Raqqa and said the most important areas liberated in the past four days were the Nazlet Shehadeh and Panorama Square neighbourhoods - both on the south-western part of the city.

But he said there are IS counter-attacks, militant sleeper cells and tunnels in the area.

"It was not easy, we have casualties and martyrs," he said, adding that the fighting is ongoing.
People say their goodbyes to Cena, a 10-year-old black lab who was a military service dog (Joel Bissell/Muskegon Chronicle via AP)

Hundreds of people gathered to say a tear-filled final goodbye to a cancer-stricken dog who served three tours in Afghanistan with the US Marines.

Ten-year-old black lab Cena received a hero's farewell before being put to sleep at the USS LST 393, a museum ship in Muskegon, Michigan, and carried off in a flag-draped coffin.

Cena, who was recently diagnosed with terminal bone cancer, was a bomb-sniffer for the Marines until his retirement in 2014.

The celebration for Cena was organised by his owner, Lance Corporal Jeff DeYoung, who was paired with the dog in 2009 and 2010 while on a combat tour in Afghanistan and who adopted him in 2014.

Cena then became Mr DeYoung's service dog to help him with his post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My whole adult life I've had Cena," Mr DeYoung said. "When I was 19 overseas learning how to be responsible, I had Cena. And now I'm 27 and I'm having to say goodbye to one of the biggest pieces of my life."

Mr DeYoung said he has carried Cena across rivers and thrown his body over him while under heavy fire from the Taliban.

He said Cena kept him warm during cold desert nights, and comforted him when he lost seven friends in three weeks.

As part of the celebration, Mr DeYoung took his dog on one last ride in a topless Jeep that was decorated and named "Cancer Response Team".

Mr DeYoung said: " The support, all the love people are giving him, he can see it and he can feel it."

The ceremony was attended by the US Marine Corps League, Michigan State Police, Muskegon County Sheriff's Office, Muskegon City Police, Muskegon Fire Department and officers from several other departments, including a canine officer named Rex.

Attendees gave one final three-volley salute with "Taps" playing in the background for Cena, who was wearing a decorated blue Marine vest.

"Lord, it is with heavy hearts that we are sending another Marine to you today," said chaplain Wesley Spyke as he addressed the crowd in prayer.

A GoFundMe page has been set up for donations to help build a headstone for Cena.

"Any dog that served overseas deserves exactly what I've done for Cena, if not more," Mr DeYoung added.

AP
Robert Mugabe has been urged by his wife to name a successor (AP)

Zimbabwe's first lady has publicly urged her 93-year-old husband to name his successor.

Grace Mugabe, whose political influence has been growing, previously said the world's oldest head of state could rule from the grave.

"If God decides to take him, then we would rather field him as a corpse" in the 2018 election, she said early this year.

But in comments shown by state broadcaster ZBC, the first lady on said she had been arguing with him about naming a successor: "He says no, no, no."

With her husband in attendance, she told members of the ruling ZANU-PF party women's league: "I am asking him now in front of you ... You, president, don't be afraid. Tell us your choice, which horse should we back. Because we respect him, his word will be final."

The audience cheered, though the president's response was not immediately clear.

The president, who has led the southern African nation since 1980, has already started campaigning for next year's vote. He has repeatedly said he will not choose a successor.

The 52-year-old Mrs Mugabe, who heads the ZANU-PF women's league, has become increasingly powerful. Her decisions have carried more weight at times than those of the country's vice presidents, and she has been headlining her own political rallies since 2014.

While she is seen as a potential successor to her husband, she has sent mixed signals. She has said she has no problem becoming president but on other occasions has said she has no such ambitions.

On Thursday, the first lady used a biblical analogy of a son who organised a feast to crown himself because his father was close to death. She said naming a successor "has been the trend in other countries," ZBC reported.

Some analysts have suggested that Mr Mugabe, who now visibly struggles to walk, could call an early election.

His party's secretary for administration, Ignatius Chombo, last month said Mr Mugabe could call an election in February or March. He can only do that if parliament, where his party holds a majority, chooses to dissolve itself.

The constitution stipulates the earliest date Mr Mugabe can call an election is in July 2018.

Fights to succeed Mr Mugabe have intensified in recent months, with cabinet ministers and military generals trading insults on mainstream and social media over the issue.

Mr Mugabe and his wife have warned against senior party officials anointing themselves as successors. A cabinet minister, Jonathan Moyo, has repeatedly tweeted that vice president Emmerson Mnangagwa, a close ally of Mr Mugabe since the 1970s war of liberation from white minority rule, has done so.

Mr Mnangagwa has denied the claim, saying he is loyal to the president.

Mr Mnangagwa leads one of the two factions setting themselves up to succeed Mr Mugabe. The first lady is associated with a youthful faction called G-40, or Generation 40.

AP
Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven has reshuffled his minority cabinet in a bid to avert a government crisis.

Mr Lofven replaced two members after opposition parties demanded the ouster of three government ministers over one of the largest security breaches in the country's history.

He said the heads of the interior and infrastructure ministries had requested to leave but that defence minister Peter Hultqvist will remain in the cabinet because the no-confidence proposal against him was unfounded.

Addressing a news conference, Mr Lofven described the opposition motion to file a no-confidence vote against the three government ministers as "hasty and ill-planned," and said he did not want to continue the political crisis in Sweden.

"Now it's up to the parliament," Mr Lofven said.

The four right-wing opposition parties announced their plan on Wednesday but did not file the no-confidence motion. It was unclear if they would revise the planned motion to include only Mr Hultqvist.

The crisis came to a head when the populist, anti-immigrant Sweden Democrats said they would back the opposition in a no-confidence vote, giving them the required majority to oust the ministers.

The 2015 breach allowed IT workers abroad to access confidential information in Sweden's government and police database when the Transport Agency outsourced some of its services to IBM in the Czech Republic.

The three government ministers are blamed for incompetence and delaying the release of information. Mr Lofven, who described the incident as a disaster that put Sweden and Swedes in harm's way, said he first heard about it in January - some 18 months after the leak occurred.

Officials say they do not know if the breach caused any tangible damage. The head of the Transport Agency was fired in January for negligence and waiving security clearance requirements for some foreign IT workers, Swedish reports said.

AP
US-backed Syrian fighters have captured almost half of Islamic State's de facto capital of Raqqa, but the push into the city has slowed due to stiff resistance and large amounts of explosives planted by the extremists, a spokeswoman has said.

The assault on Raqqa by the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a Kurdish-led fighting group, began on June 6 backed by US-led coalition air strikes and American troops advising the local forces.

Since then, the SDF has made steady advances from the eastern and western sides of the city, reaching the walled old quarter.

The fall of Raqqa, IS's self-proclaimed capital, would be a huge loss for the extremist group, which earlier this month lost the Iraqi city of Mosul. But much tougher fighting still lies ahead.

Army Col Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition fighting Islamic State, said 45% of Raqqa is now under the control of the SDF.

In a series of tweets, he said the SDF cleared about nine square miles of terrain this past week fighting against "stiff, sporadic resistance" from IS militants entrenched in Raqqa.

Meanwhile, senior UN humanitarian official Ursula Mueller told the Security Council by video from Jordan on Thursday that an estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain in Raqqa.

She said the city is encircled and "there is no way for them to get out".

Since April 1, more than 200,000 people have fled their homes in the area around Raqqa, she said. The figure includes more than 30,000 displaced just this month as Syrian fighters try to oust the extremists.

Nisreen Abdullah, the Kurdish spokeswoman, said the pace of the advance into Raqqa has slowed because of massive amounts of explosives laid by IS fighters.

As the extremists become more surrounded, they have increased their suicide attacks against fighters of the SDF, she added.

"Raqqa has become a booby-trapped city and this shows their (IS's) weakness," said Ms Abdullah, of the Women's Protection Units or YPJ, speaking from northern Syria.

"They are also using civilians as human shields and this is slowing the push as well."

She said the Syrian Democratic Forces, which includes the Kurdish YPJ women fighters, now controls 45% of Raqqa and since the offensive began, SDF fighters have fully captured eight neighbourhoods.

Mustafa Bali, who heads the SDF media centre, confirmed on Thursday that the group now has half of Raqqa and said the most important areas liberated in the past four days were the Nazlet Shehadeh and Panorama Square neighbourhoods - both on the south-western part of the city.

But he said there are IS counter-attacks, militant sleeper cells and tunnels in the area.

"It was not easy, we have casualties and martyrs," he said, adding that the fighting is ongoing.

AP
Anthony Scaramucci is the new communications director at the White House (AP)

Newly-appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci is threatening to get the FBI involved in a crackdown on leaks from the Trump administration.

Mr Scaramucci, a Wall Street financier, said in a television interview that he has a "very good idea who the senior leakers are", adding that he had talked to Attorney General Jeff Sessions and to his "buddies" in the FBI about the matter.

In a tweet about his "leaked" financial documents late on Wednesday, Mr Scaramucci conspicuously mentioned the Twitter handle of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.

Mr Scaramucci later deleted that tweet and said he had only mentioned Mr Priebus to show that all senior leaders are taking the leak crackdown seriously.

The since-deleted tweet read: "In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony, I will be contacting @FBI and the @JusticeDept #swamp @Reince45"

Mr Scaramucci's financial disclosure was not leaked at all. It was released after a public records request by a Politico reporter.

Although he is new to the White House, Mr Scaramucci had been employed at a senior level by the Export-Import Bank since June 19. After 30 days, the financial disclosure forms filed by senior administration officials are subject to public records requests.

The issue of leaks has weighed heavily on US President Donald Trump as his administration tries to navigate questions about contacts some of his presidential campaign associates may have had with Russian government officials.

The recent revelation that Mr Trump's eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, and his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, met with a Russian government lawyer has magnified those questions and fuelled Trump's frustration over leaks to the media.

Scaramucci told CNN that officials sometimes "leak things to reporters to help shape policy". But he said he wants to stop what he calls "nefarious, unnecessary, backstabbing, palace intrigue-like leaks".

Asked what he meant by including Mr Priebus, Mr Scaramucci said: "If Reince wants to explain he's not the leaker, he can do that."

At his White House debut last Friday, Mr Scaramucci addressed reports of a contentious relationship with Mr Priebus, saying that they are like brothers who "rough each other up a little".

Mr Priebus told The Associated Press last week that he supports Mr Scaramucci "100%", despite reportedly trying to prevent him from getting an administration position.

Ivanka Trump, the president's daughter, and her husband, powerful senior aide Mr Kushner, have known Mr Scaramucci for years from New York and pushed for his hiring.

Mr Scaramucci notably said he reports directly to the president, not to the chief of staff. That is a highly unusual arrangement for a communications director and a possible reflection that Mr Priebus' standing with Mr Trump is often uncertain.

Mr Trump's first White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, resigned last week with the news that Mr Scaramucci was being brought in as communications director.

AP
The magazine provides a general overview of the options available to foreign firms to sell to the online India...
We certainly appreciate all individuals who applaud educator diversity, in Indianapolis. We too, think it is absolutely necessary that there be many more educators of color in Indianapolis in all schools.

However, with any praise of the Mind Trust and its actions in Indianapolis, we have some questions we would like everyone to consider.

Do you support the closure of three legacy high schools for purely economic reasons without any careful consideration of the human impact on students, families, and communities?

Do you support the closure of three legacy high schools based on a committee that did not broadly represent the large range of voices in the community?

Do you support the closure of three legacy high schools without any consideration of alternative solutions? Do you support the school board not even asking for consideration of any other alternatives even though other alternatives exist?

Do you support the Mind Trust and Stand for Children spending around $1.5 million dollars over the last three elections to elect 6 of the 7 board members? Before the Mind Trust and Stand for Children spent these huge sums starting in 2012, average community folks could win a school board seat with only $3-5,000. Do you support this big money takeover of the school board?

Do you support the Mind Trust and Stand for Children hiding exactly where this $1.5 million came from and how they spent it by using a 501c4 tax dodge? Do you think it is supportive of the community and democracy to hide the money?

Are you supportive of white, conservative, wealthy individuals and organizations from outside Indiana providing large sums of money to the Mind Trust and Stand for Children to control IPS?

Do you understand that the so-called innovation schools are just a form of charter schools within the district?

Did you know the model for innovation schools came from ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, which is the primary source for white rightwing takeovers of state government, like has been done in Indiana?

Did you know that innovation schools allow individuals and companies to make money off of our students, money that in traditional schools would be spent on students and that IPS innovation schools actually get more funds than IPS traditional schools?

Did you know all of this about the Mind Trust and their actions? Has the Mind Trust and Stand for Children told you about all of this?

Given that everything we have said here is based on public information, do you still think the Mind Trust and Stand for Children are worth your enthusiastic, unquestioned support?

IPS Community Coalition (IPSCommunityCoalition@gmail.com), including Rev. David Greene (Concerned Clergy & Purpose of Life Ministries), Dountonia Batts (parent), Pastor Wayne Moore (Baptist Ministers Alliance & Olivet Baptist Church), Rhondalyn Cornett (President, Indianapolis Education Association), Gayle Cosby (former IPS Board member), and Jim Scheurich (IUPUI professor)
Late last month, attorney Norris Cunningham and 14 other employees left the citys fifth largest firm, Hall Render Killian Heath & Lyman, for different pastures, joining firm Katz Korin. Cunningham, who previously served as Hall Renders health care litigation practice group leader, became a name partner and shareholder in whats now known as Katz Korin Cunningham.

Its actually not a very interesting story, Cunningham humorously stated when asked about how the merger came to be.

Following a dinner meeting with Michael Gabovitch, Katz Korins managing partner, it was apparent to Cunningham that his aspirations in the legal field matched with those of Katz Korin.

We felt like this would be a good fit  and here we are, he said.

As a full-service firm, Katz Korin Cunningham will offer a complete range of legal services to businesses, entrepreneurs, health care providers and governmental entities.

We greatly appreciate the contributions made by this group of attorneys to Hall Render and our clients over the years, and it will be hard to part ways, said John Ryan, president and managing partner of Hall Render, in a written statement. But Norris and I agree that the delivery and cost model at Katz Korin Cunningham will make this work economically viable in a way that is not possible for a firm of Hall Renders size and scale. This is truly a positive outcome for both firms, the attorneys and staff involved, and most importantly, the clients that we will continue to mutually serve well into the future.

Recently, the Recorder spoke with Cunningham about his background and future plans for this new venture.

Indianapolis Recorder: Tell us about yourself and your career in law. What has it been like for you in this business for two decades?

Cunningham: I graduated from IUPUIs McKinney (School of Law) back before it was McKinney in 1996. Prior to that, for four and a half years, I was on active duty in the United States Air Force. In fact, I was a health care administrator. From the very beginning, I had an interest in health care in particular. I always knew that I wanted to be a lawyer, but I needed the military as a way to make that happen financially. I joined the military after graduating from college and got a masters degree in health administration while I was in the military.Then I got off of active duty, and along with the help of the G.I. Bill and a scholarship from IU, I was able to afford law school. In my second year of law school, one of my professors, Eleanor Kinney, passed on my resume to John Render, one of the name partners at Hall Render and said, Hey, this is someone youd be interested in. Hes got a background in health care, and Hall Render had always been a firm focused on health care, so I was a natural fit because of that. I got there and absolutely liked the people, loved them. It was a great experience even though for many years I was the only minority there and that presents some interesting challenges.

What were some of those challenges?

It would be hard to find an African-American in any setting where youre the only one, where there isnt a learning curve, both for you and for the company  for your colleagues. My focus was always on trying to grow and develop as an attorney. I think my background in the military helped with that a lot. In the military, which I consider one of the last true meritocracies, you are really able to rise and fall based on what youre able to do, not who you know or any of those things. Its just, are you good at your job? I focused on being very, very good at my job and using that as a way to get opportunities to work with other clients and build a good book of business and good relationships with clients. And Hall Render was supportive of that for the most part. Most of the challenges, if you will, were all the individual things as an attorney that youre going to face. People that are not familiar in one respect or another with minorities or dealing with minorities. I like to think that my time at Hall Render was an education to some extent. Ultimately all of us want the same things: We want to go into a job, we want to succeed there and be valued. We want to be able to grow and develop.

What are some of your biggest takeaways from that time that influence where you are now?

It was a great platform for me to be able to grow my practice and mentor other attorneys. More importantly for me, it was an opportunity to help the firm grow in terms of diversity. I was able to help found and serve as the first chair of the firms diversity committee. We produced a great video on the issues of diversity and Hall Renders mission with regard to that. Myself and Charise R. Frazier (a partner at Hall Render) worked together to lay the groundwork for the committee. The number of minority attorneys has grown over the years and its certainly higher than it was when I started. We also started a diversity intern program. One of the things that was a challenge for me when I first started (in law) was that I didnt know anyone. Im originally from the Chicago area and I was here because of law school, and my wife is from northern Indiana. I thought that it would be a challenge for me starting the job search, but I was very fortunate that Professor Kinney was interested in the health care background that I had. But I want other minority law students to feel that they have an opportunity to learn about being in a law firm and to grow. It gives them a level playing field. Having things like diversity internships and a diversity program that looks to expand the pool of minority attorneys that get interviewed is the best shot at that. It really has yielded good results at Hall Render and I look forward to being able to do the same thing at Katz Korin Cunningham. We need to do more. The statistics are daunting. Only about 4 percent of large firm associates are African-American, and less than 2 percent are equity partners. The number is even smaller when you look at people who serve in leadership roles, and we need to change that as a people, as a society and profession.

How do you plan to increase diversity within this firm?

We have a little over 20 attorneys right now, and I plan to be at 40 by the end of 2020. I have about two and a half years to pull that off, but its doable and possible. Im 51 years old, and Ive spent most of my life trying to overcome odds. This is just one more challenge in building this firm in a way thats a good example of what happens when you focus on diversity, not for diversitys sake but for the sake of providing better, stronger, higher quality legal services for clients. When you have lawyers from a bunch of different backgrounds and you have diverse experiences and opinions, that means the conclusions that you come to are typically going to be stronger. Having more minority attorneys is a good thing for this firm and for the city. I want to spend a lot of time focusing my energies on diversifying and growing the legal profession.

What do you feel is the social or cultural impact of this merger?

I hope that I can be an example to young high school students and undergrad students who have an interest in the law and are looking to find opportunities and wondering whether or not they will get a fair opportunity to succeed. If you put 10 people in a room, I guarantee Im not the smartest there. I dont think Im all that. I just know I want to be able to work hard and show my skill set that way, and if this accomplishment means there are other African-American males out there that are wondering if you can come from humble beginnings, not knowing if youll be able to afford undergrad or graduate school, then yes, absolutely its possible. It can happen, and I hope thats a story a lot of young people can get behind and use for the their own individual situation.
It is with profound sadness that the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department announces the passing of Deputy Chief of Investigations James (Jim) Waters. He was 48. Chief Waters passed away this afternoon at approximately 2:20 P.M. at IU Health Methodist Hospital while receiving treatment for injuries sustained from an auto accident that occurred on the interstate on Sunday, July 23, 2017. Chief Waters was off-duty at the time of the accident and in his city-assigned police car.

Chief Waters honorably served the City of Indianapolis and the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for nearly 30 years, first as a civilian employee and then as a sworn officer. During his career, Chief Waters served in a variety of roles that included Commander of East District (2011-2014), Assistant Chief (2014-2017), and most recently, Deputy Chief of Investigations  an appointment by Chief Bryan Roach in January of this year.

Jim has served with nobility, dignity, honor, and courage, said Chief Roach. Jim comes from a long family lineage of courageous law enforcement leaders. His presence will surely be missed, but his distinguished career and service to this community will be forever remembered.

Chief Waters many accolades include the Medal of Bravery, the Mayors Community Service Award, and a Certificate of Commendation from the Red Cross Hall of Fame.

Chief Waters leaves to cherish in his memory his wife, Sherry Waters, and two children, James Waters III and Ashley (Waters) Biddy. Chief Waters also leaves behind his brother Sergeant Timothy (Tim) Waters, who serves in Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department Covert Operations, and father, James Waters Sr., who served with the Indianapolis Police Department for nearly 23 years. Chief Waters younger brother, Mitchell (Mitch) Waters, served the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department for 20 years and proceeded him in death in 2013.

The Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department asks for your thoughts and prayers during this difficult, painful, and heartbreaking time. Chief Waters family, as well as his IMPD family, acknowledge and appreciate all the expressions of sympathy and compassion that have been received. As the family begins to make final preparations for the Chiefs funeral services, we ask that members of the media respect the familys privacy and do not contact them directly; the Media Relations Office will make further announcements when information is available. Anyone who wishes to send cards, flowers, or other expressions of condolences, are asked to please send them to the IMPD Chaplins Office: 50 N Alabama St, Suite T-120 46204.
When news broke last week that three people had been shot during a funeral procession, reactions ranged from sadness and anger to incredulous disbelief. The assault was thought to be a gang-related retaliation, the type of confrontation one expects to see on a cable series, not on the streets of Indianapolis.

Even police were caught by surprise.

At the funeral, we had uniformed officers there, and we had undercover officers there. We stayed until the end of the funeral, but we did not follow over to the gravesite, said Captain Robert Holt, supervisor of the Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Departments (IMPD) covert investigation unit. We just did not have it on our radar that there would be potential violence there. The ability to enter and egress the cemetery, it just didnt seem like itd be a vulnerable place. 

Its just so foreign to me in my mind that someone would choose to retaliate at a somber situation like that. Its just unconscionable.

Though the ambush of a funeral procession was a different approach than IMPD is used to seeing, Holt said the department is not unaccustomed to gang violence, especially when it comes to the group known as the Grundy Crew, the reported targets of the attack.

We certainly know this group is prone to violence. Theyve been reported to have committed a number of homicides, Holt said. Were not asleep at the wheel; were well aware of it. And theres surveillance and other techniques going on that people dont know about. Im not at liberty to discuss our investigative techniques, but rest assured that were not sitting on our hands.

Holt said there are more than 100 identified gangs in Indianapolis, adding that the gang landscape looks a bit different in the Circle City than it does in bigger cities, like Chicago. For one, gangs in Indianapolis arent elaborate.

Theyre really more loosely connected than what we give them credit for. They arent typically an institution that can be self-sustaining. If you look at the Outlaw Motorcycle Club, everybody who was arrested in that investigation a few years back, all of them had full-time jobs, Holt said. The criminal enterprise that was going on with the Outlaw Motorcycle gang didnt even support them, and theyre notorious and have networks all over the United States.

Holt said many of the gang affiliations in Indy are determined by proximity.

Most of what we see in the gangs in Indianapolis is related to association either through neighborhoods or schools, he said. Its more about being associated with something for status and protection, not because its an all-out criminal enterprise.

Holt said despite IMPDs best efforts to quell gang activity, theyve found convictions can be hard to come by, specifically when witnesses are afraid to come forward. Law enforcement and city officials are working to overcome part of the hesitation by restoring the communitys faith in the criminal justice system.

Obviously we own some of the distrust thats involved there, because everybodys dealings with the police arent what wed like to see. But we are trying to reach out, with the mayor and the chief of police going out into the community and trying to convince folks that were here to help, Holt said.

I realize its a two-way street. You cant just expect people to come to you and tell you everything they know and then you not reciprocate by being respectful and providing some level of confidentiality.

Seretha Edwards, a resident of the Butler-Tarkington area, has lost three brothers to gun violence  in 2002, 2003 and 2015  and said all three cases remain unsolved, but not for lack of cooperation from her family.

(Law enforcement) threw these big press conferences talking about charges (in my brothers deaths), and then we looked up and these (suspected) guys are out on the street at the bowling alley, she said. I look at my mother and my father, we do all these press conferences, all this footwork, involvement, engagement  (law enforcement) still labels all families uncooperative.

Edwards said it has a chilling effect on the community when people see that reaction; people dont want to cooperate with police if the cooperation will be in vain or unappreciated, she said.

While police try to keep a handle on gang activity and healing rifts between police and the community, Edwards organization W.A.D.E.  which stands for Working Against Despair Every day and is named for her brother, Clarence Wade Havvard Jr., who was killed in August of 2015  tries to prevent problems before they start, by focusing on kids.

Edwards said her brother was beloved in the community and admired by children. Her own 10-year-old son, after his uncle was gunned down, thought he saw the writing on the wall.

He looked at me and said, I remember when Uncle Wade used to tell me that Im supposed to do good, go to school and make good grades so I can grow up and make some money, but he said, They killed him, so I dont care. Theyre just going to kill me too, Edwards said. That made me step up, because if my son feels that way, what about the other kids who knew my brother as Uncle Wade?

W.A.D.E. organizes rallies, barbecues and other events and has partnered with community centers to provide grief counselors and other resources to neighborhood kids in need.

Thats our main focus, the children in the community and letting them know that you dont have to live that way, Edwards said. These kids are growing up faster than they need to, because theyre being exposed to more than they should be.  They need to get their childhood back. They need to be able to be kids.

police
An Indian scientist at MIT has developed a sensor that can detect sexual assault in real life. The sticker-like wearable sensor can quickly alert nearby people as well as the victim's friends and family to seek help.

Manisha Mohan, a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, has developed a sensor can be attached to any piece of clothing like a sticker and could be trained to learn the difference between when a person is undressing and when they are being forcefully disrobed.

The Hindu

This allows the sensor to detect signs of an assault even when the victim is unconscious or not in the position to fight against the assaulter, such as in the case of minors, bed-ridden patients or intoxicated people.

An integrated bluetooth connected to a smartphone app can trigger a loud noise to alert people nearby and send out distress signals to pre-defined family members or emergency services.

The sensor works in two modes. In passive mode, the wearer is assumed to be conscious and can set off loud alarms or distress calls on their own by touching a button when they encounter an approaching threat.

Facebook

In the active mode, the sensor tries to detect signals from the external environment. For example, if somebody is trying to remove the clothing of the victim's body, a message is sent to the smartphone to confirm if the act was done with consent.

If the victim does not respond within 30 seconds, the phone begins to emit a loud noise to alert the user and nearby people. Manisha's experience as an engineering student in Chennai inspired her to create the device.
Ceasefire violations by Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir feature regularly in the news daily. Deaths of soldiers on duty and innocent civilians every now and then not only showcase Indias restraint, but also Pakistans hostility.

AFP

But most us dont know that both India and Pakistan had reached a ceasefire agreement on 27 July 1949 after fighting in J&K for over a year from October 1947 to January 1949. And through mediation by The United Nations, both countries had reached a consensus that they would shun violence. The lines drawn in the pact later became LoC later in 1972 after the Simla agreement in 1972.

Here are the major details of the India-Pakistan ceasefire pact about J&K in 1949.

Introduction

The military representatives of India and Pakistan met together in Karachi from 18 July to 27 July 1949 under the auspices of the Truce Sub-committee of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan. The members of Indian delegation comprised, Lt.-Gen. S.M. Shrinagesh, Maj.-Gen. K.S. Thimaya, and Brig. S.H.F.J. Manekshaw. H.M. Patel and V Sahay C served as observers.

repository.un.org

Pakistan delegation was led by Maj.-Gen. W.J. Cawthorn. Maj.Gen. Nazir Ahmad and Brig. M. Sher Khan were in the delegation with M. Ayub and A. A. Khan. playing observers. The members of the Truce Sub-committee of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan were: Chairman, Mr. Hernando Samper (Colombia), William L.S. Williams (United States), Lt.-Gen. Maurice Delvoie (Military Adviser), Miguel A. Marin (Legal Adviser).

Agreement

"The cease-fire line is a complement of the suspension of hostilities, which falls within the provisions of Part I of the Resolution of 13 August 1948, and can be considered separately from the questions relating to Part II of the same Resolution"; stated the letter from the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan.

AFP

Here are the major consensus reached upon in that agreement

1. Under the provisions of Part I of the UN Resolution of 13 August 1948, and as a complement of the suspension of hostilities in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on 1 January 1949, a cease-fire line is established.

http://repository.un.org

2. The cease-fire line runs from Manawar in the south, north to Keran and from Keran east to the glacier area. (Here are the details).

3. The cease-fire line shall be drawn on a one inch map (where available) and then be verified mutually on the ground by local commanders on each side with the assistance of the United Nations Military Observers, so as to eliminate any no-man's land.

AFP

In the event that the local commanders are unable to reach agreement, the matter shall be referred to the Commission's Military Adviser, whose decision shall be final. After this verification, the Military Adviser will issue to each High Command a map on which will be marked the definitive cease-fire line.

4. No troops shall be stationed or operate in the area of the Burzil Nullah from south of Minimarg to the cease-fire line. This area is bounded on the west by the Ridge leading northeast from Dudgal Kal to Point 13071, to Point 9447, to Point 13466, to Point 13463, and on the east by the Ridge running from Point 12470, to Point 11608, to Point 13004, to Point 13976, to Point 13450. Pakistan may, however, post troops on the western of the above ridges to cover the approaches to KHAMBRI Baipass.

http://repository.un.org

5. In any dispositions that may be adopted in consequence of the present agreement troops will remain, at least 500 yards from the cease-fire line except where the Kishanganga River constitutes the line. Points which have been shown as inclusive to one party may be occupied by that party, but the troops of the other party shall remain at a distance of 500 yards.

6. Both sides shall be free to adjust their defensive positions behind the cease-fire line as determined in paragraphs A to E inclusive above, subject to no wire or mines being used when new bunkers and defences are constructed. There shall be no increase of forces or strengthening of defences in areas where no major adjustments are involved by the determination of the cease-fire line.

7. The action permitted by paragraph F above shall not be accompanied or accomplished by the introduction of additional military potential by either side into the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

AFP

8. Except as modified by Paragraphs II-A to II-G, inclusive, above, the military agreements between the two High Commands relating to the cease-fire of January 1, 1949 shall continue to remain operative. I. The United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan will station Observers where it deems necessary.

9. The Delegations shall refer this Agreement to their respective Governments for ratification. The documents of ratification shall be deposited with the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan not later than July 31, 1949.

AFP

10. A period of 30 days from the date of ratification shall be allowed to each side to vacate the areas at present occupied by them beyond the cease-fire line as now determined. Before the expiration of this 30-day period their shall be no forward movement into areas to be taken over by either side pursuant to this agreement, except by mutual agreement between local commanders.
North Korea lashed out at a live-fire drill the US and South Korea staged in a show of force against Pyongyang, accusing Washington of pushing the peninsula to the tipping point of nuclear war.

ap

The allies held the rare live-fire drill as tensions grew over the peninsula following the Norths first intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) test held last week.

The test sparked global alarm as it suggested North Korea now possessed an ICBM capable of reaching Alaska, a major milestone for the reclusive, nuclear-armed state.

afp

Saturdays drill, designed to sternly respond to potential missile launches by the North, saw two US bombers destroy enemy missile batteries and South Korean jets mount precision strikes against underground command posts.

The Norths state-run Rodong newspaper accused Washington and Seoul of ratcheting up tensions with the drill, in an editorial titled Dont play with fire on a powder keg.

The US, with its dangerous military provocation, is pushing the risk of a nuclear war on the peninsula to a tipping point, it said, describing the peninsula as the worlds biggest tinderbox.

During Saturdays drill, long-range B-1B Lancer bombers reportedly flew close to the heavily-fortified border between two Koreas and dropped 2,000-pound (900 kilogram) bombs.

Pyongyang described the joint drill as a dangerous military gambit of warmongers who are trying to ignite the fuse of a nuclear war on the peninsula.

A small misjudgment or error can immediately lead to the beginning of a nuclear war, which will inevitably lead to another world war, it said.

Tension has been high as the US administration under President Donald Trump and the Norths regime under leader Kim Jong-Un have exchanged hostile rhetoric for months.

ap

Tension further escalated after Tuesdays ICBM test, a milestone in the Norths decades-long quest for weapons capable of reaching the US.

The impoverished, isolated country has staged five nuclear tests -- including two last year -- and has made a significant progress in its missile capability under Kim, who took power in 2011.

In another drill held after the ICBM test, US and South Korean troops fired ballistic missiles simulating an attack on the Norths leadership as a strong message of warning, the Souths military said at the time.

The US Missile Defense Agency said Friday it would soon test an anti-ballistic missile system in Alaska.
The North Korean State media has warned of a nuclear attack against the United States if it sees any sign of American aggression. Described by US President Donald Trump as armada, a US Navy strike group is streaming toward the western Pacific, raising many concerns.

Reuters

Trump, who has urged China to do more to rein in its impoverished ally and neighbor, said in a tweet that North Korea was "looking for trouble" and the United States would "solve the problem" with or without Beijing's help.

North Korea is said to be ready to launch a nuclear test at its Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site, the 38 North monitoring group reported.

Reuters

Commercial satellite imagery of North Koreas Punggye-ri Nuclear Test Site from April 12 shows continued activity around the North Portal, new activity in the Main Administrative Area, and a few personnel around the sites Command Center, the North Korea-related analysis website said.

The recent missile tests by North Korea have stoked US fears that the rogue nation may soon develop an intercontinental missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to the US mainland.
A man in Los Angeles was arrested after he arranged to smuggle three highly venomous snakes packed in potato canister into the United States.

reuters

Rodrigo Franco, 34, was charged with illegally importing merchandise into the country in connection with a parcel from Hong Kong that was intercepted by US Customs and Border Protection agents on March 2 containing the 2-foot (0.61 metre)-long snakes concealed inside the canisters.

reuters

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

According to a criminal complaint filed in the case, Franco admitted during an interview with authorities that he had previously received a total of 20 king cobras in two prior shipments but that all of those snakes had died in transit.

bccl/representational image

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

According to the National Geographic website, the king cobra, also known as Ophiophagus hannah, is the longest venomous snake, reaching up to 18 feet (5.5 metres) in length. When confronted, king cobras can raise up to one-third of their bodies off the ground, flare out their hoods and emit a "bone-chilling" hiss before attacking.
To say that North Korea is a rogue state, ruled by a maniacal dictator, who's known to have 'traitors' killed on a whim by either feeding them to dogs or shooting them down with anti-aircraft guns, would be nothing out of the ordinary.

Kim Jong Un having a light-hearted chuckle. Maybe while bumping off another traitor?

Guess the next country North Korea is trying to direct its mischief at? I'll give you some time to think.

In an international cyber threat report published earlier this week, which analysed the secretive Korean nation's online activity, North Korea's cyber stance against the Indian Space Research Organisations National Remote Sensing Centre, and the Indian National Metallurgical Laboratory's facilities is cause for major concern.

Recorded Future (the guys who conducted the report) tracked outbound Internet traffic from North Korea between April 1 to July 6 this year, and they found an interesting trend. Where in the past suspicious cyber attacks like the Sony hack of 2014 have originated from North Korea, during the report's time frame there was next to no malicious cyber activity from the North Korean mainland. This is especially surprising because, during the same time, North Korea was in a heightened state of alert with extensive missile testing.

"This likely indicates," the report argues, "They (North Korea) are not using territorial resources to conduct cyber operations and that most state-sponsored activity is perpetrated from abroad."

From places like India?

What's clear from the report is that despite tough sanctions and massive international pressure, North Koreas leaders aren't isolated from the outside world. Not in the least bit. And that North Korean presence (both physical and virtual) exists in several nations around the world. Nations from where North Koreans are likely engaging in malicious cyber and criminal activities, argues the report. India is part of this group of nations, as mentioned in the report, which also includes countries like Malaysia, New Zealand, Nepal, Kenya, Mozambique, and Indonesia.

Other major revelations from the report mention that "North Korea has a broad physical and virtual presence in India." North Korea may also have students enrolled in at least seven universities in the country, and that nearly 20% of all suspicious North Korean activity was focused only on India, during the time frame of this analysis.

India vs North Korea: Who Wins? Who Loses?

But this is where the report sends alarm bells ringing. It seems some North Korean users were conducting research, or possibly even network reconnaissance (or spying), on a number of foreign laboratories and research centers -- including some present in India, the report argues, where "activity targeting the Indian Space Research Organizations National Remote Sensing Centre, and the Indian National Metallurgical Laboratory raised flags of suspicion."

How are bilateral relations between India and North Korea?

According to this 2015 statement from our own government's Ministry of External Affairs...

In light of this damning report of North Korea's cyber activity against India, it would be interesting to see how the relationship evolves in the near future.
The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya helped two hundred and sixty-two more Nigerians return back home.

The returnees arrived aboard a chartered Libyan Airlines aircraft with registration number 5A-LAR, which landed at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos at 10p.m.

The returnees, who had been stranded in Libya, were made up of of 108 males, 135 females, eight children and 11 infants.

They were received by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS), the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.

Also on ground to receive them were officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

Addressing newsmen, Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, the Director General, NEMA, said the agency in collaboration with the IOM was working to ensure that Nigerians stranded in Libya are brought back home.

The director general who was represented by Mr Suleiman Yakubu, Zonal Coordinator, South West, NEMA, said both the federal government and state governments had initiated various programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees into the society.

He further advised Nigerians, especially the youth, to take advantage of the enormous opportunities available in the country.

Thousands of Nigerians have been flown back home from the North African country with the help of the IOM.

Source: ( PM News )
The traffic management at Apapa, Lagos State has been urged by the Seaport Terminal Operators Association of Nigeria occasioned by the gridlock on Wharf Road to combat the traffic chaos in the area .

.In other to ensure they work round the clock to in controlling traffic so as to help the ongoing rehabilitation work in the area.

The Chairman of the group, Victoria Haastrup, gave this recommendation in an interview with our correspondent in her Lagos office.

The STOAN chairman suggested that officers in charge of traffic management in the Apapa area should be deployed to work in shifts.

She said, The traffic managers should work in shifts to make the job easy for all of them. It should be on 24 hours basis, not just from morning till night.

Vehicles start accumulating from 7pm. By that time, one will see them parking everywhere within Apapa. By the time people come in the morning, the whole area will be congested.

She stressed that if the road repairs should take one year, it would be a nightmare for stakeholders.

We have never had congestion in 11 years and if this is not properly addressed, Nigerians will pay dearly because the cost will be passed unto the consumers.

One can discharge general cargo in 24 hours if there is free flow of traffic. When the traffic got better last week, there was one day that I discharged 8,000 tonnes of steel. The problem is truck not having access to the terminals to pick go.

Source; ( Punch Newspaper )
Taiyah Pebbles, a 16-year-old girl has been found dead on train tracks.

Metro UK reports that the teenage girl was with friends near Herne Bay station, Kent, at around 11pm on Tuesday night but was found dead at 7am the next day.

Police say her death is unexplained but that her injuries are believed to have been caused by electrocution.

Dozens of friends arrived with flowers at the station on Thursday afternoon and later held a vigil where they set of red balloons in Tiayahs memory.

Paying tribute to her, friend Saskia Lang said heaven had gained another beautiful angel.

She added said: R.I.P Taiyah Pebbles you will never be forgotten especially with the memories weve had.

I know we havent spoken in ages or seen each other in ages but I will never forget you and the memories we had together and the things we have done together.

Heaven has gained another beautiful angel but you was taken from us too soon, now its time to rest in peace with all the other beautiful and live your life up in heaven my thoughts go out to the family.

Lauren Berwick said: Rip Tai baby, sleep well you will never be forgotten.

My best friend I will forever miss you, you made me have so much confidence and always pushed me to succeed in most things.

Just cant believe youve been taken from us so early in your life, you was such a big part in my life and its going to be so different with you not around and not waking up to your funny snapchats your send me.

Not a day will pass that I wouldnt be thinking of you! You was always there for me when I needed to talk and you gave me the most caring advice a best friend could give, and I dont think anything will be the same from now on.

Abacus Taxi controller Niona Partridge who works near the station said: The first police turned up at about 7am and then there were more police, and more police and more police.

Then the ambulances arrived, followed by Network Rail.

A passenger on the other side of the platform was pointing down the tracks towards Thanet as if he was directing officers to something.

A post-mortem is expected to take place on Friday and formal identification has yet to take place, but the family have been informed.

DCI Paul Langley from British Transport Police, said: Our thoughts are with the family and friends of this young girl as they try to come to terms with this awful news.

We have deployed specially trained officers to the family to provide them with support.

If you were in the area or have any information, no matter how small, please do get in touch as soon as possible. Your information might prove vital in our enquiries.
The Nigeria customs service, on Wednesday, seized three consignments containing 140 species of snakes and 660 other animals imported into Nigeria from Cameroon.

The other animals include geckos, millipedes, hairy frogs and spiders, were said to be worth N6.9m.

The Animals were loaded into a Cameroonian vessel tagged MV Flesh through the Calabar waterway to the National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA) jetty in Calabar, Cross River State.

The Customs Area Comptroller in charge of Calabar Free Trade Zone, Cross River and Akwa Ibom Command, Nanbyen Burromvyat reacting to the seizure said,

These containers have animals of different sizes. They were brought in on July 24, 2017, through this Calabar waterway. The consignment was spotted by our vigilant officers and they contain live animals which are a prohibition under Schedule 3 of our revised import prohibition list.

Live animals are a prohibition. There is no provision for permit to bring them in. We are seizing them and hand the containers over to the Nigerian Quarantine Services for further necessary action.

I do not know what they want to do with it but I think that it will be dangerous for us because it contains snake, spider, geckos and other creatures. We have enough snakes around Nigeria already and it will be suspicious importing this. I do not know what to think because I do not know what they can be used for.

The arrested agent, who brought the consignment from cameroon, Julius Novigana, said he was asked to deliver the consignment to someone in Nigeria.

Julius said,

A friend gave it to me in Cameroon to deliver to someone in Lagos. I only have the mans number in Lagos. I have called him and he said he would send someone to come and pick it up from me here in Calabar. I did not know what was contained in the big cartons; my assignment was to deliver the consignment. I do not know the names of the person in Lagos,

However the captain of the cargo ship, Victor Agbor, also a Cameroonian, said he does not know about the consignment.

I did not see these containers on the vessel when I left Cameroon. The name of my vessel is MV Flesh and we bring in passengers and general cargo from Cameroon to Nigeria. I never saw this container on board before leaving; they only called my attention to it that there were some containers without manifestoes in the vessel. I do not have any idea about it, he said.


A middle aged named Atere has died after rounds of sex with mistress in a hotel at Upper Gaa-Odota area of Ilorin, the Kwara State capital.

Atere, who is married with four wives, had just returned to Ilorin after visiting one of his wives who lives at Iseyin in Oyo State.

He afterwards visited his concubine in a hotel.

Hours later, the workers became suspicious when they saw the mistress leaving the hotel.

The workers broke into the room to find the naked lifeless body of Atere.

Kwara State Police Public Relations Officer, Ajayi Okansomi confirmed that he got a report of a man who died in the hotel.

He added that investigation into the matter had commenced.
The process of amending the 1999 constitution was concluded on Wednesday by the Nigerian Senate , they also voted in support of the Local Government Autonomy and 28 other bills up for amendment in the 1999 Constitution.

The Senate also approved single term for president and governors as well as voted for Independent Candidacy.

The Senate also approved the separation of the office of the Minister and Commissioner of Justice from the Attorney General of the Federation and of states to create an independent office of the Attorney General of the Federation insulated from partisanship.

The lawmakers voted in favour of the amendments that the President must nominate Ministers within 30 days and attach the portfolios of the Ministers to the Senate when sending for confirmation.

The Red Chamber amongst others voted against devolution of powers and in favour of immunity in respect of words spoken or written at plenary sessions or committee levels.

However, the Senators voted against 35% affirmative action for women as ministers and public office holders while in favour of Independent Candidacy for elections in Nigeria.

The clause also makes it obligatory for the President to deliver a State of the Nation address in a joint session of the National Assembly. 

In his remarks the President of the Senate, Bukola Saraki, said with the amendment, there were enormous opportunities in the hands of the younger generation, adding that this amendments would strengthen democracy at large.

Meanwhile, Senator Abiodun Olujimi from Ekiti state sought the indulgence of her colleagues to include the Gender affirmative into the upcoming Gender equality bill consideration.

Ninety-seven lawmakers were in attendance while 29 bills and 33 clauses were considered.

Source: ( PM News )
Drama played out at Greater Grace Deliverance Ministry, Kakuri in Kaduna State on Wednesday after a strange snake chased a general overseer and church members away from the church, DailyPost has reported.

It was gathered that the sad incident happened during the deliverance section after the churchs midweek service. It was gathered that the general overseer, Pastor Naphthali Biem was conducting deliverance for a woman when the strange snake suddenly appeared on the altar.

On sighting the uninvited creature, one of the ushers raised alarm, which forced the pastor to stop the prayer and ran to safety.

Other members of the church also ran after the pastor when he took off, the source added. However, the several ushers were able to bring the situation under control as it took them time to pursue and kill the snake.

Speaking about the incident, Pastor Biem described the snake as strange and devilish. He said the snake might have been sent by enemies of the ministry to attack his members.

It was strange and devilish. I have never witnessed such thing in my over 30 years in the ministry. If you check around, you will discover that there is no bush around here.

How the snake got in here is still a mystery. Our enemies are at work but we won. Thank God it didnt hurt anyone, the pastor revealed.
After the visitation of PDP governors to President Buhari, the Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. Dave Umahi, has described the rate of the recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari as a big miracle.

Umahi, who is one of the seven governors that visited the President in London on Wednesday night, told one of our correspondents on the telephone from London, that he and his colleagues were surprised with the level of his (President) recovery.

Apart from Umahi, others governors in the entourage are Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom); Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara); Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo); Samuel Ortom (Benue); Umar Ganduje (Kano); and Kashim Shettima (Borno).

Six of the governors were chosen based on the six geo-political zones in the country while the governor of Zamfara State was picked because of his position as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum.

Umahi, who was one of the two governors from the opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party, said that it was difficult for members of the opposition to believe what they were being told by the handlers of the President that he was getting better.

He, however, said that he was happy, just like the other six governors, that the President was making progress and that he had improved very well.

The governor said the President would soon return to the country as soon as his doctors certified him alright.

He said, We met a cheerful President whose level of recovery is a miracle. We know he will soon return home as soon as his doctors certify him to do so. What hes treating is not mere malaria that we can say he will return today or tomorrow.

However, we are happy and we thank God for what we saw. It is contrary to the pictures people are painting on the social media. The President we saw is recuperating well and we are happy for that.

It is even better that, we as members of the opposition party, are among the entourage. Nigerians should continue to pray for the President. 

Asked whether the President told them the likely date of his return, he said no, adding that there was no need to be too expectant, saying that the Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo (SAN), was doing a good job.

We dont need to panic because we have a hardworking acting President who is doing a fantastic job. All we need to do as Nigerians is to continue to pray for the President, the governor added.

It was gathered that the governors had lunch with the President before leaving.

The Presidency later released some pictures showing the President in a conversation with the governors.

There was also a group picture showing Buhari standing with the visiting governors after the meeting.

Another picture showed the President with his wife, Aisha, and another unidentified lady on a sofa.

Ajimobi later wrote on his Twitter handle and Facebook page that the President received him and his colleagues warmly.

My counterparts, the Governors Forum delegation and I were warmly received by His Excellency, President Muhammadu Buhari in London, United Kingdom, he wrote.

Source: ( Punch Newspaper )
Lacey Sponsler, a teacher has been spared jail after exposing herself to pupils in class while not wearing any knickers.

According to Daily Star UK, Lacey Sponsler flashed her private parts to students in the middle of a lesson while trying to be a cool teacher, according to police.

Teens saw her genitals when she did a cartwheel and her long skirt flipped up revealing all while she was not wearing underwear.

Sponsler, 34, was caught on a Snapchat video during the incident which went viral at the time.

Yesterday, she pleaded guilty to assault after the charge was reduced from indecent exposure.

The teacher was given a two year suspended sentence and was banned from the classroom for two years after choir practice at Pawhuska Junior High School, Oklahoma.

She was also given a $200 (150) fine, but will not have to sign the s*x offenders register.

Sponsler was initially arrested for indecency after a 17-year-old pupil shared the video.

The teacher initially denied the incident, and said she did not remember doing the cartwheel, reports the New York Post.

She claimed she was dancing with students and trying to a be a cool teacher, according to a police report.

Teens saw the teachers genitals as her legs were in the air when her dress flipped up, the report said.

Defense attorney Nathan Milner told ABC 8 that Sponsler believes the incident was blown out of proportion and added she is glad the case is over.

He added: Anything that happens at school or when kids are around are going to be blown out of proportion.

Im highly confident that theres no issues at all, so I think this was just to get this behind her. Shell find a great job and move on with her life.
The Imo State Police Command has declared one Uju Promise Ekene Amadi (male) wanted. He is declared wanted for his involvement in series of Armed Robbery/Kidnapping cases in the State.

He was also involved in the attack on Policemen at Nipping Point Nkaraha Junction along Port-Harcourt road Umuagwo where one Inspector Oliver Nwaba was shot.

On 22nd May, 2017, he was arrested by operatives of the command during which, a four count charge was preferred against him and he was subsequently remanded in Owerri Prison on awaiting trial.

He was later released by the Court. The suspect has gone back to terrorizing Nkaraha Junction and Ohaji in particular.

Uju Promise Ekene Amadi is 26 years of age and hails from Umuna Umuagwo Mgbisi, Ohaji L.G.A Imo State. He is average height, speaks Igbo and English languages fluently.

He remains wanted until arrested. Any person(s) with any useful information regarding the whereabouts of Uju Promise Ekene Amadi is requested to report to the Anti-Kidnapping Unit, State Headquarters Owerri or to the nearest police station please.

DSP ANDREW ENWEREM

POLICE PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER

FOR: COMMISSIONER OF POLICE IMO STATE
Public Storage Inc., a self-storage real estate investment trust (REIT), has opened a new facility in Humble, Texas, a growing suburb that lies northeast of Houston. The three-story asset at 8717 N. Sam Houston Parkway E. comprises 140,000 square feet in 1,183 units. The climate-controlled building includes three drive-up units. The property is part of the REITs ongoing effort to expand in the region, according to a press release.

A lot of the storage facilities near Humble are older, far away and dont have climate control, Dan Matula, vice president of real estate development, said in a blog post published on the company website. We wanted to build a facility that would look great and provide modern features for people close to their homes.

The facility uses VRV multi-split air-conditioners from Daikin Industries Ltd., which are specifically designed for commercial structures and use variable refrigerant flow control to help maintain individual zone control in each room and floor of a building, according to the manufacturer.

The location is near Lake Houston and five miles from the George Bush Intercontinental Airport. Its also close to the Fall Creek and Park Lakes neighborhoods. Fall Creek is a 2,000-acre community along Beltway 8, just east of U.S. 59 North.

The REIT is investing in Humble due to population growth and affordable housing, as well as commuter visibility from Beltway 8 and proximity to State Highway 99. Known locally as the Grand Parkway, Highway 99 is an ongoing 180-mile project that will eventually traverse seven counties and encircle the Greater Houston region. Planned since the 1960s to provide better road access between communities, the most recent segments, which are north of Houston, opened to the public last March.

It is the new, fourth freeway ring around the city, said Roger Clark, a senior manager who will help oversee the property. Before youd have to go into the city and go back out, if you needed to get from the northeast side to the northwest side and alike suburbs. Now theyre all connected.

Based in Glendale, Calif., Public Storage has interests in 2,354 self-storage facilities in 38 states, with approximately 155 million net rentable square feet. Operating under the Shurgard brand name, the company also has 220 facilities in seven European countries, with approximately 12 million net rentable square feet.
SASKATOON, SK (July 26, 2017): For the first time in NASCAR Pintys Series 10-year history, a double header event was on the schedule. The Velocity Prairie Thunder race at Saskatoons Wyant Group Raceway would be two 100 lap races paying full race points for each.

It was a busy day for the teams starting with an hour-long practice. Donald Theetge in the #22 Circuit Acura/Le Soliet/LAntidote Media Dodge posted the 6th quickest time as he learned another new track. Tagliani struggled with the handling on his #18 EpiPen/Lowes Canada/St-Huberts/Spectra Premium Dodge and ended up 14th. His team went to work on it during the break in action to get it more to his liking for qualifying.

Next up was qualifying for the Velocity Prairie Thunder Twin 100s and again Theetge went to work and notched the 4th quickest time while Taglianis crew made some adjustments to get the car better for him. He was able to move up in the order and posted the 8th fastest time.

Race number one was a hotly contested event. Theetge starting from 4th battled his way to 3rd and in the late stages was all over the back bumper of Kennington but was unable to make the pass for second. A late caution resulted in a green, white, checker finish and Theetge was unable to hold 3rd and settled for a 4th place finish.

The race was marred by several caution periods and on lap 64, a car spun on the front stretch and slid back up onto the track leaving Tagliani no where to go. The chain reaction incident caused extensive damage to his car. The #18 EpiPen/Lowes team went to work to make repairs but he was done for the first event.

Starting lineup for the second 100 lapper would be determined by the order of each drivers fastest lap in the first one. This gave the #22 of Theetge the 6th position and the #18 of Tagliani the 8th starting position. Donald again battled in the top three or four for most of the 100 laps but a potential overheating problem sent him to the pits during a caution. The team quickly diagnosed a faulty temperature gauge and he headed back to the track without losing a lap. Theetge then restarted from the back of the field making his way up to 6th by the drop of the checkered flag.

Taglianis car looked more like an open wheel entry with no fenders and hood but the car appeared to be handling fine. He was working his way up the field when taken out of contention by another competitor. Tagliani rejoined the field outside of the top ten. A valiant battle to get back up through the field saw him settle for a 9th place finish.

The Velocity Prairie Twin 100s will air on TSN Saturday Aug. 5, at noon, and on RDS on Sunday Aug. 20 at 5 p.m.

The final leg of the Western swing will take place on Saturday July 29th at Edmonton International Raceway. For tickets, schedule and event information please visit edmontonraceway.com

Follow the 22 Racing Team on social media for behind the scenes updates on; Twitter @22RacingTeam & @ScottSteckly22, Facebook Fan Page 22racingteam and Instagram 22racingteam

About 22 Racing:

22 Racing is owned by 4X NASCAR Pintys Series Champion Scott Steckly and is based out of Milverton Ontario in a new (2014) 7,500 square foot race shop. They have fielded teams for drivers such as Christopher Bell, Jacques Villeneuve, James Buescher, Jeb Burton, Kaz Grala, L.P. Dumoulin, Max Papis, Adam Andretti and many others. 22 Racing provides turnkey solutions for drivers looking to compete in the NASCAR Pintys Series. The 22 Racing Team is supported by the following sponsors: Erb Group of Companies, AW Millwrights, Sturdy Formed Concrete, Castrol, Wendell Motors, Twin City Graphics, Auto Glym, Mechanix Wear, Dickies Canada, Great Dane Glasvan, Safety Kleen, Dupli-Color & Permatex.

For more information please contact:

Linda Jones

22 Racing/Driven Motorsport Innovations

ljones@drivenmi.com

(705) 730-4044
Concern over how the automotive sector will evolve toward electric cars has prompted fund managers to reduce exposure to traditional car makers in the U.S. and Europe.

In interviews with Institutional Investor, U.K. managers said theyre avoiding western car makers in favor of companies that produce batteries and components for electric cars to manage what they call disruption risk. James Balfour, U.K. equities fund manager at Aviva Investors, said the firm has very limited, if no exposure to automotive companies in Europe while noting there are concerns about the outlook for U.S. carmakers despite low valuations.

Traditional auto companies face increased competition from electric car makers such as Palo, Alto, Calif.-based Tesla and Chinas BYD. The U.K. government this week announced plans to outlaw the sale of petrol and diesel-fueled motor vehicles after 2040, following similar policies by the French government two weeks ago and Norway earlier this year.

The concern is that we know there is a shift to electric, Balfour said in an email, but nobody knows what the true make-up of the car park will be in the next decade or two.

Balfour added that the picture is further complicated because the demand for vehicles  electric, combustion or hybrid - is relatively unknown. Ben Preston, an analyst at Orbis Investments, said his firm doesnt hold any traditional car makers outside Japan, where he believes some manufacturers have been overly sold despite significant investment in research and development.

There is a transition under way, Preston said. One of the problems with investing in car manufacturers is that they havent generated great returns, it is a fragmented industry and has been easy for newcomers to come in.

There have been conflicting views within the auto industry in recent weeks as global car makers struggle to predict how a transition from combustion to electric engines will play out. Earlier this month, Volvo announced that starting in 2019 it would only make electric or hybrid vehicles, while Aston Martins chief executive Andy Palmer told the Financial Times that the U.K. governments decision to outlaw combustion vehicles was absurd.

Janus Henderson Investors has been a vocal supporter of electric car maker Tesla, believing the next 10 to 15 years will be transformative for the car industry. Investors are increasingly aware of a difficult transition for the incumbent automotive manufacturers, according to Hamish Chamberlayne, the firms head of socially responsible investment.

[II Deep Dive: Not So Fast Tesla: Investors Fret Green Label]

The cost of batteries is declining now and so the barriers to entry in the electric car market is shifting completely, he said. It does pull the rug out from underneath the feed of these traditional car manufacturers and Im not sure the market has completely got on top of that.

Chamberlayne said he recognizes that investors are taking a cautious view of traditional car manufacturers, but that the transition to electric vehicles may only be part of the story. Other factors, such as concerns about auto lending, may also be weighing on investors minds, he said.
It is a criminal offence if directors do not apply for their director ID on time
The Australian Securities and Investments Commission ( ASIC ) has expanded its fintech cooperation network to what has been dubbed a dynamic region with enormous potential, as it sealed its seventh fintech referral agreement.ASIC has signed a cooperation agreement with the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA), which provides a framework enabling financial regulators to refer innovative fintech businesses to each other for advice and support via ASICs Innovation Hub and its ADGM counterpart, the Regulatory Lab or RegLab.Through the agreement, innovative fintech businesses seeking to operate in each others jurisdiction will have a simple pathway for engaging with FSRA and ASIC to help them understand the regulatory regime in their desired market.The deal also provides a framework for information sharing between ASIC and ADGM, enabling the Australian regulator to be up-to-date with regulatory and relevant economic or commercial developments in ADGM and use it to boost the countrys own regulatory approach.This agreement will help to connect Australian fintech businesses with a range of exciting opportunities in a region ripe for further development, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft said.Richard Teng, CEO of ADGM FSRA, also commented on the deal: With this fintech collaboration, ADGM and ASIC are able to tap on the strengths and network of each others markets to support technology start-ups and innovators in advancing their creative solutions.The fintech deal follows those ASIC has forged with the UK, Singapore, Ontario, Hong Kong, Japan, and Malaysia.
The former managing director of Zurich s commercial broking business in the UK has revealed that he is moving on to not one, but two new roles.Richard Coleman, who spent over 20 years with the insurer  which he describes as a great company  was revealed this week to be joining insurance data analytics firm Cytora as a part-time advisor. He will take up the role in September, alongside beginning a full-time role as European director at the Collinson Group.Im expecting very different cultures and an opportunity to learn a lot about different sectors and different businesses, Coleman told Insurance Business. Both of the businesses Im working with are very different from each other, and different from Zurich.The move is a fairly significant shift from a role focused on broking, to two new posts embedded in the insurance data world, but Coleman stressed that there is no conflict between the two.Ive spent a lot of time working in the intermediated sector, and Im a big fan of what brokers can and do bring to customers in particular, he commented.That need for advice in an increasingly complex world I think is really, really important, and [brokers] provide the role of being able to advise a company about how they can protect themselves from risk, and also being able to access a number of different markets.In fact, the concept of insurance businesses harnessing data is one that could be beneficial for brokers: I see data as potentially complementary to a lot of those areas, I dont see data as an area where it should be setting up confrontation in the market. Things like this can be complementary across the whole value chain, and if that helps companies work quicker, faster, better together  that has to be a good thing, Coleman noted.Cytoras focus for now is on data analytics for commercial underwriting  an area in which the insurance veteran says there is huge potential for change.If you think about the world of what we insure for commercial customers, thats changing quite rapidly, and some of the risks that they will have in their purview in the future are not the kind of things you can underwrite from having historical claims data, he said of some of the emerging risks facing businesses.Despite that focus, Coleman is not confining himself to commercial lines.I wouldnt necessarily say Im a commercial-only insurance person  Ive run businesses in both personal, small commercial, and some of the large commercial markets as well, he said.He added: If we can get smarter, richer data into all parts of the value chain - that has real potential to make underwriting more accurate, and to streamline the processes. What I bring to Cytora is a good understanding of how insurance businesses work at a practical level, and how the market works at a practical level.
The meeting between the head of the UN-backed government of Prime Minister Fayez al-Sarraj, which has failed to assert authority, even in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, and General Khalifa Haftar, a warlord who largely controls the east of the lawless country, was not coordinated with the Italian government.

On Tuesday, Macron oversaw a meeting in Paris of the leaders of two of war-torn Libya's rival factions to discuss a political power-sharing deal to reunite the fractured north African country.

Tensions have crept into diplomatic relations between France and the government of Paolo Gentiloni, prompted by Macron's response to Italian pleas for more European assistance with the mainly sub-Saharan migrants crossing the Mediterranean in record numbers and his largely uncoordinated diplomatic intervention this week in the Libya crisis.

But Italy is quickly falling out of love with Macron and irritation with France's president is mounting in Rome.

In the first flush of enthusiasm for France's Emmanuel Macron, the fresh young politician who upended French politics and snatched his country's presidency this year, Italian politicians were no different from European counterparts in seeing him as a JFK-type figure who'd help Europe overcome major challenges -- from Brexit to the migrant crisis.

Gentiloni's ministers took the unusual step of openly criticizing the French president this week, voicing their frustration with Macron's efforts, which they argue distract from a coordinated UN and European Union effort to engineer a political deal in Libya between three rival governments and dozens of militias.

"There are too many open formats in Libya, too many mediators, too many initiatives," Italy's foreign minister, Angelino Alfano, told the Italian newspaper La Stampa.

He and other ministers are dismissive of the progress the Elysee Palace claimed Tuesday to have made in the search for a deal in Libya. According to the French government, al-Sarraj and Haftar have committed to a cease-fire as well as to a continued political dialogue in an effort to achieve national reconciliation.

The Italians believe Macron has fallen into a trap set by General Haftar, who has refused to accept the legitimacy of Fayez al-Sarraj's government. Italian officials complain that the Macron-brokered meeting helps to legitimize Haftar, whom they see as a warlord and a strongman-in-the-making.

Officials in the Italian capital say Italy is far more of a "front-line" state when it comes to Libya and suffers more immediate impact than France when it comes to political developments on the other side of the Mediterranean.

And they accuse Macron of brashness in waiving off Italian objections, arguing he's being too high-handed. The charge of high-handedness has been echoed this month, too, in France, on his approach to a range of issues, domestic and foreign, with one retired general, Vincent Desportes, accusing Macron of "juvenile authoritarianism."

French officials counter that the Italians are being naive if they think there can be any lasting deal in Libya that excludes Haftar, whos backed by Egypt and the United Arab Emirates. "Haftar is not going away -- he has to be part of the solution," an official in France's Foreign Ministry told VOA.

Macron's Libya diplomacy is just one irritant in increasingly tension-filled Franco-Italian relations. In May, after meeting Gentiloni in Paris, Macron announced: "We have not listened enough to Italy's cry for help on the migration crisis." But Macron's position since hasn't changed much from Francois Hollande, his predecessor in the Elysee Palace, to the Italian government's rising anger.
A Sydney-based travel insurance company has launched a new range of activity-related insurance to address the shortage of cover options for the more adventurous travellers.Columbus Direct is bringing a wide range of sports, adventure, and work-related travel insurance options to help Australian and New Zealand travellers with non-mainstream travel needs find adequate cover.The travel insurer now offers coverage for several activities that many others exclude from cover, including on-road motor biking over 250cc, outdoor rock climbing, and sky diving  all subject to terms and conditions and payment of an additional premium.In addition, the new cover will be available together with comprehensive medical screening, to give travellers with pre-existing medical conditions a better chance of getting the right cover that suits their needs.Were excited to add the new activities cover to our range of specialist travel insurance products, said Antje Lauterbach, Columbus Directs marketing manager. We know that every trip is different, and we want our travel insurance products to reflect that.According to a recent survey commissioned by the Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) and the Department of Foreign Affairs, almost three quarters of travellers, aged under 30, engage in risky activities while overseas.Columbus Directs latest customer survey, meanwhile, found that more than half of travellers, aged 18 to 49, are either actively planning an adventure holiday or have adventure travel on their bucket lists.Travellers should always consider activities as part of their travel insurance selection process, Lauterbach said. Going on an active holiday without proper activities cover leaves travellers vulnerable to high overseas medical bills. So it really should be a no-brainer, before deciding on a policy, to check that all relevant activities are covered.
The sixth annual Top 10 Brokerages report is currently open for entries  the report will uncover the countrys most successful individual insurance brokerages of the year.To be eligible for a place in the report, brokerages must have three or more brokers writing business (licence holders or authorised representatives) and be independently branded and headquartered in Australia.Entrant brokerages will be ranked using Insurance Business unique methodology that will take into consideration criteria such as client retention, policies written and premium income during the 2016/17 financial year to ensure that all businesses are compared on a level playing field.A place in the report will provide the top rated brokerages with professional recognition as one of the best businesses in the Australian market.Insurance Business readers are encouraged to enter online before entries close Friday, August 04.
A new study published in the July issue of the Journal of Urban Economics finds that contrary to popular belief, medical marijuana dispensaries (MMDs) reduce crime in their immediate areas.

In the study, Going to pot? The impact of dispensary closures on crime, researchers Tom Y. Chang from the University of Southern Californias Marshall School of Business, and Mireille Jacobson from The Paul Merage School of Business at University of California at Irvine, examined the short-term mass closing of hundreds of medical marijuana dispensaries in Los Angeles that took place in 2010.

Contrary to popular wisdom, we found an immediate increase in crime around dispensaries ordered to close relative to those allowed to remain open, said Jacobson.

The two researchers found similar results when they examined restaurant closures.

Our results demonstrate that the dispensaries were not the crime magnets that they were often described as, but instead reduced crime in their immediate vicinity.

The connection between restaurants and MMDs is that they both contribute to the walkability score of a given area. Areas with higher scores have more eyes upon the street a factor that is proven to deter some types of crime, said Jacobson.

The types of crime most impacted by MMD and restaurant closures were property crime and theft from vehicles. The researchers attributed this result to the fact that these types of crimes are most plausibly deterred by bystanders.

Our results demonstrate that the dispensaries were not the crime magnets that they were often described as, but instead reduced crime in their immediate vicinity, said Jacobson.

When Chang and Jacobson examined the impact of temporary restaurant closures in Los Angeles County, they found an increase in crime similar to what they found with MMDs. They also found that once a restaurant reopened, crime immediately disappeared.

We can conclude from our research that retail businesses are effective in lowering crime, even when the retail business is a medical marijuana dispensary, Jacobson added.

However, a study in Denver linked legal marijuana shops to higher levels of property crime in nearby areas. In this study, researchers found that while crime isnt higher in the area immediately surrounding marijuana outlets, adjacent areas saw about 84 more property crimes per year than neighborhoods without a nearby marijuana store. The study was published online in the Journal of Primary Prevention.

Topics Fraud Cannabis
French authorities ordered the evacuation of up to 12,000 people around a picturesque hilltop town in the southern Cote dAzur region as fires hopscotched around the Mediterranean coast for a third day Wednesday.

A raging wildfire began late Tuesday in the dry Mediterranean forests around La Londe-Les-Maures before being pushed by the southern Mistral winds to Bormes, a tourist magnet with houses clustered on a hill surrounded by dense forests of scrub and trees.

The local Var Matin newspaper reported that 12,000 people were forced to take refuge in gymnasiums and other places, including thousands of campers. It said some people sought safety on local beaches.

Col. Eric Martin of the Var firefighting unit said Wednesday on BFM-TV that nearly 600 firefighters were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres) around.

Four tracker planes and a fire-fighting aircraft were sent in as thick black smoke billowed above the skyline.

The airport in Toulon, a city 30 kilometers (18 miles) from La Londe, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well the Fort de Bregancon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

The wildfires began raging along Frances Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations with flames reaching a corner of Saint-Tropez. Since noon Tuesday, French firefighters had conducted about 100 operations.

Further east, reinforcements were sent in to battle a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of forest.

Another fire was contained Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer after burning two villas, seriously injuring one firefighter and devouring about 500 hectares (1,235 acres).

Frances Mediterranean coast is particularly vulnerable to fires, with its massive back-country forests, often dry in the summer, and Mistral winds blowing across the sea to fan the flames. Smoke from the fires blew across bays on the picturesque coast, frightening some. But firefighters warned against panic  and unnecessary phone calls. No injuries have been reported among residents and vacationers.

Further south, flames ate through 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Summer fires, propelled by high temperatures, winds and drought  and often caused by careless humans  are not new to Europe. Both Portugal and Italy were also battling blazes.

Almost 1,700 firefighters supported by 17 water-dropping aircraft were tackling wildfires in Portugal, where every summer large areas of woodland are scorched. The Portuguese Civil Protection Agency says emergency services have brought more than 20 forest blazes under control as high winds calmed during the night.

The worst fires were around the town of Macao, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Lisbon. Deputy mayor Antonio Louro said the fires have caused catastrophic damage to the livelihoods of farmers, many of who work in the regions pine and eucalyptus forests.

In Italy, where fires have raged for weeks, firefighters responded to 26 requests for water and fire retardant air drops on Tuesday, throughout central and southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.

The Coldiretti agriculture lobby said 50 billion bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Coldiretti said another 20 percent of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented and died as a result.

Barry Hatton in Lisbon and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Catastrophe Natural Disasters Wildfire France
The Ohio Supreme Court on July 26 upheld cities use of traffic camera enforcement for a third time, striking down as unconstitutional legislative restrictions that included requiring a police officer to be present.

The ruling was 5-2 in support of the city of Daytons challenge of provisions in a state law that took effect in 2015. The city said it improperly limited local control and undercut camera enforcement that makes cities safer by reducing red-light running and speeding. Dayton and other cities including Toledo and Springfield said the laws restrictions made traffic cameras cost-prohibitive.

The court ruled illegal requirements in the law that an officer be present when cameras were being used, that there must be a lengthy safety study and public information campaign before cameras are used, and that drivers could be only ticketed if they exceeded the posted limit by certain amounts, such as by 6 mph in a school zone.

A majority opinion written by Justice Patrick Fischer found those three restrictions unconstitutionally (limit) the municipalitys home-rule authority without serving an overriding state interest.

The states highest court has twice previously ruled for cities on cameras.

Justice Patrick DeWine wrote a dissenting opinion, saying the legislation was a compromise meant to deal with concerns that cameras were being misused to generate revenue while allowing municipalities some opportunity to employ cameras.

Todays decision has the unfortunate impact of further muddling a body of law that is already hopelessly confused, DeWine wrote. Justice William ONeill also dissented.

The state had contended that the law was within the legislatures powers as a statewide and comprehensive way to regulate enforcement of traffic. Supporters said officers were needed to detect camera malfunctions and situations that clearly call for an exemption from ticketing.

An Ohio state senator who helped write the law called the decision a Pyrrhic victory for home-rule cities and villages and pledged that legislators will keep fighting policing for profit. Cincinnati Republican Sen. Bill Seitz said the Legislature has other tools in the tool kit, such as reducing amounts cities and villages receive through the states local government fund

Dayton police, whose use of traffic cameras goes back nearly 15 years, were already planning to soon resume using officer-manned fixed cameras at certain sites, saying traffic crashes had shot up after camera enforcement halted. Dayton is also among cities equipping some officers with new hand-held cameras to record violations.

City spokeswoman Toni Bankston said Dayton is pleased with the courts decision.

In light of this ruling, we will begin the process of reviewing and analyzing the best way to proceed with our enforcement program, Bankston said in a statement.

Ohio has been a battleground for years in the debate across the United States over camera enforcement. Critics say cities use them to boost revenues while violating motorists rights. Supporters say they increase safety and free up police for other crime fighting.

Attorney Generals spokesman Dan Tierney said Wednesday the case couldnt be appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court because it involved a solely state law.

Associated Press reporter Mark Gillispie in Cleveland contributed to this story.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Ohio
Fire officials in the southeast Missouri town of Poplar Bluff are investigating a rash of arson fires at vacant homes.

The Poplar Bluff Daily American Republic reports that 16 vacant houses have been set on fire since February. The locations have been random and throughout the community.

Fire officials are asking for the publics help amid concerns that someone will get hurt or killed. Already, two firefighters have been hurt while battling the blazes. One went through the floor of a burning vacant home and fell several feet.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Homeowners Missouri
The owners of a giant rabbit named Simon who died on a United Airlines flight while bound for the Iowa State Fair sued the carrier on Monday, claiming its employees were responsible for the hares death.

The lawsuit was filed in Polk County District Court in Des Moines on behalf of a group of investors which purchased Simon, the offspring of the worlds largest rabbit, in hopes that he would ultimately surpass his father in size to hold that title and raise money as an exhibit at the fair.

Simon, who was less than a year old and already three feet long, was being flown from his hometown in the United Kingdom to Kansas City in early April when was found dead in a kennel during a layover in Chicago.

At the time, an attorney for the owners said it was possible that the giant rabbit died after being placed in a freezer for 16 hours on landing, an assertion the airline has denied.

The plaintiffs claim in their lawsuit that United employees immediately cremated Simons remains without permission of his owners and before a necropsy could determine how he died.

The circumstances and cause of Simons death remain highly suspicious, the group said in its 14-page lawsuit, which accuses the airline of a poor record of handling animals on its flights and seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.

We were saddened by Simons death in April. We have received this complaint and are currently reviewing it, United Airlines spokesman Charles Hobart said in a statement.

(Reporting by Dan Whitcomb; Editing by Richard Chang)

Related:

Topics Lawsuits Aviation
A U.S. safety watchdog called for broader use of traffic cameras to catch speeding drivers, as it said driving too fast is an under-reported cause of traffic fatalities.

Inconsistent reporting by law enforcement causes the factor to go under-reported, according to a summary of a National Transportation Safety Board report that was to be released Tuesday. That masks the full scope of speedings role in deadly crashes for policy makers and police trying to combat the more than 30,000 annual U.S. traffic fatalities, according to the report.

The current level of emphasis on speeding as a national traffic safety issue is lower than warranted, according to the reports summary. Speeding  either driving faster than posted limits or faster than road conditions allow  was linked to 112,580 U.S. traffic fatalities from 2005 through 2014, or 31 percent of all traffic deaths during that period, on par with drunk driving-related deaths, NTSB said.

Distracted driving was a cause in about 10 percent of roadside fatalities in 2015.

After seeing declines for a decade, U.S. traffic fatalities jumped 7 percent to 35,092 in 2015, and were on track to increase again in 2016. Speeding-related crash deaths are down from more than 13,000 in 2006 to 9,557 in 2015.

Roadside cameras that snap photos of speeders zooming by and other automated speed enforcement tools are widely acknowledged as an effective countermeasure to deter speeding and curb crashes, but theyre only used in 14 states and the District of Columbia, NTSB said.

The safety watchdog recommended that 22 states lift laws that restrict or prohibit the use of speed cameras. It also called on the remaining 28 states without such laws to authorize state and local agencies to use them to bolster speed limit enforcement.

Drunk or Distracted

Unlike with drunk or distracted driving, there are no national programs to boost public awareness about the risks of speeding, the NTSB report said. It also said federal programs that send funding to states dont do enough to ensure state efforts deter speeding.

The report also recommended that federal regulators identify metrics to be used by police officers to better document speeding in their communities and develop a method to evaluate the success of high-visibility speeding enforcement programs. It also said they should update federal guidelines for using speed cameras.

Copyright 2022 Bloomberg.

Topics USA
Climate change may pose a serious risk to the nations electric grid, according to a new report.

The report was prepared by Johns Hopkins University with help from Swiss Re.

Lights out: The risks of climate and natural disaster related disruption to the electric grid is the fourth report on which the university and international reinsurer have partnered.

Last year the collaborative produced a report on the impact of climate change on the spread of pandemics, which was covered by Insurance Journal. Previous reports produced by Johns Hopkins and Swiss Re were on climate and wildfire risk in the U.S., and on resiliency in the Columbia River basin.

The latest report calls attention to the risk of climate change creating more frequent extreme weather events.

The report states that climate change presents epistemic risks beyond predictable, ordinary weather-related risks to the electric grid, which could put the structural integrity of the nations ageing electric infrastructure under greater strain.

A combination of higher average temperatures, more destructive storms and hurricanes, and increased risk of wildfire will ultimately worsen risk exposure for utilities, the report states.

The insurance industry takeaway from the report should be that theres a massive protection gap in the nations electric grid, said Alex Kaplan, head of global partnerships in North America for Swiss Re.

Kaplan, who served as the senior advisor for the report, wasnt referring to electric plants and the homes and businesses to which they supply power, but the oodles of transmission units, power poles and power lines that keep our country abuzz.

It is entirely uninsured, Kaplan said. You have literally all these power lines, all these poles that support these powerlines, are totally uninsured.

An example of what extreme weather can do to a power system thats outlined in the report is Hurricane Iniki in 1992, which destroyed much of Kauais distribution and transmission infrastructure, knocking down 5,000 utility poles and wiping out a large chunk of the islands distribution wire system.

Electricity was disrupted on the entire island for weeks to months in some areas. Full restoration of power took three months.

They didnt have any way to get that transmission moving again, Kaplan said.

The report also draws upon exposure in the Pacific Northwest, which supplies the nation a large portion of its hydroelectric power, as an example that should raise concerns about the impact of climate change on the electric grid.

In Washington State, where hydropower accounts for nearly 70 percent of total electricity generation, diversification of energy sources is of growing importance, the report states.

Washington is the leading source hydroelectric power production in the U.S., followed by Oregon, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Oregon and Washington are both surplus power producers, generating more electricity than they consume and supplying Canadian and U.S. markets with significant electricity, the report states.

According to the report, fluctuations in precipitation and runoff, both indirectly associated with temperature, have a more direct impact on expected hydropower generation.

In most cases, higher average temperatures as a result of climate change may increase the amount of precipitation that falls as rain instead of snow, leading to earlier snowmelt in the spring and overall reduced snowpack, the report states.

While air temperature is projected to increase annually and seasonally for the near term to 2030 in the Pacific Northwest, the increase in temperature may not have a strong direct influence on annual water runoff, but it will cause significant changes in seasonality  an earlier snowmelt in spring combined with decreased summer precipitation.

While higher temperatures are projected to lead to increased winter rainfall that could be used to generate more power, this additional precipitation increases the probability of dam spilling, mostly in April and May, the report states. This poses challenges to hydropower operation and maintenance, in terms of managing the various other uses of dams, ranging from flood control, navigation, fishery and ecosystem restoration. For example, hydropower plant managers might find there is insufficient water for both power generation and fish conservation, even when there seems to be large volumes of water flowing in the spillway.

Additionally, higher average temperatures can reduce the efficiency and capacity of electric lines and other grid components, such as transformers. A a rise in temperature, for example, can cause conductors to physically expand, making it more likely for power lines to shut off and result in automatic power outages, according to the report.

The transmission capacity of the grid is put under even greater strain during the summer, when temperatures rise and electricity demand peaks, the report states. In Seattle, for example, higher average summer temperatures have forced the Seattle City Light utility to install more cooling fans in control stations to prevent equipment malfunction.

This is all evidence, in Kaplans view, that the insurance industry has an opportunity to step in and provide products to help deal with this risk instead of relying on utilities foot the bill  and ultimately pass the buck on to rate payers  or for the government to step in with emergency funding.

There is the capability of transferring that risk off of private citizens into private market, he said.

He is referring to mechanisms like parametric products and index-based solutions, which he said have been developing at a rate thats absolutely encouraging.

If we can avoid sending these costs though to populations, and particularly low-income populations, thats pretty important, he said.

Data from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation shows that of 2,428 total unplanned electric grid outages in the Western U.S. in 2015, nearly one-fourth were caused by extreme weather events and variability in environment.

Moreover, the U.S. insurance industry has identified a $20 to $55 billion annual financial loss from power outages caused by flooding, hurricanes and extreme temperatures, the report states.

Past columns:

Topics USA Washington Climate Change Market Swiss Re
Instructors of the six Burundian teens who disappeared last week in Washington say the kids' parents do not seem concerned about their disappearance, and likely knew the teens would not come back to Burundi.

The parents have not made any public statements about the students, who apparently ran away on July 18 while in the U.S. capital for an international robotics competition. Two of the students were reported Friday to have entered Canada, while the whereabouts of the other four are unclear.

The principal of Iteletique High School, which two of the missing students attended, says the teens gave their parents some advance warning about their plans. "Talking with parents, they told us that once the kids arrived there, they [the kids] told them they may not come back," Esperence Niyonzima told a reporter for VOAs Central Africa Service in Bujumbura.

"It seems the parents are not worried, they were not worried for the kids' unknown whereabouts," she said. Asked why the kids ran away while in Washington, she said, "I think they wanted better opportunities than they could get in Burundi."

The youth leader of the Burundian team, Canesius Bindaba, returned to Burundi late Friday after being questioned by police in Washington. He told VOA's Central Africa Service he was not expecting the teens to disappear, and was disappointed that they did.

"They never showed any sign that would lead me to believe that they actually had concrete plans to stay there," he said. "They've made a decision which they had deliberated on without my knowledge, and in which I could not do much about. It was unfortunate."
Heavy rains that pounded parts of West Virginia and Kentucky last weekend left one person dead and two people missing, authorities said Monday.

In West Virginia, Ohio County Emergency Management Agency Director Lou Vargo said a van on Sunday rolled into a stream that flows into Wheeling Creek with two people inside. He said Michael Grow, 24, was recovered from the floodwater and taken to Wheeling Hospital, where he died.

Vargo told reporters that crews searched Monday afternoon for 19-year-old Page Gellner, who had been in the van. According to media reports, floodwaters washed out sections of the roadway after about 2 inches of rain fell in a short time span in northern West Virginia.

In northeastern Kentucky, crews were searched Monday afternoon for 82-year-old Delmar Nickoson, whose mobile home was swept away in floodwaters. Bracken County Judge-Executive Earl Bush said neighbors reported Sunday morning that a mobile home near Bracken Creek was gone.

Bush said road and property damage had been reported throughout the county. That included the Augusta boat dock and the 20 vessels stored there, according to City Council Member Jackie Hopkins.

In nearby Mason County, resident Sheila Wheeler says she stepped into rushing water when she got out of bed about 1:30 a.m. Sunday and heard a loud noise as her house began moving. She and her husband stayed put while their home was carried about 200 yards, but then emerged safely and went to check on neighbors. They spent Sunday trying to salvage what they could.

We have no flood insurance, but thank God, we are OK, Wheeler said

No deaths or injuries were reported in Maysville, even though Mayor David Cartmell says overflowing creeks took out several bridges and sent cars floating down roads and waterways.

Its devastation, Cartmell said. Its an epic flood for us, weve never had anything like this.

Copyright 2022 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Topics Flood Virginia Kentucky
Floridas efforts in establishing a private flood insurance market have been hailed as a model by many other states looking to buff up their flood insurance offerings, as well as the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) to follow as lawmakers hammer out its upcoming reauthorization.

But some insurance companies are still standing on the sidelines of Floridas flood market pool, saying its not a risk they are ready to write.

At a recent flood insurance conference put on by the Florida Association for Insurance Reform (FAIR) in St. Petersburg, a panel of executives from four Florida-based companies and one national broker discussed their reasons for writing  or for not writing  flood insurance.

I have not seen a predictable flood model, and I have not seen predictable pricing in reinsurance coverage for that risk. If I dont understand a peril  I cant quantify it, know what my exposure is  I am just simply not going to write it, said Bruce Lucas, CEO and chairman of Florida homeowners insurer Heritage Insurance. Ive got some fundamental principles I follow in the business world and I have to fully understand what Im getting into to do it.

Locke Burt, chairman and president of Security First Insurance, another Florida-based homeowners insurer that doesnt write flood coverage, said lack of demand from customers and regulatory hurdles make it difficult to do anything in the flood insurance space.

There is a reluctance to innovate in Florida. Most of the companies who have filed a product have simply copied the NFIP program, he said.

Floridas high risk of storm surge, he said, is another challenge with flood because it is incredibly difficult for the private market to model and accurately price. He said storm surge is an example of why there will always be a role for a federal flood market.

That is a very unusual peril and you do have tremendous uncertainty, he said. The private market is not going to take that uncertainty; the reinsurers arent going to take that uncertainty and the rating agencies arent going to let you take that uncertainty.

He added that increasing competition in the private flood insurance market will depend on what happens in Washington, D.C.

If you slice and dice the NFIP losses, I think a significant portion of them are the repetitive losses. What the federal government has to decide is what do you do with those repetitive loss properties? Those will never be insured by the private market, Burt said.

Florida Flood Market History

While some insurers are hesitant to jump into the private flood market, Floridas private insurance market has grown significantly thanks to legislation passed by the Florida Legislature in 2014. At least nine Florida-based insurers now hold a flood certification from the Florida Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR), and several other private insurers offer some form of flood insurance as well.

The legislation was designed to streamline the process for private insurers to offer coverage to encourage more flood insurance competition. It created a statutory framework that allows private insurers to offer four different types of flood coverage, including standard coverage, which mirrors current NFIP policies, as well as three other enhanced coverages.

This year, the Florida Legislature passed a bill that builds on the law in several ways:

Extends the time period during which private flood insurance rates may be established through an expedited rate filing to Oct. 1, 2025, from the same date in 2019. After that later date, insurers offering private flood insurance will be required to make a complete rate filing with OIR as required by state law.

Extends the time period that a surplus lines agent may export a flood policy without diligent effort from July 1 of this year to the earlier of July 1, 2019, or the date the insurance commissioner determines that there is an adequate admitted market for flood insurance.

Changes requirements for agents to notify private flood policy applicants of the potential effect of leaving the NFIP on premiums and of later reapplying for the program.

Exempts excess flood insurance from rules that require insurers to notify OIR 30 days before writing flood insurance and to file with a plan of operation and financial projections with the office.

Requires the Florida Commission on Hurricane Loss Projection Methodology to revise flood loss projections at least every four years instead of the current every odd-numbered year.

Floridas flood insurance market began to develop out of necessity. Florida homeowners in high-risk flood areas with a mortgage from a federally regulated or insured lender are required to purchase flood insurance from either the NFIP or a private flood insurer. But NFIP rates in the state have been exceptionally high, according to lawmakers.

Currently Florida accounts for 37 percent of the NFIPs policies but regulators and consumer advocates have argued for years that the state pays the most into the NFIP and gets the least amount back in return. Former Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said last year that residents of Florida are paying disproportionately higher rates compared to the rest of the country.

After the reauthorization of the NFIP several years ago, flood insurance rates climbed again and left Florida homeowners with flood coverage reeling at the expensive premiums.

Floridas coastal communities are at extreme risk of storm surge after a hurricane-type event, making flood insurance even more important to residents of the state. Lawmakers say that the state needs a robust private insurance market.

Flood insurance is critical [for those] living in Florida, said former U.S. Representative Patrick Murphy (D-Florida), who worked on NFIP reform while in Congress with legislation that would have given state governments more control over the development of flood insurance regulations and allowed more involvement for the private sector.

He said enabling the private sector to take on some of the risk gives taxpayers some relief, and often the private sector can do a better job than the government.

I think its critical the federal government and the private insurance market work together, he said.

Florida State Sen. Jeff Brandes, who sponsored the 2014 and 2017 flood bills passed by lawmakers, has said state legislators want to make the Florida flood market attractive and accommodating to private insurers, to encourage competition and provide some rate relief for consumers.

We want to create the most fertile ground for any admitted carrier or insurance company to do business in the state of Florida in the flood insurance space, Brandes said back in 2015.

Part of the difficulty in luring the private market into the flood space has come from the lack of transparency into ratemaking from the NFIP, which has said it is not allowed by law to share its data because of privacy reasons.

Insurers have been able to partly overcome that obstacle recently through other modeling sources, said Nancy Watkins, a principal consulting actuary for Milliman, an actuarial consulting firm in Seattle.

Insurance companies for many years did not have that information, and they didnt have any good way of measuring how risky a house was for flood peril. With catastrophe models over the last few years, and with a lot of big data sources coming available that didnt used to be available, that problem has largely been reduced, she said.

Insurers Dip Their Toe in Flood Market

Even with its challenges, the insurance industry is not turning its back on the Florida flood market. Quite the contrary. There have been several new entrants to the states private flood market over the last 12 to 18 months, including TypTap, a flood insurance company formed by Florida-based Homeowners Choice Insurance (HCI) in 2016.

TypTap recently expanded beyond Florida and into Arkansas, California, Maryland, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Texas.

HCI said the TypTaps website technology has been instrumental behind its success selling coverage. Potential customers enter their address and answer three quick questions, then choose an agent from a dropdown menu to purchase the policy.

The technology is the big thing, said Kevin Mitchell, HCI vice president for investor relations. It really hit a chord with agents.

The newest entrant to the Florida flood market, American Integrity Insurance Co., began selling coverage in June.

Bob Ritchie, president and CEO of the Florida-based insurer, said the timing was right for the company because of the significant need for flood capacity in the state.

The NFIP is a residual market  it is not manned by insurance professionals so it is always going to be subject to the political whims of the current administration and what the profit and losses are, Ritchie said. The private market should take more [policies] from the NFIP  and not just in Florida.

Ritchie said the amount of available reinsurance was a big factor behind the companys decision to enter Floridas flood market. Its book is backed by $1 billion of catastrophe reinsurance.

Any insurance company thinking they can take on this risk themselves are ill-advised to do that. The growth and support of this market would not exist without the reinsurance market, Ritchie said. But I am confident the private market can support this market. There are a lot of reinsurers throughout the world ready to take it on and spread out their capacity with reinsurers across the world.

Even with that backing, he said it is still a market that needs to be entered carefully. American Integrity is selectively spreading its risk throughout the state and will not write in the highest-risk flood zones.

I describe it as we are putting our big toe in the market, not even our feet yet. You need to go slowly, he said.

Ritchie said there is plenty of opportunity in the space and consumers will welcome the support of private insurers after a large catastrophe event, which will also drive demand.

When you have uncovered perils [like flood], good luck dealing with the federal government, he said. We dont want anyone to have widespread suffering, but a major storm with surge and coastal flooding would be an opportunity to raise the bar on selling coverage.

Still, he doesnt think that the market will boom overnight. This market is not like the gold rush  I think its going to take decades for any meaningful penetration in terms of private market share.

With Floridas available market of 6 million homeowner policies the market potential is huge, Florida Sen. Brandes told attendees of the FAIR conference in May. He said that consumer demand will be what ultimately entices the private industry to invest in the flood market.

Right now, its just time. At the end of the day we need NFIP rates to rise for the private market to make sense in many areas. So, to the extent that we can develop our private market here in Florida, we can have professionals who are competent and capable of writing private flood insurance. Then as other markets become available we can enter those markets with a competitive product, he said.

There is no silver bullet here, Brandes said. The simple solution is have a great product, have the time it takes for the NFIP rates to continue to rise, and then be able to be competitive with your products.

The support from lawmakers and regulators will be critical to the industrys success, and Florida Insurance Commissioner David Altmaier told Insurance Journal in December that OIR will continue to work to ease the flood insurance cost burden for Florida consumers.

The Florida Office of Insurance Regulation remains committed to fostering the development of a private flood insurance market to provide options and choice for Floridians, Altmaier said. To that end, we are continuing to work collaboratively with other state insurance regulators and the NFIP to evaluate available data and identify barriers to the facilitation of a private flood insurance market.

Related:

Topics Carriers Florida Legislation Agencies Flood Reinsurance Market Homeowners
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By Alvin Cheng-Hin Lim The Marawi Crisis and its Implications for the Philippines and Beyond

The Philippine Senate and House of Representatives have overwhelmingly approved a 5-month extension of a 60-day imposition of martial law on the southern island group of Mindanao that had earlier been declared on May 23, 2017. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte had made the initial declaration of martial law and requested its extension in order to allow the military to combat insurgents affiliated with the Islamic State (IS).





As Chieu Luu notes, this 5-month extension is unconstitutional as the Philippine constitution only allows for martial law to be declared for 60 days at a time, but the Duterte administration and the Philippine lawmakers considered the security situation in Mindanao to be serious enough to warrant the extraordinary measure, which will effectively leave Mindanao under martial law until December 31. Should the IS-linked insurgents spread their insurgency from Mindanao to the other Philippine island groups of Luzon and Visayas, Duterte has pledged to impose nationwide martial law on the Philippines. However, as the spread of the insurgency has not yet happened, nationwide martial law will not be declared, at least for the time being.





The security threat in Mindanao centers on the city of Marawi, which on May 23 was overrun by IS-linked insurgents. The persistence of the insurgency has dragged out the battle with government forces, and as of July 25, at least 453 militants, 109 government troops, and 45 civilians had been killed in the fighting, bringing the combined death toll above 600. In addition, almost 350,000 people in the city and surrounding areas have also been forced to flee  creating a humanitarian crisis which authorities have been struggling to contain.





General Eduardo Ano, the Philippine Army Chief of Staff, explained that the imposition of martial law on the whole of Mindanao rather than just Marawi was necessary to restrict the movement of the Islamist militants, and warned that the ongoing rebellion could spread to other cities on the island. While the military estimates that there are just 60 fighters left in a 49-hectare area of Marawi, there remain nearly 1,000 pro-IS militants elsewhere in Mindanao. Indeed, the Philippine military has deployed troops to Iligan, another city in Mindanao, following their discovery that 96 insurgents had escaped Marawi with instructions to create a diversionary attack on another city.





Of special concern to security experts is the presence of foreign fighters among the insurgents. General Ano noted that most of these foreign fighters were Indonesian. Other foreign fighters have been identified as having come from locations as varied as Chechnya, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Morocco, Turkey, India, Pakistan, and Singapore. The presence of these foreign fighters is related to the fall of the IS stronghold of Mosul in Iraq, which has led to a global displacement of IS militants, some of whom have shifted their operations to the Philippines, especially in support of their fellow militants in Marawi.





As Rohan Gunaratna points out, IS is shrinking in Iraq and Syria, and decentralizing in parts of Asia and the Middle East. One of the areas where it is expanding is Southeast Asia and the Philippines is the center of gravity. In view of this threat, the Philippines is strengthening cooperation with Malaysia and Indonesia to counter terrorism and extremism in Southeast Asia.





Security experts have traced the chain of command as well as the sources of funding for the Marawi insurgents to Katibah Nusantara, the IS military unit in Syria consisting of Southeast Asians.



Even as veteran IS fighters who survived the fall of Mosul find their way to the Philippines, security experts fear that the battle for Marawi will itself catalyze further IS operations in Southeast Asia. As Sidney Jones warns, The risks wont end when the military declares victory  Indonesia and Malaysia will face new threats in the form of returning fighters from Mindanao, and the Philippines will have a host of smaller dispersed cells with the capacity for both violence and indoctrination. In addition, the battle for Marawi could lead to greater cooperation among Southeast Asian extremists, and new leadership for pro-ISIS cells in Indonesia and Malaysia from among returning fighters from Marawi.





Indeed, the connection between IS and Marawi extends beyond the foreign fighters. Security experts have traced the chain of command as well as the sources of funding for the Marawi insurgents to Katibah Nusantara, the IS military unit in Syria consisting of Southeast Asians, and predict that the Syria-based Southeast Asians could have a say in setting strategy for (the) region when the siege is over. For example, these Southeast Asian IS commanders may encourage Indonesians to go after other targets, including foreigners or foreign institutionsespecially if one of them comes back to lead the operations. These commanders have also used the Telegram app to encourage their followers to attack targets in Singapore, Thailand, Burma, South Korea, Japan and China, and to bring shariah in place of the laws that these territories have.





In the meantime, the Marawi crisis has prompted China and the US to send aid to the Philippines. On June 28, the Philippines received its first shipment of emergency military assistance from China: 3,000 units of rifles  including sniper rifle, automatic rifle and high-precision rifle  and six million pieces of ammunition, worth USD 7.35 million in total. In addition to the military assistance, the Philippines also received 15 million pesos from China to help pay for the reconstruction of Marawi once peace is restored. Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua explained that this initial assistance provided by China is not big but it is big in the sense that it marks a new era in relations between our two militaries.





Despite the decline in US-Philippine relations following the Obama administrations human rights criticism of the Duterte administrations violent war on drugs, the US has actively supported the Philippines in its fight against the insurgents in Marawi. Apart from the presence of US Special Forces personnel who are operating equipment to provide  situation awareness to Philippine troops, the US has also provided a a P-3 surveillance plane as well as intelligence gathering from a drone, as well as a weapons package which included 300 M4 carbines, 200 Glock 21 pistols, four M134D Gatling-style machine guns and 100 M203 grenade launchers.





As and when the Philippine military delivers its one big punch that will defeat the insurgents and end their siege of Marawi, it is clear that the geopolitical situation in the Philippines and the region has been transformed. Not only has Marawi inaugurated a new and more dangerous phase in the war against terrorism in Southeast Asia, the event has served as an opportunity for Sino-Philippine and US-Philippine relations to achieve increased levels of cooperation. This could in turn complicate Chinas relationship with the Philippines and the US vis-a-vis the South China Sea. As such, the progress of the battle for Marawi and the changing security situation in Mindanao will continue to be closely watched.





References





10 Mosul veterans fighting alongside Maute group in MarawiAFP official. (2017, July 18). GMA News Online.





Allard, T. (2017, July 21). More attacks likely in Southeast Asia after ISIS-inspired fighters besiege Philippine city. Reuters.





Allard, T. (2017, May 30). Ominous signs of an Asian hub for Islamic State in the Philippines. Reuters.





Chieu, L. (2017, July 22). Philippines extends martial law in Mindanao until the end of the year. CNN.





China offers PH more aid against drugs, terrorism. (2017, June 29). AFP.





Corrales, N. (2017, July 24). Duterte: Im not Marcos no nationwide martial law. INQUIRER.net.





Dancel, R. (2017, July 21). ISIS-linked network in Marawi may be prepping for attacks on Singapore and Asia: Report. Straits Times.





Domingo, K. (2017, July 25). Marawi death toll breaches 600 mark. ABS-CBN News.





Duterte acknowledges US, China aid in Marawi siege. (2017, July 17). Straits Times.





Duterte: Nationwide martial law will make me look stupid. (2017, July 25). CNN Philippines.





Lim, A. C. H. (2016, July 19). Prospects and Challenges for China after the South China Sea Arbitration. IPP Review.





Lim, A. C. H. (2017, February 10). Chinas Belt and Road and Maritime Southeast Asia. IPP Review.





Lowe, A. (2017, July 4). Body of Singaporean fighter recovered in Marawi: Philippine joint task force. Channel NewsAsia.





Miranda, C. (2017, July 24). Filipino President Rodrigo Duterte warns of more ISIS terror as jihadists flee Marawi. Courier Mail.





Morales, N. J., and Lewis, S. (2017, June 14). Philippines says U.S. troops near besieged Marawi, but not fighting. Reuters.





Tan, L. (2017, June 24). AFP chief: 40 foreign terrorists in PH; more may arrive in coming months. CNN Philippines.





Peralta-Malonzo, T. A. (2017, July 2). Firearms from China an advantage in Marawi conflict. SunStar Philippines.





Philippine military planning one big punch against ISIS terrorists in Marawi. (2017, July 3). Straits Times.





Philippines Duterte: Martial law extended in Mindanao. (2017, July 22). BBC News.
TMZ, the two Real Housewives of Atlanta stars were throwing shade at each other and then the Don't Be Tardy mom allegedly attacked Moores recent surprise marriage for being fake and Kenya reportedly came back at Kim for pimping out her daughter Brielle Biermann for John Legend tickets over the weekend at NeNe Leakes' party. The drama between Kenya Moore and Kim Zolciak-Biermann continues! According to a report from, the twostars were throwing shade at each other and then themom allegedly attacked Moores recent surprise marriage for being fake and Kenya reportedly came back at Kim for pimping out her daughter Brielle Biermann for John Legend tickets over the weekend at NeNe Leakes' party.

kenya is a dumb ugly evil bitch.  brielle biermann (@BrielleZolciak) July 23, 2017

i don't need to! she stalks me and my mom https://t.co/cWAms2y9Cn July 23, 2017

Which is in reference to Kim tweeting @ Johns wife Chrissy Teigen: sooo ur hubby is comin to ATL may 19 & Kash is beyond OBSESSED w him! Who does Brielle have to blow in order to meet him?? LOL. TMZ reports that the fight escalated when: Kim thinks Kenya said the Legend tix were for your injured son, said the report, which is in reference to Kims son Kash getting hospitalized after a dog bite.According to the article, others in the house say they never heard Kenya say the son part. Doesn't matter ... Kim was convinced and lost it ... rushing at Kenya, knocking over and breaking glasses on the way.Cast members and production staff grabbed Kim and calmed the situation. We're told Kim immediately bounced, and is genuinely pissed -- not just "for the show" drama ... like last season.Then, Kim's daughter Brielle, shared her thoughts on the situation. Brielle tweeted, Kenya is a dumb ugly evil bitch.One of her followers replied, You wont @ her tho [eyeball emojis], and Brielle quoted it and responded, I dont need to! She stalks me and my mom.Meanwhile, a source shared more details on why allegedly Moore angered Brielle by "trash-talking" her. Apparently, Kenya, Kim and Brielle were all present for NeNe Leakes' annual white party when a "huge fight" broke out between the three of them. "Kim and Kenya were already not getting alongthey do not like each other," a source toldKenya started trash-talking Brielle," which "really set Kim off. You do not talk about her children," the insider insists. "She is a very protective mama bear."As tension between Kim and Kenya built, allegedy Brielle stepped in to defend herself. "She said something to Kenya along the lines of, 'Don't talk to my mom, talk to me,'" the source recalls, describing the situation as a "huge scene."It's unclear how the altercation ultimately simmered down, but our source ensures, "There is definitely no love lost between Kim and Kenya."However, Kenya Moore is denying the report and is sharing her side of the story. Thats a boldface lie. Her child was never mentioned. Kim is just trying to spin the story," she tells. "I dont fight with or insult children, which is why I have not responded to the two disgusting insults from Kims 20-year-old daughter. As an educator, former USA, I do not respond to ignorance from children.Photo Credit: Bravo
The Pentagon believes North Korea can field a nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile that could strike the U.S. mainland within a year, the Washington Post reported Tuesday. The U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said there have been "surprising technical advances" in the North's recent missile tests. The assessment "shaves a full two years off the consensus forecast for North Korea's ICBM program," the daily wrote. The North on July 4 tested a Hwasong-14 ballistic missile can fly 7,000 to 8,000 km.



North Korean leader Kim Jong-un watches preparations for the test launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in an undisclosed location on July 4. /AP-Yonhap

The DIA believes the North Korean regime can produce a "reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM program" sometime in 2018, the paper said. That means that "by next year the program will have advanced from prototype to assembly line." But the South Korean government and military disagree. They believe the North has not yet perfected atmospheric re-entry technology, a core point in ICBM development, and will still need two to three more years. The National Intelligence Service told the National Assembly Intelligence Committee on July 11 that the North has not yet obtained the re-entry technology for nuclear warheads.



The AN/TPS-29, a tansportable air search radar, and PAC-3 interceptor are deployed at Osan Air Base in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province on Wednesday amid fears of another North Korean missile test. /Newsis

Mac Thornberry, the chairman of the House Committee on Armed Services, said on Tuesday that the U.S. has been negligent in missile defense over the past eight years and called for "powerful and prompt" measures to protect the U.S. and its allies. Meanwhile, Washington is expected to conduct another THAAD interceptor missile test in Alaska on Saturday, the second since July 11.

Read this article in Korean
Staff at Ornua's Kerrygold Park production plant in Mitchelstown, Co Cork, played a key role in the company becoming the first recipient of Leading Edge's new International Continuous Improvement Excellence Award, writes Joe Dermody.

The award recognises the 2.4m in efficiency savings achieved in 2016 by Ornuas operational excellence team. The savings were made across Ornua's six European processing facilities.

Ornua has begun rolling out the programme to a further four sites during 2017, and it plans to have all operational sites embedded within the programme by 2018, including China, Africa, Saudi Arabia, the USA and Europe.

The operational excellence team deployed the company's new The Ornua Way programme to deliver sustainable improvements across the six facilities. Leading Edge Group CEO, Joe Aherne, presented the award to Ornua COO, Anthony Proctor, at a ceremony in Kerrygold Park in Mitchelstown, Co Cork.

Anthony Proctor, Ornua COO said: We are delighted to receive the award from Leading Edge Group. Improving operational efficiency is key to achieving our ambition to deliver a sustainable EBITA margin of 3% by 2021 and ensuring strong returns for our members.

Kerrygold Park is Ornua's 38m state-of-the-art butter production and packaging plant, with a production capacity of 50,000 tonnes. The plant enables Ornua to deliver new product formats to its consumers around the world.

The 'Ornua Way' activities include increasing productivity gains, increasing production yields, optimisation of production planning, reduced production waste and improved material flows.

Agriculture Minister, Michael Creed, said: I commend the Ornua operational excellence team for their commitment and dedication to ensuring that all Ornua processing facilities, around the world, operate to the best standard possible.

Irish dairy enterprises operate in highly competitive markets. It is crucial that we implement best practice in operations, which reduce costs while promoting sustainability. Ornua has a well-earned reputation for innovation, not just in product development but in terms of both leading the industry and how it does business.
IFA Livestock Chairman Angus Woods led an IFA delegation which recently brought serious allegations against beef processors to senior officials in the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (CCPC), writes Stephen Cadogan.

Angus Woods told the CCPC director of mergers that farmers do not believe that there is adequate price competition in the beef sector.

He said it is the CCPCs responsibility to guarantee robust competition in the beef processing sector, and farmers had seen no evidence that the CCPC were prepared to tackle the competition issue in beef processing.

Its a very long-running row between cattle farmers and beef processors, which flared up in 2016 when Larry Goodmans ABP purchased 50% of Slaney Foods. At the time, Meat Industry Ireland (MII), representing processors, dismissed IFA concerns about competition, pointing out processors were paying 10% over the EU average for cattle in Ireland, indicating very competitive market conditions.

MII said the Irish industry exports 90% of its product into markets where cattle were cheaper than in Ireland, indicating extremely strong competition compared to other EU markets.

Irish cattle prices had risen by over 40% in five years, according to MII, which said farmers should focus instead on challenges and risks arising from Brexit.

But IFA are back on the warpath to the CCPC, because of a proposed merger between two of the countrys big beef processors, Dawn and Dunbia.

IFA cannot be blamed for keeping the CCPC on its toes.

After all, the beef industry worldwide is not known for being squeaky clean.

And continuing revelations about the worlds largest meat processor, JBS, are enough to frighten any livestock farmer around the world.

JBS has become a byword for shady practices, and it was all made possible by the lack of an effective CCPC in Brazil to guarantee robust competition. JBS expanded fast from 2008 to 2012, from owning 13% to 51% of the abattoirs in Mato Grosso, the Brazilian state which has 30 million cattle  making it the worlds second-biggest beef producer after the US.

The JBS expansion, backed by leftist governments and bankrolled by Brazils state improvement financial institution, left ranchers facing a near monopoly situation.

JBS also rented abattoirs from smaller companies, but closed them, to further dominate slaughtering capacity.

The expansion helped JBS purchase companies worldwide, from the UK to Canada to Australia. But shady practices were rife, and the company is now in big trouble.

It has even plunged Brazil into a corruption furore thats likely to drag down the government.

First hit last March by the Weak Flesh scandal in which JBS and other companies were accused of bribing inspectors to OK sub-standard meat, JBS was then hit by revelations that its former chairman secretly taped Brazils President Michel Temer allegedly discussing bribes.

An executive admitted the company paid 158 million in kickbacks to 1,829 politicians.

And in late June, the US suspended imports of Brazilian beef, citing concerns about meat safety.

Ranchers have felt the fallout, with cattle prices falling. Some fear they could be down 22% by year-end.

Like IFA, they are on the offensive. However, unlike the Irish farmers represented by IFA, the biggest Brazilian ranchers have 150,000 to 200,000 head of cattle.

They are bidding to come together in co-ops to acquire and reopen closed slaughterhouses, including some of the 16 JBS abattoirs in Mato Grosso, of which only 11 were open for business.

Its obviously a different world in Brazil, but cattle farmers here cannot be blamed for their vigilance as mergers continue in the beef and sheep sectors.

Its better all round to keep things competitive.

Even JBS might agree.

With its share price tumbling, and a huge 15.8bn debt burden, the company is retrenching, selling assets in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Canada, the US, and Northern Ireland (where it owns the Moy Park poultry enterprise).
A then 12-year-old Dublin boy accused of repeatedly beating a man to the head and body with a metal pole during a car hi-jacking has been remanded in custody, writes Tom Tuite.

The boy, now aged 13, who cannot be named because he is a minor, is charged with unlawfully seizing and taking control of a 04reg Ford Fiesta by force and being armed with a large metal pole during the incident in a residential area in Tallaght, in Dublin last August.

The case was before the Dublin Childrens Court again on Thursday to see if he has agreed to be part of a special bail supervision scheme with support from care workers. Judge John OConnor noted the teenagers mother was willing to co-operate with the programme however her son completely refused to be involved.

The judge said the teenager has also broken bail terms on several occasions. He remanded the boy in custody to appear again next week.

The teens mother was visibly upset and wept as said she had concerns her son. She asked for a psychiatric assessment and the judge agreed to request that one would be carried out.

The boy sat motionless and remained silent during most of the hearing and spoke only once at the end when he hugged his mother and quietly told her he loved her.

A decision has yet to be made as to whether the boy will be tried in the juvenile court or in a circuit court which has tougher sentencing powers.

Giving a summary of the prosecution evidence, Garda David Morris has said the alleged hi-jacking happened at about 8.15pm after a 22-year-old man drove into a residential estate. A male friend of the same age and two 17-year-old girls were also travelling in the car.

It was alleged the Ford Fiesta was stopped and confronted by a large group of youths including the accused. One of the boys friends punched the driver and his car keys were taken, the court heard.

The driver attempted to retrieve his keys at which point it is alleged the boy approached with a very large metal bar and began hitting him a number of times.

The court heard that the man was beaten on the head, chest, back and neck by the boy. The man and his passengers fled as the group of youths surrounded the car and then drove it away at speed, it is alleged.

The boy was a passenger in the Ford Fiesta when it was driven away, Gda Morris said.

It was recovered at 11pm that night after being smashed up and badly damaged, Judge John OConnor was told. The boy, who has not yet indicated how he will plead, was arrested on a later date and interviewed by gardai.

Judge OConnor has deferred ruling on the trial venue issue saying it was too serious to decide at this stage. He has made an order of disclosure of prosecution evidence to the defence which can make submissions pleading for the juvenile court to accept jurisdiction by citing the age, level of maturity and any other relevant evidence.

The bail conditions stated he had to obey a 9pm to 7am curfew at his home and not interfere with witnesses or the injured party in the case. Evidence was given that he had broken the curfew condition on several occasions over recent months leading to the judge giving warnings to the boy at previous hearings that he risked being remanded in custody if it continued.
Anti-British sentiment should be regarded as racist in the same way as anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish rhetoric, a Douglas-based county councillor has said, writes Rob McNamara.

Social Democrat member Joe Harris has said he is concerned about an emerging anti-British sentiment in Cork and believes Cork County Council should officially condemn it.

Independent Cllr Diarmaid OCadhla, a member of the Cork Street Names group, was arrested in February and questioned by gardai over his part in the vandalism of Victorian street signs in the city while signs reading, Vulgar Victoria the Famine Queen Shame on Cork appeared around the city in June.

In a separate incident, unrelated to the Cork Street Names campaign, work carried out by the Mad About Cork group to brighten up dilapidated parts of the city were daubed with the words Brits out in April.

Aero is also responsible for this kind of hateful messaging. He needs to be found soon. Plenty of CCTV around. pic.twitter.com/X78M6wOp6r  Alan Hurley (@AlanHurleyArt) April 24, 2017

Cllr Harris said British culture has to be granted the same respect as any other.

Its dragging historical horrors up and trying to take advantage of them in the present time. Its not helpful to future relations, said Mr Harris. Anti-English sentiment should be as unacceptable as anti-Traveller, anti-Muslim or anti-Jewish sentiment. Its unacceptable, and its racist.

Cllr Harris has placed a motion before Cork County Council asking them to officially condemn the anti-British sentiment.

Cork County Council is one of the largest in the country and we should not sit idly by. We should do something positive to create a better atmosphere. We are too silent on it. We are the Rebel County and there are 400,000 people living in the area. We need to start a debate on it and not let this be done in our name, he added.

In response, Councillor OCadhla said there was nothing anti-English about the Cork Street Names campaign and added that it is highlighting historical crimes by Queen Victoria and not provoking hate of any kind. He also condemned the Brits out graffiti seen recently in the city centre.

You wont find anti-Englishism with me or with anything Ive seen in relation to the Cork Street Names campaign. I dont see how it can be construed as that just because someone stands up for Ireland. Republican Terence McSwiney actually said that the people of England are our best friends and hes right.

This article first appeared in the Evening Echo
A US police officer has described how he told the daughter of Irishman Jason Corbett to close her eyes as he carried her downstairs so she would not see all the blood at the scene of her fathers death, writes Michael L Hewlett.

Davidson Superior Court also heard that the degree of skull fractures suffered by Mr Corbett was similar to what one would see from a car crash or a fall from a great height.

Cpl Clayton Dagenhardt of the Davidson Sheriffs Office told the court that Molly Martens and her father, Thomas Martens, who are on trial for the Limerick mans second-degree murder, had no visible signs of injury the morning that he was bludgeoned to death.

Nothing remarkable except that she [Ms Martens] had blood on the top of her head, Cpl Dagenhardt said.

He testified that he saw an emergency paramedic who he knew when he arrived at the scene. The paramedic, who was coming out of the house, told him: Its bad. Its really bad. Its a horrible scene.

He testified that he saw Mr Corbetts body on the floor, face up. He saw blood on his face around his eye and blood on several areas of his body.

Cpl Dagenhardt testified that he and another officer went to collect Mr Corbetts children, Jack and Sarah, who were asleep upstairs in bed. He said he awoke Sarah and led her backwards down the stairs and told her to keep her eyes closed.

Earlier, a medical examiner told the court Mr Corbett had 10 different impact sites on his head that indicated blunt force trauma.

When he showed the jury a photograph showing the top of Mr Corbetts head with his scalp peeled off, one of the jurors started gagging, and a bailiff came running with a trash can into which she appeared to vomit. She had to leave the courtroom but was later able to return.
The Supreme Court has ruled the Minister for Justice must reconsider a decision to remove from the State an Algerian man with alleged links to Islamic terrorism, writes Ann O'Loughlin.

There was "no reasonable basis" upon which any Minister could conclude there was no real risk of a breach of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights - the right not to be exposed to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment - if the man was returned to his native Algeria, the court said.

The State claimed the man, who cannot be named for legal reasons, is involved with Islamic terrorism and was convicted of terrorism offences in Algeria and France.

The Minister issued a deportation order last December after gardai informed the Department of Justice the activities of the man and his associates were of serious concern and contrary to the States security.

The man, aged in his 50s and living in Ireland for several years, denies being involved in terrorism and claims, if deported to Algeria, he is at risk of being tortured and subjected to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment due to his political views.

Represented by Michael Lynn SC and David Leonard BL, he appealed a High Court finding upholding the lawfulness of the Minister's decision there were no substantial grounds to find that the man would be at real risk of ill treatment if deported to his home country.

Today, a five-judge Supreme Court unanimously quashed the Minister's refusal to revoke the deportation order and directed the Minister reconsider the matter in light of its findings.

Giving the court's judgment, Mr Justice Donal O'Donnell said there was "no reasonable basis" upon which any Minister could conclude there was no real risk of a breach of Article 3 of the ECHR in this matter.

He found it "difficult to understand" precisely how the Minister arrived at the conclusions the man was not at risk of being treated contrary to Article 3.

It was not sufficiently clear why the Minister concluded the man could be deported to Algeria without a real risk of torture, or inhuman or degrading treatment and why the Minister considered such a decision ought not to be revoked.

The judge concluded he "could not have the level of assurance necessary", the decision "sets out a clear reasoned path" and one that was not flawed or involved incorrectly unjustifable limitations or irrelevant legal considerations.

The Minister's finding contrasted with an earlier finding by the Refugee Appeals Tribunal the man was at risk if deported to Algeria. To depart from such a finding required clear reasons, he said.

The judge directed the revocation application should go back to the Minister for a prompt fresh consideration based on "focused submissions" including up to date information concerning Algeria. Submissions should be focused on whether there is a real risk on substantial grounds of the man being treated contrary to Article 3.

If the man only submits a generalised complaint with no attempt to focus submissions on his personal situation and the up to date position in Algeria, he will find it difficult to complain about a decision which treats the issue at the same level of generality, he added.

Once the matter has been reconsidered by the Minister any outstanding issues in relation to the case should go back before the High Court, the judge added.

Speaking after the judgment, the man's solicitor Gavin Booth of KRW Law welcomed the court's decision and said it was always their case the Minister could not deport the man without breaching Article 3 of the ECHR.

The man denies involvement in terrorism and rejects claims he is involved in groups such as Al-Qaeda. He has been in custody for some months and will remain in detention pending the outcome of the process.

During the 1990s he was convicted of several offences in Algeria and received three life sentences and two death sentences, which are no longer carried out. Those offences include forming an armed terrorist group intending to spread murder, sabotage, possession of prohibited war weapons assassination, theft intending to harm the security of his home country.

He was also convicted and jailed for eight years following his arrest in France in 2002.

A French court found him guilty of charges including membership of a criminal organisation preparing an Act of Terrorism.
The UN has today called on the government to explain what further investigations it intends to carry out into the Magdalene Laundries, industrial schools and mother-and-baby homes.

A delegation has appeared before the UN Committee Against Torture to face questions on the progress it has made since 2011.

Minister of State David Stanton led a 20-strong Irish delegation to the UN Committee Against torture this morning.

The committee had several questions on human rights issues, including why there has been a lack of progress on investigations in the wake of the Ryan Report on abuse in industrial schools.

Only 15 cases were brought forward, even for the criminal investigation, and the only one resulted in prosecution, said Committee vice chair Felice Gaer.

This is hugely problematic, since more than 15,000 victims have come forward.

Ms Gaer also focused on mother and baby homes and was critical of the state's stance that it has no basis for believing that serious harm was perpetrated in the Magdalene Laundries.

How can the Government say to us that it believes that the McAleese Report established that there was not systematic ill-treatment, when the terms of reference did not extend to investigating allegations of abuse, or establishing the whereabouts and identities of those who died?, she asked.

Committee member Ana Racu focused on the prison system, particularly the lack of mental health services.

The service employs one psychologist for every 220 prisoners, she said.

The report also notes that the psychology services in the Irish Prison Service was disjointed from other services available to prisoners.

The Irish delegation will deal with the questions in a session tomorrow afternoon.
Not all farmers are capable of going across the water to mainland Europe, said Laurence Olins, chairman of British Summer Fruits, a trade body.

If there is no labour, most of the businesses will close.

The UK government has said it will use a transition period to ensure employers are not left without workers after Brexit, but so far there is no clear sign of how it plans to do that.

For 70 years, Tim Chambers family has harvested fruit in south-east England, but after last years Brexit vote he expanded into Poland and is ready to sell some of his land if a shortage of migrant workers worsens.

His firm, WB Chambers & Son, has relied heavily on seasonal staff from eastern Europe for the past two decades as it focused on growing raspberries and blackberries that require laborious harvesting by hand.

Typically, at the height of the summer season, 1,200 migrant workers from other EU states pick the delicate berries from more than 520km of rows of bushes planted across rolling land in Kent.

This year, Mr Chambers found it harder to recruit workers at the start of the season in June. Many workers hesitated about coming to Britain after the fall in the value of the pound since the vote for Brexit. Although he eventually filled his rosters, for the first time he does not have a waiting list of candidates hoping to come to his farm in August to work until the spring.

If we dont get a secure supply of labour, we will have to adjust the size of our business and restructure to make us more efficient in the new economic situation and look to produce product abroad, Mr Chambers said.

Nick Ottewell, farming director for Laurence J Betts, a Kent-based salad grower, said the family-owned farm he works for was not big enough for relocation to be a viable option.

The worst-case scenario is that we dont have enough people, and then we dont have a business, said Mr Ottewell, whose company employs 120 seasonal workers.

The National Farmers Union reported a 17% drop in seasonal workers coming to work on British farms from the start of 2017 through May, leaving unfilled 1,500 of the 9,411 seasonal jobs needed for horticulture that month.

Employers in other sectors have said they are seeing signs that Britain has become less attractive to foreign workers who often fill jobs that Britons are unwilling to do for low wages.

As much as 43% of employers in education and 49% in healthcare said staff from other EU countries had considered leaving Britain.

Reuters
Renault Samsung is set to release its new compact SUV in early August, the carmaker said on Wednesday.

The new QM3 is a partly-modified version of its predecessor, released in 2013.

Available in two more additional colors, the SUV comes with more safety features. It also boasts the best fuel efficiency in its segment at 17.3 km/l. Prices will be decided on Aug. 1 when sales start.
The utility company said the length of piping at risk amounts to some 10% of the entire network.

Sean Laffey, head of asset management at Irish Water, said there is about 63,000km of water mains in the country.

We have a very dispersed water distribution network, and from an analysis of that network on a risk basis we estimate that roughly 10%, or 6,500km, of that would be at high risk of bursting, Mr Laffey told RTEs News at One.

But that being said, we get bursts every day of the week on the network and, generally, working with local authorities and contractors we actually repair those within 12 to 24 hours so we keep disruption to a minimum.

To put it in context, the average age of water networks in European Union countries is about 36 years; ours averages between 65 and 85 years old.

Households in Drogheda and parts of Meath have been advised it may be the weekend before normal supply is resumed.

The shortages have been caused by a burst water main which is supplying water to the Staleen Water Treatment Plant.

Mr Laffey said the current repair to the pipeline is a patch, and part of a three-stage process to remedy the issue.

The second stage will require a full repair of the pipe before the replacement of some 2.2km of the network into the plant.

We have actually readmitted water to the pipe and the water level in the pipe has made it up past the pipe and the patch is doing very well. Were very pleased with how its performing, said Mr Laffey.

We are going to take this very slowly and incrementally so we will stop filling the pipe at various points during the day to check on the integrity of the pipe and the patch and then we will continue to refill.

We expect a small level of leakage from the patch, as the patch is only a temporary repair.

We expect a permanent repair to be in, in two weeks time, but the absolute objective here is to get water back into the treatment plant and back out into the system.

For the full repair, we expect that will be done in two to three weeks, we dont anticipate that customers will see any disruption of service because by that stage the reservoirs will be restored and, generally speaking, theres 24 to 36 hours storage in those reservoirs.

Mobile tankers provided almost 280,000 litres of water from three alternate reservoirs into the network to provide water to Staleen and Termonfeckin/Clogherhead pump stations.

Meanwhile, the defence forces is providing two 10,000-litre water bowsers and four 1,000-litre water bowsers to Irish Water while the 27th Infantry Battalion is also providing 21 personnel, including five drivers. The remaining personnel will maintain the water bowsers in co-operation with the utility company.
Housing Minister Eoghan Murphy is being urged to consider involving health inspectors in emergency urban units and asylum-seeker facilities after fresh concerns about standards.

The Health Information and Quality Authority (Hiqa) met with Sinn Feins housing spokesman, Eoin O Broin, who is pushing for its inspectors to look into sub-standard housing nationwide.

Reports and details about emergency housing in Dublin and centres for asylum seekers are getting worse, he told RTE.

There are stories of blood- or urine-stained bedclothes, poor food for asylum seekers, and bad facilities for children, as well as drug-taking in some facilities and antisocial behaviour, he said.

Most centres in Dublin city are good, according to Mr O Broin, but inspections by the Department of Housing and Dublin Region Homeless Executive are not good enough as they pertain to their own facilities.

Children have been living in emergency housing for up to two years while asylum seekers spend five years in some facilities, said Mr O Broin, calling for Hiqa to intervene and inspect facilities.

Hiqa confirmed the meeting with Mr O Broin but refused to say any more.

Speaking about conditions for asylum seekers and those in emergency facilities, Mr O Broin said: Nobody should be in accommodation with cockroaches or other infestations.

He suggested a phase-in period would allow Hiqa to build up its inspection regime. It should also get more powers to help with the proposed inspection regime

If the standards are not adequate, we should not expect people to live in them for up to two years, which is why the legislation needs to change, he said.

Responding to the call, Mr Murphy said he is happy with the standards of housing inspections and is awaiting the outcome of the Dublin Region Homeless Executive report, which he said would help him and his department decide if there was a need to toughen up inspections and potentially involve other agencies.

Meanwhile, Mr Murphy has pledged to look into reports that landlords are now demanding two months rent up front from tenants as well as a deposit.

The deposits revelation has prompted calls for new rules to stop landlords forcing unfair rules on renters.
Judge Clarke was nominated by the Cabinet yesterday during its last meeting before the summer recess.

The Supreme Court judge, who is seen in legal circles as a progressive figure, has strong Fine Gael links, having joined the party after finishing school in Drimnagh Castle CBS.

Born in Walkinstown, Dublin, in 1951, he was the first member of his family to go to university  UCD  where he received a degree in maths and economics.

He has spoken about wider access to education and stressed the importance of a more diverse judiciary, encouraging people from all backgrounds to study the law at third level.

Judge Clarke has been involved in outreach activities of the Trinity College Access programme and its Pathways to Law project. He has supported the Future Voices Organisation, which supports secondary school students from disadvantaged backgrounds.

Away from the legal world, Judge Clarke was a strong supporter of Fine Gael. As a young man he canvassed for Jim Mitchell in Dublin South West and went on to become a speechwriter for Garret FitzGerald.

Judge Clarke acted as election agent for the former Fine Gael minister George Birmingham, who has since become a judge on the Court of Appeal. He ran for the Seanad in the 1980s but was unsuccessful.

A horse-racing enthusiast, Judge Clarke has been chair of the board of Leopardstown Racecourse, a board member of Horse Racing Ireland, and previously acted as deputy senior steward of the Turf Club.

Judge Clarkes name was brought before the Cabinet by Justice Minister Charlie Flanagan after a list of around 15 candidates was whittled down to three and then one.

It is understood Fine Gael ministers and Independent members of the Government were satisfied with his nomination.

He will fill the position left vacant by Susan Denham when she retires next month.

Judge Clarke, who has been highly regarded and considered as an influential member of the Supreme Court, will turn 66 this year, meaning he can serve four years as chief justice.

Having completed his legal studies at Kings Inns, he was called to the Bar in 1973. He practised at the Bar until his appointment to the High Court in November 2004. Judge Clarke has served on the Supreme Court since 2012.

While a judge of the High Court, he chaired the Referendum Commission on the second Lisbon treaty. Its publicity campaign came in at 1m below budget, but was still regarded as having effectively delivered its mandate of significantly improving public understanding of what was involved.

He was elected honorary member of the Canadian Bar Association in 1994 and admitted as an honorary member of the Australian Bar Association in 2002.

The Irish Examiner has learnt that Judge Clarke and his family will be formally appointed by the President at Aras an Uachtarain at 7pm tomorrow.
A six-part Netflix miniseries will tell how Grace Marks, a poor young immigrant to Canada, became a convicted killer with fellow Irish native James McDermott in a notorious case in the 1840s.

The pair were found guilty of butchering their employer, Thomas Kinnear, and his housekeeper and lover, Nancy Montgomery.

McDermott was hanged and Grace was sentenced to life imprisonment until she was eventually exonerated after 30 years in jail. She then vanished.

The story of how the 16-year-old became one of the most notorious women in 19th-century Canada was immortalised in a 1996 book by Margaret Atwood, Alias Grace, which was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

Another of the authors famous novels, The Handmaids Tale, has already been turned into a TV series and is currently winning rave reviews  it is up for 13 Emmy awards in September.

Now Alias Grace is being turned into television gold with Canadian actress Sarah Gadon playing the doomed Irish maid.

The sensational double murder sparked debate about whether Grace was an unwitting accessory because she claimed to remember nothing about the killings.

The Netflix adaptation, like Atwoods novel, will introduce a fictional young doctor named Simon Jordan who researches the case and falls in love with Grace.

She tells him of her poor upbringing in Ireland where her father was often drunk and her mother pregnant so she took care of the younger children.

She reveals the shocking conditions in the hold of the ship which was taking them to Canada when her mother got sick and died.

She gets a job as a maid in the house of Thomas Kinnear where his housekeeper Nancy, played by Anna Paquin, rules the roost.

Nancy, who initially befriended Grace, fired her in a fit of jealous rage before she was found brutally murdered.

Kerr Logan plays stable hand McDermott who is convicted of the 1843 murders and pays the ultimate price.

Netflix has issued a clip of the new drama which will be released worldwide on November 3.

In it Grace, speaking in an Irish accent, says: I think of all the things that have been written about me. That I am an inhuman female demon.

That I am an innocent victim of a blaggard, forced against my will and in danger of my own life.

That I am cunning and devious. How can I be all of these different things at once?

She then adds: Murderess is a strong word to have attached to you. Murderer is merely brutal. Id rather be a murderess than a murderer if those were the only choices.

The drama has been described as a psychological thriller turned steamy bodice-ripper.
The terminal will not just ensure extra berths for the rapidly increasing number of cruise ships seeking to visit the Cork region but will also become a hub for other maritime activities.

The Port of Cork currently boasts the only dedicated cruise ship berth in Ireland  in Cobh.

It can also handle cruise liners at Ringaskiddys deepwater quay and the city quays.

The problem is while the cruise season is extending to near all-year-round in Cork, the peak season is becoming crowded.

Port of Cork commercial manager Captain Michael McCarthy said cruise liners traditionally visit Britain and Ireland during March to October, but the season is expanding all the time.

The real peak season, however, is becoming a bit crowded and the port authority wants to ensure it can cater for even more cruise liner business into the future.

Once developed, the new berth will further capitalise on the growth in visiting ships, capture business from visiting yachtsmen and facilitate the creation of a cross-harbour ferry service designed primarily to give tourists departing jam-packed cruise liners easier access to visitor experiences being extensively developed by Cork County Council at Spike Island and Fort Camden, Crosshaven.

Capt McCarthy said his companys strategy for the next five years is to focus on promoting the region and all it has to offer to potential cruise passengers, as well as expanding its business with an expansion of the deepwater cargo-handling facilities in Ringaskiddy.

The companys relationship with the cruise lines is excellent and they are very aware of what the port can handle in terms of ship size, he said.

The challenge now is to make sure the cruise companies know exactly what there is to see and do for their passengers while visiting Cork and that is why we market the Cork City and county region at the annual Seatrade Cruise Global held in Hamburg and Med (Mediterranean) conferences.

Two years ago the Port of Cork invested 1.5m in upgrading the current facilities at Cobh Cruise Liner Terminal.

Works included installation of a number of high-load mooring bollards at the east and west end of the berth which would enable larger ships to docked.

As a result, the Port of Cork can now accommodate the larger liners, or Quantum class ships, without any restrictions.

Capt McCarthy pointed out that the Port of Cork is involved in a number of marketing projects to help promote the region as a cruise destination which have already paid off handsomely.

A huge boost to the marketing campaign will come from the just announced Critic Cruisers Choice Destination Awards.

These awards recognise the high level of effort that goes into ensuring that every cruise passenger visiting Cobh has a memorable visit to the region, said Capt McCarthy.

Tourism is a crucial sector for national and regional economies and it has the potential to contribute significantly to local economic revival.

Cobh was once a centre for major industry but that employment has been lost in recent years with the closure of Verlome Dockyard, IFIs plant at Marino Point, and the Irish Steel/Irish Ispat plant on Haulbowline Island.

Locals know their only hope in the short to medium term is to do their utmost to encourage tourism.

Several local tours have been set up to keep visitors occupied, such as Michael Martins Titanic Trail and more recently by Cllr Kieran McCarthy who focuses on the towns War of Independence history.

The strategy of Irelands tourism agencies, as established by successive governments, which place tourism as a key element of economic strategy, said Capt McCarthy.

The delivery of Corks Maritime history and Irelands Ancient East is vital to our region.

He pointed out that visitor research finds there are further opportunities for Cork, and Cobh in particular, to grow its tourist potential by providing clarity and an awareness of what they are and what they have to offer.

The ports commercial manager said Cobh has long been recognised as a major tourism destination for Irish as well as international visitors.

For instance, Cobh is a major destination port for cruise passengers as well as being the point of embarkation for tourists to Spike Island as well as potentially accommodating daily passenger ferries between Cobh and Fota Island, Crosshaven, Monkstown, Passage West, Ringaskiddy, Haulbowline, and Cork City. said Capt McCarthy.

In order for the Port of Cork to bring the cruise business to the next level, it will require an additional berth in Cobh.

We have entered into a partnership with Cork County Council to review the requirements of berth capacity constraints, car and bus parking, he added.

It is anticipated that the primary focus of the development at Cobh is to provide a sea bus terminal for maritime tourism in Cork harbour to ensure the visitor experience is first and foremost delivered by providing the right type of quality.

We envisage it will be a multi- functional marine sports activity and tourism hub where kayaking, sailing, and marine tourism can all operate from.

Access to the harbour would greatly enhance the area also. Using modern efficient ferries will also improve the experience for the visitor.

This berth would also have the capacity to accommodate any overflow of cruise vessels from the existing dedicated cruise berth at Cobhs deepwater quay, which will remain the primary cruise berth for Cork harbour.

This will assist the marine tourism element by potentially increasing the number of international visitors by an additional 50,000 per year.

He said visitors who have come to the area will also return with the potential of being able to access the harbour to a greater extent. This would lead to significant growth in foreign earnings from international business and leisure visitors and an increase in the economic contribution of tourism across the local communities around Cork harbour, said the ports commercial manager.
Michael Kowalski pleaded guilty at Cork Circuit Criminal Court to two charges of sexual assaults on women in different parts of Cork City on the evening of May 24, 2016.

A probation report showed he had a lack of insight into his offending behaviour and a lack of empathy for the victims.

Defence barrister Donal OSullivan said that while such findings would generally be regarded as aggravating factors, they were indicative of the psychological or psychiatric difficulties of the young man that gave rise to the behaviour.

Judge David Riordan said it was fortunate the injured parties were quite able to deal with their attacker.

Garda Brigette OConnor described the two women as hardy and robust. While the first victim fended him off, the second went further and struck him with her water bottle and also kicked him.

The judge imposed a total sentence of 18 months, half of which was suspended.

The judge said the sentence was designed to bring the accused to his senses, act as a deterrent, and also encourage the rehabilitation of the accused through a lengthy period under the guidance of the Probation Service.

Det Garda Maurice OConnor outlined the background to the case when it first came up for sentencing in February.

He said that the first victim was going home on the bus when she noticed that the defendant had gotten on to the bus at the same time as her and also left the bus when she went to walk home.

She told gardai that he walked up behind her. She slowed down hoping that this would give him an opportunity to pass her but he responded by slowing down also.

When she kept walking he walked up behind her, put his arm around her waist and he placed his hand between her legs. He caught her vagina and tried to put his fingers into her vagina.

She managed to break free and he laughed at her when she shouted at him.

She recognised him in the area later that same evening as she was returning to Cork city centre and she told gardai that on this occasion he laughed at her again.

On the same date a second woman was going home from her yoga class.

Kowalski was loitering in the city centre and he walked up behind her.

He grabbed her around the waist, placed his hand between her legs and touched her vagina over her clothing.

She pushed him away and he backed off.

She said he could not do that to her and he apologised for doing it.

When interviewed, he said he grabbed the two women by the buttocks and around the waist and no more than that.

Det Garda OConnor confirmed Kowalski had not been coming to the attention of the gardai since these sexual assaults occurred.

Mr OSullivan said that when the woman in the second sexual assault struck Kowalski with her water bottle and kicked him, he stood back and apologised to her before he ran away.

The defence barrister said that the answers recorded from the accused when questioned by gardai would not be considered to be normal responses.
Independent councillor Declan Hurley, who was at rock bottom when he almost lost his dairy farm, during the 2013 fodder crisis, said he feels proud and humbled that his decision to speak out about his own difficulties saved lives.

It was a very stressful and emotional time. It all got to a point where it got critical, in terms of mental health, he said. I spoke out to give other farmers a voice.

Thankfully, the help that eventually came, came at the right time.

He was speaking yesterday at the launch of a four-year suicide and self-harm prevention action plan for Cork.

Mr Hurley said the fodder crisis impacted greatly on Irelands farming communities.

I was in a position where I couldnt provide adequate feed for my animals, he said.

I wasnt the only person in that situation. There were many farms out there in worse situations than I was.

But I felt, in my position as a public representative, I had to speak out and raise the issue to make sure it was heard.

Humbly, I can say that there were lives saved at the time, because it highlighted the problem.

People knew that there were other people out there who were prepared to step up to the mark, and, certainly, I am proud of myself that I was in a position to help people in that capacity.

He said that support agencies and bodies need to react sooner rather than later.

Mr Hurley said that parallels could be drawn between the official response to the fodder crisis and those bodies charged with responding to the problem of suicide.

But he said everyone has a role to play in tackling the complex issue of suicide.

This is about communities realising that we all have a role to play in dealing with suicide and self-harm, he said.

I view it like like a predator  you dont see it until it raises its head.

But its knowing how to deal with it, and knowing that a simple, one-minute chat could be a turning point in a person making that decision. That can make an awful difference in a persons life.

I hold regular clinics with constituents and when they come in and sit down and have a problem, the sheer opportunity of talking through that issue, I can see it in their face, I can see the weight coming off their shoulders, and they go out a happier person.
Carol Fleming from Tipperary won a 10,000 prize from winourwedding.ie in March 2016, but the company has since shut down and its owner, Elaine Whitney, said she cannot afford to pay the outstanding balance.

The Irish Examiner has learned that couples who entered the competition in 2016 thought funds generated by text and internet voting for the winning couple were being made to Make-A-Wish Ireland but in fact, the agreement between both parties was terminated in 2015.

A Make-A-Wish Ireland spokesperson has confirmed the agreement between both companies terminated on December 31, 2015.

Make-A-Wish Ireland entered a partnership agreement with winourwedding.ie in 2013 which proposed that the partnership would take the form of donations of a share of the voting revenues from competitions to be held at regular intervals throughout 2014.

Win Our Wedding agreed to donate a minimum of 5% of all voting revenues from each competition [a minimum of 5,000 in 2014], said a Make-A-Wish spokesperson.

However, this minimum donation did not take place. During the Partnership Agreement, Make-A-Wish Ireland received two donations from Win Our Wedding totalling 2,684.58.

The first donation of 1,217.02 was made on September 10, 2014. The second donation of 1,467.56 was made on 1 July 2015.

Make-A-Wish Ireland has received no donations from Win Our Wedding since 1 July 2015.

If the Make-A-Wish Ireland logo appeared on any Win Our Wedding literature since December 31, 2015 it was without the approval of Make-A-Wish Ireland.

Despite the termination of the agreement in 2015, a receipt from Ms Flemings friend who voted in 2016 stated that proceeds would be going to Make-A-Wish.

The receipt, seen by the Irish Examiner, read: 5% of all voting revenue will go to Make A Wish Ireland to help them grant wishes to children with life threatening illness.

This receipt shows that payment was made to winourwedding.ie on February 18, 2016 after making a 5 payment for votes online.

Ms Whitney said she ended the agreement with Make-A-Wish Foundation at the beginning of 2016. When asked if she was aware of the information on a receipt in 2016, Ms Whitney said: I wasnt aware it was on the receipt.

I can categorically state that I did not to my knowledge use any make a wish branding after the termination of the contract in February 2016.
Reforms in FTZ to be deepened

From:Shanghai Daily | 2017-07-26 09:31

SHANGHAI will deepen reforms in the free trade zone and accelerate construction of a technology and innovation center as it sets out the citys governments tasks for the second half of the year, Mayor Ying Yong said yesterday.



The free trade zone will be a trial zone for reforms that combine opening-up and innovation to become a test zone for risks within an open economy, and a pilot zone to enhance government capability, Ying said in a government report at a meeting of the Standing Committee of Shanghai Municipal Peoples Congress.

The free trade zone is also a frontier for companies to expand overseas as part of Chinas One Belt One Road initiative, which was put forward in 2013, as well as to revive eco-nomic ties and connectivity between China and countries across Asia, Europe, and Africa.

Reforms in the free trade zone should be aligned closer to Shanghais economic reforms, construction of an international financial center as well as a technology and innovation hub, Ying said.

In accelerating construction of the technology and innovation center, efforts will be focused on building up the Zhangjiang comprehensive national scientific center, according to Ying.

The government will also construct a platform for development and research, and encourage mass entrepreneurship.

Ying also reiterated that the government will continue to crack down on speculation in the housing market and build a real estate market that balances home purchase and rent.

The government will ensure that the housing market grows steadily, ensure home prices are stable, and work toward improving the structure of residential property.
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 (12:07 pm) - Score 715

Fibre optic developer Cityfibre has today announced that theyre teaming up with internet service provider NGC Networks in order to support a 1Gbps Fibre-to-the-Premise (FTTP) based broadband and Ethernet network in the West Yorkshire city of Wakefield.

Readers with a keen eye will recall that Wakefields existing dark fibre optic network was one of those that Cityfibre acquired from KCOM at the end of 2015 (here), which the operator now aims to commercialise and use to connect local businesses in the city. NGC Networks is also partnering with the operator in order to help deliver Gigabit speeds to businesses in Bradford and Huddersfield.

Jason Petrou-Brown, Cityfibres Senior Business Manager for the North, said: We are thrilled to be working with NGC Networks as we transform the UKs digital infrastructure. Yorkshires Gigabit City networks are already playing an important role in the growth of the region by boosting businesses efficiencies, encouraging digital skill development and driving investment. Our new partnership with NGC will enable even more businesses in the region to realise the benefits of full-fibre connectivity.

At this stage Cityfibre hasnt provided much detail on their network plan for Wakefield, although theyre expected to release more information during late September and are aiming to promote the service to local firms with a special event on 19th October 2017.
Thursday, July 27th, 2017 (11:33 am) - Score 870

The UK telecoms regulator has today proposed to free up an extra 20MHz notch of radio spectrum in the 5.8GHz band, which is currently used for road tolling systems, so that it can be harnessed to boost the speed of existing outdoor Broadband Fixed Wireless Access (BFWA) providers.

Ofcom notes that 5725-5850MHz band is popular for BFWA services and around 12,000 sites are registered under their related light licensing scheme (400 BFWA licences), although this excludes a 20MHz notch (between 5795 and 5815MHz) that remains reserved for use by road tolling systems (mostly used in the EU).

However road tolling makes light use of these frequencies in the United Kingdom and so the regulator believes that the notch is no longer a proportionate approach to managing coexistence in these frequencies. BFWA also shares the 5.8GHz band with other radio systems including amateur, FSS uplinks, PMSE, radars, short range devices (SRDs) and industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) applications, but Ofcom doesnt expect their proposal to impact coexistence with these.

Apparently there are just 7 road tolling systems using 5.8GHz in the United Kingdom and they include the Dartford Crossing, Humber Bridge, M6 Toll, Mersey Tunnels, Severn Crossing, Tamar Bridge / Torpoint Ferry and Tyne Tunnels (Severn Crossings tolls are due to be removed in 2018). In other words, theres no reason why Ofcom cant free up the extra 20MHz and avoid interference concerns through the existing application process.

The move could offer a nice speed boost to 5.8GHz networks by opening up more channels. For example, there are currently four channels with 20MHz bandwidth and just one with 40MHz bandwidth. However by removing the 20MHz notch it would actually be possible for ISPs to accommodate six 20MHz channels and three 40MHz channels.

Ofcom claims one ISP informed them that they can currently deliver 70Mbps at 7km distance, but that this could be doubled to 140Mbps at 5km without the notch (this capacity would normally be shared among premises, so the final end user would see lower speeds). The regulator plans to consult on these changes until 21st September 2017.

The measures follow on from another recent tweak to the 5.8GHz band, which made an additional 125MHz of radio spectrum available to indoor WiFi networks (here). Todays proposal may help to placate some of the BFWA interference concerns that were raised about the WiFi change.
China SOEs deleveraging on the fast track

From:Xinhua | 2017-07-26 09:32

LOWERING the leverage ratio of Chinese state-owned enterprises, which are responsible for more than half of corporate debt, will put China into the fast lane of preventing systemic financial risks.



State-owned enterprises will take the lead in controlling debt level and containing the leverage ratio, and further accelerate the clearing of zombie enterprises, according to the Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily, citing a source with the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

At the end of the first quarter, the leverage ratio of non-financial companies rose to 157.7 percent from 155.1 percent at the end of last year, a report from the National Institution for Finance and Development showed.

State-owned enterprises were responsible for about 60 percent of total corporate debt, the report estimated.

To defuse risks from fast corporate debt expansion, China has put deleveraging of state-owned enterprises high on its agenda, according to a national financial work conference earlier this month.

The commission has attached great importance to risk control of central state-owned enterprises, and risk prevention provides a solid foundation for stabilizing growth, said Shen Ying, chief accountant at the commission.

To reduce the leverage ratio, the commission has encouraged enterprises to optimize capital structure via public offerings on the stock market, and supported efforts in asset securitization, she added.

As an important means to reduce leverage in state-owned enterprises, debt-to-equity swaps have been accelerated, allowing companies with long-term potential to exchange their debt for stocks, the commission said.

Swap assets

So far, 12 centrally administered state-owned enterprises, including China Baowu Steel Group and China First Heavy Industries, have signed such swap agreements, which will help them deal with bad assets and reduce their debt burden.

Local state-owned enterprises are also making full use of this approach.

Two coal companies in north Chinas Shanxi Province in March signed debt-to-equity swap agreements with the local state-asset regulator and the China Construction Bank, worth a total of 20 billion yuan (US$2.95 billion).

The deal will not only reduce their leverage ratio, but also facilitate their industrial transformation and upgrading.

Some companies have already received the funding from such swaps, including Huaibei Mining Group and Henan Energy and Chemical Industry Group.

China should also intensify efforts to clear out zombie enterprises, or economically businesses that are not viable, usually in industries with severe overcapacity and kept alive only with aid from the government and banks, according to the financial work conference.

Those poorly performing firms dependent on loans are the direct reason for high debt ratio of state-owned enterprises, analysts said.

China should resolutely shut down zombie companies to release the occupied credit and production resources, and divert loans to emerging sectors and more efficient companies, said Chang Xin, an expert with the National Institution for Finance and Development.

Strong performance in both Chinas economy and state-owned enterprises is offering more room for the countrys deleveraging.

The official data showed combined profits of 102 central state-owned enterprises surged 15.8 percent year on year in the first half, while their total revenue rose 16.8 percent.

The countrys gross domestic product expanded 6.9 percent in the second quarter, flat from that in the first three months but better than market expectations.

As the financial structure of central state-owned enterprises improves, they will see constant rises in the ability to ward off risks, growth quality and efficiency, as well as their core competitiveness, Shen said.
Edgy comments on social media are usually tedious. But not always. The billionaire nerd fight between Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and SpaceX and Teslas Elon Musk concerns an exceedingly important issue. Attention should be paid.

During a Google Live chat, Zuckerberg took issue with technologists who are raising red flags about the risks posed by artificial intelligence (AI). He doesnt mention Musk by name, but the inference was clear. In a snarky Twitter response, Musk summoned up about as much condescension as it is humanly is possible to have:

Ive talked to Mark about this. His understanding of the subject is limited.

It wouldnt be surprising if Zuckerberg blocked him on Facebook, but thats a story for another day and another blog. The important task is to assess the dangers of AI.

It is not an either/or question. AI will be extraordinarily dangerous and extraordinarily beneficial. The key is that it will gain momentum as discoveries and inventions pile upon each other. AI cant be stopped. It shares these traits with every invention or discovery in human history, from the discovery of fire to quantum computers.

The key here is escalating scale: The discovery of fire (which, no doubt, was quickly followed by the discovery that its not a good idea to touch the new discovery) introduced great advantages and dangers to those nearby. But life on earth was not threatened.

The risks continue to grow. The unleashing of the atom increased the benefits and risks by orders of magnitude. But even a nuclear reactor melting down in the Pacific didnt threaten mankind. AI is arguably more dangerous. And AI is not evolving in a vacuum. It is integrated with and cross-pollinating Big Data, the IoT, and other emerging technologies.

This potent wave of discovery and invention adds something different: uncertainty. The most frightening thing about AI is the possibility of a total loss of control. The machines truly can remove humans from the equation. It is in many ways the logical conclusion of the process that started when the first fire was set way back in that cave, just as The Ramones are the logical conclusion of the first melody tapped out around that first fire. Add less esoteric issues, such as uncertainty about who will control the development of AI, and we end up with something that is very scary.

It is, of course, a good idea to have as many safeguards in place as possible. At the end of the day, however, it is likely that the machines are so much smarter than us that they will get around any roadblocks or compartmentalizing of control with ease.

There is disagreement about the debate, of course. Annalee Newitz at Ars Technica says that Musk and Zuckerberg are missing the point and that AI means different things to different people. That may be true. But it evades the key point, which is that humans are racing to roll out technology that soon will be able to operate without their knowledge, consent or even understanding.

There is no doubt at all that both Musk and Zuckerberg are brilliant. Its virtually impossible to think that they dont agree that AI has massive potential benefits and raises profound and troubling questions. The social media back and forth is a product of the times, their almost certainly significant egos, and the fact that Zuckerberg may be thinking of running for president.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at [email protected] and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.
Today

A good deal of sunshine. High 72F. Winds light and variable.

Tonight

Some clouds this evening will give way to mainly clear skies overnight. Low 47F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.

Tomorrow

A mainly sunny sky. High 72F. Winds NW at 10 to 20 mph.
National show a big hit at youth camp

By:Wang Jiaye | From:english.eastday.com | 2017-07-26 19:36

Presentation

Bazaar

Interaction

Teenagers from 23 countries showcased their nation's unique history and culture as well as people and scenery through painting, presentation and bazaar at the 'Theme Show on Nations' during the 13th Shanghai International Youth Interactive Friendship Camp on July 24, 2017.

"It is truly fun to know about others' cultures and customs in the national show", said 14-year-old girl Dea Bylykbashi from Albania and added that the youth camp enabled her to become acquainted with many peers from across the world. It is notable that the five Albanian campers have started to study Chinese this year.

Seychellois campers

Russian campers

Czech campers

UK tutor Dan Rees highly praised the broad participation in and good organization of the camp. His view is that the national show really helps understanding and bonding among teenagers from different countries.

A Chilean camper who can play 5 musical instruments.

Campers exchange gifts at the bazaar.

Albanian girls dressed in traditional clothes or accessories

It is worth mentioning that the members of the dancing group for hearing impaired people from Shanghai Putuo District Disabled Persons' Federation were invited to the event. "They appreciate the exotic dancing from different countries and feel the passion of these young people", stated Pan the sign-language teacher, expressing what the hearing impaired dancers expressed.

This year the camp has attracted around 150 teenagers and their tutors from 23 countries in Asia, Africa, America, Europe and Oceania. It is the first time that Albania, Chile, Spain, Seychelles, Slovakia and Portugal have sent their young people to join in the camp.

With the theme of 'Peace, Friendship, Future', the 10-day camp is co-sponsored by the Shanghai People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries and the Shanghai Youth Federation, organized by Shanghai Youth Center.

(Photos by Shanghai Youth Center)
Local Dems sweep; town rejects pot Every Democrat on the local ballot won their race Tuesday, including Jamestown resident Peter Neronhas re-election as the states top prosecutor, and local voters followed suit with the statewide trend...

Voters rebuff allowing retail pot sales in shops By a margin of 157 votes, the electorate decided Tuesday not to allow local businesses to cultivate, manufacture, test or sell recreational marijuana in Jamestown. The referendum to allow the...

School board agrees to contract with North Kingstown Jamestown students entering high school can continue to choose North Kingstown as their destination for grades 9-12. We are pleased to continue this historic partnership, said Ken Duva, superintendent of...
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Q: What are the benefits of having dual citizenship? Are people allowed to vote here and in the other country as well?

L.S.

Answer: First of all, not all countries permit dual citizenship, so the person would need to check the laws of the other country, said Helen Parsonage, a local lawyer who specializes in immigration issues. The United States does permit unrestricted dual citizenship, as do Canada and most of the European countries. Many Asian countries do not. For those countries that do not, she said, acquiring U.S. citizenship results in automatic loss of their other citizenship.

Parsonage said there are many benefits to dual citizenship, including the ability to hold two passports and travel with fewer visa requirements, and the possibility of residing in another country or attending university there. The disadvantages are that you cannot seek assistance from one country if you have trouble in the other, she said, and that some careers that require security clearance may either exclude you or require renunciation of the other citizenship. The same applies to some elected offices.

Like dual citizenship, voting rights vary from country to country, Parsonage said. For example, you can only vote in the U.K. for 15 years after you relocate to another country, then you lose that right. Again, a person would be wise to check the laws of the other country. United States citizens can vote from overseas in federal elections, but not all state elections.

For more information, go to travel.state.gov/content/passports/en/abroad/legal-matters/benefits/voting.html

Q: Where can I take old encyclopedias since Goodwill and the Shepherds Center dont accept them?

J.M.

Answer: The best answer, unfortunately, is most likely to your trash can. Bound books cannot be recycled, and there are more old encyclopedia sets than there are people who want them nowadays. If the encyclopedias are fairly new, you might be able to find a school that will take them, but thanks to the internet there isnt much demand these days for out-of-date encyclopedias. You can also check with your nearest church or daycare center. They may want them, and if not, if the encyclopedias are illustrated, its possible they will want them for kids to cut out pictures for craft projects. Any groups that do have a use for old encyclopedias can contact us at asksam@wsjournal.com and we will pass the information along.

Q: Will the speed limit on Silas Creek Parkway be decreased to 45 miles an hour around where Sheetz and other businesses are moving into that area?

S.M.

Answer: We do not have any plans to reduce the speed limit in this area, said J.P. Couch with the state Department of Transportation. We work with the developers to add turn lanes, upgrade traffic signals and other roadway improvements to address the increased traffic their businesses generate in order to preserve the safety and efficiency of the roadway network.

We do review existing speed limits on our roadway to make sure they are appropriate and are consistent with our existing practices and procedures for establishing such.
Some former Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center employees say they have experienced a shortage in their paycheck and inaccuracies with their benefits after their job was transferred to billing services vendor nThrive.

Wake Forest Baptist said Wednesday it expects to have the problems resolved by Friday at the earliest, although officials said some issues could take until early August.

In April, the medical center announced a seven-year agreement with nThrive of Alpharetta, Ga., for systemwide billing services.

NThrive provides revenue-cycle management for the health-care industry with more than 1,350 clients, ranging from single hospitals to hospital systems. It has about 6,200 employees.

The plan was for up to 755 Wake Forest Baptist employees  about 6 percent of its overall workforce at the time  to receive job offers from nThrive and continue in their roles with the group.

NThrive registration, coding and billing services began July 1 at the medical center.

Several employees have complained to the Winston-Salem Journal that the paycheck they received July 14 was inaccurate, including errors in how much was deducted for benefits and vacation time.

Some complained about their health insurance being canceled.

The medical center said in a statement that transitioned colleagues received their final Wake Forest Baptist paychecks on time, but some experienced discrepancies in their payroll deductions and vacation payouts.

The medical center said that it has reached out to the affected former employees.

We are working to complete these efforts as quickly as possible, the medical center said.

We regret this disruption and appreciate our colleagues patience as we work diligently to correct these inaccuracies.

Wake Forest Baptist said several kinds of jobs that support professional billing have been aligned under nThrive management, including those across the medical center, Cornerstone Health Care outpatient clinics and hospital outpatient departments.

The center said employees would perform the same job with compensation at the same level, with years of service honored and market-competitive benefits.
WASHINGTON  Do you have a problem  trouble at work, relationship stress, or just some really hard math homework  that you cant resolve on your own? You should turn to the man who is fixing problems for more than 300 million Americans.

You should ask Jared Kushner.

President Trump does it. When he needed somebody to negotiate peace in the Middle East, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to be his point man with China and with Mexico, he asked Kushner. When he needed somebody to solve the opioid epidemic, reform veterans care, overhaul the criminal justice system and reinvent the entire federal government, Trump again turned to Kushner. Even when he just needed somebody to strap a flak jacket over his navy blazer and fly off to Baghdad, Kushner was the one he asked.

The presidents 36-year-old son-in-law has done all this and more, even while keeping up with a demanding family life since the election: a beach trip to Hawaii, a ski trip to Aspen, another ski trip to British Columbia. Clearly he has time to help you, too. Kid has a fever? Rattle in the transmission? Weeds in the lawn? Ring around the collar? Ask JK.

But what happens when Jared Kushner has a problem? What happens if  and Im speaking strictly hypothetically here  Kushner were to neglect to mention in his security-clearance forms that he had had more than 100 meetings with foreigners, including some Russians? Sure, you can ask him. But he wont have a good answer.

The seen-but-not-heard Kushner met with the Senate Intelligence Committee on Monday (at a session closed to the public, naturally). He explained his repeated lapses  he had to amend one disclosure form three times  by saying, essentially, that he was new to politics and so terribly busy that he couldnt keep up with everything. And he used the hoariest excuse of all: He blamed his assistant.

My experience was in business, not politics, he said in a written statement he released to the media, and described himself as overwhelmed. I must have received thousands of calls, letters and emails from people looking to talk or meet on a variety of issues and topics, including hundreds from outside the United States, he wrote, and I could not be responsive to everyone. He explained that he just didnt know he was sitting down with people promising dirt on Hillary Clinton from the Russian government because it was typical for me to receive 200 or more emails a day during the campaign. I did not have the time to read every one.

Thats the trouble with Kushners defense in the Russia imbroglio. Hes essentially arguing that he isnt corrupt  hes just in over his head. He didnt really know what he was doing, and he was too busy. Coming from the man charged with handling everything from Middle East peace to opioids, this isnt reassuring.

This inexperience defense is consistent with Kushners filing Friday showing that he had previously neglected to disclose more than 70 assets, as required, including an art collection (with wife Ivanka Trump) worth as much as $25 million. The Middle East peace negotiator also did not disclose that he held Israeli government bonds.

Yet Kushners father-in-law entrusted him with what is arguably the most difficult portfolio ever to be assigned to a White House aide. His previous experience: running his family real estate business, which he took over in 2005 when his father was convicted of tax evasion. The next year, Kushner bought a $1.8 billion Manhattan building, near the top of the real estate cycle, and his family has been trying to find investors to keep the project afloat.

So now Kushner is defending himself by playing the ingenue: All of these were tasks that I had never performed on a campaign previously, and I could not even remember the name of the Russian ambassador. Kushner, arguing that he didnt seek to create a back channel with Russia, explained that he merely asked the Russian ambassador if he had an existing communications channel at his embassy we could use.

The defense leaves one big question unanswered: Why is a man of such inexperience in charge of so much?

Dont ask.
SAN DIEGO -- I savored the recent news that Immigration and Customs Enforcement plans to send thousands of immigration agents to so-called "sanctuary cities" to round up illegal immigrants.

With apologies to "Apocalypse Now," I love the smell of vindication in the morning.

The Trump administration is planning to target a host of cities for additional scrutiny by allocating more agents and resources to those locales.

No problem there. While I vehemently oppose conservative politicians roping local and state cops into the enforcement of federal immigration law, this isn't that. These are federal agents enforcing federal statutes. That's their job.

ICE's Acting Director Thomas Homan -- who has called the whole concept of sanctuary cities "ludicrous" -- doesn't seem all that interested in politics.

Instead, what Homan specializes in is common sense. He made this clear during a recent interview with the Washington Examiner.

"What I want to get to is a clear understanding from everybody, from the congressmen to the politicians to law enforcement to those who enter the country illegally, that ICE is open for business," he said. "We're going to enforce the laws on the books without apology. ... It's not OK to violate the laws of this country anymore. You're going to be held accountable."

I'd feel better if Homan were just as committed to holding accountable a group of people who can fight back with lawyers, accountants and public relations specialists: employers of illegal immigrants. These are "the untouchables."

Still, he is right to push the message that anyone in the country illegally should worry about being deported. This includes those who live in so-called sanctuary cities.

"In the America I grew up in, cities didn't shield people who violated the law," he said in the interview.

Homan can rest easy. Despite what you hear in conservative media, cities don't shield people from ICE. And -- ironically -- this recent crackdown proves it once and for all.

Which is what brought about my sense of vindication.

For the last couple of years -- ever since the tragic killing of 32-year-old Kate Steinle by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco in July 2015 sparked a national outcry about sanctuary cities -- I've argued with boneheaded Republicans who insisted that Democratic officials had built an impenetrable fortress to protect the undocumented.

This is nonsense. I've said all along that, while the federal government can tell cities what to do, the opposite is not true. Federal authorities can go where they please, and there is no place in the United States where the undocumented can avoid deportation. I've also maintained that the whole idea of sanctuary cities is a fraud concocted by Democratic officials at the local level who like to pretend they're more powerful than they really are, and that Republicans have been gullible enough to fall for the distraction.

Now, thanks to the decision by the Trump administration to essentially invade sanctuary cities -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia etc. -- I've been proved right. And the Republicans have been shown to be wrong. The fortress is made of cotton candy.

Democrats can't afford to be smug, though. The crackdown also had the effect of exposing their scheme as phony. They're going to have to find another way to trick pro-immigrant groups into thinking that the Democratic Party is in their corner.

Meanwhile, rather than admit they were wrong, Republicans have scrambled to come up with another definition of a "sanctuary city." Now they broadly apply the title to any locality that "limits cooperation" with federal immigration authorities.

Wait just a minute. In most places, local and state cops are under no legal obligation to be at the beck and call of their federal brethren. This is especially true if running errands for Uncle Sam will make more difficult the job they are sworn to do: protecting and serving their communities.

Texas is an exception. It is now the only state in the country that has established criminal and civil penalties for local government entities and law enforcement that don't comply with immigration laws and detention requests from the federal government. But that only reaffirms the point that -- in the other 49 states -- there is no such requirement. Otherwise, the Lone Star State would not have needed to pass this kind of law.

Conservatives are always bragging about how they support their local law enforcement officers. By opposing the Trump administration's silly war on mythical sanctuary cities, they'd be off to a fine start.

The Washington Post
ANN LISTOKIN, Winston-Salem

Saturday morning

What is happiness? Heres mine for June 22:

Sit out early on my patio while the air is still fresh; drink Greek coffee and nibble Greek apricot pastry; slowly read the Winston-Salem Journal; and marvel at Dr. Sarah Squires sensible suggestions for co-operating together (Representatives should meet their constituents.).

Mmmmm.

***

JOHN HARTMAN, Danbury

An opportunity to agree

The Russia thing is an opportunity for us, the people, to agree on something, if well let ourselves. President Trump, Congress and the FBI talk past each other as the Russian government continues to tamper with other countries elections. Whether Russia changed any American votes in 2016 is a red herring. It was successful in its main endeavors: undermining U.S. citizens confidence in the legitimacy of our electoral process and further dividing us from each other. The Russians knew that the current president, as a candidate, would aid and abet this. His victory was icing on the cake.

The president thinks this is about him, rather than our country, governance and values. This is typical. His interest in the Russia thing is limited to wishing it would go away.

Congress and the Supreme Court, in aggregate, now work for the president, not for us. His cabinet members are more interested in flattering than in advising. If we, the governed, let partisanship replace governance, we are to blame. Fact-based journalism is increasingly threatened by agenda-driven opinionating. The hope for accountability lies with us and what information we rely on.

Its an easy call. Why would we not invest some treasure and brainpower in protecting our elections from the predations of hostile regimes? Partisanship is the only reason I can think of.

If we can agree on the importance of this, what could be next? A bipartisan effort on health care?

***

SIRI BRUCCILIERI, Winston-Salem

Nothing special

I really dont understand the purpose of your July 23 front-page story, Residents still divided on Trump. I dont care what four residents with no special authority, credentials or intelligence have to say about President Trump. Why did you even print this?

Im sure these residents are all good, sincere people. But they dont seem especially informed. None of them, pro-Trump or anti-Trump, could offer anything more than vague generalities for their feelings about how the president is doing. None of them pointed to any facts to support their opinions. Why didnt they just write letters to The Readers Forum?

While Im on a roll, your Community Chatter on JournalNow.com is also a waste of space. People there dont offer any information, either, just their vague, often misinformed ramblings. I can get that on Facebook or the comments sections of news stories myself, if I feel like hearing people mouth off.

This may well be why the mainstream media so often hears claims of fake news these days. The opinions of uninformed citizens arent news  except for providing more evidence that our education system is failing.

Please submit letters online to Letters@wsjournal.com or mail letters to: The Readers Forum, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
This year's Nov. 8 election didn't present any unforeseen outcomes, at least as it pertains to Dorchester County Council races. However, the competition between Republican Rita May Ranck and Democrat Carlisle Harrison was one of the more thrilling ones in the State, as the latter temporarily Read moreNewly elected Councilmember Rita May Ranck ready to 'work' and 'listen'
Nigeria is adamant that the sailors should be tried in court. The charges against them will be slapped once they reach the country.
Im leaving Europe for the summer to explore Russia, Mongolia and China.

This adventure started with a visit to a travel fair. It was also a first date with a fellow traveller, who consequently ran off to Brazil for 3 months. Readers whove dated travellers would understand the issues that involves. I just hope he wasnt running away from me But Im digressing.

Most of the fairs countless stalls advertised popular European destinations, India, South American countries, Thailand and so forth, and were swarmed by people. But what appealed the most to me was tucked away in the corner, already off the beaten track with a only a couple of stands and virtually no one looking around. Mongolia.

I must admit, I knew almost nothing about the country, its history, its culture, its political or economic situation. But photos of its exotic yurts, romantic horse-rides across endless expanses enchanted me, entered my veins and planning a trip there became my focus for the next 4 months.

I decided that if I was to go that far, I should discover Russia and China at its borders, countries which I had always been fascinated to visit. Initially I planned to do the world famous Trans-Mongolian Railway, but 2 months is little time to cover all that ground, which necessitates days and days in trains, time that I simply didnt have. So I decided to go between many of the destinations in planes. Hours were spent researching the options, trying to find the most economical way of getting from A to B.

Tricky destinations

I read travel guides on paper and spent countless hours on the internet. Mongolia proved to be a tricky destination. There is little transport across vast distances, and with less than a month I would have little chance to see much using local buses and public transport. Doing so would waste days but would not get me into the middle of nowhere, which was the point of the trip. Moreover, reaching the reindeer peoples and eagle hunters, who fascinated me, would be virtually impossible alone.

In one of the Facebook groups for backpacker in Mongolia, I met an Indian lady, who was also going to Mongolia with a friend, and we ended up planning the 25 day tour together. It was more economical for them and enabled me to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time and for a rate I could afford. I am hoping that three travellers is not a crowd and that my future companions are as fun and friendly as they seem on the internet. I am used to travelling alone and being extremely independent, so I keep my fingers crossed that this all works out.

I will spend little time in Russia, less than 10 days in order to be able to do the Mongolian tour  the crux of my trip  and so I chose St Petersburg, a day-long stopover in the must-do Moscow, then Irkutsk, and a trip to the shamanic Olkhon Island  a huge lake-bound strip of land floating in the waters of the majestic Baikal.

To get a visa for China, one needs an exhaustive complete itinerary with hostels booked in advance, and after some finger spinning on the map I have chosen Beijing, Xian, Chengdu, Guilin, Yangshuo, finishing in Hong Kong. This is provisional and is likely to change as I meet fellow backpackers with potentially better ideas.

Crazy foreigner, with experience

With what eyes do I leave on this trip? From the few anthropology lectures attended at the university I learnt not to place my judgements on other cultures and ways of living but to experience them as they are. It is not a question of political correctness but of respect and pragmatism. When travelling I like to observe and learn, to try and put myself into the skin of the other as far as thats possible.

Clearly I will need to leave behind my Western materialistic habits. Things wont be as easy and physically comfortable as in Europe. Hygiene in the outback is likely to be limited, and I wonder how I will stomach the food. Obviously with my English-rose skin and my light ginger hair, I will immediately stick out as a foreigner. This is compounded by my inability to speak Russian, Mongolian or Chinese.

But I have already assumed this role many a time on my previous travels. Back in Ecuador, over 10 years ago, in a tiny little village in the highlands, teaching English to the local children, milking the cows twice a day and hiding from other tourists, I was known as la gringa loca (the crazy foreigner).

I certainly have not been passing unnoticed, nor is my character is inclined that way. I guess Im flame-haired in every way: enthusiastic, loud-mouthed and demonstrative in my demeanour. However hard I try to be calmer, it is a part of who I am. And Im looking forward to soaking up places, peoples and cultures, and enjoy the magic results of trying to fit in.

Stay tuned in. This article is the first in a series of travel reports about Charlottes ongoing trip.
BROKEN BOW  A Broken Bow teenager is one of 12 Nebraska youths to be appointed to the No Limits youth anti-tobacco board.

According to a Nebraska No Limits press release, Broken Bow High School senior Briann Wolfe, 17, has been involved in No Limits for two years, and she will serve her second term on the board.

As a board member, Wolfe develops strategy, messaging and tactics to help her peers understand how tobacco companies use manipulative marketing practices to target young people. The board helps to organize events such as the No Limits Activism Summit and the Kick Butts Day Rally at the State Capitol.

Wolfe also is an active member of the Youth Offering Alternatives to Drugs and Alcohol group, and she participates in band, choir and FFA at her high school. She is the daughter of Bill and Christina Baxter.
KEARNEY  Lois Butler is retiring Monday as director of Head Start, but she has already had a memorable send-off.

In April, she was presented with the National Head Start Associations First Head Start Hero Award in Chicago. The 3,000 attendees in the audience gave her a standing ovation.

Looking back on the job she has held for 27 years, she said shell leave with a fondness for the families she assisted and people she worked with, both locally and while serving on state, regional and national Head Start boards.

We shared our best practices, and I brought back ideas to improve our program, she said.

Butler grew up in Milligan and graduated from Milligan High School and the former Kearney State College. She taught in rural schools in Buffalo, Phelps and Dawson counties. When her own three children were small, she ran a licensed preschool in her home for four years.

She didnt seek the Head Start job in 1990. Rather, it came to her. When the job became available, a friend asked one of Butlers former bosses to talk Butler into applying for the job.

My background had everything they were looking for except grant-writing, she said. She was interviewed on a Tuesday and offered the job on a Thursday, but there was a catch. They told me, We want to be honest. The program is kind of in disarray. Do you still want the job?

Butler said yes. I will form my own opinions, she told them. She never left.

Her Head Start region covers 386 children in 15 counties in Nebraska and two in Kansas. Some programs take place in buildings. Others are run in private homes. She likes home-based programs because, We can make a difference with parents. I see them every week. Im really going to miss those relationships.

When she began, Kearney had three Head Start centers, all located in the West Center annex on the UNK campus. When Head Start funding was increased under the Clinton administration, a center was added in Lexington. During the Obama administration, Early Head Start was created to serve pregnant women and children from ages 6 weeks to 3 years old.

Families must meet income guidelines to be eligible. Basically, that is a family of four making $24,000 or less, she said.

Head Start assists the most vulnerable families. We serve people in poverty and lead them to self-sufficiency. We watch children grow, and we see parents confidence built. We improve, too, due to the opportunities weve afforded them, she said.

Butler describes poverty in Nebraska as situational poor.

I see families working two and three jobs, yet their kids are still eligible for Head Start. We provide a safe, nurturing environment for kids. We also assist families with budgeting and can give referrals for needed resources. Does this bring me satisfaction? Yes, she said with a grin.

Shell also miss her visits to Capitol Hill, where she fostered first-name ties with local congressional representatives and senators.

Butler will be succeeded by Lisa Giboney, who has 19 years with Head Start here. It will be a smooth transition, Butler said.
We cherish veterans in Nebraska. Whether its raising money to help those who fought in Vietnam fly to Washington, D.C. for a Hero Flight or working to build lasting monuments across our state to remember those who served, we recognize our duty to highlight the honor, courage, and sacrifice of our veterans. Nebraskans also understand the value of having veterans tell their stories. We know that young people can learn from the passed-down knowledge offered by those who served, along with those who supported them. This learning can help the next generation carry on the freedoms and traditions our former warfighters bravely defended.

Historians often say that the past is a prologue. Studying our history can help us better understand the problems of today or tomorrow. We often tackle the challenges of the present by learning the lessons of the past.

I couldnt agree more with this sentiment, especially when the lessons come from those who risked their lives protecting our way of life. Preserving their stories is not just a way to show our respect, its also a guide for future success. The memory of what our veterans did has helped protect our country long after they left the battlefields.

Congress agrees, and in 2000 it created the Veterans History Project. Operated by the Library of Congress, this program promotes the collection of firsthand accounts from wartime veterans and the civilians who supported them. These war narratives range from veterans who served in World War I to those who fought in the Iraq War.

Nebraskans must be part of this collection. We have a proud history of military service, and with the VHP, the experiences of our veterans can be preserved and distributed to a larger audience. Through in-person interviews, written journals, and photos, our veterans have shared their experiences with their fellow Nebraskans. With the VHP, they will be sharing them with American people.

Recently, I continued my efforts to preserve the legacy of Nebraskas vets by donating to the VHP. My office has been collecting these accounts for several years because I have always believed in the importance of recording tales from those who defended our country. We provided the LOC with 20 interviews from Nebraska veterans and people close to them. It was truly an honor to present these extraordinary accounts of courage, service, and comradery to the worlds largest library to be archived. I know that the LOC will be able to preserve these recordings so that visitors from all over the world will be able to get perspectives about war from Nebraskans.

Deb Fischer is Nebraskas senior representative in the U.S. Senate.
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FILE - In this Monday, July 24, 2017 file photo, President Donald Trump waves to the crowd after speaking at the 2017 National Scout Jamboree in Glen Jean, W.Va. On Thursday, July 27, 2017, Chief Scout Executive Michael Surbaugh released a statement apologizing to members of the scouting community who were offended by the aggressive political rhetoric in the president's speech three days earlier. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
New York City Public Advocate Letitia James speaks to protestors gathered in Times Square, Wednesday, July 26, 2017, in New York. A rally was held in Times Square after President Donald Trump's announcement of a ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)
FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2016, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton pauses as she speak during a campaign stop at the Frontline Outreach Center in Orlando, Fla. Clinton is calling her new book "What Happened" and promising to let her "guard down" as she remembers her defeat last year to Donald Trump. Simon & Schuster told The Associated Press on Thursday, July 27, 2017, that Clinton will describe the "intense personal experience" of being the first woman nominated by a major party for president. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke, File)
Reaction to the news Wednesday that Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn plans to build its first U.S. plant in Wisconsin, a $10 billion investment that could lead to the creation of 13,000 jobs over 15 years:

Gov. Scott Walker (R)

This is a once-in-a-century opportunity for our state and our country, and Wisconsin is ready. We are calling this development Wisconn Valley, because we believe this will have a transformational effect on Wisconsin, just as Silicon Valley transformed the San Francisco Bay Area.

U.S. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis.

This decision will create thousands of good jobs, and Im excited for all the Wisconsinites who will benefit. ... This is an exciting day for our community, and we look forward to working further with Foxconn as we begin a new era of manufacturing here in Wisconsin.

State legislators

Its an exciting opportunity. ... We want to make sure its a fair deal for everybody. We want a win, win, win.  Assembly Democratic Minority Leader Peter Barca, of Kenosha

This is awesome. It is not only a regional and national victory for southeastern Wisconsin, it is an international game changer for our region and state. Foxconn could have located anywhere in the world, and chose Wisconsin.  Republican state Sen. Van Wanggaard, of Racine

This is awesome. ... Hopefully we wont be an exporter of engineers anymore out of our schools when they graduate from college and theyll want to stay right here in Wisconsin. Wiscon Valley of the Midwest.  Republican state Rep. Samantha Kerkman, of Salem Lakes

Im excited by the tremendous opportunity this presents for southeastern Wisconsin, particularly the Racine and Kenosha areas. Not only will the Foxconn facility bring potentially 10,000 jobs to the area, but the construction and other ancillary jobs that come with it will be huge, as well. Im hopeful that these will be the good, family-supporting jobs that we need in our community and that the economic incentives provided by the state will be in line with the jobs created as a result.  Democratic state Sen. Bob Wirch, of Somers

This is a day to remember in Wisconsin; this is a huge opportunity for our state. The selection of Wisconsin will impact generations of families. The manufacturing plant will provide thousands of new, good-paying jobs and spur economic growth throughout our state.  Republican Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, Rochester

While I welcome new businesses to the state, I want to ensure any state-subsidized private sector jobs offer a living wage and safe working conditions. ... I am cautious of committing taxpayers to decades of economic costs and liabilities.  Democratic state Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, La Crosse

It is with good reason that Wisconsinites are not yet willing to blindly put their faith, and money, in a feeble jobs promise. Weve been deceived by Walkers rose-tinted glasses before.  Democratic state Sen. Chris Larson, Milwaukee

County executives

People are asking, Are they coming to Kenosha County? While we dont yet know exactly where Foxconn will choose to locate its facility, I can confirm that weve had a seat at the table in discussions with the company and the state. And while we would be honored if Foxconn chooses Kenosha County as its place to build and locate thousands of jobs, we are proceeding cautiously, to ensure that the conditions are right for the taxpayers who live and do business in our county.  Kenosha County Executive Jim Kreuser

We are thrilled that a company of this magnitude has recognized the business opportunities available in Wisconsin. We will be proud to have them as part of our great state.  Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave

Todays announcement ... is a great example of what can happen when we all work together. Its also a testament to the strength and appeal of our workforce and the commitment from many levels of government to devote the resources needed to invest in the kind of infrastructure that will attract and retain global talent.  Milwaukee County Executive Chris Abele

UW System

The news that Foxconn will substantially invest in southeastern Wisconsin continues the recent positive trend of dynamic global companies recognizing all that this region has to offer. University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford

The University of Wisconsin System has been engaged in these discussions from early in the process. ... Powered by a collaboration of industry, education and government, the UW System and Wisconsin are fully prepared to support a global enterprise like Foxconn.  University of Wisconsin System President Ray Cross

Others

10,000 good-paying, family-sustaining jobs for Wisconsin is a great thing for our state  period. This should not be a partisan issue.  Democratic candidate for governor Andy Gronik

I have said repeatedly that Wisconsin is the best-kept secret in the Midwest. Today, the secret is out.  Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce President Kurt Bauer

I welcome new business and jobs to Wisconsin. ... While we are all thrilled at the prospect of new jobs coming to the state, it is entirely reasonable to be cautious of a scandal-plagued job creation agency handing over taxpayer funds to foreign investors that could potentially leave Wisconsinites with the bill decades into the future.  Wisconsin Democratic Party Chairwoman Martha Laning

Foxconns announcement allows thousands of Wisconsinites opportunity and the chance at success. Wisconsin is working and winning, thanks to Gov. Walker.  Wisconsin Republican Party Chairman Brad Courtney
By Teresa Cespedes

LIMA, July 26 (Reuters) - Peru's nearly 100-year-old polymetallic smelter La Oroya failed to draw any offers on Wednesday in the last of six scheduled auctions, delivering a blow to President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski's plans to expand the Andean country's metals refining capacity.

Kuczynski had extended the liquidation deadline for La Oroya a year ago and vowed to do his best to revive it. But no one tried to buy the smelter in auctioning that started in March, even after the government raised sulfur dioxide emission limits to reduce the cost of upgrades. La Oroya will be liquidated unless Kuczynski extends the deadline again, said Pablo Peschiera, director of consulting firm Dirige that has been tasked with finding a new operator.

Dirige has asked Kuczynski for another year to try to find a buyer, Peschiera said, adding that investors are still concerned about potential liability for pollution in surrounding soils.

The town of La Oroya next to the smelter was once named one of the 10 most polluted places in the world by the group the Blacksmith Institute. Hundreds of children in La Oroya have been found to have dangerous levels of lead in their blood. Earlier this month, the environment ministry asked for input from the public on possible changes to rules on polluted sites.

"That (proposed) norm is extensive and will require a study by us and by investors as well," said Peschiera. "There wasn't enough time to overcome" the obstacles.

The failed bid to sell La Oroya sets back Kuczynski's goal of raising the value of Peru's mineral exports by refining more concentrates at home. Kuczynski has said he hoped to revive La Oroya while encouraging investors to build a new smelter near Peru's southern coast. Peru is the world's No.2 copper, zinc and silver producer.

Doe Run Peru, controlled by New York billionaire Ira Rennert's Renco Group, was La Oroya's most recent owner, but it went bankrupt in 2009 without finishing mandatory upgrades. The smelter is now controlled by Doe Run's former creditors.

(Reporting By Teresa Cespedes, Writing By Mitra Taj; Editing by David Gregorio)
July 27 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc has agreed a deal with Brussels that will finally allow the lender to call off its sale of the Williams & Glyn business. GlaxoSmithKline Plc will cull more than 30 development programmes and aim for 1 billion pounds ($1.31 billion) of extra annual savings in a shake-up under its new boss. The Guardian

Britain's car industry has warned that the government's proposed ban on sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2040 risks damaging the industry and stalling sales of new cars. A regulatory regime intended to crack down on the behaviour of bank bosses is to be extended to 47,000 firms including dentists, gyms and tool hire companies that offer credit to customers. The Telegraph

Lloyds Banking Group Plc has set aside 300 million pounds to repay 600,000 customers for mortgage arrears errors that took place over a seven-year period, sources said. BT Group Plc has landed a blow against attempts to boost competition in the market for heavy-duty broadband lines for businesses, threatening access to the "dark fibre" that rivals say will be crucial to 5G mobile connectivity. Sky News

The government will stop charging employment tribunal fees and refund those who have already paid them - after the Supreme Court found they were unlawful. JPMorgan Chase & Co is drawing up plans to merge its UK-based private banking arm into its wider European wealth operation ahead of the UK's departure from the European Union. The Independent

The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors found that nearly half of construction workers predict the gender pay gap will be less than 15 percent by April 2018. It is currently 18.1 percent. ($1 = 0.7624 pounds)

(Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom)
By Tom Arnold and Davide Barbuscia

DUBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), the emirate's second largest bank by assets, raised $320 million through the sale of a five-year Formosa bond, sources told Reuters on Thursday.

Several Gulf banks have made forays into the Formosa market in the past year or so, including ADCB. Formosa bonds are sold in Taiwan by foreign issuers and denominated in currencies other than the Taiwanese dollar.

The sale, which was settled on Wednesday, was placed with institutional investors, the sources said, with one adding that a Taiwanese bank arranged the deal, declining to name it.

The bank did not respond to a Reuters request for comment.

In March, ADCB raised $230 million through the sale of a five-year Formosa bond and earlier in the year it also raised around $750 million through a five-year Formosa bond. National Bank of Abu Dhabi and Qatar National Bank have also been active in the Formosa market in the past year or so. (Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)
By Nicole Mordant

VANCOUVER, July 27 (Reuters) - Goldcorp Inc is looking to sell royalties it owns on a number of mining projects it has sold in recent years, its chief executive said on Thursday, as the Canadian gold miner nears the end of a series of non-core asset sales.

Goldcorp, which is the world's fourth-biggest gold miner by market value, has sold $500 million of non-core assets in Mexico and Guatemala this year, investing the funds into its pipeline of bigger mine development projects.

The sale of the royalties could realize about $50 million, CEO David Garofalo said in an interview following the company's second-quarter earnings.

Royalties give the owner the right to receive a percentage of revenue or profits from a mining operation. Demand for royalties has increased in the mining sector in recent years as new entrants try to mimic the strong financial performance of royalty companies such as Franco-Nevada Inc .

Goldcorp owns royalties on a number of non-producing assets, including the Camino Rojo gold project in Mexico, which it sold to Orla Mining in June, and the Cerro Blanco gold-silver project in Guatemala, which it sold to Bluestone Resources in January.

Goldcorp is still deciding whether to sell the royalties as a package or separately, depending on what garners the highest price, Garofalo said.

The Vancouver-based company is now "pretty much done" with non-core asset sales, he said.

(Reporting by Nicole Mordant in Vancouver; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)
LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Cutbacks by Chinese authorities of illegal capacity at aluminium smelters, which have lifted prices this year, are slowing and may be reversed, a consultant said on Thursday. Aluminium is one of the best performing industrial metals this year, with the benchmark price rising 15 percent, largely driven by worries about shortages due to a crackdown in China on illegal and polluting aluminium plants.

While shutdowns gained momentum early this month, there have been some setbacks, said Paul Adkins, managing director of consultancy AZ-China in Beijing.

First of all, smelters with illegal capacity are not closing all that capacity, he said.

For instance, Xinfa has 1.1 million tonnes of illegal capacity, but only about half of that is being shut.

"For another thing, some closures appear to be slowing down. We know at least one plant suspended the process once the government inspectors left town," Adkins told the Reuters Global Base Metals Forum.

More significantly, almost all the capacity being closed is set to re-open as soon as possible, he said.

"While we might see a largish amount of capacity exit this year, I suspect most of it will be back in operation by Q2 next year."

Most of the illegal smelters use the latest technology, so the government is unlikely to leave them idle and let older and more inefficient operations continue, Adkins said.

The official Chinese data has appeared to have stopped including illegal production, he added.

"We think the CNIA (China's Nonferrous Metals Industry Association) is reporting only those smelters that are legal... and the implications are profound given that President Trump is watching China steel and aluminium," Adkins told the Forum.

"Based on the last three months official versus real, the delta is running at about 3 million tonnes per year."

(Reporting by Eric Onstad; Editing by Susan Fenton)
PRAGUE, July 27 (Reuters) - Six out of seven Czech central bank board members will attend an Aug. 3 policy meeting, with only Vice-Governor Mojmir Hampl missing, the bank said on Thursday.

The central bank will meet on policy for the first time since saying at the end of June it may be close to delivering its first rate hike since 2008 in the third quarter.

A growing number of analysts say the bank may move already in August. (Reporting by Jason Hovet)
MUMBAI, July 27 (Reuters) - India's falling trade deficit is giving the world's second-biggest gold consumer room to lower its import duty on bullion, a commerce ministry official said on Thursday.

A reduction in import duty would make gold cheaper in the local market and could boost demand, supporting global prices now trading near their highest in six weeks. Spot gold prices are rebounding this month after posting their first monthly loss for 2017 in June.

A lower import duty would also help in curbing gold smuggling, which the industry says is likely to rise after the hike in sales tax on gold jewellery from July 1. "Now the current account deficit is improving and this decision (to reduce import duty) should be taken into the budget," Manoj Dwivedi, a joint secretary at India's commerce ministry said on the sidelines of a conference.

The commerce ministry is recommending a reduction in the gold import duty to the finance ministry, Dwivedi said, although it was not clear how soon a decrease could be enacted.

A finance ministry spokesman declined to comment on the matter.

India raised import duties on gold to 10 percent in a series of hikes to August 2013, looking to curb demand to narrow a gaping current account deficit.

India's trade deficit narrowed more-than-expected to $12.96 billion in June as gold imports nearly halved from a month earlier. The commerce ministry has "been saying the ideal rate for the industry would be 2 percent. It can be brought down in a phased manner or in one go," Dwivedi said.

Gold smuggling has been rife since India raised the import duty on the metal. The World Gold Council estimates that up to 120 tonnes of gold was smuggled into India in 2016.

India's legal imports typically stand at around 800 tonnes a year, with gold and gold jewellery used as religious donations, and wedding and holiday gifts, or as investments that can be readily turned into cash.

(Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav; Editing by Tom Hogue)
JAKARTA, July 27 (Reuters) - Indonesia's national airline PT Garuda Indonesia Tbk reported a net loss of $283.8 million during the first half of 2017 due to a tax amnesty hit and the weak performance at its operations.

In a filing to the Singapore stock exchange, the state-controlled carrier sought consent to amend certain terms on its $500 million global sukuk bonds due 2020 because of its poor financial result. For the six months ended June 30, $138.3 million of the net loss was due to the cost incurred for taking part in Indonesia's tax amnesty scheme, while the rest was related to operations, Garuda said.

Garuda's director of finance and risk management, Helmi Imam Satriyono, confirmed the loss. The airline was expected to report its first-half financial results in Jakarta later on Thursday.

(Reporting by Eveline Danubrata and Cindy Silviana; Editing by Christian Schmollinger)
HANOI, July 27 (Reuters) - Here's a snapshot of Vietnamese dong exchange rates in the official and unofficial markets, indicative SJC gold prices in Hanoi and interbank offered rates at 0418 GMT.

July 27 USD/VND mid-point 22,430 USD/VND interbank 22,704/22,767 USD/VND unofficial 22,740/22,755 SJC gold (mln dong/tael) 36.16/36.38

Interbank offered rates Overnight 0.5-0.8

1 week 0.6-1.0

1 month 1.7-2.2

3 months 3.3-3.8

NOTES: As of Jan. 4, 2016 the State Bank of Vietnam has begun setting the mid-point rate on daily basis, allowing dollar/dong transactions to move in a band of +/- 3 percent around the mid point. The dong's exchange rate against other currencies is not restricted by a band. Interbank offered rates are the latest indicative bid/ask prices, quoted from market sources.

One tael is equivalent to 37.5 grams or 1.21 troy ounces. SJC gold prices are quoted by state-owned Saigon Jewelry Co.

For more interbank rate fixings released at 0400 GMT, click on .

For Vietnam market overview click on: Vietnam's bonds market auctions: Bonds auction results: (Compiled by Hanoi Newsroom)
JOHANNESBURG, July 27 (Reuters) - South Africa's Gold Fields expects half-year profits to fall as much as 50 percent on the back of higher costs to convert local currencies to dollars and an increase in amortisation, the company said on Thursday.

Gold Fields flagged headline earnings per share (HEPS) of between $0.06 to $0.08 for THE six months to 30 June 2017, 38 to 50 percent lower compared to the previous period.

Headline EPS strips out certain one-off items and is the main profit measure in South Africa.

Gold Fields, which will unveil its results on Aug 17, said the decrease in profits is due to stronger exchange rates on converting local currency costs to U.S. dollars, an increase in amortisation and non-recurring items.

($1 = 12.8930 rand)

(Reporting by Tanisha Heiberg; Editing by Ed Stoddard)
NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - The U.S. Treasury Department on Thursday sold $28 billion of seven-year government debt to fair investor demand at the highest yield at an auction of this maturity since March, Treasury data showed. The Treasury paid investors a yield of 2.126 percent on the latest seven-year note issue , the highest since the 2.215 percent yield at the March auction. (Reporting by Richard Leong; Editing by Chris Reese)

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and may not reflect those of Kitco Metals Inc. The author has made every effort to ensure accuracy of information provided; however, neither Kitco Metals Inc. nor the author can guarantee such accuracy. This article is strictly for informational purposes only. It is not a solicitation to make any exchange in commodities, securities or other financial instruments. Kitco Metals Inc. and the author of this article do not accept culpability for losses and/ or damages arising from the use of this publication.
* Net debt to EBITDA ratio less than 1

* Need to start again on South African mining charter

* Share price rises

(Adds detail, quotes, share price)

By Barbara Lewis

LONDON, July 27 (Reuters) - Anglo American on Thursday said it was resuming dividend payments six months early after a "relentless focus" on cost-cutting combined with higher commodity prices had cut debt and increased cash flow and underlying earnings.

Anglo was among the miners hardest hit by a slump in commodity prices in 2015 and was forced to suspend its dividend. Last year it led gains on Britain's benchmark FTSE 100 index and has risen a further 6 percent this year.

Net debt fell to $6.2 billion by the end of the first half, below a year-end target of $7 billion, and free cash flow rose to $2.7 billion.

Underlying earnings before interest tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) for the first six months rose by 68 percent to $4.1 billion, in line with analyst forecasts according to a consensus provided by the company.

The ratio of net debt to annualised EBITDA stood at 0.8 times. A level of around one or lower is a strong measure of balance sheet health in the capital intensive mining industry.

Share prices rose 3.5 percent by 0718 GMT.

The combination of lower net debt and healthy cash flow has allowed the company to bring forward the resumption of dividend payments, previously expected around the end of the year, to a first-half payment of 48 cents per share, or 40 percent of underlying earnings.

Chief Executive Mark Cutifani said a "relentless focus on driving efficiency" had resulted in "a step-change in operational performance and profitability".

Looking ahead, he said the drive for cost-cutting would continue and the company could also consider growth, although he did not specify where.

Anglo American is no longer embarking on any new formal asset disposal processes, he said, although it is completing some announced sales that should reduce the portfolio to around 35 assets - down from 37 now and 68 in 2013.

At the same time, production has increased, he said, with each employee producing 70 percent more than in 2013.

Anglo American still faces big challenges, especially in South Africa, where the industry is opposing the government's plans to revise the mining charter. Cutifani told reporters on a conference call, there was a need to start from scratch.

"It's confused and it's confusing and it does not work for anyone," he said of the charter. "It would not work in any jurisdiction... We just have to start again."

(additional reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru; editing by Jason Neely/Keith Weir)
(Adds quotes, details)

By Victoria Bryan, Tim Hepher and Alana Wise

PARIS/NEW YORK, July 27 (Reuters) - Delta Air Lines , Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic unveiled plans on Thursday to combine two overlapping transatlantic joint-ventures, supported by equity deals worth $1 billion, as airlines brace for more competition.

The shake-up is designed to strengthen carriers on the lucrative North Atlantic, where low-cost entrants have shaken up the market, and comes as Britain negotiates to leave the European Union, creating a tangle over Heathrow access.

The realignment coincides with a deal for Air France-KLM to deepen its commercial ties with China Eastern to build what it described as the European leg of a global network.

The new 15-year partnership combines existing joint-ventures between firstly Air France-KLM, Delta and Alitalia, and secondly between Delta and Virgin Atlantic, Air France-KLM said.

"What it does is brings together the missing piece of that triangle: the missing link between Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic," Atmosphere Research Group analyst Henry Harteveldt said, noting Delta's existing ventures with both carriers.

Airlines have few options for traditional cross-border consolidation because of complex national ownership rules.

The role of Alitalia in the new alliance is dependent on what will happen in the months to come, with an administrator currently seeking offers for the struggling carrier.

Air France-KLM said one option could be for Alitalia to cooperate as an associate partner.

At the same time as forging the expanded alliance, Air France-KLM will buy 31 percent of Virgin Atlantic from Richard Branson's Virgin Group for around 220 million pounds ($287 million).

Delta and China Eastern will each acquire a 10 percent stake in Air France-KLM by subscribing to new shares through reserved capital increases totalling 751 million euros ($877 million).

Delta shares traded down just under 1 percent, weighed by disappointing third-quarter outlooks by rival U.S. carriers.

ANTITRUST CONCERNS

The deal - which is subject to regulatory approval - would give the partners a stronger position on the North Atlantic market with a combined 27 percent of capacity, ahead of rivals, according to Flightglobal Schedules data.

"What it gives the ability to do is manage capacity and pricing more broadly on the Atlantic, assuming they get anti-trust immunity," Robert Mann, analyst at R.W. Mann & Co, said.

But James Halstead, a managing partner at Aviation Strategy, said the deal raised questions about Virgin Atlantic's traffic rights from the UK after Britain's planned exit from the European Union, since it would no longer be a mainly UK firm.

The deal makes Air France-KLM the second largest shareholder in Virgin Atlantic after Delta, which owns a 49 percent stake, and reduces Virgin Group's stake to 20 percent.

"The rules in front of us today are European; this (deal) complies with those. We will deal with any changes when they come," Virgin Atlantic chief commercial officer Shai Weiss said.

The Brexit vote has left the region's carriers looking for ways to protect traffic rights and shareholder structures even though the outcome of future negotiations is unclear. John Grant of JG Aviation Consultants said the deal could prompt other "creative solutions in ownership structures and equity shares in the coming months."

(Additional reporting by Alana Wise, Cyril Altmeyer; Editing by Andrew Callus and Elaine Hardcastle)
(Recasts with tax settlement)

By Rod Nickel and Aparajita Saxena

July 27 (Reuters) - Canada's Cameco Corp , the world's second-largest uranium producer, said on Thursday it had settled a U.S. tax dispute for a fraction of the original claim, which may bode well for the company's multi-billion-dollar battle with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Cameco will pay the U.S. Internal Revenue Service $122,000 for its 2009 through 2012 taxation years, compared with the $122 million the IRS claimed Cameco underpaid.

The company's shares rose 3 percent to C$12.94 in early trading in Toronto, as the settlement news helped investors look past the company reporting a wider-than-expected quarterly loss.

Cameco's dispute with tax authorities relates to its offshore marketing structure and transfer pricing. Cameco sells uranium to its marketing subsidiary in Switzerland, which re-sells it to buyers, incurring less tax than the company would through its Canadian office.

Cameco says it has a marketing subsidiary there because most of its customers are located outside Canada.

Cameco's dispute with CRA, which is before Canadian courts, could result in a C$2.4 billion ($1.92 billion) tax expense for past years, the company said on Thursday.

"It is tempting to conclude that this (IRS settlement) weakens the CRA's position," BMO analyst Edward Sterck said in a note.

A spokesman for CRA could not immediately comment.

The global uranium industry is locked in a six-year slump, dating back to the 2011 tsunami that caused Japan to shutter all of its nuclear reactors. The world's uranium market is oversupplied, although some reactors in Japan have restarted.

Cameco reported a loss of C$1.56 million in the second quarter, breaking even on a per share basis.

It had posted a loss a year earlier of C$137.4 million, or 35 Canadian cents. The latest quarter's results were hit by the loss of a contract with Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco) , the operator of Japan's wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant.

The company said it was addressing low uranium prices by reducing supply and avoiding sales into a weak spot market.

Adjusted for one-time items, Cameco lost 11 Canadian cents per share, disappointing analysts who had expected, on average, a loss of 2 Canadian cents a share, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Revenue rose 1 percent to C$469.7 million.

The company's uranium sales rose 33 percent to 6.1 million pounds, while its average realized uranium price fell 14.9 percent to $36.51 per pound. ($1 = 1.2482 Canadian dollars)

(Reporting By Aparajita Saxena in Bengaluru and Rod Nickel in Winnipeg, Manitoba; Editing by Meredith Mazzilli)
* H1 organic sales growth 2.3 pct, same as Q1

* Sees 2017 sales at lower end of target range

* Shares fall 0.8 percent

* No comment on dialogue with Daniel Loeb

(Adds details)

By John Revill

ZURICH, July 27 (Reuters) - Nestle trimmed its 2017 sales forecast to what would be its weakest growth in 20 years, adding fuel to calls on chief executive Mark Schneider to speed up a turnaround of the world's largest food group.

Since taking control of the maker of KitKat bars and Nescafe coffee in January, Schneider has faced calls to improve its performance, led by activist investor Daniel Loeb, whose U.S. hedge fund disclosed a $3.5 billion stake in June. Nestle has been cutting costs, making small-scale investments in health science companies and last month announced a large share buyback plan in an effort to boost returns.

Global food companies have been battling slowing sales as consumers' tastes change, and Nestle has been accused of responding more slowly than peers such as Unilever and Danone , which have bought faster-growth companies with products aimed at health-conscious millennials.

Nestle reflected these difficulties on Thursday when it said it expected 2017 sales growth to be "in the lower half" of its 2 to 4 percent target range.

The company's organic sales growth has slowed over the last four years, leading to Schneider scrapping a long term target of 4 to 5 percent growth. A slowdown to the bottom half of 2 to 4 percent would be Nestle's weakest growth in more than 20 years.

Nestle said its organic sales, which includes volume and price increases, grew by 2.3 percent in the first half, the same rate as the first quarter, trailing analyst estimates of 2.8 percent and slowing from 3.5 percent a year earlier.

Schneider, who is expected to unveil more of his strategy at an investor day in September, said he was disappointed.

"Organic growth in the first half did not fully meet our expectations ... While volume growth remains at the high end of our industry, pricing continues to be soft," he said.

NO MAGIC WAND

Although Nestle's first-half net profit rose 19 percent to 4.9 billion Swiss francs ($5.16 billion), beating a 4.83 billion franc average estimate in a Reuters poll, its shares lost 1 percent as analysts saw the results as weak.

"It shows you that CEO Mark Schneider has a lot of work to do and there isn't a magic wand in terms of getting the top line going," Jon Cox from Kepler Cheuvreux said.

Nestle Chief Financial Officer Francois-Xavier Roger declined to say whether pricing -- which increased by 0.9 percent in the first half -- would pick up this year.

"We are cautious. Part of it is linked to commodity prices and because of the high volatility there we need to be cautious," he said.

Nestle had raised prices in Europe for products like coffee, but this had reduced sales volumes, Roger told reporters.

He declined to comment on any dialogue with Loeb's Third Point, which has urged management to set a margin target of 18 to 20 percent by 2020, buy back shares, sell non-core businesses and exit French cosmetics giant L'Oreal. Although Schneider has made some changes, including putting Nestle's U.S. confectionery business under review, Loeb, who was not immediately available for comment, and others say the company is moving too slowly.

Since Loeb disclosed his stake until Wednesday, Nestle shares had gained 0.3 percent, although the stock was trading 0.8 percent lower on Thursday.

(Reporting by John Revill, additional reporting by Silke Koltrowitz and Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi; editing by Michael Shields and Alexander Smith)
German actor Thomas Kretschmann poses during an interview at the Intercontinental Hotel in Samseong-dong, Seoul, Tuesday. / Courtesy of Showbox



By Kim Jae-heun



German actor Thomas Kretschmann said Tuesday his experience of escaping from East Germany helped him understand the Gwangju Democratization Movement for the movie "Taxi Driver."

Kretschmann appears as German reporter Jurgen Hinzpeter, or by his nickname Peter, in the movie and met with the press at the Intercontinental Hotel in Seoul ahead of the film's release next week.

"My experience escaping from East Germany when I was in my 20s, gave me lessons in my life and for my acting," said Kretschmann. "It helped me form my view of the world. I arrived in Yugoslavia first, which adopted neither capitalism nor communism. The country remembers massacres taking place when it was being split up. I've starred in a film depicting the tragedy and it helped me understand the Gwangju Democratization Movement too."

"Taxi Driver," directed by Jang Hoon, was written based on the true story told by Hinzpeter, who covered the tragedy of the Gwangju Democratization Movement of May 1980 and revealed the truth to the world.

The military regime concealed its crackdown against the citizens, mostly students, and forced the media to forge the event into a riot by a group of communists. The government officially confirmed over 1,000 casualties during the protest.

In the film, Peter pays taxi driver Man-seop, played by Song Kang-ho, 100,000 won to take him 250 kilometers southward from Seoul. Man-seop does not know the German is a reporter and is also unaware that martial law has been declared in Gwangju.

Hinzpeter later visited Korea to find the taxi driver, whose real name is Kim Sa-bok, but the German reporter died last year.

"I wanted to meet Hinzpeter but he died a year before we started filming. Surprisingly, there was not much information about the Gwangju Democratization Movement and I read the script over and over again. I also asked director Jang Hoon to show me some documentaries about the event that I could refer to," said Kretschmann.

The German actor confessed he knew nothing about the democratization movement that took place in Korea and he only decided to star in the movie because of the good script he read.

Kretschmann says he took many foreigner roles in international movies but he recalls that shooting in Korea was extraordinarily challenging.

"The biggest problem was the language. It would take longer for me to prepare than anybody else before the scenes. The critical scenes or dramatic scenes were easier to act than the lighter sequences with much chitchat," said Kretschmann.

The German actor remembers the Korean actors were pleasant to work with. He particularly praised Song for his acting ability in shifting his emotions rapidly from one scene to another.

"I was honored to act with Song. He is a fantastic actor who can shift his emotions quickly from light humor to a heavy sad feeling. He's got great acting rhythm like a wave," said the German actor.

"Taxi Driver" will hit local theaters on Aug. 2.


Science Fiction Volume One: The Osiris Child

In a time of interplanetary colonization, a fatal virus spreads across a planet named Osiris, and the governing body of the planet, EXOr, plans to destroy all living things on it, including people. A lieutenant working for EXOr, Kane (Daniel MacPherson) tries to save the planet and his daughter who lives there. Directed by Shane Abbess.





Despicable Me 3

A former villain Gru (Steve Carell) becomes an agent for the Anti-Villain League, but soon gets fired. While looking for a new job, Gru finds out that he has a long-lost, wealthy twin brother Dru. When Gru reunites with his twin brother, he discovers his inner desire to be a super-villain again. Directed by Kyle Balda and Pierre Coffin.







The Battleship Island

The year is 1945, and diverse Koreans head to Japan in order to earn money. However, they unwillingly end up at Battleship Island, where workers are extremely exploited in a mine located 1,000 meters below sea level. As the war nears an end, the Korean workers try to evacuate from the island. Directed by Ryoo Seung-wan.







Dunkirk

During the Battle of France in World War II, allied soldiers from four countries _ Belgium, the British Empire, Canada, and France  are surrounded by the German army. To evacuate from the beaches and harbor of Dunkirk, France, the soldiers fight with all their might, strongly willing to stand against the enemy until the very end. Directed by Christopher Nolan.







47 Meters Down

Two sisters, Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt), are having a special summer vacation in Mexico. They explore the sea in a cage, but the cage suddenly sinks to 47 meters below sea level. In the cage surrounded by sharks, they try hard to survive. However, there is limited oxygen in their tanks. Directed by Johannes Roberts.
Rural Development Administration (RDA) trainees work in a rice field in Cambodia, on Dec. 16, 2016. Twice a year, the state-run agricultural research institute dispatches a group of university students in agricultural science as trainees to its Korea Project on International Agriculture centers in 20 countries. / Courtesy of RDA



By Lee Hyo-sik

The Rural Development Administration (RDA), the state-run agricultural research institute, has been dispatching university students to its overseas branches, helping them find jobs in the field of agricultural science.

The institute has set up Korea Project on International Agriculture (KOPIA) centers in 20 developing countries in its campaign to share its knowhow with the developing world.

The RDA operates six KOPIA centers in Africa, eight in Asia and six in South America, offering practical, field-oriented support to local farmers.

Each year, it spent millions of dollars to run the centers, each of which has nine RDA employees all year round, providing on-the-spot, tailor-made technical assistance, undertaking joint research activities with host countries and offering training programs.

From 2009 through the first half of 2017, the RDA dispatched a total of 903 university students majoring in agricultural science to KOPIA centers as trainees. In August, 33 more students will head overseas to gain valuable on-the-ground knowledge and experience while working with RDA employees in 20 developing nations.

"Since 2009, we have selected dozens of young students majoring in agricultural science as trainees and dispatched them to our KOPIA centers," an official of RDA said. "They normally stay abroad for about a year and work with RDA employees on various tasks. For instance, they study how to increase crop yield and develop seeds that are more suitable for the local environment. If trainees want to work longer, they can extend their stay by another year."

The institute said among those dispatched to KOPIA centers between 2012 and 2014, 63.2 percent later found jobs in their respective fields.

"In addition to working on crops and livestock, each trainee is given an assignment by RDA employees to complete before they return home. So, we keep them quite busy," the official said. "We do not take advantage of them as cheap laborers. We want them to see how things work in the field and find answers on their own. We also want the trainees to communicate with locals as much as possible and learn about the value of helping those in need."

He said the RDA will continue to dispatch aspiring students to KOPIA centers to nurture more agricultural talent. "Hopefully, our training program will help them when they later look for jobs in the agricultural field."
Employees of Green Cross Corp. donate blood at its headquarters in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, Monday. The company said 150 workers took part in the blood donation campaign aimed at helping cancer-stricken children. It also said over 14,000 employees have joined the annual campaign since 1992. / Courtesy of Green Cross Corp.
Foreign residents gather at City Hall, Wednesday, to propose policies to improve living conditions for the growing foreign population in Seoul. / Yonhap



By You Soo-sun

Foreign residents of Seoul gathered at City Hall, Wednesday, to propose policies to the Seoul Metropolitan Government on behalf of foreign residents of Seoul. It was the third time the Seoul City Foreign Residents Council, consisting of 38 residents from 23 countries, held a general meeting since its launch in December 2015.

Eleven policies were proposed, of which five were presented at the meeting. The proposals arose from the 11 meetings held this year separately by each division: human rights and cultural diversity, capacity building and improvement of living conditions.

Taraki Mari, 27, from Switzerland proposed establishing prayer rooms for Muslims, who are obligated to pray five times a day at certain times of the day. She has been a resident here for seven years, and has found it difficult to practice her religion here.

"There were times when I prayed at corners of the subway station or on the emergency staircase of a building," she said according to a local newspaper. "To reflect the growing Muslim population residing in Korea, I hope we can be respected as part of the community."

She also said, "Establishment of prayer rooms will also give a good impression for Muslim tourists in Korea."

Proposals for improving living conditions included providing different foreign languages on maps and road signs as well as services at the multicultural family support center to foster cultural exchange and help foreign residents better adjust here.

"I once got off at Itaewon Station to go to the Uzbekistan embassy, but I couldn't find any map or directions indicating its location. Even a few I found were only in Korean and English, blocking access to non-English-speaking foreigners," a participant said.

Other policies included easier access to earning drivers' licenses, using Noksapyeong Station on Line 6 as an exhibition hall showcasing different communities from around the world and subsidizing free subway access for long-term senior foreign residents.

The council was established as an advisory body under the city government's Women and Family Policy Affairs division as a means to improve the quality of life for foreign residents here. As of 2015, there were 457,806 foreigners living in Seoul, up from 395,640 in 2013.

Last year, 33 policies were proposed. The Seoul city government accepted 17 of those, including providing Korean language courses, educating migrant children in their native languages and including foreign languages in ads delivered to areas heavily populated by foreigners.

"The policy proposals from the Foreign Residents Council are great examples of providing solutions through communication and collaboration," said an official from the Women and Family Policy Affairs Office. "We expect the council to play an important role in establishing effective policies for expats living here."
By Kim Hyo-jin



Chief presidential secretary for political affairs Jun Byung-hun said Wednesday he opposes the integration of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) and the People's Party.



"There should be no artificial political realignment," Jun said during a radio interview. "This would only cause severe conflicts between the existing parties."



He said integrating the liberal parties would prompt political chaos.



"I believe the people hope to see the existing parties strive for cooperative politics in the current five-party system," he said.



Political realignment has been one of the key parliamentary issues under the Moon Jae-in government.



Moon's DPK, which does not have an absolute majority in the 299-seat legislature, has been thought to be seeking a merger or alliance with the People's Party, which originally formed when lawmakers exited the leading liberal party. The 120-seat DPK can get a majority with the support of the 40-seat People's Party.



But talks on political realignment appeared to be losing momentum. Jun's comment is in line with the present parliamentary situation, according to pundits.



The DPK passed a supplementary budget bill with the backing of the People's Party and the Bareun Party on Saturday. Party leaders are gradually warming to a strategy of embracing the two minor opposition parties while isolating the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP), party officials said.



They are also aware of the possibility that an alliance with the People's Party would spur the remaining opposition parties to join hands, escalating tensions and fueling the power game between the ruling party and opposition bloc.



Speculation is also growing that the People's Party may survive the fallout of the fabrication scandal. With the prosecution expected to wrap up its investigation soon, the involvement of party leaders has yet to be proven.



Following the scandal involving a party member who fabricated evidence used in the party's presidential campaign to smear President Moon Jae-in, the party's approval rating plummeted in its Jeolla region stronghold.



Political watchers have said the party could be embroiled in a political realignment, especially if the party leaders are found to be involved in the scandal.




By Choi Ha-young



The main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) is drawing public criticism after it submitted a bill Wednesday to slash cigarette taxes to lower the average price per pack to 2,500 won from the current 4,500 won.



This is largely viewed as a politically oriented attempt to spur public resistance against the ruling camp's move to increase taxes on high-income earners and conglomerates. The Saenuri Party, the predecessor to the LKP, was the ruling party when the Park Geun-hye administration raised the tobacco price to the current level in 2015.



Tax revenue from tobacco sales doubled from 6.9 trillion won in 2014 to 12.4 trillion won in 2016. The smoking rate dropped slightly following the price hike, but rebounded soon after. In 2016, 3.66 billion packs were sold in the country, much more than the 2.87 billion packs the Park administration predicted.



Even many smokers are now criticizing the LKP, saying it is taking them "hostage" for its own political interests.



Messages denouncing the party's move flooded online communities.



"The LKP should pay back the 5 trillion won that the Park administration collected in additional taxes by raising cigarette prices. This is the only way to prove its sincerity," Facebook user Kim Joon-su wrote.



A Naver user wrote, "Well done LKP. Keep it up, and then the party will be extinct before the next general election."



In 2015, the conservative government was criticized for reaping greater taxes from low-income people, instead of raising taxes on high-income earners and family-run conglomerates.



The LKP admitted its previous misjudgment Thursday. "Cigarettes sales have recovered and it turned out a higher price is not effective in lowering the smoking rate. Since many smokers aren't rich, it was a de facto tax hike on a humble middle class," LKP spokesman Rep. Choung Tae-ok said in a radio interview.



On the same day, party chief Hong Joon-pyo called for the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) to cooperate on the bill. "It is ironic the DPK opposes a tax reduction for the common people," he said in a regular meeting. The LKP claimed Hong, the party's former presidential candidate, pledged the cut and it has long been discussed in the party to ease the people's tax burden.



The ruling DPK lambasted the offer. "We cannot take it as it is," Rep. Chun Jae-soo said on a radio program Thursday. "It seems like the LKP looks down on citizens. They are just attempting to nullify President Moon Jae-in's tax hike."



In recent days, President Moon and the DPK have been jointly moving toward a tax hike on the rich.



This is in line with the President's attempts to create jobs in the public sector and boost the domestic economy, which requires more government expenditure.



On Saturday, the administration managed to pass an 11.03 trillion won supplementary budget bill to cover this.



Moon's tax hike on the "super rich" is backed by 86 percent of citizens according to a Realmeter poll issued Monday. Only 10 percent of respondents were against it, giving the liberal President momentum to push for tax reform.



Conservative President Lee Myung-bak (2008-13) cut the corporate tax rate from 25 percent to 22 percent and Moon is trying to undo this. DPK Chairwoman Choo Mi-ae told reporters Wednesday the ruling party is drawing up a new tax system to increase the income tax rate from 40 percent to 42 percent for those earning over 500 million won annually, and from 38 percent to 40 percent for those earning between 300 million to 500 million won per year.




President Moon Jae-in discusses business issues with leaders of the country's top companies among others over beer at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday. From left are Doosan Chairman Park Jung-won, Hanwha Vice Chairman Keum Chun-soo, Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Park Yong-maan, Moon, LG Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon, CJ Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik, POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon, Ottogi Chairman Ham Young-joon, Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin and Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon. / Yonhap



By Kim Rahn

President Moon Jae-in discussed job creation and other key business issues with leaders of top conglomerates over beers at Cheong Wa Dae, Thursday  the first gathering between Moon and the chaebol heads since his inauguration in May.

The rare event involving alcohol came at the President's suggestion to create a casual atmosphere where the participants, wearing no ties, could talk candidly, free from formalities.

This was the first round of meetings with eight company heads, with the second round due today with another seven.

The participants in the Thursday meeting were Hyundai Motor Vice Chairman Chung Eui-sun, LG Vice Chairman Koo Bon-joon, POSCO Chairman Kwon Oh-joon, Hanwha Vice Chairman Keum Chun-soo, Shinsegae Vice Chairman Chung Yong-jin, Doosan Chairman Park Jung-won, CJ Chairman Sohn Kyung-shik and Ottogi Chairman Ham Young-joon. Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry Chairman Park Yong-maan also joined the gathering.

The meeting started at 6 p.m. with a standing reception on the lawn in front of Sangchunjae, a traditional-style building within the presidential compound. Draft beer made by small local brewery 7Brau was offered, as well as snacks made by celebrity chef Yim Ji-ho.

After the 20-minute reception, they discussed various business issues inside the building and had bibimbap for dinner. The session, initially planned to take place over 50 minutes, lasted for two hours and 10 minutes.

"Moon introduced the new government's basic policy directions to the participants, and they discussed many issues such as creating jobs, upgrading irregular workers to regular status and cooperation between large companies and subcontractors," presidential spokesman Park Soo-hyun said.

In such meetings under previous administrations, presidents used to deliver their wishes  meaning, government orders  to business leaders unilaterally and the latter used to just listen, a Cheong Wa Dae official said, adding this time Moon was the one who mainly listened.

"The participants had a frank conversation without a theme, presentations, an order of speech and a time limit for the gathering," another official said.

Chung Eui-sun said his company would focus more on developing electric and autonomous vehicles, and cooperate with startups during this, proposing the government ease related rules, according to Park Soo-hyun.

Park Jung-won said halting the construction of the Shin Kori 5 and 6 reactors would cause financial damage to Doosan Heavy Industries and Construction which supplies main parts for the reactors. But he added the company would instead seek overseas construction opportunities, and Moon said he would support such efforts.

Under previous administrations, business leaders used to provide "a package of presents," such as huge investment plans, to curry favor with the presidents and get business favors in return. Although Cheong Wa Dae officials said such a thing would not happen under the new government, the participants presented some plans that meet the Moon administration's policy goals.

Keum said Hanwha would upgrade 850 non-regular workers at its solar energy unit to regular status, while Chung Yong-jin, Kwon and Sohn also said they would try to create more jobs. Koo and Ham pledged more cooperation with subcontractors.

It is said that the invitation of Ottogi, which is not a large conglomerate, may have put tacit pressure on the other participants, because Cheong Wa Dae said it picked the group due to its ethical business practices such as a high proportion of full-time employees.

The businesspeople also talked about the difficulties rising from China's economic retaliation to protest Korea's deployment of a U.S. Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) battery here.

Cheong Wa Dae officials said it was Moon who suggested two meetings with a small number of participants each, so they could have in-depth discussions rather than just exchanging formal talks.

Besides Moon, the participants from the government side included Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon; Trade, Industry and Energy Minister Paik Un-gyu; Fair Trade Commission Chairman Kim Sang-jo; Financial Services Commission Chairman Choi Jong-ku; presidential chief of staff Im Jong-seok; and several other senior presidential secretaries related to economic affairs.

For today's meeting, leaders of Samsung, SK, Lotte, GS, Hyundai Heavy Industries, KT and Hanjin will come together.

"These meetings are the beginning. Moon will also meet with representatives of labor groups, small companies, startups and the self-employed. He will collect their opinions, adjust what should be adjusted and persuade them to understand different opinions," said the official.
By Kim Hyo-jin



The government and the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) agreed Thursday to raise the taxes on top salary earners and giant corporations and revise the state tax code in this direction.



The agreement was made during a consultation meeting held at the National Assembly between party leaders and public officials of the finance ministry over how to reform the taxation system.



The government is scheduled to announce its 2017 tax revision scheme, including a tax hike on top-earning businesses and individuals, Aug. 2.



"We delivered our firm position that taxation on the super rich and top businesses should be normalized, in other words, the creation of an additional top tax bracket is needed," Rep. Kim Tae-nyeon, DPK chief policymaker, told reporters after the meeting.



"The government agreed and said it will come up with a tax hike plan, reflecting the party's position as well as comprehensive public opinion."



The ruling camp has pushed for a corporate tax and income tax increase, targeting top earning businesses and individuals.



The move was viewed as part of the efforts to finance President Moon Jae-in's five-year policy plans including job creation and expanded welfare estimated to cost 178 trillion won ($159 billion) over the next five years.



A corporate tax on businesses earning over 200 billion won ($178.2 million) annually is likely to be raised to 25 percent, up 3 percentage points from the current rate. The finance ministry estimated that 116 businesses will be subject to the taxation and the expected tax revenue will amount to 2.7 trillion won ($2.5 billion).



For income tax, the government and the ruling party are considering to hike the tax rate for those making over 500 million won ($448,000) annually from 40 percent to 42 percent.



The party's earlier proposal to create a new bracket of 40 percent for earnings from 300 million won to 500 million won is also likely to be included in the new scheme. The current tax rate for earnings between 150 million won to 500 million won is 38 percent.



If realized, about 90,000 taxpayers will face a tax hike, the expected tax revenue of which will amount to 1.8 trillion won, according to the finance ministry.



Rep. Kim said the party and the government agreed to put more of the tax burden on top income earners while expanding tax benefits to ordinary citizens and small businesses in order to address income disparities.



They plan to temporarily exempt the unpaid tax and reduce the value-added tax for mom-and-pop businesses; increase the employment subsidy; and levy heavier taxes on conglomerates making lopsided business contracts with their subsidiaries, he said.



The two sides also agreed to create new tax benefits for businesses that would hire more employees, and expand tax deductions for companies that would change the status of their contract workers to regular employment, or increase salaries for their employees.



"Through normalization of the top earning individuals and corporations, we aim to offer tax support to low-income earners and small and medium-sized companies," said Rep. Park Kwang-on, the party's policy coordination committee member. "The government will work on the details of the tax revision plan in the agreed direction."



Finance Minister Kim Dong-yeon said the tax system should be overhauled in a way that helps create jobs, enhance income redistribution, and expand financial resources.



The party plans to table the tax revision bill for a vote during a regular parliamentary session set to begin in September.




Chinese President Xi Jinping and his wife Peng Liyuan wave on the gangway after their arrival at the military part of the airport Berlin-Tegel in Berlin, Germany, early this month. / EPA-Yonhap



By Doug Bandow





After insisting that China should "solve" the North Korea problem, President Donald Trump appears to have given up. "While I greatly appreciate the efforts of President Xi & China to help with North Korea, it has not worked out. At least I know China tried," he tweeted. Now the issue apparently is back in President Trump's not so capable hands.

Unfortunately, the administration really didn't try. Beijing never was going to act just because President Trump wanted it to.

Expecting the People's Republic of China to destroy its ally while the U.S. was busy elsewhere in the region seeking to contain Chinese military power, and to do so without receiving anything in return, never was realistic. Unspecified trade concessions simply weren't enough to make a deal.

Alas, the administration doesn't have any other good options. Airstrikes might not reach all the facilities and probably would ignite a war, with devastating consequences to everyone involved, most dramatically South Korea.

Enhanced sanctions are more likely, including secondary sanctions against Chinese companies and banks. This would risk creating a confrontation with Beijing.

Moreover, by shifting the issue from North Korea to the PRC the Trump administration might actually increase Chinese support for the North. Witness the popular rage against South Korea over the THAAD deployment.

Although tougher sanctions would impose economic hardship, there is no reason to assume that alone would bring Pyongyang to heel. When I visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea in June, officials insisted they would stand firm against America's "hostile policy" no matter what. While they could be expected to say that, the DPRK did not change policy even in the midst of horrific famine a couple decades ago.

And so far the PRC appears to value stability above all. If the Kim regime appeared in danger of breaking, Beijing might buttress the North rather than risk a collapse, and the violent chaos which could follow.

None of this is in the PRC's interest. Instead of acting as bystander if both regional stability and U.S. relations unravel, Beijing should push Washington to engage in serious negotiation with all parties.

America's priority should be halting the DPRK's advancing missile and nuclear programs. Thus, Washington should revive the North's proposal for a freeze on its activities in return for an end to annual military exercises between the U.S. and South Korea. The latter agitates North Korean officials, who call them a cover for possible attack.

When I raised this possibility on my recent trip to Pyongyang they dismissed it, saying that the U.S. had rejected their offer. Coming from China and America together, and backed by the threat of joint sanctions, it would be more persuasive.

With some breathing space, Washington could work with the Republic of Korea and Japan to develop a big offer in return for denuclearization, and Beijing to win the latter's endorsement. The package would have to emphasize securitythe DPRK's rulers watched the war in Libya and aren't impressed with verbal assurances like those offered by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

China should offer its support, as well as whatever assistance and assurances would encourage Pyongyang's acceptance. The objective is to denuclearize the peninsula peacefully through negotiation.

In return, the PRC would agree to back the effort with the threat of enforcing its own and U.S. sanctions, so long as its other interests were respected. That would include allied assistance for China if the result was a violent DPRK collapse.

Moreover, the U.S. should offer assurances that reunification would not put Beijing at a geopolitical disadvantage: in particular, all American military forces should go home in the event of unification. Seoul should consider a declaration of military neutrality for a unified peninsula.

Even this approach has critics. Some aver the importance of regular maneuvers to combat effectiveness, but the ROK should be taking over ever more of the responsibility for its own defense. Others fear the agreement would not be enforceable, but that would be an issue for any negotiated settlement.

Finally, such an agreement would leave human rights at risk. However, a North Korea holding tightly to its nuclear weapons is unlikely to relax political controls.

President Trump raised the potential of a China-U.S. deal over North Korea. Beijing shouldn't let him drop the issue without trying to reach an agreement. The situation in the North is likely to worsen, while the opportunities to solve it peacefully are likely to shrink. Action is needed now.

Doug Bandow is a senior fellow at the Cato Institute. He is the author of "Tripwire: Korea and U.S. Foreign Policy in a Changed World" and co-author of "The Korean Conundrum: America's Troubled Relations with North and South Korea."
By Kwon Bong-woon





After President Moon Jae-in declared the pursuit of clean and renewable energy, the government decided to halt construction on the Shin Kori 5 and 6 reactors, currently underway. The government in a single five-term in office is pulling down the know-how of nuclear power technologies built up for over 50 years. President Moon's nuclear-free policy has neglected the country's ambitious plan to export more reactors abroad, and how to find eco-friendly replacement for the plants.

The nuclear-free plan should not be something political _ it should be about the people.

"It will cost about 2.6 trillion [$2.27 billion] to permanently shut down the ongoing construction, and it appears that it will have a big impact on the regional economy," said Hong Nam-ki, head of the Office of Government Policy Coordination. The workers will be laid off temporarily, or until the final decision is made. Some 1.6 trillion won has already been spent on the reactors. Construction began in June 2016. They were supposed to have the capacity to generate 2.8 megawatts of energy. If construction is permanently halted, everyone residing in the region will suffer from a loss of jobs and a decline in the economy.

The Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power workers union and local residents want construction to continue because jobs are at stake along with compensation money to local residents.

"There are no legal grounds to halt the construction of the Shin Kori 5 and 6 reactors but they were suspended after the President's order," said Kim Do-eup, a lawmaker from the opposition Liberty Korea Party at a meeting of the National Assembly Trade Committee held Wednesday. Following the decision, 417 professors from universities across the country and abroad released a joint statement urging the government to reconsider its nuclear-free plan.

According to the Korea Electric Power Corporation, the portion of eco-friendly renewable resources such as wind and solar power is less than 1 percent. While renewable energy is the calling of the time, it is not yet as stable and efficient as nuclear energy. Korea is not rich in available renewable resources such as wind. A grand energy plan for a resource-poor country should be made comprehensively and thoroughly from a long-term perspective. Last month, the Taiwanese government decided to reopen two nuclear power plants that were shut down. Many countries have reversed decisions and returned to the use of nuclear plants.

Japan decided to give up its nuclear power plants after the Fukushima disaster in 2011, but changed recently. Japan's dependence on nuclear power was 26 percent of total power generated in 2016. Tokyo plans to raise its dependence back to between 20 percent and 22 percent by constructing more nuclear power plants through 2030. China and Russia are also expanding their nuclear plants. According to the World Nuclear Association, leading the construction of nuclear power plants, China is ahead with 20.

The government has already pledged to reduce the share of fossil fueled power stations in order to reduce fine dust pollution. It wants to replace the generating sources with natural gas and renewable energy, but the move would send utility fees up. The government must reconsider renewable energy matters with energy experts. Phasing out nuclear power must be a long-term plan based on a public consensus and should not be an agenda to be rushed through in a single five-year term. The government must not push ahead because it was a campaign pledge. If a conclusion is difficult, it should be put to a public vote, instead of leaving the matter to a select group of civilians. It must be discussed at a legislative hearing.





The writer lives in Dongjak-gu in Seoul, my email is kbw8234664@naver.com.
Proper review needed on era of zero irregular workers'



The government is speeding up its efforts to realize President Moon Jae-in's policy to reduce the number of irregular workers starting with the public sector.



The Ministry of Employment and Labor held a series of briefings this week for personnel managers working in the public sector. They were told to submit reports on the shifting employment status of their irregular workers to regular ones by Aug. 9 and any additional budget needed for this by Aug. 25.



According to ministry guidelines, irregular positions expected to last nine months in a year, or for more than two years, will be transferred to regular positions. This means about 310,000 workers in 852 public agencies and corporations are eligible to become full-time employees.



Despite the briefings, the public sector is still very much confused as there have not been clear guidelines on the employment status shift and information on additional money from the government. Some of the personnel managers have complained that two weeks is not long enough to come up with a proper survey on the status of irregular workers at their organizations and determine which positions should be shifted to regular ones.



It is irrational for the government to enforce a shift to regular positions at all public agencies and corporations without considering the different situations at each one. Also expanding the number of regular workers goes against the downsizing trend in the public sector for efficiency.



Few doubt the urgent need to improve the quality of life of irregular workers, who struggle with meager salaries. Korea has a larger portion of irregular workers than other OECD countries, which has aggravated social disparity and the income gap. To show his commitment to easing the plight of irregular workers, one of the first things Moon did as President was to visit Incheon International Airport, which has one of the highest rates of irregular workers among public corporations. However, the government should not rush to realize the President's pledge, but fully review its necessity and feasibility on a long-term basis.



Also, it should not force the corporate sector to drastically change its employment practices. The President invited the mid-sized food company Ottogi to his meetings with Korea's key businesses such as Hyundai and Samsung. Ottogi is known for having a high proportion of full-time employees. The invitation could be interpreted as the President's message to conglomerates to hire more regular workers.








By Donald Kirk





WASHINGTON _ Americans are so fixated on the issues of healthcare and Russia that tightening sanctions on North Korea almost escapes notice. One minute the networks are vying with one another on what passes as "analysis" on President Trump's efforts to replace Obamacare with Trumpcare, and the next they're covering the latest "revelation" of whatever Trump and his family members and friends might have asked or told the Russians.

Foreigners should be forgiven if they simply cannot understand what's going on. Certainly Trump isn't coming clean on all the ins and outs of his relationship with Russia while berating his attorney-general, once a faithful ally, for having "recused" himself from the investigation and naming a special prosecutor, a much respected former FBI director whom Trump is also attacking. And I would bet not one American in 1,000 or maybe 10,000 has a clue as to how Trumpcare improves on Obamacare and why Trump is trying so hard to ram it through a reluctant Congress.

As for expanding sanctions on North Korea, they come as almost an afterthought in a bill that the lower house of Congress passed overwhelmingly for one reason that has nothing to do with the North. The bill, while increasing sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, would keep Trump from reducing them on Russia. The fear is he might want to soften anti-Russian sanctions in the interests of U.S.-Russian amity. It will be interesting to see if the Senate agrees and the bill becomes law.

The specter of a conservative U.S. president selling out to Moscow seems incredible to one who remembers the Cold War era when American rightists were accusing leftists of "Communist sympathies" and betraying the U.S. Now Russia again is the American bogeyman, and Trump is a primary suspect in collusion. That fear may be totally unfounded, as certainly Trump insists, but it does show how the American mood has shifted over the generation since the demise of Communist rule.

So how does North Korea get into the act? The prevailing view here is that North Korea has many ways to evade sanctions and the bill would plug some of the holes by banning import of products made by North Korean "slave labor" while blockading ships from countries doing business with the North. The language is so vague, however, that these reinforced sanctions may represent very little change from existing sanctions imposed by the United Nations.

Nor is anyone saying what exactly the U.S. will do if North Korea, in defiance of all sanctions and threats, goes on testing long-range missiles capable of sending nuclear warheads to Alaska or even the U.S. west coast. At what stage will Trump give up totally on China restraining North Korea? Might he decide a preemptive strike is what's needed to stop the North Korean nuke-and-missile program despite the danger of retaliation in the form of artillery strikes on the South?

The betting remains that Trump is not about to open Korean War II, but reports from China are alarming. For months now we've been hearing that China is building up its forces north of the Yalu and Tumen rivers just as they did in the fall of 1950. Credit the Wall Street Journal with summarizing current Chinese moves in a front-page article this week. The Chinese may not like the North Koreans, and vice versa, but they do place top priority on a "stable" North Korea as a buffer between China and U.S. forces in South Korea.

North Korea contributes to the unease with rhetoric that matches live-fire tests. The other day, North Korean propaganda said the Americans were plotting "regime change" and warned of the punishment that would ensue. I don't know of anyone who realistically thinks "regime change" is about to happen even if U.S. forces play war games in which "decapitation" of the North Korean leader is the final goal. Never mind North Korea's promises to rain death and destruction on the U.S. while Kim Jong-un tests his missiles.

Hopefully, all this rhetoric is meaningless. It would not be nice for Washington's quarreling factions suddenly to discover they had a war on their hands while they were busy reading the latest Trump tweet about the nasty media or his political foes. The latest sanctions should set off alarm bells about a deepening confrontation that most people here prefer to ignore.

Donald Kirk, www.donaldkirk.com, has been covering war and peace in Asia for decades. He's at kirkdon4343@gmail.com
By Lee Hyo-sik





Booyoung Group is attracting keen attention from business circles over why it is being left out of President Moon Jae-in's meeting with the heads of the country's large business groups.

Industry analysts say the builder, Korea's 15th largest conglomerate by assets, has been sidelined by the liberal President because of its ongoing trouble with the antitrust agency and local administrations.

Booyoung was one of the 15 business groups that attended a gathering on July 11, organized by the Korea Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). The 14 other participants were Samsung, Hyundai Motor, SK, LG, Lotte, POSCO, GS, Hanwha, Hyundai Heavy Industries, Shinsegae, KT, Doosan, Hanjin and CJ.

The KCCI selected the participants by size of assets, and after the meeting, it made a formal request that Moon should meet with the leaders of the 15 groups to discuss a range of pending issues.

On July 23, Cheong Wa Dae announced the list of 15 conglomerates that it would invite to the highly-anticipated meeting on July 27 and 28.












Filipino children smile with solar-powered lanterns in a philanthropic event held by Hyundai Engineering and Construction (E&C) at a gymnasium in Cordova, Cebu, last month. The company provided 500 solar lanterns for underprivileged children there, as part of its corporate social responsibility. / Courtesy of Hyundai E&C



By Lee Min-hyung

Hyundai Engineering and Construction (E&C) is expanding its corporate social responsibility (CSR) drive globally, holding a series of philanthropic events for underprivileged children in 15 countries.

This comes as part of Hyundai's group-wide efforts to demonstrate a strong commitment from its corporate citizenship by giving back to global communities.

The company said it has conducted 27 humanitarian projects since 2011, seeking to become a more trustworthy and reliable construction company.

In particular, the Seoul-based builder established an elementary school at a small town in Myanmar's southern port city of Thanlyin Township last month. Hyundai E&C said more than 10,000 residents there had failed to get a basic education due to the lack of elementary schools.

Realizing the urgent need for educational facilities, Hyundai E&C has teamed up with the international humanitarian organization, Good Neighbors, since July last year to build a school there.

The three-story education facility with six classrooms and a library can accommodate 800 students.

"We are pleased to give hopes and dreams to children who have not had the chance to get a proper education," a Hyundai official said. "The new facility is expected to alleviate the educational divide. We hope local children study hard to become global talents."

The firm's other notable CSR activity is its solar-powered lantern distribution campaign for which it has manufactured and delivered the environmentally-friendly lighting devices for those in need for three years.

Late last month, the Hyundai affiliate offered 500 solar lanterns for students in Cordova, the Philippines. The move came as the country and local residents have had a tough time in their daily lives due to the lack of adequate infrastructure to supply energy such as electricity.

Some 70 new Hyundai E&C employees made the devices this January, which can operate more than 10 hours on a charge. They also sent a message of hope in a letter during the event.

The company started its global CSR activities in 2011 when it established an education facility in Kazakhstan. It has since diversified its humanitarian projects into more underdeveloped countries including Sri Lanka, Colombia and Timor-Leste, or East Timor. In 2015, the company opened "Happy Home School" in Colombia, offering after-school classes for underprivileged children.

"We will continue to expand our CSR projects into more countries to become a more globally renowned construction brand," the official said.
By Park Jae-hyuk





Ottogi was the star in a meeting with President Moon Jae-in and the nation's top conglomerates Thursday.

Joining a banquet at Cheong Wa Dae, Ham Young-joon, chairman of the medium-sized food company, was ranked with executives from seven of the large chaebol  Hyundai Motor, LG, POSCO, Hanwha, Shinsegae, Doosan and CJ.

Leaders of Samsung Electronics, SK, Lotte, GS, Hyundai Heavy Industries, KT and Korean Air will visit the presidential office today. The Korea Chamber of Commerce & Industry (KCCI) split the conglomerates into two groups based on their rank in terms of assets.

Ottogi lags far behind the 14 largest conglomerates in terms of business size.

According to Fair Trade Commission data, its assets stood at 1.65 trillion won ($1.4 billion) this May, failing to make it onto the list of the 100 biggest companies. Bellwether Samsung's assets surpassed 363 trillion won.

However, there was hearsay that today's participants had strongly hoped to participate in the Thursday meeting alongside Ham.

Some speculated the Moon administration may have asked the KCCI to divide the participants into two groups, ethical and unethical ones  Ottogi is dubbed as a paragon of corporate ethics as it has minimal irregular workers and paid all taxes due during its father-to-son power transfer.

Observers point out the Ottogi chief's surprise invitation, which the company was unaware of before media reports, demonstrates the new President's message to Korean companies.












After the news of Sungmin being literally boycotted by fans to participate in the 'SM TOWN' concert, the current future promotions with Super Junior and activity related to Super Junior in Korea and Japan, many people expressed their displeasure with these so called fans. But the event really struck a chord with one person.

After the success of the 'Sungmin Out' protest, Sungmin's Mother took to social media and 'The Korea Herald' to deliver a personal message about her thoughts on the matter and the mistreatment towards his son from the public. Mrs. Kang said, "The elders often say that the young people are too weak nowadays. Sungmin, who promoted as an idol for a long time, also grew up weak without knowing the world. I believe he'll become stronger due to this incident."

Mrs. Kang continued, "Not a lot of things go as planned. Same with this incident. I think it's important to accept the reality and change yourself in situations such as these." As for Sungmin's well-being, she said, "I think he's holding on better than I thought. He's also reflecting on his actions. Recently, he's been taking classes to learn new things and he's helping his wife." Fans can feel the sincerity in her message.

Despite the matter, Sungmin is continuing to better himself personally as he mentioned in his apology letter. Super Junior is scheduled to make a comeback in October as a group of 7 without Sungmin, Ryeowook, Kyuhyun, and Kangin. What do you think of this saddening news?
Defense attorneys for Craig Wood and Greene County prosecutors sparred in court on Thursday over Missouris death penalty law. Defense attorneys are trying to spare Wood from a possible execution if hes convicted of kidnapping, raping, and killing 10-year-old Hailey Owens in February 2014 in Springfield.

Defense attorneys last month filed a motion asking Circuit Judge Tom Mountjoy to declare Missouris death penalty law to be unconstitutional because they say it doesnt satisfy rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court.

Defense attorney Jeff Stephens on Thursday called expert witness Wanda Foglia, a professor of law and justice studies at Rowan University in New Jersey, and a Capital Jury Project investigator. Foglia was on a team that surveyed nearly 1,200 jurors who had served in hundreds of capital murder cases.

Foglia's research found jurors often prematurely make decisions about punishment. It also found jury selection doesn't keep out automatic death penalty jurors. Her research found, with so many questions about the death penalty, the jury selection process often gives jurors the impression that the defendant is guilty.

Foglia argued the jury selection process creates a bias for a death penalty. She said, in Missouri, 48 percent of jurors surveyed thought the death penalty was required if the defendant's actions were vile, heinous or depraved.

Foglia also argued jurors don't trust the system and think a sentence of life without chance of parole doesn't really mean what it says, and defendants will end up with a shorter sentence.

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson said the defense teams attempt to have Mountjoy declare the death penalty to be unconstitutional is merely laying a record for whatever appeal they might want to make.

The defense motion to dismiss the death penalty has been filed over and over again in death penalty cases. They argue based on social science, Patterson said Thursday. That's always the goal of capital public defenders and defense lawyers representing clients in death penalty cases: to not just defend their client, but have the death penalty declared unconstitutional, because that would benefit their client to do so, obviously.

He also said the research on the jury selection process is based on interviews of a limited number of jurors, one to five years after cases ended.

Just common sense tells you, think back about something in your life that lasted a long period of time, where you had to make decisions. When you think back on that and try to reconstruct exactly what you were thinking or exactly what you were doing, it's simply not possible to do, Patterson said. He has asked the judge to deny the motion like most other judges and courts have done.

They're given copies of the judge's instructions so that, when they're deliberating, they can look at it. If they have a question about what the definition of something is or what they're supposed to find, they have those instructions right there, Patterson said. We know jurors look at those instructions because, many times, they ask questions about them during the course of deliberations in a jury trial. But when you ask someone two to five years later about those things, and they don't have the benefit of those instructions, it makes sense they wouldn't necessarily recall all those instructions or the details of what it was they were supposed to do.

David Ransin, an attorney for Hailey's parents, Stacey Barfield and Ryan Owens, spoke for them on Thursday after the hearing.

They're trying to lay the predicate to change the system. The system is in place based upon our Supreme Court and legislators. They (defense attorneys) don't like that, which is their prerogative, but they're going through the process of laying the foundation to challenge the system as not being fair to Mr. Wood, said Ransin.

Ransin said defense attorneys should direct their challenges toward the Legislature.

Hailey's parents are very definitely looking forward to the end of the criminal proceedings. They remain patient and quite confident in the prosecution. They're basic wish would be for Mr. Wood to step up, confess his crimes, accept his responsibility, which also means accepting accountability. Hailey did not get a chance to choose her fate. Mr. Wood did that for her. Mr. Wood needs to surrender his fate to a judge or jurors to decide that and get this case over to avoid a trial for Hailey's parents, as well as our community, said Ransin.

Haileys parents support Wood in his effort to get prosecutors to drop their bid for a death penalty because they want to get the case over and avoid a lengthy and very ugly trial, said Ransin, who said their stance is based on their desire to buy peace.

We all have our own opinions about the circumstances. The unifying thing is the evidence is clear, and we believe Mr. Wood acknowledges that, but he's continuing to bargain and try to play a role in deciding his fate rather just stepping up and accepting it and moving on, said Ransin.

Mountjoy took the issue under advisement. He scheduled another pretrial hearing for Aug. 30 at 8:30.

Woods trial is set to start on Oct. 23. Hes offered to plead guilty to first-degree murder in exchange for Greene County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Patterson dropping his attempt to obtain a death penalty, which requires a trial and a recommendation from a jury.
Next spring, in the restaurant space at 1251 Prospect St. that formerly housed Alfonsos, a new seafood eatery is coming to The Village: Ways & Means Oyster House. On the menu will be sustainably-sourced seafood and craft cocktails. In addition to oysters, the restaurant will serve small plates (starting at $4) to encourage diners to create their own tasting menu.

There are currently locations in Huntington Beach and Portland, Oregon and a dozen more are in the process of opening. According to press material, the restaurant was created in the tradition of world-class oyster bars around the world, boasting fresh seafood and seasonal dishes. Ways & Means has developed a collection of private label products, including oysters, wine, rum and beer to create an extensive cocktail menu.

Our focus is to be more than just a restaurant to our guests; we aspire to be a part of their lifestyle. Ways & Means celebrates community and quality seafood and we are very excited to introduce this concept to La Jolla, said VP of Operations, Dan Schneider.

In other locations, a fan favorite is the Lobster Monday special, where whole Maine lobsters are sold for $9.99. Further, signature menu items include the Lobster Mac & Cheese, Chowder Fries, Jerk Seared Salmon Bowl, the W&M East and West Oysters, and the W&M Lobster Roll, with hearty chunks of pure Maine lobster claw meat, shredded cabbage, red bell peppers, and red onions, tossed in a house-made life-altering aioli. wmoysters.com

The Coffee Buzz

Parakeet Cafe, owned by the same husband-and-wife duo who live in La Jolla and own the nearby Juice Crafters bar, opened in July 6 at 927 Silverado St. in The Village. Business hours are 6 a.m. (the kitchen opens at 8 a.m.) to 7 p.m. daily to sling high quality coffee, beer and wine, and a full organic food menu.

We have the same menu all day because we want to provide a space where you can come in any time and get whatever you want, said co-owner Carol Goldwasser. The food is pretty delicious. Were trying to give people high-quality food and educate the community that healthy food can taste good. Popular items thus far include the avocado toast, overnight oats and zucchini noodle salad.

The coffee program features beans from multiple roasters (international and local) and the Cafe has its own blend called Birds of a Feather. Continuing on the bird theme, Goldwasser said there is wallpaper with parakeets on it, along with other colorful decor. Our wallpaper is amazing. We incorporated fun elements into the design. Its a beautiful, cozy environment, she said.

A bakery is forthcoming with gluten-free options, and Goldwasser said the idea came from Juice Crafters patrons. Customers suggested we branch out and serve food and hot drinks, and we love being here, so when a space opened up we took that step, she said. We think it was serendipitous.

Coopers Coffee House opened in La Jolla Shores this summer to take over for the Shore Thing Cafe at 8080 La Jolla Shores Drive. It offers breakfast and lunch options for dine-in or take out. The eatery, which has a dog-friendly patio, serves bowls, bagels and other breakfast options for pre-surf energy, and sandwiches and salads for after. There is also a market with deli items, breads and fruit. Coopers is open 6:30 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Monday-Friday and 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. weekends. (858) 456-7576. cooperslajolla.com

Cali Street Tacos

Specializing in a variety of authentic street-sized tacos, Cali Street Tacos, opened July 1 at 5525 La Jolla Blvd. in Bird Rock. Menu highlights include made-to-order corn tortillas, topped with guacamole, onion and cilantro with choice of meat; tacos with shells made of cheese instead of tortillas; carne asada chips or fries; and when in season, elote, corn on the cob with cotija cheese, butter and mayonnaise.

Hours are 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. calistreettacos.net

Blue Mercury skincare

Earlier this summer, Blue Mercury skincare opened in the former Reebok space at 7802 Girard Ave. with makeup, lotions, skin treatments, bath and body products, haircare, perfumes and more, for men and women. It joins nearly a dozen other skincare and beauty service businesses on Girard Avenue. Some Blue Mercury locations offer spa services, but representatives were not able to confirm which services are in La Jolla. Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Monday-Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. (858) 456-3870. bluemercury.com

CVS hearing services

CVS Pharmacy is expanding its Hearing Aid Centers to include four new locations in the San Diego area, including this fall at the 8831 Villa La Jolla Drive location. Open five days a week with evening and weekend hours, the Hearing Aid Centers inside CVS Pharmacy will provide hearing tests; video otoscope exams; Bluetooth capable, wireless and rechargeable hearing aids; hearing aid demonstrations; testing; and more. cvshealth.com

California Body Sculpt

With the motto All women are beautiful, the women-owned California Body Sculpt opened in January at 7855 Fay Ave. (a Mission Valley location opened in June). The non-surgical, infrared light-based fat removing laser lipo machine known as infraSCULPT was created by Bryche Abawi.

My passion for infrared light started when I designed, manufactured and distributed infrared saunas and grew it into a successful business to help make a difference in peoples health, Abawi said. I thought it was so interesting that this red light could also reach those hard-to-target fat areas on the body, too.

The process features three steps: first, infraSCULPT is used on specific areas of the body chosen by the client, typically stomach or thighs, where the infrared rays penetrate the fat cells; the second phase stimulates the lymphatic system with whole-body vibration; lastly, the client sits in an infrared sauna to sweat out the fatty toxins. Treatments start at $195. Following the treatments, Abawi advocates for a continued exercise program to keep the fat from coming back. (858) 412-3362. californiabodysculpt.com

Co-mmunity: Shared space

Co-mmunity, a creative co-working space and learning center for attorneys, opened at 7580 Fay Ave., Suite 204 to provide workshops and resources for progressive thinking lawyers as well as a rentable workspace for professionals. The center features yoga and meditation, video and podcast studio, classrooms and more. The facility also offers an event space, meeting rooms and address/mailbox services.

Jacob Sapochnick said, We want our lawyers to be able to focus on their law practices and their services, not all the tedious stuff that comes along with building a practice. We should be taking care of that for them, not just offering desks and coffee. We also want to teach them the art of giving back and building a sustainable business. co-mmunity.com

Sami opens Pisco in Point Loma

Sammys Pizzeria owner Sami Ladeckis latest project, Pisco, opens its doors July 27 at 2401 Truxtun Road, Suite 102 in Liberty Stations Public Market. Named for the most popular cocktail in Peru (the Pisco sour), Pisco is a Peruvian rotisserie and cevicheria.

The launch of Pisco ushers the West Coast welcome of Peruvian culinary ambassador Executive Chef/Partner Emmanuel Piqueras, who hails most recently from New York City as the host and co-producer of Sabor y Fusion, a Peruvian cooking show. Born in Lima (his mother is Limas first elected female mayor) Piqueras began his professional career in 1994 at age 22 working with chef Don Cucho La Rosa at his Lima restaurant, Pantagruel. piscorotisserie.com
Historic ties of north Meck span throughout region Though the north Mecklenburg area didnt see significant population growth until a few decades ago, its rich history dates back to the Revolutionary War. That was the basis of...

An easier-than-expected first mammogram experience HUNTERSVILLE  Scheduling a cancer screening probably ranks somewhere on your to-do list between "clean out the garage" and "donate those clothes that don't fit." Sure, you'll get to it at...
PRESS RELEASE

General Hodges Worried About Russias Hot Breath in Sweden

July 25, 2017 (EIRNS)Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges was in Sweden yesterday, where he was stirring up the same paranoid Russophobia that he was in Eastern Europe last week. "Russia has changed the security environment," Hodges told the Swedish Dagens Nyheter daily.

"We have to react to that, and not just the U.S., but the whole of NATO. The countries closest to the bear have historical experience. They feel the hot breath of the bearand they are the ones most worried."

Hodges was in Sweden in preparation for the Aurora 17 exercise coming up in September, which will involve 19,000 troops, including 1,435 soldiers from the United States, 270 from Finland, 120 from France, and between 40-60 each from Denmark, Norway, Lithuania, and Estonia. "Aurora 17 is the first and biggest exercise of its kind in more than 20 years," said Swedens Armed Forces.

Sweden, in response to the anti-Russian hysteria fostered by NATO, has been remilitarizing its island of Gotland, in the middle of the Baltic Sea (it had been demilitarized in 2005). "You have a strategically very important task here," Hodges said. "I do not think there is any island anywhere that is more important."
PRESS RELEASE

LaRouche PAC Releases Call to Spread VIPS Statement on DNC Leaks

July 25, 2017 (EIRNS)The following statement is posted on the www.LaRouchePAC.com website for mass distribution:

We seldom interrupt our regular intelligence flow on this website. We are doing this now because the extraordinary memorandum produced by the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) yesterday conclusively demonstrates that the so-called Russian hacks of the Democratic National Committee were not hacks at all, but leaks by someone with physical access to DNC computers. The data were then doctored to incriminate Russia. You can read the entire explosive VIPS Memorandum here.

The VIPS, which includes former NSA Technical Director William Binney, back the independent forensic analysis performed by a group including Skip Folden, retired IBM Program Manager for Information Technology U.S. No such forensic analysis was performed in any of the Obama intelligence communitys so-called assessments. The VIPS states that there were two inside leaks from the DNC. The first was in June 2016, sometime before Julian Assanges June 12th announcement that he had DNC documents and planned to publish them. The second leak was on July 5, 2016 to preemptively taint anything WikiLeaks might publish by showing it came from a Russian hack. As is well-known, WikiLeaks did publish its DNC trove showing that Hillary Clinton and the DNC conspired to rig the Democratic Presidential primary process against Bernie Sanders.

The key forensic finding is that on July 5, 2016, in early evening Eastern Daylight Time, someone working in the EDT time zone with a computer directly connected of the DNC server or DNC Local Area Network, copied 1,976 megabytes of data in 87 seconds onto an external storage device. That speed is many times faster than what is possible physically with a hack. It thus appears that the purported hack of the DNC by Guccifer 2.0 (the self-proclaimed WikiLeaks source) was not a hack by Russia or anyone else, but was, rather, a copy of DNC data onto an external storage device. The forensics performed on the metadata reveals there was a subsequent synthetic insertiona cut-and-paste job using a Russian template, with the clear aim of attributing the data to a Russian hack. This was all performed in the East Coast U.S. time zone.

The VIPS memo calls on the President to investigate the CIA, particularly former Director John Brennan, and the FBI, for the phony hack and fake Russian attribution. They cite the ability of the CIA to create false flag hacks on the basis of the recently disclosed Vault 7 tools, including the Marble Framework. In this regard, former CIA Director Brennan called for a coup, in essence, against President Trump at the recently concluded Aspen Security Forum should Trump remove Special Counsel Robert Mueller, his handpicked favorite for continuing their illegal and unconstitutional war against President Trump. We propose that the President demand an immediate investigation of Brennan and his ilk instead, both by a newly appointed Special Counsel and by the Congress. If you are reading this and want to do something about it, please share this statement as widely as possible and call your Senator or Representative and demand an investigation.
PRESS RELEASE

Paris: New American Sanctions Against Moscow Are Contrary to International Law

PARIS, July 26, 2017 (Nouvelle Solidarite)Agence France Presse reports this afternoon that the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs has issued a statement against the new American sanctions approved by the U.S. House of Representatives against Russia, Iran, and North Korea.

Were they to be adopted, it says, their "extraterritorial" consequences

"would permit the creation of measures against European corporations or individuals, due to situations which have no link to the United States." "The extraterritorial extension of that text appears thus to be illegal relative to international law. We have contested similar texts that were adopted in the past."

The communique announces that protective measures will be taken.
PRESS RELEASE

VIPSs McGovern Asks: Was James Comey In on the Russia Hack E-mail Lie?

July 26, 2017 (EIRNS)Former CIA analyst Ray McGovern, a well-known leader of the group of patriotic former U.S. intelligence agents calling themselves the Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS), upped the ante today in the war against the British operation to overthrow President Trump. In an interview with RT, McGovern called on the U.S. Congress and President Trump to specifically investigate FBI Director James Comeys role in setting up the "Russians hacked the Democratic National Committee's e-mail" fraud.

McGovern was interviewed on the VIPSs explosive memo, released Monday, on the forensic evidence documenting that the DNC e-mails released in July 2016 could not have been hacked, but had to have been leakedand that the e-mails were "adulterated" to superimpose Russian format onto them. There are politicians calling the alleged Russian hacking of the computers "an act of war," he exclaimed, yet it takes a "strange credulity" to say that Russian intelligence services are so professional that they did this job, but those "professionals" left tell-tale signs like Cyrillic characters in material released.

Although the VIPS dont know, it "could be that the DNC has some inside help of some quite professional people," said McGovern.

The VIPS memo itself suggests that the FBI role should be examined, noting that, "we do not know who or what the murky Guccifer 2.0 is. You may wish to ask the FBI." Asked by RT why he thought the FBI failed to examine the DNC computers or do any forensics, McGovern singled out Comey by name.

"The answer to that, is something that Congress and the President should pursue," he said. "It is laughable that James Comey, former director of the FBI, would say, Oooh, the Democratic National Committee didnt let us check out their computers. Were talking about an act of war? Right? And heres the FBI saying Oooh, we dont want to do forensics. Well depend on the firm the DNC is paying to do the forensics. ... "That is malfeasance! And begs the question of: Why was it? Did James Comey know that his investigators might find out something that he didnt want them to find out? Was he in on this little operation, that was enabled by the CIA capability to obfuscate? I dont know the answer to that, but President Trump should be able to find the answer out to that,"

McGovern concluded.
PRESS RELEASE

Putin Hosts Maliki in St. Petersburg

July 26, 2017 (EIRNS)Iraqi Vice President Nouri al Maliki concluded his working visit to Russia with a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg yesterday. The two leaders welcomed closer ties between Moscow and Baghdad, both as they are now and going forward. Putin reported that the two governments have formed a joint intergovernmental commission which is now "hard at work." There are areas where work needs to be done, including in economic cooperation and military technical cooperation, he said. "Russia is proactive in this area, and Iraq benefits from its assistance," he said, according to the Kremlin transcript.

Maliki was effusive in his praise of Russia and its assistance to Iraq, as well as its role in the Middle East more generally. Maliki said that this was his third visit to Russia, and, "With every visit, we take yet another step toward the common goal of further improving our relations."

"I am always eager to emphasize Russias immense contribution to preventing our region from falling apart, specifically in Syria and Iraq," Maliki said.

"You have our most sincere gratitude for that. If it were not for Russias contribution, the map of the region would have changed for the worse for us."

Maliki also talked about Iraqi efforts to overcome sectarian divisions of power which otherwise, he said, "could result in a new round of terrorist activity."

The Russian provision of weapons to Iraq, particularly the sale of T-90 tanks, was apparently on the agenda of the Putin-Maliki meeting. The Russian news media have been speculating for about a week about the possible sale of T-90s to Iraq.

"This topic was raised, as was the entire current agenda," the chief of Russias Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation, Dmitry Shugayev, told reporters afterwards, reported TASS, but he refused to comment further on it.
PRESS RELEASE

Russian Diplomat: New Sanctions May Destroy Prospect for Ties

July 26, 2017 (EIRNS) Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov warned that new sanctions passed by the U.S. House of Representatives could destroy prospects for better relations between the United States and Russia.

"What is happening is beyond common sense," Ryabkov said according to TASS. "The authors and sponsors of this bill are taking a very serious step towards destruction of prospects for normalizing relations with Russia."

"Weve said many times that these actions would be retaliated," the diplomat stressed. "I think that, despite todays Washington unwillingness to listen and hear out anyone apart from themselves, we will eventually be heard."

"We do not give in to emotions," the Russian diplomat noted.

"We will be working to find ways of moving forward and persistently and continuously searching for a compromise on issues that are important to Russia and, I think, to the U.S. as well: the fight against terrorism and the spread of weapons of mass destruction. There are a lot of issues, and we are ready to cooperate."

Reactions among Russian legislators echoed that of Ryabkov.

"No doubt, the expanded restrictions undermine the possibility of restoring Russian-U.S. ties and will complicate them even further in the foreseeable future. At the same time, the possibility of diplomatic maneuvers to untie this Gordian knot in the Russian-U.S. dialogue is being reduced almost to zero,"

said Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Duma Foreign Affairs Committee, reports Tass. Federation Council member Konstantin Kosachyov is quoted saying that the Russian response must be "painful" for the United STates; and his colleague, Franz Klintsevich, is reported as warning that the sanctions will make anti-terrorism cooperation much more difficult.

The president and CEO of the American Chamber of Commerce in Russia (AmCham) told Sputnik that the new U.S. sanctions are not just a mistake, but are directed at President Donald Trump and his efforts to improve ties with Russia.

"We always believed and believe that this is primarily a mistake. If you read U.S. newspapers, you will see that basically the motives given for the passage of this law are related to the president himself and less so to Russia,"

Alexis Rodzianko said today.
PRESS RELEASE

U.S. Envoy Volker Says U.S. Could Arm Ukraine; State Department Says Not So Fast

July 26, 2017 (EIRNS)Kurt Volker, the U.S. special envoy for the Ukraine conflict, told the BBC yesterday that the U.S. is considering sending arms to the Kiev regime.

"Defensive weapons, ones that would allow Ukraine to defend itself, and to take out tanks, for example, would actually help" stop Russia threatening Ukraine, he claimed.

"Im not, again, predicting where we go on this. Thats a matter for further discussion and decision. But I think that argument that it would be provocative to Russia or emboldening of Ukraine, is just getting it backwards,"

he added. He said success in establishing peace in eastern Ukraine would require what he called a new strategic dialogue with Russia.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Heather Nauert walked back Volkers threat.

"We are not there yet," she said during her regular briefing, yesterday.

"Let me take out the word yet. We are not there. The United States has not provided defensive weapons nor have we ruled it out to provide to the Ukrainians."

Not surprisingly, the Kremlin contradicted Volker on his assertion that the U.S. supply of weapons to the Kiev regime would not be provocative.

"We have already said more than once that any action which escalates tension ... and further aggravates the already complicated situation will only move us further and further away from the moment of settling this internal issue of Ukraine,"

Russian Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said yesterday.
Our heroes tend to be orphans, Zinzi Clemmons writes in her debut novel What We Lose, and the more you look the more the literary universe seems all but built by them. They stretch from Beowulf to Batman, from Tom Sawyer to Harry Potter, Pip to Oliver Twist and Jane Eyre to Anne of Green Gables. Writers love imagining literary orphans because they arrive in the story pre-conflicted; theyre carrying something thats tested their mettle early. But theyre also heroic figures because theyre blank slates. Free of parental baggage, their stories are usually about how they come to acquire identities all their own. Theyre one part loss, one part liberation.

The acclaimed and prolific writer Alain Mabanckou, born in the Republic of Congo and now a professor in the French and Francophone Studies department at UCLA, uses biting humor to tweak this formula in his new novel, Black Moses. His hero is a 13-year-old living in an orphanage in the province of Loango who is indeed named Moses. More precisely, his full name is Thanks be to God, the black Moses is born on the earth of our ancestors. That mouthful was bestowed upon him by a priest who believed that having the most kilometrically extended name in the entire orphanage might be a source of inspiration.

No such luck. Mabanckou doesnt provide exact dates in the story, but the novel clearly follows the Congos transition to hard-line Communist leadership in the late 60s and early 70s. Out goes the priest and Moses childhood innocence; in comes Marxist doctrine and interminable speeches full of drowsy jargon like anticonstitutionally and intergovernmentalisation. Management of the orphanage grows slipshod, and for a time Moses plays the role of the old-fashioned hero in response to the changes, exacting vengeance on bullies, a pair of twins, by dousing their meals in stomach-searing pepper. But this only earns Moses the twins approval for his nerve, and when boys led by the twins head for the city to survive as a criminal gang, Moses joins in.

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If anybody is getting liberated in the story, Moses wont be the one parting the seas to do it. Mabanckou instead underscores Moses ordinariness, his inability to rise above his station. As one twin puts it to Moses: If youre so special, how come no one ever adopted you? And how many children have actually made anything of themselves since youve been in here, you tell me that? None, thats how many. Zero.

Moses Boy Who Lived-style heroism is his memory, his capacity to bear witness, not any particular act of derring-do.

Its helpful to know that when Black Moses was originally published in French in 2015 its title was Petit Piment  Little Pepper, the nickname that Moses is given by the gang he runs with. The English title is more eye-catching and allegorically fraught, but the French one better captures the picaresque spirit of the novel, filled as it is with the quirky and problematic characters who cross Moses path during his years in the city. Robin the Terrible is a backward Robin Hood who had never set foot in a forest and took money from rich and poor alike. A madam named Maman Fiat 500 provides a semblance of a household for a time, but stability in a brothel cant last when bumbling leaders are prone to purges in the name of morality. Mabanckou directs his broadest, funniest satire toward a president of Zaire impatient with policy talk. Im sick of little men, he cries. Find me a tall man, preferably without a Political Science degree for Gods sake! Naturally, a tall and incompetent sycophant is procured in short order.

For all the novels humor, though, Moses himself is a cautionary if not tragic figure. The latter sections of Black Moses turn on his loss of memory and the inability of either neuropsychologists or folk healers to repair the damage done to him. His amnesia might be real, but its also a symbol for his cultural condition  stateless, parentless, tribeless, faithless. Moses wants to be free from the chains of ill fortune Id inherited from the father I was never going to meet, but Mabanckou denies him much in the way of options. What are you even doing in this town? one man asks Moses, following up with a dagger of a question: What are you even for?

Ultimately, it becomes clear, what hes for is the story he tells. Because hes the narrator of the novel, Moses was obviously able to recover his amnesia. But hes delivering the unfortunate news that sometimes orphaned children dont get to save the day; sometimes theyre just pawns in a chess game played by corrupt ideologues. Moses Boy Who Lived-style heroism is his memory, his capacity to bear witness, not any particular act of derring-do.

Making this point while preserving a sense of humor is a tough trick, and in the early pages Mabanckou (via his translator, Helen Stevenson) doesnt seem entirely up to the task  the prose is more dryly expository than brightly quixotic. But once Moses essential conflicts emerge  church versus state, good versus bad, family versus isolation  the brief novel gains liftoff, as pointed as it is funny. Like every other literary orphan, Moses gets a sense of freedom and a few good times out of his predicament. But his restless wanderings are never a substitute for what hes lost. All things being equal, Mabanckou argues, orphans are a lot better off with fewer wild adventures and more stable homes.

Athitakis is a writer in Phoenix and author of The New Midwest.

Black Moses

By Alain Mabanckou, translated from the French by Helen Stevenson

The New Press: 208 pp., $23.95
After the publication of her Booker Prize-winning debut and international bestseller The God of Small Things in 1997, Arundhati Roy became one of Indias most-celebrated authors and also one of the countrys more notable political voices. Her nonfiction essays and public commentary take clear and sometimes controversial positions on globalization, neo-imperialism and the ongoing conflict with Kashmir. With the release of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy merges her energies as a fiction writer and an activist, shaping a rich narrative thats as complex and multivalent as modern India.

The emotional centers of the novel are Anjum and Tilo, whose lives eventually intersect at Jannat Guest House, Anjums compound built in a cemetery, with headstones in each room so that the battered angels in the graveyard that kept watch over their battered charges held open the doors between worlds (illegally, just a crack) so that the souls of the present and the departed could mingle. The house attracts outsiders like Anjum, a hermaphrodite. This includes Hijras (transwomen), but also orphans, political refugees and the troubled victims of Indias religious battles between and within the Muslim and Hindu communities. With each newcomer comes a story of injustice from the pages of Indian history.

Anjums journey carries her through the streets of New Delhi, from the era of Indira Gandhi to the digital age, always in search of that role that will complete her  motherhood. In the meantime, shes more like a midwife, ushering lost souls into her sanctuary, which offers respite from the deafening noise of protest and violence. Im a gathering, she says. Everyones invited.

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With the release of The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, Roy merges her energies as a fiction writer and an activist.

Among those who take refuge is Saddam Hussein, a sight-impaired young man who changed his name (in order to inhabit the disdain his namesake had for his executioners) after the killing of his father at the hands of a higher caste mob. I want to pay it like that, he says, promising revenge upon the corrupt police officer he blames for his fathers death. Until that day arrives, he serves as the mortician for those  the impoverished, the pariahs  who are denied funeral services in the city.

Another taking refuge with Anjum is Tilo, an architect-turned-activist whose reserved nature keeps her mysterious and distant an ideal keeper of the smuggled files, eyewitness testimonies and notebooks that document the travesties committed against citizens of Kashmir as the state fought for secession from India.

Since the book is structured nonlinearly, before the reader is treated to the crux of Tilos story, Roy offers the story of the man who will become Tilos captor, Amrik Singh, who thrived in a time when there wasnt much daylight between caution and paranoia and dying became just another way of living.

Singh commits heinous acts as an officer in the Indian army. In the book, these serve less as a critique of Indias complicated relationship to Kashmir than to reflect on the culture of war that has become endemic in the social discourse of day-to-day interactions. This is why every life in this book is not spared a physical assault or an egregious personal loss, not even Singh. Garson Hobart, one of Tilos suitors, says it best: It is our constant anxiety about that violence, our memory of its past labors and our dread of its future manifestations, that lays down the rules for how a people as complex and as diverse as we are continue to coexist  continue to live together, tolerate each other, and from time to time, murder one another.

The patchwork of narratives becomes perhaps too simplistically justified, an expeditious exit for the author.

For Tilo, the saving grace of her sacrifices for the Kashmiri cause is contained in the copious paperwork she guards in her apartment. The archive is evidence of the unofficial narratives ignored by history and the headlines  preserving the memory of the people (including her lover) is security against erasure, revision and forgetting. Accused of aiding a political dissident, shes interrogated by Singh but mercifully released. She bides her time in a state of sadness and silence in an unhappy marriage of convenience until her chance encounter with Anjums motley crew.

In an effort to connect with Tilo after she leaves for Jannat Guest House, Garson Hobart also immerses himself in the hidden files and notebooks detailing their countrys internal strife. When he comes across a poem by Tilo  How do you tell a shattered story? By slowly becoming everybody. No. By slowly becoming everything  the phrasing brings the novel full circle to Anjums Everyones invited, and suddenly the patchwork of narratives becomes perhaps too simplistically justified, an expeditious exit for the author, much like Tilos recognition that her place is among her tribe at the graveyard, where the living and the dead surrender to redemptive peace, not to strenuous anxiety.

It is also difficult to ignore the number of instances Roys prose offers, depending on the disposition of the reader, either political propaganda or empowering messages like this dire, final warning that can be applied to any fight around the globe in which the underdog confronts the oppressor: You may have blinded all of us, every one of us, with your pellet guns by then. But you will still have eyes to see what you have done to us. Youre not destroying us. You are constructing us. Its yourselves that you are destroying.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness unfolds in that liminal space between novel and history lesson, which might disappoint all but her most ardent fans since the fictional story appears to have been written in service to the nonfiction content. Yet there are plenty of moments of dazzling wording and surprising exchanges between her characters to keep readers interested in sloughing through the density of information. Patience occasionally cedes a reward when a story within the story bursts open, allowing one more compelling glimpse into Indias soul. Thankfully, those moments are not few, nor do they lack gravity  but neither do they accumulate into something more substantial. By the end, the fragmented narrative remains just that: pieced together, occasionally engaging and never quite fulfilling.

Gonzalez is critic-at-large at the L.A. Times and is professor at Rutgers-Newark.

The Ministry of Utmost Happiness

Arundhati Roy

Knopf: 464 pp., $28.95
In The Changeling, Apollo Kagwa loses his wife, Emma, and their son Brian in an unspeakable chain of events but is determined to get them back. He begins his quest for the return of his family and finds himself in worlds only a mastermind like Victor LaValle could create.

LaValles The Changeling is a horrifying fairy tale about the maze of parenthood, shrouded by the shadows of our own upbringing. The award-winning author blends literary allusions, horror and social commentary to create a riveting piece of work that will have readers examining their own views about parenthood while worrying if theyll ever sleep again.

The Times spoke with LaValle over the phone about his new novel, why he chooses horror to discuss racism and other social issues and more. This conversation has been edited.

Why is horror/sci-fi/speculative fiction such a good fit for discussing issues like racism and mental health?

One of the great things about horror and speculative fiction is that you are throwing people into really outsized, dramatic situations a lot. In their ways, things like racism and sexism and classism, biases against the mentally ill are outsized, dramatic issues in real life. To me, it often makes sense to put the two things together. If I wrote about them directly, my fear is that it starts to become too lecture-y and kind of dull, for lack of a better term. But if I blend them with really dramatic situations, I find that its like a little bit of syrup to help the medicine go down.

H.P. Lovecraft is an obvious influence; your novella The Ballad of Black Tom is both a tribute and critique. Was it difficult to turn a critical lens to someone whose work you admired?

It wasnt difficult, but in many ways, it was exciting. When I got into the project and saw that that was the way I was going to approach it, I realized that while I remained a fan of his, I was also talking to him like a peer rather than still feeling like that 10-year-old boy. Its very difficult for a child to critique an adult  sometimes the criticisms are astute. But a lot of times, theyre not necessarily reasoned in the best way. Whereas I found the way Im arguing with Lovecraft now are not ways I could have done it when I was a young writer, even in my 20s. I still wouldnt have been able to do it because I wouldnt have been skilled enough yet to pull off both telling a story that was also a critique. So in many ways it felt kind of gratifying like youre not sure if you can fly but it turns out you can fly.

The Changeling by Victor LaValle (Spiegel & Grau)

In The Changeling, Apollo brings home an extremely rare autographed first edition of To Kill a Mockingbird thats signed to Truman Capote , Heres to the Daddy of our dreams. Apollo tells Emma he thinks Harper Lee knew that Go Set a Watchman, with its racist version of Atticus, would not go over well. Is that moment both a reflection on how you feel about tackling Lovecrafts racism and how you see yourself as a parent  becoming the father of your dreams?

The book is all about, for both Apollo and Emma, what kind of parent we become, considering the parents that we had. Thats a lifelong dilemma for anyone that decides to have kids, and for those who decide not to. In that inscription, I wanted to give credit to my imagined Harper Lee that she would understand one of reasons for the enduring appeal of To Kill a Mockingbird is that it is so flattering to many peoples, especially many white leaders, dream of the good white American father. He was a Southerner but he was good to black people; he wasnt racist. He was a man better than his time. Atticus Finch gets imbued with all this, almost holy, power. Its interesting to me, as I became a father and in thinking about my own missing father, to understand how much power we give to the idea of the father and how much many people need to believe in the idea of a good and beneficent father. Why are people so invested in that rather than a combination of Atticus Finch of To Kill a Mockingbird and the father from Go Set a Watchman? Probably both of these were her father or somewhere in between these two. I think thats almost more frightening for people to realize that in the end, those parents were just human beings.

Emma and Apollo are both immersed in the literary world. Do people think the novel is based on your home life?

I made a point to make them book readers and book lovers but they are not writers or professors. Shes a librarian and hes an antique bookseller. They needed to be book lovers because I need to get stories in there. I usually dont care much for books about writers or writing teachers, so I definitely wanted to avoid that. On the other end, before the book was published, the person who mattered most, my wife [Emily Raboteau], read the book. And I said to her, If there are things in here that feel too close to the bone or thats wrong or whatever, lets talk about it and lets make this a book that you will feel OK with it being in the world, that you wont feel blindsided or betrayed. That was really helpful for the book because she was able to give me some perspective on Emma, on how or why she mightve done the things she did. And Apollo -- hes one of these new dads. He needs to be a great guy, and thats who I am, too, so theres a danger that Im going to be patting myself on the back a little bit too hard as Apollo. So she would come through and be like, Well, I have a different take on this scene. I dont know if thats exactly accurate. It actually made the story better. Its not that I was trying to honor her feelings. Its also that her pushback was better for the book and better for the story and made things more complex. She definitely had final say of the book before I sent it to my editor and said its ready to go.

For all this horror stuff, Im really an optimist so I wouldnt say that I only think the world is a horror show. I think its also beautiful.  Victor LaValle

In The Changeling, technology and social media play significant roles in the horror of parenthood. Can you talk a bit more about that  Apollos desire for likes on baby Brians photos?

In the case of the book, one of the things I was interested in was my own tendency to take excessive photos of our kids and then to post them online, almost without thinking, and then to slavishly check back for affirmation from all my friends that our kids are not only beautiful but the most beautiful kids that ever lived. I also wanted to dig into the idea that theres a degree of vanity in that: I want people to see that were a happy family. I want people to see that Im a good dad. I want them to acknowledge it with likes and comments and hearts. Its a push and pull of pure love and pure selfishness and vanity. I thought that combination is interesting. Its not one or the other. Its both

Much of your work is interconnected: Characters from your novella Lucretia and the Kroons show up in The Devil in Silver. Why do you want your works to speak to and feed into each other?

Every book I write, I make a point of having some character or some place or some detail from a different book pop up. The character from my first book, The Ecstatic, shows up on the last page of The Devil in Silver, being admitted into the hospital. On one level, this is fun for me because I like to think of Queens as the county Im trying to draw into the literary map of the world, as all of us writers are doing when we write about a particular place. I like to imagine that all of these people are crisscrossing each other whether its in the present or the past, someone is related to someone and if you pay careful attention, youll realize their name is this name and those kinds of things. Its inspired by one of my first true loves, Stephen King ; in many of his books, if youre a close reader, youll realize, Oh that character whos in the background here is the lead character there. Or the thing that happened in this book is in the towns local history of another book. And I love that because then you start to think that if a person ever did read everything you ever wrote, by the end of your life, theyd get a map of an entire world as opposed to just one book.

Do you have your own physical manifestation of this map to keep all the characters in order? How do you pick whos going to show up in which text?

Its definitely based on a feeling of who would fit where, but I do have a little notebook where I keep like a genealogy map of whos where, whos associated with who, and its just a tiny thing for me so that if I ever forget, Did I already mention this person before? then I just check the notebook. Its just a way to keep my memory fresh.

Mat Johnson wrote about losing 100 pages in a technology glitch. Do you keep these kinds of notebooks to avoid losing so much work to technology?

I dont keep them for that reason but early on, when I was starting my first book, a collection of stories, I started this practice: I would write a draft of the story then put it in a drawer and rewrite the story from memory. If I couldnt remember what was in the story in the previous draft then it probably wasnt very interesting, so I need to come up with something else . I knew it was a good way to train myself out of being precious with the material in the book. Doing that taught me no matter what you have, you could probably come up with something even better. Thats a way to guard against preciousness and thinking that if I lose this thing, life is over. Thats just too paralyzing a place to be in.

Much of your work features a main character who slowly realizes hes trapped in some type of horror  a mental hospital against his will (The Devil in Silver), the grief of losing someone you love (Lucretia and the Kroons), parenthood (The Changeling). I cant help but wonder is this how you see life? As horror all around us?

The thing I do believe deeply is that I, and most of us, are deeply self-delusional about something in life. And maybe also about their role in the horror show of life. Im really into that idea of slowly becoming aware of how things are because it just feels like, for me, on a daily basis, whether its in marriage and parenting, in teaching, or even in how I relate to my super every morning, day by day, there are tons of moments where Im allowed to realize something I hadnt realized even the day before. If Im lucky, it makes life richer and deeper and more complex. Thats how I view moving through life so I guess I try to use that in the stories. Then, purely on a mechanical level, its not interesting to read a character who knows everything from the beginning because what are you on the journey for? If they know everything, why dont they just explain everything on Page One? But if they feel like theyre slowly discovering things too, then I get lost in their journey. And for all this horror stuff, Im really an optimist so I wouldnt say that I only think the world is a horror show. I think its also beautiful.

Youve done a great job of showcasing other writers influences on your work without becoming a copycat. For young and new writers, how can they avoid imitating while being influenced by other writers?

Oh no, I would urge them to copy completely in the early phases. How do you learn how to do something? You watch your sibling do it. Or you watch your parents do it. And as long as you dont plagiarize, there isnt any problem with copying. What I mean by that -- lets say there was a Stephen King story that took place in Maine with a bunch of white working class people working in a factory in the middle of the night. I didnt know anything about that, but I would write a short story that was about some black factory workers at a factory in Queens at midnight and then it turns out that theres a pathway down to an underground maze of rats. And it was a complete steal of one of Stephen Kings stories but that didnt matter. What mattered was that I was teaching myself to tell a story and how to include the details that I knew, of a story that I knew. As long as you dont get to a point of plagiarizing. The mistakes that younger writers make is to think that they have to be original. You dont have to be original. You just have to be good.

For people unfamiliar with your work, Ive been using the film Get Out as a comparison. Have you seen the film yet? How do you feel to see racism displayed as the horror it is?

I loved the movie. Part of what I loved was that it was entertaining as well as being so smart and political. What Jordan Peele got so right was understanding, Ive got to give you both, so I was just riveted by the secret. What are these white people doing out here to all these black bodies and whats going on? That was just fun to unravel the mystery and then to be sitting there thinking of the idea hes really trying to portray. One of the things I found exciting about the movie was that in American horror, there are really only two types of bodies that are considered endangered: white women or white children. Those are the two bodies that filmgoers of 30, 40 years of horror have been allowed to think are ever endangered. I loved seeing a young black man who clearly looks strong and healthy and smart, and for him to be the person youre scared for, and to see the black men and black woman whove already been victims I rarely see these bodies considered vulnerable. How revelatory to say, of course, these folks should be scared in this world. I loved him showing that the black body is not invulnerable or super-powerful.

Jordan Peele hopes to have a film series on social horrors. Should we start sending him your books as inspiration?

Im more than willing to I can say this: It has probably already been put in the mail. Thats the most I should say. Its been sent. [laughter] Whatever may come.

Perkins, who writes about art and culture, was a Buzzfeed Emerging Writers Fellow. She is on Twitter @tnwhiskeywoman
Hillary Clintons next book, titled What Happened, will focus on the former secretary of States loss to Donald Trump in November, and will be a cautionary tale about Russias alleged role in interfering in the election, the Associated Press reports.

Clintons publisher, Simon & Schuster now has a Web page for the memoir, which will be published Sept. 12.

For the first time, Hillary Rodham Clinton reveals what she was thinking and feeling during one of the most controversial and unpredictable presidential elections in history, Simon & Schuster writes. Now free from the constraints of running, Hillary takes you inside the intense personal experience of becoming the first woman nominated for president by a major party in an election marked by rage, sexism, exhilarating highs and infuriating lows, stranger-than-fiction twists, Russian interference, and an opponent who broke all the rules.

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Trump won 30 states to Clintons 20 (plus Washington, D.C.), and took the electoral college 306 to 232. Nationwide, Clinton won the popular vote by 2.8 million votes.

Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton at the Sept. 26, 2016, presidential debate. (David Goldman / Associated Press)

In a short excerpt from the books introduction, Clinton promised that she would be candid.

In the past, for reasons I try to explain, Ive often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net, she writes. Now Im letting my guard down.

What Happened is one of two new books by Clinton announced by Simon & Schuster earlier this year. Previously, the book had been described by the publisher as an essay collection that would center on Clintons favorite inspirational quotes.

The publishers new description of What Happened makes clear that it will be a memoir, however, and that it will focus heavily on the possible role of Russia in swaying the elections outcome.

In these pages, she describes what it was like to run against Donald Trump, the mistakes she made, how she has coped with a shocking and devastating loss, and how she found the strength to pick herself back up afterward, the description reads in part. She lays out how the 2016 election was marked by an unprecedented assault on our democracy by a foreign adversary. By analyzing the evidence and connecting the dots, Hillary shows just how dangerous the forces are that shaped the outcome, and why Americans need to understand them to protect our values and our democracy in the future.

What Happened will be Clintons sixth book. Her previous books include the bestselling It Takes a Village, Dear Socks, Dear Buddy, An Invitation to the White House, Living History and Hard Choices.

A childrens picture book version of It Takes a Village, illustrated by Marla Frazee, is set to be released by Simon & Schuster on Sept.12, the same day What Happened will hit bookstore shelves.

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Dustin Hoffman has notched a victory in his legal fight over a $3-million investment he made with Jeffrey Yohai, a real estate developer who is the son-in-law of Paul Manafort, the former chairman of Donald Trumps presidential campaign.

The Graduate star and his actor son Jacob Hoffman invested with Yohai in a Hollywood Hills homesite where he planned to build a modern mansion. But a Yohai-controlled company that owns the property filed for bankruptcy protection in December, imperiling the venture.

On Wednesday, the entity the Hoffmans used to invest with Yohai  a limited liability company called DJ Blue Jay Way  successfully petitioned a U.S. Bankruptcy Court judge in Santa Ana to convert the Chapter 11 case to a Chapter 7 liquidation. That move paves the way for appointment of a trustee who will sell the residential property, possibly allowing the Hoffmans to recover their investment.

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The Blue Jay Way deal foundered as companies controlling three more of Yohais Los Angeles-area properties also filed for Chapter 11 protection in December.

Other notable investors have also backed Yohais L.A. real estate ventures: Manafort, his wife Kathleen and daughter Jessica  who is married to Yohai but filed for divorce in March  invested $4.7 million in the developers L.A. projects, according to court filings.

The Times first reported the unlikely connection between the Hoffmans and the Manaforts in March.

Manafort, a longtime Republican political consultant, has come under intense scrutiny for his work for powerful Ukrainians with ties to the Russian government. Manafort stopped working for Trump last summer in part over his business in Ukraine. He has also become a key figure in several investigations into potential ties between the Russian government and the Trump campaign. Financial transactions involving Manafort and Yohai, including those in California, are being investigated by the FBI, said a person familiar with the matter. The New York Times first reported the federal inquiry.

Manafort, his wife and daughter declined to comment. Representatives of Yohai and the Hoffmans did not respond to requests for comment. A spokeswoman for the FBI in Los Angeles said she could not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation.

$3-million real estate deal with Paul Manaforts son-in-law goes south for Dustin Hoffman and son 

The Hoffmans could recoup some or all of their $3 million investment with Yohai via proceeds from the sale of the Blue Jay Way property. However, two lenders  Genesis Capital and RS Lending Inc.  would be repaid before DJ Blue Jay Way. The two lenders are owed about $6.4 million in total, according to court filings.

The Hoffmans are unfortunately in a very bad position, said Loyola Law School professor Dan Schechter, a bankruptcy expert. They might get something at the end of the day, especially if this [property] is aggressively marketed.

A modest, 3,056-square-foot home is currently situated on the quarter-acre Blue Jay Way lot, which is located in the coveted Bird Streets neighborhood, named for its avian-themed roads and lanes. Property values in the enclave, famed for the so-called jetliner views it affords, have soared in recent years as developers have constructed increasingly opulent homes on streets that wind through the hills.

Amid the bankruptcy, the Blue Jay Way property was listed for sale for $9.995 million, but reduced by $1 million in May, according to real estate services firm Redfin. The property comes with architectural plans and permits so that a buyer could construct an 11,000-square-foot house on the site. At the current asking price, however, it looks to be a tough sell, said Stephen Shapiro, chairman of Westside Estate Agency.

Its a very strong market, and if it hasnt sold, its too much, he said.

Yohai acquired the property for $7.5 million in July 2015  about a month after his company received the investment from the Hoffmans entity, according to court filings. Jacob Hoffman and Yohai became friends while students at New York University in the 2000s, according to two people with knowledge of the matter.

The property on Blue Jay Way that Jeffrey Yohai planned to redevelop. It is located in the Hollywood Hills Bird Streets neighborhood, an enclave famed for the so-called jetliner views it affords. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

The Hoffmans company expected that the existing house would be torn down and replaced by a luxury residence  having an ultimate sale price of approximately $30 [million], it said in a court filing. But the property went into default in August after Yohais company fell behind on its mortgage payments, and a notice for a trustees sale was filed in November.

Earlier this month, attorneys for DJ Blue Jay Way argued that since Yohais company filed for bankruptcy protection, the developer has made little-to-no progress in the case at all, save for hiring a real estate broker who had been unable to sell the property, according to court documents. Also, Yohais company did not comply with a plan to make monthly payments to lender Genesis, DJ Blue Jay Way said in a filing.

In April, Genesis sued Yohai and Jessica Manafort, alleging that they breached guarantees tied to real estate loans, including the unpaid loan on the Blue Jay Way property. Genesis is seeking damages of $21.2 million, according to its complaint. Jessica Manafort has not responded to the allegations; Yohai has filed a general denial of the claims.

The bankruptcy conversion wasnt the only real estate-related legal ruling involving Yohais business this week. Also on Wednesday, a federal judge in New York dismissed on jurisdictional grounds a case brought against Yohai by one of his investors. Fashion photographer Guy Aroch claimed in a lawsuit last year that he invested $2.9 million in two of Yohais residential projects, including a condominium, but never got his money back.

Instead, according to the suit, Yohai allegedly used most or all of Arochs investment for personal travel; lavish purchases; and/or speculative ventures outside the investment mandates. The lawsuit alleged that Yohai defaulted in October on a promissory note.

In a December filing, Yohai argued that Arochs lawsuit included extremely derogatory allegations and asked the court to throw out the case.

On Thursday, Aroch filed an amended version of the suit in New York state court. He and his attorney, Joshua Abraham, declined to comment.

daniel.miller@latimes.com

@DanielNMiller
Americans, on the whole, arent so sure how they feel about chief executives speaking up about social issues such as climate change or President Trumps travel ban. Some like the idea, especially if they agree with the CEO, making them more likely to buy products from a company with which they agree. Others wish CEOs would just be quiet, believing they should stick to running their businesses rather than wading into political chatter.

But theres one group of consumers that is far more likely than others to believe corporate leaders have a responsibility to speak up on societal matters -- and it will come as little surprise. Its millennials.

A new report from the global public relations firm Weber-Shandwick and KRC Research surveyed Americans on how they feel about CEO activism -- when corporate officials make public statements on social issues. In recent years, more and more chief executives have been speaking up, urging the White House to remain in the Paris climate accord, criticizing regulations that limit gay rights, defending journalism amid accusations of fake news or criticizing dysfunction in Washington.

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As Apple CEO Tim Cook said last year: For a company thats all about empowering people through our products, and being a collection of people whose goal in life is to change the world for the better -- it doesnt sit right with me that you have that kind of focus, but youre not making sure your carbon footprint isnt poisoning the place. Or that youre not evangelizing moving human rights forward.

Millennials are the one group that sees this trend in a significantly positive way. In the survey, 56% of millennials said CEOs and other business leaders need to engage on hotly debated current issues more today than in the past, compared with just 36% of Gen Xers and 35% of baby boomers.

Forty-seven percent of millennials said CEOs have a responsibility to speak up on social issues that are important to society, compared with just 28% of Americans in older generations. And millennials were the only generation in the survey in which the percentage of those who said they view CEOs more favorably for taking public positions actually expanded since last year, rather than declined.

Combine those numbers with the neutral responses -- young survey takers who said they werent sure, dont know or that it doesnt make a difference to them whether the CEO takes an activist stance -- and the edge clearly seems to be with taking the bet and wading in. Leslie Gaines-Ross, chief reputation strategist for Weber-Shandwick, said that if youre really looking to recruit the next generation, you need to know theyre expecting you to speak up on some of these issues.

The survey showed that millennial consumers arent just opining about how they feel about CEO activists. Its likely to drive their behavior. According to the survey, more millennials this year said the public views of CEOs were more likely to drive them to make purchases, an answer that declined among older generations this year.

Similarly, the percentage of millennials who said they would increase their loyalty to their employer if they knew their CEOs views far outstripped that of other generations: 44% of millennials said it would, compared with just 16% of Gen Xers and 18% of baby boomers.

Aaron Chatterji, a professor at Duke Universitys Fuqua School of Business, said one reason for millennials positive response to CEO activism is that its well established that they, in particular, value authenticity as consumers. CEOs have been so vocal on state bills that limit gay rights, he said, in part because after expanding benefits for LGBT employees for years now, they realize consumers will ask, How can you say were a great place to work, but not speak up for those issues outside your walls?

Social media is another reason. For companies, Chatterji said, social media is like this microphone thats always on. If youre not speaking about the issue of the day and other businesses, its conspicuous.

Gaines-Ross said the outsized millennial consumer demographic and the general uptick in activism in a polarized society mean its something corporate leaders will need to consider in their public communications. This whole activism shift is real, she said. Were seeing it from everywhere, and were just going to continue to see it. Its part of the great divide.

Jena McGregor writes a column analyzing leadership in the news for the Washington Post.
Senate Democrats on Thursday criticized the financial industry backgrounds of President Trumps nominees for two key banking regulatory positions, arguing they would not protect the interests of average Americans.

Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others sharply questioned Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of Pasadenas OneWest Bank, and investment fund manager Randal Quarles during a confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee.

Trump nominated Otting to be the comptroller of the currency, a powerful regulator of national banks. Quarles has been tapped to be the Federal Reserves vice chairman for supervision, who is in charge of the Feds oversight of the nations largest bank holding companies and other regulatory efforts.

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The two are expected to be friendlier to the banking industry than recent Democratic appointees.

Otting came under fire from Democrats for the foreclosure practices at OneWest Bank.

In 2011, a regulator that is now part of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency said in a regulatory order that OneWest had engaged in robo-signing, a practice in which workers signed mortgage- and foreclosure-related documents without reviewing them or verifying they were accurate.

You permitted your bank to break the rules while in the process making life harder for homeowners across the country trying to stay in their homes, Brown told Otting. How do we trust that you wont allow banks to skirt the rules and harm their customers as their regulator?

Otting defended his tenure at OneWest, which he ran from 2010-15. Treasury Secretary Steven T. Mnuchin was the banks chairman from 2009-15.

Otting said OneWest did not confirm or deny the allegations in the 2011 regulatory order and that theres been a false narrative about the banks foreclosure practices.

Brown shot back, Its a false narrative to you but not to those who lost their homes.

Republicans at the hearing expressed support for Otting and Quarles, with some particularly impressed with their financial industry experience, indicating the nominees probably will be confirmed in the coming weeks.

These two positions are critically important to ensuring a safe, sound and vibrant financial system and we are fortunate to have two highly qualified individuals to consider for these posts, said Sen. Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), the committees chairman.

Otting and Quarles said they believed the 2010 Dodd-Frank overhaul of financial regulations had made the banking system stronger but indicated that they supported some changes. Trump has said he wanted to dismantle Dodd-Frank, and a recent Treasury report called for major rollbacks of regulations.

As recognized by the Treasurys recently released report, regulatory policies that have been enacted since the financial crisis have improved the safety and soundness of the financial system, Quarles said. But as with any complex undertaking, after the first wave of reform, and with the benefit of experience and reflection, some refinements will undoubtedly be in order.

One change Quarles supports is giving large banks more information about the Feds annual stress tests, which are designed to determine if banks can withstand a severe financial shock.

Warren criticized that position as allowing banks to see the test in advance.

We just went through a devastating financial crisis less than a decade ago because powerful people in government let powerful financial institutions call the shots. We cant go down that road again, Warren said.

We need people in government who are willing to stand up to large financial institutions and we need people who have a demonstrated history of that and you simply dont, Mr. Quarles, she said.

Brown noted that when Quarles served as a top Treasury official during the George W. Bush administration, he said two years before the 2008 financial crisis that the financial sector was healthy and banks were well-capitalized.

Quarles said he and other Treasury officials believed at the time that the risks building up in the system were manageable but that they probably were too cautious in pushing for changes to make the system safer.

Democrats, as they did during Mnuchins confirmation hearing, slammed Otting for OneWests foreclosures.

In 2009, Mnuchin led a group of investors who put up about $1.6 billion to buy the failed IndyMac bank, a leading subprime mortgage lender. They renamed the bank OneWest and Otting was hired as chief executive in 2010.

Going into IndyMac can only be described as what a fireman feels when he gets to the front door of a five-alarm fire, Otting said Thursday. The bank had almost 200,000 loans in default.

Otting said that OneWest employees worked to stop foreclosures and he preferred to focus on the thousands of homeowners who were spared from foreclosure by mortgage modifications.

He also said there are a lot of descriptions of robo-signing and he did not believe that OneWest employees engaged in the practice.

Those comments drew a rebuke from Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nevada). She read the practices described in the regulatory order and concluded, that is robo-signing.

When Otting objected, she asked why he signed the order on behalf of OneWest.

I would argue I had to for the benefit of our employees sign that consent order when I did not agree with what was described, he said, again reiterating that the bank did not confirm or deny the allegations in the order.

Twitter: @JimPuzzanghera

jim.puzzanghera@latimes.com

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With recreational marijuana sales set to become legal in California next year and most banks unwilling to open accounts for cannabis companies, pot entrepreneurs are desperate to figure out what to do with their piles of cash. Now, some want the state or cities to get involved.

Over the last year, there has been increasing interest among cannabis businesses and public officials in the idea of public banks: government-owned institutions that would take deposits, make loans and, in California at least, be willing to work with marijuana companies.

Gubernatorial candidate and California Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom has called for the creation of a public bank and has discussed the idea with members of the cannabis industry. This week, L.A. City Council President Herb Wesson said he wants to look into creating a city-owned bank that might serve cannabis businesses.

But would it work?

Maybe, said Matt Stannard, who has been an advocate of public banking long before California residents voted to legalize recreational pot use last year.

Hes optimistic, but also warns that there are plenty of potential pitfalls.

Im not going to say that if you create a public bank, it's going to solve all of the marijuana industry's banking problems, he said. But its worth a try.

Why a public bank?

A public bank is much like a private one, taking deposits and making loans. There are a few big differences:

Private Owned by shareholders.

Run by a board of directors selected by shareholders.

Run to generate profit and return profit to shareholders. Public Owned by the public.

Run by elected or government-appointed officials.

Run to support public priorities and return profit to the public.

Stannard, policy director for Sonoma, Calif.-based advocacy group Commonomics USA, said there are a handful of potential benefits of public banks, some economic and some social, irrespective of their use by the marijuana industry.

If California had a public bank, the state could deposit tax revenue there rather than at a private bank. Those deposits would then be used to make loans.

But unlike at a private bank, those loans could be used to support state needs  such as affordable housing  and profits could be returned to the state coffers.

The Bank of North Dakota, the only publicly owned bank in the country, has paid $85 million into various state government funds over the last four years, according to its most recent annual report. It makes low-interest student loans and farm loans and helps finance local public-works projects, all priorities set by state leaders.

Newsom, in a series of tweets in May during the California Democratic Party convention, said California should develop a state bank to offer student loans and finance the construction of healthcare facilities and housing.

The cannabis candidate: Gavin Newsom dominates donations from the growing industry 

Stannard said the state could also make cannabis banking a priority, if for no other reason than to address the public safety concerns presented by the industrys current reliance on cash.

The voters of California have voted to allow recreational marijuana but, given the status quo, thats a huge mess, and its dangerous, he said. A public bank may be the best way to clean up that mess and the best way to provide financial and physical security to the industry.

But what about federal drug laws?

Most banks wont knowingly work with marijuana companies because marijuana is an illegal substance under federal law. Banks are overseen and insured by federal agencies, so federal rules, not state ones, are key.

State- or city-owned banks could get around at least some of that federal oversight. At the Bank of North Dakota, deposits are insured by the state itself, not by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., taking one federal agency out of the mix.

The bank is overseen by the North Dakota Department of Financial Institutions, not by federal bank examiners. Ratings agency Standard and Poors noted in a 2014 report that Bank of North Dakota has no oversight from U.S. government authorities or banking regulatory bodies.

A medical marijuana patient pays for a purchase through a teller window at Medex, a dispensary on Century Boulevard in South Los Angeles. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times) (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)

But theres still at least one way federal rules could block public banks from working with pot businesses: by shutting them out of the Federal Reserve system.

To be able to process checks, wire transfers and electronic payments  in other words, to interact with the rest of the financial system  banks must have an account with one of the nations 12 regional Federal Reserve banks. Without such an account, a bank is nothing but a huge cash vault, said Mark Mason, one of the founders of Fourth Corner Credit Union, a Colorado institution that aimed to serve that states cannabis industry.

When Fourth Corner applied for an account at the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City in 2014, the application was denied, in part because of its plans to focus on the marijuana businesses. The credit union sued, arguing it was entitled to an account, but a federal district judge sided with the Kansas City Fed.

The credit union appealed and it now appears Fourth Corner will be able to get an account  but only if it pledges not to work with cannabis businesses. Mason said the credit unions plan for now is to serve marijuana advocacy groups and perhaps businesses that are connected to the industry but that don't grow or sell cannabis.

There has been no firm ruling on the key issue in the case: whether a financial institution that plans to work with cannabis companies will be able to get a Fed account. Stannard said public officials and cannabis entrepreneurs pushing for public banks should be aware of this, though it shouldnt stop them from proceeding.

It is not a settled question, he said. There are legal barriers still. But our position is its a battle worth fighting.

He also suggested that the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the central bank for California and eight other western states, may take a different approach than its counterpart in Kansas City. Whats more, he suggested Californias size could allow it to succeed where Fourth Corner failed.

Theres a big difference between an application from a tiny credit union and an application from the sixth-largest economy in the world, he said.

How long are the odds?

If California, Los Angeles, Oakland or any other jurisdiction in the state successfully creates a public bank, it would be the first to do so in the United States in nearly a century.

A handful of states had their own public banks in the 1800s, but now the Bank of North Dakota is the only one remaining  and its origins have a parallel in the current public-bank movement.

The Midwestern bank was created in 1919 at the behest of wheat farmers who felt they were being overcharged by banks in Chicago and Minneapolis. Today, the cannabis industry feels mistreated and is pushing for a public option.

This industry has been shut out of traditional banking systems in California, creating a catalyst for us to take up the public-banking question, said gubernatorial candidate and state Treasurer John Chiang, who has said he is interested in public banks but has not endorsed the idea.

He leads a group of regulators and cannabis industry representatives trying to bring the industry into the mainstream. Public banking will be the focus of the groups next meeting, to be held in Los Angeles next month.

Theres also the notion that a public bank could provide loans that private banks are less interested in making.

Imagine  a bank where its vision statement is to finance the building of affordable housing, Wesson said in a speech Tuesday. Imagine if we had a bank that is focused on working with small business entrepreneurs to give them loans.

There have been campaigns for public banks for years in other states and cities, especially in the wake of the financial crisis, but they havent gone anywhere. A 2012 California Assembly bill calling for the creation of something approaching a state bank never made it to a vote.

In Massachusetts, the state Legislature in 2010 called for a study on the feasibility of creating a state bank. The resulting report recommended against such an institution, finding that the state would have to borrow billions of dollars to set up the bank and that depositing public funds in such a bank could put taxpayers at risk.

That, Stannard said, is how most public banking campaigns die.

Its always a question of political will, he said. You have public officials who are risk averse, and the safest thing to do is nothing.

Even if the idea moves forward, creating a public bank could take years.

Dan Newman, a spokesman for Newsoms campaign, said the lieutenant governor is open to the idea of a public bank that would work with cannabis companies, but said such an institution is not a short-term answer or an immediately scalable option.

And, of course, theres the banking lobby. Private banks and their trade groups would probably fight the creation of a public bank, on the grounds that a public institution could have an unfair competitive advantage, said Simone Lagomarsino, chief executive of the California Bankers Assn.

Whos going to regulate the bank? Whos going to examine it? If it loses money, are taxpayers OK with absorbing a loss? These are questions our bankers would be asking, she said.

james.koren@latimes.com

Follow me: @jrkoren
Redfin has many of the hallmarks of a disruptive tech firm.

It pledges to transform the home-buying experience. It drives down costs through online software. And it has high-profile investors, including the investment arm of Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, despite a history of losses.

Yet when the 11-year-old online brokerage proceeded with its initial public offering Friday morning, the Seattle company sold its shares for $15, valuing the company at roughly $1.2 billion.

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The offering price was a dollar more than its previously issued guidance, and investors liked what they saw. The stock closed up nearly 45%, to $20.70, on its trading debut, giving Redfin a market capitalization of about $1.73 billion.

Still, compare that to the IPO of Snap Inc., the L.A. parent of Snapchat. It went to market in March with a valuation of $22 billion  after just six years in business.

The disparity reflects the harder slog Redfin has had as it goes up against an established industry built on personal relationships tasked with helping people make the largest purchase of their lives.

Wall Street, they have been trying to disintermediate our industry for 30 years; this is their attempt to do it again, said Steve Murray, president of REAL Trends, a research firm for the residential brokerage industry.

For Redfins part, it looks to do so through online tools meant to speed the home-buying process for both buyers and sellers.

Potential buyers, for example, can schedule tours through an app and track escrow deadlines through a personal Deal Room.

Theres a 3-D tour of Redfin listings, and the company recently launched efforts to become a one-stop shop. They include originating loans and even an experimental program called Redfin Now, in which the company buys homes directly from sellers, then puts them on the market.

Redfins website and app also let users search a map for homes on the market, regardless of the listing brokerage, and they provide an estimate of what homes are worth, even if they are not for sale  the same features of popular website Zillow.

But unlike Zillow, which is not a brokerage, Redfin has its own agents. And the company even does that differently than most brokerages, employing them as salaried employees, rather than as independent contractors paid through sales commissions.

Redfin says its online tools mean it can spend less on marketing than typical brokerages do to find customers. And that allows it to demand less in commissions, resulting in savings for clients of $3,500 on average last year.

The company is now in more than 80 markets across the U.S., including Southern California, Seattle and San Francisco.

Redfin is the first kind of truly disruptive technology company that is changing the way people buy and sell homes, said Rohit Kulkarni, managing director of private investment research for SharesPost Financial Corp.

Many in the traditional brokerage community disagree, even while praising Redfin for having a superior website.

The firm had just a 0.58% share of U.S. existing home sales by dollar volume in the first quarter this year, according to its IPO filing. It has a slightly smaller share of the L.A. County market, where Redfin launched in 2007, according to Real Data Strategies, which excluded the Antelope Valley in its analysis.

The L.A. market leader, Coldwell Banker Residential Brokerage, had a 6.1% share in the 12 months ending June 30.

When was the last time you saw a Redfin sign? said Syd Leibovitch, president of Rodeo Realty, a traditional brokerage with offices countywide. They havent had any impact on my market in Los Angeles.

Some of the things Redfin offers  such as rebates to clients, reduced commissions and salaried agents  also arent new, said Murray of REAL Trends.

Even the concept of Redfin Now  in which Redfin purchases homes directly from sellers  is a new twist on what some brokers have done for decades, agreeing to purchase homes if they couldnt sell them, he said.

Indeed, as much as Redfin has sought to pioneer changes in the brokerage business, it has tweaked its business model to adapt to the market.

In 2006, Redfin offered steeper discounts than it does today, spurring a backlash from the industry. Its chief executive, Glenn Kelman, testified before Congress, calling the company a radically different service at a radically different price.

Competing agents have threatened us with violence, intimidated our customers and tried to block their offers, he testified at the hearing on the industry.

When Redfin arrived in L.A. a year later, The Times characterized its agents as part-time, with buyers doing much of the groundwork of finding homes via the Web, while the brokerage handles the paperwork and conducts negotiations, usually over the phone or via email or fax.

When real estate agent Kameron Eliassian started working at Redfin last decade, he said the main agent on deals was behind the desk all day long sending out emails and writing offers, while other Redfin employees known as field agents showed people houses. A client often had different employees showing up at different showings, he said.

By the time Eliassian left in 2016, he said, clients spent considerable face-to-face time with their main agent, rebates to buyers were reduced and the bonuses agents received for closing a deal increased.

The idea in the beginning was you dont need to meet your agent  and in the end, no, you cant do it that way, said Eliassian, who now works with Coldwell Banker but said he has stock options in Redfin. The market, they didnt conform to Redfin, but Redfin conformed more to the traditional brokerages.

Still, for all its challenges and its inability to make an annual profit, Redfins market share is on the rise, and revenue surged 43% to $267 million last year, according to its prospectus.

During the first quarter, Redfin said, it averaged more than 20 million monthly visitors to its website and app. Its developed a partnership program in which outside agents pay a referral fee to take clients, because the company cant handle all the inquiries stemming from its website.

In all, Redfin stands to raise as much as $159 million in its IPO, minus offering expenses. It plans to use the money for working capital and possibly to acquire related businesses in the field. It trades under the ticker symbol RDFN on the Nasdaq.

Redfin declined to comment for this article prior to the IPO, but on Friday an exuberant Kelman told CNBC that his company was the Apple of real estate.

We use technology in every step of the process, he said.

Analyst Kulkarni expects growth to accelerate as people who grew up with a smartphone in their hands increasingly enter prime home-buying age. This is kind of a generational shift, he said.

Though its brokerage market share is small, Redfin  along with the Zillow website  has changed the home-buying experience, even if the industry remains firmly intact, agents say.

Amber Dolle, a San Fernando Valley agent with John Aaroe Group, said the websites have had a positive effect. Previously, buyers often wouldnt believe her when she said nothing was available in an area.

Now, she said, buyers are more willing to expand their search, because they can easily see that not much is for sale in their preferred location. And they stand a better shot at getting something that fits their needs, because they are the ones picking what homes to look at.

The biggest change these websites had when they came along was people could do their own searches and bypass what previously was considered a Realtors job and expertise, Dolle said.

Kristin DiCenso, 31, said shes been using the Redfin app for years to stalk real estate, even in cities she was just visiting. So when she was ready to buy her first home and had a bad experience with a traditional brokerage, she thought: Why not Redfin?

This year, the business consultant purchased a Brentwood condo for $890,000. She said that her Redfin agent was responsive and that she got a roughly $5,000 rebate to put toward closing costs.

The app, she said, also allowed her to do something she and other millennials crave.

We want information at our fingertips and want to have the information to make decisions on our own, she said.

andrew.khouri@latimes.com

Follow me @khouriandrew on Twitter

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UPDATES:

4:35 p.m.: This article was updated with comments from CEO Glenn Kelman.

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with Redfins closing share price and market capitalization.

July 28, 9:40 a.m.: This article was updated with details on Redfins stock price.

July 27, 6:25 p.m.: This article was updated with Redfins $15 offering price figure.

This article was originally published on July 27 at at 1:20 p.m.
To sell a Los Angeles mega-mansion, Aaron Kirman grabs his passport and heads to the airport.

Im not waiting for someone to knock on my door to buy a $40-million house, said Kirman, 39, president of the international estates division of John Aaroe Group. Ill go and get them.

He flies up to 300,000 miles a year to see wealthy clients, whether its to tell them about a substantial home in his $600-million-plus portfolio or to nab a new listing. By late June, Kirman had racked up 175,000 miles of air travel this year, including trips to Asia, South America, Europe and the Middle East.

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Ive met my biggest clients through traveling, he said on a recent morning in his Beverly Hills office, which was decorated with a tall chunk of citrine quartz.

He funds his own trips and estimates that each can cost between $20,000 and $50,000.

Its more than just airfare and hotels. He likes to host dinners, and he factors in expenses for side trips; on a recent visit to London, his client wanted to visit Capri, so Kirman rented a yacht.

Some cultures  like the Chinese or Saudis  dont like to do business on the phone, he said. They want to meet face to face. I flew to St. Petersburg to see a client over coffee for 20 minutes. But I ended up selling him a $38-million house.

Kirman has long been a believer in the power of travel. As a child in Encino, he struggled with dyslexia. He looked forward to summer trips with his family  to Mexico, Peru, Ecuador  to learn Spanish.

He also loved houses and was fascinated with the work of a family friend who was a real estate agent.

Id take his key to the lock boxes, go into empty houses and fake being an agent, he said.

At 18, Kirman got fired from his first job as an intern at a real estate firm before joining another company where he sold his first house  a $200,000 home in Reseda.

But after a trip to Paris, it dawned on him that there were much more expensive homes to be sold.

Somehow I was upgraded to business class on the flight home, where I met someone looking for a multimillion-dollar home in Los Angeles, he said. They bought through me. It made me realize I needed to be where the wealthy people are.

Kirmans approach during his around-the-world trips is to avoid the hard sell.

I keep it low-key, he said shortly before jetting off to Geneva to see a Saudi royal who wanted to buy another Los Angeles property. Well be at dinner, and if its right I might bring up a house that I can show on my phone. If its not, I dont say anything. I play it by ear.

Longtime client Brenda Adderly saw Kirmans global sprawl of clients work in her favor when she was trying to sell a 6,500-square foot-Mediterranean mansion in the Pacific Palisades a few years ago.

The American market didnt understand it, so Aaron tapped into his network in London, said Adderly, a Los Angeles author.

Kirman flew there for lunch with a prospective buyer and his family and then discreetly brought up the property. They ended up purchasing it for around $10 million.

They were comfortable with him, Adderly said. And thats what sold the house.

Sometimes Kirman will board a flight without a meeting lined up on the other side.

Once, he was hoping to meet with a Chinese billionaire looking to sell a $48-million home. But the billionaire wouldnt take Kirmans calls.

I took a chance and flew to Beijing, he said. I finally got him and said, Im here; when are we going to dinner? It was a risk, and I could have wasted my time. I got the listing.

hotproperty@latimes.com

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Jon Robin Baitz has never been afraid of putting politics onstage. He has a gift for channeling current events into complex and nuanced plays, practically in real time.

His dark comedy Vicuna, which ran at L.A.s Kirk Douglas Theatre during the 2016 election, depicted the triumph of a presidential candidate a lot like Donald Trump. The outcome of Nov. 10 transformed the production mid-run from an antic cautionary tale to uncanny prophecy.

The risk of plays about hot-button issues is that they may age poorly. So as I drove out to Topanga for a revival of Baitzs 2012 Pulitzer Prize finalist Other Desert Cities at Will Geers Theatricum Botanicum, I couldnt help wondering whether this family-reunion drama and allegory of the American political landscape  which I saw in 2011 at the Mark Taper Forum  had staled over the past six years.

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The story takes place in 2004 at the Palm Springs house of a retired GOP power couple, Lyman and Polly Wyeth. Lyman (Mark Bramhall) was a leading man in Hollywood shootem-ups before becoming an ambassador under his friend and mentor President Reagan. Polly (Ellen Geer), a former screenwriter, supported her husbands political career in a formidable style modeled on Nancy Reagans.

Their two troubled adult children, Brooke (Willow Geer) and Trip (Rafael Goldstein), are Gen-X liberals. Pollys alcoholic sister Silda (Melora Marshall), who is staying with them after a stint in rehab, is a dyed-in-the-wool 60s leftie.

(You can tell how the women vote not only by their dialogue but, in this production, by their hair: Polly wears hers in a steely helmet; Sildas is stuck back in the Summer of Love; Brookes gets twisted up in the haphazard knot of a depressive postgrad. Vicki Conrads costumes are equally well chosen.)

Politics aside, these bright, witty people love each other and are hoping for a Christmas Eve as bland and flat as the desert outside (not in evidence at Theatricums woodsy outdoor stage, but easy to imagine). Of course, with so much seismic activity under the sand, it doesnt take long for cracks to appear.

Brooke has brought the manuscript of her soon-to-be-published book for her family to read. Its not a novel, as she has led them to believe, but a memoir recounting a tragedy from her childhood. Brookes need to rehash this painful history clashes with Polly and Lymans desperation to repress it, provoking an Act 2 revelation that shatters the familys carefully constructed image. Not having been able to forget this twist  its a doozy  I feared that the story wouldnt engage me as deeply a second time.

I neednt have worried. On the metaphorical level, Baitzs depiction of the state of American politics in the early part of the century seems more clear-eyed, even prescient, in light of events he couldnt have predicted (or did he?).

The members of the Wyeth family are fully fleshed individuals, obviously fun for actors to inhabit, but theyre also representatives of our political parties and the ways they have failed us. The old-school Republicans, Lyman and Polly, have buried their heads in the sand, blindly loyal to tradition, refusing to acknowledge that their party has changed. (The plays title, Other Desert Cities, refers to a sign on the freeway en route to Palm Springs, but also to the war in Iraq, off in another, unseen desert.) The 60s liberals, represented by Silda, are sickly and feeble, clinging to a long-dead dream. The Democrats of the younger generation, Brooke and Trip, have been kept so deeply in the dark about the past that they cant understand the present.

The schism between the two parties today certainly doesnt invalidate Baitzs analysis. And is it a coincidence that the movies Polly and Silda are said to have written together in the 50s and 60s feature a plucky, Gidget-like heroine named Hillary?

Dramatically, the play presents some challenges to directors. The first act consists almost entirely of exposition, catching the audience up on the characters complex back stories; the second act leaves several of them on the stage for long periods without much to do. Furthermore, characters this colorful tend to invite such hammy performances that the Wyeths dont always appear to be related. But director Mary Jo DuPrey builds a mounting tension in her cast that gets them through the slower bits, and theyre persuasive not just as individuals but as a family. It helps that Ellen Geer really is Willow Geers mother and Melora Marshall really is her aunt. Bramhall and Goldstein are such reliable presences on L.A. stages that they might as well be kin.

If Ive made the plot sound depressing, its because Ive been trying to avoid spoilers. In fact there is a strong current of optimism in Other Desert Cities  the hope that warring parties will remember that they are part of a single family and treat one another with compassion.

         

Other Desert Cities

Where: Will Geers Theatricum Botanicum, 1419 N. Topanga Canyon Blvd., Topanga

When: 3:30 or 7:30 p.m. on select Saturdays and Sundays through Sept. 30; see website for schedule

Tickets: $38.50

Information: (310) 455-3723 or www.theatricum.com

Running time: 2 hours, 25 minutes

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Santa Barbara suits Scott Reed. A fit, life-long swimmer, his perfectly tailored crisp white shirt and clean-cut red hair pop against the seaside citys bright blue sky.

To look at him, youd never know he got the job that led to him becoming president and chief executive of the Music Academy of the West, the venerable Santa Barbara classical music institution, by knocking on the front door of the place.

It was the late 1990s and he was a senior music student at UC Santa Barbara, where hed come to the conclusion that although he loved music and wanted it to be an integral part of his life, he was more interested in a career in business than performance.

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He had heard of the Music Academy  one of the countrys most respected classical music summer programs and festivals for gifted musicians  and thought maybe he could learn about the business side of running a music organization by working there. So he drove to the school and headed for the front entrance.

It was a cold call that paid off. In 2010, he was asked to lead the Music Academy.

Today, with this summers master classes in full swing and preparations underway for a slate of concerts, Reed led a tour of the academys picturesque campus as it prepares to celebrate its 70th anniversary.

Music Academy of the Wests president and chief executive Scott Reed. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

Each summer, more than 100 aspiring professional musicians in their late teens and early 20s, many of them current students or recent graduates of the worlds most elite music schools, attend the academy as fully funded fellows for an eight-week intensive training program. They spend busy days practicing, studying with esteemed faculty and performing in operas, string quartets and master classes.

Among this years master classes is a session with soprano Renee Fleming, and Marilyn Horne will be on campus as the jury leader for the Marilyn Horne Song Competition. This years opera production, Donizettis The Elixir of Love, will be performed Thursday and Saturday at Santa Barbaras Granada Theatre, between Wednesdays PercussionFest and Saturday evenings sold-out solo piano competition. Also sold out is the Aug. 5 festival finale featuring Fleming and outgoing New York Philharmonic Music Director Alan Gilbert.

The high demand for Music Academy events is one reason Reed is thrilled about Mondays 70th anniversary celebratory outdoor concert at Santa Barbara City Colleges La Playa Stadium. Orchestral musician fellows, who make up the Music Academy Festival Orchestra, will perform Beethovens Ninth Symphony alongside the New York Philharmonic.

Gilbert will conduct the concert  his Music Academy appearances will coincidentally be his last as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He takes over as chief conductor for the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg, Germany, this fall.

Scott Reed in Music Academy of the Wests Hahn Hall on the Montecito campus. (Al Seib / Los Angeles Times)

More than 7,000 free and $10 tickets have been made available for the concert, which Reed says will be the largest event of its kind in Santa Barbaras history.

Unparalleled access. Thats what the president says is the driver behind the ambitious community concert. While our ultimate goal is to give our fellows the tools to have a vibrant, sustainable career in music, we are also interested in cultivating audiences and making classical music part of peoples daily lives.

Reed is a popular, approachable figure on campus. Members of the Womens Auxiliary, who help fund the program, stop him to say hello, longtime faculty members greet him warmly and a member of the grounds crew offers him a fresh flower. Everyone asks about Ruby, his 5-month-old daughter. (Reed, who is single and gay, recently became a new father at 46 with the help of an egg donor and surrogate.)

A former private estate, the campus recently underwent a $50-million renovation, a project that began when Reed was working in the academys fundraising department and was completed under his presidency.

It was the fundraising department that took him on as an unpaid intern when Reed came knocking. With the exception of a two-year stint working in the development department at San Francisco Opera, he has spent his entire professional career at the academy, where he has held numerous positions.

Reeds foundation in fundraising has had a big effect on his tenure as president. Not just for the sake of raising money, he explains, but because of the skill set I picked up working in development.

During his days in the academys fundraising department, he developed a highly relational approach to raising money. He spends time getting to know donors, learning about their unique interests, and making proposals that are easy to say yes to, and very hard to say no to.

As president, he followed that same rubric when attracting esteemed faculty members and guest artists like Jeremy Denk, Matthew Aucoin and Fleming and a dream team of senior administrators.

The academys ongoing partnership with the New York Philharmonic was also formed under Reeds leadership.

[Scott Reed] is deeply creative ... has assembled a very talented staff and faculty, [and] led a complete renovation of the campus.  Deborah Borda

Unlike the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which is busy at the Hollywood Bowl during the summer months, the New York orchestra does not have a permanent summer home. Reed proposed a mutually beneficial relationship  one in which the East Coast organization could expand and highlight its dedication to educational programming and the academy could gain an important partner.

Deborah Borda, who met Reed during her time as president of the L.A. Philharmonic  and will work with him more closely in the near future when she assumes the role of president at the New York Philharmonic in September  says the academys relationship with the East Coast orchestra is an example of Reeds creative thinking as an administrator.

Hes deeply creative, she says. But also very well organized. He has assembled a very talented staff and faculty, led a complete renovation of the campus, attracted first-class artists of all different age groups, and has been an extremely effective fundraiser.

With all those net positives, Reed says that now the academy just needs to focus on remaining relevant in a rapidly changing industry.

That can be overwhelming, he says. Being willing to change and be adaptable enough to address our young fellows 21st-century needs. But its a great challenge, and one we have to absolutely insist and commit to addressing.

------------

Music Academy of the West 70th Anniversary Community Concert

When: Monday, July 31, 7:30 p.m.

Where: La Playa Stadium, Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Drive, Santa Barbara.

Tickets: $10 general admission; $100 reserved seats; 7- to 17-year-olds free

Info: musicacademy.org

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Detroit, the latest installment in Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelows gritty film repertoire, recounts the racially charged killings at the Algiers Motel in 1967. The incident was catalyzed by a series of race riots that had broken out across the nation in the preceding months, now remembered as the Long Hot Summer.

Bigelows Detroit depicts the chaos that erupted in aftermath of the title citys 12th Street Riot  civilians exasperated response to racial tension between the black community and its mostly white police force. The following is a timeline of major events.

July 23, 1967 (12th Street Riot, Day 1): Around 3:30 a.m. on Sunday, July 23, Detroit police officers raided a blind pig (an unlicensed, after-hours bar), tucked into the second-floor office of a civil rights organization. As officers began to arrest the bars 85 patrons, hundreds of angry onlookers gathered in the street.

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By 3 p.m., thousands of civilians had begun to riot.

July 24, 1967 (12th Street Riot, Day 2): By Monday, the rioting had escalated. Several police officers were pinned down by snipers in various precincts along Detroits east side, and some 30 unruly fires burned across the city.

July 25, 1967 (12th Street Riot, Day 3): Jarred by the growing disorder, Detroit city leaders deployed nearly 2,000 army paratroopers to the citys east side.

Late that night, a police task force stormed the Algiers Motel (in the heart of the riots) in search of gunmen who they suspected might be stationed there. Partnering with the motels security guard, they shot and killed three black civilians  Carl Cooper, Aubrey Pollard and Fred Temple  and severely beat nine others. The officers did not report the deaths to the Detroit Police Homicide Bureau.

July 26, 1967 (12th Street Riot, Day 4): The riots four-day lifespan reaped a death count of 43 people, in addition to more than 1,100 injuries and 7,000 arrests.

May 1968: Security guard Melvin Dismukes, a black man, was charged with felonious assault for gravely beating two men in the Algiers Motels first-floor hallway. An all-white jury found Dismukes not guilty; they returned the verdict in a record 13 minutes.

After confessing to two of the three killings, task force officers Ronald August and Robert Paille were charged with murder.

Aug. 23, 1968: August and Paille  as well as a third officer, David Senak  were arrested for conspiracy. Their three-day trial took place one month later.

October 1968: John Herseys book The Algiers Motel Incident, a comprehensive look at the events based on interviews with survivors, family members, and key witnesses, plus forensic evidence, is published.

 Detroit trailer starring John Boyega, Will Poulter, Algee Smith, Jason Mitchell and John Krasinski.

Dec. 1, 1968: The presiding judge dismissed the conspiracy charges against August, Paille and Senak. He noted the incidents unfortunate violence, which, he said, was scarcely surprising, given the magnitude of the riots.

May 1969: Augusts trial for first-degree murder (conflicting evidence during pre-trial examinations had left Paille in the clear) began. His lawyer argued justifiable homicide.

June 9, 1969: The jury was instructed to either convict August of first-degree murder or to acquit him. After deliberating for 2 1/2 hours, the all-white jury found him not guilty. The judges instructions were criticized by black leaders as having all but guaranteed Augusts acquittal.

January-February 1970: August, Paille, Senak and Dismukes were put on trial for federal conspiracy. After several weeks of hearings, the trials all-white jury gave its final verdict: not guilty.

emilymae.czachor@latimes.com

@emczachor

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July 26, 2017, 6:06 p.m. At TCA 2017, HBO defends Confederate, announces Jon Stewart special and says Deadwood movie is inching closer

Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, addresses reporters at the Television Critics Assn.'s summer press tour at the Beverly Hilton on Wednesday. (Chris Pizzello / Invision / Associated Press)

HBO, which has the hottest show on television with Game of Thrones, recently came under fire with the announcement of a new series called Confederate from a team that includes Game of Thrones producers D.B. Weiss and David Benioff. The series revolves around events that lead to the Third American Civil War and examines an alternate reality in which the South seceded from the Union and thus, slavery is still legal.

Casey Bloys, president of HBO programming, defended the project Wednesday during the premium networks session at the summer edition of the Television Critics Assn. gathering at the Beverly Hilton.

Bloys said that, in hindsight, the announcement was mishandled because it lacked the context and the vision that he received from Benioff and Weiss in discussing the series.

He admitted it was misguided to believe they could simply announce a series with such a sensitive and volatile subject matter. We could have done a better job with the press release, he said. There was no benefit of context.

My hope is people will judge the actual material instead of what it could be or should be or might be, he said. Well rise or fall based on that material.

He added that he felt the series, rather than being divisive, would be able to advance the racial discussion. Although the topic is controversial, he said he and the producers of the show all feel this is a risk worth taking.

Bloys also stressed that the depiction of slavery would not echo Gone With the Wind and would not include whips and plantations.

In other major HBO news, former Daily Show host Jon Stewart will perform a stand-up special at a date and time to be announced, and host the latest Night of Too Many Stars, an all-star benefit for autism.

Also, a movie reboot of HBOs western Deadwood is closer to reality. Bloys said the shows creator, David Milch, has completed a script that will please fans of the series while also being accessible to those less familiar with the show. But, he said, reuniting the large cast, which included Timothy Olyphant and Ian McShane, may prove challenging.
Serving as the final chapter in her Resistance Saga trilogy of documentaries chronicling Guatemalas human rights struggles, filmmaker Pamela Yates 500 Years is a palpably passionate if somewhat less contained effort than the two films preceding it.

As in 1982s When the Mountains Tremble and 2011s Granito, Yates traces the tireless pursuit of justice by the countrys Ixiles, the indigenous population who were victims of a Reagan-era massacre that claimed more than 100,000 Mayan lives under the watch of former dictator Gen. Efrain Rios Montt.

As seen through the vigilant eyes of journalist Irma Alicia Velasquez Nimatuj, the film maintains a compellingly up-close-and-personal approach while covering the 2013 trial during which Montt was tried and convicted for genocide and crimes against humanity, although his 80-year-sentence was later overturned by Guatemalas Constitutional Court.

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Yates cameras also bracingly gauge the groundswell of national support for a nonviolent movement responsible for forcing the resignation of Otto Perez Molina, the former Guatemalan president, who in 2015 was arrested on corruption charges.

If the middle section, which focuses on protests against the extractive industries whose pending genocide of the land threatens to again displace the Ixiles, might not pack an equally potent immediacy, the overriding message is one that reverberates loud and clear in our own backyard: Resistance is seldom futile.

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500 Years

In Spanish with English subtitles

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 49 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica; Laemmle Playhouse 7, Pasadena

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Near the beginning and the end of Detroit, Kathryn Bigelows tense, excruciating and entirely necessary new film, a young Motown performer named Larry Reed (beautifully played by Algee Smith) raises his head and croons to the heavens with heart-swelling abandon. First he sings of love on an enormous stage; later he sings of peace in a small church. Both times his voice lifts you to the rafters, offering a rare intimation of grace in a movie of overwhelming human ugliness, set in a world where love and peace can feel as distant as justice.

That world, as we hardly need reminding, is very much our own. With a panoramic docudrama sweep that gives way to the disquieting intimacy of a horror-thriller, Detroit returns us to the summer of 1967, when racial tensions engulfed the Motor City and claimed 43 lives over five days of violent unrest. In thrusting the viewer directly into a war zone, the film recalls Bigelows prior collaborations with the screenwriter Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker (2009) and Zero Dark Thirty (2012), still the two finest dramas yet made about Americas post-9/11 military and intelligence operations in the Middle East.

If Detroit feels even harder to watch in its jagged, you-are-there ferocity, it may be because its particular war zone, although 50 years removed from the present, feels so much closer to home. It may also be because Bigelow and Boal, whose behind-the-headlines thrillers have been marked by a certain ideological distance, have cast aside any pretense to neutrality here. The two drew a few allegations of apoliticism on The Hurt Locker and a lot of wrongheaded criticism over their depiction of government torture in Zero Dark Thirty, but with Detroit they have made a picture whose political resonance in the Black Lives Matter era is fierce and unambiguous.

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It could scarcely be anything else, given the specific story its telling. Although its title suggests an all-encompassing vision, Detroit is less interested in capturing the riots day-by-day chaos than in revisiting one of its darkest chapters  a furious confrontation between law enforcement and unarmed civilians that, on the night of July 25-26, turned a local establishment called the Algiers Motel into a charnel house.

Before the night was over, three unarmed black teenagers  Carl Cooper, Aubrey Pollard and Fred Temple  were shot to death by police, in a haze of terror and confusion that John Hersey sought to clarify in his exhaustively researched 1968 book, The Algiers Motel Incident. While Detroit acknowledges a measure of artistic license in dramatizing the events in question, Boal conducted his own interviews with dozens of surviving participants, then shaped them into a blunt, ungainly but intensely compelling narrative that does what it can to ease us into the inferno.

Bigelow sets the scene on the ground with crackling immediacy, ricocheting between quick bursts of newsreel footage and her own meticulous period re-creation of Detroits heavily segregated black communities. We see the spark igniting on July 23, 1967, when cops raid a blind pig, or illegal after-hours bar, and drive its black patrons out into the street, drawing an angry crowd and setting the first waves of violence in motion.

Even as shes establishing context  something she accomplishes with the help of an animated prologue detailing the social and economic disparities that kept black urban Americans in a perpetual state of struggle  Bigelow has an almost preternatural respect for the audiences intelligence. She doesnt belabor the rioters tactics or their rationale, and she largely allows the filmmaking to speak for itself. The eerie images of smoldering buildings, smashed storefronts, closed-off streets and angry, teeming throngs are a visually eloquent reminder that a riot, in the words of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., is the language of the unheard.

What makes Detroit vital is not that its images are new or revelatory, but rather that Bigelow and Boal clarify those images into art.

The chaos escalates and the National Guard is called in, but the film is drawn to the unceasing hum of human activity on the margins, among black non-participants who find themselves caught up in the riots wake. Among them are Larry and his friend Fred (Jacob Latimore), who are making their way home after a canceled musical gig and wind up chilling at the Algiers, a seedy joint known for what Hersey called its pleasure-loving black clientele.

Larry and Fred flirt with two white Ohio girls, Julie (Hannah Murray) and Karen (Kaitlyn Dever), and exchange macho glares with other young black men in the vicinity, including Carl (a volatile Jason Mitchell) and his friend Aubrey (Nathan Davis Jr.). These young people are partying at the edge of an apocalypse, and it cant last. Somewhere in the mix is a starter pistol, a not-so-harmless toy that gets foolishly fired into the streets outside the motel, drawing city cops, state police officers and National Guardsmen to the scene.

What follows is a hideous sequence of events that both curdles and boils the blood, and I mean it as a compliment when I say that it seems to last an eternity. Reteaming with her Hurt Locker cinematographer Barry Ackroyd, whose agitated handheld closeups dovetail with William Goldenberg and Harry Yoons propulsive editing, Bigelow plays out this nightmare with an unrelieved, claustrophobic intensity. The cops force the black men and white women to line up against the wall. They beat them, interrogate them about a weapon that doesnt exist, and threaten to kill them if they remain silent  a grim bluff that inevitably, fatally backfires.

The young Detroit cop in charge, drawn from a real-life figure but renamed Krauss, is played by Will Poulter with a vicious, single-minded intensity that stops just short of caricature. Krauss is a sadist through and through, someone for whom the riot has become less a crisis than an opportunity, an excuse to treat every black person as guilty until proven innocent. The film takes pains to point out that Krauss and his even less evolved fellow cops (Ben OToole and Jack Reynor) are hardly representative of their department as a whole. But its also clear-eyed enough to understand how little this matters in a system predicated on the unthinking, top-to-bottom devaluation of black life.

That system proves cruelest of all for would-be-peacemakers like Melvin Dismukes (John Boyega), a black security guard who tries to defuse the situation on both sides and merely winds up being abused and exploited in turn. Bigelow has a genius for capturing human details on the fly: The anxious gravity we see in Melvins face is matched by the wide-eyed panic we see in Julies, and also by the nothing-to-prove decency of a Vietnam vet (Anthony Mackie) staying at the motel, his presumed sexual interest in white women inflaming the worst of the cops racist pathologies.

Is this grueling, bruising, hard-to-watch movie something anyone needs to sit through? Its a question that reveals less about the films ostensible agenda, I think, than it does about the inquirers default complacency. Since the invention of the camera, it has taken a particularly willful ignorance to live in complete freedom from images of black suffering and revolt in the face of unchecked police authority. What makes Detroit vital is not that its images are new or revelatory, but rather that Bigelow and Boal have succeeded, with enviable coherence and tremendous urgency, in clarifying those images into art.

Its impossible not to feel a powerful sense of relief as the third act arrives and the Algiers Motel nightmare comes to an end  except, of course, that it doesnt. You may well be frustrated by the movies courtroom-drama denouement, as much for its structural bagginess as for the way it shows history continuing its endless pattern of compounding injustice with injustice. The tension of Detroit may dissipate in these final moments, but its boundless anger and compassion remain.

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Detroit

Rating: R, for strong violence and pervasive language

Running time: 2 hours, 23 minutes

Playing: Regal L.A. Live Stadium 14, Los Angeles; Landmark, West Lost Angeles; and ArcLight Cinemas, Hollywood

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justin.chang@latimes.com

@JustinCChang

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George Romero, godfather of gore, brought zombie cinema to life
Given that the biggest climate news of the past year has been the decision to pull the United States out of the landmark Paris global climate accord, it may seem as if the most inconvenient aspect of the new An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power documentary is its timing.

Isnt this follow-up to 2006s Oscar-winning An Inconvenient Truth outdated and beside the point because as major a player as the U.S. has gone its own way, leaving the rest of the world in the lurch?

In fact, watching this involving and unexpectedly passionate film will persuade you that just the opposite is true. The need to pay attention is ever greater, no matter which leaders pretend otherwise, and the possibilities of making a difference have increased as well.

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Though the actions of former Vice President Al Gore, the tireless happy warrior of the climate crisis movement, are once again front and center, new directors have come on board for the sequel and brought a different creative tack with them.

In charge this time are the team of Bonni Cohen and Jon Shenk, whose credits include a previous climate documentary, 2011s excellent The Island President, about the battles of Mohamed Nasheed, the leader of the Maldives, to keep his political career afloat and his low-lying nation from washing away.

While the original Inconvenient was largely a dramatized re-creation of Gores traveling scientific slideshow, the new film is a classic cinema verite production, with the filmmakers shadowing Gore for months and recording his frustrations as well as his determination to do the right thing and make the world respond to what he sees as an existential crisis.

Though his efforts have won him the Nobel Peace Prize, Gore has hardly been without his opponents, and Sequel begins with a quick audio recap of some of the more confrontational things that have been said about him, including commentator Glenn Beck warmly comparing him to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels.

To watch [Al] Gore ... is to see a man who understands how difficult it is to change thinking and how important it is to try.

We also get to see a 2007 Senate hearing faceoff between Gore and Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhof, who doesnt believe in climate change one little bit. To watch Gore attempting to find a way to reach his implacable opponent on a human level is to see a man who understands how difficult it is to change thinking and how important it is to try.

Like its predecessor, Inconvenient Sequel throws a lot of facts at you, some of them hopeful  investment in wind and solar power have gone through the roof  and some of them, like the continued rise in the Earths carbon dioxide levels, decidedly not.

Much of this information comes in the context of Gores continuing climate leadership training sessions (10,000 graduates and counting), which he constantly updates with new facts and new visuals. Truly, as Gore says, every night on the TV news is like a nature hike through the Book of Apocalypse.

But the film is at its best following the former vice president as he spans the Earth both gathering evidence and promoting his message. We see him in Greenland, talking to scientists who are shell-shocked at the way the glaciers are shrinking, and in Miami Beach, where flooding has him wringing out his own socks on camera.

If those trips have an emotional high point, it is likely Gores visit to Georgetown, Texas, which Mayor Dale Ross gleefully describes as the reddest city in the reddest county in Texas.

Georgetown is also, however, the first city in the state to be powered by 100% renewable energy, a decision the town made not out of ideological preference but because it made sense economically. And because, as the mayor says with amusement, doesnt it just make sense  the less stuff you put in the air, the better it is.

The biggest chunk of Inconvenient Sequel is taken up with that Paris climate confab, a landmark event that saw the attendance of some 150 heads of state and culminated in a historic agreement.

A key obstacle to that success, however, was India, whose leadership, as video of Gore conferring with a key official explores, felt its coal-fueled economy was essential to ending poverty. How Gore became a key player in ensuring the countrys agreement is one of the films strongest sequences.

Though the voice of Donald Trump can be heard early on proclaiming his lack of belief in global warming, its not till the very end that a title card acknowledges that America has pulled out of that very treaty.

Gore does not deal with this on camera, but given what else he says, it is not hard to imagine how he feels. By definition, he admits, this battle is a contest between hope and despair, but that doesnt stop him from getting angry from time to time.

Didnt you hear what Mother Nature was screaming at you? he imagines future generations saying to todays Americans. What were you thinking? What indeed.

An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power

Rating: PG, for thematic elements and some troubling images

Running time: 1 hour, 40 minutes

Playing: ArcLight, Hollywood; Landmark, West Los Angeles

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kenneth.turan@latimes.com

@KennethTuran

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Yiddish is a language without a homeland. Once spoken by Jews almost everywhere in the world, its used today largely by the ultra-orthodox in hermetic communities that insist on keeping outsiders at arms length. Which is one reason why Menashe is such an unusual accomplishment.

Starring nonprofessional Yiddish-speaking actors from haredi communities in Brooklyns Borough Park and Crown Heights neighborhoods, Menashe is filmed in that language, though director/co-writer Joshua Z. Weinstein did not speak it. Its a gentle, melancholy father-and-son story thats as notable for an evocation of its self-contained world as it is for its drama.

Though this is Weinsteins first dramatic feature, he has an extensive background in documentary film, and Menashes style seems influenced not only by neorealist classics like Bicycle Thieves but also by constructed ethnographic documentaries like Robert Flahertys Nanook of the North.

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As written by Weinstein, Alex Lipschultz and Musa Syeed, Menashe is loosely based on the life experience of its star, Menashe Lustig, who has something of a YouTube presence in the Hasidic world.

The films Menashe is a man of a certain age, not exactly svelte as he strides into the frame headed for work as a cashier and man-of-all-jobs at a small local supermarket.

Though he is diligent and sincerely religious, Menashe is also hot tempered and disorganized, with the look and attitude of an unmade bed about him. If there is a way to screw up a situation, Menashe will find it.

Menashe prays at a small neighborhood stiebel, and the word of his rabbi (convincingly played by Meyer Schwartz, a taxi driver in real life) is law to him. Though Menashe is hardly a rebel, there is one area where his life goes against the grain.

For in a world where family is paramount, Menashe is a widower, and the film introduces him almost a year after his wife, Leah, has died.

Despite pressure from the rabbi, who reminds him that the Talmud says beginnings are hard, he is, as an abortive arranged meeting with an eligible woman points out, completely uninterested in remarriage. Which is where things get complicated.

For Menashe is also the father of a pre-teen boy named Rieven (Ruben Niborski), and the cultural norm of this community mandates that children be raised in two-parent families.

So Rieven lives, at the rabbis insistence, with the family of Leahs brother, Eizik (Yoel Weisshaus), a humorless, holier-than-thou prig who has visible contempt for Menashes shambling lifestyle.

Nothing in this world is more important to Menashe than his son. He cant make peace with having to give him up until he remarries, and it breaks his heart not to see the boy more than Eiziks strict rules allow. But to try and raise Rieven alone in opposition to the communitys norms would risk his sons expulsion from school and inflict pariah status on him.

Hungry for whatever moments he can get, Menashe, who is something of a big kid himself, is always sabotaging his best interests where Rieven is concerned, serving the child stale cake and Coke for breakfast and constantly making him late for appointments.

All these dynamics come into focus as the one-year anniversary of Leahs death approaches. Desperate to prove himself a good citizen, Menashe asks the rabbi if he can host a memorial for Leah rather than Eizik. Though all agree that even a bear can learn to dance, whether Menashe can be who he needs to be is not so easily determined.

If these situations are not exactly pulse-pounding, thats because pulse-pounding was not director Weinsteins intention. I was interested more in the nonplot elements than the plot of the film, hes said. It was about the texture, the anecdotes, faces, moments. And Menashe does well capturing the myriad rituals and prayers that are the anchor of its subjects life.

Weinstein dealt with the language difference by having his cast rehearse scenes in English before filming in Yiddish, and the poignancy of the central situation never fails to come through. As a slice of ultra-orthodox life, Menashe offers an unusual  and unusually sympathetic  look inside a world that is often hidden from view.

Menashe

Rating: PG, for thematic elements

Running time: 1 hour, 21 minutes

Playing: Laemmles Royal, West Los Angeles

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kenneth.turan@latimes.com

@KennethTuran
In the wrong-headed drama A Family Man, Gerard Butler plays Dane Jensen, a slimy, hard-charging team leader at a Chicago corporate placement firm whos competing with his female counterpart (Alison Brie) to replace their semiretiring boss (Willem Dafoe, in a rare bad performance). But Dane must reconsider the selfish, workaholic ways that infuriate his long-suffering wife, Elise (Gretchen Mol), when their 10-year-old son, Ryan (Maxwell Jenkins), is diagnosed with leukemia.

As drawn, Dane, a guy so amped he mixes Red Bull with his morning coffee, has no real capacity for change, despite a newfound commitment to family. Dane may ditch work to tour landmark buildings with budding architect Ryan, but later, in a truly tone-deaf scene, hes loudly wheeling and dealing on his cellphone from his near-death sons hospital room.

Danes stabs at redemption, which include a climactic grand gesture on behalf of a hard-to-place client (Alfred Molina), feel as fake and forced as Ryans illness, Dane and Elises marital woes, Dane and Ryans bonding bits and the recruitment agencys Boiler Room-type machinations.

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Alternately crass and treacly, overbearing and under-finessed, the film, penned by headhunter-turned-screenwriter Bill Dubuque and directed by Mark Williams, is on life support from the get-go.

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A Family Man

Rating: R, for language and some sexual content

Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes

Playing: AMC Town Center 8, Burbank; also on VOD.

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Theres a big, fat romantic wartime drama desperate to bust through the bloodshed, anguish and proselytizing that overwhelm director Sean Penns grimly earnest, wannabe epic The Last Face. But its capable, charismatic stars, Charlize Theron and Javier Bardem, can do only so much to keep us invested.

In 2003, physician and activist Wren (Theron) meets and falls for sexy relief-aid doctor Miguel (Bardem) amid the triage tents of war-torn Liberia. (The film was shot in South Africa.)

But love, as people are bleeding or dying all around you, is no cakewalk. Wrens daddy (and maybe mommy) issues, Miguels player past, and Wren and Miguels conflicting impulses about humanitarianism add to the couples undoing.

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The sometimes dreamy action shuttles between 2003 and a present in which Wren devotes herself to running her late fathers international aid organization while Miguel tends to victims of the crisis in South Sudan.

Penn takes an unflinching approach to the horrors of war (and, you should be warned, emergency surgery). More problematic are the hollow, fill-in-the-emotions voice-overs and the blunt messaging in Erin Dignams script, which Penn reportedly rewrote. Shedding light on world atrocities is vital, but spelling them out in neon is deadly.

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The Last Face

Rating: R, for strong bloody violence including disturbing images of war atrocities, language, and brief sexuality.

Running time: 2 hours, 11 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle Royal Theatre, West Los Angeles; also on VOD

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Holly Hunter gives one of the best performances of her career in writer-director Katherine Dieckmanns indie drama Strange Weather, playing a Southerner reckoning with her son Walkers suicide. Watching an actress of Hunters caliber in a meaty leading role partly compensates for the creaky plot and overearnest tone.

Hunter stars as Darcy Baylor, who works as an administrative assistant at a small university. With her job in danger and her personal relationships stagnating, Darcy hits the road with her best friend Byrd (played by the excellent Carrie Coon).

Dieckmann tries too hard to force a character sketch into a dramatic shape by giving Darcys quest a preset endpoint: the Louisiana office of Walkers old classmate, who stole his lucrative franchise restaurant idea. The harder Strange Weather drives toward a payoff, the more it sputters.

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But Dieckmann (who previously directed the slice-of-life indies Diggers and Motherhood) excels at capturing the textures and diversity of her location, showing the South as a varied region where agriculture, academia, poverty and progressivism sit side by side.

Plus, the filmmaker is savvy enough just to let Hunter work. This performance is built from dozens of tiny, human gestures  from the way Darcy looks defiant and stung whenever shes criticized, to the way she pets her dog with her bare feet. Darcys story may feel contrived, but her character is vividly real.

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Strange Weather

Rating: R, for a scene of sexuality.

Running time: 1 hour, 31 minutes.

Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica

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Amat Escalantes unusual erotic horror film The Untamed doesnt intend to spook or scare its audience but rather unsettle, provoke and possibly titillate viewers. This is a task it easily achieves, balancing outre material with a supremely controlled style.

Veronica (Simone Bucio) is both femme fatale and damsel in distress in this story. After a violent encounter with a mysterious, curious lover, she meets and befriends a kind male nurse, Fabian (Eden Villavicencio), and starts to draw him into her world.

Veronicas not the only one with a unique relationship and secrets to keep, and soon shes entangled in the complicated familial web of Fabian. His sister Alejandra (Ruth Ramos) is unsatisfied in her marriage to Angel (Jesus Meza), who is stepping out on her, and Veronica offers a kind shoulder of support, and strange and intriguing opportunities to explore her own sexuality. To elucidate more of the plot or even the characters would spoil all the creeping, surprising discoveries this film has to offer.

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The Untamed is unnerving in its unwillingness to offer easy answers to the questions it poses about the opportunities for liberation outside of the shackles of heterosexual marriage. Its deviantly, defiantly sex-positive, but every moment of pleasure has grave repercussions. Escalante draws remarkable performances out of his cast of mostly newcomers in this film about the consequences of pleasure and the many meanings of flesh; where animal intelligence fills the void left by emotional disconnect.

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The Untamed

In Spanish with English subtitles.

Not rated

Running time: 1 hour, 38 minutes

Playing: Laemmle Monica Film Center, Santa Monica; Laemmle Playhouse 7; Pasadena; the Cinefamily, Hollywood

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Paradise may exist in the next life, but the dream of heaven right here on Earth inevitably comes with strings attached, often tragic ones.

Documentaries on this phenomenon, whether it be Stanley Nelsons 2006 film on Jonestown or 2013s smartly titled The Galapagos Affair: Satan Came to Eden, are inevitably involving, and Santoalla is a strong addition to the group.

Nominally focused on one mans mysterious disappearance, Santoalla is really concerned with cultures in collision, with what happens when dreams of paradise clash, good intentions become unhinged and the darker angels of our nature gain the upper hand.

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First-time feature filmmakers Andrew Becker and Daniel Mehrer co-directed, produced and shot the movie, with Becker doing the editing and writing the score as well.

This concentration of tasks gives Santoalla an intensity of focus that helps the storytelling, as does the fact that Becker and Mehrer lived in the tiny Spanish village of Santa Eulalia (Santoalla for short) for months at a time to make sure they got the story right.

Providing voice-over is Margo Pool. By the time she talks extensively to the filmmakers in 2013, her husband, Martin Verfondern, has been missing for three years, despite extensive searches by Spanish authorities.

Though she has no proof, Margo suspects that members of the Rodriguez family had a hand in Martins absence. Not only are they the people who live next door but they are also the only other people in the village, which gives this story a lot of its tension and interest.

The story of how Margo and Martin, a sophisticated Dutch couple who met at a protest rally outside Amsterdam, ended up in this remoter than remote hamlet in the Galicia region of northwestern Spain takes up Santoallas initial sections.

As Margo tells it, she and Martin were fed up with life in Holland, with its crowds and costs, yearning instead for a quiet life without rules, without people who tell you what you can do, what you cant do.

The couple sold their home, bought a camper van and, as a selection of their snapshots illustrates, spent two years touring Europe, looking for that ideal spot.

Almost by accident, they stumbled across tumbled-down, crumbling Santoalla in 1997, and it was love at first sight. I still remember the first time we came here, says Margo, her voice glistening years after the fact. Martin thought we had found the perfect place.

The village had once been prosperous, but by the time the Dutch couple arrived, a lack of economic opportunity had driven almost everyone out. Only the Rodriguez family, living for generations by raising cattle, was still in town.

Though patriarch Manolo is too old to speak on camera by the time the filmmakers arrive, and one son, Carlos, a bit slow, does not talk either, Santaolla benefits from the access filmmakers had to the other side of the story.

Speaking for themselves are Carlos brother Julio, a man in love with the land, and voluble matriarch Jovita, who insists her motto has always been do good no matter to whom.

Martin and Margos decision to settle in such a remote area came to the attention of the Spanish media, and TV crews visited them in both 1998 and 2002; this record of everyones states of mind is an invaluable part of Santoalla.

In 1998, Martin is the picture of brash confidence, bursting with utopian plans to turn this part of the world into a self-supporting destination for rural tourism where like-minded folk from everywhere would flock for a taste of the good life.

By 2002, the Rodriguez familys sense of being disregarded, their wariness at Martins I know whats best attitude, has grown more visible, as has Martins frustration at what he considers to be the familys obstructionism and foot-dragging. According to Margo, as the years went on, these qualities intensified on both sides.

Though Santoalla does eventually reveal what happened to Martin, thats not what this unsettling film is about. Rather, it focuses on how the best intentions toward humanity are not enough if an ability to actually get along with fellow human beings is not part of the mix.

<###<

Santoalla

No rating

Running time: 1 hour, 22 minutes

Playing: Laemmles Music Hall, Beverly Hills

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kenneth.turan@latimes.com

@KennethTuran
The tag line for this years Sundance Next Festival is movies, music and mischief collide, speaking to the reliably unpredictable juxtapositions of the event.

On Thursday festival organizers released more of whats to come this year at the Theatre at Ace Hotel Downtown Los Angeles from Aug. 10-13, with conversations, comedians and world premieres of music videos. The weekend begins with a 25th-anniversary screening of Reservoir Dogs and a ceremony honoring director Quentin Tarantino.

The festival has seen its formatting tweaked a bit from year to year, but one ongoing feature has been conversations between filmmakers and other creative figures, a mix of kindred spirits and influences.

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Each year, we always like to work with the filmmakers to brainstorm ideas, said Charlie Sextro, senior programmer with the Sundance Film Festival. I want them to be excited, because you just kind of feel it. And theyre all super excited about the screenings, but now the conversations just encourage them even more and makes the day more special for them.

This year, filmmaker Ava DuVernay will join Justin Chon after a screening of Gook. Chon is the director, writer and star of the movie, set against the 1992 Los Angeles riots, which won the Next Audience Award at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival.

Executive producer America Ferrera, director and creator Marvin Lemus, co-writer Linda Yvette Chavez and producer Aaliyah Williams will all be in conversation following the screening of the Web series Gente-fied, which looks at gentrification in the Los Angeles neighborhood of Boyle Heights.

Larry Wilmore is part of Sundance Next Festivals programming in August. (Susan Walsh / Associated Press)

Comedian and commentator Larry Wilmore will join directors Antonio Santini and Dan Sickles and subject Dina Buno following a screening of the documentary Dina. Wilmore was on the jury that awarded the film the Sundance Film Festivals grand jury prize for U.S. documentary earlier this year.

Filmmaker Peter Bogdanovich will join writer-director Alex Ross Perry for a talk following a screening of Perrys Golden Exits, which stars Adam Horowitz, Emily Browning, Chloe Sevigny and Mary-Louise Parker in a serio-comic tale of two families in Brooklyn.

Three comedians will host screenings during the weekend. Kate Berlant will be at the screening of Janicza Bravos Lemon followed by a performance by Lizzo. Kate Micucci will host a screening of Marianna Palkas Bitch followed by a performance by Sleigh Bells. Natasha Leggero will help close out the weekend by hosting a screening of Michelle Morgans L.A. Times followed by a performance by Electric Guest.

Kate Micucci will host a screening of Bitch. (Jay L. Clendenin / Los Angeles Times)

Programmers also announced the world premiere of three music videos to play during this years Next Fest. Joey Badass Temptation, directed by Nathan R. Smith, will premiere with Gook. M83s Do It, Try It, directed by David Wilson, will play with Dina. Hundred Waters Fingers, directed by Allie Avital, will play with Golden Exits.

As for what kind of mischief audiences can expect, Sextro said, Part of the mischief is that were always changing, were always pushing and finding unique things. So there is always surprise within the program, how can we pack a little bit more in as efficiently as possible?

For more information on tickets and scheduling, go to www.sundance.org/next.

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Mark.Olsen@latimes.com

Follow on Twitter: @IndieFocus

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No matter that ballerina Misty Copeland has a busy schedule. The American Ballet Theatre principal said that when the opportunity arose to dance the title role opposite Roberto Bolle at this Fridays opening night performance of Giselle at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts, her reaction had been, How could I not?

Ticking off the reasons, she continued, Its Roberto Bolle. Its La Scala. Its a dream come true for any ballet dancer.

At the Tuesday cocktail party, where Copeland and Bolle met arts center donors and other VIPs, Bolle, too, expressed admiration for his partner. Shes so natural, so genuine, he said. She brings real emotion to her roles.

The event

From left, Nicole Joseph, Ava Joseph, ballerina Misty Copeland, Bridget Flanagan and Christy Flanagan. (Ryan Miller / Capture Imaging) (Capture Imaging / Capture Imaging)

Dolce & Gabbana in collaboration with the Segerstrom Center for the Arts and South Coast Plaza staged the soiree as a toast to Teatro alla Scala Ballet Companys production and a chance to chat with the ballet stars. One guest  Bridget Flanagan, 8  brought along a Copeland biography to have autographed.

The scene

The July 25 cocktail party was held at Dolce & Gabbanas South Coast Plaza boutique. (Ryan Miller/Capture Imaging) (Capture Imaging / Capture Imaging)

Taking place at the fashion companys South Coast Plaza boutique, guests mingled over champagne and hors doeuvres beneath a majestic Murano glass chandelier, while surrounded by the latest eye-popping fall collection. Designed to reflect the designers Italian heritage, the tony shop also features floors of volcanic ash from Sicily, walls lined in rich damask and Italian marble in Bordeaux shades throughout.

Although meeting the dancers was the partys prime objective, more than a few dance fans took time out to shop. And as Copeland and Bolle both came outfitted in Dolce & Gabbana, it wasnt all that surprising to hear that one guest bought the same dress Copeland wore.

The crowd

Attendees included, from left, ballet director Frederic Olivieri, dance impresario Sergei Danilian, Ava Joseph, Bridget Flanagan (students at the American Ballet Theatre William J. Gillespie School at Segerstrom Center for the Arts), Debra Gunn Downing and Judy Morr. (Ryan Miller / Capture Imaging)

Segerstrom Center executive VP Judy Morr, South Coast Plaza partner Anton Segerstrom and Dolce & Gabbanas Adrian Caprarella and Gary Cooper welcomed arts patrons Terry and George Schreyer, Connie and Peter Spenuzza, Mary Kramer, Michelle Rohe, Mary Roosevelt, Mimi Morris, Anneka Miller, Valentina Martino, Nicole Joseph and Christy Flanagan, among others, as well as representatives from Teatro alla Scala, including general director Maria di Freda, ballet director Frederic Olivieri and secretary and staff director Andrea Vitalini.

The quote

I want to thank everybody who supports what we do, because they believe in the arts, said Morr, at an intimate dinner at the retail centers Access suite, which followed the cocktail party. And without their support, we couldnt bring in the greatest companies in the world, and truly La Scala Ballet is one of the great companies of the world.

Giselle Who: Teatro alla Scala Ballet Company

When: Friday to Sunday Where: Segerstrom Center for the Arts, 600 Town Center Drive, Costa Mesa Cost: $29 to $159 Info: (714) 556-2787 or scfta.org

Ellen Olivier is the founder of Society News LA.

image@latimes.com

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President Trump moved Wednesday to restore gender-based discrimination at the Pentagon, saying transgender people will be prohibited from serving in any capacity in the military, a shift that could affect thousands of Americans now in uniform and others hoping to serve.

In three posts on Twitter, Trump said the Pentagon will not accept or allow transgender people to serve, reversing an Obama administration policy imposed last summer to make the armed forces more inclusive and adding a high degree of uncertainty to military recruitment and retention rules.

The Pentagon keeps no figures on transgender personnel in the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines. Outside groups estimate there are between 1,300 and 16,000 transgender troops in the military, which has an active-duty force of about 1.3 million.

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Protesters gather in front of the White House on Wednesday. (Paul J. Richards / AFP/Getty Images)

Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis is on vacation this week, and the Pentagon was caught off-guard by Trumps tweet. So were senior lawmakers on Capitol Hill, where the presidents declaration took heavy flak.

Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, described the presidents posts as new guidance rather than an order from the commander-in-chief, and said the Pentagon would revise its own guidance to the uniformed services in the near future. He referred all questions to the White House.

Several powerful Republican lawmakers  including Sens. John McCain of Arizona, Richard C. Shelby of Alabama and Orrin G. Hatch of Utah  expressed outright opposition, suggesting the policy might get slow-rolled in hearings and studies.

McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, all but urged the Pentagon to ignore Trumps tweets, saying there is no reason to change current policy.

Officials said nothing will happen until the White House National Security Council issues written guidance to the Pentagon.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow......  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming.....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

....victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House spokeswoman, was unable to say whether transgender service members could stay in the military or would be forced out.

The White House and the Defense Department will have to work together to lawfully determine how to implement Trumps decision, Sanders said. She did not say when that might occur.

In his Twitter posts, Trump said he had consulted with my Generals and military experts in deciding to ban transgender troops from service.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail, he wrote.

A Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon last year projected the medical costs associated with transgender troops as negligible  between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, or about 0.1% of Pentagon healthcare spending.

Under the policy that began last July, some transgender service members have begun gender reassignment surgery and other medical procedures as long as they were deemed necessary by a physician.

Those troops drew broad support on Wednesday, with McCain, a decorated military veteran, leading the way.

Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving, he said. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

He called for finishing a Pentagon study on the medical obligations, impact on military readiness and other issues regarding transgender service members.

I do not believe that a new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership and the Congress, McCain added.

Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups vowed to challenge Trump in federal court if self-identified transgender service members are forced out of the military.

We will sue if the president goes beyond the tweet and actually kicks them out, said Matt Thorn, head of the OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, a Washington-based group that seeks LGBT equality in the military.

Legal scholars said its not clear whether the president can reimpose discrimination in a federal department.

There is a strong argument that substantively speaking the policy change would violate [the] law against sex discrimination, said Libby Adler, a constitutional law professor at Northeastern Universitys School of Law. It depends on what prohibitions against sex discrimination are construed to encompass.

The most famous transgender military veteran, Chelsea Manning, mocked Trumps decision in her own tweets Wednesday.

So, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? sounds like cowardice, she wrote.

Manning began treatment in a military prison after she was convicted in 2013 of leaking classified material to WikiLeaks while serving as an Army soldier in Iraq, then known as Bradley Manning. President Obama pardoned her just before he left office, and she was released from prison in May.

Trumps disclosed his ban on the 69th anniversary of the day President Truman signed Executive Order 9981, which ended official racial discrimination in the military.

Changing the transgender policy would mark a return to the status quo that existed before last July, when the Pentagon lifted a long-standing ban against transgender men and women serving openly.

The 2016 policy placed protection of gender rights on par with race, religion, color, sex and sexual orientation as part of a broader initiative to bring the military in line with society.

For the first time, transgender service members could serve openly. Armed services had to provide medical and training plans and arrange full implementation by this July 1.

Mattis had pushed that deadline back by six months, and Trump has now moved to eliminate the policy entirely.

Several activists said Trumps call to bar transgender soldiers posed dangers to the broader transgender community.

Its dangerous not only to our service members but to trans people across the nation, because it sends a message that were not equal, that were not good enough, said Emma Shinn, a Denver attorney and former Marine who served six deployments, including a combat posting in Fallujah, Iraq. She transitioned to female after leaving the military in 2014.

Im enraged, because this puts people at risk, agreed Terrance Kayton, 34, an Oakland activist who transitioned to male after serving in the Navy from 2001 to 2005.

Ellie Lader, an Iraq war veteran who served nine years in the Marines before her transition to female, called Trumps proposal mean-spirited and unnecessary.

Our community needs ... to fight this decision, she said. We have friends on active duty who are deeply concerned.

The Pentagon announcement last summer lifting the ban on transgender men and women serving openly in the military was part of the Obama administrations Force of the Future initiative, which aimed at making the the straight-laced, male-dominated U.S. military more inclusive. In 2015, the administration opened all combat positions to women and in 2016 appointed the first openly gay secretary of the Army, Eric K. Fanning.

The Obama plan allowed transgender service members currently on duty to immediately serve openly. Armed services had to come up with medical and training plans and were given until July 1, 2017, for full implementation, until Mattis pushed that date back.

The Pentagon has not had a precise count of how many transgender people are in the services because they faced discharge if they revealed their identities.

There are as many as 6,630 transgender people who will be affected by Trumps decision, according to a 2016 study by Rand Corp., the Santa Monica-based think tank.

The study, commissioned by the Pentagon, estimated that between 29 and 129 transition-related treatments could be initiated by transgender service members.

As a result, U.S. military healthcare costs are expected to increase by between $2.4 million to $8.4 million.

Gender reassignment surgery and other treatment deemed medically necessary by a physician was to be covered.

Under the old rule, the Pentagon banned transgender troops from openly serving. If they revealed their transgender identity, they could be kicked out or denied reenlistment.

Times staff writer Matt Pearce in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

william.hennigan@latimes.com

Twitter: @wjhenn

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Three people have been charged with selling five women and eight minors for commercial sex in a human trafficking operation that spanned California and crossed state lines, authorities announced Thursday.

Officials allege that San Diego native Quinton Brown, 30, and Gerald Lavell Turner, 32, of Fresno sold at least 13 victims for sex over the last year by advertising them on the Internet. The two men also had sex with some of the minors, authorities charge.

A third suspect, Mia Maree McNeil, 32, of Los Angeles used stolen identities to lease locations in West Hollywood, Chatsworth and Bakersfield as brothels, and to purchase cars to transport victims, officials allege.

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On Wednesday, state Atty. Gen. Xavier Becerra filed 54 felony charges against the three  including pandering, pimping minors, identify theft, and automobile theft.

Brown  who was already in custody for another alleged crime  was arrested last week and Turner was arrested Tuesday. Both are being held in Tulare County, according to L.A. County Sheriffs Department Det. Christopher Hicks.

McNeil is still wanted and her whereabouts are unknown.

A joint investigation by sheriffs departments in Tulare and Los Angeles counties began in January after L.A. County Sheriffs Department officials received a tip that a missing girl from Tulare County was living in a West Hollywood apartment. Upon arrival, deputies found the missing girl and two adults, and learned of additional sex trafficking victims.

The alleged victims ranged in age from 15 to 21. The crimes were allegedly committed across California and in Nevada.

The 13 alleged victims have all been recovered, according to Hicks, but the investigation remains ongoing as officials search for additional possible victims.

Brown and Turner had previously been convicted of robbery and assault with a deadly weapon, according to the complaint.

megan.bernhard@latimes.com

@meg_bernhard
For nearly six minutes, Samuel Chang gasped in desperate, ragged breaths as four men held him down on a Chatsworth street on Halloween night.

Stop fighting us and I will loosen up, says a man in a He-Man costume, who can be seen restraining Chang in a chokehold, in a video that captured the encounter two years ago.



For the record: This article misstated the terms of an earlier plea offer made by the prosecutor on Eric Carpenters assault case. Carpenters lawyer said the offer included pleading to a felony but did not include his client serving time in prison.

Minutes later, Chang went limp. The men who had been holding him down quickly performed CPR, and paramedics were called.

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Chang would remain hospitalized for weeks  suffering a hemorrhage, kidney failure, severe head trauma and other injuries that he says still affect him to this day  and Los Angeles police detectives later concluded he was the victim of a felony assault at the hands of an off-duty city firefighter, court records show.

After criminal charges were filed against Eric Carpenter in December 2015, a probation report concluded Carpenter deserved at least a year in jail, noting Chang could have died.

But prosecutors recently gave Carpenter a plea deal that spared him any time behind bars, and he remains on duty as a city firefighter. The outcome has infuriated Changs family and his attorney, who alleges Carpenter received preferential treatment from the Los Angeles County district attorneys office  a charge Carpenters attorney strongly denies.

Carpenters lawyer, Michael Goldstein, served as Dist. Atty. Jackie Laceys campaign finance director when she was elected in 2012, according to his website. He has donated thousands of dollars to her political accounts over the years, according to campaign finance records. And Laceys statements of economic interest show Goldstein has given her $200 worth of sporting tickets and pastries worth $100.

I think it raises the appearance of impropriety, said attorney David Ring, who plans to represent Chang in a civil lawsuit against the assailants.

Ring said Changs family was repeatedly assured by prosecutors that Carpenter would serve time behind bars.

Goldstein and the district attorneys office denied the lawyers connections to Lacey had anything to do with the plea deal.

In a statement, the office said prosecutors did not believe they could win a conviction against the defendants on the original felony assault charges.

Chang approached children on Carpenters property multiple times with his pants zipper partway down and did not comply with requests to leave, according to the statement. Chang then ran toward the children a third time where he was then assaulted by the defendants when they took him to the ground and held him there as they waited for the police to arrive.

The statement said Goldstein received the same treatment available to any other defense attorney. His relationship with the district attorney had absolutely nothing to do with the resolution of this case.

The district attorneys office said it does not condone the actions of the defendants. The injuries sustained by the victim, although unintended, were nevertheless unlawful.

Prosecutors also downplayed the severity of the harm done to Chang, saying he did not sustain permanent neurological injuries, according to the statement.

Ring called the statement outrageous, saying it was an attempt by the district attorneys office to try to justify its pathetic prosecution of this case. He denied that Chang harassed children and said there was no evidence that his clients zipper was down.

Goldstein said he presented his side of the case to Deputy Dist. Atty. Jonathan Chung, the prosecutor assigned to the case, and Chungs supervisor. Later, Chung offered to allow Carpenter to plead to a felony that could be reduced to a misdemeanor upon completion of Carpenters prison sentence, Goldstein said. But Carpenter, 40, refused the deal because a felony conviction would cost him his job as a firefighter, Goldstein said.

The lawyer said he then appealed over Chungs supervisors head, arranging a meeting with regional Director Victoria Adams. That meeting was also attended by one of the D.A.s top officials, Assistant Dist. Atty. Joseph Esposito.

Goldstein said he told them he had found witnesses who saw Chang harassing young children on Carpenters property and that Chang had his fly down. And he said he presented security video that contradicted statements by Chang that he was chased by Carpenter. Sometime after the meeting, Chung offered him the plea deal that spared Carpenter jail time, Goldstein said. Carpenter, Goldstein said, was adamant his actions were justified and was prepared to go to trial but eventually accepted the plea deal to put the episode behind him.

Esposito and Chung did not respond to requests for comment.

The plea deal left LAPD investigators crestfallen, according to multiple law enforcement sources with knowledge of the case who requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.

Goldstein insisted the LAPD failed to interview his witnesses.

Our team worked longer and harder than everyone else on this, he said.

Chang, a 24-year-old graduate student at UC Santa Barbara, said he still cant understand why the men attacked him. He can barely remember anything between the Halloween assault and waking up in a hospital Nov. 4, 2015.

I felt helpless. They wouldnt stop even as I told them I could not breathe, Chang said.

On Halloween night, Chang said he wanted to give out candy to trick-or-treaters. But with few children going door-to-door in the gated community where his parents live, he and his mother drove to his grandmothers Chatsworth residence.

Dressed in a mish-mash of a Halloween costume, including a Dracula mask and a white Mickey Mouse glove, Chang walked down Celtic Street and ended up in front of Carpenters home, according to an affidavit submitted by detectives with the LAPDs elite Robbery-Homicide Division, which investigated the case.

Carpenter and three other men approached Chang and demanded to know why he was there. Police identified two of the men as Michael Anthony Vitar  an off-duty firefighter who gained fame as a child actor in the Disney film The Sandlot  and Thomas Molnar, one of Carpenters neighbors. The fourth man was never charged.

Chang explained that he was giving out candy, and one of the men asked if the sweets were laced with drugs, according to the affidavit.

Unnerved, Chang said no, pulled out his phone and began recording. Videos taken by Chang and others were taken as evidence by the LAPD and were extensively relied on in the affidavit.

In several video clips, Chang can be seen backing away as the men, led by Carpenter in the He-Man costume bristling with fake muscles, repeatedly asked Chang why he was on their block. Chang told police he smelled alcohol on the mens breath.

Over and over, Chang asks the men why they are following him. After several minutes, Chang ran away and begged onlookers to call the police, but no one came to his aid, according to the affidavit.

Moments later, the video goes black. Chang can be heard pleading as he is taken to the ground.

Please  just stop  I wanna go home, he says in gasps.

Other men can be heard yelling at Carpenter to release Chang.

Eric, off! Off! says one male voice.

Two additional video clips show Chang trapped against the asphalt as a man identified in the LAPD affidavit as Carpenter sits in the street with his forearm wrapped around Changs throat. The other men can be seen pinning Changs legs to the ground. The additional clips were filmed by a bystander, according to Ring.

As the firefighters called police to the scene, they said Chang was under the effects of a powerful drug and insisted he was trying to give drug-laced candy to children. The court records dont say why they thought the candy was laced with drugs.

The LAPD tested the candy and found no drugs, according to a source familiar with the investigation. A test showed Chang was not under the influence of alcohol or drugs, according to the affidavit.

One of the videos shows Chang in some variation of a choke for roughly six and a half minutes. Carpenter repeatedly orders Chang to stop resisting.

At one point, the men roll Chang over onto his back. One suddenly shouts, He aint breathing. The video shows Carpenter and another man rush to take life-saving measures.

According to the affidavit, LAPD investigators determined Carpenter was the primary aggressor. Based on the video, they concluded that Carpenter, Vitar and another man could be seen following, chasing and harassing Chang and preventing him from leaving.

A probation report filed in the case went a step further, saying Carpenters decision to apply a chokehold nearly proved fatal.

The victim was unconscious and stopped breathing, the report read. Had defendants Carpenter and Vitar not been firefighters, the victim would have died.

Carpenter, Vitar and Molnar were charged with felony assault. Carpenter, who faced up to seven years in prison, pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor assault charge in May, and was sentenced to three years probation and 135 days of community service, records show. Vitar and Molnar both pleaded no contest to misdemeanor battery in December, also receiving three years probation and 90 days of community service, according to court records.

Vitar and Carpenter, longtime firefighters, were each suspended for six months without pay but have returned to full duty, said Peter Sanders, an LAFD spokesman.

Chang says he feels like he was victimized twice  first by Carpenter, then by the district attorneys office. A physical therapy student, he said he had to delay his graduate studies for nearly a year after the attack, and still suffers from chronic headaches and trouble reading and processing information as a result of his injuries.

When you think of firefighters you think of heroes, he said. You dont think of people who violently attack someone.

richard.winton@latimes.com

james.queally@latimes.com

Follow @lacrimes & @JamesQueallyLAT for crime and police news in California.

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UPDATES:

2:50 p.m.: This article was updated on July 27 with additional details about the case.

This article was originally published at 10:55 p.m. on July 26, 2017.
Fair and amusement park operators throughout California ordered the immediate closure of a popular thrill ride after a similar attraction in Ohio broke apart suddenly, leaving one person dead and seven others injured.

The Fireball ride  a pendulum-type apparatus that spins and swings riders 40 feet into the air  malfunctioned and snapped at the Ohio State Fairs opening day Wednesday.

Shortly after the accident, state officials in California contacted ride owners and asked them to shut down the attraction. Some operators had already done so.

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By late Thursday morning, all Fireball-type amusement rides in California were closed voluntarily, according to the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

Six Fireball-type attractions were shut at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, California State Fair in Sacramento, Californias Great America in Santa Clara, Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park, Belmont Park in San Diego, and the Orange County Fair.

The G Force ride at the Orange County Fair was shut down after the Ohio accident involving a similar ride. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The parks were directed to shutter the ride until state officials inspected the attractions or until they received a notice from the manufacturer.

The Fireball ride is manufactured by the Dutch company KMG. On Thursday, the company ordered that operators of all Fireball/Afterburner (FRB24) and Move-it (MVT24/MVT32) type amusement rides cease operations until further notice.

In the Ohio incident, KMG said, it appeared the passenger-carrying gondola detached from the supporting sweep arm. The company is investigating the cause of the accident.

Our deepest sympathies go out to all who were involved or affected by this tragic accident, the company said.

Officials at the California State Fair decided they werent taking any chances and closed the aggressive thrill ride Wednesday night.

The amusement ride will be shut down through Sunday, the last day of the fair, event spokeswoman Darla Givens said Thursday.

Its just a precaution, she said.

A safety sign at the G Force ride at the Orange County Fair. (Irfan Khan / Los Angeles Times)

The towering structure is one of 70 rides on the 800-acre event space, she said. The ride  one of the most popular on the midway  has been operating without incident since the fair opened July 14, she said.

At the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, amusement park officials also decided to close the ride out of an abundance of caution Wednesday night after the Ohio incident, park spokesman Kris Reyes said.

On the boardwalks website, the attraction is described as having powerful G-forces that spin riders to dizzy heights.

The massive attraction, according to the website, is one of the most popular rides on the boardwalk.

We never had any major problems with the ride other than routine maintenance, Reyes said.

In Southern California, officials at the Orange County Fair closed their ride, known as G Force, immediately after the Ohio incident, event spokeswoman Terry Moore said.

The attraction, which is also manufactured by KMG and is similar to the Fireball, has a large, pendulum-style swinging arm with 24 seats.

A sign was posted in front of the ride advising riders, For your safety this ride is undergoing maintenance, KABC-TV Channel 7 reported.

veronica.rocha@latimes.com

Twitter: VeronicaRochaLA

UPDATES:

1:30 p.m.: This article was updated with details from the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

10:35 a.m.: This article was updated with a statement from the rides manufacturer.

This article was originally published at 9:35 a.m.
Los Angeles officials said they had to act quickly to address the brewing legal concerns with Vista del Mar, a favored commuting route near Dockweiler State Beach.

City Hall had recently paid $9.5 million to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a teenage girl who was killed by a driver there, and another lawsuit loomed. Transportation officials scrambled to eliminate a traffic lane in each direction and reduce the citys liability before summer beach crowds began to arrive.

The resulting road diet on Vista del Mar  combined with lane reductions on other streets in the area  sparked a wave of opposition that engulfed the Westside and the South Bay. City Hall was flooded with calls. A condo association sued. And frustrated commuters began raising money to recall Westside Councilman Mike Bonin.

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After weeks of backlash, Bonin backpedaled late Wednesday night, acknowledging in a YouTube video that most people outright hated the Vista del Mar changes. He apologized to drivers and said lanes would be restored next month.

If you are one of the many people who were inconvenienced, who were late to work, or who missed a bedtime story with your toddler, I am truly sorry, Bonin said. We are working to make this right.

In an agreement with Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn, the city will remove Vista del Mars street parking and reduce parking fees at a nearby Dockweiler Beach lot. City officials said the changes were a win-win, making room for four traffic lanes while preserving residents access to the coast. Nevertheless, it delivered a painful learning experience for city officials who have a sweeping plan for improving street safety by reducing vehicle lanes on key corridors.

The project emerged as a flashpoint in L.A.s ambitious plans to eliminate traffic fatalities and shift drivers to other transportation options by adding hundreds of miles of bicycle and bus-only lanes.

Those plans, called Vision Zero and Mobility Plan 2035, both hinge on the elimination of vehicle lanes in an effort to reduce speeds. Some projects have already sparked similar debates as advocates, elected officials and drivers work to divide a limited amount of space on the citys street network.

Traffic backs up on a recent weekday in Playa Vista. (Christian K. Lee / Los Angeles Times)

On Wednesday, Councilman Gil Cedillo  who has long been at odds with cycling advocates  moved to crack down on road diets in his district, which stretches from Westlake to Highland Park. Cedillo drafted a motion calling for the Transportation Department to halt any effort to remove traffic lanes, or even reconfigure them, until he approved the changes.

In May, Cedillo easily beat back an election challenge from a candidate who criticized him for failing to put in place bicycle lanes on Figueroa Street in Highland Park and Cypress Park. Cedillo said his proposal, which heads to the councils transportation committee, speaks for itself.

For the most part, these road diets appear to be disastrous with respect to what the public thinks of them, he said.

Cedillos proposal throws into question a Vision Zero project proposed for a two-mile stretch of Temple Street, just west of downtown, which runs through the Echo Park section of his district. Two weeks ago, the citys Vision Zero team held a community workshop on plans for restriping Temple, taking it from two car lanes in each direction to one.

The citys workshop for the Temple proposal was poorly attended, said Freddy Ceja, a spokesman for Cedillo. He said his boss does not support the project.

Bruce Gillman, a Department of Transportation spokesman, said his agency is working with council offices to conduct outreach on the Temple project. He said his agency cannot comment on council proposals that havent been voted on yet.

The Vista del Mar redesign should calm some of the vitriol that arose over the last two months and help Los Angeles officials hit the reset button, Transportation Department general manager Seleta Reynolds said.

In recent weeks, residents from Playa del Rey and neighboring Manhattan Beach had spoken out against the Vista del Mar lane reduction and formed a grass-roots advocacy group to fight future road diets in Los Angeles and other cities.

The group has received calls from neighborhoods in L.A., including Studio City and Woodland Hills, as well as Long Beach, said Kara Mendelson, a Manhattan Beach resident who heads the group Keep L.A. Moving.

Were showing people that you dont have to roll over and let things happen to you, Mendelson said. As these road diets roll out, more and more people are going to find that their quality of life is brought to a barely habitable level.

The anger over Vista del Mar and other proposed street restriping projects has sparked some alarm among street safety advocates, who say Los Angeles officials have to improve their communication with drivers about why the projects are important.

I want our elected officials to stand their ground as long and as hard as they can, said Deborah Murphy, executive director of Los Angeles Walks, a pedestrian advocacy organization. We want them to stand by the things that weve promised to Angelenos  that were going to create safe streets and that were going to reduce traffic fatalities to get us there.

Murphy said drivers in Los Angeles have gotten too entitled, thinking that a trip should only take a certain amount of time. Who said that? Where is it in the Angeleno owner manual that it will only take 20 minutes to get somewhere?

In addition to the court of public opinion, the Vista del Mar project will have its day in court.

A condo association in Playa del Rey sued the city earlier this month, and the Keep L.A. Moving advocates are dotting the Is and crossing the Ts on a lawsuit that will accuse L.A. of bypassing state environmental laws, Mendelson said.

These projects being litigated is not a new thing, and its not even a uniquely Los Angeles thing, said Reynolds of the Transportation Department. What it requires is that you hold yourself to a really high standard. You have to do good work.

laura.nelson@latimes.com

Twitter: @laura_nelson

david.zahniser@latimes.com

Twitter: @davidzahniser

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Twitter: @AleneTchek

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UPDATES:

3:20 p.m.: This article was updated with reaction and additional details.

This article was originally published at 10:25 p.m. on July 26.
Los Angeles County Sheriff Jim McDonnell will ask the state Supreme Court to review a recent lower-court decision that barred him from giving prosecutors the names of deputies with histories of serious misconduct, he said in a statement Wednesday.

The appeal, which has not yet been filed, will seek to establish legal clarity while balancing the privacy protections of officers personnel files, according to the statement.

Our intent was never to compromise or give away your rights. And at no time was the department seeking to voluntarily turn over information from anyones personnel file, McDonnell said in a video issued internally to deputies on Wednesday.

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But Det. Ron Hernandez, president of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, called McDonnells position ill-advised and said the recent court ruling provided proper guidance that allows for the department to give prosecutors information on a case-by-case basis pursuant to a court order.

Several advocacy groups have called on the sheriff to appeal the decision, handed down two weeks ago by a Los Angeles appeals court.

The court ruled that the names of deputies found by internal investigators to have lied, stolen, falsified reports and committed other types of misconduct are confidential and cannot be handed over to prosecutors  even in pending criminal cases in which the deputies are listed as potential witnesses.

The decision was a victory for ALADS, the union that represents rank-and-file deputies, which sued the department last year over McDonnells attempt to give the district attorneys office a list of about 300 deputies whose past misconduct could call into question their credibility as witnesses in court.

The 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brady vs. Maryland obligates prosecutors to turn over any evidence favorable to defendants, which could include information that undermines an officers credibility.

Police personnel files  including the findings of administrative proceedings and even an officers name in connection to any internal investigation  are confidential in California.

But many police agencies across the state regularly give local prosecutors the names of officers found in internal investigations to have committed certain types of misconduct as part of the prosecution teams so-called Brady obligation.

This is bigger than the LASD, McDonnell said in the video to deputies.

If we do not find a legal path to provide the information as required, the consequences could be severe. In the criminal cases where you make arrests, convictions may be overturned. We could be held civilly liable if someone is wrongfully convicted and a court finds that the sheriffs department improperly withheld information relevant to the case. Or worse, local, state and federal prosecutors could elect not to file cases or bring them to trial at all, he said.

The union has argued that disclosure of the list to prosecutors violates the states police confidentiality laws, and that the courts recent decision does not impair a defendants right to a fair trial.

McDonnells claim that the decision did not provide the clarity needed ... is inaccurate, Hernandez said in a text message. It provided a clarity he disagrees with.

The department has until Aug. 21 to file its petition to the state supreme court. The high court can decide whether or not to hear the case.

maya.lau@latimes.com

Twitter: @mayalau

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His was the big booming voice on skid row, calling out across the crowded streets to a friend or fellow traveler. Microphone Mike, some called him.

A onetime criminal defense attorney who lost his career to a crack addiction, Kevin Michael Key found both ruin and redemption on skid row, a neighborhood he came to embody as one of its loudest and most persistent activists.

Until his death July 19 from cancer, Key was involved with virtually every outreach, self-help or activist group that had its hands in skid row  even acting in a theater group that provided purpose and camaraderie to people who had lost both.

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He always saw skid row as the New York part of L.A., said John Malpede, director of the Los Angeles Poverty Department, the theater group.

Key was convinced that skid row had ultimately saved his life, said Pete White, the founder and executive director of Los Angeles Community Action Network, an advocacy group.

While he was once drawn to skid row to feed his worsening drug habit, Key discovered that through activism and being in the company of others trying to get back on their feet, a renewed sense of self-worth had blossomed.

When I was a lawyer, I only got to represent one person, he said during a 2011 interview with Neon Tommy, an online news publication. Instead of representing one client, now I represent a whole community.

Born Jan. 20, 1950, in Bridgeport, Conn., Key moved to Harlem, New York, when he was young and graduated from City College of New York and earned his law degree from New York Law School. He moved to California the year after his graduation to be closer to his mother and went to work for the L.A. County Public Defenders office and later opened a private practice.

He was disbarred for ethical violations, his daughter Kawana said, lapses she said were triggered by his drug use.

Growing up with him was tough, for sure, she said. The two reconnected when he became sober, and she said his driving personality and crusading spirit came back into full view.

He was always a man of the people, someone who stood up to help others, she said. When he was in active addiction, you saw that side of him less. But it was always there.

Key openly discussed his demons.

You can get down here and get stuck on stupid, you know? he told Neon Tommy. The very same advice I was giving my clients I couldnt see fit to take myself.

In 2002, Key got sober and found new life in activism. He joined the United Coalition East Prevention Project, worked as a liaison for the diabetes program at the JWCH Community Clinic, marched with the prison reform group Critical Resistance and served two terms on the Downtown Neighborhood Council.

He prodded civic leaders to give skid row the same attention and amenities that other neighborhoods received. He preached the gospel of sobriety. He helped lead a campaign to rescind a liquor license at the New Genesis Hotel, a low-cost housing complex built with public money on the edge of skid row. The neighborhood, he said, already had more than enough alcohol.

Key also was introduced to the theater troupe, which shared the same acronym as the citys police force  LAPD. As he watched the group perform, he realized that what he was witnessing was activism theater, performance art  often written by those who lived on skid row  that put a spotlight on the realities and challenges of life on the streets in downtown L.A.

In one piece  Glimpse of Utopia  200 homeless people and art students stood on the streets, swaying as if being pushed and pulled by the wind. It was intended as a statement about the lack of trees, or anything remotely green, on skid row. Another production, What Fuels Development, was drawn from the liquor license fight.

One day, after hed joined the theater group, he decided to improvise his lines in a play about the ills of gentrification in downtown L.A. Suddenly, he was rattling on about city developers being like drug addicts, and city officials their dealers.

When he showed up for the next rehearsal, his ad lib lines had been incorporated into the script. For the first time in years, he felt a rush of pride.

Its a jolt of adrenaline, he said. You like it, you feel good about it, you feel better about yourself.

Key toured with the group in South America, Europe and the East Coast. He also had a brief speaking role in The Soloist, the Jamie Foxx/Robert Downey Jr. film about Los Angeles Times columnist Steve Lopezs friendship with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless musician. Portions of the film were shot on skid row, and neighborhood residents were hired as extras.

White said that Key came to view skid row as a recovery community, a place where people could get sober, pick up the pieces and begin to enjoy life again. He was also an unrelenting advocate for the neighborhood.

Some would look at skid row as a community in despair, White said. But he was always there to remind people that it was a place of hope, and it was a home.

As his cancer worsened in recent months, Key retreated to his apartment at the Yankee Hotel in the heart of skid row. One evening after rehearsals, Malpede said the entire theater group walked to the hotel and stood on the sidewalk until Key came outside. With a fire engine roaring out of Station No. 9 and traffic crawling along East 7th Street, they gave him a group hug.

Key is survived by a son, Kevin Jr.; two daughters, Kawana and Antoniette; a brother; and several grandchildren.

steve.marble@latimes.com

twitter.com/stephenmarble

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UPDATES:

9:45 a.m. July 28: This article was updated with additional background details.

This article was originally published at 12:42 p.m. July 27
Carla Lewis enlisted in the U.S. Air Force in 1990. But the next year, after a background check for a top-secret position revealed that she had seen a counselor for gender identity issues, she was honorably discharged for what her military papers described as Conditions That Interfere With Military Service  Not Disability  Mental Disorders.

She is transgender. While she had been designated a male at birth, she identifies as a female and transitioned to that after leaving the Air Force. She said her discharge was a black mark that made it difficult to get other jobs.

Thats why she and her active-duty transgender friends had been elated by the Obama administrations decision in 2016 to allow transgender service members to serve openly, she said.

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But a surprise announcement by President Trump on Twitter on Wednesday banning transgender Americans from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military has angered and bewildered transgender soldiers and veterans, with some active service members now wondering if theyve put themselves at risk by outing themselves as transgender when the Obama administration allowed them to do so.

Some of them are even approaching retirement, and now that theyve come out, theyre [screwed], said Lewis, 46, who is now an activist for transgender rights. All over the world, theres units in the place that depend on a transgender member of that team. I have one friend who told me today that people believe we cant do our jobs, and right now this is disrupting our ability to do our jobs. 

Transgender people have already served in the military in large numbers, though in the past it was mostly in secret, with gender transitions  often with the use of hormones and sometimes surgeries  usually coming after the end of service. (All the veterans quoted in this story transitioned after leaving the military and are identified by their current names.)

A 2012 study by the UCLA law schools Williams Institute estimated that about 15,500 transgender people were serving on active duty, in the National Guard or in reserve forces, and that there are more than 134,000 transgender veterans.

In his tweets, Trump claimed that the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

LGBTQ advocacy groups disputed that assertion and threatened legal action if the president tries to turn his tweets into policy. Hundreds of activists turned out in Times Square in New York to protest.

Im enraged, because this puts people at risk, said Terrance Kayton, 34, an Oakland activist who transitioned to male after serving in the Navy from 2001 to 2005. My friends, some are still active duty, and they have created spaces, supposedly safe spaces, for them to serve openly for a year now, and this just puts them in harms way.

Emma Shinn, a Denver attorney who specializes in military criminal defense, said Trumps announcement was dangerous not only to our service members but to trans people across the nation, because it sends a message that were not equal, that were not good enough.

Shinn said she enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1994 and served in six deployments, including a combat posting in Fallujah, Iraq, where she was an infantry platoon captain. She transitioned to female after leaving the military in 2014 and continues to work with active-duty service members, who have been incredibly respectful and accepting across the board.

I think that the members of our military honestly dont care if someone is trans or not, or LGBT or not, as much as they dont care if someone is Jewish or Christian or Muslim or black or white or any other ethnicity, she said. What they care about is if people do their jobs. Can you put rounds on targets and increase the lethality of our military, or not? And its been proven that trans people can do that, so Im very confused about the rationale that President Trump is using to exclude us from open service.

Paula Neira, a 54-year-old nurse and attorney from Bowie, Md., says she enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1981 but left after serving in Operation Desert Storm in 1991 because I realized that I needed to transition [to female] and live authentically, and that meant sacrificing my naval career.

Neira, who went on to become one of the experts consulted by the military as part of its 2016 decision to allow open service for transgender Americans, said the Trump administrations claims of expensive medical care and disruption were not supported by the evidence gathered by military experts.

Is our Department of Defense going to run around and try to discharge thousands of troops? Neira said. We dont know. What is going to be the actual impact? How do you implement this opinion?

She said that forcing service members to live a lie about their identities was contrary to the militarys values of honor and integrity.

We have had folks deploy to combat over the last 16 years, weve had our allies deploy transgender forces right along ours, and theyve been able to accomplish the mission, she said. These folks have served honorably, and all they want to do is serve their country.

Calpernia Addams, 46, an activist and actress in Los Angeles, said she served in the U.S. Navy from 1990 through 1993, working as a field combat medic in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War. She had enlisted to escape poverty, and she liked being a medic because she felt it was more feminine work. But she was always afraid of being kicked out for being different.

Back then, the language wasnt even around to talk about trans issues, said Addams, who transitioned to female after leaving the Navy and who said she felt like she had missed out by not being covered by the 2016 policy change. Seeing that other people had it, it felt like I was watching progress, and I knew somebody else didnt have to be afraid like I always was. Now thats been ripped away. Its really disorienting and disheartening, Im still processing it.

Addams said it surprises people when she talks about the military being the best possible thing she could have done with her life at the time. It opened up the world to me, it taught me self-confidence, it taught me how to be strong, she said. Im so glad I was in the military. I just hate that so much of my time had to be so fearful.

matt.pearce@latimes.com

@mattdpearce

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The killing of inmate Danny Pham in an Orange County jail earlier this month underscores a deficit of effective leadership in that county that has undermined confidence in the jails and the people who run them. There have been too many problems to simply brush them off as bad luck, or as the sort of mistakes or tragedies that inevitably occur in the operation of any large county jail. Investigations into Phams death are underway  as are court proceedings alleging that the authorities have misused jailhouse informants  and there are continuing concerns over escapes and inhumane conditions, but its not yet possible to see how or when the seemingly perpetual problems in management of the jails will abate.

Pham was found dead in his cell on July 3, shortly before he was to have completed a 180-day sentence for car theft. Phams lawyer told The Times that he had been informed his client was killed by a cellmate who was in jail on two murder charges.

In many jails, its common and sensible practice to separate potentially violent inmates from others, and people awaiting trial from those who are serving sentences. If conducted properly, the sheriffs investigation will tell us whether the Orange County jail system has such protocols, whether jailers breached them and, if so, how frequently.

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Meanwhile, the Orange County Sheriffs Department continues to face credible allegations that it has purposely placed informants  inmate snitches  into particular cells in an effort to elicit confessions or other evidence that can be used by the district attorney to win convictions or tougher sentences.

Conditions in Orange County jails fall below constitutionally acceptable standards.

The alleged snitch program is at issue in the criminal sentencing of Scott Dekraai, the confessed killer of his ex-wife and seven other people at a Seal Beach salon in 2011. Orange County Assistant Public Defender Scott Sanders represents Dekraai and claims that prosecutors and deputies conspired to house his client with a snitch in order to obtain information to support a death sentence, and in so doing violated Dekraais constitutional rights.

Just as a law enforcement officer or a prosecutor may not question a suspect out of the presence of a defense attorney if one is requested, they generally may not use an agent to try to get inmates statements on their behalf.

The judge in Dekraais case, Thomas Goethals, has said he was satisfied beyond any doubt that the sheriff had a jailhouse snitch program, despite denials by the sheriff and an assertion by the grand jury that the existence of such a program was a myth beyond the misdeeds of a few rogue deputies. Goethals also criticized Hutchens for failing to come forward with a log documenting the use of informants, along with dozens of boxes of other arguably relevant material; and he leveled similar criticism against Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas, whose office he has barred from the Dekraai prosecution.

Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union has cautioned in a recent report that conditions in Orange County jails fall below constitutionally acceptable standards. The report  citing excessive force against inmates, inadequate healthcare and unsafe conditions  sounds ominously similar to earlier warnings about the Los Angeles County jails, later borne out in a series of reviews, reports and criminal prosecutions.

Jails by their nature are not pleasant places, but neither should they be dungeons that jeopardize the lives of inmates, or chambers in which public employees attempt to circumvent constitutional protections against self-incrimination. Jail could and should be a place where safety is as certain as it is on the street. It should be a place where inmates can stabilize their lives, and begin necessary treatment for mental illness, substance abuse or whatever condition led them to lawlessness in the first place.

Society owes itself, as well as its inmates, a criminal justice system that protects the innocent from depredations of criminals while at the same time offering those same criminals an opportunity to change their ways. It owes itself a system in which people sworn to protect and defend the Constitution actually do so. There are too many signals  the killing of Pham being only the latest  that those officials responsible for the Orange County jails are failing to meet their obligations.

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There are two John McCains. The first is the well-curated PR image of a straight-talking, principled maverick war hero who skirts partisanship in favor of doing whats right. The second John McCain, the three-dimensional one who occupies reality, is a reliable partisan conservative who loves war and occasionally says things mildly critical of his own party. Over the last week, in the interest of politeness and nationalist myth-making, our media has overwhelmingly focused on the former at the expense of fidelity to history.

Its easy to understand why pundits would go easy on or even praise McCain, a longtime senator from Arizona who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer and who suffered as a prisoner of war for five years. But accuracy matters more than etiquette.

As many others have noted throughout the years, McCains political career has been marked by jarring flip-flops and malleable principles. He was opposed to President George W. Bushs NSA wiretap program before he supported it. He defended the estate tax before he harshly criticized it. He vaguely opposed torture but undermined legislative efforts to stop it. He embraced Social Security privatization before saying otherwise  twice. Positions evolve, thats fine; but most politicians dont build their entire brand on principle only to shift stances in a seemingly arbitrary fashion.

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Another problem with the latest wave of McCain hagiographies is that theyre proof of low standards in the age of Trump. In the wake of his cancer diagnosis, McCain received praise from pundits for a moment in 2008 when he corrected a racist voter who called Obama an Arab. No maam, McCain said. Hes a decent family man. But the fact that McCain casually contrasted being Arab with being decent  without defending Arabs as such  goes largely ignored. The media grades Republicans on such a steep curve these days that the most basic instance of common decency is taken as evidence of profound moral courage.

Its essential that history not get obscured by the rose-tinted goggles of a bipartisan fetishizing U.S. media.

Take, for another example, McCains heroic return to the Senate floor on Tuesday to defend Senate traditions, which he said had been cast aside by his colleagues in their hurry to repeal Obamacare. Outlets from CNN to Washington Post to ABC framed this return as a swan song appeal to patriotism, a defense of decency by a lion of the Senate. Buried in these reports, however, is that while McCain condemned the partisan, cynical nature of the bill being rammed through Congress, he proceeded to vote for every measure that advanced it, anyway. (He did vote no on a partial repeal bill that would not have replaced Obamacare.)

In voting for [Senate Majority Leader Mitch] McConnells motion, McCain participated in precisely the sort of cynical partisan political maneuver that he inveighed against, the New Yorkers John Cassidy wrote. Once again: Theres John McCain the PR vassal and John McCain the loyal Republican apparatchik; and once again the media focused on the former while downplaying the latter.

One of the most pervasive myths is that McCain, as the Washington Post editorial board recently said, champions human rights. Its a popular trope that consistently gets bandied about uncritically  even by McCain himself in a self-promoting op-ed in the New York Times in May. Theres only one problem with this conventional wisdom: Its bogus.

While McCain does occasionally condemn human rights abuses, he generally does so when seeking to demonize those already in the crosshairs of American aggression  Russia or Venezuela, say. And hes never met a war he didnt like, which is a rather unusual trait for a supposed champion of human rights.

McCain passionately advocated for an Iraq invasion that caused 500,000 to 1 million deaths and a Libya bombing that turned the country into a haven for extremists and slave markets. He cheerled the 2014 Israel bombing of Gaza while hundreds of Palestinian civilians were being killed. And perhaps most shamelessly he continues  to this day  to support Saudi Arabias devastating and cruel siege of Yemen thats claimed over 10,000 civilian lives and led to nearly 600,000 cases of cholera. McCain selectively cares about human rights when it permits him to lay the groundwork for U.S. aggression, but looks the other way when the U.S. or its allies are at fault.

No one wants to dunk on an octogenarian just diagnosed with cancer, but history is being written as we speak and its essential that history not get obscured by the rose-tinted goggles of a bipartisan fetishizing U.S. media. Those subject to McCain-backed policies domestically  including the millions who would be affected by Obamacare repeal  deserve better. Those subject to his militarism abroad  from Yemen to Iraq  deserve better too. Their hardships matter as much as his, and their suffering ought not be glossed over in the interest of nationalistic mythmaking.

Adam H. Johnson is a media analyst for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting.

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President Trump wants to put an end to the Department of Justices Russia inquiry. He has questioned whether he can pardon himself and whether Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions should have recused himself from the investigation.

The president is a fighter, but hell need to pick his fight. Expressing annoyance with his attorney general and daydreaming about pardoning himself wont do. Sessions recusal merely reflects that no one can investigate himself, and the embarrassing idea that a president may grant his own pardon has been consistently rejected by the Justice Departments Office of Legal Counsel.

There is, however, another question the president has every reason to be asking: Is the post of special counsel, a Department of Justice administrative creation, itself constitutional? The appointment of Robert S. Mueller III is open to reasonable doubt.

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To begin with, the role of the special counsel cannot be justified by the Supreme Courts 8-1 approval of the earlier independent counsel law, which was passed in 1978 and expired in 1999. The high courts dissenter was Justice Antonin Scalia, and subsequent precedent and scholarship acknowledge that Scalia had the better argument. Indeed, Congress let the law expire because, as Scalia reasoned, it made it too easy to falsely call ones political opponent a crook. (Both Republicans and Democrats were equally happy to see the law sunset.)

Is the post of special counsel, a Department of Justice administrative creation, itself constitutional?

Under the expired law, independent counsels were appointed by a special three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals, but only after the attorney general conducted a preliminary investigation based on specific and credible information about alleged wrongdoing by the president. Under the old law, if there were no reasonable grounds after the preliminary investigation, that was reported to the court and the matter ended. These careful first steps are not explicit in the Justice Departments current special counsel regulations, and there are no signs that in the wake of Sessions recusal, a constitutionally sufficient process triggered the Mueller appointment.

Statutorily appointed independent counsels also had an obligation to make reports to the appointing court every six months. In order to expand the boundaries of an investigation, they had to get the approval of the attorney general and notify the court. The court decided what reports were made public or sent to Congress. By comparison, Mueller appears to be operating unilaterally.

News reports indicate that Mueller is directing White House personnel to retain documentation and that hes going after Trumps tax returns. Those suspicious of the president insist upon the necessity of this line of inquiry, but they skip over whether a politically unaccountable, unconfirmed special counsel may constitutionally make such demands.

Another basic objection can be raised about the special counsel. Scalia noted that employing an independent counsel stands criminal practice on its head: The normal order is crime first, ascertain the guilty second. Muellers appointment originated with former FBI Director James Comeys ethically dubious press leak and his apparent presumption of the presidents bad intent. Perhaps preidentification of guilt was considered acceptable under the independent counsel law because it also mandated protections against abuse, but again, Muellers administrative appointment isnt subject to such checks.

An Oct. 16, 2000, memorandum, by then-Assistant Atty. Gen. Randolph D. Moss, affirmed the Office of Legal Counsel view going back as far as 1818: A sitting president cannot be indicted and criminally prosecuted. The special counsel has not formally indicted Trump. But given Comeys hair-trigger assumption that Trump was up to no good, and the way the special counsel process defines the president as a wrongdoer before any wrong is established, the investigation itself is arguably equivalent to an unconstitutional indictment.

Indicting a sitting president is unconstitutional because it gives insufficient weight to the peoples considered choice of chief executive. Presidents can be subject to civil litigation (such as Paula Jones suit against President Bill Clinton) but not to the burden and stigma of a criminal case. In the words of the Office of the Legal Counsel, To wound the president by criminal proceeding is to hamstring the operation of the whole government apparatus, both in foreign and domestic affairs.

Why have those advising Trump not raised these fundamental questions? Perhaps it is because his advisors, like the president, are more familiar with business law  transactional law  where the ingenuity of legal counsel combines with investment savvy to achieve a success memorialized in a contract. Business law and constitutional practice are not the same, and the president is not well served if his advisors do not make that clear.

That the application of the Constitution is not a matter of commercial arm-wrestling might seem to the disadvantage of a president whose measure is the art of the deal, but it is not. Moreover, asking basic questions about the constitutionality of the special counsels appointment does not place the president above the law; it merely gives him the benefit of it.

Douglas W. Kmiec teaches constitutional law at Pepperdine University. He was principal deputy and then head of the Office of the Legal Counsel at the Department of Justice from 1985 to 1989.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinionand Facebook
In the early morning of July 5, NYPD Officer Miosotis Familia was killed by a gunman in an ambush attack while patrolling a Bronx neighborhood. Just weeks earlier, on the other side of the country, a UPS employee entered his San Francisco workplace armed with two guns and opened fire, killing three of his coworkers and injuring two others before turning the gun on himself. While seemingly unrelated, these examples of gun violence share one common feature: Both were committed with stolen firearms.

It a well-known fact of modern American life that we collectively own a massive number of guns  the best guess places the number at about 300 million. One of the risks inherent in this level of gun ownership is theft. Indeed, a new analysis by the Center for American Progress of data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives found that a gun is stolen in the U.S. every two minutes.

The ATF, which is responsible for oversight of the gun industry, has been particularly concerned about burglaries and robberies of gun stores, finding that the former have increased 48% and the latter 175% between 2012 and 2016. During this period, nearly 31,500 guns were stolen from gun stores.

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But its not just gun stores that are targets for thieves. In 2015 alone, gun owners reported $164 million worth of guns stolen nationwide. Local police agencies have sounded the alarm about a rise in thefts from vehicles, urging gun owners to leave their weapons at home or lock them securely if they are left in a car.

Amazingly, under current law, the ATF cannot require gun dealers to even lock their doors.

These thefts represent more than financial losses to gun owners and dealers. Guns are both dangerous weapons and durable goods. Once stolen, they dont simply disappear from the nations gun stock  they are transferred and traded in underground illegal markets and often end up used in violent crimes, like the slayings of Officer Familia and UPS employees Wayne Chan, Benson Louie and Michael Lefiti.

Like most aspects of gun violence in the U.S., there is much more that could be done to address this problem. Amazingly, under current law, the ATF cannot require gun dealers to even lock their doors. Certainly most gun store owners  like any other business owner who wants to make a profit  have implemented security measures to protect against theft. However, gun theft numbers make clear that we cannot solely rely on the industry to police itself.

Congress needs to give the ATF the authority to require gun dealers to take certain basic steps to secure their inventory. A good starting place is the bill Rep. Brad Schneider (D-Ill.) introduced this week, which would require gun dealers to store guns securely after business hours and would direct the attorney general to consider regulations regarding additional security requirements.

Congress also needs to ease other restrictions that impede the ATFs ability to effectively oversee gun dealers  such as the appropriations rider that prevents the ATF from requiring dealers to conduct an annual inventory reconciliation  and adequately fund the agency so that it can conduct regular compliance inspections with dealers to help identify security risks.

Theres also more that policymakers could do to help prevent thefts from individual gun owners. Gun owners should be required  or at the very least incentivized  to lock up their guns when they are not in use. Not only would this measure help prevent theft, but it would also greatly reduce the risk of accidental shootings by curious children who find guns in their homes.

Policymakers can also improve data collection on how often guns are stolen and the circumstances of those thefts. In most states, gun owners are not required by law to report thefts to law enforcement. That makes the numbers available to the FBI a likely undercount and renders it difficult to accurately gauge the true scope of this problem or develop smart, targeted policy approaches to address it.

Everyone loses when guns are stolen: the gun dealer or owner who suffers a financial loss, law enforcement working to investigate crimes perpetrated with stolen guns, and communities victimized by shootings committed with these guns. A handful of states  including California  have stepped in to fill some of these gaps. Maybe this could be one place where Congress could set aside the usual maddening dynamics of the gun debate and actually get something done.

Chelsea Parsons is vice president of guns and crime policy at the Center for American Progress.

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion or Facebook
To the editor: Regarding this opinion piece, Ronald Reagan probably would not be considered conservative enough in todays Republican Party, yet Fredrik deBoer contends the problem is liberal academics. (Re This trend wont end well, Opinion, July 24)

Todays conservatism is nihilism.

Trump is practicing burn it down"while the GOP rejects the scientific method.

Republicans dont believe colleges are valuable because science and skepticism are counter to their orthodoxy. And yes, this trend wont end well.

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David Greene, San Pedro

::

To the editor: In attempting to explain the lack of respect for universities among conservatives, DeBoer notes the medias amplify[ing] every leftist kerfuffle and the imbalance of liberals vs. conservatives among professors.

No one would object to that imbalance if the university were able to maintain open inquiries regardless of majority affiliation. Hecklers did not shut down liberal speakers in the 50s, and The Communist Manifesto was taught as an historical document, without safe spaces for Republicans.

As to kerfuffles, the frequency of black-masked thugs setting fires, throwing bricks, violently suppressing opposing views, and other acts of overt fascism cannot be amplified enough.

David Goodwin, Los Angeles

::

To the editor: I hate to sound to like a broken record, but a large part of the blame for this attitude of Republicans denigrating education can be placed squarely at the doorstep of Fox News.

It beats its audience 24/7 over the head with lies and misinformation, constantly berating colleges and universities as hotbeds of liberal thought. As if learning and higher education are bad things, Fox spews this nonsense day after day, week after week.

Of course universities slant liberal, thats why people go there to learn stuff.

Scott W. Hughes, Westlake Village

::

To the editor: Leftists have politicized all learning: scientists who alter data to conform to leftist orthodoxy; scholars with a nonconformist viewpoint who are shunned, banned, and ignored; labeling anyone who presumes to disagree as a reactionary. None of this is either science or expertise; this is Marxist cherry-picking of people and information to conform to preconceived ideas of what is acceptable as a fact.

If I want an expert, Ill go elsewhere than to one of our typical, brainwashed college professors.

Donate money to one of their institutions of narrow learning? Ridiculous.

Patrick M. Dempsey, Granada Hills

::

To the editor: I agree with the op-ed by DeBoer about the decided anti-intellectual trend of the current GOP and the attitudes of Republicans and especially Trump supporters toward higher education in this country.

Forty years ago, it was President Reagans trickle down economics that asked Americans to suspend common sense and believe that giveaways to the rich and powerful would somehow improve their employment opportunities and overall well-being.

Then it was the phony tax cut philosophy that only benefited the 1%.

Then it was the tea party that wanted to dismantle all government protections of the poor and middle class regardless of the wisdom involved.

All benefiting from an anti-intellectual approach.

From immigration to voter fraud, from climate change to Russian election interference, it is the uneducated and undereducated that Trump has hornswoggled.

During the campaign, Trump declared I love the poorly educated! No wonder he and his supporters have turned their backs on higher education.

He is the master of dumbing down the American electorate. It doesnt take a college graduate to see that.

Tim Geddes, Huntington Beach

::

To the editor: I read the op-ed with great interest. The writers concern about the potential crisis facing educational institutions is an issue of great importance.

But there is another issue at stake: the terrible disservice being done to todays students. By hearing only one side of a political or social position, students are not equipped to differentiate between disparate points of view. I dont think they have the opportunity to contrast or to weigh the pros and cons.

How can a student ever decide what to choose to believe if no alternatives are ever presented?

Without that type of discussion, there is no intellectual stimulation that leads to choosing what to believe, instead of merely parroting their professors.

Naomi Feldman, Beverly Hills

Follow the Opinion section on Twitter @latimesopinion and Facebook
Kamala Harris works to forge relationship with Central Valley

Sen @kamalaharris talking grapes with Fowler Packing Co president Dennis Parnagian in the fields outside metro Fresno pic.twitter.com/smVuRfbSpQ  Cathleen Decker (@cathleendecker) July 5, 2017

The drought may be over in the minds of urban Californians, quite literally washed away by huge accumulations of rain last year that filled reservoirs and left the states mountains covered with snow even now.

But the farmers and others in the Central Valley, veterans of multiple drought-and-flood cycles, know the reprieve is only temporary. On Wednesday they pressed new U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris to work to ensure a more reliable source of water for the nations most bountiful farming region.

This area is drying on the vine, Ryan Jacobsen, executive director of the Fresno County Farm Bureau, told Harris during a roundtable with Central Valley officials.

A long-term solution can only come through federal and state action to protect the areas water supply, he said.

Jason Phillips, chief executive of the Friant Water Authority, said recent rainfall had done little to stem problems caused by nearly a decade of drought.

A canal that runs from Fresno to north of Bakersfield sunk in some places as much as 2 feet in two years, he said, wreaking havoc on a system that operates on the force of gravity.

We cannot get all the water to our growers, he said.

The meeting between Harris and nearly two dozen agriculture and water officials was meant to ease what is typically a fraught relationship between the states Democratic leaders  all of whose power bases are in metropolitan areas  and the mostly Republican Central Valley powers that traditionally look at them with skepticism.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein has worked for two decades to aid the agricultural industry  at the roundtable, several nodded as Harris referred to the senior senator as an incredible warrior for the area.

But Harris predecessor, former Sen. Barbara Boxer, was allied more with environmental groups that have fought dams and other water systems. As a result, she was viewed negatively by many here.

Harris was intent Wednesday on persuading the Central Valley representatives of her interest in places beyond her base in Alameda and San Francisco counties.

They, on the other hand, worked to convince her to be more in the Feinstein mold on issues important to the area  from reliable water to immigration programs to environmental protections that take into consideration the areas needs.

President Trump was highly popular in much of the Central Valley, apart from Fresno County, which leans Democratic because of its metropolitan shadings. But some issues important to the valley cut in politically unorthodox ways.

Republicans here are more concerned than those elsewhere with passing a plan that would give legal status to immigrants, on whom agriculture depends. With undocumented workers worried about deportation, and the border tightening to those not yet here, the labor supply has already shrunk, farmers said.

Theyre out there working, being productive people, said farmer Joe Del Bosque. They work hard for us, and we have nowhere to reach.

Del Bosque said he recently held a training session for new workers. Of the 200 people who showed up, only a handful were born in the United States, he said.

Environmental regulations prized by Democrats elsewhere are often frowned on by some party members here and blamed for the areas water difficulties.

Several of the participants lobbied Harris for her support of dams that have long been under consideration by federal and state officials, particularly the Temperance Flat Dam, which would be constructed on the San Joaquin River.

Harris offered no assurances on the topic to the group on Wednesday. Afterward, speaking to reporters, she also did not take a position.

One of the things that were going to have to figure out ... is what is the right solution for that, she said of a plan to construct the Temperance Flat Dam and several others. Is it going to be about the building of dams? Is it also going to be about looking at  also looking at  other sources of renewable and sustainable reliable sources?

Both sides signaled they did not expect an alliance on all fronts. But Harris said she would serve as an advocate for farmers during the crafting of a new farm bill and other measures before the Senate.

William Bourdeau, executive vice president of the politically influential Harris Farms, told the senator he wished the majority of her supporters who reside in urban areas would have a better understanding of the risks and challenges of farming.

We need somebody to explain the symbiotic relationship we have, he said.

I agree with you completely, she replied.
Unable to agree on a path forward to repealing the Affordable Care Act, Senate Republicans are reluctantly coalescing around what may be the last idea standing: a dramatically scaled-down bill that would leave most of the 2010 law in place.

The so-called skinny repeal is still a work in progress, but one version being floated would repeal only three Obamacare provisions  a medical device tax and the mandates that individuals buy health insurance and that large employers offer it.

Thats far cry from the years-long GOP promise to gut the law, also known as Obamacare. But the face-saving strategy, which could come to a vote as soon as Thursday, would at least allow senators to say they acted on something.

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It could also trigger a conference committee with House lawmakers to reconcile the Senate bill with the more sweeping House repeal legislation, giving lawmakers another shot at reaching agreement.

Ive got to think about moving things along to get to conference to hopefully get a good product, said Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), who viewed the skinny alternative as a step toward something more comprehensive.

On Wednesday, GOP senators spent another frustrating and fruitless day debating and rejecting possible approaches.

After voting down their leaders most comprehensive overhaul plan a day earlier, Republicans rejected another long-standing GOP idea on Wednesday: to simply repeal most of Obamacare.

The amendment from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) mirrored a bill from conservatives that passed in 2015 but was vetoed by President Obama. Pauls measure would have repealed the Affordable Care Act by 2020, theoretically providing time to devise a replacement law.

President Trump has at various times pushed the repeal-only idea, which was seen as the most straightforward approach amid disagreement within the party.

But Pauls proposal failed to reach the 50 votes needed for passage, despite Republicans 52-seat Senate majority. Seven Republicans joined all Democrats in the 55-45 no vote.

That followed the late Tuesday rejection of GOP leaders Better Care Reconciliation Act, which had been bolstered with provisions to attract support from conservatives who want full repeal and centrists who worry about cuts to Medicaid.

Nine Republican senators voted against that idea.

Clearly it has proven to be quite challenging to get 50 Republicans on board with one solution, said Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.). Its been trying to move pieces around that would get everybody kind of comfortable and find a good landing spot. We just havent quite gotten there yet.

Senators braced for an expected all-night session Thursday to consider about 100 amendments from Republicans and Democrats. None are likely to gain traction.

Even the skinny repeal is no sure thing, and leaders Wednesday were assessing what provisions could be cobbled together to win majority support.

A few GOP senators who have been hardest to satisfy voiced interest Wednesday in the scaled-down plan, including Sens. Rand Paul of Kentucky and Dean Heller of Nevada. Sens. Rob Portman of Ohio and Mike Lee of Utah also said they would review it.

For some, even a limited repeal would provide GOP senators an opportunity to pass a bill, declare victory and move on to other issues like tax reform.

Others hope to continue the fight if the legislation moves to a conference to be reconciled with the House bill.

Several Republican senators seemed open to that route, hoping to adjust the final bill in the negotiations to come. But whatever is agreed to in conference would still have to be approved by both the House and Senate.

Paul took the opposite stand. He said he could consider a limited repeal, but was worried that once negotiations with the House began, the legislation would be changed in ways he would not support.

It is highly possible that the House and Senate will not be able to resolve their differences, since they remain far apart on their approaches.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a key broker of the House-passed bill, said the skinny version had zero chance in that chamber.

Even so, some predict that House Republicans may be pressured to approve whatever skinny version ultimately passes the Senate, even if it is less ambitious than what Republicans once envisioned.

Meanwhile, many outside groups have voiced concerns about elements of the skinny plan, particularly if it repeals the individual mandate.

Though that mandate is unpopular with consumers, removing it could cause chaos in the insurance markets.

Without some kind of penalty, many healthy Americans would not get insurance until they were sick. That would push up health insurance costs, causing what people in the business call a death spiral.

The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimated two years ago that repealing the mandates would increase the ranks of the uninsured by as many as 15 million, mostly people voluntarily dropping their coverage. It also estimated that premiums would increase by 20%.

On Wednesday, the skinny plan drew criticism from several leading healthcare groups, including the American Medical Assn., the nations largest physicians organization and the Blue Cross Blue Shield Assn., a health insurance trade group.

A system that allows people to purchase coverage only when they need it drives up costs for everyone, the insurance group warned in a statement.

Times staff writer Noam N. Levey contributed to this report.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

@LisaMascaro

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In a desperate bid to salvage their Obamacare overhaul, Senate Republicans were closing in on an unorthodox plan Thursday to vote on a dramatically slimmed-down repeal bill, but only if they received assurances that what they pass will never become law.

They want Senate GOP leaders so-called skinny bill  which Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) called a fraud, disaster and the dumbest thing in history  to be used only as a vehicle to develop more comprehensive legislation later in consultation with House Republicans.

The emerging plan would require 50 of the Senates 52 GOP lawmakers to vote for a bill that would leave much of the 2010 law in place and eliminate just a handful of its provisions, including its insurance mandates. The strategy arose in recent days as a last-ditch alternative after Senate Republicans were unable to agree on any other legislation to roll back the Affordable Care Act.

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But GOP senators first wanted House Republican leaders to pledge not to vote on the Senates skinny plan, and to instead set up a conference committee in which House and Senate lawmakers can meld it with the more sweeping repeal legislation passed by the House in May.

People want to be assured theres going to be a conference, said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).

Late Thursday, House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) offered a somewhat qualified promise to do that. If moving forward requires a conference committee, that is something the House is willing to do, he said in a statement.

It was not immediately clear whether that would be enough for senators, but it increased the chances that a vote on a skinny bill would take place later in the night.

The highly unusual strategy put Senate Republicans in the odd position of potentially advancing legislation they do not support.

In a news conference Thursday afternoon, four senators took turns blasting the skinny plan, even as they signaled they would be willing to vote for it as strategy to move forward.

Im not going to vote for a pig in a poke, Graham said.

But the four said they would vote for it if they received a guarantee from Ryan that the House would not simply pass the same bill and send it to President Trump. Graham said that he had heard from members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus who also view the skinny bill as unacceptable, but that some in the House wanted to pass it.

At least one Republican, Rep. Chris Collins of New York, a Trump ally, said the House should pass whatever the Senate sends, because further debate is not likely to produce any bill that all sides could agree to. If its skinny repeal or nothing ... Im going to vote for it, Collins said.

Following the news conference, Doug Stafford, a strategist for Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), called the senators position remarkable. If the House doesnt promise NOT to pass the bill, we will not vote for it; strangest position in my time here, & thats saying something, he tweeted.

The maneuvering drew widespread criticism from patient advocates and others who work in healthcare, including insurers who have warned that the skinny plan would dramatically increase Americans premiums.

In a letter to senators Thursday, AARP Executive Vice President Nancy LeaMond urged lawmakers to reject this flawed bill and this cynical approach.

But the ploy seemed to be the only way Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) could prevent the collapse of Republicans seven-year campaign to dismantle President Obamas signature domestic policy achievement. McConnell has been working for days to rally his divided caucus behind the skinny plan. After a lunch Thursday, many senators openly questioned whether the GOP could come up with a plan.

I dont know if the end is going to be fat or skinny or anorexic or bulimic, said Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.).

Trump pushed Republicans to reach a conclusion. Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Dont let the American people down! he tweeted Thursday morning.

In a sign of how far the president may be prepared to go to pressure senators, the administration reportedly threatened to cut off some federal aid to Alaska to punish Sen. Lisa Murkowski, one of two Republican senators who voted against opening debate on the current GOP healthcare effort, according to Alaska Dispatch News.

Democrats have all but given up on the Republicans effort and have dug in with procedural tactics to drag out the process.

Its like were in the Twilight Zone of legislating, said Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.).

Democrats also reiterated their interest in working together to fix Obamacare as long as Republicans give up their dream of repeal. Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said he spoke with the chairman of the Health Committee, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), Thursday morning and extended the invitation.

We know Obamacare needs some work. We dont deny that. Lets do it in a bipartisan way, he said.

But the prospects for bipartisanship remain dim. Republicans are in a political bind, under pressure from conservatives who want Obamacare repealed, but also facing emotional protests from constituents over the potential loss of insurance for millions of Americans if one of the GOP plans is approved.

Even the skinny repeal would produce some 15 million more uninsured Americans as mandates to carry coverage are repealed, and premium costs would jump by 20%, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.

The Republican repeal push continued to draw bitter criticism from Republican and Democratic governors, healthcare leaders and patient advocates, who are pleading with GOP lawmakers to slow down and engage in a more open, bipartisan process.

A bipartisan group of 10 governors  including Republicans John Kasich of Ohio and Brian Sandoval of Nevada  urged the two parties to cooperate.

Congress should be working to make health insurance more affordable while stabilizing the health insurance market, but this bill and similar proposals wont accomplish these goals, the governors said.

lisa.mascaro@latimes.com

noam.levey@latimes.com

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UPDATES:

5:05 p.m.: This article was updated after Ryans statement.

3:35 p.m.: This article was updated with the latest GOP strategy.

This article was originally published at 1 p.m.
Hosts of Southern Californias Morning Answer radio show were wrapping up a two-hour live broadcast from a white tent just outside the West Wing this week and marveling at their access to Cabinet secretaries and prominent administration figures.

If youre a Trumpkin, host Brian Whitman told his listeners on AM 870, this is like fantasy camp.

The White Houses daylong hospitality for Salem Radio Network, a nationwide chain of Christian and conservative stations, underscored President Trumps continued courtship of  and increased dependence on  core supporters as he confronts a stalled agenda and increasingly perilous investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia and he subsequently sought to obstruct the inquiries.

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The play-to-the-base strategy empowers those advisors and conservative media pushing a more nationalist, populist and evangelical agenda for Trump.

Among the latest examples was his Twitter announcement Wednesday, which surprised even the Pentagon, that he would block transgender people from military service despite his prior promises to fight for LGBTQ rights. That move followed a Tuesday evening campaign-style rally in Youngstown, Ohio, where Trump reprised his most popular attacks on elites, Democrats and recalcitrant Republicans.

All presidents pay special attention to their supporters, but the imperative grows more urgent when they face trouble. President Clinton similarly played to Democrats liberal base for self-preservation during his impeachment trial in the late 1990s, though all the while he maintained channels to congressional Republicans.

Trump, who describes politics as a transactional game of winning or losing, seems to have no use for the usual rhetoric or actions intended to soften partisan lines between elections. He has not made a concerted effort to broaden his appeal. Now, with low popularity ratings among the general public, he is banking all the more on his political base. Those supporters to date have shown little sign of wavering.

Theres a large bloc of people, including sophisticated people, who are just so sick of Washington, who will overlook almost anything as long as he shapes it up, said former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Trump confidant.

Yet if Trump isnt taking his supporters for granted, neither is he always pleasing them.

For a week, Trump has tested those bonds by relentlessly criticizing Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a favorite of many conservatives for his hard-line views on immigration and crime. That has prompted backlash not only from Republican senators who served with Sessions when he represented Alabama, but also from such media loyalists as Rush Limbaugh and Breitbart News.

Mostly the base remains stalwart, however, while even some of Trumps closest advisors, including Gingrich, worry that the president could be squandering an opportunity to expand his support, and with it his ability to leave a larger policy imprint.

Hes being advised that he needs to keep [his base] at all costs, said Christopher Ruddy, chief executive of the conservative Newsmax Media and a longtime friend of Trump. I think that advice is not particularly good.

Ruddy believes the bases fealty gives Trump latitude to reach beyond his comfort zone  to seek more centrist policies on taxes, education and infrastructure, for example  and broaden his support.

Those close to Trump say he has a rosier view of his popularity than reflected in most polls, which show his approval just under 40%, in part because his election shattered conventional wisdom.

He thinks that if hes at 40%, hes actually closer to 50%, Gingrich said.

Trumps self-regard is reinforced by flattering postmortems he receives from White House staff on how his public events played in the media. The printed packets include tweets and top chyrons on cable news, leading off with those from Fox News that capture, without challenge, his statements about his success.

Anthony Scaramucci, Trumps incoming communications director, gave his first interview after Trump chose him to Breitbart News radio show, discussing the importance of getting the message to the heartland.

We have enough outlets, whether its Breitbart, the presidents social media feed, all of the different apparatus that we have, where people will allow us to deliver our message to the American people unfiltered, he said.

Those in Trumps inner circle say that his attention to the voters he believes put him in office is conscious and that he views his governance as a series of promises kept. One senior advisor reeled off a number of issues: pulling out of the Paris climate agreement, deregulating energy production and other businesses, cracking down on so-called sanctuary cities, pushing for higher penalties against criminals who reenter the country illegally.

The advisor also cited the importance of showcasing the presidents meetings with heads of state and his red-carpet treatment on foreign trips: Supporters see those as signs of success, because many believe Trump has been unfairly depicted as an outcast on the world stage.

The aide also pointed to issues that appeal to evangelical Christians, such as restrictions on foreign aid to groups that provide abortions. That emphasis represents a slight shift. Trump downplayed religious and social issues in his campaign and still won about 80% of evangelicals support.

The presidents increased attention to religious and cultural issues suggests he might suspect that he cannot take their support for granted. Hours after announcing the transgender decision, Trump tweeted in all caps: IN AMERICA WE DONT WORSHIP GOVERNMENT - WE WORSHIP GOD!

Charles Franklin, director of the Marquette Law School Poll in Wisconsin, noted another area of potential concern for Trump: faltering support from wealthier, educated suburbanites who typically vote Republican but were less enthusiastic about Trump in the election.

Franklin said the presidents disapproval ratings outweigh his approval marks in two suburban counties around Milwaukee, which he has visited more than once since the election. Franklin added that Trump has been able to mitigate opposition in the state with strong support from rural voters and those in Green Bay, the type of important swing area that helped the president form his winning national coalition.

Polls nationally show Trump retaining over 80% support from Republicans, while about 10% of Democrats approve of him. His low approval ratings among independents are what have kept his overall popularity lower than that of any modern first-year president.

Trumps popularity with large majorities of Republicans gives him some protection as the Russia investigation begins to touch family members and close aides. But his threats against Republicans who cross him on policy are generally proving ineffective, something Trump complained about over the weekend.

Its very sad that Republicans, even some that were carried over the line on my back, do very little to protect their President, he tweeted Saturday.

That could be because polls show those who strongly disapprove of Trump outnumber those who strongly approve. Also, many GOP lawmakers distanced themselves from Trump before last years election, when they expected him to lose, and thus feel less pressure to fall in line now.

Trumps aides have long said that encouraging his love affair with his voters and stoking the adulation of crowds at his rallies goes beyond political necessity: It keeps his spirits up in tough times.

This week he even turned an address to a national Boy Scouts Jamboree in West Virginia into a political rally, encouraging boos for Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, though that upset many people inside and outside the traditionally nonpartisan Scouting community. The next night, he held forth at the Youngstown rally, calling a self-described lifelong Democrat named Geno DiFabio to the stage. Trump had seen DiFabio on Fox and Friends, where he described his passion for Trump.

DiFabio, wearing a large T-shirt that said Trump Won: Deal with it, gave Trump a bear hug and praised him for keeping the promises he had made.

Then he counseled the president, I would tell the Republicans and the Democrats, Look, I am going to go do my rallies. You got the agenda. Those people are voting for me and mine. 

The crowd roared. Trump nodded, smiled and patted DiFabio on the shoulder.

noah.bierman@latimes.com

Twitter: @noahbierman

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When President Trump campaigned this spring at the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, one part of his predecessors approach got a special endorsement.

It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar? Trump asked to laughs from his audience.

When Trump ally and National Rifle Assn. President Wayne LaPierre teed off six weeks later on Americas greatest domestic threats, he cited not homegrown terrorists but what he termed the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites.

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The rhetoric against elites came from two men who would seem to be card-carrying members of the club: LaPierre made more than $5 million in 2015, the most recent year for which his compensation was publicly released. Trump lived before his inauguration in a gold-plated home in the sky above New Yorks Fifth Avenue, a billionaires luxurious domain.

Yet for Trump and his allies, a war on elites has been central to the campaign which put him in the presidency and has maintained the loyalty of his core voters. Trump has taken particular aim at entities that could counter his power, which has helped stoke the ardor of his political backers.

Among his targets so far: the governments intelligence agencies, the media, foreign allies, the Department of Justice, establishment politicians, scientists and the Congressional Budget Office. The last has played a large role in raising questions about Republican proposals to repeal and replace Obamacare, leading to a furious White House assault on its competence.

Trump has refused to accept the judgment of intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election. He has alleged, without proof and contrary to both Democratic and Republican officials in key states, that millions of illegal voters cast ballots last year. He has blamed vaccines for autism, despite the scientific debunking of that notion.

Excoriating elites is classic populist language, said Yale historian Beverly Gage. Trump has taken it to a whole new level by not only attacking clueless elites but the entire idea of expertise.

To voters listening for them, Trumps anti-elitism signals have blared. As telling as his political and policy postures is his language  who else but Trump would angrily call his predecessors signature program a big fat ugly lie  and a perpetual sense of victimization.

Hes a billionaire, and therefore a member of a certain type of elites, Gage said. But hes also the guy from Queens rebelling against the know-it-all smarty pantses from Manhattan.

Trump has used both specific insults and the specter of powerful and mysterious external forces  he often describes them as an undefined they  arrayed against common Americans, with him as chief defender.

We have accomplished so much, and we are being given credit for so little, he said Friday as he announced his new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci. The good news is the people get it, even if the media doesnt.

Such us-against-them positioning has been common during populist eras in American politics for generations. That the man fueling it arose from elite social status is not uncommon either.

The Colonial leaders who bucked British control were the elite of their day, wealthier and more educated than those they led into the Revolution. But they were able to persuade followers that they shared sentiments more powerful than social standing.

Now, as then, who and what represents the distasteful elite is almost entirely in the eye of the beholder.

It is a world view, it really isnt dependent on education status or income, said Jeffrey L. Bell, author of the 1992 book Populism and Elitism, who describes himself as a populist despite his education at an elite university, Columbia. What has mattered, he said, is an objection to power being centralized in government or among distant leaders.

In early American history, populist sentiments led farmers to rebel against more urban coastal elites. The only coast with political power at the time was in the East; the West Coast has since become another symbol of elitism, particularly when the gaze is fixed on California and Hollywood.

Helpfully for Trump, the states he needed to turn his way in November already possessed strong veins of populism, making their voters more receptive than those in other states to Trumps message. Among the key states were Iowa and Wisconsin.

In Iowa, Republican Party Chairman Jeff Kaufmann said Trumps nearly 10-point victory relied in no small part on shared distaste for the elites the president spent his campaign scorning.

Populism really probably is a better explanation for the election in Iowa than party or religious influence, Kaufmann said. We really fit what he was standing forpushing back against the establishment, establishment Democrats and establishment Republicans, and trying to find the working-class voter.

Kaufmann set off fireworks recently when he used a Trump appearance in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, to rail against a fellow Republican, former college president and current Sen. Ben Sasse of Nebraska, whom he called an arrogant academic.

The irony? Kaufmann has a doctorate in history and is a college professor.

Yeah, Im an academic, he said, somewhat sheepishly. I dont know of another kind of arrogance worse than academic arrogance. The arrogance is coming from reading books, sitting at a desk and learning from reading, versus people out there building the roads.

A June Pew Research Center survey suggested that members of his party increasingly share a disdain for academics.

Less than two years ago, 37% of Republicans said colleges and universities had a negative effect on the country; by June, 58% felt they exerted a negative force. Democrats views were essentially unchanged over that time.

The distinction Kaufmann drew between people employed in different types of work was precisely the one honed by Trumps day-to-day message, replete with mentions of the travails of coal miners and manufacturing-line workers whose jobs the president has vowed to resurrect.

Trump is hardly the first president in modern times to seek out those voters. Ronald Reagan, then part of Hollywoods upper crust, made a similar pitch.

His eventual vice president, George H.W. Bush, castigated the liberal elite during his 1988 run against then-Massachusetts Gov. Michael S. Dukakis, whose foreign policy views, Bush said, were born in Harvard Yards boutique. Bush, a Yale graduate, broadcast his love of pork rinds in one of many efforts to seem more of the people than his wealthy upbringing suggested.

Four years later, Bush was outmaneuvered on that front by Democrat Bill Clinton, whose campaign delivered a sharp evocation of Americans who work hard and play by the rules but fail to get ahead.

Two strains of change have tended to fuel anger at elites. One is economic, the second is cultural.

Cultural shifts in the 1960s, particularly against the Vietnam War and for civil and womens rights, caused a backlash that helped propel Richard Nixon to the White House. Reagans victory over President Carter in 1980 and Clintons over Bush in 1992 were strengthened by the economic tumult of those times.

In 2016, both economic and cultural changes were at play. Economic resentments simmered against elites whom many voters held responsible for the 2008 financial crash, resenting that few on Wall Street were punished for malfeasance while everyday Americans lost their jobs and homes.

Cultural change was also in the air, given the campaign by the first female major party nominee and fights over issues such as transgender bathroom use.

When the views and experiences of elites and non-elites separate, you get tension. Thats when populist movements start to take shape, Bell said.

Katherine Cramer, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, has studied resentments among rural voters in the state for a decade. Todays sentiments derive from the same views that propelled earlier populist movements, she said: those who consider themselves not to be elite also feel they are being overlooked.

Why do they get all the stuff? Cramer said her subjects wondered. In reality, those rural voters get at least as much government money as urban dwellers, but they felt otherwise.

Theres this sentiment that the people in charge, whether theyre railroad barons or the government, are not paying attention to ordinary people, she said.

Distaste for elites may wane and surge in the future, she said, but it seems unlikely to disappear, given its staying power over the generations.

As much as I hate to admit it on a personal level, its in our DNA, she said.

For more on politics from Cathleen Decker 

cathleen.decker@latimes.com

Twitter: @cathleendecker

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Updates on California politics
The fundraising dinner for Gavin Newsom in Salinas was in most ways a typical night for a political candidate. Local business leaders paid up to $5,000 for a chance to talk with the man aiming to be Californias next governor over cauliflower bisque, strip steak and Meyer lemon pudding cake.

The hosts that March evening were in the agriculture business, in a region known for its lettuce, grapes and strawberries. But they left their signature dish off the menu: candy infused with marijuana.

California will soon have open sales of recreational marijuana, and it needs to decide how to regulate its newest cash crop. Hoping to influence those decisions, the cannabis industry is seeking access to the states political leaders.

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One candidate in 2018s open race for governor is actively inviting their support. The industry is responding by following a conventional political playbook and pouring money into the lieutenant governors campaign to replace Gov. Jerry Brown.

Cultivators, retailers and others have given Newsoms campaign more than $300,000, according to a Los Angeles Times analysis of public records. As part of his aggressive fundraising drive, Newsom has become the first California gubernatorial candidate to solicit large sums from the cannabis industry  far eclipsing his rivals.

Though pot businesses contributions are only a fraction of Newsoms $14-million war chest, the cannabis industrys open pursuit of political influence shows how a once-underground business is becoming a part of the establishment. So far, donors with a tie to the plant have given more to candidates for governor than all other farmers in the states agriculture industry combined.

In other industries theres an expectation that youre at the table before legislation is passed, said Elizabeth Ashford, a former aide to Brown and Sen. Kamala Harris who founded a political consulting service for cannabis firms. These businesses have evolved to that point.

Californias next governor will dictate how much those businesses, which produce a good the federal government still considers illegal, can flourish.

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Some in the industry see Newsom as a candidate who listens to their concerns and will stick up for them. Although Newsom says he has never smoked marijuana himself, he was one of the first statewide officeholders to support legalization of recreational use.

The host of the Salinas fundraiser on March 3 was Indus Holding Company, maker of cannabis confections such as Toasted Rooster and Crispy Kraken chocolate bars.

Dinner gave way to a roundtable discussion among the 20 or so guests, who raised with Newsom some of the issues affecting their nascent businesses, according to interviews with multiple attendees.

Banking was a major topic that night, they said. Currently, the vast majority of banks and credit unions will not work with cannabis companies, because the federal government considers their revenue illegal. Some operate on an all-cash basis, and most lack the ability to find traditional financing.

A proposal discussed that night would have the state create a special bank that would serve the cannabis industry. Newsom has not taken a public position, but he expressed interest in the idea of a pot bank, three attendees said.

Newsom declined to be interviewed for this story. His spokesman Dan Newman said while there are hundreds of creative banking ideas being discussed, the lieutenant governor had not endorsed any one concept. Newman added that his boss never discusses specific or pending legislation with donors.

Valentia Piccinini came away reassured that Newsom could find a solution. As an investor in cannabis businesses, she said her bank accounts have been frozen in the past. She fears it could happen again.

All of us feel confident that Gavin will push us through, said Piccinini, who has donated $20,000 to Newsoms campaign. I think he really passionately believes in what were doing.

Newsom didnt say much at the fundraiser, attendees said, but he listened to donors concerns on topics ranging from licensing requirements limiting who can distribute the product to restrictions on the size of marijuana farms.

Our 2018 fundraising dashboard 

Grant Palmer, 40, owner of a Santa Cruz dispensary, complained that the states new 15% marijuana tax is too high, especially after it is combined with other local tariffs. The tax was created when voters approved Proposition 64 last November and legalized all marijuana sales. Newsom was an enthusiastic supporter of the measure and the new tax.

He heard me, but I dont know that hell do anything about it, said Palmer, whose business contributed $5,000 to Newsoms gubernatorial bid.

Newsoms campaign committee reported at least $50,000 in cannabis-related donations soon after the fundraiser. In the last year, hes gathered thousands more, some of it from at least three other fundraising events with the industry.

Donors at those gatherings say they see a parallel between Newsoms early support for the legalization of marijuana and his stance on gay marriage, which he allowed as mayor of San Francisco in 2004 even though it violated state law at the time. The city issued marriage licenses for two months before the state Supreme Court ordered a halt, and the dispute led to a later court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in California.

He has this history of being a catalyst, Palmer said.

 Grant Palmer, owner of a Santa Cruz medical marijuana dispensary, contributed to Gavin Newsoms gubernatorial campaign. (Video by David Royal / For The Times)

Newsom further endeared himself to marijuana advocates by touting their cause as the states lieutenant governor, a largely ceremonial position with no legislative authority.

In 2015, as he ramped up his campaign for governor, Newsom organized public hearings with a commission of law enforcement, public health officials and academics to develop policy supporting legalization. The commissions work served as the basis for Proposition 64 and legalizing recreational pot.

That measure, which passed with 57% support, had the financial backing of billionaires such as George Soros and former Facebook President Sean Parker. The campaign for a yes vote pitched the proposition as a safe, progressive reform of the criminal justice system that would raise billions in revenue for government services. Newsom spoke about the need to end the war on drugs as a civil rights issue as he campaigned for the measure.

With those moral questions now settled, state policymakers are set to make a crucial round of commercial decisions. There is a thicket of regulatory proposals working its way through the legislative process and likely facing the next governor. The choices made will help determine who strikes it rich after the recreational marketplace opens in 2018.

Despite his success raising money from companies interested in influencing those outcomes, Newsom doesnt have the unanimous support of the pot industry.

Hezekiah Allen, executive director of the California Growers Assn., said the donations to Newsom come from large companies and wealthy individuals hoping to cash in, not the small growers he represents in the Emerald Triangle of Humboldt, Mendocino and Trinity counties in the north of the state.

Allen said he worries Newsom will allow large companies to cut out small operators who served the medical marijuana market prior to full-scale legalization.

There are fierce and cutthroat business practices coming, said Allen, who supports one of Newsoms rivals in the race, state Treasurer John Chiang. Were pushing to keep craft growers in business.

Chiang is leading an effort to reform cannabis banking and has likened the current system to the Wild West.

Allen is part of Chiangs working group debating reforms that could give cannabis companies full access to banks. Despite Chiangs desire to assist those businesses, he hasnt received much money from the industry. Nor has Antonio Villaraigosa, who sought to limit the number of medical marijuana dispensaries during his time as L.A. mayor but endorsed the recreational legalization effort shortly before the vote last year.

In its analysis, The Times identified contributions from cannabis companies and individuals who listed a marijuana-related business as their employer. All but $5,100 went to Newsom, the analysis found.

Among the checks Newsoms campaign cashed were those from proponents of consolidating the industry. The chief executive of one such corporation, Terra Tech, hosted a Newsom fundraiser. Employees of the company, which aims to scale up cannabis production, have given the candidate $71,000.

Newsom raked in more at an Oakland event organized by Steve DeAngelo, a longtime proponent of medical marijuana and chairman of FLRish Inc, a newly formed company buying up greenhouses and opening dispensaries in a bid to compete more broadly in the market.

Marijuana for sale at CannaCruz medical cannabis dispensary in Santa Cruz, Calif. The company gave $5,000 to Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsoms campaign for governor. (David Royal / For The Times)

There are other signs the cannabis sector is maturing into a traditional lobby.

The Coastal Pacific Political Action Committee was formed in December to fund candidates who support cannabis businesses. Last month, the group held its first fundraiser at a banquet hall in Hollywood.

Nearly 200 people attended the $500-per-plate dinner that feted Newsom along with Assemblyman Reggie Jones-Sawyer and former state Sen. Isadore Hall. Six days later, the PAC gave Newsom $40,000.

Jones-Sawyer, a Democrat who represents South L.A., attended the dinner to promote legislation he wrote that would prevent local police from helping federal agents raid marijuana operations that are legal under state law, similar to how some local governments avoid aiding immigration enforcement.

Jones-Sawyer said the attendees included former stockbrokers, lawyers and financiers, many of whom were unfamiliar with the habits and routines of politics.

Right now, the industry is learning not only what you can or cant do, or can or cant say at a fundraiser, but also how to interact with a politician, Jones-Sawyer said. This is a brand-new industry. We dont know where its going.

The invitation to the fundraiser called it a cant-miss event providing an opportunity for cannabis owners, operators and investors a chance to meet elected officials who will be shaping our industry for years to come.

Beneath a portrait of Newsom, the invitation contained a single instruction for attendees: No marijuana allowed.

ryan.menezes@latimes.com

maloy.moore@latimes.com

Twitter: @ryanvmenezes @maloym

Times staff writers Ben Welsh and Anthony Pesce contributed to this report. Campaign contributions were drawn from the California Civic Data Coalitions archive of data collected by Californias secretary of state.

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The road to elected office can be long and winding and is not always paved with the best of intentions.

Some politicians  think of the Kennedys, or the Bush family  are born to the trade. Others are borne by tragedy.

Former Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps succeeded her husband when he fell dead of a heart attack. Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was spurred to run when her husband was killed and her son gravely wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road.

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Typically, though, the ascension is more methodical, one rung after the next, often with a pinch of right-place, right-time fortune thrown in for good measure.

Lately that bit of luck has visited itself upon Adam B. Schiff, in the form of Russian meddling and a president who hurls tweets like poison thunderbolts.

Schiff is the nine-term Democratic congressman from Southern California, representing parts of Los Angeles and several communities, including Burbank, Glendale and Pasadena, skirting the nearby mountains. Mild in mien and nondescript in appearance, Schiff was perhaps best known, until recently, for prevailing in 2000 in what was then the costliest House race in U.S. history.

(Irresistible fact: Adams wife is named Eve.)

Everything changed when Congress launched its probe into Russias interference in the 2016 presidential campaign. As the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, one of several tasked with the inquiry, Schiff has emerged as a leading voice  calm, measured, deliberate  and one of the most prominent faces of the investigation.

This, naturally, drew the attention and ire of the president and tweeter-in-chief, who singled out the former federal prosecutor for his very own ad hominem insult: Sleazy Adam Schiff.

Sleazy Adam Schiff, the totally biased Congressman looking into "Russia," spends all of his time on television pushing the Dem loss excuse!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 24, 2017

Schiff, who has never been associated with the slightest whiff of scandal, responded in the purse-lipped tone of more sorrow than anger. With respect Mr. President, he tweeted in reply, the problem is how often you watch TV, and that your comments and actions are beneath the dignity of the office.

With respect Mr. President, the problem is how often you watch TV, and that your comments and actions are beneath the dignity of the office. https://t.co/NvZydYbnyW  Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) July 24, 2017

It felt a bit like Bill Murray in Ghostbusters, Schiff said days later. Like Id just been slimed.

Politically, this amounts to pure gold.

With well over a dozen members of Congress crowding the Southern California media market and TV stations having close to zero interest in politics, about the only way for a Washington lawmaker to get attention is participating in a high-speed car chase, ideally in prime time with a Kardashian riding shotgun.

It is one reason the areas congressional lawmakers have a decades-long, unblemished record of futility when it comes to seeking prominent state office.

By contrast, Schiff has become, if not quite a household name, a hero to an important segment of the electorate  namely activist Democrats. He received a rapturous welcome at the state party convention in May as though, in the words of Times political writer Cathleen Decker, the nerd who headed the Calculus Club had just been crowned homecoming king.

Its certainly a role I was neither expecting nor particularly wanting, Schiff said of his newfound political celebrity. This role is very against type for me. I didnt have this kind of relationship with the last Republican president and I didnt expect to have it with a new president.

Theres just one problem, from an electoral standpoint: At the moment theres nowhere beyond the House of Representatives for Schiff to go.

Hes shown no interest in joining the crowded 2018 race for governor. And the most logical step, a bid for U.S. Senate, is thwarted unless incumbent Democrat Dianne Feinstein, who is weighing a sixth run next year, unexpectedly decides to stand aside.

Schiff emphatically ruled out a primary challenge. If she runs for reelection, he said, he would be solidly behind her.

At age 57, Schiff can wait. But if the Senate seat were to suddenly come available, hed start the race in an enviable spot.

Every California Democrats favorite parlor game is wondering whether Feinstein will seek another term, said Dan Schnur, a longtime student of state politics who teaches at USC. If she decides to run again, this is largely an irrelevant discussion. But if she doesnt, Schiff moves from being an afterthought to potential front-runner.

He would hardly be a shoo-in. Schiff would face all the hurdles confronting any Southern California member of Congress trying to make the broad leap to the Senate: the mountainous fundraising requirement, the difficulty of launching from a small geographic base and, not least, the built-in bias many Northern Californians have against voting for any politician from (ugh!) the L.A. area.

But if Schiff got elected to the Senate, he may want to tamp down his natural inclination and send flowers or some other token of appreciation to the president. Even though it is hardly his intent, Trump would have done a good deal to make it possible.

mark.barabak@latimes.com

@markzbarabak on Twitter

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An Alameda County probation report details facts that Kao Saelee cant change: He was 17 and armed with a sawed-off shotgun when he and three friends opened fire on a group of teens they believed belonged to a rival Oakland gang.

The spray of bullets instead struck Tsee Yorn and San Fou Saechao, both 13. It killed 7-year-old Sausio Saephan, a second-grader at nearby Garfield Elementary School who had tagged along with his older brother and was shot in the neck.

For years, members of the State Board of Parole Hearings could  and often would  deny prisoners early release based on their past, focusing solely on their criminal offense rather than whether or not theyd pose a safety risk in the future.

To inmates, it seemed an unspoken rule: Let no one out.

Now, the board has entered a new era, empowered to grant more offenders a chance at parole after a decade's worth of court decisions and state laws that have broadened its discretion. With the greater legal flexibility, Gov. Jerry Brown has put the commission of 14 men and women at the front line of his effort to reduce the prison population and to focus more on rehabilitation rather than relying solely on punishment.

(Ally Levine / @latimesgraphics)

Parole commissioners stay away from politics. Jennifer Shaffer, the boards executive officer, says their only role is to neutrally apply the laws, which have changed the way they evaluate which offenders are too dangerous to let out. The focus is no longer so much on the severity of the crime, as on whether offenders have come to an understanding about why what they did was wrong.

One question, Shaffer said, has become central to weighing whether someone is fit for parole: Who are you today, and is there any evidence of current violence, current unreasonable risk to public safety?

That approach, criminal justice experts say, is part of a pendulum swing in California, coming after decades of tough sentencing policies that led to overflowing prisons and a court-ordered cap on the state inmate population.

During his first term as governor in 1977, they said, Brown shifted sentencing power away from judges and parole boards to prosecutors when he signed a law that set fixed, inflexible prison terms for some crimes. Proposition 57, which voters overwhelmingly approved last year, returns some of the boards discretion by allowing more offenders to trim those sentences, moving up their parole hearings and expanding the boards authority over a greater number of prisoners.

Brown has said it allows convicted felons to be judged once they have had a chance to change their lives.

The board isnt making up the recipe to the states approach to crime and punishment, but it is the one cooking it, said Vanessa Sloan, founder and director of Life Support Alliance, which advocates on behalf of inmates sentenced to life in prison.

Through the decades, Californias parole commissioners have been accused of being too lenient on punishment or taking too much of a hard line.

But before Browns return as governor in 2011, lawyers and legal experts said, parole boards tended to be vocal supporters of strict sentences, and mainly were composed of former law enforcement officers, elected officials and advocates for crime victims. Many commissioners, if not most, were white men, adding to the lack of diversity.

Brown appointed Shaffer as executive officer of the State Board of Parole Hearings in June 2011 with the goal of professionalizing the board and making it a strong, independent body, she said.

Under her direction, the makeup of commissioners has diversified by gender, race and professional background. Shaffer also has been at the helm of major initiatives, spurred by court cases, lawsuits and state laws, that have developed new processes to speed up and increase parole hearings, as well as to release young and elderly offenders.

The board now takes up to 400 parole hearings a month including those for older and youth offenders, and prisoners are now more likely granted recommendations for release. Nearly 820 inmates, or 16% of prisoners who had hearings in 2016, were seen as fit for parole that year, compared with 119, or less than 2%, in 2007. Just 16 prisoners, or less than 1% of those who had hearings, were deemed fit for parole two decades ago.

The workload for parole commissioners has increased under Proposition 57, which is expected to trim the sentences of 11,500 prisoners over the next four years.

New guidelines to implement the initiative, which took effect this month, allow most inmates to earn additional time toward completing their sentences, and to move up their parole hearings by earning credits for good behavior and enrolling in career, rehabilitation and education programs. They also expand parole consideration to prisoners whose primary sentences are for crimes not designated as violent under California law, and who have served the full term for those offenses.

A lifer parole binder. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Corrections officials previously offered parole eligibility only for nonviolent inmates who had been charged with a second strike under the states three-strikes law, and served 50% of their sentences. Of those nearly 6,200 referrals, 28% have been approved for release.

Lawyers and legal experts first started noting the board's exercise of broader discretion when it came to the parole hearings for offenders sentenced to life with the possibility of parole.

It used to be, you could ask a life term inmate if they had ever known anybody that had received a [parole] date and the answer was no, Shaffer said. Now there is not a single life inmate, I believe, who doesnt know somebody who has gotten a date.

State inmate Kao Saelee, right, arrives for his initial suitability hearing in June before a three-member panel from the California Board of Parole Hearings. (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times) (Brian van der Brug / Los Angeles Times)

Commissioners attribute the seismic shift to a 2008 decision in the case of Sandra Davis Lawrence, who was declared suitable for parole over former Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggers objections nearly 24 years after she fatally shot and stabbed her lovers wife with a potato peeler.

In the 4-3 ruling, the California Supreme Court found inmates could not be denied parole based solely on the viciousness or lethality of the crime. Shaffer said parole boards must instead take into account whether the defendant would pose a safety risk to the public if released.

That really changed the focus of our hearings. From, You did what? Tell me about the crime, Shaffer said. To, Who were you then? Who are you today and whats the difference?

But lawyers, former board members and inmate advocates say the change of culture goes beyond the rulings. They credit Brown for appointing practitioners like Shaffer who have honored the changes in the laws, and they point to Shaffer for bringing the board into a new era of transparency.

At a Senate confirmation hearing in late June, parole board commissioner Randolph Grounds, a warden at various prisons over five years, seemed to reflect the boards new attitude.

Yes, as a warden you have to keep people inside, but the mindset is all about moving people forward, he said, emphasizing the need to place inmates in programs and prepare them to enter the community.

Two weeks later, Grounds was asking the questions at California State Prison in Folsom. In a cramped room, he and two other commissioners sat across from Saelee, who had served 10 years in prison for the drive-by shooting that took Saephans life.

Saelee, a refugee from Thailand who is now 31, told the panel he grew up with an abusive father. He said he had been bullied in school for his poor English and for wearing donated clothes until he started fighting back. He admitted he burglarized homes and associated with gangs in his teens but had not before been arrested.

The day of the killing, he had been playing video games at a laundromat, when a friend asked him for help retaliating against a rival gang member. They went out in search of the young man and fired at a group of teens, though they were not sure if their target was among them. They celebrated after they got away, Saelee said.

It was heartless, he said, wiping away tears. But he said he did not realize the weight of his actions until he was behind bars, where he stopped doing drugs, underwent therapy and became a youth counselor.

At the end of the two-hour hearing, and without opposition from an Alameda County prosecutor on the case, the panel of three commissioners recommended he be granted parole. Grounds urged Saelee to remember the lessons he has learned.

We dont want any other victims, Grounds said. We dont want no other fallout. What we want is healing.

Decisions on the sentences of life inmates must go to the full board for approval, to a legal office for review and then to the governor who can reverse it and send it back to the board for further consideration  a practice Brown used less than other governors.

But the review process for nonviolent offenders under Proposition 57, which does not include a review from a governor but can be appealed, is facing fire from all sides. These prisoners referred to the board are first screened for the dangers they pose if released, and the review spans an offenders criminal history, institutional behavior, rehabilitation efforts and any written statements received from the inmate, victims and prosecutors.

Offenders convicted of sex crimes in which there was no physical contact with the victim, such as public indecency or distributing nude photos, and those with a "third strike" for a nonviolent offense argue they, too, should be eligible. Meanwhile, the law enforcement officers, prosecutors and lawmakers who have opposed Proposition 57 from the beginning argue its regulations include loopholes that could make some violent or serious felons eligible for parole.

They warn the review process for such inmates is not as thorough as the hearings for juvenile and elderly offenders, and others serving life sentences, because the proceedings are conducted primarily by deputy commissioners with less experience and amount solely to an analysis of paperwork  and dont include a hearing.

Sen. Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), a proponent of tough sentencing laws who served as chair of the parole board in the early 1990s, said the new parole eligibility processes water down the ability of victims to object and put neighborhoods at risk.

I am one who most believes in rehabilitation, but I also know that in prison, the capacity to rehabilitate has not expanded much, Nielsen said. I also know that in the community rehabilitative opportunities have not expanded much.

Others counter that it is too soon to know whether the parole board has too much discretion.

I dont know if anyone is ever going to be convinced that we have reached the perfect medium, Loyola Law School professor Laurie Levenson said.

Parole board members say no matter the case, era or governor there is always a strong incentive to get it right, both for the inmate and society. At her confirmation hearing in June, parole board commissioner Patricia Cassady, a former defense lawyer, said she would not want to release anyone she would not want living next to her home.

It is a weighty decision we make every day, she said.

Proposition 57, Gov. Jerry Brown's push to loosen prison parole rules, is approved by voters 

jazmine.ulloa@latimes.com

@jazmineulloa

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Trump called him my African-American. But he has few kind words for the president. By Mark Z. Barabak (Mark Z. Barabak/Los Angeles Times) On the day that changed his life, Gregory Cheadle almost stayed in bed. He was tired  he traveled a lot in his long-shot bid for Congress  but asked himself: How often does a candidate for president come to the far reaches of Northern California? And why pass up a crowd and the chance to hand out more fliers? So Cheadle roused himself that June 2016 morning and secured a spot up close when Donald Trump swooped in for a rally at Reddings municipal airport. It was hot, the atmosphere was loose and Trumps patter seeming more stand-up comedy than campaign spiel. He went into one of those sidelong digressions, about protesters and an African American  great fan, great guy  and, by the way, whatever happened to him? It was then, Cheadle said, he raised his hand and jokingly shouted, Im here. Trump looked and pointed, his voice a throaty rumble. Look at my African-American over here! he exclaimed. Are you the greatest? In the days and weeks that followed Cheadle was attacked on social media and harassed by people who dug up his phone number and email address. For a time he stayed home, too nervous to venture outside. All, he said, because the media portrayed him as something he was not and never has been: a Trump sycophant. Read More Facebook

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Trump quietly signs Russia sanctions bill By Noah Bierman President Trump quietly signed legislation Wednesday that imposes new sanctions on Russia and limits his ability to remove them, according to two White House aides. Trump signed the bill without cameras or an immediate press release. He had opposed imposing new sanctions on Moscow but had little choice after a nearly unanimous Congress approved the bill, guaranteeing they would override a veto. The bill, which also imposes new sanctions on Iran and North Korea, prevents American companies from investing in many energy projects that are funded by Russian government interests. It also prevents Trump from unilaterally lifting the sanctions. It thus marked an unusual move by Congress to tie the presidents hands on foreign policy. Trump did not want to give up that leverage. But the vote in Congress was a strong sign that lawmakers do not trust Trump to stand up to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom Trump has repeatedly praised, and the widening federal investigation into possible coordination last year between his presidential campaign and Moscow. Passage of the sanctions bill already has sparked a harsh reaction in Moscow. Putin announced last week that the United States would need to shed 755 personnel, including U.S. diplomats, from its embassy and consulates in Russia. President Obama expelled 35 Russian diplomats, said to be spies, from the United States last December. A White House aide said a statement would be issued later Wednesday. Facebook

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Senior GOP senators serve notice: No action on healthcare at this point By David Lauter Trump administration officials continue to push the Senate to take another run at healthcare legislation, but on Monday senior Republican senators pushed back, making clear that theyre done with the topic for now. Theres just too much animosity and were too divided on healthcare, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah), the head of the Senate Finance Committee, said in an interview with Reuters. I think we ought to acknowledge that we can come back to healthcare afterward, but we need to move ahead on tax reform, Hatch said. His remarks were quickly followed by others in GOP leadership positions. I think its time to move on to something else, Sen. Roy Blunt of Missouri told CNN. If the question is do I think we should stay on healthcare until we get it done, I think its time to move on to something else. Sen. John Thune of South Dakota also chimed in. Until someone shows us how to get that elusive 50th vote, I think its over, he told reporters. The remarks seemed a coordinated effort to respond to administration officials, including budget director Mick Mulvaney and Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, who said over the weekend that they wanted the Senate to keep working on healthcare. Last week, the Senate defeated several different Republican plans to repeal all or part of the Affordable Care Act. The votes made it clear that with unified Democratic opposition to repeal, and divisions among Republicans, the campaign to overturn the law has stalled out, at least for now. Congress faces several other pressing issues that will be demanding lawmakers attention, including deadlines at the end of September to raise the federal debt ceiling and fund government agencies for the coming fiscal year. And the administration is eager to move on tax proposals, with officials rather optimistically saying they hope to see votes by November on a tax package that is not yet written. Facebook

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Good news for Atty. Gen. Sessions: Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet By Noah Bierman To Q re Sessions, spox Sanders says Trump has 100% confidence in Cabinet. Last wk she wouldn't say if he had it in Sessions. Kelly effect?  Jackie Calmes (@jackiekcalmes) July 31, 2017 President Trump has called Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions beleaguered and even VERY weak, but Sessions seemed to get good news from the White House press secretary, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, on Monday. Trump has 100% confidence in all of his Cabinet secretaries, Sanders said in response to a question about Sessions job status during the daily White House briefing. Last week, when speculation about Sessions was rife, Sanders repeatedly declined opportunities to provide assurances that the attorney general enjoyed the presidents full confidence. Trump himself said time will tell when he was asked last week about Sessions. The willingness to tamp down speculation about Sessions may reflect the arrival Monday of retired Gen. John F. Kelly as the new White House chief of staff. He is tasked with restoring order to the administration. Sanders also batted down reports that the White House was discussing moving Sessions to another post, as secretary of Homeland Security. That job became vacant Monday after Kelly was sworn in as Trumps new chief of staff. Sanders said the White House has had no conversations about any Cabinet members switching jobs. Republican senators have publicly opposed firing Sessions, and a couple have objected to shifting him to another post as well, given that it could appear that Trump is trying to affect the investigations of himself and his campaign in the context of Russias election interference. Trump has said publicly that his frustration with Sessions, once among his closest allies, stems from Sessions decision to recuse himself from the Russia investigation, an act that led to the appointment of a special counsel. Facebook

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Can Trump really cut health insurance payments for members of Congress and their staff? It would be easy By Lisa Mascaro Reeling from the failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, President Trump now threatens to block federal funding that lawmakers and their staff rely on to help buy health insurance. Trumps threats are not empty. The administration could simply stop the payments -- which are provided to Capitol Hill lawmakers and staff much the way many employers help pay employees monthly insurance premiums -- by dashing off new federal regulation. But the easy attack on lawmakers skims over what many say was a complicated, but fair-minded, compromise made during the Obamacare debates several years ago. Under Obamacare, if lawmakers want insurance through their employer - the federal government - they are required to buy policies through the ACA exchanges. There had been great criticism at the time, largely from opponents of the healthcare bill, that lawmakers and congressional staff should not be exempt from the law. The argument was they should have to live under it. So they did. Usually those buying individual insurance on the exchanges can apply to see if their income and geographic area allow them to qualify for a federal subsidy. For lawmakers, though, that was prohibited. Instead, they get the regular employer contribution they did before, much in the same way other workers do when their companies buy insurance. For federal workers, the government covers about 70% of the costs, about the same paid by employers in the private sector, according to Kaiser Family Foundation. The administration affirmed that federal support for lawmakers and their staffs in an Office of Personnel Management regulation issued in 2013. To cut those funds off, Trump administration could simply reverse course, and issue another regulation changing the rules. Trump appeared ready to do so in a series of weekend tweets. Why should Congress not be paying what public pays, Trump tweeted over the weekend. If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon. But such a move would likely cause an uproar in Congress. Its not just members of Congress, but also their staffs, who would have to pay full price for their insurance. Stopping Trumps action, though, seems tough. It would require Congress to pass legislation ensuring the federal payments would continue to be made. Few lawmakers would likely take up that cause. And even if Congress were able to pass a bill protecting the payments, it seems doubtful Trump at this point would sign it into law. Facebook

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U.S. hits Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with sanctions By Associated Press Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro celebrates the results of Sundays election in Caracas. (Ronaldo Schemidt / AFP/Getty Images) The Trump administration has hit Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro with financial sanctions. The move comes after Venezuela held a weekend election that will give Maduros ruling party virtually unlimited power in the South American country. The Treasury Departments Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the sanctions against Maduro in a brief statement on Monday, a day after the Venezuelan vote to elect a constituent assembly that will rewrite the constitution. A longer explanation from the White House was also expected. The administration imposed sanctions on more than a dozen senior current and former Venezuelan officials last week, warning the socialist government that new penalties would come if Maduro went ahead with Sundays election for the assembly. Facebook

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Anthony Scaramucci is out as White House communications director By Brian Bennett Anthony Scaramucci, the brash New Yorker who was announced little more than a week ago as President Trumps White House communications director, was ousted Monday before he had even officially taken the job. John F. Kelly, the newly sworn-in White House chief of staff, told Scaramucci around 9:30 a.m. EDT that he was going to be replaced, according to a person close to White House. In a statement officially announcing the move, the White House said Scaramucci felt it was best to give Chief of Staff John Kelly a clean slate and the ability to build his own team. While Scaramuccis time at the center of the presidents circle was short, it was consequential, prompting the resignations of first Sean Spicer as White House press secretary and then Reince Priebus as chief of staff. The most notable firings and resignations in the Trump administration >> A former hedge fund executive on Wall Street, Scaramucci, who enjoyed media attention, also had come on strong stylistically, highlighted by a profane tirade against colleagues Priebus and Trump strategist Steve Bannon in an exchange last week with a New Yorker reporter. The abrupt shift in Scaramuccis status seemed to reflect Kellys mission to bring order to the chain of command within the chaotic administration. In getting Scaramucci to leave, Kelly was undoing Trumps own hiring decision. Scaramucci had told reporters when he was hired that he would be reporting directly to the president at Trumps request, bypassing the normal chain that would have the communications director -- like all staff -- report to the chief of staff. Scaramuccis unusually short tenure reflects a moment of extreme turbulence in the White House, which has been embroiled in infighting as it confronts low poll numbers for the president, a floundering legislative agenda and the investigations involving Russian meddling in last years presidential election. After word spread of Scaramuccis ouster, Spicer, who resigned when Scaramucci took over but was still working in the White House, walked out of his office to a throng of reporters. Is this a surprise party? he asked. UPDATE 12:15 p.m.: This story has been updated throughout with additional details and background. This article was originally published at 11:49 a.m. Facebook

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Trump swears in John Kelly, says ex-secretary of Homeland Security will do an even better job as chief of staff By Noah Bierman President Trump swore in his new chief of staff, John F. Kelly, on Monday morning, formalizing a shake-up in his top ranks that was announced Friday evening with word of the resignation of Reince Priebus. We look forward to - if its possible - an even better job as chief of staff, Trump said to Kelly, formerly the secretary of homeland security. Ill try, sir, Kelly replied. JOHN KELLY is now chief of staff. Sworn in during ceremony in Oval Office minutes ago. pic.twitter.com/dMEQ4rhpFA  Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) July 31, 2017 Trump is hoping that Kelly, a retired general, will retool and bring order to a White House that has struggled with low poll numbers, staff infighting, a faltering legislative agenda and an investigation into Russian election meddling and potential collusion and obstruction of justice. Yet Trump said the administration has done very well after a reporter asked what would be different under Kelly. He cited the unemployment rate, the thriving stock market and unnamed polls that, he said, show high business confidence. Were doing very well. We have a tremendous base, he said.The country is optimistic. And I think the general will just add to it. Trump praised Kellys performance at the Department of Homeland Security, where Kelly focused on immigration issues at the southern border, as record-shattering, with very little controversy. There was no word on whom the president might name to replace Kelly at the department. Trump reportedly has considered moving Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions there from the Justice Department, reflecting his unhappiness with the attorney general, but Republican senators preemptively have signaled their opposition to such a move. Facebook

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Risky investigation, stalled agenda  Trumps in trouble, so heres his strategy By Noah Bierman (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) Hosts of Southern Californias Morning Answer radio show were wrapping up a two-hour live broadcast from a white tent just outside the West Wing last week and marveling at their access to Cabinet secretaries and prominent administration figures. If youre a Trumpkin, host Brian Whitman told his listeners on AM 870, this is like fantasy camp. The White Houses daylong hospitality for Salem Radio Network, a nationwide chain of Christian and conservative stations, underscored President Trumps continued courtship of  and increased dependence on  core supporters as he confronts a stalled agenda and increasingly perilous investigations into whether his campaign colluded with Russia and he subsequently sought to obstruct the inquiries. Read More Facebook

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Obamacare vote isnt the only sign of GOP resistance to Trump By Noah Bierman In the year since Donald Trump won the Republican presidential nomination, party leaders have been reluctant to challenge a man who has formed a tight bond with conservative voters, even when he upset party orthodoxies and norms of presidential behavior. But that reticence is breaking down. A convergence of contentious issues, as well as embarrassing infighting and shake-ups at the White House, have a number of Republicans suddenly in open resistance to Trump on a number of fronts. Read More Facebook

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Trump ousts Reince Priebus as chief of staff in latest White House shake-up By Noah Bierman John Kelly (Susan Walsh / Associated Press) President Trump ousted his beleaguered chief of staff, Reince Priebus, naming Homeland Security Secretary John F. Kelly to replace him Friday in the latest White House shake-up as the administration struggles to emerge from bitter staff infighting and a stalled legislative agenda. Trump announced the abrupt reshuffle in three posts on Twitter hours after the Senate killed his latest plans to rewrite President Obamas signature healthcare law, dealing another harsh blow to the White House. The tweets, sent as Trump was returning on Air Force One with Priebus after a speech on gang violence in New York, caught Capitol Hill and others off guard even though Priebus stature in Trumps inner circle has been in sharp decline for some time. Read More Facebook

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Putins spokesman accuses U.S. of political schizophrenia By Associated Press Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting in Moscow on June 21. (Sergei Karpukhin / EPA) Russia urged the United States on Monday to show political will to mend ties even as it ordered sweeping cuts of U.S. embassy personnel unseen since Cold War times. President Vladimir Putins spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it will take time for the U.S. to recover from what he called political schizophrenia, but added that Russia remains interested in constructive cooperation with the U.S. We are interested in a steady development of our ties and are sorry to note that we are still far from that, he said. Peskovs statement followed Sundays televised comments by Putin, who said the U.S. would have to cut 755 of its embassy and consulate staff in Russia, a massive reduction he described as a response to new U.S. sanctions. The Russian Foreign Ministry had previously said that the U.S. should cut its embassy and consular employees to 455, the number that Russia has in the United States. Along with the caps on embassy personnel announced Friday, it also declared the closure of a U.S. recreational retreat on the outskirts of Moscow and warehouse facilities. Moscows action is the long-expected tit-for-tat response to former President Obamas move to expel 35 Russian diplomats and shut down two Russian recreational retreats in the U.S. over reports of Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election. Facebook

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White House urged to refrain from Obamacare sabotage as Trump mulls subsidy cutoff By Laura King A pair of prominent lawmakers urged President Trump on Sunday not to sabotage the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, in the wake of failed Republican efforts to scrap his predecessors signature legislative achievement. But Trump urged GOP senators to try again to push through some version of repealing and replacing the law, even though Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said last week it was time to move on to other matters. Trump senior advisor Kellyanne Conway said the president would decide in coming days whether to block subsidies that are a crucial component of the existing healthcare law. Hes going to make that decision this week, and thats a decision that only he can make, Conway said on Fox News Sunday. Two of the lawmakers who blocked the Senate GOP repeal plan last week, however, criticized the administrations continued efforts to overturn the law. Sen. Susan Collins, the Maine Republican who steadfastly rejected a series of GOP healthcare measures last week, blamed the Trump administration for encouraging instability in the insurance markets by continuing the uncertainty over whether the subsidies  cost-sharing payments that reduce out-of-pocket healthcare costs for poorer Americans  would continue. Im troubled by the uncertainty that has been created by the administration, Collins said on NBCs Meet the Press. She contested Trumps characterization of the payments as an insurance company bailout. Thats not what it is, she said, calling the reduction payments vital assistance to low-income Americans. And Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska said further action on healthcare should be done in a bipartisan manner and not rushed. You cannot do major entitlement reform singlehandedly, and you wouldnt do major legislative initiatives singlehandedly, she told reporters in Alaska. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) echoed Collins criticism of Trumps threat to stop making the cost-sharing payments. You know, I really think its incomprehensible that we have a president of the United States who wants to sabotage healthcare in America, make life more difficult for millions of people who are struggling now to get the health insurance they need and to pay for that health insurance, he said on CNNs State of the Union. Prior to heading out for a day at his Virginia golf property, Trump tweeted that Republican senators should press ahead with efforts to scrap Obamacare -- a day after he tauntingly exhorted them not to be quitters in the quest for a legislative victory for him. Don't give up Republican Senators, the World is watching: Repeal & Replace...and go to 51 votes (nuke option), get Cross State Lines & more.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 30, 2017 The White House budget director, Mick Mulvaney, on CNNs State of the Union, said it was official Trump administration policy that the Senate should keep working to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act, eschewing an August recess if necessary. Senators, he said, need to stay, they need to work -- they need to pass something. Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price, while acknowledging a responsibility to follow the law -- Obamacare -- also signaled that Trump was not accepting defeat in efforts to get rid of the measure. Our goalas well as the presidents goal, is to put in place a law, a system, that actually works for patients, he said on Meet the Press, adding, You cant do that under the current structure. Facebook

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Frustrated in defeat, Trump threatens healthcare of voters  and lawmakers By Joseph Tanfani Frustrated by the failure of the Obamacare repeal in the Senate, President Trump on Saturday threatened to end federal subsidies for healthcare insurance  for Congress as well as the rest of the country. After seven years of "talking" Repeal & Replace, the people of our great country are still being forced to live with imploding ObamaCare!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 29, 2017 If a new HealthCare Bill is not approved quickly, BAILOUTS for Insurance Companies and BAILOUTS for Members of Congress will end very soon! Trump tweeted, fuming about Congress failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, which he said was imploding. Such a move could cause havoc and much higher premiums in insurance markets, since many low- and moderate-income people depend on those subsidies to help cover the cost of their policies. Through a series of administrative maneuvers by Congress and the Obama administration, members and their staffs also benefit from those subsidies. Targeting congressional healthcare might score Trump some populist points with his base, but it would likely come at a cost of poisoning his relationship with Congress. Just making the threat on Saturday highlights how far things have eroded between Trump and top GOP lawmakers. And it comes a day after Trump pushed out former Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, an establishment Republican who was the GOP congressional leaderships trusted liaison in the White House. Trump actually has a jarring amount of leverage over thousands of congressional staff who depend on employer health care contribution. https://t.co/lRPmrmDIJs  Kyle Cheney (@kyledcheney) July 29, 2017 Trumps longstanding threat to let the health insurance plans fail would come with its own political price. The federal government sends about $600 million a month to insurance companies to help cover the cost, and Trump is threatening to cut that off to allow Obamacare markets to collapse. His goal is to pressure Congress to send him a repeal bill, but so far the strategy has failed. The confidence Trump has expressed that if he followed through with the threat the fallout would land not on him but on Democrats, because they created Obamacare, is not widely shared in Washington. If health care collapses, voters will blame Trump and the GOP.



That's what happens when you control the White House and Congress. pic.twitter.com/iEjEGyapAL  Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) July 29, 2017 Facebook

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Iran condemns new U.S. sanctions, vows to pursue missile program By Ramin Mostaghim Iran defied Washington and condemned new U.S. sanctions over its development of missiles capable of being armed with nuclear warheads. We will continue with full power our missile program, Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi told state television IRIB on Saturday, dismissing new sanctions passed by Congress last week as, hostile, reprehensible and unacceptable. Its ultimately an effort to weaken the nuclear deal, Ghasemi said, adding, The military and missile fields  are our domestic policies and others have no right to intervene or comment on them. Iran had agreed to limit its nuclear activities under the 2015 agreement with the U.S. and other world powers in exchange for sanctions relief. Ghasemi argued Saturday that the U.S. had violated that agreement by linking the missile program to the nuclear deal and restricting Iranian banking activities in the U.S. He argued that Irans latest missile tests dont break the agreement because the weapons are defensive. The new wave of pressure on missile projects in Iran will push the Islamic theocracy into a corner, predicted Iran analyst Hojjat Kalashi in Tehran, noting that the government of President Hassan Rouhani, who was reelected in May, is coping with an economic downturn and may step back from the compromise nuclear deal. The new Iran sanctions bill, which also targets Russia and North Korea, was passed by the House and Senate this week. It would penalize those involved in Irans ballistic missile program as well as those who do business with them, impose an arms embargo on Iran and label its Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps a terrorist group. White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders has said President Trump will sign the bill. On Friday, the U.S. was joined by Britain, France and Germany in condemning Irans recent launch of a satellite-carrying rocket and warned that it violated a United Nations resolution implementing the 2015 nuclear deal. In a joint statement, they urged Iran to stop developing missiles and rockets capable of carrying nuclear warheads that have a destabilizing impact on the region. In response to a rocket launch Thursday, the U.S. Treasury Department imposed sanctions on subsidiaries of an Iranian company involved in Tehrans ballistic missile program. But Nader Karimi Juni, an analyst close to Rouhanis government, said Iranian leaders dont believe the U.N. and European powers will ultimately back the U.S., and so Iran will not compromise on missile projects and will remain defiant. Facebook

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Trump jabs U.S. mayors, who push back, calling president out of touch with cities By Kurtis Lee (Spencer Platt / Getty Images) President Trump wants police to know that he  not mayors  has their back. Ive met police that are great police that arent allowed to do their job because they have a pathetic mayor or a mayor that doesnt know whats going on, Trump said Friday in a speech before police officers in Brentwood, N.Y. The comments from Trump, who in his address highlighted crime in cities like Chicago and Los Angeles, drew applause from some in attendance. In a statement following Trumps remarks, the United States Conference of Mayors, a bipartisan group, released a statement pushing back against the president. The presidents comments today prove how out of touch he is with the realities of life in American cities. Mayors number one priority is  and always will be  the safety and protection of their residents, said New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu, the groups president. There is no daylight between the mayors of our cities and the uniformed officers who work tirelessly to keep us safe every single day. During the speech Trump called on police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in cities nationwide. In a recent interview with The Times, former New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who recently launched a $200-million initiative to empower city governments and mayors, stressed the key to good governing is experience as a manager  something, he said, Trump was not. Bloomberg added that the mayors are much more in tune with the needs of residents than the federal government. You got to remember a mayor and the local city council are much closer to the public than the governor and the state legislature, or the president and the federal legislature. So if the public is in favor of something, the local officials know it and they get held responsible, he said. Facebook

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The growing parade of exits under Trump administration By Len de Groot A lot of people have left President Trumps early administration  Chief of Staff Reince Priebus was replaced Friday. The White House communications department has been the scene of many of the recent turnovers as it wrestles to craft a message sometimes at odds with Trumps frequent tweeting. At the National Security Council, there has been a leadership struggle since Michael Flynn resigned in the face of pressure over undisclosed contacts with Russia. One appointee was fired over comments he made at a private function. Others have been removed as Flynns successor, H.R. McMaster, has moved to add loyalists to the council. Here are the most noteworthy departures: Read More Facebook

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Trump urges officers and immigration officials to be rough on animals terrorizing U.S. neighborhoods By Barbara Demick ( (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)) President Trump on Friday called for police and immigration officials to be rough with suspected gang members in order to rid the country of animals he said are terrorizing communities. Please dont be too nice, Trump told police recruits at Suffolk County Community College in Brentwood, a heavily Latino suburb of New York City. Like when you guys put somebody in the car and youre protecting their head, you know the way you put the hand  like, dont hit their head, and theyve just killed somebody?  You can take the hand away. He implied that he was satisfied with rough handling of suspects by the police. When you see these thugs being thrown into the back of a paddy wagon  you just see them thrown in, rough, he said. Scoffing at calls for what he describes as political correctness, Trump also renewed his pledges to build a wall along the Mexican border. He accused the Obama administration of admitting criminals into the United States. Read More Facebook

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Analysis: In a Washington run by men, two overshadowed Republican women make their point on healthcare By Cathleen Decker In a Washington that has grown demonstrably more testosterone-fueled since President Trumps inauguration, it took two Republican women to secure the end of a long effort to repeal and replace Obamacare. They were the same two women  Maine Sen. Susan Collins and Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski  who had been excluded from the 13-member working group drafting the Republican bills. Nobodys being excluded based upon gender. Everybodys at the table, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell had said of his all-white-males group. In the early hours of Friday, the duo was overshadowed by the more dramatic and unexpected no vote from Sen. John McCain of Arizona. There was reason for the attention lavished on McCain  a war hero and veteran senator returns to the Capitol days after a dire cancer diagnosis. But without both Collins and Murkowskis steadfast opposition, his vote would have been meaningless. Also largely overlooked: Hawaii Sen. Mazie Hirono, a Democrat who like McCain made an arduous trip to Washington despite her recent diagnosis of late-stage kidney cancer. Social media buzzed Friday with praise for the women senators from many fronts, including from men. But from many women, there was also a sense of familiarity at being ignored or taken for granted. Read More Facebook

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Clinton Foundation donor who was denied a visa settles leak case against the U.S. By Joseph Tanfani A billionaire Nigerian businessman and major Clinton Foundation donor banned from entering the U.S. two years ago on terrorism grounds has settled a lawsuit against the U.S. government. Gilbert Chagoury last year sued the FBI and other government agencies in U.S. District Court in Washington, saying he had been damaged by what he described as improper government leaks to the Los Angeles Times. The Times reported last year that Chagoury had been denied a visa to travel to the U.S. in 2015 on suspicion that he had provided aid to terrorist groups. One document, citing unverified information from an unnamed source, said that Chagoury  who is of Lebanese heritage  had funneled funds to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militia and political group designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. Chagoury, an ardent Lakers fan who for decades lived part of the year in Los Angeles, angrily denied that he ever provided funds for terrorism. He said the publicity forced him to sell his Beverly Hills mansion at a loss and caused a bank to close his account. A philanthropist, Vatican ambassador and longtime friend of Bill Clinton, Chagoury once was invited to the White House after contributing to a Democratic get-out-the-vote campaign. He donated at least $1 million to the Clinton Foundation. Emails released last year showed that a Bill Clinton aide pushed Hillary Clintons aides at the State Department to get Chagoury access to top U.S. diplomats. In the settlement filed in court on Friday, the Justice Department said Chagoury has never appeared on the list of Specially Designated Nationals, figures such as terrorists and narcotics traffickers who are generally barred from doing business in the U.S. The government did not grant Chagourys request for a court hearing to dispute the reports that led to his exclusion from the U.S. As I have often said, I have loved America my whole life because it was the land of freedom and justice, he said in a statement, adding that he hopes the agreement will help repair his reputation. The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Chagoury, who lives most of the time in Paris, has not applied for another visa, said his spokesman, Mark Corallo. Facebook

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Trump ousts Priebus, announces John Kelly as new chief of staff President Trump announced via Twitter on Friday that he had named retired Gen. John Kelly, head of the Department of Homeland Security, as White House chief of staff, replacing Reince Priebus. I am pleased to inform you that I have just named General/Secretary John F Kelly as White House Chief of Staff. He is a Great American....  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 ...and a Great Leader. John has also done a spectacular job at Homeland Security. He has been a true star of my Administration  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 I would like to thank Reince Priebus for his service and dedication to his country. We accomplished a lot together and I am proud of him!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 28, 2017 Read More Facebook

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Rep. John Delaney of Maryland to run for president By Associated Press Rep. John Delaney of Maryland says hes running for president, instead of governor or reelection, in 2018. Delaney, a Democrat, announced his plans in a statement Friday. The politically moderate banking entrepreneur is in his third term in Marylands 6th Congressional District, which includes western Maryland and a large section of Montgomery County, the states largest county. The 54-year-old is worth roughly $90 million and is one of the Houses wealthiest members. He spent about $2 million to help finance his first House race in 2012. His consideration of a possible Maryland gubernatorial bid months ago quickly drew interest in his House seat. Several candidates already have expressed interest in running for the seat. Facebook

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McCain set to head back to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments By Kurtis Lee (Shawn Thew / EPA) Sen. John McCain is headed home. Hours after McCain spurned his party and voted in opposition to a GOP measure to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the senators office announced Friday he will return to Arizona to undergo chemotherapy and radiation treatments for his recent diagnosis of brain cancer. McCain, 80, was found this month to have a brain tumor known as a glioblastoma. He is scheduled to return to Washington in September after his initial treatments. The glioblastoma  an aggressive type of cancer  was discovered when McCain had a blood clot removed from above his left eye. According to the Mayo Clinic, which is overseeing McCains treatment, glioblastoma is difficult to treat. After returning to Washington this week and voting in favor of opening Senate debate on repeal, McCain was among three Republicans early Friday morning to vote in opposition to a so-called skinny bill that would repeal the ACA, known as Obamacare. The move by McCain, who has served in the Senate since 1987, has drawn the ire of members in his own party and some in the right-wing media. Facebook

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McCains surprise vote doomed GOP healthcare bill, but did it open the door for Senate bipartisanship? By Lisa Mascaro Sen. John McCain is usually happy to spar with reporters, but he ducked into an elevator ahead of the Senate healthcare vote late Thursday without saying a word about how he would vote. Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, though, already knew the answer. The Democratic leader had been talking with the Arizona Republican all week  four, five times a day  ever since McCain returned to work after being diagnosed with brain cancer. Earlier in the week, McCain had dramatically salvaged the stalled GOP bill by voting to begin debate, only to go on to deliver a blistering speech against his own party leaders partisan, closed-door process in crafting it. Weve been spinning our wheels on too many important issues because we keep trying to find a way to win without help from across the aisle, he told them. Were getting nothing done. Schumer and McCain have been longtime colleagues, a kind of frenemies who seem like throwbacks to an earlier era of Congress. They worked together on big legislation, including the 2013 immigration overhaul  grand ideas that seem all but impossible in todays Congress. They had plenty to discuss. About the Senate, about it working again, about working together, and about how this bill was so poor for the American people, Schumer said. And he knew that, so did half his colleagues, but he had the courage to vote no. The moment stunned the Senate when McCain stepped up to cast his vote  a single down-turned finger  dooming the healthcare bill. Audible gasps filled the galleries, which were packed with onlookers. But his vote  along with no votes from Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska  did more than shelve the long campaign to repeal the Affordable Care Act. It cracked open a new divide in the Senate, which seems to be split not so much between Republicans and Democrats, but by those senators who want to work together versus those stuck in hardened partisan tribes. Read More Facebook

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U.S. hits Iran with more sanctions in response to satellite launch By Associated Press The United States is slapping Iran with new sanctions in response to its launch of a satellite-carrying rocket into space this week. The sanctions target six Iranian subsidiaries of the Shahid Hemmat Industrial Group. The Treasury Department says that group is central to Irans ballistic missile program. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the sanctions illustrate deep U.S. concerns about Irans missile testing and other actions. He says the U.S. will continue countering Irans ballistic missile program, including Thursdays provocative space launch. The U.S. has said that launch flouted a U.N. Security Council resolution because the technology is inherently designed to be able to carry a nuclear payload. The sanctions come as the Trump administration continues debating its Iran policy and whether to scrap the 2015 multilateral deal that limits the development of Irans nuclear capabilities. Facebook

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Political betrayal. McCain vote against Obamacare repeal draws ire from conservative writers By Kurtis Lee (Cliff Owen / AP) Though John McCain was one of three Republicans who helped Democrats squash the legislation to repeal Obamacare, conservative media is homing in on the Arizona senator for spurning his party in the healthcare vote. Here are some of todays headlines: John McCain: Traitor to the conservative cause (Washington Times) McCain, who was recently diagnosed with brain cancer, has been a staunch opponent of Obamacare, but in the end he could not support the so-called skinny repeal measure put forward by his colleagues in the Senate. In this piece, Cheryl K. Chumley, jabs McCain for his vote. For American voters expecting their Republican-dominated House, Senate and White House to honor their years of repeal promises and actually, well, repeal Obamacare, McCains thumbs-down was a face-slap moment that will be remembered in history as a textbook classic case of political betrayal, she writes. McCains odd definition of leading the fight to stop Obamacare (National Review) This article is simple  its a quick compare-and-contrast of McCains recent comments versus his vote on Friday. Last year, during a tough reelection, McCains campaign ran a television ad that boasted the senator is leading the fight to stop Obamacare. But last night his office put out a statement noting the GOP Senate bill did not offer a replacement to actually reform our health care system and deliver affordable, quality health care to our citizens. The author of this piece, Jim Geraghty, concludes: Its very difficult to characterize McCains decision as leading the fight to stop Obamacare. Thats more like leading the fight to keep Obamacare in place while you continue to look for a replacement that you like better. John McCain burns Mitch McConnell sides with Democrats (American Spectator) When McConnell, the majority leader, stood on the Senate floor Friday after the bills failure, he was clearly annoyed. McCains no vote had led to applause moments earlier from Democrats. In a move thats no surprise to anyone, John McCain voted against the embarrassingly named Skinny Repeal, voted against his party (or is it his party?) and voted to keep Obamacare going as is, writes Melissa Mackenzie. Facebook

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Meet the two female GOP senators who opposed the healthcare bill from the start By Kelcey Caulder Sen. John McCain shocked Republicans and Democrats alike with his vote early Friday morning to kill the latest Republican effort to repeal Obamacare. But McCain was not the only Republican to play a role in blocking the final version of the overhaul bill. Two female Republican lawmakers, Sens. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, also voted against the bill. Collins has opposed repeal and replace efforts from the beginning, and Murkowski has also been critical of much of what the Senate Republican leadership has proposed. Collins said it would be a big mistake for Republicans to pass legislation without trying seriously to work with Democrats to reach bipartisan solutions. Instead, she called for both parties to work together to improve the healthcare system. Murkowski and Collins were the first from their party to come out against repealing the ACA without having new, replacement legislation on the table. In statements posted on Twitter, Collins, who voted against the same proposal in 2015, said she did not think it was constructive to repeal the law without a replacement, while Murkowski encouraged senators from both sides of the aisle to work together to address healthcare issues. I will vote no on the motion to proceed to repeal the Affordable Care Act without a replacement. I voted against this same proposal in 2015. pic.twitter.com/Szuke5zYNL  Sen. Susan Collins (@SenatorCollins) July 18, 2017 My recent statement on the Senate Healthcare Process: pic.twitter.com/j19Ok1KwWw  Sen. Lisa Murkowski (@lisamurkowski) July 18, 2017 The two senators were also the only Republicans to vote against opening debate on repeal of Obamacare earlier this week. Their opposition to Republican healthcare efforts has drawn a lot of criticism within the party, some of it expressed in vulgar, even violent terms. Georgia Rep. Buddy Carter said in an interview Wednesday with MSNBC: Somebody needs to go over there to that Senate and snatch a knot in their ass. A Texas congressman said the female senators narrowly avoided an Aaron Burr-style showdown with him. President Trump publicly rebuked Murkowski on Twitter for her vote. Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad!  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017 Trump has not criticized Collins by name for her vote, but warned Tuesday at a rally in Ohio that any senator who votes against repeal and replace is telling America that they are fine with the Obamacare nightmare, and I predict theyll have a lot of problems. Facebook

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The current Senate GOP effort to repeal Obamacare is dead. Now what? By Noam N. Levey (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The sudden collapse of the GOPs Senate campaign to repeal or replace the Affordable Care Act does not mean the issue disappears. Significant problems and challenges remain, particularly for Obamacare insurance marketplaces. The defeat increases the odds that Congress will begin to look at a more limited approach to shore up the current law and stabilize markets. The GOPs repeal effort may return, but in the meantime heres a look at what a temporary fix might look like: Read More Facebook

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Paul Ryan responds to the failure of the GOP healthcare bill By Associated Press House Speaker Paul Ryan said Friday that hes disappointed and frustrated by the failure of Republican healthcare legislation in the Senate. But Ryan said in a statement that we should not give up after promising for years to repeal and replace Obamacare. We were sent to Washington to fulfill the pledges we made to our constituents, the statement said. While the House delivered a bill to repeal and replace Obamacare, unfortunately the Senate was unable to reach a consensus. At the same time, the speaker said that overhauling the tax code is at the top of the Houses list of priorities. He pledged to pursue historic tax reform in the fall. He issued his statement as the House prepared to leave Washington for its annual August recess. The House passed legislation repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act in May. But after a failed vote early Friday in the Senate, its not clear if GOP leaders will be able to resuscitate the efforts. Facebook

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Economic growth rebounded to 2.6% annual rate in second quarter By Jim Puzzanghera The Port of Los Angeles (Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times) The U.S. economy rebounded this spring after a weak winter, expanding at a solid 2.6% annual rate as consumers picked up their spending pace, the Commerce Department said Friday. Total economic output, also known as gross domestic product, for the April-through-June period was in line with analyst expectations for a bounce-back based in part on pent-up demand. The economic growth rate was more than double the 1.2% pace in the first quarter. That figure was revised down Friday from an earlier estimate of 1.4%. After the winter blues, the economy has rebounded, said Sung Won Sohn, an economist at Cal State Channel Islands. Read More Facebook

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Never mind healthcare. President Trump has made slogans great again By Mark Z. Barabak ( (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times)) His promise to repeal and replace Obamacare has crashed and burned. Tax reform hasnt gotten far. The White House is in disarray, and big plans to rebuild the nations infrastructure have hit a brick wall. But there is one unimpeachable triumph President Trump can point to: Hes made great again great again. The Make America Great Again 2016 campaign slogan  limned in block letters and emblazoned on countless cherry-red ball caps  has been reimagined, repurposed and cheekily appropriated for countless pitches and commercial products. Apart from the now-familiar caps, mercantile options include aprons, beanies, beer cozys, coffee mugs, hoodies, leggings, swimsuits, T-shirts, water bottles and, for the special someone, Donald Trump Make America Great Again Womens Booty Shorts. But MAGA, as the president short-hands the phrase in Twitter posts, is also popping up in places having little or nothing to do with politics: on a catwalk at New Yorks Fashion Week, high in the sky promoting classical music in Phoenix, on the menu at an Italian restaurant in Atlanta. Read More Facebook

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If Adam Schiff is Californias next U.S. senator, he might want to thank President Trump By Mark Z. Barabak (J. Scott Applewhite / Associated Press) The road to elected office can be long and winding and is not always paved with the best of intentions. Some politicians  think of the Kennedys or the Bush family  are born to the trade. Others are borne by tragedy. Former Santa Barbara Rep. Lois Capps succeeded her husband when he died of a heart attack. Former New York Rep. Carolyn McCarthy was spurred to run when her husband was killed and her son gravely wounded in a mass shooting on the Long Island Rail Road. Typically, though, the ascension is more methodical, one rung after the next, often with a pinch of right-place, right-time fortune thrown in for good measure. Lately that bit of luck has visited itself on Adam B. Schiff, in the form of Russian meddling and a president who hurls tweets like poison thunderbolts. Read More Facebook

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Kris Kobach says Trumps voter fraud panel will keep voter data secure. Some states arent buying it By Kurtis Lee (Jessica McGowan / Getty Images) After weeks of legal battles and bipartisan pushback from top election officials nationwide, President Trumps voter fraud commission has renewed a message for the states: Its safe to pass along your data about voters. Individuals voter registration records will be kept confidential and secure throughout the duration of the commissions existence, Kris Kobach, vice chairman of the commission, wrote in a letter sent late Wednesday to all 50 secretaries of state. Even so, by Thursday, much of the criticism that greeted an earlier request from the commission was repeated by election officials and activists, who have expressed concerns about privacy and have called the panel both a sham created by an insecure president and a tool to suppress votes. Trump  without evidence  has repeatedly alleged that 3 million to 5 million illegal votes were cast in last years presidential election. (Trump prevailed in the electoral college, while Democrat Hillary Clinton won the popular vote by about 3 million votes.) Read More Facebook

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President Trump said our guys are rougher than the violent gang MS-13. What did he mean? By Brian Bennett (SAUL LOEB / AFP ) When President Trump said this week his administration is going after bloodthirsty criminal gangs like the notoriously violent MS-13, he added a menacing flourish: Our guys are rougher than their guys. The comment raised concerns that Trump was instructing immigration agents to use excessive force when going after suspected gang members. Not so, Trumps top spokeswoman said on Thursday. I think the president means that our guys are going to do whatever it takes to protect Americans, protect American lives, protect our borders, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said in response to a question about what Trump meant by rougher. Trump wants people to do their jobs, not go beyond the scope of what they should do, Sanders said. Trumps comment came during a rally in Youngstown, Ohio, on Tuesday night. We are throwing MS-13 the hell out of here so fast, he said, boasting that his administration is liberating towns and cities from gangs. And, well, I will just tell you this, were not doing it in a politically correct fashion, Trump added. Were doing it rough. Our guys are rougher than their guys. Trumps comment was meant to boost morale among immigration officers looking to arrest and deport gang members, said one senior administration official, who would speak only without being identified to discuss the presidents thinking. As part of Trumps crackdown on immigrants in the country illegally, he has instructed the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to target a suspected gang member for deportation before that person has been convicted of a crime, said ICE director Thomas Homan. Homan joined Sanders at her daily briefing at the White House. The two spoke to preview the presidents Friday trip to Long Island, N.Y., where he will tout his administrations efforts against MS-13 and other gangs. For Trump, who grew up in Queens, recent headlines about MS-13 violence in central Long Island have hit close to home. In April, four young men were found hacked to death in a park in Central Islip, N.Y., a senior administration official told reporters Thursday night. He is a New Yorker and he knows New York, the administration official said. It is absolutely a personal issue. And he knows whats happening in New York -- and its not just Long Island -- is a tragedy and there are communities like that all across America. Facebook

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Boy Scouts chief apologizes for presidents political rhetoric at national Jamboree. Trump wont By Brian Bennett President Trump wont apologize for a surprisingly political speech this week to Boy Scouts that provoked a backlash for his attacks on his predecessor, his election rival, dissident Republicans and the news media. White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered that word on Thursday, just after a top executive of the Boy Scouts of America issued an apology on behalf of the organization for allowing the political rhetoric to occur during Trumps address Monday evening at the National Scout Jamboree held in West Virginia. Michael Surbaugh, the organizations chief executive, in a statement extended his sincere apologies to those in our Scouting family who were offended by the political rhetoric that was inserted into the jamboree. He noted that the groups invitation to the president to speak was in keeping with a long-standing tradition since 1937; eight of 11 incumbent presidents have attended. But, Surbaugh wrote, we have steadfastly remained non-partisan and refused to comment on political matters. We sincerely regret that politics were inserted into the Scouting program. At the White House, however, Sanders indicated that neither she nor Trump saw any reason to apologize, or considered his remarks in any way out of line. I was at that event and I saw nothing but roughly 40,000 to 45,000 Boy Scouts cheering the president on throughout his remarks, Sanders said. I think they were pretty excited that he was there and happy to hear him speak to them, she added. Sanders said she had not seen the statement from the Boy Scouts chief. During his rambling 38-minute speech to the Scouts in Glen Jean, W.Va., Trump criticized Hillary Clinton and President Obama and singled out congressional Republicans who were not in lockstep with him on healthcare. He got much applause and supportive chants from his audience, and even credited the Scouts -- who are too young to vote -- for being among the millions who elected him. But almost immediately, the Boy Scouts organization was inundated with protests from former Scouts, parents and others angered by the presidents partisan words. Facebook

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Trumps words kind of hurtful, Sessions says, but he has no plans to resign By Joseph Tanfani President Trumps scathing criticisms have been kind of hurtful, Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions said Thursday, even as he again signaled that he wants to stay on the job. He wants all of us to do our job, and thats what I intend to do, Sessions said in an interview with Tucker Carlson of Fox News. Separately, Sessions told the Associated Press that it hasnt been my best week  for my relationship with the president. He made the comment in El Salvador, during a visit to highlight joint efforts to take on the MS-13 gang. The attorney general said he hadnt met with Trump but looked forward to talking to him about it. If he wants to make a change, he has every right, Sessions said. I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job. But, he said, I believe with great confidence that I understand what is needed in the Department of Justice and what President Trump wants. I share his agenda. The comments were the first this week on the subject from Sessions, who has been subjected to harshly critical tweets from Trump for three days. The president has called him weak and said he wasnt aggressive enough in going after leakers. Last week, after Trump criticized Sessions in a New York Times interview, Sessions told reporters he planned to stay on as long as it was appropriate. Sessions has seemed to redouble his attempts this week to win back the presidents favor. He announced another crackdown on so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement and on Friday traveled to El Salvador to highlight arrests of MS-13 gang members, both favorite topics of the president. The Justice Department also plans to address leaks next week. Sessions said his department was stepping up leak investigations. Some people need to go to jail, he said. The president has every right to ask the DOJ to be more aggressive on that, and we intend to. On Wednesday evening, after Anthony Scaramucci , Trumps incoming communications director, falsely claimed in a tweet that hed been the victim of a leak, Sessions chief spokeswoman released a statement agreeing that leaks are undermining the government and promising to aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead. Trump has made it clear that he is most angry with Sessions for recusing himself from supervising the ongoing investigation into his administrations ties with Russia. But Sessions defended that decision. I understand his feeling about it because this has been a big distraction for him, he said on Fox. Im confident I made the right decision, the decision thats consistent with the rule of law, and an attorney general who doesnt follow the law is not very effective at leading the Department of Justice, he said. In the interview, Sessions reached back to Trumps campaign slogan to praise the president as a strong leader. He is determined to move this country in the direction that he believes it needs to go to make it great again, he said. Sessions has received considerable support in recent days from conservative Republicans, including many of his former Senate colleagues. On Thursday, Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) went to the Senate floor to discourage Trump from moving against Sessions, saying that the Senate would not allow the president to make a recess appointment that would bypass the normal confirmation process. A recess appointment would allow Trump to appoint a person who could serve without confirmation until the start of 2019. Such appointments can only be made if the Senate formally takes a break, which senators of both parties have said they will avoid in order to prevent Trump from avoiding confirmations. If youre thinking of making a recess appointment to push out the attorney general, forget about it, Sasse said. The presidency isnt a bull, and this country isnt a china shop. 1:55 p.m.: This post was updated with additional remarks by Sessions and remarks by Sen. Ben Sasse. 5:50: This post was updated with additional quotes from Sessions interview. Facebook

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For Trump White House, cable television becomes the venue for intramural sniping By Noah Bierman President Trump and his aides love to complain about leaks from within the White House. But on Thursday, the infighting was out in the open. The incoming communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, in a morning phone call broadcast on CNN, compared the West Wing to a fish that stinks from the head down, implying that White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus is responsible for at least some of the leaks. Later, Trump press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to come to Priebuss defense and say whether Trump has full confidence in his chief of staff. Another Trump advisor, Kellyanne Conway, used a prison analogy for the broader backstabbing among aides, telling Fox News that her West Wing colleagues were using the press to shiv each other. While the knifings might suggest a new level of chaos in a White House known for it, the style is all Trump. As a businessman, he has a history of fostering rivalries among his employees. He always did sort of like competition, backstabbing, infighting kind of stuff, said Barbara Res, who spent nearly two decades as a top executive in Trumps real estate business. He set people up to do that. Trump led the charge this week, using his Twitter account and an interview with the Wall Street Journal to ridicule his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, one of Trumps first and most prominent campaign supporters. By Thursday, both Priebus and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson were seeing their fates publicly debated, less than a week after Sean Spicer was forced out as press secretary after months of speculation and presidential slights. The Priebus intrigue was amplified by Scaramucci on Twitter and in the CNN interview. He blamed Priebus for leaking Scaramuccis personal financial disclosure forms -- which are publicly available -- and suggested that Trump encouraged Scaramuccis offensive in a phone conversation the two men had just before the aide dialed into CNN. When Sanders was asked about the Scaramucci-Priebus dustup, she said that the president likes healthy competition on his staff. The president likes that kind of competition and encourages it, Sanders said. The result is a White House that increasingly suggests the presidents former way of life. As the star of a reality TV show, he fomented internal competition and firings among apprentices; their cable television appearances, meanwhile, recall the confessionals familiar to reality show fans, in which characters confide directly to the camera their anger or enmity toward others on the show. The primary attribute for a successful tenure in the Trump White House is masochism, tweeted Rick Wilson, a longtime Republican operative and Trump critic. The repeated evidence of dysfunction and the high level of insecurity among Trumps core aides help explain the White Houses inability to focus on its agenda. Trumps critics voiced suspicions on Twitter that the public staff blow-up was a deliberate distraction from the struggle in Congress to pass a healthcare bill, as well as from the ongoing investigations into potential collusion between his presidential campaign and Russia and the backlash to Trumps surprise Twitter announcement on Wednesday that transgender people will be barred from military service. But those issues also were being heavily covered on cable news. The stories that were overshadowed were those Trump was trying to promote: a deal his administration helped strike with Foxconn to build a production facility in Wisconsin, possibly creating thousands of new jobs, and nascent efforts to craft a tax overhaul plan. Facebook

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Democrats criticize financial industry backgrounds of two Trump bank regulator nominees By Jim Puzzanghera Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). (Joe Raedle / Getty Images) Senate Democrats on Thursday criticized the financial industry backgrounds of President Trumps nominees for two key banking regulatory positions, arguing they would not protect the interests of average Americans. Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and others sharply questioned Joseph Otting, the former chief executive of Pasadenas OneWest Bank, and investment fund manager Randal Quarles during a confirmation hearing by the Senate Banking Committee. Trump nominated Otting to be the comptroller of the currency, a powerful regulator of national banks. Quarles has been tapped to be the Federal Reserves vice chairman for supervision, who is in charge of the Feds oversight of the nations largest bank holding companies and other regulatory efforts. The two are expected to be friendlier to the banking industry than recent Democratic appointees. Read More Facebook

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Senator warns Trump there will be holy hell to pay if he fires Sessions By Joseph Tanfani A prominent Republican Senator issued a blunt warning to President Trump not to interfere with the Russia investigation, saying any effort to get rid of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, told reporters Thursday that there will be holy hell to pay if Trump fires Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions, a favorite of conservatives who represented Alabama in the Senate for 20 years. Grahams warning was the sternest yet from Senate Republicans to Trump about the potential consequences of firing either Sessions or Mueller. The chairman of the Senate judiciary committee, Sen. Charles Grassley, (R-Iowa), issued his own warning in a tweet Wednesday night, saying his committee would not take up a nomination of a replacement attorney general this year, which is required before the Senate can vote to confirm. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Starting with an interview in the New York Times last week and continuing with a three-day barrage of critical tweets, Trump has raged at Sessions for his decision to recuse himself from supervising the investigation into the Russian attempts to influence the election, and into whether anybody involved in Trumps campaign participated in the scheme. Trump also has bitterly complained about Mueller, whom he has accused of leading a witch hunt, and Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod J. Rosenstein, who appointed Mueller and who is now supervising the probe. Justice Department regulations say that only the attorney general, or in this case Rosenstein acting in his place, can fire the special counsel. If Sessions were gone, Trump could try to appoint a replacement willing to carry out the firing. Graham said he will introduce a bill next week that would require court review if anyone tried to fire a special counsel who was investigating the president. I think Ill get all the Democrats and I hope to get a good number of Republicans, he said, adding that the enacting such a law is not just for Trump but for any future president. We need a check and balance here. Graham said Trumps campaign to marginalize and humiliate the attorney general is not going over well in the Senate or among conservatives. He also said Trump, who has called on Sessions to investigate his former rival Hillary Clinton, has gone way beyond what is acceptable in a rule of law nation. This is not draining the swamp, he said. What hes interjecting is turning democracy upside down..taking 200-year-old concepts that were a nation of laws and not men and trying to turn it upside down. Sen. Graham: "Any effort to go after Mueller could be the beginning of the end of the Trump presidency." https://t.co/6Pd60LrGRU pic.twitter.com/EXBOwBC35C  ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) July 27, 2017 Facebook

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Watch live: White House news briefing with Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders Facebook

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Trump administration threatens to retaliate against Alaska for GOP senators Obamacare repeal vote, news site reports By Noam N. Levey The Trump administration threatened to block federal aid to Alaska in an effort to bully one of the Republican senators opposed to the current Senate GOP push to roll back the Affordable Care Act, according to a report by the Alaska Dispatch News. The news site reports that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday called Alaska Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan with a warning that Murkowskis vote had put Alaskas future with the administration in jeopardy. According to the report: Sullivan said the call from Zinke heralded a troubling message. Im not going to go into the details, but I fear that the strong economic growth, pro-energy, pro-mining, pro-jobs and personnel from Alaska who are part of those policies are going to stop, Sullivan said. I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans.  Were facing some difficult times and theres a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear, Sullivan said. The threat followed disparaging comments made by the president about Murkowski, including a Twitter attack Wednesday morning Senator @lisamurkowski of the Great State of Alaska really let the Republicans, and our country, down yesterday. Too bad! Trump wrote. Murkowski dismissed the presidents attacks in an interview with MSNBC. Were here to govern. Were here to legislate, she said. Were here to represent the people who sent us here. And so every day shouldnt be about campaigning. Every day shouldnt be about winning elections. How about just doing a little bit of governing around here? Thats what Im here for. Murkowski and Maine Sen. Susan Collins were the only Republicans who voted against a procedural motion Tuesday to begin debating legislation rolling back the 2010 healthcare law, often called Obamacare. Sullivan, also a Republican, voted in favor of advancing the bill. Murkowski has urged a more open process to develop the legislation, which Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has put together behind closed doors without committee hearings or input from Democrats. A spokeswoman for Zinke did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Facebook

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Iran angered by report that Trump wants additional nuclear inspections By Shashank Bengali Iran responded angrily Thursday to reports that the Trump administration would push for inspections of military facilities to ensure Tehran is complying with the 2015 nuclear deal. Iran will not succumb to further pressure, Hamid Reza Taraghi, a hard-line analyst who is close to Irans leadership, told The Times. Taraghi did not say whether Iran would refuse inspectors access to military facilities but insisted the Islamic Republic was complying with the agreement, which required Iran to shelve its nuclear program in exchange for relief from economic sanctions. President Trump has said he wants to tear up the deal and doesnt believe Iran is complying, although his administration certified it was in a report to Congress this month. The Associated Press reported Thursday that Trump was pushing for inspections of suspicious Iranian military sites, either to prove that Iran was violating the deal or force it to refuse, which could cause the agreement to collapse. Iranian officials have argued in the past that inspections of military sites would be off-limits. But under the agreement it signed with the United States and five other world powers, Iran agreed to the so-called Additional Protocol, which allows U.N. inspectors limited access to any site where illicit nuclear activity is suspected. Taraghi, a former lawmaker, said the Additional Protocol allowed for snap inspections and that international inspectors had installed closed-circuit cameras in all nuclear-related facilities. They have access to everything going on here on the ground, Taraghi said. What else do they want to know? It was not immediately clear what military sites the Trump administration was seeking to have inspected, or whether it had evidence that Iran was breaching the terms of the deal. U.N. inspectors monitoring Irans compliance had not requested access to military facilities as of July 25, according to a paper published Thursday by Mark Fitzpatrick, executive director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in Washington. If US has good evidence of #Iran violations, then an inspection request is warranted, Fitzpatrick tweeted. A request designed to trap Iran into saying no isnt. Facebook

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Top U.S. general says Pentagon will not change policy on transgender troops until White House acts By W.J. Hennigan The nations senior military officer said Thursday that there will be no modifications to Pentagon policies for now despite President Trump social media posts declaring a ban on transgender troops in uniform. Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, wrote in a memo to commanders and senior enlisted leaders of the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines that the military will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. Dunford said Pentagon policy on transgender troops would not change until the White House has issued Trumps directive to Secretary of Defense James Mattis through formal channels  not on Twitter  and the secretarys office issues guidance on implementation to the service chiefs. Its unclear when that might happen. The unusual memo appeared intended to calm widespread confusion and concern at the Pentagon, which was blindsided when Trump wrote Wednesday that Pentagon would not accept or allow transgender troops to serve in any capacity. The presidents posts appeared to reverse a year-old Pentagon policy that allowed transgender soldiers to openly serve for the first time, and to seek sex reassignment surgery, hormone therapy and other treatments at military hospitals. Trumps surprise announcement not only marked a retreat for the Pentagon push to bar gender-based discrimination. It also was an about-face for Trump, who had repeatedly vowed his support for the LGBT community during the campaign last year. The posts raised questions about the fate of thousands of transgender service members, including some deployed overseas, and whether they would be kicked out of the military under Trumps directive. Dunfords memo appeared to address those fears, at least for the short term. There will be no modifications to the current policy until the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance, he wrote. In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect, he added. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions. In his tweets, Trump said he had decided to bar transgender troops because the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Experts said neither justification was accurate or fair since the expected medical costs were negligible and transgender troops have been openly serving for the past year without disruption. The sweeping declaration drew rebuke from war veterans and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender advocacy groups, who vowed to challenge Trump in federal court if self-identified transgender service members are forced out of the military. VoteVets, a liberal military veterans advocacy group, said Thursday it had collected more than 20,000 signatures from veterans, military families and other supporters to oppose the ban. Facebook

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Analysis: Trumps war against elites and expertise By Cathleen Decker (Saul Loeb / AFP/Getty Images) When President Trump campaigned this spring at the Hermitage, the home of Andrew Jackson, one part of his predecessors approach got a special endorsement. It was during the Revolution that Jackson first confronted and defied an arrogant elite. Does that sound familiar? Trump asked to laughs from his audience. When Trump ally and National Rifle Assn. President Wayne LaPierre teed off six weeks later on Americas greatest domestic threats, he cited not homegrown terrorists but what he termed the three most dangerous voices in America: academic elites, political elites, and media elites. The rhetoric against elites came from two men who would seem to be card-carrying members of the club: LaPierre made more than $5 million in 2015, the most recent year for which his compensation was publicly released. Trump lived before his inauguration in a gold-plated home in the sky above New Yorks Fifth Avenue, a billionaires luxurious domain. Yet for Trump and his allies, a war on elites has been central to the campaign which put him in the presidency and has maintained the loyalty of his core voters. Trump has taken particular aim at entities that could counter his power, which has helped stoke the ardor of his political backers. Read More Facebook

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Top Trump advisor Kellyanne Conway says colleagues using the press to shiv each other By Noah Bierman White House staffers continued their angry campaign against leaks -- and each other -- as top advisor Kellyanne Conway used vivid language in a Fox interview Thursday to denounce colleagues who are using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. The comments came shortly after Anthony Scaramucci, the new White House communications director, delivered his own attack on leakers -- all but blaming Reince Priebus, the White House chief of staff -- in an interview on CNN. If the Trump White House at times resembles a reality show, cable television has become the confessional booth where the players vent their anger at each other. That dynamic was on vivid display Thursday morning. Kellyanne Conway: "Now, there are leaks, and then there are people using the press to shiv each other in the ribs. Thats different." (Fox)  David Wright (@DavidWright_CNN) July 27, 2017 Conway largely backed Scaramucci without explicitly taking sides in his public war against Priebus, whom he publicly suggested leaked Scaramuccis financial disclosure forms to the press. The forms are public and available through a request. We just have to cut down on people thinking its cute and its popular and it somehow enhances their resume and their portfolio for later on to curry favor with folks who are more interested in covering the style and not the substance here, Conway said of those who leak to he press. Asked specifically whether she agrees with Scaramucci that Priebus leaked the financial forms, Conway passed on the opportunity to defend Priebus. Leakers are easier to figure out than many think, she said, perhaps ominously given Scaramuccis threats to fire suspects. This West Wing is a very small place. Facebook

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Warfare in the West Wing breaks into the open as Scaramucci takes aim at Priebus By Brian Bennett A knife fight for control of the West Wing broke into the open Thursday morning as President Trumps new communications director Anthony Scaramucci lashed out at White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus in a televised interview, accusing Priebus of leaking and standing in the way of Trumps agenda. The fish stinks from the head down, I can tell you two fish that dont stink, OK, and thats me and the president, Scaramucci said, calling in to CNNs morning show New Day. I dont like the activity thats going in the White House, he said. Scaramucci, who had said the day he was named to the White House job that he and Priebus were like brothers, drastically amended that in the interview, comparing the two of them to the brothers who, in the Bible, were the characters in the first murder. Some brothers are like Cain and Abel, other brothers can fight with each other and get along. I dont know if this is reparable or not  that will be up to the president, he said. Scaramucci on his relationship with Reince: "Some brothers are like Cain and Abel." Uh, Cain killed Abel. https://t.co/UQ8F9HiXLx  Dan Merica (@merica) July 27, 2017 President Trump has a track record of encouraging rivalries among people who work for him. Scaramucci said he had spoken with Trump for 15 minutes to go over what he was going to say before he called CNN, implying his warning to Priebus carried Trumps backing. Trump, Scaramucci said, has given me his full support and his full blessing. When Scaramucci was hired, Trump told him he would report directly to the president, bypassing the chief of staff, and setting up the clash that played out Thursday on national television. If you want to talk about the chief of staff, we have had odds, we have had differences. When I said we were brothers from the podium, thats because were rough on each other, Scaramucci said. The tension between Scaramucci and Priebus flared after Politico published a story Wednesday about Scaramuccis publicly available financial disclosure form showing he still stands to profit from his stake in an investment firm he founded. The disclosure form was available to the public because Scaramucci had been nominated earlier this year for a job at the Export-Import Bank of the U.S., and the forms become public 30 days after they are filed. But Scaramucci, in a tweet Wednesday night, seemed to imply Priebus had leaked the form to make him look bad, or knew who did, and called for an FBI investigation. He later deleted the tweet, apparently after being informed that the form was not leaked. Over the last five days, Scaramucci said to CNN, he has done a major amount of work interviewing assistants to the president and communications staff. He also had dinner with Trump on Wednesday night in addition to his phone conversation with the president Thursday morning. The two of them want everyone to know we have a very, very good idea of who the leakers are, who the senior leakers are, in the White House, he said. Scaramucci took aim specifically at Priebus for leaking details about internal White House discussions and maneuvers. If Reince wants to explain that hes not a leaker, let him do that, Scaramucci said. Scaramucci appears to be giving voice to Trumps frustration with people in the White House the president believes are slowing down policy efforts, even though Trump has shown a pattern of repeatedly stepping on his own efforts on healthcare, job creation and other initiatives with unplanned tweets on topics such as Russia, transgender troops and unfounded allegations of voter fraud. There are people inside this administration who think its their job to save America from this president, Scaramucci said. Its not their jobs ... to rein him in or do things to him that slow down his agenda. People in the Washington are back-stabbers, Scaramucci said. Im more of a front-stabbing person. Facebook

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Scaramucci tweets, then deletes, confusing statement that referred to information in Politico report as a leak By Colleen Shalby In a now deleted tweet, incoming White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci sent out a confusing statement Wednesday night, addressing information reported earlier by Politico as a leak. The article reported on Scaramuccis financial disclosures. According to Politico, those details had been filed with the Office of Government Ethics, so its unclear what  if anything  was leaked information. Scaramuccis tweet further confused as it ended with White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus Twitter handle. Just before those characters, he noted that he intended to contact the FBI and the Justice Department. Some speculated that Scaramucci was implying that Priebus was behind the leak. But in a new tweet roughly two hours after the original, he tweeted what appeared to be a clarification, correcting a headline of news site Axios. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks, he tweeted, ending it  once again  with Priebus handle. Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45 pic.twitter.com/AB0reseuX1  Anthony Scaramucci (@Scaramucci) July 27, 2017 Five days ago, Scaramucci, responding to a question about reported tensions between him and the chief of staff, said he and Priebus are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up a little, which is totally normal for brothers. 10:15 p.m. PT: This post was originally published at 8:52 p.m. It was updated with information from Scaramuccis new tweet. Facebook

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Senate Judiciary chair fires off warning to Trump about Sessions By David Lauter Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, fired off an unmistakable warning to President Trump on Wednesday evening: Dont even think about trying to get a new attorney general confirmed this year. Trump has been publicly tormenting Jeff Sessions, appearing to want to push the attorney general into stepping down from his job. But in a tweet, Grassley made it clear that if Trump pushed Sessions out, he would have to live with an acting attorney general for a long time. Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017 Any nominee for attorney general would have to pass through the Judiciary Committee before getting a confirmation vote, so Grassleys no way would be a formidable barrier. Grassley has been an administration loyalist on nearly all issues so far, but as a veteran senator, he has a strong independent streak and, as previous administrations have found, he can be implacable if angered. His message comes as conservative allies rally support for Sessions. Several other Republican senators have spoken out in favor of the attorney general, a former colleague who was well liked during his years as senator from Alabama. Senate Democrats already have said they would use procedural motions to prevent the Senate from formally going on a recess this summer, blocking Trump from making a recess appointment that would bypass the Senate. Republicans used similar maneuvers to block recess appointments by President Obama. If Sessions were to step down and not be replaced, Deputy Atty. Gen. Rod Rosenstein would become acting attorney general. Trump has been critical of Rosenstein as well as Sessions, so that option presumably would not appeal to him. Facebook

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Under fire from Trump, Sessions should stay focused on his job, White House says By Joseph Tanfani (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) In spite of a daily barrage of Twitter attacks from President Trump, the White House press secretary said Wednesday that Atty. Gen. Jeff Sessions should stay focused on performing his duties as the nations top law enforcement officer. You can be disappointed in someone and still want someone to continue to do their job, Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday, hours after Trump criticized Sessions for the third straight day  this time for not replacing acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe. Sessions was one of Trumps earliest and most loyal supporters, but the relationship has turned icy as Trump continues to seethe about Sessions decision to step aside from supervising the investigation into alleged Russian interference with last years election. Sessions was at the White House for meetings Wednesday, the second time this week hes visited the West Wing, but once again did not see Trump, Sanders said. Sanders did not clear up the main question surrounding Trumps strategy of publicly battering the attorney general: If the president is so unhappy, why doesnt he simply fire Sessions? Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Wednesday that Trumps apparent attempt to humiliate Sessions into quitting was a sign of weakness. To me, weakness is when you play around the edges, and you dont use the power you have, Graham said in an interview on CNN. Sanders said that Trump wants Sessions to continue to lead the Department of Justice. He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues, she said. One of Trumps public complaints has been that Sessions hasnt been aggressive enough in pursuing leakers of classified information. In fact, the Justice Department is expected to announce next week some leak prosecutions. On Tuesday, Sessions also announced new measures to cut off some federal funds to so-called sanctuary cities that dont cooperate with immigration enforcement, another favorite issue for the president. But Sanders added that, at this point, a leak investigation would not salvage Sessions standing with Trump. I dont think thats the nature of the relationship, she said. In two tweets Wednesday morning, Trump criticized Sessions for not replacing McCabe, whose wife ran for office as a Democrat in Virginia in 2015. He suggested that McCabe had a conflict of interest in his duties as deputy director of the FBI during the investigation of Hillary Clintons handling of classified emails as secretary of State, although McCabe did not move into that job until months after his wifes campaign was over. McCabe took over the bureau as acting director when Trump fired James B. Comey in May. Sanders also declined to answer a question on why Trump did not fire McCabe himself, saying only that Trump looked forward to seeing his nominee as FBI director, Christopher Wray, be confirmed by the Senate soon. Facebook

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Trump, on Twitter, announced a ban on transgender service members. Now the military has to figure out what he means By Brian Bennett (Alex Brandon / Associated Press) President Trump surprised even the Pentagon on Wednesday morning by his unexpected announcement, via Twitter, of a ban on transgender service members. The military has not had a chance to decide how to put such a ban into effect, acknowledged Trumps top spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, as she fielded numerous questions on the topic later from White House reporters. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, who was on vacation, wasnt informed until Tuesday that Trump had decided to bar transgender service members from serving in any way. Sometimes you have to make a decision and once he made a decision, he didnt feel it was necessary to hold that decision, Sanders said. The president concluded, based on consultations with his national security team, that allowing transgender individuals to serve erodes military readiness and unit cohesion, she said. White House and Pentagon officials had been discussing details of medical coverage for transgender service members on active duty. But Trump went far beyond that with his series of tweets that the military will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the military. It will be up to the Defense Department to determine the specifics of the policy, including whether active-duty transgender service members will be kicked out of the military, Sanders said. Estimates of the number of current service members who are transgender range from 1,300 to about 16,000. The implementation policy is going to be something that the White House and Department of Defense will have to work together to lawfully determine, Sanders said. I would imagine the Department of Defense will be the lead on that, she added. Trumps tweets overshadowed other announcements he had planned to make Wednesday about adding manufacturing jobs to the economy and donating $100,000 of his second-quarter paycheck to the Department of Education to support science and math education. The president has expressed concerns since this Obama policy came into effect, Sanders said. She added that the president considered allowing transgender people in the ranks is a very expensive and disruptive policy. At one point, an exasp
The Canaanites lived at the crossroads of the ancient world.

In a territory that would later be known as the Middle East, they experienced wars, conquests and occupations over thousands of years. As a result, evolutionary geneticists expected their DNA to reflect substantial mixing with incoming populations.

A new genetic analysis shows that scientists were wrong. According to a study in the American Journal of Human Genetics, todays Lebanese share a whopping 93% of their DNA with ancient Canaanites who lived nearly 4,000 years ago.

The study also found that the Bronze Age inhabitants of Sidon, a major Canaanite city-state in modern-day Lebanon, had the same genetic profile as people who lived 300 to 800 years earlier in present-day Jordan.

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Later known as Phoenicians, the Canaanites have a murky past. Nearly all of their own records have been destroyed over the centuries, so their history has been mostly pieced together from archaeological records and the writings of other ancient peoples.

Archaeologists at the Sidon excavation site have been unearthing ancient Canaanite secrets for the last 19 years in the still-inhabited Lebanese port city. They have uncovered 160 burials from the Canaanite period alone, including children buried in jars and adults placed in sand, said Claude Doumet-Serhal, director of the excavation.

Evolutionary geneticists are taking the work a step further.

Aided by new DNA sampling techniques, they sequenced the whole genomes of five individuals found in Sidon who lived about 3,700 years ago.

The team compared the genomes of these ancient Canaanites with those of 99 Lebanese people currently living in the country, as well as with previously published genetic data from modern and ancient populations across Europe and Asia.

First, they investigated the genetic ancestry of the Canaanites themselves. They found that these Bronze Age inhabitants of Sidon shared about half their DNA with local Neolithic peoples and the other half with Chalcolithic Iranians. Interestingly, this genetic profile is nearly identical to the one evolutionary geneticist Iosif Lazaridis and his team found last year in Bronze Age villagers near Ain Ghazal in modern-day Jordan.

This suggests that Canaanites were spread across a wide region during the Bronze Age, from urban societies on the coast to farming societies further inland. It also supports the idea that different Levantine cultural groups  such as the Moabites, Israelites and Phoenicians  had a common genetic background, the study authors said.

By comparing the lengths of similar strands of DNA, the researchers determined that the genetic mixing of the Levantine and Iranian peoples happened between 6,600 and 3,550 years ago. If they had more ancient DNA samples from the region, they could come up with a more precise estimate, they added.

Next, the team compared the Canaanite genome with the genetic makeup of people who currently inhabit the ancient Canaanite cities. So they collected DNA from 99 modern Lebanese people  Druze, Muslim, and Christian alike.

As expected, they found some new additions to the Lebanese genome since the Bronze Age. About 7% of modern Lebanese DNA originates from eastern Steppe peoples found in what is now Russia  an ancestry not seen in the Bronze Age Canaanites or their ancestors.

But what really surprised the team was what was missing from the DNA of todays Lebanese.

If you look at the history of Lebanon  after the Bronze Age, especially  it had a lot of conquests, said Marc Haber, a study leader from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hinxton, England. He and his colleague Chris Tyler-Smith expected to see greater genetic contributions from multiple conquering peoples, and they were surprised that as much as 93% of the Lebanese genome is shared with their Canaanite predecessors.

Though a 7% genetic influx from the Steppe seems very small, that number might be covering some hidden complexities, said Lazaridis, who worked on the Bronze Age Jordanian samples but was not involved in the new study.

Not much is known about the migrations of these eastern Steppe populations, he said. If the genomes of the incoming people were only half Steppe, for example, 14% of the Lebanese genome could have come from the new migrants.

Haber and Tyler-Smith said they want to explore this complexity further.

Who were those eastern migrants? Where did they come from? And why did they migrate toward the Levant region? Haber said. Analyzing more samples from different locations and time periods could lead to an answer.

The team also wanted to know if the individuals from Sidon are more similar to modern-day Lebanese than to other modern Eurasian populations.

Despite small genetic variations between the three religious groups caused by preferential mating over time, the Lebanese genome is not widely varied. As a whole, the Lebanese people have more genetic overlap with the Canaanites from Sidon than do other modern Middle Eastern populations such as Jordanians, Syrians or Palestinians.

The difference is small, but its possible that the Lebanese population has remained more isolated over time from an influx of African DNA than other Levantine peoples, Lazaridis suggested.

The findings have powerful cultural implications, said Doumet-Serhal, who worked on the new study. In a society struggling with the ramifications of war and fiercely divided along political and sectarian lines, religious groups have often looked to an uncertain history for their identities.

When Lebanon started in 1929, Doumet-Serhal said, the Christians said, We are Phoenician. The Muslims didnt accept that and they said, No, we are Arab.

But this work carries a message of unity.

We all belong to the same people, she said. We have always had a difficult past  but we have a shared heritage we have to preserve.

mira.abed@latimes.com

Twitter: @mirakatherine

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Eyebrows rise and interest typically piques when one mentions the words parking structure in Laguna Beach.

As Laguna searches for ways to handle the throngs of motorists that inundate the city, the City Council on Tuesday left open the possibility of one or more parking structures placed in town to capture the cars.

In a unanimous vote, the council directed the city to further investigate four potential sites, and to speak with the California Coastal Commission of ways to help residents find parking in neighborhoods where cars frequently line one or both sides of streets.

One topic could be setting time limits in certain high-traffic areas so residents can find parking closer to their houses or apartments while not hampering the publics ability to access beaches or parks, the latter being one of the commissions goals for cities throughout the state.

Some residents arrived at the meeting aghast the city would consider such projects.

Remember 2013?

In November of that year, the council, on the suggestion of then-Mayor Elizabeth Pearson, thwarted a proposed multi-story structure at the Village Entrance site near the intersection of Forest Avenue and Broadway Street after a wave of community opposition.

The content of Tuesdays discussion was not all that dissimilar from talks four years ago.

Some residents claimed a parking structure would invite more visitors to the city.

When I saw [the staff report] on Sunday I was absolutely horrified at the thought of building facilities to bring more cars and more people into this town, Verna Rollinger, a resident and former Laguna city clerk, said. Its contrary to everything the residents are feeling. The pressure from [millions of visitors] we have is already horrendous.

Resident John Thomas said the cost burden should be placed on tourists.

It makes no sense for residents to buy a parking structure for visitors, Thomas said. It seems these spaces are primarily for visitors and businesses. If commercial owners want a structure, it seems they should pay for it.

The city received inquiries from property owners about public-private partnerships and possible parking options as they develop their land, City Manager John Pietig told the council.

The city looked at eight sites, including some it owned and others that are privately held. Hotel Laguna indicated its interest after the staff report was published, Public Works director Shohreh Dupuis told the council.

Those sites were: the Act V lot  for underground or above-ground parking  at 1900 Laguna Canyon Road; the Glenneyre parking structure at 501 Glenneyre St.; the Laguna Art-A-Fair site at 777 Laguna Canyon Road; the Heisler landing development at 331 to 397 North Coast Highway; Cleo Street at the Holiday Inn site at 696 S. Coast Hwy.; Las Brisas in the 200 block of North Coast Highway; Cliff Drive; and lots at 361 to 363 Third Street, which includes property owned by Laguna Presbyterian Church.

City staff recommended four sites for further study based on a handful of factors including proximity to downtown, potential parking spaces, cost and joint-development opportunities.

Information about development projects was not included in the citys staff report.

The four sites are: 777 Laguna Canyon Road, which would yield 330 additional spaces, the most of any of the proposed structures; 361 to 363 Third Street, which would yield 53 spaces; 696 S. Coast Hwy., the Cleo structure, which would yield 161 spaces; and 331 to 397 North Coast Highway, which would yield 95 spaces.

Estimated cost of a structure at 777 Laguna Canyon Road is $20 million to $25 million, and $5 million for the Third Street option, according to the report.

Resident Tom Halliday suggested the city consider a portion of the parking lot at the Pavilions site in north Laguna as a potential area for a structure.

Councilman Bob Whalen recommended city staff meet with Coastal Commission staff to discuss options to Coastal Commission staff.

The statement, Build it and they will come, is an easy statement to roll off the tongue, but they are already here and we are not managing them, Whalen said.

Go to [commissioners] directly and say, We want to build some parking around town in strategic locations and to put restrictions on neighborhood parking.

Parking structure or no parking structure, we are going to be slammed, Mayor Toni Iseman said, suggesting that development projects in inland cities are drawing more people who in turn want to visit Laguna Beach. I can understand putting your hand up and saying no, but I do think that we are not doing our residents a service if we look at these things as necessarily for the visitors. I think we have to look at these things as for the residents.

bryce.alderton@latimes.com

Twitter: @AldertonBryce
G Force  a thrill ride that spins and swings riders high above the midway at the Orange County Fair  is closed Thursday for inspection after a similar attractions deadly accident the day before in Ohio.

The OC Fair & Event Center in Costa Mesa closed G Force on Wednesday evening after receiving word that a similar ride called Fire Ball had broken apart at the Ohio State Fair, leaving one person dead and seven injured.

The same company, KMG, manufactures both Fire Ball and G Force. The G Force ride at the Orange County Fair is owned and operated by Ray Cammack Shows.

OC Fair & Event Center spokeswoman Terry Moore said G Force was inspected Thursday morning and the fairgrounds is waiting to hear the results.

Were in a wait-and-see mode, but we are erring on the side of caution, she said at about 11:30 a.m. Were in no rush to open that ride. We want to make sure its completely safe.

Weve had this ride for several years and never had any problems with it, she added.

Moore said operators inspect all rides at the Orange County Fair at least once daily and that the fairgrounds also has an independent inspector check them.

KMG is investigating the cause of the malfunction in Ohio, according to the Los Angeles Times.

After the accident, the Amusement Ride and Tramway Unit of the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health asked owners of Fire Ball-style attractions in the state to close the rides, pending clearance from manufacturers or state inspectors.

As of Thursday, all six had been voluntarily shut down, according to a news release.

The rides, which operate under different names, are at the California State Fair in Sacramento, the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, Californias Great America in Santa Clara, San Diegos Belmont Park and Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park.

luke.money@latimes.com

Twitter @LukeMMoney

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UPDATES:

3:25 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information and a new photo.

This article was originally published at 1:05 p.m.
On behalf of the Coalition to Protect Mariners Mile, we would like to personally thank the planning commissioners and the dedicated staff for their efforts to take a step back and reevaluate the Mariners Mile Revitalization Plan.

Moving forward we need to look at all the plans in their entirety along Mariners Mile to make certain that they are compatible and, most importantly, responsible developments.

Unfortunately, the efforts to continue to widen Pacific Coast Highway, in our opinion, is the No. 1 obstacle that will continue to impede the progress regarding future projects, as a family friendly village and tourist destination is in direct conflict with a six-lane highway.

It simply defeats the purpose of the redevelopment. The expansion of PCH would also eradicate an enormous amount of private property along Mariners Mile. The city could be in litigation for years to come, at the taxpayers expense.

We have almost 2,000 people that include the property owners, local merchants and residents in the surrounding areas that have opposed this Revitalization Plan in its current state, as well as, the expansion of PCH.

There is a phenomenon called failure and imagination. These two can be crucial to success. While failure can help you understand where your true passion lies, and where you should focus your energy moving forward, imagination is what will allow you to empathize with other people, so you can use your influence to do good. Together, we need a vision and the power to imagine better for Mariners Mile.

Peggy V. Palmer

The Coalition to Protect Mariners Mile

Newport Beach

Thank you to firefighters, hospital workers

On a recent Sunday morning, I was engaged in my usual exercise routine when suddenly I became flush with heat and lost all balance. I clumsily dismounted from the stationary bike and crawled to the recliner, where I collapsed in sweat and exhaustion.

My wife descended the stairwell and became concerned at the sight of me. She phoned 911 after being advised by a tele-nurse. A crew of firefighters and paramedics quickly arrived. After several bio-measures, they determined that I should be transported to the emergency room. I was in no position to object.

I arrived at Hoag Hospital, where it was determined that I had suffered a stroke. After three days of hospitalization I was released with a list of prescriptions and doctors appointments.

Thankfully, I am on the fast-track to recovery, but would it have been possible without the skills and professionalism of the Huntington Beach Fire Department, and the high-quality medical services I received from the staff at Hoag Hospital? I doubt it.

For all of them, I am eternally grateful.

Ben Miles

Huntington Beach

Councilmans view on property rights go too far

Newport Beach Councilman Scott Peotter likes to defend his support of high-rise development by saying he supports property rights. I also support property rights. However, I believe most residents would define property rights as the ability to develop your property in accordance with the General Plan and your permitted zoning.

Peotter clearly has a different interpretation of property rights, as demonstrated by his strong support of the 25-story Museum House condo tower which he voted to approve in December 2016. This site was donated specifically to the Orange County Museum of Art for use as a museum and was zoned only for public institutional use.

The property right associated with this parcel was for a low-rise, low impact building. In order to develop the high-rise Museum House, multiple changes to the development rights were required, including height and density increases. In other words, Mr. Peotter wanted to grant an entirely new set of rights to the property that had never existed before.

Susan Skinner

Newport Beach

Dogs make great protectors

My suggestion to the people of Fountain Valley who live next to the homeless camps next to the Santa Ana River is simple: Get a dog. A big dog, similar to a German shepherd. Make your backyard the dogs new home. He will guard his new home with his life. And he will guard your home too.

Rob Macfarlane

Newport Beach

Trump supporters are living in another world

Forty-one percent of Americans support impeachment of a president who shows no respect for the law, shows no willingness to ever admit he might be wrong and who cannot even find it within himself to tell the truth, according to a Monmouth University poll. I suggest that people who voted for Donald Trump may have been mistaken at the time or simply unwilling to vote for his flawed opponent. But anyone who still believes that this man is somehow fit to hold the office is living in ultimate La-La-Land.

Lenard Davis

Newport Beach

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The Black Canyon of the Gunnison was considered deep, dark and impenetrable not only by white settlers but also by Utes native to western Colorado. The area was seldom seen until the 1930s, when Mark Warner, a conservationist and Presbyterian minister in Montrose, Colo., 15 miles away, successfully lobbied for a road to the canyons south rim and for its declaration as a national monument. Despite its magnificent, raw beauty, it remains one of the nations most overlooked and least visited national parks.

The tab for two, excluding airfare and car rental: $117 for one night at the locally owned Red Arrow Inn and $50 for dinner and a couple of beers at Horsefly Brewing Co.

The bed

Montrose, population 19,000, is one of those towns with motels  chains and mom-and-pop places  dotting the main drag. The local visitor center (107 S. Cascade Ave., Montrose; [970] 497-8558) recommended the family-run Red Arrow Inn & Suites (1702 E. Main St., Montrose; [970] 249-9641). The hot breakfast includes the usual eggs, sausage and make-your-own waffles, but with a pleasant surprise: freshly baked apple and cherry turnovers. Weekend rates from $117 a night.

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The meal

A surprising bounty of locally owned restaurants are found in Montrose  a good thing because theres no place to eat or sleep (except at a campsite) in the park. I found the cozy Horsefly Brewing Co. (846 E. Main St., Montrose; [970] 249-6889) a tasty choice. After considering the Rocky Mountain oysters with homemade dipping sauce ($9.99), I wimped out and ordered the 50/50 burger ($10.49)  a hefty patty blending beef and bacon and served with a mountain of fries. Maybe bulls testicles are more tempting after a sampler of six of the hand-crafted beers ($5.75).

The find

Visitors can peer 2,000 feet into the canyon, carved by water eons ago, from several overlooks. Differing perspectives are found along South Rim Drive, a 14-mile round trip from the compact Visitor Center, where I was enlightened by a film explaining the canyons history. The Gunnison River itself is challenging to reach. There are ranger-led tours aboard a pontoon boat, but you must be fit enough to climb down (and back up) 232 stairs. Prepaid reservations ($24 for adults, $12 for children 12 and younger) are required. Farther upstream, kayaking is discouraged in the treacherous Class V rapids.

The lesson learned

Two of the three roads leading to the canyon are closed during winter. The highway from Montrose remains open, but South Rim Drive is gated and unplowed. That makes it ideal for exploring on skis or snowshoes. Rangers lead hikes on weekends; snowshoes are available to rent.

travel@latimes.com
Visitors to Maui who want to learn a bit of Hawaiian culture can attend a hula lesson offered at many hotels. But those who want a more in-depth cultural experience often choose the Kaanapali Beach Hotel.

The hotel has a long history of immersing guests in island traditions, hosting more than 30 cultural activities each day.

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It has been honored by the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the Waiaha Foundation, a nonprofit created to promote native culture in the hospitality industry, which deemed the site the Most Hawaiian Hotel.

Yes, hula classes are offered, but guests also can study the Hawaiian language or learn to play the ukulele. They can try their hand at weaving baskets from the lauhala plant or stringing leis from fragrant flowers.

If that all sounds too much like work, you can sit back and enjoy traditional music or storytelling at the hotel. And most of the activities are free.

On its website, the hotel says its not the typical brass and marble edifice many Maui visitors expect to find. Its a low-rise property thats older than some of its neighbors.

Since 1986, the Kaanapali Beach Hotel has offered pookela (excellence) classes aimed at preserving Hawaiian culture. Four times a year, everyone from the general manager on down participates in classes on topics such as Hawaiian history, language and mythology.

Room rates in August range from $169 for an Aloha Value room to $292 for Ocean Front accommodation.

Info: Kaanapali Beach Hotel, (808) 661-0011.

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Island by island, a guide to some of the best hotel pools in Hawaii

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travel@latimes.com

@latimestravel
Endre Balogh, a young prodigy, was first American child to receive the Yehudi Menuhin Scholarship.

Balogh, age 9, was playing his violin during a portrait session with staff photographer Harry Chase when Binkie yawned. Of course that was the photo.

Staff writer Julie Byrne reported in the March 24, 1964, Los Angeles Times:

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Freckle dust scattered across a pixie-like face: an agile mind that jumps from puppetry to science; mobile, but tiny hands that turn a magic trick or make a violin come alive add up to 9-year-old Los Angeles musical prodigy Endre Balogh.

Endre, who started playing violin when he was 3, is the first American child to receive a full scholarship to the Yehudi Menuhin School in London for children with exceptional musical gifts.

The boys first appearance with a violin was when photographed with a miniature but real instrument when he was 11 days old. His latest was Saturday, when he appeared as guest soloist for the Philharmonic Orchestras Youth Concert at the Shrine Auditorium.

The talented young violinist is not wrapped in a velvet cloud of music, although he has made more than 50 appearances with professional musical groups.

As his mother played a recording of a recent concert where Endre was soloist, the slight little boy bounced in and out of his living room, showing his shell collection, chattering about puppets and roughhousing with his dog Binkie.

Answering a question as to whether he was pleased with the recording he shrugged, pulled a string, a bolt and handkerchief from his pocket and said:

Uh alrighthere hold this end of the string and Ill show you a magic trick."

Endre and his mother leave for London in April. There, he will not only receive his musical training in the Menuhin school but will attend a local school for general education.

This post was originally published on June 10, 2013.

See more from the Los Angeles Times archives here
A British judge has ordered that critically ill infant Charlie Gard should be moved from a hospital to a hospice, where he will inevitably die within a short time.

Judge Nicholas Francis made the order after a noon Thursday deadline for Charlies parents and a hospital to agree to an end-of-life care plan came and went.

The judge said that meant 11-month-old Charlie, who has a rare genetic disease, should now be transfered to a hospice and taken off life support.

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Charlies parents had wanted to take him home to die, but Great Ormond Street Hospital said it was not practical.

The judge has barred identification of the hospice or any of the medical staff treating Charlie.

ALSO

For Charlie, its too late: Parents of British baby abandon legal fight to get treatment in U.S.

What led to beating death of 22-year-old U.S. tourist in Greece? Police search for answers

Pakistan arrests 28 people after revenge rape of teenage girl
Iran successfully launched its most advanced satellite-carrying rocket into space, the countrys state media reported on Thursday, in what is likely the most significant step yet for the launch vehicle.

A confirmed launch of the Simorgh rocket would mark another step forward for the Islamic Republics young space program, but is likely to raise alarm among its adversaries, who fear the same technology could be used to produce long-range missiles.

The Trump administration considers the launch a violation of the spirit of the landmark nuclear accord because it reflects provocative action by Tehran, State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said. She said the launch appeared to be related to Irans attempts to develop ballistic missiles, which is not covered under the nuclear deal but is a subject of protest and sanctioning by the U.S.

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Iranian state television said the rocket, whose name means phoenix in Persian, is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 550 pounds. The report did not elaborate on the rockets payload. Other state-linked agencies including the semi-official Fars news agency also described the launch as successful.

Media reports did not say when the launch took place at the Imam Khomeini National Space Station in Semnan, about 138 miles east of Tehran.

Iran frequently announces technological breakthroughs that are difficult to independently verify. It has carried out multiple tests of short- and medium-range ballistic missiles as well as other domestically produced weapons over the years.

The Simorgh is a two-stage rocket first revealed in 2010. It is larger than an earlier model known as the Safir, or ambassador, that Iran has used to launch satellites on previous occasions.

The launch comes as the United States has criticized Irans ballistic missile tests, which American officials argue violate the spirit of the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers. Under the agreement, which does not expressly prohibit missile tests, Iran agreed to limit its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Iran has pursued a satellite launch program for years. The U.S. and its allies worry that the same technology could be used to develop long-range missiles.

The country has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit over the last decade, and in 2013 launched a monkey into space. But it recently abandoned plans to potentially send humans into orbit, saying in late May that the cost of doing so was prohibitive.

The U.S. National Air and Space Intelligence Center said in a report released last month that the Simorgh could act as a test bed for developing the technologies needed to produce an intercontinental ballistic missile, or ICBM.

Tehrans desire to have a strategic counter to the United States could drive it to field an ICBM. Progress in Irans space program could shorten a pathway to an ICBM because space launch vehicles (SLV) use inherently similar technologies, the report said.

Irans satellite-launch program falls under the responsibility of the defense ministry, which has denied that the space program is a cover for weapons development.

The head of Irans space agency in October expressed for the first time interest in cooperating with NASA. Iran has offered to share its scientific findings and satellite data with other countries.

Irans most recent known successful satellite rocket launch was in February 2015, when it put an imaging satellite known as Fajr into orbit. That launch happened while Iran was negotiating the nuclear deal.

It is believed to have carried out at least a partial test of the Simorgh rocket last year, though the exact details of that attempt were never made public.

Irans decision to announce the rocket launch now probably serves as a test of Americas reaction, said Behnam Ben Taleblu, a senior Iran analyst with the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a conservative Washington think tank long critical of the nuclear deal.

Taleblu said the launch announced Thursday had implications not only on Irans ability to launch satellites, but also in possibly building intercontinental ballistic missiles.

If Iran begins working on heat shields and other technology allowing for a rockets payload to re-enter Earths atmosphere, that would be a major warning sign, he said.

This will take time, but the Iranian ballistic missile, nuclear, and space program shows that slow and steady always wins the race, Taleblu said.

Asked about the Iran missile tests, Liu Jieyi, Chinas ambassador to the United Nations and the current president of the U.N. Security Council, said that it was not within the scope of the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers.

I think whats important is that the agreement continues to be implemented and all the sides make constructive efforts to resolve whatever issues that still exist, and to completely and comprehensively implement the agreement, Liu told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.

Los Angeles Times staff writer Tracy Wilkinson contributed to this report.

ALSO

Trump administration intensifies demands for Iran to release U.S. prisoners

Duck and cover 2.0: How North Korea is prompting new efforts to prepare for a nuclear attack

Irans latest culture battle: Should women in cars keep their heads covered?

UPDATES:

1:45 p.m.: This article was updated with comment from the U.S. State Department.

This article was originally published at 1:15 p.m.
Mohammad Ashfaq, a villager in Pakistans Punjab province, came to the village council with a harrowing complaint: His 12-year-old sister had been raped by a 15-year-old boy, a distant cousin.

The council, or jirga, prescribed an equally harrowing punishment: Ashfaq, 20, should publicly rape the boys sister, who is 16.

Ashfaq carried out the punishment in a case of revenge rape that has shocked Pakistan and reached all the way to the countrys Supreme Court.

Police have arrested 28 people in a village outside the city of Multan, in southern Punjab, including the head of the council, which included family members of both alleged rapists.

The 15-year-old was also arrested, but police were still searching for Ashfaq, said Shahida Nasreen, a senior police official in Multan and head of the Violence Against Women Center.

Honor crimes are common in Pakistan, where villagers often use violence to punish those seen to have sullied a familys reputation. The government has vowed to end the practice of honor killings of women who marry without the approval of their male relatives.

The case in Punjab came to light July 20 when the boys family reported it to police, but it was nearly a week before arrests were made.

Shehbaz Sharif, Punjabs chief minister, suspended Multans police chief and the head of the local police station for what he termed extreme negligence.

All culprits will have to face the law, Sharif said.

The chief justice of the Supreme Court said it would take up the case and ordered Punjab police to submit a report.

The case bore disturbing similarities to a 2002 incident in which a woman, Mukhtar Mai, was gang-raped by a local jirga in the same area for a crime allegedly committed by her male relatives. The perpetrators were convicted and sentenced to death, but all but one were later freed by higher courts.

Mai told The Times on Thursday that she had lost sleep over the latest crimes.

I can understand the situation of both girls. I have gone through it, she said.

This incident shows the failure of the state and society. There are laws, but police dont implement them while courts dont dispense justice. What do you expect? These local influential [people] have the support of political elite and police. These are not isolated cases.
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Jul 27, 2017, 2:39pm ET

Germany issues registration ban for diesel-powered Porsche SUVs

Another VW company has been found guilty of cheating on emissions.

Yet another shoe has dropped in the seemingly never-ending Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal with Germany on Thursday banning Porsche Cayenne Diesel and Macan S Diesel SUVs from being registered in the country.

German transport minister Alexander Dobrindt confirmed to Autocar that the country's KBA (Kraftfahrtbundesamt) has placed a registration ban on certain Cayenne and Macan diesel models after discovering an irregularity with the utility vehicles' emissions software. Testing by the KBA revealed that software used in the diesel SUV models could detect when they were undergoing testing and switch to a so-called "warm-up mode that reduced CO2 output.

Both the Cayenne Diesel and Macan S Diesel use a 3.0L V6 diesel engine sourced from Audi. Audi used the same engine in several of its vehicles, including the A6 and Q7.

In addition to the registration ban, the KBA is also forcing Porsche to recall some 22,000 vehicles that are already on German roads.

"Porsche has detected irregularities in the engine control software during internal investigations and has actively pointed this out to the Kraftfahrtbundesamt (KBA), German Federal Motor Transport Authority. The irregularities are not related to the transmission control software. Corrections by means of a software update within the scope of a recall were agreed with the authority, Porsche said in a statement.

The company continued: "Regardless of the recall, Porsche continues to carry out internal audits on its vehicles and derive optimizations from them. Furthermore, the company is still in close contact with the authorities, in particular the German Federal Motor Transport Authority, on all current matters.

Porsche was forced to halt sales of the Cayenne Diesel in the United States in late 2015 after it was discovered that the vehicle's software was designed to skirt testing procedures.
Jul 27, 2017, 1:23pm ET

US-bound Ford Ranger to borrow Mustang's 310-horsepower engine?

If the rumor proves accurate, the F-150\'s midsize sibling could get around 310 horsepower and plenty of turbocharged torque.

Ford may be considering at least one powerful EcoBoost engine for the next Ranger.

The company's turbocharged four-cylinder engine is a seemingly logical fit for a midsize pickup, likely appealing to diesel-wary US customers as the Ranger returns home for the next generation.

A speculative Motor Trend report suggests Ford could borrow the Mustang's 2.3-liter EcoBoost mill. In the pony car, the turbo four delivers 310 horsepower and 320 pound-feet of torque.

The Blue Oval is expected to tweak the Fusion's 2.5-liter naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine for base models, while the F-150's 3.3-liter V6 is viewed as a logical third choice.

Spy photographers have already spotted the new Ranger testing in Colorado, inching closer to late-2018 production.
UPDATE: Pawlowski pleads not guilty to corruption charges

The mayor of Pennsylvania's third-largest city was set to appear Thursday in federal court on corruption charges.

Allentown Mayor Ed Pawlowski is accused of accepting more than $150,000 in campaign contributions in exchange for city business. Prosecutors said he put a "for-sale sign" on his office.

The Democratic mayor has denied wrongdoing and says he will not resign or drop his current bid for a fourth term. His lawyer says the indictment is "extraordinarily weak."

His hearing on bribery, fraud and other charges was set for 1:30 p.m. in Philadelphia.

The former mayor of Reading, the state's fifth largest city, was also indicted this week on charges of shaking down businesses for campaign contributions in return for city work.

Vaughn Spencer, who served one term, is due in court Tuesday. His lawyer says he plans to fight the charges.

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#football Injured star Son Heung-min named to S. Korean World Cup squad The injured South Korean football star Son Heung-min was named to the country's World Cup squad Saturday, as the football-crazed nation waits with bated breath to see if the belove...
The Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture, which oversees amusement rides in the state, will temporarily ban pendulum rides similar to the Fire Ball that crashed Wednesday at the Ohio State Fair, killing one person and injuring seven, an official said.

But it doesn't appear any are operating here anyway, the department said.

The degree of the ban is still to be worked out so all such rides have not be sidelined, Joseph Filoromo, supervisor of the Division of Amusement Rides and Attractions, said Thursday afternoon.

"We are concerned with the exact model," he added.

A smaller version of the ride, called Freak Out, has been at the Great Allentown Fair in the past, but the vendor that provides the rides to the fair has sold it, Filoromo said.

A ride, seen here, that was once used at the Great Allentown Fair is similar to but smaller than the Fire Ball that crashed July 26, 2017, at the Ohio State Fair, an official says. (lehighvalleylive.com file photo)

A ride called Fire Ball has been at the local fair, but it's a different kind of attraction from the one involved in the Ohio incident. It's not uncommon for different rides to have the same name, Filoromo said.

Until "proper inspection procedures" are in place, the 2,000 certified inspectors the division uses to check the rides won't let Fire Ball-types operate, he said.

Amusements of America, the New Jersey company which placed the Fire Ball at the Columbus, Ohio, venue, hasn't been registered since 2012 in Pennsylvania, the Department of Agriculture said in a news release.

There are two rides similar to the Fire Ball, but both aren't used in Pennsylvania, the department said.

While they are owned and operated by different companies, they are both called Afterburner and are part of traveling shows that serve carnivals and fairs, the state said. Neither company operates in Pennsylvania and none of the state's amusement parks has an Afterburner, the state said.

Neither ride will be allowed in the state during the investigation, the state said.

The "spectacular rides" are popular because "fairs want them," Filoromo said about pendulum rides the swing back and forth and spin. They aren't necessarily the biggest money makers; kiddies rides often have better bottom lines, he added.

"Fairs want the biggest and the flashiest rides," he said. "But it doesn't put people in the seats."

Great Allentown Fair spokeswoman Bonnie Brosious said the state is very conscientious when it comes to inspections.

"If there's something that's not up to code, the ride cannot open," she said. It's rare that a ride fails inspection but sometimes the safety work isn't complete when the fair begins, and rides that weren't looked at can't be used, she said.

And the state also has a team of quality control personnel who come unannounced to check on the inspectors' work, Filoromo said. The division goes "where we need to be," he added.

If there's a concern about the quality of the rides somewhere, that becomes a priority, he said. So every ride at every small carnival might not get checked every time, he said.

But due to the "sheer volume" at the Great Allentown Fair -- which he called one of the good operations -- inspectors check every ride anyway.

Powers Great American Midways handles the 35 or so rides that will be at the fair from Aug. 29 to Sept. 4. A representative of the company couldn't immediately be reached on Thursday.

There hasn't been a major accident at the fair in Brosious' more than 30 years. And Filoromo -- who said he is among those on the state staff with a lifetime of experience and has been "dealing with amusement rides since 1968" -- couldn't recall any events similar to the Ohio incident.

The state would rather catch things ahead of time, he said.

Brosious said the fair staff would be "very attentive to the investigation that's going on in Ohio."

But she grasps the human toll, as well, of the failure of a "mechanical conveyance."

"Our hearts and prayers at the Allentown Fair go out to the family of the fatally injured and the persons hospitalized and their families," she said.

Tony Rhodin may be reached at arhodin@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @TonyRhodin. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.
Congress voted 419 to 3 to slap more sanctions against Iran -- a day after President Donald Trump certified that Iran is complying with the nuclear agreement it signed with U.S. This is the second time the administration certified that Iran is complying. This is not fake news.

The campaign of fear and misinformation against Iran continues. Lobbyists, political pundits and military experts spew the rhetoric of hate, demonizing Iran to no end. The ayatollah is branded as a nuclear-obsessed terrorist, leading an axis of evil that wants to spread the Shia crescent from Lebanon to Afghanistan. President Trump talks of sanctions and scraping the nuclear deal while the mullahs in Iran have a desire of dialogue.

The Trump and past administrations have viewed Iran as a global threat based on its nuclear program, links to terrorism, human rights and opposition to an Israeli-Palestinian peace process. These claims are grossly exaggerated.

Iran is under its rights under the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty to develop a peaceful civilian nuclear program. True, Iran is allegedly supporting Hamas and Hezbollah, but this is nothing compared to the U.S. and Saudi Arabia supporting terrorist groups in Afghanistan, Lebanon and elsewhere. And our own record at Guantanamo Bay and Abu Ghraib, and support of repressive regimes gives little credence to American concerns over Iran's human-rights record.

The argument for peaceful relations with Iran was put forward brilliantly by Mohammed Javad Zarif, Iran's foreign minister in interviews with Charlie Rose, Richard N. Haass (president of the Council on Foreign Relation) and Fareed Zakaria.

Mohammed Khaku

Upper Macungie Township
You know that part of the picnic where there are hot tubs and people somehow manage to have swimwear with them to hop in? That, is Body & Soul.

Body & Soul is often one of the best parts of Electric Picnic with something for everyone it is at the heart of the festival each year.

The Body & Soul village which is back for its 14th year, continues to boast its trademark line up of trailblazing musicians, soothing therapies, mind-expanding workshops, incredible art, revitalising spa treatments in an ambience that oscillates from intimate moments in cozy corners, to lavish parties that rage long into the night.

Body & Soul can be a lifesaver when you just need to unwind mid-festival to recharge the batteries.

Year after year, Body & Souls uniquely creates a luminous alternate universe, immersing all who enter in a programme filled with wonder, challenges, relaxation, passion and addictive music, all set in the fields of Stradbally.

A bespoke roster of music will descend on the stages dotted around the Body & Soul village.

Musical pioneers such as Public Service Broadcasting, a band tackling modern political concerns with a deft hand and a thrilling, poppy backdrop; the intoxicating, mellifluous vocals of rising star Moses Sumney, whose ability to transmogrify familiar tropes into otherworldly anthems is unparalleled; the oddball gothic folk of hotly-tipped 4AD addition Aldous Harding; the psychedelic, eclectic soul of Nick Hakim and the chaotic and incendiary live show of pop provocateurs HMLTD.

Posh toilets sure to be a hit at Electric Picnic.

For those with discerning ears and an appetite for the next big thing, Body & Souls reliably bold music programme will pique interests and encourage YouTube binges.

This years stages will feature the nocturnal house gems of New Jackson, to the reverb-laden and blissed out electronica of Danish outfit Lowly.

Donal Dineens This Aint No Disco returns to the Body & Soul stage, creating a visceral, organic live performance that fuses music and visual art in daring new ways.

The glittering debauchery that makes a night at Mother unforgettable will once again be transported to Body & Soul, with local heroes like Lumigraph, Dean Feeney (TR-One) and Cait setting the dancefloor alight on the Earthship Stage.

Natural storyteller David Keenan, icy electro-popstress LAOISE, agro-soul proponents BARQ and many, many more will grace the village as the weekend unfolds.

Electric Picnic full moon party.

Lovers of the full AV experience will plan their weekend around the Peace Pagoda, an alternative music sanctuary focusing on the ambient and electronic ends of the spectrum.

With AV sets from A Gorilla & Slipdraft, Ian Nyquist & Dillon O'Sullivan and ROSBEG presents Ambiliquid the Pagoda will also broadcast live looping, chilled soundscapes and a closing party that will leave you wanting more.

Reliably inspiring, The Bandstand will once again play host to some of the countrys most exciting up and coming acts interspersed with colourful light shows, rhythmic dancing and unpredictable performances of all genres including SIOMHA, RUTH, Cantina Bop, Penrose and The Ocelots amongst many others.

Switch dancing your socks off for a relaxing soak at The Immerse Spa Experience.

In addition to the seaweed baths and wood-fired hot tubs, this years menu includes Boreh, a Balinese steam treatment that includes a full body scrub and freshly made tonic packed with turmeric, ginger and spices. Bosca Beathas restorative sauna will also be open for business, creating an oasis of calm amongst the hustle and bustle.

Ten stages Laois people go through before buying Electric Picnic tickets.
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Positive news has emerged from the meeting between Ballinamore Councillors and Minister for Transport Shane Ross yesterday Wednesday, July 26 in Leinster House over funding for roads.

Six Councillors from the Ballinamore area met with the Minister to discuss the provision of funding of local roads, particularly the reinstatement of Local Improvement Schemes and Community Involvement Schemes.

Minister Ross accepted an invitation to come to Leitrim and view the local roads himself, he is expected to arrive in the county later this Summer.

The Minister was informed that as the most sparsely populated county in Ireland, Leitrim has by far the longest road network per capita, which puts extraordinary pressure on the county's finances. He was also told that there are currently 205 roads awaiting approval under the local improvement scheme averaging a cost of 25,000 bringing our arrears to over 5.1m.

According to sources, Minister Ross was impressed by the argument for LISs and CISs in Leitrim and said that the reintroduction of funding for these schemes was an aim under the programme for government. He could foresee new funding happening in the next year or so. He also said that the expenditure on the nations transport infrastructure was insufficient presently but that this trend would be reversed in 2018-19.

Councillors who attended were John McCartin FG, Gerry Dolan IND, Paddy O'Rourke FF, Cillian Ellis FF, Brendan Barry SF and Caroline Mulvey SF. Sinn Fein TD Martin Kenny who arranged the meeting also attended.

Deputy Kenny said, The reinstatement of these schemes is in the Programme for Government and there are a large number of roads that fall into these categories in County Leitrim.

The councillors from the area stressed to Minister Ross, the urgency of having these schemes reinstated and gave detailed accounts of situations where people have been waiting for years to have their roads resurfaced.

Minister Ross acknowledged the particular problems of Leitrim due to it being so rural and having a low rates base. While not giving a firm promise on the issue the minister accepted that the commitment was in the Programme for Government and told the councillors that he would do everything he could to have a provision in the overall roads budget for CISs and LISs in the coming year.

The meeting has been hailed as a success for Leitrim.
A COUNTY Limerick man who breached a barring order by calling to his mothers home on consecutive days last October has been released on bail, despite strong garda concerns that he represents an immediate risk to his mother and members of the community in which she lives.

The 34-year-old defendant, who suffers from schizophrenia, was admitted to the Central Mental Hospital in Dundrum earlier this year after he was declared unfit to stand trial due to a significant deterioration in his mental health.

Giving evidence at Limerick District Court this Tuesday, Dr Ronan Mullaney, a consultant forensic psychiatrist at the Central Mental Hospital, confirmed the defendant was discharged from the CMH last week as his condition has improved in recent weeks.

He said the man, who is originally from South County Limerick, was very acutely unwell when first admitted to the CMH which, the court heard, is the only secure psychiatric treatment centre in the country.

Dr Mullaney told Judge Marian OLeary a decision was taken to discharge the defendant following a lengthy case conference involving various members of his treatment team.

His mental state had improved very considerably, he said adding that he had shown an understanding of the charges against him.

However, the witness accepted there are still concerns in relation to the man and his future behaviour as he does not have an insight into his condition and has declined to take his medication while in prison.

He said the defendant remains unwell and that despite the recent improvements his current condition meets the criteria set down in legislation allowing for involuntary admission to an approved psychiatric treatment centre.

However, he said there is no capacity at the CMH and that the best case scenario is that the defendant would be placed on a waiting list for up to six months - during which time he would not receive any medication.

We can only take so many people at any one time, he told the court.

Solicitor Sarah Ryan said she was reluctantly seeking bail as it was in the best interests of her client who needs ongoing treatment and medication which he will not get in prison.

The court was told if released on bail the defendant was likely to be detained under the provisions of Mental Health Act and admitted to Unit 5B as an involuntary patient.

However John OMahony, executive clinical director for the Mid West Mental Health Services, confirmed the defendant has escaped from the unit, which is not a secure facility, on 21 occasions in the past.

Dr OMahony told the court the defendant would be assessed within 24 hours of presenting at 5B and that he would be continue to be treated as an involuntary patient once he meets the criteria set down in law.

However, the witness told Sergeant Donal Cronin that any decisions related to treatment are entirely a matter for the admitting consultant and are subject to daily review.

He agreed the treatment regime could be stepped down and that the status of any patient could change at any point.

Were not in the business of imprisonment, were there to treat patients in the hope they get better and can get on with their lives, he said.

Dr OMahony also confirmed that mental health legislation does not allow for someone to be transferred from a prison to a psychiatric treatment centre to receive medication.

Replying to solicitor Maureen Lane, representing the defendants mother, Dr OMahony said they was no legal mechanism allowing the HSE to inform relatives when a patient leaves 5B without their consent. This also applies to other third parties including gardai.

Opposing bail, Sergeant Gary Thompson said gardai are very concerned about the safety of the defendants mother and other members of the community in which she lives.

He told the court gardai have a real and significant fear the defendant, who has more than 40 previous convictions, will commit serious offences if released.

He said the defendant has breached the barring order on five other occasions in the past and that the gardai are so concerned about the potential behaviour of the man that the head of the Newcastle West garda district  Supt Tom OConnor is being regulary briefed.

We would treat all calls to that location (mothers address) with the utmost severity, said Sgt Thompson.

Ms Lane said her client was also deeply concerned and worried about what might happen if the defendant was granted bail and she indicated she may have to take measures elsewhere.

Following a lengthy hearing, Judge OLeary said she had no option but to grant bail given the evidence before her.

My hands are tied, he needs treatment, she said adding that she hoped her decision was the right one.

The defendant must not have any contact with his mother or any other member of her family and he was ordered to stay away from several named locations near where she lives.

A report from a consultant psychiatrist is to be prepared for court ahead of a sentencing hearing in September.
AN ambitious youth project is set to be delivered in Limerick after the Arts Council awarded more than 65,000 to the local authority.

The programme, named the Autonomy Project, focuses on how young people can express themselves around issues like gender orientation, activism and social justice.

Seperately Limerick will also benefit from a grant of 20,000 to commission an Indecon report which represents a strategic intention by the local authority partners to examine their work practices and better understand their changing roles, inform future policy development and meet future needs.

The Arts Council confirmed the award as part of its invitation to collaboration scheme aimed at local authorities.

The Autonomy Project will be delivered through existing groups such as the Limerick Youth Theatre, Dance Limerick, Music Generation and Goshh.

It will culminate with a week-long performance, installation and symposium with international contributors on art and autonomy in UL led by Dr Niamh Nic Ghabhann.

Arts council director Orlaith McBride said: We recently put a call out to local authorities across the country looking for ambitious ways of collaborating and engaging communities in arts projects. I am delighted to confirm that Limerick City and County Council was successful in two awards and Im confident this funding will help foster a unique collaboration between young and established artists towards finding ways to explore and express their views on the topical issues that affect them. The role of the University of Limerick in supporting a symposium in 2018 on the topic will be of national interest.

Council arts officer Sheila Deegan added: We were delighted that our applications were successful, it shows the confidence and energy in the arts in Limerick and that were delivering on the objectives of our cultural strategy.
A LIMERICK man who was dealing heroin to fund his own drug habit has not come to the attention of gardai in the recent past.

Detective Garda David McGrath of the divisional drugs unit made his comments in the case of Joseph Sheehan who has admitted possession of a heroin for the purpose of sale or supply.

Limerick District Court was told Sheehan, aged 28, of Flood Street, Kilalee was prosecuted following a search of his home on May 9, 2016.

Detective Garda McGrath said ten deals of diamorphine with a street value of 250 were recovered along with 775 in cash which gardai believe was the proceeds of drug dealing.

Erin OHagan BL said her client, who has a more than 120 previous convictions, was selling heroin to supply his own habit but that he is not longer doing so.

She said Mr Sheehan, who has a young child, is engaging with a number of different organisations such as PALS and that he is attempting to address his addiction problems.

She said his father died earlier this year and that it has had a significant impact on her client and his outlook on life.

It has opened his eyes, she told Judge Marian OLeary.

Detective Garda McGrath told the court that at the time of the offence the defendant was a target of the divisional drugs unit such was the level of his dealing.

However he confirmed he has not come to the attention of gardai in the last short period and that he is assisting his mother.

Judge OLeary adjourned the matter for review in six months time
FORMER Minister for Finance Michael Noonan famously refused to go on his show, along with the then Taoiseach Enda Kenny who declined to be questioned under his combative style.

But politicians in broadcaster Vincent Brownes native Limerick have paid tribute to his great journalistic career, as he retires from TV3 this Thursday.

Taoiseach Leo Varadkar appeared on the penultimate Vincent Browne Show this Wednesday night, describing his imminent last broadcast as the end of an era.

At the end of the broadcast, Taoiseach Varadkar said Browne has been tough but fair, and even when you havent been fair Ive always admired your integrity, and your ability to make politicians squirm.

Fianna Fail deputy Willie ODea, who said he never refused to be grilled by the 73-year-old Broadford native on issues of the day, praised him as an outstanding presenter, who is hugely entertaining, highly intelligent and extremely well-read.

He came on [TV3] at the start of the recession, and his style of journalism was particularly suited to that type of situation. He grilled politicians mercilessly, and people certainly enjoyed that, plus there was a certain unpredictability about the show, with some people walking off.

People were intrigued to know what would happen and how certain people would stand up under pressure. Hell be extremely difficult to replace because he has a unique personality and that was one of the big selling points of the show.

Unlike interviews with other national broadcast media, where youd generally know what to expect, with Browne, ODea said, youd go on with a certain feeling of apprehension.

It could be an easy night or an extremely difficult night. Hed a habit sometimes of latching on to a certain person on the panel for special treatment. Sometimes youd just draw the short straw.

He recalled on one occasion being asked by Browne about a certain report, which he was forced to admit he hadnt read.

He spent five minutes berating me for not having read it. He was absolutely aghast, saying 'A person in your position hasn't read this report..

Deputy ODea said of the names being mentioned for Brownes potential successor on night-time TV, his preference is for Ivan Yates given his knowledge of politics from the inside, and he has a great combative style as well.

Very able guy altogether, he added of Yates.

As we gear up to tonight's last ever #Vinb, we're taking at look back at some of it's best moments... Enjoy! #Vinb Tonight at 11pm on TV3. pic.twitter.com/FnIkIVdu4x  TV3 (@TV3Ireland) July 27, 2017

His Fianna Fail colleague Niall Collins said he wishes him well in his retirement.

He was never slow to mention his home community of Broadford and made sure the rest of Ireland knew where he came from.

Deputy Collins said Browne made a huge contribution to public service broadcasting in undertaking a live election debate in every constituency prior to last general election.

Deputy Michael Noonan, however, was not a fan.

I dont like Vincent Browne...I think hes a charlatan. I just dont like the fella. Vincent Browne could be running a programme all night from the Statue of Liberty and Michael Noonan will not go on, he previously told the Limerick Leader.

Receiving the lifetime achievement award in Limerick in 2013, Browne said he was hugely honoured to be acknowledged by people of my own county who I have such an allegiance to and I'm deeply grateful.
GLOBAL financial services firm Pepper Ireland is to create 35 new jobs in Shannon.

The recruitment is to kick off with immediate effect due to growth in the business.

Pepper is on the lookout for both graduates and experienced professionals with open roles in areas like client relationship management, lending, credit servicing and administration.

It comes off the back of several new contract wins and continued growth in Peppers lending.

The new staff will work across both the residential and commercial loan portfolios.

The head of human resources at Pepper Ireland Orla McCarthy said the company had been steadily growing its staff numbers since its launch in the market nearly five years ago.

She said: Pepper is delighted to be creating a range of new job opportunities for motivated individuals looking to kick-start or progress their careers in the financial services sector. The majority of Pepper Irelands employees are based in Shannon and whether people are already locally based, or looking to move to the region, we can offer a rewarding career and the opportunity to be part of a dynamic, progressive international brand.

Pepper currently employs around 400 people across its sites in Shannon and Dublin.

Starting in Ireland back in 2012, the firm specialises in lending, advisory and loan servicing.

Its lending division  trading as Pepper Money  has been offering a range of residential mortgage options in the Irish market since 2016, and most recently began offering commercial mortgages.

Pepper Asset Servicing is the trading name for the companys loan servicing division where it manages diversified loan portfolios on behalf of a range of local and international financial institutions.

Interested candidates can call 061-705900.
THE jury in the trial of a Limerick biker accused of murdering a member of a rival motorcycle club will hear closing speeches this Thursday afternoon.

Alan 'Cookie' McNamara, 51, from Mountfune, Murroe, Co Limerick has pleaded not guilty to the murder of Andrew 'AOD' ODonoghue on Saturday, June 20, 2015 at the Road Tramps motorcycle clubhouse at Mountfune.

The prosecution closed its case this Thursday morning, having read out the evidence of the final witness Dessie Walsh.

Prosecuting counsel Michael Delaney SC read the statement that was made to gardai in June 2015.

Mr Walsh said he was a member of the same club as the accused, the Caballeros. He said that on June 19 he received a text from Cookie saying to be careful wearing Caballeros colours because there had been an attack on one of their members.

Justice Paul McDermott told the jury of seven men and four women that the trial is now entering a new phase and they would hear closing speeches this afternoon.
Three men have been convicted over their involvement in an aggravated burglary at the home of a Limerick businessman more than five years ago.

Over the course of a six-week trial, Patrick Roche, aged 52, of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin, Dublin; his son Philip Roche, aged 24, also of Kilcronan Close, Clondalkin and Alan Freeman, aged 37, of Pearse Park, Tipperary Town had each pleaded not guilty to a charge of aggravated burglary relating to an incident at Sunville House, Pallasgreen on April 16, 2012.

They had also pleaded not guilty to falsely imprisoning Gerard Garvey, his wife Ann and three of their four children after entering their family home at around 10pm.

Following more than four hours of deliberations a jury at Limerick Circuit Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts in the case of Patrick Roche and Philip Roche shortly after 2pm this Thursday.

The jurors returned unanimous guilty verdicts in the case of Mr Freeman when they returned to court again shortly after 4pm.

Patrick Roche and Philip Roche were also found guilty of similar charges relating to another violent burglary at the home of three elderly siblings at Ballyluddy, Pallasgreen on May 31, 2012.

Over the course of almost five weeks of evidence, the jury of seven men and five women heard from a large number of gardai as well as several civilian witnesses.

The trial also heard evidence from two witnesses who have each been convicted over their involvement in the aggravated burglaries.

After thanking the jury for their service and patience during the trial, Judge John Hannan excused them from further jury service for 20 years.
Jul 27, 2017, 9 AM

Cities and towns located along the Silk Roads in Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, the Islamic Republic of Iran, and Turkey are featured on the new United Nations Postal Administrations World Heritage stamps for use from U.N. post offices in Geneva, Switzerland,

The United Nations Postal Administration issued six World Heritage stamps Aug. 3 with the theme Along the Silk Roads. The two stamps for use from the UNPA post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City picture the Longmen Grottoes in China and Kyrgyz

By Denise McCarty

The latest addition to the United Nations Postal Administrations World Heritage series, to be issued Aug. 3, is called Along the Silk Roads.

This set includes six stamps and three prestige booklets (with text and illustrations as well as stamps) featuring a few of the sites found along these trade and communication routes that linked the ancient societies of Asia, the Subcontinent, Central Asia, Western Asia and the Near East, and contributed to the development of many of the worlds great civilizations.

A section of the Silk Roads was inscribed as a cultural heritage site on UNESCOs World Heritage list in 2014 under the title Silk Roads: the Routes Network of Changan-Tianshan Corridor. The listing features 33 locations in China (22), Kazakhstan (eight), and Kyrgyzstan (three).

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UNESCO described them as capital cities and palace complexes of various empires and Khan kingdoms, trading settlements, Buddhist cave temples, ancient paths, posthouses, passes, beacon towers, sections of The Great Wall, fortifications, tombs and religious buildings.

UNESCO also said, As well as conduits for goods and people, the routes allowed the exceptional flow of ideas, beliefs and technological innovations such as those related to architecture and town planning that shaped the urban spaces and peoples lives in many fundamental ways.

All of the locations pictured on the stamps have separate inscriptions on the World Heritage list.

For example, the two stamps for use from the UNPA post office at U.N. headquarters in New York City picture the Longmen Grottoes in China and the Sulaiman-Too sacred mountain in Kyrgyzstan, inscribed on the list in 2000 and 2009, respectively.

With its World Heritage list, UNESCO seeks to encourage the identification, protection and preservation of cultural and natural heritage around the world considered to be of outstanding value to humanity. This is embodied in an international treaty called the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, adopted by UNESCO in 1972.

The Longmen Grottoes are featured on the 49 stamp. The brief description on the UNESCO World Heritage website, http://whc.unesco.org, reads: The grottoes and niches of Longmen contain the largest and most impressive collection of Chinese art of the late Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties (316-907). These works, entirely devoted to the Buddhist religion, represent the high point of Chinese stone carving.

The $1.15 stamp shows Sulaiman-Too, which has been translated as Solomons mountain, rock and throne.

In his travel blog and online guide the Complete Pilgrim (http://thecompletepilgrim.com), Howard Kramer wrote, Suleiman Mountain has been venerated as a sacred place since ancient times. Named in honor of the Quranic Prophet Suleiman, who may or may not be the same person as King Solomon of the Hebrew Bible, the mountain has been visited by religious pilgrims since well before the advent of Islam. The mountain itself is an absolutely amazing rock formation which looms over the city of Osh and the surrounding area. A number of related sites are located on or near its peak, including the Shrine of Suleiman, a 16th century mosque and a museum.  

The other four stamps  two each for the UNPA post offices at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, and the Vienna International Center in Vienna, Austria  depict towns cities along the Silk Roads in other countries.

The UNPA/Geneva 1-franc stamp shows the historic center of Bukhara, Uzbekistan, which was added to the World Heritage list in 1993.

More than 2,000 years old, Bukhara is considered the most complete example of a medieval city in Central Asia, according to UNESCO.

Among the citys monuments are the Samanid mausoleum, built in the 10th century, and numerous 17th-century madrasas.

Kunya-Urgench in Turkmenistan was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2005. The 1.50fr stamp features the 12th-century mausoleum of Il-Arslan in the foreground and an almost 200-foot tale minaret in the background.

UNESCO said that the towns monuments testify to outstanding achievements in architecture and craftsmanship whose influence reached Iran and Afghanistan, and later the architecture of the Mogul Empire of 16th-century India.

The UNPA/Vienna stamps show sites now located in the Islamic Republic of Iran and Turkey.

Pictured on the 80 stamp is the historic bazaar complex in Tabriz, Iran, which was added to the World Heritage list in 2000. It is considered to be the largest covered bazaar in the world.

UNESCO said: Tabriz Historic Bazaar bears witness to one of the most complete socio-cultural and commercial complexes among bazaars. It has developed over the centuries into an exceptional physical, economic, social, political, and religious complex, in which specialized architectural structures, functions, professions, and people from different cultures are integrated in a unique living environment.

The 1.70 stamp shows a night view of Safranbolu. This town, located on the Black Sea region of Turkey, is named after the spice safron, which grows in the area.

Dating back to at least 3,000 B.C., Safranbolu developed into a trading center after the Turkish conquest in the 11th century and continued to serve as a caravan station for several centuries.

The press release from UNPA said: During its apogee in the seventeenth century, Safranbolus architecture influenced urban development throughout much of the Ottoman Empire. It was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 1994.

Sergio Baradat of the United Nations designed the Along the Silk Road stamps, using photographs from the stock photography company Alamy. Each stamp measures 50 millimeters by 30mm and is perforated gauge 14 by 14.

Cartor of France printed the stamps by offset in sheets of 20. The printing quantities are 110,000 each of the 49 and $1.15 denominations; 90,000 each of the 80 and 1.70; and 80,000 each of the 1fr and 1.50fr.

The printing quantities of the prestige booklets are 10,500 of the booklet for UNPA/Vienna; and 8,500 each of the other two booklets.

The UNPA introduced its World Heritage series on Nov. 19, 1997, with stamps marking the 25th anniversary of the World Heritage Convention. The designs feature Chinas terra-cotta warriors.

The second World Heritage set, issued Dec. 4, 1998, highlighted Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna.

From 1999 through 2016, various World Heritage sites from the following countries or regions were honored on stamps: Australia, March 19, 1999; Spain, Oct. 6, 2000; Japan, Aug. 1, 2001; Italy, Aug. 30, 2002; the United States, Oct. 24, 2003; Greece, Aug. 12, 2004; Egypt, Aug. 4, 2005; France, June 17, 2006; South America, Aug. 9, 2007; Germany, May 7, 2009; Nordic Countries, May 5, 2011; Africa, Sept. 5, 2012; China, April 11, 2013; Taj Mahal, India, July 16, 2014; and Southeast Asia, June 5, 2015; and the Czech Republic, Sept. 8, 2016.

For ordering information for the U.N. World Heritage stamps, visit their website; email

this address; telephone 800-234-8672; fax 212-963-9854; or write to UNPA, Box 5900, Grand Central Station, New York, NY 10163-5900.
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Chennai to Kannur: Marine history Learning about seafaring traditions, playing on the beach, and visiting a fort built by the Portuguese /news/talking-point/chennai-to-kannur-marine-history-111646987260598.html 111646987260598 story

The lady bore a striking resemblance to my grandmother. Her gaze was benign, and she seemed to be smiling. I almost smiled back, and then, remembering who she really was, I chuckled. For behind the gentle gaze was the hardy queen of the Arakkal dynasty. She came from a long line of rulers of the erstwhile Cannanore (now Kannur) principality. Rani Mariyumma Beebi Ali Adi Rajah, known as Arakkal Beebi", had inspired respect and admiration for the way she administered her principality in the year leading up to independence. And here she was, gazing at me from her photograph on the wall.

I was winding up a fascinating morning at the Arakkal Museum in Kannur in north Kerala. The Durbar Hall of the Arakkal rulers has been converted into a well-kept archive of their legacy. The two-storey building showcases solid teakwood furniture, weaponry, sepia-tinted photographs, evocative illustrations of ships, battle scenes, scenes from everyday life, and beautifully engraved ceramic-ware. Yellowed copies of letters that the royals had exchanged with the British threw up a surprise; the Laccadive Islands (part of the Lakshadweep Islands) had once been under Arakkal rulethe islands had been sold to the British.

My search for an offbeat place to spend the weekend had led me to Kannur, a little town north of Kozhikode. The overnight train from Chennai had entered Kerala early that morning, giving me a chance to see the glistening backwaters, hamlets and emerald fields at first light.

Leaving the museum, I headed back to the Blue Mermaid Homestay, where I was staying, for a traditional Kerala meal. Come evening, I headed to the unspoilt Thottada beach, which is just next to the home-stay. Jogging barefoot on the sand, playing beach volleyball with a bunch of local boys and watching a glorious sunset stilled all thoughts, making for a contemplative end to the day.

Thottada beach.

On the next days schedule was a visit to Fort St Angelo, in the centre of town. Its among the first forts built by the Portuguese in India, in the early 16th century. The stone and laterite fort has aged well. A thick layer of moss covering the walls and rampart was affirmation of a lavish monsoon. The barracks, magazine room, dungeons, bastions and chapel bear testimony to the fact that the Dutch and British had a hand in modifying the fort in later years.

My eyes were drawn to the mast of an old lighthouse that stands on one of the ramparts. The tourist policeman there offered an intriguing titbit: Francisco de Almeida, the first Portuguese viceroy to India, had kept his anointed successor, Afonso de Albuquerque, imprisoned in a dungeon in the fort, until he was ordered by his superiors to free him.

The mast of an old lighthouse on the rampart of Fort St Angelo.

The western corner of the rampart offered a view of slim, colourful fishing boats with seagulls perched on the bows, at the edge of the waters. The sun glinted off the sea, casting a magical light. It was a scene straight out of a painting. This was Moplah Bay, a bustling port-of-call for Chinese, Arab and European traders in ancient times.

The next stop was MVK, the towns go-to restaurant with an impressive list of local dishes, for delicious Thalassery biryani.

I spent the afternoon at the lighthouse museum. One of only four in India, the museum provides a rare insight into Kannurs long seafaring traditions. It unveiled everything I ever wanted to know about lighthouses: from lamps, models of primitive lighthouses, navigational buoys and electromechanical parts to letters written by mariners. Whats more, there were no touristsand I felt vindicated in my choice of an offbeat weekend break.

Weekend Vacations offers suggestions on getaways that allow for short breaks from metros. The author tweets from @theholehog.
Calpine

Energy Capital Partners, a private equity firm, is said to be considering the purchase of Houston-based Calpine Corp., one of the largest merchant power companies in the U.S., Bloomberg reported Wednesday night.

In May, the Wall Street Journal reported that Calpine was searching for a buyer for its multi-billion dollar company, which has the nation's largest fleet of gas-fired power plants. A spokesman for Calpine would not confirm that the company has been considering a sale, and did not respond immediately to request for comment on Energy Capital Partners' interest
Pipeline giant TransCanada said Thursday it's moving forward with the controversial Keystone XL pipeline by soliciting for customer interest.

The much-debated pipeline, which became the symbol of the environmental movement against oil projects, was rejected under the Obama administration but quickly brought back to life by President Trump.

Now, TransCanada is reaching out to potential Keystone pipeline network customers to gauge their interest through Sept. 28. The Keystone XL pipeline would move Canadian oil sands from Alberta through Nebraska and into its Cushing, Okla. hub. From there, TransCanada already has completed the southern leg of the Keystone system from Oklahoma to Nederland, Texas.

With state and local regulatory hurdles left to clear and environmental groups gearing up to challenge the presidential permit in court, the embattled oil pipeline has a ways to go before construction begins and crude flows to Texas refineries.

TransCanada has repeatedly expressed interest in keeping the project alive, but hasn't committed the necessary dollars or announced any updated construction timeline. Court battles are still anticipated.

The Keystone system would have the capacity to deliver 800,000 barrels a day to the Texas Gulf Coast.

Much of the attention remains focused on Nebraska, the last of three states from which TransCanada said it needs approval before it will begin construction on the 1,200-mile pipeline. Public hearings in Nebraska continued this week.

A final ruling by the Nebraska Public Service Commission is expected by late November.

Also muddying the issues are energy economics. Oil prices are less than half of what they were a few years ago, and the biggest energy companies have shifted their focus from Canadian oil sands projects to the booming Permian Basin in West Texas.

Still, many Gulf Coast refiners crave the Canadian crude, which is a heavier product that the refineries feed off of better, as opposed to the lighter Texas oil.
Houston-based Calpine Corp. has won a bid to build a solar farm on West Texas land owned by the University of Texas, the first time the university has offered a lease on its reserved lands for solar power generation.

The university declined to provide any details about Calpine's bid or the proposed lease terms. Public records confirmed that three companies had won a bid, including Calpine, a merchant power company that operates natural gas-fired power plants.
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President Donald Trump kicked off his Wednesday by tweeting his intention to ban transgender people from serving in the military - about 15 hours later, the late-night hosts had thoughts. They did not hold back.

Some of the hosts went beyond the traditional monologue - on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show," Trevor Noah also interviewed two transgender U.S. Army veterans about the ban's potential impact. NBC's "Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon" featured transgender comedian Patti Harrison.

On CBS' "The Late Late Show," James Corden performed a parody of the Nat King Cole song "L-O-V-E" that instead spelled out "L-G-B-T" and included the lyric, "Trump's got hate for you and me." NBC's "Late Night With Seth Meyers" brought out his female writers to respond to Trump.

Otherwise, here were the common themes from Noah, Fallon, Corden and Stephen Colbert on CBS' "Late Show." (Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O'Brien are off this week.)

- The tweets themselves.

Colbert: "I began my day as I often begin my days, by checking Donald Trump's Twitter feed to see how far the crazy has spread. And today, I really think he's off his meds, because today he went from crazy to cruel."

Noah: "Now like most of Trump's ideas, this ban sounds crazy when you first hear it. But then he explains it - and it's way worse."

- The fact that he announced this by tweet.

Colbert: "Those 15,000 transgender troops who volunteered to serve our country were minding their own business, protecting our freedoms, when they all got fired by tweet. That's like your wife divorcing you by cookie bouquet."

Fallon: "President Trump went on Twitter and announced that he is banning transgender people from serving in the military. Trump said he understands this is a very sensitive issue, so he made sure to choose his emojis very carefully."

- The fact that Trump promised to fight for LGBT people, so he may not understand what the acronym means.

Colbert: "What the hell does he think the "T" in LGBT stands for? Trump? Tomato? 'I'd like an LGBT sandwich, hold the mayonnaise, and no gay stuff, OK?' "

Harrison on "Fallon": "I don't even think Trump knows what transgender means. He probably thinks transgender people are those cars that turn into robots."

Meyers, meanwhile, kicked off a new segment called "Sooo ... That Was a Lie, Then?" and aired a campaign clip of Trump promising, "As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens."

- The fact that Trump had multiple deferments from the Vietnam draft and a medical disqualification for bone spurs in his foot.

Colbert: "They were manly bone spurs in a powerful dude foot, OK, that just got all ouch-y when he put it in a boot."

Corden: "Usually when Trump wants to keep someone out of military service, he just fakes a doctor's note saying he has a foot injury. It worked fine for him during Vietnam."

- Trump's claim about the "tremendous medical costs" of transgender people in the military.

Noah: "Transgender-related medical expenses for the military cost, at most, $8 million a year. Also known as .001 percent of the total military budget. In contrast, taxpayers will be paying $60 million just for Trump to visit his own properties like Mar-a-Lago - and that is before he ordered dessert."

Colbert: "It's estimated that health care for transgender personnel would add between $2.4 million and $8.4 million per year to the military's health-care budget. To put that number in perspective, the military spends five times as much on Viagra. And if your erection lasts for more than four hours, that's too bad, because you're stuck on a submarine for the next six months."

- That Trump ended his tweets with "thank you."

Noah: "Wow. No one takes away civil rights as politely as Donald Trump."

Colbert: "Thank you? F--- you."
Tiny turtles made their way to the water for the first time Wednesday in South Texas.

Padre Island National Seashore officials hosted a Kemp's ridley sea turtle hatching release early Wednesday morning, they said in a Facebook post.
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Washington

President Donald Trump's tweeted announcement on banning transgender personnel in the military evoked a firestorm of criticism Wednesday from top New York Democrats.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo called the announcement "wrong, intolerant and a giant step backwards in the fight for equal rights," contrasting it to President Harry Truman's order to desegregate the military on the same day in 1948.

"Valor knows no race, no creed, no gender and no sexual identity, period," Cuomo said in a statement. "No matter who you are, New York will always fight for your rights to live freely and without discrimination. We stand united with the transgender community against those who seek to drive us apart."

Trump announced the policy change in a series of tweets Wednesday morning, citing the "tremendous medical costs and disruption" that would be needed to accommodate transgender individuals. The new policy reverses the 2016 Obama administration's decision to allow transgender people to join the armed forces.

The policy was to become effective in June after a yearlong review process allowing the Pentagon to assess how it would accept transgender recruits. Defense Secretary James Mattis delayed enactment of the policy the day before it was supposed to be implemented.

The abrupt reversal may have caught Pentagon planners completely off guard.

Trump did not say if the policy change will require current transgender service personnel to depart the military. Roughly 2,450 transgender individuals serve in the active-duty military, and 1,510 are in reserve duty, according to a 2016 study.

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement that she will introduce legislation to overturn the policy.

"This morning transgender service members put on their uniform and showed up for their military duties to be told by their commander-in-chief via Twitter that he doesn't want them in 'any capacity,'" she said. "These service members are willing to die for their country, and this is an insult to their brave and honorable service."

At an impromptu news conference outside the U.S. Capitol, Rep. Paul Tonko, D-Amsterdam, said the Trump tweet was an insult to military personnel whose only interest is serving their nation.

"Mr. President, why would you do this?" Tonko said. "Those of the transgender community that love their country to the point that they want to serve to defend her and her principles should not be denied that service. They love their country."
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The San Jacinto County Commissioners Court listened to two different proposals regarding energy solutions for county properties from the McKinstry Company and Performance Services, Inc. during their July 25 meeting.

McKinstry has made an appearance in the court on two separate occasions last year where representative Zach Christensen made a presentation demonstrating how McKinstry can help the county save money with self-funded infrastructure redevelopment.

"In our program, it comes from essentially the savings that we can wring out of the operations and the utilities," he said.

Christensen emphasizes that this is a no risk program for the county to default on because it is contractually backed and guaranteed. He also explained that the program is estimated to provide anywhere from $500,000 to $600,000 in improvements for the county.

McKinstry's method of saving money is to find pockets of wasted resources and cut them out for better efficiency.

Competition for McKinstry came in the form of Jonathan Blackwell from Performance Services, Inc.

Blackwell told the court Performance Services did a preliminary survey of the San Jacinto County courthouse, the courthouse's annex building, the Sheriff's Office jail, all four precinct offices, the Texas A&M Ag building and the San Jacinto County DPS office.

"We take a portion of what you're sending to the utility and we put it back into the county," he said. "It has to be guaranteed by state law."

The guarantee operates in benefit of the county. If Performance Services guarantees $60,000 and only saves the county $50,000 then they owe the county the difference of $10,000. If they save more than $60,000 then it only benefits the county further.

"Your results are guaranteed, your outcomes are guaranteed and you as a county are financially protected," Blackwell said.

County Judge John Lovett asked for an estimate of funds they will be guaranteed for improvements to the county as opposed to McKinstry. Blackwell set the estimate of $550,000 to $650,000. Lovett suggested integrating it into the budget process.

"I never did like to pay up front," said Pct. 1 Commissioner Laddie McAnally. "That don't come down the road. My personal opinion."

The court took no action on the items as Performance Services was only on the agenda to do a presentation.

In other news, the early voting times are set for the 2017 Constitutional Election. Early voting is scheduled beginning on Oct. 23 to 27 and Oct. 30 to Nov. 3.

This is also a joint election with the City of Shepherd, Shepherd ISD and Coldspring ISD. The City of Shepherd is required to have two 12 hour days by election code.

Oct. 23 and 24 are scheduled from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. All other days are scheduled from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Locations for early voting include the Elections Administration Building located at 51 E. Pine Ave, Room A-1 Coldspring, 77331, Shepherd City Hall located at 11021 St. Hwy 150 Shepherd, 77371 and the Shepherd ISD Administration building located at 1401 S Byrd Ave. Shepherd, 77371.
With several days to spare, the Contemporary Art Museum Plainviews all-or-nothing Kickstarter campaign to raise $15,000 to help prepare for its Grand Opening Exhibition exceeded its goal.

The drive was scheduled to end at 10:18 p.m. Thursday, July 27. At 5 p.m., with about five hours, pledges stood at $15,689 from 91 donors. It passes the $15,000 mark early this week.

Its really exciting to see how very supportive Plainview, Texas, continues to be of this project, Kelly Alison said Thursday from Houston. We received support from many of our friends along with a few strangers who saw our advertising from Kickstarter. And this show of support has made this effort so much easier from the get-go.

As the fundraising effort reached its final hours, Alison said she was hoping to secure pledges from at least 100 people  a personal goal.

This support means we are right on schedule to open Nov. 10, with 14 artists taking part in our exhibition. The opened exhibit runs through Feb. 10.

She adds that the success of the Kickstarter campaign shows that we have enough people invested in this idea in Plainview and the area to make this project truly sustainable, Alison said. This is strong evident that this is something that people want, and agree with what we are trying to do.

On Facebook, she added, A huge thanks to those of us who have pledged their support, given us their energy and let us know that we are moving in the right direction. Each backer becomes part of an invested community supporting Artists of Texas and beyond.

Alison is the daughter of Rex and Ethel Ramsower. She along with husband Preston and others are working to transform the Ramsower Furniture warehouse at Sixth and Beech into the Contemporary Art Museum of Plainview  CAMP. Its opening exhibition is named "BIG ART in small town, and is expected to bring big-name visual artists from around the state to exhibit their work and spend opening night in Plainview.

Artists will be treated to a Grand Opening Dinner, hosted by the citizens of Plainview, and they will take a tour Caprock Canyons and other local sites, an earlier announcement explains. Exhibiting artists include Joe Barrington, Dandee Warhol, Steven Kraig & Patrick Renner, Sharon Kopriva, Sherry Owens, Daniel Anguilu, Benito Huerta, Ben Tecumseh DeSoto, Katy Anderson, Patrick Medrano, Emily Sloan, Kelly Moran and Emily Peacock.

The opening exhibition is sponsored in part by the Community Foundation of West Texas and the Sybil B. Harrington Fund.
Washington

The Pentagon was blindsided by President Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday that his administration would block transgender people from the U.S. military, and the Defense Department has no idea yet how it will affect troops already serving.

The president's declaration on Twitter, saying transgender people would not be allowed to serve "in any capacity," came a year after the Defense Department under former President Barack Obama lifted its ban on transgender troops serving openly.

On Wednesday, neither the Pentagon nor the White House could answer how the Trump administration intends to carry out such a ban  Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was on vacation  or what it means for the thousands of transgender people already serving in the military.

The sudden blanket ban on all transgender troops seemed to take everyone by surprise in its scope. Lawmakers had been debating funding for medical care for transgender troops, and military leaders had been analyzing the impact of allowing transgender recruits.

But no one had been debating a reversal of the existing policy allowing transgender troops to serve in the military.

Trump's language indicated that those currently serving could be forced out, which advocates condemned as a betrayal after transgender troops were encouraged to identify themselves and serve openly after last year's policy change. Military LGBT groups and civil rights groups threatened to sue if troops are not allowed to serve based on their gender identity.

Reaction was swift, and criticism came from Republicans and Democrats.

Trump's tweet "is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter," said Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., who chairs the Senate Armed Services Committee.

McCain, who came to Trump's aid Tuesday by returning to Washington after his cancer diagnosis to cast a critical health care vote, said any military personnel policy change should only come after a study had been "thoroughly reviewed by the secretary of defense, our military leadership, and the Congress."

"The statement was unclear," McCain said of Trump's tweet. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity."

The president's tweets sent the Pentagon, which was clearly not prepared to roll out any new guidance, scrambling. A few hours after being caught off guard by the announcement, a Pentagon spokesman would only say the military would "work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander in chief," which could be expected "in the near future."

The Pentagon referred all questions to the White House, which did not provide any further details.

Asked what would happen to transgender members of the military currently deployed to war zones, White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders could not answer. She insisted the move had been based on a "military decision," but did not explain how it would be implemented or how it would impact active duty troops.
A day after President Donald Trump announced a ban on transgender troops, China's LGBT movement scored a small but significant victory.

A Chinese court on Thursday found that a transgender man was unjustly fired from his job, a first-of-its-kind ruling that activists called a step forward in the fight for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights.

The litigant, who goes by "Mr. C" to protect the privacy of his family and girlfriend, sued his former employer, Ciming Checkup, a health services firm, alleging that he was fired for wearing men's clothes. He said his colleagues had told him he looked "like a lesbian" and might damage the company's reputation.

A court in the city of Guiyang ruled that Mr. C's employment rights were indeed violated. "The defendant terminated the contract with the plaintiff without a legitimate reason" and "infringed on the plaintiff's equal employment rights," the ruling said.

It also said workers should not be discriminated against "based on their ethnicity, race, gender or religious beliefs." The court ordered his former employer to pay him the equivalent of $297.

Though the compensation is modest, the case matters - for two reasons.

First, activists believe that this is the first time a Chinese court has heard a case on transgender identity. Although there are a few trans figures in pop culture, public awareness of the issues facing trans people remains limited in China, so getting the issue on the record - and in the press - means a lot.

Second, the verdict clearly stated that workers should not face discrimination. Although the ruling was about worker rights - as opposed to, say, human rights - activists and lawyers believe it could shape employer behavior and encourage the government to develop an anti-discrimination employment law.

Mr. C's lawyer, Wang Yongmei, said she was pleased with the verdict. "Personally, I think that in terms of employment discrimination, this judicial precedent goes beyond [current] legislation," she said.

The ruling comes at an complex moment when Chinese civil and human rights lawyers are being harassed and jailed in large numbers, but the country's LGBT movement is making gains using the law.

Chinese law does not actually account for the possibility of discrimination based on gender or sexual identity. But in the last few years, lawyers and advocates have found creative ways to get cases tried in administrative or commercial courts, generating a considerable amount of coverage in the Chinese media.

In 2014, instance, a commercial court ordered a clinic to compensate a man who underwent electroshock therapy designed to "convert" homosexuals. Although the award itself was relatively small - about $550 - coverage of the case started a conversation about the notion that homosexuality could or should be cured.

The next year, a Chinese filmmaker, Fan Popo, filed suit against China's powerful censorship organ, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), demanding information about why his film, "Mama Rainbow," was pulled from the Web. Although the case centered on disclosure rules, not gay rights, he was able to call attention to the practice of blocking LGBT-themed content from Chinese television shows and films.

In 2016, a Chinese court heard the country's first same-sex marriage case. The case challenged a local civil affairs bureau to justify why two men could not register to marry. The court did not rule in their favor, but the case was covered extensively (and mostly favorably) in the Chinese press, putting the issue on the agenda.

At the same time, local authorities seem nervous about giving LGBTQ people space to express themselves. In May, police canceled an LGBT conference called Speak Out 2017 in the city of Xian and reportedly detained the organizers for eight hours. In June, regulators moved to ban LGBTQ content from video platforms.

That's why Mr. C vowed to press ahead with anti-discrimination work. "Although the case has ended, we still have a long way to go," he said.

---

The Washington Post's Shirley Feng and Yang Liu reported from Beijing.
Tyler Jarrell, 18, made up his mind early about life after high school. He wanted a challenge, and he looked to the Marine Corps to provide it.

He enlisted on Friday with a training date set for next summer, after graduation. After a flurry of enlistment paperwork over summer break, Jarrell made time for the year's biggest attraction in his hometown of Columbus - the Ohio State Fair, which opened Wednesday.

Jarrell was killed when he was thrown off an amusement ride, the Fire Ball - an "aggressive thrill" carnival ride that swoops like a pendulum and swings in a circle - after a row of seats appeared to smash into a metal structural support beam. The accident left seven others injured, some of them critically, in what Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) called "the worst tragedy in the history of the fair."

Staff Sgt. James Hopper of the Marine Corps Columbus recruiting station told The Washington Post that Jarrell was a highly motivated recruit among the other "poolies" who wanted to serve in a tough role like infantry or combat engineering.

"He wanted to serve and do something that would make a huge difference and impact on his life," Hopper said. "He was a good kid, he was funny and great to be around."

Hopper said he had heard about the accident last night but learned later that it was Jarrell who was killed.

"The Marines here are greatly saddened by this tragedy. We are truly proud to have known him as one of the brave few willing to step up and serve his country in the United States Marine Corps," a statement from the service read.

Navy Capt. Gerard "Tom" Lennon Jr. told the Columbus Dispatch that Jarrell had participated in Franklin Heights Navy's junior cadet for three years.

"Tyler was an absolute delight. Like so many young people, he spent the last year figuring out what he wanted in life. And he had done so, and he had put the steps in place to make it happen. He was so proud to be serving his country," Lennon told the Dispatch. "My heart is broken."

Keziah Lewis, Jarrell's girlfriend, was with him on the ride. She suffered pelvis, ankle and rib injuries and was operated on Wednesday night and Thursday morning, the Dispatch reported.

Last year, more than 900,000 people attended the fair, which is one of the nation's largest, according to Cleveland.com, and is slated to continue to Aug. 6.

The fair reopened Thursday morning, but all rides have been shut down until they pass rigorous inspections, ABC News reported.

"Our family owned company is committed to working with state and local experts in trying to determine the cause of this tragic accident," Amusements of America, the ride operator for the fair, said in a Thursday statement on Facebook.

"The ride was inspected by our staff as well as independent inspectors prior to opening at the Ohio State Fair. We are keeping those impacted by this tragic situation in our prayers and cooperating with those investigating this accident," the statement said.

Anthony Jarrell, Tyler's father, told ABC News that his son was "loved and had a future, until the disaster at the Ohio fair."

"My question is who [is] responsible for not doing their job of inspecting the rides?" Jarrell told ABC News.

Michael Vartorella, a ride inspector with the Ohio Department of Agriculture, said at the news conference that the Fire Ball was inspected three or four times before the fair began.

Vartorella insisted that inspectors did not rush their safety checks, though the Columbus Dispatch reported earlier in the week that rain and flooding delayed inspections until just before the fair opened.

Kasich said there would be a full investigation.

The Fire Ball malfunction and ensuing chaos was caught on video and widely circulated on social media and local news stations Wednesday night. One shows the six rows that form the gondola wheel - each with four seats - rocketing side to side along a parabolic arc. As it swoops down and over the ride's platform, at least two of the rows appear to strike a metal structural support beam. A loud screech can be heard as one row snaps off, but it's unclear if the break or the impact with the beam generated the noise.

Travis and Mitch Taylor, 18-year old cousins, witnessed the accident. Just before the Fire Ball tore apart, they climbed from their seats and pondered another spin. But Travis wanted to get food.

"And thank God he did," Mitch told The Post, "because that's what saved us." Just moments later, the cousins watched with horror as their beloved Fire Ball turned lethal.

Staff Sgt. Hopper of the Marines said he plans to gather all of the other poolies in Jarrell's cohort on Saturday to tell them what happened.

"He was someone who was going to give 110 percent no matter what. That's what were losing. A kid who wanted to serve his county," Hopper said.

- - -

Katie Mettler contributed to this report.

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Video: Authorities said one person died and seven others were injured after a ride malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair on July 26. (Amber Ferguson, The Washington Post)

Embed code:

URL: http://wapo.st/2h4UKgt
The U.S. military is investigating a report that its service members were present at a Cameroonian base where U.S.-trained security forces allegedly detained and tortured civilians.

The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report released earlier this month, which documented over 100 cases of arrest and torture of civilians by Cameroonian security forces as they pressed civilians for intelligence about the Boko Haram terrorist group.

The report included photographs of U.S. military personnel at one base where the abuses allegedly occurred, although there have been no reports of Americans taking part in the torture, or witnessing it.

There are about 300 American military personnel plus civilian contractors in Cameroon helping the government there fight Boko Haram, a group that has terrorised several Western African nations for years. The deployment is part of Washington's push to train and advise small nations across the globe to fight extremist forces, with U.S. troops operating surveillance drones, training local forces, and helping to plan missions.

Asked about the report, Capt. Jennifer Dyrcz, a military spokesperson, told FP in an email that "U.S. Africa Command has ordered that an inquiry be conducted into these allegations." Dyrcz said due to the open inquiry she was unable to provide many details. However, "a portion of the inquiry will include determining what reported information, if any, AFRICOM was aware of prior to this allegation."

Much of the Amnesty report revolves around alleged abuses at Salak, a remote outpost near Cameroon's borders with Nigeria and Chad. The detentions and torture are said to have been carried out by the Rapid Intervention Battalion - Cameroon's army elite unit - which has long partnered with U.S. Special Forces in training and advising exercises.

Certain units of the Rapid Intervention Battalion are already banned from receiving U.S. military assistance due to "credible information" implicating them in human rights abuses, U.S. Ambassador to Cameroon, Michael Hoza, told Amnesty in a letter. The State Department has confirmed civilian deaths and torture at the hands of those units.

The Salak military base has undergone new construction over the past several years, satellite photos show.

One former detainee at the base told investigators that he saw "white men in Salak many times and I heard them talking in English. I think they were Americans. Everyone said they were Americans."

Another man, who was held at Salak for several months in 2016, said he "saw white men there on several occasions. Most of the time, I saw them from [the holes of] windows of my cell."

Last month, President Donald Trump sent a letter to Congress detailing American troop deployments around the world. The letter said 300 U.S. troops remain deployed in Cameroon, "supporting United States airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in the region."

The deployment was begun in October 2015 by President Barack Obama, with most troops heading to a base near the town of Garoua, where they operated drones conducting surveillance of the border region to sniff out Boko Haram fighters.
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Thirteen undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Honduras are being held as material witnesses in the federal death penalty case against a truck driver who allegedly smuggled dozens of people in an overheated tractor-trailer, leading to 10 deaths, according to federal court records.

Nine of the potential witnesses, including one woman, their faces drawn and arms cuffed, appeared in U.S. District Court on Wednesday in San Antonio. U.S. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Chestney told them that they were not facing criminal charges but would remain in federal custody, be assigned a lawyer, and be asked to give a video deposition in the case in late August.

Four other immigrants appeared in court as possible witnesses earlier in the week.

The court appointed Michael McCrum, a former federal prosecutor, to represent the immigrants. In a telephone interview, McCrum said he planned to meet with the immigrants soon to determine if they would serve as witnesses in the federal case. He said he thought federal officials should provide them visas, instead of taking their testimony and deporting them.

"They should be treated as people, McCrum said. So often we think of their situation as just chips in a monopoly game . . . These are people with real problems, with real needs who have been victimized."

The immigrants, wearing matching blue prison scrubs, listened to a simultaneous translation of the court hearing and nodded somberly as they answered the judge's questions.

James Matthew Bradley, Jr., the truck driver charged in the case, has waived his right to a bond hearing and will not appear in court on Thursday as previously scheduled, according to the court clerk's office. Bradley is charged with smuggling immigrants for financial gain resulting in death, and is being held without bail.

His defense lawyer, Alfredo Villarreal, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In a separate news conference Wednesday, Reyna Torres, the consul general of Mexico in San Antonio, said 13 Mexican citizens who were on board the truck remain in area hospitals, some are in serious condition.

Of the 39 victims who remained on the scene when authorities arrived, 34 are Mexican citizens, she said. Those who are not hospitalized have been transferred into federal custody. Two immigrants remain unidentified, she said.

Two are minors, she said. One is hospitalized, another is in federal custody.

The immigrants hailed from a dozen states in Mexico, including 10 from the state of Aguascalientes. Seven of the 10 people who died were of Mexican descent.

Witnesses have told authorities that more than 100 passengers were crammed into the stifling hot cargo bay before the truck stopped in a Walmart parking lot late Saturday night. When the doors were opened, many passengers reportedly fled in SUVs and on foot.

Torres said U.S. officials are working with the consulate to allow relatives in the United States and from Mexico to visit immigrants in the hospital.

Torres said they have been able to identify migrants using fingerprints in Mexican government databases, taken when their citizens seek a passport or other forms of government identification. She urged immigrants who may have fled the truck to get in touch with the consulate if they need assistance.

"This is a very sad moment," she said. "I am very grateful for the support that I have received."
For arguably the first time, Republicans are starting to draw red lines in an effort to save President Donald Trump from himself.

As Trump weighs firing one or both of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller, a pair of GOP senators is promising measures to thwart or dissuade him. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley, R-Iowa, said Wednesday that his panel would not confirm a new attorney general to replace Sessions this year. Then Thursday morning, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham, R-S.C., said he would introduce legislation to protect Mueller and warned it "could be the beginning of the end" of Trump's presidency if he tried to fire the special counsel.

"Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way

- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017"

Both moves are unprecedented. For perhaps the first time, Senate Republicans with real sway are talking about concrete steps to counteract Trump's impulses and prevent constitutional crises.

Republicans have spent plenty of time talking tough about Trump, mind you. Plenty of them said Trump's comments about women on that "Access Hollywood" tape were beyond the pale, and some even urged him to drop out of the presidential race. Many of these same members, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, would later embrace Trump. (Chaffetz has since retired from Congress.)

Like Graham, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., has been among the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP, including giving a brutal speech denouncing Trump's worldview in February in Munich. But even that speech didn't call out Trump by name, and McCain has frustrated Trump's opponents by not backing up his words with actions, such as voting against Trump's agenda.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan, R-Wis., too, has been called upon to occasionally denounce Trump. And sometimes he has obliged. But he has also assumed a nonconfrontational approach to dealing with the president, repeatedly brushing off his tweets - including as recently as Thursday morning - in favor of trying to work with Trump to get things done.

"Reporter: "On the president's latest tweet..."Paul Ryan: "I don't read that stuff."

- McKay Coppins (@mckaycoppins) July 27, 2017'

There have been some threats of legislation or actions by Republicans to stop Trump. In January, for instance, GOP senators led by McCain threatened a bill to prevent Trump from lifting sanctions against Russia. Similarly, Graham in March suggested he might call for a special committee to look into Trump's baseless allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped him.

But this is the first time the stakes have been this high. And Grassley and Graham are going on-record with specific actions and threats.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., is also speaking out now, telling Trump not to plan on a possible recess appointment to replace Sessions. "Forget about it," Sasse said. Sasse didn't appear to threaten specific action, though Republicans as a whole could thwart a recess appointment.

Look, politics is an inherently disingenuous business. Sometimes you say something with a little extra conviction to send a message, or you make threats that you're not 100 percent committed to backing up.

Politicians also have to deal with the realities of alienating a president who has significant sway over whether they can pass their agenda. There is no doubt Republicans, after denouncing Trump repeatedly on the campaign trail and seeing him win anyway, have grown gun-shy. This is the moment he's gone too far and I can cut him off, they've thought so many times, only to be proven wrong in short order.

I'm not one of those people who thinks McCain can't denounce Trump one day and vote for his agenda the next. McCain is a conservative Republican, so he tends to support Republican legislation. He wants to replace Obamacare, so he voted to move forward with a debate on doing just that this week, despite his reservations about the process.

But at some point, Republicans who think Trump is truly flirting with a constitutional crisis will need to back up their tough rhetoric with actions. Grassley and Graham seem to be at least edging toward doing that - perhaps recognizing the uniquely fraught options Trump is apparently considering.

We'll see how much follow-through there is. But at some point, the rubber must meet the road, or it just amounts to a bunch of talk.

---

https://youtu.be/AR3dQJyyg8s
Washington

The Senate on Wednesday soundly rejected a measure that would repeal major parts of the Affordable Care Act without providing a replacement, leaving Republicans still searching for a path forward to fulfill their promise of dismantling President Barack Obama's signature health law.

Seven Republican senators joined Democrats to vote against the measure, which had been embraced by conservatives but could have left millions of people without health coverage.

The rejection of "clean repeal" pushed by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., laid bare the deep divisions within the Republican caucus about how best to proceed. The night before, nine Republicans, including both conservatives and moderates, voted against comprehensive legislation to repeal the health law and provide a replacement.

Without the votes to replace the health law or to simply repeal it, Senate Republicans appeared increasingly likely to try to pass a modest measure that could repeal only a few provisions of the health law, such as the tax on medical devices and the requirements that most individuals have health coverage and that large employers offer coverage to their employees.

But even that narrow bill could have a dramatic effect on the nation's health care system. Democrats on Wednesday night released a Congressional Budget Office analysis of the effects of repealing several provisions that could be part of a "skinny" repeal measure. The analysis found that the number of people who are uninsured would increase by 15 million next year compared with current law, and Democrats said they were told that premiums would be roughly 20 percent higher.

But the point of the narrow repeal measure would not be to enact it. Instead, Republicans are simply trying to get some measure to bring to negotiations with the House.

"I think people would look at it not necessarily based on its content, but as a forcing mechanism to cause the two sides of the building to try to solve it together," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

Sen. Charles Schumer of New York, the Senate Democratic leader, called that "a ruse to get to full repeal" and warned that hard-line Republicans in the House would apply pressure to reluctant moderate Republicans in the Senate.

A scaled-down bill would fall far short of what Senate leaders had aspired to pass. But if 50 senators could agree, with Vice President Mike Pence breaking any tie, such a bill would at least keep alive the party's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, under which about 20 million people have gained coverage.

"What we need to do in the Senate is figure out what the lowest common denominator is  what gets us to 50 votes so that we can move forward on health care reform legislation," Tom Price, the secretary of health and human services, said on CNBC.

That strategy would require conservatives like Paul andsenators Ted Cruz of Texas and Mike Lee of Utah to vote for a measure that leaves the basic structure of the Affordable Care Act in place, hoping that House-Senate negotiations could produce a more ambitious repeal. Such senators have argued that far broader replacement bills did too little to eradicate the health law.
Before he entered the White House, President Donald Trump looked at the American war effort in Iraq and came away with a simple solution: "Take the oil."

Thankfully, this campaign-trail suggestion has not carried over to his presidency. But it was an early warning sign of Trump's own capacity for grand strategy. He sees everything, including international relations, as a transaction, a quid pro quo arrangement where even the complex legacy of a U.S. invasion in the Middle East can be reduced to a "bad deal" and an argument to plunder another nation's wealth.

Now, it seems, he may hold a similar view when it comes to Afghanistan, where American troops have been stationed for more than 15 years.

Recent reports have underscored the brewing fight within the White House over the future of its Afghan policy. Some administration officials - most notably national security adviser H.R. McMaster - are urging a "mini-surge" of U.S. troops to help Afghan forces fight the Taliban and affiliates of the Islamic State. But Trump appears unwilling to commit further American blood and treasure to a faraway conflict - although he has no qualms dropping some especially large bombs - and is loath to repeat the policies of his predecessors. "I want to find out why we've been there for 17 years," he told reporters last week.

According to the New York Times, however, something has caught Trump's eye: access to a rumored $1 trillion worth of mineral deposits in Afghanistan. Even while White House officials spar over the nature of their war strategy, they are exploring the possibility of sending an envoy to Kabul to meet with mining officials. Trump is reportedly eager to not let China eat the United States' lunch when it comes to securing Afghanistan's potentially lucrative deposits.

But many analysts are skeptical. A $3 billion Chinese project to develop a copper mine outside Kabul has been stalled for close to a decade. The country's lack of basic infrastructure, endemic graft and perennial security concerns would undermine any serious venture.

"It would be dangerous to use the potential for resource exploitation as a selling point for military engagement," Laurel Miller, who until last month was the State Department's special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said to the Times. "The barriers to entry are really quite considerable, and that kind of argument could fuel suspicion about America's real intentions in Afghanistan."

The discussion about mining coincides with a change of heart from Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who during the Obama administration "resisted the rapid development of the mining industry, largely because he worried about the threat of widespread corruption that would come with it," the Times reported. "But as soon as Mr. Trump was elected, Mr. Ghani reversed his position, contacting the Trump team and promoting Afghanistan's mineral wealth. He realized that Mr. Trump would be intrigued by the commercial possibilities, officials said."

On a certain level, Trump can't be blamed for being fatigued by Afghanistan. Former presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama both struggled with the challenge of occupying and rebuilding the war-ravaged nation. Obama's slow withdrawal from the country was criticized by senior U.S. military officials - including McMaster, a three-star Army general - for handing the initiative to the Taliban.

In a bid to conjure up a new strategy, the White House has even contemplated outsourcing the war to private contractors. These discussions, apparently encouraged by White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon, underlay an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal written by Erik Prince, the controversial founder of private military company Blackwater. Prince essentially called for an American "viceroy" to run Afghanistan with the aid of battalions of mercenaries. Prince likened the enterprise to that of the East India Company - a chilling analogy given the company's history of plunder, corruption and violence in colonial South Asia.

Imperial delusions aside, few American officials can say what "victory" looks like, even after so many years invested in the country. "The goal now seems more akin to 'not losing,' " my colleague Max Bearak wrote, before offering a grim summary of the state of affairs:

"A resurgent Taliban now controls 40 percent of the country's districts. A fledgling Islamic State affiliate is proving hard to eliminate in the mountainous east. The popularity of the American mission here has eroded into cynicism as the war grinds on. Afghan civilians and security forces are dying in record numbers - and more than 600 civilians were killed by NATO or government-aligned forces last year. Casualties among Afghan security forces soared by 35 percent in 2016, with 6,800 soldiers and police killed, according to U.S. government watchdog SIGAR."

In interviews, Bearak asked prominent officials in Afghanistan what would happen if the United States heeded Trump's "America First" message and simply left the country. A U.S. military spokesman said it would leave a "void" that would be exploited by a constellation of insurgent groups. Some Afghans indicated that the U.S. troop presence was itself a spur for violence. Others warned that the country's weak government, beset by scandal and infighting, would collapse without international support and protection.

"I don't think there is any serious analyst of the situation in Afghanistan who believes that the war is winnable," said Miller, the former U.S. envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, to Politico's Susan Glasser. "It's possible to prevent the defeat of the Afghan government and prevent military victory by the Taliban, but this is not a war that's going to be won, certainly not in any time horizon that's relevant to political decision-making in Washington."

And so despite Trump's desire for a "win," you probably will hear more of the same from Washington. "The basic parameters of the emerging new plan - building up Afghan security forces, enlisting Pakistan's support to eliminate Taliban sanctuaries, coaxing the Taliban to the negotiating table - reflect the same elusive goals in place for the last sixteen years," wrote Michael Kugelman, the deputy director of the Asia program at the Woodrow Wilson Center. "The Trump administration's open-ended commitment to Afghanistan effectively buys America more time to keep making the same mistakes. The strategy risks being little more than old wine in a new bottle."
A broad coalition of labor organizations launched strong opposition Wednesday to President Donald Trump's pick to lead the government's personnel office.

In a letter to the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, which is considering the nomination of George Nesterczuk as Office of Personnel Management director, 16 unions said he has a failing record in fostering a federal workplace "free of discrimination, nepotism and political influence."

A main point in their opposition to Nesterczuk, a former Republican OPM official, was his role in developing the Defense Department's National Security Personnel System (NSPS), which was repealed by a Democratic-controlled Congress in 2009.

"Mr. Nesterczuk was one of the principal architects of NSPS, which turned out to be a discriminatory personnel system created out of extreme ideological disdain for the due process worker protections and merit system principals that define our modern day civil service," the letter said. It was organized by the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers and was signed by most of the major unions with federal employee members, including the AFL-CIO, an umbrella labor organization.

Union leaders are concerned that if he is confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate, working with a Republican president Nesterczuk "will again attempt to do a great deal of damage to members of the federal workforce and their due process rights" and continue "his battle to put in place NSPS-like personnel systems throughout the federal government that would lead to even more lawsuits, waste billions more in taxpayer dollars, and result in rampant discrimination in federal workplaces across the nation."

Nesterczuk did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The sudden appearance of two large, rusty and barnacle-encrusted World War II-era munitions on the beaches of Cape Hatteras, N.C., this summer have puzzled the area's park rangers and local historians.

"We haven't had these in the past," said Boone Vandzura, the chief ranger of Cape Hatteras National Seashore, a 70-mile stretch of sand and surf that spans from Bodie Island to the tiny hamlet of Ocracoke. Vandzura said he believed it had been more than a decade since an unexploded munition appeared on the Cape's shores.

But within a week this month, Vandzura received reports of two aging pieces of ordnance. The first - identified by the Navy as a World War II-era bomb - was called in on July 14, while the second, a M38A practice bomb, also from World War II, was found 12 miles south of the first find on July 18. In both instances, a Navy bomb disposal team from Explosive Ordnance Disposal Mobile Unit 2, drove down from Norfolk, Va., and got rid of the munitions.

The two bombs on Hatteras make up the entirety of the team's calls for unexploded munitions this year, said Lt. Kristi Fontenot, a spokeswoman for the unit. The detachment covers all of North Carolina and Virginia and averages about five calls a year, she said.

Joseph Schwarzer, director of the North Carolina Maritime Museum at Cape Hatteras, said he couldn't recall munitions appearing on shore since he started his tenure in 1995, let alone two within a week, nor could Dan Couch, a lifelong resident of Hatteras and historian who could only remember a local named Nacie Peele who had an unexploded shell on his porch and stories of shrimpers bringing up ordnance in their nets.

"It's not surprising though," Schwarzer said. Cape Hatteras, a piece of land that juts out into an important shipping lane, has been witness to a litany of historic events that have littered the surrounding seabed with tens of thousands of pounds of weapons, including Civil War cannon balls, German torpedoes and practice bombs leftover from World War II.

"If anything is surprising it's that they only found two," Schwarzer said. The question, he said, is what "natural phenomenon" brought them to the shore.

Peter Traykovski, a scientist at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Woods Hole, Mass., said that a team of researchers working with the U.S. Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program, is trying to figure that out.

"It's about the economics of a response," he said. "If we find that they are highly mobile then a larger, more expensive cleanup effort is required, and if the munitions are spreading everywhere it becomes a much bigger problem."

The coastal areas of the United States, including Hawaii and Alaska, are home to tens of millions of pounds of dumped munitions, said Niall Slowey, a professor at Texas A&M University who has more than a decade researching the topic. That number includes 30,000 tons of chemical agents like mustard, that were dumped following the World Wars.

Though the number seems huge, that's just what was recorded, Slowey said. He added that an unknown amount of ordnance was disposed of or dropped during training and wartime and never documented. That, plus the roughly 5,000 former military installations in the United States, 400 of which could have potentially contaminated areas, make the scope of the problem daunting.

Additionally, it is unclear what the environmental impact will be, if any, once large quantities of the weapons start to degrade and break apart. Within the last two decades the Pentagon has started to devote more resources to the issue. The Army Corps of Engineers has a number of ongoing projects as part of the "military munitions response program," which spans from Martha's Vineyard to Pearl Harbor.

Traykovski and his colleagues' five-year study has used dummy munitions, acoustic trackers and special buoys to understand the type of sea conditions that make the old shells move. Cape Hatteras, Traykovski said, with its shallow sand shoals and often violent waves, could be a place where bigger munitions might move around significantly in shallow water.

"If old munitions are going to show up anywhere, they are going to show up there," Traykovski said, referring to the newly formed Shelly Island off Cape Hatteras where one of the munitions was found earlier this month, "as it has the perfect catcher's mitt geometry, to catch objects migrating from both the north and west."

Stanley Riggs, a research professor at East Carolina University and a coastal and marine geologist said North Carolina's Outer Banks is one of the most dynamic coastlines in the world, with an abundance of debris on the seafloor that migrates with the currents and weather.

"It used to be our trash bin," Riggs said. "And the Cape Hatteras area is one of the highest energy and most active shorelines along the Atlantic margin with a lot of past maritime war activity."

Shells from the 1861 bombardment of Hatteras Inlet still come to the surface when boats dredge the ferry channel there, says Schwarzer. During World War II, more than 60 merchant ships were sunk by German submarines off the Hatteras coast in the first six months of 1942, littering the bottom with supplies, depth charges and American bombs targeting enemy ships. The Outer Banks and its coastal waters were also once home to World War II aerial target ranges that are still littered with old bombs.

"It's a geological process here. Things get uncovered, sometimes it's fossils, sometimes it's parts of shipwrecks and sometimes it's munitions," Schwarzer said.

Though many of the rusted artifacts of war look almost indistinguishable from other ocean debris, they still can be lethal - their explosive cores and chemicals safely encased in layers of steel. In 1965 a scallop trawler accidentally brought a live torpedo aboard off Hatteras, and when the crew attempted to free it, the underwater weapon exploded, killing all eight aboard. In 2004, a clam dredging company in New Jersey unearthed an artillery shell filled with mustard agent in its semisolid, tar-like form. Three bomb disposal technicians were injured trying to destroy the artifact.

Officials warn that if you encounter something you think might be an unexploded shell, you should not touch it. Instead, back away carefully, and call 911 to report it.
KYIV: Ukraines 2021 grain harvest could reach record volumes above 75 million tonnes thanks to favourable weather, Ukrainian agriculture officials, weather forecasters and analysts said on Thursday.



We see a record harvest, which will exceed 75 million tonnes and together with oilseeds could be around 100 million tonnes, agriculture minister Roman Leshchenko told Reuters.



He decline to give detailed forecasts, saying that the next two weeks would be critical for harvest volume.



Earlier on Thursday state weather forecaster Tetyana Adamenko told a farming conference that Ukraine could harvest 75.8 million tonnes of grain this year, up from 65 million tonnes in 2020.



She said the harvest could include 37.1 million tonnes of corn, 28.5 million tonnes of wheat and 8.3 million tonnes of barley.Reuters




Information released under the Official Information Act reveals that the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) neglected New Zealands worst intersection to unnecessarily justify the case for a motorway, according to the action group Fix Hill Street Now.

The NZTA knew that the motorway wouldnt fix the intersection, lied to the public that it would fix the intersection, and then robbed the money that was meant to fix the intersection to pay for the motorway, group member Grant McLachlan says.

NZTA has denied the claims.

The Fix Hill Street Now Team this morning presented to the Transport & Industrial Relations Select Committee in Parliament.

The team spoke in support of the more than 9000 people who signed their petition to ask that the government fund the investigation, design, and construction of a major upgrade to Warkworths State Highway 1 intersection at Hill Street before congestion and safety problems deteriorate further.

Mr McLachlan said the presentation included damning evidence that the NZTA neglected the Hill Street intersection in order to reinforce the case for the Puhoi-Warkworth Motorway Road of National Significance and misled locals that the motorway and Matakana link road would fix congestion.

He said in the week that the petition was tabled in Parliament, the NZ Transport Agency gave $2 million to Auckland Transport to investigate and redesign the intersection, but wont allow the works to commence until at least 2021.

That throws the Hill Street intersection onto the same heap as Penlink. NZTA have wiped their hands of Hill Street and handed it over to a debt-ridden Council unable to fund Penlink or Hill Street.

But NZTA dont have clean hands. All the benefits to justify the cost of fixing Hill Street have been stolen by the NZTA to justify other pet projects, such as the Puhoi-Warkworth motorway and Matakana link. Its highway robbery!

According to reports released by NZTA and Auckland Transport under the Official Information Act, the business cases for the Puhoi-Warkworth Motorway and Matakana link relied on a deterioration of congestion at the Hill Street intersection.

The case for the motorway was based on a major upgrade to Hill Street. Instead, theyve decided that the less that they did to the intersection made the motorway look better, Mr McLachlan says.

But responses to Parliamentary questions from Winston Peters exposed that NZTAs statements about the motorway and Matakana link were not accurate. Instead of traffic at the intersection reducing after the motorway and Matakana link were complete, NZTA predict that traffic volumes will dramatically increase.

Its not rocket science that having a motorway connection at the northern end of a town growing fivefold will increase local traffic heading north from the Hill Street intersection.

According to the responses, the $709 million motorway will divert less than 15 per cent of the traffic that would otherwise use the Hill Street intersection. The $42 million Matakana link will only divert four per cent. In the meantime, total traffic at the intersection will increase from a current daily average of 35,900 vehicles to 42,350 by 2026. Auckland Transport research shows that the intersection is currently operating at capacity most of the time.

Mr McLachlan says the Ministers response incorrectly exaggerates the benefit to cost ratio by a factor of four. The benefits are only $21 million according to his answers.

The $21 million is more than enough to fix Hill Street. Why spend $42 million diverting four per cent of the traffic when $21 million will fix 100 per cent of the problem?

But the NZTA spin machine keeps conjuring up excuses, which Auckland Councils Kowhai Park upgrade have disproved. It is possible to complete major earthworks in that environment without causing disruption or damage.

In the meantime, to maximise the use of the $2 million fund, Auckland Transport has developed a protracted process to find a solution.

Once Auckland Transport has done the $2 million to death, it will be too late. We will be another Whangaparaoa.

Under the Roads of National Significance programme, the benefits of each project does not necessarily need to outweigh the cost of building it. The misappropriation of the benefits to fix Hill Street neednt have been reallocated towards the motorway.

The motorway robbed something of no value to it that is invaluable to fixing Hill Street. Users of the intersection will continue to be a victim for at least five years until this intersection is fixed.
The Afghan National Army sustained more than 50 percent casualties as the Taliban assaulted a military base in Khakrez, a contested district in the southern province of Kandahar. The Taliban has been hitting Afghan military bases in northern Kandahar hard since the end of the spring in an effort to regain control of areas lost during the US surge between 2009 and 2011.

The Taliban attacked the base overnight and killed 26 Afghan soldiers and wounded 13 more, the Ministry of Defense confirmed, according to TOLONews. Additionally, eight more soldiers are reported as missing and presumably captured by the Taliban. Fifty-seven of the 82 soldiers stationed at the base were killed, wounded or captured during the fighting.

Afghan officials claim the base is still under the control of the military. The Taliban, in a statement released on its official website, Voice of Jihad, claimed it overran the base and killed 70 soldiers and captured six more. Additionally, it claimed to destroy four armored vehicles and three pickup trucks, and captured another armored vehicle as well as weapons and ammunition.

The Taliban has attacked several bases in contested districts in northern Kandahar since the beginning of May in an effort to weaken and drive out Afghan forces from the area. Scores of Afghan troops have been killed in the fighting. [See FDDs Long War Journal report, Taliban attacks another base in Kandahar.]

The Taliban is successfully utilizing safe havens in the remote areas of Kandahar, Helmand, Uruzgan, Ghazni, and Zabul to sustain its recent offensives in northern Kandahar. US and Afghan officials have downplayed the Talibans control of these remote areas and have described the far-flung districts as not important and less vital areas.

The Taliban disagrees, stating the remote districts under its control are the lifeblood of its insurgency. The Mujahideen have opened up operational lines between Kandahar, Helmand and Uruzgan provinces and can throw its brunt at a time and place of its choosing, the group stated after its fighters took control of Sangin in neighboring Helmand province in March. [See Taliban controls or contests 40 percent of Afghan districts: SIGAR and Capturing Sangin an important victory, Taliban says.]

The Taliban is making inroads into Kandahar province. As of March 26, the Taliban claimed to control four of Kandahars 18 districts (Ghorak, Miyanashin, Registan, and Shorabak) and heavily contest five more (Arghastan, Khakrez, Maruf, Maiwand, and Shahwalikot). FDDs Long War Journal assesses the Talibans claims of control to be credible. Of the remaining nine districts, the Taliban says it does not control any specific area but only carryout [sic] guerilla attacks. If the Taliban was exaggerating its control in Kandahar, it likely would claim to control or contest at least some areas of districts such as Panjwai and Zhari. Taliban founder and its first emir, Mullah Omar, founded the Taliban in Panjwai, and Zhari is considered the spiritual home of the group.

Kandahar is a strategic province for the Taliban and is considered to be the birthplace of the group. The province borders Baluchistan, the Pakistani province that serves as the groups safe haven as well as a prime recruitment center. Kandahar is also a key to the production and distribution of opium, a major source of the Talibans income.

Bill Roggio is a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and the Editor of FDD's Long War Journal.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS), an insurgent umbrella organization in Syria which includes al Qaedas branch in the country, released a video earlier today showing its forces in western Syria shooting down an armed Hezbollah drone.

The video depicts the last moments of an armed Hezbollah drone flying over HTS positions somewhere in western Qalamoun. At least two explosives were dropped from the commercial drone before it tumbles to the ground after being hit by small arms fire. The drone was being used as part of a current Hezbollah-led offensive in both western Qalamoun and in the Jurud Arsal area of Lebanon.

This is not the first time Hezbollah has used an armed drone for its operations inside Syria. Last year, the Shiite jihadist group used an armed drone in support of an offensive in Aleppo. That instance was the first visual confirmation of Hezbollah displaying the capability for building and deploying armed drones. Prior that, in 2014, Hezbollah claimed using an armed drone on militants loyal to the Al Nusrah Front (al Qaedas branch in Syria, now part of HTS) in Arsal.

Additionally, in 2012 and 2013, the Israeli Air Force shot down two unarmed Hezbollah drones over the northern Negev and near Haifa.

Other groups inside Syria, including the Islamic State and the former Jund al Aqsa, have also demonstrated the use of armed commercial drones.

The use of small commercial drones equipped with explosive munitions allows Hezbollah, and other militant groups, to cheaply manufacture air capabilities. Hezbollah has reportedly built a fleet of these drones for its operations inside Syria and Lebanon. In the event of a conflict with Israel, these drones would undoubtedly be used.

Caleb Weiss is a research analyst at FDD's Long War Journal and a senior analyst at the Bridgeway Foundation, where he focuses on the spread of the Islamic State in Central Africa.

Are you a dedicated reader of FDD's Long War Journal? Has our research benefitted you or your team over the years? Support our independent reporting and analysis today by considering a one-time or monthly donation. Thanks for reading! You can make a tax-deductible donation here.
KARACHI: The First Women Bank (FWB) announced profit on PLS deposits from Jan-June 2021.



Declared rates of profit on PLS deposits*



w. e. f. 1st January to 30th June, 2021



=========================================



7 Days SNTD 1.50%



30 Days 1.50%



-----------------------------------------



Savings



-----------------------------------------



PLS Savings 5.50%



Hyper Profit Scheme 5.50%



-----------------------------------------



Term Deposits



-----------------------------------------



1 Month 5.75%



3 Months 5.65%



6 Months 5.50%



1 Year 5.60%



2 Years 5.10%



3 Years 5.30%



4 Years 5.35%



5 Year 5.40%



-----------------------------------------



Senior Citizen/Pensioners



-----------------------------------------



1 Year 6.25%



2 Year 6.35%



=========================================




After weeks of railing against pundits proclaiming a phone that has not been released or even seen is a flop, the Macalope is not going to turn around and say its a guaranteed success.

Writing for the Forbes contributor network and country bear jamboree but the bears are real bears and everyone gets mauled, Ewan Spence notices the jumping to conclusions door swings both ways.

Apples iPhone 8 Has Already Beaten Its Competition. (Tip o the antlers to @JonyIveParody.)

Its not out yet. No one has seen it. Its hasnt sold even one unit. Time is still linear, Ewan.

No matter the forthcoming sales figures, no matter the appearance (or not) of augmented reality, no matter the delays between announcement and shipping, Apples upcoming iPhone 8 has already won 2017s battle of the smartphones.

You know what? Thats not a real thing. There is no battle of the smartphones. You know how the Macalope knows? He knows because last year Apple shipped a phone that sold very well and Samsung shipped a phone that asploded and all pundits did was complain about a headphone jack.

So, no.

Firstly, Apple has already won the mental game.

Also not a thing. How many things that are not actual things are in this article? How deep does this house of cards go? Deep enough to wake The Old Ones? The Nameless Fear? Pretty deep, it seems.

No matter the one details [sic], the broad strokes will be that wireless charging is hip because Apple says so.

To date Apple has made technologies hip because its made them work better than anyone else and theyve shipped them on millions of phones a quarter. The iPhone 8 will ship in smaller numbers than the main line of phones, but its pretty certain that the premium phone features will eventually make their way into the whole line.

Finally, Apple has won the media game and should pick up better coverage than the opposition.

What media are you reading? Its clearly not the publication you write for. Which, yeah. If the Macalope didnt have to read it for work

Apple has a winner.

Its not out yet.

The Macalope really needs to set up a key combination for that sentence.
KANDAHAR: The Taliban have captured a key district in their former bastion of Kandahar after fierce night-time fighting with Afghan government forces, officials said Sunday, sending scores of families fleeing from the area.



The insurgents have pressed on with their campaign to capture territory across Afghanistan's rural areas since early May when the US military began its final pullout of troops from the violence-wracked country. The fall of Panjwai district in the southern province of Kandahar comes just two days after US and NATO forces vacated their main Bagram Air Base near Kabul, from where they led operations for two decades against the Taliban and their Al-Qaeda allies.



Over the years, the Taliban and Afghan forces have regularly clashed in and around Panjwai, with the insurgents aiming to seize it given its proximity to Kandahar city, the provincial capital. The leader of the Taliban, Hibatullah Akhundzada, hails from Panjwai.



The province of Kandahar is the birthplace of the Taliban, who went on to rule Afghanistan with a harsh version of Islamic sharia law until being overthrown by a US-led invasion in 2001. Panjwai district governor Hasti Mohammad said Afghan forces and the Taliban clashed during the night, resulting in government forces retreating from the area. "The Taliban have captured the district police headquarters and governor's office building," he told AFP.



Kandahar provincial council head Sayed Jan Khakriwal confirmed the fall of Panjwai, but accused government forces of "intentionally withdrawing".



Scores of families of Panjwai fled their homes after the Taliban captured the district, an AFP correspondent reported.



"The Taliban fired on our car as I was fleeing with my family. At least five bullets hit my car," Giran, a resident of Panjwai told AFP as he took refuge in Kandahar city.AFP




NEW YORK: American Ronnie Baker won a tight 100 metres race at the Stockholm Diamond League meeting on Sunday and heads to his first Olympics in Tokyo as a leading medal contender.



Baker, 27, clocked 10.03 seconds, edging out Italian Marcell Jacobs by 0.02 seconds with Britains CJ Ujah third in 10.10.



Im pleased to be able to run and compete and beat these guys, Baker told reporters. Theres a lot of guys running fast and some of the top guys are coming out of America but ultimately I try not to focus on my competition and focus on what Im doing.



World record holder Armand Duplantis did not disappoint his home fans as the Swede won the pole vault with a leap of 6.02 metres.



He finished ahead of American Sam Kendricks who managed a seasons best 5.92m and Frances Renaud Lavillenie who also cleared 5.92.



It was really important for me to just kind of go out here and try to get over six metres, and then maybe take a few better shots at the world record, but overall 6.02 was a nice jump so I cant complain, Duplantis said.



Stockholm is a special place for me, I have had some quite great results here in the past few years, so its like every time I come here, something good happens.



With the Tokyo Olympics due to begin in a little over three weeks, world long jump champion Tajay Gayle of Jamaica produced a seasons best leap of 8.55 metres to win.



Im surprised I jumped that far because my feet have not really been responding and I was tired after the golden meet in Brussels. But Im very, very, pleased and very happy with the result, he said.



Cuban Juan Miguel Echevarria came second with 8.29 metres and Swedens Thobias Montler third with 8.23.



Kenyas Ferguson Cheruiyot Rotich produced a seasons best performance in the 800 metres, coming from behind to win in 1:43:84. Canadas Marco Arop was second in 1:44:00 and Elliot Giles of Britain third in 1:44:05.



Former world champion Hyvin Kiyeng of Kenya dominated the womens 3,000m steeplechase, winning in a time of 9:04.34 ahead of her compatriot and world record holder Beatrice Chepkoech who could only finish third. Germanys Gesa Felicitas Krause was second.



I feel good and to get through a race is good on the way to the Olympics, Kiyeng said.



Kenyas Timothy Cheruiyot, the 1,500 metres world champion, won comfortably in a time of 3:32.30 in his first race since failing to qualify for Tokyo.



New Zealands Valerie Adams, twice Olympic champion, won the womens shot put with a throw of 19.26 metres.



This was my first Diamond League since 2018, and since 2018 Ive had two kids so Im very happy, she said.Reuters




SPRINGFIELD -- Melha Shrine members faced with shrinking membership and growing expenses and have voted to sell the Masonic fraternity's clubhouse on Longhill Street in the city's Forest Park neighborhood.

The group, which has as its primary purpose raising money for Shriners Hospitals for Children such as the facility on Carew Street, is already negotiating with potential buyers and looking for smaller, more manageable, clubhouse space somewhere in Greater Springfield, said Dan Smith, a member of the board of directors.

"What we do is we raise money for the hospitals," Smith said. "But we can't do that if we don't exist."

Smith didn't want to share the asking price, or the cost of maintaining the building on Longhill.

But the most recent edition of the Shrine newsletter tells members that Melha plans to tap its invested funds by $60,000 to $90,000 just to cover its budget shortfall.

"The long-term financial stability is dependent on us being able to raise more money every year than we spend," he said. "And we are not doing it."

The Mehlha newsletter said the local chapter numbered 3,500 Shriners twenty years ago. In 2017, membership is 1,150.

Nationally, the Shrine had nearly a million members 20 years ago. Today it is down to 250,000.

All Shriners must first be members of the Masonic Lodge. All Shriners are also men, although there are affiliated groups for women.

Smith and chairman of the board of trustees Alan Couture said fewer men today join organizations like the Shrine, the Moose or the Elks.

"It's not a secret," Couture said. "I don't care who you talk to or where you go. Any of these organizations are in the same boat,"

The group's focus needs to remain on raising money for the hospitals, Couture said -- and its identity and mission are not tied to the clubhouse.

"That building is not Melha Shriners," he said. "We can go to any other building and be the Melha Shriners and continue to do what we do."

The Shriners provides specialized care to children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries, cleft lip and palate, and certain other special health care needs, regardless of the families' ability to pay.

"It is something that is so rewarding," Couture said.

He said the reward comes nearly every time he's in public wearing Shriner gear and a grateful parent thanks him.

Michael Robinson, the Shrine's communications and marketing director, said Melha and the Masonic Lodge is going through a generational shift.

At 62, Robinson said he is the youngest Shriner playing in the Melha Shrine Military Band.

"Our horn section are all in their 80s," he said. "If it weren't for some guest players, our band would in be in trouble."

At the meeting Wednesday night Melha Shriners were informed that three of their fellow members had died in the past month. Only one new member had joined.

"We are constantly fighting the angel of death," he said.

But he holds out hope that millennials can be persuaded to join, calling it the "volunteer generation."

The building at 133 Longhill totals 23,175 square feet. The mansion part of the building dates back to before the turn of the century. An addition was built in 1956.

The building is divided up into special rooms for the various Shriners units. The clowns have a room, as do the group that rides the tiny motorcycles, the marching bands, and so forth.

The property is assessed at $522,900, according to city records.
WESTFIELD -- After 14 years in Westfield and a total of 36 years in business, John J. Bonavita is selling The Tavern restaurant to the owner of Southampton's Opa Opa Steakhouse and Brewery and Agawam's Kaptain Jimmy's.

Longtime Tavern manager Chris Osgood is staying on in a prominent role.

"I consider myself a business partner of Peter Kantos," Osgood said Thursday of the Opa-Opa owner, noting that very little at the well-loved Tavern will change.

"No, nope," Osgood said. "There is no reason for anything to change the way John has done business over the last 36 years. You shouldn't notice any changes."

Bonavita ran The Tavern in Springfield's South End before opening in Westfield, having renovated the old post office on Park Square.

The building is being sold along with the business, Bonavita said. Nothing is official, though, until paperwork for the liquor license transfer gets approved in Boston.

The Tavern is a Westfield institution, hosting annual Christmas concerts from the Westfield High School chorus and participating in each and every festival and celebration. On weekend nights its not unusual for the bar to be packed three or four people deep with with friends and neighbors.

The 32 employees at the Tavern will stay, Bonavita said. That was part of the negotiations to sell.

"The best experience that I have had is the people I have worked with through the years," he said. "I can't thank them enough."

But Bonavita said he is ready to give up the day-to-day grind of running a restaurant.

"Long hours, always around," he said. "Restaurant business is a young man's game."

He said he plans to take a few months off and then figure out his next move.
BELCHERTOWN -- An 18-year-old Belchertown man is being charged with motor vehicle homicide in connection with a February crash that killed Amherst blogger Larry Kelley.

Ryan Fellion is expected to be arraigned in Eastern Hampshire District Court on Aug. 4 on a charge of negligent motor vehicle homicide.

Fellion was driving west on Route 9 on Feb. 17 when his vehicle crossed over the center line and struck Kelley's eastbound car nearly head-on, according to police.

Kelley was pronounced dead at the scene.

Fellion and his two passengers suffered non-life-threatening injuries and were transported to Baystate Medical Center for treatment, according to a press release.

Negligent motor vehicle homicide is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 21/2 years in a county jail. A conviction carries a 15-year loss of license.
SPRINGFIELD -- A Hampden Superior Court judge on Thursday reduced bail for the city man charged in a January crash that killed his four passengers.

Aaron Thorne, the 18-year-old facing charges in the Jan. 17 crash, saw his bail amount cut in half -- from $100,000 to $50,000 cash or $500,000 surety.

Assistant District Attorney Robert Schmidt asked Hampden Superior Court Judge John S. Ferrara to keep Thorne's bail at $100,000. He said Thorne, of New Haven, is a flight risk, as evidenced by the fact he sped away from police right before the crash.

Schmidt said Thorne was driving a stolen SUV at high speeds before the vehicle went airborne at the intersection of Union and Maple Streets and slammed into a tree.

Three days before the crash Thorne was caught on video stealing the Jeep from a home in Milford, Connecticut, Schmidt said.

Schmidt said emergency personnel found Thorne trapped between the vehicle's pedals and the engine. No other occupants of the vehicle were found in such a position, which pointed to Thorne as the driver.

Thorne had no driver's license at the time of the crash, Schmidt said.

Thorne has denied four counts of manslaughter, four counts of negligent vehicular homicide, one count of receiving a stolen motor vehicle and one count of unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle.

Thorne was transported to the hearing from the Lemuel-Shattuck Hospital in Boston, where he is receiving treatment for his injuries. He was brought into the courtroom in a wheelchair.

Thorne was allegedly driving at 74 mph in a 30 mph zone at the time of the crash, which killed 20-year-old Andrew Savage of Springfield and three Central High School seniors: Katrina Maisonet Jones, Adrianna Hernandez and Cassidy Spence.

Hernandez and Maisonet Jones were members of Central's cheerleading team, and Savage and Spence were Thorne's cousins, family members said.

Ferrara ordered that Thorne, if he posts bail, must live with a cousin in Springfield, have GPS monitoring, not drive a motor vehicle and not leave Massachusetts without permission of the Probation Department.

Thorne is represented by Andrew Klyman.
As blood rushed down Braintree Police Officer Donald Delaney's face he could be heard yelling, "I'm hit ... I'm hit."

Details of the officer's shooting and the exchange of gunfire between police and Tizaya Jordan Robinson at the Motel 6 in Braintree in May were contained in a report released by the Norfolk County District Attorney Michael Morrissey who said the use of deadly force was justified in Robinson's killing.

The report shows officers fired almost 30 rounds at Robinson after the 25-year-old Boston man shot at police on May 5, 2017. Braintree Police had headed to the Motel 6 to serve a restraining order to Robinson for Boston Police that night.

Officers were told Robinson was staying in room 113. Before heading to the motel the officers checked Robinson's criminal history, the district attorney's report said.

Robinson was wanted on a kidnapping warrant based on an incident in Boston and also had a long criminal history including past weapons charges.

Three officers, including Delaney, went to the motel. They met up with a fourth officer who was working a detail at the hotel.

After confirming Robinson was in room 113, the officers knocked on the door. They were all in uniform and a police dog was with them.

No one answered the door. One of the officers used a key card to get inside the room, but the security latch was quickly used, the report states.

"Police. Open the door," the officers said.

"Who is it?" the voice behind the door answered.

Gunshots then rang out. Robinson, according to authorities, had four shell casings next to him.

Video footage showed Delaney immediately recoil after Robinson fired at the officer. He yelled, "I'm hit .... I'm hit."

His fellow officers saw blood coming from Delaney's face. The officers, including Delaney, began firing back. The district attorney's report show Delaney fired 11 rounds while his fellow officers fired another 18 rounds.

Officers grabbed Delaney by his vest and dragged him to safety. More gunfire was then exchanged.

Police began evacuating guests from the motel as regional SWAT teams and State Police troopers converged on the scene.

An autopsy showed Robinson placed his 9mm automatic pistol under his chin and fired one shot. The wound however was not fatal, Morrissey wrote.

The fatal wound, a shot that entered Robinson's head, was fired by one of the officers, the district attorney said. The bullet was never recovered, so it is not possible to determine which officer fired the fatal shot.

SWAT teams were able to check the inside of Robinson's room by using a robotic arm equipped with a camera. Robinson was found dead on the floor, the 9mm handgun underneath him.

Robinson had a gunshot wound to his left thigh along with the two wounds to his head.

Delaney temporarily lost vision in one of his eyes after he was shot in the face. He was rushed to Boston Medical Center in Boston.

Morrissey reviewed video surveillance, photographs, search warrant affidavits, firearms reports along with interviews with the officers and other law enforcement who responded to the scene. He also reviewed Braintree Police's use of force policy.

"These officers were justified in using deadly force to protect themselves and other from the imminent threat of death from incoming gunfire," Morrissey wrote.

The district attorney found no criminal responsibility on the part of the officers.
By MATT MURPHY

In response to a Supreme Judicial Court ruling this week, Gov. Charlie Baker is crafting legislation that would allow the State Police to hold some individuals on federal immigration detainers after they post bail for a state crime or if they've previously been convicted of a violent crime such as murder or rape.

The state's top court on Monday ruled that nothing in Massachusetts law allows state or local police to honor Immigration and Customs Services detainer requests for defendants wanted only for civil immigration violations.

The governor's bill would seek to reinstate a policy put in place by the Baker administration in June 2016 broadening the level of cooperation between State Police and federal immigration police.

A spokeswoman for the governor said the State Police would continue to cooperate with ICE to the extent allowed under current law by notifying federal authorities of the arrest or impending release of defendants sought by ICE.

"The Baker-Polito Administration is currently exploring legislative options that will give formal legal authority to the State Police to further cooperate with ICE by detaining individuals convicted of violent crimes such as murder or rape when ICE is unable to respond immediately to take them into custody," press secretary Lizzy Guyton said in a statement.

Aides said Baker will not seek to change the past policy that prevented state police from holding someone on an ICE detainer if they were taken into custody for a minor civil infraction such as a traffic violation.

The governor, who is returning from Colorado on Wednesday after several days of meetings with Republican governors, is expected to file the bill as soon as next week, just as the House and Senate are expected to begin their August recess.

It does not appear that the governor's bill will go as far as another piece of legislation filed this week by Andover Republican Rep. Jim Lyons that would grant law enforcement in Massachusetts the power to arrest and detain people on federal immigration detainers.

The Lyons bill would also give Massachusetts police the authority to enforce federal immigration law, if they have probable cause to believe a violation has occurred.

Baker last year said the policy he is now seeking to codify would allow the state to detain "criminals, gang members or suspected terrorists," but made clear that State Police would not be enforcing immigration law or be allowed to inquire about immigration status if it was not part of an underlying criminal investigation.

"Governor Baker does not support a sanctuary state and believes the administration's policy is an important public safety tool to keep our communities safe," Guyton said in a statement Wednesday.
Jelt https://jeltbelt.com/ Expands Distribution into Yellowstone National Park

An innovative small business in Bozeman is expanding its market by distributing inside Yellowstone National Park, where more than 5.5 million visitors could be potential customers.

Jelt produces belts designed for active lifestyles. The belts are flexible and grip to pants with or without belt loops. Manufactured from recycled water bottles, they contain no metal and may be worn through airport security checkpoints.

Jennifer Perry invented the Jelt Belt three years ago, initially outsourcing the manufacturing to China before returning it to Montana.

Full Story: http://commerce.mt.gov/News/PressReleases/made-in-montana-business-leverages-tourism-to-grow
Spending money on time-saving services reduces stress and boosts overall happiness, according to new research, but shockingly few of us do it.

By Dave Roos

Full Story: https://www.seeker.com/culture/behavior/buying-time-can-provide-a-path-to-happiness
The question of whether self-driving cars will make streets and roads a safer place for humans depends on whether technology can protect the most vulnerable users.

Proponents of self-driving cars say theyll make the world safer, but autonomous vehicles need to predict what bicyclists are going to do. Now researchers say part of the answer is to have bikes feed information to cars.

Margaret J. Krauss

Full Story: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2017/07/24/537746346/bikes-may-have-to-talk-to-self-driving-cars-for-safetys-sake
Amazon plans to make thousands of job offers in just one day as it holds a giant job fair next week at nearly a dozen warehouses across the U.S.

Those offered jobs on the spot will pack or sort boxes and help ship them to customers. Nearly 40,000 of the 50,000 jobs will be full time. Most of these jobs will count toward Amazons previously announced goal of adding 100,000 full-time workers by the middle of next year.

Full Story: http://www.oregonlive.com/business/index.ssf/2017/07/amazon_goes_on_hiring_spree_as.html#incart_river_index
For those interested in becoming a special education paraeducator, Missoula County Public Schools will be holding a job fair to fill more than 30 positions.

"Special education paraeducators work in small groups and one-on-one with students who need extra support," according to a news release from the school district.

The job fair will be held from 4:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 1, at Sentinel High School, 901 South Ave.

For additional information, people can contact David Rott, executive director of human resources at 406-728-2400, Ext. 1038, or via email at [email protected].

Individuals interested in applying can also start their applications online at http://www.mcpsmt.org.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development announced this week that USDA is accepting applications for the Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/farm-bill-broadband-loans-loan-guarantees for FY 2017. Applications will be accepted until September 30, 2017 under this window.

The Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program furnishes loans and loan guarantees to provide funds for the costs of construction, improvement, or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide service at the broadband lending speed as outlined in the Federal Register https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-07-25/pdf/2017-15497.pdf .

Applicants are encouraged to review the FY 2017 application guide that is available online at: https://www.rd.usda.gov/programs-services/farm-bill-broadband-loans-loan-guarantees and as found in the Code of Federal Regulations, 7 CFR part 1738 https://www.ecfr.gov/cgi-bin/text-idx?SID=22a146abfbf84e2abc503e8970cf8133&mc=true&node=pt7.11.1738&rgn=div5 .

More information on how to apply for funding is available on page 34473 of the July 25th Federal Register https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-07-25/pdf/2017-15497.pdf .

USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer.
Ameliorer la qualite des services offerts dans les  Residential Care Institutions (RCIs) , aussi appelees shelters, afin dassurer au mieux la protection et le bien-etre des enfants tout en mettant a la disposition des ONG, les outils et moyens necessaires.

Cest dans ce but que la National Social Inclusion Foundation (NSIF) propose un programme national pour les  Residential Care Institutions for the Protection and Welfare of Children , quelle a presente aux 14 ONG concernees lors dune reunion de discussion, tenue au siege social de la NSIF, la semaine derniere. Ce programme va aussi dans le droit-fil des recommandations des Nations Unies pour la desinstitutionalisation des RCIs au profit de petites structures residentielles, de pas plus de 15 residents.

Il faut savoir que le budget, attribue par la fondation pour laccompagnement financier de ces ONG dans leur fonctionnement, est passe de Rs 105 millions a Rs 200 millions pour lannee financiere 2022-2023. A ce jour, on denombre quelque 600 enfants victimes de negligence et de violence, qui sont pris en charge par les 18 Residential Care Institutions, gerees par les ONG et lEtat.

Le programme national vient jeter les jalons pour lamelioration, la professionnalisation et lharmonisation des services offerts et aussi pour une meilleure gestion des RCIs.  Nous avons constate une difference dans le niveau et la qualite des services offerts par les differentes RCIs. Le programme national, qui comprend un cadre de services bien etabli et une serie de guidelines, bases sur les pratiques internationales et adaptees au contexte local, va permettre lharmonisation des services dans les centres daccueil. Le cadre de services est aussi un outil qui va aider les ONG a ameliorer leur gestion financiere et administrative, et aussi les guider et les accompagner dans leur mission daccompagnement des enfants victimes de negligence et de violence. Il est important que ces enfants puissent etre suivis par des professionnels et avoir acces a des activites qui contribuent a leur bien-etre et leur developpement holistique , explique Vishal Ragoobur, Research and Development Manager a la NSIF.

Ce cadre de services, qui est centre sur lenfant et le respect de ses droits, touche deux principaux domaines dont le premier concerne les soins et le soutien aux enfants et englobe entre autres, les soins personnalises et ceux dispenses par des professionnels tels que psychologues, psychiatres et medecins, la protection de lenfant, lalimentation et lhygiene ainsi que les infrastructures et les facilites offertes au sein des RCIs. Lautre domaine, qui est la sante, le bien-etre et le developpement, comprend la sante, leducation, les activites sportives et de loisirs, le contact et la reintegration dans la famille ainsi que la preparation des residents en vue de leur reinsertion dans la societe, apres avoir atteints lage de quitter les RCIs.

 La NSIF mettra a la disposition des 14 ONG concernees, les outils et moyens necessaires pour assurer limplementation de ce programme, qui passe imperativement par la formation du personnel existant et le recrutement de professionnels pour un meilleur encadrement des enfants. Cela concerne egalement lamelioration des infrastructures , poursuit le Research and Development Manager de la NSIF.

Ce programme est aussi en ligne avec les recommandations des Nations Unies pour favoriser davantage les petites structures residentielles, de pas plus de 15 residents. Lobjectif etant de creer un environnement plus convivial et familial pour les enfants tout en leur offrant le meilleur accompagnement et suivi possible pour favoriser leur developpement holistique. Une desinstitutionalisation des RICs est ainsi attendue dans la duree. La NSIF accompagnera les ONG dans ce processus de desinstitutionalisation.

Dautres reunions de travail sont prevues entre la NSIF, les ONG concernees et le ministere du Genre et du Bien-etre de la famille dans le cadre de limplementation de ce programme national pour les Residential Care Institutions for the Protection and Welfare of Children .

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Yang Tong works at his white lavender breeding base in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, July 25, 2017. [Photo/VCG]

After Yang Tong graduated from a college in 2010, the post-80s man returned to his hometown to open the first lavender farm in Zhangjiakou, North China's Hebei province.

Not only Yang planted general lavender to attract tourists, he also built a white lavender (a rare species) breeding base to provide good quality seedlings to planters across China. Moreover, he also bought a production line to refine lavender essential oil to enhance earning.

Now, his farm is famous among the local.
LONDON - New cars powered by gasoline or diesel fuels will be banned in Britain from 2040, the government announced Wednesday.

It is the toughest measure ever in a government plan to see all cars and vans emission free by 2050.

The proposals by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) are part of the toughest-ever anti-pollution measures ever raised in the country.

"Today's plan sets out how we will work with local authorities to tackle the effects of roadside pollution caused by dirty diesels, in particular nitrogen dioxide," said the Environment Secretary Michael Gove.

"This is one element of the government's 3-billion-pound (4 billion US dollars) program to clean up the air and reduce vehicle emissions," he said.

"Today's announcement is focused on delivering nitrogen dioxide (NO2) compliance at the roadside in the shortest amount of time. This is one part of our program to deliver clean air. Next year the Government will publish a comprehensive Clean Air Strategy which will address other sources of air pollution," a Defra spokesman said.

Town and city authorities will also be handed new powers to impose charges on the most polluting vehicles.

Local areas will be asked to produce initial plans within eight months and final plans by the end of next year to accelerate action. Local councils will also have to produce local air quality plans on reducing NO2 levels in the shortest possible time.

The "UK Plan for Tackling Roadside Nitrogen Dioxide Concentrations" produced by Defra and the Department for Transport outlines how councils with the worst levels of air pollution at busy road junctions and hotspots must take robust action.

"We are determined to deliver a green revolution in transport and reduce pollution in our towns and cities. We are taking bold action and want nearly every car and van on UK roads to be zero emission by 2050," said Chris Grayling, the transport secretary.

Air quality in Britain has been improving significantly in recent decades, with reductions in emissions of all of the key pollutants, and NO2 levels was cut by half in the last 15 years, according to the Defra.

Despite this, an analysis of over 1,800 of Britain's major roads shows that 81 locations, 4 percent of the total, breach legal pollution limits for NO2, with 33 of them outside of London.

"Air pollution continues to have an unnecessary and avoidable impact on people's health and evidence shows that poor air quality is the largest environmental risk to public health in the UK, costing the country around 3.5 billion US dollars in 2012," added Defra.

Defra's new plans also include a new Clean Air Fund to cut congestion, improve public transport and help motorists move from diesel to cleaner energy.

A consultation on a targeted scrappage scheme to remove diesel vehicles off the road is also planned for this fall.

Britain is one of 17 Europe Union countries breaching annual targets for NO2, a problem which has been made worse by the failure of the European testing regime for vehicle emissions, added Defra.
Charlotte Spink, Oriental Museum's access and community engagement officer, talks with children about ancient Chinese jade culture during hands-on public event on Wednesday. [Photo by Lei Xiaoxun/chinadaily.com.cn]

Ancient Chinese royals and dignitaries could not imagine their beloved burial treasures becoming today's teaching tools for British youths in northeast England, more than 8,000 kilometers from home and 2,000 years after their death.

The Oriental Museum of Durham University on Wednesday organized a public event called Chinese Tombs where visitors, mostly local families with curious children, can lay their hands on genuine archaic Chinese jade carvings dating as far as the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-24 AD).

Marvelling at the "cold, soft but somewhat smooth" touch of the objects, museum goers tucked into the rich heritage of ancient Chinese jade culture with help of the museum's staff.

Items on display include jade carvings of human hands, feet and faces, which are rarely seen in other public museums or private collections.

Jades of cicada, horse, pig and dragons drew most of the attention due to their shape and quality.

Charlotte Spink, the museum's access and community engagement officer, encouraged adults and children to grab any item that particularly interest them and ask how it felt and what they like about the item. She then started explaining the rarity of such stones in China due to Chinese people's long tradition of seeing jade as magic and precious.

"People who are very rich bury with them such jade pigs when they die," she told 8-year-old Maudie, who has a sleek jade pig carving in her hand. "It (pig) represents prosperity and fertility in ancient China," Spink added.

Craig Barclay, curator of the museum, said the museum has been dedicated to connecting the United Kingdom and China through its collection of Chinese cultural relics. Activities such as Chinese Tombs and other events are part of the museum's endeavor to achieve that goal.

The museum has dedicated its underground exhibition space as well as a quarter of the upper floor to ancient Chinese antiques and artefacts, an effort which underscores what Barclay called a strong connection between the museum and the China-led Belt and Road Initiative.

The museum's collection includes ancient Chinese bronze ware and porcelain but the museum singled out jade items for the hands-on event because they are difficult to break and people can hold it in their hands without putting on gloves, said Spink.

Durham University's Oriental Museum is a leader in introducing cultural relics to ordinary people to help build a link between them.

The outcome is apparent. "It's amazing," said Maudie. "These things are 3,000-year-old and they are beautiful," She said she'd like to visit China in the future.

The museum is also partnering with the Palace Museum in China on excavation, research and study in the Cining Place inside the Forbidden City.

A team of archaeologists carried out a dig alongside colleagues from the Palace Museum in May this year.

The cooperation is the first between the Palace Museum and an English university.

Contact the writer at leixiaoxun@chinadaily.com.cn
UPDATE: According to the McDowell County Sheriff's Office, the stolen red Lincoln Aviator has been located.

Tips from citizens have led McDowell County Sheriffs Office investigators to the two female suspects they believe stole a car from an auction business on Monday, July 24.

The pair has not yet been charged but is being questioned.

However, detectives have not been able to locate the red 2003 Lincoln Aviator owned by a South Carolina woman.

The two suspects were caught on camera at Buy Way Auction, at 1955 U.S. 70 East in Marion, on Monday, July 24. They asked to drive the Lincoln and were told they could do so but to stay in the parking lot.

They fled the area with the Lincoln.

Anyone with information concerning the whereabouts of the stolen vehicle is asked to call Detective Billie Brown at 652-2237 or McDowell County Crime Stoppers at 65-CRIME (652-7463). Now, you can also text your tips to Crime Stoppers. Text MCDOWELLTIPS and your information to 274637 (CRIMES). With Crime Stoppers, your identity remains anonymous, and you could receive a cash reward.
For the last seven weeks, the Linville Gorge trail has been undergoing a massive restoration thanks in large part to one of four groups with the North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps (NCYCC).

The NCYCC, in partnership with the Conservation Trust for North Carolina (CTNC) and the Vermont Youth Conservation Corps, is a comprehensive youth development program that uses the natural world for teaching and leadership skills, community service and environmental stewardship. For seven consecutive weeks, the Conservation Corps provides paid summer jobs for youth to live and work with their colleagues on natural land projects.

As part of the NCYCCs program for its fifth summer season, the Linville Gorge Trail in Burke and McDowell counties was chosen with the National Forest Service for trail construction and maintenance. The McDowell News spoke with a few members of Group One as they labored on Tuesday.

I was worried about the heat in North Carolina, but up in here in Linville Falls, its been a little bit cooler, group leader Josh Carter said as he walked towards the site.

Carter, the 26-year-old Vermont native, explained how it works.

On a typical day, we have breakfast cooks come in and cook us breakfast. We all circle up after breakfast around 7:15 and go over our safety talk. We stretch, and then  its only a half a mile drive  and we drive up part of the way and hike all of our tools in and by eight oclock, we start our day. We have one break around 9:45, we take lunch at 11:30, and at 2 p.m. we pack out and do part of the NCYCC educational component, said Carter. We teach our leadership development program, and we have articles that we read together. We discuss a lot of social issues together and we do that for an hour, and then our days over.

On Fridays, Carter said, the crew takes the day for tool maintenance, sharpening and cleaning their items before the days work begins.

The trail, which has been through restoration since June 17, was patched with fresh walkways and stones, while other sections were layered with gravel for maintenance vehicles to move to and from with lumber and items. Prior to the groups arrival, the trail had been eroded in numerous areas, washed out over time and heavy rainfall.

In one of the last days of the scheduled restoration, the group was adding check steps to the trail, digging holes with shovels and pick axes and burying the steps into the ground before applying gravel and water bars.

When asked about the weight of the check steps, group leader Nicole Allen remarked, Basically, it depends on size and if you can lift it by yourself. If you can life it by yourself, itd be at least a hundred pounds.

The group was a diverse cast made up of different young people from North Carolina and Vermont. Some, like 18-year-old Nathan Han, an environmental science student at N.C. State University, wanted to find something productive for his summer break. Others, like 19-year-old Katie Melvin of Marshville, used this as an opportunity to grow as a young adult.

Ive done this before. It was two years ago, she said. I decided to come back because of what this experience has taught me. It taught me to be more mature, not just to conserve the environment, but how to cook and contribute to communal activities and chores.

Melvin, as it turned out, came back just last week after an appendectomy almost put her on the shelf.

It was not last Wednesday, but the Wednesday before, I woke up and was in a lot of pain and I knew it was my appendix, said Melvin. I went to the emergency room and found out it was, in fact, appendicitis. I was put into surgery immediately, and I went home and didnt know if I was able to come back  I wanted to, there was a lot more opportunity to grow. Its a lot of labor, its completely physical and even walking distances was hard for me.

Thankfully, Melvin was able to return after group leaders pinpointed activities she could do that didnt require lifting over 15 pounds.

They found ways for me to contribute and Im thankful for that because I knew I wasnt finished growing, said Melvin.

As the group worked, visitors coming through the portions of the trail not closed off for maintenance passed by and gave their thanks for the youths work. Carter spoke about one of the earlier challenges of working on sections that were not closed off to passersby.

When we were working on the upper falls trail. We kept it open and it was pretty busy. There was a lot of stop and go, letting the hikers through, swinging your pick axe, letting the hikers through. It was pretty challenging, said Carter. But we were able to make it work and the great thing about it was we got to interact with a lot of people who use the trail and build a relationship with them. Weve gotten a lot of thank yous and compliments for what weve done.

National Park Service Maintenance Supervisor James Zielaskowski said he and his colleagues are grateful for the help.

The biggest thing we appreciate is the group and the work theyre able to get done. Unfortunately, as short staffed as we are, this is the only way were able to get this work accomplished, he said. We try to get the youth involved in some of our projects. We try to let the kids come out, experience the work and learn a little bit.

To learn more about the North Carolina Youth Conservation Corps or to apply for an upcoming season, visit http://www.ctnc.org/connect/ncycc/.
The American Red Cross is facing a critical blood shortage in McDowell County.

They are issuing an emergency call for eligible blood and platelet donors of all blood types to give now and help save lives.

Blood donations have fallen short of expectations for the past two months, resulting in about

61,000 fewer donations than needed and causing a significant draw down of the Red Cross blood supply. The shortfall is the equivalent of the Red Cross not collecting any blood donations for more than four days.

Its crucial that people donate now to meet the needs of patients every day and to be prepared for emergencies that require significant volumes of donated blood, said Nick Gehrig, communications director, Red Cross Blood Services. Every day, blood and platelet donors can help save lives, and right now these heroes are needed to give as soon as possible.

How to Help

To schedule an appointment to donate, use the free Blood Donor App, visit redcrossblood.org or call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767). The Red Cross has added more than 25,000 additional appointment slots at donation centers and community blood drives across the country over the next few weeks to accommodate more donors. Donation appointments and completion of a RapidPass online health history questionnaire are encouraged to help reduce the time it takes to donate.

Summer Months Lead to Shortage

Blood shortages often worsen around Independence Day due to many fewer volunteer-hosted blood drives at places of work, worship or community gathering, and this year is no exception. Nearly 700 fewer blood drives are scheduled during the Independence Day week than the weeks before and after the holiday.

Overall, the summer months are among the most challenging times of the year for blood and platelet donations as regular donors delay giving while they vacation and participate in summer activities. In a recent survey of Red Cross blood donors, more than 73 percent indicated vacation plans this summer, many of them occurring the weeks before and after Independence Day.

New donors and those who havent given in a while are especially encouraged to roll up a sleeve and help save lives. Nearly one-third fewer new blood donors came out to give last summer than during the rest of the year due in part to schools  where blood drives are held and where new donors give  being out of session during the summer months.

Who Blood Donations Help

Because of generous donors, the Red Cross is able to provide blood products to patients.

Every two seconds in the United States blood and platelets are needed to respond to patient emergencies, including accident and burn victims, heart surgery and organ transplant procedures, and patients receiving treatment for leukemia, cancer or sickle cell disease. The Red Cross must collect nearly 14,000 blood donations every day for patients at approximately 2,600 hospitals across the country.

Upcoming blood donation opportunities

8-1: YMCA Marion 1:30-6:30 p.m. Call 659-9622 to make appointment

8-5: Lowes in Marion 2-6:30 p.m. Call 1-800-REDCROSS to make appointment

8-6: Concord United Methodist Church Noon-4:30 p.m. Call 828-442-8571 to make appointment

8-8: First Baptist Church Old Fort 12:30 p.m.-5 p.m. Call 668-7853 to make appointment

8-25: Marion Moose Lodge 3:30-8 p.m. Call 652-2540 to make appointment

8-30: McDowell Community Building 1:30-6:30 p.m. Call 652-6531 to make appointment

8-31: Wal-Mart Marion Noon-5 p.m. Call 1-800-REDCROSS to make appointment

Walk-ins are always welcome too. Bring a friend to donate, too.

About the American Red Cross

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nations blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

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Police arrested a Morganton man after the 4-year-old child he was supposed to be watching was found wearing just his underwear in a parking lot Tuesday.

Fermin Gonsales Gomez, 32, was charged with child abuse and possession of schedule IV narcotics after a Morganton Department of Public Safety officer found him asleep after taking drugs while the child was unattended outside, according to a police report.

Officer J.D. Walker responded to the scene around 7 p.m. after Jennifer Hicks said she saw the boy playing in the parking lot of Stonebridge Apartments, the report said. Hicks asked what he was doing, and he replied he was going down the hill to save his mother.

After police arrived, a neighbor recognized the child and told Walker where he lived. Walker knocked on the door several times, but no one answered, the report said.

The boy opened the door and walked inside the apartment, and Walker noticed Gomez lying on the sofa. Walker announced who he was and attempted to wake him up. He finally woke up after several attempts, the report said.

Walker explained the situation to Gomez, who admitted it was his fault and told officers he thought the boy was asleep in his room, the report said. Gomez seemed confused and made Walker aware that there was a 1-year-old girl in the apartment.

Gomez later told Walker that the boy had gotten out two days prior and that a latch was placed on the door to keep him inside, the report said. Gomez said he did not lock the latch because the children were asleep and because he did not think their mother would be gone long.

Fresh needle marks on Gomezs arm and his behavior caused Walker to believe he was impaired, the report said. Walker had Gomez perform an eye test and asked about the needle marks, which Gomez said were from an old habit.

The boys mother, Lauren Warden, returned home after receiving a call from a neighbor, the report said. She told Walker she had left with a neighbor one hour before to attend a food give-away at The Outreach Center. The center is 0.3 miles away from the apartment.

Sgt. Edwards asked to search the apartment and was given permission by Warden and Gomez. Edwards found six empty syringes in a nightstand, and Warden said she thought (Gomez) was clean now.

Gomez told officers again that the needles were from an old habit and were unused. He then admitted to using Clonazepam, more commonly known by the trade name Klonopin, which he said he bought illegally, the report said.

Edwards also located two more Clonazepam pills in a cigarette box and two syringes inside a Pepsi bottle in the trash can, the report said.

A Burke County Department of Social Services worker arrived at the apartment to speak with Warden and Gomez. Gomez agreed to not have contact with the boy during the investigation, the report said.

Walker arrested Gomez for possession of a schedule IV narcotic, possession of drug paraphernalia and child abuse, the report said. He was given a $2,500 bond and was transported to the Burke-Catawba jail.

Gomez said he was not the boys biological father but has been his guardian since he was 6 months old, the report said. Gomez and Warden are both the biological parents of the 1-year-old girl.

Gomez has previous convictions for larceny and possessing stolen goods, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Safety website. He also has multiple unemployment benefit violations.
While beneficial microbes are becoming a more common tool in agriculture, their effectiveness in the field is severely blunted thanks to real-world environmental stressors like heat and drought, competition with other microbes, and interactions with the host plant. Such factors can reduce the treatment's effectiveness or even drive the microbe to extinction.

Adding to these challenges: the development of new beneficial microbes and microbiome-related treatments has been slow. Because the pool of microbial taxa found in the soil is so large and diverse, it is hard to isolate the most beneficial ones for study.

Through a new Phytobiomes journal review paper, titled "Translating Phytobiomes from Theory to Practice: Ecological and Evolutionary Considerations," Drs. Christine Hawkes and Elise Connor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Texas propose applying ecological theories to improve the process of microbial technology development.

"Most plant microbiome studies in agriculture are divorced from ecological mechanisms," says Hawkes. "We argue that if we can identify the underlying ecological mechanisms, these can provide a roadmap to improve the development and application of successful microbiome treatments."

Using endophytic fungi to illustrate, Hawkes and Connor discuss the integration of ecological and evolutionary niche theory in plant microbiome studies to help with the development and implementation of microbiome treatments. They specifically discuss:

Applying processes such as niche partitioning to limit competitive interactions and maximize persistence, priority effects to allow establishment before resident taxa, storage effects that take advantage of temporal variation in niche availability, and others.

How these niche processes can serve as both impediments or opportunities for the establishment and persistence of microbiome treatments in the field.

The barriers to implementing niche-based microbiome treatments, including the potential role for neutral processes, technological issues, and scaling of inoculum production.

"By considering the niche when designing treatments, we can increase treatment effectiveness and persistence," said Hawkes. "Ideally, identification of the most important mechanisms will allow us to assemble treatment communities that are robust, difficult to invade, and provide consistent benefits despite environmental fluctuations."

Hawkes also points out a major benefit of research on microbiome treatments: They may one day help move growers toward more sustainable, low-input agriculture by using plant-microbe interactions as opposed to chemical additives.

"We are entering a new era of microbiome discovery that has the potential to change the way we grow crops for food and fuel," said Hawkes. "This article provides a new perspective on how to do that, considering microbial ecological interactions with the host, other microbes, and the environment."

Article: Translating Phytobiomes from Theory to Practice: Ecological and Evolutionary Considerations, Christine V. Hawkes and Elise W. Connor, Phytobiomes, doi: 10.1094/PBIOMES-05-17-0019-RVW, published online 19 July 2017.
In a study including 150 military veterans with chronic low back pain, researcher Dr. Erik J. Groessl and his team from the VA San Diego Healthcare System found that veterans who completed a 12-week yoga program had better scores on a disability questionnaire, improved pain intensity scores, and a decline in opioid use.

Groessl is a researcher with the VA San Diego Healthcare System and the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. The study was published in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

The study shows promise for non-drug treatment of chronic low back pain, said Groessl.

"To be able to reduce the reliance upon opioids and other medications with side effects, it is crucial to establish evidence showing mind-body practices like yoga provide benefit in both veterans and non-veterans with chronic pain," he said.

Veterans in the study who were randomized to the yoga group attended a 12-week yoga program immediately after randomization. Comparison participants were invited to attend the yoga intervention only after six months.

The 12-week yoga intervention consisted of two 60-minute instructor-led yoga sessions per week, with home practice sessions encouraged. The intervention was based on hatha yoga, which involves yoga postures and movement sequences, along with regulated breathing and mindfulness meditation.

Outcomes were assessed at the baseline, six weeks, 12 weeks and six months.

Both study groups had reductions in disability scores after 12 weeks. However, notable differences emerged at the six-month assessment, with scores continuing to drop in the yoga group but increasing in the delayed-treatment group.

Along with those improvements, pain intensity decreased in the yoga group at all three time periods, while the delayed-treatment group had negligible changes.

There was also a 20 percent drop in opioid pain medication use at 12 weeks in both groups as determined through self-report questionnaires and a review of medical records.

Notably, reductions in disability and pain intensity were found despite the reductions in opioid use and other medical and self-help pain treatments at six months.

The trial confirms the findings of two prior randomized controlled trials with non-veterans showing that yoga is safe and can reduce pain and disability among adults with chronic low back pain.

The study is one of the first to demonstrate the effectiveness of yoga specifically in military veterans, a population that faces more health challenges and may be harder to treat than non-VA populations, say the researchers. They point out that as with other non-drug treatments for chronic low back pain, yoga may not help everyone or may not completely eliminate chronic low back pain, but reduced pain and disability can often maintained long-term with ongoing yoga home practice.

Military veterans and active duty military personnel have higher rates of chronic pain than the general U.S. population, and the back is the area of the body that is most commonly affected. In addition to pain, those with the condition also report increased disability, psychological symptoms, and reduced quality of life. In the U.S., chronic low back pain is the leading cause of lost productivity and the second most common cause for physician visits. Billions of dollars are spent each year in the U.S. on health care related to back pain.

The team says that given the results of their study, VA facilities nationwide may want to consider developing and expanding formal yoga programs to help veterans with back pain. Many VA facilities already do offer yoga classes, along with other complementary and integrative health programs.

The research was funded by VA Rehabilitation Research and Development.

Article: Yoga for Military Veterans with Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized Clinical Trial, Erik J. Groessl et al., American Journal of Preventive Medicine, doi: 10.1016/j.amepre.2017.05.019, published online 20 July 2017.
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In 2015, researchers reported that a French child who was born with HIV in 1996, started anti-HIV therapy at age 3 months, and stopped treatment sometime between ages 5.5 and 7 years continued to control the virus without drugs more than 11 years later."Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies," said Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)."However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy and the health consequences of long-term immune activation typically associated with HIV disease."NIAID funded the clinical trial in which the child received treatment and follow-up monitoring.The South African child whose case was reported today was definitively diagnosed with HIV infection in 2007 at 32 days of age, and then was enrolled in the NIAID-funded Children with HIV Early Antiretroviral Therapy (CHER) clinical trial. HIV-infected infants in the trial were assigned at random to receive either deferred antiretroviral therapy (ART) or early, limited ART for 40 or 96 weeks. The current child was assigned to the group of 143 infants who received early ART for 40 weeks.Before starting treatment, the child had very high levels of HIV in the blood (viral load), but after beginning ART at about 9 weeks of age, treatment suppressed the virus to undetectable levels.Investigators halted treatment after 40 weeks and closely monitored the infant's immune health, and the child has remained in good health during years of follow-up examinations. Although it was not standard practice in South Africa to monitor viral load in people who were not on ART, recent analyses of stored blood samples taken during follow-up showed that the child has maintained an undetectable level of HIV.When the child was 9-and-a-half years old, investigators conducted thorough laboratory and clinical studies to assess the child's immune health and the presence of HIV. The scientists detected a reservoir of virus integrated into a tiny proportion of immune cells, but otherwise found no evidence of HIV infection. The child had a healthy level of key immune cells, a viral load that was undetectable by standard assays, and no symptoms of HIV infection.The researchers detected a trace of immune system response to the virus, but found no HIV capable of replicating. The scientists also confirmed that the child does not have genetic characteristics associated with spontaneous control of HIV, suggesting that the 40 weeks of ART provided during infancy may have been key to achieving HIV remission."To our knowledge, this is the first reported case of sustained control of HIV in a child enrolled in a randomized trial of ART interruption following treatment early in infancy," said Avy Violari, F.C.Paed.Dr. Violari co-led the study of the case reported today as well as the CHER trial with Mark Cotton, M.Med., Ph.D. Dr. Violari is head of pediatric research at the Perinatal HIV Research Unit, part of the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. Dr. Cotton is head of the division of pediatric infectious diseases and director of the family infectious diseases clinical research unit at Stellenbosch University, South Africa."We believe there may have been other factors in addition to early ART that contributed to HIV remission in this child," said Caroline Tiemessen, Ph.D., whose laboratory is studying the child's immune system. "By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication." Dr. Tiemessen is head of cell biology at the Centre of HIV and STIs of the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg.An ongoing NIH clinical trial called IMPAACT P1115 is testing the hypothesis that giving ART to HIV-infected newborns beginning within 48 hours of birth may permit long-term control of HIV replication after treatment is stopped, potentially leading to HIV remission.IMPAACT P1115 began in 2014 and has enrolled close to 400 HIV-exposed infants, 42 of whom are HIV infected, in Argentina, Brazil, Haiti, Malawi, South Africa, Uganda, the United States, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The first children may become eligible to stop ART in late 2017.NIAID provided funding for the CHER trial as part of a Comprehensive International Program for Research on AIDS-South Africa grant. Additional support was provided by the Medical Research Council Clinical Trials Unit at University College London, the Departments of Health of the Western Cape and Gauteng in South Africa, and ViiV Healthcare.The Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, also part of NIH, supported continued observation of the children in CHER after the study ended. The EPIICAL Consortium funded the recent analysis of viral load in the children who participated in CHER.The South African Research Chairs Initiative of the Department of Science and Technology and the National Research Foundation of South Africa funded the laboratory studies of the child whose case was reported today.Source: Eurekalert
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In the study, published inthe researchers set out to use one particular form of neuromodulation - transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) - to see if they could undo some of these cognitive deficits in 28 people with schizophrenia. tDCS applies a small, painless electrical current across the brain through two electrodes applied to the scalp.Previous research has shown that this can improve the 'plasticity' of brain cells, making them more amenable to new inputs or training; in other words, it may make it eas-ier for the brain to learn.The researchers applied tDCS with tasks which specifically tapped into 'working memory' and 'executive functioning': the principle was that 'training' the brain in regions that are typically poorly performing in schizophrenia would be enhanced by the brain stimulation technique.An improvement in cognitive performance was seen in those who had tDCS (and not in participants who received a 'sham' intervention), but only 24 hours after the brain stimulation was applied. This suggests that any changes in the brain and brain cells induced by neuromodulation may take some time to occur.The researchers also ran brain imaging analyses to determine what was happening in the brain as these changes occurred. They found that tDCS was linked with changes in brain activity in regions associated with working memory and executive functioning, as well as in the cerebellum, a part of the brain increasingly recognised as important in learning.Although an early study into neuromodulation and schizophrenia, this research is the first to suggest that tDCS could improve cognitive performance by changing activity in the brain. The study had a relatively limited sample size, so a larger, randomised controlled trial is now required to replicate these findings.Dr Natasza Orlov, first author from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King's College London, said: 'It's critical that we address some of the cognitive deficits seen in people with schizophrenia, as these determine how people do in real world settings, such as work and relationships. Anything that could positively address these could be incredibly helpful to our patients and their families.'Professor Sukhwinder Shergill, senior author from the IoPPN at King's College London, said: 'Our study is the first of its kind and confirms that tDCS may help with some aspects of cognitive deterioration in patients with schizophrenia. Given the lack of treatments in this area, this is enormously important. Our brain imaging data is also helping to under-stand how this is happening, which will support future research in this field.'Source: Eurekalert
Of all the memories from our school days, if there's any moment we vividly remember, it is the morning assembly session. That we

got to waste 20 minutes of our first class, and managed to showcase our acting skills in front of the entire school was possibly the next best thing about growing up. You didn't really live your childhood, if you never pretended to faint from standing under

the sun to dodge the rest of the session. Having said that, it's thanks to those assembly sessions that we know our national anthem and Vande Mataram' by heart and can recite with much confidence even today. However, while we thought that we bid adieu to that group singing on the day we completed our school, it seems the Madras HC does not want us to leave that habit anytime soon.

 wikimedia

Apparently, the Madras High Court issued an order stating that all the schools and colleges in the state should sing Vande Mataram' at least once in a week. In fact, they further said that government and private offices should sing it at least once a month. Earlier, it was made mandatory for the national anthem to be played in movie halls and now this  time and again people are being told to do something that should come from within, and that is clearly not going down well with them. After this iconic order, Twitter was buzzing with mixed opinions on this order. While some were saying that it's a good decision, others were criticizing this decision. In fact, it is being said that it will preferably be played either on Monday or Friday. Here's what people had to say-

Nationalism & Patriotism when forced becomes oppression remember Hitler & Courts have judicial duties not patriotic we are becoming Germany2  SK NADIMUL HAQUE (@Nadim_da_Sinner) July 25, 2017

Is this false news again or has the HC gone overboard ?

Best way to damage a cause is to defend it in wrong wayshttps://t.co/fvwLJX5341  Nitin Kapoor (@NitinKapoor2020) July 25, 2017

If anything, they are more likely to sing it and go to class without feeling anything (2/2)  Sagar Rawlyani (@Sagar4000) July 26, 2017

While farmers protesting at Delhi, MLAs gets 100% hikes , Now this! Sorry We don't look at what real issues are    ? (@arunbtgbd) July 25, 2017

According to a report published in The Indian Express, Justice M V Muralidharan who issued the order said, Considering the larger public interest and to instill a sense of patriotism in each and every citizen of the state, the national song Vande Mataram' shall be played and sung in all schools/ colleges/ universities and other educational institutions at least once a week (preferably on Monday or Friday).
Well, it feels like we're one step closer to digital India!

Next month onwards, people will no longer be required to carry a smartcard or waste their time standing in long queues to buy a ticket to ride the Mumbai Metro. The Reliance Infrastructure-promoted Mumbai Metro One has plans to introduce mobile tracking in order to ensure a faster and hassle-free commute for the people.

 Twitter

This basically means that commuters can just buy tickets or monthly passes using their Mumbai Metro App, and then they just have to pay with their mobile wallets or e-wallet, which will generate a QR code, according to officials.

And then, while travelling, the commuter just has to place their mobile screen near the gate's sensor, and the code will be scanned automatically.

Officials also added that this new system will be the first mobile-based system to be implemented in the country.

 Twitter

Commuters will no longer need to go to a ticket counter or to customer care to get a ticket or a pass. All you need now is a smartphone, said a senior official.

But, even after this new system is in place, there are no plans to stop the sale of single and return journey tokens, 45-trip monthly passes and store value passes over the counter, in order to accommodate everyone. At least, there won't be long lines anymore, hopefully.

The senior official added, Most popular Metros in the world such as the London underground and the New York and Singapore subways use mobility cards.

 Twitter

Mumbai is leading right now, but Delhi and Kolkata are not that far behind. This mobile-based system obviously has huge advantages and is quite beneficial for the people and the other cities are planning to introduce it soon as well.

Side note: In the whole Mumbai vs Delhi debate, Mumbai is winning as of now, at least in this area. Delhi, time to catch up!
Official travel information website to open in Armenia

An official travel information website will open in Armenia, the head of the State Tourism Committee of the Ministry of Economic Development and Investments of Armenia, Zarmine Zeytuntsyan, told journalists on Wednesday.In her words, information verified by the state will be placed on the website of Armenia Travel. Thus, one will not have to choose package tours, taxis and hotels at their own risk. Thanks to the website, tourists will be able to draw their own route and see what services can be made use of.It is planned to hold the presentation of this website in large Russian cities. Russian Armenians, for their part, proposed to open information centers for future tourists in their cities.
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Domains purchased with payment plans are not eligible to transfer until all payments have been made. Please remember that our 30-day money back guarantee is void once a domain has been transferred.

For transfer instructions to GoDaddy, please click here.
Camp Lejeune Town Halls Aim to Help Those Exposed to Toxic Water. Heres How You Can Go.

Retired Marine Master Sgt. Jerry Ensminger made it his mission to tell the world that if they lived or served on Camp Lejeune...
Gen. Carlton Everhart II is head of the Air Force's Air Mobility Command.

In its 70th year of existence, the U.S. Air Force delivers an unrivaled power projection capability for America.

Our nation has come to expect America's Air Force will always be there, ready to respond at a moment's notice. Whether serving as America's insurance policy against would-be aggressors or as an ambassador in blue delivering relief and hope to those in need, the service is always prepared to handle any challenge with mission-ready airmen.

As a major investment in this capability to the nation, Air Mobility Command, headquartered at Scott Air Force Base, Illinois, developed Exercise Mobility Guardian. The exercise will prepare joint and allied forces to operate seamlessly and effectively in dynamic threat environments. The State of Washington is hosting the inaugural Mobility Guardian, July 31 to Aug. 11.

Joint Base Lewis-McChord and Fairchild Air Force Base, Washington, along with the state's McAllister Field, Yakima Training Center, and Moses Lake areas, provide ideal locations to train U.S. and international forces. Mobility Guardian will enhance the skills and abilities of more than 3,000 Total Force -- active duty, Guard, and Reserve -- airmen, joint military forces, and 30-plus international partners. The exercise focuses on the core mobility functions of aerial refueling, airlift, aeromedical evacuation, and mobility support. More than 40 mobility aircraft of all types, tanker and airlift, will be represented.

Exercise Mobility Guardian is crucial to national defense and readiness. Mobility Air Forces underpin the military's power for inspiration, deterrence, and incredible precision effects -- delivering joint forces, fuel, supplies, relief, weapons, and even the President of the United States to all points on the globe. Events like Mobility Guardian ensure mission-ready airmen and offer opportunities for discovery and learning before the world calls them into action.

Well-trained and equipped airmen will always be needed to meet the nation's call. Total Force Mobility Airmen do a lot of the heavy lifting for America and ensure its global reach. While our airmen make the mission look easy, it takes years of continuous and quality training to deliver the precision and caliber of service or performance America has come to expect. Military readiness is key; its importance cannot be overstated. This major exercise will provide U.S., allied, and partner nation forces the best training available in the ideal location represented by the state of Washington.

Simply put, the state of Washington represents a power projection platform for America. Pacific Northwest bases are strategically located and well-positioned to provide timely response, standing as a testament of U.S. resolve and global reach to other worldwide nation-state actors. Conducting Mobility Guardian allows for exercise scenarios U.S. and partner forces or Airmen may face  whether that involves humanitarian assistance, disaster response or delivering kinetic effects in combat. Mobility Guardian is a required investment in national defense and military readiness.

Air Mobility Command's role in national defense ensures America's ability to access any point on the globe quickly and precisely. Mobility Airmen are often the first to arrive and the last to depart. Twenty-four hours a day, seven-days-a-week, Mobility Airmen are engaged in Rapid Global Mobility, with an aircraft taking off every 2.8 minutes. This capability is achieved by well-trained, expeditionary airmen conducting missions in 77 countries worldwide. It involves professional aircrew flying tanker and airlift aircraft, experienced medical professionals providing care to patients in-flight, and dedicated maintainers skillfully ensuring an aging aircraft fleet remains mission ready and prepared to go at all times.

Exercise Mobility Guardian training is driven and influenced by real-world events and service. Training scenarios will be drawn from lessons learned by aircrews, mobility expeditionary airmen, as well as joint and international partner forces executing the fight against the Islamic State and operations worldwide. KC-135 tankers serve as the backbone of America's global reach. Tanker aircraft continue to fuel 90 percent of the missions in the fight against ISIS. Mobility airlifters ensure critical supplies and forces are available to combatant commanders around the world.

Aeromedical evacuation crews and critical care transport teams operating out of Fairchild AFB will move patients on U.S. and international partner Mobility Air Forces aircraft, practicing a critical life-saving mission. AE forces support the full range of military operations, humanitarian assistance, and disaster response.

The responsibility of enabling America's global reach rests with Air Mobility Command. No matter what is going on in the world, one constant remains  the need to reach any point on the globe quickly and precisely. Exercise Mobility Guardian is one way to ensure America's Air Force is always there, ready to respond to the nation's call, today and in the future.

-- If you would like to submit your own commentary, please send your article to opinions@military.com for consideration.
The Marine Corps is investigating after a third recruit in a little over a year was injured Wednesday in a fall from a building at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island, South Carolina.

A recruit assigned to Support Battalion at Parris Island's Recruit Training Regiment fell from the roof of a one-story building and was transported to an off-site medical facility, said Capt. Adam Flores, a spokesman for the depot.

The recruit had arrived at Parris Island just the day before and was undergoing initial processing requirements when the incident occurred. Recruits are assigned to Support Battalion prior to beginning training at one of the depot's four recruit training battalions.

A source with knowledge of the incident said the recruit appeared to have jumped. The source added that the recruit was airlifted to a medical facility in Savannah, Georgia, though the medical status of the recruit is unclear.

"The command has directed an investigation regarding this incident per standard operating procedures," Flores said in a statement. "The command is currently focused on the recruit's health and is in close coordination with the family."

This is the third time a recruit has been injured in a fall from a Parris Island building since spring 2016. In October 2016, another recruit assigned to Support Battalion, 19-year-old Kristian Gashaj, reportedly jumped from a balcony only four days after arriving at Parris Island. As of June, Gashaj remained in a coma, at a long-term care facility in Michigan, according to reports from Marine Corps Times.

An investigation obtained by the publication indicates Gashaj was displaying strange behaviors and talking to himself prior to jumping from the second story of a building at the depot.

The first and most high-profile of the incidents took place in March 2016 when 20-year-old Raheel Siddiqui, a recruit assigned to Third Recruit Training Battalion, leapt to his death from the third story of a barracks building after being made to run back and forth by a drill instructor.

An investigation into that tragic incident uncovered a range of allegations regarding hazing at Parris Island, including an incident in which another Muslim recruit was allegedly thrown into an industrial dryer and interrogated.

Those allegations ultimately led to criminal charges for a number of drill instructors. Siddiqui's senior drill instructor, Gunnery Sgt. Joseph Felix, is set to face trial on charges of cruelty and maltreatment and drunk and disorderly conduct this fall.

Siddiqui's family maintains his death was not a suicide.

-- Editor's Note: The first graph has been corrected to show this is the third incident in a little more than a year.

-- Hope Hodge Seck can be reached at hope.seck@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at @HopeSeck.
C-5M Super Galaxy aircraft remain on stand-down at Dover Air Force Base as maintenance crews and engineers scramble to replace parts, some of which are no longer manufactured, the head of Air Mobility Command recently told Military.com.

"The mechanism is a screw-type mechanism that allows [the nose of the aircraft] to basically spin down and spin back up," Gen. Carlton Everhart II, commander of AMC, said in an interview Wednesday. "What we found out, though, is there's nobody out there manufacturing these anymore."

The service stopped all C-5M operations from the Delaware base July 18 after two aircraft experienced nose-gear malfunctions overseas. Separate incidents involving C-5M aircraft from Dover occurred May 22 and again July 15 at Naval Station Rota, Spain, the command said at the time.

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The nose wheel, which allows the nose landing gear to move up and down, had issues extending, Everhart said. "We found out it was a mechanism in the nose-wheel that was being torn down by just heavy use," he said.

The issue deals with two ball screws on the nose-gear, which operate in tandem to retract and extend the piece of equipment. "If a single ball screw drive assembly fails and causes binding, the gear cannot operate and will stall the extension or retraction process," said Col. Chris Karns, spokesman for AMC.

Crews are inspecting the parts to see how to best re-engineer or recreate them, or to scavenge spare parts from other C-5s.

While the C-5M was first fielded in 2009, the aircraft employ parts from older C-5s dating to the 1980s, Karns said.

"Inspection criteria for this specific issue will allow for malfunctioning single ball screw-drive assemblies to be identified, repaired and replaced and will enable AMC to mitigate potential shortages that could impact C-5M readiness," Karns said in an email. "Existing bench stock will be used for part replacements in order to keep aircraft mission ready."

Any faulty parts will be sent to Ogden Air Logistics Complex at Hill Air Force Base in Utah, where officials "will perform all depot-level maintenance actions on screw-drive assemblies and refurbish them," he said.

"There is a potential for a shortage if more parts require replacement than existing bench stock can support," Karns said. "If every part failed on the existing fleet today, which is not the case, then there wouldn't be enough existing bench stock. Worst-case planning is currently taking place to ensure the C-5M remains available to the warfighter."

Karns said seven out of 10 Dover C-5M aircraft have experienced this issue and "are currently non-compliant."

As far as why Dover is the only base experiencing the issue, Karns explained it was the first base to receive the upgraded C-5M, which have been in high demand since.

The C-5 can carry more weight than its airlift cousin, the C-17 Globemaster III. For example, the Super Galaxy can carry 11 Huey helicopters, or six UH-60 Black Hawk utility helicopters or six AH-64 Apache attack helicopters versus just a handful of Hueys on the C-17, Karns explained.

Eventually, the entire C-5 fleet will be inspected, officials said.

Everhart said some airlift runs have shifted to Travis Air Force Base in California. The Dover C-5s had to cancel at least one run to Europe this past week, but other missions have been retasked accordingly, Karns added.

The general said the priority is that "aircrews are safe."

"With aging platforms, because you have an aircraft that's 34 years old right now, there are going to be moments of discovery," Everhart said of the modified C-5. "A lot of times, I worry about an airplane like a KC-135 that's almost 60 years old. What is the next moment of discovery I could have that could ground a whole fleet? It's kind of a wake-up call.

"We've got to infuse revitalization, recapitalization money into these aging fleets or we are going to pay a price later on," he said.

-- Oriana Pawlyk can be reached at oriana.pawlyk@military.com. Follow her on Twitter at@Oriana0214.
President Donald Trump may be able to ban transgender troops from the military, but they will still be welcome at the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to VA Secretary Dr. David Shulkin.

In response to Trump's announcement of the ban on Twitter on Wednesday, Shulkin said in an interview with 77WABC Radio, "Once a person signs up to defend our country, they have to know that the VA is there and committed to them through the end of their life."

"So that's not going to change; our commitment is there forever," he said, adding that the commitment will continue to apply to transgender veterans.

"I don't see this as a major complication for us," Shulkin said of the possibility of handling an influx of thousands of transgender troops who could be forced out of the military.

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"I think that it's important that veterans know that the VA is a safe place to get their care, that we value and respect the dignity of all our veterans, and we are not going to change our commitment or our mission to any veteran who chooses to get their services in the VA," he said.

"Any veteran that is discharged from service -- we will honor our responsibility to caring for them, so if there is an influx of veterans, that's something that we're used to seeing," said Shulkin, who acknowledged being blindsided by Trump's announcement.

In a series of Tweets on Wednesday, Trump said that the U.S. "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. military." The president said he was acting after consulting with "my generals and military experts," although it was not immediately clear who they were.

The announcement appeared to come as a surprise to the Defense Department, which had been working up a long-term plan on the recruitment and retention of transgender individuals.

Shulkin said he also did not receive a head's up from the White House.

"I was not aware of the decision that was going to be announced," said Shulkin, the only holdover from the administration of former President Barack Obama in Trump's Cabinet.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who earlier this month ordered a six-month review on transgender recruitment and retention, reportedly was on vacation when Trump began his early morning Tweets on the issue.

Pentagon reporters seeking reaction were told to call the White House. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, later issued a statement:

"We will continue to work closely with the White House to address the new guidance provided by the commander-in-chief on transgender individuals serving in the military. We will provide revised guidance to the department in the near future."

Acting Army Secretary Robert Speer also appeared to be out of the loop on Trump's transgender announcement. At an Association of the U.S. Army event, Speer said he was clueless on where the White House was "going with the policy" on transgender troops.

"I don't have my cell phone, so I'm not checking Twitter," he said with a chuckle. "To be tongue and cheek, Twitter is not a policy.

"I do know that we were encouraging the current SecDef to review the accessions policy on transgender, which he was doing, and that review and analysis was not done," Speer said.

"And that's the latest guidance, so I'm not going to get in between where the president or the SecDef is right now on where they are going on a future policy," he said.

In a statement Wednesday, Rep. Tom Rice, R-South Carolina, echoed the previous complaints of a number of Republican lawmakers that the military should not pay for the sexual reassignment surgeries of transgender troops.

"Military guidelines on the sex of its personnel, like all of its guidelines, should be designed to produce the most effective fighting force to defend our country -- period," he said.

"I leave it to the president and people in charge of the military how best to define that goal. However, I strongly oppose the obligation of the government to fund procedures for sexual reassignment or any other elected surgery," Rice said.

Defense Department officials have said that there are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system.

The advocacy group Human Rights Campaign has estimated that there are about 15,500 transgender troops currently serving.

A Rand Corp. study commissioned by the Pentagon estimated that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members on active duty, and an additional 1,500 to 4,000 in the Reserves and National Guard.

-- Matthew Cox contributed to this report.

-- Richard Sisk can be reached at Richard.Sisk@Military.com.
ford-motor-company-15cac4b90fb1b3f7.jpg

(David Zalubowski)

Ford Motor Co. has issued a recall for 116,796 vehicles due to a safety defect concerning the bolts possibly fracturing in the seat, seat belt or seat belt buckle.

This specifically includes 94,605 vehicles in the United States, 20,681 in Canada and 1,510 in Mexico.

The recall includes certain 2014 or 2015 Ford F-150, E-Series, Escape and Lincoln MKC models, the Dearborn, Michigan-based automaker says in a news release. Ford reports it is not aware of any injuries or wrecks related to this issue.

"In affected vehicles, if a seat, seatback or seatbelt anchor attaching bolt fractures, the structural integrity of the seat or the seatbelt system's performance may be compromised in a sudden stop or crash, increasing the risk of injury," Ford says in the release.

The recall includes:

The 2014 Ford F-150 built at the Dearborn Assembly Plant from May 9, 2014, to June 15, 2014, and at the Kansas City plant from May 10, 2014 to June 10, 2014.

The 2014 Ford E-Series built in Ohio from May 15, 2014 to June 24, 2014.

The 2014-15 Ford Escape built in Louisville from May 11, 2014 to June 18, 2014.

The 2015 Lincoln MKC built in Louisville from May 11, 2014 to June 18, 2014.

Dealers will replace any affected bolts for customers free of charge.
ANN ARBOR, MI - One person is in critical condition and two others were injured after a crash on eastbound I-94 at Ann Arbor-Saline Road.

The Michigan Department of Transportation reported the crash at 6:33 p.m. Wednesday, July 26. The freeway was closed until 10:14 p.m.

Huron Valley Ambulance took three people to the hospital, one person was in critical condition and two others were in stable condition, said spokesman Chad French.

At least two cars were involved and are on the left shoulder of the freeway.

Ann Arbor Fire, Michigan State Police and Huron Valley Ambulance responded to the scene.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office advises drivers avoid the area for the next few hours for an investigation.

Ann Arbor News Photographer Matt Weigand contributed to this report.
ANN ARBOR, MI - If you're heading out on a lake or river and forget a life jacket, the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office has you covered.

A life jacket loaner program at three county boat launches was established last week by the sheriff's office, along with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Ann Arbor Parks and Recreation.

Anyone who needs one can borrow one for the day and return it to the loan station.

The loan stations are at:

Gallup Park boat launch on Geddes Road east of Huron Parkway in Ann Arbor

Portage Lake boat launch on McGregor Road north of Dexter-Pinckney Road in Dexter Township

Halfmoon Lake Boat Launch on Hankard Road north of North Territorial Road in Dexter Township

Michigan law requires boaters to carry at least one life jacket or preserver for each person on board, and children under the age of 6 must wear life jackets on a boat.
SOUTH LYON, MI - The deadline to file for a mayoral run in South Lyon passed this week without a single application for a spot on the ballot.

One city official suspects that an often contentious atmosphere at City Council meetings is driving away potential leaders, calling the environment "toxic."

The deadline to register as a mayoral candidate for the November ballot was 4 p.m. Tuesday, July 25, said South Lyon Deputy Clerk Judy Pieper, who added four people have filed for three City Council seats, but there were no mayoral candidates.

The small Oakland County community about 15 miles northeast of Ann Arbor is governed by a seven-member City Council, including the mayor.

The drama and squabbles that often derail monthly public meetings are captured and published on the City of South Lyon's YouTube channel, where council members can be seen clashing verbally over topics like the city budget and employment policies.

Council Member Mary Parisien has served on the South Lyon City Council for two years, after being elected in November 2015, along with Council Members Margaret Kurtzweil and Joe Ryzyi.

Tensions on the council have only risen since then, she said.

"I've noticed that no one wants to work with the City of South Lyon," Parisien said. "Businesses don't want to work with City Council, no one wants to run for mayor. City Council itself is just so contentious.

"In 2016, it got pretty ugly, and in 2017, it got that much worse. A matter that should take an hour to discuss will take four hours to discuss, with council members fighting tooth and nail."

In a video recorded during the July 24 council meeting and posted on YouTube, Mayor John Galeas tries to discuss a lack of respect happening during the meetings with members talking over each other or cursing during conversations.

"We fought like an MMA fight in here, four times, five times with each other, to try and pare down the numbers," Galeas said in the video.

His statements are interrupted by Kurtzweil, who can be heard off-camera saying, "John, knock it off."

"No, because it's the truth," Galeas replied in the video. "The public needs to understand that there's people here that refuses to work with the other council members."

Parisien said she was not surprised to learn no one is interested in the mayoral position, and added Galeas has discussed with her on numerous occasions his plan to not run for re-election.

Galeas could not immediately be reached for comment.

"John has done his best and had good intentions to give it his all," Parisien said. "I think he's been broken down by the venom that comes from some of the members. There's a dynamic that is toxic. I hope someone, of course, steps up to take the place of mayor but forewarning, it's not an easy job."

The job only pays about $220 a month, Parisien added.

"It does break my heart to see it get to this," Parisien said. "I don't blame people for not wanting to run."

Kurtzweil said in an email that current city leadership is struggling to evolve and address critical financial questions.

"Development is moving in and the city, like other cities, is facing unfunded pensions, increasing expenditures and flat-lined revenues," Kurtzweil said.

"Not everyone is equipped to move the city forward and some of the people not running for City Council have been part of the problem. In other words, me and the new city council will be left to clean up the mess and get the city on a healthy track for the next generation of residents."

Meanwhile, Parisien said most members of council are attempting to move forward past the troubled discussions to focus on the real issues the community is facing.

"Most of the people on council are trying to take the high road, let them say their piece and let them rant and pat themselves on the back," Parisien said.

Kurtzweil and Ryzyi are up for re-election in 2019.

Until then, South Lyon is without an official mayoral candidate, but there is the possibility of write-in candidates running for the position, according to the deputy clerk.

"Rumor has it that we will be getting a couple write-ins, but at this point no one has officially met the deadline at 4 p.m. Tuesday, and put in the paperwork for it," Pieper said.

At least two people called and were interested in appearing as a write-in candidate, Pieper added.

While the lack of a mayoral candidate is not a normal occurrence in South Lyon, Pieper said she hasn't received many phone calls from residents about the situation, which could result in an empty seat after the November 7 election.

Three people have filed and met the deadline to be put on the ballot for council positions-Joyce Clohosey, Rose Walton and Carl Richards- along with incumbent Glen Kivell, who is seeking another term.

Council members Harvey Wedell, who also serves as mayor pro tem, and Mike Kramer are not seeking reelection.

Anyone interested in a write-in campaign must visit the South Lyon City Hall, 335 S. Warren Street, and fill out the appropriate paperwork to be a valid candidate, Pieper said.

Section 5.6 of the South Lyon City Charter states any vacancy occurring in an elective office shall be filled within 30 days by a majority of the remaining members of the council.

"Such appointee shall hold office until the next regular city election taking place more than 60 days after such vacancy occurs, at which election a successor shall be elected for the unexpired term of the members in whose office the vacancy occurs," the city charter states.
Crystal Vargas' 2013 booking photo

ANN ARBOR, MI -- Washtenaw County judges will shoulder the extra workload while one of their own serves a suspension.

The office of 14-A1 District Court Chief Judge Richard Conlin said there wouldn't be a replacement brought in to pick up the slack in the wake of Judge J. Cedric Simpson's nine-month, Michigan Supreme Court-ordered suspension.

"Judge (Kirk) Tabbey and Judge Conlin will cover as much as they can," said Deborah Orlowski, Conlin's judicial administrator, in an email.

"(The) 15th District and Washtenaw Circuit Court judges have also offered their help. And as needed, we will use retired visiting judges."

The Michigan Supreme Court suspended Simpson without pay, effective immediately, on Tuesday. He will also be required to pay $7,565.54 in fines.

When reached by phone Wednesday, Simpson said he didn't have any comment.

The judge was suspended because the high court determined he interfered with the 2013 drunken driving arrest and subsequent prosecution of his intern Crystal Vargas.

The Supreme Court also said the judge made misleading statements about why the two exchanged 14,000 text messages in a four-month period.

During a Judicial Tenure Commission hearing, Simpson said the frequent texting was due to a complicated sexual assault case involving local defense attorney and Ann Arbor Downtown Development Authority member Nader Nassif.

The high court agreed with the commission's allegation that Simpson and Vargas had participated in "an excessive amount of communication" before they even received the evidence in the Nassif case.

The commission recommended Simpson be removed from the bench, but the Supreme Court said the commission "erred" in attempting to remove him and instead imposed the suspension.

Still, Judicial Tenure Commission Executive Director Lynn Helland -- who was not yet in that position when the commission tried Simpson and recommended his removal -- was pleased with the outcome.

"Judicial integrity is essential to judicial legitimacy," he said. "The Supreme Court's opinion shows that judges will be held accountable when their integrity lapses."

Vargas, Simpson's then-26-year-old intern, was being arrested for drunken driving at Michigan Avenue and Platt Road in Pittsfield Township around 4:30 a.m. Sept. 9, 2013 when Simpson arrived a short time later and spoke with the officer making the arrest, video of the incident shows.

Simpson also helped Vargas get her car out of the impound the next day and made several calls to the Pittsfield Township attorney prosecuting the case.

The suspension comes after years of legal wrangling. The Judicial Tenure Commission complaint was first filed against Simpson in November 2014.

Judicial misconduct hearings were held in April 2015, resulting in the accusation that Simpson lied about the text messages while testifying.

The Judicial Tenure Commission in August 2015 recommended Simpson's removal, but the Supreme Court remanded the case back to the commission after Simpson alleged racial bias.

A judge, however, determined there wasn't enough evidence of bias and, in March 2016, the commission recommended removal from the bench a second time.

The case went back up to the Supreme Court to decide the punishment. Justices Joan Larsen, Richard Bernstein and Bridget Mary McCormack joined Viviano in the majority ruling.

Justices Stephen Markman and Brian Zahra dissented, appearing to call for Simpson's removal.
Cabela's is preparing a special kind of ribbon cutting for the Aug. 3 grand opening of its new store in Macomb County.

Jyl Bower, 28, of Chesterfield Township, will slice the ribbon with an arrow, shot from a bow.

Cabela's retail marketing specialist George Calvet said the company sought out a female archer to cut the ribbon to highlight women in the sport.

"I was overjoyed," Bower said Thursday. "Mostly, I wanted to show that women can do anything. It's not just a man's sport anymore. That's what I was really proud about, was all the other women that I'd be representing."

Bower began learning how to use a bow and arrow since she was 3 years old, after her father gave her a stickbow for Christmas.

"I was out there [in my backyard] literally shooting it every single day and he saw I had a natural talent for it. I just loved it, that was literally my favorite toy," she said.

The new 90,000-square-foot store features more than 150 taxidermy mounts, vintage outdoor photos, an indoor archery range with more than 200 compound and crossbows in stock, a digital firearm kiosk and more.

It new store, Michigan's fourth Cabela's location and Metro Detroit's first, is located at 45959 Towne Center Blvd. in Chesterfield Township, near Hall Road and I-94, about 2 miles from Lake St. Clair.

Cabela's will host several giveaways for customers 18 and older through the weekend of its grand opening, including:

Thursday, Aug. 3: first 500 customers receive a $10 to $500 gift card and a chance to win one of three Remington firearms.

Friday, Aug. 4: first 50 customers will receive a utility bag.

Saturday, Aug. 5: first 50 customers will receive a commemorative grand opening cap.

Sunday, Aug. 6: first 50 customers will receive a tripod stool.

Customers can also enter to win a $1,000 Cabela's shopping spree or a new GoPro HERO5 Black action camera.

Saturday and Sunday activities will include:

Cabela's Youth BB-Gun Range

Shoot Like a Girl -- interactive simulator

North Macomb Sportsmen's Club -- youth archery range

Parker Bows -- archery challenge

St. Clair Flats Hunting Retriever Club -- hunting-dog demonstrations

Property developer Tom Guastello said "60 percent of the people in Michigan who own a hunting, fishing or boating license live within a one-hour drive" of the new Cabela's site.

L.L. Bean, another popular outdoor retailer, opened its first Michigan store last year at Macomb County's Mall at Partridge Creek.

"Outdoor retail is huge in Macomb County," Guastello said. "I think we have iconic brands that a lot of people like, so does L.L. Bean, but with a store this big you're more likely to find the thing you want and the size you want and you'll find things you didn't know you want."

"We're gonna get a lot of people coming in from Ohio and Canada."
GENESEE COUNTY, MI -- A cross culvert replacement scheduled for Thursday, July 27 will close an Argentine Township road for a majority of the day, according to the Genesee County Road Commission.

The work is planned from 7 a.m.-3 p.m. July 27 and will close Glen Hatt Drive between Silver Lake Road and Lobdell Road near Linden Middle School.

Drivers have been advised to avoid the work zone.

Anyone with questions about the work may contact Dan Hudson, maintenance supervisor with the Genesee County Road Commission, at 810-767-4920.
FLINT, MI - A new crop of volunteers is being sought to take part in the Flint Police Department's Volunteer Reserve Police Program.

The reserve police program was brought back in 2016 by Flint police Chief Tim Johnson for the first time in decades, with 18 recruits graduating and taking part in a March 2017 swearing-in ceremony at Flint City Hall.

Applicants must have time to participate in 150 hours of training, as well as purchase a pair of duty boots and a department-specified firearm from an approved list.

The department provides duty uniforms and gear, including handcuffs, belt, pepper spray, body armor, and other items at no cost to the reserve officer following graduation.

Reserve officers will be required to secure and maintain a valid concealed pistol license and will carry guns under the existing Michigan CPL laws. They are able to exercise the powers to arrest that any other citizen has under existing state laws.

Academy graduates are required to complete 16 hours of duty per month, according to the application form, and must be at least 21 years old, live within the city limits, have no felony convictions, and have a valid CPL.

The reserve officers may be called on to help during special events including Back to the Bricks and HealthPlus Crim Festival of Races as part of their duties and work some weekends.

Application can be downloaded here and left at the patrol desk of the Flint Police Department, 210 E. Fifth St., from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Monday through Friday for Sergeant Brian Murphree.

Anyone with further questions may about the application process may contact Murphree at 810-237-6807 or email bmurphree@cityofflint.com.
FLINT, MI - A deal to sell an online auction company located next to the former Buick City site is pending.

Repocast.com has been at a 30-acre site at 2851 James P. Cole Blvd. since 2012.

The property was listed for sale for $3.399 million with NAI Wisinski of West Michigan.

Sale of the property has been under contract for a couple of months, according to listing agent Kurt Kunst.

"The deal is not closed," he said. "I am not allowed to comment."

Kunst said he expected the sale to be finalized within 60 days.

He said an in-state manufacturer is purchasing the property and plans to utilize the entire site.

MLive-The Flint Journal could not reach Repocast for comment on Thursday, July 27.

The site previously was owned by UPF Inc., which built chassis frames for medium duty trucks for General Motors at the property adjacent to the former Buick City site.

The 155,749-square-foot building was constructed in 2000 and features 30-acres of paved and fenced-in lot with a security gate that has easy access to Interstate 475 and is zoned heavy industrial.

Repocast planned to spend more than $2 million to renovate the 100,000-square-foot facility following its initial $500,000 investment in 2012, according to MLive-The Flint Journal's archives.

Repocast.com is an affiliate of Midema Auctioneering & Appraisals Inc. and has been in existence since 2000. Prior to moving to Flint, the internet auction company was renting a facility in Ortonville.

At the time of announcing its move to Flint, the company planned to relocate 15 employees from Oakland County and create 30 new jobs within a year.

The potential sale comes on the heels of Lear Corporation announcing they are looking at building a 150,000-square-foot building at nearby 902 E. Hamilton Ave., the location of the former administration building at Buick City.

The 300-acre former Buick City location is Flint's largest brownfield site.

The Buick City automobile complex on Flint's north side opened in 1904 and became known as "Buick City" in 1985. Abandoned by GM during its bankruptcy, the last Buick rolled off the plant's assembly line in 1999, and the plant's operations ceased completely in 2010.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - The three candidates seeking term-limited First Ward Grand Rapids City Commissioner Dave Shaffer's seat in the Aug. 8 primary faced the public Wednesday night.

Catherine Mish, Christine Mullan and Kurt Reppart took questions from the nearly 50 people that gathered for the forum at New Holland Brewing's Knickerbocker.

Mish, 45, is an attorney and formerly served as the appointed city attorney for Grand Rapids. Mullan, 32, is a pregnancy counselor and social worker. Reppart, 37, is the executive director of a nonprofit ministry in the city.

None of the candidates have held elected office before.

Affordable housing

Though all agreed affordable housing was a major issue facing the city, they each put forward different priorities to address the issue of rising rents.

Reppart said he believed more inventory of housing would help alleviate the pressure on the market now - and that preserving the rental inventory now before it changes to market-rate is important.

Mullan said she'd push for the city to advocate for change at the state level to allow for inclusionary zoning in Michigan.

And Mish said she believes part of the problem with rising rents on the West Side stems from Grand Valley State University. Mish said she believes the city should be working more proactively with GVSU to push them to build more student housing, instead of letting private landlords take advantage of the market.

Read on to see more issues where the candidates differ.

On how to make Grandville Avenue neighborhoods safer:

Reppart: "We need to continue to support the police department so they can respond to de-escalate situations, like they've done again, again and again all summer long."

Mullan: "I hear from people a lot - we want more police. I see the importance of listening to people in neighborhoods, not just organizations. I think one of the things we can do is increase training and funding for community policing."

Mish: "There's a big epidemic of gun violence in our community that's not being addressed. I think one thing that will help bring it under more control is more police officers. Right now, we have half the number of police officers we had when I started at the city in 2002, and that doesn't make us safer."

On advocating for the Hispanic community:

Mullan: "I would like to see more of that transparency, which could be translation at city commission meetings. Which I thought was provided, but I went and it wasn't there. During policing community sessions, they had one that was a Spanish language session. And I went there and they didn't speak Spanish at all. They did offer translation, but that's not what they said. ...People also want to feel safe with the police and know that if they call the police because there's crime happening in their neighborhood, they won't be subject to be turned over to Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. ...We could consider a city ID program."

Mish: "I think they are very much cutout of the process right now. I think they need to be a much, much stronger voice in the city."

Reppart: "They're often under the radar and often overlooked by the city. ...I think that in order to find ways to get connected to opportunities, we have to be reaching out. I believe in a targeted approach for different communities."

On spending money on consultants to help review Grand Rapids police policy, and on police-community relations:

Reppart: "I fully support the spending of those $180,000. ...One of the things that I think is important for the GRPD is there are actual police officers that are going to be conducting the study.

"I'm not usually a fan of studies. I think we can spend a lot less money in the city on consultants. I think that while the work is being done we need to continue to focus on action. But I do think this opportunity will open up the door to apply for a COPS grant, which will help with the budget. ...I think we need to have similar forums where we talk to police officers. There needs to be an acknowledgement that we all have bias."

Mullan: "Some of the things that I think we can do are testing for implicit bias, and training for those officers who maybe aren't ready to interact with people of all races or mental health situations. Some other solutions that I'd like to see are social workers in cars with police officers who are working with sensitive issues, such as prostitution. ...I really want to see more community policing."

Mish: "I think the $180,000 expenditure on the consultant firm is extremely wasteful. I think city hall has never seen a consultant it didn't want to throw money at. ...I think what's most troubling about this consultant is to hear from the unions that they weren't consulted in any way shape or form. ...City hall needs to stop blaming the police department for every single problem."

On transparency in government:

Reppart: "I think one thing Grand Rapids doesn't like to do very much is have public discourse, like this. And I think that these conversations need to happen in the public. When you're talking about what to do with police, what to do with housing - you should be out in the community having those conversations. And I think that kind of engagement is very, very important."

Mullan: "The commissioners need to be in the neighborhoods. They need to make relationships with people and the organizations that serve people and the people already trust. So that people can trust that the city government is working not only with their best interest at part, but also with the knowledge of what they specifically are asking for."

Mish: "I think Grand Rapids can do better. I think the secret meetings of the city commission, which happen every Tuesday on the sixth floor of city hall, need to stop. I think those same meetings can occur in public, in the open, on cable TV like every other city commission meeting."
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - Democratic State Representatives Winnie Brinks and Tim Greimel say Republican Attorney General Bill Schuette hasn't gone far enough to hold officials with the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans and the state accountable for the poor conditions at the facility.

"Why did it take so long to get some action? For years, our veterans were literally calling for help, pressing the help button beside their bed, and hearing silence," Brinks, D-Grand Rapids, said at a Thursday, July 27, press conference in front of the home.

This week Schuette announced felony charges for falsifying medical records against 11 former nursing assistants who worked for the former contractor, J2S Group Healthforce. His investigation found there wasn't enough evidence to bring criminal charges over the five worst complaints about member treatment, in some of which veterans died.

Schuette said this week that his investigation was not over.

Thursday the two Democrats said pursuing low-level employees was not enough. Supervisors, administrators, high-level department officials and the state itself need to be held accountable for the veterans' suffering at the hands of privatized workers, Brinks said.

"It's about time that Bill Schuette brought charges against those whose actual decision making resulted in the human suffering here," said Greimel, D-Auburn Hills. "It's time for him to hold Gov. Snyder and his administration accountable. And perhaps, most importantly, it's time for the state of Michigan to give up on this failed experiment in privatization."

Schuette's spokeswoman Andrea Bitely said the charges against the 11 officials and Schuette's investigative report speaks for themselves.

Tony Spallone, a Vietnam war veteran who lives at the home, said he's witnessed the changes in care himself.

"We don't want only want good care, we deserve good care," Spallone said, directing his comments to Gov. Rick Snyder. "I gave up my life over Vietnam. I started dying in 1969 with Agent Orange. I hope you do something about this. Privatizing does not work here."

Spallone brought a lawsuit against the state in 2011, attempting to fight the privatization. It was eventually dropped. Workers at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans were privatized in 2013, with a contract with J2S for staffing.

In June 2013 Greimel and Brinks paid a surprise visit to the veterans home after hearing complaints. What they heard shocked them, Greimel said.

Stories of patients lying in their own feces, lines almost two hours long to get daily medications and constant staff turnover that meant residents were training new employees, Greimel said.

Though the legislators published a report of the conditions of the home after that 2013 visit, Schuette's investigation didn't begin until after a February 2016 audit of the home showed widespread staffing shortages, incidents of abuse and neglect, unanswered calls for help from patients and problems dispensing prescription drugs.

Greimel views Schuette's investigation into the veterans home as politically motivated. Schuette has not officially announced a campaign for the governor's seat in 2018, but is considered to be a potential candidate.

"Only when it came time for him to run for governor, only when he decided it was politically expedient did he finally - and only when he was forced to because of an audit report - only then, years later, did Bill Schuette finally do something," Greimel said.

Brinks and Greimel said they believe the responsibility ultimately lies with Snyder's administration. The decision to privatize the state union workers at the home was included in the June 2011 budget - the first under Snyder's leadership.

"If this pattern sounds familiar of human catastrophes occurring and the administration and the governor's administration and Bill Schuette doing nothing for years about it, it is familiar - because this is exactly what we saw in the Flint water crisis," Greimel said.
GRANDVILLE, MI - Police warn about an email scam telling recipients they were cited by a speed camera.

Michigan doesn't allow traffic tickets to be issued using an unattended camera.

A resident told Grandville police on Thursday, July 27, about receiving an email two weeks ago with the subject, "Your fine for speeding."

It was followed by another that said, "Traffic Court," and a "Notice to Defendant" about a judgement being entered.

Grandville police urged residents to not respond to such emails or open attached photos or videos. Courts aren't going to send such notices.
EAST GRAND RAPIDS, MI -- A former public safety clerk is accused of pocketing small amounts of parking citation fines over more than two years.

Regina Rebecca White, 45, of Wyoming, is charged with embezzlement by a public official, a 10-year felony.

Police say she took $175 in cash for parking tickets and kept it for herself. Investigators also allege she took $55 in checks.

In a probable cause affidavit, police allege she pocketed small amounts of cash or, in some cases checks, during 2015, 2016 and once early this year.

The cash amounts ranged from $15 to $45 and came to a total of $175.

Police allege she also misappropriated $55 worth of checks.

East Grand Rapids Public Safety officials say she no longer works for the city.

Public Safety Chief Mark Herald released the following statement:

"Recently the City of East Grand Rapids Public Safety Department conducted a criminal investigation involving the actions of an individual while employed by the City. The Department turned its findings over to the Kent County Prosecutor's Office, which has decided to charge the individual with embezzlement by a public official. The individual involved is no longer employed by the City. Under the circumstances, it would not be appropriate to comment further at this time."

White's next court date, a probable cause conference, is Aug. 2.
GRAND RAPIDS, MI - A phone line in the Grand Rapids Police Department's watch commander's office once marked "non recorded" had in fact been recording conversations since 2010, according to documents filed Thursday in an ongoing lawsuit in federal court.

The city is continuing to claim the recording of line 616-456-3407 as accidental and that no one at the city knew it was recording up until Dec. 7, 2016, according to the documents filed in the U.S. District Court's Western District of Michigan.

The city attorney's office declined to comment on whether the phone line was still recording, citing ongoing litigation.

The city of Grand Rapids initiated the suit Feb. 3, asking a judge to rule whether recordings on the line could be used as evidence as they investigated the conduct of three officers - or if they broke laws in "inadvertently" recording the calls.

The recorded phone line was discovered as internal investigators examined how the officers handled a Nov. 19, 2016, wrong-way crash by former Kent County Assistant Prosecutor Josh Kuiper. The responding Officer Adam Ickes said Kuiper appeared "hammered," but Kuiper ultimately was not charged for driving while intoxicated.

The five phone calls on line 3407 between the officers as they investigated the crash have not been made public.

Former Lt. Matthew Janiskee - who was fired for his involvement in directing the crash investigation - filed a countersuit to the city's claims. He had filed a motion for discovery this summer, seeking to find out who asked that the line be recorded.

The city responded in its Thursday filing, asking the motion be denied. Documents filed with the city's response reveal more about the "non recorded" phone line's history.

Prior to 2010, line 3407 had been set up in the watch commander's office as a private, unrecorded line, according to a statement filed in court from Paul Klimas, the city's Director of Information Technology. Klimas has been in the role since 2008.

The current Cisco phone system was installed in October 2010 - and at the time, "the intent was to record all inbound and outbound phone calls within the GRPD Watch Commander and Records Unit," Klimas said in his statement.

Line 3407 was initially labeled as "Commander, watch (watch commander)" and was changed at the request of the police department by the city's IT phone administrator, Klimas said in his statement.

In the statement, Klimas said he believes the label on line 3407 was changed at the time the new phone system was installed to state "non-recorded," but the recording on the line was never turned off.

"I can offer no explanation as to why the recording option was not disabled other than someone in the GRPD in requesting changes to the labels to various lines, included a request to change the label on line 3407 to unrecorded, but the technician who made the label change did not understand that he/she was to turn off the recording option," Klimas said in his statement.

Up until December 2016, recordings on line 3407 had only been listened to by a third-party technician, Chris Jarman, twice on July 23, 2014, according to a statement from Martin Clason, a third party network engineer working as the phone system administrator for the city.

Jarman was working for Corporate Technologies at the time as a communications system analyst for the city, Klimas said in his statement. He was asked to find a recorded phone call made to the police department from Grand Valley State University regarding an incident. Jarman found the call - which was not on line 3407 - and forwarded it to Deputy Chief David Kiddle, according to exhibits filed with Clason's statement.

In his statement, Kiddle stated he was unaware that line 3407 was recorded before Dec. 7, 2016.

Jarman no longer works for the city. He left his job with Corporate Technologies in December 2014 and was hired on to the city as an administrative analyst - a job he held until May 2015. He then worked for the city's utility business office from August 2015 to August 2016 through a contractor, Elwood Staffing.

The city asserts in their Thursday court filing that this demonstrates that no one at the city thought line 3407 was being recorded.

"...after reviewing the call logs prior to any litigation it was determined that except for 2 times on July 23, 2014, by an outside technician who listed to some 75 recordings on that day, no one else has listened to any recordings on Line 3407 until December 2016 conclusively demonstrating that no one at the City thought Line 3407 was being recorded," the city's Thursday filing states.
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Dear Sir/Madam,The Meeting of Board of Directors of SQS India BFSI Limited was held on Thursday, July 27, 2017. The Board of Directors of the Company has inter-alia:1. Considered and approved the Q1 Unaudited Financial Statements of the Company for the quarter ended June 30, 2017. Copy of the Unaudited Financial Statements, Standalone and Consolidated, along with the Limited Review Reports from the Statutory Auditors for the said period are attached herewith.2. Has allotted 2,250 Equity Shares to 1 Employee of the Company under 'Thinksoft  Employee Stock Option Scheme 2011'.Pursuant to Regulation 30 of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 read with SEBI Circular No. CIR/CFD/CMD/4/2015 dated September 09, 2015, we would like to inform that the meeting of the Board of Directors of the Company commenced at 10.00 a.m. and concluded at 1.45 p.m.You are requested to take the above on record and oblige.Thanking you,Source : BSE

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Sub : The company is pleased to announce buying out of majority stake in Future Farms LLP, Rajkot, Gujarat and increasing its capacity in cultivation, Harvesting and farming of variety of organic products.The board of directors of the company met on 27th July, 2017 and finalized acquisition of majority stake in Future Farms LLP, Rajkot, Gujarat.Future Farms LLP (FFL) is a Rajkot based limited liability partnership firm. FFL is directly involved in agricultural activities since past many years. Based in the heart of Gujarat and having direct access to the organic lands in and across Rajkot, Future Farms has an edge in the Agri sector. The management strongly believes that investing in FFL will help White Organics to take a much awaited major leap in the organic agricultural field.The Board has authorized Managing Director, Mr. Darshak Rupani to finalize and carry out required necessary statutory formalities as deem fit for the strategic investment in Future Farms, LLPSource : BSE

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Mitessh Thakkar of miteshthacker.com told CNBC-TV18, "L&T Finance Holdings is good for investors and also good for traders. The stock continues to show momentum and even now, I would be possibly comfortable opening a long position over here. Keep a stop loss just below levels of around Rs 155 and look for targets close to about Rs 175."

"KPIT Technologies has been more of a sideways chart and it has had its own fluctuation within that but overall if it can possibly start getting past levels of Rs 128-129, it could head towards Rs 137-140. It is trading broadly in the range of about Rs 140 to about Rs 115-110 on the downside."

"Eicher Motors is showing good continuation and I would possibly believe that today could be a day when the stock could be slightly stronger. So keep a stop below todays low and look for Rs 30,000 kind of a target," he said.

"Bharat Financial Inclusion is something also which is possibly giving a good breakout from its falling trend line, so again keeping a stop below todays low, I would buy that for targets of around Rs 840."
Manoj Murlidharan of Religare Securities told CNBC-TV18, "The concept here is, we all know this is a month when we had the event from the P-notes coming and there is good amount of sectors which have a fresh arbitrage. Fresh arbitrage is when you are buying in the cash market and there is some shorting in the stock future. So, what happens is, the amount of relevant stock futures that is being carried into the next month, we are expecting a square-off trade in that."

"So, Lupin tops the best in that concept of volume weighted average price. So, we believe buying Lupin even for today intraday, try to buy the July futures as well somewhere close to Rs 1,124-1,125. Rs 1,125 on yesterday's close. The stop loss should be Rs 1,110 and we are expecting settlement somewhere close to Rs 1,162 on that."

"Tata Motors, post the results has seen rather good amount of short positions and that is being rolled. So, we are expecting that VWAP counter to play and there would be some short covering in that. So, the second pick would be to buy Tata Motors at Rs 455, stop loss of Rs 10 i.e. Rs 445 and expecting a settlement somewhere close to Rs 474 on that," he said.

"From the banking, I guess it would be just IDBI Bank because I am expecting the banks to see some long unwinding in the second half. We recommend buying around Rs 62.4 with a stop loss of Rs 61.2 and the weighted average price of Rs 64.5 might be the settlement that we might see at end of the day," he added.
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Private life insurance company Canara HSBC OBC (Oriental Bank of Commerce) Life Insurance is now expanding its distribution reach through not only adding new banks as partners but also through the digital channel and direct sales force of the company.

Anuj Mathur, CEO, Canara HSBC OBC Life Insurance said that they have entered into a strategic tie-up with Dhanlaxmi Bank that will further help in their penetration into the southern states.

"While we already have Canara Bank as a partner which has helped us garner a good customer base. Now since Dhanlaxmi Bank has also partnered with it, we will be able to get access to their NRI clientele as well," he added in an interaction with Moneycontrol.

Promoted by three large banks including Canara Bank, HSBC and Oriental Bank of Commerce, the insurance company used to be a 100 percent banacassurance player relying only on banks for insurance business. However, now they are slowly getting sales from other channels as well.

"We are on the digital platform not only through our online products sold on the website but through a partnership with Policybazaar which is a web-aggregator. Further, we have also set up a direct sales team that can distribute products to customers without a need for intermediaries," he explained.

They are the only insurance company that doesn't have an individual agency channel. Mathur added that they will continue with the strategy of not having any agents. "We will not get into agency channel because it is bleeding for the entire industry," he said.

Agents are the largest channel for the life insurance industry, both in terms of policies sold and the new premiums collected. Banks come next in line and account for large ticket policy sales, especially on the unit-linked insurance (Ulip) front.

Mathur said that they will sell their products through the almost 130 branches of Dhanlaxmi Bank.

"We are looking at channels which are profitable. While banks would continue to be our preferred channel, we will slowly expand into others " he added.

Recently, private life insurer Bajaj Allianz Life Insurance renewed the corporate agency agreement with Dhanlaxmi Bank. Hence, the bank customers will now have access to products from multiple insurers including savings, protection and investment plans.
The insurance regulator is unlikely to give any more time to Sahara Life in the matter of transfer of policyholder assets and liabilities to ICICI Prudential Life. A senior regulatory official said that they are going ahead with the transfer process.

"We are not giving any time as such. We are proceeding ahead. The process has begun now and assessments are on," the official added.

ICICI Prudential Life Insurance will take over the policyholder assets and liabilities of Sahara Life. The appointed actuary met with IRDAI yesterday on this matter and the various areas of consensus were discussed.

Moneycontrol had reported on July 4 that ICICI Prudential had begun valuation of liabilities for the takeover of Sahara Life.

"The insurer has reported a certain number of policies in their books. It needs to be ascertained whether there are physical records of all of them, for which assessment is on," the official explained.

Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) had, in June, appointed an administrator to look into the business of the insurer and later had instructed them to not write any new business.

Based on certain criteria about six insurers were approached to assess their interest in buying policyholder liabilities. Of them, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance gave a favourable consent.

Sahara Group has been reeling under financial troubles ever since its chief Subrata Roy was arrested in 2014 in a case of non-refund of almost Rs 20,000 crore to investors. Sahara Mutual Fund's licence was cancelled by Securities and Exchange Board of India in 2015.

IRDAI had sent a formal letter to the insurer on this issue. On July 3, ICICI Prudential Life began the process of valuing the policyholder liabilities of Sahara Life. They had been given three weeks time to assess it and they have now submitted the report to IRDAI.

About six insurers were approached to assess their interest in taking over policyholder liabilities of Sahara Life. Of them ICICI Prudential Life gave a favourable response.

Earlier this month, ICICI PruLife had confirmed that they had expressed interest in taking over Sahara Life's policyholder assets and liabilities and are evaluating it.

"The last reported policyholders' liabilities of Sahara Life is about Rs 9 billion (Rs 900 crore) which is less than 1 percent of the company's balance sheet size," ICICI PruLife had said in that statement.

Sahara Life also has the option to approach the Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) and challenge the decision of the insurance regulator. Further, they can also approach the Lucknow High Court (their headquarters are in Lucknow) or the government to seek a resolution.

In June, IRDAI said that the insurer has been acting in a manner likely to be prejudicial to the interests of holders of life insurance policies. It had also said that all the policies issued by Sahara Life will now be managed by an administrator.

We are evaluating the Sahara Life policyholder liabilities. These processes take time, said Sandeep Batra, Executive Director, ICICI PruLife said in an interaction with Moneycontrol on Tuesday. Under the current scheme, only policyholder assets and liabilities will be transferred to ICICI PruLife. The rest, including employee liabilities, shareholder reserves, gratuity, share capital and other assets, will remain with company.

As per IRDAI orders, Sahara Life cannot sell any new policies to customers. While the timeline of the takover of policyholders liabilities is not clear, it could take one month to six months. Sahara Life's assets and liabilities on the policyholder front will be physically assessed and verified and an appropriate valuation will be arrived at.
business Targeting 300 franchise stores in next 5 years: Bata Bata India, India's largest footwear retailer is looking to get even bigger with plans to open about 110 more stores this year. Bata has just opened 65 stores in FY18 already. In an interview to CNBC-TV18, Rajeev Gopalakrishnan, MD and CEO of the company discussed that and more about the companys plans going forward.
business We have vested interest to cut prices: HUL Near the completion of one month milestone of the goods and services tax (GST) rollout, CNBC-TV18 spoke to PB Balaji, CFO of Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL). He says that the trade is now slowly getting accustomed to the new tax regime and while speaking on the fear of profiteering, he mentioned that because of the fierce competition it is in their vested interest to take a price cut.
Biocon on Thursday said net profit declined 51 percent in the quarter ended June owing to the combined impact of a stronger rupee, GST and the one-time impact in the first quarter of the previous fiscal on account of the transition to IndAS.

The Bengaluru-headquartered company posted a net profit of Rs 81 crore in the first quarter, against Rs 167 crore a year ago.

Revenues from operations dropped 6 percent to Rs 934 crore from Rs 992 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous year.

While the net profit was below analysts' estimates, revenues were in line with the expectations.

A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts estimated the net profit at Rs 127.5 crore and revenues at Rs 931.1 crore.

Financial performance was muted largely due to a combination of factors: weakening of US dollar, GST impact, and inclusion of operational and fixed costs of Malaysia, said Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, Chairperson and Managing Director of Biocon.

Our core operating margins, however, were healthy at 29 percent for Q1FY18, Mazumdar-Shaw said.

The outlook for FY18 remains cautious as much depends on regulatory approvals and tender outcomes for our biosimilars in key emerging markets. However, we will endeavour to maintain healthy core operating margins, going forward, Mazumdar-Shaw added.

Sales from small molecules business or the active pharmaceutical ingredient segment, a major revenue driver of the company, declined 17 percent to Rs 363 crore in the first quarter. The company attributed the decline to pricing pressure and rupee appreciation.

The branded formulation business which includes sales in India and UAE saw a 17 percent decline to Rs 130 crore. The company said the branded formulations business was impacted owing to discontinuance of cancer drug Abraxane and pre-GST market dynamics.

We anticipate the GST impact to roll-over into Q2FY18, however we believe the situation would normalize by end of first half of this fiscal, Biocon said.

The company said it has launched biosimilar Insulin Glargine in UAE under the brand name Glaricon and in-licensed two innovator brands from Novartis, Imprida (Amlodipine + Valsartan) and ImpridaHCT (Amlodipine + Valsartan + Hydrochlorothiazide) to treat blood pressure, and expects it to bolster the companys market share in that country.

The Biologics vertical comprising novel biologics and biosimilars, including rh-insulin, insulin analogs, monoclonal antibodies and recombinant proteins, reported a strong growth of 15 percent with sales at Rs 184 crore.

Syngene International, the contract research arm of Biocon, reported revenue of Rs 291 crore registering a growth of 6 percent.

Biocon said Syngene Amgen Research Centre has been expanded to include a larger team. Syngene also signed a multiyear contract with a specialty pharma company of Japan.

The results were announced after market hours.

Shares of Biocon declined 1.13 percent to close at Rs.399.10 on BSE, while the benchmark Sensex remained flat at 32,383.30 points.

Below is the verbatim transcript of the interview.

Nigel: Let us speak about the small molecules business since that is a sizeable part of your business. It had a weak-ish quarter. You have seen the rupee appreciate a tad bit more. What is the outlook going ahead? Can we see a bit of a recovery in the second half of this fiscal?

A: As you know, we have a strong portfolio of statins and immunosuppresants which is really our main stay in small molecules. And although we have had a small quarter, if you were to adjust for Indian Accounting Standard (Ind-AS) which was a one-time migration last year, we have seen a five percent decline in our small molecules business, but we believe that this can recover in the coming quarters.

We have also been impacted by a very weak dollar. And since most of our small molecules business is dollar denominated, we have been impacted in this respect. But, what I would like to really focus on is our biologics business. We have seen a very strong growth this quarter, a 15 percent year-on-year growth and if you adjust for Ind-AS, it is actually a 27 percent year-on-year growth largely driven by our insulins business which is a very welcome sign for us.

Going forward also, we are very hopeful that our biologics business will continue to drive growth momentum. So this is an area which we are really focusing on because we are poised to get a lot of regulatory approvals in many emerging markets both for Trastuzumab and insulins, both recombinant human insulin and insulin glargine. So we expect that we will perform pretty strongly in terms of biologics for this particular fiscal.

Branded formulations has had a bit of a poor quarter largely impacted by goods and services tax (GST) and we expect this recover going forward. So we are seeing a recovery in Q2 going forward. But as you know, our branded formulations businesses have also seen a significant rationalisation of products. So, in terms of overall growth, we expect it to be in low double digits.

Ekta: I wanted to take forward that point with regards to the biologics business because that is up 15 percent, plus you are planning to launch insulin glargine in the UAE as well. Can you give us some guidance in terms of where the biosimilar launches will be in emerging markets and what might the guidance for FY18 be?

A: UAE of course, is a market where we have launched our insulin glargine under our brand name Glaricon but as you know, these are not huge markets. So, I would not really look at these as big growth opportunities apart from the optics which is very positive. But the big growth opportunities that we have in biologics in really in the Latin America region, of course some of the Middle East markets and T urkey and Russia and some of these other markets. So that is where really we focus on in terms of our emerging market opportunities.

Ekta: You have the Malaysian facility which came on stream and that is the reason why your finance costs spiked this quarter along with your depreciation costs. Can you give us or provide us some colour in terms of how these two parameters are going to pan out for the remaining part of FY18 and when you talk about the Malaysian facility, what kind of regulatory approvals are we working with on that plant?

A: We have shared with you in the past that the impact of carrying costs of Malaysia are estimated at USD 48 million per annum and so they are equally distributed so we have seen an impact of USD 12 million pertaining to the Malaysia facility this quarter. And it will remain that way for the rest of the year. Having said that, we are expecting to start supplies to emerging markets from Malaysia because we have been expected by several emerging market regulators and we hope that this business will start this fiscal. So that is the expectation in terms of the Malaysia facility.

Mangalam: So what exactly would be the potential revenue coming in from this Malaysian facility once it starts going on in the optimum capacity?

A: One thing we have already shared with you is that the offtake agreement that we signed with the Malaysian Authorities is to the tune of USD 20 million per annum. So that has already kicked off. And we hope that we will see a significant bolster to that number by starting supplies to some of the other markets such as Mexico, Brazil, some of the Middle-East markets and so on and so forth. So that is the expectation that we have.

Ekta: Coming to the Syngene business, the revenue was up around 6 percent this time. How exactly is the recovery panning out post the fire which took place in Q3 of FY17 and if you can provide some colour in terms of what the contracts might be looking for Syngene like in FY18?

A: Yes, I would certainly like to share that with you. Actually Syngene numbers have shown a modest growth, but as I mentioned, a large part of their chemical development business was impacted by the fire. And this is now showing recovery and we are already seeing a good order position for their chem-dev business in Q2 and onwards.

Now when you look at some of their other businesses which continue to do very well which were not affected by the fire were their dedicated centres and these include of course, the Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) and Amgen centres which are really the front runners in this business and what is good news is that Amgen has actually scaled up and significantly expanded their present activities at Syngene which is going to really pan out very positively for the rest of the year.

Ekta: You also have a contract which you got from a Japanese MNC this time for Syngene? But you cannot share numbers can you?

A: I cannot share numbers at this stage, but it is a multi-year contract. So that is a good piece of news for Syngene because they open their account with a very good opportunity.

Ekta: If you could just leave us with some guidance with regards to what is happening on the biosimilar filing with regards to remediation of the Bengaluru facility at this point in time, when you could probably re-invite the EU inspectors and the eight observations with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). If you could just put all of that in perspective for us?

A: As far as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) inspection is concerned, as I mentioned to you, we will be ready for a re-inspection by the end of this coming quarter. So, we would be ready for inspection but it all remains to be seen how quickly they can come and re-inspect us and that is up to the regulators themselves. But we are, actually the process of seeking re-inspection is something that we are addressing very expeditiously and we are very confident that we will be able to seek a re-inspection by the end of this quarter.

Therefore, we expect the regulatory inspection to happen, if we are lucky, soon thereafter. In terms of the US FDA observations, these are not critical observations. We have responded with corrective and preventive actions (CAPA) to the US FDA and we are just hoping these will be received favourably and we hope that everything will proceed as per plan.
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Madhuchanda Dey

Moneycontrol Research

Slippages in the restructured book took away the sheen from an otherwise decent show of Federal Bank. However, not all is lost. Management feels that post this slippage, such unexpected shocks are unlikely. The bank, well-capitalised post the Rs 2500 crore capital raise is now focusing on building a solid brand and grabbing market share. It will be hard to ignore Federal Bank as it embarks on this journey.

Soft quarter

The quarterly performance was a tad disappointing as the slippage of one account of Rs 105 crore impacted the Net Interest Income (the difference between interest earned and interest expenses), Net Interest Margin, provision as well as the non-performing assets. In addition, there were interest reversals on account of slippages of few SME (small and medium enterprise) accounts as well. Finally, some impact of conversion of loans from base rate to MCLR (marginal cost based lending rate) had to be endured in the quarter.

Non-interest income continued to be a bright spot with a decent 27% growth in core fees and robust recovery from written off accounts. Cost head was manageable despite the bank taking a massive initiative to focus on enhancing distribution. But what stands as a testimony to changing times, Federal is relying more on people and technology rather than physical branches to expand reach.

However, despite the 31% growth in profits before provisions, the sharp jump in provisions led to a modest 26% growth in profit.

The stock had a stellar run in the past one year. Markets had started believing that the worst is over. Is this quarter a blip in an otherwise upwards trajectory or a derailment?

We would go with the former and there are ample reasons for the same.

Restructured book unlikely to be a shocker: The lumpy slippage this quarter was from the restructured book. The outstanding figure now includes Rs 190 crore exposure that were restructured under various dispensations (SDR, S4A, 5/25 scheme) as well. Federal doesnt foresee the quarterly slippage to exceed 18%-20%, more or less in the vicinity of the quarterly run rate of slippages seen in recent quarters.

According to the management, the remaining restructured exposure comes from variety of sectors and includes names like Air India. While lumpy slippages are unlikely, Federal Bank, nevertheless guided to stress emanating from farm loan portfolio lingering on for couple of more quarters.

The bank is unlikely to face incremental provisioning burden on account of the stressed cases that are now being referred to NCLT (National Company Law Tribunal) as three out of the six exposures have been sold to ARC, two have been written off and a single account warrants provision to the tune of Rs 23 crore. According to the management, the banks existing exposures are unlikely to feature in the next fifty troubled accounts.

Participating in the market share game: The bank has grown its books while battling bad assets. In the quarter, advances and deposits have grown by 29% and 18% respectively. In the past one year, the bank has improved its market share in deposits from 0.8% to 0.9% as it grabbed a share of 1.4% in incremental deposits. Similarly in incremental advances, its market share stands at an impressive 3.9% that aided in improving its overall market share in systems credit to 1% from 0.8%.

Cautious commentary: Federal has a well- diversified lending book and sounded cautious about increasing exposure to SME on account of myriad disruptions like demonetisation and GST. It is also treading carefully in its key market of Kerala and is watchful of developments in the Gulf that has a bearing on the states economy. The bank is also closely monitoring other key segments of the states economy like rubber, cashew and tourism. It is comforting to note that close to 70% of the outstanding wholesale assets of Federal Bank are rated A and above.

Well capitalised to take advantage of the emerging opportunity: The bank has recently raised Rs 2500 crore and has got a comfortable Capital Adequacy Ratio of 15.3%. The liquidity will have a positive rub off on margins and the bank expects an improvement in its return ratios over the course of the year. It is also confident of growing its books by at least 20%.

Incidentally, the bank has re-energised the team. It has implemented a compensation structure for the senior management that is linked to performance thereby partially shedding the image of an old private sector bank.

The strategy, capital position and emerging opportunities make Federal Bank an interesting investment proposition even at the current valuation of 2X FY18 adjusted book. Any result linked weakness should be viewed as an opportunity.
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Glenmark Pharma's first quarter profit is seen rising 13 percent to Rs 257 crore and revenue may grow 17.5 percent to Rs 2,284 crore compared with year-ago quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Operating profit is expected to jump 22 percent year-on-year to Rs 462 crore and margin may expand 50 basis points to 20 percent in Q1.

Revenue growth is expected to be led by US business. Within US, street is factoring in a better performance from cholesterol drug Zetia generic that was launched in December with exclusivity; ended in June.

Zetia generic is expected to contribute USD 50 million in revenue and USD 35 million to profit. However, management scaled down estimates last quarter on Zetia generic sales.

US sales are likely to be at USD 164 million while domestic formulation is likely to be sluggish due to GST implementation.

Latin America sales are expected to decline to upto 25-30 percent on back of no sales from Venezuela.

Guidance for FY18

The company expects 10-12 percent growth in topline, EBITDA margin to sustain at 23 percent and R&D expense to be around 12 percent of revenue.
Glenmark Pharmaceuticals on Thursday posted a 47 percent increase in net profit for the first quarter of FY18 beating analyst estimates led by a strong show of US and India formulation business.

This uptick was largely aided by the exclusivity of generic cholesterol-lowering drug Zetia. The exclusivity period for the generic version of Zetia ended in early June 2017.

On a year-on-year basis, Glenmarks net profit rose to Rs 333 crore for the quarter compared to the previous years Rs 227 crore. Revenues rose 20 percent to Rs 2363 crore.

The results were well above analysts estimates. A CNBC-TV18 poll of analysts estimated the net profit to be in the range of Rs 257 crore and revenues at Rs 2284 crore.

Despite challenges in India and US markets, the performance of these businesses have been good, said Glenn Saldanha, Chairman and MD of Glenmark.

In India, we continue to be one of the fastest growing companies in the pharma market. In the US, after a steady stream of product approvals in the first quarter, the base business has rebounded well, Saldanha said.

He added further, During the quarter, for GSP 301, we received confirmation that the data from our phase 3 trial is sufficient to support an NDA filing. This is an important milestone as GSP 301 will be our first NDA to be filed in the US.

US generic business grew 49.7 percent to Rs 1045 crore in the June quarter against revenue of Rs 698.2 crore in the corresponding quarter previous year.

In the first quarter Glenmark was granted final approval and launched Atomoxetine capsules, Fenofibrate capsules, Olmesartan Medoxomil tablets, 5 mg. The company has approvals for Indomethacin Extended Release Capsules USP, 75 mg and Nebivolol tablets.

The company said it filed two ANDA applications with the US FDA, and plans to file an additional five applications in the forthcoming quarter.

Glenmarks marketing portfolio through June 30, consists of 118 generic products authorized for distribution in the US market. The company currently has 67 applications pending in various stages of the approval process with the US FDA, of which 27 are Paragraph IV applications.

The company surprised with strong India sales numbers at a time when companies were struggling with GST rollout.

Sales for the formulation business in India for the first quarter rose 15.21 percent to Rs.616.4 crore.

As per IMS MAT June 2017, Glenmark is ranked 14th compared to 16th in MAT June 2016 with a market share of 2.25 percent exhibiting value growth of 13.5 percent compared to industry growth of 8.2 percent.Sales of Africa, Asia and CIS region grew 16.19 percent to Rs 226.5 crore, while Europe formulation rose 8.09 percent. However, Latin America business declined 45.7 percent to Rs.84 crore on account of sharp decline

in Venezuelan sales.

The active pharmaceutical ingredient business saw growth rate of 4 percent to Rs 205 crore on account of sales from Olmesartan and Lercanidipine. Glenmark said it also launched Etoricoxib with partners in Europe.

The results were announced after market hours. Shares of Glenmark rose 1.28 percent to close at Rs.717.75 on BSE, the benchmark Sensex remained flat at 32,383.30 points.
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Raymond reported a decent set of numbers in the first quarter of FY18. The stock has had a good run in recent times on the back of several new initiatives. Will the momentum continue?

In the run-up to GST, stock clearances, extended sale periods, and steep discounts had a positive rub-off on sales volumes. In the process, the company was forced to take a hit on its margins, as was evident from the segment performance of its textile segments (barring shirting fabric).

Interest costs and depreciation on capital investments (attributed to the setting up of manufacturing facilities in Ethiopia and Amravati for suits and linen fabric, respectively) further dragged the bottom-line into the red.

Nonetheless, there were quite a few positive takeaways from a year-on-year perspective.

Branded textiles (including the Raymond Made to Measure brand), the companys flagship division, showed good traction. Recovery in procurement from wholesale channels and The Raymond Shop outlets, retrieval of pent-up demand post demonetisation, and a pick-up in premium wedding garment sales contributed to the same. A change in the channel mix, however, impacted operating margins.

Raymonds branded apparel division registered noticeable growth across all its brands (with Raymond Ready to Wear, Park Avenue, ColorPlus, and Parx clocking 42/11/21/18 percent growth, respectively) because of the early onset of the End of Season Sale in the quarter gone by. On similar lines as the branded textile fabric segment, margins, in this case, continued to remain suppressed too.

Raymonds high value cotton shirting fabric divisions turnover rose by 14 percent due to an increased offtake from Indian consumers. On the other hand, the garmenting division, which primarily caters to the export market, reported a modest top-line growth of 2.4 percent as rupee appreciation impacted demand from international clients.

For the tools and hardware division, the domestic market contracted due to GST-induced uncertainties. However, export volumes to Latin American and African regions were reasonably good.

Raymonds shift in focus towards auto components appears to be bearing fruit. This segment saw growth aided by an increase in demand from commercial vehicle majors in the US market and higher realisations.

Raymond, like many other players, is likely to face hiccups for a while following GST implementation. Furthermore, the company's management team stated that a change in the accounting treatment may lead to a 4 percent decline in revenue recognition in FY18.

In line with the companys asset light network expansion strategy, going forward, most of the new stores will be based on the franchise model. 300 new Raymond mini stores will be set up in the tier 3/4/5 cities of India to target better realisations while simultaneously keeping overhead costs low.

Raymonds turnover is expected to strengthen from FY19 as the Ethiopian plant gradually scales up its capacity utilization (from manufacturing 500 suits per day at the moment to 4000 units by FY20) while the Amravati plant (with a capacity of 3.2 million metres of linen fabric per annum) commences its operations in Q4FY18. The utilization rate of the Amravati plant is expected to ramp up moderately from 65 percent (at the start) to 90 percent over a four-year period. The average annual revenue generating potential of the new facilities is pegged at approximately Rs 200-300 crore each, subject to capacity utilization, among other reasons.

Additionally, in the subsequent quarters, investors should pay close attention to the margin trajectory of Raymond's branded apparel segment (constituting an average of 15-25 percent of the consolidated revenue), which has been fairly subdued until now. Lack of clarity on matters pertaining to the proposed real estate operations and monetisation of the companys idle Thane land in Maharashtra are some of the other concerns that ought to be addressed too.

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A new law to regulate Indias transport sector could take longer to get enacted with the government and the opposition failing to arrive at a consensus on the Motor Vehicles Amendment Bill 2016 today, amid chances that it could get referred to a select committee of Parliament.

The government and the opposition failed to agree on a several issues at an all-party meeting with the Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson PJ Kurien. The opposition has been granted time till Monday to file in writing their objections and amendments to the Bill.

Once voted into law, the Bill will pave the way for a host of reforms, including imposing hefty penalties for traffic violations, a ten-fold increase in compensation for families of accident victims, check bogus driving license, vehicle thefts and regulate taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber.

It was passed in the Lok Sabha in April and has been listed for passage in the Upper House several times since the Parliaments monsoon session began on July 17.

Another all-party meeting will be held after the road transport and highways ministry submits its suggestions to the deputy chairperson. The Bill would be referred to a Select Committee if the impasse doesnt end after second meeting with Kurien, raising prospects of delaying the bill further.

Union transport minister Nitin Gadkari said that it was in the interest of the people to expedite the passage of the bill. Any delay will lead to unnecessary loss of life.
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Problems of the agriculture sector have started to percolate down to the banking sector. HDFC Bank, which prides itself on having the cleanest assets in the banking space, has been hit by agriculture loans. The bank managed to steer clear from the problems plaguing the industrial sector, which has affected every bank in the country but somehow could not stay out of the mess in the farming space.

In its June quarter numbers, HDFC Bank said that its gross non-performing assets (NPA) climbed from 1.05 percent in March 2017 quarter to 1.24 percent in June 2017 quarter. In absolute terms, bad loans stood at Rs 7,242 crore. Farm loans now account for 60 percent of new NPAs for HDFC Bank. The bank, however, pointed out that more than half of the increase in bad loans was from its agriculture portfolio. The bank says announcement of farm loan waivers impacted recoveries in this segment.

Announcing loan waivers in one state by various political parties led to expectations of a similar deal in other states. Farmers refused to repay loans in anticipation of their loans being waived. That is exactly what happened in the case of HDFC Banks agri loan borrowers.

If the dent on HDFC Banks books is visible, other banks are likely to suffer more. Being the most conservative of the lot, HDFC Bank has managed to keep its books clean. The impact on the more aggressive banks, especially the public sector ones, will be clear as they announce their numbers.

For the banks, the problem will be more or less over when they declare these numbers in the books. But the state governments, who came to power promising these loan waivers will be picking up the tab. It will take years for these governments to repay the cost of political audacity.

The state of Punjab has said it has set aside less than a tenth of the loan waiver amount in its current year budget. The loan waiver is expected to cost upward of Rs 20,000 crore while the state has set aside only Rs 1,500 crore. Punjab government officials have said that they intend to pay-back the loans over a period of ten years. The official has been quoted as saying that the banks should be happy with this arrangement because at least there would be some recovery of the loan.

In Uttar Pradesh, the state governments attempt to raise bonds called Kisan Rahat Bond, to pay back the banks for the loan waiver has been rejected by the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister had earlier said that the state governments announcing loan waiver will have to pick up the tab themselves and the Centre would not help them. Punjabs effort to get it financed by the Centre was also rejected by the Finance Ministry.

This complicates the matter further for all stake holders. States would have to divert resources from their development projects to the repayment of banks. Growth will thus take a beating. On the other hand, banks will no longer be interested in lending to the farmers who defaulted on repayment. These farmers will now have to access higher cost funds to meet their requirements.

Ironically, while the banking sectors have been affected on account of loan waivers, microfinance companies have not felt the impact. In a recent interview MR Rao, Managing Director and CEO of Bharat Financial said that recovery in Uttar Pradesh is nearly 99 percent and they have been lending in all states where the borrower has a good track record of payment. Other microfinance institutions also have a similar story to share, which proves that loan waiver was more of a political gimmick than an actual need.

There are cases where a farmer might not have been in a position to repay and would have defaulted. As in the case of UP where the actual defaults well before the loan waiver were announced was nearly 25 percent only of the total loan waiver amount.

For short-term gains, farmers who have willingly defaulted have sacrificed future gains. The politicians who have provoked them to do so have done the biggest disservice than the weather gods could have ever done.
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The three budget airlines InterGlobe Aviation-run IndiGo, SpiceJet and GoAir  and GMR Infrastructure-controlled Delhi International Airport Pvt Ltd (DIAL) will meet Civil Aviation Secretary R N Choubey on July 31 to resolve the impasse arising out of no airline willing to shift to terminal T2 of the Delhi airport, according to an official with one of the carriers.

July 15 was the deadline for the airline companies to resolve among themselves on shift to the terminal.

DIAL wants one or more of these airlines to shift their operations to T2 in order to undertake expansion of T1. As per the agreement signed between the airlines and the airport operator, DIAL has the right to ask any airline to shift its operations.

Low-cost carriers use T1, also called the domestic airport, for all their local and international flights from and to Delhi. The Delhi airport currently has three terminals with T3 being used by full service local carriers for both their domestic and international flights.

International airlines as well as their Indian units like that of AirAsia also use T3. T2 is currently being used mostly to operate Haj flights.

The expiry of the July 15 deadline is among the several given to the airlines that have lapsed but this one was most crucial, coming, as it did, close to the time when the operator and the airlines too need to start planning for the winter schedule that starts September 29 this time.

Airlines are reluctant to shift their operations to T2 due to higher cost of operations there.

Normally, theres a half-hour lag between one landing and a take-off. The same operation at T2 will increase the interval by 15 minutes. This will reduce plane utilization and increase fuel costs. No airline, on its own, would like to walk into that scenario unless adequately incentivised, an official with one of the low-cost carriers had told Moneycontrol earlier.

It was hoped that either IndiGo or Spicejet would shift its operations to T2 with the other two staying at T1. GoAir alone shifting was not expected to help matters as the airline still runs comparatively much smaller operations. Now with none agreeing to shift, DIAL is faced with two options.

One of the two options could be to ask all three airlines to shift a certain percentage of their operations to T2, according to an official with another low-cost carrier. The other could be to simply reserve T1 for select destinations while assigning other routes to T2, irrespective of the airline.

All options are fraught with complications related to marketing of seats, passenger convenience and communication from the airlines to flyers, particularly in cases where tickets are already booked.
At the stroke of midnight hour on August 14, 1947, India had a tryst with destiny. This rendezvous was a special moment in the history of the nation as the country attained independence. Circa June 30, 2017.

The nation readies for a new tryst with destiny. Starting a journey of a new economic regime, this tryst with Goods and Service Tax (GST)  billed as the single biggest tax reform undertaken since independence - aims to free us from the shackles of nearly 500 different kinds of taxes and lead to a unified common market across India. One Nation, One Tax, One Market  this vision of GST captures succinctly what the government seeks to achieve.

While it is too early to say if this historic and landmark indirect tax reform is going to be a win-win for all the stakeholders  whether consumers, retailers, suppliers, the Centre and state governments  concerned, going by the enormity of implementing this Good and Simple Tax surely has the potential to change the face of Indian economy and tax regime. While significant amount of debates and discussions have happened in TV channel newsrooms, through newspaper columns, and speeches by industry leaders and politicians, different sectors of the economy are expected to have varied challenges.

For the man on the street, the impact will be seen in the form of slightly higher fees for banking transactions like funds transfer, ATM transactions, home loan processing, cash handling charges etc as these have been put under the 18% tax bracket in the new GST regime from the earlier 15%. A near similar hike is expected for insurance products and mutual funds, the two most important asset classes in which people generally invest for savings taxes or diversifying their investment portfolio. The good news is that the interest on fixed deposits, bank account deposits etc., which do not attract a charge, will remain so even under the new regime.

For banks and financial services companies, GST is likely to be a mixed bag. This is primarily driven by the nature and volume of operations provided by banks and NBFCs vis-a-vis lease transactions, hire purchase, related to actionable claims, fund and non-fund based services etc. As a result, the impact of this single tax for financial institutions is expected to result in more compliances and higher investment in back-end technology systems

Some of the key challenges that NBFCs and banks are facing in relation to GST implementation are:

Account linked financial services

The place of supply will be the location of the recipient of services on the records of the supplier of services. In the digitized and centralized scenario prevailing in India, identifying the state of location of service recipient will be difficult. In cases where the service recipients like professional

s, manufacturers, traders and other workers often shift from one place to other in search of better opportunities, the service provider may have different address namely permanent address, current address, the address of communication and KYC address.

Non-account linked financial services

In case of non-account linked financial services, the place of supply of service would be the location of service provider. This will again impact companies that have operations spread across remote locations but operate and transact from a back office located in some other state.

Requirement for issuance of monthly invoices and bill of supply in case of exempt supplies

According to the GST Act 2017, there is mandatory requirement to issue invoices on monthly basis. While this provision s is applicable under the current service tax regime also, it is creating uncertainty for NBFCs and banks. Most NBFCs and banks issue a loan summary at the inception of the loan that contains detailed EMI schedule and information about monthly charges. They do not issue any monthly invoice for EMI or charges due. However, under the GST dispensation, NBFCs and banks will be forced to consider this as a mandatory provision. This will require making changes in their back-end IT systems resulting in significant challenges.

Also according to the GST Law, bill of supply is to be compulsory issued in case of exempt supplies i.e. interest income in case of banks and NBFCs. This provision is creating significant challenges for players in financial sector. Under GST, they are now required to issue invoice for monthly EMI that will lead to high cost in terms of IT systems and manpower.

Increase in compliances

Currently, financial services companies file centralized service tax returns twice per year irrespective of number of branches in different states. But now they have to file minimum three returns per month per state. For banks and NBFCs having multiple branches in different states, this means additional burden. They will now be required to obtain separate registration, file thousands of return and other compliances, which will ultimately increase the manpower costs and operating costs.

While any business reform comes with its own set of challenges, there are positives too. With GST promising to be a simpler tax regime, companies in financial services sector can look forward to some advantages as well.

Generally, the time of supply for penalty received for late payment of consideration is the time when such penalty is actually received from the customer as against the present service tax regime where the service tax liability triggers as and when such penalty accrues. It may be noted that since the tax on penalty is payable only at the time of receiving payment from the customer, current practice of recording tax liability at the time of accrual will not be required under GST regime. This will result in significant cash outflow savings and improve working capital requirements for banks and NBFCs.

Till now, financial services companies could not claim the input credit for VAT, CST, octroi, and entry tax paid on their procurements. Under GST, financial services companies can claim input tax credit for all these taxes.

At the current juncture, the challenges seem to outweigh positives for financial institutions. For a country of the size and magnitude of India, the previous system of taxation of goods and services is characterized by cascading and distortionary taxes leading to misallocation of resources, hampering productivity and slower economic growth. One thing is for sure, however, that GST is here to stay and in the long run an effective and good tax regime is what India needs to address the issues of multiplicity of taxes, higher compliance costs, and improving the overall investment climate in the country.

By Mariusz Robert Dabrowski and Vikas Garg
3:30 pm Market at Close: The Indian market had a volatile session, with benchmark indices erasing almost all of its gains on the F&O expiry day. Both of them ended the day on a flat note.

The Sensex and Nifty began the day on a strong note as they both touched record high figures. The former had in fact, gained nearly 300 points intraday, only to cut these gains in the subsequent hours.

At the close of market hours, the Sensex closed up 0.84 points at 32383.30, while the Nifty ended down 0.10 points at 10020.55. The market breadth was negative as 876 shares advanced against a decline of 1,839 shares, while 155 shares were unchanged.

HDFC Bank, HDFC and Yes Bank were the top gainers, while Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Tata Motors and Tata Motors DVR were the top losers.

3:25 pm DRL in focus: Credit Suisse retained underperform rating on Dr Reddy's Labs with a target price of Rs 2,200 post earnings.

The stock lost nearly 4 percent.

3:15 pm Earnings Estimates: Cigarette-hotel-to-FMCG major ITC is all set to announce its June quarter earnings later today.

Profit is seen rising 8.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 2,583 crore, driven by revenue and improvement in operational performance.

Revenue during the quarter is expected to increase 4.7 percent to Rs 13,877 crore from Rs 13,253.1 crore, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Operating profit may rise 6.5 percent to Rs 3,757 crore and margin may expand 50 basis points to 27.1 percent compared with year-ago quarter.

Key factor to watch out for would cigarette business that contributes 45 percent to total revenue. Cigarette volumes are expected to decline 2 percent (against 0 percent in Q4FY17 and 3 percent in Q1FY17) but the growth 6-7 percent may be driven by price hike taken in December and post Budget.

3:06 pm Market Update: Equity benchmarks erased gains in last hour of trade due to volatility ahead of expiry of July futures & options contracts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 19.64 points at 32,402.10 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 7.60 points to 10,028.25.

About 1,830 shares declined against 829 advancing shares on the BSE.

2:55 pm Yes Bank at new high: Shares of Yes Bank clocked fresh all-time high following its robust earnings as well as the announcement of a stock-split. The stock was just a few rupees away from the psychological mark of Rs 1,800 as it touched at Rs 1,796.5.

It reported 31.9 percent year-on-year (YoY) rise in net profit for the quarter ended June to Rs 965.5 crore which was higher than the CNBC-TV18 estimate of Rs 919 crore.

The net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, grew by 44 percent on a YoY basis to Rs 1808.90 crore driven by growth in Advances and CASA, and steady expansion in net interest margin (NIM).

The Board also approved Stock split in the ratio of 5 for 1, subject to approval from Shareholders and RBI.

Brokerages largely have been very upbeat about the stock, highlighting the improved asset quality as well as cost rationalisation.

2:40 pm Asset quality weakens: IDFC Bank's first quarter profit grew sharply by 65.3 percent year-on-year to Rs 437.6 crore, driven by other income but asset quality worsened further.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, fell 22.2 percent to Rs 388 crore compared with year-ago quarter.

Other income (non-interest income) shot up 205 percent to Rs 649 crore and operating profit increased 49 percent to Rs 647.5 crore compared with corresponding quarter of previous fiscal.

Gross non-performing assets (NPA) rose 114 basis points sequentially to 4.13 percent and net NPA increased 56 basis points to 1.70 percent in Q1.

In absolute terms, gross NPA jumped 30 percent to Rs 2,004 crore and net NPA surged 39.4 percent to Rs 803.7 crore compared with previous quarter.

2:22 pm DRL disappoints: Dr Reddy's Laboratories started off the year with dismal performance on Thursday as profit fell sharply by 56.6 percent to Rs 66.6 crore, hit by weak operational numbers.

Revenue grew by 2.7 percent to Rs 3,333.2 crore from Rs 3,244.7 crore on year-on-year basis.

Operating profit came in at Rs 340 crore and margin at 10.1 percent for the quarter, which were far lower than estimates of Rs 601 crore and 17.8 percent, respectively.

2:12 pm Earnings: Nocil shares hit fresh 52-week high, up more than 4 percent after solid growth in earnings.

Profit in June quarter shot up 46.1 percent year-on-year to Rs 34.6 crore and revenue increased 11 percent to Rs 236.4 crore.

Operating profit was up 42.7 percent at Rs 54.7 crore from Rs 37.1 crore YoY.

2:02 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks lost nearly half of morning gains due to volatility ahead of expiry of July derivative contracts.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 154.00 points at 32,536.46 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 51.05 points at 10,071.70.

The market breadth was negative as about two shares declined for every share rising on the BSE.

Technology stocks were under pressure as TCS and Infosys fell 1-2 percent. Tata Motors was down 1.6 percent and Reliance Industries declined 0.6 percent. Bharti Airtel plunged 3 percent.

HDFC extended gains to 5.6 percent as brokerages remained positive on the stock post earnings.

1:50 pm Fundraising: Punjab National Bank said a meeting of board of directors of the bank is scheduled to be held on August 1 for considering raising of capital upto total of Rs 3,000 crore by way equity issue (FPO/QIP/rights etc.) and fixing date of extra ordinary general meeting (EGM) for obtaining shareholder's approval in this regard.

1:38 pm Earnings: Maruti Suzuki India has reported a mixed set of earnings on Thursday as profit missed analysts' expectations due to one-time dealers' compensation for GST but revenue was ahead of expectations.

Profit in June quarter grew by 4.4 percent to Rs 1,556.4 crore and revenue increased 16.4 percent to Rs 19,777.4 crore compared with year-ago quarter.

Profit was estimated at Rs 1,669 crore on revenue from operations at Rs 17,449 crore for the quarter, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

At 13:38 hours IST, the stock price was quoting at Rs 7,626.00, up Rs 48.05, or 0.63 percent after hitting a life high of Rs 7,679 on the BSE.

1:25 pm HDFC in focus: Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) share price crossed Rs 1,700-mark and hit fresh record high of Rs 1,710.50, up 4.7 percent intraday as brokerages retained positive stance on the stock post Q1 earnings.

While reiterating buy rating on the stock with increased target price at Rs 1,925 (from Rs 1,791 earlier), Bank of America Merrill Lynch said the growth story is intact and asset quality remained manageable after Q1 earnings.

"We value HDFC's standalone business at Rs 1,925 valued at P/B multiple of 3.4x (same as earlier) which we justify on basis of 1) best in class return on equities at over 20 percent, 2) book consists of highly preferred mortgage assets. The target price includes subsidiaries value of Rs 895. This increase in value is largely driven by higher valuation for HDFC Bank," the research house explained.

It believes HDFC may tend to trade on PE basis versus price-to-book value, as it continues to deliver consistent earnings growth. It further believes that home loan sector is at an inflection point and industry leader such as HDFC is likely to be a key beneficiary.

Deutsche Bank also raised target price by 2.2 percent to Rs 1,840 (from Rs 1,800 earlier) as it has factored in new higher target price on HDFC Bank. The research house has a buy rating on the stock.

1:00 pm Nifty's performance on expiry day: A brief look at the return Nifty gave every month of expiry day suggests that index likely to close in the green.

In 5 out of 6 occasions Nifty close well in green on the expiry day.

It gave a return of 1.5 percent in January and marginally negative return in the month of April.

12:54 pm Market Outlook: ICICI Securities said equity benchmarks regained positive momentum after the brief consolidation in June 2017 and catapulted to record life highs powered by a broad based rally.

Stable quarterly earnings from key corporate, decline in CPI and WPI inflation boosted sentiments amid hopes of a rate cut by the RBI in its monetary policy review in the coming month.

The Nifty touched the historic landmark five figure mark of 10000 for the first time and is on course to record its biggest monthly gain in 16 months.

The Nifty continues to stride northwards in a rising peaks and troughs manner on all time frames, highlighting a structured up move and persistent demand at elevated levels.

We expect the ongoing uptrend to extend towards target of 10400 levels over the coming months as it is the value of upper boundary of the major rising channel encompassing the entire up move since March 2016 till date.

12:40 pm Market Check: Equity benchmarks turned volatile in afternoon trade as the Nifty came off day's high ahead of expiry of July derivative contracts later today and the Nifty Midcap lost ground after hitting record highs.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 185.50 points at 32,567.96 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 61.85 points to 10,082.50. About three shares declined for every two shares rising on the BSE.

12:36 pm Europe opening: European markets opened slightly lower after the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged and investors reacted to a slew of earnings reports.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 edged 0.18 percent lower with almost all sectors and major bourses in negative territory.

12:26 pm Axis Bank deal: Axis Bank has today entered into a share purchase agreement with Jasper Infotech Private Limited (Snapdeal), to acquire 100 percent equity capital of Accelyst Solutions Private Limited & Freecharge Payment Technologies Private Limited, subject to receipt of requisite regulatory approvals, including from the RBI, for a cash consideration of Rs 385 crore.

12:10 pm Buzzing: Adani Power shares fell as much as 4 percent intraday after foreign brokerage house Citi discontinued its coverage on the stock.

"We are discontinuing coverage on Adani Power due to reallocation of our resources. The firm's last recommendation for the stock is sell and our target price is Rs 23. This is our last rating on Adani Power," the research house said.

In its last recommendation, Citi slashed its target price on the stock Rs 23 (from Rs 25 earlier) to factor in EPS revision and increase in target Price-to-book value to 3.0x (1.0x earlier) as it was more comfortable with the book value post Mundra write off in Q4FY17.

It had revised down FY19-20 EPS by 74-99 percent and FY18 estimates is now a loss (against profits earlier) as it cut sales by 6-10 percent and EBITDA by 24-27 percent over FY18-20 on lower than expected FY17 results.

"We will not provide updates to our previous research or ratings. You should not rely on this or previous research with respect to this company going forward," Citi said.

11:55 am Market Check: Benchmark indices remained strong, with the Sensex rising as much as 290 points in late morning trade and Nifty Bank hit 25,000-mark for the first time.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 246.26 points at 32,628.72 and the 50-share NSE Nifty gained 77.30 points at 10,097.95 despite weak market breadth.

About 1,239 shares declined against 1,108 advancing shares on the BSE.

HDFC was the biggest gainer, up 4 percent as Bank of America Merrill Lynch maintained its buy rating on the stock and raised target price to Rs 1,925 after strong earnings.

11:40 am Bihar political drama: Mahesh Nandurkar of CLSA said Bihar CM, Nitish Kumar resigning has increased chances for PM Modi's win in the 2019 elections and has also reduced the risk of heightened populism by Modi ahead of the elections.

In general, this should boost investor sentiment.

11:20 am Market Outlook: Gautam Duggad of Motilal Oswal said the Indian market remained buoyed by continued liquidity inflow amid a strong macro backdrop.

Domestic MF inflows in CY17 stand at USD 7 billion, matching inflows recorded in the entire last calendar year. The macro backdrop remained best in recent times, with inflation under control, twin deficits in check, stable currency, and policy momentum intact.

According to him, only missing link in an otherwise positive set-up is earnings recovery. Nifty earnings have remained flat for the last five years and hold the key for further re-rating, he feels.

11:05 am Earnings Estimates: Pharmaceutical firm Biocon is expected to report degrowth of 32 percent in first quarter profit at Rs 113 crore compared with Rs 166.6 crore in year-ago quarter due to weak operational performance and higher depreciation.

Revenue is seen growing moderately to Rs 996.4 crore for the quarter against Rs 982.4 crore in same quarter last fiscal, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Subdued revenue may be led by sluggishness in biopharma and domestic formulation negated by research services.

Domestic formulation business may fall as much as by 30 percent due to higher base and GST. However, growth from Syngene International, which is estimated at 10-18 percent YoY, may negate revenue pressure.

Operating profit during the quarter may drop 20% to Rs 211.3 crore and margin may contract by 560 basis points to 21.2 percent year-on-year.

10:48 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks rallied further in morning, with the Sensex rising 241.28 points at 32,623.74 and the Nifty up 79.45 points at 10,100.10.

The broader markets underperformed benchmarks, with the BSE Midcap index up 0.6 percent on positive breadth. About 1,173 shares advanced against 975 declining shares on the BSE.

10:40 am Earnings Estimates: India's largest private sector lender ICICI Bank is all set to announce its first quarter earnings today.

Net profit for the quarter is expected to fall by 10.2 percent to Rs 2,005.3 crore compared with Rs 2,232.4 crore in same quarter last year, according to average of estimates of analysts polled by CNBC-TV18.

Sequentially, earnings are expected to remain under pressure due to high provisions.

Net interest income, the difference between interest earned and interest expended, may grow by 11.6 percent to Rs 5,758.4 crore in Q1 compared with Rs 5,158.5 crore in corresponding quarter of last fiscal.

This NII growth could be highest in last six quarters.

10:15 am Buzzing: Share price of Orient Cement rose 10 percent intraday as the company turned profitable in the quarter ended June 2017.

The company in Q1FY18 (April-June) has posted net profit of Rs 39 crore against the loss of Rs 7.6 crore, in a year ago period.

Revenue of the company increased 30 percent at Rs 657 crore versus Rs 505 crore.

The operating profit (EBITDA) was up 189 percent at Rs 117 crore and EBITDA margin was up 980 bps at 17.8 percent.

During the quarter, the company signed definitive agreement for the acquisition of 74 percent shares of Bhilai Jaypee Cement from Jaiprakash Associates and its nominees and for the business transfer of Nigrie Cement Grinding unit of Jaiprakash Power Ventures for an enterprise value of Rs 1,450 crore and Rs 496 crore respectively.

10:06 am Market Check: Equity benchmarks extended rally in morning, with the Sensex up 222.91 points at 32,605.37 and the Nifty up 71.50 points at 10,092.15.

About 1,168 shares advanced against 775 declining shares on the BSE.

9:58 am Market Outlook: The Indian market continued its bullish momentum, backed by steady earnings and strong political stability cues from the developments in Bihar on Wednesday. In the opening tick, indices surged to fresh highs.

Having said that, there are experts who still continue to be wary of the rally as it is not commensurate with the fundamentals. UBS Securities believes that from a fundamental perspective, the risk reward is unattractive.

Political stability will help the market in the short term

there is a confidence that global investors have on this regime, Gautam Chhaochharia, Head-India Research, UBS Securities told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

So, what lies in store for global investors then? From a long term perspective, these are not levels to be entered into. Valuations are not justified some of them (investors) have trimmed positions in India, he told the channel.

9:38 am Buzzing: Shares of Indiabulls Real Estate rose nearly 9 percent intraday as investors cheered a ratings initiation on the stock.

While the stock rallied post its removal from the F&O ban, CLSA too initiated coverage on the stock with a buy rating and a target price of Rs 282.

CLSA said that the portfolio shift towards office income should double the lease income over the next five years.

The company, the brokerage added, will complete 20 msf of ongoing residential development projects over 3-4 years.

The recent steps for reorganization should lead to value discovery, it added.

The stock has multiple triggers to gain 50 percent over the next two years.

9:25 am Earnings: Software solutions provider HCL Technologies' first quarter profit fell sharply by 6.6 percent sequentially to Rs 2,171 crore, impacted by lower revenue growth but better operational performance capped degrowth.

Revenue during the quarter grew by 0.8 percent to Rs 12,149 crore and dollar revenue rose by 3.7 percent to USD 1,884.2 million on sequential basis.

9:15 am Market Check: The market hit fresh record highs in early trade on Thursday, with the Nifty opening above 10,000 level on expiry day after US Federal Reserve meet and ahead of corporate earnings.

The 30-share BSE Sensex was up 126.76 points at 32,509.22 and the 50-share NSE Nifty rose 40.55 points to 10,061.20.

HCL Technologies and Yes Bank rallied up to 2.5 percent post earnings while ICICI Bank, Idea Cellular, ITC and Maruti Suzuki gained up to 1 percent ahead of earnings.

Tech Mahindra, Cipla, Hindalco and Bosch were moderately lower.

Nifty Midcap was up 0.5 percent as about seven shares gained for every two shares falling on the NSE.

Bharat Financial, Manappuram Finance, Ujjivan Financial and L&T Finance Holdings gained up to 3 percent while Indiabulls Real surged 8 percent. Shree Renuka Sugars and Parsvnath Developers also rallied.
Bull's Eye, CNBC-TV18's popular game show, where market experts come together to dish out trading strategies for you to make your week more exciting and compete with each other to see whose portfolio is the strongest.

Remember these are midcap ideas not just for the day, but stocks that look attractive in the medium-term as well.

This week, Ruchit Jain, Kunal Saraogi and Ashish Kyal battle it out for top honours.

Below their top stock picks and analysis:

Ruchit Jain of Angel Broking

Buy Bharat Electronics with a stoploss at Rs 172 and target of Rs 180.50

Buy Manappuram Finance with a stoploss at Rs 104 and target of Rs 112

Sell Ajanta Pharma with a stoploss at Rs 1475 and target of Rs 1375

Buy SRF with a stoploss at Rs 1525 and target of Rs 1610

Kunal Saraogi of Equityrush

Buy Godrej Consumer Products with a stoploss at Rs 1015 and target of Rs 1050

Buy Jindal Steel with a stoploss at Rs 148 and target of Rs 154

Buy Sun Pharma Advanced Research (SPARC) with a stoploss at Rs 352 and target of Rs 370

Buy Gujarat State Fertilisers (GSFC) with a stoploss at Rs 134 and target of Rs 140

Ashish Kyal of Waves Strategy Advisors

Buy Biocon with a stoploss at Rs 396 and target of Rs 418

Buy Hindustan Unilever with a stoploss at Rs 1140 and target of Rs 1205

Sell IOC Future with a stoploss at Rs 384 and target of Rs 361

Sell DLF Future with a stoploss at Rs 201 and target of Rs 188
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Shares of Va Tech Wabag jumped 3 percent in the early trade on Thursday as it has received a repeat order worth Rs 386 crore.

The company won Rs 386 crore designs, build and operate order from the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) for a 150 MLD sewage treatment plan (STP) at K&C valley in Bengaluru.

The company will design and build this plant to meet the recent stringent guidelines of Central Pollution Control Board and Renewable Energy Certificates policy mechanism.

Post the construction of STP, the company will also operate and maintain the plant for a period of 10 years.

The meeting of board of directors is scheduled to be held on August 9, 2017 to consider, approve and take on record, the un-audited financial results (both standalone and consolidated) of the company for the quarter ended 30th June 2017 and amongst other matters.

According to KR Choksey, the company is likely to report net profit at Rs 8.6 crore up 66.6 percent year-on-year.

The company's 22nd annual general meeting (AGM) is scheduled to be held on July 27.

At 09:17 hrs Va Tech Wabag was quoting at Rs 613.90, up Rs 17.55, or 2.94 percent on the BSE.

Posted by Rakesh Patil
If anybody could be blamed for Nitish Kumar's exit from the Mahagathbandhan, it could be Lalu Prasad Yadav himself.

Hours before Kumar announced his decision to step down as Bihar CM and sever ties with RJD, Lalu, a seasoned politician who should have known otherwise, put his faith behind his son and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav against whom a CBI corruption case is currently on.

In choosing sentiment over politics, it that cost him the government his party had formed two years ago with the Janata Dal (United).

After having met with the 80 members of legislative assembly (MLAs) from his party, Lalu announced that his son Tejashwi Yadav, who was Bihars Deputy Chief Minister, would not resign from his post despite being named in a corruption case filed by the CBI earlier this month.

As a result, Kumar stepped down from his post later in the day, citing his own conscience as the reason. This was quickly followed by a congratulatory tweet by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who lauded him for joining the fight against corruption.

Cutting a long story short, Nitish joined hands with the BJP and was sworn in as the new Chief Minister of Bihar at 10.00 am on Thursday, with BJPs Sushil Kumar Modi being sworn in as his deputy.

So where does this leave Lalu?

The former Railway Minister has his full plate on his hands right now, with his focus likely to be on getting out of the mess he and his family are currently in.

Lalu, along with his wife Rabri Devi and children Tejashwi Yadav and Misa Bharti, is facing corruption charges for allegedly trading lucrative deals leasing IRCTC hotels to private firms for acquiring high-value land through a benami company.

According to a report by The Indian Express, the RJD will try rebuilding its Dalit voter base immediately. The fact that they supported Meira Kumars candidature for the Presidents post and Lalus offer to send Bahujan Samajwadi Party head Mayawati to the Rajya Sabha from Bihar is likely to rub the Dalit community the right way.

In addition to all this, the RJD is scheduled to hold a BJP bhagao, desh bachao rally in Bihar on August 27. Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are expected to attend the rally and so is West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The rally was announced shortly after the Income Tax Department conducted raids at 22 different Delhi-based locations in connection with the benami property charges filed against Lalu and his family.
14:40 That is a wrap on the nearly 3-day-long developments from Bihar. Thanks for staying tuned.

14:30 WHAT'S NEXT? | Patna High Court will on Monday hear two PILs challenging formation of the new government by the JD(U) and BJP. The petitions sought the court's order for issuance of a direction to invite the leader of the single largest party to form a government in the state.

the JD(U), BJP and others got 131 votes while the opposition got 108 votes, Speaker Vijay Kumar Chowdhury said. The NDA had earlier submitted a list of 132 MLAs to the Governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three Independents. In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs,

the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

13:22 Tejashwi Yadav says he raised several questions in Bihar Assembly, but Nitish Kumar and the BJP had no answers.

13:20 The BJP and Nitish Kumar disrespected the mandate given to Mahagathbandhan: Tejashwi Yadav after Nitish Kumar wins trust vote.

13:05 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has won the trust vote in Bihar Assembly. 131 MLAs voted for the confidence motion, while 108 voted against the motion.

13:00 Bihar Speaker calls for lobby division to test the strength of the new Nitish Kumar government. MLAs have two options  for, or against the confidence motion.

13:00 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has spoken in Bihar Assembly. He says that his government will focus only on development. The RJD ignored our party. The mandate was for a transparent, corruption-free government, he tells Assembly.

12:25 BJP leader Nand Kishore Yadav says Tejashwi Yadav Bihar's youth want to knwo how did the 22-year-old amass properties worth crores of rupees.

12:15 Typical of Nitish Kumar, the Chief Minister has been calm inside the Bihar Assembly. He hasn't responded to any of the barbs directed at him or his party. The political stalwart is known for not speaking out of line. Is Nitish Kumar waiting for tempers to cool down?

12:00 Chief Minister has moved confidence motion in Bihar Assembly.

11:45 Tejashwi Yadav seems livid and angry. He takes the fight from Nitish Kumar to Sushil Kumar Modi to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Why did Sushil Kumar Modi take oath as Deputy Chief Minister if he is facing cases? he asks. Further more he questions the Governor's decision to prepone swearing-in ceremony. Finally, he asks why did the Prime Minister tweet so quickly on Nitish Kumar's resignation.

11:40 Tejashwi Yadav says Nitish Kumar didn't discuss his resignation. The former Deputy Chief Minister says he was taking legal opinion and had informed Kumar about it.

11:30 Multiple reports hint at ruckus inside Bihar Assembly after Tejashwi Yadav said "Nitish Kumar must be ashamed of himself".

11:20 Nitish Kumar had decided to go with the BJP well before Wednesday. Whenever he fights alone, he is exposed. Nitish Kumar needs either the BJP or the RJD. I was used as a pawn: Tejashwi Yadav, according to a CNN-News18.com report.

Patna

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TheHigh Court will on Monday hearplea againstGovernors decision to inviteKumar to form the government despite RJD being the single-largest party.

RJD had on Thursday said it would move court as well as knock at the "people's door" to protest against the Bihar Governor's invitation terming it "blatant violation" of a Supreme Court judgement.

10:51 Meanwhile, BJP President has filed Rajya Sabha nomination for Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.

10:50 BJP confident of sailing through trust vote. Party says it has the backing of 132 MLAs  a number comfortably more than the magical half-way mark of 122. "Very clear that we will win trust vote as we have support of 132 MLAs," BJP's Mangal Pandey tells ANI.

10:40 RJD and Congress MLAs are protesting against Nitish Kumar's "betrayal" with placards and slogans. Reports suggest that Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi is facing trouble entering Bihar Assembly.

10:33 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has arrived for the floor test in Bihar Assembly.

destabilise

Meanwhile, the Aam Aadmi Party accused Nitish Kumar of "double standards" for forming government in the state, a day after his dramatic resignation, with the support of the BJP. The party also claimed that the BJP may resort to "tactics" to destabilise the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi. "We supported Nitish (Kumar) for his good governance record and his fight against the communal BJP," AAP's chief spokesperson Sanjay Singh said.

Bihar

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Just 20 months after he took oath asChief Minister in November 2015,Kumar was again sworn in as Chief Minister for the sixth term after he formed an alliance withParty. Kumar cited irreconcilable differences withDal (RJD) on the issue of corruption chargesagainst Deputy Chief Ministerthat created a rift in the Grand Alliance.

The RJD on Thursday said it would move court as well as knock at the "people's door" to protest against the Bihar governor's invitation to the JD(U) and the NDA to form a government in the state in "blatant violation" of a Supreme Court judgement.

JD(U) Rajya Sabha MPs Ali Anwar and MP Veerendra Kumar met senior leader Sharad Yadav here amid reports that he was also displeased with Nitish Kumar's action. Yadav, a former party chief and Leader of the JD(U) in the Rajya Sabha, has so far not commented on the development. Sources close to him said he was "unhappy" with the Bihar chief minister's move as he wanted the 3-party Grand Alliance, also comprising the Congress, to continue.

09:00 Lalu Prasad's RJD can play a spoilsport. The RJD says it has the backing of 27 Congress MLAs, 2CPI-ML legislators and a few Independents candidates. Some RJD leaders have even reportedly said JD(U) MLAs would cross over to them during the trust vote.

08:50 Remember, a section of JD(U) is unhappy about Nitish Kumars decision to walk out of Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) and form a new government with the BJP.

08:47 While JD(U)+NDA combine makes a strong case for Nitish Kumar to effortlessly sail through the trust vote, discontent among JD(U) may make things tougher for the Chief Minister.

Bihar Assembly  243 MLAsHalf-way Mark  122JD(U)  71 MLAsNDA  58 MLAsRJD  80 MLAs

Congress  27 MLAs

08:30 Hello and good morning. Crucial day for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar as he seeks a trust vote.

THE STORY SO FAR

* Nitish Kumar sworn in as the Bihar Chief Minister on Thursday. Sushil Kumar Modi takes oath as Deputy Chief Minister* Nitish Kumar will face a trust vote on Bihar Assembly on Friday.* Section of JD(U) say they weren't kept in loop about alliance* Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi accused Nitish Kumar of cheating the people and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).* PM Modi congratulated the CM and Deputy Chief Minister

* Kumar had resigned on Wednesday evening after a prolonged rift over corruption allegations with ally RJD's senior leadership.

23:36 It's been another day of drama in Bihar. We'll be back with you live tomorrow morning for the trust vote in the Bihar Assembly.

22:12 The Aam Aadmi Party today accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of "double standards" for forming government in the state, a day after his dramatic resignation, with the support of the BJP.

The party also claimed that the BJP may resort to "tactics" to destabilise the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi.

21:28 Terming the developments in Bihar as a "wrong signal for democracy", BSP president Mayawati said that misuse of power and official machinery by the BJP leadership posed a serious challenge to established democratic norms.

20:48 Lalu Prasad is currently meeting with RJD legislators at his home in Patna. What will be his next move?

20:20 Here's a summary of the cracks in the JD(U).

19:39

19:13 All eyes are on Sharad Yadav now. Will he stage a rebellion?

18:38 Lalu Prasad's wife and former Bihar CM Rabri Devi has hit out at Nitish Kumar, saying he stabbed the RJD in the back and they won't align with him again.

18:18 JD(U) MP Ali Anwar says that Sharad Yadav was not kept in the loop about the party's alliance with the BJP.

18:11 The rift in the JD(U) is apparent now. The Kerala unit of the party has split with its parent, saying they won't support Nitish if JD(U) becomes part of the NDA.

17:55 A meeting of JDU) MPs is currently taking place. Party MP Arun Sinha says there is no rebellion in the party, also says that Nitish Kumar did not consult them.

17:40 Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others. Prasad's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report(ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR. The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.

17:20 The trust vote in the Bihar Assembly will take place at 11am on Friday.

17:09 New Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi says that many JD(U) leaders felt suffocated in the alliance with the RJD.

16:53 LJP leader Chirag Paswan says Lalu had defamed the JD(U). LDP is an NDA ally.

16:42 Sharad Yadav is expected to meet JD(U) legislators in the next half an hour. Will there be a rebellion in the ranks?

16:29 Nitish Kumar has met Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley. Buzz is that a special financial package for Bihar is on the anvil.

16:15 Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has congratulated JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for taking over as the chief minister of Bihar.

16:00 More on Sharad Yadav: The JD(U) leader will meet Union Minister Sharad Yadav today.

15:55 The issue pertains to the land-for-hotels-deal case. You can find out more about the case here.

15:44 News agency Press Trust of India is now reporting that the Enforcement Directorate has filed a money laundering case against Lalu Prasad and his kin.

15:33 There is still some suspense as former JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav may stage a rebellion. Sources have told CNN-News18 that Yadav is upset about the alliance with the BJP.

15:15 MUST READ | Bihar sees govt in sync with Centre after 20 years, hopes of special status brighten

15:13 Sushil Modi says that joining hands with Nitish Kumar will make NDA even more powerful in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.

14:54 It's now Congress MP Shashi Tharoor's turn to vent. He tweets: If after campaigning against BJP you want to join BJP, spirit of democracy requires you2resign&seek a fresh mandate. This is amoral politics (sic)

14:46 The party has called the press meet to refute allegations levelled by Lalu Prasad against Nitish Kumar. The RJD chief had claimed that there was a murder case pending against the Bihar Chief Minister.

14:42 The JD(U) is now holding a press conference.

14:39 Bihar Congress chief Ashok Choudhary claims Nitish Kumar's resignation was pre-planned.

14:34 It's not all good news for the JD(U). Former chief Sharad Yadav has met Congress leaders and called for a meet of JD(U) legislators at 5pm this evening.

14:24 The Congress is on the offensive, Senior MP Ghulam Nabi Azad says, I think it has become Nitish jis habit to change parties and stands every few years.

14:15 CNN-News18, quoting sources, says former JD(U) President Sharad Yadav will be inducted into the Union Cabinet.

14:05 Deputy chief minister of Bihar Sushil Modi says the party was in touch with a few MLAs from RJD and Congress, but was sure that BJP didnt need their support. We have the numbers. We have the support of 131 MLAs. Weve asked for a floor test tomorrow. We are absolutely ready to prove our majority, he said.

13:58 Nitish Kumar has tweeted once again thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi and adding that there will be no compromise on corruption.

13:50 Some more bad news for the RJD. Its legislator Maheshwer Yadav says he will switch sides to the JD(U).

13:43 Lalu Prasad says he is considering an appeal in Supreme Court against the Governor's decision.

13:41 Some humour on Bihar's political situation:

13:19 Senior JD(U) leader KC Tyagi has reacted to Rahul Gandhis allegation of Nitish Kumars betrayal, He said, Rahul has disappointed JD(U). Congress approach towards corruption is anyway not great and thats why they had expected Nitish Kumar to overlook Tejashwis blatant corruption. But JD (U) and Nitish Kumar have always come down heavily on all those involved in corrupution.

13:10 Nitish Kumar's government will face a trust vote in the Bihar Assembly tomorrow.

12.44 As Nitish Kumar joins hands with BJP, here is a look at 10 reasons why the Mahagathbandhan fell apart.

12.21 Lalu speaks out against Nitish. Nitish compromised on values and forgot anti-communal goal, says Lalu.

12.19 Even as Bihar Cabinet meet is underway at Nitish Kumar's residence, Lalu Prasad Yadav says that Nitish Kumar's move has hurt Bihar.

12.07 Hours before Kumar announced his decision to step down as Bihar CM and sever ties with RJD, Lalu, a seasoned politician who should have known otherwise, put his faith behind his son and Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav against whom a CBI corruption case is currently on.

11.46

11.:30 Even as Nitish Kumar engineered a coup and joined hands with BJP to form the government in Bihar, the Congress is mincing no words. On Thursday, the grand old party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused Janata Dal (United) Chief Nitish Kumar of "cheating" the people and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).

11:15 Former Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav is livid on Nitish Kumar's decision. "I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!" he tweets.

11:04 For those who missed it  Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said Nitish Kumar deserted the Mahagathbandhan for personal politics. He joined the wrong people, and Nitish Kumar has cheated us," Gandhi says. He adds that he was aware of Nitishs plans for the last 3-4 months. Nitish has gone against an anti-communal mandate given by Bihar, he says.

11:03 Ahead of the first Cabinet meeting of the new Bihar government, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar says his decisions on resignation and alliances were based on the development of Bihar. When asked to comment on Congress VP Rahul Gandhi's 'cheated' remark, Nitish says "sab ka jawaab denge."

10:55 CNN-News18 reports that Nitish Kumar has called in a Cabinet meeting at 1130 am. Thereafter, a test of strength would take place in Bihar Assembly. Looks like its business as usual for Nitish Kumar. Meanwhile, RJD's Lalu Prasad Yadav has reached a court in Ranchi in a corruption case.

10:50 Congratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity.  PM Narendra Modi tweets.

10:43 Voicing Betrayal  Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi says Nitish Kumar has cheated us. Nitish Kumar misled me when we met previously. We knew for the last 3-4 months that this was going to happen, he says.

10:42 The Rise of Nitish Kumar

During 1998-99, Nitish Kumar served as the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later as the Minister for Agriculture in the AB Vajpayee government.

In 2000, Nitish became the chief minister of Bihar for the first time. But his government lasted only seven days.

He returned as Railway Minister in 2001, a position he served until the term ended in 2004.

His party merged with Janata Dal (United) in 2003 which was also part of the NDA.

He came to power as the Bihar Chief Minister again, after JD (U) and BJP won in 2005. The alliance convincingly retained power in 2010.

Belonging to the socialist class of politicians, Nitish Kumar was an active member of the Jayaprakash Narayan movement between 1974 and 1977. During this time, he also became close to Satyendra Narayan Sinha who would later become Bihar's Chief Minister.

In 1994, Nitish Kumar and George Fernandes came together to form the Samta Party. The party's alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in the 1996 and 1998 Lok Sabha elections yielded good results and established Nitish as a leader of rich calibre.

10:30 JD(U)'s return to the NDA fold marks a significant shift in the fortunes of the Opposition parties. Nitish Kumar was seen by political experts as the strongest face of what is called the "united Opposition" or the "Grand Alliance" and was touted as a Prime Ministerial candidate by many. With Bihar, the Opposition was hoping for a strong Grand Alliance for 2019. Now, with this Gathbandhan, BJP will lead 18 states in India, strengthening its position for the 2019 elections.

Read More | Mission 2019: What Nitish alliance means for PM Modi and BJP?

10:20 Nitish Kumar first became Chief Minister in 2000, although for just 7 days.

10:15 Slogans of Inquilab Zindabad slogans were raised as Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar CM. The JD(U)-BJP combine is back in power after four years in Bihar. The Nitish Kumar-led JD (U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated as head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

10:10 Nitish Kumar is now a six-time Chief Minister and second time in past two years. Some are terming it Nitish Kumar's "ghar wapsi" in to the NDA-fold. It was a short ceremony, in contrast to the last time Nitish Kumar was sworn in.

10:05 Sushil Kumar Modi is sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.

10:00 Nitish Kumar starts taking the oath as Bihar Chief Minister. He says he will dutifully serve the state to the best of abilities.

09:55 Nitish Kumar has reached Raj Bhavan. He comes back at the helm within 24 hours of resigning as Chief Minister.

09:51 Sushil Kumar Modi has reached Raj Bhavan in Patna for the oath-taking ceremony. He will be inducted into the new Bihar government as Deputy Chief Minister.

09:50 Meanwhile, JD(U) heavyweight Sharad Yadav maintains silence on the happenings in Bihar and the JD(U)-NDA tie-up.

09:40 CNN-News18 reports that BJP leader JP Nadda says the party has ensured that the government in Bihar is not destabilised. BJP gave unconditional support for the prosperity of the state, he says.

09:33 "Just received invitation from Hon'ble Governor to take Oath and be a part of Bihar Govt"  BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi tweets.

09: 30 RJD offices offices across all districts in Bihar will hold protest march at 12 pm on Thursday. RJD is angry at the Governor for preponing the swearing-in ceremony to 10 am. Governor Tripathi had earlier invited Tejashwi Yadav and five other RJD MLAs for discussion.

Akhilesh

Yadav



  ,     

        

Bihar Today

 Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 27, 2017

09:15 The JD(U)-BJP combine returns to power after four years in the politically volatile state. Prodded by Nitish Kumar, the JD(U) had walked out of the NDA in July 2013 after Narendra Modi was nominated head of the BJP's campaign committee for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

09:05 Tejashwi Yadav seems miffed. He says the Governor gave them an appointment at 11 am while calling in Kumar for swearing-in at 10 am.



Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?  Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 26, 2017

09:00 Number crunching: JD(U) has 71 MLAs in the House, NDA 58 and Congress 27. While JD (U) and NDA together cross the halfway mark, RJD and Congress only have 107, which is 15 short of simple majority. Nitish has two days to prove majority.

08:55 Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi has invited Nitish Kumar to take the oath as Chief Minister at 10 am.

08:44 Less than 24 hours after he resigned as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar will back to do the top job in the state.

00:20 Tejashwi Yadav breaks his silence. Says he won't give up and will speak to the Governor on Thursday and stake RJD's claim as the largest party. Till then, we say good night with the story of how the RJD leader was at the centre of the storm which broke the Grand Alliance.

23:56 Nitish Kumar and MLAs have now reached the Governor's House

23:41 The RJD has said that Lalu Prasad's son Tejashwi Yadav, who was the focus of the corruption allegations, will be the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly.

23:12 The alliance is no more, and today's drama can be compared to when the JD(U) and RJD first came together. Read more.

22:54 The attention will now turn to the composition of Nitish Kumar's Cabinet and whether JD(U) leaders could get berths in the Union Cabinet.

22:51 More from Lalu Prasad on Twitter: All JDU MLAs caged in CM house since evening. Why so mch insecurity?Just cuz MLAs realise tht they are elected against BJP's divisive agenda.

22:44 Here's the latest: Governor Tripathi has been discharged and JD(U), BJP will form the new Bihar government on Thursday. Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as Chief Minister at 5pm.

22:30 Lalu Prasad is intent on making his voice heard. He has dared the JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar to declare fresh elections and seek a fresh mandate. "In Bihar, we had received record-breaking mandate against the BJP. Now, Nitish will run the government with the same BJP on "moral grounds," he has tweeted.

22:24 The BJP says it has faxed its letter of support to Raj Bhawan and the new government will be formed tomorrow.

22:19 Some more drama. There was speculation that JD(U) and BJP legislators may approach the Governor tonight to stake claim. But Governor Tripathi has now been hospitalised with a nose infection.

22:14 JD(U) leader Ajay Alok says the party could not afford to be seen as siding with the corrupt.

22:10 Another salvo from Lalu Prasad on Twitter: When Nitish Kumar broke alliance with BJP in 2013 he choreographed & followed the same script to secure himself. He surrenders as per needs

22:02 Sushil Kumar Modi refuses to say if he will be Deputy Bihar CM again, but says JD(U) and BJP legislators are holding a meeting at Nitish Kumar's residence at the moment.

21:59 BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi says the BJP will be part of the new government in Bihar.

21:58 The timing couldn't be worse for Lalu Prasad, who has a court case in Ranchi tomorrow morning and has to leave tonight amid this worsening crisis.

21:53 CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweets: A point to ponder. Bihar CM's resignation at this moment, when atrocities against Dalits and minorities are rising across India, helps whom?

21:42 Alliance partner Congress has now lashed out at Nitish Kumar, saying he has betrayed the people's mandate.

21:32 Bihar BJP Chief Sushil Modi said that he has communicated to Nitish Kumar via telephone that he will support him. "We have decided to support the Nitish-led government and we will convey our message to the Governor of Bihar as soon as possible."

"We have told him that we accept him as our leader and he is ready for it," Sushil said, adding, "we will support the government formed under him."

21:27 In fact, the JD(U) and BJP legislators are reportedly planning to meet the Governor and stake their claim to form a government tonight.

21:25 JD(U) legislators have now gathered at Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's residence.

21:18 Lalu Prasad has tweeted too. He reiterates that Nitish was aware of the corruption allegations before the Grand Alliance was formed.

21:13 More from Twitter. Nitish Kumar has thanked has thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his earlier tweet applauding the decision to resign.

21:07 CNN-News18, quoting sources, says that the BJP will inform the Bihar Governor on Wednesday that it will support the JD(U).

21:00 Those reports are now confirmed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi. So a JD(U)-BJP alliance government looks a likely outcome.

20:52 Unconfirmed TV reports suggest that the BJP has extended unconditional report to Nitish Kumar.

20:44 Union minister Smriti Irani will also contest the Rajya Sabha elections.

20:42 Meanwhile, amid all this drama, the BJP is now announcing that party president Amit Shah will contest Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat.

20:33 The Congress had repeatedly tried to defuse the fire, but the Grand Alliance now looks over.

20:23 More on the math: The RJD has 80 seats and the Congress has 27. Together, they reach 107, which is still short of the halfway mark of 122.

20:20 Lalu Prasad still wants this government to continue. "All RJD, JD(U) and Congress MLAs should sit down and pick a new leader and make a government," he said.

20:16 "Nitish Kumar is hand-in-glove with the BJP and RSS. What is this agreement? Prime Minister Modi tweeted immediately after Nitish's resignation. He even congratulated him." says Lalu.

20:08 Lalu Prasad says that as the single-largest party, the RJD has a claim to power.

20:02 A reaction from Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasudhara Raje. A BJP leader, she says it is only fair for the Prime Minister and the party to support Nitish Kumar.

20:00 He now claims there is a murder case against Nitish Kumar dating back to 2009.

19:58 Lalu says he repeatedly told Nitish Kumar that cases against him and his family were false.

19:56 I don't need to have an explanation for JD(U) leaders, says Lalu.

19:54 Lalu says he spoke about with Nitish for about 40 minutes last night. Insists that he did not seek Tejashwi's resignation.

19:52 A seemingly unruffled Lalu claims Nitish said he would die, but not join the BJP.

19:50 Lalu Prasad says Nitish Kumar was aware of the corruption allegations when the alliance was formed back in 2015.

19:47 We are happy that Bihar CM didnt compromise on issue of corruption and did not kneel down before RJD: BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi.

19:45 Apart from an alliance, the BJP could also consider supporting Nitish Kumar's government from the outside.

19:40 He says the BJP's future strategy will be decided by the BJP's Parliamentary Party. Important: He said the BJP is not in favour of mid-term elections in Bihar.

19:38 BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi is now speaking.

19:34 Nitish Kumar has insisted that he did not seek Tejashwi Yadav's resignation. "I just asked Tejashwi to explain the charges of corruption," he said.

19:32 Still no official word from Lalu Prasad and the RJD.

19:30 Now for the math. There are 243 seats in the Bihar Assembly. The RJD is the single-largest party with 80 seats, but well short of the halfway mark of 122. The JD(U) has 71 seats and it can cross the 122-mark with the help of the BJP's 53 seats.

19:25 The BJP Parliamentary Party board is also set to meet in Delhi shortly. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP President Amit Shah will be in attendance.

19:23 The attention will turn to the math in the Bihar Assembly now. We'll bring you an update shortly.

19:20 The BJP core committee is reportedly meeting now. A reminder that the BJP and the JD(U) have ruled Bihar together before, but Nitish Kumar pulled the plug in the build-up to the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

19:16 Big news. The Prime Minister has reacted. Modi has congratulated Nitish Kumar for taking a major step in the fight against corruption.

"The citizens of this country welcome and support this honest move," the tweet reads. "It is important for everyone to rise above politics and fight against corruption."

19:13 Here's the background of what led to this big step from Nitish Kumar: The two bigwigs, Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav, had been at loggerheads ever since the CBI launched raids against Lalu's son and family. JD(U) leaders had demanded that Nitish's deputy Tejashwi should resign, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad always maintained that there was no possibility of his son resigning from the post of Bihar deputy CM.

19:10 Nitish Kumar says he tried really hard to keep the alliance intact, but he could not compromise any further.

19:08 A quick reminder that this government has lasted less than two years.

19:07 BJP non-committal as well. Ravi Shankar Prasad says it is up to Nitish what happens next.

19:04: The next big question: Will JD(U) form a government with the BJP's support? Nitish is non-committal and says it remains to be seen.

19:02 A full-fledged attack, this. Nitish says greed of Lalu family cannot be satisfied.

19:00 "It was becoming difficult to work with RJD," says Nitish.

18:59 Nitish says he spoke to Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi earlier but no solution was hammered out.

18:56 Kumar confirms he submitted his resignation to the Governor. Says he quit in the interest of the Bihar.

18:54 Nitish Kumar is now speaking to the press.

18:50 "Has Nitish asked for the resignation of Tejaswi Yadav?" Prasad retorted in reply to a volley of questions by scribes regarding JD(U) insistence that the embattled deputy chief minister should come clean on accusations in public.

18:48: The development came hours after RJD President Lalu Prasad ruled out a resignation by his son Tejaswi Prasad Yadav as Bihar's deputy chief minister following the lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him in the land-for-hotels case and blamed the BJP for the 'present crisis' in the state.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of the Janata Dal (United) on Wednesday resigned from his post amid a rift with coalition partner Rashtriya Janata Dal.
India's President A.P.J Abdul Kalam stands inside of the place where Socrates was imprisoned, at the foot of the Acropolis hill in Athens, April 27, 2007. Kalam is on a four-day official visit to Athens. REUTERS/Yiorgos Karahalis (GREECE) - RTR1P3MC

Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated a memorial in honour of former President APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram, on Thursday to mark his second death anniversary.



A statue of Dr. Kalam will be unveiled & PM will flag off Kalam Sandesh Vahini, an exhibition bus that would travel across various States.

 PMO India (@PMOIndia) July 26, 2017

The event was attended by several chief ministers, governors, Chief Justice of India JS Khehar and Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman along with the prime minister.

The memorial, built on Dr. Kalam's burial site, will pay homage to the man and reflect India's cultural diversity. It will also display replicas of rockets and missiles that the late scientist had worked on.

The second phase of the memorial, which is expected to complete in two years, will be have a library, auditorium and planetarium.

The People's President

Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam was India's 11th President and served from July 2002 to July 2007.

Born in Rameswaram, Tamil Nadu to a poverty stricken family, he went on to study physics and aerospace engineering.

Kalam who narrowly missed becoming a fighter pilot for the Indian Air Force, joined the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO). He was part of famous space scientist Vikram Sarabhai's Indian National Committee for Space Research (INCOSPAR).

The 'Missile Man' was transferred to ISRO in 1969 where he later developed India's first Satellite Launch Vehicle (SLV-III). Kalam then successfully built the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).

The Indian government entrusted him to direct the advanced missile programme under which India developed the Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) Agni and surface-to-surface ballistic missile Prithvi. He also oversaw Pokhran-II nuclear tests.

During his term as president, he was affectionately known as the "People's President".

He died at the age of 83 while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management in Shillong.
State Bank of India (SBI)

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The State Bank of India (SBI) is inviting applications for the posts of senior managers and deputy managers. The opening is for jobs on contractual basis.

The largest public sector bank is looking to fill a total number of 10 posts  5 for senior managers and 5 for deputy managers.

The candidates must have completed BE or BTech in any of the following fields - IT, electronics, computer science, computer application, electronics and instrumentations. The pass percentage needed is 60 in any of the listed fields.

How to apply:

Candidates can download the application form from SBI's official website - www.sbi.co.in. Fill the necessary details in the form and send it to:

General Manager, State Bank of India, Central Recruitment and Promotion Department, 3rd Floor, Atlanta Building, Nariman Point, Mumbai-400021'.

Submission dates:

> The last date for online submission is August 10.

> The last date for receiving application is August 21.

Salary:

For the posts, salary offered will be in range of Rs 31,705 - Rs 45,950.

Age criteria:

The candidate must be minimum of 28 years of age for senior manager post. The upper age limit is 40 years.

For deputy manager, the candidate has to be minimum of 21 years and upper limit is 35 years.

Meanwhile, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) declared UPSC Civil Services Prelim 2017 Result on Thursday on its official website - www.upsc.gov.in
Just 20 months after he took oath as Bihar Chief Minister in November 2015, Nitish Kumar today was again sworn in for the sixth term after he formed an alliance with Bharatiya Janata Party. He had surprised everyone yesterday by stepping down from the post, citing irreconcilable differences with ally Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) on the issue of corruption charges levelled against his deputy Tejashwi Yadav that created a rift in the Grand Alliance.

After tendering his resignation to Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi, Kumar told reporters gathered outside Raj Bhawan that "in the circumstances that prevail in Bihar, it became difficult to run the Grand Alliance government".

In the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, it was a grand victory for the Grand Alliance but all was not well between the key two players of the Mahagathbandhan, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar.

The relation between the two alliance partners strained from the time Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) registered a case against Lalu Prasad, his wife and former chief minister Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi in a land-for-hotels case.

Nitish was adamant that Tejashwi Yadav should come clean on the alleged corruption charge for the Grand Alliance to survive and function.

Kumar had supported BJP presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind as well as Prime Minister Narendra Modis demonetisation move which brought the two leaders closer and their mutual admiration for each other has fuelled the talk them coming together.

As the Grand Alliance falls apart, lets take a look at 10 reasons why Nitish decided to resign

1. Nitish Kumar supported Prime Minister Narendra Modi demonetisation move of November 8 which was criticised by the alliance partners.

2. Bihar CM Nitish announced support for the NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind who was the Governor of Bihar.

3. CBI conducted the raid and filed fresh case against RJD chief Lalu Yadav and family in the corruption case.

4. Enforcement Directorate raided Lalu Prasad daughter and RJD MP Misa Bharti farmhouses in Delhi for a money laundering case probe.

5. JDU asked Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav to come clean on the corruption case against him relating Land for hotel scandal.

6. RJD rejected JDU demand for Tejashwis resignation and said that the alliance is intact.

7. Tejashwi abstained from attending Vishwa Yuva Kaushal Divas event.

8. Nitish Kumar met Rahul Gandhi in Delhi despite reports of differences in the Grand Alliance.

9. Lalu held a press conference yesterday where he said Nitish has sought Tejashwis resignation and he would not resign as Deputy.

10. Nitish submitted resignation yesterday evening to Bihar Governor terming no compromise with basic principles.
Kerala JD(U) president M P Veerendra Kumar today expressed shock over party chief Nitish Kumar's decision to align with the BJP and said the state unit would not follow the chief minister into the NDA fold.

He appealed to all JD(U) MPs to denounce the decision and quit the party.

"As far as Kerala is concerned we will never become the part of the JD(U) represented by Nitish Kumar. The future course of action will be decided after the state council meeting," he told reporters here.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned yesterday but joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

The Rajya Sabha MP said it was unfortunate that Nitish Kumar became a part of "fascist tendencies", contrary to expectations of people, party men and the party resolution adopted in the last national conference.

"The oppressed, Dalits and minorities thought Nitish will be spearheading the fight against fascist tendencies, but unfortunately he has become a part of it," the MP said.

With this, the party resolution has been thrown into the dust bin, he added.

"We cannot tolerate Hindutva in the sense they (BJP) talk about it. In Hindustan, everybody born in the country are its citizen. But what is happening is, in every sphere of life there is a pressure to make it a monolithic structure. We cannot accept it," he said.

Kumar, who was the leader of the Socialist Janata (Democratic) party, merged it with the Janata Dal (United) in 2014.

He was a minister in the United Front government after being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 on Janata Dal ticket.

Kumar was in Janata Dal (Secular) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda from 1999 to 2010, when Janata Dal had broken into many factions after some of its leaders decided to join hands with BJP-led NDA at the Centre.

The Kerala leader parted ways with the JD(S) and formed the Socialist Janata (Democratic) Party in 2010.
Tejashwi Yadav and Lalu Prasad Yadav

Hours after his resignation over a rift with coalition partner RJD, Nitish Kumar was sworn in again as Bihar Chief Minister on Thursday. The Chief Minister got unconditional support from the BJP to form new government and its leader Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as Deputy Chief Minister.

Catch the LIVE update here: Nitish Kumar returns as Bihar CM

JD(U)'s rift over corruption allegations against RJD leaders took a few weeks to play out and on Wednesday Nitish Kumar abruptly resigned as Chief Minister.

The development came hours after RJD President Lalu Prasad ruled out a resignation by his son Tejashwi Prasad Yadav as Bihar's deputy chief minister following the lodging of an FIR by the CBI against him and his family. Lalu also blamed the BJP for the 'present crisis' in the state.

JD(U) leaders had demanded Tejashwi Yadav's resignation but the latter confirmed in the Bihar cabinet meeting that he will not resign from his post because of corruption charges.

Nitish Kumar and Lalu Prasad Yadav have been at loggerheads ever since the CBI launched raids against Lalu's son and family.

Following a series of CBI raids at 12 residential properties owned by Lalu and his family earlier this month, several corruption cases were registered against them.

Also read: Mission 2019: What Nitish alliance means for PM Modi and BJP?

Detailed below are the various charges filed against the former Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family so far.

Lalu Prasad Yadav

It is alleged that as Railway Minister, Yadav abused his position for personal gains. The list of corruption cases against him are as follows:

> Acquiring Benami Land/IRCTC hotel scam

The Railway Minister is accused of acquiring three acres of "high value premium land" through a benami company Delight in exchange for favours to Kochhars, who own Sujata Hotel.

It is alleged that Lalu handed over the maintenance of two Railway hotels BNR Ranchi and Puri to the Kochhars.

> Fodder scam

Lalu was convicted in one of the fodder scam cases in connection with fraudulent withdrawing Rs 37.7 crore on fake fodder bills from Chaibasa treasury in October 2013.

He was in jail for five years.

Rabri Devi

> IRCTC hotel scam

The former Chief Minister of Bihar Rabri Devi is one of the acused in the IRCTC hotel scam along with her husband, Lalu Prasad Yadav, and her son Tejashwi Yadav, the deputy chief minister of Bihar.

> Acquiring Benami Land

The Income Tax Department in June served notices to Rabri Devi, her daughter Misa Bharti and her husband Silesh Kumar, and her son Tejashwi Yadav in connection with land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore and tax evasion.

Following the I-T raid, Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi made fresh allegations against Devi that she owns 18 flats in Patna worth around Rs 20 crore.

> Gifts

Two plots: Sushil Kumar Modi further alleged that Devi owned two plots that were given to her by the families of people who got employed at Indian Railways when her husband Lalu Prasad Yadav was the Union Railway Minister in June.

Lallan Choudhary: The IT Department filed a charge in June against Devi for accepting a land worth 30.8 lakh as a 'gift' from someone named Lallan Choudhary on January 25, 2014.

Mall: Rabri Devi was also alleged to own Rs 600 crore mall coming up in Phulwari-Danapur area. Modi alleged that the mall was a part of other gifts given to Lalus family by former Union ministers Raghunath Jha and Kanti Singh and Lallan.

Corruption charges: The I-T department attached a total of 12 plots belonging to Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh Kumar, Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav and ex chief minister Rabri Devi, and sisters Ragini and Chanda Yadav.

The department has said these alleged benami assets bear a deed value of about Rs 9.32 crore but the taxman has estimated their current market value at Rs 170-180 crore.

One farmhouse in Delhi and one bungalow in New Friends Colony are also attached.

Tejashwi Yadav

>IRCTC hotel Scam: The Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Tejashwi Yadav is accused in the recent IRCTC hotel scam.

>Acquiring Benami Property: After the country-wide searches in the benami transaction cases against the Lalu family, Lalu's son Tejashwi Yadav was charged for tax evasion and illegal land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore.

Misa Bharti Yadav

> Acquiring Benami Property: Misa Bharti, the daughter of Lalu Prasad Yadav, was charged for tax evasion and illegal land deals worth Rs 1,000 crore along with her other family members.

She was accused of benami properties in New Delhi.

Earlier, Misa Bharti and her husband Shailesh were summoned by the I-T department in connection with a benami assets case.

Misa was fined Rs 20,000 for twice dodging summons of the I-T department to explain her links to properties, which tax investigators claim to have established, were acquired through benami transactions.

> Money Laundering

Bharti and her husband were summoned this week by Enforcemnet Directorate to record their statement under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), following the arrest of Rajesh Agarwal, a Chartered Accountant allegedly linked to Bharti.

The summation was in relation to Rs 8,000 crore money laundering probe being conducted by the agency against two Delhi-based businessmen brothers, Surendra Kumar Jain and Virendra Jain.

The agency said it was detected that 1,20,000 shares of M/s Mishail Printers and Packers Private Limited were bought during 2007-08 at a rate of Rs 100 per share by four shell companies.

These 1,20,000 shares, it said, were allegedly bought back by Bharti at Rs 10 per share.

It is alleged that they have laundered several crore rupees using over 90 shell companies.

Tej Pratap

> Acquiring benami property

Bihar Health Minister Tej Pratap was alleged to own a prime land worth Rs 15 crore in Aurangabad district in Bihar.

It was also alleged that the family owns a Honda showroom.

> Corruption

Pratap was alleged to have presented false facts and figures to the Election Commission. He was also alleged to have concealed the fact that he owned a prime land worth Rs 15 crore.
Bihar's chief minister and leader of Janata Dal United party Nitish Kumar poses in front of a portrait of Mahatma Gandhi after an interview with Reuters in the eastern Indian city of Patna, in Bihar state, January 8, 2012. When India launched reforms to open up its state-stifled economy 20 years ago, many states surged ahead, leaving behind the 3.5 percent "Hindu rate of growth" that had plagued the decades after the country's independence from Britain in 1947, and with it Bihar. Picture taken January 8, 2012. To match Insight INDIA-BIHAR/ REUTERS/Adnan Abidi (INDIA - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS) - RTR2X3NZ

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned on Wednesday evening after a prolonged rift with the ally Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) senior leadership, only to return on Thursday.

Within hours of him submitting his resignation to the Governor, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) jumped in to extend support for Kumar's Janata Dal (United).

On Thursday, Nitish Kumar was again sworn-in as the Bihar Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar returns as the Bihar CM: Catch the LIVE updates here.

JD (U) which has 71 seats in the assembly will easily surpass the half-way mark with BJP's 53 seats and help BJP return to power in Bihar.

Nitish Kumar, who has a history of political manoeuvring, had broken away from the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in 2013 after Narendra Modi was chosen as the de facto Prime Ministerial candidate.

Effects of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

JD (U)'s return to the NDA fold marks a significant shift in the fortunes of the Opposition parties.

Nitish Kumar was seen by political experts as the strongest face of what is called the "united Opposition" or the "Grand Alliance" and was touted as a Prime Ministerial candidate by many.

With Bihar, the Opposition was hoping for a strong Grand Alliance for 2019.

Now, with this Gathbandhan, BJP will lead 18 states in India, strengthening its position for the 2019 elections.

With the recent wins in four out of the five states for the BJP, the NDA is expected to continue its strong performance in the years to come. The new alliance will further boost NDA's chances in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The political manoeuvring undertaken by Nitish Kumar has decimated unity within the opposition and will severely dent their chances.

Nitish's alignment with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's NDA is likely to spell doom for the 'united opposition' in the 2019 Lok Sabha election.
Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif looks out the window of his plane after attending a ceremony to inaugurate the M9 motorway between Karachi and Hyderabad, Pakistan February 3, 2017. REUTERS/Caren Firouz - RTX2ZI70

Pakistan's Supreme Court may not announce the verdict before August 15 in the Panamagate case against beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption and money laundering, it emerged today after the court issued roster of cases for next two weeks.

According to the Cause List, the court has set up benches to hear all cases till August 11 and it does not include the three-member bench which reserved the judgement last week after the conclusion of the hearings in the Panama Papers case.

The roster shows that two of the three judges on the special Panama case implementation bench will be out of Islamabad from next week until August 11.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed will be hearing cases in the apex court's Lahore Registry while Justice Ijazul Ahsan will be proceeding on leave, reveals the roster.

Only Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who heads the bench, will be available in the capital.

The court will be closed from August 12 to 14 due to the weekend, followed by the Independence Day which is observed in Pakistan on August 14.

A six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate charges of money laundering against 67-year-old Sharif and his family had submitted the report on July 10 to the court, which could cost him his tenure as Prime Minister.

The apex court concluded hearing the case on July 21, but reserved its verdict.

The delay could be shocking to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party after its chief Imran Khan yesterday urged the apex court to issue the verdict without any further delay.

"The public is awaiting the Supreme Court's verdict," he had said.

Some of the PTI leaders are still hopeful for an early judgement, and Babar Awan said that the court may issue a supplementary cause list tomorrow and announce judgement. He said the court can also work and issue orders on the weekend.

But it is believed that the chances of any judgment before August 15 are slim as the judges would like to see and analyse all documents and evidence before the crucial judgment.

Last year, the Panama Papers revealed that three of Prime Minister Sharif's children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his family's wealth statement. The assets in question include four expensive flats in Park Lane, London.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Supreme Court's decision in the case is keenly awaited as it would determine the course of Pakistan's polity and with it Sharif's. An adverse decision may result in Sharif's disqualification and even snap elections.
Even as Nitish Kumar engineered a coup and joined hands with BJP to form the government in Bihar, the Congress is mincing no words. On Thursday, the grand old party's vice-president Rahul Gandhi has accused Janata Dal (United) Chief Nitish Kumar of "cheating" the people and the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance).

The remark came moments after Nitish Kumar took oath as the Bihar Chief Minister with the backing of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Rahul also added that he knew of Nitishs plans three months in advance.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had resigned on Wednesday evening after a prolonged rift with the ally Rashtriya Janata Dal's (RJD) senior leadership, only to return on Thursday.

Within hours of Nitish submitting his resignation to the Governor, the BJP jumped in to extend support for Kumar's JD(U).

Nitish's return to the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance is likely to dent the Congress -led Opposition's chances in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
Anantnag : Army jawans stand guard during an encounter with militants at Arwani village of Anantnag district of South Kashmir on Friday. Two youth were killed and nearly a dozen others injured as security forces opened firing to chase away stone-pelting protesters who tried to obstruct an anti-militancy operation in the village where three militants were holed up in a house. PTI Photo by S Irfan (PTI6_16_2017_000199B)

Widening its probe, the NIA today issued summons to Hurriyat hawk Syed Ali Shah Geelani's elder son Nayeem, asking him to appear before it for questioning on Monday in connection with its probe in the terror funding case in the Kashmir Valley.

A surgeon by profession, Nayeem had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years there. He is tipped as the natural successor to the Geelani-led Tehrek-e-Hurriyat, a separatist conglomerate comprising pro- Pakistan hardline groups.

Officials privy to the developments said the summons has been issued to Nayeem to appear before the NIA on July 31 in connection with the case of terror funding in the valley.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah alias Altaf Fantoosh has already been arrested by the NIA and was being interrogated in the same case, they said.

Besides him, Geelani's close aides Ayaz Akbar, who is also spokesman of Tehreek-e-Hurriyat, and Peer Saifullah were also arrested by the NIA from the Valley earlier this week.

Shahid-ul-Islam, spokesman of the moderate Hurriyat Conference led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, as also Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan (of the Hurriyat's Geelani faction) and Farooq Ahmed Dar alias 'Bitta Karate' have also been arrested, the officials said.

All of them have been remanded to 10 days of NIA custody.

Hafiz Saeed, the Pakistan-based chief of Jamaat-ul-Dawah, the front of another proscribed outfit Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT), has been named in the FIR as an accused besides organisations such as the Hurriyat Conference (factions led by Geelani and Mirwaiz Farooq), Hizbul Mujahideen (HM) and all-woman outfit Dukhtaran-e-Millat.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants of the HM, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, LeT, other outfits and gangs.

The case was registered for raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in Kashmir valley by way of pelting security forces with stones, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against India.

In pursuance of this case, the NIA had conducted widespread searches on the suspected persons in Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Haryana and incriminating documents, electronic devices, cash and other valuables worth crore of rupees were unearthed.

For the the first time since the rise of militancy in Kashmir in the early 1990s, a central probe agency had carried out raids in connection with the funding of separatists and carried out arrests.
One-horned rhinoceroses are seen at the flooded Kaziranga National Park in the northeastern state of Assam, India, July 12, 2017. Picture taken July 12, 2017. REUTERS/Anuwar Hazarika - RTX3B8NE

The response to floods in states like Assam and Gujarat has been the "quickest ever possible", the government said today while making it clear that there was no "bias" in its approach and intent in providing rescue teams and relief funds.

Replying to a call attention motion in the Rajya Sabha on the situation arising out of recent floods in the country, Minister of State for Home Kiren Rijiju said strict instructions have been issued to NDRF teams that there should be no delay in providing relief because of "human error".

Paramilitary forces have also been told to be ready to respond to the situation, he said, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given a direction that top priority should be given to tackle the disaster, be it manmade or natural.

Rijiju also said that states have enough funds in their kitty to tackle disasters and the Centre only supplements with additional relief amount when it gets exhausted.

"I can assure this House that the government is fully committed to ensure that nobody suffers due to want of the action from the Government of India. We are fully committed. We reassure state governments that we will be there whenever you require us," he said.

"Whether it is Assam or the current problem being faced in Gujarat, the disaster response has been quickest ever possible," he said, adding that relief work was in progress.

As many as 20 states, including Assam, Gujarat, Arunachal Pradesh and West Bengal, have been affected by heavy rains or floods during the current southwest monsoon season.

As per the information of damages received from states, 600 people have lost their lives, 24,811 cattle heads have perished, 63,215 houses/huts damaged and about 2.8 lakh hectare of crop reportedly affected due to heavy rains, floods and landslides, he said in response to 20 members who participated in the discussion.

Stating that declaring natural calamity as national disaster was "not enough", the Minister said "We have to treat the problem in the manner which it deserves." "The problem in Assam and surrounding states of Arunchal Pradesh and Manipur are of a severe nature. When it is a disaster of severe nature, the response of the government is also corresponding to the requirement on the ground," he said, adding he was satisfied with the efforts "The Government of India cannot be biased in its approach and its intent. It is very clear," he said, adding that the Prime Minister cannot visit every place and even the Minister cannot go and settle the issues on the ground.

On the opposition charges that the Centre was washing its hands off from its responsibility, the Minister said, "The primary responsibility to deal with natural calamities rests with states. This is not the question of relieve responsibility." The Centre cannot take over the district administration. Naturally the state has to respond. The Centre supplements the efforts of the state governments by providing financial and logistic support to effectively deal with such exigent situations, he added.

Clearing some members' misgivings that the Centre was not releasing or delaying relief funds, he said "it is not the case. Morever, it is not the political issue. We cannot afford to just sit back and respond whenever it is required."

He also said that the concerned states are taking necessary relief measures and state authorities are monitoring rainfall, water level of rivers and dams in coordination with IMD and Central Water Commission as well as issuing weather advisories to all vulnerable districts. On charges of delay in the release of central relief funds, the Minister said, "The provision is very clear and simple and it is streamlined. Every state has been given funds that is released in every first week of April of the year. That is in the kitty of the state government. That is the advance money." The Centre releases the second installment after assessing the nature of the disaster, he said. "It is not easy to assess the total cost of damage at one go. It takes time. There are systems. To say that the systems get very late may not be appropriate," he said.

He also said that the Rs 500 crore relief fund announced for Gujarat floods was part of State Disaster Relief Fund (SDRF) which was due to the state. It has not been given from the National Disaster Relief Fund (NDRF). The Centre has deployed about 88 specialised NDRF teams in 26 states/UTs with 304 boats another necessary search and rescue equipments. Based on vulnerability profile of different regions, the NDRF teams have been presently stationed/deployed in 12 headquarters.
Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani with actor Akshay Kumar

The current Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalani has been a controversys child since the time he took charge as Chairman. This time he is in news as Ministry of information and broadcasting sources have indicated that Nihalani will be replaced.

Film maker Prakash Jha and TV producer-actor Chandraprakash Dwivedi are said to be in the race for Chairmans post at Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

A meeting of CBFC members has been called by Nihalani in Thiruvananthapuram on July 28.

Nihalanis tenure has been the most 'sanskari' time for the Indian film industry. Recently, he suggested banning of smoking and drinking from movies. According to him, a ticker during a smoking or drinking scene is not enough.

His idea of censorship for movies has always been the bone of contention for filmmakers who argue that after film certification there should be no bleeping of scenes. However, films like Udta Punjab, Lipstick Under My Burkha and a documentary on Nobel laureate Amartya Sens life have been the victim to CBFC chiefs editing demands.

Lights, camera, actionCUT

Nihalani took the position of Censor Board chief in 2015 and since then he has been taking the call for what is fit for Indian audience. At the time of Shahid Kapoor and Alia Bhatt-starrer Udta Punjab, Nihalani had objected on the word Punjab. The objection had faced flak from many in the film fraternity and he was even called Prime Minister Narendra Modis chamcha. Apart from making changes in the films title, Nihalani had ordered 89 cuts in the film. But, the decision was dismissed by the Bombay High Court and the film hit the theatres with just one cut.

It is not just kissing scene or cuss words that have bothered the CBFC chief. He had raised objection on the word cow as well. Makers of the documentary on Amartya Sen, The Argumentative Indian, were asked to delete the words Gujarat and Hindu India, along with the word cow. These objections raised eyebrows in the film industry and actor Kabir Bedi had tweeted, Censor Board has no idea how much it is damaging Indias image with their stupid demands. Pahlaj Nihalani is a disaster.

And, the disaster continued. Next on target was Lipstick Under My Burkha that had to struggle for its release. The film saw light of day only after 27 scenes were deleted from the movie.

Recently, Nihalani raised objection on yet to be released Harry met Sejal, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Anushka Sharma. The films trailer mentions the word intercourse (sex) which has offended the moral guardian. He argued that such words corrupt young minds and that it is against the Indian culture.

Fate of films during the tenure of previous CBFC chiefs

Fate of films was no different during the term of previous heads of the Censor Board. Actor Sharmila Tagore was heading the Censor Board from 2004 to 2011 and she too had made objections similar to that of Nihalani.

The 2015 James Bond film Spectre had released in India with words like idiot and cats as a replacement for profanities like asshole and balls. Even long kisses from the film were edited and lovemaking scenes were chopped off. Twitterati had then started a trend called #SanskariJamesBond.

Tagore had argued that what works for the urban audience may not go down well with the suburban population.

But, things were different during the time of Leela Samson, a Bharatanatyam danseuse and a Padma Shri award winner. She turned out to be a strong support to the Aamir Khan-starrer film PK which was under the censorship scanner for its religious storyline. The Board had argued that few scenes in PK could the hurt religious sentiments. Refuting the boards argument, Samson had said that every film may hurt religious sentiments of somebody or the other. And, she took a strong stand that no scenes from the film will be deleted.

Her resignation had come after she had refused to clear the film MSG- The Messenger of God, featuring Dera Sacha Sauda chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh in the lead role. Film Certification Appellate Tribunal (FCAT) had intervened for the movies clearance.
Ford Motor Co on Wednesday joined rival General Motors Co in reporting higher-than-expected second-quarter profits, and in the next breath warning of a rougher ride for the rest of the year.

Ford said full-year pre-tax profit, automotive operating margins and cash flow would be lower than 2016 results, sending the company's shares down 2.1 percent.

Rival GM on Tuesday reported headline profits that beat analysts' estimates, but warned that profits for the second half of the year will likely be lower than the first half, as the company scales back scale back North American production to cut its burgeoning inventories.

Ford and GM's results present a counterpoint to other big U.S. companies reporting strong profits, including heavy equipment maker Caterpillar Inc , aircraft maker Boeing Co and telecommunications power AT&T Inc .

Investors worry that for Detroit's automakers, the second quarter marks a peak and profits are headed downhill. Thousands of workers at GM's U.S. factories are dealing with short- and long-term layoffs as production of slow-selling sedans is throttled back.

Ford's new Chief Executive, Jim Hackett, on Wednesday promised investors a rethink of Ford's spending, marketing and investment strategy within his first 100 days, focusing on the company's approach to emerging markets, small cars and its Lincoln luxury brand.

In the meantime, Ford is contending with sliding sales and rising costs. Ford's global sales fell by 43,000 vehicles in the quarter, and the company Ford said its full-year margin in North America, its most profitable market, would be lower than in 2016 due to $1.2 billion in additional commodity costs, costlier price cuts and engineering expenses.

Ford Chief Financial Officer Bob Shanks told Reuters on Wednesday the company would be concerned if the United States imposed new tariffs on imported steel, as the Trump Administration is considering. "It would give producers here the opportunity to raise prices," he said.

Ford reported second-quarter net income of $2.04 billion, or 51 cents per share, up from nearly $2 billion, or 49 cents per share, a year earlier. A big contributor was a lower tax rate of 15 percent, half the level analysts had expected.

Excluding one-time items, Ford earned 56 cents a share, and on that basis analysts, on average, looked for 43 cents.

It forecast full-year adjusted earnings per share in a range from $1.65 to $1.85, above the $1.51 expected by Wall Street, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. However, the company has already booked 96 cents a share in adjusted profit - more than half its full-year target. GM has also generated more than half its full year target of $6 to $6.50 a share.
There is no quid pro quo with China on the issue of "sufferings" of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing, Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha today.

The External Affairs Minister was responding to the supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal residents by China. She said "the issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or that of the Prime Minister. The issue has been raised by us."

Asked about India's stand on Tibet, she said "we used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear."

On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the Minister said "We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them."

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and "we allowed him to do so". This is not the first time but the fifth or sixth time that he is visiting that place.

"Whatever issue that is there that goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," Swaraj said.

To a question, she said there was no policy under which Chinese companies are denied security permission. She also objected to a member raising the issue of a particular Chinese company in the House.

She said that denial of security permission to one particular company cannot determine the relations between the two countries. She said it done under a process and if a Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.

To another question on the cancellation of a visit of Indian journalists to Tibet by China, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said there is no official information from China about it.

He said Indian journalists are independent and take their decisions independently and it was between them and the Chinese authorities about the visit to Tibet.

"As far as the visit being cancelled, officially we don't have any information. It is between the journalists and the host country," he said.

Akbar said in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Xi Jinping in Astana, a close development partnership issue was raised and both countries decided to increase people-to-people and media contacts and decided to do everything to bring the two countries together.

"We will continue to make such efforts and take them forward," he said, adding that a high-level media forum has been established to further strengthen media exchanges. The last meeting of this media forum was held in Beijing in February 2015.

"Government has no details of such a visit because the government was not approached by the host agency or the journalists for assistance," he said in a written reply.
Send items for Worship News to religion@thereporteronline.com. Address questions to Nancy March, editor, at nmarch@thereporteronline.com. Deadline is noon Thursday to appear in the Saturday Worship News and Notes. Presentation of Our Lord Ukrainian Catholic Church has one more Sidewalk Ukrainian...
Friends In Pink is still on the radar and growing every year
Did you miss out on the Pop Quiz this week? It's time to catch up and get ready for next week!
While Morgan Hill officials and members of the public continue to question if the new council district election system will achieve its goal of obtaining more Latino representatives on the dais, one of the residents who threatened to sue the city insists the change will at minimum make it easier for marginalized voters to participate.

Armando Benavides is one of three Latino Morgan Hill residents who hired the Oakland law firm Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho, which sent the city a demand letter May 2 informing them that the current at-large voting system is in violation of the California Voting Rights Act.

Benavides said one startling revelation brought to light during recent discussions of Morgan Hill demographics is that only 25 percent of the citys Latino population voted in the 2016 election.

To me thats a real serious concern, said Benavides, a former candidate for Morgan Hill City Council and the Morgan Hill Unified School District board of trustees. We need to find a way to fire up the base.

Morgan Hill has not elected a Latino mayor or council member since at least 2000.

He explained that under a district election systemin which the city is divided into four geographic sections equal in population, each one represented by a single council membercandidates for office will have a much smaller area to campaign and get to know the voters and residents.

District elections will make it easier to go out and knock on doors at election time because the districts are smaller, Benavides said. Its easier, less costly and more effective.

The current council voted in June to transition to a district election system, which is starkly different from the at-large elections the city has conducted since its inception. The council is in the process of hosting a series of public meetings and workshops on the district system. The city and demographer National Demographics Corporationhired by the council to help with the processcreated a website, drawmh.org, that allows residents to propose their own maps of the city divided up into four electoral districts.

The council is expected to approve a four-district map in late August or early September. The district election system will start with the November 2018 election, when the seats occupied by Councilman Rich Constantine and Councilwoman Caitlin Jachimowicz will be on the ballot.

Both these council members voted in favor of the change to a by-district system June 7, but only to protect the city from a costly lawsuit. They have been skeptical that the new system will be more equitable and inclusive of minority voters.

Another advantage of district elections, according to Benavides, is that the residents of a particular neighborhood or district might share the same concerns and needs of the candidate or council member running for office within that district.

Benavides also argued that since MHUSD transitioned to a by-district election system in 2015also at the demand of Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Hothe board of education has already seen the election of good representatives. Specifically, he was referring to Trustees Tom Arnett (who was appointed to the board before he won the 2016 election), Teresa Murrillo and Mary Patterson. Murrillo is currently the only Latino member of the school board. She ran unopposed in her district in 2016.

I dont think any of those would have been elected without district elections, Benavides said.

Benavides as well as Morgan Hill residents Sally Casas and Brenda Cayme hired the Oakland firm to send the city the May 2 demand letter, according to a June 19 letter from the firm to the city. Cayme ran for MHUSD school board in 2014, but lost.

The initial demand letter explained that the citys at-large election system dilutes minority representation on the council.

Can MH keep citywide mayor?

Attorneys continue to argue whether the citywide election of the citys mayor would be in violation of the CVRA. Morgan Hill officials are planning to keep the citys mayor positioncurrently occupied by Steve Tateelected at-large.

Attorney Mike Baller of the Goldstein, Borgen, Dardarian & Ho firm says such a systemwith four council districts and one citywide mayorwould continue to be illegal. The alternative would be to create five council districts, and then those five council members would rotate year-to-year as mayor, or appoint one among them to serve as mayor for a specified term.

However, Morgan Hill City Attorney Don Larkin noted that other laws are on the citys side. Because the voters of Morgan Hill approved the change to a citywide mayor in a previous election, only the voters can change it to another method. Larkin estimated the voters adopted the citywide elected mayor system in an election in the mid-1990s.

The city cant legally do what we demanded they do, which is to adopt five council districts by resolution, Baller said. The best they can do is (four council districts, one citywide mayor) and then have an election where the at-large system for mayor itself is changed by a vote of the people. Thats the bind the city is in, and I understand the position.

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Residents and a professional demographer have submitted more than a dozen city council district map proposals, which are available for public review on a website created to set up the new election system. The draft maps can be viewed at drawmh.org, which provides a wealth of map drawing tools and demographic information about the City of Morgan Hill. Residents can continue to draw their own map proposals using the website.
This morning the pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca (AZN) saw its shares fall more than 16% after the firm unveiled a setback to its stage four lung cancer trial.

But it is not just direct shareholders who have felt the hit. Thanks to a 5% dividend yield AstraZeneca is popular with many equity income fund managers  and passive tracker funds too. According to Morningstar Direct data AstraZeneca make up 3.33% of the FTSE 100 index, meaning any ETF or tracker fund will have a similar weighting, while many equity income funds have an even larger allocation in their portfolios.

Arguably the most well-known one is the Silver Rated CF Woodford Equity Income fund, which has AstraZeneca as the top holding in its portfolio, making up 8.9% of the fund. The fund has 81 stock holdings in total, of which 30.3% of them are invested in the healthcare sector.
Alfonso Casciato, senior vice president of sales at Street Capital has been with the lender since the beginning, and hes still there as it embarks on its continued evolutionBack in 2000 I was managing the PCF product through the CIBC channel. I was the senior manager for the credit group, Casciato says.However, he joined to the broker industry soon thereafter, drawn by the relationship aspect of the business that allowed him to develop relationships and help brokers grow their business.In 2003 I became the VP of credit for First Line Mortgages. I stayed in that role until 2007; when I helped launch Street Capital in the same capacity, VP of credit for Street Capital. I stayed in that role until two years ago in 2015 when I became the senior vice president of sales for Street Capital, which is my current role, he says.Launching Street Capital was intense, it was 24/7; by having ownership it was a perspective I had never had before. You werent just responsible for the role you had, you were responsible daily for the success of all aspects of the company.Launching a lender meant a level of commitment he had not experienced before. And it also brought with it its own challenges, especially considering it was just before the last economic recession.We were lucky our strategy was always to be a full suite lender. The idea was to launch on the B-side and roll out our prime business within the first year of starting Street Capital, Casciato says. With the economic downturn, we were able to quickly turn our focus from the B business over to the prime side of business and successfully launched that in February of 08 and havent looked back.How will brokers evolve in the constantly changing industry?I think the successful broker will adapt to the changes that are going on right now by putting more focus and attention on the application and the submission of the application to the lender. If they spend time on providing details and a strong story on each and every transaction, it will allow for a more seamless approval on the lender side and a more positive experience for the customer, Casciato says. The story has to make sense.There has to be a level of reasonability. So, for example, if a 25 year old is putting $120,000 down on a home, a story has to be made to explain where that deposit came from.In the past it would have just been a section filled out in the application $120,000 is the total deposit and there was no story around how a 25 year old had such a large deposit.Another example a borrower who is business for self, which is as sector that has increased year-over-year. Brokers for those clients need a story plan as well.How does the income that is being submitted for that self-employed individual make sense? Do they own retail space, how many customers do they have, how long have they been in business? That kind of reasonability, Casciato says.One major challenge, according to Casciato, is ensuring the industry continues to better compete with its big bank peers.For its part, Street Capital recently became a Schedule 1 bank, which will allow it to offer many of the same financial products already on offer at the countrys larger institutions.To be able to continue to offer all of the products available to the customers that the banks currently offer the customers will continue to be a challenge, Casciato says. At Street Capital by successfully launching as a schedule 1 bank, were positioning ourselves to be able to offer a full suite of products to all of our clients.One major challenge brokers face is continuing to educate customers about just what value they, the broker, can provide to Canadians.Market presence is always a challenge (brokers) have to focus on. It seems like if theyre competing theyre always competing against the banks and I think that suggests there isnt enough broker presence out there,Casciato says. The marketing. The numbers are there; I dont think theres a good enough marketing campaign out there so the end customer is aware of what an independent mortgage broker can offer.Technology in the channel will need to catch up with other industries if it wants to continue to evolve, according to Casciato.I think being able to submit an application from your phone is technology that is out there but both brokers and lenders have been slow to ramp up to that level of technology, he says. The ease of online application submissions by clients to brokers and in the same fashion brokers to lenders  theres really only one mode of submission to lenders these days and its electronically through Marlborough Sterling or D+H.I think were archaic when it comes to the options we have to submit an application from a broker to a lender.Challenging the big sixI think we have to be competitive on rates and better on service. The better service looks and feels like more timely contact, more support. Not only does the application come in from the broker, I would expect the lender to make initial contact from the lender thanking for the application, asking for clarifying questions right after the application, Casciato says. A handholding experience. Not just an application comes in, a commitment goes out and the documents are sent in and the deal either funds or for whatever reason stalls or we lose it to a competitor.
Mount Pleasant, SC (29464)

Today

Sunshine and clouds mixed. High 76F. Winds SW at 10 to 20 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
(Bloomberg) -- A surge in Amazon.com Inc. shares Thursday morning in advance of the online retailers earnings report briefly propelled founder Jeff Bezos past Bill Gates as the worlds richest person.

Shares of the online retailer fell 0.7 percent to $1,046 at 4 p.m. in New York, after climbing as high as $1,083.31 four hours earlier, which gave Bezos a net worth of $92.3 billion. Gates had a net worth of $90.8 billion as of the Wednesday close.
West Texans attending the 2017 National Scout Jamboree took messages of leadership and encouragement from President Donald Trumps speech, according to David Baker, president of the Boy Scouts of Americas Buffalo Trail Council.

Youre future leaders of your state, country and community -- it was really positive, Baker said in a phone interview Wednesday.

Baker is Scoutmaster for Jamboree Troop 4219, a contingent of 36 youth and four adults from the council. He didnt think the speech was political and thought the presidents comments about the Affordable Care Act were a way to inform attendees about current events.

Hes going to say something you can look at as political, Baker said. Hes president of the United States.

Some parents and former Scouts thought the content of Trumps speech was not appropriate, according to an Associated Press story.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

Baker said the crowd was cheering during the speech, and people were impressed the president spoke, something that didnt happen at the last National Jamboree.

It was awesome, Baker said. We felt slighted last time [when Obama] didnt come.

Baker said another highlight of the Jamboree was the opportunity to see Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, former governor of Texas and an Eagle Scout.

They just got state pride along with national pride, Baker said. They were able to exhibit that while having a former governor on stage.

The Jamboree is at the Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve in West Virginia. The gathering began July 19 and wraps up on Friday.
'The big truck is still on ...
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Seven of the 10 migrants who died after being transported in the back of a sweltering tractor trailer were Mexican nationals, according the Consul General of Mexico in San Antonio.

10 people dead in human smuggling case in Texas

James Bradley Jr., 60, of Clearwater, charged in trailer deaths

Victims found in tractor-trailer outside San Antonio Walmart

Clearwater man in federal custody in trafficking case

Attorney General Bondi wants to crack down on human trafficking

Of the 39 victims, 34 are Mexican nationals who came from all across Southern Mexico. However, these numbers can change as the investigation moves forward, and officials say that there may have been up to 100 people in the truck at one point.

The consulate said that only one of the migrants is a woman, and the rest are men, and that two are minors. One of the minors is still hospitalized, and the other is in care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Depending on their individual situations, some may be protected by U.S. laws.

"All of them have received legal advice from the consulate. There are some that prefer to hire a private attorney and do all the process on their own," said Reyna Torres Mendivil the Consul General of Mexico in San Antonio.

The consul says she is in contact with federal officials every day.

A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio said Wednesday that 13 of the immigrants from the truck are being held in federal custody and may be potential witnesses in the criminal investigation against the truck's driver.

At this point, the consulate is working to also get in contact with families, especially for those requiring funeral arrangements.

In addition to the victims from Mexico, according to reports, three people were from Guatemala. Two survived and one died.

The 13 potential witnesses in custody will be represented by attorney Michael McCrum. McCrum told the Associated Press that all of the people are expected to give depositions in August. Some may be released before any trial. He expects authorities to hold them at one of the immigrant detention facilities in the San Antonio area.

McCrum says he's concerned the detained passengers will "be treated as chips in a political game instead of real people.''
Authorities in Lake County say they have a solved a cold case in which an elderly woman was sexually assaulted during the middle of the night inside her own home.

Arrest made in 2-year-old Eustis cold case

Man accused of sexually assaulting elderly woman

Assault happened during the middle of the night

Suspect was already serving 20-year prison sentence

The Eustis Police detective who worked the case over the past two years said it all had to with a DNA sample.

In 2015, police said a woman older than 60 was sexually assaulted and robbed while she slept in her living room on Orange Avenue.

The woman told police that she woke up with a man on top of her. He reportedly grabbed her neck and put a pillow or blanket over her face.

Police said the case went cold for about two years until last month, when the Florida Department of Law Enforcement notified them of a DNA match.

Detectives met with the victim and told her an arrest had been made.

She started crying, and it felt good giving her that peace of mind that the person who assaulted her two years ago was off the street, Eustis Officer Jim Franquiz said.

The DNA belongs to 37-year-old Donte McCain, who is already in prison. He was sentenced to about 20 years for armed robbery and attempted kidnapping.

Police said he was required to submit a DNA sample and was entered into the data system CODIS, which discovered the match.

McCain now faces new charges of sexual battery and burglary.
A Clermont police officer who was fired and eventually reinstated is now facing third-degree felony charges after investigators say he lied in reports, affidavits and sworn testimony, according to officials.

In 2011, Cecil Garrett was accused of lying in an arrest report

Arbitrator said Garrett never lied; he was reinstated in 2013

Garrett now faces perjury charges

RELATED: Clermont police officer fired for lying in teen's arrest report

Cecil Garrett, 48, is facing five counts of perjury. An investigation was started earlier this year after complaints from citizens and inmates at the Lake County Jail. Garrett was placed on paid administrative leave March 10, authorities said.

According to a news release, the police department and State Attorneys Office found Garrett lied in his reports, affidavits, sworn testimony and or in his documentation of citizen encounters and interactions while on duty. Ten cases have been thrown out in connection to the Garrett case, the office said.



The Florida Department of Law Enforcement just wrapped up a five-month investigation, which ultimately led to issuing an arrest warrant Wednesday afternoon. The FDLE said it reviewed Garrett's arrests since 2011 and found false information in 11 criminal citations. The agency said Garrett would fabricate arrest affidavits, pulling over a vehicle before running the tag number through the system. Garrett told investigators it was a mistake.

Garrett turned himself in Thursday. He has been placed on administrative leave without pay pending the judicial process.

This arrest stems from a series of isolated incidents that were dealt with swiftly and expeditiously, Chief Charles Broadway said in a statement. These accusations are in no way reflective of the hard working men and women of the Clermont Police Department and their commitment to serving the public with integrity and professionalism.

Garrett, who joined the force in December 2005, has been accused of lying before. In 2011, Garrett claimed a teenage boy had cocaine, but instead it was crushed-up aspirin. The officer was fired, but an arbitrator said Garrett never lied, and he was reinstated in 2013.

In 2015, Garrett was named "officer of the first quarter," and the announcement mentioned how he participated in community events and fundraisers.



(Clermont Police Department)
Citing a move to align production levels with market demand, Sea Ray Boats laid off about 90 employees and furloughed another 130, the company said Thursday.

Sea Ray Boats lays off 90 employees at Flagler plant

Another 130 employees were furloughed

Company said reductions aligned with market demand

The reduction happened at the company's Palm Coast-based plant at 100 Sea Ray Drive. No other Brunswick facilities are impacted, according to spokesman Daniel Kubera.

Kubera said the actions are because of the market demand in the 40- to 49-foot segment of the business.

The temporary furlough will take place during the third quarter.

"Consistent with our values, we take good care of our people and will continue to develop our employees and support those impacted by these adjustments," Kubera said in a statement.

An example of that, Kubera said, is Brunswick will be conducting an outplacement fair to help laid-off individuals transition to other employment.

"As for those on furlough, the company is offering a number of measures to help soften the impact upon those individuals," he said.
The sugarcane aphid, which has significantly impacted grain sorghum yields across the Texas High Plains as well as other sorghum production areas in Texas and beyond since 2015, has made its first appearance this year in Hale County.

Greg Cronholm, an independent crop consultant and retired Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Integrated Pest Management agent, reports finding active colonies of sugarcane aphids on Tuesday about 3 miles east of Plainview.

At 5:31 p.m. Tuesday, Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Entomologist Pat Porter of Lubbock posted on the Texas Sugarcane Aphid News website, Most were small colonies, but some were a bit bigger. (This is) similar to what we saw with the early infestations in Crosby County last week. Cronholm told him the colonies were found in the upper half of the sorghum plants.

For the southern High Plains, we now have sugarcane aphid confirmed in Crosby, Lubbock, Hale and Floyd counties, Porter wrote.

Blayne Reed, Extension IPM agent for Hale, Swisher and Floyd counties, said the timing is about what we were expecting based on the regions limited experience with this pest. This year the sugarcane aphid has been much tamer elsewhere than in past years. And just as we are seeing in Floyd County, these new colonies in Hale County are being found on the upper leaves as if they are just now being blown in on our early sorghum.

With much of the early-planted crop in the late bloom to early dough stage, Reed warns that similar conditions in past years tended to kick them into overdrive.

While the area is experiencing much less pressure from the sugarcane aphid, Reed said theres a lot more fields with yellow sugarcane aphids pushing the economic threshold for treatment. There also has been a significant uptick in cotton bollworm activity, earworms in corn, headworms in sorghum and fall armyworm. We are finding them in 100 percent of the cornfields, and producers in Lubbock and Crosby counties are having to treat them in sorghum fields.

When considering treatment options to combat headworms, Reed said its important to protect the beneficial insects that prey on sugarcane aphids.

On Texas Sugarcane Aphid News, Porter adds, Sugarcane aphid is just beginning to build in fields in select counties on the Southern High Plains, and as of this writing I know of no fields that have required treatment . . . So far the aphids are building fairly slowly. This article is posted in the Sugarcane Aphid News site because sugarcane aphids should be considered if headworm control becomes necessary.

The less-than-good news is that fairly high numbers of headworms (corn earworm + fall armyworm) are being found in panicles. I was in a field in northeastern Crosby County last week that had 1-3 medium to large worms per head, and this field was later treated. Katelyn Kesheimer, IPM Agent in Lubbock and Crosby counties, just reported a field near Shallowater in Lubbock County that had a large number of worms. Stan Carroll, the research technician who runs the cotton bollworm/corn earworm traps at the Lubbock Center, told me that he emptied the traps Tuesday night and had a high number of moths in them when he checked them Wednesday morning. We are therefore experiencing a big flight of cotton bollworms/corn earworms. The good news, if you can call it that, is that the fall armyworm trap captures are still well below average.

Insecticide selection for headworms is complicated now that we have sugarcane aphid or the threat of sugarcane aphid in the system. Most of our older insecticides like pyrethroids, Sevin, Lannate, etc., will provide control, but they will also eliminate the beneficial insects from the field and leave it more open to damage by the sugarcane aphid. Newer insecticides like Blackhawk and Prevathon will preserve the beneficial insects, but they are more expensive than the older products. Besiege is a combination product; it has the same active ingredient as Prevathon, but with a pyrethroid as well. Besiege will not preserve beneficial insects. If a headworm treatment is needed, then the risk of sugarcane aphid will have to be factored into the choice of insecticides. As an additional complication, we think our corn earworm is still susceptible to pyrethroids in spite of some slippage downstate, but we know that fall armyworm is less susceptible to pyrethroids, especially the larger worms. One good thing is that headworms do not require the high gallons per acre of spray that sugarcane aphids do, so applications can be made with 3-5 GPA -- but check the label for the specific product you intend to use.
AUSTIN -- With only one exception, the Senate approved the last of the bills relating to the special session agenda remaining on its calendar Wednesday. Many of these measures are aimed at restricting city authority in favor of the state. This will give the House 20 days to consider Senate legislation relating to these issues.

First, the Senate gave approval to a bill that would require women to purchase supplemental insurance plans if they want coverage for elective abortion procedures. SB 8, by Conroe Sen. Brandon Creighton, would prohibit the inclusion of elective abortion coverage in employer-offered, government or ACA exchange insurance plans. Plans could still offer coverage for medically-necessary abortions.

Also Wednesday, the Senate passed a measure intended to combat mail-in voter fraud. Texas permits people older than 65, people with a disability, or people who won't be home during early voting or on Election Day to vote by mail ballot. North Richland Hills Sen. Kelly Hancock says that this alternate system is ripe for mail-in voter fraud, and pointed to a number of on-going investigations into questionable mail ballots, including 700 suspicious ballots in Dallas County.

His bill, SB 5, would enhance penalties for mail-in ballot fraud, enhances protections for elderly and disabled voters, and would strengthen signature verification procedures to detect potential fraudulent ballots. It also requires prompt reporting of mail ballots rejected under fraud suspicion to the state Attorney General.

The rest of the bills considered and passed on Wednesday dealt with restrictions on municipal authority. First, SB 6 by New Braunfels Sen. Donna Campbell, would curb cities' ability to annex areas by requiring input from citizens in the area to be annexed. Before a city can annex an area, the bill would require that it receive the approval of a majority of the registered voters there; by petition in a small area with less than 200 residents, and by election in more populous areas. The city would have to pay for the petition or election and would have to hold public hearings beforehand to permit public input.

Next, the Senate approved a bill that would end cities' authority to regulate the use of handheld devices while driving. Under SB 15 by Dallas Sen. Don Huffines, only the state could place limits on the use of handheld wireless communications devices while behind the wheel. The bill would end existing ordinances prohibiting use of a cell phone without a hands-free accessory in more than 40 Texas cities. State law already bans cell phone use in school zones and for drivers younger than 18. A statewide ban on texting and driving, passed during the regular session, is set to go into effect on September 1.

City and county permitting processes would be governed by a uniform and expedited state-wide standard under a bill passed by Fort Worth Sen. Konni Burton. Her bill, SB 13, would require all municipal permitting processes to follow the same rules. The intent of the bill is to reduce the time from application to approval to about 30 days.

Finally Wednesday, the Senate passed a bill that would end city protections for trees on private property. SB 14, by Sen. Bob Hall of Edgewood, would override existing ordinances that prevent people from cutting down trees or vegetation on their own land without municipal approval. This bill would not apply to some safety ordinances, such as those intended to prevent tree disease or wildfires.

The only item on the Senate agenda not passed over the last three days is SB 18, by Wichita Falls Sen. Craig Estes. This measure, which seeks to put a cap on the growth of local government spending, is set to be taken up next week.

The Senate will reconvene Friday, July 28 at 10 a.m.
The Texas Department of Public Safety's latest report shows where some of the biggest criminal groups are most active in the state.

The July 2017 "Gang Threat Assessment Report" includes county maps of Texas, each tied to individual gangs in the "Tier 1" and "Tier 2" categories.
Houston-based Halliburton said Thursday it agreed to pay a $29.2 million penalty to settle a bribery case in Angola and another investigation in Iraq.

The payment resolves possible violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act related to dealings with a third-party vendor in Angola, Halliburton said, as well as an investigation into its operations in Iraq. Halliburton also hired an independent consultant to review its compliance program in Africa.
Nestle warned that sales growth this year will be the weakest in at least two decades, giving activist investor Dan Loeb ammunition for his campaign to overhaul the worlds largest food company.

Organic revenue growth will be at the lower half of its 2 percent to 4 percent forecast, the maker of Nespresso capsules and Perrier bottled water said Thursday. Sales increased 2.3 percent in the first six months of 2017, missing analysts estimates. The shares fell as much as 2.5 percent, the steepest decline in three months.

It was a semester to forget, wrote Jean-Philippe Bertschy, an analyst at Bank Vontobel who added that all the key numbers worsened. Nestle will have to convince investors at the investor day in September that it will be able to accelerate growth and deliver on profitability.

Chief Executive Officer Mark Schneider is under pressure to turn around the maker of Gerber baby food and Purina Dog Chow after Loeb revealed a $3.5 billion stake last month, demanding asset sales and higher shareholder returns. First-half revenue growth missed Nestles expectations and pricing has been soft, said Schneider, who is in his first year on the job and is set to unveil his strategy in two months.

The food industry has suffered recently as consumers shun packaged food they perceive as unhealthy. French yogurt maker Danone also reported that sales barely grew in the second quarter as a revamp of the Activia brand flopped. Last week Unilever reported it had no volume growth in the second quarter. The approach by Loebs Third Point plus Kraft Heinz Co.s abandoned bid for Unilever highlight the difficulties big food has had in reigniting their businesses.

Food companies will need to reinvent themselves, and a lot will have to change in the sector, especially in the developed markets like Japan, Europe and North America, said Patrik Lang, head of equity research at Julius Baer Group. Thats what were starting to see: Nestle wants to invest more in the health trend, Unilever is developing more and more into a company that commits to personal hygiene and Danone is searching for its own identity.

In response, some of these companies plan to focus on areas where they see stronger growth prospects. Schneider has started an overhaul by reviewing Nestles U.S. confectionery unit for a possible sale, as well as announcing a buyback of as much as 20 billion francs ($21 billion) in shares.

Both Nestle and Danone reported facing commodity cost headwinds Thursday, which may crimp profitability. Danone said it expects a steep rise in milk prices in the second half, along with increases in costs of plastic packaging and other materials. Nestle said it paid more for raw materials for the first time in two years.

Nestle suffered from sluggish demand in western Europe as consumers shirked higher prices for products such as Nescafe soluble coffee. The company also had a drop in infant nutrition shipments, while its skin health unit faced increasing competition from generic prescription brands.

The pricing weakness clearly shows the need to ditch the complacent approach that has stemmed from oligopolistic positions, Pierre Tegner, an analyst at Natixis, wrote.
Ned Gerard / Ned Gerard

BRIDGEPORT -- A man who was expelled from the U.S. after being convicted in an Arizona drug case  only to come back into the country  has been convicted for a second time, pleading guilty to illegal reentry.

Luis Manuel Rodriguez Burgos, 36, a citizen of the Dominican Republic who was living in the Park City, admitted his guilt Wednesday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Holly B. Fitzsimmons.
Vanesa Brashier

An environmental company will have to wait a little longer to receive their payment from Liberty County after a state agency has requested more testing of a cleanup area.

The cleanup was a burial area at the Precinct 3 property on the northwest corner of FM 1010 and the SH 105 bypass in Cleveland and a railcar on the Pct. 3 yard at 119 S. Fenner.

The cleanup was a mess left by former Pct. 3 Commissioner Eddie Lowery originally only at the 119 S. Fenner yard and exacerbated when he decided to take some 20 cubic yards of AC-10 asphaltic waste and bury it on the FM 1010 property, the previously considered site of the Pct. 3 county barn.

The ill-advised move, not approved by commissioners, caused Lowery to be cited by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) and threatened with fines if the site was not remediated.

The citation was issued in February of 2016, yet Lowery did not address the issue and following his loss in the November 2016 election, he left it for the incoming commissioner.

In late May of this year, new Pct. 3 Commissioner James "Boo" Reaves received a warning from TCEQ that they would be initiate fines, potentially retroactive back to February of 2016, of $10,000 per day if the site was not cleaned up immediately.

Lowery ignored warnings for months and potentially could have cost the county up to $4 million in exposure and liability in fines.

Reaves brought the matter to commissioners court in an emergency session where commissioners approved the contracting of Garner Environmental Services, Inc. (GESI) of Deer Park for remediation.

The county was facing a June 1 deadline and acted quickly enough to satisfy TCEQ officials that they their intentions were to take care of the issue.

Work began the following week.

Garner sent the state samples of the soil, but in a phone call on Monday prior to the commissioners court session, Tom Collins from TCEQ requested new samples from the cleared site.

"We have sent them several emails and they responded to Kathrine's (McCarty) email yesterday and called Commissioner Reaves," said County Attorney Matthew Poston. "They just requested Garner to send some more samples," which Poston said Garner had agreed to do. The samples, Poston hoped, would demonstrate to the agency that the cleanup was done properly.

Poston said it should be done within a few days or a week at the most.

"My concern," Poston told commissioners, "is if we pay Garner now, we lose a little bit of leverage if the work was not done properly."

Commissioner Reaves said he believed the county got off the hook since there was no need for hazardous waste disposal which could have shot the price tag up closer to a quarter million.

In court earlier, the insurance agent for the county, Todd Arnold, said that there was no third-party involvement and no intentional act, so there was no standing for a claim.

But later Tuesday, Liberty County Judge Jay Knight was still trying to find a way to get some help.

"I'd like to see if our insurance would cover previous officeholders for an errors and omissions kind of thing," said Liberty County Judge Jay Knight.

The cost of the cleanup will cost the county $106,456.26, and the county could seek damages from the former commissioner.

Poston would not comment on the record whether the county would seek remedy from Lowery, but didn't dismiss it as an option on the table.

Reaves immediately contacted Garner Environmental Services, Inc. (GESI) of Deer Park, Texas for assistance and confirmed to Dayton News/Cleveland Advocate late Tuesday that they would be on the site the following morning to take the samples.

In other court news, commissioners approved their portion of the new detention lock and equipment for the county jail at $41,436.39. The private company running the jail also invested $150,000 in improvements at the facility including new call buttons, console, cameras, new locks on the cells and doors.

Also approved was the conversion of roads and converting surety bonds to two-year maintenance bonds in Camino Real, Sections 1 through 3.

Commissioners also appointed Ronnie Danner to serve on the board of directors of the new Tax Increment and Reinvestment Zone (TIRZ) No. 1.
Google Analytics has proven time and time again that its one of the best marketing tools out there. With its detailed and user-friendly reports about whats happening on a website, and why, Google Analytics is a great tool for marketers to understand what their audiences look like, as well as which strategies are working and which arent.

Related: 5 Keys to Unlocking the Power of Google Analytics

Since this tool is so helpful, its especially important that you use it correctly to achieve its fullest potential. Here are some common Google Analytics mistakes to avoid in order to ensure that youre getting the most out of this powerhouse.

1. Not using Google Analytics in the first place

As many as 30 to 50 million websites use Google Analytics. If your site isnt one of them, you risk missing out on one of the best applications for analyzing your web traffic.

Without using Google Analytics or another tracking platform for your website, its nearly impossible to know what marketing strategies are working -- especially on the individual page level. By being able to look at how each page performs, you can make nuanced tweaks to improve your business strategy.

2. Not filtering out internal session data

For a large organization, thousands of page views per month might come from you or your employees. This internal activity can skew your data and give you an inaccurate idea of your websites performance. So, its important to set up a filter to remove this information from your results so that the analytics youre examining are as accurate as possible.

3. Not filtering out spam traffic

Some 4 percent of all internet traffic comes from spam; this might seem like a small percentage, but it can translate into a significant number of meaningless page views for your website.

Even if youve already implemented tools to block spammers, youll still want to filter out spam traffic to keep your data accurate. One way to do this is to apply the Segment to Eliminate Spam Referrals by Analytics Edge in your Google Analytics.

Related: 6 Google Analytics Data Points You Can Use to Drive Content Campaign Success

4. Misusing Urchin Tracking Module (UTM) parameters

A UTM parameter is a sort of tag that you can add to URLs to help you see where your web traffic is coming from. For instance, if youre putting up ads on different websites, using UTM parameters will help you see which ads are doing a better job at driving traffic to your site. This is how you can find out statistics, like the fact that 31.24 percent of all referral traffic in 2014 came from social media.

With that knowledge under your belt, you can adjust your marketing strategies accordingly.

5. Using only aggregate data

If you dont segment your Google Analytics data based on factors like demographics, behaviors and geography, youre missing out on a ton of valuable information. For example, 72.5 percent of the Huffington Posts web traffic comes from the United States, so that publication probably caters a lot of its content to the U.S. audience.

By segmenting, you can gain similar insights into your own website to better tailor your content and reach more people.

6. Not setting up goals

This one goes back to that old Harvard study that found that having goals makes you 10 times more successful than the alternative. As a marketer or executive, you certainly do have goals: to generate leads, improve customer engagement and make sales, for starters. In Google Analytics, you can also set up such goals as increasing white-paper downloads, getting more people to click on a certain page or encouraging more contact forms.

The tool will show you your progress so that you can make adjustments as needed.

7. Not tracking conversions

Some 22 percent of marketers report being dissatisfied with their conversion rates. To avoid this, use Google Analytics to help track this aspect of yourr users' journey. Without conversion data, youll have an incomplete picture of your websites performance; after all, the sites main goal should be to increase those conversions.

By setting up a conversion goal in Google Analytics, you can see where the conversions came from, what pages on the site users have visited most and what got them to fulfill the conversions you attained.

8. Not tracking events or campaigns

Some 64.6 percent of people click on Google ads when theyre looking to buy an item online. So, given this context, if you arent tracking your own campaigns, you won't know which ad campaigns are working and which arent.

Google Analytics provides you the source of your referral traffic, as well as specific campaign-tracking variables. You can also track events like email clicks and video views.

9. Comparing apples and oranges

Its imperative that you look at comparable data in order to make conclusions about trends regarding your web traffic. For example, if you're comparing conversions in two different months, its possible that holidays or other events are affecting those conversions -- making it difficult to compare the two directly.

This apples and oranges issue is a common one in many scenarios: Remember how many mainstream polls gave then-presidential candidate Donald Trump a mere 28.6 percent chance of winning? Since those polls were comparing data from sources that couldn't be compared -- i.e., the demographics of liberal and conservative voters -- many polls were faulty.

Dont make a similar mistake when making decisions based on your Google Analytics information.

10. Ignoring the Solutions Gallery

Only around 5 percent of the U.S. population can be ranked at the highest level of computer literacy; the rest of us need help sometimes when running our websites. And, here, Google Analytics can get tricky, so its a big mistake to not use its Solutions Gallery, which provides access to custom reports and dashboards to help you navigate website issues.

Related: How Google Uses People Analytics to Create a Great Workplace

There are a huge number of ways to use Google Analytics to your advantage -- and a lot of ways to make mistakes with it, as well. By avoiding these common pitfalls, youll get closer to unlocking the full potential of your website.

Related:

10 Mistakes You're Making With Google Analytics

How Many Social Media Tools Do You Really Need?

Instagram Analytics: Which Metrics Really Matter?



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This article originally appeared on entrepreneur.com


Imagine standing in a swamp in southeastern Oklahoma, up to your hips in muck. It's humid and buggy, and a monotonous hum fills the air. But this buzz isn't from insects or a moody rattlesnake.

It's the sound of a shiny, seven-inch-long sex toy. Which you are currently applying to the genitals of a western chicken turtle. For science.

Curiously, this was the scene in the summer of 2014 as Donald McKnight, a herpetologist at Missouri State University, tested out a new, noninvasive method for figuring out whether turtles are male or female.

It might sound silly, but the reptiles can actually be pretty secretive about their gender. All of their relevant parts are hidden inside an orifice known as the cloaca, so scientists must rely on features like shell shape, tail size, claw length and eye color for sexing. The trouble is, these indicators are not always clear, and sometimes an individual turtle will have one feature that indicates "boy" and another that points toward "girl."

Failing external cues, the scientists could then opt to measure the turtle's testosterone levels by drawing blood or by performing a cloacoscopy, which basically means inserting a small telescoping camera into the cloaca. These methods are understandably stressful for the reptiles, time-consuming and difficult to perform in the field.

And that brings us to the vibrators.

You see, if you can catch a glimpse of a turtle's penis, then you don't have to bother with all those other clues. But it's not as if the reptiles are just walking around waving the goods at passersby. No, they have to be romanced.

But we're still learning what exactly turns turtles on. Earlier studies have revealed that common snapping turtles will evert their penises if you gently bounce them up and down. And Cotinga River toadhead turtles have been known to, uh, reveal themselves after their necks and limbs are immobilized. Scientists have also used a technique called electroejaculation on Yangtze soft-shell turtles; it uses electrodes to coax the animal toward erection and eventually ejaculation. The fruits of such labors are then used to try to create more of those critically endangered turtles through artificial insemination attempts.

But in his study, McKnight found that a little battery-powered stimulation was enough to make most male turtles evert their penises. This isn't as easy as you might think, however. Some species, such as the spiny soft-shell turtles, responded quickly and robustly to any vibration on or around their tails, whereas other species, such as common musk turtles and Mississippi mud turtles, required a bit of foreplay first.

These species responded best to "moving the vibrator in slow, small circles on the abdominal and pectoral scutes," or plates, McKnight wrote in a new paper on the method. ("Good vibrations: a novel method for sexing turtles" was published in the most recent issue of the journal Acta Herpetologica and included Hunter Howell, Ethan Hollender, and Day Ligon as co-authors).

In an interview, McKnight played down his talents. "It was really just a matter of moving the vibrator around and trying different techniques until I found ones to which the turtles responded well," McKnight said.

Surely, no one will buck at the notion of finding new and better ways to study wildlife. But c'mon. Did it have to be a shiny silver vibrator?

"Since this was a pilot study, we bought the cheapest, most generic vibrator we could find," said McKnight, adding that the apparatus was purchased online for about $10. "We did get a visit from the department's secretary, who wanted to know why we were using our funding to order a vibrator."

Needless to say, the mockery machine is starting to churn. McKnight said he's already had someone call him "the vibrator guy" at a conference. Marc Abrahams, editor of the Annals of Improbable Research, said he is aware of the study and deemed it "clearly a worthy candidate for an Ig Nobel Prize." (Previous Ig Nobel Prize winners include the scientists who discovered dogs tend to align their bodies on the North-South axis when they poop and those who found that nearly all mammals empty their bladders in 21 seconds.)

"I hope this won't be my only lasting contribution to science, but I'm certainly proud to have it on my CV," said McKnight.

David Steen, a wildlife ecologist at Auburn University (also known as "the guy who once gave a turtle CPR"), said these sorts of studies are valuable both for what they add to the scientific record, but also for the way they can bring the general public into the conversation.

"Talking about some of these innovative techniques can help raise attention to the fact that we still have a lot to learn about the imperiled creatures all around us," said Steen, who broke the turtle vibrators story over at Motherboard.com.

That said, it's important that we don't all go out and start testing out personal massagers on wild reptiles.

"Although the research described in this study may be unconventional, it was done by professional biologists, for a good reason, and with all relevant permits," said Steen, who confirms that he has never used any sex toys on turtles in either his personal or professional life. "Also, some turtles have serious bites that people should avoid."

So what's next for Team Turtle Vibrator? McKnight says that for the vibration method to be useful, it will require more testing in the field to nail down the best method for each species. He would also like to see someone test different styles of vibrator to see if some work better than others.

And for what it's worth, he said he has no qualms about forging ahead with this line of inquiry, even if it becomes the butt of jokes.

"I think it is really important for people to occasionally see science and scientists like this. There is this stereotype that scientists are really rigid, awkward and detached from the society, and it's just not true," McKnight said. "We are normal people who just enjoy asking questions about the world around us and looking for answers to those questions. We enjoy jokes and comically absurd situations just as much as anyone else."
An attack on a Nigerian oil exploration team by Boko Haram Islamist militants killed at least 48 people, hospital and military officials in the northeast city of Maiduguri said.

Those who died in the July 25 attack include 18 soldiers, 15 local vigilantes, five geologists from the University of Maiduguri, four drivers working for the state oil company and six others, said medical and military officials at the university's hospital who asked not to be named as they weren't authorized to comment.
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A deadly malfunction on the Fire Ball carnival ride at the Ohio State Fair has prompted safety regulators to close six similar rides around California  including one in the Bay Area and another at the popular Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk.

Californias division of Occupational Safety and Health asked owners to close the thrill rides until they hear from the manufacturer, KMG, and inspectors can deem whether they are safe.

The manufacturer, meanwhile, has ordered all of its Fire Ball rides, which it also calls the Afterburner, to be closed down around the world until further notice.

Our deepest sympathies go out to all who were involved or affected by this tragic accident, officials with KMG said in a statement.

At the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, operators closed their Fire Ball ride on Wednesday night after officials there saw cell phone footage of the harrowing failure on the opening day of the Ohio State Fair in Columbus.

About an hour after seeing what happened in Ohio, we decided to close the ride out of an abundance of caution, Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk spokesman Kris Reyes said. As of today (Thursday) it remains closed until further instruction from the state.

Reyes said mechanics inspect every ride at the Santa Cruz boardwalk daily, and state regulators do yearly inspections as well.

We are very confident in the safety of our rides, he said.

There was no indication of any problems with the Fire Ball ride in Santa Cruz.

Operators shut down similar rides at Californias Great America in Santa Clara and at the Cal Expo State Fair in Sacramento.

Rides in Southern California were also closed, pending notification from Cal/OSHA, including ones at the Orange County Fair in Costa Mesa, at Knotts Berry Farm in Buena Park (Orange County) and at Belmont Park in San Diego.

The rides at the Orange County Fair and Cal Expo are both portable, while the other four are permanent.

Video of the Ohio accident shot by a bystander shows part of the attraction snapping off Wednesday evening as it pitched downward in a pendulum-like motion, launching riders onto the pavement below.

One person died and at least seven other people were injured  two critically.

Investigators in Ohio continued working to figure out what caused the ride there to malfunction. Ohio Gov. John Kasich ordered all rides at the fair shut down as the state investigates the incident.

The Fire Ball in Ohio was operated by Amusements of America and debuted in 2002, becoming one if its most popular thrill rides, according to the companys website.

Riders attached by harnesses are spun at 13 revolutions a minute as they swing up to 40 feet in the air at the end of a long mechanical arm.

Officials with Amusements of America did not immediately comment on the accident.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
President Donald Trump's hastily tweeted declaration that he'll bar transgender people from serving in the military has run into the realities of Pentagon bureaucracy.

The Defense Department said Thursday there'll be "no modifications" yet to its policy allowing transgender people to serve in the U.S. military until the Pentagon receives more formal notification from the White House. The move came a day after Trump's announcement, citing the additional medical costs and "disruption" having such troops would cause, prompted bipartisan rebuke.

"There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance," the office of Joint Chiefs Chairman Joseph Dunford said in a statement. "In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect."

The statement, which omitted any endorsement of the president's policy, will at the least slow Trump's announcement -- made in a series of three tweets -- that he "will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military." It also indicated that the Pentagon would require the White House to define the parameters of the president's decision, and suggested that the move is a distraction from the military's effort to fight multiple conflicts around the world.

"As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions," Dunford's office said in the statement.

The White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on the Pentagon statement. On Wednesday, White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said members of the president's national security team would "work together as implementation takes place and is done so lawfully," while refusing to provide a timeline for when Trump would provide more formal guidance on his policy preferences.

But the Dunford announcement underscored the chaos and confusion stemming from the president's frequent and surprising early-morning tweets, which in this case caught Pentagon officials and key members of Congress off-guard.

Trump made the decision Tuesday, notified Defense Secretary James Mattis (who's on vacation this week) and other key administration officials overnight, and didn't see any reason to wait on an announcement, Sanders said.

"Sometimes you have to make decisions. And once he made a decision, he didn't feel it was necessary to hold that decision," she said.

Key members of the House and Senate Armed Services committees, who would typically get a heads up about such a move, also were blindsided.

Officially, the move is about saving money on medical expenses related to gender-reassignment procedures -- even though the estimated costs add up to just a few million dollars annually -- and to strengthen the armed forces. In the president's view, the presence of transgender people in the ranks "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion," Sanders said.

But the move also defuses a congressional standoff over whether a forthcoming defense spending bill should allow the Pentagon to pay for gender-reassignment care -- and may ease approval of money for the president to build a border wall. Trump, in fact, went much further than social conservatives in Congress had sought, apparently banning transgender people from the military altogether.

Trump's tweets also reignited the right just as some were cooling on him after his public bullying of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Breitbart News -- usually a Trump ally -- described Sessions this week as "a man who embodies the movement that elected Donald Trump president."

Treatment of transgender people has become a flashpoint in the U.S. culture wars as social conservatives lead fights in some states to require that students and sometimes adults use school and public restrooms corresponding to their gender at birth. Trump has attempted to thread a needle between the two sides. In his campaign, he cultivated evangelical voters while at the same time promising to "fight for" the gay and transgender community.

But so far in Trump's presidency, it is gay and transgender Americans who've come out on the losing end of disputes between the two sides.

Socially conservative members of Congress contacted White House officials with concerns about Pentagon spending on gender-reassignment procedures after a defeat on the House floor, according to two Republican aides. An amendment offered to a defense policy bill by Rep. Vicky Hartzler of Missouri this month that would have banned the Pentagon from paying for medical care related to gender transition failed by a vote of 209-214.

Mattis had called Harztler personally before the vote to ask her to withdraw the amendment, the aides said.

Afterward, a group of conservative lawmakers, including Mark Meadows of North Carolina, Jim Jordan of Ohio, and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, told members of the Trump administration, including legislative director Marc Short, that some Republicans would have difficulty voting for a security spending bill with money for Trump's border wall unless the restriction on gender-reassignment care was included, the aides said.

However, Trump took things a step further than they expected when he said in his tweet that he would ban military service by transgender people. Meadows, the chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, was surprised by the tweet, according to one of the aides, who was with him when he saw it and said he read it several times.

By Wednesday evening, House Republicans had concluded they no longer needed to debate inclusion of the Hartzler language in a spending bill.

Even without much information about how Trump's ban would translate to policy, the battle lines quickly came into sharp relief. Gay and transgender rights groups and Democrats roundly rejected the move, while socially conservative organizations with close ties to the White House celebrated it.

But in a surprise, some Republicans -- and not just moderate ones -- also publicly denounced Trump's announcement.

"There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military -- regardless of their gender identity," Arizona Sen. John McCain, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said in a statement. "We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so -- and should be treated as the patriots they are."

"Transgender people are people and deserve the best we can do for them," Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch said. He added, "I look forward to getting much more information and clarity from our military leaders about the policy the president tweeted today."

Iowa Sen. Joni Ernst, who served in the Army for more than two decades, said she's opposed to taxpayer funding for gender-reassignment surgery but believes that people who meet the military's standards should be able to serve, regardless of gender identity.

It wasn't clear how many active service members would be affected by a ban. A 2016 RAND Corporation study estimated the number of transgender individuals on active duty in the U.S. military at 1,320 to 6,630 out of a total of about 1.3 million service members.

The financial savings would be negligible within the $6 billion-plus military medical budget, let alone Trump's $574.5 billion proposal for 2018 defense spending.

Care related to gender reassignment costs the Pentagon $2.4 million to $8.4 million annually, the larger number a little more than 0.1 percent of the military's entire health-care bill. By contrast, the military spent $84 million on Viagra and other drugs for erectile dysfunction for active-duty troops, eligible family members and retirees in 2014 alone, the Military Times reported.
WASHINGTON -- The Senate rejected a proposal Wednesday that would have repealed major parts of the Affordable Care Act, but Republican leaders were growing more confident about their chances of passing a more modest overhaul of the health-care law later this week.

Republicans appeared to be coalescing around a "skinny repeal" that would abolish the individual and employer insurance mandates and perhaps just one tax in an attempt to sustain their seven-year quest to unwind President Barack Obama's health-care law. But even if they succeed - and start negotiations with the House - they will face significant obstacles in accomplishing anything more substantial.

Top Republicans such as Sen. John Thune, S.D., the chamber's third-ranking Republican, said that although leaders have not yet found "the sweet spot" between conservatives and centrists, they had picked up support for a more modest plan because it did not include deep cuts to Medicaid. Some Republican senators were simply open to any legislation that could keep alive the roller-coaster push for an overhaul.

"We're edging closer and closer" to getting 50 votes for a bare-bones plan, Thune said. He said leaders were betting that some Republicans who defected on votes this week would feel more pressure to support any bill that emerged from negotiations with the House to face a final vote in the Senate.

"Voting on something at the end of the process when it's the only train leaving the station . . . I think that's a different vote for a lot of people," he said.

More than half a dozen centrists from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act objected to the original Senate draft that was considered on Tuesday night. It would have cut the program for low-income Americans by $772 billion over 10 years and curtailed its long-term growth rate.

Yet even if Republicans agree on a minimalist plan to alter the ACA, uniting with their House colleagues to enact a bill would be far more challenging. On Wednesday - even before the skinny repeal came up for a vote - some House conservatives were calling it untenable.

Rep. Mark Meadows, R-N.C., chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a key player in negotiating the House-passed bill, told reporters recently that a skinny repeal would be "dead on arrival" in the House and that a conference committee would have to be convened to work out a compromise.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., overcame serious opposition from his rank-and-file members to begin debate on health care - a prospect that seemed dim just last week. President Trump has taken to Twitter and made public statements challenging Senate Republicans to support an overhaul or take ownership of the ACA's failure.

But in two votes over the past 24 hours, lawmakers rejected differing approaches to rewriting the landmark 2010 law. The open voting process - which is likely to drag on for the rest of the week - has laid bare the fact that Senate Republicans haven't been able to find a comprehensive replacement for the law they have relentlessly lambasted.

Republicans on Wednesday lacked answers for how or even whether they can break their gridlock by simply extending their endeavor, but appeared determined to press ahead.

"I think it's a good idea to start with what we agree on and see how big we can get the bill from there," said Sen. Rand Paul, Ky., who has pushed for a repeal of the law and has repeatedly clashed with GOP leaders.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, S.C., said that a scaled-back bill "is not a solution to the problem" the American health-care system is facing, but that there did not appear to be another option.

GOP leaders have little room to navigate when it comes to crafting a bill, as just three defections within their ranks would deprive them of the 50 votes they need to pass legislation with the assistance of Vice President Pence, who can break a tie.

And in each of the two most important votes the Senate has cast since taking up the bill, at least 13 percent of Republicans defected to join Democrats in opposition.

"This certainly won't be easy. Hardly anything in this process has been," McConnell said on the Senate floor Wednesday.

In an effort to muster enough votes for a narrow bill, GOP leaders suggested that even some proposals that have died in the Senate could come up again once they enter negotiations with the House.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, Texas, said proposals offered by Sens. Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that were rejected Tuesday as part of a broader rewrite measure could resurface. Graham, meanwhile, said he is willing to go along with the skinny repeal - but only if he is assured that a plan he has offered would be reconsidered.

Portman's measure calls for adding $100 billion in federal funding to help consumers with out-of-pocket medical costs and allowing states to provide cost-sharing assistance to low-income people who transition from Medicaid to private insurance with a federal tax credit. Cruz's amendment would let insurers offer health plans on the ACA market that do not provide the full benefits required under the law, as long as they offer at least one option that does.

A total of 57 senators, including nine Republicans, voted against the measure that included both of those provisions. But Cornyn said that passing a skinny repeal would buy time for the Congressional Budget Office to score those two plans, which may be revisited in a conference committee.

Senate Democrats announced late Wednesday afternoon that a preliminary CBO estimate found that 16 million people would lose coverage if Republicans enacted a handful of the policies floated for the pared-down repeal bill. The analysis was based on the assumption that the GOP wants to repeal the individual and employer mandates, end a 2.3 percent tax on medical device manufacturers, ban funding for Planned Parenthood and repeal prevention health funds.

In a sign of how the prospect of a spike in the uninsured rate continues to worry governors, a bipartisan group of 10 of them - including Republicans Brian Sandoval of Nevada and John Kasich of Ohio - urged Senate leaders late Wednesday to work together with governors in developing a new plan and to reject a skinny repeal, which they said "is expected to accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to insurance."

Senate Republicans hope that once their members are faced with enacting an imperfect measure, or not accomplishing one of their chief legislative goals, they will decide that some progress is better than none.

That sort of thinking prompted Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., to say Wednesday that a skinny repeal is a "Trojan horse" that would lead House conservatives to push the plan back to a much more aggressive attack against the ACA.

"There is no such thing as 'skinny' repeal; it's a ruse to get to full repeal, with all the concomitant cuts to Medicaid and tax breaks," Schumer said on the floor.

The Senate also voted down a pair of attempts by Democrats to end debate by forcing two Senate committees to review and debate the legislation, and an amendment from Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., affirming support for Medicaid and asking for the Senate to review the program further. Democrats grew frustrated by the spectacle Wednesday evening and threatened to stop offering amendments until GOP leaders released details of the narrow repeal measure they plan to offer.

Meanwhile, the ongoing uncertainty on Capitol Hill sent jitters through the insurance industry.

Joseph Swedish, the chief executive of Anthem - the nation's second-largest health insurer - said on a conference call to review second-quarter earnings that the company is reassessing its participation in ACA marketplaces for next year. Anthem has decided to largely withdraw from the markets in three of the 14 states it participates in, and he said it may stop participating elsewhere unless the markets seem stable.

He cited, in particular, the question of whether Congress and the Trump administration will continue "cost-sharing subsidies" that the ACA provides insurers to help lower-income customers - about 7 million this year - afford deductibles and other out-of-pocket expenses.

Noting that Anthem's "2018 market footprint" for selling ACA health plans is not fully decided, Swedish said, "If we aren't able to gain certainty on some of these items quickly, we do expect that we will need to revise our rate filings to further narrow our level of participation."

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned that even the skinny repeal Republicans now envision could undermine the individual insurance market because it would eliminate the requirement that Americans buy insurance or pay a tax penalty. The measure, which remains subject to negotiation, also would probably eliminate the ACA's requirement that employers with 50 workers or more provide health coverage, and a medical device tax that generates $19.6 billion in federal revenue over a decade.

"If there is no longer a requirement for everyone to purchase coverage, it is critical that any legislation include strong incentives for people to obtain health insurance and keep it year-round," the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said in a statement.

A CBO estimate in December projected that repealing the ACA's individual mandate would leave 15 million Americans uninsured most years and prompt premiums to rise by 20 percent.

Several Republicans appeared wary Wednesday of moving too quickly to undo the health-care law without a replacement in hand. That proposal was defeated on a vote of 55 to 45, with seven Republican senators - including John McCain, Ariz., and Lamar Alexander, Tenn., who chairs one of the key committees that would normally craft a health-care bill - opposing it.

Alexander said after the vote that although he supported an outright repeal in 2015, his constituents could not tolerate that kind of uncertainty now.

"I don't think most Tennesseans would like the idea of our saying to them, 'We're going to cancel insurance for 22 million Americans and then trust Congress to replace it in two years,' " he said. "I think most pilots, when they take off, like to know where they're going to land."

The mood among Republicans on Wednesday was far from the excitement that some expected to accompany the first votes to fulfill their long-standing promise to repeal the ACA. Instead, they described feeling frustrated and unhappy with their options.

"The mood is nothing," Sen. Bob Corker, Tenn., told reporters after Tuesday's failed vote on the Senate GOP's original plan. "It's perfunctory."

---

The Washington Post's Amy Goldstein and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
AMARILLO  Xcel Energy has rolled out a mobile app that offers personalized customer support for managing monthly bills and reporting and checking the status of outages.

The app is an extension of online tools that provide more options for customers to manage their accounts and easily access important information anytime and from anywhere.

We know customers want reliable electric service, but increasingly our customers also desire more information about their service and their monthly bills, and to access it in the ways most convenient to them, said Brooke Trammell, Xcel Energy director of Customer and Community Relations. The app is one more way in which we seek to make it easy to do business with us, and well continue looking for ways to make it even better in order to provide the best experience for our customers.

Once a customer is logged in to the app, the home page displays the amount owed and the due date, with a link to pay the current bill electronically or view past bills, usage and payments. The app allows customers to set up payment methods, choose the time of month to be billed and enroll in auto pay or Averaged Monthly Payment.

Not only does this tool make it convenient to pay a bill, but it also protects customers against phone scammers who use misinformation to trick unsuspecting customers into providing them access to financial information under the threat of imminent disconnection.

Scammers are hoping you dont keep track of your bill or when it is due, Trammell said. They have been successful in convincing some customers that their bills are past due and the only way to avoid disconnection is to pay over the phone. Customers who are targeted in this way can simply hang up and immediately check the mobile app to see how much is owed, when the payment is due, and make payments through the secure online payment system.

The new Xcel Energy app also includes an outage map that shows where outages are occurring, how many customers are affected and when power is expected to be restored. Customers may also choose to have notifications emailed or texted to them if power is out in their area.

Its much easier to weather a power outage if you know how widespread the outage might be, and when to expect your lights to come back on, Trammell said.

Customers may still connect with Xcel Energy by telephone and email, and also through social media, and the app has a contact us page listing that contact information.

The new app is available at Apple Store and Google Play. Customers who have already registered for My Account at xcelenergy.com simply log-in with their username and password, or new users can register directly through the app.
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Longtime Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo announcer Bill Bailey has died, according to a statement from the rodeo. He was 78 years old.

PREVIOUS: Bill Bailey, voice of RodeoHouston, announces retirement

He had retired from the show in late 2015. Bailey was with the rodeo for 54 years. His voice was synonymous with the annual event at the NRG complex.

A cause of death has not yet been released.

On Thursday Joel Cowley, Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo president and CEO, released a brief statement on Bailey's passing.

RELATED: RodeoHouston releases stats for 2017 season

"The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo today lost one of its biggest ambassadors with the passing of "The Constable," Bill Bailey. Bill was more than a Show Lifetime Vice President or one of our past RodeoHouston announcers he was a true friend to so many of us. He represented the Texas-sized heart of the Show, and our volunteers, staff, and the many young Texans he helped through the years will miss him tremendously."

He was not just one of the voices of the rodeo, the Temple native was also a board member and lifetime vice president for the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo. He lived and breathed the annual event. In fact the rodeo's world-famous barbecue contest was his idea in the early '70s.

FROM 2001: For 40 years, announcer Bill Bailey always came home

Born Milton Odom Stanley, in the early '60s he applied to fill a position for a DJ that had been promoted using the song, "Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home?" Bailey, being a team player, agreed to assume the "Bill Bailey" moniker and it managed to stick throughout the rest of his life.

In the fall of 2016 the rodeo's official Bowlegged H Magazine published a lengthy profile on Bailey.

Houstonians of a certain age might also remember him as a well-known KIKK-FM radio DJ where people got to know his distinctive voice. It was while doing radio at the rodeo when it was at the Sam Houston Coliseum that he made connections with the event that would last the rest of his life.

Bailey resigned his position as the Harris County Precinct 8 Constable in May 2011, a position he had held since the early '80s.

He was inducted into the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2009 and the Country Radio Broadcasters Hall of Fame the next year.
A member of the Gulf Cartel had his hand blown off during a struggle with military personnel earlier this week that also left two soldiers dead, according to El Blog del Narco, a Mexican publication.

The publication reported that a hit man for the cartel was injured in crossfire with members of the military in Reynosa, which sits on the Texas-Mexico border, at the beginning of the week. He lost his right hand and part of his forearm.
San Antonio-area subsets of the Tango Blast gangs, like Tango Orejon, are considered one of the "most significant gangs for 2016," in Texas, according to a new Texas Department of Public Safety report.

The statewide Tango Blast gang is considered the most dangerous in the state, according to the report.
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It had been a long day, and Max, a 9-year-old transgender boy from North Texas, was exhausted.

During the Trans Texas Lobby Day in March, Max and his mother Amber Briggle traveled to the State Capitol so lawmakers could meet the 9-year-old whose right to use the bathroom matching his gender identity was threatened by a bill being considered.

All day, Max and his mom hiked through the capitol, leaving cards and letters for House Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick. They visited with their representative, Lynn Stucky, R-Denton, who now knows Max by name and makes a point to shake his hand when they meet.

RELATED: San Antonio mayor says ban on transgender people serving in military 'totally offensive'

Max stood by his mother's side among the crowds all day, while photographers snapped photos and reporters conducted interviews.

But by the afternoon, Max was done.

He plopped on the hard, cold floor of the statehouse and couldn't help but cry not because he is transgender, or even really because of the proposed legislation. He was just tired.

As his mom wiped tears from his cheek, San Antonio Express-News photographer Bob Owen watched the scene between the pair unfold through his camera lens. After she realized their picture was being taken, Briggle asked Owen to stop, telling him the moment was not a photo-op.

It wasn't until this month, when Briggle searched online, that she saw the photo of that moment on the floor of the capitol. She posted it on her Facebook page, where it has received hundreds of comments and been shared more than 7,000 times.

"When I posted this picture, I had no idea it was going to go viral," Briggle told mySA.com. "When I saw how powerful the image was, I saw what Bob saw. I was just focused on my son that day. I saw how powerful that was and why it needed to be shared with a wider audience."

The "bathroom bill," which would require people to use the bathroom that matches their sex at birth, failed to pass during the regular session but Gov. Greg Abbott added it to the agenda for the special session, which gaveled in July 18.

Patrick has said the bill is about safety and would bar men looking to prey on women and children from accessing their restrooms. Trans advocates say it is unnecessary and discriminatory.

RELATED: Texas small business owners speak out against transgender bathroom bill

Until now, Briggle admits she didn't have much of a reason to pay attention to Texas politics. But with the "bathroom bill," it has seeped into her life.

"When you're living it, it's everywhere," she said. "Max wanted to be there that day. I wanted him to be there. I wanted him to stand up to bullies and not be afraid to speak up even if it's to the governor of Texas."

Max, who is still in elementary school, does not need to have an in-depth understanding of the bill's text or the politics or the protests or the support, his mom said.

"He understands that people are bullying transgender people. That's a thing a 9-year-old gets," she said.

Senate Bill 3 is headed to the House after passing in the Senate early Wednesday morning, the same day President Trump announced transgender people would be barred from serving in the military, reversing a nearly year-old Obama-era rule.

Stucky signed on as a co-author of House Bill 46, another bathroom policing policy, Wednesday. Briggle is planning a protest outside his Denton office Friday and is waiting to hear back from the lawmaker.

"I want to hear in his own words why exactly a sweet child like Max, who looks up to him as someone that we should be able to count on to protect him, doesn't believe that Max deserves protection," she said. "I think he's shown his true colors."

Briggle is not sure if SB 3 will pass in the next 20 days but hopes that pressure from businesses and police officials will sway lawmakers to vote against its passing.

"I'm very, very hopeful," she said. "Even if this law passes, I want to know I did everything I could to stop it."

kbradshaw@express-news.net

Twitter: @kbrad5
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A San Antonio man who was jailed on federal drug charges Thursday may have been the intended target of an East Side drive-by that police believe sparked a retaliatory shooting that killed a 4-year-old boy, according to an affidavit.

Charles Bethany, aka "Shitty," is currently facing a charge of possession with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of cocaine base after federal agents found 56 grams of cocaine and 56 grams of crack at a "stash house" in the 600 block of J Street that Bethany is known to frequent, according to court records.

Sgt. Jesse Salame, a spokesman for the San Antonio Police Department, said he could not confirm whether Bethany is a suspect in the drive-by shooting that resulted in the death of De-Earlvion Whitley on July 19. However, a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office said authorities believe he was "involved" in the shooting.

RELATED: 4-year-old boy killed in possibly gang-related drive-by shooting, police say

Bethany's attorney, Deborah Stanton Burke, said the criminal complaint detailing the accusations against her client is "patently false."

"I've been reading affidavits for 34 years," she said. "This is the flimsiest one I've ever read."

She further iterated that there is no connection between Bethany and Whitley's death.

"I hate to see a 4-year-old killed," she said, "but that doesn't have anything to do with Charles Bethany."

Bethany's sister and niece declined to comment on the charge against him. The women, both wearing Stand Up San Antonio shirts, had been at the John H. Wood Jr. United States Courthouse for work related to Stand Up when they got a call about Bethany, said Carol Schliesinger, who is with the city's metro health department.

While investigating Bethany's alleged involvement in drug dealing, FBI agents received information that he may have been the target of a drive-by shooting around 4:30 p.m. on July 19 at the Coliseum Meat Market in the 400 block of Spriggsdale.

Bethany "was reported to have been seen in the parking lot while possibly returning fire from a red in color pick-up truck," according to court records. FBI agents have previously reported seeing Bethany at the meat market.

Around 11:49 p.m. that night, 4-year-old De-Earlvion Whitley was shot and killed in a drive-by shooting at a home in the 200 block of Hub Avenue. Whitley's mother, Cyntwanisha, also received two gunshot wounds in her legs. No witnesses could provide a description of the vehicles from which the shots were fired, but police found around 40 shell casings from a rifle-style weapon and a handgun at the scene.

RELATED: Mother of 4-year-old boy killed in East Side drive-by asks for justice, not retaliation

Federal agents later reviewed video footage from surveillance cameras directed at Bethany's alleged stash house on J Street, and saw four men, one possibly armed with a handgun, get into two separate vehicles around 11:37 p.m. One of the vehicles was a silver hatchback, the other was a dark colored sedan, according to court records.

Due to "poor lighting conditions," agents were unable to identify anyone captured in the footage.

Around 11:51 p.m. the men returned in both cars. While exiting the dark colored sedan, the front passenger was seen carrying what agents believe was an assault rifle, federal officials said.

On July 21, federal agents raided the J Street home, and found the drugs Bethany is accused of dealing. Bethany was not at the stash house at the time, and federal agents believe he may have been aware that SWAT agents were at his home, according to court documents.

He was later arrested on the drug charges.

United States Attorney Richard L. Durbin Jr. said Bethany's arrest was part of a joint effort of several law enforcement organizations to "end the senseless shootings in San Antonio."

"This investigation continues along with our on-going work to stop violent crime, using whatever tools are legally available to us under federal and state laws," he said. "We ask that anyone having information about this case or other acts of violence contact the SAPD or the FBI."

Text "NEWS" to 77453 for breaking news alerts from mySA.com

cdowns@mysa.com

Twitter: @calebjdowns
A 38-year-old San Antonio woman was arrested Wednesday after she allegedly posted revenge porn of her boyfriend on Facebook following their break up.

Traci Lorraine Aragon now faces a charge of publishing intimate material. She was booked into the Bexar County Jail on a $2,000 bond.
EDWARD A. ORNELAS/MBR

AUSTIN  State Rep. Pat Fallon, R-Frisco, loaned his campaign $1.8 million on June 30. That enabled him to report last week that his account has a $2 million balance.

A big number like that often scares away potential primary and general election opponents if they fear they won't be able to raise enough money to be competitive.
Anthony Scaramuccis rollout as Donald Trumps new communications director received mainly good reviews. He is, as any White House job in the current administration requires, a skilled sycophant. His on-air abjection  including a Sunday talk show apology for past disloyalty made directly into the camera  smacks of self-criticism during Chinas Cultural Revolution. But comrade Scaramucci does have a knack for being aggressive without being angry. And he is good on TV, which means hell play a starring role in Trumps main obsession.

The presidents intention in choosing Scaramucci was clear from the announcement. We have accomplished so much, said Trump in his statement, and we are being given credit for so little. Scaramuccis calling is to be a more effective harvester of credit.

This staff change is probably a good thing for the president. It also reveals a complete blindness about the true source of his administrations current struggles.

Who can look at the wreck of the White House  bitterly divided, dysfunctional and hemorrhaging leaks  and think a better communications approach is the answer? Who can look at the wreck of Trumps agenda  stymied in spite of Republican control of the House and Senate  and think the real problem is insufficient credit-taking on television? I could name half a dozen White House jobs that more urgently needed new blood  including the chief of staff  than communications director.

To be fair, the idea that words are always the real problem is not unique to the Trump administration. I saw the same communications fallacy in my White House experience during George W. Bushs presidency. It is typical for politicians and party officials to believe that the fault lies, not in themselves, but in their flacks. As head of presidential speechwriting, I heard more than my share of if only. If only the administration would make such-and-such a point, the Katrina mess could be put behind us. If only the president said some magic words  suggested language attached  the erosion in support for the Iraq War would be reversed. If only the president were to give 60 speeches in 60 days on Social Security reform, Americans would finally understand the problem and our plan would pass.

We actually tried that last one in 2005. The trip was carefully designed to pressure gettable Democratic senators. Bush was loose, informed and effective. And the plan never even got out of committee. We did not have a communications problem. We had a reality problem  as we did with Katrina and Iraq.

The Trump administrations reality problem is a historically unpopular president, pushing historically unpopular legislation (at least on health care), in a historically divided party, to a historically polarized country.

Words generally cannot improve facts on the ground, but they do have the power to complicate them. Part of the reason Trump is, from his perspective, given credit for so little is that so little has been accomplished. But another part is the insanely high expectations that Trumps own words have created. Tax reform benefiting the middle class would come in the first 100 days. He would build an impenetrable physical wall across the continent and the country of Mexico will be reimbursing the United States for the full cost of such a wall. There would be a package spurring a trillion dollars in infrastructure spending. Middle East peace is frankly maybe not as difficult as people have thought over the years.

Generally, this is what happens when a politician promises the world while knowing so little about how it actually works.

Trumps greatest need is not someone who will defend him on cable television. It is an administration capable of even the baby steps of governing  defining a positive, realistic agenda and selling it to Congress, starting with ones own party.

Trump does not have a communications problem; he has a leadership problem.

michaelgerson@washpost.com
Gov. Greg Abbotts recent claim that tree ordinances of municipalities amount to socialism understandably made headlines across Texas. But even more curious than the claim itself is the reason he gave for this claim.

The reason bears repeating, so far afield it is from mainstream notions of American civic responsibility and traditional religion, not the least of which is Abbotts own Catholicism.

As reported in the San Antonio Express-News, the governor addressed the cities defense of their ordinances and his opposition to them: Trees add to the greater good of the city. They also improve the environment.  Municipalities are saying they have a right to impose a fee on you for removing a tree because if you remove a tree, youre diminishing the greater good of the city, and the greater good of the environment.  They have articulated the per se definition of collectivism, socialism.

Abbotts political philosophy is that there is no such thing as the greater good. All we have is the individual pursuing his or her private aims and rights that protect this freedom, chief among them being the right to private property. Anything else is collectivism, which he equates with socialism.

A quick look at the Constitution belies this view of society. In the preamble, We the People declare that establish(ing) justice and promot(ing) the general Welfare are, along with Liberty, constitutive of our national purpose. In other words, the social good or the public good was never reducible to what private individuals or property owners chose to do or not do.

The course of American history and many Supreme Court decisions testify to the role of the government as an instrument of the people in pursuing this justice and this public welfare. Thats not collectivism. Thats America!

Abbotts abhorrence of the greater good is also coming from a place outside of the way mainstream religions  Judaism, Christianity and Islam, for example  have long conceived of society and social responsibility.

For instance, in Catholic political thought, the common good is the good or well-being of the community in which one participates, to which one contributes, from which one benefits, and through which one becomes more human. The common good includes an ensemble of public goods such as decent education, affordable housing, clean air and, now, says Pope Francis, the climate itself. We all have a stake in these.

The common good is not an odious threat to personal autonomy, but it does mean that the needs of the community can sometimes take precedence over the interests of the individual or corporation, and that the role of law is to promote the common good. Unlike communist totalitarianism, in Catholic social teaching, property rights are real, but they are not absolute or unrestricted.

Pope Francis writes, The principle of the subordination of private property to the universal destination of goods, and thus the right of everyone to their use, is a golden rule of social conduct and the first principle of the whole ethical and social order. Thats not collectivism. Thats Catholicism, with parallels in other religions.

Gov. Abbott might be ill-informed about Catholic social and political theory, or he might be consciously rejecting it. Either way, his virtue is that he is honest. His justification for his crusade against tree ordinances in Texas is rooted not simply in idolizing free market economics  about which Catholicism has its own reservations  but in an often-unacknowledged libertarianism that has overtaken the leadership of much of the Republican Party in Texas and therefore our state government.

We can and should disagree in good faith on particular issues of public policy, but we are in real trouble if we throw out the venerable idea of the common good, even as we invoke another venerable idea, freedom, in doing so.

Justice William O. Douglas once wrote, The right to be left alone is indeed the beginning of all freedom. If that is true, it is equally true that the fruition of freedom is the capacity to contribute to and defend the common good.

James Ball is an associate professor of theology at St. Marys University.
Both qualitatively and quantitatively, those of us who do business in the Lone Star State have long appreciated the welcome mat of a thriving Texas economy in launching and growing our businesses.

If you look at the numbers, Texas has been Top of the Tops in business over the last 10 years, according to CNBC, which has scored all 50 states for the past decade on measures such as workforce, cost of doing business and infrastructure. Forbes in 2016 ranked Texas and its $1.6 trillion economy in the No. 1 spot for overall economic climate.

When business does well, in general, Texans do well, and that has been the guiding principle in creating a political and regulatory climate allowing the state to economically outperform the nation as a whole. However, if the current performance of the Texas Legislature and its agenda are indicators of future results, the Texas miracle is in danger of being snuffed out.

Lawmakers ended their most recent regular session pushing through controversial issues like Senate Bill 4, which  beyond entangling the state in a likely lengthy legal battle  could have disastrous effects on the immigrant workforce vital to the Texas economy. It would be foolish to assume that mass deportations of workers in the shadows  who often are gainfully employed in agriculture, manufacturing or construction, and contributing to the Texas economy  would have minimal impact on the states GDP.

Such policies are especially foolhardy considering the demographic winter that is rolling through the developed world  including the United States. The U.S. birth rate is now 1.9 births per female, well below replacement level. Adding to the domestic workforce shortage, 10,000 baby boomers are retiring every day. Instead of promoting policies that inhibit or reverse the flow of human capital, such as SB 4, we should be looking for ways to protect and promote the workforce of the future.

Additionally, national debate continues to focus on the construction of a costly border wall while ignoring more cost-efficient, effective and business-friendly solutions from people who live and work along the border, and those who protect it. Texas and the nation need an immigration policy that addresses Americas need for workers.

States that press forward with business-crippling initiatives while subordinating legislation business leaders deem important, like property tax reform, do so at their own peril. Arizona, for example, with its controversial papers please law passed in 2010 experienced millions of dollars in lost tourism as trade groups and others canceled scheduled conventions in the state. Agriculture and construction companies struggled to find needed labor. Some estimates indicate that more than 200,000 immigrants left Arizona, and like a rock thrown in the middle of a calm pond, ripple effects reverberated across the state. Suddenly, fewer people were buying food, clothes, and gas or going out and socializing. Businesses of every type felt the impact.

As the Texas Legislature entered its special session last week, the agenda included other issues toxic to the Texas economy, including a new version of Senate Bill 6, the so-called bathroom bill. When state leaders tackle such national attention-grabbing issues, it negatively impacts the Lone Star States perception as businesses make startup or relocation decisions based on whether Texas is inclusive enough to allow them to attract the broadest range of workers. Worse, theyre expending political capital on these divisive issues at the expense of policies that actually promote economic growth.

Even in highlighting the states Top of the Tops ranking, CNBC noted concerns about Texas quality of life score, which includes factors like inclusiveness and removing barriers that stymie the attraction of skilled workers.

Lawmakers have an opportunity to do more harm  or redeem themselves  during this special session. They can continue to trifle with divisive issues that put the Texas economy in peril, or they can focus on an agenda that places Texas business priorities and economic growth front and center.

Dennis Nixon is chief executive of International Bancshares Corp. and International Bank of Commerce in Laredo.
The Texas Legislatures move to discourage mail ballot fraud, while well intentioned, could prove costly for Bexar County taxpayers.

There were no cost estimates in the fiscal note attached to legislation recently signed by Gov. Greg Abbott. The measure requires counties to conduct on-site voting at residential care facilities where five or more residents request mail ballots.

The fiscal note on the bill simply said the Texas Association of Counties indicated that the potential local government cost to implement the early voting at residential care facilities would be significant but cannot be estimated currently.

In the waning days of the 85th Legislature, the residential care facility legislation was tacked on to a bill  authored by state Rep. Diego Bernal, D-San Antonio  headed for passage.

Bernals portion of HB 658 remained intact. It allows priority voting for voters with mobility issues and those assisting them. Basically, it moves voters with certain disabilities to the front of the lane. But it does not come without fiscal implications.

The new voting law affecting mail-in ballots goes into effect Sept. 1. It will be in play for the November election and has elections officials across the state trying to figure out the logistics.

As with all unfunded mandates from the state, the cost of this will fall squarely on local taxpayers. It may require budgeting more money for elections moving forward.

The Bexar County elections department has already submitted a request for an additional $50,000 to cover the cost for the November election on amendments, the spring primaries and any runoff election.

There are an estimated 3,000 residential care facilities in Texas, and Bexar County has about 450 of them. In addition to the $12-an-hour pay for election judges, the county will have to budget for mileage reimbursement for travel to the sites.

These changes allowing on-site voting for those in residential care facilities had bipartisan support but was resisted by county election officials across the state because of the cost and added responsibilities.

Texas election laws allow voters with disabilities, those 65 and older, and those who plan to be out of the county during voting  such as college students  to request to vote by mail.

The county will have to keep tabs on the requests for mail ballots. Once there are five requests at a residential care facility, a team of judges, one from each party, will be dispatched to the residential facilities to oversee voting at the site.

The new law requires election officials to post the time and place where ballots will be delivered to residential care facility voters. The legislation also allows for voters in a residential care facility to request judges bring the ballot into their private living space. Poll watchers can follow the judges into those locations.

The legislation does not address the voter fraud that has been associated with elderly voters targeted at senior centers when they congregate during the day to eat and socialize.

More legislation regarding mail-in ballot fraud could be coming during the special 30-day legislative session that started last week. It is one of Gov. Greg Abbotts top priorities.

Lawmakers should remain mindful of the costs associated with proposals they dont plan to fund. This should occur no matter how well intentioned the legislation.

Simply, if the Legislature wanted this, it should have funded it.
I have read, with some interest in the Express-News the ongoing discussion concerning Confederate monuments in the South and, most recently, the Travis Park monument.

There is no question, in my mind that the removal serves a political interest. One cannot, hopefully, revise history, although some will try.

I pose this question: Why not remove every Confederate monument and battle marker from every National Park Service battlefield? In fact, why not tear down every Confederate tombstone?

Where does the political correctness end?

L.J. Mannering, Comfort

Alienated by Trump

For the first time in my adult life, I feel disconnected with our president. I have crossed party lines before and even had my choice for president lose. But before, once the new president was sworn into office, I was right there making connections and supporting him.

Here we are, going on almost seven months for this administration, and I have yet to feel this connection with our current president.

The scary part is that each day the gap widens.

Joe F. Martinez

U.S. lagging

Recently I Googled the question, What major world countries have universal health care? The answer came back that out of 33 developed nations, 32 have universal health care. The lone exception? You guessed it: the United States.

We are, no doubt, the best country in the world in freedom and safety due to the rule of law granted by our unique Constitution. After that, we are seriously behind in many other things such as education. Exceptionalism as a whole for our country is an illusion.

We citizens are to blame for our dysfunctional, incompetent leadership, including in Texas, where our record is abysmal.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said, Americans are the most entertained and least informed people in the planet. What a sad commentary.

George Farias

Haves, have-nots

There are those among us who believe that health care for all is not a right. Fortunately, they are in the minority.

They do not like paying for someone elses health care. They believe if you cant afford health care insurance, then go without  and pay as you go. If you cannot always pay as you go, then go without or go into debt. If that debt looks insurmountable, then thats your problem, not theirs.

And that, my friends, is their solution to our nations health care. Archaic as it is, it still bedevils us as the apathetic norm some haves display toward have-nots.

Robert Paul

Fixing climate woes

Re: Another View: Fill the U.S. gap on climate change, Danielle Bancroft, July 19:

I commend your paper for its coverage of climate change. Not long ago, most media reported global warming as disputed instead of as science-based fact. Most people understand the huge costs of unchecked carbon pollution. But fewer people know that we can stop global warming without much pain by using the carbon fee and dividend solution described in the op-ed.

I initially feared that fixing global warming would take away my air conditioner, my car, my lifestyle, but learned otherwise. I will keep going to concerts in my future electric car. I will pay my higher gas bill with my monthly dividend check with money left over. Jobs will increase, the economy boom.

In England, this carbon fee and dividend was introduced as the Have your cake and eat it too campaign.

Bob Hendricks

Selective memory

Re: Those gator Dems, Your Turn, 2017

The letter writer states, The Democrats, however, have done everything possible to deter him from his mission, setting up road blocks.

In response, I quote Republican Rep. John Boehner regarding President Barack Obamas agenda in 2010: Were going to do everything  and I mean everything we can do  to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can.

And Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell: The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.

How conveniently we forget.

Carlota Sierra

Political intrusion

Re: Narrow focus, Your Turn, July 20:

The letter writer may have the same problem (myopia) of which she accuses our governor and lieutenant governor.

The basic ideas these two politicians have are that we need to be personally responsible for ourselves and government needs to be very much less involved in our lives.

Seems good to me!

Durand C. Waters, Windcrest

Aiding predators

State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst reportedly says SB 3 is needed to protect the privacy of children in bathrooms from men who could pretend to be transgender to abuse them.

If the bathroom bill passes, law-abiding transgender people who look and act like men will be forced to use womens restrooms. As women and girls become accustomed to seeing transgender individuals in their bathrooms, wont it be easier for a male sexual predator pretending to be transgender to enter? His presence would be unremarkable; the law alone wont keep a criminal, intent on his purpose, from entering.

Currently, without the bathroom law, the presence in a womens restroom of anyone who looks and acts like a man is cause for alarm. If SB 3 becomes law, that simply wont be the case. Instead of protecting children, SB 3 may well assist a sexual predator in committing a crime by making his presence in a womens restroom seem commonplace.

John Casey
1 Venezuela conflict: The U.S. ordered relatives of American diplomats to leave Venezuelas capital ahead of a polarizing vote planned for Sunday to start rewriting the Constitution. The State Department said its also allowing U.S. government workers to depart the embassy in Caracas and limiting the movement of those who stay. The order comes as Venezuela is convulsing to a rhythm of daytime strikes and nocturnal clashes. The most recent violence drove the death toll from almost four months of unrest above 100 Thursday. Most of the dead in antigovernment demonstrations that began in early April have been young men killed by gunfire.

2 Al Qaeda in Kashmir: An al Qaeda-linked propaganda network announced Thursday that a militant leader in the Indian-controlled portion of Kashmir will head a new group that will fight against Indian rule in the disputed region. It is the first time that al Qaeda has publicly claimed to be active in Kashmir. The announcement was made by the Global Islamic Media Front, which said Kashmiri militant Zakir Musa will head al Qaeda-linked Ansar Ghawzat-ul-Hind. Separatist leaders, who challenge Indias sovereignty over Kashmir, have repeatedly rejected the presence of outside groups, and have accused India of portraying the Kashmiri struggle as extremist.
WE have seen a boom of prophets who use spiritual hangers, padlock, spectacles, anointing oil and handkerchiefs that are believed to have powers to heal different ailments and restore broken marriages.

Wonder no more, a new breed has entered the scene with gusto, with his unique way of remotely healing the sick and the method is apparently threatening to overshadow his fellow workers in Gods vineyard.

A Victoria Falls-based prophet, Musawenkosi Vundla, who calls himself Vundla Thwasa Lodumo is attracting massive crowds through his seemingly novel way of healing his clients suffering from various ailments including cancer, hypertension, stomach problems, se_xually transmitted infections, bad dreams, barrenness, unemployment and failure to prosper in life.

Vundla is using social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook to heal, deliver and transform peoples lives. He is perhaps the first prophet in the country to utilise social media platforms to heal his clients locally and internationally.

Unlike his peers who charge for one-on-one sessions or demand exorbitant fees for an audience with them, with Vundla one can just send his or her name and surname or picture via WhatsApp and he uses the information to establish their problems and subsequently heal them.

Narrating in an interview with B-Metro, his inexplicable way of healing, Vundla who operates from Chinotimba suburb and at times from his rural home in Sizinda Village which is about 15km from the resort town said he started healing his clients using the invisible remote in 2014.

While some people use social media platforms to have conversations, share information and send falsehoods and insults for me its a conduit for healing my clients. As a messenger of Gods work, I use social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Facebook to reach and heal my clients especially those who are outside Victoria Falls and overseas.

One can just send his or her name and surname or picture via WhatsApp and I use that information to instantly establish their ailments. After that I explain the findings to them before I prescribe the solution.

Since there are some clients who prefer a semblance of privacy and confidentiality, I use WhatsApp for consultation and Facebook to do live prophecy and linking up with clients, said Vundla who is registered as a prophet through the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe.

Vundla said unlike his peers who went digital after the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, he started attending to clients via WhatsApp before the outbreak of the pandemic after he considered the distance that they have to travel for consultation.

For Vundla, God seemed to have favoured his invisible way of healing as he now attracts clients from across the globe.

In the Bible Jesus used different methods to heal and draw many people and as for me the use of social media platforms has also worked wonders as I now have clients all over the world. I always make sure that I have enough data so that I would be reachable to these clients all the time, he said.

For those outside Victoria Falls and overseas, Vundla said he sends their herbs and anointments via courier services.

I dont charge my clients; I treat them free of charge and I only ask them (clients) to contribute towards transport fares so that I will manage to travel to get them their treatment. I have several testimonies of people who have been healed from one form of disease or other, others who state that they are now employed, wealthy, and prosperous, he said.

On businesspeople, celebrities and politicians who are seeking promises of prosperity and life-changing spiritual experiences, Vundla confirmed that indeed there were a number of them who had and were still consulting him via WhatsApp so that they become powerful and successful in their line of work.

 BMetro

Breaking News via Email
The NACS Fuels Summit Latin America will evaluate market dynamics and trends that will affect the transportation energy sector for decades to come.

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  NACS will convene its first NACS Fuels Summit Latin America this coming November in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The two-day conference, presented jointly by NACS, the Fuels Institute and Conexxus, will bring together leaders in the fuels and vehicles industries throughout Latin America and abroad to evaluate the market dynamics and trends that will affect the transportation energy sector, and potentially reshape the convenience and fuel retailing industry over the next 20 years.

This is a first-of-a-kind event, bringing together thought leaders from various industries who are engaged in the transportation energy sector to evaluate how the market is changing and how it will ultimately affect Latin American economies, said Henry Armour, president and CEO of NACS. Convenience and fuel retailers in these markets need to understand how the market is expected to evolve so they can make long-term strategic plans. The NACS Fuels Summit Latin America is the best place to gain valuable insight in that process.

Attendees at the NACS Fuels Summit Latin America will benefit from insights provided by leading experts in the fuels, vehicles and retailing sectors. Agenda highlights include:

An analysis of global market trends and regulatory forces that will compel the fuels and vehicles markets to change;

Future projections for what types of vehicles and powertrains will be sold and driven in key Latin American markets;

A forward-looking discussion about market dynamics with key automobile manufacturers and fuel retailers;

An in-depth look at the market for different transportation fuels throughout Latin America; and,

A look at what technology has to offer the market and how to maximize the profitability of the fuel island.

The transportation energy sector is increasingly global in nature. With automakers seeking to develop more streamlined and efficient global vehicle architectures to energy commodities trading across hemispheres and environmental regulations seeking significant changes on both a global and local level, it is critical to stay on top of trends, opportunities and threats. NACS Fuels Summit Latin America presents a great opportunity to get the upper hand on market development.

Mark your calendars for the NACS Fuel Summit Latin America, November 78, 2017, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Whether you are an executive developing long term strategies for your company or a market professional seeking to stay informed on what is happening within and around your business, you should join your colleagues in Buenos Aires.

Stay tuned for registration details.
Chris Flood of the Financial Times wrote today about a worrisome issue wed first noticed in 2014 and flagged last year, that of the use of so-called subscription lines of credit by private equity funds. As we explained:

For the last couple of years, weve been monitoring a troubling development in private equity, the use of subscription line financing. This innocuous-sounding term is for a credit line, offered by a bank, to allow general partners to borrow at the level of the investment fund. This is in addition to the considerable borrowing that already occurs in private equity, at the portfolio company level, where 70% of the purchase price typically comes from lenders. This practice, which even major players like Bain Capital decry as dangerous, appears to have gone mainstream. As well explain, these credit lines make already-exaggerated returns in private equity look more attractive than they are, not merely through the raw application of leverage but by changing how investment cash flows are reported. And they greatly increase the risk of investing in private equity during financial shocks. That risk obviates out one of the supposed advantages of private equity, that private equity appears to do well in bear markets, when in fact private equity partners are merely providing rosy portfolio values. The more general partners use these subscription lines of credit, the more private equity will amplify investor risks rather than reduce them. Early in the life of a specific private equity fund, investors will report negative returns. This will occur in the first year or two, after the investor has incurred management fees and had some initial capital calls. Unless the general partner has an aggressive, fast strategy for monetizing the investment (say the now out-of-favor dividend recap in which the GP loads the acquired company with lots of debt and pays investors a large special dividend), for at least the initial year after making an acquisition, the GP is likely to report the value of the portfolio company as par value, meaning the acquisition price. So when you include the management fees and the cost of closing the deal, the limited partners reported returns will be negative. This pattern is called the J curve. Despite the impact on the level of individual fund, this J curve effect has been seen as more of an annoyance than a serious problem, since private equity investors are committing new monies to private equity every year and reaping returns over time from mature funds. Its been bruited about much more in venture capital than in private equity generally, since in VC, the fund makes multiple financings before an exit, so the J curve is deeper on the downside and longer in duration. By contrast, in private equity, the overall returns have been seen as good enough that the perceived negative impact of the J curve washed out over time. And let us not forget that private equity return are generally overstated, by virtue of the use of the internal rate of return as the prevailing method for presenting results (as opposed to more accurate measures, such as PME, or public market equivalent) and that GPs are widely acknowledged to under-report declines in value in bad markets. But now that private equity returns are flagging, investors are willing to turn a blind eye to any gimmick that improves results. Here is where the subscription lines of credit come in. Limited partnership agreements have always allowed for borrowing at the fund level, but the original intent was that it would be used only on a very exceptional basis, for instance, if the GP was consummating a deal and some part of the financing fell through (say a creditor rescinded a funding commitment). Rather than hit up the limited partners for more money, which would presumably then be taken out via a conventional lender, the general partners would borrow at the fund level. Subscription line financing makes it possible for general partners to borrow at the fund level on a routine basis, as opposed to its previous status as an unusual event. The bank provides a credit line with that borrowing secured not by the assets of any portfolio companies, but by the unused capital commitments of the limited partners. In other words, while these borrowings were expected to be rare and repaid by other means, from the lenders perspective, legally they are advances against the limited partners capital commitments.

Earlier this year, none other that Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital devoted an entire newsletter to the risks of subscription credit lines. He raised additional concerns, including that they could be gamed to increase carry fee payments to general partners, and that they would make the use of IRR, which is currently the widespread basis for measuring returns of funds during their life, meaningless.

The hook for the Financial Times story is that the normally toothless Institutional Limited Partners Association came out last month with surprisingly firm warnings about the growth of this practice. Note that we wrote about the ILPA

The fact that Bain, Oaktree, and now ILPA are sounding alarms strongly suggests that quite a few influential general partners arent keen about this development and see it as having the potential to do more harm than good. The fact that Flood has other industry incumbents largely echoing ILPAs position suggests that there is a significant contingent that would like to tamp down on this innovation.

The irony is that Howard Marks newsletter suggested that limited partners were if anything more eager than general partners to see this gimmick deployed. Why? Goosing fund returns will often boost compensation since most limited partner have bonuses based at least in part on fund performance. And there is near-universal pressure to show better results, even if the current apparently-higher returns come at the expense of properly-reported eventual results.

The ILPA approach for curtailing this practice is clever: require returns to be reported with and without the effect of subscription credit lines.

From the Financial Times:

Tighter rules are required to stop private equity managers from artificially inflating claims about their performance, according to the largest association representing investors in buyout funds. This little-discussed technique, known as subscription-line financing, helps private equity managers earn performance fees because one of their funds key assessment metrics, the internal rate of return, is based on the date an investors cash is put to work. This sleight of hand artificially raises the funds apparent performance but it does nothing to increase the actual returns earned by investors, says Jennifer Choi, managing director of industry affairs at ILPA The association is calling for returns data to be reported from the time a private equity manager starts to use the bank loan, rather than the later date when a clients capital is called into action. The effect of this change would be to lower reported returns and to make it less likely that a private equity manager would be able to claim the industrys standard 20 per cent performance fee.

ILPA wants to curtail how long the lines can be used. This is important because even though the subscription lines are sold as being used only on a limited basis early in the life of the fund to defer capital calls, the agreements are written so broadly as to allow for them to be drawn down at any time. Again from the pink paper:

ILPA wants stricter curbs to be imposed on the size of subscription-line financing loans agreed by private equity managers and a time limit of 180 days on the use of these lending facilities, which are frequently extended to a year or more.

One source to the Financial Times article told a flagrant lie:

He [Tim Powers, managing partner at Haynes and Boone]says these facilities proved their worth in the aftermath of the financial crisis by averting the need for investors to sell assets at knockdown prices in order to meet their existing promises to provide capital to private equity managers.

First, subscription credit lines werent in use then. If you Google subscription line of credit + private equity or subscription credit line + private equity prior to December 31, 2010, you get three hits each, with nearly all of them from law firms (the second version of the search gives some false positives in that it serves up old posts which do not contain the word subscription, but Google is finding the template for that site which inserts newer article links, like The Positives and Negatives of A Subscription Credit Line from this year. Even more important, subscription lines of credit would increase, not reduce, the risk of forced liquidation of the interest of a limited partner who was unable to meet a capital call. As we wrote:

CalPERS dumped stock at near-bottom levels of the crisis as a result of private equity and real estate imposing unexpected liquidity demands. This risk would become more acute and the exposure larger the more general partners use subscription line financing. Why? One of the covenants is that the fund maintain a certain coverage level relative to aggregate EBITDA. EBITDA can fall sharply in a recession or financial shock. That would lead the bank to demand a credit line paydown, which in turn would lead the general partners to issue a capital call. Needless to say, this would also take place when securities values would be under stress generally, meaning if the limited partner ran through its liquidity buffers, it would, as CalPERS did, be forced to sell other investments to meet the cash demands on the private equity front. These subscription lines have the potential to amplify financial crises by amplifying shocks and sending them across markets. We wrote about that phenomenon regularly in the 2008 debacle, when youd see a sudden plunge in a market that seemed to have nothing to do with the bad news of the day, like gold. It was clear that a large investors had been hit with a margin call and needed to sell something to raise the needed dough. The logical move was not to sell an investment that was showing losses, if possible, or if not, to liquidate one that was in relatively good shape and in a market that was not so roiled that the order could be executed. And let us not forget that if some private equity limited partners could not meet initial subscription line capital call, the other limited partners might be on the hook, up to the limit of their unused commitment amount. And what would happen if that were to prove insufficient to meet the remaining amount due? Presumably, the fund would be liquidated.

Howard Marks though this risk was so high that he worried about multiple limited partners defaulting, leading to serious damage to banks and funds:

Most of these would be the result of negative developments in the financial markets or the larger world.

Since the use of subscription lines results in there being fewer but larger capital calls, the magnitude of potential defaults by LPs is increased, along with the potential consequences.  Suppose the fund makes $5 million of investments against an LPs $10 million commitment  borrowing $5 million on the line  and theres a financial crisis (or the investments simply turn out to be big losers) and those investments decline in value to $2 million. And suppose the line comes due, the fund calls $5 million from the LP with which to repay it, and the LP  perhaps receiving simultaneous capital calls from a number of similarly affected managers  concludes its in its best interest (or its fiduciary duty) to NOT put up $5 million to secure investments now worth $2 million. Instead, it defaults on the capital call, depriving the fund of capital, potentially limiting the funds ability to repay the line and/or make further investments, and thereby possibly harming the remaining LPs.  Some funds (although none of Oaktrees) rely on subscription lines that are due on demand, rather than at the end of a stated term. What would be the effect if a large number of those lines were pulled simultaneously during a financial crisis? Or what if regulators required banks to call in their lines, even those that arent callable or whose terms havent expired?

Market meltdowns and financial crises can increase the probability that banks will recall lines and decrease the probability that all LPs will meet the calls.

If a fund has diversified commitment sources and just a couple of LPs default, the fund will probably manage just fine. But suppose many LPs default? In that circumstance its easy to imagine a fund being forced to sell assets during a market downturn to pay off its line and/or lacking the capital it thought it would have with which to take advantage of market opportunities. Both outcomes could be very negative for funds and LPs alikeIn the extreme, if defaults on lines are widespread, could lines become a source of significant risk to banks?

While we are glad to see many important players having a sense of urgency about curtailing this practice, the same cant be said for CalPERS. As we pointed out in a May post, a former board member and private equity expert Michael Flaherman alerted CalPERS to this risk in December and again in May. What did CalPERS do?

It turns out Chief Investment Officer Ted ELiopoulos gave false reassurances to the board:

It turns out CalPERS did prepare a document which it presented privately to the board. However, Flaherman was correct when he said, it is especially concerning when the chair instructs the staff to bring back a report about hidden risks in your portfolio and they do not do it. That report, which weve embedded at the end of this post, does not discuss risk anywhere. And that shows yet again how CalPERS keeps its board in the dark. Instead, it discusses CalPERS procedures, as if to imply a mere staff review makes everything safe.

Since the board doesnt appear up to it, the press, CalPERS beneficiaries and California taxpayers need to call for a major housecleaning at CalPERS. Investment professionals who repeatedly deny that risk matters, as Elopooulos has done by swearing undying fealty to private equity even as it is forecast to produce too little return to justify its extra risk, need to be turfed out.
Dear patient readers,

Please give a round of applause to Lambert, Jerri-Lynn, and Outis who sorted out, within hours of my telling them I couldnt read or post as a result of an eye injury incurred in Los Angeles (which led to emergency room visits in LA and San Francisco, ugh) how to divvy up the work I was supposed to do over the next few days, and then early this week, to keep you all fed with your daily ration of information, analysis, and animal pictures.

While I did get my Los Angeles and San Francisco meetups done, and I think the readers enjoyed each of them a great deal, the rest of the trip was a bit of a bust. I felt particularly bad about the dinner meeting I had right after the LA meetup, in which I quickly got into so much distress (scratched cornea, and trust me, they are incredibly painful and I have a very high pain threshold) that I had to bail out when the appetizers arrived. One of my hosts (wife of an MD) took me to Cedars Sinai and stayed with me for 5 hours while (among other things) I saw 2 doctors and had my eye flushed out with a huge bag of saline solution. I also learned a lot about the state of eye technology (even when I am in bad shape, I always make the doctors explain what they are doing in quite a bit of detail).

The LA session wound up being a big group discussion of many current political topics, with a lot of the participants interested in further discussion and potentially some focused activism. The participants created a list for future communication and meetings. I know some readers were unable to come due to the date and location not fitting their calendars. If you would like to be included in the NC Los Angeles mailing list, please write me at yves-at-nakedcapitalism.com with Los Angeles Group in the headline, and I will forward your message to the organizer.

One-Third of British Columbias Oil and Gas Wells Are Leaking Significant Levels of Methane The Ecologist (Micael)

Judge Orders Apple To Pay $506 Million For A-Series Processor Patent Infringement HotHardware

EU Commission sets deadline for Facebook, Twitter, Google unfair terms and conditions New Europe (Micael)

Watching Silicon Valley sweat over EU regulatory discipline is sexier than you might imagine. https://t.co/FbI7oSvOuY  David Carroll (@profcarroll) July 26, 2017

Travelers electronics at US airports to get enhanced screening, TSA says ars technica

Did antidepressants help make this man a mass-murderer? BBC

Finishing course of antibiotics could harm you, doctors say The Times. Lordie. How many years have doctors been prescribing antibotics, and no one knows how long a course should be? Help me. Here is the underlying study: http://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3418

China?

European Cities Are Reclaiming Public Services From the Private Sector Vice Impact (Sid S). From earlier this month, still germane.

EU warns Poland on voting rights suspension amid judicial reforms DW

Poland hits back at EU blackmail over judicial reforms Guardian

The international effects of ECBs monetary policy Bruegel

EU-Canada agreement on passenger names declared illegal: ECJ New Europe (Micael)

Brexit

Amazon and Starbucks take reputation hit from tax avoidance publicity Independent

Rogers and Todorov: New UK law creates liability for gross human rights abuses FCPA Blog

BATTLE TO OPPOSE WATER PRIVATIZATION RETURNS GREECE TO FRONTLINES OF E.U. CRISIS Occupy.com

The EUs Avoidable Greek Tragedy Social Europe (Micael)

Venezuela

Syraqistan

New Cold War

Big Brother is Watching You Watch

Trump Transition

Obamacare

Why Some Insurance Plans Limit Specialized Treatments Knowledge@Wharton

Democrats Smear Jill Stein Black Agenda Report (Darius)

Housing, battling racism and a municipal bank top agenda for L.A. council president Los Angeles Times (Joe Costello). A municipal bank for LA?

Teen allegedly harassed by police for mowing lawns in affluent neighborhood Fox23 (resilc)

Kill Me Now

Clinton book to double down on Russia, Comey message The Hill. Let us not forget that her last book was mainly pulpedbut well be unable to avoid encountering headlines of reviews.

Taibbi: Government Misled Public on Fannie/Freddie Takeover Rolling Stone (resilc)

Four Lloyds Bank workers and three bespoke money launderers who raided 750,000 from the accounts of rich clients and lavished it on luxury lifestyles are jailed for 38 years Daily Mail. Look at how the authorities pounce on people who steal from the wealthy! Too bad for the rest of you.

New York Subsidy To Lure Aetna Benefits A Cuomo Donor International Business Times

Amazon has a secret health care team called 1492 focused on medical records, virtual doc visits CNBC

Wells Fargo Lawyer Who Released Client Information Wants It Back Bloomberg. Chuck L: Another Wells Fargo innovation in customer disservice.

FOMC Review: No Hike, No Balance Sheet Move, Timing Clearer Roubini Global Economics

Class Warfare

Skyrocketing Rents in California Signal a Broader US Housing Crisis Truthout How work changed to make us all passionate quitters aeon (Chuck L). A must read. IMHO this is a big reason productivity isnt growing. Turnover is a big cost to a business. And employees with their eye on the door wont go that extra mile for their company. By contrast, Goldman has very low turnover and it is very adept at getting employees to invest psychologically in the firm.

Antidote du jour. Stephen who was at the SF meetup promised cat pics. This is Willow, who likes climbing in bed.

And Richard Smith and I loved this one but Lambert really didnt:

http://www.fox23.com/news/trending-now/teen-allegedly-harassed-by-police-for-mowing-lawns-in-affluent-neighborhood/572401721?utm_source=fark&utm_medium=website&utm_content=link&ICID=ref_fark

See yesterdays Links and Antidote du Jour here.
Physicists design ultrafocused pulses (Nanowerk News) Physicists working with researcher Oriol Romero-Isart devised a new simple scheme to theoretically generate arbitrarily short and focused electromagnetic fields. This new tool could be used for precise sensing and in microscopy.

Microwaves, heat radiation, light and X-radiation are examples for electromagnetic waves. Many applications require to focus the electromagnetic fields to small spatiotemporal dimensions. Engineers may use different methods to achieve this.

In the journal Physical Review Letters ("Ultrafocused Electromagnetic Field Pulses with a Hollow Cylindrical Waveguide"), researchers in Oriol Romero-Isarts group at the Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) and the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Innsbruck together with Ignacio Cirac and Theodor Hansch at the Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics, Munich, have published a new scheme for generating ultrafocused electromagnetic fields.

With this setup arbitrarily focused pulses could be generated. (Image: IQOQI Innsbruck)

Surprising behavior

When electric current flows through a coil, it produces electromagnetic waves that propagate in all directions. When the coil is placed inside a cylinder that reflects the waves perfectly a surprising phenomenon happens.

With this setup arbitrarily focused pulses and quasi-equidistant pulses could be generated, says junior scientist Patrick Maurer. The more waveguide modes are excited, the more focused the electromagnetic fields become.

The theoretical physicists analytically characterized the system to such a degree that, based on the reflections of the electromagnetic waves on the inside of the cylinder, they were able to design a current pulse that excites a clearly defined number of modes.

Because of the specific properties of the system, the current pulse needs to be adjusted only slightly in order to change the number of modes or, in other words, to focus the field more strongly. The average frequency of the pulse basically remains the same, explains Jordi Prat-Camps, Postdoc in Romero-Isarts research team.

The spectrum of the generated field is determined by the radius of the cylinder. For example, focused microwave pulses can be generated by using a cylinder that is several centimeters thick.

The more waveguide modes are excited, the more focused the electromagnetic fields become. (Animation: IQOQI Innsbruck)

Technological challenges

The physicists in Innsbruck were able to confirm their analytical calculations with numerical simulations. They showed that the fields kept their unique properties for some time after they exited the cylinder through one of the openings. This new concept is of interest for technological applications that require ultrafocused fields to work. For example, in the field of microscopy this new scheme could facilitate the development of even more precise devices.
Living computers: RNA circuits transform cells into nanodevices (w/video) (Nanowerk News) The interdisciplinary nexus of biology and engineering, known as synthetic biology, is growing at a rapid pace, opening new vistas that could scarcely be imagined a short time ago.

In new research, Alex Green, a professor at ASU's Biodesign Institute, demonstrates how living cells can be induced to carry out computations in the manner of tiny robots or computers.

The results of the new study have significant implications for intelligent drug design and smart drug delivery, green energy production, low-cost diagnostic technologies and even the development of futuristic nanomachines capable of hunting down cancer cells or switching off aberrant genes.

"We're using very predictable and programmable RNA-RNA interactions to define what these circuits can do," says Green. "That means we can use computer software to design RNA sequences that behave the way we want them to in a cell. It makes the design process a lot faster."

Ribonucleic acid (RNA) is used to create logic circuits capable of performing various computations. In new experiments, ASU Assistant Professor Alex Green and his colleagues have incorporated RNA logic gates into living bacterial cells, which act like tiny computers.

The study appears in the advance online edition of the journal Nature ("Complex cellular logic computation using ribocomputing devices").

Designer RNA

The approach described uses circuits composed of ribonucleic acid or RNA. These circuit designs, which resemble conventional electronic circuits, self-assemble in bacterial cells, allowing them to sense incoming messages and respond to them by producing a particular computational output, (in this case, a protein).

In the new study, specialized circuits known as logic gates were designed in the lab, then incorporated into living cells. The tiny circuit switches are tripped when messages (in the form of RNA fragments) attach themselves to their complementary RNA sequences in the cellular circuit, activating the logic gate and producing a desired output.

The RNA switches can be combined in various ways to produce more complex logic gates capable of evaluating and responding to multiple inputs, just as a simple computer may take several variables and perform sequential operations like addition and subtraction in order to reach a final result.

The new study dramatically improves the ease with which cellular computing may be carried out. The RNA-only approach to producing cellular nanodevices is a significant advance, as earlier efforts required the use of complex intermediaries, like proteins. Now, the necessary ribocomputing parts can be readily designed on computer. The simple base-pairing properties of RNA's four nucleotide letters (A, C, G and U) ensure the predictable self-assembly and functioning of these parts within a living cell.

Green's work in this area began at the Wyss Institute at Harvard, where he helped develop the central component used in the cellular circuits, known as an RNA toehold switch. The work was carried out while Green was a post-doc working with nanotechnology expert Peng Yin, along with the synthetic biologists James Collins and Pamela Silver, who are all co-authors on the new paper. "The first experiments were in 2012," Green says. "Basically, the toehold switches performed so well that we wanted to find a way to best exploit them for cellular applications."

The video demonstrates the basic principles of the RNA toehold switch. (Video: Wyss Institute)

After arriving at ASU, Green's first grad student Duo Ma worked on experiments at the Biodesign Institute, while another postdoc, Jongmin Kim continued similar work at the Wyss Institute. Both are also co-authors of the new study.

Nature's Pentium chip

The possibility of using DNA and RNA, the molecules of life, to perform computer-like computations was first demonstrated in 1994 by Leonard Adleman of the University of Southern California. Since then, rapid progress has advanced the field considerably, and recently, such molecular computing has been accomplished within living cells. (Bacterial cells are usually employed for this purpose as they are simpler and easier to manipulate.)

The technique described in the new paper takes advantage of the fact that RNA, unlike DNA, is single stranded when it is produced in cells. This allows researchers to design RNA circuits that can be activated when a complementary RNA strand binds with an exposed RNA sequence in the designed circuit. This binding of complementary strands is regular and predictable, with A nucleotides always pairing with U and C always pairing with G.

With all the processing elements of the circuit made using RNA, which can take on an astronomical number of potential sequences, the real power of the newly described method lies in its ability to perform many operations at the same time. This capacity for parallel processing permits faster and more sophisticated computation while making efficient use of the limited resources of the cell.

Logical results

In the new study, logic gates known as AND, OR and NOT were designed. An AND gate produces an output in the cell only when two RNA messages A AND B are present. An OR gate responds to either A OR B, while a NOT gate will block output if a given RNA input is present. Combining these gates can produce complex logic capable of responding to multiple inputs.

Using RNA toehold switches, the researchers produced the first ribocomputing devices capable of four-input AND, six-input OR and a 12-input device able to carry out a complex combination of AND, OR and NOT logic known as disjunctive normal form expression. When the logic gate encounters the correct RNA binding sequences leading to activation, a toehold switch opens and the process of translation to protein takes place. All of these circuit-sensing and output functions can be integrated in the same molecule, making the systems compact and easier to implement in a cell.

The research represents the next phase of ongoing work using the highly versatile RNA toehold switches. In earlier work, Green and his colleagues demonstrated that an inexpensive, paper-based array of RNA toehold switches could act as a highly accurate platform for diagnosing the Zika virus. Detection of viral RNA by the array activated the toehold switches, triggering production of a protein, which registered as a color change on the array.

The basic principle of using RNA-based devices to regulate protein production can be applied to virtually any RNA input, ushering in a new generation of accurate, low-cost diagnostics for a broad range of diseases. The cell-free approach is particularly well suited for emerging threats and during disease outbreaks in the developing world, where medical resources and personnel may be limited.

The computer within

According to Green, the next stage of research will focus on the use of the RNA toehold technology to produce so-called neural networks within living cells -- circuits capable of analyzing a range of excitatory and inhibitory inputs, averaging them and producing an output once a particular threshold of activity is reached, much the way a neuron averages incoming signals from other neurons. Ultimately, researchers hope to induce cells to communicate with one another via programmable molecular signals, forming a truly interactive, brain-like network.
(Natural News) In the United Kingdom, ALL babies will be FORCED to receive the Infanrix Hexa vaccine to protect them against a deadly cancer-causing virus. Experts fear hepatitis B is becoming a common issue due to immigration. Therefore, starting from August 1 this year every baby born in the U.K. will receive three Hexa jabs at four, eight, and 16 weeks.

Though the main reason to inoculate these newborns is protecting them against hepatitis B, which can trigger liver cirrhosis and liver cancer, the new vaccine also includes substances to protect them against five other diseases, including diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, polio and Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib), the Daily Mail Online reported.

According to Your News Wire, the Hexa jab contains thimerosal, a mercury-based preservative. If you are a regular Natural News reader then you know mercury in vaccines is damaging the health and brains of our children. Even though the mainstream media and fake scientists claim mercury in vaccines is safe, multiple studies are showing a close correlation between mercury doses from thimerosal-containing childhood vaccines and the prevalence of autism. This, however, was never mentioned in the U.K.s rationale for vaccinating all babies.

Despite the irrefutable fact that mercury is toxic when injected into the bodies of children via vaccines, the U.K., among other governments across the globe, are making this harmful substance mandatory for all children. (Related: Stay informed about the dangers of mercury in vaccines at MercuryScienceNews.com.)

In 2014, an Italian court in Milan awarded compensation to a boy after three doses of GlaxoSmithKlines Infanrix Hexa vaccine containing neurotoxic mercury and aluminum, as well as other toxic ingredients, caused permanent autism and brain damage.

Why havent we heard about this? Comparable to the United states, Italy has a national vaccine injury compensation program to compensate people who were harmed by vaccines. Usually, they quickly pay out the compensation while the fake, mainstream media keeps their mouth firmly shut.

How many more children need to be injured and how much more proof do they need before they will stop protecting the criminal vaccine industry that puts profits before people?

Why did the U.K. decide to make this vaccine mandatory for all babies born in their nation?

According to Public Health England (PHE), the decision to start inoculating all babies, not only the ones that are at high risk of contracting the disease, was taken because a cost-effective combination vaccine is now available in the U.K.

Though infection rates of the blood-borne hepatitis B virus have been low in Britain, they saw the number of cases soar recently due to increased immigration from developing countries. Unlike the more developed countries, hepatitis is still a common issue in some sub-Saharan African countries, with an estimated one in seven people carrying the disease. Other hotspots are East Asia and parts of Eastern Europe.

The PHE blames the high rates of immigration for being the culprit behind the rising cases of hepatitis B infections. As reported by the PHE in 2012, an estimated 19 out of every 20 antenatal women testing positive for hepatitis B in London were born abroad. The study concluded that long-term infections in migrants are estimated to account for around 96 percent of all new long-term hepatitis B infections.

More recent data produced by the PHE indicated that the number of pregnant women infected with the virus increased from about one in 700 to one in 250. Paul Desmond, of the Hep B Positive Trust, claimed political correctness has allowed an unseen epidemic to develop. He said: Weve invited the world  and forgotten its medicine.

Learn more about toxic ingredients added to vaccines and read the vaccine manufacturers product inserts at NaturalNewsReference.com.

Sources include:

DailyMail.co.uk

NaturalNews.com

YourNewsWire.com
(Natural News) In this day and age, it is possible to secretly record almost anyone, from police officers during traffic stops to professors at our colleges and universities. (Related: Google is secretly recording everything you search and say.) Small handheld devices such as the iPhone allow users to tape every single word that comes out of the mouth of anybody they encounter, all without the person on the opposite end knowing.

While having this ability certainly could make things more convenient in certain situations (such as recording lectures during class), it also opens up the door for an entire array of potential legal issues. When are you not allowed to secretly record someone? What are the penalties if you get caught? Is there ever a situation where it is perfectly legal to record someone without his or her consent? All of these questions and more are beginning to be routinely asked by both the public and those who study law.

One area that has sparked a significant amount of controversy lately has to do with the idea of secretly recording a doctor during clinical visits. In an article recently published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), investigators with The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practices Open Recordings Project attempted to shed some light on what is often considered to be a very confusing and complicated legal issue.

In the U.S., the situation is complex, explained Professor Glyn Elwyn of the Dartmouth Institute. Wiretapping or eavesdropping statutes provide the primary legal framework guiding recording practices and protecting privacy, so a patient who would like to record a doctors visit should familiarize themselves with laws in their state.

When it comes to recording laws, it is important to know the difference between one-party consent laws and all-party consent laws. States that have one-party consent laws do not require the person who is being recorded to know that they are being recorded. On the contrary, all-party consent states are states that require both parties to know a recording is taking place, and include California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Healthcare overall is moving toward greater transparency and patient recordings are going to become more common, Professor Elwyn said. That means there would be tremendous benefit to patient advocacy groups, healthcare organizations, providers and policymakers working together to develop clear guidelines and policies around the responsible, positive use of open recordings.

But while Professor Elwyn seems enthusiastic about the idea of secret recordings becoming more common, not everyone is so pleased.

Early in 2016, student Evan Stone of Massaponax High School in Virginia was threatened with suspension for secretly recording a meeting with his principal. If you record this conversation, or I find it online, I will give you five days out of school suspension, Assistant Principal Stephan Hall says in the recording. When Evan argued that it was his First Amendment right to record the conversation, the principal replied, Not in this building, because I am the authority in this building.

Two years prior to this in 2014, another student got in trouble for secretly recording other students who were bullying him. After being teased and picked on all year by other students in his special education math class, the student, who remained anonymous, recorded one of the bullying incidents, presumably so that he could show the teacher or the school principal. But instead of reprimanding the bullies that were heard in the recording, the school decided to threaten the young sophomore with felony wiretapping before eventually reducing the charge to disorderly conduct.

Whether we like it or not, audio recording is something that is going to become more and more common. That is why it is so important that we eventually pass legislation that maintains a balance between respect for individual privacy rights and respect for the First Amendment.

Sources include:

ScienceDaily.com

DMLP.org

EAGnews.com

WashingtonPost.com
President Donald Trump took to Twitter early Wednesday morning to announce a U.S. military ban on all transgender individuals, prohibiting them from serving in any capacity for fear their enlistment would cause "tremendous medical costs and disruption" to the government.

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military for more than a year. Then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended the military's ban on transgender people in June 2016, but Trumps tweets announced plans to reinstate that ban. It remains to be seen what would happen to transgender service members who are currently enlisted in the military.

Trumps announcement comes as new medical guidelines are expected to be released that could change the course of treatment for transgender adults and children around the world.

The NBC Bay Area Investigative Unit was the first to report on the new guidelines, which would likely clear a path for transgender children to begin transitioning at a younger age. The current guidelines, which have not been updated in nearly a decade, only recommend hormone therapy for transgender teenagers 16 and older. That restriction could soon be removed so children may begin changing their bodies even earlier.

The guidelines are also expected to acknowledge potential benefits in allowing children to transition socially, which can mean changing their names and wardrobes to feel more comfortable with their own gender identity.

Click here to watch our full investigation.

Top experts within the medical community remain at odds over the upcoming shift in medical guidelines.

Supporters believe offering medical intervention at younger ages will allow transgender children to physically transform more seamlessly and limit the number of costly and complicated surgeries later in life. Opponents, however, believe early social transitions unfairly push children into thinking they should identify as the opposite sex.

The Endocrine Society plans to release the new guidelines by the end of the year.

______________________________________
BOX SCORE

With two swings, the Blue Jays delivered an absolute gut-punch to the As on Wednesday night.

Justin Smoak hit a two-run game-tying homer off Santiago Casilla in the ninth. On the next pitch, Kendrys Morales swatted a walk-off shot to give Toronto a stunning 3-2 victory at the Rogers Center.

That once again denied As manager Bob Melvin his 1,000th career victory, which the As seemed poised to celebrate. Rookie Paul Blackburn also had a much-deserved victory snatched away from him after he threw seven scoreless innings.

Oakland has dropped three straight north of the border since giving Melvin career win No. 999. A lack of offense doomed them in the first two games of this four-game series, and they got precious little scoring Wedesnday. But Marcus Semiens two-run homer in the fifth seemed to be all the offense they would need, and the As took a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth.

Blake Treinen handled the eighth to get the ball to Casilla, whos had a turbulent ride as the As closer after signing a two-year deal to return to Oakland in the offseason. Wednesdays meltdown accounted for his sixth blown save. He entered the night tied for third for most blown saves in the American League.

The As are short on late-inning options after recently trading Sean Doolittle and Ryan Madson to the Washington Nationals.
Google has snatched up 52 Sunnyvale properties, shelling out a whopping $820 million on the acquisitions.

The buildings, which were bought from real estate company CBRE, are located roughly four miles south of the tech giant's Mountain View headquarters, according to the Silicon Valley Business Journal. A real estate brokerage silently collected the properties on Google's behalf, the report said.

In recent years, Google has leased or bought a slew of smaller campuses in Sunnyvale and the company's new properties fill in the gaps between them, the Business Journal said.

The company highlighted its need for room to grow by reporting on Monday that it has more than 72,000 employees, CNBC said.

Once the ongoing purchases have been buttoned up, Google's workforce will be scattered from San Francisco to San Jose. That sets the company apart from rivals, including Apple and Facebook, whose workers are clustered closer together.

In keeping with its plans for expansion, Google in June also won exclusive rights to negotiate with San Jose leaders about a new development that will span roughly 8 million square feet around the Diridon Station. Google partnered with real estate giant Trammell Crow for that project, and has already spent more than $100 million on land in the South Bay city.
A group calling itself "The Resistance" called for and held an emergency protest in San Francisco's Castro District Wednesday evening in response to President Donald Trump's announcement that transgender individuals will no longer be permitted to serve in the U.S. military.

"Donald Trump announced this morning he will be reversing Obama's policy and ban transgender folks from serving in the military," organizers said on Facebook. "Please come to this emergency protest to show his administration and the world that San Francisco stands with the transgender community."

The announcement came in a series of tweets from Trump around 6 a.m. Pacific time.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow ... transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," Trump wrote.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming ... victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he added.

The announcement has drawn ire from across the political spectrum, including state Sen. Scott Weiner, D-San Francisco, who called it a "bigoted move," and even Republican U.S. Sen. John McCain, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

"The President's tweet this morning regarding transgender Americans in the military is yet another example of why major policy announcements should not be made via Twitter," McCain said in a statement.

"We should all be guided by the principle that any American who wants to serve our country and is able to meet the standards should have the opportunity to do so -- and should be treated as the patriots they are," he added.

San Francisco Supervisor Jeff Sheehy, who represents the Castro district, didnt mince words in reacting to Trumps announcement.

"You have a coward attacking heroes," Sheehy said. "I think it's outrageous and disgusting. We have people who are willing to serve our country, who are volunteers, who are in hot wars, and this is a man who failed to serve in the military during the Vietnam era."

Theresa Sparks, senior adviser for transgender initiatives in San Francisco, served in the Navy for three years during Vietnam and rejected Trump's arguments about distractions and medical costs.

"His absurd claims about the cost are ridiculous," Sparks said. "We know that from San Francisco, when we first started doing health care for trans people in San Francisco, there were these wild claims that it would bankrupt the city, and everybody will move here to do it. Neither happened."

"He has so many problems," Sparks added, "that to come after us, it must be a diversion."

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee also responded: "It's just discriminatory at its core," he said. "It's what we reject."



Meanwhile, supporters of the ban, including the Family Research Council, applauded Trump, saying the military can now focus its efforts on preparing to fight and win wars rather than being used to advance the Obama social agenda.



Wednesday evening's emergency protest was scheduled to start at 6 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza at Castro and Market streets. As of 2 p.m., more than 750 Facebook users had indicated they plan to attend.

NBC Bay Area's Christie Smith contributed to this report.
The California State Senate is considering legalizing liquid cremation.

If approved, California will join several other states in offering the controversial process.

Supporters consider the method more environmentally friendly.

Bio-Response Solutions, a liquid cremation company based in Indiana, describes the method on their website as nothing more than a large pressure cooker.

The liquefying process mimics natural decomposition with alkaline hydrolysis, which involves a consistent flow of water combined with heat. Bio-Response Solutions Vice President of Research Samantha Sieber said takes up to six hours.



Sieber said Alkaline Hydrolysis using less water than the average US household does in a single day. She also pointed out that it does not emit any green house gasses, unlike traditional cremation.



The process of liquid cremation is also cited to be more energy efficient in comparison to classic cremation. A BBC article points out the heat used to traditionally cremate a body could keep an entire home heated for a week during cold winter months.



Opponents of the bill though find the process to be unsettling. Executive director of the California Catholic Conference Ned Dolejsi told KQED that the process does not respect the natural cycle of life and death, referring to the steps within liquid cremation.

As of July 13, the bill was read a second time to the California Senate.
San Francisco police officer Joshua Enea was arrested Wednesday on child pornography charges out of Contra Costa County, according to the police department.

Investigators say a months-long investigation revealed Enea, 37, had multiple images of child pornography on his home computer in Antioch.

"It's very troubling a sworn police officer would have any of this stuff on his computer," said Paul Graves, a senior deputy district attorney for Contra Costa County.



The 10-year veteran of the force was taken into custody on suspicion of felony possession of child pornography.

"Everybody who has an image or picture taken of them is an exploited youth," Graves said. "When that image circulates throughout the Internet, that's troubling."

Police said they learned that Enea might be in possession of child pornography in February, and removed him from direct contact with the public while the case was investigated.

"I'm glad (the San Francisco Police Department) conducted a thorough investigation so we can make sure he's not on the street or having any contact with children," Graves added.

Enea is currently suspended without pay. He was booked into San Francisco jail Wednesday afternoon with bail set at $100,000. The San Francisco Sheriff's Office said Enea was released from jail late Wednesday.

According to Transparent California, Enea's total pay and benefits with the department totaled $191,104.84 in 2016.

The San Francisco Police Department released a statement Wednesday, saying, "The public's trust is of the utmost importance to the members of the SFPD. The Department will continue to work hard with the community to build and maintain this trust."

Police said they worked with the Contra Costa County District Attorney's Office to file charges in the case.

"We stand with the Department in its duty to thoroughly investigate individuals suspected of committing crimes and offenses in every segment of our community, including by a suspect who is a member of the SFPD," said Julius Turman, president of the San Francisco Police Commission.

Turman said the the commission will "stand by any appropriate administrative action at the conclusion of the investigation."

"This is a very serious allegation of a crime," he continued. "The Police Commission will ensure that our officers uphold and obey the law and that all persons, including officers, are afforded their constitutional rights and privileges, the same as any other suspect."

Meanwhile, Enea's arrest suprised his East Bay neighbors, who said that he is married to a dispatcher and has two children.

"I did feel safe knowing there's a cop behind me," said neighbor Maria Avalos. "I never in a million years thought something like that would happen in my neighborhood."

Enea has made headlines twice before.

In 2010, he was reportedly bit by a graffiti artist who was accused of hate crimes. And in 2015 he appeared in a story about a program in which volunteers drink in front of police to help them learn how to identify intoxicated drivers.



Anyone who thinks they may have had suspicious contact with Enea is asked to call Internal Affairs investigators at 415-882-8420.
As Seen On
An 8-year-old suffered life-threatening injuries Wednesday afternoon when a sailboat overturned off Wareham, Massachusetts.

Environmental Police said nine children and three adults were rescued when a power boat near Stony Point Dike capsized at 4:41 p.m.

U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Nicole Groll said someone on a private vessel nearby had spotted the 18-foot boat and called for help, then took people in the water on board.

By the time Martin Van Breems and his crew on the Disco Volante got to the scene, there were parents and children from three different families in the water.

"The people in the water were screaming and crying. One kid couldnt be accounted for. It was heartbreaking," Van Breems said. "I heard one daughter scream, 'I love you mom'. They were scared."

Van Breems said his crew, co-captain and four students had just finished practicing man overboard drills.

"My co-captain spotted the over turned boat and people in water," he recalled.

Everyone had on a life jacket and Van Breems' crew was able to get most of the victims out of the water.

Michael Margulis had also been diving nearby, servicing moorings in Buzzards Bay.

"I was fully dressed in my wet suit, dive gear rigged, ready for another dive so I thought I could aid and assist by just showing up," Margulis.

When Environmental Police arrived and most of the victims had been rescued, an 8-year-old boy was still unaccounted for.

"I switched my dive gear over, went over the rail, started searching the submerged boat, one victim was wearing a life jacket, stuck in the the bow section of the boat, I was able to free that person and bring him to the surface," Margulis recalled.

After CPR was performed on the child, he was taken to Tobey Hospital then by medical helicopter to Boston Children's Hospital.

The other children and adults that were rescued did not suffer serious injuries. Most were evaluated at Tobey Hospital.

"Its rough out there, it might be a sunny day at the beach but when youre out on Buzzards Bay, the wind and waves can offer hazardous conditions, wear your life jacket," said Margulis.

Environmental Police are investigating the exact cause of the accident.
A 4-year-old boy who was on life-support following a south suburban crash that killed his mother and 1-year-old brother died one day after the fatal accident.

Weston Schmidt was pronounced dead at 5:55 p.m. Tuesday at Comer Children's Hospital in Chicago, according to the Will County Sheriff's office. His 6-year-old brother remains in critical condition at the facility, officials said.

Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Schmidt and her 1-year-old son Caleb Schmidt, residents of Beecher, were also killed in the crash.



The crash between a 2002 Chevrolet S10 pickup and a 2014 Subaru Outback happened at 8:38 a.m. Monday in unincorporated Beecher, according to the Will County sheriffs office.

The pickup was heading east on Corning Road and failed to stop at the stop sign at Yates Avenue, and struck the Subaru on the drivers side, causing the SUV to leave the road and go into a field, police said. The Subaru had been heading north on Yates and did not have a stop sign.

The driver of the Subaru, Schmidt, and her 1-year-old son were both pronounced dead at the scene at 10:35 a.m., police and the Will County coroners office said. Autopsies were scheduled for Tuesday.

Schmidt was pregnant at the time of her death, according to a statement from the sheriffs office. She was taking her children to a nearby Bible Camp when the accident occurred.

The womans other two sons, ages 4 and 6, were taken in critical condition to St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond, Indiana, according to the sheriffs office. Both children were transferred to Comers Children Hospital where they are currently on life-support.

The 6-year-old has been placed into a medically induced coma, police said.

The 25-year-old man driving the pickup suffered minor injuries and was taken to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, police said. He was transferred to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn to undergo minor reconstruction surgery where he is being treated for a large cut to his arm. His condition has stabilized.

Charges were pending against the driver of the truck Wednesday night.

The Will County Sheriffs Office would like to extend our heartfelt sympathy and continued prayers to the family, according to the statement.

A donation fund has been set up at First Community Bank and Trust. Checks should be made payable to The Schmidt Family Fund and delivered to either the bank's Beecher or Peotone locations. Checks can also be mailed to PO Box 457, Beecher, IL 60401.
Governor Bruce Rauner and top Republican leaders met the media on Thursday to issue a challenge to state Democrats: turn in your homework.

That was the phrase that Rauner hammered at repeatedly during his remarks, which were made as the Illinois House and Senate engage in a special session to work on a school funding bill that will allow education facilities throughout the state to open this fall.

Speaker Madigan and President Cullerton: turn in your homework, Rauner said. You passed a bill to fund our schools two months ago, but youre hiding it. Youre sitting on it, while our schools, teachers, and most importantly our students are put at risk.

The Republican press conference comes a day after House Speaker Mike Madigan indicated that he feels the Democratic-controlled legislature has enough votes to overturn any potential veto of SB-1, a funding bill that includes provisions to help with the pension crisis in Chicago.

Governor Rauner has said he will use an amendatory veto on the bill if it reaches his desk in its current form, striking out the provisions related to Chicago schools.

That bill still has not been sent to his desk, and Republican lawmakers criticized Speaker Madigan and Senate President John Cullerton for their tactics during the financing impasse.

Were on Day 57 since the Democrats passed SB-1. Every day that goes by places their school opening in jeopardy, Republican Leader Jim Durkin said. Its not fair. Its not right. Send us the bill and well work with you. We should be doing work down here, and it starts with the president lifting his ban and sending his bill to the governor.

President Cullerton has said publicly that he wants to have a meeting with the governor to discuss the bill, which is being held as lawmakers seek more time to compromise on the specifics of the legislation.

I just want to have a meeting with him, Cullerton said Wednesday. I want to have a meeting with him so he can show me what his changes are.

Despite Cullertons entreaties, Governor Rauner insists that there is no real appetite for compromise on the part of Democratic leadership.

If there was real interest in compromise, that bill would have been on my desk two months ago, he said. There is not interest in being reasonable on the other side of the aisle. What is so outrageous is to use our children as political leverage. That is wrong. Our children deserve better.
The Illinois Department of Labor has suspended the operation of all rides similar to the Fire Ball after the amusement park ride broke apart at the Ohio State Fair Wednesday, killing at least one person and injuring seven others.

At least three Fire Ball rides, eight Freak Out rides and one Extreme ride in Illinois will not operate until further notice, officials said.

With many festivals and county fairs occurring across the state, including the upcoming Illinois State Fair, we are committed to ensuring the safety of all carnival rides, IDOL Acting Director Joe Beyer said in a statement Thursday.

Tyler Jarrell, 18, of Columbus, Ohio, was identified by police as the person killed in this week's accident.

Three of the injured were hospitalized Wednesday night, authorities said at a news conference. Two of them were treated and released, but the other remained hospitalized in critical condition Thursday morning.



Dramatic video captured by a bystander shows the ride swinging back and forth like a pendulum and spinning in the air before part of the ride flies off, throwing riders to the ground.

In a statement, the Ohio State Fair said: "Our hearts are heavy for the families of those in last night's tragic accident." The fair also said all rides will be shut down until they are inspected by the state, but other activities at the fair will go on as scheduled.



"The fair is about the best things in life, and tonight with this accident it becomes a terrible, terrible tragedy," said Republican Gov. John Kasich.

Gov. Kasich's statement on tonight's incident at the Ohio State Fair. pic.twitter.com/PFjfHWMIab  John Kasich (@JohnKasich) July 27, 2017

A company providing rides at the fair this year described the Fire Ball as an "aggressive thrill" ride.

On its website, Amusements of America says that since its debut in 2002, the Fire Ball has become "one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway." The company description of the ride says it swings riders 40 feet (12 meters) above the midway while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.

The Illinois Department of Labor said the Amusement Ride and Attraction Safety Division inspects and permits all rides open to the public and determines whether they are safe to operate.

"No ride is permitted to run if it does not pass inspection," the department said in a statement.

Inspectors conduct about 4,000 ride inspections at parks, carnivals and fairs throughout Illinois each year, officials said.
As a Wisconsin family questions what happened to their daughter the day she died from an injury at an all-inclusive Mexico resort this year, the State Department is warning travelers of "tainted alcohol."

Families told the Milwuakee Journal Sentinel they experienced sickness, blackouts and injuries after drinking at resorts in the Cancun and Playa del Carmen area in recent months.

The reports follow the death of 20-year-old Abbey Conner, who was found face down in a pool at the Iberostar Paraiso del Mar resort.

On the State Department's website, updated Wednesday after the newspaper's report, in the "Safety and Security" section, the agency warns:

"There have been allegations that consumption of tainted or substandard alcohol has resulted in illness or blacking out. If you choose to drink alcohol, it is important to do so in moderation and to stop and seek medical attention if you begin to feel ill."

Conner's family said they were on winter break together in Playa del Carmen when she mysteriously suffered a "traumatic brain injury."



John and Ginny McGowan, Conners mother and stepdad, told the Journal Sentinel they had spent their afternoon relaxing by the pool while their children swam. The parents went up to their room to get ready for dinner, but an hour later, both Abbey and her brother Austin, who had spent part of their afternoon at a poolside bar, were found unconscious, face down in chest-deep water.

Austin survived, but Abbey Conner was declared brain-dead by doctors. On Jan. 12, the family decided to withdraw life support and donate Conners organs.

But months later, they still dont know what actually happened to their daughter.

The Journal Sentinel reports the official cause of death was "accidental drowning," but family said they have doubts about that ruling.

Conners brother reportedly told the publication the duo had done a few shots together before a group invited them to do a shot together. They all drank one, and that was the last thing he remembers before waking up in an ambulance.

According to the report, Austin Conner's blood-alcohol level was 0.26 and Abbey's was 0.25.

"My kids were at this hotel for less than two hours. The last thing my son remembers is having a drink in the pool," the children's father, Bill Conner, who was not in Mexico at the time, told NBC affiliate WMTV in April. "The next thing my son remembers is they woke up in the hospital. Somebody got to them This was at 5:30 in the afternoon, daylight, exclusive hotel and you just don't think it'll happen to you."



"It's all too convenient," the McGowans attorney, Florentino Ramirez, told the Journal Sentinel. "If it was an accident, where was everybody? It just doesn't make sense. There are too many open ends."

It appears the Conner family isn't alone with such questions.

The attorney representing the family told the Journal Sentinel he went to the resort and watched the bar where Conner's injury happened.

They serve alcoholic drinks with alcohol of bad quality and in great amounts, mixing different types of drinks, he wrote in a four-page report summarizing how Conner may have died.

Other families have reported similar incidents after drinking at resort bars across the area, though none of the experiences were deadly.

Two teenage brothers from Minnesota on vacation with their parents told the Journal Sentinel they woke up covered in mud, with no shirts or shoes and their wallets and cell phones missing. Another Wisconsin woman said she was assaulted while she and her husband were unconscious, a claim the Journal Sentinel reports was supported by an exam she had done after returning to the U.S.

Kathy and Jeff Daley, of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, said they were vacationing in Cancun with their daughter and had visited a pool swim-up bar to do a round of tequila shots with their group. Kathy Daley said she took one shot and drank water for the remainder of her time there before she was offered a mixed drink from the bartender. Daley took a couple of sips before she said she lost consciousness and woke up vomiting and disoriented in a hospital. She was diagnosed with intoxication and severe dehydration, the Journal Sentinel reports.

In many cases, guests reported drinking tequila, but in some cases it was beer or another alcohol.



Numerous travelers, including the Daleys, reported that local hospitals demanded large sums of cash after such incidents, in some cases seeking the money before treatment.



Iberostar Paraiso Resort reiterated in a statement that they are taking the situation following Conner's death "very seriously."

"We would also like to emphasize that for us at IBEROSTAR the safety and satisfaction of our guests is of utmost importance," the statement read. "IBEROSTAR Hotels & Resorts welcomes more than half a million guests per year in Mexico and has a very strict policy for hygiene and safety. A high standard of quality for food and beverages is crucial for the daily operation of our resorts. We work with food and beverage providers whose products comply with the highest quality standards to guarantee the satisfaction and safety of all of our guests. We work with a host of providers not unique to IBEROSTAR who service other hotel chains and renowned brands. Similarly, we only purchase sealed bottles that satisfy all standards required by the designated regulatory authorities.

A State Department official confirmed to NBC 5 the department is aware of [Conner's] case.

We extend our sincere condolences to family and friends, the official said in a statement. In cases of U.S. citizens injured overseas, the Department of State works to provide all appropriate consular assistance. Out of respect for the family, we have no further comment.

According to data from the department, nearly 40 U.S. citizens died from drowning in Mexico last year.

A travel warning from the state department on Mexico, however, does not mention drowning or alcohol-related incidents from the area.
A 6-year-old boy has died of his injuries following a horrific south suburban crash that claimed the lives of his pregnant mother and two younger brothers this week.

Owen Schmidt, who was the last surviving child following the accident, died at 2:39 a.m. Thursday, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office. He had been in critical condition at Comer Children's Hospital.

His 4-year-old brother, Weston Schmidt, also died at the hospital in Chicago Tuesday, according to the Will County Sheriff's office.

Twenty-nine-year-old Lindsey Schmidt and her 1-year-old son Caleb Schmidt, residents of Beecher, were also killed in the crash.



The crash between a 2002 Chevrolet S10 pickup and a 2014 Subaru Outback happened at 8:38 a.m. Monday in unincorporated Beecher, according to the Will County sheriffs office.

The pickup was heading east on Corning Road and failed to stop at the stop sign at Yates Avenue, and struck the Subaru on the drivers side, causing the SUV to leave the road and go into a field, police said. The Subaru had been heading north on Yates and did not have a stop sign.

The driver of the Subaru, Schmidt, and her 1-year-old son were both pronounced dead at the scene at 10:35 a.m., police and the Will County coroners office said. Autopsies were scheduled for Tuesday.

Schmidt was pregnant at the time of her death, according to a statement from the sheriffs office. She was taking her children to a nearby Bible Camp when the accident occurred.

The womans other two sons, ages 4 and 6, were taken in critical condition to St. Margaret Hospital in Hammond, Indiana, according to the sheriffs office. Both children were transferred to Comers Children Hospital where they are currently on life-support.

The 6-year-old has been placed into a medically induced coma, police said.

The 25-year-old man driving the pickup suffered minor injuries and was taken to St. James Hospital in Chicago Heights, police said. He was transferred to Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn to undergo minor reconstruction surgery where he is being treated for a large cut to his arm. His condition has stabilized.

Charges were pending against the driver of the truck Wednesday night.

The Will County Sheriffs Office would like to extend our heartfelt sympathy and continued prayers to the family, according to the statement.

A donation fund has been set up at First Community Bank and Trust. Checks should be made payable to The Schmidt Family Fund and delivered to either the bank's Beecher or Peotone locations. Checks can also be mailed to PO Box 457, Beecher, IL 60401.
President Donald Trump continued to call out Chicago's violence during a rally in Ohio Tuesday, weeks after federal authorities the president had promised to send arrived in the city.

Speaking to a crowd of supporters, Trump promised to "make America safe again."

He questioned, however, "what the hell is going on in Chicago."

"This month in Chicago there have been more than two homicide victims per day," he stated.

The comments come weeks after Trump's administration announced the creation of a "Chicago Gun Strike Force."

U.S Attorney General Jeff Sessions said late last month that 20 more permanent ATF agents were sent to the city along with federal prosecutors with the purpose of "prioritizing prosecutions to reduce gun violence, and working with our law enforcement partners to stop the lawlessness.

The move followed an earlier promise Trump made in January, when he tweeted that he would send in the Feds! to help curb the rising number of shootings in Chicago.

Police reported at the end of June that shootings were down by 14 percent compared to the first six months of 2016.



In the days following the announcement, the city went on to record a particularly violent Fourth of July holiday weekend, with more than 100 people shot over the four-day weekend.

Last year, 66 people were shot, four of them fatally, over the long holiday weekend. However, Fourth of July fell on a Monday that year, making the weekend only three days long.



According to Chicago police data, there have been more than 1,600 shooting incidents as of Sunday. Though police statistics don't show how many people have been shot in those incidents, the Chicago Sun-Times reported Monday more than 2,075 people have been shot since the start of the year.

At least six people were killed and dozens of others wounded in gun violence across the city over the last weekend alone.



Chicago police reported on Monday they have removed more than 5,000 guns this year of Chicago streets. The department has also rolled out several initiatives this year, including a high-tech ballistics van that was sent as part of the partnership with the ATF.


Two Chicago men are among three charged with the armed robbery of a 7-Eleven in which a clerk was shot Monday night in the far western suburbs.

Terrance Storey, 28; and Tevin Woods, 26; both of Chicago, along with D Angelo Bryant, 21, of Indianapolis, are charged with armed robbery and armed violence, bot Class Z felonies, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to Sycamore police.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Monday, Woods and Storey walked into the 7-Eleven at 404 W. State in Sycamore with a gun, while Bryant remained outside in a vehicle, according to police.

A struggle with the clerk ended with the clerk being shot twice in the lower body, police said. The 45-year-old man was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb, where his condition had stabilized. He was expected to recover.

The two men left in a small, white, mid-sized vehicle, authorities said.

About 1:30 a.m., Elmhurst police responded to the area of North Avenue and Willow Road, where a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the robbery was involved in a single-vehicle crash, according to Elmhurst police.

Three occupants ran from the vehicle when police arrived, police said. Woods and Bryant were caught and taken into custody, and a firearm and money from the robbery was recovered from the vehicle.

Sycamore detectives later took custody of the men in connection with the armed robbery, police said. No charges have yet been filed.

About 8:05 a.m., Storey was found hiding under the outdoor deck of a home in the 100 block of East Lake Frontage Street in Elmhurst, and was taken into custody, Elmhurst police said.

The three men are also believed to be involved in another armed robbery that happened about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday at a gas station at North and Gary avenues in west suburban Carol Stream, authorities said.

Sycamore police are working with Carol Stream and Elmhurst police on the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (815) 895-3435.

Terrance Storey, 28; and Tevin Woods, 26; both of Chicago, along with D Angelo Bryant, 21, of Indianapolis, are charged with armed robbery and armed violence, bot Class Z felonies, and aggravated unlawful use of a weapon, according to Sycamore police.

Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Monday, Woods and Storey walked into the 7-Eleven at 404 W. State in Sycamore with a gun, while Bryant remained outside in a vehicle, according to police.

A struggle with the clerk ended with the clerk being shot twice in the lower body, police said. The 45-year-old man was taken to Kishwaukee Hospital in DeKalb, where his condition had stabilized. He was expected to recover.

The two men left in a small, white, mid-sized vehicle, authorities said.

About 1:30 a.m., Elmhurst police responded to the area of North Avenue and Willow Road, where a vehicle matching the description of the one used in the robbery was involved in a single-vehicle crash, according to Elmhurst police.

Three occupants ran from the vehicle when police arrived, police said. Woods and Bryant were caught and taken into custody, and a firearm and money from the robbery was recovered from the vehicle.

Sycamore detectives later took custody of the men in connection with the armed robbery, police said. No charges have yet been filed.

About 8:05 a.m., Storey was found hiding under the outdoor deck of a home in the 100 block of East Lake Frontage Street in Elmhurst, and was taken into custody, Elmhurst police said.

The three men are also believed to be involved in another armed robbery that happened about 12:10 a.m. Tuesday at a gas station at North and Gary avenues in west suburban Carol Stream, authorities said.

Sycamore police are working with Carol Stream and Elmhurst police on the investigation. Anyone with information is asked to call police at (815) 895-3435.
Accusations started flying within minutes of the beginning of a special meeting by the Blue Hills Fire District in Bloomfield on Wednesday night.

Last fall, the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters did a series of investigative stories about the thousands of dollars in perks received by the commissioners.

Since our stories aired, a new commissioner got elected. She appears to have already sided with one of the incumbent commissioners, in asking the other incumbent commissioner, Tanya Farmer, to step down. The two commissioners accused Farmer of fabricating and destroying public documents. The commissioners did not show their findings to the audience, which included Bloomfield Mayor Joan Gamble.

Gamble had several outbursts, telling the two commissioners making the accusations that they should resign.

The commissioners who formed the voting block against Farmer also plan to ask Bloomfield Police to investigate whether she and the fire chief destroyed, or removed, their district credit card records. After a while, many of the taxpayers in the audience had enough with the two commissioners who called for the special meeting and made the accusations, asking them to step down.

Both Farmer and the fire chief, who are married, deny the accusations against them. One of the other commissioners, the board chair, is also married to a full-time firefighter in the department.
More than a week after a stolen SUV packed with juveniles plowed into two people at a bus stop on Ashley and Sigourney Streets in Hartford, 56-year-old Rosella Shuler, a mother of four who lost both her legs when the vehicle jumped the curb, remains in critical condition.

I wish I could take her place because she cant even sit. She cant even walk, Shulers daughter, Jessica Vazquez, said.

On Wednesday, Vazquez was with Shovaka Ceasar, the man who was also injured in the crash, and they were joined by clergy members and Hartford residents who are calling for an end to youth violence.

Those children had no business being in that car, a stolen car at that, one member of Mothers United Against Violence said.

Community leaders want the change they have repeatedly asked for.

Vazquez said that witnesses stepping up would be a start instead of people doing nothing when they see something happen.

Ceasar recalled the moment of impact and the shock he felt after.

The car sped up, it hit the curb, it hit me and pushed me up against the fence, he said.

The two are now united in their quest for justice.

The Hartford Police Department told NBC Connecticut at least one arrest in this case is expected soon.
The drug enforcement administration in Connecticut arrested more than a dozen people and seized seven kilos of cocaine on Wednesday.

Arrests were made in New Britain, Middletown and Meriden, in addition to a stash house, a location where drug dealers keep their supply and/or money, on West Boulevard in Hartford, according to federal agents.

Half a dozen arrested on Wednesday are alleged members of the Latin Kings gang, while another arrestee is a letter carrier for the United States Postal Service (USPS), according to federal agents.

Steven Riccelli, 42, of Unionville, has worked for the postal service for 19 years and is currently a letter carrier at the Farmington Post Office. Riccelli remains on the record as an employee, according to Maureen Marion and Christine Dugas with the USPS.

The U.S. government said Riccelli was using his position as a postal employee to receive packages from Puerto Rico and that he would allegedly provide addresses to other suspects in order to send drugs.

Riccelli, federal agents believe, would take the packages off his postal route and hand deliver them to some of the other suspects involved.

Riccelli's attorney, Charles Kurmay, would not comment to NBC Connecticut after his client pleaded not guilty to federal drug charges.

"There is indication he had a job as of this morning. He probably does not have a job as of now. Apparently, he worked for the postal service, I don't think he'll continue to be employed," Kurmay told the court.

Eight others pleaded not guilty in federal court this afternoon, including:

Omar Rivera, 34 of New Britain

Turon Davis, 38, of Middletown

Derrick Bryant, 26, of Middletown

Luis Arroyo, 56, of New Britain

Lisette Perez, 34, of Springfield, Massachusetts

Orlando Quiros, 40, of Suffield

Leonel Quiros, 33, of New Britain

Corey Best, 32, of Bloomfield

According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Gordon Hall, who was at the federal court arraignments on Wednesday, the defendants were named and charged in an indictment by a grand jury last week.

Charges from count one of the indictment include conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Hall told the court that defendants Luis Arroyo, Lisette Perez, Orlando Quiros, Leonel Quiros and Corey Best, are alleged to individually also be responsible for at least five kilos of cocaine.

Orlando Quiros, Leonel Quiros and Corey Best also face charges of attempting to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to the prosecutor in court. Quiros is also charged with use of a facility of interstate commerce to use the proceeds of drug trafficking.

NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters requested to speak with all but one of the suspects' attorneys after court. All of those requested to talk to NBC Connecticut declined comment.

Family members of several suspects also chose not to respond to inquiries from the NBC Connecticut Troubleshooters.

Several other suspects appeared before the federal judge as well. NBC Connecticut is working to get their names and the charges against them.

If convicted, the charges carries penalties to include five or ten years behind bars to life sentences and five and ten million dollar fines.
A Norwalk mother who has lived in the United States for 24 years and refused deportation last week has been granted a stay that will allow her to remain in the country.

Nury Chavarria left her native Guatemala in 1993, when she was 19, and applied for asylum, but her application was denied and she remained in the United States with nothing to go back to at home.

Chavarria, a mother of four, was seeking sanctuary at the Iglesia De Dios Pentecostal Church on East Pearl Street in New Haven last week because immigration officials could not arrest her on church property.

She told NBC Connecticut when she entered the church seeking sanctuary that she was prepared to stay for months, or even years, but was able to leave on Wednesday.

"Thank you all. God bless you," Chavarria said as people gathered in New Haven Wednesday to celebrate the mother's ability to now walk the streets freely.

She said she's prepared to continue to fight to call the United States home.

Gov. Dannel Malloy issued a statement shortly after the decision.

Today, reason and compassion have prevailed. There was never a rational justification for Nury Chavarria to have been threatened with deportation and separated from her children, and I applaud this decision by ICE and the court to allow her to continue living and working in the United States with her family," Malloy said.



Since 2011, Chavarria has had yearly check-ins with immigration officials. Each year she was given the approval to remain in the U.S.

Chavarria said she has no criminal record, works as a housekeeper and pays taxes. She believed those factors would allow her to remain in the U.S., despite President Donald Trump's administrations focus on deportations. All that changed at her June check-in when ICE officials told her she would have to pack up her life and leave in five weeks.

I told him, 'Im not a criminal. Im a mother with four children. They are citizens. USA. I want to stay here to help them and keep my family together,' she said.

Chavarria's request to stay was denied on July 18 but a motion for her to stay was granted on Wednesday.

The woman's lawyer said there is a path for the mother to become a lawful, permanent resident, but it is a long and complicated one. They said it's part of what kept her from becoming a citizen after all these years.

Chavarria will continue to wear an ankle bracelet that monitors her movements.

NBC Connecticut reached out to ICE for a statement but did not hear back at the time of post.
Dozens of people protested on Main Street in Hartford this morning to support of a New Fairfield man from Guatemala who is facing a deportation order.

Joel Colindres, a 33-year-old father of a 6-year-old son and 2-year-old daughter, came to the U.S. from Guatemala 13 years ago and married Samantha, a Connecticut native, seven years ago.

In the years since then, the two said they have been fighting for the necessary documents for Joel to stay in the United States.

"Let's do it the right way. You've been paying into money for Social Security, you're not going to be having retirement," Samantha Colindres said.

Joel Colindres said problem is that he missed an immigration court date in 2004, when he was 20 years old and living in Texas.

"They had his address completely wrong. His first name was spelled with a K, his last name was wrong. He never even received the order to go the court," Samantha said.

Because of the order, Joel Colindres said he cannot apply for citizenship. Instead, he has been granted several stays of deportation, which is an Immigration and Customs Enforcement-approved order allowing him to remain in the country for one year.

Last week, the most recent "stay" application was denied and Joel Colindres was told he has 30 days to leave the country.

I broke down in tears. How can you do this!?" Samantha asked.

Dozens of people showed up for the protest Thursday morning, holding signs and chanting "Keep Joel him."

"It's overwhelming. I think now it's coming because we've been feeling the support through social media. So now, feeling it with actual people here, it's extremely overwhelming," Samantha said.

ICE said they are not going to take Colindres into custody at this time. Instead, they placed him on a GPS monitoring program.

ICE also said, "he was instructed to report back to ICE with an itinerary as proof he intends to comply with his removal order."

Until the time comes, the couple is working with attorney's to clear up the court date issue and keep her family together in the country.

U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy has also been in touch with the family and is trying to help them.

My office has been in close contact with Joel, Samantha, and their attorney, and we are actively working with ICE to pursue every option. As a father of two young kids, I can only imagine the pain Joel is going through right now at the thought of having to leave his 6-year-old son Preston and 2-year-old daughter Lila, Murphy said in a statement. The Trump administration once again is irresponsibly targeting families. I think we all agree that our limited law enforcement resources should instead go to deporting dangerous criminals.

"We have to prepare for the worst, but no matter what, I am always going to love this country," said Colindres.
Were still enjoying the heat of summer, but road salt that will treat the highways and streets across Connecticut this winter is coming into New London.

Crews are unloading about 38,000 metric tons of salt at state pier in New London, according to DRVN Enterprises Inc. The salt stock came all the way from Egypt and will be sold to various towns throughout the state.

There are mixed opinions on the winter preparations.

Its crazy. I mean its still so hot outside and theyre already getting ready for winter? I just hope summer stays around for a while, Ava Pitruzzello, of East Lyme, said.

"They're already putting Christmas stuff out in the store shelves, so yeah, I think having the salt ready would be a good idea," Vickie Orzel, of Kansas, said.
President Donald Trump announced a controversial change to military policy Wednesday morning on Twitter, writing that transgender Americans will no longer be allowed to serve "in any capacity" in the U.S. military.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption," Trump added.

The decision has been met with mixed reaction and raises serious questions for thousands of transgender Americans currently serving.

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military since June 2016, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended a ban. Trump tweeted at the time, during the presidential campaign, that he would fight for the LGBT community.

His announcement on Wednesday did not say what would happen to transgender people currently serving in the military.

White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said at an afternoon briefing that the White House and Department of Defense would "have to work together as implementation takes place and is done lawfully."

Nicole Lynn Perry, a transgender Marine veteran from North Texas, was angry and disheartened by the decision Wednesday.

"It was like, I served honorably, why are you preventing others like me who have gone before me, and who want to go after me, why are you preventing them from serving honorably?" Perry said.

Perry fulfilled a lifelong dream to join the military by becoming a Marine, serving from 2008 to 2013.

"To be able to say I served in the Marine Corps, it's a big deal," she said.

It was also challenging. She never told her unit she was transgender. After Perry left the military she began to transition, but she does believe there is a place for everyone in the military.

"Whenever you are in the foxhole, it's your buddy to your left and right. It's your brother, it's your sister. That's it. There is no, 'Oh, well, because they are trans I won't fight for them. Oh, because they are gay I won't fight for them.' No, that's your buddy. You don't care. You are there because you want them and you want yourself to get home alive to their families," Perry said.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops. One study by RAND  a research company that provides analysis to the military  found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

RAND estimated the cost of extending gender transition-related health care coverage for transgender personnel to increase by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million a year, representing a boost of between 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent.

Some conservative organizations and lawmakers hailed the decision.

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins applauded Trump for "keeping his promise to return to military priorities  and not continue the social experimentation of the Obama era that has crippled our nation's military."

U.S. Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said Trump's supporters "will be happy to hear it. We don't need to be experimenting with the military. Plus there's no reason to take on that kind of financial burden."
With penguins and leopard sharks swimming beside them, a San Diego couple renewed their vows at an underwater wedding ceremony Wednesday, inside the Africa Rocks Penguin Pool exhibit, according to San Diego Zoo Global.

Surprised guests at the San Diego Zoo pulled out their phones to take pictures. At first, they didn't realize Timm and Sherrie Burks were renewing their vows inside the tank, clad in full scuba gear. Both are certified scuba instructors.

California leopard sharks and African penguins swam around the tank, as the couple exchanged their vows on underwater placards, said Zoo Global officials.

Twenty family members were invited to see the ceremony. Timm and Sherrie met in 2012, while they were both working at dive shops in San Diego.

Tim and I were married under extreme circumstances a few years ago said Sherrie.



While they planned to get married in 2014, Timm suffered a cancer relapse. A few days before the treatment was scheduled to begin, the couple decided to tie the knot anyway, said Zoo Global officials.

You know, go to the courthouse and get married is not necessarily the ending of a story that a man wants to give to his new bride. Its what we had to work with at the time, said Tim. "Having the ability to share that with loved ones, friends, family and everyone at the zoo means a lot to me.



They exchanged their vows at the courthouse in downtown San Diego, without having their family and friends present. Although they were eager to get married before Tim's cancer treatments, they missed the chance for a more romantic ceremony, according to San Diego Zoo Global.

Because we werent able to include family and friends in our ceremony in 2014, we are very thankful for the opportunity to renew our vows with the people we care about, here with us today, said Sherrie.

This time, the couple shared a truly unique and memorable ceremony. After waving their vows and mouthing, "I do," the couple bonked their scuba equipment together for a kiss.

Spectators cheered and clapped as they watched.

While on safari in South Africa last year, we had the opportunity to see African penguins on the beachso, to be married underwater in the African penguin pool is surreal," added Sherrie.
A man was killed and a second was wounded Wednesday in a car-to-car shooting, believed to be gang-related, that led to a crash into a fire hydrant in Industry.

Firefighters pronounced the unidentified victim dead after being dispatched on a 2:19 p.m. call of a crash, possibly involving a shooting, at the intersection of Don Julian and Turnbull Canyon roads, according to the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

A second man in the vehicle who had also been shot was taken to a hospital, sheriff's Lt. Joe Mendoza told reporters at the scene.

A third male in the vehicle fled on foot and was detained nearby, Mendoza said.

The shooting, which occurred in the area of Clark and Ridley avenues, precipitated the crash less than a mile away, according to Mendoza.

One of the crashed vehicles, which wasn't involved in the shooting, was carrying a man and his three children.

Two people in that vehicle sustained minor injuries, Mendoza said.

The shooting, which is believed to have been gang-related, was preceded by some kind of disturbance in the 15500 block of Ladysmith Street in Hacienda Heights, according to Mendoza said.

It's unclear if shots were fired from both vehicles in the car-to-car shooting.

One of the vehicles slammed into a fire hydrant, a fire department inspector said.

The second vehicle involved in the shooting, described only as a white sedan, was being sought along with whoever was inside.

No suspect descriptions were immediately available.
A man accused of drunkenly strolling down a road in Maine wearing a black-hooded sweatshirt and a clown mask and brandishing a machete taped to his amputated arm has been arrested.

Maine State Police said 31-year-old Corey Berry, of Hollis, was arrested Tuesday and charged with criminal threatening. He was released after posting $200 bail.

Police say Berry was first spotted walking on Plains Road in Hollis around 6 p.m. before fleeing into the woods. He was taken into custody after re-emerging in Waterboro.

"It's pretty unsettling," said Lindsey Morton of Waterboro. She said the clown came out of the woods beside her home. Her husband watched as police took down the clown and arrested him.



Police said Berry was intoxicated but cooperative. He told officers he was copying previous clown sightings as a prank, similar to the creepy clown sightings that made national news last summer.

"He has a very weird way of doing pranks," said Paula Libby of Hollis, who lives on Plains Road. "A clown is supposed to be happy. That clown would scare the daylights out of anybody."

Berry was released from York County Jail after posting $200 bail.

A phone number for Berry couldn't be found Wednesday, and it wasn't known if he has a lawyer who could comment on his behalf.
A former Army secretary said Thursday that he's angry and shocked that President Donald Trump would  in his words  "turn his back on thousands of transgender Americans serving today."

Eric Fanning served under President Barack Obama and was the first openly gay head of any military service.

Trump took to Twitter on Wednesday to declare a ban on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S.

Fanning told the "Today" show: "If you're a transgender service member anywhere in the world, you are very nervous about what you're hearing, and now you're probably very confused and very frightened about what the future holds for you, when your commander in chief tweets a message like this, essentially dismissing your service."
A trio of anti-government protesters in Cuba were detained after they unfurled banners on the Catedral de Santiago de Cuba Wednesday.

Video released by protest group UNPACU showed the three demonstrators holding the banners on the building.

"58 years of deception, hunger and misery," one banner read. "The people want liberty, justice and democracy," the other read.

The video showed the three men being taken into police custody.
Authorities say a man who hired a prostitute to meet him at a hotel, killed her, put her body in a plastic container and buried it in his backyard has been extradited back to Broward County.

Broward Sheriff's officials say 25-year-old Tyquan Pearson met 19-year-old Brittney Taylor's at a South Florida motel in May after soliciting her online. Authorities say hotel surveillance video showed Taylor enter the room. Four hours later, the video shows Pearson leaving, pushing a stroller with a blue storage container.

The Sun Sentinel reports the investigation led detectives to a home where they found Taylor's remains inside the container and buried in the backyard.

Pearson was arrested on a warrant in Norfolk, Virginia and was transferred on Tuesday to South Florida, where he is being held without bond on a murder charge. It's unclear whether he'd retained an attorney who could comment on the latest charge.
Gov. Jerry Brown signs legislation Tuesday keeping alive California's signature initiative to fight global warming, which puts a cap and a price on climate-changing emissions.

The Democratic governor was joined by his celebrity predecessor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, who signed the 2006 bill that led to the creation of the nation's only cap and trade system to reduce greenhouse gases in all industries.

The program has become closely watched around the world, promoted by Schwarzenegger and Brown alike a successful way to reduce emissions that hasn't taken the steam out of California's thriving economy.

Brown's signature added 10 years to the program, which had been scheduled to expire in 2020. It follows a frenetic push by Brown and his legislative allies to craft a plan that businesses and environmentalists would both find acceptable.

In the end, the extension was supported by a wide range of business and environmental groups that said it's the most cost-effective way to combat climate change. But it met fierce opposition from environmental justice groups that said it's riddled with giveaways to the oil industry, including too many free pollution permits.

Schwarzenegger signed a bill in 2006 that authorized state environmental regulators to create a cap and trade program, but the authorization would have expired in 2020 without action from lawmakers.

After the extension passed, Schwarzenegger highlighted the support from eight Republican lawmakers, saying they've shown that the GOP can get behind free-market solutions to climate change.

Schwarzenegger's bill required the state to reduce its carbon emissions to 1990 levels by 2020  a target the state is on track to meet. Legislation approved last year set a new, much more aggressive goal to reduce emissions another 40 percent by 2030.

Cap and trade puts a limit on carbon emissions and requires polluters to obtain permits to release greenhouse gases. Some permits, known as allowances, are given away while others are auctioned, generating billions of dollars in revenue for the state. The money is a key funding source for a high-speed train between San Francisco and Los Angeles, one of Brown's top priorities.

The governor's office said he'll sign separate legislation tied to the cap and trade extension later this week. That includes a bill that could give Republicans more say in spending the money and another to improve efforts to monitor and clean up the air around some of the dirtiest sources of pollution, such as oil refineries.
What to Know Suffolk Police Officer Christopher McCoy, 38, was arrested Thursday morning on a civil rights violation

He's accused of forcing a woman he arrested to perform oral sex on him while she was being processed at the police station

The FBI is asking anyone else who may have been a victim to contact them

A Long Island cop has been arrested on federal charges after he allegedly forced a woman he arrested to perform a sex act on him at the police station, prosecutors say.

Christopher McCoy, 38, was arrested Thursday morning and released on $500,000 bond after appearing in federal court in Central Islip Thursday afternoon. He pleaded not guilty to violating the alleged victim's civil rights by depriving an arrestee of the right to bodily integrity.

Federal prosecutors allege that on March 16, McCoy, while on duty, arrested a woman who had several outstanding warrants for unresolved vehicle and traffic offenses. She was taken to the First Precinct stationhouse in Wyandanch.

During the arrest processing, while McCoy and the woman were alone in the juvenile room, he forced her to perform oral sex, according to prosecutors.

As soon as she was released, the woman reported the incident. The Suffolk Police Department suspended McCoy without pay in April.

"This is disgusting. This is rape," Suffolk Police Commissioner Tim Sini said Thursday, adding the department will be seeking to terminate McCoy. He says the county will be adding cameras to all interview rooms in the wake of the allegations.

"This type of behavior is outrageous," said FBI Assistant Director in Charge William F. Sweeney Jr. in a statement. "It won't be tolerated within our criminal justice system, and those who subject others to such cruel conduct will be swiftly removed from serving in any official capacity."

The victim's attorney told News 4 over the phone the woman is not speaking publicly but applauds the investigation by FBI and prosecutors. She has filed a lawsuit, which is pending and in the discovery phase, her attorney said.

McCoy said nothing as he walked out of court Thursday, but an attorney for the officer told reporters, "It would be inappropriate for us to comment now regarding the reliability of this complaint, or the $40 million lawsuit that has been filed so quickly. However, we will have much to say about this in court as the case unfolds."

Another attorney said McCoy has "proudly" served as a police officer both in New York City and on Long Island for the past 12 years without incident.

"This is only a complaint, and as this case progresses, more will be revealed," he said.

No one answered the door at McCoy's home in Sayville, but stunned neighbors told News 4 they found the allegations against the married father of three hard to believe.

As part of his release, McCoy can't leave New York or carry a firearm. He also had to give up his passport.

Authorities are asking anyone else who may have been a victim of McCoy to call the FBI at 212-384-2166.

The Suffolk Police Department wasn't immediately commenting on the officer's arrest Thursday.
Luis Torrens had three RBIs, Manuel Margot homered and Jhoulys Chacin was effective through 5 1/3 innings as the San Diego Padres defeated the New York Mets 6-3 on Wednesday night.

Torrens' first career triple came with the bases loaded in the Padres' four-run third inning. Margot's first-inning homer set the tone as the Mets lost for just the second time in their last eight games.

Chacin (10-7), who had lost five of six decisions to the Mets, flipped that script with a solid outing. He reached the double-digit victory mark for the first time since 2013 by allowing two runs and four hits. The right-hander walked three and struck out five in lifting his home mark to 6-2.

Brad Hand worked the ninth, earning his fourth save and pushing his scoreless string to 17 1/3 innings.

Steven Matz (2-4) lasted only three innings as he lost his third straight decision and extended his streak to five outings without a win. He surrendered six runs and nine hits, with four strikeouts.

In his last three starts Matz has pitched a total of nine innings, charged with 16 runs and 27 hits.

Wilmer Flores' homer in the eighth sliced the Mets' deficit to 6-3.

The Mets crawled within 6-2 in the sixth when Jose Reyes drew a bases-loaded walk after they chased Chacin. Rene Rivera followed with a sharp grounder up the middle, but shortstop Allen Cordoba made a diving stab and he was able to throw out Rivera to quell the rally.

San Diego pulled away in the third inning. The big blow was Torrens' triple, which was nearly a grand slam. The ball smacked the top of the right-center field wall, scoring all three baserunners.

Before Torrens' two-out, bases-clearing hit, Margot and Wil Myers' delivered consecutive doubles, with Myers' chasing in Margot after his second extra-base hit.

Margot has five hits in the past two games and a team-high 23 multi-hit games.

The Padres struck quickly when Margot stroked a two-run homer for a 2-0 lead. Margot's first-inning homer, his sixth of the year, was hit 419 feet over the center-field fence.

TRAINER'S ROOM

Mets: Manager Terry Collins said INF Neil Walker (torn left hamstring) could rejoin the club for this weekend's series in Seattle. When Walker returns, he could see time at third base. His 58 starts this year have been at second base.

Padres: INF Yangervis Solarte (strained left oblique) continues to make progress and could be sent out on a rehab assignment next week.

UP NEXT

Mets: RHP Chris Flexen makes his major league debut as he maneuvers the jump from Double-A Binghamton. He's the first Mets starting pitcher since Mike Pelfrey in 2006 to skip Triple-A. Flexen was 6-1 in the minors, which included a stint with Single-A St. Lucie.

Padres: RHP Luis Perdomo (9-7, 4.26 ERA), whose 10 quality starts are second on the Padres, has never faced the Mets but he is 4-1 lifetime against NL East teams. His three triples are the most by a pitcher since Dontrelle Willis matched that number in 2007.
What to Know An inmate jumped over a fence at Rikers Island and escaped Wednesday evening

The inmate was found on the island Thursday morning

The inmate escaped from a high-security detention center, according to sources

A manhunt involving multiple law enforcement agencies came to an end after a man who escaped from a high-security detention center on Rikers Island has been found, law enforcement sources told News 4 New York.

Port Authority Police Dept. officers canvassed near LaGuardia Airport as they searched for the inmate, according to the sources. The NYPD Harbor Unit searched the waters around the island.

All traffic on Rikers Island was suspended amid the lockdown. Police vehicles, many with their lights flashing, were seen coming to and from the island after nightfall.



Dept. of Correction spokesman Peter Thorne said the inmate did not return from the outdoor recreation area Wednesday evening.

The law enforcement sources added that he jumped over a fence at the C-95 jail, also known as AMKC, which houses about 3,000 inmates.

Staff noted the disappearance around 7:30 p.m. when the headcount of inmates was off by one.

The 24-year-old inmate was wearing an orange jumpsuit, the sources said.

Thorne said the Dept. of Correction was working with the NYPD as an investigation into the escape and the search for the inmate continued.

"Rikers Island facilities have been placed on lockdown and we are talking to anyone who may be involved," Thorne said at the time of the search.

Some civilians who were coming out of the facility said they had no idea what was going on. Some of them were stuck on buses, confused about what was happening and why they weren't allowed off.

"They did not report any information to you at all," one woman said. "People were looking on their phones and something popped up at 9 o'clock. We were on the bus since 7:15."

Another woman said people started fighting and kicking doors open on the bus. "People were fainting. It was crazy," she said.

Top Tri-State News Photos

The city's jail system has been plagued for years by a culture of violence and corruption.

A lawsuit filed by lawyers for inmates who were beaten by jail guards and joined by federal prosecutors who investigated brutality against 16- to 18-year-old inmates resulted in 2015 in a consent decree mandating the city implement a series of wide-ranging reforms.
What to Know A young man was killed and seven other people were hurt when the Fire Ball malfunctioned on the opening day of the Ohio State Fair Wednesday

Witnesses said a "whole row" of the thrill ride broke off, hurling people into the air; they described a horrifying scene

Officials in NJ say the ride at the Monmouth County Fair is similar to the one that malfunctioned in Ohio but has a different operator

The same exact ride involved in the deadly accident at the opening day of the Ohio State Fair was in New Jersey for the annual carnival at the Meadowlands earlier this month, inspection records show.

Records show that the KMG-manufactured Fireball ride, which swings riders back and forth like a pendulum up to 40 feet in the air, was inspected every day at the fair from June 22 to July 9. No problems were found.

No issues were found in Ohio prior to Wednesday's accident that killed an 18-year-old Marine recruit and injured seven other people, at least one of them critically. Records showed passing marks on inspections of about three dozen items including cracks, brakes, proper assembly and installation. Authorities say the accident was caused by some sort of malfunction; an investigation is underway.

The ride broke broke apart as people enjoyed the first day of the Ohio State Fair Wednesday evening. Dramatic video shows the ride swinging back and forth like a pendulum and spinning in the air before "a whole row" of the ride flies off, according to witnesses and video, throwing riders to the ground.

The man who died has been identified as Tyler Jarrell, of Columbus. Authorities said he was among those hurled from the ride when it malfunctioned.

KMG, the Dutch manufacturer of the Fireball involved in the accident, told the Associated Press there are 43 such rides around the world, including 11 in the United States. It said the Ohio accident was the first such serious malfunction on one of the rides, and that KMG techs aren't involved in maintenance.

Messages have been left with the operator, Amusements of America.

Meanwhile, reaction across the tri-state area -- and the nation -- has been swift.

A similar ride called the Claw at New Jersey's Monmouth County Fair was shut down Wednesday night after the operator, a different one than the one managing the ride involved in the accident, learned of the malfunction.

New Jersey state inspectors officially took it out of service Thursday. Other rides at the fair at the East Freehold Showgrounds, which began Wednesday and runs through Sunday, remain operational.

It's not clear how many similar rides operate in New York, but the state's Department of Labor said Thursday it has asked all companies operating the same ride to voluntarily shut them down until more is known about the cause of the accident in Ohio. The department said it would also re-inspect all rides in New York managed by Amusements of America, the operator of the Fireball in Wednesday's accident, and that it would reevaluate any similar rides operated by any other company in the state.

In a parallel move Thursday, the Illinois Department of Labor announced it would suspend the operation of all rides similar to KMG's Fireball until further notice.

The Ohio State Fair said all of its rides would be shut down pending state inspections, but other fair activities would proceed as scheduled.

"Our hearts are heavy for the families of those in last night's tragic accident," the statement released early Thursday said.

On its website, Amusements of America says that since its debut in 2002, the Fire Ball has become "one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway." The company description of the ride says it swings riders 40 feet (12 meters) above the midway while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.
What to Know President Trump announced via Twitter that transgender people will be banned from the U.S. military, sparking outrage

More than a dozen organizations staged a rally at a military recruiting center in Times Square, with hundreds of people demonstrating

It's unclear what the ban will mean for currently serving transgender soldiers

Demonstrators flocked to a military recruiting station in Times Square to protest President Donald Trump's abrupt ban on transgender service members in the military.

A crowd of at least a couple of hundred people gathered around the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station at 43rd Street on Wednesday. They held signs saying "Resist!" and listened to speakers who denounced the ban, which Trump announced on Twitter.

More than a dozen organizations, including Equality New York, GLAAD and the New York Civil Liberties Union, banded together for the Times Square rally.

Demonstrator Yael Leberman says transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental." She says it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.

Tonya Walker, a transgender Army veteran, said Trump is "rolling back time."

"When I was in you couldn't, you weren't allowed to be gay, trans, or anything, you couldn't be out."

Hannah Simpson, of Harlem, echoed that sentiment.

"I want trans youth like me to know that when they grow up they can have any opportunity they choose," Simpson said.

In Pictures: NYC Rally Protests Trumps Transgender Military Ban

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump tweeted that transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the U.S. military "in any capacity," saying they would cause "tremendous medical costs and disruption."

The reaction was quick and furious, with a number of elected officials from the tri-state denouncing Trump's announcement.

Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, who serves on the Armed Services Committee and who led the effort to repeal "Don't Ask, Dont Tell," issued a swift rebuke.

"These service members are willing to die for their country, and this is an insult to their brave and honorable service. This new directive is harmful, misguided, and weakens  not strengthens  our military," Gillibrand said

Gillibrand said she will introduce legislation to overturn the ban.

Here standing with NYers to say #TransRightsAreHumanRights - all civilians and military should be united in saying #NoTransBan pic.twitter.com/wmDsv1kXMr  Carlina Rivera  (@CarlinaRivera) July 26, 2017

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said transgender Americans "are serving honorably in our military. We stand with these patriots."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, blasted Trump's directive as "wrong, intolerant and a giant slide backwards in the fight for equal rights."

"Valor knows no race, no creed, no gender, and no sexual identity, period," he said.

Democratic Sen. Cory Booker praised transgender people in the military and blasted Trump, saying in a statement, "Mr. President, trans military members have sacrificed far more than you ever have  or will."

Trump announced the decision via Twitter on Wednesday.

Like Gillibrand, Booker said he will introduce legislation to reverse the ban and uphold a policy established last year that allows transgender service members to serve openly and to not face discharge from the military solely for being transgender individuals.

In a statement, Mayor de Blasio called the ban "fundamentally un-American and unconscionable," and said, "There is no doubt that our military is only made more mighty when it embraces the inclusivity and diversity at the bedrock of our nation."

"The United States should be leading the way on inclusivity and diversity, not running away from it," the mayor said.

Transgender people have been able to serve openly in the military since June 2016, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter ended a ban. Trump had tweeted at the time, during the presidential campaign, that he would fight for the LGBT community.

His announcement on Wednesday did not say what would happen to transgender people already in the military.

New Yorkers at Stonewall Inn Wednesday reacted to the news that Trump was banning transgender people from serving in the US military.

There are as many as 250 service members in the process of transitioning to their preferred genders or who have been approved to formally change gender within the Pentagon's personnel system, according to several defense officials.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender troops. A RAND study found that there are between 2,500 and 7,000 transgender service members in the active duty military, and another 1,500 to 4,000 in the reserves.

Since Oct. 1, transgender troops have been able to receive medical care and start formally changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

But Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to newly join the military, if they meet physical, medical and other standards, and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On the eve of the deadline, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis announced a delay on allowing transgender people from enlisting, giving the armed forces another six months to study the issue.

Key concerns include whether currently enlisted troops have had medical or other issues that cause delays or problems with their ability to deploy or meet physical or other standards for their jobs. Military leaders also wanted to review how transgender troops are treated, if they're discriminated against or if they have had disciplinary problems, the officials said. They were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

Retired Sgt. Maj. Jennifer Long called Trumps announcement personal. She served in the military for nearly three decades before getting quietly pushed out after she transitioned and changed her name to Jennifer.

It causes a lot of emotional distress, Long said. You just want to get up in the morning and do your job. Youve been doing it for years with honor. Now you just want to have that one less thing and serve openly and be who you are.
Law enforcement officials on Long Island say they're looking forward to President Trump's visit on Friday and are "extending a warm welcome" to the president -- but some residents have a different message.

Trump is arriving in Suffolk to discuss the federal war on the violent MS-13 gang, blamed for 17 murders in the county over the last year and a half. He tweeted Thursday, "Big progress being made in ridding out country of MS-13 gang members and gang members in general. MAKE AMERICA SAFE AGAIN!"

An official said Trump believes Suffolk is the epicenter of the MS-13 threat.

Immigrant advocates on Long Island have accused the president of politicizing the MS-13 gang problem to justify a crackdown on all undocumented immigrants. On Thursday afternoon, protesters gathered outside Suffolk Community College to condemn his visit.

"The irony is that Donald Trump has decided to use our community as a backdrop for his national agenda -- an agenda built on hate," said anti-gang activist Sergio Argueta.

"So many politicians, when they use rhetoric against immigrants, they create chaos and fear," said Joselo Lucero, the brother of an Ecuadorian immigrant who was killed in a hate crime in 2008.

But the Suffolk County sheriff's office says in a statement they're looking forward to meeting with the president "as he seeks to change the trajectory on outworn immigration policies -- and make America safer and more prosperous for all," adding that "Long Island is now at the heart of the nation's immigration debate. MS-13 gang violence and murders have gripped its suburban communities."

More than 100 Suffolk County deputy sheriffs and correction officers are expected to attend Trump's speaking event in Brentwood on Friday. Suffolk police are overseeing security.

Suffolk Republican Party Chairman John LaValle also cheered Trump's visit: "It's literally like Elvis is coming to town."

The parents of two teenage girls murdered last September by alleged MS-13 members say they hope to meet Trump during his visit. Rob Mickens and Elizabeth Alvarado, the parents of Nisa Mickens and Kayla Cuevas, who were best friends, say they haven't received a formal invitation to meet with Trump.

I really want to say to (Trump), how are we really going to end this problem? said Rob Mickens. Why did it take this long?

A senior administration official says Trump will call on Congress to deliver and ask for 10,000 more ICE officers. Right now, there are only about 5,000 serving the country.

Trump is also expected to push his promise of a borderwall. The campaign says it help stop the flow of illegal immigrants, which the campaign says is behind the rising violent gang problem.

Trump is expected to talk sometime before 2 p.m.
A Texas man who was in northern New York to get married set fire to eight cars after the nuptials were called off, police say.



Police in Plattsburgh, New York, said officers responded early on July 9 to reports of several vehicles on fire in the north end of the city located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the Canadian border.

Officials said some vehicles sustained minor damage but at least two were totaled.

Police looked at hours of street surveillance video before focusing on 35-year-old Jimmy Williams as the suspect. He was tracked down in the Houston area and taken into custody.

Williams was brought back to Plattsburgh late Tuesday and charged with eight counts of arson. He's being held in the Clinton County Jail on $50,000 cash bail or $100,000 bond.



Officials have not said why the wedding was called off.

The Associated Press left a message with his attorney that has not been returned.
Editor's Note: NBC10 Investigators spent several days in two of Philadelphia's most dangerous police districts  the 22nd and 25th  talking to families, experts and police. Here are the stories on the escalating violence in these districts.



Kobe Davis cant shake the sound of gunfire around his home near North 21st and Berks streets.

"I been hearing the gunshots, sometimes in the morning, or sometimes at night," the 10-year-old said. "Like about every few hours. ... I don't even want to be outside."

Living in Isolation Among the Bullets, North Philly's Rising Violence:

NBC10 Investigators spent several days in Philadelphia's 22nd and 25th police districts, talking to families, criminal justice experts and police. Heres the first of three packages on the escalating violence there. Tune in at 11 p.m. for the third in the series.

Kobe came to North Philadelphia last August from Georgia with his mother, Whitley Garnes, and his sisters in hopes of new opportunities. What theyve found is a neighborhood long suffering in racial and economic isolation.

A neighborhood like this where there are gunshots regularly, those gun shots become an environmental hazard that people try to avoid. Its like a flood, an oil spill, criminologist Robert Kane, of Drexel University, said in an interview. It becomes this self-perpetuating, transgenerational cycle and the economic opportunities still dont exist here.

A large swath of North Philadelphia, including three of the city's poorest zip codes, makes up much of the two most dangerous police districts in 2017 for young people  the 22nd and 25th, according to violent crime statistics.

Young people in these two districts face the greatest likelihood of getting shot, statistics show.

Thirty-three young people under the age of 24 were wounded by gunfire in the first six months of 2017, according to police statistics. Another 31 were shot in the 22nd district.

Overall, 232 people 24 years old or younger were shot in the city through July 1, including 43 kids ages 12-17.

Eighteen to 25 seems to be the prime age for someone to commit a crime but also to be a victim of a crime, police Capt. Sekou Kinebrew, the department spokesman, said.

Losing Loved Ones, Vanishing Opportunities:

NBC10 Investigators spent several days in Philadelphia's 22nd and 25th police districts, talking to families, experts and police. Heres the second of three packages on the escalating violence there. Tune in at 11 p.m. for the third in the series.

One researcher who spent a year in North Philadelphia studying the neighborhoods wracked by gun violence said the root of so many shootings is obvious.

"Kids can get a gun quicker than they can get a job," said researcher Abbey Thibeault.

What leads young people to find guns involve deep poverty, high unemployment and struggling public schools, she said.

The populations of five zip codes across North Philadelphia have poverty rates above 50 percent, according to U.S. Census figures. In 19133, 81.4 percent of residents live in poverty.

The perception of inescapable poverty combined with the daily sound of gunshots is not only terrifying in the short-term, it affects longterm health, according to Kane, the criminologist.

He said studies performed in high-stress neighborhoods like North Philadelphia have found residents with high levels of cortisol, a hormone that helps deal with stress.

"Cortisol helps you survive in tough environments, but for the long term, it leaches calcium from your bones, it causes your hair to fall out, it accelerates disease pathology," Kane said.

After less than a year in Philadelphia, Whitley Garnes is considering her options.

"I don't feel like this is somewhere I want to raise my kids," she said.
Officials in Delaware investigating whether six heroin overdose deaths are related.

WDEL in Wilmington reported Tuesday that the six overdoses occurred within a three-week period. Two distinctive stamps were found on the packages of heroin that were used by the victims.

Authorities are analyzing the chemical makeup of the drugs that were recovered. Five of the deaths occurred in New Castle County. One was reported in Sussex County. The state has reported 125 overdose deaths so far in 2017.

Health officials are urging opioid users to get treatment. Their family members are also encouraged to get trained in the use of naloxone. The overdose-reversing medication will be available at pharmacies under legislation signed by Governor Carney last week.
Nobel Laureatte Harry Markowitz, a recipient of the 1990 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, is donating $4 million toward the University of California, San Diegos Rady School of Management.

The money will go toward the Barbara and Harry Markowitz Endowed Fellowship, which will support students in the fields of mathematics, science, finance and operations research, according to a statement from Rady School News.

Markowitz is also donating his Nobel Prize in economics, two other prize medals to the school, and a pocket watch he has kept since 1950, according to the school.

Markowitz is known for his Modern Portfolio Theory in economics and investing, and at 89-years-old, runs a consulting business in San Diego called the Harry Markowitz Company.

Markowitz has been an adjunct professor at the Rady School of Management since 2007, and said he considers the school his home.

Markowitz said in a statement he is delighted to leave his legacy with the Rady School of Management.


Chipotle says it believes a sick employee may be the culprit behind a reported outbreak of norovirus that caused as many as 135 patrons of a Virginia restaurant to get sick last week.

The Sterling, Virginia location came under fire last week after patrons reported symptoms of vomiting, diarrhea and stomach pain after dining at the restaurant.

After the company reported improved sales for the second quarter Tuesday, CEO Steve Ells said on a conference call with investors that a company investigation into the illnesses found that its leadership at the store didn't adhere to its protocols.

We believe someone was working while sick,'' Ells said, without giving specifics.

The Loudoun County Health Department has been looking into the outbreak.

Given how quickly symptoms develop with norovirus and the large number of folks involved, we will likely not be able to determine whether a patron or employee was the first to introduce the virus to the facility,'' said David Goodfriend, director of the Loudoun County Health Department.

The Sterling Chipotle temporarily closed after reports that a small number of customers had gotten sick. It reopened the following day.

A Chipotle representative noted that employees are not supposed to work when ill, and the company offers paid sick days for hourly employees. Ells said the company is adding training to what he called excellent protocols to prevent further norovirus cases.

Chipotle's image has been vulnerable as it tries to reassure customers its food is safe since an E. coli outbreak in fall 2015, which was followed by a norovirus outbreak at a single restaurant that same year. Norovirus is a leading cause of illnesses from contaminated food, and infected employees are a frequent source of outbreaks.

The company is hoping that buzz around a potential national launch of queso will tempt customers as it tries to move past the food scares. Executives repeatedly mentioned the cheese dip during a conference call Tuesday, and said excitement around the item might change the narrative following last week's bad publicity.

We're talking a lot about this one particular menu item, but you shouldn't underestimate how much potential it has, said Mark Crumpacker, who heads Chipotle's marketing.
Two 18-year-olds and a 17-year-old have been charged in the shooting death of a 17-year-old boy in Laurel, Maryland, police announced Tuesday.

Kalik Johnson, 18, of Laurel, Kylah Nettleton, 18, of Severn, and Darius Tarik Johnson, 17, of Upper Marlboro, have been charged in the death of Dustin Khoury.

Khoury was shot July 18 while inside a car on the 3000 block of Contee Road. He died at a hospital a short time later.

His father, Michael Khoury, said the family buried the 17-year-old on Monday. They were grieving together when they learned of the arrests.

"I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry for their families, who have to endure a lot of pain, like we did," Michael Khoury said.

Dustin Khoury was a "special kid," his father said.

"Everybody loved him. He'd help anybody, anything you'd ask of him. He was so dependable," Michael Khoury said.

Police said the suspects and victim were in the middle of an illegal transaction when Dustin Khoury was shot. No additional details on that transaction were released immediately.

All three suspects were charged with first- and second-degree murder. Darius Johnson is being charged as an adult.

Dustin Khoury would have been a senior at Meade Senior High School in the fall.

"He had lots of hopes," his father said. "He wanted to go to college."

Dustin Khoury is the 14th homicide victim in Prince George's County this month.
The manager of a CVS Pharmacy in Warrenton, Virginia, was found dead near a dumpster outside the store Wednesday night, police say.

The body of 64-year-old Rex Mack Olsen was found outside the store on Blackwall Road at 10:36 p.m.

Olsen was a 25-year employee of CVS and had managed the Warrenton store since 2008, according to CVS.

An autopsy will determine the cause and manner of death.

Investigators say there's no danger to the public at this time.

No further details were released.
After President Donald Trump sent three tweets Wednesday morning saying transgender individuals will be barred from serving in the military, a military spouse in Virginia had a visceral reaction: she burst into tears.

Amanda Brewer is the wife of a soldier and mother of six, including a 14-year-old girl who is transgender.

She and her kids were in the car when her son saw the news.

"He read me the tweets and I instantly started crying," Brewer said.

"He's like, 'What does that mean?'" she recalled her son saying.

"That means that these people are not allowed," she replied. "We're one tweet away from your sister not getting to see the doctor."

Brewer, whose husband serves at Fort Belvoir, said she's worried that Trump's decision will mean that Tricare, the military's health care system, will cut coverage of her daughter's treatment.

When her daughter came out at age 11 and the family tried to get treatment at Children's National Medical Center, Tricare wouldn't cover it, Brewer said. After the Defense Department announced in June 2016 that transgender people could serve in the armed forces openly, Jennifer's care was covered.

Now, her mom is scared that Jennifer's health care coverage will be eliminated.

Jennifer was born male, and she's been through a lot. At school, classmates beat her up so badly that she suffered a concussion and missed weeks of class. Then, medical treatment helped improved her life.

At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders was peppered with questions about how Trump's announcement will affect service members and their families. She responded by repeatedly calling the president's announcement a "military decision," and then threatened to end the press conference if reporters kept asking about the ban.

A recent study shows that about 2,500 active-duty members of the U.S. military are known to be transgender.

Trump said in his tweets that the military "cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender [sic] in the military would entail."

The cost of health care for transgender people costs the military an estimated $2 million to $8 million annually. That's a fraction of a fraction of the military's annual health care budget of nearly $48 billion.

Brewer said military families she knows are eager to know how Trump's three tweets affect their lives.

A lot of them are scared and angry. They don't know -- what does this mean to them specifically?" she said.

Jennifer's reaction to the president's tweets was sadness, Brewer said.

"As my kiddo read it to me, I just lost it. She just looked and she was like, 'How long is it going to be before I don't have to go march or stand or talk, I'm just allowed to be?'"
A Northern Virginia man and a Maryland woman who was apparently driving the wrong way died in a head-on crash Wednesday morning, police said.

Maryland State Police say troopers received reports of a vehicle traveling eastbound in the westbound lanes of Route 50 in Annapolis, Maryland, just after 2 a.m. Moments later, a trooper in the area found a crash involving three vehicles near Bay Dale Drive.

Police say Christine Parks, 31, of Severn, Maryland, was driving the wrong way when she hit a Honda Civic head-on, according to a preliminary investigation.

The Civic spun into the middle lane, where it was struck by a third car.

Both Parks and the driver of the Civic, 34-year-old Hui Xu, of Herndon, Virginia, were pronounced dead at the scene.

The two people in the third car were treated at a hospital and released.

Police said alcoholic beverage containers were found in Parks' car, and alcohol has not been ruled out as a factor in the crash. However, the cause and contributing factors of the crash have not been determined, they said. Speed is not believed to be a factor, they said.

Investigators haven't yet been able to determine where Parks entered the westbound lanes, police said.

Route 50 westbound was closed between Cape St. Claire Road and Bay Dale Drive for hours.
A terminally ill Maryland woman has arrived in Maryland after hundreds of strangers donated more than $60,000 for her air ambulance from an Alaska hospital.

Nancy Greathouse, 71, and her husband, Paul, went to Alaska on a two-week cruise in April. On April 28, she suffered a respiratory crisis and was taken via medevac from the cruise ship to a hospital in Juneau.

She spent the next two months at an Anchorage hospital.

Greathouse has been diagnosed with terminal cancer, along with an autoimmune disease flare-up.

Greathouse wanted to live out her remaining days at home in Beltsville, Maryland, but doctors said she was not well enough to fly a commercial flight and her insurance wouldn't cover the medical evacuation flight.

"She didn't want to die in Alaska and she wanted to come home so we were gonna figure something out," Greathouse's son Daniel Kelley told News4.



Within days of her story being shared, hundreds of strangers donated more than $60,000 to a GoFundMe page Kelley created.

"We just want to say thank you," Kelley told the Alaska Dispatch News. "I think it's amazing these people would take this on to help Mom."

A plane carrying Greathouse arrived at BWI just after 10 p.m. Wednesday.

Hours before her arrival, Kelley and his family took part in a prayer vigil for his mother at Grace Pointe Community Church of the Nazarene in Severn, Maryland.

"Over $55,000 in three days' time. Incredible," Pastor Bob Prescott said of the donations supporting Greathouse.
The first transgender person to run for the Virginia House of Delegates found an unlikely silver lining in President Trump's decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military.

Danica Roem received more than $52,000 in donations Wednesday, the day that Trump announced his decision on Twitter.

"We attribute that to people wanting to make a statement, that they are opposed to what the president announced yesterday regarding transgender discrimination," said Roem, who is a Democrat.

It was the biggest single day of fund-raising since her campaign began, Roem said.

The 86 donations came from all over the country and from the 13th District, where Roem is running against Republican incumbent Bob Marshall. Marshall is a strong supporter of Trump's decision to exclude transgender people from military service.

"Needing operations, taking 10 years of chemical treatment to allegedly change from one sex to the other, being out of commission for 9 months if you have to get an operation to satisfy your desires," Marshall said, "it is not comparable with the fighting function of the United States military."

Marshall has been in office for 26 years in the district that includes parts of Prince William County. He was the sponsor of a so-called "bathroom bill" that would have restricted the bathrooms that transgender people can use, and authored a now-void constitutional amendment that defined marriage as between one man and one woman.

A political action committee that supports LGBTQ candidates has called Marshall the "the most anti-LGBTQ member of the Virginia state legislature."

Marshall has also pushed for more transparent Virginia government and authored bills to streamline the paperwork required of Virginia businesses.

Roem, a former journalist and Manassas native, has said Marshall spends too much time on social policy and that she wants to focus on local issues, particularly easing congestion in fast-growing Prince William County.

"I want to build up our infrastructure, not tear down each other," Roem says on her website.
Authorities in Massachusetts are asking for the public's help finding suspects who vandalized headstones at a Jewish cemetery.

Melrose police say officers received a report of young men vandalizing tombstones at the Netherlands Cemetery Association Burial Ground on Lindwood Avenue around 3 a.m. Thursday.

When officers arrived, they found a witness who said he saw three males, likely teen boys, kicking over tombstones and then fleeing the area.

Two of the suspects were described as slender and between 5'7" and 5'8", while the third was described as having a heavy build. They were wearing black and grey sweatshirts and t-shirts. One of them reportedly had a black backpack, while another had a skateboard.

Melrose Mayor Robert Dolan called the vandalism act a "potential hate crime," since the cemetery is the state's third-oldest Jewish cemetery.

"Cemeteries are sacred grounds," he said in a statement. "Any malicious destruction is deeply saddening and must be given the full attention of law enforcement to bring the individuals responsible to account for this horrible act."

Police Chief Michael Lyle said the suspects "should be ashamed of themselves."

Anyone who has information in connection with the vandalism is asked to call Melrose police at 781-665-1212. Melrose residents can also submit tips anonymously by texting MELROSE to TIP411 (847411).
Authorities say a woman found dead in her Pittsfield, Massachusetts, home earlier this week died of blunt force trauma to the head while her husband died of asphyxiation and loss of blood from multiple apparently self-inflicted superficial wounds.

The Berkshire district attorney released results of autopsies on 53-year-old John Kordana and 39-year-old Celeste Kordana on Wednesday, but said the investigation into the deaths is ongoing. Authorities previously said no third party was involved.

The Kordanas were found in their home Monday afternoon by police making a well-being check. Members of the Pittsfield Fire Department had to force entry into the home first.

Several neighbors told The Berkshire Eagle that they had not noticed anything out of the ordinary at the home lately.
A Lunenburg, Vermont woman has been arrested for allegedly driving drunk with juveniles in her car after a family fight.

Police say Denise Roberts, 27 of Lunenburg, was intoxicated when she drove home from the Montpelier area with six juveniles in the vehicle. Three of the children in the vehicle were under the age of ten.

Roberts then allegedly assaulted a family member before fleeing the scene in her vehicle. Roberts was later found in the area of 363 East Concord Road in Lunenburg after her car had been overturned.

She was treated for her injuries and arrested for DUI and held at Northeast Regional Corrections Facility for lack of $1,000 bail.
State officials say five people were taken to the hospital and three others were injured after a disturbance at the Rhode Island Training School.

The Department of Children, Youth and Families said Thursday that three staff and two juveniles were treated and released from a hospital late Wednesday. It says three additional staff members were injured but not taken to a hospital.

The agency did not release details of what happened at the Cranston facility, which houses juveniles facing charges or convicted of a crime.

State police are investigating, and DCYF is also reviewing what happened.

Police were called to the center in May after four workers were injured in a melee, and two residents tried to escape.
State police are investigating an apparent murder-suicide in Maidstone, Vermont, Wednesday evening.

Police responded to the area of 5545 Route 102 after receiving reports of a man chasing a woman with a knife and a gunshot.

A neighbor said Jason McLain allegedly had blood on him when he dropped off his two children before running away on foot. The children were not harmed.

Police found McLain alive at 5545 Route 102 with an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. He was transported to the hospital where he passed away due to his injuries.

Police found McLains estranged wife, Molly McLain, with apparent serious injuries to her head and a stab wound in her torso across the road from the residence. She was later pronounced dead at Weeks Memorial Hospital.

Investigation revealed that Jason McLain was arrested for domestic assault on Molly McLain and interference with emergency services on June 16. Upon release, McLain was forbidden to have any contact with Molly McLain, who was given sole custody of their residence.

Part of Route 102 has been closed while investigators search the scene.

Anyone with information is asked to contact detectives at 802-748-3111.
Outside of the consumer market, real examples of the Internet of Things (IoT) often disappoint because in the end, they are limited by one or more of the IoTs constraints: tens of billions of devices, cheap to acquire, cheap to deploy, security and ubiquitous connections.

I spoke with Dave Kjendal, Senets vice president of engineering and CTO, because he has built products and networks that meet these constraints. It was insightful because Senet has produced products using the entire IoT stack.

Senets evolution began in 2009 with low-cost fuel oil tank sensors communicating over the unlicensed airwaves to optimize delivery routes. The company now operates a general purpose LoRaWAN IoT network that covers one-fortieth of the United States. LoRaWAN is an implementation of low-power, wide-area networks designed to transmit small messages at a frequency of about one an hour. It serves about 55 percent of IoT WAN connectivity. It is a different technical approach than what the mobile carriers promise with 3GPP, which is yet to be standardized.

Senet

Looking back to the early 1900s at the dawn of nationwide telephone service, there were more than 2,500 telephone companies because the telephone business was an entrepreneurial business, impossible to centrally plan and execute. Entrepreneurs wired homes and business in local geographies and then were acquired and rolled up into a nationwide telephone network. The same thing happened in the early days of cable television and pagers.

LoRaWan seems to be following a similar model because it is pushing forward against the constraints limiting the IoT.

The first and foremost precipitating factor and the best indicator that a technology platform has escaped R&D and prototype stage is the availability of merchant silicon. LoRaWAN radio modules are in their third turn.

LoRaWAN roll-out and coverage

Though network components need to meet Federal Communications Commission (FCC) certification standards, LoRaWAN uses unlicensed radio spectrum, alleviating network operators from large investments in acquiring blocks of radio spectrum from the FCC. This levels the playing field for the small operator that wants to compete against a large telecom to deliver an IoT WAN. Rolling out a LoRaWAN network is accessible to a small entrepreneurial operator because of shared cell tower infrastructure. Mobile carriers do not own this infrastructure. Companies such as American Tower and Crown Castle own towers and lease space on them to operators to install their radios.

LoRaWAN operates at three power levels.

1 Watt or 30 dBmfor applications such as meter reading

0.25 Watt or 24 dBmfor applications such asset tracking trash monitoring, pest detection, tank monitoring

0.025 Watts or 14 dBmfor coin cell battery-powered wearable devices

Base stations or gateways can be sparsely deployed. At 20 dBm, a LoRaWAN, cell tower-mounted radio can cover a 10-mile radius and at 30 dBm up to a 25-mile radius, sometimes 100 miles. This architecture can support a sparse deployment of end devices over these distances or a dense deployment of 100,000 devices per square kilometer. There is also an indoor gateway version.

Three or four gateways cover Northeastern University, including basements and heating rooms. Senet recently demonstrated small gateways installed on the 27th floor and in the basement of the 36-floor, steel-reinforced concrete Sands hotel with two gateways that cost less than $200 in a light industrial application.

Senet operates the largest network of this kind in the U.S. The deployment model of indoor and outdoor gateways lets solution providers construct network coverage with a variety solution providers and network operators. Interoperability lets solutions providers knit together network operators into one network to meet customer needs. Senets coverage footprint can be combined with Comcasts or other operators footprints because of LoRaWANs standardization.

IoT: From prototype to large-scale trial to production

Believing in IoT requires some consonant dissonance. For IoT devices to be inexpensive, they must be built at consumer scale of millions. At the same time, they need to be purpose-built, designed as semi-custum, battery-efficient devices without any unnecessary components or sensors. It is not possible to keep these two thoughts in one mind unless there is a flexible supply chain. For many customers, creating a concept prototype is possible, but they are not staffed to design the next product iteration with an integrated microcontroller, LoRaWAN radio using a developer kit.

Kjendal has seen an emerging portfolio of LoRaWAN-packaged sensors. He showed me some interesting sensors packaged for large-scale trials. One is a thumb-sized IP65 package that has a three-axis accelerometer, a magnetometer, and pressure, humidity and temperature sensors. It also has a pushbutton/LED interface and 3- to 5-year battery life that could be deployed for $20 to $25 each.

A lot of applications would use fewer sensors or require the addition of another sensor, such as a light sensor. In these cases, Kjendal would go back to the manufacturer and customize the device appropriately when scaling from 10,000 to 100,000. Other packaged sensors detect fire, smoke, water or asset tracking.

The best indicator of IoT adoption is the semiconductor manufacturers. STMicroelectronics, Murata and Microchip all build microcontrollers with embedded LoRaWAN radios to accelerate the design and manufacture of devices. Kjendal expects to see a system on a chip (SoC) sometime in the future. Similar to Qualcomms strategy of supplying most of a mobile phone in a single SoC Snapdragon chip, an integrated microcontroller, LoRaWAN radio with other commonly used devices integrated into a SoC would accelerate new IoT products. Kjendal says a SoC could reduce the cost to $3 per module.

Deploying a million IoT devices

In addition to the primary mission of operating its U.S. network, Senet has introduced a managed IoT network services platform for Operations Support System (OSS) and Business Support System (BSS) intended for use by network operators. The platform addresses three important business challenges.

Cost of deployment is a significant consideration. The person deploying the end devices will be a farmer, truck driver, HVAC technician, maintenance worker, etc. who has another primary function to carry out. The task must be simple and fast, and it cannot rely on any IT skills, otherwise the deployment cost could make the project unfeasible.

The person deploying the end devices will be a farmer, truck driver, HVAC technician, maintenance worker, etc. who has another primary function to carry out. The task must be simple and fast, and it cannot rely on any IT skills, otherwise the deployment cost could make the project unfeasible. Provisioning must be secure and centrally managed. Depending on the threat assessment of the application, the platform can support a range of security protections implemented during manufacture and centrally implemented. Applications that need high levels of security can be built on hardware components with embedded trust information in the controllers trusted element by a trusted organization. The end device built on these secure components can be cost-effectively manufactured in Asia without exposure to compromise, and it can be centrally provisioned with keys from the platforms security controller. The platform can run independently of the network operator by the customer or solution provider. It is an extension of the eSIM model.

Depending on the threat assessment of the application, the platform can support a range of security protections implemented during manufacture and centrally implemented. Applications that need high levels of security can be built on hardware components with embedded trust information in the controllers trusted element by a trusted organization. The end device built on these secure components can be cost-effectively manufactured in Asia without exposure to compromise, and it can be centrally provisioned with keys from the platforms security controller. The platform can run independently of the network operator by the customer or solution provider. It is an extension of the eSIM model. Enable fast-moving entrepreneurial operators entering the market to participate in the LoRaWAN gold rush.

Using the platform, Kjendal demonstrated an over-the-air firmware update with a 100KB image. End-point devices cannot remain relevant and secure without an efficient update mechanis.

Using the entire IoT stack

Strategy and research are always interesting topics that lead to a greater technical understanding. But the road to products that customers buy and use is much more difficult to understand. My discussion with Kendjal was very interesting because he builds products using the entire IoT stack that people buy.

Senet has evolved from an oil tank monitoring device maker to a maker of gateways and end devices, to network operator and managed services platform developer. Senet also advises customers on end-device design decisions. Kendjal has experience building the full IoT stack, giving him rare valuable perspective. In New Jersey parlance, everything in IoT says easy and does hard because of the constraints of limited computational capability, long-range radios, low power, low-cost secure deployment, and managed OSS and BSS.

The most important point is IoT is not general purpose. Networks and products that succeed will be purpose-built. The choice of LoRaWAN and the unlicensed band gives IoT innovators a functional network today and gives the innovative network operators a head start on the mobile carriers that are not expected to introduce 3GPP in the licensed band until 2018 or 2019.

Senet and Kendjal also confirm the importance of the semiconductor and EDA tool makers, enabling engineers to quickly and flexibility iterate their designs from prototype to the volume production with the leanest design.
Sesa sen By

Express News Service

CHENNAI: India will soon see a visible uptick in investments, according to Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Group and Shriram Group. On the back of the governments spending in the public sector, initiatives such as demonetisation and goods and services tax would help the country achieve high and sustained GDP growth.

With investment going, the GDP numbers will also go up, following which people will be confident of investing in, he said while speaking at the 13th annual convocation of Great Lakes Institute of Management here on Wednesday. He added that private companies will also invest once they see the GDP numbers are on the rise. He noted that the services sector continues to create employment even as manufacturing job generation are slow.

Piramal added that the policy of various countries opposing immigration is mainly towards those people who come with their own issues. Indians have only contributed positively to those societies. It is the strength of the immigration that has made the US become what it is today, he stressed while speaking to Express on the sidelines of the event.

Piramal also narrated his own experience in business. He said that he took over their textile business at the age of 29 and it was a very difficult time for the industry back then. Textile mills are not a very high-margin business and we decided to venture out and look beyond textiles. That is when we entered the pharmaceuticals business. That, in some ways, changed the fortune of our group, he recalled, adding that those who remained in the textiles business faded away. Because we had the courage to choose a different path, we succeeded, he added.

Job Outlook

Indian graduates will have plenty of job opportunities globally. Indians have garnered huge respect worldwide in various fields.

CHENNAI: India will soon see a visible uptick in investments, according to Ajay Piramal, chairman of Piramal Group and Shriram Group. On the back of the governments spending in the public sector, initiatives such as demonetisation and goods and services tax would help the country achieve high and sustained GDP growth. With investment going, the GDP numbers will also go up, following which people will be confident of investing in, he said while speaking at the 13th annual convocation of Great Lakes Institute of Management here on Wednesday. He added that private companies will also invest once they see the GDP numbers are on the rise. He noted that the services sector continues to create employment even as manufacturing job generation are slow. Piramal added that the policy of various countries opposing immigration is mainly towards those people who come with their own issues. Indians have only contributed positively to those societies. It is the strength of the immigration that has made the US become what it is today, he stressed while speaking to Express on the sidelines of the event. Piramal also narrated his own experience in business. He said that he took over their textile business at the age of 29 and it was a very difficult time for the industry back then. Textile mills are not a very high-margin business and we decided to venture out and look beyond textiles. That is when we entered the pharmaceuticals business. That, in some ways, changed the fortune of our group, he recalled, adding that those who remained in the textiles business faded away. Because we had the courage to choose a different path, we succeeded, he added. Job Outlook Indian graduates will have plenty of job opportunities globally. Indians have garnered huge respect worldwide in various fields.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: The board of Jasper Infotech, which runs online marketplace Snapdeal, has accepted Flipkarts $900-950 million buyout offer, sources said, paving the way for one of the biggest acquisitions in the Indian e-commerce space.

According to sources, the buyout deal is almost through but the board wants to take the views of its shareholders including Ratan Tata and PremjiInvest.

Flipkart had initially made an offer of $800-850 million, but Snapdeal was not keen on pursuing it as the company felt that the sum quoted was lower than its $1 billion valuation. Later, Flipkart revised the offer to $900-950 million.

SoftBank, Snapdeals largest investor, has been proposing the sale for some time now. Sources said PremjiInvest has written to Snapdeal for clarity on the deal terms. If the deal happens, early investors in Snapdeal such as Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital are likely to receive payouts worth $150 million.

The company needs to take all investors as well as founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal into confidence before it can finalise the deal. Meanwhile, there have been speculations that Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have also considered selling the company to Ahmedabad-based Infibeam. However, Infibeam has denied these speculations as baseless.

According to reports, the Flipkart Board will be meeting this week to discuss the details of the proposed buyout. Snapdeal has been facing a lot of pressure to sustain amid bleeding finances. Earlier this year, the company had announced its intention to trim its workforce by laying off nearly 600 employees.

Snapdeals challenges are reflective of the stiff competition for survival in the e-commerce market in India, which has been heavily based on sales driven through discount offers until now and more Indians shopping on the web.

BENGALURU: The board of Jasper Infotech, which runs online marketplace Snapdeal, has accepted Flipkarts $900-950 million buyout offer, sources said, paving the way for one of the biggest acquisitions in the Indian e-commerce space. According to sources, the buyout deal is almost through but the board wants to take the views of its shareholders including Ratan Tata and PremjiInvest. Flipkart had initially made an offer of $800-850 million, but Snapdeal was not keen on pursuing it as the company felt that the sum quoted was lower than its $1 billion valuation. Later, Flipkart revised the offer to $900-950 million. SoftBank, Snapdeals largest investor, has been proposing the sale for some time now. Sources said PremjiInvest has written to Snapdeal for clarity on the deal terms. If the deal happens, early investors in Snapdeal such as Nexus Venture Partners and Kalaari Capital are likely to receive payouts worth $150 million. The company needs to take all investors as well as founders Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal into confidence before it can finalise the deal. Meanwhile, there have been speculations that Kunal Bahl and Rohit Bansal have also considered selling the company to Ahmedabad-based Infibeam. However, Infibeam has denied these speculations as baseless. According to reports, the Flipkart Board will be meeting this week to discuss the details of the proposed buyout. Snapdeal has been facing a lot of pressure to sustain amid bleeding finances. Earlier this year, the company had announced its intention to trim its workforce by laying off nearly 600 employees. Snapdeals challenges are reflective of the stiff competition for survival in the e-commerce market in India, which has been heavily based on sales driven through discount offers until now and more Indians shopping on the web.
By Express News Service

BENGALURU: In a case highlighting the security flaws in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), officials have filed a complaint against one Abhinav Shrivastava and others of Qarth Technologies Private Limited for allegedly leaking Aadhaar data.



According to the complaint by the Ashok Lenin, deputy director of UIDAI, Abhinav Shrivastava, the director of Qarth Technologies, had developed an app on Play store to provide e-KYC documents. The documents were allegedly provided by accessing the Aadhaar database without any permission from UIDAI or other authorities.

Aadhar officials also suspected that the accused colluded with others to secure the database before leaking the information to Qarth Technologies.



Pronab Mohanty, deputy director general, UIDAI, Bengaluru confirmed that a case has been filed in Bengaluru. "However, it does not pertain to the regional office, Bengaluru," he said. He also said that the complaint was not a case of malpractice, but that the fault stemmed from the flaws in National Informatics Centre.



Accessing secure Aadhaar database and leaking information from the same is an offence under Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 and Information Technology Act, 2000.

In the FIR registered, Section 37 (intentionally discloses, transmits, copies or otherwise disseminates any identity information collected in the course of enrollment or authentication ....), Section 38 (deals with intentionally accessing Central Identities Data Repository and downloading data) read with Section 29 (2) of Aadhaar Act has been evoked. Apart from it, section 65 (tampering with computer source documents) and section 66 (hacking a computer system) of IT Act, and sections of IPC has been filed against the accused.



Qarth Technologies



According to Zauba Corp, a data bank of various firms, Qarth Technologies was incorporated in October 2012 at Kolkata and was involved in data processing. Directors of the company were Abhinav Srivastava (accused in the case) and Prerit Srivastava. The company, as per Zauba Corp was based out of Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal.

BENGALURU: In a case highlighting the security flaws in the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), officials have filed a complaint against one Abhinav Shrivastava and others of Qarth Technologies Private Limited for allegedly leaking Aadhaar data. According to the complaint by the Ashok Lenin, deputy director of UIDAI, Abhinav Shrivastava, the director of Qarth Technologies, had developed an app on Play store to provide e-KYC documents. The documents were allegedly provided by accessing the Aadhaar database without any permission from UIDAI or other authorities. Aadhar officials also suspected that the accused colluded with others to secure the database before leaking the information to Qarth Technologies. Pronab Mohanty, deputy director general, UIDAI, Bengaluru confirmed that a case has been filed in Bengaluru. "However, it does not pertain to the regional office, Bengaluru," he said. He also said that the complaint was not a case of malpractice, but that the fault stemmed from the flaws in National Informatics Centre. Accessing secure Aadhaar database and leaking information from the same is an offence under Aadhaar (Targeted Delivery of Financial and other Subsidies, Benefits and Services) Act 2016 and Information Technology Act, 2000. In the FIR registered, Section 37 (intentionally discloses, transmits, copies or otherwise disseminates any identity information collected in the course of enrollment or authentication ....), Section 38 (deals with intentionally accessing Central Identities Data Repository and downloading data) read with Section 29 (2) of Aadhaar Act has been evoked. Apart from it, section 65 (tampering with computer source documents) and section 66 (hacking a computer system) of IT Act, and sections of IPC has been filed against the accused. Qarth Technologies According to Zauba Corp, a data bank of various firms, Qarth Technologies was incorporated in October 2012 at Kolkata and was involved in data processing. Directors of the company were Abhinav Srivastava (accused in the case) and Prerit Srivastava. The company, as per Zauba Corp was based out of Science and Technology Entrepreneurs' Park, IIT Kharagpur, West Bengal.
Abinaya Kalyanasundaram By

Express News Service

With World Hepatitis Day on July 28, CE talks to doctors to know the different types, causes, and treatment for the liver disease. The common causes are contaminated blood, unsterilised needles and excessive drinking

CHENNAI: Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissues; meaning injury to the liver. With increasing incidences of both acute and chronic infections, Viral Hepatitis Infection is emerging as a major health threat in India. There are five main types of hepatitis  A, B, C, D and E  of which hepatitis B and C are the deadliest and both are caused by blood-borne viruses. In India, prevalence of hepatitis B is 3-5% while hepatitis C is 1%. Ahead of World Hepatits Day on July 28, CE looks into the various types of hepatitis, transmission modes and how it can be cured.

Life-threatening B

Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection. We see 15-20 new cases of hepatitis B every month. Patients are predominantly males in their 20s and 30s. Hepatitis C is relatively rare in Tamil Nadu. Most of the cases we see are from other States or Middle East countries, informs Dr Chandan Kumar, senior consultant hepatologist and liver transplant physician, Gleneagles Global Healthy City, Chennai. The hepatitis B virus is primarily transmitted by blood transfusions with unscreened blood, unsafe surgical procedures, and use of unsterile needles by intravenous drug users or diabetics, and also unsafe tattoo parlours.

Though treatment is available, it may not be possible to entirely cure hepatitis B. The best way to eradicate it is to prevent it, he explains. Antiviral medications can be costly, needs to be continued for several months or years and requires regular medical evaluations to determine if the virus is responding to treatment.

Hepatitis C medications have been available for the last two to three years, and provide a complete cure for 95% patients. These medicines are available at nominal prices compared to the US. Chronic hepatitis B or C can often lead to more serious health problems such as chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and even liver cancer, in which case a liver transplant is mandated as a last resort of treatment for those who can afford it. A liver transplant costs about `20 lakh.

Risks of getting inked

Though rare, the hepatitis C virus is also known to be transmitted through blood, and with going under the needle becoming a fashion statement, it is also important to know that the use of unsterile needles from roadside tattoo parlours can transmit the deadly blood-borne disease. In India particularly, it contributes significantly to the countrys overall health burden.

Changing needles alone is not sufficient; the ink must also be changed. If your predecessor happened to be a carrier of hepatitis C, the solution would be infected, says Dr Murugan, hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals, elaborating that the blood tests for hepatitis C were made available for the first time in early 1990s.

If you were tattooed prior to that, you still run a risk of being a carrier of the virus. Visit a licensed and professional tattoo parlour to get inked. Thats the only way to protect against the disease.

Most lethal of all

A relatively unknown type of hepatitis is caused by excessive alcoholic abuse. For Asians, alcohol is genetically a poison. We didnt evolve to drink alcohol. Our genes dont adapt that quickly, explains Dr Bassumani, head, gastroenterology, Fortis Malar Hospital. While 100% of heavy regular drinkers will develop fatty liver, 30-40% will develop liver cirrhosis (shrunken liver) which will lead to liver failure or cancer, which ultimately leads to death, he explains, and of these only 5% will develop acute alcoholic hepatitis, which is like a warning sign before cirrhosis.

It occurs suddenly and will lead to multi-organ failure. But despite its very low prevalence, it has the highest mortality rate of one in two persons. Once diagnosed, the liver can be supported, and symptoms treated, but there is no medicine to treat the actual condition itself. The best thing is not to tempt fate. Avoid drinking! he states.

With World Hepatitis Day on July 28, CE talks to doctors to know the different types, causes, and treatment for the liver disease. The common causes are contaminated blood, unsterilised needles and excessive drinking CHENNAI: Hepatitis is inflammation of the liver tissues; meaning injury to the liver. With increasing incidences of both acute and chronic infections, Viral Hepatitis Infection is emerging as a major health threat in India. There are five main types of hepatitis  A, B, C, D and E  of which hepatitis B and C are the deadliest and both are caused by blood-borne viruses. In India, prevalence of hepatitis B is 3-5% while hepatitis C is 1%. Ahead of World Hepatits Day on July 28, CE looks into the various types of hepatitis, transmission modes and how it can be cured. Life-threatening B Hepatitis B is a potentially life-threatening liver infection. We see 15-20 new cases of hepatitis B every month. Patients are predominantly males in their 20s and 30s. Hepatitis C is relatively rare in Tamil Nadu. Most of the cases we see are from other States or Middle East countries, informs Dr Chandan Kumar, senior consultant hepatologist and liver transplant physician, Gleneagles Global Healthy City, Chennai. The hepatitis B virus is primarily transmitted by blood transfusions with unscreened blood, unsafe surgical procedures, and use of unsterile needles by intravenous drug users or diabetics, and also unsafe tattoo parlours. Though treatment is available, it may not be possible to entirely cure hepatitis B. The best way to eradicate it is to prevent it, he explains. Antiviral medications can be costly, needs to be continued for several months or years and requires regular medical evaluations to determine if the virus is responding to treatment. Hepatitis C medications have been available for the last two to three years, and provide a complete cure for 95% patients. These medicines are available at nominal prices compared to the US. Chronic hepatitis B or C can often lead to more serious health problems such as chronic liver disease, cirrhosis and even liver cancer, in which case a liver transplant is mandated as a last resort of treatment for those who can afford it. A liver transplant costs about `20 lakh. Risks of getting inked Though rare, the hepatitis C virus is also known to be transmitted through blood, and with going under the needle becoming a fashion statement, it is also important to know that the use of unsterile needles from roadside tattoo parlours can transmit the deadly blood-borne disease. In India particularly, it contributes significantly to the countrys overall health burden. Changing needles alone is not sufficient; the ink must also be changed. If your predecessor happened to be a carrier of hepatitis C, the solution would be infected, says Dr Murugan, hepatologist, Apollo Hospitals, elaborating that the blood tests for hepatitis C were made available for the first time in early 1990s. If you were tattooed prior to that, you still run a risk of being a carrier of the virus. Visit a licensed and professional tattoo parlour to get inked. Thats the only way to protect against the disease. Most lethal of all A relatively unknown type of hepatitis is caused by excessive alcoholic abuse. For Asians, alcohol is genetically a poison. We didnt evolve to drink alcohol. Our genes dont adapt that quickly, explains Dr Bassumani, head, gastroenterology, Fortis Malar Hospital. While 100% of heavy regular drinkers will develop fatty liver, 30-40% will develop liver cirrhosis (shrunken liver) which will lead to liver failure or cancer, which ultimately leads to death, he explains, and of these only 5% will develop acute alcoholic hepatitis, which is like a warning sign before cirrhosis. It occurs suddenly and will lead to multi-organ failure. But despite its very low prevalence, it has the highest mortality rate of one in two persons. Once diagnosed, the liver can be supported, and symptoms treated, but there is no medicine to treat the actual condition itself. The best thing is not to tempt fate. Avoid drinking! he states.
By IANS

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) While Arundhati Roys comeback novel has once again made the cut for the just announced Man Booker Prize longlist, the other books that are running for the 50,000 pound award make it one of the most diverse lists in the race for a literary award in the recent years.

Roy's comeback novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is the most celebrated book in the list, which also comprises several other literary heavyweights as well as three debutant writers. For the judges, Roy's is "a rich and vital book," but a close look at the longlist reveals that the other contenders for the much coveted prize are on an equal footing.

The judges, according to a Youtube video released by the Prize committee, went through over 150 books in a "relatively short span of time" and were thoroughly impressed by so many unusual and beautiful novels. For author Sarah Hall, a member of the judging panel, it's been "a thrill to sit down and discover them". Another member of the panel, Lila Azam Zanganeh, felt that the longlist clearly reflects the "state of fiction today".

Arundhati Roy's entry into the longlist, despite her rich credentials and having been a past winner, does not yet guarantee the final victory primarily because the judging panel has overlooked new novels by former Booker winners Salman Rushdie and Roddy Doyle. The reason? All other books which have made the cut deserve the place.

Consider "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid, for instance. The book poignantly transports the readers to a world or time in the future where migration is peaceful and where people are open to accepting others. Between the lines, the author reminds us that ultimately we have more in common with "others" than the sum total of our differences. Marked by careful symbolisms and imageries, the novel stands to serve the purpose of fiction.

Similarly, Paul Auster's "4321," which is an exploration of one man's four simultaneous lives has been deemed "magisterial" by the judges and is one of the most promising contenders in the list. There is also George Saunders, a noted short-story writer whose first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" is based on Abraham Lincoln's visits to the graveyard where his 11-year-old son has been laid to rest. An instant choice by readers of fiction, this book attracted much critical media acclaim in the US.

One should also not ignore "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. Based on the troublesome life of a female slave who is trying to escape from a Georgia cotton plantation, the offering has already bagged the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for fiction in the US. "Autumn" by Ali Smith has been described by the judging panel as "humane, zany, delightful, optimistic" while "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith is the classic story of the friendship and rivalry between two London girls who meet at a dance class.

Also in the race for the prize this year are four UK and four US authors; there are two from Ireland, two UK-Pakistanis. Of the 13 shortlisted entries, the ratio is seven men to six women. Three novels which have made it to the list are from independent publishers while three others are by first-time writers.

Even as Arundhati Roy is the most celebrated name in the longlist, the Man Booker has often surprised readers across the globe with its verdict. For now, the race seems too close to call until the winner is announced on October 17.

New Delhi, July 27 (IANS) While Arundhati Roys comeback novel has once again made the cut for the just announced Man Booker Prize longlist, the other books that are running for the 50,000 pound award make it one of the most diverse lists in the race for a literary award in the recent years. Roy's comeback novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is the most celebrated book in the list, which also comprises several other literary heavyweights as well as three debutant writers. For the judges, Roy's is "a rich and vital book," but a close look at the longlist reveals that the other contenders for the much coveted prize are on an equal footing. The judges, according to a Youtube video released by the Prize committee, went through over 150 books in a "relatively short span of time" and were thoroughly impressed by so many unusual and beautiful novels. For author Sarah Hall, a member of the judging panel, it's been "a thrill to sit down and discover them". Another member of the panel, Lila Azam Zanganeh, felt that the longlist clearly reflects the "state of fiction today". Arundhati Roy's entry into the longlist, despite her rich credentials and having been a past winner, does not yet guarantee the final victory primarily because the judging panel has overlooked new novels by former Booker winners Salman Rushdie and Roddy Doyle. The reason? All other books which have made the cut deserve the place. Consider "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid, for instance. The book poignantly transports the readers to a world or time in the future where migration is peaceful and where people are open to accepting others. Between the lines, the author reminds us that ultimately we have more in common with "others" than the sum total of our differences. Marked by careful symbolisms and imageries, the novel stands to serve the purpose of fiction. Similarly, Paul Auster's "4321," which is an exploration of one man's four simultaneous lives has been deemed "magisterial" by the judges and is one of the most promising contenders in the list. There is also George Saunders, a noted short-story writer whose first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" is based on Abraham Lincoln's visits to the graveyard where his 11-year-old son has been laid to rest. An instant choice by readers of fiction, this book attracted much critical media acclaim in the US. One should also not ignore "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. Based on the troublesome life of a female slave who is trying to escape from a Georgia cotton plantation, the offering has already bagged the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for fiction in the US. "Autumn" by Ali Smith has been described by the judging panel as "humane, zany, delightful, optimistic" while "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith is the classic story of the friendship and rivalry between two London girls who meet at a dance class. Also in the race for the prize this year are four UK and four US authors; there are two from Ireland, two UK-Pakistanis. Of the 13 shortlisted entries, the ratio is seven men to six women. Three novels which have made it to the list are from independent publishers while three others are by first-time writers. Even as Arundhati Roy is the most celebrated name in the longlist, the Man Booker has often surprised readers across the globe with its verdict. For now, the race seems too close to call until the winner is announced on October 17.
By IANS

NEW DELHI: The parents of 31-year-old Naina Bharali are worried since their only daughter has been diagnosed with cirrhosis (liver cancer) - caused by the Hepatitis C virus. She is four months pregnant and they fear the new born will also get infected by the blood-borne viral disease.

The confused Bharali does not know how she got the disease, but doctors she is consulting on a regular basis suspect she received infected blood almost a decade ago when she had met with an accident. Now, the only priority for Bharali's parents is to get her proper medication and prevent her foetus from getting affected by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV).

"A child born to an HCV-positive mother has a 90 per cent chance of carrying the viral infection. Such children usually develop chronic HCV and, without treatment, progress to chronic liver disease and liver failure," Manish S. Bhatnagar, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist cum Director of Ahmedabad's Icon Hospital, told IANS.

A study by the Indian Society for Clinical Research says that around 12 million people in the country are infected with HCV, the second-highest globally. More worryingly, there has been an eight per cent rise in the number of HCV cases among pregnant women in the last one decade.

Experts say that babies born with HCV often have a mild liver disease and around 80 per cent have very low to no liver scarring in the first 18 years. However, the actual nature of the disease becomes apparent once the child reaches adulthood as HCV usually takes more than a decade to cause liver problems -- but whenever it happens, it is disastrous.

The Hepatitis C virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness. Most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through injection drug use, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products.

Bhatnagar said that HCV cases in women are fast increasing due to unsafe injection practices, promiscuity, and unsafe sex, unsanitary delivery practices, rising intravenous drug use and usage of unsafe blood products from unregistered blood banks.

According to global health bodies, an estimated 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection. A significant number of them will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. Approximately 399,000 people die each year from hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.

Neerav Goyal, Senior Consultant -- Liver Transplant, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said HCV in pregnant women in India has been reported more from rural areas compared to urban areas.

"One of the reasons attributed is the increased incidence of anaemia in the rural population with a consequent higher chance of using contaminated needles and syringes for its treatment. A higher incidence has also been reported from multigravida, where previous pregnancies, hospital admissions, obstetrical surgeries and blood transfusions have lead to an increase incidence of HCV infection," said Goyal.

According to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, transfusion of unscreened blood in patients till 2002 had been one of the major reasons behind spread of Hepatitis C. Following 2002, the government has been strict on measures against infected blood.

Commenting on cases of HCV among pregnant women, Roy Patankar, a prominent Mumbai-based gastroenterologist and Director of Zen Hospital, said that as the impact of this illness on children is not as much in the initial days as that of an adult, many doctors opt for a wait-and-watch approach. Until they reach an appropriate age for therapy, doctors do not prefer any treatment.

Antiviral medicines can cure more than 95 per cent of persons with HCV infection, thereby reducing the risk of death from liver cancer and cirrhosis, but access to diagnosis and treatment is low. There is currently no vaccine for HCV, but research in this area is ongoing.

"HCV can usually be treated using antiviral medicines, although currently there is no vaccine for HCV, research is on. Recently, few Indian firms have received licenses to manufacture HCV drugs as the country's capabilities in generic manufacturing, where quality and low cost co-exist, is quite well known," said Patankar.

As far as research on the development of new medicine for HCV is concerned, a lot of effort is being put in worldwide. However, most of the breakthrough drugs have come from the US and Europe so far. India's pharma prowess has ensured the lowest rates of these antivirals, thereby making them accessible to most of the patients.

Sofosobuvir, Ledipasvir Ribavarin, Veltapasvir, Grazoprevir, Elbasvir and PEG-Interferon are some of the latest drugs against HCV.

Sofosbuvir is a direct-acting antiviral drug that targets different steps of the HCV lifecycle. The medicine blocks the polymerase enzyme that the virus uses to replicate.

Ramesh Garg, Senior Consultant at Gastroenterology at the city-based Saroj Hospital, said that earlier, HCV treatment was difficult and came with a lot of side effects, but since the advent of direct acting antivirals, there have been significantly higher cure rates.

NEW DELHI: The parents of 31-year-old Naina Bharali are worried since their only daughter has been diagnosed with cirrhosis (liver cancer) - caused by the Hepatitis C virus. She is four months pregnant and they fear the new born will also get infected by the blood-borne viral disease. The confused Bharali does not know how she got the disease, but doctors she is consulting on a regular basis suspect she received infected blood almost a decade ago when she had met with an accident. Now, the only priority for Bharali's parents is to get her proper medication and prevent her foetus from getting affected by the Hepatitis C Virus (HCV). "A child born to an HCV-positive mother has a 90 per cent chance of carrying the viral infection. Such children usually develop chronic HCV and, without treatment, progress to chronic liver disease and liver failure," Manish S. Bhatnagar, Consultant Gastroenterologist and Hepatologist cum Director of Ahmedabad's Icon Hospital, told IANS. A study by the Indian Society for Clinical Research says that around 12 million people in the country are infected with HCV, the second-highest globally. More worryingly, there has been an eight per cent rise in the number of HCV cases among pregnant women in the last one decade. Experts say that babies born with HCV often have a mild liver disease and around 80 per cent have very low to no liver scarring in the first 18 years. However, the actual nature of the disease becomes apparent once the child reaches adulthood as HCV usually takes more than a decade to cause liver problems -- but whenever it happens, it is disastrous. The Hepatitis C virus can cause both acute and chronic hepatitis, ranging in severity from a mild illness lasting a few weeks to a serious, lifelong illness. Most common modes of infection are through exposure to small quantities of blood. This may happen through injection drug use, unsafe injection practices, unsafe health care and the transfusion of unscreened blood and blood products. Bhatnagar said that HCV cases in women are fast increasing due to unsafe injection practices, promiscuity, and unsafe sex, unsanitary delivery practices, rising intravenous drug use and usage of unsafe blood products from unregistered blood banks. According to global health bodies, an estimated 71 million people have chronic hepatitis C infection. A significant number of them will develop cirrhosis or liver cancer. Approximately 399,000 people die each year from hepatitis C, mostly from cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Neerav Goyal, Senior Consultant -- Liver Transplant, Indraprastha Apollo Hospitals, said HCV in pregnant women in India has been reported more from rural areas compared to urban areas. "One of the reasons attributed is the increased incidence of anaemia in the rural population with a consequent higher chance of using contaminated needles and syringes for its treatment. A higher incidence has also been reported from multigravida, where previous pregnancies, hospital admissions, obstetrical surgeries and blood transfusions have lead to an increase incidence of HCV infection," said Goyal. According to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, transfusion of unscreened blood in patients till 2002 had been one of the major reasons behind spread of Hepatitis C. Following 2002, the government has been strict on measures against infected blood. Commenting on cases of HCV among pregnant women, Roy Patankar, a prominent Mumbai-based gastroenterologist and Director of Zen Hospital, said that as the impact of this illness on children is not as much in the initial days as that of an adult, many doctors opt for a wait-and-watch approach. Until they reach an appropriate age for therapy, doctors do not prefer any treatment. Antiviral medicines can cure more than 95 per cent of persons with HCV infection, thereby reducing the risk of death from liver cancer and cirrhosis, but access to diagnosis and treatment is low. There is currently no vaccine for HCV, but research in this area is ongoing. "HCV can usually be treated using antiviral medicines, although currently there is no vaccine for HCV, research is on. Recently, few Indian firms have received licenses to manufacture HCV drugs as the country's capabilities in generic manufacturing, where quality and low cost co-exist, is quite well known," said Patankar. As far as research on the development of new medicine for HCV is concerned, a lot of effort is being put in worldwide. However, most of the breakthrough drugs have come from the US and Europe so far. India's pharma prowess has ensured the lowest rates of these antivirals, thereby making them accessible to most of the patients. Sofosobuvir, Ledipasvir Ribavarin, Veltapasvir, Grazoprevir, Elbasvir and PEG-Interferon are some of the latest drugs against HCV. Sofosbuvir is a direct-acting antiviral drug that targets different steps of the HCV lifecycle. The medicine blocks the polymerase enzyme that the virus uses to replicate. Ramesh Garg, Senior Consultant at Gastroenterology at the city-based Saroj Hospital, said that earlier, HCV treatment was difficult and came with a lot of side effects, but since the advent of direct acting antivirals, there have been significantly higher cure rates.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Looking for a unique vacation destination? If the idea of going to the cliched Europe, USA, Dubai trips does not appeal to you, then maybe it is a time that you look at the other side of the globe.



You need a trip that stands apart and offers a whole new experience, a trip which will resonate with all your senses.

South East Asia becomes one of the popular destinations attracting a huge number of tourist off late.

Goomo, a prominent omni-channel travel-tech company, has listed the top four destinations in South East Asia that offers a healthy dose of natures beauty, adventure, culture and ancient history who want to go on a short international holiday.



# Thailand: Thailand is a country that you can visit even on your long weekends with an even smaller budget. Thailand is a beautiful country that offers a rainbow spectrum of spectacular holiday sights from blue lagoons and pink sunsets to orange-robed monks. Three wheeled colorful TukTuks, taxis, buses and long tailed boats transport visitors between these marvels. Diving, snorkeling, wind surfing and sailings are just a few active options from the many. A variety of local foods, a beautiful movie like beaches, forested hills, mountains, and cliffs are just waiting for you to explore.

# Bali: Bali, the top choice for honeymooners and surfers has both miles of excellent beaches and volcanic landscapes. Most of the action culminates at its self-indulgent Kuta Beach situated in South Bali. While travelers who are in search of more than surf or a hangover mostly opt for Ubud, the peaceful cultural center of Bali. Some even choose to climb a volcano in the verdant Kintamani region. The magical place is now one of the top destinations in Asia.



# Malaysia: Malaysia cleaved in half by the South China Sea is a beautiful country which hosts beauties of both the world. While Peninsula flaunts bustling cities, beautiful colonial architecture, green tea plantations and adventurous islands, Malaysian Borneo hosts wild jungles of orangutans, marvelous granite peaks, and mysterious remote tribes, along with some pretty spectacular diving. In short, Malaysia is freaking beautiful country with welcoming people and amazing food.

# Singapore: Singapore, a bustling metropolis is one of the cleanest and safest cities in the world. Singapore is small enough to make you feel intimated yet big enough to retain a degree of mystery. Best places to visit in Singapore are Thian Hock Keng temple, Merlion, Universal studio, Night Safari and numerous shopping points and beaches. Singapore is a place you will love discovering again and again.

NEW DELHI: Looking for a unique vacation destination? If the idea of going to the cliched Europe, USA, Dubai trips does not appeal to you, then maybe it is a time that you look at the other side of the globe. You need a trip that stands apart and offers a whole new experience, a trip which will resonate with all your senses. South East Asia becomes one of the popular destinations attracting a huge number of tourist off late. Goomo, a prominent omni-channel travel-tech company, has listed the top four destinations in South East Asia that offers a healthy dose of natures beauty, adventure, culture and ancient history who want to go on a short international holiday. # Thailand: Thailand is a country that you can visit even on your long weekends with an even smaller budget. Thailand is a beautiful country that offers a rainbow spectrum of spectacular holiday sights from blue lagoons and pink sunsets to orange-robed monks. Three wheeled colorful TukTuks, taxis, buses and long tailed boats transport visitors between these marvels. Diving, snorkeling, wind surfing and sailings are just a few active options from the many. A variety of local foods, a beautiful movie like beaches, forested hills, mountains, and cliffs are just waiting for you to explore. # Bali: Bali, the top choice for honeymooners and surfers has both miles of excellent beaches and volcanic landscapes. Most of the action culminates at its self-indulgent Kuta Beach situated in South Bali. While travelers who are in search of more than surf or a hangover mostly opt for Ubud, the peaceful cultural center of Bali. Some even choose to climb a volcano in the verdant Kintamani region. The magical place is now one of the top destinations in Asia. # Malaysia: Malaysia cleaved in half by the South China Sea is a beautiful country which hosts beauties of both the world. While Peninsula flaunts bustling cities, beautiful colonial architecture, green tea plantations and adventurous islands, Malaysian Borneo hosts wild jungles of orangutans, marvelous granite peaks, and mysterious remote tribes, along with some pretty spectacular diving. In short, Malaysia is freaking beautiful country with welcoming people and amazing food. # Singapore: Singapore, a bustling metropolis is one of the cleanest and safest cities in the world. Singapore is small enough to make you feel intimated yet big enough to retain a degree of mystery. Best places to visit in Singapore are Thian Hock Keng temple, Merlion, Universal studio, Night Safari and numerous shopping points and beaches. Singapore is a place you will love discovering again and again.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: Travelling is the most enjoyed activity for many people due to different reasons. Be it for work, leisure, a family trip, or a soul searching journey, the desire to travel goes beyond geographical boundaries, and in some cases, is fueled by a need to explore unknown or remote places.

This is especially true for those travelling to or within Asian countries, as these places have long been considered rich in both culture and tradition that is quite unlike their western counterparts.

Heres the list of top unexplored places in Asia by Toehold:

Lepchajagat, West Bengal, India

Lepchajagat is a small village that is situated at an altitude of 6,956 feet, and is 19 kilometers from the town of Darjeeling. The rural community derives its name from the Lepcha tribe, who are native to that region. Lepchajagat also happens to be a forest reserve, and has lots to offer to those seeking to be in the calm lap of nature. Apart from that, the region also offers a great view of Kangchenjunga  the third highest mountain in the world. Lepchajagat is well connected by road from Darjeeling and Siliguri. You can travel either by car or bus to reach Ghoom and take any local transportation to reach the village.

Ha village, Arunachal Pradesh, India

Ha is a tribal village situated in Longding Koling (Pipsorang) town of Kurung Kumey district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. With a population of 289 people, Ha is considered as one of the smallest villages in India, and is home to 58 households. The spectacular natural beauty surrounding Ha is worth the effort in reaching that place. Travelers can also explore nearby attractions like the ancient Menga Caves, among others. Ha can be reached via Old Ziro, which is the nearest well known township around the village.

Nitoi, Kiphire, Nagaland, India

Nitoi is another small village situated in the Kiphire district in the state of Nagaland. The picturesque village offers breathtaking views of beautiful mountains and terrace vegetation, and is a favorite among nature lovers and photographers. Despite being a remote township, Nitoi is well accessible by road to/from Kiphire, which is a 10 hour drive away from Nagalands capital city, Kohima.

Chocolate Hills, Philippines

Chocolate Hills is a geological formation found in Bohol province in the sovereign island country of the Philippines. The natural wonder is estimated to have 1268-1776 hills, and is a famous tourist attraction. The hills are spread across 6 municipalities in Bohol, namely Batuan, Sagbayan, Carmen, Valencia, Bilar, and Sierra Bullones. You can reach Bohol via either flight or ferry.

Waterfalls Restaurant, San Pablo City, Philippines

Waterfalls restaurant is another interesting attraction situated in San Pablo city, Philippines. The place is exactly as the name suggests a restaurant that is located in the middle of a small artificial waterfall. People from all around the world come to this place to experience the cuisine served at this unconventional restaurant, and in the process, are left in awe of the natural surroundings in that area.

Khuvsgul Lake, Mongolia

Khovsgoldalai, or Khuvsgul Lake is the largest fresh water lake by volume and second largest by area in Mongolia. It is one of the 17 ancient lakes in the world, and is estimated to be over 2 million years old. Situated at an elevation of 1,645 meters, Khuvsgal is a pristine lake, and is one of the major sources of drinking water in Mongolia.

Tsagaan Suvarga, Mongolia

Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa) is a copper ore deposit &mine situated in the Dundgovi province of south Mongolia, and is famous for its rocky formations. The main attractions here are a 30 meter high cliff, the 70 meter long Khevtee Bosooagui (Lie and Stand Cave), and Del uul (Back Mountain), where tourists and travelers can explore bronze age cave drawings.

Darvaza gas crater, Turkmenistan

The Darvaza gas crater is a natural gas field located in the Derweze village in Turkmenistan. Popularly referred as the Gates of Hell, the attraction is due to an accidental cavern collapse that happened back in 1971. The trapped gas pockets were further lit in order to prevent any harmful gasses from escaping. Despite being a man-made wonder, the gas crater has managed to attract curious travelers from around the world, and has now become a popular destination for wild desert camping.

Bokor Hill Station, Cambodia

Bokor Hill station is a township near Kampot province in Cambodia, and is home to a collection of French colonial style buildings. The town is known for its eerie charm, and is being redeveloped following years of neglect. The hauntingly beautiful attraction is accessible by road, and can be explored via local commuting options like scooters or taxis.

Kamchatka, Russia

Kamchatka is one of the most beautiful attractions found in Russia. The 1,250 kilometer long peninsula is a geological wonder, and has several volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and acidic lakes. The region is also home to different species of arctic wildlife, fish, game animals, and vast marine life. Kamchatka is a favorite destination among adventure and nature lovers, and is a visual treat for anyone hoping to visit it.

Well then, what are you waiting for? Pack your bags and leave for your next adventure in any of these beautiful, yet unexplored places across Asia.

NEW DELHI: Travelling is the most enjoyed activity for many people due to different reasons. Be it for work, leisure, a family trip, or a soul searching journey, the desire to travel goes beyond geographical boundaries, and in some cases, is fueled by a need to explore unknown or remote places. This is especially true for those travelling to or within Asian countries, as these places have long been considered rich in both culture and tradition that is quite unlike their western counterparts. Heres the list of top unexplored places in Asia by Toehold: Lepchajagat, West Bengal, India Lepchajagat is a small village that is situated at an altitude of 6,956 feet, and is 19 kilometers from the town of Darjeeling. The rural community derives its name from the Lepcha tribe, who are native to that region. Lepchajagat also happens to be a forest reserve, and has lots to offer to those seeking to be in the calm lap of nature. Apart from that, the region also offers a great view of Kangchenjunga  the third highest mountain in the world. Lepchajagat is well connected by road from Darjeeling and Siliguri. You can travel either by car or bus to reach Ghoom and take any local transportation to reach the village. Ha village, Arunachal Pradesh, India Ha is a tribal village situated in Longding Koling (Pipsorang) town of Kurung Kumey district in the state of Arunachal Pradesh. With a population of 289 people, Ha is considered as one of the smallest villages in India, and is home to 58 households. The spectacular natural beauty surrounding Ha is worth the effort in reaching that place. Travelers can also explore nearby attractions like the ancient Menga Caves, among others. Ha can be reached via Old Ziro, which is the nearest well known township around the village. Nitoi, Kiphire, Nagaland, India Nitoi is another small village situated in the Kiphire district in the state of Nagaland. The picturesque village offers breathtaking views of beautiful mountains and terrace vegetation, and is a favorite among nature lovers and photographers. Despite being a remote township, Nitoi is well accessible by road to/from Kiphire, which is a 10 hour drive away from Nagalands capital city, Kohima. Chocolate Hills, Philippines Chocolate Hills is a geological formation found in Bohol province in the sovereign island country of the Philippines. The natural wonder is estimated to have 1268-1776 hills, and is a famous tourist attraction. The hills are spread across 6 municipalities in Bohol, namely Batuan, Sagbayan, Carmen, Valencia, Bilar, and Sierra Bullones. You can reach Bohol via either flight or ferry. Waterfalls Restaurant, San Pablo City, Philippines Waterfalls restaurant is another interesting attraction situated in San Pablo city, Philippines. The place is exactly as the name suggests a restaurant that is located in the middle of a small artificial waterfall. People from all around the world come to this place to experience the cuisine served at this unconventional restaurant, and in the process, are left in awe of the natural surroundings in that area. Khuvsgul Lake, Mongolia Khovsgoldalai, or Khuvsgul Lake is the largest fresh water lake by volume and second largest by area in Mongolia. It is one of the 17 ancient lakes in the world, and is estimated to be over 2 million years old. Situated at an elevation of 1,645 meters, Khuvsgal is a pristine lake, and is one of the major sources of drinking water in Mongolia. Tsagaan Suvarga, Mongolia Tsagaan Suvarga (White Stupa) is a copper ore deposit &mine situated in the Dundgovi province of south Mongolia, and is famous for its rocky formations. The main attractions here are a 30 meter high cliff, the 70 meter long Khevtee Bosooagui (Lie and Stand Cave), and Del uul (Back Mountain), where tourists and travelers can explore bronze age cave drawings. Darvaza gas crater, Turkmenistan The Darvaza gas crater is a natural gas field located in the Derweze village in Turkmenistan. Popularly referred as the Gates of Hell, the attraction is due to an accidental cavern collapse that happened back in 1971. The trapped gas pockets were further lit in order to prevent any harmful gasses from escaping. Despite being a man-made wonder, the gas crater has managed to attract curious travelers from around the world, and has now become a popular destination for wild desert camping. Bokor Hill Station, Cambodia Bokor Hill station is a township near Kampot province in Cambodia, and is home to a collection of French colonial style buildings. The town is known for its eerie charm, and is being redeveloped following years of neglect. The hauntingly beautiful attraction is accessible by road, and can be explored via local commuting options like scooters or taxis. Kamchatka, Russia Kamchatka is one of the most beautiful attractions found in Russia. The 1,250 kilometer long peninsula is a geological wonder, and has several volcanoes, hot springs, geysers, and acidic lakes. The region is also home to different species of arctic wildlife, fish, game animals, and vast marine life. Kamchatka is a favorite destination among adventure and nature lovers, and is a visual treat for anyone hoping to visit it. Well then, what are you waiting for? Pack your bags and leave for your next adventure in any of these beautiful, yet unexplored places across Asia.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: In a major political development, the BJP on Wednesday decided to field party chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani for the Rajya Sabha elections. This would be the first time Shah contests an election to become a Member of Parliament.

Confirming the development after the BJPs Parliamentary Party meeting, Union Minister JP Nadda said,

Both leaders will contest from Gujarat, where three seats will fall vacant in September. Elections are going to be held on August 8.

Irani was recently made the Information and Broadcasting Minister after the post fell vacant following the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, who was made the NDAs vice presidential candidate. Irani was appointed as Human Resources Development Minister after the BJP took over at the Centre and was made the Union Textile Minister in 2016.

Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the State.

The terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal would end on August 18.

NEW DELHI: In a major political development, the BJP on Wednesday decided to field party chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani for the Rajya Sabha elections. This would be the first time Shah contests an election to become a Member of Parliament. Confirming the development after the BJPs Parliamentary Party meeting, Union Minister JP Nadda said, Both leaders will contest from Gujarat, where three seats will fall vacant in September. Elections are going to be held on August 8. Irani was recently made the Information and Broadcasting Minister after the post fell vacant following the resignation of Venkaiah Naidu, who was made the NDAs vice presidential candidate. Irani was appointed as Human Resources Development Minister after the BJP took over at the Centre and was made the Union Textile Minister in 2016. Nadda also announced the candidature of Sampatia Uike, a woman tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, from Madhya Pradesh in a by-election to the Rajya Sabha from the State. The terms of nine Rajya Sabha members from Gujarat and West Bengal would end on August 18.
By ANI

NEW DELHI: After a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express, the Indian Railways on Wednesday assured it has instantly responded to the matter and action has also been taken.



Speaking to ANI, Railway Spokesperson Anil Saxena said This incident took place yesterday in12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express. The passenger, who ordered a vegetarian biryani found the reptile after consuming a few bites from the parcel. Right after that, he and his co-passenger tweeted on the Railways twitter handle explaining about the issue. Our team instantly responded and asked for details and also assured that his medical treatment will be looked into. He had also thanked us through a tweet. We will take action to improve as per the observations in CAG report.



Hailing Railway Minister Suresh Prabhus initiation towards zero tolerance, Saxena stated that measures on bad quality of food and over charging have always been looked into.



Currently, we have cancelled the license of the catering contractor and will enquire about the matter. After Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, issued a zero tolerance towards bad quality of food and over charging; these kinds of issues has been under control. Earlier we have also cancelled many more licenses of the contractors being involved- till date we have done for eight of them, Saxena said.



Further assuring to initiate a third party audit, Saxena added that the Railways will improve its monitoring system in all categories.



After this issue, we will improve our monitoring system and assure to make revised measures. We are planning to initiate third party audit so that the quality of food improves and timing, Saxena added.



Earlier in the day, a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express.



The DRM and other officials took cognizance of the issue, inquired about the health of the passenger and provided him with medicines.



The passenger then filed a complaint with the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through Twitter. The passenger told the media that he was provided the medication really late.



The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Danapur division Kishor Kumar condemned the incident and assured a detailed enquiry in the matter.



Kumar further said that the department's main concern was the health of the passengers.



Kumar said that the incident would be taken as a feedback of the railway system to improve the passenger services.



Last week, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that unpurified water was being used to make beverages, rats and cockroaches were found in the pantry and food was being left out in the open among a number of other things.



Following which, the Ministry of Railways took to Twitter to establish the fact that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out the unbundling by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution.



The New Catering policy, which was issued on 27 February, also states that IRCTC is responsible for all issues pertaining to setting up and operation of kitchen units and quality of food.



The ministry said as per the new catering policy of 2017, the IRCTC will manage the services on all mobile units and pantry car contracts will be reassigned to the railways' catering arm.



In addition to it, the policy also stated that all the food has to be picked up from IRCTC kitchen units only.

NEW DELHI: After a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express, the Indian Railways on Wednesday assured it has instantly responded to the matter and action has also been taken. Speaking to ANI, Railway Spokesperson Anil Saxena said This incident took place yesterday in12303 Howrah-New Delhi Poorva Express. The passenger, who ordered a vegetarian biryani found the reptile after consuming a few bites from the parcel. Right after that, he and his co-passenger tweeted on the Railways twitter handle explaining about the issue. Our team instantly responded and asked for details and also assured that his medical treatment will be looked into. He had also thanked us through a tweet. We will take action to improve as per the observations in CAG report. Hailing Railway Minister Suresh Prabhus initiation towards zero tolerance, Saxena stated that measures on bad quality of food and over charging have always been looked into. Currently, we have cancelled the license of the catering contractor and will enquire about the matter. After Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu, issued a zero tolerance towards bad quality of food and over charging; these kinds of issues has been under control. Earlier we have also cancelled many more licenses of the contractors being involved- till date we have done for eight of them, Saxena said. Further assuring to initiate a third party audit, Saxena added that the Railways will improve its monitoring system in all categories. After this issue, we will improve our monitoring system and assure to make revised measures. We are planning to initiate third party audit so that the quality of food improves and timing, Saxena added. Earlier in the day, a lizard was found in a meal served on the Poorva Express. The DRM and other officials took cognizance of the issue, inquired about the health of the passenger and provided him with medicines. The passenger then filed a complaint with the Union Railway Minister Suresh Prabhu through Twitter. The passenger told the media that he was provided the medication really late. The Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Danapur division Kishor Kumar condemned the incident and assured a detailed enquiry in the matter. Kumar further said that the department's main concern was the health of the passengers. Kumar said that the incident would be taken as a feedback of the railway system to improve the passenger services. Last week, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed that unpurified water was being used to make beverages, rats and cockroaches were found in the pantry and food was being left out in the open among a number of other things. Following which, the Ministry of Railways took to Twitter to establish the fact that the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has been mandated to carry out the unbundling by creating a distinction primarily between food preparation and food distribution. The New Catering policy, which was issued on 27 February, also states that IRCTC is responsible for all issues pertaining to setting up and operation of kitchen units and quality of food. The ministry said as per the new catering policy of 2017, the IRCTC will manage the services on all mobile units and pantry car contracts will be reassigned to the railways' catering arm. In addition to it, the policy also stated that all the food has to be picked up from IRCTC kitchen units only.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Deviating from its earlier stand, the Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court privacy is indeed a fundamental right, but a qualified one. Earlier, the government had opined that it was not a basic right enshrined in the Constitution.

Arguing for the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal said certain aspects of privacy are protected under fundamental rights while others are merely part of common law. Every aspect of it does not qualify as a fundamental right, as privacy also includes the subtext of liberty, Venugopal told the nine-judge bench.

There may be a fundamental right to privacy and it has to be a qualified right since it covers diverse aspects and a sub-species of the Right to Liberty. Every aspect cannot qualify to be a fundamental right.

Petitioners had argued that there is a fundamental right to privacy. You (Centre) stalled them saying privacy is not a fundamental right and now you are saying privacy is a fundamental right.

We will take your statement on record and close the case if you accept that right to privacy is a fundamental right, the CJI said. In response, Venugopal said the government did not consider privacy as a single, homogenous right, but as a bunch of rights enshrined in the Constitution. He added that something as amorphous as privacy cannot be assigned the status of a fundamental right.

The bench also told the Centre its argument that right to privacy is an elitist construct is wrong. If State wants forced sterilisation on say slum dwellers for population control among that group, perhaps only a privacy claim may stand in the way. If we say privacy is not a fundamental right, it would be blanket sanction of anything State can do.

Privacy isnt an elitist concept. This will affect large masses. State cant get a blanket sanction to do whatever it wants. Can State say we will compel slum-dwellers to undergo sterilisation since it may control population? Can you force poor women suffering from cervical cancer to take experimental drugs? asked Justice Chandrachud.

Justice Chandrachud further said, Some disclosure of information may or may not have inference of privacy like asking a woman in an employment form the number of children she had may not have a privacy impact, but asking the number of abortions can be. Can we give any such guideline?

Similarly, one can be asked about her mother and fathers name but no one can be asked about being born from first marriage or second marriage, the bench said.

The AG reiterated, There can be no right to privacy claim quo any information which is already in public domain.

On this, Justice Nariman said, Dont forget the little mans right to privacy. Everything is not Aadhaar-centric. We are going to consider all aspects and give you a comprehensive judgment for conceptual clarity of the nation.

The bench also made it clear that it will only decide whether there is at all a fundamental right to privacy and the question whether Aadhaar violates privacy will be decided later by the five judges.

Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and the Congress-led Puducherry, Karnataka and Punjab too moved the court in support of declaring right to privacy a fundamental right.

The states were represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal who said, Privacy cannot be an absolute right. But it is a fundamental right. This court needs to strike a balance.

Referring to different countries where the right to privacy was not there in the Constitution, Sibal told the bench that Pakistan has a right to privacy which is a joke. He urged the court So if you give us a right, it should not become a joke.

Attorney general K K Venugopal, presenting the stand of the Centre before a nine-judge bench, sought to distinguish the right to privacy in the context of developing and developed nations. In a developing country, where millions of people are devoid of the basic necessities of life and do not even have shelter, food, clothing or jobs, and are forced to sleep on pavement even in the height of winter and, perhaps, to die, no claim to a right to privacy of the nature claimed in this case, as a fundamental right, would lie, he said. The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Thursday.

NEW DELHI: Deviating from its earlier stand, the Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court privacy is indeed a fundamental right, but a qualified one. Earlier, the government had opined that it was not a basic right enshrined in the Constitution. Arguing for the Centre, Attorney General KK Venugopal said certain aspects of privacy are protected under fundamental rights while others are merely part of common law. Every aspect of it does not qualify as a fundamental right, as privacy also includes the subtext of liberty, Venugopal told the nine-judge bench. There may be a fundamental right to privacy and it has to be a qualified right since it covers diverse aspects and a sub-species of the Right to Liberty. Every aspect cannot qualify to be a fundamental right. Petitioners had argued that there is a fundamental right to privacy. You (Centre) stalled them saying privacy is not a fundamental right and now you are saying privacy is a fundamental right. We will take your statement on record and close the case if you accept that right to privacy is a fundamental right, the CJI said. In response, Venugopal said the government did not consider privacy as a single, homogenous right, but as a bunch of rights enshrined in the Constitution. He added that something as amorphous as privacy cannot be assigned the status of a fundamental right. The bench also told the Centre its argument that right to privacy is an elitist construct is wrong. If State wants forced sterilisation on say slum dwellers for population control among that group, perhaps only a privacy claim may stand in the way. If we say privacy is not a fundamental right, it would be blanket sanction of anything State can do. Privacy isnt an elitist concept. This will affect large masses. State cant get a blanket sanction to do whatever it wants. Can State say we will compel slum-dwellers to undergo sterilisation since it may control population? Can you force poor women suffering from cervical cancer to take experimental drugs? asked Justice Chandrachud. Justice Chandrachud further said, Some disclosure of information may or may not have inference of privacy like asking a woman in an employment form the number of children she had may not have a privacy impact, but asking the number of abortions can be. Can we give any such guideline? Similarly, one can be asked about her mother and fathers name but no one can be asked about being born from first marriage or second marriage, the bench said. The AG reiterated, There can be no right to privacy claim quo any information which is already in public domain. On this, Justice Nariman said, Dont forget the little mans right to privacy. Everything is not Aadhaar-centric. We are going to consider all aspects and give you a comprehensive judgment for conceptual clarity of the nation. The bench also made it clear that it will only decide whether there is at all a fundamental right to privacy and the question whether Aadhaar violates privacy will be decided later by the five judges. Meanwhile, Trinamool Congress-ruled West Bengal and the Congress-led Puducherry, Karnataka and Punjab too moved the court in support of declaring right to privacy a fundamental right. The states were represented by senior advocate Kapil Sibal who said, Privacy cannot be an absolute right. But it is a fundamental right. This court needs to strike a balance. Referring to different countries where the right to privacy was not there in the Constitution, Sibal told the bench that Pakistan has a right to privacy which is a joke. He urged the court So if you give us a right, it should not become a joke. Attorney general K K Venugopal, presenting the stand of the Centre before a nine-judge bench, sought to distinguish the right to privacy in the context of developing and developed nations. In a developing country, where millions of people are devoid of the basic necessities of life and do not even have shelter, food, clothing or jobs, and are forced to sleep on pavement even in the height of winter and, perhaps, to die, no claim to a right to privacy of the nature claimed in this case, as a fundamental right, would lie, he said. The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on Thursday.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: THE government is not ready yet to conclude that 39 missing Indians in Mosul are dead. Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday asserted that there is no evidence on whether the missing Indians in Mosul are dead and it would be a sin to claim this. She told the Lok Sabha that it was the governments duty to keep looking for them. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence, Swaraj said in the Lower House.

Explaining the governments stand, she said, There are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos. The government, Swaraj said, has been in touch with countries in the region, including Turkey, which can help India in the case.

Swaraj made it clear that the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead. This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead, her statement, which came after holding talks with the Iraqi foreign minister on the issue, said.

The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab region, was taken hostage by ISIS when it attacked Mosul in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted. Family members of the missing Indians have alleged of government not making things clear on the issue.

The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians. I never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government gets by misleading the people on the issue, she added.

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

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

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

NEW DELHI: THE government is not ready yet to conclude that 39 missing Indians in Mosul are dead. Union external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday asserted that there is no evidence on whether the missing Indians in Mosul are dead and it would be a sin to claim this. She told the Lok Sabha that it was the governments duty to keep looking for them. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence, Swaraj said in the Lower House. Explaining the governments stand, she said, There are no bodies, no bloodstains, no list, no ISIS videos. The government, Swaraj said, has been in touch with countries in the region, including Turkey, which can help India in the case. Swaraj made it clear that the government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead. This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead, her statement, which came after holding talks with the Iraqi foreign minister on the issue, said. The group of Indian labourers, mostly from Punjab region, was taken hostage by ISIS when it attacked Mosul in 2014. The workers were trying to leave Mosul when they were intercepted. Family members of the missing Indians have alleged of government not making things clear on the issue. The external affairs minister said she had never misled Parliament or the families of the abducted Indians. I never misled. I want to ask the opposition what benefit will I get by misleading. What benefit my government gets by misleading the people on the issue, she added. Swaraj said she told her Iraqi counterpart that she will not accept anything on the issue without proof and requested him to continue the search for them. Swaraj cited the example of the Congress government declaring a soldier martyr in 1971 war and after 45 years, it was found that he was in a jail in Pakistan. If someone feels they are dead, you are free to go to the families. But if anyone of them (Indians) comes back, then it will be your responsibility. Similarly, their families are free to carry out ardas (rituals) but it will be their responsibility if someone comes back, she said.
Santwana Bhattacharya By

Express News Service

Though by evening the resignation in Patna overshadowed all other political play in and around Parliament, the tangle over Rajya Sabha seats remained the major talking points  whether Ahmed Patel will win the third seat from Gujarat and the BJP chief, Amit Shahs expected entry to the upper house. And, who would get the West Bengal seat that the CPI-M denied its general secretary Sitaram Yechury to contest with the Congress support?

Bengal blocked

Bengal Congress seemed as angry as the Bengal CPI-M, with a few Marxist MPs bitterly hinting their state unit has nothing more to lose but their chains that bind them to the unreasonable Kerala-Karat dominated central committee. A third term denied to Yechury also means that the Congress may be pushed into an alliance with TMC, a tactical blunder in many ways than one for Bengal CPI-M. The Kerala lobbies of both the parties were however relieved.

Congress in a fix

Bengal Congress chief Adhir Choudhury hotly contested claims that Meira Kumar would be given the Bengal seat that was offered to Yechury. With the CPI-M-Congress alliance for the RS seat falling through, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has offered to support Kumar to cement her relations with the Congress. Well decide our candidate, not Mamata, Choudhury retorted. Nonetheless, it remains a possibility as Sonia Gandhi and not Choudhury will pick the candidate.

Will Patel win?

In Gandhinagar, Patel filed his nomination papers with the entire Congress state unit, barring just ousted Shankarsinh Vaghela, in attendance. If the BJP fields a third candidate apart from Shah and Smriti Irani, whos being re-nominated, the going may get tough for Patel. The man, however, said: Vaghelaji has promised me his vote(s), Ive no reason to disbelieve him. Vaghela, apparently, has put a condition, an apology from the new AICC in-charge of Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot.

What about Gandhi?

With BJP offering to prop Nitish Kumar as the Bihar CM, after he sprung a resignation on his grand-alliance partners, RJD and Congress, the oppositions vice presidential candidate Gopal Gandhi is rather perplexed. Though his is a token fight against BJP/NDAs Venkaiah Naidu, the contest was primarily planned to stitch up the opposition unity firmly, ironically which is falling through. However, JD-U leader Sharad Yadav indicated that there would be no change of stance on Gandhi. No tilt towards Deen Dayal Upadhayay on this, he noted. Nitish, it seems, is keen to send Gopal Gandhi to Rajya Sabha from Bihar, just like Didi is ready to back Kumar from Bengal.

Though by evening the resignation in Patna overshadowed all other political play in and around Parliament, the tangle over Rajya Sabha seats remained the major talking points  whether Ahmed Patel will win the third seat from Gujarat and the BJP chief, Amit Shahs expected entry to the upper house. And, who would get the West Bengal seat that the CPI-M denied its general secretary Sitaram Yechury to contest with the Congress support? Bengal blocked Bengal Congress seemed as angry as the Bengal CPI-M, with a few Marxist MPs bitterly hinting their state unit has nothing more to lose but their chains that bind them to the unreasonable Kerala-Karat dominated central committee. A third term denied to Yechury also means that the Congress may be pushed into an alliance with TMC, a tactical blunder in many ways than one for Bengal CPI-M. The Kerala lobbies of both the parties were however relieved. Congress in a fix Bengal Congress chief Adhir Choudhury hotly contested claims that Meira Kumar would be given the Bengal seat that was offered to Yechury. With the CPI-M-Congress alliance for the RS seat falling through, chief minister Mamata Banerjee has offered to support Kumar to cement her relations with the Congress. Well decide our candidate, not Mamata, Choudhury retorted. Nonetheless, it remains a possibility as Sonia Gandhi and not Choudhury will pick the candidate. Will Patel win? In Gandhinagar, Patel filed his nomination papers with the entire Congress state unit, barring just ousted Shankarsinh Vaghela, in attendance. If the BJP fields a third candidate apart from Shah and Smriti Irani, whos being re-nominated, the going may get tough for Patel. The man, however, said: Vaghelaji has promised me his vote(s), Ive no reason to disbelieve him. Vaghela, apparently, has put a condition, an apology from the new AICC in-charge of Gujarat, Ashok Gehlot. What about Gandhi? With BJP offering to prop Nitish Kumar as the Bihar CM, after he sprung a resignation on his grand-alliance partners, RJD and Congress, the oppositions vice presidential candidate Gopal Gandhi is rather perplexed. Though his is a token fight against BJP/NDAs Venkaiah Naidu, the contest was primarily planned to stitch up the opposition unity firmly, ironically which is falling through. However, JD-U leader Sharad Yadav indicated that there would be no change of stance on Gandhi. No tilt towards Deen Dayal Upadhayay on this, he noted. Nitish, it seems, is keen to send Gopal Gandhi to Rajya Sabha from Bihar, just like Didi is ready to back Kumar from Bengal.
Sana Shakil By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: Indian airlines lose huge money due to hoax calls about bomb threats in flights and airports in the country. More than 100 such hoax calls were received in last three years, it has been found. Delhi received the maximum number of hoax calls followed by Mumbai and Bangalore.

Worrying is the fact that the number of hoax calls has gone up in the last two years. According to government data accessed by the New Indian Express, there were 14 hoax calls in 2014. This figure grew to 34 in 2015 and the number of hoax calls increased to 54 in 2016. This year, so far, 32 hoax calls related to bombs in flights or airports have been received.

In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on hoax calls in flights and airports, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday said hoax calls result in not just impacting finances of airlines but also causes huge inconvenience to passengers. The minister disclosed that 120 bomb hoax calls were received in India in the three years.

The minister, however, said it is difficult to quantify loss in monetary terms but the aviation industry sources told Express that they have lost crores of money because of the hoax call menace. According to statistics, 40 bomb hoax calls were received at Delhi airport in last three years while Mumbai and Bangalore received 17 and 14 calls each. Pertinently, all these airport operators are maintained by private airport operators and not the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The parking charges of aircrafts at private operators is more expensive than parking charges of airports maintained by the governments AAI.

A senior official of an airline, who did not wish to be named, said, The parking charges of aircrafts depend on the weight of aircrafts. The heavier, the aircraft, costlier is the parking charge. So, if flights are required to be parked for additional time for security check due to hoax calls, we end up paying more to the aircraft. Depending on gravity of the call, sometimes we have to provide a new flight altogether that is again a huge cost for us.

Indias aviation safety regulator the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has been seeking stricter punishment, like life imprisonment, for hoax bomb callers under Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act.

NEW DELHI: Indian airlines lose huge money due to hoax calls about bomb threats in flights and airports in the country. More than 100 such hoax calls were received in last three years, it has been found. Delhi received the maximum number of hoax calls followed by Mumbai and Bangalore. Worrying is the fact that the number of hoax calls has gone up in the last two years. According to government data accessed by the New Indian Express, there were 14 hoax calls in 2014. This figure grew to 34 in 2015 and the number of hoax calls increased to 54 in 2016. This year, so far, 32 hoax calls related to bombs in flights or airports have been received. In a written reply to a question in Lok Sabha on hoax calls in flights and airports, minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha on Thursday said hoax calls result in not just impacting finances of airlines but also causes huge inconvenience to passengers. The minister disclosed that 120 bomb hoax calls were received in India in the three years. The minister, however, said it is difficult to quantify loss in monetary terms but the aviation industry sources told Express that they have lost crores of money because of the hoax call menace. According to statistics, 40 bomb hoax calls were received at Delhi airport in last three years while Mumbai and Bangalore received 17 and 14 calls each. Pertinently, all these airport operators are maintained by private airport operators and not the Airport Authority of India (AAI). The parking charges of aircrafts at private operators is more expensive than parking charges of airports maintained by the governments AAI. A senior official of an airline, who did not wish to be named, said, The parking charges of aircrafts depend on the weight of aircrafts. The heavier, the aircraft, costlier is the parking charge. So, if flights are required to be parked for additional time for security check due to hoax calls, we end up paying more to the aircraft. Depending on gravity of the call, sometimes we have to provide a new flight altogether that is again a huge cost for us. Indias aviation safety regulator the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security has been seeking stricter punishment, like life imprisonment, for hoax bomb callers under Suppression of Unlawful Acts Against Safety of Civil Aviation Act.
Harpreet Bajwa By

Express News Service

CHANDIGARH: The Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, on Thursday rejected the modified, non-lethal Kirpan (steel sword) manufactured in Italy meant to be carried by baptised Sikhs living in that country. It was presented for approval before the body a few days ago.

In a meeting held by five high priests at the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex, the religious leaders concluded that the modified Kirpan made of flexible metal does not adhere to the tenets of Sikh religion.

The production of a non-lethal Kirpan was necessitated after the Italian Supreme Court in May upheld the ban on the Kirpan which was imposed by the Italian government. The court had observed that migrants must conform to the values of the society they had chosen to settle in. The modified Kirpan has a bending blade and is incapable of injuring anyone.

Sources said that Sukhdev Singh Kang, president of Indian Sikh community in Italy, along with representatives of the Italian company which manufactured this Kirpan, met Jathedar of Akal Takht (high priest) Gurbachan Singh in June this year and handed him samples of various lengths.

The Italian government has already given its approval to manufacture these Kirpans and they wanted the approval of the Sikh clergy, so that the company could certify the modified Kirpans as safe.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in May this year had stated that it would approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and challenge the order of the Italian Supreme Court.

The SGPC had also taken up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the matter and take it up with their Italian counterparts.

CHANDIGARH: The Akal Takht, the highest temporal body of the Sikhs, on Thursday rejected the modified, non-lethal Kirpan (steel sword) manufactured in Italy meant to be carried by baptised Sikhs living in that country. It was presented for approval before the body a few days ago. In a meeting held by five high priests at the Akal Takht in the Golden Temple complex, the religious leaders concluded that the modified Kirpan made of flexible metal does not adhere to the tenets of Sikh religion. The production of a non-lethal Kirpan was necessitated after the Italian Supreme Court in May upheld the ban on the Kirpan which was imposed by the Italian government. The court had observed that migrants must conform to the values of the society they had chosen to settle in. The modified Kirpan has a bending blade and is incapable of injuring anyone. Sources said that Sukhdev Singh Kang, president of Indian Sikh community in Italy, along with representatives of the Italian company which manufactured this Kirpan, met Jathedar of Akal Takht (high priest) Gurbachan Singh in June this year and handed him samples of various lengths. The Italian government has already given its approval to manufacture these Kirpans and they wanted the approval of the Sikh clergy, so that the company could certify the modified Kirpans as safe. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) in May this year had stated that it would approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and challenge the order of the Italian Supreme Court. The SGPC had also taken up the issue with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj to intervene in the matter and take it up with their Italian counterparts.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: Consequent to BSP chief Mayawatis much-publicised resignation from Rajya Sabha and in view of her oft-repeated rhetoric that she was not scared of taking an electoral route to Parliament, the latest buzz doing the rounds in Uttar Pradesh political circles is that she may be fielded as a joint opposition candidate from the Dalit-dominated Phulpur constituency. Presently, it is held by UP deputy CM Keshav Maurya. This is aimed at taking on the might of the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll.

However, BJP strategists are busy thrashing out a plan to puncture the oppositions game-plan and keep the seat with it.

The byelection to two Lok Sabha seats is imminent in UP as chief minster Yogi Adityanath a five-term MP from Gorakhpur and Dy CM Keshav Prasad Mauryathe first-time MP

from Phulpur, have to vacate their respective LS seats, owing to constitutional obligation, after voting for new vice president on August 5.

Both have to take up the membership of either of the two house of state legislature latest by September 18.

However, the BJP has huddled up to find a way out of the emerging situation as the party doesnt want to see any of the seats going away from its kitty when only one and a half year of the present Lok Sabha is left.

Well aware of Oppositions game plan, the BJP strategists, meanwhile, are focusing to retain Phulpur seat and let Maurya continue on it as the party won it for the first time in 2014 general elections.

The move will help party quell the alleged differences surfaced between CM Adityanath and Dy CM Maurya in the recent past.

According to the party insiders, the state government is plagued with the emergence of two parallel power centres in UP headed respectively by CM Yogi Adityanath and DY CM Maurya. It may be recalled that Maurya was one of the front runners for the post of UP CM.

Meanwhile, CM Adityanath is said to have raised objections to the working style of Dy CM Maurya with the central leadership in Delhi on Tuesday. In such a scenario, BJP will never want a battle of one-upmanship escalating in UP and jeopardising partys prospects in 2019 Lok Sabha elelction.

Consequently, to dissipate the brewing rift between Adityanath and Maurya, the party may call the latter to Delhi and elevate him as the Central minister in the next reshuffle which is due shortly.

However, Maurya in Delhi on Wednesday rejected the whole idea saying that there was no substance in those rumours and entire opposition together could not defeat BJP either in Phulpur or Gorakhpur. On the contrary, the BSP ranks at the state level have also ruled out the possibility of Mayawati entering the fray from Phulpur.

LUCKNOW: Consequent to BSP chief Mayawatis much-publicised resignation from Rajya Sabha and in view of her oft-repeated rhetoric that she was not scared of taking an electoral route to Parliament, the latest buzz doing the rounds in Uttar Pradesh political circles is that she may be fielded as a joint opposition candidate from the Dalit-dominated Phulpur constituency. Presently, it is held by UP deputy CM Keshav Maurya. This is aimed at taking on the might of the BJP in the upcoming Lok Sabha bypoll. However, BJP strategists are busy thrashing out a plan to puncture the oppositions game-plan and keep the seat with it. The byelection to two Lok Sabha seats is imminent in UP as chief minster Yogi Adityanath a five-term MP from Gorakhpur and Dy CM Keshav Prasad Mauryathe first-time MP from Phulpur, have to vacate their respective LS seats, owing to constitutional obligation, after voting for new vice president on August 5. Both have to take up the membership of either of the two house of state legislature latest by September 18. However, the BJP has huddled up to find a way out of the emerging situation as the party doesnt want to see any of the seats going away from its kitty when only one and a half year of the present Lok Sabha is left. Well aware of Oppositions game plan, the BJP strategists, meanwhile, are focusing to retain Phulpur seat and let Maurya continue on it as the party won it for the first time in 2014 general elections. The move will help party quell the alleged differences surfaced between CM Adityanath and Dy CM Maurya in the recent past. According to the party insiders, the state government is plagued with the emergence of two parallel power centres in UP headed respectively by CM Yogi Adityanath and DY CM Maurya. It may be recalled that Maurya was one of the front runners for the post of UP CM. Meanwhile, CM Adityanath is said to have raised objections to the working style of Dy CM Maurya with the central leadership in Delhi on Tuesday. In such a scenario, BJP will never want a battle of one-upmanship escalating in UP and jeopardising partys prospects in 2019 Lok Sabha elelction. Consequently, to dissipate the brewing rift between Adityanath and Maurya, the party may call the latter to Delhi and elevate him as the Central minister in the next reshuffle which is due shortly. However, Maurya in Delhi on Wednesday rejected the whole idea saying that there was no substance in those rumours and entire opposition together could not defeat BJP either in Phulpur or Gorakhpur. On the contrary, the BSP ranks at the state level have also ruled out the possibility of Mayawati entering the fray from Phulpur.
By Express News Service

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said his party would move the Supreme Court over the Bihar governor calling Nitish Kumar to form the government, though his party had the numbers and should have been given the first opportunity to do so. He said in Ranchi that he will approach top lawyer Ram Jethmalani on moving the court.

Yadav attacked Nitish Kumar for leaving Bihars grand alliance and taking oath as chief minister with the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) support, saying the developments were a fixed match of BJP-RSS and that it was the last phase of Kumar in politics.

Yadav, in Ranchi, minutes after his appearance in a special CBI court in connection with a fodder scam case, said, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were upset for a long time as they knew my strong public support base cannot be shaken. Despite giving no trouble to Nitish in the government, he indulged in fraud.

Claiming that Nitish Kumar cheated the people and stabbed a knife on the back of the poor, backward and Dalit people, a smiling Yadav said he was not worried by the developments. We (RJD) are looking forward to the rally in August that is being attended by many leaders, including Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee, to set the stage against BJP, he added. I always knew that he (Nitish Kumar) was in touch with BJP and got all the cases by CBI, ED and Income Tax registered against me and my family members. He worked secretly with Sushil Modi, said Yadav.

He accused governor Kesari Nath Tripathy of wrongdoing for his decision to invite the JD(U) and BJP to form the government instead of giving RJD, the single largest party in the Assembly with 80 seats, the first opportunity to do so. Nitish has no confidence in JD(U) MLAs and that is why they shifted the swearing-in time from 5 pm to 10 am. MLAs were kept in wrongful confinement, said Yadav.

We are preparing to move the Supreme Court. I am going to speak to Ram Jethmalani a few minutes later about this, he added. Yadav said Kumar is a murder accused under Section 302 and that he decided to ally with the BJP in a hurried manner after learning that the pending murder case against him could be revived and ruin his political future.

Yadav said, A court in Barh took cognisance of the case of murder of Sitaram Singh in 1991. Nitish Kumar also admitted in his poll affidavits that there is this case of murder against him.

Midnight march

Earlier, shaken by Nitish Kumars surprise move to resign as chief minister, top RJD leaders led by embattled deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav made a post-midnight march to Raj Bhawan and demanded that RJD be given opportunity to form the government. Six RJD leaders met the governor and said that since RJD was the single largest party with 80 MLAs in the assembly, the party should be invited first to form the government.

PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said his party would move the Supreme Court over the Bihar governor calling Nitish Kumar to form the government, though his party had the numbers and should have been given the first opportunity to do so. He said in Ranchi that he will approach top lawyer Ram Jethmalani on moving the court. Yadav attacked Nitish Kumar for leaving Bihars grand alliance and taking oath as chief minister with the Bharatiya Janata Partys (BJP) support, saying the developments were a fixed match of BJP-RSS and that it was the last phase of Kumar in politics. Yadav, in Ranchi, minutes after his appearance in a special CBI court in connection with a fodder scam case, said, Narendra Modi and Amit Shah were upset for a long time as they knew my strong public support base cannot be shaken. Despite giving no trouble to Nitish in the government, he indulged in fraud. Claiming that Nitish Kumar cheated the people and stabbed a knife on the back of the poor, backward and Dalit people, a smiling Yadav said he was not worried by the developments. We (RJD) are looking forward to the rally in August that is being attended by many leaders, including Mayawati and Mamata Banerjee, to set the stage against BJP, he added. I always knew that he (Nitish Kumar) was in touch with BJP and got all the cases by CBI, ED and Income Tax registered against me and my family members. He worked secretly with Sushil Modi, said Yadav. He accused governor Kesari Nath Tripathy of wrongdoing for his decision to invite the JD(U) and BJP to form the government instead of giving RJD, the single largest party in the Assembly with 80 seats, the first opportunity to do so. Nitish has no confidence in JD(U) MLAs and that is why they shifted the swearing-in time from 5 pm to 10 am. MLAs were kept in wrongful confinement, said Yadav. We are preparing to move the Supreme Court. I am going to speak to Ram Jethmalani a few minutes later about this, he added. Yadav said Kumar is a murder accused under Section 302 and that he decided to ally with the BJP in a hurried manner after learning that the pending murder case against him could be revived and ruin his political future. Yadav said, A court in Barh took cognisance of the case of murder of Sitaram Singh in 1991. Nitish Kumar also admitted in his poll affidavits that there is this case of murder against him. Midnight march Earlier, shaken by Nitish Kumars surprise move to resign as chief minister, top RJD leaders led by embattled deputy CM Tejaswi Yadav made a post-midnight march to Raj Bhawan and demanded that RJD be given opportunity to form the government. Six RJD leaders met the governor and said that since RJD was the single largest party with 80 MLAs in the assembly, the party should be invited first to form the government.
By PTI

PATNA: The decision to part ways with the RJD and join hands with the BJP was taken in the interest of Bihar and will ensure development and justice for the state, Nitish Kumar today said after being sworn in as the chief minister.

Kumar resigned the post last night after a fall out with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the then deputy CM.

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," Nitish Kumar told reporters.

Meanwhile, Sushil Kumar Modi after being sworn-in as the Bihar deputy CM told the reporters, "Development will be a priority, will take Bihar to greater height."

Kumar was worn in as the chief minister of the state along side senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna.

PATNA: The decision to part ways with the RJD and join hands with the BJP was taken in the interest of Bihar and will ensure development and justice for the state, Nitish Kumar today said after being sworn in as the chief minister. Kumar resigned the post last night after a fall out with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the then deputy CM. "Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," Nitish Kumar told reporters. Meanwhile, Sushil Kumar Modi after being sworn-in as the Bihar deputy CM told the reporters, "Development will be a priority, will take Bihar to greater height." Kumar was worn in as the chief minister of the state along side senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna.
By PTI

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq government's help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy V K Singh to Badush.

She also expressed India's support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their country's sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said today.

Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs.

"Swaraj reiterated Indian government's request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraq's continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken," the spokesperson said.

He also said Swaraj requested the Iraqi leader to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush whenever there was more information, to which the visiting dignitary readily agreed.

The visit by Singh will be more meaningful if there is more information with the Iraqi government, he said when asked when will the minister travel to Iraq.

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

Swaraj also congratulated the Iraqi minister over the liberation of the strategic city of Mosul on 9 July by Iraqi forces from the control of the terrorist organisation ISIS.

She assured her Iraqi counterpart that India had always been, and remained strongly committed to a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, a ministry release said.

The minister also thanked Iraq for contributing significantly to India's energy security, being the second largest supplier of crude oil to us.

The visiting Minister appreciated India's steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the ITEC programme.

He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment.

The Iraqi foreign minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Swaraj welcomed, the release said.

The visiting minister thanked Swaraj for her letter of congratulations and for visit of Singh, who was the first senior foreign dignitary to visit Iraq after the liberation of Mosul.

NEW DELHI: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq government's help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy V K Singh to Badush. She also expressed India's support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their country's sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said today. Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs. "Swaraj reiterated Indian government's request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraq's continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken," the spokesperson said. He also said Swaraj requested the Iraqi leader to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush whenever there was more information, to which the visiting dignitary readily agreed. The visit by Singh will be more meaningful if there is more information with the Iraqi government, he said when asked when will the minister travel to Iraq. Based on information gathered by her junior minister Singh during his recent visit to Iraq, Swaraj on July 16 had stated that Badush jail in northwest Mosul was the last known location of the Indians. Swaraj also congratulated the Iraqi minister over the liberation of the strategic city of Mosul on 9 July by Iraqi forces from the control of the terrorist organisation ISIS. She assured her Iraqi counterpart that India had always been, and remained strongly committed to a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, a ministry release said. The minister also thanked Iraq for contributing significantly to India's energy security, being the second largest supplier of crude oil to us. The visiting Minister appreciated India's steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the ITEC programme. He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment. The Iraqi foreign minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Swaraj welcomed, the release said. The visiting minister thanked Swaraj for her letter of congratulations and for visit of Singh, who was the first senior foreign dignitary to visit Iraq after the liberation of Mosul.
Anand ST Das By

Express News Service

PATNA: Nitish resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday, and is set to take oath for the same post on Thursday. In-between, friends became foes, rivals the new allies and the mahagathbandhan, or great Opposition unity, got shred to tatters.

The Chief Minister and chief of the JD(U) put an end to his 23-month-long uneasy partnership with Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday with his resignation. Nitishs bonhomie with Lalu soured after the latters son and deputy Chief Minister refused to quit over allegations of corruption, kept alive in the State by the BJP. Nitish is set to form a new government on Thursday supported by the saffron party.

Wednesdays drama began with a statement by Lalu suggesting Nitish could step down if he felt burdened by his alliance with the RJD. Three hours later, the Chief Minister decided to take Lalus advice, in an attempt to demonstrate his zero tolerance for corruption. I tried my best to run the alliance and government, but matters that came up made it impossible for me to continue, Nitish said outside Governors residence after submitting his papers.

Swinging swiftly into action, BJP offered unconditional support. Legislators of BJP and JD(U) met at Nitishs residence to elect him our leader, said senior BJPs leader Sushil Kumar Modi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his wishes. Many congratulations to Nitish Kumarji for joining the fight against corruption. Nitish promptly thanked Modi for support.

Nitish, according to sources, readily agreed to head the new government. I will consider anything that is in the interests of Bihar, he said, indicating his willingness to forge an alliance with the saffron party. Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP is expected to be the new deputy Chief Minister.

Nitish Kumar may be sworn in on Thursday as the Chief Minister, heading the JD(U)-BJP government, said a JD(U) leader close to Nitish. The swift move was apparently prompted by Lalus announcement that RJD would stake claim to form a government in a day or two as it is the largest party in the Assembly.

Speaking immediately after Kumars resignation, Lalu had said the grand alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress was still intact and that only Nitish had resigned. Lalu even claimed that the parties would meet in a day or two and choose a new leader to be the Chief Minister, while he also attacked Nitish, saying he has a murder taint on him.

Later in the night, Tejashwi Yadav tweeted that RJD, being the largest party in the House, would stake claim to form the government. Reports claimed he has sought time to meet the Governor at 11 am on Thursday.

PATNA: Nitish resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday, and is set to take oath for the same post on Thursday. In-between, friends became foes, rivals the new allies and the mahagathbandhan, or great Opposition unity, got shred to tatters. The Chief Minister and chief of the JD(U) put an end to his 23-month-long uneasy partnership with Lalu Prasad Yadav on Wednesday with his resignation. Nitishs bonhomie with Lalu soured after the latters son and deputy Chief Minister refused to quit over allegations of corruption, kept alive in the State by the BJP. Nitish is set to form a new government on Thursday supported by the saffron party. Wednesdays drama began with a statement by Lalu suggesting Nitish could step down if he felt burdened by his alliance with the RJD. Three hours later, the Chief Minister decided to take Lalus advice, in an attempt to demonstrate his zero tolerance for corruption. I tried my best to run the alliance and government, but matters that came up made it impossible for me to continue, Nitish said outside Governors residence after submitting his papers. Swinging swiftly into action, BJP offered unconditional support. Legislators of BJP and JD(U) met at Nitishs residence to elect him our leader, said senior BJPs leader Sushil Kumar Modi. Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted his wishes. Many congratulations to Nitish Kumarji for joining the fight against corruption. Nitish promptly thanked Modi for support. Nitish, according to sources, readily agreed to head the new government. I will consider anything that is in the interests of Bihar, he said, indicating his willingness to forge an alliance with the saffron party. Sushil Kumar Modi of BJP is expected to be the new deputy Chief Minister. Nitish Kumar may be sworn in on Thursday as the Chief Minister, heading the JD(U)-BJP government, said a JD(U) leader close to Nitish. The swift move was apparently prompted by Lalus announcement that RJD would stake claim to form a government in a day or two as it is the largest party in the Assembly. Speaking immediately after Kumars resignation, Lalu had said the grand alliance of RJD, JD(U) and Congress was still intact and that only Nitish had resigned. Lalu even claimed that the parties would meet in a day or two and choose a new leader to be the Chief Minister, while he also attacked Nitish, saying he has a murder taint on him. Later in the night, Tejashwi Yadav tweeted that RJD, being the largest party in the House, would stake claim to form the government. Reports claimed he has sought time to meet the Governor at 11 am on Thursday.
Prasanta Mazumdar By

Express News Service

KOHIMA: TR Zeliang said his recent appointment as the chief minister of Nagaland had nothing to do with the promotion of Heraka, which is an indigenous faith.

The assertion came against the backdrop of the charge by Naga Peoples Front (NPF) that he was preferred by Acharya, who spent years in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as part of a greater design to promote Heraka.

Given his alleged proximity to the BJP, the NPF had accused Zeliang and his loyalists of piercing the trishul into the heartland of Christ. Heraka has a few thousand adherents in Nagaland besides Assam and Manipur. The indigenous faith was brought up by the NPF recently during the height of the power struggle between Zeliang and his predecessor Shurhozelie Liezietsu.

The 65-year-old Zeliang asserted that he was a devout Christian. He argued that the four BJP MLAs of the state did not become Hindus due to their affiliation to the saffron party.

My village had 100 per cent Heraka followers but they began converting to Christianity in the 1960s. I was baptised in 1973. Therefore, I fail to understand why I am branded to be a Heraka by them, Zeliang told the New Indian Express in an interview.

Zeliang said, I was appointed as the chief minister by the governor as I had the support of majority MLAs, not because of my past association with the leaders of Heraka. He disclosed that he had associated with Rani Gaidinliu during his college days as she was leading a freedom movement.

At the age of 16, Gaidinliu was arrested in 1932 by the British rulers and released in 1947 after Indias independence. She was given the sobriquet Rani (Queen) by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan, Rani Gaidinliu died in 1993. Three years later, the central government issued a postal stamp in her honour. The RSS is often accused of promoting Heraka while building schools, hostels and prayer halls for its followers.

KOHIMA: TR Zeliang said his recent appointment as the chief minister of Nagaland had nothing to do with the promotion of Heraka, which is an indigenous faith. The assertion came against the backdrop of the charge by Naga Peoples Front (NPF) that he was preferred by Acharya, who spent years in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), as part of a greater design to promote Heraka. Given his alleged proximity to the BJP, the NPF had accused Zeliang and his loyalists of piercing the trishul into the heartland of Christ. Heraka has a few thousand adherents in Nagaland besides Assam and Manipur. The indigenous faith was brought up by the NPF recently during the height of the power struggle between Zeliang and his predecessor Shurhozelie Liezietsu. The 65-year-old Zeliang asserted that he was a devout Christian. He argued that the four BJP MLAs of the state did not become Hindus due to their affiliation to the saffron party. My village had 100 per cent Heraka followers but they began converting to Christianity in the 1960s. I was baptised in 1973. Therefore, I fail to understand why I am branded to be a Heraka by them, Zeliang told the New Indian Express in an interview. Zeliang said, I was appointed as the chief minister by the governor as I had the support of majority MLAs, not because of my past association with the leaders of Heraka. He disclosed that he had associated with Rani Gaidinliu during his college days as she was leading a freedom movement. At the age of 16, Gaidinliu was arrested in 1932 by the British rulers and released in 1947 after Indias independence. She was given the sobriquet Rani (Queen) by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A recipient of the Padma Bhushan, Rani Gaidinliu died in 1993. Three years later, the central government issued a postal stamp in her honour. The RSS is often accused of promoting Heraka while building schools, hostels and prayer halls for its followers.
Pradip R Sagar By

Express News Service

NEW DELHI: The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has snubbed the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), when it requested Narendra Modi to inaugurate an exhibition planned at Peikarumbu, near the memorial of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam that would be opened on Thursday.

With most of the DRDO projects, ranging from Tejas light combat aircraft to long range surface-to-air missile systems, repeatedly missing deadlines and facing huge cost overruns, Modis outright rejection to inaugurate an exhibition at the venue of the memorial of a former DRDO is seen as his attempt to distance from the white elephant (DRDO), which often faced criticism. In fact, during his first interaction with DRDO scientists, Modi had sent a stern message to the agency for their Chalta hai (lackadaisical) attitude.

The DRDO had planned an exhibition of its products with the theme Science for Soldier and Society alongside the PMs event, adjacent to Kalams memorial. Top scientists from its nearly 30 laboratories were engaged for this by the DRDOs headquarters and its Bengaluru-based lab Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory (DEBEL) was made event coordinator.

But much to their chagrin, the PMO not only turned down the request to ope the exhibition, but also denied permission to hold mega event close to the memorial. Special Protection Group, the agency responsible for PMs security, has refused permission for the exhibition adjacent to the venue, said a top official.

Left with no options, the DRDO has moved the exhibition to Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, one of its labs functioning at Avadi in Chennai. DRDO chief S Christopher will inaugurate it on Friday.

When contacted, DRDO spokesperson Manish Bhardwaj refused to divulge the details. Shifting of the venue happened due to space constraints, Bhardwaj said.

According to a statement issued by the PMO on Wednesday, Modi will inaugurate Kalams memorial on Thursday morning and later flag off Kalam Sandesh Vahini, an exhibition bus which would travel across various states to reach Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 15, the birth anniversary of the Kalam.

The PMO also stated that Prime Minister will then proceed to Mandapam for the public meeting, where he will distribute sanction letters to the beneficiaries of longliner trawlers under the Blue Revolution Scheme. He will also flag off a new Express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram via videoconferencing. Modi will release a synopsis of the Green Rameswaram Project and will unveil a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of the 9.5 km Link Road on NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai. Modi will conclude his visit by addressing a public meeting.

NEW DELHI: The Prime Ministers Office (PMO) has snubbed the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), when it requested Narendra Modi to inaugurate an exhibition planned at Peikarumbu, near the memorial of Dr A P J Abdul Kalam that would be opened on Thursday. With most of the DRDO projects, ranging from Tejas light combat aircraft to long range surface-to-air missile systems, repeatedly missing deadlines and facing huge cost overruns, Modis outright rejection to inaugurate an exhibition at the venue of the memorial of a former DRDO is seen as his attempt to distance from the white elephant (DRDO), which often faced criticism. In fact, during his first interaction with DRDO scientists, Modi had sent a stern message to the agency for their Chalta hai (lackadaisical) attitude. The DRDO had planned an exhibition of its products with the theme Science for Soldier and Society alongside the PMs event, adjacent to Kalams memorial. Top scientists from its nearly 30 laboratories were engaged for this by the DRDOs headquarters and its Bengaluru-based lab Defence Bioengineering and Electromedical Laboratory (DEBEL) was made event coordinator. But much to their chagrin, the PMO not only turned down the request to ope the exhibition, but also denied permission to hold mega event close to the memorial. Special Protection Group, the agency responsible for PMs security, has refused permission for the exhibition adjacent to the venue, said a top official. Left with no options, the DRDO has moved the exhibition to Combat Vehicles Research and Development Establishment, one of its labs functioning at Avadi in Chennai. DRDO chief S Christopher will inaugurate it on Friday. When contacted, DRDO spokesperson Manish Bhardwaj refused to divulge the details. Shifting of the venue happened due to space constraints, Bhardwaj said. According to a statement issued by the PMO on Wednesday, Modi will inaugurate Kalams memorial on Thursday morning and later flag off Kalam Sandesh Vahini, an exhibition bus which would travel across various states to reach Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 15, the birth anniversary of the Kalam. The PMO also stated that Prime Minister will then proceed to Mandapam for the public meeting, where he will distribute sanction letters to the beneficiaries of longliner trawlers under the Blue Revolution Scheme. He will also flag off a new Express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram via videoconferencing. Modi will release a synopsis of the Green Rameswaram Project and will unveil a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of the 9.5 km Link Road on NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai. Modi will conclude his visit by addressing a public meeting.
By Express News Service

NEW DELHI: THE Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court since privacy was multifaceted, it could not be treated as a fundamental right.

Attorney General K K Venugopal resumed his arguments before a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, stressing that it was not a fundamental right.

There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet cant be ipso facto considered a fundamental right, Venugopal told the bench, which also comprised Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

The AG said, There is no informational privacy against State interests and public utility for which the State can ask for fingerprints. Privacy is one among the umbrella of rights under personal liberty of Article 21. Some facets of privacy may be fundamental right but informational privacy is not a Constitutional guarantee.

On this, Justice Chandrachud observed, In this day and age when more and more data is in the public domain, the importance of information privacy protection is paramount.

Citing the example of census and passport, AG said, The data taken during census, passport registration, voter ID card is already with the government so there is nothing new that the government is seeking from the citizens now.

Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for the state of Maharashtra said, Privacy per se is not fundamental right. If there are facets covered by existing enumerated rights, its a different issue but privacy per se cannot be protected fundamental right. Doing so would be injecting a new fundamental right which can be only done by constitutional amendment.

The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on August 1.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, while representing four non-BJP ruled states -- Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherryhad on Wednesday argued that these states supported the contention that the right to privacy be held as fundamental in the age of technological advancements.

Giving the example of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Sibal had said the movement of person could be tracked and misused by the State as well as by non-State actors. The apex court had on July 18 set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench.

NEW DELHI: THE Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court since privacy was multifaceted, it could not be treated as a fundamental right. Attorney General K K Venugopal resumed his arguments before a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice J S Khehar, stressing that it was not a fundamental right. There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet cant be ipso facto considered a fundamental right, Venugopal told the bench, which also comprised Justices J Chelameswar, S A Bobde, R K Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D Y Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer. The AG said, There is no informational privacy against State interests and public utility for which the State can ask for fingerprints. Privacy is one among the umbrella of rights under personal liberty of Article 21. Some facets of privacy may be fundamental right but informational privacy is not a Constitutional guarantee. On this, Justice Chandrachud observed, In this day and age when more and more data is in the public domain, the importance of information privacy protection is paramount. Citing the example of census and passport, AG said, The data taken during census, passport registration, voter ID card is already with the government so there is nothing new that the government is seeking from the citizens now. Senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, who appeared for the state of Maharashtra said, Privacy per se is not fundamental right. If there are facets covered by existing enumerated rights, its a different issue but privacy per se cannot be protected fundamental right. Doing so would be injecting a new fundamental right which can be only done by constitutional amendment. The hearing remained inconclusive and will continue on August 1. Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, while representing four non-BJP ruled states -- Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherryhad on Wednesday argued that these states supported the contention that the right to privacy be held as fundamental in the age of technological advancements. Giving the example of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Sibal had said the movement of person could be tracked and misused by the State as well as by non-State actors. The apex court had on July 18 set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench.
Namita Bajpai By

Express News Service

LUCKNOW: The two ISIS terror suspects  Asif Iqbal (26) and Mohammad Atif (27), picked up by NIA and UP police from Kanpur in a joint operation on Tuesday, were sent to jail as district judge R K Upadhyay of the designated district court remanded them to judicial custody till August 24. The duo was held for allegedly planning terror acts.

Asif Iqbal is the cousin of Saifullah, the slain ISIS ultra who was killed in an encounter with UP ATS cops on the outskirts of Lucknow on March 7. However, the families of Asif Iqbal and Mohammad Atif, residents of Chakeri area of Jajmau in Kanpur, claimed that the two had visited offices of intelligence agencies in Lucknow at least six times before being formally arrested. The police sources confirmed that the two were on their radar since Saifullahs killing.

While Asif is Saifullahs cousin, Atif stayed in the same locality. Both are believed to be a cell of ISIS Khorasan module in Kanpur and were under scanner of NIA.

Confirming their involvement in terror plots, NIA sleuths claimed to have incriminatory evidence against the duo to support the arrests in the court of law.

According to the case registered by NIA, while Atif was charged with supplying arms and ammunition to the members of Kanpur-based Khorasan module, Asif took oath of allegiance.

Both the suspects were booked under various sections related to waging war against the state.

Atifs elder brother Aquib, however, wondered the delay in the arrests if the cops were keeping an eye on the activities of Asif and Atif for the last five months.

Atif is an embroidery worker I want to ask the security agencies why were they not arrested in March itself when alleged Khorasan module was busted with the arrest of more than half a dozen persons in March.

NIA officials said that the two were arrested only after evidence was collected against them and their involvement in terror conspiracy would be proved before the court.

LUCKNOW: The two ISIS terror suspects  Asif Iqbal (26) and Mohammad Atif (27), picked up by NIA and UP police from Kanpur in a joint operation on Tuesday, were sent to jail as district judge R K Upadhyay of the designated district court remanded them to judicial custody till August 24. The duo was held for allegedly planning terror acts. Asif Iqbal is the cousin of Saifullah, the slain ISIS ultra who was killed in an encounter with UP ATS cops on the outskirts of Lucknow on March 7. However, the families of Asif Iqbal and Mohammad Atif, residents of Chakeri area of Jajmau in Kanpur, claimed that the two had visited offices of intelligence agencies in Lucknow at least six times before being formally arrested. The police sources confirmed that the two were on their radar since Saifullahs killing. While Asif is Saifullahs cousin, Atif stayed in the same locality. Both are believed to be a cell of ISIS Khorasan module in Kanpur and were under scanner of NIA. Confirming their involvement in terror plots, NIA sleuths claimed to have incriminatory evidence against the duo to support the arrests in the court of law. According to the case registered by NIA, while Atif was charged with supplying arms and ammunition to the members of Kanpur-based Khorasan module, Asif took oath of allegiance. Both the suspects were booked under various sections related to waging war against the state. Atifs elder brother Aquib, however, wondered the delay in the arrests if the cops were keeping an eye on the activities of Asif and Atif for the last five months. Atif is an embroidery worker I want to ask the security agencies why were they not arrested in March itself when alleged Khorasan module was busted with the arrest of more than half a dozen persons in March. NIA officials said that the two were arrested only after evidence was collected against them and their involvement in terror conspiracy would be proved before the court.
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By PTI

PATNA: The JD(U) today announced that it will support the BJP-led NDA government in both the houses of Parliament, shortly after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's chief minister.

JD(U)'s national spokesperson K C Tyagi also hit out at the Congress saying it does not have any credibility and accused it of not being serious about fighting corruption.

"We will support the BJP-led NDA government in both houses of Parliament," he told reporters here.

Tyagi said, "The Congress was neither serious about fighting corruption nor about any opposition bloc. It was a blunder on our part to trust the Congress, which does not have any credibility."

Asked whether the JD(U) will join the Modi government, he said, "It is for the party leadership to decide. Let our party president and senior BJP leaders discuss the matter. Only after that we can make a comment on it."

READ HERE: Nitish Kumar returns as Bihar CM, this time with BJP support

Hitting back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the JD(U) spokesperson accused him of "not being serious" in fighting corruption.

The JD(U)'s comment came after Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kumar accusing him of acting for "selfish political motives"

and going back to the BJP even as Bihar had given an "anticommunal" mandate.

"The difference between Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi is that Nitish Kumar does not want to compromise on corruption but Rahul Gandhi has compromised on it. Rahul Gandhi is not serious in fighting corruption, he is only interested in making tall claims but does not follow what he says," the JD (U) leader said.

"The Congress has compromised on corruption and that is why it is facing such a situation today. It wants the JD(U) to compromise on corruption and face a similar situation. But we will never ever compromise with corruption," Tyagi said.

PATNA: The JD(U) today announced that it will support the BJP-led NDA government in both the houses of Parliament, shortly after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as Bihar's chief minister. JD(U)'s national spokesperson K C Tyagi also hit out at the Congress saying it does not have any credibility and accused it of not being serious about fighting corruption. "We will support the BJP-led NDA government in both houses of Parliament," he told reporters here. Tyagi said, "The Congress was neither serious about fighting corruption nor about any opposition bloc. It was a blunder on our part to trust the Congress, which does not have any credibility." Asked whether the JD(U) will join the Modi government, he said, "It is for the party leadership to decide. Let our party president and senior BJP leaders discuss the matter. Only after that we can make a comment on it." READ HERE: Nitish Kumar returns as Bihar CM, this time with BJP support Hitting back at Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, the JD(U) spokesperson accused him of "not being serious" in fighting corruption. The JD(U)'s comment came after Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kumar accusing him of acting for "selfish political motives" and going back to the BJP even as Bihar had given an "anticommunal" mandate. "The difference between Nitish Kumar and Rahul Gandhi is that Nitish Kumar does not want to compromise on corruption but Rahul Gandhi has compromised on it. Rahul Gandhi is not serious in fighting corruption, he is only interested in making tall claims but does not follow what he says," the JD (U) leader said. "The Congress has compromised on corruption and that is why it is facing such a situation today. It wants the JD(U) to compromise on corruption and face a similar situation. But we will never ever compromise with corruption," Tyagi said.
Avay Shukla By

Karnataka has announced that it will examine the legality of having its own state flag, something it has had unofficially since the 1960s. As expected, it has set off a firestorm in television studios and simulated outrage in political circles. There is probably no legal bar to the idea as the Constitution nowhere prohibits a state from having its own flag or other emblems. Moreover, the Supreme Court, in the Bommai judgment of 1994 specifically ruled that a state can have its own flag, but it would be lower in status to the national flag. (Incidentally, there is a delicious irony in the fact that at the time, S R Bommai was the chief minister of Karnataka! History has its way of coming full circle).

Flags are accepted symbols but this Karnataka flag symbolises something which should disturb all right-thinking Indians.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may not know this but he is simply an instrument of history in the matter. This issue was waiting to happen. It was inevitable, just as when you plant a seed the inevitable outcome is the stalk of grain; we would perhaps understand it better through the adage as you sow, so shall you reap.

Through the flag, Siddaramaiah is asserting the distinct Kannada identity. But why, we may well ask, isnt the Indian identity good enough? It perhaps wasin the 1950sbut over the last 60 years our politicians have chopped up and divided the country into so many thousands of sub-identities and sub-nationalities that we are no longer one nation but a toxic mix of different castes, classes, languages, regions and religions.

These always existed, of course, but as one organic coalescence and not as a witches brew in perpetual conflict with each other.

What we have done is to drive a wedge between each of these sub-identities, pit one against the other for government largesse, political power and jobs, subjugate one at the cost of the other, create distrust among them to the point of mindless and unremitting violence: North against the South, Kolis against Jadhavs, Yadavs against non-Yadavs, Hindus against Muslims, Jats against Baniyas, Haryanvis against Punjabis, Kashmiri Muslims against Pandits, plainsmen against tribals, Tamil Nadu against Karnataka, and Bengal against everyone else.

This didnt happen organicallyit was engineered assiduously in the quest for political power. Today we have reached the point where, in a grotesque twist, the main identity has become subservient to the sub-identity: I am a Scheduled Caste first, a Hindu second, a UP-ite third, and an Indian last.

I must, therefore, continuously and aggressively assert my sub-identities to remain in the race for political dominance. This is what the Karnataka chief minister is doing now by implying that the national flag is not good enough for the Kannadigas and asking for his own flag. It is nothing but the natural progression of national fragmentation.

One may well ask, but why now? After all, no such demand had been raised these last sixty five years. The answer is simple. The central government has just upped the ante by once again hamhandedly trying to impose Hindi on the southern states. Language is the most vital ingredient of a peoples identity: It is not just their medium of communication but it contains their history, their culture, their ethos, their literature, even their Gods. If you want to eradicate certain peoples, kill their language.

The decision of the BJP government at Delhi, driven by its ideological hormones, to compulsorily include Hindi in all sign boards in Metro stations and National Highways in all the southern states, was exceedingly ill advised. Furthermore, the NDA governments style of centralisation of powers and unilateralismAadhaar, GST, cattle slaughter rules, demonetisationhad already made the states wary and apprehensive of further encroachment of their turf.

The latest Hindi salvo, therefore, further strengthened the fear of domination by the North Indian Hindi speakers, and played into the already existing passion for assertion of sub-regional identities.

The Karnataka flag will be seen by purists and political scientists as a struggle for federalism. It is that, but it is also much more. It is the latest manifestation of the splintering of a national identity, the inevitable denouement of the process of dividing communities for political gain, of a reassertion of regional power and relevance.

It is a push back for the Centre, a gentle reminder that a vote percentage of 31 per cent does not confer a mandate on the BJP to ride roughshod over the sensibilities of the states.

It is now inevitable that all other states will demand their own flags. Such gestures develop an irresistible momentum of their own, as we have seen with the waiver of bank loans for farmers. When you ride the tiger of populism it is impossible to dismount. There will be other similar gestures of defiancefederalism, to be politically correctin the days to come. Siddaramaiahs flag is not one of surrender, it is a call to troops to let the battle begin.

Avay Shukla

served in the IAS for 35 years and retired as Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh

Email: avayshukla@gmail.com

Karnataka has announced that it will examine the legality of having its own state flag, something it has had unofficially since the 1960s. As expected, it has set off a firestorm in television studios and simulated outrage in political circles. There is probably no legal bar to the idea as the Constitution nowhere prohibits a state from having its own flag or other emblems. Moreover, the Supreme Court, in the Bommai judgment of 1994 specifically ruled that a state can have its own flag, but it would be lower in status to the national flag. (Incidentally, there is a delicious irony in the fact that at the time, S R Bommai was the chief minister of Karnataka! History has its way of coming full circle). Flags are accepted symbols but this Karnataka flag symbolises something which should disturb all right-thinking Indians. Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may not know this but he is simply an instrument of history in the matter. This issue was waiting to happen. It was inevitable, just as when you plant a seed the inevitable outcome is the stalk of grain; we would perhaps understand it better through the adage as you sow, so shall you reap. Through the flag, Siddaramaiah is asserting the distinct Kannada identity. But why, we may well ask, isnt the Indian identity good enough? It perhaps wasin the 1950sbut over the last 60 years our politicians have chopped up and divided the country into so many thousands of sub-identities and sub-nationalities that we are no longer one nation but a toxic mix of different castes, classes, languages, regions and religions. These always existed, of course, but as one organic coalescence and not as a witches brew in perpetual conflict with each other. What we have done is to drive a wedge between each of these sub-identities, pit one against the other for government largesse, political power and jobs, subjugate one at the cost of the other, create distrust among them to the point of mindless and unremitting violence: North against the South, Kolis against Jadhavs, Yadavs against non-Yadavs, Hindus against Muslims, Jats against Baniyas, Haryanvis against Punjabis, Kashmiri Muslims against Pandits, plainsmen against tribals, Tamil Nadu against Karnataka, and Bengal against everyone else. This didnt happen organicallyit was engineered assiduously in the quest for political power. Today we have reached the point where, in a grotesque twist, the main identity has become subservient to the sub-identity: I am a Scheduled Caste first, a Hindu second, a UP-ite third, and an Indian last. I must, therefore, continuously and aggressively assert my sub-identities to remain in the race for political dominance. This is what the Karnataka chief minister is doing now by implying that the national flag is not good enough for the Kannadigas and asking for his own flag. It is nothing but the natural progression of national fragmentation. One may well ask, but why now? After all, no such demand had been raised these last sixty five years. The answer is simple. The central government has just upped the ante by once again hamhandedly trying to impose Hindi on the southern states. Language is the most vital ingredient of a peoples identity: It is not just their medium of communication but it contains their history, their culture, their ethos, their literature, even their Gods. If you want to eradicate certain peoples, kill their language. The decision of the BJP government at Delhi, driven by its ideological hormones, to compulsorily include Hindi in all sign boards in Metro stations and National Highways in all the southern states, was exceedingly ill advised. Furthermore, the NDA governments style of centralisation of powers and unilateralismAadhaar, GST, cattle slaughter rules, demonetisationhad already made the states wary and apprehensive of further encroachment of their turf. The latest Hindi salvo, therefore, further strengthened the fear of domination by the North Indian Hindi speakers, and played into the already existing passion for assertion of sub-regional identities. The Karnataka flag will be seen by purists and political scientists as a struggle for federalism. It is that, but it is also much more. It is the latest manifestation of the splintering of a national identity, the inevitable denouement of the process of dividing communities for political gain, of a reassertion of regional power and relevance. It is a push back for the Centre, a gentle reminder that a vote percentage of 31 per cent does not confer a mandate on the BJP to ride roughshod over the sensibilities of the states. It is now inevitable that all other states will demand their own flags. Such gestures develop an irresistible momentum of their own, as we have seen with the waiver of bank loans for farmers. When you ride the tiger of populism it is impossible to dismount. There will be other similar gestures of defiancefederalism, to be politically correctin the days to come. Siddaramaiahs flag is not one of surrender, it is a call to troops to let the battle begin. Avay Shukla served in the IAS for 35 years and retired as Additional Chief Secretary of Himachal Pradesh Email: avayshukla@gmail.com
Rishabh Kochhar By

It has been two years since Indias most loved, respected and revered president passed away, but Dr A P J Abdul Kalam lives on in our hearts. An inspiration for countless people, it is with fondness that I remember the president who still inspires me to follow my passion of writing.

While Dr Kalam served as an inspiration for countless engineers across the globe, it was his simple, elegant and optimistic literary works which got me into writing. When I was in the 10th standard. I had participated in an essay writing competition organised by the Chandigarh branch of the Aero Space Club. While I was elated at having stood first in the tri-city, what excited me most was the prospect of receiving the award from none other than Kalam, who had just taken leave of his duties as Indias president.

I clearly remember putting on my scholars tie, along with all the badges I had received for my academic performance to make a favourable impression on him. Kalams arrival, however, was delayed and we received our prizes from someone else, much to our dismay. When Kalam finally arrived, he made a simple and quiet entrance, unlike any VIP I had seen before, and the words which he spoke mesmerised the crowd. We had to console ourselves with a group picture with him, which is now a treasured memory. I vividly remember the antagonised look on Kalams face when, on stopping for a moment to interact with our young group, he was brusquely taken away by his security. He looked as disappointed as us.

A few years earlier, I had the privilege of attending a speech he delivered while still in office. My father, a renowned gastroenterologist, took me all the way to the Ashoka hotel in Delhi so I could attend the speech Kalam was delivering at an international medical conference. Not even into my teens then, I recall him speak about Hepatitis A in his famous melodious voice. Due to lack of sleep and a poor understanding of the subject, it wasnt long before I succumbed to sleep. When I woke up, it seemed as if he was staring right at me. To this day, I feel pangs of guilt.

Dr Kalam was a source of inspiration to countless people. As an engineer, he filled me with hope for India and made me believe that our nation can achieve anything it wants to. Kalams vision gives me hope that someday, brain drain from our nation will stop and India will be at the helm of modern engineering and science. It is up to us to turn what Kalam envisaged for the year 2020 into reality. An inspiration, an honest human being, a prolific writer, a great scientist, and above all, a great patriotIndias most popular president lives on as a legend.

It has been two years since Indias most loved, respected and revered president passed away, but Dr A P J Abdul Kalam lives on in our hearts. An inspiration for countless people, it is with fondness that I remember the president who still inspires me to follow my passion of writing. While Dr Kalam served as an inspiration for countless engineers across the globe, it was his simple, elegant and optimistic literary works which got me into writing. When I was in the 10th standard. I had participated in an essay writing competition organised by the Chandigarh branch of the Aero Space Club. While I was elated at having stood first in the tri-city, what excited me most was the prospect of receiving the award from none other than Kalam, who had just taken leave of his duties as Indias president. I clearly remember putting on my scholars tie, along with all the badges I had received for my academic performance to make a favourable impression on him. Kalams arrival, however, was delayed and we received our prizes from someone else, much to our dismay. When Kalam finally arrived, he made a simple and quiet entrance, unlike any VIP I had seen before, and the words which he spoke mesmerised the crowd. We had to console ourselves with a group picture with him, which is now a treasured memory. I vividly remember the antagonised look on Kalams face when, on stopping for a moment to interact with our young group, he was brusquely taken away by his security. He looked as disappointed as us. A few years earlier, I had the privilege of attending a speech he delivered while still in office. My father, a renowned gastroenterologist, took me all the way to the Ashoka hotel in Delhi so I could attend the speech Kalam was delivering at an international medical conference. Not even into my teens then, I recall him speak about Hepatitis A in his famous melodious voice. Due to lack of sleep and a poor understanding of the subject, it wasnt long before I succumbed to sleep. When I woke up, it seemed as if he was staring right at me. To this day, I feel pangs of guilt. Dr Kalam was a source of inspiration to countless people. As an engineer, he filled me with hope for India and made me believe that our nation can achieve anything it wants to. Kalams vision gives me hope that someday, brain drain from our nation will stop and India will be at the helm of modern engineering and science. It is up to us to turn what Kalam envisaged for the year 2020 into reality. An inspiration, an honest human being, a prolific writer, a great scientist, and above all, a great patriotIndias most popular president lives on as a legend.
Dileep V Kumar By

Express News Service

KOLLAM: It was a special occasion for Kerala when it became the first state to launch a disaster preparedness training programme for persons with disabilities. That was in May 2016. A year after, the state is again in the limelight.

The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which is in the process of chalking out guidelines for training the differently abled on survival skills in times of natural disasters and other emergency situations, has decided to seek the help of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) in preparing it.

Meanwhile, Kerala SDMA says it is gearing up to launch district-level training programmes for the differently abled in the state. Around 200 such people from each district will be covered under this. Yes, it a proud moment for us. We were the first state to roll out a disaster preparedness training programme for differently abled. We had also released a handbook mentioning the training module and other related information. It might be because of this that NDMA has asked us to join the panel which will prepare a national-level guideline, says Joe John George, state project officer, UNDP project, SDMA.

At the state level, we were planning to launch the training programme in a month. Earlier we had categorised the differently abled in into four broad categories: Visually Impaired, speech and hearing impaired, physically impaired and intellectually impaired. As per the plan, 50 people who fall under each category in a district will be trained. Thus a total of 200 people at the district level and 2,800 at the state level will be given training in first phase.

According to SDMA officials, by keeping in mind the differently abled the handbook as well as the training materials have been remodelled to appeal to the respective categories. In the case of visually impaired, the officials say the entire material has been reprinted in Braille and for the speech and hearing impaired, sign language-based training materials have been prepared.

For the visually impaired, with the help of the Kerala Federation of the Blind, we have converted the materials into DAISY format. Through this, the visually impaired can share the materials among Whatsapp groups and other platforms. As providing training to intellectually impaired ones is technically impossible we have decided to train their caregivers. To ensure a comprehensive reach of the said programme we had earlier asked local bodies to carry out a mapping of differently abled persons in their respective areas, says an SDMA officer.

One of the core principles of disaster management is, leave no one behind, says Joe. Thus we cant exclude the differently abled from the disaster preparedness programmes. Indeed they are the ones who need more attention than the abled. According to Joe, the materials prepared for the differently abled will be shared with the NDMA if needed.

KOLLAM: It was a special occasion for Kerala when it became the first state to launch a disaster preparedness training programme for persons with disabilities. That was in May 2016. A year after, the state is again in the limelight. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which is in the process of chalking out guidelines for training the differently abled on survival skills in times of natural disasters and other emergency situations, has decided to seek the help of the Kerala State Disaster Management Authority (SDMA) in preparing it. Meanwhile, Kerala SDMA says it is gearing up to launch district-level training programmes for the differently abled in the state. Around 200 such people from each district will be covered under this. Yes, it a proud moment for us. We were the first state to roll out a disaster preparedness training programme for differently abled. We had also released a handbook mentioning the training module and other related information. It might be because of this that NDMA has asked us to join the panel which will prepare a national-level guideline, says Joe John George, state project officer, UNDP project, SDMA. At the state level, we were planning to launch the training programme in a month. Earlier we had categorised the differently abled in into four broad categories: Visually Impaired, speech and hearing impaired, physically impaired and intellectually impaired. As per the plan, 50 people who fall under each category in a district will be trained. Thus a total of 200 people at the district level and 2,800 at the state level will be given training in first phase. According to SDMA officials, by keeping in mind the differently abled the handbook as well as the training materials have been remodelled to appeal to the respective categories. In the case of visually impaired, the officials say the entire material has been reprinted in Braille and for the speech and hearing impaired, sign language-based training materials have been prepared. For the visually impaired, with the help of the Kerala Federation of the Blind, we have converted the materials into DAISY format. Through this, the visually impaired can share the materials among Whatsapp groups and other platforms. As providing training to intellectually impaired ones is technically impossible we have decided to train their caregivers. To ensure a comprehensive reach of the said programme we had earlier asked local bodies to carry out a mapping of differently abled persons in their respective areas, says an SDMA officer. One of the core principles of disaster management is, leave no one behind, says Joe. Thus we cant exclude the differently abled from the disaster preparedness programmes. Indeed they are the ones who need more attention than the abled. According to Joe, the materials prepared for the differently abled will be shared with the NDMA if needed.
By PTI

BERLIN: Germany's foreign ministry says they have made a joint protest with Sweden to Turkey about the jailing of two human rights activists, demanding that the men be told what exactly they are accused of.

Peter Steudtner of Germany and Ali Gharavi of Sweden were arrested July 5. They were among six activists jailed last week for allegedly aiding an unspecified armed terrorist group.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that Germany and Sweden today jointly complained to the Turkish government, saying the two governments don't understand why the men were jailed and "expect that they at least now be told in substantiated terms what they are accused of."

Schaefer also sharply criticised Turkish media for publishing extracts from the questioning of Steudtner.



BERLIN: Germany's foreign ministry says they have made a joint protest with Sweden to Turkey about the jailing of two human rights activists, demanding that the men be told what exactly they are accused of. Peter Steudtner of Germany and Ali Gharavi of Sweden were arrested July 5. They were among six activists jailed last week for allegedly aiding an unspecified armed terrorist group. Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said that Germany and Sweden today jointly complained to the Turkish government, saying the two governments don't understand why the men were jailed and "expect that they at least now be told in substantiated terms what they are accused of." Schaefer also sharply criticised Turkish media for publishing extracts from the questioning of Steudtner.
By AFP

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has nominated Daniel Kritenbrink, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Asian affairs, to be US ambassador to Vietnam, the White House said Wednesday.

The Virginia native has been a diplomat since 1994 and currently works as senior advisor for North Korea policy at State Department, the White House said in a statement.

Kritenbrink once worked as deputy chief of mission in Beijing and speaks Chinese and Japanese, the statement said.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has nominated Daniel Kritenbrink, a career diplomat with extensive experience in Asian affairs, to be US ambassador to Vietnam, the White House said Wednesday. The Virginia native has been a diplomat since 1994 and currently works as senior advisor for North Korea policy at State Department, the White House said in a statement. Kritenbrink once worked as deputy chief of mission in Beijing and speaks Chinese and Japanese, the statement said.
By Associated Press

TEHRAN: Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space on Thursday, the country's state media reported without elaborating.

Iranian state television described the launch as involving a "Simorgh" rocket that is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds). The state media report did not elaborate on the rocket's payload.

"Simorgh" means "phoenix" in Farsi.

The website YJC.ir, which is affiliated with Iranian state television, as well as the semi-official Fars news agency, also reported the launch on Thursday, saying it was successful.

The launch comes as the United States has criticized Iran's ballistic missile tests.

Such tests are allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers. However, American officials argue that they violate the spirit of the accord that saw the Islamic Republic limit its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

Iran has pursued a satellite launch program for years. The U.S. and its allies worry that the same technology could be used to develop long-range missiles.

TEHRAN: Iran successfully launched a satellite-carrying rocket into space on Thursday, the country's state media reported without elaborating. Iranian state television described the launch as involving a "Simorgh" rocket that is capable of carrying a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds). The state media report did not elaborate on the rocket's payload. "Simorgh" means "phoenix" in Farsi. The website YJC.ir, which is affiliated with Iranian state television, as well as the semi-official Fars news agency, also reported the launch on Thursday, saying it was successful. The launch comes as the United States has criticized Iran's ballistic missile tests. Such tests are allowed under the 2015 nuclear deal that Iran struck with world powers. However, American officials argue that they violate the spirit of the accord that saw the Islamic Republic limit its uranium enrichment program in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions. Iran has pursued a satellite launch program for years. The U.S. and its allies worry that the same technology could be used to develop long-range missiles.
By AFP

TOKYO: The head of Japan's reeling main opposition party announced her resignation on Thursday, less than a year after becoming the first woman to lead the group.

Renho, a former model and TV anchor, took the reins of the Democratic Party (DP) last September in a landslide party election victory.

But her brief spell was dogged by controversy throughout and she was unable to capitalise on scandal-hit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's falling popularity.

In particular Renho -- who goes by one name -- has been unable to shake off citizenship questions arising from her mixed Taiwanese-Japanese parentage.

It emerged just ahead of her election as party leader that she had never officially given up her Taiwan citizenship, even though Japan does not allow adults to hold dual nationality.

The Japan-born Renho apologised at the time, but issues surrounding her former Taiwan status deriving from her father's origins on the island, a former Japanese colony, refused to go away.

Last week, she tried to put the matter to rest by showing official documents proving she now only has Japanese citizenship, but reportedly remained under fire within the party for mishandling the issue.

"I made the decision to resign," she said at a press conference Thursday, without offering specific reasons, though she said the citizenship controversy was not a factor in stepping down.

Her centre-left party -- formerly known as the Democratic Party of Japan -- swept to power in 2009, ousting the long dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP).

But it was booted from office in late 2012 by the resurgent LDP following a series of mis-steps and policy flip-flops, along with criticism over its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis.

Though still the largest opposition force, it has seen its position in parliament wane further, and was recently stung by a poor performance in local elections for the Tokyo assembly.

It has also been unable to take advantage of growing disapproval of Abe's ruling LDP, which has been hit by a series of scandals.

Renho first came to national prominence in the 1980s as a model and later TV newscaster, reporting from the earthquake-devastated city of Kobe in 1995.

The one-time journalist earned the nickname "Hissatsu" (shoot-to-kill) for her style of grilling bureaucrats over public waste, in a country where the media are often criticised for pulling their punches.

She entered parliament in 2004, and sparked controversy six years later when she posed for a magazine shoot inside parliament for Vogue Nippon, the Japanese version of the international fashion monthly.

TOKYO: The head of Japan's reeling main opposition party announced her resignation on Thursday, less than a year after becoming the first woman to lead the group. Renho, a former model and TV anchor, took the reins of the Democratic Party (DP) last September in a landslide party election victory. But her brief spell was dogged by controversy throughout and she was unable to capitalise on scandal-hit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's falling popularity. In particular Renho -- who goes by one name -- has been unable to shake off citizenship questions arising from her mixed Taiwanese-Japanese parentage. It emerged just ahead of her election as party leader that she had never officially given up her Taiwan citizenship, even though Japan does not allow adults to hold dual nationality. The Japan-born Renho apologised at the time, but issues surrounding her former Taiwan status deriving from her father's origins on the island, a former Japanese colony, refused to go away. Last week, she tried to put the matter to rest by showing official documents proving she now only has Japanese citizenship, but reportedly remained under fire within the party for mishandling the issue. "I made the decision to resign," she said at a press conference Thursday, without offering specific reasons, though she said the citizenship controversy was not a factor in stepping down. Her centre-left party -- formerly known as the Democratic Party of Japan -- swept to power in 2009, ousting the long dominant conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP). But it was booted from office in late 2012 by the resurgent LDP following a series of mis-steps and policy flip-flops, along with criticism over its handling of the Fukushima nuclear crisis. Though still the largest opposition force, it has seen its position in parliament wane further, and was recently stung by a poor performance in local elections for the Tokyo assembly. It has also been unable to take advantage of growing disapproval of Abe's ruling LDP, which has been hit by a series of scandals. Renho first came to national prominence in the 1980s as a model and later TV newscaster, reporting from the earthquake-devastated city of Kobe in 1995. The one-time journalist earned the nickname "Hissatsu" (shoot-to-kill) for her style of grilling bureaucrats over public waste, in a country where the media are often criticised for pulling their punches. She entered parliament in 2004, and sparked controversy six years later when she posed for a magazine shoot inside parliament for Vogue Nippon, the Japanese version of the international fashion monthly.
By PTI

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said today that India's restrictions on granting medical visas to Pakistani patients was "highly regrettable" and against the diplomatic norms.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the restrictions were in response to Pakistan awarding the death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav.

A letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the External Affairs Ministry had announced in May.

"It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses. Asking for a letter from the Foreign affairs Adviser is against the diplomatic norms," Zakaria said.

"Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries," he said.

Zakaria also accused India of not taking action against those involved in the Samjhauta Express attack. He said the USD 50 million blocked by the US was not aid but reimbursement of what has actually been spent by Pakistan on counter terrorism operations.

Earlier on July 8, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj waived the condition of a letter from Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come to India as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) was an integral part of India.

Osama Ali, a 24-year old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, had been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wanted to seek treatment in Delhi.

"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj had tweeted.

India's decision to impose restrictions on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the wake of growing tensions between the two countries.



ISLAMABAD: Pakistan said today that India's restrictions on granting medical visas to Pakistani patients was "highly regrettable" and against the diplomatic norms. Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the restrictions were in response to Pakistan awarding the death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav. A letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the External Affairs Ministry had announced in May. "It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses. Asking for a letter from the Foreign affairs Adviser is against the diplomatic norms," Zakaria said. "Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries," he said. Zakaria also accused India of not taking action against those involved in the Samjhauta Express attack. He said the USD 50 million blocked by the US was not aid but reimbursement of what has actually been spent by Pakistan on counter terrorism operations. Earlier on July 8, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj waived the condition of a letter from Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come to India as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) was an integral part of India. Osama Ali, a 24-year old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, had been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wanted to seek treatment in Delhi. "POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj had tweeted. India's decision to impose restrictions on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the wake of growing tensions between the two countries.
By PTI

LAHORE: Pakistan Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar today took suo motu notice of the rape of a teenage girl in front of her family on the orders of the village council as a punishment, even as police arrested 25 people in the case.

The 16-year-old girl was raped by a man as a punishment on July 18 after her brother was accused of raping the man's sister in Rajpur village in Muzaffarabad in Punjab province.

Chief Justice Nisar ordered the inspector general of Punjab police to submit a report.

Meanwhile, police have arrested 25 members of the village council, including its chief. The panchayat comprising 20 members, including four women, had ordered Ashfaq to rape the girl in revenge for the earlier rape of his sister.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, visited Rajpur village and met both the victims and assured that they would get justice.

He sacked all police officials of the Muzaffarabad police station for their 'criminal role' in the incident. "Had police registered FIR on the complaint of first victim and arrested the culprit the second girl might not have been assaulted on the panchayat's order. Police's role is criminal in this case," Shahbaz said.

He also constituted a three-member team comprising senior police officer to probe the matter within three days. According to a senior police officer, the village council ordered rape of the sister of Umer Wadda who was accused of raping the teenage sister of Ashfaq of his locality.

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

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

Initial investigation has disclosed that Kaneez Mai, mother of Wadda, had offered that her son was ready to marry the victim but the village council declared that Wadda's sister be raped by the brother of first victim.

Police have registered an FIR against 27 nominated suspects who had allegedly ordered the rape and 10 unidentified men.

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

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

"It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances," she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.

LAHORE: Pakistan Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar today took suo motu notice of the rape of a teenage girl in front of her family on the orders of the village council as a punishment, even as police arrested 25 people in the case. The 16-year-old girl was raped by a man as a punishment on July 18 after her brother was accused of raping the man's sister in Rajpur village in Muzaffarabad in Punjab province. Chief Justice Nisar ordered the inspector general of Punjab police to submit a report. Meanwhile, police have arrested 25 members of the village council, including its chief. The panchayat comprising 20 members, including four women, had ordered Ashfaq to rape the girl in revenge for the earlier rape of his sister. Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, visited Rajpur village and met both the victims and assured that they would get justice. He sacked all police officials of the Muzaffarabad police station for their 'criminal role' in the incident. "Had police registered FIR on the complaint of first victim and arrested the culprit the second girl might not have been assaulted on the panchayat's order. Police's role is criminal in this case," Shahbaz said. He also constituted a three-member team comprising senior police officer to probe the matter within three days. According to a senior police officer, the village council ordered rape of the sister of Umer Wadda who was accused of raping the teenage sister of Ashfaq of his locality. "The matter was brought to the village council that unanimously ordered the rape of Wadda's sister by Ashfaq. The Wadda's family protested over the decision but it was told that justice could only be done if the same act was repeated with the accused's sister," Multan division police chief Ahsan Younis told PTI. "We are also investigating whether the sister of Wadda was raped in front of her parents and the brother (which is the claim of the Wadda family)," he said. Younis also got marching order from the Chief Minister. Initial investigation has disclosed that Kaneez Mai, mother of Wadda, had offered that her son was ready to marry the victim but the village council declared that Wadda's sister be raped by the brother of first victim. Police have registered an FIR against 27 nominated suspects who had allegedly ordered the rape and 10 unidentified men. It is the same district where in early 2000 Mukhtaran Mai was gang raped on the order of the village council, triggering an international outrage. Rights activist and former Supreme Court Bar Association Asma Jehangir had said a number of such cases are not reported. "It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances," she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.
By Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR: Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler in a bizarre airport assassination are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said.

Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam's face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show.

They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea's spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say.

The women's lawyers say their clients are expected to plead not guilty at the High Court Friday.

Here's a look at the significance of Kim's death and the two suspects:

WHY WAS KIM JONG NAM ASSASSINATED?

North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger. Kim had also spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation.

North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was leader Kim Jong Un's half brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other "hostile forces" in blaming Pyongyang.

Kim Jong Nam died while en route to a hospital after he fell ill at a budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a flight to Macao. He told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray that Malaysian officials later identified as the deadly VX nerve agent.

Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland.

INDONESIAN SUSPECT

Siti Aisyah, 25, was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows, according to her lawyer Gooi Soon Seong.

The two met at a pub in downtown Kuala Lumpur and over the course of several days, James had Siti rub oil or pepper sauce on a victim's face from forehead downwards which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said. They practiced at malls, hotels and airports. Gooi said Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort.

In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia where James introduced her to Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing. Hong had introduced himself as Chang, a Chinese who produces video prank shows for the Chinese market, the lawyer said.

Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked. He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand.

James, identified by police as Ri Ji U, was among seven North Korean suspects wanted by Malaysian police. Four fled the country on Feb. 13 and the other three, including James, hid inside their country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid questioning.

The three were later allowed to fly home in exchange for nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang, as part of a deal to ease a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Gooi said James was key to Aisyah's defense and that his absence could weaken her case.

Aisyah, who has a son, has wrote to her family telling them to pray for her "so that the case will be over soon and I can go back home."

VIETNAMESE SUSPECT

Huong, 29, was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters "LOL"  acronym for laughing out loud.

Security camera apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal.

Little is known about Huong. Raised in a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago, aged just 18 years.

She made postings on a Facebook page under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, Dinh Thi Quyen.

Photos on the page show Huong wearing a white shirt that appears to say "LOL," like the one seen on security camera video during the attack. It shows her posing for selfies in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the attack and in January in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Her last post was on the morning of Feb. 11, two days before the attack, from an area near the airport.

"I want to sleep more but by your side," she wrote above a photo showing her with her eyes closed.

KUALA LUMPUR: Two women accused of poisoning the estranged half brother of North Korea's ruler in a bizarre airport assassination are expected to plead innocent when they appear in a Malaysian court on Friday, their lawyers said. Indonesian Siti Aisyah and Vietnamese Doan Thi Huong are suspected of smearing Kim Jong Nam's face with the banned VX nerve agent at a crowded airport terminal in Kuala Lumpur on Feb. 13. The women, who face the death penalty if convicted, say they were duped into thinking they were playing a harmless prank for a hidden-camera show. They are the only suspects in custody in a killing that South Korea's spy agency said was part of a five-year plot by reclusive North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to kill a brother he reportedly never met. Four North Korean suspects fled the country, police say. The women's lawyers say their clients are expected to plead not guilty at the High Court Friday. Here's a look at the significance of Kim's death and the two suspects: WHY WAS KIM JONG NAM ASSASSINATED? North Korea has a long history of ordering killings of people it views as threats to its regime. While Kim Jong Nam was not thought to be seeking influence, his position as eldest son of the family that has ruled North Korea since its founding could have made him appear to be a danger. Kim had also spoken out publicly against his family's dynastic control of the reclusive, nuclear-armed nation. North Korea has refused to accept the dead man was leader Kim Jong Un's half brother and has suggested the victim died of a heart attack. It has accused Malaysia of working with South Korean and other "hostile forces" in blaming Pyongyang. Kim Jong Nam died while en route to a hospital after he fell ill at a budget terminal of the Kuala Lumpur International Airport while waiting for a flight to Macao. He told medical workers before he died that he had been attacked with a chemical spray that Malaysian officials later identified as the deadly VX nerve agent. Kim Jong Nam, who was 45 or 46, had been living abroad for years. He reportedly fell out of favor when he was caught trying to enter Japan on a false passport in 2001, saying he wanted to visit Tokyo Disneyland. INDONESIAN SUSPECT Siti Aisyah, 25, was recruited in early January by a North Korean man, known as James, to star in his video prank shows, according to her lawyer Gooi Soon Seong. The two met at a pub in downtown Kuala Lumpur and over the course of several days, James had Siti rub oil or pepper sauce on a victim's face from forehead downwards which he would film on his phone, the lawyer said. They practiced at malls, hotels and airports. Gooi said Aisyah was paid $100-$200 for each prank and hoped the income would allow her to stop working as a social escort. In late January, Aisyah flew to Cambodia where James introduced her to Hong Song Hac, one of four North Korean suspects who left Malaysia on the day of the killing. Hong had introduced himself as Chang, a Chinese who produces video prank shows for the Chinese market, the lawyer said. Gooi said Hong asked Aisyah to do several more pranks at the Kuala Lumpur airport a few days before Kim was attacked. He said that Hong identified Kim to Aisyah at the airport and allegedly put the poison on her hand. James, identified by police as Ri Ji U, was among seven North Korean suspects wanted by Malaysian police. Four fled the country on Feb. 13 and the other three, including James, hid inside their country's embassy in Kuala Lumpur to avoid questioning. The three were later allowed to fly home in exchange for nine Malaysians held in Pyongyang, as part of a deal to ease a diplomatic spat between the two countries. Gooi said James was key to Aisyah's defense and that his absence could weaken her case. Aisyah, who has a son, has wrote to her family telling them to pray for her "so that the case will be over soon and I can go back home." VIETNAMESE SUSPECT Huong, 29, was caught on airport security surveillance camera wearing a white jumper emblazoned with big black letters "LOL"  acronym for laughing out loud. Security camera apparently showed her lunging at Kim Jong Nam from behind in a crowded airport terminal. Little is known about Huong. Raised in a rice farm in northern Vietnam, her family said they had hardly heard from her since she left home a decade ago, aged just 18 years. She made postings on a Facebook page under the name Ruby Ruby, according to her niece, Dinh Thi Quyen. Photos on the page show Huong wearing a white shirt that appears to say "LOL," like the one seen on security camera video during the attack. It shows her posing for selfies in Kuala Lumpur a few days before the attack and in January in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her last post was on the morning of Feb. 11, two days before the attack, from an area near the airport. "I want to sleep more but by your side," she wrote above a photo showing her with her eyes closed.
By PTI

LONDON: The British government today ordered an assessment of the contribution of European Union citizens to the economy, as the UK ponders how to structure its immigration system after leaving the bloc.

More than 3 million citizens of other EU countries live in Britain, and many sectors of the economy rely on foreign workers.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said today that the government needs "the most accurate picture possible of the extent to which the UK economy uses EU labor." She has asked an independent group, the Migration Advisory Committee, to conduct the study.

The government says it will end free movement, a key principle of the EU and impose immigration controls after Brexit. But businesses say it is unclear exactly what will happen when Britain ceases to be an EU member in March 2019.

Britain Home Secretary Amber Rudd (AP)

"The UK must remain a hub for international talent," Rudd wrote in the Financial Times newspaper. "We must keep attracting the brightest and the best migrants from around the world."

Rudd said there would be no "cliff-edge" for the economy, suggesting a transition period. But Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said Thursday that free movement will end in the spring of 2019.

Critics say the government has been tardy in calling the inquiry, which is not due to report until September 2018 six months before the Brexit deadline.

LONDON: The British government today ordered an assessment of the contribution of European Union citizens to the economy, as the UK ponders how to structure its immigration system after leaving the bloc. More than 3 million citizens of other EU countries live in Britain, and many sectors of the economy rely on foreign workers. Home Secretary Amber Rudd said today that the government needs "the most accurate picture possible of the extent to which the UK economy uses EU labor." She has asked an independent group, the Migration Advisory Committee, to conduct the study. The government says it will end free movement, a key principle of the EU and impose immigration controls after Brexit. But businesses say it is unclear exactly what will happen when Britain ceases to be an EU member in March 2019. Britain Home Secretary Amber Rudd (AP)"The UK must remain a hub for international talent," Rudd wrote in the Financial Times newspaper. "We must keep attracting the brightest and the best migrants from around the world." Rudd said there would be no "cliff-edge" for the economy, suggesting a transition period. But Immigration Minister Brandon Lewis said Thursday that free movement will end in the spring of 2019. Critics say the government has been tardy in calling the inquiry, which is not due to report until September 2018 six months before the Brexit deadline.
One of the largest studies undertaken has explored the risk of transmitting HIV infection by an HIV infected partner to his non-infected gay partner. Results reveal that HIV positive men who are on medication for HIV that makes their virus load undetectable in blood are not likely to transmit the infection to their non-infected partners.

The study entitled Opposites Attract from Kirby Institute was presented at the IAS Conference on HIV Science in Paris this week. For this study 358 gay couples were studied over a period of four years  2012-16 and the researchers found couples reporting over 17 thousand acts of anal intercourse without the use of a condom. One of the partners was HIV positive while the other was not. None of the acts of intercourse led to transmission of the HIV infection found the study. The particpants were included from Thailand, Brazil and Australia.

Professor Andrew Grulich from the Kirby Institute and chief investigator of this study said that medications rendered the virus load among the infected partners to be undetectable in blood. Once this is achieved, the risk of transmission can be prevented he explained. According to Grulich, this is the first study of its kind to show that these results hold true in both high and middle income country populations. He said that the team could say with confidence, that effectively treated HIV blocks transmission in couples of differing HIV status.

Grulich called this study revolutionary for gay men. But he added in the same breath the HIV positive partner should ensure that they are under continuous and regular medical care and do not miss any of their anti-retroviral medications. At any cost, their undetectable viral load should be maintained. Grulich said that there have been smaller studies and incidental reports in the past saying that there is little risk of HIV transmission from an infected partner to a non-infected partner if the viral load is controlled.

Professor Grulich thanked the couples who took part in the study as well as the study partners from Evandro Chagas Clinical Research Institute, Fiocruz in Brazil and the Thai Red Cross in Thailand who made the international representation of participants a reality. The study was mostly funded by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and Foundation for AIDS Research (amfAR), ViiV and Gilead.

HIV infection and its transmission

HIV infection is a contagious disease and can be transmitted from person to person and leads to fatal AIDS. AIDS leads to severe depression of the immune system that ultimately causes death.

The virus  HIV, is found in all the body fluids including saliva, nervous system tissue and spinal fluid, blood, semen, pre-seminal fluid (which is the liquid that comes out before ejaculation), vaginal secretions, secretions from the anus or anal lining walls, tears and breast milk. Only blood, semen, and breast milk have been shown to transmit infection to others. The virus does not spread via air like flu.

Methods of HIV transmission include exchange of body fluids. Having unprotected or condom-less vaginal, oral and anal sex especially with high risk groups like those who are injection drug abusers or are likely to have HIV infection may lead to transmission. Sharing needles for injections with other drug users and patients who are likely to be HIV positive, sharing sex toys or tattoo or piecing needles, infection passed from infected mother to the baby before or during birth or through breast milk are all mediums of HIV transmission. Getting blood from an infected individual or organ transplants from an infected person or getting a surgery with contaminated needles and instruments can also lead to HIV transmission.
Antibiotics are a boon to mankind and as more and more microorganisms are developing a resistance to these drugs, researchers are delving deeper into the mechanisms of this resistance. It is a commonly held view that once begun, a course of antibiotics should be completed to prevent the emergence of resistance among the microbes.

Now Martin Llewelyn and colleagues from Brighton and Sussex Medical School, the University of Oxford and other institutions have come up with a new analysis that differs from this commonly held notion. They find that there is no connection between exposure to antibiotics and development of antibiotic resistance in large populations as well as in individual patients. Thus, unnecessary antibiotic use should be curbed to prevent resistance. Their analysis is published in the British Medical Journal.

Even the World Health Organization has maintained the message that failing to complete a course of antibiotics may invite the risk of antibiotic resistance. The material spread at the Antibiotic Awareness Week 2016 WHO advised patients to always complete the full prescription, even if you feel better, because stopping treatment early promotes the growth of drug-resistant bacteria. This message has been part of national campaigns worldwide since antibiotic resistance is such a global menace. Even secondary school students in United Kingdom are being taught the importance of completing a full regimen of antibiotics.

Illustration of biofilm of antibiotic resistant bacteria, closeup view. Rod-shaped and spherical bacteria. Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Klebsiella, Staphylococcus aureus, MRSA. Image Credit: Kateryna Kon / Shutterstock

Alexander Fleming who developed Penicillin in his Nobel acceptance speech in 1945 had envisaged a time when if a man took inadequate amount of penicillin for a strep throat infection, he ends up transmitting the resistant strain of the bacteria to his wife who succumbs to the infection. He advised that if one uses penicillin, he or she should take enough. This is interpreted as for an adequate duration of time to prevent development of antibiotic resistance. The advice now is being slightly changed. It says to take the antibiotics exactly as prescribed to avoid long term unnecessary use of antibiotics. This means enough, neither too short a duration nor too long.

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Scientists have explained the mechanism of development of antibiotic resistance.

Target selected resistance - When a microbe multiplies within the host it leads to infection. These microbes may undergo genetic mutations that may make them deadlier and resistant to antibiotics. These genetic mutations are seen to be accelerated in case of inadequate dosing of the antibiotics or when a single drug is used to kill the microbe. Tuberculosis, HIV, typhoid, malaria and gonorrhoea are notable infections that develop resistance in this manner.

Collateral selection  There are several bacteria types that live harmlessly within the gut or other mucus membranes. During antibiotic treatment for other infections, these harmless bacteria genetically mutate to become resistant and cause infections. Their mutations are passed on to other strains of the bacteria leading to antibiotic resistance. Organisms that show this type of resistance include Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus (MRSA).

Researchers have seen that most of the antibiotic resistance now does not come from the first type of resistance selection or target selection. This means the second type is more common. This also means that longer the duration of the antibiotic use, longer the time the harmless bacteria in the gut gets to develop resistance and pass it on to the other strains and species of bacteria. These harmless bacteria are called opportunistic pathogens which means they become dangerous only at certain times i.e. antibiotic use, immunosuppression etc.

In this new work, researchers have suggested optimum usage of antibiotics as the key to prevent resistance. They write that hospitals already practice this by repeatedly testing the patients and modifying the dosage and duration of the antibiotic use. Once out in the real world, patients may not be able to undergo repeated tests to adjust their antibiotic use. Thus, it is easy to follow the advice of completing the course that has been determined from previous experience and evidence. Authors of the study called for more such studies to check on how long antibiotics can be safely and effectively taken to prevent emergence of antibiotic resistance.
Antibiotic resistance of the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus is responsible for 11,300 deaths a year in the United States alone -- a figure that corresponds to half of all deaths caused by gram-positive resistant bacteria in that country. Such high mortality is related to the speed at which the bacterium acquires resistance to antibiotics. A study performed at the Institute for Research in Biomedicine (IRB Barcelona) and involving the collaboration of the Centro de Investigaciones Biologicas (CIB-CSIC) in Madrid has identified the key component of the machinery that S. aureus uses to acquire and transfer genes that confer resistance to antibiotics. The work has been published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academic of Sciences (PNAS).

"The battle against bacteria -- particularly in the hospital setting where they are a major threat -- implies understanding how genes are transferred to adapt to a changing environment. For example, when they are treated with new antibiotics," explains the head of the study and IRB Barcelona group leader Miquel Coll, also a CSIC researcher, who studies horizontal gene transfer from a structural biology perspective.

Halting the spread

"Horizontal gene transfer confers bacteria with an extraordinary capacity to evolve and adapt rapidly -- a capacity that humans do not have for example," says Coll. One of these pathways is called conjugation, a process by which two bacteria join and one of them transfers a piece of DNA called plasmid to the other. "A plasmid is a small piece of circular DNA that holds very few genes, often including those for antibiotic resistance and it takes only a few minutes to be passed between bacteria," he explains.

Horizontal gene transfer involves machinery in which the relaxase, an enzymatic protein, is a key component. Thanks to the 3D resolution of the structure of the complex formed by the relaxase with a fragment of the plasmid DNA, the researchers have identified that an amino acid histidine is a pivotal element in the DNA processing and thus in the transfer and the spread of resistance.

"What we have discovered is that the relaxase of diverse strains of S. aureus differs because it uses an amino acid that is not used by any other relaxase that we know of," explains the first author of the study, Radoslaw Pluta, former "la Caixa" PhD student at IRB Barcelona, and currently a postdoctoral researcher at the International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology in Warsaw, Poland.

Histidine is the catalytic residue that allows the relaxase to cut DNA, bind to it, and stretch one of the two strands and take it into the receptor bacterium, where the strand replicates to form a double strand of the plasmid again. This new plasmid now holds the resistance genes and the machinery to transfer them to another bacterium. The scientists indicate that this catalytic histidine is present in the relaxases of 85% of the strains of Staphylococcus aureus.

To test whether histidine is decisive in horizontal gene transfer,, researchers in Manuel Espinosa's group at the CIB-CSIC, who participated in the study, replaced it by a different amino acid and confirmed that it prevents transfer in culture dishes.

The mutation of histidine does not kill that bacterium but rather prevents gene transfer. How could this mechanism be exploited to fight infections? "I don't know," says Coll, "but we now know more details about a lethal bacterium and this may pave the way to the development of molecules to prevent the spread of resistant strains".

Coll explains that hospital infections are the most difficult types to tackle. "We are in a race that we always lose because when a new antibiotic is brought out, resistance quickly emerges and spreads," he describes. The scientist adds that the list of antibiotics for hospital use is "too" short. Apart from the difficulty involved in developing new antibiotics, Coll also comments on another obstacle impeding advancement. "There is little investment because the pharmaceutical industry has other priorities. While this is perfectly valid, resources from the public and private sectors should be pooled".

This work has involved the collaboration of Modesto Orozco's group, also at IRB Barcelona, which has performed the theoretical studies to validate the chemical reaction between the plasmid DNA and the protein via histidine. The structural resolution of the complex formed by the protein and the DNA has been achieved using data obtained by X-ray diffraction at the European synchrotron in Grenoble.
According to researchers at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine and Moores Cancer Center, there is finally an increase in the smoking cessation rate. The study finds that more people using e-cigarettes are responsible for quitting smoking and these electronic devices can actually help reduce the traditional smoking rates. The study was published yesterday in the British Medical Journal. Researchers looked at data from a national survey and large population based study between 2001 and 2015.

Vaping device: Image Credit: LezinAV / Shutterstock

The study showed that the yearly rate of individuals who quit smoking has been around 4.5% for years. In their survey over 15 years, only at the end  2014-15, the Current Population Survey-Tobacco Use Supplement (CPS-TUS) survey has shown the smoking cessation rate to be 5.6%. The percentage rise of 1.1% translates to approximately 350,000 smokers who quit smoking over a year explain researchers and this is not a small number.

Lead researcher Shu-Hong Zhu, UC San Diego Professor of Family Medicine and Public Health and director of the Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control says that two important factors have contributed to this trend  one being the mass tobacco control campaign that has been in place since 2012 all over the media and another is the increasing popularity of e-cigarettes since 2014. Zhu explained that smokers who shifted to e-cigarettes were more likely to attempt to quit smoking and more likely to succeed in kicking the habit. The analysis, Zhu explained, pointed at success rates in individuals as well as in large populations. This finally was reflected in the increasing numbers of quitters. The data from the US Census CPS-TUS that looked at adults over the age of 18 years connected the link between e-cigarette use and smoking cessation. This study thus looked at a very large population and the results thus could be trusted to be valid.

The participants in the study were given a set of questionnaires that asked them about their regular use of traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes over the last year. Results showed that nearly 65% of the smokers who used the e-cigarettes had attempted to quit smoking the traditional cigarettes over the study period. This was comparable to 40% of the traditional smokers who had attempted to quit smoking. Success rates in quitting smoking was 8.2% among e-cigarette smokers and 4.8% among traditional cigarette smokers. Over the years the quitting rate remained same for traditional smokers while the rates of quitting among e-cigarettes rose significantly Zhu noted. Zhu said that these numbers suggest that e-cigarettes could be an important smoking cessation tool. This thought however has been refuted earlier in some studies. But this team of researchers found that over 70% of individuals who had successfully quit smoking traditional cigarettes were still using e-cigarettes daily. This could help prevent them from lapsing back into their smoking habit.

Zhu explained that e-cigarette users are usually a self-selected group and may do better with choosing to smoke e-cigarettes and are usually motivated to quit smoking anyway. But this study looked at the whole population of both users and non-users to analyse if e-cigarettes play a role. The study did not look at the long term effects of smoking e-cigarettes though. Also the study did not explore other factors that could be concomitantly associated with quitting rates such as use of other medications to quit smoking or the type of e-cigarettes used etc.

E-Cigarettes

Electronic cigarettes are devices that deliver nicotine and flavours though aerosols into the lungs. Its use is a rapidly rising trend among the youth. Vapours are inhaled and the term vaping has emerged out of it. They can also deliver other drugs such as marijuana. Their long term effects are still not understood but it is evident that inhaling nicotine may not be good for a person especially for teenagers and youth who perceive this as a safer alternative to smoking.

A report in 2016 called the U.S. Surgeon Generals report looked at the use of e-cigarettes among the youth and was the first of its kind. It warned that this could pave the way for adolescents for life time of smoking.

E-cigarettes are a $2.5 billion business in the U.S. and flavours used in it make it more attractive to younger customers. There are a large proportion of smokers who use both traditional cigarettes and e-cigarettes studies find.

The cigarette itself has a battery, a chamber to vapourise the nicotine and the e-cigarette liquid. The liquid comes in a sealed cartridge or the cigarette may be connected to a tank system for continuous supply. Some units may have an atomizer connected to the cartridge called a cartomizer. The earlier e-cigarettes had these cartomizers. Newer ones are available with a variety of options including tank systems and cartomizers. E cigarettes do not produce tar or carbon monoxide like traditional cigarettes. So they vaporize instead of burning the nicotine.
The flexibility and ability to adapt to changing climates by employing various cultural innovations allowed communities of early humans to survive through a prolonged period of pronounced aridification.

The early human techno-tradition, known as Howiesons Poort (HP), associated with Homo sapiens who lived in southern Africa about 66 000 to 59 000 years ago indicates that during this period of pronounced aridification they developed cultural innovations that allowed them to significantly enlarge the range of environments they occupied.

This cultural flexibility may have been the key to success for modern humans, says a team of international researchers, made up of archeologists, paleo climatologists, and climate modelers from the French CNRS1 and the EPHE PSL Research University, Bergen University as well as Wits University. Their research was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

"The most distinct of the many cultural innovations in the HP culture were the invention of the bow and arrow, different methods of heating raw materials (stone) before knapping to produce arrow heads, engraving ostrich eggshells with elaborate patterns, intensive use of hearths and relatively intense hunting and gathering practices," says Professor Christopher Henshilwood, one of the team members from Wits and Bergen Universities.

Howiesons Poort is a techno-tradition in the Middle Stone Age in Africa named after the Howieson's Poort Shelter archeological site near Grahamstown in South Africa. It lasted around 5 000 years between roughly 65 800 and 59 500 years ago.

Using paleo climatic data and paleo climatic simulations, the researchers of the current study found that the HP tradition developed during a period of pronounced aridity.

This paleo climatic data and the distribution of archeological sites associated with the HP, as well of that of the Still Bay tradition, which existed in the same environments about 5 000 years before (76 000 to 71 000 years ago), enabled the researchers to model the emergence of these traditions with two predictive algorithms that permitted them to reconstruct the ecological niche associated with each tradition and determine whether these niches differed significantly through time.

The results clearly indicate that HP populations were capable, despite the pronounced aridity that characterized the period in which they lived, to exploit territories and ecosystems that the preceding Still Bay people did not occupy.

While the Still Bay era is also characterized by highly innovative technologies - including engraving of ochre, use of personal ornaments, manufacture of highly stylized bone tools, heating silcrete (red rock) to produce better material for knapping bifacial points (spear points) using hard hammer and finally pressure flaking technology - the research team points out that HP's ecological niche expansion coincides with the development of technological innovations that were both efficient and more flexible than those of the Still Bay.

"It seems from the little evidence that we have that the population of Homo sapiens in southern Africa was considerably larger during the Howiesons Poort period," says Henshilwood.

"There are many more HP sites than Still Bay sites in southern Africa and their location is widespread across southern Africa. Note that neither the Still Bay or HP is found outside of southern Africa."

Henshilwood says the Still Bay people did not disappear. There just seems to be a gap between 72 000 years ago to 66 000 years ago, where there is almost no evidence of any people in southern Africa.

This study, which documents the oldest known case of an eco-cultural niche expansion, demonstrates that the processes that allowed our species to develop modern behaviors must be examined at regional scales and in conjunction with past climatic data.

About early human development:

The emergence of our species (Homo sapiens) in Africa, at least 260 000 years ago, was not immediately accompanied by the development of behavioral characteristics of more recent prehistoric and historically documented populations. For tens of thousands of years after their emergence (anatomically), modern human populations in Africa continued to use technologies that differed little from those of the non-modern populations that preceded them or that inhabited other regions both inside and outside the African continent.

A number of archeological discoveries during the past twenty years have shown that from at least 100 000 years ago some populations in Africa, especially those in southern Africa, made pigmented compounds, wore personal ornaments, made abstract engravings, and manufactured bone tools. It is within this period, and those that follow, that archeologists are able to recognize distinct techno- traditions, to determine with a certain degree of precision their age, and place these time periods within their proper climatic contexts.
A new study suggests that T cells, which help the body's immune system recognize friend from foe, may play an important role in Parkinson's disease (PD). The study, published in the journal Nature, was supported by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS), part of the National Institutes of Health.

"This collaboration between neuroscientists and immunologists provides important new evidence for ways in which the immune system can play a role in PD, a link that can be used to further define this interaction," said Beth-Anne Sieber, Ph.D., a program director at NINDS.

A research team led by David Sulzer, Ph.D., professor of neurology at Columbia University in New York City and Alessandro Sette, Dr.Biol.Sci., professor of infectious diseases at the La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology in California, examined the role of T cells in PD.

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Drs. Sulzer and Sette, along with their colleagues, collected blood samples from 67 individuals with Parkinson's disease and 36 healthy controls. Immune cells were extracted from the samples and mixed with portions of the alpha-synuclein protein, which accumulates in the brains of people with PD and can result in cell death.

They found that T cells from people with PD responded to the presence of alpha-synuclein to a much greater degree than those gathered from the control group.

In particular, two regions of alpha-synuclein evoked reactions from T cells: a section that often contains mutations linked with PD, and a portion undergoing a chemical change that can lead to accumulation of the protein in the brain.

The researchers identified four genetic variations that were associated with T cell reactivity to alpha-synuclein. More than half of people with PD carried at least one of those variants, compared to 20 percent of controls.

"These findings expose a potential biomarker for PD that may someday help in diagnosing the disease or be used to evaluate how well treatments are working," said Dr. Sette.

According to the authors, the results suggest that PD may have characteristics of an autoimmune disease, in which the immune system incorrectly attacks the body's own cells.

"As we age, proteins throughout the body undergo various molecular modifications. If they become unrecognizable, the immune system may start going after them, thinking they may be dangerous invaders," said Dr. Sulzer.

PD is a neurodegenerative disorder in which dopamine-producing brain cells die off, resulting in tremors, muscle stiffness, loss of balance and slow movement. Additional symptoms may include emotional changes and disrupted sleep.

More research is needed to learn about the interactions between immune cells and alpha-synuclein. Improved understanding of those interactions may lead to information about disease progression as well as potential connections to other neurodegenerative disorders.
A test called the lung clearance index (LCI) is superior to standard tests in identifying patients with lung disease related to military deployment, suggests a study in the August Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Silpa Dhoma Krefft, MD, MPH, of National Jewish Health, Denver, and colleagues evaluated the LCI as a test for deployment-related lung disease. An "unknown number" of military personnel deployed to Iraq and Afghanistan have developed respiratory symptoms unexplained by traditional lung function tests and chest CT scans. This condition may be linked to burn pit emissions, desert dust, and other exposures during deployment.

The LCI detects abnormalities of the small airways; it is most often used to assess early lung damage in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). The researchers evaluated its use in 28 patients with definite (17 cases) or probable (11 cases) deployment-related lung disease. Currently, a surgical sample of lung tissue (biopsy) is needed to confirm the diagnosis.

The average LCI score was were higher for patients with symptoms of deployment-related lung disease, compared to a non-deployed control group. The difference narrowed and become nonsignificant on adjustment for age, body mass index, and smoking.

An abnormal LCI score was more sensitive in identifying patients with deployment-related lung disease, compared to standard lung function tests or CT scans. An elevated LCI score was also a better indicator of abnormal results on lung biopsy.

A noninvasive test such as the LCI could be a major advantage in detecting underlying lung disease in veterans with respiratory symptoms. Dr. Krefft and coauthors note the lack of "normative data" on LCI results in healthy adults-;most previous studies of this test have focused on younger patients with CF.

With further research, the LCI might prove useful in monitoring for stability or progression of deployment-related lung disease. It might also aid in assessing small airway abnormalities in larger groups of patients at risk of other occupational lung diseases.
Does a previous suicide attempt in a soldier's unit increase the risk of additional suicide attempts? According to a study, "Risk of Suicide Attempt Associated with Previous Attempts in One's Army Unit," published July 26, 2017 in JAMA Psychiatry, the answer is yes.

Using data from the Army Study to Assess Risk and Resilience in Service members (Army STARRS), a team of researchers from the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences (USU) looked at historical administrative information from 38 different Army and Department of Defense data systems for more than 1.6 million Soldiers (regular Army, Army Reserve, and National Guard) on active duty from 2004 to 2009. They identified 9,650 suicide attempters among regular Army Soldiers, excluding National Guard and Reserve, during that period.

The team, led by Dr. Robert J. Ursano, found that the odds of attempting suicide increased for Soldiers in units where there had been one or more suicide attempts during the past year. The greater the number of previous suicide attempts in the unit, the greater the individual risk for other Soldiers in the unit. This increased risk was seen in all types of units, but the risk was somewhat higher in combat arms units. Similarly, the increased risk was found in units of all sizes, but was most pronounced in the smaller units of 1 to 40 Soldiers.

Army STARRS is the largest study of mental health risk and resilience ever conducted among U.S. Army personnel. Previous research has primarily focused on how Soldiers respond to a suicide death. It is estimated that for every suicide, 6 to 10 people are profoundly affected and may be at risk for suicidal behaviors. This new study is important because it looks at suicide attempts, which are approximately 10 to 20 times more common than suicides in the Army. Contrary to other studies, unit deaths of any type, including suicide, were not significantly associated with the risk of suicide attempt in this study.

"Unit characteristics, including leadership style and quality, extent of social support, group cohesion, and presence of bullying or hazing, may influence unit culture and affect the likelihood of suicide attempts in the unit. Such effects may be more influential in smaller units where the positive or negative factors are more easily experienced by and likely to impact the entire group," said Ursano, study lead author. "For example, strong unit cohesion has been associated with reduced distress, increased resilience, and positive states of mind. To the extent that suicide attempts among fellow Soldiers disrupt one's sense of unit cohesion, these findings suggest that the negative effects may be strongest in smaller units."

Paying careful attention to unit characteristics by Army leadership and military health care providers may be a component in suicide attempt reduction efforts. Early unit-based postvention, consisting of coordinated efforts to provide behavioral health, psychosocial, spiritual, and public health support following suicide attempts, may be an essential tool in promoting recovery and suicide prevention in Soldiers.

Source: https://www.usuhs.edu/
News18  Blogs  India

Reach Out, The Powder in Valley is Dry

File photo of J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.

Srinagar: My colleagues in Delhi wonder if the arrest of eight separatist leaders would impact stone-pelting, militant attacks, separatist rallies or the fat militant funerals in strife-afflicted Kashmir.



Or whether the separatist activities would collapse if there is a widespread crackdown against prominent leaders or a choke on foreign funds. Or if they are taken out of equation and made to relax in jails. Or are they jittery.



No doubt the arrests are going to weaken the separatists, importantly the SAS Geelani faction of Hurriyat. Four of its members, including his son-in-law, have been taken in. Till a few weeks ago, Nayeem Khan was a trusted lieutenant of Geelani, but was sacked when he admitted on tape to taking money to cause law and order problems in the Valley. Shahid Ul Islam is a close aide of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Bitta Karate was formerly a militant commander of JKLF who on his release joined a rival faction.



Not only that, the separatists have been castigated over the fresh hawala allegations. On social media, they have been panned, while on the streets, the separatist bandh call to protest these arrests has evoked a feeble response. The Hurriyat is facing its worst crisis after a long time.



While it is true that Hurriyats image has suffered a dent, the cause of separatism hasn't suffered any glitches.



Separatism in Kashmir has a long history and has seen many ups and downs in last eight decades. Before he switched to mainstream, Kashmir's tallest leader Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah  Omar Abdulalhs grandfather  flirted with separatism and amassed a lot of support. His entry into mainstream did help New Delhi ink a few crucial pacts but separatism never got wiped out from the Valley even though the sentiment remained dormant for some time.



Monday's arrests have surprised and unnerved the Hurriyat leaders. They werent expecting their cases to be taken to the logical conclusion where now they face imminent convictions. My friends in Delhi think the Congress-led government gave the Valley separatists a long rope despite having known about the alleged hawala transactions for years. Though UPA, or for that matter, Vajpayee-led NDA gave them a reprieve, they knew very well how to control situation in the Valley through them.



The Valley separatists would now be realising that the Modi government is different and can act even tougher if they don't fall in line. It is common knowledge that governments before Modi would keep the Hurriyat in loop through back-channels and use them to douse or discipline the Valleys periodic eruptions.



That formula of staying in touch with separatists as Mehbooba Mufti government has lately realised works very well in Kashmir though Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems averse to such idea.



Her government has been using interlocutors to buy peace in the Valley. The silence by separatists on Goods and Services Tax (GST)  an emotive issue that could have again sparked tension in Kashmir  was ensured through such a backdoor negotiations with one leader who was flown to Delhi on Monday.



Mehbooba was apparently peeved with the Centre for taking the seven separatists to Delhi for the NIA investigations. She had even deputed a top official to convince the government in Delhi not to fly the separatists out of Srinagar. In fact, her government had been talking to few separatists to get a fix on the situation.



Many believe that was the reason why she gave a miss to Presidents Ram Nath Kovinds oath-taking ceremony in Delhi on Tuesday. Sources close to Mehbooba believe she will urge the Centre not to go after separatist biggies because there is every possibility that it will again provoke violent street protests, something her government has been battling for 13 months.



While these arrests would impinge the street rage on a short term, the larger picture is that separatism is here to stay  with or without the separatists.



Ditto for stone-pelting, though its intensity will vary on a number of factors like fatigue, policing, weather, a trigger and tipping points. And understandably the sentiment on ground, which is further accentuated by a government missing in action and seen as cruel, callous and uncaring sans any healing touch.



Disruption of military operations would continue and people are likely to pour in at militant funerals unless something changes drastically.



The arrests wont alter the ground situation in the longer run for reasons below.



First, it is a myth that the separatists are wholly driving the street rage after the Burhan Wani encounter. Its aftermath was an explosion, a spontaneous reaction by thousands who occupied streets in Kashmir within hours and clashed with forces. The miscalculation by security and intelligence agencies allowed the situation to drift.



It were young boys and girls and not separatists or their cadre who were at the forefront of the 2016 agitation. The unrest prolonged because police and security forces kept shooting, maiming and blinding youth that stoked more violence.



The separatists were themselves surprised by the turn of the events and hardly expected the rage would have such a life and spread. In the last one year, they have been detained at homes or police station  without leading a single major demonstration.



In fact, the massive agitations of 2008, 2010 and 2016, though different yet spontaneous, were also not driven by separatists, but came as peoples cataclysmic response to grant of government land to Amarnath shrine board in 2008 and killing of civilians by Army in a fake encounter in Macchil two years later.



During those agitations too, the separatists were immobilised and it were the protesters who literally dragged them to lead processions. So it was actually people driving the Hurriyat leaders rather than the other way around.



Two, it is the government or lack of governance that contributed to last year's swell in violent incidents. The killing of close to 100 youth and maiming and wounding of thousands in street clashes exacerbated the situation. Had there been a stop to the killings, violence would not have spiralled and consumed so many lives.



Three, there has been no outreach from the government, no dialogue with Kashmiris. The government has retracted into a shell.



They sure would be imagining that if the army and police are pelted with stones during encounters, what would their position be if they go in front of people.



The arrest of the eight separatists has actually weakened the Kashmir mainstream parties more than the separatist quarters. The state government has actually been deprived of a very important cover to have a handle on the situation.



The Centre can come in. It says it is done with separatists, but then it needs to reach out to civil society or disenchanted youth because no matter how many measures you take, the powder in Kashmir is dry.
PSA Group reported record profitability at its core manufacturing division in the first half as stronger pricing enabled the maker of Peugeots and Citroens to overcome weaker sales in Europe and China. Net income rose 3.6 percent to 1.26 billion euros ($1.5 billion) on a 5 percent revenue increase to 29.17 billion, the French carmaker said on Wednesday, beating analysts' expectations and sending PSA shares up more than 5 percent.Under Chief Executive Carlos Tavares, the company has rebounded from near-bankruptcy and a 2014 bailout to boast an industry-leading profit margin last year following cost cutting, a pared-down lineup and determined efforts to lift prices. The core automotive operating margin jumped from 6.8 percent to 7.3 percent in the first half, a "new historic high" for the Paris-based carmaker, finance chief Jean-Baptiste de Chatillon said on a conference call with reporters."We are now in a position to deliver recurrent profitability," Chatillon said. "There are always headwinds, but we're able to withstand them while maintaining a high level of profitability."Weaker first-half vehicle sales in Europe and a sharper slowdown in China had sparked concerns about the pace of PSA's recovery just as it prepares to acquire Opel from General Motors, in a deal closing later this year.But the earnings numbers squarely beat analyst expectations of 28.92 billion euros in revenue, 1.3 billion in automotive profit and a 1.06 billion-euro net income, based on the median of nine estimates polled by Reuters.PSA shares rose as much as 6.1 percent and were trading at 18.93 euros as of 1201 GMT, up 4.6 percent on Tuesday's close.Tavares is pulling off "a turnaround like no other", Bernstein analyst Max Warburton said, reiterating his "outperform" rating on the stock.While auto recoveries typically require sharp sales growth, PSA's profit surge has been driven by product mix - essentially pricing and a demand shift to plusher models - and cost cutting, Warburton said. "I have honestly never seen anything like this."PSA said its market share decline - particularly in Europe - wiped 92 million euros from profit. Higher raw material costs trimmed a further 129 million and currency effects 255 million.But the product mix added 456 million euros and pricing another 41 million - both helped by a flurry of new model launches. Market growth also contributed 178 million euros.PSA raised its full-year growth forecast for Europe's auto market to 3 percent from 1 percent and its Latin American and Russian forecasts to 5 percent - from 2 percent and flat, respectively.
New Delhi: Axis Bank on Thursday confirmed the re-appointment of Shikha Sharma as managing director and CEO for a period of three years starting June 2018, putting an end to all speculation of her exit, Moneycontrol reported.



The Board of Directors at its meeting held on 26th July 2017, approved the re-appointment of Smt. Shikha Sharma as the Managing Director & CEO of the Bank for a period of 3 years, w.e.f. 1st June 2018, subject to compliance with the prescribed formalities and receipt of requisite regulatory/ statutory approvals, the bank said in a regulatory filing on BSE.



Sharmas term was set to end in June 2018, and by clearing the reappointment a year earlier, the Axis Bank is attempting to quell any uncertainty about its leadership.



Earlier this week, news reports said she had been sounded out by Tata Sons chairman N Chandrasekaran to head the diversified conglomerates financial services vertical. There were also reports that the Axis Bank had hired a headhunting agency to appoint its next CEO.



The appointment of a search firm is in the interest of best governance, given that I'd have done nine years in 2018 with the bank and it does not preclude anything about whether I will do another term or not, she clarified while announcing the acquisition of Freecharge for Rs 395 crore.



Sharma said that right now, her focus in on building the bank. "We believe that Axis Bank has created some very strong capability in it, we have a strong brand which all customer surveys suggest people who experienced it have liked it. So I think there are lots of exciting things to do in the bank, she said.



The 59-year-old Sharma is serving the second term that comes to an end in June 2018. She joined the bank in 2009 with a five-year mandate which was subsequently extended.
New Delhi: The Income Tax department will soon share PAN and ITR details of companies with the corporate affairs ministry, amidst the government stepping up efforts to curb the menace of black money.



The sharing of the "bulk information" is primarily aimed at identifying dormant companies that are misused for tax evasion and money laundering.



The Central Board of Direct Taxes, which frames policy decisions for the tax department, on Wednesday issued an order on stipulated sharing of bulk I-T data with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.



As per the order, accessed by PTI, the department will "share PAN (Permanent Account Number), Income Tax Returns (ITRs) and audit reports of corporates under section 44AB of the I-T Act as well as SFT (statement of financial transaction) relating to these companies".



"The department will also share identified PAN and Corporate Identification number (CIN), PAN-Director Identification Number (DIN) and any other information considered necessary for identifying dormant companies," it said.



The Income Tax department and the corporate affairs ministry will soon ink an MoU on sharing of data that will also include "mode of transfer of data, maintenance of confidentiality, mechanism for safe preservation of data and weeding it out after usage, and the information which shall be furnished by the ministry to the I-T department."



A senior I-T department official said that the move aims at checking and identifying shell companies and bogus firms that have been indulging in generation of black money.



The corporate affairs ministry implements the Companies Act, under which all firms need to get registered.



Over 1.62 lakh companies that have not been carrying out business activities for long have been de-registered and a series of actions taken against shell firms, the government had said last week.



Earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said that over 37,000 shell firms have been identified and registrations of more than 1 lakh others have been cancelled.



Shell companies are dubious entities that are generally used for laundering illegal wealth.



Such firms also characteristically have private companies as majority shareholders, low turnover and operating income, nominal expenses, nominal statutory payments and stock in trade and minimum fixed assets.



A Special Task Force (STF) of multiple investigative and enforcement agencies has also been created by the government on directions of the Prime Ministers Office (PMO) to look into cases of black money.



The I-T department also plans to share taxpayer data with the oil ministry for regulating LPG subsidy, and the National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID) in relation to security issues.
Mumbai: ICICI Bank Ltd said it was optimistic about containing its bad loans after the three months to June saw the smallest rise in soured assets for seven quarters.



The country's third-biggest lender by assets has the highest non-performing loans in absolute terms among non-state banks.



On Thursday ICICI reported an eight percent fall in first quarter profit from a year earlier to Rs 20.49 billion, in line with analysts' estimates around Rs 20.43 billion.



It added gross non-performing loans of Rs 49.75 billion in the quarter, which Chief Executive Chanda Kochhar said was the lowest in seven quarters, reiterating the bank's guidance that incremental bad loans in the current financial year to March will be lower than the last financial year.



"As far as NPAs are concerned, actually the trend is very positive," Kochhar told reporters on a conference call, adding the bank had been selective in lending to corporates and was growing its retail loans faster.



Indian banks' "stressed" loans hit a record $150 billion at the end of last year, prompting the government to change rules and give the central bank more power to push defaulting companies to bankruptcy.



The Reserve Bank of India has ordered banks to initiate bankruptcy proceedings against 12 of the country's biggest defaulters that account for a quarter of the total non-performing loans and also to step up provisioning on those accounts.



ICICI Bank has outstanding loans worth 68.89 billion rupees to nine of the 12 borrowers being taken to bankruptcy proceedings, Kochhar said. The bank had a provision cover of about 41 percent on those loans and would need to set aside 6.5 billion rupees more over three quarters to meet central bank requirements.



Even as the bank's list of potential troubled loans to below investment-grade companies increased marginally to about 203 billion rupees as of the end of June, Kochhar said they were encouraged by record loan recoveries during the quarter driven by infrastructure firm Jaiprakash Associates' sale of cement assets.



Gross non-performing loans as a percentage of total loans rose to 7.99 percent at end-June from 7.89 percent at March-end. However the net non-performing loan ratio narrowed to 4.86 percent at end-June from 4.89 percent in March.



ICICI Bank's domestic loans in the quarter grew 11 percent from a year earlier. Retail loans within that grew at a faster clip of 19 percent, it said.
New Delhi: India's IndiGo and GoAir airlines are facing delays in receiving planes from Airbus due to ongoing problems with engines developed by Pratt & Whitney, the minister of state for civil aviation said on Thursday.



The carriers "have confirmed that these issues have impacted the delivery of aircraft," Jayant Sinha said in a written reply to lawmakers.

State-owned carrier Air India has also experienced some delay in getting deliveries of some A320neo aircraft fitted with engines made by rival CFM International, he said.



Airbus, which reported a drop in mid-year profits earlier on Thursday, has turned up the heat on Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies, asking it to "work harder" to fix reliability problems that have disrupted its biggest production line and caused delays in deliveries to customers.



The world's second-largest planemaker aims to deliver some 200 A320neo-family jets in 2017. In the first half, it delivered just 16 Pratt-powered A320neo jets, barely a third of the 43 powered by competing CFM engines, sources have told Reuters.



Technical issues with Pratt & Whitney engines have forced IndiGo, owned by InterGlobe Aviation, to ground seven of the narrow-body jets, while, according to The Times of India, GoAir has started cancelling flights. India's aviation regulator is investigating the issue.

Pratt & Whitney has told the regulator it will address the problems, Sinha said.




Its likely to be smooth sailing for Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar when he seeks trust vote in the Assembly on Friday with the backing of the BJP. His former ally and RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has said he is considering moving the Supreme Court against Governor Keshri Nath Tripathis decision to invite the JD(U) instead of RJD.

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Ahmedabad: In a major setback to Gujarat Congress, three senior legislators said to be close to Shankersinh Vaghela resigned on Thursday and joined the BJP in the midst of a Rajya Sabha poll battle.



Among those who have resigned is Balwantsinh Rajput, the Congress Chief Whip in the Gujarat Assembly. Rajput, who is a relative of Vaghela, will be fielded by the BJP against senior Congress leader Ahmed Patel, who is the political adviser to Sonia Gandhi, for the Rajya Sabha polls. Rajput is expected to file his nomination on Friday.



In his resignation letter, Rajput, said he was being targeted by former party colleagues because of his proximity to Vaghela. He said the party's alleged inability to control such persons showed "lack of power" in the partys leadership.



"For the last few years, the Congress party has been trying to harm my reputation through my colleagues intentionally. Some party people have tried to hurt my reputation in the party due to my family relationships with Shankarsinhji Vaghela," Rajput wrote.



The two others who quit are Tejashree Patel and Prahlad Patel. They submitted their resignation to Speaker Ramanlal Vohra on Thursday. Both are likely to switch to the BJP. Tejashree Patel was even present on Wednesday when Ahmed Patel filed his nomination papers.



The string of resignations by Congress MLAs in Gujarat have rocked the state politics and are sure to dent party morale ahead of the Rajya Sabha elections slated next month.



Three seats are up for grabs from Gujarat in the biennial elections. BJP has already named two candidates for the two assured seats- party president Amit Shah and I&B Minister Smriti Irani.



If more than three candidates are in the field, MLAs will have to make a choice to elect their representatives to the council of the states through preferential voting. Any cross voting by Congress MLAs may impact Patel's chances in the elections to enter the upper house. Eleven Congress MLAs had earlier voted against Meira Kumar in Presidential Elections earlier this month.




New Delhi: The Central Reserve Police Force has resorted to jugaad to tackle the shortage of bulletproof vehicles for paramilitary personnel in Kashmir.



The indigenously prepared bulletproof jugaad is a casing of metal and wood, with concerte poured in the middle. This structure is then fitted on the exterior of a vehicle.



Eight of our men were saved in the recent Pantha Chowk due to this jugaad, DG CRPF R R Bhatnagar told CNN-News18.



Of the 600 vehicles used by CRPF in Kashmir, only about 400 are bulletproof. The lack of such vehicles makes the security personnel vulnerable to attacks by terrorists. Requisition from the Union government takes time, so CRPF has come up with its own jugaad.



On June 25, a CRPF party was attacked by Lashkar-e-Taiba militants in Srinagars at Pantha Chowk. A CRPF sub-inspector was killed while a constable was injured. The terrorists hid in a nearby school and were killed in a two-day long encounter.



The Union home ministry recently informed Parliament that procurement of 210 light bulletproof vehicles and 45 medium bulletproof ones have been approved recently. But paramilitary sources say the demand is much higher and till further vehicles are sanctioned, it is this jugaad which the security forces have to depend on.


New Delhi: Even as NSA Ajit Doval engages with his BRICS counterparts in Beijing, New Delhi once again tried to convey to China that it was looking at resolving the stand-off in Doklam through diplomacy.



Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay elaborated on Sushma Swarajs reply to the Rajya Sabha on the issue, saying that a resolution should be sought based on the Astana consensus.



The Astana consensus states that differences between India and China should be addressed in a manner that they dont become disputes, Baglay said.



Despite repeated questions though the spokesperson did not divulge information on whether Doval will speak to his Chinese counterpart State Councillor Yang Jeichi in Beijing separately over the current stand-off near Sikkim. Doval will be calling on Chinese President Xi Jinping as will the other BRICS security advisors.



Baglay also pointed out that the Astana consensus which was reached between Jinping and Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the margins of the SCO summit earlier this year stresses on the significance of the relations between the two countries for regional and global stability.



Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, MoS, External Affairs, VK Singh had stated Government of India is also engaged with the Government of the Peoples Republic of China through the diplomatic channels to maintain peace and tranquility... and is committed to finding an amicable resolution acceptable to concerned countries.
New Delhi: The stand-off between India and China over Doklam has entered the sixth week. Even as Beijing tries to flex its muscles, New Delhi has decided firmly to Act East.



While India prepares to invite all heads of state or government of ASEAN nations for next years Republic Day celebrations, PM Modi has also extended an invitation to the newly-elected Mongolian President Khaltamaa Battulga.



The real estate tycoon who came to power earlier this month has been advocating lessening Mongolia, the mineral rich nations dependence on China.



The Ministry of External Affairs tried to downplay the timing of this move by saying that it was only natural to extend an invite in the congratulatory note. MEA spokesperson Gopal Baglay said, we have a different relationship with each country. It cant be linked to China. All relations stand on their own.



Battulga has been stressing that Mongolia needs to find other trading partners, with 80% of its current exports are to China. India had extended $1 billion line of credit to Mongolia during the Prime Ministers visit to Ulaanbaatar in 2015.



Modi had also said, Mongolia is also an integral part of India's Act East Policy. The destinies of India and Mongolia are closely linked with the future of Asia Pacific Region. We can work together to help advance peace, stability and prosperity in this region.



Even Vice President Hamid Ansari had visited Mongolia in July last year for the ASEM summit where he had held meetings with the top leadership of the country.
New Delhi: Kerala JD(U) president M P Veerendra Kumar on Thursday expressed shock over party chief Nitish Kumar's decision to align with the BJP and said the state unit would not follow the chief minister into the NDA fold.



He appealed to all JD(U) MPs to denounce the decision and quit the party.



As far as Kerala is concerned we will never become the part of the JD(U) represented by Nitish Kumar. Future course of action will be decided after the state council meeting, he told reporters.



Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday but joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.



The Rajya Sabha MP said it was unfortunate that Nitish Kumar became a part of "fascist tendencies", contrary to expectations of people, party men and the party resolution adopted in the last national conference.



"The oppressed, Dalits and minorities thought Nitish will be spearheading the fight against fascist tendencies, but unfortunately he has become a part of it," the MP said.



With this, the party resolution has been thrown into the dust bin, he added.



"We cannot tolerate Hindutva in the sense they (BJP) talk about it. In Hindustan, everybody born in the country are its citizen. But what is happening is, in every sphere of life there is a pressure to make it a monolithic structure. We cannot accept it," he said.



Kumar, who was the leader of the Socialist Janata (Democratic) party, merged it with the Janata Dal (United) in 2014.



He was a minister in the United Front government after being elected to the Lok Sabha in 1996 on Janata Dal ticket. Kumar was in Janata Dal (Secular) headed by former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda from 1999 to 2010, when Janata Dal had broken into many factions after some of its leaders decided to join hands with BJP-led NDA at the Centre.



The Kerala leader parted ways with the JD(S) and formed the Socialist Janata (Democratic) Party in 2010.
The Directorate of Higher Secondary Education (DHSE), Kerala has published the Second Supplementary Allotment Results for Plus One (+1) admissions 2017 on its official website hscap.kerala.gov.in . DHSE had received approximately 4,93,584 applications for plus one (+1) admissions this year out of which 1,56,874 seats were allotted last month when HSCAP published its Trial Allotment List. The students who were awaiting DHSE Kerala Second Supplementary Results List can follow the instructions below to find their result:How to Check Kerala Plus One Second Supplementary Allotment Results 2017?Visit the official website hscap.kerala.gov.in Click on SUPPLEMENTARY RESULTS at the left side of home screenEnter your Application Number, Date of Birth and District in the fields provided and Click SubmitDownload Your Result and Take a Print Out of the same for further referenceStudents who had applied for allotment through single window allotment system but did not qualify and those who could not apply for the allotment were given a chance to submit their application by July 25, 2017, 5 PM. A total number of 36,994 applications were received against 22,944 available vacancies. The students who have made it to this list need to report to the school before July 28, 2017, 5 PM to complete the admission formalities. They are supposed to download the two-page Allotment slip and bring along conduct certificate, transfer certificate, qualification certificate and other documents that need to be verified in order to claim permanent seat in the allocated school by tomorrow i.e. July 28, 2017, 5PM.DHSE Kerala may release the Third Allotment list on 31st July 2017 and Fourth Allotment list on 5th August 2017.
New Delhi: Five army personnel, including two officers, will be released on bail after an armed forces tribunal suspended the life sentence given to them by a court martial for allegedly staging the killing of three Kashmiri men at Macchil in 2010, officials said.



The Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the life sentence awarded to Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devinder, Lance Naik Lakhmi and Lance Naik Arun Kumar and granted them bail, they said.



The five army personnel had approached the tribunal challenging the punishment given to them following court martial proceedings in 2014.



"It is a bold order by the tribunal. I am very happy. The order has shut misrepresentation in the case to a great extent," said senior lawyer Aman Lekhi, who represented Colonel Pathania at the tribunal.



The government had strongly opposed giving bail to the five army men. They will be released on bail either Friday or day after, said Lekhi.



Army sources said the tribunal has only suspended the life sentence and a final order is expected by it. The encounter of the three civilians on the intervening night of April 29 and 30 in 2010 in Macchil sector in Jammu and Kashmir had triggered wide-spread outrage and violence in the state.
Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday slammed the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) following a flood-like situation in the state.



Accusing the DVC and Jharkhand government for the current situation in Bengal, she called the situation a man-made disaster. I must point out that the reason behind the flood is not completely due to natural causes. These are man-made floods, as we are witnessing in Bengal, she said.



Banerjee held an administrative meeting and surveyed Amta (Howrah), Khanakul (Hooghly) and in Joypur (Bankura) to monitor the situation. So far, nearly 16 people were killed due to rain related incidents.



More than 12 districts are under water and the disaster management team pressed in the action to ensure relief material to the affected people. Two lakh hectare agricultural land is affected and relief and medical camps were set up.



She demanded that the DVC should immediately be reformed by the Centre. The work of dredging in Ganga is pending for several years now. Dredging has not been done in Kolkata, nor in Haldia. There are several barrages under DVC which should have been cleaned and dredged. They are filled with silt. Had that been done, the water storage capacity would have increased by 2 lakh cusecs, Banerjee said.



Since 2012, we have raised the issue of water-release by DVC. But no action has been taken. Even today they have released more than 1 lakh cusec of water. Low-lying areas of Labhpur in Birbhum district, Purulia, Ghatal in West Medinipur and Goghat, Arambagh in Hooghly districts have been inundated. This is caused mostly due to the discharge of water by DVC from its barrages, she added.



A senior state irrigation ministry official said, even after having a capacity to contain water up to 425 feet in the Panchet dam, DVC released water from the dam when the level was 417 ft. This can be attributed to the lack of dredging of the river and not removing the encroachments there, he added.



Meanwhile, the state government has taken several pre-emptive measures to bring the situation under control. Measures like prior warnings to fishermen, setting up a control at the State Secretariat Nabanna, and distributing tarpaulin sheets in all affected areas has saved the lives of lakhs of people in the state.



Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy raised the issue in the parliament and accused the Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his step motherly attitude towards Bengal. He said, Our PM went for an aerial survey of floods in Gujarat and sanctioned Rs 500 crore for flood relief, which is all right. But, he did not come to visit Assam, which is badly flood-affected or Rajasthan, let alone Bengal. We want the Prime Minister to deal with all the flood-affected states on equal footing and take adequate steps for the man-made floods in Bengal.
New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency on Thursday said all separatist leaders arrested two days ago for funding terrorism in the Jammu and Kashmir Valley will be subjected to a polygraph test.



A senior official said that the polygraph, or lie detector test, will be conducted with the permission of a court. The seven Kashmiri separatists were sent to 10 days NIA-custody by a special court for interrogation on Wednesday.



Among those arrested were Syed Ali Shah Geelanis son-in-law, Altaf Ahmad Shah, and Mirwaiz Umar Farooqs aide, Shahid-ul-Islam.



Authorities said that they have summoned 30 more people, including close associates of Hurriyat leaders, stone pelters, middlemen and instigators, for questioning in probe that aims to establish the terror funding nexus with Pakistan. Geelanis two sons - Nayeem and Naseem - are among those summoned by the NIA. They have been told to reach Delhi next week, sources said.



To probe the hawala link, NIA said it would also look at possible links with Dubai. The agency suspects goods smuggling as one of the means of fund transfer. All links are subject to further investigation, said the officer.



The investigators had also called in businessman Zahoor Watali for questioning in the flow of funds. Watali joined the investigation on Thursday. NIA had raided Watalis properties in June as well.



Meanwhile, the BJP said the arrests by NIA would help choke terror funding in Jammu and Kashmir. We welcome the arrests of separatists. The arrest of separatist leaders is a step towards choking terror funding. These measures will yield positive results in the coming days, BJP spokesman Khalid Jahangir said.



He said it was a "much needed" move that has broken the financial backbone of separatists. "Separatists, and other anti-national forces which were receiving financial aid from across the border need to be tackled and the only way to control them is by cutting off their financial support," Jahangir said.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is speaking on 39 Indians missing in war-torn Iraq. There is no evidence that Indians missing in Mosul, Iraq are dead. To declare anyone dead wihtout proof is a sin I wont commit, she says.

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New Delhi: Expressing concern over the misuse of anti-dowry law by disgruntled wives, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the police cannot arrest husbands or in-laws without conducting a preliminary inquiry.



A bench comprising Justices AK Goel and UU Lalit cracked down on false dowry harassment cases and said there was a growing tendency to abuse Section 498-A of the Indian Penal Code. To check this, the court ordered the formation family welfare committees in every district that would look into all complaints.



The apex court said the committees, comprising three members, would interact with the complainant and the accused, and submit a report to the police or a magistrate within a month.



Till report of the committee is received, no arrest should normally be effected. The report may be then considered by the Investigating Officer or the Magistrate on its own merit, said the bench. It said para-legal volunteers, social workers, retired persons and other suitable persons can be roped in for the committees.



The bench, however, made it clear that its directions would not extend to cases of tangible injury or death.



The judgment came during the hearing of a petition filed by one Rajesh Sharma, who had appealed against an order of the Allahabad High Court.



The Supreme Court said that while the stringent punishment under the anti-dowry law were introduced with laudable objectives, it has been exploited and can lead to harassment of the accused. An arrest without the proper safeguards would be equivalent to brushing aside the human rights of the accused, the bench said.



It also defined the parameters for a bail, saying that pleas should be dealt with on an expeditious basis, preferably the same day the appeal is filed.



The court said it wants to see for six months how the arrangement worked and sought a report from the National Legal Services Authority by March 31, 2018, about the need for any change in its directions. The next hearing on the matter has been scheduled for April next year.
The propaganda wing of Al Qaeda has issued a statement claiming that Zakir Musa, the erstwhile commander of Hizbul Mujahideen, has opened the global terror outfit's wing in Kashmir.The story, which was first reported by The Guardian, said that announcement of the new group was made on Thursday by 'Global Islamic Media Front'- an Al Qaeda-affiliated information network.The statement, which has also been accessed by News 18, goes on to state:"After the heroic martyrdom of mujahid Burhan Wani, the Jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening., as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir is committed to carry the flag of Jihad....for this goal, a new movement of Jihad has been founded by the companions of martyr Burhan Wani (Rh) under the leadership of mujahid Zakir Musa.'(The statement issued by the group)The 23-year-old radical militant had recently issued a statement, which was condemned in the Valley, threatening to kill top Hurriyat leaders. He and Hizbul since that day have parted ways and till now there is no news about him.Notably, the chief of United Jehad Council, Syed Salahuddin, had released a statement on Wednesday urging Kashmiris "not to join any global jihadi movement".
A woman who has been claiming to be late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhis daughter moved the Supreme Court seeking stay of the release of filmmaker Madhu Bhandarkar's much talked about film Indu Sarkar. "You give your memo. We will see to it. We are not giving any date," said the bench of Justice Dipak Misra, Justice Amitava Roy and Justice A.M.Khanwilkar as counsel for the petitioner Priya Singh Paul mentioned the matter for an early hearing as the film is releasing on July 28.



In the latest development, the Supreme Court has refused to stay release of Indu Sarkar. As the Supreme Court says, national interest and right to know is more important than individual's claim of reputation. There can't be fetters on people's right to know, the Supreme Court maintained. It also mentioned that there shouldn't be a concept of stopping movies or books, and since Censor Board has cleared it with cuts, it won't interfere.



For the unversed, Paul told the court that the film was "full of concoction and totally derogatory" to malign the image of Sanjay Gandhi and his mother, late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.



The petitioner had moved the top court as Bombay High Court had dismissed her plea on July 24, noting: "The filmmaker has submitted a disclaimer that will be shown before the movie saying all characters and incidents of the movie are fictitious and bears no resemblance to any living or dead person. The censor board has also already granted certificate to the movie after initially asking the filmmaker to cut some scenes."



The High Court had also said that none of the descendants of Sanjay Gandhi have objected to the film.



(With inputs from IANS)


Patna: Former JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, who is apparently unhappy with Nitish Kumars return to the NDA fold, has got in touch with the Congress, according to sources.



Sources said Yadav met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi at Jawahar Bhawan and has called a meeting of party MPs at his residence at 5pm on Thursday.



This move comes even as there is a buzz that Yadav will be given a berth in the union cabinet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Yadav has so far refused to answer questions on the political upheaval in the state, but sources said the Rajya Sabha MP is not happy with Kumars decision to break the grand alliance with the Congress and the RJD.



Another senior party leader, Ali Anwar, has already spoken out against Nitish, refusing to back the new alliance.



This alliance is a rashtriya durghatna (national tragedy). Nitish Kumar said his conscience doesnt allow him to stay (in the Mahagathbandhan). Well, my conscience does not allow me to support him, Anwar, a Rajya Sabha MP, said.



Anwar claimed party leaders were not consulted before the decision. This alliance is only good for one party and that's the BJP. We were not consulted before this decision. The national council was slated for July 23, but it was postponed for a month. I will continue raising my voice against this decision, he told CNN-News18.



"Can't speak for others, but I think this is a historic mistake. People were hoping Nitish Kumar would be the torch-bearer of alternative politics. I will present my views in the party meeting. Its not just about Bihar, its about India.



Nitish has said that the decision to part ways with the RJD and join hands with the BJP was taken in the interest of Bihar.



Kumar resigned the post on Wednesday evening after a fall out with alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the then deputy CM.



"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," Nitish Kumar told reporters.



Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of the state alongside senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhavan in Patna.
Lucknow: Terming the developments in Bihar as a "wrong signal for democracy", BSP president Mayawati said Thursday that misuse of power and official machinery by the BJP leadership posed a serious challenge to established democratic norms.



She claimed that the people of Bihar had been betrayed with state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar switching sides from the grand alliance to the NDA.



Misuse of power and government machinery by the senior leadership of the BJP for the lure of power is continuously posing a challenge to the democratic norms of the country, she said.



"The latest political developments in Bihar after Manipur and Goa clearly prove that future of democracy is at risk under the Narendra Modi government," Mayawati alleged in a press release issued by her party here.



Terming JD (U) leader Kumar's move of leaving the anti- BJP alliance and joining hand with the saffron party to form the government "as betraying the people of Bihar", Mayawati said people had voted for the secular alliance defying the Modi wave.



This mandate should have been honoured, she said. "Whatever has happened in Bihar after Manipur and Goa is the result of misuse of official machinery... To divert the people's attention from wrong policies and corruption, the BJP has launched a drive to prove opposition leaders as corrupt which is most condemnable and dangerous for democracy," she claimed.
Lucknow: Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi by some strange quirk of fate is at the helm of affairs whenever there is a constitutional crisis.



West Bengal Governor was given additional charge of Bihar just a month back when Ram Nath Kovind was nominated by NDA as is President pick. He was to leave for Kolkata Wednesday afternoon when fast changing political developments in Patna kept him back.



In the next 12 hours, he not only accepted Nitish Kumar's resignation but also administered the oath of office the new JDU-BJP government.



The RJD was livid. Lalu Yadav's son and former deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav accused Tripathi of muzzling democracy.



Tejashwi wanted an opportunity to form the government being leader of the largest party in the Assembly, a claim which was not honoured.



Tripathi, the well-known criminal lawyer who practiced for many years at the Allahabad Hingh Court, is a known constitutional and electoral law expert.



It was during his tenure as speaker of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, that BJP engineered some defections in the BSP to survive the floor test.



On February 21, 1998, Kalyan Singhs government lost majority in UP Assembly when a section of Loktantrik Congress  an ally of the BJP  withdrew support. Following this, the then governor, Romesh Bhandari, recommended President's Rule in the state, but the Centre refused to implement it.



This encouraged Singh who then proceeded to convince many legislators to back the government in return of Cabinet berths. This made the UP Cabinet at the time the largest in the history of the country with 93 ministers.



However, Bhandari refused to accept the support of BSP MLAs and dismissed the government overnight, making Jagdambika Pal of the Congress the new CM.



Following this development, Singh challenged Pals appointment in the High Court which declared Pals appointment invalid. The High Court also ordered Singh to prove his majority in the house by February 26th. In the following floor test in the 406-member assembly, Singh got 225 votes while Pal got 196. Later, the Supreme Court gave recognition to Singhs government.





Singh proved the majority in the House as Tripathi allowed them rebel BSP MLAs to vote recognising them as Independents.
New Delhi: Nitish Kumar has resigned as Bihar Chief Minister following his standoff with ally Lalu Prasad Yadav. Reacting very quickly to the development, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted a sharp political message welcoming him to join the fight against corruption.

The BJP has offered unconditional support to Kumar for forming a government without the RJD and Congress.

As it happened.

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The mysterious corridors of a plot in House of Cards would definitely have paled after what we saw in Bihar on Wednesday. From starting out as an electoral and political Opposition to the harbinger of royally corrupt dynastic politics in Bihar, Lalu Prasad Yadav, to embracing him in the name of a secular Mahagathbandhan to screeching Sangh Mukt Bharat to a complete volte-face by joining hands with the BJP, Nitish Kumar has emerged as a formidable politician who teaches a lesson or two to the politically puerile Opposition forces in the country.



Also, the significance of this political moment throws up so many definitions and dismantles so many theories that one is encouraged to think beyond the classic silos of opportunism, morality, ideology and pragmatism. It has demonstrated rather clearly that to be in power is a tough negotiation  often one which looks for compounding and competing claims than plain vanilla assertions of elemental moments:



1. Prime Minister Narendra Modis tweet consolidates the public position that has taken a firm stand within the communalism-secularism-corruption debate  one that has chosen corruption as a far more appealing and democratic rhetoric than secularism in our political discourse. After a series of attempts at political harakiri by the Opposition (including the largely English media) in raking up elitist issues, totally disconnected from the concerns on ground, after misreading again and again the pulse of the people and politics at the rural and urban units, after the arrogant dismissal of the clear writing on the wall not just elections after elections, after choosing to not acknowledge the dissipating interest of the public in the polarisation brought about in campuses or in front of National monuments in Delhi or carefully orchestrated TV studio wars, the opposition has no option but to justify their harakiri by a graceful admittance of corruption being a larger political issue than secularism.



Perhaps one retweet of the PMs secular pronouncement of this phase in Indian politics would have saved the Opposition the exhaustion of repeated failed attempts at raking a political nonissue. But as they say in the Hindu tradition, Vinaash Kaale Vipareet Buddhi.



2. The fact that Nitish Kumar, one of the most glamorised faces of the united opposition, chose to expose this unity, marks such a serious dent in the whole narrative of the anti-Modi brigade that it would be churlish to dismiss the far reaching consequences of this movement in the politics of this country. One look at the political map of India today suggests the clout of a single party. A studied relook clearly marks the unchartered territories that could or would easily come around in BJPs kitty because electorates in India have traditionally favored the strong muscles.



3. Nitish Kumars hunger to stay in power, come what may, suggests a very practical position that possibly also solves a typically moral question  to be or not to be  that often rattles political scientists. Moving out of the poesy of the electoral campaign to beginning to govern in prose, Nitish has shown rather authoritatively that one needs to grab and stay in power first before anything else.



4. The question on Nitishs moral authority can be debated or discarded or accepted. But what one cant take away from him is the showcasing of his morality. Any shrewd reader of politics would respect this man purely because he has managed perception as doggedly as he has managed his morality.



I was a part of his campaign efforts in Bihar. As a Bihari woman, I had been staunchly against the Mahagathbandhan on matters of principles and betrayal of a basic mandate Nitish Kumar enjoys term after term in his reelection. I saw similar feelings echoing within the ranks and files of the JDU  Mahila Prakoshth primarily. I also saw the discomfort of Nitish in dealing with the rather unholy alliance in his prophetic yet explanatory tweet:               



This development generates a wave of sympathy for him among a major cross section of Biharis.



From acknowledging that his alliance partner RJD was a foul party to flinging himself in the agnipareeksha of immoral politics, confident that he will emerge untainted, Nitish generated a huge amount of credible sympathy and support for himself in the 2015 elections. In terms of sheer political tamasha, this moving out of that unholy alliance seems to have made a graceful exit of an incorruptible politician. By resorting to a rhetoric of I cant take it any longer, he seemed to have emerged virtuous in a dirty war of nefarious designs.



The marvel of breaking the Opposition by not even agreeing to assault them but by slyly moving out of the edifice taking away the foundation itself has been a masterstroke that will define his most politically astute moves in his political lifetime by far.



Anyone in Bihar would admit that Mahagathbandhan was a flop without Nitish Kumar. Any citizen of that state would confide that had it not been for his clean face, the RJD would not have resurrected itself. By taking away the sheen from the lustrous design that the political climate created then, Nitish has outsmarted one and all  including the BJP, to some extent.



(The author is an assistant editor, India Foundation Journal, and project head, northeast operations. Views expressed are personal)




Former Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh passed away on Thursday after suffering cardiac arrest. He was 80.Singh, who was chief minister for barely 18 months, headed a rather shaky coalition with the Deve Gowdas Janata Dal (Secular) in from mid-2004.He became the CM under rather unlikely circumstances, chosen to lead the government not by his party, but as a compromise candidate after the Congress government headed by SM Krishna lost majority in the May 2004 Assembly elections. The JD(S) had called the shots and refused to ally with the Congress if Krishna continued to lead it.The affable Singh was then agreed upon by all parties to head a government that was unstable to begin with, and it was left to him to deal with a coalition partner known for hard-bargaining when it came to government posts and cabinet berths. Predictably, the government didnt last long, with the JD(S) withdrawing support in January 2006.Known as a man who was always ready with some shayari, Singh brushed off his last day in office summing up thus: Na jane kin kin ki duwaon mein rehte hain hum doobte hain, samander uchal deta hai! (I dont know with whose blessings I have been living; even when I drown, there is a splash in the seas).A man with a calm persona, perhaps the only day he was seen losing his temper was the day he threw his resignation letter in the Assembly after he was defeated in no-confidence vote.Hailing from a minority Rajput community that had hardly any strength in constituency, he was one of Karnatakas record-breaking MLAs, representing his constituency Jevargi in north Karnatakas Gulbarga for nearly 30 years. He was Lok Sabha MP from neighbouring Bidar for one term.Both his sons are lawmakers. Ajay Singh is an MLA from his fathers Jevargi constituency, while younger son Vijay Singh is an MLC.Dharam Singhs body will be kept in state at his residence in Bengalurus Sadashivanagar till Thursday evening. The last rites will be performed in his home town.Karnataka Congress President G Parameshwara expressed condolences, saying Singh had devoted his entire life to public service. He brought in effective reforms both when he led the party and held responsible posts in the government. I pray to god to give strength to his family and supporters.State BJP president BS Yeddyurappa said he too is mourning along with Singhs family members. A simple and calm man, Singh leaves behind unforgettable imprint in Karnatakas history, he said.Prime Minister Narendra Modi too condoled the death, saying Dharam Singh had rich experience in Karnataka and national politics. His dedicated service to the society will be remembered, Modi said.(Photos sourced from Information Department, Government of Karnataka)
New Delhi: Hours after Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister of Bihar in alliance with the BJP and said he will prove majority on the floor of the Assembly on Friday, signs of cracks in both JDU and RJD could be seen.



Kumar refused to respond to Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who accused him of having returned to "communal forces" for "selfish" political motives, saying he would respond those attacking him at the "right time".



"I took the decision to form the new government in the interest of Bihar ... I am committed to the development of Bihar," he said.



Kumar also thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for greeting him after taking oath.



"There will be no compromise on corruption," an official statement quoted Kumar as saying. "I am confident that the pace of progress of the state will gain fresh momentum with assistance from the Centre," he added.



Tensions have risen to such a pitch within JD(U) that, according to sources, former party president Sharad Yadav has expressed apprehensions of the party breaking apart in a conversation he had with Gandhi on Thursday evening.



Some other senior JD(U) leaders have come out openly and claimed that untying the party from Mahagathbandhan was Nitishs own choice and that many party leaders were not even informed about this big political turnaround.



Speaking to media, JD(U) MP Ali Anwar said, We never expected this from Nitish Kumareven Sharad Yadav was not consulted or kept in the loop.



Anwar was the first JDU MP to openly take a stand against Nitish Kumar for allying with the BJP. Earlier this day he said Nitish Kumar heard the voice of his conscience before taking the decision. However, my conscience does not allow me to support it JDU had parted ways with BJP in the last state Assembly elections due to the difference in ideologies which continue to exist. In fact, things we did not agree with have become even more prominent recently.



A few hours after Anwars statement the Kerala unit of JDU openly distanced itself from Nitish Kumars decision, saying, Our stand is clear. We will not support Nitish Kumar if hes part of NDA.



Later during the day former party president and senior leader Sharad Yadav also held meetings with JD(U) MPs. According to sources Yadav also had a word with Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, who blamed Nitish Kumar for breaking Mahagathbandhan for his selfish gains. Gandhi was reportedly told by Yadav that he was not informed by Nitish about the alliance and that he fears the party being torn asunder.



Things have been moving at breakneck speed in Bihar. In just over 12 hours from now, Bihars new gathbandhan will have to prove its majority in the Assembly. And time is of the essence to Nitish Kumar, who has unraveled the biggest political surprise of the year. Kumar understands that the same strength that helped him tie a knot with a new political partner is the one that could lead to its undoing as well.



The calculation with BJP to form the State Government, which still has 40 more months left, is hinged on the unwavering support of all JD (U) MLAs. Together BJP and its allies with JD (U) have 129 MLAs in a 243-member strong assembly. The new alliance has got just 7 members than what is necessary to form a government.



However given that there are 17 Muslims and Yadavs in JD(U), and given in the dissent breaking publicly in the party, Nitish Kumar may have a lot to worry about. But political grounds in Bihar are changing by the minute. Already an RJD MLA has broken away from Lalu Prasad Yadav and pledged support to JD(U)-BJP alliance. How much the ground shifts by in the coming hours, will be hard to tell. But whats undeniable is that for all political heavy weights in the state and beyond, coming up is one long night.




New Delhi: Senior Congress leader Anand Sharma on Thursday attacked Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the BJP, saying he was always a political opportunist.



Kumar, 66, had resigned on Wednesday as chief minister to break ranks with his allies--Lalu Yadav's RJD party and the Congress and formed a new coalition with the BJP.



And a little more than 12 hours, he was back in the office after being sworn in by Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi with the support of the BJP.



"Nitish has always been a political opportunist. This alliance is sans principles and is an opportunistic coalition," Sharma told reporters here.



He also asked whether Kumar was not aware of the charges against Yadav when the grand alliance was formed between Janata Dal (United), RJD and Congress.



"The excuse they are making will not work. Nitish has completely been exposed and nobody will be able to trust him anymore," the Congress leader said.



After Narendra Modi had come to power at the Centre, Sharma said Kumar had called for bringing together opposition parties for a RSS-free nation.



"It is important to remember that Modi had commented on the political DNA of Kumar and Nitish had sent hair samples of the people of Bihar to Modi's residence (in response to it)," he said, adding both should remember what they had said to each other.


Patna: JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar returned as Bihar Chief Minister on Thursday, less than 24 hours after unexpectedly resigning in the wake of a strenuous rift in the Mahagathbandhan with Lalu Prasad Yadavs RJD.



Nitish Kumar was administered the oath at 10am followed by BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who will be the new deputy chief minister, replacing Lalu Prasad Yadavs son Tejashwi Yadav who has been accused of corruption.



The political landscape of Bihar changed in a matter of hours on Wednesday when Kumar formally staked claim to form the government with the backing of the BJP, marking his return to the NDA fold.



Nitish resigned on Wednesday evening, citing the failure of his Mahagathbandhan allies  the RJD and the Congress  to act on demands of Tejashwis resignation.



Tejashwi, his father Lalu and mother Rabri Devi have been booked by the CBI in a corruption case that dates back to 2005 when Lalu was the Railway Minister.



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



Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised him for his "honesty" in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP said it would support him, and its legislators met Kumar's JD(U) MLAs.



After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.



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



However, in no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi Yadav earlier said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.



"Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejashwi tweeted.



However, the numbers are stacked against him. The JD(U), BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122.



The RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110.



The trust vote will take place in Bihar Assembly on Saturday.




#EXCLUSIVE Though the alliance got the mandate, people of Bihar realised that it was a big mistake: Bihar Dy CM @SushilModi to @maryashakil pic.twitter.com/FyBT4LYvym  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 27, 2017

#EXCLUSIVE JDU is a natural alliance, unlike the Mahagathbandhan which was unnatural & it died: Bihar Deputy CM @SushilModi to @maryashakil pic.twitter.com/sb4m0BxMTu  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 27, 2017

#EXCLUSIVE There were many in JDU who were feeling suffocated. No sensible person can stay in alliance with Lalu:Bihar Dy CM to @maryashakil pic.twitter.com/VB1NvRJ8eX  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 27, 2017

#EXCLUSIVE -- I have not spoken to Nitish in the last 4 years, there was no personal contact: Deputy Bihar CM @SushilModi to @maryashakil pic.twitter.com/zH1Z0ZAyal  News18 (@CNNnews18) July 27, 2017

In an exclusive interview with CNN-News18 minutes after being sworn-in as the deputy chief minister of Bihar, Sushil Modi said the party was in touch with a few MLAs from the RJD and the Congress, but was sure that the BJP didnt need their support.We have the numbers. We have the support of 131 MLAs. We have asked for a floor test tomorrow (Friday). We are absolutely ready to prove our majority, Modi said.Commenting on the new government, Modi said Bihar was going to see a stable government and that the partnership of PM Narendra Modi and CM Nitish Kumar will create a miracle in Bihar.The PM and Nitish Kumar signify good governance. The people of Bihar wanted this alliance and it is a natural one, he added.This is the second time that Nitish Kumar has entered into an alliance with the BJP. NDA had ruled Bihar between 2005 and 2013. Nitish Kumar then broke away when the BJP decided to field Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha polls in 2014.Nitish was acceptable back then and is so even now. No alliance is made on bond papers or is based on agreements, but ours is a natural one, the deputy CM said, adding that Nitish Kumars DNA is anti-Congress.There are certain things that the CM doesnt compromise on. Corruption, for one. And also the feeling of anti-Congress. He knows exactly how the BJP functions, so there is no question of any chaos in Bihar anymore, he said.Claiming that the new alliance will sweep the 2019 poll, he said the accusations being thrown at Kumar for having betrayed the mandate on which he won held no grounds since the alliance with RJDs Lalu Yadav was an unnatural one.No sensible person would want to work with Lalu. The CM broke off with us, but then he also knew, like the people of Bihar, that the JD(U)-Congress-RJD alliance was an unnatural one which died a natural death, the deputy CM told News18.Quashing all rumours of the BJP being hand-in-glove with planning Nitish Kumars exit from the Mahagathbandhan, Sushil Modi said that he had not spoken to Nitish in four years, except for the informal times he had done so at public gatherings.The BJP was not aware of Nitishs intentions. However, I was aware that most JD(U) leaders wanted to break away from the alliance with the RJD and that the JD(U) and the BJP must come together, he said.But who can blame them or Nitish Kumar? He was clear that he wanted Lalus son Tejashwi to clarify, which he didnt. I have known Nitish for 17 years. Hes not one to compromise on corruption and scams, the deputy CM said.Adding that he himself was exhausted with the documents that stated Lalu and his familys corrupt land deals, the deputy CM said he still had 20-30 more documents that could make things worse for the RJD chief and his family.Everything is out on the public domain. People around Lalu feel suffocated. In fact, I received some of the documents from people in power. That just shows the trust people had in Lalu and his party, Sushil Modi said.So does the ousting of Lalu mean that Bihar will now see a stable government with little or no chaos?Where is the question of chaos or instability? This alliance between JD(U) and BJP will create miracles. Its stronger than before and together, Narendra Modi and Nitish Kumar will create a wave in Bihar, he said.
New Delhi: In fresh trouble for RJD chief Lalu Prasad, the ED has registered a money laundering case against him and his family members in a railway hotels allotment corruption case dating back to the UPA tenure, officials said on Thursday.



The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA). The central probe agency has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.



Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.



The Enforcement Directorate will investigate the alleged "proceeds of crime" generated by the accused, purportedly through shell companies, officials said.



Prasad's wife and former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi, son Tejashwi Yadav, and others will be probed by the agency under charges filed in the Enforcement Case Information Report(ECIR), the ED equivalent of a police FIR.



The case dates back to the time when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government.



Others named in the CBI FIR include Vijay Kochhar, Vinay Kochhar (both directors of Sujata Hotels), Delight Marketing company, now known as Lara Projects, and the then IRCTC managing director P K Goel.



The CBI FIR alleges that Prasad, as railway minister, handed over the maintenance of two IRCTC hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a 'benami' company owned by Sarla Gupta.



The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with favours allegedly extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as 'quid pro quo'.



The ED, under the PMLA, has powers to attach and confiscate tainted assets and it is expected that the agency will initiate such a move once it makes progress in the case.




New Delhi: In the last week of April this year, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar flew into Delhi and drove straight into 10, Janpath. In a hurriedly called meeting, he had a one-on-one chat with the Congress President Sonia Gandhi.



The meeting though was said to have been held in the backdrop of the impending Presidential polls, but it had set the cat among the pigeons in the BJP camp.



There were speculations that the meeting was to chart out the future course of action at the national level, to build an alternative front at the Centre to take on the NDA.



Nitish Kumar, in the opposition ranks, was perhaps the only leader who had credibility, and most importantly, who also evoked hope in the ranks of ramshackle opposition line up. He was someone whose personal integrity was un-assailable. He had the credentials to take on Narendra Modi.



But exactly three months after that meeting with Sonia Gandhi, Nitish Kumar has walked out of the alliance with the RJD and Congress. With it comes to an end one of the most ambitious experiments in coalition politics of our times.



But most importantly, the Bihar breakup lends a severe blow to any opposition's attempts to put up a fight against Narendra Modi in 2019.



Congress may have been a minor player in the state politics, but it still was that critical glue which held together the two disparate groups in alliance. It was the big brother on which rested the onus of drawing the contours of a Mahagathbandhan at the national level.



Failure of the Bihar experiment will also be seen as Congress' growing inability to lead an alternative front at the Centre.



Amid all this manthan, it is the Modi-Shah duo who would appropriate the most sought after byproduct or amrit in this political churning. With less than two years to go for the elections, the Bihar breakup leaves the opposition in tatters. It strengthens the NDA.



It is a sweet revenge of sorts for the duo. Bihar was the first big loss for Modi and Shah ever since the two came together in Gujarat. Delhi was a minor blip. But Bihar loss, had it not been wrested in UP, could have triggered a chain effect.



As for Nitish Kumar, he's been the chief minister of one of the largest and politically most influential states of the country. The next pedestal that he could possibly aim for was that of the Prime Minister of India.



BJP, in its current position of strength, would obviously have not offered him that job.



Nitish Kumar could have emerged as the choice of the alternative front. The announcement to that effect did not come for a very long time. Or was the Bihar CM, in his calculations convinced that with or without him, 2019 would be a tough battle to win. A really tough battle indeed.
Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav has lashed out at Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi accusing him of trying to kill democracy by not inviting the single largest party to explore the option of government formation.



He met the governor to register protest over Nitish being invited to form government. Flanked by his party MLAs, Tejashwi marched towards Raj Bhawan around 2am on Thursday morning.



RJD being the single largest party should have been invited to form the government. We are taking legal advice and will move court against the governor's decision, he said.



Agitated over setting the time for Nitish's swearing in at 10 am, Tejashwi accused the governor of acting at the behest of BJP. Nitish has been asked by the governor to prove his majority in the Assembly within two days of taking oath.



He described Kumar's resignation as a "pre-planned conspiracy" between the former and the NDA, and also questioned the advancing of the oath ceremony timing from 5 PM to 10 AM.

"This whole drama was planned and Tejashwi was just an excuse for him (Kumar) to go with BJP," he said.



Before the march the RJD leader tweeted, Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral? A governor should act as custodian of constitution, not as Centres stooge. He can't ignore single largest party & largest pre-poll alliance.



Tejashwi claimed that half of the JDU MLAs were with him which forced Nitish to rush to the Raj Bhawan at midnight. "I'm confident that most JD(U) MLAs who are committed to social justice will vote against the government in the floor- test." .



He threatened of protests across the state against Nitish who will find it difficult to move around.



Nitish resigned as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday after ally Lalu Prasad Yadav ruled out the resignation of his son Tejashwi Yadav over a corruption scam and dared the CM to leave the alliance. I have quit in the best interests of Bihar, Kumar told reporters, adding that it was getting difficult to work with the RJD.



Shortly after Kumar submitted his resignation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted, For the bright future of India, and particularly Bihar, it is imperative that one goes beyond political differences and fights corruption. Within minutes BJP MLAs of BJP rushed to meet the CM, prompting Lalu to call the whole resignation a well-orchestrated drama.
LINCOLN  United States Drought Monitor officials said this morning that the number of Nebraska residents who are living in drought conditions has climbed above 200,000.

The agency released its weekly report about drought levels across Nebraska and other Midwestern states on Thursday. The latest report showed that 222,238 people are now residing on property that has entered a drought stage. That number rose from 166,720 in last weeks report.

The U.S. Drought Monitor places land in six stages of health: free of drought, abnormally dry, moderate drought, severe drought, extreme drought and exceptional drought. A total of 86.10 percent of Nebraska land is now included in the abnormally dry stage. This means the topsoil and subsoil is considered to have below-adequate moisture levels.

A total of 41.90 percent of Nebraska is in the moderate drought category, and 6.28 percent of the state has moved into the moderate drought classification. There are no areas of Nebraska that have moved into either extreme or exceptional drought levels.

The amount of land that has changed to moderate drought status has increased by more than 17 percent from last week. A total of 24.84 percent of Nebraska fell in the moderate drought stage on July 18. There were zero sections of Nebraska land in that category on June 27.

Cass County is one of the few counties in the state that has avoided drought so far this summer. Most of southeastern Nebraska has fared better than counties in the northern tier. Cass, Otoe and Sarpy counties all currently have adequate moisture levels. This is helping both crops and livestock throughout the area.

Areas of the Missouri River basin in North and South Dakota have continued to deteriorate over the past week. Forty-five percent of North Dakota is experiencing extreme drought, and the entire path of the Missouri River in that state has fallen into that category. A small sliver of the Missouri River is now running through a section of North Dakota deemed to be in exceptional drought.

Approximately 15 percent of South Dakota land has fallen into the extreme drought category. Much of that land is near the Missouri River in the north-central part of the state.
After the recent Nokia 2 render leaks, the entry-level Android offering by Nokia has made its way to the GeekBench platform. Rumoured to be powered by either a Qualcomm Snapdragon 210 or a Snapdragon 212 SoC, Nokia 2 might just come as Nokias most affordable smartphone offering. The listing on the GeekBench reveals other specifications about the Nokia 2, such as a 1GB RAM, Android 7.1 Nougat OS and a score of 422 in the single-core test and 1146 in a multi-core test.A step below the Nokia 3, the Nokia 2 is rumoured to sport a 5-inch display and a design with rounded edges. It may also come with on-screen Android navigation buttons.Another Nokia launch to look forward to is the Nokia 8, expected to be unveiled at an event by Nokia in London on August 16. The Nokia 8 is anticipated to come with a dual camera setup powered by Carl Zeiss optics. Apart from this, it may sport a 5.3-inch Quad HD display, the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 SoC, a 4GB RAM and a 64GB internal storage.With the latest Nokia 2 listing on the GeekBench, there is a possibility that HMD Global maybe looking at a dual launch on August 16.
Washington: A Pakistan-born former IT aide of a top Democratic lawmaker has been arrested while trying to leave the US by the FBI on charges of bank fraud, officials have said.



Imran Awan, 37, an information technology administrator of Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, was arrested from the Dulles International Airport on Monday while he was about to board a flight to Lahore.



FBI has seized smashed computer hard drive from his home, federal investigators said.



Awan's wife, Hina Alvi, had earlier left for Pakistan along with their children. The FBI said they do not believe she and their kids would return to the US.



He was at the center of a criminal investigation potentially impacting dozens of lawmakers, with possible security breach into their emails and computer systems.



Awan, who pleased not guilty, was released on Wednesday on a high intensity supervision programme, the Department of Justice said.



Capitol Police is investigating this criminal incident into "serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network" by Awan and three of his relatives who had access to the emails and files of the more than two dozen House Democrats who employed them on a part-time basis, said the Daily Caller which has been carrying out investigative reports in the case for the past several months.



In its complaint, the FBI accused Awan of attempting to defraud the Congressional Federal Credit Union by obtaining a USD 165,000 home equity loan for a rental property. This is against the credit union's policies since it is not the owner's primary residence.



Those funds were then included as part of a wire transfer to two individuals in Pakistan's Faisalabad, the FBI alleged in its chargesheet.



"Bank records show that USD 165,000 of USD 283,000 wired to Pakistan. Alvi had numerous pieces of luggage with her, including cardboard boxes. A secondary search of those items revealed that the boxes contained household goods, clothing, and food items. US Customs and Border Protection conducted a search of Alvi's bags immediately prior to her boarding the plane and located a total of USD 12,400 in US cash inside," FBI said.



Alvi, who was permitted to board the flight to Qatar, has not returned to the US along with her daughters.



Awan's attorney Chris Gowen, in an email statement to Politico, said: "This is clearly a right-wing media-driven prosecution by a United States Attorney's Office that wants to prosecute people for working while Muslim. A quick glance at what the government filed in court confirms the lack of evidence or proof they have against my client".



However, the Republican National Committee has accused Congresswoman Schultz of not being truthful on this matter.



"We have to get to the bottom of this, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz has obstructed at every level on something that affects potentially our national security. So to have this gentlemen try and leave the country, and now we know there is bank fraud and we know he destroyed these hard drives, when you read story about the Marine that found them in the apartment he wastrying to rent," the Republican National Committee (RNC) chairwoman Ronna McDaniel said.



RNC said that the criminal investigation alleges the "stealing equipment from members' offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network".



Awan allegedly stole hundreds of thousands of dollars in equipment from House offices and funnelled sensitive congressional data offsite as part of a massive cybersecurity breach, RNC said, adding that last year Awan worked for as many as 13 House Democrats.



According to Politico, most Democratic lawmakers cut ties with Awan and his family after the criminal investigation came to light in early February.



"But Awan continued to be employed by Wasserman Schultz, although it is unclear what his job duties were, given he had been barred from accessing the House IT system for months," it added.
Orleans, France: France will set up processing centers this summer in Libya for asylum seekers trying to reach Europe across the Mediterranean, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Thursday.



"The idea is to create hotspots to avoid people taking crazy risks when they are not all eligible for asylum. We'll go to them," he said during a visit to a refugee shelter in central France, adding the plan would be put in place "this summer".



Macron's announcement came two days after he brokered talks in Paris between the leaders of the two rival authorities in war-torn Libya, who agreed to a conditional ceasefire.



The lawless country is the main launchpad for African migrants trying to reach Europe in rickety boats operated by smugglers that frequently sink.



Macron had said on Tuesday he hoped the agreement to try to end five years of chaos in Libya would check the flow of migrants.



Since January, more than 100,000 people have made the perilous voyage from Libya, according to the International Organization for Migration.



Over 2,300 have drowned this year attempting to make the journey, the IOM says.



The vast majority land in Italy -- the EU country closest to North Africa -- which has complained of a lack of solidarity from its neighbours in dealing with the influx.



From Italy, a fraction push on into France.




Islamabad: Pakistani Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan said on Thursday he would quit his post after the Supreme Court rules on corruption accusations against Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, whatever the result.



The announcement by one of Sharif's longstanding political allies marks a fresh blow to the premier as he awaits a ruling that could disqualify him from office.



Khan said he had clashed with members of Sharif's PML-N party over how to tackle the Panama Papers leak, which led to the investigation into how Sharif obtained his wealth.



"The day Supreme Court decides, whether it is in favour of Nawaz Sharif or against him, I have decided I will quit from my ministry and I will also quit from the National Assembly," Khan said.



Sharif this month dismissed a report from the corruption investigation that raised questions about his wealth as slander.




London: Britain's Prince William will give up his day job on Thursday when he completes his last shift as an air ambulance pilot before focusing full-time on his royal duties.



The 35-year-old prince, the second-in-line to the throne after his father, Charles, announced in January he would quit his role as a pilot with the East Anglia Air Ambulance (EAAA) to take more of the official roles relinquished by Queen Elizabeth who since turning 90 last year has eased up on her workload.



William's office said the prince would perform a night shift at Cambridge Airport in central England where he has been based since joining the EAAA in 2015, before posing for a photograph with his colleagues.



"Following on from my time in the military, I have had experiences in this job I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that will add a valuable perspective to my royal work for decades to come," he said in January.



William served in Britain's armed forces from 2006 until 2013, and worked latterly as a search and rescue helicopter pilot.



As well as quitting his air ambulance job, William is moving with wife Kate, and children George and Charlotte from Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the queen's Sandringham estate in eastern England, to Kensington Palace, their official London residence.
San Francisco: Demonstrators flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City and gathered at a plaza named for a San Francisco gay-rights icon on Wednesday to protest President Donald Trump's abrupt ban on transgender troops in the military.



A crowd of at least a few hundred people gathered around the US Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square. They held signs saying "Resist!" and listened to speakers who denounced the ban, which Trump announced on Twitter.



Demonstrator Yael Leberman says transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental" abilities. She says it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.



It's unclear what the ban will mean for currently serving transgender soldiers.



Several hundred demonstrators gathered later Wednesday in San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza. They waved pink and blue flags, held signs reading "Trans lives are not a burden" and chanted "Stand up! Fight back!"



A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla told the crowd she's tired of being told who she can or cannot be, and asked for others in the LGBT community to support trans people as they fight for respect.



Doug Thorogood and Nick Rondoletto, a couple from San Francisco, waved a rainbow flag and held a sign that read "The only reason transgenders are being banned from the military is for bigotry."



"Haven't transgender people gone through enough? I'm over it!" Thorogood said, as they marched with the crowd from the Castro neighborhood to City Hall.



"When (Trump) goes for the people with the least rights, I just can't sit back and let that happen," Rondoletto added.



At a smaller gathering at the Los Angeles LGBT Center in Hollywood, US Army Reserve member and transgender man Rudy Akbarian, 27, said at first he thought the news of the President's order was a joke. The five-year military veteran said he was "heartbroken" to learn it was real.



"There are people who are retiring in the military, there are people who've done 18, 19 years and are about to retire and now it's all taken away from them," he said. "It's not fair."



"I know it's not over," he said. "I know we're not going to give up."
Bernie, a beagle mix, is one of three dogs listed as available for adoption from the Humane Society for Campbell County.

Despite the fact that Bernie's foster caregiver, Susan Stanbery, left the humane society to join the Central Virginia Regional Rescue last fall, the dog is still listed on the humane society's website.

Bernie was one of dozens of animals cared for by volunteers who left the Humane Society in 2016 after several began to question the agencys financial stability and ability to properly care for the animals.

I finally left because [another volunteer] started asking questions about finances that we never got a solid answer to, Stanbery, who has fostered about a half dozen animals since spring 2016, said.

In operation since 1988, the Humane Society for Campbell County worked to find homes and care for stray and abandoned animals in the county.

Starting in 2000, the humane society began placing animals in foster homes with volunteers until permanent homes could be found. In 2003 it opened a by-appointment-only cat shelter in a house at 29 Helen Drive, west of Rustburg.

In 2015, 219 dogs and 188 cats passed through the organizations foster homes and cat house, according to the 2015 report on Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services website.

The humane society did not file the necessary paperwork to be a registered animal care agency with the state in 2016, according to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Servicess website. The deadline to register was March 7, 2016.

The agency received a 30-day extension, but never sent in a report, according to VDACS spokesman Elaine Lidholm.

Laura Linn, a former board member for the Campbell County Humane Society, told The News & Advance she and approximately 50 volunteers left the organization about 18 months ago due to concerns over finances.

There were financial problems and just a basic difference of opinion on how things should be run day to day, Linn said. There was too much inflexibility, failure to utilize the skills of the volunteers, and bills that our volunteers had raised money for were not being paid.

Contacted by telephone, Campbell County Humane Society President Matt Smith declined to comment about the activities of the organization or its finances. He also would not give an estimate of the number of animals in its care or confirm whether the organization is still operating.

Wednesday, its website listed three dogs available for adoption as well as an adoption form and information about how to contribute to the organization. The link to donate to the organization via PayPal, an online payment-processing service, connects to the PayPal homepage instead of a donation form for the Humane Society.

According to the most recent federal income tax forms available on Guidestar, a website that provides access to nonprofit financial reporting information, the agency was financially solvent with $109,375 in revenue in 2015. The tax forms, called 990s, show $107,060 spent on expenses that year, with approximately $42,000 going toward employee compensation and benefits.

The organization has not filed a 990 for 2016 but has a legal extension, according to Amy Gallagher, legal partner with the firm Davidson, Doyle, & Hilton LLP, which filed the agencys paperwork in 2015.

The News & Advance reported in December 2015 the humane society could no longer afford to take in more animals and needed money to continue paying for costs such as food, medical expenses and the upkeep of the now-closed cat shelter.

Prior to her departure 18 months ago, Linn said, she made suggestions to the board on keeping the humane society financially afloat that included making the director position a volunteer position instead of a paid one. The board decided not to do so, Linn said, prompting she and several other volunteers to leave the organization.

According to the humane societys IRS 990 form for fiscal year 2015  which most tax-exempt nonprofits must file  Smith made an annual salary of approximately $30,000 and was the only paid staffer.

On May 2, 2017, the house where the by-appointment-only cat shelter was located was sold to Ocean Investments, a company owned by Lynchburg-based realtor Mark Dalton. He purchased it from the humane society for $55,000, according to the Campbell County GIS website.

Last week, a For Sale sign was in front of the house and contractors were seen renovating the interior. A private contractor, who would not provide his name, said last week he is renovating the house for rental.

Former volunteer Jane Williamson, who used to clean the cat house, said it housed up to 50 animals at a time for the humane society. She said the number of cats living there dwindled over time before the last one was adopted by mid-December 2016.

At the end there werent but a handful, she said. I had a feeling everything was shutting down because slowly but surely the cages were being taken down.

In a recent public Facebook post Arrington resident Carisa Beason expressed concern about the Humane Society for Campbell County.

The Humane Society for Campbell County has had animals in its care for some time now, she said. Their cat house is up for sale and they have no board members. The organization consists of one man and no animals, so where does this money go?

Last week the humane society had several donation boxes placed by the cash registers of local businesses in the region, including the Courthouse Cafe in Rustburg and the Foster Fuels Convenience Store on U.S. 29.

Employees at both stores said a representative from the humane society would come periodically to collect the funds in the boxes, but they had not seen anyone in a few months. Both boxes at the convenience store and the Courthouse Cafe were stuffed with dollar bills and loose change last week.

Pet Craze in Forest also had a donation box, but after hearing that the humane society was no longer solvent a few months ago, they removed the box to encourage customers to donate to other agencies, according to Retail Manager Tracy Rhodes.

According to the store manager Danny Wilder, the humane society used to place cats in cages at the Lynchburg PetSmart on Wards Road to attract owners. Wilder said those cages were given to another organization a few months ago.

The last time the humane society came to The News & Advance to have adoptable pets photographed and those photos published in the newspaper was January 2017.

Campbell Countys Animal Control and Care Center  once run by the humane society  continues to provide shelter for dogs and cats in the county and adopting them out.

Campbell County Animal Control Officer Benny David said the Humane Society for Campbell County is a completely separate organization and he does not have any knowledge of the organizations current status.

After leaving, Linn and the other volunteers formed Central Virginia Regional Rescue which cares for dogs and cats by placing animals with foster families before being adopted. CVRR, a 501c3, is registered with the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services.

The organization took in the last 15 dogs from the humane society about a year and a half ago, she said.

On its website, the Humane Society lists two other dogs in addition to Bernie, but both were adopted in early 2016, according to social media posts provided by Linn.

Officials with the Lynchburg Humane Society, Til the End of Time Animal Sanctuary in Appomattox and the Campbell County Animal Care and Control Facility confirmed they received no calls at any point to take in any animals from the humane society.
Like other clergy, the Rev. Walter Nolte has shared times of joy and sorrow with his parishioners.

One of his saddest moments occurred while presiding at the funeral of an infant, whod been abused by a baby sitter. The babys name was Alexander.

During the funeral, Nolte asked if anyone would like to say something. The babys 3-year-old brother got up.

Love you Alex. See you later, the child said.

That was very cool, because it spoke of childlike faith  knowing that it wasnt the end as far as the spirits concerned, Nolte said. It was a grace-filled moment.

This month, Nolte began the newest segment of his ministry when he started his work at St. Patricks Catholic Church in Fremont. He began on July 1. Thats the same day, the churchs previous senior pastor, the Rev. Dave Belt, started his new assignment at St. Stephen the Martyr Catholic Church in Millard.

At St. Patricks, Noltes ministry involves overseeing the parish, staff and school. He says Masses, visits the homebound and the sick and presides over funerals, weddings and baptisms. He will visit classes and teach in the Archbishop Bergan Catholic Schools system.

Originally from Fort Smith, Arkansas, Nolte comes from a family of 10 children. His brother, the Rev. Mark Nolte, is a priest at St. Gerald Catholic Church in Omaha.

The Rev. Walter Nolte graduated from Subiaco Academy in Subiaco, Arkansas, in 1986.

Its a Benedictine boarding school, kind of like Mount Michael (in Omaha), he said.

Nolte graduated from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, Arkansas, in 1991 with a degree in finance and marketing. Nolte went to seminary in Mundelein Seminary in Mundelein, Ill.

He was there for two years and moved to Omaha. He took a year off of seminary and was part of Intercessors of the Lamb, a religious community in Ponca Hills in Omaha at that time.

Nolte prayed, taught prayer and gave retreats. He was there until 2002. He went back to seminary after a year, while still part of that community.

He went to Kenrick Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. He was ordained a deacon in 2001 and a priest in 2003.

Noltes first assignment was at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton Catholic Church in Omaha. The parish had about 1,100 families, he said.

Nolte went to Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Norfolk for three years and then to St. Ludger Catholic Church in Creighton for another three.

He served St. Bernard Catholic Church in Omaha for five years, before coming to Fremont.

Nolte has enjoyed how the parish and members have welcomed him.

He enjoys being a priest.

I love that its my calling, my vocation, he said. I love to be with people at any time in their lives when theyre in need or when theyre in plenty, when theyre sad or happy, wherever they are at.

Saint Padre Pio is a favorite saint of Noltes. A saint from San Giovanni, Italy, Padre Pio was known for exhibiting stigmata, marks or wounds corresponding to those left on Jesus body during his crucifixion.

His (the priests) hands, his feet, his side were all wounded, Nolte said, adding, He had a great passion for those who were spiritually sick and physically sick. He worked to relieve them of their physical pain as well as their spiritual pain.

The saint, who built a large hospital with donations, was 81 years old when he died in 1968.

Noltes favorite Scripture is John 16:32 in which Christ said, I know Im not alone, because the Father is with me.

That was Jesus strength and in imitation of him I try to have that be my strength, to not reside in loneliness, but to reside in the truth that Im not alone, even if I may feel like it at times, he said.

Nolte appreciates how welcoming the parish has been and plans to be present and available for the parish.

Its a nice place, Nolte said. I like it. Im looking forward to being here.
Gallery 92 West (92 W. Sixth St., Fremont): Tracy Gallery  Fremont Area Art Association All-Member Show, through July 30. Hinds Gallery  Jay Michelsen paintings, through July 30. Admission: Free. Hours: 1-4 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday.

Great Plains Art Museum (1155 Q St., Lincoln): David Lovekin and Rick Houchin photography exhibition, through Oct. 28. Lovekin and Houchin spent two years traveling throughout more than a dozen small towns in Nebraska to capture quiet streets void of inhabitants, but full of the signs of human presence.

Admission: Free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday; 1:30-5 p.m. Sunday.

Joslyn Art Museum (2200 Dodge St., Omaha): Bijoux Parisiens: French Jewelry from the Petit Palais, Paris, through Sept. 10. The exhibition tells the story of dozens of talented artists, designers and entrepreneurs who created extraordinary works of art using the most precious materials on earth. Glorious Flights: Illustration Art of Alice and Martin Provensen, through Sept. 3. The exhibit features art from dozens of childrens books illustrated by the husband-and-wife team of the Provensens. Janet Biggs, through Sept. 10.

Admission: Free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday; 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday; closed Mondays and major holidays. Ticketed exhibition admission: $10 for adults, free for youth ages 17 and younger.

KANEKO (1111 Jones St., Omaha): KINETIC, through Oct. 14. The exhibit explores the art and science of movement and the perception of motion.

Admission: Free ($5 suggested donation). Hours: noon to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday. Closed Sunday and Monday.

LUX Center for the Arts (2601 N. 48th St., Lincoln): Roadtripper by Sara Henry, through July 28. This ceramics exhibition acts as a reference to recent drives Henry has taken across the United States. Female Gaze Returned curated by Sandra Williams, through Aug. 25. This exhibit examines the role of the female gaze through the work of five women artists.

Admission: Free. Hours: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday; 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. first Friday.

Sheldon Museum of Art (12th and R streets, Lincoln): Re-Seeing the Permanent Collection, through July 30.

Admission: free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday; noon to 5 p.m. Sunday.

University of Nebraska-Lincolns Kruger Gallery (In Architecture Hall, 402 Stadium Drive, Lincoln): Dream Space  Play Space: Celebrating the Imagination of Childhood and the Magic of a Miniature, through July. The exhibition features 12 scenes that examine the fantasies, fears and pleasures of children.

Admission: free. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Russia? It's all just a lot of smoke

Russia has been meddling in American affairs since the beginning of the Cold War. Were they trying to sway the last presidential election? Who knows? Is there any evidence that Russia had any influence on the election? No, absolutely none. (I know what you are thinking: WikiLeaks, right? I will address that in a moment.)

No evidence exists that Russia affected one voting machine or one vote in any state. No evidence exists that Russia affected one vote from any Electoral College representative. In short, our current president was elected by a strong majority of electoral votes completely within the current legal framework of our election process. Whether anyone likes that election outcome matters about as much whether they like the outcome of the Super Bowl. There was no Russian meddling in the process of the election, period.

Did Russia affect American opinion during the campaign? Assuming former FBI Director James Comey is not a Russian operative, the only tangible thing anyone can point to which may have swayed any voters opinions were the infamous WikiLeaks email dumps. The contents of those emails did shed light on some unsavory opinions and actions of high-ranking DNC members. So what was the source of the WikiLeaks emails?

Russia denies any relation to them. Some intelligence agencies infused with numerous Obama appointments claim the emails came from Russian hacking, but they have shown no proof or electronic trail. In over 11 years of operation, like them or hate them WikiLeaks has never been proven wrong  not once. And Julian Assange has repeatedly declared that the emails did not come from Russia or any government for that matter.

While he flatly refuses to reveal his sources, comments Assange has made in interviews seem to suggest a DNC staffer, Seth Rich, may have been the source. Rich was murdered at 4 a.m. and the case is still unsolved. Originally, it was labeled a robbery, but his possessions  wallet, phone, watch  were not stolen. Suspecting a cover-up, WikiLeaks has offered a $20,000 reward for Richs murderer.

WikiLeaks denies the emails came from Russia and the Russians deny it. The whole Russian meddling story was asserted to explain how the inevitable Hillary Clinton could have lost. It has no basis in fact of any kind. The Democrats insist that there is a lot of smoke that must be investigated. But it is only the smoke that they are blowing up Americas you-know-what to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in endless investigations, the only purpose of which is to find something, anything that they can use against Trump. These taxpayer funded investigations may be the most expensive and exhaustive opposition research campaign ever conducted in American political history.

JOHN BYRUM

Madison Heights
An autonomous Lexus RX hybrid completed its 5,300-plus mile, round-trip cross-country journey at Virginias Executive Mansion on Wednesday afternoon.

For the bulk of the trip, the vehicle drove more than 4,300 miles autonomously.

The self-driving vehicle, programmed by Blacksburg-based Torc Robotics, started its journey July 7 in Washington, D.C., headed west to Seattle, returned east to Richmond and was greeted by Gov. Terry McAuliffe in Capitol Square.

That was something, McAuliffe said as he got out of the vehicle after a test ride.

This (autonomous driving) technology is coming, and we want to be in front of it here in Virginia. We want to be the leader, McAuliffe said.

One of the benefits of driving cross-country was testing the car in a variety of road and weather conditions, the company said.

Three certified safety drivers and one Torc engineer went on the cross-country trip. The safety drivers rotated time behind the wheel for the duration of the trip to assist the car in case of emergency.

Along the nearly three-week journey, Torc Robotics CEO and co-founder Michael Fleming said, many people photographed the vehicle, which is equipped with a large, spinning lidar (light detection and ranging) system mounted to the roof, an array of radar, video cameras and two GPS antennas. Radar systems also are hidden inside bumpers.

Inside the car, the only noticeable modification is the addition of a tablet mounted on the center console. All the cars sensors feed data into a computer in a compartment below the trunk.

The dashboard has three indicator lights: green to let the driver know all is going well; yellow appears when the car detects a minor obstacle that the driver should know about; and red for when its time to hand controls back over to the driver.

This was not Torcs first long-distance test. One of the companys cars logged over a 1,000 miles during a round trip from its headquarters in Blacksburg to the Ford Piquette Avenue Plant in Detroit  the birthplace of the Model T.

Fleming said autonomous cars will be available to the public sooner than you think.

The commonwealth of Virginia is a pro-business, self-driving-friendly state, Fleming said. We have grown our technology here within the commonwealth.

The business began as a startup in 2005 and developed the technology in partnership with Virginia Tech in 2007. Torcs technology has been applied to a variety of ground vehicles, including large mining trucks and military vehicles.

We are a company that is focused on ... the intelligence of self-driving vehicles as opposed to building cars, Fleming said. Torc is creating the technology that would be integrated into vehicles.

McAuliffe said about 85 miles of sensors will be installed for autonomous vehicles along Interstate 95 in Northern Virginia.

However, no laws have yet been passed regarding self-driving cars.

We did not put any regulations in ... because we dont know what the innovation is going to do, and what we do not want to do is stifle innovation, McAuliffe said.

We have advanced light years over the past 3 years with regards to autonomous car technology, said Karen Jackson, Virginias secretary of technology.
The United Way of Central Virginia has named Bill Varner as its new president and CEO.

Varner will start Aug. 1, the nonprofit announced in a press release Wednesday morning. He replaces Marie Martin, who stepped down in June after nine years as president.

Varner will run the agency, which works to advance education, income and health in the community by supporting programs, services and collaborations.

Varner declined to share his salary for the position.

According to 2015 990s, tax forms filed by nonprofits and made available to the public on the website Guidestar, Martins salary was $91,800 in 2014.

Previously Varner was Centra's Vice President of Strategic Planning, Marketing and Communications for 16 years. He served on United Way of Central Virginias board from 2012 to 2016 and on other boards including those of Piedmont Community Health Plan, James River Day School and Amazement Square.

Varner said there is a segment of the areas population that endures a daily struggle to make ends meet with food, medicine and a roof over their heads.

I believe a community or an area like Central Virginia is really only as great as its most disadvantaged individuals and one of the most humane things we can do is take care of them, he said.

He said it is important for the community to realize that the most vibrant communities have areas that are struggling.

We may not see those segments every day but they are there; but just because we dont see them it doesnt relieve us the responsibility to help them, he said. This is the power of a collective community in combining their small efforts to do enormous things for the community at large.

Patrick Richardson, UWCV board chair, said the search for the position was not just local but also nationwide. Richardson said the he does not know how many candidates applied for the position or how many were interviewed.

With Varners years on the board, along with professional and strategic planning experience, Richardson said he was the ideal candidate.

He is going to bring a great deal of value to the organization and helping to impact the lives of people living in Central Virginia, he said.

He said the board hopes Varner can support the issues UWCV is focused on as well as partner agency programs.

Bills ability to create and act on strategic plans will bring great value to United Way as it focuses on community impact issues, but also support partner agencies programs, Richardson said.

Christine Kennedy, vice president of the Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance, said she met Varner when he went through the organizations Leadership Lynchburg program.

He quickly ingrained himself into our community and many, including our organization, have been the recipient of his expertise, she said. I have no doubt that United Way will benefit from his strategic thinking, thoughtful leadership and passion for the well-being of this community."

Varner said he is motivated and enthusiastic about helping people who have found themselves in a difficult position.

Its a positive day in your life when youre among those who have the resources or means to be helpful to a person or community, he said. There are few things that feel better than that.

Varner said he learned a lot from watching Martin and he hopes to expand on her work.

The work shes done over the past decade as the president and CEO to ensure United Way is effective and as she led it through some challenging economic times  shes been a thoughtful steward of the mission of United Way and we owe a debt of gratitude to her, Varner said. She has a big heart and we will all miss having her there.

Martins last day will be Monday.

In 2013, the agencys board voted to change its mission and transitioned from a fundraising entity to an issue-focused one.

Varner said the national United Way organization is being called upon by its donors to demonstrate that the organizations that are funded are having an impact on the issues it intends to address.

More and more in the future we will measure our success by the impact those dollars have when theyre given to organizations across the community, he said.

The local United Ways new mission is school readiness.

Varner said the readiness initiative ensures all children will be prepared to succeed when they enter elementary school.

Its simply a chain, he said. Children who succeed in kindergarten are more likely to be strong readers by the time theyre in the third grade.

He said this will help with literacy, employment and graduation rates.

Varner earned a master's degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He and wife, Catherine, live in Lynchburg with their children, Julia and Will.
Durham Museum (801 S. 10th St., Omaha): Top Secret: License to Spy!, through Sept. 17. This highly interactive display will put visitors skills to the test as they experience the science, technology and psychology employed in the intelligence field. Omaha Police: Answering the Call Since 1957, through Sept. 24. This exhibit is drawn from the Omaha Police Departments historic archive of original artifacts, including uniforms, photographs and more. Mid-Western Missions: Agents and Expeditions, through Jan. 14. A Lifetime of Objects: The Story of Byron Reed, 1829-1891, through Jan. 14.

Admission: adults $11, seniors (62+) $8, children (3-12) $7, children under 2 free.

Hours: 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday-Saturday, 1-5 p.m. Sunday, closed Monday and major holidays.

International Quilt Study Center & Museum (33rd and Holdrege streets, Lincoln): Layered Voices, through July 30. Juried from several hundred entries by members of the Studio Art Quilt Associates, the new works in Layered Voices visually interpret this theme in layered textile creations.

Admission: adults, $6; children ages 5-18, $3; children under 5, free; families, $10. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday; 1-4 p.m. Sunday.

May Museum (1643 N. Nye Ave., Fremont): Transplanted: The Early Ethnic Settlers of Dodge County.

Admission is $5 for adults and $1 for students. Hours: 1:30-4:30 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday.

Strategic Air Command & Aerospace Museum (28210 West Park Highway, Ashland): Nebraska 150 Aerospace. The exhibit highlights significant contributions of Nebraskans over 150 years of aerospace history. Admission: $12 for adults, $11 for seniors and military and $6 for children ages 4-12. Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily.

Union Pacific Railroad Museum (200 Pearl St., Council Bluffs, Iowa): Move Over, Sir: Women Working on the Railroad, through Oct. 28. The exhibit traces the contributions that women have made to the railroad industry over the past 150 years, calling out specific women and their unique contributions to the industry.

Admission: Free. Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursday-Saturday.

University of Nebraska State Museum of Natural History (14th and Vine streets, Lincoln): Guts and Glory: A Parasite Story, through May 1, 2018. The exhibit explores the hidden world of parasites while showcasing the museums Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology. Galapagos, through Aug. 6. Visitors will be able to travel to six of the volcanic islands; examine a variety of specimens, including a newly discovered butterfly species; and play with 10 touch-screen stations offering games and videos.

Admission: $6 for adults (19 and over), $3 for children (5-18 years), free for children 4 and under, and $13 for families (up to two adults and children). Hours: 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday-Wednesday and Friday-Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursdays and 1:30-4:30 p.m. Sundays.
The tour operator Thomas Cook says that Turkey is back on the tourist map for both UK and German visitors. Despite growing tensions between Turkish and German government, Thomas Cook CEO Peter Fankhauser told that Turkey remained attractive for German tourists.

Thomas Cook has said there is a continued recovery for bookings to Turkey and the resurgence in Turkey had not been affected by increased tensions with Germany.

Visitors shunned the country last year after a failed military coup, which led to the company offering free cancellations to customers with existing bookings.

Overall bookings for summer this year were up 11%, said the company. Greece was also back in favour, with bookings jumping by 22%.

Thomas Cook also plans to restart holidays in Tunisia now that Britain has softened its travel advice to the country following a militant attack in June 2015.
Moses: TT benefits from Colombia ties

He was speaking at a recent ceremony to celebrate the 207th anniversary of Colombias independence. In a statement issued by the ministry, Moses identified education, national security and energy security amongst the areas which TT and Colombia collaborate in.

In the area of education, he said 33 participants graduated in April from the first edition of a Spanish course for public servants, which was offered by the Colombian government. Moses said 60 participants from five government ministries are enrolled in the second edition of this course, which will conclude in October.

On national security, Moses said the successful implementation of the peace agreement between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, demonstrates Colombias unwavering dedication to restoring peace and security. Moses said the reopening of Colombias embassy in Portof- Spain in 2012 has brought about increased collaboration between TT and Colombia.

He congratulated Colombia on assuming the Pro Tempore Presidency of the Pacific Alliance at the 12th Pacific Alliance Summit on June 30. Moses said TT is one of two Caricom countries which has observer status in the alliance.
TOBAGO TRAGEDY

Police, called to the scene by residents who heard 51-year-old Romeldas screams, found her body and immediately went in search of Hilton. Entering the family home not far from where the woman was found, officers found King, 55, on a bed frothing from the mouth. He died a short while later. News of the murder/ suicide tragedy rocked the sister island .

Assistant Commissioner of Police (Tobago) Garfield Moore said that at 7.55 am, a report was made to the Moriah Police Station that a man was seen chopping up a woman in the Congo Hill area. The police responded and on arrival found the womans body. Based on information officers received, they went to the home of the suspect where he was found on a bed. It appears that he ingested a poisonous substance, ACP Moore said .

He added that not only had Joseph-King made reports against King to the police, but a restraining order was also taken out against him. King was an employee of the Tobago House of Assemblys Division of Infrastructure, Quarries and the Environment as a watchman while his wife worked at the Tobago Unemployment Relief Programme (URP) as a checker .

Moriah villagers expressed shock at the couples gruesome end but some said they were not surprised. Everybody is close knit here, so for something like this to happen is really shocking, a villager said. But another villager said that the couple regularly accused each other of infidelity .

A recent argument, the villager said, led to Joseph-King leaving the marital home. It was just on Sunday that Twinkles (Joseph-Kings nickname) left the matrimonial home. She was going through real problems with Hilton. We were aware Hilton was looking for her since she left home .

Only this morning she returned to her job posting at CEPEP in Congo Hill and based upon what the workers said, Hilton came on the jobsite and he bounced her with his car and this started an argument between the, said the villager who asked not to be identified. Minutes later, King had chopped Joseph-King to death and then took his own life .

The couple had a child together, an 11-year-old boy, who was quickly taken away from the scene. Joseph-King has three adult children from a previous relationship. A close friend of the woman described her as a pleasant, polite and courteous woman .

A neighbour of the victims, told Newsday that she had she spoken to King several times about his temper .

Hilton was ignorant, he was hard to deal with. I personally spoke with him several times about that temper he had. Is only yesterday he was served with divorce papers. Twinkles could take the abuse no more. She filed for divorce and on Tuesday he got it (the papers). This was definitely premeditated, the neighbour said .

Electoral representative for the area, Assemblyman Sheldon Cunningham who said that he knew both individuals personally described the incident as unfortunate .

I can only extend condolences to both sides of the family. I think it is very tragic and it is something that none of us would expect, Cunningham said. He said counselling would be provided by the THA to the family as well as Joseph-Kings co-workers .
Bakr: Uprising could happen again

Newsday spoke to Bakr at his Mucurapo compound on Tuesday .

He explained that the reason for his decision in carrying out the insurrection 27 years ago, was to address rampant corruption under the then National Alliance for Reconstruction (NAR) government .

He cited circumstances surrounding the death of WPC Bernadette James .

You know whats the genesis of this thing? The politicians were dealing drugs and they killed Bernadette James. That is the genesis and if something like this happens again. I dont know...we may very well do the same thing because you cant just kill women, Bakr said. He added that the Jamaat al Muslimeen remains prepared to do what it takes to ensure the safety of women and children .

We are prepared to do whatever it takes to ensure women and children are protected. At least in 1990, women were not being slashed or stripped naked and raped .

This is what is going on now and this is the very same moral abyss I spoke of in my address 27 years ago. Bakr said the failure of governments, past and present, to properly address crime and criminality in the wake of the attempted coup was what led to an increase in violent crimes and more emboldened criminals .

Weve come to see it that by not making the appropriate changes, society has descended into the abyss and I dont know how or when were going to return .

Every day we have murders and we are at a stage where people are slitting womens throats .

While it is in the best interest of the Prime Minister and the National Security Minister to solve the crime, they just dont know how to do it. Prior to 1990, we controlled the streets and if you look at the murder rate then, it never exceeded one hundred in a year, Bakr said .

Asked if the current economic situation in Trinidad is in any way similar to the economic downturn of 1989, which produced the attempted coup, Bakr said that the situation for many working class people has worsened. He criticised both the Prime Minister and the Opposition Leader for their recent meeting which he said failed to address the plight of people living below the poverty line. Its 100% worst. That is the reality for a lot of the working class people in Trinidad today .

According to a recent report, 500,000 persons are now living with less than $1,000 .

That is less than minimum wage. When the government changed hands, the results of this study went from the Partnership to the Peoples National Movement and they did absolutely nothing to alleviate this most important issue .

Politicians are flirting in the face of the people by saying they are going to meet and they have an agenda that does not include the priorities. Newsday also spoke to former 1990 attempted coup hostage Wendell Eversley who agreed with his former captor Bakr, that conditions in TT are ripe for a second uprising, simply because of the governments failure to aggressively tackle organised crime .

We have a situation where there are young men wanting to go to Syria to fight for ISIS .

Where is the intelligence gathering? Things like intelligence gathering are still largely absent from our National Security council, Eversley said .
Investors willing to repay Govt

However, he said shareholders are starved for information and are being suppressed.

All our investors want to come in but in order for that to happen, due diligence must take place, Reis said. He added that for the eight years Government has been in control of CLF, they have not produced any audited statements.

Reis spoke to reporters at the Hall of Justice in Port of Spain after the hearing of Governments winding up petition was adjourned to September. On Tuesday, the appellate court gave Government permission to hire two provisional liquidators to preserve the assets of CLF until the winding up petition is granted by the court.

PRIVY COUNCIL LOOMS Reis said yesterday the shareholders are willing to take their fight to the Privy Council in London.

At yesterdays hearing, Justice Kevin Ramcharan, who last week denied the States application for the appointment of the liquidators, gave directions for attorneys representing the CLF shareholders to put forward their opposition to the winding up action.

They have until August 4 to do so. The judge said it was not in the interest of the company, its shareholders and creditors to have the matter go on for too long. Governments decision to seek to hire liquidators and have CLF wound up is based on a move by shareholders to regain control of the company.

As the principal creditor by virtue of the $23 billion bailout of CLF and its subsidiaries in 2009, Government has the majority of the directors on the board. The government claims the companys level of insolvency still poses a systemic risk to the countrys financial system and after eight years, it will not recover to a satisfactory state of solvency.

But Reis said this was nonsense.

He said the accounts are wrong but it will be up to the courts to decide whether the company should be liquidated.

He said liquidating CLF will lead to a systemic financial collapse since CLF was spread throughout the country and the Caribbean.

GOVT FEASTING ON CLF They (Government) do not want to let go. They are feasting on the company, he said, adding CLF has turned into a state company where its chairman and directors are being paid exorbitant fees.

According to the appellate courts orders, provisional liquidators Hugh Dickson and Marcus Wide of international accounting firm Grant Thornton will have the powers to protect and conserve the assets of CLF and curtail wasteful expenditure and liabilities pending the determination of the winding up petition.

They will also have the power to take possession and collect the assets to what CLF is entitled and do all things necessary to protect assets in this country and any other jurisdiction.

They will also have the power to investigate the affairs of CLF and bring, continue or defend any legal action brought on behalf of CLF.

They will also have the power to retain and operate the existing bank accounts of CLF and open and operate new accounts, pay any necessary expenses incurred and the power to enter or terminate any contracts relating to the company.

The courts order also gives the liquidators the power to sell, distribute or part with the assets of CLF with the courts approval, retain or dismiss employees, maintain insurances or make a proposal under the Bankruptcy or Insolvency act on behalf of the company.

The company also has 21 days in which to submit to Dickson and Wide a statement of affairs, showing the companys assets, debts and liabilities, a list of its creditors and the securities held. The two are also required to present to the court and the shareholders accounts of costs and expenses incurred every three months, beginning from November.
First Peoples will persevere

The history of the Amerindians, Carib and Arawak, was part of most of our childhood, but it may be a fading part of our heritage.

Carib Queen of the Santa Rosa First Peoples Jennifer Cassar was adamant that the Amerindian race was not dying, but there was need for more of the young people to embrace their heritage.

Speaking yesterday at the launch of the Santa Rosa Festival at Paul Mitchell Street, Arima, said the Amerindian community was healthy, but they need to make their youth understand the significance of their race.

Cassar took over as Carib Queen in 2011 after Carib Queen Valentina Medina passed away. Cassar was a public servant before she took on the role as matriarch of the community, and was involved in heritage activities and diplomatic events in the community.

Asked how she felt about Government granting the First Peoples of TT a public holiday on October 13, Cassar said after lobbying for years, they were grateful because nobody wanted to give up their holiday. We have had incremental progress and had discussions with previous administrations.

We settled for a one off holiday this year because after lobbying for years we realised that nobody wanted to give up their holiday, Cassar said.

The First Peoples had been lobbying for a formal public holiday for many years and were only granted a one-off  holiday this year.

Cassar was the first to say the First Peoples were not a dying race.

I think the problem is that most people do not identify with their ethnicity and they term themselves Spanish, whatever that is and refuse to acknowledge that they came from Karina or Lokono (Amerindian).

People have to be educated and sensitised, hence the one off holiday will be doing that. We would like a public holiday every year but we will settle for the one off because we not only have to sensitise and educate people, we have to do capacity building.

The Carib Queen said there are about 900 Carib descendants in Arima, while there are thousands more scattered throughout the country, mainly in the North Eastern part of Trinidad.
We periodically review our footprint in response to improvements in our logistics, the emergence of reliable third party partners and the prevailing volume throughput at each centre. This review will result in either closing or opening of certain depots, said Makamure.
The High Court has stopped the Sheriff of the High Court from arresting and committing Home Affairs Minister Ignatius Chombo to prison for contempt of court. Justice Charles Hungwe yesterday issued the interim order which runs until August 10 this year when the court will make its ruling on whether or not the minister had purged his contempt.



Minister Chombo was found to be in contempt of court for defying two High Court orders compelling him to take the necessary steps to ensure reimbursement of $1,5 million and $78 900 unlawfully seized from a Mutare businessman Mr Tendai Blessing Mangwiro in 2008.



However, the minister contends that he has since complied with the orders through writing to the Finance and Economic Development Ministry requesting funds to reimburse Mr Mangwiro.



To that end, Minister Chombo filed an urgent chamber application at the High Court seeking an order barring his arrest and subsequent committal to prison for a period of 90 days.

Justice Hungwe heard full arguments both on the interim and final reliefs before reserving judgment for August 10.



Minister Chombo, for now, will be a free man until determination of the main case. Justice Amy Tsanga last year ordered the minister to purge his contempt or risk being committed to prison for 90 days.



The police confiscated the money from Mr Mangwiro upon his arrest on criminal charges before the court cleared him of any wrongdoing in the matter.





Justice Tsanga found the minister guilty of contempt of court for failing to ensure payment of the $78 900 to Mr Mangwiro in terms of a court order and jailed him for three months with labour.





The judge said the sentence could be wholly suspended if Minister Chombo complied with the court orders he defied.





In the urgent chamber application, Minister Chombo, through his lawyers, indicated that he was aware that the Sheriff was hunting him but the arrest would be a violation of his rights.

The lawyers submitted that so far, two attempts have been made by the Sheriff to arrest the minister and that the court should intervene.





They argued that the minister had complied with the orders and that the planned arrest was a violation of his right to liberty.





Mr Mangwiros cash was seized by police and held as an exhibit, but when the matter was finalised the money could not be accounted for. He then approached the court seeking reimbursement and several court orders were granted in his favour, but Minister Chombo allegedly persistently refused to budge.





In the $78 000 case, Mr Mangwiro was charged with theft and tried by a regional court.

When he was acquitted on January 18, 2013, police had unlawfully and procedurally released the $78 900 seized from Mr Mangwiro and Z$46,135 million to one Andre Nsaka Nsaka.





The cash and some motor vehicles, were in fact, not exhibits before the regional court and there was no basis for them to be released to that person. Mr Mangwiro then applied for the release of his cash. Using the prevailing Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe rates, the Zimbabwe dollar component of Z$46,135 million was converted to US$1 537 833. Herald
Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko has been sucked into a dispute between Bulk Cash and Carry Wholesale (BCCW) and one of its employees who has made a report to the police, accusing the company of externalising foreign currency, the Daily News can report.



The allegations, which constitute a serious crime in Zimbabwe under the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act (Chapter 9:24), are contained in an affidavit lodged by BCCWs operations manager, Oga Chafausipo, who was suspended from the company early this year.



Chafausipo had been employed by the company for 16 years.

In his signed affidavit submitted to investigating officers at Bulawayo Central Headquarters on February 17, 2017, Chafausipo makes serious allegations of externalisation against BCCW, which is in the business of repackaging basic commodities such as rice, flour and cooking oil before reselling them to retailers in Zimbabwes second city.



He claims the company, which dismissed the allegations in their entirety this week, is involved in externalisation of funds, smuggling of goods, tax evasion and sale of substandard or expired goods.



National police spokesperson Charity Charamba confirmed to the Daily News yesterday that investigations were underway.



The matter is still under investigation. It is being handled by the fraud department. The police need to be thorough in their investigations as we need to build a case that is beyond reasonable doubt, she said.



We heard the Pakistani (businessman) was out of the country but the investigations are continuing. Investigations take time; when you investigate you need to be smart (about) the areas to get information. And we will also be expecting Chafausipo to present himself to the police, added Charamba.



Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson, Precious Simango, also confirmed receiving the affidavit from Chafausipo in February although he could not give details.



I can confirm that we received the affidavit but unfortunately I cannot give you details, Simango said.



Chafausipo, who alleges to have been suspended from BCCW after he questioned why his salary had been cut, alleges, however, that he witnessed firsthand on two separate occasions how over $8 million was separately externalised.



 . . . I had a trip to Botswana with . . . on 14/10/14 on the pretext that we were travelling for business . . . whilst at the border, I was shocked to see the guy declaring $4 which was stashed in clothes that were in a monarch, he claimed.



Chafausipo further claimed that in November 2014 and February 2016, using the same modus operandi they took out of the country $2,7 million and $2 million respectively, the money which was said to be then banked at an Islamic financial institution.



The company has been ably assisted to continue its illicit activities after successfully recruiting some government officials into the play, Chafausipo said, while giving names of officials from the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority and the Criminal Investigations Department officials.



I have it on good authority that (George) Mlala was recently paid $35 000 for onward transmission to honourable Vice President Phelekezela Mphoko for the sole purpose of no interference or protection of the company, further claimed Chafausipo.



I have since approached the Honourable Vice President Mphoko over the issue and he denied receiving the ransom from George Mlala. Surprisingly, George Mlala also denied receiving the money but vowed to protect the company directors before the Honourable Vice President, reads part of the affidavit.



Contacted for comment, the minister of State in Mphokos office, Tabetha Kanengoni Malinga, said she was yet to discuss the matter with the Vice President as he was out of office.



The Daily News first contacted Kanengoni Malinga on Tuesday, and made a follow-up on Wednesday, but she said she was yet to discuss the matter with her boss as he was still out of office.



The director of the wholesale, Imran Shahzad, dismissed the allegations saying they had been made out of malice by a jilted employee.



Shahzad said he has since lodged a complaint for criminal defamation against Chafausipo.

He is bitter man after he lost his job. These are all lies. I have cases against him that I have since opened with the police. I opened a criminal defamation (case) against him two months ago with the police fraud section, Shahzad said.



Its all a joke. Honestly, how can someone carry all that kind of money as he claims. If so, what mode of transport can one use to carry such an amount of money, its never easy.



Besides, do you think Botswana will allow me to carry all that money he is talking about? Thats impossible. But anyway, since he is bitter he is just doing all that to soil my image and my business that is why I have decided to make it a police case so that they can deal with him, he added.



On Tuesday, the 51-year-old Chafausipo said he stood by his claims and was willing to see who would disapprove his facts.



War Veterans minister Tshinga Dube was the first to make the sensational claims against Mlala early this month as they continued to haggle over the leadership of the former liberation war fighters.



Dube accused Mlala of working with an unnamed Pakistani businessman to externalise foreign currency and that he had evidence to support his claims.



But Mlala dismissed the allegations after being contacted for comment.

The war veteran said he has since instructed his lawyers to respond to the allegations though he had not seen the said affidavit.



I have heard of such nonsense and I have since instructed my lawyers to attend to those allegations. If Chafausipo is the one who is raising such allegations in an affidavit that he has signed himself mentioning my name in it, so it means I also have to include his name in the list of those who should face the lawsuit that is being prepared by my lawyers, Mlala said.



Those are just baseless and misleading allegations but lets leave it to the courts. daily news
A suspected habitual thief paid a painful price for his sticky fingers when he was beaten to a bloody pulp for stealing.

Two weeks ago, 30-year-old Plumtree born Alfred Moyo was caught apparently carrying out a home robbery at Shamrock Farms, located on the outskirts of Francistown.

It appears Moyo was about to make off with gadgets worth around P55, 000, including a laptop, camera and binoculars, when he was rumbled by the homes furious owner, Johannes Jacobus.

An unimpressed Jacobus and his farm workers are said to have beaten Moyo so badly he fainted, only regaining consciousness in hospital.

A fortnight later and Moyo is wheelchair bound and claims to be in agony.

Appearing before Francistown Magistrate Ishmael Molobe last Thursday, the accused thief, who was not required to enter a plea, was quick to highlight his plight.
No One Will

Ever Smash

Stuff Quite

Like He Did
A Connecticut domestic dispute ended with a man sentenced to 120 days in prison for murder ... fish murder. The April incident began when Juan Vega, 33, showed up unannounced at his girlfriend's home and a fight started, the Bristol Press reports. Police say he pushed the unidentified woman, kicked and broke a TV, gathered up his things, and left. But after his departure, the victim found other damaged items throughout the home, and then officers spoke to her 9-year-old sonwho told them the family's betta fish had been sliced in half. Vega, who admitted to police he killed the fish, pleaded guilty to one count of second-degree breach of peace Tuesday and was sentenced to 120 days in prison. The incident "really did traumatize the 9-year-old," the prosecutor says. (Read more weird crimes stories.)
A Mississippi police officer fatally shot 41-year-old Ismael Lopez late Sunday night while attempting to serve an arrest warrant. A lawyer for the Lopez family says police had the wrong house, NBC News reports. According to the Washington Post, Lopez was in bed when he heard a sound outside his home in Southaven. He got up to see what was going on; moments later he was dead. Prosecutor John Champion tells the Commercial Appeal that Lopez was pointing a gun at the two police officers outside his house through a partially open door and ignored orders to put the gun down. Champion says it appears one officer shot at a pit bull that ran out of Lopez's home and the other shot at Lopez himself. There were three bullet holes in Lopez's door.

It's unclear if Lopez fired any shots or if he knew the people at his front door were police officers. Attorney Murray Wells says neither Lopez's wife nor a neighbor heard the officers tell Lopez to drop the gun. In fact, he says Lopez, who has no criminal history and was not wanted for anything, wasn't even holding a gun during the shooting. Wells says there was a gun on the couch at the time. He says police were attempting to serve an arrest warrant for Samuel Pearman, who lives next door. Wells says the two homes are 36 feet apart and both have their addresses clearly visible. Pearman was wanted on a domestic abuse charge. An investigation into the shooting is underway. (Read more police shooting stories.)
A Virginia woman was surprised to learn the nocturnal noises coming from the attic weren't from the expected sources. It wasn't critters creaking the floorboards, or even her landlord, who uses the space. When police investigated, they found a homeless man had set up camp. The drama began early last Friday. "I heard footsteps above me, and I checked in with my landlord, because sometimes he's used the storage above," the unidentified woman tells NBC Washington. The landlord called Arlington police around 1:30am. Responding officers called out as they climbed the stairs, and "the subject came forward, says spokeswoman Ashley Savage, per the New York Times, and "was taken into custody without any incident." The man, identified as Anthony Jones, 60, was booked on an unlawful entry charge, per a police statement.

Officers found his backpack, clothes, and bedding in the attic. He refused to speak to cops and it's unclear how long he had been living there, though he's thought to have entered the house through a sliding glass door. Jones was being held without bail. The Times notes the homeless population in Arlington has dipped since the Washington, DC, suburb launched a "10-year plan to end homelessness" in 2008. There were 232 people on the streets in an annual count last January, up from 174 one year earlier. The Arlington homeless rate of 5.9 per 10,000 is far lower than the national average of 17 per 10,000 people. (New homeowners in Houston found a scary surprise in the attic.)
A young mother in Michigan has been charged with first-degree murder and first-degree child abuse after allegedly strapping her 6-month-old son into a car seat for two days without food or water. Lovily Johnson, 22, had a personal protection order against the father of her 2-year-old daughter in 2016, and he pleaded guilty to aggravated domestic violence last year, reports the Detroit Free Press. Now, a Kent County judge has ordered that her toddler be placed under state supervision as officials work to unite the girl with her grandmother. But for the baby, Noah Edward Johnson, help came too late.

By the time Johnson brought the boy's body to Helen DeVos Children's Hospital on July 19, a detective writes in a probable cause affidavit, "Noah was clearly deceased and had been for some time." Johnson allegedly admitted to being in sole charge of his care for the previous four days. She says she came home multiple times as the baby stayed fastened to his seat in a hot upper-story room without air conditioning, but "knowingly and intentionally deprived him of the necessities of life," the affidavit read, per People. Johnson was arrested, denied bail, and is due in court in August, reports MLive. "Let me make it really clear," the judge told Johnson when she said she didn't understand the charges, per KXTV. "They alleged you killed a young child and that you physically abused it." Johnson then said she understood. She pleaded not guilty. (This boy died in his dead mother's arms.)
Kristin Beck spent 20 years as a Navy SEAL, including time on Team 6and she would like President Trump to tell her in person why he feels she didn't belong in the military. "Let's meet face-to-face and you tell me I'm not worthy," the transgender veteran tells Business Insider. "Transgender doesn't matter. Do your service," says Beck, whose 13 deployments included service in Iraq and Afghanistan. "I was defending individual liberty," she says. "I defended for Republicans. I defended for Democrats. I defended for everyone." Beck rejects Trump's claim that barring transgender people from serving will spare the military the "tremendous burden" of their medical costs. "You're talking about .000001% of the military budget," she says. In other coverage:

The White House doesn't appear to have worked out the details of how Trump's decision will affect active-service transgender troops, who are believed to number in the thousands, BuzzFeed reports. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders declined to provide details on the issue in a Wednesday briefing, and threatened to end the briefing early if reporters kept asking about it.

Trump's decision will weaken the military, and not just by costing it an estimated 15,000 active-duty and reserve troops, Phillip Carter and Amy Schafer write at Slate. Millennials are strongly in favor of equal rights for LGBT people, they write, and Trump's decision will send the message to potential recruits that the military isn't the kind of employer they want to work for.

The Washington Post takes a close look at Trump's claim that medical care for transgender people would be a "tremendous burden" on the military and finds that even the highest cost estimate is just $8.4 million a yearor around 10% of what the military spends on erectile dysfunction medication. The military spend on Viagra alone is around five times the estimated annual cost of providing transition-related medical care to transgender troops.

Politico looks at the "legal land mine" of Trump's decision and predicts that the military will face "profound" legal difficulties if it tries to expel transgender soldiers who are already serving openly.

FiveThirtyEight finds that Republican senators aren't falling over themselves to rush to support the ban: Only two GOP senators endorsed it Wednesday, while nine (not all of them moderates) said they didn't support it. Many others chose to remain silent.

Transgender servicemembers vowed to fight any attempt to force them out of the military. "I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military," Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland tells the Air Force Times. "You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life."

(Read more transgender stories.)
The death of the first black woman to sit on New York state's highest court is sad but not suspicious, according to the New York City medical examiner's office. Judge Sheila Abdus-Salaam was found dead in the Hudson River on April 12 in what the examiner's office ruled Wednesday was suicide by drowning, Pix 11 reports. Police trying to retrace the 65-year-old judge's final hours found security video of her walking alone in Riverbank State Park for hours before standing by the river's edge soon after midnight. Her body was found floating in the river around 13 hours later.

Investigators found bruises on the neck of the judge's fully clothed body, and her husband, the Rev. Canon Gregory Jacobs, rejected early suggestions that she had killed herself. Investigators said it was possible that the bruises were caused when the body was retrieved from the water. An autopsy found water in the judge's lungs, indicating that she was alive when she went into the water, the New York Times reports. "It's an incredibly sad situation," Eric Phillips, spokesman for New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, tells USA Today. "The legal community and our entire city are very much reeling from the loss." (Read more Sheila Abdus-Salaam stories.)
The allegations are horrifying: that a Pakistani village council learned a 12-year-old girl had been raped by a teenage relative while she was cutting grass in a field, and that the council had an eye-for-an-eye response. The council in Muzaffarabad, a village outside Multan, allegedly ordered the victim's teenage brother to rape the assailant's 16-year-old sister as "punishment," per a police official. In the BBC's telling, the rape was carried out in front of both the council and the girls parent's, with the mothers of both the violated girls then going to police, reportedly to file rape charges against the other's son. Reuters backs up the report, and quotes Multan police officer Ahsan Younis as saying, "A total of 29 people were involved in this ghastly crime, and we have 25 of them in our custody."

The rapes reportedly took place on July 16 and July 18, per Dawn, and the Washington Post describes the family relationship, reporting the father of one of the young men is the brother of the second's grandfather. It's the family connection that's somewhat atypical, reports the Post, which says this was a "very distinct type of a panchayat" (village council) in that it was composed entirely of men related to one another, rather than elders from various families. It's not the only twist the Post sees: While "honor" crimes continue to occur in Pakistan, "what made this case different was that somebody spoke up, and authorities took action." Younis says the young men could face death, but it's the court's call. (Read about a similar case in India.)
Kenneth Starr headed the investigation that ultimately led to President Bill Clinton's impeachment. That's an important fact to remember given that Starr says President Trump's recent attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions are "one of the most outrageousand profoundly misguidedcourses of presidential conduct I have witnessed in five decades." In a Washington Post editorial, Starr not only calls for Trump to "stop the wildly inappropriate attacks"which began when Trump criticized Sessions' decision to recuse himself from the investigation into Trump's campaign as "very unfair to the president"but also blasts his comments as "inimical to our foundational commitment as a free people to the rule of law."

An attorney general "needs to step aside on matters where his own independence of judgment has potentially been compromised," Starr writes. It's part of the job: to be loyal to the Constitution, not the president, and to ensure laws are enforced without political considerations. This requires "courage on the part of the attorney general and a willingness by the president to listen respectfully to what he may well not want to hear," Starr writes. He cites historical examples, including the time Ronald Reagan accepted his attorney general's judgment that a legislative veto was unconstitutional, even though Reagan saw it as a political blow. "It was a matter of trust," Starr writes, noting there appears to be none of that today. Read his piece in full. (Read more opinion stories.)
While in prison for a murder for which he was twice convicted and later acquitted, Thomas Maupin had a set of dentures made. Years later, that set would become a key piece of evidence helping to put him behind bars again. According to Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich, dentures bearing Maupin's name were found at the scene of a rape in Memphis, Tenn., on Aug. 19, 2001. But for 15 years, they went untested due to a department backlog, reports the Commercial Appeal. Only in 2016, when a partial DNA profile was developed from the dentures and found "to be consistent with that of Maupin," was he finally arrested, according to a release.

Twice convicted of the 1988 murder of 6-year-old Tricna Cloy in Spokane, Wash., Maupin served 12 years in prison before his convictions were overturned; he then traveled to Memphis. On Aug. 19, 2001, he began walking alongside a 31-year-old woman, per the release. Maupin then forced the woman into an alley, where he stabbed her under the chin with a metal object that went all the way up to the roof of her mouth. He also used the object to rape the woman after forcing her to perform oral sex. Now 67, Maupin pleaded guilty to rape charges on Monday and was sentenced to eight years in prison. (Read more rape stories.)
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One of the biggest technology disruptors when it comes to shuttling people is now trying to transform the way goods are moved around the country.

This spring, Uber launched Uber Freight, an app that matches truck drivers with loads of goods to pick up and deliver. Texas played a key role in the San Francisco-based tech giant's inroads. Routes between Dallas, Houston and San Antonio served as its test ground before the app's launch.

Texas' large trucking business made it an obvious place to start, said Jeff Ogren, head of driver community and partnerships for Uber Freight. Fourteen percent of U.S. freight comes in and out of Texas, he said.

The state has continued to play a vital role in Uber's young business. About 70 percent of Uber Freight's loads and drivers are based in Texas, Ogren said.

The new business comes at a time when tech companies are exploring the future of trucking and automation. But analysts warn that Uber will need to offer something new to an industry that has already squeezed out greater efficiency and prove itself to truck drivers who may be skeptical of an unfamiliar player.

Mike Ramsey, a transportation and mobility analyst for Gartner, said Uber's new app is a way to leverage the technology that underpins its ride-hailing and food delivery business. It is also a way to learn a new industry, so it can explore ways to boost efficiency in the future with tools like automation, he said.

"What they are now is a technology company," he said. "Their aspiration seems to be a transportation company."

Ramsey said Uber has an edge with brand recognition, talent and capital, but he cautioned that its major leadership shakeup could shift business priorities. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick resigned in June after months of reports of workplace discrimination, sexual harassment and practices that flouted law enforcement.

And he added that the Uber Freight app isn't as pioneering as the ride-hailing one. "They're trying to offer a better mousetrap for a mousetrap that exists," he said.

With its foray into trucking, Uber must compete with logistics companies, freight matching websites called load boards and other apps.

Similar to the ride-hailing app, Uber Freight allows truck drivers to pick up extra work when they want to. They also can find a job that fills up their truck on the way home.

For Sam Carrillo, a Dallas-area resident and independent truck driver, apps have made work simpler and more lucrative. For nearly two decades, he's relied on brokers to match him with freight from electronics to bottled water in his truck. Now, he gets almost all of his business from two apps _ one of which is Uber Freight.

Before, he had to wait a month or longer for payment. Now, he said he receives it in seven days _ and without docked broker fees. He said he ends up making $200 to $400 more per trip.

And the apps are a quicker way to find jobs. "Press a few buttons and you're set," he said.

Ogren said there's an appetite for new tech in the trucking industry. Before working for Uber, he worked at Trucker Path, a navigational app that took off in popularity with truck drivers.

"These guys are looking for tools to better empower their lives," he said. "They're away from their family 200 days a year. If you can develop tools, they are going to buy in."
MASON CITY | A Mason City man on Thursday submitted a written guilty plea to fondling a 10-year-old child.

Christopher Alan Hull, 37, was charged with felony lascivious acts with a child, permit/cause child to fondle.

Hull touched a 10-year-old child's genitals and placed the child's hand on his own genitals in 2015 in Mason City, according to the criminal complaint filed April 19.

He was arrested May 6. Hull's sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. Sept. 25 in Cerro Gordo County District Court.

 Courtney Fiorini
The Daily News-Miner encourages residents to make themselves heard through the Opinion pages. Readers' letters and columns also appear online at newsminer.com. Contact the editor with questions at letters@newsminer.com or call 459-7574.
Indore:

A 42-year-old woman belonged to Mandsaur has given a new lease of life to four persons after she was declared dead.

Archana Dosi, who suffered a brain haemorrhage, was admitted to a private hospital on July 23. Doctors were minutely examining her but were declared dead on July 25.

After her death, Dosi's husband and family were convinced to donate her vital organs. Heart, liver and a pair of kidney harvested from Dosi's body were delivered to three hospitals in the city through 'green corridor' and were harvested into the body of four patients.Divisional Commissioner, and president of Indore Society for Organs Donation, Sanjay Dubey said.

He said that the deceased's eyes and skin have also been preserved for transplant.

According to officials, organ transplantation has come from 23 brain dead people in the city in last 21 months. The organs have been donated to nearly 1330 people in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra.
New Delhi:

Did you know? Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, a film which is based on a true incident and supports in creating awareness on improving sanitation condition in India, was not offered to Akshay Kumar firstly. Infact, it was denied and rejected by many actors for over four years.

The Airlift star made such revelation days before the release of the flick. He said, "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" was offered to many other heroes, who rejected the movie. The writers brought the subject to me. Interestingly, this script was doing the rounds in the industry for over four years. It went to a lot of heroes, a lot of people but nobody picked it up.

The movie was earlier titled as Sandaas: Ek Prem Katha but was later changed. The actor told the reporters that the film is based on a true incident and is basically a love story.

After the release of its first trailer, PM Narendra Modi praised it for its commendable effort to promote cleanliness. On asking to hold a special screening for the Prime Minister, the Baby star said it would his honour to organise it.

Directed by Shree Narayan Singh and produced by Neeraj Pandey and Akshay Kumar, Toilet: Ek Prem Katha is slated to release on August 11.
New Delhi:

Terrorist Zakir Musa has been named as head of Al-Qaedaas new terrorist outfit in a bid to step up its activities in India. A

According to the media reports, Al-Qaeda has formally announced the establishment of a new Kashmir-based terror group Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind which shall be headed by terrorist Zakir Musa.

The Economic Times quoted reported that a "statement of establishment" was disseminated on social media by the Global Islamic Media Front on Thursday, the online propaganda distribution arm of Al-Qaeda.

"After the martyrdom of heroic Mujahid Burhan Wani the Jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening, as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir has committed to carry the flag of Jihad to repel the aggression of tyrant Indian invaders, and through Jihad, and with the aid of Allah only, we will liberate our homeland Kashmir," it said.

"For this goal, a new movement of Jihad has been founded by the companions of martyr Burhan Wani under the leadership of Mujahid Zakir Musa," the statement said.

Musa, who was formerly a Hizb-ul Mujahedeen terrorist had quit the organisation in May after the group refused to back his audio clip, threatening the separatist leaders for terming the Kashmir issue "political" and not religious.

BREAKING: Al-Qaeda names terrorist #ZakirMusa as head of its new Kashmir unit pic.twitter.com/lJVfihquxK a News Nation (@NewsNationTV) July 27, 2017

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New Delhi:

There is no quid pro quo with China on the issue of stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing and sufferings of the Tibetan people, informed External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to a question to Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

The external minister responding to the supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal Pradesh residents by China said, the issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels by us. Be it at my level or that of the Prime Minister."

Swaraj talking about Indias stand on Tibet said, We used to earlier talk of one China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear."

Also Read: Iraq searching kidnapped Indians, Sushma Swaraj to raise issue in bilateral talks

She added that Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and "we allowed him to do so". This is not the first time he is visiting that place.

"We have lodged our protest over the issue that goes against Indias interest, " Swaraj said.

She informed the house that there was no policy under which Chinese companies are denied security permission and also objected to a member raising the issue of a particular Chinese company in the House.

Also Read: Chinese media says Sushma Swaraj lied in Parliament about international support to India on Dokalam dispute

Swaraj added that denial of security permission to a particular company cannot determine the relations between countries.

The external minister also informed the house that there is a process and incase Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.

She added the house that there is no official information from China regarding cancellation of visits of Indian journalist to Tibet to a question on Indian journalists being stopped from visiting Tibet by China.

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
MASON CITY | Tom Thoma is a candidate for the at-large seat on the City Council in the Nov. 7 election.

He is seeking the position being vacated by Bill Schickel, who is running for mayor.

Thoma, 68, worked 44 years for the Globe Gazette, holding many positions.

As a strong, independent voice for residents, I want to make city government as easy to access as possible, and make sure people know were there to help them, he said. Well focus on saying yes we can when people come to us with ideas and issues, he said.

Thoma said he has been to nearly every council meeting since February and has admired "the progressive attitude and vision of this council.

Schickel announces candidacy for Mason City mayor MASON CITY | At-large Councilman Bill Schickel announced Friday he will be a candidate for m

He said Schickel's decision to run for mayor created the opportunity for him "to step in to help keep the momentum going.

In a sense, Thoma said, being a councilman is a continuation of his lifes work in the newspaper business  listening to all sides, gathering information and making fair decisions. It wont always be easy, but working together we can do great things, he said.

He favors approval of the River City Renaissance project; continued strong public safety; job development and continued implementation of quality-of-life attractions such as the trails program.

And living with a disability all my life, I will be especially aware of issues affecting those with special challenges in our community," said Thoma, who was born with his right leg shorter than his left leg.

Thoma, who is single, is a 1967 graduate of Mason City High School, 1969 graduate of NIACC and 1971 graduate of Drake University. He joined the Globe Gazette full time in fall 1971.

He is a volunteer at the Surf Ballroom, a member of the Wright On the Park board and has been active in Park Watch and other civic activities.

Thoma can be reached at 920-412-6629 or tcthoma21@gmail.com.
New Delhi:

Terrorists on Thursday attacked a joint party of Police and Army in Materbugh area of Jammu and Kashmiras Shopian district.

The joint party of Army and Jammu Kashmir police came under attack when it was returning from a cordon and search operation in the ShopianA district to chase away terrorists.

In a separate incident in Kulgam district of Jammu and Kashmir, terrorists opened fire on J&K police constable. The constable received serious injuries in the attack and was later shifted to hospital where his condition is being told stable.

Earlier in the day, the Army killed three terrorists in an encounter in the Bandipora district along LoC when they were trying to infiltrate to the Indian side of the border.

J&K: Terrorists fired upon a joint party of Army & Police which was returning from cordon & search operation at Shopian district's Materbugh pic.twitter.com/Jeuy1sPO1i a ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

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New Delhi:

Amid political drama that had unfolded in the political landscape in Bihar, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar took oath as Chief Minister of the state after joining hands with BJP to reclaim the government. BJP leader Sushil Modi was also sworn-in as Deputy chief minister of the state at Raj Bhavan in Patna.

On Thursday, Kumar had resigned as chief minister and pulled out from the Grand Alliance, alleging his partner RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav for not explain in media over alleged corruption charges in the land-for-hotels case.

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav addressed the media on how Nitish Kumar betrayed him and his party, snapped ties with the JDU and formed an alliance with the BJP.

Here are 10 major quotes of Lalu Prasad Yadav from his address to the media

Some media who we had thought were good, they took supari. See how the US media is fighting Trump, here media fights opposition

On many occasions, Nitish met PM Modi, had lunch. The timing of whatever happened was already fixed

This match was already fixed.I dint trouble Nitish Kumar

Nitish has misled the people of the country by showcasing a dubious image. If I wanted I would not have made Nitish the CM of Bihar

Nitish Kumar is greedy for power, he has betrayed the people of Bihar and India

I put a tika on his forehead, said go rule the state, I had no greed in my heart, else why would I nominate him as Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar is huge opportunist. The mandate was against BJP, to throw out Modi-Shah out of Bihar. They said I was a beef eater

Past 15-20 yrs I have been fighting cases in courts. I was sentenced in a hurry. There was a conspiracy between Nitish K & BJP

Also Read: Live | Considering to appeal in Supreme Court against Governor's decision: Lalu Prasad Yadav

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New Delhi:

Amid political drama, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister of the state after joining hands with BJP to reclaim the government. BJP leader Sushil Modi also sworn-in as Deputy chief minister of the state at Raj Bhavan in Patna.

On Thursday, Kumar had resigned as chief minister and pulled out from the Grand Alliance, alleging his partner RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav and his son former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav for not explain in media over alleged corruption charges in land-for-hotels case.

Here are the updates-

#2:31 PM

Had already stated this govt will not last long, but Lalu Yadav called me a political weather expert: Union Minister Ram Vilas Paswan



#2:15 PM

I think it has become Nitish ji's habit to change parties and stand every few years: Ghulam Nabi Azad,Congress



#2:03 PM

Thank PM for tweets.There'll be no compromise on corruption; sure Bihar will go towards development with cooperation from centre: Nitish Kumar



#2:02 PM

Senior JD(U) leader and MP Sharad Yadav meets Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi



#1:30 PM

CM & Deputy CM must resign, until they don't, we will not let the Vidhan Sabha function: Jagadanand Singh, RJD



#1:24 PM

Bihar ki janta ke saath vishwaghaat hua hai, Nitish Kumar sirf Bihar ke CM nahi hain, Bharat ke doosre Bhajan Lal hain:Jagadanand Singh, RJD



#1:12PM

Jo kuch ho raha hai loktantra ke liye shubh sanket nahi, desh ki aam janta ko aage aakar loktantra ko kamzor hone se bachana hoga: Mayawati



#1:05 PM

Mayawati, Akhilesh, Mamata, we will get them all together, so what if Nitish has gone to the BJP: Lalu Yadav



12:49 PM

Nitish has accepted in affidavit that he has committed the crime: Lalu

#12:48 PM

Nitish Kumar has murdered Sitaram Singh on November 16, 1991: Lalu Prasad Yadav

#12:46 PM

Nitish Kumar is an accused in a murder case: Lalu Prasad

#12:45 PM

Considering to appeal in Supreme court against Governor's decision: Lalu Prasad Yadav

#12: 43 PM

Nitish Kumar to prove his majority in a special session of the Bihar Assembly on 28th July



#12:31 PM

Amit Shah is the Super Editor, he decides how news should be & he tells owners of media, who tells editors, not reporters fault: Lalu

#12:31 PM

Some media who we had thought were good, they took supari. See how the US media is fighting Trump, here media fights opposition: Lalu Yadav

#12:30 PM

All media houses are governed by big corporate houses

#12:29 PM

On many occasions, Nitish met PM Modi, had lunch. The timing of whatever happened was already fixed: Lalu Prasad Yadav,RJD Chief

#12:29 PM

Even media is following Amit Shah orders as he set agenda for them

#12:28 PM

Hum boley Shankar bhagwan ki tarah jao, raaj karo, par yeh toh Bhasmasur nikla: Lalu Yadav about what he had said to Nitish Kumar earlier

#12:25 PM

Nitish had never called me in difficult times: Lalu

#12:24 PM

The match was fixed between BJP and Nitish : Lalu Prasad Yadav

#12:22PM

I put a tika on his forehead, said go rule the state, I had no greed in my heart, else why would I nominate him as Chief Minister: Lalu Yadav

#12:21 PM

Nitish had said that he would never join hands with BJP: Lalu

#12:18 PM

Lalu accuses Nitish of opportunism

#12:12 PM

Modi did good talks during elections: Lalu Yadav

#12:11 PM

People of RSS had killed Mahatma Gandhi : Lalu Yadav

#12:10 PM

People and party workers are not happy across the state : Lalu Yadav

#11:15 AM

Nitish ji hamesha netikta ki baat karte hain kya yahi netikta hai? Janta ne aapko BJP-Sangh ke virodh mein vote diya tha :Digvijay Singh



#11:04 AM

Development will be a priority, will take Bihar to greater heights: Sushil Modi after being sworn-in as Bihar Deputy CM



#11:01 AM

My decision is in Bihar's interest and for its development: Nitish Kumar after being sworn in as Bihar CM



#10:59 AM

BJP tried all tactics to destabilize states where opposition had Government: Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress



#10:58 AM

Will speak to the media after the hearing in Fodder scam case: Lalu Prasad Yadav in Ranchi



#10:52 AM

Congratulations to Nitish Kumar ji & Sushil Modi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity, tweets PM Modi

#10:47 AM

Entered in govt with clean slate, keen desire of writing a positive story for Bihar ppl, only to find opportunist rival tweets Tejashwi Yadav

#10:36 AM

Mandate was given to Nitish ji for the anti-communal fight but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics: Rahul Gandhi



# 10:34 AM

We knew that they were planning to form the government since 3-4 months. The problem of Indian politics that a person switches his loyalty for his personal gains: Rahul Gandhi

#10:07AM

Sushil Modi takes oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, at Raj Bhawan in Patna



#10:04 AM

Bihar: RJD protest march cancelled after section 144 imposed around Raj Bhawan in Patna



#10:01 AM

Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM



#9:51 AM

Nitish Kumar reaches Raj Bhavan

#9:48 AM

Sushil Modi reaches Raj Bhawan in Patna, set to be sworn in as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister

#9:45 AM

Will raise issue in Parliament strongly, will also speak to other parties and protest at Gandhi statue in Parl: JP Yadav, RJD

#9:39 AM

Nitish ji's step against corruption is a courageous one. BJP wants development and wants to help bring stability in Bihar: JP Nadda in Patna

#9:28 AM

Lalu ji bechaini mein hain, unki khud ki party mein vidroh hone waala hai: Nitin Naveen, BJP

#9:21 AM

Koi Nitish je upar daag nahi laga sakta, humari party apni raai rakhegi aur nyalay tak isko ghaseetegi: Sanjay Singh,JDU on RJD allegations

#8:47 AM

Vehicles stuck in traffic jam as RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu



#7:52 AM

My conscience does not allow me to go with BJP, I will voice my opinion in the party: Ali Anwar, JDU MP



# 7:25 AM

RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu over Nitish Kumar's resignation and forming government with BJP



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

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised him for his honesty in standing up to corruption. Then the BJP had said it would support him, and its legislators had met Kumars JD(U) MLAs.

After the meeting, Kumar, accompanied by senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi drove to Raj Bhavan to stake claim to form the government.

Modi later had informed journalists that a list of 132 MLAs supporting the alliance was submitted to the governor who has invited Kumar to form the government. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

He said the swearing-in ceremony will be held at 10 am tomorrow. It would be Kumars 6th term as chief minister.

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

However, in no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi Yadav had said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.

Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates, Tejashwi had tweeted.

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New Delhi:

Marking a strong statement in Lok Sabha, Union Minister Sushma Swaraj on Wednesday said there is no concrete evidence that the 39 Indians abducted from Mosul in Iraq have been killed and "I will not commit the sin" of declaring them dead without any evidence.

She asserted that government will continue its efforts to trace the Indians till it gets evidence that they were dead.

"This file will not close till there is proof that the 39 Indians were dead. I will not commit the sin of declaring them dead without any evidence", Swaraj said, two days after holding talks with Iraqi foreign minister on the issue.

Read more: Opposition asks Govt to name top 100 bank loan defaulters in RS

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

Meanwhile, proceedings of the Lok Sabha were disrupted on Thursday as some Opposition parties created uproar over the political developments in Bihar and some other issues.

The House had to be adjourned for 25 minutes, just five minutes after it met for the day at 11 am.

As soon as the House took up the Question Hour, Jai Prakash Narayan Yadav (RJD) raised the issue of JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar leaving the 'grand alliance' and forming a new government with the BJP.

Shouting from his bench in the front row, he dubbed it as "murder of democracy".

Kumar resigned as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday evening, dumping the 'grand alliance' which also included the RJD and the Congress.

Subsequently, he firmed up an alliance with the BJP and formed a new government with its support on Thursday morning.

Congress members also trooped into the well of the House, demanding revocation of the suspension of six of its members.

They carried placards which read: "End discrimination, give justice madam Speaker" and "take back suspension (of six party MPs)."

The Congress members were also demanding initiating discussion on "mob lynchings".

Due to the din, Speaker Sumitra Mahajan adjourned the House till 11.30 AM.

Here are the Live Updates:

# But I reiterate that i won't declare anyone dead without proof: EAM Sushma Swaraj in Rajya Sabha on 39 missing Indians in Iraq

# The day I get proof of whereabouts of 39 missing Indians,I will come here if the session is on or inform via Twitter:EAM Swaraj in RS #Mosul

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New Delhi:

Nag Panchami or Naag Panchami is a Hindu festival that is celebrated during the Hindu month of Savan. Traditionaly on this day snakes are worshiped. According to Hindu Calenda, snakes are offered on the fifth day of bright half of Lunar month of Shravan (July/August).

This year, Nag Panchami will be celebrated in most states on July 27.

While various several serpent Gods are worshiped on Nag Panchami, twelve snakes, in particular, are offered prayers. It includes Ananta, Vasuki, Shesha, Padma, Kambala, Karkotaka, Ashvatara, Dhritarashtra, Shankhapala, Kaliya, Takshaka, and Pingala are the twelve snakes that find mention in the Hindu scriptures.

Traditionally, during Nag Panchami, Hindu women offer milk, sweets and flowers to snakes in the hope that the Lord of the Serpents, Nag Devata, will look upon their prayers favourably.

Nag Panchami 2017

Pooja Muhurat:05:39 to 08:20, Duration = 2 Hours 41 Minutes

Panchami Tithi Begins = 09:31 on July 27, 2017

Panchami Tithi Ends = 09:08 on July 28, 2017

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Patna:

Nitish Kumar was on Thursday sworn as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the sixth time, a day after he resigned, dumped coalition partner Lalu Prasad's RJD and joined hands with the opposition BJP to reclaim his post in fast-paced manoeuvres that redrew the political landscape of the state.

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered 66-year-old Kumar the oath of office and secrecy at the Rajendra Mandapamat the Raj Bhawan in Patna.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also sworn in. The Governor has asked Kumar to prove majority on the floor of the House within two days, after the JD(U) walked out of the barely two-year-old alliance with the RJD and Congress.

Union Health minister J P Nadda and BJP leader Anil Jain were present at the brief ceremony where only Kumar and Sushil Modi were sworn in.

Kumar quit the post last night after a fall out with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the previous dispensation.

Read more: Nitish Kumar: Here is all you need to know about him

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar", Kumar told reporters after the swearing-in.

With JD(U) returning to the NDA fold, the changed political equations are likely to impact the 2019 general elections. While the BJP is buoyed by the development, there is disquiet in the Opposition camp as it has jolted the efforts to forge a unity to take on the saffron juggernaut.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kumar and said he looked forward to working together for Bihar's prosperity.

Nobody from the RJD or the Congress attended the swearing-in ceremony protesting over the "denial of chance" to the RJD, the single-largest party in the state assembly, to form government. In Delhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kumar accusing him of acting for "selfish political motives".

"Bihar had given an anti-communal mandate but Nitish Kumar has gone back to them (the BJP) for his personal political gains", he said.

After taking oath, Sushil Modi said the development process will be back on track in the state with return of the NDA.

"The JD(U)-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights. At that point of time, the people of the state used to take pride in saying 'I am a Bihari'. But in the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD(U)-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights".

On RJD's claims that it has the numbers, JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi said, "They should stop making tall claims and if they really have the numbers, let them prove it in the floor test. We have our numbers and we will prove it."

Read more: Sushil Kumar Modi: Here is all you need to know about him

The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs on Wednesday to the Governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 81 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML 03.

Tyagi said the decision of his party to form the Grand Alliance government in Bihar was "a mistake" and ruled out any possibility of a patch-up with the RJD.

"It was a mistake to forge an alliance with RJD. We had information that to save themselves from CBI cases, they were in touch with the union ministers in Delhi and were planning to topple the Nitish Kumar government", Tyagi said.

"We regret our decision to run the government with such a person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months. We blame ourselves for committing a mistake of taking their MLA count from 22 to 80", he said.

Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi welcomed Kumar's decision to join the NDA.

"I congratulate Nitish Kumarji for his decision to join the NDA. If someone commits a mistake and has the guts to accept and rectify it, we should also welcome it and support that person", Manjhi said.

Kumar had unexpectedly resigned on Wednesday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

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

Late on Wednesday night, Kumar accompanied by Sushil Modi and other NDA leaders had met the Governor to stake claim to form a new coalition ministry in the state after he broke away from Grand Alliance ministry of JD(U), RJD and Congress.

Tejashwi Yadav had led a protest march to the Raj Bhawan post-midnight and had met the Governor.

He had later told reporters that the swearing-in of NDA government was a "pre-planned conspiracy."

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New Delhi:

JDU chief Nitish Kumar has ruled the state of Bihar for more than a decade and now with all twists and turns in the recent political drama in the state, Nitish Kumar is all set to take an oath at 10 AM on Thursday as the head of the government that would include BJP and its allies, in less than a day after resigning as Bihar Chief Minister bringing an end to the 20-month-old grand alliance in Bihar.

Here is all you need to know about Nitish Kumar:

Nitish Kumar was born on 1 March 1951 in a place called Bakhtiyarpur, at a distance of 50 km from Patna, the capital city of Bihar. His father, Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh was a freedom fighter as well as an Ayurvedic Vaidyaraj, who left the Indian National Congress to join the Janata Party, as he was denied party ticket to contest 1952 and 1957 general elections.

Kumar did his schooling in Bakhtiyarpur from Ganesh High School, completing matriculation and later completed a degree course in electrical engineering from Bihar College of Engineering.

He was married to Manju Sinha who passed away in 2007, they have a son Nishant, who pursued engineering from the BIT, Mesra, Jharkhand.

Political Background

After playing a key role in the stalwart Jayaprakash Narayan's movement in 1974 to 1977, Nitish marked his debut in political arena in 1980 Bihar elections.

In 1985, he was first elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate.

He became the President of the Yuva Lok Dal in 1987 and Secretary-General of the Janata Dal in 1989. He was elected as member of the 9th Lok Sabha for the first time in the same year.

Nitish Kumar was briefly, the Union Minister for Railways and Minister for Surface Transport and later, the Minister for Agriculture in 199899, in the NDA Government of Atal Bihari Vajpayee. In August 1999, he resigned following the Gaisal train disaster, taking the responsibility of the disaster as Minister of Railways.

Nitish Kumar as Chief Minister of Bihar

Nitish took first oath as the Bihar CM in 2000, but his first stint was short-termed that lasted only for a week because of lack of majority. Then, the RJD formed the government with Rabri Devi as the state's chief minister.

In 2005 Bihar assembly elections, Nitish's JD(U) formed the government and since then, he has chamged the shape of Bihar from a backward state to one of the best-governed states in terms of development, infrastructure and most importantly, the crime also reduced under his rule. Besides, Nitish has introduced various schemes related to education and employment in rural areas.

In his second term, some of the notable achievements of Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) government in Bihar are- Jankari scheme, E-shakti NREGS program, bicycle and meal programs (that led to fall in school drop out rates), 50% reservation in electorals to women and extremely backward castes, health schemes and loan schemes for farmers.

In 2010 Bihar assembly elections, Nitish Kumar swept to power with its former ally BJP. The JD(U)-BJP alliance won 206 seats while Lalu's RJD had to face an embarrassing defeat with just 22 seats.

After resigning in 2014 for his party's poor performance, Nitish Kumar again assumed office of the Chief Minister on 22 February 2015, on the backdrop of upcoming 2015 Bihar Legislative Assembly election, that are seen as his toughest election till date. Thus, Nitish Kumar's JD(U) along with RJD and Congress, formed the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) to counter the BJP in Bihar.

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New Delhi:

India on Thursday said it has no information on Pakistan providing visa to Kulbhsuhan Jadhavs mother, neither has received any reply from Pakistan foreign ministry on the issue.

Indias ministry of external affairs spokesperson Gopal Baglay said, We have no official information on the change of status of the request made to grant the visa to Jadhavs mother.

There has not been any reply from Pakistan either to the request handed over by The Indian High Commissioner handed over a request to Pakistan as well as External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had written a letter to her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz for grant of visa to Jadhavs mother, Avantika.

A military court in Pakistan has awarded death penalty to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav on the suspicions of spying. However, India have rubbished al the accusations of Pakistan and moved to International Court of Justice against Jadhavs death penalty.

The ICJ had on May 18 restrained Pakistan from executing the death sentence.

While Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from its restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran, India maintains that he was abducted from Iran where he had legitimate business interests.

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New Delhi:

Thousands of shikshamitras and police officials suffered injuries after a scuffle broke between the security forces and protesters at Uttar Pradeshs Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath home-constituency Gorakhpur on Thursday.

Shikshamitras numbering in thousands had gathered at Panth Park in Gorakhnath University to protest the July 25 Supreme Court verdict declaring appointment of 1,38,000 shikshamitras out of 1,72,000 as assistant teachers as illegitimate.

The protesters in large numbers raised anti-slogans against BJP, Yogi and the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Police resorted to lathi-charge only after the shikshamitras pelted stone and started creating ruckus on the city roads, damaging government and public properties, said Rajeev Rautela, Gorakhpur District Magistrate to the media.

Senior police officials present at the university campus tried to negotiate with the protesters not to take the roads.

The protest turned violent after the protesting shikshamitras took the roads to march towards the Gorakhnath Mutt  a temple of the Nath monastic group in the Nath tradition.

The protest turned violent after the police tried to stop the protesters advancing towards the Gorakhnath Mutt. The police resorted to lathi-charge after the protesters forced themselves over the barricades and pelted stones at police personnel on duty.

All roads moving towards Gorakhnath Mutt were barricaded by the security force. A large number of security forces dodged the police and managed to reach the mutt. At the same time a large number of protesters sat at dharna at Dharmsala Bazaar, which led to huge traffic jam in the city. To disperse the protester and normalise situation police resorted to firing water-canon.

Police said more than hundreds of shikshamitras have been arrested. While, the Shiksamitras claimed that they were peacefully protesting and marching to the Gorakhnath Mutt when security forces resorted to lathi-charge. They also claimed that more than 100 of shikshamitras including women have suffered serious injuries due to the police lathi-charge.

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New Delhi:

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday attacked Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, saying the latter has betrayed the Grand Alliance.

While talking to media person, Rahul asserted that mandate was given to Nitish Kumar for the anti-communal fight but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics.

The Congress-vice-president said Nitish had met him in Delhi. He said, We knew Nitishs plan three-four months before he pulled out on Wednesday.

The problem in Indian politics is that a person switches his loyalty for his political gains, he added.

Mandate was given to Nitish ji for the anti-communal fight but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics: Rahul Gandhi pic.twitter.com/yNkEKoJWge  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Replying to Rahul charges, Nitish Kumar said he will give reply to everyone at an appropriate time.

Satta ke liye vyakti kuch bhi kar jaata hai, koi neeyam, credibility nahin hai: Rahul Gandhi on #NitishKumar pic.twitter.com/8eRvp6hdvV  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Also Read: Unhappy Sharad Yadav says NDA-JD (U) tie up will send wrong message in Bihar

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MASON CITY | A train blocked a crossing in southern Mason City for more than seven hours.

South Pierce Avenue, to the south of its intersection with 19th Street Southwest, has been blocked since at least 9 a.m.

"The railroad has told us it (train) is broken down and the grade crossing will be blocked for several more hours," the Mason City Police Department said in a social media post Thursday morning.

The department planned to announce when the crossing was reopened.

The crossing was still blocked around 4 p.m., Police Chief Jeff Brinkley said, and that Union Pacific reported the break-down to police Thursday morning.

A Mason City Union Pacific official said he was not able to talk to the media and directed the Globe Gazette to the company's public relations department.

A phone message seeking more details from a PR employee wasn't immediately returned Thursday afternoon.
New Delhi:

Senior JD(U) leader and MP Sharad Yadav on Thursday met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi after his party president Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar CM and formed a government with support of BJP in the state.

Sharad Yadav has also called a meeting of party leaders who are upset with Nitish Kumars decision. The meeting will be held at his residence at 5 pm.

Earlier in the day, the leader had refused to talk to media person when they had approached the senior leader for his reaction on BJP-JD(U) tie up.

Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi hit out at Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the BJP, alleging that he had returned to the communal forces for his selfish political motives.

Also Read: Unhappy Sharad Yadav says NDA-JD (U) tie up will send wrong message in Bihar

Gandhi, whose party was part of the Grand Alliance in Bihar that was deserted by Kumars JD(U) last evening, said that he was aware that it was being planned for the last three-four months.

He (Nitish) had joined hands with us in the anti-communal fight, but Nitish Kumar, for his personal politics, joined hands with those against whom he had fought, said a seething Gandhi.

Also Read | Rahul Gandhi on Nitish Kumar: 'People switch their loyalty for political gains'

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New Delhi:

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi who has earlier served as Deputy Chief Minister and Finance Minister of Bihar will be sworn-in as the deputy CM of Bihar on at 10 AM.



Here is all you need to know about Sushil Kumar Modi:

1. It was in 1962, Modi became a member of Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS).



2. During Sino-Indian War of 1962, Modi was appointed Commandment by the Civil Defence to train the civilians and students to maintain their physical fitness.

3. In 1974 he became a Member of Bihar Pradesh Chaatra (Student) Sangharsh Samiti which spearheaded the famous Bihar Students Movement of 1974.

4. From 1977-1986, he held posts including that of State Organising Secretary, Bihar, All India Secretary, in-charge of UP and Bihar and then the All India General Secretary of Vidyarthi Parishad.

5. He became the Chief Whip of the BJP Bihar Legislature Party in 1990.

6. In , Sushil Kumar Modi was appointed as the Chairman of the Empowered Committee of State Finance Ministers for the Implementation of Goods and Service Tax.



7. He was also appointed as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs under Nitish Kumar government in 2000.



8. It was in 2004 that he became a member of Lok Sabha representing the constituency of Bhagalpur.



9. In 2005 Bihar election, Modi was elected as the leader of Bihar BJP Legislature Part.



10. After NDA's victory in Bihar elections 2010, he continued to be the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

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New Delhi:

From Nitish Kumar appointed as Bihar CM for sixth time to Salman Khan to shoot first promo of Bigg Boss 11, check out top ten news from India and rest of the world at 12 PM in one scroll:

1) Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM for sixth time; Sushil Modi sworn-in as deputy CM

Amid political drama, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister of the state after joining hands with BJP to reclaim the government. BJP leader Sushil Modi also sworn-in as Deputy chief minister of the state at Raj Bhavan in Patna. Read full story here



2) Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera for 'inciting violence'

Amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel. Read full story here



3) Salman Khan to shoot first promo of Bigg Boss 11 this weekend?

Salman Khan's Bigg Boss 11 will have a combination of celebrities and commoners contesting for the winner's trophy this season and will reportedly go on air in September. Read full story here



4) International Champions Cup: Neymar's lone goal powers Barcelona to 1-0 win over Manchester United

Brazilian striker Neymar hit the back of the net in the first half to help Barcelona secure a 1-0 victory over Manchester United today in an International Champions Cup friendly. Read full story here



5) Nissan launches Datsun redi-GO with one litre engine, price starts at Rs 3.57 lakh

Nissan Motor, a Japanese automaker has launched Dastun redi-Go 1.0 with a one-litre petrol engine, at a starting price of Rs 3.57 lakh (ex-showroom Delhi). Read full story here



6) PM Modi unveils statute of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, pays tribute to him at memorial in Rameswaram

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate APJ Abdul Kalam's memorial in Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu on Thursday on the second death anniversary of the former president. Read full story here



7) 'Lucknow Central' trailer out: Farhan Akhtar's dream to have music band turns into nightmare, lands him in jail

Farhan Akhtar's first look from 'Lucknow Central', created a buzz in the town, as the actor was seen as a jail inmate. Helmed by Ranjit Tiwari, 'Lucknow Central' also stars Ronit Roy as the lead antagonist, along with Diana Penty in a key role. Read full story here



8) Donald Trump doesn't want transgenders in US military, set to reverse Obama's policy

President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ban transgender people from the US military, a move appealing to some in his conservative political base but sowing confusion about the fate of thousands of transgender service members. Read full story here



9) Humans might be made up of 'extra-galactic matter', along with everything else in the Milky Way

In a atypical study, astrophysicists have discovered that humans might be made up of 'extra-galactic matter', changing the earlier understandings of how galaxies are formed. Read full story here



10) J&K: Three millitants killed as Army foils infiltration bid in Gurez sector, operation underway

The Indian Army on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid in Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir, and killed three millitants in the incident. Read full story here

For all the Latest India News, Download News Nation Android and iOS Mobile Apps.
New Delhi:

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Thursday hit out at Nitish Kumar for joining hands with dictatorial BJP in Bihar by forging an alliance. Kharge said the grand alliance of JDU-RJD and Congress was formed to fight BJPs attitude of killing democracy.

The grand alliance was formed to bring secular forces together, to fight the dictatorial attitude of the BJP, its attitude of killing democracy, Kharge told reporters outside Parliament.

He accused Nitish of deceiving people of Bihar by embracing BJP as he sought votes in the name of secularism and against the saffron party.

This is unfortunate, Kharge added.

Kharge on Nitishs corruption excuse said when he formed the government in Bihar he was aware of his partners, therefore, the reason he gave for breaking alliance is not well enough.

You formed the government in Bihar fully aware of how the grand alliance partners are. You should not have broken the alliance in such a case, he added.

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday parted ways with RJD and resigned as Chief Minister of Bihar only to take oath again on Thursday morning with the support of BJP.

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New Delhi:

Senior JD (U) leader Sharad Yadav is not happy with the decision of party president Nitish Kumar to form the government with the support of BJP.

Sources say Sharad said it will send a wrong message among people of Bihar.

The senior leader also refused to talk with media when reporters thronged to take his reaction to comment on Bihar political tussle and NDA-JD(U) tie up.

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

#Delhi: JDU MP Sharad Yadav refused to comment on Bihar political tussle, NDA-JDU tie up. pic.twitter.com/pxxBfNsiSX  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Later, the BJP had handed over to Bihar Governor Keshri Nath Tripathi the letter extending support to Nitish Kumar for forming the next government.

Also Read: JD (U) MP Ali Anwar expresses displeasure with Nitishs decision over joining hands with BJP

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London:

Scientists say that Type 2 diabetes can be effectively monitored by our Google searches. This will help the public health officials in keeping a track of the disease and also stopping its spread.

Researchers at University of Warwick in the UK propose that key words entered into search engines - or posted on social media - which are related to symptoms and risk-factors of diabetes, provide accurate real-time information on how likely the disease is to propagate in specific areas, and what are the underlying conditions.

They looked at diabetes risk factors from two principal UK surveillance models which monitor the disease in those who are in danger of developing it, or suffer already - including gender, age, weight, body mass index, lifestyle habits (such as smoking) and family history of diabetes.

The researchers then analysed Google Trends data from people in the Central London area, and compared weekly fluctuation rates of searched keywords linked to these risk factors, such as "how to lose weight", "how to quit smoking" - as well as searches on "diabetes" itself.

"Self-diagnosing behaviours online could be effectively leveraged for real-time health monitoring tools, with the biggest potential to be anticipated for chronic and non- communicable diseases," said Nataliya Tkachenko, who led the study.

"Unlike quickly spreading diseases (eg, flues), such slowly developing conditions are largely dependent on the personal and community lifestyles, the factors, which are currently unaccounted for in the screening models.

"Human online behaviours could help to bridge the gap between real-world human health landscape and synthetic, predominantly bio-centric monitoring tools," she said.

Type 2 Diabetes requires many complex diagnostic medical tests to identify, including physical tests, urine samples, blood glucose tests, and insulin level blood tests.

People are increasingly turning to the Internet to self- diagnose illnesses, researchers said.

In 2015, 21.8 per cent of people in Britain chose to self-diagnose illnesses using the Internet, instead of consulting family or doctors-according to Google UK, they said.

Search engine traces therefore constitute the growing data pool, which can be exploited by health practitioners and decision-makers in order to design new generation screening programmes, the researchers said.

The research was published in the journal Scientific Reports.
New Delhi:

India has initiated an anti-dumping probe into all the imports of a chemical which are used in the pharmaceutical industry from four countries - South Africa, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkey.

Vishnu Chemicals has filed an application for investigation into dumping of sodium dichromate from the countries in question.



The commerce ministry's investigation arm - the Directorate General of Anti-dumping and Allied Duties (DGAD) - has found "sufficient prima facie evidence of dumping" of the chemical.

If it is established that dumping has caused material injury to domestic players, the DGAD would recommend imposition of anti-dumping duty on the said import.

Anti-dumping duties are levied to provide a level playing field to the local industry by guarding against cheap below-cost imports.

The probing authority "hereby initiates an investigation into the alleged dumping, and consequent injury to the domestic industry", the DGAD has said in a notification.

Through the probe, the DGAD would determine the existence, degree and effect of alleged dumping and recommend the amount of anti-dumping duty, which if levied, would be adequate to remove the injury to the domestic industry, it added.

The period of investigation covers April 2016 and March 2017 (12 months).

The chemical is also used in metal finishing industries, anti-corrosive applications, water treatment chemicals, pigments and paints.

The DGAD is also probing dumping of several other products such as certain chemicals and steel products from China and other countries.

India is one of the most attractive markets for global producers, given its large middle class population.

Imposition of anti-dumping duty is permissible under the World Trade Organisation (WTO) regime. Both India and China are members of the Geneva-based body.

The duty is aimed at ensuring fair trading practices and creating a level-playing field for domestic producers vis-a- vis foreign producers and exporters.
New Delhi:

Three new crew members belonging to the Expedition 52/53 will reach the International Space Station (ISS) onboard the Soyuz MS-05 manned spacecraft after a Soyuz-FG carrier rocket will be launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Friday. The joining of three fresh crew members will boost the labs crew back to six and research with four crew including three NASA astronauts and a European flier available to operate experiments in the American segment of the laboratory.

The six will work on hundreds of experiments in biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the International Space Station. The three Astronauts are Randy Bresnik of NASA, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of European Space Agency. The liftoff is scheduled for 03:41pm GMT (09 pm IST).

Sergey will occupy the Soyuz spacecrafts center seat during the launch and docking. Bresnik will be the Soyuz MS-05 spaceships board engineer, assisting Ryazanskiy with cockpit duties during the six-hour journey from liftoff to docking.

The crew will be welcomed on the International Space Station by expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos, Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA.

The three will spend more than four months on the orbital complex. Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli are scheduled to return to Earth Dec. 14 and will be replaced by another crew made up of two Americans and one Russian.

The crew will spend six hours in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft before docking in the space station's Rassvet module at 6 p.m.

Live coverage of the docking will begin at 5:15 p.m. on NASA TV.

ALSO READ | SpaceX Dragon spacecraft returns from International Space Station, brings back first ever Chinese experiment



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New Delhi:

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has left behind Bill Gates to become world's richest person, as with a jump in the share price of the US tech giant he overtook Microsoft founder Bill Gates, acccording to Forbes magazine.



According to the magazine, real-time tracking of personal fortunes has showed Bezos with a net worth of $90.5 billion, which is ahead of $90 billion for Gates.



Almost 17 per cent of the equity of Amazon is owned by Bezos. From its original mission, Amazon has been expanding as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.



Recently there was an announcement by Amazon according to which they are planning to acquire US grocer Whole Foods. This could help expansion of Amazon in that sector.



Amazon shares were up 1.7 per cent at $1,070.72 and have risen some 24 per cent over the past four months, adding some $17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.



In the magazine's annual rankings in march for the past four years, Gates has been the richest person and 18 of the past 22 years, according to Forbes. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to 2013.

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Jerusalem:

Amid tensions over a sensitive Jerusalem holy site, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said that he wants to expel Qatari broadcaster Al-Jazeera from Israel.

"The Al-Jazeera channel continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount," Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post on Wednesday, referring to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount. "I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem.

If this is not possible because of legal interpretation, I am going toseek to have the necessary legislation adopted to expel Al-Jazeera from Israel." Israel has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since the new security measures were installed at the holy site. A tense standoff was still underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the Jerusalem holy site despite the removal of metal detectors there, with concerns the situation could deteriorate into major unrest.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israelinstalled the new security measures at the compound. The Israeli measures followed an attack that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the security move as Israel assertingfurther control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock. Netanyahu's remarks come as Gulf states seek Al-Jazeera's closure.

Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeera's closure. Netanyahu has sought to improve ties with countries inthe region, where it is heavily criticized over its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory. Egypt and Jordan are currently the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.

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VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Southern Lithium Corp. (TSX-V:SNL) (FSE:SL5) ("Southern" or "the Company") is pleased to announce a Non-Brokered Private Placement (the Private Placement) of up to CDN $1.2 million.



The company will issue 4,800,000 units (each Unit) at a purchase price $0.25 per Unit, for total gross proceeds of up to $1,200,000. Each Unit will consist of (1) common share (Common Share) of the Company and one (1) non-transferable share purchase warrant (Warrant).

Each warrant will entitle the holder to acquire one (1) Common Share at an exercise price of $0.35 for a period of 18 months from the closing date of the Private Placement. In the event that the Companys common shares trade at a closing price greater than $0.50 per share for a period of 10 consecutive trading days at any time after the closing date, the Company may accelerate the expiry date of the Warrants by giving notice to the holders thereof and in such case the Warrants will expire on the 30th day after the date hereafter referred to as the (Forced Conversion Feature) on which such notice is given by the Company.

The private placement is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval. There will be a hold period of four months and one day on all securities issued under this financing.

The Company is continuing to advance the previously announced exploration program at the Cruz Lithium Project in Salta, Argentina.

About the Cruz Property

The Company has executed a formal option agreement with Proyecto Pastos Grandes S.A. (PPG SA), a wholly owned subsidiary of Millennial Lithium Corp. (TSX.V:ML) (FSE:A3N2) (OTCQB:MLNLF), through the option Southern Lithium can earn up to an eighty percent (80%) interest in the PPG SAs Cruz Property in the Pocitos Salar Basin in Salta Province, Argentina.

The Cruz Property is located in South Americas Lithium Triangle (northern Chile, northwestern Argentina and southwest Bolivia). The property encompasses 9,027 hectares (22,306 acres) in the Pocitos Salar Basin in Salta Province, Argentina.

The Cruz Property is in the northern end of the Pocitos Salar Basin and contiguous to the southern end of the Salar del Rincon Basin, where ADY Resources Limited is extracting lithium brine. Both properties lie along the structural belt that hosts the important lithium resources of the region, at the junction of a large north-south fault system and the northwest-southeast megastructure along which lies the Rincon volcano, the possible source of the lithium brine in both salar basins. The 60-kilometre long Pocitos salar basin has previously only been drill tested with a shallow 12-hole program in the 1970s by an Argentinean government agency Direccion General de Fabricaciones Militares. To date, this is the only confirmed exploration drilling conducted in the Pocitos basin. The hole that produced the best results is near the southeast edge of the Cruz property boundary, and averaged 417 parts per million lithium. Although these results are considered historical and have not been verified by the Company's QP, the Company considers these results relevant to the future exploration of the Cruz property.

About Southern Lithium Corp (TSX-V:SNL) (FSE:SL5)

Southern Lithium Corp. is a resource exploration company engaged in the business of acquiring and exploring minerals properties. Southern Lithium Corp. has assembled an experienced management team with a strategy to develop a portfolio of technically superior Lithium projects. The Companys main objective is to add shareholder value through successful exploration and development of high quality resources through strategic acquisitions, combined with cost-effective financial management. With the potential acquisition of the Cruz property, Southern Lithium intends to establish its presence in the Pocitos basin and further deliver on its mission to secure lithium projects. The Company is only focusing on projects of the highest technical merit in favorable geopolitical jurisdictions.

Qualified Persons

The scientific and technical information contained in this news release has been reviewed and approved by Larry Segerstrom, M.Sc. (Geology), P.Geo., a Director of the Company, who is a "Qualified Person" as such term is defined under National Instrument 43-101 - Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101").

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Clive H. Massey

Chief Executive Officer

Further information about the Company is available on our website at www.southernlithiumcorp.com or under our profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

This news release includes forward-looking statements that are subject to risks and uncertainties. All statements within it, other than statements of historical fact, are to be considered forward looking. Although the Company believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in forward-looking statements. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include market prices, exploitation and exploration successes, continued availability of capital and financing, and general economic, market or business conditions. There can be no assurances that such statements will prove accurate and, therefore, readers are advised to rely on their own evaluation of such uncertainties. We do not assume any obligation to update any forward-looking statements, other than as required pursuant to applicable securities laws.
United Nation:

Russia says the United States and its Western allies reached hastily to the judgment and blamed the Syrian government for using sarin nerve gas in an attack on an opposition-held town in Syria without ever visiting the sites and ignoring two witnesses presented by Damascus.

It also criticized the report by the fact-finding mission from the chemical weapons watchdog that investigated the incident in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 which killed more than 90 people, calling it "very biased." A letter from Russia's UN Mission to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council circulated Wednesday contains Russia's assessment of the status of the investigation into the incident in Idlib province.

The attack sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, was widely broadcast. The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched punitive strike days later on the Shayrat air base where it said the attack was launched. Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Russian ally, has denied using chemical weapons.

The Russian assessment says one thing is clear sarin was used and this was confirmed by analysis of samples from the site received by Syrian authorities. "However, one important question remains unanswered by whom, in what circumstances and how it was used," the Russian report said.

A fact-finding team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigated the KhanSheikhoun attack and reported on June 30 that sarin was used. It is now up to a joint UN-OPCW body known as the JointInvestigative Mechanism or JIM to determine responsibility. "It will be impossible to establish the truth without a visit to Khan Sheikhoun by the experts of the fact-finding mission and the Joint Investigative Mechanism, although the perpetrators and organizers of this horrific act of provocation have already done a lot of cleaning up and manipulation," the Russian report said.

It said an inspection of the Shayrat airfield "is still a priority, as this facility (was) allegedly the storage site for the sarin used in Idlib." The report said the Syrian government "offered guarantees" of full access to Shayrat and invited the OPCW fact-finding mission and the JIM to visit the site immediately after "the tragic events" in Khan Sheikhoun. But it said the OPCW didn't visit because of "the security risks involved" and the JIM needed to wait for the fact-finding mission's report.

Russia said investigations by Turkey, Britain, and France, which "resulted in quite predictable and peremptory findings of guilt on the part of Damascus," raised many questions including on whether the collection of evidence met international standards. And Russia asked why the three countries managed to obtain evidence from the site but didn't take the opportunity to visit Khan Sheikhoun.

As for the fact-finding mission's report, Russia said it"intentionally" emphasized that the statements from the two witnesses presented by Syrian authorities supported as a divergent view that it was "an act of provocation by the militants and their foreign sponsors." "Should we not seek the truth of the events in these same statements, which differ from the general picture that has clearly been orchestrated by the opposition and by NGOs sympathetic to the opposition?" Russia asked. "Perhaps we should, first of all, seek to investigate the'real estate agents' from an armed opposition group, who rented out a building for the storage of toxic chemicals, and the ambulances from a neighboring country that removed the injured persons, perhaps as prearranged, from the scene of the chemical attack?" it asked,

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New Delhi:

More than two-and-a-half-years after New York police officer Wenjian Liu was killed in his patrol car, his wife Pei Xia Chen has given birth to their daughter, Angelina, at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.

In December 2014, her husband and his partner Rafeel Ramos were ambushed and killed. On the night her husband was shot, Chen asked that his semen be preserved with the hope of one day having their child, according to a New York City Police Department.

At Liu's funeral, the tearful widow said, "Even though he left us early, I believe he is still with us".

Chen said that she felt early on that she would have a daughter."I told my friend, 'It's going to be a baby girl,' she said. "My friend said, 'No, you haven't even checked the sonograms,' but I was right!"

Chen had recently married Liu when he was brutally shot in Bedford-Stuyvesant by gunman Ismaaiyl Brinsley, who would soon take his own life.

Also Read: Sperm counts declines by nearly 60 per cent in western men, says study

On Tuesday, Liu's parents came to see Chen and the grandchild that once must have seemed inconceivable with the loss of their son.

Chen didn't tell her in-laws about her attempts at artificial insemination until she was pregnant. "She didn't want to break her family's hearts if it wasn't successful," Susan Zhuang, a family friend, told Newsday. "The parents were very emotional, crying and holding the baby," Chen's friend Maria Dziergowski told the New York Post.

Liu's mother told the New York Daily News that the baby "looks like my daughter-in-law. But this part, the eyes and the forehead, looks like my son. The top of the face looks like my son. The bottom looks like her mother. The head looks exactly like my son."I see my son in her."She told Newsday that the family plans to take the baby to visit Liu's grave when she's a month old. "This way I can tell him he has a daughter," she said Liu's father, speaking in Cantonese with PIX11, said, "My heart is filled with love."

Speaking at the ceremony, Liu's father, Wei Tang Liu, talked about his son's dedication to his family.

"He called me every day before he finished work, to assure me that he is safe, and to tell me, 'Dad, I'm coming home today, you can stop worrying now.'"Speaking in Chinese, he added, "Today is the saddest day of my life. My only son has left me."

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NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- ATX Seed Ventures (www.atxseedventures.com), a Texas early stage venture capital firm, announces it received the 2017 INNOVATION Award by the China-US Chamber of Commerce (www.cnusa.org). The ceremony took place on Tuesday, July 25th in New York City.



Based in Austin, Texas, ATX Seed Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that specializes in Texas-based technology investments. The firms investment focus is software, IoT, e-commerce and mobile applications especially for industries that are traditionally slow adopters of technology. Deals are sourced and managed by the Firm and a cadre of 40+ LPs who are highly successful operators and proven executives. ATX makes investments that reflect the vitality and technology innovation opportunity of Texas.

ATX Fund I (2014 vintage) is tracking to be a top performing early stage fund. ATX Fund II is open for investment and will close at $50 - $75 million in commitments. Fund II has already invested in 3 portfolio companies and has a solid pipeline of additional investments.

According to Chairman Wynn Wang, China-Texas relations are extremely strong. There are more than 150 Chinese companies operating in Texas. China is a growing partner in Texas' prosperity and the Chamber is pleased to honor ATX Seed Ventures with our 2017 INNOVATION Award. We believe the firm is tapping into the innovative spirit of Texas. We look forward to a being the bridge between Texas and China for business and friendship."

Chris Shonk, Partner, ATX Seed Ventures, said, "We are honored to be selected by the China-US Chamber of Commerce to receive its 2017 INNOVATION Award. Austin is a powerhouse of innovation and Texas companies will grow and surprise the world with innovative and disruptive technologies. Early stage investing has become a core initiative of most public & privately-held companies. A corporate development team from Asia flew in the other week to meet a portfolio company. Corporate partners are looking for quality early stage opportunities to innovate and stay relevant. We look forward to working closely with the Chamber to increase profitable relations between Texas and China.

The event was organized by Heinlyn LLC (heinlyn.com), a leading Chinese and US public relations firm. For more information about the event, please contact: contact@cnusa.org.

About China-U.S. Chamber of Commerce: The China-U.S. Chamber of Commerce (www.cnusa.org) has been providing its members and the general public with first hand information relative to how to succeed at conducting business in both China and the United States for over a decade. The China-U.S. Chamber of Commerce has held various bilateral exchange activities including international investment and trade forums, business conferences and member enterprise information exchange activities. These efforts are provided to continuously improve the business investment and trade environment of China and the United States and to achieve a win-win solution.

About ATX Seed Ventures: Based in Austin, Texas, ATX Seed Ventures is an early stage venture capital firm that specializes in Texas-based technology companies. The firms investment focus is software, IoT, e-commerce and mobile applications. ATX seeks to be the first institutional capital by making Seed+ and Series A investments in industries that have been slow adopters of technology such as real estate, energy, agriculture, manufacturing, and financial services. ATX prefers to invest in revenue generating companies with proven and previously venture-backed entrepreneurs and executives who know how to achieve commercial scale. Please contact info@atxseedventures.com for more information.
CALGARY, Alberta, July 26, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pulse Seismic Inc. (TSX:PSD) (OTCQX:PLSDF) (Pulse or the Company) is pleased to report its financial and operating results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017. The unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements, accompanying notes and MD&A are being filed on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) and will be available on Pulses website at www.pulseseismic.com.

HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE THREE AND SIX MONTHS ENDED JUNE 30, 2017

Total revenue, comprised exclusively of data library sales, for the three months ended June 30, 2017 was $2.9 million compared to $2.8 million for the three months ended June 30, 2016. Total revenue for the first six months of 2017, also comprised exclusively of data library sales, increased by 24 percent to $5.6 million from $4.6 million for the six months ended June 30, 2016;





The net loss was $2.4 million ($0.04 loss per share basic and diluted) for the second quarter of 2017 and 2016. The net loss for the six months ended June 30, 2017 was $4.9 million ($0.09 loss per share basic and diluted), a $1.0 million improvement compared to a net loss of $5.9 million ($0.11 loss per share basic and diluted) for the first six months of 2016;





Cash EBITDA (a) was $1.5 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the second quarter of 2017 and 2016. Cash EBITDA was $2.9 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared to $1.8 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2016;



was $1.5 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the second quarter of 2017 and 2016. Cash EBITDA was $2.9 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared to $1.8 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2016; Shareholder free cash flow (a) was $1.6 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the second quarter of 2017 compared to $1.5 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the comparable period in 2016. Shareholder free cash flow was $2.9 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared to $1.7 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2016;



was $1.6 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the second quarter of 2017 compared to $1.5 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the comparable period in 2016. Shareholder free cash flow was $2.9 million ($0.05 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared to $1.7 million ($0.03 per share basic and diluted) for the six months ended June 30, 2016; In the three-month period ended June 30, 2017 Pulse didnt purchase any shares through its normal course issuer bid. In the six-month period ended June 30, 2017 Pulse purchased and cancelled a total of 583,500 common shares at a total cost of approximately $1.4 million (average cost of $2.41 per common share including commissions); and



At June 30, 2017 Pulse was debt-free and had cash of $8.3 million. The $30.0 million revolving credit facility is undrawn and fully available to the Company.

SELECTED FINANCIAL AND OPERATING

INFORMATION Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, Year ended (thousands of dollars except per share data, 2017 2016 2017 2016 December 31, numbers of shares and kilometres of seismic data) (unaudited) (unaudited) 2016 Revenue Data library sales 2,929 2,779 5,648 4,550 14,339 Amortization of seismic data library 4,638 4,706 9,273 9,615 18,973 Net loss (2,426 ) (2,441 ) (4,928 ) (5,935 ) (7,490 ) Per share basic and diluted (0.04 ) (0.04 ) (0.09 ) (0.11 ) (0.13 ) Cash provided by operating activities 833 1,183 4,131 4,689 9,471 Per share basic and diluted 0.02 0.02 0.07 0.08 0.17 Cash EBITDA (a) 1,542 1,504 2,872 1,770 9,119 Per share basic and diluted (a) 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.03 0.16 Shareholder free cash flow (a) 1,605 1,465 2,859 1,690 9,029 Per share basic and diluted (a) 0.03 0.03 0.05 0.03 0.16 Capital expenditures Seismic data purchases, digitization and related costs 60 65 125 2,215 2,444 Property and equipment 10 - 37 6 6 Total capital expenditures 70 65 162 2,221 2,450 Weighted average shares outstanding Basic and diluted 55,337,560 56,175,306 55,539,541 56,109,173 56,105,593 Shares outstanding at period-end 55,337,560 56,161,432 55,921,060 Seismic library 2D in kilometres 447,000 447,000 447,000 3D in square kilometres 28,647 28,613 28,647 FINANCIAL POSITION AND RATIO June 30, June 30, December 31, (thousands of dollars except ratio) 2017 2016 2016 Working capital 11,811 4,085 10,674 Working capital ratio 11.2:1

5.0:1 8.9:1 Cash and cash equivalents 8,263 1,849 5,847 Total assets 36,632 47,256 44,957 Long-term debt - - - Trailing twelve-month (TTM) cash EBITDA(b) 10,221 12,145 9,119 Shareholders equity 32,338 40,667 38,646

(a) The Companys continuous disclosure documents provide discussion and analysis of cash EBITDA, cash EBITDA per share, shareholder free cash flow and shareholder free cash flow per share. These financial measures do not have standard definitions prescribed by IFRS and, therefore, may not be comparable to similar measures disclosed by other companies. The Company has included these non-GAAP financial measures because management, investors, analysts and others use them as measures of the Companys financial performance. The Companys definition of cash EBITDA is cash available for interest payments, cash taxes if applicable, repayment of debt, purchase of its shares, discretionary capital expenditures and the payment of dividends (if applicable), and is calculated as earnings (loss) from operations before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization less participation survey revenue, plus any non-cash and non-recurring expenses. Cash EBITDA excludes participation survey revenue as these funds are directly used to fund specific participation surveys and this revenue is not available for discretionary capital expenditures. The Company believes cash EBITDA assists investors in comparing Pulses results on a consistent basis without regard to participation survey revenue and non-cash items, such as depreciation and amortization, which can vary significantly depending on accounting methods or non-operating factors such as historical cost. Cash EBITDA per share is defined as cash EBITDA divided by the weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period. Shareholder free cash flow further refines the calculation of capital available to invest in growing the Companys 2D and 3D seismic data library, to repay debt, to purchase its common shares and to pay dividends (if applicable) by deducting non-discretionary expenditures from cash EBITDA. Non-discretionary expenditures are defined as debt financing costs (net of deferred financing expenses amortized in the current period) and current tax provisions. Shareholder free cash flow per share is defined as shareholder free cash flow divided by the weighted average number of shares outstanding for the period.

(b) TTM cash EBITDA is defined as the sum of the trailing 12 months cash EBITDA and is used to provide a comparable annualized measure.

OUTLOOK

Following its two quarters of modestly improved data library sales over the comparable periods of last year, and with industry indicators continuing to fluctuate within indecisive bands  neither especially strong nor particularly weak  Pulse maintains its cautiously optimistic outlook for continued modest improvement in its traditional sales business through the remainder of 2017. The Company does not believe that a stronger rebound in its traditional sales business is imminent.

The slide in the crude oil price since the end of the first quarter, to US$47.77 per bbl WTI on July 25, and the continued weakness in the Canadian gas price, standing at only $1.74 per mcf for AECO spot on July 25, raise concerns that commodity pricing may no longer be sufficient to sustain the recent increases in Canadian industry capital spending, land sales and drilling rates.

Earlier in the year, positive indicators had included the April revision by the Petroleum Services Association of Canada to its 2017 Canadian drilling forecast to 6,680 wells, an increase of over 60 percent from 2016 and of 28 percent since the organizations previous 2017 forecast. Also, industry spending on mineral rights increased over 2016. Land sales in Alberta and B.C. in the first half of 2017 totalled $250.2 million compared to only $68 million in the first half of 2016, an increase of 268 percent. Historically, commodity prices, land sales and drilling rates, while not directly correlated to Pulses data library sales were in fact key indicators of activity levels. The Company believes that a recovery in its traditional data library sales depends on materially increased capital investment and higher field activity by the oil and gas industry on a sustained basis.

In the United States, natural gas storage is down from year-ago levels and only modestly exceeds the five-year weekly average. Weekly net injections are down year-over-year, and U.S. LNG exports are often exceeding 2 bcf per day. This is positive for natural gas prices. On the other hand, the active U.S. drilling rig fleet has soared over the past year and in mid-July exceeded 950 rigs, suggesting that U.S. oil and gas production will remain robust, dampening expectations for crude oil and natural gas prices.

Given this basket of ambivalent and in some cases contradictory signals, Pulses optimism is tempered by the possibility of continued weakness in traditional sales for the short term. Transaction-based sales of any size could occur at any time.

With zero long-term debt, cash reserves of $8.3 million at June 30, 2017, unutilized credit facilities, an experienced management team and Board of Directors, annual cash costs below $6.0 million, and a valuable, competitive and technically high-quality asset  its seismic data library  Pulse remains positioned to grow. The Company continues to be a pure-play seismic data provider with the goal of becoming the largest licensable seismic dataset in Western Canada.

CONFERENCE CALL

The Companys next conference call will be held after the release of its year-end 2017 results, in March 2018. Should investors or analysts wish to contact the Company, please feel free to contact Neal Coleman or Pamela Wicks at the e-mail address or telephone number provided below.

CORPORATE PROFILE

Pulse is a market leader in the acquisition, marketing and licensing of 2D and 3D seismic data to the western Canadian energy sector. Pulse owns the second-largest licensable seismic data library in Canada, currently consisting of approximately 28,600 square kilometres of 3D seismic and 447,000 kilometres of 2D seismic. The library extensively covers the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin where most of Canadas oil and natural gas exploration and development occur.

This document contains information that constitutes forward-looking information or forward-looking statements (collectively, forward-looking information) within the meaning of applicable securities legislation.

The Outlook section contains forward-looking information which includes, among other things, statements regarding:

Pulse maintains its cautiously optimistic outlook for continued modest improvement in its traditional sales business through the remainder of 2017;

The Company does not believe that a stronger rebound in its traditional sales business is imminent;

Oil and natural gas prices;

Oil and natural gas drilling activity and land sales activity;

Oil and natural gas company capital budgets;

Future demand for seismic data;

Future seismic data sales;

Future demand for participation surveys;

Pulses business and growth strategy; and

Other expectations, beliefs, plans, goals, objectives, assumptions, information and statements about possible future events, conditions, results and performance.

Undue reliance should not be placed on forward-looking information. Forward-looking information is based on current expectations, estimates and projections that involve a number of risks and uncertainties, which could cause actual results to vary and in some instances to differ materially from those anticipated in the forward-looking information. Pulse does not publish specific financial goals or otherwise provide guidance, due to the inherently poor visibility of seismic revenue.

The material risk factors include, without limitation:

Oil and natural gas prices;

The demand for seismic data and participation surveys;

The pricing of data library license sales;

Relicensing (change-of-control) fees and partner copy sales;

Cybersecurity;

The level of pre-funding of participation surveys, and the Companys ability to make subsequent data library sales from such participation surveys;

The Companys ability to complete participation surveys on time and within budget;

Environmental, health and safety risks;

Federal and provincial government laws and regulations, including those pertaining to taxation, royalty rates, environmental protection and safety;

Competition;

Dependence on qualified seismic field contractors;

Dependence on key management, operations and marketing personnel;

The loss of seismic data;

Protection of intellectual property rights; and

The introduction of new products.

The foregoing list is not exhaustive. Additional information on these risks and other factors which could affect the Companys operations and financial results is included under Risk Factors of the Companys MD&A for the most recently completed financial year and interim periods. Forward-looking information is based on the assumptions, expectations, estimates and opinions of the Companys management at the time the information is presented.
German English

Sales growth of 8.1% (6.7% in CHF) to CHF 2,994.9 million

Growth in all regions

Net profit up 16.0% to CHF 285.7 million

Continuation of the growth strategy with the foundation of a new national subsidiary, opening of three new factories, acquisition of Bitbau Dorr in Austria

Confirmation of annual targets of 6-8% sales growth and disproportionately high growth in profitability

With sales growth of 8.1% in local currency, Sika continues its successful growth trajectory in the first half of 2017 and achieves a new sales record of CHF 2,994.9 million. Targeted investments in new products, national subsidiaries and factories as part of Sika's growth strategy provided growth stimuli. In the first half of the year, the negative currency effect (-1.4%) reduced sales growth in Swiss francs to 6.7%.

NET PROFIT UP 16.0%

The positive development of the last six years continued unabated in the first half of 2017. Volume growth together with disproportionately low cost development and price adjustments resulted in a further improvement in margins, which helped to offset slightly negative currency effects and rising commodity prices. As a result, operating profit and net profit posted new record values in the first half of the year. Operating profit (EBIT) improved by 13.7% (+ CHF 48.4 million) to CHF 402.1 million (previous year: CHF 353.7 million). Net profit rose significantly by 16.0% (+ CHF 39.4 million) to CHF 285.7 million (previous year: CHF 246.3 million.).

Paul Schuler, CEO: "With a clear sales increase of 8.1% and a surge in net profit of 16.0%, we are continuing to consistently and successfully deliver our growth strategy. We posted double-digit growth rates in Eastern Europe, Africa, North America, Argentina, the Pacific area and in our automotive business, and we have clearly grown much faster than the market in a number of countries. The positive performance in the first half of 2017, the opening of a further national subsidiary, and the commissioning of three new factories all bring us one step closer to achieving our strategic targets for 2020. Sika's success is based on team effort. Thanks to the commitment of our employees and the strength of our growth model, we can look forward to the further business performance in the second half of 2017."

GROWTH IN ALL REGIONS

In the first half of the year, sales in the EMEA region (Europe, Middle East, Africa) increased by 7.0% (previous year: 6.6%). The core markets Germany, France, Switzerland, Italy and the UK achieved solid growth rates. Eastern Europe and Africa posted double-digit growth. Bitbau Dorr, a leading manufacturer of waterproofing systems, was acquired in Austria. Furthermore, a new factory for concrete admixtures was opened in Tanzania and a further national subsidiary was founded in Senegal. In Kazakhstan, concrete admixture and mortar production in Almaty was relocated to a larger site.

At 17.4%, it was the North America region that posted the strongest growth (previous year: 12.7%), of which 8.7% was through acquisitions. Sika boosted its business volume significantly in the USA achieving strong double-digit growth of around 20%, thus growing much more quickly than the North American construction market. Targeted investments that have been made in North America over the last few years contributed substantially to this positive business performance. These include the investment in sales force, the acquisition of companies and the expansion of the supply chain with new factories close to fast-growing metropolitan areas.

In the Latin America region sales increased by 2.7% in the first half-year, compared to 5.9% in the corresponding period of the previous year. In particular, the large countries in the region, including Mexico and Argentina, produced above-average performance. In Brazil, the effects of the difficult economic and political situation continued to have a restrictive impact on business. Furthermore, construction activity in the raw material-based countries in the region has been subdued. In the southeast of Mexico, a new factory for mortar products came into operation.

Sales in the Asia/Pacific region increased by 4.1% (previous year: 4.6%). The markets in Southeast Asia, with the exception of Indonesia and Singapore, achieved high growth rates. In Singapore, investment in state-funded residential construction projects remained at a low level, while in Indonesia investments in infrastructure fell. In China, the construction industry continued to stabilize in the first half of 2017, enabling Sika to achieve high single-digit growth.

OUTLOOK 2017

The strategic targets 2020 were successfully pursued in the first half of 2017, with new record results achieved. The strong start to the year supports the target for the full year, which aims at a 6-8% increase in sales to more than CHF 6 billion for the first time. Volatile and rising commodity prices present a challenge in the current year. EBIT and net profit are once again expected to increase at disproportionately high rates. The successful growth strategy with the new targets for 2020 will continue in 2017. The unknown outcome of Saint-Gobain's hostile takeover attempt remains an element of uncertainty for the future.

KEY FIGURES HALF-YEAR 2017



in CHF mn 1/1/2016 -

6/30/2016 1/1/2017 -

6/30/2017 Change

in % Net sales 2,806.2 2,994.9 6.7 Gross result 1,559.7 1,651.4 5.9 Operating profit before depreciation (EBITDA) 439.7 488.2 11.0 Operating profit (EBIT) 353.7 402.1 13.7 Net profit after taxes 246.3 285.7 16.0 Earnings per share in CHF 95.87 111.54 16.4 Operating free cash flow 106.0 63.0 Balance sheet total1 5,099.2 5,145.4 Shareholders' equity1 2,947.7 2,972.9 Equity ratio in % 1,2 57.8 57.8 Return on capital employed (ROCE) in % 3 25.5 28.0 1 As of December 31, 2016/June 30, 2017. 2 Shareholders' equity divided by balance sheet total. 3 Capital employed = current assets, PPE, intangible assets less cash and cash equivalents, current

securities, current liabilities (excluding bank loans and bond).





NET SALES BY REGION

in CHF mn 1/1/2016 -6/30/2016 1/1/2017 -6/30/2017 Change compared to prior year

(+/- in %) In CHF



In local currencies Currency

impact Acquisition

effect By region EMEA 1,335.1 1,371.9 2.8 7.0 -4.2 1.7 North America 441.3 525.0 19.0 17.4 1.6 8.7 Latin America 273.9 287.4 4.9 2.7 2.2 0.0 Asia/Pacific 509.5 535.2 5.0 4.1 0.9 1.3 Other segments and activities 246.4 275.4 11.8 11.8 0.0

0.0

Net sales 2,806.2 2,994.9 6.7 8.1 -1.4

2.4 Products for construction industry 2,177.8 2,327.0 6.9 8.4 -1.5

3.1 Products for industrial manufacturing 628.4 667.9 6.3 7.0 -0.7

0.0

Conference call today, July 27, 2017 at 3 pm (CET)

In connection with the publication of the half-year results a conference call will be held today. Please dial in 10 to 15 minutes before the start at:

+41 58 310 5000 (Europe, Asia) +1 631 570 5613 (North America, Latin America) +44 203 059 5862 (UK)

An operator will then connect you with Paul Schuler (CEO), Adrian Widmer (CFO) and

Dominik Slappnig (Head Corporate Communications & IR).

The conference call will be recorded and remains retrievable for 48 hours under the following numbers:

+41 91 612 4330 (Europe, Asia) +1 631 982 4566 (North America, Latin America) +44 207 108 6233 (UK)

Upon request please enter the code 14831 followed by the #sign.

FINANCIAL CALENDAR:

Results first nine months 2017 Thursday, October 26, 2017 Net sales 2017 Tuesday, January 9, 2018 Media conference / analyst presentation Friday, February 23, 2018 on full-year results 2017 Net sales first quarter 2018 Tuesday, April 17, 2018 50th Annual General Meeting Tuesday, April 17, 2018 Half-year report 2018 Thursday, July 26, 2018

CONTACT

Dominik Slappnig

Corporate Communications & Investor Relations

+41 58 436 68 21

slappnig.dominik@ch.sika.com

SIKA CORPORATE PROFILE

Sika is a specialty chemicals company with a leading position in the development and production of systems and products for bonding, sealing, damping, reinforcing and protecting in the building sector and automotive industry. Sika has subsidiaries in 98 countries around the world and manufactures in over 190 factories. Its more than 17,000 employees generated annual sales of CHF 5.75 billion in 2016.

The media release can be downloaded from the following link:
The most respected businesswoman in Hopkinsville, Kentucky, Peg Hays is almost always right. Hays, daughter of the town's first Republican mayor, was right when she said her party would one day outnumber Democrats in Kentucky. She was right when she said that building the town's Trail of Tears Commemorative Park would make Hopkinsville a hub for Native American tourism. And she was right when she said this, too:

"The young people are coming back," Hays told me. "Your generation didn't come back."

I grew up outside Hopkinsville and in high school had three very close friends. Only one lives there today. Another friend and I live in New York; the fourth is in Louisville.

Hopkinsville is the seat of Christian County, a farm community hit hard by President Bill Clinton's restrictions on raising its cash crop: tobacco. Somehow the billions of dollars awarded in the federal tobacco settlement, intended to help farmers find alternative crops, missed us. Tobacco demand went down. Stores began to close. Then the local blue-jean factory moved production to Mexico. In an 18-month span, unemployment tripled. So my generation, Generation X, got out of Dodge.

But now Hopkinsville's mayor, Carter Hendricks, tells me things are looking up. From 2005 to 2015, Hopkinsville's per-capita income increased by 50 percent to $20,834, poverty has dropped, and there's a robust new transit system.

Why the turnaround?

Hendricks credits much of it to the moment a decade ago when the town discovered it was about to play host to a once-in-a-lifetime natural event. This much is certainly true: On Aug. 21, for a full two minutes and 40 seconds - about the longest eclipse duration in the country - Hopkinsville will be the center of the world.

The total solar eclipse will be the first solely visible in the United States. Eighty percent of Americans live within 600 miles of its path spanning Oregon to South Carolina. The point of greatest eclipse: A tobacco farm near Hopkinsville.

Eclipses are known to draw a crowd. In Mexico, a 1991 eclipse brought so many tourists, the Mexican government closed the border. At dead center, Hopkinsville expects 250,000. At least, that's the number Christian County Judge/Executive Steve Tribble has heard.

Hopkinsville's solar eclipse marketing and event coordinator, Brooke Jung, has a more conservative figure: 100,000. "We're asking restaurants to order extra food," she said, explaining why her projections are lower. "We want to be realistic. We don't want them buying too much in case fewer people come." The city has invited out-of-town food trucks; McDonald's got a refrigeration truck for storing patties out back.

Considering eclipse-chasers once overwhelmed an international border, the residents of Hopkinsville are taking everything in stride. One local said the biggest change he'll have to make is remembering to lock his house door: "I usually keep it undone."

Another man sees my family in Cracker Barrel while I'm home visiting my parents for Christmas and - knowing our farm is at the epicenter - yells "Y'all ready for that eclipse?" across four tables.

Ask Jung who's most excited, and she points to the digital countdown on her wall showing time left between now and totality. "I can't wait." The fact that her job was even created shows everyone knows this is Hopkinsville's chance to shine.

Ten years ago, Cheryl Cook, executive director of the Hopkinsville Convention and Visitors Bureau, received an email from an eclipse-chaser asking about area hotels. She thought it was a prank. But NASA has mapped eclipse paths through the year 3000, so Aug. 21 was easy to confirm. With that confirmation came something Hopkinsville had been missing since tobacco crashed: Hope.

Hendricks said: "There began to become a real attitudinal shift in the leadership of the community that just said, look, enough's enough. . . . We're going to deal with it, and we started dealing with it. And then that same attitude shifted into, well, wait a second: We've been talking about this abandoned rail spur. We tried to convert it into a greenway; we've been defeated. Why don't we try again?" So a former L&N line was converted into green space. Then a water park was built. "There's been those improvements over the last 10 to 12 years that have actually been occurring to allow this current batch of recent college graduates to feel more pride and the desire to want to come back," he said.

Sarah Whitaker is one of "the young people" who decided to return to Hopkinsville. "The last two or three years, there's this momentum," said Whitaker, who chairs Hopkinsville Young Professionals Engage, an under-45 networking group. "It's just really taken off just with the things that are opening. All the chains and sort of big box stores have announced that they're coming. . . . Hopkinsville is booming like crazy. . . . I think when one positive thing happens, it's kind of a domino effect."

Ask Hays how the dominoes help long-term economic growth, and she said, "Depends on whether you believe in trickle-down economics." She and her husband own Casey Jones Distillery. She's honest that economic impact isn't the town's main eclipse goal.

"When it's over, what will have made you think the eclipse was successful?" I asked.

"That we have had visitors who will have had incredible experiences . . . here in our community [because they] get to participate in this unbelievable celestial event that's going to occur right here." Whitaker added: "I think everybody wants to make money. I mean, that's the big deal, is out of all of that let's follow the money. But I do think if you can offer that great experience that you'll capture the economic side of it."

The mayor agreed: "It's going to be hard to measure long-term economic impact. . . . In essence, what we hope will happen is that as people come here . . . they will have the type of experience where they want to come back at some point in their future. In that regard, we hope that it has a ripple effect on long-term economic impact."

It's not just them. The sense of community pride, not just a hope for profits, is echoed all over town. As a native, I've never seen local leadership this aligned.

"Everybody's working together now," Tribble said. "They really are . . . better than they ever have, in my opinion. It's funny, because we've got a Republican mayor, Carter Hendricks, and, of course, I'm a Democrat. But I don't care what somebody is."

Indeed, if Republicans and Democrats can come together for the good of constituents in today's political climate, perhaps the eclipse has turned Hopkinsville into some small utopia - an astronomical alignment of celestial bodies foretelling world peace.

"I wouldn't go that far," my mother tells me.

If Mom's right, though, and the eclipse isn't a chance for peace, then maybe it's a chance for Hays to finally be wrong. Both my high school friend and I love New York, but as members of Hopkinsville's lost generation, we long for home. August 21, while eclipse-chasers hope for clear weather, I'll be hoping for Hopkinsville. Every day that life continues to improve there is one day closer to creating a place Gen Xers can return to one that we would be proud to call home.
BETHEL  Despite the states ongoing budget crisis, state and local officials remain hopeful that the school district will receive a grant covering nearly half the cost of renovating two aging elementary schools.

The district applied at the end of June for a state school construction grant that could cover up to 45 percent of the $68.3 million project to update Rockwell and Johnson elementary schools.

The state has received more than 50 applications for the grant totaling $700 million, although it has yet to resolve a $5 billion budget deficit nearly a month into the new fiscal year.

Still, officials said, Bethel is likely to win the grant.

In contrast to other districts across the state, Bethels enrollment is expected to rise. Both schools are old  Rockwell was built in 1971 and Johnson in 1980  and neither complies with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

It puts us in a good position if they do have to limit the amount of schools that they cover, Superintendent Christine Carver said.

Districts apply by June 30 each year to the Office of School Construction Grants, which reviews the projects and recommends to the legislature by December which projects should be funded. In the past, the state granted money to virtually all districts that met the requirements, said Kosta Diamantis, director at the office.

In 2015, the legislature gave $404.3 million to schools, and $803 million in 2016.

But since Melody Currey became commissioner of the Department of Administrative Services three years ago, Diamantis said, the office has looked more closely at districts enrollment and the size and conditions of their buildings.

What we are not going to do is continue a process of the old days, where communities want to renovate a school and well pay for it, he said. Were looking at districts holistically.

With aging buildings and increasing enrollment, Bethel checks the boxes the office is looking for and has a better chance of receiving funding, Diamantis said.

Theres work to be done to ensure everything, but as far as a quick look, theyre in a good position, he said.

The district has worked closely with the office throughout the application process, also helping the schools chances, said Board of Education Chairman Larry Craybas.

We feel good, he said. We believe we did this the right way. We presented our case the way cases need to be presented. We just have to wait and see.

State Sen. Toni Boucher, R-Wilton, who represents Bethel and co-chairs the Education Committee and sits on the Construction Project Priority List Review Committee, said it is unusual for the state to reject applications that follow the regulations.

Ben Barnes, secretary of the Office of Policy and Management, sent a letter last year to members of the School Construction Committee recommending the group reconsider grants for a few schools, including Region 12s Agriscience-STEM Academy project. But Boucher said the committee still didnt listen.

The construction committee saw this was highly supported locally and they followed all the procedures, she said. Its very unlikely that there would be a rejection [for Bethel].

But she said it is good Bethel has applied already, because the state could reduce how much towns get reimbursed in the future.

Bethel was working very hard to get it in under a certain deadline, Boucher said. Future applications might be different. Theyre may be more limited resources.

But Diamantis said the state is still committed to the program.

There's nothing thats been suggested to me that the state of Connecticut is not prepared to deal with the renovations and alterations for schools to ensure our schools are safe and provide educational opportunities, Diamantis said.

The Board of Selectmen voted last week to approve funding for the renovations. The Board of Education gave an overview Wednesday of the project to the Board of Finance, which will vote next month to approve funding. Bethel will hold a public hearing, town meeting and referendum in September.

Voters approval of the project will be contingent on whether Bethel receives the grant, which the town will find out in the new year.

I wouldnt want to put the community in the situation where they had to build something without the grant, Carver said.
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RIDGEFIELD  The white colonial at 114 Main St. has been a staple in town, almost as long as Ridgefield has been incorporated.

The house was built by the Hoyts, one of Ridgefields early families, on Founders Lot 1 around 1740.

Its the first lot ever in Ridgefield, said Sally Slater, the listing agent for the property, which is on the market for $3.8 million. David Hoyt referred to the house as his city home in the country.

The lot was established in 1712, but the Hoyts didnt acquire the land until the 1740s, according to the Ridgefield Historical Society.

Deacon David Hoyt, his wife and children were taken captive and brought to Canada following a massacre in Deerfield, Mass., in 1704 as part of Queen Annes War.

Legend says that Benjamin Hoyt, the deacons 11-year old son, avoided capture by hiding in a corn crib, and then going to Norwalk to live with relatives. As an adult, he prospered in real estate and acquired the Ridgefield property while living in Norwalk, according to the historical society.

There is also a local legend about the Hoyt family during the American Revolutionary War. The Hoyts were Loyalists and lived next door to the Keeler Tavern, which was a hub for patriots activities during the war and owned by their relatives.

During the Battle of Ridgefield, the British set up a cannon near the current Episcopal Church and fired on Main Street, placing the Keeler Tavern in the line of attack. A cannon ball is still lodged into one of the taverns beams.

The British planned to torch the Keeler house as they retreated to Compo Beach. One of the Hoyts is said to have persuaded the British to not burn the house because there was a strong northwest wind and the fire would also destroy his house. When the British left and Timothy Keeler, an ardent patriot, returned, Hoyt told Keeler he had him to thank that his house was still standing, according to the historical society.

No, sir, Timothy is said to have replied, I will not thank a Tory for anything. I would rather thank the Lord for the north wind, according to the historical societys account of the incident.

The Hoyt house has several details that set it apart from other colonial homes at the time. The ceilings were 9.5 feet tall, about two feet taller than the average ceiling at the time. The windows were also slightly bigger, allowing in more light and making the home brighter than might have been common at the time.

It was an elegant house when it was built and it continues to be an elegant house, Slater said.

The Hoyts owned the house until 1818 when it transferred to Thaddeus Keeler.

How the house looks today is very similar to how it would have looked centuries ago, save for a few details.

Hoyts original design was a two-story house with a center hall, staircase and detached cookhouse. Keeler then added a third floor for staff and converted the staircase from a long, straight stairwell in the center hall to a winding staircase that went to the newly created top floor.

The Keeler family expanded the house again in the 1880s, converting the rear sitting room to a formal living room for entertaining. The family also hid an original fireplace and added a new, coal-burning one. The master bedroom was also moved from the northwest corner to the southeast corner of the house. A cook house was also added to the house and turned into the kitchen.

The house changed ownership again in the 1900s when it was purchased by a doctor, who lived there with his family and added an office and examining rooms.

The current owners moved in 19 years ago and completely renovated the entire house, upgrading the internal electrical, plumbing and heating systems, as well as the kitchen appliances. They also painted the rooms in solid, rich hues true to the period.

They stayed true to a lot of the historic details and replicated a lot of them, Slater said.

The owners even created plaster molds for the wooden rosettes near the windows and doors.

There are 11 fireplaces throughout the house, including most of the eight bedrooms. There is also an outdoor fireplace.

In a way, its very formal but it can be casual, she said.

One of the most intriguing aspects of the house is an old, wooden elevator that is pulled up and down the shaft by ropes, instead of powered by electricity.

Ive seen dumb waiters, but nothing like this, Slater said.

KKoerting@newstimes.com;
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While Joel Colindres was checking in with U.S. immigration authorities who have ordered his deportation, nearly 100 people gathered a few blocks away to demand he be allowed to stay in the country.

Immigration officials have told Colindres he must leave the country by Aug. 17, and required him to appear in Hartford on Thursday to show he had purchased a plane ticket back to his native Guatemala.

Colindres, of New Fairfield, is married to Samantha, a U.S. citizen, and has two American-born children, 6-year-old Preston and 2-year-old Lila.

More News New Fairfield man to be deported next month

Among those in attendance was Nury Chavarria, of Norwalk, a Guatemalan native with four American-born children who had taken sanctuary in a New Haven church after she was ordered to leave the country.

She and one daughter had been living in the church nearly a week when a judge on Wednesday issued an emergency stay of the deportation order.

Chavarria did not speak, but for two hours the crowd chanted Keep Joel Home, Family man, taxpayer, citizen, Joel, and Keep Families Together.

Its really emotional to have everybody here, said a grateful and teary-eyed Samantha Colindres. Were going to keep fighting for whats right and what we believe in, and thats my husband.

"Keep families together" A post shared by Mackenzie Rigg (@mackhearst) on Jul 27, 2017 at 7:42am PDT

Samantha Colindres said she has not yet told their young children about the deportation order.

I dont want to put that heartache on them until I have affirmative bad news because I dont want to give up hope yet and I dont want to have them feel the same way Im feeling right now, she said. Im their mom. Im supposed to carry it, not them.

Joel Colindres, who came to the U.S. in 2004, did not appear at the protest but spoke afterward to Hearst Connecticut Media.

Its an unbelievable thing, said Colindres after seeing photographs and videos of the protest. Im very proud of my wife and all those people who did just amazing work.

Family members were at the protest, including Joel Colindres mother, Stella, who arrived from Guatemala about a week ago. When asked through a translator how she was feeling, she burst into tears.

His nephew, 20-year-old Edwin Colindres, called his uncle an amazing guy who works hard to provide for his wife and children.

Im very happy that everyone is here supporting us today, Edwin Colindres said as tears slid down his face. He held a sign that said, Please dont take my uncle away.

Several New Fairfield residents drove to Hartford for the protest, many holding handmade signs supporting their neighbor, who works as a carpenter.

Joel has done nothing wrong, said Holly Murtha. Hes not a threat to our society; hes a benefit.

Weve all come from somewhere else and we need to remember that, she said.

A mix-up with paperwork

Joel Colindres has said his life was in danger in Guatemala; he was held at gunpoint several times and mugged as a teenager.

When Colindres crossed the border into Texas in 2004, he was separated from his companions, some of whom were apprehended by immigration agents. Colindres said he went to a nearby police station voluntarily and immigration was notified. After several hours, he was allowed to enter the country provisionally and was released, he said.

Colindres said a mixup with paperwork led him to miss a court date in 2004, resulting in an order for his removal. After Joel and Samantha Colindres married in 2010, they went to an attorney to begin the process of obtaining his citizenship. It was then they learned about the order of removal.

Several attempts to have the order dropped were unsuccessful. Last year, a stay of that order was approved, but it expired on June 1. His attorneys have asked for a renewal of the stay, but when the couple met last week with ICE officials in Hartford, they were told the request had been denied.

According to a statement from ICE, Colindres had sought relief from removal via several court actions and has been denied each.

On July 20, during a routine check-in, ICE chose not to take (Colindres) into custody and instead placed him in a GPS monitoring program. He was instructed to report back to ICE with an itinerary as proof he intends to comply with his removal order, the statement said.

Congressional delegation offers support

Members of Connecticuts Congressional delegation have rallied behind Colindres. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., issued a statement Thursday offering his support.

My office has been in close contact with the Colindres family and their attorney to support them during this heartbreaking ordeal, Blumenthal said. Yet again, the Trump administration is seeking to separate a hardworking father from his U.S. citizen children  a law-abiding man who has lived here dutifully reporting to ICE each year while contributing to his community and raising his beautiful family. The fact that ICE would give a father only 28 days notice to leave his wife and children  leaving next to no time to pursue legal remedies  is cold, callous and reprehensible.

Heres a man who has raised his two children, both U.S. citizens, along with his wife, also a United States citizen, Blumenthal added in an interview with Hearst Connecticut Media. Hes worked hard and hes paid taxes. Hes given back to the community. He would be a model citizen if provided with a path to earn that citizenship rather than be deported.

Blumenthals statement said the deportation order gives Colindres no time to follow through on a process to obtain legal status despite ICEs approval of Samantha Colindres application to sponsor her husbands visa.

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he is closely following Colindres case and trying to help the New Fairfield man and his family.

As a father of two young kids, I can only imagine the pain Joel is going through right now at the thought of having to leave his 6-year-old son, Preston, and 2-year-old daughter, Lila, said Murphy. The Trump administration once again is irresponsibly targeting families. I think we all agree that our limited law enforcement resources should instead go to deporting dangerous criminals.

Rep. Elizabeth Esty, D-Conn., said she will do everything she can to fight for their rights.

No family should have to experience the pain and heartbreak that these parents and their two young kids are going through, Esty said. We have a broken immigration system in this country, but tearing apart families and separating hardworking parents from their children wont do anything to fix it.

All it will do is waste limited law-enforcement resources and inflict needless cruelty on families who are trying to build a life for themselves and live the American dream she said. We have to be better than this.
English Norwegian

Statoil (OSE:STL, NYSE:STO) reports adjusted earnings of USD 3.0 billion and adjusted earnings after tax of USD 1.3 billion in the second quarter of 2017. IFRS net operating income was USD 3.2 billion and the IFRS net income was USD 1.4 billion.

The second quarter was characterised by:

Solid earnings and strong cash flow. Net debt ratio [5] reduced to 27.5%

Good operational performance and high regularity. Around 5% production growth expected in 2017

Project deliveries and efficiency improvements on track

"Our solid financial results and strong cash flow are driven by good operational performance with high production efficiency and continued cost improvements. At oil prices around 50 dollars per barrel, we have generated 4 billion dollars in free cash flow, and reduced our net debt ratio by 8.1 percentage points since the start of the year. We expect to deliver around 5% production growth this year, and at the same time realise an additional one billion dollars in efficiencies," says Eldar Stre, President and CEO of Statoil ASA.

"Together with the supplier industry, we continue to make strong progress on project development and execution. Gina Krog has started production, and we are progressing Johan Sverdrup and other important projects like Aasta Hansteen, Mariner, Oseberg Vestflanken, Peregrino II, Dudgeon and Hywind. On the NCS, we have received approval for three new projects and submitted one additional plan for development," says Stre.

"So far this year, we have drilled 14 exploration wells and made nine discoveries. Several of these can quickly be put into profitable production. Our exploration programme in the Barents Sea started with the Kayak discovery and gives us the opportunity to test several new prospects. We expect to drill around 30 exploration wells in 2017. Based on strict prioritisation and efficient drilling operations we are able to reduce our guidance for exploration spending this year to around 1.3 billion dollars," says Stre.

Adjusted earnings were USD 3.023 billion in the second quarter, up from USD 0.913 billion in the same period in 2016. Adjusted earnings after tax were USD 1.289 billion in the second quarter, up from negative USD 0.028 billion in the same period last year. Higher prices for both oil and gas, solid operational performance with high production, a reversal of provisions in Angola of USD 0.754 billion and continued progress on improvement work contributed to the increase.

IFRS net operating income was USD 3.244 billion in the second quarter compared to USD 0.180 billion in the same period of 2016. IFRS net income was USD 1.436 billion, up from negative USD 0.302 billion in the same period last year.

Statoil delivered equity production of 1,996 mboe per day in the second quarter, an increase from 1,959 mboe per day in the same period in 2016. The increase was primarily due to strong operational performance, increased gas offtake and ramp-up of new fields. Excluding portfolio changes, the underlying production growth was 3% compared to the second quarter last year.

Adjusted exploration expenses in the quarter were USD 0.224 billion, down from USD 0.423 billion in the second quarter of 2016.

Cash flows provided by operating activities in the first half of 2017 amounted to USD 9.931 billion compared to USD 3.349 billion for the same period last year. Organic capital expenditure was USD 4.5 billion in the first half of 2017. At the end of second quarter, net debt to capital employed [5] was reduced to 27.5%.

The board of directors has decided to maintain a dividend of USD 0.2201 per ordinary share for the second quarter and continue the scrip programme this quarter giving shareholders the option to receive the dividend in cash or newly issued shares in Statoil at a 5% discount.

The twelve-month average Serious incident frequency (SIF) was 0.8 for the twelve months ended 30 June 2017, compared to 0.7 in the same period a year ago.

Further information from:

Investor relations

Peter Hutton, Senior vice president Investor relations,

tel +44 7881 918 792 (mobile)

Morten Sven Johannessen, vice president Investor Relations North America

tel +12035702524 (mobile)

Press

Bard Glad Pedersen, vice president Media relations,

tel +47 918 01 791 (mobile)

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.
This memorial to our Vietnam Veterans is a long time coming. Somehow, the confusion over the reasons for the war and the growing opposition to it got mixed up with the soldiers who were serving, with the veterans who were coming home.

We have gotten to the place where we recognize that soldiers dont make wars, they fight them. If there is disagreement over the decision to send our troops into battle, that disagreement lies with our elected leaders and generals, not the men and women fighting those battles.

When the Wall that Heals came to New Milford last year, I saw the mixed emotions it evoked in our Vietnam veterans and their families. And it pointed out in stark terms the absence of our own memorial to these veterans here in New Milford, which is shocking when you consider the patriotism and tremendous respect for veterans that our community has. Ray Crawford, Jim Delancey and I set out to do something about it.

Because when you got that draft notice in the mail, it didnt come with a dissertation on the geopolitical forces and Cold War strategy around the world; you didnt get a history of Vietnam and the experience of the French before us; and you certainly didnt get a box to check off asking if you wanted to go. The time had come for this memorial here in New Milford.

Country Joe McDonald who sang at Woodstock said, Blaming soldiers for war is like blaming firefighters for fire. That message took a long time to sink in, but I believe we have gotten to the point where never again will the American people blame the soldier for a politicians war.

And so we dedicate this memorial to those soldiers who served in the Vietnam War, to those who never came back, to the families who live with its impact, and to ourselves, our community, to never forget that our Vietnam veterans deserved better, and this memorial is a mark of atonement to try to make up for that.

Thank you Ray Crawford and the Memorial Committee, our local VFW and American Legion and other civic groups for supporting this project. There are more opportunities to recognize our veterans and I look forward to continuing this process.

Mayor David R. Gronbach

New Milford
NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ -- Project Haiti, a US 501c(3) organization, announced today that it has partnered with Swiss Message Bank, AG, a Swiss Company and its subsidiary, Swiss Message Bank US, LLC, to utilize Swiss Message Banks advanced technology donation platform. Swiss Message Bank Cares Partnership Agreement provides that; for each Message to the Future purchased by a supporter of Project Haiti's humanitarian efforts, Swiss Message Bank shall donate 30% of the deposited messages price to Project Haiti. Swiss Message Banks Donation Platform provides Project Haiti's supporters the ability to offer a "Wonderful Service to Humanity", while supporting humanitarian aid to Haiti.

About Project Haiti

Project Haiti is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing medical care and education to the country of Haiti since 1992. Project Haiti's contributions include:

Delivering equipment, supplies, and personnel support to Hospital Bienfaisance (Charity Hospital) in Pignon on Haiti's north central plateau. Project Haiti is the primary organization that assisted in the development of this 65-bed hospital, which has become an excellent national resource for advanced surgical training due to its state-of-the-art operating rooms, education facilities, and telecommunication capabilities.

north central plateau. Project is the primary organization that assisted in the development of this 65-bed hospital, which has become an excellent national resource for advanced surgical training due to its state-of-the-art operating rooms, education facilities, and telecommunication capabilities. In addition to training nurses and other health care providers, starting in 1995 Project Haiti introduced courses in laparoscopic surgery to Haitian gynecologists and general surgeons. Since then, Project Haiti surgeons have educated hundreds of Haitian physicians from all of the major teaching hospitals throughout the country.

Since 2010, Urology training courses in vesicovaginal fistula repair, urethral reconstruction and general urology have been conducted, both in Pignon and in the capital city of Port-au-Prince . Project Haiti's contributions and leadership in urology has led to a remarkable organization of educational activities among all Haitian urologists and residents-in-training, achieving collaboration with international urologic organizations as well as the volunteer surgeons who have been serving in Haiti . The Global Association for the Support of Haitian Urology (GASHU) is now a robust organization as a result, contributing to improved urologic care for the Haitian people.

. Project contributions and leadership in urology has led to a remarkable organization of educational activities among all Haitian urologists and residents-in-training, achieving collaboration with international urologic organizations as well as the volunteer surgeons who have been serving in . The Global Association for the Support of Haitian Urology (GASHU) is now a robust organization as a result, contributing to improved urologic care for the Haitian people. Project Haiti is currently developing a second laparoscopic training center in the heart of Port-au-Prince at the newly constructed Hospital St. Francois de Sales (HSFDS). This is the result of an effective partnership with the local hospital leadership in conjunction with the faculty of the nearby national university hospital.

is currently developing a second laparoscopic training center in the heart of at the newly constructed Hospital St. Francois de Sales (HSFDS). This is the result of an effective partnership with the local hospital leadership in conjunction with the faculty of the nearby national university hospital. Project Haiti has initiated the development of a urology training center at HSFDS, complete with a kidney stone treatment center. With its numerous partners, Project Haiti has successfully introduced laser lithotripsy and ESWL (Extra-Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy) and has trained Haitian urologists to independently perform these advanced procedures.

has initiated the development of a urology training center at HSFDS, complete with a kidney stone treatment center. With its numerous partners, Project Haiti has successfully introduced laser lithotripsy and ESWL (Extra-Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy) and has trained Haitian urologists to independently perform these advanced procedures. Project Haiti has been a pioneer in tele-health since 2002 and was the first to bring tele-education to Haiti through videoconferencing and streaming live surgery, initially with satellite communication at Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon. In recent years, Project Haiti partnered with SAGES (Society of American Gastro-intestinal Endoscopic Surgeons) to provide regular internet-based videoconferences from prominent surgeon professors all over the world to many physicians throughout Haiti . The impact of excellent medical education for the local health care providers in Haiti on the well-being of the people is dramatic. Project Haiti believes that by teaching a few, many can be helped. In order for these efforts to be sustainable long-term, your support is needed.

has been a pioneer in tele-health since 2002 and was the first to bring tele-education to through videoconferencing and streaming live surgery, initially with satellite communication at Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon. In recent years, Project Haiti partnered with SAGES (Society of American Gastro-intestinal Endoscopic Surgeons) to provide regular internet-based videoconferences from prominent surgeon professors all over the world to many physicians throughout . The impact of excellent medical education for the local health care providers in on the well-being of the people is dramatic. Project believes that by teaching a few, many can be helped. In order for these efforts to be sustainable long-term, your support is needed. For a deeper exploration of Project Haiti, its legacy and leadership, please visit our web site: www.projecthaiti.org

About Swiss Message Bank.

Swiss Message Banks proprietary and advanced software technology provides its users advanced state of the art software platforms, which include; "Messages to the Future" technology and their "Not for Profit Donations Platform". By replacing antiquated donor technology, Swiss Message Banks advanced and proprietary Not for Profit Donation Platform enables 501c(3) organizations the ability to significantly improve their fundraising efforts through increased efficiencies and donor participation. Swiss Messaging Banks "Messaging to the Future" technology allows a provider of Voice Messages the ability to confidentially record encrypted messages and edit, change and deliver them immediately, or store their messages for up to 100 years. These messages may be of numerous types, including messages from the elderly and ill, to loved ones and friends, general population messages, of any kind, as well as business and legal messages. Swiss Message Bank provides it's Not for Profit Platform Free to all 501c(3) organizations. For more information please visit our web site: www.swissmessagebank.com

Project Haiti contact:

[email protected]

Swiss Message Bank contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Swiss Message Bank; Project Haiti

Related Links

http://www.swissmessagebank.com


OTTAWA, July 27, 2017 /CNW Telbec/ - The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today issued the following statement on Korean War Veterans Day:





"Today, we remember the brave members of the army, navy and air forces who fought so valiantly, and sacrificed so greatly, during the Korean War.

"Sixty-four years ago today, a ceasefire put an end to active fighting in the Korean War. After the Communist North's invasion of South Korea in 1950, the brutal war lasted more than three years and cost hundreds of thousands of military and civilian lives. More than 26,000 Canadians  some only teenagers, others veterans of the Second World War  crossed the Pacific Ocean to fight under the flag of the United Nations. Over 500 Canadian soldiers, sailors, and air personnel made the ultimate sacrifice, and the lives of countless others were forever changed.

"The soldiers fought in conditions reminiscent of the First World War  cold, wet trench duty punctuated by terrifying night patrols into no man's land. They bravely battled both the harsh weather and enemy forces at places like Kapyong, the site of one of Canada's most important victories.

"We take pride in Canada's contributions, along with those of our United Nations allies, to defending the sovereignty of South Korea. The courage and sacrifice of our Korean War veterans helped South Korea to become the peaceful and prosperous country we know today.

"Today, I urge all Canadians to learn more about the Korean War, and to participate in activities being held to honour the veterans. As we celebrate the 150th anniversary of Confederation, let us recognize all those in our military, and their families who support them. They help defend our most cherished values  openness, democracy, compassion, and respect for human rights  in Canada and around the world."

This document is also available at http://pm.gc.ca

SOURCE Prime Minister's Office

For further information: PMO Media Relations: 613-957-5555

Related Links

http://pm.gc.ca/


TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /CNW/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) will release its second quarter 2017 financial results on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, after markets close. The Company will hold its earnings conference call and audio webcast at 10:00 a.m. ET the following day.

Date: Thursday, August 10, 2017

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit www.sunlife.com/QuarterlyReports 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-866-521-4909

Participant Dial In (International): 647-427-2311

A replay of the conference call will be available from Thursday, August 10, 2017 at 1 p.m. ET until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 24, 2017 by calling 416-621-4642 or 1-800-585-8367 (toll free within North America) using Conference ID: 50684972

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individuals and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2017, Sun Life Financial had total assets under management of $927 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars

Media Relations Contact:

Kim Armstrong

Manager, Media & PR

Corporate Communications

T. 416-979-6207

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Greg Dilworth

Vice-President

Investor Relations

T. 416-979-6230

[email protected]

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sunlife.com


English Norwegian

Based on the authorisation granted by the annual general meeting 11 May 2017, the board of directors of Statoil ASA (OSE:STL, NYSE:STO) has on 26 July 2017 resolved to increase the share capital in connection with the payment of dividend for the first quarter 2017 on the following terms and conditions:

NOT FOR RELEASE IN OR INTO CANADA, JAPAN, AUSTRIA, POLAND, ESTONIA, ICELAND OR ANY OTHER JURISDICTION IN WHICH THE RELEASE WOULD BE UNLAWFUL

1. The share capital is increased with an amount of minimum NOK 2.50 and maximum NOK 400,000,000. The new shares shall have a nominal value of NOK 2.50.

2. Subscription price:

a) For shareholders on Oslo Brs (Oslo Stock Exchange) the subscription price is equal to the volume-weighted average share price on Oslo Brs of the last two trading days of the subscription period for the dividend issue, with a deduction for a discount of 5 %.

b) For ADR-holders under the ADR program in the US, the subscription price is equal to the subscription price for the shareholders on Oslo Brs converted into USD based on an average of the Central Bank of Norway's USD exchange rate over the last two trading days of the subscription period.

3. Only shareholders of Statoil as of the expiry of 7 August 2017 on New York Stock Exchange and 8 August 2017 for shareholders on Oslo Brs , as registered in Statoil's shareholder register with the Norwegian Central Securities Depository (VPS) as of expiry of 10 August 2017, are entitled to subscribe for shares.

4. The new shares may not be subscribed for by shareholders in jurisdictions in which an offer to subscribe would be unlawful for the relevant shareholder.

5. Subscription of the new shares shall be carried out in accordance with the following:

a) Each of these shareholders can choose to receive their dividend wholly or partially in cash or newly issued shares and therefore are entitled to use in whole or in part the net dividends that the relevant shareholder is entitled to for the first quarter of 2017, to subscribe for shares in the company. The contribution will be settled by way of set-off against the subscribers' entitlement to net dividend from the company. Dividend in USD which shall be used as contribution shall be converted into NOK by using the same exchange rate between USD and NOK as set out under item 2 b) above. All subscriptions will be rounded down to the nearest whole number of shares. Any part of the net dividend not used to settle the subscribed shares, shall be paid in cash.

b) The Norwegian State has undertaken to participate in the dividend offer by using the part of its quarterly dividend to subscribe for the number of shares that is required to maintain its ownership interest of 67% in Statoil.

6. Each shareholder will be allocated the number of shares equal to the amount each shareholder has subscribed for during the subscription period, cf. item 5 above, divided by the subscription price, cf. item 2 above. No fractional shares will be allocated.

7. The subscription period shall commence at the latest on or about 28 August 2017. The subscription period shall be at least 10 business days for ordinary shareholders. Subscription of shares shall take place electronically or on a designated subscription form within the expiry of the subscription period.

8. ADR-holders under the ADR program in the US may make their election through Deutsche Bank as the depositary and receiving agent for the ADR program.

9. The new shares give shareholders rights in the company, including the right to dividends, from the registration of the share capital increase in the Norwegian Register of Business Enterprises. At the same time, section 3 of the Articles of Association shall be amended to reflect the new share capital.

10. The estimated costs for the share capital increase are NOK 5 million.

KPMG has prepared a statement according to the Norwegian Public Limited Liability Companies Act section 2-6 first and second paragraph, cf. section 10-2 third paragraph.

This information is subject to the disclosure requirements pursuant to section 5-12 of the Norwegian Securities Trading Act.

This announcement and the information contained herein does not constitute or form a part of, and should not be construed as, an offer for sale or subscription for or solicitation or invitation of any offer to subscribe for or purchase of dividend shares or any other securities of the Company and cannot be relied on for any investment contract or decision.

It may be unlawful to distribute this announcement in certain jurisdictions. This announcement is not for distribution in any jurisdiction in which prior registration or approval is required for that purpose. No steps have been taken or will be taken in any jurisdiction outside of Norway in which such steps would be required. No competent authority or any other regulatory body has passed upon the adequacy of this document or approved or disapproved the distribution of dividend shares outside of Norway. Any representation to the contrary may be a criminal offense.
OTTAWA, July 26, 2017 /CNW/ - Next week, Statistics Canada will turn the spotlight on Canadian families, their households, how they live, and the languages they speak. As Canada marks its 150th anniversary, Statistics Canada will continue to share its year-long story of our country and its people, based on the census results.

Data on families, households, marital status and language will be published at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time on August 2, 2017, on Statistics Canada's website.

The Families, households and marital status release will provide data on the recent changes in Canadian households and families from a variety of perspectives at the national, provincial, territorial and sub-provincial levels. In addition, three Census in Brief articles will provide analyses on the following topics: the diverse family situations of children, young adults living with their parents, and same-sex couples in Canada.

The Language release will examine the languages Canadians speak and present results at the national, provincial and territorial levels, as well as for some large census metropolitan areas. Three Census in Brief articles will be published, focusing on EnglishFrench bilingualism, multilingualism and linguistic diversity, and official language minorities.

As with previous census releases, the story of Canada as seen through the 2016 Census will be supplemented with data visualization products, including infographics and a video.

Over the coming months, Statistics Canada will release additional data from the 2016 Census of Population, providing greater insights on the Canadian population. Data and analyses on the following topics will be released throughout 2017:

Income (September 13, 2017)

Immigration, ethnocultural diversity, housing and Aboriginal peoples (October 25, 2017)

Education, labour, journey to work, language of work, mobility and migration (November 29, 2017).

For more information, please refer to the Release and Concepts Overview for Families, households and marital status and Language.

SOURCE Statistics Canada

For further information: Should you have questions, please contact Media Relations at 613-951-4636 or [email protected]

Related Links

www.statcan.gc.ca/






The Chairman of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) Senator Victor Ndoma-Egba, (SAN) has said that the Niger Delta Regional Development Master Plan (NDRDMP) failed because it was abandoned shortly after it was launched in 2007.Speaking while receiving the South-South Monarchs Forum led by King Edmund Daukoru, the Amayanabo of Nembe, in his office in Port Harcourt on Wednesday, he stated that we must return to the master plan.We have to agree on whether to terminate the current master plan update or upgrade it. We need the traditional institution to play a role in this process, he said and maintained that a comprehensive plan was necessary for any meaningful development to be made as no state could make progress without a plan.He said that the NDDC was guided by the need for transparency and accountability, stating that while the Commission should insist on getting its dues, it must also be accountable to earn the trust of its stakeholders.Senator Ndoma-Egba stressed that the NDDC must not be seen to be in competition with the state governments but should rather collaborate with stakeholders to add more value to the communities.According to the Chairman, the traditional institution played a key role in the relative peace now existing in the Niger Delta.He added: There is no doubt that the South-South region has to speak with one voice and that is why engagements of this nature are very important because it will help us find a common ground.It will help us synchronize our thoughts and our ideas so that whenever and wherever we speak as leaders of the South-South, whether as traditional rulers or political leaders, we speak with one voice.I believe that the reality on ground is that the traditional institution plays a role in ensuring peace, mobilizing for development, providing a forum for dialogue, or providing a framework for furthering an action with others in this country.If we recognize that as a reality, then there is need to give that reality a legal backing because you cannot play that role in a legal vacuum. So, I support a constitutional role for our traditional institution.The leader of the South-South monarchs, Dr Daukoru, said that the NDDC had come of age, noting that the landscape of the Niger Delta was dotted with fruits from the commission.He declared: We are ready to partner with NDDC and give all the encouragement you need and we are hoping that we will see a bit more of you in terms of outreach through us to the grassroots people.We also want to act as a channel and an advocacy institution for you so that through us, you will be able to communicate to the people whatever opportunities are open that they can participate more effectively.He observed that prior to 2009 when the monarchs came together as a group, the South-South literally had no voice.We provide a voice for the South-South and encourage the political class to work together in harmony, he said.King Daukoru, who was a former Minister of Petroleum, stated that the Niger Delta was the dollar basket of the nation, adding that in spite of this fact, the region was getting very little from its natural resources.He blamed the neglect of the region on the inadequate recognition of the traditional institution, identifying the monarchs as the missing ingredient needed to galvanize positive development.




The Senate has clarified the ambiguity emanating from the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill passed and adopted by the National Assembly.Since the Senate adopted the report of its Committee on Tuesday, two different groups had laid claims to the Bill passed.While Amb. Dr. Dickson Akoh, the National Commandant of Peace Corps of Nigeria had addressed the Press, thanking the National Assembly for restoring hope to the Nigerian youths, Dr. Chinedu Nneji, Commandant General of National Unity and Peace Corps had also adrresed the media, thanking the National Assembly for passing his bill.Reacting to the controversies surrounding the Bill, the Senate Spokesman, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, said the Bill passed into law by the National Assembly was to give legal backing to the existing Peace Corps of Nigeria, under Dickson Akoh.Senator Abdullahi who addressed the Senate Press Corp on Thursday, said it was necessary to explain the ambiguity, saying the report in some quarters that the National Assembly passed and adopted the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill was misleading.According to the Spokesman, the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill did not pass through the House of Representatives and as such, the Senate could not force it on the them.His words, Let me say that, in the Senate, we had the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill and we also had the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill.When we were considering the Peace Corps Bill, an observation was raised that there was another Bill which has similar objectives, that was the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill.So, it was agreed that the Bill should be incorporated into the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill. That was done. When we did that, we then passed our own version.Senator Abdullahi added that it was during the conference committee to harmonise the two versions of the bill passed, that the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill was removed and the Reps version was adopted.The House of Reps maintained, that there was no bill called the National Unity and Peace Corps Bill. So, there was no basis for harmonisation.They maintained their stand that the only bill they passed was the Nigerian Peace Corps Bill, for which we also considered.So, at that point of harmonisation, the conference committee adopted the position of the House of Reps.Effectively, what this means is that, the only agency which we considered its bill was the bill that said, the Peace Corps of Nigeria and, of course, dissolution within the context of that bill only referred to Peace Corps of Nigeria.What that means effectively is that, the Bill that says National Unity and Peace Corps Bill is still intact, there is no provision in our law where we have even touched it.We want to advise Nigerians to be guided by what we have done, there should be no ambiguity.We know there are people out there who are claiming that the Bill we passed affected them, I dont think that is the correct picture.The bill we passed and adopted, was the one promoted by the Peace Corps of Nigeria under Mr Dickson Akoh, the Senate spokesman explained.He, however, said the Bill made provision for any group of youths that was peaceful and with similar objective, to approach the Nigerian Peace Corps and be incorporated.
The comparison that exposed Ehirim

A Nigerian model and a celebrity many people are looking up to has disgraced himself on social media after he was caught photoshopping himself into a car.

Winner of 2016 Mr Ideal Nigeria, Prince Ehirim has been dragged around social media and called many names after he was caught hands down photoshopping himself into the 2018 Audi A8, to deceive his unsuspecting followers.

It has become the practice for some Nigerian celebrities to deceive themselves and live fake lives as they have constantly deceived their fans by posting fake photos of bags, cars and even dogs while quoting huge sums they purportedly spent acquiring the items.

The original photo

Oge Okoye, Kcee have trended for some time now after being caught trying to deceive fans.

Just like the duo mentioned above, Ehirim decided to play a fast one but was called out as fans bombarded him with comments and calling him a lair. He was forced to edit his post adding: "And haters would say it's photoshop." in his caption.

The photoshopped version

Why celebrities will continue to live fake lives still baffles many, but Nigerians have been warned not to live their lives by following after them because most are fake and can push one to do the unthinkable. Many believe celebrities who lie about little things as their lifestyle basically have insecurity issues.
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*File photo used for illustrative purposes only*

The Nigerian Customs Service has yet again made another shocking discovery during the discharge of their duties with the interception of three consignments containing 140 species of snakes imported into Nigeria. Customs Area Comptroller in charge of Calabar Free Trade Zone, Cross River and Akwa Ibom Command, Mrs. Nanbyen Burromvyat, has said the command intercepted three consignments containing 140 species of snakes imported into Nigeria.

Also, the command intercepted 600 animals, made up of geckos, millipedes, hairy frogs and spiders, in the containers.

The items were said to have been imported from Cameroon and were intercepted by officers on July 24, 2017, on arrival at the NIWA jetty, with a market value of N6.9 million.

Burromvyat said the consignments, which were Lagos-bound, were prohibited items, under Schedule 3 of the Revised Import Prohibition List (Trade) in the Common External Tariff.

A list of the items contained in the packaging list had snakes such as Atheris squamigera, Bitis gobanica, Dasypeltis ssp, Boiga pulverinata, among others, while the geckos were Hemidactylus frenatus and Hemidactylus fasciatus.

Though the containers were not opened for fear of escape, Burromvyat handed over the items and the two suspects to authorities of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services for investigation.

She said: These containers have animals of different sizes. They were brought in on July 24, 2017, through this Calabar waterway. The consignment was spotted by our vigilant officers and they contain live animals.

There is no provision for permit to bring them in. We are seizing them and handing the containers over to the Nigerian Quarantine Services for further necessary action.

I do not know what they want to do with it, but I think it will be dangerous for us because it contains snake, spiders, geckos and other creatures. We have enough snakes around Nigeria already and it will be suspicious importing this. I do not know what to think because I do not know what they can be used for.

Speaking shortly after receiving the containers, the officer in charge of the Nigerian Agricultural Quarantine Services in Cross River State, Mr. Sunday Ukut, said the animals would be properly scrutinised after which they might be destroyed.

Appreciating the efforts of officers that intercepted the animals, he said the office would conduct further investigations.

The arrested agent who brought in the consignment from Cameroon, Mr. Julius Novigana, said the consignment was given to him by a friend to deliver to someone in Lagos, claiming that he did not know what was in the three containers. According to him, his friend only asked him to deliver the consignment to an unidentified person in Lagos.

Captain of the vessel that brought the consignment, Victor Agbor, also a Cameroonian, said he did not spot the containers when he was about leaving his country, adding: The name of my vessel is MV Flesh and we bring in passengers and general cargo from Cameroon to Nigeria. I never saw this container on board before leaving.
PDP Governors who represented the Nigerian Governors forum, and are reportedly the last set of governors to visit recuperating President, Buhari, are reportedly on their way back to Nigeria from London. Here are photos of his Excellency Dr Abdullahi Umar Ganduje OFR and other governors representing the Nigerian Governors Forum at the airport!
About 262 Nigerians were on Wednesday returned from Libya .

About 262 Nigerians were on Wednesday returned from Libya .They distraught Nigerians were brought back aboard a chartered Libyan Airlines aircraft with registration number 5A-LAR.The aircraft landed at 10 pm at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos.The returnees consists 108 males, 135 females, eight children and 11 infants.They were brought back by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and the Nigerian Embassy in Libya.The returnees were received by officers of the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) , the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and the Police.Also on ground to receive them were officials of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).Addressing newsmen, Alhaji Mustapha Maihaja, the Director General, NEMA, said the agency in collaboration with the IOM was working to ensure that Nigerians stranded in Libya are brought back home.The Director General who was represented by Mr Suleiman Yakubu, Zonal Coordinator, South West, NEMA, said both the federal government and state governments had initiated various programmes to rehabilitate and reintegrate the returnees into the society.He further advised Nigerians, especially the youths not to be lured into the quest for greener pastures, adding that there was enough opportunities in the country.
Among the five members of staff of the University of Maiduguri killed by insurgents during the exploration for oil in the Lake Chad Basin is Idris Abubakar Njodi, the younger brother of the Vice Chancellor of the institution, Prof. Ibrahim Abubakar Njodi.The younger Abubakar Njodi after his funeral prayer at 10:30 am on Thursday at the Universitys Central Mosque had his corpse interred at Gwange Muslim Burial Ground.Abubakar Njodis corpse was among the over 30 corpses brought from the scene of the attack in two army ambulances and four pickup vans.The corpses were deposited at the morgue of the University of Maiduguri Teaching Hospital.The institutions community was thrown into mourning on Thursday when news of the sad incident filtered in, said the Universitys Chapter Chairman of the Academic Staff Union of University, Dr. Dani Mamman.Mamman confirmed to journalists that four other staff of the university involved in the attack were still missing.According to Mamman; two of the slain persons were academic staff in the department of geology, two were technicians, while the other was a driver.He lampooned that statement issued by the military that all the abductees were rescued was misleading, lamenting that they ought to have made it clear that they recovered dead bodies of the victims.When the military declared that all the kidnapped persons were rescued, anxiety and happiness pervaded us, thinking that they are alive. However to our dismay, rather than seeing our staff alive, the military deposited their corpses, he decriedHe urged the security agents to intensify efforts towards rescuing the missing persons.
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Lagos State has reacted to the results of the elections into the 57 local governments and local council development areas of Lagos State.Announcing the results of the polls on Monday, the Lagos State Independent Electoral Commission (LASIEC) had said that the All Progressives Congress (APC) won all the chairmanship seats across the state.Barely 48 hours after the results were officially released, the PDP said that it had discovered how the APC allegedly rigged the polls.In a statement issued yesterday, the PDP accused the APC of using thugs to snatch ballot boxes.The statement reads. The APC government in Lagos have realised that Lagosians dont want them again, that was why they used thugs and guns to snatch ballot boxes. APC is the ruling party; if not for the fact that they saw that they were getting voted out, what was the need for the use of thugs to snatch ballot boxes?Most ballot boxes were not counted at the unit, even those that were counted, the ballot boxes were taken to collation centres where no other party agents were allowed to enter except APC agents.That is where all the results were doctored and votes were allocated to political parties for the returning officers to declare. This is how APC rigged every other party out of the election.However, in a swift reaction to the claims, the APC asked the PDP in the state to shut up.It described the party as a confused group of people.The state publicity secretary of the party Mr Joe Igbokwe said in a statement that the claims portrayed the height of political irresponsibility.Lagos PDP should just keep quiet and go home to find out where the rains started beating them. The struggle for the position of the National Chairman of the party by the two factions of the party led by Ali Modu Sherrif and Ahmed Markafi dealt a devastating and debilitating blow to Lagos PDP which split along Markafi and Sherrif political divides.When the Supreme Court handed over to Markafi faction, the bubble burst as the Falcon could not bear the falconer and the centre could no longer hold for Lagos PDP.The leadership of APC Lagos traversed the political landscape of Lagos in the course of our grassroots and door-to-door campaigns just to check whether the opposition is doing anything in terms of campaigns but we did not see PDP/LP (Labour Party) in action, Igbokwe said.
The General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, has condemned the introduction of Arabic language as a course in Nigeria...

The General Overseer of Living Faith Church, Bishop David Oyedepo, has condemned the introduction of Arabic language as a course in Nigerian universities by the government.

Addressing his members at the Churchs headquarters in Ota, Ogun State, Oyedepo warned against such decision, saying Nigeria is a secular and not an Islamic state.

Oyedepo said such action was being perpetrated by some unpatriotic elements to foment trouble which may lead to war.

We wondered at the, intellectual virtue in the introduction of Arabic language in Nigerian universities when it cannot be used to, run any course in Management science.

According to Oyedepo, The introduction of Arabic language as part of general studies curriculum in universities is unacceptable, its a gross miscalculation, Nigeria is a secular state not a Christian or Muslim state.

Warning goes to all involved from this platform to revert the decision.

We have no problem with Islam, we have lived together over the years but some elements are taking cover over religion to foment trouble.

Nigeria shall not see war, our life shall no longer drain human blood, God will silent every perpetrator of war in Nigeria

National Assembly should urgently decide if Nigeria is a secular or an Islamic state. No group of people have the right to rewrite the constitution of Nigeria behind us, its too sacred to be ignored.

I cant see the intellectual virtue in allowing Arabic language when it cant be used to run any course in Management science.

Nigeria is not a Christian or Islamic state but its a secular state. If you want to worship stones, trees, fish go ahead. Its a free state and shall remain so.

I saw that some unpatriotic Nigerians rising up against the state but I also owe it a duty to declare that it is a dangerous part to toll that will never see the light of the day.

This nation shall remain one entity. I am warning every element fighting a cause that will never succeed. We are one people living together since we were founded as a nation.

There shall be no breakdown of law and order in Nigeria and every element taking cover among the herdsmen shall be exposed and brought to justice.





Watch video here




Former Minister of Aviation, Femi Fani-Kayode, on Thursday, called on President Muhammadu Buhari to resign.The former Minister gave the call while sharing the latest photograph of Buhari which surfaced online after meeting with six governors yesterday in London.Fani-Kayode, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, in a series of tweets via his social media said the presidency was not meant for tourist attraction of a mausoleum of decaying bodies.He wrote: The President/Presidency is not meant to be a tourist attraction, a museum of old fossils or a mausoleum of decaying bodies to be viewed by curious dignitaries in a distant foreign land.It is an act of cruelty to expect this poor man to lead a nation of 180 million. Let him resign, go home and rest!
President Muhammadu Buharis official photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo has begun posting images of his principal after a long break.This has led to speculations that the President would return to the country soon.When Buhari took his first medical leave in January, he returned as soon as it was confirmed that Bayo Omoboriowo was in the same town he was scheduled to land.Omoboriowo has hardly posted any picture of the President since then.However, on Wednesday night, he put up a picture of Buhari, in a meeting with seven Governors in the Abuja House, London.He captioned it: President Buhari receives courtesy visit delegation of Nigerias Governors Forum led by its Chairman Governor Abdulaziz Yari in Abuja House London on 26th July 2017.
Ebonyi State Governor Dave Umahi last night described the recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari as a miracle given reports on his heal...

Umahi of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), spoke after the visit of seven governors to the President in London.Others on the team are: Abdulaziz Yari (Zamfara), Abdulahhi Ganduje (Kano), Udom Emmanuel (Akwa Ibom), Abiola Ajimobi (Oyo), Kashim Shettima (Borno) and Samuel Ortom (Benue).The delegation had lunch with the President at Abuja House, Nigerias official residence in London.Presidents wife Aisha, was with him to receive the delegation. Ortoms wife, Eunice was also in attendance.It was the second delegation to visit the President after Sundays visit by some All Progessives Congess (APC) leaders and governors led by National Chairman John Odigie-Oyegun.Umahi told the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) Network news at 9am that he was excited to see the president in a good frame of mind adding that he was grateful to God that the prayer of Nigerians for the presidents recovery had been heard.Ganduje said the President was in a good state of health. We believe he will soon be back to Nigeria.In a tweet under the photograph of the visit, Ajimobi said: My counterparts, the governors forum delegation and I were warmly received by His Excellency President @MBuhari in London, United Kingdom.Another governor in the delegation said the President cracked jokes with the delegation without any speech inhibition.He said: Buhari walked without support to receive us and he took time to exchange pleasantries with each one of us. We also had a group photograph.His voice was the usual intonation and he has no speech inhibition in whatsoever manner. He was overwhelmed by our visit.He told us that he is ready to come back to his desk once clearance is given by his doctors.We compared notes on the state of the nation and the tasks ahead.The signs of recovery were visible but not overwhelming on him. He was looking healthier than when he came back the last time. Buhari is back to life.It was gathered that the Presidents official photographer, Bayo Omoboriowo, was deployed in London in order to take many shots and clear all doubts about his recuperation and fitness.There were indications last night that the Northern Governors Forum( NGF) will meet today in Kaduna on the security challenges in the region and to review reports on the Presidents health.The insecurity in the North has relapsed, the Federal Government has to bail us out. This is one of the reasons why we are holding a session.Some of us who were not in London will seize the opportunity to get status report on the health of the President.
A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Ekiti State, Bamidele Faparusi, has urged the Department of State Services (DSS)...

This followed the visit of some governors and the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, to the President in London.Pictures on the visit went virile a few days back, prompting some concerned Nigerians to ask questions about the motive behind Fayoses comment on the Presidents health.Faparusi, a governorship aspirant, noted that Fayoses allegation that President Buhari was on life support in a London hospital, constituted a treasonable felony against the country.Fayose had addressed reporters a few weeks ago, where he said information at his disposal confirmed that President Buhari had relapsed into a state of coma, adding that this forced his doctors to put him on life support.In a statement yesterday in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, Faparusi said the picture showing the Chairman of APC Governors Forum and Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha as well as three of his colleagues having a meal with President Buhari, dispelled the rumour that he was on the verge of death.The APC chieftain said the need to probe Fayoses comment became imperative because it would enable investigators to extract information on the source of the Ekiti governors comment.He said it would also enable them ascertain those plotting evil against the Federal Government.Faparusi said Fayoses vituperation against President Buhari and his boast that he will take over the Presidency in 2019 was suspect.
Finnish English

Tokmanni Group Corporation Press release 27.7.2017 10.00 am EEST

Tokmanni Group Corporation will publish its Half year financial report for January-June 2017 on August 9, 2017

Tokmanni will publish its Half year financial report for January-June 2017 on August 9 at approximately 8.30 a.m. EEST (7.30 CET). The stock exchange release and the presentation materials in Finnish and in English will be available on the company's website at ir.tokmanni.fi as soon as possible after the publication of the report.

Analyst and press briefing

An analyst and press briefing, which will be hosted by interim CEO Harri Sivula and CFO Markku Pirskanen, will be held on the publication day at 10.00 am EEST (9.00 CET) at the Hotel Kamp, Paavo Nurmi cabinet (2nd floor), Kluuvikatu 2, Helsinki. The conference is in Finnish and will also be webcasted. An audiocast in English will be held at 11.15 am EEST (10.15 CET).

Both the live casts can be accessed via Tokmanni's website at ir.tokmanni.fi or through the link http://www.goodmood.fi/webcaster/accounts/tokmanni/live. On-demand versions of both webcasts will be available at ir.tokmanni.fi later during the same day.

The participants can also join a telephone conference that will be arranged in conjunction with the live webcasts. The participants are asked to dial in 5-10 minutes prior to starting time using the Participant Phone Number and Participant Passcodes below:

+358 (0)9 7479 0360 (Finnish callers)

+49 (0)69 2222 10763 (German callers)

+44 (0)330 336 9401 (UK callers)

+1 719 325 2238 (US callers)

Participant code: 946037

For further information, please contact:

Tokmanni Group Corporation

Josephine Mickwitz, Head of IR and Communications

tel. +358400784889

mail: josephine.mickwitz@tokmanni.fi

Tokmanni in brief

Tokmanni is the largest general discount retailer in Finland measured by number of stores and revenue. In 2016, Tokmanni's revenue was EUR 776 million and on average it had approximately 3,200 employees. Tokmanni is the only nationwide general discount retailer in Finland, with 162 stores across Finland as at 31 December 2016.

Distribution:

Nasdaq Helsinki

Key Media
The Acting President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo on Thursday said that the Federal Government was unequivocally committed to the success of the private sector.He made the remark during the formal release ceremony to discharge the Indorama Eleme Petrochemicals Limited (IEPL) from the five-year monitoring programme of BPE in Eleme, Rivers.He said the Federal Government had been focusing on improving significantly the business environment for small and large businesses.According to him, last year, President Buhari established a Presidential Enabling Business Environment Council (PEBEC), whose results are now starting to be felt across the country.The kind of economic growth and prosperity that were aiming for cannot happen without private capital.And that private capital cannot be unlocked without reforming the business environment by removing obstacles and roadblocks to investment and business operations, he said.Osinbajo noted that it was impossible for government to ever be able to provide all the capital needed to invest in infrastructure, or to catalyse economic activity.He said that the best government could do was to put energy into acting as a catalyst and support private capital to achieve maximum impact in the economy.And this is the entire point of the privatisation programme in the first place  it is about getting government out of the way so that businesses can do what they need to do to create jobs and prosperity.Im glad that were here today to see one of the success stories of the Federal Governments privatisation programme.What Indorama is accomplishing today is very much in line with President Buharis vision for a country that produces what it consumes and grows what it eats.If you had to sum up our vision for the Nigerian economy in a few words, these would suffice. Grow what we eat, produce what we consume, he said.Osinbajo said the President launched a Presidential Fertilizer Initiative in 2016, to ensure the availability of cheaper fertilizer to farmers, to support agriculture in the production of rice and wheat and other staples.He said such initiative created significant economic opportunities for companies like IEPL which planned to supply about 360,000MT of Urea to fertilizer blenders.The acting President said the blender would in turn produce NPK fertilizer for the benefit of farmers in the country.He, however, explained that in 2006, 75 per cent of Eleme Petrochemical Limiteds equity was sold to Indorama Consortium Ltd in 2006 for 225 million dollars while 10 per cent was sold to the NNPC Pension Fund for 30million dollars.The company was handed over to its new owners on October 26, 2006.In 2009, the National Council on Privatization (NCP) approved the sale of 7.5 per cent and 2.5 per cent of the remaining governments 15 per cent reserved equity to the community and staff of the company respectively.The balance of five per cent equity remained with the BPE on-behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN)The BPE since the handover in 2006 carried out routine monitoring on the enterprise to ensure that the core investor adhered to and implemented the laid out post-acquisition plan.In his speech earlier, Mr Sri Lohia, Chairman of IEPL, said the company was amongst few largest fertilizer plants in the world.Lohia said that with the strength of the plant, Nigeria would be self-sufficient in fertilizer.The chairman said that the plant apart from enhancing agriculture in the region would offer direct and indirect employment.Gov. Nyesom Wike of Rivers commended the realization of the project.
Former Kano State governor, Mallam Ibrahim Shekarau, yesterday called for caution in the agitation for the restructuring of the country.Although he supported the idea of restructuring, he however said that Nigerians give different interpretation to the word.Speaking with newsmen in Akure, Shekarau called for the setting up of an appropriate body to collate all the previous constitutional conferences in the interest of the country.l know you will agree with me that different people read different meaning to restructuring. Unless as a nation, we identify collectively on what we mean by restructuring, we will never get there.I support any restructuring, any arrangement that will ensure political stability that will bring progress, free, fair and just leadership in Nigeria.On whether government should call for another conference, He said: Not necessarily another conference, but setting up of an appropriate body, trusted people to collate all the reports of previous conferences.Now, everybody is interpreting it in his own way and that is not a Nigeria. If we are not careful, we will fall in to the hands of few elites. Some people want restructuring that will give government a regional geo-political zone because they want to be super governors in zones.
Four female suicide bombers have been killed in a suicide bomb attack at Mandirari Village in the Kondugu Local Government Area of Borno.An official of the Borno State Emergency Management Agency, Malam Bello Danbatta, who confirmed the development, said the attack occurred late on Wednesday.He said that the agency had since deployed its rescue team to the village, which according to him is near Maiduguri, the Borno capital.A resident of Mandirari Village, Malam Jubril Modu, who claimed to have witnessed the attack, said four female suicide bombers were involved in the attack.He said that the bombers were intercepted by members of the Civilian Joint Task Force, when the insurgents were trying to infiltrate Mandirari Village.Modu said that one of the insurgents detonated an explosive strapped to her body, making the IEDs on two other suicide bombers to detonate.The bomb blew up the insurgents into pieces. One member of the CJTF and three others sustained injuries in the blast.Modu explained that the fourth suicide bomber threw away the explosive device on her body and fled.A team of the CJTF member is searching for the fleeing suicide bomber, he stated.Danbatta said that the team had also evacuated people, who sustained injuries in the attack to the Maiduguri Specialist Hospital for medical attention.
Google Map has added not less than 1, 000 new addresses to areas like Ikeja and Ikoyi areas of Lagos State.The Chief Executive Officer, Google, Sundar Pitchai, stated this on Thursday while speaking at the Google for Nigeria event in Lagos.He said that the new additions would help improve address search experience in these areas.The second addition is to buildings. Google also added detailed outlines of more than a million commercial business. This building footprint will help users get a better understanding of the world around them, Pitchai said.He also said, Google has added more than 100,000 small businesses across leading cities in Nigeria, like Abuja and Lagos, to help improve local search experience significantly.The Google CEO said that the company took the decision because the number of people using Google Map had doubled in the past one year.Nigeria has over 100,000 local guides, and one of them includes Samson who has added more than 700 places, which were initially missing, to Google Maps. For instance, Google Street View is now available in Nigeria with over 10,000 kilometres available in Lagos only, he added.
The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, on Thursday, alleged plot to frustrate process for the recall of Senator Dino Melaye.The allegation came on a day the Federal High Court in Abuja, adjourned hearing on the suit Melaye filed to challenge his recall, till August 7.Justice Nnamdi Dimgba said he was minded to hear the matter within the courts vacation, owing to the constitutional pillar upon which the application was hoisted.The Judge stressed that the court has a responsibility to exercise its discretionary powers in deciding the matter judicially and judiciously.Meanwhile, two sets of applicants, on Thursday, applied to be joined as interested parties in the suit.INEC, which had through its lawyer, Mr. Sulayman Ibrahim, applied for expeditious hearing of the suit, expressed its displeasure over the application which it described as a deliberate ploy to delay the recall process.The commission told the court that under section 69(a) and (b) of the 1999 constitution, as amended, it has 90 days, starting from June 21, to conduct a referendum in line with the approved time table and schedule of action on the petition seeking Melayes recall.It told the court that the recall process is time bound, adding that the 90 days period for the exercise will lapse on September 18.My lord the 90 days is sacrosanct. It cannot be moved, even if the foundation of the petition is being questioned. INEC is under obligation to conduct the process, Ibrahim added.Whereas one Michael Olowolayemi, who identified himself as an electorate from Melayes Senatorial District, Kogi West, through his lawyer, Mr. Ponsak Biyan, applied to be joined as a co-plaintiff in the matter.The second application was filed by three persons, Chief Olowo Cornelius, John Anjorin and Mallam Yusuf Adamu, who sought to be joined as co-defendants in the matter.Their lawyer, Chief Anthony Adeniyi, said they were the persons behind the petition that was submitted against Melaye.Though INEC initially opposed the joinder applications, it subsequently withdrew its counter-affidavit.My lord, for the sake of expeditious hearing of the substantive suit, we shall be withdrawing our objection to the two joinder applications.However, we believe that the joinder applications are deliberate ploy to delay the process.Nobody should be allowed to subvert the course of Justice through filing of frivolous applications, INEC stated.Nevertheless, Melayes lawyer, Mr. Nkem Okoro, said he was opposed to the application by parties seeking to be joined as co-defendants in the matter.Consequently, Justice Dimgba directed all the parties to file and exchange their legal processes before the next adjourned date.INEC had earlier asked the court to vacate the interim order that stopped it from going ahead with the process to recall Melaye.It queried the legal propriety of the restraining order that Justice John Tsoho of the high court issued against it on July 6.Justice Tsoho had ordered all the parties involved in the recall process to maintain their status quo until September 29 when the court originally fixed to hear Melayes suit.The interim order followed an ex-parte motion that Melaye lodged before the court through his lawyer, Chief Mike Ozekhome, SAN.Specifically, Justice Tsoho directed INEC to put the recall process on hold until the substantive suit marked FHC/ABJ/CS/567/2017, which Melaye filed pursuant to sections 36,68 and 69 of the 1999 Constitution and Order 3, Rule 6 of the FHC Civil Procedure Rules 2009, is disposed off.Melaye had in the suit, prayed the court to declare that the petition his constituents presented to INEC for his recall was illegal, unlawful, wrongful, unconstitutional, invalid, null and void and of no effect in law.He prayed the court for a declaration that the petition purportedly forwarded to the INEC was invalid and of no effect, alleging that it was signed by fictitious, dead and none existing persons in his senatorial district.Determined to resume the recall process that would have started on July 10, INEC, via a 16 paragraph affidavit, contended that the court lacked the powers to stop it from initiating the recall process it said was one of its time bound duty under the 1999 constitution.Besides, the commission alleged that Melaye misrepresented and suppressed material facts and thereby misled the judge to issue an interim order of injunction in his favour.INEC told the court that it had on June 21, received a petition dated June 19, seeking Melayes recall from the Senate.It said upon the receipt of the petition, it accordingly published a time table and schedule of activities for the recall process, in line with provisions of the law.INEC decried that the court had by its restraining order, a copy of which it said was served on it on July 10, tied its hands.
Liverpool have reportedly slapped a 133million price tag on Philippe Coutinho.The Reds are said to be hopeful that an extortionate valuation will scare off Barcelona in their attempts to land the Brazilian this summer.Coutinho, 25, has been the subject of intense attention from Barca with a move for around 80m touted.But Spanish newspaper Sport claim that Liverpool have named their price at 150m (133m) - which could be too much for the Catalan giants.It is reported that Coutinho is willing to move to Barcelona but with the transfer market inflating, Liverpool want to squeeze maximum value out of the deal.A separate report also claims that Coutinho is willing to take a pay cut in order to secure a move to Catalunya.Barcelona officials have allegedly already flew to London in order to conduct discussions over Coutinho.Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp insists Coutinho remains a major part of his plans for the coming season and has no intention of parting company with the Brazilian.Speaking last weekend, the Reds boss said: Everyone knows that Phil Coutinho is a key player for us.I know that he feels completely more than fine, comfortable  whatever  in Liverpool."




President Robert Mugabes wife Thursday urged her 93-year-old husband to name his chosen successor, fuelling renewed speculation about the race to take over from the worlds oldest national leader.Mugabe has always refused to publicly reveal his favoured heir, but 52-year-old Grace Mugabe  who is seen by some as a potential candidate  called for an end to the uncertainty.President, dont be afraid. Tell us who is your choice, which horse we should back, she told a meeting of the womens league of the ruling ZANU-PF party.If you tell us the horse to back, we will rise in our numbers and openly support that horse. Why should our horse be concealed? she said in a speech switching between English and local language Shona.I live with this elder. He has wisdom. He is not talkative but he knows what he wants, she said, adding Mark my words, his word will be final.Mugabe appears to be in increasingly fragile health, but has said he will stand in elections next year that could see him remain in power until aged nearly 100.He has ruled Zimbabwe since independence from British colonial rule in 1980.The succession race is seen as between Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and a group called Generation 40 or G40 because its members are generally younger, which reportedly has Graces backing.Mugabe has repeatedly denounced indiscipline among party members who are bitterly divided over who should succeed him and whether he should retire.Grace has previously denied harbouring ambitions to succeed her husband, but at other times has said she would be prepared to serve in any political position.She has taken on a larger public role in recent years, speaking regularly at meetings and heading the ZANU-PF womens league.In 2014, she led a campaign to expel former vice-president Joice Mujuru who had been seen as a possible successor to Mugabe.Mugabe returned two weeks ago from a trip to Singapore for medical treatment.
Nigerian big boy Escoba Smith made money rain at his friend's daughter's dedication which held over the weekend. The CEO of Muccon...

Nigerian big boy Escoba Smith made money rain at his friend's daughter's dedication which held over the weekend.

The CEO of Muccon Resources Ltd tossed money like it was paper.

Adaeze Onwuzurike, the daughter of Mr Kingsley Ikenna Onwuzurike, was dedicated in church last Sunday. After the church service, reception held at the Onwuzurike family home in Umuahia and Escoba Smith made it the talk of town.

The CEO of Muccon Resources Ltd tossed money like it was paper. His wife was not left out. She was seen beside him throwing money at the Onwuzurikes as they danced. The money was so much that it had to be swept with a broom before it could be packed.

See more photos and a video below.




















The governor of the 19 northern states Thursday said that the north is not opposed to the restructuring of the country contrary to the widely held views by some persons and group in the country.In an address at a meeting of the nineteen northern states governors and traditional rulers in Kaduna, the chairman of the Northern states governors forum and governor of Borno state, Ibrahim Shettima said any restructuring that may be done should be within acceptable criteria and must be fair to all component parts of the country.He said a final decision on the position of the north would be taken on Friday when governors of the 19 northern states meet in Kaduna.According to Shettima, It is also my expectation that at the end of this meeting today and, God willing, tomorrows meeting of the Governors, the Forum and our esteemed royal fathers will adopt a consensus position on restructuring of the country that will be reflective of the general overall interest of the people of Northern Nigeria and which will attract popular acceptance.It is of vital importance to arrive at such consensus position because it is crucial to dispel the erroneous impression created and disseminated by certain interests in this country that the North is opposed to restructuring.Secondly, it is important to do so not only to accommodate the mainstream of Northern public opinion, our primary constituency, but to also counter the specific versions of restructuring which generally seek to place the North in a position of strategic political and economic disadvantage, but portrayed as the only versions that can work for the nation.Without pre-empting the outcome of our interactions over the next two days however, permit me Your Excellencies and Your Royal Highnesses, to embark on a short reflection on the matter before hand. Agreed that being citizens of a democratic country, Nigerians are entitled to exercise their constitutionally guaranteed freedom of speech and association, and the clamour for the restructuring of the country falls within the purview of these freedoms. However, the exercise of such rights outside the confines of responsibility is not acceptable.The resort to shenanigans, hate speech, and sometimes, incitement to violence by organizations such as IPOP and MOSSAB must be unconditionally condemned as they are inimical to national unity, stability, peaceful coexistence and national security. In this regards, I call on all constituted authorities and responsible leaders of thought in the South East and other parts of Nigeria to rise to the occasion and call these purveyors of hate speech and inflammatory and provocative statements to order.These elements must be encouraged to pursue their agitations within processes enshrined in our constitution and with the full and willing participation of all parts of our nation.
Nri community in Aniocha Local Government Area of Anambra has threatened to sue Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), for alleged taboo in Nri culture.Chief Ifeanyi Onyesoh, the Personal Assistant to Eze Obidiegwu Onyesoh, the traditional ruler of Nri community, announced the plan to journalists in Awka on Thursday.He said the people were angry over Kanus alleged misconduct.Onyesoh said Kanu with his wife, Uchechi, and supporters visited the palace of Eze Nri on July 19 and a shrine against the tradition of the people.He noted Nri ancient Kingdom is the cradle of Igbo civilisation, whose culture is revered in the five southeast states of Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo, Anambra as well as Igbo communities in Delta and Rivers.Onyesoh said on July 18, a day before Kanus visit, 12 young people came to the palace of Eze Nri requesting for an appointment with the traditional ruler for Kanu.I was the person that received them and so I told them to go and come back with a written letter so that they will get official reply from the palace since the delegation looked unusual, in that there was no titled person among them.At this point they all left and what we saw the next day was Kanu visiting Nri community with a huge crowd of his supporters.He (Kanu) went straight to the house of one Chief Shadrack Mbanefo, a subject to the traditional ruler of Nri.The feelers we later got, was that the said Mbanefo claimed he handed over the `Offo Nri , (symbol of royalty) to Kanu, and even allowed Kanu to visit the historic Ohianwehi forest revered as forest of life by Igbo tradition.This forest is believed to be the place the first burnt offering was offered by the Jewish Igbo ancestors when they migrated from Israel more than 2,000 years ago, he said.Onyesoh said Nri people considered Kanus conduct as a taboo because no high profile visitor entered the community without first visiting the traditional ruler let alone a sacred place without the knowledge of the ruler.He expressed regret that Kanu and his supporters after visiting Mbanefo returned to the entrance gate of the palace and tried to force it open.It was this unruly conduct that made the traditional ruler to telephone the security agents who responded promptly and dispersed Kanu and his supporters.Onyesoh said the people regarded Kanus action as an affront on their values and so resolved not to sweep the matter under the carpet.It is a taboo in Nri and equally against the Anambra State Traditional Rulers Council Law for a high profile visitor to visit a community without first paying homage to the traditional ruler.The people of Nri and her traditional ruler are not against Nnamdi Kanu and his agitation/aspiration but what we cannot take is for Kanu to come and mess up the Nri culture and tradition under whatever motive.The community will drag him to customary court to ensure that nobody else gives such insult to the community and its heritage, he said.Reminded that Kanu visited Nri to receive `Offo Nri title like the late Dim Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu and MASSOB leader Chief Ralph Uwazuruike both Biafra agitators, Onyesoh said if Kanu wants a title, Eze Nri is not aware of such aspiration.If Kanu indeed met with anybody and claimed he was given `Offo Nri, it means he is seeking the title through the back door and for the title he claimed was given to him by `Adama (Mbanefo ), a servant to Eze Nri, is a nullity.My advice to Kanu is for him to first step up actions to amend his ways to synchronise with the values and culture of Igbo people which he is stampeding in the name of agitation.Nri is the ancestral home of all Igbo people and for him to visit Nri in the manner he did means he has no knowledge of Igbo tradition and culture.So, he must first study Igbo tradition and culture and properly be advised before he misleads himself.
English Danish

Company announcement no 2017-08 27 July 2017

Major shareholder announcement concerning Canada Pension Plan Investment Board pursuant to section 29 of the Danish Securities Trading Act

Pursuant to section 29 of the Danish Securities Trading Act, William Demant Holding A/S hereby makes public that the Company has received the following announcement:

On 26 July 2017, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board acquired shares in William Demant Holding A/S increasing its holding of voting rights and share capital to 7.86%.

Hereafter, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board's total voting rights in William Demant Holding A/S represents 20,352,691 shares of DKK 0.20 each.

*******

Further information:

Rene Schneider, CFO

Phone +45 3917 7300

www.demant.com Other contacts:

Sren B. Andersson, VP IR

Mathias Holten Mller, IR Officer

Trine Kromann-Mikkelsen, VP Media

Attachments:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/351a6f1a-71dd-41f9-a89f-eff21a64b3e1
Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called for the immediate resignation of the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, saying ...

Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, has called for the immediate resignation of the Minister of Transportation, Mr Chibuike Amaechi, saying he had failed to fulfil the campaign promises of his party in the state which included renovation of the Port Harcourt International Airport immediately after the elections.Publicity Secretary of the party in Rivers State, Mr Samuel Nwanosike, who made the call yesterday, in Port Harcourt, said that it was sad that two years into the administration of the All Progressives Congress, APC-led government at the federal level, the Port Harcourt International Airport has remained at the level former President Goodluck Jonathan renovated it.He said: Look at the Port Harcourt International Airport, which he used as a campaign tool against the government of Jonathan, two years later, nothing has been done since Amaechi became minister other than what former President Jonathan did in the past. He said that the Minister of Transportation had not been able to attract any federal presence to a state he represents at the federal cabinet, adding that the only railway project that had been commissioned by the Ministry of Transportation was the one completed by former President Jonathan.The PDPs spokesman in the state, Mr Nwonosike, also berated Amaechi over a reported move to privatize Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, which led to a nationwide protest by workers in the Ports, saying that it was the same way Amaechi sold valuable assets of the state while he was governor. Having looked at Amaechis activities, I have come to the conclusion that he has failed and should resign, he said. The APC, in its response by the state Publicity Secretary, Mr Chris Finebone, dismissed the allegation by the PDP, saying that Amaechi was performing as Minister. The APC will not want to believe that Nwanosike, the Publicity Secretary of PDP is calling for the resignation of Amaechi on account of non-performance. The truth is that Nigerians know and can easily attest that Amaechi as Minister of Transportation is performing excellently.The PDP members know this except Nwanosike and it is indeed a pity, he said. Meantime, Executive Director of Integrity Group Mr Livingstone Wechie has called on acting President Yemi Osibanjo to shun invitation by the Rivers State Government to commission projects in the state, today.Livingtone in a statement said the projects to be commissioned did not allegedly follow due process of award, adding that the Professor Osibanjo should not be seen affirming alleged illegality by his visit to commission the projects.
Samsung Electronics is now the worlds largest maker of mobile phones, memory chips and most profitable tech firm, going by its record qu...

Samsung Electronics is now the worlds largest maker of mobile phones, memory chips and most profitable tech firm, going by its record quarterly earnings released today,The figures show that the South Korean tech giant is on course to overtake Apple as the worlds most profitable tech.The firm said huge sales of its new Galaxy S8 smartphone and demand for its memory chips were behind the jump in April-June and predicted another blockbuster report for the current quarter to September.It said operating profit soared a forecast-beating 72.9 percent from the previous year to 14.07 trillion won ($12.6 billion), compared with consensus forecasts of $10.6 billion for US titan Apple, which is due to report next week.However, Greg Roh, an analyst at HMC Investment Securities, told AFP: Samsung has surpassed its rivals for now but Apple usually sees little fluctuation in its profits whereas Samsungs profits fluctuate largely on memory chip prices.The worlds top maker of smartphones and memory chips also said net profit surged almost 90 percent to 11.05 trillion won, its best quarterly result in five years.The S8 has indeed helped get Samsung back onto its feet, hopefully putting the Note7 debacle behind it, Bryan Ma, a technology industry analyst at IDC, said before the announcement.But we also have to keep in mind that a lot of Samsungs momentum is from memory and displays too, so its not all about the S8, either, he said, according to Bloomberg News.Samsung has been trying to overcome an embarrassing recall last year of its flagship Galaxy Note 7 smartphone over exploding batteries, which cost it billions of dollars and dealt a blow to its reputation.It has also been buffeted by a scandal that has seen vice-chairman and heir Lee Jae-Yong charged in connection with the sprawling corruption scandal that brought down South Korean president Park Geun-Hye.Profit breakdown showed the firms semiconductor business raked in 8.03 trillion won in operating profit in the second quarter, up 204 percent from the previous year. Samsung provides its chips to other companies including Apple.The components businesses drove significant earnings growth thanks primarily to strong memory demand for high-density DRAMs and SSDs for servers, the company said.This month the firm said it will invest 20.4 trillion won by 2021 to expand and upgrade its chip plants in the South Korean cities of Pyeongtaek and Hwaseong.The factory in Pyeongtaek, 70 kilometres (44 miles) south of Seoul, is the worlds biggest and has recently started production after the firm spent 15.6 trillion won in two years to build it.It also plans to expand its NAND chip plant in the Chinese city of Xian to meet booming demand for the chips used in high-end storage products, it said.With demand for Samsungs memory chips forecast to continue until next year, analyst Roh said: Samsung is expected to post another record profit in the third quarter at around 15 trillion won.Samsung is set to unveil its new Note device next month in New York, just over a year after the exploding battery crisis that saw it remove the Note 7 from shelves.AFP
The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has commended the Nigerian senate for rejecting the proposed restructuring of the country, stressing...

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, has commended the Nigerian senate for rejecting the proposed restructuring of the country, stressing that restructuring will not benefit anyone.



The pro-Biafra group said the decision of the Upper Legislative Chamber to reject the bill makes it clear that Northern Senators have realized that IPOB remains the only legitimate voice that understands the plight of the masses and prepared to do something about it.

A statement by the groups spokesperson, Emma Powerful, on Thursday reads, We members of the indigenous people of Biafra (IPOB) and its leadership worldwide under the command and leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu the prophet of our time wish to congratulate the honourable members of the Nigerian Senate for summoning the courage to vindicate our leader Mazi Nnamdi Kanu and IPOB on the floor of Senate chamber through their rejection of restructuring saga in Nigeria.

We are equally thanking them for voting down the controversial call for restructuring that cannot benefit anyone in Nigeria. We Biafrans and other sensible Nigerians can now believe that Northern Senators have demonstrated, through their rejection of restructuring, that IPOB remains the only legitimate voice that understand the plight of the masses and prepared to do something about it. Only a referendum can resolve the issue of Biafra not restructure. It remains the only way the masses can decide their future in Nigeria.

IPOB advised groups like Ohanaeze Ndigbo and PANDEF to accept that only referendum can resolve the problems of the country and decide the future of Nigeria.

The group maintained that senates rejection of the proposed restructuring of the country is an indication that Ohanaeze and PANDEF can never be part of Nigeria.

IPOB added, As a result of the rejection of this restructuring issue on the floor of the Senate chamber, we IPOB now hope that all socio-cultural groups like PANDEF and Ohaneze Ndigbo to come to the inescapable recognition that only a referendum can determine our fate once and for all time and resolve the perennial issue of resource control.

Nigeria is politically, socially and economically structured by Hausa Fulani oligarchs and cabals in the corridors of power supported by their collaborators British Government to cater for the interest of the very few political criminals and poorly educated few at the top who answer to the title of elite with absolutely nothing to offer or show for it. They represent the worst form of mediocrity and arrested development.

This total rejection of restructuring in Nigeria by honourable Nigeria Senators is a clear indication to all and sundry, mostly the PANDEF, Ohaneze Ndi-Igbo and so called leaders of thoughts and elders in Biafraland that Nigeria can never be one and cannot recognize them as part of Nigeria because most of our people called for Nigeria restructuring before now but Hausa Fulani and their collaborators rejected it.

It is on record that our leaders, heroes and elders have been calling for this particular restructuring before and after Nigeria independence of which Mrs Margaret Ekpo was the first person who called for it, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe in 1945, Isaac Adaka Boro in 1963, Chukwemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu in 1967 that is known today as (Aburi accord) which later led to the massacre and starvation of Biafran children, women in churches, hospitals, schools and market places in cold blood between 1966 and 1970 and lastly Ken Saro Wiwa in 1993 who campaigned vigorously, without a single gun shot, for the survival of his people.

All these people are Biafrans or better put Eastern Nigerians who saw the decay in the Nigeria system and called for a peaceful settlement that will benefit everybody. But the born to rule mentality of the core North rejected it with impunity. Today they demonstrated it again on the floor of the Senate.




Senior Advocate of Nigeria-designate, Festus Keyamo, has said those who claimed that President Muhammadu Buhari is on life support now have their credibility hanging on life support.The prominent legal practitioner made the remark while reacting to the latest photographs of the President meeting with some governors in London on Wednesday.In a tweet on his twitter handle, Keyamo wrote: Those who claimed that the President was on life-support without an iota of proof, now have their own credibility hanging on life-support.After initially spending over 50 days on medical vacation in London, the President again in May returned to the United Kingdom, UK, for follow-up medical check-up and is yet to return.His media aides and associates have continued to assure Nigerians that the President is responding to treatment.Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, recently claimed that Buhari has been on life support since June.
Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu has said President Muhammadu Buharis top supporters will persuade him to run for a second term i...

Communications Minister Adebayo Shittu has said President Muhammadu Buharis top supporters will persuade him to run for a second term in 2019.Shittu spoke yesterday in Ibadan, Oyo State capital, while featuring as a guest on the Breakfast Chat with Southwest Group of Online Publishers (SWEGOP).The minister hails from Oyo State.Justifying the efforts Shittu said President Buhari has delivered on his campaign promises of tackling insurgency and other forms of criminal violence, corruption and reviving the economy.According to him, the President is a success in the three key areas, particularly with Acting President Yemi Osinbajo sustaining his legacies in his absence.President Buhari is on a medical vacation in London, England.Shittu said there is no need for President Buhari to stop the good work he is doing, adding that a four-year tenure is not enough to overhaul the Nigerian system.He said: It is in the interest of Nigeria. We have had in this country series of administrations in the last 18 years. But what did we have to show for it? We know that Nigeria was brought to its knees because of the level of corruption. It is also because governance had not been focused on value-added services. It had been an era of impunity.Impunity leads to disorderliness, lawlessness and cheating on the masses of the people. But we have a President who committed himself to a three-point agenda of fighting corruption, insecurity and to repair the economy. Everybody will agree that the fight on corruption has been sustained and the era of impunity has been banished under President Buhari.
The Chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, Osun State chapter, Comrade Babatunde Jacob AdekomI, Thursday, said the state government has paid the salary of all workers in the state up to June, 2017 in line with the agreement made between it and the labour union.This was even as Adekomi disclosed that the leadership of the union has reached a compromise with the state government on the disbursement of the second tranche of Paris Club Refunds to offset parts of the balance of the modulated salaries.He said workers whose salaries fell within the modulation will start receiving credit alert of two months balance of July and August, 2015 from Thursday, July 27 2017.He said the payment would be made out of the N6.3billion recently received by the state as refunds of Paris Club.Comrade Adekomi stated this while fielding questions from the moderators on a live radio programme of the Osun State Broadcasting Corporation, OSBC.According to him, the state government and the labour union had met on Wednesday where it was decided that the state should pay July and August, 2015 balance of the modulated salaries of workers whose pay had been on modulation since 2015.Adekomi bemoaned over what he described as concocted lies, the insinuation peddling round that Osun government has failed in meeting up with the salary of workers in the state.NLC state Chairman wondered how a state who was allegedly accused of not paying workers would agreed to offset part of the outstanding salary arrears from the refunds recently received.He said Aregbesolas administration has been highly sensitive to workers plights in all it does, a development which he said has made Osun to be an outstanding among its peers when the recession set in.The labour union leader in the state condemned in it entirety the speculations that all workers in the state are receiving modulated salary of their gross earns, saying it is only category of workers between grade levels 12 to 17 that receive half of their monthly salaries.Adekomi explained that workers on levels 8 to10 are paid by 75 percent of their salary while workers on grade levels 1 to 7 are paid in full, adding that the state did not in anyway owing this category of workers a dime of their salary.Osun NLC Chairman said Governor Aregbesola has been sensitive to workers plights, a resolve which he said has made Osun to be an outstanding and a model while the recession set in.He said the state government under the leadership of Governor Rauf Aregbesola has been making several sacrifices to ensure prompt payment of salaries of active workers and pensions of the inactive workforce.I always wonder why some people felt that the best way to gain attention is to concoct lies. I am a civil servant and I can never say what I dont see or have knowledge about.It is on records that this government has been meeting up its salary obligations to workers before the recession set in and practically difficult to continue in such spirit.But since we (government and workers) mutually reached a compromise that resorted at modulated salaries for some categories of workers, the state has been up to its responsibilities as regards this.Workers on grade levels 1-7 are paid up to date in full while those between grade levels 8-10 received 75% of their salaries up to date. Though this category of workers were between July 2015 to September 2016 received half of their monthly salary before it was resolved at 75% when the economy improved a bit.So, it is only workers between levels 12 and above that have been since July 2015 receiving half salary. But I am glad to say that the payment of the balance of their salary has commenced with the payment of 2 months  July and August 2015 this week, Adekomi narated.The Osun NLC Chairman warned those that are preoccupied in sowing seed of discord with aim of heating up the polity and inciting the populace against the government to desist in the collective interest of all in the state.He said, I wonder why people do lie. As a worker, if you owe someone instead of telling the person when and how to pay him or her, you then resolve at accusing government for not paying.I want to resound this clearly that workers are not owe except those whose salaries are slashed for reasons well known by all and by the grace of God we will soon be balance our outstanding.We have seen the green light on this with the recent funds shared as allocation between the three tiers of government which amount to over six hundred billion naira. This is impressive because since this dispensation none of such has happened.It shows that our economy is not only improving but having a great impact on our incomes to the federal, states and local governments.While appealing to workers especially those within the salary modulation bracket to exercise patience, Adekomi therefore assured them of effective and efficient representation, saying he would not deviate from the cause of making government transparent and honest enough to the workers and the entire citizenry.
Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has said the Governor of Imo State, Rochas Okorocha, should be seeking forgiveness from God after betraying Igbo people and his elders.The former minister made the statement on Thursday through his Special Adviser on Media, Jude Ndukwe.The statement is a continuation of the media feud between the governor and the former minister.READ: Okorocha replies Fani-Kayode, says ex-minister unintelligent, disrespectfulOkorocha had, on Wednesday, through his Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo, described a previous statement by Fani-Kayode as an unintelligent, unprovoked and unwarranted media attack against him. He also said the former minister was living on the glory of his father and grandfather.Responding, Fani-Kayode said Rochas is obsessed with him and has come to appreciate the fact that there are some things, like class, a good lineage and integrity, that money cannot buy.He challenged the governor to a public debate to clear up issues between them so that Nigerians can decide for themselves who really has native sense between the two contenders.The statement read in part We repeat that a man who constantly speaks up for and supports a government that consistently slaughters and routinely massacres his own Igbo people can only be described as a sociopathic self-hating Igbo who is suffering from a terrible and debilitating inferiority complex.The statement added that Fani-Kayode and Okorocha can not be compared at all.FFK was never a ritualist, a cultist, a 419er, a sodomite, a traitor nor a dirty and unreliable street urchin and scammer.He never ruined the lives of millions, bowed before strange gods and slept in coffins to make his money.He never sold his soul to the devil or his body to reprobate men who lust for other men in return for money and power.
EDGEWATER -- Demolition began this week on the historic ferryboat that carted passengers from Hoboken to Lower Manhattan for decades, NorthJersey.com reported.

The historic Binghamton ferry began transporting commuters in 1905, continuing its service into the 1960s. Years later, it took on a new life as a restaurant and disco nightclub.

The ferry's state took a turn in the late 90s when Nelson Gross, the boat's owner and politician from Teaneck, was kidnapped and beaten to death by teenagers. One of his kidnappers worked as a busboy on the boat.

The restaurant closed in 2007.

The ferry sustained damage after Hurricanes Irene and Sandy and efforts to revive the boat went to court and failed. The boat has since been decaying in the water, tethered to a gangplank near Edgewater.

The ferry will be sliced into pieces, a project estimated to take about three months. Pieces of the boat, listed on the National Register of Historic Places, will be put on display at the New Jersey Maritime Museum, according to the report.

A new, floating restaurant is planned to go in its place. The 915-seat restaurant, the Binghamton II, is reportedly expected to open next summer.

Sara Jerde may be reached at sjerde@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @SaraJerde.
Tuesday morning brought a big surprise for Patrick Buckley.

The doorbell rang shortly before 8 a.m., and outside was a large U-Haul truck.

Workers from Fastway Moving were finally bringing Buckley the items he had trusted the company with more than a year ago.

"It was literally 'ding-dong.' I had no idea they were coming," Buckley said as movers carried a dresser from the truck and into his home. "I never thought I'd see this stuff again."

Workers from Fastway return a dresser and other items that had been presumed missing.

Back in June 2016, Buckley and his twin brother hired Fastway Moving of Secaucus to take items from a Morristown apartment and put them into storage until the brothers had a final destination.

The company tried to charge Buckley more than the $660 they had agreed to in writing for the move, and then it tried to charge a higher monthly storage rate. At the time of the move, Buckley straightened out the numbers -- or so he thought.

A few months passed and he realized he hadn't received any bills for the storage fees, and when he called, the company said the charges would be higher because his stuff took up more space than anticipated.

They agreed he would pay the smaller amount for the months that had passed, but a higher amount for the future months. Buckley made payments and the account was in good standing.

When June came -- a year after the move -- Buckley asked Fastway to redeliver his stuff to his new home on Long Island.

He would leave messages. He'd be sent to voice mail. Calls would be disconnected.

No one ever returned his calls or made an effort to schedule the delivery.

Concerned, Buckley filed a police report and a complaint with the Division of Consumer Affairs. That's when he learned the address Fastway used was vacant.

His stuff was nowhere to be found.

The items that were delivered via U-Haul to Patrick Buckley's home.

While we asked Consumer Affairs for an update, we learned Fastway had a federal tax lien and a judgment against it.

More importantly, public records showed the company's charter and authority to do business in New Jersey was revoked by the state earlier this year because Fastway didn't file an annual report for two consecutive years.

Fastway is regulated by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA), part of the U.S. Department of Transportation, because it does moves across state lines.

That wasn't pretty, either.

FMSCA issued an "Out-of-service" order on Fastway, based on 15 violations. It was also issued a $50,060 civil penalty, which to date, hasn't been paid.

That all meant Fastway didn't have the authority to move Buckley's things, even if it knew where the stuff was.

The company didn't respond to our requests for comment.

But a Consumer Affairs investigator had some lengthy email exchanges with Fastway reps. The emails, shared with Bamboozled by Buckley, showed multiple promises by the company to hire another company to deliver Buckley's items.

None of those promises were kept.

Until this week -- when Buckley's doorbell rang.

A worker carries items from a U-Haul to Patrick Buckley's home.

It was two workers who identified themselves as working for Abreu Logistics. We had previously learned Fastway Moving is a d/b/a (doing business as) for Abreu, which is based in Pompano Beach, Fla.

"They're not telling me much," Buckley said of the workers, calling them "tight-lipped." "I asked where it all came from and they said something about Newark and getting it off a trailer. The details are sketchy."

At least he now has his stuff - and he wasn't asked to pay for the delivery.

Buckley is one of the lucky ones.

Buckley said he spoke to another customer who hired the company to move him and his family from Brazil to the United States. His stuff is supposedly on a boat somewhere in Uruguay, Buckley said he was told.

Consumer Affairs couldn't confirm how many other customers' belongings were found, but it confirmed it did help getting Buckley's stuff.

It said it is continuing its investigation, in cooperation with FMCSA and the Federal Maritime Commission, to identify the whereabouts of goods belonging to other affected consumers.

"At this time, the Division is seeking information from consumers who have knowledge regarding Fastway Moving and Storage - also known as Abreu Logistics - or who have contracted with the company and have not received their goods," a spokeswoman said. "Consumers with any information regarding this investigation are urged to contact Investigator Vincent Buonanno at (973) 504-6442."

Bamboozled wants to give a big shout out to Consumer Affairs and investigator Buonanno, the guy Buckley said was key in getting Fastway's attention. Buonanno's efforts - stepping up and hitting the street, tracking the company's footsteps in New Jersey and beyond - encouraged the company to close this nasty chapter in Buckley's life.

We hope other customers get their stuff too. If you're one of them, contact the investigator and let us know if we can help.

Have you been Bamboozled? Reach Karin Price Mueller at Bamboozled@NJAdvanceMedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @KPMueller. Find Bamboozled on Facebook. Mueller is also the founder of NJMoneyHelp.com. Stay informed and sign up for NJMoneyHelp.com's weekly e-newsletter.
This is a correction of the announcement from 10:40 27.07.2017 BST. Reason for the correction: Company name not entered

FORM 8.3

PUBLIC OPENING POSITION DISCLOSURE/DEALING DISCLOSURE BY

A PERSON WITH INTERESTS IN RELEVANT SECURITIES REPRESENTING 1% OR MORE

Rule 8.3 of the Takeover Code (the "Code")

1. KEY INFORMATION

(a) Full name of discloser: OCTOPUS INVESTMENTS LIMITED (b) Owner or controller of interests and short positions disclosed, if different from 1(a):

The naming of nominee or vehicle companies is insufficient. For a trust, the trustee(s), settlor and beneficiaries must be named. (c) Name of offeror/offeree in relation to whose relevant securities this form relates:

Use a separate form for each offeror/offeree Work Group plc (d) If an exempt fund manager connected with an offeror/offeree, state this and specify identity of offeror/offeree: (e) Date position held/dealing undertaken:

For an opening position disclosure, state the latest practicable date prior to the disclosure 11/11/2017 (f) In addition to the company in 1(c) above, is the discloser making disclosures in respect of any other party to the offer?

If it is a cash offer or possible cash offer, state "N/A" NO

2. POSITIONS OF THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

If there are positions or rights to subscribe to disclose in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 2(a) or (b) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security.

(a) Interests and short positions in the relevant securities of the offeror or offeree to which the disclosure relates following the dealing (if any)

Class of relevant security:







Interests Short positions Number % Number % (1) Relevant securities owned and/or controlled: 1408864 4.92 (2) Cash-settled derivatives:



(3) Stock-settled derivatives (including options) and agreements to purchase/sell:



TOTAL: 1408864 4.92





All interests and all short positions should be disclosed.

Details of any open stock-settled derivative positions (including traded options), or agreements to purchase or sell relevant securities, should be given on a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions).

(b) Rights to subscribe for new securities (including directors' and other employee options)

Class of relevant security in relation to which subscription right exists: Details, including nature of the rights concerned and relevant percentages:

3. DEALINGS (IF ANY) BY THE PERSON MAKING THE DISCLOSURE

Where there have been dealings in more than one class of relevant securities of the offeror or offeree named in 1(c), copy table 3(a), (b), (c) or (d) (as appropriate) for each additional class of relevant security dealt in.

The currency of all prices and other monetary amounts should be stated.

(a) Purchases and sales

Class of relevant security Purchase/sale



Number of securities Price per unit Ordinary



Opening position



1408864 0.03

(b) Cash-settled derivative transactions

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. CFD Nature of dealing

e.g. opening/closing a long/short position, increasing/reducing a long/short position Number of reference securities Price per unit





(c) Stock-settled derivative transactions (including options)

(i) Writing, selling, purchasing or varying

Class of relevant security Product description e.g. call option Writing, purchasing, selling, varying etc. Number of securities to which option relates Exercise price per unit Type

e.g. American, European etc. Expiry date Option money paid/ received per unit

(ii) Exercise

Class of relevant security Product description

e.g. call option Exercising/ exercised against Number of securities Exercise price per unit





(d) Other dealings (including subscribing for new securities)

Class of relevant security Nature of dealing

e.g. subscription, conversion Details Price per unit (if applicable)





4. OTHER INFORMATION

(a) Indemnity and other dealing arrangements

Details of any indemnity or option arrangement, or any agreement or understanding, formal or informal, relating to relevant securities which may be an inducement to deal or refrain from dealing entered into by the person making the disclosure and any party to the offer or any person acting in concert with a party to the offer:

Irrevocable commitments and letters of intent should not be included. If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(b) Agreements, arrangements or understandings relating to options or derivatives

Details of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, formal or informal, between the person making the disclosure and any other person relating to:

(i) the voting rights of any relevant securities under any option; or

(ii) the voting rights or future acquisition or disposal of any relevant securities to which any derivative is referenced:

If there are no such agreements, arrangements or understandings, state "none"









(c) Attachments

Is a Supplemental Form 8 (Open Positions) attached? YES/NO

Date of disclosure: 27/07/2017 Contact name: Matt Jeffrey Telephone number: 020 7190 7813

Public disclosures under Rule 8 of the Code must be made to a Regulatory Information Service and must also be emailed to the Takeover Panel at monitoring@disclosure.org.uk. The Panel's Market Surveillance Unit is available for consultation in relation to the Code's disclosure requirements on +44 (0)20 7638 0129.

The Code can be viewed on the Panel's website at www.thetakeoverpanel.org.uk.
WINSLOW -- Three adults and two juveniles have been arrested and charged with receiving stolen property after police here targeted a suspected car-theft ring, authorities said Thursday.

The group was arrested after a car and foot chase early Wednesday morning along Hampton Gate Drive after officers attempted to stop them in a suspected stolen vehicle. The incident occurred at 2:30 a.m.

All five dashed out of a stolen Plymouth Voyager when the car finally stopped after being chased by a patrol car with blaring siren and flashing lights, police said. After an extensive search of the area, all five were caught.

The vehicle they were in was stolen from Camden police said.

Brian Mayes, and Dwayne Riddle, 18, both of the 400 block of Church Road in the Sicklerville section of the township, and Jakia Harper, 26, of the 200 block of Camden Avenue in the West Atco section of Waterford, were charged with receiving stolen property and eluding police. All three were held at the Camden County jail in Camden.

A 13-year-old girl and 15-year-old boy were also arrested with the trio and face the same charges. They were held at the Lakeland Detention Center in Gloucester Township.

Township police launched an investigation after an uptick in stolen vehicle complaints here. Some of the vehicles were found in other municipalities and some from other places were found here, police said. Most were Plymouth Voyagers and Dodge Caravans.

Bill Duhart may be reached at bduhart@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @bduhart. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
A 25-year-old man facing child pornography charges in South Jersey was arrested in Florida for allegedly having sex with a teenage boy in a library, according to a report.

Robert Gittle

Robert Gittle and a then 14-year-old performed sex acts on each other in a bathroom at the Broward County Northwest Regional Library in Coral Springs on May 15, authorities told sun-sentinel.com.

The boy later told police, who then obtained surveillance footage showing the two were there together that day.

When Gittle arranged another meeting at the library Tuesday, cops took him into custody when he arrived.

Gittle met the now-15-year-old on an all-male social networking site, the boy told police.

Gittle is charged with three counts of lewd or lascivious battery on a minor older than 12 but younger than 16 and two counts of traveling to meet a minor for unlawful sex. He is being held on $1 million bail.

In January, the Cape May Prosecutor's Office charged Gittle with six counts of manufacturing, distributing and possession of child pornography. He lived in Lower Township at the time of his arrest before moving to Florida. Gittle, who attended Cape May County Technical High School, has since moved to Lauderdale-by-the-Sea, Fla.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
VINELAND -- A fire that happened in Vineland early Wednesday morning is being investigated after the words "You Will Die" were spray painted on the side of the house.



According to a report by The Daily Journal, the Vineland Fire Department went to a house on the 1000 block of Mars Place at 2 a.m. Tuesday to battle the fire. When they arrived, flames were coming out of the roof and the house.



The report also stated that seven people were displaced as a result of the fire. The New Jersey Region Red Cross helped assist the family living in the residence.



The Vineland Police Department and Vineland Fire Department are investigating to see if the fire was intentionally set after the words "You Will Die" were found spray painted on the outside of the house.



No one was injured as a result of the fire.

Chris Franklin can be reached at cfranklin@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @cfranklinnews. Find NJ.com on Facebook
NEWARK -- A 48-year-old investment manager who stole $675,000 while running a Ponzi scheme was Thursday sentenced to 33 months in prison, authorities said.

Mark Moskowitz of Millburn took money from investors from a fund he started in 2012, the U.S. Attorney's Office for New Jersey said in a statement. He previously pleaded guilty in March to wire fraud.

Moskowtiz told his clients Edge Funding was growing, enticing investors to sink more money into it. He then took the money for personal use. Moskowitz was also sentenced to three years of supervised release and ordered to pay $694,577 in restitution.

Separately, the state Bureau of Securities previously ordered Moskowitz to pay a $1 million civil penalty for selling fraudulent securities and misusing investors' funds.

Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @JeffSGoldman. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
Boston, Massachusetts, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Robert McKee, best-selling author and world-renowned story authority, and Tom Gerace, CEO of Skyword, a leading content marketing technology and services company, announced their Fall StorynomicsTM seminars, which will take place in New York City and, for the first time, San Francisco. These seminars come on the heels of sold-out Storynomics Boston in June.

San Francisco and Silicon Valley are hubs of creativity and innovation, said McKee. If creatives there can infuse the art of storytelling with their product innovation, the impact on the lives of their customers and the world will be exponentially greater.

Gerace added, Todays marketers struggle in a world of declining trust and connection. Bragging and promising no longer work. To stand out, brands must connect with their customers both emotionally and logically. Storynomics delivers exactly that.

At the Storynomics Seminar, business and marketing professionals will learn why story sticks to the human mind, the essentials of story design and how to tell stories that enrich their branding strategies and deliver market reach. In recent years, Storynomics has helped organizations as diverse as Microsoft, Marriott, Nike, Deutsche Telecom/T-Systems, Hewlett-Packard, Intel, Kraft, BOLDT, Church & Dwight Co, Inc., Costa Del Mar, UBISOFT, Mercedes-Benz, and Siemens develop their evolving narrative game plans.

Registration is open now. For more information on Storynomics visit: www.storynomics.com or contact learnmore@skyword.com.

About Robert McKee:

Robert McKee, a Fulbright Scholar, is the most sought-after screenwriting teacher in the world. The best-selling author of STORY and his latest book DIALOGUE:THE ART OF VERBAL ACTION FOR PAGE, STAGE, AND SCREEN, McKee occupies a unique crossroads in modern media storytelling. His teachings have spread beyond the screen and stage to influence all story forms. Writers, producers, directors, media professionals, and business leaders from the world over read McKee and attend his sold-out international seminars for an exclusive deep dive into the narrative potential of their material. McKees former students include over 60 Academy Award Winners, 200 Academy Award Nominees, 200 Emmy Award Winners, 1,000 Emmy Award Nominees, 100 WGA (Writers Guild of America) Award Winners, 250 WGA Award Nominees, 50 DGA (Directors Guild of America) Award Winners, and 100 DGA Award Nominees.

McKee continues to be a project consultant to major film and television production companies such as 20th Century Fox, Disney, Paramount, and MTV. In addition, Pixar, ABC, BBC, Disney, Miramax, PBS, Nickelodeon, Paramount, GLOBOSAT, MNET, and other international TV and film companies regularly send their entire creative and writing staffs to his lectures. Since 1984, more than 100,000 students have taken McKees courses in various cities around the world.

Connect with Robert McKee

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RobertMcKeeSeminars/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/mckeestory

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertmckee2

McKee Story: http://mckeestory.com/about/

About Tom Gerace

Tom Gerace is the founder and CEO of Skyword, the leading content marketing technology and services company. Skyword helps enterprise-class brands transform from ad-centric to story-centric marketing. Prior to Skyword, Gerace founded Be Free, a publicly traded affiliate marketing platform and services company. Early in his career, Gerace also served as a senior business analyst at the Harvard Business School, where he wrote the first case studies on the emergence of the Internet in 1993.

About Skyword

Skyword liberates brands from ineffective marketing practices and inspires them to create deeper connections with their audiences. The Skyword Platform makes it easy to produce, optimize, and promote content at any scale to create meaningful, lasting relationships. Skyword also provides access to a community of thousands of freelance writers and videographers, an editorial team, and program managers who help move clients content marketing programs to new levels of creative excellence. Skyword is a privately held company headquartered in Boston, MA, with offices in Palo Alto, CA, and New York, NY. The companys technology center is located in Pittsburgh, PA. Investors include Cox Media Group, Allen & Company, Progress Ventures, and American Public Media Group.

Connect with Skyword

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/skyword

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Skyword

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/skyword-inc-

The Content Standard: http://www.skyword.com/contentstandard/
English Lithuanian

Panevezio statybos trestas AB (PST) informs about the decision taken by the management to cease activities of the subsidiary company PST Nordic AB for the reason that the result of the company activities proves to be negative.

The main area of activities of PST Nordic AB  construction of various types of buildings and structures in Stockholm Region, Sweden. Lately, negative profitability of AB PST Nordic conditioned by managerial mistakes and customer actions has become evident. The company is forced to retreat from the Swedish market, to specifics of which it has failed to adapt.

To carry out activities in the companies of PST Group efficiently, we decided to wind PST Nordic AB up. We understand that this task is difficult and will require time as well as costs. However, I am of the opinion that decision we are made to take is the best for the Group, notes Dalius Gesevicius, Managing Director of Panevezio statybos trestas AB.

PST holds 100 per cents of the shares of this company. At the earliest date the proceedings related to the activity cessation will be initiated. Cessation of PST Nordic AB activities will not have major effect on the results of Panevezio statybos trestas AB Group.
New Haven, CT, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- July 27, 2017 -- BankMobile, the leading provider of financial aid refund disbursement services in U.S. higher education since 2001, announced today that BankMobile VIBE account holders who selected to have their financial aid refunds deposited into BankMobile VIBE accounts save more than $62,000,000 per year in banking fees versus had they deposited their funds into traditional checking accounts. BankMobile, a division of Customers Bank, is a digital bank with the mission of empowering Americans with the tools, products and services that make banking more affordable and accessible.

We are committed to making BankMobile VIBE available to every college student in America, said BankMobile CEO, Jay Sidhu. Students are unlikely to qualify for low-fee checking products, ensuring that those who can least afford to pay banking fees pay the most. We think this is a disservice to students and we want to turn things around.

To be eligible for a BankMobile VIBE account, students must attend a school that partners with BankMobile Disbursements. All students at partnering colleges are eligible to receive an account, regardless of prior banking history. BankMobile Disbursements provides disbursement services to nearly 5 million students on 800 campuses (one out of every four college students in the United States). BankMobile VIBE has no opening or minimum balance requirements. After students leave campus they can continue to take advantage of BankMobiles low-cost VIBE account  enabling them to make BankMobile their bank for life.

Students who choose BankMobile VIBE are protected by U.S. Department of Education rules against unwanted marketing, overdraft fees and offers of credit. BankMobile VIBE account holders can access 55,000 fee-free ATMs worldwide, more than Bank of America (16k), Chase (16k) and Wells Fargo (13k) combined. Students with traditional student checking accounts are guaranteed no such fee restrictions, free access to cash and other protections.

According to the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), a division of the U.S. Department of Education, more than one out of every three U.S. college students is above the age of 25. Student checking accounts offered at banks do not cater to the growing non-traditional student segment that often does not qualify for monthly fee waivers on student accounts because they are above age limits set by banks  often 24 or 25. BankMobile VIBE has no age restrictions.

Visit www.bankmobilevibe.com/compare to see how BankMobile VIBE stacks up against other student checking accounts.

Weve tried to create the most student-friendly account in America while disrupting the traditional banking model, Sidhu continued. Our no-branch, mobile- and online-only approach is designed to appeal to the needs and preferences of todays students and enables us to keep their costs low. BankMobile VIBEs full fee schedule is available at https://www.vibeaccount.com/studentaccount/feeschedules.do.

NOTES ON CALCULATIONS:

According to the CFPB, the average annual cost of a traditional checking account is more than $118 per year. The average annual cost of owning a BankMobile VIBE account is less than $34 per year, for an average annual savings of more than $84 per student per year.

The cost of BankMobile VIBE is based on BankMobile VIBE account holders who made a transaction in the past year, including students who pay no monthly fee, and former students who may pay a monthly fee if monthly deposit requirements are not met. Looking only at enrolled students the savings over traditional checking accounts is even greater.

The cost of competitor fees was generated by a CFPB report on average checking account fees (http://files.consumerfinance.gov/f/201407_cfpb_report_datapoint_overdrafts.pdf). According to the report, overdraft and NSF fees accounted for more than 75% of total fees and the 18-25 age group incurs more overdraft and NSF fees than any other age group.

BankMobile Disbursements Saves Colleges Money As Well

In addition to providing savings to their students, colleges and universities that partner with BankMobile Disbursements save money. BankMobile helps schools implement all-electronic processing to avoid the costs associated with printing, mailing and servicing paper checks, provides robust reporting and tracking technology and handles all student communications and customer service related to student aid disbursement.

Approximately 80 percent of our student body receives some type of grant, loan or scholarship said Dr. Jim Bookout, Senior Vice Chancellor of Finance at Troy University in Alabama, a BankMobile Disbursements partner since 2006. The savings on paper and postage alone is around $250,000 over the last decade. We considered handling this internally, but after considering staffing requirements, system changes and the cost and risks of hosting banking information, all the strategies BankMobile has bundled together for us have created a win-win situation for us and our students in terms of efficiency, Bookout added.

About BankMobile

BankMobile, a division of Customers Bank, is America's largest mobile-first bank. BankMobile Disbursements provides BankMobile Refund Management, an industry-leading service that processes and disburses financial aid credit balances to students on behalf of college and university administrators and offers BankMobile VIBE, an optional checking account for students. Born from an innovative system that transformed this critical campus process over the span of more than 17 years, BankMobile optimizes costs for higher education administrators and provides a great experience for students that is designed with compliance and consumer safeguards in mind. BankMobile is operating as the digital banking division of Customers Bank, which is a Federal Reserve regulated and FDIC-insured commercial bank. For more information, please visit www.bankmobile.com.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f109d1d5-0bf5-4121-b586-ba5365dc136a
Most Louisiana students do not earn college credit for their Advanced Placement classes
The amount of lead in the topsoil of playgrounds, yards and other neighborhood playspots may be the best indicator of how likely children in t
SUNNYVALE, Calif., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Mirantis today announced a series of innovative NFV-focused updates to Mirantis Cloud Platform (MCP), optimized for easy deployment, operations and updates via DriveTrain.



MCP now includes significant new enhancements for NFV, available for customers to consume via the DriveTrain toolchain, said Boris Renski, Mirantis co-founder and CMO. Leading Communications companies are selecting Mirantis to enable their VNFs and unlock a 'disaggregated' NFV stack that's tuned for high performance and based on open source standards and non-proprietary infrastructure hardware.

Mirantis continues to add capabilities supporting NFV for telecom operators, cable providers and enterprises. These new capabilities include significant new functionality for NFV, providing the VIM (including SDN controller) + NFVi layers of the ETSI NFV reference architecture. Specifically, they include:

OVS-DPDK over bonded interfaces: Allows users to consume higher bandwidth over a single link aggregated interface.

VLAN-aware VMs: Enables users to consume significantly fewer vNICs, where previously a separate vNIC was required for each VLAN. This dramatically reduces the networking complexity of the virtualized environment.

Per-VF QoS: Bandwidth capping on a per-virtual-function level permits fine-grained traffic shaping and prevents noisy-neighbor syndromes.

With MCP, Mirantis departs from the traditional software-centric method that revolves around licensing and support subscriptions. Instead, the company is pioneering an operations-centric approach, where open infrastructure is continuously delivered with an operations SLA through a managed service or by the customer themselves. This way, software updates no longer happen once every 6-12 months, but are introduced in minor increments on a bi-weekly basis, and with no down time.

Announced in April, Mirantis Cloud Platform includes leading open source software such as OpenStack and Kubernetes, continuously delivered via the DriveTrain Continuous Integration / Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) pipeline and provided to customers in a unique build-operate-transfer delivery model that ensures successful hybrid cloud operations at scale.

Mirantis Cloud Platform is:

 Open Cloud Software  provides a single platform to orchestrate VMs, containers and bare metal compute resources by:

Expanding Mirantis Cloud Platform to include Kubernetes for container orchestration.

Complementing the virtual compute stacks with best-in-class open source software defined networking (SDN).

Featuring Ceph, the most popular open source software defined storage (SDS), for both Kubernetes and OpenStack.

 DriveTrain  sets the foundation for DevOps-style lifecycle management of the open cloud software stack by enabling continuous integration, continuous testing and continuous delivery through a CI/ CD pipeline. DriveTrain enables:

Increased Day 1 flexibility in customizing the reference architecture and configurations during initial software installation.

Greater ability to perform Day 2 operations such as post-deployment configuration, functionality and architecture changes.

Seamless version updates through an automated pipeline to a virtualized control plane to minimize downtime.

 StackLight  enables strict compliance to availability SLAs by providing continuous monitoring of the open cloud software stacks through a unified set of software services and dashboards. Stacklight:

Avoids lock-in by including best-in-breed open source software for log management, metrics and alerts.

Includes a comprehensive DevOps portal that displays information such as StackLight visualization and DriveTrain configuration settings.

Focuses on SLA. The entire Mirantis StackLight toolchain is purpose-built for MCP to enable up to 99.99% uptime service level agreements with Mirantis Managed OpenStack.

The build-operate-transfer model provides a turnkey experience, with Mirantis operating the cloud for customers for a period of at least six months with up to four nines SLA prior to offboarding operational responsibility to the customer's team, if desired. This delivery model ensures that not just the software, but also the customer's team and process are aligned with DevOps best practices.

To learn more about Mirantis Cloud Platform, watch an overview video and sign up for a live demo at www.mirantis.com/mcp.

About Mirantis

Mirantis delivers open cloud infrastructure to top enterprises using OpenStack, Kubernetes and related open source technologies. The company is a major contributor of code to many open infrastructure projects and follows a build-operate-transfer model to deliver its Mirantis Cloud Platform and cloud management services, empowering customers to take advantage of open source innovation with no vendor lock-in. To date, Mirantis has helped over 200 enterprises build and operate some of the largest open clouds in the world. Its customers include iconic brands such as AT&T, Comcast, Shenzhen Stock Exchange, eBay, Wells Fargo Bank and Volkswagen. Learn more at www.mirantis.com.
The federal government plans to pour $125 million into the fight against a mysterious disease that has ravaged corals in Florida and much of the Caribbean, and now poses a dire threat to the treasured reefs off the Louisiana and Texas coasts.
The study looks at two smaller-scale projects that are in some ways predecessors to the Mid-Barataria Sediment Diversion, the $2 billion plan to slow land loss erasing Louisiana's coast. Construction on that project could begin as early as next year, while a similar one on the opposite side of the river known as the Mid-Breton Diversion could follow.
Welcome to nonleaguedaily.coms news provision, your go-to source for all non league updates, rumours, interviews, and much more besides.

Founded by a team with a genuine passion for the world of non league football, nonleaguedaily.com understands exactly what supporters of the so-called lower leagues are looking for. You want the high-quality reporting, in-depth analysis, and match reporting that matches that is more commonly found in the journalism for the top flights, but with the focus firmly fixed on the national leagues.

We understand that your passion, interest, and dedication is constant, and we believe you need a news service that matches that commitment with its own dedication and thoroughness  so thats what you can expect from our site.

The latest non league news, as and when it happens

Conventionally, non league news has always travelled fairly slowly, especially when compared to the instantaneous, constant breaking news cycles found in the upper leagues. Tales are told on terraces, rumours passed between pub patrons and circled between supporters at the latest game, often forced to remain somewhat local initially before word eventually spreads to other locales.

For us, this slow spread may be fairly organic in nature, but it simply isnt compatible with the modern football environment. Its also not conducive to the current fast-paced, always-available media landscape, nor the way that people tend to consume news nowadays. Thats why we have put together a non league news source that fans can turn to for the latest updates, as and when they happen, and as and when you want to read them. Non-league news now is the only acceptable speed at Betting.co.uk.

We update our non-league football news coverage constantly, bringing you all the latest developments and seeking to spread the word as quickly and accurately as possible. So if youre wondering whats happening both with your local team and with the lower leagues as a whole, you can visit us for non league news now, and be confident the stories you find are completely up to date.

News reported by passionate fans

Our efforts to bring you the very best non league football news are undeniably a professional concern, and one that we take seriously. We are  if youll excuse the uncharacteristic tooting of our own horns  good at what we do, and we know that the efforts we make in this regard are one of the reasons our site has enjoyed such success thus far.

However, everyone who writes for us also shares our readers enthusiasm for non league football. Were not just churning out content in the hopes of cashing in on a professional dream; were here because we want to be, and will always be dedicated and committed to non league football as an entity and thriving in the experience of being able to talk about our favourite subject whenever we can. We create non-league news now that is written by genuine fans and enthusiasts, for fans. We know what you want to know and what matters most to an ardent non league supporter, and we always ensure that focusing on these elements is our guiding principle as we seek to solidify our status as an online non league paper fans can always rely on.

When compiling non league news, we think with the mind of a fan first and foremost. We cover the angles and stories that we find compelling and that we know our fellow non league enthusiasts also care about. News doesnt have to be dry and formulaic, in our opinion. When its written by people who are genuinely as fascinated by the stories they are reporting on as their readership will be, we believe news can be interesting, compelling, and even have a sense of personality and humour.

News content written with passion and expertise

We believe that thanks to our dedication, insightfulness, and commitment to our subject matter of non league today, we are offering the best of both worlds to those searching for an online non league paper. We give you the professional approach we feel is appropriate for news about one of the most intriguing aspects of UK football; an aspect that we genuinely feel does not receive the interest and plaudits that it should be generating. Nevertheless, we dont let that professionalism take over everything we do: we remain committed fans, nurturing our own personal interest in non league football and ensuring every word we compose is infused with a sense of passion and dedication that enhances the posts we create.

Its therefore obvious that our non-league content today isnt ever going to be dry, basic, or put together by a tired staff writer who has never heard of any team below the Championship before they rush off to the pub for the evening. Our writers are genuine experts: were covering non league football because we want to, because we believe in it, and because its where our strengths lie. The result is informed content that capitalises on our deep knowledge of the history, as well as the present-day realities, of non league football in the UK.

Beyond news: the nonleaguedaily.com interview series

One of our goals with nonleaguedaily.com is to not just dryly report the news from an outsiders perspective, effectively regurgitating press releases that are devoid of genuinely illuminating information. We also go right to the source of the stories: the managers and club insiders who have direct experience, and often influence, on the sport and how it is managed.

We regularly conduct interviews as part of our news provision, asking the questions that are on everyones lips and providing the best possible view into the non league world. We have reporters pitchside at matches, microphone to hand and plentiful questions ready to be asked. The end result for you, the reader, is the kind of information and close-up looks into the non league world that just cant be found anywhere else.

As our commitment to providing interesting interviews amply demonstrates, we want to be involved in breaking the stories that everyone then talks about, rather than following along and focusing solely on what everyone already knows. If youre looking for leading content that you cant find anywhere else, and that goes right to the centre of the non league world, then you can turn to nonleaguedaily.com for all the benefits of a conventional non league paper, but in electronic, easily-accessed form.

A host of other content to enjoy alongside the non league today

Our focus on providing non league news will always be maintained: we consider this aspect the most important of what we do, and it will always be the recipient of our time, dedication, and interest. Well be here, a consistent and trustworthy news portal, for as long as non league football news exists.

With that said, when you have read up on the latest goings-on, were here with further content for you to enjoy. Naturally, given our partnership with leading brand Betting.co.uk, we provide guidelines for those interested in the world of sports betting. Well help you find the best UK bookmaker with our plentiful coverage of existing brands; ideal if youre looking to put your newfound knowledge, courtesy of us, about non league to use and place a few bets.

Furthermore, we also provide highlights of all the latest UK betting offers, so you can ensure youre achieving the best value with all the latest betting deals whenever youre betting on the latest non league matches. Youll find all of this coverage is as consistent and reliable as our non league news provision,

Non league features and deep dives

Returning to the world of non league football, we also provide a range of feature content that goes deeper and further into the non league world than ever before. Less instantaneously topical but still hugely relevant to the modern game, our features are the dream deep dives that we feel non league fans deserve. Were always striving to do better, offer more, and ensure that non league fans can enjoy the same wealth of content as followers of the top tiers, so you can expect top-flight content with the same commitment and dedication as found throughout the upper echelons of the sport.

So whether youre looking to find the most recent non league football news, seeking a new bookmaker for your non league bets, or hoping to delve deep into a niche non league-related topic, nonleaguedaily.com is always going to be worth a visit.

Return to nonleaguedaily.com for all your non league news needs

Weve told you what you can expect from nonleaguedaily.coms news; now we need to put our confidence where our promises are, make sure we deliver on those promises, and establish trust as an online non league paper you can trust. We look forward to welcoming you back to our news section and showcasing the best we have to offer, from exciting new non league interviews to cutting-edge news to transfer speculation. If you want to truly have your finger on the non league pulse, then nonleaguedaily.com is always going to be here for you.
ATLANTA, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Berkshire Settlements, Inc., a family-owned and operated life insurance settlement provider dedicated to maximizing the value of consumers life insurance policies, today announced that it was granted a license to purchase life insurance policies in the state of Iowa.



The Iowa Insurance Division, which supervises all insurance business transacted in the state of Iowa, granted an Iowa Viatical Settlement Provider License to Berkshire, affirming that the company is entitled to transact business in the State of Iowa in accordance with Iowa Code Chaper 508E.

Berkshire can now acquire policies from residents of 39 states nationwide.

A life settlement is the sale of a life insurance policy by the owner to a third party. The seller of the policy receives a cash payment that is greater than the policys cash surrender value and less than its death benefit, an amount that is  on average  roughly five to seven times more than the policys cash surrender value. The buyer of the policy assumes all future premium payments and receives the death benefit when the insured person passes away.

Weve worked with dozens of families throughout the Midwest  and hundreds more nationwide  to help them maximize the value of a life insurance policy they no longer want or can afford, said John Dallas, chief executive officer of Berkshire Settlements. Were pleased to have met the rigorous business requirements to obtain our licensing in Iowa and look forward to helping Iowans unlock value from a policy, rather than just allowing it to lapse or surrendering it back to the insurance company.

For more information, please visit www.berkshiresettlements.com.

About Berkshire Settlements, Inc.

Berkshire Settlements, Inc. is an Atlanta-based company that is one of the leading life settlement providers in the U.S. The company is a direct buyer of life insurance policies from policy sellers, helping them to maximize the value of policies they no longer need or can afford, and is highly regarded for its integrity, ability to execute and transparency in the transaction. Berkshire is a member of the Life Insurance Settlement Association (LISA), the nations oldest and largest organization representing participants in the life settlement industry. For more information, please click here or call (800) 233-1745.
Shoppers should like whats in store when they visit the newly-remodeled Aldi Food Store in Council Bluffs, a company official said.

Dozens of people couldnt wait to find that out Wednesday morning as they came to celebrate the grand re-opening of Aldi Foods Manawa Power Center location following a major renovation.

Its very nice, a lot more space, said longtime shopper Lois Hanusa as she was checking out her items.

The store is bigger than before, allowing shoppers more products to choose from, said Skyler Jones, who oversees store operations at Midwestern sites, including western Iowa. One of the walls was moved outward, creating room for a new aisle, plus all the aisles are now wider for more convenience.

Aldi will remodel six Omaha-area stores, spending $10 million to put the focus more on fresh items like produce, dairy and baked goods.

The project is part of Aldis $1.6 billion nationwide push to upgrade and expand four-fifths of its 1,600 U.S. stores in the next three years.

The push comes as fellow German competitor Lidl opens its first U.S. stores and as competitors like Amazon and Blue Apron reshape the grocery industry.

Aldi is reinforcing itself to better compete in what it calls a turbulent retail environment.

The company also said on July 11 it will open one more store in the Omaha area this year, but declined to name the location.

Its part of Aldis plans, announced last month, to spend $3.4 billion to open about 900 new U.S. stores in the next five years. The growth will bump Aldi to the nations third-largest grocer by store count.

Aldi is popular among shoppers who like its small footprint, small assortment of mostly store-brand products and low prices.

The company said its remodeled stores will have open ceilings, natural lighting and energy-saving LED lighting. All six remodels will be complete by 2019. Aldis two Lincoln stores have already been updated, the company said.

Aldi is known for providing high-quality foods at the lowest possible prices, according to Jones.

That wont change at all, he said.

Thats apparently good news for Hanusa, Tom Stanford and other devoted Aldi shoppers.

I like their produce a lot ,and I like their prices, Hanusa said. You have to save wherever you can.

The products are good, and I like the prices, Stanford said as he was shopping.

Though Aldi carries a few name brands, the majority of products are from its private label, Jones said. However, they will not sell any of its own products if they dont meet or exceed the standards of the national brands, he added.

Aldi shoppers can find practically everything that other stores offer, including its line of fresh meats, breads and an ever-growing produce line, Jones said. Shoppers will also see more organic products and gluten-free foods.

As with many business openings and renovations, the CB Ambassadors praised store officials and led the ribbon-cutting ceremonies.

Jay Ferris, an ambassador, described the store as beautiful with spacious aisles and friendly employees.

The commitment to remodel is their statement that We want to stay here and be part of the community, he said.

Mayor Matt Walsh had similar thoughts.

Its a great store with a great reputation, he said during the ceremonies. Its a privilege to have Aldi as a corporate citizen for many years.

 BH News Service reporter Barbara Soderlin contributed to this report.
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Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate questioned the tactics employed early by a federal election integrity commission, but said the effort to look at election issues in the country is welcome.

President Donald Trump established the commission in May, with Vice President Mike Pence installed as chair and Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach the vice chair.

Big picture, were optimistic because they appointed several Republican and Democratic secretaries of state to the commission, Pate, a Republican, said during a meeting with The Nonpareil.

After the commission was formed, Kobach asked states last month to provide publicly available data including registered voters names, birth dates, voting history and partial Social Security numbers.

Iowa joined a number of states in declining to provide the information. Pate said his office does not provide Social Security numbers and driver license numbers and has a number of stipulations for use when documents are released. Pates office doesnt keep track of who people vote for.

We dont know how you vote, so we cant tell anyone how you vote, Pate said. Its a secret ballot.

Pates started his second stint as secretary of state after being elected in November of 2014. He previously served in the role for one term from 1995 until 1999.

Pate termed the letter from Kobach to states requesting the information not thought through.

Perhaps my associate in Kansas got ahead of himself, Pate said.

Iowa may soon have to turn over the information, though. On Monday, a federal judge in the District of Columbia denied an advocacy groups request to block the data collection, according to The Associated Press. The lawsuit was filed by the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C.

Pate said the commission would have to fill out a records request form and pay a fee to get the information from Iowa.

Kobach called the court decision a major victory for government accountability, transparency and the publics right to know about the integrity of our elections processes.

Critics have decried the potential intrusion on privacy, while also saying the commission is unnecessary. A report from the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law found rates between 0.0003 and 0.0025 percent of voter impersonation fraud in the U.S.

Pate said he hopes the commission will suggest states with same-day registration should be able to purge voter rolls of inactive votes, while also prodding the U.S. Department of Homeland Security to communicate better with states on election integrity efforts.

Pate expressed worry about the perception that Russians or other outside actors physically affected the election, which could lead some to not vote.

We want to keep the facts as clear as we can, he said, noting that the 2016 election was legitimate. There is no major fraud in our state.

Pate said he hopes voters will stay engaged and work to filter out attempts to influence U.S. elections and voters should be confident in the system and cast ballots.

A key issue Pate discussed is that elections should stay local.

We dont want the federal government nationalizing elections, he said.

The Iowa secretary of state said the countrys decentralization of elections has helped ward off potential threats, as theres no one main apparatus to attack. He also noted voters have trust in voting integrity when poll workers are their friends and neighbors.

Pate said not having a national system makes it hard to hack elections.

Thats proven to be a good safeguard, he said, noting that Iowa uses paper ballots to protect against cyber attacks. We can count them (by hand). That makes our system a pretty safe system.

Pate said there is no major voting fraud in the state.

The foundation of our democracy is our elections, he said.

At the same time, the secretary of state said his office works to ensure fraud doesnt occur. He noted that, in 2016, 620 in Iowa attempted to vote twice. He noted that many cases were the result of an honest mistake or ignorance. For example, a person who might have voted absentee 40 days before the election forgetting theyd done so. Others might have voted in one state, moved, and thought they could vote in their new state as well.

Those types of issues are what we work to prevent, he said. One case of fraud is too many.

Pate touted the recent change in Iowa law that allows same-day registration for voters, calling it a safeguard to ensure everyone has a chance to vote. If poll workers believe a person is attempting to vote for a second time but that person insists its their first, they can fill out a provisional ballot.

Pate noted the benefits of same-day registration in discussing purging the voter rolls of people believed to be dead or living in a different state. There are about 150,000 inactive voters in Iowa.

If theyre still here, theyre able to register same-day, Pate said.

Pate said the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has not been forthcoming in working with the states about federal government election integrity efforts.

If theyre not going to talk to us and share information, thats handicapping us, he said. Theyre nationalizing elections without our input. You dont want armed guards at polling sites.

Regarding a decentralized election system, when asked about the fact that weak links in individual states could be targeted, especially in a presidential election system where state outcomes are more important that the general vote count, Pate said states are becoming more and more standardized in their practices, while noting states still maintain some autonomy.

Pate said what works for one state might not work for another.
The following editorial was published in the Sioux City Journal on July 23:

Announcement earlier this month by the Environmental Protection Agency on new volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standards program produced a mixed bag of news for farm states like Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. The federal RFS began with the Energy Policy Act of 2005 and was expanded and extended by the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. It requires transportation fuel sold in the U.S. be blended with a minimum volume of renewable fuels.

We hope some of the numbers go up before the new rules take effect.

On July 5, EPA issued proposed RFS volume requirements for total renewable fuel, cellulosic biofuel and advanced biofuel for 2018 and a proposed volume requirement for biomass-based diesel for 2019. Key pieces of the announcement include:

 The EPA proposes to keep the conventional ethanol requirement of 15 billion gallons the same in 2018.

 The EPA proposes no increase in the biodiesel requirement of 2.1 billion gallons between 2018 and 2019.

 The EPA proposes decreases in the cellulosic biofuel requirement from 311 million gallons to 238 million gallons and the advanced biofuel requirement from 4.28 billion gallons to 4.24 billion gallons in 2018.

Reaction within the Midwest reflected both the good and the disappointing numbers within the EPA announcement. Here is a sampling:

 The EPAs proposed renewable volume obligations under the RFS program is a mixed bag. While Im glad the EPAs proposal holds steady the requirement of 15 billion gallons for conventional ethanol, the lack of any increase for biodiesel is a missed opportunity, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, said. The proposal fails to recognize the ability of the domestic biodiesel industry to produce at much higher levels. The proposed cut to advanced and cellulosic fuels will have a chilling effect on the push toward next-generation biofuels, and will certainly harm investments in this area. ... I am disappointed in the direction of these proposed volumes, and I hope the EPA will consider increasing these levels once stakeholders weigh in.

 While I am pleased the new administration has set the proposed volume requirements for conventional ethanol for 2018 at congressionally approved levels, I am disappointed that the 2019 biodiesel number was held constant, and would like to see it more accurately reflect current domestic usage and production capacity, Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, said.

On July 4th, America celebrated our Independence Day. On July 5, we learned that the United States Environmental Protection Agency proposed new RFS standards that are a missed chance to use ethanol and other biofuels to declare an American Energy Independence Day, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, said. There is a direct correlation between increased production and use of American ethanol and decreased importation of petroleum from foreign nations, some of whom are hostile to us. In order to make America great again, we need an energy strategy that recognizes the important role biofuels play in making America energy independent, and sets targets that encourage greater production.

Perhaps no state is impacted by RFS rules more than Iowa, the No. 1 producer of ethanol and biodiesel in America. Because we wish to see stability and expansion within an industry not only important to the future of agriculture states like ours, but to the future of America because it helps reduce greenhouse gas emissions and reduces dependence on foreign oil, we join supporters of renewable fuels in urging increases for cellulosic and advanced biofuels in 2018 and for biomass-based biodiesel in 2019.

We urge our elected state and congressional leaders to take a leadership role during the public comment period on the EPA proposal, which ends Aug. 31, in making this happen.
HOUSTON, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Troptions Corporation, a trade exchange company transferred TROPTIONS to SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d.b.a. Everybody's Phone Company, (OTC PINK:SWHI) in exchange for 15,000 prepaid landline packages.

Transactions can be verified at:

https://xchain.io/address/16qoL1fww6UdgUD5NR3XjJRqe131SUS28v



Garland E. Harris, President of Troptions Corporation says, TREC Media was a real find in our quest to help our client SWHI use TROPTIONS to buy the most effective media to accomplish its customer growth goals. We turn hidden assets into purchasing power for private and public companies using TROPTIONS.

Bryan Stone, CEO of The Real Estate Connections says, We have executed the agreement we started with Troptions on June 27th, 2017. TREC Media Group is a division of The Real Estate Connections an Atlanta, Georgia Real Estate Company that offers both Training and Education for than 11,000 real estate investors on buying and selling real estate.

TREC MEDIA GROUP, the marketing division broadcasts to millions of people through its Radio Show, "The Cutting Edge Connections" which airs on iHeartRadio and to over 300,000 Meetups members. The social media and print presentations make TREC MEDIA GROUP, a force in the industry to effectively reach millions of new customers.

Stone says, We are very excited to work closely with TROPTIONS and SWHI on this new project to support their advertising budget to get the word out about their much needed service that benefits the disadvantaged in the community. We will be working with TROPTIONS with our real estate arm to buy and sell properties with Crypto Currency, TROPTIONS is the wave of the future for buying and selling, real estate, cars, yachts, planes and businesses. This sets our clients ahead of everyone else.

Troptions Corporation transferred 2,702,703.0000 TROPTIONS on the Bitcoin Blockchain using Counterparty (https://Counterparty.io) to a cryptocurrency wallet owned by TREC Media Group.

The transaction can be verified by going to: https://xchain.io/address/1Q4BCLTvs19jUAKZ2GgwkF7nqWxLVRmQMV



About Troptions Corporation

Troptions Corporation is a trade exchange company that is building a vibrant community using the signature cryptocurrency TROPTIONS which provides a myriad of TRading OPTIONS. It is through the corporate buying power and talented curation that over $32 Million of TROPTIONS have been traded in 2017 for products and services. This provides exclusive opportunities to the Troptions community other than speculative token trading. TROPTIONS are a Counterparty (XCP) Asset on the Bitcoin blockchain. TROPTIONS intends to lead with a fully compliant Initial Coin Offering - ICO in 2017.

Garland E. Harris, President | Troptions.io | garlandeharris@troptionscorp.com 561-252-4540

About Bryan Stone

TheRealEstateConnections2017@gmail.com

TheRealEstateConnections.com

914-768-873

About SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d.b.a. Everybody's Phone Company

SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d.b.a. Everybody's Phone Company, (OTC PINK:SWHI) sells prepaid, unlimited local (dial tone) telephone service to the residential market, primarily in greater Houston. The Company is fully licensed by the Texas Public Utility Commission to resell telephone services throughout the State. The Company hopes eventually to expand its prepaid telecommunications product offerings into additional states in the future.



Norman George, President | everybodysphonecompany.com |

landlinewanted@gmail.com | 713-268-1610
CLEARWATER, Fla., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On July 19th, the Church of Scientology hosted their Summer Charity Coalition Luncheon in the Fort Harrisons Crystal Ballroom. There were 100 guests who learned about Operation HOPE, the featured charity, and got to know each other during the special speed networking segment.



After a complimentary lunch Mr. Dylan Pires, the Community Affairs Director for the Church of Scientology in Clearwater, opened the event and served as its Master of Ceremonies. He explained the Way to Happiness Association, one of 8 non-profit humanitarian organizations sponsored by the Church of Scientology internationally.

The Association utilizes the book The Way to Happiness, a non-religious moral code written by L. Ron Hubbard, aimed wholly on restoring honesty and morality, said Mr. Pires.

Mr. Pires specifically chose one precept to talk about from the book, Fulfill Your Obligations. He connected this precept with the mission of Operation HOPE to provide financial literacy empowerment for youth, financial capability for communities, and ultimately, financial dignity for all.

The speed networking segment was next, run by Ms. Julieta Santagostino, President of Foundation for a Drug-Free World. During this segment, guests paired up with someone in the room theyd never met before. They had 2 minutes to introduce themselves to each other and exchange business cards before the buzzer sounded. Once they heard the buzzer, guests switched partners.

Guests enjoyed participating in the speed networking, as one guest had put it, The speed networking was great! It really forces people to get up and meet people. They dont have any excuses to not talk to each other!

For more information about the Charity Coalition or to attend a future event, please contact Dylan at (727) 467-6860 or email dylanpires@churchofscientology.net.

About the Church of Scientology:

The Scientology religion was founded by humanitarian and philosopher, L. Ron Hubbard. The first Church of Scientology was formed in the United States in 1954 and has expanded to more than 11,000 churches, missions and affiliated groups, with millions of members in 167 nations. Based on L. Ron Hubbard's words, "A community that pulls together can make a better society for all," the Church of Scientology regularly engages in many humanitarian programs and community events. To learn more, visit www.scientology-fso.org.




Tensions are high after Sandhills landowners and a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologist planned to meet about a proposed power transmission line, and the Nebraska Public Power District objected.

Later, a power districts contractor took pictures of vehicle license plates outside the privately organized meeting.

The meeting was in reference to the power districts proposed R-Project, a 345,000-volt transmission line that would extend from Sutherland to Holt County, about 225 miles long. Members of the public have expressed concern that the line will cause harm to historic sites, wildlife and habitat in the Sandhills.

Biologist Robert Harms said he was asked to meet with landowners and answer questions regarding the USFWS environmental impact study. Released in May, the document is more than 1,000 pages long.

Barbara Welch, who lives on Brush Creek Ranch near Thedford, said she had been looking forward to hearing Harms answers. After days working on the ranch, she and her husband had tried to read 100 pages of the document each night, she said.

We couldnt even do 10 pages a night, she said.

When Welch and her husband had attended public hearings, she said, she felt intimidated by strict time limits to speak as well as by the attitudes of officials at the hearings.

So when the opportunity arose to ask Harms questions related to the document, members of the Facebook group Preserve the Sandhills posted about it on their public page, telling residents to bring friends and saying that the USFWS is a key to stopping the R-Project.

In the Sandhills, word of the meeting took off, and with 66 RSVPs, it was ultimately moved from the ranch to Thedfords Cowpoke Cafe, said Welch, the rancher.

When NPPD officials saw the post, they grew concerned. Harms is in charge of granting or denying permits, and meeting with the group could be a conflict of interest, said Mark Becker, an NPPD spokesman.

Harms disagreed that the meeting was a conflict of interest, rather calling it part of the process. As a public servant, his job is to hear concerns and answer questions, he said.

With his office near Alda  8 miles from Grand Island  I dont know that country like Sandhillers know that country, he said.

NPPD officials contacted the USFWS office in Lakewood, Colorado. Harms said had the power district contacted him, he would have put fears to rest that he wasnt meeting to take a side but rather to explain the environmental impact study.

But Becker said, Thats who we deal with is the Denver level.

The power district sent two of its own contractors to Thedford too, to take notes on what Harms would say. But when they arrived and stood in the back, attendees at the meeting had news: That Harms had to back out, and that this meeting was not open to the power district.

Harms was at a gas station just before the meeting when his supervisor called.

Dont go, he was told. Becker said that despite reporting the meeting, NPPD officials didnt ban Harms from going.

It was up to the Fish and Wildlife Service to make a determination of what they wanted to do, he said.

So Harms headed back to Alda. The group still met  some attendees came from more than two hours away  and when they learned the power district officials also came, they asked them to leave.

Because the meeting was posted on a public group, the contractors thought they could attend, Becker said. When Welch was asked about the wording  we need you to be here; bring a neighbor  and that the contractors could have been someones neighbors, she calmly responded, But they werent, were they?

Becker said contractors left when they were asked. Welch said they left after she asked four times.

Multiple people later reported that the men in suits took pictures of license plates. Only one contractor took the pictures, Becker said.

He took it on his own to do that, he said, adding that higher-ups at the power district expressed no interest in the pictures and dont want them.

We have expressed our concerns to our contractors, he said.

Becker said the power district is devoted to working with landowners and the proposed route remains, though some power lines may move slightly. If private land is damaged during the construction, officials will work with landowners to restore it, though it wont be overnight.

Theres less environmentally damaging routes that are out there, Harms, the biologist, said. NPPD wont leave their current one.

Harms said he doesnt know whether the USFWS will issue the permits pertaining to protected species in the area, which he said includes eagles nests, meadows and migratory birds paths.

A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service representative later said that although other routes were analyzed as part of the draft Environmental Impact Statement, they were "ultimately determined to be infeasible for technical, economic or environmental reasons."

In an email, Steve Segin, public affairs officers for the Fish and Wildlife Service, said the permit for the R-Project will be issued if NPPD meets the criteria.

"The Service will evaluate public comments on the draft Environmental Impact Statement, draft Habitat Conservation Plan, draft Migratory Bird Conservation Plan, and the draft Restoration Management Plan," the email said. "The Service uses public input to insure that we have conducted a comprehensive analysis and considered all factors."

Editor's note: This story has been revised to add comment from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
At first, Staff Sgt. Ashleigh Buch didnt know what to make of the flood of sympathy that arrived on her cellphone as she got up Wednesday morning.

The first transgender airman to fully transition at Offutt Air Force Base, she hadnt heard about President Trumps tweets announcing plans to bar all transgender troops from serving in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Can't see the video? Click here.

She logged onto her computer and read the news.

It was a rush of emotion, pretty much every kind of emotion, Buch, 32, said in an interview with The Omaha World-Herald. The tears just kept coming and coming. It seemed so surreal. It was out of the blue.

Buch went to work at Offutt  where she conducts classes for linguists who fly aboard the 55th Wings fleet of reconnaissance aircraft  still in tears, hoping to avoid talking to people.

Buch grew up in Fairfield, Iowa, and earned a bachelors degree in Spanish and secondary education before joining the Air Force in 2009. She began presenting herself as a woman away from work after arriving at Offutt in 2012, and began transitioning at work early last year, before the Pentagons policy was in place.

She has been publicly open about her story, giving interviews to Offutts base newspaper and The World-Herald. She has also been mentoring at least four other Offutt service members who have been transitioning under the militarys transgender policy, adopted last year.

She met with her commander and her first sergeant on Wednesday. They tried to reassure her, despite all the unknowns.

They didnt have a lot of answers, Buch said. They said, We want you to keep fighting and not give up. Youve overcome numerous roadblocks already. 

She said she is trying to stay focused on the present and not worry about national policies she cant control  even though the decision will shape her future.

Its a very scary, tenuous, rocky road ahead of me, Buch said. Im just going to keep being the best airman I can be.
Dylan Lewis, of Rapid City, will be making his fourth appearance at the Fort Cody Summer Music Series

tonight.

Lewis first played with Jami Lynn and then returned as part of his solo tour.

Last year, Fort Cody was one of the tour stops for The Darning Hearts, a duo Lewis formed with his wife, Natasha. This year hell be joined by Morgan Lee.

Natasha had a family emergency, Lewis said. She was disappointed that she couldnt make it.

He reached out to Lee, who he plays with in another band called Hard Travelin, and she agreed to join him in North Platte.

Lee, of Vermillion, South Dakota, has been playing music for a long time, Lewis said. Shes also working on her doctorate in sustainability.

Lewis said the pair will be playing more of an old-timey set, with Lee on a clawhammer banjo and a guitar and Lewis on guitar, mandolin and fiddle. Audiences can expect a lot of original music, mixed with some tradition tunes as well as a lot of harmonies.

Although the pairing was spur of the moment, Lewis said the duo may continue to play together as part of a separate project.

Lewis said he enjoys the social aspect of music and the people he gets to meet because of it. He said touring also gives him an opportunity to visit places he may not visit otherwise, such as North Platte.

I feel as if people in North Platte really appreciate music, Lewis said. Its always a really enjoyable experience ... As long as they keep inviting me back, Ill keep coming back.

Tonights concert at Fort Cody, 221 Halligan Drive, will be kicked off by Al Raby and Friends at 6 p.m. Lewis and Lee will take the stage at 7 p.m.

Admission is $5 per person. Season passes are available for $25 each and can be purchased at the gate before the concerts. Food by Early Bird, Second Mouse and locally brewed beer from Pals Brewery will be available.
Now that the Legislature is not in session, we will attempt to explain the facts behind the happenings on some continuous legislation.

Legislative Bill 98 was stalled by filibuster this past session. It would have reset a sunset (cease to exist) date on a 3-cent property tax levy authority for overappropriated and fully appropriated natural resources districts to pay for implementation of their required integrated management plans. In 2004, the Legislature first gave the levy authority to the involved NRDs; it has since sunset and been reauthorized three more times and will sunset again next year.

We stood against LB 98s attempt to extend the sunset for 10 more years on the following rationale:

NRDs already have the taxing power to levy up to 4.5 cents and can, with a supermajority board vote, override the levy by 1 cent for a total of 5.5 cents. There are 23 NRDs in the state whose boundaries are defined by the river basins their rainwater drains into: Platte, Republican, Loup, Niobrara, Elkhorn, Nemaha, Blue and Missouri River systems. The state has designated 10 districts as being over- or fully appropriated on groundwater usage within areas of their districts.

Taxpayers expect that when a sunset is in place, there is reason that the tax should end. They also expect the tax dollars will be accounted for and used to accomplish the purpose intended. The NRDs knew that the levy would sunset, and good management practices should have planned for that event.

The bill had a hearing before the Revenue Committee, of which I am a member. It was obvious the plan was to keep a low profile; make it seem like the extension of the sunset was just standard procedure. A couple of senators started asking questions. We discovered that the law did not mandate that separate records be kept to show where the tax dollars were used to alleviate the districts groundwater problem; and in fact, we found that those tax dollars were just blended into their overall budget. Districts involved do have projects in place to alleviate the overuse of groundwater; they just did not prove that the tax levy was necessary to accomplish the projects. Seven of the 10 districts involved levied a part of the 3 cents; only two of those have total levies that exceed their 5.5-cent common levy authority. The two districts with boundaries in Lincoln County  the overappropriated Twin Platte and the fully appropriated Middle Republican NRD  have total tax rates below their common levy authority.

Two overriding reasons why the sunset on the taxes should happen are:

 Over the last 10 years, total property valuations in the districts have increased from $2.37 billion to $6.8 billion (an 186 percent increase). The NRDs common levy of 5.5 cents is quite capable of funding the districts needs.

 In 2010, the Legislature allowed those districts with IMPs in place to enter into bonded indebtedness by issuing river-flow enhancement bonds and payable by enacting a $10 occupation tax on irrigated land; this funds NCORPE.

With the event of the occupation tax, districts now have a mechanism to fund their IMPs and, along with the gigantic increase in valuations, I could see no reason to extend the sunset date on the special NRD levy.

No matter that there is no need for the IMP tax; management of affected NRDs are lobbying hard to keep the taxing authority. The best I can surmise is that they are like the reformed drunk: They do not need the booze, but they want the security of the jug of whiskey under the sink. What is interesting is that some of the management of the 13 NRDs that have no over- or fully appropriated areas are badgering their state senators to support the sunset extension. Their involvement makes no sense unless someday they also would like to have a jug of whiskey under the sink (tax increase).

Property tax relief for all Nebraskans is needed; eliminating the NRD tax can send a message to all local governments: Its time to stop hiding spending behind valuation increases. Its time for them to lower tax-dollar asking, not just their levy.

Please do not hesitate to contact our office, mgroene@leg.ne.gov or 402-471-2729, with any comments, questions or concerns.
Nebraska has some impressive natural advantages:

The Ogallala Aquifer, providing an invaluable abundance of underground water. Some of the countrys most productive farmland. The Sand Hills vast shortgrass region, making for excellent cattle country.

Then theres the central North American flyway for migratory birds, by which more than 500,000 sandhill cranes visit central Nebraska each spring.

A new report from the University of Nebraska report describes the notable economic impact from crane-related tourism.

This springs 43,300 visitors from outside central Nebraska spent an average of $93.37 apiece per day on lodging, gas, food, souvenirs and other items, the study found. In all, that activity added up to $14.3 million in economic impact.

A significant factor making this possible is the way Nebraskans  businesses as well as viewing sites and the Crane Trust educational center  plan well in advance and work hard to provide positive experiences to visitors.

This work by Nebraskans maximizes the economic value to their communities and strengthens the states tourism potential. Its smart planning that builds on one of Nebraskas most notable natural advantages.

 The Omaha World-Herald
Schick Hydro Preview: Melbourne Storm v Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles

AAMI Park

Sunday, 2pm

The top-of-the-table Storm take on fierce rivals the Sea Eagles in a match with finals implications on Sunday.

Melbourne will be without Billy Slater, the fullback still suffering an ongoing concussion from a brutal late head-high shot during the Storms gutsy 20-14 win over the Raiders.

Captain Cameron Smith also departed midway with a pectoral strain through the second of half on Saturday and is in some doubt to take part in what will be his 350th NRL match, but has been named in this weeks side.

The Sea Eagles are determined to make amends for their humbling 52-22 loss to the St George-Illawarra Dragons on Sunday. To their credit, Manly fought back from a 30-0 deficit to cut the lead to eight points but eventually succumbed to defeat.

After winning five straight to enter the top four, the Sea Eagles have dropped two of their past three games to fall to sixth spot and are desperate to build consistency towards the finals.



Match Draw Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership - Round 21: Storm vs Sea Eagles

Why the Storm can win: The league-leading Storm have been hit with crucial injuries to superstars Slater and Smith this week. If Smith isnt able to take the field for his milestone match in what will be added motivation for Melbourne, the side is capable of filling the void in his and Slaters absence as they have shown during the Origin period. The Storm have been brave all season and their slim six-point win over a resolute Raiders side added to their list of spirited performances. Melbourne have shifted Cameron Munster to fullback, while Ryley Jacks was named alongside veteran Cooper Cronk in the halves and has flourished in his opportunities at five-eighth. In what would be a big addition for the side, Jordan McLean was also named in the sides reserves and could make his return from injury. Nate Myles will have the added motivation of taking on his old side that discarded him just weeks ago. With the advantage of the home crowd behind them  where they hold a 5-2 record this season  Melbourne will be eager to keep their spot atop the ladder as they continue their march to the finals.

Why the Sea Eagles can win: Theres no love lost between the two sides and the Sea Eagles will be ready to take it to their fierce adversaries. Sitting in sixth position and four points clear of the ninth-placed Penrith Panthers, victory is essential in Manly cementing their top-eight position with six rounds to go. They welcome back Apisai Koroisau, Brenton Lawrence and Matt Wright into the side in place of Brad Parker, Darcy Lussick and Jarrad Kennedy. Manlys issue lies with their defence which is the worst of the top-eight sides but they hold the leagues second-best attack with 418 points (just behind the Brisbane Broncos' 419 points scored). They will certainly need to focus on their attack to compensative for their defensive woes  however the Storm hold the leagues stingiest defence. Prop Martin Taupau's damaging runs and offloads will be key for the Sea Eagles and their forwards in matching the Storms big boys up front. Five-eighth Blake Green also has incentive to impress, facing his old club.



Player Comparison Widget

[2017] Telstra Premiership: Cooper Cronk vs Daly Cherry-Evans

Total Kicks, Try Assists, Line Break Assists, All Run Metres.



History: Storm v Sea Eagles Played 31; Storm 17; Sea Eagles 13; Drawn 1. The stats show the two sides share a competitive history after meeting in the 2007 and 2008 Grand Finals. The Storm held on for a 30-26 win the last time the two sides met earlier this season in Round Seven at Lottoland. In their past eight matches since 2013, the Storm hold a 4-3 record along with one draw. The last time they met at AAMI Park in Round Eight, 2015, Manly escaped with a 12-10 win.

What are the odds: Three times the money has gone on Melbourne in Sportsbet's head-to-head market and twice the number of individual bets, however the support for Manly has been in handicap betting where they're receiving the points start. Latest odds at Sportsbet.com.au.

Match Officials: Gerard Sutton, Tim Roby. Officials: Brett Suttor, Jarrod Cole. Video Referees: Ben Galea, Ashley Klein.

Televised: Fox League  Live coverage from 2.00pm (AEST).

How we see it: Much depends on whether Smith will play and if his pectoral strain has any ongoing effects on his performance. For Manly, their defence is a concern, particularly in facing the clinical and relentless Storm who will patiently break their opponents down over the process of the match. While skipper Smith has been named to play, Melbourne have proven their mantra of 'next-man up' certainly holds true if the milestone man doesn't take to the field. Storm by 7.
Las Vegas, NV, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- South American Gold Corp (OTC: SAGD), a company that has for some time been focused on cannabis related businesses, and recently transitioned to include being an operational management company focused on enhancing shareholder value by acquiring and operating undervalued assets, is excited to share with its shareholders its strategies to enhance shareholder value.



SAGD's will be spinning off its businesses that are not cannabis related to its shareholders. This means that each shareholder of SAGD as of the date of the spin off, will also receive a stock dividend representing shares in the new entity which will contain all of current businesses of SAGD that are not related to cannabis. These businesses include, SmartLicensee, BITmineshaft, and the recently signed acquisitions of ASK A.B.E. and CarRights.com (signed on July 24th, 2017, public information to be released shortly). In addition, all non-cannabis assets, LOIs, and acquisitions that are presently being explored or pursued will be included in this spin-off entity.



SAGD President, David Reeves, stated, "This is a very exciting time to be an SAGD shareholder. Since each shareholder will now receive a stock dividend, each SAGD shareholder will increase their holdings of SAGD products. I am tremendously excited to lead this new company into its next phase of accelerated and explosive growth. I will also continue to run the businesses remaining inside SAGD on an interim basis. We have already begun a nationwide search for a premier executive to lead SAGDs cannabis related businesses and Ill be assisting in that process as well.

SAGD will be making additional announcements on the logistics of this spin off strategy. It is expected that the spin-off will occur sometime within the next 30 to 60 days.

About South American Gold Corp:

South American Gold Corp is a publicly traded company on the OTC under the symbol SAGD, focused on enhancing shareholder value by acquiring and operating undervalued assets.

For more information:

Corporate Website: www.sagdcorp.co



Media contact: info@sagdcorp.co



General contact: info@sagdcorp.co







Disclaimer: This release contains forward-looking statements that are based on beliefs of South American Gold Corp. management and reflect South American Gold Corp.'s current expectations as contemplated under section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, as amended. When we use in this release the words "estimate," "project," "looks," "believe," "anticipate," "intend," "expect," "plan," "predict," "may," "should," "will," "can," the negative of these words, or such other variations thereon, or comparable terminology, are all intended to identify forward looking statements. Such statements reflect the current views of South America Gold Corp. with respect to future events based on currently available information and are subject to numerous assumptions, risks and uncertainties, including but not limited to, risks and uncertainties pertaining to development of mining properties, changes in economic conditions and other risks, uncertainties and factors, which may cause the actual results, performance, or achievement expressed or implied by such forward looking statements to differ materially from the forward looking statements. The information contained in this press release is historical in nature, has not been updated, and is current only to the date shown in this press release. This information may no longer be accurate and therefore you should not rely on the information contained in this press release. To the extent permitted by law, South American Gold Corp. and its employees, agents and consultants exclude all liability for any loss or damage arising from the use of, or reliance on, any such information, whether or not caused by any negligent act or omission. This press release may incorporate by reference the Company's reports and other filings. Investors are encouraged to review all filings. There is no assurance South American Gold Corp. will identify projects of merit or if it will have sufficient financing to implement its business plan. There is no assurance that the Company's due diligence on the potential projects and/or acquisitions will be favorable nor that definitive terms can be negotiated. Investors should consult their financial advisor before making an investment in a company.
An Indiana medical board recently upheld the probation of the license of a Portage podiatrist accused of ordering more than 27,000 narcotic painkillers, as well as thousands of other controlled substances, over a two-year period.

The Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating Dr. Frederick Fedorchak in October 2014 after large quantities of hydrocodone were ordered under his license.

In August 2015, according to a complaint filed by the Indiana attorney general's office, the DEA raided Fedorchak's home and clinic, finding thousands of tablets of controlled substances, including in his bedroom and basement.

The attorney general's office accused Fedorchak of improper recordkeeping and storage of controlled substances, not having a DEA license for his home, prescribing controlled substances without a legitimate medical purpose, and ordering medication for himself and his family members for non-foot-related purposes. The complaint claimed he had a "severe dependency" on drugs, "impairing his ability to practice safely."

Asked for comment, Fedorchak, who continues to practice while his license is on probation, blamed the entire incident on a now-deceased former employee, who the doctor claims ordered and diverted the pills without his knowledge.

"No one in the DEA ever told me about these large amounts of controlled substances. No one in the DEA ever suggested that I had any involvement in the ordering of these controlled substances, other than the fact that my DEA number was used," he stated. "I never saw, I never handled any of these controlled substances described in the complaint by the attorney general's office."

He pointed to the fact that, in March 2017, his license to prescribe controlled substances was reinstated by the Indiana Pharmacy Board. His DEA registration also was restored after he agreed to be monitored by the agency for five years.

In November 2016, Fedorchak agreed to a settlement with the state, placing him on indefinite probation (for a minimum of three years), a $1,000 fine and a year of monitoring by the Positive Sobriety Institute, including drug testing.

In May 2017, Fedorchak petitioned the podiatry board to have his probation withdrawn. The board denied that request.

Asked about Fedorchak's claims, a spokesman for the Indiana attorney general's office, Corey Elliott, referred to the settlement agreement, in which both parties stipulated to the violations outlined in the complaint. A spokeswoman for the podiatry board, Julia Camara, said it does not comment on disciplinary actions. A DEA spokesman, James Jones, said the agency can't comment because the case is ongoing.
This month, Ecuador joined a host of other OPEC countries in pumping over their production cut limit. In this segment of Industry Focus: Energy, Motley Fool energy analysts Sean O'Reilly and Taylor Muckerman talk about why, and what this is doing to the price of oil.

A full transcript follows the video.

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Sean O'Reilly: Ecuador is pumping over their OPEC limit. That's not nice, of course. This comes after, I think this came out one or two days ago, but OPEC's compliance with cuts slumped this past month. Seventy-eight percent compliance -- this is not great.

Taylor Muckerman: They're not playing nicely. That's more toward historical norms.

O'Reilly: Right. It was like they did this correctly for a couple of months -- it was 95% compliance in May -- and Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Iraq, UAE, Venezuela, they all started pumping, and that upset major compliance from Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, and Angola.

Muckerman: Saudi Arabia failed to comply in June's, too.

O'Reilly: Ooh, awkward. "It was your idea, guys!"

Muckerman: Obviously, if the biggest producer fails, the smaller guys with much more reliant budgets on oil ...

O'Reilly: Hasn't Russia supposedly complied? Which, of course, begs the question, do we know? But anyway. Definitely seems like we get something that pops up that derails this production cut plan every month. It's "Oh, we have a field that does this, so we're going to produce more now," and all this stuff. And this of course brings us to the fundamental flaw of any cartel, which is you have an incentive to cheat.

Muckerman: Yeah, when it's not signed in blood.

O'Reilly: You get in a room, you agree to something, you leave the room and tell your people to do the opposite. [laughs]

Muckerman: Yeah, exactly. Especially when you would allow Libya and Nigeria, two members, to completely remove themselves from the production cap because of internal strife.

O'Reilly: Right. "We need the money." Everybody needs money.

Muckerman: They all need the money.

O'Reilly: Interesting, because the original agreement called for, Russia was in on it, and technically Russia isn't part of OPEC, but any time OPEC makes a decision they pretty much call Putin up. They produce 10 million barrels a day, right?

Muckerman: Yeah, right in line with Saudi Aramco -- 10.5 million barrels per day.

O'Reilly: They're supposed to be doing this until March 2018.

Muckerman: They're supposed to be.

O'Reilly: It's only July 2017.

Muckerman: [laughs] Yeah, they realize it's not working.

O'Reilly: It's like they're cheating in the first quarter of the race.

Muckerman: I mean, technically they extended the cuts after they didn't work for a year.

O'Reilly: I definitely think they're expecting, the thought definitely crossed my mind, that when they cut, oil would immediately go to $60. I'm sure that's what they were hoping.

Muckerman: Fracking continued to happen.

O'Reilly: Yeah. Are we at the highest ever now? Have you seen that, U.S. production?

Muckerman: I think they're expecting to close the year around 9.6 million barrels a day.

O'Reilly: Yeah, that will be the highest.

Muckerman: And then up to 9.9 at the end of next year. Up from 8.5 last year.

O'Reilly: Yeah, and up from 4.5 10 years ago.

Muckerman: Yeah, and the rig counts more than doubled from a year ago. Still way shy -- it's in the mid-900s now, rigs on staff, and it was in the 1900s.

O'Reilly: Where are all these rigs? Are they just sitting in a field in Texas?

Muckerman: Some of them. Some of them are missing a few parts, because --

O'Reilly: I was about to say, I know they're missing a few parts.

Muckerman: -- they've been disrobed.

O'Reilly: Call up Distribution NOW. We need your parts.

Muckerman: Yeah, because rather than just taking a broken-down machine and putting a new machine there, they just take parts as they need them from these "stacked" machines, rigs. So we're still about 1,000 shy of the peak.

O'Reilly: Where does that put us at? Six hundred, 700, and it bottomed out at --

Muckerman: No, we're in the mid-nines, and I don't know what it bottomed out at, but a year ago, they were in the mid-fours.

Sean O'Reilly has no position in any stocks mentioned. Taylor Muckerman has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends NOW. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.
Youngsters had a chance to journey behind the scenes during a four-day summer history camp at historic Barker Mansion in Michigan City.

As part of their camp, Mansion Director Jessica Rosier and guide Austin Pittman took the children on a tour of the mansion allowing them to venture into the "roped off" areas, along with a fun scavenger hunt and a tour outside the mansion to explore the history of Washington Park and Zoo.

Pittman detailed the history of the Barker family whose story began with John Barker Sr., who came to Michigan City at age 22 in 1836 from Massachusetts. He became a successful merchant and grain broker. But the tour really focused on Barker's daughter, Catherine, who was born in 1896, the only child of Barker and his second wife, Katherine, whom he married in 1893.

The summer campers visited young Catherine's bedroom and that of her governess. They saw papers that Catherine wrote in her own handwriting. They saw the third-floor room where she learned to play the piano, and studied German and French, and there are photos of Catherine and her beloved dog, Tango.

They also saw a ballroom where Catherine would host parties as she grew to an adult.

Pittman told the children that Catherine Barker Hickox grew up and became the founder and president of the Barker Welfare Foundation. She gave the mansion to the city of Michigan City in 1968 after it had served for 20 years as a study center for Purdue University.

The youngsters had an opportunity to touch some of the artifacts belonging to the Barker family, and saw the rich red draperies in the library and a bust of Catherine Barker as a child by sculptor Leopold Bracony, which is on the bookcase.

The house is filled with valuable artifacts including Italian watercolors hanging over a vase in the library, which contains many sets of books, part of nearly 300 volumes bound in full or half leather. There are 12 dining chairs, each with a heraldic crest on the back. Cherubs, gargoyles, lions and garlands decorate the mahogany furniture.

Some of the furniture was moved back, giving the children a chance to walk around and look at the furniture and artwork in the various rooms. Each of the children had to wear a pair of white gloves so they could touch some artifacts.

Will Tallackson, a fifth-grade student at Crichfield Elementary School in LaPorte, said this is his second year at the camp.

"I think the tour is very cool," he said. "It's getting to know more history, and I love history. Some of the stuff I'm learning about today, I didn't learn when I was here before. I was in last year's summer camp and I had a birthday party here. I'm learning a lot the second time."

Hannah Kilbourne, who will be going to second grade at Coolspring Elementary School in Michigan City, said she's visited the mansion during Christmastime and loves to see the Christmas trees. "I like that we're getting a chance to see some of the areas that were roped off around the mansion and touch things that we couldn't touch before," she said.
MICHIGAN CITY  A Gary man serving time for the slaying of a grandmother and aunt of a Gary police officer was stabbed to death Wednesday at the Indiana State Prison, a facility spokeswoman said.

A suspect in the case was placed in a restrictive housing unit pending the outcome of the investigation and possible charges, said Pam James, spokeswoman for the prison.

According to prison officials, Willie Steele, 49, was doing some facility work in an area of the prison usually reserved for offenders who have violated prison rules.

He was stabbed once in the torso and found at 4:33 a.m. by a correctional officer, James said.

He was pronounced dead about three hours later at Franciscan Health Michigan City, officials said.

James said what led to the stabbing is still being pieced together.

The identity of the suspect was not released. Charges hinge on the outcome of the ongoing investigation by the LaPorte County prosecutor's office, Indiana State Prison and prison investigators, James said.

Steele was serving a 65-year sentence after he pleaded guilty to slaying Lillie Miller and her daughter Donessa on Oct. 30, 2009.

The women were the grandmother and the aunt of Gary police patrolman Damon Bradshaw.
HAMMOND - A 46-year-old Lansing man was sentenced Wednesday to 170 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and using a firearm to further a drug trafficking crime, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Indiana.

Bobby Ray Dejohnette will also serve four years of supervised release as part of his sentencing agreement, the release stated.

According to documents in this case, a 2015 investigation revealed Dejohnette conspired with others to sell crack cocaine in Hammond.

A search of his then-residence in Calumet City, Illinois, revealed he maintained both drugs and firearms within the residence.

Dejohnette allegedly sold $400 worth of crack cocaine to an unidentified government source Nov. 18, 2015, at the Luke's gas station at 5105 State Line Road in Hammond, according to court records.
MICHIGAN CITY  Marcus Scully looked in his rear view mirror and saw a girl he said darted out in front of his SUV lying out in the street. He kept driving, too panicked to stop and call for help, he told police.

Scully was charged July 20 with fleeing the scene of an accident resulting in death.

Delaney Klewer, 5, was returning to Water Tower Park on July 18 to retrieve flip flops she forgot to bring home when she was struck by an SUV, her family said.

During his initial hearing Tuesday in LaPorte Superior Court, Scully, 35, of Trail Creek, sought a reduction in his $15,000 cash-only bond.

The request was taken under advisement to allow for a standard background check.

"He said she jumped out in front of him," Michigan City police Cpl. Steve Alt, one of the lead investigators in the case, said Wednesday.

Alt also said there was no mention by Scully of texting or talking on a cell phone.

"He said he was just driving down the road, and she ran out in front of him," Alt said.

During a July 20 oral probable cause hearing, Michigan City police Lt. Jeff Loniewski testified that Scully said he saw a girl in his rear view mirror lying in the street and never stopped or made an attempt to call police.

Loniewski said an image of an SUV driving through the area during the time period of the collision was identical to a gold 2012 Chevy Equinox recovered from outside the home of his parents, Wesley and Donnita Scully, in Trail Creek.

The vehicle was registered to Marcus Scully, Loniewski said.

In a letter to the victim's family posted on Wesley Scully's Facebook page, he expressed deep remorse along with an apology for the pain caused by the accident and "absence of our son at the accident scene."

The letter goes on to state all of the Scully children were raised "in the ways of God," and Marcus, like all other people, is not perfect.

"We do make mistakes. But it takes great courage to own up to your mistakes no matter how difficult and, yes, even if not done from the start," the letter states.

The letter says the Scully family is praying for peace and strength both for the girl's family and their own.

Michigan City Common Council President Chris Schwanke said efforts are underway to improve safety for pedestrians in the area of the park where the girl was killed.

Crosswalks and relocating speed limit signs are among specific actions already suggested. Pedestrian safety at all other parks in the city will also be evaluated.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Group Ten Metals Inc. (TSX.V:PGE) (OTC:PGEZF) (FSE:5D32) (the Company or Group Ten) is pleased to announce the results of the first property-wide targeting report conducted on the Black LakeDrayton project in the Rainy River district of Ontario.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/b1f030da-f202-4b66-8d9a-0311f94b7006

The report identifies a total of 43 drill targets based on a reinterpretation of past geophysical and drill data, and preliminary compilation of 79 historic reports from work on or adjacent to the property. Three of the targets are considered high-priority with only minor ground-truthing recommended prior to drilling, while the remaining drill targets and other areas of interest require varying levels of field investigation prior to drilling.

Work totaling an estimated $2.15 million is recommended in follow-up, including a 5,000m drill program plus supporting field work, prospecting, analysis and modeling. Recommended work also includes further analysis and detailed re-logging of core from the 2016 drill program, along with any available historic core, with a focus on developing a 3D interpretation of the Moretti Deformation Zone and Main Trench to guide future sampling, trenching and drill programs.

Group Ten CEO Michael Rowley said, We are very encouraged by the breadth and detail of the report and, particularly, by the number of valid drill targets identified. The Black LakeDrayton project has been explored inconsistently in the past due to shallow ground cover and fractured land-holdings which have now been largely consolidated by Group Ten. The Company is now developing and refining a large number of drill targets across the property by applying new reprocessing and analysis techniques to existing geophysical data in addition to compiling the extensive historic database and applying geological models that have proven successful in neighbouring projects with similar geology. We look forward to providing further updates on our progress at Black LakeDrayton, as well as at Stillwater West and our Wellgreen area Ni-PGE-Cu projects in the coming weeks.

Project Overview

The Black Lake-Drayton project has been consolidated by the Company in five parcels as four option deals plus direct staking, providing Group Ten with 100% earn-in or ownership on more than 8,992 contiguous hectares and over 30km of underexplored strike length in in the AbramsMinnitaki Lake archean greenstone belt, along the northern margin of the Wabigoon sub-province. This highly active gold belt is host to a number of well-known deposits including Goliath (Treasury Metals), Goldlund (First Mining Finance) and Rainy River (New Gold), all of which have seen substantial recent expansions, among others.

The Abrams-Minnitaki Lake greenstone belt is south of and parallel to the Birch-Uchi belt, another archean greenstone belt that is home to a number of high-grade gold producers including Goldcorps Red Lake mines. Despite its proximity to the Red Lake area and the Birch-Uchi belt, the Abrams-Minnitaki greenstone belt remained underexplored into the 1990s due to persistent ground cover and limited road access. In the past two decades, new roads and improved exploration techniques have led to the delineation of multiple multi-million-ounce high-grade gold reserves on numerous projects in the belt.

The Drayton-Black Lake project includes an archive database with over 20 historic occurrences, multiple high-grade bulk samples and over 127 drill holes, in addition to geological, geochemical and geophysical data. Although 43% of the historic drill holes intercepted gold or copper mineralization, they did not adequately test the mineralized zones which are now better understood in the area.

Quality Control and Quality Assurance

The technical contents of this release with respect to the Black Lake-Drayton project were reviewed and approved by E. Max Baker, Ph.D., P.Geo., Project Manager of the Black Lake-Drayton project and Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101.

About Group Ten Metals Inc.

Group Ten Metals Inc. is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on the acquisition and development of high-quality platinum, palladium and gold exploration assets in North America. The Companys suite of holdings include 100% ownership potential on large land positions adjacent to Sibanyes Pd-Pt Stillwater mine in Montana on our Stillwater West project and our Catalyst, Spy and Ultra projects near the Wellgreen Ni-PGE deposit in the Yukon Territory, as well as the Black Lake-Drayton gold project in the Rainy River district of northwest Ontario.

On Behalf of the Board of Directors

GROUP TEN METALS INC.

 Michael Rowley 

Michael Rowley, President, CEO & Director

Email: info@grouptenmetals.com

Web: http://grouptenmetals.com

Tel: (604) 357 4790

TF: (888) 432 0075

Forward-Looking Statements

Forward Looking Statements: This news release includes certain statements that may be deemed "forward-looking statements". All statements in this release, other than statements of historical facts including, without limitation, statements regarding potential mineralization, historic production, estimation of mineral resources, the realization of mineral resource estimates, interpretation of prior exploration and potential exploration results, the timing and success of exploration activities generally, the timing and results of future resource estimates, permitting time lines, metal prices and currency exchange rates, availability of capital, government regulation of exploration operations, environmental risks, reclamation, title, and future plans and objectives of the company are forward-looking statements that involve various risks and uncertainties. Although Group Ten believes the expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, such statements are not guarantees of future performance and actual results or developments may differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are based on a number of material factors and assumptions. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in forward-looking statements include failure to obtain necessary approvals, unsuccessful exploration results, changes in project parameters as plans continue to be refined, results of future resource estimates, future metal prices, availability of capital and financing on acceptable terms, general economic, market or business conditions, risks associated with regulatory changes, defects in title, availability of personnel, materials and equipment on a timely basis, accidents or equipment breakdowns, uninsured risks, delays in receiving government approvals, unanticipated environmental impacts on operations and costs to remedy same, and other exploration or other risks detailed herein and from time to time in the filings made by the companies with securities regulators. Readers are cautioned that mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability. Mineral exploration and development of mines is an inherently risky business. Accordingly, the actual events may differ materially from those projected in the forward-looking statements. For more information on Group Ten and the risks and challenges of their businesses, investors should review their annual filings that are available at www.sedar.com.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.




INDIANAPOLIS  LaPorte Mayor Blair Milo will resign her post early next month to become Indiana's secretary of career connections and talent.

Gov. Eric Holcomb announced Thursday that he selected the two-term Republican mayor for the newly created state cabinet position based on her record of attracting some $260 million in business investment and 1,100 jobs to LaPorte.

"Blair is uniquely qualified for this exact position," Holcomb said. "She and I have talked about this exact topic for not months, but years."

Milo admitted that it will be hard to leave what she's built in LaPorte since being elected mayor in 2011 at age 28.

But she sees her new job as a chance to focus on a critical issue that affects every Indiana municipality and the state as a whole.

"It's a great opportunity to be able to make a difference," she said.

Milo's duties will include collaborating with companies, industries, trade groups, universities and public entities to identify employment needs and training opportunities for Indiana workers to secure high-demand, high-wage positions.

She'll also oversee the State Personnel Department and coordinate efforts across state agencies to connect Hoosiers with programs and services that can lead them to satisfying and successful careers, not just jobs.

"Having those kinds of opportunities then unleashes a whole new realm of opportunity for growth for our state and, I think, for our nation," Milo said. "Because when you see a better engaged workforce you see GDP (gross domestic product) growth as well."

Holcomb insisted that Indiana's 3-percent unemployment rate demands new ways of thinking about how to fill the estimated 1 million Hoosier job openings expected over the next 10 years.

"This new position will provide the urgent and focused attention required to position Indiana well long-term and ensure our states workforce is keeping pace with our economy as it grows and becomes more diverse," Holcomb said.

The Republican chief executive shrugged off the suggestion that the private sector  not the state  should be responsible for meeting its labor needs.

"I don't say this to be cynical: We're the state government and we're here to help," Holcomb said.

Milo's appointment attracted praise from both Republicans and Democrats across the state.

Indiana GOP Chairman Kyle Hupfer declared Milo "perfectly suited for this role."

"She has proven herself to be an outstanding leader with a vision and a passion for creating opportunity," Hupfer said. "I know she will excel in this new assignment and, as a result, Indiana will continue to excel, too."

Democratic Hammond Mayor Thomas McDermott, Jr., deemed Holcomb's selection of Milo an "excellent choice."

"Mayor Milo is an excellent public servant, smart and creative," McDermott said. "This is definitely a loss for LaPorte and Northwest Indiana in general."

Milo is scheduled to begin working at her new job Aug. 14.
JOLIET, Ill.  A 6-year-old boy has become the latest member of a northern Illinois family to die as a result of a traffic crash that killed his pregnant mother and two brothers.

Will County Sheriff's Department spokeswoman Kathy Hoffmeyer says Owen Schmidt was pronounced dead at 2:39 a.m. Thursday. He and his brother were put into medical induced comas after Tuesday's accident in the community of Beecher, about 40 miles south of Chicago. On Wednesday, that brother, 4-year-old Weston Schmidt, died.

The boys' mother, Lindsey Schmidt, and their younger brother, Caleb, were pronounced dead at the scene.

Hoffmeyer says the driver of the pickup truck that slammed into the Schmidt's vehicle was issued a traffic citation but that investigators are trying to determine if criminal charges should be filed.
The votes are in and The American Legion, Department of Indianas 1st District has named Elizabeth Conley the 2017 9-12 Educator of the Year.

American Legion officers selected Conley because of her continued work to educate the future of our state, said 1st District Cmdr. John Sarnecki.

Conley has years of teaching experience across the nation. After earning her Bachelors of Arts degree from Mary Crest-Tieaiko University in Davenport, Iowa, she took a position teaching health and physical education at John Hersey High School in Arlington Heights, Illinois.

From there, Conley made the jump to junior high school education. She taught in various parochial schools in Chicago and Seattle. After eight years in Seattle, she moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico where she helped form a union for assistant teachers.

After 10 years in New Mexico, Conley returned to the Midwest, where she accepted a position at Bishop Noll High School. Her passion for teaching young men and woman came through as she taught speech, theater, debate, English and physical education.

Conley said, I do this because I love it. It has been an absolute delight for me all these years. Teaching these young adults is what I love to do. She has also dedicated time to her schools extracurricular activities. She directs and four stage productions each year at the high school, she has sponsored the student government, she has mentored new teachers and has been on the School Improvement Committee for 10 years.

Conley has also been working to further her own education. She is currently completing her masters in education at Calumet College in Whiting.
CROWN POINT  A retired St. John police commander charged with sexually battering three women and official misconduct for ghost payrolling will be back in court Sept. 15.

Michael Fryzel, 54, was slated to appear before Lake Criminal Court Judge Clarence Murray on Thursday. However, defense attorney Thomas Vanes said he filed a written motion to continue the case on Wednesday.

Fryzel, who also served as a St. John Town Council member for nearly eight years, resigned from the police department in March 2015, two days before federal lawsuits were filed accusing him of sexual harassment of female town employees.

Following an investigation by the Indiana State Police, Fryzel was charged in Lake County Criminal Court with three counts of sexual battery, five counts of official misconduct, two counts of theft and three counts of battery. Some of the allegations against Fryzel date back to 2011.

He was released on a $7,500 bond in May 2016, according to court records.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance." His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

"Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," the commander in chief tweeted.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

His action is "harmful, misguided and weakens, not strengthens our military," said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," he said. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity."

Not everyone at the Capitol agreed.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "The president's decision was the absolute right decision. ... It's about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business."

Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next.

"Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared," said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.

Akbarian, who said his chain of command was supportive as he transitioned from female to male, said his time to re-enlist is coming up and he might stay to ensure there is a strong voice for transgender troops like himself.

"I'm going to remain hopeful," he said. "America is really progressive and definitely smart, and there are a lot of transgender members serving in critical roles."

Shane Ortega, a 30-year-old retired staff sergeant in Los Angeles, said he's concerned more for civilians than transgender troops.

Ortega, who transitioned to male while serving in the Army and served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "When Donald Trump attacks what America calls its heroes or its warrior class, it means it's only a matter of time before he starts attacking and disassembling the American public, and that's what I have the most fear of."

Hours after Trump's tweets, Defense Secretary Mattis, who has been on vacation this week, was publicly silent and the Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon was working with the White House to "address the new guidance" from Trump. That suggested there is not yet any new written policy or executive order.

Trump's sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step.

Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so." He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." That is the prism through which Mattis has viewed most, if not all, personnel issues. Just last week he ordered a high-level Pentagon review aimed at verifying that all military personnel policies "support and enhance warfighting readiness and force lethality."

In a series of tweets, Trump said allowing transgender troops to serve is an unacceptable burden on the military's ability to fight and win wars.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he wrote.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for an estimate of these costs. The Rand Corp., a federally funded think tank, has estimated that each year between 29 and 129 service members will seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy. It also estimated that extending gender transition-related health care coverage to transgender personnel would cost the military $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, out of a yearly Pentagon budget of more than $600 billion.

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

Sanders said the "president's national security team was part of this consultation" and that Trump "informed" Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday.

Carter, who served as defense secretary the last two years of Obama's presidency, issued a statement criticizing Trump's move.

"I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified," Carter wrote. "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military."

Trump's tweets followed a fight in Congress over federal funding of gender transition surgeries. Earlier this month, the Republican-led House rejected a proposal to end the Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay such costs.

___

Associated Press writers Darlene Superville and Vivian Salama contributed to this report.
INDIANAPOLIS  Indiana health officials investigating a surge in whooping cough cases are urging Hoosiers to take precautions to avoid the highly contagious bacterial infection.

The Indiana State Department of Health said Thursday that it's confirmed 136 cases of whooping cough, or pertussis, during the first half of 2017. That's more than double the 66 cases recorded during the same period last year.

Lake County has had 12 cases so far this year, compared to six in all of 2016, according to the health department. The number of cases in Porter and LaPorte counties in 2017 have been too few to report.

While pertussis can be treated with antibiotics, it can be prevented with vaccines.

State Health Commissioner Jerome Adams says Hoosiers should get vaccinated and follow proper coughing etiquette and handwashing practices to avoid spreading and contracting the illness, which is especially dangerous for babies.

Whooping cough is usually spread by coughing or sneezing. It causes a severe cough that can last for months.

 Times staff writer Giles Bruce contributed to this report.
As former state attorneys general, we are keenly aware of how stretched local law enforcement budgets are and how law enforcement officials already struggle to contain the flood of illegal drugs flowing into the United States from other countries.

That job could get a lot harder if we have to start tracking prescription drugs.

Bills before Congress would end a longstanding ban on the import of prescription medicines not previously cleared by the Food and Drug Administration. The proposals were floated to curb rising drug prices, but the potential drawbacks are daunting.

Americans have access to safe and effective prescription drugs, in large because of strict safeguards the FDA has established to approve new treatments and monitor the manufacturing and distribution of existing medicines.

Meanwhile, patients in many other countries are exposed to substandard medicines produced and sold with less-rigorous oversight by the local government.

Dangerous knockoffs are starting to infiltrate the U.S. market. The FDA website lists a number of counterfeit drugs seized in the United States that were sold as popular biopharmaceutical products.

Counterfeit drugs are often sold by unlicensed suppliers, who are not authorized to sell or distribute prescription drugs in the United States. The FDA has long warned that these products are unsafe and should not be used.

Other countries have been inundated with these fake drugs for years. The World Health Organization estimates as many as 20 percent of the drugs sold in India are counterfeit. The WHO started warning doctors and other health care professionals years ago about the dangers of these counterfeit drugs, and the organization issues frequent reports to spotlight massive seizures of fake pills and other medicines.

Health experts believe such operations have only scratched the surface of a flourishing industry in counterfeit medicines that poses a growing threat to public health around the world, the WHO declared in an official bulletin back in 2009.

Organized-crime syndicates have established sophisticated networks to produce and sell these counterfeit drugs in other countries. They have already started working through doctors and medical clinics in the United States, but U.S. import restrictions are a big reason the FDA, U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Drug Enforcement Agency have been able to contain the problem.

The bills before Congress would remove many of the license and oversight requirements on the drugs imported into the United States by lifting those barriers, inviting an influx of bogus pharmaceutical products.

Law enforcement would inevitably be tasked with policing the problem at a time when most prosecutors and law enforcement officials have their hands full with the growing opioid crisis. One of the biggest killers is fentanyl, a potent, synthetic opioid pain medication that is being laced into counterfeit pills.

Just last year, the DEA issued a report sounding alarm bells about these synthetic opioids. There were more than 700 deaths attributed to fentanyl between late 2013 and 2014, and the numbers are climbing rapidly. The DEA report lists a number of specific cases involving counterfeit opioids, including the seizure last year of 500 pills in Lorain County, Ohio.

Opening the door to increased prescription drug importation will just make it easier for smugglers to ship this dangerous opioid into the United States.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cristina Perez has released her newest book, Red White & Latina: Our American Identity (Morgan James Publishing), which asks the question: Has Americas great melting pot become the great boiling pot? followed by an honest discussion of Americas biggest hot button political and social issues.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/17957d4a-8a5b-473a-9331-cb0d7a5f38f5

Perez says she started the book last summer immediately following the Democratic and Republican party national conventions, when she saw the writing on the wall of a country in major distress.

Its a little surreal, but not entirely surprising, seeing events come to fruition that I was writing about last summer, months before the presidential election. The tears in our national identity were evident and I immediately thought about the effect this would have on our countrys future, says the 3-time author, 3-time Emmy winner, TV judge, attorney and mother of a teenage daughter.

In Red, White & Latina, Perez candidly examines a docket of the political and social issues dividing the country the most from both sides. These issues include immigration, racism, terrorism, as well as contributing factors such as social media bullying, political correctness, and nationalism (and anti-nationalism). Similar to how people know her best, ruling over various TV courtrooms for over 17 years, Perez presents each issue with the facts and then tries it in the court of public opinion.

Weve seen by now, how dangerous it is to blindly buy into media rhetoric and the opinions of others. With Red, White & Latina Im challenging people to drop their political and personal biases at the door and really think about each issue and examine the facts, says the author.

Perezs bigger reason for writing, as she reveals in the book, is to remind all Americans that todays atmosphere of dissent and division is affecting tomorrows national legacy.

My daughter is watching this and so are your children - the personal attacks, the violence, the splitting apart of our country. We are showing them through our words and actions how they should feel about America. This is the legacy we are leaving for them.

Red, White & Latina: Our American Identity is available for purchase on Amazon and wherever books are sold. For more information on the author including speaking and personal appearance scheduling visit CristinaPerez.TV.

If you would like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with Cristina Perez, please call Nickcole Watkins at 516.900.5674.

About the Author:

Cristina Perez is an attorney, judge on Justice for All with Judge Cristina Perez, and a three-time Emmy Award winner. She was ranked as the second most trustworthy syndicated host next to Oprah Winfrey. Cristina is the daughter of Colombian immigrants and her message is to find strength in your own unique identity. She is the author of three books, and speaks Spanish and English fluently.

More About This Title:

Red, White, and Latina: Our American Identity, by Cristina Perez was released by Morgan James Publishing on April 25, 2017. Red, White, and Latina ISBN 978-1683504436 is being sold as a trade paperback for $15.95.

About Morgan James Publishing:

Morgan James publishes trade quality titles designed to educate, encourage, inspire, or entertain readers with current, consistent, relevant topics that are available everywhere books are sold. (www.MorganJamesPublishing.com)
A man from Surrey, UK, lost consciousness and had to be hospitalized after he and a few friends shared a bottle of Satans Shot vodka, a special liquor infused with Carolina Reapers, the hottest chillies in the world.

Emma Mirrington, 42, from Farncombe, bought a bottle of Satans Shot vodka at Guildford Cheese and Chilli Festival, on Sunday, and decided to share it with some friends. They all gathered at at The White Hart pub to sample the rare spirit, ignoring the label warning Only Satan himself is brave enough to drink this vodka neat, if you feel fearless and want to drink with Satan, you will feel like you are burning in hell itself. It turns out the bottling company wasnt exaggerating one bit.

Photo: Emma Mirrington

I bought the vodka at the festival and when I got home we thought we should share it with a group of friends, Emma Mirrington told Get Surrey. There were about eight of us affected  I have never seen anything like it.

The exact symptoms experienced by the group after taking a shot together were not revealed, but what we do know is that one of them started feeling so bad that the others had to call an ambulance. A South East Coast Ambulance spokesperson confirmed that paramedics were called to assist a man aged in his 30s and unconscious who had consumed a particular type of vodka.

Photo: Wikipedia

As news of the incident spread on social media, there was a rumor that the hot vodka may have contained anti-freeze, which turned out to be completely false. The police got involved anyway and an investigation is currently underway.

Emma Mirrington told local news reporters that she had bought the Satans Shot vodka from the Chile Seeds stall at Sundays festival, adding that she hoped no one else has to go though what her friend did.

Chile Seeds doesnt seem to worried about the incident though, telling Get Surrey that they hold all the relevant government licences involved with alcohol, and hinting that this was merely a case of someone consuming something that was too hot for them.

Photo: Shutterstock

We know about hot things and know what happens when someone has something too hot for them, a spokesperson said. Were professionals as far as chilli goes and the reaction they have had sounds like the reaction from when someone has something too hot. We dont want to hurt anyone but we produce chilli sauces, thats what we do.

So the next time someone offers you a shot of something with Satan in the name, maybe take a small sip first, instead of downing the whole thing.
NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Law Offices of Vincent Wong announce that a class action lawsuit has been commenced in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York on behalf of investors who purchased Axiom Holdings, Inc. ("Axiom Holdings") (OTCMKTS:AIOM) securities between October 14, 2016 and June 19, 2017 .



Click here to learn about the case: http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-sb/axiom-holdings-inc?wire=3. There is no cost or obligation to you.

According to the complaint, throughout the Class Period, the Company issued materially false and misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (i) Axiom lacked control over the merger process sufficient to ensure that the Agreement with CJC would be completed; (ii) accordingly, the Agreement with CJC Holdings, Ltd. (CJC) was never completed; (iii) the Companys issuance of shares to the CJC Shareholders was thus improper; and (iv) as a result of the foregoing, Axioms public statements were materially false and misleading at all relevant times.

On June 19, 2017, Axiom issued a press release revealing that it identified discrepancies related to prior news announcements in response to a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission. The following day, the Company issued another press release, advising investors that it now appears the merger was never completed and advising investors that it would rescind the shares that were issued to CJC Shareholders in connection with the merger.

If you suffered a loss in Axiom Holdings you have until August 21, 2017 to request that the Court appoint you as lead plaintiff. Your ability to share in any recovery doesnt require that you serve as a lead plaintiff. To obtain additional information, contact Vincent Wong, Esq. either via email vw@wongesq.com, by telephone at 212.425.1140, or visit http://www.wongesq.com/pslra-sb/axiom-holdings-inc?wire=3.

Vincent Wong, Esq. is an experienced attorney that has represented investors in securities litigations involving financial fraud and violations of shareholder rights. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee similar outcomes.
Laurie Hays, 30-year journalist with The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg, is joining Edelman July 31 as executive VP in its financial communications & capital markets unit.

Laurie Hays

She will provide counsel to boards and management teams and lead the No. 1 PR firm's special situations group, reporting to Lex Suvanto, global managing director.

"Laurie has spent decades covering or overseeing corporate news stories at two of the worlds most important financial news outlets, which makes her an ideal advisor for executives operating in this kind of environment," said Suvanto.

Hays, who also worked as Moscow correspondent, held the deputy managing editor position at WSJ, and left Bloomberg as senior executive editor in 2015 to join Brunswick.

At Brunswick, she handled mergers and acquisitions, CEO transitions, activism defense and crisis situations.
Qatar, which is locked into a diplomatic battle with its neighbors, has hired Avenue Strategies to a $1.8M contract to handle communications with the White House and Congress.

Corey Lewandowski, President Trumps former campaign manager, and Barry Bennett, Ben Carsons campaign chief and senior Trump advisor, launched Avenue in January. Lewandowski exited the shop in May.

Trump has sided with Qatars adversaries---Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates and Egypt, telling the Qataris they must stop funding terrorist groups.

Qatar, which is home to a US air base, denies any such funding.

Avenues job is to advance the bilateral relationship between the US and Qatar, including assistance in promoting economic and security cooperation. The firm is to prepare for visits to the US by members of Qatars government.

A $150K monthly retainer covers the one-year contract.
PRSAs mishandling of the news of the sudden death of PRSA VP-PR Arthur Yann in 2013 shows why the Institute for PR should disassociate itself from the Society.

IPR, headed by Tina McCorkindale, a Seattle resident, has combined its research journal with the revived digital PR Journal of PRSA which had suspended publication. It had been edited by Prof. Donald Wright of Boston University.

Yann, 48, had a seizure Thursday, June 12, 2013 on the 8:35 p.m. Metro North to Fairfield, Conn., after attending the Silver Anvil Awards in New York. He was stricken before the train reached the 125th st. station. Two nurses tried resuscitation until an ambulance arrived. He was taken to Harlem Hospital where he was pronounced dead.

Society leaders and staff head Bill Murray withheld the news of Yanns death from the membership until Sunday night, apparently feeling it would put a damper on announcement of the Silver Anvil winners.

Murray Gave Brief, Late Announcement

Murray posted Sunday night on the Society website that Our community joins me in mourning the sudden and unexpected death of our friend, co-worker, colleague and PRSA member Arthur Andrew Yann. No other details were given. Metro North PR staff provided them to ODwyers. Few members saw the Sunday night Murray posting.

The death of Yann was a shocker to this reporter, who had battled with him for nearly five years. He had denounced us in numerous ways including charges we were a writer of outright lies, a hacker, malicious, and guilty of downright hateful practices.

Theres no doubt in our mind his death was at least partly due to the stress of his job. CEO Bill Murray said Yann had one of the toughest jobs in PRVP-PR for an organization representing more than 20,000 PR pros.

What made the job even tougher was his assignment to discredit this writer and the ODwyer Co. He spread negative comments not only on the Societys website and its publications but to six PR and J websites. They rejected his charges and denounced him.

The Society since 2014 has given up saying anything negative about the ODwyer Co., opting for a policy of silence.

PRSA Unmentioned at Funeral

Theres an indication, justified in our mind, that Yanns wife, Amy Boughton Yann, mother of then three-year-old Sofia Claire, assigned some or maybe much blame to PRSA for the death of her husband.

No one representing the Society was allowed to speak at the services and PRSA was not even mentioned.

Sources covering the funeral, attended by 160, were struck by the fact that no one from the Society made remarks either at the funeral home or at the church.

The eulogy, given by fraternity brother John Redinger, did not mention the Society or that Yann enjoyed or loved his job or that he was grateful for an employer that paid him handsomely ($186,485 in 2011, a 25% raise, plus benefits and expenses).

The only mention of PR was a reference to Roberto Clemente, former star of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Redinger said that writing an obit for a PR person was like "pinch-hitting for Roberto Clemente."

Redinger was the only one who spoke.

This writer has attended numerous funerals of PR and other people and usually several people speak.

Yann Blasted ODwyers

Yann, in order to earn his salary, had to do noxious things for nearly five years that no doubt weighed heavily on him and of which his family was aware.

Searching "Yann on the ODwyer website brings up 47 stories detailing his many attempts to discredit this writer. He placed negative comments not only on the Society website but on more than a half dozen others.

The Society website in October 2011, for instance, carried 3,100 words attacking this writer personally including 954 by Yann himself.

I was called a writer of "outright lies," "unethical," "a hacker," "a nuisance," "malicious" and guilty of "downright hateful tactics."

Yann became the "hit man" for the board and COO Bill Murray.
Following a ruling made by the U.S. Supreme Court on trademarks last month, a small group of companies and individuals are hoping to trademark racially charged words and symbols for their products, including the N-word and a swastika.

In a report from Reuters, at least nine such applications have been filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (PTO) following the U.S. Supreme Courts unanimous ruling to get rid of federal law prohibiting disparaging trademarks, with the court stating the law violated free speech rights under the U.S. Constitution.

READ: New York Woman Running For Office Defends Use Of N-Word

Were now opening the door, chipping away at whats acceptable under cultural norms, Attorney David Bell, a trademark expert with the law firm Haynes and Boone, said. I think it could be a slippery slope, where you get more people and companies thinking, This is okay.'

If the applicants follow through, products ranging from clothing and energy drinks to flags and toilet paper could become branded with the offensive material. Also, because they are federally registered trademarks, they can protect businesses against unauthorized uses of their brands, too.

According to PTO records, seven trademark applications for versions of the N-word, have been filed. One such application was filed by a white man named Steve Maynard, a Virginia consultant who helps others obtain trademarks and is the founder of Snowflake Enterprises.

The company has submitted applications to trademark a version of the N-word to appear on clothing, hard liquor and beer, and intends to turn the slur into a brand. Maynard even described one item featuring a picture of Martin Luther King with the N-word and a question mark underneath it. Regardless, Maynard insists he is not at all racist.

We want to desensitize it, we want to provoke questions, we want to spark conversation and not suppress, Maynard said during an interview with WUSA9. Maynard remained anonymous during the video interview, having reportedly received death threats from white supremacists for also hoping to trademark the swastika.

Source: reuters.com
Agricultural News

Last Chance to Register for the Oklahoma Women in Ag Conference Coming Up - August 3 - 4, 2017

The 2017 Statewide Women in Agriculture and Small Business Conference is coming up soon, scheduled for August 3-4, 2017 at the Moore-Norman Technology Center, located on South Penn Ave. in Oklahoma City. The focus of the two-day conference is to assist women and producers in successfully managing risk for their agricultural enterprise and or small business. An organizer of the event, Dr. Damona Doye of the Oklahoma State Univeristy Agricultural Economics Department, spoke about the conference with Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Associate Farm Director Carson Horn at the recent Oklahoma Cattlemen's Association Convention. you can listen to their entire conversation by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of the story.





"If you look at the statistics that NASS has - women that own or operate operations, tend to be a bit smaller and tend to be more horticulturally focused," she said, noting the many break out sessions designed to appeal to the wide range of interests women have in agricultural entreprenuership. "But, women are very involved in farms of all sizes and shapes, So, that's why we try to included a wide mix of things becuase women have a variety of interests."







Keynote speakers include Dr. Pamela Ronald of UC Davis and Lauren Nelson, co-host of Discover Oklahoma.







A number of concurrent sessions will be offered during the conference. Sessions will be led by practitioners and experts in their fields, among them agricultural producers, business entrepreneurs, OSU Cooperative Extension educators, and more!







Opportunities for informal networking between participants and interaction with conference experts often lead to personal and professional inspiration, ideas and solutions.







The two-day event is sponsored by USDA's Risk Management Agency, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service, and numerous other sponsors who have helped to keep cost low to participants. The cost to attend is $50 if registering by July 31 and $60 thereafter. Students receive half price registration at $25. Registration includes two breakfasts, two lunches, refreshment breaks and materials.







For more information and to register online, please click here.







For questions regarding the conference, please contactSara Siems at 406-744-9826.









Source - Oklahoma State University























Listen to event organizer Dr. Damona Doye, speak with RON's Carson Horn about this year's program

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okPORK Executive Director Roy Lee Lindsey Explains the Biggest Threats to the US Pork Industry

Executive Director of the Oklahoma Pork Council Roy Lee Lindsey stopped by the RON studios this week to visit with Farm Director Ron Hays about several subjects, including the importance of trade to the US pork industry in an age of increased market opportunity and global consumerism. You can hear that conversation between Hays and Lindsey by clicking or tapping the LISTEN BAR below at the bottom of this page.





Given today's political climate and financial uncertainty in the world, against the backdrop of impressive consumer demand in the protein market, particularly in pork, Lindsey confesses the biggest fear for the pork industry right now, is an interruption in trade. Obviously, the closest threat to that happening, is the renegotiation of the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement, which will begin in just a couple weeks.





"We've been very pleased with the impacts of NAFTA on our ability to sell pork into Mexico and into Canada," Lindsey said, adding that as two of our largest markets both in volume and value, an interruption in trade to these countries because of political dispute would be extremely costly to the pork and ag industry overall. "Today, the way production is structured in the US - we're becoming more and more dependent on exports."





Lindsey says the industry, by design, is growing with several new processing facilities coming online in the very near future. He says this growth is being created with the intention of capturing more international trade. To not enter the race for global market share, says Lindsey, is to ignore what is going on around you. Which presents the second type of threat - falling behind.





Lindsey uses the Trans-Pacific Partnership as an example. Before President Trump pulled TPP off the table, that agreement offered tremendous opportunity for the US agricultural industry. Instead, though, the new administration decided it would rather prefer to forge a bilateral agreement with Japan. Yet, six months since his inauguration, Trump has made little movement towards reaching such an agreement.





"Japan, for a relatively small nation, is a tremendous market for us in terms of value," he commented. "They like high value pork cuts and they buy lots of them. And, we're still waiting to get started on that bilateral trade agreement."





Essentially, he says US producers are missing out on opportunities that other pork exporters, like the EU, have taken advantage of and now hold a competitive edge over the US.





The last and perhaps worst scenario that threatens to interrupt the exportation of pork, is the potential outbreak of disease in our nation's hog population. Lindsey says the threat of a Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak would not only harm the pork industry, but all of agriculture, either directly or through trickle down effects. An outbreak could immediately shut down our export markets and result in losses of billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.





"We're not prepared as a country," he said, "to stop an outbreak before it spreads. What we are asking for, is for the USDA to upgrade its FMD vaccine bank. We don't have enough vaccine in the country today. We don't have access to vaccine on a ready basis. There is a tremendous exposure to that kind of disease."





Lindsey will join Radio Oklahoma Ag Network Farm Director Ron Hays for his weekly In the Field segment on KWTV News9 in the Oklahoma City area on Saturday morning at 6:40 a.m.























Listen to Hays and Lindsey discuss the biggest threats to the continued success of the pork industry

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First-half 2017 consolidated revenue up 7.1% year on year

Robust organic growth of 9.2% for the Energy & Infrastructure business

Paris, 27 July 2017, 5.35 p.m. (CEST) - Assystem S.A. (ISIN: FR0000074148 - ASY) today announced its consolidated revenue figures for the six months ended 30 June 2017 (first-half 2017).

On 11 May 2017, Assystem announced that it had entered into an agreement with Ardian to transfer its outsourced R&D division - Global Product Solutions (GPS) - to a company that will be 60%-owned by Ardian and 40%-owned by Assystem. The transaction is scheduled for completion by end-September 2017.

In accordance with IFRS 5, as the agreement provides for Ardian to take over control of GPS, this business has been classified by Assystem as held for sale since 1 January 2017. Consequently, GPS's revenue is not included in the Group's consolidated revenue for the first half of 2017, and the first-half 2016 consolidated revenue figure has been restated in order to facilitate year-on-year comparisons.

The full amount of GPS's profit will be recorded under "Profit from discontinued operations" in Assystem's consolidated financial statements for the period between 1 January 2017 and the date on which its control is transferred. As from that date GPS will be renamed Assystem Technologies Groupe and it will be accounted for by the equity method in Assystem's consolidated financial statements based on Assystem's ownership interest in Assystem Technologies Groupe.

First-half 2017 revenue

and year-on-year changes* (unaudited)

In millions of euros H1 2016* H1 2017 Total year-on-year change Organic year-on-year change** Group 191.0 204.5 +7.1% +5.2% Energy & Infrastructure 156.8 175.5 +11.9% +9.2% Staffing 29.4 24.3 -17.5% -17.5% Other 4.8 4.7 - -

* Restated in order to facilitate year-on-year comparisons.

** Based on a comparable Group structure and constant exchange rates.

Based on its new scope of consolidation, the Group's revenue rose by 7.1% year on year in the first half of 2017, breaking down as 5.2% in organic growth (9.3% excluding the impact of the Staffing business), a 2.4% increase due to changes in scope of consolidation and a 0.5% negative currency effect.

ENERGY & INFRASTRUCTURE

Revenue generated by the Energy & Infrastructure business advanced 11.9% in the first half of 2017 to 175.5 million and accounted for 86% of total consolidated revenue for the period. Organic growth came to 9.2%, changes in scope of consolidation had a positive 3.3% impact and the currency effect was a negative 0.6%.

Both sectors of this business reported strong growth, with:

Revenue from Nuclear activities up 7.6% to 102.0 million, with 8.7% organic growth at constant exchange rates.

Revenue for Energy Transition & Infrastructures rising 18.5% to 73.8 million, with organic growth at constant exchange rates amounting to 10.0%, driven in particular by growth delivered in the transport infrastructures and life sciences sectors.

STAFFING

At 24.3 million (representing 11.9% of the consolidated total for the first six months of 2017), revenue for the Staffing business was down 17.5% on the first half of 2016. However, the first-half 2017 figure was slightly higher than the 23.8 million reported for the second half of 2016. The Group expects this business to return to growth in second-half 2017.

GLOBAL PRODUCT SOLUTIONS

Revenue for the Global Product Solutions business (which, in accordance with IFRS 5, is no longer fully consolidated by Assystem) rose to 330.5 million in the first half of 2017 from 290.4 million in the comparable prior-year period. This robust 13.8% year-on-year increase breaks down as 11.3% in organic growth, a 3.6% positive impact from changes in scope of consolidation and a 1.1% negative currency effect.

Revenue from Aerospace and Automotive activities amounted to 189.6 million and 116.6 million respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 10.9% for Aerospace (of which 9.4% organic growth at constant exchange rates) and 22.4% for Automotive (of which 17.3% organic growth at constant exchange rates).

HEADCOUNT

Based on its new scope of consolidation, the Assystem Group had 4,690 employees at 30 June 2017, representing a comparable-basis increase of 264 compared with one year earlier.

At 30 June 2017, GPS's headcount amounted to 8,091, representing a comparable-basis increase of 448 compared with 30 June 2016.

OUTLOOK FOR 2017

Assystem's full-year 2017 targets for its new scope of consolidation are to achieve the following:

organic revenue growth of around 10% at constant exchange rates for the Energy & Infrastructure business;

revenue of c. 50 million for the Staffing business.

* * *

PROGRESS REPORT ON THE TRANSFER OF CONTROL OF GPS TO ARDIAN

The employee representative bodies concerned by the planned transfer of control have issued a favourable opinion on the transaction, which was received by Assystem on 22 June 2017. The Company's shareholders then gave their approval in a General Meeting held on 5 July 2017. The transaction's completion - which is scheduled for the third quarter of 2017 - is still subject to clearance from the relevant merger control authorities.

GPS will change its name to Assystem Technologies Groupe as from the completion date of the transaction.

2017 FINANCIAL CALENDAR

11 September: Press release for first-half 2017 results

9 November: Press release for third-quarter 2017 financial information

Assystem is an international engineering group. As a key participant in the industry for 50 years, the Group supports its clients in managing their capital expenditure throughout the product life cycle. Assystem SA is listed on Euronext Paris.

For more information, please visit www.assystem.com

Follow Assystem on Twitter: @Assystem

CONTACTS

Philippe Chevallier

CFO & Deputy CEO

Tel.: +33 (0)1 55 65 03 10 Agnes Villeret

Investor Relations - Komodo

agnes.villeret@agence-komodo.com

Tel.: +33 (0)6 83 28 04 15





FIRST-HALF 2017 REVENUE BY QUARTER

In millions of euros Q1 2016* Q1 2017* Total year-on-year change Organic year-on-year change** Group 94.4 103.1 +9.3% +6.3% Energy & Infrastructure 77.4 88.4 +14.2% +10.4% Staffing 14.6 12.2 -16.4% -16.4% Other 2.4 2.5 - -

In millions of euros Q2 2016* Q2 2017 Total year-on-year change Organic year-on-year change** Group 96.6 101.4 +4.9% +4.1% Energy & Infrastructure 79.3 87.0 +9.7% +8.0% Staffing 14.8 12.1 -18.5% -18.5% Other 2.5 2.3 - -

* Restated in order to facilitate year-on-year comparisons.

** Based on a comparable Group structure and constant exchange rates.
WASHINGTON  Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., vented his frustration Wednesday as a handful of his Republican colleagues lined up against the same kind of health care repeal language that they supported less than two years ago.

How can you possibly explain that to people with any intellectual integrity? Sasse said in an interview with The World-Herald.

As Senate Republicans struggle this week to unify behind a replacement for the Affordable Care Act, Sasse highlighted Wednesdays vote to repeal significant parts of former President Barack Obamas health care law with a two-year delay. GOP senators had approved such a plan in 2015 only to see it vetoed by Obama.

Since President Donald Trump would presumably sign the repeal legislation, Sasse said, voting against it now  when it counts  amounts to a breathtaking flip.

All four GOP senators from Nebraska and Iowa voted for the repeal proposal Wednesday, but it attracted only 45 votes, with 55 against, including seven Republicans. Six of those Republicans had voted for the similar plan under Obama.

There was a lot of show voting going on here 15 months ago, Sasse said.

Nebraska Democrats blasted senators support for the proposal, saying it would leave people without coverage.

Sasse made repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act a centerpiece of his 2014 campaign, although he has avoided the public spotlight for much of the recent Senate health care discussion. In the interview, Sasse said that he has been working for months behind closed doors to build support for repeal-and-replace, with a particular emphasis on promoting insurance portability.

The main GOP proposal to simultaneously repeal and replace was rejected earlier this week, despite the support of all four Midlands senators.

While Sasse said that bill had its shortcomings, he also praised language from Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, that would have opened the door for insurers to again sell skimpier catastrophic plans.

Sasse said theres no interest group that makes money off those plans or lobbies for them, but many Americans would like to have that option.

Nobodys ever going to come and do a demonstration sit-in, screaming in your office: I want a catastrophic plan,  Sasse said. But thats actually what you hear lots and lots in Nebraska.

It remains to be seen how the rest of this weeks health care debate will play out. Sasse has repeatedly pushed the idea of first repealing the Affordable Care Act and then keeping Congress in town as long as necessary to agree on a replacement.

He said that approach, which Trump has supported at times, would bring Democrats to the table.

Sasse often invokes the need for portability in a replacement health care law, drawing parallels to the shift from defined-benefit pensions to 401(k) retirement plans that workers can carry over from job to job and state to state. Allowing people to keep their health care benefits as they move or change jobs would address some of the problems with the current health care system.

We used to have the same problem with pensions and we fixed it, Sasse said.

Republicans dont have a well-developed theory of what is necessary to address problems in the health care system today, Sasse said, and they should keep working on it until they do.

I know what I believe should happen in health care, Sasse said. But so far, he said, there isnt a majority in Congress in support of his approach.

It cant compel a majority vote, he said. So, we should be debating harder and longer about replace.
The Jansens Foundation will host its inaugural awareness and fundraiser walkathon on Saturday at Zorinsky Lake Park.

Jansens metaphyseal chondrodysplasia is an extremely rare skeletal dysplasia affecting fewer than 30 people around the world. Three of those confirmed cases  Neena Nizar and her two boys, Arshaan and Jahan Adam  live in Elkhorn. Neena started the Jansens Foundation earlier this year to raise awareness and funds for continued research into a cure for the condition. The World-Herald wrote about Neena and her efforts in May.

Walkathon participants can register online at thejansensfoundation.org/walkathon, or on Saturday at 9 a.m. Registration is $20 for adults and $15 for children under 12.

The walk begins at 9:30 a.m. and the event will also include raffles, games and a pancake breakfast.

Physical therapy and health studies students can attend a presentation after the walk for continuing education points.
The Trump administration is weighing whether to support online sales taxes that could give state governments greater flexibility in their budgets.

Testifying before a Senate panel on Capitol Hill Wednesday, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said the White House is looking very closely at this issue and that it intends to come out with a position shortly.

Mnuchin told members of the appropriations subcommittee that the policy could be an important way for states to fund infrastructure  an issue that President Donald Trump has touted as a key part of his agenda with a $1 trillion spending plan.

Some analysts have questioned the feasibility of that plan because it would cut federal investments in infrastructure by tens of billions of dollars. But allowing states to require companies to collect and remit taxes on online sales could help make up some of the shortfall.

While Americans are technically expected to report taxes on online transactions, the rule is rarely followed or enforced. Companies may voluntarily collect online sales taxes on a states behalf, but they arent required unless they have a physical presence of some kind in the state.

A bill in Congress, the Marketplace Fairness Act, would make collection of online sales taxes mandatory for companies. The bipartisan proposal  co-sponsors include Sens. Mike Enzi, R-Wyo., and Dick Durbin, D-Ill.  contains an exemption for small businesses. Broadly speaking, however, the bill could bring in tens of billions of dollars in additional revenue for state budgets.

During Wednesdays hearing, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., told Mnuchin that collection of online sales taxes would be almost salvation to most of the states, especially rural states that dont have the expertise or the far-ranging ability to chase down all these Internet sales that are coming in. He said he hoped the administration would look at this seriously.

Massive online retailers such as Amazon  whose chief executive, Jeff Bezos, also owns the Washington Post  were initially opposed to the bill years ago but have since come around. Amazon now collects sales taxes in 46 states  including Nebraska  and the District of Columbia. It increasingly operates physical warehouses in many states, and complying with a federal law would be less burdensome than working with a patchwork of state laws, some analysts say.

Yet Amazon, due to its sheer size, may be better equipped to collect sales taxes than its smaller rivals.

Even if the Trump administration comes out in support of online sales taxes, that wont necessarily mean the rapid passage of congressional legislation on the issue. Its also worth pointing out that online sales taxes are distinct from taxes on Internet service, which Congress and President Barack Obama banned in 2016.
A defense attorney argued Thursday that his client was merely along for the ride the night of July 7, when Billy Walker was fatally shot in his northwest Omaha apartment.

The assertion came as Milea Ixta, 26, appeared at a bail hearing in Douglas County Court. She is charged with being an accessory to a felony.

According to Eric Fabian, a deputy prosecutor with the Douglas County Attorneys Office, Ixta and her husband, Adrian Ixta, 29, were involved in a scheme to sell fake methamphetamine for $11,000 to Walker in his apartment at 7578 Miami Plaza. Adrian Ixta and co-defendant Jason Rankin, 37, went into the apartment while Milea Ixta and co-defendant Mark Gonzales, 35, waited outside, the prosecution said. When Walker, 40, discovered the drug was not methamphetamine, an argument ensued and Adrian Ixta shot him, Fabian said.

Rankin then took money from Walker, who had fallen to the floor, Fabian said.

The four defendants left the scene, Fabian said. The Ixtas were found in Houston and returned to Omaha to face charges.

Milea Ixtas attorney, Jason Troia, argued that it was incorrect to say his client had fled to Texas. He also said his client and her husband are estranged.

She happened to be a passenger in the car, Troia said. She had no involvement in this case. She had pre-planned her move to Texas eight months ago.

Troia asked that Milea Ixta be given bail equal to the amount given Gonzales -- $100,000 bail. Douglas County Judge Sheryl Lohaus, however, agreed with the prosecutions contention that Milea Ixta is a flight risk and ordered her held on $250,000 bail.

Adrian Ixta, who also was making his first court appearance in the case, was charged with first-degree murder, use of a firearm to commit a felony and being a felon in possession of a firearm. Lohaus ordered him held without bail.

Rankin, who also is charged with first-degree murder, was ordered held without bail on Wednesday. Court records show that Rankin is awaiting sentencing in a separate case after being found guilty of felony possession of a controlled substance.
LINCOLN -- A visitor may have slipped contraband to a prison inmate who was found unresponsive six days later and died from a drug overdose, according to a report released Wednesday.

But Inspector General of Corrections Doug Koebernick, who issued the report, said his investigation could not pin down whether the events were linked.

Theres a lot of questions still, he said. I couldnt find any proof one way or another.

Nor does the report provide answers about why staff did not respond to early-morning attempts to get help for the inmate.

Daelan LaMere, 22, died at a Lincoln hospital the evening of June 6 after being found unresponsive in his Tecumseh State Prison cell the morning of May 27.

He tested positive for MDMA, also known as Ecstasy, and methamphetamine. His official death certificate listed a combined overdose of the two drugs as the cause of his death.

A spokeswoman for the Nebraska Department of Correctional Services said department Director Scott Frakes was not available to comment on the report Wednesday afternoon.

According to a summary of the inspector generals investigation:

LaMere had a visitor at the Tecumseh prison on May 21. When the visitor left, prison staff did a strip search of LaMere.

One staff member saw a lump in LaMeres cheek. Upon further investigation, the staff member saw a blue pouch in LaMeres mouth and told him to spit it out. LaMere instead appeared to swallow the pouch.

He was taken to an observation cell in the prisons nursing area and kept until the next day, but no evidence of contraband was found.

LaMeres visits were suspended after that incident.

According to the investigation, LaMeres cellmate awoke six days later at about 3:15 a.m. to find that LaMere was struggling to breathe, had vomited and was unresponsive.

The cellmate and an inmate in the next cell pushed the response buttons in their cells to call for help but got no response.

Koebernick said his investigation found one person who said the volume on the response buttons had been turned down.

He said he could not verify that information, however. Video from the housing unit does not have sound on it.

The video does show staff doing cell checks in the early-morning hours. LaMeres cellmate said he remembered a cell check at 5:03 a.m., but at that point, LaMere seemed to be doing better so he did not say anything.

LaMere did not get help until 6:18 a.m., after the cell doors opened at 6:15 a.m. and his cellmate alerted staff.

In the report, Koebernick concluded that LaMeres death appeared to be the result of unwise actions taken by himself.

However, there are lessons to be learned in this case, he said.

He recommended reviewing the staffs ability to turn down the volume on the inmate response buttons. He also recommended a drug awareness campaign and steps to strengthen efforts to keep out drugs and alcohol.

Because LaMere died in state custody, a grand jury investigation must be conducted. The State Patrol also launched an investigation.

LaMere was the fourth inmate from the Tecumseh prison to die this year. He had been serving a 6- to 11-year sentence for robbing a convenience store and using a firearm to commit a felony.

* * * * *

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly stated that the inmate died six days after possibly receiving the contraband.
St. Louis, MO, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- St. Louis, MO July 26, 2017  With a goal of building a stronger and healthier community, mark your calendars for a free Family Health Fair to be held at Confluence Academy on August 19, 2017 from 9:00 AM  4:00 PM.



The Consulate General of Mexico of Kansas City, in partnership with the Hispanic Federation, Pfizer RxPathways, the Pfizer Latino Colleague Resource Group, and other local agencies invite the community to its Family Health Fair. The activity will provide free healthcare education materials and medical screenings in order to aid participants in their wellness needs.



The Family Health fair is an initiative that looks to provide to communities of limited resources the necessary tools to create healthy lifestyles, said Angelica Wong, Pfizer Latino Colleague Resources Group Chair. Our goal is to share information about the different community health resources that are available and provide options for various medical screenings, with a mission toward health education and prevention. We are pleased to be able to offer these services to the community because it instills a strong sense of health awareness of both physical and mental health issues, which are key to ones general well-being.



The 2017 Family Health Fair is free, open to the public, and will provide education on a variety of wellness topics as well as referrals to medical care facilities in the area, if needed. Free health screenings such as: cardiovascular, diabetes, respiratory, cancer, among other services will also be provided. Participants will also learn about Pfizer RxPathways, a service that connects eligible patients to a range of assistance programs that offer insurance support, co-pay assistance, and medicines for free or at a savings. Furthermore, the event will also feature fun-filled activities for the entire family.



We collaborate with this annual event, to support and facilitate the access to medical consultations, tests, and medications for Latino communities, said Josana Tonda, National Coordinator of Ventanillas de Salud. Our efforts are directed toward benefiting vulnerable populations who generally do not have access to health care services.

As the nations largest and fastest growing ethnic group, its important that all Latinos have access to affordable healthcare, said Jose Calderon, president of the Hispanic Federation. Nevertheless, some communities face socio-economic obstacles; this is why at the Hispanic Federation we strongly support the Family Health Fair as a medium to make wellness programs more accessible and educate communities on the importance of proper health care.



Please come and enjoy this free, public event. The Family Health Fair will be held at the Confluence Academy, 3112 Meramec St., St. Louis, MO 63118. Doors will be open from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM. In addition to healthcare education materials and screenings, there will be fun games for all ages and other surprises!





For more information, please contact Lucas Urrego of Arcos Communications at 212.807.1337 ext. 16, or at lurrego@arcos-ny.com.

###

About Pfizer patient assistance programs: Pfizer RxPathways is a service that connects eligible patients to a range of assistance programs that offer insurance support, co-pay assistance*, and medicines for free or at a savings. Patients can visit www.PfizerRxPathways.com or call the toll-free number 1-844-989-PATH (7284) to speak with one of Pfizer's Medicine Access Counselors. These counselors are specially trained to work with each patient to understand their unique situation and guide them to the Pfizer programs or resources that can best help.

For more information on PfizerRxPathways, please visit www.PfizerRxPathways.com

About Pfizer Latino Colleague Resource Group: Through this group, Pfizer provides professional development opportunities for Latino colleagues at Pfizer, contributing to the growth of Latino employees. The Latino Colleague Resource Group also engages with Latino community organizations, recently leading Pfizers efforts to sponsor health fairs in conjunction with the Colombian and Mexican consulates.

About Ventanilla de Salud: The Ventanilla de Salud is a free program designed to help Mexicans living in the United States identify the health services they need for themselves and their families. Program staff is located in the Mexican consulates throughout the U.S. and refer people in need to available health services in their area and provide them with information and education on a variety of health topics.

About Hispanic Federation: The Hispanic Federation works on a national level to carry out strategies and programs designed to advance the public affairs objectives of the Latino community and its affiliate network of over 100 Latino institutions. Additionally, the organization provides grants to its affiliate non-profit agencies serving the most vulnerable members of the Hispanic community and advocates nationally with respect to the vital issues of education, health, immigration, economic empowerment, civic engagement and the environment.

Attachments:

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/25d9d672-7014-4f70-8154-1ea3af391a16
The affidavit was handwritten.

It needed to be typed.

A recall effort against Bellevue City Councilman Pat Shannon was put on hold Thursday after a Sarpy County judge ruled that the affidavit did not meet statutory requirements because of how it was written.

The hearing, which was attended by Shannon critics and at least one defender, lasted less than 10 minutes.

Judge William Zastera filed a permanent injunction on the recall affidavit filed by Bellevue resident Christine Jurgens. But the judge told Jurgens she could file a new recall affidavit with the Sarpy County election commissioner.

After the hearing, Jurgens said she would get her ducks in a row and file a new recall affidavit soon. She said Thursdays court hearing was not unexpected.

The personality of this individual is such that you would expect that he would put up roadblocks, Jurgens said.

Shannon said the hearing went exactly as he expected.

Larry Forman, Shannons attorney, was prepared to call witnesses but Shannon said he thought the judge could tell the affidavit was blatantly legally insufficient and wouldn't need to hear from others.

Hopefully the election commission learned they cant just accept garbage, Shannon said.

Shannon also said he wished Jurgens had come to him with her concerns instead of going straight to a recall.

Shannon had challenged the affidavit in court because he said the wording was too vague to defend himself against and it was not typewritten.

In her affidavit, Jurgens wrote the reason for the recall was continuing behavior and actions not representing the legal, ethical, and moral standards expected of an elected official.

Shannon, who was elected in November, represents all of Bellevue from his at-large seat on City Council. Controversy has followed him since he took office.

On Monday night, Shannon was threatened with physical removal from the City Council chambers after he refused to recuse himself from a discussion on a car wash he owns. After he left, the City Council voted to condemn the car wash and tear it down after years of complaints from residents about its condition. Shannon has said he will challenge the condemnation in court.

During City Council meetings, Shannon has also questioned the competence, intelligence and education of a city employee. He also created a packet of information regarding his car wash that included harsh words for former and current city officials.

Shannon said Thursday that its his job to call attention to things that are being done wrong and need to change.

Shannon also has a $16,000 fine from the Nebraska Accountability and Disclosure Commission for violating campaign finance laws in 2004. The commission has been trying to collect on the fine for more than a decade.
 U.S. Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, disagreed with Trumps ban. She served in the military alongside members from different backgrounds and parts of the county, her spokeswoman said.

She believes what is most important is making sure service members can meet the physical training standards, and the willingness to defend our freedoms and way of life, Brook Hougesen said. While she believes taxpayers shouldnt cover the costs associated with a gender reassignment surgery, Americans who are qualified and can meet the standards to serve in the military should be afforded that opportunity.

 U.S. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., who serves on the Armed Services Committee, said she wants to know more about the new policy.

Im familiar with the questions that have been raised about the costs of gender reassignment surgery, but the presidents comments are much broader, Fischer said in a statement. Id like to hear more details about what exactly is being proposed, and have an opportunity to hear from the Secretary and the service chiefs about how they would implement any new policy.

 Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, praised Trump for moving decisively on the issue.

I wish hed have gotten that done last week, but Im glad he did it. King said. He made it really clear, really definitive.

As for troops serving now and whether they should be pushed out of uniform?

Well, lets do what the commander-in-chief wants to do, but as I read that tweet, that would say that there will be hopefully a graceful way for them to leave the service, King said. Thats how it would read to me.

Its a pretty simple equation, King said.

I know of no successful army in history that has recruited transgenders, given them surgery and sent them off into battle and thought that they had a crack fighting force, King said. It was a social experiment of Barack Obama and Ash Carter and we ought to put that in the ash heap of history.

 Rep. Don Bacon, R-Neb., said: As of now we have only seen tweets and no details regarding the policy, including what happens to transgendered service members already openly serving or undergoing treatment. We must also look at the readiness of those serving to deploy and engage at a moments notice as certain medical treatments can hinder that ability. In fact, every year thousands of patriotic and otherwise qualified Americans are barred from military service for readiness concerns. I look forward to hearing from the President and Department of Defense about how this policy will be implemented.

 The American Legion, among the largest veterans advocacy groups, hasnt developed a policy on transgender service, according to a statement from Charles E. Schmidt, the national commander.

Schmidt said the Legion favors a single mental and physical standard for all personnel regardless of age or gender, and that the military should strive for maximum readiness.

Any requirement that disqualifies an able-bodied person from serving in our armed forces should be based solely upon its proven adverse effect on readiness, and nothing else, he said.

James Costello, the newly installed department commander for the Legion in Nebraska, hadnt heard about Trumps tweets until he was contacted by a reporter. He said he rarely hears about the issue of transgender service when he talks with veterans around the state.

I dont think its a forefront topic, Costello said.

 Rep. David Young, R-Iowa, said any qualified American who is willing and physically able to effectively and honorably serve in the defense of their nation should be able to serve in that capacity. What I do not support  and am on the record as voting against  is taxpayer funding of gender reassignment procedures through the armed forces. Defense funding should be spent on creating the strongest, most effective and ready military possible.

 Rep. Jeff Fortenberry, R-Neb., said whether transgender individuals should be allowed to serve is a hard question that he will leave to the military to work out.

But he reiterated his opposition to funding their surgeries, saying that there is a high suicide rate among those who receive the procedure.

He said he just received information that those surgeries could potentially cost taxpayers $1.3 billion over time. And he said theres a fundamental issue of fairness of people with flat feet or bad teeth not being able to join the military.

Now were looking at a policy that would cost us billions? he said of taxpayers paying for those surgeries. We ought not do this.

 Nebraska Democratic Party Chairwoman Jane Kleeb said in a statement: We stand with Americas transgender military members who protect our freedom every day. When Trump attacks one, he attacks us all.

 Carla Cecilia Ruiz, 53, of Omaha, called the presidents announcement on Twitter devastating.

Ruiz, a former crew chief on KC-135 tanker jets, served in the Air Force Reserve and then the Nebraska Air National from 1989 to 1998 before she transitioned to female in 2011.

All the work weve done the past year to build this new policy  to have this tweet come out and demolish that, its beyond devastating, said Ruiz, former president of the River City Gender Alliance. Its hard for me to put into words how upsetting it is.

 Rep Adrian Smith, R-Neb., said he agreed that taxpayer dollars should not be used for gender reassignment surgeries in the military, noting he recently supported an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act that would have prohibited such funding.

The American people elected President Trump as commander-in-chief, and though personnel decisions are often difficult to make, the president conferred with military leaders on todays announcement.

 Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said he hasnt studied military leaders view on the transgender issue.

I would give deference to military people, Grassley said. And Id give deference to things that Sen. Ernst would say since shes been in the military and I never have.

 Nebraska State Sens. Carol Blood, Sue Crawford, Matt Hansen, Burke Harr, Sara Howard, John S. McCollister, Mike McDonnell, Adam Morfeld, Patty Pansing Brooks, Tony Vargas, and Anna Wishart: We, as your elected officials, are grateful to all Americans, including the LGBTQ community, who selflessly protect and defend the United States through their military service. We recognize your bravery, your courage, and your sacrifices, and we will continue to support you.

Compiled by World-Herald staff writers Joseph Morton and Steve Liewer.
7th Central Pay Commission: Govt announces extra work allowance at 2 pc of basic pay

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The government has announced Extra Work Allowance after the 7th Central Pay Commission had abolished various allowances. The pay panel had abolished various allowances such as caretaking allowance, extra duty allowance, flag station allowance, flight charge certificate allowance, library allowance, Rajbhasha allowance and special appointment allowance.

In a notification, the government has said President is pleased to decide that the eligible employees shall now be covered under a new Extra Work Allowance which shall be governed as under:

a) Extra Work Allowance will be paid at a uniform rate of 2% (two percent) of the basic pay per month.

b) An employee shall receive this allowance for a maximum period of one year, and there should be minimum gap of one year before the same employee is deployed for similar duties again.

c) This allowance shall not be combined i.e. if the same employee is performing two or more such duties and is eligible for 2% (two percent) allowance for each add-on, then the total Extra Work Allowance payabale will remain capped at 2% (two percent) of basic pay.

4. In respect of the existing Special Appointment Allowance, which stands abolished, apart from the existing eligible employees, Assistant Sub-Inspector (Radio Mechanic), Assistant Sub Inspector (Radio Operator) and Sub Inspector (Radio Mechanic) are also to be included in the list eligible for Extra Wok Allowance at the rate of 2% of Basic Pay per month with the conditions recommended by the 7th CPC.

5. These orders shall effective from 1st July, 2017,

6. In so far as persons serving in the Indian Audit & Accounts Department are concerned, these orders issues after consultation with the Comptroller & Auditor General of India.

OneIndia News

For Breaking News and Instant Updates Allow Notifications

Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 7:44 [IST]
Ration in cash

A senior army official recently had even sent a legal notice to the defence secretary over the scrapping of free rations to those posted in peace stations. The said the cash would be credited directly into the bank accounts of the officers and the decision will benefit nearly 43,000 officers.

"While those in forward stations, will continue to get their free ration without any change, officers posted in peace stations will be provided this benefit in cash. There is no change in ration allowance for (JCOs) junior commissioned officers and PBORs (Personnel Below officer rank) numbering more than 9 lakh.

As far as an ongoing case in this regard in the tribunal is concerned, the government will give the rationale behind the decision, in the judicial process as and when a notice is received, the government has decided.

What the commission had said

The 7th Pay Commission in its recommendations on pay and allowances of the armed forces had said that the provision of free rations and the grant of ration money allowance to officers of defence forces posted in peace areas should be withdrawn. However, the government while considering this recommendation took a different view, given the important role of the armed forces, the sources said.

Great news for DTC employees

The decision by the Delhi LG to approve the pay panel's recommendations will benefit thousands of employees of the public transporter. "Approved the proposal for implementing 7th Pay Commission in DTC. Urge DTC employees to make bus transport in Delhi the best," Anil Baijal tweeted. After the recommendation is implemented, it will provide a financial benefit to about 17,000 DTC staff. It will result in salary hikes in the range of around Rs 10,000 to 30,000 as per seniority.

Average pay hike is 20 per cent

The average pay hike will be around 20 percent In August the Delhi government had notified implementation of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations for its more than one lakh employees.
HOUSTON, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Owners and occupants of commercial properties must continually take stock of their emergency preparedness to protect human and intellectual capital. In the latest edition of Insights, Transwestern explores how security within data centers, office buildings and leased space has advanced to meet evolving threats from natural and man-made sources.



CHOOSING A DATA CENTER SOLUTION

Data centers are among the most secure structures in the private sector. The past 15 years have brought dramatic advancements in storage and the data speeds available from internet service providers (ISPs), along with a proliferation of third-party data center developers.

Hosting information technology infrastructure on-site is losing favor among organizations as risks have grown and third-party data centers have become more prevalent.

Co-location, or sharing a data center facility, offers the benefits of redundancy and professional management.

Building and operating free-standing data centers provides users with the greatest degree of customization, control and privacy, but typically entails a higher cost and lengthier timeline.

Operating on an outsourced, cloud-based system takes advantage of the providers computing, memory, storage and bandwidth, as well as its cybersecurity and physical security measures.

Read more about data center security at: http://twurls.com/data-centers



SECURING OFFICE BUILDINGS

Properties today are more likely to employ multitiered access control systems and to prepare response protocols for a variety of threats and emergencies. Depending on the tenants preferences or government-mandated security requirements, the management team follows a written protocol that spells out how it will provide security and incident response.

Lobby ambassadors are trained in the customer-service skills of the hospitality industry as well as crisis response.

An enthusiastic lobby ambassador will instill a positive atmosphere while learning the building occupants, which elevators they use, and their usual arrival and departure times.

Making eye contact and engaging people is more than customer service; it is a key practice in screening for threats and detecting suspicious behavior.

The entire management team today rehearses its responses to bomb threats, active shooters and other crises once deemed too remote to merit special training.

Read more on how security is vital for effective property management at: http://twurls.com/secure-pm



PROTECTING LEASED SPACE

Leased offices come equipped with basic security measures, but it is chiefly up to the tenant to choose the systems that will safeguard employees and property. Fortunately, evolving technology and competitive pressure on prices have placed an unprecedented assortment of tools at tenants disposal.

Keys pose challenges that increase with the number of locks, clearance levels in the system, and number of keys issued.

Proximity readers, which identify an embedded microchip from several feet away, can grant access to a garage or unlock an elevator lobbys doors when an authorized employee approaches.

Biometric readers, which scan fingerprints or retinas, are still rare due to the price of equipment and the necessity of contracting with a service provider.

Turnstiles, rotating doors or other physical barriers offer added protection, while cameras provide color, high-resolution recordings that can extend the security teams view throughout the property.

Read more on what options are available to protect leased space at: http://twurls.com/protect-space



ABOUT TRANSWESTERN

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A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/f36fc4e1-79a1-4c8c-a6b2-c03a7be0ca71
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

CM Nitish Kumar to prove majority in Bihar trust vote tomorrow

India

oi-Madhuri

In less than 24 hours, Nitish Kumar has returned as Bihar's chief minister, rekindling an old alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party. A floor test in Bihar assembly is scheduled to be held on Saturday, July 29 as Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has given Nitish a two days test to prove his majority. Nitish, whose JD(U) has 71 lawmakers in the 243-member state assembly. With the BJP's support, Kumar's party now has 124 - one over the halfway mark.

Nitish Kumar to prove his majority in a special session of the Bihar Assembly on 28th July.

On Thursday, Nitish took oath as Bihar Chief Minister with BJP as partner of his Janata Dal-United, within 24 hours of quitting the Grand Alliance. This is his second innings in the last two years. Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath of office to Nitish at the Raj Bhavan.

The "decision to form new government taken in the interest of Bihar, we will take the state to the path of prosperity," Kumar said after he was sworn in.

Total number of seats in Bihar 243 Magic number 122 RJD 80 JD(U) 71 Congress 27 Others 12

On Wednesday, Nitish unexpectedly resigned and hours later joined hands with BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the oppositon. The ostensible reason for Kumar to quit was his falling out with Deputy Chief Minister Teshaswi Yadav, the son of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad.

According to media reports, the JDU is likely to get a berth in the Union Cabinet. The Cabinet reshuffle is likely to take place in few weeks and JDU might also get an MoS berth.

OneIndia News
Goa: Two held for stabbing cab driver, his father over parking row

For govt jobs in Goa, one-year work experience will be a must, says CM

Goa: Catholic cross found desecrated yet again

India

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Panaji, July 27: Yet another incident of desecration has been reported in Chimbel village of North Goa, where a cross was found vandalised, police said on Thursday.

A Catholic cross installed in a remote area in Chimbel village was found damaged, a police spokesperson said, adding investigations were on.

"We are in the process of questioning locals to see if someone was seen moving about in a suspicious manner. The exact time and date of desecration is not clear," the spokesperson said.

This is the second desecration incident reported in the state in the last three days. On Tuesday, a graveyard in South Goa's Marcaim village was vandalised by unknown persons.

Earlier, police had arrested a 50-year-old taxi driver for a series of desecration incidents across the state for the last several years.

IANS
I'll be the first person to inform about missing Indians: Sushma in RS

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Minister of External Affairs Sushma Swaraj on Thursdy stated that she would inform the Parliament the day she would get proof about whereabouts of 39 Indians missing in Iraq's Mosul.

Swaraj assured that she would infrom the Parliament if the session is on or inform them via Twitter about the missing Indians.

However, she reiterated in Rajya Sabha that she 'won't declare anyone dead without proof'.

The day I get proof of whereabouts of 39 missing Indians,I will come here if the session is on or inform via Twitter:EAM Swaraj in RS #Mosul pic.twitter.com/2ysTnuuLm9  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

On Wednesday also she had made a statement in Parliament saying she did not mislead the nation on the issue since the government cannot declare anybody dead without evidence.

"I had asked the Embassy to collect evidence. We didn't get any evidence of mass killing. So we started to search for Indians," she said. I am still calling them as "missing persons," will continue to search for them, she added.

There was a massive uproar in Lok Sabha after Swaraj began to make a statement on 39 missing Indians in Iraq, the opposition MPs continued to interrupt her speech.

However, Iraqi Ambassador to India Fakhri H Al-Issa had that no concrete information had been recovered so far about the missing Indians.

Also, MEA Minister of State VK Singh hasd said the government is trying its best to rescue Indian citizens and till the time we don't get proof, no government can abandon its citizens.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 12:29 [IST]
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

In Bihar defeat, Rahul, Tejashwi cry foul: Too little, too late?

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Patna, July 27: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader and former deputy chief minister of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, share a lot of commonalities.

Frst and foremost is that both belong to political families and thus are a part of the political establishment of the country. On Thursday, both shared common enemies, Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) supremo on Wednesday left the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) and joined hands with the BJP to form a new government in the state.

The Grand Alliance was formed by the JD(U), the RJD and the Congress before the Bihar Assembly elections in 2015. Together they won the polls and managed to defeat the BJP in Bihar.

Since then, the Bihar Grand Alliance is being called as a template to be replicated across the country by the Opposition if they want to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah.

However, as the Grand Alliance formula fails in Bihar, it looks like the Opposition has to come up with something new if they want to end the victory march of the BJP.

After their ouster from the Bihar government, both Rahul and Tejashwi trained their guns on Nitish and the BJP on Thursday.

"For power, people can do anything. There is no rule or credibility. (Satta ke liye vyakti kuch bhi kar jaata hai, koi neeyam, credibility nahin hai)," Rahul said while attacking Nitish.

"Mandate was given to Nitishji for the anti-communal fight, but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics. We were aware about the planning between the BJP and the JD(U) for the last three-four months.

For one's own interest, people can do anything. (3-4 mahine se humein pata tha ye planning chal rahi hai. Apne swaarth ke liye vyakti kuch bhi kar jata hai)," Rahul added.

Continuing with his attack against Nitish and the BJP, Tejashwi on Thursday tweeted, "We entered the government with a clean slate. We had a keen desire of writing a positive story for Bihar people, only to find opportunist rival."

Since the time Nitish resigned as the chief minister of Bihar on Wednesday evening, both Tejashwi and his father and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad Yadav have been attacking the JD(U) chief.

On Thursday, Nitish was once again sworn-in as the Bihar CM, this time with support from the BJP.

However, it is too late for both the Congress and the RJD to nurse any desire to be back in the government. Both the BJP and the JD(U) ensured that the "tainted" Yadav family--Tejashwi, Lalu and others in the family accused of corruption in several cases--stay away from ruling Bihar and quickly stitch an alliance to govern the state.

Rahul could have saved the Grand Alliance had he tried to iron out the differences between the RJD and the JD(U). Recently, when Nitish met Rahul to tell him that Tejashwi had to leave the government as charges against him were grave, Rahul simply ignored the warnings.

The Congress was well-aware about the growing bonhomie between Modi and Nitish, especially after the JD(U) chief decided to go against the Opposition and support the National Democratic Alliance's (NDA) presidential candidate, Ram Nath Kovind, who is now the country's President. Still, the Congress decided not to do anything about the Bihar crisis.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 12:04 [IST]
India raised Tibet, stapled visa issues with China: Sushma Swaraj

India

oi-PTI

There is no change in stand with China on the issue of sufferings of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

Responding to supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal residents by China, Sushma said "the issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or that of the Prime Minister. The issue has been raised by us."

Asked about India's stand on Tibet, she said "we used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear."

On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the Minister said "We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them."

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and "we allowed him to do so". This is not the first time but the fifth or sixth time that he is visiting that place.

"Whatever issue that is there that goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," Swaraj said.

To a question, she said that denial of security permission to one particular company cannot determine the relations between the two countries. She said it done under a process and if a Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.

To another question on the cancellation of a visit of Indian journalists to Tibet by China, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said there is no official information from China about it.

He said Indian journalists are independent and take their decisions independently and it was between them and the Chinese authorities about the visit to Tibet.

"As far as the visit being cancelled, officially we don't have any information. It is between the journalists and the host country," he said.

Akbar said in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Xi Jinping in Astana, a close development partnership issue was raised and both countries decided to increase people-to-people and media contacts and decided to do everything to bring the two countries together. We will continue to make such efforts and take them forward, he added.

PTI
Infiltration bid foiled: Indian Army guns down 3 terrorists

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

An infiltration bid was foiled and three terrorists were killed by the Indian Army. The incident took place at the Gurez sector in Kashmir. The Army said that search operations are still on.

There has been a spike in the number of infiltration bids at the sector. This is the second such incident that has been reported in the area since June. The Army relied on the intelligence inputs which suggested that an infiltration bid was being made by terrorists from Pakistan.

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Although it is not clear which outfit they belong to, it is suspected that they be part of the Lashkar-e-Tayiba. Investigations into this regard are still on by the security forces.

On June 10, one terrorists was killed at the same area. Troops guarding the Line of Control spotted terrorists trying to sneak in. The Army has killed over 16 terrorists in the past couple of months along the LoC.

A defence spokesman said multiple attempts made by Pakistan army to push armed infiltrators across the Line of Control were foiled by the troops at Machhil and Naugam sectors in Kupwara district, Gurez in Bandipora district and Uri in Baramulla.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 11:39 [IST]
Sonia tells Lalu, Nitish to meet her again after Cong gets new president

Lalu and family booked for money laundering in IRCTC hotel tender case

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Thursday registered money laundering case against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family members in connection with the IRCTC hotel tender case.

The case against Lalu and his family was registered a day after JD (U) parted ways with its coalition partner RJD. Nitish Kumar resigned as CM on Wednesday and joined hands with the BJP over corruption cases against Lalu's son, former Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and family members.

The case relates to alleged manipulation in awarding contract for maintenance of two hotels run by a subsidiary of the Indian Railways--IRCTC-- when the RJD chief was railway minister in the UPA government.

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Early this month, the CBI conducted raids across four cities-Patna, Ranchi, Gurgaon and Bhubaneswar- in connection with the case in which Lau's wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi are among the accused.

It is alleged that Lalu Yadav as railway minister handed over the maintenance of two railway hotels to a company after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a benami company owned by Sarla Gupta.

The FIR was registered on July 5 in connection with alleged favours extended to Sujata Hotels in awarding a contract for the upkeep of the hotels in Ranchi and Puri and receiving premium land as a "quid pro quo", the CBI had alleged.

CBI stated that the criminal conspiracy spanned 2004-14 during which the tender process was "rigged" in favour of Sujata Hotels.

CBI further said that in return, the owners of Sujata Hotel gave three acres of land in western Patna to Delight Marketing which is known to the family of Lalu Yadav at a very low cost. Subsequently, between 2010 to 2014, this land was further transferred to another company Lara Projects owned by family members of Lalu Yadav.

Lalu criticised the CBI's action of naming his wife Rabri Devi, a former chief minister, and son Tejashwi, as accused in the case. He said when the alleged irregularities took place, Rabri was not a public servant and Tejashwi was a minor.

(With agency inputs)
Hindi diwas: Amazing facts about the language everyone should know

This state to have medical education in Hindi from 2023

JNU: Mandatory to fill MPhil, PhD forms in Hindi

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

India's premiere institute Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has made it compulsory to fill the MPhil and PhD submission forms in Hindi and English.

Some section of students are not happy with the administration of imposing Hindi on them as till last year, students could fill the form in either of the languages.

Satarupa Chakraborty, JNU students' union (JNUSU) general secretary, told Hindustan Times that the students were going through their last hour of submission of M.Phil/Ph.D dissertation/thesis today.

Students were severely harassed for filing an online tracking form which should contain the title of the dissertation in Hindi.

Chakraborty said many students wrote their dissertation title in their local language script as a mark of protest.

However, the university defended the decision saying since last year the students are being given bilingual certificates which contains their details in Hindi and English.

"The certificates given to students after they complete their course now carries their details in Hindi and English. That is why we have asked them to fill their details in MPhil and PhD submission form in Hindi and English. This will ensure there are no spelling mistakes," HT quoted JNU Registrar Pramod Kumar as saying.

OneIndia News
Macchil encounter: Lifers of 5 Army personnel suspended by Tribunal

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

The life sentence awarded to five Army personnel has been suspended by the Armed Forces Tribunal. Five personnel including a Colonel and Captain were sentenced to life by a General Court Martial in 2014 after they were found guilty of staging the killing of three Kashmiri civilians at Macchil in 2010.

It was alleged that Sajjad Khan, Riyaz Lone and Shafi Lone of Nadihal village were lured into an Army camp and subsequently killed in a staged encounter. Following the encounter they were branded as foreign militants.

An investigation was conducted by the Jammu and Kashmir police following which it was found that the encounter was fake. Following this the Army launched court martial proceedings in December 2013. They were then sentenced to life and incidentally this was the first such case in which lifers were awarded in Kashmir.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 7:05 [IST]
Sanjay Dutt volunteered to be the face of anti- drug campaign: Uttarkhand CM

KGF 2 teaser release date out, Yash looks dashing and intense in new poster, check out here

Sanjay Dutt can be sent back to jail if rules were broken: Maha govt to HC

India

oi-Madhuri

The Bombay High Court on Thursday asked the Maharashtra government, how actor Sanjay Dutt was granted parole and furlough in quick succession and within two months of surrendering to serve his five-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

The court also asked the government to submit a fresh affidavit explaining the criteria of good behaviour applied to actor Sanjay Dutt.

Dutt was granted parole and furlough in quick succession and within two months of surrendering to serve his five-year sentence in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case.

The High Court also sought to know how is the good conduct and behaviour of a convict ascertained, and on what basis and criteria the actor was granted early remission.

On July 31, 2007 the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000.

In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years following which he surrendered to serve the remainder of his sentence.

During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later.

OneIndia News
NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Almost 70,000 TAP Air Portugal travelers have enjoyed visits to Lisbon and Porto while en route to destinations in Portugal and throughout Europe and Africa since the airline launched the program one year ago. Now the popular Portugal Stopover program is expanding to include longer visits, of up to five days, for no additional airfare.



A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/49561ac7-95ba-4fe3-ba1c-f0f1c03a34e0.

To commemorate the first anniversary of the Portugal Stopover program, this week TAP unveiled one of its A330-300 aircraft with a new special Stopover-themed livery, highlighting many popular icons of a visit to Portugal. This aircraft will begin service between Portugal and North America in the weeks to come.

TAP unveiled its stopover offer in July 2016, to encourage TAPs long-haul customers transiting through Lisbon or Porto to stay for up to three days for no additional airfare. The longer 5-day stopover option is available for visits starting in September, 2017.

The program still incorporates a network of more than 150 partners offering exclusive hotel discounts for stopover customers, a free bottle of Portuguese wine in restaurants, and free experiences, such as tuk-tuk rides, visits to museums, or even dolphin watching in the River Sado.

70,000 visitors have told us they love the Portugal Stopover but we kept hearing that three days wasnt enough to truly experience Lisbon or Porto, said Carlos Paneiro, Vice President of Sales for North and Central America. Now with five days, visitors can enjoy a more leisurely visit to really get to know what these wonderful cities have to offer.

Also from September, stopover passengers will be able to create a multi-destination journey, making it will be possible to travel from one destination and return from another. For example, people may choose to fly to Barcelona then return from Seville but they will still qualify for a stopover in Lisbon or Porto on the outbound or return travel. Stopover visits are now also available on one-way travel to Europe or Africa where previously round-trip travel was necessary to qualify for the program.

In February, TAP added several Portugal areas as destinations which also qualify for the stopover, including the Algarve, Madeira and the Azores. Travelers can now visit Lisbon or Porto for up to five day en route to Faro, Ponta Delgada, Terceira, Funchal and Porto Santo for no extra airfare.

TAP currently operates 2,500 flights per week to 84 destinations in 34 countries. This means that, from the USA, Canada and Brazil, TAP clients can now fly to more than 70 destinations, with a Lisbon or Porto stopover experience along the way.

About TAP Portugal

TAP is Portugals leading airline, and member of Star Alliance, the global airline alliance to offer customers worldwide reach, since 2005. In operation since 1945, TAP celebrated 70 years on March 14, 2015, and completed its privatization process in 2015, with the Atlantic Gateway Group now as a new private shareholder. TAPs hub in Lisbon is a key European gateway at the crossroads of Africa, North, Central and South America, where TAP stands out as the international leading carrier in operation to Brazil. As of Summer 2017, the companys network will comprise 84 destinations in 34 countries worldwide. TAP currently operates about 2,500 weekly flights in average on a modern fleet of 63 Airbus aircraft and 17 aircraft in TAP Express livery, operating in the companys regional network, adding up to an 80 aircraft fleet in the whole.



Within the vast restructure program currently going across the company as the outcome of its privatization process, TAP restructured its network, launched new fare products and has announced, among other news, its medium and long haul fleet renewal program as of 2018 and the retrofit of the fleet currently in operation as well as the launch of the new branded product TAP Express, which replaced PGA and operates a new fleet of 8 ATR 72 and 9 Embraer 190.



In the pursuit of its customer-focused policy, TAP continuously strives to deliver safe, reliable and upgraded products & services, tailored to meet customers expectations. Retaining the Portuguese character of the Companys brand and quality service as the basic concept has been the main driver of TAP strategy in most recent years. Recognized and awarded as the Europes Leading Airline to Africa as well as Europes Leading Airline to South America by the World Travel Awards in 2016, 2015 and 2014, the company was also awarded as the WTA Worlds Leading Airline to Africa in 2011 and 2012 and the WTA Worlds Leading Airline to South America in 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012, while the companys In-flight magazine UP also received the WTA award as Europes Leading In-flight Magazine in 2015 and 2016. Voted Best Airline in Europe in 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015 and 2016 by the Global Traveler, USA, the company was also honored by UNESCO and by the International Union of Geological Sciences with the IYPE Planet Earth Award 2010, in the category of Most Innovative Sustainable Product. TAP was also voted Best Airline by Conde Nast Traveller Magazine in 2010 and Best Portuguese Tourism Company by the specialized magazine Marketeer, in 2011.
People of Himachal have decided to go with Modi; all other factors irrelevant: CM Thakur

Nationalism drive by BJP to woo youth, war veterans

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

In a bid to instil nationalism among youth and to woo war veterans, the BJP youth wing will be roping in war veterans to spread the message of nationalism.

The war veterans will hand over national flags to BJP state presidents across 29 states in Delhi on August 9, who will furthercamp extensively in their states till August 15.

The programme will be launched on the occasion of 75 years of 'Quit India' movement in the national capital.

"The BJP workers will travel across the country with national flags and talks to youngsters about the rich cultural and history of India. They will talk about nationalism and other current issues. All state and Union territory party presidents will participate in the event, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha national president Poonam Mahajan told reporters.

As per the schedule, veterans will hand over flags to 40 state unit heads of the BJYM in Delhi. The national flags have been handed over to the state unit which will travel across the country.

The BJP youth wing has planned to reach out to the youth with the agenda a week ahead of 'Independence Day'.

The huge debate on nationalism that has flared the country and controversies surrounding it has added significance to the event.

OneIndia News
FM Nirmala Sitharaman hints at possibility of Centre considering restoration of state status to J&K

NIA summons SAS Geelani's elder son for questioning

India

oi-Vikas

By Vikas

The National Investigative Agency on Thursday issued summons to Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's elder son Nayeem and asked him to appear before it in connection with its probe in the terror funding case.

Nayeem, who is a surgeon by profession, has been asked to appear before the NIA for questioning on Monday.

Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmed Shah has already been arrested by the NIA in connection with this case, said reports.

The NIA which secured the custody of the 7 Hurriyat leaders for ten days is now in the process of establishing the financial chain. The NIA says that it had ample evidence to show that the money moved into the Valley from Pakistan through hawala channels

Top separatists such as Malik, Geelani and Mirwaiz Umer Farooq are alleged to be the main beneficiaries. It was they who the handlers from Pakistan were in direct contact with, the NIA earlier said.

[Kashmir terror funding: Next on NIA's radar are Geelani, Malik, Mirwaiz]

The National Investigation Agency had on Tuesday arrested separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, the founder and president of the Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party (JKDFP), in Srinagar in a money laundering case

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Friday, July 28, 2017, 0:01 [IST]
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Nitish Kumar to be sworn in as Bihar CM at 10 am: Sushil Modi to be deputy

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Nitish Kumar will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar at 10 am today. Kumar who resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar will be sworn in with Sushil Modi as his deputy.

Sushil Modi of the BJP said that they have submitted a letter with the support of 132 legislators and have been given a time of 10 am for the swearing in. Modi made this announcement following a late night meeting with the Governor.

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Sushil Modi said, "Nityanand Rai ji and I called Nitish ji. BJP has decided to support him and the government formed under him. We have informed the Governor too". He then drove to Mr Kumar's Patna residence along with the party's state chief Nityanand Rai and other party leaders and legislators.

The BJP which had earlier decided on offering outside support later decided to join the government. In Delhi, the BJP following its Parliamentary Board meet had made it clear that it did not want mid-term elections in the state.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 5:53 [IST]
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No bouquet, only a book for Modi on arrival at Madurai airport

India

oi-Chennabasaveshwar

By Chennabasaveshwar

Adhering to the Ministry of Home Affairs' (MHA) instructions, Tamil Nadu Governor and leaders welcomed Prime Minister Narendra Modi with a book at the Madurai Airport in Tamil Nadu.

Tamil Nadu Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao and CM Edapaddi Palanisamy recieved PM Modi with a book and a flower.

PM Modi was on his way to Rameshwaram to inaugurate Dr APJ Abdul Kalam memorial.

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Early this month the MHA had issued new instructions to all States and Union Territories (UTs) with respect to gifts given to PM Modi during his tours within India.

The new instruction barred presenting bouquet to the Prime Minister. It says at best a flower, a khadi handkerchief or a book may be presented to welcome the dignitary.

The MHA circular requested all states and UTs to suitably sensitize all concerned to ensure strict compliance of the instructions.

The instructions were issued a month after PM Modi appealed to people 'to give a book instead of bouquet as a greeting' in a speech during the inauguration of Kochi Metro.

On June 17, PM Modi had said people should give a book instead of a bouquet as a greeting.

"I appeal to people to give a book instead of the bouquet as a greeting. Such a move can make a big difference," news agency ANI quoted the PM as saying.

OneIndia News
No plans to advance CBSE exams: HRD ministry

India

oi-PTI

New Delhi, July 27: The Human Resouce Department on Thursday told Rajya Sabha that Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has no plan to advance the class 10 and 12 examinations to February from March.

"As of now, no such proposal has been moved by the CBSE," Minister of State for HRD Upendra Kushwaha said in a written reply to whether the board has proposed to prepone the annual examinations.

The response by the minister comes amid concerns raised by various schools following reports of the CBSE's plan to study the idea of advancement of board examinations by over a month.

The CBSE had last month set up two committees to study loopholes in the evaluation process after complaints by students of evaluation faults in their class 12 exam papers,

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 16:52 [IST]
'Please cut my hands but pull me out of the debris': Ghatkopar building collapse survivor

India

oi-PTI

Mumbai, July 27: "Please cut my hands but pull me out of the debris," implored Pragya Jadeja in a frail voice when she spotted an NDRF jawan looking out for survivors after the collapse of a residential building in suburban Ghatkopar, Mumbai. "Mere dono haath kaat do bhaiya, mujhe jaldi bahar nikaalo...nahi to main mar jaungi (cut my both the hands but please pull me out quickly otherwise I am going to die)," the 50-year-old said in a voice filled with pain and helplessness.

Jadeja is one of the 11 survivors pulled out from under the rubble of the four-storey Siddhi Sai Cooperative Housing Society which collapsed Tuesday morning, claiming 17 lives. "We could hardly peep in to find that Jaedja's both the hands were partially crushed between two big fallen walls. But we comforted her, cut the huge RCC structure, and finally pulled her out safe," said constable Santosh Jadhav.

Similarly, a 20-year-old woman was pulled out alive from under the mound by the rescuers who reached her after hearing her cries for help. "The woman was trapped under the huge pile of the rubble and was wailing in pain. We removed big pillars while praying that they don't fall on her and then pulled her out," said another personnel. A 47-member team of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) was pressed into the search and rescue operation immediately after the incident.

The case of Rajesh Doshi, a resident of the ill-fated building, underlines how survival instinct comes into play in such tragedies. Doshi, whose legs got crushed under the debris, called up his son on his mobile phone around 6 PM, hours after the collapse, trying to explain his position.

"Doshi called his son at 6 in the evening, but it took nearly eight hours to locate and rescue him safely.

He was finally pulled out of the rubble around 2.45 am," said a BMC official engaged in rescue operation. Deputy Commandant Mahesh Nalawade, who led the NDRF (Mumbai) team, said sophisticated equipment in their arsenal came handy for the jawans in saving lives.

"Our team used sensors that could catch the heartbeat of people trapped under debris. We also used trained sniffer dogs. We lowered cameras from the passages/holes to locate who is trapped under the rubble and acted accordingly. We used cutters sparingly," he said, adding the absence of rain came as a boon for the jawans.

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 11:55 [IST]
PM Modi's one appeal to voters in Himachal today is 'to participate'

Political asanas Modi, an ardent yoga lover, must learn from Nitish

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Patna, July 27: We all know how much Prime Minister Narendra Modi loves yoga--the ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that has originated in India.

Every morning, no matter how tight his schedule is, Modi makes it a point to practice yoga religiously. It is his constant attempt to promote yoga that led to the United Nations declaring June 21 as the World Yoga Day. Since then, Modi has been taking a lead during the Yoga Day celebrations every year.

However, we still feel Modi is yet to learn a few "asanas" (yoga postures) to be called as a yoga master. And, we strongly feel that his yoga guru should be none other than Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar.

Yes, the Janata Dal (United) (JD(U)) chief, who has just forged an alliance with his former adversary the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form their government in Bihar on Thursday, is a master in "political asanas".

A quick look into Nitish's career will reveal how he has changed people, parties and alliances to remain relevant in the chaotic political atmosphere of the country.

A tweet by the Congress, the latest victim of "backstabbing" by Nitish, explains how Nitish can "bend" almost like a yogi (yoga expert) to forge alliances with parties across the political spectrum.

Nitish has left the Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance)-- formed by the JD (U), the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and the Congress before the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections--over corruption charges against his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav from the RJD.

"Nitish Kumar has proved his detractors right about his lack of commitment to any ideology. He is a rank political opportunist," stated the Congress' tweet.

Nitish Kumar has proved his detractors right about his lack of commitment to any ideology. He is a rank political opportunist. pic.twitter.com/xcSXBhQj9n  INC India (@INCIndia) July 27, 2017

The hilarious infographic, explaining how Nitish has jumped from Lalu's lap to the BJP's lap and again back into Lalu's embrace to again leave Lalu for the BJP and Modi, has been published by The Telegraph in an article titled--Nitish back in BJP bed.

So, if you too are being inspired by the "flexibility" of Nitish, then go and join a yoga class to remain fit, at least physically.

OneIndia News
Central team roped in as dengue cases in Bihar rise to over 5000

Protest rocks Bihar to oppose JD(U)-BJP sarkar

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Patna, July 27: Just a few hours before the swearing-in ceremony of Nitish Kumar as the chief minister of Bihar, members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) staged a protest against the severance of alliance between the Janata Dal (United) (JD (U)) and the RJD on Thursday.

Nitish's oath-taking ceremony is scheduled at 10 am on Thursday.

On Wednesday, Nitish resigned as the CM of Bihar and immediately joined hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the new government in the state.

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According to a report by ANI, RJD supporters blocked Mahatma Gandhi Setu, which connects north Bihar with Patna over Nitish's resignation and formation of a new government by the JD (U) with the help of the BJP.

RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu, connecting north Bihar with Patna, over #NitishKumar's resignation and forming govt with the BJP. pic.twitter.com/CpL9CfSd6V  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

RJD leader and former deputy CM of Bihar, Tejashwi Yadav, told reporters that all those who opposed the BJP and Nitish will hold dharnas and burn effigies across the state on Thursday.

Nitish tendered his resignation over the issue of resignation of Tejashwi. In fact, the soon to be sworn-in CM of Bihar wanted Tejashwi to resign from his cabinet after the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) booked him on corruption charges.

However, RJD supremo and father of Tejashwi, Lalu Prasad Yadav, did not honour Nitish's desire, which ultimately resulted in the disintegration of the Grand Alliance or Mahagathbandhan.

It is not just the RJD supporters who are protesting against Nitish's latest decision to go with the BJP, JD (U) MP Ali Anwar said that his conscience did not allow him to go with the BJP.

He added that he can't support Nitish's decision. "I will voice my opinion in the party if I get an opportunity," Ali said.

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 8:53 [IST]
SC sets aside Allahabad HC order granting bail to two accused in Owaisi car attack case

Indu Sarkar gets SC green signal, to be released tomorrow

India

oi-Madhuri

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a plea of a woman, who claims to be the biologial daughter of late Sanjay Gandhi, seeking a stay on release of the film 'Indu Sarkar'.

The apex court said the film is an "artistic expression" within parameters of law and there is no justification to stall its release.

A petition was by filed by Priya Singh Paul, who claims to be the biological daughter of late Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi, seeking stay on the release of 'Indu Sarkar' Madhur Bhandarkar's upcoming film. The movie is scheduled to be released this Friday.

The controversy surrounding the release of Bollywood movie 'Indu Sarkar' based on the 1975- 1977 Emergency period, yesterday reached the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court which heard the pleas today.

The counsel appearing for the petitioner mentioned the matter before a three-judge bench headed by Justice Dipak Misra and alleged that the Madhur Bhandarkar-directed movie is "full of concocted facts and is totally derogatory".

Petitioner Priya Singh Paul's counsel alleged in the court that the movie contains "derogatory facts" to malign the image of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The counsel told that the movie was scheduled to hit the screens on July 28 and they are seeking a stay on its release.

Film's director Madhur Bhandarkar told the Supreme Court that he has already carried out the cuts as suggested by the censor board committee.

The censor board has granted a U/A certificate to the film after ordering 12 cuts, which has been complied with.

Another plea also dismissed

In a separate development, the Delhi high court dismissed a plea to revoke the censor board censor board clearance given to Bollywood film Indu Sarkar, a film based on 1975-1977 Emergency.

An advocate filed a plea in the high court for revoking the censor board clearance given to the movie directed by Madhur Bhandarkr, featuring Kirti Kulhari playing the titular role of Indu Sarkar.

OneIndia News
To express anger against bad network, Gorkhaland supporters burn handsets in Darjeeling

India

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia Staff Writer

Darjeeling, July 27: Our cellphones have become our best friends, literally. If something goes wrong with your handsets or with the network, life almost comes to a standstill, these days.

Same thing happened with the residents of restive Darjeeling and its adjoining areas where cellphone connectivity was down for the second day on Wednesday.

In Darjeeling and its suburbs, where people are protesting for a separate state of Gorkhaland, an indefinite bandh is on for the last 43 days.

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The government, fearing further breakdown of law and order, has banned internet across the hills too. Thus, people have only their cellphones to keep in touch with the rest of the world.

Since Monday landlines were dead too across the hills. In fact, the hill station and its neighbouring places had no access to electricity from Monday. Thankfully, power was back on Wednesday afternoon.

In order to protest against poor network connectivity, the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM), the political outfit spearheading the movement, hosted a rally in Darjeeling on Wednesday.

As a part of the rally, the GJM supporters started a procession from Ghoom railway station and went to Jorebungalow. The protesters returned to the station where over 60 cellphone sets were burnt in protest.

"Without internet and phone connectivity, these gadgets are of no use. That is why we burnt the cellphones. It is because of the policy of the state government that the situation has reached this extent. We want immediate restoration of internet and phone services," Prakash Subba, the general secretary of the Morcha's Ghoom-Jorebungalow constituency, was quoted as saying by The Telegraph.

However, officials blamed Gorkhaland supporters for phone services being down. Officials allege that protesters had cut down optical fibre cables leading to almost no network connectivity across the hills.

Protesters suggested service providers to remove towers as phones are not working. "What is the use of towers if the phones do not work and there is no Internet?" asked a protester.

The Darjeeling district administration had banned internet till July 25. Although the date has crossed, internet is still unavailable in the hills. Reports say the clampdown on internet had been extended till August 5.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 10:48 [IST]
DENVER, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- On Friday, July 28 at 11:00am MTN time, Centennial-based Subsentio, the CALEA Compliance Company, salutes members of the Colorado State Patrol selected to receive the Citizens Appreciate State Troopers or C.A.S.T. Award.



Held in the Governors Residence at the Boettcher Mansion, the event honors Colorado State Troopers for their courage and commitment in preserving the law and protecting public safety.

Subsentio CEO and Founder Steve Bock will join host Deputy Chief Mark Savage and members of the C.A.S.T. Board of Directors in presenting awards to the following members of the Colorado State Patrol:

Corporal Jason Sparks who safely disarmed a suicidal woman and coaxed her into a waiting ambulance  saving her from death by prescription drug overdose. Corporal Sparks will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award.



who safely disarmed a suicidal woman and coaxed her into a waiting ambulance  saving her from death by prescription drug overdose. Corporal Sparks will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award. Trooper Eduardo Henriquez and Trooper Justin Richards for preventing the murder of an innocent bystander by an individual suspected of involvement in human trafficking. Fleeing arrest, the suspect jumped into a truck while the vehicles owner lay underneath doing repairs, then placed it in gear with the intent running over all three men. Troopers Henriquez and Richards discharged their weapons, striking and killing the fleeing suspect, and saving both the truck owners and their own lives. Troopers Henriquez and Richards will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award.



for preventing the murder of an innocent bystander by an individual suspected of involvement in human trafficking. Fleeing arrest, the suspect jumped into a truck while the vehicles owner lay underneath doing repairs, then placed it in gear with the intent running over all three men. Troopers Henriquez and Richards discharged their weapons, striking and killing the fleeing suspect, and saving both the truck owners and their own lives. Troopers Henriquez and Richards will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award. Trooper Adam Jennings for disarming an individual under pursuit for shooting four individuals, three of whom had died from their injuries. Seeing that the suspect had no weapon in hand, Trooper Jennings single-handedly tackled and disarmed him before the suspect could kill or harm others. Trooper Jennings will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award.



for disarming an individual under pursuit for shooting four individuals, three of whom had died from their injuries. Seeing that the suspect had no weapon in hand, Trooper Jennings single-handedly tackled and disarmed him before the suspect could kill or harm others. Trooper Jennings will receive the C.A.S.T. Distinguished Service Award. Trooper Cody Donahue (posthumously). While assisting with the investigation of a motor crash on I-25 near Castle Rock in Douglas County, Colorado, Trooper Donahue was struck by a commercial vehicle and killed instantly. Trooper Donahue will be honored posthumously with the C.A.S.T. Purple Heart Award.

About Subsentio

Subsentio, the CALEA Compliance Company, provides total solutions for records production and compliance with surveillance laws including the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act. Subsentios CALEA Compliance Bureau model is unique in the industry, providing all components essential to compliance with the law, including outstanding technology, legal expertise, and direct experience in law enforcement. The company is based in Centennial, Colorado and Chantilly, Virginia. www.subsentio.com
When Nitish bust a plot set by Lalu Yadav

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

When the CBI raided Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish Kumar saw an opportunity to come out of an alliance he was never comfortable with to begin in the first place. Nitish had sought the resignation of the junior Yadav as the deputy chief minister of Bihar, but the RJD stayed firm and did not give in.

There are various factors that were taken into account before Nitish put in his papers on Wednesday. Sources say that Nitish at first had no plans of derailing the Grand Alliance in Bihar. He wanted to wait a while longer and then back into the NDA fold while the 2019 elections were nearing.

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Bihar crisis: Lalu Yadav says, Nitish Kumar main accused in murder case | Oneindia News

However sources say that Nitish had found out that there was a plot brewing to topple him. Some in the RJD were allegedly in talks with the centre promising to topple Nitish Kumar. It is further alleged that the RJD had said it was ready to dump Nitish Kumar in exchange for help from the centre in some of the cases against its leaders.

The RJD has been facing trouble over various cases including ones filed against its supremo, Lalu Prasad Yadav and his daughter Misa Bharti. The cases have reached a boiling point and hence some in the RJD had mooted the idea of seeking help from the centre with the promise of toppling Nitish Kumar.

Nitish realised that there was a plot brewing against him. He sent out the first strong signal to his allies when he declared support to Ram Nath Kovind. After this his resolve to walk out of the alliance became stronger. With all at the back end set, Nitish finally walked up to the Governor on Wednesday and tendered his resignation.

OneIndia News
Prashant Kishor claims Nitish Kumar in touch with BJP says don't be surprised if he joins hands with it again

Who is Nitish Kumar, the man who always comes back stronger

India

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

Nitish Kumar has resigned several times in the past. He has however always made a come back following a resignation. In 1999 he resigned as railway minister following the Gaisal train accident. In 2005 he resigned as the Bihar CM when he failed to muster support for a majority. In 2014, he resigned as the Bihar CM after the JD(U) lost badly in the Lok Sabha elections. On Wednesday, he resigned as the Bihar CM.

Nitish Kumar has had an eventful political career. He will back for another innings as the CM of Bihar following his swearing in on Thursday.

Recommended Video

Bihar Crisis : Nitish Kumar single handedly ended hopes of Grand Alliance | Oneindia News

Who is Nitish Kumar?

Born in Bakhtiarpur, Patna district on March 1 1951.

Nitish Kumar belongs to the Kurmi caste.

Kaviraj Ram Lakhan Singh was a freedom fighter and an Ayurvedic doctor

Nitish Kumar's father quit the INC to joint the Janata Party

He quit the INC after being denied a ticket in 1952 and 1957

Kumar is a mechanical engineer

Kumar's wife Manju Kumari Sinha passed away in 2007.

Kumar's son Nishant pursued engineering from the BIT, Mesra, Jharkhand.

Nitish made his political debut in 1980 after taking part in the Jayaprakash Narayan's movement

In 1985, he was elected to the Bihar Legislative Assembly as an independent candidate

Nitish became president of the Yuva Lok Dal in 1987.

In 1989 he became secretary-general of the Janata Dal.

Kumar was first elected to Lok Sabha in 1989 and he served as the Minister of Surface Transport (1998 to 1999), Minister of Agriculture (1999 to 2001) and Minister of Railways (1998 to 1999 and 2001 to 2004).

In 1994 he formed the Samata Dal after parting ways with Lalu Prasad Yadav.

Nitish became Bihar CM for the first time in 2000.

His first stint as CM lasted only a week.

After the 2005 Bihar assembly elections, Nitish's JD(U) formed the government.

Prior to the 2014 elections, he broke away from the NDA.

Three years later he is back with the NDA to form the government in Bihar.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 6:19 [IST]
Yogi says no riots under BJP regime in UP

India

pti-PTI

Lucknow, Jul 27: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath on Thurday said there have been no riots under the BJP regime in the state and incidents of crime have decreased.

He also accused the Samajwadi Party of failing on the law-and-order front during its tenure.

"In the previous regime riot-accused people were brought in state plane to meet the chief minister (Akhilesh Yadav) at his residence. Its (SP) ministers were involved in the Muzaffarnagar riots. In past three years there were 450 riots in the state but in the past four months there were no riots," Yogi Adityanath said in the state Assembly.

Citing data, the CM also said that cases of murder, dowry and crimes related to SC/ST have seen a decline in his tenure.

"No FIRs were lodged in previous SP and BSP regimes. We have given directives to lodge FIRs in all cases. Solving of of cases related to murder, dacoity and other crimes have increased. The opposition did not want this," the CM said.

Attacking SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Adityanath said political patronage was given to criminal elements during his tenure as chief minister. Adityanath cited cases like the Jewar gangrape and kidnapping of two traders in Jhansi and said they were solved in a timely manner.

"It is our ideology that no guilty person should be spared. The opposition has objections as to why the Azamgarh liquor tragedy case was solved and why the name of the accused and his party was taken. A hardened criminal was arrested in Ambedkar Nagar. If his background is revealed, it will make many uneasy," the CM said.

Trying to corner the opposition, which has been boycotting the proceedings of the House from July 20, Adityanath said, "Truth is bitter. They are not ready to hear the truth and are not hesitating in violating the dignity of the House."

On Akhilesh's Dial 100 project, the CM said it was made into "a tool for extortion" and his government has initiated a number of measures to "make it accountable". While highlighting budgetary provisions of the Home department under different heads, Adityanath said a State Disaster Response Force would be set up on the lines of the NDRF and financial provision has been made for this.

"The opposition had objections over the constitution of anti-Romeo squads for women security, they objected to the state following NGT and SC guidelines on slaughterhouses and also objected to the anti-land mafia task force which is identifying mafias who were until now working under political patronage," he said.

The chief minister also announced the recruitment of 30 thousand constables in police and said that the process will be transparent, unlike the previous regime. He said model police stations would be set up in all districts and the ATS (Anti-Terror Squad) and STF (Special Task Force) of the state police will be strengthened.

PTI
At UNSC, US calls on world to tell Russia to stop its nuclear threats

Donald Trump donates second quarter salary to education department

International

oi-PTI

Washington, July 27: To help American students get access to high quality education US President Donald Trump has decided to donate his second quarter salary to the US education department, the White House said.

"In this quarter, the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference yesterday. She presented a check of USD 100,000 to the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump's salary in first quarter was donated for restoration of two projects at a national battlefield. Other donors donors quickly stepped up to bring the total donation over USD 260,000 to the education department.

DeVos said Trump is committed to nation's students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education. "He and I have had many conversations about how best to put students' needs first, and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success. There's much work to be done, but we are certainly on the right track, thanks to the president's leadership," she said.

"Just yesterday, Ivanka Trump and I hosted a summer reading event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the focus was on getting young girls, age six to ten, excited about learning science, technology, engineering, and maths. "It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment," DeVos said.

She said the department has decided to use Trump's second-quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education. "We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields," she said.

Trump, a real estate tycoon, had announced during his election campaign that he would not take salary if he wins the presidential elections.

But under the US law, the president has to take their salary. Hence, he decided to donate all his salary for charity purposes.

PTI
Doval arrives in China amidst Doklam standoff

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in China to attend the BRICS summit amidst the Doklam standoff. He is expected to hold talks with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.

Doval arrived here to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing which is due to take place on July 27-28. His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in Sikkim sector.

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As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries. The group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

The BRICS NSAs meeting is being hosted by Yang. Both Doval and Yang are Special Representatives of the India-China border mechanism.

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

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Yang to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Though China continued to maintain that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

Both sides acknowledged talks through diplomatic channels to ease tensions.

Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the trijunction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese army from building a road in the area. China claimed it was constructing the road within its territory. India protested the construction, fearing it would allow China to cut India's access to its northeastern states.

Ahead of Doval's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area. He also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.

"The remarks of Foreign Minister Wang Yi are authoritative and has made our position clear. I don't have anything to explain," Lu told a media briefing. Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops' withdrawal. "I have stressed many times that the crux of this incident is that the Indian border troops illegally trespassed into China's territory and the solution as Wang put it is for Indian border troops to pull-out unconditionally. This is a precondition basis for any meaningful talks between the two countries," Lu said.

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 6:06 [IST]
Doklam: One motorable road complete, second to be constructed by March 2021

Don't allow next Doklam in Arunachal, says BJP MP; claims China has encroached upon 60 km of state

Doval in China: Top diplomat Yang Jiechi discusses 'major problems' with NSA

International

ians-IANS

By Ians English

Beijing, July 27: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who is in China to attend the BRICS security summit, met China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi and discussed "major" bilateral problems on Thursday.

It was not immediately known whether the border dispute over Doklam came up for discussion.

Reports say that Yang brought up "bilateral issues" and "major problems" during the meeting.

Doval is expected to raise the Doklam standoff with his counterpart. The NSA has a set agenda and all eyes are on this visit as the tensions between the two countries is expected to come down.

There are a couple of points Doval is likely to raise on the Doklam issue. The first would be to work around a resolution and open a channel for talks. Former Research and Analysis Wing officer, Amar Bhushan told OneIndia that Doval would tell the Chinese that the Prime Minister is keen on resolving the crisis.

China has however made it clear that India will need to first pull out before both nations could work out a resolution.

IANS
Doval in China: This is how the NSA would resolve the Doklam standoff

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is in China for the BRICS summit and is expected to raise the Doklam standoff with his counterpart. The NSA has a set agenda and all are on this visit as the tensions between the two countries is expected to come down.

There are a couple of points Doval is likely to raise on the Doklam issue. The first would be to work around a resolution and open a channel for talks. Former Research and Analysis Wing officer, Amar Bhushan tells OneIndia that Doval would tell the Chinese that the Prime Minister is keen on resolving the crisis.

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Sikkim Standoff : Ajit Doval arrives in China to attend BRICS summit | Oneindia News

He would suggest for future engagement on both the economic and political level. Both India and China would have be convinced that there is no point in getting bogged over this small bit of area.

China has however made it clear that India will need to first pull out before both nations could work out a resolution. However Doval is unlikely to agree to that clause. India is likely to agree for a troop withdrawal only if its men are replaced by the Bhutanese forces.

The matters between India and China are unlikely to escalate any further. Once the winter sets in the tensions would be resolved automatically says Bhushan. During this period the Chinese cannot remain in the area, the former R&AW officer also points out.

OneIndia News

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 14:19 [IST]
12-year-old Indian in Guinness World Record for identifying most aeroplane tails in UAE

Watch: Four Indian women racially abused in Texas in most horrific manner

Indian-American jailed for illegally selling silencers used for guns

International

oi-PTI

Washington, July 27: American attorney on Friday said that an Indian national in the US has been jailed for 30 months for illegally selling silencers, used to reduce the sound of guns, and planning to smuggle more.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, a resident of Pitampura in New Delhi, was also sentenced to three years of supervised release, the Department of Justice said.

The sentencing came after he pleaded guilty before US District Judge Elizabeth Foote in Louisiana to one count of dealing firearms without a license.

According to the guilty plea dated April 20, 2017, Chauhan was contacted by someone wishing to buy silencers.

Chauhan discussed the manufacturing of silencers with the potential client by email and phone calls. He also discussed importing more silencers and parts by labelling them as "auto parts" to evade US Customs.

After they set up a meeting, he arrived in Shreveport on December 1 last year to meet the buyer and brought silencer parts with him.

He travelled to a restaurant in Louisiana's Bossier City to discuss the sale details with the buyer. Agents recorded the meeting.

According to the sources, Chauhan did not had any liecense to deal or conduct a business involving silencers and parts as required by the law.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 10:26 [IST]
Indian-origin teenager stabbed to death in Israel after brawl at birthday party

Israel PM Netanyahu vows to expel Al Jazeera for inciting violence

International

oi-PTI

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to expel Arabic news station Al Jazeera from Israel, claiming the network is "inciting" violence.

"The Al-Jazeera channel continues to incite violence around the Temple Mount," Netanyahu wrote in a Facebook post, referring to the Haram al-Sharif compound in Jerusalem, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

"I have appealed to law enforcement agencies several times to close the Al-Jazeera office in Jerusalem. If this is not possible because of legal interpretation, I am going to seek to have the necessary legislation adopted to expel Al-Jazeera from Israel."

Israel has regularly accused Al-Jazeera of bias in its coverage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The network did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesman for Netanyahu also did not respond to a request for further comment on the post.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since new security measures were installed at the holy site.

A tense standoff was still underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the Jerusalem holy site despite the removal of metal detectors and other installations there, with concerns the situation could deteriorate into major unrest.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures at the compound.

The Israeli measures followed an attack that killed two policemen on July 14.

Palestinians view the security move as Israel asserting further control over the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Netanyahu's remarks come as Gulf states seek Al-Jazeera's closure.

Regional kingpin Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates and Egypt broke ties with Qatar on June 5, accusing it of fostering extremism and later issuing 13 demands, including Al-Jazeera's closure.

Netanyahu has sought to improve ties with countries in the region, where it is heavily criticised over its 50-year occupation of Palestinian territory.

Egypt and Jordan are currently the only two Arab countries with peace treaties with Israel.

The prime minister has also faced backlash among Israelis for his decision to install the metal detectors after the attack at such an ultra-sensitive site, with many calling it a miscalculation that he was forced to back down from.

Netanyahu heads what is seen as the most right-wing government in Israeli history.

He has frequently criticised the news media, accusing it of seeking to undermine his government.

Egypt, along with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emitares and Bahrain, has called for Qatar to close Al Jazeera.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 10:42 [IST]
Prince William quits pilot job to become full-time royal

International

oi-Oneindia

By Oneindia

Britain's Prince William will retire from official public duties on Thursday to step up and become a full time royal.

After joining Britain's armed forces from 2006, Williams will finish up his duties with the air ambulance with a night shift from 4.30 pm London time.

After completing an initial period of job-specific training involving simulator, aircraft and in-flight skills, Prince William began piloting his first operational missions in July 2015.

The 35-year-old prince, the second-in-line to the throne after his father, Charles, announced in January he would quit his role as a pilot with the East Anglia Air Ambulance to take more of the official roles relinquished by Queen Elizabeth.

"Following on from my time in the military, I have had experiences in this job I will carry with me for the rest of my life, and that will add a valuable perspective to my royal work for decades to come," he said reports Reuters.

William is moving with wife Kate, and children George and Charlotte from Anmer Hall, their country mansion on the queen's Sandringham estate in eastern England, to Kensington Palace, their official London residence.

Before his final shift, William was described as "not only a fantastic pilot, but a much loved and valued member of the crew" by Patrick Peal, chief executive of the East Anglian Air Ambulance, reports AFP.

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 11:29 [IST]
Altice N.V. - Q2 2017 Pro Forma[1] Results.

 Continued strong execution on efficiency, investment and M&A strategy in Q2 2017 with continued revenue growth and margin expansion - FY 2017 guidance reiterated:

o Altice N.V. Group reported revenue growth +2.7% YoY in Q2 2017 (vs. -2.7% reported decline YoY in Q2 2016), or +1.4% growth YoY on a constant currency (CC) basis;

o Stable revenues in France (-0.4% YoY[2] in Q2, +0.1% in H1 2017);

o Revenue growth in Altice USA +3.2% YoY on a constant currency (CC) basis (vs. +2.2% YoY in Q2 2016);

Optimum revenue growth of +2.9% YoY on a CC basis;

Suddenlink revenue growth +3.8% YoY on a CC basis;

o Stable revenues again in Portugal (+0.1% YoY, +0.1% in H1 2017);

o Sustained revenue growth in Israel at +3.8% YoY on a CC basis.

 Commitment to fastest deployment of state-of-the-art fiber (FTTH) technology planned across Europe / U.S., targeting a global run-rate of c.4-5 million FTTH homes passed p.a. by 2018:

o Leading fiber[3] operator in France reaching 10 million homes passed at the end of Q2 (+330k QoQ); new commitment for nationwide fiber coverage by 2025 without public subsidies;

o Altice USA continues to make progress on its FTTH network roll-out ("Generation Gigaspeed") and remains on track with its previously stated targets to upgrade 100% of Optimum's footprint and part of Suddenlink's footprint over the next five years;

o Still on track to become the leading fiber operator in Portugal reaching 3.5 million homes passed at the end of Q2 (+248k QoQ), targeting nationwide coverage by 2020.

 Altice Group Adjusted EBITDA grew +6.9% YoY (+5.4% on a CC basis) in Q2 driven by the strong growth of Altice USA +22.2% YoY on a CC basis under IFRS (Optimum Adjusted EBITDA +29.1% YoY, Suddenlink +9.6% YoY);

o Altice Group Adjusted EBITDA margin increased by +1.6 percentage points YoY to 40.4%. Altice USA reached an Adjusted EBITDA margin of 43.2% in Q1 (+6.7% pts YoY vs. 36.5% in Q2 2016) under IFRS (a margin of 42.7% under GAAP[4] reporting standard).

 Altice Group Operating Free Cash Flow[5] grew +16.0% YoY (+10.4% on a CC basis) in Q2 driven by the strong growth of Altice USA +41.7% on a CC basis under IFRS (Optimum and Suddenlink grew +57.8% and +16.1% YoY, respectively).

 Rapid deleveraging in US creating optionality for capital deployment.

Michel Combes, Chief Executive Officer of Altice N.V., said: "Our progress in the second quarter of 2017 shows the Altice vision of convergence really taking shape. Our extensive deployment of fiber and super fast mobile broadband networks, innovations from Altice Labs, investment in content and monetization of digital and TV advertising is driving Altice's growth at increasingly higher levels of efficiency.

In France, we continue to significantly improve the quality of SFR's mobile network, including reaching our 2017 target for 90% 4G population coverage six months early, supporting reduced churn and new customer growth. We are continuously expanding our content offers, as well as focusing on improving customer service and accelerating our fiber deployment in new areas to support a further improvement in our fixed business trends. And at the same time we have begun the next phase of the company's transformation which is proceeding according to our plan.

Altice USA continues to grow at an accelerated pace with further margin expansion as we continue to execute on our efficiency targets. We have also successfully executed on the initial public offering of Altice USA which has provided us with a great platform for the next phase of growth.

Lastly in Portugal, we are continuing with MEO's accelerated nationwide fiber deployment, as well as diversifying more into the media segment with the announcement of the acquisition of Media Capital, just as we have done very successfully with our media acquisitions in France."

July 27, 2017: Altice N.V. (Euronext: ATC NA and ATCB NA), today announces financial and operating results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

All major markets progressing as expected in Q2

 Altice Group Revenue 5,957m, up +2.7% YoY[6]:

o 2,763m France (SFR) Revenue, down -0.4% (-0.2% excluding regulatory impacts);

o 2,112m Altice USA Revenue, up +5.8% on a reported basis; increase of +3.2% on a CC basis to $2,328m in local currency;

o 576m Portugal Revenue, up +0.1%.

 Altice Group Adjusted EBITDA 2,406m, up +6.9% YoY[7]:

o 953m France (SFR) Adjusted EBITDA, down -4.6%.

o 913m Altice USA Adjusted EBITDA, up +25.3%; increase of +22.2% on a CC basis to $1,005m in local currency;

o 255m Portugal Adjusted EBITDA, down -8.3%.

 Altice Group Adjusted EBITDA margin expanded by +1.6% pts YoY to 40.4%:

o France (SFR) margin decreased by -1.5% pts to 34.5%.

o Altice USA margin increased +6.7% pts to 43.2% under IFRS (42.7% under GAAP);

US Optimum margin increased by +8.4% pts to 41.2% under IFRS (40.8% under GAAP);

US Suddenlink margin expanded by +2.6% pts to 48.2% under IFRS (47.5% under GAAP).





o Portugal margin decreased by -4.1% pts to 44.4%.

 Altice Group Operating Free Cash Flow of 1,335m, up +16.0% YoY; up +10.4% on a CC basis.

Other Significant Events

 On July 14, 2017, Altice N.V. announced that it had entered into a definitive agreement with Promotora de Informaciones, S.A ("Prisa") to acquire Prisa's 94.7% stake in Media Capital SGPS, SA ("Media Capital"), the leading Portuguese media group. In accordance with Portuguese securities law, Altice announced the launching of a mandatory takeover offer for the remaining 5.3% of Media Capital which is not owned by Prisa.

 On June 27, 2017, Altice N.V. and Altice USA, Inc. (NYSE: ATUS, "Altice USA"), Altice's U.S. subsidiary, announced the closing of Altice USA's initial public offering of 71,724,139 shares of its Class A common stock at a price to the public of $30.00 per share, including the underwriters full exercise of their option to purchase 7,781,110 shares to cover overallotments. Altice N.V. owns approximately 70.2% of Altice USA's issued and outstanding common stock, which represents approximately 98.2% of the voting power of Altice USA's outstanding common stock. Altice USA's Class A common stock began trading on June 22, 2017, on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol "ATUS".

 On June 23, 2017, Altice N.V. announced the closing of the transaction to acquire TEADS, the No. 1 online video advertising marketplace in the world with an audience of more than 1.2 billion unique visitors including 720 million via mobile.

 On June 19, 2017, Altice N.V. announced it had closed the sale of its Belgium and Luxembourg businesses, SFR BeLux (Coditel Brabant BVBA and its subsidiary Coditel S.a.r.l) to Telenet.

 On June 12, 2017, Altice N.V. announced a multiyear partnership with Netflix which will lead to Netflix's content being made available to Altice customers to all eligible devices in France, Portugal, Israel and Dominican Republic.

 On May 23, 2017, Altice N.V. announced the transformation from a holding company with a collection of different assets and brands around the world, to a unified global group with one single brand - Altice. The Altice name, brand and new logo will replace the current brands at each of Altice's operating companies, including Optimum and Suddenlink, and it is expected that the commercial brands will have completed the transition process by the end of the second quarter of 2018. The business brands will transition to Altice Business.

 During May and June 2017, Altice N.V. acquired an aggregate number of 19,921,425 SFR Group shares in private off-market transactions. In consideration for these acquisitions, Altice delivered common shares A, which it held previously as treasury shares. Following these transactions and the relinquishing of double voting rights by Altice N.V.'s indirect subsidiary Altice France S.A., at the end of June 2017 the Altice Group held directly and indirectly 94.3% of the capital and voting rights of SFR Group.

Contacts

Chief Investor Relations Officer

Nick Brown: +41 79 720 1503 / nick.brown@altice.net

Chief Communications Officer

Arthur Dreyfuss: +41 79 946 4931 / arthur.dreyfuss@altice.net

Conference call details

The company will host a conference call and webcast tomorrow, July 28, 2017, to discuss the results at 3:00pm CEST (2:00pm UK time, 9:00am EDT)

Webcast live: https://pgi.webcasts.com/starthere.jsp?ei=1155280&tp_key=1e96222d73

Dial-in access telephone numbers:

France: +33 1 76 77 25 06

UK: +44 330 336 9412

USA: +1 719 325 2226

Confirmation Code: 9369116

Attachments:

http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/0c44e2c1-12ab-4fdf-adc1-76b61f3409e7
Russia criticises US for blaming Syria for chemical attack

International

oi-PTI

United Nations, July 27: Without ever visiting the site and ignoring two witnesses presented by Damascus, the United States and its Western allies rushed to judgment and blamed the Syrian government for using sarin nerve gas in an attack on an opposition-held town, said Russia.

It also criticised the report by the fact-finding mission from the chemical weapons watchdog that investigated the incident in Khan Sheikhoun on April 4 which killed more than 90 people, calling it "very biased."

A letter from Russia's UN Mission to Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and the UN Security Council circulated Wednesday contains Russia's assessment of the status of the investigation into the incident in Idlib province.

The attack sparked outrage around the world as photos and video of the aftermath, including quivering children dying on camera, were widely broadcast. The United States blamed the Syrian military for the attack and launched a punitive strike days later on the Shayrat air base where it said the attack was launched.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, a Russian ally, has denied using chemical weapons. The Russian assessment says one thing is clear sarin was used and this was confirmed by analysis of samples from the site received by Syrian authorities. "However, one important question remains unanswered by whom, in what circumstances and how it was used," the Russian report said.

A fact-finding team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons investigated the Khan Sheikhoun attack and reported on June 30 that sarin was used. It is now up to a joint UN-OPCW body known as the Joint Investigative Mechanism or JIM to determine responsibility.

"It will be impossible to establish the truth without a visit to Khan Sheikhoun by the experts of the fact-finding mission and the Joint Investigative Mechanism, although the perpetrators and organizers of this horrific act of provocation have already done a lot of cleaning up and manipulation," the Russian report said.

It said an inspection of the Shayrat airfield "is still a priority, as this facility (was) allegedly the storage site for the sarin used in Idlib." The report said the Syrian government "offered guarantees" of full access to Shayrat and invited the OPCW fact-finding mission and the JIM to visit the site immediately after "the tragic events" in Khan Sheikhoun.

But it said the OPCW didn't visit because of "the security risks involved" and the JIM needed to wait for the fact-finding mission's report. Russia said investigations by Turkey, Britain and France, which "resulted in quite predictable and peremptory findings of guilt on the part of Damascus," raised many questions including on whether the collection of evidence met international standards.

And Russia asked why the three countries managed to obtain evidence from the site but didn't take the opportunity to visit Khan Sheikhoun. As for the fact-finding mission's report, Russia said it "intentionally" emphasized that the statements from the two witnesses presented by Syrian authorities supported a divergent view that it was "an act of provocation by the militants and their foreign sponsors."

"Should we not seek the truth of the events in these same statements, which differ from the general picture that has clearly been orchestrated by the opposition and by NGOs sympathetic to the opposition?" Russia asked.

Russia further asked perhaps we should, first of all, seek to investigate the 'real estate agents' from an armed opposition group, who rented out a building for the storage of toxic chemicals, and the ambulances from a neighboring country that removed the injured persons, perhaps as prearranged, from the scene of the chemical attack.

PTI

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 9:36 [IST]
Don't allow next Doklam in Arunachal, says BJP MP; claims China has encroached upon 60 km of state

Was Doklam standoff staged by China to appease Pakistan?

International

oi-Vicky

By Vicky

China has repeatedly blamed India for the Doklam standoff. The Chinese went on to say that it was the Indians who moved its troops which led to the standoff at Doklam.

OneIndia discusses with former Research and Analysis Wing officer, Amar Bhushan what led to the sudden aggression by China. Bhushan says that let us one fact straight and that is there will be no escalation from both sides.

He says that the Chinese may have come under pressure from Pakistan to escalate the matter and cause a diversion.

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Pakistan is under a lot of pressure thanks to the aggressive stand taken by our Army. They are facing major losses and the country is facing the heat like it has never done before.

In such a scenario, they looked towards their 'all weather friend,' China for support. In my analysis of how the events unfolded at Doklam, it looks like the entire episode was staged to benefit Pakistan.

Pakistan felt that it needed some breathing space after receiving a beating from India and hence may have requested the Chinese to create a diversion, Bhushan also points out. All these borders, be it with Pakistan or China go quiet during the winter and these issues would automatically be resolved then, the former R&AW officer explains.

Bhushan says that since this entire Doklam issue looks staged, there is no chance that it would escalate any further. There would be a resolution soon on the issue or matters would just drag till the winter, he also says.

OneIndia News
Why is China so aggressive on the Doklam standoff

International

oi-Prabhpreet

By Prabhpreet

The tensions between India and China have been high for more than a month now, with their armies locked in a standoff in the Doklam region at the India-Bhutan-China tri-junction since June 16th.

Though it is not the first time that issues in various sectors of the nearly 3500 kilometer Line of Actual Control between the two countries have come up, the nature of and the speed at which, tensions, rose in this case and have shown no signs of abating, have made it a cause of concern.

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The specifics of the latest dispute include accusations related to actions of both countries in the Doklam area, which is a disputed territory between China and Bhutan, and include attempts to construct a road in the area by the Chinese, which was stopped by Indian soldiers. In retaliation, they have been accused of destroying two bunkers of the Indian Army.

Even though significant time has passed since then, no positive change has taken place to ensure that the dispute does not turn into a conflict between the two Asian giants.

Instead, the Chinese administration seems to have taken a rigid and aggressive stand following the tune of the Chinese state media, which has been threatening India with dire consequences since the beginning of the standoff.

Reasons for such a policy could be seen through the internal politics China and its leader, India's standing and policy, and the volatile relationship between the two countries. India's retaliation this time has been strong and seems to have caught the Chinese by surprise

Xi Jinping and the politics in China

Later this year, China is to witness the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party India's retaliation this time has been strong and seems to have caught the Chinese by surprise where the new members of the all powerful Politburo Standing Committee are to be appointed.

Chinese President Xi Jinping, whose is widely expected to get his second term following the event, would like to consolidate his power further by ensuring his choices replace 5 of the 7 members of the committee who are set to retire.

This makes it necessary for Xi to not have an image of having lost out or conceding to India. And a mutual and simultaneous retreat of troops of both sides from the standoff, as the Indian side has asked for, would be seen as such.

Such a point can be seen as the reason behind the insistence, of the Chinese administration and the state owned media, for India to withdraw its soldiers first for any chance of talks to take place between the two countries.

Also with the initial ramping up of emotions on the topic by the country's media, it would be hard for the Chinese government to back down, as it would result in a loss of face for the President.

Especially since it would harm Xi's overall vision of projecting himself as a bigger leader than Presidents of the recent past, and him being more in line with the likes of revered leaders such as Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping.

It is this desire which can be seen behind him taking on his ambitious projects such as One Belt One Road initiative (OBOR), seen as a part of a modern day Silk Route, which would he hopes, make China the hub of trade in the world and cement his place in history.

It's all been building up

India took a tough stand on OBOR, as it refused to send representatives to a summit for it earlier this year or be a part of the project, as it claimed that parts of the project challenge its territorial sovereignty.

This was seen as tough stand by India given that most nations in the world including European powers, and the US, which had initially planned not to be represented eventually changing their stand.

This though was just one of the areas of recent disputes between the two. While India has spent enormous energy in trying to become a member of the coveted Nuclear Suppliers Group, it is China which has blocked its entry. On top of this, the Chinese have refuted India's demand to list Jaish-e-Muhammad's Chief Masood Azhar as a globally designated terrorist by the United Nations.

These are just a few example, while other issues such as China's continuous irritation on the issue of the Dalai Lama and India's concerns with China's support for Pakistan in Pakistan-Occupied-Kashmir have continued to build pressure on the fault lines of the relationship between the two.

Along with these, the presence of Bhutan, which is a neighbour of both India and China in the middle of this crisis has complicated the matters for both nations. Though India has justified its intervention in Doklam to honour its agreement with Bhutan to safeguard the kingdoms' sovereignty.

It is also in keeping with India's counter as it sees China's move in Doklam as a continuation of its 'string of pearls' policy by which Bejing has tried envelope it by having close ties with countries in the sub-continent using different methods.

This could be seen as a major reason for India to move in quickly and prove its resolve to back Bhutan in a territory claimed by it and not let Chinese force the kingdom into having closer ties.

Though such a policy has been implemented before by China, India's retaliation this time has been strong and seems to have caught the Chinese by surprise and added to extra aggressiveness from their side.

Media has added fuel to fire

The media in both countries, State owned in China and private in India, have been in overdrive mode to blame the other country and calling for tough action against it.

Last month, the Indian media was helped in its rhetoric by statements made by the Army Chief Bipin Rawat, who said the country was prepared for two and a half front war, referring to Pakistan and China, or Defence Minister Arun Jaitley reminding China that India is not the same as during the 1962 war, in which India suffered a loss. But the media has considerably calmed down on this front even though the conflict has remained the same, or even grown.

Chinese media, on the other hand, seems to have upped the ante as the tensions have increased. They have not only blamed India for the current dispute by calling its actions a challenge to China's territorial sovereignty but also launched personal attacks on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, etc.

Such building up of pressure seems to have forced the administration's hand and to take a similar tone too. As for the first time one of its senior leader, Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, blamed India for triggering the ongoing standoff at Doklam and said that the issue would be resolved only once India withdrew its border troops. That too just two days ahead Doval's visit to China when talks to resolve the standoff are expected to be held.

It is not hard to imagine that such a behaviour of the Chinese media must not have helped whatever diplomatic channels might be working in the background to end the situation at the border till now.

This along with all the other points of fissures between the two seem to have forced China's hand to take an aggressive stand on the current standoff.

OneIndia News
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MELBOURNE, Fla., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Goldfield Corporation (NYSE American:GV), a leading provider of electrical construction services for the utility industry and industrial customers through its subsidiaries Power Corporation of America, C and C Power Line, Inc. and Southeast Power with operations primarily in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States and Texas, today announced it will issue second-quarter 2017 financial results for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017, on or before the market opens on Thursday, August 10th. Investors can access the financial results (including any information required by Regulation G) at http://ir.goldfieldcorp.com/financial-results.

The Companys President and Chief Executive Officer John H. Sottile and Chief Financial Officer Stephen R. Wherry will host a conference call and webcast to discuss results at 10 a.m. Eastern time that morning. To participate in the conference call via telephone, please dial (866) 373-3407 (domestic) or (412) 902-1037 (international) at least five minutes prior to the start of the event. Goldfield will also webcast the conference call live via the internet. Interested parties may access the webcast at http://thegoldfieldcorp.equisolvewebcast.com/q2-2017 or through the Investor Relations section of the Companys website at http://www.goldfieldcorp.com. Please access the website at least 15 minutes prior to the start of the call to register and download and install any necessary audio software. The webcast will be archived at this link or through the Investor Relations section of the Companys website for six months.

About Goldfield

Goldfield is a leading provider of electrical construction services engaged in the construction of electrical infrastructure for the utility industry and industrial customers, primarily in the Southeast and mid-Atlantic regions of the United States and Texas. For additional information, please refer to our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission or visit the Companys website at http://www.goldfieldcorp.com.
Transforming company with focus and commitment on neglected and rare diseases



Continue to expect New Drug Application (NDA) submission for benznidazole in Chagas disease to FDA in first quarter 2018

BRISBANE, Calif., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB:KBIO), a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing medicines for patients with neglected and rare diseases, today announced it will change the companys name to Humanigen, Inc., effective August 7, 2017.

We have completely transformed into a new company with a focus on neglected and rare disease. Our new identity reflects the company we have re-built with a new team consistently executing our strategy in diseases with high unmet need and leading the way in how we operate, said Cameron Durrant, MD, chairman and CEO. Moving forward as Humanigen will give us a new platform to continue our significant progress, to focus on the future, and to deliver value for patients, investors and all our other stakeholders.

As Humanigen, the company expects to accelerate this transformation executing on key priorities and anticipated milestones, including:

New Drug Application (NDA) submission for benznidazole in Chagas disease, a neglected tropical disease, to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in first quarter 2018

Submission for both rare pediatric designation and orphan drug designation for lenzilumab in Juvenile Myelomonocytic Leukemia (JMML)

Development of an interim analysis of the lenzilumab Phase 1 trial in Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia (CMML)

Up-listing to a national securities exchange and ongoing work to improve the capital structure

In just over a year, the company has transformed how it operates and has rapidly achieved a number of important clinical development milestones, including:

Benznidazole in Chagas disease:

Confirmed that benznidazole is eligible for review via the 505(b)(2) regulatory pathway as a potential treatment for Chagas disease per FDA-issued guidance

Eligible to receive priority review voucher if benznidazole becomes the first FDA-approved treatment for Chagas disease per agency guidance

Opened a benznidazole Investigational New Drug (IND) application with the FDA

Received FDA orphan drug designation for benznidazole

Lenzilumab in CMML:

Initiated a Phase 1 trial of lenzilumab in CMML, a rare disease with unmet need

The companys stock will also begin trading under the new ticker symbol HGEN on the OTCQB market as of the opening on August 7, 2017  the effective date. The CUSIP number for Humanigens common stock will be 444863104.

The name change does not affect the rights of the company's stockholders. No action is required by existing stockholders with respect to the name change, and certificates representing outstanding shares of the companys common stock will not need to be exchanged.

Upon effective date, the companys website will be www.humanigen.com.

About the Company

The company is a biopharmaceutical company focused on advancing medicines for patients with neglected and rare diseases through innovative, accelerated business models. Lead compounds in the portfolio are benznidazole for the potential treatment of Chagas disease in the U.S., and the proprietary monoclonal antibodies, lenzilumab and ifabotuzumab. Lenzilumab has potential for treatment of various rare diseases, including hematologic cancers such as chronic myelomonocytic leukemia (CMML) and juvenile myelomonocytic leukemia (JMML).

About Benznidazole

Benznidazole is an oral anti-parasitic medication used in the treatment of Chagas disease, caused by a protozoan parasite Trypanosoma cruzi carried and transmitted by triatomine insects (often called "kissing bugs"). An estimated 350,000 people in the United States are infected with Chagas disease, which, if left untreated, can lead to serious and potentially life-threatening cardiovascular, gastro-intestinal and neurological complications. According to a May 2017 PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases paper, those infected have an almost 18 times average higher risk of death from Chagas-related cardiac issues than those not infected. Benznidazole is the current preferred treatment for Chagas disease in other parts of the world but is not currently approved by the FDA in the U.S.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements that are intended to be subject to protection afforded by the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements reflect management's current knowledge, assumptions, judgment and expectations regarding future performance or events. Although management believes that the expectations reflected in such statements are reasonable, they give no assurance that such expectations will prove to be correct and you should be aware that actual events or results may differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking statements. Words such as "will," "expect," "intend," "plan," "potential," "possible," "goals," "accelerate," "continue," and similar expressions identify forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, statements regarding our expectations as to the timing for submission of our NDA for benznidazole and our expectations for executing on the other key priorities and anticipated milestones described above. Forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties including, but not limited to, our lack of profitability and the need for additional capital to operate our business as a going concern; the uncertainties inherent in the development and launch of any new pharmaceutical product; the acceptability to FDA of a 505(b)(2) development pathway for approval of benznidazole using data drawn from previously conducted studies; and the various risks and uncertainties described in the "Risk Factors" sections and elsewhere in the Company's periodic and other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

All forward-looking statements are expressly qualified in their entirety by this cautionary notice. You should not place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date of this release. We undertake no obligation to revise or update any forward-looking statements made in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect new information or the occurrence of unanticipated events, except as required by law.
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Former governor of Anambra State and presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Mr Peter Obi, has said that he is overwhelmed by the love the Obidients have continue to show him even as the nation prepares for another election.

Obis statement was in appreciation of a post made by one of his supporters who climbed Mount Kilimanjaro To Place the Labour Partys Flag.

The supporter who goes by OGersh on Twitter, made a post suggesting that he climbed Africas tallest mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro for 10 and a half hours to place the partys flag at the Uhuru Peak which is the highest point of the mountain and highest point in Africa.

2023: Peter Obi Has Already Won The Election, Says Kenneth Okonkwo

OGersh shared a picture of himself at Uhuru Peak, next to the Labour Party flag on Tuesday saying, On Fri, 20/10/2022 after 10 hrs of climbing, hiking and trekking, I made it to the Uhuru Peak of Mount Kilimanjaro, 5,895m above sea level.

There is no better place to announce the coming of a New Nigeria than the rooftop of Africa.

Reacting to this gesture, Mr Obi in a brief statement on Thursday said, I am always overwhelmed by the show of love and support from the OBIdients in Nigeria and Diaspora. Your many acts of sacrifices reassure me of your patriotism and flaming desire to take back your country for good.

Thank you @OGersh for taking our OBIdient message to the peak of Mount Kilimanjaro. It must have been a tough journey going up there for a noble sacrifice. I assure you and every Nigerian that under my watch, Nigeria will regain its position as the pride of Africa.

Mr Obi further noted that though the 2023 journey may be a though one, still the he, his running mate, the Labour Party and the Obidients will not stop, till the movement gets to the top which would be the winning of the forthcoming election.
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CALGARY, Alberta, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Petrocapita Income Trust (CSE:PCE.UN) (Petrocapita or the Trust) announces that the trustees of Petrocapita have approved, by resolution, the consolidation of the common trust units (the Common Trust Units) on the basis of one whole new Common Trust Unit for every existing one hundred Common Trust Units, effective as of August 18, 2017 (the Consolidation). In connection with the Consolidation, the trustees of Petrocapita have also approved the extension of the expiry date of certain warrants (the Warrants) and the re-pricing of such Warrants (the Warrant Amendment), which were issued in connection with Petrocapitas previously announced private placement of 8% secured convertible debentures (the Convertible Debentures).

Details related to the offering of Convertible Debentures to date have been filed with the Canadian Securities Exchange (www.theCSE.com) and under Petrocapitas profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Consolidation

Petrocapita Income Trust currently has 1,109,731,962 Common Trust Units outstanding and, following the Consolidation will have approximately 11,097,320 Common Trust Units outstanding. No fractional Common Trust Units will be issued pursuant to the Consolidation and any fractional units that would have otherwise been issued will be rounded up to the nearest whole number.

The Consolidation remains subject to final approval of the Canadian Securities Exchange. Petrocapita intends to retain the same name and ticker symbol subsequent to the Consolidation.

Warrant Terms

Pursuant to the Warrant Amendment, the expiry date of the Warrants issued in conjunction with the Convertible Debentures will be extended from December 31, 2018 to December 31, 2020, the maturity date of the Convertible Debentures, provided that the expiry date of any Warrants that were issued prior to December 31, 2015 shall be extended to the date that is 5 years from the date such Warrants were issued.

In addition, the Warrants will be re-priced so that the exercise price of the Warrants shall be 1.10 times the average closing price, or the midpoint between the closing bid and ask on days where no trading occurs, of the Common Trust Units on the Canadian Securities Exchange for the most recent 20 trading days at the time of the Warrant Amendment.

The Warrant Amendment is expected to occur 20 trading days subsequent to August 18, 2017, the effective date of the Consolidation.

However, if, following the Warrant Amendment, the closing price of the Common Trust Units exceeds the amended exercise price by the applicable private placement discount prescribed by the Canadian Securities Exchange for any 10 consecutive trading days, the expiry date of the Warrants shall be amended to 30 days. The amended expiry date shall be announced by press release and the 30 day period will commence 7 days from the end of the 10 day period.

The Trust currently has approximately 445,830,000 Warrants outstanding and, following the Consolidation will have approximately 4,458,300 Warrants outstanding. No fractional Warrants will be issued pursuant to the Consolidation and any fractional units that would have otherwise been issued will be rounded up to the nearest whole number.

The re-pricing of the Warrants is subject to the consent of the warrant-holders and the Canadian Securities Exchange.

About Petrocapita

Petrocapita Income Trust is a Specified Investment Flow Through trust developing and acquiring heavy oil production and infrastructure assets in the Lloydminster area of east central Alberta and west central Saskatchewan through its wholly owned subsidiary, Petrocapita Oil and Gas L.P. Petrocapita owns and/or operates 445 gross (426.3 net) oil wells, 91 gross (22 net) gas wells, 19 produced water disposal facilities, 3 custom oil processing facilities, 4 natural gas compressor stations, 72.75 km in pipelines, oil well service rigs, fluid haul tractors and trailers, motor graders and well site processing equipment. It is seeking accretive opportunities to acquire both oil production and complimentary midstream assets during a cyclical low in the oil and gas markets.

This release is not an offer of securities of the Trust for sale in the United States. The Common Trust Units and Warrants of the Trust have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and the Common Trust Units and Warrants may not be offered or sold in the United States except pursuant to an applicable exemption from such registration. No public offering of securities is being made in the United States.

FORWARD LOOKING INFORMATION:

Certain statements and information contained in this news release constitute forward-looking statements and forward-looking information as defined under applicable securities legislation (collectively, "forward-looking statements"). These forward-looking statements relate to future events or Petrocapita's future performance. All statements other than statements of historical fact are forward-looking statements. The use of any of the words "anticipate", "plan", "contemplate", "continue", "estimate", "expect", "intend", "propose", "might", "may", "will", "shall", "project", "should", "could", "would", "believe", "predict", "forecast", "pursue", "potential" and "capable" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. In particular, and without limitation, this news release contains forward-looking statements pertaining to: the occurrence of the Consolidation and the Warrant Amendment; the intention of the Trust to retain the same name and ticker symbol; the extension of the expiry date of the Warrants; the re-pricing of the Warrants; and required approvals from the Canadian Securities Exchange and the warrant holders to complete the Consolidation and the Warrant Amendment. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results or events to differ materially from those anticipated in such forward-looking statements. Although management believes that the expectations conveyed by any forward-looking statements are reasonable, no assurance can be given that these expectations will prove to be correct and such forward-looking statements included in this news release should not be unduly relied upon. With respect to forward-looking statements contained in this news release, assumptions have been made regarding, among other things: Petrocapitas continued operations, the anticipated benefits of the Consolidation and the Warrant Amendment, the continued offering of the Convertible Debentures, and the receipt of required approvals from the Canadian Securities Exchange and the warrant holders. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to, the risks related to: the Consolidation and the Warrant Amendment are not approved by the Canadian Securities Exchange and the warrant holders; the anticipated benefits of Consolidation and the Warrant Amendment are not realized; volatility in market prices and demand for crude oil; general economic, market and business conditions; difficulties encountered in the development and production of Petrocapita's reserves; difficulties encountered in the upgrading and/or operation of Petrocapita's facilities; the loss of key personnel; the failure to realize the benefits of upgrading Petrocapita's facilities; the inability to generate sufficient cash flow from operations to meet current and future obligations; the inability to obtain required debt and/or equity capital on acceptable terms or at all; changes in tax law or other adverse regulatory, royalty or tax changes; diversion of management to manage unforeseen business or operating issues; current global financial conditions.

Readers are cautioned that the risk factors set forth above should not be construed as exhaustive. Additional information on risks, uncertainties and factors that could affect the foregoing forward-looking information and/or Petrocapita's operations or results therefrom is included in its filings with the securities commissions which have been filed under Petrocapita's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com).

Although the forward-looking statements contained in this news release are based upon what Petrocapita's management believes to be reasonable assumptions, Petrocapita cannot assure investors that actual results will be consistent with such information.

Forward-looking statements reflect management's current beliefs and are based on information currently available to Petrocapita. Petrocapita cautions readers not to place undue reliance on Petrocapita's forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements are made as of the date of this news release and Petrocapita assumes no obligation to update or revise such information to reflect new events or circumstances, except as may be required by applicable securities laws.
Victor Osimhen has kind words for Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti after he scored his first hat-trick for the club in Saturdays 4-0 home win against Sassuolo.

The Nigeria international maintained his impressive scoring form for the Parthenopeans with another dominating display at the Diego Armando Maradona Stadium.

The forward has now scored six goals in his last four appearances for the Naples club.

Osimhen heaped plaudits on the manager for his role in his development this season.

This season the coach (Spalletti) has given me as much confidence as I can get. I am really happy to rely on him giving me the maximum confidence, he told DAZN.

I have just returned from five weeks out, which is not easy, and it is important to get really integrated with the team.

Osimhen has so far scored eight goals in eight Serie A appearances for Napoli this season.

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At the conclusion of the indictment filed against Ebony Mayfield by the United States Attorney for Northern District of Georgia at the District Court in Atlanta, Georgia, Ebony Mayfield, a former staff of Springfield Aviation Company Inc. was given Probation and a $4000.fine in respect of the Criminal Indictment, after an investigation spanning over three years and involving about five Agencies of the US Government.

Ebony, an administrative staff with limited knowledge in Letter of Credit Transactions, pleaded guilty to one count in the indictment, presumably as she realized the futility of attempting to explain several Letters of Credit utilized for purchase of Aircraft for Air Peace Limited in a Jury trial.

A law firm in Nigeria, A.O. Alegeh & Co, Legal Practitioners and Notaries Public, explained that Probation is the lowest possible sentence available under US Federal Law.

The firm highlighted that Ebony was not given any prison, sentence, confinement, or home detention by the Court. According to the firm, this confirms the position of our Clients that there was no fraudulent intent in all the Letters of Credit, there was no victim in any way, manner, or form.

All the funds involved were legitimate funds belonging to Our Clients. There was no loss of money or any damage whatsoever to any third Party.

The US Government admitted in Court that no Bank suffered any financial loss in this matter.

the counsel noted that there have been false and unsubstantiated Press stories in Nigeria, about the Indictment and Ebony Mayfield.

The legal firm maitnaineed: Our Clients never took loans or credit from any US Bank and Ebony was never paid the sum of $20,000.00 at any time to commit any fraud, as is being peddled by a section of the Nigerian Press. Ebony, like other Springfield Aviation Company Inc. staff was only paid her bi-weekly salary and/or allowances.

These stories are far from the truth and are deliberately being peddled by a section of the Nigerian Press for ulterior

motives.

Our Clients maintain their innocence in the matter and state that all steps taken in respect of the Letters of Credit were taken in good faith and with legitimate funds. All the aircraft involved were brought into Nigeria and utilized in the operations of Air Peace Limited. There was no victim.

There was no loss of funds to any person and there was no criminal intent whatsoever.

Our clients position has been reviewed by various Law Enforcement Agencies in Nigeria and no evidence of criminality has been established against our Clients. Our Clients remain resolute in the assertion of innocence.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Anacott Resources Corp. (Anacott or the Company) is pleased to announce the results of its Annual General and Special Meeting of shareholders held today in Vancouver (the Meeting). At the Meeting, shareholders voted 99.69% in favour of the spin out of Silverstone Resources Corp., Buckingham Copper Corp., Stowe One Investments Corp., Lillingstone Metals Inc., 2583262 Ontario Inc., Chackmore Unit Trust and Akeley Unit Trust (collectively, the Spin-Cos).



Under the terms of the proposed spin-out to be completed through a statutory plan of arrangement (Plan of Arrangement), the shareholders of Anacott will receive common shares or trust units, as applicable, of the Spin-Cos by way of a share exchange (the Share Exchange). Pursuant to the Share Exchange each Anacott shareholder will receive the following in exchange for each existing common share of Anacott: 1.00 new Anacott common share; 1.00 Silverstone Resources Corp. common share; 0.71 of a Buckingham Copper Corp. common share, 0.71 of a Stowe One Investments Corp. common share; 0.71 of a Lillingstone Metals Inc. common share; 0.71 of a 2583262 Ontario Inc. common share; 0.71 of a Chackmore Unit Trust trust unit; and 0.71 of a Akeley Unit Trust trust unit.

The spin-out transaction remains subject to final court approval and is expected to be completed on or about July 28, 2017.

In addition, the Company is pleased to announce the re-election of Dr. Fletcher Morgan, Candice Williams and Catalin Chiloflischi as directors at todays Meeting. At the Meeting shareholders also re-appointed D&H Group LLP, Chartered Professional Accountants as auditors for the Company for the ensuing year, set the number of directors to be elected at the Meeting at three and approved an amendment to the Companys articles.

This news release contains forward-looking information within the meaning of applicable securities laws relating to the completion of the Plan of Arrangement and associated matters. Although the Company believes in light of the experience of its officers and directors, current conditions and expected future developments and other factors that have been considered appropriate that the expectations reflected in this forward-looking information are reasonable, undue reliance should not be placed on them because the Company can give no assurance that they will prove to be correct or enduring. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those contemplated by these statements depending on, among other things, the risks related to factors described in the Companys most recently filed Management Information Circular. The statements in this press release represent the expectations of Anacott as of the date of this press release and, accordingly, are subject to change after such date. Readers are cautioned to not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. The Company does not undertake to update this information at any particular time except as required in accordance with applicable securities laws.

This press release is not an offer of the securities for sale in the United States. The securities have not been registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an exemption from registration. This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of the securities in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful.

Not for distribution to U.S. Newswire Services or for dissemination in the United States of America. Any failure to comply with this restriction may constitute a violation of U.S. Securities laws.
Arsenal great Ian Wright has said Graham Potter is to blame for Chelseas 4-1 defeat at Brighton and Hove Albion on Saturday.

Chelsea went behind after just five minutes to an early Leandro Trossard strike, while own goals from Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Trevoh Chalobah gave the hosts a three-goal lead at the break.

German forward Kai Havertz pulled a goal back after the restart but Pascal Gross added a fourth goal in stoppage time.

Potter decided to continue with Christian Pulisic and Raheem Sterling at wing-back, which worked well against RB Salzburg in the Champions League, but Wright felt it was a massive issue against Brighton and feels he should reconsider his team selection.

Wright said on Match of the Day: Well the wing-backs. Weve seen theyve used a variety of wing-backs this season and when you look at their bench theyve got [Cesar] Azpilicueta and Ben Chilwell.

But they started with Pulisic and Sterling and I found that very confusing.

Also Read: Osimhen Reveals Secret Behind Impressive Scoring Form For Napoli

And when you watch what they do, and when you look at the positions they were taking up, they werent really helping Chalobah or Cucurella or Thiago Silva.

And what was happening was they [the three centre-backs] were getting pulled all over the place.

Chalobah is way too far up, theres no real cover because Pulisic isnt coming back and helping, or Sterling wasnt coming back and helping, and Brighton were [getting in behind] all the time.

Wright stated:Everything Brighton did, look how far Silva has to come in, all the way in with Trossard, Cucurella the left-sided centre-half comes over [to the byline] and then you know theres a load of space behind.

On a couple of occasions, [Ruben] Loftus-Cheek is the one who has had to try and go in there [to cover at centre-back] to rescue the situation.

Brighton would go down the middle, work it out wide, Chalobah comes in and gets beaten very easily, and then bam [ball in behind] every single time. And this is a problem for them.

And like I say, theyve got full-backs on the bench that can play that position and give more cover.

You see Pulisic here, there he is, hes with his man, his man is going on the outside of him now, but Pulisic switches off and they rightly get punished for it.

The centre-halves had a terrible day today because they were dragged all over the place and they had a poor game, Wright concluded.

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President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Ibrahim Gusau has praised the Flamingos despite the teams failure to progress to the final of the 2022 FIFA U-17 Womens World Cup in India.

Bankole Olowookeres side lost 6-5 on penalties to Colombia in their semi-final clash on Wednesday.

The Flamingos were one kick away from making a first appearance in the final of the biennial competition.

Read Also: Croatia: Awaziem Scores 4th League Goal Of Season As Hajduk Split Claim Home Win

Gusau took to the social media to celebrate the gallant girls.

Amazing performance by the girls and Im very proud of them despite the outcome of the match. Their development and welfare remains a priority to us. Well done girls #SoarFlamingos,Gusau wrote on his Twitter handle.

The Flamingos will take on Germany in the third-place on Friday.

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Komfie Manalo, Opalesque Asia:

The growth of artificial intelligence has pushed fund managers to utilize this technology and explore new ways to use it to their advantage, said John Harrison, a partner and Group CFO/COO at Amplitude Capital, a systematic CTA hedge fund, at the latest Opalesque 2017 UK Roundtable.

"Artificial intelligence has become a big debate now in our industry which we clearly can't ignore," Harrison stated. "Also at Amplitude, there is a push to examine the extent to which we can utilize AI as a means of enhancing what we already do and also explore new ways."

However, the bottleneck is obviously talent, which is very limited in its availability and becoming more desirable. From a business perspective, the art would be "to enter the fray at the optimal time", he said.

Harrison continued, "AI projects will have a lead time before results can be determined, but managers must not ignore the subject. Some managers are actually making remarkable progress in this area, and if you get left behind, there's always a danger that you are left holding the Nokia mobile telephone when iPhones are coming out, and nobody really wants to be in that spot."

Despite elements of hype, the underlying technology is undoubtedly there and will grow

Dr Toby Goodworth, head of Diversifying Strategies at investment consultan......................

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Opalesque Industry Update - Institutional investors based in Asia-Pacific have allocated more capital to hedge funds in recent years, reaching a record $202bn as of the end of 2016, up from $180bn a year earlier, according to research house Preqin. This is at odds with allocation trends in North America and Europe, which in 2016 saw a greater proportion of investors indicate they were seeking to draw back from hedge funds than were looking to increase their investments. The majority of capital invested in hedge funds by Asia-Pacific-based investors comes from sovereign wealth funds, while several investors, particularly in South Korea, have made their maiden investments in the asset class in 2016. Key Asia-Pacific Hedge Fund Facts: - Preqin currently tracks 588 Asia-Pacific-based institutional investors in hedge funds, which collectively have $202bn invested in the asset class. - Sovereign wealth funds account for 54% of capital invested in hedge funds by Asia-Pacific-based investors, while asset managers (10%), private sector pension funds (8%) and insurance companies (8%) also account for significant proportions. - Some of the largest investors in the region are sovereign wealth funds: Singapore's GIC allocates $10.5bn to hedge funds, while Australia's Future Fund allocates $14.8bn and the China Investment Corporation invests an estimated $30.8bn in hedge funds. - Australia contains the largest number of hedge fund investors in the region (185), followed by Japan (118) and Hong Kong (92). - Singapore-based institutions have the highest average allocation to hedge funds, at 14.1% of their assets, while Hong Kong- (13.9%) and Japan-based investors (13.0%) also allocate significant proportions. "The Asia-Pacific hedge fund industry is becoming an increasingly important part of the global landscape, said Amy Bensted, Head of Hedge Fund Products. "Regulatory changes and increasing institutionalisation in the region is exposing growing numbers of countries and investor types to opportunities in hedge funds. Investors in turn are allocating increasing amounts of capital to the industry, an increase of over $20bn in 2016 alone. "Although the capital flowing to hedge funds from Asia-Pacific institutions is currently driven by sovereign wealth funds, there are signs that the industry's appeal is attracting an increasingly diverse range of investors. In particular, it will be interesting to see if investors in emerging Asian economies will become more involved with the asset class. Given the size of the economies of China and India, as these financial markets become more sophisticated it may give a significant boost to the industry in the region." Press release Bg For more information and analysis, see the full Hedge Funds in Asia-Pacific report here: Article source - Opalesque is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Intramuscular Injector Market in EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) and its Analysis and Trends

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EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector Market Report 2017- Purchase This Report by calling ResearchnReports.com at +1-888-631-6977.In this report, the analyst presents the scenario of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector Market in the global region and also estimates the growth of the market in the near future. The report estimates the present valuation of the market and forecasts the market size during the next couple of years. The reports serve as a useful guide for the new as well as the existing players in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector market by providing details about the growth opportunities of the market. The report provides the key drivers and restraints propelling and hampering the overall growth of the market worldwide. It also points out the recent trends in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector market and future opportunities for the market to grow.Browse the Sample Report@The report talks about the competitive environment prevailing in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector market worldwide. The report lists the key players in the market and also provides insightful information about them such as their business overview, product segmentation, and revenue segmentation. Further, the report studies the market share held by the key players and forecast their growth during the next couple of years. The report also looks at the latest developments among the key players in the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector markets such as partnerships, mergers, and acquisitions.On the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into; Fillable PrefilledOn the basis of the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Intramuscular Injector for each application, including:- Hospital Clinic OthersEnquire for more Info@EMEA Intramuscular Injector market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Intramuscular Injector sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players including:- Antares Pharma Endo International PharmaJet Bioject Medical Technologies Inc Medical International Technology National Medical Products Valeritas European Pharma Group PenJet CorporationThe report makes use of several analytical tools such as investment feasibility, investment return, and market attractiveness analysis to provide a complete picture of the development of the EMEA (Europe, Middle East And Africa) Intramuscular Injector market, determining significant market strategies likely to pay off in the long run. The report has provided a clear picture of the market for the readers and players for transparent understandings.Get Discount on Full Premium Report@About Research N Reports:Research N Reports is a new age market research firm where we focus on providing information that can be effectively applied. Today being a consumer driven market, companies require information to deal with the complex and dynamic world of choices. Where relying on a sound board firm for your decisions becomes crucial. Research N Reports specializes in industry analysis, market forecasts and as a result getting quality reports covering all verticals, whether be it gaining perspective on current market conditions or being ahead in the cut throat Asia-Pacific competition. Since we excel at business research to help businesses grow, we also offer consulting as an extended arm to our services which only helps us gain more insight into current trends and problems. Consequently we keep evolving as an all-rounder provider of viable information under one roof.Contact:(Research N Reports)10916, Gold Point Dr, Houston, TX, Pin - 77064,Sunny Denis(Sales Manager),+1-8886316977,sales@researchnreports.com ,
Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, Industry, Forecast & Trends

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This report on the Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market analyzes the current and future scenario of the global market. Rise in private and public funding for R&D of novel drug delivery technologies, increase in prevalence of macular degeneration & diabetic retinopathy, and favorable regulatory scenario for introduction of innovative technologies are boosting the growth of the Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market. Rising demand for targeted drug delivery to the affected ocular tissue, and elimination of drug due to nasolacrimal drainage system when administered via topical route are some of the factors expected to drive the growth of Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market during the forecast period.Request For Sample Report :The Ocular Drug Delivery Technology report comprises an elaborate executive summary, which includes market snapshot that provides information about various segments. It also provides information and data analysis of the global market with respect to the segments based on technology type, formulation type, disease type, end user, and geography. A detailed qualitative analysis of drivers and restraints, and opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. Additionally, the section comprises Porters Five Forces Analysis to help understand the competitive landscape in the market. This section also provides market attractiveness analysis in terms of geography and market share analysis by key players, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market.Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market: SegmentationBased on the technology, the Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market has been segmented into 6 types, which are Topical, Ocular Inserts, Intraocular Implants, Iontophoresis, In Situ gel & Punctal Plugs, and Others. Ocular Inserts are further divided into Erodible & Non-erodible types, while Intraocular Implants are classified into Biodegradable & Non-biodegradable types. Intraocular Implants & Topical are considered to be leading segments of Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market, owing to the high patient compliance. They are expected to continue to dominate the market in terms of revenue by 2025, which is attributed to the introduction of novel drug delivery techniques by key players in the market. The market size and forecast for each of these segments have been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Different types of formulation types in the ocular drug delivery technology market are Solution, Suspension, Ointment, Emulsion, and Liposomes & Nanoparticles. Solutions accounted for highest market revenue in 2016, and is expected to remain leading in terms of revenue during the forecast period. The dominance is attributed to the introduction of preservative free formulation types & contamination free containers.Send An Enquiry :Based on disease type, the global ocular drug delivery technology market is segmented into 7 major segments, which are Glaucoma, Macular Degeneration, Diabetic Retinopathy, Diabetic Macular Edema, Cataract, Dry Eye Syndrome, and Others. Macular Degeneration is anticipated to lead the market during the forecast period, owing to its high prevalence and government participation in spreading awareness for visual loss & blindness.Different types of end users are present in the Ocular Drug Delivery Technology are Hospitals, Ambulatory Surgical Centers, Ophthalmic Clinics, and Homecare Settings. Under the end user segment, Hospitals accounted for the largest share of the Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology market in 2016, while Ophthalmic Clinics & Ambulatory Surgical Centers are expected to witness highest CAGR during 2017-2025.Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market: Regional AnalysisGeographically, the global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology has been categorized into five major regions and the key countries in the respective region: North America (U.S. and Canada), Europe (U.K., Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Russia and Rest of Europe), Asia Pacific (India, Japan, China, Australia & New Zealand, and Rest of Asia Pacific), Latin America (Brazil, Mexico, and Rest of Latin America) and Middle East & Africa (South Africa, GCC Countries, and Rest of Middle East & Africa).Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report also profiles major players in the Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology based on various attributes such as company overview, financial overview, product portfolio, business strategies, SWOT analysis, and recent developments. Major players profiled in this report include OCULAR THERAPEUTIX, INC., Alimera Sciences, Allergan, Plc., Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (Bausch & Lomb Incorporated), EyeGate Pharma, Envisia Therapeutics, Clearside Biomedical, INC., Graybug Vision Inc., Santen Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd, Taiwan Liposome Company, Ltd, and others.The Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market has been segmented as given below:Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, by Technology,TopicalOcular InsertErodibleNon-ErodibleIontophoresisIntraocular ImplantsBiodegradableNon-BiodegradableIn Situ Gel & Punctal PlugsOthersGlobal Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, by Formulation Type,SolutionSuspensionEmulsionLiposomes & NanoparticlesOintmentGlobal Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, by Disease Type,GlaucomaMacular DegenerationDiabetic RetinopathyCataractDiabetic Macular EdemaDry Eye SyndromeOthersBrowse Full Report With TOC :Global Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, by End userHospitalsAmbulatory Surgical centersOphthalmic ClinicsHomecare SettingsGlobal Ocular Drug Delivery Technology Market, by RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyU.K.FranceItalySpainRussiaRest of EuropeAsia PacificIndiaChinaJapanAustralia & New ZealandRest of Asia PacificLatin AmericaBrazilMexicoRest of Latin AmericaMiddle East & AfricaGCC CountriesSouth AfricaRest of Middle East & AfricaMarket Research Reports Search Engine (MRRSE) is an industry-leading database of market intelligence reports. MRRSE is driven by a stellar team of research experts and advisors trained to offer objective advice. Our sophisticated search algorithm returns results based on the report title, geographical region, publisher, or other keywords.MRRSE partners exclusively with leading global publishers to provide clients single-point access to top-of-the-line market research. MRRSEs repository is updated every day to keep its clients ahead of the next new trend in market research, be it competitive intelligence, product or service trends or strategic consulting.State Tower90, State StreetSuite 700Albany, NY - 12207United StatesTelephone: +1-518-730-0559Email: sales@mrrse.comGoogle+:Linked in:Twitter:
Electric Gripper Industry: Market By Types, Regions, Applications And Forecast to 2022

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Press Release: Pune, India- 26th July , 2017Global Electric Gripper Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Report ScenarioThis report gives In-depth information :Production of Electric Gripper across Global according to Market SegmentsConsumption of Electric Gripper across Global according to Industry Use.Competition of Electric Gripper across Global by top manufacturers.Revenue Analysis of Electric Gripper .Description:An electric gripper is a tool mounted on the equipment to grip work pieces. By opening and closing the fingers powered by electric motor rather than pneumatic power, the electric gripper grips and releases work pieces.Electric gripper and pneumatic gripper are two different types of gripper both widely used in various automation applications. Compared with pneumatic gripper, electric gripper are more cleaner grippers, need no air lines and save on power and maintenance, and electric gripper is more suitable to be used for detect grip.For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Electric Gripper in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSamsungSCHUNKSMCDestacoIAIParker HannifinFestoYamaha MotorSMACGimaticPHDHIWINCamozziZimmerSichuan DongjuMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversTwo-Finger Electric GripperThree-Finger Electric GripperMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomotive ManufacturingElectonics/ElectricalMetal ProductsFood/Beverage/personal CareRubber/PlasticsOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Electric Gripper market.Chapter 1, to describe Electric Gripper Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Electric Gripper, with sales, revenue, and price of Electric Gripper, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Electric Gripper, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Electric Gripper market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Electric Gripper sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor any Enquiry write us @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Film Thickness Measuring System market.Chapter 1, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Film Thickness Measuring System, with sales, revenue, and price of Film Thickness Measuring System, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Film Thickness Measuring System, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Film Thickness Measuring System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Electric Gripper Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Two-Finger Electric Gripper1.2.2 Three-Finger Electric Gripper1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Automotive Manufacturing1.3.2 Electonics/Electrical1.3.3 Metal Products1.3.4 Food/Beverage/personal Care1.3.5 Rubber/Plastics1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Samsung2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Samsung Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 SCHUNK2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 SCHUNK Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 SMC2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 SMC Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Destaco2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Destaco Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 IAI2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 IAI Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest 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Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Electric Gripper Global Market : key Vendors, Trends, Analysis, Segmentation, Forecast to 2017-2022

Electric Gripper Industry

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Press Release: Pune, India- 26th July , 2017Global Electric Gripper Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Report ScenarioThis report gives In-depth information :Production of Electric Gripper across Global according to Market SegmentsConsumption of Electric Gripper across Global according to Industry Use.Competition of Electric Gripper across Global by top manufacturers.Revenue Analysis of Electric Gripper .Description:An electric gripper is a tool mounted on the equipment to grip work pieces. By opening and closing the fingers powered by electric motor rather than pneumatic power, the electric gripper grips and releases work pieces.Electric gripper and pneumatic gripper are two different types of gripper both widely used in various automation applications. Compared with pneumatic gripper, electric gripper are more cleaner grippers, need no air lines and save on power and maintenance, and electric gripper is more suitable to be used for detect grip.For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Electric Gripper in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversSamsungSCHUNKSMCDestacoIAIParker HannifinFestoYamaha MotorSMACGimaticPHDHIWINCamozziZimmerSichuan DongjuMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversTwo-Finger Electric GripperThree-Finger Electric GripperMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomotive ManufacturingElectonics/ElectricalMetal ProductsFood/Beverage/personal CareRubber/PlasticsOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Electric Gripper market.Chapter 1, to describe Electric Gripper Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Electric Gripper, with sales, revenue, and price of Electric Gripper, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Electric Gripper, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Electric Gripper market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Electric Gripper sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor any Enquiry write us @There are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Film Thickness Measuring System market.Chapter 1, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Film Thickness Measuring System, with sales, revenue, and price of Film Thickness Measuring System, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Film Thickness Measuring System, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Film Thickness Measuring System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Film Thickness Measuring System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceTable of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Electric Gripper Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Two-Finger Electric Gripper1.2.2 Three-Finger Electric Gripper1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Automotive Manufacturing1.3.2 Electonics/Electrical1.3.3 Metal Products1.3.4 Food/Beverage/personal Care1.3.5 Rubber/Plastics1.3.6 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 Samsung2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 Samsung Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 SCHUNK2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 SCHUNK Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 SMC2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 SMC Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Destaco2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Destaco Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 IAI2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Electric Gripper Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 IAI Electric Gripper Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
CPLA Market - Global Industry Key Players, Development Status, Type and Application, Forecast 2017 to 2022

CPLA Market

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Global CPLA Market:WiseGuyReports.com adds CPLA Market 2017 Global Analysis, Growth, Trends and Opportunities Research Report Forecasting to 2022reports to its database.WiseGuyReports.Com Publish a New Market Research Report On Executive Summary:In this report, the global CPLA market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report split global into several key Regions, with sales (MT), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of CPLA for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringUnited StatesChinaEuropeJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaRequest Sample Report Here @...Global CPLA market competition by top manufacturers/players, with CPLA sales volume, Price (USD/MT), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingNatureWorksDIC...On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoBiodegradable CPLAIndustrial Grade CPLAOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume, market share and growth rate of CPLA for each application, includingCPLA CutleryCPLA Hot Cup LidsCPLA Trays & LidsCPLA Reusable MugsIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Enquiry Before Buying @Some Major Points from Table of Content:Table of ContentsGlobal CPLA Sales Market Report 20171 CPLA Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of CPLA1.2 Classification of CPLA by Product Category1.2.1 Global CPLA Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global CPLA Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Biodegradable CPLA1.2.4 Industrial Grade CPLA1.3 Global CPLA Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 Global CPLA Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 CPLA Cutlery1.3.3 CPLA Hot Cup Lids1.3.4 CPLA Trays & Lids1.3.5 CPLA Reusable Mugs1.4 Global CPLA Market by Region1.4.1 Global CPLA Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 United States CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 China CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Europe CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India CPLA Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value and Volume) of CPLA (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global CPLA Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global CPLA Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 Global CPLA Competition by Players/Suppliers, Type and Application2.1 Global CPLA Market Competition by Players/Suppliers2.1.1 Global CPLA Sales and Market Share of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global CPLA Revenue and Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)2.2 Global CPLA (Volume and Value) by Type2.2.1 Global CPLA Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 Global CPLA Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.3 Global CPLA (Volume and Value) by Region2.3.1 Global CPLA Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.3.2 Global CPLA Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4 Global CPLA (Volume) by Application3 United States CPLA (Volume, Value and Sales Price)3.1 United States CPLA Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 United States CPLA Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 United States CPLA Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.3 United States CPLA Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)3.2 United States CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Players3.3 United States CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Type3.4 United States CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Application4 China CPLA (Volume, Value and Sales Price)4.1 China CPLA Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 China CPLA Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 China CPLA Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.3 China CPLA Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)4.2 China CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Players4.3 China CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Type4.4 China CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Application5 Europe CPLA (Volume, Value and Sales Price)5.1 Europe CPLA Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Europe CPLA Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Europe CPLA Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.3 Europe CPLA Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)5.2 Europe CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Players5.3 Europe CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Type5.4 Europe CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Application6 Japan CPLA (Volume, Value and Sales Price)6.1 Japan CPLA Sales and Value (2012-2017)6.1.1 Japan CPLA Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.2 Japan CPLA Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6.1.3 Japan CPLA Sales Price Trend (2012-2017)6.2 Japan CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Players6.3 Japan CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by Type6.4 Japan CPLA Sales Volume and Market Share by ApplicationList of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of CPLAFigure Global CPLA Sales Volume Comparison (MT) by Type (2012-2022)Figure Global CPLA Sales Volume Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2016Figure Biodegradable CPLA Product PictureFigure Industrial Grade CPLA Product PictureFigure Global CPLA Sales Comparison (MT) by Application (2012-2022)Figure Global Sales Market Share of CPLA by Application in 2016Figure CPLA Cutlery ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CPLA CutleryFigure CPLA Hot Cup Lids ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CPLA Hot Cup LidsFigure CPLA Trays & Lids ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CPLA Trays & LidsFigure CPLA Reusable Mugs ExamplesTable Key Downstream Customer in CPLA Reusable MugsFigure Global CPLA Market Size (Million USD) by Regions (2012-2022)Figure United States CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure China CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Europe CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Japan CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Southeast Asia CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure India CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global CPLA Sales Volume (MT) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global CPLA Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate (2012-2022)Figure Global Market Major Players CPLA Sales Volume (MT) (2012-2017)Table Global CPLA Sales (MT) of Key Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)Table Global CPLA Sales Share by Players/Suppliers (2012-2017)CONTINUEDPurchase Report @For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :More about WiseGuyReports:Contact Us:NORAH TRENTPartner Relations & Marketing Managersales@wiseguyreports.comPh: +1-646-845-9349 (US)Ph: +44 208 133 9349 (UK)Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of market research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every market category and an even more comprehensive collection of market research reports under these categories and sub-categories.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT. LTD.Office No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune  411028Maharashtra, India
Federal immigration officers announced this week that they'd arrested more than one hundred immigrants living in the New York area during an 11-day sweep earlier this month.

According to an ICE press release, 114 foreign nationals based in New York were arrested in the operation, 99 of whom lived in the city. Thirty-six arrests occurred in Manhattan, 32 in Queens, 15 in Brooklyn, and 11 in the Bronx, officials said.

"The recent raids in New York City are a clear example of Donald Trump's senseless and inhumane immigration policy in action," said Anu Joshi, director of immigration policy at the New York Immigration Coalition. "When entire communities are criminalized and therefore afraid to interact with law enforcement, the safety of everyone is placed at risk."

The ICE announcement also noted that the sweep targeted "at-large criminal aliens, illegal re-entrants, and immigration fugitives." Eighty two of those arrested had criminal histories, the press release claimed, and 37 have final orders of removal.

It's unclear whether this is the largest sweep to take place in New York since the election of Trump, as immigration advocates stressed that the "11-day period" cited by ICE seemed arbitrary. A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a question about previous sweeps. Immigration advocates also emphasized that, while heightened enforcement was definitely a concern, the broadcasting of these sweeps should also be seen as a broader strategy intended to sow fear among immigrants.

"From the beginning, this administration has purposefully attempted to make immigrant communities feel afraid," Joshi told Gothamist. "Sensationalizing this operation, or pushing a narrative about who these communities are, is just another way for them to do that."

"These are still immigrants and families who are being arrested, so whether that happens in 11 days or over the course of a month, I don't think that really matters," Joshi added.

The arrest total is the second highest announced by ICE this month, after a targeted enforcement operation in Central and Southern Texas swept up 123 immigrants.

"Regardless of politics, ICE will be diligent in its responsibility to find those who come to the United States to prey upon our communities and ultimately return them to their home countries," Thomas R. Decker, New York field office director for enforcement and removal operations, said in a statement.

The purpose of the New York announcement, according to Juan Carlos Ruiz, a Lutheran Minister and the co-founder of the New Sanctuary Coalition, is to send a message to so-called sanctuary cities that "they have no power at all." He added that ICE agents at a downtown Manhattan federal building recently told him and other organizers that "there is no more dialogue, this is a new administration and we are not listening to humanitarian explanations."

Earlier this week, an ICE agent spoke to the New Yorker about the increasing brutality of the agency since Trump became president.

"We used to look at things through the totality of the circumstances when it came to a removal orderthat's out the window, the anonymous officer said. "We're not doing what we tell people we do. If you look next month, or at the end of this month, at the people in custody, it's people who've been here for years. They're supposed to be in high school."

"Were putting more people into that overburdened system just because we can," the agent added. "Theres just this school of thought that, well, we can do what we want."
Assembly Automation Global Market Analysis by Key FANUC,ABB,Yaskawa and Forecast to 2017-2022

Assembly Automation Industry

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Press Release: Pune, India- 26th July , 2017Global Assembly Automation Market by Manufacturers, Countries, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Report ScenarioThis report gives In-depth information :Production of Assembly Automation across Global according to Market SegmentsConsumption of Assembly Automation across Global according to Industry Use.Competition of Assembly Automation across Global by top manufacturers.Revenue Analysis of Assembly Automation .Description:Automated assembly refers to a manner of producing goods by use of automated machinery or assembly robots and a systematic approach to assembling goods that operates at least partly independently from human control. In most cases, automated machinery is used to produce products using standardized parts added in a specific series of motions or activities along what is commonly called an assembly line. In many technology firms, medical research and clinical companies and factories, automated assembly is an important part of the process.For Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Assembly Automation in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversFANUCABBYaskawaKukaHanwhaHirataThyssenKruppATS AutomationVelomatBastian SolutionsMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversRobot Automation EquipmentOther Automation EquipmentCentral control systemMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoAutomobile3C IndustryOthersThere are 15 Chapters to deeply display the global Assembly Automation market.Chapter 1, to describe Assembly Automation Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Assembly Automation, with sales, revenue, and price of Assembly Automation, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Assembly Automation, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Assembly Automation market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Assembly Automation sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourceFor any Enquiry write us @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1.1 Assembly Automation Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Robot Automation Equipment1.2.2 Other Automation Equipment1.2.3 Central control system1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Automobile1.3.2 3C Industry1.3.3 Others1.4 Market Analysis by Regions1.4.1 North America (USA, Canada and Mexico)1.4.1.1 USA Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.2 Canada Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.1.3 Mexico Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)1.4.2.1 Germany Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.2 France Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.3 UK Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.4 Russia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.2.5 Italy Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3 Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)1.4.3.1 China Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.2 Japan Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.3 Korea Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.4 India Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.3.5 Southeast Asia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4 South America, Middle East and Africa1.4.4.1 Brazil Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.2 Egypt Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.4 South Africa Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.4.4.5 Nigeria Market States and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 FANUC2.1.1 Business Overview2.1.2 Assembly Automation Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 FANUC Assembly Automation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2 ABB2.2.1 Business Overview2.2.2 Assembly Automation Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 ABB Assembly Automation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3 Yaskawa2.3.1 Business Overview2.3.2 Assembly Automation Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Yaskawa Assembly Automation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4 Kuka2.4.1 Business Overview2.4.2 Assembly Automation Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Kuka Assembly Automation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.5 Hanwha2.5.1 Business Overview2.5.2 Assembly Automation Type and Applications2.5.2.1 Type 12.5.2.2 Type 22.5.3 Hanwha Assembly Automation Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Jet Engines United States Market : key Vendors, Trends, Analysis, Segmentation, Forecast to 2017-2022

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Press Release: Pune, India- 26th July , 2017United States Jet Engines Market by Manufacturers, States, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022Report ScenarioThis report gives In-depth information :Production Jet Engines across Global according to Market SegmentsConsumption Jet Engines across Global according to Industry Use.Competition Jet Engines across Global by top manufacturers.Revenue Analysis Jet Engines .Description:Jet Engines is a reaction engine discharging a fast-moving jet that generates thrust by jet propulsion. This broad definition includes turbojets, turbofans, rocket engines, ramjets, and pulse jets. In general, jet engines are combustion enginesFor Sample Report @Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Jet Engines in United States market, to split the market based on manufacturers, states, type and application.Market Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversGE AviationPratt & WhitneyRolls-RoyceSafranMarket Segment by States, coveringCaliforniaTexasNew YorkFloridaIllinoisMarket Segment by Type, coversTurbojet EngineTurbofan EngineTurboprop EngineMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoCommercial AircraftMilitary AircraftThere are 17 Chapters to deeply display the United States Jet Engines market.Chapter 1, to describe Jet Engines Introduction, product type and application, market overview, market analysis by States, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the manufacturers of Jet Engines, with profile, main business, news, sales, price, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the United States market by States, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, price, revenue and market share of Jet Engines, for each state, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 5 and 6, to show the market by type and application, with sales, price, revenue, market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11, to analyze the key States by Type and Application, covering California, New York, Texas, Illinois and Florida, with sales, revenue and market share by types and applications;Chapter 12, Jet Engines market forecast, by States, type and application, with sales, price, revenue and growth rate forecast, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, to analyze the manufacturing cost, key raw materials and manufacturing process etc.Chapter 14, to analyze the industrial chain, sourcing strategy and downstream end users (buyers);Chapter 15, to describe sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers etc.Chapter 16 and 17, to describe Jet Engines Research Findings and Conclusion, Appendix, methodology and data source.For any Enquiry write us @Table of Contents1 Market Overview1 Market Overview1.1 Jet Engines Introduction1.2 Market Analysis by Type1.2.1 Turbojet Engine1.2.2 Turbofan Engine1.2.3 Turboprop Engine1.3 Market Analysis by Applications1.3.1 Commercial Aircraft1.3.2 Military Aircraft1.4 Market Analysis by States1.4.1 California Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.2 Texas Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 New York Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Florida Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Illinois Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Market Dynamics1.5.1 Market Opportunities1.5.2 Market Risk1.5.3 Market Driving Force2 Manufacturers Profiles2.1 GE Aviation2.1.1 Profile2.1.2 Jet Engines Type and Applications2.1.2.1 Type 12.1.2.2 Type 22.1.3 GE Aviation Jet Engines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.1.4 Business Overview2.1.5 GE Aviation News2.2 Pratt & Whitney2.2.1 Profile2.2.2 Jet Engines Type and Applications2.2.2.1 Type 12.2.2.2 Type 22.2.3 Pratt & Whitney Jet Engines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.2.4 Business Overview2.2.5 Pratt & Whitney News2.3 Rolls-Royce2.3.1 Profile2.3.2 Jet Engines Type and Applications2.3.2.1 Type 12.3.2.2 Type 22.3.3 Rolls-Royce Jet Engines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.3.4 Business Overview2.3.5 Rolls-Royce News2.4 Safran2.4.1 Profile2.4.2 Jet Engines Type and Applications2.4.2.1 Type 12.4.2.2 Type 22.4.3 Safran Jet Engines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017)2.4.4 Business Overview2.4.5 Safran News2.5.3 Scientech Jet Engines Sales, Price, Revenue, Gross Margin and Market Share (2016-2017ContinuedFor accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially check :For updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially check :Wise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe. Wise Guy Reports features an exhaustive list of research reports from hundreds of publishers worldwide. We boast a database spanning virtually every category and an even more comprehensive collection of research reports under these categories and sub-categoriesOffice No. 528, Amanora Chambers Magarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028 Maharashtra, India
Portable Charging Units Market Forecasts 2017-2022 Platinet SA, BIC Graphic, Samsung Sdi, Sony Corporation

Portable Charging Units Market

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Portable Charging Units Market Research ReportA market study based on the " Portable Charging Units Market " across the globe, recently added to the repository of Market Research, is titled Global Portable Charging Units Market 2017. The research report analyses the historical as well as present performance of the worldwide Portable Charging Units industry, and makes predictions on the future status of Portable Charging Units market on the basis of this analysis.Ask For Sample Copy of Report :Top Manufacturers Companies Covered In This Research Report -Platinet SABIC GraphicSamsung SdiSony CorporationMophieincPanasonic CorporationSIMPLO TECHNOLOGYGP BatteriesXiaomi TechnologyMicrosoft CorporationPortable Charging Units Market : Type Analysis1,000 MAh-3,000 MAh3,000 MAh-6,000 MAh6,000 MAh-10,000 MAhAbove 10,000 MAhPortable Charging Units Market : Application AnalysisSmartphonesMusic PlayersTabletsThe report studies the industry for Portable Charging Units across the globe taking the existing industry chain, the import and export statistics in Portable Charging Units market & dynamics of demand and supply of Portable Charging Units into consideration. The ' Portable Charging Units ' research study covers each and every aspect of the Portable Charging Units market globally, which starts from the definition of the Portable Charging Units industry and develops towards Portable Charging Units market segmentations. Further, every segment of the Portable Charging Units market is classified and analysed on the basis of product types, application, and the end-use industries of the Portable Charging Units market. The geographical segmentation of the Portable Charging Units industry has also been covered at length in this report.Browse full Report here:The competitive landscape of the worldwide market for Portable Charging Units is determined by evaluating the various industry participants, production capacity, Portable Charging Units market's production chain, and the revenue generated by each manufacturer in the Portable Charging Units market worldwide.The global Portable Charging Units market 2017 is also analysed on the basis of product pricing, Portable Charging Units production volume, data regarding demand and Portable Charging Units supply, and the revenue garnered by the product. Various methodical tool of Portable Charging Units such as investment returns, feasibility, and market attractiveness analysis has been used in Portable Charging Units market research to present a comprehensive study of the industry for Portable Charging Units across the globe.About Us:"Spire Market Research" is a leading market intelligence team which accredits and provides the reports of some of the top publishers in the field of technology industry. We are as a firm expertise in making extensive reports that cover all the necessary details about the market assessments such as major technological improvement in the industry.Contact Us5001 Spring Valley Road,Suite 400 East,Dallas, TX 75244, USA
Global Nematocide Industry 2017 Market Research Report

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SummaryIn this report, the global Nematocide market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Nematocide in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Nematocide market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingBASFBayer CropscienceDupontFMC CorporationDow AgroSciencesAdamaValent BioSciences CorporationSyngentaMonsantoAgriguard CompanyDeqiang BiologyShanghai Fuang AgrochemicalShandong Guorun Biological PesticideBeijing Xinnong TechnologyOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoFumigants??????????????????????????????Organophosphates?????????????????????????????Carbamates????????????????????????????Bio-Based Nematicides??????????????????????OthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Nematocide for each application, includingCanolaPotatoWheatSoyOthersIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.The Global Nematocide Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Nematocide industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Nematocide market analysis is provided for the international market including competitive landscape analysis, and major regionsdevelopment status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (America, Europe and China), and other regions can be added.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Sample request,please email: josephine@qyresearch.comTable of Contents1 Industry Overview of Nematocide2 Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Nematocide3 Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Nematocide4 Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Nematocide by Regions and Manufacturers5 Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Nematocide by Regions and Manufacturers6 Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Nematocide by Regions and Applications7 Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Nematocide8 Major Manufacturers Analysis of Nematocide9 Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Nematocide10 Industry Chain Analysis of NematocideMain chapter showed:4 Global Nematocide Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2017)4.1 Global Nematocide Consumption by Regions (2011-2016)4.2 North America Nematocide Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2017)4.3 Europe Nematocide Production, Consumption, Export, Import by Regions (2011-2017)5 Global Nematocide Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Nematocide Production and Market Share by Type (2011-2017)5.2 Global Nematocide Revenue and Market Share by Type (2011-2017)Thank you for reading the essay.If you are interested in it or have any questions,plesase contact me.QYRESEARCH CO., LTDJosephine Luo - QYResearch Report Global SalesEmail: josephine@qyresearch.comWeb:QYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, data base and seminar services. The company owned a large basic data base (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business.Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe District Guangzhou City Guangdong Province 510610 China
Global Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017

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SummaryThe Global Hot Glue Industry 2017 Market Research Report is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Hot Glue industry.Firstly, the report provides a basic overview of the industry including definitions, classifications, applications and industry chain structure. The Hot Glue market analysis is provided for the international market including development history, competitive landscape analysis, and major regions development status.Secondly, development policies and plans are discussed as well as manufacturing processes and cost structures. This report also states import/export, supply and consumption figures as well as cost, price, revenue and gross margin by regions (United States, EU, China and Japan), and other regions can be added.Then, the report focuses on global major leading industry players with information such as company profiles, product picture and specification, capacity, production, price, cost, revenue and contact information. Upstream raw materials, equipment and downstream consumers analysis is also carried out. Whats more, the Hot Glue industry development trends and marketing channels are analyzed.Finally, the feasibility of new investment projects is assessed, and overall research conclusions are offered.In a word, the report provides major statistics on the state of the industry and is a valuable source of guidance and direction for companies and individuals interested in the market.Ask a sample or any question, please email to:hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comThe players list(Partly, Players you are interested can also be added):3MH.B. FullerHenkel AGDow CorningHexcelSikaBostikToyoboHeartland AdhesivesAvery Denninson CorporationJowat SEKey Topics Covered:Chapter One Industry Overview of Hot GlueChapter Two Manufacturing Cost Structure Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Three Technical Data and Manufacturing Plants Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Four Capacity, Production and Revenue Analysis of Hot Glue by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Five Price, Cost, Gross and Gross Margin Analysis of Hot Glue by Regions, Types and ManufacturersChapter Six Consumption Volume, Consumption Value and Sale Price Analysis of Hot Glue by Regions, Types and ApplicationsChapter Seven Supply, Import, Export and Consumption Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Eight Major Manufacturers Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Nine Marketing Trader or Distributor Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Ten Industry Chain Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Eleven Development Trend of Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Twelve New Project Investment Feasibility Analysis of Hot GlueChapter Thirteen Conclusion of the Global Hot Glue Industry 2017 Market Research ReportRelated Reports:US Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017Europe Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017India Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017China Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017Korea Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017Japan Hot Glue Industry Market Research Report 2017If you need a report or have any question, please feel free to contact meHebe | Sr. Manager  Global SalesProfessional Market Research Report PublisherQYResearch Co.LtdQYResearch focus on Market Survey and ResearchPhone: +86-20-2209-3278Email: hebe@qyresearchglobal.com or hebe@qyresearch.comWeb:About QYResearchQYResearch established in 2007, focus on custom research, management consulting, IPO consulting, industry chain research, database and seminar services. the company owned a large basic database (such as National Bureau of statistics database, Customs import and export database, Industry Association Database etc), experts resources (included energy automotive chemical medical ICT consumer goods etc industries experts who own more than 10 years experiences on marketing or R&D), professional survey team (the team member with more than 3 years market survey experience and more than 2 years depth expert interview experience),Excellent data analysis team (SPSS statistics and PPT graphics process team); QYResearch has always pursuit product quality, adhere to the quality is the soul of business. Through the companys years of effort and a lot of customer support, QYResearch consulting group creative design method of many high-quality markets investigation and research team with rich experience. Today, QYResearch brand has become the consulting industry with quality assurance consulting brand. The company has 2500 global well-known customers, covering energy automobile pharmaceutical chemical agriculture more than 30 industries, services from the data analysis and recommendations-Consulting landing one-stop solution, and research regions cover China,US,EU,Asia,Middle East and Africa,South America,Australia,etc Global all regions,and also built research or marketing center in China USA UK France Hongkong etc regions. currently, QYResearch has become the first choice and worth trusted consulting brand in Global and China business consulting services.Media ContactCompany Name: QYResearch CO.,LIMITEDContact Person: HebeEmail: hebe@qyresearchglobal.comPhone: +86-20-2209-3278Address: Room 2311 VILI International Building No.167 Linhe West Road Tianhe DistrictCity: GuangzhouCountry: ChinaWebsite:(US) |(EU) |(JP)
2017-2022 Global Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market Analysis : McKeown International, Maithan Ceramics Limited, Nedmag, Fedmet Resources Corporation, RHI AG

Global Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market

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The Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market 2017 Research Report investigates a thorough and complete study on Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry volume, market Share, market Trends, Magnesia Carbon Bricks Growth aspects, wide range of applications, Utilization ratio, Supply and demand analysis, manufacturing capacity and Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry Price during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022The research report labeled Global Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market 2017 presents the penetrating study of Magnesia Carbon Bricks market globally, concentrating on complete analysis of the present and past historical details of Magnesia Carbon Bricks market. The competitive landscape view of the Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry is also covered in this research document.Request Report Sample Here:Competitive Study of Global Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market 2017 Based on Key Vendors:1 McKeown International2 Maithan Ceramics Limited3 Nedmag4 Fedmet Resources Corporation5 RHI AG6 OCL INDIA LIMITED7 Trent Refractories8 IMACRO Inc.The report organizes the Magnesia Carbon Bricks market across the globe into distinct portion based on industry standards. It also distinguishes the market based on geographical regions. The Magnesia Carbon Bricks report mainly throws light on dominant players in the regions of (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added accordingly.Discrete aspects of the Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry like value chain analysis, Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry rules and policies, the factors driving the growth of the market and the constraints hampering the growth are explained.In next section, the Magnesia Carbon Bricks report mentions the products that are currently available in the market along with their cost structures, manufacturing volume, requirement and supply analysis, import/export scenario and their overall contribution to the Magnesia Carbon Bricks market revenue globally.Buy Complete Report Here (To Get Instant access):Further, the report global Magnesia Carbon Bricks market 2017 analyzes the feasibility of investment, investment return analysis and shows a complete picture of market development scope and business strategies followed by leading Magnesia Carbon Bricks industry players along with their company profile, market share and contact information.Lastly, the Magnesia Carbon Bricks report enlists the vital conclusions that will assist all individuals who have a keen interest in Magnesia Carbon Bricks Market.About Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Contact Us:James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor,Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, PuneMaharashtra, India 411041Tel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Latest News-
Global Airbag Market : Autoliv, Toyoda Gosei, ZF TRW, Takata and KSS

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Global Airbag research report provides the complete and precise view of the market during the forecast period from 2017-2022. The Airbag market Report enlists the different factors which can help the readers in transforming their knowledge into vital business decisions. To start with the Airbag report analyses the market development based on market gains, extensive product applications, dominant market regions and the companies within these regions.At an initial stage, the report offers the Airbag market structure, business outline, product view, technical advancements and pioneering market plans along with the factors that can restrain the progress of Airbag market.Do Inquiry Before Accessing Global Airbag Report:Remarkable Assets of the Global Airbag Market Report: Breakdown of the report by key market segments will exhibit the market growth scenario based on regions. With the knowledge of dominant key players, the vital business choices can be made. Easy to understandable view of the global Airbag market will be provided by segment-wise and region-wise analysis. Testimonials to the company will validate the accuracy of the data to have better market overview.Airbag Market Breakdown:Global Airbag Market Study Based On Key Players:AutolivTakataZF TRWToyoda GoseiKSSHyundai MobisNihon PlastAshimoriEast Joy LongGlobal Airbag Market Study Based On Product Applications:Passenger VehicleCommercial VehicleGlobal Airbag Market Study Based On Product Types:Driver Front AirbagPassenger Front AirbagFront Side AirbagRear Side AirbagCenter AirbagKnee AirbagGlobal Airbag Market Study Based On Geographical Realms: Europe (UK, Germany, Italy, France and Russia) South America (The Middle East and Africa) North America (The USA, Canada and Mexico) Asia-Pacific (India, China, Korea, Japan and Southeast Asia)To Acquire Airbag Report Sample With Complete TOC atThe subsequent portions depict the Airbag market globally:Portion 1, states the aim of Airbag market along with the basic market introduction, product pictures, growth aspects and dominance of Airbag market across different regions;Portion 2, analyses the Airbag market players, their sales margin, market gains and their market share in 2016 and 2017;Portion 3, competitive landscape outlook of the Airbag market differentiated by key players based on revenue generated from sales;Portion 4, elaborates the region-based study of the Airbag market and the sales volume in each region and the market gains from 2012 to 2017;Portion 5,6,7,8 and 9 shows the major countries in these regions with their market revenue in 2017;Portion 10 and 11 investigates the Airbag market stating different product types, variety of applications, market progress based on market statistics from 2012 to 2017;Portion 12 shows the futuristic market plans from during the span of 2017 to 2022 which varies according to zones, product categories and applications;Portion 13, 14, 15 enlists the marketing channels, Airbag market retailers, market facts and figures, vital conclusions, appendix and data collection sources;To conclude with the Airbag Report has done the exhaustive study of the market during the projected span of 2017 to 2022 which will help them to make right decisions at right time to see the growth of their industryAbout Us:Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.Market.Biz has access to the worlds most comprehensive and up-to-date databases in your business sector, including countless market reports that can provide you with valuable data relating to your business. We understand the needs of our clients, and keep our reports updated as market requirement changes.Contact Us:James JohnsonS. no. 51/14 First Floor,Office No. 4, Vishwa Arcade,Near Navale Lawns, Pune.Tel: +1(857)2390696Email: inquiry@market.bizWebsite:Blog:
Recruitment Market by Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value), Region Opportunities and Forecast 2021

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SUMMARYWiseGuyReports published new report, titled Global Recruitment Market.Recruitment is defined as a process of searching employees for an organization. The process involved in this includes conducting job analysis, sourcing the talent, and screening of talents. The recruitment/staffing market is bifurcated into two segments; general and professional recruitment, both of which can be further classified into temporary and permanent staffing.GET SAMPLE REPORT @Demographic trends largely affect the staffing market that grows as the labor force supply increases. A change in demographic transition can become a factor in dampening economic expansion and GDP growth, which in turn would cause a decline in the global recruitment market. The global recruitment market will be driven by factors such as intensifying involvement of social media and online job platforms, growth prospects in emerging economies, rising industrial production, and increased volume of mergers and acquisitions in the industry.Staffing/recruiting sales are highly correlated with gross domestic product (GDP). As GDP expands, so does recruiting market. So, the market is trending with budding new business environment, rise in foreign born workers, rising staffing index, VMS & MSO usage, and high demand for skilled and professional workers. However, the market growth will be hindered by decline in labor force participation, ageing workforce, and skill shortage.The report offers an in-depth analysis of the global recruitment market. It also covers the regional aspect of the market. The report profiles Adecco SA, Randstad Holding NV, Manpower Group and Recruit Group.Table of Contents1. Market Overview1.1 Recruitment1.2 Recruitment Process1.3 Types of Recruitment1.4 Recruitment Market Segmentation2. Global Market Analysis2.1 Global Recruitment Market by Value2.2 Global Recruitment Market Forecast by Value2.3 Global GDP Growth & Unemployment Forecast2.4 Global Recruitment Market by Type2.5 Global Recruitment Market by Region2.6 Global Temporary Recruitment Market by Value2.7 Global Temporary Recruitment Market Forecast by Value..CONTINUEDList of ChartsFactors that Influence RecruitmentRecruitment ProcessGlobal Recruitment Market by Value (2012-2016)Global Recruitment Market Forecast by Value (2017-2021)Global GDP Growth & Unemployment Forecast (2012-2021)Global Recruitment Market by Type (2016)Global Recruitment Market by Region (2016)Global Temporary Recruitment Market by Value (2012-2016)..CONTINUEDList of TablesEmployment by Education and Training Category in the US (2015-2024E)Most Used Social Networking Website for Recruitment (2016)Global Recruitment Firms - Comparison by Regional Exposure (2016)Global Recruitment Firms - Comparison by Revenue (2015-2016)The US Recruitment Firms - Revenue Comparison (2015/2016)Top US Recruitment Firms Revenue Breakdown by Segments (2016)For accessing accurate and deep understanding and to gain latest insights and key developments in the area of your interest, we also have a list of conferences in which you will be interested in, for more information, cordially checkFor updating knowledge or for thoroughly understanding various terminologies, we also have vast list of seminars for your reference, for more information cordially checkWise Guy Reports is part of the Wise Guy Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.WISE GUY RESEARCH CONSULTANTS PVT LTDOffice No. 528, Amanora ChambersMagarpatta Road, HadapsarPune - 411028Maharashtra, IndiaPh: +91 841 198 5042
Global 3D Printing Healthcare Market 2017 - Organovo Holdings, Inc., Bio3D Technologies, Arcam AB

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The Global 3D Printing Healthcare Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of 3D Printing Healthcare industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, 3D Printing Healthcare growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and 3D Printing Healthcare industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global 3D Printing Healthcare Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of 3D Printing Healthcare market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of 3D Printing Healthcare market. The competitive view of the 3D Printing Healthcare industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global 3D Printing Healthcare market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of 3D Printing Healthcare Market According to the Key Vendors:1 3D Systems Corporations2 EnvisionTEC3 Stratasys Ltd.4 Materialise NV5 Organovo Holdings, Inc.6 Bio3D Technologies7 Arcam AB8 Oxford Performance Materials, Inc.9 Cyfuse Medical K.K.10 SLM Solutions Group AG11 Renishaw plc.The 3D Printing Healthcare report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the 3D Printing Healthcare industry like supply chain analysis, 3D Printing Healthcare industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of 3D Printing Healthcare industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the 3D Printing Healthcare report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global 3D Printing Healthcare Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall 3D Printing Healthcare market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
Global Aircraft Simulation Cabin Market 2017 - Simcom Aviation Training, Simkits, Sogitec Industries, Tern Systems

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The Global Aircraft Simulation Cabin Market 2017 Research Report includes a complete and meticulous study of Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry covering different aspects like market volume, market Share, market strategies, Aircraft Simulation Cabin growth trends, variety of applications, utilization volume, demand and supply analysis, production capacity and Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry cost structures during Forecast period from 2017 to 2022.The report titled Global Aircraft Simulation Cabin Market 2017 provides the comprehensive study of Aircraft Simulation Cabin market on a global scale, focusing on current as well as past details of Aircraft Simulation Cabin market. The competitive view of the Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry with respect to the industry competitors is also covered in this document. The company details of leading players like their profile information, revenue segmentation, business strategies followed by them and their contribution to the global Aircraft Simulation Cabin market share are mentioned.Request Here For Sample Report:Comparative Analysis of Aircraft Simulation Cabin Market According to the Key Vendors:1 Bot-Aircraft2 Diamond Aircraft Industries Gmbh3 Embention4 Esterline Belgium5 Flightsafety International6 Frasca International7 Ids Ingegneria Dei Sistemi Spa8 L-3 Link9 Merlin Simulation10 Micro Nav, Ltd.11 Multi-Simulations, Llc12 Nita, Llc.13 Platinum Simulators Inc14 Reiser Simulation And Training Gmbh15 Rst Rostock System-Technik Gmbh16 Simcom Aviation Training17 Simkits18 Sogitec Industries19 Tern Systems20 Tfc Flugbetrieb Und Technik Beratungsgesellschaft Mbh21 Thales22 Thinking Space Systems Ltd23 Trc Simulators B.V.24 Tru Simulation + Training Textron25 Uconsystem Co. Ltd.26 Vniira27 X-CopterThe Aircraft Simulation Cabin report is organized into various sections based on different geographical regions and industry standards. The report mainly sheds light on leading players in the regions like (United States, EU, China, and Japan). Other regions can be added as per the requirement.Distinct aspects of the Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry like supply chain analysis, Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry rules and policies, factors that enhance the growth of Aircraft Simulation Cabin industry along with the limiting factors that restrict the growth of the industry are covered in depth. Furtherly, the Aircraft Simulation Cabin report elaborates product details starting with product definition, cost, product images, the cost structure, import/export information.Purchase Entire Report Here (To Get Instant Access):Various analytical are employed to analyze the market attractiveness, investment feasibility and investment return with respect to Global Aircraft Simulation Cabin Market 2017.Apart from providing a complete picture of the overall Aircraft Simulation Cabin market conditions the report also helps the industry players to develop profitable market strategies to gain competitive advantage.Market.Biz is designed to provide the best and most penetrating research required to all commercial, industrial and profit-making ventures in any sector of online business. We take pride in our ability to satisfy the market research needs of both domestic and international businesses.James JohnsonS no. 51/14 First Floor, Office Number 4, Vishwa Arcade, Near Navale Lawns, Pune, Maharashtra, India 411041Maharashtra, IndiaTel: +1(857)2390696Web:Email: inquiry@market.bizBrowse Market Research Reports-Latest Reports-
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Bauxite Mining Market Estimated to Soar Higher by 2020

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Bauxite popularly known as aluminum ore is the major source of aluminum. Bauxite is a mixture of minerals such as gibbsite, boehmite and diaspore, iron oxides such as goethite and hematite, clay mineral kaolinite and some amounts of anatase. Bauxite are found majorly in the tropical and sub-tropical regions such as Africa, West Indies, South America, Australia, Asian countries such as India and China and some parts of Europe (in small quantity). Australia is the largest producer and exporter of bauxite globally, with five bauxite mine contributing more than one fourth of the global bauxite production. There are five steps involved in the extraction of bauxite starting with preparation of bauxite area, secondly, bauxite mining, crushing, ore transportation and lastly rehabilitation of land. On an average one square meter of land can extract one metric ton of aluminum.To access full report @Around 85% of bauxite mined globally is converted to alumina which is further used for the production of aluminum metal. Other major application of bauxite mining is for commercial purpose such as abrasives and refractorys. Automobile industry is the major end-user of aluminum metal owing to associated benefits of aluminum metals such as corrosion-free, high-density and lightweight features.North America has the largest market share for bauxite mining owing to increased aluminum demand in the region. Europe and Asia Pacific region follows North America in bauxite demand. North America is expected to maintain its dominance in the forecasted period. Europe is expected to witness marginal growth. However, Asia Pacific region is expected to witness highest growth in the coming future owing to the increasing domestic demand from the automobile industries in the emerging markets of India, China and Japan.A sample of this report is available upon request @Due to corrosion-free, high-density and lightweight features, aluminum metal is gaining its important in the automobile industries to manufacture lightweight vehicle parts. This is driving the global demand for bauxite mining. Additionally, growth in the transportation sector such as airplanes, trucks, railcars and marine is further expected to increase the global bauxite mining demand.Owing to the increasing demand of aluminum by the automobile industry have influence the aluminum manufacturing companies to invest more in bauxite extraction business. Some of the major companies operating in the global clinical nutrition products market are Aluminum Corporation of China Limited, Access Industries, Tata Steel Europe Ltd., Halco Mining, Tajik Aluminium Company, Mitsubishi Aluminum Co., Ltd., Queensland Alumina Limited, Nippon Light Metal Company, Ltd., Australian Bauxite Limited, Iranian Aluminium Company and Alumina Limited.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Key points covered in the reportReport segments the market on the basis of types, application, products, technology, etc (as applicable)The report covers geographic segmentationNorth AmericaEuropeAsiaRoWThe report provides the market size and forecast for the different segments and geographies for the period of 2010 to 2020The report provides company profiles of some of the leading companies operating in the marketThe report also provides porters five forces analysis of the market.About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Latest Clinical Trials On Biohit Oyj (BIOBV) - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update

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"The Report Biohit Oyj (BIOBV) - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Biohit Oyj (Biohit) is a biotechnology company that offers research and early diagnosis processing products. The companys products include acetaldehyde binding products, diagnostic tests, monoclonal antibodies, laboratory instruments and pipettes. It targets therapeutic areas such as gastric cancer, gastroesophageal reflux disease and colorectal cancer, among others. Biohit provides analyses of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages and carcinogenic acetaldehyde in foodstuff. The company also offers tests for the diagnosis of lactose intolerance and helicobacter pylori infection. It has presence in Finland, Italy and the UK. Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.This report is a source for data, analysis, and actionable intelligence on the companys portfolio of pipeline products. The report provides key information about the company, its major products and brands.The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope:- The report reviews detailed company profile with information on business description, key company facts, major products and services, key competitors, key employees, locations and subsidiaries and recent developments- The report analyzes all pipeline products in development for the company Biohit Oyj- The report provides pipeline analysis on all pipeline products of the company (by equipment type, by indication, by development stage, and by trial status)- The report covers detailed information on each pipeline product with information on pipeline territory, stage of development, device class, regulatory path, indication(s), application(s) and estimated launch date- The report provides detailed description of products in development, technical specification and functions- The report also covers ongoing clinical trials (wherever applicable) with information on trial name, trial objective, sponsor, trial design , trial status and phase, estimated start and end date.View Report @Reasons to Buy:- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends and developments driving the medical devices pipeline and technology landscape- Design and develop your product development, marketing and sales strategies by understanding the competitor portfolio- To formulate effective Research & Development strategies- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies- Exploit in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities by identifying products, most likely to ensure a robust return- Plan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying key players of the most promising pipeline- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage- Develop competition strategies by identifying the status and likely launch of the competitors pipeline products through review of the clinical trials, stage and of development, etc- Identify, understand and capitalize the next high-value products that your competitor would add in its portfolioAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
BrainLAB AG Market Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update

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"The Report BrainLAB AG - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"BrainLAB AG (Brainlab) is a healthcare information technology (IT) company. It develops, manufactures and markets software driven medical technology solutions. The company provides technology in the areas of radiosurgery and radiotherapy, and surgical fields including neurosurgery, orthopaedic, ENT, CMF, spine and trauma among others. The company also provides training and support services. Brainlab products find application in minimally-invasive medical treatments. It has partnership with suppliers and a number of healthcare companies that provide access to complementary technologies, knowledge, distribution systems and service networks. The company has offices in, Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Americas. Brainlab is headquartered in Munich, Germany.This report is a source for data, analysis, and actionable intelligence on the companys portfolio of pipeline products. The report provides key information about the company, its major products and brands.The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope:- The report reviews detailed company profile with information on business description, key company facts, major products and services, key competitors, key employees, locations and subsidiaries and recent developments- The report analyzes all pipeline products in development for the company BrainLAB AG- The report provides pipeline analysis on all pipeline products of the company (by equipment type, by indication, by development stage, and by trial status)- The report covers detailed information on each pipeline product with information on pipeline territory, stage of development, device class, regulatory path, indication(s), application(s) and estimated launch date- The report provides detailed description of products in development, technical specification and functions- The report also covers ongoing clinical trials (wherever applicable) with information on trial name, trial objective, sponsor, trial design , trial status and phase, estimated start and end date.View Report @Reasons to Buy:- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends and developments driving the medical devices pipeline and technology landscape- Design and develop your product development, marketing and sales strategies by understanding the competitor portfolio- To formulate effective Research & Development strategies- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies- Exploit in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities by identifying products, most likely to ensure a robust return- Plan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying key players of the most promising pipeline- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage- Develop competition strategies by identifying the status and likely launch of the competitors pipeline products through review of the clinical trials, stage and of development, etc- Identify, understand and capitalize the next high-value products that your competitor would add in its portfolioAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Calculator Market Research Report 2017-2022 By Players, Regions, Product Types & Applications

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"The Report Global Calculator Market Research Report 2017-2022 By Players, Regions, Product Types & Applications provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The global Calculator market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.This report offers an overview of the market trends, drivers, and barriers with respect to the Calculator market. It also provides a detailed overview of the market of different regions across United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Others. The report categorizes Calculator market by Function, by Power Source, by Price and application. A detailed analysis of key players, along with key growth strategies adopted by them is also covered in this report on Calculator market.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Key PlayersCASIO(Japan)Texas Instruments(US)SHARP(Japan)Canon(Japan)Victor(US)HP(US)Calculated Industries(US)Innovera(US)Compucessory(US)Datexx(US)Royal(US)Bazic(US)Aurora(Taiwan,China)Comix(China)Staples(US)Uxcell(China)Citizen(Japan)MILAN(Spain)Genie(Germany)LEO(Germany)Lexibook(France)Deli(China)M&G(China)TRNFA(China)W.N.T(China)Office Depot(US)Asmix(Japan)GENTOS(Japan)Ohm-electric(Japan)Nakabayashi(Japan)View Report @Key RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersKey Product TypeCalculator Market, by FunctionBasicFinancial & BusinessGraphingPrintingScientificCalculator Market, by Power SourceDry BatteryButton BatteryLithium BatterySolar EnergyOthersCalculator Market, by PriceUnder $25$25 to $50$50 to $100$100 to $200$200 & AboveKey Consumers (End User)Calculator Market, by ConsumerHouseholdCommercialAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Cloud Mobile Music Services Market to grow at a CAGR of 7.40% during 2017-2021 - Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Spotify

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Cloud mobile music services include internet services that help users to upload their personal music collection on the cloud. These (music collections) can be later retrieved from the Internet on laptops, smartphones, tablets, and other devices. A majority of the mobile music service providers have online music stores that offer songs to the user. Cloud-based online music enables listeners to move from the traditional way of owning music to a new model of 'anytime-anywhere' access to music. Moving from an ownership model to subscription and ad-supported music is likely to change the music preferences of consumers as they will experiment more with the new forms of music. This will result in a wide variety of music reaching a large and diverse audience.The global cloud mobile music services market to grow at a CAGR of 7.40% during the period 2017-2021. The report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global cloud mobile music services market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the new sales/volume/value and aftermarket/services market.Click to get sample PDF with TOC:The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- EMEATechnavio's report, Global Cloud Mobile Music Services Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Browse more details at:Key vendors- Alphabet- Amazon- Apple- SpotifyOther prominent vendors- Aspiro- Deezer- Guvera- Gamma Gaana- Microsoft- Rhapsody International- Saavn- Stingray Digital Media Group- TriPlayMarket driver- Increasing use of smartphones and cloud services- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Music piracy leading to huge losses- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this report- What will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?- What are the key market trends?- What is driving this market?- What are the challenges to market growth?- Who are the key vendors in this market space?- What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?- What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?About UsResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Albany NY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-621-2074Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:
Global Television Market Research Report 2017-2022 : Key Players ( VIZIO(United States), Sceptre(United States), Emerson(United States))

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"The Report Global Television Market Research Report 2017-2022 By Players, Regions, Product Types & Applications provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"The global Television market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX between 2016 and 2022.This report offers an overview of the market trends, drivers, and barriers with respect to the Television market. It also provides a detailed overview of the market of different regions across United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Others. The report categorizes Television market By TV Display Size, By Price, By Television Resolution, By Television Screen Type, By Television Refresh Rate and application. A detailed analysis of key players, along with key growth strategies adopted by them is also covered in this report on Television market.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Key PlayersVIZIO(United States)Sceptre(United States)Emerson(United States)Beach Camera(United States)Sceptre(United States)Element(United States)Samsung(Korea)LG(Korea)LG Electronics(Korea)PHILIPS(Netherlands)SHARP(Japan)Sony(Japan)Toshiba(Japan)Panasonic(Japan)Whirlpool(Japan)TCL(China)Skyworth(China)Hisense(China)MI(China)CHANGHONG(China)Letv(China)KONKA(China)Haier(China)Coocaa(China)KKTV(China)Leader(China)PANDA(China)WHALEY(China)Amoi(China)ROWA(China)View Report @Key RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersKey Product TypeTelevision Market, By TV Display Size32 Inches & Under33 to 43 Inches44 to 49 Inches50 to 69 Inches70 Inches & UpTelevision Market, By PriceUnder $500$500 to $1000$1000 to $2000$2000 to $3000$3000 & AboveTelevision Market, By Television Resolution4K Ultra HD1080p720pTelevision Market, By Television Screen TypeFlatCurvedTelevision Market, By Television Refresh Rate60 Hz120 Hz240 HzKey Consumers (End User)Television Market, by ConsumerHomeCommercialAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Single-Use Bioprocessing Sensors And Probes Will Likely Expand At A Robust 13.4% CAGR Between 2017 And 2025 To Become Worth US$1281 mn By 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trend, and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Global Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: OverviewThis report on single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market studies the current as well as future prospects of the market globally. The stakeholders of this report include companies and intermediaries engaged in the manufacture, commercialization, providing services of single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes products such as pH sensor, valve, bench top control system, spectroscopy, optochemical DO, temperature, pressure as well as new entrants planning to enter this market.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @This report comprises an elaborate executive summary along with a market snapshot providing overall information of various segments and sub-segments considered in the scope of the study. This section also provides the overall information and data analysis of the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market with respect to the leading market segments based on major applications segment, products segment, and geographies.The market overview section of the report explores the market dynamics such as drivers, restraints, and opportunities that currently have a strong impact on the single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market and could influence the market in the near future. Market attractiveness analysis has been provided in the market overview section in order to explain the intensity of competition in the market across different geographies. The competitive scenario among different market players is evaluated through market share analysis in the competitive landscape section of the report. All these factors would help market players to take strategic decisions in order to strengthen their positions and expand their shares in the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market.Global Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: SegmentationBased on the product type, the single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market has been segmented into: pH Sensor, valve, bench top control system, spectroscopy, optochemical DO, temperature, pressure, and others. Each of the market segments have been extensively analyzed based on the market related factors such as increasing demand of single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes worldwide, and technological advancement. Moreover, historical year-on-year growth have been taken into consideration while estimating the market size. The market size and forecast in terms of US$ million for each segment has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025. The report also provides the compound annual growth rate (CAGR %) for each market segment for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year.Browse Detail Report With Full TOC @Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: Regional AnalysisGeographically, single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market has been segmented into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. The market size and forecast for each of these regions has been provided for the period from 2015 to 2025, along with their respective CAGRs for the forecast period from 2017 to 2025, considering 2016 as the base year. The report also provides with market size and forecast for major countries in the respective regions. A detailed qualitative analysis of factors responsible for driving and restraining the market growth and future opportunities has been provided in the market overview section. This section of the report also provides with market attractiveness analysis, Porters five forces analysis, and market share analysis by key players, thus presenting a thorough analysis of the overall competitive scenario in the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market.Single-use Bioprocessing Sensors and Probes Market: Competitive AnalysisThe key findings section included in the report would assist existing market players in expanding their market shares, and new companies in establishing their presence in the global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market. The report also profiles key players operating in the single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market which are Sartorius Stedim Biotech S.A., Eppendorf AG, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Inc., Hamilton Company, Honeywell International, Inc., Broadley-James Corporation, GE Healthcare, PendoTECH, LLC, Polestar Technologies, Inc., PreSens Precision Sensing GmbH, and Parker Hannifin Corporation.The global single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes market is segmented as follows:Global Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market, Product Type- pH Sensor- Electrochemical- Optical- Solid-state- Valve- Pneumatic Pinch Valve- Electrically Actuated Pinch Valves- Others- Bench Top Control System- DCS - Decentralized Control System- PLC - Programmable Logic Controllers- Others- Spectroscopy- Raman Spectroscopy- NIR- Scattering Spectroscopy- Optochemical DO- Temperature- Pressure- OthersGlobal Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market, by Application Type- Biotechnology Industry- Pharmaceutical Industry- Academic Research- OthersGlobal Single-use bioprocessing sensors and probes Market, by Geography- North America- U.S.- Canada- Europe- Germany- U.K.- France- Italy- Spain- Russia- Rest of the Europe- Asia Pacific- China- Japan- India- Australia & New Zealand- Rest of Asia Pacific- Latin America (LATAM)- Brazil- Mexico- Rest of LATAM- Middle East & Africa- South Africa- Rest of MEA- GCC CountriesMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
2017, iCAD Inc (ICAD) - Product Pipeline Analysis And Forecast Report

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"The Report iCAD Inc (ICAD) - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"iCAD Inc (iCAD) is a medical device company. It develops and markets computer aided detection (CAD) solutions and workflow solutions for mammography (film-based, digital radiography (DR) and computed radiography (CR), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), and Computed Tomography (CT). iCAD products find application in detection and treatment of breast, prostate and colorectal cancers. The company markets products through direct sales organization, OEM partners, distributors and resellers. The company has manufacturing facility in New Hampshire and an operation, manufacturing, warehouse, research and development facility in San Jose, California. The company operates primarily in the US and it also exports products to various countries in Europe and Asia. iCAD is headquartered in Nashua, New Hampshire, the US.This report is a source for data, analysis, and actionable intelligence on the companys portfolio of pipeline products. The report provides key information about the company, its major products and brands.The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Scope:- The report reviews detailed company profile with information on business description, key company facts, major products and services, key competitors, key employees, locations and subsidiaries and recent developments- The report analyzes all pipeline products in development for the company iCAD Inc- The report provides pipeline analysis on all pipeline products of the company (by equipment type, by indication, by development stage, and by trial status)- The report covers detailed information on each pipeline product with information on pipeline territory, stage of development, device class, regulatory path, indication(s), application(s) and estimated launch date- The report provides detailed description of products in development, technical specification and functions- The report also covers ongoing clinical trials (wherever applicable) with information on trial name, trial objective, sponsor, trial design , trial status and phase, estimated start and end date.View Report @Reasons to Buy:- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends and developments driving the medical devices pipeline and technology landscape- Design and develop your product development, marketing and sales strategies by understanding the competitor portfolio- To formulate effective Research & Development strategies- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies- Exploit in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities by identifying products, most likely to ensure a robust return- Plan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying key players of the most promising pipeline- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage- Develop competition strategies by identifying the status and likely launch of the competitors pipeline products through review of the clinical trials, stage and of development, etc- Identify, understand and capitalize the next high-value products that your competitor would add in its portfolioAbout usMarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Baby Food And Infant Formula Market 2017 Trend, Analysis and Forecast to 2021

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Baby food is any soft food (other than breastmilk or infant formula) that is made specifically for babies between the ages of four to six months and two years. Infant formula is a processed food for babies and infants under 12 months of age, usually prepared for bottle-feeding or cup-feeding. There are two types of infant formula: powder (need to be mixed with water) or liquid (can be consumed with or without adding water) .Publisher's analysts forecast the global baby food and infant formula market to grow at a CAGR of 8.77% during the period 2017-2021.For more information about this report:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global baby food and infant formula market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report presents a detailed picture of the market by way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:- Americas- APAC- Europe- MEAPublisher's report, Global Baby Food and Infant Formula Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendors- Abbott- Danone- HiPP- Kraft Heinz- Nestle- Reckitt BenckiserRequest Sample Copy atOther prominent vendors- Arla Foods- Amara Organics- Baby Gourmet Foods- Beingmate Group- Ella's Kitchen- Friso- GreenZoo- Healthy Sprouts- Hero Group- MORINAGA MILK INDUSTRY- Meiji Holdings- One Earth Farms- Parent's Choice- Plum, PBC- SPROUT- Stonyfield FarmMarket driver- Increase in health concerns among parents and breastfeeding limitations.- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challenge- Rising health concerns about processed baby food and infant formula.- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trend- Growing popularity of organic baby food products.- For a full, detailed list, view our reportInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune, India
Global Navigation Lighting Market To Grow At A CAGR Of 4.54% During The Period 2017-2021 Key Vendors  Glamox, DAEYANG ELECTRIC, Osculati, Aveo Engineering, Hella Marine, Lopolight, Perko, Vega

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Navigation Lighting Market 2017-2021" to its huge collection of research reports.Navigation light, a key safety equipment, is a colored source of illumination fitted on a waterborne vessel, aircraft, and spacecraft. Navigation lights help provide the relative position of the craft, and are commonly known as position lights. These lights are used to signal a craft's position, heading, and status. The placement of the lights is mandated by international conventions or civil authorities. Navigation lights are used mainly from sunset to sunrise, or in times of limited visibility, such as fog, rain or low light. Vessels that operate at night, whether at anchor or underway, must carry and display correct navigation lights. The light helps vessels to determine which is the give-way vessel while encountering each other at night. All waterborne vessels and crafts used for commercial or pleasure purposes must adhere to the regulations concerning navigation lighting.Technavios analysts forecast the global Navigation Lighting market to grow at a CAGR of 4.54% during the period 2017-2021.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global Navigation Lighting market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the sales of navigation lighting for marine and aerospace applications.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEAGlobal Navigation Lighting Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key vendorsGlamoxDAEYANG ELECTRICOsculatiAveo EngineeringBrowse Detail Report With Full TOC @Other prominent vendorsHella MarineLopolightPerkoVegaMarket driverIncrease in aircraft fleetFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeCollapse of shipbuilding industry in ChinaFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendDeclining manufacturing cost of LEDsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Security Solutions Market share research by applications and regions for 2017-2024

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The security solutions market is segmented on the basis of the type of solutions and the end-use industry. The system, by type, is classified into products and services. The products include fire protection, thermal cameras, video surveillance, wireless systems, access control, intruder alarms, and entrance control. The services include security systems integration, access control services, remote monitoring, video surveillance, and fire protection services.Fire protection systems segment is anticipated to lead the security solutions market during the forecast time frame. Some of the major systems included under this type are sprinklers, fire alarms, and extinguishers. Increasing use of fire protection systems in residential and industrial buildings is expected to drive the market. Roving patrol systems are a preferred option to provide security to vast stretches of land such as huge housing societies or large manufacturing companies. These systems are economical and provide visible presence, GPRS tracking, quick response, and active patrolling.Security Solutions Market size is anticipated to witness growth during the forecast period owing to the growing necessity to protect property and individuals from increasing threats. Increasing consumer awareness regarding prevailing security concerns is expected to drive security solutions market growth for the next eight years.The design of sophisticated and efficient systems, in addition to user-friendly installation features, enabled by wireless technology is anticipated to boost the market growth. Furthermore, adoption of IoT-based systems and remote monitoring using mobile devices are expected to provide impetus to security solutions market growth. The high cost of maintenance and large initial investments are expected to restrain the market growth. Lack of awareness regarding technological advancements is expected to challenge security solutions market growth. Furthermore, the low adoption rate is expected to challenge manufacturers.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @On the basis of end-use industry, the security solutions market is segmented into retail, residential, commercial, transportation, BFSI, education, government, industrial, healthcare, and energy & utilities. The commercial end-use segment is expected to hold the largest market share, owing to increasing instances of theft of physical and data/information property and the growing need to protect people & property. The corporate organizations are increasingly investing in these systems to protect employees and sensitive data. For instance, biometric or access control systems are used in server rooms of large corporations that deal with critical & sensitive data.The wireless systems are projected to grow at a high CAGR. These types of systems can improve interactive monitoring services. These can be remotely and easily operated. Residential premises are being increasingly equipped with technological platforms to enable the occupants to remotely access electronic devices using tablets, smartphone, and laptops. These include intruder alarm systems, medical alert systems, intercom systems, access control & management systems, video surveillance systems, and integrated systems. Growing use of these systems for residential security is projected to propel security solutions market growth.North America is expected to dominate the global security solutions market. Most of the residential and commercial buildings in this region are equipped with fire protection systems, owing to stringent fire and safety protection norms. Several manufacturers in this region offer different systems such as flame detectors, fire detectors, sprinklers, heat detectors, fire alarms, extinguishers, sirens, fire analysis software, and control panels & interfaces.Asia Pacific is anticipated to be the region of the fastest growth owing to high infrastructure growth in railways, airports, and highways. Strong growth in banking and financial services is expected to provide ample growth opportunities for security solutions market for the next eight years.Some of the key security solutions market participants include ASSA ABLOY AB, Zhejiang Dahua Technology Co., Ltd., Bosch Security Systems, Axis Communications AB, Honeywell International, Inc., Stanley Security Solutions, Tyco International Ltd., SECOM Co., Ltd., UTC Fire & Security, Hikvision Digital Technology Co., Ltd., ADT Corp., Alarm.com, Nortek Security & Control LLC., Godrej & Boyce Manufacturing Company Ltd., Ingersoll Rand Solutions, Allegion, and Control4.The security solutions market ecosystem comprises manufacturers & suppliers, R&D firms, software solutions providers, wearable product manufacturers, and end users. The manufacturers are increasingly integrating and consolidating the products to provide multiple functionalities. For instance, the property management system provides security to multiple nodes in the same location. These players are adopting different strategies to achieve a strong position and penetration in the security solutions market. In the global security solutions market, the number of players is growing, making it important for manufacturers in gaining a competitive advantage over others. The strategies adopted include mergers & acquisitions and new product developments. For instance, Securitas developed a strategy to develop solutions specific to customers. This helps in retaining the existing customers for a long period through contract extensions. In November 2015, Stanley Security Solutions announced a partnership with iView Now, a cloud-based video verification service. This partnership strengthened Stanleys position as a video alarm monitoring services provider.Companies in the security solutions market are continuously investing in technological innovations to gain a competitive edge. For instance, Bosch launched a new video-based fire detection system. AVIOTEC IP Starlight 8000 is a unique and scientifically tested device that spots fire and predicts behavior to speed up the reaction time and reduce occurrences of false alarm.About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
Global Solar Micro Inverter Market 2017 - Top Players  ABB, Enphase Energy, SMA Solar Technology, SolarEdge Technologies, SunPower Corp, APS, Chilicon Power, Cybo Energy, iEnergy, Involar, LeadSolar, ReneSola, Sparq Systems

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Solar Micro Inverter Market Research Report 2017" to its huge collection of research reports.In this report, the global Solar Micro Inverter market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Solar Micro Inverter in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Solar Micro Inverter market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingABBEnphase EnergySMA Solar TechnologySolarEdge TechnologiesSunPower CorpAPSChilicon PowerCybo EnergyiEnergyInvolarLeadSolarReneSolaSparq SystemsOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoStand-AloneIntegratedOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Solar Micro Inverter for each application, includingResidential (0-20Kw)Commercial (20Kw-1Mw)Utility (1Mw and above)Browse Detail Report With Full TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Solar Micro Inverter Market Research Report 20171 Solar Micro Inverter Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Solar Micro Inverter1.2 Solar Micro Inverter Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category)(2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Stand-Alone1.2.4 Integrated1.3 Global Solar Micro Inverter Segment by Application1.3.1 Solar Micro Inverter Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Residential (0-20Kw)1.3.3 Commercial (20Kw-1Mw)1.3.4 Utility (1Mw and above)1.4 Global Solar Micro Inverter Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Solar Micro Inverter (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Solar Micro Inverter Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Solar Micro Inverter Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Solar Micro Inverter Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Solar Micro Inverter Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Solar Micro Inverter Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Solar Micro Inverter Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Solar Micro Inverter Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Solar Micro Inverter Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Solar Micro Inverter Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Solar Micro Inverter Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Solar Micro Inverter Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Solar Micro Inverter Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Solar Micro Inverter Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Solar Micro Inverter Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/CountriesContinued...Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Soda Ash Market Projected to Witness Vigorous Expansion by 2021

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Soda ash also known as sodium carbonate is a salt of carbnoic acid. Soda ash is hygroscopic in nature and forms strong alkaline solution in water.Soda ash is manufactured via three different process viz. Leblanc process, Solvay process and Hous process. Solvay process is most preffered manufacturing process in the industry due to its efficiency and cost. In this process, sodium chloride to sodium carbonate in presence of ammonia. Soda ash finds applications in various end-user industries such as glass, detergents, food and beverages, chemicals and dyeing among others.To access full report @The market for soda ashwas driven by various factors from different end-user industries. Huge demand from buildings & constructionindustry is driving the soda ash market in past few years. Soda ash is used in manufacturing of flat glass which is used in modern construction activities.Increasing demand from end-user industries such as automotive from emerging countries has been one of the major factors for the growth of flat glass, subsequently increasing demand for soda ash.Another, major factor driving the soda ash market is increasing demand for powder detergents from developing countries.Soda ash is also used in various applications such as metallurgy, personal care and water treatment among others. Rising demand for personal care and water treatment industry is expected to open new markets for the soda ash market during the forecast period. Increasing demand for soda ash from fiberglass and silicates is likely to provide major opportunities for soda ash market in next few years to come. However, stern regulations faced by soda ash industry are anticipated to hider the growth of the market in next few years.A sample of this report is available upon request @In terms of demand, Asia Pacific was the leading region insoda ashmarket. Asia Pacific is anticipated to be one of the fastest growing markets for soda ash due to increasing demand for glass and detergents from emerging countries such as India, Indonesia and Korea among others. The demand for soda ash is huge especially from buildings & construction, automotive and personal care end-user industry. The market for soda ash in Asia Pacific was led by China. However, India is likely to provide better opportunity for soda ash market owing to increasing consumption from various end-user industries. Asia Pacific was followed by Europe. Increasing demand from modern construction activities has been driving the market for flat glass in Europe, thus driving the demand for soda ash in this region. Germany, the UK, France and Italy were the major consumers of soda ash in Europe. However, certain regulations related to soda ash industry is likely to stagnant the growth of the market in this region. North America had the third-largest demand for soda ash in 2012. Increasing demand from glass and detergent industry were driving the growth of the market in this region. The U.S. had the largest demand for soda ash owing to huge demand from end-user industries such as buildings & construction, personal care and automotive among others. Rest of the World market is anticipated to show potential growth for the soda ash market in near future.Latin America is anticipated to show fastest growth for the soda ash market in this region. The demand is huge owing to increasing applications in personal care and water treatment applications.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The market for soda ash is fragmented and however, various manufacturers have dominated in particular regions. Some of the key manufacturers in thesoda ashmarket areGujarat Heavy Chemicals Ltd., Solvay Chemicals Inc., OCI Chemicals Corporation and Tata Chemicals among others.Key geographies evaluated in this report are:North AmericaU.SCanadaEuropeFrance, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the UKEastern EuropeCISAPACChinaIndiaJapanAustraliaOthersLatin AmericaArgentinaBrazilOthersKey features of this reportDrivers, restraints, and challenges shaping the Soda Ash market dynamicsLatest innovations and key events in the industryAnalysis of business strategies of the top playersSoda Ash market estimates and forecasts(2015 -2021)About UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA  Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Hydrogen Bromide Market to Witness Increase in Revenues by 2022

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Hydrogen Bromide (HBr), is a water soluble gas also available in the form of aqueous solution, which can be produced by the chemical reaction between bromine and hydrogen. It is used as a catalyst in reactions and as a reducing agent. Hydrogen Bromide when mixed with water forms hydrobromic acid, it is a strong acid which is mainly used for industrial uses. Hydrobromic acid is used to add desirable properties in any chemical compound, it is also used in the production of terephthalic acid, inorganic bromides, organobromines and bromides of Zinc, Sodium and Calcium. Global hydrogen bromide market is anticipated to witness a single digit CAGR growth rate in the forecast period because of its applications in the industries like automotive, construction, Electronics Etc.To access full report @The Global hydrogen Bromide market is expected to boost in near future owing to the favourable regulations on the use of bromine, due to its harmless nature in the atmosphere. Hydrogen bromide finds its application in the activities of oil and gas drilling, so the growing oil and gas industry is expected to increase the global hydrogen bromide market. The major application of hydrogen bromide is in flame retardant segment and in biocide, both of these segments are anticipated to have a modest growth in the forecasted period leading to significant growth in global hydrogen bromide market.Hydrobromic acid is a strong acid and needs to be handled carefully, also there are chances of occupational hazards which can hamper the global hydrogen bromide market. The transportation of hydrobromic acid is expensive owing to its strong acidic nature and caution needed to handle the acid, which hinders the global hydrogen bromide market. Heating of hydrogen bromide increases the pressure and leads to bursting, also on contact with metal there is a risk of explosion and fire due to the formation of hydrogen, all these factors can affect the global hydrogen bromide market.A sample of this report is available upon request @On the basis of available form, the global hydrogen bromide market is segmented as:GasVaporLiquidOn the basis of applications, the global hydrogen bromide market is segmented as:BiocidesFlame retardantsCatalystOil and gas drillingPolysilicon EtchingOthersOn the basis of end use industries, the global hydrogen bromide market is segmented as:AutomotiveWater treatmentElectronicsConstructionAgricultureOthers (Textile, Ship building).To view TOC of this report is available upon request @The global hydrogen bromide market can be divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. Asia pacific is having a maximum share in the global hydrogen bromide market and is growing at a significant rate. India and China are the countries in Asia Pacific region witnessing booming market of flame retardant, which leads to the increase of market share in global hydrogen bromide market of Asia Pacific region. North America is anticipated to be the next big player in global hydrogen bromide market owing to its recovering construction segment due to the turnaround in its economy. Europe is an emerging region in global hydrogen bromide market because of the established automotive sector in this region. Middle East and Africa, Latin America are at a nascent stage and are expected to have a good market size in near future.Some of the key players in global hydrogen bromide market are Albermarle Corporation, Tosoh Corporation, Gulf Resources, Inc., Tata Chemicals Ltd., Triveni Interchem Pvt. Ltd, SONTARA ORGANO INDUSTRIES, Bhavika Chemicals Corporation.The research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to market segments such as geography, technology and applications.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Hydrogen Bromide Market SegmentsHydrogen Bromide Market DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2012 - 2014Hydrogen Bromide Market Size & Forecast 2015 to 2025Supply & Demand Value ChainHydrogen Bromide Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedTechnologyValue ChainHydrogen Bromide Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for Hydrogen Bromide Market includesNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific & JapanThe Middle East and AfricaReport Highlights:Shifting Industry dynamicsIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected industry size Recent industry trendsKey Competition landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
Lithium Fluoride Market Augmented Expansion to be Registered by 2022

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The developing in the glass, optics and electronic and electrical industries has initiated a high demand for Lithium and related compounds. Lithium and lithium based compounds are one the key substances that have dynamic usage, either as a feedstock or as product. One of the most commercially important compound is Lithium fluoride. Lithium fluoride is an odorless, crystalline lithium salt manufactured by the reaction of lithium hydroxide with hydrogen fluoride. Alternatively it is also manufactured by dissolving lithium carbonate in excess hydrogen fluoride and dehydrating it by heating until redness appears. Lithium fluoride is highly stable and has a low melting point which is why it is used an ingredient in molten salt chemistries and liquid fluoride nuclear reactor. Owing to its stable ionic structure lithium fluoride find extensive usage as a heat sink material and fluxing agent in ceramics, enamel and glass industry .It is also used for welding, soldering and dip brazing fluxes. However the handling and the reactivity of Lithium fluoride has to be kept in consideration due to the development of toxic hydrogen fluoride gas, when lithium fluoride comes in contact with mineral acids.To access full report @The lithium fluoride market is driven by the extensive demand from glass industry and demand for nuclear power generation. The lithium fluoride market is thus anticipated to exhibit double digit growth owing to the increase in nuclear energy based applications for the electricity generation. With significant development in the development in the technologies of hybrid and electric based cars, the demand for lithium fluoride based batteries has escalated significantly thus giving a boost to the lithium fluoride market. The use of lithium fluoride as an analysis crystal in pharmaceutical application such as X-ray imaging could be a potential market opportunity in the lithium fluoride market. Additionally high demand from molten salt application and metallurgical operations is anticipated to further drive the lithium fluoride market. However the lithium fluoride market is restrained due to the presence stringent environmental laws in different regions and also due to high level toxicity.A sample of this report is available upon request @The lithium fluoride market is be segmented on the basis of regionsNorth America, Latin America, APEJ, Japan, Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Middle East & Africa. North America and APEJ are one of the largest consumer in the lithium fluoride market owing to the extensive demand of lithium fluoride in the manufacture of ceramics, glass and enamels. The major lithium fluoride market in the APEJ regions are China and India. The lithium fluoride market in these regions is driven by extensive demand for lithium molten salt in salt chemistries and heat sink materials. Likewise the lithium fluoride market in Japan is anticipated to exhibit similar growth and trend patterns. The extensive application of lithium fluoride in optical imaging and pharmaceutical applications has boosted the Lithium fluoride market in the Western and Eastern Europe. However due to the presence of environmental regulation and alternative technologies in North America and Western Europe the growth in during the forecast period is anticipated to be modest. Latin America and Middle East & Africa are anticipated to exhibit a strong growth during the forecast period owing to the extensive metallurgical application in these regions.To view TOC of this report is available upon request @Some of the prominent players among may others included in the lithium fluoride market report are Crystran Ltd., FMC, Rockwood, Leverton Clarke, Axiom Chemicals Pvt. Ltd.,, Jiangxu Ganfeng Lithium, Harshil Fluoride Brivo Lithium, Eagle Picher Technologies LLC and Huizhi Lithium EnergyThe research report presents a comprehensive assessment of the market and contains thoughtful insights, facts, historical data, and statistically supported and industry-validated market data. It also contains projections using a suitable set of assumptions and methodologies. The research report provides analysis and information according to categories such as market segments, geographies, types, technology and applications.The report covers exhaustive analysis on:Lithium Fluoride Market SegmentsLithium Fluoride Market DynamicsHistorical Actual Market Size, 2012 - 2014Lithium Fluoride Market Size & Forecast 2015 to 2025Supply & Demand Value ChainLithium Fluoride Market Current Trends/Issues/ChallengesCompetition & Companies involvedTechnologyValue ChainLithium Fluoride Market Drivers and RestraintsRegional analysis for Lithium Fluoride Market includesNorth AmericaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia Pacific & JapanThe Middle East and AfricaReport Highlights:Shifting Industry dynamicsIn-depth market segmentationHistorical, current and projected industry size Recent industry trendsKey Competition landscapeStrategies of key players and product offeringsPotential and niche segments/regions exhibiting promising growthA neutral perspective towards market performanceAbout UsPersistence Market Research (PMR) is a third-platform research firm. Our research model is a unique collaboration of data analytics and market research methodology to help businesses achieve optimal performance.To support companies in overcoming complex business challenges, we follow a multi-disciplinary approach. At PMR, we unite various data streams from multi-dimensional sources. By deploying real-time data collection, big data, and customer experience analytics, we deliver business intelligence for organizations of all sizes.Contact UsPersistence Market Research305 Broadway7th Floor, New York City,NY 10007, United States,USA - Canada Toll Free: 800-961-0353Email: sales@persistencemarketresearch.comWeb:
TCD Alcohol DM Market size will surpass USD 20 million by 2024, growing at close to 7% from 2016

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It is a specialty raw material for a varied range of polymers including polyesters, polyurethanes, polyols, and acrylates. These polymers are further used in the manufacture of paints & coatings, inks, resins, and lacquers. The global TCD alcohol DM market will be driven by its extensive application in the manufacturing of UV cured inks and coatings, which look set to grow at over 10% in he near future. Depleting petroleum reserves and increasing environmental concerns will be major influences on the global demand.Strong UV cured adhesive demand trends for flexible packaging business will also catalyze the overall growth. Flexible packaging demand in FMCG and pharmaceutical applications will likely have a beneficial impact on adhesive consumption, to it prevents microbial growth and arrest contamination. Global flexible packaging industry accounted for more than USD 80 billion in 2015 will remain a key avenue for TCD alcohol DM market demand.Request for a sample of this research report @UV cure coatings accounted for over 40% of the total TCD alcohol DM market size in 2015 and it will likely grow at more than 7% CAGR with rapidly increasing technologically aware population and increasing popularity of sophisticated and innovative portable electronic devices.Developments in optoelectronics will also offer growth opportunities up, increasing product application in synthesizing methacrylate monomers, which are used in optoelectronic devices including optical fibers, photoresists, and display boards, will stimulate demand. These devices have better performance and cost effectiveness than the traditional devices and will likely substitute them in the coming years.Browse key industry insights spread across 92 pages with 83 market data tables & 12 figures & charts from the report, TCD Alcohol DM in detail along with the table of contents at:Mature print industry will drive product growth in UV inkjet ink application, which already generates more than USD 5 million revenue for the TCD alcohol DM market as of 2015, with growth driven by superior properties over petrochemical inks.Asia Pacific accounted for a notable market share due to high tech-savvy juvenile population in countries such as Japan, China, India, Taiwan, and South Korea. The region recorded a revenue above USD 4 million in 2015. North America and Europe TCD alcohol DM market willhave slower growth because of maturity of the end-use industries. However, novel and innovative optoelectronic products may enhance regional potential.Product exclusiveness and manufacturing technology will hinder global TCD alcohol DM market growth. Possession of intellectual property rights by manufacturing companies will restrain new companies from entering in the business. All new entrants must purchase the patented technology, making the industry monopolistic.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @About Global Market InsightsGlobal Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:Blog:
Biohit Oyj (BIOBV) - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update

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"Biohit Oyj (BIOBV) - Product Pipeline Analysis, 2017 Update" The Report covers current Industries Trends, Worldwide Analysis, Global Forecast, Review, Share, Size, Growth, Effect.Description-SummaryBiohit Oyj (Biohit) is a biotechnology company that offers research and early diagnosis processing products. The companys products include acetaldehyde binding products, diagnostic tests, monoclonal antibodies, laboratory instruments and pipettes. It targets therapeutic areas such as gastric cancer, gastroesophageal reflux disease and colorectal cancer, among others. Biohit provides analyses of non-alcoholic and alcoholic beverages and carcinogenic acetaldehyde in foodstuff. The company also offers tests for the diagnosis of lactose intolerance and helicobacter pylori infection. It has presence in Finland, Italy and the UK. Biohit is headquartered in Helsinki, Finland.Get Sample Report With TOC @This report is a source for data, analysis, and actionable intelligence on the companys portfolio of pipeline products. The report provides key information about the company, its major products and brands.The report enhances decision making capabilities and help to create effective counter strategies to gain competitive advantage.Scope:- The report reviews detailed company profile with information on business description, key company facts, major products and services, key competitors, key employees, locations and subsidiaries and recent developments- The report analyzes all pipeline products in development for the company Biohit Oyj- The report provides pipeline analysis on all pipeline products of the company (by equipment type, by indication, by development stage, and by trial status)- The report covers detailed information on each pipeline product with information on pipeline territory, stage of development, device class, regulatory path, indication(s), application(s) and estimated launch date- The report provides detailed description of products in development, technical specification and functions- The report also covers ongoing clinical trials (wherever applicable) with information on trial name, trial objective, sponsor, trial design , trial status and phase, estimated start and end date.Reasons to Buy:- Develop business strategies by understanding the trends and developments driving the medical devices pipeline and technology landscape- Design and develop your product development, marketing and sales strategies by understanding the competitor portfolio- To formulate effective Research & Development strategies- Develop market-entry and market expansion strategies- Exploit in-licensing and out-licensing opportunities by identifying products, most likely to ensure a robust return- Plan mergers and acquisitions effectively by identifying key players of the most promising pipeline- Identify emerging players with potentially strong product portfolio and create effective counter-strategies to gain competitive advantage- Develop competition strategies by identifying the status and likely launch of the competitors pipeline products through review of the clinical trials, stage and of development, etc- Identify, understand and capitalize the next high-value products that your competitor would add in its portfolioTable of ContentsTable of Contents 2List of Tables 3List of Figures 3Biohit Oyj Company Overview 4Biohit Oyj Company Snapshot 4Biohit Oyj Pipeline Products and Ongoing Clinical Trials Overview 4Biohit Oyj Pipeline Analysis Overview 7Biohit Oyj - Key Facts 7Biohit Oyj - Major Products and Services 8Biohit Oyj Pipeline Products by Development Stage 9Biohit Oyj Pipeline Products Overview 11Celiac Disease Quick Test 11Celiac Disease Quick Test Product Overview 11GastroPanel Pepsinogen I ELISA Test 12GastroPanel Pepsinogen I ELISA Test Product Overview 12GastroPanel Quick Test 13GastroPanel Quick Test Product Overview 13Lactose Intolerance Quick Test 14Lactose Intolerance Quick Test Product Overview 14Biohit Oyj - Key Competitors 15Biohit Oyj - Key Employees 16Biohit Oyj - Locations And Subsidiaries 17Head Office 17Other Locations & Subsidiaries 17Joint Venture 17Recent Developments 18Biohit Oyj, Recent Developments 18May 04, 2017: Lea Paloheimo appointed Biohit Oyjs R&D and production director 18Feb 20, 2017: Biohit Group Financial Statement Release 2016 18Dec 19, 2016: GastroPanel examination now possible from a whole blood sample 22Oct 24, 2016: Biohits Chinese joint venture to start production - Gastric cancer risk screening study progressing in China 22Sep 21, 2016: The First Meta-Analysis of the Scientific Studies Conducted with GastroPanel has been Completed The Test is Accurate for Diagnosing Atrophic Gastritis 23Sep 02, 2016: Glomedics to distribute Biohit Lactose Intolerance Quick Test in South Korea 23Aug 26, 2016: Ilari Patrakka appointed Biohit Oyjs Sales and Marketing Director 23Aug 18, 2016: Biohit Group Half Year Financial report 2016 24Aug 03, 2016: Simultaneous testing of GastroPanel biomarkers is possible preliminary study results have been completed 36Aug 01, 2016: GastroPanel detects risk factors of gastric cancer a population-based screening study in Russia has been completed 36Appendix 38Methodology 38About GlobalData 40Full Report @ResearchMoz is the worlds fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMozs service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Researchmoz Global Pvt. Ltd.90 State Street,Albany, NY 12207,United States,Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free),Tel: +1-518-621-2074
DNA Testing Market Is Predicted To Reach $10.04 Billion By 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.

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Global DNA testing market is anticipated to reach USD 10.04 billion by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research Inc. Rise in developments in the field of genome sequencing and personalized DNA level diagnostic applications, a considerable growth in the number of patented research initiatives by the government and government funded projects are factors expected to drive demand during the forecast period.Introduction of novel technologies for genome profiling are expected to boost progress of this industry over the forecast period. Furthermore, increasing incidences of chronic oncology and infectious diseases that depend on DNA prototyping for treatment and diagnosis using personalized medicine are anticipated to significantly raise demand for DNA diagnostics/testing based research thereby propelling industrial growth in the coming years. Increasing demand for prenatal testing and in-vitro fertilization that subsequently leads to rise in demand for DNA diagnostics/testing is also attributive towards expected progress in this market.Browse full research report on Global DNA Testing Market: (Further key findings from the study suggest: PCR based diagnosis accounted for the largest share of the market revenue in 2014 as a result of higher preference rate coupled with higher availability of products and reagent kits of this segment. Next generation sequencing application for DNA testing is estimated to witness significant progress with a double digit CAGR of over 16% amongst the other technology segments due to presence of significant advantages offered by this technique of DNA identification and testing. Infectious disease diagnostics accounted for the largest market share in 2014 due to higher incidence rate of various infectious disorders which subsequently raises the demand for in-vitro nucleic acid based diagnostic tests for diagnosis and monitoring of disease progression. There are diverse applications of DNA testing market out of which oncology diagnostics and histopathology is estimated to register lucrative growth over the forecast period. Factors attributing for considerable growth potential in this segment include identification of cancer causing genes & associated research, and facilitation in mutation detection North America dominated the market in 2014, with revenue estimated at over USD 2,600 million. Presence of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, rising incidence of genetic abnormalities, favorable government initiatives with respect to genetic diagnosis and its application in in-vitro fertilization are major factors driving growth of this region. Asia Pacific is anticipated to witness lucrative growth as a result of developments in health care infrastructure in this region coupled with presence of significant number of target population that is suffering with chronic as well as acute disorders. Government initiatives taken up herein are also attributive to influence sector growth to a great extent. Key participants of DNA testing industry include Abbott Laboratories, Agilent Technologies Inc., Illumina Inc., Beckman Coulter Inc., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Thermo Fisher Scientific, Applied Biosystems Group, Cepheid Inc., Transgenomic Inc., Siemens Healthcare, Roche Diagnostics, Qiagen, Illumina, GE Healthcare, Alere Inc, Affymetrix Inc., Hologic, Dako, and 454 Life Sciences.Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research: (Grand View Research has segmented DNA testing market on the basis of technology, application, and region:Global DNA Diagnostics/Testing Technology Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Microarrays based diagnostics PCR based diagnostics In-situ hybridization diagnostics NGS DNA diagnosisGlobal DNA Diagnostics/Testing Application Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Prenatal DNA Carrier Screening Preimplantation Diagnosis Newborn Genetic Screening Infectious Disease Diagnosticso HBV Diagnostico HCV Diagnostico HIV Diagnostico TB Diagnostico CT/NG Diagnostico HPV Diagnostico MRSA Diagnostico Others Oncology Diagnostics & Histopathology Identity Diagnostics & Forensics Pharmacogenomics Diagnostic Testing Drug Metabolism & P450 effects OthersDNA Diagnostics/Testing Regional Outlook (Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) North Americao U.S.o Canada Europeo Germanyo UK Asia Pacifico Japano China Latin Americao Brazilo Mexico MEAo South AfricaFor more information:About Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist201 Spear St #1100, Suite #3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com
Radiology Information System RIS Market Revenue and Value Chain 2015-2025

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Radiology Information System is a software which manages the data for physicians, hospitals radiology department and clinics in an electronic form. Data could be in any form like billing, scheduling and medical imaging. Radiology information system is very useful to track radiology imaging orders and to track reports of patients. Patients entire radiology history, from admission to discharge could be track. Statistical reports for a patient or for a group of patients can be generated. The radiology information system also allows the staff to make appointments for outpatient and inpatients. Radiology Information system also provides the detailed financial recording, electronic payments and automated claims.Recently, Singapore based healthcare groups called SingHealth and Eastern Health Alliance (EH alliance) and Singapore Health Ministrys IT arm, IHis purchased Carestreams Vue Radiology (Radiology Information System) and Vue PACS (Picture Archiving and Communications System) for better result, access and management of radiology results and patient imaging data. Almost 4 million patients visits every year in SingHealth Group. Carestreams Vue RIS+PACS are in few other hospitals too in Singapore like Singapore General Hospital, KK Womens and Childrens Hospital, National Cancer Centre Singapore, National Heart Centre Singapore and SingHealth Polyclinics. By this software, one can access data from any location and create one unified imaging of patient file.Request Report Sample@Radiology Information System Market: Drivers & RestraintsTechnological advancement, rising ageing population, consolidation of healthcare providers, innovation, improved efficiency and better results, increasing demand for better healthcare systems, cost-effectiveness, increase usage of cloud computing and web based solutions, increase number of chronic diseases, are the most important driving factors in radiology information system market. Since radiology information system maintains the data for physicians and hospitals to get access form anywhere, the demand for radiology information system has increased.With so many advantages and splendid features of radiology information system, it has few disadvantages too. Lack of inexperienced professionals and interoperability issues are acting as a barrier for radiology information system market.Radiology Information System Market: SegmentationRadiology Information System Market is broadly classified on the basis of the following segments By Deployment:Web based RISCloud based RISOn-premise RISBy Product:Integrated RISStandalone RISBy End-User:HospitalsEmergency Healthcare Service ProvidersOffice Based PhysiciansRadiology Information System Market: OverviewThe radiology information system has grown substantially at a healthy CAGR due to increasing need of integrated healthcare system and rise in demand of diagnostic industry. With rapid technological advancement and innovation, radiology information system market is expected to grow globally. North America and Europe region will be dominating radiology information market in the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Radiology Information System Market: Region-wise OutlookThe radiology information system market is expected to register a double-digit CAGR for the forecast period. Depending on geographic regions, radiology information system market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, South America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan, and Middle East & Africa. North America has the largest market for radiology information system and is contributing the most as compare to other regions. This is due to the increase demand of diagnostic industry go get better, fast and effective results.Radiology Information System Market: Key PlayersSome of the key market players in radiology information system market are Cerner Corporation, Siemens Healthcare, Carestream Health, Mckesson Corporation, GE Healthcare, Merge Healthcare, Allscripts and Epic Systems.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Seed Coating Material Market : Potential and Niche Segments, Geographical regions and Trends 2025

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Seed coating is a process in which seeds are directly coated with various material such as fertilizers, repulsive agents, crop protection chemicals plant growth regulators and others, which offers both aesthetic and environmental benefits. The primary goal of seed coating material is rapid multiplication and timely supply of crop at reasonable price. Other benefits associated with seed coating material include high yield per hectare, low seeding rate, multicomponent product and others, which are driving the demand for seed coating material across the globe. This growth is especially observed in the developing regions, where agriculture is the prime contributor to the overall economy.Request Report Sample@Seed Coating Material Market SegmentationSeed coating material market is segmented on the basis of type which includes, colorants, binders, polymers and other additives. Among all the above segments polymer is expected to account for the major share in terms of revenue contribution in seed coating material market during the forecast period. Higher efficiency to improve plant ability and durability of seeds is expected to support the growth of polymer seed coating material during the forecast period. Apart from polymer, binders are also expected to show a substantial growth in next five to six years. Many different compounds are used in binders which includes various starches, sugars, cellulose, vinyl polymers, clay, gum arabic, and others. However, binder concentration is critical as too much binding delays germination, while too little binding can cause chipping and cracking of pellets in the planter box. This causes skips or wide gaps in the plant rows.Seed coating material market is also segmented on the basis of crop type which includes fruits & vegetables, cereals & grains, oilseeds, and others. Among all these product type cereals and grains is expected to account for the highest market share as compared to other segments. High consumption of cereal and grains across the globe has generated the requirement of the increased volume of the crop production is expected to contribute to the growth of seed coating material market in the near future. Moreover, oilseed segment is expected to register a healthy growth during the forecast period.On the basis of region, the seed coating material market segmentation includes North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East and Africa. North America is expected to be dominant in terms of revenue contribution in seed coating material market followed by Europe. Increased consumption of packaged food and beverages with health benefits in North America is expected to support the demand for seed coating material among food products across the region. While, among all the countries in the European region United Kingdom is expected to account for major market share during the forecast period. Moreover in developing region of Asia Pacific. China and India are the prominent countries in terms of the production of agricultural crops contributing to significant share for seed coating market in Asia Pacific region. Moreover, in Latin America Brazil is expected to show a healthy growth over next five to six years.Seed Coating Material Market Drivers & RestraintsGrowing population across the globe has generated the requirement for the production of increased agricultural crops, which is expected to fuel the demand of seed coating material market over the forecast period. Moreover, to have less impact on the environment and protecting crops, the seed coating market is expected to flourish in the near future. However, limited usage such as higher dependency on seed surface, compatibility with active ingredient and/or dye, and application temperature may hinder its growth during the forecast period.Visit For TOC@Seed Coating Material Market Key PlayersSome of the key international players in seed coating ingredient market includes Bayer Cropscience AG, Clariant International, Precision Laboratories, LLC, Chemtura Corporation, Incotec Group Bv, BASF SE and Chromatech Incorporated among others.About UsFuture Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
An inmate who escaped from a Rikers Island jail on Wednesday night by hopping a fence was been found. The island was under lockdown for hours until Correction officers found the inmate hiding in a trailer on the island.

The inmate, identified as 24-year-old Naquan Hill, had been in a yard at the Anna M. Kross Center with five other inmates when, DNAinfo reports, "Officials noticed he was gone at around 7:30 p.m. after they found the headcount was off by one. He was found early Thursday morning by two Department of Corrections staffers after a search that included help from the NYPD and Port Authority Police, according to an official."

The Correction Department is investigating the incident. WABC 7 reports that a "preliminary investigation indicates that some of the inmates may have intentionally distracted two guards while Hill climbed the fence."

A source told the NY Times that four Correction staffthree officers and a captainwere supervising the recreation yard: "Went out with a total of six inmates, and went back with five, and no one noticed anything wrong. Nobody saw it. This is simply staff negligence."

The NYPD's Harbor and Aviation units monitored for any sign of Hill, and the Port Authority police "canvassed near LaGuardia Airport as they searched for him" as well, according to NBC New York, which reports that Rikers has not passed a physical security audit by the state in the past decade, according to an unnamed source.

The lockdown stranded hundreds of visitors "for hours on at least five Q100 buses without any communication about what was happening"or access to food, water or bathroomsaccording to DNAinfo. One woman, Rojelia Carter, said, "We were there since 7:15 on the bus, people passed out, we couldn't get water, we couldn't get off the bus. There were people on the floor, there were people fighting each other on the bus, the kids couldn't breathe inside the bus."

"I would like to thank the men and women of DOC, the NYPD, the Port Authority Police and New York State Police for their time and effort in locating this individual," NYC Department of Correction acting commissioner Cynthia Brann said in a statement. "Their coordinated actions helped safely return this inmate to custody."

Hill, who is charged with burglary, has been held without bail on Rikers since last December.

Mayor Bill de Blasio plans to eventually close the jails at Rikers Island, which has been at the center of corruption and inmate abuse scandals, and open new, small replacement jails across the city.
Smart Locks Market : In-Depth Market Research Report 2015 to 2025

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A number of emerging devices have attributed to the upsurge of global smart homes over the last few years. Smart locks is expected to be one of the utmost promising offering among all the devices over the succeeding years. Smart locks is not a completely novel industry. There has been efforts to revolutionize the traditional locks and key with numerical keypad locks. In smart locks, instead of accessing the lock with you keys, you can control access to the lock using a phone, wireless key fob or even distantly over the internet. Most of the smart locks are simple and are at-home installable devices that can fit over the thumb turn of a deadbolt contained on the inside portion of the door. The smart locks cost approximate US$ 170 to US$ 260 and is still considered a luxury device for an average residential customer.Request Report Sample@Smart Locks Market: Drivers & RestraintsThe key drivers driving the growth of global smart locks are increased popularity of smart home services coupled with smartphone penetration, which is expected to reach saturation points in the next two to three years. Moreover, declining costs of ubiquitous mobile broadband and cloud infrastructure have also aided in allowing users to easily remotely monitor and control any device, be it a smart lock or a smart thermostat. Some of the other factors driving the growth of global smart lock includes its various advantages such as allowing users to grant others access to their locks directly from their phones, convenience of being able to walk up to a door and have it automatically unlock without having to reach for ones keys and many others. One of the major challenge for global smart locks market is the issue of ones phone potentially dying. In such a scenario, a physical key still works. Furthermore, phones and back end clouds can be hacked, hence there remains a real and perceived security risk related to smart locks. Also, it will be critical for startups to heavily invest in security since the headline and publicity risk is the largest in the early market. The ubiquity of smartphones and low power communication protocols, along with improved technologies primarily related to geo-locating an individual have created new opportunities to enhance user experience that can be further explored in this market.Smart Locks Market: SegmentationOn the basis of sub-market, the global smart locks market is segmented into,Data Center SecurityEnergy SecurityCasino ManagementPhysical SecurityPort SecurityOn the basis of applications, the global smart locks market is segmented into,Smart HomesOn the basis of sub-product, the global smart locks market is segmented into,Motion SensorTouch ScreenKeypadsSmart Locks: Region-wise OutlookCurrently North America is expected to be the largest market for global smart locks. This market is anticipated to observer the maximum growth in the Asia-Pacific region, especially in countries such as India, China and Japan. Smart Locks market is predicted to expand at a stable rate in other regions of the world as a result of a decelerating worldwide economy in these regions.Visit For TOC@Smart Locks Market: Key PlayersSome of the market participants in the global smart locks market are AT&T Intellectual Property, Comcast, Lowes Companies, Inc., Staples, Inc., UniKey Technologies, Inc., Yale Real Living, MIWA Lock Co. and HAVEN among many others.About Us Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Dodecanedioic Acid Market To Witness Growth Based On Increasing Paints & Coatings Production Till 2022: Grand View Research, Inc.

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Global Dodecanedioic Acid (DDDA) Market is expected to reach USD 443.3 million by 2022, according to a new study by Grand View Research, Inc. Increasing demand for nylon 6,12 from various end-use industries including polymers, detergents and coatings is expected to drive DDDA market growth over the forecast period. In addition, increasing paints & coatings production is likely to fuel DDDA demand. Development of new coating technologies for the industrial paints has contributed to the growth of DDDA on account of its ability to resist corrosion and provide durable flexible coatings.Penetration of DDDA in resin applications was highest in 2014, as it is used as a key raw material for manufacturing nylon. Increasing consumption of nylon 6,12 in automotive, electrics & electronics and construction is likely to drive DDDA market production. Growth of these end-use industries is anticipated to subsequently impact market growth in resin applications over the forecast period.Browse full research report on Global Dodecanedioic Acid (DDDA) Market: (Further key findings from the study suggest: Asia Pacific was the largest market for DDDA accounting for over 35% of the global volume share in 2014 owing to the presence of a robust industrial base in the region. High potential for industrialization in the region is expected to drive demand for DDDA over the forecast period, making it a high growth market. Discovery of shale gas in the U.S. is expected to open new opportunities in lubricant applicatios in North America in the near future. China was the largest producer and consumer of DDDA owing to the presence of a robust polymer and paint & coatings manufacturing base in the country. China accounted for over 25% of the global market volume in 2014 and is expected to maintain its lions share over the forecast period. Global DDDA demand in adhesives was 3.3 kilo tons in 2014 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of over 5% from 2015 to 2022. Rising importance of high performance adhesives in industrial applications has resulted in growing demand for adhesives. Growth of major end use industries such as construction and automotive, mainly in countries such as China, India and Brazil is expected to drive the global adhesives and sealants market over the next six years. Key players present in the global lignin market include Ube, Cathay Industrial Biotech, Verdezyne Inc., Evonik Industries AG, Invista and Santa Cruz Biotechnology Inc. the global industry is characterized by integration by numerous companies across various stages of the value chain. Verdezyne has established a bio-based DDDA plant in Malaysia and as per the companys outlook, their plant can replace 30% of the global synthetic market.Browse more reports of this category by Grand View Research:For the purpose of this study, Grand View Research has segmented the global DDDA market on the basis of application and region:Global DDDA Application Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) Resins Powder coatings Adhesives Lubricants OthersGlobal DDDA Regional Outlook (Volume, Kilo Tons; Revenue, USD Million, 2012 - 2022) North Americao U.S. Europeo Germanyo UK Latin America Asia Pacifico Chinao India MEAFor more information:About Grand View ResearchGrand View Research, Inc. is a U.S. based market research and consulting company, registered in the State of California and headquartered in San Francisco. The company provides syndicated research reports, customized research reports, and consulting services. To help clients make informed business decisions, we offer market intelligence studies ensuring relevant and fact-based research across a range of industries, from technology to chemicals, materials and healthcare.Press ContactSherry James - Corporate Relations Specialist201 Spear St #1100, Suite #3036San Francisco, CA 94105United StatesPhone: 1-415-349-0058Email: sales@grandviewresearch.com
Automotive End-Point Authentication Market - Surging Uptake of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles to Stoke Healthy Growth in Europe Market

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In order to further their positions in the global automotive end-point authentication market, prominent players are seen leveraging strategic acquisitions. This helps them to expand their outreach and enhance their offerings. Another method players are seen banking upon is product innovation by funneling money into research and development. On account of such constant efforts by keen companies to bolster their positions, the global automotive end-point authentication market is characterized by stiff competition.The global automotive end-point authentication market is fragmented in nature and entry barriers for new players are low due to absence of monopoly. However, setting up of manufacturing units for automotive end-point authentication require huge capital and resource, which is not feasible for most of the small and medium sized companies.Browse The Press Release:Some of the big names in the global automotive end-point authentication market are Garmin Ltd., Continental AG, Samsung Electronics Co., Fujitsu Ltd., Hitachi Ltd., Ltd., Symantec Corporation, VOXX International Corporation, Valeo S.A., Synaptics Incorporated, and Sonavation, Inc.As per a report by Transparency Market Research, the global automotive end-point authentication market is expected to rise at a healthy 8.6% CAGR during the period between 2017 and 2025 to reach a value of US$1.115 million by 2025 from US$0.504 million in 2017.automotive end point authentication marketSurging Uptake of Electric and Hybrid Vehicles to Stoke Healthy Growth in Europe MarketDepending upon the type of vehicle, the global automotive end-point authentication market can be broadly split into conventional vehicles and hybrid and electric vehicles. Of the two, the conventional vehicles account for a greater share in the market, which stood at over 50.0% in 2016. The segment is also slated to clock impressive growth in the next couple of years. The hybrid and electric vehicles segment too is predicted to expand swiftly on account of the fuel efficiency they accord.Geographically, the key segments of the global automotive end-point authentication market are Asia Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East and Africa. Europe, among them, contributed to over 30.0% share in revenue in 2016. The region is primarily powered by Germany. Going forward, the rising application of end-point authentication systems in new segment of vehicles such as electric and hybrid vehicles are predicted to bring about further growth in the market.Strict Safety-related Regulations Drive MarketAn important growth driver in the global automotive end-point authentication market is the stringent regulatory requirements in different parts of the world. Standards such as Federal Motor Vehicle Standards, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Euro standards, among others, are driving automobile manufacturers to develop vehicles having enhanced safety and security features, leveraging end-point authentication as a major technology, explains the lead analyst of the TMR report.Another factor catalyzing growth in the automotive end-point authentication market is the fact that the technology aids in preventing thefts and damages to vehicles. The gradual uptake of hybrid and electric vehicles will also likely catalyze growth in the market.Make an Enquiry @Automotive wearables, such as smart watches and smart glasses that are synchronized with the computer system of automobiles to provide specific information, has also brought a transition in the automotive industry and taken the end-point authentication market to a whole new level.This review is based on the findings of a TMR report, titled, Automotive End-Point Authentication Market (Authentication Type - Smart Phone Application, Wearables, and Biometric Vehicle Access; Vehicle Type - Conventional Vehicles and Hybrid and Electric Vehicles; Connectivity Type - Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Cellular Network) - Global Industry Analysis, Market Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Insulin Pump Market Size, Global Industry Analysis, Applications, Segmentations & Forecast by 2025

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Insulin Pump Market Overview:Diabetes is a disease in which the pancreas is not able to produce enough insulin or when the body cannot use the insulin effectively. Insulin is the hormone responsible for the glucose absorption into the cells. The symptoms of diabetes are blurred vision, unusual thirst, increased hunger, frequent urination, rapid weight loss, and tingling sensation. Diabetes if not treated on time can cause complications such as heart attack, foot ulcers, vision loss, stroke, leg amputation, nerve damage, kidney failure and damage to the eyes or even death. There are three types of diabetes, namely, type 1, type 2 and gestational diabetes. In type 1 diabetes the body cannot produce enough insulin whereas in type 2, body cannot use the produced insulin. In gestational diabetes is seen in some women when they are pregnant. The risk factors for diabetes are physical inactiveness, have depression, high blood pressure, obesity, and family history of diabetes. Furthermore to control diabetes insulin is required. Insulin is released by the beta cells in response to the high blood glucose levels. Insulin thus allows maintenance of blood glucose level in optimum range. In type 1 diabetes the body no longer produces enough insulin as beta cells are destroyed.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @The insulin pump is a portable computerized device that helps in controlling diabetes. This pump releases insulin through a catheter into the body. Moreover, the user can adjust the amount of insulin delivered by this pump. Insulin pump consists of a main pump unit and infusion set. The main pump unit contains an insulin reservoir which has 176 to 300 units of insulin. The main pump is worn on the outside of the body. The main pump contains a tube which is made of plastic. This tube is connected to the insulin reservoir. Furthermore, infusions sets are made of steel or Teflon and are attached to the skin. For using an insulin pump, a hands-on training is required. The pumps deliver insulin in two ways. In the first way, the insulin is delivered as continuous dose. In the second way, insulin is delivered as a surge. Insulin pumps are used to deliver short or rapid acting insulin 24 hours a day. Insulin pumps are able to deliver insulin more accurately as compared to injections. While using insulin pump there are lesser hypoglycemic events and insulin pump offers better HbA1c control. Insulin pump reduces fluctuations in blood glucose, offers more flexibility with food and exercise. There are four types of insulin pumps, namely, patch pump, closed loop insulin pump, tethered pump and implanted insulin pump.The major factor responsible for the growth of insulin pump market is rising prevalence of diabetes. According to IDF, in 2015, diabetes affected 415 million people worldwide. This number is expected to reach up to 642 million by 2040. Moreover, development of artificial pancreas will also facilitate the growth of this market. For instance, in October 2016, FDA approved first artificial pancreas. Medtronics MiniMed 670G is an artificial pancreas which monitors blood glucose level automatically. It measures blood glucose levels every 5 minutes. Furthermore, growing insulin delivering devices will also fuel the growth of this market. However, high cost of the insulin pumps can impede the growth of this market. Furthermore, dearth of skilled professional for appropriate handling of insulin pump further restricts the growth of this market. Moreover, presently research on oral insulin is going on which can hamper the growth of insulin pump market.Make an inquiry for buying this report @The key strategy followed by the major market players in the insulin pump market is product launch in order to become a pioneer in the market and gain more share. For instance, in July 2015, UNIFLIFE CORPORATION launched Imperium, which is an instant patch pump for insulin. It is a disposable and prefilled wearable insulin pump which is used for continuous subcutaneous insulin infusion. By the launch of Imperium, UNILIFE CORPORATION will become a pioneer in the market and gain more share. The major players in the insulin pump market are SOOIL Development Co., Ltd., Cellnovo Limited, F. Hoffmann La-Roche Ltd., Tandem Diabetes Care, Inc., Insulet Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., and Animas Corporation.Reasons to Buy This Report Global Advanced Insulin Pump Market size & forecast by product & application. Growth drivers, pitfalls & industry challenges. Key Advanced Insulin Pump Market growth opportunities & emerging business models. Competitive benchmarking with market share analysis and company profiles.About Crystal Market ResearchCrystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Automotive Polycarbonate Glazing Market - Benefits of Reduced Fuel Consumption for Vehicular HVAC Systems Favor Market

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Companies at the forefront of competition in the global automotive polycarbonate glazing market, according to a new report by Transparency Market Research (TMR), are Saudi Basic Industries Corporation, Covestro AG, Teijin Limited, and Trinseo S.A. Development of better quality polycarbonate resins and expansion of resin manufacturing capacities not only locally but across geographies is the focus of companies for increasing their market share in the automotive polycarbonate glazing market.According to TMR, the automotive polycarbonate glazing market stood at US$816.1 mn in 2016 in terms of revenue. Expanding at a CAGR of 9.0% between 2017 and 2025, the market is projected to be worth US$1,770.5 mn by 2025.Browse The Report:The sunroof segment is expected to be the most attractive application segment between 2017 and 2025, whereas front windshield is expected to display the least market share. This is because major developed countries of the world have regulations that specify only laminated glass for windshield application. Asia Pacific contributed the dominant 40% revenue to the global automotive polycarbonate glazing market in 2016.Benefits of Reduced Fuel Consumption for Vehicular HVAC Systems Favor MarketThe vast advantages of polycarbonate material over glass in automotive glazing have boosted adoption of polycarbonate glazing in the automotive sector. This includes easy to shape property, better thermal strength, and high impact resistance than glass irrespective of its less weight. Polycarbonate glazing has better design and functional integration than glass glazing.The use of polycarbonate resins is beneficial to the environment as well. The use of polycarbonates reduces vehicle weight, which in turn improves fuel efficiency and reduces vehicle emission. In addition, polycarbonate helps to reduce HVAC load because of which fuel needed to maintain the temperature inside a vehicle is less. Thus, the fuel efficiency of the vehicle is improved and emissions reduced.In particular, in developed countries, stringent regulations in to improve fuel efficiency and reduce vehicle emissions is having a positive impact on the adoption of polycarbonate glazing. For example, in 2011, the U.S. president announced plans for increased fuel efficiency for cars and light-duty trucks by 2025.Stringent Regulations Restrict Use of Polycarbonates in Developed CountriesDespite the positive factors, the global market for automotive polycarbonate glazing is restrained by a few factors. For instance, regulatory impact, cost, and material properties of polycarbonates are posing a challenge to the automotive polycarbonate glazing industry. For instance, in the U.S., the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards specifies only laminated glass, tempered glass, and glass-plastic for automotive glazing standards. Therefore, the regulatory environment in major automotive markets such as the U.S., Europe, and Japan specifies laminated, tempered, or toughened glass for automotive glazing. The use of plastics including polycarbonates is restricted in these geographies for automotive glazing.While polycarbonates display high impact resistance than glass in terms of material property, they are not scratch resistant. This requires polycarbonates to be coated with a coating material to make them scratch resistant. This, in turn, increases the cost of automotive polycarbonate glazing restricting their adoption in the automotive sector.Make an Enquiry @Nevertheless, the adoption of polycarbonate glazing is anticipated to rise with the increasing production of electric vehicles and automotive lighting. Panoramic roofs also present opportunity for polycarbonate glazing which will significantly reduce vehicle weight and, in turn, improve fuel efficiency and vehicular emissions.The review presented is based on the findings of Transparency Market Research report, titled Automotive Polycarbonate Glazing Market (Application - Front Windshield, Side Window, Rear Windshield and Sunroof; Vehicle Type - Passenger Vehicles and Commercial Vehicles) - Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast, 2017 - 2025Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a next-generation provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendationsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Dental Bone Graft Substitutes Market Size, Share, Applications, Segmentations & Forecast by 2025

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Dental Bone Graft Substitutes Market Overview:Dental bone grafts are used to replace the missing or damaged teeth or gums with an artificial, synthetic, or natural substitute. Prior to these grafts and substitutes, autograft was the most preferred method of bone grafting, however, technological advancements lead to development of synthetic grafts. Today, synthetic grafts are widely adopted due to its advantages such as longer shelf life, no risk of developing disease, and sterility. Therefore, the market for these synthetic grafts is poised to witness robust growth during the forecast period.High prevalence of periodontal diseases and dental cavities, increase in incidences of dental fractures, rapidly aging population, increased awareness about availability of treatment options, growing adoption of bone graft substitutes, and increasing demand for minimal invasive procedures are set to drive the global market for dental bone graft substitutes. Additionally, increased availability of products with high osteoinductive and osteoconductive properties will further contribute to the market growth. However, stringent regulations and high cost of bone grafting procedures will hamper the market growth during the forecast period.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @Elderly patients with periodontal disease need more aggressive treatment therapy, thus increasing the demand for dental bone graft substitutes. As per the data revealed by United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, the number of older people is projected to reach 2 billion in 2050 from 841 million people in 2013. Thus, growing elderly population is set to further contribute to the market growth. Moreover, rising prevalence of periodontal diseases and dental cavities will fuel the market growth. For instance, according to FDI World Dental Federation, in 2014, 30% of people worldwide aged between 65 and 74 years have lost all their natural teeth. Additionally, increased focus on aesthetic looks and growing demand for cosmetic dentistry will further drive the market growth.Major players operating in this market are Graftys, Collagen Matrix, Inc., LifeNet Health, Olympus Terumo Biomaterials Corp, Sunstar Americas, Inc., Geistlich, NovaBone, Kerr Corporation, Institut Straumann AG, Curasan AG, Zimmer Biomet, DENTSPLY Sirona International, Medtronic, Cortex Dental Implants Industries Ltd., and Genoss. These companies are highly focused on product development through mergers and acquisitions to penetrate the market. In line to this strategy, in February 2016, DENTSPLY International Inc. and Sirona Dental Systems, Inc. merged to form Dentsply Sirona International. This merger enabled Dentsply Sirona to focus its efforts on providing better dental care.Make an inquiry for buying this report @About Crystal Market ResearchCrystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Biosensors Market Size, Global Industry Analysis, Applications, Segmentations & Forecast by 2025

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Biosensors Market Overview:A biosensor is an analytical device which is used to detect the analyte and gathers biological components with the help of a physicochemical detector. Biosensors converts biochemical signals into physicochemical signals which help in measuring the sample. A biosensor is made up of two components, namely, a transducer and a biological element such as antibody, enzyme or nucleic acid. The transducer detects and transmits the signals. On the other hand, biological element acts as a sensor. There are four types of biosensors, optical, electrochemical, thermal, and piezoelectric biosensors. Biosensors are used in medical diagnostics, forensic, and drug target discovery. In medical diagnostics they are used to monitor lactose, glucose levels in the body, identification of molecular markers, and measurement of vitamin B12 and folic acid. In diabetic patients, blood glucose levels can be estimated with the help of biosensors. They can also be used to diagnose and identify the pathogen in infectious disease such as urinary tract infection. Biosensors are also used in pharmaceuticals to estimate drug remnants in food and antibiotics. They are used in food industry to identify pathogens, to monitor fermentation products such as yoghurt and beer. They are also used to measure acids, alcohol and carbohydrates. Biosensors can also be used in counter-bioterrorist activities for sensing airborne bacteria. They are also used in monitoring environmental pollution by checking the quality of water and air. They are also used to control industrial effluents and in drug discovery programs. They are also used in detection river water contaminants and pesticides.Request for an in-depth table of contents for this report @The major factor that drives the biosensor market is increase in prevalence of diabetes. According to International Diabetes Federation, in 2015, diabetes affected 415 million people worldwide and this number is expected to reach up to 642 million by 2040. Additionally, increase in the prevalence of geriatric population is also an important factor which will drive this market. According to WHO, in 2015, 900 million people were 60 years of age or older and this number is expected to reach up to 2 billion by 2050. Moreover, technological advancements are also set to drive this market. For instance, in May 2016, Nova Biomedical launched BioProfile FLEX 2 cell culture analyzer. It is an extension of the Bioprofile line of cell culture analyzers which also provides 16 cell culture chemistries. Furthermore, growing need for point of care diagnostics, cardiac pacemakers, blood glucose level will also boost the growth of this market. However, stringent regulatory requirements and complicated reimbursement policies will hamper the growth of biosensors market.The key strategy followed by the major players in the biosensors market is product launch. For instance, in March 2016, Vital Connect, Inc. launched VitalPatch biosensor. It is a single use biosensor which continuously monitors and records skin temperature, electrocardiogram and heart rate. With the launch VitalPatch biosensor, Vital Connect, Inc. will gain more market share.The major players in the biosensors market are Siemens Healthcare GmbH, LifeSensors, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., AgaMatrix, Inc., Abbott Laboratories, and Nova Biomedical.Make an inquiry for buying this report @About Crystal Market ResearchCrystal Market Research is a U.S. based market research and business intelligence company. Crystal offers one stop solution for market research, business intelligence, and consulting services to help clients make more informed decisions. It provides both syndicated as well as customized research studies for its customers spread across the globe. The company offers market intelligence reports across a broad range of industries including healthcare, chemicals & materials, technology, automotive, and energy.Contact:Judy304 South Jones Blvd, Suite 1896,Las Vegas NV 89107,United StatesToll Free: +1-888-213-4282Email: sales@crystalmarketresearch.comBlog:Website:
Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)

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Access Full Report:Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Unconventional Reservoir Analysis market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingSchlumberger LimitedHalliburton CompanyBaker Hughes IncorporatedWeatherford InternationalCGGCore LaboratoriesTracercoDownload Sample Copy@On the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoReservoir Simulation and Geo ModelingData Acquisition and MonitoringReservoir Sampling ServicesOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis for each application, includingOnshoreOffshoreDiscount Offers:Table of ContentsGlobal Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Research Report 20171 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis1.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Segment by Type (Product Category)1.2.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production and CAGR (%) Comparison by Type (Product Category) (2012-2022)1.2.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Reservoir Simulation and Geo Modeling1.2.4 Data Acquisition and Monitoring1.2.5 Reservoir Sampling Services1.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Segment by Application1.3.1 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Consumption (Sales) Comparison by Application (2012-2022)1.3.2 Onshore1.3.3 Offshore1.4 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market by Region (2012-2022)1.4.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Size (Value) and CAGR (%) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 North America Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 China Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.5 Japan Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.6 Southeast Asia Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.7 India Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 Global Market Size (Value) of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis (2012-2022)1.5.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Revenue Status and Outlook (2012-2022)1.5.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production Status and Outlook (2012-2022)2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Competition by Manufacturers2.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.1.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Revenue and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Average Price by Manufacturers (2012-2017)2.4 Manufacturers Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area and Product Type2.5 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Competitive Situation and Trends2.5.1 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Concentration Rate2.5.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Share of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers2.5.3 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)3.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Revenue (Value) and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)3.4 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.5 North America Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.6 Europe Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.7 China Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.8 Japan Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.9 Southeast Asia Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)3.10 India Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)4 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)4.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Consumption by Region (2012-2017)4.2 North America Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.3 Europe Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.4 China Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.5 Japan Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.6 Southeast Asia Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)4.7 India Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption, Export, Import (2012-2017)5 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type5.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)5.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Price by Type (2012-2017)5.4 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production Growth by Type (2012-2017)6 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Analysis by Application6.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Consumption and Market Share by Application (2012-2017)6.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Consumption Growth Rate by Application (2012-2017)6.3 Market Drivers and Opportunities6.3.1 Potential Applications6.3.2 Emerging Markets/Countries7 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis7.1 Schlumberger Limited7.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.1.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.1.2.1 Product A7.1.2.2 Product B7.1.3 Schlumberger Limited Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.2 Halliburton Company7.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.2.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.2.2.1 Product A7.2.2.2 Product B7.2.3 Halliburton Company Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.3 Baker Hughes Incorporated7.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.3.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.3.2.1 Product A7.3.2.2 Product B7.3.3 Baker Hughes Incorporated Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.4 Weatherford International7.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.4.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.4.2.1 Product A7.4.2.2 Product B7.4.3 Weatherford International Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.5 CGG7.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.5.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.5.2.1 Product A7.5.2.2 Product B7.5.3 CGG Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.6 Core Laboratories7.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.6.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.6.2.1 Product A7.6.2.2 Product B7.6.3 Core Laboratories Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview7.7 Tracerco7.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base, Sales Area and Its Competitors7.7.2 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Product Category, Application and Specification7.7.2.1 Product A7.7.2.2 Product B7.7.3 Tracerco Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)7.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview...8 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Manufacturing Cost Analysis8.1 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Key Raw Materials Analysis8.1.1 Key Raw Materials8.1.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials8.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials8.1.4 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials8.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure8.2.1 Raw Materials8.2.2 Labor Cost8.2.3 Manufacturing Expenses8.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers9.1 Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Industrial Chain Analysis9.2 Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing9.3 Raw Materials Sources of Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Major Manufacturers in 20159.4 Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders10.1 Marketing Channel10.1.1 Direct Marketing10.1.2 Indirect Marketing10.1.3 Marketing Channel Development Trend10.2 Market Positioning10.2.1 Pricing Strategy10.2.2 Brand Strategy10.2.3 Target Client10.3 Distributors/Traders List11 Market Effect Factors Analysis11.1 Technology Progress/Risk11.1.1 Substitutes Threat11.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry11.2 Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change11.3 Economic/Political Environmental Change12 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Market Forecast (2017-2022)12.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production, Revenue Forecast (2017-2022)12.1.1 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Capacity, Production and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)12.1.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)12.1.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Price and Trend Forecast (2017-2022)12.2 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Consumption , Import and Export Forecast by Region (2017-2022)12.2.1 North America Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.2.2 Europe Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.2.3 China Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.2.4 Japan Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.2.5 Southeast Asia Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.2.6 India Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue, Consumption, Export and Import Forecast (2017-2022)12.3 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Production, Revenue and Price Forecast by Type (2017-2022)12.4 Global Unconventional Reservoir Analysis Consumption Forecast by Application (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and Conclusion14 Appendix14.1 Methodology/Research Approach14.1.1 Research Programs/Design14.1.2 Market Size Estimation14.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation14.2 Data Source14.2.1 Secondary Sources14.2.2 Primary Sources14.3 DisclaimerAbout usReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.The marketing research reports consist of market analysis with statistical and analytical information on the markets, applications, industry analysis, market shares, technology and technology shifts, important players, and the developments in the market.Do you want to know more on a specific company? Our Company Reports collection contains thousands of profiles of major industrial companies. These reports typically contain information like a company overview, business description, company history, major products and services, key facts, SWOT analysis, key employees, subsidiaries, and company locations.On ReportsAndMarkets.com you will find all the globally available market research and company reports from well-respected market research companies, all leaders in their field. Reports And Markets is totally independent and serves its customers by providing the most reliable market research available, as we understand how important this is for you.Office No: 206 Empress Mill Society Shree Nagar, Nagpur - 440015 Maharashtra India
Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Report 2017

Automotive Plastic Fasteners Overview,Sales and Growth Rate,Competition by Players,Reports and markets, Reports, Markets , Market

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Access Full Report:In this report, the EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Overlook For Sample Report @Geographically, this report split EMEA into Europe, the Middle East and Africa, With sales (K Units), revenue (Million USD), market share and growth rate of Automotive Plastic Fasteners for these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast)Europe: Germany, France, UK, Russia, Italy and Benelux;Middle East: Saudi Arabia, Israel, UAE and Iran;Africa: South Africa, Nigeria, Egypt and Algeria.Check Discount :EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners market competition by top manufacturers/players, with Automotive Plastic Fasteners sales volume (K Units), price (USD/Unit), revenue (Million USD) and market share for each manufacturer/player; the top players includingTR FasteningsE & T FastenersATFNippon Industrial Fasteners Company (Nifco)Stanley Black & DeckerSNF Group Penn EngineeringMW IndustriesShanghai Fasteners CompanyBossard GroupAvery Dennison CorporationAraymondOn the basis of product, this report displays the sales volume (K Units), revenue (Million USD), product price (USD/Unit), market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoAutomotive InteriorBumper SpacersStudsScrewsOthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, sales volume (K Units), market share and growth rate of Automotive Plastic Fasteners for each application, includingPassenger CarsCommercial VehiclesIf you have any special requirements, please let us know and we will offer you the report as you want.Table of ContentsEMEA (Europe, Middle East and Africa) Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Report 20171 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Overview1.1 Product Overview and Scope of Automotive Plastic Fasteners1.2 Classification of Automotive Plastic Fasteners1.2.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Size (Sales) Comparison by Type (2012-2022)1.2.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 20161.2.3 Automotive Interior1.2.4 Bumper Spacers1.2.5 Studs1.2.6 Screws1.2.7 Others1.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market by Application/End Users1.3.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Application (2012-20221.3.2 Passenger Cars1.3.3 Commercial Vehicles1.4 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market by Region1.4.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Size (Value) Comparison by Region (2012-2022)1.4.2 Europe Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.3 Middle East Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.4.4 Africa Status and Prospect (2012-2022)1.5 EMEA Market Size (Value and Volume) of Automotive Plastic Fasteners (2012-2022)1.5.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2022)1.5.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2022)2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Competition by Manufacturers/Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application2.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers2.1.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Market Share of Major Players (2012-2017)2.1.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Share by Players (2012-2017)2.1.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sale Price by Players (2012-2017)2.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume and Value) by Type/Product Category2.2.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Market Share by Type (2012-2017)2.2.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sale Price by Type (2012-2017)2.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume) by Application2.4 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume and Value) by Region2.4.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Market Share by Region (2012-2017)2.4.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Price by Region (2012-2017)3 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Players, Countries, Type and Application3.1 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Value (2012-2017)3.1.1 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.1.2 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.2 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Type3.3 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Application3.4 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries3.4.1 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.2 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)3.4.3 Germany Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.4 France Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.5 UK Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.6 Russia Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.7 Italy Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)3.4.8 Benelux Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume, Value and Sales Price), by Region, Type and Application4.1 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Value (2012-2017)4.1.1 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.1.2 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.2 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Type4.3 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Application4.4 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries4.4.1 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.2 Middle East Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)4.4.3 Saudi Arabia Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.4 Israel Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.5 UAE Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)4.4.6 Iran Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners (Volume, Value and Sales Price) by Players, Countries, Type and Application5.1 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Value (2012-2017)5.1.1 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.1.2 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.2 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Type5.3 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Market Share by Application5.4 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume and Value (Revenue) by Countries5.4.1 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Volume by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.2 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue by Countries (2012-2017)5.4.3 South Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.4 Nigeria Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.5 Egypt Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)5.4.6 Algeria Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate (2012-2017)6 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Manufacturers/Players Profiles and Sales Data6.1 TR Fastenings6.1.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.1.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.1.2.1 Product A6.1.2.2 Product B6.1.3 TR Fastenings Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.1.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.2 E & T Fasteners6.2.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.2.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.2.2.1 Product A6.2.2.2 Product B6.2.3 E & T Fasteners Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.2.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.3 ATF6.3.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.3.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.3.2.1 Product A6.3.2.2 Product B6.3.3 ATF Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.3.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.4 Nippon Industrial Fasteners Company (Nifco)6.4.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.4.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.4.2.1 Product A6.4.2.2 Product B6.4.3 Nippon Industrial Fasteners Company (Nifco) Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.4.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.5 Stanley Black & Decker6.5.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.5.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.5.2.1 Product A6.5.2.2 Product B6.5.3 Stanley Black & Decker Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.5.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.6 SNF Group Penn Engineering6.6.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.6.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.6.2.1 Product A6.6.2.2 Product B6.6.3 SNF Group Penn Engineering Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.6.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.7 MW Industries6.7.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.7.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.7.2.1 Product A6.7.2.2 Product B6.7.3 MW Industries Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.7.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.8 Shanghai Fasteners Company6.8.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.8.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.8.2.1 Product A6.8.2.2 Product B6.8.3 Shanghai Fasteners Company Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.8.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.9 Bossard Group6.9.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.9.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.9.2.1 Product A6.9.2.2 Product B6.9.3 Bossard Group Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.9.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.10 Avery Dennison Corporation6.10.1 Company Basic Information, Manufacturing Base and Competitors6.10.2 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Product Type, Application and Specification6.10.2.1 Product A6.10.2.2 Product B6.10.3 Avery Dennison Corporation Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue, Price and Gross Margin (2012-2017)6.10.4 Main Business/Business Overview6.11 Araymond7 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Manufacturing Cost Analysis7.1 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Key Raw Materials Analysis7.1.1 Key Raw Materials7.1.2 Price Trend of Key Raw Materials7.1.3 Key Suppliers of Raw Materials7.1.4 Market Concentration Rate of Raw Materials7.2 Proportion of Manufacturing Cost Structure7.2.1 Raw Materials7.2.2 Labor Cost7.2.3 Manufacturing Expenses7.3 Manufacturing Process Analysis of Automotive Plastic Fasteners8 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers8.1 Automotive Plastic Fasteners Industrial Chain Analysis8.2 Upstream Raw Materials Sourcing8.3 Raw Materials Sources of Automotive Plastic Fasteners Major Manufacturers in 20168.4 Downstream Buyers9 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders9.1 Marketing Channel9.1.1 Direct Marketing9.1.2 Indirect Marketing9.1.3 Marketing Channel Development Trend9.2 Market Positioning9.2.1 Pricing Strategy9.2.2 Brand Strategy9.2.3 Target Client9.3 Distributors/Traders List10 Market Effect Factors Analysis10.1 Technology Progress/Risk10.1.1 Substitutes Threat10.1.2 Technology Progress in Related Industry10.2 Consumer Needs/Customer Preference Change10.3 Economic/Political Environmental Change11 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Market Forecast (2017-2022)11.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue and Price Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.1 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)11.1.3 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Price and Trend Forecast (2017-2022)11.2 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.3 Europe Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.4 Middle Eastt Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.5 Africa Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales, Revenue and Growth Rate Forecast by Region (2017-2022)11.6 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Forecast by Type (2017-2022)11.7 EMEA Automotive Plastic Fasteners Sales Forecast by Application (2017-2022)12 Research Findings and Conclusion13 Appendix13.1 Methodology/Research Approach13.1.1 Research Programs/Design13.1.2 Market Size Estimation13.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation13.2 Data Source13.2.1 Secondary Sources13.2.2 Primary Sources13.3 DisclaimerAbout Reports And MarketsReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Contact PersonReports And Markets is part of the Algoro Research Consultants Pvt. Ltd. and offers premium progressive statistical surveying, market research reports, analysis & forecast data for industries and governments around the globe.Are you mastering your market? Do you know what the market potential is for your product, who the market players are and what the growth forecast is? We offer standard global, regional or country specific market research studies for almost every market you can imagine.Sanjay JainManager - Partner Relations & International Marketinginfo@reportsandmarkets.comPh: +1-214-377-1121 (US), +44-020-3286-9338 (UK)
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Neural Network Software Market: OverviewIn the world of information technology, a neural network is a system which is a combination of hardware and software modeled after the operation similar to neurons in the human brain. It is a type of artificial intelligence which mimics the understanding and analyzing the process of the human brain to extract patterns and insights from historical data to gain and deduce valuable insights out of it. For the functioning of the neural network, neural network software plays the pivotal role. It executes various computational operations and algorithmic processes as per command to streamline the data mining process by automatically cleaning and preprocessing data. Over the forecast period, it has been anticipated that market of neural network software is expected to grow over the forecast period and register a healthy CAGR over the forecast period.Obtain Report Details @Neural Network Software Market: Drivers and RestraintsAcross the globe, the need of the moment is big data. Business houses are adopting strategies to analyze historical data and derive insights out of it to understand better business problems. Business houses and corporates are now leveraging on data for every business strategy to be taken. The amount of data generated at every point is enormous and runs in Exabyte. Neural network software helps in analyzing the correlation among various data points. Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance (BFSI) sector business operations have increased manifold in recent years with the rise in the number of customers across all geographical locations. Such financial institutions recorded the largest market share regarding adoption and implementation of neural network software, the reason for former is due to a large number of application areas in the business verticals and the growing necessity to monitor and classify data. For instance, the insights captured and delivered from neural network allows business organizations to understand their customers and empower their workforce with various strategies and knowledge to contribute towards the growth of business. Thus, with the help of neural network software, banks, and financial institutions can track and comprehend the risk of different transactions of their customers. Medical and healthcare industry are a significant industry related to human life. Image based medical diagnosis is one of the key service areas in this sector, where neural network and neural network software are undergoing a lot of research for diagnosing purpose.Fill The Form For An Exclusive Sample Of This Report @With the rise of data and increase in the use of software in every field associated with human life has also simultaneously given rise to various malware and viruses which can malfunction the system which will result in undesired outputs. The use of data analytics tool and complex software such as neural network software has been gaining momentum but correspondingly skilled workforce at this moment of time across the globe is limited. These two factors possibly can act as a restraint on the growth of neural network software market.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Optical Sensor Market 2017 Analysis and 2025 Forecasts for Global Regions

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Latest market study on Optical Sensor Market to 2025 - Global Analysis and Forecasts by Types, Application and End-User Vertical, the report include key understanding on the driving factors of this growth and also highlights the prominent players in the market and their developments.Browse market data tables and in-depth TOC of the Optical Sensor Market to 2025 @The optical sensors are used to convert light rays into electrical signal. Earlier optical sensors had limited application in safety on the production line, however they are now becoming an essential device for manufacturers to save power, time and money with their quick and precise measurements.The report aims to provide an overview of Global Optical Sensor Market with detailed market segmentation by types, application, end-user vertical, and geography. The global optical sensor market is expected to witness high growth during the forecast period with upsurge in shipments of consumer electronics in market. Development in mobile technology is expected to boost the demand for optical sensors.Request Sample Copy @The objectives of Optical Sensor Market Report is as follows: To provide overview of the global optical sensor market To analyze and forecast the global optical sensor market on the basis of product type, application and end user To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall optical sensor market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South America (SAM), which is later sub-segmented by respective countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key optical sensor players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesSome of the leading players in optical sensor market are Omron Corporation, Robert Bosch GMBH, ST Microelectronics NV, Omnvision Technologies, Vishay Intertechnology, Avago Technologies Ltd., EMX Industries Inc., SICK AG, TE Connectivity, and First Sensor AG.Inquire about discount on this report @The report segments the global Optical Sensor Market as follows:Optical Sensor Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 -Types Intrinsic Sensors Market Extrinsic Sensors MarketOptical Sensor Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Application Biometric Market Night Vision Market Military and Law Enforcement Market Others MarketOptical Sensor Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - End-User Verticals Aerospace & Defense Market Automotive Market Consumer Electronics Market Medical Market Others MarketOptical Sensor Market Revenue and Forecasts to 2025 - Geographical Analysis North America Europe Asia Pacific (APAC) Middle East & Africa (MEA) South America (SAM)Procure Full Report @Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Xenon Headlights Market Analysis & Forecast 2022 Profiling GE Lighting, Osram, Philips, Hella, Magneti Marelli, PIAA, Valeo

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This is a professional and in-depth study on the current state of the Xenon Headlights industry. Global Xenon Headlights Industry 2017 Research Report initially provides a basic overview of the industry that covers definition, applications and manufacturing technology, post which the report explores into the international players in the market. Complete report on the Xenon Headlights Market Research Report spread across 115 pages and 134 supported with tables and figures.In this report, the global Xenon Headlights market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Global Xenon Headlights Market Research Report 2017 estimates the drivers, restraints, and opportunities pertaining to the global Xenon Headlights market over the timeframe of 2017-2022. Delivering the key insights pertaining to this industry, the report provides an in-depth analysis of the latest trends, present and future business scenario, market size and share, and commercialization potential of the Xenon Headlights industry over the coming five years.Request Simple for Global Xenon Headlights Market Research Report @The industry is analyzed in terms of products, applications, regions, and the key manufacturers holding a prominent share of the global revenue.In terms of end-user or applications, the report is Compact Car, SUV and Mini, Van, Motorcycle, Truck. A detailed analysis of the contribution of these application segments to the overall market revenue and volume has been included in the report.The product landscape of the OEM Product, Aftermarket Product. Each product has been analyzed in terms of its production, capacity, and consumption. The report further details the market share to be procured by each of these products over the coming years.Request Discount for Global Xenon Headlights Market Research Report @The regional segmentation of the report includes North America, Europe, China, Japan, Southeast Asia, and India. Detailing the consumption and production rate of Xenon Headlightss in these regions, the report outlines the growth curve of this industry in terms of market volume and share over 2017-2022.The competitive landscape of the Xenon Headlights market profiles the top players participating in the global business space. These are GE Lighting, Osram, Philips, Hella, Magneti Marelli, PIAA, Valeo, Hyundai Mobis. The report also details the market positioning, strategies, and revenue procured by each of these manufacturers.For More Info on Market Research @Related Reports: -Global Motorcycle Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Sensor Sales Market Report 2017In this report, the global Motorcycle Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) Sensor market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Centralize market research purchases across your entire organization in one place.Marketstudyreport.com allows you to manage and control all corporate research purchases to consolidate billing and vendor management. You can eliminate duplicate purchases and customize your content and license management.Market Study ReportThe Green Suite #4594,Dover, DE 19901United StatesPhone: 1-201-355-0868US Toll Free: 1-866-764-2150Email: sales@marketstudyreport.comWebsite:News:
AC Drives Market - Stiff Competition To The Big Market Players Is A Key Market Challenge To Be Overcome

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Alternate Current (AC) drives are electronic devices that alternates with voltage, frequency & magnetic flux to regulate the speed & torque of an electric motor. In an energy intensive sector optimal usage of energy and efficient utilization of its consumption is important for managing the overall operating costs of that industry. AC drives can optimize the energy usage and at the same time help in reduction of operative costs by monitoring the speed and torque of electric motors. Reduction in energy usage and the gain from extending the life of electrical equipment make AC drives to have widespread applications in industries such as water & wastewater, oil & gas and mining. The primary reasons leading to growth of AC drives market includes increasing technological improvement in drives market, and improvised application of this product in various industries. This market is expected to register healthy growth due growing usage of AC drives across globe.Increasing urbanization & high industrialization growth rate across the globe are the primary aspects that is driving faster adoption of this product. Diverse processes for earning energy efficiency along with rising need for energy optimizations in different industrial processes are the key factors that are boosting the market growth. Although the reduction in the foreign direct investment in this sector is a key restrictive factor deterring the growth of this market. Also, there is a vast growth opportunities of this market in the auxiliary market. Moreover, increasing applications in Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will provide growth opportunities for the AC drives market. The major manufacturers have consolidated power in the market but in recent period various local vendors are developing new products in this market which is expected to offer stiff competition to the big market players is a key market challenge to be overcome by key market players to gain stronghold in the market.Obtain Report Details @AC drives market is segmented on the basis of power rating, voltage, end-user industry applications, and region. On the basis of power rating the market is segmented into low power drives, medium power drives and high power drives. The usage of high power variants are predominant in power generation, metals & mining and chemical & petrochemical industries. These industries also hold the largest market share and is expected to remain prominent throughout the forecast period 2016-2024.On the basis of voltage, the market is segmented into low, medium and high voltage. The medium voltage AC drivers are expected to grow at the fastest rate owing to their vast end user base. The increasing growth potential of consumer electronics segment is driving this market.By end-use industry the market is distributed into food & beverage, oil & gas, metals & mining, power generation, water generation, automation, chemicals & petrochemicals and others. The increasing adoption of AC drivers in power generation and automation industry is driving the growth of this market during the forecast period. F&B and automation has high growth potential and are the fastest growing segment.On the basis of applications, the market is segmented into fans, pumps, compressors, extruders conveyors, among other applications. The increasing use of compressors into different applications has made it the fastest growing segment in the market. Compressors also old the highest market share and will remain dominant throughout the forecast period.On the basis of region, the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, Middle East & Africa and South America. North America has largest penetration for AC drivers and also hold the highest market share. Asia-Pacific is the fastest growing segment in this market.Fill The Form For An Exclusive Sample Of This Report @Prominent market players operating in the market are Siemens AG (Germany), Fuji Electric Holdings (Japan), Danfoss Group (Denmark), Schneider Electric (France) Mitsubishi Electrical Co, Ltd. (Japan), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S.), Hitachi Ltd. (Japan), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), and Rockwell Automation (U.S.) amongst others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Aerospace & Defense Application of Global Surface-Acoustic Wave Devices Market Held The Largest Market Share In 2016

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Global Surface-Acoustic Wave Devices Market Report, published by Variant Market Research, forecast that the global market is expected to reach $3.5 Billion by 2024 from $2 Billion in 2016, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2016 to 2024. Some of the major driving factors of the global surface-acoustic wave devices market are expanding usage of SAWs devices in numerous applications such as defense, and communication, among others and high demand for smart sensors. Additionally, increasing demand for electronics such as smartphone and television in emerging economies also uplift the market.To Know more about this Report, Click Here:The global surface-acoustic wave devices market is bifurcated into devices analysis, end-use industry and geography. Devices analysis segment includes filters, oscillators, transducers resonators, and others. Filters sub-segment held the largest market share in 2016. Moreover, end-use industry segment is further categorized into aerospace & defense, environmental & industry, telecommunication, automotive, healthcare & medical, consumer electronics, and other applications. Aerospace & defense held the largest market share in 2016 and expected to continue its dominance in application segment throughout the forecast period, 2016 -2024.To Get Sample of This Report, Click Here:Geographical sub segment of the surface-acoustic wave devices market are North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Asia Pacific is anticipated to grow at a fastest CAGR from 2016 to 2024, driven by availability of raw materials, low labour cost coupled with rising use of these devices in a number of industries in the region. Asia Pacific also held the highest market share in 2016.The key players of the global surface-acoustic wave devices market are Hitachi High-Technologies Corp., Carl Zeiss AG, FEI Company, JEOL Ltd, TDK Corp., API Technologies, NEC Corporation, Raytheon Company, Kyocera Corp., Infineon Technologies AG, Panasonic Industrial Solutions, AVX Corp., Boston Piezo-Optics Inc., and Murata Manufacturing Co. Ltd. Among othersAbout Variant Market Research:Variant Market Research LLP was delineated in 2015 and to launch our business and website it grabbed more than a year. Our head office is based in Pune and we also have branch in San Francisco, California, the U.S. The long time was generally used to build up a talented team of experienced professionals and analysts, to generate client satisfying exact market analysis data. The company aims to be a specialist in delivering reports on various domains with precise analysis, keeping a virtuous relationship with our consumers. Our vision says, "We would like to grow with you, making your paths simpler yet solidest" and our mission is to "Implementing our analytical, technical and marketing skills to set a new goal for our consumers, dedicatedly helping them take their next strategic moves."The Co-founders of Variant Market Research: M/S Shweta Shubham and Mr. Yogesh Godse are keen to provide services across aforementioned domains helping them to take their strategic moves regarding their business and providing them the growth opportunities. The Co-founders say, "We believe in providing the future solutions for your business, exploring the current market trends and suggesting you the future strategies and forecast of a particular market that could keep your company ahead in the competitive market rivalry." We hold expertise in our designated areas of research and consulting with a team of experts from each of the dedicated areas covered under our research. Destined by the dedicated team of analysts and experts, we are envisioned to provide you our best in order to plan your next strategic move and take your company's future ahead with our support and your esteemed cooperation.For information, contact:VARIANT MARKET RESEARCH LLPWeb:Email: help@variantmarketresearch.comAddress: 649 Mission St., 5th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94105, United States.Tel: +1-415-680-2785Fax: +1-415-680-2786
Digital Intelligence Technology Market - Rise of The Intelligent Personal Assistant At Home, Chatbots, Data Driven Decisions And So On.

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Digital intelligence (DI) is the process of collating the big data of customers to analyze and develop insights. These insights can be used to deliver the best and the most relevant experiences to the customer during digital interaction. Digital intelligence technology includes understanding of customers and usage of the companys website by the customer either through the mobile site or mobile application. The company can use this data to optimize its experience irrespective of time, or place of interaction with the customer. Marketers are able to combine insights from existing, new, and emerging channels which allows them timely, customer-oriented decision-making. Hence, digital intelligence is essentially a modern competitive approach to assess customer expectations and needs. Digital intelligence technology has the ability to transform digital data into real-time data. In todays changing multi-device and multi-channel world, the digital data collected can be turned into actionable and customer centric insights. Digital intelligence technology is the backbone of customer experience management. Recent trends in digital intelligence technology are rise of the intelligent personal assistant at home, chatbots, data driven decisions and so on.Obtain Report Details @Growth of the global digital intelligence technology market is fueled by factors such as increasing need to optimize customer experience management (predictive and real time data), increasing public, corporate, and government use of the internet and digital data, growth in voice and video communications on the Internet, and availability of cheap data storage and processing for the digitization of back offices. These factors are expected to contribute to the growth of the digital intelligence technology market. Tools such as online testing, predictive analytics, and behavioral targeting are used by companies to understand web behavior in real time. There are few restraining factors for the digital intelligence technology market such as data security, linking the real time data, and data quality. There are chances of current technology getting obsolete in the mid to long term due to rapid advancements in technology and software in the market.In recent years, there is an increasing need for deeper understanding of products and its features used by customers and also customer interactions. This is helpful for companies to create the best website or mobile user experience. All this can be achieved through digital intelligence technology, which provides an end-to-end snapshot of customer interaction across various channels such as web, mobile, and offline.The digital intelligence technology market is segmented on the basis of deployment, end-use industries, and regions. The segmentation on the basis of deployment includes cloud and on premise. Cloud is further sub segmented into public, private, and hybrid. End-use industries of the digital intelligence technology market include aerospace and defense, information and telecommunications, retail and consumer goods sector, manufacturing sector, healthcare, energy, government and public sector, and others. The market is segmented into five regions namely North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (MEA), and South America. North America and Europe are the leading regions in the digital intelligence technology market.Some of the key players in the global digital intelligence technology market include Accenture, Splunk, Inc., Simon Waller, SAS Institute Inc., AT Internet, Digital Intelligence, Inc., ACCESSDATA, Adobe Systems Incorporated, BlueAnt Digital Intelligence Pvt. Ltd., Emerson Electric Co., and so on.Fill The Form For An Exclusive Sample Of This Report @The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report servesTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Transparency Market Research90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Gift Packaging market Value Share, Analysis and Segments 2017-2027

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Over the past decades, the global gift industry witnessed an impressive growth, owing to the expanded customer base along with increasing applications of innovative products at attractive prices. The gift market comprises of corporate gifting as well as personal gifting. Moreover, the gift packaging market experienced a revolution with new product innovations in the food as well as in the non-food segment accompanied by eye-catching packaging. Nowadays non-food gifting are not only restricted to small electronic items, bed sheets but also include gift vouchers, soft toys, artworks, artificial jewelries and many more. At the same time, various product types like cookies, fruit baskets, wine hampers, different types of cheese which comes under the categorization of food gifting for occasions like festivals, birthdays, etc. are also in the trend. The changing lifestyle together with customers ability and willingness to pay for innovative products drove this change in the gift packaging market.Nowadays, wrapping paper are in demand for gifts packaging. Some of the conventional examples of wrapping paper are recycled newspaper, reusable gift wrap, decorative lunch bags, gift box, decorative shopping bags and many more. The new alternatives for gift wrapping are also being introduced, for example, using a decorative handkerchief which also has other application can further fuel the growth in demand for gift packaging market. The gift market is expected to expand with a healthy growth rate of over 10% which in turns growth of the gift packaging market in the near future.Request Report Sample@Gift Packaging Market: DynamicsThe growing e-commerce in the gifting space is one of the major factor which is expected to drive the demand for the gift packaging market. Big e-commerce companies such as Snapdeal and Amazon play a vital role in fuelling the demand for gift packaging market. Further, increase in per capita income, increasing exposure to global trends is offering impetus to the growth of overall gift industry which in turn is escalating the gift packaging market across the globe. Personal gifting in number of occasions like birthdays, anniversaries, fathers day, and Mothers day is on the rise as the consumers, want uniqueness, different styles and personalization in their gift items, to match their status.In past years, food gifting was limited to the conventional sweets only, but nowadays customers are moving towards consistent quality products with a good taste in attractive packaging, which is a result of growing incidence of adulteration in conventional sweets.Gift Packaging Market: SegmentationOn the basis of packaging type, the global gift packaging market is segmented into,Primary PackagingSecondary PackagingTertiary PackagingOn the basis of product type, the global gift packaging market is segmented into,Gift boxesContainersRibbons & BowsGift SacksGift bagsWrapping paperTissue Paper & ShredsCellophane overwrap & bagsGift card & Money holdersOthersOn the basis of Materials, the global gift packaging market is segmented into,PlasticsPaper & PaperboardMetalsGlassOthersGift Packaging Market: Region Wise OutlookIn terms of geography, the global gift packaging market divided into five regions which includes North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Middle East & Africa. Out of the five regions, Asia pacific represents the largest global gift packaging market, owing to the growth of rising disposable incomes coupled with the widened customer base. In Asia Pacific, developing countries like China and India, are the most lucrative countries for increase in consumer spending and rise in GDP.Visit For TOC@Gift Packaging Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players of the global gift packaging market are Smurfit kappa Group, Packlyn Ltd, Shenzhen Fuxiang Gifts & Packaging Co. Ltd., Interpak, Ebro Color GmbH, and many more.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaCONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Worldwide Scintillator Market Demand, Trends, Analysis and Forecast to 2025

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Scintillators are the materials that exhibit property of luminescence when exposed to ionizing radiation. Such materials when struck by an incoming particle carrying free electrons, absorb the energy and remit in the form of light. Scintillator are primarily classified on the basis of composition of material namely organic crystals, organic liquids, and plastic scintillator.Request Sample atDue to the property of luminesce, these materials are widely used across several applications. Scintillators are commonly used by security personnel for radiation detection. Other instruments that uses scintillator materials includes S-Ray devices, nuclear cameras, computed tomography scanners, CRT monitors, and gamma scanners. Continued R&D to discover potential application of scintillator material is primarily driving the growth of the market.Get Complete Report @The report aims to provide an overview of Global Scintillator Market along with detailed segmentation of the market by platform and five major geographical regions. Global Scintillator market is expected to witness moderate growth during the forecast period due to rising penetration of internet globally.The objectives of this report are as follows: To provide overview of the global Scintillator market To analyze and forecast the global Scintillator market on the basis of technology, solutions and payment type To provide market size and forecast till 2025 for overall Scintillator market with respect to five major regions, namely; North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA), and South America (SAM), which are later sub-segmented across respective major countries To evaluate market dynamics effecting the market during the forecast period i.e., drivers, restraints, opportunities, and future trend To provide exhaustive PEST analysis for all five regions To profiles key Scintillator players influencing the market along with their SWOT analysis and market strategiesSome of the important players in Scintillator market are Applied Scintillation Technologies Ltd., Argus Imaging Bv Inc., Canberra Industries, Hamamatsu Photonics, Hitachi Metals Ltd, Ludlum Measurements Inc., Mirion Technologies Inc., Rexon Components and TLD Systems Inc., Radiation Monitoring Devices Inc, and Zecotek Photonics Inc.Inquire before Buying @Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@theinsightpartners.comAbout Us:The Insight Partners is a one stop industry research provider of actionable intelligence. We help our clients in getting solutions to their research requirements through our syndicated and consulting research services. We are a specialist in Technology, Media, and Telecommunication industries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Pharmaceutical Robots Market : Shares, Strategies, and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Global Pharmaceutical Robots Market: OverviewPharmaceutical robots find application in laboratories and pharmacies and in various drug manufacturing processes. Robotics are also used by hospitals for numerous pharmaceutical applications that include mixing hazardous oncological drugs and formulations emitting harmful radiations. Over the past few years, the adoption of robotics in the pharmaceutical industry has been markedly slower than in other industries. Nonetheless, in recent years, the application of robotics and automation technologies in pharmaceutical manufacturing, production operations, and distribution systems, has gathered pace.Robots find wide applications in automating a variety of repetitive tasks, mainly in hazardous environments. The application of different types of pick-and-place machines for the development of different pharmaceutical products is growing too.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Pharmaceutical Robots Market: Key TrendsThe soaring demand for new drugs and formulations has egged a number of pharmaceutical companies to explore new ways to make better and less expensive drugs. This is a key factor propelling the pharmaceutical robots market. The demand for automated filling, inspection, and packaging in pharmaceutical manufacturing are other factors driving the market. The use of robots in potentially hazardous settings such as those prone to radioactive radiations, biological dangers, and cross-contamination in cleanrooms has boosted the uptake of robots in the pharmaceutical industry. Various advantages of using pharmaceutical robots include remarkably high precision and speed in drug formulation, significantly reduced overhead costs, elimination in human error, and high reproducibility. Rising awareness of these benefits is expected to fuel the application of pharmaceutical robots.Global Pharmaceutical Robots Market: Market PotentialRobotic technologies are increasingly being adopted in automated syringe assemblies, inspections, and packaging. The use of pharmaceutical robots is gaining prominence in sterile environments. This is attributed to their dexterity and reliability in reducing risks arising from environmental contamination and in eliminating cross-contamination between humans and components. Witnessing the vast potential of robots in the pharmaceutical sector, leading manufacturers of pharmaceutical process equipment are making product innovations.Request TOC of the Report @Steriline, a global manufacturer and supplier of specialized process equipment in the pharmaceutical sector, has recently expanded its robotics solutions for the aseptic processing of pharmaceutical products. The European manufacturer will preview its new Robotic Pulsed Light Sterilizer (RPLS1) at interpack 2017, a leading event scheduled to take place in Dusseldorf starting May 4, 2017. The robotic solution is the first-of-its kind to adopt the pulsed light sterilizer technology for ready-to-use (RTU) nest sterilization. RPLS1 can be connected to any RTU filling machine and can sterilize cartridges, syringes, and vials. Easy and cost-effective to install, the robotic device boasts of a processing capacity of 120 tubs/h. Besides enhanced efficiency, it is safe as well, claims the company.Global Pharmaceutical Robots Market: Regional OutlookThe regional markets for pharmaceutical robots covered in the report are North America, Europe, and Asia Pacific. Asia Pacific, among them, is a lucrative market that is expected expand at a significant CAGR over the forecast period. The growing number of domestic industrial robotic companies, advances in the pharmaceutical sector, and soaring investment in the robotics industry are the key factors boosting the pharmaceutical robots market in the region. In addition, growing number of conferences and exhibitions aimed to create awareness about the adoption of automated technologies is also expected to stimulate the demand for pharmaceutical robots.Get Discount @Global Pharmaceutical Robots Market: Competitive AnalysisMajor companies operating in the global pharmaceutical robots market, profiled in the report are Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd., FANUC Corporation, KUKA AG, Mitsubishi Electric Corporation, ABB Ltd., Denso Corporation, Seiko Epson Corporation, Marchesini Group S.p.A, Universal Robots A/S, and Yaskawa Electric Corporation.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth research of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact:Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Food Allergens and Intolerance Testing Market Growing at a Healthy Rate

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Food Allergens and Intolerance Testing Market: OverviewFood allergies or food intolerances have affected nearly every person at some of point in their lifetime. However, there is a difference between food allergies and food intolerance. A food allergy causes hypersensitivity of the bodys immune system. It involves an abnormal response triggered by the immune system upon ingestion of certain kind of food. The most common food allergens reported in food allergy or intolerance testing include cows milk, peanuts, eggs, seafood, shellfish, soy, wheat and tree nuts such as almonds, Brazil nuts, cashews, pine nuts, pistachios and walnuts. If the immune system is not involved in the reaction to a food then it is known as food intolerance.Browse Market Research Report @According to the World Allergen Organization (WAO), food allergies affect 220 - 250 million people worldwide. In the U.S., annually an estimated 30,000 emergency room visits occur due to food allergies which lead to 2,000 hospitalizations and 200 deaths. In the last few decades, the global market for food allergy and intolerance products has gone from being a niche space to mainstream. As a growing number of people are suffering from food allergies and intolerance to specific ingredients, the market now has promising growth prospects.The global food allergens and intolerance testing can be segmented into in vivo and in vitro methodologies. The in vivo tests include prick tests, patch tests, and intradermal tests. In vivo tests that are available for testing food allergies include the food challenge test and the elimination test.Until a few years ago, the sales of foods for people suffering from food intolerance or sensitivity where confined largely to specialized wellness food shops and pharmacies. However, that scenario has since undergone a change with several mainstream retail stores now selling these products. With the rising popularity of such products, there has been an expansion in the product pipeline as well.Large multi-retail players are now launching their own name brands selling gluten-free foods. The market thus now has a plethora of bakery items, sauces, cereals, pizzas, and meat items. Supermarkets have begun to advertise intolerance foods via the internet to gain new customers. With the increasing awareness and popularity of intolerance foods, many restaurants are also now featuring allergen-free food items on their menus.The growth of the global food allergens and intolerance testing market has thus taken off. Gluten- and wheat-free products are thus making inroads into the mainstream food and beverages industry. Besides those suffering from food-related intolerance and allergies, many individuals are opting for specialized food for general health and well-being reasons.For more information on this report, fill the form @On the basis of geography, the global food allergens and intolerance testing market can be segmented into four major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia - Pacific and Rest of the World. The United States currently stands as the leading country in the global food allergens and intolerance testing market. The incidence of food allergy has risen by about 18%, over the last few years here. This has enabled the regional market to emerge as a lucrative space for intolerance foods. In the U.S., it is estimated that between 34.5 mn and 45 mn people are allergic to lactose. This has led to the emergence of a massive market for gluten-free products in the United States. Although, the share of emerging Asia Pacific countries in the global market is now expanding, their share currently remains restricted because of a low awareness about food allergens and intolerance testing.The global food allergens and intolerance testing market is fragmented because a large number of small companies are in operation here. Among the key players profiled in the report are General Mills, Alpro UK Ltd, Pamelas Goods, Amys Kitchen, Nutrition Point Ltd, Dr Schar, Enjoy Life Natural Brands LLC, Livwell Ltd, Gluten Totally Free Foods Ltd, Semper AB, and Glutino Food Group.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market to be Worth US$5.74 Billion by 2025: Competition Moderate on Account of Few Products Approved for Commercial Use

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market to be Worth US$5.74 Billion by 2025: Competition Moderate on Account of Few Products Approved for Commercial Use" to its huge collection of research reports.This report provides forecast and analysis of the HIV/AIDS diagnostics market on the global and regional levels. It provides historical data of 2016 along with forecast from 2017 to 2025 in terms of revenue (US$ Mn). The report also includes macroeconomic indicators along with an outlook on HIV/AIDS diagnostics globally. It includes drivers and restraints of the HIV/AIDS diagnostics market and their impact on each region during the forecast period. The report also comprises of the study of current issues with end users and opportunities for HIV/AIDS diagnostics manufacturers in the global market.In order to provide users with comprehensive view of the market, we have included detailed competitive analysis and market players with unique selling propositions. The competitive dashboard included in the report provides detailed comparison of HIV/AIDS diagnostics manufacturers on parameters such as product offerings, revenue, key strategies, and recent developments. The study encompasses market attractiveness analysis, by product type, by test type, by end users and region.Global HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market: Research MethodologyMarket value for global HIV/AIDS diagnostics have been estimated based on utility of HIV/AIDS diagnostics for all product types. The revenue is forecasted through regional pricing trends. Market size and forecast for each segment have been provided in the context of global and regional markets. The HIV/AIDS diagnostic market has been analyzed based on expected demand. Most of the key end users have been considered and potential applications have been estimated on the basis of secondary sources and feedback from primary respondents. Regional demand patterns have been considered while estimating the market for various end users of HIV/AIDS diagnostics in different regions.Bottom-up approach has been used to estimate the HIV/AIDS diagnostics market size, and top-down approach has been used to validate the market number. The market has been forecasted based on constant currency rates. A number of secondary sources consulted during the course of the study include Factiva, NCBI, Google books, company annual reports, websites, white papers, and publications.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market: SegmentationThe report includes revenue generated from sales of HIV/AIDS diagnostics in all regions and important countries in the regions. By product type, the global HIV/AIDS diagnostics market has been segmented into kits and reagents, instruments and others. On the basis of test type the HIV/AIDS diagnostics market is segmented into rapid tests (POC), ELISA, nucleic acid tests and others. On the basis of end users, the global HIV/AIDS diagnostics market is segmented into hospitals, private diagnostics laboratories, academic and research institutes and others. Geographically, the market is segmented into regions viz. North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America and Middle East & Africa.Global HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market: Competitive AnalysisThe report provides detailed competitive dashboard and company profiles of key participants operating in the global market. Some of the key players in the global HIV/AIDS diagnostics market include Alere, Hologic, Inc., F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Bio-Rad Laboratories, Abbott Laboratories, Siemens Healthineers, OraSure Technologies, Inc., Chembio Diagnostic Systems etc.The global HIV/AIDS diagnostics market is segmented as follows:Global HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market  By Product TypeKits and ReagentsInstrumentsOthersGlobal HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market  By Test TypeRapid Tests (POC)ELISANucleic Acid TestsOthersGlobal HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market  By End UsersHospitalsPrivate Diagnostics LaboratoriesAcademic and Research InstitutesOthersGlobal HIV/AIDS Diagnostics Market  By RegionNorth AmericaU.S.CanadaEuropeGermanyU.K.FranceItalyBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security Market - Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends and Forecast 2017 - 2025" to its huge collection of research reports.Chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) security is principally responsible for effective combat against CBRN weapons for mass destruction from various external or internal anti national organizations. CBRN incidents can occur accidentally, intentionally, or naturally. Accidental CBRN incidents are the events caused by human error or technological errors, such as factory spillage, accidental release or leakage of poisonous gas or liquids. Intentional CBRN incidents are those that occur when CBRN materials are released into the environment with the intention of terrorism or war. The deliberate accumulation or discharge of hazardous materials to avoid fulfilling regulatory requirements also counts as intentional CBRN incidents. A natural CBRN incident would be the outbreak of an infectious disease such as Ebola, swine flu, severe acute respiratory syndrome (S.A.R.S.), pandemic influenza, etc.Owing to the global increase in terrorist activity and the procurement of mass destruction weapons by anti-state organizations, it has become highly essential for governments, armed troops and civilians to be involved in a strategic recognition, preparation, and prevention of fatal threats. Governments across the world are adopting enhanced technology for the prevention of CBRN attacks by anti-national or terrorist organizations. For example, the recent evidence of the procurement of chemical weapons for mass destruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Boko Haram, and Al-Qaeda, signifies a major threat to the international community. Military organizations across the world are demanding special devices, systems and training for CBRN attack response operations.Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological. And Nuclear Security Market: Market DynamicsIncrease in the terrorist activities across the world is one of the key factor driving the demand of CBRN security market during the forecast period of 2017  2025. In December 2016, 145 terrorist incidents were reported. Several countries across the globe the invested in defense for adopt enhanced technology for the prevention of CBRN attacks by anti-national or terrorist organizations. For Instance, the recent evidence of the procurement of chemical weapons for mass destruction by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), Boko Haram, and Al-Qaeda, signifies a major threat to the international community. According to Central Intelligence Agency, Al-Qa'ida and other terrorist groups have a lots of agents to choose from for chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear (CBRN) attack. Due to this factor, government of different countries are modernizing their defense and buying new equipment for CBRN security.Additionally, growing unfavorable geopolitical issues between countries also indicate potential threat of CBRN attacks. Repetitive clashes between Russia and Ukraine, India and Pakistan, China and Taiwan, and Saudi Arabia and Iran are a few of the geopolitical issues at present. On the other hand, the economic crisis in Europe has also given rise to various political conflicts among the European nations lately. These unfavorable geopolitical issues also pose threat of CBRN attacks and can affect national economy and security. Growing need for early detection of CBRN incidents and immediate response for protection are the primary concerns for governments worldwide. Owing to these factors, the demand for CBRN security is increasing at a substantial pace globally. The impact of the threat from terrorists and unfavorable geopolitical issues is currently high and is expected to reduce to medium over the forecast period.Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological. And Nuclear Security Market: Market SegmentationBased on the type, the global CBRN security market has been segmented into chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security. In 2016, among various types, nuclear segment is expected to dominate the market followed by chemical. Based on the function, the global CBRN security market has been segmented into protection, detection, decontamination and simulation. In 2016, among various functions, protection segment is expected to dominate the market followed by detection.By geography, the market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific Middle East and Africa and Latin America. Based on the type, the market has been categorized into chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear security. Additionally, the market has been segmented on the basis of functions which include protection equipment, detection equipment, decontamination equipment and simulation equipment. The market size and forecast from 2017 to 2025 have been provided in the report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological. And Nuclear Security Market: Competitive LandscapeKey players profiled in this report include Survitec Group (United Kingdom), Tingley Rubber Corporation (United States), W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc (United States), MKU GmbH (United States), Blucher GmbH (Germany) and Supergum International (Israel) for CBRN boots. AVON Protection Systems, Inc (United States), Scott Safety (United States), 3M Company (United States), AVEC CHEM s.r.o (CZECH REPUBLIC) and Respirex International Ltd (United Kingdom) for CBRN filters. HDT Global (United States), Alaska Structures (United States) and Air Shelter USA, LLC (United States) for CBRN shelters. W. L. Gore & Associates, Inc (United States), Blucher GmbH (Germany), Paul Boye Technology SAS (France), Supergum International (Israel) and Dharma Magna (Indonesia) for CBRN fabric gloves. Honeywell International Inc. (United States), Survitec Group (United Kingdom), Respirex International Ltd (United Kingdom), ISOVAC Product LLC (United States) and GOETZLOFF GmbH (Austria) for CBRN ISOPOD. AVON Protection Systems, Inc (United States), Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (Germany), 3M Company (United States), Honeywell International Inc (United States), ILC Dover (United States) and Micronel Safety USA, LLC (United States) for CBRN PAPR. AVON Protection Systems, Inc (United States), Scott Safety (United States), Shalon-Chemical Industries (Israel), MSA (United States), Dragerwerk AG & Co. KGaA (Germany) and Supergum International (Israel) for CBRN mask. Honeywell International Inc (United States), REX-Gummitechniken GmbH Co.KG (Germany), Ansell Ltd (Australia) and Guardian Manufacturing (United States) for CBRN rubber gloves.The segments covered in the Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security market are as follows:Global Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security Market, 2016 - 2025: By TypeChemicalBiologicalRadiologicalNuclearGlobal Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security Market, 2016 - 2025: By FunctionProtectionDetectionDecontaminationSimulation SystemsGlobal Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear (CBRN) Security Market, 2016 - 2025: By GeographyNorth AmericaU.S.Rest of North AmericaEuropeUKFranceBrowse More Details @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
M2M Network Security Market Size, Shares, Growth, Segments, Industry Analysis & Outlook to 2017-2025

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Global M2M Network Security Market - OverviewAs the Internet of Things (IoT) rapidly transforms the way people communicate, live, and work, a number of new solutions are making their way in several industries, ranging from connected homes, connected cars, and connected workplaces. These connected solutions are all driven due to the vast advancements achieved in the field of machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. The massive number of objects that are connected through these M2M networks have security management requirements similar to networked computing devices, consumer electronics, and mobile phones.The highly complex network architecture in which M2M devices operate their often inaccessible or unmanned nature present several challenges to their efficiency if an end-to-end M2M network security solution is not in place. This report on the global market for M2M network security market presents a detailed overview of the present growth dynamics and future growth prospects of the market over the period between 2017 and 2025.equest Sample Copy of the Report @Global M2M Network Security Market - Trends and OpportunitiesThe soaring adoption of M2M communications in everyday devices in the consumer as well as enterprise sector is the key driver of the global M2M network security market. As the number of embedded sensors and data transmission points begin to grow out of proportion owing to the present IoT boom, the need for effective network security capabilities to shield M2M networks from unauthorized sources will be felt more intensely. The rising number of companies operating in the market, offering innovative solutions for the security needs of M2M networks will also help the market gain traction in the next few years.Global M2M Network Security Market - Market PotentialThe rapidly rising expanse of IoT technologies in the enterprise as well as the consumer sector and the rising set of applications across large number of industries is expected to bode well for the M2M network security market in the next few years. The market will especially benefit from these factors in developing economies across regions such as Asia Pacific and Latin America, where digitization and industrial automation are witnessing increased focus from the enterprise sector as well as government bodies.Request TOC of the Report @Speaking of numbers, Vodafone has recently announced that its IoT mobile network has crossed the mark of 50 mn connections. Several other telecom companies are increasingly realizing the potential of the IoT sector and are focusing on innovations to grab a larger share in the rapidly expanding and dynamic IoT sector.Global M2M Network Security Market - Regional OverviewFrom a geographical viewpoint, the market for M2M network security has been covered in the report for regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, and Middle East and Africa. Of these, the markets across North America and Europe are presently the leading contributors of revenue to the global market. The high level of adoption of M2M connections in consumer electronics devices and across a number of industries and the presence of some of the worlds leading information technology firms in North America are chiefly attributable to the dominance of these regions in the global market.Get a discount @Global M2M Network Security Market - Competitive DynamicsThe presence of a large number of regional and international vendors has made the vendor landscape of the global M2M network security market highly fragmented and competitive. To outplay competitors, several leading companies are resorting to strategic collaborations, mergers, and acquisitions to expand their geographical reach and product portfolios. Development of products and services with innovative security features is also a popular growth strategy.Some of the leading vendors operating in the global M2M network security market are Gemalto, Cisco Systems, KORE Wireless, PTC, Numerex, SIMCom Wireless Solutions, Digi International, NetComm Wireless, EUROTECH, Systech, Netop, Ventus, Novatel Wireless, and Telit.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Biobanks Market : Segmentation, Competitive landscape, Industry trends and Developments 2017 - 2025

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Global Biobanks Market: OverviewThe global biobanks market owes its conception to the rising need for replacement organs and the steady advancement in the replacement and transfusion technologies regarding a number of bodily substances. Though the technology and need to store organs and other bio-entities had been available for a long time, the global biobanks market took on a more important role in the healthcare sector following the increasing research in genomics. In the new millennium, the development of the personalized medicine field has been the vital driver for the global biobanks market. The likely advancement of the latter, thanks to helpful government regulations, is likely to make the crucial difference for the global biobanks market in the near future.The steady technological advancement in the healthcare sector in the last few decades has now led to a scenario where the full potential of biobanks can be harnessed. As a result, the global biobanks market is projected to exhibit steady growth over the coming years.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Biobanks Market: Key TrendsThe rising interest in personalized medicine is the prime driver for the global biobanks market. Personalized medicine has only become a viable branch of modern medicine after steady research in genomics and the way various patients react to various medicines. The biobanks market has thus come into the spotlight thanks to their role as a steady supplier of human biomaterials for research as well as direct application. The increasing research in genomics following the findings of the Human Genome Project is thus likely to remain a key driver for the global biobanks market in the coming years.The utilization of biobanks in stem cell research has been hampered in several regions by ethical concerns regarding the origin of stem cells. Nevertheless, the potential of stem cells in the healthcare sector is immense, and is likely to have a decisive impact on the trajectory of the global biobanks market in the coming years. Many countries have, in recent years, adopted a supportive stance towards stem cell research, aiding the growth of the biobanks market. Continued government support is thus likely to remain vital for the global biobanks market in the coming years.Request TOC of the Report @Global Biobanks Market: Market PotentialThe leading role of the U.S. in the global biobanks market is unlikely to change in the coming years. The easy availability of government-supported healthcare infrastructure and the presence of several industry giants in the region has driven the biobanks market in the U.S.Northwell Health, the largest healthcare provider in New York State, earlier in 2017 initiated a new biobank aimed at creating precision therapies against various types of cancer. Launched in collaboration with Indivumed, the biobank will provide catalogued biomaterials for research into lung, colorectal, breast, and pancreatic cancer. This would enable targeted, gene-specific studies of a variety of cancer samples, leading to a more comprehensive understanding of cancer. Such well-funded collaboration efforts are crucial for the developing biobanks market.Global Biobanks Market: Geographical DynamicsLed by the fertile healthcare research scenario in the U.S., North America is likely to retain a dominant share in the global biobanks market in the coming years. Steady support from institutes such as the NIH is likely to be vital for the North America biobanks market.Get a discount @Emerging Asia Pacific economies such as India and China could emerge with a significant share in the global biobanks market in the coming years. The healthcare sector in both countries has received steady public or private funding in the last few years. India is also a global leader in medical tourism and is likely to receive an increasing number of patients in the coming years, leading to promising prospects for the global biobanks market in the region.Global Biobanks Market: Competitive DynamicsDue to the dynamic nature of the global biobanks market, with advancements in diagnostic fields often determining the direction of the market, the market is heavily fragmented. It is likely to retain a significant degree of fragmentation in the coming years thanks to the diversity in the application segments of the biobanks market. The leading players in the global biobanks market include BioCision, Tecan Group, VWR, Beckman Coulter Inc., and Thermo Fisher Scientific.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Consumer Billing Management Software Market : Quantitative Market Analysis, Current and Future Trends, 2017 - 2025

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Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: OverviewConsumer billing management (CBM) software help in the realization of efficient business operations by assisting end users to securely manage customer account data, including statements and bills. Enterprises such as those functioning in the pharmacy sector that work around diverse business processes, high data volumes, and customers are the top users of CBM software. Along with self-service capabilities across a host of channels, CBM solutions help consumers with significantly personalized online account data. However, generally, CBM software are used to perform recurring bill payment processes.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Key TrendsThe international CBM software market is anticipated to be driven by an inflating adoption of cloud-based products. The factoring out of licensing expenses, meagre hardware infrastructure, checked maintenance costs, pay-per-use facility, and cost-effectiveness are some of the advantageous features expected to raise the adoption of CBM software based on the cloud. Canceling the need to install an application software, cloud-based products are predicted to make a statement in the international CBM software market. Cloud-based CBM software allow organizations to simply utilize web browsers for remotely accessing services and data.The demand in the international CBM software market is envisioned to propel on the back of the need to conduct automated billing procedures and latest technological developments. Although on-premises CBM software are envisaged to currently dominate the market owing to high data security and customization features, cloud-based offerings could take precedence during the forecast years. This could be due to the crucial advantages of using the cloud, including efficiency, agility, and flexibility in business operations and decreased expenses. Revenue cycle management processes performed using billing management software in the pharmacy sector are envisaged to raise the hopes of vendors in the international CBM software market.Request TOC of the Report @Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Market PotentialAmdocs is making the cut in the customer and revenue management systems industry with three recent wins in the form of contracts from Biznet, Vodafone India, and Three Ireland. Amdocs would be providing an all-embracing billing and customer care solution to bolster the subscriber and business growth of Biznet. The company would also be offering support to the postpaid billing systems of Vodafone India. As for Three Ireland, Amdocs would be sharing its proficiency for IT digital transformation. Consequently, Amdocs has been announced a leader in the customer and revenue management systems sector.Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Regional OutlookThe world CBM software market in the Americas is foreseen to record a handsome growth while riding on important factors such as swelling investments in CBM solutions and elevating application of digital technology. In the near future, the growth of the Americas CBM software market could be augmented by more factors, which include the heightening adoption of cloud-based products in large and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Europe, the Middle East and Africa and Asia Pacific could be other key regions of the world CBM software market.Get a discount @Global Consumer Billing Management Software Market: Competitive LandscapeLarger players in the worldwide CBM software market are prophesied to swell their shares and widen their product portfolio through the acquisition of smaller companies during the forecast period. Due to the presence of local and large multinational companies, the worldwide CBM software market could be characterized by a highly competitive nature. Inclusion of more product features and alteration of current services are prognosticated to be witnessed with a rising incidence of mergers and acquisitions. Huawei, Healthpac, Harris ERP, EnergyCAP, and Amdocs are some of the leading companies in the worldwide CBM software market.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Food Blender and Mixer Market Driven by Growing Demand for Convenience Food

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Food Blender and Mixer Market: OverviewThe consumption of processed food and beverages has considerably increased globally, giving impetus to the market for food blenders and mixers. With demand rising from industries such as dairy, bakery, and beverages, the global food blender and mixer market is anticipated to witness growth at an impressive rate between 2016 and 2024. The rising disposable income of consumers, favorable government initiatives promoting the consumption of various food ingredients, and increasing trade of these food ingredients will also help the market report significant growth.Browse Market Research Report @The last five years have been extremely favorable for manufacturers in the processed food industry in terms of sales figures. This has had a positive effect on the global food blender and mixer industry, which simultaneously has witnessed a significant rise in demand. Besides this, the advent of new technologies has led to innovation of new products for food and beverage processing, presenting lucrative opportunities for the companies operating in the market to capitalize on.Developing countries also present an opportunity-rich market for manufacturers, as these regions boast an abundant availability of raw materials. Furthermore, the rise in the disposable income of the middle-class population living in emerging nations also fuels demand from the food blender and mixer market.The report provides a comprehensive overview of the various factors influencing the growth trajectory of the global market for food blender and mixer. In order to study the prevailing competition in the market, the most prominent companies operating therein are profiled. Using SWOT analysis, the strengths and weaknesses of these countries are weighed out and the threats and opportunities that they are likely to impact these companies. Information thus obtained is then presented in a coherent chapter-wise format interspersed with graphs, tables, and infographics.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Food Blender and Mixer Market: Key Trends and OpportunitiesThe global market for food blenders and mixers has been significantly stimulated by the booming processed food industry. Apart from this, the rising disposable income of people living in emerging nations, coupled with the growing demand for convenience food due to hectic lifestyles, has been driving the market for food blenders and mixers. Due to the rising consumption of beverages, confectionaries, and bakery products, the demand for food blenders and mixers is anticipated to increase substantially in the near future. Additionally, increasing health-consciousness among consumers is also fuelling the demand for processed food products, which in turn is giving momentum to the global food blender and mixer market.Regionally, Europe has emerged as the most lucrative market for food blenders and mixers due to the considerable growth witnessed by its processed food industry, which has resulted in higher consumption of food products such as snacks, dairy products, and baked goods. The market is also poised to witness a surge in demand from the Asia Pacific and RoW regions as well.Food Blender and Mixer Market: Competitive LandscapeIn order to gain competitive advantage, enterprises operating in the food blender and mixer market are increasingly investing in expansion and acquisition strategies. These companies are focusing on exploring the untapped markets, acquiring local players, and building a new consumer base aimed at maintaining long-term client relationships. This has helped key players in the market not only expand their operations, but also reinforce their market positions by gaining a substantial share in terms of product portfolio and revenue. The strategies thus adopted by these enterprises have positively impacted the global food blender and mixer market.Even small-to-medium players are leveraging similar strategies to expand their business globally. These companies are looking forward to investing in new manufacturing facilities in various regions.For the purposes of the study, the report profiles the leading players operating in the market such as GEA Group AG (Germany), SPX Corporation (the U.S.), and Buhler Holding AG (Switzerland).About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market 2017 Comprehensive Analysis, Industry Survey, Growth and Major Policies Report

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Global Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market: OverviewThe increasing adoption of bone cement mixer devices while performing orthopedic surgical procedures is expected to fuel the growth of the global market in the next few years. These devices are majorly used in ASCs and hospitals, which is likely to encourage the growth of the market. As per the report, the market is predicted to register a strong growth rate throughout the forecast period. Furthermore, the expansion of the product portfolio is anticipated to generate potential growth opportunities for the key players operating in the bone cement mixer devices market across the globe.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market: Key TrendsThe growing use of bone cement mixer devices and the increasing competition among the prominent players are projected to supplement the growth of the global market in the near future. The rising focus on creating an awareness regarding the benefits of bone cement mixer devices market is projected to contribute towards the growth of the overall market in the forecast period.Global Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market: Market PotentialThe introduction of antimicrobial bone cement is one of the key factors anticipated to encourage the growth of the global bone cement mixer devices market in the next few years. In addition, the rising emphasis of the leading players on new product development and innovations are another vital factors that are estimated to encourage the growth of the overall market throughout the forecast period. Furthermore, the rising use of portable bone cement mixer devices and the increasing focus on lowering fumes during bone cement mixing procedures are projected to accelerate the development of the global bone cement mixer devices market in the next few years.Request TOC of the Report @Global Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market: Regional OutlookFrom a regional point of view, in the recent years, North America held a key share of the global bone cement mixer devices market. As per the research study, this region is expected to remain in the leading position over the forecast period and exhibit a strong growth rate in the near future. The high growth of this region can be attributed to the rising demand for minimally invasive techniques. In addition, the increasing cases of orthopedic disorders and the rising demand for advanced orthopedic-related surgeries are anticipated to accelerate the growth of the North America market in the forecast period.Furthermore, the development of the medical tourism in several emerging economies and the rising disposable income of consumers are expected to encourage the growth of the bone cement mixer devices market in Asia Pacific. Moreover, the development of the healthcare infrastructure and the rising focus on research and development activities are estimated to accelerate the growth of the Asia Pacific market for bone cement mixer devices in the next few years.Get a discount @Global Bone Cement Mixer Devices Market: Competitive AnalysisAt present, the global market for bone cement mixer devices is extremely competitive in nature with a presence of several players operating in it. The level of competition among the leading players is expected to increase significantly throughout the forecast period, thanks to the advancements in technology and innovations. In addition, a potential rise in the number of players predicted to enter the bone cement mixer devices market across the globe is likely to fuel the growth of the market in the next few years.The leading players operating in the global bone cement mixer devices market include Smith & Nephew, Zimmer-Biomet, SOMATEX Medical Technologies, Cook Medical, and Stryker. Some of the other key players in the market are Thiebaud, TEKNIMED, Tecres Medical, Medacta, Biopsybell, BD, Cardinal Health, Osseon, Heraeus Holding, Summit Medical, aap Implantate, G-21, DJO Global, Exactech, MEDMIX Systems, DePuy Synthes, and Clean Medical.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Scientific Instrument Global Market by Application, Trends, Analysis and Forecasts to 2019

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Scientific instruments are crucial components that are used in measuring, analyzing, and verifying the unproven quantities and properties of an element or a material. Most of the scientific instruments are integrated with computers to improve their functionality and features. Parameter adjustments, data sampling, collection, resolution, analysis, storage, retrieval, and other functionalities of scientific instruments can be enhanced by integrating them with computers. A laboratory information management system (LIMS) can be formed by connecting individual scientific instruments in a local area network (LAN). Research institutions use scientific instruments to achieve optimum efficiency in their research processes. Scientific instruments are also a part of manufacturing processes and new product development to remodel and innovate existing products.For more informationPublisher's analysts forecast the global scientific instrument market to grow at a CAGR of 4.25% over the period 2014-2019.Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global scientific instrument market for 2015-2019. The report offers the segmentation of the market based on the following: end-user, application, and geography.Publisher's report, Global Scientific Instrument Market 2015-2019, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the Americas, APAC, and EMEA; it also covers the landscape of the global scientific instrument market and its growth prospects in the coming years. The report includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Key regions- Americas- APAC- EMEAKey vendors- Agilent Technologies- Bruker- Danaher- Horiba- Thermo Fisher ScientificRequest Sample CopyOther prominent vendors- Merck- Pelkin Elmer- Roche Diagnostics- WatersKey market driver- Growing R&D- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey market challenge- High cost of instruments- For a full, detailed list, view our reportKey market trend- Demand for high quality- For a full, detailed list, view our reportMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Network Access Control Market by Software, Scope, Analysis and Forecasts to 2020

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Publisher's market research analyst predicts the global network access control (NAC) market to grow profoundly at a CAGR of nearly 32% by 2020. The recent rise in malware attacks on enterprise networks has forced companies to invest in NAC solutions to ensure authorized access to data. Moreover, a number of operating systems, such as iOS, Android, and Windows, have also improved their compatibility with NAC as it helps to ensure the security of the end users' data. This growing adoption of the data protection solutions will result in this market's strong growth during the forecast period.For more informationGeographically, it is anticipated that the Americas will experience the highest adoption of NAC solutions during the forecast period. The augmented focus on web-based businesses in the BFSI, healthcare, and e-commerce sectors will lead to the steady growth of the NAC market in the Americas. Also, the growing adoption of Internet-of-Things (IoT) and M2M networks will result in this region's impressive market share of more than 55% by 2020.Product-based segmentation of the NAC market- Hardware- Software- ServicesPublisher market research analysts have estimated the hardware segment to account for more than 69% of the total market share by 2020. The rising demand for NAC hardware in developing regions such as Latin America and APAC will help in the growth of this market segment during the forecast period.Request Sample CopySegmentation by end user and analysis of the NAC market- BFSI- Government- HealthcareIn this market research, analysts have estimated the BFSI segment to dominate the market for NAC solutions during the forecast period. Since cybercriminals often target banks and financial institutions for phishing and similar illegal activities, the need for NAC solutions in the BFSI segment will continually increase during the forecast period. The growing need for protecting critical data related to the financial sector will lead to this segment's strong growth until 2020.Competitive landscape and key vendorsThe global network access control market is highly fragmented because of the presence of numerous small and large suppliers. The providers in this market compete on the basis of price, quality, innovation, service, reputation, distribution, and promotion to gain a competitive edge over their peers. The level of competition in this market has increased the number of mergers and acquisitions, wherein smaller entities are being acquired by or are being merged with, major players.Leading vendors in the market are -- Aruba Networks- Bradford Networks- Cisco- ForeScout- Pulse SecureMake an enquiry:Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Bioactive Materials Market Report 2017, Trends, Analysis, Share, Estimates and Forecasts to 2022.

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According to Stratistics MRC, the Global Bioactive Materials Market is accounted for $1.15 billion in 2015 and is expected to reach $2.85 billion by 2022 growing at a CAGR of 13.8% during the forecast period. Increasing use of spinal and orthopedic procedures, rising aging population across the world and growing demand of tissue replacement therapy is fueling the market growth. High cost of new technologies emerging in the market is restraining the growth of bioactive materials market. Use of bioactive materials is slowly rising in the area of surgical methods usually those designed to treat elderly people. In view of worldwide aging of population and increasing demand for tissue replacement therapy, bioactive materials market represents a potential growth during the forecast period.North America leads the global bioactive materials market owing to its huge investments in healthcare deeds and efficient implementation of newly existing healthcare techniques. Asia-Pacific region is a prospective market for bioactive materials. It is anticipated to make a quick market growth due to rapid development taking place in medical and tourism industry.Some of the key players in the market include Zimmer Holdings, 3Di, Takiron, DePuy Synthes, Integra Life Science, Biomet, Baxter, Stryker, Medtronic, Biomatlante, Arthrex, Kyocera, Novabone, Berkeley and Curasan.For More, Please Visit:Application Covered: Pharmaceuticals Cosmetics and antibacterial products Implantso Periodonticso Dentistry Bioengineering Tissue replacement and repairo Autograftso Xenograftso Allograftso Synthetic materials Medical care OthersType of Material Covered: Tricalcium phosphate Polyethylene (PE) Tricalcium phosphate Alumina Polylactic acid (PLA) Zirconia Hydroxyapatite (HA) OthersProduct Covered: Bioactive Compositeso Ceramic Matrix Compositeso Metal Matrix Compositeso Polymer Matrix Composites Bioactive Glass Bioactive glass ceramics Bioactive Ceramics OthersMethod of Production Covered: Spray-drying Specialty processes for glass and glass-ceramics Sol-gel Impregnation Melting Milling and sintering Plastic processingRegions Covered: North Americao USo Canadao Mexico Europeo Germanyo Franceo Italyo UKo Spaino Rest of Europe Asia Pacifico Japano Chinao Indiao Australiao New Zealando Rest of Asia Pacific Rest of the Worldo Middle Easto Brazilo Argentinao South Africao EgyptWhat our report offers:- Market share assessments for the regional and country level segments- Market share analysis of the top industry players- Strategic recommendations for the new entrants- Market forecasts for a minimum of 7 years of all the mentioned segments, sub segments and the regional markets- Market Trends (Drivers, Constraints, Opportunities, Threats, Challenges, Investment Opportunities, and recommendations)- Strategic recommendations in key business segments based on the market estimations- Competitive landscaping mapping the key common trends- Company profiling with detailed strategies, financials, and recent developments- Supply chain trends mapping the latest technological advancementsFor More, Please Visit:We offer wide spectrum of research and consulting services with in-depth knowledge of different industries. We are known for customized research services, consulting services and Full Time Equivalent (FTE) services in the research world. We explore the market trends and draw our insights with valid assessments and analytical views. We use advanced techniques and tools among the quantitative and qualitative methodologies to identify the market trends. Our research reports and publications are routed to help our clients to design their business models and enhance their business growth in the competitive market scenario. We have a strong team with hand-picked consultants including project managers, implementers, industry experts, researchers, research evaluators and analysts with years of experience in delivering the complex projects.STRATISTICS MRC17049 King James Way, Gaithersburg,MD, 20877, USA
Plant Based Waters Market Analysis, Trends and Forecast (2017-2024)

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The growth prospects for Plant-based waters market have been forecast to be positively high over the coming years. This is evident from the recent clash between Pepsi and Coca-Cola, wherein both the companies have been planning to commercialize packaged coconut water in a bid to establish their position in global plant-based waters industry. Of late, consumers have been preferring to purchase healthier organic drinks, as opposed to aerated ones, on account of which companies have been vying with one another to manufacture plant-based beverages instead of routine drinks. A sedentary lifestyle has led to an increase in the consumption of soda-based drinks. The rise in health hazards such as obesity, cancer, indigestion, and diabetes due to these drinks have also prompted numerous beverage firms to penetrate plant-based waters market, which is slated to observe a CAGR of 19% over 2017-2024.Request for a sample of this research report @Global plant-based waters industry has been witnessing an appreciable growth across the Asia Pacific region, particularly due to the increased availability of coconut plantations in countries such as India. The region is anticipated to be a lucrative business ground for market players as there is a tremendous untapped potential across the continent for branded & packaged coconut water, in addition to other plant-based drinks. For instance, the year 2015 witnessed Vita Coco, one the worlds top coconut brands, penetrate the plant-based waters industry in Asia Pacific, by establishing its brand value across China, South Korea, Japan, Philippines, and Singapore. In addition, the company had then outlined plans to enter the business across five other geographies, including Malaysia, Australia, Brunei, New Zealand, and Maldives. As on today, Vita Coco, with its plethora of well-commercialized coconut water products, holds a healthy share of APAC plant-based waters market.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @A major factor that is likely to expand the business scope of plant-based waters industry is the mode of distribution. The advent of digitization has mobilized businesses, and every product and service-based firm now has a major share in the online space. On these grounds, it would not be incorrect to presume that online channels will play a vital role in commercializing plant-based waters industry. Hectic consumer lifestyles and easy product availability will be the key factors driving plant-based waters market via online distribution channels. Companies have the opportunity to promote a wide range of their products on online platforms, which will further stimulate the expansion of this segment.While online portals will gain momentum at a brisk pace, brick-and-mortar stores will continue to garner popularity, owing to the broad product portfolio and a loyal consumer base. Estimates state that plant-based waters industry size from retail stores is expected to witness a growth rate of 23% over 2017-2024. The robust growth of this segment may also be attributed to the fact that consumers get to actually see and feel the product, and this physical proximity makes a marked difference in product sales. On these grounds, companies have also been concentrating on the packaging of the product. Shifting consumer inclination toward organic and aesthetic packaging has led to the development of numerous packaging options, such as bottles, pouches, cartons, and cans. In addition, manufacturers have detected that innovative packaging helps extends the shelf life of these products and further aids the producers to manufacture low-calories and healthy drinks, which has led to the expansion of plant-based waters market from the packaging type.As per estimates, plant-based waters industry from pouches is expected to grow at a noticeable CAGR over 2017-2024. Liquid pouch packaging market size, which is expected to cross 7,000 kilo tons by 2024, will massively contribute toward the growth of this segment. Plant-based waters industry from bottles, on the other hand, is expected to increase at a CAGR of 20.2%, pertaining to the convenience of packaging and high consumer demand. However, the major chunk of packaging-based plant-based waters market is occupied by cartons, which held a valuation of USD 1.1 billion in 2016. As per estimates, majority of the coconut water is parceled in aseptic cartons for hygienic purposes. Owing to the flexibility of this packaging type and its demand across retail stores, plant-based waters industry from cartons is expected to grow at a remarkable pace over 2017-2024.The extensive growth of the packaging sector across the continents of Europe and North America will drive plant-based waters market in the region. North America is renowned to manufacture organic drinks of myriad flavors, such as bamboo water, maple water, cactus water, olive water, etc. Companies have been taking efforts to increase the product flavors with a view to attract a wider consumer base. As per reliable sources, maple water and birch water are the latest entrants in plant-based waters industry that have been carving out a unique space for themselves in this business. Plant-based waters market from maple water is anticipated to surpass a valuation of USD 0.9 billion by 2024 and will grow remarkably over the years ahead.The vast expanse of birch and maple trees across European regions such as UK, Germany, and France will also augment plant-based waters industry from birch. Despite coconut water being one of the largest revenue generating segments of plant-based waters market, other products, such as cactus water and artichoke water have also been gaining a significant momentum. Other plant waters include ginger water, rose water, bamboo water, and barley water.This industry is rather fragmented and involves the presence of domestic players such as PepsiCo Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, Happy Tree Group, Steaz, DRINKmaple, Harmless Harvest, Oviva Maple Water Company, Caliwater LLC, World Waters, ARTY Water Company, All Market Inc, Sibberi, and DrinkSEVA. The emerging economies are forecast to develop extensively over the years ahead, owing to which companies at the global level have been eyeing the developing countries to explore the untapped potential. Major corporations have been signing agreements with online retailers like Amazon in order to expand their sale via online distribution channels.Global plant-based waters market encompasses original and flavored waters. Leading market players have also been striving to develop unique water flavors to broaden the product portfolio. The latest trend in plant-based waters market is that of blending ginger, green tea, and rose flavors. The segment is slated to experience massive growth based on changing consumer tastes.Customers have now become increasingly health-conscious, which is one of the major drivers of plant-based waters industry. In order to retain a loyal consumer base, it is essential that these plant beverages contain organic, natural, and low-calorie ingredients. It is quite perceivable that the dearth of recorded health benefit claims and sustainability issues would act as major hindrances for the growth of plant-based waters market. However, incessant efforts are being undertaken by companies to minimize the restraints as far as possible, in order to carve out a positive growth path for this industry over the years ahead.About Fractovia.orgFractovia.org is one of India's leading in-house and free news portal. It is fully automated, and operates on a constant premise, interfacing with news sites and offering redesigned breaking features to readers across the globe.Our mission is to offer individuals opportunities for connections with news writers and distributors which they can pursue.We operate by mapping articles pertaining to breaking news, constantly and progressively, against a pre-determined word-based theme, offering important connections to readers and clients, as well as distributers.Contact Us:Fractovia29L Atlantic Avenue,Suite L 105, Ocean View,Delaware 19970United StatesPhone: 1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@fractovia.org
Bare Metal Cloud Market 2017: Industry Definition, Pricing Analysis, Market Size, Service Provider Study Forecast From 2014 to 2025

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Progressive Markets has added a report, titled, Global Bare Metal Cloud Market Report 2017. As per the report, the global Bare Metal Cloud market is expected to register a CAGR of 40.1% from 2017 to 2025.The report offers detailed Bare Metal Cloud Market analysis of strategies for growth, helps to determine leadership status, outlines dominating segments, and highlights marketing strategies and market effect factors. Moreover, the research provides insights on sales, revenue, price trends, growth rate, and market share for the historic period, 20142017 and the forecast period, 20172025. The study is helpful for market players, investors, VPs, stakeholders, and new entrants to gain thorough understanding of market conditions and take steps for growth accordingly.Continue to Report Description and Full ToC:The report provides a brief overview of the global Bare Metal Cloud market to help market players and investors utilize time efficiently to make decisions about the future. Key segments such as service type, size, applications and geography are analyzed in the research.Service Type discussed in the Bare Metal Cloud Market research include identity & access management services, compute services, database services, networking services, volume & object storage services, managed services and professional services. Market size comparison for each type is offered for the historic period and the forecast period.Size discussed in the research include small, medium and large organizations.Vertical type analyzed in the Bare Metal Cloud Market study are banking, financial services & insurance, government, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, IT & telecom and others. Sales and market size comparison for each application are discussed for the aforementioned periods.Geographical analysis is provided for regions including North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Current market status and growth prospects for each region are provided for the period, 20142025. This overview would help market players in devising strategies for growth by saving their time.The report offers an extensive analysis of key market players operating in the global Bare Metal Cloud market. Detailed analysis of sales, revenue, price, and gross margin for each market player is provided for the historic period. Moreover, insights on sales market share and revenue market share by manufacturers for 2016 and 2017 are provided to highlight leadership position. Average price of products offered by key manufacturers are enlisted in the study with the help of tabular format. Competitive situation and trends are outlined based on market share of top three and top five manufacturers and strategies adopted by them including mergers & acquisitions, expansion, partnerships, and others.Market players operating in the market are IBM Corporation, Oracle, CenturyLink, RACKSPACE US, INC., Internap, Packet, Media Temple, Limestone Networks, Inc., Datapipe, Inc., and Scaleway. These insights are helpful for market players to gain understanding of competitive status and take necessary steps to gain competitive edge.Enquire About Report:The research provides comprehensive Bare Metal Cloud analysis of key segments of the global Bare Metal Cloud market. Insights on sales, revenue, market share, and price trend of types for the historic period and the forecast period with the help of tables and figures. Moreover, sales and sales market share of each application are offered for aforementioned period. Insights on sales, revenue, and growth rate for each geographical region are offered for the historic and forecast period. These insights help in understanding dominating segments and invest in them to gain maximum outcomes.The report offers a detailed analysis of Bare Metal Cloud industrial chain structure based on upstream raw material sourcing, downstream buyers, and raw material sources of major manufacturers. Marketing strategy analysis is offered based on direct & indirect marketing, market positioning, and list of distributors. These insights are helpful in growing market presence ad gain an international exposure. Bare Metal Cloud Market effect factors analyzed in the study include technological progress, consumer need, and economical environment change. Market players and investors are able to devise strategies for the future based on factors influencing growth in the Bare Metal Cloud industry. Research findings and conclusions are mentioned at the end of the study.Customized Report:Table of Content for Bare Metal Cloud Market1. Executive summary1.1. Key Findings1.2. Market Attractiveness and Trend analysis1.3. Competitive Landscape and recent industry development analysis2. Introduction2.1. Report Description2.2. Scope and Definitions2.3. Research Methodology3. Market landscape3.1. Growth Drivers3.1.1. Impact Analysis3.2. Restrains and Challenges3.2.1. Impact Analysis3.3. Porters Analysis3.3.1. Bargaining power of buyers3.3.2. Bargaining power of suppliers3.3.3. Threat of substitutes3.3.4. Industry rivalry3.3.5. Threat of new entrants3.4. Bare Metal Cloud Market Shares Analysis, 2014-2025ContinuedList of TablesContain 56 TablesList of FiguresContain 54 FiguresDiscount on Full Report:About ProgressiveThe company makes use of primary corporate research and secondary inputs from trusted sources to build its own reference base. It maintains consistency in quality as it keeps itself updated with changes in market dynamics and gauging its net effect on global business trends.Reach UsAntviews Global, Serve No. 721/1Flat No 404, Sudhanshu Society,Shastri Road, Near Kalavati Mandir,Fatak Baug, Pune 411 030Us: + 1-888-906-9222GMT: + 35-376-680-1176help@progressivemarkets.com
Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market : Professional Market Research Report and Forecasts, 2017 - 2025

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Global Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market: OverviewThe global legal process outsourcing (LPO) services market is driven by the increasing proliferation of risk management practices. There are several challenges faced by companies across the globe, which includes risk factors pertaining to technological, economic, and operational factors in internal and external businesses. This is expected to push companies across the globe to opt for legal process outsourcing, which allows companies to focus on other important aspects of their businesses, which can otherwise be obstructed on account of key resources being used for handling legal processes.Legal process outsourcing offer risk management processes and legal outsourcing services, which can help ward off potential business threats. Thus, many organizations are implementing risk management solutions, which are proving to be beneficial for them. This is expected to heighten the demand for legal process outsourcing services, to handle and manage risks.Request Sample Copy of the Report @Global Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market: Key TrendsIt is estimated that contract management outsourcing will hold key shares in the market during the forecast period. The reason behind the increasing demand for contract management outsourcing is its use in several processes such as the review and analysis of contracts, summarization of contracts, contractual risk analysis, paper and electronic document integration, and for quality management processes. In addition to this, contract management solutions also help in the verification of the contracts to check if they are ready for auditing.Global Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market: Market PotentialPredictive coding integration with legal process outsourcing services is expected to push the growth of the market in the coming years. LPO services are being delivered by making use of predictive coding technology. Advanced analytics are also being used by legal process outsourcing services for their delivery. Both predictive coding technology and advanced analytics are being used to co-ordinate IT departments and litigation support so as to manage the litigation support services cycle. Companies such as Legal Advantage combine accuracy, dependability, and client service for retaining their clients.Request TOC of the Report @Global Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market: Regional OutlookOn the basis of geography, the global legal process outsourcing services market is segmented into Europe, North America, Asia Pacific, and the Rest of the World. Of these, North America not only led in this market in the past but is also leading currently, and will continue to do so in the coming years. It is the presence of a large number of prominent players in North America, which is expected to be behind the high growth of the legal process outsourcing services market. These players are offering legal services at very low wages and this is encouraging an increasing number of organizations to adopt legal process outsourcing services, thus boosting the growth of the market in the region.Global Legal Process Outsourcing Services Market: Competitive LandscapeThe global legal process outsourcing services market is highly diversified. The market is also characterized by intense competition. There exist a large number of international and regional players operating in the legal process outsourcing services market. Players are adopting the strategy of beating each other by competing in the pricing of legal services provided. Players are also striving to expand their product portfolio. Some of the other areas of focus by key players include IT security, compliance, innovation, acquiring domain expertise, and offering LPO service quality. All these factors are keeping vendors in constant competition and is encouraging the growth of the global legal process outsourcing services market.Get a discount @Some of the key players in the global legal process outsourcing services market are Clutch, Capita, Infosys, Capgemini, Cobra Legal Solutions, Integreon, Cobra Legal Solutions, QuisLex, Mindcrest, UnitedLex, CPA Global, HCL Technologies, Exigent, Legal Advantage, NewGalexy, LegalBase, Nextlaw Labs, WNS, and Wipro.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Radiofrequency Ablation Market : Professional Market Research Report and Forecasts, 2017 - 2025

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Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market: OverviewRadiofrequency ablation is an analgesic procedure wherein radiofrequency waves are targeted on particular muscles or muscle groups. The radiofrequency waves create an electric current, which is used to emit heat onto the affected area. This temporarily deadens the nerve cells in the applied area, leading to reduction in pain. The global radiofrequency ablation market has benefited significantly from the rising demand for noninvasive and minimally invasive medical procedures. Radiofrequency ablation is likely to receive sustained demand from the healthcare sector, particularly in developed countries with government-backed healthcare programs, due to the rising prevalence of spinal conditions in urban populations.Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market: Key TrendsThe rising adherence to a sedentary lifestyle, particularly in developed and developing urban centers, has the potential to remain a key driver for the global radiofrequency ablation market in the coming years. The increasing share of the urban population doing sedentary jobs has resulted in an increasing prevalence of problems related to the spine and shoulders. The reliable utility of radiofrequency ablation in relieving muscle pain and tension has ensured a safe growth trajectory for the global radiofrequency ablation market.Request Sample Copy of the Report @The key benefit presented by radiofrequency ablation is its minimally invasive nature. This not only makes radiofrequency ablation more convenient for doctors as well as patients, but also keeps it safe from environmental contaminants such as microbes.Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market: Market PotentialThe global radiofrequency ablation market could play a key role in the development of cancer therapeutics in the coming years. Due to the minimally invasive nature of radiofrequency ablation and its effectiveness in deadening cells and nerve ending, radiofrequency ablation has frequently been tried in the treatment of cancers such as metastatic sarcomas. Due to the attention being provided to cancer research, the radiofrequency ablation market could be set for steady growth if its utility in cancer treatment is established.Request TOC of the Report @Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market: Geographical DynamicsThe global radiofrequency ablation market is dominated by North America. The ready availability of sophisticated healthcare infrastructure, due to steady government support, has aided the growth of the radiofrequency ablation market in the region and is likely to remain a key driver for the market in the coming years. The rising incidence of chronic muscle disorders in North America is a prime driver for the radiofrequency ablation market in the region. Latin America is also an important region in the global radiofrequency ablation market and could become a steady consumer over the coming years, as several countries in the region have initiated large-scale development programs in the healthcare sector in recent years.Emerging countries in Asia Pacific such as India and China are also likely to play a key role in the growth of the global radiofrequency ablation market in the coming years. The rising awareness regarding the need for technologically advanced equipment in the healthcare sector has driven steady investment in the healthcare sector in emerging economies and is likely to remain a key growth driver for the radiofrequency ablation market in the coming years.Get a discount @Global Radiofrequency Ablation Market: Competitive DynamicsThe report presents a comprehensive picture of the competitive dynamics of the global radiofrequency ablation market. Key players in the market, such as Boston Scientific, Stryker, Medtronic, and St. Jude Medical are profiled in the report. This section delivers a comprehensive analysis of the successful strategies adopted by players in the radiofrequency ablation market, the business and financial dynamics of the leading players, and the overall trends shaping the space in the global radiofrequency ablation market.The global radiofrequency ablation market has benefited from the ready participation of key manufacturers in marketing and publicity activities. Successful promotional efforts by companies in the radiofrequency ablation market include direct sales to the physicians and hospitals, since the convenience of the devices has made it the prime choice for healthcare distributors across the world. The continued efforts of leading players are expected to remain crucial for the global radiofrequency ablation market in the coming years.About TMR ResearchTMR Research is a premier provider of customized market research and consulting services to business entities keen on succeeding in todays supercharged economic climate. Armed with an experienced, dedicated, and dynamic team of analysts, we are redefining the way our clients conduct business by providing them with authoritative and trusted research studies in tune with the latest methodologies and market trends.Our savvy custom-built reports span a gamut of industries such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals and metals, food and beverages, and technology and media, among others. With actionable insights uncovered through in-depth researh of the market, we try to bring about game-changing success for our clients.Contact :Rohit BhiseyHead - Internet MarketingTel: +1-415-520-1050Email: sales@tmrresearch.com
Global Auto Dealer Software Market 2022 - AutoSoft NET, Dealertrack, DealerSocket, VinSolutions, CDK Global

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Auto Dealer Software Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.This report is a key analysis of all the factors boosting the growth of the global Auto Dealer Software market. The factors hampering or restricting the growth of this market have also been studied in detail, thus helping readers to equip themselves better for facing the many challenges and competition in the global Auto Dealer Software industry. The report takes into account the present market figures and also the historical data, for predicting the future forecast of the Auto Dealer Software market. The trends in the Auto Dealer Software market have been discussed in detail. The key opportunities lying ahead in the global Auto Dealer Software industry have also been disclosed. Thus, the report is a valuable asset for new entrants as well as those established.This report focuses on the top players in global market, likeAutoSoft NETDealertrackDealerSocketVinSolutionsCDK GlobalMoreAppSalesBoomTo Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report is an analysis of the degree of competition, the bargaining supplier power, and bargaining buyer powers have been included in the report. The threat of new substitutes has been discussed in detail. The threat of new entrants is also given in this report. Thus, the report contains valuable data which will help companies and potential investors to clearly understand and comprehend which segment to invest on and why. The segments and sub segments of the global Auto Dealer Software market have also been included in the report. The report predicts the segment which is most likely to expand at the fastest CAGR as well as the segment which will lead in the years to come. Similarly, the segment witnessing the most sluggish growth is also pointed out. Key players are studied in the report along with their useful data such as business and financial overview and business strategies adopted.Table of Contents1 Industry Overview of Auto Dealer Software1.1 Auto Dealer Software Market Overview1.1.1 Auto Dealer Software Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook2 Global Auto Dealer Software Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences4 Global Auto Dealer Software Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Auto Dealer Software Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.2 Potential Application of Auto Dealer Software in Future4.3 Top Consumer/End Users of Auto Dealer SoftwareBrowse Complete Report with TOC @5 United States Auto Dealer Software Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Auto Dealer Software Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Auto Dealer Software Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Auto Dealer Software Product ScopeFigure Global Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Auto Dealer Software Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Japan Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure China Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure India Auto Dealer Software Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Raksha-bandhan.com is all set to Imbue a Milieu of Raksha Bandhan Celebration 2017

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Raksha-bandhan.com, this time had left no stone unturned in making people aware about every little aspect of Raksha Bandhan celebration. Authentic and inclusive information on various aspects of Raksha Bandhan are some of the characteristics of this informative website.New Delhi, India, July 27, 2017-The bond between brothers and sisters is one the best bonds that exits in the Universe. There is no biasness or any other negativity in this relationship. Raksha Bandhan 2017 will be celebrated on 7th of August. The preparations have already been started and sisters are wondering around the markets to find the best Rakhi gifts for brothers. There are people who are ardently involved in finding information on Raksha Bandhan. And Raksha-bandhan.com has been designed specifically for those ardent readers.Raksha Bandhan comes every year to embolden that bond of love between brothers and sisters and it gives them a platform to confess their love for each other. To help those who have the craze to find more about the various aspects of Rakhi celebration the team of Raksha-Bandhan.com has come up with comprehensive information on the festival of brothers and sisters. We have at the website everything from history of Raksha Bandhan to its significance and ideas for Raksha Bandhan celebration, said the Sr. Manager of the website Mr. Mukesh Kumar.The various pages at the website are so designed that one can easily find about its customs and traditions. Every Indian, irrespective of where they may be, they do not like missing on even a single aspect of celebrating this festival of brothers and sister. The festival of Raksha Bandhan is celebrated by Indians worldwide. There have been sisters and brothers in the past who have proved that is no relation as pious as that of brothers and sisters.To inform people on every other aspect of celebration in various parts of the world we have come up with this informative website Raksha-Bandhan.com. It talks about Rakhi as the thread of love that makes the relationship so very pure and true. One can find about Rakhi gift ideas, rakhi thali decoration, rakhi recipes, rakhi cards, rakhi messages and many more here at the website., added Mr. Kumar.About the Company:Raksha-bandhan.com is an informative website that talks about every other aspect of Raksha Bandhan celebration. The team has designed the website specifically for those ardent readers who are more conscious to find out about the significance and history of the festival much before the celebration starts. This time Raksha Bandhan will be celebrated on 7th of August and so the team at Raksha-bandhan.com has made itself in advance. To know more about the festival visit at-Contact Us-scfifestivalnetwork@gmail.com
Global Vernier Caliper Market Regions, Product Types, Applications & Players Flexbar, General Tools, KANON, Brown & Sharpe, Carrera Precision Research Forecast Report 2022

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A new research document with title 'Global Vernier Caliper Market Research Report 2017-2022 By Players, Regions, Product Types & Applications' covering detailed analysis, Competitive landscape, forecast and strategies. The study covers geographic analysis that includes regions like United States, Europe, Germany, United Kingdom, China, Japan ,India, Southeast Asia and important players/vendors such as Flexbar, General Tools, KANON, Brown & Sharpe, Carrera Precision................The report will help user gain market insights, future trends and growth prospects for forecast period of 2022SummaryThe global Vernier Caliper market is valued at XX million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach XX million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Request a sample report @This report offers an overview of the market trends, drivers, and barriers with respect to the Vernier Caliper market. It also provides a detailed overview of the market of different regions across United States, Europe, China, Japan, India, Southeast Asia and Others. The report categorizes Vernier Caliper market by System of Measurement, by Display mode, by Maximum Scale, by Resolution, by Price and application. A detailed analysis of key players, along with key growth strategies adopted by them is also covered in this report on Vernier Caliper market.This report focus Global market, it covers details players regions product type and other details as following:Key PlayersMitutoyo(Japan)Fowler(US)Starrett(US)Uxcell(China)Flexbar(US)General Tools(US)KANON(Japan)Brown & Sharpe(Sweden)Carrera Precision(US)Grizzly(US)INSIZE(Austria)Sourcingmap(China)VOGEL-GERMANY(Germany)CNC QUALITY(Germany)TESA(Swiss)METRICA(Italy)Moore & Wright(UK)Messmittelonline(Germany)ASIMETO(Germany)Kinex(China)Machine DRO(UK)VICTOR(China)Pro Skit(Taiwan,China)TRUSCO(Japan)SANTO(China)SATA(China)TAJIMA(Japan)ASCARI(UK)Stanley(US)Niigataseiki(Japan)Key RegionsUnited StatesEuropeGermanyUnited KingdomFranceItalySpainRussiaOthersChinaJapanIndiaSoutheast AsiaOthersBuy this report @Key Product TypeVernier Caliper Market, by System of MeasurementInchMetricOthersVernier Caliper Market, by Display modeDigitalNon-digitalVernier Caliper Market, by Maximum Scale300mmVernier Caliper Market, by Resolution0.02mm0.05mm0.1mmOthersVernier Caliper Market, by Price1000USDKey Consumers (End User)Vernier Caliper Market, by ConsumerScientificIndustrialOthersGet customization & check discount for report @Table of ContentsChapter One, Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source1.2.1 Secondary Sources1.2.2 Primary Sources1.3 DisclaimerChapter Two Vernier Caliper Market Overview2.1 Market Coverage2.2 Global Vernier Caliper Market Sales Volume Revenue and Price 2012-2022Chapter Three, Vernier Caliper by Key Players 2012-20223.1 Global Vernier Caliper Sales Volume Market Share by Key Players 2012-20223.2 Global Vernier Caliper Revenue Share by Key Players 2012-20223.3 Global Key Players Vernier Caliper Key Product Model and Market Performance3.4 Global Key Players Vernier Caliper Key Target Consumers and Market PerformanceChapter Four, Vernier Caliper by Regions 2012-20224.1 Global Vernier Caliper Sales Market Share by Regions 2012-20224.2 Global Vernier Caliper Revenue Market Share by Regions 2012-20224.3 Global Vernier Caliper Price by Regions 2012-20224.4 United States4.5 Europe4.5.1 Germany4.5.2 United Kingdom4.5.3 France4.5.4 Italy4.5.5 Spain4.5.6 Russia4.5.7 Others in Europe4.6 China4.7 Japan4.8 India4.9 Southeast Asia4.10 Others....ContinuedView Detailed Table of Content @Thanks for reading this article, you can also get individual chapter wise section or region wise report version like North America, Europe or Asia.HTF Market Report is a wholly owned brand of HTF market Intelligence Consulting Private Limited. HTF Market Report global research and market intelligence consulting organization is uniquely positioned to not only identify growth opportunities but to also empower and inspire you to create visionary growth strategies for futures, enabled by our extraordinary depth and breadth of thought leadership, research, tools, events and experience that assist you for making goals into a reality. Our understanding of the interplay between industry convergence, Mega Trends, technologies and market trends provides our clients with new business models and expansion opportunities. We are focused on identifying the Accurate Forecast in every industry we cover so our clients can reap the benefits of being early market entrants and can accomplish their Goals & Objectives.Contact Us:HTF Market Intelligence Consulting Private LimitedUnit No. 429, Parsonage Road Edison, NJNew Jersey USA  08837sales@htfmarketreport.com+1 (206) 317 1218
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia Market: Overview, Opportunities, In-Depth Analysis and Forecasts Upto 2025

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Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is a cancer of white blood cells called as lymphocytes in bone marrow. It is a malignant disease in which early precursor lymphoid cells proliferate and replace the normal hematopoietic cells of bone marrow. ALL is the most common type of cancer in children. There is overproduction of lymphoblasts in the bone marrow when a person suffers from ALL that continuously multiply, damaging the bone marrow by preventing the production of normal cells such as red blood cells (RBC) and platelets. Increase in number of lymphoblast in the blood results in the decline of healthy RBCs, white blood cells, and platelets. This leads to anemia, bleeding, and infection. The cancer can spread to the spinal cord and the brain.Obtain the Comprehensive Overview of Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) Market:There are several types of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. B-cell ALL, T-cell ALL, and Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL (Ph+ ALL) are the three primary types of acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The most common type is the B-cell ALL. Philadelphia chromosome-positive ALL accounts for one third of all adult ALL, but is extremely rare in children. Treatment for Ph+ ALL patients involves precise drugs that target the gene product of Philadelphia chromosome.Acute lymphoblastic leukemia can be characterized into childhood acute lymphoblastic leukemia and adult acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Major signs and symptoms related with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are anemia, paleness, fever, loss of appetite, pain in joints, bruising, weakness and fatigue, and lymph nodes enlargement. Factors such as increase in incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia among children and continuous innovation of therapies by key players are likely to drive the growth of this market in the near future. In addition, major factors driving the growth of the acute lymphoblastic leukemia market are rise in incidence and prevalence of ALL, increase in investment in research and development, and rise in health care expenditure. Launch of new products, agreements and collaborations, product pipelines, clinical trials, and acquisitions and mergers are some of the significant strategies adopted by key market players, which are projected to fuel the market growth for acute lymphoblastic leukemia. However, high costs of therapies and adverse events as a result of therapies are factors that impede the growth of the market.The global acute lymphoblastic leukemia market has been segmented based on treatment type, drug class, end-user, and region. Based on treatment type, the acute lymphoblastic leukemia market is segmented into chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunotherapy, and bone marrow transplantation. Availability of a wide range of chemotherapeutics agents for treatment of cancer and upcoming innovative improvement in the field of chemotherapy are factors which are anticipated to boost the market growth of the chemotherapy segment during the forecast period. Based on drug class, the global market is segmented into antineoplastic agents, corticosteroids, tyrosine kinase inhibitors, colony stimulating factors, and others. The others segment includes antifungals and antimicrobials, which are recommended to take as soon as the disease is detected. On the basis of end-user, the market is segmented into hospitals, clinics, and others.Geographically, the global acute lymphoblastic leukemia market is distributed over North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, and Middle East & Africa. Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in developed nations. North America holds a significant share of the global acute lymphoblastic leukemia market due to high incidence of acute lymphoblastic leukemia patients owing to genetic factors. Environmental factors and exposure to high dose of radiation are further contributing toward high incidence of ALL patients in this region. Asia Pacific is a highly lucrative market for acute lymphoblastic leukemia owing to increase in incidence of cancer patients.Request for the Sample Report:Major players operating in the market are Biogen Idec, Inc., Bristol-Myers Squibb, Celgene Corporation, ERYTECH Pharma, F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Genzyme Corporation, GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals Limited, and Pfizer, Inc.About TMRTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.Our data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts, so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With a broad research and analysis capability, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques in developing distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Emerging Green Logistics Market in APAC 2017-2021

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"The Report Logistics Market in APAC 2017-2021 provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"About LogisticsLogistics involves planning and implementation of complete supply chain functions of a production. Supply chain functions include transportation, warehousing, inventory management, and other related logistics functions. Many manufacturers outsource the entire logistics functions to logistics players (3PL or 4PL) to reduce the cost and concentrate on the core business for enhanced customer satisfaction.Technavios analysts forecast the logistics market in APAC to grow at a CAGR of 7.33% during the period 2017-2021.View Report @Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the logistics market in APAC for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated by different vendors through the sales of logistics services in various industries such as manufacturing, automobile, food and beverage, and other industries.Technavio's report, Logistics Market in APAC 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Get Sample Copy Of This Report @Key vendorsC.H. RobinsonDB SchenkerDeutsche Post DHL GroupKuehne + NagelOther prominent vendorsAgilityAllcargo LogisticsCEVA LogisticsGatiHitachi Transport SystemHYUNDAI GLOVISMitsubishi LogisticsNippon ExpressSANKYUUPSWincantonMarket driverGrowth in trade between India and ChinaFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket challengeLagging road infrastructure increases the transportation costFor a full, detailed list, view our reportMarket trendEmerging green logisticsFor a full, detailed list, view our reportKey questions answered in this reportWhat will the market size be in 2021 and what will the growth rate be?What are the key market trends?What is driving this market?What are the challenges to market growth?Who are the key vendors in this market space?What are the market opportunities and threats faced by the key vendors?What are the strengths and weaknesses of the key vendors?You can request one free hour of our analysts time when you purchase this market report. Details are provided within the report.MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
Global Bone Fixation Plates Market Research Report 2017

Bone Fixation Plates

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In this report, the global Bone Fixation Plates market is valued at USD XX million in 2016 and is expected to reach USD XX million by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of XX% between 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Bone Fixation Plates in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaEuropeChinaJapanSoutheast AsiaIndiaGlobal Bone Fixation Plates market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players includingImplantate AGAmedica CorporationApex Biomedical LLCBioMagnesium Systems LtdBody Organ Biomedical CorpDePuy Synthes, IncEvonik CorporationFlower Orthopedics CorporationInion OyJohn Hopkins UniversityKoc UniversitesiMedtronic plcMicroPort Scientific CorporationOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split intoRodsNailsScrewsPlatesPinsWiresOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Bone Fixation Plates for each application, includingInternal Fixation ProductsExternal Fixation ProductsGet a free sample copy of Bone Fixation Plates @Table of ContentGlobal Bone Fixation Plates Market Research Report 20171 Bone Fixation Plates Market Overview2 Global Bone Fixation Plates Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Bone Fixation Plates Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Bone Fixation Plates Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Bone Fixation Plates Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Bone Fixation Plates Market Analysis by Application7 Global Bone Fixation Plates Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Bone Fixation Plates Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Bone Fixation Plates Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and ConclusionTable of FiguresFigure Southeast Asia Bone Fixation Plates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)Figure India Bone Fixation Plates Revenue (Million USD) and Growth Rate Forecast (2017-2022)Figure Global Bone Fixation Plates Production (K Units) Forecast by Type (2017-2022)Figure Global Bone Fixation Plates Revenue Market Share Forecast by Type (2017-2022)Figure Global Bone Fixation Plates Consumption (K Units) Forecast by Application (2017-2022)Get access to full report @24MarketReports is the marque of market research industry which identifies massive database of market research reports. We are having a numerous sectors market research gathering which covers diverse verticals around the Earth. Our central focus to make it trouble-free for decision makers to find applicable information and locate right Research reports which can save their time and assist in what they do best.New York City Zone 01, United Stateshelp@24marketreports.comInt'l: (+1) 646 781 7170UK(Toll free): +44 800 088 5734
Forecast the Global Radar Systems and Technology Market to grow at a CAGR of 4.05% during the period 2017-2021 : Key Vendors are Saab, Raytheon, BAE Systems, Thales Group etc.

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Global Radar Systems and Technology Market 2017-2021 " to it's Large Report database.About Radar Systems and TechnologyRadars form a vital component of the overall C4ISR architecture. They are used to detect distant objects and track targets through the transmission of radio waves in the direction of the target. These waves get reflected and are analyzed by the receiver to determine the properties of the object. The information includes the range and position of the object. In general, they assist in determining the target range, angles, size, speed, and features. They can be used to detect aircraft, ships, missiles, military land vehicles, or any such desired target. Military radars are primarily used for security and surveillance applications (airborne, maritime, and land-based applications) to monitor a wide range of targets.Technavios analysts forecast the global radar systems and technology market to grow at a CAGR of 4.05% during the period 2017-2021.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:Covered in this reportThe report covers the present scenario and the growth prospects of the global radar systems and technology market for 2017-2021. To calculate the market size, the report considers the include/exclude new installations/shipments/sales/volume/value and retrofit/replacement/spares/aftermarket/services market.The market is divided into the following segments based on geography:AmericasAPACEMEATechnavio's report, Global Radar Systems and Technology Market 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.Browse more details @Table of ContentsPART 01: Executive summaryPART 02: Scope of the reportPART 03: Research MethodologyPART 04: IntroductionMarket outlinePART 05: Market landscapeMarket overviewMarket size and forecastFive forces analysisPART 06: Market segmentation by product typeMarket share by product typeMarket segmentation by product typeGlobal ground-based radar systems and technology marketGlobal airborne radar systems and technology marketGlobal naval radar systems and technology marketGlobal space-based radar systems and technology marketPART 07: Geographical segmentationMarket share by geographyGeographical segmentation by revenueRadar systems and technology market in the AmericasRadar systems and technology market in EMEARadar systems and technology market in APACAbout ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
Food Encapsulation Market Driven by Rising Consumer Preference for Healthy & Convenient Food

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Global Food Encapsulation Market: OverviewThe growing emphasis on increasing product appeal by enhancing flavor, taste, and color is one of the vital factors augmenting the global food encapsulation market. There is a widespread adoption of food encapsulation in industries such as beverages, meat, poultry, and seafood. It is also being increasingly used as encapsulated sweeteners in confectionary items such as candies and chewing gums. Moreover, the growing investments in the research and development of food preservatives are working in favor of the growth of the market.Browse Market Research Report @This market intelligence report on the global food encapsulation market serves as a reliable business tool for both new as well as existing players. It includes an in-depth analysis of the competitive landscape of the market. It profiles the key players in the market along with their business strategies, market shares, and latest development. It performs SWOT analysis that reveals the potential growth trajectory of each prominent player. It provides a detailed description of the market dynamics and the extent to which they impact the growth.Global Food Encapsulation Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe rising consumer preference for healthy and convenient food owing to the increasing health consciousness is projected to have a phenomenal impact on the growth of the global food encapsulation market. Changing lifestyles are leading to a wide diversification in food items and are triggering the demand for processed and ready-made meal, thereby driving the demand for food encapsulation. Moreover, the advent of preservation techniques such as nanoencapsulation and microencapsulation technologies is encouraging the growth of the market.However, these technologies are at their nascent stage and the on-going technological advancements are yet to gain significant traction. This is influencing the growth of the market negatively. Furthermore, the difficulty associated with maintaining the stability of encapsulated food especially during processing and packaging is restraining the growth of the market. On the other hand, emerging economies present immense growth opportunities due to the improving economic conditions and rising government support.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @Global Food Encapsulation Market: Geographical SegmentationThe key regional markets analyzed in the report are North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America will account for a large share throughout the forecast period. The high availability of shell materials such as hydrocolloid and emulsions and the presence of a large number of manufacturers are contributing to the growth of the region. However, the market in this region is saturated in nature and is, therefore, expected to exhibit a sluggish growth during the same period.Asia Pacific is poised to progress at a noteworthy CAGR during the same period owing to the increasing demand for processed food and flourishing food and beverage industry. The growth of the region is also fuelled by the rapid urbanization, rising disposable income, improving living standards, particularly in emerging countries including China and India. The growth of Europe can be attributed to the increasing advancements in technologies used in the processed food sector.Global Food Encapsulation Market: Competitive LandscapeThe supply chain of the global food encapsulation market comprises of raw material suppliers, equipment suppliers, distributors, government authorities, and end users such as industries and researchers. Key players in the market are increasingly focusing on research and development of new products in order to strengthen their foothold across different regions.Some of the prominent players in the global food encapsulation market are Advanced BioNutrition Corp., ABCO Laboratories Inc., Balchem Corporation, Firmenich Inc., Aveka Group, Blue California, Cargill Inc., Coating Place Inc., Encapsys Microencapsulation, FrieslandCampina Kievit, and GAT Food Essentials GmbH.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Research Report 2017

Optical Spectrum Analyzer

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In this report, the global Optical Spectrum Analyzer market is expected to reach high to the end of 2016 and 2022.Geographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with production, consumption, revenue (million USD), market share and growth rate of Optical Spectrum Analyzer in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), covering North America Europe China Japan Southeast Asia IndiaGlobal Optical Spectrum Analyzer market competition by top manufacturers, with production, price, revenue (value) and market share for each manufacturer; the top players including Anritsu Rohde & Schwarz Yokogawa APEX Technologies Keysight (Agilent) ANDO Electric Co. Ltd. ADC Corporation Exfo Advantest AFL Global-Fujikura Viavi Solutions Inc. (formerly JDSU) BaySpec Thorlabs,Inc. New Ridge Technologies (NRT) Aragon Photonics Yenista Optics Optoplex Corporation FinisarOn the basis of product, this report displays the production, revenue, price, market share and growth rate of each type, primarily split into Protable Optical Spectrum Analyzer Benchtop Optical Spectrum Analyzer OthersOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report focuses on the status and outlook for major applications/end users, consumption (sales), market share and growth rate of Optical Spectrum Analyzer for each application, including Automotive and Transportation Aerospace & Defense IT & Telecommunication Medical & Healthcare Semiconductors & Electronics Industrial & Energy Sector OthersGet a free sample copy of Optical Spectrum Analyzer @Table of ContentGlobal Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Research Report 20171 Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Overview2 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Competition by Manufacturers3 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Capacity, Production, Revenue (Value) by Region (2012-2017)4 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Supply (Production), Consumption, Export, Import by Region (2012-2017)5 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Production, Revenue (Value), Price Trend by Type6 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Analysis by Application7 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Manufacturers Profiles/Analysis8 Optical Spectrum Analyzer Manufacturing Cost Analysis9 Industrial Chain, Sourcing Strategy and Downstream Buyers10 Marketing Strategy Analysis, Distributors/Traders11 Market Effect Factors Analysis12 Global Optical Spectrum Analyzer Market Forecast (2017-2022)13 Research Findings and ConclusionGet access to full report @24MarketReports is the marque of market research industry which identifies massive database of market research reports. We are having a numerous sectors market research gathering which covers diverse verticals around the Earth. Our central focus to make it trouble-free for decision makers to find applicable information and locate right Research reports which can save their time and assist in what they do best.New York City Zone 01, United Stateshelp@24marketreports.comInt'l: (+1) 646 781 7170UK(Toll free): +44 800 088 5734
Worldwide Patient Monitoring Equipment: Market Size, Shares, Trends, Strategies, Forecasts and Opportunities 2016 to 2022

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ResearchMoz added Latest Research Report titled " Patient Monitoring Equipment: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2016 to 2022 " to it's Large Report database.The 2016 study has 615 pages, 365 tables and figures. Worldwide Patient Monitoring markets are poised to achieve significant growth as a resurgence in tracking vital signs extends from the intensive care unit ICU and emergency department to all areas of the hospital, to patient transport venues, and to home outpatient treatment locations.The patient monitoring platform is modular, integrating various components. Modular systems are developed in the context of consideration of probable specifications for the interaction of system components. Patient Monitoring systems are making a market resurgence because smaller, lighter, wireless units are less costly and more valuable in the context of treatment evaluations and recommendations. People who have cardiac or respiratory difficulty have more treatment options, making more extensive patient monitoring useful.Designs take into consideration users with mild, moderate, and severe chronic disease condition restrictions. Users come from chronic disease groups and older age groups.Request for Sample PDF of Premium Research Report with TOC:The core of a patient monitoring platform is an integration of separate vital signs detection sensors that form a system that supports adapting to numerous clinical requirements. Modules implement ways to determine patient condition. Market driving forces for multi-parameter and specialized vital signs patient monitors relate to more societal willingness to pay for vigilance, an increase in vigilance of sick people at risk. Cardiac and respiratory symptoms are measured as vital sign shifts by patient monitors.Symptoms are represented by shifts in vital sign monitoring that measures disease conditions impacted deterioration of patient well-being. The monitoring is frequently done in conjunction with blood work.There is a lot of complexity in determining the meaning of the patient monitor vital signs measurements. Shortness of breath is a common symptom of cardiac disease. It is frequently misdiagnosed as a respiratory symptom or ignored by patients and is not even considered a symptom.Browse more details @Table of ContentsPatient Monitoring Systems Executive Summary 33Patient Monitoring Systems Market Driving Forces 33Hospital Cardiac Patient Monitoring Company and Technology Challenges 36Patient Monitoring Market Shares 37Patient Monitoring Market Forecasts 391 Patient Monitoring Market Description And Market Dynamics 411.1 Transforming Health Care Landscape Provides Opportunity 411.1.1 Quality Healthcare Delivery 461.2 Advances In Remote Patient Monitoring 461.3 Vendor Positioning in Hospital Patient Cardiac Monitors 471.3.1 Improving Supply Chain Efficiency 481.3.2 Vendors Seek to Become More Competitive 481.4 Multi-Parameter Patient Monitor Market Shares and Market Forecasts 491.5 Healthcare Markets 501.6 Wireless Patient Monitoring 531.6.1 Wireless Patient Monitoring Category 542 Patient Monitoring Systems Market Shares And Market Forecasts 552.1 Patient Monitoring Systems Market Driving Forces 552.1.1 Hospital Cardiac Patient Monitoring Company and Technology Challenges 582.1.2 Lives Improved: Striving to Make the World Healthier and More Sustainable Through Innovation 602.1.3 Addressing Patient Monitoring Technology Challenges: Social and Ecological Approach 61About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the world's fastest growing collection of market research reports worldwide. Our database is composed of current market studies from over 100 featured publishers worldwide. Our market research databases integrate statistics with analysis from global, regional, country and company perspectives. ResearchMoz's service portfolio also includes value-added services such as market research customization, competitive landscaping, and in-depth surveys, delivered by a team of experienced Research Coordinators.Contact Us:Mr. Nachiket Ghumare90 State Street, Albany NY, United States - 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074 / Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Email: sales@researchmoz.usFollow us on LinkedIn at:Follow me on Blogger at:
Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Marke to Witness Steady Growth through 2026

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Remote patient monitoring devices supports in monitoring of patients physical condition. Patient does not need to visit the medical practitioner. Digital technology is used in remote patient monitoring devices to gather health and other forms of medical data to securely pass on to healthcare providers situated at different location for clinical review. The accuracy of remote patient monitoring devices allows reliable diagnosis, leading to a more specific and efficient treatment. Remote patient monitoring devices helps to reduce costs of hospital stays by continuing to monitor patient condition, irrespective of patient location and also it helps to reduce overcrowding at clinics and diagnostic centers. Remote patient monitoring devices systems are used for continuously monitoring important physiological parameters like, heart activity, body temperature, blood pressure, pulse rate and other clinical conditions. Remote patient monitoring devices is based on real time data sharing which helps physicians to take vital decisions to ensure better patient treatment. Physician and healthcare providers are extending the use ofremote patient monitoring devices to enhance the excellence of patient care and reduce expenses by prognosis.Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Drivers & RestraintsRemote patient monitoring devices market is fueled by great technological advancements. The increasing incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases like heart conditions and diabetes requires compulsory life-long monitoring will also contribute to remote patient monitoring devicesglobal market. Increase in geriatric population around the globe is leading to enhanced global market forremote patient monitoring devices. Awareness among the medical practitioners and improved private sector and government involvement in remote patient monitoring devices is supporting the global market for remote patient monitoring devices dwell in developing countries. Deficiency of trained and expert professionals are hampering the growth of remote patient monitoring devices.Request Report Sample@Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: SegmentationGlobal remote patient monitoring devices market is segmented as following:By Product Type:Heart Rate MonitorsBlood Pressure MonitorsHeart MonitorsBreath MonitorsSleep Apnea MonitorsBlood Glucose MonitorsWeight MonitorsBody Temperature MonitorsInfusion PumpsBy End User:HospitalsAmbulatory Surgical CentersHomecare settingsRemote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: OverviewIncreased technological improvement, rise in the incidence and prevalence of chronic diseases along with increase in aging population, enhanced demand for remote monitoring, private sector and government involvement in remote patient monitoring devices, the global market for remote patient monitoring devices market is expected to have a healthy growth rate in the forecast period (2016-2026).Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global remote patient monitoring devicesmarketis segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.North America is the leading global remote patient monitoring devices market due to the high volumes of surgical procedures being performed. Also, the availability of established healthcare infrastructure, high influence of healthcare to economy are the reasons for the high demand in North America. Europe is also a lucrative market for remote patient monitoring devices due to rapid technological advancement in terms of healthcare sector. Asia Pacific market is expected to grow at a good rate as compared to NA and Europe as there is ample market opportunity in countries like India and China due the large population.Visit For TOC@Remote Patient Monitoring Devices Market: Key PlayersSome of the key participating global remote patient monitoring devicesmarketare Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., AMD Global Telemedicine, Honeywell International Inc., Omron Healthcare, Smiths Medical, Medtronic, and others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Uveal Melanoma Market: Emerging niche segments and regional markets

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Global Uveal Melanom Market: OverviewUvea is present posterior to sclera and the cornea and has three parts namely, iris, ciliary body and choroid. Uveal melanoma is referred as the cancer of the parts of eye including the iris choroid and ciliray body. It is the condition in which the tumors arise from the melanocytes residing within the uva responsible for the color of the eye. Though is a rare condition, it is most common type of intraocular malignancy in adults. The uveal melanoma treatment depends on various factors most important being the size of the tumor. This type of melanoma is completely asymptomatic in the initial stages. On enlargement of tumor with time, certain changes may be observed such as distortion of pupil, decreased visibility due to secondary retinal detachment and blurred vision. Risk factors for this kind of cancer include fair complexion, blue, and green or light colored eyes, and older age. The role of inherited genetic mutation in uveal melanoma is yet unknown. According to the American Cancer Society, about nine of 10 melanomas of the eye develop in the choroid. The society also reports about 2,730 new cases in 2014 of uveal melanoma in the U.S.Obtain Report Details:Global Uveal Melanom Market: Segment OutlookThe global uveal melanoma market can be segmented based on diagnostic tests, therapy type, location type and geography. Location type can be further classified as iris melanoma, choroid melanoma and ciliary melanoma. Primary treatment involves enucleation i.e. removal of the affected eye. However this has now been replaced by radiation therapies such as plaque brachytherapy in the developed countries. Other types of treatment include external beam proton therapy, transpupillary thermotherapy, surgical resection techniques (transretinal endoresection and trans-scleral partial choroidectomy), gamma knife stereotactic surgery and also combination of these modalities. For small size tumors, the treatment available includes photocoagulation, photodynamic therapy, and local resection. The selection of appropriate treatment largely depends on the size and location of the tumor; associated ocular findings; the status of the fellow eye; and individual factors, including age, life expectancy, quality of life issues, concurrent systemic diseases and patient expectations.Diagnosis of uveal melanoma consists of careful examination of the eye by an experienced clinician. Clinical manifestations include tumor thickness more than 2 mm, sub retinal fluid, and orange pigment on the tumor surface. Various ancillary diagnostic tests include ultrasonography, high resolution ultrasound biomicroscopy, indocyanine green angiography, fluorescein angiography and oclular coherence tomography. Eye exams include ophthalmoscopy, slit-lamp biomicrocopy and gonioscopy. Eye examination is carried out by dilation of pupil with the help of medicated drops allowing doctors to visualize the parts of eye clearly through lens. Biopsy is a rarely used diagnostic test for intraocular melanoma. Regular eye examinations by an ophthalmologist are the best way to find uveal melanoma early, when chances for successful treatment are the highest.Fill the form for an exclusive sample of this report:Global Uveal Melanom Market: TrendsThe treatment for such metastasis disease is continuously demanding more research to determine the most effective, and life saving treatments. Extensive research is being carried out in areas of immunotherapy and targeted therapy. Ipilimumab is one such example of immunotherapy shown to help people with advanced melanoma to boost the overall immunity; however its benefits are still under clinical trials for eye melanoma. Other similar drugs under investigation include nivolumab and lambrolizumab. Selumetinib is an example of targeted drug known to slow down the growth of eye melanoma. Other targeted drugs under investigation include vemurafenib, dabrafenib and trametinib amongst various others. Astra Zeneca plc, Eli Lilly & Co., Pfizer, Inc. Novartis AG, and Spectrum Pharmaceuticals, Inc., are few key players contributing to the global uveal melanoma market.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a U.S.-based provider of syndicated research, customized research, and consulting services. TMRs global and regional market intelligence coverage includes industries such as pharmaceutical, chemicals and materials, technology and media, food and beverages, and consumer goods, among others. Each TMR research report provides clients with a 360-degree view of the market with statistical forecasts, competitive landscape, detailed segmentation, key trends, and strategic recommendations.Contact us:Transparency Market Research90 State Street,Suite 700,AlbanyNY - 12207United StatesTel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Companion Diagnostics Market : Value Chain, Dynamics and Key Players (2016 - 2026)

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Companion diagnostics are tests to understand which patient can be benefited from a certain drug or what dosage should be prescribed based upon patients clinical diagnosis, which provides evidence required for the successful and harmless use of an equivalent drug or biological product to treat the medical condition. These are medical instruments that support doctors to elect which treatment and dosage should be given to patients personalized to their necessity.Companion Diagnostics is utilized to ascertain who would benefit from treatment and it comes in handy to identify if someone cannot be cured, but also conversely can be harmed by use of specific drug used for their ailment. Technological advancements has brought a lot of changes in the method of disease treatment. Companion diagnostics is characterized by growing requirement for enhancedpersonalized patient treatment that gives healthcare providers and their patients an assurance about the treatment result in a positive way, contrary to traditional treatment procedure. Major impact of companion diagnostic will been on oncology therapy area.Request Report Sample@Companion Diagnostics Market: Drivers and RestraintsPresently, companion diagnostics global market is driven by the technological advancement in healthcare industry, increase in various treatment procedures. Number of companion diagnostics can be given approval for a single drug as scientific knowledge advances with practical application of treatment. Although, cost related with latest technology acts as a key barrier for the growth of global companion diagnostics market.Companion Diagnostics Market: SegmentationCompanion diagnostic global market is segmented into following segments:By ApplicationColorectal CancerBreast CancerLung CancerMelanomaUrologyGastric CancerBy TechnologyImmunohistochemistryMolecular DiagnosticsIn-situ HybridizationFISHCISHReal Time PCRGene SequencingBy RegionNorth America (U.S., Canada)Latin America (Mexico. Brazil)Western Europe (Germany, Italy, France, U.K, Spain, Nordic countries, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg)Eastern Europe (Poland, Russia)Asia Pacific (China, India, ASEAN, Australia & New Zealand)JapanMiddle East and Africa (GCC, S. Africa, N. Africa)Companion Diagnostics Market: OverviewWith rapid technological advancement, increase in the incidence of chronic disease, rise in aging population, increasing adoption rate of treatment of chronic disease, increase in number of prevalence of chronic disease around the globe are the factors expected to boost the companion diagnostics market over the forecast period.Companion Diagnostics Market: Region-wise OutlookDepending on geographic regions, global companion diagnostics market is segmented into seven key regions: North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia Pacific Excluding Japan, Japan and Middle East & Africa.North America is the leading market for companion diagnostics because of rapid technical inventions, huge investment on research and development in this region. Whereas, Asia-Pacificand Europeis projected to grow at a significant growth due to large consumer base, rising government initiatives for enhancing healthcare infrastructure, and high disposable income.Visit For TOC@Companion Diagnostics Market: Key PlayersSome of the key participating global players in companion diagnostics market global market are ARUP Laboratories, Roche Molecular Systems Inc., Dako Inc., Qiagen Ltd., bioMerieux Inc.,Ventana Medical Systems Inc., Abbott Molecular Inc., Myriad Genetics Inc.,Biogenex Laboratories, Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc., Leica Biosystems Nussloch GmbH and others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaCONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market 2017 Growth, Size, Trends, Analysis : Pfizer, Novartis, AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size, Status and Forecast 2022 to its huge collection of research reports.The report is a detailed and professional overview of the Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs market and has been compiled by industry experts. The research presents an overview of the various elements of the market, deals with the historical statistics and makes projections about the future state of the market on the basis of a detailed and professional analysis of the data gathered with the help of a number of primary and secondary research methodologies.The report analyzes the important geographic subdivisions of the global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs market and also analyzes in great details the major national markets within these regional markets. A detailed overview of regulatory framework in the key regional and national markets allows the reader a clear understanding of the rules, regulations, plans, and policies in these regions that may have an impact on a number of decisions.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report covers the global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs market from the ground up, beginning with the industry-specific definitions of market entities, and progressing to the various criteria on the basis of which the market is segmented. The report presents an analysis of the market through the analysis of the industry chain, manufacturing chain, cost structure, a detailed look into the variety of products in the market, etc.The regional markets are analyzed by examining their product pricing and profits, supply and demand dynamics, production capacity and the efficiency in its utilization, and the growth rate of the Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs market in the region in past years. A detailed analysis of the markets competitive landscape has also been provided in the reportBrowse Complete Report with TOC @Table of ContentsGlobal Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs1.1 Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Overview1.1.1 Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India2 Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants2.2.4 The Technology Trends in Future3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Pfizer3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Novartis3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 AstraZeneca4 Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs5 United States Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Product ScopeFigure Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Diabetic Therapeutic Drugs Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)QYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Dental Drug Market Trend and Forecast to 2022

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This report studies the Dental Drug market status and outlook of global and major regions, from angles of players, regions, product types and end industries; this report analyzes the top players in global and major regions, and splits the Dental Drug market by product type and applications/end industries.The global Dental Drug market is valued at 4067.46 million USD in 2016 and is expected to reach 5674.19 million USD by the end of 2022, growing at a CAGR of 5.7% between 2016 and 2022.North America, especially The United States, will still play an important role which cannot be ignored. Any changes from United States might affect the development trend of Dental Drug.The major players in global Dental Drug market includeMerckBayerJ&JGSK3MSunstarColgate-PalmoliveFill the form for an exclusive sample of this report @DenMatShowa Yakuhin KakoValeant PharmaceuticalsSeptodontRochePerioChipHutchison China MediTechXiuzheng PharmaceuticalActeonXttrium LaboratorieMediwin PharmaceuticalsGeographically, this report is segmented into several key Regions, with revenue, Market Share and Growth Rate of Dental Drug in these regions, from 2012 to 2022 (forecast), coveringNorth AmericaRest of EuropeAsia-PacificSouth AmericaMiddle East and AfricaGermanySwitzerlandOn the basis on the type, this report coversOTCPrescription ProductOn the basis on the end users/applications, this report coversHospitalsDental ClinicsDrugstoresRead Comprehensive Overview of Report @Table of Contents1 Dental Drug Market Overview11.1 Dental Drug Product Overview11.2 Dental Drug Segment by Types (Product Category)21.3 Global Dental Drug Segment by Applications21.3.1 Global Dental Drug Revenue Comparison by Applications (2012-2022)21.3.2 Hospitals31.3.3 Dental Clinics31.3.4 Drugstores41.4 Global Dental Drug Market by Regions (2012-2022)51.4.1 North America Dental Drug Status and Prospect (2012-2022)51.4.2 Asia-Pacific Dental Drug Status and Prospect (2012-2022)61.4.3 Rest of Europe Dental Drug Status and Prospect (2012-2022)72 Global Dental Drug Market Competition by Manufacturers/Brand112.1 Global Dental Drug Revenue (M USD) and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)112.2 Global Dental Drug Gross (M USD) and Share by Manufacturers (2012-2017)132.3 Global Dental Drug Gross Margin by Manufacturers (2012-2017)162.4 Manufacturers Dental Drug172.5 Dental Drug Market Competitive Situation and Trends192.5.1 Dental Drug Market Concentration Rate192.5.2 Dental Drug Market Share (%) of Top 3 and Top 5 Manufacturers203 Global Dental Drug Revenue by Regions (2012-2017)213.1 Global Dental Drug Revenue (M USD) and Market Share (%) by Regions (2012-2017)213.2 Global Dental Drug Gross Margin by Regions (2012-2017)233.3 Global Dental Drug Revenue (M USD) and Gross Margin (2012-2017)23List of Tables and FiguresFigure Product Picture of Dental Drug1Figure Global Dental Drug Revenue Market Share (%) by Types in 20162Figure Global Dental Drug Revenue Market Share (%) by Applications in 20162Figure Hospitals Examples3Figure Dental Clinics Examples3Figure Drugstores Examples4Figure North America Dental Drug Revenue (M USD) and Growth Rate (%) (2012-2022)5About UsQYReseachReports.com delivers the latest strategic market intelligence to build a successful business footprint in China. Our syndicated and customized research reports provide companies with vital background information of the market and in-depth analysis on the Chinese trade and investment framework, which directly affects their business operations. Reports from QYReseachReports.com feature valuable recommendations on how to navigate in the extremely unpredictable yet highly attractive Chinese market.Contact UsBrooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Web:
Smart Fabrics Market: Segmentation, Industry trends and Development to 2026

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Smart fabrics, also known as smart textiles, E-textiles or electronic textiles, are the fabrics that has electronics and digital components embedded in them. These are the fabrics that can sense stimuli from environment and adapt and react to those stimuli in a predetermined manner. Smart fabrics can incorporate actuators/sensors, communication and processing for applications in automotive sector, consumer products and health monitoring. The basic elements of smart fabrics are semi conductive and conductive yarns and threads, Nano electronics applied to yarns, fibres or woven elements. Smart fabrics are even chemically treated to provide distinct and special features. Smart fabrics are traditional fabrics with integrated functionalities, which could include storage or power generation, sensing devices, human interface elements, assistive technology or radio frequency functionality. Smart fabrics are distinct from wearable fabrics in a way that wearable devices are only carried and contained by clothing, whereas smart fabrics has wearable devices integrated into the fabrics. Nowadays, smart fabric technology is developing in the fields of sport, medical, artistic communities, fashion etc. The global smart fabrics market is expected to expand at a healthy CAGR in the forecast period.Global smart fabrics market  Drivers and RestrainsThe ever increasing use of electronics devices in day to day life is driving the smart fabrics market due to major application of smart fabrics as an electronics device. The ease of use of smart fabrics and the integration of electronic devices in it, makes it an integrated device for normal use as a simple fabric, which further contributes in the flourishing global smart fabrics market. The rising awareness and multiple applications of smart fabrics such as energy harvesting, sensing, and thermo-electricity is anticipated to bolster the global smart fabrics market.Request Report Sample@However, the smart fabrics devices require a portable power supply that need to be removed during washing and needs to be charged frequently. Thus this is a factor that can slowdown the growth of global smart fabrics market. Also the initial high cost and the expertise required to manufacture these fabrics can be a hurdle in the path of global smart fabrics market.Global smart fabrics market  SegmentationOn the basis of the product type, the global smart fabrics market can be segmented as follows:Ultra-smart fabricsActive smart fabricsPassive smart fabricsOn the basis of the functionality, the global smart fabrics market can be segmented as follows:Thermo-electricityEnergy harvestingSensingLuminanceOn the basis of the end use industry, the global smart fabrics market can be segmented as follows:HealthcareAutomobilesElectrical & ElectronicsArtichetureConstructionGlobal smart fabrics market  Region wise OutlookThe global smart fabrics market can be divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia Pacific, Japan and Middle East and Africa. North America is a leading player in the global smart fabrics market due to the ever increasing electronics market in this region and the booming information technology sector. Asia Pacific is the next upcoming region in the global smart fabrics market owing to the flourishing healthcare industry and construction industry. India and China are the leading countries in this region contributing in the growth of global smart fabrics market. The ever increasing automobiles market in Europe is a driving factor for the growth of smart fabrics in this region, thus witnessing a healthy CAGR in the forecast period. Latin America and Middle East and Africa are at a nascent stage in the global smart fabrics market but are projected to have a significant CAGR in the future.Visit For TOC@Global smart fabrics market  Key PlayersSome of the key players in the global smart fabrics market are:adidas GroupTextronics, IncOutlast Technologies LLCMilliken & CompanyKCWWInternational Fashion MachinesInteractivewearFibertronicEleksen Group PlcAbout Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Complex Regional Pain Syndrome Market Niche Segments, Geographical regions and Trends 2026

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Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is a chronic condition that causes severe pain in legs, arms, feet, and hands or may involve the entire body. CRPS is commonly of two types, with similar symptoms and treatment. If Complex Regional Pain syndrome occurs after an injury without any nerve damage, it is known as Type I CRPS (also known as reflex sympathetic dystrophy). Type II CRPS occurs after a specific nerve injury or trauma. The prognosis of complex regional pain syndrome differs from person to person. In most cases, CRPS is mild and patient recovers gradually with time, and in some cases, the symptoms are severe, with long-term disability. CRPS occurs in both men and women, but women are more likely to be affected.The cause of the Complex Regional Pain Syndrome (CRPS) is not well understood. In about 90% of cases, CRPS occurs due to injury or trauma. The common factor of injury includes limb immobilization, soft tissue injury, fracture, sprain or due to needlestick injuries caused during surgical procedures. Peripheral nerve abnormalities in patients with CRPS includes unmyelinated and lightly myelinated nerve fibers at the axon region that causes abnormal neurological conditions. CRPS is common in patients with inflammatory and autoimmune conditions as an elevated level of inflammatory chemicals such as cytokines are found in tissue with CRPS. Currently, genetic predisposition of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome is not examined broadly. A study related to the familial occurrence of CRPS among Dutch patients resulted that CRPS may occur in a familial form, but inheritance pattern was unclear.Request Report Sample@Diagnosis of CRPS depends upon the individuals medical history and the extent of symptoms. There are limited diagnostic methods available for CRPS. The incidence rates reveal that female are three times more affected than male. According to a study conducted in U.K, 1 in 3,800 people develops CRPS each year. CRPS can be treated by therapy (Rehabilitation Therapy, Psychotherapy) or medications such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, corticosteroids, and others.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Drivers and RestrainsCurrently, there are no drugs approved by US FDA - for the treatment of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. However, physicians prescribed therapies and medicines to alleviate chronic pain. Recently U.S. Food and Drug administration, designated Neridronic acid breakthrough therapy, undergoing clinical trials for Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The drug has also received Fast-track and orphan drug designations from the FDA. Intense research and development, the rise in the incidence of CRPS cases, successful completion of clinical trials are anticipated to fuel the growth of Complex Regional Pain Syndrome. The strict regulatory approval and the high cost of medication in the near future could restrain the growth of Complex Regional Pain syndrome market.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: SegmentationThe global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market has been classified on the basis of therapy type, route of administration, distribution channel, and geography.Based on Therapy Type, the Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market is segmented into following:Physical TherapyDrugsAnalgesicsAntidepressantsCorticosteroidsOthersSurgical sympathectomyIntrathecal drug pumpsSpinal cord stimulationBased on the Route of Administration, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market is divided into following:OralIntravenousBased on the distribution channel, the Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market is segmented into the following:Hospital PharmacyDrug StoresRetail PharmacyE-commerceComplex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: OverviewNational Institutes of Health (NIH) is supporting research for CRPS on the brain and CNS by focusing on studying new approaches in treating CRPS. Based on the therapy type the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market into physical therapy, drugs such as analgesics, antidepressants, corticosteroids, surgical sympathectomy, intrathecal drug pumps and spinal cord stimulation. On the basis of route of administration, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market in segmented into oral and intravenous administration. Based on the distribution channel, the market is segmented into hospital pharmacy, drug stores, retain pharmacy and e-commerce.Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Regional OverviewRegion wise, the global Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) market is classified into regions namely, North America, Latin America, Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Asia-Pacific, Japan, Middle East and Africa. Along with expansion in the emerging markets, and greater focus on early diagnosis, screening, monitoring and clinical development of drugs have been the major strategies adopted by major players in the global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market.Visit For TOC@Complex Regional Pain syndrome (CRPS) Market: Key PlayersSome of the key players in global complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS) market are Mallinckrodt Pharmaceutical, GlaxoSmithKline plc., Mylan N.V., Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., AbbVie, ACTAVIS, Zydus Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Sandoz, and Janssen Global Services, LLC.and others.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and IndiaCONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Peripheral Embolization Device Market: Drivers, Restraints, Opportunities, and Threats (2016 - 2026

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Embolization is a process through which embolus is placed into the blood vessel to block the blood flow to a particular area of the body. The embolus is usually a blood clot formed due to clotting of blood cells. However, the artificial embolus is used to close off blood vessels to prevent the blood from reaching a particular part of the body to eliminate abnormal conditions in the body like a renal aneurysm, arteriovenous fistula, hypogastric artery embolization, endoleak embolization, GI bleeding and treatment of tumors. Peripheral embolization is usually used to shrink tumors by blocking the blood flow to it. Peripheral embolization devices often use embolus made up of various drugs which along with blocking the blood flow also are targeted towards the treatment of a tumor. Embolization is efficient and less invasive as compared to open surgery and therefore poses a little risk to the patient.Peripheral Embolization Device Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global peripheral embolization device market is driven by the rising incidence of cancer and cardiovascular diseases. According to CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) by 2025, 19.3 million cases of cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed each year, which in turn is expected to increase demand for peripheral embolization devices for early treatment of malignant tumors. The increasing mortality rate due to cardiovascular diseases is expected to boost demand for peripheral embolization devices. Increasing cardiovascular patients owing rising global geriatric population is expected to provide high growth opportunities for the peripheral embolization devices manufacturers over the forecast period. Moreover, technological developments in new peripheral embolization devices aimed to increase safety among patients and ease of use for physicians is expected to provide significant growth opportunities for the peripheral embolization devices manufacturers. However, the high cost of peripheral embolization devices and complications like coil migration, perforations, and spasms among patients is expected to hamper market growth over the forecast period.Request Report Sample@Peripheral Embolization Device Market: SegmentationThe global peripheral embolization device market are segmented into product type and end userSegmentation based on product typeEmbolization GuidewiresMicrocathetersOcclusion SystemsOcclusion BalloonsPlatinum CoilsSegmentation based on end userHospitalsAmbulatory surgical centersSpecialty clinicsPeripheral Embolization Device Market: Region  wise OutlookThe peripheral embolization device market is expected to witness healthy growth throughout the forecast period with North America expected to be the leading market. High demand for peripheral embolization devices from cancer patients is expected to boost the market growth over the forecast period. Favorable reimbursement policies and up gradation in the compensation for the patients is North America is projected to drive demand for peripheral embolization devices in North America over the forecast period. Moreover, several global manufacturers in this region are expected to promote the use of peripheral embolization devices and in turn is supposed to increase the adoption rate of the devices. Western Europe is expected to be second largest market followed by North America owing to high awareness related to the use of peripheral embolization devices for treatment of cardiovascular and bleeding disorders. APEJ (Asia-Pacific excluding Japan) and Japan are expected to follow next after Western Europe owing to high population and increasing the incidence of cardiovascular diseases in these regions along with growing per capita healthcare expenditure in countries like India and China. Eastern Europe and the Middle East and Africa (MEA) is expected to increase significantly owing to the rise in cancer incidence rate and manufacturers focusing on expansion strategies in this regions.Visit For TOC@Peripheral Embolization Device Market: Key PlayersSome key players in peripheral embolization market are Boston Scientific Corporation, Medtronic, Inc., Cook Medical, St. Jude Medical, Inc., Penumbra, Inc., Metactive Medical, Inc., Terumo Corporation and others. The companies are focused on development of new peripheral embolization devices with increased safety and ease of use.About Us  Future Market Insights is the premier provider of market intelligence and consulting services, serving clients in over 150 countries. FMI is headquartered in London, the global financial capital, and has delivery centers in the U.S. and India.CONTACT:616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
2017-2022 Telecom Equipment Market Profiles, Financial Status, Business Strategies and Policies

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2017-2022 Telecom Equipment Market Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications to its huge collection of research reports.The global Telecom Equipment market is shed light upon with an in-depth analysis of vital elements that could prove influential for growth and demand in the foreseeable future. With both primary and secondary analysis in sync, the analysts authoring this report make successful efforts to dig deep into the crucial aspects of the market for determining current and future growth prospects. Buyers are anticipated to rely on this comprehensive account of the market for Telecom Equipment to create productive business plans and formulate fighting-fit strategies for securing a strong foothold in the industry. Other portions of intelligent market analysis such as segmentation, regional outlook, competitive landscape, company profiling, and market projections are meticulously provided in the report.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Factors affecting the growth of the global Telecom Equipment market and the visible and imperceptible challenges of industry participants are elaborately discussed in the publication to help readers stay aware of the situations about to take shape. This could assist them to avoid any unexpected circumstances and take planned decisions when making business in the market. Market opportunities predicted to become available in future are unveiled with an extensive evaluation performed by experienced researchers in the industry. Significant driving factors positioned at the helm of the market are also assessed and put forth in the publication with the broadest of all research and analytical senses.The growth of the market based on various factors such as sales, revenue, gross margin of companies, and price trend is examined to give a clear idea of the opportunities prevailing in the global Telecom Equipment market.Table of Contents2017-2022 Telecom Equipment Market Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source2.1.1 Secondary Sources2.1.2 Primary Sources1.3 Disclaimer2 Telecom Equipment Market Market Overview2.1 Telecom Equipment Market Product Overview2.2 Telecom Equipment Market Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Public switching equipment2.2.2 Transmission equipment2.2.3 Customer premises equipmentBrowse Complete Report with TOC @3 Telecom Equipment Market Application/End Users3.1 Telecom Equipment Market Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Bank3.1.2 Airlines3.1.3 Restaurant3.1.4 Retailer3.1.5 Other3.2 Global Telecom Equipment Market Product Segment by Application3.2.1 Global Telecom Equipment Market Sales (K Units) and CGAR (%) by Applications (2012, 2016 and 2022)3.2.2 Global Telecom Equipment Market Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Applications (2012-2017)4 Telecom Equipment Market Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Telecom Equipment Market Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 Europe4.1.5 South America4.1.6 Middle East and Africa4.1.7 United States4.2 Global Telecom Equipment Market Sales and Revenue by RegionsList of Tables and FiguresTable Research Programs/Design for This ReportFigure Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches for This ReportFigure Data TriangulationTable Key Data Information from Secondary SourcesTable Key Data Information from Primary SourcesFigure Telecom Equipment Market Product PictureQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
The US Breakfast Sandwich Market Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021)

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"The Report The US Breakfast Sandwich Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021) provides information on pricing, market analysis, shares, forecast, and company profiles for key industry participants. - MarketResearchReports.biz"Scope of the ReportThe report titled The US Breakfast Sandwich Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021), provides an in-depth analysis of the breakfast sandwich by volume and by segment.The report provides a regional analysis of the breakfast sandwich market, including the following regions: the US and Canada.The report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall breakfast sandwich market has also been forecasted for the period 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.The competition in the breakfast sandwich market is very fragmented, with several food chains and independent retail outlets experimenting with the concept of breakfast sandwich.View Report @Further, key players of the Breakfast Sandwich market Premium Brand Holdings Inc., Greencore Group Plc and Potbelly Corporation are also profiled with their financial information and respective business strategies.Country CoverageThe USCanadaCompany CoveragePremium Brands Holding IncGreencore Group PlcPotbelly CorporationGet Sample Copy Of This Report @Executive SummaryWith changing times and needs, the food requirements are also changing. The meal constituting breakfast, lunch and dinner are also changing. Earlier sandwiches were consumed as snacks to curb the hunger. However, with fast paced lives, the individuals started resorting to fast fashion and fast foods. Foods such as wraps, cookies and sandwiches are increasingly being consumed as breakfast meals because they are portable and less cumbersome.A breakfast sandwich is any sandwich filled with foods associated with the breakfast meal. Breakfast sandwiches can also be made at home. Breakfast sandwiches are typically made using breakfast meats (generally cured meats such as sausages, patty sausages, bacon, country ham, spam and pork roll), breads, eggs and cheese.The breakfast sandwiches are of two types in-home and away from home.The US Breakfast Sandwich market has increased at a significant CAGR during the years 2011-2016 and projections are made that the market would rise in the next four years i.e. 2017-2021 tremendously. The breakfast sandwich market is expected to increase due to growth in rising millennial population, increasing GDP per-capita, etc. Yet the market faces a challenge such as, volatility in economic cycle.MarketResearchReports.biz is the most comprehensive collection of market research reports. MarketResearchReports.Biz services are specially designed to save time and money for our clients. We are a one stop solution for all your research needs, our main offerings are syndicated research reports, custom research, subscription access and consulting services. We serve all sizes and types of companies spanning across various industries.Mr. NachiketState Tower90 Sate Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-621-2074Website:E: sales@marketresearchreports.biz
High Temperature Ceramics Market,Trends, and Opportunity Analysis by Future Market Insights

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Ceramics are covalent compounds containing metal and non-metal atoms primarily held in covalent and ionic bonds. Generally, ceramics are made by taking mixtures of earth elements, powders, water and clay. This mixture is shaped into the desired form and is then fired in a high temperature oven. Ceramics are then painted with glazes which are waterproof and decorative. At elevated temperature, ceramics have high hardness, high melting points, excellent chemical corrosion resistance and good mechanical properties. Some ceramics are good dielectrics or insulators, whereas others are good electrical or thermal conductors. Ceramics are widely used in our daily life. Glass, plates, bricks, tiles and sanitary ware are some examples of the ceramics we see every day. Ceramics can also be found in products like automobiles (sparkplug), phone lines and watches. They are even used in space shuttles and aircrafts. Ceramics can be broadly classified into two categories: traditional and advanced. Traditional ceramics include clay products such as cement and glass, whereas advanced ceramics consist of pure oxides, nitrides, carbides and many others.Advanced ceramics are widely used in industrial applications where the operating temperature is generally high or which require hard substances that can withstand great pressure. Ceramics offer various advantages compared to other materials. Ceramics are more corrosion and heat resistant than polymers or metals, stiffer and harder than steel, and have a lower density than most alloys and metals. Raw material for advance ceramics materials are plentiful, inexpensive and display wide range of properties. For automotive applications, they are used in various applications like airbag sensors, spark plugs, valves, vibration sensors, pressure sensors, oxygen sensors, thermistors, catalytic converters, ceramic rotors, ceramic filters piston rings and safety glass windshields.Request For Report Sample@The different types of high temperature ceramics include ceramic matrix composites and ultrahigh temperature ceramic coatings. Advanced high temperature materials are key components in the emerging material technologies, which are giving impetus to many industries. The global high temperature ceramics market is driven by several factors like replacement of materials for the sake of creating cost effective solutions, the growing demand for energy conservation across various industries, and government regulations to reduce greenhouse emissions.The global high temperature ceramics market is led by AsiaPacific (APAC) which accounts for over 40-45% of the total consumption by volume. The cost of high temperature ceramics in APAC is lesser than that in Europe, North America or Latin America. In terms of revenue, North America is the largest market followed by APAC and Europe. The cost of high temperature ceramics is expected to remain low for the next few years in the APAC region. Due to government regulations and incentives offered for sustainability and energy conservation, North America and Europe are expected to offer significant growth opportunities for the high temperature ceramics market.On the basis of industry applications, the global high temperature ceramics market is segmented into automotive, aerospace, chemical processing, metallurgical, power generation and others. Some of the most common applications of high temperature ceramics are afterburners, boilers, castings, exhaust stacks, flanges, furnaces, headers, incinerators, manifolds, molds and dies, ovens, heat exchangers, pumps, blowers, pipingand ducting. In the aerospace industry, high temperature ceramics are used in cutting edge applications, which require structural and chemical stability at extremely high operating temperatures. On the basis of composition, the high temperature ceramics are segmented into oxides (alumina, zirconia), non-oxides (carbides, nitrides) and composites (combination of oxides and non-oxides).Visit For TOC@There are many global and regional players operating in the high temperature ceramics market especially in APAC. Some of the key participants are Morgan Thermal Ceramics, ZIRCAR Ceramics, Inc., Skamol A/S, Promat International, IBIDEN Company Ltd., Rath Incorporated, General Insulation Europe Ltd., Unifrax Corporation, and Shandong Luyang Share Co. Ltd.In future, the understanding and controlling behavior of the microstructures and properties of high temperature ceramics are expected to be key elements in research activities. This research will further increase the operating temperature limits of existing high temperature ceramics.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Development of Automotive IoT market in global growth and status 2017 : AutoNavi (China), NAVINFO (China), QiMing

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2017-2022 Automotive IoT Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications to its huge collection of research reports.A clear understanding of the overall state of a specific market and its key elements, markets growth prospects, factors leading to increased demand, factors restraining demand, level of competition in the market, rate of success and failure of a variety of projects, price an cost structure, industry supply chain, etc., makes strategic decision making easier. While every single company, whether wanting to newly venture in a marketplace or to expand its territory, requires data pertaining to the above mentioned areas, not all companies have the time or dedicated resources required to undertake an effective market research.A new research report recently added to QYResearchReports.com is an excellent data repository for the global Automotive IoT market. The report presents detailed overview of key market elements and furnishes quantitative as well as qualitative data pertaining to key market elements.Enquiry For Discount Visit @Gathered with the help of a number of primary and secondary research methodologies, the vast amount of market data is narrowed down with the help of industry-best methods of analysis.With the help of historical data, growth trajectory of the market in the recent past is established. An overview of the impact of key factors driving the market, restraining it, and the major trends defining consumer preferences in the Automotive IoT market on markets future growth prospects are also presented in the report.The report also includes a detailed overview of the regulatory scenario of the global Automotive IoT market, presenting data about notable rules, regulations, plans, and policies in the global as well as regional markets and their impact on a number of decisions.The report also presents a comprehensive overview of the competitive landscape of the global Automotive IoT market, furnishing details such as detailed business profiles, SWOT analysis, finance related data, contact details, etc. of some of the key companies in the Automotive IoT market.Table of Contents2017-2022 Automotive IoT Report on Global and United States Market, Status and Forecast, by Players, Types and Applications1 Methodology and Data Source1.1 Methodology/Research Approach1.1.1 Research Programs/Design1.1.2 Market Size Estimation1.1.3 Market Breakdown and Data Triangulation1.2 Data Source2.1.1 Secondary Sources2.1.2 Primary Sources1.3 DisclaimerBrowse Complete Report with TOC @2 Automotive IoT Market Overview2.1 Automotive IoT Product Overview2.2 Automotive IoT Market Segment by Type2.2.1 Hardware2.2.2 Software2.2.3 Services2.2.4 Other2.3 Global Automotive IoT Product Segment by Type2.3.1 Global Automotive IoT Sales (K Units) and Growth (%) by Types (2012, 2016 and 2022)2.3.2 Global Automotive IoT Sales (K Units) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)2.3.3 Global Automotive IoT Revenue (Million USD) and Market Share (%) by Types (2012-2017)3 Automotive IoT Application/End Users3.1 Automotive IoT Segment by Application/End Users3.1.1 Infotainment3.1.2 Navigation3.1.3 Telematics3.1.4 Other3.2 Global Automotive IoT Product Segment by Application3.3 United States Automotive IoT Product Segment by Application4 Automotive IoT Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1 Global Market Status and Outlook by Regions4.1.1 Global Automotive IoT Market Size and CAGR by Regions (2012, 2016 and 2022)4.1.2 North America4.1.3 Asia-Pacific4.1.4 Europe4.1.5 South America4.1.6 Middle East and Africa4.1.7 United States4.2 Global Automotive IoT Sales and Revenue by Regions5 Global Automotive IoT Market Competition by Players/Manufacturers5.1 Global Automotive IoT Sales (K Units) and Market Share by Players (2012-2017)5.2 Global Automotive IoT Revenue (Million USD) and Share by Players (2012-2017)5.3 Global Automotive IoT Average Price (USD/Unit) by Players (2012-2017)5.4 Players Automotive IoT Manufacturing Base Distribution, Sales Area, Product TypesList of Tables and FiguresTable Research Programs/Design for This ReportFigure Bottom-up and Top-down Approaches for This ReportFigure Data TriangulationTable Key Data Information from Secondary SourcesTable Key Data Information from Primary SourcesFigure Automotive IoT Product PictureQYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Competition, Status, Regions, Type and Application

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Qyresearchreports include new market research report 2012-2022 Report on Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Competition, Status and Forecast, Market Size by Players, Regions, Type, End Users to its huge collection of research reports.One of the key aspect of this report on the global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market is its dedicated section on the profiles of some of the leading companies, which is aimed at providing details related to the competitive landscape, recent strategic developments, operational strengths, key selling products, product currently in pipeline, and factors that may propel an individual player ahead of the curve. This report on the global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market also provides detailed value chain analysis, which provides a comprehensive assessment of the global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market. The report has been created using proven research methodologies, and including analysis of Porters five forces model for the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market has also been included to help understand the competition faced by rivals in the market. The study includes, but is not limited to, market attractiveness analysis, market size, growth potential, and other usual attractiveness.Get a PDF sample of this report @Some of the essential questions answered in this report on the global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market are: which segments have the maximum potential for the future and how is the market bifurcated in terms of products, applications, services, technology, and others, what are current estimates and forecasts for the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market, what are the voids and therefore opportunity within the market, and which factors will drive the growth of the market. The report has been created by professional and well-experienced research analysts and aspires to serve as a reliable business tool for its audiences. It also rates the potential of the Mobility as a Service (MaaS) market in all important regions, such as Asia Pacific, Europe, North America, Latin America, and the Middle East and Africa.Table of ContentsGlobal Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size, Status and Forecast 20221 Industry Overview of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)1.1 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Overview1.1.1 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Product Scope1.1.2 Market Status and Outlook1.2 Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size and Analysis by Regions1.2.1 United States1.2.2 EU1.2.3 Japan1.2.4 China1.2.5 India1.2.6 Southeast Asia1.3 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market by TypeBrowse Complete Report with TOC @2 Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Competition Analysis by Players2.1 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (Value) by Players (2016 and 2017)2.2 Competitive Status and Trend2.2.1 Market Concentration Rate2.2.2 Product/Service Differences2.2.3 New Entrants3 Company (Top Players) Profiles3.1 Uber3.1.1 Company Profile3.1.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.1.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.1.4 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.1.5 Recent Developments3.2 Didi3.2.1 Company Profile3.2.2 Main Business/Business Overview3.2.3 Products, Services and Solutions3.2.4 Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Revenue (Value) (2012-2017)3.2.5 Recent Developments3.3 Lyft4 Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size by Type and Application (2012-2017)4.1 Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size by Type (2012-2017)4.2 Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size by Application (2012-2017)4.3 Potential Application of Mobility as a Service (MaaS) in Future4.4 Top Consumer/End Users of Mobility as a Service (MaaS)5 United States Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Development Status and Outlook5.1 United States Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (2012-2017)5.2 United States Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size and Market Share by Players (2016 and 2017)List of Tables and FiguresFigure Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Product ScopeFigure Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (Million USD) (2012-2017)Table Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure Global Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Share by Regions in 2016Figure United States Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)Figure EU Mobility as a Service (MaaS) Market Size (Million USD) and Growth Rate by Regions (2012-2017)QYResearchReports.com is an unimpeachable source of market research data for clients that comprise acclaimed SMEs, Chinese companies, private equity firms, and MNCs. We provide market research reports on various categories such as Energy, Chemicals, Alternative and Green Energy, Manufacturing, Machinery, Pharmaceuticals and Materials, and Glass.1820 AvenueM Suite #1047Brooklyn, NY 11230United StatesToll Free: 866-997-4948 (USA-CANADA)Tel: +1-518-618-1030Email: sales@qyresearchreports.com
Comprehensive Industry Report Offers Forecast and Analysis on Barite Market

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Barite is a mineral that is rich in barium. Barite commonly occurs in the large number of depositional environment and it is found in the zinc-lead veins in limestone, in the hot spring deposits and in the hematite ore. Barite is also found alongside meteorites. Barite is relatively inert and also exhibits a physical property of high density. Barite is widely used as a weighting agent in the drilling muds. Barite also finds other applications in the electrical and electronics, rubber, ceramics, paints radiation shielding, medical and glass industry among others. China, India, Morocco and U.S. are expected to be the largest producers of barite. The total barite resources across the globe in all categories are around 2 billion tons, however, only 740 million tons is considered among the identified resources.Most of the barite manufactured is used as a weighting agent in the drilling fluids that are used in the oil and gas exploration. Barites are mainly used to suppress the high formation fluids and also to prevent blowouts. The quantity of barite used is mainly dependent on the depth of the hole that has to be bored. The deeper the hole, more the barite is required. Barite is non-magnetic in nature and hence, it does not interfere with the magnetic measurements that are taken during boring the hole making barite an ideal choice for the drilling fluids. Barite is widely used in the manufacturing of paints and coatings. Thus, the growing automobile industry is expected to boost the overall growth of the paints and coatings industry which in turn is expected to drive the growth of the overall barite market. The global barite market is expected to grow owing to its increasing demand in other applications such as textiles, paper and paints among others. Though, there are alternatives to barite such as ilmenite, celestite, iron ore and synthetic hematite, none of these substitutes had a major impact on the barite drilling mud industry.Request For Report Sample@Barites offer several benefits such as good stability, strong inertia, moderate rigidity, acid and alkali proof and high specific gravity. Due to such advantages, barite is widely used in applications including engineering plastic, middle and high-grade paint, medicine compounding, rubber, pottery, paper-making and cosmetics among others. The main types of barites are ground barite, finely ground barite and bleached barite. Ground barite is used as filler in the production of oil cloth, linoleum, paper, textile, plastics and rubber. Finely ground barite finds use in making thixotropic mud for sealing oil wells in drilling applications and bleached barite is used as a pigment in white paint.Considering the rapidly growing oil and gas drilling industry, the demand for barite is expected to record a strong growth in the coming years. India and China hold a dominant position in the barite supply and have increased prices significantly in the recent times. Owing to this, there is an increased focus on discovering and developing new barite resources across the world. While India and China are anticipated to dominate the barite production and export, mining projects in several stages of development are ongoing in countries such as Liberia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Zimbabwe.Visit For TOC@Some of the key participants of the barite market include Desku Group Inc., SMIMTAF, Shijiazhuang Oushun Minerals Products Co. Ltd., Shanghai Titanos Industry Co., Ltd., CMS Industries and V&P Corporation among others.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Regenerative Braking Systems Market Research Report and Outlook by Future Market Insights

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Increasing demand for fuel efficient vehicles, increasing efforts for mitigation of carbon emissions and rising cost of fuels, are pushing the Automakers to seek for development of energy efficient systems. This changing dynamics has significantly led to developments in regenerative braking systems market. Nowadays, energy recovery systems in vehicles are increasingly getting employed in passenger as well as commercial vehicles to improve fuel economy and reduce vehicular emissions.As a result for the need of better fuel-economy the regenerative braking systems market has evolved, which is gaining a significant growth in global automotive industry because of energy saving application.Nowadays, regenerative braking systems have become an important feature in hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. In these type of vehicles, regenerative braking systems are used to generate electricity by convertingmomentum loss during application of brakes. The amount of recoverable energy depends upon the vehicle speed and stopping pattern, 5% to 20% of transmitted energy can be saved by using regenerative braking systems. This energy is then transferred to on-board auxiliaries or comfort functions such as climate control. This energy can also be stored as electricity and then returned to the drive train during acceleration or whenever required. This energy can either be stored in batteries or banks of super capacitors. The energy saving features are one among the latent drivers of regenerative braking systems market.Request For Report Sample@The factors driving the growth of global regenerative braking systems market are growing concern for controlling vehicular emission, rising fuel cost and growing concern for advance technology. Although, factors such as increased overall cost of car and maintenance are the major challenges.The global regenerative braking systems market is geographically segmented intosevenkey regions which are, North America, South America,Eastern Europe, Western Europe,Asia Pacific, Japan andMiddle East & Africa. As of 2013, North America dominates the overall global regenerative braking systems market value, followed by Asia Pacific, Europe and others. Asia Pacific is projected to register a significant CAGR for the forecast period in global regenerative braking systems market. This growth is fuelled by increasing penetration rate of hybrid and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in regions like Japan, South Korea and China.Growing concern for controlling vehicular emission in Europe region is also expected to drive the growth of global regenerative braking systems market for forecast period.On the basis of passenger vehicle type, the regenerative braking systemsmarket is segmented into three sub-segments, which are, hybrid vehicles, electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles. The hybrid vehicle sub-segment of global regenerative braking systems market is the predominant in terms of market value dueincreasing adoption of hybrid vehicles in regions like North America and Europe. The hybrid vehicle passenger sub-segment is forecast to have higher growth rate in regenerative braking systems market, followed by plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and electric vehicles.Visit For TOC@Some of the key players in the global regenerative braking systems market include Continental AG, Delphi Automotive PLC, Denso Corporation, Robert Bosch GMBH and TRW automotive. Acquisitions and mergers are key strategies adopted by major companies to expand their geographical presence and market share in global regenerative braking systems market along with an enhanced customer base.In future, deployment of advanced regenerative braking systems with more efficiency and less prone to energy loss during transmission will provide a completive edge for automotive OEMs.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Bonded Abrasives Market,Trends, and Opportunity Analysis by Future Market Insights

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An abrasive is a material that when rubbed against a surface, producesthe desired surface finish and shape. Abrasives are usually minerals that are often available in a wide range of shapes, sizes and types. They are usually used to clean, grind, scour, abrade or remove the solid material usually by using impact or by the rubbing action. Abrasives are mainly classified as bonded abrasives, steel abrasives, coated abrasives, loose abrasives grain and raw super abrasives, among others. The abrasives material or the abrasives product finds various applications in industries such as electrical & electronics, machinery, metal fabrication and transportation among others.Bonded abrasives are the natural or synthetic abrasive grains which are usually bonded into a solid form. Bonded abrasives are usually made of the abrasive grains that are closely sized and molded or pressed to produce a wide variety of the products. Bonded abrasives are usually in the shape of a wheel. The products range of the bonded abrasives also includes the snagging wheel, mounted wheel, grinding and the cut-off wheel, cones and plugs. Bonded abrasives are mainly used for precision grinding, cutting, rough grinding, lapping, sharpening and light grinding among others.Request For Report Sample@The growing automobile industry is expected to boost the overall growth of the bonded abrasives market. Bonded abrasives are widely used in giving the required surface finish as well as the desired design to the automobiles. The increasing demands for the advanced technology based machineries are further expected to boost the demand for the bonded abrasives. The bonded abrasives help in the super finishing of the machine shaft in order to achieve the required roughness. The bonded abrasives are used in providing the smooth finish to the various tools and the machineries that are manufactured. The bonding abrasives are used in the polishing as well as deburring of the bore holes on the machine blocks. Regular maintenances of the workshops further boost the overall demand for the bonded abrasives market. The increasing use of the bonded abrasives for de-scaling and for the rust and dust removal has augmented the overall growth for the bonded abrasives market. The bonded abrasives are also widely used in the medical sector. Bonded abrasives are used to sharpen the dental tools. The bonded abrasives are also used for smoothening of the edges of the dental tools such that it is extremely convenient for the doctors to use the dental tools on the patients.Visit For TOC@The bonded abrasives segment accounts for the largest share within the global abrasives market. North America is expected to be the largest market for the bonded abrasives. The growing demand especially in U.S is expected to boost the growth of the global bonded abrasive market. Europe is expected to be the next largest consumer of the bonded abrasives especially due to the growing demand especially in Germany. Asia Pacific is expected to be fastest growing market for the bonded abrasives market mainly due to the presence of various end-use industries especially in China and India.Norton, 3M, Baystate, Tyrolit, Treibacher and Noritake among others are some of the key participants of the global bonded abrasives market. Companies are extensively conducting research in order to develop and introduce new products in the market such that they can efficiently cater the needs for the specific application.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Pharmaceutical Solvent Market to account for US$ 4.1 Bn by 2026 end

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Global Market for Pharmaceutical Solvents Projected to Witness Sluggish GrowthA majority of medicines & drugs produced in the world are derived from formulating Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API), and such processes require alcoholic solvents such as ethanol, isopropanol, propanol and propylene glycol.Production of pharmaceutical solvents continues to be concentrated in the Asia-Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ) region as leading API suppliers and drug manufacturers in the world have based their production units in countries such as South Korea, China and India, among others.Nevertheless, the production of pharmaceutical solvents in the world continues to be riddled with challenges emanating from stringent manufacturing regulations imposed by governments. Administration authorities regulating industrial activities in a region are curbing the production of pharmaceutical solvents which contain high volumes of inflammable fluids. An alarming rise in the incidences of casualties reported in pharmaceutical solvent manufacturing plants as well as health risks of being exposed to volatile liquids present in several pharmaceutical solvents will continue to be a major challenge for drugmakers in the coming years.Request For Report Sample@According to Future Market Insights, the global market for pharmaceutical solvents will expand at a sluggish pace, registering a 3.5% CAGR (in terms of value) during the forecast period 2016-2026. More than 2,000 kilotons of pharmaceutical solvents were estimated to be sold in 2016, projecting that the global pharmaceutical solvents revenues amassed in the year surpassed US$ 2,713.2 million. In the report, titled Pharmaceutical Solvents Market: Global Industry Analysis & Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, Future Market Insights expects that by the end of 2026, an approximate of US$ 4.1 billion revenues will be accrued through global sales of pharmaceutical solvents. Over the projection period, the APEJ pharmaceutical solvents market will account for over 30% of the global revenues, primarily due to the regions potential for large scale production of drugs, medicine and other pharmaceutical products. Meanwhile, North America and Western Europe are anticipated to incur a slight dip in their collective share towards global market value, procuring combined revenues of nearly US$ 2 billion by the end of 2026.Alcohol  Dominant Chemical Group for Pharmaceutical SolventsFormulation of pharmaceutical products is mainly instrumented by mixing alcoholic solvents with API and other pharmaceutical ingredients. During production of medicinal fluids, alcohols tend to serve as the inactive ingredients or excipients, helping in stabilising the chemical composition of resultant compounds. Hence, the global market for pharmaceutical solvents will continue to witness higher adoption of alcohols as the constituent chemicals used for production. By the end of 2026, more than 700 kilotons of alcohols will be consumed for global production of pharmaceutical solvents. Besides, esters are also expected to be a dominant chemical constituent in production of pharmaceutical solvents, and are estimated to have accounted for more than US$ 400 million revenues in 2016. On the other hand, manufacturers of pharmaceutical solvents are also augmenting their production techniques to include ether chemicals. During the forecast period, the global revenue share of ethers will exhibit an impressive growth by accounting for more than 16%.Fire Hazards Repressing Rampant Production of Pharmaceutical SolventsLeading manufacturers in the global pharmaceutical solvents market are being weighed down by government and administrative authorities for limiting their production potential. Presence of volatile chemicals in pharmaceutical solvents has led to imposition of strict regulations regarding production, storage and transport of pharmaceutical solvents. Subsequently, health hazards impact the pricing of pharmaceutical solvents as employees working in solvent manufacturing units demand better insurance cover and incessant salary hikes, which ends up spiking the production costs for companies.Send an Enquiry @Prominent players in the global pharmaceutical solvents market are being compelled to remodel their production methods by including innovative techniques that constrain the fire hazards during manufacturing. Competitive landscape of the global pharmaceutical solvents market is fragmented into raw material suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors. Companies such as The Dow Chemical Company, Clariant AG, BASF SE, and Alfa Aesar are recognised as global manufacturers of pharmaceutical solvents, while leading raw material suppliers in the global market include Mitsui Chemicals, Exxon Mobil Corporation and Eastman Chemical Company. Other companies profiled in the report include, Yips Chemical Holdings Limited, Merck KGaA, and Procter & Gamble Chemicals.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.com
North America and Europe to Register a 12.6% CAGR by 2026 End

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Growing number of diabetics in the US, Canada and European countries has been compelling hospitals to keep artificial pancreas systems in stock. Government-funded organisations in North America and Europe are collaborating with local as well as global medical device manufacturers to meet the rising demand for artificial pancreas systems. A latest report published by Future Market Insights reveals that the value of artificial pancreas systems market in North America and Europe reached US$ 86.5 Mn by the end of 2016. The report also predicts that people suffering from diabetes in these regions will keep opting for artificial pancreas systems in order to control their blood sugar levels externally.Lifestyle of residents in Europe and North America is triggering the incidence of diabetes (type 1 as well as type 2) in these regions. Substantial rise in diabetic patients compels doctors, pathologists and endocrinologists to treat patients malfunctioning pancreas superficially. The rate at which a physiological pancreas get replaced with a substitute (artificial pancreas system) will keep gaining momentum in this region. By the end of 2026, more than US$ 280 Mn worth of artificial pancreas systems will be sold in North America and Europe, registering a revenue growth at 12.6% CAGR.Request For Report Sample@Almost every artificial pancreas system sold in these regions will treat patients suffering from type 1 diabetes. In US, the occurrence of diabetes mellitus type 1 is expected to surge beyond control. The US artificial pancreas systems market is presently valued at just over US$ 40 Mn, and will account for over two-third of North Americas artificial pancreas system revenues through 2026. Canadas artificial pancreas system revenues, on the other hand, will surge rampantly at 13.8% CAGR.Hospitals will remain the largest distribution channel for artificial pancreas systems across North America and Europe. Although, the report does highlight a noticeable presence of e-commerce websites in global distribution of medical devices as critical as artificial pancreas systems. Among these regions, North America will remain dominant over Europes artificial pancreas system market. Likewise, the demand for artificial pancreas systems will be fairly high in Western Europe, compared to Eastern Europe. Germany, France, the UK and Poland are leading European countries that are more likely to showcase revenue growth at over 11.5% CAGR.Send an Enquiry @One of the largest company in North America & Europes artificial pancreas systems market has been identified as Illinois-based medical device manufacturer  Medtronic plc. With it, the UK-based Cellnovo is also being recognised as a prominent manufacturer of artificial pancreas systems. Other key players in the artificial pancreas systems market across North America and Europe include, Johnson & Johnson Services, Inc., Dexcom Inc., Insulet Corporation, and Tandem Diabetes Care Inc.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Glass Container Market to Carry a Value of US$ 65,569.4 Mn by the end of 2026

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In packaging industries, plastic and metal have always been looked at as alternative materials for glass. On the same lines, demand for glass packaging is expected to lose traction against rising preference for plastic bottles and metal cans. Nevertheless, such preferences get reversed when it comes to packaging highly-reactive fluids, industrial solvents, and alcoholic beverages. Future Market Insights predicts that the growth of global glass container market is, thus, contingent upon growing consumption of such liquids, and alcoholic drinks & beverages.In 2016, more than US$ 46,500 Mn worth of glass containers were consumed globally. Key findings from Future Market Insights report estimate that the market will be valued at US$ 65,569.4 Mn by the end of 2026. Although, during this forecast period, the global glass container market will exhibit a moderate revenue growth at 4.1% CAGR.Impact of Plastic and Metal PackagingThe report has compiled several factors that impact the growth of global glass container market, and highlighted the ones that restrain the market from attaining steady expansion. First off, the global market for glass containers is expected to continue facing challenges as companies struggle to keep up with pricing pressures. Continuous consolidation of consumer base for glass containers has intensified pricing pressure on manufacturers, compelling them to cater to big clients - the ones demanding their products at low prices.Request For Report Sample@Then, theres the inexorable competition arising from plastic bottles and metal cans. Baby food, coffee, sauces, and several other such products, which were once packaged in glass containers, are now available in plastic bottles & metal tins. High cost of producing glass containers, their fragile composition, and heavy weight are also prompting food & beverage makers for shifting towards metal or plastic packaging.Rising Demand for Lightweight Glass BottlesIndustry leaders will continue to strive for reducing the weight of glass containers, thereby increasing their sustenance in logistics operations. Lighter glass containers will also gain traction by providing added advantage to manufacturers and increasing profit margins of packaged products. The report reveals that throughout the forecast period, more than two-third of global glass container revenues will be accounted by glass bottles. The demand for glass jar will also be high, while candle glass containers and glass vials will witness a downtrend in terms of consumption.A majority of glass containers sold in the world are consumed for packaging beverages. In 2016, more than US$ 31,000 Mn worth of glass containers were used for beverage packaging, which alcoholic beverages accounting for 80% of these revenues. Demand for glass containers is also projected to be high in cosmetics & perfumery, revenues from which are likely to soar at 4.6% CAGR. Apart from their end-use and shape, glass containers are also being purchased according to their colour. Almost 45% of the global market value is procured from sales of amber glass containers across the globe. By 2026, more than 32,000 KT of amber glass containers will be consumed globally, according to the report. Clear glass containers, on the other hand, will have procured over 28% share in the global glass container market value by the end of 2026.Send an Enquiry @In the report, titled Glass Container Market: Global Industry Analysis and Opportunity Assessment, 2016-2026, Europe is identified as the largest market for glass containers. Although, Europes market value share is expected to be just a tad higher than Asia-Pacifics glass container market, which is procuring around 33% share through 2026. Leading glass container manufacturers in the world are profiled in this report, which include Vidrala SA, Amcor Limited, Owens-Illinois, Inc., BA Glass, Saverglass Group, Ardagh Group SA, Consol Glass (Pty) Ltd., Hindusthan National Glass & Industries Limited, Nampak Ltd., and Wiegand Glas.ABOUT US:Future Market Insights (FMI) is a leading market intelligence and consulting firm. We deliver syndicated research reports, custom research reports and consulting services, which are personalized in nature. FMI delivers a complete packaged solution, which combines current market intelligence, statistical anecdotes, technology inputs, valuable growth insights, an aerial view of the competitive framework, and future market trends.CONTACT:Future Market Insights616 Corporate Way, Suite 2-9018,Valley Cottage, NY 10989,United StatesT: +1-347-918-3531F: +1-845-579-5705Email: sales@futuremarketinsights.comWebsite:
Self-Driving Cars and Light Trucks Market 2017 to 2027; Apple, IBM, and Google Software Vendors

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Worldwide markets are poised to achieve significant growth as self-driving cars and light trucks permit users to implement automated driving. Fleet vehicles from Uber, Google and similar users are likely to be the early adopter groups. Tesla, Mercedes, and Audi are among the vendors with a leadership position in the personal luxury vehicle self-driving car markets,Every car maker seeks to participate in this self-driving personal vehicle market. The ability to do so depends on implementing next generation technology that is very expensive to get working. Vendors ae seeking to work together to set standards and develop shared modules that provide basic functionality. Cameras, sensors, artificial intelligence software, and LiDAR are among the modules being developed.Request Sample Report  Self-Driving Cars and Light Trucks: Market Shares, Strategies, and Forecasts, Worldwide, 2017 to 2023 @Autonomous vehicle technology has the potential to institute major change in personal mobility. Autonomous cars are the next generation of manual cars, poised to provide thrust for a large replacement market. Autonomous vehicles are the base for building a personal car services, particularly in large cities. Car makers and Silicon Valley companies bring different skills to the task of building a self-driving car. Together they are finding common ground to transform the personal vehicle industry. One thing they are unlikely to transform is performance.Every person who owns a vehicle has a preference on performance. The Tesla has gained recognition for offering a self-driving vehicle, but it is first and foremost a performance vehicle. This characteristic will not change as self-driving vehicles come on the market. People like the customization of features and functions in their car.This customization aspect of self-driving vehicles does not get talked about much, but it is a very important part of the industry. It will not go away just because cars are run by software. From auto racing to personal preference, ever car has its own personality and its own comfort. Performance is part of the package. Every car maker seeks to participate in this self-driving personal vehicle market with a distinctive offering. The ability to have unique appear to customers depends on implementing next generation technology in a manner that works effectively and is relatively inexpensive to implement.Apple, IBM, and Google are sure to be among the significant software vendors for all the self-driving car and light truck market participants. IBM has a huge head start with its excellent middleware branded integrated solutions that are hardened and reliable. Google has mindshare and early market success with its early market trials.Browse Complete Report Summary with TOC here:As automated process hits the auto industry as a disruptive force, it parallels the automated piloting of the airline industry that saw significant labor savings implementation. Automated vehicle driving can be done anywhere just by connecting the car to integrated adaptive cruise control, adaptive steering and braking, and lane assist systems all working off one central processor.Self-driving cars and light trucks incrementally add automated process to driving. As software is added to cars and light trucks it is done in concert with modification to the steering, breaking, and other automotive systems. Autonomous functions for vehicles are increasingly adopted.Change is incremental, we do not have fully functioning self-driving cars immediately, rather, steering, collision avoidance, parking, test driving, series of camera and radar based monitoring systems, lane assist, and adaptive cruise control are being implemented, presaging rapid adoption of self-driving cars and light trucks as the various functions mature and work in the real world.According to Susan Eustis, team leader for the preparation of the study, The market for self-driving car and light truck vehicles is anticipated to expand in parallel with the deployment of appropriate roadway controls funded by government programs. The large public investments for self-driving vehicles so far has been for development of technology that works for military purposes. The extension of this type of automated system to commercial fleet vehicles will be rapid after 2019The self-driving car designs amalgamate a group of features to represent an automated process solution. These include the hardware, the software middleware, the steering system, adaptive cruise control, numerous software applications, an integrated systems approach, and related services. Significant investments in research and development are necessary as the emerging self-driving cars and light trucks industry builds on incremental technology roll outs.Self-driving car and light truck commercial market shipments forecasts indicate that markets beginning to develop in 2016 will rise to $3.6 trillion by 2023. Spectacular growth is a result of various moves toward autonomous vehicles that can go across the US by themselves, provide automated navigation, integrated braking and steering. Most auto vendors have gone beyond the testing stage to offer vehicles that have strong navigation capability.Safety modules are complimented by mapping vehicles that provide navigation. The Tesla and other vehicles provide driver alerts but fall sort of complete self-driving.Market driving forces relate primarily to the need for increased safety and personalization for autos. Car manufacturers are positioning with self-driving car models to meet demand at the high end, and in every category of car and light truck. Many self-driving vehicle car vendors are making automation for personal vehicles and light trucks a reality.This self-driving car and truck shipment analysis is based on consideration of the metrics for the number of cars shipped, percent of cars outfitted with automated cruise control, and probable market penetrations of robot cars. Experience of testers using the cars and light trucks is another factor that contributes to development of triangulation regarding market forecasts for the sector.Buy Compete Report here:About Us:Radiant Insights is a market research and consulting company offering syndicated research studies, customized reports, and consulting services. Our market research studies are designed to facilitate strategic decision making, on the basis of extensive and in-depth quantitative information, supported by extensive analysis and industry insights. Using a patented and robust research methodology, we publish exhaustive research reports covering a host of industries such as Technology, Chemicals, Materials, and Energy.Media Contact:Michelle Thoras201 Spear Street 1100,Suite 3036, San Francisco,CA 94105, United StatesTel: 1-415-349-0054Toll Free: 1-888-928-9744Mail: sales@radiantinsights.com
Global Point of Sale (POS) Terminal Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021) Company Coverage - Ingenico Group, Verifone Systems Inc., Toshiba Tec Corporation, PAX Global Technology Limited

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Point of Sale (POS) Terminal Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021)" to its huge collection of research reports.The report entitled Global Point of Sale (POS) Terminal Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021), provides analysis of the global POS market, with detailed analysis of market size and growth, and segmentation of the industry. The analysis includes the market by value, volume and by segmentation.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @The report also includes a detailed regional analysis of the POS market in regions such as Asia Pacific, Europe, Latin America, Middle East and Africa and US/ Canada. Under competitive landscape, different players in the POS market have been compared on the basis of revenue and market capitalization.Moreover, the report assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall global POS market has also been forecasted for the years 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.Ingenico Group, Verifone Systems Inc., Toshiba Tec Corporation and PAX Global Technology Limited are some of the key players operating in the global POS market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the companies are provided.Browse Detail Report With Full TOC @Country Coverage- Asia Pacific- Europe- Latin America- Middle East and Africa- US/ CanadaCompany Coverage- Ingenico Group- Verifone Systems Inc.- Toshiba Tec Corporation- PAX Global Technology LimitedExecutive SummaryThe Global POS market can be segmented on the basis of component, applicability and product. On the basis of component, the market can further be divided into hardware and software. On the basis of applicability, the market can be divided into hospitality, grocery, healthcare, field service, restaurants & retail small and medium business. On the basis of product, the market can be divided into fixed and wireless POS terminal.The global POS market is expected to increase at a healthy rate during the forecast period (2017-2021). The global POS market is supported by various growth drivers, such as rising e- commerce sales, increasing shipments of NFC enabled handsets, upsurge in number of hotels, resorts and spas, boom in number of smartphone users and increased use of mobile POS by small and medium enterprises. However, non compliance to PCI and data security risk are some of the challenges faced by the market. Growing use of cloud based POS, android POS hardware and increasing use of mobile wallets by consumers are some of the latest trends in the global POS market.Table of Content1. Executive Summary2. Introduction2.1 Point of Sale: An Overview2.2 History of Point of Sale2.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of POS2.4 POS Market: An Overview2.5 Point of Sales Market Segments3. Global Market Analysis3.1 Global POS Market: An Analysis3.1.1 Global POS Market by Value3.1.2 Global POS Market by Volume3.1.3 Global POS Market Volume by NFC Enabled POS ( Installed Base)3.1.4 Global Retail POS Market by Value3.1.5 Global POS Market by Region3.2 Global POS Market: Product Analysis3.2.1 Global POS Market Value by Products3.2.2 Global Fixed POS Market by Value3.2.3 Global Mobile POS Market by Value3.2.4 Global POS Market Volume by Products3.2.5 Global Fixed POS Market by Volume3.2.6 Global Mobile POS Market by Volume3.2.7 Global NFC enabled Mobile POS3.3 Global POS Market: Component Analysis3.3.1 Global POS Market by Components3.3.2 Global Hardware POS Market by Value3.3.3 Global Software POS Market by Value4. Regional Analysis4.1 Asia Pacific POS Market: An Analysis4.1.1 Asia Pacific POS market by Volume4.2 Europe POS Market: An Analysis4.2.1 Europe POS market by Volume4.3 Latin America POS Market: An Analysis4.3.1 Latin America POS market by Volume4.4 Middle East and Africa POS Market: An Analysis4.4.1 Middle East and Africa POS market by Volume4.5 US/ Canada POS Market: An Analysis4.5.1 US/ Canada POS market by Volume5. Market Dynamics5.1 Growth Drivers5.1.1 Rising E-commerce Sales5.1.2 Increasing Shipments of NFC Enabled Handsets5.1.3 Increase in Number of Hotel Rooms, Resorts, Spas5.1.4 Increasing Number of Smartphones Users5.1.5 Increased Use Mobile POS by SMEs5.2 Challenges5.2.1 Non Compliance to PCI5.2.2 Data Security Risk5.3 Market Trends5.3.1 Increasing Cloud Computing- Growing Use of Cloud based POS5.3.2 Android POS Hardware5.3.3 Increasing Use of Mobile Wallets by Consumers5.3.4 Rising Credit and Debit Card Payments5.3.5 Omni Channel POS6. Competitive Landscape6.1 Global POS Market Players Financial Comparison7. Company Profiling7.1 Ingenico Group7.1.1 Business Overview7.1.2 Financial Overview7.1.3 Business Strategy7.2 Verifone Systems Inc.7.2.1 Business Overview7.2.2 Financial Overview7.2.3 Business Strategy7.3 Toshiba Tec Corporation7.3.1 Business Overview7.3.2 Financial Overview7.3.3 Business Strategy7.4 PAX Global Technology Limited7.4.1 Business Overview7.4.2 Financial Overview7.4.3 Business StrategyMake an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Dual Lens Camera Smartphone Market (2017-2021) - Company Coverage - Apple Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, LG Electronics Inc., HTC Corporation

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "Global Dual Lens Camera Smartphone Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021)" to its huge collection of research reports.The report entitled Global Dual Lens Camera Smartphone Market: Size, Trends & Forecasts (2017-2021), provides analysis of the global dual lens camera market, with detailed analysis of market size and growth, and segmentation of the industry. The analysis includes the market by value and by segmentation. The report also provides the analysis of the global dual lens camera smartphone market of the China region.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @Moreover, the report also assesses the key opportunities in the market and outlines the factors that are and will be driving the growth of the industry. Growth of the overall global dual lens camera smartphone market has also been forecasted for the years 2017-2021, taking into consideration the previous growth patterns, the growth drivers and the current and future trends.Apple Inc., Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd, LG Electronics Inc., and HTC Corporation are some of the key players operating in the global dual lens camera smartphone market, whose company profiling has been done in the report. In this segment of the report, business overview, financial overview and business strategies of the companies are providedCountry Coverage- ChinaCompany Coverage- Apple Inc.- Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd- LG Electronics Inc.- HTC CorporationBrowse Detail Report With Full TOC @Executive SummaryDual lens camera refers to a camera with two separate lenses to makes the picture more vivid and detailed. A dual lens camera consist of two or more lenses with a separate image sensor or film frame for each lens, placed side by side horizontally or vertically. The device enclose two completely independent camera modules, one is primary and other is secondary.The dual camera can be categorized in four categories: Twin Type Dual Lens Camera(Color + Color, Color + Black/White), Depth Type Dual Lens Camera, Ad Hoc Type Dual Lens Camera, Optical Zoom Type Dual Lens Camera. The component of dual lens camera are: lenses (Wide-Angle Lenses, Normal Lenses, Telephoto Lenses, Prime Lenses), Image Sensor, Actuator, VCM (Voice Coil Motor), Pixel Types.The global dual lens camera smartphone market is expected to increase at high growth rates during the forecasted period (2017-2021). The global dual lens camera smartphone market is supported by various growth drivers, such as increasing disposable income, increasing smartphone users worldwide, production capacity expansion, benefit to supply chain, DSLR class image quality, etc. Yet, the market faces certain challenges, such as, technological complications.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Global Construction Aggregates Market Will Post A CAGR Of 5.15% Over The Forecast Period (2016-2020)  Researchmoz

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Researchmoz added Most up-to-date research on "The Global Construction Aggregates Market -Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020" to its huge collection of research reports.The global construction industry has been relatively sluggish since 2015, reflecting a slowdown in the pace of expansion in China and weakness in key emerging markets. The decline in oil prices has also greatly undermined investment growth in major oil-producing countries in the Middle East. A slowdown in construction activity has inevitably impacted demand for key inputs, particularly aggregates.To Get Sample Copy of Report visit @According to Timetric, the global value of the aggregates market in nominal US dollar terms fell in 2015 and registered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 0.95% during the review period (20112015). Although 2016 will be another period of sluggish growth in aggregates demand as the construction industry starts to gather pace again from 2017, the global construction aggregates market will post a CAGR of 5.15% over the forecast period (20162020).Asia-Pacific was the largest regional market for aggregates, accounting for 47.9% of the global market in 2015. It was followed by North America and Europe with respective shares of 21.5% and 18.0%.Recovery in the European and North American countries and development in the Asia-Pacific economies particularly India and Japan are expected to support the markets expansion over the forecast period. The market shares of the North America, Europe and Latin America are expected to fall marginally over the forecast period, while that of the Asia-Pacific and the Middle East and Africa are set to increase.Improvements in the global demand for aggregates over the forecast period are in line with the positive projections for construction industry growth, with the key drivers being investment in infrastructure and residential construction in emerging economies, and anticipated recovery in regional and global economic conditions.SummaryTimetrics The Global Construction Aggregates Market Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020 report provides detailed market analysis, information and insights into the global construction aggregates market including:The regional and global construction aggregates markets growth prospects by categoryAnalysis of the Asia-Pacific, North America, Latin America, Europe, and Middle East and Africa markets, with country-level dataCritical insight into market trends and issues, and the risks and opportunities they present to participants in the global construction aggregates marketProfiles of the leading operators in the global construction aggregates marketBrowse Detail Report With Full TOC @ScopeThis report provides a comprehensive analysis of the global construction aggregates market. It provides:Historical (2011-2015) and forecast (2016-2020) valuations of the global construction aggregates market using construction output and value-add methodsSegmentation by category (crushed stone, gravel and pebbles, construction sands, chippings, pre-coated aggregates and waste-based aggregates) typeAnalysis of key construction aggregates issues, including regulation, cost management, funding and pricingDetailed profiles of the leading construction aggregates companiesReasons To BuyIdentify and evaluate market opportunities using Timetric's standardized valuation and forecasting methodologies.Assess market growth potential at a micro-level.Understand the latest industry and market trends.Formulate and validate strategy using Timetric's critical and actionable insight.Assess business risks, including cost, regulatory and competitive pressures.Evaluate competitive risk and success factors.Key HighlightsTimetric expects the global construction aggregates market output to record a forecast-period CAGR of 5.15% in nominal terms. This increase will be a result of government investment in public infrastructure and positive developments in regional and global economic conditions.The global construction aggregates market consists of six categories: crushed stone, gravel and pebbles, construction sands, chippings, pre-coated aggregates and waste-based aggregates. The use of these categories varies across regions, depending on the construction technology adopted in that region.Although demand has been relatively weak in China during the past two years, it remains a sizeable market overall, taking a 32.9% share of the global construction aggregates market in 2015. The construction of large-scale infrastructure projects will remain a key driver of aggregates demand. The infrastructure construction market is expected to record a forecast-period CAGR of 5.13% to value CNY3.2 trillion (US$502.9 billion) in 2020. The infrastructure construction market will be supported by government investments under the 13th Five-Year Plan (20162020), through which the government plans to invest CNY3.8 trillion (US$538.0 billion) in new rail projects and CNY1.7 trillion (US$273.4 billion) in road infrastructure by 2020.With a share of 20.0% in 2015, the US was the worlds second-largest construction aggregates market during the review period, and is expected to retain its position over the forecast period. Prospects for the US construction industry are positive over the forecast period, due to the countrys need to upgrade aging infrastructure. The California High-Speed Rail Authority is constructing a high-speed rail line for US$68.4 billion. The project involves a 1,305km line and will connect 24 cities throughout the state. The project is planned to be implemented in phases over nine sections and is expected to be completed by 2029.Europes demand for construction aggregates will be driven by public and private sector investments in infrastructure, residential, commercial and energy construction projects. The government is planning to add 2,000km of track to its high-speed railway network by 2020 to enhance regional connectivity. This is expected to drive growth in the French construction aggregates market over the forecast period.Make an Enquiry of this report @About ResearchMozResearchMoz is the one stop online destination to find and buy market research reports & Industry Analysis. We fulfill all your research needs spanning across industry verticals with our huge collection of market research reports. We provide our services to all sizes of organizations and across all industry verticals and markets. Our Research Coordinators have in-depth knowledge of reports as well as publishers and will assist you in making an informed decision by giving you unbiased and deep insights on which reports will satisfy your needs at the best price.Mr. NachiketState Tower,90 State Street,Suite 700,Albany NY - 12207United StatesEmail: sales@researchmoz.usWebsite @Tel: 866-997-4948 (Us-Canada Toll Free)Tel: +1-518-621-2074Follow us on LinkedIn @
Barite Market Analysis and Prediction by Leading Manufacturers, its Application and Types

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North America market size was valued over USD 1 billion in 2016. This is credited to the shale gas boom which has led to increased demand as weighing agent in the oil & gas industry.Barite Market size is expected to surpass USD 4.1 billion by 2024; according to a new research report by Global Market Insights, Inc.Rapidly growing oil & gas industry primarily in the U.S. owing to excess availability of shale reserves along with changing industry dynamics to increase dependency on alternative energy sources has pushed barite market size in the past few years.This is prospective to continue owing to strong need to meet energy demand in several industries including transportation, power, etc. which will subsequently generate ample growth avenues for barite market size by 2024. In addition, positive growth indicators in the pharmaceuticals industry primarily in Asia Pacific will complement barite market size by 2024, owing to improving healthcare standards and rising geriatric population. This is due to widespread product applications in diagnosis and as fillers in plasters.Request for a sample of this report @Sturdy growth in paints & coatings industry owing to rapid industrialization and urbanization in Asia Pacific will propel barite market size by 2024. White & off-white barite is majorly used to prepare pigments in the paints industry. Rapidly growing construction industry primarily in China and India due to mounting population and improving socio-economic factors will be driving paints & coatings demand across end user business such as automobile.Inadequate geographical barite occurrence along with high transportation cost may hinder barite market size by 2024. Furthermore, easy accessibility to existing alternatives including hematite, ilmenite, etc. which are also used as weighing agent in the energy sector is likely to hamper barite market size by 2024.Browse key industry insights spread across 172 pages with 219 market data tables & 14 figures & charts from the report, Barite Market Size By Grade (Upto Grade 3.9, Grade 4.0, Grade 4.1, Grade 4.2, Grade 4.3, Grades Above 4.3), By Color (White & off white, Grey, Brown), By Application (Oil & Drilling, Paints & Coatings, Pharmaceuticals, Rubber & Plastics, Textiles, Adhesives), Industry Analysis Report, Regional Outlook (U.S., Canada, Germany, UK, France, Spain, Italy, China, India, Japan, Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa, GCC), Growth Potential, Price Trends, Competitive Market Share & Forecast, 2017  2024 in detail along with the table of contents:Upto grade 3.9 barite market size is probable to attain CAGR over 3% by 2024. It is lower grade and is formed by 50/50 ratio of product and other alternative weighing material such as ilmenite and hematite. Grade 4.2 is projected to grow at a CAGR near to 4% by 2024, as it is widely used in the oil & drilling industry owing to its excellent rheological properties, which makes it desirable as a weighing agent. They are premium quality grades and are found beneath the earth surface. However, grade 4.2 is gradually being replaced by grade 4.1 in the oil & drilling industry as it possesses similar attributes and is cost effective compared to grade 4.2. This replacement is also due to increasing transportation issues related with grade 4.2.Grey barite market size is estimated to attain CAGR of over 4% owing to its extensive application in oil & drilling industry by 2024. It helps in cooling the drill bit and subsequently suspend the rock bits by increasing the hydrostatic pressure which compensates for high-pressure zones experienced during drilling. White & off-white barite grades will experience average industry growth as it is used in paints & coating, cosmetics and rubber applications.Make an inquiry for purchasing this report @Rising population in the Asia Pacific along with progressive consumer lifestyles is driving automobile industry which in turn will propel rubber industry over the projected timespan. This tendency is expected to make noteworthy contribution to rubber & plastics segment of barite market size by 2024. Furthermore, rapid pace of oil & drilling industry due to the U.S. shale boom will also contribute towards the product market size by 2024. North America is likely to witness CAGR of over 4.5% over the projected time spell.Key industry share contributors of barite market size are Spectrum Chemical Mfg. Corp., New Riverside Ochre, Halliburton, Excalibar Minerals, Ashapura Group of Industries, Barium & Chemicals, Inc and Deutsche Baryt Industries.About Global Market Insights:Global Market Insights, Inc., headquartered in Delaware, U.S., is a global market research and consulting service provider; offering syndicated and custom research reports along with growth consulting services. Our business intelligence and industry research reports offer clients with penetrative insights and actionable market data specially designed and presented to aid strategic decision making. These exhaustive reports are designed via a proprietary research methodology and are available for key industries such as chemicals, advanced materials, technology, renewable energy and biotechnology.Contact Us:Arun HegdeCorporate Sales, USAGlobal Market Insights, Inc.Phone:1-302-846-7766Toll Free: 1-888-689-0688Email: sales@gminsights.comWeb:
China's Business Environment and Investment Climate for Foreign Companies: Key Indicator Analysis

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ReportsWeb.com published Environment and Investment Climate from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.After decades of economic reform, China has become a great economic power in the world, thanks to low-cost labors and materials. Now with intensified competition, rising production and labor costs, and excess production capacity, China's economy is facing a strong headwind, posing severe challenges to local and foreign businesses alike. This report, serving as a reference for foreign companies when making investment decisions in China, is the aggregated results of China's investment climate surveyed by TEEMA (Taiwan Electrical and Electronic Manufacturer's Association). Key indicators in the economic and political aspects are addressed and examined, with corresponding strategies to help business owners overcome the difficulties in China's changing business environment.For more information about this report:Table of Contents:1. Changes in China's Business Environment and Vendor's Corresponding Strategies112. Structure of 2015 TEEMA Report333. Evaluation of Chinese City Competitiveness474. Chinese Investment Environment565. Investment Risks in China1056. Degree of Recommendation by Taiwanese Vendors in China1467. TEEMA's Survey of the Overall Competitiveness of Chinese Cities1728. Top Ten Best Cities by Single Indicator in 201579. China's Regional Development Potential in 20155Request Sample Copy atCompanies Mentioned:AlibabaAmCham Shanghai American Chamber of Commerce in ChinaASEANBain & CompanyBCGBoschCapital EconomicsCASSCathay United Commercial BankCCIACESSChina National Development Council and Reform Council China Social Security Research CenterChina's Development Research Center of the State CouncilChinese Academy of GovernanceCIERCoolpadDeloitte TaiwanEconomistEUCCCFinancial Strategy Institute of Social Science Institute in ChinaForbesFoxconnGeneral ElectricGICHuaweiInternational Federation of RoboticsJohnson & JohnsonM.J. InternationalManagement Institute in TaipeiManpower TaiwanMIITMinistry of Environmental Protection of the People's Republic of ChinaMOEANational Academy of Economic StrategyNational Bureau of StatisticsNDCPwC ChinaRoland Berger Strategy ConsultantsSAICSamsungSichuan Provincial General Chamber of Commerce ChinaSiemensSustain Think TankTaipei Chamber of CommerceTAITRATaiwan Affairs Office in Shanghai PudongTaiwan Business AssociationTCLTencentTowers WatsonUNESCOUSCBCWal-martWorld Bank GroupWTCCZhongrong MetalZTInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
The Reality of Virtual Reality Market Analysis and Forecast

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ReportsWeb.com published The Reality of Virtual Reality from its database. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.In spring 2016, many IT companies had unveiled their VR (Virtual Reality) headsets, including Sony's PlayStation VR, Samsung's Gear VR, Oculus VR's Oculus Rift, and HTC's VIVE Pre. It seems that 2016 is the year when VR finally goes from virtual to reality. How do these VR device vendors perform in terms of their R&D intensity? What are the major areas in which they have been intensively applying VR patents? This report analyzes major VR companies' patent portfolios and looks into their deployment.For more information about this report:Table of Contents:1. Patent Mining2. Data Mining Analysis2.1 Relative R&D Strength3. Vendors' Patent Deployment3.1 International Patent Assignees3.2 Overview of Major VR Patent Assignees3.2.1 Microsoft3.2.2 Immersion Corporation3.2.3 Sony3.2.4 Google3.2.5 Oculus VRMIC PerspectiveVendors' Patent Portfolios Focus on Gaming Devices and Display SystemsGUI Crucial to Product Differentiation; Prospective Vendors Can Develop Gesture-based ApplicationsAppendixRequest Sample Copy atCompanies Mentioned:Altspace, Arcade Planet, Inc., Bally Gaming, Inc., Bandai Namco Games Inc., CAE Healthcare, Canon, Creative Kingdoms, Disney Enterprises, Inc., Facebook, Game Play Network Inc., Google Inc., High Fidelity, IBM, IGT, Immersion Corporation, Kickstarter, Kopin Corporation, Laerdal, Microsoft, Nintendo Co. Ltd., Nokia, Oculus VR, Samsung, SEGA, Seiko Epson, Corporation, SonyInquire for Report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer Bauxite Mining and our customer support Bauxite Mining is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Catheters Market Expected to Reach $15,830 Million, Globally, by 2022

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Catheters Market Report, published by Allied Market Research, forecasts that the global market was valued at $8,905 million in 2015, and is expected to reach $15,830 million by 2022, supported by a CAGR of 8.5% during the forecast period 2014 - 2022. North America is the largest contributor in the catheter market; however, LAMEA is growing at the highest rate.Access Full Summary at:Catheterization is a basic co-procedure carried out along with various medical procedures, such as cardiac electrophysiology, neurosurgery, angioplasty, urological disorders, and others, by using catheters. The rise in the number of diseases and surgeries globally has increased the demand for catheters as they are most frequently used in hospitals and clinics for various therapeutic and diagnostic purposes.Rise in cases of cardiovascular and urological diseases, and diabetes; and growth in demand for minimally invasive procedures boost the market growth. Furthermore, technologically advanced catheters, which are manufactured with infection-resistant coatings, minimize catheter-associated infections, and thus are increasingly preferred by healthcare professionals. In addition, increase in reimbursement levels for catheters is expected to increase the demand for catheters. However, inadequate quality assurance of catheters and price competition at domestic levels are expected to hinder the market growth. The rise in healthcare expenditure in developing countries, such as India and China, is expected to provide opportunities for market expansion.The cardiovascular catheter segment dominated the market, with maximum share in 2015, and is anticipated to continue this trend in the future, in terms of revenue. This is attributed to the presence of a large patient base suffering from cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, rise in demand for minimally invasive cardiac surgeries is expected to boost growth of this segment.Urological catheter is expected to grow at the highest rate throughout the analysis period, and accounted for almost one-fourth share of the global market in 2015. This is due to the increase in prevalence of urinary diseases and other complications, such as kidney and renal failures.In 2015, North America displayed maximum contribution to the total revenue generated, while LAMEA is expected to witness the highest CAGR of 11.4%. This is due to rise in disposable income, improvement in healthcare expenditure, and increase in adoption rate of catheters.Key findings of Catheters Market Intrauterine insemination catheter is projected to be grow at the highest rate during the analysis period. Cardiovascular catheter was the highest revenue-generating segment, and is expected to continue its dominance throughout the forecast period. North America dominated global catheters market, and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 6.4%. Argentina is the fastest growing country in the LAMEA region, registering a CAGR of 12.6%. Intermittent catheter segment exhibits the highest CAGR of 10.7%.The major companies profiled in the report include Abbott Laboratories, Becton Dickinson And Company, Boston Scientific Corporation, Bard Medical, B. Braun Melsungen AG, Teleflex Incorporated, Johnson & Johnson, Medtronic, Inc., Edwards Lifesciences Corp., and Vascular Solutions, Inc.Request Sample Report:About Us: -Allied Market Research is a Market Research Company which offers Syndicate & Custom Market Research Reports with Consulting Services.Contact Us: -5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220,United States.Int'l: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285Fax: +1-800-792-5285help@alliedmarketresearch.com
Barite Global Market Trend Analysis By Component & Type Forecast 2023

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According to Publisher, the Global Barite Market is accounted for $1.34 billion in 2016 and expected to grow at a CAGR of 5.5% to reach $1.95 billion by 2023. Factors like growing automobile industry, persistent growth of construction industry and rapidly growing oil and gas drilling industry, increased investments in barite-mining projects are boosting the market growth. However, the stringent regulations of various governments over the production hamper the growth of the market.For more information about this report:Asia Pacific region is emerging significantly as India and China are the major product manufacturers along with huge demand for paints and plastics from countries including China, India and Thailand. Europe shows a stable growth due to recent economic crises in Western Europe. North America is anticipated to dominate the market due to the increased demand for barite drilling mud in the oil and gas industry.Some of the key players in Global Barite Market are Kaomin Industries, America Oil Field Services, LLC, Anglo Pacific Minerals, Ashapura MineChem Limited, Cimbar Performance Minerals, Seaforth Mineral & Ore Co. Inc, Desku Group Inc, Excalibar Minerals LLC, Halliburton Company, International Earth Products LLC, International Mining Alliance, Park Metals & Minerals Co., Shanghai Titanos Industry Company Limited and Shijiazhuang Oushun Mineral Products Company Limited.Products Covered:-Construction Grade-Medical Grade-Oil GradeApplications Covered:-Barium Compound-Drilling Mud Weighting Agent-Lithopone Pigment-Other ApplicationsGrades Covered:-Up to Sp. Gr. 3.9-Gr. 4.0-Gr. 4.1-Gr. 4.2-Gr. 4.3 and aboveDeposits Covered:-Bedding-Vein and Cavity Filling-ResidualTypes Covered:-Bleached Barite-Ground Barite-Finely Ground BariteRequest Sample Copy atEnd Users Covered:-Drilling Mud-Pharmaceuticals-Rubber & Plastics-Paints & Coatings-Other End Users- Papermaking- Pottery- Cosmetics- Engine Compartments- Medical Appliances- AutomobilesRegions Covered:-North America- US- Canada- Mexico-Europe- Germany- France- Italy- UK- Spain- Rest of Europe-Asia Pacific- Japan- China- India- Australia- New Zealand- Rest of Asia Pacific-Rest of the World- Middle East- Brazil- Argentina- South Africa- EgyptCompany Profiling13.1 Kaomin Industries13.2 America Oil Field Services, LLC13.3 Anglo Pacific Minerals13.4 Ashapura MineChem Limited13.5 Cimbar Performance Minerals13.6 Seaforth Mineral & Ore Co. Inc13.7 Desku Group Inc13.8 Excalibar Minerals LLC,13.9 Halliburton Company13.10 International Earth Products LLC13.11 International Mining Alliance13.12 Park Metals & Minerals Co.13.13 Shanghai Titanos Industry Company Limited13.14 Shijiazhuang Oushun Mineral Products Company LimitedInquire before Buying atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
Global Healthcare Workforce Management System Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022

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ReportsWeb.com has announced the addition of the Global Healthcare Workforce Management System Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to 2022 This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Workforce management is an institutional process that maximizes performance levels and competency for an organization. The process includes all the activities needed to maintain a productive workforce, such as field service management, human resource management, performance and training management, data collection, recruiting, budgeting, forecasting, scheduling and analytics.Scope of the Report:This report focuses on the Healthcare Workforce Management System in Global market, especially in North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific, South America, Middle East and Africa. This report categorizes the market based on manufacturers, regions, type and application.Complete report is available atMarket Segment by Manufacturers, this report coversKronosInforOracleGE Healthcare (Api Healthcare)McKessonAllocate SoftwareSAPCornerstone OndemandWorkdayTimewareGet a SAMPLE Request atMarket Segment by Regions, regional analysis coversNorth America (USA, Canada and Mexico)Europe (Germany, France, UK, Russia and Italy)Asia-Pacific (China, Japan, Korea, India and Southeast Asia)South America (Brazil, Argentina, Columbia etc.)Middle East and Africa (Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Nigeria and South Africa)Market Segment by Type, coversSoftwareHardwareServiceMarket Segment by Applications, can be divided intoPayrollStaffing and SchedulingTime and AttendancePatient ClassificationAnalyticsTable of ContentChapter 1, to describe Healthcare Workforce Management System Introduction, product scope, market overview, market opportunities, market risk, market driving force;Chapter 2, to analyze the top manufacturers of Healthcare Workforce Management System, with sales, revenue, and price of Healthcare Workforce Management System, in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 3, to display the competitive situation among the top manufacturers, with sales, revenue and market share in 2016 and 2017;Chapter 4, to show the global market by regions, with sales, revenue and market share of Healthcare Workforce Management System, for each region, from 2012 to 2017;Get Discount atChapter 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9, to analyze the key regions, with sales, revenue and market share by key countries in these regions;Chapter 10 and 11, to show the market by type and application, with sales market share and growth rate by type, application, from 2012 to 2017;Chapter 12, Healthcare Workforce Management System market forecast, by regions, type and application, with sales and revenue, from 2017 to 2022;Chapter 13, 14 and 15, to describe Healthcare Workforce Management System sales channel, distributors, traders, dealers, Research Findings and Conclusion, appendix and data sourcePurchase this report atContact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
LNG Bunkering Market Size is Set to Grow at a Remarkable Pace in the Coming Years

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According to a new report published by Allied Market Research titled, LNG bunkering Market by End User: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2017-2023, the LNG bunkering market was valued at $214 million in 2016, and is projected to reach $10,185 million by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 58.5% from 2017 to 2023. Europe dominates the LNG bunkering market, both in terms of volume and value, and is expected to maintain this trend throughout the forecast period.Access Full Summary at:LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) is an attractive alternative fuel for seagoing vessels and inland vessels, as liquefied natural gas emits fewer polluting substances. LNG is a potential substitute according to IMO emission prerequisites, owing to its negligible sulfur content and low production of NOx contrary to fuel oil and marine diesel oil. LNG is clean burning fuel coupled with financial points of interest on a calorific value basis among other fuels.The global LNG bunkering market is driven by International Maritime Organizations regulations of sulfur emissions to 0.50% m/m (mass/mass) by 2020 in marine fuels, increase in sea-borne trade, particularly in terms of ton-km travelled, and low cost among ECAs. However, the demandsupply gap among LNG bunkers and vessels is expected to hamper the market growth.The offshore vessels & ferries segment accounted for more than one-third share of the total market share in 2016, in terms of volume, and is expected to maintain its dominance during the forecast period, owing to its ease of transportation and loading. However, bulk & general cargo vessels are also expected to grow with high rate due to rise in demand for low sulfur fuels.Key Findings of the LNG bunkering Market: In terms of value, the offshore vessels & ferries segment is expected to grow at a CAGR of 58.8% during the forecast period. In terms of volume, the global LNG bunkering market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 47.7% during the forecast period. In Europe, Belgium is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR of 59.6% during the forecast period, in terms of value. Tanker fleet as end users occupied around one-fourth of the global market share in 2016, in terms of volume. China accounted for over one-tenth of the global LNG bunkering market in 2016, and is expected to grow at a significant CAGR of 49.1%, in terms of volume.In 2016, Asia-Pacific and Europe collectively accounted for over two-thirds of the global LNG bunker market, by volume, though Asia-Pacific is expected to grow at a faster rate during the forecast period. High trade frequency from the emerging countries, such as South Korea, India, and China, is estimated to drive the market growth.The major companies profiled in the report include, Skangas AS, Gasnor As, Statoil ASA, Barents Naturgass As, Engie SA, Bomin Linde LNG GmbH & Co. KG, Eni Norge AS, Harvey Gulf International Marine Llc., Polskie LNG SA, and Korea Gas Corp.Request Sample Report:About Us: -Allied Market Research is a Market Research Company which offers Syndicate & Custom Market Research Reports with Consulting Services.Contact Us: -5933 NE Win Sivers Drive,#205, Portland, OR 97220,United States.Int'l: +1-503-894-6022Toll Free: +1-800-792-5285Fax: +1-800-792-5285help@alliedmarketresearch.com
Global Molded Plastics Market Size, Share 2015 Industry Trend, Growth and Forecast 2023

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GCC, short for Gulf Cooperation Council, represents the alliance of some of the worlds leading producers of petrochemicals  the key raw materials required for the production of synthetic polymers. These six countries are the major exporters of raw polymer to the entire globe and are second only to India when it comes to the growth rate of the polymer market. Thus, GCC countries play a major role in the overall development of the global plastics industry and are a key determinant of growth of the molded plastics market.Browse Market Research Report:With high fragmentation in terms of number of suppliers and a level of extreme consolidation when it comes to geographic placement of major vendors, the GCC molded plastic market features a splendid mix of intense competition and plenty of untapped growth opportunities. Transparency Market Research states that companies in the market will focus more on expansion strategies in the next few years; strengthening product portfolios by including new product verities and ventures in foreign markets will be amongst the most preferred growth strategies.The overall market will expand at a healthy CAGR of 8.3% over the period between 2015 and 2023, and rise from a valuation of US$7.19 bn in 2014 to US$14.22 bn by 2023. In terms of volume, the GCC molded plastics market stood at 2.82 mn tons in 2014.Market to Gain Traction across Packaging SectorIn 2014, the GCC molded plastic market attributed a dominant share of nearly 52% to its applications in the packaging industry. The sector will continue to be the dominant application for molded plastic in the GCC market and will account for nearly 56% in the overall market by 2023.The packaging industry in the region is flourishing owing to the constant rise in trade activities and the substantial rise in the market for industrial and consumer goods in response to the vast rise in the regions population. This has created manifold growth opportunities for molded plastics in the packaging sector in the past few years and will continue to drive the regions molded plastic market in the years to come.The building and construction industry is another highly attractive application area for the GCC molded plastic market as it accounts for a major share in the overall consumption of molded plastics in the region. Stimulated by the rising population in the region, increased government spending on developing residential building projects as well as public and private infrastructure projects will also prove to be beneficial for the GCC molded plastics market in the next few years.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Molded Plastics market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market @Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman to Present Attractive Growth OpportunitiesThe GCC molded plastics market will gain the most attractive returns from operations across Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman in the next few years. Saudi Arabia being home to nearly 60% plastic converters in the overall GCC molded plastics market, will continue to be the leading supplier of molded plastic in the market. The market for molded plastics in these countries will also benefit from the flourishing construction industry.The UAE and Kuwait have been rated as moderately attractive countries for the GCC molded plastics market. The market in these countries has suffered a huge blow from the steep drop in crude oil prices observed recently. However, the construction industry has allowed for average growth of the molded plastics market in these countries.Some of the leading companies operating in the highly fragmented GCC market for molded plastics, which accommodates over 1,000 plastic converters, are Harwal Group, Al Barshaa Plastic Product Company LLC., Genoa Plastic Industries, Takween Advanced Industries, and Obeikan Investment Group.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a global market intelligence company providing business information reports and services. The companys exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trend analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather and analyze information.TMRs data repository is continuously updated and revised by a team of research experts so that it always reflects the latest trends and information. With extensive research and analysis capabilities, Transparency Market Research employs rigorous primary and secondary research techniques to develop distinctive data sets and research material for business reports.Contact UsTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA - Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Auto-Dimming Mirrors Market Poised for a High Growth in the Years to Come

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Auto dimming mirrors helps in eliminating the glare from the headlights of a vehicle that enable the driver to stay focused and drive safely. These mirrors are equipped with sensors that can detect low light from the headlights and act accordingly. The mirrors turn dark automatically in proportion to the brightness emitted by the headlights and then clear out once the brightness fades out. For the dimming mirrors, the OEMs are using electrochromism technology where electricity is passed through a low voltage supply in order to tint the glass.Further, the electricity is passed through electrochromic gel which is placed in between two pieces of glass..Generally the interior rear - view mirrors are the auto-dimming mirrors that may come with a compass and a temperature display system and few advanced interior rear view mirror come with headlight controlling sensors. The intensity of light are detected with the help of sensors placed either at front or rear view mirror of the vehicle that makes the auto-dimming mirrors more efficient.The dimming of both the interior and exterior mirrors are controlled by the sensors present in the interior mirrors, which becomes active when the brightness of light gets low.Poor lighting makes the sensors search for a brighter source of light which will harm the vision of the person facing the light. The sensors detect the change in light intensity andgenerate an electrical charge that hits the glass through a low voltage power supply. The electricity then travels through the electrochromic gel which is present in between the two electrically conductive coated pieces of glass which make up the auto-dimming mirror.Obtain Report Details @Auto-dimming mirrors play a significant role in low vision problem thus providing a safe driving comfort. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and Kids Transportation Safety Act (KTSA) mandates the use of auto-dimming mirrors in vehicles to prevent the incidence of road accidents at night. These mirrors are easy to access and are available in wide range of features. . Many Indian car manufacturers have started to use auto-dimming mirrors taking into consideration the safety of drivers. Therefore, growing need for safer and broader visibility, easy and low installation cost are some of the factor which drives the auto-dimming mirrors market.High replacement cost is expected to cause restraining effects in the market.The auto-dimming mirrorsmarket has been segmented based on type of dimming glass, type of sensors, type of auto-dimming mirrors and geography. By dimming glass type, the market has been segmented into six broad categories, namely, smart glass, SPD glass, photochromatic glass, liquid chrystal, thermotropics, and electrochromic.A smart glass works by allowing the entry of light of particular wavelengths thereby changing from translucent to transparent.Suspended Particles Devices (SPDs) are thin film laminates which blocks light by absorbing it. Further, photochromatic glasses turn dark on facing sunlight and liquid chrystal, thermotropics, and electrochromic are mirrors which use an electric gel in between the glasses. By auto-dimming mirrors the market has been segmented into panoramic RVM, garage door opener, audio driver interface, and headlight control sensors, and others.By type of sensors the market has been segmented into ambient sensors, glare sensors, and control unit.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Auto-Dimming Mirrors Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketThe geographical segmentation includes, North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa (MEA), and Latin America. Asia Pacific is expected to hold the largest market share throughout the forecast period owing to rising concern toward safe and comfortable driving.Some of the leading manufacturing companies operating in this market are, Gentex Corporation (U.S.), Magna International, Inc. (U.S), Honda Lock Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (U.S.), FLABEG Holding GmbH (England), Metagal Industria E Comercio Ltda. (U.S.), Tokai Rika Co., Ltd. (U.S.), Ficosa International (Japan), Murakami Kaimeido (Germany), and Samvardhana Motherson Group (U.S.),among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Standing Wind Power Generator Market by Manufacturers, Regions, Type and Application, Forecast to

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ReportsWeb.com has added a new report titled Global Standing Wind Power Generator 2017 Market Report, to the database, the report focuses on Product Price, Profit, Capacity, Production, Capacity Utilization, Supply, Demand and Industry Growth.Standing Wind Power Generator Report by Material, Application, and Geography - Global Forecast to 2021 is a professional and in-depth research report on the world's major regional market conditions, focusing on the main regions (North America, Europe and Asia-Pacific) and the main countries (United States, Germany, united Kingdom, Japan, South Korea and China) .Get more information about this reportThe report firstly introduced the Standing Wind Power Generator basics: definitions, Classifications, plications and market overview; product specifications; manufacturingProcesses; cost structures, raw materials and so on. Then it analyzed the world's main region market conditions, including the product price, profit, capacity, production, supply, demand and market growth rate and forecast etc. In the end, the report introduced new project SWOT analysis, investment feasibility analysis, and investment return analysis.The report includes six parts, dealing with:1.) basic information;2.) the Asia Standing Wind Power Generator Market;3) the North American Standing Wind Power Generator Market;4) the European Standing Wind Power Generator Market;5.) market entry and investment feasibility;6.) the report conclusion.Get free Sample Copy of ReportFew Points from Table of ContentPart I Standing Wind Power Generator OverviewChapter One Standing Wind Power Generator OverviewChapter Two Standing Wind Power Generator Up and Down Stream Industry AnalysisPart II Asia Standing Wind Power Generator (The Report Company Including the below Listed but Not All)Chapter Three Asia Standing Wind Power Generator Market AnalysisChapter Four 2012-2017 Asia Standing Wind Power Generator Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Five Asia Standing Wind Power Generator Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Six Asia Standing Wind Power Generator Development TrendPart III North American Chapter Seven North American Standing Wind Power Generator Market AnalysisChapter Eight 2012-2017 North American Standing Wind Power Generator Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nine North American Standing Wind Power Generator Key Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Ten North American Standing Wind Power Generator Development TrendPart IV Europe Standing Wind Power Generator Analysis (The Report Company Including the below Listed but Not All)Chapter Eleven Europe Standing Wind Power Generator I Market AnalysisChapter Twelve 2012-2017 Europe Standing Wind Power Generator Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Thirteen Europe Standing Wind Power Generator Manufacturers AnalysisChapter Fourteen Europe Standing Wind Power Generator Development TrendPart V Standing Wind Power Generator Marketing Channels and Investment FeasibilityChapter Fifteen Standing Wind Power Generator Marketing Channels Development Proposals AnalysisChapter Sixteen Development Environmental AnalysisChapter Seventeen Standing Wind Power Generator y New Project Investment Feasibility AnalysisPart VI Global Standing Wind Power Generator ConclusionsChapter Eighteen 2012-2017 Global Standing Wind Power Generator Productions Supply Sales Demand Market Status and ForecastChapter Nineteen Global Standing Wind Power Generator Development TrendChapter Twenty Global Standing Wind Power Generator Research ConclusionsGet Discount on Report Purchase -Contact Us:Call: +1-646-491-9876Email: sales@reportsweb.comReportsWeb.com is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the globe. We help our clients in their decision support system by helping them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.Pune:505, 6th floor, Amanora Township,Amanora Chambers, East Block,Kharadi Road, Hadapsar, Pune-411028
IOT Chip Market Poised for a High Growth in the Years to Come

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IOT or Internet on Thing is a smart device embedded with software or electronics that helps in exchange and collection of data. It is also referred as the infrastructure of the information society. Recent computing systems contain electric mechanisms which are called as chipsets, and this embodies an assembly of combined circuits relied widely on various consumer electronic devices that include smartphones, tablet, computers, as well as wearable technology. Chipsets are designed to work with a certain set of microprocessors and often projected for a definite purpose or device.IOT Chip Market: Market Dynamics and RestraintsMajorly, growth in healthcare and automotive sector is directly driving the market of IOT Chip market globally. Growth in the new segment of the transportation and automotive domain is driving the demand; the new segment includes an addition of connected car product line which adheres intelligent transportation system (ITS) with the advancement of Internet on Thing (IOT) technology. The retail industry is forecasted to overtake the market of IOT while becoming the leading industry in IOT usage. The other key factors that lift the market growth of IOT Chip worldwide is its capacity to process and manage an enormous amount of data which is generated by the devices or gadgets. Also, it is a protected, and adhere nonvolatile memory (NVM) for code storage, device configuration, sensor trimming, security keys, as well as stand by other storage functions which are essential during processing and execution of data produced from IOT devices. Chipset which is specifically designed for IOT system adheres different factor that is finest energy efficiency.Obtain Report Details @Although demand and necessity of IOT Chip in the varied applications of several industries ranging from automotive to pharmacy can be seen significantly, factors such as restricted throughput and high pricing of IOT Chip technology are acting as the main hindrance to the IOT Chip market growth to a certain extent.IOT Chip Market: Regional OutlookRegarding geography, the global IOT chip market has been categorized into seven key regions including North and Latin America, Eastern Europe, Western Europe, Asia-Pacific excluding Japan, Japan, and the Middle East & Africa. The IOT chip market is globally expected to register healthy CAGR during the forecast period. Due to the presence of large number of IOT Chip market players in the U.S and Canada, and huge practice of IOT chips in the automotive, electronics and health care sector escalates the demand of IOT Chip in North America by making it a leading region in IOT chip market worldwide. The second leading region is Western Europe in which countries such as Germany, France, Italy, and U.K practices IOT technologies in various industries. Countries like China, India, and South Korea are becoming emerging market in IOT Chip making Asia Pacific Excluding Japan fastest developing region for IOT Chip market space, this is because of the high industrial growth of automotive, pharmaceutical and retail domain. The Middle East and Africa are anticipated to grow at a healthy growth rate.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the IOT Chip Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketIOT Chip Market PlayersSome of the players of global IOT Chip market are AMD, Whiznets, Arduino, Texas Instruments, ARM Holdings PLC., Cypress Semiconductor, Atmel Corporation, Electric Imp, Marvell Technology Group, and Freescale Semiconductor (NXP Semiconductors) among others. Other companies are Intel, MediaTek Inc., Microchip Technology Inc., Qualcomm, Nvidia, Renesas Electronics, Samsung Electronics, Silicon Labs, Semtech, and STMicroelectronics and others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Plasma Etching Equipment Market Growing Steadily with Improving Technology

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Plasma etching is a type of plasma processing used extensively in the fabrication process of integrated circuit. Plasma etching is also referred to as dry etching system, as the conventional etching technique is carried out with various corrosive wet chemical acids. During the process of plasma etching, the material to be etched is converted from solid state to gaseous state by the plasma of the process gases and a vacuum pump is used to extract the gaseous products. Generally, three basic etching processes including ion etching, chemical plasma etching and reactive ion etching are used to fabricate integrated circuits depending on applications for which it is used. The overall market growth of plasma etching equipment is majorly dependent on the growth of the semiconductor market across the globally. The global plasma etching equipment market is anticipated to experience a stable growth during the forecast period owing to the extensive technological advancement taking place in the integrated circuit manufacturing techniques across different parts of the world.In order to provide an exhaustive analysis of the market, the global plasma etching equipment market is segmented on the basis of product type and geography. Different types of plasma etching equipment available in the market includes barrel type plasma etching equipment and planar type plasma etching equipment. In addition, cross sectional analysis of the above mentioned segment across different regions including Asia Pacific, North America, Europe, Middle-East and Africa (MEA) and Latin America is also provided in this report.Obtain Report Details @Rising demand for compact, energy efficient and electronic devices having enhanced performance is predicted to trigger the need of developing miniature semiconductor integrated circuits. For miniaturizing integrated circuit, the circuit have to undergo advanced circuit fabrication process with small geometries and thus requires precise pattern transfer. This in turn is anticipated to boost the demand for plasma etching equipment during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. In addition, enormous technological upgradation taking place in the IoT (Internet of Thing) application in order to provide technologically advanced smart devices to different consumers across the globe is also predicted to accelerate the demand of advanced semiconductors in the coming eight years, thereby affecting the market of semiconductor etching equipment positively in the near future. Among the different process of semiconductor etching, plasma etching used the most as plasma etching process consumes less chemical and is most suitable for automation and single wafer manufacturing. Further, plasma etching provides the waterless method of etching material and thus protect water sensitive wafers from getting contaminated.In spite of so many factors driving the market, the global plasma etching equipment market is predicted to witness a sluggish growth rate due to fluctuating nature of the semiconductor equipment industry. In many cases, manufacturing of equipment outpace the demand from different end users segment, which in turn results in huge inventory pile up. Thereby forcing the equipment manufacturers to lower the price for clearing the stock and thus results in less revenue inflow. This in turn, is anticipated to hinder many semiconductor equipment manufacturers to enter into the market, thereby affecting the market negatively.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Plasma Etching Equipment Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketGeographically, the global plasma etching equipment market is majorly driven by the Asia Pacific region in terms of growth during the forecast period from 2017 to 2025. The primary factor behind this regions dominance is attributed to the rising demand for smart devices such as smart television sets, smart phones, tablets and various other IoT devices among others. Increasing demand for smart and portable devices is expected to trigger the demand for miniature integrated circuits, which in turn is anticipated to boost the demand for plasma etching equipment market rapidly in the coming years. In addition, this region is also anticipated to dominate the market throughout the forecast period owing to huge concentration of semiconductor manufacturers in countries such as Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and China among others.Despite of the presence of limited plasma etching equipment manufacturers across different parts of the world, huge competition exist among the vendors due to strong market penetration of some existing manufacturers in the market. Some of the major players operating in the market includes APPLIED Materials Inc. (The U.S), Lam Research Corp. (The U.S) and Tokyo Electron Ltd. (Japan) among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Recent Report Covers Upcoming Opportunities in Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market

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Global Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market: OverviewA security camera is used to provide protection for private as well as commercial and industrial places. A security camera is powerful devices against burglars and thus helps individual to track the details live or happened in the past. The significant use of security cameras is for surveillance which delivers substantial evidence in the time of need for investigation purposes. The security camera market is growing at faster pace owing to increase of thefts across the globe. Although this is the prime reason for the security camera market to grow, another key aspect which is helping the security camera manufacturers to generate high sales revenues is the increasing demand for security cameras from home individuals to feel secured.As security camera in residential places aids in detecting the suspicious behavior of intruder, keeping a close check on kids or pets when away from home. In commercial or industrial entities, security cameras are of great help to check on the staff or workers. The security cameras are available in a wide variety depending upon the need. For instance, a PTZ (Pan, tilt, and zoom) camera are widely used by security companies to remotely access the places through turning off camera by 360 degrees, whereas for securing home a fixed camera con does the help. The other types include night vision, dome, bullet type camera, etc. The wireless security cameras are most widely used owing to the flexibility in installation.Obtain Report Details @Global Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market: Drivers and RestraintsNowadays security cameras are installed almost at every place with an objective to reduce the crime or suppress the fear of offence, to improve public safety and security. These are the prime targets taken into account which drives the global security cameras (IR illuminator) market. The growing urbanization, infrastructural developments, expansion of business across the globe has a positive impact on the security cameras market. Moreover, the government initiatives for public safety and security, organizations implementing security measures further boosts the global security cameras market.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this marketGlobal Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market: Region Wise OutlookThe global security cameras (IR Illuminator) market is divided into seven regions, namely North America, Latin America, Asia Pacific excluding Japan (APEJ), Western Europe, Eastern Europe, Japan and the Middle East and Africa (MEA). The security cameras (IR illuminator) market in APEJ is expected to expand at healthy CAGR, regarding consumption owing to the increasing infrastructural developments coupled with increasing the crime rate. The market in North America and Western Europe is matured due to the use of open street camera surveillance. The Japan security cameras (IR illuminator) market is expected to grow at moderate CAGR over the forecast period.Global Security Cameras (IR Illuminator) Market: Key PlayersSome of the market players identified in the global security cameras (IR Illuminator) market includes:Swann Communications Pty. LtdFLIR Systems, IncCisco Systems Inc.Arecont Vision LLCAxis CommunicationsHoneywell International Inc.Avigilon CorporationBosch Security SystemsCanon Inc.Hikvision Digital Technology Co. Ltd.,Panasonic CorporationSony Electronics Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
TARKIO  The Sunrise fire grew about 1,000 acres to 3,700 acres on Thursday morning, according to public information officer Ted Pettis.

Residents of Sunrise and Quartz Flats in Mineral County were told to evacuate early Wednesday evening as the growing Sunrise fire threatened some 30 homes.

Mineral County Sheriff Tom Bauer issued the Stage 3 evacuation order and his deputies completed visits to affected homes and cabins late Wednesday night. Another 30 homes in the Quartz Creek to the south and Verde Creek, one drainage to the north toward Superior, remained on Stage 2 ready orders.

The Sunrise fire rose to the No. 1 national priority on Wednesday because of its unruly nature, unforgiving heat and the homes that it endangers. The overnight expansion and the possibility of dry thunderstorms Thursday afternoon has the fire managers reassessing how to deploy their ground crews, he said.

If the storm comes right over you, you can tell what its doing, Pettis said. But if the storm center passes 30 or 40 miles away, those horizontal winds may come and you cant see it. We have to depend on our air attack and radar to tell if a cells going by and brace for that. You can never tell if one of those cells is going to fall apart and you have those winds come.

Although the 400-person fire camp has set up on private land next to the Tarkio freeway exit, the fire has not affected access to the popular Tarkio boat ramp on the Clark Fork River.

The fire, which was reported July 16, is burning in the shape of a horseshoe with the tongs open to the east and the Clark Fork River. The small community of Sunrise, on lower Sunrise Creek, is north of the fire and Quartz Flats is on the northeast edge.

It spotted beyond the trigger point by quite a distance, said Jill Cobb, information officer for the Northern Rockies Type II Incident Management Team that took over the fire from a Type III team on Sunday.

The fire that started high on Sunrise Mountain near Sunrise Point, 11 miles southeast of the county seat of Superior, jumped a line on Monday, sending crews scattering for safety and changing incident manager Shawn Pearsons approach. Only a few are left on the slopes above Quartz Creek, Cobb said, where theyre clearing roads while helicopters check the flames with water drops in hopes of stopping a run down that side.

Others are constructing two containment lines in an attempt to keep the fire from roaring north over Verde Saddle into Verde Creek three to four miles from Sunrise Creek. Structure and point protection efforts continue on all sides of the fire.

The Lolo National Forest has implemented an area closure for the safety of firefighters and residents. A public meeting was set to go on Wednesday evening at Lozeau Lodge.

***

Other wildland fires that pock much of western Montana continued to grow Wednesday, in some cases exponentially, with little relief in sight from hot and historic dry July days that will soon turn into August.

This is going to be a long-term event. Its not going to go out until the snow flies, said Mike Cole, a spokesman on the Lolo Peak fire.

Much the same is expected at other fires that burn in remote, steep terrain in the immediate Missoula area, including in lower Rock Creek in Missoula and Granite counties, and on the Flathead Indian Reservation near the Rattlesnake Wilderness.

Lolo Peak fire: A public information meeting is scheduled for Thursday at 7 p.m. at the Florence-Carlton Community Church. It will be live-streamed on both the Lolo and Bitterroot national forests Facebook pages.

Cole said Mondays public meeting in Lolo drew upward of 170 people. Roughly 60 attended another one Tuesday night in Stevensville, which was also live-streamed.

New billows of smoke, clearly visible from the Missoula Valley, appeared from the Falls Creek Canyon directly west of Lolo Peak. Spot fires had burned previously in the canyon.

But its all going up this afternoon, Cole said.

That should add significantly to the 1,604-acre size reported Wednesday morning, as well as the estimated cost of $802,000 to fight the lightning-caused fire first detected after thunderstorms passed through the area on Saturday, July 15.

A Chinook helicopter toting 2,000 gallons of water doused a spot fire on the east, or Highway 93, side of the fire near Duffy Lake on Tuesday and again in the same area on Wednesday.

Cole estimated the main bank of flames as four miles south of homes in the Lolo Creek area and six miles from the closest homes in the Bitterroot Valley near Florence.

A control line carved by hand and dozer was taking shape near the OZ Ranch on Lolo Creek. Its planned to stretch east down the creek from the South Fork of Lolo Creek trailhead, through Mormon Creek Canyon and south up the Bitterroot Valley as far as Bass Creek Road, four miles beyond Florence. Itll pass through both public and private land, Cole said, and negotiations with landowners south of Lolo are ongoing.

Sapphire Complex: Managers of four fires in the Rock Creek drainage sent out a plea to residents to not park on the road.

As fire operations are closer to residential areas, it is important for firefighters to be able to work around structures and on the fire line without interruption. Especially in the evening and at night or when the fire is active, do not concentrate in areas with narrow roadways so that firefighters are able to move and maneuver equipment without issue, a note to residents said.

Rock Creek Road is closed to all but residents from a mile south of Interstate 90 to the Gillis Bridge/Kyle Bohrnsen Memorial Bridge 15 miles west of Philipsburg. Mandatory evacuations for residents of Brewster Creek Road affected by the Goat Creek fire were lifted Tuesday evening by the Granite County Sheriff's Office. All residences in Brewster Creek and on Rock Creek Road between mile markers 5-13 remain under pre-evacuation warnings. Mandatory evacuations remain for cabin sites on Sliderock Mountain.

The Sapphire Complex, under incident commander Irv Leach, consists of separate fires totaling 6,626 acres as of Wednesday morning, an increase of 1,200 from the previous day. The Goat Creek, Sliderock and Little Hogback fires are burning to the east of Rock Creek in the John Long Mountains. The Cinnabar 3 fire started Sunday high in the Sapphire Range to the west, on the border of the Wilderness Creek Wilderness.

Firefighters prepared Wednesday for burnout operations adjacent to private property at the toe of the slope from West Gulch to hand line that intersects Rock Creek Road below Babcock Mountain. Babcock Mountain is just a few miles up Rock Creek Road.

Crews on the Cinnabar fire will construct direct fire line around the fire perimeter.

Information officer Carmen Thomason said Wednesday afternoon and evening presented the greatest chance of the week for thunderstorms. Fire managers will be paying close attention to forecast updates put together by an incident meteorologist and a fire behavior analyst.

Its going to be a mix of wet and dry thunderstorms, but either one can create an erratic downdraft that can push fire in a different direction from prevailing winds you normally see, Thomason said.

Expected fire growth to the east and northeast threatens Bonneville Power Administration power lines. Thomason said so far the flames have not reached the lines but BPA is being kept apprised of the progress.

Rice Ridge fire: A Type 3 Incident Management Team under Andrew Mandell assumed operations from the Seeley Ranger District fire operations team on Wednesday. The fire six miles north of Seeley Lake had not grown much from the 20 acres reported on Tuesday. A red flag warning for gusty winds and low humidities issued early in the day was cancelled later on.

Liberty/South Fork fire: A fire burning since July 15 on the Flathead Indian Reservation doubled in size Wednesday, according to fire dispatch at the Division of Fire for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe

The fire was originally two separate ones, but the two joined on Friday. Plumes of smoke have been visible from Arlee, Missoula and Bonner at various times. A helicopter flying over the reservation Wednesday estimated the fire at about 450 acres, up from an estimated 200-plus on Tuesday.

The fire is burning in the South Fork Primitive Area north of the Rattlesnake Wilderness near the Jocko Road, but is not threatening the road or other facilities.
Flexible Battery Market : Persistent Technological Advancements to Propel Market Growth

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Global Flexible Battery Market: SnapshotThe flexible battery market is presently at a nascent stage and is anticipated to rise rapidly with increasing research and development taking place in the field of battery technology. Huge investments from companies such as Panasonic Corp. and Samsung SDI Corp. Ltd. among others is expected to have a positive impact in the field of battery technology.Flexible batteries are light weight and easy to use and are increasingly used in products with limited internal space. As flexible battery are thin and bendable, they can be used as power sources on curved surfaces. Moreover, these batteries are eco-friendly and have low impact on the environment.The growth of global flexible battery market is driven by factors such as rising demand for IoT devices. Technological advancement in portable devices is expected to fuel growth of the global flexible battery market over the forecast period. Flexible batteries are used in portable devices as they can be adjusted in any size for different purposes.The surging demand for wearable devices in the past few years is positively impacting the growth of this market. With innovation in wearable electronics, the demand for flexible power source with high performance that can be integrated into various products is expected to be on the rise. Moreover, the increasing demand for thin flexible batteries across various application segments such as smart cards, medical devices, and wearable devices due to its low self-discharge rate is anticipated to have a positive bearing on this market over the forecast period.The global flexible battery market was valued at US$230.0 mn in 2016 and is expected to be worth US$2437.6 mn by 2025, rising at a CAGR of 32.9% between 2017 and 2025.Obtain Report Details @Smart Packaging End-use Segment to Continue Dominance in FutureThe global flexible battery market is segmented in terms of chargeability into chargeable flexible battery and single use flexible battery. Of the two, the segment of chargeable flexible battery held the leading share in 2016 and is expected to retain its dominance during the forecast period.On the basis of product type, the market is segmented into thin film and printed battery, flexible zinc carbon battery, laminar lithium-polymer battery, and advanced lithium ion battery. Thin film and printed battery, among these, held the leading market share in 2016 and is anticipated to maintain its dominance over the forecast period.In terms of end user, the market is segmented into consumer electronics, smart packaging, healthcare, and transportation and logistics among others. Smart packaging displayed the leading demand for flexible batteries in 2016 accounting for 26.6% of revenue contribution. The segment is expected to display rapid growth owing to development of smart packaging industry across various parts of the world. The segment of smart packaging is anticipated to display the leading demand for flexible batteries among other end-use segments.Brochure With Latest Advancements With Application @Asia Pacific to Emerge as Significant MarketOn the basis of geography, the global flexible battery market is segmented into North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and Latin America. In 2016, North America held the leading share of 32.5% in the market and was followed by Europe and Asia Pacific. The North America flexible battery market is predominantly driven by the U.S. This is due to the presence of a large number if flexible battery manufacturers combined with rising investment in extensive research and development pursuits in the field of battery technology.Top companies operating in the global flexible battery market include Panasonic Corporation, LG Chem Ltd., Ultralife Corporation, Blue Spark Technology, NEC Energy Solutions Inc., ST Microelectronics N.V., Enfucell Oy, Samsung SDI Co. Ltd., and Brightvolt Inc.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Micro Switch Market : Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry

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Micro switches, alternatively known as miniature snap-action switches are electrical switches that are triggered by very small intensity of physical force, either by human or by physical object at the actuator. The working principal of micro switches is primarily based on tapping point mechanism. A small movement in the actuator buttons of micro switches produces a larger movement at the electric contact. These switches are primarily employed as safety devices owing to its reliability and inexpensive nature and are extensively used across various devices in order to open or close the electric circuit at a rapid speed.In order to provide in depth analysis of the global micro switches market, the market can be segmented on the basis of type, application and geography. Based on type, the market of micro switch can be bifurcated into general purpose micro switches, single pole standard precision micro switches, subminiature micro switches, reset switches, door interlock switches and others. Subminiature sealed snap-acting switches, subminiature snap-acting switches and SPDT basic micro switches are included within the others segment. On the other hand, micro switches finds it application across various automotive, consumer devices, door interlocks and industrial equipment among others. Again, by geography, the market of micro switches can be classified into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa and Latin America.Obtain Report Details @Increasing demand for devices that are lighter and smaller in size and having greater efficiency is the primary factor predicted to boost the demand of micro switches at an exponential rate during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024. Thus, the OEMS (Original Equipment Manufacturers) are inclining toward miniaturization of switches in order to meet the ever-changing demand of customers for their increased functionality of devices at marginally increased or same price. Moreover, rapidly growing urbanization coupled with increasing number of elderly population across the globe is anticipated to trigger the installation and modernization of elevators and security system across various industrial and residential sectors. This in turn is also predicted to accelerate the demand of micros switches in the coming years. In addition, rising demand for micro grid system from different industrial, military, residential and commercial vertical is also predicted to augment the demand of different categories of micro switched during the forecast period.However, design complexity coupled with lack of proper training in term of usage is one of the major factor predicted to deter the demand of micro switches and in turn anticipated to affect the market negatively. In addition, false triggering of consumer devices is another important factor predicted to limit the usage of micro switches in the coming years.Brochure With Latest Advancements With Application @By product type, micro switches market is majorly driven by the consumer device segment during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024. Rising disposable income coupled with increasing consumers spending on portable, sophisticated and technologically advanced consumer electronic devices in the primary factor anticipated to increase the demand of micro switches across the globe. In addition, rapid advancement and development of portable medical devices in turn is also predicted to accelerate the demand of micro switches at an exponential rate in the coming years.Geographically, North America held the largest market share in the micro switch market in terms of revenue in 2015. However, Asia Pacific region is predicted to witness the fastest growing market during the forecast period from 2016 to 2024. Rapid expansion of production facility in this region owing to huge capital investment by different manufacturers in this emerging technology coupled with increasing use of micro switches across various application segments is the primary factor responsible from the growing demand of micro switches in Asia Pacific region.Some of the major players operating in the micro switches market are Altech Corporation (U.S), C & K Components (U.K), E-Switch (U.S.A) and Panasonic Electronic (Japan) among others.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Forklift Market : Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry

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A forklift, also known as forklift truck, or a fork truck or lift truck is an industrial vehicle used to lift and move materials from one place to another for short and medium distances in manufacturing and warehouse operations. Their main use are in material handling applications.Forklifts are used in general manufacturing, warehousing, auto industry, lumber yards, retail, brick or stone distribution, heavy-duty manufacturing, shipping and freight and paper rolling industries among others. Class 1 forklifts are electric motor rider trucks. They are equipped with cushion or pneumatic tires and are used mainly in indoor or smooth floors. They are powered by batteries and use transistor motor controllers. Class 2 forklifts are known as electric motor narrow isle trucks. These forklifts are used in narrow isle and help organizations using them to maximize their storage space. Class 3 forklifts are known as electric hand-rider or motor hand trucks. These forklifts are operated manually. Class 4 & 5 are internal combustion engine trucks with cushion & pneumatic tires. These forklifts are used for transporting palletized loads from loading dock to storage area.Obtain Report Details @By tonnage capacity the market is segmented into less than 5 tones, 5 to 10 tones, 11 to 36 tones and greater than 36 tones. By application the market is segmented into manufacturing, warehousing and distribution, freight & logistics and others. By fuel type the market is segmented into gasoline, diesel, electric battery, compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquid propane gas (LPG). By class the market is segmented into class 1, class 2, class 3, class 4, class 5, class 6 and class 7.By geography the market is segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa and Latin America. North America is a major forklift market. The U.S is the largest market in this region which a market share of approx. seventy percent in whole of America in 2013. Canada and Mexico are other major markets in this region. Europe is the second largest forklift market in the world. Germany is the largest market in this region. The U.K., France, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Sweden and Netherlands are other major markets in this region. Europe had the highest y-o-y growth in shipment and order of forklifts compared to North America and Latin America in 2015. Asia Pacific is the largest forklift market in the world. China is the largest market in the region. Japan, India, South Korea, Australia are other major markets in this region. In Asia Pacific there was a decrease in y-o-y of shipment and order of forklifts in 2015 due to decrease in sale of Chinese forklift manufacturers. But in Australia there was an increase in y-o-y growth in shipment and order in 2015. Middle East & Africa is a significant forklift market. Iran, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and South Africa are major markets in this region. In Africa there was a huge decrease in y-o-y of shipment and order of forklifts in 2015. Latin America is another prominent forklift market in the world. Brazil is the largest market in this region followed by Argentina.Brochure With Latest Advancements With Application @The report highlights the various competitive strategies adopted by key players operating in the market to gain market share. Company profiles include company details, market presence by geography and segments, strategic overview, SWOT analysis and historical revenue. The report also contains details of market share analysis of key players in the market. As per Industrial Truck Association the top forklift manufacturing firms are Toyota Industries Corporation (Japan), KION Group AG (Germany), Jungheinrich AG (Germany), Crown Equipment Corporation (the U.S), Hyster-Yale Materials Handling, Inc. (the U.S.), Mitsubishi Nichiyu Forklift Co., Ltd. (Japan), UniCarriers Americas (the U.S), Anhui HELI Co. Ltd Limited (China), Komatsu Ltd. (Japan), Clark Material Handling Company (the U.S), Doosan Industrial Vehicle America Corp. (the U.S), Hangcha Group Co., Ltd. (China), Hyundai Heavy Industries (South Korea), Combilift (Ireland) and Lonking Holdings Limited (China) among others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.ContactTransparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Solid State LASERs Market: Detailed Production Analysis, Major Key Players, Growth Opportunities with forecast 2025

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Laser or light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation is a device which emits electromagnetic radiation, in the form of light, by optically amplifying the same. A laser is generally composed of a gain medium, a pumping mechanism for energizing the gain medium and optical mirrors or similar instruments for providing an optical feedback. Lasers can vary, based on the gain medium used to generate light. Solid state lasers utilize a solid as the medium, rather than liquids or gases.Solid state lasers market has quite low growth rate, owing to their high market penetration. The market for solid state lasers is primarily being driven by the growing demand for pulsed lasers for various healthcare applications. Various cosmetic procedures, such as skin resurfacing, melasma treatment and scar removal among others utilize Nd:YAG based solid state pulsed lasers. Heightening demand for such procedures, across the globe, has been driving the growth of solid state lasers market globally.Obtain Report Details @Additionally, the application of solid state lasers has been growing at a steady pace in the aerospace and defense sector. Solid state lasers have several applications in this sector, such as laser weapon systems. Such systems can be utilized for destruction of a target or for disabling the security systems of immobilizing the target. Furthermore, higher usage of solid state lasers for laser marking systems has also been driving the market forward. However, the saturated nature of the market and relatively higher price, compared to other type of lasers, has been restraining the growth of the market. With the widening of application areas and higher usage in healthcare industry, the growth opportunities for solid state lasers is also expected to widen, during the forecast period.On the basis of type, the market for solid state lasers has been segmented into continuous wave lasers and pulsed solid state lasers. By light source, the market for solid state lasers has been segmented into laser diode, arc lamp and others. Laser diode was the largest segment by revenue, in 2016, owing to their higher efficiency and relatively lesser ownership cost. By end-use industry, the market has been segmented into aerospace & defense, healthcare and others. On the basis of region, the global solid state lasers market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific (APAC), South America and Middle-East & Africa (MEA). Revenue wise, North America was the largest region in 2016, followed by Europe and Asia Pacific.Make an Enquiry@The major companies of the solid state lasers market globally are Coherent Inc. (The U.S.), Northrop Grumman Corporation (The U.S.) The Trumpf Group (Germany), ALLTEC (Subsidiary of Danaher Corporation) (Germany), Jenoptik AG (Germany), Photonics Industries International, Inc. (The U.S.), and Hans Laser Technology (China) among various other companies.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.Transparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. We have an experienced team of Analysts, Researchers, and Consultants, who us e proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR Syndicated Research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemical, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, our syndicated reports thrive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.Transparency Market Research90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Process Liquid Analyzer Market | Value Chain Analysis and Forecast up to 2024

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Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: OverviewIn the manufacturing sector, the precise measurement of liquids and gases is crucial. This report focuses on how the demand for process analyzers for liquids has changed over the years and the factors that have brought this change into effect. Process liquid analyzers may be used for measuring a wide range of dissolved ingredients, the conductivity of liquid materials, their pH levels, turbidity, or other factors that are integral to manufacturing operations.Since these devices lend themselves to a myriad of operations, their use is not limited to a particular industry. They are a ubiquitous part of the following industries: Electronics and semiconductor, food and beverage, pharmaceuticals, metal and alloys, pulp and paper, textiles, waste water and water management, power and refineries, and oil and gas. Because of these wide-ranging uses of process liquid analyzers, their demand is projected to remain consistently high worldwide. TMR projects a positive outlook for the global process liquid analyzer market till 2024.With manufacturing operations being increasingly governed by demanding standards and specifications, using devices that offer accurate readings are a priority for manufacturers. This need will augur well for the global process liquid analyzer market in the years ahead.The report on the global process liquid analyzers market makes use of meticulous primary and secondary research to highlight the changes that are occurring in this space. Untapped opportunities are also determined using both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A dedicated chapter on the top players in the market helps companies map the competitive landscape.View Report Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: Trends, Drivers, and RestraintsThe use of process liquid analyzers has seen an uptick in recent years in developing countries where industrialization is spreading fast. Moreover, larger companies acquiring niche market players to include specialized products in their portfolios is a defining trend in the global process liquid analyzer market. The launch of smart and integrated sensors is the biggest trend currently in developed countries. The adoption of intelligent sensors may take a few years in developing markets.As the number of vendors in the global process liquid analyzer market is high, competition across the world is intense. Thus, companies that have been able to ace product differentiation have emerged as leaders. Yet, the market will have to counter forces such as a shortage of specialized process technicians and the lack of adequate professional support for maintenance projects.Global Process Liquid Analyzer Market: SegmentationThe global market for process analyzers for liquids can be segmented based on geographical regions, on the type of analyzer, and by application or end use. The key geographical segments of the market are: North America, Asia Pacific, Europe, and Rest of the World. North America currently represents the largest regional market for process liquid analyzers. The region, which is home to large industrial bases, will likely continue to exhibit a high demand for process liquid analyzers. Moreover, the massive manufacturing sectors in countries such as India and China will also boost sales in the global process liquid analyzers market.Countries in Europe are expected to fare well as far as demand for process liquid analyzers is concerned. The strong performance of the pharmaceutical and allied industries can be credited for this. The report analyzes the market for process analyzers for liquids in a detailed manner to help readers uncover emergent trends and opportunities.The market is characterized by a remarkably high number of vendors operating both locally and internationally. Top companies that have been profiled in the report include: Yokogawa Electric Corporation (Japan), Cemtrex Inc. (U.S), Emerson Electric Co. (U.S), ABB Ltd. (Switzerland), AMETEK Process Instruments (U.S.), and others.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Process Liquid Analyzer Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Medical Automation Market | Value Chain Analysis and Forecast up to 2024

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Medical Automation Market: OverviewIn a highly competitive pharmaceutical industry, automation can prove to be a massive operational advantage and a key differentiator for players of all sizes. The future of the healthcare industry is increasingly being defined by the advent of faster, more accurate, and easy-to-use devices that are riding high on the wave of medical automation. With a massive number of people crossing the 60-year threshold, the healthcare industry is facing a pressing need to scale up resources and brace for a spike in healthcare needs. This is where automation is expected to be the real game changer.There are several market dynamics that are collectively creating a need for more automation in the medical industry. According to an article published in Health Affairs, there will be a shortage of 260,000 registered nurses by 2025 in the U.S. The scenario wont be drastically different in other developed countries where the workforce is aging rapidly. With fewer humans available to carry out all of the tasks in the healthcare industry, healthcare institutions and pharmaceutical companies are focusing on automation to get redundant and repetitive tasks done. However, as has been the case with several other industries, automation is regarded as a job killer and has been opposed in several countries worldwide.These push and pull factors will decide how this market shapes up in the coming years. This is what the report aims to assess. The report creates segments of the global medical automation market based on criteria such as applications, end-users, and geography.View Report Global Medical Automation Market: Drivers and RestraintsCompanies and medical institutions are channeling more funds into medical automation systems and software enticed by benefits such as cost containment, increased speed, greater transparency in processing, and reduction in errors. This thus lays a strong foundation for the growth of the global medical automation market. Another change that is driving the adoption of medical automation is the high degree of interest in point-of-care testing devices for pregnancy, blood glucose levels, blood pressure, and HIV.On the flip side, the lack of widespread standardization and a heterogeneous regulatory environment will create several obstacles for companies operating in the medical automation market. Moreover, not all healthcare institutions can afford medical automation. It will be a few years before developing countries wholly embrace this trend.The top trends that are shaping the global medical automation market are affordable automation software and systems that make everyday tasks easier. There is a massive market that hitherto remains untapped in emerging countries, where the healthcare sector is heaving under the burden of obsolete machinery and techniques. This gap could provide a window of opportunity for companies offering medical automation software and solutions.Global Medical Automation Market: Drivers and RestraintsThe global market for medical automation can be segmented broadly based on the following fronts: End user, application, and geography. The key application areas of medical automation are therapeutic automation, lab automation, pharmacy automation, and medical automation. The segment of medical automation is composed of automated imaging and analysis and point of care testing market. The market for therapeutic automation can similarly be split into surgical and non-surgical automation. Each of these sub-segments can be further segmented based on the automation devices.Likewise, the market for lab automation can be classified into liquid handling, automated storage systems, robots and informatics, and microplate readers. The market for pharmacy automation can be further split into automated dispensaries, automated pharmaceutical packaging, and automated/smart medication compounding. The key end users in the global medical automation market are: Research labs, pharmacies, hospital and diagnostic centers, and home care centers.Using geography as a criteria, the global medical automation market has been segmented into North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and Rest of the World. The market for medical automation is currently the largest in North America. It is also well-established in Europe. The rising demand for medical automation solutions and software in Asian countries such as Taiwan and China will be a crucial turning point for the market.Companies that are currently at the forefront of the global medical automation market are: Carefusion Corp, Medtronic, Inc., GE Healthcare, Intuitive Surgical Inc., Roche Holding AG, Omnicell, Inc, Siemens Healthcare, Philips Healthcare, Stryker Corporation, St. Jude Medical, Inc., and others.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Medical Automation Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Vision Disorders Market : Advanced technologies & growth opportunities in global Industry

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Although there are significant progress in preventing and curing visual impairment in many countries since last twenty years, according to World Health Organization (WHO) around 285 million (In the year 2013) people are still visually impaired across the world. It is a matter of great concern. The reasons may be varied. However, we cannot deny the fact that there is still a lot to be done to save the people from going blind.View Report @Any disturbance in the normal sense of vision can be termed as vision disorders. Myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism, presbyopia, conjunctivitis, cataract, corneal abrasion, entropion and glaucoma are some of the vision disorders, affecting majority of the population across the world. Improper nutrition, various infections, traumatic eye injury, insertion of foreign objects and growing age are major causes for majority of the vision disorders.Vision disorders: Control and preventionAccording WHO, 80 percent of visually impaired people can be cured by using simple eye examinations like abnormality in a frequency of blinking, size of pupil and color of the eye. The disorders can be confirmed by suitable clinical and retinal tests such as corneal topography, keratometry, pachymetry, fluorescein angiography, Indocyanine Green study (ICG) dye test and other related tests. However, ignorance and negligence are leading severe eye complications or permanent vision loss.The report published by Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), revealed that approximately 14 million Americans above age of twelve are affected by various vision disorders in 2004. All these reports are alarming towards the need of immediate treatment for vision disorders across the world. This precisely a reason that the market for visual disorders may continue to grow in future.There are many companies which are involved in extensive research and development activities associated with these disorders such as United States based National Eye Institute working on clinical trials for nutritional supplements for age related cataract. Alcon Research is working on small incision cataract surgery. AqueSys, Inc. evaluating safety of AqueSys XEN 45 glaucoma implant in refractory glaucoma. Apart from this, University of Pennsylvania in collaboration with local NGOs is working on ancillary therapy of different eye infections.In case of region wise achievements in fighting against the visual disorders, Brazil has been providing eye care service through the national social security system since last decade. While, Morocco has launched a public effort to control glaucoma, China has invested over 100 million dollars in cataract surgeries since 2009. Oman has completely integrated eye care service provision in the primary health care framework over the last decade and India since 1995 has made available funds for eye care service provision for the poorest at district level.To reduce the burden of chronic eye diseases WHO is also coordinating a global research efforts to map services and policies for controlling diabetic retinopathy, glaucoma, age related macular degeneration and refractive errors. To support comprehensive eye care systems, WHO continues to provide epidemiologic and public health technical support to its member states.Vision Disorders Market SegmentationComing towards market point of view, the market for vision disorders can be segmented according to different perspectives such as regional geography and types of disorder. It can be segmented in four regions namely North American, Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World. Out of all these segments North America region have highest contribution in terms of value because of large number of population within the reach of treatment, high awareness and better reimbursement policies.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Vision Disorders Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Followed by this Europe, Asia-Pacific and Rest of the World respectively are major segments of the market. The market can also be segmented among disorders such as cataract, glaucoma, eye infections and refractive errors. Along with this, the market for visual disorders can be categorized into drugs and devices available for the treatment.Currently various established pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies are catering the needs of visual disorders by providing drugs and lenses. Pfizer, Alcon, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. and GlaxoSmithKline are leading contributors in drug therapy, while Novartis and Bausch & Lomb are major players in lenses.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Electrophysiology (EP) Laboratory Devices Market 2016 Trends, Research, Analysis and Review Forecast 2024

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An electrophysiology (EP) laboratory is an operating room or a theatre equipped with high-tech equipment used in the treatment of cardiovascular problems such as arrhythmia, fibrillation, congestive heart failure and stroke among others. EP lab offers patients the opportunity to have their arrhythmia, or irregular heartbeat, tested, diagnosed and treated. An irregular heartbeat can lead to heart complications, fatigue, congestive heart failure or stroke. The EP lab focuses on the electrical function of the heart and treats various conditions on the spot.View Report @Electrophysiology laboratory devices market: DevicesCardiac mapping can map and detect specific electrical activity of the heart in real time. Any electric irregularities can be immediately diagnosed and potentially treated. Ablation studies can identify a patients electrophysiological weaknesses and diagnose diseases to provide suitable preventive measures. This non-surgical, minimally invasive process involves threading a small catheter into the heart. Electric impulses are studied and then potentially blocked or treated to create a regular rhythm in the heart. Defibrillator implantation are for those with a dangerously irregular heart rhythm and a very high risk of cardiac death. In such cases, cardiologists may choose to implant a defibrillator. This device can detect a dangerous rhythm and shock the heart back into regular pace. The device is implanted into a small incision near the heart and connected electrically to the heart. Cardiac electrophysiology assists the diagnosis and treatment of arrhythmias which causes abnormal electrical activities in heart.Electrophysiology laboratory devices market: WHO reportAccording to World Health Organization, around 17.5 million people die every year due to cardiovascular diseases. It is expected that, by 2030 about 23 million people may die each year due to cardiovascular diseases. This increasing prevalence of cardiac diseases is expected to boost the electrophysiology market as more and more patients will need medical attention. The prevalence of cardiac diseases is higher in developing nations.With the potential of 12 million atrial fibrillation patients by the year 2050 and improvements in technology for atrial fibrillation ablation therapy, significant growth is predicted for the number of hospitals building electrophysiology labs. It is estimated that there are about 2,000 electrophysiology labs in the U.S. and 2,000 electrophysiology labs outside the U.S., each with an electrophysiology recording system costing an average of approximately $250,000.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Electrophysiology (EP) Laboratory Devices Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.Since past few decades cardiovascular disease prevalence is rising in populated countries such as China and India. Thus indicating a large market in Asia-Pacific in near future. Mobile and modular EP labs are a growing demand due to rise in emergency medicine and unmet on-field military applications. The market for electrophysiology devices is also expected to benefit due to quick adoption of ablation techniques for treating atrial fibrillation. As the technology advances, patients are exposed to less radiation, making it diagnosis and treatment safer for patients.Electrophysiology laboratory devices market: Key playersCurrently University of Rochester Medical Centre, Jeffrey M. Carlton Heart & Vascular Institute, London Bridge Hospital and many others are equipped with electrophysiology laboratory set-up. Corporates are continuously trying to acquire market share in this competitive market. In August 2013, St. Jude acquired Switzerland based Endosense. The deal was valued at USD 331 million, where St. Jude will gain access to TactiCath technology. In November 2013, Boston Scientific completed acquisition of C.R. Bards electrophysiology business. Other players in the market include Philips Healthcare, Medtronic, Inc., and GE Healthcare.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Gastritis Market 2016 Trends, Research, Analysis and Review Forecast 2024

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Gastritis is characterized by a set of conditions that cause inflammation or irritation of the lining of the stomach, for a short or long time. Upper abdominal pain or discomfort is the most common symptom of Gastritis. There are two forms of gastritis, a brief and sudden illness, acute gastritis occurs suddenly, which involves sudden and severe inflammation; and chronic gastritis which develops slowly may last for years due to long-term inflammation. An upset stomach following the consumption of alchohol or certain medications is one of the common examples of acute gastritis.View Report @There are various causes of gastritis but one of the most common causes is Helicobacter pylori, a kind of bacterium that infects the lining of the stomach. If left untreated, gastritis caused by Helicobacter pylori can lead to ulcers and stomach cancer. Though foods which cause gastritis are different from person to person and may not always be consistent with the severity of the disease , spicy, fatty and fried foods are commonly avoided to set off symptoms of gastritis. Bleeding inside the stomach occurs in a case of severe gastritis. Other causes of gastritis include autoimmune disorders, digestive disorders and stress caused by severe injury. Various symptoms associated with gastritis are as follows:NauseaAbdominal painAbdominal bloatingVomitingLoss of appetiteBlack and tarry stoolFeeling of fullnessGASTRITIS MARKET SEGMENTATIONBased on diagnosis, the gastritis market can be segmented as follows:pyroli test: This test is used to determine the presence of bacterium H. pyroliBlood test: Red blood cell count is checked to determine whether an individual has anemia or notEndoscopy: A thin with a tiny camera (endoscope) is inserted into ones stomach to check for inflammationX-ray of upper digestive system: X-ray creates images of esophagus, stomach and small intestine and is used to diagnose abnormalities.Based on treatments, the gastritis market can be segmented as follows:Acid blocking medications: Proton pump inhibitors such as omeprazole (Prilosec), lansoprazole (Prevacid) and esomeprazole (Nexium) block cells that form stomach acid.Acid reducing medications: Histamine (H-2) blockers (acid blockers) such as ranitidine (Zantac) and famotidine (Pepcid) reduces the amount of acid released into the digestive tractAntacids: Antacids act as a neutralizing agent for the stomach and provide rapid relief from gastritis painAntibiotics: Combination of antibiotics such as clarithromycin (Biaxin) and metronidazole (Flagyl) are used to kill the bacterium H.pyroli and thereby aids in the treatment of gastritisBased on geography, the gastritis market can be segmented into four major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific and Rest of the World (RoW). Out of all, North America dominates the gastritis market followed by Europe. The prime factors that are driving the growth of the market in these regions are high prevalence of gastritis and increasing unhealthy lifestyles of the population. According to a published survey, the prevalence rate of gastritis is approximately 1 in 100 in the US. Asia Pacific is the most lucrative market for the growth of gastritis market and is developing at an extremely rapid pace.Get accurate market forecast and analysis on the Gastritis Market. Request a sample to stay abreast on the key trends impacting this market.The factors which would augment the growth of the market in Asia Pacific region are increasing rate of various viral and autoimmune diseases, rapid spread of infection from one person to another and development of various sophisticated therapeutic tools for gastritis. Furthermore, other benefits such as favorable taxation policy and reimbursement scenario, and easy market penetration in developing countries such as China, India, and Malaysia would also fuel the growth of the gastritis market in the coming years.Presently, the gastritis market is fragmented and various companies are developing therapeutic drugs for the treatment of gastritis.Gastritis Market Key PlayersSome of the top players operating in the gastritis market are AstraZeneca PLC, Novartis AG, Zydus Cadila Healthcare Limited, PT Otsuka Indonesia and others.The report offers a comprehensive evaluation of the market. It does so via in-depth qualitative insights, historical data, and verifiable projections about market size. The projections featured in the report have been derived using proven research methodologies and assumptions. By doing so, the research report serves as a repository of analysis and information for every facet of the market, including but not limited to: Regional markets, technology, types, and applications.About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.Each TMR syndicated research report covers a different sector  such as pharmaceuticals, chemicals, energy, food & beverages, semiconductors, med-devices, consumer goods and technology. These reports provide in-depth analysis and deep segmentation to possible micro levels. With wider scope and stratified research methodology, TMRs syndicated reports strive to provide clients to serve their overall research requirement.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Practice Management Systems Market | Comprehensive Analysis and Future Estimations 2024

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Practice Management Systems Market: OverviewMedical practice is defined as the science and the art of healing in accordance with scientific diagnosis of the disease. Medical practice therefore, requires significant volume of patient data which is difficult to maintain in the long run especially if its recorded in the physical form of documents and files. The entry of computer software and software systems like SaaS (Software as a Service) has greatly assisted in the overall process of patient data and medical practice data management. Medical Practice Management System (PMS) is a software that helps medical organization (or clinic) to record patient data, fix appointments with practitioners, maintain record of insurance payment companies (and contacting them when required), perform billing related tasks and generate final reports. PMS nowadays are integrated with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) that deals strictly with patient medical data (medical and treatment history) as an all inclusive data management system.PMS is designed according to the volume of data that needs to be maintained, the size of the organization and their financial capacity. Generally PMS are classified as; desktop variants for limited computers, client-server (physical servers) for large institutions with strong finance and requirement for easy access to patients confidential data, and internet server (virtual/cloud servers) for institutions that require cost saving alternatives. Software companies offer services in different price ranges varying from few hundreds to thousands of dollars depending upon aforesaid parameters. Integrated systems (EMR and PMS) are more expensive in comparison to standalone services. Some companies that provide these services are Acrendo Softwares, Allegiance MD, WRS Health, Practo Ray and Athena Health to name a few.View Report Practice Management Systems Market: Opportunities and TrendsPMS have a great future ahead, as medical institutions worldwide see it as a better alternative to physical document records which have a very high error rate bringing into light the nature of human incompetency, that are minimized to a great extent in PMS. Also, medical errors result in severe adverse events and death, this is efficiently tackled by the presence of automated programmed software. Cost saving is another financial reason for a shift into PMS, it reduces data management costs and as a result the overall medical treatment costs. Medical insurance claims and payouts also see a positive change with fast processing times. Countries like the U.S. also offer subsidies to hospitals opting for such systems.Practice Management Systems Market: RestraintsPMS however, is useful only as long as the personals are trained in the dynamics of the software, this requires training and practice. Many countries also have strict patient confidentiality laws, any breach or leak patient records may pose a great threat to the integrity of the whole process and shall render an institution liable for prosecution by the law. In such a situation, PMS becomes more of a liability than assistance. However, with entry of Asian software companies like Practo Ray who have developed portable android based software systems can be easily accessed and require minimum training. Cost effective alternatives are on the rise along with better algorithms to integrate the complete process of medical practice.Practice Management Systems Market: Regional InsightPMS market is expected to increase owing to the presence of virtual/cloud based service systems, these enable companies far offshore to provide services at competitive prices. Service providers are at present largely based in the North America and European region, where the demand is the highest owing to large population patients with health insurance. The PMS market in Asia-Pacific is estimated to grow at the highest CAGR owing to more number of companies establishing business in this region coupled shift in service providers from the North American region to emerging economies. Also, with greater returns on investment a large number of Asian medical institutions are now opting for PMS.Request a brochure of this report to know what opportunities will emerge in the rapidly evolving Practice Management Systems Market during 2016- 2024About UsTransparency Market Research (TMR) is a market intelligence company, providing global business information reports and services. Our exclusive blend of quantitative forecasting and trends analysis provides forward-looking insight for thousands of decision makers. TMRs experienced team of analysts, researchers, and consultants, use proprietary data sources and various tools and techniques to gather, and analyze information. Our business offerings represent the latest and the most reliable information indispensable for businesses to sustain a competitive edge.US Office Contact90 State Street, Suite 700Albany, NY 12207Tel: +1-518-618-1030USA  Canada Toll Free: 866-552-3453Email: sales@transparencymarketresearch.comWebsite:
Eleven tenured professors accepted and finalized buyout agreements with the University of Montana this week, after the college first made the offer to 48 faculty members in May.

The university said previously about 14 tenured UM professors over the age of 65 expressed interest in the buyouts, but that was before the agreements were finalized.

The lack of interest in the May buyouts caused UM to make a second round of offers in June to about another 50 professors between the ages of 60 and 64, said Kevin McRae, deputy commissioner for communications for the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education. Last month, only six professors had expressed interest in that offer.

UM made the May and June offers in an attempt to save $4 million in personnel costs.

The state Legislature appropriated $2 million to the Montana University System this year to fund buyout incentive payments for professors across the state, McRae said. The university system will use about $580,000 of that appropriation on the 11 finalized buyouts at the University of Montana.

That shakes out to a one-time payment of about a half a years salary for each of these professors, Paula Short, director of communications at UM, said Wednesday.

In addition, UM will pay the one-time costs of employment termination, which include sick leave payouts and Teacher Retirement System contributions. The cost to the university will be about $889,000. Had these professors decided to retire anyway, those costs would have been paid regardless of the buyouts.

"In a hypothetical world where we were not doing any retirement program payouts and those faculty had said they wanted to retire, UM would have had to pay those costs anyway," McRae said.

In total, the higher education office and UM will spend about $1.5 million on termination costs for the 11 professors and save $2.86 million over the next two years.

Short was not able to provide a list of the professors who have agreed to take a buyout or their departments.

UM will not fill these positions, Short said. Should a department be at risk of losing its accreditation due to the loss of permanent faculty, a full-time position may be moved from one department or another.

The ultimate reduction in faculty positions might not correspond position-to-position in departments, McRae said. "We are still going to make sure educational services in each department will be adequately staffed to meet enrollment and educational needs."

UM gave professors in the June round a modified buyout option because they are under the age of 65. Those professors could opt for insurance premium coverage, with the money to pay for those premiums coming from the 50 percent salary incentive offer.

Acceptances for the buyout offers in the June round still need to be finalized, Short said. That is expected to happen this month, with cost figures available in early August, she said.

Depending on how many professors in the second group opt for the buyouts, the university system may need to make an additional offer to younger tenured professors at the UM or start looking on other campuses in the state for buyout opportunities, McRae said.

If there are not enough volunteers for the early retirement option, the university system may have to consider layoffs, McRae said.
Studying the immune system: That is the goal of a new Max Planck Research Group at the University of Wurzburg which is currently being set up.---With the cooperation agreement signed four years ago, work in the laboratories is now picking up momentum: With the appointment of Professor Georg Gasteiger, the new Max Planck Research Group for System Immunology at the Julius-Maximilians-Universitat (JMU) Wurzburg in Bavaria, Germany, has officially commenced operations. Ultimately, the group is set to comprise three research teams and one junior research group.Gasteiger is the director of one of the teams; he relocated to Wurzburg on 01 June 2017 where he also took charge of the newly established Chair of System Immunology.Moreover, the University enlisted Professor Wolfgang Kastenmuller to head a further Chair for System Immunology. He will move from Bonn to Wurzburg in September 2017. The appointment procedure for the leader of a third Max Planck team is currently ongoing.A holistic view of the immune systemWhat is the research focus of the Max Planck Group? Instead of examining individual aspects of the immune system, the team will pursue a holistic approach in order to study the system and its interactions with the organism as a whole. One focal area is the protection the immune system can provide against pathogens or cancer cells. Diseases triggered by the immune system such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatism are another research focus.The Free State of Bavaria, the Max Planck Society (MPG) and the JMU have initially agreed that the new group will run over a period of five years. The Bavarian government contributes 25 million euros with the MPG providing the remaining two million euros.Located on the Medical CampusUltimately, the group is set to comprise some 42 members. The teams will be accommodated in the rooms of the Institute for Pharmacology and Toxicology which provides some 1,500 square metres of laboratory and office space.The site on the Wurzburg Medical Campus has a number of advantages: It is home to several clinics and institutes that study immune cell regulation and work on immunotherapies against cancer and skin diseases which the Max Planck teams can ideally complement with their activities.Non-university research intensifiedThe Max Planck Research Group for System Immunology is an important part of the efforts to further promote non-university research at the Wurzburg site. Only in May 2017, the Helmholtz Association and the University celebrated the establishment of their new joint Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI).The alliance of the scientific organisations comprising the Max Planck Society, the Helmholtz Association, the Leibniz Association and the Fraunhofer Society as major non-university research organisations is additionally represented by the Fraunhofer Institute for Silicate Research ISC in Wurzburg.Statements of the presidents Stratmann and ForchelMartin Stratmann, the President of the Max Planck Society, explains the strategy behind installing Max Planck Research Groups at universities: "This strategy aims to network the research activities of the Max Planck Society closely with those of German universities, in particular in areas that promise far-reaching new insights."The mission of the Max Planck Research Group for System Immunology is to study the immune defence and its impact on the body as a whole. "I am excited that we were able together with the University of Wurzburg to recruit Georg Gasteiger and Wolfgang Kastenmuller, two scientists who will certainly promote this branch of research over the next years," Stratmann says.JMU President Alfred Forchel adds: "The collaboration with non-university research institutes is of great importance for the University of Wurzburg, because it helps to selectively strengthen and develop seminal areas of research at the Wurzburg site."Quelle: idw
Anja and Michael Zettler from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemunde (IOW) are the authors of the recently published 83th volume of book series Die Tierwelt Deutschlands (Fauna of Germany). The two macrozoobenthos experts complemented the extensive encyclopaedia, which was established in 1925 by zoologist Friedrich Dahl, with an English-language monograph on Baltic Sea amphipods. It covers a total of 243 species, which are morphologically characterised down to the last detail, and also contains notes on their ecology and behaviour. The book therefore is a valuable tool for the monitoring of indicator species, which allow inferences about certain habitat conditions.---Amphipods inhabit a diverse range of marine and freshwater habitat types, yet the majority of them are benthic or littoral life forms. The brackish Baltic Sea with its pronounced salinity gradient of high salt concentrations in the West and low salt concentrations in the North-East accommodates both, marine and freshwater species of this group. As amphipods frequently occur in high densities, they are an important food source for fishes, birds, mammals and many other animal types. Furthermore, they very often are detritivores or scavengers and thus nutrient recyclers  another vital role they play in the foodweb of their respective environments. Therefore, amphipods are immensely interesting study objects for a wide range of ecological and other scientific investigations, which necessitate a reliable identification of specimens collected in the field.The book Marine and freshwater Amphipoda from the Baltic Sea and adjacent territories, now presented by Anja and Michael Zettler, for the first time combines in one field guide all 190 marine and 53 freshwater species ever detected in the Baltic Sea and its catchment area (including all tributaries of all nine Baltic littoral states). It thereby also takes into account all those species, which so far have been regarded as alien species but are expected to become well-established Baltic Sea residents due to species shifts driven by environmental changes such as climate change. About 4000 highly detailed individual plates illustrate this large species inventory. Moreover, volume 83 of Die Tierwelt Deutschlands contains quite a few amphipod species that never before have been extensively described and illustrated. All these aspects make the book a valuable key publication for an international specialist audience, which enables experts to look up all relevant Baltic Sea amphipods in one book instead of having to consult several guides on this animal group.The monograph is a worthy continuation of the book series established by Friedrich Dahl (1856  1929), which has a long-standing tradition of more than nine decades and aims not only at a comprehensive representation of the fauna of Germany and its adjacent marine waters according to their characteristic features and their behaviour (translation of the original title), but also at the scientifically sensible characterisation of animal groups across state borders. Primarily, the monographs of the series are highly accurate field guides. As they usually also contain information on the ecology of the described species, researchers appreciate the books as an excellent basis not only for taxonomic classification but also for the assessment of the ecological niche of field specimens and their possible reaction to environmental changes. The first volume was published in 1925 by the publishing house of Gustav Fischer in Jena; after its dissolution in 2008 the series is being continued by the publishers Goecke & Evers as well as ConchBooks.*Publisher info on the 83th volume of Tierwelt Deutschlands:Full Title: Marine and freshwater Amphipoda from the Baltic Sea and adjacent territoriesPublisher: ConchBooks, Harxheim | ISBN: 978-3-939767-74-9*Scientific contact:Anja Zettler | Tel.: +49 (0)381  5197 253 |Dr. Michael Zettler | Head of the IOW Working Group Ecology of benthic organismsTel.: +49 (0)381  5197 236 |*Press and Public Relations at IOW:Dr. Kristin Beck | Phone: +49 (0)381  5197 135 |Dr. Barbara Hentzsch | Phone: +49 (0)381  5197 102 |IOW is a member of the Leibniz Association with currently 91 research institutes and scientific infrastructure facilities. The focus of the Leibniz Institutes ranges from natural, engineering and environmental sciences to economic, social and space sciences as well as to the humanities. The institutes are jointly financed at the state and national levels. The Leibniz Institutes employ a total of 18.100 people, of whom 9.200 are scientists. The total budget of the institutes is 1.6 billion Euros. ()Quelle: idw
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The gates swung open Wednesday for the 30th annual Oregon Brewers Festival, with a parade from Southeast Portland across the Hawthorne Bridge to downtown Portland's Waterfront Park kicking off the five-day festival.

About 80,000 people every year attend the festival, the largest beer gathering on the West Coast. More than 90 beers are being poured in the main festival area, with about 90 more in a limited-quantity specialty tent.

Grand Marshals John DeBenedetti and Mike Moscarelli opened the festival by tapping the ceremonial first keg, an IPA by Hopworks Urban Brewery of Southeast Portland. The two were honored because of their contributions through the F.H. Steinbart Co., a century-old Portland business that serves the craft brewing industry and that is owned by DeBenedetti, whose grandfather founded the company.

Here are details for attending the festival:

Watch the parade here:

We are coming to you live from the Oregon Brewers Festival as it marches across the Hawthorne Bridge toward the festival grounds at Tom McCall Waterfront Park. 5 Things to get you ready for the Brewers Fest: http://www.oregonlive.com/beer/index.ssf/2017/07/oregon_brewers_festival_2017_5.html#incart_river_index Posted by The Oregonian on Wednesday, July 26, 2017

-- Andre Meunier

@AndreMeunier13

503-221-8488
SEATTLE -- The problems thousands of passengers have faced this summer due to hundreds of canceled flights on Alaska Air Group's regional Horizon Air subsidiary didn't much concern Wall Street analysts after the company reported its quarterly earnings Wednesday.

Horizon Air last year accounted for just 1 percent of the company's overall profit. So far this year, with flight cancellations slowly mounting since January, Horizon has lost $16 million.

But boosted by the absorption of Virgin America, Alaska Air's revenue topped $2 billion for the first time and it reported overall second-quarter profit of $296 million, or $2.38 per share.

That's up nearly 14 percent from Alaska's profit a year ago, though only up 1 percent compared to the combined profits of Alaska and Virgin last year while they were still separate.

Chief Executive Brad Tilden and his leadership team spent most of a conference call with analysts Wednesday morning addressing questions about the mainline carrier Alaska Airlines, the way on-time performance is suffering because of increased congestion at the main West Coast airports, and the complications of integrating the disparate airline systems of Virgin and Alaska.

Executives said they are solving the problems at Horizon, which are due to a shortage of pilots to fly its Q400 turboprop aircraft.

They'll swap about 10 percent of Horizon's Q400 fleet out of the fall flight schedule and substitute either Alaska Airlines 737 jets or CRJ regional jets flown by contract carrier SkyWest.

Tilden said that should minimize disruption for passengers, and by year-end a batch of newly hired pilots currently in training classes should graduate and allow Horizon to return to its normal schedule.

"The current plan is that some Horizon flying is being covered by Alaska and SkyWest for the next six months," Tilden said. "The hope is that we're done with that by January of next year."

Dave Campbell, chief executive of Horizon Air, described this as a "slow it down, catch up" tactic.

"This is actually a reset for us. It's going to be painful for us to get through it in terms of the entire fleet, but ... I think by the time we get to the end of December, we should be caught back up on pilot hiring," Campbell said.

Horizon serves 45 cities in Oregon, Washington, Alaska, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana and Utah, as well as Alberta and British Columbia. It keeps its primary maintenance base in Portland.

Many in the industry attribute the pilot shortage to the low pay that's typical at regional airlines.

But the Teamsters union agreed to a new contract for the Horizon pilots in April, so their pay is settled. On the conference call, management talked about the looming arbitration discussions that will decide on terms of the new contract for the company's mainline pilots at Alaska Airlines and Virgin by October.

Wall Street's focus is what that contract will add to Alaska's labor costs  management's proposal would add $140 million a year; the pilot's union wants more.

Ben Minicucci, Alaska's chief operating officer, said the management's compensation proposal will put the airline's mainline pilots who fly Boeing and Airbus jets "at the upper end of the industry."

Another focus on the teleconference was a decline in on-time performance and flight-completion rates across the company. Alaska has in recent years been one of the most reliably on-time carriers, but Tilden said "our operational performance has not met our expectation in the first half of the year."

He attributed this to increased air space and airport congestion particularly at the airline's main hubs in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

Tilden said that airline is developing a plan to reflect this "new reality," attempting to standardize how it handles typical ground delays and irregular operations.

As for the merger with Virgin America, Tilden described the slow process of integrating the two airlines as "all-consuming."

The companies announced the $2.6 billion merger 15 months ago and closed the deal in late December.

"There is an incredible amount of work that has to be done to integrate two airlines," he said. "Our team is doing great."

Tilden said Alaska is accelerating the integration.

The most critical piece  integrating the sales, ticket distribution and check-in systems of the two airlines into one  has been moved up six months to the second quarter of 2018.

In addition, Tilden said, he expects to have a single loyalty program, a single payroll and a single financial system by the first day of 2018

However, said Brandon Pedersen, Alaska's chief financial officer, "One decision that hasn't been made yet is whether we'll operate an all-Boeing fleet in the future."

Virgin America has a fleet of Airbus A320s. Absorbing pending Virgin orders, Alaska has this year taken two Airbus 321neos. By year-end it will have five of those jets, which it plans to use on flights to Hawaii.

While Alaska for a long time declared itself "proudly all-Boeing," Pedersen said that because the Airbus leases don't even start to expire until 2019, "it's not urgent that we decide" on whether to return to that pre-Virgin status quo.

-- The Seattle Times
A Clark County sheriff's deputy was arrested Wednesday on allegations of sexual misconduct with an inmate.

Corrections deputy David Christopher North, 29, is accused of sexual misconduct with a female inmate, Clark County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Fred M. Neiman said.

North was booked into Clark County Jail on charges of indecent liberties and custodial sexual misconduct.

North has been a corrections deputy since January 2015, Neiman said.

Clark County Sheriff Chuck Atkins denounced the alleged misconduct in a statement.

"I take this extremely seriously," Atkins said. "I will not allow this type of misconduct to take place in my jail."

North will appear in Clark County Superior Court on Thursday at 9 a.m.

The sheriff's office continues to investigate the allegations. Officials ask that anyone with information about the case call (877) 274-6311 or (360) 397-2120.

-- The Oregonian/Oregonian
Regarding your July 21 review of the movie "Dunkirk," years ago I studied the Battle of Dunkirk from the perspective of what the battle teaches us about management. It is one of the best examples I could find of how important a clear, well-understood mission is to success. Each night the British military formulated intricate plans to rescue the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. But, as soon as the sun would rise, conditions changed (e.g. weather, German activity, mechanical equipment failures, poor intelligence, etc.) and the well-developed plans were worthless. Nevertheless, tens of thousands of individuals understood exactly what their mission was and proceeded with great courage to do their best to accomplish that mission. It is a great tribute to human resourcefulness and the importance of a shared purpose. It is a timeless message.

Mark Evers, Lake Oswego
For the first time in a year, the number of non-farm jobs in the Decatur metropolitan area has not declined. The good news comes on top of a drop in the unemployment rate from a year ago.

In other news Tuesday, state lawmakers took little action on the second day of a special session focused on school funding; the state has suspended amusement rides similar to the one involved in a deadly accident in Ohio; Abe Lincoln statue gets his arm back; Senate Republican leaders are seeking support for a narrower version of repeal for the Affordable Care Act.

Jobless numbers improve for Decatur

The Decatur area had 51,500 non-farm jobs in June, the same number it had a year ago, according to Illinois Department of Employment Security statistics released Thursday.

In addition, the unemployment rate for the Decatur area was 5.9 percent in June, down from 6.6 percent from this time last year.

Local industries that saw payroll increases in the number of jobs includes an increase of 200 in professional and business services, and a 100 job increase in construction, healthcare and social assistance and other services. Retail trade, manufacturing, transportation, warehousing, and utilities and information each saw a loss of 100 jobs.

State suspends amusement rides

The Illinois Department of Labor said Thursday it's suspending the operation of all amusement rides similar to the one involved in a deadly accident at the Ohio State Fair.

Amusement rides remained closed at the Ohio fair Thursday, a day after a man was killed and seven other people were injured when a ride broke apart and flung people into the air.

State officials said inspectors are notifying operators to suspend operation of the three Fire Ball rides, eight Freak Out rides and one Extreme ride that are in Illinois. The department made the move as many festivals and county fairs are scheduled across Illinois.

Lawmakers quickly adjourn 2nd day of session

Illinois legislators have adjourned a second day of a special session on school funding after just a few minutes.

The House and Senate met briefly Thursday, but didn't take up any action.

Gov. Bruce Rauner summoned lawmakers to Springfield with the task of resolving a fight over a new funding calculation. Both chambers have approved a plan, but the Senate has refused to send it to Rauner, who says he'll rewrite it and send it back over objections to money that Chicago will get.

Senate President John Cullerton says he'll send the bill on Monday, but he'd like to meet with Rauner first.

Illinois fairgrounds' Lincoln statue fixed after losing arm

The 30-foot-tall statue of Abraham Lincoln that stands at the front gate of the Illinois State Fairgrounds is back in one piece after temporarily losing an arm.

The State Journal-Register reports an auto body repairman reattached Lincoln's arm to the fiberglass statue. Ernie Ball of Ernie Ball Auto Body in Springfield says it appears the 50-year-old statue's metal frame rusted, causing the arm to detach. The statue depicts a young Lincoln holding an ax with both hands.

GOP seeks support for narrow version of "Obamacare" repeal

Battered by repeated failures to repeal or replace "Obamacare," Senate GOP leaders retreated to a narrow approach Thursday that would undo just a few of the most unpopular elements of Barack Obama's law. Democrats vowed opposition as the Senate prepared for a bizarre Capitol Hill ritual, a "vote-a-rama" on amendments that promised to last into the wee hours of Friday morning.

The so-called "skinny repeal" was being touted as a way for Republicans to get something, anything, out of the Senate after frittering away the first six months of Donald Trump's presidency trying unsuccessfully to get rid of the current law. Talks with the House would follow, with the hope of crafting a compromise repeal-and-replace bill that could pass both chambers sometime in the fall.

Whether Republicans can make it that far looks iffy at best. But Trump tweeted his encouragement Thursday morning, albeit with an ominous touch: "Come on Republican Senators, you can do it on Healthcare. After 7 years, this is your chance to shine! Don't let the American people down!"
Thursday 27 July 2017 11:17am

When salmon spawn, the sperm of competing males are in an all-or-nothing race to be the first to reach and fertilise the eggs.

New findings by University of Otago researchers show that female salmon influence the race results from afar and that there is a strong genetic basis to that female choice.

Professor Neil Gemmell, who holds the AgResearch Chair in Reproduction and Genomics in the Department of Anatomy, says that the ovarian fluid that females release with their eggs can help or hinder sperm swiftness, depending on the male it comes from.

The findings may also have implications for the understanding of animal, even human, reproduction, he says.

The study has been published this week in the international journal Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series B.

Professor Gemmells PhD student, Cornelia Gessner, together with colleagues from AgResearch and NIWA, examined the swimming speeds of salmon sperm in the diluted ovarian fluids of females and related this to reproductive success and the level of genetic relatedness at several thousand genes.

Surprisingly the research team found that males that were more similar to the female at a few key genes, perhaps even close relatives to the females, had a higher rate of reproductive success than males who were more dissimilar.

Our recent work has shown that this cryptic female choice (CFC) has a strong effect on offspring survival, he says. In this latest paper we have identified key genetic components that seem to be responsible for governing this process.

Cryptic female choice involves female attempts to control who fertilises their eggs after mating. It is known to occur in many species but, until now, only in ones which fertilise internally.

In internal fertilisers there are multiple ways a female can exert this post-mating version of sexual selection by favouring one males sperm over another to bias fertilisation, including differential storage, usage and ejection of sperm.

"A classic example is found in chickens, where females can favour one male over another through ejecting the sperm of less favoured males, Professor Gemmell says.

We were startled to find that female salmon are also able to exert this kind of influence. Previously, it had been thought that once their eggs had been released females had very little say over which of the males around her would fertilise them.

That is clearly not the case. There is a strong post-mating choice exerted, which affects offspring survival, and there is a genetic basis that affects this choice.

We found that the speed of a males sperm varied significantly, according to which females ovarian fluid it was swimming in, and that the degree of genetic relatedness between females and males strongly influences sperm swimming speed and fertilisation outcomes.

We found five regions in the salmon genome, each containing a few genes, that appear to bias fertilisation outcomes by influencing how fast a males sperm swims in a given females ovarian fluid and that affect fertilisation outcomes via other mechanisms, likely sperm-egg interactions. Two of the genes identified affect fertility in humans and are promising candidates through which CFC may operate.

For example, a particular males sperm was among the fastest in one set of fluid but, in another set, it trailed the field. In this latter set, a different males sperm was able to swim twice as fast as it had in another, he says.

The reason why female salmon try to swing the odds for some sperm over others appears to be focused on ensuring that their mates have complimentary genes that enhance offspring survival.

From the females perspective, it makes sense that when you only have one opportunity to reproduce in your life, you want to make sure you get it right.

For the males, you could say that the upshot is that there may be someone for everyone in the salmon world  the race does not always go to the naturally fastest runner, as females ensure that the conditions on the racecourse differ.

Put another way, what we have found is that only some males have the right genetic passwords that enable their sperm to fertilise the eggs of a given female.

Professor Gemmell says the findings also may have wider implications for the understanding of animal, or even human, reproduction.

For instance, whatever it is in this ovarian fluid that is enhancing or retarding sperm function may have a similar effect on sperm in other species. The recognition that some of the genes that control this effect in salmon are also present in humans, and linked to infertility in humans, strongly suggests that there may be elements of cryptic female choice post-mating in humans.

Professor Gemmell plans to continue to investigate the genes involved in this phenomenon using increasingly refined approaches, while also beginning to explore if similar mechanisms might exist in humans and species of agricultural importance.

The research was supported by a Marsden Fund Grant of $870,000 awarded in 2009.

For more information, please contact:

Professor Neil Gemmell

Department of Anatomy

School of Biomedical Sciences

Email: neil.gemmell@otago.ac.nz
Delta College's Jeff Dykhuizen, professor of psychology, was one of the key presenters at a recent annual conference of the Midwest Institute for International and Intercultural Education, held in Wooster, Ohio.
My wife, Susanne, and I always look forward to the summer because we both love berries. Susanne's favorites are strawberries and mine are blueberries.

Throughout the year, I enjoy cooking with blueberries but there is nothing better than using the ones that are produced locally. They are (usually) a better deal than buying the imported ones and the taste is oh, so good.

I have tasted so many delicious foods made with blueberries from the buttery blueberry muffins I discovered at a Ukranian bakery in Toronto's West End to the simple but tasty blueberry cookies I once came across in Sweden at a Lutheran church festival. And right here in Midland my wife and I always are thrilled when our dear friend Stephanie Villarreal tells us she has prepared a blueberry pie for dessert!

I have collected lots of recipes using berries that are blue over the years. I say "berries that are blue" because I discovered some time ago that, although berries are called "blueberries" in some languages, they are actually bilberries. Many Scandinavian countries pride themselves in their specialties made with what in their languages are "blueberries."

I am no expert in the area of growing berries but have been told that there are some differences. What I noticed was that blueberries are a light color inside while bilberries are dark inside. The bilberries seem to be a bit more intense in flavor but I have used both in recipes interchangeably and the results have always been good!

Some of the first recipes I remember collecting hail from Sweden. I have always enjoyed visiting Sweden. It is such a big nation with a very interesting, regional kitchen. Many of the my earliest memories of my visits there are of foods containing what the Swedes call blueberries.

The first such specialty was a "sockerkaka" or sugar cake. It is not terribly difficult to make yet it is a wonderful dessert. The one I had was enhanced with the addition of fresh berries. Once cooled off, and served with a fresh cup of coffee, it was great.

The Swedes also have something they refer to as blueberry pie. It is basically a soft crust filled with blueberries and sometimes a crumble mixture on top. Again, it is simple to make but when the berries are fresh it is delicious.

On trips to Norway, Sweden's neighbor to the north, I have also discovered many neat recipes containing lovely little blue berries. My first taste of something prepared with blue berries there was actually a soup. It was a fruit soup that was served as a dessert. The dish consisted of cold, lightly stewed fruit and the mixture was slightly thickened. I remember that it was served with a bit of whipped cream. At first, the idea of a berry soup seemed a bit unusual but I have tasted many unusual specialties over the years. This dessert soup was one of several cold dessert soups I have tasted in Scandinavia and it was very tasty indeed!

During trips to various parts of Scandinavia I usually don't have any difficulties with language since I speak Danish and Swedish fairly well. When I use my Swedish in Norway local people don't generally have any problems understanding. But the first time my Danish wife and I travelled to Finland, that was not the case.

The Finnish language is not related to other Scandinavian languages and for the first time in many years, I felt a terribly lost. How to discover the culinary secrets of Finland only being able to count to five? Then a kind Finn told me that his language was actually very phonetic and that I should pronounce each and every letter.

One day at a cafe I did so and, carefully reading the sign in front of a pastry I really wanted to try, I ordered a coffee with milk and a blueberry tart. Try pronouncing "Mustikkapirakka!" I actually got what I had ordered. Both were very good. The tart seemed to be made using berries and then baked in a type of custard. On another occasion I got to try a lovely blueberry liquor. I could smell the berries the moment the liquor was poured and I was not disappointed in the taste.

Since blueberries are now in season and the quality and prices have been good, I have lots of them in the fridge. Whether the original recipes are for actual blueberries or bilberries, I figure they are all "blue berries" and, so far, the recipes have always worked out well.

Lucky for us, local blueberries are available for a good amount of time. Perhaps you, too, will enjoy making something with our locally produced, delicious blueberries. We still have some summer left to enjoy! And what a way to enjoy it!

Greg Lopez is a Midlander who loves travel and food. He combines those two passions in a monthly column for the Daily News.

Swedish sugar cake with blueberries

Oil spray and flour to coat the baking pan

8 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

1 1/4 cups unbleached all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

3 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

2 1/2 teaspoons clear vanilla

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons milk

1 cup fresh blueberries

Use a small Bundt type pan or a round tube pan to bake the cake. Coat the bottom and sides of the pan with a light coat of oil spray and flour. Sift the flour and baking powder into a small bowl. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs and sugar for several minutes until light and creamy. Stir in the vanilla. Slowly add the flour mixture and add the melted butter and milk alternately to the egg mixture, slowly mixing the ingredients with a spatula. Add the blueberries to the dough. Carefully pour the dough into a prepared baking dish and bake in a preheated 350 degrees Fahrenheit oven and bake about 45 minutes or until the cake tests done. Let the cake cool on at least an hour before removing from the pan.
A collaborative recovery group has been established in the area to lead the next phase of disaster relief following the June 22-23 flood.

The purpose of the Great Lakes Bay Long Term Recovery Group is to bring together faith-based organizations, volunteer and social agencies, governmental agencies, community-based organizations, business and individual volunteers who seek to address the spiritual, emotional and physical needs of the individuals and families affected by the flooding event.

The group will have several subcommittees. A communications team will will keep community partners and residents updated on the current workings of the larger committee and available resources. An intake committee will identify unmet needs within the community and direct any resources available to those unmet needs.

The committee encourages those affected by the flood to call 211 as their first local connection. This is a 24/7 information and referral service registering needs and connecting individuals to resources. For those that receive assistance from the State of Michigan, there are "Emergency" resources available. On a national level, Midland is waiting on word from President Donald Trump to see if federal assistance may be made available to residents and businesses.

The long term recovery group's key point of contact is Jenifier Boyer, Midland County Emergency Management coordinator. She can be reached at jboyer@co.midland.mi.us or 989-832-6750.

Partners of this collaboration include: American Red Cross, The Arc of Midland, Bay County Emergency Management, The Dow Chemical Co., First United Methodist Church - Midland, Gladwin County Emergency Management Office, Memorial Presbyterian Church - Midland, MI Community Service Commission, MI Southern Baptist Disaster Relief, MI State Police/ Emergency Management Homeland Security Division, Michigan Volunteer Organizations Active in Disaster , Midland Area Community Foundation, Midland Area Homes, Midland County Department of Health and Human Services, Midland County Emergency Management Office, Midland Habitat for Humanity, Saginaw County Emergency Management Office, St. John's Episcopal Church - Midland, The Salvation Army, United Methodist Church Disaster Recovery, United Way of Midland County and 211 NE Michigan.
WASHINGTON  President Donald Trump abruptly declared a ban Wednesday on transgender troops serving anywhere in the U.S. military, catching the Pentagon flat-footed and unable to explain what it called Trump's "guidance."

His proclamation, on Twitter rather than any formal announcement, drew bipartisan denunciations and threw currently serving transgender soldiers into limbo.

"Please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military," the commander in chief tweeted.

In Decatur, the leader of a local group for lesbian, gay and transgender people and their families described the move as disappointing and upsetting.

The attitude and policy shift also could embolden those who might commit violence against transgender people, said Mark Schleeter, president of the Decatur chapter of PFLAG, formerly known as Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

We have transgender persons in our support group  some adults, some youth  and I can tell you it's extremely painful and difficult to come out and claim who are they are who they truly are, want to be and need to be, Schleeter said. To hear this from the head of our country has an emotional impact; it raises the whole specter of prejudice and bias as well as violence.

Trump wrote that he had consulted with "my generals and military experts," but he did not mention Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, the retired Marine general who less than one month ago told the military service chiefs to spend another six months weighing the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. At the time, Mattis said this "does not presuppose the outcome of the review," but Trump's tweets appeared to have done just that.

The Pentagon has refused to release any data on the number of transgender people currently serving. A Rand Corp. study has estimated the number at between 1,320 and 6,630 out of 1.3 million active-duty troops.

Criticism for Trump's action was immediate and strong from both political parties.

His action is "harmful, misguided and weakens, not strengthens our military," said Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York.

John McCain, the Arizona Republican and Vietnam War hero, said Trump was simply wrong.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," he said. "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military -- regardless of their gender identity."

Not everyone at the Capitol agreed.

Rep. Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said, "The president's decision was the absolute right decision. ... It's about time that a decision is made to restore the warrior culture and allow the U.S. military to get back to business."

Transgender people already in uniform were concerned about what comes next.

"Everybody is hurt, everybody is scared," said Rudy Akbarian, 26, who is in the military but did not want to identify his branch.

Akbarian, who said his chain of command was supportive as he transitioned from female to male, said his time to re-enlist is coming up and he might stay to ensure there is a strong voice for transgender troops like himself.

"I'm going to remain hopeful," he said. "America is really progressive and definitely smart, and there are a lot of transgender members serving in critical roles."

Shane Ortega, a 30-year-old retired staff sergeant in Los Angeles, said he's concerned more for civilians than transgender troops.

Ortega, who transitioned to male while serving in the Army and served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, said, "When Donald Trump attacks what America calls its heroes or its warrior class, it means it's only a matter of time before he starts attacking and disassembling the American public, and that's what I have the most fear of."

Hours after Trump's tweets, Defense Secretary Mattis, who has been on vacation this week, was publicly silent and the Pentagon referred all questions to the White House.

Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Pentagon was working with the White House to "address the new guidance" from Trump. That suggested there is not yet any new written policy or executive order.

Trump's sudden declaration appears to halt a decades-long trend toward more inclusive policies on military service, including the repeal in 2010 of a ban on gays serving openly. President Bill Clinton in 1993 began the push to allow gays to serve. In December 2015, President Barack Obama's Pentagon chief, Ash Carter, announced that all military positions would be open to women. Liberalizing policy on transgender troops was the next step.

Just last week, when asked about the transgender issue at a Senate hearing, Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said, "I am an advocate of every qualified person who can meet the physical standards to serve in our uniformed services to be able to do so." He mentioned no opposition among service chiefs to allowing transgender service.

Transgender service members have been able to serve openly since 2016, when Carter ended the ban. Since Oct. 1, transgender troops could receive medical care and start changing their gender identifications in the Pentagon's personnel system.

Carter also gave the services until July 1 to develop policies to allow people already identifying as transgender to join the military if they met normal standards and have been stable in their identified genders for 18 months.

On June 30, Mattis extended the July 1 deadline to next Jan. 1, saying the services should study the impact on the "readiness and lethality of our forces." That is the prism through which Mattis has viewed most, if not all, personnel issues. Just last week he ordered a high-level Pentagon review aimed at verifying that all military personnel policies "support and enhance warfighting readiness and force lethality."

In a series of tweets, Trump said allowing transgender troops to serve is an unacceptable burden on the military's ability to fight and win wars.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he wrote.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to a request for an estimate of these costs. The Rand Corp., a federally funded think tank, has estimated that each year between 29 and 129 service members will seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy. It also estimated that extending gender transition-related health care coverage to transgender personnel would cost the military $2.4 million to $8.4 million a year, out of a yearly Pentagon budget of more than $600 billion.

During his election campaign, Trump occasionally presented himself as a potential ally of gays and lesbians, promising to be a "real friend" of their community.

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Trump had made "a military decision." She said it was his judgment that allowing transgender service "erodes military readiness and unit cohesion."

Sanders said the "president's national security team was part of this consultation" and that Trump "informed" Mattis of his decision immediately after he made it on Tuesday.

Carter, who served as defense secretary the last two years of Obama's presidency, issued a statement criticizing Trump's move.

"I continue to maintain that what matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified," Carter wrote. "To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military."

Trump's tweets followed a fight in Congress over federal funding of gender transition surgeries. Earlier this month, the Republican-led House rejected a proposal to end the Obama-era practice of requiring the Pentagon to pay such costs.

Herald & Review staff writer Tom Lisi contributed to this story.
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NEW YORK (AP)  Amazon plans to make thousands of job offers in just one day as it holds a giant job fair next week at nearly a dozen warehouses across the U.S.

Those offered jobs on the spot will pack or sort boxes and help ship them to customers. Nearly 40,000 of the 50,000 jobs will be full time. Most of these jobs will count toward Amazon's previously announced goal of adding 100,000 full-time workers by the middle of next year.

In Illinois, the hiring location is the company's facility in Romeoville, just north of Joliet.

The hiring spree is yet another sign of Amazon's massive growth at a time when traditional retailers are closing stores and cutting jobs.

PREPARING FOR THE HOLIDAYS

It's also a way for Amazon to lock in employees before the start of the busy holiday shopping season, when other retailers look to hire seasonal workers. Retailers are facing a tighter job market; the nation's unemployment rate is 4.4 percent, near a 16-year low.

Same-day job offers, like Amazon is promising, are "extremely unusual," said Andrew Chamberlain, the chief economist at job site Glassdoor.

He said a shortage of workers, plus Amazon's rapid growth, is likely why the company is trying to scoop up workers quickly.

"There are just not as many available bodies," Chamberlain said. "It can be a real challenge to hire."

LABOR GROWTH

Amazon has long been known for investing the money it makes back into its businesses. Part of that involves opening new warehouses, or fulfillment centers, and filling them with employees. Consequently, Amazon has often reported quarterly losses , even as revenue grows.

The number of full-time and part-time workers at Amazon has swelled from 56,000 at the end of 2011 to more than 340,000 last year. In roughly the same period, the number of people employed by the parent company of Sears and Kmart has been slashed in half to about 140,000 workers.

Amazon plans to expand further: It recently announced a $13.7 billion deal to buy organic grocer Whole Foods, it added Sears' Kenmore appliances to its website and it's rolling out its own ready-to-cook meal kits, competing with companies such as Blue Apron.

THE DETAILS

Amazon's stock increased $12.93, or 1 percent, to close at $1,052.80 Wednesday, after Amazon announced its plans.

Amazon.com Inc. said its jobs offer health insurance, disability insurance, retirement savings plans and company stock. Pay differs based on location, according to job postings on Amazon's site. It is offering a starting rate of $13 an hour for a full-time job in Baltimore and $12.25 an hour for a similar position in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

The job fair will take place next Wednesday from 8 a.m. to noon local time and will include tours and sessions with company representatives. Job prospects will also be introduced to robots and other automation technology Amazon uses at its warehouse operations.

The event will take place at 10 Amazon shipping sites. Besides Baltimore and Kenosha, they are Chattanooga, Tennessee; Etna, Ohio; Fall River, Massachusetts; Hebron, Kentucky; Kent, Washington; Robbinsville, New Jersey; Romeoville, Illinois and Whitestown, Indiana. Amazon will also hold events for part-time positions in Oklahoma City and Buffalo, New York.

___
SPRINGFIELD  Illinois legislators have adjourned a second day of a special session on school funding after just minutes.

The House and Senate met briefly Thursday, but didn't take up any action.

Gov. Bruce Rauner summoned lawmakers with the task of resolving a fight over a new funding calculation. Both chambers have approved a plan, but the Senate has refused to send it to Rauner, who says he'll rewrite it over objections to money that Chicago will get.

Senate President John Cullerton says he'll send the bill Monday. Rauner reiterated his call at a Thursday news conference for Cullerton to send it immediately.

If lawmakers want to override, they'll need a three-fifths majority vote. If they don't have the votes, the plan dies and questions remain about when schools will get funding.

Most of Wednesday was spent with Rauner and Democratic leaders pointing fingers over who's hindered progress, a familiar scenario in a state that only recently ended an unprecedented two-year budget impasse.

Rauner summoned the Democrat-majority Legislature to Springfield after it failed to meet his deadline to send him a plan that rewrites how Illinois doles out school funds. Rauner has threatened to rewrite and send back the plan over objections to additional money for Chicago Public Schools, but refused to detail his changes. Both chambers approved the proposal but the Senate hasn't sent it to Rauner.

Cullerton said he wanted to meet with Rauner to negotiate because there's no backup and the plan dies if lawmakers are unable to override Rauner's changes, which requires a three-fifths majority vote. He said Rauner has refused to meet.

Cullerton also questioned Rauner's "mental state" after lawmakers, including Republicans, defied Rauner and voted in favor of a budget with an income tax increase earlier this month. Since then, at least 20 members of Rauner's administration have either been fired or resigned.

"I'm afraid he's acting out of anger," Cullerton said. "He's having a bad month."

Rauner, in two Capitol news conferences, demanded Cullerton send him the bill immediately and called the delay "unconscionable." He accused Cullerton of refusing to meet until Monday and blamed House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving House speaker in the country who's been the source of much of Rauner's criticism. Rauner claimed Democrats are manufacturing a school funding crisis.

"This has been vicious manipulation of the democratic process for political gain for a political machine," Rauner told reporters.

Meanwhile, Madigan said Rauner is failing to negotiate.

"The governor has adopted a no-compromise position to keep the state in chaos for several weeks at once," he said.

Both chambers adjourned without taking up any action. Attendance was noticeably low with dozens absent. Two House Democrats boycotted to work on a service project for children.

"We have nothing to do in this chamber," House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie said on the floor.

A school funding overhaul is required because the budget lawmakers approved says schools must get funding through an "evidence-based model." Both parties agree the current, decades-old calculation is unfair, but they've clashed over proposed changes.

The first state payment to schools is due Aug. 10. While most districts say they have reserves to open on time, questions remain about how long they can operate without state funds.

The proposal in question funnels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring no district receives less money than last school year. The plan includes additional pension help for Chicago, the only Illinois district that picks up the employer's portion of teacher pension costs.

Also Wednesday, Rauner signed a plan that halts automatic increases of lawmaker cost-of-living pay adjustments, mileage reimbursement and other costs. The move means the price tag of the costly special session  roughly $48,000 for a single day  remains the same.

Rauner called the new law an important step for taxpayers. He said he justified the special session cost because "children come first."
DECATUR  Without a state funding solution for public education, several Macon County districts could run out of money and turn to borrowing by January or earlier, district leaders said Wednesday.

Their remarks came on the opening day of a special session called by Gov. Bruce Rauner to resolve the fight over public education funding. With just weeks to go before the start of the academic year, the Republican governor and Democratic leaders pointed fingers over who's hindered progress, a familiar scenario in a state that only recently ended an unprecedented two-year budget impasse.

"Somethings got to give, said Cerro Gordo Superintendent Brett Robinson. I dont see how the legislature, and the governor, can expect local school districts to function without their financial support and solely on local property taxes and other local revenues."

Rauner summoned lawmakers to Springfield after they failed to meet his deadline to send him a plan that rewrites how Illinois doles out school funds. Rauner has threatened to rewrite and send back the plan over objections to additional money for Chicago Public Schools, but refused to detail his changes. Both chambers approved the proposal but the Senate hasn't sent it to Rauner.

A school funding overhaul is required because the budget lawmakers approved earlier this month says schools must get funding through an "evidence-based model." Both parties agree the current calculation is unfair, but they've clashed over proposed changes.

The first state payment to schools is due Aug. 10. While most districts say they have reserves to open on time, questions remain about how long they can operate without state funds.

For Cerro Gordo, the answer is 167 days, meaning the district would run out of money by early January, Robinson said. State money makes up about one-third of the districts $5.1 million budget.

The need for a solution is even more urgent for Decatur Public Schools, which would run out of cash in mid-November, top officials have said. The district receives about $53 million from the state, including general aid and money for special education, bilingual programs, breakfasts and lunches, drivers education, truancy and early childhood programs.

Chief Operational Officer Todd Covault said Decatur could turn to borrowing if the district runs out of money, but its options arent appealing.

The district could issue tax anticipation warrants, which would allow it to borrow money against future taxes. But that solution isnt a sustainable one  Covault compared it to a person taking out a credit card to pay for ongoing expenses.

He said the district could also attempt to issue working cash bonds, but the market likely would be flooded with other districts in the same situation, making it difficult to find an investor.

Meridian Superintendent Dan Brue said his district also would consider those options if the state doesnt come through with funding by mid-January, when his district would run out of money.

Brue said the district has $5.7 million in local tax dollars it received this year and about $1.4 million in reserve from last years $2.9 million in state funding. The money in reserve is spread over nine different funds, and not all of it can be used for the operating budget, he said.

Plus, he said the state still owes the district $325,000 from last year.

At some point, the governor and legislative leaders are going to have to get together and compromise so students arent put at risk, he said.

The Mount Zion district is in a better position than many of its Central Illinois neighbors, Superintendent Travis Roundcount said. The district has just under $11 million on hand, more than the $6 million to $7 million per year that it typically receives from the state.

Because of the districts solid financial reserves, Roundcount said the districts administrators have not determined when their crisis point would be.

Weve never experienced a time where we did not receive any money from the state, he said. Its not something I think will happen, and were hopeful, again, that something can be done soon.

Superintendents for the Maroa-Forsyth, Sangamon Valley, Warrensburg-Latham, Argenta-Oreana and Central A&M school districts could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The proposal in question, known as Senate Bill 1, funnels money to the neediest districts first after ensuring no district receives less money than last school year. The plan includes additional pension help for Chicago, the only Illinois district that picks up the employer's portion of teacher pension costs.

Resolution is not likely for the rest of the week. Senate President John Cullerton said he won't send Rauner the legislation until Monday, saying that he first wanted to meet with Rauner to negotiate because there's no backup. The plan dies if lawmakers are unable to override Rauner's changes, which requires a three-fifths majority vote. He said Rauner has refused to meet.

Cullerton also questioned Rauner's "mental state" after lawmakers, including Republicans, defied Rauner and voted in favor of a budget with an income tax increase earlier this month. Since then, at least 20 members of Rauner's administration have either been fired or resigned.

"I'm afraid he's acting out of anger," Cullerton said. "He's having a bad month."

Rauner, in two Capitol news conferences, demanded Cullerton send him the bill immediately and called the delay "unconscionable." He accused Cullerton of refusing to meet until Monday and blamed House Speaker Michael Madigan, the longest-serving House speaker in the country who's been the source of much of Rauner's criticism. Rauner claimed Democrats are manufacturing a school funding crisis.

"This has been vicious manipulation of the democratic process for political gain for a political machine," Rauner told reporters.

Meanwhile, Madigan said Rauner is failing to negotiate.

"The governor has adopted a no-compromise position to keep the state in chaos for several weeks at once," he said.

Both chambers adjourned without taking up any action. Attendance was noticeably low with dozens absent. Two House Democrats boycotted to work on a service project for children.

"We have nothing to do in this chamber," House Majority Leader Barbara Flynn Currie said on the floor.

Herald & Review staff writers Justin Conn, Claire Hettinger, Ryan Voyles and Valerie Wells contributed to this story.
NORMAL  Town of Normal and McLean County Unit 5 officials hope resurrecting a joint committee will make both more stable and less susceptible to external obstacles.

"This partnership will serve to strengthen our locality and points to a future where political winds at the state and federal level won't have as much of an impact here locally," said school board member David Fortner, "because we're working and taking the steps to strengthen our sovereignty and taking care of our own and taking care of our neighbor."

The City Council and school board are expected to separately approve a measure establishing a permanent body with members from each that will meet at least quarterly. Normal City Manager Mark Peterson said the first meeting could be as soon as next month.

"This committee puts a mechanism in place to make sure we're always communicating," said city council member R.C. McBride. "The school districts are so strong, but we can never take that for granted, and hopefully this is a step to not take it for granted."

Each entity would be responsible for choosing two members to sit on the committee, with participants to rotate. The city manager and Unit 5's superintendent, currently Mark Daniel, would be nonvoting members.

"Our first challenge in doing this is to keep this liaison committee relevant," said Mayor Chris Koos; a similar committee died due to lack of interest. "We don't want to see it go away again."

Peterson gave a recent example of when the committee might have been useful: when Unit 5 approved a property tax abatement for Rivian Automotive in Normal on short notice in December.

The committee idea was spelled out during a joint meeting of the bodies Wednesday, the first such meeting in years. A similar meeting would be an annual requirement under the committee structure presented.

"Somewhere down the road we're all going to be off these boards, so I think it's important we build ... a great foundation so it can continue for years," said school board member Mike Trask.

Officials also heard a presentation on Unit 5's finances, including the state's influence. Unit 5, like many Illinois districts, is in danger of running out of money if legislators and the governor can't agree on a new education funding formula and get dollars flowing to districts this fall.

Unit 5 schools could close after 60 attendance days, said Finance Manager Marty Hickman. That would be sometime in November.

Classes start Aug. 16, but the district will be in hot water if the funding impasse drags on past Aug. 3, said Hickman.

"We will open our doors and continue to open our doors until we can no longer do so," Daniel said. "Surely that will not come to pass, but at the same time we're in a reality now that's totally unknown. We've never seen this in the state of Illinois."
Glatfelter to Shutdown Specialty Paper Machine, PM24, at Chillicothe Mill "In light of the challenging market conditions, we must aggressively manage costs by eliminating capacity without impacting our ability to service our customers."  Dante Parrini, Chairman and CEO, Glatfelter. July 27, 2017 - Glatfelter, a global supplier of specialty papers and engineered materials, today announced several cost reduction measures in its Specialty Papers Business Unit. The changes include the shutdown of Paper Machine 24 (PM24) at the company's Chillicothe, Ohio facility, the elimination of approximately 50 affected hourly positions at the facility, and a reduction of 70 salaried positions across the business unit. The PM24 shutdown will remove approximately 80,000 tons, or 10%, of capacity from the Specialty Papers Business Unit and reduce the Chillicothe facility's exposure to purchased pulp. Glatfelter plans for production to be absorbed by the remaining seven paper machines in the business unit. The supply-demand imbalance in the printing and writing markets continues to put pressure on industry operating rates and selling prices. In light of the challenging market conditions, we must aggressively manage costs by eliminating capacity without impacting our ability to service our customers. While these are difficult decisions, we must take the actions necessary to strengthen our Specialty Papers business and position Glatfelter for long-term success, said Dante C. Parrini, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. Production on PM24 is planned to end by September 30, 2017, and will result in the elimination of approximately 50 manufacturing jobs. Glatfelter will assist the affected employees to attempt to identify new positions for them within the mill. In addition, Specialty Papers' salaried workforce will be reduced by approximately 70 employees across the business. The machine shutdown and headcount reductions are expected to result in an annual net profitability improvement of approximately $9 million and the avoidance of costly market-driven downtime. In connection with these cost reduction initiatives, the company will recognize an aggregate pre-tax charge to earnings of approximately $8 million to $9 million including an estimated $5 million to $6 million in non-cash charges. The majority of the charge is expected to be recognized in the third quarter of 2017. Our continuous improvement initiatives in recent years have improved paper machine productivity and efficiencies across Specialty Papers' asset base. These improvements, combined with the market weakness, have eliminated the need for the capacity from the PM24 machine, said Tim Hess, Senior Vice President and President, Specialty Papers Business Unit. We appreciate everything our employees have done to help us compete successfully in our markets, and we are committed to assisting affected employees and their families during this time of transition. Glatfelter is a global supplier of specialty papers and fiber-based engineered materials, offering innovation, world-class service and over a century and a half of technical expertise. To learn more, please visit: www.glatfelter.com . SOURCE: Glatfelter
International Paper Reports Second Quarter 2017 Earnings "Solid second quarter results were supported by healthy demand in our North American Industrial Packaging business and record fluff pulp sales which were partially offset by higher than expected OCC costs."  Mark Sutton, Chairman and CEO, International Paper. July 27, 2017 (Press Release) - International Paper (NYSE: IP) today reported second quarter 2017 net earnings attributable to International Paper of $80 million ($0.19 per share) compared with net earnings of $209 million ($0.50 per share) for the first quarter of 2017 and net earnings of $40 million ($0.10 per share) in the second quarter of 2016. Net earnings in all periods include the impact of special items, if any, non-operating pension expense and discontinued operations. Adjusted operating earnings in the second quarter of 2017 were $270 million ($0.65 per share) compared with $249 million ($0.60 per share) in the first quarter of 2017 and $379 million ($0.92 per share) in the second quarter of 2016. Quarterly net sales were $5.8 billion in the second quarter of 2017 compared with $5.5 billion in the first quarter of 2017 and $5.3 billion in the second quarter of 2016. The year-over-year revenue increase was primarily due to the pulp business that was acquired in late 2016. Business segment operating profits in the second quarter of 2017 were $129 million, compared with $428 million in the first quarter of 2017 and $627 million in the second quarter of 2016. The second quarter of 2017 includes the impact of the Kleen Products settlement. Cash provided by operations was $645 million in the second quarter of 2017 and $605 million in the second quarter of 2016. Free cash flow (non-GAAP) was $355 million for the second quarter of 2017 and $527 million in the second quarter of 2016. "Solid second quarter results were supported by healthy demand in our North American Industrial Packaging business and record fluff pulp sales which were partially offset by higher than expected OCC costs," said Mark Sutton, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "Looking forward, we see margin expansion associated with the realization of our announced price increases, acquisition synergies and significantly lower outage expenses driving a very strong second half and putting IP on track to deliver our full year earnings target." SEGMENT INFORMATION The performance of the Company's business segments is measured quarter to quarter without variations caused by special items, as management focuses on business segment operating profits excluding those items (non-GAAP). The combination of IP's legacy pulp business with the acquired pulp business in 2016 is now called Global Cellulose Fibers and reported as a separate business segment (previously reported in Printing Papers). Prior periods have been restated to reflect this change. Second quarter 2017 business segment operating profits and business trends compared with the prior quarter are as follows: Industrial Packaging operating profits in the second quarter of 2017 were $50 million ($407 million excluding special items) compared with $365 million ($360 million excluding special items) in the first quarter of 2017. U.S. box shipments remain strong driven by favorable domestic conditions. Earnings were also favorably impacted by solid sales price realization and strong demand for U.S. kraft linerboard exports. This was partially offset by mill outage costs and rising costs for OCC. Global Cellulose Fibers operating profits in the second quarter of 2017 were $7 million ($12 million excluding special items) compared with a loss of $70 million (a loss of $51 million excluding special items) in the first quarter of 2017. The business achieved record fluff pulp sales volumes in the quarter as global demand for fluff pulp remains strong. Greater synergy benefits, favorable pricing and lower overall manufacturing cost, along with lower planned maintenance outage expenses, contributed to the earnings increase. Printing Papers operating profits were $86 million ($88 million excluding special items) in the second quarter of 2017 versus $100 million in the first quarter of 2017. Earnings in North America were impacted by lower sales volumes, unfavorable mix and heavy maintenance outage expenses, partially offset by higher export sales volume from Brazil. Consumer Packaging operating profits were a loss of $14 million (a loss of $5 million excluding special items) in the second quarter of 2017 compared with earnings of $33 million in the first quarter of 2017. The earnings decrease in the quarter was largely attributable to annual outage expenses and reliability issues at the Augusta, GA mill. International Paper recorded Ilim joint venture equity earnings of $21 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared with $50 million in the first quarter of 2017. Operationally, sales volumes were seasonally higher and average sales price realizations improved, primarily for export sales, however, maintenance outage costs were higher. The Company recognized a non-cash after-tax foreign exchange loss of $18 million in the second quarter of 2017 ($0.04 per share), compared with a gain of $23 million in the first quarter of 2017 ($0.06 per share), primarily due to Ilim's U.S. dollar denominated net debt. CORPORATE EXPENSES Net corporate expenses, excluding non-operating pension expense, were $4 million for the second quarter of 2017, compared with $11 million in the first quarter of 2017. EFFECTIVE TAX RATE The reported effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2017 was 298%, reflecting a tax benefit for the second quarter of $89 million that includes a net $47 million tax benefit primarily related to planned income tax refund claims, compared to a 2017 first quarter effective tax rate of 34%. Excluding special items and non-operating pension expense, the effective tax rate for the second quarter of 2017 was 30%, compared with an effective tax rate of 30.5% in the first quarter of 2017. The lower rate of 30% in the second quarter was due to the benefit of a state tax rate change. EFFECTS OF SPECIAL ITEMS Special items in the second quarter of 2017 included a pre-tax gain of $16 million ($11 million after taxes) for Restructuring and other charges. Included within Restructuring and other charges were a pre-tax gain of $14 million ($9 million after taxes) related to the sale of our investment in ArborGen and a gain of $2 million (before and after taxes) for other items. Special items also included a pre-tax charge of $354 million ($219 million after taxes) related to an agreement to settle the Kleen Products antitrust class action lawsuit, a pre-tax loss of $9 million ($4 million after taxes) for the impairment of the assets of our Foodservice business in Asia, a pre-tax loss of $5 million ($3 million after taxes) for integration costs associated with the 2016 acquisition of the Weyerhaeuser pulp business, and a net charge of $1 million (before and after taxes) for other items. Also included in special items is a net tax benefit of $47 million primarily due to planned income tax refund claims. Special items in the first quarter of 2017 included a pre-tax charge of $14 million ($8 million after taxes) to amortize the inventory fair value step-up of the pulp business acquired in December 2016, pre-tax charges of $4 million ($2 million after taxes) for costs associated with the acquisition of that business, a net bargain purchase gain of $6 million (before and after taxes) on the June 2016 acquisition of the Holmen Paper newsprint mill in Madrid, Spain and a charge of $2 million (before and after taxes) for other items. Also included in special items is a $15 million tax expense associated with an international investment restructuring. Special items in the second quarter of 2016 included a pre-tax charge of $28 million ($20 million after taxes) for costs associated with the sale of our Asia corrugated packaging business, a pre-tax charge of $5 million ($3 million after taxes) for costs associated with the agreement to purchase the Weyerhaeuser pulp business, a tax expense of $23 million associated with 2016 cash pension contributions and a tax benefit of $6 million related to an international legal entity restructuring. International Paper is a leading global producer of renewable fiber-based packaging, pulp and paper products with manufacturing operations in North America, Latin America, Europe, North Africa, Asia and Russia. To learn more, please visit: internationalpaper.com. SOURCE: International Paper
The response to Donald Trump's disturbing decision yesterday morning to ban all transgender people from serving in the military - including the thousands of trans people currently on active duty - has been vocal and swift. From trans veterans sharing their stories of bravery and service, to celebrities, advocates and politicians speaking out against the ban, Trump's controversial tweets were met with anything but silence.

One such vocal critic of the ban is long-time LGBTQ rights advocate Lady Gaga. She took to Twitter yesterday to share her thoughts with the president:

The message you have just sent has endangered the lives of people all over the United States and overseas bravely serving our nation @POTUS

 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) July 26, 2017

.@Potus Research says at least 1/2 of High School, University Students, & Employed Young People rarely/never discuss mental issues w/ anyone

 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) July 26, 2017

Many of these young people are transgender & suffer daily from the exact types of social isolation & targeting ur message encourages @POTUS

 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) July 26, 2017

. @POTUS Sincerely, did you know of the group you singled out today, 45% of them ages (18 to 24) have attempted suicide already?

 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) July 26, 2017

Within the Trans Community are many also who are strong & brave. They should be able to serve if they wish. To have honor if they do @POTUS

 xoxo, Gaga (@ladygaga) July 26, 2017

Go off, Gaga!

[h/t High Snobiety]



Image via Getty
After a successful Foxconn event at the White House yesterday announcing a massive $10 billion dollar plant in Wisconsin for 8K displays for Sharp televisions, the auto and medical industries, White House officials including Ivanka Trump have begun an outreach campaign to major technology, business and education leaders including Laurene Powell Jobs and Apple's Tim Cook for advice on shaping funding approaches to science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in U.S. public schools.

Bloomberg reported late yesterday afternnoon that "President Donald Trump's daughter on Wednesday joined Reed Cordish, the president's special assistant for technology initiatives, on a conference call with politicians, educators and CEOs to discuss STEM education, according to two people with knowledge of the call.

Other participants on the roughly hour-long call included Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson; Accenture North America's CEO Julie Sweet, Microsoft President Brad Smith; Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson and representatives from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Stanford, MIT and Broward County, Florida, Schools."

Yesterday President Trump announced that he would reinstate the US military ban on transgender people. Trump tweeted that "After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Being a responsible CEO, Apple''s Tim Cook is working with President Trump on many fronts that could eventually extend to open 3 major plants in the U.S. while at the same time letting it be known that he didn't agree with the President's move against transgenders, being gay himself. Cook's response is noted in his tweet below.









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Patna: Shell-shocked by the sudden turn of events in Bihar's political landscape, Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday said that he would approach the Supreme Court against Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi for not inviting his party to form the new government in Bihar in the aftermath of the resignation of Janata Dal  U leader and Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Wednesday.

{gallery}newsimages2017/july/072717_2{/gallery}"RJD, with its 88 seats in the state Assembly, is the largest party in the state. It was the constitutional duty of the Governor to invite us to form the government. Instead, he rushed the matter and invited Nitish Kumar. Currently, we are weighing our legal options and may take the case against the Governor to the Supreme Court," Yadav, who came out as the biggest loser in this whole 'Game of Thrones' in Bihar, said.

As recalled, by forming alliance with Kumar and the Congress in 2013, Yadav essentially revived the fortunes of his party allowing his party members to come back to power from years of political wilderness. He also managed to get his two school dropout sons to occupy plum positions in the Nitish government, one as the Health, Environment and Forest minister and the other as the Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar.

The Wednesday resignation of Nitish Kumar that essentially ended the political career of his two sons, was the last thing Yadav was expecting when just hours before he had announced that his son Tejaswi Yadav, the Deputy Chief Minister, was not going to resign despite CBI cases against him.

Calling Nitish Kumar an 'opportunist', Yadav, who may once again be headed to prison for his role in the fodder scam, said that it was he who made Kumar the Chief Minister of Bihar.

"His party only had 71 MLAs after 2015 Assembly elections. If I had wanted, I would not have made him the Chief Minister and instead chosen someone else. Yet, he chose to betray me like he has betrayed so many people in the past," the RJD President said adding the collapse of the Grand Alliance government in Bihar was in the making for months with Nitish Kumar colluding with the BJP.
Patna: Less than 24 hours after he resigned from his Chief Minister's post in Bihar, Janata Dal  U leader Nitish Kumar was once again back in the driver's seat after he was, for the sixth time in his life, sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar as part of his homecoming to the NDA coalition.

{gallery}newsimages2017/july/072717_1{/gallery}Kumar, who, amidst corruption charges against his political ally and Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, walked out of the 2-year old Mahagathbandhan by resigning from his post yesterday, was sworn in by West Bengal/Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at a simple ceremony at the Raj Bhawan on Thursday morning.

Along with him, his former ally and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Modi was also given the oath of office bringing the Nitish-Sushil duo together for the second time since 2013 when the JD-U leader walked out of the NDA coalition to protest the nomination of the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for India's Prime Minister's post.

The Governor has asked Kumar to prove his majority on the House floor on Friday.

Party spokesperson K. C. Tyagi said that the JD-U would support the BJP-led NDA government in both houses of the Parliament.

The Chief Minister elect, shortly after being sworn-in, said that he tried his best to save the Grand Alliance but when things went too far, he had no choice but to resign from the government on moral grounds.

"How could I be a part of a government whose leader had been charged with corruption when I have all my life stood against corruption? I took the decision in the interest of Bihar and its people," Kumar said.

Reacting to betrayal charges by his former allies and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu and Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi, Kumar said that he will give them a 'befitting' reply when the time was appropriate.

As reported, while Yadav alleged that Kumar had betrayed the people of Bihar who had given the Grand Alliance the mandate to rule in the last state polls, Gandhi slammed the JD-U leader of going back to the 'communal forces', read the BJP.

"We knew that Nitish Kumar, for the past 3-4 months, had been colluding with the communal forces to enhance his own political aspirations. What he has done to the people of Bihar will not go unpunished," Gandhi told the media.

Union Health Minister J. P. Nadda and senior BJP leader Anil Jain were present on the occasion. However, belying rumors, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not attend the function.

Interestingly, senior JD-U leader and former party President Sharad Yadav was also a no-show at today's event causing some murmur in the political corridor of Bihar.
1,600 Teachers Demand Iran's Judiciary Free Imprisoned Rights Activist

07/26/17

Source: Center for Human Rights in Iran

More than one thousand Iranian teachers have issued a statement calling for the release of a teacher imprisoned for peacefully advocating for teachers' rights in the southern port city of Bushehr.



Iranian teachers in Hamedan demanding release of jailed colleagues

(file phot)

"We believe the authorities should stop looking at trade union activities as a security threat and unconditionally free Mohsen Omrani," said the statement, signed by more than 1,600 teachers posted on the Telegram channel belonging to the Iranian Teachers Trade Association (ITTA) on July 20, 2017.

"We believe trade unionists and labor organizations should give full support to teachers who are fighting to improve the educational system and improve teachers' livelihoods, especially in rural areas where teachers' rights advocates are treated worse by security agencies that hound and persecute them," continued the statement.

"Imprisoning Mohsen Omrani will not put a dent in our struggle for our professional and educational rights," added the statement. "We will continue to insist that everyone, including teachers, have a respectable level of living. We insist on having a free and fair educational system with high quality standards."

Omrani, 40, began serving a one-year sentence for "propaganda against the state" on May 3, 2017. He was arrested in the winter of 2016 by the Intelligence Ministry in Bushehr and released on bail after being interrogated for a month.

The teachers' rights activist was initially sentenced to six years in prison in July 2016-five years for "membership in illegal groups" and one year for "propaganda against the state." The Appeals Court threw out the conviction for "membership in illegal groups," but upheld the sentence for "propaganda against the state" and banned Omrani from teaching for two years.

"We will use every civil and legal channel available to attain our rights and achieve our demands for ending the way security look at trade unions and freeing our incarcerated colleagues, especially Mohsen Omrani," said the teacher's statement.

When Omrani began serving his prison term in May 2017, his lawyer Amir Raeesian told the Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) that his client was cleared of the initial conviction for "membership in illegal groups" because the indictment did not identify the alleged groups.

"Mr. Omrani was only engaged in peaceful trade union activities," said Raeesian. "He wanted to improve the living standards of teachers and workers."

Independent unions are not allowed to operate in Iran, strikers often lose their jobs and risk arrest, and labor leaders who attempt to organize workers and bargain collectively are prosecuted under national security charges and sentenced to long prison sentences.

A photo shared on social media after his imprisonment shows Omrani at a gathering of teachers peacefully protesting the imprisonment of their colleagues, including former ITTA secretary general Esmail Abdi.

Since November 2016, Abdi has been serving a six-year prison sentence on charges of "propaganda against the state" and "collusion against national security" for his peaceful activism in support of labor rights. The verdict was upheld upon appeal, under pressure from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.

The ITTA was formed in 1998 during the reformist administration of President Mohammad Khatami. Since its creation, dozens of its members as well as independent teachers have been arrested and imprisoned for terms ranging from four to 15 years for peacefully defending teachers' rights.
Eight former workers of investment bank, Databank, have been employed at senior levels of the finance ministry since Ken Ofori-Atta was appointed as finance minister, minority leader Haruna Iddrisu has said.



According to him, the move is part of a grand effort by the Akufo-Addo-led government to cleanse the civil service.



Even at the ministry of finance, as many as eight civil service positions have been filled by officers who hitherto were working with the minister of finance at Databank and have been put on the payroll of the Ghana revenue authority. We will not accept the undue politicization of the civil and public service of Ghana, the Tamale South MP noted at a press conference organized by the NDC in Accra Thursday.



He also urged President Akufo-Addo to desist from interfering in the operations of the electoral commission.



He should stay off and intruding into the operations and activities of the independent electoral commission of Ghana. While we have accommodated him sweeping off the civil and public service and replacing them with officials of the New Patriotic Party, we unable to accept and live with any attempt by him to erode public confidence in the independent electoral commission, he said.

Source: starrfmonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The New Patriotic Party (NPP) Member of Parliament for Assin Central, Kennedy Agyapong has stated he feels vindicated following accusations by some unidentified staff of the Electoral Commission (EC) commission against the Chairperson Mrs. Charlotte Osei for dishing out contracts without recourse to the Public Procurement Act.



According to him, corrupt practices clad in shady deals existed long before the assumption of office of the chairperson, therefore, the allegation does not come as a surprise to him.



I am not surprised at all because Ive always said that this woman Charlotte Osei and his deputies are in bed with the NDC, but immediately I start talking about her then the women advocate will rise up against me for attacking her. I guess this corrupt practices recently has vindicated me and people will now take me serious, he said on Adom TVs Morning Show Badwam Tuesday.



Mrs. Osei is being accused of single-highhandedly dishing out contracts without recourse to the Public Procurement Act by some unidentified staff of the commission.



She is also accused of providing an estimate of one million Ghana cedis for the renovation of her house.



Mrs. Osei in her response accused her deputies of gross insubordination, corruption, and arrogance.



But the outspoken MP who is known to have criticized the appointment of Charlotte Osei as last year indicated that the issues raised in the allegations must be investigated.



He said the allegation leveled against the EC Chair has destroyed the credibility of the Electoral Commission thus the implicated commissioners must step aside for thorough investigations.



Mr Kennedy Agyapong is of the conviction that their continuous stay will only dent the image of the commission in the sight of the public.



They should be sacked for investigations to be conducted because Charlotte Oseis allegations against her deputies are serious and needs to be taken seriously. Charlotte Osei cant vindicate herself because she did nothing to stop the corrupt acts by her deputies and that also makes her a criminal. We will be mocked if these people are left to continue their rot he warned.

Source: adomonline.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Reports reaching Peacefmonline.com indicate that the Minority in Parliament is threatening to file for the impeachment of the Speaker of Parliament, Professor Aaron Mike Oquaye.



The Minority has accused the Speaker of undermining the neutrality of the country's Legislative House.



According to them, the Speaker has been showing gross levels of bias towards the Minority.



A complaint by the Minority Leader, Haruna Iddrisu was filed against the Speaker on Thursday, July 27.



Hon. Haruna Iddrisu noted that the Speaker had restrained him from posing more than one question to the Minster of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Dr. Owusu Afriyie Afoko, who was on the floor to answer questions pertaining to the government's "Planting For Food and Jobs" programme.



Hon. Iddrisu is said to have been angered by the decision of the Speaker.



"You know the essence of parliamentary questions is significant and integral to the exercise of oversight. Your refusal to allow me even as Minority Leader to proceed can only be an effort to cripple us. We respect you as chair of this house; we have a responsibility as leadership to support you in maintaining order in this house," he exclaimed.



Hon. Iddrisu's remarks received some responses from the Speaker who also said; I have consistently made it clear to both sides of the House  Majority and Minority  that no one will be allowed a double bite as I said on many occasions to both the Minority and the Majority. In all honesty you all know that.



Let me make it clear that this argument was most unnecessary and that in future what is going to happen is no leader shall have double bite at the chamber."



Hon A.B. Fuseini, a ranking member of the Communications Committee of Parliament has disclosed that Prof. Mike Oquaye's behaviour may force the House to take an "unprecedented action" against him if his attitude persists.



For want of a better term, the Speaker has exhibited gross levels of bias that is unbelievable. In the annals of the history of parliament, I have never seen this kind of behaviour. There is always reverence and respect for the leadership and when it comes to the leadership there is a special dispensation Speakers give to the leadership and this is not the first time the Speaker has treated our side with this level of disrespect and I think that we are reaching the end of the rope with that kind of behaviour.



We are going to be forced to take maybe an unprecedented action that has never happened in the annals of our fourth republic . . . We are very close and there are a number of options available to us as Minority to exploit including the impeachment of the Speaker . . . [Impeachment] is an option available to us to exercise and when we deem it fit, we are going to exercise it if things dont change, he said.











Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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First it was #Safolie, a harsh tag to troll Dome-Kwabenya MP, Sarah Adwoa Safo for claiming credit for the construction of a community day school in her constituency, then came the spy bug revelation in which former lands and Natural Resources Minister, Inusah Fuseini owned up to placing a spying gadget in the office of the current minister like what is usually done by secret agents and undercover journalists.



Before social media could have enough of that, the appointment of five-time presidential candidate of PNC, Edward Mahama generated some controversy with his rather unusual position of Ambassador-at-Large and now taking over and now breaking social media is a post from none other than Ghanas only one-time President, John Mahama



Social media are having a filled day after what seemed to be self-gratifying post backfired bigtime against the Former President who had posted pictures of a visit he paid to the family of late Captain Mahama



The initial caption that accompanied the pictures openly stated that the president upon his visit donated some amount of money to the wife and children of late Captain Mahama for their upkeep but this caption was later edited and the portion stating that he gave money to his grand nephews deleted from the post.



This has sparked widespread condemnation with many people questioning the motive behind the public announcement and others reminding the president of what the scriptures says in the Holy book of Matthew 6:3 & 4

"But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

President Mahama is a relation to late Captain Mahama who was gruesomely murdered in Denkyira Obuasi after residents mistook him for an armed robber.



He was given a state Burial and posthumously promoted to the rank of a Captain from a Major.



It is unclear however if these are part of efforts by the former president to rework his way into active politics and contest the 2020 elections after he was humiliatingly defeated in the 2016 election by Akufo-Addo.



Attached are some of the comments people have shared so far trolling Mahama.

Source: ghanaweb.com









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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After spending torrid years with then Candidate Akufo-Addo in opposition, leading all the fierce attacks on his fellow Northerner, former President John Mahama, and hoping to play a key role in a New Patriotic Party administration, Information Minister, Mustapha Abdul Hamid, is instead, reported playing second fiddle to his deputies.



Party insiders and sources at the Flagstaff House told this paper that, kinsmen of President Akufo-Addo wielding unlimited influence in government have succeeded in rendering Mustapha Hamid impotent at the Information Ministry.



Though Hamid was appointed as both Information Minister and Presidential Spokesperson, the presidential spokesperson job has been taken away from him completely. He is just there as Minister. He has no influence in governmenteven his deputies have more influence in government than him, a source revealed.



However, to dispel media reports of how the Information Minister is being shabbily treated and to assuage his pain after it had been reported in the media, the source disclosed that handlers of the President quickly arranged for Mustapha Hamid to moderate the Presidents recent maiden encounter with the media.



According to the source, the Information Minister had little knowledge of the presidential encounter until he was told at the last minute to prepare to moderate the program. This was done after it was reported in the media that he has been sidelined.



Despite this, the Information Minister, The aL-hAJJ has gathered, is not oblivious of how President Akufo-Addos advisers, mainly from his Akyem clan, have relegated him to the background and are relying on his deputies to run the Ministry.



Unsure of where to direct his grievances after several complaints to the President yielded no results, the outspoken Mustapha Hamid is said to have threatened to resign from government if he is not moved to a different ministry in the Presidents first reshuffle.



Another source told this paper that Mustapha Hamid feels used and dumped by Akufo-Addo and the NPP. He never thought he will be shabbily treated like this in an Akufo-Addo government. Hamid was Akufo-Addos darling boy throughout his days in opposition but now things have changed. He is the least respected in this government.



The source narrated how Mustapha Hamids deputies have ceased taking instructions and directives from him. They dont regard him as head of that Ministrythey feel they are not under him. They bypass him and report to the Flag Staff House directly.



Ordinarily, he should have been nominated Cabinet Minister but nothe Akyem guys around Akufo-Addo made sure his name was struck out. This was done purposely to render him powerless because there has not been any government in the Fourth Republic that Information Ministers were not part of Cabinet, the source added.



Mustapha Hamid, then spokesperson of candidate Akufo-Addo was the marksman of the NPP that led all the vicious and scathing attacks on his fellow Northern brother, John Mahama, to ensure the party won last years election.



Aside variously branding former President Mahama and his family incompetent and corrupt, Mustapha Hamid was later to accuse the former President and his brother, Ibrahim Mahama of attempting to bribe the Northern Regional Chairman of NPP, Bugri Naabu with cars and money among others.



He has, however, apologised for some of the disparaging statements he said about the person of Mr Mahama and his family when he was put to strict proof during his parliamentary vetting for the position of Information Minister.



When the NPP won the 2016 election, Mustapha Hamid was appointed spokesperson for the NPPs side of the transitional team only to be surprisingly substituted with Kojo Oppong Nkrumah who was later to be appointed one of his three deputies.



Shortly after his appointment as Information Minister following his resignation as a lecturer at the University of Cape Coast, Mustapha Hamid openly said he would have preferred President Akufo-Addo sent him to a different ministry.



Though he apologised for this comment too during his vetting - insisting, he was on the moon when he was appointed to the Information Ministry, sources told this paper that his comment angered the President and his Akyem controlling sect who have halted all dalliance with the Information Minister.



This has led to the Information Minister virtually wasting at the Ministry with his deputies running the show as he looks on helplessly.

Source: Al-Hajj









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The National Democratic Party (NDP) has pledged to fully support the current administration to deliver on its mandate because its policies of probity, accountability and social justice were inherent in what the NDP stood for.



Consequently, it has called on the New Patriotic Party (NPP) administration to act swiftly to solve the power crises and other economic issues that had bedevilled the nation for years.



The power crisis, the Party noted had been the bane of Ghanaians for too long and therefore behoved on the current Government to do all that it could to end it to consolidate the confidence reposed in them.



The NDP in a statement signed by its Central Regional Chairman, Mr Sam Amoh and copied to the Ghana News Agency (GNA) in Cape Coast, advised the NPP Government not to repeat mistakes made by its predecessors in handling the issue.



The NPP, it said, should take a cue from the records and massive landslide defeat against the NDC to win the hearts of majority of Ghanaians who became embittered after experiencing massive Dumsor under the NDC.



It said Government must start without delay the Rural Electrification Programme (REP) and the Self - Help Electrification Project (SHEP) devoid of politics as any further delays would create problems for the poor consumers.



The statement further entreated the Government to constitute a new Board for the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) to ensure effective administration to build the energy front, describing the non formation of the Companys Board as disturbing.



So long as we have accepted by example that the President is a listening leader and father, we hope that his appointees would also behave as such, the statement added.



We trust the ruthless on and capable nature of the Energy Minister yet we are making this humble appeal for him to sit up, it further stated.

Source: GNA









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Audio Attachment: Listen to Kweku Baako Jnr.

Abdul Malik Kweku Baako has jumped to the defence of the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei; claiming she's being made a "target of scrutiny".



Kweku Baako, commenting on the issue on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', called for thorough investigations into the EC allegations but however would not fault Mrs. Charlotte Osei for responding to the allegations for the basis of her impeachment.



According to him, it was right for the EC Boss to have responded to the EOCO queries (same as the petition forwarded to the President) and set the records straight.



He opined that if Madam Osei had refused or failed to respond to the EOCO queries on the accusations by some concerned staff of the Commission who had also petitioned President Akufo-Addo and the Chief Justice to impeach her, the same public castigating her now, would have quizzed why her loud silence on the issues raised.



Kweku Baako explained that the critics lambasting Mrs. Charlotte Osei for making certain revelations through her responses on the issue were the same people who had believed the claims by the EC staff against her.



To him, the critics thought Mrs. Charlotte Osei is a "woman made of steel. She is an iron. Theres no blood flowing through her, so she should remain silent whilst those saying she should have been silent, they themselves were out there discussing. And when you listen to some of them in terms of their tone, they have believed the allegations. Theyve found the woman guilty already.



Mr. Baako stressed that he is "on the side of Charlotte. Yes but fortunately, for all of us; I am not the final arbiter. Thats why Im saying there should be investigations and verification. I am nobody. I cannot actually determine the outcome . . . Im not a coward. Im on her side.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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Audio Attachment: Listen to Kweku Baako on Haruna Iddrisu

Seasoned journalist, Kweku Baako has lambasted the Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu over his comments on the EC staff allegations against their boss, Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



Speaking to host Kwami Sefa Kayi on Peace FM's 'Kokrokoo', Kweku Baako found Hon. Haruna Iddrisu's comments "irresponsible".



To him, it was a "needless intrusion" for the Minority Leader to have stated that the National Democratic Congress (NDC) would resist any attempt by the Akufo-Addo led government to remove the Chairperson of the Electoral Commission, Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



The Minority Leader said the party would employ all means necessary to resist what he believed is a ploy by the NPP government to rid the EC of Mrs. Charlotte Osei.



According to him, the NDC won't sit nonchalantly to allow President Akufo-Addo to carry out his purported strategy to expel the EC Boss.



Nana Akufo-Addo should not extend his encroachment and political polarization to EC," he said.



But to Kweku Baako, the Minority Leader's assertions could potentially cause disorder in the country.



"In terms of leadership responsibility or if you like irresponsibility, I think the NDC has been worse off in this matter. It was a needless intrusion that had the potential to just create chaos on the issue and it didnt make sense to me. Honestly, I think that in his sober moment, he will know that he committed serious error of judgement, he stated emphatically.



He added that the EC feud is not beyond restoration.



The allegations and counter allegations must be investigated thoroughly. We dont have any choice. Indeed, we dont have the luxury of an alternative. Some people are saying that this has destroyed the ECs credibility beyond repair and recovery, and that thats about the end of the entity. Well, it has undermined its corporate integrity as well as some of the individuals integrity but I dont think its a fatal injury. Its not irredeemable. Indeed, I feel its a healing through negative experience that were going to go through. This is an opportunity for us to look at the EC carefully.



Expressing contrary views to the submissions by Kweku Baako on 'Kokrokoo' was the NDC Director of Elections, Samuel Ofosu Ampofo.



Mr. Ofosu Ampofo insisted that he smells some unseen forces trying to manipulate the members of the EC so as to render the Commission "ungovernable".



Is it being manipulated by some unseen hands because theres no smoke without fireIs it also true that some unseen hands are manipulating some members within the Commission to make the Commission ungovernableAre some members within the Commission being manipulated to make the Commission ungovernable? he also questioned.





Source: Ameyaw Adu Gyamfi/Peacefmonline.com/Ghana









Disclaimer : Opinions expressed here are those of the writers and do not reflect those of Peacefmonline.com. Peacefmonline.com accepts no responsibility legal or otherwise for their accuracy of content. Please report any inappropriate content to us, and we will evaluate it as a matter of priority.

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The Sydney florist whose Central Station shop was the scene of a fatal police shooting yesterday has spoken about the incident, telling reporters he feels sorry for the man killed during the incident.

Manuel Theoharas, 76, was working at the floristry when a man later identified as Danukul Mokmool, 30, allegedly began knocking over displays and causing a disturbance.

Theoharas said Mokmool then grabbed him from behind, held a broken bottle to his neck, and instructed him to call the police.

The shop-owner said Mokmool grabbed a pair of scissors from a nearby table. Theoharas was able to flee into the station.

Footage posted to social media shows several officers outside the shop telling a man to drop the scissors, before firing four shots in quick succession.

Theoharas defended the actions of the officers, saying I dont think they had a choice because he could have run out there while he was holding the scissors to hurt other people.



I just feel sorry for him, he lose his life, the young man, Theoharas said, adding they had no choice. If they didnt he would have attacked them.

Central Station was open as usual this morning. Theoharas said he didnt hesitate to return to work, as I have got all my friends here.

Police have launched a critical incident investigation into the shooting, and have appealed for all witnesses to come forward.

Source: ABC / Sydney Morning Herald.

Photo: Baxter Wang / Twitter.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a bill ratifying a prior agreement reached by Armenia and Russia to set-up a joint military force.

The agreement was signed by the defense ministers of the two countries in November 2016.

The two sides are to create a joint command, whose leader will be appointed by the Supreme Commander of the Armenian Armed Forces in agreement with the Supreme Commander of the Russian Armed Forces.
Oooh, honey. You should have known something like this was coming.

Remember Ivanka Trumps piss-poor Pride Month tweet back at the start of June? The one where the daughter of, and advisor to, the President of the United States, thought it would be a great idea to tweet the following:

I am proud to support my LGBTQ friends and the LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy.  Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) June 2, 2017

while apparently standing by as her dad went on stripping the hard-earned rights from the LGBTQI community?

Yeah, we remember it too. And so do many high-profile LGBTQI Americans, and their allies, who are appalled at Daddy Trumps blatantly discriminatory ban on trans people in the United States military.

Now Ivanka is being subject to a particularly fine form of roasting  a well-researched, deeply angry roast that squarely takes aim at her so-called influential position in the White House.

So you still stand with them, despite your fathers announcement today, @IvankaTrump? Will you stand up to @realDonaldTrump? #LGBTQ https://t.co/SvU4vJt2a3  Russell Owen (@politicsdawg) July 26, 2017

guys dont worry, Im sure Ivanka will release a statement soon that she disagreed with her fathers decision  Ann-Marie Alcantara (@itstheannmarie) July 26, 2017

Remember when people said Ivanka would be an ally for the LGBT community? https://t.co/5gVJeI5CK3  Devon Gray (@Devon_Gray) July 26, 2017

Ivanka might be the least influential Presidential advisor in history  Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) July 26, 2017

When I see people seriously (or jokingly) asking wheres Ivanka? I think of this @Olivianuzzi graf, which about sums up her influence pic.twitter.com/hxaBT3JrfU  Claire Landsbaum (@landsbaumshell) July 26, 2017

EVERYONE CALM DOWN! IVANKA WILL HANDLE THIS!! SHE PROMISED!!!! https://t.co/ti9x3OiBQl  Mark (@MShrayber) July 26, 2017

Looking forward to the behind-the-scenes Ivanka disagreed with her fathers decision and tried to change his mind articles https://t.co/VzU0iSBsUS  Nathan McDermott (@natemcdermott) July 26, 2017

All fair points. Ivanka Trump isnt just the Presidents daughter; both she and her husband occupy high-level staffer roles in the Trump administration. Saying that you support LGBTQI Americans, and then a month later allowing your dad  and boss  to trample their rights without so much as a peep  its poor form, and it doesnt bode well for the rest of Ivankas time as a presidential advisor.

Pick up your game, Ivanka. Hypocrisy is an ugly look.

Image: Sean Gallup / Getty.
South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill reportedly called Sky News host and Australian columnist Chris Kenny a right-wing fuckwit and honestly, where can we send the champagne.

The Australian reports that the comments occurred at a book launch for Climate Wars, by Weatherills colleague and Labor MP Mark Butler.

It details the ongoing battle between Australian bodies pushing to move into renewable energies, and those trying to prevent it. At one point, it uses the example of Adeles power outage at her concert earlier this year, which right-wing politicians and commentators used to prove South Australias push into renewables were doomed. (It almost immediately transpired that in fact an electrical chord had been unplugged by her rotating state.)

Weatherill was at the concert at the time, and so spoke about the incident at the book launch.

From The Australian:



During his speech, Mr Weatherill referenced a power outage at Adeles Adelaide concert in March, mentioned in the book, which was caused by a roadie unplugging the wrong cord, but was interpreted by concert-goers at the time as the fault of the states patchy power supply. Mr Weatherill described the angst he and several colleagues assembled in a corporate box had felt as the outage unfolded, and then their relief when the pop star confirmed the outage was unrelated to the states power supply He was scathing of the right-wing f..kwits who he believed had sought to take advantage of the situation, in particular The Australians associate editor Chris Kenny, and a series of tweets he released in the wake of the outage.

In fact, it wasnt just a series of tweets; Kenny did a full hit piece on the power outage and how local papers had covered it, despite Adele literally clarifying at the concert that it was thanks to a chord pulled out by her rotating stage.

Kenny is now having a lil tantz on Twitter, retweeting really bad jokes from accounts with 18 followers

Did you hear the joke  What did South Australians use before candles? Electricity  McDonald (@Novamarville) July 27, 2017

and quotes from Margaret Thatcher.

Not a surprise. When you manage to achieve highest electricity prices in the world when you have abundant energy: you lash out at criticism. pic.twitter.com/Hr3GLP7d7S  Mark Jardine (@markbjardine) July 27, 2017

The Australian reports that Weatherill is being urged to apologise, but tbqh with you, the only person urging anything might be Kenny himself.

glad to see jay weatherill join the thousands of other australians who also think chris kenny is a bit of a fuckwit  dan (@dannolan) July 27, 2017



Photo: Sky News.
FILE - In this May 8, 2017 file photo, attorney Guy Cook speaks a news conference while looking at a photo of Simon, a giant rabbit that died after flying from the United Kingdom to Chicago, in Des Moines, Iowa. A group of Iowa businessmen have filed a lawsuit against United Airlines over the death of Simon. The businessmen filed the lawsuit Wednesday, July 26, 2017, more than three months after airline workers found the continental rabbit named Simon dead. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
FILE - In this Sept. 26, 1957 file photo, members of the 101st Airborne Division take up positions outside Central High School in Little Rock, Ark. The troopers are on duty to enforce integration at the school. Officials said Wednesday, July 26, 2017, that newly unveiled plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of nine African-American students desegregating Little Rock Central High School will reflect on the progress made in educating students of diverse backgrounds. (AP Photo, File)
Palestinians and Israeli border police officers scuffle inside the Al Aqsa Mosque compound in Thursday, July 27, 2017. Thousands of Muslims flocked to a major Jerusalem shrine Thursday for the first organized prayers at the site in nearly two weeks, following Israel's removal of security devices installed after a deadly attack. (AP Photo/Mahmoud Illean)
The pandemic brought a technological revolution to schools. Is that a good thing?

Regardless of the path, by necessity, most educators agree the pandemic electrified the use of technology in the classroom.
A $27 billion energy project in Canada just became the latest casualty of a worldwide glut of natural gas.

Malaysia's Petroliam Nasional Bhd abandoned on Tuesday its plans for the Pacific Northwest LNG terminal, a plant that would have liquefied Canada's gas and sent the fuel by tanker from the western shores of British Columbia to buyers in Asia. Petronas cited market conditions in its decision.

Pacific Northwest LNG joins a growing list of projects that have been killed in recent months by plummeting LNG prices, throwing the economics of export terminals from Australia to Russia to Mozambique into question. Prices have crashed as increasing volumes of gas from Australia and America's shale formations hit the water, inundating the market with so much supply that analysts say demand may not catch up until the next decade.

Mullen CEO Disturbed by Companies Leaving Canada - Enlarge video

Developers have been trying to jump on a rather full and over-hyped bandwagon, Muhammed Ghulam, an equity research associate at Raymond James in Houston, said by email. There is simply too much LNG export capacity planned in North America, and cancellations, especially of Canadian projects, are likely to continue.

Last year, Woodside Petroleum Ltd. shelved its $40 billion plan to build a floating LNG terminal off Australia's western coast and a project in Oregon was canceled. More than two-thirds of the LNG terminals proposed to come online in the mid-2020s probably won't get built, Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. said in May.

Petronas said the decision to drop the Pacific Northwest project was driven by prolonged depressed prices and shifts in the energy industry. The company and its partners -- China Petrochemical Corp., Japan Petroleum Exploration Co. , Indian Oil Corp. -- remain committed to developing natural gas assets they've bought in Canada and will continue to explore all options for long-term investments, according to a statement .

Alternative Supply

The cancellation will see Japex take a loss of C$102 million ($82 million) for the year ending March 2018, it said in a statement Wednesday on its website. The Japanese company held a 10 percent stake in the Pacific Northwest project and was scheduled to receive 1 million tons a year of LNG from the proposed facility. There are multiple alternative sources of supply available to replace the canceled volumes, Japex said.

Petronas's decision probably took into account an announcement earlier this month from Qatar, the world's biggest LNG exporter, said Jason Feer, head of business intelligence at ship broker Poten & Partners Inc. in Houston. Qatar said it plans to double gas production from the giant North Field, the source of some of the cheapest gas in the world.

Anybody trying to raise money and get contracts has to look at Can I beat that? Can I match it?' Feer said.

Petronas said in an email Wednesday that there was no single cause or event that resulted in the decision.

Smaller, more nimble LNG projects will probably have a better chance at surviving than the massive, multi billion-dollar ones that have traditionally been built, said Robert Norfleet, managing director at Alembic Global Advisors . Of the more than 20 LNG export terminals that have been proposed in British Columbia, only two of the smaller kind are progressing.

Meanwhile, big-ticket ones backed by companies including Chevron Corp. and Royal Dutch Shell Plc are languishing. Our long-standing view is that Canadian projects are quite challenged, said Samir Kayande, director at Calgary-based RS Energy Group .

Canadian Costs

The Chevron and Woodside Petroleum Ltd. owned Kitimat plant is uncompetitive in the current market, Wood Mackenzie analyst Saul Kavonic said on Wednesday. Even if the LNG market recovers, Canadian projects must achieve substantial cost decreases before they become competitive with new supplies from Qatar, Mozambique and the U.S., the consultancy noted.

Asian buyers also prefer buying gas under the more flexible contracts U.S. LNG suppliers are promising, with terms linked to U.S. benchmark gas prices. In contrast, high-cost Canadian projects like Petronas's have typically needed long-term contracts based on higher prices linked to crude to attract financing.

The moral of the story is, if the U.S. is entering a business, you'd better be ready to compete on cost, said Kayande. You can't just sit around waiting for a higher price.

British Columbia Energy Minister Michelle Mungall said Tuesday that the province remains a player in the LNG sector. She said she planned to reassure other project developers of the government's support, including China's CNOOC Ltd. , whose Nexen Energy unit is proposing the Aurora LNG terminal in the province. That project has every intention of moving forward, she said.

Others aren't as optimistic.

LNG is now a global market that is going on everywhere else on the planet, said Rafi Tahmazian, a fund manager at Canoe Financial in Calgary. Canada missed out on that opportunity.
Movie review: Get thee to a nunnery to see the riotous 'Little Hours'
This piece, titled, The New Plague, depicts life in Philadelphia in the age of COVID. Artist and educator Raphael Tiberino began painting at the age of four and has been in the spotlight as a professional creative for over 25 years.
Buzzer by Tracey Scott Wilson was a standout in Theatre Exiles 2016-2017 season  with (from left) Matteo Scamell, Alex Keiper, and Akeem Davis. The theater has to move offices and venue while its home at the Wolf Building on 13th Street is being renovated. Read more

It has been a stressful year for Theatre Exile, a year in the life of one of Philly's vigorous, agile neighborhood theaters.

As A.D. Amorosi reported in the July 24 Metro, the South Philadelphia theater, celebrating its 20th anniversary, had its home on South 13th Street sold out from under it and faced the prospect of being,well, homeless.

"You never like not knowing, not being 100 percent sure," says founding artistic director Joe Canuso. "We just want to get settled again."

"I've been breathing into a bag for about a year," says Deborah Block, producing artistic director. "I literally made a bag I have on my desk for breathing into. It's been so stressful. So many things to figure out."

Quick, creative thinking saved the day. If all papers get signed, as Block expected them to by Friday, July 28, Theatre Exile will be in exile only 18 months or so and can then move back to its digs at 1340 S. 13th St.

How's that for melodrama?

"Hey, it's theater," Block says. "Sure, it's incredibly stressful to live in the unknown  but we're nimble, and we've been nomads before."

Theater Exile has been at its 13th Street address since 2009. It has shared the building with Cottman Transmission and Total Auto Care for a while now.

The sale of the building came as no surprise. "I had been speaking with the previous landlord for about a year," Block says. "I sensed they were getting ready to sell the building."

Last summer, when Cottman moved out, for-sale signs went up, and a terrific bidding war ensued. The owners got double the asking price  "it's a fabulous neighborhood," Block says  "and we made an offer on it, trying to get foundation support." The Passyunk Avenue Revitalization Corporation (PARC) also tried to help raise money. "But the bidding far outdistanced what we could pay."

Last August, developers Noah Ostroff and Mickey Murray got the building, and they soon had a plan to create 23 apartments there, with a commercial space on the ground floor. Block and Canuso suggested, more than once, that maybe Theatre Exile could be in that space. They got smiles and heard, "You can't afford us."

On went the light bulb. "We said to them, 'You do know that most of what a theater does can be underground?' " Block says. " 'We'd need a ground-level presence for the lobby, but after that, like a lot of theaters, we can go down into the basement and make a theater there.' "

Ostroff and Murray were intrigued, plans were drawn up, and negotiations followed. Architects Landmark Architectural Design, happy to try something new, have worked with Theatre Exile to design the space, "after which we'll go in and finish it up as a theater," Block says, "probably in fall 2018."

And that's what's happening. It will take a year and change, but the theater will be built, with Theatre Exile moving to temporary offices and venue until then.

There have been bumps, especially regarding parking, but a variance was sought from the city and granted. A verbal agreement exists, but as of late Friday afternoon, a lease had not yet been signed. "It is my belief," Block says, "that everyone wants to make this happen."

Saying the lease gets signed, Theatre Exile moves to offices at Our Lady of Mount Carmel at 2319 S. Third. Rocky country, yes, but it's also quite the South Philly fine-arts office park down there, with 1812 Productions, 11th Hour Theatre Company, and the Leah Stine Dance Company as cotenants.

And Theatre Exile's temporary yurt, or theater, will be (at least for the 2017-2018 season) the Latvian Society of Philadelphia at 531 N. Seventh St., where EgoPo and other nimble outfits often perform.

When will the first production raise the curtain at their old/new digs? Probably in spring 2019.

"No, being nomads is no problem for us," says Block. "It's the dearth of space. There are a lot of small theaters in Philly."

And it was important to Theatre Exile to land back home. "I grew up in South Philly," says Canuso. "I'm very tied to that community, that part of the world. We love where we are so much, feel so much a part of it, and the community has embraced us."

"We wanted to stay in South Philly and keep our individuality there," Block says, "especially now that it's become more and more vibrant."

The next Theatre Exile show is the popular Tommy and Me by Ray Didinger, Aug. 3-20 at FringeArts. As for the 2017-2018 season at the friendly Latvian Society yurt, it includes Ideation by Aaron Loeb (Oct. 12-Nov.5); Really by Jackie Sibbles Drury (Jan. 25-Feb. 18), and Michael Hollinger's Sing the Body Electric (April 19-May 13).
Another Victorian house in Spruce Hill is being ripped apart. This one is at 41st and Sansom. Read more

As you read this, another handsome Italianate villa is being ripped apart in the Spruce Hill section of West Philadelphia, this time at 41st and Sansom. Its demise comes on the heels of a big loss around the corner on Chestnut Street, where a stately row of identical, Civil War-era townhouses lost four of its members. Not long ago, developers gouged a hole in the middle of a picturesque block of Victorian twins on 45th Street, the kind with deep porches supported by classical columns. In each case, flimsy student housing is taking the place of the lost 19th-century buildings.

Never has Philadelphia seen so many good buildings displaced by bad ones.

Mayor Kenney responded this spring by forming a task force to look for strategies to contain the damaging side effects of the city's decadelong building boom, and the 30-member group finally got down to work last week. If they want to understand what's wrong with the system, they should take a good look at Spruce Hill, the leafy suburb-in-the-city west of the University of Pennsylvania. Spruce Hill faces a Jewelers Row-style preservation debacle, but on a neighborhood scale.

In theory, Spruce Hill should be thriving. Considered one of the finest 19th-century "streetcar suburbs" in America, its eclectic blocks of Victorian homes and apartments were recognized as a National Historic Register district in 1997. Since then, it has seen significant public and private investment, including a Penn-supported public school and the sparkling transformation of Clark Park. Young families are flocking to the area.

Yet demolitions continue for one simple reason: Philadelphia has never protected Spruce Hill by making it a city historic district.

That is not for want of trying. The Spruce Hill Civic Association strongly supports the designation because it would require development projects to undergo Historical Commission review. Twice in the last 30 years, the commission's staff and residents have laboriously cataloged the neighborhood's buildings and prepared a formal nomination to put Spruce Hill under its protection.

Twice, the neighborhood's City Council representative, Jannie Blackwell, has used her clout to quash the effort.

"I tried to hold up the historic district as long as I could," Blackwell told me in interview, boasting of her success. Unwilling to cross her politically, every mayor since Wilson Goode has deferred to her wishes.

Her rationale is that it would be hard for low-income homeowners to meet the Historical Commission's rigorous renovation standards. But the commission has a long history of helping financially strapped owners find affordable solutions.

Meanwhile, the lack of a district designation has cost the neighborhood dearly.

It's not just that the civic association has no legal basis to stop developers from tearing down its Victorian classics, said Barry Grossbach, who heads the civic association's zoning committee.

The group also has no say in the design of what replaces them, as long as the new building conforms to zoning. Under Philadelphia's rules, you can get an over-the-counter demolition permit for any building that is not listed on the city's historic register. The National Register listing is merely an honor and offers no protection.

None of that mattered back in 1987 when the Historical Commission first proposed forming a district, similar to those that now exist in 15 other neighborhoods. Although many of Spruce Hill's large Victorians already had been carved into student apartments, there was no extra profit to be made by replacing them with something new. That remained more or less true in 2005, when Blackwell blocked the second attempt to create a Spruce Hill district.

Since then, several forces have come together to create a perfect storm. Changes in the zoning code enabled people to put up slightly larger structures without a zoning variance. Because house lots in Spruce Hill tend to be very deep, landlords found they could significantly increase the number of apartments by replacing a quirky Victorian with a more efficient modern building.

A proposed zoning remapping might have acted as a brake, but Blackwell said she has blocked that, too. The city's generous property tax abatement ensured that developers wouldn't even have to pay higher taxes for the larger buildings.

Meanwhile, the local universities  Penn, Drexel, and the University of the Sciences  embarked on massive expansions, adding students and employees. Even though they have been constructing new dorms, demand for apartments in Spruce Hill never faltered, said David J. Adelman, who runs Campus Apartments, the largest property owner in Spruce Hill. Even in an old house, he said, a one-bedroom commands $800 to $1,500 a month in rent.

Because virtually all of Campus Apartments' units are in older buildings, the company has been a force for preservation. But that could change. For just the second time in its history, the company is demolishing an intact Victorian  the Italianate house at 41st and Sansom  to erect a modern apartment building.

If Campus Apartments generally operates at a higher level, that can't be said for many other developers who have joined the Spruce Hill gold rush. Take a look at the new apartments on 45th Street, between Kingsessing and Woodland Avenues. The developer replaced a mixed group of handsome Victorians and two-story workers housing with a row of slapdash, three-story houses.

Although faced in red brick, they are accessed by industrial-style metal staircases that lead to unpainted, Home Depot-style doors. Mailboxes hang loosely from the railings, while trash pools below. What's most confounding about these student warehouses is that the block faces the rolling green of Clark Park and is steps from well-maintained private homes. But as investors push up prices for rent-producing houses, it becomes harder for homeowners to afford Spruce Hill.

What can the mayor's task force do to save Spruce Hill and other neighborhoods facing intense development pressure?

Paul Steinke, head of the Preservation Alliance, suggests that the city immediately set up a "demolition review" board, similar to those in cities like Chicago and Boston. The board would review demolition permits for any building over a certain age  say 50 years. He has been urging city officials to act now, rather than wait 18 months for the task force to finish its work.

The goal isn't to impede development, but to manage it. Otherwise, come 2019, the preservation task force could find there is little left to preserve.
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Cars parked in the median of South Broad Street between Shunk and Porter Streets. Read more

If it concerns South Philadelphia and parking, it's going to be ugly.

Earlier in the week, Jake Liefer, co-founder of the 5th Square political action committee, brought suit in Common Pleas Court against the Philadelphia Parking Authority and the Philadelphia Police Department.

The 5th Square group describes itself as urbanist, "committed to policy change in the areas of transportation, land use, and public space," says its web page.

They are Do-Gooders.

It's ironic to be suing the Parking Authority for failure to enforce. Complaints usually accuse PPA of draconian enforcement, sometimes writing tickets even when no offense was committed.

That's not the case this time. If you've lived in Philly longer than it takes to boil an egg, you know that the law against parking in the median of Broad Street simply vanishes between Washington and Oregon Avenues.

To some it's harm. To others it's charm.

It's been that way since 1917, says Marc Ferguson Sr., administrator of Taking Our South Philadelphia Streets Back, a neighborhood nonprofit with 25,000 online followers. His group  let's call them Old-Timers  responded to the lawsuit with letters to the two City Council members whose districts share South Broad Street, asking them to amend local law to legalize the midstreet parking.

What we have here, officially, is a hot potato.

The last time someone seriously tried to jigger South Philly parking was 1961, when Richardson Dilworth, the reform mayor, had this Big Idea to redo about 24 blocks south of Washington.

During a public meeting, a few thousand angry residents screamed at Dilworth, pelted him with tomatoes, and drove him out of South Philly. Dilworth was a patrician who lived in Chestnut Hill, where homes are large and have garages. He was not able to predict the fury of South Philadelphians who lived in 14-foot-wide rowhouses where the garage was the curb.

Dilworth's lesson was internalized into the fabric of the city, and the odd custom of parking in the middle of a state highway (Broad Street is Route 611) became a political third rail.

Mark Squilla represents the east side of Broad Street in South Philly. Kenyatta Johnson represents the west side.

Squilla's chief of staff, Anne Kelly, says her boss will let the courts decide. The midstreet parking, she adds, "has been a custom and convention in South Philadelphia for as long as I can remember, and we've heard from both sides, about the same amount."

Johnson spokeswoman Kaitlyn Manasterski said that the issue was "complex" and that Johnson, too, would let the courts sort it out.

The cops declined to comment, and so did the Parking Authority, not surprisingly.

The courts will be asked to decide if custom outweighs law, or if a law that's not enforced remains a law.

Let's hear a bit more from the Do-Gooder and the Old-Timer.

A 32-year-old computer security consultant, Do-Gooder Liefer says parking in the middle of the street is dangerous and also illegal.

"I think I'm a rule-of-law person," says Liefer, a Pittsburgh native who lived in Brewerytown before landing in South Philly five years ago.

"If they wanted to be legal, they could go through the process," he says. That leads directly to Old-Timer Ferguson, 45, a South Philly lifer, who is doing just that.

He says South Philly needs the 200 parking spots, and he scoffs at the idea that they create a danger.

In researching this, I tiptoed through some very ugly tulips in the online comments, with insults being exchanged between those called "hipsters" and those who "will die soon."

Like Liefer, I am a law-and-order guy. Like Ferguson, I am a tradition guy.

Broad Street median parking is binary  it's either yes or no.

For me it's no, until the law is changed.

Which it should be. Because, to me, the harm is less than the charm.
Advocates say the Philadelphia School District has downplayed or ignored pervasive bullying of special education students in classrooms throughout the city, and they want federal education officials to open an investigation and order changes.

The Education Law Center-PA filed its complaint to the Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights on behalf of one district parent, but described bullying against four children. In announcing the action Thursday, the center said the problem is systemic and amounts to system-wide discrimination against children with disabilities, a group that includes thousands of Philadelphia students.

In some cases, it contends, the district failed to respond to or investigate instances of bullying, despite parent complaints over months and years.

A spokesman for the School District declined to discuss the allegations, but defended the district's policy and response to bullying.

One parent cited in the complaint said Thursday that her 9-year-old son, a third grader with autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, was bullied for two full school years, targeted over his book bag and sneakers, his appearance, and his disabilities.

"My son is really terrified," said the mother. Fearing reprisal, she asked that her name and the name of her child and his school be withheld. His name and those of other students were redacted in the publicly released complaint.

The woman said her son once suffered a concussion after classmates kicked and punched him and another time went to a hospital after students punched him in the genitals. School officials noted the bullying in their formal student evaluation but never addressed it, she said.

Once excited to go to school, the 9-year-old now shakes and vomits at the thought of returning, his mother said. He has talked about killing or harming himself. And when she recently suggested they soon would have to shop for school supplies, he panicked, crowding himself into a closet, crying.

"He said, 'Mommy, please don't make me go back to school,'" she said.

The boy's experience is not isolated, said Alex Dutton, one of the lawyers who filed the complaint. Students have been called names and assaulted, suffering academic losses and emotional problems because of bullying. Parents have asked school officials to transfer their children, but have been refused. They have filled out forms airing their concerns, only to be told that their children were not being bullied.

"What we see is that parents, having tried for months to get the district to do something, make the rational choice to keep their children home on days when they are demonstrating extreme aversion to school," Dutton said in a statement. "Rather than intervene in accordance with federal anti-discrimination laws, the district's response was to refer these families to Truancy Court, where the problem is framed as a failure of the family. This is not only discriminatory, it erodes any semblance of trust between district staff and the families they serve."

Jody Manning, an official with PACER's National Bullying Prevention Center  an arm of a group that advocates for children with disabilities  said children with special needs are two to three times more likely to be bullied than their nondisabled peers. In Philadelphia, more than 18,000 students are considered disabled  about 14 percent of the student body in traditional public schools.

But, Manning pointed out, "school districts actually have a heightened obligation to protect these students" because of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

Lawyers in the case are asking for individual relief for every student named in the complaint, but also systemic relief. They want federal officials to order the school system to allow administrative transfers for victims, to force revisions to the district's bullying policy that make special considerations for students with disabilities, and to provide citywide training on the subject. The Office of Civil Rights must first make a determination whether the complaint warrants a formal investigation.

Lee Whack, a spokesman for the School District, said Thursday that he could not comment on the specifics of the complaint.

But, Whack said, "we actively and consistently investigate and address instances of bullying that are reported. If a child is ever harmed we act with urgency to remedy the situation. The safety of all students is our first priority."
They're often called "Philadelphia's Tony Awards." Since 1994, the Barrymore Awards for Excellence in Theatre have recognized the best on local stages.

Generating those awards, though, is an epic drama. Organized and administered by Theatre Philadelphia, it takes an army of people.

As nominators munched pizza, Peter Danzig, program assistant at Theatre Philadelphia, discussed which plays were eligible (must have a minimum of 12 performances in the run; must have fair pay for the creative team; must be a true Philly production, not a national tour), changes in size and composition of the nominator pool, and good comportment. "We want to make sure we represent Theatre Philadelphia, and all Philly theater, at its best," he told the group, "not just ourselves."

Danzig said later by phone that Theatre Philadelphia expanded the pool of nominators this year from 60 to 70, "to ensure we had all the voices in the room  race, ethnicity, people not on the binary, the LGBTQ community.

"We wanted our nominator pool," he said, "to reflect what we want to see in our theater audiences."

Nominators attend the eligible plays this season and report on them. Each nominator will see 10 to 12 plays (eight nominators to each play) and later fill out a survey of the elements in the show (acting, lighting, set design, costumes, directing, best play, musical, etc.) that might be Barrymore-worthy. Their reports filter up to 12 judges, who see about 60 plays apiece ("We ask," says Danzig, "that judges see every eligible production"), peruse the reports, and make their choices. All is overseen by Drucker & Scaccetti, the Philly CPA firm that plays the PricewaterhouseCoopers role.

The gun has already gone off: The 2017-2018 Philadelphia theater season began July 6 with Around the World in 80 Days, playing through Aug. 13 at the Hedgerow Theater in Rose Valley.

Who are these busy nominators?

Theater-lovers like Kristen Scatton, 32, of Philadelphia, now in her second season as a nominator. A self-described "theater bug," Scatton sees up to 50 shows a year. "I'd been aware of the Barrymore Awards since I came here in 2008," she said, "and, to be perfectly blunt, it seemed an ideal way to subsidize my theater habit while seeing what Philly has to offer."

Her nontheater life is as an admissions coordinator for the Department of Creative Arts Therapies at Drexel University. But she's also a writer, and after getting her M.F.A. in playwriting at Temple University, she saw the first full production of one of her plays, Jimmy Gorski Is Dead, in March at Plays & Players Theatre.

Christopher Haig, 38, is the props master at the Arden and an in-demand theater-design freelancer. He signed up as a nominator, he said, because "Philly is one of the best cities in the country for theater, and I wanted that to be recognized. And it was a chance to see styles and forms of theater I wasn't used to seeing. It's really eye-opening, to see shows I might not have thought of seeing before, or to be blown away by some small company with lower budgets, but doing great work."

Haig calls the Philly theater scene "close-knit and supportive, not cut-throat at all." He said, "It's a great town to start your career in, to create a theater company. We're becoming a hub for new work, especially self-produced work, and it's great to see that happening."

Both said diversity characterized the scene. Haig mentioned "immersive" shows (theater that brings audience and performers into the same space, without walls or separation) and cross-arts uses of theater. "I love the way arts institutions like the Free Libe, the Barnes, and the Art Museum are starting to use theater as a new way to engage audiences," he said. "I was delighted to see Gumshoe by New Paradise Labs at the Free Library  brilliant and inventive, and a great way to get people interested." And he's a big fan of Philly Fringe, "where you can see 20 shows in two weeks, very rarely from a conventional theater seat."

"You have so much devised theater here," Scatton says, meaning theater pieces arising not from one author but from collaborative, often improvisatory work by a group, "multi-arts, and multimedia, right next to the classics and the musicals. And a lot of theater here is on social justice issues, challenging the way our society thinks, exploring how theater can be used for activism and changing minds."

And then there's Wawa.

Scatton and a friend went to the Barrymore Awards show last year ("in a Michael Kors dress I found at an outlet for $22"), and after the after-party at the University of the Arts, they were still hungry, "so we went to a Wawa on Broad Street and ordered hoagies. We took the subway home, saying, 'We're so fancy. This is Philly style.' "
June Foray voiced Cindy Lou Who in the 1966 TV version of How the Grinch Stole Christmas Read more

June Foray, the voice behind popular cartoon characters including Rocky the Flying Squirrel from The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show and How the Grinch Stole Christmas' Cindy Lou Who, died Thursday at age 99.

Friend Dave Nimitz, an animator, confirmed Foray's death on Facebook, writing that "we lost our little June today at 99 years old." The cause of her death has not yet been announced.

In addition to Rocky and Cindy Lou, Foray was also the voice of a number of iconic animated characters, including Rocky and Bullwinkle nemesis Natasha Fatale, Dudley Do-Right's Nell, Granny of Tweety and Sylvester fame, and Witch Hazel from Looney Tunes. Her IMDB page lists more than 300 credits, including appearances in more recent projects like Mulan, Family Guy, and The Powerpuff Girls.

Foray additionally voiced characters in dozens of other classic films and shows, such as The Flintstones, The Twilight Zone, Peter Pan, Cinderella, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and Space Jam.

Referred to as "The First Lady of Cartoon Voices," Foray helped establish the animation industry's Annie Awards, and later lobbied for the creation of an animated feature category at the Academy Awards. As Variety reports, Foray was also among the original membership of the International Animated Film Association (ASIFA), a non-profit benefitting animated film creators started in 1960 in France.

Foray's work earned her a Hollywood Walk of Fame star in 2000. She later took home her first Emmy, a Daytime Emmy for Outstanding Performer on an Animated Program for her work on The Garfield Show, in 2012. A Primetime Emmy came in 2013, with Foray taking home that year's Governor's Award, which recognizes individuals for outstanding achievement across their careers. Her first major award, however, was a 1968 Grammy for her work on How the Grinch Stole Christmas.

A documentary about Foray's life, The One and Only June Foray, was released in 2013.

ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck issued a statement following Foray's death calling the voice actor a "trailblazer, a great talent, and a truly wonderful person."

"We will never forget her," Beck added.
South Philly native Amber Rose says she comes from an area where the people "aren't traditionally attractive," with the model adding that she "never felt like [she] belonged there" because she "always felt bigger than the city" is.

Rose, who grew up at Broad and Ellsworth in South Philly, appeared on Revolt's "Drink Champs" podcast earlier this month where she discussed her Philly upbringing, telling host and rapper N.O.R.E. that she comes from a "very poor neighborhood" where "being blessed with beautyis a blessing and a curse."

N.O.R.E., a Queens native, kicked things off by asking Rose what it was like coming up in Philadelphia, which he referred to as "the depths of hell." The exchange starts about about 2:30 into the podcast.

"I don't know how I can say this without sounding [expletive] up, but a lot of the people where I'm from aren't traditionally attractive people," Rose said. "For me, being blessed with beauty, as beautiful women know, is a blessing and a curse. To grow up in such an area and be blessed with beauty, it was very difficult for me."

And, yes, Twitter had something to say about all this:

Rose went on to add that while she lived in Philly, many people refused to believe that she was a native, and that she must be "from California" because of her looks.

"They're like, 'Nah, you're not from there from there,'" Rose said. "I'm like, 'I was born and raised at Broad and Ellsworth.'"

Regardless of where she is from, however, Rose said on "Drink Champs" that she was always something of a big fish in a small pond.

"I never felt like I belonged there," Rose said. "I always felt bigger than the city was. It wasn't big enough for me."

Following her upbringing in Philly, Rose said that she moved to New York City, where she was discovered and signed by Ford Models, an agency that counts models like Cindy Crawford among its former clients.

Unfortunately, when it comes to Philadelphians' attractiveness, Rose may have a point. Residents of the city have been voted some of the least attractive people in the United States in a number of polls, most recently in a 2014 Travel + Leisure poll that ranked Philadelphians the fifth least attractive populace in America. In 2012, an Experian Marketing poll revealed that we wear more sweatpants than anyone else.

And not only are we ugly, but we're angry. The angriest, actually, with Thrillest giving us that honor in 2016 with a note that our City of Brotherly Love moniker is little more than an "ironic nickname."

Still, though, those designations are a step up from a 2007 T+L poll that put Philly as the number one ugliest city in America. That one stung.
Location of the United States Avenue Burn Superfund site in Gibbsboro. The site is marked by the red arrow with yellow background and enclosed in a black circle. Read more

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it has a proposal to clean up lead and arsenic at a Gibbsboro Superfund site that has long plagued the Camden County area.

Elias Rodriguez, an EPA spokesman, called it "a step forward" but said the actual cleanup could be a year away. He said the announcement "dovetails" with the priority that EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is giving the Superfund program.

Basically, the proposal will focus on one of three sites in the area contaminated by paint manufacturing. The three parcels are collectively known as the Sherwin-Williams sites.

The 13-acre tract set to be cleaned up is known as the United States Avenue Burn site and has a long history of contamination. It was used by John Lucas & Co. from the mid-1800s until 1977. Eventually, the Sherwin-Williams Co., which operated a nearby paint-manufacturing facility, used the plot to dump, pour, or burn wastes and solvents.

The process contaminated soil, groundwater, and surface water. Officials have been trying for decades to get it cleaned up.

"The Superfund site is the most critical environmental issue in Camden County at this time and it has taken way too long for the EPA and Sherwin-Williams to clean it up," said Jeffrey Nash, a Camden County freeholder. "But we are gratified that the cleanup is moving along at long last. This is a positive step, but it comes on the heels of 40 years of frustration preceding it."

Nash noted the cleanup process is still unfolding at two other sites connected with paint manufacturing and has years to go. The additional sites are known as the Sherwin-Williams/Hilliards Creek Superfund site and the Route 561 Dump site.

For the Burn site, the EPA proposal calls for removal of 60,000 cubic yards of soil, which will be replaced with clean soil and replanted with vegetation. Contaminated soil under the United States Avenue roadway will be left in place.

The proposal also calls for excavating contaminated sediment from White Sand Branch and Honey Run Brook. Water will be taken from the sediment, cleaned, and discharged back into the waterways, which will have to be diverted temporarily. The streams will be restored after the cleanup is complete.

A public meeting on the cleanup is scheduled for Aug. 10. EPA officials will explain the process and take comments from the public. The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Gibbsboro Senior Center on Route 561.

Rodriguez said the EPA will take public comments for 30 to 60 days before issuing a final decision on the cleanup. Following that, it will begin the design and negotiate with Sherwin-Williams.

"It's just a guesstimate, but it could be maybe a year" until cleanup, he said. "But that's not unusual for large and complex sites like this."

To date, Sherwin-Williams has removed 8,096 cubic yards of sludge and 44,785 gallons of liquid and taken other steps to clean up soil at nearby residential properties.
Azad Khan signed progress notes for hundreds of patients at the South Philadelphia drug-treatment clinic, indicating he had performed a physical exam on each and had provided drug-treatment counseling.

Yet in case after case, the written results from the exams were identical, with only the patient's name and date changed.

The reality, according to federal prosecutors: Khan generally was not examining or counseling the patients, but was part of an illegal "assembly-line" scheme to sell opioids.

After a seven-day trial that ended Tuesday, a jury agreed, convicting the 63-year-old Villanova resident of conspiracy and two counts of distributing drugs.

Robert J. Livermore, an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case with colleague Katherine E. Driscoll, said federal guidelines call for Khan to receive a sentence of 41 to 51 months in prison.

"This was a medicine-free clinic," Livermore said Wednesday. "Basically it was in and out. They only saw Dr. Khan as long as it took for him to sign the prescription."

Khan worked part time at the now-defunct clinic at 2300 S. Broad St. for less than a year, from mid-2013 to March 2014. The operation was run by physician Alan Summers, who pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy, distribution, money laundering, and health-care fraud. Both are scheduled to be sentenced in October by U.S. District Judge Lawrence F. Stengel.

A third physician at the clinic, Keyhosrow Parsia, also has pleaded guilty in the case and awaits sentencing. He testified against Khan during the trial that finished Tuesday.

Prosecutors say that from 2001 to 2014, Summers took in $5 million in cash from patients who underwent little to no medical examination, giving them hundreds of thousands of doses of an opioid-containing drug called Suboxone. That opioid has weaker effects than heroin and other opioids, and thus is used in treatment programs, but it, too, can be abused.

In order to prescribe Suboxone, physicians are required to perform detailed medical exams, offer counsel about the risks of the drug, and analyze the results of urine samples to make sure the patients are taking it. Summers and Khan generally failed to do so, and instead doled out Suboxone based on how much cash the patient could pay, not based on what was medically advisable, Livermore said.

In many cases, patients simply were reselling the drug on the street, he said.

Khan prescribed 110,000 doses of Suboxone while at the clinic, at $200 for a month's supply. Summers paid him a percentage of each cash payment, totaling $147,000 over the course of less than a year of part-time work.

Defense attorney Jeffrey M. Miller praised Stengel as running a fair trial but said he was disappointed in the jury's decision. He said many of Khan's patients had a legitimate medical need for Suboxone.

During the trial, the jury heard testimony from an undercover Philadelphia police officer who posed as a patient on several visits to the clinic. He testified that on one occasion, Khan refilled his prescription without analyzing the results of a urine sample, which would have shown that he was not using Suboxone or any other opioid.

On another occasion, Summers said patients could earn a $50 referral fee for every new patient they brought in, the undercover officer testified.

Also part of the investigation were the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Office of Inspector General at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The Pennsylvania Senate returned to the Capitol on Thursday to approve a revenue package that would tax natural gas drillers and consumers utility bills. Read more

HARRISBURG  After his no-new-taxes budget proposal went nowhere last weekend, Republican House Speaker Mike Turzai challenged his GOP colleagues in the state Senate: You try doing something.

On Thursday, the Senate delivered, narrowly approving a plan to balance Pennsylvania's nearly $32 billion budget in part by taxing drilling for natural gas, and by raising or imposing new taxes on telephone, electric, and gas bills.

Now, the spotlight returns to the House, which appears to be in no rush to come back to the Capitol to debate the Senate's revenue package. In a letter to their members Thursday afternoon, GOP leaders said to expect to return sometime before the end of August.

When they do, the leaders wrote, "we certainly have no intentions to rubber stamp these bills."

The game of political chicken increases the likelihood of a prolonged impasse. State Treasurer Joe Torsella, a Democrat, has warned that by the end of next month, the state could run out of money unless a responsible and complete budget is passed.

And because Pennsylvania's constitution requires a balanced budget, Gov. Wolf, also a Democrat, may be forced to freeze spending. His administration has avoided answering questions on when or if that would occur.

Negotiators have been trying for weeks to close a $2 billion gap in the state's budget, which has been out of balance for nearly a month. The legislature passed a spending plan hours before the start of the July 1 fiscal year, but did not approve a corresponding plan to pay for it.

Wolf at the time said he was confident lawmakers would resolve the issue quickly, and he allowed the spending plan to lapse into law without his signature. But nearly a month later, negotiators were still debating how to cover a $1.5 billion shortfall in the last fiscal year and a $700 million deficit in the fiscal year that began July 1.

The Senate's vote Thursday sought to jump-start the process, even though Republicans who hold a commanding majority in the chamber knew it would be a heavy lift because tax has been a curse word in the Capitol for years, as the legislature has grown more conservative.

"It's a tough day for many of us," Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) said Thursday during debate on the revenue package, which passed, 26-24, and with both Democrats and Republicans voting for and against it. "It's not a day that we wanted to do.  I guess some advocate that we shouldn't do anything. We should sit back and let Rome burn," or let the governor find the money to balance the budget, he said.

After the vote, Corman added: "We're open to see what the House wants to do. I think the speaker said last week he wanted to see what the Senate and the governor would support. Well, here it is."

Corman said he spoke to House leaders after their weekend session but "we haven't spoken lately."

Turzai and other conservatives, particularly in the House, have for weeks derided proposals that include new or additional taxes.

For his part, Wolf, who is up for reelection next year, has kept a low profile as the two chambers have hurtled toward a showdown, even as he's signaled that he supports the Senate approach.

Together, the taxes approved Thursday would raise about $500 million, according to Senate estimates. The Senate also voted to borrow $1.3 billion against a landmark settlement between tobacco companies and the states.

Senate leaders have said they plan, at a future date, to advance a gambling expansion package that would bring in an additional $200 million. No details have been worked out for that proposal, and resolving it will not be easy  the issue of exactly how to expand gambling has bogged down budget talks in the last two years.

The Senate's plan imposes a new tax on natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale  based on volume  on top of the so-called impact fee drillers currently pay per well to local governments. The new proposed tax is expected to bring in $100 million annually.

Though there have been calls for a severance tax for nearly a decade, many Republican legislators have resisted it, arguing such a levy would scare away an industry that has created jobs and invested millions in the state.

The industry has pushed back too. In a statement minutes after the Senate's vote, David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, said the proposed severance tax, together with the new tax on natural gas bills, will cost jobs and "erode the commonwealth's competitive advantage."

"We remain committed and focused on fostering a meaningful dialogue with lawmakers and others about common-sense policies and solutions that can help create good-paying jobs for Pennsylvanians and other important community-level benefits for families across the commonwealth," said Spigelmyer, whose group represents unconventional gas producers.

The Senate plan also reinstates a 5.7 percent tax on natural gas bills, with $20 million of the money raised going to the state's heating-assistance program for the poor; increases taxes to 6 percent from the current 5 percent on telephone service, including cellphones; and raises taxes on electric service to 6.5 percent from the current 5.9 percent.

The Senate proposal also closes a loophole that allows some online retailers to avoid imposing and collecting the state's 6 percent sales tax on goods they sell.

Senators also seek to siphon $200 million from a state fund that provides insurance for doctors who have difficulty finding medical malpractice insurance elsewhere.
U.S. Rep. Robert Brady's lawyer pushed back Wednesday against federal prosecutors' claims that the congressman secretly paid a political rival $90,000 to drop a bid to unseat him in the 2012 Democratic primary.

Scoffing at the depiction of the money as a covert payoff, attorney James Eisenhower said that the funds were intended in part to acquire exclusive rights to valuable polling data from the primary challenger, Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore.

But almost as if they had anticipated that explanation, government lawyers shot back in a court filing made public for the first time Wednesday. At the time Brady bought the data, they said, the poll in question was irrelevant, outdated, and contained information that the congressman had already had his possession five months before his campaign cut the checks.

What's more, wrote Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric L. Gibson, the price Brady paid was twice what it cost Moore to commission the survey.

"The poll was over a year old, [it] analyzed a match-up between [Brady] and a challenger who had already withdrawn from the race, and the poll analyzed a primary election that [Brady] had already won," the prosecutor wrote.

Those dueling explanations of a payment that has brought FBI agents to the doorstep of one of the city's most powerful Democratic power brokers emerged a day after prosecutors announced that one of Moore's top campaign aides had admitted her role in a scheme to hide the matter on her former boss' campaign-finance filings.

Neither Brady nor Moore has been charged with a crime. Nor were they identified by name in the court documents that outlined the plea Tuesday by Moore's former campaign manager and ex-fiancee, Carolyn Cavaness.

But Cavaness' cooperation with authorities has raised questions about where investigators hope to take their probe next and whether they have set their sights on Brady, the second-longest-serving U.S. representative in the state and the man who has led the Philadelphia Democratic City Committee for more than three decades.

Campaign finance experts differed on whether Brady's alleged deal with Moore fell within legal lines.

"It's long been the case that candidates running in the primary have been allowed to encourage minor candidates to drop out of the race by offering to help them raise money to retire whatever debts they incurred," said Brett G. Kappel, a Washington-based campaign lawyer.

Attorneys for the congressman and his onetime rival maintained Wednesday that their clients had acted within the law.

"It doesn't mean it's a crime for someone to drop out of a campaign and for an opponent to fund legitimate expenses of that person because he was dropping out and to unify the party," said Jeffrey Miller, Moore's lawyer, speaking for the first time about the investigation. "The intention might not have been malevolent."

For his part, Eisenhower rebuffed prosecutors' claim that Brady had attempted to interfere with the FBI investigation into the transaction by contacting a potential witness in the case.

"We categorically deny that there was any attempt to influence a witness," he said.

The lawyer conceded that Brady had obtained Moore's polling data months before the congressman paid for it. Someone had slipped the information to Brady at the 2011 Pennsylvania Society weekend, an end-of-the-year confab for the state's political elite in New York, he said. Eisenhower maintained, however, that officially buying the information allowed the congressman to control its future use.

Moore's campaign-finance reports say he paid about $30,000 for the poll of 700 likely Democratic voters in the 2012 primary election conducted by Lake Research Partners, a national polling firm that does work with the Democratic Party and affiliated groups

Obtained by the Inquirer and Daily News on Wednesday, the document is more extensive than most polls made public  weighting in at 533 pages  and focused on how voters in Pennsylvania's First Congressional District weighed a number of issues, including jobs and economic inequality. It also measured Moore's biography against how voters felt about Brady's personality and job performance.

"It was one of the most detailed polls, in his political advisers' opinions, that they had ever seen," Eisenhower said. "The congressman was interested in acquiring it exclusively and not having the Moore campaign peddle it to future challengers."

Prosecutors in Cavaness' plea agreement dismissed that explanation as a ruse to cover up the true intentions behind the Brady campaign's $90,000 payment to Moore.

The primary challenge Moore posed to Brady was hardly formidable. Then retired from the bench, Moore had less than $4,000 in the bank at the end of 2011 compared to the more than $750,000 Brady had on hand in the months before the former judge withdrew from the race.

According to Cavaness' plea document, which was unsealed Wednesday, Moore contacted Brady in February 2012 when he first began considering dropping out.

After meeting with the congressman later that month, Moore allegedly told Cavaness that Brady had agreed to cover their campaign's outstanding debts  including more than $20,000 Moore had personally loaned his campaign  and provide both him and Cavaness with jobs.

But because federal campaign contribution limits at the time capped the amount that one candidate can give to another's campaign at $2,000 for a primary election, Brady and Moore had to find a workaround for their $90,000 deal, prosecutors wrote.

Moore allegedly instructed Cavaness to create a political consulting firm for the sole purpose of collecting the $90,000 Brady would send their way. Brady's campaign allegedly routed the funds through payments to consulting firms led by two of the congressman's longtime advisers, Ken Smukler and Don "D.A." Jones.

Eisenhower said Wednesday those advisers eventually paid $65,000 for the poll. Both men, through their attorneys, have denied wrongdoing.

"It was not a campaign contribution," Eisenhower said. "It's a payment for an asset, just like buying a piece of furniture or computers."

Jones paid an additional $25,000 to hire Cavaness as a subcontractor to work on Brady's general-election campaign, though prosecutors maintain she never did any work.

"D.A. Jones handled the details of that," Eisenhower said. "The congressman never met Ms. Cavaness and would not know her if he met her today."

None of the $90,000 ever showed up on Moore's campaign-finance filings, and less than half of that sum actually went toward paying down his campaign debts, according to Cavaness' plea agreement.

"The remainder of the funds were spent by [Cavaness] and [Moore] on personal expenses," Gibson, the prosecutor, wrote.

If any of the money from Smukler and Jones went toward retiring Moore's campaign debt, it should have been reported on his campaign-finance filings, said Adav Noti, senior director of the nonpartisan Campaign Legal Center and a former associate general counsel for the Federal Election Commission.

"In this case, the money was coming out of Brady's own campaign account, so he was required to disclose it," Noti said.

Brady's campaign filings from the period reflect payments to Smukler and Jones. But Moore's do not show any payments coming back to his campaign  a fact that led to Cavaness' guilty plea Tuesday.

Miller, Moore's lawyer, said his client was not to blame for any omissions.

"Everyone involved in this scenario has a different role, a different degree of involvement," he said. "It's not like everyone is guilty of an offense. Some could be and some definitely are not.  The fact she pled guilty doesn't mean he is guilty of any offense whatsoever."

Staff writer Nancy Phillips contributed to this article.
Bear alert.

An Evesham resident spotted a black bear Wednesday evening in the area of Barton Run Boulevard and Jessica Court. The homeowner took a video of the bear roaming through the yard before it returned to the wooded area behind the homes there, according to local police.

Based on the video, police and state wildlife officials decided the bear was acting normally. Still, they urged residents to be vigilant in taking precautions such as securing garbage cans and removing bird feeders.

Police said they will have extra patrols in the area for the next few days.

Here are a few tips from police for anyone who encounters a bear: Don't throw food at it, unless you can run faster than the 35 mph that a bear can run. Don't flee abruptly, because that may cause the bear to chase you. If it is at a distance and sees you, let it know you are human by talking to it and waving your arms. If it does start to chase you, throw something like your phone at it as a distraction so you can leave.

Worst-case scenario if a bear attacks, the wildlife division posted on its website: "Be loud, wave your arms, and stand your ground. Fight back! Be aggressive and use any object you have.

"Only if you are sure the bear attacking is a mother who is protecting its cubs, play dead. If you have pepper spray, use it. Begin spraying when it's within 40 ft so it runs into the fog. Aim for the face."

This is the time of the year that bears often wander from the woods into suburban areas looking for food and mates. The Evesham neighborhood offers perfect amenities with the nearby Barton Run and woods. There's even a nice swimming pool, which bears will at times use to cool down during their travels.

For more information, visit the Evesham Township Police Facebook page, or the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife website. If the bear is spotted, New Jersey Fish and Wildlife can be contacted at 877-927-6337.
'The Summer City by the Sea' | by Emil R. Salvini | Rutgers University Press

A series of of nameless storms in the early twentieth century destroyed South Cape May. This circa 1909 photo of approximately Thirteenth and Beach Avenues looking east toward Cape May City, shows a glimpse of the torture spree. (Photo courtesy of The Summer City by the Sea, An Illustrated History of Cape May, NJ. by Emil R. Salvini, Rutgers University Press- 1998) Read more

Wave after furious wave pounded the coast of the Jersey Shore town, twisting the Atlantic into a timber graveyard.

The beachfront Victorian homes receded in roughly 50 years into a large swath of overgrown brush as violent superstorms thrashed the town's foundations and eroded its core. South Cape May slipped, relatively unnoticed, into the ocean.

Call it the Jersey Shore's Atlantis.

All that remains is a marshland, a wildlife bird sanctuary, and a lesson for the ages:

It can happen again.

The white elephant

South Cape May was chartered as a borough in 1894. Developers called it the Mount Vernon tract, for its location along Mount Vernon Street and in the shadow of the Mount Vernon Hotel, billed during construction as the "largest hotel in the world."

The developers inflated population as roughly 200  mostly full-time residents.

It was small, about two square miles long, but with potential for greatness, Joseph G. Burcher wrote of his hometown in the book Remembering South Cape May.

"The first homes and a sizable hotel were designed by leading architects in the area, and wealthy Philadelphia families settled in the households of leading merchants and manufacturers from the city," Burcher wrote.

At the time of incorporation, a variety of developers bought the land and were eager to draw interest. So they built a 40-foot-high building in the shape of an elephant on the beach to attract people. It came to symbolize more than new opportunity. It was used as office space. A tavern. They wanted to sell ice cream out of it.

It was called the Light of Asia, but locally it was shortened to "Jumbo." Jumbo was one of three elephants built about the same time on the East Coast, and was torn down in 1900. (Lucy still stands in Margate, where she was built. Elephantine Colossus at Coney Island, N.Y., served as a brothel for a time before being lost to a fire.)

There was also an electric railway that went all the way down the beach, passing Cape May, South Cape May, Cape May Point, and looping back at the famous lighthouse.

Philadelphia architect Stephen Decatur Button, who gave us the Arch Street Presbyterian Church, had designed some of the town's ornate Victorian homes.

"For a while, it was considered more of an upper-class town," said Cape May historian Emil Salvini. "Then it just kind of became your normal, everyday beach town."

But even before the waves, the town suffered setbacks.

The Mount Vernon Hotel burned down before it could be finished, and the town had no mechanisms to hold off Mother Nature. Nor'easters and hurricanes were constantly biting at its coastline.

A series of storms beginning in 1891 lasted into the early 20th century, destroying the dream of South Cape May.

The New Jersey State Census in 1895 had the population count at 66, with 14 families filling all 14 houses, Burcher wrote.

In 1897, South Cape May's property assessment dropped from over $100,000 to about $50,000.

In 1903, newspaper reports started telling of houses being moved out of South Cape May and into the west end of Cape May City after that year's storms. But new houses continued to go up.

The 1905 Census reported only six full-time residents in South Cape May, but listed 23 dwellings.

"By the time my grandparents bought their property in the community in 1923, South Cape May was just a modest beach community," Burcher wrote.

The highest home count came in 1929, at the precipice of the stock-market crash, with 42 buildings.

"We didn't name storms back then. It wasn't common," said Salvini, who also runs the Facebook page "Tales of the New Jersey Shore." "There were a few storms that really, really hurt it, but the storm considered to really have wiped it out  well, the remaining parts of it  they always call it the Great Atlantic Hurricane of 1944."

Many of the homes that were not lost to the first storms or completely abandoned were moved west of Broadway into Cape May. Newspapers were preoccupied with World War II, and the loss of a Shore point didn't make the front pages of daily newspapers.

South Cape May was eventually absorbed into Lower Township in 1945, and on April 30 of that year, it officially ceased to exist.

After serving as a range for a cattle herd for a short time, most of the former land of South Cape May was transformed in the 1980s into a nature preserve.

But as a town, it evaded preservation.

From trickle to flood

"This conversation should have started long ago," said Rouzbeh Nazari, an assistant professor of environmental engineering at Rowan University. "But if you want to understand what happened to South Cape May, you should go look at a lot of coastal towns right now."

For example, look at Elsinboro Township in Salem County. "It's not one major storm, but storm after storm is just eating it away," he said.

Nazari also blamed nuisance flooding, and sea-level rise.

"Basically," he said, "this beautiful town is just going away."

Older dunes installed to protect Elsinboro have been breached in various spots over time, which lets in water when storms hit and floods at least the first floor of houses in town. Families are starting to abandon the houses.

"As they leave this area, there will be no more protections," Nazari said. "Water will take over."

Sound familiar?

About this Series:

Shore is about everyday people and their meaningful times spent down the Shore. Find each installment  and be sure to leave a comment  at Philly.com/Shore.
Philadelphia is a city that prides itself on how little it cares about your opinion of it. Think Philadelphia is unfriendly? Go cry me a Schuylkill. Think Philly is unhappy? This is our happy face.

The Philly attitude was all over an unverified photo of a crab found carrying a cigarette around North Philadelphia, which made the rounds on social media in 2015.

Now one Reddit user has mapped some of Philly's most infamously jerky moments and stereotypes in a cartographic rendering he's dubbed "the Asshole's Guide to Philadelphia: Version 1.1."

The city's Mayfair section is labeled "Home of the Swiss Cheese Pervert" (which isn't quite accurate, because the pervert was actually from Norristown). Holmesburg, which is home to both the city's prison complex and Sweet Lucy's Smokehouse, is labeled "Prisoners and Pulled Pork." And Overbrook, where St. Joseph's University is located, is dubbed "Jesuit Party Bros."

Of course, the McDonald's in South Philly where rapper Ol' Dirty Bastard of Wu-Tang Clan was arrested in 2000 is marked on the map, as is "Drive Like It's Mario-Kart" road, otherwise known as Roosevelt Boulevard.

The creator of the map is a 22-year-old software engineer from Fishtown who asked that his name be withheld to protect his professional integrity. He goes by the name ComradeNapolein on Reddit. In an email, he said the map took him about an hour to design in Microsoft Paint. He created it in response to a similar map made several years ago that he felt had too many racist remarks about parts of North and West Philly.

"I felt I could do better," he said.

The response to the map has been "surreal," according to ComradeNapolein. It's received 473 comments on Reddit and he's watched as his friends from high school have posted it to Facebook without knowing he created it.

So how does a 22-year-old know about the O.D.B. McDonald's incident, which happened when he was 5?

"I became a big fan of Wu-Tang in high school, and when I read on Wikipedia that ODB got arrested there, I knew I had to make the pilgrimage," he said. "It's a crucial piece of Philadelphia history I think everyone should be aware of."

Of what he's labeled "The World's Longest On-Ramp Detour," ComradeNapolein explained: "God, how long has the Girard on-ramp been closed? I've gotten used to the detour now, but when I first had to drive it, it felt like a tour of the city going through all of [the] industrial yards, rumble strips to stop drag racing, and topping it off with that strip club that sometimes has flames shooting out of the roof."

ComradeNapolein's tongue-in-cheek creation has not been without controversy. He said he's received criticism from some Northeast Philly residents for what they consider disparaging remarks about their neighborhoods.

"They clearly missed the key phrase, 'Asshole's Guide,' " he said.
Former Philadelphia Mayor W. Wilson Goode Sr. was the potential witness whom federal prosecutors say U.S. Rep. Robert Brady tried to influence as they probed an alleged $90,000 payoff the congressman paid a 2012 Democratic primary challenger to drop out of the race, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

Contacted Thursday, Goode, 78, would not say if he was the former elected official identified only as "Person 3" in court filings unsealed this week. Instead, he asked how the reporter who contacted him had heard he was involved.

"I assume there is an ongoing investigation," said Goode, who held the city's top elected post from 1984 to 1991. "I'm not responding to people who give information, and I don't know who they are or what they know about facts. I would just say in the right time, the facts will come out as they should come out in an accurate manner."

In a conversation later in the day, Goode confirmed that he had "facilitated" a 2012 meeting that led Brady's challenger, former Municipal Court Judge Jimmie Moore, to drop out of the race.

He would not, however, discuss the potentially more explosive claim in prosecutors' filings: that Brady attempted to shape the testimony of the man who brokered that meeting, and did so days after FBI agents had approached the congressman in April about their investigation  an accusation Brady has denied.

Goode  a community activist and the first African American elected to his post  is only the latest recognizable political name attached to an FBI probe that has brought agents to the doorstep of Brady, chairman of the Democratic City Committee for more than three decades and one of the longest-serving U.S. representatives in the state.

The allegation of potential witness-coaching emerged Wednesday in a motion to seal any further filings in the case of another key cooperator, an aide to Moore. In that document, Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric L. Gibson outlined a meeting between the former mayor and the congressman days after Brady had first been approached by the FBI.

Brady sought to meet with Goode in person to discuss the details of the 2012 negotiation that both men had been involved in that paved the way for Moore to exit the race.

Brady "demanded of [Goode] whether he 'was clear about what [had] happened,' " Gibson wrote. "After [Goode] indicated he was 'clear,' [Brady] responded that he took care of [Moore's] girl."

Prosecutors, in their motion, called their discussion a clear attempt to "influence [Goode's] account of the matter under investigation" and warned that if further filings in the case were not kept secret, there was "a significant danger" that Brady or others on his behalf might try to impede the FBI probe.

The "girl" mentioned in the filing was Moore's then-campaign manager and ex-fiancee, Carolyn Cavaness, who pleaded guilty in a deal unsealed this week to falsifying Moore's campaign finance filings to hide a $90,000 payment from Brady's campaign.

Cavaness has admitted that the money was intended as a payoff to persuade Moore to drop out of the race and was funneled through two of Brady's longtime political consultants to a company she created solely to receive the funds in an attempt to hide their source.

Authorities have alleged that Moore and Cavaness used some of the money to pay off his campaign debts, but spent more than half of it on themselves.

In Cavaness' plea agreement on Tuesday, prosecutors said Goode played a role in bringing Brady and Moore together to strike that deal. They did not specify, however, whether Goode was aware of the terms to which Brady and Moore had allegedly agreed, to shut down Moore's campaign.

Goode on Thursday said Moore had worked for him "back in the 1970s" and mutual friends were worried "he was damaging his career" by resigning as a judge to challenge Brady. Moore at first resisted the former mayor's advice to drop his campaign but relented when told "he had no chance of winning," Goode said.

Moore told Goode he needed to meet with Brady. Goode set it up.

"I put the two of them in a room and told them to talk, and when they were finished talking we could leave," Goode said.

Neither Brady nor Moore has been named in any court filings surrounding Cavaness' case. Nor has either man been charged with a crime.

Goode said Thursday he had no knowledge about the people and candidates described in the government's pleadings.

"What I know, for the most part, I read in the newspaper in the last two days," he said. "I don't want to get in the middle of narratives that people have. If someone from a law enforcement agency were to ask me questions, I would answer truthfully and accurately."

Asked if he had hired a lawyer, he responded: "Based on what I know about the case, I do not see the need for any attorney."

Brady's attorney, James Eisenhower, scoffed Wednesday at any allegation that his client had ever tried to impede the investigation. He has balked at the government's characterization of the $90,000 that Brady's campaign paid to Moore as an illegal payoff.

Instead, he maintains that the money went to purchase exclusive rights to polling data compiled by Moore's campaign and to hire Cavaness as a subcontractor for Brady's reelection bid  transactions he described as legal and typical in political campaigns.
Steelworks Strength Systems at Girard Avenue and 25th Street. A fight started outside the gym between neighbors and gym goers in May. Read more

An off-duty police officer involved in a Brewerytown melee in May that left a 14-year-old boy injured has resigned from the Philadelphia Police Department, officials said Wednesday.

Kevin Furman, who had worked for the department since 2013, resigned June 24, police spokesman Jeff Chrusch said.

Furman is the subject of an Internal Affairs probe into a fight that erupted outside a gym May 11, but Police Commissioner Richard Ross said Wednesday that Furman's resignation was a surprise to him and the department. Furman's resignation could be related to the incident but was not prompted by the department, Ross said.

"I shouldn't say it has nothing to do with it, but it has nothing to do with our investigation. To date, even though Internal Affairs is looking at it, his resignation came as a surprise to us," Ross said. "That should tell you right there that there was no conversation about, 'You should consider this.' "

Furman could not be reached for comment. His resignation was first reported by WHYY Newsworks.

On May 11, he was working out at Steelworks Strength Systems gym, 2511 W. Girard Ave., when a group of boys cut through the gym. According to Kobie Xavier, a trainer working at the gym that day, the boys were told to leave. Later they threw rocks at members, including Furman, who were jogging outside.

Xavier said a scuffle ensued in which other people from the neighborhood showed up, some with bats. According to a police report, Naji Tribble, 14, threw a punch at Furman's wife, who was also a member of the gym. Furman then threw the boy to the ground, the report said.

Following the incident, Tribble was charged with simple assault and making terroristic threats, according to the family's attorney, Kevin Mincey. Tribble spent a week in the hospital and is still recovering from head trauma, Mincey said. His family disputes the narrative in the police report.

The Internal Affairs investigation into Furman is ongoing.
In announcing he would ban transgender people from the military, President Donald Trump cited "the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail." Whether the cost is "tremendous" is opinion, but a government-funded report found that allowing transgender people to openly serve in the military would likely have a "marginal impact" on health care costs and military readiness.

The report, released last year by the RAND Corp., estimated the additional cost at "between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04- to 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures." It also found that "less than 0.1 percent of the total force would seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy."

The RAND report was commissioned by the Defense Department after then-Secretary Ash Carter announced in July 2015 that the military would study "the policy and readiness implications of welcoming transgender persons to serve openly."

Nearly a year later, Carter announced a new policy that immediately allowed transgender service members "to openly serve in the U.S. armed forces" without fear of discharge. The policy also set a date of July 1, 2017, for allowing transgender individuals to join the armed forces. The delay was designed to develop training plans, revise regulations and forms, and implement guidance.

On June 30, the Defense Department under Trump delayed the start date for accepting transgender service members until Jan. 1, 2018. In a June 30 memo obtained by the Associated Press, Defense Secretary James Mattis told service chiefs and secretaries that he would "use this additional time to evaluate more carefully the impact of such accessions on readiness and lethality."

Associated Press, July 1:  Mattis said the review by the services must be completed by Dec. 1, and he noted that his approval of a delay does not presuppose the outcome of the review. He said the additional time will ensure he has the benefit of the views of the military leadership and of the senior civilian officials who are now arriving in the department.

However, in a series of tweets, Trump abruptly announced the policy change before the end of the six-month review period.

Let's look at what we know about the number of transgender individuals currently serving in the military and their potential impact on health care costs and military readiness.

In making his announcement that the military would accept transgender service members, Carter said that "there isn't definitive data on the number of transgender service members." But he cited RAND's study of existing estimates "and their best estimate was that about 2,500 people out of approximately 1.3 million active-duty service members, and about 1,500 out of 825,000 reserve service members are transgender." Those were mid-range estimates with the upper end of the ranges being 6,630 for active duty and 4,160 for the reserves.

So we are talking about a small subset of active and reserve service members. The number of service members that would seek gender transitionrelated medical treatment is even smaller.

Private health insurance data show that "0.022 to 0.0396 annual claimants per 1,000 individuals" seek transition-related health care each year. Based on that, RAND estimated that anywhere from 29 to 129 active-duty service members would seek such medical treatment each year among the force of 1.3 million members.

Although Trump described the cost as "tremendous," RAND estimated that providing transition-related health care would increase the military's health care costs for active-duty members "by between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually." That represents an increase of no more than 0.13 percent of the $6.27 billion spent on the health of active-duty members in fiscal 2014.

As for military readiness, the RAND report said: "Similarly, when assessing the readiness impact of a policy change, we found that less than 0.0015 percent of the total available labor-years would be affected, based on estimated gender transitionrelated health care utilization rates. This is because even at upper-bound estimates, less than 0.1 percent of the total force would seek transition-related care that could disrupt their ability to deploy."

The report was less definitive regarding the impact of transgender individuals on "unit cohesion." RAND said its review of data from the civilian population, foreign militaries, and previous integration experiences of gays, lesbians and women "suggest a minimal impact on unit cohesion." But it acknowledged that its conclusion "may not hold for transgender service members."
For arguably the first time, Republicans are starting to draw red lines in an effort to save President Trump from himself.

As Trump weighs firing one or both of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and special counsel Robert Mueller, a pair of GOP senators is promising measures to thwart or dissuade him. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles E. Grassley (R., Iowa) said Wednesday that his panel would not confirm a new attorney general to replace Sessions this year. Then Thursday morning, Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R., S.C.) said he would introduce legislation to protect Mueller and warned it "could be the beginning of the end" of Trump's presidency if he tried to fire the special counsel.

Both moves are unprecedented. For perhaps the first time, Senate Republicans with real sway are talking about concrete steps to counteract Trump's impulses and prevent constitutional crises.

Republicans have spent plenty of time talking tough about Trump, mind you. Plenty of them said Trump's comments about women on that Access Hollywood tape were beyond the pale, and some even urged him to drop out of the presidential race. Many of these same members, such as Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R., Utah) would later embrace Trump. (Chaffetz has since retired from Congress.)

>> Read more: What's Robert Mueller supposed to do as special counsel?

Like Graham, Sen. John McCain (R., Ariz.) has been among the most vocal Trump critics in the GOP, including giving a brutal speech denouncing Trump's worldview in February in Munich. But even that speech didn't call out Trump by name, and McCain has frustrated Trump's opponents by not backing up his words with actions, such as voting against Trump's agenda.

House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R., Wis.) too, has been called upon to occasionally denounce Trump. And sometimes he has obliged. But he has also assumed a nonconfrontational approach to dealing with the president, repeatedly brushing off his tweets  including as recently as Thursday morning  in favor of trying to work with Trump to get things done.

There have been some threats of legislation or actions by Republicans to stop Trump. In January, for instance, GOP senators led by McCain threatened a bill to prevent Trump from lifting sanctions against Russia. Similarly, Graham in March suggested he might call for a special committee to look into Trump's baseless allegation that President Barack Obama wiretapped him.

But this is the first time the stakes have been this high. And Grassley and Graham are going on-record with specific actions and threats.

Sen. Ben Sasse (R., Neb.) is also speaking out now, telling Trump not to plan on a possible recess appointment to replace Sessions. "Forget about it," Sasse said. Sasse didn't appear to threaten specific action, though Republicans as a whole could thwart a recess appointment.

Look, politics is an inherently disingenuous business. Sometimes you say something with a little extra conviction to send a message, or you make threats that you're not 100 percent committed to backing up.

Politicians also have to deal with the realities of alienating a president who has significant sway over whether they can pass their agenda. There is no doubt Republicans, after denouncing Trump repeatedly on the campaign trail and seeing him win anyway, have grown gun-shy. This is the moment he's gone too far and I can cut him off, they've thought so many times, only to be proven wrong in short order.

I'm not one of those people who thinks McCain can't denounce Trump one day and vote for his agenda the next. McCain is a conservative Republican, so he tends to support Republican legislation. He wants to replace Obamacare, so he voted to move forward with a debate on doing just that this week, despite his reservations about the process.

But at some point, Republicans who think Trump is truly flirting with a constitutional crisis will need to back up their tough rhetoric with actions. Grassley and Graham seem to be at least edging toward doing that  perhaps recognizing the uniquely fraught options Trump is apparently considering.

We'll see how much follow-through there is. But at some point, the rubber must meet the road, or it just amounts to a bunch of talk.

Everything is happening so fast  or at least that's how it feels trying to follow politics these days. You've seen the headlines about President Trump and his policies  but what do they mean for Philadelphia? What does that mean for you? We've launched a newsletter to explore just that. You can sign up to get the weekly Trumpadelphia newsletter in your inbox every Tuesday.
Rod Rosenstein was facing a friendly crowd.

It was a Monday night in mid-May, and he was leaning over a stark white lectern inside a Hyatt Regency hotel in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. A collection of local civic and business leaders had just presented him with a public service award, and the suits in the seats would have understood if he offered a few bland thanks before slipping off into the evening. But he was comfortable enough with his surroundings to address the elephant in the room instead.

"It's nice to be in Baltimore," Rosenstein said as a wry grin crossed his face. "And it's really nice not to be in Washington, D.C., for a few hours." The room broke into knowing laughter. He was barely a month into a job that should have been a pinnacle for a longtime federal prosecutor  deputy attorney general of the United States  but things had already started to go sideways.

A friend sent him a cryptic text message on his 10th day in office: You need to get out of there. Rosenstein assured the audience that he gamely wrote back, "There is no place I would rather be." Despite his practiced coolness, the week leading up to this appearance had been surreal and unnerving, and the days ahead would center around a political bombshell that put a bull's-eye on his back.

The cloud that hung over President Trump's wild gallop to the White House  the question of whether his campaign had colluded in 2016 with the Russian government  was looming larger and more ominously than ever before. Six days earlier, Trump had fired James Comey, the director of the FBI, which had been probing the Russia allegations for month. It was a seismic move that sent a chill through Washington and channeled ghostly echoes of President Richard M. Nixon's infamous Saturday Night Massacre.

The White House quickly noted that Trump had acted on the advice of Attorney General Jeff Sessions and Rosenstein, who'd penned a scathing memo about Comey's handling of the investigation into Hillary Clinton's private email server. That was the official story, but it didn't hold for long, thanks to Trump's propensity to shoot from the hip at all times. A day later, he reportedly bragged to Russian diplomats that firing Comey had removed "great pressure." It was an odd remark, but the true red flag would come during an ensuing interview with NBC News, when Trump explained that he'd actually decided to jettison Comey before consulting Rosenstein, because he'd concluded that "this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made-up story."

Since Sessions had already recused himself from all matters involving Russia, it fell to Rosenstein to respond  and he saw only one solution. He appointed a special counsel, the widely respected former FBI Director Robert Mueller, to get to the bottom of everything: Trump, Russia, the election, and any other issues that "arose or may arise."

That decision thrust the bookish Rosenstein, 52, onto the national stage, a 24/7 circus of breathless rumors and endless media speculation. The bombastic Trump has thrived in that chaotic maelstrom for decades, but it couldn't be more foreign to Rosenstein, whose 27-year career has been marked by an aversion to the spotlight, a fervent devotion to the Justice Department's black-and-white ideals, and a steadfast commitment to the apolitical rule of law.

"He's patriotic and idealistic, but he's not naive."  Megan Brown, who worked for Rosenstein in 2000

If Trump tries to fire Mueller or undercut his investigation  as his public comments increasingly suggest  it will again fall to Rosenstein to stand in his way. During an interview July 21, Rosenstein said preserving the public's confidence in the Justice Department is his highest mission, one that's "critically important" to the state of our union. But he shies away from discussing hypotheticals.

More than a dozen former colleagues, friends and political figures interviewed by the Inquirer and Daily News say that Rosenstein is the right man for the job amid all of this uncertainty, that beneath his suburban-dad demeanor and Capraesque earnestness lie a steely resolve and an unshakable commitment to doing what's right, outside pressures be damned.

"If you care about the country," one former Justice Department official says, "you want Rod Rosenstein to be there."

From Wharton to Whitewater

Contrary to a recent Trump tirade about Rosenstein's being from Baltimore  "there are very few Republicans in Baltimore. So, he's from Baltimore," he lamented  Rosenstein was born in Philadelphia. And he's a Republican.

When he was a toddler, his family moved to the suburbs, settling in a quiet neighborhood of split-level houses and tidy lawns in Lower Moreland. His parents, Robert and Gerri, instilled old-fashioned values  work hard, be honest, treat others with respect  that carried him from Lower Moreland High School to Penn's Wharton School, which also counts Trump as an alum.

At Harvard Law, Rosenstein caught the attention of one of his professors, Philip Heymann, who had once been a top assistant to Watergate special prosecutor Archibald Cox. "He was very straight, very proper," Heymann, now 84, says. "Prosecutors can be surrounded by ethical dilemmas. Are you going too far or not far enough? Rod was very concerned about the propriety of those decisions."

While Rosenstein was quietly studying the intricacies of law, Trump was at the peak of his swashbuckling Atlantic City casino and hotel mogul days. He cemented his name as a brand synonymous with business savvy with a bestselling book, The Art of the Deal, even as he simultaneously pursued a series of reckless financial deals that would result in a string of bankruptcies.

Rosenstein was hired by the Justice Department in 1990, and started out prosecuting public corruption cases. In 1993, then-President Bill Clinton tapped Heymann to be his deputy attorney general, and Heymann called on a handful of sharp legal minds to join the office, including Rosenstein and his mentor, a Justice Department lifer named David Margolis.

Sandra Cavazos was Heymann's special assistant, and remembers being struck by the way Rosenstein carried himself. "He had ambition, but in a humane way," she says. "D.C. is full of people who look to step over everyone else on their way to the top. That's not Rod. I feel like he was made for the deputy attorney general role."

Rosenstein got his first taste of a megawatt political scandal in 1995, when he joined Kenneth Starr's Whitewater investigation into murky Arkansas real estate deals that involved the Clintons and a number of their associates. As part of the case, Rosenstein spent a year in Little Rock, working on the federal prosecution of former Gov. Jim Guy Tucker.

"There were a lot of politically charged issues," says Julie Myers Wood, who was the lead prosecutor on another one of the Whitewater indictments. "Rod always had the voice of reason."

No charges were ever brought against the Clintons, but Starr continued to relentlessly pursue the administration in his role as an independent counsel. He ultimately unearthed the president's affair with the intern Monica Lewinsky, which inspired U.S. House Republicans to launch an ill-fated impeachment attempt in 1998.

Rosenstein had moved on from Starr's Whitewater team by the time the Lewinsky scandal went nuclear, but Trump closely followed the developments from his perch as a playboy celebrity. During an interview with Fox News at the time, Trump argued that Starr's investigation was "a terrible thing" and that Clinton was "a victim himself." He was also critical of women who'd been linked to Clinton's philandering. "The whole group, Paula Jones, Lewinsky, it's just a really unattractive group. I'm not just talking about physical."

Looking back on that era, did Rosenstein gain any useful insights about politics and a president's power  or lack thereof  to evade an investigation? "That's an interesting question," he says, leaning back in a chair at the end of a long, mahogany-colored conference table in his office on the fourth floor of the Justice Department's Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters. He's wearing a dark suit, a green patterned tie and rimless glasses, and his short hair is neatly parted to the side.

He talks in brisk, lawyerly paragraphs, and pivots now to a lengthy explanation of the legal difference between an independent counsel, like Starr, and a special counsel, like Mueller, who has to answer to Rosenstein. But then he circles back to Whitewater: "The short answer is, I did learn a lot."

For an official who's ever conscious of not saying something that could trigger a breaking news alert, this feels like going out on a limb.

Thank you for taking this job

Trump experienced a career rebirth in 2004 with the launch of The Apprentice, the reality TV show that gave the world his brash, finger-jabbing trademark slogan: "You're fired!" In an interview with Esquire that year, he also riffed, Walter Mitty style, on how things might go if he was ever in charge of the country.

Rosenstein, meanwhile, was nearing the end of a four-year run as the principal deputy assistant attorney general for the Justice Department's Tax Division, where he oversaw complex investigations into white collar fraud.

He was creeping toward middle age, but didn't seem to be obsessed with chasing any particular brass ring. He and his wife Lisa had settled into a quiet life in Bethesda with their daughters, Julia and Allison. Instead of rubbing elbows with judges and politicians at black-tie affairs, Rosenstein would invite coworkers to his house to chow down on takeout. Around the office, he was known as the guy who would check to make sure everybody had a ride home at the end of a holiday party.

"He's like a good neighbor," laughs Megan Brown, who worked for Rosenstein in 2000. "He's patriotic and idealistic, but he's not naive. I don't want to make him sound too much like Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, but that's sort of how I picture him. He's not concerned about himself."

In 2005, President George W. Bush appointed Rosenstein as U.S. attorney for the District of Maryland. He stayed in the job through the end of Bush's second term, and then was retained by President Barack Obama for another eight years.

You can count on one hand the number of U.S. attorneys who survived that long under both administrations, a fact that suggests all of the former colleagues I spoke to aren't blowing smoke when they hail Rosenstein as an honest-to-goodness straight arrow who keeps his personal politics out of the office.

Rosenstein's time as U.S. attorney demonstrated, time and again, that his ideology boils down to holding everyone accountable to the same set of rules, a worldview that was honed during Whitewater and would resurface when Comey was fired. Politicians weren't afforded special protections, and neither were those in law enforcement. Under Rosenstein, the office indicted seven Baltimore police officers on robbery and extortion charges; in another instance, 18 corrections officers were indicted for helping to smuggle drugs and cell phones into a state prison.

Stephanie Rawlings-Blake became a fan of Rosenstein while she served as the Democratic mayor of Baltimore from 2010 to 2016. She found him to be genuinely committed to helping the city drive down its violent crime rate by having federal prosecutors work more closely with local authorities.

"Personally, I'd hoped that he wouldn't be so quickly tarnished by the current administration," Rawlings-Blake tells me. "It was disappointing for me to see that. I think his goal is just to add his experience and expertise to an administration that everyone can clearly see is desperate for people who can actually do the job."

Working in the Trump administration seems like a job that few qualified people want. CNN reported in June that Trump had only submitted 111 nominees for 1,100 or so high-level government positions that require Senate approval; only 41 have actually made it through the approval process so far. And there have been high-profile resignations, like Walter Shaub, the director of the Office of Government Ethics, who told the New York Times that the administration has left the country "pretty close to a laughingstock." The unfilled jobs worry those who have done the kind of anonymous, behind-the-scenes work that keeps the government functioning.

"D.C. is full of people who look to step over everyone else on their way to the top. That's not Rod. I feel like he was made for the deputy attorney general role."  Sandra Cavazos, colleague during early 1990s

The Senate voted, 94-6, on April 25 to approve Rosenstein, less than three months after Trump officially nominated him for deputy attorney general. Friends believe that Rosenstein felt compelled to accept the deputy attorney general job because he realized, in part, that the Justice Department needed a steady hand. "I literally sent Rod an email saying, 'Thank you for taking this job,' " says Cynthia Monaco, a former federal prosecutor who worked with Rosenstein in the early '90s. "I felt better that a career prosecutor with the highest integrity was in that position."

The good vibes didn't last long.

Rods rules and Trumps tweets

Rosenstein's Comey memo remains a source of curiosity, even several months later. At first glance, it seems hard to reconcile; was he really pushing for Comey to be fired? And why would he bother writing a memo if Trump had already made up his mind?

Monaco and other former federal prosecutors I spoke to were unanimous in their belief that Rosenstein wrote the three-page document of his own accord. It's clear, reading through it now, that Comey had offended the sense of propriety that Phil Heymann saw in Rosenstein back in the 1980s.

Rosenstein denounced Comey for holding a news conference last July to proclaim that Hillary Clinton wouldn't be criminally charged over her mountain of missing emails. "It is not the function of the Director to make such an announcement," Rosenstein wrote.

Comey had shared "his own conclusions about the nation's most sensitive criminal investigation, without the authorization of duly appointed Justice Department leaders," he continued, adding that Comey had also violated other department protocols by releasing "derogatory information" about someone who wasn't being indicted. And worse yet, he did all this in front of the news media.

For a man who has worshiped at the altar of rules and regulations throughout his career, these were egregious errors. Rosenstein even backed up his assertions by quoting a host of past attorneys general who shared his sentiments. The FBI wouldn't regain the public's trust, he concluded, until it had new leadership.

"Comey just went completely off the reservation," says Eileen O'Connor, who was Rosenstein's boss when she was the assistant attorney general for the Tax Division in the early 2000s. "Rod very clearly explained how he transgressed. I was similarly appalled  and I know Comey."

During a closed-door briefing with congressional leaders on May 19, Rosenstein argued that his memo was not meant to justify Comey's firing. But he didn't walk back any of his criticisms, either. "I wrote it," he said. "I believe it. I stand by it."

Still, once Trump had claimed publicly that his feelings about the validity of the Russia investigation factored into his decision to terminate the FBI director, the matter took on another dimension. Rosenstein had no choice but to bring in a special counsel. And Trump, of course, hit the roof.

Lately, Trump has directed his Twitter venom at Sessions, terming him "beleaguered" and "VERY weak" on "Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers!" It is a baffling sight, to put it mildly; Trump nominated both Sessions and Rosenstein for their positions, but rails against them as if they'd been foisted on him by a third party.

"Every time [Trump] tries to make an investigation go away, he just creates a new one," Monaco says. "Rod's trying to analyze the situation and decide what he has to do based on what case law says he should be doing. The challenge here is, I don't think the president understands the processes of law enforcement."

The gnawing sense that another shoe will drop  that Trump will drop the ax on Sessions, or turn up the heat on Rosenstein  is now nearly inescapable. There's a corrosive effect when a president constantly question or belittle his own top officials. Yet during our interview, Rosenstein looks unworried. He has a job to do, and that's his singular focus. "I think we let the work speak for itself," he tells me.

He appeared before a Senate Appropriations subcommittee in mid-June, and was asked how he'd respond if Trump instructed him to fire Mueller. He responded that Mueller could only be fired for good cause, something he'd have to validate in writing. "If there were not good cause," he added, "it wouldn't matter to me what anybody says."

Since then, Trump's attorneys and aides have reportedly been searching for information that could discredit Mueller and his team of investigators. If he can't tweet Mueller's investigation out of existence, he can still stir up unrest among his base, and create headaches in the halls of the Justice Department.

Heymann, the Watergate survivor, says he was impressed by the fortitude his former law school student showed by appointing Mueller and then publicly stating that he wouldn't fire him. "They were two very brave things, because each of them is more than adequate to make Trump want to fire him," he says. "Rod is in deep political waters."

John Ashcroft, who served as attorney general under Bush, is among those keeping tabs on Rosenstein from afar. The two men share a mutual admiration, and Rosenstein has a portrait of Ashcroft hanging in his office. "The job is easier when you're devoted to principles," he says in a soft Missouri drawl. "The people who survive in the long run don't get up every morning and wonder, 'Is this a day when I compromise my principles or not?' "

Not about politics

Rosenstein's days begin on a sobering note, with national security briefings and a round-up of foreign intelligence surveillance applications.

"I meet with our team to talk about what the threats are," he says. "It's a big department. We have 115,000 employees who are doing a lot of different things, and every aspect of it is important in some way."

But it's difficult to get anyone outside of his department's headquarters to focus on its other duties. Rosenstein and Sessions appeared at a press conference together on July 20, the day before I traveled to Washington to sit down with Rosenstein. They announced a significant blow against criminal enterprises that lurk in the hidden recesses of the dark web, but were only peppered with questions from reporters about a surprising interview Trump had done with the New York Times, where he repeatedly blasted Sessions for having recused himself from overseeing the Russia investigation.

It's unclear how close Sessions and Rosenstein are, but as they stood before that pack of reporters, they looked like two men stranded together on island surrounded by sharks. Desperate circumstances can breed a sense of camaraderie, if nothing else.

During our interview, Rosenstein takes time to carefully explain some of the policies Sessions has enacted that have sparked intense criticism, like revamping the Justice Department's civil-asset forfeiture practices, and ordering its Civil Rights Division to review consent decrees and reform agreements signed with police departments across the country during Obama's administration.

While opponents say Sessions has made it easier for police to sidestep local legislative restrictions on civil asset forfeiture, Rosenstein argues that the issue has been misconstrued. "The new policy  has additional protections, the most significant of which are that we're going to have federal government lawyers review every seizure," he says. "I anticipate that is going to eliminate most of the cases in which there would be claims of abuse."

He rebutted the idea that police misconduct would be overlooked, but acknowledged that Sessions believes consent decrees have hampered police departments' ability to fight crime. "If there's actual evidence of criminal violations of people's civil rights, we should be prosecuting the officers who are responsible," Rosenstein says. "I was very aggressive about that as U.S. attorney in Maryland. During my tenure, I'm pretty sure we prosecuted more law enforcement officers in the history of Maryland in any 12-year period."

The conversation drifts, as it always does, back to the president and the Mueller probe. The developments pile up at a dizzying pace, from Donald Trump Jr.'s self-published emails that showed an eagerness to meet with a Kremlin-connected attorney and others last summer with the promise of receiving damaging information about Hillary Clinton, to Jared Kushner's testimony before a Senate Intelligence Committee.

While it must be frustrating for a buttoned-up official like Rosenstein to contend with the ceaseless public speculation, Trump relishes the attention and eagerly courts more controversy. He tweets about his pardoning powers, gripes about the possibility that Mueller might look into his personal finances, and derides the whole saga as the "phony Russian Witch Hunt."

"If there were not good cause, it wouldn't matter to me what anybody says."  Rod Rosenstein, telling senators he would not fire special prosecutor Robert Mueller

He uses his social media reach to delegitimize anyone he considers to be a threat, twisting objective facts like balloon animals into an unrecognizable jumble. In Trump's eyes, journalists, the FBI and foreign intelligence experts are all untrustworthy actors in a grand conspiracy.

So how crucial is it for Rosenstein  and America  to have Mueller conduct a full investigation, without any interference? "If you look at my history in the department, that's always been a really important thing to me, that we promote and preserve the public's confidence in the Department of Justice," Rosenstein says.

"What we do here is not about politics. People are going to comment on what we do, people are going to criticize what we do. Sometimes they're going to compliment us on what we do. But it can't affect what we do. And so, we need to make sure that we don't react to everything that's said about us in the media. That's an important part of the job  the restraint."

Rosenstein walks out of his office and into the hallway, where portraits of 27 past deputy attorneys general are stationed across three shelves, a not-so-subtle reminder of the impermanence of the position. He eyeballs an empty space that will be filled at some point with a photo of Sally Yates, who held the job toward the end of Obama's second term. She was fired by Trump in January, after she refused to defend his controversial travel ban.

"She left in a hurry," he says.

We asked, you answered, and then we answered your answer.

52 percent of respondents in our poll chose the third question, "What is special counsel Robert Mueller supposed to do?" Click on the link to read our answer. Thanks for participating!
WASHINGTON  Senate Republican leaders continued working Thursday to round up votes for a modest overhaul of the Affordable Care Act, as lawmakers pressed ahead with a series of votes that underscored the GOP's deep divide on how to fix the nation's health-care system.

On Wednesday the Senate rejected a proposal that would have repealed major parts of the ACA outright, with seven Republicans joining the chamber's Democrats in opposition.

But GOP leaders said they were cautiously optimistic that later this week they could pass a "skinny repeal" that would abolish the individual and employer insurance mandates and perhaps just one tax in an attempt to sustain their seven-year quest to unwind President Barack Obama's health-care law. Even if they succeed  and start negotiations with the House  they will face significant obstacles in accomplishing anything more substantial.

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R., Ky.) emphasized that the series of votes this week would not reverse the law even if they culminate in passage of a bill. The votes are expected to be held through the night and into Friday morning.

"One phase of that process will end when the Senate concludes voting this week, but it will not signal the end of our work. Not yet," McConnell said.

While McConnell predicted there would be an all-night marathon of votes, Democrats have decided to save their political ammunition until Republicans reveal the substance of the skinny repeal that they have been crafting.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said in a Senate floor speech that Democrats would offer no more amendments until that point, so Republicans could not claim that their final bill was the product of extensive Senate deliberations.

Schumer said that if the skinny repeal plan passes, the Senate should then be prepared for "numerous" Democratic amendments, which could potentially force Republicans into politically tough votes.

Top Republicans such as Sen. John Thune of South Dakota, No. 3 in the chamber's GOP hierarchy, said that although leaders have not yet found "the sweet spot" between conservatives and centrists, they have picked up support for a more modest plan because it does not include deep cuts to Medicaid. Some Republican senators were simply open to any legislation that could keep alive the roller-coaster push for an overhaul.

"We're edging closer and closer" to getting 50 votes for a bare-bones plan, Thune said. He said leaders were betting that some Republicans who defected on votes this week would feel more pressure to support any bill that emerged from negotiations with the House to face a final vote in the Senate.

"Voting on something at the end of the process when it's the only train leaving the station . . . I think that's a different vote for a lot of people," he said.

To muster enough votes for a narrow bill, GOP leaders suggested that even some proposals that have died in the Senate could come up again once they enter negotiations with the House. And some members have begun to try to add a few additional provisions to the skinny bill, using their leverage to try to strengthen their negotiating position in conference.

Sen. Rob Portman (R., Ohio) is pushing for the inclusion of $45 billion to treat opioid addiction, Republicans familiar with the talks said Thursday. It was unclear whether the funds would be included, given the bill's budget constraints. Aides to Portman and McConnell did not immediately comment.

Portman and Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R., W.Va.) successfully lobbied leadership to include the money in the more sweeping repeal-and-replace bill that the Senate voted down earlier this week. But it was unclear whether they would prevail once again.

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) said he was willing to go along with the leadership's latest legislative approach to extend the negotiations in a House-Senate conference committee  but only if he received assurances that his ideas could be resurrected in that setting.

"I won't vote for the skinny bill unless Graham-Cassidy is conference-able," said Graham, referring to an alternate health bill he has offered with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R., La.) that has gained little traction.

More than half a dozen centrists from states that expanded Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act objected to the original Senate draft that GOP leaders crafted last month. It would have cut the program for low-income Americans by $772 billion over 10 years and curtailed its long-term growth rate.

President Trump exhorted Republicans on Twitter on Wednesday morning to fall in line and back some sort of proposal to scale back the law known as Obamacare.

While McConnell has led the negotiations over a health-care plan for weeks, Trump has sought to drum up support by publicly pressing wavering Republicans.

In an interview with the Alaska Dispatch News, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R., Alaska) said that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke called him and Sen. Lisa Murkowksi (R., Alaska) separately on Wednesday to warn them that the administration may change its position on several issues, given Murkowski's vote against proceeding with health-care legislation this week.

Since Trump took office, Interior has indicated it is open to constructing a road through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge and drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge while expanding energy exploration elsewhere in the state. But now these policy shifts may be in jeopardy.

"I tried to push back on behalf of all Alaskans," Sullivan said. "We're facing some difficult times, and there's a lot of enthusiasm for the policies that Secretary Zinke and the president have been talking about with regard to our economy. But the message was pretty clear."

Interior officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Even if Republicans agree on a minimalist plan to alter the ACA, uniting with their House colleagues to enact a bill would be far more challenging. On Wednesday  even before the skinny repeal came up for a vote  some House conservatives were calling it untenable.

Rep. Mark Meadows (R., N.C.), chairman of the House Freedom Caucus and a key player in negotiating the House-passed bill, told reporters recently that a skinny repeal would be "dead on arrival" in the House and that a conference committee would have to be convened to work out a compromise.

Still, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) said Thursday that House leaders are "considering" extending their session so they can be prepared to act on whatever the Senate approves this week.

"The question is, what is the Senate going to do?" Ryan said. "We don't know what the Senate is going to do, so therefore we will reserve judgment as to what our response is."

McConnell overcame serious opposition from his rank-and-file members to begin debate on health care  a prospect that seemed dim just last week. Trump has taken to Twitter and made public statements challenging Senate Republicans to support an overhaul or take ownership of the ACA's failure.

But in two votes within 24 hours of each other, lawmakers rejected differing approaches to rewriting the landmark 2010 law. The open voting process  which is likely to drag on for the rest of the week  has laid bare the fact that Senate Republicans have not been able to find a comprehensive replacement for the law they have relentlessly lambasted.

Republicans on Wednesday lacked answers for how or even whether they can break their gridlock by simply extending their endeavor, but they appeared determined to press ahead.

"I think it's a good idea to start with what we agree on and see how big we can get the bill from there," said Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who has pushed for a repeal of the law and has repeatedly clashed with GOP leaders.

Asked later whether he worried about the impact of repealing the mandate that individuals buy insurance or pay a tax penalty, Paul replied, "The insurance market's a disaster now."

"No matter what you do, unless you're willing to repeal all the regulations, it'll be a disaster in 2018," he added. "It's not the fault of Republicans. It's the fault of Obamacare."

GOP leaders have little room to navigate when it comes to crafting a bill, as just three defections within their ranks would deprive them of the 50 votes they need to pass legislation with the assistance of Vice President Pence, who can break a tie.

And in each of the two most important votes the Senate has cast since taking up the bill, at least 13 percent of Republicans defected to join Democrats in opposition. .

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn, Texas, said proposals offered by Portman and Ted Cruz (R., Texas) that were rejected Tuesday as part of a broader rewrite measure could resurface.

Portman's measure calls for adding $100 billion in federal funding to help consumers with out-of-pocket medical costs and allowing states to provide cost-sharing assistance to low-income people who transition from Medicaid to private insurance with a federal tax credit. Cruz's amendment would let insurers offer health plans on the ACA market that do not provide the full benefits required under the law, as long as they offer at least one option that does.

A total of 57 senators, including nine Republicans, voted against the measure that included both of those provisions. But Cornyn said that passing a skinny repeal would buy time for the Congressional Budget Office to score those two plans, which may be revisited in a conference committee.

With the idea of a scaled-back bill emerging as the most likely outcome of this week's votes, the proposal now faces increased scrutiny.

Senate Democrats announced late Wednesday afternoon that a preliminary CBO estimate found that 16 million people would lose coverage and that premiums would rise 20 percent if Republicans enacted a handful of the policies floated for the pared-down repeal bill. The analysis was based on the assumption that the GOP wants to repeal the individual and employer mandates, end a 2.3 percent tax on medical device manufacturers, ban funding for Planned Parenthood and repeal funds for preventive health care.

In a sign of how the prospect of a spike in the uninsured rate continues to worry governors, a bipartisan group of 10 of them  including Republicans Brian Sandoval of Nevada and John Kasich of Ohio  urged Senate leaders late Wednesday to work together with governors in developing a new plan and to reject a skinny repeal, which they said "is expected to accelerate health plans leaving the individual market, increase premiums, and result in fewer Americans having access to insurance."

Senate Republicans hope that once their members are faced with enacting an imperfect measure, or not accomplishing one of their chief legislative goals, they will decide that some progress is better than none.

The Senate also voted down a pair of attempts by Democrats to end debate by forcing two Senate committees to review and debate the legislation, and an amendment from Sen. Dean Heller (R., Nev.) affirming support for Medicaid and asking for the Senate to review the program further. Democrats grew frustrated by the spectacle Wednesday evening and threatened to stop offering amendments until GOP leaders released details of the narrow repeal measure they plan to offer.

Meanwhile, the ongoing uncertainty on Capitol Hill sent jitters through the insurance industry.

Joseph Swedish, the chief executive of Anthem  the nation's second-largest health insurer  said on a conference call to review second-quarter earnings that the company is reassessing its participation in ACA marketplaces for next year. Anthem has decided to largely withdraw from the markets in three of the 14 states it participates in, and he said it may stop participating elsewhere unless the markets seem stable.

The Blue Cross Blue Shield Association warned that even the skinny repeal Republicans now envision could undermine the individual insurance market because it would eliminate the individual mandate. The measure, which remains subject to negotiation, also would probably eliminate the ACA's requirement that employers with 50 workers or more provide health coverage, and a medical device tax that generates $19.6 billion in federal revenue over a decade.

"If there is no longer a requirement for everyone to purchase coverage, it is critical that any legislation include strong incentives for people to obtain health insurance and keep it year-round," the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association said in a statement.

And America's Health Insurance Plans, a major insurance trade association, weighed in with a letter Thursday saying it opposes "targeted proposals that would eliminate key elements of current law without new stabilizing solutions."

Several Republicans appeared wary Wednesday of moving too quickly to undo the health-care law without a replacement in hand. That proposal was defeated on a vote of 55 to 45, with seven Republican senators  including John McCain of Arizona and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, who chairs one of the key committees that would normally craft a health-care bill  opposing it.

Alexander said after the vote that although he supported an outright repeal in 2015, his constituents could not tolerate that kind of uncertainty now.

"I don't think most Tennesseans would like the idea of our saying to them, 'We're going to cancel insurance for 22 million Americans and then trust Congress to replace it in two years,' " he said. "I think most pilots, when they take off, like to know where they're going to land."

Dino Grandoni, Amy Goldstein, David Weigel and Mike DeBonis contributed to this report.
Jeff Sessions Justice Department is arguing that U.S. law does not prohibit job discrimination based on sexual orientation. Read more

The Justice Department, intervening in an important private employment case, urged a federal appeals court to rule that civil rights law does not bar job discrimination based on sexual orientation.

The action came on the same day President Donald Trump tweeted that he would ban transgender people from serving in the military, an abrupt reversal of an Obama administration decision.

The amicus brief filed Wednesday with the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit in New York also runs contrary to the position of the Obama administration Justice Department as well as the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Both adopted the view that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bans employment discrimination on the basis of sex, also applies to sexual orientation. The law itself does not say that.

The question has implications well beyond employment law, particularly in education. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, a powerful weapon against discrimination, is generally interpreted in sync with rulings on the employment discrimination law. That's how the Obama administration justified its controversial efforts to enforce bathroom and locker room equity for transgender students.

The government's friend-of-court brief stated since Congress has not specifically incorporated sexual orientation in the law, the courts can't on their own act to include it.

Appeals courts have disagreed on the question, meaning that it will likely have to be settled by the Supreme Court, which has not weighed in squarely on it.

The case is already shaping up as a major test, closely watched by both LGBT activist groups and evangelical religious organizations, which have filed their own friend-of-court briefs.

There's nothing unusual about the DOJ intervening in civil rights cases as friend-of-the-court, since as the nation's top law enforcer it has to deal with the outcome. On the other hand, the department has no obligation to get involved. It didn't have to intervene; it chose to do so.

Title VII makes no mention of sexual orientation and does not define the term "sex."

But "'in common ordinary usage,'" the word means only "'biologically male or female,'" the government said in its brief, quoting prior rulings. So the law can only protect people who have been disfavored because of their sex, not because of their sexual orientation.

If Congress had wanted the law to cover sexual orientation, it has had plenty of opportunity to do so and has chosen not to, the administration argued.

The 2nd Circuit case involves a skydiving instructor who claimed he was fired by a company called Altitude Express based on his sexual orientation.

His problems began in 2010 when Rosanna Orellana and her boyfriend David Kengle purchased tandem skydives, in which the instructor is tied to the back of the client to deploy the parachute.

Donald Zarda was Orellana's instructor and informed her that he was gay and had recently experienced a breakup. "Zarda often informed female clients of his sexual orientation  especially when they were accompanied by a husband or boyfriend  to mitigate any awkwardness that might arise from the fact that he was strapped so tightly to the woman," according documents in the case.

Kengle, the boyfriend, complained to Altitude Express and Zarda was fired, as the court said, on the stated grounds that he "failed to provide an enjoyable experience for the customer."

Zarda died in a skydiving accident before the case went to trial. Two executors of his estate have replaced him as plaintiffs in Zarda v. Altitude Express.

A district court judge held that while Zarda could file the complaint under state law, the Title VII employment discrimination complaint was invalid because the law did not cover sexual orientation.

A panel of the 2nd Circuit agreed with the district judge based on precedent set in an earlier 2nd Circuit case, saying that only the full appeals court, sitting en banc, could reconsider it. That's what's happening now and was the occasion for the Justice Department's amicus brief.

The theory that discrimination on the basis of sex also includes discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation stems from a 1989 Supreme Court decision involving the accounting firm then called Price Waterhouse (now called PwC.)

Ann Hopkins, a woman denied partnership there, cited in her discrimination complaint comments by male partners that she was too masculine, that to improve her chances for partnership Hopkins should "walk more femininely, talk more femininely, dress more femininely, wear make-up, have her hair styled and wear jewelry."

She could not sustain an argument that she was targeted because she was a woman per se, but rather that it was because she did not conform to the partnership's stereotypes about women.

Her complaint produced a ruling holding that such stereotyping was a form of sex discrimination in employment.

Lawyers for LGBT people took it from there, arguing that discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation was, at bottom, a form of stereotyping.

It reflected judgments about how men and women should dress and behave, with whom they should have sex, whether they should or shouldn't wear makeup, and so forth.

The EEOC and several lower courts accepted that interpretation while other courts, including the 2nd Circuit, have rejected it.

In its brief, the Justice Department dismissed the theory. Sex discrimination occurs only when someone would have been hired, for example, "but for" their sex.
WASHINGTON  President Trump has discussed with confidants and advisers in recent days the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Jeff Sessions leaves the job, but he has been warned not to move to push him out because of the political and legal ramifications, according to people briefed on the conversations.

Still raging over Sessions' recusal from the Justice Department's escalating Russia investigation, Trump has been talking privately about how he might replace Sessions and possibly sidestep Senate oversight, four people familiar with the issue said.

Two of those people, however, described Trump as musing about the idea rather than outlining a plan of action, and a senior White House official said no action is imminent. Several people familiar with the discussions said that Trump's fury peaked over the weekend and that he and Sessions now seem to be heading toward an uneasy detente.

When asked Wednesday about the president's discussions of a recess appointment, the White House released a one-sentence denial from Trump: "More fake news from the Amazon Washington Post." The Washington Post is owned by Jeffrey P. Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon.

Those who have discussed Sessions this week with Trump or with top West Wing officials have drawn different conclusions from their conversations  in part because the president ruminates aloud and floats hypotheticals, often changing his views hour to hour.

Some advisers have come away convinced that Trump is determined to ultimately remove Sessions and is seriously considering a recess appointment to replace him  an idea that has been discussed on some of the cable news shows the president watches. These advisers said Trump would prefer that the attorney general resign rather than have to be fired.

"My understanding is the Sessions thing ends with Sessions leaving the attorney general job to go spend more time with his family," said one outside counselor to the White House, who, like many other people interviewed, spoke on the condition of anonymity because the subject is highly sensitive.

But others involved in the discussions have concluded that Trump is merely venting with his continued assault against Sessions  one described it as "an emotional exercise," while another called it "just a rough-up job." They said Trump has neither fully articulated nor set in motion a plan to replace Sessions.

The president has the power to make a recess appointment when the Senate adjourns for a long break of more than a week, allowing the appointee to avoid Senate confirmation and serve through the end of next year. But Democrats have already signaled that they will use parliamentary stalling tactics to prevent the Senate from formally adjourning throughout the upcoming August break  in part to prevent Trump from being able to unilaterally install a new attorney general.

Late Wednesday, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R., Iowa) tweeted a warning to Trump that his committee's schedule already is "set" for the remainder of the year. It will consider judges and subcabinet nominees first, he wrote, adding, "AG no way."

Trump has long confided privately what he began to say publicly last week  that he blames Sessions' recusal for setting in motion the appointment of Robert Mueller as the special counsel of the Russia probe, which the president sees as unfair and a metastasizing problem for himself and his family.

Sessions has shown no indication of stepping aside voluntarily and was at the White House on Wednesday for unrelated meetings with other officials.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the incoming White House press secretary, told reporters Wednesday that Trump was "disappointed" in Sessions but also said, "You can be disappointed in someone but still want them to continue to do their job, and that's where they are."

Sanders added, "He wants him to lead the Department of Justice. . . . He wants him to focus on things like immigration, leaks and a number of other issues."

Former House speaker Newt Gingrich, who has spoken with Trump this week, said he believes the president's attacks will quiet down. "My read of him and the people around him is probably, in the end, it will be calm and we'll move forward," he said.

Asked whether he believes Sessions will leave the Justice Department, Gingrich said, "No, no . . . I really don't think so." But he acknowledged that he cannot be certain until the president makes up his mind. "He is really mad," Gingrich added.

Several lawyers around Trump have been urging the president to stop his saber-rattling against Sessions and Mueller, according to three advisers. The president has countered that he believes the probe is a mere political attack  a "witch hunt" and "hoax," as he often says on Twitter  and that he has no legal jeopardy to worry about.

But several lawyers have told Trump that his comments send a signal to Mueller that the president is trying to shut down or curtail the investigation, as though he does have something to hide.

Trump has largely shrugged off these concerns. "In his mind, he is his own best advocate, his own best lawyer," one adviser said. "He's not willing to let the Mueller probe and other events unfold without taking action himself. "

Replacing Sessions could be a precursor to firing Mueller as special counsel. But several of Trump's White House advisers  including Chief of Staff Reince Priebus and chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon  have strongly counseled him against ordering the dismissal of Mueller, which they have warned would be a political, if not legal, catastrophe, according to people familiar with the discussions.

Furthermore, Trump's advisers have argued that replacing the attorney general would be a political distraction from the big-ticket items the administration is pushing in the Senate, including health care, taxes and the budget.

The discussions about Sessions' fate come during a period of heightened anxiety inside the West Wing. The president has begun a staff overhaul, including empowering Anthony Scaramucci with a broad mandate as communications director and all-around adviser.

Priebus is fighting to maintain his influence with the president. The former Republican National Committee chairman has privately touted his ability to raise money from wealthy donors, suggesting he could bring in funds to a legal-defense fund, according to two people familiar with his appeal.

There has been tension in recent weeks between some in Trump's orbit who want the RNC to absorb Russia-related legal fees and RNC officials who believe that would be an inappropriate use of party resources.

Trump, who has called Sessions "beleaguered" and "very weak," renewed his rhetorical attacks on Wednesday by questioning why Sessions had not replaced the acting FBI director.

In two tweets just before 10 a.m., Trump wrote: "Why didn't A.G. Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wife's political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives. Drain the Swamp!"

The attack was curious considering the president has the authority to remove McCabe himself without Sessions. After Trump fired James Comey as FBI director, Sessions and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein met with four candidates to lead the FBI on an interim basis, but the administration decided to stick with McCabe.

The Washington Post's Devlin Barrett, Rosalind S. Helderman, Jenna Johnson, Paul Kane, Abby Phillip, Karen Tumulty and Matt Zapotosky contributed to this report.
Twice in two days, President Donald Trump falsely tweeted that acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe's wife received $700,000 in campaign donations from Hillary Clinton.

The nearly $675,000  not $700,000  donated to Dr. Jill McCabe, who unsuccessfully ran for a Virginia state Senate seat in 2015, came from the Virginia Democratic Party and Common Good VA. The latter is the political action committee of Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a longtime friend and supporter of Hillary and Bill Clinton.

We previously wrote about the donations in October, when Trump mentioned them during a campaign rally. This time, he brought them up in a series of tweets in which he criticized Attorney General Jeff Sessions for not removing the current head of the FBI.

But the contributions didn't come from Clinton or her campaign, and Andrew McCabe wasn't "in charge" of the FBI's investigation of Clinton's emails at the time of the donations, either.

Jill McCabe's campaign received $467,500 from McAuliffe's PAC and another $207,788 from the Virginia Democratic Party for the November 2015 election. McCabe wasn't the only candidate to receive "big dollars" from McAuliffe's PAC that year. Common Good VA gave $803,500 to state Senate candidate Jeremy McPike, who won his race, and $781,500 to Daniel Gecker, who lost his. These donations were all part of a failed effort by the Democratic governor to help the Democrats take control of the state Senate that year.

There's no evidence that Clinton had any say in the contributions to McCabe's campaign or even knew about them.

Also, McCabe had lost the election by the time her husband became deputy director of the FBI in February 2016. It was in that role that he "assumed for the first time, an oversight role in the investigation into Secretary Clinton's emails," according to an FBI spokesman quoted by the Wall Street Journal, which first reported the story about the donations.

The Journal wrote that while McCabe "was part of the executive leadership team overseeing the Clinton email investigation  FBI officials say any final decisions on that probe were made by Mr. [James] Comey, who served as a high-ranking Justice Department official in the administration of George W. Bush." Comey was FBI director at the time.

For more, read our original article, "Clinton's Connection to FBI Official."
The state Senate returned to the Capitol on Wednesday to push a plan that includes new or additional taxes on drilling, telephone service, and household electric and natural gas bills. Read more

HARRISBURG  Working late Wednesday night to close a $2 billion gap in the state's $32 billion budget, the Republican-controlled Senate began pushing a plan to tax drilling for natural gas, and raise or impose new taxes on consumers' telephone, electric, and gas bills.

The severance and utility taxes would raise about $500 million, according to a Senate analysis. Also being considered was a plan that includes $1.3 billion in borrowing and a yet-to-be-determined proposal to expand gambling.

If the full Senate approves the latest proposal  a floor vote could be held as early as Thursday  it would set the stage for a political staring contest with GOP colleagues who hold a commanding majority in the House. In that chamber, Republican leaders have derided proposals that include new taxes and rejected any proposal that includes a severance tax.

J.J. Abbott, spokesman for Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf, said the governor "is supportive of the actions by the Senate to bring the budget into balance."

"Gov. Wolf believes all parties must quickly come together to bring this process to a close," Abbott said in a statement.

Steve Miskin, spokesman for the House Republicans, would say only: "We will have to see what they [senators] actually send us."

The Senate's plan would impose a new tax on natural gas extracted from the Marcellus Shale  based on volume and expected to rake in $100 million annually  on top of the so-called impact fee drillers currently pay on wells they drill.

The plan would also reinstate a 5.7 percent tax on natural gas bills, with $20 million of the money raised going to the state's heating assistance program for the poor; increase taxes from 5 percent to 6 percent on telephone service, including cellphones; and raise taxes on electric service from 5.9 percent to 6.5 percent.

The Senate proposal would also close a loophole that allows some online retailers to avoid imposing and collecting the state's 6 percent sales tax on goods they sell.

Senators also would seek to siphon $200 million from a state fund that provides insurance for doctors who have difficulty finding medical malpractice insurance elsewhere.

On the borrowing front, Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman (R., Centre) said Wednesday that senators are looking to borrow $1.3 billion, and pay it back using money that flows annually into a state fund set up after the landmark settlement between tobacco companies and the states.

Wolf, who is up for reelection next year, has said he would be open to borrowing money to help plug a more than $2 billion shortfall in the state's cash-strapped budget, but he has said any revenue package must include a steady and reliable source of new revenue.

Though there have been calls for a severance tax for nearly a decade, it has been firmly opposed by many Republican legislators who believe such a levy would scare away an industry that has created jobs and invested millions in the state's economy.

But the push for finding new pots of money appears to be reaching a critical point as the state nears the end of its fourth week without a complete budget.

The legislature, squeaking just under a midnight deadline, passed a nearly $32 billion spending plan June 30 but did not vote on a corresponding plan to pay for it. At the time, Wolf said he was confident lawmakers would resolve the issue quickly and allowed the spending plan to lapse into law without his signature.

But nearly a month later, negotiators are still debating how to cover a $1.5 billion shortfall in last fiscal year and a $700 million deficit in the fiscal year that began July 1.

The state constitution requires a balanced budget, and appears to put the onus for having one on both the governor and the legislature. If the impasse drags on, Wolf could be forced to freeze spending.

State Treasurer Joe Torsella, a Democrat, has warned that the state could run out of money by the end of next month unless a responsible  and complete  budget is passed.
Rain pours on Center City; a common sight these days, and a repeat is coming soon. Read more

A flash-flood watch is in effect for the entire region through Saturday afternoon, and the National Weather Service is saying that yet another round of heavy rain might coax some streams out of their banks.

Right now the most-vulnerable areas appear to be just south of the city, but this being summer, and the atmosphere being its chaotic self, it's impossible to predict bull's-eyes.

Rains are all but a certainty during the day Friday and could persist into Saturday night, with the potential for 2- and 4-inch amounts, perhaps more to the south.

By now the region might have a certain jaded attitude toward the threat of downpours, but this time around the recent soakings that have saturated the ground increase the chances for flooding and trees being uprooted.

Philadelphia so far this month has had close to 5 inches of rain officially, 1.3 above normal, and Wilmington's total is approaching 6.5.

On the plus side, the region's rivers and streams still remain at generally harmless levels. For example, the Delaware River at Trenton was at 10.5 feet on Thursday morning; flood stage is 20. The Schuylkill at Pottstown was at 4.7 feet; flood stage is 12.5.

But heavy rains in a compressed period could cause smaller streams to slosh over.

As we've mentioned, generally this has been a wet period with an increase in extreme rains, defined as 2 or more inches in a calendar day, and various studies have linked that wetness to a bump in water vapor from worldwide warming.

Across the contiguous states, about 10 percent of the country experienced such rains annually from 1901 to 2000, according to the National Centers for Environmental Information.

In the 21st Century, that number has jumped to 16 percent.
This house at 8200 Rodney St. in East Mount Airy wont be demolished just yet. Read more

On Friday, City Councilwoman Cherelle L. Parker showed up at an East Mount Airy house seeking to block its demolition, and the Department of Licenses and Inspections granted her wish. On Wednesday, about 15 residents of the neighborhood joined her at a Zoning Board of Adjustment meeting at which the developer's zoning permit was revoked.

Afterward, the angry developer, James Cardano of Jarrettown Development Inc. of Dresher, Montgomery County, said he would sue Parker.

"I did everything right, and she broke the law," Cardano said, asserting that Parker was "trying to strong-arm me through politics."

Parker first called L&I on July 13 to stop demolition of the property. The zoning board ruled Wednesday that Cardano could not demolish the home in the 8200 block of Rodney Street until further notice. At the hearing, L&I representatives said Cardano had violated L&I's policy for when it is notified of demolition postings.

More important than the date of demolition, Parker and neighborhood residents said, was that Cardano's proposal to replace the house with two twin houses would be out of character with the area.

"We want to support growth and development in our community," Parker said. "We want to work in conjunction with the development community so that we can grow our community and maintain the quality and character."

Paul Steinke, executive director of the Preservation Alliance for Greater Philadelphia, said in an interview that East Mount Airy is "not a part of the city that has been subject to developer pressure. It could be an indication that this neighborhood is starting to feel that pressure."

Residents want Cardano to use brick or stone instead of vinyl siding on the houses he plans to build. Cardano said that would add about $30,000 in construction costs.

"We recognize that the developer has the right to demolish the property," said Gerry Sizemore, a longtime 50th Ward Democratic committeewoman. "Our concern is that when developers come into our neighborhood, their only concern is profit."

One of the twin houses Cardano plans to build is already listed for sale at $325,000, almost $150,000 more than the average home price in that zip code, according to data from Drexel University economist Kevin Gillen.
President Trump has reversed yet another policy decision of the Obama administration. On Wednesday, he announced that the U.S. military will no longer "accept or allow" transgender people in its ranks.

Last year, then-Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter announced that transgender individuals serving in the military would no longer be forced to leave. Moreover, Carter said, openly transgender individuals would be allowed to join the military, starting this July 1.

Carter's announcement got widespread news coverage. But neither Carter nor President Obama ever articulated how the new policy would affect military readiness. And that is the most important factor by which we should evaluate changes to existing military personnel policy.

So what is the state of U.S. military readiness today? Most experts agree with the Heritage Foundation's assessment that our military is under extreme stress, "beset by aging equipment, shrinking numbers, and rising costs." In response to growing threats from virtually all corners of the world, the Pentagon has deployed forces in more than 180 countries.

The pace of deployments has increased as well. In many cases, troops completing a nine-month deployment get only nine months back at home to recover and train before being deployed yet again. This puts tremendous strains on marriages, relationships, and overall mental health.

From 2001-2003, when I commanded a brigade with responsibilities for basic training at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo., I saw a constant flow of individuals who failed to meet the medical requirements for military service. At the time the most common reason for failure was asthma. Sometimes it was a preexisting condition that had been missed during the initial physical. Sometimes the asthma developed only after the person engaged  for the first time in his or her life  in hard physical exertion.

All of these young Americans desperately wanted to serve their country. But the requirements were crystal clear: If soldiers were going to need continuing medical attention to treat their condition or if there was a question about whether they would be able to serve in the harshest of battlefield conditions, they were not allowed to join. Even an individual with sleep apnea, who needed only a device that required access to electrical power, was ineligible.

What about people who wanted to enlist but had a prior injury or condition, like a torn tendon in a shoulder, that required surgery? They weren't eligible to serve until the condition had been resolved.

Often those being rejected or dismissed would ask, "Isn't there a desk job where I can serve in the rear echelon?" While I respected their desire to serve, that's not the way the U.S. military operates, nor can it. Every individual in uniform must be able to deploy, fight, and win in austere conditions, without any reliance on a daily flow of medications, medical treatment, or special provisions.

It's an unforgiving standard, but a necessary one if U.S. forces are going to prevail on distant battlefields.

Which brings us to the president's decision regarding transgender individuals and the military. Certainly, their desire to serve is laudable. But desire to serve does not, of itself, answer the fundamental question of whether a transgender individual's service helps or harms military readiness.

These individuals would need medical treatments  hormone therapies and often surgeries and the accompanying recovery times  throughout the duration of their service. On this basis alone, under existing rules applicable to all, they would not be allowed to join.

But putting that aspect aside, there is another readiness-related question that must be asked: Are transgender individuals as mentally resilient and as able to withstand the extreme stresses of the harsh crucible of combat as non-transgender individuals?

Some studies report that transgender individuals attempt suicide and experience psychological distress at rates many times the U.S. national average. To be clear, this is self-reported data, not data gleaned from rigorously controlled, clinical tests. But at this time, these survey results are the best available data. It would be both irresponsible and immoral to place such individuals in a position where they are exposed to the additional extraordinary stresses and pressures of the battlefield.

So, it seems caution is prudent. Prior to the president's recent announcement, Defense Secretary James Mattis had delayed implementation of the Obama administration's policy for six months.

The vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Air Force Gen. Paul Selva, provided more insight on that decision, saying "Our decision to delay the accessions  was largely based on a disagreement on the science of how mental-health care and hormone therapy for transgender individuals would help solve the medical issues that are associated with gender dysphoria."

These concerns should be fully resolved before our country goes forward with any change in long-standing policy. The stakes are too high to experiment with our national defense or to inadvertently cause harm to those wishing to serve.

A retired lieutenant general of the U.S. Army, Thomas W. Spoehr is director of the Heritage Foundation's Center for National Security (www.heritage.org).
Thomas Parran Jr was the U.S. surgeon general and led the ublic health program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School. Read more

While researching documents for our book on children as raw material for experimentation, Greg Dober discovered files at the University of Pittsburgh showing former U.S. Surgeon General Thomas Parran Jr. as the intellectual inspiration of the infamous Tuskegee Syphilis Study. The discovery presents university trustees with a dilemma:

Keep Parran's name on the school's public health building in honor of one of the giants of 20th-century medicine or remove it because of his connection with some of the most egregious and unethical medical experiments in the nation's history.

In addition to leading the Public Health Service's Venereal Disease Division, Parran was a key adviser to President Franklin Roosevelt and architect of New Deal health-policy. His 1937 book, Shadow on the Land, became a clarion call for a concerted public health campaign against syphilis and gonorrhea.

Parran was also instrumental in building support for the passage of Social Security, the establishment of the World Health Organization, cleaning polluted rivers and streams, and demanding truth in pharmaceutical advertising. He appeared on the cover of Time magazine in 1934, and two years later Roosevelt appointed him surgeon general. After leaving government in 1948, he was tapped to create and lead a public health program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School.

Regrettably, Parran's great work, impressive resume, and proud legacy are besmirched by his ethical violations. The truth of his association with horrendous experiments using impoverished Alabama sharecroppers, federal prison inmates, and an array of vulnerable subjects in Guatemala who were purposefully infected with syphilis were already known. But newly discovered evidence disclosing his role as the architect of the Tuskegee study may have caused his already troubling case to reach the tipping point.

Like many virologists and "microbe hunters" of the last century who made significant contributions to science, Parran suffered from a moral blindspot. Consumed by conquering dreaded diseases such as pellagra, polio, tuberculosis, and hepatitis, the safety and well-being of test subjects used in clinical trials was deemed unimportant. For Parran's goal was ending the devastation caused by sexually transmitted diseases. Sins of omission and commission in the pursuit of scientific knowledge was not only acceptable, it was necessary.

But this "ends justify the means approach" allowed the Public Health Service to withhold treatment to hundreds of syphlitic black men for decades, and infect more than a thousand Guatemalan prisoners, mental patients, and prostitutes in postwar syphilis experiments. Those acts were later considered so egregious that in 2013 the American Sexually Transmitted Disease Association removed Parran's name from the organization's Lifetime Achievement Award.

Pitt trustees now must confront evidence showing Parran was more than a distant bureaucrat during the Tuskegee study. New documents disclose that Parran believed the African American population of Macon County, Ala., was perfect for a nontreatment exercise. "If one wished to study the natural history of syphilis in the Negro race uninfluenced by treatment," Parran wrote in January 1932, "this county would be an ideal location for such a study."

Parran also obtained funds to sustain the experiment at a critical time, and never considered ending the study or giving the men penicillin, a proven treatment by the late 1940s.

Parran wouldn't be the first esteemed physician to fall from grace and have his name removed from an award or edifice. Dr. Joseph DeJarnette had his name taken off a Virginia mental-health facility in 2001 after it was discovered he had championed Nazi eugenics policies and supported increased sterilization efforts in the United States.

More recently, the so-called "Father of Space Medicine" fell to earth when allegations of Dr. Hubertus Strughold's involvement in Nazi concentration camp medical experiments earned greater credibility. The controversy caused the Space Medicine Association to end the annual presentation of an award given in Strughold's honor.

Pitt trustees may choose to maintain their allegiance to the school's first dean of public health. If so, they should establish a fund and ongoing program in Parran's name to foster greater knowledge of ethical breaches in medical research and the importance of conducting studies consistent with the best traditions of the profession.

Allen M. Hornblum is co-author, with Greg Dober and Judy Newman, of Against Their Will. ahornblum@comcast.net
Dr. Rachel Levine, Acting Secretary of Health and Physician General Pennsylvania Department of Health (left) is Pa.s acting physician general and a transgender American. President Donald J. Trump (right) tweeted on Wednesday that he will ban transgender people from serving in the U.S. military. Read more

President Trump tweeted that he is denying transgender Americans the opportunity to serve in the military because of who they are. This is simply absurd. Transgender Americans are citizens of this country and have the right to pursue any career path they want. Setting aside that fact is damaging to our nation. Using the excuse that cost of care is the reason for this discrimination is worse than damaging. It's mean-spirited and bigoted.

Absolutely no one benefits from marginalizing people who want to protect our country. Transgender people are just that: people. Some are bakers; some are teachers; some are soldiers. I am a doctor.

[Read more: What a Pentagon-commissioned study found about transgenders in the military]

The tragedy of this policy is the direct impact it will have on young people who already face the challenges of stigma in their everyday lives. This is our president saying to young people struggling to find themselves that they are not accepted, respected, or needed. Transgender Americans are vulnerable to discrimination, harassment, and violence. Repealing protections agreed to by our military and society will have tragic consequences. Denying those who wish to serve the opportunity to better themselves, their families, and their communities will negatively affect all of us.

[Read more: Resolve concerns before military changes transgender policy]

The Department of Defense and U.S. military leadership have already invested in changes to include transgender Americans to openly serve our country. It is a travesty at this late date for the president to suddenly reverse course and further stigmatize an already-vulnerable population.

For those who feel left behind or confused right now, know that you do not fight alone. We will not stop our battle against inequality until everyone has the same opportunities to work and live without fear. Regardless of your race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression, Gov. Wolf believes you have the right to be treated fairly and with dignity. That is why I am proud to serve in his administration.

[Read more: Trump's transgender military ban hit by Philly-area officials, veterans]

In contrast to President Trump's actions, Wolf signed two executive orders that extend workplace protections for LGBTQ Pennsylvanians who work for the commonwealth or a contractor hired by the commonwealth. The Wolf administration also expanded Medicaid coverage to cover medically necessary gender confirmation treatment and issued guidance to commercial issuers to ensure they can no longer discriminate based on gender identity or expression.

In Pennsylvania, we applaud those who bravely defend our nation, without exception. Our military deserves the most qualified personnel possible, and discrimination based on gender identity makes that impossible.

As a Transgender Pennsylvanian, and an American, I am proud to serve my community, my state, and my nation as the acting Pennsylvania secretary of health and physician general.

Dr. Rachel Levine is the acting secretary of health and physician general, Pennsylvania Department of Health.
Other groups from around the world also did some very interesting experiments. Ivanna H. and many more kids from Barranquilla, Colombia, sent up Bitter Palm seeds and tardigrades on the rocket to see if there was a difference when they came back. There are also experiments from Ecuador. One that went up on the rocket was testing how kinetic sand could hold up during rocket launch because kinetic sand is used in relieving stress, and astronauts have a lot of stress while in space. Canada also had a large group representing. Their experiment was testing how vibration and acceleration would affect the density of teeth. Another experiment I really liked was by Dagmar D. from Pennsylvania. Her experiment was testing the intraocular pressure to eyes during spaceflight looking to see if glaucoma might arise. I think this is a smart experiment because this could be very detrimental to astronauts if there is an increased chance of getting glaucoma. This is the second experiment shes had with Cubes In Space; last year she did the same experiment, but this year she revised her experiment slightly. Her sister, Diamante D., also had an experiment going up on the rocket. Her experiment was testing different kinds of fish scales to see if the fish eating algae made a difference in how they held up in space conditions. An experiment that is similar to our computer cube was done by Alexander Caylor, also from Pennsylvania. He was looking at which kind of storage is better: analog or digital. Its like ours because both are looking at data storage, except ours is powered during flight while his is not. This year was also the third year for one of the participants, Emerson Dycus from Green Bay, Wisconsin. Her experiment this year is testing organism dormancy for growing food on future planetary colonies, such as Mars.
After dismantling special operations units throughout the Baltimore Police Department amid a patrol shortage and a high-profile gun squad scandal four months ago, Commissioner Kevin Davis has reassigned more than 150 police officers and supervisors back onto similar teams, reports the Baltimore Sun.

The 21 new "District Action Teams"  two for each of the city's nine police districts, plus one each for the Pennsylvania Avenue corridor, the Monument Street corridor, and the Tri-District area  began deploying this week amid the city's ongoing violent crime crisis and intense debates about how to best address it.

The city marked its 200th homicide on Wednesday, putting Baltimore on track to reach or exceed the historic highs of 344 and 318 homicides in 2015 and 2016, respectively. As of July 15, the date through which citywide data is available, robberies were up 15% and aggravated assaults were up 18%. Burglaries were up 7%.

The new operations teams will serve in uniform rather than plainclothes like many of their predecessors, and will report directly to district commanders rather than central command. They will not interact with informants directly or conduct surveillance, but will work with other intelligence and undercover units to target repeat violent offenders and provide commanders with critical response capabilities beyond the scope of patrol units, Davis said.
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By Eric Walsh

WASHINGTON (Reuters)  U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to announce soon several criminal investigations into intelligence leaks, news outlets reported on Wednesday, as the nations top law enforcement official faced mounting criticism from President Donald Trump.

The announcement has been in the works for some time and will most likely happen sometime in the next week, Fox News reported, citing an unnamed U.S. official. The Washington Post also reported the planned announcement, citing multiple unnamed officials.

The investigations will look at news stories that publicized sensitive intelligence material, according to the reports.

Officials at the U.S. Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

On Tuesday, Trump tweeted that Sessions has not aggressively pursued people who leaked intelligence secrets during his time in office, one of a series of criticisms apparently aimed at pushing the former Republican Alabama senator to step down.

Trump also said again he was frustrated that Sessions had recused himself from federal investigation into possible collusion between Trumps 2016 presidential campaign and Russia, but stopped short of saying whether he would fire him.

Top Republican lawmakers have rallied to Sessions defense as allies of the attorney general said Trump appeared to be trying to pressure him to quit by repeatedly criticizing him on Twitter and in interviews.

The latest apparent leak involved Sessions himself. On Friday, the Washington Post reported that Russias ambassador to Washington was overheard via surveillance by U.S. spy agencies telling his bosses that he had discussed campaign-related matters, including issues important to Moscow, with Sessions during the 2016 presidential race. The newspaper cited current and former U.S. officials familiar with U.S. intelligence intercepts.

Earlier this month, a report written by Republican members of the Senates homeland security panel said the Trump administration faced an alarming amount of media leaks that posed potential danger to national security and urged law enforcement officials to step up their investigations.

Separately, Trumps new communications director, Anthony Scaramucci, told Fox News on Wednesday he expected Trump would soon announce a plan to stem leaks, adding that there seemed to be some political holdovers from the Obama administration that are not helping.

Scaramucci said he recognized it was impossible to eliminate leaks in Washington but added: Were going to try and hit a cultural reset on these leaks not only here in the White House, but Im going to be working with the agencies and the departments to do that.

On Tuesday, he told reporters on Air Force One after Trumps trip to Ohio that he would probably restructure the communications operation at the White House and fire staff if leaks did not cease: If the leaks continue, then Ive got to let everybody go.

Leaks of classified intelligence that endanger national security have customarily prompted investigations, including by the administration of President Barack Obama, Trumps predecessor.
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A transgender member of the U.S. Air Force dared Donald Trump to remove him from the military on Wednesday after the president went on an early-morning tweetstorm saying that transgender individuals will no longer be allowed to serve in the military.

I would like to see them try to kick me out of my military, Staff Sgt. Logan Ireland said to the Air Force Times. You are not going to deny me my right to serve my country when I am fully qualified and able and willing to give my life.

Ireland added that Trump is doing the country an injustice by denying people the chance to fight for the United States.

For the president to deny an able-bodied, fully qualified person the inherent right to raise their right hand and serve their country, potentially giving their own life for our freedoms, is doing this country an injustice, he said.

Ireland said that instead of hiding behind his social media accounts, Trump should actually take an opportunity to meet the thousands of transgender Americans currently serving the United States.

I would personally love for my president to meet me so I can tell him about myself, and the 15,500 honorably serving transgender military members that are fighting right now for their liberties and their country, he added.

The strong push back comes on the same day Trump tweeted out his offensive position on the issue, calling transgender members of the military a burden.

Tweets:

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming..  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

.victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 26, 2017

Any American who chooses to put their life on the line to protect this country deserves respect and admiration, especially from the President of the United States.

Once again, though, Donald Trump has shown that he is on the wrong side of history  but the thousands of brave transgender members of the U.S. military arent likely to go down without a fight.
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As Donald Trump irresponsibly continues to trash talk Attorney General Jeff Sessions in order to force him to resign, a new report indicates that the White House is plotting a recess appointment in the event that Sessions resigns.

According to The Washington Post, Trump is sill raging over Sessions recusal from the Justice Departments escalating Russia investigation.

More from the Post:

President Trump has discussed with confidants and advisers in recent days the possibility of installing a new attorney general through a recess appointment if Jeff Sessions leaves the job, but he has been warned not to move to push him out because of the political and legal ramifications, according to people briefed on the conversations. Still raging over Sessions recusal from the Justice Departments escalating Russia investigation, Trump has been talking privately about how he might replace Sessions and possibly sidestep Senate oversight, four people familiar with the issue said.

In the event that the president does try to make a recess appointment to replace Sessions, Democrats have already vowed not to allow the Senate go into recess.

If Trump decides to appoint a new attorney general through the normal confirmation process, at least one key Republicans  Sen. Chuck Grassley  has already said no way to the idea.

Everybody in D.C. Shld b warned that the agenda for the judiciary Comm is set for rest of 2017. Judges first subcabinet 2nd / AG no way  ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley) July 27, 2017

At the end of the day, Trump is desperately searching for a way to thwart the Russia investigation that has buried his presidency since day one. Forcing Sessions out and appointing an attorney general who could fire Robert Mueller and derail the inquiry could be the most effective way of doing that.

Luckily, it appears members of both parties are seeing it for what it is, and Trump isnt likely to get away with it.
Charleston, SC (29403)

Today

Considerable clouds this morning. Some decrease in clouds later in the day. High 77F. Winds SW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies early will give way to cloudy skies late. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
A report of a car driving the wrong way down a highway in May led to a 24-mile pursuit, an arrest and the eventual conviction of an area man.

Brian Keith Rathbun, 51, of Wykoff, was charged after the incident with one felony count each of fifth-degree drug possession and fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle, as well as one count each of driving after cancellation-inimical to public safety, a gross misdemeanor, and fleeing on foot, a misdemeanor.

He pleaded guilty Friday in Olmsted County District Court to the fleeing charge and was immediately sentenced to 20 months in prison, with credit for 81 days already served. The three other counts were dismissed as a result of a plea agreement.

The case began about 12:20 a.m. May 1 with a driving complaint about an eastbound car in the westbound lane of U.S. Highway 14 east near 50th Avenue, also known as Olmsted County Road 11. The driver had failed to stop at the stoplight at County 11, the caller said.

Deputies responding to the report found a vehicle matching the description near U.S. 14 and Minnesota Highway 42, said Capt. Scott Behrns, of the Olmsted County Sheriff's Office. Now in the correct lane of travel, the car was weaving within its lane and driving at inconsistent speeds.

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A traffic stop was attempted, based on the wrong-way report and the deputies' observations, "and the chase was on," Behrns said.

The driver  later identified as Rathbun  drove through the city of Eyota, then back onto Minnesota 42 and south over Interstate 90. He continued southbound to U.S. Highway 52 north of Chatfield, drove through the city of Chatfield and onto Fillmore County Road 5, the report says, where spike strips were thrown across the road.

Rathbun's vehicle hit the strips, then drove through at least two yards and a small creek before getting back onto County 5, Behrns said, and crashing through a closed gate into a pasture.

The car became stuck in the mud less than 100 feet in, the report says; Rathbun got out of the vehicle, ran and hid behind a tree.

Deputies caught up quickly and took him into custody; a preliminary search allegedly turned up 1.9 grams of methamphetamine in a cigarette box on the ground near Rathbun.

He told the deputy he fled, Behrns said, because he "didn't want to go back to jail." His criminal history reflects multiple felony convictions and prison terms.
CHASKA  The former principal of Rochester's Mayo High School has been sentenced to five years in prison for possessing child pornography.

Timothy Scott Dorway, 45, of Victoria, was originally arrested Dec. 13 at his home after search warrants were executed there and at his office in Chanhassen High School, where he'd been principal. He was fired from that district in January.

Dorway was charged Dec. 15 in Carver County District Court with seven counts of felony possession of child pornography, and was released from custody Dec. 29 after posting $100,000 conditional bond.

Three months later, authorities discovered more videos Dorway had uploaded, bringing the number of child pornographic videos and images in his possession to 127, and resulting in 10 more felony counts against him.

He pleaded guilty in June to seven counts and was sentenced Wednesday to concurrent prison terms of 60 months, 51 months, 39 months, 30 months, 25 months, 20 months and 15 months, with credit for five days already served.

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The remaining 10 counts were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

Dorway admitted to investigators that he viewed child porn, and "his primary interest is in pornography involving 11- to 13-year-old girls," the complaint says; the videos included girls in the 11-14 age range performing sexual acts; five included an adult male in the video.

Angella Erickson, the prosecutor in the case, alleged Dorway engaged in the behavior for 10 years.

The investigation began when the Minnesota Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force received a tip from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The information revealed a Dropbox user had uploaded child pornography to a private account.

By using a Dropbox account, people may upload and save data to the account, then access the files from anywhere, on any device, and share them with anyone else by sending links to the data.

A special agent with the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension learned the Dropbox with the pornography was accessed several times from Internet addresses registered to Dorway, the complaint says.

The same account was also accessed by an Internet address owned by Eastern Carver County School District 112, which includes Chanhassen High School, where Dorway has been principal since 2010. Officials with the district said the case involves none of its students.

He took the job there after serving as principal at Mayo High School from 2007 to 2010.

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"There were no complaints against Mr. Dorway while he was employed by the district," Heather Nessler, executive director of communications, marketing and technology for Rochester Public Schools, said in a statement in December.

The videos included girls in the 11-14 age range performing sexual acts; five included an adult male in the video, the complaint says.

Dorway began his career in 1995 at Park High School in Cottage Grove as an English, journalism and speech teacher, while also supervising students with the school newspaper and yearbook.

He was an assistant principal at Owatonna High School from 2002 to 2006, before taking the job in Rochester.
Quarry Hill Nature Center is up to big things, and now it's your turn to help.

The center, on East Circle Drive in Rochester, is about 90 percent of the way to reaching a $2.6 million capital campaign fundraising goal.

Most of the money so far has come from government grants and other large donations from companies, foundations and individuals. Now the public can help carry the project over the finish line by raising the last $250,000. The goal is to complete fundraising by the end of this year.

The campaign, "Where Nature Takes Root," will fund building projects in two categories.

Inside the nature center, renovation will add features to Exploration Hall including a microscope-equipped, hands-on science center called "Investigation Station" and a new 1,500-gallon freshwater aquarium with crawl-through tunnels, among other features. The work will also add a new geology wing with a walk-in karst cave.

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In addition, a few hundred feet north of the nature center, a new building, called the "Prairie House," will add classrooms and gathering spaces. It will be equipped with energy-conscious amenities such as a solar electric system and harvested water. Construction of the house has already begun.

The two projects will expand Quarry Hill's offerings and increase the amount of space available to serve the center's users. The park also hopes to expand partnerships in order to provide more services. Other organizations frequently contact Quarry Hill in search of a partnership, but the park is forced to turn away some opportunities  all because it simply lacks the space. When the Exploration Hall and Prairie House are complete, more services can be provided for the community, such as a possible beekeeper mentorship program.

"We've touched a lot of lives through what we do," said Pamela Meyer, executive director at Quarry Hill. The upgrades there will "continue to connect generations through nature."

The project got a kick-start from a competitive $1.6 million grant that was awarded to Quarry Hill upon the recommendation of the Greater Minnesota Regional Parks and Trails Commission and the approval of the Minnesota Legislature. Quarry Hill's designation, in 2014, as a Minnesota Park of Regional Significance helped it receive this grant. The designation gave rise to a master planning process in 2015 that led to the current plans being developed.

Other donors to the capital campaign have included Mayo Clinic, Think Bank and the Rochester Area Foundation. The city of Rochester and Friends of Quarry Hill have also given financial support.

The community fundraiser, Meyer said, hearkens back to Quarry Hill's roots as a community-driven center. The Rochester Public Schools began holding classes in the 329-acre Quarry Hill Park in 1968, and the center opened in 1973. The center and park are city-owned, and the center is operated by a nonprofit organization. It is open 361 days a year, and admission is free.

"Everything we do here is possible because of the community and the way the community supports us," Meyer said.

Quarry Hill attracts 100,000 visitors, including 28,000 area school students, each year. Construction is not expected to impede people's use of the park.

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Want to give?

To learn more about Quarry Hill Nature Center's fundraising campaign or to make a contribution, call 507-328-3950 or visit www.qhnc.org . You can email the nature center at quarryhill@qhnc.org .
WINONA  Construction will begin on the new YMCA facility in Winona around Nov. 1.

Derek Madsen, CEO of the Winona Family YMCA, said that with the due diligence period ending for the sale of the YMCA's current facility in downtown Winona to Partners in Excellence of Minnesota, the YMCA has the funding in place to begin construction of its new facility.

"We know we will close on the sale of this facility and need to vacate in January of 2019," Madsen said. "Given our construction timelines, we need to begin our work on the site this fall."

The YMCA will transfer ownership of the existing 77,000-square-foot facility, which was built in 1949, to the new owner on Jan. 4, 2019. That leaves little over a year from the Nov. 1 groundbreaking until the YMCA needs its new facility up and running.

Madsen said the sale of the old building has brought the YMCA's financial commitment toward its new building to within $3 million of the $13 million total. The organization's volunteers on its capital campaign are busy working to close that $3 million gap.

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The new YMCA will be constructed on a 5.5-acre site near Winona Health, which is one of the YMCA's partners on the project.

The YMCA in Winona added two new partners to its facility project last week: Live Well Winona and the American Red Cross.

"As a community health hub that promotes and facilitates health and wellness initiatives, partnerships are crucial," said Janneke Sobeck, community wellness director for Live Well Winona. "This collaboration will help all the partners leverage our respective strengths, expertise, and resources to enhance the quality of life in our community."

Both organizations will have a presence in the new YMCA facility, Madsen said.

Winona YMCA finds buyer for existing facility, looks forward to building new
Reaction to President Donald Trump's announcement on Wednesday that transgender people no longer will be allowed to serve in the U.S. military ranged from "outrage" to support from local elected officials and candidates.

First District Rep. Tim Walz, the lead Democrat on the House Committee on Veterans Affairs, blasted the president's decision on Twitter, saying he was "outraged" by the move. The Army veteran also issued a statement saying, "Our brave transgender troops currently serving this great nation are not a burden; they are American heroes. They volunteered to put their lives on the line for our freedom, and their service should be welcomed, celebrated, respected and honored. After 24 years of service as an enlisted soldier, I know what it takes to build cohesive teams in our military. This president, who hasn't served a day of his life in uniform, does not."

Walz, a member of the Congressional LGBT Equality Caucus, also participated in a D.C. news conference about Trump's decision. The Mankato Democrat is running for governor in 2018.

A Republican running to replace Walz in Congress has a very different take on Trump's decision. Jim Hagedorn, of Blue Earth, said on Twitter he backs the move.

"I support this assessment, made by Defense Secretary Mattis and our generals. Readiness/unit cohesion is paramount," Hagedorn tweeted.

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Trump announced the policy change via Twitter on Wednesday morning. He tweeted that he had consulted with generals before making the decision, and, "Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail."

Retired Gen. Jim Mattis recently had delayed implementation of a plan to allow transgender troops to serve for six months in order to study the potential impact of the move.

Second District GOP Rep. Jason Lewis was asked on CNN about the president's decision to bar transgender people from serving in the military. Lewis said, "Frankly, I'd leave that to the generals, and I would talk to the military brass before I came down with a position on that, but I think anybody ought to be able to serve in the military."

First District DFL candidate Dan Feehan, former principal deputy assistant of defense for readiness in the Obama administration, said in a statement that Trump is making a mistake.

"Today is the 69th anniversary of the desegregation of America's military. This ban is a shameful step backward for our country's efforts to create a diverse fighting force reflective of our society," Feehan said.
RED WING  Nick Tscherne has a story to tell about movement. Friday evening, at Jackson and Old West Main streets, he will be telling that story with fire and words and  movement.

Tscherne is one of several people planning to take part in the Goodhue County Historical Society's Pop Up Museum from 4 to 7 p.m. For those interested, attendees are to come to the intersection during 'Live Healthy Red Wing's Reimagining Old West Main Street' event and share an experience with movement.

The historical society is asking anyone who wants to take part to bring an item to exhibit and take part in the pop up museum.

"Just bring an item related to movement and come ready to tell a story," said Lindsey Rindo, education and outreach coordinator for the historical society.

Tscherne said he might showcase two exhibits on motion. The first will be a demonstration and explanation of fire poi, which is a traditional Maori form of expression where a person swings two burning wicks at the end of a rope. In his case, the wicks are woven in Kevlar and swinging at the end of two steel ball chains, one in each hand.

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"It's kind of a combination of dance and expression and geometric shapes," he said. "It's just really fun, like dancing but you can use the poi and the fire to really express yourself. And I just like doing it to show off what I can do."

Tscherne said he also might bring a slackline, which is like a tightrope hung just above the ground.

Both are traditional forms of movement, and he said he'll explain not only where they originated but how he got involved in each form of movement. For example, slacklining developed as an exercise to help practice balance and muscle control among rock climbers, he said.

Another exhibitor planning to attend is James Clinton, assistant coordinator for Live Healthy Red Wing, who plans to bring his gym clothes from Winona State University  something that represents his own history with movement  and a drum pad along with some drumsticks.

"The idea about movement is it doesn't have to be about exercise," Clinton said. "Drumming is a great form of exercise."

Clinton said the idea of teaming with the historical society at the intersection was spurred by the fact that the city is reconstructing the intersection, and Live Healthy Red Wing is supporting the idea of making that intersection safer and easier to use for cyclists and pedestrians.

While he will be showing his own movement exhibits, Tscherne said he is looking forward to seeing what pops up with other exhibitors.

"I kind of hope people bring uncommon movement items," he said. "That's what makes it interesting."
ST. PAUL  Mayor Betsy Hodges had barely begun explaining why she demanded the resignation of the Minneapolis police chief following another fatal officer-involved shooting when some of the protesters who backed her decision interrupted the news conference with an ominous warning.

"Bye bye, Betsy," they chanted while waving signs that read, "You are next."

Minneapolis was among several major cities where progressive politics were clashing with policing, even before the death of 40-year-old Justine Damond of Australia. The brighter spotlight on the city comes at an awkward time for Hodges, who is up for re-election in November against challengers charting more drastic responses to recent fatal police shootings.

"Politics are the last thing on my mind at a time when we have this tragedy," Hodges said in an interview Tuesday with The Associated Press, stressing that she's working to improve police-community relations.

Damond was shot as she approached a squad car responding to her 911 call about a possible assault. Before she was asked to resign, police Chief Janee Harteau defended the training of Mohamed Noor, the Somali-American officer who fired the fatal shot.

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Soft-spoken and deliberate, Hodges has approached the job as head of Minnesota's most liberal city differently than her popular, crowd-surfing predecessor R.T. Rybak. A Bryn Mawr graduate with a knack for digesting big numbers and cranking out budgets, Hodges parlayed eight years on the city council to win the mayor's office in 2013 after campaigning largely on reducing the city's racial inequities.

Despite overseeing the creation of a new sick and family leave policy and a recently passed $15 minimum wage hike, much of her tenure has been defined by tension with the police department  including public clashes with Harteau and her ongoing efforts to improve it.

"The conversation about city leadership this year has already been about policing and ... and public safety," Hodges said. "That remains true and will remain true."

A simple photo of Hodges and a black man pointing at each other consumed local politics for weeks in 2014 after a top-ranking police official suggested the pair were flashing gang signs and endangering officers; Hodges later blocked the promotion of that police lieutenant.

Those tensions exploded the following year when a Minneapolis officer shot and killed 24-year-old Jamar Clark, who was black, after what onlookers described as a struggle. Protesters surrounded the area's police precinct for 18 days.

Hodges weathered critiques from all sides that she both oversaw a heavy-handed police response that swept the encampment away and allowed a lawless protest to fester for more than half a month. She's been accused by community organizations of being unwilling to challenge law enforcement, and by the police themselves of handing the city's reins off to advocacy groups who would rather dismantle the department altogether.

"This was about resurrecting a failing re-election campaign. That was the politics of the chief's resignation," said Lt. Bob Kroll, president of the Police Officers Federation of Minneapolis.

The aftermath of fatal police shootings has spilled into politics in other cities.

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Outrage over the 2014 shooting death of Chicago teenager Laquan McDonald powered Cook County State's Attorney Anita Alvarez's defeat last year and put mayor Rahm Emmanuel on defense. After heavy criticism for her handling of protests prompted by the 2015 death of Freddie Gray while in police custody, Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake decided not to seek another term.

Hodges was spurred into politics by police violence. She cites the Los Angeles riots after a jury acquitted the officers charged with beating Rodney King in 1992 as her motivation. Since taking office, she's pushed the Minneapolis police department to adopt new use-of-force guidelines that train officers to exhaust all other options before pulling a trigger. She spearheaded a body camera pilot project as a city councilor and oversaw its department-wide implementation last fall as mayor.

"There isn't another mayor who has done more or invested more in changing policing in the 21st century than I have done," she said.

She faced election pressures well before Damond's death  much of it from more liberal factions. Among her challengers is the area's former NAACP president who led weeks of anti-police violence protests after Clark's death and a state lawmaker who responded to Damond's shooting by calling to "disarm officers."

University of Minnesota political science professor Larry Jacobs said Hodges' challenge is less about her track record than her ability to promote it. He believes her when she says she's not thinking about re-election - but he thinks that could wind up hurting her.

"She's an inside player at a time when outside political skills are necessary. I've been looking for the political side to Betsy Hodges for months," he said.

Local union president and ardent Hodges supporter Javier Morillo said Damond's death, along with Clark's in November 2015, is testing Hodges after she has raised what he called "the question of our time: How do police engage with community?

"We could have had a mayor who did not run on racial equity, did not run on body cams," he said. "She raised the bar that she's being judged by."
Here's some unsolicited advice for President Donald Trump: Don't listen to any lawyers who may be telling you that you can pardon yourself, or even that it's a close legal question.

You can't  and no court is going to rule otherwise.

There's a decent historical argument about why, but it's beside the point. The bottom line is that if the president could pardon himself, we would no longer have a republic, nor a government of laws rather than men. We would be a dictatorship, not a democracy.

You know that. Americans know it. The Supreme Court knows it. Now let's move on.

The very idea of self-pardon is the kind of silly technicality that non-lawyers think lawyers engage in all the time. I'm not going to offer a full-throated defense of the legal profession, but we're not really that dumb or bad  at least not usually.

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The idea of the pardon power itself is old, going back at least to medieval England and the king. It is based, roughly speaking, on the idea that the king is in charge of administering the common law, and, therefore, has the authority to go around that law and issue a pardon or reprieve when it's desirable to do so.

This made some sense in a system that wasn't democratic and imposed the death penalty as punishment for all felonies, including relatively minor ones.

In theory, the justification could be mercy, that most Christian of virtues. In practice, kings sometimes issued pardons to political allies, or in exchange for compensation, or to get military conscripts.

As a result, as early as 1311, Parliament forced the king to promise that he would only pardon "by process of law and the custom of the realm." The idea was to rein in the pardon power, making it into an instrument of law, not of arbitrary royal prerogative.

Given that worry about the anti-legal nature of the pardon power was already more than 450 years old when the Founding Fathers drafted the U.S. Constitution during the hot summer of 1787, it's a bit surprising that the pardon power even made it in.

In Philadelphia, the more rights-oriented republicans, like George Mason of Virginia, questioned the whole idea of the pardon power. The more pro-executive participants, like Alexander Hamilton and James Wilson, managed to get it in, albeit without much debate. The idea was that pardons served mercy and could be expedient.

No one so much as hinted that the president could pardon himself. The king, after all, was above the law  he would never have to pardon himself because he could never be brought before one of his own courts. The president wasn't above the law.

But frankly, the history isn't the point. The basic problem with self-pardon is that it would make a mockery of the very idea that the U.S. operates under the rule of law. A president who could self-pardon could violate literally any federal law with impunity, knowing that the only risk was removal from office by impeachment.

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We have a name for an elected leader who is outside the law: dictator. And dictatorship is fundamentally inconsistent with the republic established by the Constitution. In fact, it's a little difficult to think of any single idea that would more grossly violate the rule of law than a president free to break any and every law and then wave a get-out-of-jail-free card.

If the president uses the pardon power to end investigations against his cronies and protect himself, that's a political problem that would call for a political solution, namely impeachment.

But if the president were to try to pardon himself, the courts would simply rule that the pardon was ineffectual. Once out of office, by impeachment or by the end of his term, the president would be subject to criminal charges.

It won't come to that, I believe. The Republic isn't about to turn into a dictatorship. To make sure things stay that way, no one should talk as though self-pardon is a realistic possibility. It isn't  not in a functioning democracy with the rule of law.
How long ago was it that President Trump gave his speech in Poland? To me, it seems like months, so much having happened since. Actually it was less than three weeks.

The speech was excellent, a high point of the Trump presidency in my view. Our friend Grant Starrett wrote about it in this op-ed for the Tennessean.

Grant pointed out that Trumps speech, which identified the fundamental question of our time as whether the West has the will to survive, echoed the concerns expressed by Samuel Huntington in his 1996 classic

The Clash of Civilizations. He also noted that Trump, like Huntington, wisely highlighted a series of domestic threats to the West.

Trump pointed to the steady creep of government bureaucracy that drains the vitality and wealth of the people and offered prescriptions of honoring faith, protecting families, and prizing meritocracy. He quoted the Polish martyr Bishop Michael Kozal: More horrifying than a defeat of arms is a collapse of the human spirit.

Leftist critics, Grant observed, dismissed these as forced tangents without realizing they are core to the conservative worldview.

Leftists also attacked Trump for not criticizing the Polish governments move to curtail the power of the nations judiciary. This became a major left-wing talking point. It seemed to me, however, that it would have been inappropriate for the U.S. president to lecture the Poles about internal political matters while a guest in the country.

Subsequent to Trumps visit, in a development little noted by the mainstream media, the State Department expressed concern about the legislation regarding the role of the judiciary in Poland. Was this done at the urging of the White House? Was it a decision made by Secretary of State Tillerson? Or did some mid-level bureaucrat decide?

Given the current state of affairs at Foggy Bottom, its difficult to say. Nonetheless, the U.S. government went on record, and it did so the right way.

Very soon thereafter, in what was considered a surprise move, Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, vetoed the legislation that would have cut back on an independent judiciary. Lech Walesa, the Nobel Peace Prize winning former head of Solidarity, called the veto difficult and brave.

The American left, which made such a talking point out of Trumps wise unwillingness to talk about Polish domestic political controversies, is not about to acknowledge the administrations contribution to the difficult and brave veto by Polands president. But objective observers in Poland dont share this reluctance.

Bartosz Weglarczyk, director of a major Polish news outlet, called the State Departments expression of concern probably one of the key elements of the pressure that led to the veto. He found it more significant than the months of hand-wringing by the European Union and its member nations.

Naturally. In the clash of civilizations, the Trump administration stands with Poland. Its less certain that the EU does.
Obviously the future of health care policy rests on a knife edge. It is a political game of chicken between whether Republicans have the nerve to roll back the egregious features of Obamacare that will necessarily involve creating gaps in insurance coverage, and Democrats who think that they are in the catbird seat because either the eventual collapse of Obamacare or the defects of a Republican reform will set the table for their real goal: Canadian-style single-payer health care. And just as some conservatives are warming to the idea of a universal basic income, here and there you hear a few conservatives say, Oh what the hell: we may as well get used to the inevitability of single-payer health care. I mean, how bad is Canada, really?

Much worse than you think. Set aside for the moment the salient fact that one reason Canadian single-payer works is that it has private medicine in the United States available as a safety value for its own system. (A lot of Canadian doctors actually practice some of the year in the U.S. after theyve fulfilled their annual quota of work in Canada.) More damning is a report out recently from the Commonwealth Fund that compares health care systems of eleven health care systems. Canada came in ninth.

Its a dense report with lots of tables and charts. Brian Lee Crowley get to the heart of the matter in Canadas National Post:

On measure after measure the data belie the boasts that medicare apologists tout as proof we have the best system in the world. When measuring the equity of our system against the others, we come a pitiful ninth out of 11, despite the fact that fairness is the argument most frequently trotted out to defend the status quo. Turns out Canadian health care isnt all that fair. Ditto for health-care outcomes. Despite being a fairly high spender, we are not able to turn that money into better outcomes for Canadians. Again, we rank ninth out of 11. But in what must be the bitterest pill, we come 10th in access. That means that among the 11 systems studied, every one of them gives better access to health-care services except one: the United States. Gives a whole new meaning to the sentiment that we dont want American-style health care here, doesnt it?

The only thing I want from a single source is my Scotch whisky.
I wrote about the Democrats unprecedented obstruction of President Trumps executive branch and judicial nominees here, and specifically about Democratic Senators blocking judicial nominations with the archaic blue slip practice here.

One of the nominees being blocked by the Democrats is Justice David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court. President Trump has appointed Justice Stras to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals, but Minnesota senators Amy Klobuchar and Al Franken are preventing Stras from getting a hearing in the Judiciary Committee. Rumor has it that while other Democratic senators are at least meeting with judicial nominees from their states, Klobuchar and Franken have not even condescended to meet with Justice Stras to discuss any reservations they may have about his nomination.

Perhaps this is because they have no such reservations, but are engaging in obstruction for its own sake. Justice Strass nomination is supported by an extraordinary array of judges, lawyers, professors and politicians of all stripes. No one has offered even a theory as to why he should not be confirmed to the 8th Circuit.

A number of letters have been written to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Judiciary Committee Chairman Charles Grassley, and Senators Franken and Klobuchar. They testify to Justice Strass extraordinary abilities and unimpeachable character. Letters have been submitted by 12 former Minnesota senators and representatives of both parties; three retired justices who served with Stras on the Minnesota Supreme Court; 107 distinguished Minnesota lawyers and retired judges, many of whom I know, who span the full ideological spectrum; 29 members of Justice Strass U.S. Supreme Court clerkship class (Stras clerked for Justice Clarence Thomas); 38 Minnesota Law School professors who know Stras from his time teaching there; and 34 lawyers from my former law firm, Faegre Baker Daniels, where Stras was of counsel prior to his appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court.

All of the letters wholeheartedly endorse Justice Strass nomination, and many of those who signed them are Democrats. The letter that was signed by 107 lawyers and retired judges is typical:

Re: Nomination of Justice David Stras to the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals Dear Senators: The undersigned are Minnesota lawyers from all political walks of life who join in respectfully urging the Senate to confirm Justice David Strass nomination to the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. In his seven years as a Justice of the Minnesota Supreme Court, Justice Stras has distinguished himself not only as a top-notch jurist, but as a judge who decides cases without regard to political affiliation or party lines. He has sided with both liberal and conservative Justices during his tenure on the court, always in pursuit of applying the law as it comes to him, without ideology or favoritism. Justice Stras has also proven to be a collegial and collaborative judge, as three of his former colleagues on the Minnesota Supreme Court (retired Justices Alan Page, Helen Meyer, and Paul Anderson) explained in publicly endorsing him in a recent editorial in the Minneapolis StarTribune. (The case for the nomination of David Stras to the federal courts, June 2, 2017.) This comes as no surprise. After practicing law, Justice Stras came to Minnesota to teach at the University of Minnesota Law School. Just two years later, he was named Stanley V. Kinyon Tenure Track Teacher of the Year. He was such a student favorite that the staff of the Minnesota Law Review published a tribute to Justice Stras in their Spring 2011 issue. That tribute included accolades from then-Dean David Wippman as well as former Dean Robert Stein, the latter of whom concluded his remarks by stating that [t]he citizens of Minnesota and the entire nation will be the better for [Justice Strass] appointment to the Minnesota Supreme Court. (Robert A. Stein, Distinguished Scholar, Dedicated Teacher, and Now Justice: David R. Stras, 95 Minn. L. Rev. 116, 124 (2011). Those of us who have appeared before Justice Stras regard him as a very skilled, polite, engaging, inquisitive, intellectually curious judge who is fair, impartial, and interested in one thing: getting to the right answer under the law. Politics plays no role in arguing a case to Justice Stras. Arguing for a conservative result does not help. Only dealing objectively with the law will be effective with Justice Stras. Justice Stras has all of the qualities of an excellent judge. He is hard-working, intelligent, and open to all views. He would be an outstanding addition to the Eighth Circuit, and we respectfully urge the Judiciary Committee and the Senate to confirm his nomination to the Eighth Circuit.

Al Franken and Amy Klobuchar should be ashamed of themselves. They dont even pretend to have any basis for objecting to Justice Strass nomination. They are acting out of sheer partisanship and, frankly, hatred of the president who surprised them by being elected. Their conduct is ignoble and dishonorable.

You can send Amy Klobuchar an email here, politely asking her to stop obstructing the nomination of a superbly qualified jurist to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. You can email Al Franken here. Please do!
Scott wrote today about the Awan connection  a scandal, finally getting some attention, that involves House staffers with ties to Pakistan who are accused of stealing equipment from members offices without their knowledge and committing serious, potentially illegal, violations on the House IT network. Interest in the scandal has been reinforced by the arrest of Imran Awan Monday evening as he was about to board a flight to Lahore, Pakistan.

The arrest was based on suspicion of fraud against the Congressional Federal Credit Union in a real estate loan, not IT improprieties. Still, as Scott said, something is happening here.

What, though? Im still trying to understand this scandal or at least ask the right questions about it. In this effort, I found Jim Geraghtys summary helpful.

Like Scott, Geraghty focuses on Debbie Wasserman Schultz, for whom Awan worked. He focuses, in particular, on her demand that Capitol Police Chief Matthew Verderosa return equipment belonging to her office that was seized as part of the investigation  or else [expect] consequences.

Among Geraghtys questions are: (1) Why was Wasserman Schultz so impatient to get her computer back from the Capitol Police if its relevant to a criminal investigation and (2) Why did she keep Imran Awan on staff until this week? The IT scandal broke in February.

Id also like to know more about the security implications of the theft of the IT equipment and the serious, potentially illegal, violations of House IT policies. The theft and breaches of policy reportedly affect the offices of more than 20 members of Congress.

Which members? In addition to Wasserman Schultz, Awan and his family members reportedly have worked for Democrats on the most important House committees from a national security and foreign policy standpoint:

The five. . .employees worked for at least three members of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, and five members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs were among the dozens of members who employed the suspects on a shared basis. The two committees deal with many of the nations most sensitive issues, information and documents, including those related to the war with radical Islamic terrorism. Jamal Awan handled IT for Rep. Joaquin Castro, a Texas Democrat who serves on both the intelligence and foreign affairs panels. Imran Awan handled IT for Rep. Gregory Meeks, a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee where he is the Ranking Member on the Subcommittee on Europe, Eurasia, and Emerging Threats. Imran Awan also worked for Rep. Andre Carson, an Indiana Democrat and one of two Muslims in the House of Representatives, and Rep. Jackie Speier, a California Democrat. Both are members of the intelligence committee.

The Awans were well-compensated for their services to congressional Democrats. Yet, as George Raisley chronicles, they were involved in multiple suspicious mortgage transfers and a debt-evading bankruptcy. One of them, Abid Awan, reportedly had more than $1 million in debts following a failed business. Court documents claim that Abid stole money and vehicles from associates in that business.

And, as noted, Imran Awan is now accused of bank fraud to the tune of $165,000.

Raisley also says the Awans controlled a limited liability corporation called Cars International A (CIA), a car dealership with odd finances that took, but did not repay, a $100,000 loan from one Dr. Ali Al-Attar. According to Raisley, laundering money through used car dealerships is a known Hezbollah tactic.

Raisley also cites a former CIA officer who says Dr. Attar, the man who loaned the Awans car dealership $100,000, was observed in Beirut, Lebanon conversing with a Hezbollah official in 2012, shortly after the loan was made.

Hezbollah aside, the danger posed by scandal-plagued, debt-ridden IT professionals on Capitol Hill is obvious, especially when (1) they have access to national security information and (2), if I may say so, when they are connected to Pakistan. Its impossible not to wonder who may have received data the Awans had access to, especially given Pakistans history of collaborating with a various foreign countries and entities  including both friends and foes of America.

Finally, according to Raisley, Imran Awan had access to Debbie Wasserman Schultzs iPad password. This probably means the brothers had direct access to DNC emails. Might they have sold them to Russians? Might they have sold them to non-Russians?

Clearly, Ive entered the realm of speculation. But if the mainstream media is going to speculate endlessly about President Trumps alleged collusion with Russia, shouldnt it also be speculating about the Awan connection? And if Trump is to be investigated endlessly by the government, shouldnt the Awan connection be investigated, as well?
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Looking at the glorious chronicles of the life of our beloved Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, it comes as no surprise that he was bestowed the luck of passing away while doing what he loved to do  teaching. If people will remember me as a good teacher, that will be the biggest honour for me, he had said in an interview to a national daily on Teachers Day the year before his death.Born as AvulPakirJainulabdeen Abdul Kalam, Dr. Kalamhas many extraordinary achievements to his credit. After India found its Missile Manin his scientific genius, thepoet, writer, and BharatRatna awardee went on to head the nation as the 11th President of India from 2005-2007.However, his journey as a teacher went on unabated, as he continued to touch the lives and ignite the minds of everyone he came to meet. He was lovingly called The Peoples President.After his presidency ended, Dr. Kalam became a visiting professor at different branches of the Indian Institute of Management and was also an honorary fellow at Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru. He made relentless efforts to travel across India to meet the children and youth, driving them to work for the benefit of the country at many academic institutions.In 2012, Dr. Kalam launched a programme for the youth of India called What Can I Give, based on the ideology of defeating corruption.He had a penchant for interacting with the young minds of the country, and once, even famously posted a question on Yahoo asking what we should do to free our planet from terrorism. Touring innumerable schools around the country, he actively engaged thousands of children with whom he often shared anecdotes from his own childhood as a boatmans son in Ramehswaram, citing examples from the struggles and experiences of his life. A man who rose to hold the highest office in the nation by the sheer virtue of hard work, he always encouraged the students to give better than the best to their goals.His love and admiration for the generation of tomorrow were reciprocated with the same passion and he was indeed the apple of childrens eyes. Not only did he open the gates and lawnsof RashtrapatiBhavan to hordes of school students and children, but also took out time to listen to their ideas, give feedbacks and even followed up on occasions on the status of implementation. Memorabilia from such visits were shared by many at the time of his death, as the whole nation came together to flood in expressions of grief and pride at the same time.There was an incident where he surprised one of his staff members by taking his children to a science exhibition when the former could not do so himself due to work pressure. Another time when he was to attend a college event, he paid a surprise late night visit to the students of the organizing committee a day before and chatted with them for hours.These are just some of the many stories famous about the visionary that reflects on his special bonding with the children. I am Kalam, a childrens movie by Smile Foundation that won many hearts and accolades stemmed from the ideologies and vision he had for the children of the country.He continued to share his vision with the medium of writing, something he loved to do and fervently pursued, till the end of his life, penning many books including his remarkable autobiography Wings of Fire.Though his departure two years ago createda massive vacuum in the scientific community, and rendered the country a profound loss that cannot be compensated, it is the children of India who are going to miss him the most.But never shall he be forgotten, forhe will continue to live in our minds and hearts for generations and generations to come.Rest in peace dear Dr. Kalam.
Exact Sciences Corp. stock shot up 13 percent in early trading Wednesday, hitting a record high of $42.18 a share, after the Madison company reported upbeat second-quarter results after the markets closed Tuesday.

At Wednesdays closing bell, Exact Sciences stock sold for $39.65, up $2.32, or 6.2 percent from Tuesdays finish at $37.33 a share.

The company said Tuesday it had revenue of $57.6 million, more than double that of the 2016 second quarter, and lowered its net loss to $30.8 million from $44.8 million, a year ago. Exact also said it processed about 135,000 of its Cologuard stool-based DNA tests for colorectal cancer during the second quarter, up from 54,000 a year ago.

The results beat some analysts expectations. Canaccord Genuity analyst Mark Massaro called it a blowout quarter, according to Barrons, and Robert W. Baird analyst Catherine Schulte said, in a research note, the financials were significantly above Wall Streets projections. Schulte raised her 12-month price target for the stock to $49, from her previous projection of $40 a share.

Exact will hold its annual stockholders meeting on Thursday at the Edgewater hotel.
WEST NEW YORK, N.J. (AP)  New Jersey's Republican candidate for governor will announce her pick for lieutenant governor.

Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno on 10:30 a.m. Thursday will make the announcement with her running mate in West New York. They'll later participate in a property tax discussion in Voorhees Township.

Guadagno is New Jersey's first lieutenant governor and she's looking to succeed Gov. Chris Christie, who can't seek a third term.

Her Democratic opponent, Phil Murphy, on Wednesday picked Assemblywoman Sheila Oliver as his running mate. Oliver was the first black woman to serve as the state's Assembly speaker.

The lieutenant governor oversees the State Department, including elections, and serves as governor when the governor is out of the state or leaves office before the term ends.
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CAPE MAY COURT HOUSE  The man accused of killing an Ocean City woman last weekend will stay in jail until his trial, a Superior Court Judge ruled Thursday.

Paul Kline, 49, of Ocean City, is charged with murdering Denise Tarves Webber, 54, Saturday night at the Wesley Inn in Ocean City. Authorities said Kline strangled Webber but have not disclosed a motive.

On Thursday, Kline did not challenge the Cape May County prosecutors motion to detain him. Judge John Porto ordered him to remain in jail under the new Bail Reform and Speedy Trial Act. If convicted, Kline faces 30 years to life in prison.

Avalon, Longport team up for flood mitigation study Avalon and Longport have partnered for a joint flooding study that will help coastal municip

Webber was the mother of Ronald Danino Jr. and David Tarves, as well as the grandmother of TylerAnn and David.

In an interview with The Press of Atlantic City, David Tarves said he and his family will be at the trial for the man he believes killed his mother. He also said he never met Kline but knew his mother had a new boyfriend.

Tarves has also received nearly $6,000 through a GoFundMe page, which he says he will use to help pay for his mothers funeral.

Im going to be able to give her the proper memorial service because of (the donations), he said.
About a month ago, a federal judge in Virginia threw out a trademark lawsuit filed by candy giant Mars Inc. against Madison small-batch chocolatier and lawyer Syovata Edari.

But knowing that Mars probably hasnt gotten in its last licks, Edari now has filed her own lawsuit against Mars, asking a federal judge to rule once and for all that CocoVaa, the name that Edari gave her chocolate start-up business, does not infringe in any way on Mars CocoaVia brand nutritional supplements.

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Madison, is Edaris attempt to head off any further legal trouble from Mars, which hasnt yet dropped a challenge to Edaris CocoVaa trademark, still pending at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Offices Trademark Trial and Appeal Board.

She said shes also had discussions with Mars in which the company said it still intends to pursue legal action in court, leaving her to wait while it decides where and when to file another lawsuit against her and her business.

I need this to be done, Edari said, so I decided to beat them to it.

Mars sued Edari earlier this year in U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, the federal court district where Mars has its headquarters. It sought all of CocoVaas profits, along with punitive damages, claiming that the CocoVaa name is confusingly similar to the CocoaVia nutritional supplement.

The case in Virginia was dismissed by that court for lack of jurisdiction, because CocoVaa has done no business in Virginia.

Edari makes all of her chocolate herself at her shop at 1 Sherman Terrace, on Madisons East Side, after starting her business last year.

CocoVaa Chocolatier caters to consumers seeking high quality artisanal fine chocolate indulgences, as opposed to mass-produced industrial candy or neutraceuticals, Edari wrote in her lawsuit.

The CocoVaa name, she wrote, comes from coco, a reference to chocolate, and Vaa, an affectionate contraction of Edaris first name that her father uses.

CocoaVia products, Edari wrote in the lawsuit, are nothing like the chocolate she makes because they are sold in powdered form as health and nutritional supplements, and arent even found in the candy aisle of the grocery store.

Edari wrote that Mars deceptively implies that it currently makes and sells CocoaVia chocolate, granola bars, chocolate-covered almonds and beverages, to play up purported similarities between CocoVaa and CocoaVia.

These products were discontinued at least six years ago owing to a lack of success and a finding by the FDA that the CocoaVia bars were misbranded because their labels bore false or misleading claims that the products promote heart health, Edari wrote.

CocoVaa and CocoaVia products, she added, are drastically different.

Also different, Edari said, are the resources available to her as a small businesswoman and those available to Mars, a multibillion-dollar corporation represented by an international law firm that employs about 2,000 lawyers.

The whole thing is just so ridiculous, she said. The difference in resources is so extreme.

In a statement Friday, Mars said the company respects Edari's "craft, her entrepreneurship and her dedication to her community. That doesnt change the fact that this is a clear case of our trademark being infringed upon."

The company said it had offered to settle the case, to no avail.

"Its unfortunate that this litigation has been necessary," the company said. "Were trying hard to resolve this issue with Ms. Edari."

[Editor's note: This story has been updated to include a statement from Mars Inc., which was issued after the story was published.]
A man who was shot and killed in his car early Tuesday has been identified by the Dane County Medical Examiners Office as Riccardo C. Simms.

Simms, 29, of Madison, was shot several times while in his car in the 2000 block of Adderbury Lane around 3:10 a.m., police said. Chief Mike Koval said no one has been arrested, and there are no persons of interests.

Simms is the citys eighth homicide victim of the year.

While some anonymous tips have been received, Koval is asking for more help to avert possible future violence.

Unless we get some preemption and/or get some community help to make some arrests, I worry that there would be retaliation, he said.

Shada Lincoln, who had been dating Simms for five years, said in a Facebook message that the couple had two daughters together, ages 3 and 1.

He was a wonderful and great father, she said. He lived his life wanting a better life for me and his girls.

Simms, originally from Chicago, was a respectful young man who would host community barbecues, Lincoln said. When people needed him, he was there, and he gave back to his community when he had it, she said.

Within about 24 hours of Simms slaying, police reported two incidents of shots fired in Madison and one in Fitchburg.

Koval said police cant confirm whether these incidents are related to the homicide, but he said detectives are looking into any connections.

The fact that we have shots fired the same night or within 24 hours of this incident would give me pause to consider whether those are messages that are being sent, he said.

There are no confirmed witnesses to the fatal shooting, Koval said.

Were confident there are more people who could at least guide us or point us in directions that would be (constructive) in finding the killer or killers, he said.

Amid an increase in shootings in the city this year, a short-term, peer-support program that city and nonprofit leaders hope could address the problem has moved closer to reality.

In June, the City Council approved a $50,000 contract for Nehemiah Community Development Corp. to run a crisis response service to provide support to victims of violence, being assisted by the collective of community and faith leaders, Focused Interruption Coalition, and the Boys and Girls Club of Dane County.

The contract was set to be signed Tuesday. But Michael Johnson, Boys and Girls Club president and CEO, said the same day his organization was pulling out, citing a slow response from the city to fund the program.

Koval said Johnson has a pulse on community feelings, perceptions and attitudes, and the withdrawal wont change Johnson and his organizations efforts in violence prevention.

I think hes still able to contribute, but more on his own terms where hes more nimble working with private citizens rather than going through the various steps and processes to get city funding, Koval said about Johnson. He hasnt burned any bridges, as far as Im concerned, with me.

Jim OKeefe, the citys community development director, said city staff met with Nehemiah leaders Wednesday and revised the contract in light of the exit.

OKeefe expects the contract to be signed Thursday, and a release of up to $15,000 for the programs upfront costs is likely to happen early next week, he said.

The rest of the money will be on a reimbursement basis and will last until a contract is finalized with an operator to provide two long-term peer-support programs for victims of violence and those facing re-entry from incarceration, he said.
Amazon's plans to add 50,000 jobs at a dozen warehouses across the United States and Foxconn's decision to build a $10 billion plant and hire up to 13,000 workers in Wisconsin aren't just feel-good stories of job creation. They reflect the pressures companies now feel to be as close to their customers as possible  a trend that's helping restore some American factories and jobs.
Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) will work on a concept of operations to improve efficiency in the Amsterdam Flight Information Region including the North Sea.

MCLEAN, Virginia, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aireon announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL), the Dutch Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP). LVNL operates the Amsterdam Flight Information Region (FIR), which extends above Dutch territory and a large part of the North Sea. LVNL will collaborate with Aireon to assess how space-based ADS-B can act as a more efficient and cost-effective secondary and contingency air traffic surveillance system in their terrestrial airspace. In addition, it will investigate Aireon's ability to provide real-time position updates in areas like the North Sea where LVNL has significant helicopter operations for oil and gas.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539586/Aireon_Logo.jpg

LVNL operates in one of Europe's busiest FIRs, which includes Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, third largest airport in Europe by market share as of 2016, and features 322 direct worldwide destinations offered by 108 different airlines, including home carrier KLM. In 2016, LVNL managed approximately 590,000 aircraft movements in the Netherlands. LVNL will work with Aireon to develop a comprehensive concept of operations for the deployment of space-based ADS-B. A benefits analysis will also be created to fully understand the cost-savings LVNL can provide to stakeholders and customers.

"LVNL is collaborating with Aireon to see if we can take advantage of the innovation of space-based ADS-B," said Marcel Bakker, General Manager Systems and Infrastructure, LVNL. "We believe the AireonSM service will become an important augmentation to existing air traffic surveillance technologies to improve availability and efficiency to our customers. LVNL wants to ensure that all the stakeholders benefit from this best-in-class technology."

"The dense, complex Dutch airspace and high traffic volume requires LVNL to consistently focus on increasing efficiency and safety through innovation," said Cyriel Kronenburg, vice president, aviation services, Aireon. "Aireon is pleased to work with LVNL to determine the applicability of space-based ADS-B in the Amsterdam FIR and add to improving overall infrastructure efficiency in the Netherlands."

Aireon announced on 25 June 2017 the successful launch and deployment of the second batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, carrying its space-based ADS-B payloads. The second launch increased the total number of Aireon payloads in orbit to 20, with another 55 set for space in a series of six additional launches planned over the next twelve months.

For more information about Aireon, visit: www.aireon.com.

For more information about LVNL, visit www.lvnl.nl/en.

About Aireon LLC

Aireon is deploying a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon will harness next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that are currently ground-based and, for the first time ever, extend their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Real-time ADS-B surveillance will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augment existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), ENAV and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon will have an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system by 2018. For more information about Aireon, visit www.aireon.com.

Press Office Aireon

Jessie Hillenbrand

+1 (703) 287-7452

Jessie.Hillenbrand@Aireon.com

About Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL)

Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) is in charge of providing air traffic control services in the civil airspace of the Netherlands. Each year we handle more than 590.000 flights safe and efficient. LVNL is integrated into the Central European Functional Airspace Block (FABEC) and employs around 900 people. LVNL provides air traffic control services for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Groningen Airport Eelde, Maastricht Aachen Airport and en-route. For more information about LVNL, visit www.lvnl.nl/en.

Press Office LVNL

Maj-Britt van Raalte

Tel.: +31 (0) 6 51 99 34 14

m.vanraalte@lvnl.nl

Related Links

http://www.aireon.com



SOURCE Aireon
Last year, the central body of Chile's national Fire Department, Junta Nacional de Bomberos de Chile (JNBC), placed two major orders with Magirus, ordering a total of 100 tank pumpers.

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/538907/Magirus_Chile_Handover.jpg )

(Photo: http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/538906/Magirus_Chile_Formation.jpg )



The first tank pumper order for 23 TLF 4000 (C4 Semiurbano) was placed in October 2016. Four weeks later, the Junta commissioned a further delivery order for Magirus fire engines. While the first order will be delivered to fire departments in the Bio Bio region, the additional vehicles are destined for national use. These vehicles fall into three categories: 32 TLF 4000 (C4 Semiurbano) vehicles, 16 TLF 4000 all-wheel (C4 Semiurbano) vehicles as well as 29 TLF 3000 (C5 Forest) forest firefighting vehicles.

High-ranking representatives of the Junta accepted all the vehicles at a presentation held at the Magirus headquarters in Ulm, Germany. The tank pumpers were especially positioned on the test site of the Magirus Excellence Center for the customer's review. A symbolic key handover to the representatives of the Chilean Fire Department was presided over by Magirus CEO Marc Diening. This handover was most certainly out of the ordinary as it took place 30 meters above ground. Using two Magirus M42L-AS articulated turntable ladders, the delegation was able to view all of the vehicles from a bird's eye view. While up in the air, the delegation received a special firefighter salutation of well wishes: "Have a good trip and return safely from all your future missions."

All of the 100 Magirus fire engines were built exclusively on IVECO Eurocargo chassis and have powerful 220 kW (299 hp) engines. Thanks to an all-steel crew cabin, the C4 Semiurbano is designed for a fire brigade team of 1+8. Of the total 71 units, 55 were ordered with the well-established 160E30 model in the 4x2 variant. The twin-tire all-wheel 150E30W 16 fire engines ensure better driving in rough terrain. The large, external water tank has a capacity of 4,000 litres. All vehicles have a Magirus MPN230 centrifugal pump with a capacity of 3,000 litres per minute with 10 bar.

"Magirus offers us a very flexible vehicle and superstructure concept that is ideal for operations on motorways and in rural or urban areas," commented JNBC Vice President Raul Morales, adding that: "The agile fire engine covers so many operational areas and reliably replenishes extinguishing water whenever necessary."

In the past, Chile's national fire department has had to fight forest fires that were immense in scale. At the beginning of this year, fire destroyed an area of over 370,000 hectares - four times the size of Berlin, Germany. Firefighters, rescue workers and residents were kept in suspense for weeks.

The Junta Nacional de Bomberos ordered 29 Magirus C5 forest firefighting vehicles especially for such operations. As single-tire all-wheel variant with an all-steel cab (1+5), the 150E30 WS Eurocargo chassis shows its strengths most especially on unpaved terrain. The technical firefighting structure includes a 3,000 liter tank and the powerful Magirus MPN 230 pump, together with reliable self-protection for vehicle and crew.

The vehicle shipment to Chile has already commenced travelling from Germany to South America via sea. The official delivery to the Chilean fire departments will take place following their arrival.

About Magirus

Passion and precision, high-tech and craftsmanship. Since 1864, Magirus has combined innovation and tradition to assist firefighters throughout the world. With a comprehensive range of state-of-the-art, reliable fire engines, turntable ladders, rescue and equipment vehicles, special solutions, pumps and portable pumps, Magirus is known globally as one of the largest and technologically leading providers of firefighting and disaster control technology.

Magirus is a brand of CNH Industrial N.V. (NYSE: CNHI / MI: CNHI), a worldwide leading company in the capital goods sector with a broad spectrum of products and a global presence.





Company Contact

Magirus GmbH

Michael Kretzschmar

Graf-Arco-Strasse 30

D-89079 Ulm

Phone +49-(0)-731-408-2447

Fax +49-(0)-731-408-2410

michael.kretzschmar@cnhind.com





SOURCE Magirus
HOUSTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- alliantgroup urges America's lawmakers to pass the Invent and Manufacture in America Act, a bipartisan tax bill that has been introduced in both the House and Senate. If signed into law, this legislation would deliver a much needed boost to the American economy by providing a tax cut for companies that conduct research and development in the U.S. and domestically manufacture products resulting from this R&D.

For decades, a vibrant manufacturing sector has served as one of the main engines of the U.S. economy. During the industry's peak in the 1960s, one out of every four Americans worked in manufacturing. Since 2000, however, the U.S. has lost more than five million manufacturing jobs and more than 70,000 manufacturing plants have closed or moved offshore.

In order to reverse this trend, U.S. Senators Chris Coons (D-DE) and Pat Roberts (R-KS), as well as U.S. Representatives Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Ron Kind (D-WI), have introduced legislation that would enhance the value of the Research and Development (R&D) Tax Credit. The proposed bill would increase the R&D Tax Credit by up to 25 percent for companies that perform the majority of their manufacturing operations in the U.S.

The broader purpose of the bill is to encourage the co-location of research and development activity with manufacturing operations. Multiple studies have shown that companies that co-locate their R&D efforts with their manufacturing facilities have experienced greater innovation, higher productivity and increased efficiency. According to numbers released by Senator Coons' office, companies are twice as productive in their R&D efforts when operations are co-located with a manufacturing facility.

"Many members of the Precision Machined Products Association (PMPA) invest heavily in R&D, and more importantly, they invest and manufacture here in the U.S., creating thousands of jobs across America," said Bernie Nagle, Executive Director of the Precision Machined Products Association, a trade association based in Ohio. "The Invent and Manufacture in America Act will encourage even more technology development and job creation here at home and I urge Congress to include this bill in their final tax reform package."

"Since I started this firm, I have seen first-hand how vital the R&D Tax Credit has been in bringing value back to our manufacturing clients and in ultimately helping these companies not only survive, but thrive against foreign competition," said alliantgroup CEO Dhaval Jadav. "If the Invent and Manufacture in America Act were to become law, it would once again make the manufacturing sector the engine of job-creation that is has historically been for our country. Considering what is at stake, I urge our elected officials to do right by our manufacturers and pass this vital piece of legislation."

alliantgroup's mission is one of education and awarenessour national tax consultancy exists to help U.S. businesses and their CPA advisors identify and properly claim all available federal and state tax incentives. To date, our firm has helped over 20,000 businesses claim more than $5 billion in tax credits and incentives. alliantgroup's headquarters is based in Houston, and the firm has offices in New York, Boston, Chicago, Indianapolis, Orlando, Irvine, Sacramento and Washington, D.C. For more information on alliantgroup, please visit us on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.

Media Contact

David Rosen

alliantgroup

713-350-3167

[email protected]

SOURCE alliantgroup

Related Links

https://www.alliantgroup.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The American Red Cross has elected to its National Board of Governors Herman Bulls, Vice Chairman, Americas, JLL, and Colonel, U.S. Army Reserves (retired).



The Red Cross is led by a Board of Governors with all of the powers of governing and directing, as well as overseeing the management of the business and affairs of the organization. At the Annual Meeting of the Red Cross held on July 26, 2017, delegates from local Red Cross units elected Bulls to a three-year term.

"We are truly privileged to welcome Herman to the Red Cross Board of Governors. He is an exemplary leader who has served our nation with honor and distinction and who brings to the Red Cross an impressive knowledge of business and a deep commitment to service," said Chairman Bonnie McElveen-Hunter. "His experience and leadership will be of great value as we strive to carry out the humanitarian mission of the American Red Cross."

Herman Bulls is Vice Chairman, Americas, JLL, as well as an International Director and the founder of JLL's highly acclaimed Public Institutions Business Unit. In his 27 years at JLL, Bulls has worked in the areas of development, investment management, asset management, facilities operations and business development/retention. Prior to joining JLL, Bulls completed almost 12 years of active duty service with the United States Army. He retired as a Colonel in the U.S. Army Reserves in 2008. Bulls received a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the United States Military Academy at West Point and a Master of Business Administration degree in finance from Harvard Business School.

About the American Red Cross:

The American Red Cross shelters, feeds and provides emotional support to victims of disasters; supplies about 40 percent of the nation's blood; teaches skills that save lives; provides international humanitarian aid; and supports military members and their families. The Red Cross is a not-for-profit organization that depends on volunteers and the generosity of the American public to perform its mission. For more information, please visit redcross.org or cruzrojaamericana.org, or visit us on Twitter at @RedCross.

SOURCE American Red Cross

Related Links

http://www.redcross.org


"My most prominent emotion had become fear," said Josh Emer, retired U.S. Army veteran. "My safe place had become aggression or isolation. I feel like the mental health workshop was a changing point for me. I was able to open up with the other veterans because I felt I was cared about. I promised to stop hating myself."

Through the generous support of donors, WWP offers veterans specialized mental health programs and services  tailored to each warrior's specific needs and free of charge.

WWP's multi-day mental health workshops are offered as all-male, all-female, or all-couples. These workshops provide safe, private environments for warriors to express themselves and share their combat experiences. By the end, warriors share lessons learned from the activities that impacted their personal struggles most and set achievable goals for their recoveries.

WWP staff use a recovery model that allows warriors to be vulnerable to the unknown and identify and work through anxieties together. As warriors brave recreational activities that push them outside their comfort zone, they actively honor the oaths they agreed to at the beginning of the workshop, including "to let go and move on," "to care for self and others," and "to be present in their recovery."

"The workshop gave me a second chance at life," Josh said. "I've genuinely smiled several times since, and it feels awkward because it's an unfamiliar feeling. My mind has been less focused on my demise, and I find myself thinking about things like hope, faith, and pushing forward. I have Wounded Warrior Project to thank for all this. I want to get better. I want to be a better version of who I was before my injuries."

To learn and see more about how WWP's mental health workshops connect, serve, and empower wounded warriors, visit http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org, and click on multimedia.

About Wounded Warrior Project

Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) connects, serves, and empowers wounded warriors. Read more at http://newsroom.woundedwarriorproject.org/about-us.

SOURCE Wounded Warrior Project

Related Links

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The following feature package is a roundup of feature stories dealing with Arts & Culture and is appropriate for special sections and for general use.

For each story included in this package, you will find the first paragraph of the feature release below, as well as its headline linked to the full text.

This is the latest in a series of topical feature packages PRN will carry as part of its regular Feature News Service. Coming up in 2017 are features on:



Package Name Slug Distribution Date Education (III), Back to School Education Aug. 10 Women's Issue (II) Women Aug. 17 Health & Wellness Health Aug. 24 Military & Veterans Military Aug. 31 Hispanic Heritage Month Hispanic Sept. 7



Arts & Culture Feature Package

1. Mario Moore's work featured in Detroit Institute of Arts '1967 Detroit Rebellion' exhibition

DETROIT, July 20, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- This year marks the 50th anniversary of the 1967 Detroit Rebellion. The entire city has set aside commemorative events, including the Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) which is presenting "Art of Rebellion: Black Art of the Civil Rights Movement." From July 23 - October 22, 2017, 34 paintings, sculptures and photographs will be showcased from artists who worked in the 1960s and 1970s. The gap will also be bridged with work from modern artists whose work is inspired by The Civil Rights Movement, such as featured painter Mario Moore.

If you would like a copy of the complete schedule, or if you would care to comment, please email [email protected]. We welcome suggestions. Copies of previous packages are available for the media. Feature packages and feature photos are also available on the PR Newswire Web site, http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/feature-news-latest-news.

Photos that accompany releases are available via the PRN Multimedia Desk, 800-317-7677, or via the PR Newswire Photo Archive. Select photos are available via AP PhotoExpress and AP Images.

SOURCE PR Newswire Association LLC

Related Links

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/feature-news-latest-news


The delimitation of assembly constituencies in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh is not going to happen anytime soon. Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi disclosed that the Centre is not in favour of increasing assembly seats in Telugu speaking states. KCR said that he did mention about hiking the seats but the PM replied that it will not happen. He said that there will be no impact on his government if the seats are increased or not.

The TRS supremo further added that increase AP exerts pressure and gets the hike, then TS will also ensure to get it. The CM requested the PMs mediation to secure Presidents assent for the Muslims and STs reservation bill. He requested immediate bifurcation of the High Court. Modi assured that the transfer of defence lands  Bison polo grounds to TS govt will be done soon, so that the new secretariat can come up. CM invited the PM to attend Global Investors Summit to be held in November in Hyderabad where Ivanka Trump, daughter of US President will likely participate.
ALEXANDRIA, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA), the leading organization representing travel agents in the U.S., today released a groundbreaking study that tracks perceptions of American travelers. This year's wide-ranging study includes reaction to prominent issues like airline regulation and travel bans, collected to help ASTA better advocate for travelers as well as support travel agents as they advise their clients.

"We've approached this year's study with greater focus on the changing landscape for travel and the issues shaping that change," said Zane Kerby, President and CEO of ASTA. "This is part of our commitment to be an advocate for travelers, as well as for our travel agency members."

The study comes at a time of turmoil for American travelers, a time of highly-publicized airline incidents, travel bans and tightened regulations and restrictions concerning carry-on items. ASTA collected the opinions of more than 1,500 travelers on a wide range of travel topics, including public policy issues such as travel bans and restrictions, airline regulation and a proposed Mexican border wall. Key findings include:

Americans are evenly split on overall opinion of the Trump Administration's "travel ban," along political party lines

Most Americans (55 percent) believe a travel ban will make U.S. tourists feel less welcome abroad

More than one in six Millennials have cancelled or called off a foreign trip due to the travel ban

A large majority (71 percent) say the travel ban has not influenced their likelihood to travel abroad

Most Americans (54 percent) support travel to Cuba without U.S. government restriction

without U.S. government restriction Americans are seven times more likely to believe the government favors airlines over passengers

Eight in 10 Americans support requiring airlines to disclose all fees upfront

Most Americans (55 percent) say a wall on the Mexican border will make US tourists feel less welcome in Mexico

ASTA presented the study results to its members during the ASTA Capitol Summit event in June in Washington, D.C., which featured compelling educational content as well as the Society's annual "Legislative Day" where over 100 travel agency executives took to Capitol Hill to speak to lawmakers about the critical issues that face the travel industry and the traveler. ASTA plans further explore the project's results with its members during the ASTA Global Convention, August 27-29 in San Diego, CA.

"We are committed to protecting the interests of the traveling public on both domestic and international issues, including ease of booking, process transparency, and  above all else  safety while away from home," said Kerby. "Our research shows Americans' passion to travel is stronger than ever and we believe travelers deserve complete transparency from all vendors involved in the booking process, including from the government itself. America's travel advisors are dedicated to serving the needs of the public, and ASTA plans to build on this data to amplify our voice in support of travelers and the travel agents who serve them."

Kerby said the good news for the travel industry is that study respondents, despite concerns about bans and restrictions, remain zealous in their intention to travel. "The good news for travel agents is that Americans are an intrepid group and are always looking for new ways to discover the world and spend quality time with their families and friends," he said.

Both the quantitative and qualitative parts of the study provided ASTA and its members with insight into travelers' perceptions and expectations of travel advisors. They learned, for example, that many travelers are driven to find highly-authentic travel experiences, especially ones that will take them off the beaten path. These travelers want to know their agent has expertise and experience about a desired destination and can understand and adapt to the client's own travel preferences. ASTA travel agencies are well-positioned to help in this regard, with the average member having been to over 56 countries.

To review the study findings, you can visit this link.

Research Methodology

PSB, a global market research and opinion polling firm, conducted a scientific quantitative study of 1,522 Americans ages 25-70 to gauge perceptions regarding a wide range of travel topics. PSB conducted the survey online, and the respondent sample is proportional by race, gender and generation to U.S. Census demographics. Additionally, PSB conducted six focus groups of American travelers to understand their travel perceptions and priorities. The groups took place in Charlotte, Denver and Philadelphia, and were divided into two age groups, 25-35 and 36-45.

Research Sponsors:

We'd like to thank Carnival Corporation, an ASTA Proud Partner, for sponsoring ASTA's consumer research for the fourth year in a row. As an ASTA Proud Partner, Carnival Corporation is building on its track record of helping agents better understand today's consumers and supporting research that benefits all ASTA travel agents.

ASTA would also like to thank our dedicated Chapter Presidents for funding a portion of this research. They recognize the importance of consumer awareness. And this year, the Chapter Presidents renewed their commitment to ASTA and consumer awareness by funding another round of support. That sort of commitment provides the resources necessary to keep the consumer awareness machine running on all cylinders. Their commitment to our industry and their national trade association is invaluable.

About ASTA

ASTA (American Society of Travel Agents) members represent 80 percent of all travel sold in the United States through the travel agency distribution channel. Together with hundreds of internationally based members, it is the leading global advocate for travel agents, the travel industry and the traveling public. ASTA's history of travel industry advocacy traces back to its founding in 1931 when it launched with the mission to facilitate the business of selling travel through effective representation, shared knowledge and the enhancement of professionalism. For more information, visit ASTA.org.

ASTA's sister association, The National Association of Career Travel Agents, represents a professional community of independent travel agents ready to assist the traveling public.

Media Contact:

Erika Richter

703-739-6806

[email protected]

SOURCE American Society of Travel Agents

Related Links

http://www.asta.org


SANTA MONICA, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Edmunds, the leading car shopping and information platform, forecasts that 1,423,097 new cars and trucks will be sold in the U.S. in July for an estimated seasonally adjusted annual rate (SAAR) of 16.9 million. This reflects a 3.1 percent decrease in sales from June 2017 and a 6.2 percent decrease from July 2016.

"July is historically a strong month, but with disappointing sales and inventories still building, something needs to give," said Jessica Caldwell, Edmunds executive director of industry analysis. "A lot is riding on late-summer sales events to help move vehicles before 2018 models start arriving at dealer lots. Production slowdowns will help address some of the inventory issues, but consumers may be waiting for automakers to loosen the purse strings on incentives to get them to pull the trigger on making a purchase."

SALES VOLUME FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Sales Volume July 2017 Forecast July 2016 June 2017 Change from July 2016 Change from June 2017 GM 238,465 267,258 243,155 -10.8% -1.9% Toyota 206,850 214,233 202,376 -3.4% 2.2% Ford 204,598 215,268 227,166 -5.0% -9.9% Fiat Chrysler 168,141 180,727 187,348 -7.0% -10.3% Honda 145,840 152,799 139,793 -4.6% 4.3% Nissan 131,122 132,475 143,328 -1.0% -8.5% Hyundai/Kia 120,655 134,972 110,650 -10.6% 9.0% VW/Audi 44,656 47,122 46,793 -5.2% -4.6% Industry 1,423,097 1,517,536 1,468,867 -6.2% -3.1%

*NOTE: July 2017 had 25 selling days; July 2016 had 26 and June 2017 had 26.

Edmunds estimates that retail SAAR will come in at 14.6 million vehicles in July 2017, with fleet transactions accounting for 13.8 percent of total sales. An estimated 3.4 million used vehicles will be sold in July 2017, for a SAAR of 39.2 million (compared to 3.2 million  or a SAAR of 39.2 million  in June).

MARKET SHARE FORECAST, BY MANUFACTURER

Market Share July 2017 Forecast July 2016 June 2017 Change from July 2016 Change from June 2017 GM 16.8% 17.6% 16.6% -0.9% 0.2% Toyota 14.5% 14.1% 13.8% 0.4% 0.8% Ford 14.4% 14.2% 15.5% 0.2% -1.1% Fiat Chrysler 11.8% 11.9% 12.8% -0.1% -0.9% Honda 10.2% 10.1% 9.5% 0.2% 0.7% Nissan 9.2% 8.7% 9.8% 0.5% -0.5% Hyundai/Kia 8.5% 8.9% 7.5% -0.4% 0.9% VW/Audi 3.1% 3.1% 3.2% 0.0% 0.0%

More insight into recent auto industry trends can be found in the Edmunds Industry Center at http://www.edmunds.com/industry-center/.

About Edmunds

Edmunds is the leading car information and shopping platform, helping millions of visitors each month find their perfect car. With products such as Edmunds Your Price, Your Lease and Used+, shoppers can buy smarter with instant, upfront prices for cars and trucks currently for sale at more than 13,000 dealer franchises across the U.S. Edmunds' in-house team of unbiased car-shopping experts provide industry-leading vehicle reviews and shopping tips, as well as welcome all car-shopping questions to the free Shopper Advice line at 1-855-782-4711, via email at [email protected], via text at ED411 and on Twitter and Facebook. The company is regarded as one of America's best workplaces by Fortune and Great Places to Work. Edmunds is based in Santa Monica, California, and has a satellite office in downtown Detroit, Michigan.

Contact:

Monica Favorite

Edmunds.com Corporate Communications

www.Edmunds.com

Media Hotline: 310-309-4900

[email protected]

SOURCE Edmunds

Related Links

https://www.edmunds.com/


"As Jennifer has noted, many in palliative care describe their work not as a career but as a calling, and that certainly holds true for her," said CSUSM President Karen Haynes. "Jennifer will continue to build on the success of the CSU Institute for Palliative Care as a national leader in palliative care workforce development."

Ballentine found her place in palliative and hospice care after founding and building a successful business in academic book production and publishing. She has served as the president of The Iris Project since 2014, delivering high-level consulting services to national clients. Her work has focused on initiatives to improve palliative care through education, policy development, practice and systems change.

Previously, Ballentine served as executive director of Life Quality Institute in Denver where she transformed a small nonprofit focused on educating local medical students and community groups into a well-regarded regional palliative care learning institute.

She has also worked as a research program strategist for The Denver Hospice-University of Colorado School of Medicine and director of programs for the Colorado Center for Hospice and Palliative Care.

Throughout her career, she has participated in and chaired interagency taskforces at the state and national levels to influence palliative and hospice care policy, delivery design, and quality standards. She is currently a member of the National Hospice and Palliative Care Organization's Ethics Advisory Council and the National POLST Paradigm Task Force.

"I am excited and honored to be working with President Haynes, the Institute's exceptional team of staff and educators, and the CSU leadership, to be an advocate for our students, and to build on the success of founding Executive Director Helen McNeal," Jennifer said. "This is a pivotal time for healthcare, and palliative care has a key role to play. The Institute will continue to find innovative ways to ensure an educated and skilled workforce is in place to meet the needs of patients, families, communities, and the healthcare systems we partner with."

Ballentine earned her bachelor's in interdisciplinary studies from Oberlin College and her master's in end-of-life studies from Regis University.

About the CSU Institute for Palliative Care

The CSU Institute for Palliative Care is preparing the current and future palliative care workforce while educating the community about the benefits of palliative care. The Institute offers instructor-led and self-paced online learning to individuals anywhere in the world.

Housed within one of the largest state university systems in the United States, the Institute leverages the strength of CSU's workforce development infrastructure to deliver evidence-based online and in-person learning to current and future palliative care professionals working in all settings to meet the growing needs of chronically or seriously ill people.

SOURCE CSU Institute For Palliative Care
"We designed this system of products in direct response to the daily concerns faced by our customers," said Christoph Moellers, vice president and general manager, workflow and information technology solutions business unit. "Not only are laboratory professionals today tasked with ensuring timely, reliable results to support patient care, but also they must manage the day-to-day operations in the laboratory. We saw that by giving them the right kind of information at the right time, we could greatly alleviate some of the pressures they face."

The DxONE suite of information management solutions form a cohesive system of products designed to improve efficiency, give insight into operations throughout an entire network and create a more comprehensive understanding of laboratory performance.

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics Introduces DxONETM Clinical Information Management Tools

DxONE Inventory Manager  Eases inventory control functions to help laboratories minimize costs, ensure tight turnaround times, track trends and reduce administrative duties through automation and electronic capabilities; helps technicians focus more time on patient care

DxONE Command Central  Helps save valuable time by giving personnel the ability to monitor multiple instruments in real-time from a single workstation; aids in counteracting personnel shortages

DxONE Insights  Streamlines workflow and efficiency by connecting instruments throughout a laboratory network; provides greater access to actionable cloud-based analytics for closer monitoring of key performance indicators to aid in continuous improvement efforts

"Technology has given us the ability to gather vast amounts of data," said Christoph Moellers. "The challenge has been in taking all the data that is being collected and presenting it in a way that gives the laboratory the greatest benefit. We believe this unique combination of solutions does that, empowering laboratory personnel to achieve their operational and care goals."

The DxONE integrated system of information management solutions represents Beckman Coulter Diagnostics' role as an information and test consolidation partner for laboratories seeking to create better efficiencies and quality in patient care. It further expands the portfolio of clinical diagnostic solutions offered by the diagnostic companies of Danaher Corporation, which include Beckman Coulter, Cepheid, Leica Biosystems, Radiometer, and SCIEX Diagnostics. The breadth of this portfolio extends from the established to novel diagnostic technologies for clinical and anatomic pathology laboratories and point-of-care testing. With a rich history and a tradition of innovation, the diagnostic companies of Danaher remain committed to developing of new and unique diagnostic approaches for better, integrated patient care, and to helping the healthcare systems build comprehensive and efficient diagnostic services with high degree of automation, standardization and connectivity.

About Beckman Coulter

Beckman Coulter Diagnostics helps healthcare and laboratory professionals provide better patient care by delivering the accurate diagnostic information they need, when they need it. For over 80 years, Beckman Coulter has been the partner of choice for healthcare organizations. Our scalable instruments, comprehensive diagnostic tests and business management services are trusted by hospitals, laboratories and other critical care settings around the world. We share in our customers' mission toward continuous improvement and quality patient care because we believe when efficiency and clinical outcomes are improved, patients benefit and we can move healthcare forward for every person.

Disclaimer: Not available in all markets. Check with your local representative for availability.

2017 Beckman Coulter, the stylized logo and the Beckman Coulter product and service marks mentioned herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of Beckman Coulter, Inc. in the United States and other countries.

SOURCE Beckman Coulter

Related Links

https://www.beckmancoulter.com


$145 million in commitments, including $115 million from 3 leading Canadian institutional investors and $30 million from Sun Life

in commitments, including from 3 leading Canadian institutional investors and from Sun Life Targets strong risk-adjusted returns, primarily through high yield debt instruments in markets across Canada

TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Bentall Kennedy (Canada) Limited Partnership announced today the successful first close of the Bentall Kennedy High Yield Canadian Property Fund I Limited Partnership (the "High Yield Canadian Property Fund"), totaling $145 million in commitments. The first close raised $115 million in commitments from three leading Canadian institutional investors. Sun Life Assurance Company of Canada had previously committed $30 million to the Fund to enable it to begin making loan commitments.

"The early success in raising capital for our High Yield Canadian Property Fund is a clear recognition from the marketplace of the tremendous opportunity that our relationship with Sun Life Investment Management offers for our institutional clients," said Malcolm Leitch, Chief Operating Officer, Investment Management, Bentall Kennedy.

Sun Life Financial acquired Bentall Kennedy in September 2015 with the goal of expanding and diversifying the real estate capabilities of its Sun Life Investment Management business, which provides investment services to third parties and manages Sun Life's general account.

The Fund will utilize Bentall Kennedy's expertise in real estate equity investments combined with Sun Life Investment Management's leading capability in the commercial mortgage market. The Fund is targeting an internal rate of return to investors, after fees, of 7% to 9%, primarily through lending secured by well positioned real estate projects across Canada. The Fund will invest in high ratio first mortgages, mezzanine loans, land loans, second mortgages, participating debt and direct real estate equity.

To date, the Fund has made 3 loan commitments for an aggregate of $25.4 million, with investments in Vancouver and Calgary.

"The strength and capabilities of the combined real estate equity and debt team at Bentall Kennedy and Sun Life Investment Management enables us to offer our clients a differentiated investment vehicle that complements our other products and lets our clients choose the real estate strategy most suited to them," said Phil Gillin, Executive Vice President & Portfolio Manager, Bentall Kennedy and Sun Life Investment Management.

About Bentall Kennedy

Bentall Kennedy, a Sun Life Investment Management company, is one of the largest global real estate investment advisors and one of North America's foremost providers of real estate services. Bentall Kennedy serves the interests of more than 550 institutional clients with expertise in office, retail, industrial and multi-residential assets throughout Canada and the U.S. Bentall Kennedy's Investment Management group has approximately $47.5 billion (CAD)/$35 billion (USD) of assets under management (as of March 31, 2017). Bentall Kennedy is one of the largest real estate services providers in Canada, managing 58 million square feet on behalf of third-party and investment management clients (as of March 31, 2017). Bentall Kennedy is a member of UN PRI and a recognized Responsible Property Investing leader ranked among the top firms around the globe in the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) for the sixth consecutive year since GRESB was launched.

Bentall Kennedy includes Bentall Kennedy (Canada) Limited Partnership, Bentall Kennedy (U.S.) Limited Partnership and the real estate and commercial mortgage investment groups of certain of their affiliates, all of which comprise a team of real estate professionals spanning multiple legal entities. The assets under management shown above include real estate equity and mortgage investments of the companies within Bentall Kennedy.

For more information, visit www.bentallkennedy.com.

Securities of Bentall Kennedy High Yield Canadian Property Fund I Limited Partnership have not been qualified for distribution to the public in Canada and may only be distributed in Canada pursuant to an exemption from the prospectus requirements of applicable Canadian securities laws. Such units are offered through BKC Capital Inc., an affiliate of Bentall Kennedy, solely to institutional investors that are accredited investors under Canadian securities laws, pursuant to a confidential investment memorandum that describes such units. This press release is qualified in its entirety by the information contained in such confidential investment memorandum.

This press release does not constitute or form a part of an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy any securities in the United States or any other jurisdiction in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such jurisdiction. Any securities referred to herein have not been and will not be registered under the U.S. Securities Act of 1933, as amended (the "Securities Act"), and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from the registration requirements under the Securities Act.

Not for distribution outside of Canada and the United States.

SOURCE Bentall Kennedy
PLANO, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- BG Staffing, Inc. (NYSE American: BGSF), a rapidly growing national provider of professional temporary staffing services, today reported record financial results for its second quarter and six-month periods ended June 25, 2017.

Quarter Two 2017 Results



2017

2016

Change

% Change



(amounts in thousands, except per-share amounts) Revenues

$ 68,774



$ 62,615



$ 6,159



9.8 % Gross profit

$ 17,227



$ 15,185



$ 2,042



13.4 % Gross profit percentage

25.0 %

24.3 %

0.7 %

2.9 % Net income

$ 2,285



$ 1,397



$ 888



63.6 % Net income per diluted share

$ 0.25



$ 0.17



$ 0.08



47.1 % Weighted average diluted shares

9,051



8,053



998



12.4 % Adjusted EBITDA (1)

$ 6,634



$ 5,781



$ 853



14.8 % Adjusted EBITDA percentage (2)

9.6 %

9.2 %

0.4 %

4.3 %

Six-Month 2017 Results



2017

2016

Change

% Change



(amounts in thousands, except per-share amounts) Revenues

$ 125,618



$ 122,166



$ 3,452



2.8 % Gross profit

$ 30,899



$ 28,531



$ 2,368



8.3 % Gross profit percentage

24.6 %

23.4 %

1.2 %

5.1 % Net income

$ 3,586



$ 2,231



$ 1,355



60.7 % Net income per diluted share

$ 0.40



$ 0.28



$ 0.12



42.9 % Weighted average diluted shares

8,986



7,852



1,134



14.4 % Adjusted EBITDA (1)

$ 10,776



$ 10,297



$ 479



4.7 % Adjusted EBITDA percentage (2)

8.6 %

8.4 %

0.2 %

2.4 %

L. Allen Baker, Jr., President and CEO, stated, "Our business model continues to work well. All of our metrics were up for the quarter and six month periods, which resulted in record results. As expected, the recent acquisition of Zycron enhanced our results for quarter and year-to-date."

(1) Non-GAAP financial measure. See reconciliation at end for details. (2) Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of revenue.

Conference Call

The Company will host an investor conference call to discuss financial results on July 28, 2017 at 1:30pm PDT (4:30 EDT). The Participant Dial-In Number for the conference call is 1-631-891-4304. Participants should dial in to the call at least five minutes before 1:30pm PDT (4:30pm EDT) on July 28, 2017. The call can also be accessed "live" online at http://public.viavid.com/index.php?id=125512 . A replay of the recorded call will be available for 90 days on the Company's website ( http://bgstaffing.investorroom.com/ ). You can also listen to a replay of the call by dialing 1-844-512-2921 (international participants dial 1-412-317-6671) starting July 28, 2017, at 7:30pm EDT through August 4, 2017 at 11:59 pm EDT. Please use PIN Number 10003280.

About BG Staffing, Inc.

Headquartered in Plano, Texas, BG Staffing provides staffing services to a variety of industries through its various divisions. BG Staffing is primarily a professional temporary staffing platform that has integrated several regional and national brands and is set to achieve scalable growth. The Company was ranked as the 60th largest U.S. staffing company in 2017 and was named the 71st fastest growing staffing company in the country in 2016 by Staffing Industry Analysts. The Company's acquisition philosophy is one that not only brings financial growth, but retention of unique and dedicated talent within the companies. This has resulted in a strong management team, with tenure and a desire to offer exceptional service to candidates, customers and investors. For more information on the Company and its services, please visit its website at www.bgstaffing.com .

Forward-Looking Statements

The forward-looking statements in this press release are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. The Company's actual results could differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements because of various risks and uncertainties including those listed in Item 1A of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K and in the Company's other filings and reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All of the risks and uncertainties are beyond the ability of the Company to control, and in many cases, the Company cannot predict the risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. When used in this press release, the words "believes," "plans," "expects," "will," "intends," and "anticipates" and similar expressions as they relate to the Company or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Except as required by law, the Company is not obligated to publicly release any revisions to these forward-looking statements to reflect the events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.

Contact:

Terri MacInnis, VP of Investor Relations

Bibicoff + MacInnis, Inc.

818.379.8500 [email protected]

BG Staffing, Inc.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The financial results of BG Staffing, Inc. are prepared in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America ("GAAP") and the rules of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. To help the readers understand the Company's financial performance, the Company supplements its GAAP financial results with Adjusted EBITDA.

A non-GAAP financial measure is a numerical measure of a company's financial performance that excludes or includes amounts so as to be different than the most directly comparable measure calculated and presented in accordance with GAAP in the statement of income, balance sheet or statement of cash flows of a company. Adjusted EBITDA is not measurement of financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income, or any other performance measure derived in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to cash flow from operating activities or a measure of our liquidity. We believe that Adjusted EBITDA is a useful performance measure and is used by us to facilitate a comparison of our operating performance on a consistent basis from period-to-period and to provide for a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting our business than measures under GAAP can provide alone. In addition, the financial covenants in our credit agreement are based on Adjusted EBITDA as defined in the credit agreement.

We define "Adjusted EBITDA" as earnings before interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, non-cash items, and certain items that management does not consider in assessing our on-going operating performance.

Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA





Thirteen Weeks Ended

Twenty-six Weeks Ended



June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016

June 25,

2017

June 26,

2016



(dollars in thousands) Net income

$ 2,285



$ 1,397



$ 3,586



$ 2,231

Interest expense, net

837



1,297



1,396



2,576

Income tax expense

1,460



886



2,293



1,436

Depreciation and amortization

1,865



1,726



3,236



3,508

Loss on extinguishment of debt





404







404

Share-based compensation

187



71



265



142

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 6,634



$ 5,781



$ 10,776



$ 10,297



SOURCE BG Staffing, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bgstaffing.com


Dr. Dusseux brings substantial strategic leadership experience within the healthcare industry to new role at Bionik Laboratories; will work with Board and leadership team to continue Company's penetration within high-growth potential verticals

TORONTO and BOSTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Bionik Laboratories Corp. (OTCQX: BNKL) ("Bionik" or the "Company"), a robotics company focused on providing rehabilitation and assistive technology solutions to individuals with neurological and mobility challenges from hospital to home, today announced it has appointed Dr. Eric Dusseux, MD, MSc, MBA to its Board of Directors. Dr. Dusseux will replace Hermano Igo Krebs, who resigned from his role on the Board, effective July 21, 2017.

Dr. Dusseux brings substantial strategic and leadership experience within the healthcare industry to Bionik Laboratories, most recently serving in the role of President, Europe at Auregen BioTherapeutics SA and at Bemido SA. Prior to that, Dr. Dusseux, as an Executive Committee Member, was instrumental in the success of the Corporate Strategy Department of Sanofi Pasteur, where he led corporate strategy, business intelligence, and international business development. He has also served in key roles at GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals leading product development and business growth strategy.

"I look forward to joining the Board of Bionik Laboratories and to working with the outstanding leadership team in place to continue the growth of the Company," said Dr. Dusseux. "This is an exciting time for Bionik Laboratories, as the healthcare industry continues to innovate through the adoption of technologies like robotics and artificial intelligence. I believe we are well positioned to continue our growth and establish ourselves as a leader in assistive technology solutions for the healthcare industry, and look forward to building on the Company's success."

Dr. Dusseux has also worked closely with multiple medical device and healthcare technology companies during his time with The Boston Consulting Group, helping to identify profitable growth paths and emerging markets for entry. This experience will prove pivotal for Bionik Laboratories as it continues its penetration of high-growth verticals and continues its development and manufacturing of its products for the consumer/homecare marketplace.

"We would like to thank Hermano Igo Krebs for his contributions to our Board and for all of the work he has put in during his time in that role. We wish him the best in his future endeavors," said Peter Bloch, Chief Executive Officer and Chairman of the Board, Bionik Laboratories. "We are thrilled to be able to add someone of Eric's caliber to our Board of Directors during this important time of growth for our Company. His experience in business development and building growth strategies will be a tremendous asset for us moving forward as we continue to enter new markets and develop our consumer product line. We welcome him and look forward to his insights."

About Bionik Laboratories

Bionik Laboratories (OTCQX:BNKL) is a robotics company focused on providing rehabilitation and mobility solutions to individuals with neurological and mobility challenges from hospital to home. The Company has a portfolio of products focused on upper and lower extremity rehabilitation for stroke and other mobility-impaired patients, including three products on the market and four products in varying stages of development. The InMotion Systems  the InMotion ARM, InMotion Wrist, InMotion Hand and InMotion AnkleBot  are designed to provide intelligent, patient-adaptive therapy in a manner that has been clinically verified to maximize neuro-recovery. Bionik is also developing a lower-body exoskeleton, ARKE, designed to allow paraplegics as well as other wheelchair users the ability to rehabilitate through walking. ARKE is designed to continually adapt to a patient's ability and provide real-time feedback to the physiotherapist.

For more information, please visit www.bioniklabs.com and connect with us on Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements contained in this press release that do not describe historical facts may constitute forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements, which involve assumptions and describe our future plans, strategies, and expectations, are generally identifiable by use of the words "may," "should," "would," "will," "could," "scheduled," "expect," "anticipate," "estimate," "believe," "intend," "seek," or "project" or the negative of these words or other variations on these words or comparable terminology. Forward-looking statements may include, without limitation, statements regarding (i) the plans and objectives of management for future operations, including plans or objectives relating to the design, development and commercialization of human exoskeletons and other robotic rehabilitation products, (ii) a projection of income (including income/loss), earnings (including earnings/loss) per share, capital expenditures, dividends, capital structure or other financial items, (iii) the Company's future financial performance, (iv) the market and projected market for our existing and planned products and (v) the assumptions underlying or relating to any statement described in points (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv) above. Such forward-looking statements are not meant to predict or guarantee actual results, performance, events or circumstances, and may not be realized because they are based upon the Company's current projections, plans, objectives, beliefs, expectations, estimates and assumptions, and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties and other influences, many of which the Company has no control. Actual results and the timing of certain events and circumstances may differ materially from those described by the forward-looking statements as a result of these risks and uncertainties. Factors that may influence or contribute to the inaccuracy of the forward-looking statements or cause actual results to differ materially from expected or desired results may include, without limitation, the Company's inability to obtain additional financing, the significant length of time and resources associated with the development of our products and related insufficient cash flows and resulting illiquidity, the Company's inability to expand the Company's business, significant government regulation of medical devices and the healthcare industry, lack of product diversification, volatility in the price of the Company's raw materials, and the Company's failure to implement the Company's business plans or strategies. These and other factors are identified and described in more detail in the Company's filings with the SEC. The Company does not undertake to update these forward-looking statements.

SOURCE Bionik Laboratories Corp.

Related Links

http://www.bioniklabs.com


"BJ's offers the products that help members take care of everyone in their family, including their faithful companions," said Bonnie Volpe, vice president of food, sundries, and beverages, BJ's Wholesale Club. "Our exclusive Berkley Jensen  brand of nutritious pet food and treats is affordably priced and lets our members deliver the quality of cuisine their beloved pets deserve."

BJ's offers a large selection of leading pet food brands and varieties and is committed to providing the best quality, value and assortment through its exclusive Berkley Jensen line of dog, cat and bird food.

Members can shop a variety of pet products from nutritional foods and treats, to flea and tick prevention, to accessories like beds and travel accessories. The variety of products caters both to budgets and a pet's specific needs.

A sampling of products includes:

Dog

Berkley Jensen Pig Ears, $16.99

100% Natural Pig Ears with no fillers or preservatives will help to keep a dog's breath fresh by removing tartar and plaque.

Berkley Jensen All Natural Grain Free Duck and Vegetables Holistic Recipe , 12 lbs., $24.99

Rated five stars on DogFoodAdvisor.com. Duck is the first ingredient in this all natural recipe, ensuring dogs receive the protein they need with no fillers or by-products.

Purina Beneful Originals with Real Beef Dog Food, 44 lbs., $34.99

With real farm-raised beef as the first ingredient, these meaty bites deliver high-quality protein to support strong muscles. Whole grains and accents of real carrots, spinach and peas also help create a perfectly balanced meal.

DMC 40" x 50" Reversible Pet Throw with Bonus Chew Toy, $19.99

Available in BJ's exclusive decorative nautical patterns or solid colors, this reversible pet throw with a bonus bone chew toy can be used at home to cover furniture or rugs, in the car or on vacation. The machine-washable throw is treated with MaxGuard to reduce pet odor and bacterial growth.

Cat

Berkley Jensen Seafood Lover's Variety Pack, 36 ct., $15.99

Compare to Fancy Feast  Wet Cat Food. Each recipe starts with the very best cuts of fresh cod, salmon, or ocean whitefish to provide the key proteins and amino that cat's need to thrive.

Wet Cat Food. Each recipe starts with the very best cuts of fresh cod, salmon, or ocean whitefish to provide the key proteins and amino that cat's need to thrive. Berkley Jensen Multi-Cat Scoopable Cat Litter , 40 lbs., $9.99

This multi-cat scoopable cat litter has baking soda for long-lasting odor control, and its low-dust formula provides easy clean-up and leaves behind a fresh scent.

Purina  Fancy Feast  Gravy Lovers, 36 ct., $18.99

Features Turkey Feast in Roasted Turkey Flavor Gravy, Chicken Feast in Grilled Chicken Flavor Gravy, and Beef Feast in Roasted Beef Flavor Gravy.

To learn more about BJ's pet assortment, visit www.BJs.com.

About BJ's Wholesale Club, Inc.

Headquartered in Westborough, Massachusetts, BJ's is the leading operator of membership warehouse clubs in the Eastern United States. The company currently operates 215 clubs and 132 BJ's Gas locations in 15 states.

BJ's provides a one-stop shopping destination filled with top-quality, leading brands, including its exclusive Wellsley Farms and Berkley Jensen brands, along with USDA Choice meats, premium produce and delicious organics, many in supermarket sizes. BJ's is also the only major membership warehouse club to accept all manufacturers' coupons and, for greater convenience, offers the most payment options.

Visit www.BJs.com, and for exclusive content, find us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram.

BJ's is wholly owned by affiliates of Leonard Green & Partners, CVC Capital Partners and its management team.

SOURCE BJ's Wholesale Club

Related Links

http://www.bjs.com


BOSTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM) reported second quarter 2017 net revenue of $247.9 million, an increase of $3.1 million or 1%, from the same period last year. Net income for the second quarter was $29.1 million, or $2.35 per diluted share, an increase of $2.5 million or $0.29 per diluted share, from the second quarter of 2016. This increase was primarily due to increases in net revenue and an increase in gross margin that were partially offset by increased advertising, promotional and selling expenses.

Earnings per diluted share for the 26-week period ended July 1, 2017 were $2.79, an increase of $0.21 from the comparable 26-week period in 2016. Net revenue for the 26-week period ended July 1, 2017 was $409.6 million, a decrease of $24.0 million, or 6%, from the comparable 26-week period in 2016.

In the second quarter and the 26-week period ended July 1, 2017, the Company recorded a tax benefit of $0.02 per diluted share and $0.30 per diluted share, respectively, resulting from the adoption of the new Accounting Standard "Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting" ("ASU 2016-09"), which was effective for the Company on January 1, 2017.

Highlights of this release include:

Depletions decreased 3% and 7% from the comparable 13 and 26 week periods in the prior year.

Estimated full-year 2017 depletion and shipment change of between minus 7% and plus 1% remains unchanged. The 2017 fiscal year includes 52 weeks compared to the 2016 fiscal year, which included 53 weeks.

Gross margin was 54.1% for the second quarter, an increase from 51.8% in the comparable 13-week period in 2016, and 51.4% for the 26-week period ending July 1, 2017 , an increase from 50.4% in the comparable 26-week period in 2016. The Company maintains its full year gross margin target of between 51% and 52%.

, an increase from 50.4% in the comparable 26-week period in 2016. The Company maintains its full year gross margin target of between 51% and 52%. Advertising, promotional and selling expense increased by $4.6 million , or 7%, in the second quarter over the comparable period in 2016 and decreased $1.0 million , or 1%, from the comparable 26-week period in 2016.

, or 7%, in the second quarter over the comparable period in 2016 and decreased , or 1%, from the comparable 26-week period in 2016. Based on current spending and investment plans, full year 2017 Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share1, which excludes the impact of ASU 2016-09, is now estimated at between $5.00 and $6.20 , a narrowing of the range from the previously communicated estimate of $4.20 to $6.20 .

1 See "Outlook" below for additional information regarding non-GAAP forward-looking measures used in this press release.

Jim Koch, Chairman and Founder of the Company, commented, "We are happy that our total Company depletion trends have significantly improved from earlier in the year, but we remain challenged by the general softening of the craft beer and cider categories and a more competitive retail environment with a lot of options for our drinkers. We are working hard to return to growth through improving our messaging and innovation behind Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard. Our leadership team is making strides to address our challenges. In our search to find a successor to Martin, who announced plans to retire in 2018, our Board continues its process to identify and recruit an exceptional leader who will be able to harness and accelerate the positive steps that we are taking while building and leveraging our unique craft culture. We believe that we are well positioned to meet the longer-term challenges because of the quality of our employees, our beers, our innovation capability and our sales execution strength, coupled with our strong financial position that enables us to invest in growing our brands and creating new growth opportunities."

Martin Roper, the Company's President and CEO stated, "In the second quarter, our depletions decline was primarily due to decreases in our Samuel Adams, Coney Island and Angry Orchard brands that were only partially offset by increases in our Twisted Tea and Truly Spiked & Sparkling brands and a slight benefit from the timing of our fiscal quarter end in relation to the fourth of July holiday. We are encouraged by the improving total Company depletions trends since the first quarter. Twisted Tea continues to grow distribution and pull, and Truly Spiked & Sparkling has developed as one of the leaders in the emerging segment of hard sparkling water. Most of our volume declines for the quarter resulted from the underperformance of our Samuel Adams brand, which, despite volume declines, showed sequential improvement relative to first quarter performance. We are working to improve our Samuel Adams trends by focusing on sales execution, new messaging through media and point of sale and continued innovation. In the second quarter, we saw continued declines in the cider category and in our Angry Orchard brand, but we have maintained our high share of off-premise tracked channels and are focused on turning the category and brand trends around. For the rest of the year we expect to see the continuing impact from the Truly Spiked & Sparkling roll out relative to last year and continued strength in Twisted Tea, and are committed to improving our Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard trends."

Mr. Roper continued, "Our priorities for 2017 remain unchanged. Our number one priority is returning both Samuel Adams and Angry Orchard to growth through continued packaging, innovation, promotion and brand communication initiatives, while maintaining Twisted Tea's momentum. Our second priority is a focus on cost savings and efficiency projects to fund the investments needed to grow our brands. We have adjusted our organization to the new volume environment, while preserving the capability to innovate and return to growth. We believe that the results of these initiatives are starting to show in our reported gross margin improvements and in our operating expenses, and have allowed us to increase our brand investment spend during the quarter. Based on the early success of these efforts, we are maintaining our previously stated goal of increasing our gross margins by about one percentage point per year through 2019, before any mix or volume impacts, while preserving our quality and improving our service levels. Our third priority is long-term innovation, where our current focus is on ensuring that Truly Spiked & Sparkling reaches its full potential, and our long-term intent is to generate a consistent cadence of interesting brand innovations."

2nd Quarter 2017 Summary of Results

Depletions decreased 3% from the comparable 13-week period in 2016.

Shipment volume was approximately 1.1 million barrels, flat to the comparable 13-week period in 2016.

The Company believes distributor inventory levels at July 1, 2017 were appropriate. Inventory at distributors participating in the Freshest Beer Program as of July 1, 2017 decreased slightly in terms of days of inventory on hand when compared to June 25, 2016. The Company has approximately 78% of its volume on the Freshest Beer Program.

Gross margin at 54.1% represented an increase from the 51.8% margin realized in the comparable 13-week period in 2016, primarily as a result of lower brewery processing costs per barrel due to cost savings initiatives and increases in revenue per barrel due to pricing and package mix.

Advertising, promotional and selling expenses increased $4.6 million from the comparable 13-week period in 2016, primarily as a result of higher media spending and salaries and benefits costs partially offset by efficiency driven decreases in point of sale spending and freight to distributors due to lower freight rates.

General and administrative expenses decreased by $2.4 million from the comparable 13-week period in 2016, primarily due to decreases in stock compensation, consulting and legal costs.

Impairment of long-lived assets increased $1.5 million from the comparable 13-week period in 2016, primarily due to the write-down of brewery equipment at the Company's Pennsylvania and Cincinnati Breweries.

Year-to-Date 2017 Summary of Results

Depletions decreased 7% from the comparable 26-week period in 2016, reflecting decreases in the Company's Samuel Adams, Coney Island, and Angry Orchard brands, partially offset by increases in its Twisted Tea and Truly Spiked & Sparkling brands.

Shipment volume was approximately 1.8 million barrels, a 7% decrease from the comparable 26-week period in 2016.

Gross margin at 51.4% represented an increase from the 50.4% margin realized in the comparable 26-week period in 2016, primarily as a result of increases in revenue per barrel due to pricing and package mix and lower brewery processing costs per barrel due to cost savings initiatives.

Advertising, promotional and selling expenses decreased $1.0 million from the comparable 26-week period in 2016, primarily due to efficiency driven decreases in point of sale spending and decreases in freight to distributors, as a result of lower volume and lower freight rates, which were partially offset by higher salaries and benefits costs and media spending.

General and administrative expenses decreased $4.9 million from the comparable 26-week period in 2016, primarily due to decreases in stock compensation, consulting and legal costs.

Impairment of long-lived assets increased $1.5 million from the comparable 26-week period in 2016, primarily due to the write-down of brewery equipment at the Company's Pennsylvania and Cincinnati Breweries.

The Company's effective tax rate for the 26-week period ended July 1, 2017 decreased to 29.7% from 36.1% in the comparable 26-week period in 2016. This decrease was primarily due to the tax benefit resulting from the adoption ASU 2016-09, which was effective for the Company on January 1, 2017.

The Company expects that its July 1, 2017 cash balance of $71.7 million, together with its future operating cash flows and its $150.0 million line of credit, will be sufficient to fund future cash requirements.

During the 26-week period ended July 1, 2017 and the period from July 2, 2017 through July 21, 2017, the Company repurchased approximately 608,000 shares of its Class A Common Stock for an aggregate purchase price of approximately $88.2 million. As of July 21, 2017, the Company had approximately $85.1 million remaining on the $781.0 million share buyback expenditure limit set by the Board of Directors.

Depletion estimates

Year-to-date depletions through the 29-week period ended July 22, 2017 are estimated by the Company to have decreased approximately 7% from the comparable period in 2016.

Outlook

The Company currently projects full year 2017 Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share to be between $5.00 and $6.20, reflecting the uncertain volume outlook. This Non-GAAP projection excludes the impact of ASU 2016-09. The Company's actual 2017 earnings per share could vary significantly from the current projection. The 2017 fiscal year includes 52 weeks compared to the 2016 fiscal year which included 53 weeks. Underlying the Company's current 2017 projection are the following full-year estimates and targets:

Depletions and shipments percentage change of between minus 7% and plus 1%.

Increases in revenue per barrel of between 1% and 2%.

Gross margin of between 51% and 52%.

Increased investments in advertising, promotional and selling expenses of between $20 million and $30 million . This does not include any changes in freight costs for the shipment of products to the Company's distributors.

. This does not include any changes in freight costs for the shipment of products to the Company's distributors. Non-GAAP effective tax rate of approximately 37%, excluding the impact of ASU 2016-09.

Estimated capital spending of between $35 million and $45 million , most of which relates to continued investments in the Company's breweries. This estimate is a narrowing of the previously communicated range of $30 million to $50 million .

Non-GAAP effective tax rate and Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share are not defined terms under U.S. generally accepted accounting principles ("GAAP"). These Non-GAAP measures should not be considered in isolation or as a substitute for diluted earnings per share and effective tax rate data prepared in accordance with GAAP, and may not be comparable to calculations of similarly titled measures by other companies. The Company's projection for its Non-GAAP effective tax rate and Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share exclude the impact of ASU 2016-09, which could be significant and will depend largely upon unpredictable future events outside the Company's control, including the timing and value realized upon exercise of stock options versus the fair value of those options when granted. Therefore, because of the uncertainty and variability of the impact of ASU 2016-09, the Company is unable to provide, without unreasonable effort, a reconciliation of these Non-GAAP measures on a forward-looking basis.

About the Company

The Boston Beer Company, Inc. (NYSE: SAM) began in 1984 and today brews more than 60 styles of Samuel Adams beer. Our portfolio of brands also includes Angry Orchard Hard Cider, Twisted Tea, and Truly Spiked & Sparkling, as well as several other craft beer brands brewed by A&S Brewing, our craft beer incubator. For more information, please visit our investor relations website at www.bostonbeer.com, which includes links to all of our respective brand websites.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements made in this press release that state the Company's or management's intentions, hopes, beliefs, expectations or predictions of the future are forward-looking statements. It is important to note that the Company's actual results could differ materially from those projected in such forward-looking statements. Additional information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained from time to time in the Company's SEC filings, including, but not limited to, the Company's report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016 and subsequent filings made prior to or after the date hereof. Copies of these documents may be found on the Company's website, www.bostonbeer.com, or obtained by contacting the Company or the SEC.

Thursday, July 27, 2017

THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF COMPREHENSIVE INCOME (in thousands, except per share data) (unaudited)

























Thirteen weeks ended

Twenty-six weeks ended





July 1,

June 25,

July 1,

June 25,





2017

2016

2017

2016



















Barrels sold



1,079

1,080

1,786

1,914



















Revenue



$ 264,664

$ 261,225

$ 437,101

$ 463,233 Less excise taxes



16,734

16,409

27,476

29,590 Net revenue



247,930

244,816

409,625

433,643 Cost of goods sold



113,911

117,940

199,262

215,236 Gross profit



134,019

126,876

210,363

218,407 Operating expenses:

















Advertising, promotional and selling expenses



67,831

63,252

121,585

122,501 General and administrative expenses



19,395

21,799

37,957

42,844 Impairment of assets



1,505

37

1,505

37 Total operating expenses



88,731

85,088

161,047

165,382 Operating income



45,288

41,788

49,316

53,025 Other income (expense), net:

















Interest income, net



86

20

170

43 Other income (expense), net



129

(206)

57

(425) Total other income (expense), net



215

(186)

227

(382) Income before income tax provision



45,503

41,602

49,543

52,643 Income tax provision



16,378

14,981

14,707

18,990 Net income



$ 29,125

$ 26,621

$ 34,836

$ 33,653



















Net income per common share - basic



$ 2.38

$ 2.11

$ 2.82

$ 2.65 Net income per common share - diluted



$ 2.35

$ 2.06

$ 2.79

$ 2.58



















Weighted-average number of common shares - Class A basic



9,092

9,181

9,161

9,278 Weighted-average number of common shares - Class B basic



3,097

3,367

3,134

3,367 Weighted-average number of common shares - diluted



12,344

12,830

12,430

12,959



















Net income



$ 29,125

$ 26,621

$ 34,836

$ 33,653 Other comprehensive income:

















Foreign currency translation adjustment



(10)

(88)

(10)

(92) Comprehensive income



$ 29,115

$ 26,533

$ 34,826

$ 33,561

THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (in thousands, except share data) (unaudited)

















July 1,

December 31,





2017

2016











Assets





Current Assets:









Cash and cash equivalents



$ 71,651

$ 91,035 Accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $17 and







$0 as of July 1, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively



51,678

36,694 Inventories



56,331

52,499 Prepaid expenses and other current assets



8,627

8,731 Income tax receivable



2,427

4,928 Total current assets



190,714

193,887











Property, plant and equipment, net



394,525

408,411 Other assets



12,585

9,965 Goodwill



3,683

3,683 Total assets



$ 601,507

$ 615,946











Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity





Current Liabilities:









Accounts payable



$ 45,615

$ 40,585 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities



67,190

60,934 Total current liabilities



112,805

101,519











Deferred income taxes, net



57,286

57,261 Other liabilities



9,752

10,584 Total liabilities



179,843

169,364











Commitments and Contingencies





















Stockholders' Equity:









Class A Common Stock, $.01 par value; 22,700,000 shares authorized;







8,929,757 and 9,170,956 issued and outstanding as of July 1, 2017







and December 31, 2016, respectively



89

92 Class B Common Stock, $.01 par value; 4,200,000 shares authorized;







3,097,355 and 3,197,355 issued and outstanding as of July 1, 2017

31

32 and December 31, 2016, respectively









Additional paid-in capital



368,328

349,913 Accumulated other comprehensive loss, net of tax



(1,093)

(1,103) Retained earnings



54,309

97,648 Total stockholders' equity



421,664

446,582 Total liabilities and stockholders' equity



$ 601,507

$ 615,946













THE BOSTON BEER COMPANY, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASHFLOWS (in thousands) (unaudited)





Twenty-six weeks ended





July 1,

June 25,





2017

2016











Cash flows provided by operating activities:









Net income



$ 34,836

$ 33,653 Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization



25,616

24,473 Impairment of assets



1,505

37 Loss on disposal of property, plant and equipment



22

511 Bad debt expense (recovery)



17

(55) Stock-based compensation expense



3,413

5,741 Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation arrangements



-

(5,840) Deferred income taxes



25

1,375 Changes in operating assets and liabilities:









Accounts receivable



(15,001)

(17,655) Inventories



(6,549)

(4,783) Prepaid expenses, income tax receivable and other assets



2,605

12,394 Accounts payable



8,580

1,005 Accrued expenses and other current liabilities



6,227

6,967 Other liabilities



(254)

(6,504) Net cash provided by operating activities



61,042

51,319











Cash flows used in investing activities:









Purchases of property, plant and equipment



(16,721)

(25,954) Proceeds from disposal of property, plant and equipment



16

- Change in restricted cash



(5)

56 Net cash used in investing activities



(16,710)

(25,898)











Cash flows used in financing activities:









Repurchase of Class A Common Stock



(78,180)

(127,675) Proceeds from exercise of stock options



14,062

29,521 Cash paid on note payable



(60)

(58) Excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation arrangements



-

5,840 Net proceeds from sale of investment shares



462

338 Net cash used in financing activities



(63,716)

(92,034)











Change in cash and cash equivalents



(19,384)

(66,613)











Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year



91,035

94,193











Cash and cash equivalents at end of period



$ 71,651

$ 27,580











Supplemental disclosure of cash flow information:









Income taxes paid



$ 4,812

$ 8,655 Income taxes refunded



$ 2

$ 12,000 (Decrease) Increase in accounts payable for purchase of property, plant and equipment $ (3,550)

$ 870 Decrease in accounts payable for repurchase of Class A Common Stock

$ -

$ (3,000)























Copies of The Boston Beer Company's press releases, including quarterly financial results, are available on the Internet at www.bostonbeer.com

SOURCE The Boston Beer Company, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.bostonbeer.com


HOUSTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation (NYSE: COG) today announced that its Board of Directors declared a regular dividend of five cents ($0.05) per share on the Company's common stock. The dividend will be paid August 24, 2017 to all shareholders of record as of the close of business August 10, 2017.

Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation, headquartered in Houston, Texas is a leading independent natural gas producer, with its entire resource base located in the continental United States. For additional information, visit the Company's homepage at www.cabotog.com.

SOURCE Cabot Oil & Gas Corporation

Related Links

http://www.cabotog.com


OAKLAND, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cal/OSHA today released the following statement affirming that amusement ride owners have voluntarily shut down the six Fire Ball rides in California parks, after a fatal ride malfunction on the Fire Ball in Columbus, at the Ohio State Fair.

Cal/OSHA's Amusement Ride and Tramway Unit contacted owners Wednesday evening after receiving notification of the accident in Ohio, asking that owners close the rides pending word from the manufacturers, KMG or Chance Morgan, Inc./ Chance Rides, Inc., or after a ride inspection by Cal/OSHA. All of the rides have been voluntarily shut down by the owners.

Fire Ball rides are located at six parks across the state, including:

Orange County Fair owned and operated by Ray Cammack Shows (portable ride)

(portable ride) Cal Expo State Fair owned and operated by Butler Amusements (portable ride)

Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk

California's Great America in Santa Clara

Great America in Knott's Berry Farm in Buena Park

in Belmont Park in San Diego

Cal/OSHA protects and improves the safety of passengers riding on elevators, amusement rides, and tramways. Additional information on requirements for portable and permanent amusement rides in California, including inspection and issuance of permits, is detailed online.

Members of the press may contact Erika Monterroza or Peter Melton at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR's press releases or other departmental updates.

The California Department of Industrial Relations, established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. For general inquiries, contact DIR's Communications Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department.

https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDIR

https://twitter.com/CA_DIR

http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaDIR

http://www.dir.ca.gov/email/listsub.asp?choice=1

SOURCE California Department of Industrial Relations, Cal/OSHA
At its core, Carapelli embodies the love of Tuscany and a passion for art, culture and the nourishing nature of Mediterranean cuisine. These new blends leverage the brand's deep knowledge in olive varieties, extensive expertise in organoleptic assessment, and artful skill in combining the different cultivars to get a constant profile. They are crafted through modern adaptation of the Italian Maestro Oleario culture, passing the Carapelli spirit and knowledge from generation to generation, to select the best olive juices to craft olive oil with artistry. To ensure the extra virgin olive oils' physical and sensory characteristics meet the brand's thorough requirements, they are tested twice a day. Carapelli's reverence for the olive and its many contributions to the Mediterranean lifestyle is reflected in every bottle that is produced.

"At Carapelli, we believe that beautiful, purposely crafted extra virgin olive oil is something special for life's creative moments," said Harry Overly, CEO of Deoleo USA, Carapelli's parent company. "With a history of innovation, Carapelli has redefined premium extra virgin olive oils with these two new blends that bring its heritage to life. We celebrate the art of the olive by skillfully combining our oils to create an enlightening experience for the most discerning palate."

Carapelli's two new extra virgin olive oil blends are:

Carapelli Organic Extra Virgin : Crafted from 100 percent organic olives, Carapelli Organic Extra Virgin is a harmonious blend of high quality extra virgin olive oils. It has a fresh, earthy and sweet aroma with a balanced, fruity, and green taste.

: Crafted from 100 percent organic olives, Carapelli Organic Extra Virgin is a harmonious blend of high quality extra virgin olive oils. It has a fresh, earthy and sweet aroma with a balanced, fruity, and green taste. Carapelli Organic Unfiltered Extra Virgin: Made from the first pressing of the entire olive, Carapelli Unfiltered Extra Virgin captures light pulp from the olives, giving the oil its naturally cloudy and rustic appearance. Its aroma is vibrant and spicy with a nutty, peppery and bitter taste.

To guarantee a consistent taste profile, Carapelli conducts annual crop mapping around the world and relies on a carefully selected team of experts to continually adjust each blend's formulations to the targeted taste profile with each production run. The blends are proudly produced in Florence, with extra virgin olive oils sourced primarily from the Mediterranean region, under the watchful palate of a renowned Italian master blender.

Carapelli is dedicated to providing quality olive oil. Both blends are Non-GMO Project Verified and USDA Organic, and exceed rigorous testing standards of the International Olive Council (IOC) and the European Union (EU).

In addition, Carapelli's new bottle pays homage to the brand's rich history and spirit. Apothecary in style, the bottles have an added elegance of spiral groves, dark tinted glass to help protect the oil, and are finished with a cork style pour spout for ease of use.

About Carapelli Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Carapelli, founded in Florence, Italy in 1893, is a leading premium extra virgin olive oil brand that embodies the true renaissance spirit with its premium blends. Utilizing the age-old traditions of Italian Maestro Oleario culture, a deep knowledge in olive varietals and extensive expertise in sensorial assessment, Carapelli celebrates the art of the olive as well as its Tuscan heritage with each unique blend. Carapelli is part of the Deoleo family. Deoleo, the world's leader in sales of bottled olive oil, offers three of olive oil's finest brandsBertolli, Carapelli and Carbonell. Deoleo's mission is to provide premium-quality olive oil which is the foundation of delicious food, good health and enjoyable moments spent with family and friends.

For further information on Carapelli, visit carapelli.com.

SOURCE Carapelli

Related Links

http://www.carapelli.com


CLEVELAND, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In the United States, more children are lost to cancer than any other disease, and one in 285 children will be diagnosed before they turn 20. As one of the nation's leading pediatric cancer researchers, Alex Huang, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics with secondary appointments in pathology, biomedical engineering and general medical sciences at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, focuses on strategies to activate the immune system to fight the disease.

To help advance his pathfinding research, Huang has been awarded a $150,000 St. Baldrick's Foundation Innovation Award. This award provides critical and significant funding to experienced investigators who are developing promising approaches to find causes and cures for childhood cancer.

"There is an urgent need for more effective pediatric cancer treatments," said Huang. "My goal is to continue fighting to find a cure for these children each day."

Huang, who is also the Theresia G. & Stuart F. Kline Family Foundation chair in pediatric oncology and the associate director of pediatric hematology-oncology fellowship program at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, recently conducted a breakthrough study that pinpointed a cell-cycle checkpoint protein which allowed individual brain tumor cells to avoid the immune system. Tumors often mimic healthy cells which allows them to grow undetected, so understanding the mechanism of how tumors evade the immune system is imperative for successful treatment.

Additionally, Huang was selected as a working group member advising the National Cancer Institute on the "moonshot" initiative to cure cancer in May of 2016. The initiative aims to speed current cancer research efforts while improving cancer prevention and early detection. The group developed recommendations for major opportunities in hopes of leading to significant breakthroughs in the fight against cancer, particularly pediatric and adolescent cancers.

The St. Baldrick's Foundation is a volunteer-powered charity committed to funding research to find cures for childhood cancers and give survivors long, healthy lives. The Foundation is the largest private funder of childhood cancer research grants and awarded 90 new grants totaling $23.5 million in its summer grant cycle to support the brightest minds in the pediatric cancer field. Since 2008, the Foundation has provided more than $2 million in funding for researchers at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine and University Hospitals.

For more information about Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, please visit: case.edu/medicine.

For more information about St. Baldrick's Foundation, please visit: stbaldricks.org.

For more information about University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital, please visit rainbow.org

SOURCE Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
HILLSBOROUGH, N.J., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Physicians Endoscopy (PE) along with the physicians of Digestive Healthcare Center are pleased to announce the organizations have finalized a strategic partnership as of June 5, 2017.

PE, the leader in the development and management of GI ambulatory surgery centers, is proud Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center (CJASC) has become its 58th partnered center across the U.S. and seventh in the State of New Jersey.

CJASC is a two-room multi-specialty ambulatory surgery center that opened for operations in 2002. The center currently performs over 8,000 procedures annually. CJASC is licensed by New Jersey Department of Health and accredited by the Accreditation Association for Ambulatory Health Care (AAAHC). CJASC participates in national benchmarking studies to remain in the forefront of quality care and is recognized by the ASGE as part of its program specifically dedicated to promoting quality in endoscopy.

"We are thrilled about our decision to add Physicians Endoscopy as a corporate partner. Our coalition with PE provides the ideal business structure, and we welcome their experience and expertise in addressing a plethora of management, payment, and regulatory challenges in a changing practice environment. We were very impressed with their team throughout our discussions to bring them onboard as a business partner. The flexibility they showed along the way, as well as their concern with maintaining the physician's individuality, was instrumental in solidifying the relationship. PE's geographic coverage in the tristate area should lead to the opportunity of further developing value-based contracts, which already exist in our GI practice, Digestive Healthcare Center. We expect that their involvement as our partners will align our financial interests on multiple levels and allow the physicians to continue delivering excellent healthcare in a value-based world," said Charles Accurso, MD, FACG, Medical Director, CJASC.

"It has been a pleasure working with Dr. Charles Accurso and all the physician partners to bring this joint venture to fruition. The PE team is enthusiastic to embark on this new relationship working collaboratively to achieve even higher goals. While the center has been successful for many years, the owners have put their trust in a proven business partner to help support operations, reduce costs, and implement strategic planning for the next several years as healthcare continues to change." Carol Stopa, SVP Business Development, PE.

MORE INFORMATION

Physicians Endoscopy is a nationally recognized development and management partner for GI-focused ambulatory surgery centers. The company currently operates 58 partnered facilities in 15 states with 23 different hospital systemsbuilding collaborative, long-term relationships with physicians that positively impact the center, patients, and the bottom line. For more information, visit www.endocenters.com or contact (866) 240-9496.



Central Jersey Ambulatory Surgical Center offers patients the most up-to-date surgical procedures combined with a kind and empathetic staff. Patient health and safety is a primary concern. They pride themselves on being recognized by the ASGE as an ambulatory surgical center that offers quality in endoscopic procedures. CJASC routinely tracks several quality measures recommended by the American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE) including fecal intubation rates, adenoma detection rates, and withdrawal time. The Physicians are considered leaders in quality reporting and developing value based contracts. For more information, visit http://www.cjasc.com/.

Media Contact:

Carol Stopa

(215) 589-9018

SOURCE Physicians Endoscopy

Related Links

http://www.endocenters.com


HARRISBURG, Pa., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Centric Financial Corporation, Inc. ("Centric") (OTC Pink: CFCX), the holding company for Centric Bank, reported unaudited results for the first six months of 2017 of $2,006,000 in net income, an 85% increase over the $1,087,000 reported for the same period 2016. Net income for the second quarter 2017 increased 74% to $1,225,000 over the same quarter for 2016. Net income per share for the quarter ended June 30, 2017 was $.19 as compared to $.11 for the same period in 2016. Earnings per share for the period ended June 30, 2017 was $.32 for the first six months of 2017, up $.15 over the same period 2016.

"The acceleration of our double-digit loan growth, specifically commercial loans to small business and commercial real estate, is the result of our team's efforts in the markets we serve and a strong indication of small business optimism. We continue to answer the call for entrepreneurs and owners and provide access to capital for the job creators. Today, we have crested a half-billion in assets with four financial centers, two loan production offices, over 110 employees, and Doctor Centric Bank, our concierge banking subsidiaryall serving central Pennsylvania, suburban Philadelphia, Lehigh Valley, and western New Jersey. We remain a leader in SBA lending in the Commonwealth," says Patricia A. (Patti) Husic, President & CEO of Centric Bank and Centric Financial Corporation. "By nearly every measure, we are shattering expectations with record-breaking organic loan growth and one of the finest teams in the banking industry."

Total assets boasted $525 million at June 30, 2017, a robust increase of $104 million, or 25% from the same period ended in 2016; total loans grew by $96 million, or 26%, to $464 million at June 30, 2017. Loan growth for the 12 months ended June 30, 2017 was a result of the increase in commercial loans of $44 million, a 62% increase, and commercial real estate loans of $48 million, a 19% increase.



Total deposits were $460 million at June 30, 2017, an increase of $110 million, or 32% over the same period end 2016. Non-interest bearing deposits are 17% of total deposits at June 30, 2017, a ratio that has been steadily climbing.

Net interest income increased 42% to $9,473,000 from $6,694,000 for the same period due to increased loan originations, while the provision for loan losses increased $205,000 over 2016 due to robust loan growth. The asset quality ratio of non-performing assets as a percentage of total assets continues to improve to .32% at June 30, 2017, a reduction from 0.53% for the same period end 2016, a reflection of our pristine asset quality.

Tangible book value increased to $6.17 per share, an increase of $0.18 over last quarter end and $0.59 over June 30, 2016. Return on average assets for the second quarter 2017 increased to .95% from .70% at the same quarter year prior; net interest margin improved by 39 basis points, increasing to 3.98%; and the efficiency ratio improved to 61.9% from 67.2% over the same periods respectively.

"We are privileged to finance the men and women who power our economy by putting people to work. Celebrating our tenth year in banking, we remain dedicated to delivering the finest customer service in the industry. Every commercial loan, every small business relationship, and every mortgage account allows us to bring purpose and prosperity to the communities we serve," says Husic.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS (unaudited)

























Consolidated Balance Sheet

At Period End









Jun 30, Mar 31, Jun 30,





(Dollars in thousands)

2017 2017 2016





Assets













Cash and cash equivalents

$ 29,326 $ 30,381 $ 15,798





Other investments

17,069 17,353 22,763





Loans, net of allowance for loan and lease losses 458,767 442,874 364,612





Premises and equipment

6,560 6,687 6,983





Accrued interest receivable

1,182 1,150 882





Other assets

11,606 11,683 9,676





Total Assets

$ 524,510 $ 510,128 $ 420,714





















Liabilities













Deposits - Noninterest-bearing

77,260 59,270 53,212





Deposits - Interest-bearing

381,321 369,663 295,159





Total deposits

458,581 428,933 348,371





Short-term borrowings

2,000 22,000 25,000





Long-term debt

22,410 18,642 10,206





Accrued interest payable

144 145 117





Other liabilities

1,579 1,899 1,321





Total Liabilities

484,714 471,619 385,015





Total Shareholders' Equity

39,796 38,509 35,699





Total Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity

$ 524,510 $ 510,128 $ 420,714





















Consolidated Statement of Income

Three months ended

Six months ended



Jun 30, Mar 31, Jun 30,

Jun 30, Jun 30, (Dollars in thousands)

2017 2017 2016

2017 2016 Interest income













Interest and dividends on securities

$ 135 $ 127 $ 151

$ 262 $ 303 Interest and fees on loans

5,627 5,202 3,955

10,829 7,663 Other

62 29 36

91 72 Total interest income

5,824 5,358 4,142

11,182 8,038 Interest expense













Interest on deposits

707 653 539

1,360 1,071 Interest on borrowings

203 146 139

349 273 Total interest expense

910 799 678

1,709 1,344 Net interest income

4,914 4,559 3,464

9,473 6,694 Provision for loan losses

380 435 410

815 610 Net interest income after provision expense

4,534 4,124 3,054

8,658 6,084 Noninterest income

1,011 558 1,106

1,569 1,561 Noninterest expense

3,729 3,540 3,131

7,269 6,076 Income before taxes

1,816 1,142 1,029

2,958 1,569 Income tax expense

591 361 324

952 482 Net income available to common shareholders 1,225 781 705

2,006 1,087















Per Share Data













Net income - basic (period to date)

$ 0.19 $ 0.12 $ 0.11

$ 0.32 $ 0.17 Book value (at period end)

$ 6.25 $ 6.07 $ 5.65





Tangible book value (at period end)

$ 6.17 $ 5.99 $ 5.58





Close price (at period end)

$ 7.75 $ 8.25 $ 12.00





Close price /book value ratio

124.0% 135.9% 212.4%





Average shares outstanding - basic (period to date) 6,350,937 6,348,640 6,313,075

6,349,833 6,310,941















Financial Ratios













Shareholders' equity/asset ratio

7.59% 7.55% 8.49%





Return on average assets (period to date)

0.95% 0.65% 0.70%

0.80% 0.55% Return on average equity (period to date)

12.51% 8.21% 8.00%

10.39% 6.22% Net charge-offs/average loans (period to date) -0.05% 0.06% 0.24%

0.005% 0.13% Nonperforming assets/total assets

0.32% 0.40% 0.53%





Allowance for loan & leases losses as a % of loans 1.15% 1.09% 1.00%





Allowance for loan & leases losses/nonaccrual loans 876.09% 716.41% 347.21%







ABOUT CENTRIC FINANCIAL CORPORATION AND CENTRIC BANK

A three-time Best Places to Work and named a Top 50 Fastest-Growing Companies for five years, Centric Bank is headquartered in south central Pennsylvania with assets of $525 million and remains the leader in organic loan growth in central Pennsylvania. A locally owned, locally loaned community bank, Centric Bank provides highly competitive and pro-growth financial services to businesses, professionals, individuals, families, and the health care and agricultural industries. Centric Bank was named a Top 100 SBA 7(a) lender in the United States in 2016 and ranks #2 in approved SBA 7(a) loans in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.



Founded in 2007, Pennsylvania-based Centric Bank has financial centers located in Harrisburg, Hershey, Mechanicsburg, and Camp Hill, and loan production offices in Lancaster and suburban Philadelphia. To learn more about Centric Bank, call 717.657.7727 or visit CentricBank.com. Connect with them on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn.

Safe Harbor Statement

Except for historical information contained herein, the matters discussed in this release are forward-looking statements. Investors are cautioned that all forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainty. Because of these risks and uncertainties, our actual future results may be materially different from the results indicated by these forward looking statements. In addition, our past results of operations do not necessarily indicate our future results. We undertake no obligation to publicly update or otherwise revise any forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

Contact: Anne Deeter Gallaher

Tel. 717.580.4856

[email protected]

SOURCE Centric Financial Corporation, Inc.
Today's artificial intelligence revolution is powered by a technique known as "deep learning." Although this approach performs outstandingly well, it has one major drawback: it's extremely data hungry. But not just any type of data will do, today's systems require refined, human-annotated data. Just like a parched castaway who might exasperatingly look towards the ocean to quench his or her thirst, computer scientists have been frustratingly looking to the vast sea of data on the Internet to satisfy the demands of deep learning. But just as one cannot drink from the ocean directly without desalination, today's popular deep learning algorithms too cannot intake web data directly without refinement by human-annotation - a slow, expensive and laborious process.

For years, the ImageNet dataset has been used as a benchmark for evaluating computer vision algorithms at large scale. It's labor intensive effort is notable: it took nearly 50,000 people over two years to annotate its millions of images. Based on this dataset, the ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge (ILSVRC) was created for testing the latest and greatest computer vision algorithms  by challenging the computer to classify an unforeseen image into 1,000 different common categories, from dogs to airplanes.

In 2017, the ImageNet challenge was retired. A successor has arrived  named WebVision  held in conjunction with the premier academic conference in the computer vision field called CVPR, organized and supported by ETH Zurich, Google and CMU. The WebVision challenge also tasks a computer program to categorize images into the same 1,000 categories as the ImageNet challenge; however, it has one major difference. Unlike the "clean" data (human-annotated and balanced) of ImageNet, the WebVision challenge uses "noisy" data (no additional annotation or balancing by people) from the web. Specifically, the WebVision dataset contains 2.4 million of images, and accompanied raw metadata, crawled from the Flickr website and Google Images search  and provided to algorithms for testing as-is, e.g. no human-annotated refinement or editing done.

At the CVPR conference, the WebVision 2017 Challenge results were announced: the first prize winner was Malong Technologies. The team at Malong put forth a "semi-supervised" deep learning algorithm capable of consuming large-scale noisy data and producing results that bested all competitors by a large-margin, even reaching performance on par with human beings on the same classification task.

Malong's performance reached 94.78% accuracy. For reference, human performance has been measured between 94% to 94.9% on the same task. Malong Technologies bested more than 100 competitors from around the world, including a team from Snap Inc., which finished third. The second-place winner achieved 92.25%, which puts Malong ahead by over 2.5 points, a wide-margin in the deep learning community.

Malong has incorporated this core technology broadly across their offerings such as ProductAI.com, a "RetailAI" product recognition cloud platform which can enable any business or developer to visually recognize (search and tag) products including fashion, furniture, textiles, cars, wine and more for online e-commerce and offline in-store or IoT scenarios. The company also offers microscopic and x-ray level product recognition for manufacturing quality checking and bagging scanning scenarios. Their technical breakthrough in semi-supervised learning enables the company to provide their customers with higher accuracy than what the market currently offers by being able to train larger scale models by leveraging the massive abundance of noisy web data --- now the new fuel for deep learning.

The company also intends to contribute back to the research community by releasing more information about their technique through scientific publications at world-class computer vision conferences and journals. Malong plans to keep researching and advancing the state-of-the-art in semi-supervised large-scale deep learning going forward.

Established in 2014, Malong consists of former staff of Microsoft Research, Google and Oxford's VGG. They just won a new G20 contest for entrepreneurs in Germany three weeks ago. They have more than $10m in venture funding, and received backing from Microsoft Ventures Accelerator. The company has a joint AI research lab with Tsinghua University and offices in Shenzhen and Beijing, China. Malong's vision is to transform traditional industries with AI, beginning with retail, manufacturing, and security, to enable higher efficiency, quality, and a safer world.

For more information contact:

Tiffany Hu

+86-130-5131-3630

[email protected]

www.productai.com

Official WebVision Challenge results:

http://www.vision.ee.ethz.ch/webvision/challenge_results.html

SOURCE Malong Technologies Co., Ltd.
LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cindat Capital Management announced today that John Stasinos has joined the company as Managing Director and will focus on the firm's Healthcare Real Estate Practice Area. Mr. Stasinos will be based in Los Angeles.

Mr. Stasinos' most recent post was as Executive Vice President-International at HCP, Inc. As the head of HCP's international portfolio, he led a team that sourced and asset managed HCP's approximately $1 billion portfolio in the UK. During Mr. Stasinos' thirteen-and-a-half-year tenure at HCP, he played a key role in all the major transactions that HCP completed both in the US and internationally.

"We are thrilled that John has joined our organization. With his deep knowledge and relationships within the US and international market for healthcare real estate, John will help us tremendously to realize our vision of assembling a high-quality portfolio on a global basis," said Greg Peng, Cindat's Chief Executive Officer.

"I couldn't be any happier to join Cindat," said Mr. Stasinos. "I look forward to helping grow the healthcare franchise and, more importantly, working alongside the extremely talented and experienced management team that is in place today."

Mr. Stasinos graduated in 2002 with an MBA from the Stanford Graduate School of Business; was a Fulbright Scholar; and earned his undergraduate degree in 1996 in Economics and History with High Honors and Distinction from Stanford University.

About Cindat

Cindat Capital Management Ltd. ("Cindat") is a private equity firm established to guide and safeguard Chinese capital in their overseas investments, as well as to advise and help manage overseas capital in their investments in China. Cindat has in-depth knowledge of different asset classes and specializes in identifying opportunities at various parts of the real estate cycle. Its investments overseas cover a wide range of asset types, including residential developments, office properties, hotels and seniors housing, providing its investors a full range of investment alternatives and return profiles. With offices in Beijing, Shanghai, New York and Los Angeles, Cindat is committed to becoming the world's leading private equity platform for Chinese capital in its overseas real estate investment, as well as for international capital's inbound investment in China.

Contact

New York: Ryan Levine, [email protected], +1 212 471 9696

Beijing: Y.C. Lam, [email protected], +86 10 5796 2068

SOURCE Cindat Capital Management
Despite the large number of firms engaged, Pincus is only required to submit his own bills to the Judge. "Custodian Robert Pincus is spending millions of dollars unchecked without any oversight," said Chris Coffey, Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware. "Custodian Pincus is not serving TransPerfect, he is serving himself. It is clear that the companies he hires for this job will hire him in the future. The old-boys club prevails yet again, while TransPerfect employees suffer an increase in healthcare costs and go to work everyday scared for their jobs."

Despite Judge Bouchard's recent recommendation for mediation, Custodian Pincus has moved forward with the sale of the company. CPBD's advertisement calls on Delaware residents to email Pincus and tell him to either allow the mediation process to work or give state lawmakers time to pass the TransPerfect bill. "Pincus's actions undermine the legislative and legal process, putting Delaware's $1.4 billion incorporation industry at risk. We call not only on Pincus but every firm engaged to return the money and respect the process," said Coffey, CPBD.

This advertisement is one of many CPBD has planned to place in the coming week. CPBD will place TV, digital, print and radio advertisements in key media outlets throughout the state. "We will not stand idly by while large corporations profit on the backs of hard working employees. We will keep fighting for our members, for TransPerfect employees and for the residents of Delaware who depend on the incorporation industry to fund critical public services throughout the state," said Coffey, CPBD.

The full print advertisement is attached. The TV ad is viewable below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8uL84wozt6U&feature=youtu.be

Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware is a group made up of more than 2,200 members including employees of the global translation services company TransPerfect as well as concerned Delaware residents, business executives and others. It formed in April of 2016 to focus on raising awareness with Delaware residents, elected officials, and other stakeholders about these issues.

For more information on Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware visit DelawareForBusiness.org.

Contact: Sloane Whelan, [email protected]

SOURCE Citizens for a Pro-Business Delaware

Related Links

http://www.DelawareForBusiness.org


"We are proud to be the new owners of Oyster Creek," Civitas founder and CEO Wayne Powell said. "Oyster Creek's top-rated Memory Care and engaging Assisted Living programs align perfectly with Civitas' mission of Passionate Service, Passionate Cleanliness and Passionate Care. It's a winning combination."

"The need to provide loving and evidence-based care for residents with a dementia or dementia-type diagnosis is growing exponentially as the Baby Boomer generation enters their golden years. Oyster Creek now joins the list of cutting edge Memory Care communities within the Civitas family. These communities provide the right care for our residents and support for our families through programs like Age-U-Cate's Dementia Live trainings and simulations. It is a need we are passionate about meeting in all the areas where Civitas has a senior living center."

The Assisted Living community at Oyster Creek features three floor plans, an engaging activity program, routine housekeeping and laundry service, transportation services and customizable dining services including private dining arrangements for special events. The Memory Care Community at Oyster Creek offers customized service plans based on resident needs and a variety of housing accommodations. Options include private rooms, studio and one-bedroom apartments and companion suites.

Oyster Creek has now become part of the growing portfolio of properties owned and managed by Civitas.

Oyster Creek Assisted Living and Memory Care is located at 3505 FM 1092 in Missouri City, Texas and is currently leasing. To learn more about Oyster Creek, please call (281) 261-1217 or visit http://oystercreek-al.com

About Civitas Senior Living, LLC

Civitas Senior Living is a Fort Worth, Texas-based management company that specializes in development, acquisitions, operational management, and consulting for senior housing properties, including assisted living, retirement centers, and independent senior living properties. For more information about Civitas, please visit www.CivitasSeniorLiving.com, or call 817.386.8888. www.passionseniorliving.com

CONTACT:

Andrea Owen

Civitas Senior Living

817-386-8888

[email protected]

SOURCE Civitas Senior Living

Related Links

http://www.CivitasSeniorLiving.com


EUGENE, Ore., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- College Choice, a leading authority in college and university rankings and resources, has published rankings of the 35 Best Online Master's in Criminal Justice Degrees.

http://www.collegechoice.net/rankings/top-online-masters-criminal-justice/

Master's degrees in criminal justice will require specialization beyond the general training in your bachelor's program, and most schools will boast strengths in one or more particular areas. Criminal justice graduate students often choose to earn a degree specialization in niche areas like homeland security, behavioral science, or forensic technology. Many online criminal justice master's degree programs culminate in a thesis paper or capstone project, giving students the opportunity to demonstrate the new knowledge and skills they have gained.

"The changing face of public safety means lots of opportunity for criminal justice professionals," Christian Amondson, Managing Editor of College Choice, said of the ranking. "As new and different threats arise, people with the prestige and training of a master's degree have the potential to make a real, positive impact for the safety of their communities."

College Choice developed its list by looking at academic quality, institutional reputation, program accreditation, along with return on investmentthe differential between tuition costs and average early career earnings. Data comes from US News & World Report, the National Center for Education Statistics, and Payscale.

The ranking for the 35 Best Online Master's in Criminal Justice Degrees finds Michigan State University in the top spot. Arizona State University is in second, and Sam Houston State University rounds out the top three.

The entire ranking, listed in alphabetical order, is as follows:

Arizona State University

Boston University

Bowling Green State University

California State University - San Bernardino

California University of Pennsylvania

College of Saint Elizabeth

Colorado State University - Global Campus

Columbia College

East Carolina University

Faulkner University

Florida International University

Florida State University

Indiana University of Pennsylvania

Jacksonville State University

Lamar University

Michigan State University

National University

Nova Southeastern University

Pace University

Regis University

Rowan University

Sam Houston State University

University of Alaska Fairbanks

University of California - Irvine

University of Cincinnati

University of Colorado

University of Louisville

University of Nebraska - Omaha

University of New Haven

University of North Texas

University of Oklahoma

University of the Cumberlands

University of Wisconsin - Platteville

Wayne State University

Western Kentucky University

College Choice is an independent online publication dedicated to helping students and their families find the right college. The site publishes rankings and reviews that make finding the best colleges for different interests easier and more fun, as well as resources to help students get into, pay for, and thrive at the college of their choice.

Contact:

Christian Amondson, Managing Editor, College Choice

Web: http://collegechoice.net

Email: [email protected]

Phone: (541) 255-3801

SOURCE College Choice

Related Links

http://www.collegechoice.net


COLTS NECK, N.J., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ComplyAssistant and Sensato, both located in New Jersey, form a strategic alliance to provide information security solutions to the healthcare industry. The combined solutions offer healthcare organizations of all sizes a comprehensive approach for managing risk to their protected health and business confidential information.

ComplyAssistant

"We are excited to announce this alliance with Sensato," says Gerry Blass, President & CEO of ComplyAssistant. "We have been working with Sensato for some time now with great results, and so the timing is right to announce our combined solutions. Together we can provide a holistic solution for security risk assessments and management and help organizations to reduce risk of harm from avoidable incidents."

"So many of the approaches embraced in the world of cybersecurity are based on practices that were relevant in 2010. One of our key guiding principles at Sensato, is to do all we can to advance cybersecurity tools and practices in an effective manner," stated Kate Macaleer, SVP of Operations for Sensato. "In that regard, we wanted a risk management partner that can provide a solution based on today's threat landscape, while being practical and comprehensive. ComplyAssistant not only met all our criteria, but so much more. We believe our clients will be very excited to see how the combination of Sensato and ComplyAssistant will be working to propel the world of healthcare cybersecurity forward."

About ComplyAssistant

ComplyAssistant provides healthcare compliance software and healthcare compliance consulting solutions. The software is a compliance management cloud portal that provides guidance, organization, collaboration alerts, and notifications for more effective management and documentation of healthcare compliance activities.

About Sensato

Sensato is top-500 cybersecurity innovator located in Red Bank, New Jersey. Founded in 2013, Sensato provides risk assessment, penetration testing, security operations, executive guidance and software to its fans. Primarily focused on healthcare, Sensato also works with the government, department of defense, finance and critical infrastructure industries. Visit http://www.sensato.co

To learn more about this alliance contact Gerry Blass, President & CEO of ComplyAssistant at 800-609-3414 ext. 700 or [email protected], and Kate Macaleer, SVP of Operations, Sensato at [email protected].

SOURCE ComplyAssistant
ROCKVILLE, Md., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Say it three times fast: "Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats" Or better known as CRISPR. This gene-editing technology will be a key feature of the world's largest gathering of lab pathologies and the vendors that service them, according to research firm Kalorama Information. There is a $28 billion market for CRISPR according to the firm's report. Kalorama has covered the American Association for Clinical Chemistry meeting for a decade and a half and notes this important development as a sign that gene editing is reaching mainstream testing.

Experts predict the first attempt to treat people will be for blood-related diseases. The idea is to use CRISPR in a way similar to a bone marrow transplant, but to correct someone's own blood-producing cells rather than implanting donated ones. Medicine aside, another issue is environmental: altering insects or plants in a way that ensures they pass genetic changes through wild populations as they reproduce. These engineered "gene drives" are in very early stage research, too, but one day might be used to eliminate invasive plants, make it harder for mosquitoes to carry malaria or even spread a defect that gradually kills off the main malaria-carrying species.

The 2017 AACC Clinical Lab Expo will take place at the San Diego Convention Center, July 30August 3, and according to the organization, is the premier international forum for presenting groundbreaking advances in laboratory medicine. Kalorama Publisher Bruce Carlson will attend the meeting. The 69th AACC Annual Scientific Meeting will heavily feature gene editing technologies such as CRISPR with a talk by CRISPR co-inventor Jennifer Doudna, PhD, on the future of genome engineering with this revolutionary tool, as well as a plenary on the clinical lab's critical role in combating the antibiotic resistance crisis.

Other lectures will feature winning team of the Qualcomm Tricorder XPRIZE competition, Final Frontier Medical Devices, will present its real-life Star Trek tricorder for the first time at a U.S. scientific conference. The mobile health device, called DxtER, weighs no more than five pounds and is designed to enable consumers to monitor five real-time health vital signs and diagnose 34 diseasesand all without the help of a clinician. Final Frontier Medical Devices team member Philip Charron will discuss the technological innovations behind DxtER and answer questions from meeting attendees, who have the expertise needed to assess the science of DxtER and its potential impact on patient care.

The meeting of more than 750 exhibitors will display pioneering diagnostic technology at the 2017 AACC Clinical Lab Expo, including the latest in mobile health, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, point-of-care, and automation. Top companies in the in vitro diagnostic market with large presence at this meeting include: Roche Diagnostics, Abbott Diagnostics, Siemens Healthineers, Danaher (and subsidiary companies Cepheid and Beckman Coulter), bioMerieux, Bio-Rad, Luminex, Sysmex, DiaSorin, Tosoh, Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Seegene, Thermo Fischer and hundreds of other companies.

Kalorama Information's report, Gene Editing Markets, examines in detail these technologies, as well as the global industry, its structure and major trends affecting it, and provides revenue forecasts by technology, product type, application area, and geographic regions. Profiles of various competitors in this industry are also included in this report. The report can be found at: http://www.kaloramainformation.com/Gene-Editing-CRISPR-10347331/?productid=10347331.

About Kalorama Information

Kalorama Information, a division of MarketResearch.com, supplies the latest in independent medical market research in diagnostics, biotech, pharmaceuticals, medical devices and healthcare, as well as a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased through Kalorama's website and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com.

We routinely assist the media with healthcare topics. Follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and our blog on our company website.

Please link any media or news references to our reports or data to http://www.kaloramainformation.com/.

Press Contact:

Bruce Carlson

212 807 2262

[email protected]

SOURCE Kalorama Information

Related Links

http://www.kaloramainformation.com


CHICAGO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- As the Croatian coast is registering another record tourism summer, Olive Tree Escapes (https://otescapes.com/), a Chicago-based bespoke luxury travel company, unveils the most popular 2017 travel destinations in Croatia.

Hvar, Croatia

With its culture and tradition, fine and vibrant nightlife, pristine beaches, lavish nature and gourmet food and wine, Croatia has been the rising star of the travel scene for the past five years and its popularity doesn't seem to stop. According to Total Croatia News, the first six months of 2017 brought 5.7 million tourists and 22.9 million overnight stays, this before peak season has started.

The most popular destinations for summer vacations based on bookings:

Split, home of the famous Diocletian Palace, has seen a rise in popularity and bookings thanks to the HBO TV series Game of Thrones. The ancient palace built for the Emperor Diocletian in the fourth century AD, is one of Croatia's filming locations of the fantasy series. Hvar, the renowned island located off the Dalmatian Coast, is the VIP hotspot of Croatian summers. Considered one of the best islands in Europe by the Huffington Post, Hvar has recently been listed as one of the world's top ten islands by a survey reader of Travel + Leisure. Mali Losinj, a town on the Croatian island of Losinj, in the northern Adriatic Sea, is slowly becoming popular because of its gorgeous turquoise waters and excellent 5-star hotels like Alhambra and Bellevue .

"As a Croatian I have always advocated for the beauty of this destination but thanks to the sensational press coverage that Croatia has been receiving in the past few years, travelers are more and more aware of what the country has to offer and come to me knowing what they want," says Maja Gudelj, Senior Director of Croatia Travel at Olive Tree Escapes. "Split, Hvar, and Mali Losinj have seen more requests by our clients this season, and despite the popularity of these destinations, we aim to design unique and local experiences to discover the real essence of the country."

Olive Tree Escapes is specialized in designing unique trips tailored to individual needs and interests: from exclusive properties to hand-picked boutique hotels; private cooking classes held by local chefs to fine wine tastings in the most suggestive landscapes across Italy and Croatia.

For further information about the company's custom trip planning service , visit otescapes.com; or to schedule an interview with Maja Gudelj, send an email to [email protected].

Press Contact:

Beatrice Sartori

Olive Tree Escapes

877-272-2310

[email protected]

About Olive Tree Escapes

Olive Tree Escapes has brought together a team of experts with over 30 years of experience in the travel industry, specialized in designing customized upscale itineraries to Italy, Croatia, Slovenia, and Montenegro.

SOURCE Olive Tree Escapes

Related Links

https://otescapes.com


SUGAR LAND, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- CVR Partners, LP (NYSE: UAN), a manufacturer of ammonia and urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) solution fertilizer products, today announced a second quarter 2017 net loss of $3.5 million, or 3 cents per common unit, on net sales of $97.9 million, compared to a net loss of $17.0 million, or 15 cents per common unit, on net sales of $119.8 million for the second quarter a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP financial measure, was $32.3 million for the second quarter of 2017, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $29.1 million for the second quarter of 2016.

For the first six months of 2017, CVR Partners had a net loss of $13.8 million, or 12 cents per common unit, on net sales of $183.2 million, compared to net income of $1.0 million, or 1 cent per common unit, on net sales of $192.9 million for the comparable period a year earlier. Adjusted EBITDA for the first six months of 2017 was $53.1 million, compared to adjusted EBITDA of $57.0 million for the first six months of 2016.

CVR Partners' results include the results of the East Dubuque fertilizer facility beginning April 1, 2016.

"The East Dubuque fertilizer facility continued to achieve high on-stream rates during the 2017 second quarter, with the ammonia plant posting a record on-stream rate of 100 percent," said Mark Pytosh, chief executive officer. "The gasification and ammonia plants at our Coffeyville facility operated at on-stream rates above 98 percent, however, we experienced approximately 11 days of downtime in the UAN plant related to outages at Linde's air separation facility.

"Nitrogen fertilizer pricing continues to be impacted by additional production, particularly in the United States. In the U.S., we saw a marked decrease in imported nitrogen product as the spring progressed," Pytosh said. "The last of the large U.S. capacity expansions is expected to come online and enter production during the third quarter and trade flows have been adjusting to the new capacity. While the market completes this transition, we will continue to focus on operating our plants at high on-stream rates, maximizing our marketing and logistics efforts and prudently managing costs and capital spending."

Consolidated Operations

For the second quarter of 2017, consolidated average realized gate prices for UAN and ammonia were $174 per ton and $333 per ton, respectively. Consolidated average realized gate prices for UAN and ammonia were $199 per ton and $417 per ton, respectively, for the same period in 2016.

CVR Partners' fertilizer facilities produced a combined 215,300 tons of ammonia during the second quarter of 2017, of which 77,500 net tons were available for sale while the rest was upgraded to other fertilizer products, including 313,800 tons of UAN. In the 2016 second quarter, the fertilizer facilities produced 171,500 tons of ammonia, of which 45,600 net tons were available for sale while the remainder was upgraded to other fertilizer products, including 296,500 tons of UAN.

Distributions

CVR Partners will not pay a cash distribution for the 2017 second quarter. CVR Partners is a variable distribution master limited partnership. As a result, its quarterly distributions, if any, will vary from quarter to quarter due to several factors, including, but not limited to, its operating performance, fluctuations in the prices received for its finished products, maintenance capital expenditures, and cash reserves deemed necessary or appropriate by the board of directors of its general partner.

2017 Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call

CVR Partners previously announced that it will host its 2017 second quarter Earnings Conference Call for analysts and investors on Thursday, July 27, at 11 a.m. Eastern. The Earnings Conference Call may also include discussion of the Partnership's developments, forward-looking information and other material information about business and financial matters.

The Earnings Conference Call will be broadcast live over the Internet at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1004/21796. For investors or analysts who want to participate during the call, the dial-in number is (877) 407-8029.

For those unable to listen live, the webcast will be archived and available for 14 days at https://www.webcaster4.com/Webcast/Page/1004/21796. A repeat of the conference call can be accessed by dialing (877) 660-6853, conference ID 13666027.

This release serves as a qualified notice to nominees and brokers as provided for under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1446-4(b). Please note that 100 percent of CVR Partners' distributions to foreign investors are attributable to income that is effectively connected with a United States trade or business. Accordingly, CVR Partners' distributions to foreign investors are subject to federal income tax withholding at the highest effective tax rate.

Forward-Looking Statements

This news release contains forward-looking statements. You can generally identify forward-looking statements by our use of forward-looking terminology such as "outlook," "anticipate," "believe," "continue," "could," "estimate," "expect," "intend," "may," "might," "plan," "potential," "predict," "seek," "should," or "will," or the negative thereof or other variations thereon or comparable terminology. These forward-looking statements are only predictions and involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control. For a discussion of risk factors which may affect our results, please see the risk factors and other disclosures included in our most recent Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequently filed Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q and our other SEC filings. These risks may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to differ materially from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by these forward-looking statements. Given these risks and uncertainties, you are cautioned not to place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date hereof. CVR Partners disclaims any intention or obligation to update publicly or revise its forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except to the extent required by law.

About CVR Partners, LP

Headquartered in Sugar Land, Texas, CVR Partners, LP is a Delaware limited partnership focused on the production, marketing and distribution of nitrogen fertilizer products. It primarily produces urea ammonium nitrate (UAN) and ammonia, which are predominantly used by farmers to improve the yield and quality of their crops. CVR Partners' Coffeyville, Kansas, nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facility includes a 1,300 ton-per-day ammonia unit, a 3,000 ton-per-day UAN unit and a dual-train gasifier complex having a capacity of 89 million standard cubic feet per day of hydrogen. CVR Partners' East Dubuque, Illinois, nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facility includes a 1,075 ton-per-day ammonia unit and a 1,100 ton-per-day UAN unit.

For further information, please contact:

Investor Contact:

Jay Finks

CVR Partners, LP

(281) 207-3588

[email protected]

Media Relations:

Brandee Stephens

CVR Partners, LP

(281) 207-3516

[email protected]

CVR Partners, LP

Financial and Operational Data (all information in this release is unaudited other than the balance sheet data as of December 31, 2016). On April 1, 2016, CVR Partners, LP (the "Partnership") completed the merger (the "East Dubuque Merger") whereby the Partnership acquired a nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facility located in East Dubuque, Illinois (the "East Dubuque Facility"). The consolidated financial statements and key operating metrics include the results of the East Dubuque Facility beginning on April 1, 2016, the date of the closing of the acquisition.





































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

















(in millions, except unit data) Consolidated Statements of Operations Data:















Net sales (1) $ 97.9



$ 119.8



$ 183.2



$ 192.9

















Cost of materials and other - Affiliates 1.6



0.5



3.8



1.4

Cost of materials and other - Third parties 20.5



35.5



40.1



51.0

Direct operating expenses - Affiliates (2) 1.0



1.2



1.8



2.1

Direct operating expenses - Third parties (2) 36.8



53.0



71.9



75.8

Depreciation and amortization 20.0



17.6



35.4



24.5

Cost of sales 79.9



107.8



153.0



154.8

Selling, general and administrative expenses - Affiliates (3) 3.6



3.9



7.5



7.4

Selling, general and administrative expenses - Third parties (3) 2.2



4.4



5.2



7.3

Operating income 12.2



3.7



17.5



23.4

Interest expense and other financing costs (15.7)



(15.5)



(31.4)



(17.2)

Loss on extinguishment of debt 



(5.1)







(5.1)

Other income, net 







0.1





Income (loss) before income tax expense (3.5)



(16.9)



(13.8)



1.1

Income tax expense 



0.1







0.1

Net income (loss) $ (3.5)



$ (17.0)



$ (13.8)



$ 1.0

















Net income (loss) per common unit - basic and diluted $ (0.03)



$ (0.15)



$ (0.12)



$ 0.01

















Adjusted EBITDA* $ 32.3



$ 29.1



$ 53.1



$ 57.0

Available cash for distribution* $ 



$ 19.7



$ 1.8



$ 50.4

















Weighted average common units outstanding - basic and diluted (in thousands) 113,283



113,283



113,283



93,206



________________________________ * See "Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

(1) Below are the components of net sales:





































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

















(in millions) Reconciliation to net sales:













Fertilizer sales net at gate $ 87.6



$ 103.3



$ 163.6



$ 168.1

Freight in revenue 8.2



8.7



15.3



15.6

Hydrogen revenue 



0.5



0.1



1.6

Other, including the impact of purchase accounting 2.1



7.3



4.2



7.6

Total net sales $ 97.9



$ 119.8



$ 183.2



$ 192.9











(2) Direct operating expenses are reflected exclusive of depreciation and amortization.



(3) The Partnership incurred legal and other professional fees and other merger related expenses that are referred to herein as expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger, which are included in selling, general and administrative expenses. The Partnership incurred approximately $1.2 million and $2.5 million, respectively, of expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.





















As of

June 30,

2017

As of

December 31,

2016





(audited)

(in millions) Balance Sheet Data:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 51.7



$ 55.6

Working capital 87.9



71.5

Total assets 1,280.6



1,312.2

Total debt, net of current portion 624.5



623.1

Total partners' capital 608.9



624.9







































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

















(in millions) Cash Flow Data:













Net cash flow provided by (used in):













Operating activities $ (23.0)



$ 5.5



$ 7.0



$ 29.1

Investing activities (4.5)



(74.0)



(8.6)



(75.7)

Financing activities (2.3)



92.8



(2.3)



72.9

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents $ (29.8)



$ 24.3



$ (3.9)



$ 26.3

















Capital expenditures for property, plant and equipment:













Maintenance capital expenditures $ 4.4



$ 4.1



$ 8.4



$ 4.9

Growth capital expenditures 0.1



6.0



0.2



7.0

Total capital expenditures $ 4.5



$ 10.1



$ 8.6



$ 11.9



Operating Data

The following tables set forth information about our consolidated operations and our nitrogen fertilizer manufacturing facility located in Coffeyville, Kansas (the "Coffeyville Facility") and the East Dubuque Facility.





Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016 Key Operating Statistics:





























Consolidated sales (thousand tons):













Ammonia 74.6



73.6



136.5



98.0

UAN 330.9



339.4



652.5



606.4

















Consolidated product pricing at gate (dollars per ton) (1):













Ammonia $ 333



$ 417



$ 322



$ 405

UAN $ 174



$ 199



$ 167



$ 204

















Consolidated production volume (thousand tons):













Ammonia (gross produced) (2) 215.3



171.5



434.5



285.1

Ammonia (net available for sale) (2) 77.5



45.6



157.5



60.7

UAN 313.8



296.5



655.7



544.7

















Feedstock:













Petroleum coke used in production (thousand tons) 124.0



130.6



256.6



257.5

Petroleum coke used in production (dollars per ton) $ 21



$ 12



$ 17



$ 15

Natural gas used in production (thousands of MMBtus) 2,134.0



1,396.1



4,225.3



1,396.1

Natural gas used in production (dollars per MMBtu) (3) $ 3.18



$ 2.41



$ 3.29



$ 2.41

Natural gas in cost of materials and other (thousands of MMBtus) 2,487.4



1,063.0



3,963.4



1,063.0

Natural gas in cost of materials and other (dollars per MMBtu) (3) $ 3.24



$ 2.33



$ 3.37



$ 2.33

















Coffeyville Facility on-stream factors (4):













Gasification 98.8 %

98.0 %

98.8 %

97.8 % Ammonia 98.2 %

96.6 %

98.3 %

96.9 % UAN 87.3 %

93.7 %

92.0 %

92.5 %















East Dubuque Facility on-stream factors (4):













Ammonia 100.0 %

68.6 %

99.8 %

68.6 % UAN 99.4 %

69.1 %

98.8 %

69.1 %















Market Indicators:













Ammonia - Southern plains (dollars per ton) $ 316



$ 419



$ 352



$ 397

Ammonia - Corn belt (dollars per ton) $ 365



$ 489



$ 395



$ 465

UAN - Corn belt (dollars per ton) $ 196



$ 239



$ 205



$ 234

Natural gas NYMEX (dollars per MMBtu) $ 3.14



$ 2.25



$ 3.10



$ 2.12



______________________________





(1) Product pricing at gate represents net sales less freight revenue divided by product sales volume in tons and is shown in order to provide a pricing measure that is comparable across the fertilizer industry.



(2) Gross tons produced for ammonia represent total ammonia produced, including ammonia produced that was upgraded into other fertilizer products. Net tons available for sale represent ammonia available for sale that was not upgraded into other fertilizer products.



(3) The cost per MMBtu excludes derivative activity, when applicable. The impact of natural gas derivative activity during the periods presented was not material.



(4) On-stream factor is the total number of hours operated divided by the total number of hours in the reporting period and is included as a measure of operating efficiency.

Coffeyville Facility

The Linde air separation unit experienced a shut down during the second quarter of 2017. Following the Linde outage, the Coffeyville Facility UAN unit experienced a number of operational challenges, resulting in approximately 11 days of UAN downtime during the three months ended June 30, 2017. Excluding the impact of the Linde air separation unit outage at the Coffeyville Facility, the UAN unit on-stream factors at the Coffeyville Facility would have been 99.5% and 98.1%, respectively, for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017.

East Dubuque Facility

Excluding the impact of the full facility turnaround at the East Dubuque Facility, the on-stream factors at the East Dubuque Facility would have been 100% for ammonia and 99.6% for UAN for the three months ended June 30, 2016.

Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

To supplement our actual results calculated in accordance with GAAP for the applicable periods, the Partnership also uses the non-GAAP financial measures noted above, which are reconciled to our GAAP based results below. These non-GAAP financial measures should not be considered as an alternative to GAAP results.

EBITDA is defined as net income (loss) before (i) interest (income) expense, (ii) income tax expense and (iii) depreciation and amortization expense.

Adjusted EBITDA is defined as EBITDA further adjusted for the impact of major scheduled turnaround expenses, gain or loss on extinguishment of debt, loss on disposition of assets, expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger, and business interruption insurance recovery, when applicable.

We present EBITDA because we believe it allows users of our financial statements, such as investors and analysts, to assess our financial performance without regard to financing methods, capital structure or historical cost basis. We present Adjusted EBITDA because we have found it helpful to consider an operating measure that excludes amounts, such as major scheduled turnaround expenses, gain or loss on extinguishment of debt, loss on disposition of assets, expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger, and business interruption insurance recovery, relating to transactions not reflective of our core operations. When applicable, each of these amounts is discussed in the Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations section of our SEC reports, so that investors have complete information about these amounts. We also present Adjusted EBITDA because it is the starting point used by the board of directors of our general partner when calculating our available cash for distribution.

EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA are not recognized terms under GAAP and should not be substituted for net income (loss) or cash flows from operations. Management believes that EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA enable investors and analysts to better understand our ability to make distributions to common unitholders, help investors and analysts evaluate our ongoing operating results and allow for greater transparency in reviewing our overall financial, operational and economic performance by allowing investors to evaluate the same information used by management. EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA presented by other companies may not be comparable to our presentation, since each company may define these terms differently.

A reconciliation of consolidated Net income (loss) to consolidated EBITDA and consolidated Adjusted EBITDA is as follows:





































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

















(in millions) Net income (loss) $ (3.5)



$ (17.0)



$ (13.8)



$ 1.0

Add:













Interest expense and other financing costs, net 15.7



15.5



31.4



17.2

Income tax expense 



0.1







0.1

Depreciation and amortization 20.0



17.6



35.4



24.5

EBITDA $ 32.2



$ 16.2



$ 53.0



$ 42.8

Add:













Major scheduled turnaround expenses 0.1



6.6



0.1



6.6

Loss on extinguishment of debt 



5.1







5.1

Expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger 



1.2







2.5

Adjusted EBITDA $ 32.3



$ 29.1



$ 53.1



$ 57.0



Available cash for distribution is not a recognized term under GAAP. Available cash for distribution should not be considered in isolation or as an alternative to net income (loss) or operating income, or any other measure of financial performance or operating performance. In addition, available cash for distribution is not presented as, and should not be considered, an alternative to cash flows from operations or as a measure of liquidity. Available cash for distribution as reported by the Partnership may not be comparable to similarly titled measures of other entities, thereby limiting its usefulness as a comparative measure.

Available cash begins with Adjusted EBITDA reduced for cash needed for (i) net cash interest expense (excluding capitalized interest) and debt service and other contractual obligations; (ii) maintenance capital expenditures; and (iii) to the extent applicable, major scheduled turnaround expenses, reserves for future operating or capital needs that the board of directors of the general partner deems necessary or appropriate, and expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger, if any. Available cash for distribution may be increased by the release of previously established cash reserves, if any, at the discretion of the board of directors of our general partner, and available cash is increased by the business interruption insurance proceeds and the impact of purchase accounting. Actual distributions are set by the board of directors of our general partner. The board of directors of our general partner may modify our cash distribution policy at any time, and our partnership agreement does not require us to make distributions at all.

A reconciliation of consolidated Adjusted EBITDA to Available cash for distribution is as follows:





































Three Months Ended

June 30,

Six Months Ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

















(in millions, except units and per unit data) Adjusted EBITDA $ 32.3



$ 29.1



$ 53.1



$ 57.0

Adjustments:













Less:













Net cash interest expense (excluding capitalized interest) and debt service (14.9)



(14.5)



(29.9)



(15.9)

Maintenance capital expenditures (4.4)



(4.1)



(8.4)



(4.9)

Major scheduled turnaround expenses (0.1)



(6.6)



(0.1)



(6.6)

Cash reserves for future operating needs (12.9)







(12.9)





Expenses associated with the East Dubuque Merger 



(1.2)







(2.5)

Add:













Insurance recovery - business interruption 



4.0







4.0

Impact of purchase accounting 



13.0







13.0

Available cash associated with East Dubuque 2016 first quarter 











6.3

Available cash for distribution $ 



$ 19.7



$ 1.8



$ 50.4

Available cash for distribution, per common unit $ 



$ 0.17



$ 0.02



$ 0.44

Distribution declared, per common unit $ 



$ 0.17



$ 0.02



$ 0.44

Common units outstanding (in thousands) 113,283



113,283



113,283



113,283



SOURCE CVR Partners, LP
ATLANTA, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Delta Air Lines (NYSE: DAL) is deepening its longstanding and industry-leading partnership with Air France-KLM Group with a 375 million investment to acquire 10 percent equity in the joint venture partner and a seat on the Air France-KLM Group Board of Directors. Additionally, Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic will launch a combined long-term joint venture, supported by a 31 percent investment by Air France-KLM in Virgin Atlantic, to offer customers the most comprehensive trans-Atlantic route network.

Delta Air Lines and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to nearly 370 destinations on six continents. For more information visit news.delta.com.

"A dynamic global landscape means it's more important than ever for Delta to deepen ties with our global partners to provide opportunities for mutual growth," said Delta CEO Ed Bastian. "Bringing together the strengths of Delta, Air France-KLM and Virgin Atlantic into a combined joint venture will create the trans-Atlantic partnership of choice for customers."

The expanded joint venture, including Alitalia, will offer nearly 300 daily nonstop trans-Atlantic flights and convenient flight schedules. Customers also will benefit from the ability to earn and redeem miles across all carriers, co-location of facilities at key airports to improve connectivity and access to each carrier's airport lounges for premium customers.

The investment aligns with others Delta has made in recent years as it grows its international footprint through partnerships with key airlines in regions around the world. The demand created by Delta and Air France-KLM's combined customer base and hub airports has enabled new trans-Atlantic routes to give Delta customers expanded choice in destinations and flight frequencies.

"During the past decade, Delta's global partnerships have fueled significant international growth," said Steve Sear, President  International & EVP  Global Sales. "As we further develop these partnerships, our ability to align network, sales and other commercial and operational initiatives will provide even greater benefits for our customers and employees."

All transactions are subject to execution of definitive agreements and receipt of final shareholder, board and regulatory approvals.

The Atlanta-based airline's existing joint venture with Air France-KLM dates to 2009, with the addition of Alitalia in 2010. In 2012 Delta launched a joint venture with Virgin Australia followed in 2013 by both a 49 percent investment in, and joint venture with, Virgin Atlantic. In 2015, Delta entered into an enhanced marketing arrangement with, and acquired a 3.5 percent stake in, its SkyTeam partner China Eastern. In 2017, Delta launched its joint cooperation agreement with Aeromexico and increased its equity stake in the carrier to 49 percent. Also in 2017, Delta announced a joint venture with Korean Air Lines. Delta also holds a 9.5 percent equity interest in Brazil-based airline GOL.

About Delta

Delta Air Lines serves more than 180 million customers each year. In 2017, Delta was named to Fortune's top 50 Most Admired Companies in addition to being named the most admired airline for the sixth time in seven years. Additionally, Delta has ranked No.1 in the Business Travel News Annual Airline survey for an unprecedented six consecutive years. With an industry-leading global network, Delta and the Delta Connection carriers offer service to 334 destinations in 62 countries on six continents. Headquartered in Atlanta, Delta employs more than 80,000 employees worldwide and operates a mainline fleet of more than 800 aircraft. The airline is a founding member of the SkyTeam global alliance and participates in the industry's leading transatlantic joint venture with Air France-KLM and Alitalia as well as a joint venture with Virgin Atlantic. Including its worldwide alliance partners, Delta offers customers more than 15,000 daily flights, with key hubs and markets including Amsterdam, Atlanta, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Mexico City, Minneapolis/St. Paul, New York-JFK and LaGuardia, London-Heathrow, Paris-Charles de Gaulle, Salt Lake City, Seattle, Seoul, and Tokyo-Narita. Delta has invested billions of dollars in airport facilities, global products and services, and technology to enhance the customer experience in the air and on the ground. Additional information is available on the Delta News Hub, as well as delta.com, Twitter @DeltaNewsHub, Google.com/+Delta, and Facebook.com/delta.

SOURCE Delta Air Lines

Related Links

http://www.delta.com


LOS ANGELES, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Detail Garage, the one stop shop for all detailing needs is now open on the island of O'ahu. A car lovers' ideal place, Detail Garage provides all car enthusiasts a place to purchase premium car wash and detailing products, a place to gather, and ultimately learn. The new location, located only minutes away from the Honolulu International Airport, is hosting its grand opening this Saturday, July 29th, 2017 at 406 Kamehameha Hwy Pearl City, HI 96782 from 10am to 2pm. Detail Garage Hawaii invites everyone to visit and celebrate the exciting opening of this large store!

Detail Garage Hawaii is fully stocked with your favorite Chemical Guys and Smartwax Products. Detail Garage Hawaii is excited to celebrate its grand opening this Saturday!

Detail Garage offers premium quality auto detailing and car care products such as soaps, waxes, cleaners, equipment and accessories and also offers education. Detail Garage stores aim to educate and help people find solutions to their problems. Aside from the great assistance you will receive from the knowledgeable staff, each Detail Garage location hosts their own Do-It-Yourself style courses to assist people on the proper way of taking care of their vehicles. Detail Garage is truly a destination to gain product knowledge, industry know-how's and premium offering. More importantly, it also offers a place for everyone to gather and meet individuals that share the same passion for cars and keeping them clean.

"When you create a destination, people will come from far and near because what you have is not a brand it's a lifestyle," says Paul Schneider. "Living on an island makes it hard to connect with our amazing family and friends. We are extremely excited to announce the grand opening of Detail Garage Hawaii; the first Detailing Superstore that brings together the perfect blend of products, tools, accessories and education combined with passionate people that show the world how to shine."

Detail Garage Hawaii is the second out of state location to open, expanding from the main flagship store in Los Angeles, CA, with a total of eight stores in the franchise. The Detail Garage franchise is excited to celebrate its expansion into Hawaii and excited to provide more auto enthusiasts and all people a destination for them to be excited about. Each Detail Garage location will offer premium brands Chemical Guys, Smartwax, TORQ, Hex-Logic, along with DIY courses. Detail Garage is built under the premise that when you create a destination people will come from far and near because what you have is not a brand, it's a lifestyle.

"[T]his place is awesome!! Everyone is super friendly and willing to take the time to answer all questions. It's a candy store for people who want to keep their vehicles in store room condition."  Martin G.

Franchising opportunities are now available and Detail Garage welcomes anyone who would like to be part of the worldwide family to visit the website. The Detail Garage franchise is more than a store, it is a destination; It is a community of people, who care about cars.

To learn more about Detail Garage and franchise opportunities visit: www.DetailGarage.com

For press inquiries please contact

Jennifer Olvera

310-674-8135

[email protected]

SOURCE Detail Garage

Related Links

http://www.detailgarage.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Second quarter 2017 total revenues of $52.4 million , net income of $1.8 million and diluted EPS of $0.04

, net income of and diluted EPS of Cash flow from operations of $9.2 million ; Adjusted EBITDA of $9.5 million , which was impacted by $1.1 million of disposition related and other costs

; Adjusted EBITDA of , which was impacted by of disposition related and other costs Commenced process of divesting non-tech businesses to streamline the operating portfolio

DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE: DHX) ("DHI" or the "Company"), a leading online career resource and talent acquisition platform for technology professionals and other select professional communities, today reported financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

"Our business performed in line with our expectations in the second quarter as we transitioned to a new organization structure that will enable us to operate as a more focused, flexible, and agile company to execute our tech-focused strategy," said Michael Durney, President and Chief Executive Officer of DHI Group, Inc. "In addition, we made progress on our product initiatives to deepen engagement with professionals and address customer pain points. The positive impact we've seen so far strengthens our conviction in the plan and our ability to change the arc of growth and profitability for the Company, and ultimately enhance shareholder value."

Q2 2017 Tech-Focused Product and Business Highlights

Launched new marketing initiatives for Dice with the "Hack Your Career" campaign to increase engagement with tech professionals, and partnerships with Bustle, a digital media company serving millennial women, and Spiceworks, a tech networking community

"Open Web First" go-to-market strategy that leads with social sourcing drove 103% year-over-year growth in Open Web customers, increasing penetration of Dice recruitment package customers to 34% as of June 30, 2017 , up from 30% as of March 31, 2017 and from 16% a year ago

, up from 30% as of and from 16% a year ago Dice Careers app new downloads grew 28% year-over-year in the second quarter. As of June 30, 2017 , cumulative downloads were 81% higher than June 30, 2016 , which drove 52% growth in average monthly unique visitors

, cumulative downloads were 81% higher than , which drove 52% growth in average monthly unique visitors Launched ClearanceJobs Voice, which adds live discussion between employers and candidates through the website

Q2 and Year-to-Date 2017 Financial Highlights

"The market dynamics for our business remained challenging to our renewal and new business efforts. While we're not content with these results, they are consistent with the 2017 outlook we provided in May," said Luc Gregoire, Chief Financial Officer. "However, we advanced our strategy to return the business to growth with the current process to divest our non-tech businesses, redeploying resources in a more effective and cost efficient manner, and increasing the focus on key drivers and levers of our technology talent solutions business. Looking forward, we are optimistic that the steps we have taken will begin to stabilize our business."

The following summarizes consolidated financial results for the quarters ended June 30, 2017 and 2016:

($ in millions, except per share data)





Q2 2017

Q2 2016

Change

Revenues

$ 52.4



$ 57.7



(9)%



Net income (1)(2)

$ 1.8



$ 4.9



(63)%



Diluted earnings per share (3)

$ 0.04



$ 0.10



(60)%



















Adjusted EBITDA (4) (5)

$ 9.5



$ 16.0



(41)%



Adjusted EBITDA margin



18.2 %



27.7 %





















(1) Includes the impact of disposition related and others costs, net of tax, of $0.7 million and $0.1 million for Q2 2017 and 2016, respectively. (2) Net income in Q2 2017 was reduced by $0.2 million due to additional income tax expense related to the adoption of a new accounting standard, ASU No. 2016-09, Improvements to Employee Share-Based Payment Accounting. No material difference to Q2 2016, had the new standard been applied to that period. (3) Disposition related and other costs reduced diluted earnings per share in Q2 2017 by $0.01 with no material change to Q2 2016. (4) Q2 2017 includes the impact of disposition related and other costs of $1.1 million. (5) Reconciliations of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA and of Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted EBITDA are included toward the end of this press release.

















The following summarizes Revenues, Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin results for the quarter and year-to-date periods ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 ($ in millions). A reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss) to Adjusted EBITDA is included toward the end of this press release.





Revenues

Adjusted EBITDA



Q2

2017



Q2

2016



Change

Fx Impact

Q2

2017



Q2 2017

Margin

Q2

2016



Q2 2016

Margin Tech & Clearance

$ 31.3



$ 34.2



(8)%

$(0.1)

$ 13.0



42%

$ 16.6



49% Global Industry Group (GIG)

14.5



16.5



(12)%

(0.7)

1.5



10%

4.2



25% Healthcare

6.6



7.0



(6)%



0.2



3%

0.9



13% Talent Acquisition Brands

52.4



57.7



(9)%

(0.8)

14.7



28%

21.7



38% Corporate









%



(2.7)



n.m.

(4.1)



n.m. Talent Acquisition Brands less

Corporate

52.4



57.7



(9)%

(0.8)

12.0



23%

17.7



31% Brightmatter Group









%



(2.5)



n.m.

(1.7)



n.m. Slashdot Media









%







n.m.

0.1



n.m. Total

$ 52.4



$ 57.7



(9)%

$(0.8)

$ 9.5



18%

$ 16.0



28%





Revenues

Adjusted EBITDA



YTD

2017



YTD

2016



Change



Fx Impact

YTD

2017



YTD

2017

Margin

YTD

2016

YTD

2016

Margin Tech & Clearance

$ 63.0



$ 68.2



(8)%



$(0.4)

$ 26.4



42%

$ 31.7



46% Global Industry Group (GIG)

28.3



33.1



(15)%



(1.5)

2.6



9%

7.0



21% Healthcare

13.3



13.9



(4)%





0.6



5%

1.6



12% Talent Acquisition Brands

104.6



115.2



(9)%



(1.9)

29.6



28%

40.3



35% Corporate









n.m.





(5.3)



n.m.

(7.6)



n.m. Talent Acquisition Brands

less Corporate

104.6



115.2



(9)%



(1.9)

24.3



23%

32.7



28% Brightmatter Group





0.1



n.m.





(4.3)



n.m.

(3.6)



n.m. Slashdot Media





0.7



n.m.









n.m.

(0.2)



n.m. Total

$ 104.6



$ 116.0



(10)%



$(1.9)

$ 20.0



19%

$ 28.9



25%





Supplemental Balance Sheet Information



June 30,

2017

December

31, 2016

YTD 2017

Change

June 30,

2016

YOY

Change Deferred revenue (1)

$ 86.4



$ 84.6



$ 1.8



$ 85.9



$ 0.5

Long-Term Debt, net

$ 69.9



$ 84.8



$ (14.9)



$ 97.6



$ (27.7)

Plus: Deferred financing costs

1.1



1.2



(0.1)



1.4



(0.3)

Total principal outstanding

$ 71.0



$ 86.0



$ (15.0)



$ 99.0



$ (28.0)

(1) The YTD increase in deferred revenue primarily reflects an increase in the Tech & Clearance and Global Industry Group segments of $0.9 million each.

Business Outlook

The Company expects its year-over-year rate of decline in revenue to abate progressively in the second half of 2017, while spending should increase only modestly as increased investment in its core tech business will be mostly offset by efficiencies from realigning and simplifying the organization. This outlook does not consider the impact of potential divestitures, as there is no assurance as to their timing or execution. On today's conference call, management will discuss additional details of its tech-focused strategy, including context around the financial impact of the Company's 2017 strategic objectives and operational plans.

Conference Call Information

The Company will host a conference call accompanied by a presentation of supporting materials today at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time to discuss its financial results, recent developments, and progress on its tech-focused strategy. Speaking on the call will be Michael Durney, President and Chief Executive Officer, and Luc Gregoire, Chief Financial Officer.

The conference call and presentation will be available live through the Company's website in the Investor Relations section under Presentations & Events at www.dhigroupinc.com. The conference call can also be accessed by dialing 1-844-890-1790 or for international callers by dialing 1-412-380-7407. Please ask to be joined to the DHI Group, Inc. call.

A replay will be available one hour after the call and can be accessed by dialing 1-877-344-7529 or 1-412-317-0088 for international callers; the replay passcode is 10110589. The replay will be available until August 3, 2017. The presentation will be available for download after the conference call through the Company's website in the Investor Relations section under Presentations & Events at www.dhigroupinc.com.

Investor Contact

Brendan Metrano

VP, Investor Relations

DHI Group, Inc.

212-448-4181

[email protected]

Media Contact

Rachel Ceccarelli

Director, Corporate Communications

DHI Group, Inc.

212-448-8288

[email protected]

About DHI Group, Inc.

DHI Group, Inc. (NYSE:DHX) is a leading provider of data, insights and employment connections through our specialized services for technology professionals and other select online communities. Our mission is to empower tech professionals and organizations to compete and win through expert insights and relevant employment connections. Employers and recruiters use our websites and services to source, hire and connect with the most qualified and highly-skilled tech professionals, while professionals use our websites and services to find ideal employment opportunities, relevant job advice and tailored career-related data. For over 25 years, we have built our Company on providing employers and professionals with career connections, news, tools and information. Today, we serve multiple markets located throughout North America, Europe, the Middle East and the Asia Pacific region.

Notes Regarding the Use of Non-GAAP Financial Measures

The Company has provided certain non-GAAP financial information as additional information for its operating results. These measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, generally accepted accounting principles in the United States ("GAAP") and may be different from similarly titled non-GAAP measures reported by other companies. The Company believes that its presentation of non-GAAP measures, such as adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, amortization, non-cash stock based compensation expense, other non-recurring income or expense ("Adjusted EBITDA") and Adjusted EBITDA margin provides useful information to management and investors regarding certain financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. In addition, the Company's management uses these measures for reviewing the financial results of the Company and for budgeting and planning purposes. The non-GAAP measures apply to consolidated results and results by segment or other measure as shown within this document. The Company has provided required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measures elsewhere in the document.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are non-GAAP metrics used by management to measure operating performance. Management uses Adjusted EBITDA as a performance measure for internal monitoring and planning, including preparation of annual budgets, analyzing investment decisions and evaluating profitability and performance comparisons between us and our competitors. The Company also uses this measure to calculate amounts of performance based compensation under the senior management incentive bonus program. Adjusted EBITDA, as defined in our Credit Agreement, represents net income plus (to the extent deducted in calculating such net income) interest expense, income tax expense, depreciation and amortization, non-cash stock option expenses, losses resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business, certain writeoffs in connection with indebtedness, impairment charges with respect to long-lived assets, expenses incurred in connection with an equity offering, extraordinary or non-recurring non-cash expenses or losses, transaction costs in connection with the Credit Agreement up to $250,000, deferred revenues written off in connection with acquisition purchase accounting adjustments, writeoff of non-cash stock compensation expense, and business interruption insurance proceeds, minus (to the extent included in calculating such net income) non-cash income or gains, interest income, and any income or gain resulting from certain dispositions outside the ordinary course of business.

We present Adjusted EBITDA as a supplemental performance measure because we believe that this measure provides our board of directors, management and investors with additional information to measure our performance, provide comparisons from period to period and company to company by excluding potential differences caused by variations in capital structures (affecting interest expense) and tax positions (such as the impact on periods or companies of changes in effective tax rates or net operating losses), and to estimate our value.

We also present Adjusted EBITDA because covenants in our Credit Agreement contain ratios based on this measure. Our Credit Agreement is material to us because it is one of our primary sources of liquidity. If our Adjusted EBITDA were to decline below certain levels, covenants in our Credit Agreement that are based on Adjusted EBITDA may be violated and could cause a default and acceleration of payment obligations under our Credit Agreement.

Adjusted EBITDA Margin is computed as Adjusted EBITDA divided by Revenues. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA Margin are not measurements of our financial performance under GAAP and should not be considered as an alternative to net income, operating income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP as a measure of our profitability.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release and oral statements made from time to time by our representatives contain forward-looking statements. You should not place undue reliance on those statements because they are subject to numerous uncertainties and factors relating to our operations and business environment, all of which are difficult to predict and many of which are beyond our control. Forward-looking statements include information without limitation concerning our possible or assumed future results of operations, including descriptions of our business strategy. These statements often include words such as "may," "will," "should," "believe," "expect," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "estimate" or similar expressions. These statements are based on assumptions that we have made in light of our experience in the industry as well as our perceptions of historical trends, current conditions, expected future developments and other factors we believe are appropriate under the circumstances. Although we believe that these forward-looking statements are based on reasonable assumptions, you should be aware that many factors could affect our actual financial results or results of operations and could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements. These factors include, but are not limited to, our ability to execute our tech-focused strategy, the review of potential dispositions of certain of our businesses and the terms and timing of any such transactions, competition from existing and future competitors in the highly competitive market in which we operate, failure to adapt our business model to keep pace with rapid changes in the recruiting and career services business, failure to maintain and develop our reputation and brand recognition, failure to increase or maintain the number of customers who purchase recruitment packages, cyclicality or downturns in the economy or industries we serve, the uncertainty surrounding the United Kingdom's future departure from the European Union, including uncertainty in respect of the regulation of data protection and data privacy, failure to attract qualified professionals to our websites or grow the number of qualified professionals who use our websites, failure to successfully identify or integrate acquisitions, U.S. and foreign government regulation of the Internet and taxation, our ability to borrow funds under our revolving credit facility or refinance our indebtedness and restrictions on our current and future operations under such indebtedness. These factors and others are discussed in more detail in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, all of which are available on the Investors page of our website at www.dhigroupinc.com, including the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016, under the headings "Risk Factors," "Forward-Looking Statements" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations."

You should keep in mind that any forward-looking statement made by the Company or its representatives herein, or elsewhere, speaks only as of the date on which it is made. New risks and uncertainties come up from time to time, and it is impossible to predict these events or how they may affect us. We have no obligation to update any forward-looking statements after the date hereof, except as required by applicable law.

DHI GROUP, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS

(Unaudited)

(in thousands except per share amounts)

































For the three months

ended June 30,

For the six months

ended June 30,









2017

2016

2017

2016

























Revenues $ 52,400



$ 57,673



$ 104,590



$ 115,959



























Operating expenses:















Cost of revenues 7,668



8,079



15,065



16,614



Product development 6,356



6,245



12,807



13,305



Sales and marketing 19,751



18,646



39,650



39,148



General and administrative 10,046



11,508



21,325



22,721



Depreciation 2,819



2,563



5,127



5,161



Amortization of intangible assets 571



2,070



1,132



4,536



Disposition related and other costs 1,187



77



1,187



3,347







Total operating expenses 48,398



49,188



96,293



104,832



Operating income 4,002



8,485



8,297



11,127



Interest expense (814)



(820)



(1,604)



(1,692)



Other expense 9



(17)



(7)



(32)



Income before income taxes 3,197



7,648



6,686



9,403



Income tax expense 1,375



2,794



3,524



3,438



Net income $ 1,822



$ 4,854



$ 3,162



$ 5,965



























Basic earnings per share $ 0.04



$ 0.10



$ 0.07



$ 0.12



Diluted earnings per share $ 0.04



$ 0.10



$ 0.07



$ 0.12



























Weighted average basic shares outstanding 47,953



48,607



47,775



49,034



Weighted average diluted shares outstanding 48,268



49,279



48,308



49,850





















































DHI GROUP, INC.

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS

(Unaudited)

(in thousands)

























For the three months

ended June 30,

For the six months

ended June 30,





2017

2016

2017

2016

Cash flows from operating activities:

















Net income $ 1,822



$ 4,854



$ 3,162



$ 5,965



Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash flows

from operating activities:

















Depreciation 2,819



2,563



5,127



5,161





Amortization of intangible assets 571



2,070



1,132



4,536





Deferred income taxes 426



313



648



229





Amortization of deferred financing costs 81



81



162



162





Stock based compensation 2,086



2,806



4,588



6,423





Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 35



101



70



115





Loss on sale of business 



77







639



Changes in operating assets and liabilities:

















Accounts receivable 6,205



2,490



11,231



4,857





Prepaid expenses and other assets 412



336



(1,082)



(169)





Accounts payable and accrued expenses 1,342



(2,771)



(1,007)



(4,875)





Income taxes receivable/payable (2,883)



1,627



(1,465)



(1,293)





Deferred revenue (3,750)



(2,299)



1,101



3,252





Other, net 27



(63)



45



(77)



Net cash flows from operating activities 9,193



12,185



23,712



24,925



Cash flows from investing activities:

















Cash received from sale of business 











2,429





Purchases of fixed assets (3,535)



(3,187)



(7,730)



(5,506)



Net cash flows (used in) from investing activities (3,535)



(3,187)



(7,730)



(3,077)



Cash flows from financing activities:

















Payments on long-term debt (7,000)



(8,000)



(15,000)



(11,000)





Proceeds from long-term debt 



6,000







9,000





Payments under stock repurchase plan 



(8,915)







(22,632)





Proceeds from stock option exercises 







403



1,028





Purchase of treasury stock related to vested

restricted stock and performance stock units (17)



(68)



(1,109)



(2,520)



Net cash flows used in financing activities (7,017)



(10,983)



(15,706)



(26,124)



Effect of exchange rate changes 150



(1,008)



193



(313)



Net change in cash for the period (1,209)



(2,993)



469



(4,589)



Cash, beginning of period 24,665



32,454



22,987



34,050



Cash, end of period $ 23,456



$ 29,461



$ 23,456



$ 29,461





DHI GROUP, INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (Unaudited) (in thousands)











ASSETS June 30, 2017

December 31, 2016 Current assets







Cash $ 23,456



$ 22,987



Accounts receivable, net 32,335



43,148



Income taxes receivable 737



731



Prepaid and other current assets 4,508



3,312





Total current assets 61,036



70,178

Fixed assets, net 19,346



16,610

Acquired intangible assets, net 48,002



49,120

Goodwill 174,790



171,745

Deferred income taxes 361



306

Other assets 2,073



2,136





Total assets $ 305,608



$ 310,095

























LIABILITIES AND STOCKHOLDERS' EQUITY





Current liabilities







Accounts payable and accrued expenses $ 19,500



$ 20,220



Deferred revenue 86,380



84,615



Income taxes payable 2,029



3,467





Total current liabilities 107,909



108,302

Long-term debt, net 69,922



84,760

Deferred income taxes 8,586



7,901

Accrual for unrecognized tax benefits 2,584



2,513

Other long-term liabilities 2,800



2,736





Total liabilities 191,801



206,212

Total stockholders' equity 113,807



103,883





Total liabilities and stockholders' equity $ 305,608



$ 310,095















Supplemental Information and Non-GAAP Reconciliations

On the pages that follow, the Company has provided certain supplemental information that we believe will assist the reader in assessing our business operations and performance, including certain non-GAAP financial information and required reconciliations to the most comparable GAAP measure. A statement of operations and statement of cash flows for the three and six month periods ended June 30, 2017 and 2016 and a balance sheet as of June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016 are provided elsewhere in this press release.

DHI GROUP, INC.

NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA

(Unaudited)

(dollars in thousands except per customer data)













































For the three months

ended June 30,

For the six months

ended June 30,





2017

2016

2017

2016

Reconciliation of Net Income to Adjusted EBITDA:















Net income $ 1,822



$ 4,854



$ 3,162



$ 5,965





Interest expense 814



820



1,604



1,692





Income tax expense 1,375



2,794



3,524



3,438





Depreciation 2,819



2,563



5,127



5,161





Amortization of intangible assets 571



2,070



1,132



4,536





Non-cash stock compensation expense 2,086



2,806



4,588



5,523





SeveranceSlashdot Media 











981





Accelerated stock based compensation expense

Slashdot Media 











900





Loss on sale of business 



77







639





Costs related to strategic alternatives process (23)







807









Costs related to divestitures 70







70









Other (9)



17



7



32



Adjusted EBITDA $ 9,525



$ 16,001



$ 20,021



$ 28,867





















Reconciliation of Operating Cash Flows to Adjusted

EBITDA:















Net cash provided by operating activities $ 9,193



$ 12,185



$ 23,712



$ 24,925





Interest expense 814



820



1,604



1,692





Amortization of deferred financing costs (81)



(81)



(162)



(162)





Income tax expense 1,375



2,794



3,524



3,438





Deferred income taxes (426)



(313)



(648)



(229)





SeveranceSlashdot Media 











981





Change in accrual for unrecognized tax benefits (35)



(101)



(70)



(115)





Change in accounts receivable (6,205)



(2,490)



(11,231)



(4,857)





Change in deferred revenue 3,750



2,299



(1,101)



(3,252)





Costs related to strategic alternatives process (23)







807









Costs related to divestitures 70







70









Changes in working capital and other 1,093



888



3,516



6,446



Adjusted EBITDA $ 9,525



$ 16,001



$ 20,021



$ 28,867











































Dice Recruitment Package Customers















Beginning of period 6,800



7,450



7,050



7,600



End of period 6,750



7,300



6,700



7,300























Average for the period (1) 6,750



7,350



6,800



7,400























Dice Average Monthly Revenue per

Recruitment Package Customer (2) $ 1,108



$ 1,124



$ 1,109



$ 1,121











































(1) Reflects the daily average of recruitment package customers during the period.

(2) Reflects the simple average of each period presented.



DHI GROUP, INC. NON-GAAP SUPPLEMENTAL DATA (CONTINUED) (Unaudited) (in thousands)

































For the three months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss)

to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech &

Clearance

Global

Industry

Group

Healthcare

Corporate

Brightmatter

Group

Slashdot

Media

Total Operating income (loss) $ 10,712



$ 510



$ (642)



$ (3,906)



$ (2,672)



$ 



$ 4,002



Depreciation 1,695



247



537



26



314







2,819



Amortization of intangible assets 



363



163







45







571



Non-cash stock compensation expense 545



408



141



1,131



(139)







2,086



Costs related to strategic alternatives

process 











(23)











(23)



Costs related to divestiture process 











70











70

Adjusted EBITDA $ 12,952



$ 1,528



$ 199



$ (2,702)



$ (2,452)



$ 



$ 9,525



































For the three months ended June 30, 2016 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss)

to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech &

Clearance

Global

Industry

Group

Healthcare

Corporate

Brightmatter

Group

Slashdot

Media

Total Operating income (loss) $ 13,291



$ 2,477



$ 107



$ (5,452)



$ (1,914)



$ (24)



$ 8,485



Depreciation 1,770



230



495



33



35







2,563



Amortization of intangible assets 729



1,074



218







49







2,070



Non-cash stock compensation expense 781



428



124



1,357



116







2,806



Loss on sale of business 



















77



77

Adjusted EBITDA $ 16,571



$ 4,209



$ 944



$ (4,062)



$ (1,714)



$ 53



$ 16,001



































For the six months ended June 30, 2017 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss)

to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech &

Clearance

Global

Industry

Group

Healthcare

Corporate

Brightmatter

Group

Slashdot

Media

Total Operating income (loss) $ 22,156



$ 628



$ (1,092)



$ (8,533)



$ (4,862)



$ 



$ 8,297



Depreciation 3,151



472



1,045



54



405







5,127



Amortization of intangible assets 



727



325







80







1,132



Non-cash stock compensation expense 1,110



818



273



2,313



74







4,588



Costs related to strategic alternatives

process 











807











807



Costs related to divestiture process 











70











70

Adjusted EBITDA $ 26,417



$ 2,645



$ 551



$ (5,289)



$ (4,303)



$ 



$ 20,021



































For the six months ended June 30, 2016 Reconciliation of Operating Income (Loss)

to Adjusted EBITDA: Tech &

Clearance

Global

Industry

Group

Healthcare

Corporate

Brightmatter

Group

Slashdot

Media

Total Operating income (loss) $ 25,124



$ 3,123



$ (171)



$ (10,229)



$ (3,947)



$ (2,773)



$ 11,127



Depreciation 3,507



452



1,091



67



44







5,161



Amortization of intangible assets 1,456



2,545



436







99







4,536



Non-cash stock compensation expense 1,595



842



234



2,575



233



44



5,523



Slashdot media related costs 



















2,520



2,520

Adjusted EBITDA $ 31,682



$ 6,962



$ 1,590



$ (7,587)



$ (3,571)



$ (209)



$ 28,867



Segment Definitions:













Tech & Clearance: Dice, Dice Europe and ClearanceJobs; Global Industry Group: eFinancialCareers, Rigzone, Hcareers and BioSpace; Healthcare: Health eCareers











DHI GROUP, INC. SUPPLEMENTAL DATA - REVENUE DETAIL (Unaudited) (in thousands)









































































































Revenue ($ in millions)

Q2

2017

Q2

2016

Change

$ Fx

Impact

YTD 2017

YTD

2016

Change

$ Fx

Impact Tech and Clearance

$ 31.3



$ 34.2



(8)%

$ (0.1)



$ 63.0



$ 68.2



(8)%

$ (0.4)

eFinancialCareers

8.0



9.1



(12)%

(0.6)



15.9



18.1



(12)%

(1.4)

Tech-focused businesses

39.3



43.3



(9)%

(0.7)



78.9



86.3



(9)%

(1.8)



































Health eCareers

6.6



7.0



(6)%





13.3



13.9



(4)%



HCareers

3.8



4.0



(5)%





7.4



7.8



(5)%



Rigzone

1.7



2.4



(29)%

(0.1)



3.4



5.3



(36)%

(0.1)

BioSpace

1.0



1.0



%





1.6



2.0



(20)%



Non-tech businesses

13.1



14.4



(9)%

(0.1)



25.7



29.0



(11)%

(0.1)

Slashdot Media









n.m.









0.7



n.m



Total

$ 52.4



$ 57.7



(9)%

$ (0.8)



$ 104.6



$ 116.0



(10)%

$ (1.9)





































SOURCE DHI Group, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diceholdingsinc.com


NORTH CANTON, Ohio, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Diebold Nixdorf (NYSE: DBD), the global leader in driving connected commerce, has received the "Global Self-Checkout Systems Growth Excellence Leadership Award" from Frost & Sullivan. In recognition of its continued growth, leadership, ability to cater to multiple retailer segments, channel partnership strategies and product innovation, Frost & Sullivan analysts recognized Diebold Nixdorf as a leading retail technology provider.

"Diebold Nixdorf has leveraged its unique position in the market through decades of understanding retailer requirements with its POS solutions, cost savings and product features that enhance the customer experience," said Aravindh Vanchesan, Industry Analyst, Frost & Sullivan. "Diebold Nixdorf's brand name is associated with quality, reliability, and security. The company's close relationships with retailers worldwide enable it to better understand the regional market dynamics and adapt its products and solutions to each specific need."

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated above-market growth and increased share of wallet due to the superiority of the company's products and services. The awarding organization considered Diebold Nixdorf's multi-pronged focus on product innovation, collaboration, security, mobility and an omnichannel approach for retail transformation.

"We are honored to receive the Global Self-Checkout Systems Growth Excellence Leadership Award," said Devora Henderson, Diebold Nixdorf vice president, retail sales, Americas. "This recognition validates our connected commerce strategy and encourages us to continue to drive the future of consumer transactions with best-in-class technology, software and services."

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, enables clients to accelerate growth and achieve best-in-class positions in growth, innovation and leadership. The company's Growth Partnership Service provides the CEO and the CEO's Growth Team with disciplined research and best practice models to drive the generation, evaluation and implementation of powerful growth strategies. Frost & Sullivan leverages more than 50 years of experience in partnering with Global 1000 companies, emerging businesses, and the investment community from 45 offices on six continents. To join our Growth Partnership, please visit http://www.frost.com.

About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce for millions of consumers each day across the financial and retail industries. Its software-defined solutions bridge the physical and digital worlds of cash and consumer transactions conveniently, securely and efficiently. As an innovation partner for nearly all of the world's top 100 financial institutions and a majority of the top 25 global retailers, Diebold Nixdorf delivers unparalleled services and technology that are essential to evolve in an 'always on' and changing consumer landscape.

Diebold Nixdorf has a presence in more than 130 countries with approximately 24,000 employees worldwide. The organization is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio, USA and Paderborn, Germany. Shares are traded on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol 'DBD'. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

SOURCE Diebold Nixdorf

Related Links

http://www.diebold.com


FLINT, Mich., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc. (NYSE: DPLO), has been selected to provide specialty pharmacy services for Labor Value Rx's Pipe Trade Services of MN (PTSMN) members.

Diplomat will be the exclusive specialty pharmacy for PTSMNdispensing specialty medication for their members.

Labor Value Rx, based in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, is a national, full-service pharmacy benefit management company specializing in customized prescription solutions for plan participants.

"Due to the complex nature and administration of specialty prescriptions, the need for a specialty pharmacy partner is greater than ever," said Tony Hynes, vice president at Labor Value Rx. "PTSMN is proud to partner with Diplomat. Diplomat has truly been a trusted partner, providing high-touch, individualized specialty pharmacy services to our members. We are pleased to partner with such a leader in the space, and it's nice to know our members are receiving the dedicated service they deserve."

PTSMN operates as a nonprofit corporation that provides administrative services to various pension and welfare trusts in the piping industry. Labor Value Rx is a "trust directed PBM" and together they share a commitment to improving utilization and adherence to prescription medication.

"We are proud to extend our services through our partnership with Labor Value Rx," said Atheer Kaddis, executive vice president of sales and strategic alignment at Diplomat. "Partnering with Labor Value Rx means more patients will have access to highly skilled teams of specialists who understand specialty patients' individualized needs. As part of Labor Value Rx's network, we will use our expertise and resources to provide support services to each members' unique needs."

To learn more about Diplomat, visit diplomat.is.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release contains forward-looking statements made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events or our future financial or operating performance. The forward-looking statements contained in this press release are based on management's good-faith belief and reasonable judgment based on current information. These statements are qualified by important risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond our control, that could cause our actual results to differ materially from those forecasted or indicated by such forward-looking statements. For a discussion of such risks and uncertainties, you should review Diplomat's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including "Risk Factors" in Diplomat's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended Dec. 31, 2016, and in subsequent reports filed with or furnished to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Except as may be required by any applicable laws, Diplomat assumes no obligation to publicly update such forward-looking statements, which are made as of the date hereof or the earlier date specified herein, whether as a result of new information, future developments or otherwise.

About Diplomat

Diplomat (NYSE: DPLO) is the nation's largest independent provider of specialty pharmacy serviceshelping patients and providers in all 50 states. The company offers medication management programs for people with complex chronic diseases and delivers unique solutions for manufacturers, hospitals, payors, providers, and more. Diplomat opened its doors in 1975 as a neighborhood pharmacy with one essential tenet: "Take good care of patients and the rest falls into place." Today, that tradition continuesalways focused on improving patient care and clinical adherence. For more information, visit diplomat.is.

About Labor Value Rx

Labor Value Rx (LVRx) is a national, full service Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) tailored specifically to Taft-Hartley Welfare Funds. It has provided PBM services to the Pipe Trades Services of MN since 2013. LVRx is a PBM solution designed to bring true transparency and control to the boards of trustees responsible for overseeing these vitally important welfare funds. It operates independently with no ownership ties to pharmacies, insurance companies, or drug manufacturers. LVRx works collaboratively with its Labor clients to design a pharmacy benefit that not only controls costs, but provides better outcomes for their members.

CONTACT:

Kali Lucas, Public Relations Specialist

810.768.9580 | [email protected]

Atheer Kaddis, Executive Vice President,

Sales and Strategic Alignment

810.768.9519 | [email protected]

SOURCE Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.diplomat.is


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Douglas Elliman Real Estate, the largest brokerage in the New York Metropolitan area and the fourth largest residential real estate company nationwide, today releases the second quarter 2017 Hamptons, North Fork and Long Island Sales Market Reports. All three markets improved substantially, with the Hamptons and North Fork showing an uptick in sales, with a declining inventory and a very strong Long Island Market with heavy sales volume, rising prices and low inventory.

"Sales activity in the Hamptons has been quite robust after a somewhat lackluster two years, along with a continued decline in inventory. What's most interesting is that we are seeing more sales at the upper end of the market, something that was lacking last year," said Scott Durkin, COO, Douglas Elliman. "The North Fork showed a similar pattern. Both markets had noticeable improvement."

"After an underperforming 2016, the first two quarters of 2017 showed a pronounced increase in activity in the Hamptons, with sales at their highest levels in two years," said Jonathan Miller of Miller Samuel, Inc, the author of the report. "The North Fork mirrored the Hamptons, with the number of sales rising year over year for the fourth time in five quarters. Inventory slipped in both markets, as price indicators moved higher. At the same time, the Long Island market to the west saw rising sales and falling inventory for an unprecedented ten consecutive quarters and the least negotiability in twelve years."

"We're experiencing extremely heavy sales, rising prices and low inventory here on Long Island," echoed Ann Conroy, President, Long Island Division, Douglas Elliman. "With intense sales volume burning off supply faster than it can be created, prices are rising. There's no question that the Long Island market is booming!"

Highlights of the Douglas Elliman Q2 Market Reports:

HAMPTONS SALES

Overview

- After weak 2016, first two quarters of 2017 showed pronounced sales increase

- Sales at their highest level in two years

- Inventory slipped annually for the eighth consecutive quarter.

- Price trend indicators moved higher

- Rise in sales skewed more to high end of market

Key Trend Metrics (compared to same year ago period)

- Median sales price increased 5.6% to $1,030,000

- Average sales price rose 12.7% to $1,898,934

- Number of sales increased 22.8% to 689

- Days on market was 150, down from 170

- Listing discount was 12%, down from 12.4%

- Listing inventory fell 4.1% to 1,464

NORTH FORK SALES

Overview

- Shrinking inventory and shorter marketing times were key characteristics

- Number of sales rose year over year for fourth time in five quarters

- Price trend indicators moved higher as inventory declined

- A decline in marketing time and negotiability

Key Tend Metrics (compared to same year ago period)

- Median sales price rose 3% to $551,000

- Average sales price increased 4.6% to $726,350

- Number of sales increased 3.9% to 181

- Days on market was 122, down from 157

- Listing discount was 6.3%, down from 9.8%

- Listing inventory fell 20.5% to 434

LONG ISLAND SALES

Overview

- Rising sales and falling inventory for an unprecedented ten consecutive quarters

- Lowest second quarter inventory in at twelve years

- Most second quarter sales in twelve years

- Seventeenth consecutive quarter without annual decline in median sales price

- Least negotiability in twelve years

Key Trend Metrics (compared to same year ago period)

- Median sales price increased 5.8% to $404,000

- Number of sales rose 5.8% to 6,690

- Days on market was 87, down from 103

- Listing discount was 3.4%, down from 4.5%

- Listing inventory fell 16.3% to 13,391

About Douglas Elliman Real Estate

Established in 1911, Douglas Elliman Real Estate is the largest brokerage in the New York Metropolitan area and the fourth largest residential real estate company nationwide. With more than 6,500 agents, the company operates approximately 90 offices in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, New Jersey, Long Island, the Hamptons & North Fork, Westchester, Greenwich, South Florida, Colorado and Beverly Hills. Moreover, Douglas Elliman has a strategic global alliance with London-based Knight Frank Residential for business in the worldwide luxury markets spanning 59 countries and six continents. The company also controls a portfolio of real estate services including Douglas Elliman Development Marketing; Manhattan's largest residential property manager, Douglas Elliman Property Management with over 250 buildings; and DE Commercial. For more information on Douglas Elliman as well as expert commentary on emerging trends in the real estate industry, please visit www.elliman.com.

SOURCE Douglas Elliman

Related Links

https://www.elliman.com


SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Dr. Susan S. Wilder is recognized by Continental Who's Who as a Pinnacle Lifetime Member in the Medical field.

Dr. Wilder's professional title is Founder and Chief Executive Officer at LifeScape Premier and LifeScape Medical Associates, specializing in Concierge Family Medicine and Functional Medicine, addressing the root causes of chronic disease.

"I founded LifeScape to provide a completely revolutionary kind of healthcare, one that focuses on the totality of you," Dr. Wilder said. "Our award-winning practice puts patients first. We go well beyond simply throwing prescriptions at a problem, and evaluate and attempt to eradicate the root causes of illness. We're committed to 'whole health for a whole life' at LifeScape."

Dr. Wilder's personal expertise lies in the areas of functional medicine, clinical genomics, and highly personalized concierge family medicine to a very exclusive patient population. Her team provides concierge service to entire families, corporate executives, and individuals at every age and stage seeking collaborative, quality, proactive healthcare. Dr. Wilder capitalizes on over 25 years of experience as a Family Physician and educator and lifelong learner. Her "hole-in-one" is witnessing patients get healthier at every age and taking problems off problem lists rather than the standard of care of "managing chronic disease". As one of her patients noted, "All my other doctors just monitor my deterioration."

Prior to starting her career in the medical field, Dr. Wilder earned her Medical degree from the George Washington University and completed her specialty training in the Air Force. She spent 14 years in academic medicine serving as Founding Director of the Family Medicine Residency at the Mayo clinic where she also served as Director of Clinical Genomics Education for primary care. To further her professional development, she is a member of the Institute for Functional Medicine as well as the American Academy of Family Physicians.

In recognition of her outstanding accomplishments in the field, Dr. Wilder was named Phoenix Business Magazine's 2017 Outstanding Women in Business, Phoenix Chamber of Commerce 2017 Athena Finalist, Concierge Medicine Today's Top Doctors in Concierge Medicine for several years, a perennial Phoenix Magazine Top Doctor and a Arizona Foothills Best of Our Valley Family Physician for many years. She was also honored by one of her many community passions, Healthy LifeStars, as their 2016 inaugural LifeStar Honoree. LifeScape won the Scottsdale Chamber of Commerce coveted Sterling Business award, the American Academy of Family Physicians Future of Family Medicine Model TransforMed participant. LifeScape's healing office design has been featured on the cover of Medical Economics Magazine and an international medical design showcase. Lifescapepremier.com was also named a 2014 Top 20 Best Website in Concierge Medicine.

For more information, visit www.lifescapepremier.com.

Contact: Katherine Green , 516-825-5634, [email protected]

SOURCE Continental Who's Who

Related Links

http://www.continentalwhoswho.com


OSHKOSH, Wis., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Cutting-edge technology plus an expanded network of authorized installation centers are giving owners, operators and customers like Textron Aviation more reasons to continue to collaborate with UTC Aerospace Systems on their de-icing needs.

At the Oshkosh Air Show today, UTC Aerospace Systems, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX), unveiled its new DuraTherm propeller de-icer. Using technology originally developed by UTC Aerospace Systems to meet the U.S. military's needs for propeller de-icing in harsh environments, DuraTherm is designed to enhance aircraft operational efficiency. The system's patented commercial heater technology provides uniform heat distribution to help shed ice quickly and efficiently, while its resistance to foreign object damage (FOD) helps aircraft maintain continued operation. DuraTherm is fully interchangeable with current propeller de-icers and FAA certified.

To further help owners and operators keep their aircraft in flight, and reduce the travel time and expenses associated with aircraft service, UTC Aerospace Systems has launched an expanded U.S. national network of 13 authorized de-icing installation centers. Each location offers a full suite of factory-grade support for UTC Aerospace Systems de-icing solutions, found on more than 200 models of general, business and regional aircraft. For more information and a complete list of centers, please click here.

Widely recognized within the industry for its leading de-icing products and services, UTC Aerospace Systems also announced today it has been selected by Textron Aviation to provide Goodrich Estane pneumatic and propeller de-icers and support services for the Cessna Denali single-engine turboprop program. Through its proprietary surface material, Goodrich Estane de-icers offer greater resistance to cold cracking, corrosive fluid resistance and improved durability and life. The Cessna Denali's first flight is expected in 2018.

"For nearly a century, since B.F. Goodrich invented pneumatic de-icing boots in 1928, our company has been at the forefront of de-icing solutions," said Mark Skarohlid, Vice President of Business Development for Sensors & Integrated Systems, UTC Aerospace Systems. "We're proud of our de-icing legacy and dedicated to honoring it through continued innovations and our ongoing commitment to peerless customer service."

For more information on UTC Aerospace Systems de-icing solutions, stop by the company's booth at the Oshkosh Air Show in Hangar B, # 2130, or visit http://www.goodrichdeicing.com/.

About UTC Aerospace Systems

UTC Aerospace Systems is one of the world's largest suppliers of technologically advanced aerospace and defense products. UTC Aerospace Systems designs, manufactures and services integrated systems and components for the aerospace and defense industries, supporting a global customer base with significant worldwide manufacturing and customer service facilities. For more information about the company, visit our website at www.utcaerospacesystems.com or follow us on Twitter: @utcaerosystems

About United Technologies Corporation

United Technologies Corp., based in Farmington, Connecticut, provides high-technology systems and services to the building and aerospace industries. By combining a passion for science with precision engineering, the company is creating smart, sustainable solutions the world needs. For more information about the company, visit our website at www.utc.com or follow us on Twitter: @UTC

www.utcaerospacesystems.com

@utcaerosystems

SOURCE UTC Aerospace Systems

Related Links

http://www.utcaerospacesystems.com


RIVERSIDE, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Ron Duong of the Duong Retail Group closed escrow on two Inland Empire Retail properties. The University Heights Shopping Center by the University of California, Riverside was sold to a private investor based in San Bernardino County. Ron Duong and Roy Dilekoglu represented both the buyer and the seller on the transaction with an aggressive marketing campaign that resulted in multiple offers generated within two weeks of listing the property and a record low cap rate of 5 percent. Ron Duong and Peter Deltondo also represented the buyer and seller of a new Black Bear Diner in Chino, California. The sale of Black Bear Diner represents the first ever Black Bear Diner to hit the market and sell in the Inland Empire closing at a cap rate of 5.18 percent resulting in one of the lowest cap rates for a Black Bear Diner to have traded at. According to Duong, "Despite some concerns in the media on the direction of retail, the appetite for quality retail properties remains strong. We implemented an aggressive marketing campaign that leverages Marcus & Millichap's platform to generate multiple offers to achieve record pricing for our clients."

Duong Retail Group

Ron Duong, lead broker of the Duong Retail Group is a top agent in Marcus & Millichap's Newport Beach office. Last year alone Ron closed over $112,000,000 in sales and is on track to double that number in 2017. Ron's track record of closings represents some of the highest prices and most aggressive cap rates in the marketplace.

About Marcus & Millichap

With over 1,600 investment sales and financing professionals located throughout the United States and Canada, Marcus & Millichap is a leading specialist in commercial real estate investment sales, financing, research and advisory services. Founded in 1971, the firm closed over 8,700 transactions in 2015 with a value of approximately $37.8 billion. The company has perfected a powerful system for marketing properties that combines investment specialization, local market expertise, the industry's most comprehensive research, state-of-the-art technology, and relationships with the largest pool of qualified investors. To learn more, please visit www.MarcusMillichap.com.

For questions or comments, please contact:

Ron Duong

[email protected]

949 419-3233

Related Images

image1.jpg

image2.jpg

SOURCE Duong Retail Group
ARLINGTON, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Eagle Hill Consulting has earned another top workplace award, this time selected by The Washington Business Journal as a Best Place to Work in the large-sized company category. The award further solidifies the company's position as a leading employee-friendly company in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. Eagle Hill has earned multiple best workplace awards from The Washington Post and Washingtonian, as well as multiple top rankings in the Vault 50 Consulting Ranking.

The Washington Business Journal's 11th annual Best Places to Work program honors 85 companies that scored highest among hundreds of employers that participated in Quantum Workplace's annual employee engagement survey. The results are quantitative, and are based on survey responses from employees rather than a panel of outside judges. Employees were asked to rate different aspects of their work, including communication and resources, work-life balance, personal engagement, managerial effectiveness, team dynamics, trust in leadership among other areas.

"This win says that as Eagle Hill grows, we are staying true to our employee centric culture  and that's non-negotiable for me," says Melissa Jezior, president and chief executive officer of Eagle Hill. "Of course, managing rapid growth, client needs, and the employee experience can be a balancing act. But through continuous collaboration and communication with our employee team, we're doing it  and doing it well," Jezior says.

The company has experienced 49 percent average revenue growth since 2006, and the Virginia Chamber of Commerce recently named Eagle Hill this year as one of the fastest growing companies in the state. Throughout this growth period, employee satisfaction remains high. Eagle Hill's employee retention rate is 93 percent, and its employee survey shows a satisfaction rate of 96 percent.

Jezior said that Eagle Hill is honored to be recognized by The Washington Business Journal. "We will live up to the accolades by continuing to provide real and meaningful work-life balance, as well as growth and leadership opportunities for our team. Ultimately, our clients benefit because they know they count on the Eagle Hill team to consistently deliver management consulting results that exceed their expectations."

Eagle Hill's founders broke from the pack of large, traditional consulting companies to establish a firm that is truly collaborative, unified in nature and possesses an entrepreneurial spirit. The company considers itself to be a community of consultants, rather than a traditional consultancy. As a result, Eagle Hill is uniquely positioned to help solve client business problems across various industries.

Watch a video about Eagle Hill's employee culture at http://eaglehillconsulting.com/careers/.

Read about unconventional employee career paths at http://eaglehillconsulting.com/careers/unconventional-career-paths/.

Learn about Eagle Hill's current career opportunities at https://us851.dayforcehcm.com/CandidatePortal/en-US/eaglehill.

Eagle Hill Consulting LLC is a woman-owned business that provides management consulting services in the areas of business strategy, organizational transformation, human capital transformation, process improvement, program management and change management. Eagle Hill works with a range of public, private and non-profit organizations across the country with offices in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area and in Seattle, WA. More information is available at www.eaglehillconsulting.com.

SOURCE Eagle Hill Consulting

Related Links

http://www.eaglehillconsulting.com


CHICAGO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Enova International (NYSE: ENVA), a leading financial technology company offering consumer and small business loans and financing, today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

"We are pleased with the progress we are seeing in each of our six growth businesses, which was driven this quarter by continued healthy demand and good credit performance," said David Fisher, Enova's CEO. "We believe our leading competitive position, built on our world class analytics and technology platform, positions us well to execute our focused growth strategy and maintain strong profitability."

Second Quarter 2017 Summary

Total revenue of $189.9 million in the second quarter of 2017 increased 10.1% from $172.5 million in the second quarter of 2016.

in the second quarter of 2017 increased 10.1% from in the second quarter of 2016. Gross profit margin was 57.9% in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 62.1% in the second quarter of 2016, driven by stronger growth in the U.S. installment loan and receivables purchase agreements and a higher mix of new customers, which requires higher loan loss provisions.

Net income of $11.9 million , or $0.35 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2017 increased from $8.2 million , or $0.25 per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2016. Second quarter 2017 adjusted EBITDA of $41.6 million , a non-GAAP measure, increased from $35.2 million in the second quarter of 2016.

, or per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2017 increased from , or per diluted share, in the second quarter of 2016. Second quarter 2017 adjusted EBITDA of , a non-GAAP measure, increased from in the second quarter of 2016. Second quarter 2017 adjusted earnings per share of $0.41 , a non-GAAP measure, increased 46.4% from $0.28 in the second quarter of 2016.

"Our financial results demonstrate the strong operating leverage in our online business model and solid credit performance," said Steve Cunningham, CFO of Enova. "Diluted earnings per share and adjusted EBITDA came in at the high end of our guidance range, driven by efficient marketing and effective operating expense management."

Enova ended the second quarter of 2017 with unrestricted cash and cash equivalents of $46.2 million. As of June 30, 2017, the company had total debt outstanding of $638.7 million, which included $152.0 million outstanding under Enova's $295 million securitization facilities. During the second quarter, Enova generated $66.2 million of cash flow from operations.

Outlook

For the third quarter of 2017, Enova expects total revenue of $200 million to $220 million, GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.02 to $0.21, adjusted EBITDA of $25 million to $35 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $0.07 to $0.25. For the full year 2017, Enova expects total revenue of $810 million to $860 million, GAAP diluted earnings per share of $0.88 to $1.24, adjusted EBITDA of $145 million to $165 million, and adjusted earnings per share of $1.07 to $1.43.

For information regarding the non-GAAP financial measures discussed in this release, please see "Non-GAAP Financial Measures" and "Reconciliation of GAAP to Non-GAAP Financial Measures" below.

Conference Call

Enova will host a conference call to discuss its results at 4 p.m. Central Time / 5 p.m. Eastern Time today, Thursday, July 27th. The live webcast of the call can be accessed at the Enova Investor Relations website at http://ir.enova.com, along with the company's earnings press release and supplemental financial information. The U.S. dial-in for the call is 1-855-560-2575 (1-412-542-4161 for non-U.S. callers). Please ask to be joined to the Enova International call. A replay of the conference call will be available until August 10, 2017, at 10:59 p.m. Central Time / 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time, while an archived version of the webcast will be available on the Enova Investor Relations website for 90 days. The U.S. dial-in for the conference call replay is 1-877-344-7529 (1-412-317-0088). The replay access code is 1010-9454.

About Enova

Enova (NYSE: ENVA) is a leading provider of online financial services to non-prime consumers and small businesses, providing access to credit powered by its advanced analytics, innovative technology, and world-class online platform and services. Enova has provided almost five million customers around the globe access to more than $20 billion in loans and financing. The financial technology company has a portfolio of trusted brands serving consumers, including CashNetUSA, DollarsDirect, NetCredit, On Stride Financial, Pounds to Pocket, QuickQuid and Simplic; two brands serving small businesses, Headway Capital and The Business Backer; and offers online lending platform services to lenders. Through its Enova Decisions brand, it also delivers on-demand decision-making technology and real-time predictive analytics services to clients. You can learn more about the company and its brands at www.enova.com.

Cautionary Statement Concerning Forward Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 about the business, financial condition and prospects of Enova. These forward-looking statements give current expectations or forecasts of future events and reflect the views and assumptions of Enova's senior management with respect to the business, financial condition and prospects of Enova as of the date of this release and are not guarantees of future performance. The actual results of Enova could differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements because of various risks and uncertainties applicable to Enova's business, including, without limitation, those risks and uncertainties indicated in Enova's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including our annual report on Form 10-K, quarterly reports on Forms 10-Q and current reports on Forms 8-K. These risks and uncertainties are beyond the ability of Enova to control, and, in many cases, Enova cannot predict all of the risks and uncertainties that could cause its actual results to differ materially from those indicated by the forward-looking statements. When used in this release, the words "believes," "estimates," "plans," "expects," "anticipates" and similar expressions or variations as they relate to Enova or its management are intended to identify forward-looking statements. Enova cautions you not to put undue reliance on these statements. Enova disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements after the date of this release.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

In addition to the financial information prepared in conformity with generally accepted accounting principles, or GAAP, Enova provides historical non-GAAP financial information. Management believes that presentation of non-GAAP financial information is meaningful and useful in understanding the activities and business metrics of Enova's operations. Management believes that these non-GAAP financial measures reflect an additional way of viewing aspects of Enova's business that, when viewed with its GAAP results, provide a more complete understanding of factors and trends affecting its business.

Management provides non-GAAP financial information for informational purposes and to enhance understanding of Enova's GAAP consolidated financial statements. Readers should consider the information in addition to, but not instead of or superior to, Enova's financial statements prepared in accordance with GAAP. This non-GAAP financial information may be determined or calculated differently by other companies, limiting the usefulness of those measures for comparative purposes.

Combined Loans and Finance Receivables

Enova has provided combined loans and finance receivables, which is a non-GAAP measure. Enova also reports allowances and liabilities for estimated losses on loans and finance receivables individually and on a combined basis, which are GAAP measures that are included in Enova's financial statements. Management believes these measures provide investors with important information needed to evaluate the magnitude of potential cost of revenue and the opportunity for revenue performance of the loan and finance receivables portfolio on an aggregate basis. Management believes that the comparison of the aggregate amounts from period to period is more meaningful than comparing only the residual amount on Enova's balance sheet since both revenue and the cost of revenue for loans and finance receivables are impacted by the aggregate amount of loans and finance receivables owned by Enova and those guaranteed by Enova as reflected in its financial statements.

Adjusted Earnings and Adjusted Earnings Per Share

In addition to reporting financial results in accordance with GAAP, Enova has provided adjusted earnings and adjusted earnings per share, or, collectively, the Adjusted Earnings Measures, which are non-GAAP measures. Management believes that the presentation of these measures provides investors with greater transparency and facilitates comparison of operating results across a broad spectrum of companies with varying capital structures, compensation strategies, derivative instruments and amortization methods, which provides a more complete understanding of Enova's financial performance, competitive position and prospects for the future. Management also believes that investors regularly rely on non-GAAP financial measures, such as the Adjusted Earnings Measures, to assess operating performance and that such measures may highlight trends in Enova's business that may not otherwise be apparent when relying on financial measures calculated in accordance with GAAP. In addition, management believes that the adjustments shown below are useful to investors in order to allow them to compare Enova's financial results during the periods shown without the effect of certain expense items.

Adjusted EBITDA

Adjusted EBITDA is a non-GAAP measure that Enova defines as earnings excluding depreciation, amortization, interest, foreign currency transaction gains or losses, taxes, and stock-based compensation, and Adjusted EBITDA margin is a non-GAAP measure that Enova defines as Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue. Management believes Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are used by investors to analyze operating performance and evaluate Enova's ability to incur and service debt and Enova's capacity for making capital expenditures. Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin are also useful to investors to help assess Enova's estimated enterprise value. The computation of Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin as presented below may differ from the computation of similarly-titled measures provided by other companies.

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (dollars in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)





June 30,



December 31,





2017



2016



2016

Assets























Cash and cash equivalents

$ 46,209



$ 39,167



$ 39,934

Restricted cash and cash equivalents (includes restricted cash of consolidated VIEs of $19,119, $13,930 and $19,468 as of June 30, 2017 and 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively)



26,636





34,601





26,306

Loans and finance receivables, net (includes loans of consolidated VIEs of $240,444, $155,313 and $234,497 and allowance for losses of $17,072, $13,024 and $17,731 as of June 30, 2017 and 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively)



563,996





489,990





561,550

Income taxes receivable



13,410













Other receivables and prepaid expenses



22,006





18,468





19,524

Property and equipment, net



44,329





47,206





47,100

Goodwill



267,012





267,013





267,010

Intangible assets, net



4,865





5,946





5,404

Other assets



13,406





8,478





11,051

Total assets

$ 1,001,869



$ 910,869



$ 977,879

Liabilities and Stockholders' Equity























Accounts payable and accrued expenses

$ 62,799



$ 75,175



$ 71,671

Income taxes currently payable









2,912





282

Deferred tax liabilities, net



25,753





19,677





14,316

Long-term debt (includes long-term debt of consolidated VIEs of $151,987, $106,846 and $165,419 and debt issuance costs of $1,054, $2,948 and $1,869, as of June 30, 2017 and 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively)



638,749





588,824





649,911

Total liabilities



727,301





686,588





736,180

Commitments and contingencies























Stockholders' equity:























Common stock, $0.00001 par value, 250,000,000 shares authorized, 33,752,662, 33,236,539 and 33,364,525 shares issued and 33,635,215, 33,197,558 and 33,293,100 outstanding as of June 30, 2017 and 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively

















Preferred stock, $0.00001 par value, 25,000,000 shares authorized, no shares issued and outstanding

















Additional paid in capital



23,753





14,073





18,446

Retained earnings



261,180





218,904





235,455

Accumulated other comprehensive loss



(9,069)





(8,447)





(11,578)

Treasury stock, at cost (117,447, 38,981 and 71,425 shares as of June 30, 2017 and 2016 and December 31, 2016, respectively)



(1,296)





(249)





(624)

Total stockholders' equity



274,568





224,281





241,699

Total liabilities and stockholders' equity

$ 1,001,869



$ 910,869



$ 977,879



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME (in thousands, except per share data) (Unaudited)





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2017



2016



2017



2016

Revenue

$ 189,904



$ 172,535



$ 382,167



$ 347,188

Cost of Revenue



79,862





65,453





161,746





135,030

Gross Profit



110,042





107,082





220,421





212,158

Expenses































Marketing



23,410





25,597





42,993





46,778

Operations and technology



21,818





20,935





45,349





41,069

General and administrative



26,245





27,515





51,941





55,440

Depreciation and amortization



3,366





4,228





6,863





8,215

Total Expenses



74,839





78,275





147,146





151,502

Income from Operations



35,203





28,807





73,275





60,656

Interest expense, net



(17,012)





(16,026)





(34,234)





(31,941)

Foreign currency transaction gain



62





471





289





2,039

Income before Income Taxes



18,253





13,252





39,330





30,754

Provision for income taxes



6,380





5,064





13,605





12,703

Net Income

$ 11,873



$ 8,188



$ 25,725



$ 18,051

Earnings Per Share:































Earnings per common share:































Basic

$ 0.35



$ 0.25



$ 0.77



$ 0.54

Diluted

$ 0.35



$ 0.25



$ 0.75



$ 0.54

Weighted average common shares outstanding:































Basic



33,553





33,175





33,463





33,159

Diluted



34,125





33,335





34,081





33,261



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOW (dollars in thousands) (Unaudited)





Six Months Ended June 30,





2017



2016

Cash flows provided by operating activities

$ 186,058



$ 180,507

Cash flows used in investing activities















Loans and finance receivables



(164,731)





(190,184)

Change in restricted cash



13





(27,935)

Property and equipment additions



(5,301)





(7,649)

Other investing activities



1,482





95

Total cash flows used in investing activities



(168,537)





(225,673)

Cash flows (used in) provided by financing activities



(15,900)





45,113

Effect of exchange rates on cash



4,654





(2,846)

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents



6,275





(2,899)

Cash and cash equivalents at beginning of year



39,934





42,066

Cash and cash equivalents at end of period

$ 46,209



$ 39,167



ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES GEOGRAPHIC INFORMATION (dollars in thousands)

The following tables present information on Enova's domestic and international operations for the three and six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016.





Three Months Ended

June 30,





















2017



2016



$ Change



% Change

Domestic:































Revenue

$ 158,073



$ 140,342



$ 17,731





12.6 % Cost of revenue



67,393





57,752





9,641





16.7

Gross profit

$ 90,680



$ 82,590



$ 8,090





9.8

Gross profit margin



57.4 %



58.8 %



(1.4) %



(2.4) % International:































Revenue

$ 31,831



$ 32,193



$ (362)





(1.1) % Cost of revenue



12,469





7,701





4,768





61.9

Gross profit

$ 19,362



$ 24,492



$ (5,130)





(20.9)

Gross profit margin



60.8 %



76.1 %



(15.3) %



(20.1) % Total:































Revenue

$ 189,904



$ 172,535



$ 17,369





10.1 % Cost of revenue



79,862





65,453





14,409





22.0

Gross profit

$ 110,042



$ 107,082



$ 2,960





2.8

Gross profit margin



57.9 %



62.1 %



(4.2) %



(6.8) %





Six Months Ended June 30,





















2017



2016



$ Change



% Change

Domestic:































Revenue

$ 322,742



$ 283,770



$ 38,972





13.7 % Cost of revenue



138,042





118,208





19,834





16.8

Gross profit

$ 184,700



$ 165,562



$ 19,138





11.6

Gross profit margin



57.2 %



58.3 %



(1.1) %



(1.9) % International:































Revenue

$ 59,425



$ 63,418



$ (3,993)





(6.3) % Cost of revenue



23,704





16,822





6,882





40.9

Gross profit

$ 35,721



$ 46,596



$ (10,875)





(23.3)

Gross profit margin



60.1 %



73.5 %



(13.4) %



(18.2) % Total:































Revenue

$ 382,167



$ 347,188



$ 34,979





10.1 % Cost of revenue



161,746





135,030





26,716





19.8

Gross profit

$ 220,421



$ 212,158



$ 8,263





3.9

Gross profit margin



57.7 %



61.1 %



(3.4) %



(5.6) %

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES LOANS AND FINANCE RECEIVABLES FINANCIAL AND OPERATING DATA (dollars in thousands)

The following table shows loans and finance receivables and related loan loss activity, which is based on loan and finance receivable balances, for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016.

Three Months Ended June 30,

2017



2016



Change

Cost of revenue

$ 79,862



$ 65,453



$ 14,409

Charge-offs (net of recoveries)



78,768





58,558





20,210

Average combined loans and finance receivables, gross:























Company owned(a)



619,699





522,099





97,600

Guaranteed by Enova(a)(b)



24,999





27,537





(2,538)

Average combined loans and finance receivables, gross (a)(c)

$ 644,698



$ 549,636



$ 95,062

Ending combined loans and finance receivables, gross:























Company owned

$ 647,835



$ 563,810



$ 84,025

Guaranteed by Enova(b)



28,013





31,227





(3,214)

Ending combined loans and finance receivables, gross (c)

$ 675,848



$ 595,037



$ 80,811

Ending allowance and liability for losses

$ 85,780



$ 75,653



$ 10,127

Combined originations (d)

$ 512,546



$ 516,099



$ (3,553)



























Loans and finance receivables ratios:























Cost of revenue as a % of average combined loans and finance receivables, gross(a)(c)



12.4 %



11.9 %



0.5 % Charge-offs (net of recoveries) as a % of average combined loans and finance receivables, gross(a)(c)



12.2 %



10.7 %



1.5 % Gross profit margin



57.9 %



62.1 %



(4.2) % Allowance and liability for losses as a % of combined loans and finance receivables, gross(c)(e)



12.7 %



12.7 %



 %

__________________ (a) The average combined loans and finance receivables, gross, is the average of the month-end balances during the period. (b) Represents loans originated by third-party lenders through the credit services organization (or CSO) programs, which are not included in Enova's financial statements. (c) Non-GAAP measure. See the above discussion for additional information regarding combined loans and finance receivables. (d) Represents loans and finance receivables originated by Enova and third-party lenders (including through the CSO programs) and includes renewals of existing origination agreements to customers in good standing. The disclosure is statistical data that is not included in Enova's financial statements. (e) Allowance and liability for losses as a percentage of combined loans and finance receivables, gross, is determined using period-end balances.

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (dollars in thousands, except per share data)

Adjusted Earnings Measures





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2017



2016



2017



2016

Net Income

$ 11,873



$ 8,188



$ 25,725



$ 18,051

Adjustments:































Intangible asset amortization



271





276





542





596

Stock-based compensation expense



2,987





2,181





5,307





4,149

Foreign currency transaction gain



(62)





(471)





(289)





(2,039)

Cumulative tax effect of adjustments



(1,113)





(803)





(1,923)





(1,118)



































Adjusted earnings

$ 13,956



$ 9,371



$ 29,362



$ 19,639



































Diluted earnings per share

$ 0.35



$ 0.25



$ 0.75



$ 0.54



































Adjusted earnings per share

$ 0.41



$ 0.28



$ 0.86



$ 0.59





Adjusted EBITDA





Three Months Ended



Six Months Ended





June 30,



June 30,





2017



2016



2017



2016

Net Income

$ 11,873



$ 8,188



$ 25,725



$ 18,051

Depreciation and amortization expenses



3,366





4,228





6,863





8,215

Interest expense, net



17,012





16,026





34,234





31,941

Foreign currency transaction gain



(62)





(471)





(289)





(2,039)

Provision for income taxes



6,380





5,064





13,605





12,703

Stock-based compensation expense



2,987





2,181





5,307





4,149



































Adjusted EBITDA

$ 41,556



$ 35,216



$ 85,445



$ 73,020



































Adjusted EBITDA margin calculated as follows:































Total Revenue

$ 189,904



$ 172,535



$ 382,167



$ 347,188

Adjusted EBITDA



41,556





35,216





85,445





73,020

Adjusted EBITDA as a percentage of total revenue



21.9 %



20.4 %



22.4 %



21.0 %

ENOVA INTERNATIONAL, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES RECONCILIATION OF GAAP TO NON-GAAP FINANCIAL MEASURES (dollars in thousands)

Estimated Adjusted EBITDA For 2017

The following tables reconcile estimated Income from operations to Adjusted EBITDA, a non-GAAP measure:





Estimated Results





Three Months Ended September 30, 2017





Low



High





Unaudited

Income from operations



18,000





28,000

Depreciation and amortization



4,000





4,000

Stock-based compensation expense



3,000





3,000

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 25,000



$ 35,000























Estimated Results





Year Ended December 31, 2017





Low



High





Unaudited

Income from operations

$ 119,000



$ 139,000

Depreciation and amortization



15,000





15,000

Stock-based compensation expense



11,000





11,000

Adjusted EBITDA

$ 145,000



$ 165,000



SOURCE Enova International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.enova.com


ATLANTA, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Revenue of $856.7 million was up 6 percent (7 percent in local currency) compared to the second quarter of 2016.

was up 6 percent (7 percent in local currency) compared to the second quarter of 2016. Diluted EPS of $1.36 was up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

was up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EPS of $1.60 was up 12 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

was up 12 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Net income attributable to Equifax of $165.4 million was up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

was up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 39.1 percent compared to 36.6 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

Equifax Inc. (NYSE: EFX) today announced financial results for the quarter ended June 30, 2017.

"Second quarter performance reflects outstanding execution by the team and the strength of our unique portfolio of businesses," said Richard F. Smith, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer at Equifax. "The team continues to make significant progress on new product innovation and our enterprise growth initiatives, both in the U.S. and around the world. We remain confident in our outlook for 2017 and are optimistic about the opportunities in front of us as we look ahead to 2018."

Financial Results Summary

The company reported revenue of $856.7 million in the second quarter of 2017, a 6 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2016 on a reported basis and up 7 percent on a local currency basis.

Second quarter diluted EPS attributable to Equifax was $1.36, up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EPS attributable to Equifax was $1.60, up 12 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. This financial measure for 2017 excludes the income tax effects of stock awards recognized upon vesting or settlement and for 2016 excludes Veda acquisition related amounts. The financial measure for both 2017 and 2016 excludes acquisition-related amortization expense, net of associated tax impacts. These items are described more fully in the attached Q&A.

Net income attributable to Equifax of $165.4 million was up 26 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 39.1 percent, compared to 36.6 percent in the second quarter of 2016. These financial measures for 2017 and 2016 have been adjusted for certain items, which affect the comparability of the underlying operational performance and are described more fully in the attached Q&A.

USIS delivered strong revenue growth driven by mortgage, marketing and analytic services, and identity and fraud solutions.

Total revenue was $331.9 million in the second quarter of 2017 compared to $307.9 million in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of 8 percent. Operating margin for USIS was 45.1 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 43.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for USIS was 51.5 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 50.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

in the second quarter of 2017 compared to in the second quarter of 2016, an increase of 8 percent. Operating margin for USIS was 45.1 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 43.5 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for USIS was 51.5 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 50.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Online Information Solutions revenue was $232.6 million , up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Mortgage Solutions revenue was $38.6 million , up 10 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, up 10 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016. Financial Marketing Services revenue was $60.7 million , up 15 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016.

International drove double-digit local currency growth and continued to make progress on their technology platforms and new product initiatives.

Total revenue was $231.4 million in the second quarter of 2017, up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and a 10 percent increase on a local currency basis. Operating margin for International was 19.9 percent in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 15.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for International was 30.9 percent in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 28.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

in the second quarter of 2017, up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and a 10 percent increase on a local currency basis. Operating margin for International was 19.9 percent in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 15.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for International was 30.9 percent in the second quarter of 2017, compared to 28.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Asia Pacific revenue was $76.5 million , up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 4 percent on a local currency basis.

revenue was , up 6 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 4 percent on a local currency basis. Europe revenue was $68.5 million , up 2 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 12 percent on a local currency basis.

revenue was , up 2 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 12 percent on a local currency basis. Latin America revenue was $52.9 million , up 13 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 14 percent on a local currency basis.

revenue was , up 13 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 14 percent on a local currency basis. Canada revenue was $33.5 million , up 4 percent compared to the second quarter of 2016 and up 8 percent on a local currency basis.

Workforce Solutions continued to deliver double-digit growth with strong performance across multiple verticals.

Total revenue was $194.5 million in the second quarter of 2017, a 10 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2016. Operating margin for Workforce Solutions was 45.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 44.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Workforce Solutions was 51.2 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 50.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

in the second quarter of 2017, a 10 percent increase compared to the second quarter of 2016. Operating margin for Workforce Solutions was 45.7 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 44.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin for Workforce Solutions was 51.2 percent in the second quarter of 2017 compared to 50.2 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Verification Services revenue was $130.3 million , up 19 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2016.

, up 19 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2016. Employer Services revenue was $64.2 million , down 5 percent when compared to the second quarter of 2016.

Global Consumer Solutions revenue declined in the quarter.

Revenue was $98.9 million , an 8 percent decrease compared to the second quarter of 2016 and down 7 percent on a local currency basis. Operating margin was 27.7 percent compared to 24.0 percent in the second quarter of 2016. Adjusted EBITDA margin was 31.0 percent compared to 26.4 percent in the second quarter of 2016.

Third Quarter 2017 and Full Year 2017 Outlook

We are off to a strong start through the first half of 2017. For the third quarter, at current exchange rates, we expect revenue to be between $853 and $861 million, reflecting growth of 6-7 percent, with limited foreign exchange impact. Adjusted EPS is expected to be between $1.50 and $1.54 which is up 4 percent to 7 percent, also with limited foreign exchange impact.

We expect full year 2017 revenue to be between $3.395 and $3.425 billion, reflecting constant currency growth of approximately 9 percent. Adjusted EPS for the year is expected to be between $6.02 and $6.10, which is up approximately 10 percent.

About Equifax

Equifax is a global information solutions company that uses trusted unique data, innovative analytics, technology and industry expertise to power organizations and individuals around the world by transforming knowledge into insights that help make more informed business and personal decisions. The company organizes, assimilates and analyzes data on more than 820 million consumers and more than 91 million businesses worldwide, and its database includes employee data contributed from more than 7,100 employers.

Headquartered in Atlanta, Ga., Equifax operates or has investments in 24 countries in North America, Central and South America, Europe and the Asia Pacific region. It is a member of Standard & Poor's (S&P) 500 Index, and its common stock is traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) under the symbol EFX. Equifax employs approximately 9,900 employees worldwide.

Some noteworthy achievements for the company include: Named to the Top 100 American Banker FinTech Forward list (2015-2016); named a Top Technology Provider on the FinTech 100 list (2004-2016); named an InformationWeek Elite 100 Winner (2014-2015); named a Top Workplace by Atlanta Journal Constitution (2013-2017); named one of Fortune's World's Most Admired Companies (2011-2015); named one of Forbes' World's 100 Most Innovative Companies (2015-2016). For more information, visit www.equifax.com.

Earnings Conference Call and Audio Webcast

In conjunction with this release, Equifax will host a conference call tomorrow, July 27, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. (ET) via a live audio webcast. To access the webcast, go to the Investor Relations section of our website at www.equifax.com.The discussion will be available via replay at the same site shortly after the conclusion of the webcast. This press release is also available on that website.

Non-GAAP Financial Measures

This earnings release presents adjusted EPS attributable to Equifax which is diluted EPS attributable to Equifax adjusted (to the extent noted above for different periods) for acquisition-related amortization expense, net of tax, acquisition-specific transaction and due diligence expense, as well as integration expense through Q1 2017 following the closure of the acquisition, the adjustment of redeemable noncontrolling interest that reflects a redemption value in excess of fair value, the income tax effects of stock awards that are recognized upon vesting or settlement and adjustments for uncertain tax positions related to the recent settlement of an income tax audit. This earnings release also presents adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin which is defined as consolidated net income attributable to Equifax plus net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and also excludes certain one-time items. These are important financial measures for Equifax but are not financial measures as defined by GAAP.

These non-GAAP financial measures should be reviewed in conjunction with the relevant GAAP financial measures and are not presented as an alternative measure of net income or EPS as determined in accordance with GAAP.

Reconciliations of these non-GAAP financial measures to the most directly comparable GAAP financial measures and related notes are presented in the Q&A. This information can also be found under "Investor Relations/Financial Information/Non-GAAP Financial Measures" on our website at www.equifax.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This release contains forward-looking statements and forward-looking information. These statements can be identified by expressions of belief, expectation or intention, as well as statements that are not historical fact. These statements are based on certain factors and assumptions including with respect to foreign exchange rates, expected growth, results of operations, performance, business prospects and opportunities and effective tax rates. While the company believes these factors and assumptions to be reasonable based on information currently available, they may prove to be incorrect.

Several factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in the forward-looking statements, including, but not limited to actions taken by us, including restructuring or strategic initiatives (including capital investments or asset acquisitions or dispositions), as well as from developments beyond our control, including, but not limited to, changes in worldwide and U.S. economic conditions that materially impact consumer spending, consumer debt and employment and the demand for Equifax's products and services. Other risk factors include adverse or uncertain economic conditions and changes in credit and financial markets; economic, political and other risks associated with international sales and operations; risks relating to illegal first party efforts to access data or other cybersecurity or physical security breaches; changes in, and the effects of, laws and regulations and government policies governing our business, including, without limitation, our examination and supervision by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("CFPB"), a federal agency that holds primary responsibility for the regulation of consumer protection with respect to financial products and services in the U.S., oversight by the U.K. Financial Conduct Authority and Information Commissioner's Office of our debt collections services and core credit reporting businesses in the U.K. and oversight by the Office of Australian Information Commission, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and other regulatory entities of our credit reporting business in Australia; federal or state responses to identity theft concerns; potential adverse developments in new and pending legal proceedings or government investigations, including investigations or examinations undertaken by the CFPB, State Attorneys General or other governmental agencies; our ability to successfully develop and market new products and services, respond to pricing and other competitive pressures, complete and integrate acquisitions and other investments and achieve targeted cost efficiencies; timing and amount of capital expenditures; changes in capital markets and corresponding effects on the company's investments and benefit plan obligations; foreign currency exchange rates and earnings repatriation limitations; and the decisions of taxing authorities, all of which could affect our effective tax rates. A summary of additional risks and uncertainties can be found in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, including without limitation under the captions "Item 1. Business -- Governmental Regulation" and "-- Forward-Looking Statements" and "Item 1A. Risk Factors," and in our other filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Forward-looking statements are given only as at the date of this release and the company disclaims any obligation to update or revise the forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

1550 Peachtree Street, NE

Atlanta, Georgia 30309

Marisa Salcines

Media Relations

678-795-7286

[email protected]

Jeff Dodge

Investor Relations

404-885-8804

[email protected]

EQUIFAX

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF INCOME





Three Months Ended June 30,



2017

2016 (In millions, except per share amounts)

(Unaudited) Operating revenue

$ 856.7



$ 811.3

Operating expenses:







Cost of services (exclusive of depreciation and amortization below)

293.7



285.8

Selling, general and administrative expenses

228.4



231.6

Depreciation and amortization

70.5



68.2

Total operating expenses

592.6



585.6

Operating income

264.1



225.7

Interest expense

(24.6)



(23.6)

Other income (expense), net

3.1



(0.8)

Consolidated income before income taxes

242.6



201.3

Provision for income taxes

(75.0)



(68.3)

Consolidated net income

167.6



133.0

Less: Net income attributable to noncontrolling interests including redeemable noncontrolling interests

(2.2)



(2.1)

Net income attributable to Equifax

$ 165.4



$ 130.9

Basic earnings per common share:







Net income attributable to Equifax

$ 1.37



$ 1.10

Weighted-average shares used in computing basic earnings per share

120.3



119.2

Diluted earnings per common share:







Net income attributable to Equifax

$ 1.36



$ 1.08

Weighted-average shares used in computing diluted earnings per share

121.9



121.1

Dividends per common share

$ 0.39



$ 0.33



EQUIFAX

CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS





June 30, 2017

December 31, 2016 (In millions, except par values)

(Unaudited) ASSETS







Current assets:







Cash and cash equivalents

$ 403.9



$ 129.3

Trade accounts receivable, net of allowance for doubtful accounts of $9.5 and $7.8 at June 30, 2017 and

December 31, 2016, respectively

462.4



433.3

Prepaid expenses

71.4



60.2

Other current assets

63.0



50.1

Total current assets

1,000.7



672.9

Property and equipment:







Capitalized internal-use software and system costs

355.7



307.0

Data processing equipment and furniture

293.3



273.2

Land, buildings and improvements

210.4



203.8

Total property and equipment

859.4



784.0

Less accumulated depreciation and amortization

(361.3)



(317.1)

Total property and equipment, net

498.1



466.9

Goodwill

4,063.9



3,974.3

Indefinite-lived intangible assets

94.9



94.8

Purchased intangible assets, net

1,272.7



1,323.8

Other assets, net

128.0



131.3

Total assets

$ 7,058.3



$ 6,664.0

LIABILITIES AND EQUITY







Current liabilities:







Short-term debt and current maturities of long-term debt

$ 794.2



$ 585.4

Accounts payable

66.5



81.0

Accrued expenses

127.0



149.3

Accrued salaries and bonuses

94.4



158.8

Deferred revenue

104.7



110.7

Other current liabilities

156.6



174.4

Total current liabilities

1,343.4



1,259.6

Long-term debt

2,038.1



2,086.8

Deferred income tax liabilities, net

325.4



325.4

Long-term pension and other postretirement benefit liabilities

178.3



184.4

Other long-term liabilities

91.7



86.5

Total liabilities

3,976.9



3,942.7

Equifax shareholders' equity:







Preferred stock, $0.01 par value: Authorized shares - 10.0; Issued shares - none







Common stock, $1.25 par value: Authorized shares - 300.0;

Issued shares - 189.3 at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016;

Outstanding shares - 120.4 and 119.9 at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively

236.6



236.6

Paid-in capital

1,325.1



1,313.3

Retained earnings

4,376.3



4,153.2

Accumulated other comprehensive loss

(405.5)



(528.9)

Treasury stock, at cost, 68.3 shares and 68.8 shares at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016, respectively

(2,505.6)



(2,505.6)

Stock held by employee benefit trusts, at cost, 0.6 shares at June 30, 2017 and December 31, 2016

(5.9)



(5.9)

Total Equifax shareholders' equity

3,021.0



2,662.7

Noncontrolling interests including redeemable noncontrolling interests

60.4



58.6

Total equity

3,081.4



2,721.3

Total liabilities and equity

$ 7,058.3



$ 6,664.0



EQUIFAX

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS





Six Months Ended June 30,



2017

2016 (In millions)

(Unaudited) Operating activities:







Consolidated net income

$ 323.0



$ 235.4

Adjustments to reconcile consolidated net income to net cash provided by operating activities:







Depreciation and amortization

143.5



124.7

Stock-based compensation expense

25.3



22.2

Excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation plans





(20.0)

Deferred income taxes

(6.8)



2.6

Changes in assets and liabilities, excluding effects of acquisitions:







Accounts receivable, net

(24.1)



(42.5)

Other assets, current and long-term

(30.3)



7.5

Current and long term liabilities, excluding debt

(101.5)



(31.4)

Cash provided by operating activities

329.1



298.5

Investing activities:







Capital expenditures

(99.9)



(82.8)

Acquisitions, net of cash acquired

(9.6)



(1,727.8)

Cash received from sale of asset

8.6





Economic hedges





(10.8)

Cash used in investing activities

(100.9)



(1,821.4)

Financing activities:







Net short-term borrowings

208.8



207.5

Payments on long-term debt

(50.0)



(210.0)

Borrowings on long-term debt





1,574.7

Dividends paid to Equifax shareholders

(93.9)



(78.6)

Dividends paid to noncontrolling interests

(6.6)



(5.6)

Proceeds from exercise of stock options

13.0



15.7

Payment of taxes related to settlement of equity awards

(27.0)



(19.0)

Excess tax benefits from stock-based compensation plans





20.0

Other





(5.5)

Cash provided by financing activities

44.3



1,499.2

Effect of foreign currency exchange rates on cash and cash equivalents

2.1



27.2

Increase in cash and cash equivalents

274.6



3.5

Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

129.3



93.3

Cash and cash equivalents, end of period

$ 403.9



$ 96.8



Common Questions & Answers (Unaudited)

(Dollars in millions)

1. Can you provide a further analysis of operating revenue by operating segment?

Operating revenue consists of the following components:

(In millions)

Three months ended June 30,































Local Currency Operating revenue:

2017

2016

$ Change

% Change

% Change* Online Information Solutions

$ 232.6



$ 220.0



$ 12.6



6 %



Mortgage Solutions

38.6



35.0



3.6



10 %



Financial Marketing Services

60.7



52.9



7.8



15 %



Total U.S. Information Solutions

331.9



307.9



24.0



8 %



Asia Pacific

76.5



72.3



4.2



6 %

4 % Europe

68.5



67.3



1.2



2 %

12 % Latin America

52.9



46.9



6.0



13 %

14 % Canada

33.5



32.3



1.2



4 %

8 % Total International

231.4



218.8



12.6



6 %

10 % Verification Services

130.3



109.9



20.4



19 %



Employer Services

64.2



67.4



(3.2)



(5) %



Total Workforce Solutions

194.5



177.3



17.2



10 %



Global Consumer Solutions

98.9



107.3



(8.4)



(8) %

(7) % Total operating revenue

$ 856.7



$ 811.3



$ 45.4



6 %

7 %



*Reflects percentage change in revenue conforming 2017 results using 2016 exchange rates. nm - not meaningful.

2. What was the currency impact on the foreign operations?

The U.S. dollar impact on operating revenue is as follows:





Three months ended June

30, 2017



Operating Revenue (In millions)

Amount

% Asia Pacific

$ 1.0



1 % Europe

(7.0)



(10) % Latin America

(0.8)



(2) % Canada

(1.5)



(5) % Global Consumer Solutions

(1.4)



(1) % Total

$ (9.7)



(1) %

3. What drove the fluctuation in the effective tax rate?

Our effective income tax rate was 30.9% and 34.0% for the three months ended June 30, 2017 and June 30, 2016, respectively. The decrease in our effective income tax rate is primarily attributable to the adoption of the new stock-based compensation guidance we prospectively adopted in the first quarter of 2017 that requires the recognition of the income tax effects of awards in the income statement when the awards vest or are settled. These amounts were previously recognized in additional paid-in-capital. We recognized a $4.8 million tax benefit related to the accounting change in the second quarter of 2017.

Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to the Comparable GAAP Financial Measures (Unaudited)

(Dollars in millions, except per share amounts)

A. Reconciliation of net income attributable to Equifax to diluted EPS attributable to Equifax, adjusted for Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition-related amortization, the income tax effects of stock awards recognized upon vesting or settlement, income taxes related to adjustments, and acquisition-related amortization expense:





Three Months Ended

June 30,







(In millions, except per share amounts)

2017

2016

$ Change

% Change Net income attributable to Equifax

$ 165.4



$ 130.9



$ 34.5



26 % Acquisition-related amortization expense of certain

acquired intangibles (1)

41.8



47.1





(5.3)



(11) % Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition-

related amortization (2)





6.5



(6.5)



(100) % Income tax effects of stock awards that are recognized upon

vesting or settlement (3)

(4.8)







(4.8)



nm Tax impact of adjustments (4)

(7.6)



(11.8)



4.2



nm Net income attributable to Equifax, adjusted for items listed above

194.8



172.7





22.1



13 % Diluted EPS attributable to Equifax, adjusted for items listed above

$ 1.60



$ 1.43



$ 0.17



12 % Weighted-average shares used in computing diluted EPS

121.9



121.1

















nm - not meaningful





(1) During the second quarter of 2017, we recorded acquisition-related amortization expense of certain acquired intangibles of $41.8 million ($34.2 million, net of tax). We calculate this financial measure by excluding the impact of acquisition-related amortization expense and including a benefit to reflect the significant cash income tax savings resulting from the income tax deductibility of amortization for certain acquired intangibles. The $7.6 million of tax is comprised of $13.8 million of tax expense net of $6.2 million of a cash income tax benefit. During the second quarter of 2016, we recorded acquisition-related amortization expense of certain acquired intangibles of $47.1 million ($37.9 million, net of tax). The $9.2 million of tax is comprised of $15.4 million of tax expense net of $6.2 million of a cash income tax benefit.

(2) During the second quarter of 2016, we recorded $6.5 million ($3.9 million, net of tax) for Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition-related amortization. $3.4 million relates to transaction and integration costs in operating income and $3.1 million is recorded in other income and is the impact of foreign currency changes on the transaction structure. See the Notes to this reconciliation for additional detail.

(3) During the second quarter of 2017, we recorded a tax benefit of $4.8 million related to the tax effects of deductions for stock compensation in excess of amounts recorded for compensation costs. See the Notes to this reconciliation for additional detail.

(4) During the second quarter of 2017 we recorded the tax impact of adjustments of $7.6 million comprised of acquisition-related amortization expense of certain acquired intangibles of $7.6 million ($13.8 million of tax expense net of $6.2 million of a cash income tax benefit).

During the second quarter of 2016 we recorded the tax impact of adjustments of $11.8 million comprised of (i) acquisition-related amortization expense of certain acquired intangibles of $9.2 million ($15.4 million of tax expense net of $6.2 million of a cash income tax benefit), and (ii) a tax adjustment of $2.6 million for Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition related amortization.

B. Reconciliation of net income attributable to Equifax to adjusted EBITDA, excluding Veda acquisition related amounts, income taxes, interest expense, net and depreciation and amortization expense, and presentation of adjusted EBITDA margin:





Three Months Ended June 30,







(In millions)

2017

2016

$ Change

% Change Revenue

$ 856.7



$ 811.3



$ 45.4



6 % Net income attributable to Equifax

$ 165.4



$ 130.9



$ 34.5



26 % Income taxes

75.0



68.3



6.7



10 % Interest expense, net*

23.8



23.1



0.7



3 % Depreciation and amortization

70.5



68.2



2.3



3 % Veda acquisition related amounts (1)





6.5



(6.5)



(100) % Adjusted EBITDA, excluding the items listed above

$ 334.7



$ 297.0



$ 37.7



13 % Adjusted EBITDA margin

39.1 %

36.6 %











nm - not meaningful *Excludes interest income of $0.8 million in 2017 and $0.5 million in 2016.



(1) During the second quarter of 2016, we recorded $6.5 million ($3.9 million, net of tax) for Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition-related amortization. $3.4 million relates to transaction and integration costs in operating income and $3.1 million is recorded in other income and is the impact of foreign currency changes on the transaction structure. See the Notes to this reconciliation for additional detail.

C. Reconciliation of operating income to Adjusted EBITDA, excluding Veda acquisition related amounts, income taxes, depreciation and amortization expense, other income, net, noncontrolling interest, and presentation of adjusted EBITDA margin for each of the segments:

(In millions)

Three months ended June 30, 2017





U.S.

Information

Solutions

International

Workforce

Solutions

Global

Consumer

Solutions

General

Corporate

Expense

Total















Revenue

$ 331.9



$ 231.4



$ 194.5



$ 98.9



nm



$ 856.7



Operating Income

149.7



46.1



89.0



27.4



(48.1)



264.1



Depreciation and Amortization

20.8



26.0



10.6



3.2



9.9



70.5



Other income/(expense), net*

0.4



1.7











0.1



2.2



Noncontrolling interest





(2.2)















(2.2)



Adjusted EBITDA

$ 170.9



$ 71.6



$ 99.6



$ 30.6



$ (38.1)



$ 334.6



Operating Margin

45.1 %

19.9 %

45.7 %

27.7 %

nm



30.8 %

Adjusted EBITDA Margin

51.5 %

30.9 %

51.2 %

31.0 %

nm



39.1 %





















































nm - not meaningful *Excludes interest income of $0.8 million in International.



(In millions)

Three months ended June 30, 2016





U.S.

Information

Solutions

International

Workforce

Solutions

Global

Consumer

Solutions

General

Corporate

Expense*

Total















Revenue

$ 307.9



$ 218.8



$ 177.3



$ 107.3



nm



$ 811.3



Operating Income

134.0



33.7



78.3



25.8



(46.1)



225.7



Depreciation and Amortization

20.7



28.2



10.8



2.5



6.0



68.2



Other income/(expense), net**

0.6



(1.5)











(0.4)



(1.3)



Noncontrolling interest





(2.1)















(2.1)



Adjustments (1)





3.9











2.6



6.5



Adjusted EBITDA

$ 155.3



$ 62.2



$ 89.1



$ 28.3



$ (37.9)



$ 297.0



Operating Margin

43.5 %

15.4 %

44.2 %

24.0 %

nm



27.8 %

Adjusted EBITDA Margin

50.4 %

28.4 %

50.2 %

26.4 %

nm



36.6 %





















































nm - not meaningful *General Corporate Expense includes non-recurring adjustments of $2.2 million. **Excludes interest income of $0.5 million in International.

(1) During the second quarter of 2016, we recorded $6.5 million ($3.9 million, net of tax) for Veda acquisition related amounts other than acquisition-related amortization. $3.4 million relates to transaction and integration costs in operating income and $3.1 million is recorded in other income and is the impact of foreign currency changes on the transaction structure. See the Notes to this reconciliation for additional detail.

Notes to Reconciliations of Non-GAAP Financial Measures to the Comparable GAAP Financial Measures

Diluted EPS attributable to Equifax is adjusted for the following items:

Acquisition-related amortization expense, net of tax - We calculate this financial measure by excluding the impact of acquisition-related amortization expense and including a benefit to reflect the material cash income tax savings resulting from the income tax deductibility of amortization for certain acquired intangibles. These financial measures are not prepared in conformity with GAAP. Management believes excluding the impact of amortization expense is useful because excluding acquisition-related amortization, and other items that are not comparable, allows investors to evaluate our performance for different periods on a more comparable basis. Certain acquired intangibles result in material cash income tax savings which are not reflected in earnings. Management believes that including a benefit to reflect the cash income tax savings is useful as it allows investors to better value Equifax. Management makes these adjustments to earnings when measuring profitability, evaluating performance trends, setting performance objectives and calculating our return on invested capital.

Veda acquisition related amounts for transaction and due diligence expenses incurred as a direct result of the acquisition, as well as integration expense in the first year following the closure of the acquisition - During the second quarter of 2017, we did not exclude any amounts related to the Veda acquisition transaction charges. Management believes excluding this charge is useful as it allows investors to evaluate our performance for different periods on a more comparable basis. Management makes these adjustments to net income when measuring profitability, evaluating performance trends, setting performance objectives and calculating our return on invested capital. This is consistent with how management reviews and assesses Equifax's historical performance and is useful when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods.

Income tax effects of stock awards that are recognized upon vesting or settlement - During the second quarter of 2017, we recorded a tax benefit of $4.8 million related to the tax effects of deductions in excess of compensation costs in accordance with newly adopted guidance. Management believes excluding this tax effect from financial results provides meaningful supplemental information regarding our financial results for the three months ended June 30, 2017, as compared to the corresponding period in 2016, because this amount is non-operating and relates to income tax benefits or deficiencies for stock awards recognized when tax amounts differ from recognized stock compensation cost. This is consistent with how management reviews and assesses Equifax's historical performance and is useful when planning, forecasting and analyzing future periods.

Adjusted EBITDA and Adjusted EBITDA margin, excluding the Veda acquisition related amounts - Management defines adjusted EBITDA as consolidated net income attributable to Equifax plus net interest expense, income taxes, depreciation and amortization, and also excludes certain one-time items. Management believes the use of adjusted EBITDA and adjusted EBITDA margin allows investors to evaluate our performance for different periods on a more comparable basis.

SOURCE Equifax Inc.

Related Links

http://www.equifax.com


KAUKAUNA, Wis., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Expera is rolling out its refreshed line of Glass-Gard Prime and Glass-Gard papers, highlighting a diverse portfolio of specialty paper products that span a variety of end-use applications. From highly technical glass applications, to offering protection in automobile manufacturing, tough conditions have met their match.

"Glass-Gard Prime papers help prevent scratching and particle generation on the finished glass product, which are high priorities in technical glass manufacturing," explained Robyn Buss, Vice President Sales and Marketing for Expera Specialty Solutions. "Expera has developed proprietary manufacturing processes to remove the components that cause flaws on a finished glass product."

Expera's Glass-Gard papers also provide solutions for multiple industries to protect glass plates from abrasion and breakage that may occur during handling and transportation processes. Engineered to meet specific glass performance needs, Glass-Gard protects against chemical changes while ensuring surface purity for optimal downstream processing.

"We believe our customers deserve a wide variety of options to protect their glass products and serve their clientele," explained Buss. "These innovative glass interleave papers offer the durability, cleanliness, and exceptional product performance required for these demanding applications."

For more information, visit the Expera's website at expera.com.

Expera Specialty Solutions is the leading North American manufacturer of specialty paper products for use in the tape, pressure-sensitive release liner, industrial and food packaging segments. Expera Specialty Solutions' manufacturing platform includes machines at four Wisconsin mills located in Kaukauna, Mosinee, Rhinelander, and De Pere. For more information, visit www.expera.com.

SOURCE Expera Specialty Solutions

Related Links

http://www.experaspecialty.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- In a panel discussion at the United States Senate, foreign policy experts welcomed the congressional passage of H.R. 3364, which includes a title on "Countering Iran's Destabilizing Activities Act of 2017," and subjects the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) to Executive Order 13224 sanctions for Specially Designated Global Terrorists entities.

Speakers at the event, sponsored by the Organization of Iranian American Communities-US (OIAC), and moderated by OIAC advisory board member Dr. Ramesh Sepehrrad, emphasized that the next step should be to adopt a comprehensive strategy in dealing with Iran, focused on recognizing the rights of the Iranian people for regime change.

Ambassador Robert Joseph, who in 2003 helped U.S. government negotiate the dismantling of Libya's nuclear program, referred to the JCPOA as "a disaster," and added, "the revelations recently made public by the National Council of Resistance of Iran make clear that Iran's nuclear and missile programs are alive and well and moving forward." He added the key in Iran is regime change from withinWe need to give the people of Iran a sense that we are supportive of their aspirations for freedom and democracy", adding, "I find that Madame Rajavi's position, the agenda that she espouses, the ten-point plan, really strike all of the right themes, democracy, human rights, secularism, nuclear nonproliferation, equality between the sexes."

"If you actually look at what the IRGC has done simply in Iraq," added Michael Pregent of the Hudson Institute, "those activities have actually prolonged the war in Iraq and spread it to Syria." As for the NCRI, which he described as "impressive," Pregent said, " I saw an umbrella organization with a charismatic leader, a principled position."

Nader Uskowi of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy noted, "the whole of the IRGC needs to be dismantled." Dismantling the IRGC, "would help dismantling the regime."

American Foreign Policy Council vice-president, Dr. Ilan Berman examined whom the international community should support, in terms of resistance and regime change in Iran. "There's ferment within Iran" and Iranian opposition message "resonates on the street because of this ferment."

"It's important for the United States to engage with people who call for freedom, for liberty, and who want to participate in a democratic process," Lee Smith, a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute said.

SOURCE Organization of Iranian American Communities - U.S. (OIAC)

Related Links

http://www.oiac-us.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Leading integrated project and program management consultancy, Faithful+Gould (www.fgould.com) is pleased to highlight the success of the firm's 70th anniversary volunteerism effort. The premise of this initiative was to have each of its 12 teams, comprised of employees from offices across the Americas, contribute 70 hours of community service within 70 days, totaling 840 hours. At the close of the 70 days, Faithful+Gould had contributed more than 1,225 hours of service in their local communities.

It is thanks to a robust response from staff that the company far exceeded expectations and gave back to more than 40 charities and service groups across the United States, Canada and Brazil.

"When we launched this initiative, we wanted something that could both commemorate our anniversary, and help to improve the quality of life for those in the communities in which we live and work," said President and Managing Director Reza Amirkhalili. "Giving back through service is a vital part of our corporate responsibility and the amazing results of this effort are indicative of how seriously our staff take that responsibility. I can think of no better way to have celebrated this significant milestone of 70 years."

To meet their goal, employees engaged in a wide variety of charitable efforts. Some of the charities and groups the teams supported include Rosie's Place Food Bank in Boston, MA; the American Heart Association in New York, NY; Capital Area Food Bank in Washington, D.C.; North Loop Association in Minneapolis, MN; FIGHT in Chicago, IL; Goodwill in Houston, TX; Orange County Coastkeeper in Los Angeles, CA; Special Olympics in Portland, OR; Habitat for Humanity in Calgary, Canada; Providenciando Foundation in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; and many more.

About Faithful+Gould

Faithful+Gould (www.fgould.com) is a world-leading integrated project and program management consultancy. Operating at the forefront of the industry for 70 years, Faithful+Gould has more than 500 employees delivering project and program management consultancy worldwide. With its headquarters located in New York, New York, Faithful+Gould has more than 60 offices worldwide. Faithful+Gould is a part of Atkins (www.atkinsglobal.com), one of the world's leading design, engineering and project management consultancies.

SOURCE Faithful+Gould

Related Links

http://www.fgould.com/usa


DALLAS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The family of two young brothers electrocuted by a downed Oncor power line in a Fort Worth park have filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the electric utility company.

On March 29, 2017, while exploring a heavily wooded section of Fort Worth's Oakland Lake Park the day after a storm, Alex Lopez, 12, was electrocuted when he came into contact with an energized power line. Moments later, his brother, 11-year-old Isaiah, also was electrocuted when he raced to pull his brother to safety.

"Oakland Lake Park was a place Alex and Isaiah loved and felt safe to explore. It was never a place to fear," said Dallas lawyer Jeffrey Rasansky, founder of Rasansky Law Firm, who represents Alex and Isaiah's mother, Tammy Brooks. "But due to Oncor's negligence and delay in cutting power to this live line, the park became the scene of horror, ending these young boys' lives."

According to the lawsuit, Oncor uses interactive smart technology that provides real-time notification of disruptions. Yet the company failed to address line problems in the park until after the tragedy. Even then, it took Oncor workers an hour to arrive on the scene to cut power so that emergency personnel could reach the Lopez brothers. Both boys died from extensive injuries resulting from high-voltage electric shock.

"As the owner and operator of Texas' largest electric grid, Oncor has a responsibility to operate in a manner that protects all citizens," said Houston lawyer Arturo Gonzalez of Arthur J. Gonzalez PC, who represents the boys' father, grandmother and estate. "Not only did Oncor fail to secure the area and de-energize the downed line within a public park, the company also failed to warn the public."

The lawsuit is Alejandro Luis Lopez, Tammy Brooks, and Ana Lopez as Personal Representative of the Estates of Jose Alexandro Luis Lopez and Isaiah Alexander Luis Lopez v. Oncor Electric Delivery Company, LLC, in Dallas County.

About Rasansky Law Firm: The Rasansky Law Firm has built a national reputation for excellence by providing quality representation and the highest level of personal service with an award-winning team of experienced attorneys. The Rasansky Law Firm is committed to making a difference in their clients' lives and improving the safety of our community at large.

About Arthur J. Gonzalez P.C.: Arturo Gonzlaez has dedicated his entire career to serving those killed or severely injured at no fault of their own and has consistently been recognized in his field for excellence and by H-Texas Magazine as a "Lawyer For The People." Mr. Gonzalez has litigated cases against some of the world's largest companies and is a tireless advocate for his clients, fighting for the results each of his clients deserve.

For more information, contact Mark Annick at 800-559-4534 or [email protected].

SOURCE Rasansky Law Firm

Related Links

http://www.jrlawfirm.com/


SAN JOSE, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

HIGHLIGHTS:

44 percent of US consumers rate identity theft and banking fraud as their top concern

rate identity theft and banking fraud as their top concern 78 percent of US consumers who experienced fraud were satisfied with their bank's response or handling of the incident.

who experienced fraud were satisfied with their bank's response or handling of the incident. FICO surveyed 1,000 US consumers over the age of 17.

For more information: http://www.fico.com/en/2017-north-america-banking-survey

FICO's latest consumer finance trend research has revealed that 44 percent of US consumers rate identity theft and banking fraud as their top concern. This was more than double those who said their top concern was being the victim of a terrorist attack (18 percent) and twice the number who thought their own death or that of a loved one was their primary worry (22 percent).

"Human beings hate to lose," said Bob Shiflet, vice president of FICO's fraud business line. "The survey confirms the psychology of loss aversion, especially when it comes to money and the likelihood of an event happening to us. The loss of your personal information or money from your account cuts deep, it is a violation, and people now know it's much more likely to happen to them."

Consumers were most concerned about the theft of their Social Security number (86 percent), followed by their bank account information (76 percent) and their credit card information (58 percent). The least concerning was medical records (15 percent) and biometric data (17 percent).

Luckily for the banking industry, 78 percent of consumers who said they experienced fraud were satisfied with their bank's response or handling of the incident. For some, it seems to have improved their relationship with the bank. 14 percent opened additional accounts while 20 percent recommended the bank to others. Conversely, out of those who were dissatisfied, 25 percent decided to close the affected account, while a further 12 percent closed all their accounts.

"Proactive and early communication as well as a speedy resolution are important to a satisfactory experience when it comes to fraud," said Shiflet. "Banks need to turn fraud incidents into responses that encourage customers to keep their accounts open. Understanding the concerns of fraud victims, and being able to counter their fear of further loss, encourages customers to stay."

In the event of a breach, banks stand lose significantly due to a poor response. In a separate survey FICO conducted with Ovum, only 52 percent of US senior IT execs said their firm has a tested data breach response plan.

"Banks should ensure that their data breach response plan is tested, and includes adequate measures for public relations and customer communications," said Shiflet. "The plan must include what the bank can offer to customers post-breach, to allay their fears."

FICO commissioned an online survey of about 1,000 US consumers over the age of 17 in February and March 2017. Data was weighted by age and region to reflect U.S. Census data.

About FICO

FICO (NYSE: FICO) powers decisions that help people and businesses around the world prosper. Founded in 1956 and based in Silicon Valley, the company is a pioneer in the use of predictive analytics and data science to improve operational decisions. FICO holds more than 175 US and foreign patents on technologies that increase profitability, customer satisfaction and growth for businesses in financial services, telecommunications, health care, retail and many other industries. Using FICO solutions, businesses in more than 100 countries do everything from protecting 2.6 billion payment cards from fraud, to helping people get credit, to ensuring that millions of airplanes and rental cars are in the right place at the right time. Learn more at http://www.fico.com.

Join the conversation at https://twitter.com/fico & http://www.fico.com/en/blogs/

FICO is a registered trademark of Fair Isaac Corporation in the US and other countries.

SOURCE FICO

Related Links

http://www.fico.com


NEW YORK, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The 2016 election ushered in a dramatic shift in the landscape for criminal justice reform. The Open Society Foundations are pleased to announce the 2017 class of Soros Justice Fellows, a dynamic mix of attorneys, advocates, artists, writers, and scholars who bring fresh ideas and energy to the challenge of maintaining past gains and continuing to push for progress toward a more humane criminal justice system in the United States.

Working in 11 states across the country, the 23 fellows seek to address the country's overly punitive approach to crime, develop effective responses to both interpersonal and police violence, and challenge the ways in which the effects of incarceration linger long after someone has been released from prison. Included in this group is the inaugural cohort of Soros Justice "Youth Activist" Fellowsseven people between the ages of 18 and 25 who are just beginning their careers and who show real promise to develop into social justice leaders and innovators.

Together, the fellows work with and on behalf of a wide range of communities, including many who are too often overlooked in conversations about mass incarceration in the United States, such as black LGBTQ immigrants, survivors of crime, people serving long sentences, and those on probation, parole, or supervised release.

Among the fellows supported this year through an award of $1.7 million: an advocate launching a program to support formerly incarcerated women in California's Central Valley, an organizer working to limit how "predictive algorithms" use race to decide who remains in jail and who gets out, and a researcher whose work will show how past prison closures can provide a model for future closures. While the fellows will work on a diverse range of issues, using a variety of approaches, their projects all point to the need to reduce the destructive impact of current criminal justice policies on the lives of individuals, families, and communities in the United States.

"We are facing a potential sea change from the criminal justice policies of the past decade," said Leonard Noisette, who oversees the Soros Justice Fellows program as director of the Justice team at the Open Society Foundations' U.S. Programs. "This is an exceptionally important time to seed the field with new blood and new leadership. We are thrilled to be working with such a talented group of fellows at such a pivotal moment in history."

"We are particularly excited to collaborate this year with our colleagues in the Open Society Foundations' Youth Exchange in supporting the Youth Activist Fellows, who together bring a vital perspective and set of experiences to the work," said Adam Culbreath, who manages the Soros Justice Fellows program. "In these times, it's especially important to recognizeand tap intothe capacity of the next generation of leaders. They are the future architects of the society that we want to see."

To carry out their work, fellows receive a stipend ranging from $40,000 to $110,000 for full-time projects lasting between 12 and 18 months. The 2017 fellows join more than 375 others who, since 1997, have received support through the Soros Justice Fellowships.

"Our fellows have, over the years, worked on some of the toughest, most intractable issues of the day," Culbreath said. "And they'll continue to do so. We expect that this year's class of fellowswith its combination of youth and experience, its creativity and vision, and its deep connections to reform work taking place nationwidewill make important contributions to that ongoing struggle."

2017 Soros Justice Fellows

Bella BAHHS will create Sister Survivor, a group designed to support young black women organizing to mitigate the impact of the criminal justice system on their lives.

Rose Elizondo will create alternatives to the retributive justice system by using Navajo peacemaking philosophy to restore balance to communities after crime.

Claudia Gonzalez will create a program for formerly incarcerated women in California's Central Valley, with the goal of increasing pathways to healing and success beyond the prison's walls.

Valencia Gunder will create a rapid response toolkit to advance solutions to the overlapping problems of interpersonal violence and police violence.

Mark-Anthony Johnson will build a statewide network of health care professionals, criminal justice organizations, wellness practitioners, and formerly incarcerated leaders to address the long-term impacts of incarceration.

Martina Kartman will support communities impacted by the criminal legal system, addressing the harms associated with interpersonal and state violence, and pushing for alternatives to punitive sentencing.

James Kilgore will lead an effort to advance more effective and less punitive policies on the use of electronic monitoring in the criminal justice system.

Damon Locks and Sarah Ross will produce an animation and mobile media project that seeks to expand the discourse of the prison reform movement to include people serving long-term sentences.

Ola Osaze will build regional networks of advocates working to safeguard black LGBTQ immigrants from the harms of the criminal justice and immigration systems in the United States.



Katie Rose Quandt will publish a series of articles and data visualizations on extreme sentencing for violent offenses, with a particular focus on life without parole.

Hannah Sassaman will work with communities impacted by mass incarceration to limit how "predictive algorithms" using race, and factors correlated with it, affect decisions about who stays locked up and who goes home.

Luis Angel Reyes-Savalza will create a community-led deportation defense model that involves legal representation and organizing with undocumented immigrants.

Topeka K. Sam's Probation and Parole Accountability Project will help educate, empower, and defend the rights of people currently on probation, parole, or federal supervised release.

Kandace Vallejo will lay the foundation for a multiracial, youth-led statewide movement to reduce incarceration, detentions, and deportations in Texas.

Jarred Williams will use a novel dataset and analytical method to show how past prison closures can provide a model for future closures.



2017 Soros Justice Youth Activist Fellows

Jasmine Babers will highlight connections between the foster care system and the criminal justice system.

Yanitza Cubilette will launch an organizing effort in Connecticut addressing the needs, dreams, and demands of black and brown youth in the state.

Shulora Gonzales will help educate and support women who have chosen to leave sex work.

Destiny Harris will apply youth-led restorative and cultural healing to work with those who have been harmed by incarceration.

Derek Rankins will develop a space for men of color to build community.

Set Hernandez Rongkilyo will use participatory video storytelling to examine the mass criminalization of immigrants in the U.S.

Austin Smith will help black youth at different levels of interaction with the criminal justice system create a space to build power.

SOURCE Open Society Foundations

Related Links

https://www.opensocietyfoundations.org


BOSTON, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - FOUR PAWS, the international animal welfare organization, successfully completed the first part of its high-risk rescue operation near Aleppo, Syria. Nine animals have been evacuated from an abandoned amusement park, but more remain trapped. In the wake of the fighting and turmoil, FOUR PAWS' rescue team is planning to rescue the remaining animals while administering medical care to the already rescued wild animals.

Four Paws rescue in action. Copyright Photo Credit: Ahu Savan An (CNW Group/FOUR PAWS)

On Friday July 21st, FOUR PAWS succeeded in evacuating three lions, two tigers, two Asian black bears, and two hyenas from "Magic World" amusement park near Aleppo. After a 24-hour road trip through Turkey, the animals safely arrived at their temporary home in an animal protection center in Karacabey, Turkey.

"The journey across Turkey was a tiring affair for all of us. Due to the extreme heat, we had to stop every three to four hours to check on the conditions of the animals and provide them with water," stated FOUR PAWS Veterinarian and Head of Mission Dr. Amir Khalil. "We are thrilled that we were able to bring the animals safely to their first destination."

The collaboration with international security experts has greatly contributed to the success of the long-planned mission. A security team, with experience in Syria operations, evacuated the animals from the amusement park and brought them to the Syrian-Turkish border. There, the animals were handed over to the FOUR PAWS rapid response team and taken to Turkey.

The final destination for the animals will depend on the retrieval of the remaining animals left behind at the war-torn Syrian amusement park. "We are currently working hard with our partners to get the remaining animals out of the zoo. If everything goes well, they will reach the Syrian-Turkish border in the coming days. We are not giving up on the remaining animals," says Dr. Khalil.

The challenging rescue mission is financially supported by a donation from American journalist and businessman, Eric Margolis. "I am relieved that the first part of the rescue mission has been successful," remarked Margolis. "These animals were surrounded by daily bombings and gunfire. I hope that the remaining animals will be safe soon."

SOURCE FOUR PAWS
"Few companies in the SCO market have been able to balance business and product strategies to match customer expectations across retailer categories and geographies," said Frost & Sullivan Industry Analyst Aravindh Vanchesan. "Through its unique value proposition in terms of cost-effective and innovative self-service technology, Diebold Nixdorf is transforming retail and rejuvenating its own growth trajectory."

Outstanding features of Diebold Nixdorf's industry-leading self-checkout and BEETLE product lines include:

Modular and scalable systems enabling customization, easy POS integration, user-friendly interfaces, and a compact footprint

Consulting as an incremental asset to raise efficiency of the checkout zone

Lowest TCO that appeals to all categories of retailers

Innovations that enhance the value proposition by adding short- and long-term revenue streams, establishing customer loyalty

Strong technical support and maintenance services to effectively implement best practices and manage an SCO project from concept to deployment

Diebold Nixdorf focuses on quality rather than quantity, maintaining a price advantage in an otherwise competitive market. As a result of its healthy sales relationships with not only its retail customers but also mobility, security, and segment-specific software providers, Diebold Nixdorf has built a brand name associated with quality, reliability, and security.

Above all, Diebold Nixdorf's end-to-end game-changing technologies and services have helped its growth. For instance, the Red Dot Design Award-winning BEETLE /iSCAN EASY self-checkout portfolio enables consumers to scan and quickly pay for items using cards, mobile wallets, or near-field communication (NFC)-enabled smartphones. At this year's NRF show, the company showcased a new terminal that is less than 10 inches wide, features a highly secure EMV chip reader, and can be used as an ATM, POS terminal, and an SCO unit. Its TPiSHOP application allows retailers to offer smartphone-enabled shopping in-store and from customers' homes.

In a market with limited number of turnkey solution providers, Diebold Nixdorf dominates due to its global presence; it has more than 14,500 field service engineers operating in over 130 countries. In recognition of its continued growth leadership, Frost & Sullivan recognizes Diebold Nixdorf with the 2017 Growth Excellence Leadership Award.

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in growth and customer value. It recognizes the superiority of the product/service as well as the overall customer purchase, ownership, and service experience that has resulted in the recipient seeing above-market growth and increased share of wallet. The award lauds the company's growth, diversification, and sustainability strategies.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis and extensive secondary research to identify best practices in the industry.

About Diebold Nixdorf

Diebold Nixdorf, Incorporated (NYSE: DBD) is a world leader in enabling connected commerce for millions of consumers each day across the financial and retail industries. Its software-defined solutions bridge the physical and digital worlds of cash and consumer transactions conveniently, securely and efficiently. As an innovation partner for nearly all of the world's top 100 financial institutions and a majority of the top 25 global retailers, Diebold Nixdorf delivers unparalleled services and technology that are essential to evolve in an 'always on' and changing consumer landscape.

Diebold Nixdorf has a presence in more than 130 countries with approximately 24,000 employees worldwide. The organization is headquartered in North Canton, Ohio, USA. Shares are traded on the New York and Frankfurt Stock Exchanges under the symbol 'DBD'. Visit www.DieboldNixdorf.com for more information.

About Frost & Sullivan

Frost & Sullivan, the Growth Partnership Company, works in collaboration with clients to leverage visionary innovation that addresses the global challenges and related growth opportunities that will make or break today's market participants. For more than 50 years, we have been developing growth strategies for the global 1000, emerging businesses, the public sector and the investment community. Contact us: Start the discussion.

Contact:

Samantha Park

P: 210.247.2426

F: 210.348.1003

E: [email protected]

SOURCE Frost & Sullivan

Related Links

http://www.frost.com


PITTSBURGH, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- GNC Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GNC) (the "Company") reported consolidated revenue of $641.0 million in the second quarter of 2017, compared with consolidated revenue of $673.2 million for the second quarter of 2016.

Same store sales decreased 0.9% in domestic company-owned stores (including GNC.com sales) in the second quarter of 2017. In domestic franchise locations, same store sales decreased 1.1%.

For the second quarter of 2017, the Company reported net income of $15.7 million compared with $64.0 million in the prior year quarter. Diluted earnings per share ("EPS") was $0.23 for the second quarter of 2017 compared with $0.94 in the prior year quarter. Excluding non-cash long-lived asset impairment charges in the current quarter and gains on refranchising in the prior year quarter, adjusted EPS was $0.41 and $0.79 in the three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively.

"We made good progress in the second quarter, and our investments in pricing, loyalty and improving the customer experience continued to deliver positive results," said interim CEO, Bob Moran. "For the second quarter in a row, we saw meaningful transaction growth, improvement in our dot.com business and increased enrollment in our loyalty programs. We believe this business is headed in the right direction, and we remain focused on execution and sales growth."

Update on One New GNC

Transaction growth continued in the second quarter, up 12.3%, resulting in sequential quarterly improvement in same store sales.

As of the end of the second quarter of 2017, 7.3 million consumers had joined the myGNC Rewards Program and there were approximately 237,000 PRO Access members.

As an element of the Company's omnichannel strategy, early in 2017, the Company launched a GNC storefront on Amazon which continues to exceed the Company's expectations.

Long-Lived Asset Impairments

During the quarter, the Company recorded a pre-tax non-cash impairment of goodwill and other long-lived assets associated with its Lucky Vitamin e-commerce business totaling $19.4 million. Combined with the related tax benefit of $7.2 million, the resulting net after tax impact was $12.2 million, a reduction of $0.18 per diluted share in the current quarter.

Segment Operating Performance

U.S. & Canada

Revenues in the U.S. and Canada segment decreased $27.5 million, or 4.8%, to $543.4 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $570.9 million in the prior year quarter. E-commerce sales were approximately 9.5% of U.S. and Canada revenue in each of the quarters ended June 30, 2017 and 2016. The decrease in revenue compared with the prior year quarter was primarily due to a $15.1 million decrease associated with the discontinuation of the Gold Card Member Pricing program in domestic corporate and franchise stores and the introduction of the Company's new loyalty programs and a decrease of $6.3 million due to the timing of shipments from our annual franchise conference, which occurred later in June compared with the prior year quarter. In addition, the impact of negative same store sales for company-owned stores, GNC.com, franchise locations and Canada contributed to the decrease in revenue in the current quarter.

Operating income decreased $72.0 million to $32.5 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $104.5 million for the same period in 2016. Excluding the non-cash impairment charges of $19.4 million in the current quarter described above and gains on refranchising in the prior year quarter of $16.9 million, operating income was $51.9 million in the current quarter or 9.5% of segment revenue compared with $87.7 million in the prior year quarter or 15.4% of segment revenue. The decrease compared with the prior year quarter was primarily due to lower domestic retail product margin rate resulting from the impact of pricing and loyalty program changes associated with the One New GNC, the latter of which includes the impact of the discontinuation of the Gold Card Member Pricing program in the U.S., partially offset by higher vendor funding. Also contributing to the decrease was higher marketing expense of $4.2 million related to incremental online advertising, higher salaries and benefits of $5.2 million and expense deleverage associated with negative same store sales.

International

Revenues in the International segment increased $0.5 million, or 1.3%, to $43.6 million in the current quarter compared with $43.1 million in the prior year quarter. Revenues from the China business increased by $3.6 million in the current quarter compared with the prior year quarter, partially offset by a decrease in revenues from international franchisees of $3.1 million. The decrease in revenue from international franchisees in the current quarter was primarily due to the impact of a decrease in retail same store sales of 1.9% and $4.0 million of sales recognized in the prior year quarter associated with the timing of shipments resulting from the annual franchise conference.

Operating income increased $2.0 million, or 14.3%, to $15.6 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $13.6 million in the prior year quarter. Operating income was 35.8% of segment revenue in the current quarter compared with 31.7% in the prior year quarter. The increase in operating income rate was due to an increase in product margin rate primarily associated with a higher mix of proprietary sales as well as the comparative effect of a bad debt allowance associated with a franchisee that was recorded in the prior year quarter.

Manufacturing / Wholesale

Revenues in the Manufacturing / Wholesale segment, excluding intersegment sales, decreased $5.3 million, or 8.9%, to $53.9 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $59.2 million in the prior year quarter. Third-party contract manufacturing sales decreased $1.0 million, or 3.0%, to $32.7 million for the three months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $33.7 million in the prior year quarter. Sales to wholesale partners decreased $4.3 million, or 16.6% from $25.5 million in the prior year quarter to $21.2 million in the current quarter. Intersegment sales decreased $0.6 million from $56.6 million in the prior year quarter to $56.0 million in the current quarter.

Operating income was $17.9 million in each of the quarters ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, and as a percentage of segment revenue was 16.3% and 15.5%, respectively.

Year-to-Date Performance

For the first six months of 2017, the Company reported consolidated revenue of $1,285.8 million, a decrease of 4.2% compared with consolidated revenue of $1,342.1 million for the first six months of 2016. Revenue in the U.S. & Canada segment decreased 4.3%, revenue in the International segment increased 3.9%, and revenue in the Manufacturing / Wholesale segment decreased 8.8%, excluding intersegment sales.

For the first six months of 2017, the Company reported net income of $39.5 million, compared with net income of $114.8 million for the first six months of 2016. EPS was $0.58 for the first six months of 2017, compared with $1.62 in the first six months of 2016. Excluding long-lived asset impairment charges and a legal charge in the current year period and gains on refranchising in the current and prior year periods, adjusted EPS was $0.77 in the six months ended June 30, 2017 compared with $1.48 in the six months ended June 30, 2016.

Operating Metrics

As of June 30, 2017, the Company had 3,506 corporate stores in the U.S. and Canada, 1,138 domestic franchise locations, 2,378 Rite Aid franchise store-within-a-store locations and 1,946 international locations. The Company now has 8,968 store locations worldwide.

For the first six months of 2017, the Company generated net cash from operating activities of $72.9 million and invested $20.4 million in capital expenditures. The Company generated free cash flow of $54.2 million (which it defines as cash provided by operating activities less cash used in investing activities excluding acquisitions except for store acquisitions). As of June 30, 2017, the Company's cash and cash equivalents were $52.0 million, long-term debt was $1.5 billion and the Company had $163.1 million available under the Revolving Credit Facility.

Conference Call

GNC has scheduled a live webcast to report its second quarter 2017 financial results on July 27, 2017 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern time. To participate on the live call listeners in North America may dial (888) 312-9837 and international listeners may dial (719) 785-1760; the conference identification number for all callers is 1670058. In addition, a live webcast of the call will be available on www.gnc.com via the Investor Relations section under "About GNC." A replay of this webcast will be available through August 27, 2017.

About Us

GNC Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: GNC) - Headquartered in Pittsburgh, PA - is a leading global specialty health, wellness and performance retailer.

GNC connects customers to their best selves by offering a premium assortment of heath, wellness and performance products, including protein, performance supplements, weight management supplements, vitamins, herbs and greens, wellness supplements, health and beauty, food and drink and other general merchandise. This assortment features proprietary GNC and nationally recognized third-party brands.

GNC's diversified, multi-channel business model generates revenue from product sales through company-owned retail stores, domestic and international franchise activities, third-party contract manufacturing, e-commerce and corporate partnerships. As of June 30, 2017, GNC had approximately 9,000 locations, of which approximately 6,800 retail locations are in the United States (including 2,378 Rite Aid franchise store-within-a-store locations) and franchise operations in approximately 50 countries.

Forward-Looking Statements Involving Known and Unknown Risks and Uncertainties

This release contains certain forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to the Company's financial condition, results of operations and business that is not historical information. Forward-looking statements can be identified by the use of terminology such as "subject to," "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "expects," "intends," "estimates," "projects," "may," "will," "should," "can," the negatives thereof, variations thereon and similar expressions, or by discussions regarding dividend, share repurchase plan, strategy and outlook. While GNC believes there is a reasonable basis for its expectations and beliefs, they are inherently uncertain. The Company may not realize its expectations and its beliefs may not prove correct. Many factors could affect future performance and cause actual results to differ materially from those matters expressed in or implied by forward-looking statements, including but not limited to unfavorable publicity or consumer perception of the Company's products; costs of compliance and any failure on management's part to comply with new and existing governmental regulations governing our products; limitations of or disruptions in the manufacturing system or losses of manufacturing certifications; disruptions in the distribution network; or failure to successfully execute the Company's growth strategy, including any inability to expand franchise operations or attract new franchisees, any inability to expand company-owned retail operations, any inability to grow the international footprint, any inability to expand the e-commerce businesses, or any inability to successfully integrate businesses that are acquired. The Company undertakes no obligation to publicly update or revise any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Actual results could differ materially from those described or implied by such forward-looking statements. For a listing of factors that may materially affect such forward-looking statements, please refer to the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016.

Same store sales for company-owned stores include point-of-sale retail sales from all domestic stores which have been operating for twelve full months following the opening period. The Company is an omnichannel retailer with capabilities that allow a customer to use more than one channel when making a purchase, including in-store and through e-commerce channels which include its wholly-owned website GNC.com and third party websites (the sales from which are included in the GNC.com business unit) where product assortment and price are controlled by the Company, in which purchases are fulfilled by direct shipment to the customer from one of the Company's distribution facilities as well as third party e-commerce vendors. In-store sales are reduced by sales originally consummated online or through mobile devices and subsequently returned in-store. Sales of membership programs, including the new PRO Access loyalty program and former Gold Card program, which is no longer offered in the U.S., as well as the net change in the deferred points liability associated with the myGNC Rewards program, are excluded from same store sales.

Same store sales are calculated on a daily basis for each store and exclude the net sales of a store for any period if the store was not open during the same period of the prior year. When a store's square footage has been changed as a result of reconfiguration or relocation in the same mall or shopping center, the store continues to be treated as a same store. If, during the period presented, a store was closed, relocated to a different mall or shopping center, or converted to a franchise store or a company-owned store, sales from that store up to and including the closing day or the day immediately preceding the relocation or conversion are included as same store sales as long as the store was open during the same period of the prior year. Corporate stores are included in same store sales after the thirteenth month following a relocation or conversion to a company-owned stores.

The Company also provides retail comparable same stores sales of its franchisees as well as its Canada business if meaningful to current results. While retail sales of franchisees are not included in the Company's consolidated financial statements, the metric serves as a key performance indicator for its franchisees, which ultimately impacts wholesale sales and royalties and fees received from franchisees. The Company computes same store sales for its franchisees and Canada business consistent with the description of corporate same store sales above. Same store sales for international franchisees and Canada exclude the impact of foreign exchange rate changes relative to the U.S. dollar.

Management has included non-GAAP financial measures in this press release because it believes they represent an effective supplemental means by which to measure the Company's operating performance. Management believes that net income and earnings per share, adjusted to exclude impairment charges on long-lived assets, gains on refranchising and certain other expenses as reflected in this release, and free cash flow are useful to investors as they enable the Company and its investors to evaluate and compare the Company's results from operations in a more meaningful and consistent manner by excluding specific items which are not reflective of ongoing operating results. However, these measures are not measurements of the Company's performance under GAAP and should not be considered as alternatives to earnings per share, net income or any other performance measures derived in accordance with GAAP, or as an alternative to GAAP cash flow from operating activities, or as a measure of the Company's profitability or liquidity. For more information, see the attached reconciliations of non-GAAP financial measures.

GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Statements of Income (in thousands, except per share amounts)





Three months ended

June 30,

Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

(unaudited) Revenue $ 640,994



$ 673,218



$ 1,285,832



$ 1,342,123

Cost of sales, including warehousing, distribution and

occupancy 428,271



434,520



860,138



867,580

Gross profit 212,723



238,698



425,694



474,543

Selling, general, and administrative 154,033



138,984



314,614



282,056

Gains on refranchising 



(16,885)



(154)



(17,900)

Long-lived asset impairments 19,356







19,356





Other (income) loss, net (486)



375



(1,495)



98

Operating income 39,820



116,224



93,373



210,289

Interest expense, net 16,067



15,275



31,961



29,718

Income before income taxes 23,753



100,949



61,412



180,571

Income tax expense 8,092



36,921



21,901



65,728

Net income $ 15,661



$ 64,028



$ 39,511



$ 114,843

Earnings per share:













Basic $ 0.23



$ 0.94



$ 0.58



$ 1.63

Diluted $ 0.23



$ 0.94



$ 0.58



$ 1.62

Weighted average common shares outstanding:













Basic 68,287



68,176



68,267



70,627

Diluted 68,362



68,303



68,331



70,760



GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Reconciliation of Net Income and Diluted EPS to Adjusted Net Income and Adjusted Diluted EPS (in thousands, except per share data)





Three months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

(unaudited) Reported $ 15,661



$ 0.23



$ 64,028



$ 0.94

Gains on refranchising 







(16,885)



(0.25)

Long-lived asset impairments 19,356



0.28









Tax effect (7,176)



(0.10)



6,643



0.10

Adjusted $ 27,841



$ 0.41



$ 53,786



$ 0.79

















Weighted average diluted common shares outstanding 68,362







68,303









Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

Net

Income

Diluted

EPS

(unaudited) Reported $ 39,511



$ 0.58



$ 114,843



$ 1.62

Gains on refranchising (154)







(17,900)



(0.25)

Legal charge 2,097



0.03









Long-lived asset impairments 19,356



0.28









Tax effect (7,881)



(0.12)



7,655



0.11

Adjusted $ 52,929



$ 0.77



$ 104,598



$ 1.48

















Weighted average diluted common shares outstanding 68,331







70,760







GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES U.S. Company-Owned Same Store Sales

















2017

2016

Q1

3/31

Q2

6/30

Q1

3/31

Q2

6/30 Total same store sales (3.9)%



(0.9)%



(2.3)%



(3.9)%

Drivers of same store sales:













Number of transactions 9.3%



12.3%



(4.1)%



(5.5)%

Average transaction amount (12.1)%



(11.8)%



1.8%



1.7%

Contribution to same store sales:













Domestic retail same store sales (3.6)%



(0.5)%



(1.9)%



(3.4)%

GNC.com contribution to same store sales (0.3)%



(0.4)%



(0.4)%



(0.5)%

Total Same Store Sales (3.9)%



(0.9)%



(2.3)%



(3.9)%



GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Balance Sheets (in thousands)

















June 30,

December 31,

2017

2016

(unaudited) Current assets:





Cash and cash equivalents $ 51,999



$ 34,464

Receivables, net 114,814



129,178

Inventory 574,651



583,212

Prepaid and other current assets 36,820



39,400

Total current assets 778,284



786,254

Long-term assets:





Goodwill 165,037



176,062

Brand name 720,000



720,000

Other intangible assets, net 103,265



111,229

Property, plant and equipment, net 216,957



232,292

Other long-term assets 27,571



30,005

Total long-term assets 1,232,830



1,269,588

Total assets $ 2,011,114



$ 2,055,842

Current liabilities:





Accounts payable $ 136,270



$ 179,933

Current portion of long-term debt 



12,562

Deferred revenue and other current liabilities 106,464



115,171

Total current liabilities 242,734



307,666

Long-term liabilities:





Long-term debt 1,509,760



1,527,891

Deferred income taxes 253,588



259,203

Other long-term liabilities 56,247



56,129

Total long-term liabilities 1,819,595



1,843,223

Total liabilities 2,062,329



2,150,889

Stockholders' deficit:





Common stock 114



114

Additional paid-in capital 925,149



922,687

Retained earnings 755,968



716,198

Treasury stock, at cost (1,725,349)



(1,725,349)

Accumulated other comprehensive loss (7,097)



(8,697)

Total stockholders' deficit (51,215)



(95,047)

Total liabilities and stockholders' deficit $ 2,011,114



$ 2,055,842



The Company reclassified $12.9 million of deferred income taxes within "Total Current Assets" to deferred income taxes within "Total Long-Term Liabilities" at December 31, 2016 to conform to the current year presentation in connection with the adoption of Accounting Standards Update 2015-17, which requires an entity to classify deferred tax assets and liabilities as noncurrent on the balance sheet.



GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Statements of Cash Flows (in thousands)







Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

(unaudited) Cash flows from operating activities:





Net income $ 39,511



$ 114,843

Adjustments to reconcile net income to net cash provided by operating activities:





Depreciation and amortization expense 30,854



28,209

Amortization of debt costs 6,602



6,245

Stock-based compensation 2,709



2,949

Long-lived asset impairments 19,356





Gains on refranchising (154)



(17,900)

Changes in assets and liabilities:





Decrease in receivables 13,227



15,121

Decrease (Increase) in inventory 11,073



(53,073)

Decrease (Increase) in prepaid and other current assets 2,710



(11,715)

(Decrease) Increase in accounts payable (38,607)



36,751

(Decrease) Increase in deferred revenue and accrued liabilities (14,840)



6,558

Other operating activities 409



2,901

Net cash provided by operating activities 72,850



130,889









Cash flows from investing activities:





Capital expenditures (20,397)



(20,809)

Refranchising proceeds 2,160



1,831

Store acquisition costs (432)



(1,395)

Net cash used in investing activities (18,669)



(20,373)









Cash flows from financing activities:





Borrowings under revolving credit facility 151,000



182,000

Payments on revolving credit facility (147,000)



(40,000)

Payments on term loan facility (40,853)



(2,275)

Debt issuance costs 



(1,712)

Proceeds from exercise of stock options 



305

Gross excess tax benefit from stock-based compensation 



156

Minimum tax withholding requirements (247)



(622)

Cash paid for treasury stock 



(229,169)

Dividends paid to shareholders 



(27,974)

Net cash used in financing activities (37,100)



(119,291)









Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 454



533

Net increase (decrease) in cash and cash equivalents 17,535



(8,242)

Beginning balance, cash and cash equivalents 34,464



56,462

Ending balance, cash and cash equivalents $ 51,999



$ 48,220



GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Reconciliation of Net Cash Provided by Operating Activities to Free Cash Flow (in thousands)





Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

(unaudited)







Net cash provided by operating activities $ 72,850



$ 130,889

Capital expenditures (20,397)



(20,809)

Refranchising proceeds 2,160



1,831

Store acquisition costs (432)



(1,395)

Free cash flow $ 54,181



$ 110,516











GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Segment Financial Data (in thousands)









Three months ended

June 30,

Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016

2017

2016

(unaudited) Revenue:













U.S. and Canada $ 543,418



$ 570,943



$ 1,096,339



$ 1,145,543

International 43,631



43,077



83,048



79,919

Manufacturing / Wholesale:













Intersegment revenues 56,000



56,556



117,298



119,587

Third-party 53,945



59,198



106,445



116,661

Subtotal Manufacturing / Wholesale 109,945



115,754



223,743



236,248

Total reportable segment revenues 696,994



729,774



1,403,130



1,461,710

Elimination of intersegment revenues (56,000)



(56,556)



(117,298)



(119,587)

Total revenue $ 640,994



$ 673,218



$ 1,285,832



$ 1,342,123

Operating income:













U.S. and Canada $ 32,461



$ 104,549



$ 82,606



$ 190,850

International 15,605



13,649



30,140



26,752

Manufacturing / Wholesale 17,927



17,891



34,484



36,324

Total reportable segment operating income 65,993



136,089



147,230



253,926

Unallocated corporate costs and other (26,173)



(19,865)



(53,857)



(43,637)

Total operating income $ 39,820



$ 116,224



$ 93,373



$ 210,289



GNC HOLDINGS, INC. AND SUBSIDIARIES Consolidated Store Count Activity





Six months ended

June 30,

2017

2016 U.S. & Canada





Company-owned(a):





Beginning of period balance 3,513



3,584

Store openings 36



30

Acquired franchise stores(b) 33



10

Franchise conversions(c) (1)



(90)

Store closings (75)



(28)

End of period balance 3,506



3,506

Domestic Franchise:





Beginning of period balance 1,178



1,084

Store openings 13



13

Acquired franchise stores(b) (33)



(10)

Franchise conversions(c) 1



90

Store closings (21)



(14)

End of period balance 1,138



1,163

International(d):





Beginning of period balance 1,973



2,095

Store openings 45



43

Store closings (72)



(63)

End of period balance 1,946



2,075

Store-within-a-store (Rite Aid):





Beginning of period balance 2,358



2,327

Store openings 26



19

Store closings (6)



(3)

End of period balance 2,378



2,343

Total Stores 8,968



9,087











(a) Includes Canada.

(b) Stores that were acquired from franchisees and subsequently converted into company-owned stores.

(c) Company-owned store locations sold to franchisees.

(d) Includes franchise locations in approximately 50 countries (including distribution centers where sales are made) and company-owned stores located in Ireland (The Health Store) and China.

Contacts:

Investors: Matt Milanovich, Senior Director - Investor Relations, Analysis & Strategy , (412) 402-7260; or

John Mills, Partner - ICR, (646) 277-1254

SOURCE GNC Holdings, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.gnc.com


DENVER, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Christmas is coming in July this year! At least, it is for Hammond's Brands, the parent company of Hammond's Candies, Old Dominion Peanut Company, McCraw's Candies and the recently launched Mellow Fluffs. The country's largest handmade candy cane manufacturer has announced this coming holiday season's much-anticipated limited edition flavor: the Naughty or Nice Cane.

Hammond's Candies makes nearly seven million jumbo 1.75 oz. candy canes by hand each year. In addition to its 25 standard flavors, which include traditional peppermint, natural versions and even varieties with cream centers, Hammond's introduces a limited edition holiday flavor each year. This year's Naughty or Nice Canes each come with the same look  red with white and black pinstripes - but some are flavored a "nice" strawberry and some are flavored "naughty" black licorice. A festive hangtag informs snackers that they won't know which mystery flavor they've received  and which of Santa's lists they've made  until they start munching on the magical cane.

"Candy canes are a holiday staple  in fact, nearly two billion sell each year in the four weeks before Christmas and Hanukkah.1 Our 100% handmade process can lead to extended lead times to meet all the demand in our peak season, so now is the time to place your order so you're prepared for this holiday rush," said Andrew Whisler, Hammond's Executive Vice President of Business Development. "This year's Naughty or Nice flavor brings a fun twist to this typically traditional product segment. It will drive sales for retailers while offering consumers a unique holiday experience through the fun of the unknown."

Ensure this holiday season is a jolly one by placing your order for Naughty or Nice Canes, which come in packs of 48 units for $1.50 each with a suggested retail of $2.49-$2.99. For a taste, stop by Booth C-1112C in the Las Vegas Gift Mart July 30th through August 3rd or Booth 3276 at the New York Now Gift Show August 20th through 23rd at the Javits Center.

About Hammond's

Hammond's Candies began delighting candy lovers with artisan candy canes, beautifully spun ribbon candy, and larger-than-life lollipops when it was founded by the Hammond family in 1920, making it Colorado's favorite handmade confectioner for decades. In 2007, the company became the Hammond's that it is today through its acquisition by current President and CEO Andrew Schuman, growing from a much-loved, local candy company to a leading gourmet sweet provider with national regard (and has doubled the number of employees). Since then, Hammond's has gone on to acquire such companies as McCraw's Candies in 2010 and Old Dominion Peanut Company in 2012, as well as to gain impressive recognitions for their brand packaging and product innovation.

Sample Hammond's innovative takes on traditional treats at the Las Vegas Gift Mart July 30th through August 3rd (Booth C-1112C) and the New York Now Gift Show (Booth 3276) August 20th through 23rd. Follow Hammond's Candies on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/hammondscandies and on Pinterest at http://pinterest.com/hammondscandies/ to stay up to date on their latest releases. More information is also available at www.hammondscandies.com or by calling 1-800-CANDY-99 (1-800-226-3999).

1 https://www.candycanefacts.com/facts/

Media Contact:

Lynn Brainard

[email protected]

Telephone: 714-771-4397

SOURCE Hammond's Brands

Related Links

http://www.hammondscandies.com


BUFFALO GROVE, Ill., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PDI Medical in Buffalo Grove, The Clinic in Mundelein, and Elevele in Highland Park are sponsoring the first annual Lake County medical cannabis expo with demonstrations, exhibits, cooking classes, question and answer sessions, and patient and caregiver card sign-ups on Sunday, August 6, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 175 East Hawthorn Parkway in Vernon Hills, Illinois. Admission is free and includes live music and light refreshments.

"The expo is for current medical cannabis patients, potential patients, healthcare providers, health educators and support associations," said pharmacist Joseph Friedman, owner and chief operations officer of PDI Medical. "It's an opportunity to ask questions and get answers. For example, patients ask if there are alternatives to smoking medical cannabis. There are many other delivery choices, including edibles, vaporizers, tinctures, oils, recipes and ingredients, transdermal patches and the new micro-dosing."

"Many people still think medical cannabis will make them high," said Veronica Hunt of Elevele. "That's not necessarily true. Cannabidiol, CBD, is a chemical in cannabis with many medical applications because of its anti-inflammatory, anti-anxiety, pain-relieving, and spasm and seizure reduction properties. CBD is usually extracted from the cannabis plant and is not psychoactive. Most of the products we sell do have some THC, the psychoactive ingredient. However, we offer several high-CBD/low-THC strains so patients can find the right balance for themselves."

When people ask about the benefits of medical cannabis, Marlene Schwan, manager and supervisor of patient care services at The Clinic Mundelein, shares information about how medical cannabis reduces seizures caused by epilepsy, relieves nausea from chemotherapy, decreases ocular pressure from glaucoma, and lessens the pain of multiple sclerosis. "Providing the benefits of medical cannabis for the 41 conditions currently recognized by Illinois, bringing relief to patients in need and improving patients' quality of life has been our focus from day one," Schwan said.

For more information about the CannaEXPO, please contact Joe Friedman, (224) 377-9734, [email protected]

PDI Medical, Buffalo Grove, (224) 377-9734. www.pdimedical.com

The Clinic Mundelein, (847) 616-8966. www.clinicillinois.com

Elevele, Highland Park, (847) 780-3942. www.elevele.net

Media contact: Nancy Solomon, 773-706-0002, [email protected]

SOURCE PDI Medical

Related Links

http://www.pdimedical.com


AUSTIN, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Hayes Software Systems, the leader in asset management software and services for the K-12 education market, announced it has been named one of the Best Places to Work in the Small category by Austin Business Journal. This is a testament to the passion behind Hayes' employees, who strive to help educators solve the challenges they face by providing solutions to empower school administrators. To learn more about Hayes' culture and career opportunities, please visit www.hayessoft.com/about-us.

"It's a true honor to be named a finalist for Austin's Best Places to Work," said Matt Winebright, CEO, and President of Hayes. "While there is a long list of reasons why I feel Hayes is an amazing place to work, the reality is our culture is driven by smart, energetic, and outstanding people. Being able to work in an environment with such talented people is inspiring."

The Best Places to Work selection process was competitive and involved a questionnaire about work culture and company perks, as well as an anonymous employee feedback survey. Employees responded to questions measuring their attitudes across various themes including communication and resources, individual needs, manager effectiveness, personal engagement, team dynamics, and trust in leadership. Hayes is proud to be selected as the #16 Best Place to Work in the Small category.

Hayes strives to promote trust and a collaborative work environment  one that values what people with different perspectives bring to the table. By regularly conducting employee surveys, Hayes demonstrates they care about their employees having the opportunity to share opinions. The environment around the office at Hayes is creative, high-energy, and hardworking. Think scooters, nerf gun fights, happy hours, and putt-putt breaks. Hayes even has "Team Fun," a group of employees who organize various office events including scavenger hunts, cooking contests, and monthly trivia contests.

"At Hayes, we truly understand there are two pieces to being one of the best places to work  a strong work ethic and the ability to have fun," said one of Hayes' employees, Javier Ayala. "Team Fun helps us have that blend with events ranging from cornhole tournaments to volunteering at a soup kitchen. That, and our community is what makes me love coming to work at Hayes."

About Hayes Software Systems

By offering SaaS software and services tailor-made for the unique needs of education professionals for over 27 years, Hayes has helped over 7,100 schools across 34 states (including 33 of the top 100 districts in the country) implement asset management solutions.

Hayes is a privately held company specializing in asset management software and consulting services to support K-12 mobile and fixed assets as well as instructional material accountability. While primarily servicing K-12 school systems, Hayes also has customers in higher education, state agencies, and government entities. For more information, visit www.hayessoft.com.

About the Best Places to Work Awards

Austin Business Journal annually awards top companies the honor of Best Places to Work in four categories including micro, small, medium, and large business. For more information, visit www.bizjournals.com/austin/best-places-to-work/.

Contact

Sara Arthrell

Hayes Software Director of Marketing,

[email protected]

SOURCE Hayes Software Systems

Related Links

http://www.hayessoft.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the American Council of Trustees and Alumni (ACTA), the leading nonprofit organization advocating for academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability in higher education, announced the conference theme and the distinguished speakers who will appear at its annual ATHENA Roundtable. Entitled "Restoring Excellence: Ideas that Work for 21st Century College Leadership," the conference will feature two panel discussions with presentations and commentary by nationally renowned higher education leaders and policymakers.

Moderated by Catherine Rampell, opinion columnist for The Washington Post, "A Galvanizing Year for Free Speech: A Common Agenda for Academic Freedom," will bring together prominent scholars and free speech advocates for a discussion on the embattled state of free expression on college campuses today. Speakers include Steven Benner, distinguished fellow of the Foundation for Applied Molecular Evolution and student member of the 1975 C. Vann Woodward Committee on Freedom of Expression at Yale, Philip Hamburger, the Maurice and Hilda Friedman professor of law at Columbia Law School, Walter M. Kimbrough, president of Dillard University, and Allison Stanger, professor of political science at Middlebury College.

"Money, Markets, and Management: The Changing Model of Higher Ed" will turn its attention to the complex issues of higher education finance and accountability. Moderated by Paul Fain, news editor of Inside Higher Ed, the panel will feature a conversation between researchers, scholars, and experts concerning the changing business models of higher education and solutions to the difficulties of institutional funding. Participants include Michael F. Adams, chancellor and distinguished university professor at Pepperdine University, Stephen C. Ludwig, regent of the University of Colorado, Michael Berghoff, Chairman of the Purdue University Board of Trustees, and Anne D. Neal, past president and senior fellow of the American Council of Trustees and Alumni.

The ATHENA Roundtable Conference will be held on October 20, 2017 at the Ronald Reagan Building & International Trade Center, followed by the Philip Merrill Award Gala Dinner, where University of Chicago President Robert J. Zimmer will deliver keynote remarks and accept the award recognizing his fearless commitment to free expression in the academy. Visit Eventbrite for tickets and registration information.

ACTA is a nonprofit organization dedicated to academic freedom, academic excellence, and accountability in higher education. We receive no government funding and are supported through the generosity of individuals and foundations. For more information, visit GoACTA.org, follow us on Facebook or Twitter, and subscribe to our newsletter.

Contact: Ted Eismeier, [email protected], 202-467-0376

SOURCE American Council of Trustees and Alumni

Related Links

http://www.goacta.org


Hitalk's development is based on rich data collection, intelligent adaptive learning, unique real-world role play, and learning patterns. Through situation-based learning, the new platform can simulate nearly 1,000 real-world scenarios to provide learners with a wide range of vibrant educational experiences.

"The profile of a potential Hitalk user is any professional between the ages of 25 to 38. They are financially stable and care about the quality of their learning experience and end-result," said Jason Song, CEO of Hujiang Class (HJCLASS), a branch of Hujiang EdTech, when describing a typical Hitalk user. "Hitalk is introduced to this user group to meet their need for learning on their own time."

Song added: "Although Hitalk is a newly launched brand, it takes advantage of Hujiang's current customer base of 150 million users and the company's rich experience in serving its users. This giant online education ecosystem has developed some of the most integrated e-learning platforms including CCtalk, an interactive online teaching platform for iTeachers, and Hitalk, which focuses on the adult oral English market. Hujiang EdTech aims to develop a broad spectrum of educational resources for its growing user base."

Moreover, Hitalk has also hired A-list actress Tang Wei, who has been named one of the Best 15 Performers by The New York Times, to be the face of Hitalk. "Tang Wei's image complements Hitalk's qualities of being diverse, exclusive yet accessible. Most importantly, like Tang Wei, we aim to be an internationally-recognized brand," said Song.

Tang Wei will attend the Hitalk brand conference along with key opinion leaders in the English learning industry on July 28th in Shanghai. Together with Arnold (Cairui) Fu, founder and CEO of Hujiang EdTech, they will present an over 7 million USD scholarship fund on-site to encourage English Learning.

About Hujiang EdTech

Founded in 2001, Hujiang EdTech started as an online BBS community offering online courses, and now it becomes one of China's leading online education companies. Hujiang EdTech strives to make high-quality education more accessible and enjoyable through mobile learning applications, online courses, and its interactive online teaching platform. Serving over 150 million users (including 120 million mobile users) in China, Hujiang EdTech offers a wide range of online educational programs, including international & domestic examination preparation, foreign language learning, professional skills training, and more.

SOURCE Hujiang EdTech
LONDON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsis

Timetric's "Industrial Construction Market in Canada: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2021" contains historic and forecast market data for the industrial construction market in Canada, with a detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) and by cost type( construction materials, construction equipment and construction services). This report also contains overall values of the industrial construction segments such as Industrial construction market covers the development of facilities for raw material processing, storage and manufacturing industries. This market includes four categories: chemical and pharmaceutical plants, manufacturing plants, metal and material processing plants and waste processing plants.. This research report provides up-to-date market size data for the period 2012-2016 and an illustrative forecast to 2021.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5000058/



Summary

Industrial construction market covers the development of facilities for raw material processing, storage and manufacturing industries. This market includes four categories: chemical and pharmaceutical plants, manufacturing plants, metal and material processing plants and waste processing plants.



The Canadian industrial construction category continued to decline in the review period with a value of CADx.xx million (US$x.xx million) in 2016 and declined at a rate of x.xx% over 2015. The market recorded a CARC of -x.xx% from 2012 through 2016.





"Industrial Construction Market in Canada: Market Size, Growth and Forecast Analytics to 2021"' provides a top-level overview and detailed insight into the operating environment of the industrial construction market in Canada. It is an essential tool for companies active across the Canada construction value chain and for new players considering to enter the market.



Scope

- An overview of the industrial construction market in Canada.



- Historic (2012 through 2016) and forecast (2017 through 2021) construction market output values are provided.



- A detailed breakdown of the data by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition) is provided at the market level while the values for the segments are provided by cost types (construction materials, construction equipment & construction services).



- This report covers all the segments of commercial construction market including Industrial construction market covers the development of facilities for raw material processing, storage and manufacturing industries. This market includes four categories: chemical and pharmaceutical plants, manufacturing plants, metal and material processing plants and waste processing plants..



Reasons To Buy

- Enhances your knowledge of the market with key figures detailing construction type.



- Provides you with a breakdown of the market by construction activity (new construction, repair and maintenance, refurbishment and demolition).



- Provides you with a breakdown of the segments by cost type (construction materials, construction equipment &construction services).



- Details the segments covered under commercial construction market.



- Allows you to plan future business decisions using the forecast figures given.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5000058/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


The Kenya Medical Research Institute (KEMRI) researchers conducted the INSTI HIV Self Test study in villages in Western Kenya from March to April of 2017 in nearly 700 subjects from various backgrounds and with varying levels of education and literacy. The study concluded that the INSTI HIV Self Test, a simple to use blood-based test, performs extremely well in low and middle income country populations, and it was highly accepted by such intended users. Levels of accuracy and overall usability of the INSTI HIV Self Test approached 99% in this population. This real-life field study confirms that blood-based self-testing with INSTI can be successfully applied in settings where it can play an important role in identifying individuals and their partners who may be living with HIV but are unaware of their infection.

bioLytical is pleased that the KEMRI study abstract was selected by IAS 2017 as a late breaker from many reputable abstract submissions. The conference provided new insights into HIV disease development, prevention and treatment where approximately 6,000 delegates from across the globe were in attendance.

"It is vital that studies like these are conducted, and the results broadly reported, to demonstrate the safety and overall utility of blood-based HIV self-tests in populations at risk for HIV infection. bioLytical is extremely proud to have worked with the researchers at KEMRI, led by Professor Matilu Mwau, in bringing this important study to successful completion," said Rick Galli, bioLytical's Chief Technical Officer.

1Mwau, M., Achieng, L, and Bwana, P. Performance and Usability of INSTI, a Blood-based Rapid HIV Self Test for Qualitative Detection of HIV Antibodies in Intended Use Populations in Kenya. Kenya Medical Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya

About bioLytical Laboratories

bioLytical Laboratories is a privately owned Canadian company engaged in the research, development and commercialization of rapid, point-of-care in vitro medical diagnostics using its proprietary INSTI technology platform. Today, the company markets and sells its signature INSTI HIV test and has a world-wide footprint of regulatory approvals including U.S. FDA approval, Health Canada approval and CE mark from European regulators. Their product provides a highly accurate HIV test result in as little as 60 seconds translating into a compelling value proposition for patients, healthcare professionals and public health organizations. For more information on bioLytical Laboratories, please visit www.biolytical.com.

SOURCE bioLytical Laboratories

Related Links

http://www.biolytical.com


JACKSBORO, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Election technology in Jack County is taking a giant step forward thanks to County Commissioners' approval of Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting, an all-new system designed to be flexible, easy to use and secure. Initially motivated to improve the technology and process for voter check-in at the polling place, County Clerk Vanessa James recommended a complete technology refresh. The purchase of Verity, along with new electronic poll books and Hart's innovative AutoBallot kit, will streamline check-in and automate ballot assignment. For voters, this means shorter lines and the assurance of receiving the correct ballot.

Hart's unique controller model brings efficiency to the polling place by allowing officials to manage up to 12 voting terminals from a single console. The Verity Voting system greatly simplifies election administration and makes voting easy and accessible for voters.

"Our poll books were reaching the end of their lifetime. Using Verity with our new poll books, we can cut down on the chance of human error. As voters sign in, we'll get an individual bar code to scan and make sure they have the right ballot. What a relief," James said. "Our commissioners agreed and acted quickly."

Jack County has about 5,000 registered voters and is one of the earliest Hart voting system partners in Texas. With this upgrade, they join a growing number of jurisdictions acting now to prepare for November's election by replacing aging equipment during the summer.

"We have worked with Jack County since 2005, and we appreciate their trust in Hart. Verity is a great solution for meeting stakeholders' needs now and in the future. We are committed to the County's successful adoption of their new system," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of election experience. "We will be in Jack County soon to help with training and installation. Voters and poll workers will love Verity's modern approach."

Looking forward to Verity's up-to-date touchscreen voting tablet, James said, "Voters expect the voting tablets to work like their iPhone or iPad. I think voting will go faster because Verity is so easy to use."

The system's lightweight, removable tablet and an array of accessibility features accommodate all voters, including those with disabilities. Voters can switch between available ballot languages at any point in the voting process, adjust the font size and/or contrast on the screen, and control both the speed and the volume of the audio if they are using the headphones.

On election night, Verity allows officials to publish results faster, because poll workers close polls on all voting terminals at once and report consolidated totals in just one step; there is no need to collect votes from every device separately. This efficiency is thanks to Hart's unique "controller" model, which provides centralized management of polling place devices.

The County's confidence in Hart made the decision to transition to the new system easy, James added. "Hart customer service is great. They have a reputation. When I meet other election officials, those with Hart are happy. Those without Hart, want Hart."

Since the Texas Secretary of State certified the latest release of Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting system in mid-December, 16 Texas counties have purchased the state-of-the-art system. Federally certified in 2015, the secure and efficient system is also in use in numerous counties throughout the U.S.

Braithwaite expects more Texas announcements in the coming weeks.

Learn more about Verity in Texas: http://www.hartintercivic.com/texas4verity.

About Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, certified voting system with both electronic and paper options.

SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.hartintercivic.com


CHICAGO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Journal Hotels, a management company, today announced the debut of Ambassador Chicago restoring the legendary property to its historic identity. Built in 1926, Ambassador Chicago draws inspiration from the city's Golden Age, having served as a local mainstay to celebrity icons such as Frank Sinatra, Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. With deep historical roots in the Windy City, Ambassador Chicago will pay homage to the city's storied past through thoughtful programming and elegant design.

Nestled within the illustrious Gold Coast neighborhood, Ambassador Chicago offers breathtaking views of Lake Michigan with easy access to Chicago's main shopping boulevard, Michigan Avenue. The property features 285 spacious guestrooms, a 24-hour fitness center, two restaurants, local programming and amenities curated by Chicago-based artisans and chefs, in-room dining and other luxury comforts. Attached to the hotel is a legendary restaurant having served as a celebrity favorite during the Jazz Age, which is currently being reconfigured by Lettuce Entertain You Group to introduce invigorating, innovative design and cuisine concepts that play up the glamorous history of the space while simultaneously infusing modernity into the venue.

Taking cues from its early nineteenth century art-deco design, the property celebrates Chicago's vibrant history reflected in the intricate design details such as vaulted ceilings and original crown moldings, providing a unique environment for rotating exhibitions of contemporary art. Glass doorknobs, original mail-chutes, and ornate wrought iron juxtapose against modern furnishings and art installations of painting, photography and sculpture serve as reminders of Chicago's cultural presence and the hotel's rich past resulting in a contemporary, chic vibe.

"We're thrilled to add a legendary hotel such as Ambassador Chicago to our portfolio," said Stephen Brandman, Chief Executive Officer at Journal Hotels. "The rebranding will return an iconic Chicago property back to its roots through creative activations and allow Journal to not only grow in a critical market, but continue to celebrate iconic spaces that invite discovery."

Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises will be returning to this historic location to work with the Journal Hotels to operate all food and beverage in the new Ambassador Hotel. From the re-concept of the restaurant, which is projected to open late fall 2017, to creating new menus for room service, catering and private events and the lobby bar, Lettuce is excited to serve the Ambassador guests and Gold Coast neighborhood. The restaurant group previously ran the space from July 1976 - January 1998.

"Lettuce has a lot of history at this location. Our first restaurant here was exciting and so much fun that I'm thrilled to be doing it again in a more modern way," says Rich Melman, Founder of Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises.

Ambassador Chicago will join Journal's collection of hotels which includes The Hollywood Roosevelt, Two Bunch Palms and Hotel G as part of Journal's rapidly expanding portfolio of storied hotels rich in cultural tradition and steeped in history. As with all hotels in the portfolio, Ambassador Chicago will maintain its distinct character while providing guests a truly memorable stay and authentic Chicago experience.

ABOUT JOURNAL HOTELS

Journal Hotels is a collection of iconic properties including The Hollywood Roosevelt in Los Angeles, Hotel G in San Francisco and Two Bunch Palms in Desert Hot Springs. As a partnership between GCPH, the Chang Family and Stephen Brandman, Journal Hotels distinguishes itself by combining exceptional hotel management with a creative and independent approach. With properties rich in culture and steeped in history, each hotel has a distinct character that invites discovery and enables guests to stay storied.

ABOUT AMBASSADOR CHICAGO

With a rich history rooted in Chicago's Jazz Age, Ambassador Chicago is the city's original boutique hotel dating back to 1926. Located in the heart of the Gold Coast, the iconic property has hosted the who's who of the 20th and 21st centuries having served as a local beacon to countless celebrities. Uniquely individual, Ambassador Chicago is nestled among graceful mansions in a quiet, gilded neighborhood tucked into the center of the Windy City offering incredible views of Lake Michigan with easy access to Chicago's main shopping boulevard, Michigan Avenue. With 285 spacious guestrooms, a 24-hour fitness center, two restaurants, thoughtful programming and amenities curated by local artisans and chefs, Ambassador Chicago maintains its distinct and legendary character while offering guests an authentic Chicago experience.

SOURCE Journal Hotels
HOUSTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- KBR, Inc. (NYSE: KBR) today announced that it has been awarded a contract by Dorogobuzh JSC (owned by JSC ACRON) to provide licensing and basic engineering design (LBED) to revamp an ammonia plant  originally built by KBR  located in the Dorogobuzh, Smolensk region of Russia. Under the agreement KBR will supply its proprietary ammonia technology to increase plant capacity significantly to 2100 MTPD with improved efficiency.

KBR will utilize its industry leading revamp technology KRES (KBR Reforming Exchanger System) in conjunction with KBR's True Cold Wall Add-on Converter to achieve low project cost revamping to enable Dorogobuzh to produce low cost ammonia to meet increasing captive demand.

"The application of KRES in conjunction with KBR's reliable add-on ammonia converter provides low cost revamping to Dorogobuzh and numerous similar plants in the region," said John Derbyshire, President of KBR Technology & Consulting.

"We are pleased to contribute KBR's innovative technology solution for natural gas monetization in Russia," Derbyshire continued. "KBR is a leader in helping clients debottleneck their ammonia plants and achieve greater production capacities, process efficiencies and reliability."

KBR is a leader across the world in ammonia technology and has been involved in the licensing, design, engineering and/or construction of more than 230 ammonia plants worldwide.

Revenue associated with this project is undisclosed and was booked into backlog of unfilled orders for KBR's Technology & Consulting Business Segment in the second quarter of 2017.

About KBR, Inc.

KBR is a global provider of differentiated professional services and technologies across the asset and program life cycle within the Government Services and Hydrocarbons sectors. KBR employs over 34,000 people worldwide (including our joint ventures), with customers in more than 80 countries, and operations in 40 countries, across three synergistic global businesses:

Government Services, serving government customers globally, including capabilities that cover the full life-cycle of defense, space, aviation and other government programs and missions from research and development, through systems engineering, test and evaluation, program management, to operations, maintenance, and field logistics

Technology & Consulting, including proprietary technology focused on the monetization of hydrocarbons (especially natural gas and natural gas liquids) in ethylene and petrochemicals; ammonia, nitric acid and fertilizers; oil refining; gasification; oil and gas consulting; integrity management; naval architecture and proprietary hulls; and downstream consulting

Engineering & Construction, including onshore oil and gas; LNG (liquefaction and regasification)/GTL; oil refining; petrochemicals; chemicals; fertilizers; differentiated EPC; maintenance services (Brown & Root Industrial Services); offshore oil and gas (shallow-water, deep-water, subsea); floating solutions (FPU, FPSO, FLNG & FSRU) and program management

KBR is proud to work with its customers across the globe to provide technology, value-added services, integrated EPC delivery and long term operations and maintenance services to ensure consistent delivery with predictable results. At KBR, We Deliver.

Visit www.kbr.com

Forward Looking Statement

The statements in this press release that are not historical statements, including statements regarding future financial performance, are forward-looking statements within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These statements are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the company's control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results expressed or implied by the statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: the outcome of and the publicity surrounding audits and investigations by domestic and foreign government agencies and legislative bodies; potential adverse proceedings by such agencies and potential adverse results and consequences from such proceedings; the scope and enforceability of the company's indemnities from its former parent; changes in capital spending by the company's customers; the company's ability to obtain contracts from existing and new customers and perform under those contracts; structural changes in the industries in which the company operates; escalating costs associated with and the performance of fixed-fee projects and the company's ability to control its cost under its contracts; claims negotiations and contract disputes with the company's customers; changes in the demand for or price of oil and/or natural gas; protection of intellectual property rights; compliance with environmental laws; changes in government regulations and regulatory requirements; compliance with laws related to income taxes; unsettled political conditions, war and the effects of terrorism; foreign operations and foreign exchange rates and controls; the development and installation of financial systems; increased competition for employees; the ability to successfully complete and integrate acquisitions; and operations of joint ventures, including joint ventures that are not controlled by the company.

KBR's most recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K, any subsequent Form 10-Qs and 8-Ks, and other Securities and Exchange Commission filings discuss some of the important risk factors that KBR has identified that may affect the business, results of operations and financial condition. Except as required by law, KBR undertakes no obligation to revise or update publicly any forward-looking statements for any reason.

SOURCE KBR, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.kbr.com


ST. LOUIS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Nearly 100 members of the Catholic hierarchy, including cardinals, archbishops and bishops, will gather in St. Louis in August for the 135th international convention of the Knights of Columbus.

The bishops and cardinals will be joined by approximately 2,000 attendees made up of Knights and their family members. In light of the Knights' work on behalf of persecuted Christians in the Middle East, prelates from the region will attend and will update the Knights and the public about current conditions.

The convention will be held from Tuesday to Thursday, Aug. 1-3, at the America's Center Convention Complex. It will be the fourth Knights of Columbus international convention to be held in the city, which has previously hosted the gathering in 1908, 1959, and 1991.

The meeting will include a mixture of business, fellowship, prayer and the presentation of international service and achievement awards to individual Knights and Knights councils.

The convention opens on Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. with a concelebrated Mass led by St. Louis Archbishop Robert J. Carlson. More than 500 delegates will participate in the opening business session that afternoon.

Tuesday's events will include a report by Knights of Columbus CEO Carl Anderson and the gala States Dinner, which will include the presentation of the Gaudium et Spes Award, the Knights' highest honor.

Founded in 1882 by Venerable Father Michael J. McGivney, the Knights of Columbus has grown to 1.9 million members, with charity as the organization's primary mission. In 2016, Knights donated $175.5 million and more than 75 million hours of service to charitable causes.

In addition to the Mass, Tuesday's events will include the opening session and the dinner addresses. They will be broadcast live by Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), CatholicTV, Canada's Salt + Light Television, and EWTN Radio. The masses on all three days of the convention will be broadcast live by the same outlets. The Catholic Channel will broadcast its popular Busted Halo program from the convention site on Monday and Tuesday.

Follow #KofC135 on Twitter and Facebook for live coverage of the Knights' 135th International Convention.

SOURCE Knights of Columbus
The two caregivers, who worked at facilities in Antioch and San Lorenzo for adults with developmental disabilities, filed wage claims in December 2014 and March 2015 alleging they were owed $84,308 and $106,488, respectively. Following a 2015 hearing, the Labor Commissioner's Office awarded the workers $118,676 and $195,448 because years of being paid a daily rate for their 24-hour shifts resulted in underpaid regular wages and no overtime pay. The workers were required to be on duty through their meal breaks and were denied uninterrupted sleep periods when working overnight.

The Labor Commissioner's Office recovered the unpaid wages plus interest after submitting judgments to the Contra Costa County Superior Court and placing a bank levy on Alexen Corporation's account. The division's ability to issue bank levies directly was authorized by Governor Brown in 2016 with the passage of SB 588 (De Leon).

"California is at the forefront of the fight against wage theft, giving the Labor Commissioner tools to punish recalcitrant employers who steal their workers' wages and refuse to pay even after the workers file a claim and win," said Labor Commissioner Julie A. Su. "We are using those tools to put more unpaid wages into workers' pockets."

SB 588, which went into effect on January 1, 2016, adds sections to the Labor Code that allow the Labor Commissioner's Office to enforce judgments against an employer arising from the nonpayment of wages.

The Labor Commissioner's Office is authorized to directly issue notices of levies on employers' property to banks and third parties, and hold that property until the judgement is satisfied.

The workers were awarded $180,106 in underpaid regular wages and unpaid overtime, $86,009 in liquidated damages, $34,832 in interest, $13,177 in additional wages, and $46,015 in accrued post-judgment interest.

Workers paid less than minimum wage are entitled to liquidated damages that equal the amount of underpaid wages plus interest. Additional wages are calculated pursuant to Labor Code section 203 as a penalty when an employer fails to pay any wages of an employee who is discharged or who quits.

The Labor Commissioner's Office, officially known as the Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, is a division of the Department of Industrial Relations (DIR). Among its wide-ranging enforcement responsibilities, the Labor Commissioner's Office inspects workplaces for wage and hour violations, adjudicates wage claims, investigates retaliation complaints and educates the public on labor laws.

In 2014, Commissioner Su launched the Wage Theft is a Crime multilingual public awareness campaign. The campaign defines wage theft and informs workers of their rights and the resources available to them to recover unpaid wages or report other labor law violations. Employees with work-related questions or complaints may contact DIR's Call Center in English or Spanish at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734).

Members of the press may contact Erika Monterroza or Peter Melton at (510) 286-1161, and are encouraged to subscribe to get email alerts on DIR's press releases or other departmental updates.

The California Department of Industrial Relations, established in 1927, protects and improves the health, safety, and economic well-being of over 18 million wage earners, and helps their employers comply with state labor laws. DIR is housed within the Labor & Workforce Development Agency. For general inquiries, contact DIR's Communications Call Center at 844-LABOR-DIR (844-522-6734) for help in locating the appropriate division or program in our department.

https://www.facebook.com/CaliforniaDIR

https://twitter.com/CA_DIR

http://www.youtube.com/CaliforniaDIR

http://www.dir.ca.gov/email/listsub.asp?choice=1

SOURCE California Department of Industrial Relations, Labor Commissioner's Office

Related Links

http://www.dir.ca.gov


PHILADELPHIA, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LBC Credit Partners ("LBC"), a leading provider of financing solutions to middle market companies, provided senior secured credit facilities to support MPE Partners' ("MPE" or "Morgenthaler Private Equity") investment in Bath Authority, LLC d/b/a DreamLine ("DreamLine").

LBC served as Agent and Sole Lead Arranger for the senior secured credit facilities.

Headquartered in Warminster, Pennsylvania, DreamLine is a market leading, technology-driven designer, manufacturer, and marketer of premium shower products including frameless glass shower doors, shower enclosures, tub doors and acrylic shower bases. DreamLine offers over 4,000 products across over 60 models including top selling frameless shower doors.

MPE Partners seeks to be the preferred partner for entrepreneur- and family-owned companies. Based in Cleveland, Ohio, and Boston, Massachusetts, MPE Partners invests in profitable, lower middle market companies with EBITDA between $5  $20 million. MPE Partners has two primary target investment areas: high-value manufacturing and industrial services.

About LBC Credit Partners

LBC Credit Partners is a leading provider of middle market financing solutions including senior term, unitranche, second lien, junior secured and mezzanine debt and equity co-investments supporting sponsored and non-sponsored transactions. With over $2.9* billion of capital commitments, LBC has made investments in companies located throughout North America across a wide range of industries and is committed to a long-term approach to debt investing. Headquartered in Philadelphia, LBC has additional offices in Chicago, New York and Los Angeles. To learn more, visit www.lbccredit.com.

*Information as of June, 2017

MEDIA CONTACT:

Lisa Rubano-Volansky

Tel (724) 979-4293

Email [email protected]

SOURCE LBC Credit Partners

Related Links

http://www.lbccredit.com


Small business lending indices show that small business borrowing is at its highest level in nearly a year. According to Thomson Reuters/PayNet, business owners are investing to meet customer demand, which is driving the economy. Data from Lendio's platform is telling a similar story, and it's not just businesses on the nation's coastlines that are thriving. A heat map of Lendio's top states for small business loans, based on loan volume, shows small business growth is booming in America's heartland, the southern states and beyond.

The average loan size among Lendio's small business customers is $26,873. The top five industries funded on Lendio's marketplace include construction, restaurants, retail, healthcare, and manufacturing. Lendio also helps small businesses get loans fast, with 70 percent of businesses getting funding within five days of submitting an application.

"Small businesses create the lion's share of economic growth and jobs in this country. Lendio is proud of the impact that $500 million in business loans is having on the American economy," said Brock Blake, CEO and founder of Lendio. "From restaurants and retail shops, to plumbers and landscapers, our team is passionate about providing the access to capital to help these businesses grow, recharge and thrive."

Lendio's growth milestone comes less than four years after it launched its marketplace. The first loan was in Q4 2013 to a seafood restaurant in Charleston, South Carolina, looking for equipment to help its business expand. The 500 millionth dollar was funded by one of Lendio's top lenders, American Express Merchant Financing, and provided working capital to VaKA Burger Express in downtown Los Angeles. Voted the best burger in Southern California in 2014, VaKA's signature burger features grass-fed beef, house-made barbecue sauce, bacon jam and a beer-battered onion ring.

"This is the second time VaKA Burger has utilized Lendio for funding. I reached out on Thursday, and got funding by Monday night," said Esmeralda Y. Perez, owner of VaKA Burger. "Lendio works with lenders that look out for the best interest of your business by offering some of the best rates. This to me speaks volumes because it tells me they want to see small business owners succeed."

For more information about Lendio, visit www.lendio.com.

About Lendio

Lendio is a free online service that helps business owners find the right small business loans within minutes. The center of small business lending, our passion is fueling the American Dream by uniting the small business loan industry and bringing all options together in one place, from short-term specialty financing to long-term low-interest traditional loans. Our technology makes small business lending simple, decreasing the amount of time and effort it takes to secure funding. More information about Lendio is available at www.lendio.com.

Contact

Melanie King

Lendio

801.448.8936

[email protected]

SOURCE Lendio

Related Links

http://www.lendio.com


(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20130221/595427 )



The AllTrials audit on clinical trial transparency findings has been published ranking LEO Pharma as leaders in the industry.

LEO Pharma is ranked at number two out of the 50 pharmaceutical companies evaluated. AllTrials is an international campaign that calls for every clinical trial, past and present, to be registered and their results reported. The rankings assess companies' policy commitments on disclosing trial registrations, summary findings of studies, comprehensive clinical study reports (CSRs) and individual patient data (IPD).

As one of the companies in the forefront of data transparency LEO Pharma was early off the mark to globally commit to increased disclosure. Since making this commitment in 2013, LEO Pharma has made its clinical trials results dating back to 1990 available to the public and will share individual patient-level data upon request from qualified third-party researchers. The company's commitment to transparency and patient focus has also evolved with the completion of an innovative project to develop lay summaries for patients and interested parties in easy to understand language.

Commenting on the publication from AllTrials, Katherine Murphy, former CEO of The Patients Association (now Independent Care Consultant) said:

"I very much welcome these audit findings and greater transparency in clinical trials, as well as research and development generally. It is really pleasing to see more information on clinical trials becoming increasingly available in the public domain with companies like LEO Pharma amongst the leaders. The more information that patients and members of the public have will support them to become better placed to make informed decisions and treatment choices."

Kim Kjoeller, Executive Vice President Global Research and Development, LEO Pharma, said:

"The AllTrials rankings are a robust overview which, while grounded in empirical data, casts new light on the attitudes and approaches to transparency across our industry. LEO Pharma welcomes the AllTrials audit and we are delighted to see this positive recognition for our commitment to making our scientific evidence base freely available for scrutiny and study. Having just entered the biologics arena LEO Pharma is at a turning point in our company's history, and we are excited by the promise that our pipeline holds. Maintaining this commitment to openly sharing our vision through timely disclosure of trial information has never been more important to us, and we look forward to continuing to partner with the scientific community to drive the clinical trial transparency agenda to the next level."

For more information on LEO Pharma's commitment to transparency, please see the company's Position on Public Access to Clinical Trials Information at http://www.leo-pharma.com.

About LEO Pharma

LEO Pharma helps people achieve healthy skin. By offering care solutions to patients in more than 100 countries globally, the company supports people in managing their skin conditions.

Founded in 1908 and owned by the LEO Foundation, LEO Pharma has devoted decades of research and development to delivering products and solutions to people suffering from skin diseases.

LEO Pharma is globally headquartered in Denmark and employs around 4,800 people worldwide.

Contact:



Global Media Enquiries



Henrik Kyndlev

Corporate Communications Manager

+45-3140-6180

[email protected]



UK and Ireland Media Enquiries



Charlotte Murrain

Communications Manager

+44(0)7557-436-771

[email protected]



Julie Wong

Head of Communications

+44(0)7825-918-989

[email protected]



SOURCE LEO Pharma A/S
ORLANDO, Fla., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) successfully conducted the first-ever launch yesterday of the Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) surface-launch variant from a topside canister.

The flight test, at White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, proved the missile's ability to conduct an angled launch from the newly designed topside canister, replicating a ship-launched environment. During the test, the LRASM, its Mk-114 booster and booster adapter ejected cleanly from the topside launcher using the same launch control and launch sequencer software currently employed by the Mk-41 Vertical Launch System (VLS).

"This successful flight test demonstrates Lockheed Martin's readiness to answer the U.S. Navy's call for lethal, longer range anti-surface warfare capabilities as part of the 'Distributed Lethality' concept," said Scott Callaway, Subsonic Cruise Missile director at Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control. "This test also validates the flexibility and versatility of LRASM, as it proved it can be successfully fired from VLS and non-VLS surface platforms."

Integrating LRASM onto surface ships enables distributed operations beyond enemy threat ranges. Along with the already proven VLS launch capability of LRASM, this topside canister with an angled launcher allows the LRASM surface-launch variant to be employed aboard various platforms in the Navy's surface fleet, providing the potential for a powerful new anti-ship role under the U.S. Navy's "Distributed Lethality" concept of operations.

The LRASM surface-launch variant is built on the same production line as JASSM, JASSM-ER and LRASM air-launch weapons, delivering the same long-range, precision capability while benefiting from manufacturing efficiencies.

LRASM is a precision-guided anti-ship missile that leverages the successful JASSM-ER heritage, and is designed to meet the needs of U.S. Navy and Air Force warfighters in a robust contested environment. The air-launched variant provides an early operational capability for the Navy's offensive anti-surface warfare Increment I requirement to be integrated onto the U.S. Air Force's B-1B in 2018 and on the U.S. Navy's F/A-18E/F Super Hornet in 2019.

About Lockheed Martin

Headquartered in Bethesda, Maryland, Lockheed Martin is a global security and aerospace company that employs approximately 97,000 people worldwide and is principally engaged in the research, design, development, manufacture, integration and sustainment of advanced technology systems, products and services.

SOURCE Lockheed Martin

Related Links

http://www.lockheedmartin.com


TSX: MFI

www.mapleleaffoods.com

MISSISSAUGA, ON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Maple Leaf Foods Inc. (TSX: MFI) today reported its financial results for the second quarter, June 30, 2017.

Significant sales and volume growth across our portfolio

Strong earnings growth and Adjusted EBITDA Margin (1)

Favourable markets offset by margin compression from rising meat costs

Financial Highlights

Second quarter sales increased 8.3% to $925.9 million and Adjusted Earnings per Share(2) increased 28.1% to $0.41 compared to the same quarter last year. Adjusted EBITDA Margin for the quarter was 11.2%, while Free Cash Flow(3) declined to $15.2 million.

For the six months ended June 30, 2017, sales increased 5.2% and Adjusted Earnings per Share increased 23.3%. Adjusted EBITDA Margin was 11.0% while Free Cash Flow was approximately $49.9 million.

Measure(i)

Three months ended June 30,

Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

% Change

2017

2016 Sales

925.9

854.6

8.3%

1,737.1

1,651.5 Net Earnings

37.3

31.4

18.8%

67.4

73.7 Adjusted Operating Earnings(4)

75.0

60.5

24.0%

134.0

114.0 Adjusted EBITDA Margin

11.2%

10.3%

90 bps

11.0%

10.3% Basic Earnings per Share

0.29

0.23

26.1%

0.52

0.55 Adjusted Earnings per Share

0.41

0.32

28.1%

0.74

0.60 Free Cash Flow

15.2

36.2

(58.0)%

49.9

61.4

(i) All financial measures in millions except Adjusted EBITDA Margin and Basic and Adjusted Earnings per Share. Note: Several items are excluded from the discussions of underlying earnings performance as they are not representative of ongoing operational activities. Refer to the section entitled Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Financial Measures at the end of this news release for a description and reconciliation of all non-IFRS financial measures.

"We delivered excellent second quarter results with continued earnings growth," said Michael H. McCain, President and CEO. "Strong performance in the fresh value-added pork portfolio contributed to earnings. Favourable market conditions were offset by margin compression in prepared meats due to rising raw material costs. Moving forward, we are focused on accelerating profitable growth, investing in our brands and building our leadership in sustainability. We see a path to creating significant value for shareholders and to society by advancing our vision to be the most sustainable protein company on earth."

Sales and Earnings

The Company's products include value-added prepared meats, lunch kits and snacks, value-added fresh pork and poultry products and refrigerated plant protein products sold under flagship national brands such as Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals, Mina and Lightlife.

Sales for the second quarter increased 8.3% to $925.9 million or 5.7% after adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange and acquisitions. Increased volumes in prepared meats, value-added fresh pork, and poultry coupled with a full quarter of Lightlife sales contributed to the increase.

Sales for the first six months increased 5.2% to $1,737.1 million or 4.0% after adjusting for the impact of foreign exchange and acquisitions.

Net earnings for the second quarter increased to $37.3 million ($0.29 per basic share) compared to $31.4 million ($0.23 per basic share) last year. Performance was strong in fresh value-added pork due to improved commercial mix and favourable market conditions, partially offset by margin compression in prepared meats due to rising raw material costs. We will be implementing targeted pricing actions in the third quarter to offset these rising raw material costs. The Company also experienced some non-routine operational costs in the period. For the first six months, net earnings were $67.4 million ($0.52 per basic share) compared to $73.7 million ($0.55 per basic share) last year. Year to date results were impacted by the change in fair value of biological assets and higher restructuring costs, which are excluded in calculating Adjusted Operating Earnings below.

Adjusted Operating Earnings increased to $75.0 million compared to $60.5 million last year. Commercial performance in value-added fresh pork, strong volume growth across the portfolio and favourable market conditions contributed to earnings growth in the quarter. Results were partially offset by higher raw material costs that led to margin compression in the prepared meats portfolio and some non-routine operational costs in the quarter.

Adjusted Operating Earnings in the first six months was $134.0 million compared to $114.0 million last year.

Other Matters

On July 26, 2017, the Board of Directors approved a dividend of $0.11 per share payable September 29, 2017 to shareholders of record at the close of business September 8, 2017. Based on the current number of shares outstanding, it is estimated that $0.1022 per share of the total dividend to be paid will be considered an Eligible Dividend for the "Enhanced Dividend Tax Credit System". The final amount of the dividend that is considered an Eligible Dividend will be confirmed on the Company's website on or before September 29, 2017.

Conference Call

An investor presentation related to the Company's second quarter financial results is available at www.mapleleaffoods.com and can be found under Investor Information on the Investors page. A conference call will be held at 2:30 p.m. EDT on July 27, 2017, to review Maple Leaf Foods' second quarter financial results. To participate in the call, please dial 416-340-2218 or 1-800-273-9672. For those unable to participate, playback will be made available an hour after the event at 905-694-9451 or 1-800-408-3053 (Passcode:1365285#).

A webcast presentation of the second quarter financial results will also be available at:

http://edge.media-server.com/m/p/eapsmzw9

The Company's full unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements and related Management's Discussion and Analysis are available on the Company's website.

Reconciliation of Non-IFRS Financial Measures

The Company uses the following non-IFRS measures: Adjusted Operating Earnings, Adjusted Earnings per Share, Adjusted EBITDA, and Free Cash Flow. Management believes that these non-IFRS measures provide useful information to investors in measuring the financial performance of the Company. These measures do not have a standardized meaning prescribed by IFRS and therefore they may not be comparable to similarly titled measures presented by other publicly traded companies and should not be construed as an alternative to other financial measures determined in accordance with IFRS.

Adjusted Operating Earnings









($ thousands) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016 Net earnings $ 37,342 $ 31,381 $ 67,447 $ 73,650 Income taxes

14,120

11,639

26,100

27,433 Earnings before income taxes $ 51,462 $ 43,020 $ 93,547 $ 101,083 Interest expense and other financing costs

1,345

1,211

2,572

2,317 Other expense (income)

1,132

2,601

3,836

3,192 Restructuring and other related costs

4,986

585

11,476

1,802 Earnings from operations $ 58,925 $ 47,417 $ 111,431 $ 108,394 Decrease in fair value of biological assets(5)

8,514

17,133

5,717

292 Unrealized loss (gain) on futures contracts(5)

7,567

(4,084)

16,888

5,362 Adjusted Operating Earnings $ 75,006 $ 60,466 $ 134,036 $ 114,048





Adjusted Earnings per Share





















($ per share) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016 Basic earnings per share $ 0.29 $ 0.23 $ 0.52 $ 0.55 Restructuring and other related costs(6)

0.03

0.00

0.07

0.01 Items included in other expense (income) not















considered representative of ongoing operations(7)



0.01

0.03

0.02 Change in the fair value of unrealized loss on















futures contracts(8)

0.04

(0.02)

0.10

0.03 Change in the fair value of biological assets(8)

0.05

0.09

0.03

 Adjusted Earnings per Share (9) $ 0.41 $ 0.32 $ 0.74 $ 0.60

Adjusted Earnings Before Interest, Income Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization

















($ thousands) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016 Net earnings $ 37,342 $ 31,381 $ 67,447 $ 73,650 Income taxes

14,120

11,639

26,100

27,433 Earnings before income taxes $ 51,462 $ 43,020 $ 93,547 $ 101,083 Interest expense and other financing costs

1,345

1,211

2,572

2,317 Items included in other expense (income) not















considered representative of ongoing operations

360

2,402

3,839

2,840 Restructuring and other related costs

4,986

585

11,476

1,802 Change in the fair value of biological assets















and unrealized loss on futures contracts

16,081

13,049

22,605

5,654 Depreciation and amortization

29,069

27,610

57,131

55,641 Adjusted EBITDA $ 103,303 $ 87,877 $ 191,170 $ 169,337

Free Cash Flow









($ thousands) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016 Cash provided by operating activities $ 42,132 $ 63,406 $ 97,140 $ 108,843 Additions to long-term assets

(26,982)

(27,178)

(47,237)

(47,453) Free Cash Flow $ 15,150 $ 36,228 $ 49,903 $ 61,390

Forward Looking Statements

This document contains, and the Company's oral and written public communications often contain, "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities law. These statements are based on current expectations, estimates, forecasts, and projections about the industries in which the Company operates, as well as beliefs and assumptions made by Management of the Company. Such statements include, but are not limited to, statements with respect to objectives and goals, in addition to statements with respect to beliefs, plans, objectives, expectations, anticipations, estimates, and intentions. Specific forward-looking information in this document includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to: the increases in operating efficiencies and cost reductions; expectations regarding the use of derivatives, futures and options; expectations regarding improving efficiencies; the expected use of cash balances; source of funds for ongoing business requirements; capital investments and expectations regarding capital expenditures; expectations regarding the implementation of environmental sustainability initiatives; expectations regarding the adoption of new accounting standards and the impact of such adoption on financial position; expectations regarding pension plan performance and future pension plan liabilities and contributions; expectations regarding levels of credit risk; and expectations regarding outcomes of legal actions. Words such as "expect", "anticipate", "intend", "may", "will", "plan", "believe", "seek", "estimate", and variations of such words and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking information. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and involve assumptions, risks, and uncertainties that are difficult to predict.

In addition, these statements and expectations concerning the performance of the Company's business in general are based on a number of factors and assumptions including, but not limited to: the condition of the Canadian, U.S., and Japanese economies; the rate of exchange of the Canadian dollar to the U.S. dollar, and the Japanese yen; the availability and prices of raw materials, energy and supplies; product pricing; the availability of insurance; the competitive environment and related market conditions; improvement of operating efficiencies; continued access to capital; the cost of compliance with environmental and health standards; no adverse results from ongoing litigation; no unexpected actions of domestic and foreign governments; and the general assumption that none of the risks identified below or elsewhere in this document will materialize. All of these assumptions have been derived from information currently available to the Company, including information obtained by the Company from third-party sources. These assumptions may prove to be incorrect in whole or in part. In addition, actual results may differ materially from those expressed, implied, or forecasted in such forward-looking information, which reflect the Company's expectations only as of the date hereof.

Factors that could cause actual results or outcomes to differ materially from the results expressed, implied, or forecasted by forward-looking information include, among other things:

risks associated with the Company focusing solely on the protein business;

risks related to the Company's decisions regarding any potential return of capital to shareholders;

risks associated with the concentration of production in fewer facilities;

risks associated with the availability of capital;

risks associated with changes in the Company's information systems and processes;

risks associated with cyber threats;

risks posed by food contamination, consumer liability, and product recalls;

risks associated with acquisitions, divestitures, and capital expansion projects;

impact on pension expense and funding requirements of fluctuations in the market prices of fixed income and equity securities and changes in interest rates;

cyclical nature of the cost and supply of hogs and the competitive nature of the pork market generally;

risks related to the health status of livestock;

impact of a pandemic on the Company's operations;

the Company's exposure to currency exchange risks;

ability of the Company to hedge against the effect of commodity price changes through the use of commodity futures and options;

impact of changes in the market value of the biological assets and hedging instruments;

risks associated with the supply management system for poultry in Canada ;

; risks associated with the use of contract manufacturers;

impact of international events on commodity prices and the free flow of goods;

risks posed by compliance with extensive government regulation;

risks posed by litigation;

impact of changes in consumer tastes and buying patterns;

impact of extensive environmental regulation and potential environmental liabilities;

risks associated with a consolidating retail environment;

risks posed by competition;

risks associated with complying with differing employment laws and practices, the potential for work stoppages due to non-renewal of collective agreements, and recruiting and retaining qualified personnel;

risks associated with pricing the Company's products;

risks associated with managing the Company's supply chain; and

risks associated with failing to identify and manage the strategic risks facing the Company.

The Company cautions the reader that the foregoing list of factors is not exhaustive. These factors are discussed in more detail under the heading "Risk Factors" in the Company's Management's Discussion and Analysis for the fiscal year ended December 31, 2016 that is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. The reader should review such section in detail. Some of the forward-looking information may be considered to be financial outlooks for purposes of applicable securities legislation including, but not limited to, statements concerning future capital expenditures. These financial outlooks are presented to evaluate anticipated future uses of cash flows, and may not be appropriate for other purposes and readers should not assume they will be achieved. The Company does not intend to, and the Company disclaims any obligation to, update any forward-looking information, whether written or oral, or whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise, except as required by law. Additional information concerning the Company, including the Company's Annual Information Form is available on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.

About Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Maple Leaf Foods Inc. is a leading consumer protein company, making high quality, innovative products under national brands including Maple Leaf, Maple Leaf Prime, Maple Leaf Natural Selections, Schneiders, Schneiders Country Naturals, Mina and Lightlife. Maple Leaf employs approximately 11,500 people and does business in Canada, the U.S. and Asia. The Company is headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario and its shares trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange (MFI).

Footnote Legend

Adjusted EBITDA, a non-IFRS measure, is calculated as earnings before interest and income taxes plus depreciation and intangible asset amortization, adjusted for items that are not considered representative of ongoing operational activities of the business, and items where the economic impact of the transactions will be reflected in earnings in future periods when the underlying asset is sold or transferred. Adjusted EBITDA Margin is calculated as Adjusted EBITDA divided by sales. Please refer to the section entitled Non-IFRS Financial Measures in the Company's 2017 second quarter Management's Discussion and Analysis. Adjusted Earnings per Share, a non-IFRS measure, is used by Management to evaluate financial operating results. It is defined as basic earnings per share and is adjusted on the same basis as Adjusted Operating Earnings. Please refer to the section entitled Non-IFRS Financial Measures in the Company's 2017 second quarter Management's Discussion and Analysis. Free Cash Flow, a non-IFRS measure, is used by Management to evaluate cash flow after investing in the maintenance or expansion of the Company's asset base. It is defined as cash provided by operations, less additions to long-term assets. Please refer to the section entitled Non-IFRS Financial Measures in the Company's 2017 second quarter Management's Discussion and Analysis. Adjusted Operating Earnings, a non-IFRS measure, is used by Management to evaluate financial operating results. It is defined as earnings before income taxes adjusted for items that are not considered representative of ongoing operational activities of the business and items where the economic impact of the transactions will be reflected in earnings in future periods when the underlying asset is sold or transferred. Please refer to the section entitled Non-IFRS Financial Measures in the Company's 2017 second quarter Management's Discussion and Analysis. Unrealized gains/losses on futures contracts is reported within cost of sales in the Company's 2017 second quarter unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements. For biological assets information, please refer to Note 6 of the Company's 2017 second quarter unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements. Includes per share impact of restructuring and other related costs, net of tax. Primarily includes acquisition related costs, interest income and gains/losses associated with investment properties and assets held for sale, net of tax. Includes per share impact of the change in unrealized losses on futures contracts and the change in fair value of biological assets, net of tax. May not add due to rounding.

Consolidated Interim Balance Sheets









As at June 30, As at June 30, As at December 31, (In thousands of Canadian dollars)





2017 2016 2016











(Unaudited)



ASSETS





(Unaudited) (Restated)(iii)



Current assets



















Cash and cash equivalents





$ 104,820 $ 312,757 $ 403,621

Accounts receivable







140,474

70,014

127,749

Notes receivable







42,410

103,115

32,485

Inventories







305,942

282,258

261,719

Biological assets







107,958

105,568

111,445

Prepaid expenses and other assets







54,225

36,599

30,372

Assets held for sale







5,251

4,842

4,837







$ 761,080 $ 915,153 $ 972,228

Property and equipment







1,097,249

1,078,100

1,085,275

Investment property







1,910

2,073

1,929

Employee benefits







1,357

52,359

10,311

Other long-term assets







5,452

6,796

6,557

Deferred tax asset









37,982



Goodwill







557,219

428,236

428,236

Intangible assets







160,221

131,021

128,085

Total assets





$ 2,584,488 $ 2,651,720 $ 2,632,621



















LIABILITIES AND EQUITY

















Current liabilities



















Accounts payable and accruals





$ 272,865 $ 248,173 $ 256,163

Provisions







13,906

19,517

11,889

Current portion of long-term debt







881

729

794

Income taxes payable







6,540

8,127

9,544

Other current liabilities







45,707

14,375

96,857







$ 339,899 $ 290,921 $ 375,247

Long-term debt







8,969

9,766

9,119

Employee benefits







118,978

237,892

108,730

Provisions







14,710

13,755

16,555

Other long-term liabilities







13,084

16,959

12,654

Deferred tax liability







40,756



22,293

Total liabilities





$ 536,396 $ 569,293 $ 544,598



















Shareholders' equity

















Share capital





$ 847,326 $ 884,431 $ 853,633 Retained earnings







1,213,935

1,185,999

1,247,737 Contributed surplus









12,314

 Accumulated other comprehensive income







1,792

7,332

1,619 Treasury stock







(14,961)

(7,649)

(14,966) Total shareholders' equity





$ 2,048,092 $ 2,082,427 $ 2,088,023 Total liabilities and equity





$ 2,584,488 $ 2,651,720 $ 2,632,621

Consolidated Interim Statements of Net Earnings

(In thousands of Canadian dollars, except















share amounts) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016

















Sales $ 925,873 $ 854,646 $ 1,737,058 $ 1,651,535 Cost of goods sold

778,195

727,762

1,455,684

1,386,394 Gross margin $ 147,678 $ 126,884 $ 281,374 $ 265,141 Selling, general and administrative expenses

88,753

79,467

169,943

156,747 Earnings before the following: $ 58,925 $ 47,417 $ 111,431 $ 108,394 Restructuring and other related costs

(4,986)

(585)

(11,476)

(1,802) Other income (expense)

(1,132)

(2,601)

(3,836)

(3,192) Earnings before interest and income taxes $ 52,807 $ 44,231 $ 96,119 $ 103,400 Interest expense and other financing costs

1,345

1,211

2,572

2,317 Earnings before income taxes $ 51,462 $ 43,020 $ 93,547 $ 101,083 Income taxes

14,120

11,639

26,100

27,433 Net earnings $ 37,342 $ 31,381 $ 67,447 $ 73,650

















Earnings per share:

















Basic earnings per share $ 0.29 $ 0.23 $ 0.52 $ 0.55

Diluted earnings per share $ 0.28 $ 0.23 $ 0.51 $ 0.53 Weighted average number of shares (millions)

















Basic

129.1

134.4

129.8

134.5

Diluted

132.9

137.4

133.1

137.8

Consolidated Interim Statements of Other Comprehensive Income (Loss)

(In thousands of Canadian dollars) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016

















Net earnings $ 37,342 $ 31,381 $ 67,447 $ 73,650 Other comprehensive (loss) income

















Actuarial losses that will not be reclassified

















to profit or loss



















(Net of tax of $5.2 million and $6.2 million;



















2016: $10.8 million and $9.5 million) $ (14,721) $ (30,628) $ (17,561) $ (26,768) Items that are or may be reclassified subsequently















to profit or loss:

















Change in accumulated foreign currency

















translation adjustment



















(Net of tax of $0.0 million; 2016: $0.0 million) $ (5,109) $ 569 $ (7,185) $ 413

Change in unrealized gains (losses) on cash

















flow hedges



















(Net of tax of $2.2 million and $2.6 million;



















2016: $1.5 million and $2.6 million)

6,195

(4,415)

7,358

7,333 Total items that are or may be reclassified















subsequently to profit or loss $ 1,086 $ (3,846) $ 173 $ 7,746 Total other comprehensive loss $ (13,635) $ (34,474) $ (17,388) $ (19,022) Comprehensive income (loss) $ 23,707 $ (3,093) $ 50,059 $ 54,628

Consolidated Interim Statements of Changes in Total Equity









Accumulated other











comprehensive income











(loss)(i)











Foreign Unrealized











currency gains and



(In thousands of Canadian dollars) Share Retained Contributed translation losses on cash Treasury Total (Unaudited) capital earnings surplus adjustment flow hedges stock equity Balance as at December 31, 2016 $ 853,633 $ 1,247,737 $  $ 2,116 $ (497) $ (14,966) $ 2,088,023

Net earnings



67,447









67,447

Other comprehensive income (loss)(ii)



(17,561)



(7,185)

7,358



(17,388)

Dividends declared ($0.22 per share)



(28,530)









(28,530)

Share-based compensation expense





11,842







11,842

Deferred taxes on share-based compensation





2,750







2,750

Repurchase of shares

(11,819)

(26,340)

(14,592)







(52,751)

Exercise of stock options

5,512











5,512

Settlement of share-based compensation



(28,818)







16,005

(12,813)

Shares purchased by RSU trust











(16,000)

(16,000) Balance as at June 30, 2017 $ 847,326 $ 1,213,935 $  $ (5,069) $ 6,861 $ (14,961) $ 2,048,092























Accumulated other











comprehensive income











(loss)(i)











Foreign Unrealized











currency gains and



(In thousands of Canadian dollars) Share Retained Contributed translation losses on cash Treasury Total (Unaudited) capital earnings surplus adjustment flow hedges stock equity Balance as at December 31, 2015(iii) $ 882,770 $ 1,161,047 $  $ 2,506 $ (2,920) $ (2,086) $ 2,041,317

Net earnings



73,650









73,650

Other comprehensive income (loss)(ii)



(26,768)



413

7,333



(19,022)

Dividends declared ($0.18 per share)



(24,230)









(24,230)

Share-based compensation expense





12,818







12,818

Deferred taxes on share-based compensation





1,500







1,500

Repurchase of shares



2,300

(1,648)







652

Exercise of stock options

1,661











1,661

Settlement of share-based compensation





(356)





38

(318)

Shares purchased by RSU trust











(5,601)

(5,601) Balance at June 30, 2016(iii) $ 884,431 $ 1,185,999 $ 12,314 $ 2,919 $ 4,413 $ (7,649) $ 2,082,427

(i) Items that are or may be subsequently reclassified to profit or loss. (ii) Included in other comprehensive income (loss) is the change in actuarial gains and losses that will not be reclassified to profit or loss and has been reclassified to retained earnings. (iii) Restated, see Note 2 (d) of the Company's 2017 second quarter unaudited condensed consolidated interim financial statements.

Consolidated Interim Statements of Cash Flows

(In thousands of Canadian dollars) Three months ended June 30, Six months ended June 30, (Unaudited)

2017

2016

2017

2016 CASH PROVIDED BY (USED IN):















Operating activities

















Net earnings $ 37,342 $ 31,381 $ 67,447 $ 73,650

Add (deduct) items not affecting cash:



















Change in fair value of biological assets

8,514

17,133

5,717

292



Depreciation and amortization

29,079

28,126

57,150

56,997



Share-based compensation

4,629

7,320

11,842

12,818



Deferred income taxes

12,003

10,801

22,481

25,380



Income tax current

2,117

838

3,619

2,053



Interest expense and other financing costs

1,345

1,211

2,572

2,317



(Gain) loss on sale of long-term assets

(831)

265

(510)

762



Change in fair value of non-designated derivative



















financial instruments

5,634

(4,189)

13,817

3,039



Impairment of assets (net of reversals)



1,022



1,022

Change in net pension liability

(5,625)

6,913

(4,561)

12,589

Net income taxes paid

(3,707)

(628)

(6,365)

(3,541)

Interest paid

(832)

(1,187)

(1,650)

(2,273)

Change in provision for restructuring and other related costs

2,330

(6,849)

4,944

(13,762)

Change in derivatives margin

(11,694)

(5,683)

(14,124)

(12,949)

Other

996

(684)

83

2,920

Change in non-cash working capital

(39,168)

(22,384)

(65,322)

(52,471) Cash provided by operating activities $ 42,132 $ 63,406 $ 97,140 $ 108,843 Financing activities

















Dividends paid $ (14,205) $ (12,119) $ (28,530) $ (24,230)

Net decrease in long-term debt

(93)

(125)

(278)

(292)

Exercise of stock options

3,905

1,619

5,512

1,661

Repurchase of shares

(29,432)



(111,412)

(11,922)

Payment of deferred financing fees

(78)

(1,090)

(142)

(1,090)

Purchase of treasury stock

(6,000)

(2,900)

(16,000)

(5,601) Cash used in financing activities $ (45,903) $ (14,615) $ (150,850) $ (41,474) Investing activities

















Additions to long-term assets $ (26,982) $ (27,178) $ (47,237) $ (47,453)

Acquisition of business, net of cash acquired

(9,523)



(199,440)



Proceeds from sale of long-term assets

1,500

228

1,586

572 Cash used in investing activities $ (35,005) $ (26,950) $ (245,091) $ (46,881) (Decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents $ (38,776) $ 21,841 $ (298,801) $ 20,488 Cash and cash equivalents, beginning of period

143,596

290,916

403,621

292,269 Cash and cash equivalents, end of period $ 104,820 $ 312,757 $ 104,820 $ 312,757

SOURCE Maple Leaf Foods Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mapleleaffoods.com


CHICAGO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mariachi Herencia de Mexico, an ensemble of students from Chicago's immigrant barrios, has scored a surprise hit with their debut album of traditional Mexican music. Nuestra Herencia (Our Heritage) ranked No. 2 in its first week on iTunes' Latin chart, defying a music industry trend and pointing to a revival in recorded mariachi music.

Mariachi Herencia de Mexico performs at Chicago's Millennium Park to a record audience of 22,000. Mariachi Herencia de Mexico, an ensemble of students from Chicago's immigrant barrios, has scored a surprise hit with their debut album of traditional Mexican music. Nuestra Herencia (Our Heritage) ranked No. 2 in its first week on iTunes' Latin chart, defying a music industry trend and pointing to a revival in recorded mariachi music.

The album, released on May 17, is believed to be the first major mariachi recording released in the U.S. by a student ensemble, with members ranging in age from 11 to 18. It was produced and arranged by L.A.'s mariachi master, Jose Hernandez, who calls the project "one of those labor of love things." Much of that love and labor came from Cesar Maldonado, an investment banker whose most important startup was a non-profit foundation that promoted mariachi music instruction in Chicago public schools, creating a classroom incubator for the talent on this album.

In a historic collaboration, the album features guest musicians from some of the most respected mariachi groups from both sides of the border. It includes vocal contributions by members of Mariachi Vargas de Tecalitlan, Los Camperos, Sol de Mexico, and the all-female group Reyna de Los Angeles.

Nuestra Herencia was released in time to qualify for this year's Latin GRAMMY competition and features tribute medleys to two of the genre's greatest stars: Juan Gabriel and Jose Alfredo Jimenez.

"I tell people that mariachi is a sleeping giant in this country," says Hernandez. "A lot of people in the mainstream don't realize how big mariachi has become in the schools. It's really growing."

In Chicago, Mariachi Herencia de Mexico was purely a barrio creation.

The band emerged from a plucky non-profit, the Mariachi Heritage Foundation, that pushed a cultural agenda in the schools. It was started in 2013 by Cesar Maldonado, a determined investment banker whose entrepreneurial spirit was aimed at doing good for his old neighborhood.

"I believe in the impact of the arts, especially when the art form is relevant. And this art form is completely relevant to Chicago's growing Mexican and Mexican American communities," says Maldonado.

Maldonado, who still lives in his old neighborhood, decided to make good on his convictions. With the blessing of Chicago's arts-focused leader, Mayor Rahm Emanuel, and support from a network of local businesses, a program of mariachi music instruction was launched.

The group performs in major mariachi festivals, including upcoming events in Chicago, Orlando, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, and Guadalajara, Mexico's mariachi capital and recently signed with IMG Artists. Debut concerts at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. and Joe's Pub in New York City are now on the schedule.

ARTIST WEBSITE:

http://www.mariachiherenciademexico.com

ARTIST TOUR SCHEDULE:

Fri August 4 Los Angeles, CA La Fonda de Los Camperos Sun August 5 Santa Barbara, CA Santa Barbara Mariachi Festival / S.B. Bowl Sun August 20 New York, NY Joe's Pub Fri-Mon Aug 25- Sept 3 Guadalajara, MEXICO Guadalajara International Mariachi Festival Sat Sept 16 Washington, DC Kennedy Center / Millennium Stage (FREE) Sat Sept 16 Chicago, IL WFMT-FM (NPR) Concert Broadcast on "Introductions"

Media Contact:

Cindy Byram

[email protected]

(201) 400-4104

SOURCE Mariachi Heritage Foundation

Related Links

http://www.mariachiherenciademexico.com


PORTLAND, Ore., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

Content and Collaboration

Marquam offers business process innovation and end to end technology solutions. The company specializes in helping clients manage information and leverage employee productivity with Microsoft technology. Being a Microsoft partner with extensive experience in cloud based content and collaboration, Marquam decided to join forces with Powell Software to implement the modern digital workplace.

Together the companies aim to simplify corporate innovation while enhancing the employee experience by offering Powell 365. "Marquam is renowned Microsoft partner in the Pacific Northwest, recognized for its expertise in communication and collaborative solutions," said Antoine Faisandier, CEO of Powell Software US.

THE POWELL 365 DIGITAL WORKPLACE

Powell 365 is Powell Software's breakthrough communication and collaboration intranet based on Office 365. Driven by cutting edge technology, the pure cloud solution is an intranet that optimizes user experience to develop communication and collaboration between teams. Featuring Office 365 automatic updates, the completely evergreen solution gives employees access to the right information at the right time. In as little as 2 to 4 weeks, customers can create a top-notch corporate intranet, personalized to their business needs.

Powell Software and Marquam are committed to making a difference in the daily tasks and interactions of their customers' employees. "We are really excited to partner with them and accelerate our growth in this region!" confirms Faisandier.

By adding the Powell 365 solution to their solutions offering, Marquam offers customers a new way to approach their Microsoft Office 365 tenant. "The Powell 365 platform is perfect for Marquam clients that leverage the cloud-based power of SharePoint Online," explains Chad Layman, CEO of Marquam. This easy to use and quick to deploy intranet solution cuts Office 365 implementation time and costs while dramatically increasing employee usage.

"Our new partnership will enhance employee experiences through responsive and intuitive intranet designs  reinforcing Marquam's goal to help organizations raise the bar of team collaboration and productivity," said Layman. With Powell 365, Marquam drives corporate innovation and productivity.

To learn more about the Powell 365 solution, request a free demonstration today.

ABOUT Marquam

Since 1998, Marquam has helped more than 500 organizations, amplify their speed and efficiency. We offer business process innovation and end-to-end solutions with unrivaled expertise in Microsoft technologies. It is our nimble, flexible delivery model, coupled with a deep-seated passion for innovation, that differentiates Marquam. We invest deeply in our client relationships, building a foundation for growth and evolution. We lead with care, thrive on challenge and have the fundamental belief that our clients are capable of incredible things. While every engagement is unique, we consistently approach each with a handful of core principles: an obsessive dedication to people and process paired with a commitment to functionality and fiscal efficiency. This combination delivers productivity and maximizes the return on your investment in Microsoft technologies. Ultimately, it's a combination that allows our clients to realize the best versions of themselves  faster, more efficient, evolved.

ABOUT POWELL SOFTWARE

Powell Software was founded in 2015 by Expertime Group, a Microsoft platform expert. Based in France and the United States, Powell Software drives digital transformation by offering Powell 365, an integrated intranet solution that transforms the user experience and boosts communication, collaboration and business productivity. Today, Powell Software has over 60 international partners and more than 3,000 Powell 365 users. For more information, please visit www.powell-365.com.

Contact:

Jake Rahner

1-503-276-1590

SOURCE Marquam
IRVINE, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mavenlink, the leading provider of cloud-based software for the modern services organization and a Gartner Cool Vendor*, was recently named as one of the 2017 Best Places to Work in Orange County.The awards program, a project of the Orange County Business Journal and Best Companies Group, was designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Orange County, California.

Organizations from across the county entered the two-part process.The first part consisted of evaluating each employer's workplace policies, practices, and demographics. This part of the process was worth approximately 25% of the total evaluation. The second part consisted of an employee survey to measure the employee experience. This part of the process was worth approximately 75% of the total evaluation. The combined scores determined the top organizations and the final ranking. Best Companies Group managed the overall registration and survey process in Orange County and also analyzed the data and used their expertise to determine the final ranking.

"We deeply appreciate this recognition of our vibrant culture and talented team," said Ray Grainger, CEO and Co-founder of Mavenlink. "We strive everyday to create an environment that inspires collaboration and continuous improvement, and where our team members enjoy coming to work every day. This award is real validation of what our people have done and continue to do to make Mavenlink a special place to be."

Following consecutive years of triple digit growth, Mavenlink recently announced an expansion plan that includes the opening of its first European office in London, the addition of two new U.S. locations in Boston and Salt Lake City, while growing its current San Francisco engineering and product headquarters, and rapidly adding jobs at its Irvine, CA corporate headquarters. The company was also recently honored with a Glassdoor Employees' Choice Award, recognizing the country's Best Places to Work in 2017.

To learn more about Mavenlink, visit www.mavenlink.com. For career opportunities at Mavenlink, including positions in engineering, sales, product, and marketing, visit https://www.mavenlink.com/careers.

For more information on the survey process for the Best Places to Work in Orange County program, visit www.BestPlacestoWorkOC.com.

About Mavenlink

Mavenlink delivers enterprise-class Software as a Service (SaaS) that transforms how services organizations work with distributed teams, contractors and clients around the globe. Mavenlink's innovative technology platform enables teams of any size to successfully manage and scale their people, projects, and profits. Consulting firms, IT services organizations, creative agencies, and professional services organizations in more than 100 countries are running their businesses more effectively and predictably with Mavenlink. Mavenlink was recently named a winner of the Project Management Gold Stevie Award, Red Herring Global 100 business, a Glassdoor Best Place to Work, and a Cool Vendor by Gartner, the world's leading technology research and advisory firm. Learn more at www.mavenlink.com.

* Gartner, Cool Vendors in Program and Portfolio Management, 2015, Robert A. Handler, Matt Light, Donna Fitzgerald, Teresa Jones, 24 April 2015.

SOURCE Mavenlink

Related Links

http://www.mavenlink.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "What we've found over the years is nearly 50% of Navy Veterans who have been diagnosed with mesothelioma we have talked to had extreme exposure to asbestos at a US Navy Shipyard. As the top branded source in the United States for the best possible financial compensation for a Navy Veteran with mesothelioma, we feel it is our duty to explain to diagnosed Veterans or family members who call us at 800-714-0303 the best possible mesothelioma financial compensation for Veterans must include the nation's most skilled mesothelioma attorneys, and these lawyers know navy shipyards." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

Navy Ship at Shipyard

Most families the Mesothelioma Victims Center talks to have a simple understanding that their husband or dad served in the US Navy; most are unaware that their loved one may have spent between six months to a year stationed at a navy shipyard. US Navy Veterans account for a very large percentage of total victims diagnosed with mesothelioma in the nation year after year. This is due to work conditions decades ago that exposed those in the Navy to higher-than-average asbestos exposure.

Frequently US Navy Sailors were forced to stay on the ship while it was in the shipyard and had to work side by side with the shipyard workers. The difference between Veterans and shipyard workers in terms of daily life is that after a shipyard worker's shift, they got to go home. In most instances, the sailors were stationed on the ship being worked on, which resulted in around the clock exposure to asbestos. http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

According to the Mesothelioma Victims Center, "If we had one vital tip for a US Navy Veteran who has recently been diagnosed with mesothelioma, it would be call us at 800-714-0303 to ensure you are talking directly to some of the nation's most elite mesothelioma attorneys who know all about US Navy ships. These experts are knowledgeable about US Navy Shipyards and will get the best possible financial compensation results. Don't hire a lawyer/law firm to help with a mesothelioma compensation before first talking to us." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

Representatives from the Mesothelioma Victims Center have visited almost every major US Navy Shipyard in the United States to better understand how or where a US Navy Veteran could have been exposed to asbestos. These bases include:

Norfolk, Virginia -Active Navy Base

-Active Navy Base Norfolk, Virginia Shipyard- http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/Norfolk/

Shipyard- http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/Norfolk/ Portsmouth Navy Shipyard Kittery, Maine - http://www.navymwrportsmouthshipyard.com/

- http://www.navymwrportsmouthshipyard.com/ San Diego, California -Active Navy Base-Pacific Fleet

-Active Navy Base-Pacific Fleet Honolulu, Hawaii - http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/

- http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/ Groton, Connecticut - http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/SUPSHIP/Groton/

- http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/SUPSHIP/Groton/ Puget Sound Navy Shipyard, Bremerton, Washington - http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/PSNS-IMF/

- http://www.navsea.navy.mil/Home/Shipyards/PSNS-IMF/ Kings Bay, Georgia -Active Navy Base

-Active Navy Base Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Navy Yard-Closed 1995

Navy Yard-Closed 1995 The Long Beach Naval Shipyard-California-Closed 1997

Brooklyn Navy Shipyard, New York-Closed 1966

The Boston Navy Yard, Massachusetts-Closed 1974

Hunters Point Naval Shipyard-Closed 1974

Each year about 3,000 US citizens will be diagnosed with mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is caused by exposure to asbestos. High-risk work groups for exposure to asbestos include US Navy Veterans, power plant workers, shipyard workers, oil refinery workers, steel mill workers, miners, manufacturing workers, pulp or paper mill workers, millwrights, welders, plumbers, electricians, auto mechanics, machinists, construction workers, rail road workers, and firemen. Typically, the exposure to asbestos for these types of workers occurred in the 1950's, 1960's, 1970's, or 1980's.

According to the CDC, the states indicated with the highest incidence of mesothelioma include Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, Michigan, Illinois, Minnesota, Louisiana, Washington, and Oregon.

However, based on the calls the Mesothelioma Victims Center receives, a US Navy Veteran with mesothelioma could live in any state including New York, Florida, California, Texas, Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Indiana, Missouri, North Carolina, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, Kansas, Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Arizona, Idaho, or Alaska.

The Mesothelioma Victims Center says, "As we would like to explain anytime at 800-714-0303 if a person who has been diagnosed with mesothelioma wants the best possible compensation it is vital they have the nation's most skilled, and experienced mesothelioma lawyers." http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com

For more information about mesothelioma please refer to the National Institutes of Health's web site related to this rare form of cancer: http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/mesothelioma.html.

Media Contact:

Michael Thomas

800-714-0303

[email protected]

SOURCE Mesothelioma Victims Center

Related Links

http://MesotheliomaVictimsCenter.Com


COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mettler-Toledo International Inc. (NYSE: MTD) today announced second quarter results for 2017. Provided below are the highlights:

Sales in local currency increased 10% in the quarter compared with the prior year. Reported sales increased 7% as currency reduced sales growth by 3% in the quarter.

Net earnings per diluted share as reported (EPS) were $3.84 , compared with $2.93 in the prior-year period. Adjusted EPS was $3.92 , an increase of 22% over the prior-year amount of $3.22 . Adjusted EPS is a non-GAAP measure and we have included a reconciliation to EPS on the last page of the attached schedules.

Second Quarter Results

Olivier Filliol, President and Chief Executive Officer, stated, "Sales growth in the quarter was very strong with excellent growth in Asia/Rest of World and the Americas. We continue to benefit from our productivity and margin initiatives which contributed to further margin expansion and excellent growth in EPS."

EPS in the quarter was $3.84, compared with the prior-year amount of $2.93. Adjusted EPS was $3.92, an increase of 22% over the prior-year amount of $3.22.

Sales were $653.7 million, a 10% increase in local currency sales, compared with $608.3 million in the prior-year quarter. Reported sales increased 7% as currency reduced sales growth by 3% in the quarter. As compared to the prior year, local currency sales increased 10% in the Americas, 4% in Europe and 15% in Asia/Rest of World. Adjusted operating income amounted to $148.5 million, a 15% increase from the prior-year amount of $129.1 million. Adjusted operating income is a non-GAAP measure, and a reconciliation to earnings before taxes is provided in the attached schedules.

Six Month Results

EPS for the six months was $7.32, compared with the prior-year amount of $5.32. Adjusted EPS was $7.25, an increase of 28% over the prior-year amount of $5.68.

Sales were $1.248 billion, an 11% increase in local currency sales, compared with $1.148 billion in the prior-year period. Reported sales increased 9% as currency reduced sales growth by 2% in the period. As compared to the prior year, local currency sales increased 12% in the Americas, 8% in Europe and 12% in Asia/Rest of World. Adjusted operating income amounted to $275.9 million, a 19% increase from the prior-year amount of $231.1 million. Adjusted operating income is a non-GAAP measure, and a reconciliation to earnings before taxes is provided in the attached schedules.

Outlook

The Company said that based on its assessment of market conditions today, management anticipates local currency sales growth in 2017 will be approximately 8%. This sales growth is expected to result in Adjusted EPS in the range of $17.25 to $17.35, an increase of 17%. This compares to previous guidance of Adjusted EPS in the range of $16.95 to $17.15.

For the third quarter 2017, local currency sales growth is expected to be approximately 5% and Adjusted EPS in the range of $4.25 to $4.30, an increase of 9% to 11%.



While the Company has provided an outlook for Adjusted EPS, it has not provided an outlook for EPS as it would require an estimate of non-recurring items, which are not yet known. The Company noted in making its outlook that economic uncertainty remains in certain regions of the world and market conditions are subject to change.

Conclusion

Filliol concluded, "Our operating results for the last several quarters have been excellent. Our Field Turbo investments, Spinnaker sales and marketing initiatives and new product launches are yielding tangible results and we continue to further our margin and productivity initiatives. We will face more challenging comparisons for the remainder of the year but with continued strong execution, we believe we can continue to gain share and deliver a strong performance in 2017."

Other Matters

The Company will host a conference call to discuss its quarterly results today (Thursday, July 27) at 4:30 p.m. Eastern Time. To hear a live webcast or replay of the call, visit the investor relations page on the Company's website at www.mt.com/investors. The presentation referenced in the conference call will be located on the website prior to the call.

METTLER TOLEDO (NYSE: MTD) is a leading global supplier of precision instruments and services. We have strong leadership positions in all of our businesses and believe we hold global number-one market positions in most of them. We are recognized as an innovation leader and our solutions are critical in key R&D, quality control, and manufacturing processes for customers in a wide range of industries including life sciences, food, and chemicals. Our sales and service network is one of the most extensive in the industry. Our products are sold in more than 140 countries and we have a direct presence in approximately 40 countries. With proven growth strategies and a focus on execution, we have achieved a long-term track record of strong financial performance. For more information, please visit www.mt.com.

Statements in this press release which are not historical facts constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of Section 27A of the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and Section 21E of the U.S. Securities Exchange Act of 1934. These statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause our or our businesses' actual results, levels of activity, performance or achievements to be materially different from those expressed or implied by any forward-looking statements. In some cases, you can identify forward-looking statements by terminology such as "may," "will," "could," "would," "should," "expect," "plan," "anticipate," "intend," "believe," "estimate," "predict," "potential" or "continue" or the negative of those terms or other comparable terminology. For a discussion of these risks and uncertainties, please see the discussion on forward-looking statements in our current report on Form 8-K to which this release has been furnished as an exhibit. All of the forward-looking statements are qualified in their entirety by reference to the factors discussed under the captions "Factors affecting our future operating results" and in the "Business" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations" sections of our annual report on Form 10-K for the most recently completed fiscal year, which describe risks and factors that could cause results to differ materially from those projected in those forward-looking statements.

METTLER-TOLEDO INTERNATIONAL INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (amounts in thousands except share data) (unaudited)











































Three months ended











Three months ended















June 30, 2017

% of sales



June 30, 2016

% of sales







































Net sales



$653,656

(a)

100.0







$608,286





100.0



Cost of sales



278,739





42.6







260,710





42.9



Gross profit



374,917





57.4







347,576





57.1









































Research and development



32,854





5.0







30,701





5.0



Selling, general and administrative



193,517





29.6







187,798





30.9



Amortization



10,249





1.6







8,655





1.4



Interest expense



8,171





1.3







6,872





1.1



Restructuring charges



4,023





0.6







2,205





0.4



Other charges (income), net



(744)





(0.1)







8,173





1.3



Earnings before taxes



126,847





19.4







103,172





17.0









































Provision for taxes



25,267





3.9







23,584





3.9



Net earnings



$101,580





15.5







$79,588





13.1









































Basic earnings per common share:



































Net earnings



$3.94















$2.99











Weighted average number of common shares

25,751,374















26,631,015

















































Diluted earnings per common share:



































Net earnings



$3.84















$2.93











Weighted average number of common



26,439,529















27,143,284











and common equivalent shares









































































Note:



































(a) Local currency sales increased 10% as compared to the same period in 2016.



















































RECONCILIATION OF EARNINGS BEFORE TAXES TO ADJUSTED OPERATING INCOME











































Three months ended











Three months ended















June 30, 2017

% of sales



June 30, 2016

% of sales







































Earnings before taxes



$126,847















$103,172











Amortization



10,249















8,655











Interest expense



8,171















6,872











Restructuring charges



4,023















2,205











Other charges (income), net



(744)















8,173

(c)







Adjusted operating income



$148,546

(b)

22.7







$129,077





21.2









































Note:



































(b) Adjusted operating income increased 15% as compared to the same period in 2016.



(c) Other charges (income), net includes a one-time non-cash pension settlement charge of $8.2 million related to a lump sum

settlement to former employees of our U.S. pension plan for the three months ended June 30, 2016.





METTLER-TOLEDO INTERNATIONAL INC. CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF OPERATIONS (amounts in thousands except share data) (unaudited)











































Six months ended











Six months ended

















June 30, 2017

% of sales



June 30, 2016

% of sales

































Net sales



$1,248,223

(a)

100.0







$1,147,960





100.0



Cost of sales



530,406





42.5







500,477





43.6



Gross profit



717,817





57.5







647,483





56.4











































Research and development



64,246





5.1







59,674





5.2



Selling, general and administrative



377,689





30.3







356,719





31.1



Amortization



20,294





1.6







17,079





1.5



Interest expense



15,912





1.3







13,452





1.2



Restructuring charges



5,455





0.4







3,085





0.2



Other charges (income), net



(6,474)





(0.5)







7,889





0.7



Earnings before taxes



240,695





19.3







189,585





16.5











































Provision for taxes



46,649





3.8







44,323





3.8



Net earnings



$194,046





15.5







$145,262





12.7











































Basic earnings per common share:



































Net earnings



$7.51















$5.42











Weighted average number of common shares

25,841,243















26,781,154



















































Diluted earnings per common share:



































Net earnings



$7.32















$5.32











Weighted average number of common



26,514,311















27,283,012











and common equivalent shares











































































Note:



































(a) Local currency sales increased 11% as compared to the same period in 2016.



















































RECONCILIATION OF EARNINGS BEFORE TAXES TO ADJUSTED OPERATING INCOME











































Six months ended











Six months ended

















June 30, 2017

% of sales



June 30, 2016

% of sales









































Earnings before taxes



$240,695















$189,585











Amortization



20,294















17,079











Interest expense



15,912















13,452











Restructuring charges



5,455















3,085











Other charges (income), net



(6,474)

(b)











7,889

(d)







Adjusted operating income



$275,882

(c)

22.1







$231,090





20.1











































Note:



































(b) Other charges (income), net includes a one-time gain of $3.4 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 relating to the

sale of a facility in Switzerland in connection with our initiative to consolidate certain Swiss operations into a new facility. (c) Adjusted operating income increased 19% as compared to the same period in 2016.



(d) Other charges (income), net includes a one-time non-cash pension settlement charge of $8.2 million related to a

lump sum settlement to former employees of our U.S. pension plan for the six months ended June 30, 2016.

METTLER-TOLEDO INTERNATIONAL INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED BALANCE SHEETS (amounts in thousands) (unaudited)











































June 30, 2017



December 31, 2016



















Cash and cash equivalents



$146,334







$158,674

Accounts receivable, net



448,098







454,988

Inventories



253,734







222,047

Other current assets and prepaid expenses



65,587







61,075

Total current assets



913,753







896,784





















Property, plant and equipment, net



600,900







563,707

Goodwill and other intangibles assets, net



647,891







643,433

Other non-current assets



85,406







62,853

Total assets



$2,247,950







$2,166,777





















Short-term borrowings and maturities of long-term debt

$21,608







$18,974

Trade accounts payable



143,607







146,593

Accrued and other current liabilities



423,594







421,948

Total current liabilities



588,809







587,515





















Long-term debt



947,781







875,056

Other non-current liabilities



249,441







269,263

Total liabilities



1,786,031







1,731,834





















Shareholders' equity



461,919







434,943

Total liabilities and shareholders' equity



$2,247,950







$2,166,777



METTLER-TOLEDO INTERNATIONAL INC. CONDENSED CONSOLIDATED STATEMENTS OF CASH FLOWS (amounts in thousands) (unaudited)





























Three months ended

Six months ended







June 30,

June 30,







2017

2016

2017

2016





















Cash flow from operating activities:















Net earnings

$101,580

$79,588

$194,046

$145,262 Adjustments to reconcile net earnings to















net cash provided by operating activities:















Depreciation

7,953

7,994

15,919

16,116 Amortization

10,249

8,655

20,294

17,079 Deferred tax benefit

(2,264)

(5,548)

(3,840)

(8,852) Other

4,211

3,569

8,023

7,148 Gain on facility sale

-

-

(3,394)

- Non-cash pension settlement charge

-

8,189

-

8,189 Increase (decrease) in cash resulting from changes in















operating assets and liabilities

16,049

18,425

(25,671)

(22,565) Net cash provided by operating activities

137,778

$120,872

205,377

$162,377





















Cash flows from investing activities:















Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment(a)

206

83

10,209

218 Purchase of property, plant and equipment

(27,514)

(14,510)

(48,529)

(28,858) Acquisitions

(697)

-

(697)

(4,329) Net hedging settlements on intercompany loans

(1,345)

(1,053)

(1,033)

1,075 Net cash used in investing activities

(29,350)

(15,480)

(40,050)

(31,894)





















Cash flows from financing activities:















Proceeds from borrowings

200,189

163,147

672,921

392,560 Repayments of borrowings

(205,281)

(145,217)

(615,162)

(269,684) Proceeds from exercise of stock options

8,734

8,056

16,935

13,965 Repurchases of common stock

(124,952)

(124,997)

(249,949)

(249,997) Other financing activities

(7,205)

(555)

(7,205)

(680) Net cash used in financing activities

(128,515)

(99,566)

(182,460)

(113,836)





















Effect of exchange rate changes on cash and cash equivalents 1,528

(1,775)

4,793

(888)





















Net (decrease) increase in cash and cash equivalents

(18,559)

4,051

(12,340)

15,759





















Cash and cash equivalents:















Beginning of period

164,893

110,595

158,674

98,887 End of period

$146,334

$114,646

$146,334

$114,646











































RECONCILIATION OF NET CASH PROVIDED BY OPERATING ACTIVITIES TO FREE CASH FLOW



























Net cash provided by operating activities

$137,778

$120,872

$205,377

$162,377 Payments in respect of restructuring activities

2,748

2,461

5,326

4,302 Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment

206

83

10,209

218 Purchase of property, plant and equipment

(27,514)

(14,510)

(48,529)

(28,858) Free cash flow

$113,218

$108,906

$172,383

$138,039





















(a) Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment includes $9.9 million relating to the sale of a facility in Switzerland in connection with our

initiative to consolidate certain Swiss operations into a new facility for the six months ended June 30, 2017.

METTLER-TOLEDO INTERNATIONAL INC.

OTHER OPERATING STATISTICS





















































SALES GROWTH BY DESTINATION

(unaudited)



































Europe

Americas

Asia/RoW Total





























U.S. Dollar Sales Growth























Three Months Ended June 30, 2017



1%

9%

13%

7%





Six Months Ended June 30, 2017



4%

11%

10%

9%





























Local Currency Sales Growth























Three Months Ended June 30, 2017



4%

10%

15%

10%





Six Months Ended June 30, 2017



8%

12%

12%

11%























































RECONCILIATION OF DILUTED EPS AS REPORTED TO ADJUSTED DILUTED EPS

(unaudited)































Three months ended

Six months ended



June 30,

June 30,



2017

2016

% Growth

2017

2016

% Growth

























EPS as reported, diluted $3.84

$2.93

31%

$7.32

$5.32

38%

























Restructuring charges, net of tax 0.12 (a) 0.06 (a)



0.16 (a) 0.09 (a)

Purchased intangible amortization, net of tax 0.06 (b) 0.04 (b)



0.11 (b) 0.08 (b)

Income tax expense (0.10) (c) -





(0.24) (c) -



Gain on facility sale -

-





(0.10) (d) -



Non-cash pension settlement charge, net of tax -

0.19 (e)



-

0.19 (e)



























Adjusted EPS, diluted $3.92

$3.22

22%

$7.25

$5.68

28%

























Notes:





















(a) Represents the EPS impact of restructuring charges of $4.0 million ($3.1 million after tax) and $2.2 million ($1.7 million after tax) for the

three months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, and $5.5 million ($4.3 million after tax) and $3.1 million ($2.3 million after tax) for the six

months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively, which primarily include employee related costs. (b) Represents the EPS impact of purchased intangibles amortization, net of tax, of $1.5 million and $1.0 million for the three months

ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, and $3.0 million and $2.1 million for the six months ended June 30, 2017 and 2016, respectively. (c) Represents the EPS impact of the difference between our reported tax rate of 20% and 19% during the three and six

months ending June 30, 2017 and our estimated annual income tax rate of 22%, which reflects a 2% benefit pertaining to

excess tax benefits associated with stock option exercises. (d) Represents the EPS impact of a one-time gain of $3.4 million ($2.7 million after tax) for the six months ended June 30, 2017

relating to the sale of a facility in Switzerland in connection with our initiative to consolidate certain Swiss operations into

a new facility. (e) Represents the EPS impact of a one-time non-cash pension settlement charge of $8.2 million ($5.1 million after tax) related

to a lump sum settlement to former employees of our U.S. pension plan for the three and six months ended June 30, 2016.

SOURCE Mettler-Toledo International Inc.

Related Links

http://www.mt.com


Leaders who fly BVLOS make an important contribution to advancing the industry by demonstrating the capabilities of these systems to perform tasks that require distance, such as delivery, corridor mapping, and infrastructure inspection.

The BVLOS Tests  and the Results

The first set of tests Microdrones completed were long-range tests over the Alma airport runway. The longest of these was three kilometers back and forth. The md4-1000 aircraft made the six-kilometer trip with battery life to spare.

The second set of tests consisted of altitude flight testing in which the drone climbed to a height of 850 meters.

"We are very excited about the results," said Jocelyne Bois, Microdrones' Flight Operations Manager. "All flights went well and we easily exceeded our intended flight lengths. Our goal was to test the remote control, telemetry and battery endurance for those distances. Both performed beautifully."

Transport Canada granted permission for and attended Microdrones' testing at the Unmanned Aerial System Centre for Excellence (UAS CE) in Alma. Last month, Microdrones' popular md4-1000 unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was added to TC's exclusive list of Compliant Unmanned Air Vehicles.

Only seven other companies worldwide have this distinction.

Microdrones is a BVLOS Veteran

Microdrones is hardly a newcomer to BVLOS flying. A Microdrones UAV, flying with a custom configuration, flew more than 12-kilometers to cross the North Sea. This flight was repeated 32 times, with 2 different md4-1000 aircraft, establishing it as a viable option for delivering urgent medicines and other badly needed supplies in emergency situations.

To learn more about Microdrones, visit http://www.microdrones.com/.



SOURCE Microdrones

Related Links

http://www.microdrones.com


TALLAHASSEE, Fla., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Consumer protection firm Morgan & Morgan is thrilled to announce that it has partnered with famed civil rights attorney Ben Crump to launch Ben Crump Law PLLC.

Mr. Crump is best known for representing the families of Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Corey Jones, and Tamir RiceAfrican-American men and boys who were tragically gunned down in high-profile incidents that fostered the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Crump speaks truth to power and gives hope to the hopeless," said John Morgan, founder of Morgan & Morgan. "He is today's seminal civil rights lawyer. The go-to guy. A modern-day Johnny Cochran."

Mr. Crump's new firm will have offices in Washington, D.C.; Los Angeles; and Tallahassee, where he is based half the year. Its practice areas will include civil rights, personal injury, workers' compensation, medical malpractice, mesothelioma, class actions, and mass torts.

Ben Crump Law has also launched a new website, BenCrump.com, where prospective clients can read about various practice areas and receive free case evaluations. The site's motto is "Justice Equals Respect," a line spoken by Mr. Crump's hero, Thurgood Marshall.

With Morgan & Morgan's prodigious resources at his disposalthe firm has 350 attorneys and a support staff of 1,500Mr. Crump will add a tremendous amount of muscle and flexibility to his pursuit of justice for all Americans. He will now take on cases nationwide, and his new team boasts a 24-hour response time for potential clients.

"Like Morgan & Morgan, I have always fought for the people, not the powerful," Mr. Crump said. "This affiliation allows me to pursue justice on a much greater scale for people who have been disenfranchised for far too long."

For his tireless advocacy on behalf of the marginalized, Mr. Crump has received dozens of accolades, including a 2016 Freedom Award, the National Urban League's Whitney Young Award, the Eleanor Roosevelt Medallion of Honor, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Martin Luther King Servant Leader Award, and the NAACP's Thurgood Marshall Award.

He was also named one of The National Trial Lawyers' Top 100 Lawyers and Ebony magazine's 100 Most Influential African-Americans.

Mr. Crump, who is just 47, has broken barriers throughout his career, serving as the first black President of the Federal Bar Association for the Northern District of Florida and as the first black Chairman of the Florida State University College of Law Board of Directors.

He has written extensively on criminal justice for TIME magazine and has appeared in several documentaries. Next year, TV One will air a new documentary series about wrongly convicted individuals, "Evidence of Innocence," which Mr. Crump will host.

In announcing the series this past April, TV One President Brad Siegel said, "Attorney Benjamin Crump is on the front lines of the fight for civil and racial equality in this country."

With Morgan & Morgan now at his disposal, Mr. Crump will become even more powerful and effective in the battle to make America great for all Americans.

ABOUT MORGAN & MORGAN

Morgan & Morgan, a national plaintiff's law firm fighting for the people, not the powerful, has recovered more than $4 billion for more than 200,000 clients. The firm has more than 350 attorneys in about 40 offices in 11 states. With the support of nearly 2,000 employees, the firm's attorneys represent clients in a wide range of practice areas  from personal injury, workers' compensation, and medical malpractice cases to labor and employment, mesothelioma, and product liability lawsuits to national mass torts and class actions.

For more information, contact:

Karine Lim / Erika Nedwell

Morgan & Morgan, P.A

[email protected] / [email protected]

212-738-6265 / 212-738-6254

SOURCE Morgan & Morgan

Related Links

https://www.forthepeople.com/


BATTLE CREEK, Mich., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- With summer grilling season underway, there's never been more appetite for meatless alternatives on the summer grill, with 75 percent of Americans being open to eating veggie foods and one-third actively striving to reduce eating meat altogether*. That's why this grilling season MorningStar Farms is teaming up with famous chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality Richard Blais to flip the burger game on its head, by encouraging everyone to expand their palate and taste the veggie burger difference for themselves.

MorningStar Farms Grillers Original Burger served with herbed yogurt, cucumbers, watermelon and feta cheese inside a pita shell MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean and Grillers Original Burgers served with grilled pineapple, dressed cabbage and barbecue sauce on a Hawaiian roll Sliced MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger served on top of a romesco spread, topped with cilantro and seasoned romaine lettuce MorningStar Farms Grillers Original Burger topped with yogurt mixed with tandoori spices, spinach infused with garam masala and eggplant, served on garlic naan bread Chef Richard Blais prepares four new MorningStar Farms veggie burger recipes at a backyard cookout in New York City, on July 26, 2017. (Sara Weiss / The Kellogg Company) Chef Richard Blais fires up the grill with MorningStar Farms veggie burgers during backyard cookout in New York City, on July 26, 2017. (Sara Weiss / The Kellogg Company)

Experience the interactive Multichannel News Release here: https://www.multivu.com/players/English/8139651-morningstar-farms-chef-richard-blais-veggie-burgers/

On July 26, Blais and MorningStar Farms hosted a 'Backyard Veg Out' event for media and their guests in New York City. Backyards are where the grilling magic happens and Richard will be doing just that  cooking up new and exciting recipe creations using America's number one veggie burger brand**, MorningStar Farms, and sharing tips for grilling the perfect veggie patty. Blais' recipes feature toppings and flavor combinations that take veggie burgers to the next level.

Richard Blais' Four MorningStar Farms Recipes:

Pita Burger

MorningStar Farms Grillers Original Burger served with herbed yogurt, cucumbers, watermelon and feta cheese inside a pita shell

served with herbed yogurt, cucumbers, watermelon and feta cheese inside a pita shell Island Burger

MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean and Grillers Original Burgers served with grilled pineapple, dressed cabbage and barbecue sauce on a Hawaiian roll

served with grilled pineapple, dressed cabbage and barbecue sauce on a Hawaiian roll Romesco Burger

Sliced MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean Burger served on top of a romesco spread, topped with cilantro and seasoned romaine lettuce

served on top of a romesco spread, topped with cilantro and seasoned romaine lettuce Tandoor Burger

MorningStar Farms Grillers Original Burger topped with yogurt mixed with tandoori spices, spinach infused with garam masala and eggplant, served on garlic naan bread

"As a chef, I get joy out of creating new flavor experiences and veggie burgers offer up a whole new taste experience," said Chef Richard Blais. "MorningStar Farms makes it easy, with veggie burgers that pack in all the flavor and fun that grillers expect at their summer cookouts."

Blais is known for his unconventional and creative approach to cooking, and his latest creations bring out the unmatched taste and versatility of MorningStar Farms veggie burgers, proving that they can be just as enticing as a traditional meat burger.

MorningStar Farms is also hitting the road in key markets nationwide with a summer grilling veggie burger bar tour. The tour menu features mouth-watering interpretations of two of America's best-selling and appetizing veggie burgers: MorningStar Farms Spicy Black Bean and MorningStar Farms Grillers Original Burger. Including appearances in Boston, New York and Houston, the summer-long tour will give everyone the chance to taste America's top veggie burgers for themselves.

For more information on MorningStar Farms and the full veggie burger product line, visit morningstarfarms.com or follow along via Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and YouTube by using #MorningStarFarms.

* Nielsen P52W Rolling 10/08/16; Veggie Demand Landscape (2016)

** Source: MSF Spicy Black Bean, Nielsen xAOC Units Sold Cal Yr 2016

About Kellogg Company

At Kellogg Company (NYSE: K), we strive to make foods people love. This includes our beloved brands  Kellogg's, Keebler, Special K, Pringles, Kellogg's Frosted Flakes, Pop-Tarts, Kellogg's Corn Flakes, Rice Krispies, Cheez-It, Eggo, Mini-Wheats and more  that nourish families so they can flourish and thrive. With 2016 sales of $13 billion and more than 1,600 foods, Kellogg is the world's leading cereal company; second largest producer of crackers and savory snacks; and a leading North American frozen foods company. And we're a company with a heart and soul, committing to help create 3 billion Better Days by 2025 through our Breakfasts for Better Days global purpose platform. To learn more, visit www.KelloggCompany.com or www.OpenforBreakfast.com and follow us on Twitter @KelloggCompany, YouTube and on our Social K corporate blog.

About Richard Blais

Most recognizable as the winner of Bravo's Top Chef All-Stars, Richard Blais is a successful chef, restaurateur, cookbook author and television personality. After graduating from the Culinary Institute of America, he went on to train at The French Laundry, Daniel, Chez Panisse, and el Bulli. Blais has appeared on Top Chef, Top Chef All-Stars, Iron Chef America and Chopped All-Stars as a competitor. He is a recurring judge on Top Chef and Master Chef and has also judged episodes of Guy's Grocery Games, Cutthroat Kitchen and Cooks vs Cons. He currently owns and operates Trail Blais, a forward-thinking culinary company that has consulted on, designed, and operated popular eateries including multiple outposts of Flip Burger Boutique located in the Southeast and most recently, Crack Shack and Juniper & Ivy in Southern California. Blais is the James Beard Award nominated author of Try This at Home, and most recently, released his second cookbook entitled So Good. He also just launched his first podcast, Starving For Attention, which offers an entertaining, behind-the-scenes look at the food industry with interviews with top culinary personalities including Gail Simmons, Andrew Zimmern, Wylie Dufresne, Besha Rodell, Lou Diamond Phillips, and more.

SOURCE Kellogg Company
WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- NASA's Minority University Research and Education Project (MUREP) awarded approximately $1.8 million in new cooperative agreements to three Tribal Colleges and Universities (TCUs) across the United States. These agreements provide opportunities for TCU students, faculty and staff to engage in NASA-related science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) research and activities.

The award is made jointly through both the NASA MUREP for American Indian and Alaskan Native STEM Engagement (MAIANSE) and the Earth Systems, Technology, and Energy Education for MUREP (ESTEEM) activities.

The selected institutions are:

Southwest Indian Polytechnic Institute, Albuquerque, New Mexico

Chief Dull Knife College , Lame Deer, Montana

, Northwest Indian College , Bellingham, Washington

The awards range in value from approximately $422,200 to $844,400, which will support institutional capacity-building at tribal colleges and the continuation and creation of STEM engagement projects for students at the awarded institutions and their partner institutions.

The selected proposals offer innovative methods, approaches and concepts to make appropriate use of NASA's current and unique engineering and scientific resources with a strong emphasis on engaging students and educators.

NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland provides management and administration for the MAIANSE, and NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia provides management and administration for the ESTEEM activities. MAIANSE supports NASA's goal of engaging students in the critical disciplines STEM and inspiring the next generation of explorers. ESTEEM advances the institutional capacity of TCUs to increase the number of underrepresented/underserved students in STEM fields, specifically Earth systems science and climate resiliency.

The cooperative agreements are part of NASA's strategic emphasis on engaging the American Indian and Alaskan Native communities. For a list of selected organizations and project descriptions, visit:

https://nspires.nasaprs.com/

For information about NASA's education programs, visit:

https://www.nasa.gov/education

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Renowned speaker and activist, Erin Brockovich will deliver the keynote at "Together We Dare" the National Women's Business Conference hosted by NAWBO being held October 15-17 in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Erin Brockovich is widely known for her relentless efforts to expose injustice and lend her voice to those who do not have one. Brockovich will inspire several hundreds of women leaders to harness the power that one person holds through grit, determination, and vision.

Due to illness in the family, Elizabeth Gilbert is postponing her appearance at NAWBO's National Women's Business Conference this year. Gilbert deeply regrets missing this significant meeting of women business owners from across the country and looks forward to addressing the group at a future conference.

NAWBO supports Gilbert's professional decision to place her immediate priority on family during this difficult season of her life. "We look forward to working with Ms. Gilbert in the future and supporting her endeavors to empower and educate women around the world," said Kathy Warnick NAWBO National Board Chair.

Bank of America is proud to be presenting sponsor of the National Women's Business Conference again this year. Early Bird registration savings ends on July 31st. For more information visit www.nawbo.org

About NAWBO

Founded in 1975, the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is the unified voice of America's more than 9.1 million women-owned businesses representing the fastest growing segment of the economy. NAWBO is the only dues-based organization representing the interests of all women entrepreneurs across all industries. NAWBO develops programs that help navigate women entrepreneurs through the various stages of their business growth.

SOURCE National Association of Women Business Owners

Related Links

http://www.nawbo.org


"Businesses of all sizes are increasingly at risk for ransomware attacks," said Marcin Kleczynski, CEO, Malwarebytes. "However, the stakes of a single attack for a small business are far different from the stakes of a single attack for a large enterprise. Osterman's findings demonstrate that SMBs are suffering in the wake of attacks, to the point where they must cease business operations. To make matters worse, most of them lack the confidence in their ability to stop an attack, despite significant investments in defensive technologies. To be effective, the security community must thoroughly understand the battles that these companies are facing, so we can better protect them."

"Second Annual State of Ransomware Report" top findings include:

The impact of ransomware on SMBs can be devastating. For roughly one in six impacted organizations, a ransomware infection caused 25 or more hours of downtime, with some organizations reporting that it caused systems to be down for more than 100 hours. Further, among SMBs that experienced a ransomware attack, 22 percent reported that they had to cease business operations immediately, and 15 percent lost revenue.

For roughly one in six impacted organizations, a ransomware infection caused 25 or more hours of downtime, with some organizations reporting that it caused systems to be down for more than 100 hours. Further, among SMBs that experienced a ransomware attack, 22 percent reported that they had to cease business operations immediately, and 15 percent lost revenue. Most organizations make addressing ransomware a high priority, but still lack confidence in their ability to deal with it. Seventy-five percent of organizations surveyed place a high or very high priority on addressing the ransomware problem. Despite these investments, nearly one-half of the organizations surveyed expressed little to only moderate confidence in their ability to stop a ransomware attack.

Seventy-five percent of organizations surveyed place a high or very high priority on addressing the ransomware problem. Despite these investments, nearly one-half of the organizations surveyed expressed little to only moderate confidence in their ability to stop a ransomware attack. For many, the source of ransomware is unknown and infections spread quickly. For 27 percent of organizations that suffered a ransomware infection, decision makers could not identify how the endpoint(s) became infected. Further, more than one-third of ransomware infections spread to other devices. For two percent of organizations surveyed, the ransomware infection impacted every device on the network.

For 27 percent of organizations that suffered a ransomware infection, decision makers could not identify how the endpoint(s) became infected. Further, more than one-third of ransomware infections spread to other devices. For two percent of organizations surveyed, the ransomware infection impacted every device on the network. SMBs in the U.S. are being hit harder than SMBs in Europe by malicious emails containing ransomware . The most common source of ransomware infections in U.S.-based organizations was related to email use. Thirty-seven percent of attacks on SMBs in the U.S. were reported as coming from a malicious email attachment and 27 percent were from a malicious link in an email. However, in Europe , only 22 percent of attacks were reported as coming from a malicious email attachment. An equal number were reported as coming from a malicious link in an email.

. The most common source of ransomware infections in U.S.-based organizations was related to email use. Thirty-seven percent of attacks on SMBs in the U.S. were reported as coming from a malicious email attachment and 27 percent were from a malicious link in an email. However, in , only 22 percent of attacks were reported as coming from a malicious email attachment. An equal number were reported as coming from a malicious link in an email. Most SMBs do not believe in paying ransomware demands. Seventy-two percent of respondents believe that ransomware demands should never be paid. Most of the remaining organizations believe that demands should only be paid if the encrypted data is of value to the organization. Among organizations that chose not to pay cybercriminals' ransom demands, about one-third lost files as a result.

Seventy-two percent of respondents believe that ransomware demands should never be paid. Most of the remaining organizations believe that demands should only be paid if the encrypted data is of value to the organization. Among organizations that chose not to pay cybercriminals' ransom demands, about one-third lost files as a result. The financial services industry is most concerned about ransomware. Transportation entities are least concerned. Fifty-four percent of firms in the financial services industry are concerned or extremely concerned about ransomware. Meanwhile, only 26 percent of transportation entities are this concerned about ransomware.

Fifty-four percent of firms in the financial services industry are concerned or extremely concerned about ransomware. Meanwhile, only 26 percent of transportation entities are this concerned about ransomware. Current investments in technology might not be enough. Over one-third of SMBs claim to have been running anti-ransomware technologies, while about one-third of businesses surveyed still experienced a ransomware attack.

"It's clear from these findings that there is widespread awareness of the threat of ransomware among businesses, but many are not yet confident in their ability to deal with it," said Adam Kujawa, Director of Malware Intelligence, Malwarebytes. "Companies of all sizes need to remain vigilant and continue to place a higher priority on protecting themselves against ransomware."

To view the full global "Second Annual State of Ransomware Report" for more detailed findings and analysis, visit https://go.malwarebytes.com/OstermanRansomware2017_PRSocial.html.

About Malwarebytes

Malwarebytes is the next-gen cybersecurity company that millions worldwide trust. Malwarebytes proactively protects people and businesses against dangerous threats such as malware, ransomware, and exploits that escape detection by traditional antivirus solutions. The company's flagship product combines advanced heuristic threat detection with signature-less technologies to detect and stop a cyberattack before damage occurs. More than 10,000 businesses worldwide use, trust, and recommend Malwarebytes. Founded in 2008, the company is headquartered in California, with offices in Europe and Asia, and a global team of threat researchers and security experts. For more information, please visit us at http://www.malwarebytes.com/.

Malwarebytes founder and CEO Marcin Kleczynski started the company to create the best disinfection and protection solutions to combat the world's most harmful Internet threats. Marcin was recently named "CEO of the Year" in the Global Excellence awards and has been named to the Forbes 30 Under 30 Rising Stars of Enterprise Technology list and the Silicon Valley Business Journal's 40 Under 40 award, adding those to an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Follow us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Malwarebytes

Follow us on Twitter: @malwarebytes https://twitter.com/malwarebytes

Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/malwarebytes

See us on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/malwarebytes

Read our latest Malwarebytes Labs blog: https://blog.malwarebytes.com/

SOURCE Malwarebytes

Related Links

https://www.malwarebytes.org


The first two exploration holes of the summer drill program have resulted in the discovery of a new zone of off-scale radioactivity approximately 400 m south of the Arrow Deposit . This new area of mineralization has been named the South Arrow Discovery and is located on an Arrow-parallel structure that remains almost completely undrilled .

The Arrow South Discovery is currently defined by the local occurrence of narrow massive pitchblende veining measuring >61,000 cps. The South Arrow Discovery has been tested with only two holes and both intersected narrow intervals of off-scale radioactivity within a large and robust envelope of highly prospective hydrothermal alteration. South Arrow remains open in all directions.

Arrow South Discovery Characteristics:

Highly Radioactive  Mineralization is locally very strong observed as dense massive pitchblende veins. Intermittent anomalous uranium-sourced radioactivity occurs over core lengths of up to 400 m, which supports that a large and robust uraniferous alteration system is present at South Arrow .

Mineralization is locally very strong observed as dense massive pitchblende veins. Intermittent anomalous uranium-sourced radioactivity occurs over core lengths of up to 400 m, which supports that . Multiple lenses  Preliminary interpretations at South Arrow suggest that steeply southeast dipping mineralization occurs within at least three stacked high strain or sheared intervals, which is a common characteristic of the Arrow Deposit.

Preliminary interpretations at South Arrow suggest that steeply southeast dipping mineralization occurs within at least three stacked high strain or sheared intervals, which is a common characteristic of the Arrow Deposit. Extensive Alteration  Similarly to Arrow, the hydrothermal alteration is widespread, which suggests a strong mineralizing event has occurred. Dravite and illite breccias are observed at the Arrow Deposit and the South Arrow zone.

Drill Intercept Highlights:

Discovery hole AR-17-151c1 intersected 7.0 m of total composite mineralization including 0.45 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 to >61,000 cps) marked by narrow massive pitchblende veining .

intersected 7.0 m of total composite mineralization including (>10,000 to >61,000 cps) marked by narrow . Follow-up hole AR-17-151c2 which targeted mineralization 25 m down-dip from the discovery hole, intersected 7.0 m of total composite mineralization including 0.2 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 cps to 20,000 cps).

which targeted mineralization from the discovery hole, intersected 7.0 m of total composite mineralization including (>10,000 cps to 20,000 cps). South Arrow was targeted as a follow up to the mineralization and extensive hydrothermal alteration intersected in holes AR-17-150 and -150w1 (previously referred to as RK-17-118 and -118w1, respectively  see news release dated June 7, 2017 ).

Arrow, Activities & Financial

A seven-rig summer development and exploration program comprising a minimum of 25,000 m of drilling and multiple pre-feasibility staged technical studies is underway.

A maiden Preliminary Economic Assessment is imminently scheduled.

The Company has cash on hand of approximately $200 million .

A map showing drill hole locations is shown in Figure 1. An isometric view of the Arrow and South Arrow 3D resistivity anomalies is shown in Figure 2.

Garrett Ainsworth, Vice-President, Exploration and Development, commented: "The discovery of South Arrow is the result of a disciplined process by the team where multiple geophysical datasets were integrated to prioritize exploration targets. The ground 3D resistivity survey conducted by Dias Geophysical was key in elevating South Arrow as a high priority target that has now returned off-scale radioactivity associated with a large and robust alteration system. The alteration package is similar to that which accompanies the Arrow Deposit, and includes favourable dravite/illite/sudoite clays as pervasive and replacement, pervasive strong hematite, and intense silicification that includes radiation damaged quartz."

Leigh Curyer, Chief Executive Officer, commented: "This is a very exciting time for the Company with the release of the maiden PEA imminent and today's drill results strongly indicating Arrow is still very much in its infancy in terms of exploration work conducted. As a consequence, additional drilling focus will be immediately directed to Arrow South whilst continuing to focus on high value targets in and around Arrow together with the engineering and environmental studies.

I would like to take the opportunity to congratulate the entire NexGen team on another outstanding development for the Company and its shareholders."

The Arrow South Discovery occurs within an Arrow-parallel deformation zone first identified by re-processing of airborne VTEM survey data by Condor Consulting. Recently, a high-resolution ground 3D resistivity/IP survey was completed by Dias Geophysical over an area covering the Arrow Deposit and a portion of the newly identified structure. The survey showed a resistivity anomaly highly coincident with and immediately flanking the Arrow Deposit. The survey also identified an additional anomaly coincident with the Arrow-parallel deformation zone first highlighted by the VTEM data. This new resistivity anomaly, named the South Arrow anomaly, has strikingly similar characteristics to the Arrow anomaly. It has now been tested in four holes, two of which have intersected off-scale radioactivity and all of which intersected extensive zones of hydrothermal alteration and anomalous radioactivity. Preliminary interpretations from structural measurements collected from oriented drill core suggest that the South Arrow mineralized bodies strike towards the southwest and dip steeply towards the southeast.

Table 1: South Arrow Discovery Drill Hole Data

Drill Hole Athabasca Group - Basement Unconformity Depth (m) Handheld Scintillometer Results (RS-120) Hole ID Azimuth Dip Total Depth (m) From (m) To (m) Width (m) CPS Range AR-17-151c1 327 -70 588.50 103.30 262.5 263.5 1.0 <500 - 2100 302.0 308.0 6.0 <500 - >61000 AR-17-151c2 327 -70 561.50 103.30 310.5 312.5 2.0 <500 - 20000 327.5 328.0 0.5 <500 - 1400 359.5 363.5 4.0 <500 - 3700 404.5 405.0 0.5 <500 - 510

Parameters:

Maximum internal dilution 2.00 m downhole

All depths and intervals are meters downhole, true thicknesses are yet to be determined.

"Anomalous" means >500 cps (counts per second) total count gamma readings by gamma scintillometer type RS-120

"Off-scale" means >10,000 cps (counts per second) total count gamma readings by gamma scintillometer type RS-120

Where "Min cps" is <500 cps, this refers to local low radiometric zones within the overall radioactive interval

South Arrow Drilling

AR-17-151c1

Hole AR-17-151c1 was a directional hole collared from surface at an angled orientation (-70) to the northwest (327 azimuth). It was designed to test the South Arrow resistivity anomaly 75 m along strike to the southwest of holes AR-17-150 (formerly RK-17-118) and AR-17-150w1 (formerly RK-17-118w1). The hole intersected Athabasca Group sandstones between 99.4 m and the unconformity at 103.3 m. Basement lithologies consisted of semi-pelitic gneiss and orthogneiss of variable composition. Several broad deformation zones were encountered throughout. Extensive zones of hydrothermal alteration were also intersected which generally consist of replacement- and hydrothermal breccia-style clay, chlorite and silicification. The hole intersected visible disseminated, fracture-hosted and vein-style pitchblende mineralization in close association with deformation and hydrothermal alteration. A total composite mineralization of 7.0 m including 0.45 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 to >61,000 cps) was intersected within a 45.5 m section (262.5 to 308.0 m) before the hole was terminated at 588.5 m.

AR-17-151c2

Hole AR-17-151c2 was a directional hole that departed pilot hole AR-17-151c1 at 202 m. It was designed to test the South Arrow resistivity anomaly 25 m down-dip from the mineralization intersected in AR-17-151c1. Basement lithologies were intersected from the top of the hole that included semi-pelitic gneiss and orthogneiss of variable composition. Several broad deformation zones were encountered throughout. Extensive zones of hydrothermal alteration were also intersected which generally consisted of replacement- and hydrothermal breccia-style clay, chlorite and silicification. The hole intersected visible disseminated, fracture-hosted and worm-rock style pitchblende mineralization in close association with deformation and hydrothermal alteration. A total composite mineralization of 7.0 m including 0.20 m of off-scale radioactivity (>10,000 to 20,000 cps) was intersected within a 94.5 m section (310.5 to 405.0m) before the hole was terminated at 561.5 m.

About NexGen

NexGen is a British Columbia corporation with a focus on the acquisition, exploration and development of Canadian uranium projects. NexGen has a highly experienced team of uranium industry professionals with a successful track record in the discovery of uranium deposits and in developing projects through discovery to production.

NexGen owns a portfolio of highly prospective uranium exploration assets in the Athabasca Basin, Saskatchewan, Canada, including a 100% interest in Rook I, location of the Arrow Discovery in February 2014 and Bow Discovery in March 2015 and the Harpoon discovery in August 2016. The Arrow Deposit's second resource estimate, released only three years after the first discovery of mineralization, is 179.5 M lbs U3O8 contained in 1.18 M tonnes grading 6.88% U3O8 in the indicated category and an additional 122.1 M lbs U3O8 contained in 4.25 M tonnes grading 1.30% U3O8 in the inferred category.

Technical Information

Natural gamma radiation in drill core reported in this news release was measured in counts per second (cps) using a Radiation Solutions Inc. RS-120 gamma-ray scintillometer. The reader is cautioned that total count gamma readings may not be directly or uniformly related to uranium grades of the rock sample measured; they should be used only as a preliminary indication of the presence of radioactive minerals.

Split core samples will be taken systematically, and intervals will be submitted to SRC Geoanalytical Laboratories (an SCC ISO/IEC 17025: 2005 Accredited Facility) of Saskatoon for analysis. All samples sent to SRC will be analyzed using ICP-MS for trace elements on partial and total digestions, ICP-OES for major and minor elements on a total digestion, and fusion solution of boron by ICP-OES. Mineralized samples are analyzed for U 3 O 8 by ICP-OES and select samples for gold by fire assay. Assay results will be released when received and after stringent internal QA/QC protocols are passed.

All scientific and technical information in this news release has been prepared by or reviewed and approved by Mr. Garrett Ainsworth, P.Geo., Vice President  Exploration & Development for NexGen. Mr. Ainsworth is a qualified person for the purposes of National Instrument 43-101 Standards of Disclosure for Mineral Projects ("NI 43-101"), and has verified the sampling, analytical, and test data underlying the information or opinions contained herein by reviewing original data certificates and monitoring all of the data collection protocols. For details of the Rook I Project including the quality assurance program and quality control measures applied and key assumptions, parameters and methods used to estimate the mineral resource set forth below please refer to the technical report entitled "Technical Report on the Rook 1 Property, Saskatchewan, Canada" dated effective March 31, 2017 (the "Rook 1 Technical Report") prepared by Mark B. Mathisen and David Ross, each of whom is a "qualified person" under NI 43-101. The Rook I Technical Report is available for review under the Company's profile on SEDAR at www.sedar.com. All intersections are downhole, true thicknesses are yet to be determined.

U.S. investors are advised that while the terms "indicated resources" and "inferred resources" are recognized and required by Canadian regulations, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not recognize these terms. U.S. investors are cautioned not to assume that any part or all of the material in these categories will ever be converted into mineral reserves.

Forward-Looking Information

The information contained herein contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. "Forward-looking information" includes, but is not limited to, statements with respect to the activities, events or developments that the Company expects or anticipates will or may occur in the future, including, without limitation, the completion of the technical report in support of the PEA. Generally, but not always, forward-looking information and statements can be identified by the use of words such as "plans", "expects", "is expected", "budget", "scheduled", "estimates", "forecasts", "intends", "anticipates", or "believes" or the negative connotation thereof or variations of such words and phrases or state that certain actions, events or results "may", "could", "would", "might" or "will be taken", "occur" or "be achieved" or the negative connotation thereof.

Forward-looking information and statements are based on the then current expectations, beliefs, assumptions, estimates and forecasts about NexGen's business and the industry and markets in which it operates. Forward-looking information and statements are made based upon numerous assumptions, including among others, that the proposed transaction will be completed, the results of planned exploration activities are as anticipated, the price of uranium, the cost of planned exploration activities, that financing will be available if and when needed and on reasonable terms, that third party contractors, equipment, supplies and governmental and other approvals required to conduct NexGen's planned exploration activities will be available on reasonable terms and in a timely manner and that general business and economic conditions will not change in a material adverse manner. Although the assumptions made by the Company in providing forward looking information or making forward looking statements are considered reasonable by management at the time, there can be no assurance that such assumptions will prove to be accurate.

Forward-looking information and statements also involve known and unknown risks and uncertainties and other factors, which may cause actual results, performances and achievements of NexGen to differ materially from any projections of results, performances and achievements of NexGen expressed or implied by such forward-looking information or statements, including, among others, negative operating cash flow and dependence on third party financing, uncertainty of the availability of additional financing, the risk that pending assay results will not confirm previously announced preliminary results, imprecision of mineral resource estimates, the appeal of alternate sources of energy and sustained low uranium prices, aboriginal title and consultation issues, exploration risks, reliance upon key management and other personnel, deficiencies in the Company's title to its properties, uninsurable risks, failure to manage conflicts of interest, failure to obtain or maintain required permits and licenses, changes in laws, regulations and policy, competition for resources and financing, specific risks relating to the negotiation and execution of the definitive agreements for the financing, the use of proceeds from the financing, the satisfaction of each party's obligations in accordance with the terms of the definitive agreements for the financing; failure to receive any required regulatory approvals (including stock exchange) or other approvals, and other factors discussed or referred to in the Company's Annual Information Form dated March 31, 2017 under "Risk Factors".

Although the Company has attempted to identify important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in the forward-looking information or implied by forward-looking information, there may be other factors that cause results not to be as anticipated, estimated or intended.

There can be no assurance that forward-looking information and statements will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated, estimated or intended. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements or information. The Company undertakes no obligation to update or reissue forward-looking information as a result of new information or events except as required by applicable securities laws.

SOURCE NexGen Energy Ltd.

Related Links

www.nexgenenergy.ca


LONDON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Synopsis

Timetric's 'Non-Life Insurance in Germany, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides a detailed outlook by product category for the German non-life insurance segment, and a comparison of the German insurance industry with its regional counterparts.





Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/1639183/



It provides values for key performance indicators such as written premium, incurred loss, loss ratio, commissions and expenses, combined ratio, total assets, total investment income and retentions during the review period (20112015) and forecast period (20152020).



The report also analyzes distribution channels operating in the segment, gives a comprehensive overview of the German economy and demographics, explains the various types of natural hazard and their impact on the German insurance industry, and provides detailed information on the competitive landscape in the country.



The report brings together Timetric's research, modeling and analysis expertise, giving insurers access to information on segment dynamics and competitive advantages, and profiles of insurers operating in the country. The report also includes details of insurance regulations, and recent changes in the regulatory structure.



Summary

Timetric's 'Non-Life Insurance in Germany, Key Trends and Opportunities to 2020' report provides in-depth market analysis, information and insights into the German non-life insurance segment, including:



- The German non-life insurance segment's detailed outlook by product category



- A comprehensive overview of the German economy and demographics



- A comparison of the German insurance industry with its regional counterparts



- The various distribution channels in the German non-life insurance segment



- Detailed analysis of natural hazards and their impact on the German insurance industry



- Details of the competitive landscape in the non-life insurance segment in Germany



- Details of regulatory policy applicable to the German insurance industry



Scope

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the non-life insurance segment in Germany:



- It provides historical values for the German non-life insurance segment for the report's 20112015 review period, and projected figures for the 20152020 forecast period.



- It offers a detailed analysis of the key categories in the German non-life insurance segment, and market forecasts to 2020.



- It profiles the top non-life insurance companies in Germany, and outlines the key regulations affecting them.



Reasons To Buy

- Make strategic business decisions using in-depth historic and forecast market data related to the German non-life insurance segment, and each category within it.



- Understand the demand-side dynamics, key market trends and growth opportunities in the German non-life insurance segment.



- Assess the competitive dynamics in the non-life insurance segment.



- Identify growth opportunities and market dynamics in key product categories.



- Gain insights into key regulations governing the German insurance industry, and their impact on companies and the industry's future.



Key Highlights

- In May 2017, a new regulatory framework for automated driving was established by amending the German Road Traffic Act. On May 24, 2016, new regulations related to data protection came into force. The new law is designed to guarantee data privacy and update the way organizations handle individuals' data.



- On May 28, 2016, new regulations on clinical trials came into effect, which were passed in the European Parliament on April 16, 2014. According to the regulation, European Union (EU) member states need to have a system in place for the compensation of any damages resulting from participation in a clinical trial conducted in their territory.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/1639183/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

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SAN FRANCISCO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- EPIC Insurance Brokers & Consultants, a retail property, casualty insurance brokerage, and employee benefits consultant, announced today that private equity firm Oak Hill Capital Partners (Oak Hill) has agreed to acquire all of The Carlyle Group's stake, giving Oak Hill a controlling equity position in EPIC. Oak Hill's investment will enable EPIC to continue its aggressive organic growth strategy and will support strategic acquisitions of additional complementary insurance distribution platforms across the United States.

Founded in July 2007, EPIC has become a leading national insurance broker with annual revenues approaching $300 million. The company has developed a broad suite of capabilities related to risk management, commercial property & casualty insurance, and employee benefits consulting, as well as specialty programs for a wide range of industries nationally, including construction and design, real estate development and property management, transportation and logistics, energy, hospitality, financial and professional services, healthcare, and food and beverage.

Since Carlyle acquired a controlling stake in December 2013 with equity provided by Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners L.P. and Carlyle Global Financial Services Partners II L.P., EPIC has transformed itself from a California-centric insurance broker into one of the top 20 nationally recognized platforms while more than tripling its revenues.

John Hahn, co-founder and CEO of EPIC, said, "Over the past 10 years, we have built EPIC into a unique and successful firm that is focused on providing innovative solutions and significant value to our clients and EPIC team members by creating a culture of accountability and alignment through broad-based employee ownership. We are thankful for the robust support, guidance, and access to resources we have received from The Carlyle Group over the past three and a half years, and look forward to building further on the strengths of our organization across the country with the strategic and financial backing of Oak Hill Capital Partners."

Peter Garvey, President of EPIC, said, "We are proud of the unique 'people first' culture that we have built at EPIC. Our company will stay true to the guiding principles that were established when the business was launched 10 years ago. I am confident that with the support of Oak Hill, EPIC will continue to attract and retain the best talent in the industry and the clients who value them."

Scott Kauffman, Partner at Oak Hill said, "We are excited to partner with John Hahn, Pete Garvey, their executive team, and the entire EPIC organization, all proven industry leaders, to continue supporting EPIC's strong growth, innovation, and success in the insurance brokerage industry."

John Redett, Managing Director and Co-head of Carlyle's Global Financial Services team said, "We wish John Hahn and his team well as they continue to execute upon their strategic vision and buildout of EPIC. We believe in their business model and ability to capitalize upon the vast opportunity ahead of them, and are thankful to have played a part in their success over the past several years."

The investment is subject to customary regulatory approvals and is expected to close in the 3rd quarter of 2017. Total Enterprise Value of EPIC now approaches $1 billion, at $977 million.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch acted as lead financial advisor and SunTrust Robinson Humphrey acted as financial advisor to EPIC. Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz served as EPIC's legal advisor.

Barclays acted as financial advisor to Oak Hill and Weil, Gotshal & Manges served as Oak Hill's legal advisor.

About EPIC

EPIC is a unique and innovative retail property & casualty and employee benefits insurance brokerage and consulting firm. EPIC has created a values-based, client-focused culture that attracts and retains top talent, fosters employee satisfaction and loyalty, and sustains a high level of customer service excellence. EPIC team members have consistently recognized their company as a "Best Place to Work" in multiple regions and as a "Best Place to Work in the Insurance Industry" nationally.

EPIC now has more than 1,000 team members operating from offices across the U.S., providing Property Casualty, Employee Benefits, Specialty Programs, and Private Client solutions to more than 20,000 clients.

With run rate revenues approaching $300 million, EPIC ranks among the top 20 retail insurance brokers in the United States and is the 10th largest privately held broker in the nation. Soon to be backed by Oak Hill Capital Partners, the company continues to expand organically and through strategic acquisitions across the country. More information: http://www.epicbrokers.com/.

About Oak Hill Capital Partners

Oak Hill is a private equity firm managing funds with more than $10 billion of initial capital commitments since inception from leading global endowments and foundations, public and corporate pension plans, sovereign wealth funds, insurance companies, financial institutions, consultants, and family offices. Over the past 30 years, the professionals at Oak Hill and its predecessors have invested in 84 significant private equity transactions across broad segments of the U.S. and global economies. Oak Hill applies an industry-focused, theme-based approach to investing in the following sectors: Consumer, Retail & Distribution; Industrials; Media & Communications; and Services. Oak Hill works actively in partnership with management to implement strategic and operational initiatives to create franchise value. More information: http://oakhillcapital.com/.

*LOGO: Send2Press.com/300dpi/16-0308-epic-insurance-300dpi.jpg

This release was issued through Send2Press, a unit of Neotrope. For more information, visit Send2Press Newswire at https://www.Send2Press.com

SOURCE EPIC Insurance Brokers and Consultants

Related Links

http://www.epicbrokers.com


NASHVILLE, Tenn., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OnlineSchoolsCenter.com, has released a list of 20 best schools for bachelor's in Web Design degree programs. In gathering data from numerous websites emphasis was placed upon the diversity and quality of course work, reputation of institution, format of online course delivery, and the success of students in graduating. The list of top 20 online Bachelor's in Web Design programs are presented in no particular order.

The ranking can be viewed here:

http://www.onlineschoolscenter.com/best-online-schools-for-bachelors-in-web-design/

Web Designers are creative individuals who have the task of designing the look, layout and features of a webpage. Web designers can work for a company or freelance. The look of a website is what catches people's interest and gives them an Internet niche. Therefore, successful web designers are artistic and innovative. Producing a good website layout requires logic and common sense. The individual features of a webpage, what really make it pop, bring in the creativity and original ideas of the web designer.

Web designers are also responsible for the site's technical facets, such as, its performance or capacity which affect the website's speed and how much traffic the site can handle. A bachelor's degree gives web designers the advanced skills to be at the top of their market. It prepares them to apply HTML, XML, Javascript, graphics applications and other tools to their end of design, editing, and publishing of documents, images, graphics, sound, and multimedia products on the web. The degree also includes instruction in Internet theory, web page standards and policies, elements of web page design, user interfaces, vector tools, special effects, interactive and multimedia components, search engines, navigation, morphing, e-commerce tools and emerging web technologies. In short, a bachelor's degree in web design gives individuals the ability to be stellar web designers in today's fast growing field.

According to researcher and writer, Jared Goff, "In researching online degree programs it became apparent that the field of web design and development is rapidly growing and undergoing continuous change. Demand for creative and qualified designers is on the rise, making earning a degree in web design a great opportunity for a well-paying and exciting career."

The list of 20 schools includes:

Arizona State University; Tempe, Arizona

Southern New Hampshire University; Manchester, New Hampshire

Champlain College; Burlington, Vermont

Fort Hays State University; Hays, Kansas

East Coast Polytechnic Institute; Virginia Beach, Virginia

DeVry University; Chicago, Illinois

Full Sail University; Winter Park, Florida

American Public University; Charles Town, Virginia

Academy of Art; San Francisco, California

University of Maryland University College; Adelphi, Maryland

Liberty University; Lynchburg, Virginia

Colorado Technical University; Colorado Springs, Colorado

Wilmington University; New Castle, Delaware

Independence University; Salt Lake City, Utah

University of Phoenix; Tempe, Arizona

Baker College; Flint, Michigan

The Art Institute of Pittsburgh; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Franklin University; Columbus, Ohio

South University; Savannah, Georgia

Walden University; Minneapolis, Minnesota

OnlineSchoolsCenter.com reviews publicly available data and then produces independent ranking assessments of various educational programs and college facilities as well as student guides and resources. The mission of OnlineSchoolsCenter.com is to be a vital resource for potential students making one of the most important decisions of their lives. OnlineSchoolsCenter.com recognizes that no ranking system is perfect, and recommends that their ratings be used only as a general guide for choosing a quality school.

Contact: Jared Goff

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 314-873-1866

SOURCE OnlineSchoolsCenter.com

Related Links

http://www.onlineschoolscenter.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Summary

Global Bakery & Cereals sector was valued at US$477,950.4 Million in 2016 and is forecast to record a CAGR of 3.4% during 2016-2021 to reach US$565,588.3 Million by 2021. North America had a value share of 28.5% in the global Bakery & Cereals sector in 2016, representing the largest regional market. Rising disposable incomes (particularly in Mexico), increasing demand for convenient breakfast options, and growth in the popularity of organic and all natural products that hold a higher price are the primary market growth drivers.



Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05001703/Opportunities-in-the-North-American-Bakery-Cereals-Sector-Analysis-of-Opportunities-Offered-by-Countries-in-the-Region.html



North American Bakery & Cereals sector was valued at US$136,431.7 Million in 2016 and is forecast to witness a CAGR of 2.7% to reach US$155,676.8 Million in 2021. Bread & Rolls is the largest market with value sales of US$37,415.3 Million (accounting for 27.4% of the overall value sales in the North American Bakery & Cereals sector) in 2016 and is expected to reach US$41,991.3 in 2021, registering a CAGR of 2.3%. Cakes, Pastries & Sweet Pies and Morning Goods are the other leading markets in the region, accounting for value shares of 24.4% and 11.3% respectively. At a country level, the US alone accounts for 77.4% of this sector, followed by Mexico and Canada.



The US is the largest Bakery & Cereals market in North America both in value and volume terms. In 2016, the US Bakery & Cereals sector was valued at US$105,547.4 Million and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 2.5% during 2016-2021 to reach US$119,133.3 Million in 2021. On the other hand, Canada is expected to register the highest value CAGR of 4.0% during 2016-2021, while Mexico is forecast to witness the fastest growth in volume terms (2.8% CAGR) during 2016-2021.



Hypermarkets & Supermarkets is the largest distribution channel in the North American Bakery & Cereals sector, accounting for 60.9% of overall value sales in 2016. Wide penetration of large supermarket chains in the US and Canada results in the dominance of Hypermarkets & Supermarkets. On the other hand, Mexico has a lower share of Hypermarkets & Supermarkets; however, the increasing Foreign Direct Investment in this space is expected to drive share in the future. Food & Drink Specialists and Convenience Stores are the other leading distribution channels, with value shares of 22.1% and 12.3%, respectively.



Overall Bakery & Cereals sector in the North American region is highly fragmented with the top five brands - Bimbo, Pepperidge Farm, Betty Crocker, Little Debbie, and Sara Lee - accounting for 9.6% of the overall value sales in the sector. Private label held a relatively large 10.4% value share in the overall North American Bakery & Cereals sector owing to a well-developed retail landscape and consumers' positive perception of private label.



The report "Opportunities in the North American Bakery & Cereals Sector" brings together multiple data sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the North American Bakery & Cereals sector.



In particular, this report provides the following analysis -

- Market overview: Includes sector size, market size, and growth analysis by markets.

- Change in consumption: Provides a shift in the consumption of Bakery & Cereals by markets across different countries in the North America region.

- Countries analysis: Provides Risk-Reward analysis of three countries in North America based on market assessment, economic development, socio-demographic, governance indicators, and technological infrastructure.

- Health & Wellness analysis: Provides insights on the Health & Wellness products in terms of value and percentage share in the overall Bakery & Cereals sector during 2011-2021. The analysis includes key Health & Wellness attributes and consumer benefits driving the sales of Bakery & Cereals in 2016. It also covers the market share of leading companies offering Bakery & Cereals with health and wellness attributes in the same year.

- Brand Analysis: Provides an overview of leading brands in North American region, besides analyzing the growth of private label in the region.

- Key distribution channels: Provides analysis on the leading distribution channels in the global Bakery & Cereals sector in 2016. It covers five distribution channels - Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Food & Drinks Specialists, eRetailers, Cash & Carries & Warehouse Clubs, "Dollar Stores," Variety Stores & General Merchandise Retailers and Others that include Vending Machines and Other channels.

- Preferred packaging formats: The report provides percentage share (in 2016) and growth analysis (during 2011-2021) for various packaging materials, container, closure, and outer types based on the volume sales (by pack units) of Bakery & Cereals.



Companies mentioned in this report: Kellogg's, Post Holdings, Pepsi Co, Mondelez, Mckee Foods, Grupo Bimbo, General Mills, Flower Foods, Campbell Soup Company.



Scope

This report brings together multiple data sources to provide a comprehensive overview of the North American Bakery & Cereals sector.



It includes analysis on the following -

- Market overview: Includes sector size, market size, and growth analysis by markets.

- Change in consumption: Provides a shift in the consumption of Bakery & Cereals by markets across different countries in the North America region.

- Countries analysis: Provides Risk-Reward analysis of three countries in North America based on market assessment, economic development, socio-demographic, governance indicators, and technological infrastructure.

- Health & Wellness analysis: Provides insights on the Health & Wellness products in terms of value and percentage share in the overall Bakery & Cereals sector during 2011-2021. The analysis includes key Health & Wellness attributes and consumer benefits driving the sales of Bakery & Cereals in 2016. It also covers the market share of leading companies offering Bakery & Cereals with health and wellness attributes in the same year.

- Brand Analysis: Provides an overview of leading brands in North American region, besides analyzing the growth of private label in the region.

- Key distribution channels: Provides analysis on the leading distribution channels in the global Bakery & Cereals sector in 2016. It covers five distribution channels - Hypermarkets & Supermarkets, Convenience Stores, Food & Drinks Specialists, eRetailers, Cash & Carries & Warehouse Clubs, "Dollar Stores," Variety Stores & General Merchandise Retailers and Others that include Vending Machines and Other channels.

- Preferred packaging formats: The report provides percentage share (in 2016) and growth analysis (during 2011-2021) for various packaging materials, container, closure, and outer types based on the volume sales (by pack units) of Bakery & Cereals.



Reasons to buy

- Manufacturing and retailers seek latest information on how the market is evolving to formulate their sales and marketing strategies. There is also demand for authentic market data with a high level of detail. This report has been created to provide its readers with up-to-date information and analysis to uncover emerging opportunities of growth within the sector in the region.

- The report provides a detailed analysis of the countries in the region, covering the key challenges, competitive landscape and demographic analysis , that can help companies gain insight into the country specific nuances

- The analysts have also placed a significant emphasis on the key trends that drive consumer choice and the future opportunities that can be explored in the region, than can help companies in revenue expansion

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05001703/Opportunities-in-the-North-American-Bakery-Cereals-Sector-Analysis-of-Opportunities-Offered-by-Countries-in-the-Region.html



About Reportlinker

ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.



http://www.reportlinker.com



__________________________

Contact Clare: [email protected]

US: (339)-368-6001

Intl: +1 339-368-6001

SOURCE Reportlinker

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CANTON, Mass., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Organogenesis Inc. today announced its 2017 sponsorship of the American Podiatric Medical Association (APMA), including support for three of the APMA's leading educational programs: The Residency Education Resource Center (REdRC), the Young Physicians' Institute (YPI) and the Young Physicians' Practice Management Expo & Coding Seminar. Organogenesis will also sponsor the APMA 2017 Annual Scientific Meeting (The National), taking place this week in Nashville, Tenn.

During the conference, the entire Organogenesis advanced wound care portfolio will be highlighted with speaker presentations, as well as product demonstrations and information at Organogenesis' booth (#707). Additionally, Dr. John J. Doolan, DPM, FACFAS, will present "BBWM: A proactive approach to support healing," to discuss biofilm, its impact on wound care, and a biofilm-based wound management approach that includes sharp debridement and the use of PuraPly Antimicrobial to help control biofilm and support healing.

"As a sponsor of APMA for more than a decade, we proudly support the organization's goal to promote foot and ankle health through a wide array of educational programs and events," said Organogenesis President and CEO Gary S. Gillheeney, Sr.

The American Podiatric Medical Association is the premier national organization representing the vast majority of podiatrists in the United States. For more than 90 years, APMA has promoted the benefits of proper health care through appropriate preventive and educational strategies.

The REdRC allows APMA to offer an online educational lecture program free of charge to residents and residency directors through its educational portal. Organogenesis assisted APMA in the development of the REdRC nearly four years ago as a founding sponsor of the important tool.

The YPI, now in its seventh year, is a program designed for the future leaders of podiatric medicine. This year's program will focus on providing attendees with an overview of the state of podiatry, including varied practice settings as well as legislative and regulatory initiatives that affect the field.

The Young Physician's Practice Management Expo & Coding Seminar shares practice-related information and tools for podiatric, allopathic and osteopathic physicians, including meaningful use and incentives, office staffing, practice marketing, contract negotiation, and coding and reimbursement.

About Organogenesis

Originally founded as a spin-off from technology developed at MIT in 1985, Massachusetts-based Organogenesis Inc. offers a portfolio of bioactive and acellular biomaterials products in advanced wound care and surgical biologics, including orthopedics and spine. Organogenesis's versatile portfolio is designed to treat a variety of patients with repair and regenerative needs. For more information, visit www.organogenesis.com.

Contact:

Angelyn Lowe

(781) 830-2353

[email protected]

SOURCE Organogenesis Inc.

Related Links

http://organogenesis.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM), operator of financial markets for 10,000 U.S. and global securities, today announced IsoEnergy Ltd. (TSX-V: ISO; OTCQX: ISENF), a Canadian uranium exploration and development company, has qualified to trade on the OTCQX Best Market. IsoEnergy upgraded to OTCQX from the Pink market.

IsoEnergy begins trading today on OTCQX under the symbol "ISENF." U.S. investors can find current financial disclosure and Real-Time Level 2 quotes for the company on www.otcmarkets.com.

"We are pleased to welcome IsoEnergy to OTCQX and wish the company continued success," said Jason Paltrowitz, Executive Vice President of OTC Markets Group. "Trading on OTCQX will enable IsoEnergy to provide its U.S. shareholders with a superior information and trading experience on a transparent public market."

Craig Parry, IsoEnergy's CEO, commented, "We are pleased to be traded on the OTCQX market and to give current and prospective IsoEnergy shareholders based in the U.S. a more efficient way to access quotations and learn about the company's developments. Trading on OTCQX compliments the company's efforts to broaden its U.S. shareholder base."

IsoEnergy was sponsored for OTCQX by Burns Figa & Will PC, a qualified third-party firm responsible for providing guidance on OTCQX requirements and recommending membership.

About IsoEnergy Ltd.

lsoEnergy Ltd. is a uranium exploration and development company with a portfolio of prospective projects that sit in the Athabasca Basin in Saskatchewan, Canada. lsoEnergy is led by a Board and Management team with a track record of success in uranium exploration, development and operations. The Company was founded and is supported by the team at its major shareholder NexGen Energy Ltd.

About OTC Markets Group Inc.

OTC Markets Group Inc. (OTCQX: OTCM) operates the OTCQX Best Market, the OTCQB Venture Market, and the Pink Open Market for 10,000 U.S. and global securities. Through OTC Link ATS, we connect a diverse network of broker-dealers that provide liquidity and execution services. We enable investors to easily trade through the broker of their choice and empower companies to improve the quality of information available for investors.

To learn more about how we create better informed and more efficient markets, visit www.otcmarkets.com

OTC Link ATS is operated by OTC Link LLC, member FINRA/SIPC and SEC regulated ATS.

Subscribe to the OTC Markets RSS Feed

Media Contact:

OTC Markets Group Inc., +1 (212) 896-4428, [email protected]

SOURCE OTC Markets Group Inc.

Related Links

http://www.otcmarkets.com


Acquisition furthers shared goals of establishing a global plant-based food platform delivering better health around the world

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Otsuka), a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd. and a global holistic healthcare company dedicated to bettering the health of people worldwide, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire 100 percent of Daiya Foods Inc. (Daiya), a privately held Vancouver, Canada-based company specializing in the manufacture of plant-based foods. The acquisition, reported at 405 million Canadian dollars, is expected to help increase Daiya's presence throughout North America and beyond, while creating a global plant-based platform.

The acquisition will proceed by way of Plan of Arrangement under British Columbia law. The Arrangement has been approved by the Daiya board and will be subject to, among other things, the approval of Daiya shareholders, receipt of court approval and the satisfaction of certain other customary closing conditions.

Otsuka operates worldwide, including in the US and Canada, where it offers popular brands like Nature Made vitamins. The acquisition of Daiya greatly expands Otsuka's product portfolio, adding a new category of plant-based products in North America, and provides Daiya with a like-minded partner with expertise in consumer brands, R&D and manufacturing, and global markets.

Tatsuo Higuchi, President and Representative Director of Otsuka commented, "We are excited to welcome Daiya to Otsuka group. Driven by a highly talented management team, Daiya has developed a portfolio of high-quality, unique plant-based nutrition products and built a strong brand with loyal customers. We believe this will be an important pillar for our nutraceutical1 business. With our shared values, vision and mission, together we will commit to the better wellness of people worldwide."

Founded in 2008, Daiya was among the pioneers in developing delicious, plant-based cheese alternatives. The company has demonstrated its brand extendibility, now offering a wide range of successful plant-based food products found in more than 25,000 stores across North America, as well as in select international markets. Daiya is also one of the founding members of The Plant Based Foods Association, a leading trade association that represents 75 of the US's leading plant-based foods businesses.

"Joining the Otsuka family is an honor for all of us at Daiya. With aligned values and vision, Daiya and Otsuka have a tremendous opportunity to bring the incredible benefits of a plant-forward lifestyle to people around the world," explains Terry Tierney, Daiya's CEO. "Our partnership with Otsuka enables us to leverage their expertise and vast resources to continue growing our line of great-tasting, allergy-friendly food products that have delighted consumers for over 10 years."

Operations and management under the leadership of CEO Terry Tierney will continue from Daiya's current headquarters in Vancouver, Canada.

Piper Jaffray served as sole financial advisor and Fasken Martineau LLP acted as legal counsel to Daiya.

About Daiya

Daiya Foods was founded in 2008 out of a love for food and a commitment to healthy living. Today, as an industry leader and one of the founding members of The Plant Based Foods Association, Daiya remains passionate about celebrating delicious food that is dairy-, gluten- and soy-free. Its line of plant-based foods features Greek Yogurt Alternatives, Pizzas, Cheezecakes, Cream Cheeze Style Spreads, and wonderful cheese alternatives, including Blocks, Shreds and Slices, available in the dairy case and freezer aisle. Daiya also recently expanded its offerings to include shelf-stable products like its Cheezy Macs, Dairy-Free Dressings and Cheeze Sauce. Daiya's selection of deliciously plant-based foods can be found in more than 25,000 grocery stores in the U.S., including Whole Foods, Kroger, Safeway and Publix, as well as most natural food retailers. Daiya's products are also available internationally in Australia, Sweden, Mexico, and Hong Kong, among others. For more information about Daiya, please visit www.daiyafoods.com, become a fan on Facebook or follow us on Twitter and Instagram.

About Otsuka Pharmaceutical

Otsuka Pharmaceutical is a global healthcare company with the corporate philosophy: "Otsuka-people creating new products for better health worldwide." Otsuka researches, develops, manufactures and markets innovative products, with a focus on pharmaceutical products for the treatment of diseases and nutraceutical products for the maintenance of everyday health. Otsuka Pharmaceutical is a wholly owned subsidiary of Otsuka Holdings Co., Ltd., the holding company for the Otsuka group of companies that is headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. Otsuka Holdings had consolidated sales of approximately 1,196 billion Japanese yen (10.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2016 and approximately 45,000 employees worldwide. Otsuka Pharmaceutical welcomes you to visit its global website at https://www.otsuka.co.jp/en/index.php.

1 Includes two core businesses: nutrition and pharmaceuticals

SOURCE Daiya Foods

Related Links

www.daiyafoods.com


WALNUT CREEK, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc. (NYSE MKT: ORM) announced today that it will release its second quarter 2017 financial results after the market closes on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 and will host a conference call to discuss the results on Wednesday, August 9, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. PT / 1:00 p.m. ET.

To participate in the call, please dial (844) 850-0545 (United States) or (412) 317-5202 (International) and request the Owens Realty Mortgage call. A live webcast of the call will also be available on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://www.owensmortgage.com. Please allow 10 minutes prior to the call to visit this site to download and install any necessary audio software.

An archive of the webcast will be available to those interested approximately one hour after completion of the live event and will be accessible on the Investor Relations section of the Company's website at http://www.owensmortgage.com until September 8, 2017. To access the replay, dial (877) 344-7529 (United States) or (412) 317-0088 (International) and enter code: 10110935.

About Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc.

Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc., a Maryland corporation, is a specialty finance mortgage company organized to qualify as a real estate investment trust ("REIT") that focuses on the origination, investment, and management of commercial real estate mortgage loans. We provide customized, short-term acquisition and transition capital to small balance and middle-market investors that require speed and flexibility. Our primary objective is to provide investors with attractive current income and long-term shareholder value. Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc., is headquartered in Walnut Creek, California, and is externally managed and advised by Owens Financial Group, Inc.

Additional information can be found on the Company's website at www.owensmortgage.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

This press release includes "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the United States Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements about Owens Realty Mortgage Inc.'s plans, strategies, and prospects are based on current information, estimates, and projections; they are subject to risks and uncertainties, as well as known and unknown risks, which could cause actual results to differ from expectations, estimates and projections and, consequently, readers should not rely on these forward-looking statements as predictions of future events. Words such as "expect," "target," "assume," "estimate," "project," "budget," "forecast," "anticipate," "intend," "plan," "may," "will," "could," "should," "believe," "predicts," "potential," "continue," and similar expressions are intended to identify such forward-looking statements. The forward-looking statements made in this release include, but may not be limited to, expectations around the company's plans to distribute current and accumulated earnings in 2017, tax treatment and characterization of distributions made by the company in 2017, and timing and content of any announcements made with respect thereto.

Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance upon any forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date made. The Company does not undertake or accept any obligation to release publicly any updates or revisions to any forward-looking statement to reflect any change in its expectations or any change in events, conditions or circumstances on which any such statement is based. Additional information concerning these and other risk factors is contained in the Company's most recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements concerning the Company or matters attributable to the Company or any person acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their entirety by the cautionary statements above.

SOURCE Owens Realty Mortgage, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.owensmortgage.com


DALLAS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Parks Associates today announced new digital health research showing that U.S. consumers 65 and older living in a broadband household overwhelmingly want a healthy, financially independent, convenient, and efficient retirement life. The research firm will host the fourth-annual Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, August 29-31 at the Omni Hotel San Diego, where analysts and industry leaders will discuss strategies to design and sell IoT and smart home solutions that will deliver remote health monitoring solutions, independent living technologies and services, and innovative convenience care models for this aging-in-place population.

Parks Associates: Most Important Home Living Aspects

"Our greying generation is embracing aging and retirement with high expectations, and home is their preferred place to enjoy this aging journey," said Harry Wang, Senior Director of Research, Parks Associates. "Translating this expectation into affordable, smart, and healthy home living experiences requires collaborations from multiple industry sectors that include healthcare, insurance, and smart home."

Consumer research, to be published in 360 View: Empowering Healthcare Consumers, finds almost three in four seniors 65 and older rank financial independence as their most important aspect of their retirement life. Seventy percent want a healthy life with minimum impact from illness/disease, and nearly 60% desire an easy and convenient life at home that maximizes their life efficiency.

At Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers, Sam Adams, IBM Distinguished Engineer, Master Inventor, Technical Lead for Global Aging Initiative, IBM, and Sanjay Khurana, VP, Caregiving, AARP Service Inc., will join Wang during the fireside chat session "Consumer Aging Journey and Business Opportunities" to discuss the needs of seniors and boomers and smart home innovations that could align with their healthcare needs.

Wang will also moderate the session "Virtual Care: Innovations Driving Patient Usage" at 4:30 p.m. on Wednesday, August 30. In this panel, leading virtual care solution and service providers discuss their growth strategies and how the industry can continue to expand. Session speakers include:

Andrew Altorfer , CEO, CirrusMD

, CEO, Autumn Braswell , COO, Global Solutions, Marketing, LinQ, iQor

, COO, Global Solutions, Marketing, LinQ, Chuck Hector , Chief Sales Officer, MDLIVE, Inc.

, Chief Sales Officer, Kevin L. Smith , DNP, FNP, FAANP, Chief Clinical Officer, Zipnosis

, DNP, FNP, FAANP, Chief Clinical Officer, Ian Tong , Chief Medical Officer, Doctor On Demand

Brad Russell, Research Analyst, Parks Associates, will moderate the session "The Business Case for Patient Data: Optimizing Healthcare Experiences" at 1:15 p.m. the same day. This panel examines the best practices in optimizing patient experience at different care touchpoints and the power of data in such practices. The session includes the following speakers:

Darlene Arbeit NFA, HFA, COO, ALIVE SCIENCES

Chris Edwards , Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Conversa Health

, Chief Marketing & Experience Officer, Veena Goel , MD, Medical Director, Digital Patient Experience, Sutter Health

Registration is open for the Connected Health Summit, and media are invited to attend. For more information, visit www.connectedhealthsummit.com. To schedule an interview with an analyst or to request specific research data, please contact Julia Homier at [email protected], 972-996-0214.

About Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers

Connected Health Summit: Engaging Consumers analyzes the role of innovative connected health solutions in driving changes in consumer behaviors as well as healthcare systems, insurers, and hospital networks. The event focuses on four areas of consumer health, which require active consumer participation to be successful: remote health monitoring for accountable care, consumer-centric wellness and fitness solutions, independent living technologies and services, and innovative convenience care models. Follow the event on Twitter at @CONN_Health_Smt.

Media Contact:

Julia Homier

Parks Associates

972-490-1113

[email protected]

SOURCE Parks Associates
HARRISBURG, Pa., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Following the U.S. Department of Justice's announcement today regarding non-prosecution agreements reached with four suppliers to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB), Board Chairman Tim Holden and Board Members Mike Negra and Michael Newsome issued the following statement:

"The PLCB has been fully cooperative with the U.S. Attorney's investigations over the last two years, and these companies' admissions of unethical behavior occurring from 2000 to 2012 are a matter the PLCB is taking very seriously. The Board has called senior leadership of each the three companies still supplying wines and spirits to Pennsylvania into PLCB headquarters in the immediate future to discuss the settlements and determine how the agency and these suppliers can move forward preserving the highest ethical standards.

"Following investigations into former PLCB employees who violated state ethics standards, in 2014 the PLCB clarified and reissued its employee code of conduct and developed a new and separate code of conduct for wine and spirits vendors. Although we already had one of the strictest employee conduct codes in Pennsylvania state government, the unethical actions of a few cast a temporary shadow over the agency. As a result, the PLCB has embraced the opportunity to regularly remind employees of their ethical obligations and foster a culture of awareness and the highest standards of integrity among its employees and suppliers.

"The Board is disappointed at the action of all parties involved, who violated the trust of the agency and Pennsylvanians."

The agency's employee code of conduct and vendor code of conduct are publicly available at www.lcb.pa.gov.

The PLCB regulates the distribution of beverage alcohol in Pennsylvania, operates more than 600 wine and spirits stores statewide, and licenses 20,000 alcohol producers, retailers, and handlers. The PLCB also works to reduce and prevent dangerous and underage drinking through partnerships with schools, community groups, and licensees. Taxes and store profits  totaling $15.1 billion since the agency's inception  are returned to Pennsylvania's General Fund, which finances Pennsylvania's schools, health and human services programs, law enforcement, and public safety initiatives, among other important public services. The PLCB also provides financial support for the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement, the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs, other state agencies, and local municipalities across the state. For more information about the PLCB, visit www.lcb.pa.gov.

MEDIA CONTACT: Elizabeth Brassell, 717-919-1905

SOURCE Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board

Related Links

http://www.lcb.pa.gov


SKOKIE, Ill., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pharmore, the largest independent long-term care pharmacy in Illinois serving assisted living, skilled nursing, supportive living, memory care, and behavioral health facilities, positions itself for continued growth, implementing industry-leading tactics to improve upon its dedication to customer service and innovation in the healthcare industry.

Pharmore facility & new equipment

The company's recent move to a larger facility in Skokie, Ill., allows Pharmore to strengthen and diversify its service offerings, speaking to its commitment of partnering with long-term care professionals to advance the quality of resident care. Coinciding with the move, the firm has invested in new technology and specialized packaging options to improve day-to-day efficiency and quality, acting on its mission to provide outstanding service excellence, while staying ahead of the curve by anticipating the demands of an ever-changing resident base.

"We are proud that our business continues to grow and evolve," said Pharmore CEO Ari Shabat. "As a trusted partner within the industry, Pharmore is dedicated to delivering on key promises including low prices, service excellence, and unmatched clinical expertise. Our new location and machinery allows us to better serve our existing customer base, while allowing for diversity in the types of facilities we serve."

As part of this growth, the company has refreshed the look of its websitewww.pharmoredrugs.comto further improve the customer experience when searching for information they require. The new site accurately reflects the company's brand and its evolution, while showcasing its team of experts and a robust blog with current industry news and insights.

Pharmore advocates for residents by understanding the changing demands of the healthcare industry and serving as a knowledgeable partner to the nurses providing their care and to administrators keeping each facility viable and thriving. The company has remained consistent throughout the years, and hasn't lost sight of the need for personal relationships and customized solutions to exceed the expectations of facility partners.

To learn more about the long-term care pharmacy company, click here.

About Pharmore

Pharmore provides reliable, proactive pharmacy services to long-term care facilitiesincluding assisted living, skilled nursing, supportive living, memory care, and behavioral healthin the Midwest. As former long-term care administrators, we understand the difficulties nurses and administrators face on the daily basis and developed a better way to deliver pharmacy services to facilities. A privately-owned company headquartered in Skokie, Ill., Pharmore is the largest independent long-term care pharmacy in Illinois, serving more than 14,000 facility residents throughout Illinois, Northwest Indiana, and Wisconsin. Across everything we do at Pharmore, our mantra is Helping People, Earning Trust. For more information, go to www.pharmoredrugs.com.

Media Contact: Jessica Kacmar | [email protected] | 773.799.8200

SOURCE Pharmore

Related Links

http://www.pharmoredrugs.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Pilot Flying J the largest operator of travel centers in North America, is helping commemorate veterans and loved ones of the Desert Storm War. The National Desert Storm War Memorial (NDSWM), a 501(c)3 organization headquartered in Washington, DC, will receive $100,000 to help build a new monument on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

"The 650,000 service members, including 383 military members who died, in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm deserve a monument that pays tribute to their heroic service," Pilot Flying J CEO Jimmy Haslam said. "On behalf of our 26,000 team members, we believe this donation is one small way that we can demonstrate how proud we are of the men and women who serve."

In March, the new National Desert Storm War Memorial (NDSWM) was approved by President Trump to be built on the National Mall. Its design incorporates a "flat hook" shape that depicts the "left hook" maneuver that helped to bring the war to a timely conclusion and minimized the loss of life in Coalition Forces.

"We anticipate building this memorial in record time," said Scott Stump, CEO of the NDSWM. "The support from companies like Pilot Flying J and their employees is instrumental in bringing our dream into reality. We thank them for their generosity."

Donations to build the memorial and can be made at www.NDSWM.org.

About Pilot Flying J

Pilot Flying J, the largest operator of travel centers in North America, is committed to connecting people and places with comfort, care and a smile at every stop. Headquartered in Knoxville, Tennessee, Pilot Flying J has more than 750 retail locations in 43 states, 44 Goodyear Commercial Tire and Service Centers and 35 Boss Shops all of which accept MyRewards loyalty cards, Pilot Flying J's loyalty rewards program. The Pilot Flying J network provides drivers with access to more than 70,000 parking spaces for trucks, 4,900 showers and more than 5,000 diesel lanes offering Diesel Exhaust Fluid (DEF) at the pump. Pilot Flying J is currently ranked No. 14 on Forbes' list of America's Largest Private Companies. Visit www.pilotflyingj.com for more information.

SOURCE National Desert Storm War Memorial (NDSWM)

Related Links

http://www.pilotflyingj.com


Funding to develop novel biologics targeting orphan bone diseases into clinical trials

MONTREAL, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- PreciThera, Inc. a privately-held, precision medicine company, dedicated to the design and development of innovative biological therapeutics for the treatment of orphan bone diseases, today announced the completion of a Series A Financing of CAD$36 million (US$29 million). Investors participating in the financing include Sanderling Ventures, Arix Bioscience, Fonds de solidarite FTQ, CTI Life Sciences and Emerillon Capital.

Proceeds of the Series A financing will be used to develop novel molecules and to advance PreciThera's lead candidate through IND and into clinical studies with the goal to establish clinical proof of concept and identify a path to registration.

PreciThera is focusing on orphan bone diseases that cannot be treated via traditional protein replacement therapies. The company utilizes a combination of informatics-based tools to combine information from RNA sequencing and from genomic and clinical databases to validate the major pathway responsible for clinical symptoms in rare genetic disorders. Its precision medicine strategy is particularly well-suited to address genetic diseases that, until now, were classified based on their clinical manifestations and treated with non-specific agents. By leveraging both a novel understanding of the biology of these disorders and its precision medicine strategy, PreciThera aims to achieve truly disease-modifying outcomes for patients.

Industry veterans and scientific experts Dr. Philippe Crine and Dr. Susan Schiavi founded Montreal, Canada-based PreciThera in 2016. Prior to PreciThera, Dr. Crine founded Enobia Pharma, which advanced its lead product, asfotase alfa, into clinical development for treatment of the orphan bone disease hypophosphatasia. Enobia Pharma was acquired for $1.1B in 2012 by Alexion, which now markets the product as Strensiq. Dr. Schiavi brings bone and metabolic disease expertise from her many years as director of Genzyme's Bone and Mineral Metabolism team in support of the company's blockbuster drug, Renvela.

Quotes

Dr. Philippe Crine, co-founder of PreciThera, said: "We are grateful for the support of these premier healthcare investors who believe in our vision of novel therapeutic strategies for rare diseases and the potential of precision medicine for speeding up and de-risking drug development in this rapidly expanding area of the pharmaceutical industry. Our mission is to provide highly innovative and life changing therapies to patients with heterogeneous genetic diseases affecting the skeleton who had up to now no or inadequate therapeutic options."

Pierre Beauparlant, chief executive officer of PreciThera, commented: "This fundraising validates the potential that investors see in PreciThera's approach. The decision to support the company's efforts was based on strong scientific research, combined with the great market potential for the company's drug candidates."

Peter McWilliams, Ph.D., managing director of Sanderling Ventures, said: "We are pleased to be part of this oversubscribed Series A financing combining a strong syndicate of Quebec based and US based investors to launch PreciThera, another important new venture enhancing the vibrant life science innovation ecosystem in Quebec."

About Sanderling Ventures

Sanderling Ventures is one of the oldest investment firms dedicated to building new biomedical companies. Sanderling emphasizes early-stage financing and active management of its portfolio companies. Its principals play an active role in new ventures by providing seed and early-stage funding, contributing management leadership and administrative support, developing cost-control strategies to extend available dollars, supplying technical and regulatory expertise where needed, and offering the insight and perspective of those who have "done it before."

For further information, please visit www.sanderling.com

About Arix Bioscience plc

Arix Bioscience plc is a global healthcare and life science company supporting medical innovation. Headquartered in London and with an office in New York, Arix Bioscience sources, finances and builds world class healthcare and life science businesses addressing medical innovation at all stages of development. Operations are supported by privileged access to breakthrough academic science and strategic relationships with leading research accelerators and global pharmaceutical companies.

Arix Bioscience plc is listed on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange.

For further information, please visit www.arixbioscience.com

About the Fonds de solidarite FTQ

Fonds de solidarite FTQ is a development capital investment fund that channels the savings of Quebecers into investments. As at May 31, 2017, the organization had $13.1 billion in net assets, and through its current portfolio of investments has helped create and protect 186,440 jobs. The Fonds is a partner in more than 2,700 companies and has 645,664 shareholder-savers.

For further information, please visit http://www.fondsftq.com

About CTI Life Sciences

Based in Montreal, CTI Life Sciences, is a Canadian venture firm that invests in high quality emerging life sciences companies at the pre-clinical and clinical development stage in Canada and in the U.S. CTI Life Sciences has $245 million in assets under management.

For further information, please visit http://www.ctisciences.com

About Emerillon Capital

Based in Montreal, Emerillon Capital is a venture capital fund dedicated to investing and supporting companies with strong technological expertise that are positioned in sectors with strong growth potential. It aims to accelerate commercial start-up and support their expansion. Emerillon Capital invests primarily in Canada. By leveraging the network of CIC Capital, the Canadian subsidiary of CM-CIC Investissement, its lead sponsor, Emerillon Capital offers entrepreneurs a gateway to support their development projects in Europe.

For more information, visit www.emerilloncapital.com/en/

About PreciThera, Inc.

PreciThera, Inc. is a biotechnology company committed to the development of therapies for rare bone diseases using the combined application of computational technology and a deep understanding of disease pathology. The company focuses on heterogeneous genetic disorders that primarily manifest in bone dysfunction. Understanding of novel biology will allow PreciThera's targeted strategies to meaningfully impact both the skeletal symptoms as well as the extraskeletal issues found in these patients.

For further information, please visit www.precithera.com

For more information, please contact:

PreciThera, Inc.

Pierre Beauparlant, CEO

[email protected]

Tel: (514) 700-0764 x 230

Media Relations:

Russo Partners

Alex Fudukidis

[email protected]

Tel: (646) 942-5632

SOURCE PreciThera, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.precithera.com


Rural and Urban Differences FAIR Health data from the period 2007-2016 confirm findings by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that summer is the peak period for Lyme disease diagnoses, as reflected in claim lines with such diagnoses. But rural and urban areas differ. In June and July, claim lines with Lyme disease diagnoses were more common in rural than urban settings. But in the winter and early spring months (December through April), claim lines with Lyme disease diagnoses were reported more often in urban than rural settings.

Age also was a difference between rural and urban settings. In rural settings, claim lines with Lyme disease diagnoses were more common for middle-aged and older people: individuals aged 41 years and above accounted for 62 percent of the rural diagnoses. But, in urban populations, younger individuals accounted for a higher percentage of claim lines with Lyme disease diagnoses.

Spread of Lyme Disease

Although Lyme disease historically has been concentrated in the Northeast and upper Midwest, FAIR Health data suggest that it is spreading geographically. In 2007, claim lines with diagnoses of Lyme disease as a percentage of all claim lines with all diagnoses in the state were highest in the Northeast. The top states, from highest to lowest, were New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Massachusetts and New York. But, in 2016, the top states, from highest to lowest, were Rhode Island, New Jersey, Connecticut, North Carolina and New Yorkwith the emergence of North Carolina suggesting significant expansion to a new region.

Lyme Disease and Later Diagnoses

Lyme disease is treatable with antibiotics, but some patients go on to develop post-treatment Lyme disease syndrome (PTLDS), sometimes called chronic Lyme disease, with long-term symptoms such as fatigue, muscle and joint pain and cognitive issues. Autoimmunity has been suggested as a factor in PTLDS. FAIR Health performed a retrospective longitudinal study, examining private insurance claims from a statistically significant cohort of individuals from 2013 to 2017. For patients who had a Lyme disease diagnosis, the most prevalent subsequent diagnoses were:

Joint pain (e.g., dorsalgia, low back pain, hip and knee pain);

General symptoms of chronic fatigue and other fatigue;

Soft tissue disorders (e.g., myalgia, neuralgia, fibromyalgia); and

Hypothyroidism.

Across age groups, patients with Lyme disease were generally more likely to develop these apparently associated diagnoses than all patients in the cohort. Since these diagnoses often have an autoimmune component, FAIR Health data suggest that at least some autoimmune diagnoses correlate with Lyme disease.

FAIR Health President Robin Gelburd commented: "Lyme disease is growing as a public health concern. As steward of the nation's largest repository of healthcare claims, FAIR Health offers its data to advance the state of knowledge about this disease."

Follow us on Twitter @FAIRHealth

About FAIR Health

FAIR Health is a national, independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to bringing transparency to healthcare costs and health insurance information through data products, consumer resources and health systems research support. FAIR Health oversees the nation's largest collection of healthcare claims data, which includes a repository of over 23 billion billed medical and dental procedures that reflect the claims experience of over 150 million privately insured individuals, and separate data representing the experience of more than 55 million individuals enrolled in Medicare. Certified by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) as a Qualified Entity, FAIR Health receives all of Medicare Parts A, B and D claims data for use in nationwide transparency efforts. FAIR Health licenses its privately billed data and data productsincluding benchmark modules, data visualizations, custom analytics, episodes of care analytics and market indicesto commercial insurers and self-insurers, employers, hospitals and healthcare systems, government agencies, researchers and others. FAIR Health has earned HITRUST CSF and Service Organization Controls (SOC 2) certifications by meeting the rigorous data security standards of those organizations. As a testament to the reliability and objectivity of FAIR Health data, the data have been incorporated in statutes and regulations around the country and designated as the official, neutral data source for a variety of state health programs, including workers' compensation and personal injury protection (PIP) programs. FAIR Health data serve as an official reference point in support of certain state balance billing laws that protect consumers against bills for surprise out-of-network and emergency services. FAIR Health also uses its database to power a free consumer website available in English and Spanish and as an English/Spanish mobile app, which enable consumers to estimate and plan their healthcare expenditures and offer a rich educational platform on health insurance. The website has been honored by the White House Summit on Smart Disclosure, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), URAC, the eHealthcare Leadership Awards, appPicker, Employee Benefit News and Kiplinger's Personal Finance. FAIR Health also is named a top resource for patients in Elisabeth Rosenthal's new book, An American Sickness: How Healthcare Became Big Business and How You Can Take It Back. For more information on FAIR Health, visit fairhealth.org.

Contact:

Dean Sicoli

Executive Director of Communications and Public Relations

FAIR Health

646-664-1645

[email protected]

SOURCE FAIR Health

Related Links

http://www.fairhealth.org


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Project Haiti, a US 501c(3) organization, announced today that it has partnered with Swiss Message Bank, AG, a Swiss Company and its subsidiary, Swiss Message Bank US, LLC, to utilize Swiss Message Banks advanced technology donation platform. Swiss Message Bank Cares Partnership Agreement provides that; for each Message to the Future purchased by a supporter of Project Haiti's humanitarian efforts, Swiss Message Bank shall donate 30% of the deposited messages price to Project Haiti. Swiss Message Banks Donation Platform provides Project Haiti's supporters the ability to offer a "Wonderful Service to Humanity", while supporting humanitarian aid to Haiti.

About Project Haiti

Project Haiti is a 501c(3) non-profit organization dedicated to providing medical care and education to the country of Haiti since 1992. Project Haiti's contributions include:

Delivering equipment, supplies, and personnel support to Hospital Bienfaisance (Charity Hospital) in Pignon on Haiti's north central plateau. Project Haiti is the primary organization that assisted in the development of this 65-bed hospital, which has become an excellent national resource for advanced surgical training due to its state-of-the-art operating rooms, education facilities, and telecommunication capabilities.

north central plateau. Project is the primary organization that assisted in the development of this 65-bed hospital, which has become an excellent national resource for advanced surgical training due to its state-of-the-art operating rooms, education facilities, and telecommunication capabilities. In addition to training nurses and other health care providers, starting in 1995 Project Haiti introduced courses in laparoscopic surgery to Haitian gynecologists and general surgeons. Since then, Project Haiti surgeons have educated hundreds of Haitian physicians from all of the major teaching hospitals throughout the country.

Since 2010, Urology training courses in vesicovaginal fistula repair, urethral reconstruction and general urology have been conducted, both in Pignon and in the capital city of Port-au-Prince . Project Haiti's contributions and leadership in urology has led to a remarkable organization of educational activities among all Haitian urologists and residents-in-training, achieving collaboration with international urologic organizations as well as the volunteer surgeons who have been serving in Haiti . The Global Association for the Support of Haitian Urology (GASHU) is now a robust organization as a result, contributing to improved urologic care for the Haitian people.

. Project contributions and leadership in urology has led to a remarkable organization of educational activities among all Haitian urologists and residents-in-training, achieving collaboration with international urologic organizations as well as the volunteer surgeons who have been serving in . The Global Association for the Support of Haitian Urology (GASHU) is now a robust organization as a result, contributing to improved urologic care for the Haitian people. Project Haiti is currently developing a second laparoscopic training center in the heart of Port-au-Prince at the newly constructed Hospital St. Francois de Sales (HSFDS). This is the result of an effective partnership with the local hospital leadership in conjunction with the faculty of the nearby national university hospital.

is currently developing a second laparoscopic training center in the heart of at the newly constructed Hospital St. Francois de Sales (HSFDS). This is the result of an effective partnership with the local hospital leadership in conjunction with the faculty of the nearby national university hospital. Project Haiti has initiated the development of a urology training center at HSFDS, complete with a kidney stone treatment center. With its numerous partners, Project Haiti has successfully introduced laser lithotripsy and ESWL (Extra-Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy) and has trained Haitian urologists to independently perform these advanced procedures.

has initiated the development of a urology training center at HSFDS, complete with a kidney stone treatment center. With its numerous partners, Project Haiti has successfully introduced laser lithotripsy and ESWL (Extra-Corporeal Shock Wave Lithotripsy) and has trained Haitian urologists to independently perform these advanced procedures. Project Haiti has been a pioneer in tele-health since 2002 and was the first to bring tele-education to Haiti through videoconferencing and streaming live surgery, initially with satellite communication at Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon. In recent years, Project Haiti partnered with SAGES (Society of American Gastro-intestinal Endoscopic Surgeons) to provide regular internet-based videoconferences from prominent surgeon professors all over the world to many physicians throughout Haiti . The impact of excellent medical education for the local health care providers in Haiti on the well-being of the people is dramatic. Project Haiti believes that by teaching a few, many can be helped. In order for these efforts to be sustainable long-term, your support is needed.

has been a pioneer in tele-health since 2002 and was the first to bring tele-education to through videoconferencing and streaming live surgery, initially with satellite communication at Hospital Bienfaisance in Pignon. In recent years, Project Haiti partnered with SAGES (Society of American Gastro-intestinal Endoscopic Surgeons) to provide regular internet-based videoconferences from prominent surgeon professors all over the world to many physicians throughout . The impact of excellent medical education for the local health care providers in on the well-being of the people is dramatic. Project believes that by teaching a few, many can be helped. In order for these efforts to be sustainable long-term, your support is needed. For a deeper exploration of Project Haiti, its legacy and leadership, please visit our web site: www.projecthaiti.org

About Swiss Message Bank.

Swiss Message Banks proprietary and advanced software technology provides its users advanced state of the art software platforms, which include; "Messages to the Future" technology and their "Not for Profit Donations Platform". By replacing antiquated donor technology, Swiss Message Banks advanced and proprietary Not for Profit Donation Platform enables 501c(3) organizations the ability to significantly improve their fundraising efforts through increased efficiencies and donor participation. Swiss Messaging Banks "Messaging to the Future" technology allows a provider of Voice Messages the ability to confidentially record encrypted messages and edit, change and deliver them immediately, or store their messages for up to 100 years. These messages may be of numerous types, including messages from the elderly and ill, to loved ones and friends, general population messages, of any kind, as well as business and legal messages. Swiss Message Bank provides it's Not for Profit Platform Free to all 501c(3) organizations. For more information please visit our web site: www.swissmessagebank.com

Project Haiti contact:

[email protected]

Swiss Message Bank contact:

[email protected]

SOURCE Swiss Message Bank; Project Haiti

Related Links

http://www.swissmessagebank.com


DETROIT, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Detroit-based Quicken Loans, the country's second largest retail mortgage lender, and the nation's leading FinTech innovator, was today named the nation's top mortgage servicer for client satisfaction by J.D. Power for the 4th straight year  each year in which the company has been eligible.

In addition to the 4 mortgage servicing awards, Quicken Loans has also ranked highest in client service in J.D. Power's survey of mortgage originators for 7 straight years, making the company the top rated originator among the more than 50,000 mortgage lenders in the country. Additionally, no company in the history of J.D. Power studies on customer service in the mortgage lending industry has finished 1st among all lenders 11 total times in just 7 years.

"Quicken Loans' brainforce is tireless in its pursuit of making our mortgage process the standard by which all others are judged," said Dan Gilbert, Founder and Chairman of Quicken Loans. "Through innovations like Rocket Mortgage, we continue to define what FinTech is and how it can revolutionize the entire mortgage experience. This award is further proof that when you obsess over every detail and treat every client as family, you leave a lasting impact."

Quicken Loans received the highest score in every category measured by J.D. Power, including:

Billing and Payment Process

Mortgage Fees

Interaction

Escrow Account Administration

Communication

New Client Orientation

According to the J.D. Power survey, 95% of Quicken Loans respondents reported that they had experienced no problems with the servicing of their loan within the last year. The report also concluded that Quicken Loans ranked 25% higher than the industry average for the number of clients who would choose Quicken Loans when purchasing their next home.

"The most frequently overlooked part of getting a home loan is the actual servicing of the mortgage, however, that is often the most significant aspect, as it is a relationship that can last as long as 30 years," said Jay Farner, CEO of Quicken Loans. "We place tremendous emphasis on providing our clients an unmatched experience. From a web-based portal that provides clear, concise information, to experts who are empowered to take action when a problem arises, we are relentless in our mission of constantly exceeding our clients' expectations."

In late 2015 Quicken Loans launched Rocket Mortgage, the first completely online mortgage experience. In the spirit of continually innovating to improve client experience, in July 2017 the company launched a new user interface via its MyQL servicing portal. The mobile and desktop application, which allows clients to make online payments and view loan information, now features tools to provide clients their current equity, escrow analysis and more.

Since 2010, Quicken Loans has served more than 1.5 million mortgages and is the nation's 7th largest mortgage servicer.

About Quicken Loans

Detroit-based Quicken Loans Inc. is the nation's second largest retail home mortgage lender. The company closed more than $300 billion of mortgage volume across all 50 states between 2013 and 2016. Quicken Loans moved its headquarters to downtown Detroit in 2010, and now more than 17,000 team members from Quicken Loans and its Family of Companies work in the city's urban core. The company generates loan production from web centers located in Detroit, Cleveland and Scottsdale, Arizona. The company also operates a centralized loan processing facility in Detroit, as well as its San Diego-based One Reverse Mortgage unit. Quicken Loans ranked "Highest in Customer Satisfaction for Primary Mortgage Origination" in the United States by J.D. Power for the past seven consecutive years, 2010  2017, and highest in customer satisfaction among all mortgage servicers the past four years, 2014  2017.

Quicken Loans was ranked #10 on FORTUNE magazine's annual "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in 2017, and has been among the top-30 companies for the past 14 consecutive years. The company has been recognized as one of Computerworld magazine's '100 Best Places to Work in IT' the past 13 years, ranking #1 for eight of the past twelve years including 2017. The company is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Rock Holdings, Inc., the parent company of several FinTech and related businesses. Quicken Loans is also the flagship business of Dan Gilbert's Family of Companies comprising nearly 100 affiliated businesses spanning multiple industries. For more information and company news visit QuickenLoans.com/press-room.

Twitter: @QLnews

Facebook.com/QuickenLoans

SOURCE Quicken Loans
NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- One of the most rapidly growing sectors of the travel industry is spiritual tourism, with approximately 300 million travelers annually. The U.S. Travel Association (USTA) reports that 25% of U.S. travelers are interested in some sort of faith-based tourism, and the market in this $18 billion industry is expected to double by 2020.

Meteora is one of the most important religious sites in Greece. Built in the 14th century, monasteries hang precariously close to the edge, with the steep monolithic pillars providing protection from warriors below. With its rich mythology and Orthodox Christian heritage, Greece is a leading destination for religious travel, offering journeys that explore temples to the gods, sacred sites and religious festivals. Greece has been the epicenter for spiritual journeys and religious experiences since ancient times. Delphi, located on the slope of Mount Parnassus, is the site where the ancient oracle delivered her famous prophecies. Visitors can see the Temple of Apollo, the bronze statue of the Charioteer, one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek art, as well as the theater and the stadium where festivals and games were held.

"Today, more than ever, people of all religions, faiths and cultures are looking for an open, tolerant place to escape, find peace and solace. Greece's ancient churches, monasteries and natural beauty welcome everyone to reflect, heal and pray," said Archbishop Demetrios, the Archdiocese of Greece in America.

Steeped in mythology and Orthodox Christian heritage, Greece is a leading destination for religious travel, with journeys that explore temples to the gods, sacred sites and religious festivals.

"Greece has been the epicenter for seekers of spiritual expression since ancient times," said Greta Kamaterou, Director of Marketing for U.S. & Canada, Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO). "From the Greek Gods, to St. Paul and the spreading of Christianity, to Greece's integral role in the creation of Orthodoxy, the spirit of Philotimo embraces all religions, cultures and people."

Greece offers numerous historic and memorable experiences for travelers looking to lift their spirits and awaken their souls.

CELEBRATE THE FEAST OF DORMITION OF THE VIRGIN MARY

This feast day is one of the largest celebrations in Christianity, and festivals take place every August 15th all across the country. Two notable ones are in Paros and Kefalonia:

At Panagia Ekatontapiliani in Paros, one of the oldest and best preserved Christian churches, worshipers venerate a 17th century image of the Virgin Mary and enjoy music, local delicacies, and the arrival of torch-lit boats and "pirates," who start the festival with the "Balo" dance.

The Holy Monastery of Panagia Fidousa in Kefalonia attracts people to the courtyard to see the "Lady of the Snakes." Small snakes appear in the belfry every August 15th, which, according to tradition, bring good luck to the island.

EXPERIENCE LIFE AS A MONK AT METEORA

Meteora, translated as "middle of the sky," is a formation of immense monolithic pillars and is associated with one of the largest and most precipitously built complexes of Eastern Orthodox Monasteries in Greece, second in importance only to Mount Athos. The six monasteries are built on natural conglomerate pillars, at the northwestern edge of the Plain of Thessaly near the Pineios River and Pindus Mountains, in central Greece. Meteora is included on the UNESCO World Heritage list.

SEEK PROPHECY FROM AN ORACLE IN DELPHI

Visit the God Apollo's sanctuary at this UNESCO World Heritage site, where the oracle delivered her famous prophesies in ancient times. It occupies an impressive site on the southwestern slope of Mount Parnassus, overlooking the coastal plain to the south and the valley of Phocis. Here, visitors can see the bronze statue of the Charioteer, one of the masterpieces of ancient Greek art, as well as the famed Temple of Apollo, the theater, the stadium where festivals and games were held in honor of the sun god and the Spring of Castalia.

FOLLOW THE STEPS OF APOSTLE PAUL

One of the most remarkable religious routes in Greece is the one followed by Apostle Paul. The route passes through the places where he preached Christianity and constitutes an ideal combination of pilgrimage and sightseeing through some of Greece's most beautiful countryside including Samothrace, Kavala, Philippi, Amphipolis-Apolloni, Thessaloniki, Athens and Corinth.

For more information please visit http://www.visitgreece.gr

Media Contact:

Greta Kamaterou

(212) 421-5777

[email protected]

SOURCE Greek National Tourism Organization (GNTO)

Related Links

http://www.visitgreece.gr


DUBLIN, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Refrigerated Warehousing Market in North America 2017-2021" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

The refrigerated warehousing market in North America to grow at a CAGR of 13.39% during the period 2017-2021.

Refrigerated warehouse is a type of refrigerated storage used to store perishable goods under refrigeration at temperatures usually below 50F. The basic types of refrigerated warehouses are private and public refrigerated warehouses. Refrigerated warehouses are used for the storage of several products such as meat, fish, and seafood, dairy and frozen desserts, fruits, vegetables, and beverages, bakery and confectionery, and pharmaceutical.

The report, Refrigerated Warehousing Market in North America 2017-2021, has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The report covers the market landscape and its growth prospects over the coming years. The report also includes a discussion of the key vendors operating in this market.



The latest trend gaining momentum in the market is rising temperature-controlled packaging solutions. The temperature controlled packaging solutions consist of insulated containers and insulated shippers to carry chilled and frozen products in a cold chain. The global temperature controlled packaging solutions market accounted for more than $8 billion in 2016 and is expected to reach more than $13 billion by 2021. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of nearly 10% during the forecast period. The temperature controlled packaging solutions market in North America accounted for the highest share of more than 37% among all the regions in the global temperature controlled packaging solutions market in 2016.



According to the report, one of the major drivers for this market is increasing demand for food safety. The refrigerated warehouse market in North America is growing because of an increasing demand for food safety. This is because these warehouses provide an appropriate temperature and relative humidity, which enhances the shelf life of food.



Further, the report states that one of the major factors hindering the growth of this market is high energy consumption. The refrigerated warehousing market in North America is impacted by high energy consumptions required for warehousing. The refrigeration used in a refrigerated warehouse consumes more than 50% of the overall energy consumed.

Key vendors



Americold

Lineage Logistics

Preferred Freezer Services

John Swire & Sons Pty



Other prominent vendors



AGRO Merchants Group

Kloosterboer

VersaCold

Cloverleaf Cold Storage

Burris

Conestoga



Key Topics Covered:



PART 01: Executive summary



PART 02: Scope of the report



PART 03: Research Methodology



PART 04: Introduction



PART 05: Market landscape



PART 06: Market segmentation by application



PART 07: Geographical Segmentation



PART 08: Decision framework



PART 09: Drivers and challenges



PART 10: Market trends



PART 11: Vendor landscape



PART 12: Appendix



For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ch847k/refrigerated

Media Contact:

Laura Wood, Senior Manager

[email protected]



For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470

For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630

For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900



U.S. Fax: 646-607-1907

Fax (outside U.S.): +353-1-481-1716

SOURCE Research and Markets

Related Links

http://www.researchandmarkets.com


BELOIT, Wis., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Mark J. Gliebe, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC), announced that the Board of Directors, at its regular quarterly meeting held on July 26, 2017, declared a dividend of $0.26 per share. The dividend is payable on October 13, 2017, to shareholders of record at the close of business on September 29, 2017. This represents the 229th consecutive quarterly dividend declared by the Company.

Regal Beloit Corporation (NYSE: RBC) is a leading manufacturer of electric motors, electrical motion controls, power generation and power transmission products serving markets throughout the world. The company is comprised of three business segments: Commercial and Industrial Systems, Climate Solutions and Power Transmission Solutions. Regal is headquartered in Beloit, Wisconsin, and has manufacturing, sales and service facilities throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe and Asia. For more information, visit RegalBeloit.com.

SOURCE Regal Beloit Corporation

Related Links

http://www.RegalBeloit.com


ROCKVILLE, Md., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (OTCQB: RGRX) ("the Company" or "RegeneRx"), a clinical-stage drug development company focused on tissue protection, repair and regeneration, today announced that its U.S. joint venture, ReGenTree LLC, has completed treatment of the last patient enrolled in its Phase 3 "ARISE-2" clinical trial testing RGN-259 preservative-free eye drops for dry eye syndrome ("DES").

ARISE-2 is a double-masked, placebo-controlled clinical trial that enrolled approximately 600 patients in the U.S. and was initiated less than 12 months ago. The trial is designed to replicate the clinical results achieved in ARISE-1, a Phase 2b/3 clinical trial in patients with DES. Patient data will be scrubbed and validated prior to data lock and subsequent statistical analysis. ReGenTree will report the results as soon as practicable thereafter.

"We are pleased with the progress of this very important Phase 3 clinical trial and with the effort by all of the parties associated with the trial. We look forward to the data readout, which we hope will launch us into the next stage of commercialization of RGN-259," stated J.J. Finkelstein, RegeneRx's president and chief executive officer.

About RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc. (www.regenerx.com)

RegeneRx is focused on the development of novel therapeutic peptides, including Thymosin beta 4 (T4) and its constituent fragments, for tissue and organ protection, repair and regeneration. RegeneRx currently has three drug candidates in clinical development for ophthalmic, cardiac and dermal indications, three active strategic licensing agreements in the U.S., China, and Pan Asia (Korea, Japan, and Australia, among others), and has patents and patent applications covering its products in many countries throughout the world.

RGN-259, the Company's T4-based ophthalmic drug candidate, has been designated an orphan drug in the U.S. for the treatment of neurotrophic keratopathy (NK). In July 2017, RegeneRx, through its U.S joint venture, ReGenTree LLC, completed enrollment and treatment of the last patient in its second Phase 3 clinical trial in approximately 600 patients with dry eye syndrome. The Company is simultaneously conducting a 46-patient Phase 3 clinical trial in patients with NK targeted for completion in 2018. RGN-259 is also being developed in patients with dry eye syndrome in Asia through RegeneRx's two Asian partnerships.

RGN-352, the Company's T4-based injectable formulation, is a Phase 2-ready drug candidate designed to be administered systemically to prevent and repair cardiac damage resulting from heart attacks and central nervous system tissue damage associated disorders such as peripheral neuropathy, multiple sclerosis and traumatic brain injuries such as stroke.

RGN-137, also designated an orphan drug in the U.S., is the Company's T4-based dermal gel formulation that is being developed for epidermolysis bullosa, a rare skin condition. The Company's licensee, GtreeBNT, is sponsoring a phase 3 clinical trial in the U.S. and is expected to initiate the study in the third quarter of 2017.

For additional information about RegeneRx please visit www.regenerx.com.

Forward-Looking Statements

Any statements in this press release that are not historical facts are forward-looking statements made under the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Any forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties that could cause actual clinical trial results to be materially different from historical clinical results or from any future clinical results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that any notices or patents issued by any government patent authority in any country, or licenses held by the Company, or patent applications filed by the Company, will result in approved products or future value. Please view these and other risks described in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"), including those identified in the "Risk Factors" section of the annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2016, and subsequent quarterly reports filed on Form 10-Q, as well as other filings it makes with the SEC. Any forward-looking statements in this press release represent the Company's views only as of the date of this release and should not be relied upon as representing its views as of any subsequent date. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation to update this information, as a result of future events or otherwise, except as required by applicable law.

SOURCE RegeneRx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.regenerx.com


DAYTON, Ohio, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Reynolds and Reynolds Company today announced the release of the Reynolds LAW Rhode Island F&I Library, a comprehensive catalog of standardized, legally reviewed finance and insurance (F&I) documents for franchised new car and truck dealers in the state of Rhode Island.

These documents are used by dealership F&I offices to complete the vehicle sales process with car buyers.

"Regulatory scrutiny is an ongoing concern for automotive retailers," said Jerry Kirwan, senior vice president and general manager of Reynolds Document Services. "We've developed the LAW Rhode Island F&I Library as a tool to help dealers meet compliance obligations and manage risk. Our industry-leading forms specialists work alongside our outside legal partners to regularly review the documents in the library for legal sufficiency with the latest automotive regulations."

Kirwan also noted that because the documents in the LAW Rhode Island F&I Library are written in consumer-friendly language, they can help streamline the car-buying process and enhance the consumer experience with the dealership.

"Using the documents in the LAW Rhode Island F&I Library can help dealers create a clearer and more efficient F&I process, which can result in a better overall consumer experience with the dealership," said Kirwan.

The printed documents in the LAW Rhode Island F&I Library also are available in a digital format, which can help facilitate the conversion to laser-printed transactions and e-contracting. Reynolds Document Services maintains licensing agreements with all major providers of electronic F&I (e-F&I) solutions.

About Reynolds LAW Brand Documents

The Reynolds LAW brand is well established as one of the most trusted brands in the automotive industry. LAW documents have been endorsed by a number of state automobile dealers associations and leading automotive finance institutions. LAW documents are available in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

The flagship product of the LAW brand is the Reynolds LAW 553 Universal Retail Installment Sale Contract, which is the most widely accepted document in auto finance. The Reynolds LAW 553 is regularly reviewed by industry experts to help keep pace with new legislative and regulatory developments. Dealers who use the LAW 553 find they can use one contract to finance dealers through multiple lending institutions.

About Reynolds Document Services

In 1866, Reynolds and Reynolds was founded as a business forms printer. Since the 1920s, Reynolds has been known as the leader in serving automobile dealerships nationwide with standard and custom business forms. Today, Reynolds Document Services carries on the company's 150-year forms legacy by delivering a wide range of printed and electronic business documents, branding services, and dealership supplies that help dealers brand their retail enterprise, manage compliance risk, and improve operational efficiencies.

About Reynolds

Reynolds and Reynolds is a leading provider of automobile dealership software, services, and forms to help dealerships deliver better business results and transform the customer experience. The company is headquartered in Dayton, Ohio, with major operations in Houston and College Station, Texas, and Celina, Ohio. (www.reyrey.com)

SOURCE The Reynolds and Reynolds Company

Related Links

http://www.reyrey.com


LAS VEGAS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- A ribbon-cutting ceremony July 20 celebrated the newest Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican Neighborhood Hospital, which officially opened July 26 to serve patients in a region needing improved access to health care.

The Blue Diamond campus, 4855 Blue Diamond Road, is the second of four new neighborhood hospitals to be opened in southern Nevada this year through a joint-venture partnership of Emerus Holdings and Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican. The North Las Vegas campus opened June 26 at 1550 W. Craig Road. All four neighborhood hospitals will offer easy access to comprehensive, high-quality care in areas of the community where patients need it most.

"The neighborhood hospitals we are building allow us to create an integral delivery network  a one-stop shop  that delivers all of the things we want the future to hold for health care in southern Nevada," said Laura Hennum, Emerus Market CEO for the Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican neighborhood hospitals. "The Blue Diamond team is eager to continue to bring the highest level of care and commitment, and build on the trust we've established in this community."

Among the dignitaries attending the ribbon cutting was Dane Hudson, District Director for Congresswoman Jacky Rosen. Speaking on her behalf, Hudson said, "The thoughtfulness and strategic planning that go into a facility like this are truly impressive."

Lianne Costello, representing the Office of U.S. Rep. Ruben Kihuen, and Christian Bato, representing the office of U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, presented certificates of recognition in honor of the ribbon-cutting event. Other speakers included Gene Bassett, Interim SVP of Operations for Dignity Health Nevada, Kristin McMillan, president and CEO of the Las Vegas Metro Chamber of Commerce, and Sister Katie McGrail of Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican.

The 27,000-square-foot campus features a state-of-the-art emergency department, inpatient beds, advanced imaging center and an ambulatory service center. The Blue Diamond campus will be staffed by ER-trained physicians who are committed to providing the same expert level of care that has made Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican one of the nation's leading health care systems.

For more information on the Blue Diamond Neighborhood hospital, visit http://www.strosenh.org.

The two additional neighborhood hospitals being built through the Emerus-Dignity Health-St. Rose Dominican partnership are:

Sahara Campus: 4980 W. Sahara Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89102

West Flamingo Campus: 9880 W. Flamingo Rd., Las Vegas, NV 89147

Media Contact:

Richard Bonnin

281-840-9820

[email protected]

SOURCE Emerus

Related Links

http://www.strosenh.org


Ridgeland is one of a growing legion of cities across the U.S. and around the world that plan to invest an estimated $41 trillion over the next 20 years to upgrade their infrastructure using smart technology across a network of connected devices known as the Internet of Things (IoT).

While the two-month trial planned for October and November is being financed by C Spire, city officials said they are excited about becoming one of the state's earliest test beds for new smart city applications in two of the most promising sectors - energy management and transportation-traffic control.

"Our community is well known across the state for our award-winning master plan that guides our smart development efforts and our commitment to healthy lifestyles and green spaces," said Ridgeland Mayor Gene McGee. "This is a new way of thinking about how we use technology to make quality-of-life improvements our citizens want and need."

New research and smart technology advances are helping cities make wholesale changes in how they tackle traffic management issues. "A smart city can optimize traffic flow and commerce on congested roads and arterial streets through data analytics and connected signal sensors, saving time, fuel and operating costs," McGee said.

A Money Magazine Top 100 place to live, Ridgeland was one of the first cities in Mississippi to receive C Spire's ultra-fast fiber-to-the-home Gigabit speed internet access services in 2014 and has been recognized by technology titan Google for being home to the state's strongest digital and online business community.

"We're excited about taking the first step to bring smart city applications to communities like Ridgeland," said Craig Sparks, vice president of Technology Strategy and Planning for C Spire. "This is not so much about deploying many disparate applications, but developing a broader vision to help cities become more efficient and reap important financial, social and environmental benefits."

McGee said Ridgeland will measure the success of the trial and develop future potential forays into smart city technology and IoT based on increased efficiencies, cost benefits, quality-of-life improvements for residents and economic development opportunities for businesses.

C Spire will use its experience with Ridgeland to help guide its statewide smart, connected city and IoT strategy with other applications, including smart waste, smart lighting, smart parking, smart tourism and smart building initiatives, among others, Sparks said.

About C Spire

C Spire is a diversified telecommunications and technology services company that provides world-class customer-inspired service and a superior comprehensive suite of wireless communications, high-speed Internet access and a range of other telecommunications products and services to consumers and businesses. This news release and other announcements are available at www.cspire.com/news. For more information about C Spire, visit www.cspire.com or follow us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/cspire or Twitter at www.twitter.com/cspire.

SOURCE C Spire

Related Links

http://www.cspire.com


MCLEAN, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Despite goals in every World Health Organization (WHO) region to eliminate measles by 2020, measles and rubella continue to cause relatively high levels of morbidity and mortality. The Americas became certified as the first WHO region to eliminate indigenous transmission of rubella in 2015 and measles in 2016. However, in other regions some countries are falling behind in achieving the Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) goals for regional elimination of measles and rubella.

Today, Risk Analysis, an International Journal, published Part 2 of a special issue focused on modeling global measles and rubella health and financial costs (following the publication of Part I in July 2016). The special issue outlines the tools used by the WHO and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to assess performance of measles control activities, evaluate progress toward regional measles elimination, and identify high risk areas to better allocate available resources to meet national and regional elimination goals. One article describes the development of a risk assessment tool used by the WHO regions for measles, and five of the articles present applications of the tool for India, Namibia, the Philippines, Romania, and Senegal -- one country in each of the WHO regions yet to eliminate measles.

The final article integrates many of the components developed in Part I into a dynamic transmission model for measles and rubella that characterizes the significant costs of delays associated with continuing control instead of pursuing eradication. The results of this article suggest that global measles and rubella eradication appear to offer a better health and financial option than the current path of control.

This special issue, along with Part I, offers support for prioritizing investments in regional measles and rubella elimination efforts. The results of this work underscores the importance of a global commitment to measles and rubella eradication. The work presented in the special issue should support efforts to develop eradication investment cases for measles and rubella.

Articles included in this special issue:

"Development of a district-level programmatic assessment tool for risk of measles virus transmission" by Eugene Lam, W. William Schluter, Balcha G. Masresha, Nadia Teleb, Pamela Bravo-Alcantara, Abigail Shefer, Dragan Jankovic, Jeffrey McFarland, Eltayeb Elfakki, Yoshihiro Takashima, Robert T. Perry, Alya J. Dabbagh, Kaushik Banerjee, Peter M. Strebel and James L. Goodson.

"The World Health Organization measles programmatic risk assessment tool - pilot testing in India, 2014" by Kapil Goel, Saroj Naithani, Dheeraj Bhatt, Ajay Khera, Umid M. Sharapov, Jennifer L. Kriss, James L. Goodson, Kayla F. Laserson, Parul Goel, R. Mohan Kumar and L.S. Chauhan.

"Development of the World Health Organization measles programmatic risk assessment tool using experience from the 2009 measles outbreak in Namibia" by Jennifer L. Kriss, Roselina J. De Wee, Eugene Lam, Reinhard Kaiser, Messeret E. Shibeshi, Emmy-Else Ndevaetela, Clementine Muroua, Nicholaus Shapumba, Balcha G. Masresha and James L. Goodson.

"Using the World Health Organization measles programmatic risk assessment tool for monitoring of supplemental immunization activities in the Philippines" by Maria Joyce U. Ducusin, Maricel de Quiroz-Castro, Sigrun Roesel, Luzviminda C. Garcia, Dulce Cecilio-Elfa, W. William Schluter, James L. Goodson, and Eugene Lam.

"The World Health Organization measles programmatic risk assessment tool - Romania, 2015" by Jennifer L. Kriss, Aurora Stanescu, Adriana Pistol, Cassandra Butu and James Goodson.

"Application of the World Health Organization programmatic assessment tool for risk of measles virus transmission - lessons learned from a measles outbreak in Senegal" by Jennifer B. Harris, Ousseynou Badiane, Eugene Lam, Jennifer Nicholson, Ibrahim Oumar Ba, Aliou Diallo, Amadou Fall, Balcha G. Masresha and James L. Goodson.

"Modeling the transmission of measles and rubella to support global management policy analyses and eradication investment cases" by Kimberly M. Thompson and Nima D. Badizadegan.

Risk Analysis: An International Journal is published by the nonprofit Society for Risk Analysis (SRA), an interdisciplinary, scholarly, international society that provides an open forum for all who are interested in risk analysis, a critical function in complex modern societies. Risk analysis includes risk assessment, risk characterization, risk communication, risk management, and risk policy affecting individuals, public- and private-sector organizations, and societies at a local, regional, national, or global level. To learn more, visit www.sra.org.

Media Contacts:

Melanie Preve

[email protected]

Phone: 2033895223

This news release was issued on behalf of Newswise(TM). For more information, visit http://www.newswise.com.

SOURCE Society for Risk Analysis

Related Links

http://www.sra.org


Representative Bob Goodlatte (VA-6 th ) of Roanoke applauded RCC's ENERGY STAR achievement. "RCC is well-known to me as one of the largest employers and taxpayers in Botetourt County. To be sure, this is not 'your grandfather's cement company.' With over $100 million in capital upgrades since 1992, RCC has propelled itself into the highest echelon of 21 st century industry  environmentally aware and technologically savvy. RCC's limestone lake restoration, Appalachian Trail access and Catawba Creek improvements have created a legacy its community recognizes and appreciates."

To qualify for ENERGY STAR, Roanoke Cement was required to perform in the top 25 percent of cement plants nationwide for total energy efficiency (thermal and electrical) and meet strict environmental performance levels set by the EPA. The EPA's ENERGY STAR designation is based on actual energy use and is calculated using a tool prepared by the EPA called an energy performance indicator (EPI).

Chris Bayne, Roanoke Cement's Energy Manager, combines cutting edge cement industry practices with EPA's ENERGY STAR tools. "RCC's plant sits in the Roanoke Valley, in the shadow of the Blue Ridge Mountains. The stakes are higher for us, surrounded by all that beauty, to perform at the pinnacle of the cement industry in energy efficiency."

Bill Zarkalis, CEO of Roanoke Cement's parent company Titan America, LLC, places the credit with the Virginia plant's employees and managers. "Titan advances a core value of environmental stewardship and Roanoke Cement's initiatives have succeeded through dedicated employees who encourage and commit. Their energy awareness generated good ideas leading to innovative practices and energy-saving results."

About ENERGY STAR

ENERGY STAR was introduced by the EPA in 1992 as a voluntary, market-based partnership to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through energy efficiency. Today, the ENERGY STAR label can be found on more than 60 different kinds of products as well as new homes and commercial and industrial buildings that meet strict energy-efficiency specifications set by the EPA.

About Roanoke Cement Company

Roanoke Cement Company is a subsidiary of Titan America, LLC, a leading heavy building materials producer in the eastern United States. Titan America is headquartered in Norfolk, VA, and its products include cement, aggregates, ready-mixed concrete and fly ash beneficiation. Its parent company, Titan Cement Company, S.A., headquartered in Athens, Greece, is a signatory to the UN Global Compact, a group of companies committed to sustainable and socially responsible business practices.

CONTACT: Mary Beth Kramer

Kramer Consulting

(215) 431-3946

SOURCE Roanoke Cement Company
The FIAT Brand and Hoonigan announced driver Sara Price as the winner of its search for the next great female driver to race the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth rally car. As her prize, Price competed in the Mt. Washington Hillclimb, the nation's oldest hillclimb event, which is 7.4 miles long and features 4,500 feet of elevation gain. Price, whose background is off-road/motocross, hails from Canyon Lake, California. Price was chosen from six finalists who competed over three months to earn the title of "Next Female Hoonigan."

Video featuring Price competing at the Mt. Washington Hillclimb can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ftRUY1M-yw

With over 150 entries, which was whittled down to six accomplished female drivers named as finalists, Price won the title of "Next Female Hoonigan" and was selected to race the Fiat 124 Spider Abarth rally car. Finalists included Michelle Abbate (Las Vegas, Nevada), Collete Davis (San Francisco, California), Sally McNulty (Phoenix, Arizona), Rathyna Gomer (Colton, California) and Suzanne Valdivia (Modesto, California). The road trip and competitions at Bondurant can be viewed here.

Viewers can tune into Hoonigan and FIAT social and digital channels to watch the entire competition unfold.

The FIAT Brand North America is taking the Abarth name back to its racing roots with the creation of a 124 Spider Abarth rally car. Recognizing the breadth of female driving talent in the racing community, FIAT is working with Hoonigan, a motorsport-lifestyle brand, to find the next great female driver to race the 124 Spider Abarth rally car. This 400-horsepower specially made coupe roadster calls back to the origin of the brand with racing icon Karl Abarth.

Hoonigan athlete and Top Fuel drag racer Leah Pritchett helped kick start the search, hosting the program launch video. Phase one of the driver search, which launched April 18 and concluded May 10, called for applicants to make their case in a one-minute video demonstrating what makes them rad enough and fast enough to get behind the wheel of Fiat's competition vehicle.

Contestants arrived at Hoonigan headquarters on May 24 and completed some fun, warm-up challenges before pairing off and road-tripping in production 124 Spider Abarth vehicles to the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving in Phoenix, Arizona. At Bondurant, the racers competed and proved their worth in 124 Spider Abarth production cars, aiming to earn the right to race in the rally car. Competition continued in the rally car at the Gridlife Music & Motorspots festival at Gingerman Raceway in South Haven, Michigan, where Price ultimately prevailed.

About Hoonigan Media Machine

Hoonigan Media Machine is the creative team behind the viral Ken Block Gymkhana film series. Hoonigan Media Machine is focused on content creation and is fully equipped to handle production on a wide range of video projects in the automotive community. Led by Hoonigan Chief Creative Officer and Co-Founder Brian Scotto, the production team ideate and produce highly sharable, award-winning content from photos to short viral clips to long-form video for both top athletes and personalities and influential brands. For more information on Hoonigan Media Machine, please visit www.hoonigan.com and remember to Hoon Responsibly.

What does Hoonigan mean?

It's a portmanteau (Look it up, yo!): the combination of "hooligan" and "hoon," the Australian term for screwing about in cars. A person who operates a motor vehicle in an aggressive and unorthodox manner, consisting of, but not limited to, drifting, burnouts, donuts, as well as acts of automotive aeronautics. One who Hoons.

About Bob Bondurant School of High Performance

The Bob Bondurant School of High Performance, which is located in Phoenix, Arizona, is the only purpose-built driver training facility for performance enthusiasts and is the largest driver training of its kind in North America. At the heart of the 60-acre facility is a 1.6-mile, 15-turn multi-configuration track that was designed by Bob Bondurant. The school maintains over 200 race-prepared vehicles, sedans, SUVs and open wheel cars. For more information, visit www.Bondurant.com or call (800) 842-7223.

About FIAT Brand

The FIAT brand stands for discovery through passionate self-expression. That philosophy is embodied by the iconic Fiat 500 or Cinquecento  a small car that lives big. Italian at heart and rooted in a rich heritage, the 500 is sold in more than 100 countries and is synonymous with modern, simple design blending form, function, technology and a pride of ownership that is genuine.

In North America, the Fiat 500 was introduced in March 2011 and was soon followed by the Fiat 500c (Cabrio), the high-performance Fiat 500 Abarth and Abarth Cabrio, the fully electric Fiat 500e, the five-passenger Fiat 500L and the all-wheel-drive 500X crossover. The FIAT brand continues to expand with the introduction of the Fiat 124 Spider, a revival of the iconic roadster that combines Italian style, performance and engaging driving dynamics.

Follow Fiat brand and FCA US news and video on:

Company blog: http://blog.fcanorthamerica.com

Company website: www.fcanorthamerica.com

Media website: http://media.fcanorthamerica.com

FIAT brand: www.fiatusa.com

FIAT blog: blog.fiatusa.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/fiatusa or https://www.facebook.com/FiatChrysler.NorthAmerica/

Instagram: www.instagram.com/fiatusa or www.instagram.com/FiatChrysler_NA

Twitter: www.twitter.com/fiatusa or www.twitter.com/FiatChrysler_NA

YouTube: www.youtube.com/fiatusa or www.youtube.com/pentastarvideo

SOURCE FCA US LLC

Related Links

http://www.fcanorthamerica.com


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP ("Scott+Scott"), a national shareholder and consumer rights litigation firm, announces that a securities class action lawsuit has been filed against Asanko Gold Inc. ("Asanko" or the "Company") (NYSE: AKG) on behalf of purchasers of Asanko common stock during the period of October 24, 2014 through May 31, 2017. If you purchased Asanko stock during this time period, you are encouraged to contact Scott+Scott for more information. Lead plaintiff motions are due by July 31, 2017.

Asanko is a Canadian gold development company with operations in the Republic of Ghana, West Africa. The lawsuit alleges that Asanko misled investors with its mineral resource estimates and models.

On May 31, 2017, hedge fund Muddy Waters released a 43-page report detailing its reasons for taking a large short position in Asanko. The report, based on information from sources in Ghana with extensive knowledge of Asanko's operations, consultation with an expert, and drone and satellite imagery, made the case that Asanko is "highly likely to end up a zero" and raised a number of questions about Asanko's mineral estimates and models, including whether the models had been "smeared."

On this news, the price of Asanko common stock dropped from $1.87 to $1.29 on May 31, 2017, a one-day decline of 31%.

What You Can Do

If you purchased or acquired Asanko shares on the NYSE between October 24, 2014 and May 31, 2017 and you wish to discuss this lawsuit, or have questions about this notice or your legal rights, please contact attorney Joe Pettigrew at (844) 818-6982 or at [email protected]. Lead plaintiff motions are due by July 31, 2017.

About Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

Scott+Scott has significant experience in prosecuting major securities, antitrust, and employee retirement plan actions throughout the United States. The firm represents pension funds, foundations, individuals, and other entities worldwide with offices in New York, London, Connecticut, California, and Ohio.

CONTACT:

Joe Pettigrew

Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

(844) 818-6982

[email protected]

SOURCE Scott+Scott, Attorneys at Law, LLP

Related Links

http://scott-scott.com


LONDON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sony leads the global CMOS Image Sensor (CIS) market, commanding more than a third share of the industry's total revenue. And over the years, Sony has maintained its leadership by providing innovative CIS products for original equipment manufacturers like Samsung or Apple. In 2017, Sony as a smartphone designer decided to release in its flagship the latest and potentially the greatest innovation in the past decade of CIS manufacturing. Inside the Sony Xperia XZs and the XZ Premium, the latest Motion Eye can be found, with the new IMX400 CIS. This three-layer stacked CIS is made with the traditional pixel array and logic circuit on the same die, but also a 1Gb DRAM memory allowing slow motion at almost 960 frames per second.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5017960/



This innovative CIS is Sony's next generation technology. The CIS includes a 22 Mpixel array, a 1Gb DRAM die and a digital signal processor (DSP) on the same die footprint. This is the first tri-layer stacked CIS on the market. In this configuration, Sony can provide a fast readout image sensor with no distortion when shooting fast-moving objects thanks to the high capacity DRAM between the pixel array circuit and the DSP circuit.



Using Sony's Exmor-RS and Xperi's Zibond technologies, Sony has managed to integrate the three dies in a single thin, small and cost-effective sensor die. Surprisingly, the die sensor uses a unique sort of TSV at different levels to interconnect the dies.



Download the full report: https://www.reportbuyer.com/product/5017960/



About Reportbuyer

Reportbuyer is a leading industry intelligence solution that provides all market research reports from top publishers

http://www.reportbuyer.com



For more information:

Sarah Smith

Research Advisor at Reportbuyer.com

Email: [email protected]

Tel: +44 208 816 85 48

Website: www.reportbuyer.com

SOURCE ReportBuyer

Related Links

http://www.reportbuyer.com


SAN DIEGO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Sovereign Health of Rancho San Diego is celebrating the facility's three-year anniversary as a national behavioral health system that provides treatment for adolescents and teens. Rancho San Diego's adolescent facility has grown into one of the finest residential treatment centers across the country for troubled teens, offering individualized and highly-effective treatment programs for youth who have trauma, mental illnesses, substance use disorders, eating disorders, transgender issues and co-occurring conditions.

Chief Executive Officer, Tonmoy Sharma, M.B.B.S., M.Sc., says, "Our Rancho San Diego facility achieved this milestone through the hard work and dedication of our staff. The culture we promote and our philosophy ensures that our patients are our highest priority. For three years, our team at Rancho San Diego have devoted themselves to providing teens with highly effective treatments so they can go on to live healthier lives in their recovery. We've taken a look at where we started, what we've achieved and what our plans are for the future, and we're going to continue providing a high level of care and support to teens and their families through all the different pathways to recovery."

In a recent report produced by McLean Hospital, a Harvard Medical School Affiliate, Sovereign's Rancho San Diego facility was recognized as an outstanding provider of behavioral health and addiction services for teenage patients. McLean's 2017 report indicated that the treatment provided to teens at the adolescent facility led to marked improvements in their symptom severity and functional impairments due to a mental and/or substance use disorder from admission to discharge.

Since operations began in 2014, Rancho San Diego has been dedicated to enhancing the safety and efficacy of care delivered to teens. The organizations' high-quality treatment is guided by measurement-based care. Importantly, Sovereign's adolescent facility helps alleviate the insufficient number of mental health treatment beds for teens in California and across the country by helping teens overcome behavioral health difficulties. At Rancho San Diego, teens receive thorough, comprehensive biopsychosocial and medical assessments upon admissions and individualized, evidence-based treatments such as neurofeedback, cognitive behavior therapy, cognitive remediation and other psychotherapies, including cognitive behavioral therapy, equine therapy and dialectical behavior therapy, from a trauma-informed and gender-appropriate approach.

Sovereign Health's Rancho San Diego facility is fully licensed under Community Care Licensing Division by the California Department of Social Services as a provider of residential treatment to adolescents for mental and behavioral health issues. The facility is also fully accredited by The Joint Commission, the largest healthcare accreditation organization in the United States. As a recipient of the Joint Commission's Gold Seal of Approval, Rancho San Diego complies fully with the high national standards for health care safety and quality.

About Sovereign Health

Sovereign Health's mission is to provide a broad spectrum of high-quality behavioral health treatment services for adults and adolescents, including support services for family members. One factor that differentiates Sovereign from other treatment providers has been the company's ability to offer separate mental health and addiction or dual diagnosis treatment programs at its facilities. For more information, visit www.sovhealth.com.

SOURCE Sovereign Health

Related Links

http://www.sovhealth.com


WASHINGTON, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Supporters of D.C.'s Death with Dignity Act released a fact check video showing the sponsor of an amendment the House Appropriations Committee recently approved to repeal the D.C. law made numerous false claims about the law. The House Appropriations Committee voted 28-24 on July 13 to approve the amendment by Rep. Andy Harris (Md.). The law took effect on July 17 and will remain in effect only if supporters convince members of Congress not to include the amendment in the final federal spending bill for fiscal year 2018.

Kim Callinan, Chief Program Officer, Compassion & Choices

Medical aid-in-dying laws give mentally capable, terminally ill adults with six months or less to live the option to request and obtain a doctor's prescription for medication they can take to end unbearable suffering and die peacefully in their sleep. California, Colorado, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont have 40 years of collective experience with medical aid-in-dying laws with no evidence of misuse.

"This video fact check shows that Dr. Harris does not understand how the D.C. Death with Dignity Act works. Either he didn't read the law or he is deliberately fear mongering to generate support for his amendment to repeal it," said Compassion & Choices Chief Program Officer Kim Callinan.

The fact check video is posted at: bit.ly/RepHarrisFactCheck and the video transcript is posted at: bit.ly/RepHarrisTranscript. It corrects numerous false claims Dr. Harris made when he introduced his amendment on July 13 to invalidate the D.C. Death with Dignity Act. Below is a brief summary of the fact check video:

Dr. Harris falsely claimed medical aid in dying is "suicide" when the law text specifically states it doesn't authorize suicide and the American Psychological Association says there are "profound psychological differences" between the two acts.

Dr. Harris falsely insinuates that 25 percent of people who request medical aid in dying are doing so because they are depressed but the law specifies no person diagnosed with "depression causing impaired judgment" can get a prescription.

Dr. Harris falsely claimed tourists can utilize the law by injecting the medication when only D.C. residents can utilize the law and the law prohibits injection of the medication, specifying the person must ingest it by themselves.

Dr. Harris falsely claimed the D.C. law is "worse" policy than other medical aid-in-dying laws when the D.C. Death with Dignity Act has the same core, dozen safeguards as the law it is modeled after, Oregon's Death with Dignity Act.

"Dr. Harris and his congressional allies are abusing the appropriations process to try to invalidate this law and prevent dying D.C. residents from making their own private end-of-life care decisions, in consultation with their family, their doctors and their faith leaders," concluded Callinan. "We are counting on members of Congress, especially in the six states with medical aid-in-dying laws and the 26 states where such legislation has been introduced, to protect D.C. residents' personal freedoms and strip this amendment from the appropriations bill."

A May Gallup poll shows nearly three out of four Americans (73%) support medical aid in dying, including 55 percent of weekly churchgoers and 60 percent of conservatives.

A Medscape online survey last fall shows 7,500 doctors nationwide from 25 medical specialties nationwide support medical aid in dying by a 2-1 margin (57% to 29%).

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed The Death with Dignity Act in February, after the D.C. Council passed it in November by an 11-2 vote. A 2015 Lake Research poll shows two-thirds of D.C. residents (67%) support the law.

Compassion & Choices is the oldest, largest and most active nonprofit working to improve care and expand options for the end of life in the United States, with 450,000 members nationwide. For more information, visit: CompassionAndChoices.org.

Media contact : Sean Crowley, 202-495-8520-c, [email protected]

SOURCE Compassion & Choices

Related Links

http://CompassionAndChoices.org


TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Sun Life Financial Inc. (TSX: SLF) (NYSE: SLF) will release its second quarter 2017 financial results on Wednesday, August 9, 2017, after markets close. The Company will hold its earnings conference call and audio webcast at 10:00 a.m. ET the following day.

Date: Thursday, August 10, 2017

Time: 10:00 a.m. ET

To listen to the live webcast and view the presentation slides, visit www.sunlife.com/QuarterlyReports 10 minutes prior to the start of the presentation. An archive will be available on the website following the event.

To listen via telephone, please call 10 minutes prior to the scheduled start time as follows:

Participant Dial In (Toll Free): 1-866-521-4909

Participant Dial In (International): 647-427-2311

A replay of the conference call will be available from Thursday, August 10, 2017 at 1 p.m. ET until 11:59 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 24, 2017 by calling 416-621-4642 or 1-800-585-8367 (toll free within North America) using Conference ID: 50684972

About Sun Life Financial

Sun Life Financial is a leading international financial services organization providing a diverse range of insurance, wealth and asset management solutions to individuals and corporate Clients. Sun Life Financial has operations in a number of markets worldwide, including Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Hong Kong, the Philippines, Japan, Indonesia, India, China, Australia, Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia and Bermuda. As of March 31, 2017, Sun Life Financial had total assets under management of $927 billion. For more information please visit www.sunlife.com.

Sun Life Financial Inc. trades on the Toronto (TSX), New York (NYSE) and Philippine (PSE) stock exchanges under the ticker symbol SLF.

Note to editors: All figures in Canadian dollars

Media Relations Contact:

Kim Armstrong

Manager, Media & PR

Corporate Communications

T. 416-979-6207

[email protected]

Investor Relations Contact:

Greg Dilworth

Vice-President

Investor Relations

T. 416-979-6230

[email protected]

SOURCE Sun Life Financial Inc.

Related Links

http://www.sunlife.com


STRONG GOLD PRODUCTION CONTINUES

(In US Dollars unless otherwise stated)

TORONTO, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Superior Gold Inc. ("Superior Gold" or "The Company") (TSX.V:SGI) is pleased to announce production results for the second quarter of 2017 from the Company's 100%-owned Plutonic Gold Mine, located 800 kilometres north east of Perth, in Western Australia .

QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

Gold Produced was 17,556 ounces





was 17,556 ounces Gold Sold was 19,353 ounces





was 19,353 ounces Released underground infill and exploration drilling results of up to 61 g Au/t over 3.30 metres, 64.0 g Au/t over 2.20 metres, and 1525 g Au/t over 0.30 metres





Received approval to commence development of the Hermes open pit project

Production details for the second quarter and first six months of 2017, are summarized in the table below.



Three month period ended June 30, 2017 Six month period ended June 30, 2017 Gold Produced (ounces) 17,556 38,325 Gold Sold (ounces) 19,353 41,154

The lower production in the second quarter compared to the first quarter of 2017 was due to the mine operating in a lower grade area, with expected slightly lower recovery levels. This reflects natural variations in the mine and is to be expected periodically.

Chris Bradbrook, President and CEO of Superior Gold stated: "We are pleased to announce another strong quarter of production. We have now operated the Plutonic Gold Mine for three quarters and produced a total of 61,319 ounces of gold and sold a total of 61,506 ounces of gold. Subsequent to the quarter end, we commenced development at our Hermes project, from which we anticipate production commencing by 2018. The contribution of the ore from Hermes is expected to allow us to reach our targeted annual production level of 100,000 ounces of gold." For further information please see July 11, 2017 Press Release entitled "Superior Gold Inc. Announces Commencement of Hermes Development" available on the Company's website at www.superior-gold.com.

The Company will be releasing complete financial and operating results for the second quarter and first six months of 2017 before market open on Tuesday August 15, 2017.

Outlook and Strategy

In the near term, the Company is focused on re-establishing the Plutonic Gold Operations as a stable gold producer capable of producing 100,000 ounces of gold annually. To achieve this goal, Superior Gold intends to focus on its growth strategy which includes:

Focusing on quality high-grade ounces

Optimizing recoveries

Increasing incremental production from underground and open pit sources

Resource and reserve additions through property wide exploration

Leveraging the excess mill capacity

With the proceeds raised on the completion of the initial public offering, and the cash being generated by the Plutonic Gold Mine, the Company has the liquidity available to execute on its near-term growth and exploration strategy.

Full details of the mineral reserves and mineral resources, and production targets, for the Plutonic Gold Mine and Hermes project are included in a NI 43-101 Technical Report dated February 13, 2017 (with an effective date of September 30, 2016) that can be found under the Corporation's profile on SEDAR (www.sedar.com) which was filed on February 15, 2017.

Qualified Person

Scientific and technical information in this press release has been reviewed and approved by Simon Lawson who is a member of the AusIMM and a "qualified person" within the meaning of NI 43-101. Mr. Lawson is an employee of the Company and serves as the Chief Geologist.

About Superior Gold

Superior Gold is a Canadian based gold producer that owns 100% of the Plutonic Gold Operations located in Western Australia. The Plutonic Gold Operations include the Plutonic Gold Mine, which is a producing underground operation with a central mill, the Hermes open pit development project and an interest in the Bryah Basin joint venture. Superior Gold is focused on expanding production at the Plutonic Gold Operations and building an intermediate gold producer with superior returns for shareholders.

Forward Looking Information

This press release contains "forward-looking information" within the meaning of applicable securities laws that is intended to be covered by the safe harbours created by those laws. "Forward-looking information" includes statements that use forward-looking terminology such as "may", "will", "expect", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "potential" or the negative thereof or other variations thereof or comparable terminology. Forward looking information in this news release includes, but is not limited to, the Company's objectives, goals or future plans, and statements regarding exploration results and exploration plans.

Forward-looking information is not a guarantee of future performance and is based upon a number of estimates and assumptions of management at the date the statements are made. Furthermore, such forward-looking information involves a variety of known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors which may cause the actual plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements of the Company to be materially different from any future plans, intentions, activities, results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking information. See "Risk Factors" in the Company's prospectus dated February 15, 2017 filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com for a discussion of these risks.

The Company cautions that there can be no assurance that forward-looking information will prove to be accurate, as actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such information. Accordingly, investors should not place undue reliance on forward-looking information. Except as required by law, the Company does not assume any obligation to release publicly any revisions to forward-looking information contained in this press release to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof.

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Superior Gold
HAUPPAUGE, N.Y., July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Yesterday morning a group of Teamster furniture movers who have been locked out by Farmingdale-based Waldner's Business Environments since July 5th, crashed a meeting of the Suffolk County Legislature to protest a politician's family ties to the union busting company.

Legislator Steve Stern (D-16th District), who is married to Waldner's President Meredith Waldner Stern, was repeatedly questioned by the workers and their family members about why he has yet to intervene in the dispute -- despite the fact that he has for months been promising local labor leaders and elected officials that the company would return to the table for good faith negotiations.

"Don't we deserve better that this?" asked 33 year Waldner's employee John Willix. "There aren't too many good union jobs left on Long Island like there used to be. You would think a public official like Steve Stern would understand that and do the right thing" added Willix. "All we want is to go back to work," he says. "After all the years we've put in and everything we've done for the company, that shouldn't be too much to ask," he finishes.

According to Roger Clayman from the Long Island Federation of Labor, Stern has even gone so far as to say that Waldner's would make sure all deliveries would be done by other Teamster carriers. The lead negotiator for the workers, Local 814 President Jason Ide, points out that Waldner's categorically rejected this proposal weeks ago.

"Waldner's has an obligation to return to the bargaining table and negotiate with Teamsters Local 814 regarding its unilateral decision to shut down its warehouse and delivery operation," said Roger Clayman, Executive Director of the Long Island Federation of Labor.

"Waldner's has shown no consideration for the human cost of its business plan, and the families of long-term employees are being torn apart financially," Clayman said.

"The Long Island Federation of Labor is calling upon the Suffolk County Legislature to help bring Waldner's to the bargaining table as soon as possible or to join in a public condemnation of their actions. We have asked Legislator Steve Stern to help achieve the goal of getting Waldner's to the bargaining table because of his family connection to the company," Clayman said.

So far, according to President Ide, Waldner's continues to refuse to make a counter-offer to the union's opening bargaining proposal, will not agree to meet to bargain a new contract and has been sub-contracting their delivery and installation work to a host of cheaper non-Teamster companies. The union currently has charges against the company pending at the National Labor Relations Board. "What the company has been doing is hardly what Stern has been telling people. It's more like the opposite actually." says Ide. "If he doesn't have the power to stop his family from pursuing this reckless union-busting strategy then he needs to step up and join his colleagues in Suffolk County who are demanding an end to the lock-out" says Ide.

According to the union, many legislators have already signed on to a letter to Waldner's management that urges the company to end the lock-out and return to the table to reach an "immediate settlement." Presiding Officer and Suffolk County Legislator DuWayne Gregory (D-15th District), who has spoken out on behalf of the workers before, and was one of the first to sign the letter, released the following statement:

"As the Presiding Officer of the Suffolk County Legislature and an elected representative, I am encouraging Waldner's to return to the table with the goal of putting our residents back to work while also ensuring that our local companies are able to thrive."

Waldner's has many contracts with various layers of government in New York City and in both Suffolk and Nassau counties; the union has been publicly calling attention to this fact since the lock-out began. A new website, www.DropWaldners.com, encourages "socially-responsible" organizations to boycott the furniture dealer until the dispute has been resolved. Just recently, 814 officials applauded New York City's Economic Development Corporation for deciding to drop the furniture dealer in favor of alternate vendors.

Legislator Kate Browning (D-3rd District), another elected official actively supporting the Waldner's workers, said she was disturbed that a company being charged with violating federal labor law could still do work for the county. "I think we need to look at what type of vendors our county does business with. Certainly a company like Waldner's that replaces long-time workers with benefits and good wages with non-Teamster workers with low wages and less benefits isn't the type of company that we should be spending tax dollars on." she says. " I will ask my colleague Legislator Stern to step up and help to put an end to this shameful lock-out and help get these local workers back to work."

To date, despite pleas from Long Island residents, his colleagues on the Suffolk County Legislature and labor leaders from all across the region, Stern has refused to intervene and help broker a settlement that will keep good union jobs on Long Island.

The union maintains that they are committed to bargaining a fair contract for both sides and has repeatedly expressed that they would be willing to consider any issues Waldner's management would bring to the table.

Contact: Julian Tysh, 917-399-1461 and [email protected]

SOURCE Teamsters Local Union 814
DALLAS, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Guests dining at Texas de Brazil Churrascarias in the USA this August can stretch their dollars for good as the Brazilian steakhouse group offers its month-long campaign supporting St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in its life-saving mission: Finding cures. Saving children.

Texas de Brazil patrons will have the opportunity to contribute any dollar denomination directly to St. Jude at the bottom of guest checks. As added incentives, guests who donate five or more dollars can earn a matching-value gift certificate Tuesdays through Sundays, while on Monday only, the gift certificate earned will be twice the value of donations made. Both options have a maximum earning potential of $50 and are valid for future visits. Texas de Brazil will match donations up to $25,000 and no purchase is necessary.

"St. Jude has helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 to 80 percent since the hospital opened nearly 50 years ago, and they won't stop until no child dies from cancer. Thanks to generous individual contributions, no family is presented a bill for treatment, travel, housing and food, because all a family should worry about is helping their child live," says Salim Asrawi, Chief Operating Officer of Texas de Brazil. "With the big-hearted support of our guests, we are proud to help St. Jude provide life-saving treatments and services for children fighting cancer and other life-threatening diseases," he adds.

St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children.

Call your local Texas de Brazil for more information. Visit www.texasdebrazil.com for locations.

About Texas de Brazil

Texas de Brazil is an authentic churrascaria featuring a continuous dining experience that blends the unique culture of Brazil with the generous hospitality of Texas. The menu features a vast selection of grilled meats, a 50-item salad area, an award-winning wine list and a la carte dessert selections. Founded as a family-owned business in 1998, Texas de Brazil now has 53 domestic and international locations. For more information, visit www.texasdebrazil.com.

About St. Jude Children's Research Hospital

St. Jude Children's Research Hospital is leading the way the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases. It is the only National Cancer Institute-designated Comprehensive Cancer Center devoted solely to children. Treatments invented at St. Jude have helped push the overall childhood cancer survival rate from 20 percent to 80 percent since the hospital opened more than 50 years ago. St. Jude is working to drive the overall survival rate for childhood cancer to 90 percent, and we won't stop until no child dies from cancer. St. Jude freely shares the discoveries it makes, and every child saved at St. Jude means doctors and scientists worldwide can use that knowledge to save thousands more children. Families never receive a bill from St. Jude for treatment, travel, housing or food  because all a family should worry about is helping their child live. Join the St. Jude mission by visiting stjude.org, liking St. Jude on Facebook (facebook.com/stjude) and following us on Twitter (@stjude).

SOURCE Texas de Brazil

Related Links

http://www.texasdebrazil.com


ASPEN, Colo., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Aspen Institute is pleased to announce the 2017 Resnick Aspen Action Forum. Over 380 participants, including Aspen Global Leadership Network Fellows, other entrepreneurial leaders from Aspen Institute programs, partners, and invited participants, will gather in Aspen, Colorado from July 27 through July 31, 2017. The theme of this year's Action Forum is "The Great Re-Set," which will focus on how, as leaders, to adapt to major global shifts in politics, economics, science, technology, and more without compromising one's fundamental moral values.

All sessions during these five days are designed to inspire concrete actions that will address critical social challenges in the more than 30 countries represented. The Action Forum gives some of the world's most innovative leaders  most from business but many from government and civil society organizations - opportunities to learn from one another and to expand their impact by embracing diversity, sharing, and collaboration.

"With so many major global shifts afoot, from surprise decisions by voters throughout the world, to unprecedented movements of people, to technological advances we could only dream about just a few years ago, and so much more, this is certainly a time when we need courageous, enlightened leadership," said Peter Reiling, Executive Vice President for Leadership at the Aspen Institute. "The founding idea of the Resnick Aspen Action Forum was to provide an opportunity for high-integrity, action-oriented leaders to come together to pause, reflect, and recommit to doing their part to build a better world. That idea has never been more important."

Each leader attending the Action Forum is asked to make an Action Pledge, a public commitment to address a pressing societal challenge. Since 2013, over 1,000 Action Pledges have been made. Fellows often collaborate and support one another in fulfilling their pledges. They also get assistance from a range of programs created for that purpose by the Aspen Institute. Announced at the Action Forum this year is an expansion of one of those programs -- a partnership with law firm Paul Hastings LLP, which has offered to provide up to 500 hours of pro bono professional support from their legal, communications, marketing, finance, IT and HR departments in support of AGLN Fellows' Action Pledges and leadership ventures.

Resnick Aspen Action Forum speakers include: Thomas L. Friedman, Foreign Affairs Columnist, The New York Times; Walter Isaacson, President & CEO, The Aspen Institute; Madeleine Albright, former United States Secretary of State; M. Sanjayan, CEO, Conservation International; Jocelyn Mangan, CEO, Snagajob; Ref Rodriguez, President, Board of Education, Los Angeles School District; and Lisa Skeete Tatum, Founder and CEO, Landit. Livestreams and schedule available here: http://bit.ly/2tAmcV2

There are many ways to stay engaged with the event online:

Endowed funding provided by the RESNICK FAMILY FOUNDATION.

Additional sponsorship provided by: David M. Rubenstein, The John P. and Anne Welsh McNulty Foundation, The Skoll Foundation, Skip Battle, Michael Klein and Joany Fabry, Paul Hastings LLP, Margot and Tom Pritzker, Gillian and Robert Steel, The Central America Leadership Initiative Council, The Danny Kaye and Sylvia Fine Kaye Foundation, Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Foundation, Liberty Fellowship, Nike, Center for Urban Innovation, and the Health Innovators Fellowship.

The Aspen Global Leadership Network (AGLN) is a growing, worldwide community of more than 2,500 high-integrity, entrepreneurial leaders from over 50 countries who share a commitment to enlightened leadership and to using their creativity, energy and resources to tackle the foremost societal challenges of our times. Fellows convene annually at the AGLN's flagship event, the Resnick Aspen Action Forum. For more information, visit agln.aspeninstitute.org.

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, DC. Its mission is to foster leadership based on enduring values and to provide a nonpartisan venue for dealing with critical issues. The Institute is based in Washington, DC; Aspen, Colorado; and on the Wye River on Maryland's Eastern Shore. It also has offices in New York City and an international network of partners. For more information, visit www.aspeninstitute.org.

SOURCE The Aspen Institute

Related Links

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MONTGOMERY, Ala., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The Healthcare Workers' Compensation Fund (HWCF) managed by Inspirien is pleased to convene healthcare practitioners and employers from across the state along with other invited guests. This is the first in a series of town hall meetings that will be held to discuss and develop proposed legislation in response to a recent court ruling in Jefferson County Alabama.

The meeting will be held August 11, 2017 from 10-2 at the Inspirien Corporate Office, 509 Oliver Road, Montgomery, Alabama 36117. Please visit the website HERE to register, limited seating available.

On May 8, 2017, Circuit Court Judge Pat Ballard in Jefferson County ruled that both the $220 cap on permanent partial disability and the 15% attorney fee cap were unconstitutional. Since no portion of the Act may be severed from the entire piece of legislation per Section 25-5-17, Ala. Code (1975), the entire act was held unconstitutional. This order has been stayed at the present time to allow the Alabama Legislature sufficient time to act. The order can be read in its entirety here: Judge Ballard's Order.

"Postponement of the order allows us to come together with our partners and peers across the workers' compensation industry to swiftly assess and address the situation," says Margaret Nekic, President and CEO of Inspirien, Manager of HWCF. "We are committed to challenging this ruling and/or supporting passage of legislation to preserve the Workers' Compensation Act. We have retained a prominent workers' compensation attorney, Frederick L. Fohrell, Wilmer & Lee P.A. to help lead and facilitate this effort."

"A viable workers' compensation system is essential for recruiting and maintaining successful business operations and jobs in Alabama," says Mr. Fohrell. In this forum, Mr. Fohrell plans to discuss the current constitutional challenge, past legislative proposals, future options and the possible impact on all Alabama workers, including those in the medical community.

About HWCF

The Health Care Workers' Compensation Fund (HWCF) provides workers' compensation coverage for hospitals and other healthcare related entities in Alabama. The fund is managed by Inspirien, a provider of insurance products and services to the healthcare community in Alabama. We focus on risk mitigation and protection for patients, facilities and employees.

Learn more about us at hwcf.net or inspirien.net.

SOURCE Inspirien

Related Links

http://inspirien.net


LEHI, Utah, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- TravelPass Group, a hotel marketplace with over a million properties worldwide, today announced that it has surpassed $2 billion in gross hotel booking revenue across its family of travel-related websites, including Reservation Counter and Reservation Desk. TravelPass Group has booked more than 2.6 million room nights in the last 12 months.

"When we founded TravelPass Group, our goal was to simplify the hotel industry and give customers confidence that their search would yield the best price and most up-to-date availability. This is vindication that we truly are simplifying travel and transforming the industry, with even more exciting innovation to come," said Ryan McCoy, co-founder and CEO of TravelPass Group.

"Earlier this year, so many in the travel industry were surprised to learn that we had originated over $1 billion in Expedia bookings. Now, reaching this $2 billion milestone demonstrates the acceleration of our market penetration, as well as the fact that our supply access far exceeds any single travel provider," said Daniel A. Nelson, executive chairman of TravelPass Group. "Our marketplace is what empowers hotels, wholesalers, and the world's largest travel agencies to maximize distribution to reach a larger customer base more efficiently."

To continue company momentum, TravelPass Group recently rolled out its room type matching technology in Las Vegas, with a wider launch coming later this year. In the hotel industry, room types and amenities are marketed and defined differently. TravelPass Group's room type matching gathers all of the hotel supply sources into a unified platform with room-level data under a single API, powering both consumer and business facing travel portals, allowing the consumer to have more options and make the best available choice.

"There's never been a technology solution that unifies all of the hotel inventories in one place, and is able to decipher the subtle nuances in room descriptions," said Faisal Sublaban, president and CEO of Bonotel Exclusive Travel. "From a hotel standpoint, TravelPass Group's room type matching technology allows us to maximize distribution and match customers to the exact hotel room that fits their needs, leading to a better experience and return customers. TravelPass Group provides true hotel and price discovery."

TravelPass Group also has plans to unveil a new transformative technology that empowers price discovery on a multiple night hotel stay. This innovative marketplace will expand consumer choice and unlock discounts that have never been made public, previously reserved for travel agents, businesses, and closed groups. TravelPass Group is also working on blockchain technology to grow its marketplace and give leisure and business travelers access to more choices and deeper deals.

For more information on TravelPass Group and its five travel-related websites, please visit www.travelpassgroup.com.

About TravelPass Group

TravelPass Group is a leading technology company in the travel industry. Spun out of the Utah-based company Partner Fusion, TravelPass Group is a marketplace for independent and brand name hotels, wholesalers, and the world's largest travel agencies, providing travelers with the best rates. TravelPass Group has been featured multiple times as one of the fastest growing companies by Deloitte Technology Fast 500 and Inc. 5000. TravelPass Group books 10,000 room nights per day through its five travel-related websites, including Reservation Counter and Reservation Desk, and a best-in-class customer service center that helps travelers access more than a million properties worldwide.

Contact

Chelsea Robie

Method Communications

[email protected]

801.461.9787

SOURCE TravelPass Group

Related Links

http://www.travelpassgroup.com


PLANO, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, First Liberty Institute filed a lawsuit against Department of the Air Force alleging violations of the Freedom Of Information Act (FOIA) for wrongfully withholding the results of an investigation from First Liberty and the American public. The Air Force's refusal to turn over the results of its investigation has caused undue delay to First Liberty's representation of its client, thirty-three year Air Force veteran Oscar Rodriguez, as he seeks justice for an incident that occurred over one year ago.

"The Air Force is clearly hiding something," Mike Berry, Director of Military Affairs for First Liberty Institute, says. "Federal law requires the government to make a determination within 20 days of a FOIA request, yet it's been over 200 days and we haven't received anything but delays. Whatever the Air Force is hiding, it must be really bad for them."

During a retirement ceremony held in April 2016 at Travis Air Force base, at which Rodriguezhimself a retired Airmanwas an invited guest, multiple, uniformed Airmen assaulted Rodriguez and forcibly dragged him away for giving a speech that included the word "God."

In June 2016, First Liberty sent a demand letter to the Air Force claiming multiple legal and constitutional violations as a result of the incident. Two days later, then-Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James ordered the Air Force Inspector General to conduct an investigation into the incident. The Air Force actually conducted two separate investigationsone addressing First Liberty's First Amendment claims, the other addressing its Fourth and Fifth Amendment claimsbut it has only released the First Amendment investigation. Despite multiple requests, the Air Force has refused to release the investigation into First Liberty's other claims, which the Air Force completed on May 13, 2016.

Read more about the case and watch a video of the incident at FirstLiberty.org/Rodriguez

About First Liberty Institute

First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.

SOURCE First Liberty Institute

Related Links

https://firstliberty.org/


RICHMOND, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Kaleo, a privately-held pharmaceutical company, today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Priority Review of its supplemental New Drug Application (sNDA) for AUVI-Q 0.1 mg, the first known epinephrine auto-injector specifically designed for the treatment of life-threatening allergic reactions in infants and small children weighing 16.5 to 33 pounds. The new 0.1 mg dose epinephrine auto-injector has a shorter needle length and lower dose than existing 0.15 mg and 0.3 mg epinephrine auto-injectors.

Priority Review designation by the FDA is given to drugs that, if approved, may provide significant improvements in the safety or effectiveness of the treatment, diagnosis, or prevention of serious conditions when compared to available therapies.

Children are increasingly being treated for anaphylaxis. There was a 129.8 percent increase in emergency room visits for anaphylaxis among children four years old and younger between 2005 and 2014. According to a study published in Allergy, Asthma & Clinical Immunology, 43 percent of children weighing 16.5 pounds (7.5 kg) to 33 pounds (15 kg) treated with a 0.15 mg auto-injector having a standard 12.7 mm needle length are at risk of having the needle strike the bone, therefore potentially impacting the administration of epinephrine during a life-threatening emergency. The needle length in AUVI-Q 0.1 mg was specifically designed for use with infants and small children to help mitigate this safety concern.

"National Institutes of Health (NIH) guidelines now recommend that certain infants be evaluated for potential peanut allergy and early peanut introduction as young as four to six months old," said Eleanor Garrow-Holding, President and CEO of the Food Allergy & Anaphylaxis Connection Team (FAACT). "We applaud the development of the first epinephrine auto-injector (EAI) specifically designed to treat infants and small children who may be at risk for peanut or other life-threatening allergies. As there is currently no EAI on the market specifically designed for this precious population, we hope that the AUVI-Q 0.1 mg is approved as soon as possible."

"Children continue to be diagnosed with life-threatening allergies at an earlier age, some as young as a few months," said Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujilloiii, a pediatric allergist, and fellow of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology; and American Academy of Pediatrics specializing in the management of life-threatening allergies or anaphylaxis. "Until now, the needle length and dose of available epinephrine auto-injectors have given caregivers pause  wary of injecting too much epinephrine or hitting bone with a needle that may be too long for small children. This newly designed and developed epinephrine auto-injector fulfills an important and timely unmet medical need for these infants and young children."

AUVI-Q 0.1 mg builds upon kaleo's continued commitment to innovation. "Kaleo is proud to be taking a leadership role in helping to fulfill this unmet medical need that has been identified for over a decade by parents of young children and the pediatric allergy healthcare practitioner community," said Spencer Williamson, President and CEO of kaleo.

"The AUVI-Q 0.1 mg Auto-injector in development not only contains a dose of epinephrine tailored to infants and small children, but contains important product features such as an optimized needle length designed to help mitigate the risk of striking bone in this population," said Eric S. Edwards, MD, PhD, Vice President of Innovation and Research & Development at kaleo.

AUVI-Q (0.15 mg and 0.3 mg) is a FDA-approved prescription medicine used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people who are at risk for or have a history of serious allergic reactions. It is an epinephrine auto-injector with innovative features such as voice instructions that help guide a user with step-by-step instructions through the epinephrine delivery process and an automatic retractable needle system, a first for epinephrine auto-injectors, that injects the epinephrine and retracts the needle back into the device within seconds.

The approval and launch of AUVI-Q was initially delayed due to a patent lawsuit filed by the makers of EpiPen. The lawsuit was resolved in 2012 allowing for the commercialization and launch of AUVI-Q. Therefore, kaleo does not expect a similar legal delay in approval of AUVI-Q 0.1 mg.

Identical twin brothers, Evan and Eric Edwards, the inventors of AUVI-Q, grew up with life-threatening allergies. They know what it is like to live with life-threatening allergies, both as patients and parents of food-allergic children. Their goal was to develop an epinephrine auto-injector that contained innovative features, such as a voice instruction system that helps guide patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process. Evan and Eric Edwards believe and trust in AUVI-Q, not only for themselves, but also for their children and other families who may have to depend on it to administer epinephrine during an allergic emergency.

If approved, the new AUVI-Q 0.1 mg Auto-injector is projected to be available for patients in the first half of 2018.

To learn more about AUVI-Q (0.15 mg and 0.3 mg), please visit www.auvi-q.com.

About Anaphylaxis

Anaphylaxis (pronounced ana-fuh-lak-sis) is a serious allergic reaction that happens quickly and may cause death. Anaphylaxis can occur as a result of exposure to allergens including tree nuts, peanuts, milk, eggs, fish, shellfish, soy, wheat, insect bites, latex and medication, among other allergens.

About AUVI-Q (0.15 mg and 0.3 mg)

AUVI-Q (epinephrine injection, USP) Auto-injector is a prescription medicine used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people who are at risk for or who have a history of serious allergic reactions. AUVI-Q contains epinephrine, a well-established, first-line treatment for severe, life-threatening allergic reactions that occur as a result of exposure to allergens including food such as peanuts, tree nuts, fish, shellfish, dairy, eggs, soy and wheat; insect stings or bites; latex and medication, among other allergens and causes.

AUVI-Q is the only compact epinephrine auto-injector with a voice instruction system that helps guide patients and caregivers step-by-step through the injection process, and a needle that automatically retracts following administration. In anaphylaxis emergencies, it is often individuals without medical training who need to step in and deliver potentially life-saving epinephrine. AUVI-Q was designed through careful analysis of the situations where epinephrine auto-injectors are used and with significant input from the allergy community that relies on it incorporating Human Factors Engineering (HFE). HFE is about designing products or systems that are easy to operate and, most importantly, support correct use, with the goal to remove the potential for error. For more information about AUVI-Q (0.15 mg and 0.3 mg) visit www.auvi-q.com.

Indication

AUVI-Q (epinephrine injection, USP) is a prescription medicine used to treat life-threatening allergic reactions, including anaphylaxis, in people who are at risk for or have a history of serious allergic reactions.

Important Safety Information

AUVI-Q is for immediate self (or caregiver) administration and does not take the place of emergency medical care. Seek immediate medical treatment after use. Each AUVI-Q contains a single dose of epinephrine. AUVI-Q should only be injected into your outer thigh, through clothing if necessary. If you inject a young child with AUVI-Q, hold their leg firmly in place before and during the injection to prevent injuries. Do not inject into veins, buttocks, fingers, toes, hands, or feet. If you accidentally inject AUVI-Q into any other part of your body, seek immediate medical treatment.

Rarely, patients who use AUVI-Q may develop infections at the injection site within a few days of an injection. Some of these infections can be serious. Call your healthcare provider right away if you have any of the following symptoms at an injection site: redness that does not go away, swelling, tenderness, or the area feels warm to the touch.

If you have certain medical conditions, or take certain medicines, your condition may get worse or you may have more or longer lasting side effects when you use AUVI-Q. Be sure to tell your healthcare provider about all the medicines you take, especially medicines for asthma. Also tell your healthcare provider about all of your medical conditions, especially if you have asthma, a history of depression, thyroid problems, Parkinson's disease, diabetes, heart problems or high blood pressure, have any other medical conditions, are pregnant or plan to become pregnant, or are breastfeeding or plan to breastfeed. Epinephrine should be used with caution if you have heart disease or are taking certain medicines that can cause heart-related (cardiac) symptoms.

Common side effects include fast, irregular or 'pounding' heartbeat, sweating, shakiness, headache, paleness, feelings of over excitement, nervousness, or anxiety, weakness, dizziness, nausea and vomiting, or breathing problems. These side effects usually go away quickly, especially if you rest. Tell your healthcare provider if you have any side effect that bothers you or that does not go away.

Please click here to see the full Prescribing Information and the Patient Information at www.auvi-q.com.

You are encouraged to report negative side effects of prescription drugs to the FDA. Visit www.fda.gov/medwatch or call 1-800-FDA-1088.

About kaleo (kuh-LAY-oh)

Kaleo is a pharmaceutical company dedicated to building innovative solutions for serious and life-threatening medical conditions. Our mission is to provide innovative solutions that empower patients to confidently take control of their medical conditions. We believe patients and caregivers are the experts on how their medical condition impacts their lives and are an integral part of our product development process. Kaleo is a privately-held company headquartered in Richmond, Virginia. For more information, visit www.kaleopharma.com.

Contact: Mark A. Herzog

kaleo

[email protected]

[email protected]

804-545-6360 (office)

 Motosue M., et al. J Allergy Clin Immunol Pract. 2017;5:171-175.

 Kim H., et al. Ann Allergy Asthma Immunol. 2017 Jun;118(6):719-725.

iii Dr. Vivian Hernandez-Trujillo is a scientific medical consultant for kaleo, Inc. and other private companies.

SOURCE kaleo
Dermatology Unit Is Rebranded Ortho Dermatologics

LAVAL, Quebec, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE: VRX and TSX: VRX) today announced the launch of SILIQ (brodalumab) Injection during the Summer American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) meeting taking place in New York from July 27-30, 2017. SILIQ, a monoclonal antibody that targets the IL-17 receptor A, is indicated for the treatment of moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis in adult patients who are candidates for systemic therapy or phototherapy and have failed to respond or have lost response to other systemic therapies.

"With the availability of SILIQ, physicians have a novel, efficacious treatment option for their adult patients who suffer from moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, which can be a truly debilitating, incurable condition," said Joseph C. Papa, chairman and CEO, Valeant. "Additionally, Valeant has priced SILIQ as the lowest-priced injectable biologic psoriasis treatment in the United States and will work closely with payers to ensure patients have the best possible access to this important new treatment option."

SILIQ has a Black Box Warning for risks of suicidal ideation and behavior. SILIQ was approved with a Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) involving a one-time enrollment for physicians and one-time informed consent for patients. The most common adverse reactions were headache, arthralgia, fatigue, oropharyngeal pain and diarrhea. SILIQ is contraindicated in patients with Crohn's disease. Suicidal ideation and behavior have occurred in patients treated with SILIQ. Serious infections have occurred, therefore caution should be exercised when considering the use of SILIQ in patients with a chronic infection or a history of recurrent infection. Patients should be evaluated for tuberculosis infection prior to initiating treatment.

"As the first and only IL-17 receptor A blocker, SILIQ is the only product on the market that demonstrated 100 percent improvement in the psoriasis area and severity index (PASI 100) during the clinical trials as a primary endpoint. In the three clinical trials that have been completed, more than 50 percent of patients who used SILIQ achieved total skin clearance within a year," noted Lawrence J. Green, M.D., assistant clinical professor of Dermatology at George Washington University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. "For my patients that have been suffering with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis, having SILIQ as an accessible treatment option will make a difference in their day-to-day lives."

Valeant also announced today that its dermatology unit will be renamed Ortho Dermatologics, effective immediately, under the new senior leadership team lead by Bill Humphries, executive vice president and company group chairman, Ortho Dermatologics.

"The launch of SILIQ is a fitting demonstration of our dermatologic innovation and strong commitment to physicians and their patients. Not only are we bringing a product to market that fulfills a significant unmet medical need, but the pricing of SILIQ continues to show our commitment to making our medicines affordable for the patients who need them," said Humphries. "Historically, Ortho Dermatologics was known for high connectivity and partnership with physicians throughout their entire career, and we look forward to continuing to build upon this long-standing legacy."



About SILIQ

In February 2017, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Biologics License Application (BLA) for SILIQ, a novel human monoclonal antibody that binds to the interleukin-17 (IL-17) receptor A and inhibits inflammatory signaling by preventing the binding of several types of IL-17 to the receptor. By blocking IL-17 from activating the receptor, SILIQ prevents the body from receiving signals that may lead to inflammation. The IL-17 pathway plays a central role in inducing and promoting inflammatory disease processes.

In August 2015, Valeant entered into a collaboration agreement with AstraZeneca (AZN.LN, NYSE: AZN, AZN: SSE) granting Valeant an exclusive license to develop and commercialize SILIQ globally, except in Japan and certain other Asian countries where rights are held by Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd. In July 2016, AstraZeneca and Valeant amended Valeant's license for brodalumab to terminate Valeant's right to develop and commercialize brodalumab in Europe. LEO Pharma currently holds exclusive rights to develop and commercialize brodalumab in Europe, and Valeant holds the license to develop and commercialize SILIQ in the U.S., Canada and other territories, other than Japan and certain other Asian countries. In July 2016, brodalumab (marketed as LUMICEF) was granted approval from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Japan.

About Ortho Dermatologics

Ortho Dermatologics, a Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. company, is one of the largest prescription dermatology businesses in the world dedicated to helping patients in the treatment of a range of therapeutic areas including actinic keratosis, acne, atopic dermatitis, cold sores, athlete's foot, nail fungus and other dermatoses. The Ortho Dermatologics portfolio includes several leading acne, anti-fungal and anti-infective products. More information can be found at www.ortho-dermatologics.com.

About Valeant

Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. (NYSE/TSX: VRX) is a multinational specialty pharmaceutical company that develops, manufactures and markets a broad range of pharmaceutical products primarily in the areas of dermatology, gastrointestinal disorders, eye health, neurology and branded generics. More information about Valeant can be found at www.valeant.com.

Forward-looking Statements

This press release may contain forward-looking statements which may generally be identified by the use of the words "anticipates, "expects," "intends," "plans," "should," "could," "would," "may," "will," "believes," "estimates," "potential," "target," or "continue" and variations or similar expressions. These statements are based upon the current expectations and beliefs of management and are subject to certain risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties discussed in the Company's most recent annual or quarterly report and detailed from time to time in Valeant's other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Canadian Securities Administrators, which factors are incorporated herein by reference. Readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on any of these forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. Valeant undertakes no obligation to update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date of this press release or to reflect actual outcomes, unless required by law.

SILIQ is a trademark of Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. or its affiliates.

Any other product/brand names are trademarks of the respective owners.

 2017 Valeant Pharmaceuticals North America LLC.

Contact Information:

Arthur Shannon

[email protected]

514-856-3855

877-281-6642 (toll free)

Media Contact:

Lainie Keller

[email protected]

908-927-0617

SOURCE Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.

Related Links

http://www.valeant.com


DAVIS, Calif., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- The VIN Foundation, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, providing tools and resources to support veterinary students and veterinarians throughout their careers, is excited to announce the launch of Vet School Bound, a comprehensive website providing pre-veterinary students with tips and tools for the veterinary school application process.

To build this resource from a student's perspective, the VIN Foundation collaborated with University of Missouri veterinary student Rachel Courville.

Pre-veterinary students don't have to do all the groundwork to choose a veterinary school alone. Vet School Bound provides the up-to-date information on veterinary school costs, class sizes and prerequisites for all U.S. and Caribbean veterinary schools. The mobile-friendly, intuitive website pairs interactive maps with engaging videos.

To build this resource from a student's perspective, the VIN Foundation collaborated with University of Missouri veterinary student Rachel Courville. Rachel, founder of the YouTube channel Bella Vet, stated, "I am honored to be involved in Vet School Bound because it is everything that I wish I had when I was applying to vet school. I remember spending late nights looking up details and requirements for each school I was applying to, and making my own spreadsheets so it would all be in one place. It makes me so happy that future applicants will have all of that information at their fingertips in an intuitive, reliable format."

Vet School Bound currently addresses the following areas of interest with more being added soon:

What will my veterinary education cost? This section uses the VIN Foundation Cost of Education map to provide a realistic look at the cost of veterinary school attendance, taking into consideration resident, non-resident, and private tuition along with living expenses.





What prerequisites do I need for veterinary school? Prerequisites can differ dramatically between veterinary schools. The interactive map in this section lets veterinary school applicants compare classes required by each veterinary school and assess how close they are to completing those requirements.

What veterinary school class size best fits me? Veterinary school class sizes vary, and can impact a student's school choice. The map in this section compares class sizes for each school.

Like all VIN Foundation programs, Vet School Bound is free. You may learn more at http://VetSchoolBound.org and share with friends and colleagues to help the veterinary profession thrive.

The VIN Foundation was created by members of the Veterinary Information Network (VIN) in 2005. VIN is an online community of veterinarians and veterinary students with over 58,000 members worldwide. Learn more about the VIN Foundation and its programs at http://VINFoundation.org. The VIN Foundation is made possible through generous gifts by individual donors and grants; all gifts made to the VIN Foundation are tax deductible.

Contact:

Jordan benShea

VIN Foundation

(888) 616-6506

[email protected]

SOURCE VIN Foundation

Related Links

http://vinfoundation.org


HOLMDEL, N.J., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Vonage (NYSE: VG), a leading provider of cloud communications for business, has named Thomas Klar as Head of Country for Nexmo, the Vonage API Platform. With extensive experience in cloud communications and business technology, Mr. Klar will focus on driving the global expansion of Nexmo, building upon its existing presence and customer base in EMEA, with a focus on the German market.

"As we continue to explore ways to expand Vonage's reach across the globe, we are putting down roots in regions where we not only have a strong existing customer presence, but where we see the most opportunities for growth," said Vonage CEO Alan Masarek. "I am delighted to welcome Thomas to the Vonage team. Working closely with our existing Vonage leadership in Europe, he will play a vital role in laying the groundwork for continued expansion of our unified communications business throughout Germany and other European countries.

"As the German market for cloud communications gains momentum, Thomas' oversight of our existing Nexmo customer base there, as well as his deep network and industry knowledge in the business communications space, will ensure we continue to gain traction among the region's digital natives and agile enterprises. Our robust cloud offering of both unified communications and communications platform capabilities positions Vonage well to serve this growing market with end-to-end communications technology that transforms the way enterprises do business."

Mr. Klar is an experienced industry expert in the cloud communication market and has a proven track record of driving revenue growth and new sales opportunities. Prior to joining Vonage, Mr. Klar spent more than 10 years in various senior sales leadership roles at Communications Platform as-a-Service (CPaaS), cloud communications and business technology companies, including Twilio, where he led the German sales team, as well as Syniverse, MACH and tyntec. As a German-native, Mr. Klar's deep understanding and knowledge of the German business landscape will be a tremendous asset to the Company's plan to continue to expand throughout EMEA.

"I am excited to be joining the Vonage team as it furthers its reach into such a rich and digitally diverse market," said Mr. Klar. "Vonage's end-to-end business communications offering - from collaboration and mobility for employees and seamless integration with workflow tools for improved productivity, to deeper and personalized engagement with customers - positions the Company well to not only transform how businesses communicate, but how they operate to drive better business outcomes. I look forward to bringing this unique offering to German businesses and expanding upon existing relationships with enterprise customers based in this marketplace."

Expanding and building upon existing local presence

Vonage's current Nexmo customers in Germany include leading carshare app, Car2Go, a Daimler company, and Helpling, Europe's leading online marketplace for home services, among many others.

Through the integration of the Nexmo SMS API, Helpling sends personalized and real-time SMS alerts to self-employed cleaners to notify them of new cleaning bookings  anytime and anywhere.

"Messaging has been a key way for us to streamline the way we work with service providers," says Sebastian Nepote CTO, Helpling. "With real-time management of new cleaning offers and appointments, we are able to provide the right tools that cleaners need to fill and manage their own schedules more efficiently. Additionally, real-time communications with our customers via SMS enables us to address their needs and requests more quickly and precisely than ever before."

Car2Go, a Daimler company, offers flexible carsharing without fixed rental stations. Instead, users can rent and park their rental car anywhere within their neighborhood or home city.

"Nexmo has been a very reliable provider for Car2Go's communications, in Germany and internationally," said Rainer Bibus, Manager Vehicle Integration and Telematics Development at Car2Go. "The Nexmo SMS API enables us to deliver efficient, critical and real-time SMS communications to help connect clients with their vehicles for a seamless customer experience."

In 2016, Nexmo also partnered with Germany-based Deutsche Telekom International Carrier Sales & Solutions (ICSS), a leading international wholesale carrier, to further increase delivery quality for mission-critical, application-to-person (A2P) messaging to the Deutsche Telekom footprint in Europe, including Germany, and outside of Deutsche Telekom's footprint through partner networks. Through this partnership, Nexmo APIs are enabling a faster and more effective interaction between consumers and businesses through A2P messaging.

End-to-end communications for better business outcomes

Vonage's existing Unified Communications as-a-Service (UCaaS) customers in Germany include global shared workspace community WeWork and LK Global, an international and multi-location law firm.

The Company's robust cloud offering, which includes a broad UCaaS product suite and leading position in CPaaS, enables enhanced productivity and mobility among employees, as well as deeper customer interactions via embedded, contextual communications.

Vonage's portfolio of UCaaS solutions allow companies to provide integrated technologies and tools - including integrated voice, email, instant messaging, web collaboration, and more - that allow employees to seamlessly work anytime, from anywhere, and on any device.

New economy companies, as well as agile enterprises, are increasingly looking to improve the user experience when it comes to communication, particularly via mobile devices. Vonage's CPaaS technology allows developers to easily program and embed communications into their business applications, ensuring effective communications - via text, social media or chat apps - with both consumers and other businesses. Through the API platform, Nexmo, developers are empowered with capabilities for increased programmability and scalability to enable more meaningful connections with customers. These contextual communications enable deeper customer engagement no matter how or where their customers choose to connect.

About Vonage

Vonage (NYSE: VG) is a leading provider of cloud communications services for business. Vonage transforms the way people work and businesses operate through a portfolio of cloud-based communications solutions that enable internal collaboration among employees, while also keeping companies closely connected with their customers, across any mode of communication, on any device.

Vonage's Nexmo API Platform provides tools for voice, messaging and phone verification services, allowing developers to embed contextual, programmable communications into mobile apps, websites and business systems. Nexmo enables enterprises to easily communicate relevant information to their customers in real time, anywhere in the world, through text messaging, chat, social media and voice.

The Company also provides a robust suite of feature-rich residential communication solutions. In 2015 and 2016, Vonage was named a Visionary in the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Unified Communications as-a-Service, Worldwide. Vonage has also earned Frost & Sullivan's 2015 Growth Excellence Leadership Award for Hosted IP and Unified Communications and Collaboration (UCC) Services and the 2016 North American Cloud Communications Product Line Strategy Leadership Award. For more information, visit Vonage Business.

Vonage Holdings Corp. is headquartered in Holmdel, New Jersey. Vonage is a registered trademark of Vonage Marketing LLC, owned by Vonage America Inc. To follow Vonage on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/vonage. To become a fan on Facebook, go to www.facebook.com/vonage. To subscribe on YouTube, visit www.youtube.com/vonage.

(vg-a)

SOURCE Vonage

Related Links

http://www.vonage.com


TSXV: GGI

OTC: GGIFF

Frankfurt: RQM

VANCOUVER, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ - Garibaldi Resources TSX.V: GGI) (the "Company" or "Garibaldi") is pleased to report that crews at the company's 100%-owned E&L Project at Nickel Mountain in the heart of the Eskay Camp have made an important new surface discovery following up on the first of four major VTEM conductor targets.

Widespread pyrrhotite-chalcopyrite mineralization has been identified on surface in gabbroic rocks that outcrop over a broad area at previously unexplored "Anomaly A", approximately 6 km north-northeast of the historic E&L nickel-copper-rich mineralized zones where drilling commences shortly.

Geologists have not yet sampled the "hot zone" of the conductor, where it is strongest, but initial field examinations covering ground on the periphery of the conductor are extremely encouraging:

Gabbro outcrops extend at least 300 meters east-west and 700 meters north-south and contain disseminated, vein-style and breccia sulphides intruding Hazelton Group sediments;

A boulder field featuring strong sulphide mineralization (up to 30% in many instances) was traced for approximately 1.3 km downslope from outcrop;

The abundance, size and shape of the boulders suggests they did not travel far and the source is "Anomaly A";

50 rock samples (approximately 30 chip and grab samples from outcrop and 20 grab samples from the boulder field) have been submitted for rush assaying and lithochemistry;

The mineralized gabbros at "Anomaly A" are visually identical to the mineralized gabbros at the E&L.

Steve Regoci, Garibaldi President and CEO, commented: "Most importantly, this exciting new sulphide discovery at Nickel Mountain, located at the exact coordinates of strong VTEM conductor 'A', validates the VTEM survey as we prepare for imminent drilling into 'Anomaly D' immediately below the historic mineralized zones at the E&L."

The top of the strong, broad conductor beneath E&L "Anomaly D" is estimated to be at a depth of 140 meters, approximately 20 meters below the deepest hole drilled by Silver Standard in the 1960's. A total of 12 shallow holes defined a nickel-copper-rich massive sulphide system extending 175 m east-west, highlighted by DDH-4-1966 which returned 37.8 meters grading 1.3% nickel and 0.79% copper with 5.9% nickel and 1.7% copper over 2.74 meters near the bottom of the hole (see July 17 GGI news release).

Regoci adds, "The 'Anomaly A' surface discovery featuring mineralized gabbro is extremely exciting and we look forward to much more mapping and sampling there. Successful ground-truthing of that VTEM target also suggests that the E&L nickel-copper-rich magmatic massive sulphide occurrence is indeed part of a much larger system than originally outlined from the only surface drill program ever carried out at the property in the 1960's. We're eagerly anticipating the start of drilling at the E&L as this has all the earmarks of a game-changing discovery for our shareholders."

Anomalies "B" and "C" are also being investigated. The north-northeast alignment of the four major anomalies ("A" through "D") indicates a potential corridor prospective for a cluster of deposits.

Eskay Camp Area Map

To view the location of the E&L Project, Garibaldi's other large landholdings in the Eskay Camp, and properties of all other companies in this prolific district, please visit GGI's web site or the following URL:

http://www.garibaldiresources.com/i/photos/king/Eskay_Camp_May_2017_Inner_Core_Area_Map-min.jpg

Qualified Person

Mr. Everett F. Makela, P.Geo., Director and VP Exploration Canada for the Company, a Qualified Person as defined by NI-43-101, has reviewed and approved the scientific and technical disclosure in this news release.

About Garibaldi

Garibaldi Resources Corp. is an active Canadian-based junior exploration company focused on creating shareholder value through discoveries and strategic development of its assets in some of the most prolific mining regions in Mexico and British Columbia.

We seek safe harbor.

GARIBALDI RESOURCES CORP.

Per: "Steve Regoci"

Steve Regoci, President

Neither the TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider accepts responsibility for the adequacy or the accuracy of this release.

SOURCE Garibaldi Resources Corp.
Filmed on RED Dragon cameras, creators Devin Leisher, Erik Motta, and Medhi Ahmadi reveal the story behind the rare, handcrafted tradition of Japanese denim through stunning visuals and an in-depth exploration of old mills, vintage stores, and interviews with Japanese denim legends, including Yutaka Fujihara and Mikiharu Tsujita.

After the premiere, Leisher, the director, producer, and editor, was inundated with requests from brands and shops looking to hold screenings. Although an online version of "Weaving Shibusa" was heavily sought after, Leisher wanted to maintain the same human spirit and intrinsic desire for quality present in the film by holding live screenings for enthusiasts to connect with one another.

When exploring distribution services and platform options, Leisher looked into "almost every possible solution," including video pay-to-play platforms, video hosting and selling platforms, iTunes, and Amazon. "Most options had, what I felt was, a glaring mistake on how to sell independent films  either no DRM, no money, poor quality, etc.," he said.

Ultimately, Leisher, Motta, chose Vimeo as their exclusive hosting platform.

"Vimeo is truly the only platform with the filmmaker in mind," explained Leisher. "[It] was the only service we could find that played on a variety of devices, protected our film through DRM, and retained the quality. [It] also gave a fair amount of the sales back to us, which would enable us to create more content."

Beyond Vimeo, Leisher explained that he in talks with Netflix and Amazon, and revealed that a special edition physical copy will be released in limited quantities later this year.

About "Weaving Shibusa"

"Weaving Shibusa" is the story of Japanese craftsmanship and dedication, shown through their love and fascination of denim. This film was created by Devin Leisher, Erik Motta and Mehdi Ahmadi.

SOURCE Weaving Shibusa
ARLINGTON, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, the Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA) praised the decision of the White House and Congressional Leadership to remove the Border Adjustment Tax (BAT) from consideration as it announced an outline for comprehensive tax reform. RILA and several of its member company CEOs met with President Trump in February, beginning the discussion with administration officials about the severely negative consequences that would befall retailers and consumers if BAT remained a central component of tax reform. Since that meeting, RILA has met with Vice President Pence, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and nearly 300 members of the House and Senate to discuss the importance of passing tax reform without a BAT.

"Today's announcement is an important victory for American families and businesses who desperately need tax reform and who would have been harmed most by the border adjustment tax," said Sandy Kennedy, President of RILA. "With BAT out, Washington has an opportunity for the first time in more than a generation to pass a tax reform plan that boosts American businesses and family budgets."

"As the nation's largest private-sector employer, retailers are ready to work with lawmakers to pass tax reform that lowers corporate rates, scrutinizes deductions, keeps America competitive globally and creates a level playing field here at home," said Kennedy. "There is no better time and no greater need for tax reform to keep America competitive with the rest of the world. We look forward to working with Congress and the Administration to pass a reform package after the August recess."

RILA is the trade association of the world's largest and most innovative retail companies. RILA members include more than 200 retailers, product manufacturers, and service suppliers, which together account for more than $1.5 trillion in annual sales, millions of American jobs and more than 100,000 stores, manufacturing facilities and distribution centers domestically and abroad.

SOURCE Retail Industry Leaders Association

Related Links

http://www.rila.org


HAMPTON, Va., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The public will get a chance to examine world-class research facilities and see historic places connected to the early days of the nation's space program during an Oct. 21 open house at NASA's Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Langley's founding in 1917, the center will be open to the public from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 21. Admission will be free. Visitors will get up-close views of facilities including wind tunnels, laboratories and the center's aircraft hangar. Several points of interest have been designated National Historic Landmarks.

Children's activities, food trucks and lectures will be part of the event.

Visitors will see places where Mercury, Gemini and Apollo astronauts trained and learn how, today, NASA refines new technologies driving our Journey to Mars. The public will follow in the footsteps of mathematician and Presidential Medal of Freedom-winner Katherine Johnson, whose story was told in the book and feature film "Hidden Figures."

Subject matter experts will be available for interviews about current research in aeronautics, space technology and Earth science taking place at the center.

When NASA Langley last opened its gates to the community for an open house in 2012, an estimated 10,000 people visited.

Media wishing to attend should contact Michael Finneran at 757-864-6110 or [email protected].

For updates and information on other centennial events, go to:

https://www.nasa.gov/langley/100/events

Get event updates by following NASA Langley on social media:

www.facebook.com/nasalarc/

twitter.com/NASA_Langley

Instagram: nasa_langley

Learn more about NASA's Langley Research Center at:

https://www.nasa.gov/langley

NOTE TO EDITORS: Please add this event to any community/activity calendars. In addition, we are happy to provide you with any supporting photographs and b-roll, and can coordinate access to spokespersons and subject matter experts upon request.

SOURCE NASA

Related Links

http://www.nasa.gov


NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS)the leading non-profit organization geared towards aligning individuals from underserved groups with transformative career opportunitieshas unveiled a new initiative created to address the growing need to prepare youth and adults to live and work in what are becoming digital-based urban communities.

According to a report released by McKinsey, the smart city industry is expected to be worth $400 billion by 2020 and the urban population is slated to grow by 65 million people per year. The Smart Cities initiative will provide early-career adults who are a part of this population with education, training, and support to compete as the evolution of smart cities and the Gig Economy shapes the future of the workforce.

WOS will expand its "In the Community" operations by cultivating relationships with middle- and high-schools to expose students to STEM-based curriculums as well as provide support for adults that need to become more digitally proficient in their everyday lives. Through the initiative, WOS aims to equip individuals with practical knowledge of digital technologies so they can play a more active role in their communities.

The Smart Cities initiative aims to:

Increase the digital literacy of individuals living in underserved communities through providing training with a focus on mastering digital tools and managing their digital presence and participation.

Engage children in STEM education at an early, developmental stage to equip them with the knowledge they need to further succeed in the field.

Close the tech skills gap amongst recent high school and college graduates as well as adults who are looking to switch careers.

Drive economic opportunity, reduce poverty, and create more jobs for at-risk diverse populations.

"The WOS goals are to use digital technology to improve the quality of life for residents and utilize a city's infrastructure more efficiently through the collection and analysis of data. We know that technology does not fix all problems," said Addie M. Rimmer, Director, Student Learning, Workforce Opportunity Services. "However, we believe we have a role to play in increasing the digital literacy of our constituents. As employers continue to raise their educational requirements, they also expect employees to be tech savvy. We can help our constituents master digital tools and learn how to manage their digital presence and participation. The end result is a more engaged citizenry."

About Workforce Opportunity Services

Workforce Opportunity Services (WOS) is a next-generation 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that transforms early career professionals by cultivating their talents. We connect leading companies all over the world with a network of thousands of ready-to-work professionals who reflect diverse communities and customers. Our partners rely on us to recruit, educate, and train employees with the highest potential who will remain committed to their work over the long term.

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Nagpur (Maharashtra), July 22 : In a major embarrassment to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, a state-government panel on Saturday questioned the massive delays in disbursing Rs 10,000 'immediate relief' as part of a farm loans waiver scheme announced to protesting farmers over a month ago.

The Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalambi Mission (VNSSM) Chairman Kishore Tiwari has said that contrary to claims made by the government to provide 'immediate assistance' to all the eligible nine million farmers, barely a fraction - or 3,200 peasants - have been handed over the amount so far.

"This has made a mockery of the farmers, who are running from pillar to post since nearly 40 days for the promised emergency assistance of Rs 10,000. Now, the sowing season is ending and even the monsoon will depart soon," Tiwari told IANS.

The remaining farmers who did not get aid continue to suffer or commit suicide, he pointed out.

"Despite the state government offering a guarantee to the Reserve Bank of India, a majority of the public sector banks have not initiated steps to disburse this small amount which could provide big relief to farmers in this critical sowing season," Tiwari said.

So far, only the Vidarbha-Konkan Gramin Bank, Maharashtra Gramin Bank and DCCBs have disbursed the Rs 10,000 to around 3,200 farmers.

The financial aid announcement was made by the state government on June 11 after an unprecedented 11-day strike by farmers shook the political establishment. Tiwari said on June 14 the government issued an order asking farmers to collect the Rs 10,000 from banks the following day (June 15).

However, till date the farmers have been making rounds of the banks and return empty-handed, he said.

He pointed out that "Strangely, the government provided the bank guarantee only on July 4."

He demanded that the government must fix accountability for this on the bureaucrats who briefed the ministers at the time of negotiations with the farmers leaders, "to avoid similar humiliation in future".

Each bank was required to get the board's approval for the July 4 guarantee and then initiate the process to disburse the money.

Accusing the banks and bureaucracy of "a hostile attitude" towards farmers, Tiwari said that so far the PSU banks have disbursed barely 15 per cent of the crop loans targeted by RBI-NABARD for the current Kharif season, compared to 80 per cent which was achieved by July 21 last year.

This year, the crop loans outlay is likely to be around Rs 58,662 crore, an increase of nearly Rs 7,000 crore over last year's outlay of Rs 51,235 crore.

"This year, however, the insensitive banks and bureaucrats have made a joke of even the small amount of Rs 10,000, and owing to their negative temperament, farmers' suicides continues unabated," Tiwari said.
Jaipur, July 22 : A senior BJP leader and former minister in the NDA government, Sanwarlal Jat, on Saturday collapsed while attending a meeting of party MLAs and MPs with BJP President Amit Shah.

"As he got up to speak, he suddenly collapsed and fainted. He was rushed to SMS Hospital where a team of doctors has been attending him. He has been shifted to the ICU," a Bharatiya Janata Party official told IANS here.

Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje and her cabinet colleagues rushed to the hospital to meet the Ajmer MP.

Jat had defeated the Congress's Sachin Pilot in Ajmer in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

A former minister in the Modi government, Jat is currently the President of Kishan Ayog Rajasthan.

Shah, who arrived here on Friday on a three day visit to the state, is busy holding meetings for strengthening the party at grass root level.
New Delhi, July 22 : Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Saturday met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi here and discussed the widening rift in the state's ruling Grand Alliance over the corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

Nitish Kumar, who arrived in the national capital on Saturday noon, met Gandhi at his residence 12, Tughlaq Lane in central Delhi in the evening.

The close door meeting between the two leaders lasted for over 40 minutes.

What transpired was not officially communicated but sources in the Congress said the two leaders discussed the current political situation in Bihar following the CBI raids against RJD Chief Lalu Prasad's family.

Nitish Kumar's meeting with Gandhi comes days after Congress President Sonia Gandhi spoke to the Bihar Chief Minister and RJD chief Lalu Prasad in an effort to prevent a collapse of the Grand Alliance.

The meeting took place amid speculation that Nitish Kumar, who is JD-U President, was growing closer to the BJP.

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

The JD-U, in its efforts to portray a corruption-free image, has demanded that Tejashwi Yadav quit, which has been rejected by the RJD and the Congress.

Talks between Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav last week do not seem to have smoothed the political ripples.

The party sources said the two leaders also discussed about how to keep together the opposition parties in view of future politics.

Nitish Kumar backed NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind in the presidential election but has supported the opposition parties' nominee Gopalkrishna Gandhi for the vice presidential election.

Later in the evening, Nitish Kumar joined the farewell dinner for outgoing President Pranab Mukherjee by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Nitish Kumar is in Delhi for four days. He will attend the oath taking ceremony of Ram Nath Kovind as new President on Tuesday.
Mumbai, July 23 : Veteran actor Anupam Kher says it's a joy for him to be on the sets with filmmaker Neeraj Pandey, who is currently shooting for his film "Aiyaary" in London.

Pandey on Sunday took to Twitter to share a black and white photograph of himself along with Anupam and actor Sidharth Malhotra. In the image, Pandey is seen hugging Anupam, while Sidharth is seen sitting on a sofa.

Anupam re-tweeted the director's image and captioned: "Always a joy to be on the sets with you dearest Neeraj. Sidharth also seems to be happy about our reunion and warmth."

To that, Pandey replied: "Thank you Anupam Kher sir. Always a pleasure."

Anupam and Pandey have previously collaborated for films like "Special 26", "A Wednesday", "Baby" and "M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story".

"Aiyaary" features Sidharth as an army officer along with Manoj Bajpayee. It is based on a real life incident that revolves around two strong-minded army officers who have completely different views yet they are right in their own way.

The film, which also features veteran actor Naseeruddin Shah and Rakul Preet Singh, is slated for release on January 26, next year.

Anupam is in London to promote his upcoming film "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha", which stars Akshay Kumar and Bhumi Pednekar.
New Delhi, July 23 : Indian Navy chief Admiral Sunil Lanba on Sunday embarked on an eight-day visit of Mozambique and Tanzania that is aimed at consolidating bilateral relations and exploring new avenues for defence cooperation.

Admiral Lanba, who heads the powerful Chiefs of Staff Committee (COSC), will be visiting the two African nations till July 30.

Commencing his bilateral visit from Mozambique, Lanba is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with National Defence Minister AtanAsio Salvador M'tumuke, Chief of General Staff General GraAa TomAs Chongo, besides chiefs of the army, navy and air force of the African nation.

"The visit aims to consolidate bilateral defence relations with Mozambique as well as with Tanzania, as also to explore new avenues for defence cooperation," the Defence Ministry said in a statement here.

During his stay in Mozambique till July 25, Admiral Lanba is scheduled to visit the Instituto Superior De Estudos De Defesa (ISEDEF), where he will interact with its commandant and faculty. He will also lay a wreath at the Hero's Square.

Admiral Lanba will begin his five-day visit to Tanzania on July 26, wherein he is scheduled to hold bilateral discussions with Tanzania President John Magafuli, Minister of Defence and National Service Dr Hussei Mwinyi, Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr Augustine Mahiga, chief of defence forces General Venance S Mabeyo as also the three Tanzanian People's Defence Forces (TPDF) Service Chiefs.

The Admiral will visit the Command and Staff College, Arusha, where he will interact with its commandant and faculty.

Indian armed forces cooperate with the armed forces of Mozambique and Tanzanian on many fronts, including training and hydrography, besides participating in each other's defence events.
Lucknow, July 24 : In a show of solidarity for each other and opposition to the Uttar Pradesh government, the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party, Congress and Rashtriya Lok Dal legislators held a separate 'symbolic' assembly session in the Central Hall here on Monday.

Protesting for the third day against blatant intimidation by Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the legislators paid rich tributes to the late BJP legislator Mathura Prasad Pal, who passed away last week.

The opposition then adjourned the House till July 26.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ram Govind Chowdhary said this decision to hold a separate sitting of the House was their way of protesting against the government.

He said the opposition parties will not participate in the proceedings of the House on Monday as well.

The opposition has named BSP's Lalji Verma as the Speaker. Ajay Kumar Lallu of the Congress was made the leader of the House.

Opposition lawmakers also pointed out that this was not a mock House but a serious way to protest against the arm twisting by the state government, which they alleged, did not believe in democratic values and parliamentary proceedings.

Yogi Adityanath had incensed the opposition last week when in a speech on the floor of the House he not only rebutted the charges of poor law and order under the BJP regime but had also leveled serious charges against the previous government, even accusing it of patronising and protecting criminals, hooch traders.

The Chief Minister had also warned the opposition that if he opened his mouth, they would scurry for cover so it was better that they do not level baseless and unsubstantiated charges.
Canberra, July 24 : The UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) on Monday urged Australia to stop detaining refugees and close down its offshore detention centres in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"Four years on, more than 2,000 people are still languishing in unacceptable circumstances. Families have been separated and many have suffered physical and psychological harm," UNHCR chief Filippo Grandi said in a statement.

According to the statement, around 2,500 refugees and asylum-seekers have been forcibly transferred by Australia for offshore processing of their applications in Papua New Guinea and Nauru since the introduction of the current policy in 2013.

Of these, some 1,100 remain in Nauru and 900 in Papua New Guinea, added the statement.

The statement adds that the Australian government informed the UNHCR it will not accept refugees on its territory and offered the options of either letting them be where they are, or transferring them to Cambodia, with whom it signed an agreement in 2014, or the US, with whom it signed an agreement in 2016, to transfer some of the refugees detained in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

"To avoid prolonging their ordeal, UNHCR has no other choice but to endorse the relocation of all refugees on Papua New Guinea and Nauru to the US, even those with close family members in Australia," the UN High Commissioner said in his statement.

Many of the refugees in these offshore centres have fled strife-torn countries such as Afghanistan, Darfur, Pakistan, Somalia and Syria, and others have escaped discrimination or status as stateless persons such as the Rohingya minorities from Myanmar.
Beijing, July 24 : China on Monday hinted that its top diplomat Yang Jiechi and Indian NSA Ajit Doval may hold a bilateral meeting this week on the sidelines of the BRICS NSA Summit even as it urged New Delhi to give up "illusory thinking" and immediately withdraw its troops that Beijing says have crossed into Chinese territory.

The Foreign Ministry said that while it was not aware of a Yang-Doval meeting but there was a tradition of host countries arranging bilaterals between the head of the delegations at the summit.

Beijing has so far ruled out any talks over the border row until India withdraws troops from Doklam in the Sikkim sector.

"As far as we know, during the previous meetings, the host arranges the head of the delegations to hold bilateral meetings in which they exchange views on bilateral relations, BRICS cooperation and multilateral affairs," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said.

The two-day meeting of BRICS NSAs will begin on July 27.

"The meeting is the main platform to discuss the contact political and security cooperation," Lu said. "Currently the global geo-political factors are complex and intertwined and regional hotspot issues are escalating."

Defence Ministry spokesperson Wu Qian urged India to immediately withdraw its troops, saying this was a prerequisite to resolving the issue. He said China would defend its territorial sovereignty "at all costs".

"India should immediately withdraw its troops to the Indian side of the boundary with China, which is a precondition and basis for resolving the conflict," Wu was quoted as saying by the state-run Global Times daily.

"India should take practical measures to correct its wrongdoing, stop provocation and jointly safeguard peace in the border regions. The Doklam region is part of China's territory. China has every right to build road in its own territory.

"The 90-year history of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) demonstrated its increasing capacities and unshakable determination to safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity. It is easier to shake the mountains than to shake the PLA," Wu said.

Indian and Chinese troops have been engaged in a dragging stand-off in Doklam, which is at a tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China. China calls Doklam its own territory but India and Bhutan say it is Bhutan's.

India stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in Doklam in June, leading to the face-off between New Delhi and Beijing. India has blamed China for trying to change the status of the tri-junction and wants the issue to be resolved diplomatically.
Beijing, July 24 : The sixth BRICS Trade Union Forum opened in Beijing on Monday to discuss the trade union role in sustainable development.

China was hosting for the first time the BRICS Trade Union Forum since it was established in 2012, Xinhua news agency reported.

The two-day meeting will focus on issues, including challenges and opportunities facing the labour world, helping achieve the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and strengthening exchanges and cooperation among the group.

The forum will release a declaration, a joint statement towards the BRICS Labour and Employment Ministerial Meeting, and other documents.

The forum is one of the supporting activities of the Ninth BRICS Summit to be held in the eastern Chinese port city of Xiamen in September.

The five BRICS countries -- Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa -- are home to 42 per cent of the world's population.

Their total share in the global economy has risen from 12 per cent to 23 per cent in the past decade, while contributing more than half of global growth.
New Delhi, July 25 : The Lok Sabha was adjourned till 3 p.m. on Tuesday in the wake of the oath taking ceromony of newly elected President Ram Nath Kovind.

Soon after the House met Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge wanted to raise an issue but Speaker Sumitra Mahajan did not allow him.

Mahajan also rejected Kharge's notice for adjournment of the Question Hour.

The Congress members then started shouting slogans.

Amid the din Mahajan adjourned the House till 3 p.m.

Earlier, the opposition parties led by Congress staged a protest near Mahatma Gandhi's statue against the suspension of six Congress MPs.

Trinamool Congress, the Left parties, Janata Dal-United, Rashtriya Janata Dal and some other opposition parties took part in the protest.

Later talking to reporters Kharge demanded the Speaker revoke suspension of Congress members, saying she took the decision under the government's pressure.

"This never happened during Meira Kumar. She never lost her cool. Speaker shouldn't come under govternment's pressure," Kharge said adding that Mahajan should withdraw her order and allow them in the House.

On Monday, the Speaker suspended six Congress MPs for five consecutive sittings in the House after they tore up papers and threw them in the air and towards the Speaker's podium to protest her decision disallowing a discussion on atrocities against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes.
Kabul, July 25 : After days of fierce fighting Afghan Taliban militants on Tuesday took control of Jani Khil district in Paktia province, the media reported.

An official told Xinhua news agency that security forces retreated after "Taliban entered the centre of the district early today (Tuesday)".

Zabihullah Majahid, a Taliban spokesperson, said the militants took control of police headquarters in Jani Khil.

However, local officials denied this, saying heavy clashes were on between both sides near the district governor's compound.

"We still have a number of check posts in the centre of the district under our control," police chief Toryalai Abedyani said.

General Abdul Wasi Melad, commander of 203 Tander Military Corps in Paktia, said clashes were ongoing between security forces and insurgents over the past three days.

"At least 11 Taliban insurgents have been killed so far in the clashes and a Pakistani national was arrested by the security forces," Melad said.

The Interior Ministry in a statement denied the fall of Jani Khil district and stressed that the "defence forces are in commanding positions".

It noted that reinforcement had been sent to the district.

In the past few days, a number of districts have fallen to the banned militant outfit.

Two days ago, Taliban took control of Kohistan district in Faryab and Taywara district in Ghor province.
Seoul, July 25 : South Korea on Tuesday urged North Korea to refrain from carrying out a new missile test and to make a "wise decision" about it.

"The government will sternly respond to North Korea's provocations. (I hope that) the North will make a wise decision," a spokesperson for the South Korean Unification Ministry said.

The statements came shortly after CNN reported that North Korea could be preparing to launch another missile to mark "Victory Day", as Pyongyang calls the anniversary of the armistice that ended the Korean War, reports Efe news.

The Kim Jong-un regime carried out its last ballistic test on July 4, when it first fired an intercontinental ballistic missile, with the alleged capability of reaching some parts of the US.

North Korea's repeated arms tests have escalated tensions on the Korean peninsula and led to Washington hardening its stance, with the Donald Trump administration even hinting at the possibility of pre-emptive strikes against the hermetic country.

Seoul proposed last week that both countries should hold military talks -- the first in almost three years -- to alleviate the current tensions, an offer to which Pyongyang has not yet officially responded.
Cartagena (Colombia), July 25 : The elusive jaguar, the biggest predator cat in the Americas, needs global protection as the demand for its body parts, especially teeth that can bite through a turtle shell, is spiking in China for medicine and making necklaces, biologists warned on Tuesday.

They called for the global environmental organisations like New York-based conservation group Panthera to intervene to protect the falling jaguar population from northern Argentina to Mexico.

"The demand for the jaguar's teeth and other body parts is not of that intensity like that of rhino horn or an elephant tusks. But its poaching is widespread in the entire Central and South America," biologist Nuno Soares of Conservacion Amazonica told IANS.

He is here to attend the Society for Conservation Biology's (SCB) five-day 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2017) in this walled city of Colombia where more than 2,000 conservation professionals and students are gathered for biodiversity conservation.

Surveys conducted by Conservacion Amazonica show that every second man in Bolivia has hunted a jaguar at least one in his lifetime.

"We interviewed 165 people and half of them have admitted that they have killed a jaguar once in his lifetime," Soares, who is working on jaguar conservation in Bolivia for five years, said.

Another biologist, Kimberly Craighead of the Kaminando habitat connectivity initiative, who is working with the Mamoni Valley Jaguar Project in Panama, said there is need to address the illegal global trade for the jaguar, whose population is declining owing to deforestation, habitat loss and, of course, poaching.

She said it's also critical to restore the survival of jaguars by maintaining connectivity for movement and preventing the isolation of populations by restoring large reproductive corridors, ranging from the southwestern US to Argentina. For this, a multi-nation effort is required.

Citing cases of jaguar poaching in Panama, which supports eight wildcats per 170 sq km, she said between April and June up to three jaguars were poached in the Mamoni Valley.

We have authentic information that one of the hunted jaguars was poached for a wealthy Panamanian. To check such acts, there is a need for international intervention by wildlife agencies," Craighead said.

She added jaguar body parts like claws and teeth have a good market in Asian countries.

Biologists reported a relatively healthy jaguar density of four to six jaguars per 100 sq km in landlocked Bolivia.

Soares said the main reason for rise in man-jaguar conflict in Bolivia, especially the Manuripi National Amazon Wildlife Reserve, is the collection of Brazil nuts by native tribe Tocana from the tropical forests.

The Brazil nut is the second most exported non-traditional product after soybean.

The local tribes normally kill a jaguar when it comes near to human habitats or they have a chance encounter with the animal. Normally the jaguar never attacks humans. In fact, they avoid them," Soares said.

According to him, in the past one and a half years over 800 jaguar canines were seized in Bolivia.

(Vishal Gulati is in Cartagena for the Internews' Earth Journalism Network Biodiversity Fellowship Programme at the International Congress for Conservation Biology. He can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
Gurugram, July 25 : To avenge the murder of their father 23 years ago, two brothers allegedly shot dead a property dealer who was accused in that crime, police said on Tuesday.

Police said the incident occurred near Badshahpur on Sohna Road.

Property dealer Rajkumar, 47, was returning to his house in village Maidapur in a car early on Tuesday from his office on Sohna road.

"Rajkumar was main accused in the murder of Bhram Singh that took place 23 years ago but was acquitted by court," a police officer said.

Bhram Singh was also a property dealer.

According to police, Deepak and Amit, sons of Bhram Singh, along with their three or four accomplices opened indiscriminate fire on Rajkumar's car.

The brothers are aged between 25 and 30 years. No one has been arrested yet.
Paris, July 25 : Firefighters were on Tuesday tackling huge blazes which destroyed 3,000 hectares in France's southeastern districts and Corsica island, the country's Interior Ministry said.

The wildfires, whose cause has not yet been identified, ravaged 1,500 hectares of forest in Var and Vaucluse districts and 1,500 hectares in Corsica, the Ministry was quoted as saying by Xinhua news agency.

About 1,000 firemen had been deployed to battle the flames in addition to 19 aircraft, including 10 Canadair water bombers, it added.

Due to strong winds and dry weather conditions, the French government had asked its European Union partners to send two extra air tankers.

Four firefighters were wounded with one of them suffering serious injuries in relief efforts. Some 15 policemen were also asphyxiated, according to local reports.
Paris, July 26 : Wildfires in southern France have forced the evacuation of 10,000 people overnight, officials said on Wednesday.

Firefighters were deployed on Tuesday to battle the blaze near Bormes-les-Mimoses, in the country's Provence-Alpes-CAte d'Azur region, the BBC reported.

France earlier asked its European Union neighbours for more help fighting the fires.

About 3,000 hectares of land have burned along the Mediterranean coast, in the mountainous interior and on the island of Corsica.
New Delhi, July 26 : After the US withdrawal from the Paris deal, Asia is poised for climate leadership even in the absence of a common pattern of responses on climate politics from different Asian countries, a leading environment expert has said.

Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) CEO Arunabha Ghosh said that Asia - with its two largest populations in China and India with their large carbon footprints - can indeed take climate leadership but it needed to speak for the world not just for itself.

"We don't need an Asian voice; we need many Asian voices to describe many Asian transitions," he said while delivering a lecture here as a part of Changing Asia lecture series organised by the Society for Policy Studies (SPS) along with India Habitat Centre on Tuesday evening.

Ghosh said the US exit from the Paris deal brings a whole new dimension to the politics of climate change.

"Immediately after US President Donald Trump's announcement, commentators across the world jumped to pass the climate leadership mantle on to China, perhaps to convey the message to other countries that all was not lost," he said.

Ghosh said that underlying premise behind this approach was flawed as it presumed that the US was the world's climate leader until May 31.

He said while the US was central to the problem and was needed for a practical solution, it was not the climate leader.

"Second, the argument presumes that China was both ready and willing to become the climate leader. China's response, while aggressive in ambition and action, is still very much a mixed story. The clean goes hand in hand with a lot of dirty," Ghosh said.

Ghosh said the talk of passing of the mantle of climate leadership to China was flawed as there are three different Asias when it comes to climate politics -- China, which stands apart in terms of its economic size and share of emissions; India along with several other South and South East Asian economies which are rapidly growing and still have hundreds of millions in poverty; and the Central and West Asia with limited diversification in their economic structure and limited capabilities to develop the industries of the future.

"So, it would be unrealistic to expect a common pattern of responses from Asia on climate politics," Ghosh said.

He added the "technocratic passing of the baton from one country to another" measures climate leadership in presidential statements and academic charts and not from the perspective of communities impacted or the people suffered.

Ghosh said while China has announced that its coal consumption would rise to more than four billion tonnes by 2020, latest evidence showed that the European Union's emissions increased in 2015.

"It is clear that climate politics will be driven by national interest and climate action will be affected by economic interest."

Ghosh said Asia's role should be to persevere for a different kind of climate politics, a reformulated climate economics and inclusive climate ethics.

"Asia can change the climate game by adding its voice on issues that have largely escaped attention with developed countries dominating the discourse so far."

The morality of climate negotiations have so far rested on historical responsibility and the polluter pays principle.

"From that point of origin came demands for financial support, technology transfers and loss of damage... These are demands and justifiably so. But Asia also needs to propose moral positions," he said.

Ghosh said that Asia's growing share in global economy, its footprint on energy markets and emissions and its institutional leadership put it in a position to articulate a new climate ethics.

"Asia needs to speak for the world, not just for itself."
Beijing, July 26 : China on Wednesday opposed a new round of unilateral sanctions that the US has imposed against North Korea.

Such sanctions were not conducive to mutual trust and cooperation between China and the US, Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said at a press briefing.

"China is always opposed to unilateral sanctions outside the framework of the UNSC and especially opposed to long-arm jurisdiction imposed by other countries on China's enterprises and individuals," Kang said.

The new sanctions could affect companies from third countries, which trade with North Korea, and especially China, the main trading partner of the isolated regime of Kim Jong-un.

Lu added China has always strictly implemented UN resolutions related to North Korea and will investigate suspected violations of sanctions by Chinese enterprises or individuals according to its own domestic law.

The US House of Representatives, with Republican majority, had approved new sanctions against North Korea, Iran and Russia on Tuesday. The House also limited the Donald Trump government's power to lift sanctions, amid the President's intentions to relax US policy towards Russia.

The sanctions come at a time when the international community fears North Korea is preparing for new ballistic missile tests.

"We firmly oppose any words and deeds that may heighten the tension," Lu said.
Cartagena (Colombia), July 26 : Biologists on Wednesday called for reforms in conservation of endangered species as they believe assaults on them under the Trump administration will be particularly extreme. They fear it may extend far more broadly.

They want freedom to communicate their research with the public, like medical professionals are doing.

"To halt the current biodiversity crisis we need evidence-based solutions," James Watson of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science with the University of Queensland in Australia said.

In a study published in the journal Conservation Biology on July 25, co-author Watson said: "Scientific integrity is critical to this and must allow government scientists to communicate their research to the public and media in the same way the medical profession does."

In the study, a transnational team of scientists associated with scientific societies in the US, Canada and Australia has identified eight reforms which are needed to defend the scientific integrity of policy processes related to conservation of endangered species and ecosystems.

"Science is the best method we have for determining what is likely to be true. But truth can be inconvenient: conservation goals sometimes seem at odds with social or economic interests," says lead author Carlos Carroll, an ecologist with the Klamath Center for Conservation Research in Orleans in California.

The release of the paper coincided with the Society for Conservation Biology's five-day 28th International Congress for Conservation Biology (ICCB 2017) that will conclude in this walled city on July 27.

With more than 2,000 conservation professionals and students coming together, the ICCB is a forum for addressing conservation challenges.

The study says recent assaults on science and scientists under the Trump administration are particularly extreme but extend far more broadly.

Rather than causing scientists to shrink from public discussions, these abuses have spurred them and their professional societies to defend scientific integrity.

Among these efforts, says the study, was the recent March for Science -- the largest scientific demonstration in history that took place at over 600 locations globally.

"Public access to websites or other sources of government scientifi c data should not be curtailed," Watson, a former president of the Society for Conservation Biology, said.

"Such limits on accessing taxpayer-funded information undermines the ability of citizens to participate in decisions that affect them or even to know why decisions are being made."

It proposes that scientists share their experiences of defending scientific integrity across borders to achieve more lasting success.

It summarises eight reforms to protect scientific integrity, drawing on lessons learned in Australia, Canada and the US.

As per scientists, scientific integrity simply means the ability to perform, use and disseminate scientific findings without censorship or political interference.

It requires that government scientists can normally communicate their research to the public and media. Such outbound scientific communication is threatened by policies limiting the ability of scientists to publish, publicise, or even mention their research findings.

(Vishal Gulati is in Cartagena for the Internews' Earth Journalism Network Biodiversity Fellowship Programme at the International Congress for Conservation Biology. He can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 26 : The Centre on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that the right to privacy was a fundamental right but not all its facets can be elevated to the status of fundamental rights.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told a nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar "There is a fundamental right to privacy, but it is a wholly qualified right since the right to privacy consists of various aspects and is a sub-species of the right to liberty, every aspect of it will not qualify as a fundamental right."

When the Attorney General insisted that the right to privacy as a fundamental right could not be without restrictions, Chief Justice Khehar said, "This is an undefined right, restrictions are going to be there, when these restrictions are there on defined fundamental rights."

The daylong hearing saw Attorney General Venugopal taking contrary positions on the status of right to privacy - and at one stage telling the bench that a "vague and amorphous right can't be held to be a fundamental right".

"Each one of them (the petitioners) have said that it (right to privacy) was not an absolute right and it can be examined from case to case," Chief Justice told the AG, recalling the arguments advanced by different counsels since the beginning of the hearing, including by senior counsel Kapil Sibal earlier in the day.

Besides Chief Justice Khehar, other judges on the bench are Justices J. Chelameswar, S.A. Bobde, R.K. Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, D.Y. Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S. Abdul Nazeer.

Telling the bench that the right to privacy was not an absolute right, senior counsel Sibal - appearing for West Bengal, Karnataka, Punjab and Puducherry - said that "right to privacy is not absolute, but the infringement of privacy by the State too is limited".

Describing the right to privacy as "an inalienable natural right", Sibal said, "All I want is that there is a right to privacy which is protected by the Constitution and the rest can be decided later."

Referring to different countries where right to privacy was not there in the Constitution, Sibal told the bench that Pakistan has a right to privacy which is a joke. He urged the court "So if you give us a right, it should not become a joke."

The bench was not impressed when Venugopal described the right to privacy as an "elitist" argument which can't be at the expense of social welfare schemes for giving food, shelter and clothing to 270 million people living below the poverty line.

Not accepting the argument that right to privacy was elitist, both Justice Nariman and Justice Chandrachud emphasised that the right to privacy was as much sacrosanct to the poor as it was to the elite. Justice Chandrachud referred to the forced sterilisation of the poor in 1935 in Europe and during the 1975 Emergency in India.

He termed the compulsory sterilisation of 1935 as the "worst social experiment on poor in the world".

Justice Chandrachud said the State can undertake the direct transfer of cash, but the fundamental rights of the people can't be taken away. He said that personal data collected by the State could be used for legitimate purposes only.

"Your argument that the right to privacy applies to the elite alone is wrong, it applies to the poor people as well," the bench told the Attorney General as he emphasised that right to privacy was an elitist chorus.

"Please don't forget the little man's right to privacy and don't make it Aadhaar-centric. Right to privacy is a much wider right," Justice Nariman told the Attorney General as he said that even the World Bank has said that other developing countries should replicate the Aadhaar scheme.

The nine-judge bench is examining the nature of privacy as a right and also the correctness of two judgments of 1954 and in 1962 which had held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

The matter is being heard by the constitution bench in the wake of challenge to the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds of its being violative of the right to privacy.

Petitioners include former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, first Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Magsaysay award recipient Shanta Sinha, feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon and others who have challenged the validity of the Aadhaar scheme on grounds of it being violative of the right to privacy.
New Delhi, July 26 : Union Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on Wednesday said it was for Janata Dal-United leader Nitish Kumar, who resigned as the Bihar Chief Minister, to decide whether he wanted to ally with the BJP to form the new government in the state.

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

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

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

Nitish Kumar on Wednesday said he quit as the Chief Minister in the state's interest after failing to resolve the crisis plaguing the ruling Grand Alliance.
New Delhi, July 26 : The Delhi High Court on Wednesday asked the CBI to file a report within a week on a plea seeking direction for the AIIMS to quash the result of this year's MBBS entrance examination over alleged illegalities and irregularities.

A division bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C. Hari Shankar sought response from the central government, All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on a plea seeking a court-monitored investigation into the alleged irregularities in the test.

The MBBS entrance examination of AIIMS was held on May 28 and the result declared on June 15.

Dr Anand Rai, who claims to be a whistleblower in the Vyapam scam case, approached the high court through advocate Prashant Bhushan, alleging that the question papers of this year's entrance examination were leaked.

The plea also sought direction to present in court the findings of the AIIMS committee which was constituted to enquire into the complaints regarding the conduct of the examination.

Seeking direction for the AIIMS to conduct fresh entrance examination for admission to the MBBS course for this academic session "if the exam is found to be entirely and irreversibly vitiated after investigations", the plea alleged that seats of the institution were sold.

Unfair and unlawful practices were alleged to have taken place during the online Computer-based Test (CBT) at the behest of some people, who were able to gain illegal access to examination centres and take screen shots/ photographs of the questions from the computer screen, said the plea.

The plea said that the petitioner had received the snapshots of question papers from a source who claimed these were leaked from a college in Lucknow when the online test was on.

It added that the questions obtained through such unlawful means were subsequently solved by solvers present outside the examination centres and the answer key was circulated throughout India to the beneficiary candidates during the examination.

The court posted the matter for next hearing on August 16.
New Delhi, July 26 : The Congress party on Wednesday voiced "deep disappointment" at the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister and said it will try to sort out differences of opinion between partners of the Grand Alliance to see that the five-year assembly victory mandate is respected.

"We are deeply disappointed by the news of resignation of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. We in the Indian National Congress, particularly, Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice President Rahul Gandhi have great respect for Nitish Kumar as a political leader," said Congress spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala.

"Mahagathbandhan (alliance) was given a five-year mandate by people of Bihar based on its policies, principles and the cumulative leadership that we presented," he added.

Surjewala said the 2015 victory "was also a mandate against BJP and leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tried to weigh the respect, regard of Biharis in the manner that he chose to do by way of public auction of and distribution of money".

"People of Bihar gave respect and regard to Mahagathbandhan based on our policies, principles and leadership," he said.

"We shall continue to strive that the mandate given by people of Bihar for a period of five years is fully respected. Any differences of opinion that may have cropped up we will try and sort them out by speaking to each other in an amicable and cordial fashion."

Earlier, Nitish Kumar quit on Wednesday as Chief Minister claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption allegations against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav but didn't rule out a tie-up with the BJP for running a future government.
New Delhi, July 26 : Nitish Kumar's resignation as Bihar Chief Minister on Wednesday has come as a big setback for the opposition which was seeking to join hands against the Narendra Modi government on a range of issues ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Nitish Kumar had worked to stitch up a Grand Alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal and Congress in Bihar in 2015 that delivered a crushing blow to the BJP in the Assembly polls.

Following the outcome in Bihar, a similar alliance where opposition parties join hands in a multi-cornered contest, was seen as a model that could be replicated in other states to defeat the BJP.

In Uttar Pradesh, where the BJP scored a resounding victory in the Assembly polls earlier this year, there was talk in political circles that the Samajwadi Party, Bahujan Samaj Party and Congress should have joined hands to form a Bihar-like alliance.

Earlier this month, 18 opposition parties, including the JD-U, had met to pick Gopalkrishna Gandhi as their vice-presidential candidate and had discussed the alleged victimisation of political opponents by the BJP-led central government and suicides by farmers.

The 18 parties, that also included the Samajwadi Party and BSP, had also agreed on greater coordination inside and outside Parliament. They had agreed to meet once a month to coordinate their strategy against the Modi government.

Nitish Kumar was also seen as a possible face to take on Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. He had severed ties with the BJP and resigned after it announced Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar had earlier also displayed his streak to take decisions independent of views of his Bihar allies. He had broken ranks with them to support the demonetisation move of the Modi government and had also supported NDA nominee Ram Nath Kovind, a former Bihar Governor, in the presidential election.

Nitish Kumar's coming out of the Grand Alliance has significant consequences for the Congress. The party suffered a string of electoral reverses after the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and being part of winning alliance in Bihar had brought it cheer.

Since the Bihar outcome, Punjab is the only major state won by the Congress.
Washington, July 27 : The US is becoming an increasingly Muslim-unfriendly country, a survey released by the Pew Research Center revealed on Wednesday.

The study showed that nearly three-quarters of Muslims interviewed agreed that there was "a lot of discrimination against Muslims in the US," and nearly two-thirds of them said they were unsatisfied about where the nation has been headed, Xinhua reported.

Muslim opinion has undergone a stark reversal since 2011, when Barack Obama was president, at which point most Muslims thought the country was headed in the right direction, said the survey.

About 48 per cent of respondents admitted that they have experienced at least one incident of discrimination in the past 12 months, which was up from 40 per cent in 2007.

About one-in-five Muslims in the US have seen anti-Muslim graffiti in their local community in the past year.

The survey pointed out that Muslims were "leery of Trump" and thought their fellow Americans did not see Islam as part of mainstream US society.

Meanwhile, Muslim Americans remained persistently optimistic and positive. About 89 per cent of the respondents expressed pride in their Muslimness and Americanness.

It is estimated that there are roughly 3.35 million Muslims living in the country.
Dubai, July 27 : The Executive Council of Dubai and China's Huawei Consumer Business Group sealed on Wednesday a partnership that will see "Dubai Font" as a standard pre-loaded font in the mobile operating system (OS) from the Chinese giant.

The signing was attended by Ahmad bin Amer Al Mahri, Assistant Secretary General of Dubai's Executive Council and Jiao Jian, President of Huawei Consumer Business Group for Middle East and Africa, Xinhua reported.

The Dubai font will be available in the upcoming Huawei flagship smartphone launched first in the Middle East and Africa later this year and then in the rest of the world by next year, Jiao was quoted as saying.

The Dubai government and US software giant Microsoft launched the Dubai font on April 30, 2017.

It reflects "the style of Dubai as an open city and is available in 23 languages on MS word applications and social media channels like Twitter and Instagram, among German, English, French, Arabic, Urdu, but not yet in Mandarin," Al Mahri was quoted as saying.

"We are working on Mandarin and we hope to announce its inclusion very soon to the Dubai Font family," he added.

Huawei's Jiao said the Shenzhen-based ICT giant's "brand value is also recognised by multiple authoritative global agencies."

According to the Fortune 500 ranking published on July 20, Huawei ascended to the 83rd from the 129th of last year, with revenue of $78.51 billion, making the top global 100.
Kohima, July 27 : Nagaland Chief Minister T.R. Zeliang has allotted portfolios to the newly-inducted ministers, while keeping a few including finance, personnel and administrative reforms with himself.

Zeliang distributed the portfolios late Wednesday.

Yanthungo Patton, G. Kaito Aye, Kipili Sangtam retained Home, National Highway and Political Affairs and Power which they held in the dismissed Shurhozelie Liezietsu government.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) legislators -- Mmhonlumo Kikon and Imtilemba Sangtam -- were allotted Geology and Mining, Border Affairs and Cooperation, Relief and Rehabilitation and MARCOFED respectively.

Senior Naga People's Front legislator E.E. Pangteang was given Rural Development, while Neikiesalie Nicky Kire got Roads and Bridges.

Kejong Chang was allotted Horticulture, Do-Bhasi and Gaon Bura Affairs, while Neiba Kronu was given the task to look after Environment, Forest and Climate Change.

Imkong L. Imchen was allotted Health and Family Welfare and Tokheho Yepthomi would be looking after School Education and Parliamentary Affairs.

Apart from the two legislators almost all the ministers were either expelled or suspended by the Naga People's Front (NPF) for violating the party's constitution.

The NPF had expelled 19 and suspended 10 of its legislators.

Patton, Sangtam, Aye, Imchen and Yepthomi, who were among those expelled, and suspended legislators Kronu and Kire, Chang were sworn in as cabinet ministers.

Pangteang, who is a senior NPF leader, was the only one who did not face any action.

Zeliang was expelled from the NPF for six years after taking oath as Chief Minister on Wednesday, hours after the governor dismissed Liezietsu for failing to prove majority in the assembly.

Zeliang won the floor test on July 21, getting the support of 36 NPF, four BJP and seven Independent members in the 60-member assembly, where one seat is vacant.

Ten NPF and one Independent members voted against him. Liezietsu was not present in the assembly as he is not a member.
San Francisco, July 27 : A day after President Donald Trump announced that Apple would build 'big' plants in the US, Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn has said it will invest $10 billion in an LCD manufacturing plant in the country, creating 13,000 new jobs.

Foxconn CEO Terry Gou announced the plans on Wednesday during a presser at the White House where Trump and US Vice President Mike Pence were also present, Apple Insider reported.

The Taiwanese manufacturer makes electronics for Apple and other tech companies. The production slated will go to subsidiary Sharp.

The new 20,000-square-foot facility in Wisconsin is slated for completion by 2020.

Trump has been talking about bringing manufacturing jobs back to the US since the day he became President.

"One thing we know about this president is how committed he is to reviving American manufacturing and bringing jobs home. This right here shows actual results," the report quoted White House Speaker Paul Ryan as saying.

On Tuesday, Trump said that Apple CEO Tim Cook had plans to build three big manufacturing plants in the US that would create job opportunities for the American citizens.

Though there was no comment from Apple CEO, but Trump said he had talked to Cook and he was going forward with it.

"I said you know, Tim, unless you start building your plants in this country, I won't consider my administration an economic success. He called me, and he said they are going forward," Trump was quoted as saying.

Now with Foxconn's announcement, it is unclear if Trump was referring to this production facility.

"Foxconn, Apple's main manufacturing partner, in April said it was considering a number of US investments. Gou later clarified that his company was investigating the buildout of potential manufacturing plants in few US states," the report noted.

According to reports, Wisconsin is offering a taxpayer-backed incentives package worth as much as $3 billion to woo Foxconn.
Hyderabad, July 27 : The Special Investigation Team (SIT) of Telangana's Excise Department probing the Hyderabad drug racket on Thursday grilled actress Mumaith Khan on Thursday.

A four-member team of officials including three women began questioning the actress at Abkari Bhavan, the office of Prohibition and Excise Department, around 10 a.m. and it was completed by 5 p.m.

Actor Ravi Teja will appear before SIT on Friday.

Mumaith, who looked cool and calm at the time of reaching and leaving the SIT office, was quizzed on whether she takes drugs and whether she has any links with Calvin Mascrenhas, the alleged kingpin of the racket.

She reached Hyderabad from Mumbai after she got permission to leave "Big Boss" for one day. According to the rules of the television reality show, no participant is allowed to leave the house till he or she is eliminated from the contest.

Known for her item numbers, she is the eighth Tollywood celebrity to be questioned by SIT. She is considered close to director Puri Jagannadh, who was already quizzed in the case.

Mumaith reportedly volunteered to give samples of body fluid, hair and nails but SIT officials said the same was not required.

The investigating officers had on Wednesday grilled actress Charmme Kaur for over six hours. SIT said she refused to give her consent for drawing the samples of body fluid, hair and nails and thus the same were not collected.

The two actresses are among 12 personalities from Tollywood summoned by the SIT for questioning in the drug racket which was busted here in July.

The SIT has so far questioned eight celebrities including Mumaith, Charmme, actors Tarun and Navdeep and director Puri Jagannadh.

They were summoned after the SIT found their contact details in the call data of Mascrenhas.

The SIT has arrested 20 accused in the racket, which created a sensation following startling revelation that the peddlers sold drugs to students of several colleges and schools in Hyderabad, Tollywood celebrities and techies.

The case took a new turn on Wednesday as SIT arrested a Dutch national in the case.

Mike Kamminga's arrest was being considered a major breakthrough as he was reportedly supplying the drugs to peddlers from Europe.

SIT said it searches/raids were continuing in different places in the city. It questioned two others persons, identified as Saad Nazir and Mubeen, in the case.

SIT also denied reports in a section of media about alleged misbehaviour of a constable with Charmme when she arrived at SIT office for questioning on Wednesday. It clarified that Charmme did not lodge any complaint against any Prohibition and Excise personnel.
Beijing, July 27 : One person was killed and 31 others were injured after a gas leak in a chemical factory in China's Xinjiang Uygur region, local authorities said on Thursday.

The high-temperature gas leaked while workers were conducting pipeline maintenance at the Xinjiang Yihua chemical industry company in Changji Hui prefecture at around 7 p.m. on Wednesday, reports Xinhua news agency.

Among the workers hospitalised, 18 were seriously injured, the authorities said.
Patna, July 27 : Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, within hours of dumping the Grand Alliance.

This is the JD-U President's second innings in the last two years. He snapped ties late on Wednesday with Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

The Raj Bhavan here echoed with chants of "Nitish Kumar Zindabad" as Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered the oath to Nitish Kumar.

BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister. The BJP offered support to Nitish Kumar after he resigned as Chief Minister on Wednesday.

Nitish Kumar took the oath in Hindi.

This is the JD-U's second innings with the BJP in the state. Nitish Kumar had in 2013 ended his party's association with the BJP after the party projected Narendra Modi as its prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 general election.
Kabul, July 27 : At least 45 Taliban militants were killed as Afghan security forces repelled an attack in Nuristan province, the Defence Ministry said on Thursday.

"Hundreds of Taliban insurgents attacked Want Waygal district on Wednesday night. They were met with fierce resistance from security forces," the ministry said, adding that 50 militants were also injured.

However, the ministry did not reveal if there were any casualties among security personnel.
Panaji, July 27 : There are no illegal mines operating in Goa, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the state legislative assembly on Thursday.

Parrikar said this in a written reply to a question tabled by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar, adding that there are 48 operational mines in the state.

The Supreme Court in 2012 had banned the 90 odd mining companies operational at the time, after a Rs 35,000 crore illegal mining scam was exposed by a Judicial Commission headed by Justice M.B. Shah.

No major mining industry player has been arrested yet despite the Commission indictment of most mining companies operational then, as well as top bureaucrats and politicians in Goa's largest scam ever.
Washington, July 27 : A US expert has said that the ongoing border dispute between the Indian and Chinese troops at Dokhlam in the Sikkim sector could lead to a war.

"Yes I do, and I don't say that lightly," Jeff M. Smith, a scholar at the American Foreign Policy Council, told the New York Times when he was asked whether he thought the India-China stand-off could spiral into war.

"Both sides have taken hardline positions that make it difficult to back down. The messaging is eerily similar," Smith said, referring to the countries' 1962 war that was also over border disputes.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance for all three.

The border row between the two countries was triggered in June when the Indian Army stopped a road construction by Chinese troops in Doklam.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own territory. New Delhi has said that troops from both sides should withdraw for a dialogue as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops.
Patna, July 27 : After taking over as Chief Minister again, Nitish Kumar on Thursday thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his greetings and said he has faith that with the central government's assistance development would gain pace in Bihar.

"Thankful to Prime Minister for his greetings. No compromise will be done on corruption. I have faith that with Centre's assistance development would get pace," the JD-U chief said in a tweet.

The Janata Dal-United President's remarks came after Prime Minister Modi greeted him shortly after he took oath with the BJP as an alliance partner in the state.

In a tweet, Modi said he was looking forward to working together with Nitish Kumar for Bihar's progress.
Pune, July 27 : Public sector banks in Maharashtra have finally started disbursing the emergency aid of Rs 10,000 - promised by the state government on June 11 - for the eligible nine million farmers, a top official said on Thursday.

"The work has begun in full swing after a meeting of the Bankers Committee last week. Till now, around 7,000 farmers have been given Rs 10,000. We are confident that by next week the work will be completed," the Pune-based Maharashtra Cooperation Commissioner Vijay Zade told IANS.

The development came after the issue was first highlighted by IANS (July 22) on the massive delays in disbursing the Rs 10,000 immediate aid as part of the comprehensive farm loans waiver scheme announced on June 11 by the state government.

According to the latest official figures, a total of 6,990 farmers have been disbursed Rs 6,74,99,000 from district cooperative banks, rural banks and nationalized banks.

"The ball has been set rolling after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis summoned a meeting of all banks at the State Level Bankers Committee (SLBC) on July 21. Upset over the delays he ordered all banks to take immediate measures to clear the Rs 10,000 immediate aid," Vasantrao Naik Sheti Swavalambi Mission Chairman Kishore Tiwari told IANS from Nagpur.

Zade said some banks did not implement the directives earlier as they did not receive the SLBC and the respective individual banks' clearance on time though the state government had already provided its guarantee to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).

After the matter became an embarrassment for the government, the banks have finally fallen in line and started the disbursal to the farmers.

Till date, distressed farmers in 30 districts, excluding a few like Nandurbar, Dhule, Jalgaon, Mumbai and Mumbai suburban, have started getting the promised aid announced on June 11.

The government had issued its order on June 14 asking the eligible farmers to collect this amount the next day (June 15) but the banks did not entertain them.

Strangely, despite the government orders of June 14, it managed to provide the bank guarantee only after three weeks - on July 4 - but the disbursal process began only after another 20 days, Tiwari pointed out.

Earlier, of the nine million eligible farmers, a paltry 3,200 had been given as immediate aid, mostly by the Vidarbha-Konkan Gramin Bank, Maharashtra Gramin Bank and District Central Cooperative Banks.

"However, the insensitive banks and bureaucrats had made a joke of even the small amount of Rs 10,000. Owing to their negative temperament, the farmers' suicides continue unabated," Tiwari added.
Bangkok, July 27 : Thailand's military junta on Thursday approved freezing of former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's bank accounts over her alleged responsibility for the loss of a government subsidy plan, for which she has been undergoing a trial.

The step was taken after the Ministry of Finance asked Yingluck to pay a fine of 35.7 billion baht ($1 billion) to compensate for alleged losses incurred through her government's rice subsidy scheme, reports Efe news.

The action was also taken before Yingluck concluded her defence on Tuesday in her trial for her alleged negligence in supervising the subsidy scheme.

The junta head and incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha acknowledged that the accounts were frozen, but he disassociated it from the judicial process.

Prayuth, who led the coup d'etat that deposed the government headed by Yingluck in 2014, said the former leader must respond to the losses despite the fact that the judicial process has not yet found her guilty.

Prayuth admitted to freezing the accounts a day after he said they were just preparing the measure in the event of Yingluck's conviction in the sentence to be pronounced on August 25.

The former Prime Minister refuted his claim on Wednesday night by tweeting that her money had already been confiscated.

Yingluck was ousted after a controversial ruling of the Constitutional Court accused her of abuse of power for influencing the release of a high-ranking official just days before the coup.

In January, the National Assembly banned Yingluck retroactively from politics for five years over the same charge of mismanaging the rice scheme.

Yingluck was voted into power in 2011 with an absolute parliamentary majority as she led the Puea Thai Party, created by her brother Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a previous coup in 2006 and who has been in self-exile in Dubai since 2008, avoiding a two-year jail sentence for abuse of power.
Bhubaneswar, July 27 : The Odisha government on Thursday issued a gazette notification renaming Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district as Abdul Kalam Island to mark the second death anniversary of the former President.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had died on July 27 in 2015 while delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya.

"With the view to paying a humble tribute to the former President of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the state government on obtaining no objection certificate from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, do hereby rename the 'Outer Wheeler' as APJ Abdul Kalam Island," read the notification.

Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that the island will be renamed after the Missile Man, who had worked as a scientist at the Integrated Test Range, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Balasore.

Meanwhile, sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created five sand sculpture of Kalam at Puri beach with the messages "Tribute to common man, Missile Man, Bharat Ratna, People's President, Students' Icon".

The artist has created five faces of Kalam with five messages using six tonnes of sand.

"It was a great honour for me when Kalam gave me a cheque of Rs 3,000 from his personal account. It was today that we lost the nation's Missile Man, People's President with a simple heart and beautiful mind and soul who was an inspiration to the nation's youth," he said.
New Delhi, July 27 : BJP MP Sanwar Lal Jat, who has been in a coma after a cardiac arrest last Saturday, was shifted to AIIMS on Thursday, his staff confirmed.

The parliamentarian, who was also a Union minister earlier, was being treated at the Jaipur-based SMS Hospital and was brought to Delhi by an air ambulance.

"Saansad (parliamentarian) ji was admitted to AIIMS around 3:30 p.m. today. The decision was taken after he was referred to the premiere hospital," the staff told IANS.

According to the staff, Jat is in the ICU of the hospital where his condition was being monitored.

Several party leaders like Nihal Chand Meghwal, apart from Congress party's C.P. Joshi, visited Jat at AIIMS.
Dubai, July 27 : Former Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has said he considered using nuclear weapons against India after a terror attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 dramatically peaked India-Pakistan tensions.

But he decided against it out of fear of Indian retaliation, a Japanese newspaper said.

In an interview to the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Musharraf said that when tensions were high after the December 2001 attack which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani terrorists, there was a "danger when (the) nuclear threshold could have been crossed".

Musharraf recalled that he had many sleepless nights, asking himself whether he would or could deploy nuclear weapons against India, the daily said.

Then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had ordered a major troops mobilization along the Pakistan border after the terror attack and threatened a decisive conflict.

At that time, Musharraf had publicly said he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons. His testimony pointed to the fact that it had indeed been a realistic option, not just a diplomatic feint, the newspaper said.

Musharraf also said that at the time neither India nor Pakistan had nuclear warheads on their missiles. So it would have taken one to two days to make them launch-ready.

Asked whether he had ordered that missiles be equipped with nuclear warheads and put into firing position, he said: "We didn't do that and we don't think India also did that, thank God."

Subsequently, tensions subsided between the two countries.

Musharraf came to head the Pakistan Army in 1998. He staged a coup in October 1999, ousting then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and was President from 2001 to 2008. Musharraf now lives in Dubai.
New Delhi, July 27 : After working on Hollywood animated projects like "Trolls", "Kung Fu Panda 3" and "The Boss Baby", Sakshi Verma, Senior Technical Director at DreamWorks Animation, says she feels a "deep sense of gratification" when she thinks about her journey from India to the West.

She has also worked on "Megamind", "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted" and "Penguins of Madagascar".

"I have spent most of my career as a technical director and worked on six blockbuster films in multiple departments. I started off as a Junior Technical Director in the modelling department for 'Megamind'," Verma told IANS over phone from Glendale, in Los Angeles County.

She added: "After that, I moved to surfacing department which is responsible for texturing and painting of three-dimensional models and other things like grooming fur/hair on characters. My role as a Technical Director was to develop tools and processes to streamline department workflows...."

Verma has also worked in lighting and compositing department as a Senior Technical Director.

She says "reflecting back on these experiences, I get a deep sense of gratification, having worked on these amazing films".

Verma started out with love for "computer science and mathematics" back in school.

"I followed my passion and pursued an undergraduate degree in Computer Science at BITS Pilani. At BITS, I did courses and projects in Computer Graphics, that sparked off my interest in the field of animation," added Verma, who was born and brought up in Faridabad.
Cartagena (Colombia), July 27 : Illegal exploitation and trade of wildlife is a globally recognised problem and the solution to check its menace lies in science, wildlife experts have said.

"If we are going to fight organised crime, we have to be organised in our response too," Latin America Wildlife Trafficking Coordinator for the Wildlife Conservation Society Adrian Reuter said.

Science could help measure the scope, scale and impact of illegal wildlife trade, map illicit networks and assess the effect or impact of social marketing and other interventions designed to reduce demand, he added.

Over 40 scientists working on illegal wildlife crime in Southeast Asia, Africa, Latin and North America convened on the sidelines of the International Congress for Conservation Biology in this Colombian town to discuss how to better leverage science to combat illegal wildlife trade, both within countries and across international borders.

Scientists from universities, conservation NGOs, international organisations and national governments began to identify new opportunities to bring the full spectrum of scientific knowledge to bear on the problem.

Reuter said most of the beautiful and colourful birds from the South America, like the macaws, are heading to the Asian countries.

"Most of the trafficked birds are made physically disabled before trafficking. Ninety-nine per cent of the parrots are smuggled as chicks. In most of the case the smuggled birds remained disabled throughout their life and the rescued birds can't be reintroduced into nature," Reuter told IANS.

Meredith Gore, Associate Professor at the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at Michigan State University, said the scope and scale of illegal wildlife trafficking today is unprecedented.

According to Gore, illegal wildlife trafficking is a crime that can converge with other serious crimes such as drug trafficking.

Globally, illegal wildlife trade is often framed as a security issue that converges with other serious and often transnational crimes such as those relating to drugs, guns and human trafficking.

Countries like the US, Peru China, Mozambique and Britain have passed or bolstered existing legislation designed to enhance efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade and reduce risks to security.

"It is nice to see the scientific interest of the society on this issue," said Alex Diment, Senior Technical Advisor on Myanmar, with the Wildlife Conservation Society.

"Tackling the illegal wildlife trade will require a deep understand ing of human behavior, both of the poachers that engage in the supply side of the trade, and the consumers that drive the demand for wildlife products," said Diogo Verissimo, David H. Smith, Conservation Fellow at Johns Hopkins University.

Most of the trafficked wildlife is heading to China and Vietnam where the market in traditional medicine is huge.

Hebert Cheung of the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science with the University of Queensland said there is a big demand for the body parts of the African rhinoceros in China and Vietnam.

He said in Vietnam the demand of a horn of rhino is quite varied. It's used for health tonics, and making decorations and artifacts, besides its use in traditional medicine.

"There should be efforts to tackle the illegal trade of the rhino horns in the demand and the supply countries," Cheung told IANS.

As per estimates, over 1,300 African rhinoceros -- black and white -- are poached every year.

And, the scientific interest is strong.

Criminologists, computer scientists, geographers and social marketers voiced a willingness to share data, collaborate on problem solving, and use new methods for communicating science with decision makers, the experts said.

They said reductions in biodiversity from illegal wildlife trade could have other substantial negative human health impacts, including the loss of potential sources of pharmaceuticals, experimental models for studying disease, crop pollination, and micronutrients for humans lacking alternative sources of protein.

(Vishal Gulati is in Cartagena for the Internews' Earth Journalism Network Biodiversity Fellowship Programme at the International Congress for Conservation Biology. He can be reached at vishal.g@ians.in)
New Delhi, July 27 : With Iraq assuring all cooperation in tracing the 39 missing Indians, Minister of State for External Affairs V.K. Singh is to travel to Badush near Mosul, which was freed from Islamic State control earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

During a meeting with Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari here, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reiterated India's request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraq's continued assistance in this regard.

"The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed the External Affairs Minister of the efforts being undertaken," the statement said. Sushma Swaraj requested the Iraqi Minister to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush.

The development comes as Sushma Swaraj on Thursday told Parliament that she would not declare the 39 Indians as dead till she has concrete evidence to that effect.

"I repeat, I will not declare them (the missing Indians) dead until we have concrete evidence to that effect," she told Rajya Sabha.

The Minister said that she "never said in Parliament or outside that they are alive, as being claimed by some Congress MPs".

She said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact.

The Minister said that all the information was culled from different sources and there was no evidence to support any of the claims.

Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the Minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians.

V.K. Singh had visited Iraq earlier this month after Iraqi forces aided by an international coalition liberated Mosul on July 9 after 266 days of fierce battles, ending three years of IS rule.

Singh first went to Erbil and then on July 12 visited the Kurdih Pershmerga frontline in Mosul area to seek information about the missing Indians.

At his weekly media briefing here on Thursday, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said that Singh's visit to Badush will be useful only when there is more information.

Sushma Swaraj also congratulated al-Jaafari over the liberation of Mosul.

She also thanked Iraq "for contributing significantly to India's energy security, being the second-largest supplier of crude oil to us".

On his part, al-Jaafari appreciated India's steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) programme.

"He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment," the statement said.

The Iraqi Foreign Minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Sushma Swaraj welcomed.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 27 : The CPI(M)-led LDF government has decided to hand over the possession rights of the Kovalam palace and the adjoining land measuring 4.13 hectares to the Ravi Pillai (R P) group.

The decision was taken at the cabinet meeting held earlier on Thursday.

However, taking into account the suggestions of the CPI and the revenue department, the government will retain ownership rights over the estate and the adjacent land.

The state government has been involved in a protracted legal tangle with the Ravi Pillai (RP) group, a private hotel group, over ownership of the Kovalam palace and the adjacent land.

In line with the view taken by the attorney general and the law department, the advocate general had in June this year advised the CPI(M)-led state government to hand over the palace and the adjoining land to the private group.

However, the revenue department opposed the move and asked the chief minister to hand over only the possession rights to the private group and reserve the right to file a civil suit for ownership of the palace and the adjacent land.

The BJP government under A B Vajpayee at the centre had handed over the palace to the RP group in 2002 as part of a disinvestment drive.

However, the Congress-led state government took over the palace bowing to public pressure in 2004.

The Kovalam palace has been mired in a legal tussle between the state government and the RP group since then.

Meanwhile, Marxist veteran and administrative reforms commission chairperson V S Achuthanandan came out against the government move, terming it unfortunate.

Not putting much stock in the government decision to retain ownership of the palace, he warned that even though the government retained ownership rights to the palace for the time being, the palace would end up in the hands of the private group in due course of time.

Pointing out that the government move would affect its chances in the civil litigation for ownership of the palace with the private party, Achuthanandan stated that he would consider moving court to retain ownership of the palace under public ownership.
Jerusalem, July 27 : Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Thursday urged a halt to ongoing protests at Esplanade of the Mosques in Jerusalem's Old City following a decision by Israel to remove metal detectors and other extraordinary security installations from the holy site.

The Mufti of Jerusalem, Mohamed Hussein, told the media that things were back to the way they were before, so Muslims could pray again in Al-Aqsa.

Muslim religious leaders held a meeting early in the day, following Israel's dismantling of metal structures, fences and safety rails, and decided to end the protest. They called the faithful to pray in Al-Aqsa in the afternoon, after 11 days of urging worshippers to pray outside in protest, Efe news reported.

Abbas called on worshippers in a televised live address from Ramallah to resume their prayers in Al-Aqsa after talking to the mufti and being informed that the technical committee in charge of assessing the situation concluded that the devices had been withdrawn.

Israel increased security in the zone following an attack on July 14, in which two Israeli policemen and three Palestinian assailants died, leading to the installation of metal detectors, cameras and metal barriers.

Since then, thousands of Muslim Palestinians prayed in the neighbourhoods around the sacred Al-Aqsa complex in protests that on several occasions turned violent and in which four Palestinians were killed and more than 500 were injured.

Last Friday, a Palestinian stabbed three members of an Israeli family in the Jewish settlement of Halamish in the northern West Bank and said he had done so "in defence of Al-Aqsa".
New Delhi, July 27 : While Arundhati Roys comeback novel has once again made the cut for the just announced Man Booker Prize longlist, the other books that are running for the 50,000 pound award make it one of the most diverse lists in the race for a literary award in the recent years.

Roy's comeback novel "The Ministry of Utmost Happiness" is the most celebrated book in the list, which also comprises several other literary heavyweights as well as three debutant writers. For the judges, Roy's is "a rich and vital book," but a close look at the longlist reveals that the other contenders for the much coveted prize are on an equal footing.

The judges, according to a Youtube video released by the Prize committee, went through over 150 books in a "relatively short span of time" and were thoroughly impressed by so many unusual and beautiful novels. For author Sarah Hall, a member of the judging panel, it's been "a thrill to sit down and discover them". Another member of the panel, Lila Azam Zanganeh, felt that the longlist clearly reflects the "state of fiction today".

Arundhati Roy's entry into the longlist, despite her rich credentials and having been a past winner, does not yet guarantee the final victory primarily because the judging panel has overlooked new novels by former Booker winners Salman Rushdie and Roddy Doyle. The reason? All other books which have made the cut deserve the place.

Consider "Exit West" by Mohsin Hamid, for instance. The book poignantly transports the readers to a world or time in the future where migration is peaceful and where people are open to accepting others. Between the lines, the author reminds us that ultimately we have more in common with "others" than the sum total of our differences. Marked by careful symbolisms and imageries, the novel stands to serve the purpose of fiction.

Similarly, Paul Auster's "4321," which is an exploration of one man's four simultaneous lives has been deemed "magisterial" by the judges and is one of the most promising contenders in the list. There is also George Saunders, a noted short-story writer whose first novel "Lincoln in the Bardo" is based on Abraham Lincoln's visits to the graveyard where his 11-year-old son has been laid to rest. An instant choice by readers of fiction, this book attracted much critical media acclaim in the US.

One should also not ignore "The Underground Railroad" by Colson Whitehead. Based on the troublesome life of a female slave who is trying to escape from a Georgia cotton plantation, the offering has already bagged the Pulitzer and the National Book Award for fiction in the US. "Autumn" by Ali Smith has been described by the judging panel as "humane, zany, delightful, optimistic" while "Swing Time" by Zadie Smith is the classic story of the friendship and rivalry between two London girls who meet at a dance class.

Also in the race for the prize this year are four UK and four US authors; there are two from Ireland, two UK-Pakistanis. Of the 13 shortlisted entries, the ratio is seven men to six women. Three novels which have made it to the list are from independent publishers while three others are by first-time writers.

Even as Arundhati Roy is the most celebrated name in the longlist, the Man Booker has often surprised readers across the globe with its verdict. For now, the race seems too close to call until the winner is announced on October 17.

(Saket Suman can be contacted at saket.s@ians.in)
Moscow, July 27 : Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed into law a protocol to an agreement with Syria to deploy a Russian Air Force group at a Syrian military base.

The protocol was signed into law on Wednesday and ratifies the agreement signed by Russia and Syria which allows the Russian air group to use Syria's Hmeymim airbase free of charge for 49 years with possible extension for another 25-year period, Xinhua news agency reported.

The document was posted on the Russian government's legal information portal.

The protocol to the 2015 Russian-Syrian agreement "aimed at establishing the international legal framework governing the conditions for the location of the Russian air force group" was signed in Damascus on January 18, 2017.

Prior to being signed into law by Putin, the protocol was ratified by both chambers of the Russian Parliament.

The Russian air group was deployed at Hmeymim from the end of September 2015 to help Syria fight the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Paris, July 27 : French lawmakers on Thursday approved a law aimed at preventing elected officials from recruiting their family members as part of President Emmanuel Macron's "moralisation law" after many fake job scandals tainted politics in recent months.

Unanimously, lawmakers backed Article 4 of the bill which bans members of Parliament, local representatives and senior civil servants from employing members of their family, Xinhua news agency reported.

Shortly after he took office in May, Macron pledged to clean up politics via new anti-graft legislation with which he seeks to impose new ethics in public life after scandals tainted France's 2017 presidency campaign.
Amta (Howrah), July 27 : West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday held the central government and the Damodar Valley Corporation (DVC) responsible for the "man-made" floods in southern West Bengal districts.

"This is a man-made flood. This will go on till September. We will monitor the situation closely till first or second week of October. It has rained more this year and, on top of that, water is being released by DVC without informing us," Banerjee told media persons here during an inspection of the inundated areas in Hooghly and Howrah.

Banerjee also interacted with local residents and told them about the cause of flood there.

"What you see here is not due to rains. Over two lakh cusecs of water has been released by DVC. That water will reach the area by midnight. I can only apologise. Unless the DVC is reformed, the problem will persist," she said.

Banerjee on Wednesday demanded that the central government immediately "revamp" the DVC.

She said the central government should start dredging at places like Farraka barrage and ports of Kolkata and Haldia to stop this flooding every year.

The DVC, however, said that it had "no role" in releasing the water as the decision was made by the Damodar Valley Reservoir Regulation Committee (DVRRC), which has central government as well as state government representatives.

"The regulatory authority is more dangerous. They don't consider the plight of the public. They don't understand. We alert the public on our own that DVC is releasing water. My throat has become sore requesting the Centre," she said.

Banerjee also announced that the state government was going to take up a Rs 1,800 crore World Bank project for reforming the lower Damodar basin area.

"The project is being finalised and it will take some time. But if DVC continues to release water like this, then it will be difficult to manage. The Centre is spending so much on publicity... it can also take up the issue of reforming DVC," she said.

State Irrigation Minister Rajib Banerjee said rivers in at least six districts had breached their banks.

"Birbhum, West Midnapore, Hooghly, Murshidabad, Bankura and Howrah are the worst affected districts. Some small rivers in Murshidabad and other districts have burst their banks. Many blocks in Hooghly are under water," Rajib Banerjee said.
Tokyo, July 27 : Renho Murata, leader of Japan's main opposition Democratic Party (DP), resigned on Thursday over her party's poor performance in Tokyo's municipal elections.

At a press conference in Tokyo, Murata, 49, accepted responsibility for her party's performance in the elections. Murata said she will step down to make way for new leadership as her party had managed to get only five out of the 127 seats in the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly elections, Efe news reported.

Murata, an ex-model and journalist, had failed to recover DP's credibility after its loss in the 2012 elections.

In September 2016, Murata became the first woman to lead the opposition in a country where the political landscape is dominated by men, although she failed to last even a year in office.

Once considered an emerging political leader due to her popularity, the leader was unable to capitalise on the decline of Abe's Liberal Democratic Party, unlike Tokyo Governor, Yuriko Koike, whose new party swept the local elections.

Ever since she took charge of the opposition party Murata, born to a Taiwanese father and Japanese mother, had faced criticism for not acquiring Japanese citizenship (although she was born in the country) until she was 17.
Bengaluru, July 27 : The CBI on Thursday arrested an Army officer who was working as a Garrison Engineer, and an Assistant Garrison Engineer for taking a bribe of Rs 50,000 and 30 gold coins in Karnataka, an official said.

The Army official, identified as Lt. Col. J.S. Bath, and Assistant Garrison Engineer R.B. Chawan, who are deputed to MES, Karwar, were held while accepting the bribe for clearing pending bills of a civil contractor, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official said.

The central probe agency has booked the arrested persons under the provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act following a complaint against them.

"It was alleged in the complaint that the two officials demanded Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 1 lakh, respectively, from a civil contractor for clearing his pending bills and for the payments already made," the CBI official said.

"They demanded Rs 50,000 each as the first instalment in the form of gold and cash. The CBI laid a trap and the Garrison Engineer was caught red-handed while accepting 30 gold coins (total 15 grams) while the Assistant Engineer was accepting Rs 50,000 from the complainant."

The agency also conducted searches on the premises of the arrested officers.
Beijing, July 27 : Amid the dragging border row, China on Thursday raised "major problems" in ties with India as its top diplomat Yang Jiechi held talks with Indias National Security Adviser Ajit Doval on the sidelines of the BRICS security summit.

The two met "separately" and exchanged views on bilateral relations, according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

It was immediately not known whether they discussed the border stand-off between the two armies that has entered its second month at Doklam on the Sikkim section of their border.

China's State Councillor Yang separately met senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India and "set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems", Xinhua said.

Yang also separately exchanged views with the three senior representatives on "bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems".

The stand-off between India and China at Doklam has become a major issue of contention, with some experts fearing it could lead to a war.

At the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China, Doklam is of high strategic importance to all three. It is disputed by Bhutan and China.

India calls Doklam Bhutan's and perceives any Chinese presence in the area as a threat to its own security.

The genesis of the dispute lies in a road being built by the Chinese Army in Doklam. Indian troops halted the work in June, leading to the crisis.
Hyderabad, July 27 : A fresher and bigger edition of the widely popular Pro Kabaddi League (PKL) will begin here on Friday, with a total of 12 teams fighting it out for the top honours over the next 13 weeks.

Into its fifth season, the league's popularity can be gauged from the fact that as many as four new teams -- Gujarat Fortunegiants, Haryana Steelers, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas -- have been added this time.

"Due to PKL, our sport has gained a lot of popularity. Now, with the additions of these new teams, the profile of the league and the sport is further elevated," Telugu Titans star Rahul Chaudhary reckoned at the trophy unveiling ceremony.

On the first day of the campaign, Titans clash with Ajay Thakur-captained Tamil Thalaivas, while former champions U Mumba, who will be led by veteran Anup Kumar, will take on Deepak Niwas Hooda-captained Puneri Paltan at the Gachibowli Indoor Stadium.

The new edition will also see a new format in which 12 teams have been divided into two zones of six teams each. Each of the teams will play 15 intra-zone and seven inter-zone matches, prior to the play-offs.

Zone A consists of Dabang Delhi, Jaipur Pink Panthers, Puneri Paltan, U Mumba, Haryana Steelers and Gujarat Fortunegiants while Zone B will have Telugu Titans, Bengaluru Bulls, Patna Pirates, Bengal Warriors, UP Yoddha and Tamil Thalaivas.

The play-offs stage will comprise three qualifiers and two eliminators, which are scheduled to take place in Mumbai and Chennai. The final will be held on Ocober 28 in Chennai.

While double defending champions Patna captain Pardeep Narwal promised to make it three in a row, Dabang Delhi skipper Meraj Sheykh's intention is to get into the play-offs.

While the new teams, even though boasting of experienced players, may struggle in putting up their best combination initially, some of the teams like Jaipur Pink Panther, who have overhauled their full squad, will also begin nervously.

Seasoned all-rounder Manjit Chillar, who will lead the Rajasthan outfit this time, said luck will play a major role in determining the fortunes of the teams.

"All the teams are here to win, as we do. All the teams have prepared well but at critical moments luck becomes a big factor," Manjit said.

Thakur, who will lead Tamil Thalaivas said: "We have a young and energetic bunch of new players. For them, holding their nerves in such (match) environment, will be important."

Mumbai and Bengaluru will also be among favourites, while Titans and Warriors are desperate to put their hands on the trophy.

"Despite having good teams in the first four editions, we couldn't do it. We will come up with full force," Warriors captain Surjeet Singh noted.

Their 18-member squad has a number of new recruits. Surjeet and former Jaipur players Maninder Singh and Ran Singh are some of the new faces in the side.

Anup felt that the teams having the most number of all-rounders will walk away with the trophy.

As many as 27 overseas players will feature in the league. Delhi's Iranian raider Mehraj and South Korean Jang Kun Lee of Bengal are quite popular among the foreign recruits.

Apart from the bigger pool of players, this edition will have a bigger prize money of Rs 8 crore ($1,244,800) -- a significant and unprecedented jump of Rs 6 crore. The title winners will take home Rs 3 crore ($466,800).

The runners-up will be awarded Rs 1.8 crore ($280,080), while the team that finishes in the third place will win Rs 1.2 crore ($186,720).

The Most Valuable Player prize is also receiving a boost this season, with the awardee set to win Rs 15 lakh ($23,340).
New Delhi/Ranchi, July 27 : The opposition Congress, RJD and BSP on Thursday slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the BJP-led NDA and said it was a "betrayal" of the public mandate in the 2015 assembly elections.

Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad dubbed Nitish Kumar a "big opportunist" while Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi said he had ditched the Grand Alliance in Bihar for his "personal gains".

Addressing the media in Ranchi after Nitish Kumar took oath as the Chief Minister in Patna to bring an alliance government of the Janata Dal-United and the Bharatiya Janata Party to power, Lalu Prasad accused the JD-U chief of "conspiring" with the BJP to get graft cases filed against his family by central agencies.

He reiterated that the JD-U chief was facing a murder charge and should resign.

Nitish Kumar headed the Grand Alliance government that included the Janata Dal-United, the RJD and the Congress.

Lalu Prasad said he planned to approach the Supreme Court to appeal against the Governor's decision not to invite the RJD to form the new government since it was the single largest party in the assembly.

"Nitish Kumar has cheated the people of Bihar," Lalu Prasad said, adding that BJP leader Sushil Modi, who was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, was asked to run a campaign to tarnish the image of his family members.

The former Union Minister also termed Nitish Kumar as 'Bhasmasur', referring to the mythical demon who destroyed himself, and said he (Lalu Prasad) had made him the Chief Minister despite the RJD emerging as the single largest party after the assembly polls.

Lalu Prasad said the mandate was against the BJP and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh in the 2015 elections.

"He (Nitish Kumar) used to say he will never compromise with communal forces and swore he will not return to the BJP. This is a huge betrayal to the Bihar people and to us," the RJD chief said.

In Patna, the RJD threatened it will not allow the Monsoon Session of the assembly to run smoothly unless Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi resigned.

Rahul Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament in Delhi that they were aware of "what was going on for the last three-four months".

"This is the problem with Indian politics. For the sake of power and personal gains, they compromise with anything."

Party leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said: "This is a black day for India's democracy. A story of 'rank opportunism and treachery with people's mandate' was written in Bihar today (Thursday) by the BJP and Nitish Kumar. Truth is that hunger for power has overpowered everything else."

He said Nitish Kumar was appointed the Chief Minister after assembly elections with the good wishes of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi.

Referring to the formation of governments in Goa and Manipur, Surjewala said that "decimating democracy and denigrating people's mandate" had become the way forward for the BJP at the Centre.

Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati accused Nitish Kumar of "betraying" the people of Bihar and said they had voted against the "so-called Modi wave" and delivered a stunning defeat to the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

She said the mandate should have been respected for the complete five years.

Mayawati accused the BJP of misusing government machinery and said it was endangering Indian democracy.

"After Manipur and Goa, political developments in Bihar prove that under the Modi government, the future of democracy is in danger," she said.
New Delhi, July 27 : The NIA on Thursday issued summons to the elder son of Kashmiri separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and 29 others to question them on charges of receiving funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and protests in the Kashmir Valley.

Sources in the National Investigation Agency said the summons were issued to Nayeem Geelani, a doctor who was once based in Pakistan, and others including those accused of pelting stones at security forces.

"We have issued summons to Syed Ali Shah's elder son and 29 others including some Hurriyat leaders, their relatives and some identified stone pelters to question them as part of our ongoing probe in Pakistan-sponsored terror funding," a NIA official told IANS on the condition of anonymity.

The official said some of the 30 had been called to appear at the NIA headquarters in Delhi and some in Srinagar.

The summons came three days after the NIA arrested seven key Kashmiri separatists in connection with the case.

Those arrested are Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Peer Saifullah, Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal and Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate. All of them are uner 10-day NIA custody.

Altaf is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir's merger with Pakistan.

The NIA official also did not rule out the possibility of issuing summons to other Hurriyat leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani and JKLF leader Muhammad Yasin Malik.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separatist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat, who it said were in connivance with militants from outlawed groups like Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and others for raising and receiving funds.

Investigators said the funds were received by the separatists through illegal means, including hawala channels, for funding terrorist and other activities in Jammu and Kashmir.
Gandhinagar, July 27 : Three senior Gujarat Congress legislators on Thursday resigned from the party and joined the BJP in a huff, expressing their anger against the Congress for ignoring their aspirations.

Balwantsinh Rajput, MLA from Siddhpur and Chief Whip of the party, Tejashree Patel from Viramgam, and Vijapur legislator P.I. Patel submitted their resignations to Speaker Ramanlal Vora on Thursday afternoon and later headed for the BJP headquarters, Kamalam, to join the party.

Within minutes of joining the BJP, Balwantsinh Rajput was named the third Rajya Sabha candidate of the BJP, besides national president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani.

Rajput was already rumoured to be planning to contest the Rajya Sabha election against official party nominee Ahmed Patel, the political secretary to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

Balwantsinh Rajput's daughter is married to Mahendrasinh, the son of rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela. Mahendrasinh is an MLA.

All three MLAs are believed to be close to Vaghela, who quit as Leader of Opposition on his birthday on July 21 alleging that there was an intra-party conspiracy to oust him from the Congress.

Tejashree Patel and P.I. Patel asserted that the Congress had failed to take a position on the demand of the Patidars (Patels) for reservation to the community in government jobs and educational institutions.

"I have resigned from the Congress with a very heavy heart. I have worked for the party for 25 long years," Tejashree Patel, a firebrand woman leader and one of the most active legislators of the Congress in the state Assembly, bemoaned.

"From top to bottom, there is intra-party politicking in the Congress. The party never took a clear position on the aspirations of the Patidars," she said. "I have joined Narendra Modi's journey of development," she added.

Similarly, P.I. Patel also said, "The Congress has done injustice to the Patels."

Balwantsinh Rajput echoed Tejashree Patel and said, "Modi is Vikas Purush."

Rajput and P.I. Patel are from the North Gujarat constituency of Vijapur. Vaghela hails from North Gujarat too.
Bengaluru, July 27 : Former Karnataka Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh passed away at a private hospital here on Thursday. He was 80.

He is survived by his wife Prabhavathi, sons Vijay Singh and Ajay Singh and daughter Priyadarshini.

"Dharam Singh died at 11.54 a.m. following a massive heart attack in the intensive care unit," a spokesperson for M.S. Ramaiah Hospital told IANS.

Dharam Singh, who had been ailing for some time due to age-related problems, was rushed to hospital earlier in the day for treatment after he complained of difficulty in breathing.

The Karnataka government declared a holiday in offices, schools, and colleges on Thursday afternoon and a three-day mourning across the state.

"The government has declared a holiday on Friday in the state's northern districts of Kalaburgi and Bidar to allow people to pay homage to him," an official told IANS.

A state funeral with a 21-gun salute will be given to Dharam Singh when his body will be buried on Friday at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Kalaburgi, about 650km from Bengaluru.

"The body was flown in a special aircraft to Bidar and later by a helicopter to Kalaburgi in the evening for the burial on Friday evening."

Hundreds of people, including politicians, ministers, lawmakers, friends, relatives and officials visited the deceased leader's house here to pay their respects.

Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, former Chief Ministers H.D. Kumaraswamy and B.S. Yeddyurappa and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda were among the mourners.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who was on official tour in Haveri district, returned to the city and rushed to the deceased leader's house to mourn his death. He also conveyed his condolences to the bereaved family after laying a wreath on the body.

A veteran Congress leader for over six decades, Dharam Singh was the Chief Minister of the first coalition government in the southern state from May 28, 2004, to February 3, 2006, with Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S).

Dharam Singh was an MP from Bidar from 2009-2014 and a record seven-time legislator from Jewargi in the state's northern district of Kalaburgi from 1978-2008.

Born on December 25, 1936, Dharam Singh, a Rajput, was the ruling party's state unit President from 1997-1999.

He was also a Cabinet Minister in five Congress governments and held key portfolios, including Excise, Home, and Revenue for over two decades.

His elder son Vijay is a member of the state legislative council while younger son Ajay is a lawmaker from his home constituency Jewargi near Kalaburgi.

A seasoned politician, Singh was known for his gentle demeanour.

"Though he headed a coalition government for 20 months, he became the most popular Chief Minister. He gave me full freedom to work and showered love on me, which I can never forget" Siddaramaiah said in a statement here.

Known as Ajatashatru -- a man without enemy -- Singh had a good rapport with all politicians, including opposition leaders, when in and out of office.

"His death is a great loss to the state and the party. He was a good administrator and strengthened the party in his long career of five decades," said Siddaramaiah, who was his deputy in the coalition government.
Riyadh, July 27 : Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud contacted US President Donald Trump and other world leaders over the past days to help end Israel's restrictions at the Al-Aqsa Mosque in East Jerusalem, media reports said on Thursday.

The King "has held necessary contacts with a number of leaders of the world over the past few days", the Saudi Press Agency quoted a statement by the Saudi Royal Court as saying.

Xinhua news agency cited the Saudi Royal Court as saying that the Saudi government contacted the US administration over restrictions Israel imposed at the holy compound, which triggered off two weeks of violent clashes between Palestinians and Israeli forces in East Jerusalem and the West Bank.

The King urged Trump to exert US efforts to pressure Israel to open the Al-Aqsa Mosque to Muslims and revoke the restrictions on their access, the Al Arabiya TV reported.

"The King's efforts with a number of world leaders on Al-Aqsa have culminated with success," the Saudi Royal Court said, referring to the Israeli government removing all security measures at the mosque.

The Saudi King affirmed the right of Muslims to worship in the Al-Aqsa Mosque with ease and tranquility, while emphasising "the importance of achieving a just and comprehensive peace for the Palestinian cause", it added.

Israel removed all the CCTV cameras, metal bridge and the railings from the entrances to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound overnight Wednesday. Thousands of Muslim worshipers celebrated the victory and Jerusalem's senior Muslim clergies announced that Muslim worshipers can return to pray inside the mosque.

Israel installed metal detectors and security cameras at the entrances to the compound since July 14, after three Israeli Arab gunmen shot dead two Israeli policemen before being killed at the compound.

Israel also banned Palestinian Muslims under 50 years from access to the shrine for offering prayers.

The measures sparked widespread protests from Palestinians as well as the Muslim world, which slammed Israel for attempting to change the status quo on the holy site.

Three Palestinians protesters were killed and hundreds of others were wounded last Friday in violent clashes with Israeli forces. Three Israelis were stabbed to death in a West Bank settlement by a Palestinian attacker the same day.

The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem, the third holiest site in Islam and the holiest site for Jews, had been a flashpoint site for the bloody Israeli-Palestinian conflict over the past decades.
Gandhinagar, July 27 : In a blow to the Congress in Gujarat, three of its senior legislators resigned from the party and joined the BJP with the Chief Whip bagging a Rajya Sabha ticket that could threaten the chances of Congress President Sonia Gandhi's political secretary Ahmed Patel in the biennial election.

Chief Whip Balwantsinh Rajput, MLA from Siddhpur who is rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela's relative, was named by the BJP for the third Rajya Sabha seat for which Patel has filed his nomination. BJP president Amit Shah and Union Minister Smriti Irani are the other two party candidates.

The other two MLAs are Tejashree Patel from Viramgam, and Vijapur legislator P.I. Patel.

The three submitted their resignations to Speaker Ramanlal Vora on Thursday afternoon and later headed for the BJP headquarters, Kamalam, to join the party.

Within minutes of joining the BJP, Balwantsinh Rajput was named the third Rajya Sabha candidate of the BJP.

Rajput was already rumoured to be planning to contest the Rajya Sabha election against official party nominee Ahmed Patel.

Balwantsinh Rajput's daughter is married to Mahendrasinh, the son of rebel leader Shankersinh Vaghela. Mahendrasinh is an MLA.

All three MLAs are believed to be close to Vaghela, who quit as Leader of Opposition on his birthday on July 21 alleging that there was an intra-party conspiracy to oust him from the Congress.

Notwithstanding Vaghela's claims that he would not damage Congress interests, he and his supporters may back Rajput which could harm the chances of Patel, who is seeking a fifth term in the Rajya Sabha.

A candidate needs 46 first preference votes and the Congress has 56 MLAs. Vaghela is said to command the support of 11 rebels. If all the rebels vote against Patel, then it will be a close contest in the August 8 election.

Tejashree Patel and P.I. Patel asserted that the Congress had failed to take a position on the demand of the Patidars (Patels) for reservation to the community in government jobs and educational institutions.

"I have resigned from the Congress with a very heavy heart. I have worked for the party for 25 long years," Tejashree Patel, a firebrand woman leader and one of the most active legislators of the Congress in the state Assembly, bemoaned.

"From top to bottom, there is intra-party politicking in the Congress. The party never took a clear position on the aspirations of the Patidars," she said. "I have joined Narendra Modi's journey of development," she added.

Similarly, P.I. Patel also said, "The Congress has done injustice to the Patels."

Balwantsinh Rajput echoed Tejashree Patel and said, "Modi is Vikas Purush."

Rajput and P.I. Patel are from the North Gujarat constituency of Vijapur. Vaghela hails from North Gujarat too.
New Delhi, July 27 : The government has given approval to the creation of three more Bomb Detection and Disposal Squads in the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), an official said on Thursday.

The squads will be based in Jammu and Kashmir's Srinagar, Bihar's Gaya and Chhattisgarh's Bhilai, the SSB official said, adding that each will comprise eight personnel headed by a Sub-Inspector.

The SSB -- mandated to guard the India-Bhutan and India-Nepal borders -- at present has three squads based in Assam's Bongaigaon and Rangia, and Bihar's Muzaffarpur.

"IED (Improvised Explosive Device) threat is the main challenge for forces deployed in Left Wing Extremist areas, the north-eastern states, and Jammu and Kashmir. These squads will help in mitigating and countering the threats effectively and enhance the SSB's operational efficacy," the official said.

Recently, SSB's bomb squads defused two IEDs planted by Maoists in Chhattisgarh to target security forces as well as one IED during Kanwar Mela in Haridwar.

SSB Director General Archana Ramasundaram expressed her happiness over the sanctioning of new squads and said these will be operationalised soon.
Beijing, July 27 : Amid the dragging border row, China on Thursday raised "major problems" in ties with India as its top diplomat Yang Jiechi held talks with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the sidelines of a BRICS security meet.

The two met "separately" and exchanged views on bilateral relations where Yang expressed China's view on "major problems and bilateral issues", according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

It was not known whether Doval and China's State Councillor Yang discussed the stand-off between their armies in Doklam in Sikkim sector that is in its second month, and has added to the host of disputes between the two countries that fought a war in 1962.

The meeting between the two top officials is seen as a positive sign in view of Beijing's tough public posturing on the issue.

Earlier, China had ruled out any talks over the feud until India withdraws troops from Doklam.

Beijing claims Doklam as its own territory.

India has said it is ready to pull back from the Bhutanese territory if China does so too.

Doval along with his BRICS counterparts will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Some experts fear the festering situation could lead to an armed conflict.

Doklam, located at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China, is of high strategic importance to all three. It is disputed by Bhutan and China.

India says Doklam is Bhutanese territory and perceives any Chinese presence in the area as a threat to its own security.

The stand-off began over a road being built by the Chinese Army in Doklam. Indian troops halted the work in mid June, leading to the crisis.

Yang separately met South African Minister of State Security David Mahlobo, Brazilian Institutional Security Minister Sergio Etchegoyen and India's NSA Doval and exchanged views on "bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems".

He met Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrusheissues on Wednesday.

(Gaurav Sharma is the Beijing-based correspondent of IANS. He can be contacted at sharmagaurav71@gmail.com and gauravians@yahoo.com)
New Delhi, July 27 : The Central government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that there is "no fundamental right to privacy", as it is multi-faceted and every facet will not be eligible to claim the status of a fundamental right.

Attorney General K.K. Venugopal told a nine-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice J.S. Khehar that "India had declined to introduce privacy as fundamental right as is evident from the Constituent Assembly Debates. But now the court is being asked to hold privacy as fundamental right, which should be rejected".

"There is no fundamental right to privacy. Even assuming privacy can be raised to the status of liberty, it is multi-faceted and every facet will not be eligible to claim the status of fundamental right," he added.

On Wednesday too, the Central government had told the court that the right to privacy was a fundamental right but not all its facets can be elevated to the status of fundamental rights.

Maharashtra also joined the debate on right to privacy and senior advocate Aryama Sundaram, appearing for the state, echoing the stand that privacy is not a fundamental right.

"The basic question is whether privacy is a fundamental right. This will necessarily mean we will have to read in all aspects of privacy. Hence, submission by the petitioner that certain facets of privacy are a fundamental right while others may not be, would mean that the genus of privacy cannot be conferred the status of fundamental right," he added.

Sundaram said that privacy is not a fundamental right, there can be rights whose violation may be considered as violation of a stated fundamental right.

"That right may also be violation of privacy but that would not make privacy a fundamental right. Before we confer something status as fundamental right, we need to know what exactly the right is. Privacy is just a concept," counsel said.

He said that concept of privacy is all encompassing, and "to have it as a fundamental right would amount to injecting an expression with ambiguity and vagueness into the Constitution, something which was expressly rejected by Constituent Assembly".

"Expressions like freedom of speech, movement etc. are concepts which have an exactitude. However, privacy is a word without exactitude. It is an inchoate expression," Sundaram said.

On Wednesday senior advocate Kapil Sibal, representing non-BJP ruled states Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Puducherry, had backed the constitutionality of the right to privacy.

Sibal had told the court that these states supported the contention that the right to privacy be held as fundamental in the age of technological advancements.

The nine-judge bench is examining the nature of privacy as a right and also the correctness of two judgments of 1954 and in 1962 which had held that right to privacy was not a fundamental right.

The matter is being heard by the constitution bench in the wake of challenge to the Aadhaar scheme on the grounds of its being violative of the right to privacy.

Petitioners include former Karnataka High Court judge Justice K.S. Puttaswamy, first Chairperson of the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights and Magsaysay award recipient Shanta Sinha, feminist researcher Kalyani Sen Menon and others who have challenged the validity of the Aadhaar scheme on grounds of it being violative of the right to privacy.

The hearing will continue on Tuesday.
Nuoro (Italy), July 27 : A bomb exploded at a migrant shelter in Italy's Sardinia on Thursday after it was left by a side door of the building in Dorgali in the island's Nuoro province, police said, adding no one was injured The bomb went off at around 2.30 a.m. at the shelter, where 64 migrants and two workers from a cooperative that runs the centre were asleep inside.

The powerful blast blew off the side door to the shelter and could have hit some of the migrants who were sleeping just metres away, police said.

Two 23-year-old Nigerian residents at the shelter sustained bruises as they clambered out of bed in a panic after the bomb went off, according to police.

The centre has no video security cameras, said police, who have opened an investigation into the attack.

Late on Tuesday, a paper bomb was hurled against an external wall of an asylum-seeker centre in Rocca di Papa, south of Rome, housing about 380 migrants, with no reports of injuries.

Police in Rocca di Papa were studying images from security cameras mounted outside nearby shops as part of a probe of the attack.

Police have not stated if they believe the attacks in Dogali and Rocca di Papa were linked.
Shillong, July 27 : India and Bangladesh on Thursday decided to set up a joint working group within 60 days for the conservation of elephants and manage their movement through corridors in their adjoining border areas, an official said.

The working group will develop protocols and standard operating procedures in the matter.

The decision was taken at the second India-Bangladesh Dialogue on Trans-Boundary Conservation of Elephants, attended by wildlife officials from both countries here in Meghalaya.

Bangladesh Chief Conservator of Forests Md. Shafiul Alan Chowdhury led an 11-member delegation from his country.

India's Director General of Forests Siddhanta Das said joint coordination groups at the district level will be set up along the international border with Bangladesh, comprising Divisional Forest Officers and Commandants of border guards in each forest division with trans-border migration corridor(s) for elephants, so as to facilitate timely sharing of information and resolution of problems.

The district authorities (Deputy Commissioners) concerned in both countries will be empowered to permit trans-border movement of elephant rescue teams, apart from the power to provide technical support, early warning systems, technology support, and other infrastructure along the corridors used by wild elephants to move between the two countries.

Das said the meeting resolved to discourage/regulate electric fences for protection of agricultural and horticultural crops in areas falling within identified corridors to prevent deaths of elephants from electrocution.

Earlier, Chowdhury said Bangladesh had undertaken a habitat improvement programme wherein nearly seven lakh seedlings of plants eaten by elephants have been planted on over 600 hectares in Sherpur and Chittagong to ensures food sufficiency for the pachyderms.

India's north-eastern and eastern states bordering Bangladesh are important habitats of Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), including Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, West Bengal, and Tripura. These states are home to over 9,000 wild elephants as compared to about 200 in Bangladesh.
Grosseto (Italy), July 27 : The head of traffic police in the Italian coastal resort of Porto Santo Stefano shot her teenage son to death on Thursday before committing suicide with the same gun, police said.

Fifty-five-year-old widow Loredana Busonero, shot her 17-year-old son Francesco Visconti with her service pistol as he slept in his bed at the family home before turning the gun on herself, say police.

Police called to the scene by worried neighbours at around 8 a.m. found Busonero's body. Her son died before reaching hospital.

The scene of Thursday's tragedy was sealed off as police forensics officers gathered evidence.

"We didn't expect this, it's a real tragedy," said Mayor Arturo Cerulli was quoted as saying by regional daily Il Tirreno.

Busonero had suffered past health problems and had been deeply affected by the suicide of her father, which she saw as a "betrayal", the daily quoted Cerulli as saying.

Busonero had been at work the previous day and appeared her normal self, according to colleagues, it said.

Busonero was the widow of lawyer Marco Visconti, a former local mayor and ex deputy governor of the surrounding province of Grosseto, who died aged 56 in May 2015.

The police investigation of the murder-suicide is being spearheaded by prosecutors in Grosseto.
Logisense provides us the out-of-the-box functionality and domain knowledge that allows us to be agile while at the same time accelerate business results.

LogiSense, the leading usage rating and subscription billing solutions provider announced today that Serenova, a leading Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) provider, will migrate from its legacy monetization system to LogiSenses EngageIP monetization platform.

The selection of LogiSense is part of Serenovas effort to transform its overall operational and financial structure since becoming an independent company as well as a critical investment in its partner community to support its rapid growth. LogiSenses full suite of real-time rating, charging, subscription billing and customer care solutions will support Serenovas globalization and partner enablement strategy by reducing costs, streamlining operations, improving efficiencies and ultimately, enhancing the overall customer experience. And, ultimately, enable Serenova to offer partners a frictionless bid-to-bill process whereby they can more easily and efficiently serve their customers directly.

We dedicated decades to develop the most robust and flexible usage rating and subscription billing solution available in the market, said Flavio Gomes, CEO at LogiSense. The move to a truly agile monetization solution empowers Serenova to launch new products, services, and bundled offerings into the market faster than ever before.

Named a challenger in the Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant for Contact Center as a Service, North America, Serenova is the third service provider recognized in the Magic Quadrant to join LogiSenses customer roster. Serenovas flagship product, CxEngage, is a highly secure, true multi-tenant, and instantly scalable multi-channel CCaaS platform that is transforming the way businesses and individuals interact and engage with each other.

Its been a herculean effort to transform our financial operations over the past year  but absolutely critical to the future of our business and imperative to supporting our customers efficiently, said Keith Geneva, CFO of Serenova. Searching for and selecting a new monetization vendor was the logical next step in our rollout and one we took very seriously. Logisense provides us the out-of-the-box functionality and domain knowledge that allows us to be agile while at the same time accelerate business results. With LogiSenses track record in the market, we are confident that the transition will help us gain operational efficiencies and support our growth strategy.

EngageIP by LogiSense is an award-winning usage rating and subscription billing solution for the UCaaS, CCaaS and IoT markets that helps service providers innovate, compete and transform their business. The real-time platform boasts field-proven scalability, comprehensive features in a high-availability and high-performance environment to enable the rapid turn-up of new services  and revenue streams.

About LogiSense

LogiSense provides licensed and Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) usage rating, mediation and subscription billing solutions for the Internet of Things, Telecommunications, Unified Communications, Contact Center and Enterprise service providers. LogiSenses carrier-grade solutions are built on its proprietary, real-time usage rating and subscription billing platform, EngageIP. LogiSense designed EngageIP from the ground-up to be service, medium and provider agnostic, allowing it to grow with customers as they evolve their business operations and end user offerings. EngageIP provides the flexibility and scalability to address the service, billing and back-office realities facing todays rapidly-evolving communications service providers. Founded in 1998, LogiSense currently services more than 40 global customers. More info: http://www.logisense.com

About Serenova

Serenova simplifies every aspect of the customer experience, from front office to back, to make life easier for you, your customers and your employees. The worlds most passionate, customer-focused brands achieve brighter interactions, deeper insights, and more meaningful outcomes with Serenovas always-on, highly secure, true multi-tenant and instantly scalable Contact Center as a Service (CCaaS) platform, CxEngage. Headquartered in Austin, Texas, Serenova also has operations in California, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. Learn more at http://www.serenova.com.
Lucas Group While the unemployment rate is low, job growth for professional and business services positions remained stagnant in 2016. This means professionals relocating to Phoenix may face a longer than expected search for their ideal position.

Lucas Group announced that the firms Phoenix-based executive recruiting team has moved to a new office location. As of April 2017, the Lucas Group Phoenix office is now located at 2525 East Camelback Rd, Suite 420.

The office is located in one of Phoenixs most sought-after buildings, featuring state-of-the-art amenities, concierge-style services and perks like onsite garage parking. The building is conveniently located near top dining and retail destinations, bringing the best of life and business together for the Phoenix executive recruiting team.

The new office space reflects Lucas Groups strong commitment to the local market and passion for the companies and people who call the city home.

In the last five years, Phoenix has become a hot spot for companies looking to scale their businesses, said Curt Webb, Managing Partner for Lucas Groups Phoenix-based Accounting and Finance division. Our team works side-by-side with local customers to source the top talent companies need to support continued growth.

Casey Neese, the Managing Partner for Lucas Groups Phoenix-based Sales and Marketing division and a long-time Phoenix resident, says an in-depth understanding of local market dynamics is key to successful recruitment.

Phoenix is a unique job market, says Neese. While the unemployment rate is low, job growth for professional and business services positions remained stagnant in 2016. This means professionals relocating to Phoenix may face a longer than expected search for their ideal position. At the same time, Phoenixs low unemployment rate also means that fewer professionals are actively looking to for new jobs, so companies without access to a passive candidate network may struggle to source specialized talent.

Lucas Groups Phoenix office opened in 1998 with a focus on full-time accounting and finance and sales and marketing placement. The office has since grown to offer accounting and finance contract-to-hire services. Lucas Group supports companies from a wide variety of industries in the Phoenix market.

About Lucas Group

Lucas Group is North Americas premier executive search firm. Since 1970, our culture and methodologies have driven superior results. We assist clients ranging in size from small to medium-sized businesses to Fortune 500 companies find transcendent, executive talent; candidates fully realize their ambitions; and associates find professional success. To learn more, please visit Lucas Group at http://www.lucasgroup.com and connect with us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter.
The CuroGens Learning approach to dropout recovery creates enough flexibility and versatility to allow any student to gain confidence and feel successful throughout the learning experience.

The workshop, titled The Learning Paradigm Shift, will be presented by Sren Hjorth, director of learning solutions for CuroGens Learning, Sussi Wille Broge, Naalakkersuisut head of section, ministry of education, culture, research and church for the Government of Greenland, and Ole Hjorth, EU-project coordinator for the Erasmus+ program, ANLA (A New Learning Arena).

The WIPCE presentation will outline results of new learning strategies piloted by the Government of Greenland, developed and directed by Ole Hjorth, to address student dropout rates. Greenlands pilot program is part of a study and program sponsored by Erasmus+. Titled ANLA, the cooperative project will soon be implemented across five additional European countries. CuroGens Learning has developed the resource, a solution for teachers comprised of professional development and education technology that is being utilized to champion and deliver this new way of learning.

Not everyone fits the mold of a traditional learner, said Soren Hjorth. The CuroGens Learning approach to dropout recovery creates enough flexibility and versatility to allow any student to gain confidence and feel successful throughout the learning experience. This better enables students to reach an academic finish line that will open up opportunities for a greater quality of life.

With tremendous success, CuroGens Learning has delivered highly effective learning environments adaptable to fit any students cognitive style and pace. By utilizing the companys Advanced Learning Information System to assess and adapt coursework to align with each students preferred learning strategy and existing level of knowledge, teachers have been empowered to provide accelerated learning that promotes retention of knowledge and skills.

Many teachers are excited to use this educational software, and we plan to let it be a content-element of a larger national app, where the software will be a resource for the teaching of Danish language and math at different levels within the Greenlandic educational institutions, said Lona Lynge, Head of Section, Ministry of Industry, Labour and Trade, Naalakkersuisut, Government of Greenland

About CuroGens Learning

A subsidiary of global systems integrator CuroGens, Inc., CuroGens Learning is an education technology company that develops learning resources for students and teachers around the world. The companys Advanced Learning Information System has been designed to address secondary school dropout rates and is based on a foundation of teacher training and certification. For more information, visit http://www.curogenslearning.com.

About Erasmus+, ANLA

The Erasmus+ project, ANLA (A New Learning Arena), intends to produce new and innovative resources that overcome barriers to the use of technology in teaching practices. This study is being conducted through a series of initiatives across Europe from the fall of 2016 to summer 2018. Erasmus+ is a 14.7 billion European Union (EU) program to support advancements in education and educational training in Europe. It provides opportunities for over four million Europeans to study, train, gain experience and volunteer abroad in order to support innovation in education, form cooperative partnerships and, ultimately, impact graduation rates.

About Naalakkersuisut, Government of Greenland Ministry of Education Culture, Research and Church

The Government will work to ensure that even more students complete their education and thus are able to better support themselves and their family. One of the roads towards our common goal of becoming an independent nation is more people getting a qualifying education. This has to be done through collaboration across the ministries and by involving stakeholders.

Therefore, the Ministry is setting goals for learning and personal development, as early as the child is born. Children must be offered a developing preschool education. Children must acquire the abilities that are required for completing an education in elementary school. High school is the foundation for advancing in to higher education, academic or professional, and vocational education and training which is important to meet the demands of skilled labor in our country.
The Medical & Dental Clinic at Evas Village recently introduced a pediatric dental program to provide regular exams and treatment to over 50 children who reside in Evas residential recovery and shelter programs, as well as children referred from Oasis, A Haven for Women and Children, and other organizations in Paterson. Accessing preventive dental care and teaching good oral hygiene habits can be a challenge for parents who are struggling with substance use, the instability of homelessness or the stress of unemployment.

Dr. Mario Ramos, DDM, a pediatric dentist in private practice, volunteered to help set up and run Evas pediatric clinic. He noted that kids from low income families (20% of all children) account for 80% of childhood tooth decay in the U.S. Dr. Ramos volunteers at Eva's Dental Clinic once a week to examine and treat children. He believes that teaching parents about dental care and hygiene is the key to kids' good oral health; so in addition to treating children in a clinical setting, he is presenting a series of learning sessions for parents and older children at Evas Village. Prevention is the best thing we can give a kid, Dr. Ramos explained during a recent presentation to a group of 24 mothers who live at Evas with their children.

A grant from the Horizon Foundation of New Jersey helped to jump-start Eva's pediatric dentistry service. The two-year grant is part of Horizons Kids Oral Health Program, a pilot initiative to make it easier for underprivileged children to access dental care.

More About the Medical & Dental Clinic at Evas Village

The new service is an expansion of Eva's Dental Clinic, where volunteer dentists and dental hygienists have been providing oral care, treatment and restorative dentistry since 2002 to adult clients who live at Eva's Village. Volunteer medical professionals have been delivering free health care services to Evas clients and the Paterson community for nearly 35 years.

More about Evas Village

Founded by Msgr. Vincent E. Puma in 1982, Evas Kitchen began by serving 30 meals a day to feed the hungry in Paterson. In response to the related issues of poverty, addiction, mental illness and homelessness, programs and services grew out of the original soup kitchen to address the root causes as well as the effects of homelessness and poverty. Today, Evas Village, a non-profit, comprehensive, social service organization, offers 20 programs that address needs in the community for food and shelter, recovery and medical services, and education and job training, with the goal to help those in need move toward stability and independence.
Aristech Surfaces LLC, a leading brand of surface products and design materials, today announced that Mike Marchi has been selected by the Aristech board of directors as its new chief executive officer. Marchi assumes his new role effective August 1, 2017. Marchi succeeds Ross McMillan, who will remain involved in the company as a board member.

The Aristech board could not have picked a better person to lead Aristech moving forward. Mike is a seasoned executive with extensive experience in the building products industry and brings an intense customer service and quality focus to the position. He is a strong advocate for relationship building and I know our customers will benefit from this, said Ross McMillan, exiting CEO and continuing board member.

Marchi joins Aristech at a time the company is poised for growth. With a solid base of business through its Aristech Acrylics, Avonite Acrylic Solid Surface, and Studio Collection brands, Marchi will be responsible for defining new organic strategic growth opportunities as well as M&A pursuits.

Im excited to be walking into a successful, established organization where my focus will be on strategic growth, said Marchi. Ross McMillan is leaving Aristech as a highly functioning organization delivering attractive results year over year. Im in the fortunate position of being able to lead Aristech into the next wave of growth exploring new market and product opportunities globally.

Mike Marchi brings more than 30 years of experience to this position, with the majority in the building products industry. Most recently, he served as chief operating officer of Lixil Water Technology Americas. His other previous posts include; CEO and president of Grohe Americas, president of Kohler Kitchen & Bath Americas and president of Ann Sacks Tile & Stone, a Kohler Company. He spent the initial 15 years of his career at GE where he acquired his strong process and quality management skillset. Marchi is a graduate of the Harvard Business Schools General Manager Program and holds a MBA from DePaul University and a BS degree in economics and marketing from Elmhurst College.

About Aristech

Aristech Surfaces produces and markets a broad range of surface and design materials under its flagship brands, Aristech Acrylics, Avonite Acrylic Solid Surface, and the Studio Collection. Aristech provides quality, cost-conscious, and high-end aesthetic solutions sought by OEMs, architects, designers, and fabricators for industries around the globe. Aristechs corporate headquarters is located in Florence, KY with its international office in Horsham, UK. Manufacturing facilities operate in Florence, KY and Belen, NM. To learn more, visit http://www.aristechsurfaces.com.
If you swiped your credit card today, your transaction most likely touched a mainframe, so mainframes and your data are closer to the Internet than one might think

CorreLog, Inc., the leader in multi-platform IT security event log management, today announced a sponsorship and two speaking sessions at SHARE Providence 2017. SHARE is an independent, volunteer-run technology association based in Chicago, and holds two annual conferences in the U.S. to discuss and improve upon technical matters affecting the global family of IBM mainframe users. While offering a connection point for industry professionals, SHAREs events also provide education to advance technologys impact on the business world.

The conference will take place August 6-11 at the Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence, Rhode Island. Attendees can find CorreLog in booth #311 hosting live demonstrations of its new releases of zDefender for z/OS, ver. 5.7.3, and dbDefender for IMS, ver. 2.7.3, throughout expo hall hours. The zDefender new release comes out-of-box with SMF event enhancements for privilege escalation detection on z/OS, offering large organizations broader real-time visibility for mainframe user activity. The new release of dbDefender for IMS ships with enhanced real-time monitoring for privileged user logons and logoffs, as well as tracking for users viewing and accessing IMS datasets.

SHARE works tirelessly to reinforce the importance of mainframe with robust education and professional networking at their conferences, and were proud to sponsor both events again this year, said George Faucher, president and CEO of CorreLog. If you swiped your credit card today, your transaction most likely touched a mainframe, so mainframes and your data are closer to the Internet than one might think. As a result, real-time security visibility on z/OS has never been more essential for protecting corporate IP and sensitive customer information.

CorreLog to Facilitate Two Speaking Sessions at SHARE Providence 2017

Charles Mills, CorreLogs Director of Advanced Projects, will host a breakout speaking session at SHARE Providence 2017 titled Cybercrime Fighting for Mainframe Superheroes  A Holistic Approach. The presentation will help educate attendees on how to leverage the tools their organization already has in place to extend real-time security visibility to their mainframes.

What: Cybercrime Fighting for Mainframe Superheroes  A Holistic Approach

Abstract: Session Link

Where: Room 552A/B | Rhode Island Convention Center in Providence

When: Wednesday, August 9, 10:00  11:00 a.m., local time

Who: Charles Mills | CorreLog Director of Advanced Projects | Speaker Bio

Session #: 21220

Tracks: Enterprise Data Center; Security and Compliance

CorreLog will also host a vendor-sponsored presentation on Monday, August 7, from 5:30  5:40 p.m. in the Tech Talk Corner of the SHARE booth, #130. Interested attendees will have the opportunity to continue speaking with CorreLog following the 10-minute presentation at CorreLog booth #311.

Definitive Enhancements for zDefender for z/OS, Ver. 5.7.3: Privilege Escalation Detection

Among the more consequential forms of cyber-attack, a successful privilege escalation attempt can bypass the limitations of assigned user permissions and open entire systems  including financial and personal identity files  to cyber-criminals. zDefender for z/OS v. 5.7.3 implements a mechanism for detecting a certain privilege escalation technique on the mainframe in which an attacker maliciously changes the in-memory privilege bits of his/her executing process, thereby granting him/her additional z/OS privileges.

z/OS does not natively produce an audit trail for this action, but CorreLogs zDefender for z/OS can audit escalated privileges when initiated by a user and in real time, send the event message to any name-brand SIEM or IT SOC (Security Operations Center) for high-priority alerts and quick remediation. Alerts can also be sent to zDefender Visualizer, CorreLogs lightweight browser-based mainframe SIEM system. zDefender for z/OS holds certified integration for IBM QRadar, HP ArcSight, RSA Security Analytics, and McAfee ESM, along with field integrations with all major SIEMs including Splunk Enterprise.

Click here to download the zDefender for z/OS datasheet.

dbDefender for IMS, Ver. 2.7.3 New Release

dbDefender for IMS ver. 2.7.3 extends data access monitoring to IMS datasets, with enhanced tracking for user logon/logoff records. The solution forwards IMS security event data to any name-brand SIEM, IT SOC, or zDefender Visualizer in real-time, enabling up-to-the-second security visibility and alerts in preferred formats such as SMS text or email. Visit CorreLog.com for more information on dbDefender for IMS.

About SHARE

SHARE is an independent volunteer-run information technology association that provides education, professional networking, and industry influence. SHARE is headquartered in Chicago, Illinois, and more information about SHARE can be found at Share.org.

About CorreLog

CorreLog, Inc., a privately held corporation, is an independent software vendor (ISV) that has produced software and framework components used successfully by hundreds of private and government organizations worldwide. Our core solutions provide visibility across both mainframe and distributed systems on user activity that is indicative of cyber threat. Since 2008, CorreLog, Inc. has been committed to delivering better decision-support solutions for InfoSec and security auditing professionals who need more advanced perimeter security and improved adherence to PCI DSS, HIPAA, GDPR, SOX, IRS Pub. 1075, FISMA, NERC and other industry standards for securing data. Our solutions are designed to be highly interoperable and complementary to clients existing IT investments.

CorreLog zDefender holds certified integrations with IBM, HP, McAfee, Micro Focus, (EMC) RSA Security Analytics, and field integrations with all other brand-name SIEMs. We consider our technology approach to be unique in both personnel and product and we believe our solutions pass the test of low total cost of ownership with high SIEM functionality. For more information on CorreLog products, please visit http://www.correlog.com.
Pictured L to R: Thad L. Bench II, Melissa Johnston, Thad L. Bench Sr. Receiving the MM&M designation represents the hard work of the entire Benchworks team as we continue our mission which is to improve lives through marketing.

Benchworks, a comprehensive marketing services agency, has been honored with a Top 100 Agency award by Medical Marketing & Media magazine (MM&M). This marks the second time that Benchworks has earned this industry accolade.

According to its website, MM&M is the media brand of record for pharmaceutical marketing and commercialization. The magazine notes that the Top 100 Agency award celebrates creativity and effectiveness in healthcare marketing. MM&M uses strict selection criteria and an independent panel of industry experts to determine which agencies meet the requirements.

In addition to being named a Top 100 Agency, Benchworks has been selected as a finalist in two more categories of the 2017 MM&M Awards: Marketing Team and Small Healthcare Agency. Winners will be named on October 19 at a ceremony at Cipriani Wall Street in New York City.

The Top 100 Agency designation comes at a time when Benchworks is continuing to break new ground. The company recently opened a new office located in trendy Fishtown in Philadelphia. Benchworks also added 10 new accounts and 10 new full-time employees, including Thad Bench II, son of CEO Thad L. Bench Sr. This milestone marks Benchworks first third-generation family member on staff.

We are thrilled to receive such honorable recognition for the second year in a row, President Melissa Johnston said. Receiving the MM&M designation represents the hard work of the entire Benchworks team as we continue our mission which is to improve lives through marketing.

Benchworks, an award-winning comprehensive marketing services agency headquartered in Chestertown, Maryland, was founded in 1991. With offices in Philadelphia and Boston, the company specializes in the design, production and launch of complete marketing and branding services. Clients include a wide variety of companies in the life science, pharmaceutical, beverage, manufacturing and education industries in North America and Europe. For additional information, visit http://www.benchworks.com or call 800-536-4670.
Genetec at ASIAL Security Conference Stand #D10 Sydney Australia

Genetec Inc. (Genetec), a leading provider of open architecture security and public safety solutions, today announced it is attending ASIAL Security Exhibition and Conference in Sydney, Australia this week. The company will demonstrate its latest innovative unified physical security technologies that help integrators and end-users in transit, airports, enterprise, education, retail and government Protect the Everyday. ASIAL Security Exhibition and Conference 2017 will take place at ICC Sydney, Darling Harbour from 26-28 July. Visit Genetec at stand #D10.

Product Lineup

Genetec will demonstrate Security Center 5.6, the latest version of its unified, open architecture IP security platform and the only unified security software with top 10 rankings (reported by IHS Markit) across VMS, access control and ALPR categories. With many new features including an HTML5 web client and enhanced Ersi mapping interface in Plan Manager, Security Center 5.6 also supports the most current Security of Security hardening measures and standards for authentication, authorisation, and encryption.

The company will also showcase Genetec Retail Sense, an analytics application designed for retail marketing and operations, and Genetec Clearance, a collaborative investigation management solution for law enforcement and security professionals. New access control and video device integrations in Security Center 5.6 allow customers to use license plates as access control credentials with the new AutoVu SharpV camera.

Also at ASIAL, visitors can get demonstrations of Genetec Mission Control, a collaborative decision-making solution, and many new security applications created specifically for vertical markets. A vast selection of supported video, access control, and storage hardware and software systems from the Genetec ecosystem of partners] will also be showcased.

Protecting Public Privacy

Genetec is dedicated to help prevent unnecessary intrusion into the publics personal privacy without compromising security. The company will demonstrate KiwiVision products that create video streams that blur the faces of the public captured in surveillance video in real-time, while movements, actions and events remain recognizable. The automated privacy protection solution can be used indoors and outdoors, in interior defined spaces, and public areas.

To learn more about other up-coming Genetec global events, visit: https://www.genetec.com/about-us/news/events.

About Genetec

Genetec develops open-architecture software, hardware and cloud-based services for the physical security and public safety industry. Its flagship product, Security Center, unifies IP-based access control, video surveillance and automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) into one platform. A global innovator since 1997, Genetec is headquartered in Montreal, Canada, and serves enterprise and government organizations via an integrated network of resellers, certified channel partners, integrators and consultants in over 80 countries. Genetec was founded on the principle of innovation and remains at the forefront of emerging technologies that unify IP physical security systems. For more information about Genetec, visit: http://www.genetec.com

 2017 Genetec. Genetec is a trademark of Genetec Inc., and may be registered or pending registration in several jurisdictions. Other trademarks used in this document may be trademarks of the manufacturers or vendors of the respective products. Genetec and the Genetec logo are trademarks of Genetec Inc., and may be registered or pending registration in several jurisdictions. Other trademarks used in this document may be trademarks of the manufacturers or vendors of the respective product
Advance Financial donates to Blount County 4-H Department The communities surrounding all of our locations are extremely important to us.

Officials from the Blount County Chamber of Commerce joined the Nashville-based financial services company Advance Financial to cut the ribbon at the companys newest store. To mark the occasion, the Advance Financial Foundation donated $500 to the Blount County 4-H Department.

The communities surrounding all of our locations are extremely important to us, said Shantrelle Johnson, VP of corporate citizenship for Advance Financial. Through the Advance Financial Foundation, we are able to provide extra support to those organizations working to make a difference in these regions. We are thrilled to make a contribution to the Blount County 4-H and help fund the educational programs they offer.

Started in 2014, the Advance Financial Foundation invests in the communities the company serves through support for local 501(c)3 organizations and community enrichment programs. The Foundation places a particular focus on enhancing education and health and wellness initiatives.

Advance Financials store in Alcoa is located at 348 South Calderwood St. It is open 24/7 and offers a range of financial services including prepaid cards, electronic wire services to anywhere in the world, check cashing, FLEX loans, free bill-payment services and free money orders.

About Advance Financial

Advance Financial, founded in 1996, is a family owned and operated financial center based in Nashville, Tenn. The company currently operates more than 80 locations throughout Tennessee and employs more than 800 local representatives. By focusing on a wide variety of financial services  including wire transfer, bill payment, unlimited free money orders and FLEX loans  they are committed to building long-lasting, strong relationships with every customer. Advance Financial recently earned an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau and was named to the Inc. 5000 list of the fastest-growing private companies in the country for the fifth year in a row.
Oregon Tech 25 DC8 Exp Oregon Tech has a reputation for its commitment to provide high quality learning experiences using the newest high tech ultrasound systems

To better prepare its ultrasound students to compete and thrive in the evolving healthcare environment, Oregon Institute of Technology (Oregon Tech) partnered with Mindray North America to update department and education capabilities with twenty-five new Mindray DC-8 Exp high-performance ultrasound systems.

As one of the few institutions in the country to offer a four-year ultrasound degree program, Oregon Tech requires excellent performance and reliability from the systems used to train students. The polytechnic institution has a reputation for its commitment to provide high quality learning experiences using the newest high tech ultrasound systems. While many schools use second-hand systems, the partnership with Mindray allows Oregon Tech to achieve its educational goals by providing equipment that matches that found in the best healthcare settings.

All ultrasound systems have automated imaging functions, said Debbie McCollam, professor and Medical Imaging Technology department chair at Oregon Tech. But we teach students to effectively use manual controls so they develop an intuitive understanding of ultrasound. This process, combined with the excellent image quality of the Mindray systems, allows students to learn how to acquire the highest quality ultrasound techniques and skills.

In addition to comprehensive clinical application sets on which students are trained, the Mindray systems feature excellent ergonomics and intuitive control panels that match well with the Oregon Tech teaching and learning philosophy.

Oregon Techs partnership with Mindray extends beyond the installation of equipment to ongoing service and applications support to assure the long-term success of the cardiovascular and other ultrasound programs. The new machines are being installed in July, with students beginning practice on them in the fall.

Mindray is a global supplier of medical technology with an extensive family of ultrasound imaging solutions. The DC8 Exp will provide OITs students with sophisticated applications and intuitive workflow capabilities to help support the highest level of ultrasound learning skills

We are pleased to partner with OIT in its mission for excellence in ultrasound education, said Glen McLaughlin, executive vice president and chief product officer of Mindray North America. This cutting-edge ultrasound platform incorporates a number of tools designed to increase speed, accuracy, and productivity while maintaining the flexibility needed to complete exams comfortably and efficiently. It is an honor to be selected by this nationally recognized leader in ultrasound education.

About Mindray

Mindray is a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of medical devices worldwide. Its global headquarters are located in Shenzhen, China, North American headquarters in Mahwah, New Jersey, a technology innovation center (formerly ZONARE) in Silicon Valley, California and multiple sales offices in major international markets. From the main manufacturing and engineering base in China, the company supplies, through a worldwide distribution network, a broad range of products across three primary business segments, which include patient monitoring and life support, in-vitro diagnostics and medical imaging systems. For more information, please visit http://www.mindray.com

About Oregon Tech

Founded in Klamath Falls in 1947, Oregon Institute of Technology is the premier public polytechnic university the Pacific Northwest. Oregon Tech provides degree programs in engineering, technology health technologies, management, communication, and applied sciences that prepare students to be effective participants in their professional, public, and international communities through hands-on, applied learning. Oregon Tech has a full-service, residential campus in Klamath Falls, an urban, industry-focused campus in Wilsonville, an Online campus, as well as other degree delivery sites. Visit http://www.oit.edu to learn more about Oregon Institute of Technology.
Maker Faire San Diego

Maker Faire San Diego is looking for enthusiastic volunteers to be a part of this fantastic event, October 7-8, 2017 in Balboa Park. Maker Faire needs assistance with set-up, tear-down, exhibitors, attendees and staff members while the event is up and running. Volunteers must have a positive, hardworking attitude and excellent skills in customer service. In exchange for volunteer hours, the festival of invention and creativity will give participants two free tickets to Maker Faire and a T-Shirt. Sign up at sdmakerfaire(at)gmail.com. Learn more at: http://sandiego.makerfaire.com/volunteer/

Available shifts for volunteers at Maker Faire San Diego 2017:

Tuesday-Thursday, October 3-5 VARIOUS DUTIES

Friday, October 6 SET UP

8:00am  12:00pm, 11:30am  3:30pm, 3:00pm  7:00pm

Saturday, October 7 SHOWTIME

7:30am  11:30am, 11:00am  3:00pm, 2:30pm  6:30pm

Sunday, October 8 SHOWTIME

7:30am  11:30am, 11:00am  3:00pm, 2:30pm  6:30pm

For more information, visit our website at http://sandiego.makerfaire.com. Maker Faire San Diego is produced by The Balboa Park Cultural Partnership and The San Diego Makers Guild.

ABOUT MAKER FAIRE: Maker Faire is an award winning, family friendly event celebrating technology, education, science, arts, crafts, engineering, food, sustainability, and more. Maker Faire has become part of pop-culture, a place for experiential marketing, debuting new technologies and inventions, and celebrating geekdom. Maker Media produces two annual flagship Maker Faires, partners with museums to produce Featured Maker Faires, and works with communities to license Mini Maker Faires around the world. http://sandiego.makerfaire.com/

HISTORY OF MAKER FAIRE: The first Maker Faire launched in May 2006 in the San Francisco Bay Area and was quickly followed by Faires in Austin, Detroit and New York City, as well as others around the world. Technology has lowered the barriers to entry to becoming a Maker and this launched the Maker Movement which fuels Maker Faire. Maker Faire was designed to be forward-looking, showcasing Makers who are exploring new forms and new technologies. But its not just for exhibiting whats new in technical fieldsMaker Faire features innovation and experimentation across the spectrum of science, engineering, art, performance and craft.

ABOUT THE SAN DIEGO MAKERS GUILD: The San Diego Makers Guild is a nonprofit that is committed to fostering the maker community and to promoting, showcasing, and encouraging adoption of making by individuals and public and private institutions, with the goal of advancing education, innovation, commerce and lifelong learning. Our vision is to help develop San Diego into a nationally known maker city. Learn more at http://SDMakersGuild.org.

ABOUT THE BALBOA PARK CULTURAL PARTNERSHIP: Balboa Park Cultural Partnership is a nonprofit organization through which 30 arts, science and cultural institutions in Balboa Park collaborate to achieve shared goals. By helping these groups achieve greater organizational efficiency, innovation and excellence, it seeks to contribute to the vitality and sustainability of Balboa Park. For more information visit http://www.bpcp.org.

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"HoloMaps provides us with a novel way to collaborate and visualize data providing new insights for our clients beyond traditional mapping tools." said Ben Morley-John, Data & Analytics Lead, Australia at L.E.K. Consulting.

July 27, 2017  Taqtile, a leading provider of cross-industry, mixed reality software solutions, today announces the addition of L.E.K. Consulting and Utilidata as customers for its HoloMaps Enterprise solution. These customers deployments utilize the latest version of that solution. HoloMaps Enterprise is the first 3D mapping product built for Microsofts HoloLens that includes data integration and shared experience features, presenting a host of capabilities for geographically related data visualization.

We are excited to be building on the momentum HoloMaps Enterprise has generated with customers such as PGA Tour and the Cleveland Cavaliers, said Taqtile co-founder Dirck Schou. With this release, weve been able to address one of the key product requests since HoloMaps launched - powerful tailoring tools which enable our customers to generate custom data visualizations over a variety of map sources and types.

Both companies mentioned above are focused on a unique use case: L.E.K. Consulting Australia, part of global strategy consulting firm L.E.K., is working with HoloMaps to visualize current behavioural data to better understand and forecast how cities function in the context of future transport and mobility. Utilidata delivered a narrative demonstration of its utilities-focused HoloMaps deployment while at the National Governors Association Summer Meeting last week in Providence, Rhode Island.

"HoloMaps provides us with a novel way to collaborate and visualize data providing new insights for our clients beyond traditional mapping tools." said Ben Morley-John, Data & Analytics Lead, Australia at L.E.K. Consulting.

Utilidata is leveraging Taqtile's HoloMaps Enterprise Platform to illustrate the power of real-time visibility for utilities operating the electric grid, said Josh Brumberger, Chief Commercial Officer at Utilidata. As our electric infrastructure transforms to become more intelligent, efficient, and secure, utilities require new tools to help them recognize and respond to changing grid conditions in real time. The Hololens and HoloMaps enable us to present grid intelligence in a novel way thats clear and compelling  providing the template for how we operate the electric grid of the future.

The new version of HoloMaps Enterprise includes the following features:



In addition to the 3D cities and landmarks provided by Bing 3D, users can now view 3D terrain in any location across the world.

Five map sources, including Bing 3D, Virtual Earth, ESRI ArcGIS, MapBox Classic, and Thunderforest.

Supports over 30 map types featuring roads, national parks, trails, bike routes and more.

Map displays are customizable; options include map color, tint, and vertical scale for 3D geometry.

Collaboration enabled: Two or more co-located, or remote participants can join a shared session, seeing the same maps and data simultaneously.

Leave notes at key points of interest and draw 3D ink to highlight areas and objects

View connected data services for current weather & forecast, live traffic, and geo-tagged Tweets

Create, save, and view custom data layer overlays, including:

o Ability to upload new data via a web portal.

o Users can assign data to a selection of shapes displayed upon the map.

o Linked data can dynamically change shape color, scale, and position.

For more information about HoloMaps Enterprise, click here.

About Taqtile

Taqtile builds cross-device, cross-industry, mixed reality software solutions designed to improve industrial processes, complex task learning and data visualization; ultimately making enterprises, organizations and cities more transparent and efficient. Organizations like Microsoft, Starbucks, AT&T, Dollar General, the PGA Tour, Cleveland Cavaliers and Real Madrid Futbol Club rely on Taqtile for executing application strategy, design and development. Headquartered in Seattle, with offices in Tucson and Sao Paulo, Brazil, Taqtile was founded in 2011. For more information, visit http://www.Taqtile.com.
Without the appropriate coverage in place, something as unexpected as the cost of a transplant can be devastating to a company.

Focused on providing employer-clients with health benefit options that combine cost control and high-quality care, Cypress Benefit Administrators has shared a success story that highlights two of these next-generation solutions in action.

The third party administrator (TPA) has been administering a self-funded health plan on behalf of an architectural/engineering consulting firm* for the last 15 years. This employer-client recently added organ transplant carve-out insurance and a cancer care management program to its plan, and is already seeing some significant results after implementation.

With the organ transplant insurance addition, the consulting firm will save upwards of $2 million on health claim costs related to two cases involving bone marrow and pancreas transplants. The carve-out insurance has covered all costs related to the transplant procedures to date and also ensured that the plan participants requiring them received top-notch care.

Without the appropriate coverage in place, something as unexpected as the cost of a transplant can be devastating to a company, said Tom Doney, president and CEO of Cypress. Having this carve-out insurance made a huge difference for our client in terms of savings, and also gave both patients the opportunity to receive exceptional care at renowned facilities.

In addition to the $2 million worth of services covered for the two organ transplants, the architectural firm also implemented a cancer care management program through Cypress that is proving to be successful.

A plan participant was diagnosed with cancer after the program was integrated into the firms health plan late last year. The employee was then connected with a cancer care team that recommended a new, proton beam therapy based on the particular diagnosis. The program covered this advanced treatment and the employee is now cancer-free.

These organ transplant and cancer care programs are great examples of the forward-thinking approach Cypress is taking with health plans today, Doney said. The savings are one way to measure a programs success, but nothing can quite compare to seeing someone receive a clean bill of health.

*Company identity withheld for patient privacy purposes.

About Cypress Benefit Administrators

A privately held company headquartered in Appleton, Wis., Cypress Benefit Administrators has been pioneering the way toward cost containment in self-funded health benefits since 2000. The third party administrator (TPA) is the countrys first to bring claims administration, consumer driven health plans and proven cost control measures together into one package for companies ranging from 50 employees to thousands of employees. It serves employer-clients across the U.S. with additional locations in Portland, Ore., Omaha, Neb. and Denver, Col. For more information on Cypress and its customized employee benefits, visit http://www.cypressbenefit.com.
Selecting a long-term IT partner is challenging in the cloud, IoT and emerging retail technology environment.

Hoboken, New Jersey - (Cision) July 27, 2017  Many small and mid-size businesses are searching for better solutions to address their network, cloud, disaster recovery, mobile device and retail technology challenges. A new guide entitled: How to Select an SMB IT Consultant is now available free from eMazzanti Technologies, an IT support consultant for the New York City area and internationally.

The guide, introduced by a short article on the companys website, includes 25 questions every small or mid-size business should answer before they select an SMB IT consultant and additional questions relating retail technology services.

The free guide is available for viewing and download at:How to Select an SMB IT Consultant

Selecting a long-term IT partner is challenging in the cloud, IoT and emerging retail technology environment. With 16 years of IT experience and demonstrated leadership in cloud services, we understand that customers are looking for technology strategies to grow revenues, said Jennifer Mazzanti, CEO, eMazzanti Technologies. These are 25 questions to help you select the best possible SMB IT consultant. We have incorporated these customer-driven expectations into everything we do.

Sample questions from How to select an SMB IT Consultant

5. Do they understand your business problems? Look for an IT partner that has in-depth experience in your specific industry. Experienced doctors can listen to you talk about the symptoms and then provide the correct diagnosis and treatment. Good SMB IT consultants should be able to swiftly grasp work processes and information flow, identify issues or bottlenecks, and quickly recommend an effective and affordable solution.

10. Do they recommend solutions that have a specific ROI? Given the right information, almost all IT solutions can be monetized. Empirical knowledge is hard to come by, but reasonable assumptions can help determine the ROI of IT investments. If anti-spam software will speed the review of email by 15-30 minutes each day, the ROI to an office of 20 people is significant. Ask the IT consultant to help you identify and calculate the potential ROI of proposed solutions.

13. Will the proposed business IT services give you a competitive advantage?

Technology is a tool to help create a competitive advantage, grow revenues and impact your bottom line. Ask your IT professional how to best utilize the technology thats been deployed in your business. Just because you have Windows 10 or use Office 365 doesnt mean you know how to maximize its potential. The right tools and the right knowledge will create a competitive advantage and increase revenue.

21. Are they IT security experts? A security breach or ransomware attack can devastate a company in a few days. Check for the security certifications held and training completed by both the IT support technicians and the business. Make sure you know about both types.

Help for Retailers

In addition to the 25 questions on How to Select an SMB IT Consultant, the free business guide includes a bonus section for smaller retailers and retail chains looking for a retail technology services company. The section includes guidance on how to leverage technology to increase traffic and sales.

From wireless systems that also function as traffic counters to digital marketing experts, the guide explains that its rare to find an SMB IT consultant that also provides revenue-enhancing retail technologies and services like EMV deployment strategies.

In addition, retailers may want to seek IT consultants that offer digital marketing services like search engine optimization (SEO), email marketing and automation, comprehensive analytics, digital ads with real-time bidding, and search engine marketing. New technologies such as social data collection and auto-replenishment may also be of interest.

A full version of the business guide, How to Select an SMB IT Consultant, is available free at:

How to select an SMB IT Consultant

Related resource information:

eMazzanti Technologies Continues Climb on List of Worlds Top Managed Services Providers

eMazzanti Technologies Recognized as Top Retailer Vertical Market MSP, 11th Overall

About eMazzanti Technologies

eMazzantis team of trained, certified IT experts rapidly deliver retail and payment technology, digital marketing services, cloud and mobile solutions, multi-site implementations, 247 outsourced network management, remote monitoring and support to increase productivity, data security and revenue growth for clients ranging from law firms to high-end global retailers.

eMazzanti has made the Inc. 5000 list seven years running, is a 2015, 2013 and 2012 Microsoft Partner of the Year, 2016 NJ Business of the Year, 5X WatchGuard Partner of the Year and one of the TOP 200 U.S. Microsoft Partners! Contact: 1-866-362-9926, info@emazzanti.net or http://www.emazzanti.net Twitter: @emazzanti Facebook: Facebook.com/emazzantitechnologies.
The contest opens Friday, July 28 at 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The Milstein Family Foundation will award cash prizes to meme creators who show the fun and funny side of pro-Israel activism by creating entertaining and shareable images.

The Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation will begin accepting submissions to its worldwide competition for the pro-Israel memes on Friday at 6 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. The Milstein Meme Competition will give a chance for hundreds of pro-Israel meme creators to show off their skills and win cash prizes totaling $2,000.

Whether funny, dramatic or poignant, memes are a cultural touchstone for Millennials and Gen Z. The contest will solicit image macros, one of the most popular forms of internet memes, which are images, videos, websites or hashtags that spread virally over social media, often with slight variations. The contest will create a meme stashfrom classics like lolcats and Bad Luck Brian macros to emerging memes like MS Paint tributes and Snapchats hotdog filterfor pro-Israel activists.

This contest is a fun way for us to express our love and support for Israel with wit and levity, philanthropist Adam Milstein said. Our panelists are the foremost authorities in meme making and sharing. These high school and college students are connoisseurs of memes.

The contests public voting period will begin on Aug. 3 at 5 a.m. Eastern Standard Time. Each participant can submit up to five memes. The public voting will take the form of Facebook reacts  like, love, haha, sad, wow or angry. Both submissions and voting will end on Aug. 14 at midnight Eastern Standard Time.

After the period of public voting, the final winners will be chosen by a panel of 6 college and high school student pro-Israel activists. Cash prizes will be awarded to one first-place winner, two second-place winners, five third-place winners, and 10 runners-up. All of the winners will be announced Aug. 17.

This is a contest that will reward people with two great qualities: a sense of humor and a love of Israel, said Tamar Lyons, a junior at Ryerson University and the president of her schools chapter of Students Supporting Israel. Promoting a cause through memes is a great way to reach people in a fast and fun way. My friends and I are always making and sharing memes, so I am very excited to judge this contest and see what people come up with.

The Milstein Family Foundation partnered with more than a dozen Jewish and pro-Israel organizations to sponsor the contest. To sign up or vote, go to http://www.milsteinmemes.org.

About the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation: The MFF works to safeguard and strengthen the Jewish People and the Jewish State by igniting Jewish pride in the next generation, providing pro-Israel Americans with knowledge and expertise to advocate for the State of Israel, and bolstering the critical U.S.-Israel Alliance. Learn more at: http://milsteinff.org/
Screen Shot of the D&I App fig.1 Interactive has shown that we can make Diversity & Inclusion concepts engaging and accessible.

Media Contact:

James Figliulo

fig.1, Interactive

(773) 612-3313

jim(at)fig1(dot)com

New Agency Humanizes Diversity & Inclusion Apps, Sets Compliance Trends for Developers and Socially Responsible Corporations

fig.1 Interactive is launched today to directly meet the burgeoning demand for Diversity and Inclusion training in corporations and institutions throughout the world. fig.1 Interactive is led by a group of experienced, talented and focused professionals who, while at fig.1 Inc, developed the Diversity and Inclusion application for MMC that so successfully gave them a meaningful, enjoyable and interactive learning experience.

At a time when both employees and clients show greater loyalty to companies with strong Corporate Social Responsibility Practices, the innovative fig.1 Interactive team will serve those companies which are committed to fostering a pluralistic society.

The agency humanizes Diversity & Inclusion with its familiar tools, such as social media style application design. With a wealth of experience designing, marketing and distributing web and mobile applications for a range of industries, the founders of fig.1 Interactive look to concentrate their expertise to work with businesses to help them embrace corporate social responsibilities. fig.1 Interactives cutting edge Diversity & Inclusion e-learning experience mimics the intuitive use and visual aesthetic of a social networking site. Additionally, fig.1 Interactives ultra-compliant and agile solution meets increasingly rigorous security checks as global business struggles to prepare for GDPR enforcement in 2018.

What makes fig.1 Interactive a unicorn poised to lead the pack is their ability to deliver in 3 key areas that will become even more crucial to developers and enterprise leaders in the future:

1.) Secure technology that protects sensitive employee data and meets compliance checks at scale

2.) Collaborative acumen that combines creative, humanitarian and business expertise to produce authentic, effective designs

3.) Commitment to social ideals in an era where businesses are increasingly expected to demonstrate high levels of Corporate Social Responsibility

The Use Case: Diversity App for Marsh & McLennan Companies

Re-Defining E-Learning: Designing for the Multi-Generational Workforce

While the topic remains hot, the approach to Diversity & Inclusion training has often been vague, uninspired and rote. Bucking the formulaic trend, Marsh & McLennan committed to a fresh and engaging approach to Diversity & Inclusion. Building on top of e-learning platform provider Cornerstone, fig.1 Interactive developed a highly-interactive learning experience for MMC employees.

fig.1 Interactive CEO, Jim Figliulo, shares the industry-wide implications of the apps ultramodern and human-centered UI/UX design: When considering today's War for Talent with a millennial-driven, culturally inspired and tech savvy workforce, our Diversity & Inclusion app was created with a deep understanding of today's user and how best to engage them-ultimately resulting in a high level of acceptance across the MMC organization.

Exceeding Compliance and Scalability Goals with Microsoft Azure

While most creative agencies can provide exceptional aesthetics, fig.1 Interactive goes beyond design to meet the unique security needs of confidential employee data. As upcoming federal mandates will more strictly dictate how businesses can use personal information, fig.1 Interactive offers a sophisticated technological solution to the complex matter of compliance. Well-versed in contemporary security and compliance hurdles, fig.1 Interactive leverages prominent platform provider Microsoft Azure to ensure security at global scale.

Technology Implementation Lead, Randy Janzen notes: This decision was critical in helping MMC exceed both compliance and scalability goals. Azure allowed us to provide a working product that would scale over time. Our solution works great where they are now, with 67,000 employees in over 17 languages. It will work just as great when they grow to 150,000 employees and over 50 languages.

Janzen adds: Because we decided to go with .NET, Azure was the easiest infrastructure from a development standpoint. We had to go through a 300-point security audit and review around our infrastructure. We completed and passed because we chose Azure. Microsoft publishes a description of the physical security around their systems, provided in detail, probably for these very security reasons.

Winning the War for Talent with Good: Modeling Corporate Social Responsibility with MMC

In a market where employers must aggressively compete to attract and retain ideal employees, Corporate Social Responsibility offers a distinct edge. Studies like Babson Colleges Project ROI show that Corporate Social Responsibility practices tangibly benefit Human Resources. Among other advantages, a joint study by Verizon and Campbells Soup suggests a genuine commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility can reduce staff turnover by up to 50%, increase productivity by up to 13%, and increase employee engagement up to 7.5%.

The fig.1 Interactive Team aims to build on the experience gained through their work with MMC and Cornerstone to help more companies create positive change for their companies and society. Figliulo remarks: We make Diversity & Inclusion concepts engaging and accessible. Our experience with MMC shows that we design to scale  but, not just technologically, like we did with Microsoft Azure. fig.1 Interactive can help companies scale their loyalty, brand reputation and Corporate Social Responsibility practices.

Connect with fig.1 Inc and fig.1 Interactive

Follow @_fig.1 on Instagram

Link to QA and Media Kit: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B9yVl7xH5zNfUU5UOFluSmp3QzQ

About fig.1 Interactive

fig.1 Interactive LLC is a new company led by a group of professionals that while at fig.1 Inc. created the highly acclaimed Diversity and Inclusion e-learning application for Marsh & McLennan Companies. It specializes in the creation and development of Diversity and Inclusion and related Human Capital applications.

Forward-Looking Statements

Certain statements contained in this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements provide current expectations of future events based on certain assumptions and include any statement that does not directly relate to any historical or current fact. Actual results may differ materially from those indicated by such forward-looking statements as a result of various important factors, including: risks related to the ability of the Company to compete effectively; the ability to deliver and stimulate demand for new products and technological innovations on a timely basis; delays or reductions in information technology spending; the integration of acquisitions and the ability to market successfully acquired technologies and products; fluctuations in exchange rates; the effects of industry consolidation; uncertainty and adverse results in litigation and related settlements; the inability to adequately protect Company intellectual property and the potential for infringement or breach of license claims of or relating to third party intellectual property; risks related to data and information security vulnerabilities; the ability to meet financial and operational challenges encountered in our international operations; ineffective management of, and control over, the Company's growth and international operations; and changes in and a dependence on key personnel, as well as other factors contained in our most recent Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q (copies of which may be accessed through the Securities and Exchange Commission's website at http://www.sec.gov), including those found therein under the captions "Risk Factors" and "Management's Discussion and Analysis of Financial Condition and Results of Operations". In addition to these factors, actual future performance, outcomes, and results may differ materially because of more general factors including (without limitation) general industry and market conditions and growth rates, economic and political conditions, governmental and public policy changes and the impact of natural disasters such as earthquakes and floods. The forward-looking statements included in this press release represent the Company's views as of the date of this press release and these views could change. However, while the Company may elect to update these forward-looking statements at some point in the future, the Company specifically disclaims any obligation to do so. These forward-looking statements should not be relied upon as representing the Company's views as of any date subsequent to the date of this press release.

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Datometry's technology for virtualizing databases removes vendor lock-in and enables enterprises to implement cloud-native technologies in weeks rather than years.

Datometry, the pioneer in Adaptive Data Warehouse Virtualization technology, is pleased to announce that Professor Joseph Hellersteinone of the most recognized innovators in the data management industryhas joined Datometry as a Technical Advisor.

Professor Hellerstein is a much-awarded expert, accomplished author, entrepreneur (he is a founder of Trifacta), and a respected speaker on all things data. He is a Professor of Computer Science at UC Berkeley and has also held several key industry positions including Director of Intel Research Labs and Chief Scientist of Cohera Corporation. Professor Hellerstein is also a Technical Advisor to Captricity, SurveyMonkey, and DellEMC.

I'm excited to be a part of Datometry, says Professor Hellerstein. There has been a remarkable shift among Global Fortune 100 companies to cloud-native database technologies over the past couple years. The business advantages are compelling. But in shifting to the cloud, enterprises still face significant obstacles--most notably the expense and risk of application migration. Datometry's technology for virtualizing databases removes vendor lock-in and enables enterprises to implement cloud-native technologies in weeks rather than years. I look forward to working with Datometry on their mission of rewriting the data management story.

We are honored and very pleased that Professor Hellerstein has joined us as a Technical Advisor. Truly, there is no one with the experience and breadth of expertise quite like Professor Hellerstein, says Mike Waas, CEO and founder of Datometry. And theres nothing like our Adaptive Database Virtualization technology. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to bring the two together as we advance our mission of cloud-shift innovation.

Datometry partners with leading cloud service providers and database vendors including Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft, Pivotal, and Snowflake.

About Datometry

Datometry (http://www.datometry.com) is revolutionizing how global enterprises can gain competitive advantage by up-leveling their data management to become cloud-native quickly and effectively. Datometry Hyper-Q is a category-defining solution that accelerates the digital transformation of enterprise IT by eliminating the costs and risks of adopting new data management technologies and lets the enterprise realize significant savings, innovate faster, and increase the speed of business. Hyper-Q is powered by Datometrys proprietary technology developed by an expert team of database researchers and engineers. Datometry is headquartered in San Francisco, California.

Media Contact: Sonya Pelia at press(at)datometry(dot)com

Datometry and associated marks are trademarks or registered trademarks of Datometry, Inc.
MDISS is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization operating under a grant from the Department of Homeland Security, focusing on the intersection of medical device cybersecurity and public health. Our new WHISTL facility enables us to run medical devices through tougher, more realistic test regimes. Hidden vulnerabilities surface faster, and we can keep the focus on patient safety. - Ben Esslinger, CBET Manager & Clinical Engineer, Eskenazi Health

MDISS, the Medical Device Innovation, Safety and Security Consortium today launched the first of more than a dozen planned device security testing labs and cyber-ranges. The new MDISS World Health Information Security Testing Lab (WHISTL) facilities will comprise a federated network of medical device security testing labs, independently owned and operated by MDISS-member organizations including healthcare delivery organizations, medical device manufacturers, universities and technology companies. Each WHISTL facility will launch and operate under a shared set of standard operating procedures. The goal is to help organizations work together to more effectively address the public health challenges arising from cybersecurity issues emergent in complex, multi-vendor networks of medical devices.

While such security proving grounds arent new to enterprise IT, WHISTL is the first network of labs specifically designed around the needs of medical device researchers, healthcare IT professionals and hospital clinical engineering leaders. By the end of 2017, MDISS WHISTL facilities will open in New York, Indiana, Tennessee, California as well as in the UK, Israel, Finland and Singapore.

Benjamin G. Esslinger, CBET Manager/Clinical Engineer at Eskenazi Health, said Working with MDISS over the past year on WHISTL has helped us make real progress against some very complex risk scenarios, while keeping the focus on patient safety. Esslinger is the current 2017 Trustee and past President of the Indiana Biomedical Society. He works with Matthew S. Dimino, an Imaging Engineer at Eskenazi Health and educator at Indiana University - Purdue University Indianapolis. Esslinger continued, Remember, medical devices are still on the frontier of cybersecurity, and security best practices for devices are still maturing. Our new WHISTL facility enables us to run medical devices through tougher, more realistic test regimes. Hidden vulnerabilities surface more quickly, and that helps us build more responsive standard operating procedures.

WHISTL facilities focus on identifying and mitigating medical device vulnerabilities, sharing solutions and best practices, and device security education and awareness. Newly uncovered vulnerabilities will be responsibly reported to device manufacturers and to the NHISAC-MDISS Medical Device Vulnerability Program for Evaluation and Response, or MDVIPER at https://mdviper.org/

WHISTL will provide much-needed insight from actual developers and users of medical devices, which will result in increased relevant and actionable information sharing and situational awareness for all stakeholders in healthcare, said Denise Anderson, president of NH-ISAC, NH-ISAC looks forward to partnering with MDISS on this important effort for the community.

MDISS, under a $1.8M contract from the Department of Homeland Security (Science and Technology Directorate, Cyber Security Division) built the medical device cyber risk assessment platform, or MDRAP. The platform helps health systems, device manufacturers, and technology firms collaborate to produce and share device risk assessments. The fast-growing and standards-based MDRAP platform features moderated crowdsourcing and facilitates timely, responsible sharing of risk assessments and threat indicators, while helping automate critical device inventory, audit, oversight and vulnerability tracking tasks for hospitals.

Dr. Nordenberg, MD, Executive Director of MDISS, and former CIO at the National Centers for Disease Controls National Center for Infectious Diseases, stated, MDISS WHISTL facilities will dramatically improve access to device security know-how while protecting patient privacy and stakeholder intellectual property. Solid cyber-lab governance will support an international-scale network of research and training centers of excellence, designed especially for medical device designers, hospital IT, and clinical engineering professionals.

WHISTLs device testing protocols will have their foundation in the UL Cybersecurity Assurance Program specifications (UL CAP, at http://industries.ul.com/cybersecurity), especially with regards to fuzz testing, static binary analysis and structured penetration testing.

For more information about WHISTL, contact MDISS at whistl(at)mdiss(dot)org

ABOUT MDISS  The Medical Device Innovation, Safety and Security Consortium (MDISS), founded in 2010, is a 501(c)(3) non-profit public/private partnership dedicated to advancing patient safety and public health, and the first to focus exclusively on medical device cybersecurity. MDISS develops and delivers practical technology, operations and policy solutions for member organizations, including hospitals, health delivery organizations, doctors, epidemiologists, clinical engineers, medical device manufacturers, academics, regulators, embedded security experts and cybersecurity researchers. Join us. Visit http://www.mdiss.org.

ABOUT NH-ISAC  The National Health Information Sharing and Analysis Center (NH-ISAC), the official healthcare information sharing and analysis center, offers non-profit and for-profit healthcare stakeholders, such as: independent hospitals, IDN providers, health insurance payers, pharmaceutical/biotech manufacturers, laboratory, diagnostic, medical device manufacturers, medical school and medical R&D organizations, a community and forum for sharing cyber and physical threat indicators, best practices and mitigation strategies. NH-ISAC is a non-profit corporation funded and owned by its members. please visit http://www.nhisac.org.

Media Contact:

Kurt Stammberger, CISSP PMC

+1-415-519-0840

kurt.stammberger(at)mdiss(dot)org

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CETOL 6 provides valuable insights into our design and engineering development cycle and contributes to maintaining our edge.

Sigmetrix, global experts in GD&T and mechanical variation, has been implemented by Electricfil Automotive (EFI Automotive) for their tolerance analysis solution. The culture of EFI Automotive is that of a manufacturing company with an 80-year record of excellence, in particular in the field of sensors, actuators and embedded smart modules. EFI Automotive solutions help increase the efficiency of conventional automobile engines and transmissions as well as their hybrid and all-electric counterparts, while reducing polluting emissions and CO2.

Of its 80 years of business, 50 have been in the automobile sector, which makes EFI Automotive a tier-one automotive parts supplier with an international reputation. EFI Automotive is now among the top 3 companies in the world, and is the leading company in Europe for engine management sensors.

EFI Automotives products address engine, transmission and emission efficiency. Improving engine efficiency is a constant challenge, and EFI Automotive is already working on new generations of sensors to look ahead to new features: micro-hybrids (stop & start), variable valve lift technology (VVT and VVL), and cylinder deactivation. In a global environment with increasing demands EFI Automotive brings flexible and adaptable solutions to the requirements involved in driving pleasure, passenger comfort, and reductions in vehicle fuel consumption. EFI Automotive is involved with the electrification of vehicles as well, taking part in an overall process to reduce polluting emissions and CO2 for conventional vehicles and electric vehicles.

For more than 80 years, customers have trusted EFI Automotive to help them accelerate time-to-market and reduce risk with cost-effective advanced sensor and actuator solutions. CETOL 6 provides valuable insights into our design and engineering development cycle and contributes to maintaining our edge, states Franck Fornarini, Mechanical Design Leader at EFI. Because EFI Automotive is widely acknowledged as an industry leader in automotive sensor applications, we depend on CETOL to help maintain our leadership position.

CETOL 6 is the worlds most powerful tolerance analysis software and empowers electronic manufacturing companies to deliver superior products faster and increase profitability. Utilizing tolerance analyses early on in the design process enables engineers to work more efficiently and better innovate product design by eliminating the need for manual stackups, which can cause delays and errors. By employing CETOL 6 mechanical engineers worldwide can optimize product designs, shorten product development cycles and deliver better, more robust products faster.

Sigmetrix is honored that EFI Automotive engineers trust CETOL 6 in their leading-edge design and manufacturing processes. CETOL enables efficient design cycles with the emphasis in robust designs to stay ahead of the competition  designs that can get to market fast and that are cost effective, said Chris Wilkes, Sigmetrix President & CEO. Were delighted that EFI continues to employ CETOL 6 for their tolerance analysis needs. We are confident that by utilizing CETOL throughout product development EFI will further enhance their ability to deliver superior products faster and increase profitability.

For more information on CETOL 6 visit http://www.sigmetrix.com/tolerance-analysis-software-cetol.htm.

About Sigmetrix

Sigmetrix is a global provider of comprehensive, easy-to-use software solutions that help users achieve robust designs through tolerance analysis and the correct application of GD&T. With over 20 years of research and development, Sigmetrix products eliminate the error between as-designed assemblies and as-produced products. For more information, visit their website at http://www.sigmetrix.com.

About Electricfil Automotive

In addition to innovation, helping its prominent manufacturing clients around the globe has long been an integral part of EFI Automotives development. Even though the company thinks globally, it works locally, said Didier Pradeilles, Chief Operating Officer. Thanks to its strong emphasis on service, EFI Automotive is able to put its clients in contact with local manufacturers with the same level of quality, reliability, and performance.

Over the years, the company has called different places home. In 2015, it totaled 69% of its revenue in Europe, a figure that is decreasing due to the growing significance of Asia (17%) and the United States (14%). In 2020, 50% of its revenue will come from outside of Europe.

Its custom-made smart modules improve the efficiency of combustion, hybrid and electric engines, ease of use of transmissions, driving safety, and the reduction of polluting emissions such as CO and NOx. Its products have become more and more compact, light, inexpensive, and oriented towards sustainable development. For more information, visit their website at http://www.efiautomotive.com/.
Good Samaritan Bonus Winners I wanted people to understand the power of writing even a small check for $100 and giving it to a charity. People dont realize how much of a difference you can make when you start doing that on a monthly basis. - Andy Albright

Companys unique charitable giving program eyes $250,000 mark in 2017.

In 2013, Andy Albright was trying to think of ways to inspire his network of insurance agents to donate money to charities around the world, he sketched out a simple idea on a white sheet of paper.

The co-founder, president and CEO of National Agents Alliance (The Alliance), an Insurance Marketing Organization headquartered in Burlington, N.C., wanted his team to experience the feeling he got from supporting various charities and non-profit organizations.

The result was the Good Samaritan Bonus, which has donated more than $230,000 since its inception. For Albright, it was another example of the last part of The Alliances motto: Have Fun, Make Money and Make a Difference.

I wanted people to understand the power of writing even a small check for $100 and giving it to a charity, Albright said. People dont realize how much of a difference you can make when you start doing that on a monthly basis. Plus, it feels great to be able to help people and charities you believe are doing great work. They need money to keep doing what they do, so when you can help them out it feels great.

Since its inception, The Alliance has awarded more than 600 GSB checks to more than 100 charities around the world.

For The Alliance, giving back through service-work and by donating money to charities is something its sales force wants to do. In fact, it is part of the job description. That service-based mindset is not lost on insurance carriers that partner with The Alliance to offer financial products to clients.

One such partner, Foresters Financial believes strongly in giving back to communities through volunteering and financial contributions. Foresters, which serves more than 3 million clients in the U.S., Canada and United Kingdom, boasts almost $14 billion in assets and has been rated A (Excellent) by A.M. Best for 15 straight years.

The Alliance and Foresters partner for an annual Delivering The Difference project to help people in need. This week, the two partners participated in a Feed The Hunger Pack-A-Thon that will provide 105,000 meals to people around the world, setting a record for meals prepared in a single work shift.

Tony Garcia, president and CEO of Foresters, said working with a company that offers its salesforce incentive-based programs like the GSB in an effort to support charities and non-profit organizations made him proud to partner with The Alliance.

It speaks to the values-based alignment between Foresters Financial and The Alliance that Andy Albright created the Good Samaritan Bonus Program, Garcia said. The GSB program enables The Alliance field force to earn charitable donations matching from Andy.

The Alliance has donated to non-profit organizations like: Make-A-Wish, St. Jude Childrens Hospital, Duke Childrens Hospital, American Cancer Society, Alzheimers Association, Wounded Warrior Project, Big Brothers-Big Sisters, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Boys & Girls Clubs of America, Autism Speaks and many other churches and charities.

The Alliance agents earn GSB checks based on monthly sales and recruiting goals. Agents can earn checks for $100 to $350 monthly.

In 2017, Albright tweaked GSB requirements in an effort to allow even more agents to earn GSB checks each month. The companys goal for this year is to donate more than $250,000 to charities around the world.

Thats our goal in 2017, and we believe we will do it, Albright said. As a company, we needed to set a goal and thats what we came up with. I hope we blow right past that mark and get closer to $500,000. I dont know of too many other companies who even offer their people a chance to give away money to charities that they pick. This isnt me telling our people who to donate money to. They earn the GSB checks and they get to decide where the money goes. You cant describe how it makes our agents feel to have the chance to do that. Its very empowering. I know that our team is making an impact on people all over the world.

About National Agents Alliance (The Alliance)

National Agents Alliance (The Alliance) is an insurance marketing organization that recruits life insurance agents across the United States. With approximately 150 employees at the home office in Burlington, N.C., it provides a proven sales system, state-of-the-art lead program, acts as liaison to partner carriers and provides assistance for agents to receive training. The Alliance has agents in all 50 states and is dedicated to putting clients first. We are affiliated with over a dozen highly rated insurance carriers such as Mutual of Omaha, Transamerica, Foresters and CFG, providing products for agents that are in high demand. Since 2002, The Alliance has offered more than $100 billion in coverage to more than 1 million families.

For more information, please contact Mac Heffner at mheffner(at)naaleads(dot)com or at 336.227.3319 x1189.
"In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony. I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept #swamp @Reince45," Scaramucci's tweet said.

After several political commentators and news websites speculated that Scaramucci may have been threatening Priebus, Scaramucci tweeted again: "Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks."

He also deleted the original post:

Scaramucci's initial message appeared to refer to a Politico story published Wednesday that revealed details about his financial-disclosure form.

The report said Scaramucci earned $4.9 million from his stake in the investment firm SkyBridge Capital and a salary of more than $5 million from January 2016 to June 2017.

There have long been rumors of turmoil between Scaramucci and Priebus, and Scaramucci's introduction as White House communications director led to speculation that Priebus' job may be on the line.

According to several reports, both Priebus and Sean Spicer were vehemently against Scaramucci's hiring  Spicer resigned as White House press secretary on the day the new hire was announced.

CNN contributor Ryan Lizza said Wednesday night that Scaramucci blamed Priebus "for blocking him at every turn" when he tried to get a job in the White House soon after President Donald Trump was elected.

Lizza said Scaramucci tried to go around Priebus to talk to Trump and later blamed Priebus "for canceling three scheduled meetings with the president" before Scaramucci was eventually hired as communications director.

Priebus previously sought to downplay suggestions that he was at odds with Scaramucci. He appeared on Fox News host Sean Hannity's program last week to say that rumors he and Scaramucci didn't "like each other" were untrue. In Scaramucci's first appearance in front of the White House press corps in his new role last week, he said he and Priebus "are a little bit like brothers, where we rough each other up once in a while, which is totally normal for brothers."

CNN reporter Evan Perez threw cold water on Scaramucci's claim that leaks of his disclosure information were a felony, saying "financial disclosure forms are filed with the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) and are not classified."

Still, US Justice Department spokeswoman Sarah Isgur Flores backed Scaramucci in a statement released Wednesday night.

"We have seen an astonishing increase in the number of leaks of classified national security information in recent months," she said. "We agree with Anthony that these staggering number of leaks are undermining the ability of our government to function and to protect this country."

She continued: "Like the attorney general has said, 'Whenever a case can be made, we will seek to put some people in jail, and we will aggressively pursue leak cases wherever they may lead.'"

Trump has also publicly denounced leaks of unflattering revelations about his team, which is deeply embroiled in an FBI investigation into Russia's meddling in the 2016 US election and whether it colluded with the Trump campaign.

Scaramucci's deleted tweet seemed to loosely resemble the types of attacks Trump has leveled against his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, over the past week.

In a series of tweets and public statements, Trump has rhetorically strong-armed Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia investigation, calling him "beleaguered" and accusing him of taking a "very weak position" on matters involving Trumps former Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton.
Thanks to that Airbnb partnership, the launch of a new doorbell camera, and a market-leading position in brick-and-mortar stores, times are good for August Home, the company behind the smart lock, said

Now, August is getting a cash windfall to try to unlock even more good times. The company is announcing that it's received $25 million in funding from Comcast Ventures, Qualcomm Ventures, and others, including Australian utility company AGL.

"We are now in growth-and-expansion mode," Johnson told Business Insider.

August, which has now raised around $75 million in venture capital, plans to use the new funds to build out its roster of partnerships, he said.

August already has numerous ties that allow its locks to work with other companies' gadgets and services. For example, if you own an August lock and you get a delivery from Postmates, you can temporarily grant the Postmates courier the privilege to unlock your front gate or door. Similarly, if you rent a room on Airbnb or HomeAway, you can allow your guests to unlock the door with their smartphones just for the duration of their stay. And if your appliances need repair, you can use August's app to grant access to your home to a Sears Home Services technician.

Such partnerships have been very lucrative for August Home, and the company plans to sign more of them, Johnson said. August's locks are were designed to meet the needs not just of consumers, but of enterprise customers, he said. Because of that, there are all sorts of opportunities for August to provide services that allow companies to control access to particular buildings or openings, he said.

Still, many of August's 500,000 users are consumers, and the company plans to continue to focus on that market. Some of its new cash will go toward the launch of new hardware devices later this year, Johnson said.

"That's our bread and butter," he said.

August, which doesn't disclose its precise device sales, has been working to ensure that its locks are compatible with the major smart home platforms, including Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's HomeKit. There's fierce competition brewing among those tech giants for control of the home, but Johnson's not worried.
Google CEO Sundar Pichai was first to issue a statement, tweeting that he was "

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff retweeted his company's official statement.

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also chimed in, decrying discrimination.

Apple CEO Tim Cook echoed Dorsey with his own statement.

And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg contributed to the discussion on his site.

Postmates Founder and CEO Bastian Lehmann cited his own service before voicing his support for equality and diversity in the military.

President of Microsoft Brad Smith repeated the sentiment of the day and was retweeted by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

Trump made the announcement on Twitter. His move reverses a decision in 2016 by the Obama administration to allow transgender people to serve openly.

The outcry from tech leaders is only the latest time they've publicly criticized the president. Tech leaders also took issue with Trump's travel ban on people immigrating from the Middle East and have voiced concerns about his withdrawal from the Paris Agreement and his administration's position on net neutrality.
Dr Akoto Osei was speaking at the first West Africa Monitoring and Evaluation conference organized by the International Centre for Evaluation and Development (ICED).

The Minister said some ministries have submitted their reports with details on their key priority areas to be assessed on.

All the Ministers have but we are refining them to meet the standard. We will be organizing a workshop on that in the next two weeks so we finalise them and forward to cabinet. But all of them have submitted the first draft but it takes some time to define precisely what results you want. It is not easy to talk of what exactly you want to achieve in 2017; it could be tangible results or just output.

The Minister could not readily tell which ministries will be assessed first but he was certain they will prioritise the finance and energy sector.

Finance and energy are always top on the line because of the relationship to the general welfare of the country. When there are power crisis, generally businesses do not do well so if the minister tells me he will be able to eliminate dumsor by December, then I expect him to do so.

Ghana is the first country in the West African sub-region to coordinate the activities of the various ministries.
He disclosed the details of his upcoming project on a one on one exclusive interview at Pulse studios.

The artist explained his absence from the music industry was he taking a break and focusing on other projects such as his nightclub, other business engagements and also rebranding himself.

I took my first break when Castro disappeared. We had two songs together so but we never got the chance to perform those songs so I took my first break and I went back to the studios to record Kotomoshi in 2015 after that I started building a nightclub. I just needed to take time and rebrand. I was focusing on different things.

The business guru had a lot to say regarding his latest album describing it as a song expressing himself and lyricizing his everyday life.

There is a new album, the first one we are releasing is on Friday. Its titled bottles ft. Medikal its a Hip-hop song for the masses. Its just me telling the truth, being myself what I do almost every single week which is partying, having a good time so I wanted to do a song that centres around that.

He explained that he brought Medikal onto the project because he felt that he was the perfect fit for the concept he was trying to bring to life.

"The song needed somebody living that kind of lifestyle so music is about telling a story and trying as much as possible to be honest with it E.L Sarkodie they dont go out much they dont lie that kind of life I know Shatta Wale does but he is not a rapper so Medikal is synonymous to what I was looking for.

READ ALSO : DJ Cuppy, Jada Pinkett strike a pose at private movie screening

Bottles the lead track for his upcoming album was produced by Ronny Turn Me Up and the video due to be released tomorrow July 27th and was directed by Yaw Skyface. It will premiere at 10 pm exclusively on Facebook Pulse

His next single after 'Bottles' he described as a highlife song featuring Bisa Kdei.

D-Black iterated that his album has a total track list of 14 songs featuring famous artists like Ycee from Nigeria, Sarkodie and all the artists on the Black Avenue label including Wissa.
The Ghanaian rapper said in his opinion both ladies were justified regarding the matter since both sides were critical to the development of the industry.

To be honest with you agree with both of them the industry is dying yes it needs to be revived a lot of work has to be put into it but if doesnt mean a red carpet celebrating the people that are working for the industry. Even though there are issues in the industry they should still be celebrated in the movie industry. The Anglo-rapper disclosed during an interview with Pulse.

The feud between Yvonne Nelson and Nana Akua Addo begun when Yvonne made a comment on Twitter chastising those who wanted to slay on the red carpet yet have refused to realize that the movie industry was on its last leg.
Abdulazeez Yahaya, (33), and Mustapha Abdullahi, (32), residents of new Arkilla and Gawon-Nama areas in the Sokoto metropolis, respectively, were charged with criminal conspiracy, breach of trust and misappropriation of fund.

The Police Prosecutor, Insp. Naallah Jibo, told the court that the accused persons were recruited by one Abubakar Binji of Rabah road in Sokoto, a recharge card dealer, sometime in 2012, to run his business as apprentices.

He said Yahaya was entrusted with recharge cards worth N8, 177, 920 while Abdullahi was entrusted with recharge cards valued at N6, 944, 000 respectively.Student docked for attempted theft.

Jibo told the court that the complainant reported the incident to the Police after he reconciled his accounts with the accused and they could not account for the sum of N11.4 million from proceeds of the sales.

Jibo added that the incident occurred sometime in 2012 and the offences contravened Sections 315 and 309 of the Penal Code Law.

The accused persons pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against them and Chief Magistrate Abubakar Adamu ordered that they should be remanded in prison custody, for further investigations.
The judge, Mr Mohammed Yahaya, sentenced Yahaya Abubakar, Zakari Ibrahim, Ibrahim Aliyu and Tijani Sani who smoked the banned substance at a motor park in Jos.

Yahaya, however, gave the youths an option of N3,000 fine, each.

He warned the youths  first time offenders  to steer clear of crime.

The judge hoped that the sentence would deter others from committing crime.

Earlier, the prosecutor, Sgt. Ibrahim Gukwat, told the court that the police arrested the youths as they were smoking marijuana at a park.

Gukwat told the court that police recovered a bag of the substance from the youths during a further investigation.
Umaru, 28, was earlier arraigned on a count charge of theft.

The offence is contrary to Section 287 of the Penal Code.

In her ruling, Magistrate Amina Musa said that the prosecution had proved its case against the accused beyond reasonable and she had also taken note of the guilty plea of the accused.

Musa, therefore, convicted Umaru of the offence and sentenced him to 30 days in prison.

However, the magistrate gave the convict an option of N5,000 fine.

Musa also ordered Umaru to pay N25,000 to the complainant as restitution for the goat that was stolen.

The Prosecutor, Insp. Alfred Auta, had told court that one Amina Mohammed of Maitumbi in Minna had reported the matter at the police station on July 24.

When the charge was read to Umaru, he pleaded guilty, but urged the court to show him mercy.

Consequently, the prosecutor urged the court to summarily try the convict in line with Section 157 of the Criminal Procedure Code.
The Prosecutor, Helen Ashasim, told court that the matter was reported to the Karu Police Station by one Mercy Sunday also of Karu on July 25.

She informed court that the complainant told the police that the defendant had been impersonating as an army officer.

Ashasim said that the defendant was arrested along the Kugbo-Nyanya Expressway in the FCT extorting money from drivers and motorcyclists, pretending to be a soldier.

The prosecutor said that the accused had admitted committing the offences during police investigation.

She said that the offences were punishable under Sections 132 and 292 of the Penal Code.

The accused, however, pleaded not guilty to the charges.

The Judge, Mr Hassan Ishaq, while granting bail ordered that the surety must be residing within the jurisdiction of the court.

He said that the surety must also submit his drivers licence or national identity and passport photographs with the court.
Reports say there was uneasy calm at the office after three people claimed that they were appointed as managers of the facility.

DCOP Ken Yeboah, Ashanti Regional Police Commander said that his outfit has arrived at the scene to maintain law and order.

We are hearing that about three people are claiming they have been appointed as the manager of the facility but we all know the three people cant be managers at the same time, and, so, we have deployed police to the area to avert chaos.

We have also asked the three persons to go to the regional minister to settle the matter. We are protecting the state property and lives, we are also there to ensure that there is no disturbance, he told Accra FM.

Meanwhile, a letter making the rounds has indicated that the management of MMT had removed from office one of the persons who claimed he was appointed as MD, Daniel Boateng.

READ ALSO: Metro Mass workers stage huge protest against management

The letter signed by Human Resource Manager for the company, Eric Otu, said: We write to you that with immediate effect your appointment as the Kumasi Depot Manager which is supposed to take effect from 15th July 2017 is withdrawn.

We trust that we can count on your cooperation for full compliance.
Police report that the suspect, Elijah Ansah who works as a graphic designer, went missing after allegedly squandering the victims money.

The Public Relations Officer (PRO) of the Accra Regional Police ASP Efia Tenge told journalists that the victim had previously made a GH4,000 down payment but was convinced to pay up his arrears after a picture evidence of the passport was sent to him via phone.

For now, Elijah has been charged with fraud until any further investigations are conducted.

READ ALSO: Floods Death toll now rises to four

The victim confessed that in December 2016, he made his travel intentions known to the alleged fraudster who happened to live in the same neighborhood with him.

The victim was later promised a visa if he could pay a GH30,000 fee.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017, the victim reported the suspect to the police after the suspect had failed to deliver.

He was incarcerated and kept in custody following the victims complaint.

In a statement made by the Elijah Ansah, the suspect acceded to his guilt and refunded GH7,100 of the money to the police.
Social media commentators vexed out their anger against the church and the pastor accusing him of commercialization of the gospel and extortion from people at the conference.

Many were of the view that the revered minister of God, having criticized some unpopular actions of other clergies, should not be entangled in such issues seeming to defraud.

In response to the accusations leveled against the church, Pastor Mensa Otabil alludes that the Christian faith and walk with God is a subject of belief and faith.

READ ALSO: Here are the seven richest African pastors

He suggested that people shouldnt judge their actions based on logic because they arent logical.

"Believe goes beyond logic. Logic would tell you that if you have a GHC1000 in your account then you can expend a GHC1000 because that is logical. Believe would tell you that if you have five loads of bread, you dont feed five people. Believe would tell you that if you have five loaves of bread, you can feed 5,000. Thats not logical," he said speaking the mammoth congregation at Greater Works 2017.

He urged the congregants to believe what the scripture commands and receive their blessings thereof.
At Engineering Council last Wednesday, Atta Akyea noted that: if you hire Ghanaian engineers, they wouldnt want to do the work right. They cut corners, they inflate figures.

For the engineer, who is outside, it is a legacy, so that your name is permanently written but for the Ghanaian engineer, its not like that. He is trying to look at situations to make good money and leaving us a shoddy job.

But the chairman of the Progressive Road Contractors Association, Hammond Larbi has said the poor work on the countrys roads is rather due to the role of political contractors, who are pushing professional contractors out of business.

According to him, after every change of power, new companies suddenly appear claiming to be contractors.

He called for checks at the Registrar-General's department to find out "how many contractors registered this year under the new regime?

Mr Larbi further argued that local contractors are often not paid on time and are sometimes even forced to use their own money to correct some defects in their works.
According to the Minority, the Speaker is biased towards them in the House.

Minority Chief Whip, Mohammed Mubarak Muntaka said the NDC MPs are not treated well and given the chance by Prof. Aaron Michael Oquaye to debate on national issues.

He said the Speaker has been bias against them cataloging a number of critical moments and denied them to voice out their displeasure or question ministers of state who appear before parliament to answer to issues relating to their ministry.

In an interview with journalists, Muntaka said "The day before yesterday, when we were doing the motion about the non urgency of the Office of the Special Prosecutor Bill, 2017 and the Zongo Development Fund, I stood up and if you noticed, for a long time he refused to call me. What I wanted to say was that the process we were using was wrong. Because the constitution under Article 106 (13) says that it has to be done by a committee but they wanted us to do was to ask the House whether they agree or not.

"The constitution didnt say that the House has to decide but rather the Committee that has to do that. So, I decided to draw his attention to that. When that failed, yesterday in the morning, I went to him and when he came I raised these things that Mr. Speaker we are not happy about the way things are going. We argued and ended it and I thought he has taken a cue. Mine was not the first.
According to him, Mahama did not do Ghanaians any good by appointing Charlotte Osei.

Ayariga said she [Osei] only created mess at the commission.

In an interview on Accra-based Kasapa FM, he said "I have nothing against the EC but I have something against her leadership[Chairperson]. And that is why I said this woman is not fit. For God sake and with due respect to former President, that was the last and the worst mistake he made in appointing Charlotte Osei as the Chairperson, and I still stand by that statement."

Some staff of the EC on July 19 filed a petition against the Chairperson calling for a full-scale investigation into alleged misconduct and abuse of office on her part.

READ MORE: Charlotte Osei faces Parliament

She was also accused by her staff for financial malfeasance.

The concerned staff in their petition claim her decision to cancel a contract awarded to Superlock Technologies Limited (STL), a company contracted to supply and manage Biometric Voter Registration machines (BVRs) and the Biometric Voter Devices (BVDs), as well as her directive for the payment of $76,000 to IT firm, Dream Oval, were fraudulent and hence she should be removed from office.

They have petitioned President Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo for her removal as well as sent a similar to the Economic and Organised Crime Office asking for investigations into Mrs Osei's stewardship.
A total of 35 members voted for her rejection. The apparent disappointed Hajia Amama Sayibu polled only 13 of the total 35 votes cast by the assembly members.

READ MORE: Nana Addo nominates four DCEs

Per the local government law, she is required to get two thirds of the vote cast to be confirmed as the District Chief Executive of the Tolon District.

She was faced with stiff opposition from the Tolon Regent, Rtd Major Sulemana Abubakari and some supporters of the New Patriotic Party (NPP).

READ ALSO: Here are the 212 MMDCEs appointed by Nana Addo
But for tens of thousands of student borrowers, that dream could become a reality. Billions of dollars in student loans may be wiped out because the lender  The National Collegiate Student Loan Trusts  didn't keep track of the paperwork.

For the rest of the 44 million student loan borrowers in the US, however, such relief is unlikely to come.

Student loan debt is notoriously hard to shake. Unlike other types of consumer debt, discharging college debt is nearly impossible, even in cases of bankruptcy. Meaning, the government will follow you around your entire life until the debt is paid off.

Business Insider spoke with Joshua Cohen, a lawyer specializing in student loan debt, to understand the consequences borrowers may face if they default  miss nine consecutive monthly payments  on their student loans.

Cohen explained that if you default on your federal student loan, the government can come after you in four different ways.

If you are W-2 employee, the government can garnish your wages with a 30-day warning, and it doesn't need a lawsuit to do so.

Typically, a debt collector will call a borrower's human resources department to verify employment status. That information is then passed along to a guarantee agency, which insures student loans against default, or to the US Department of Education. Once they've issued a warning to the borrower and waited 30-days, either one can collect on the debt by deducting payments directly from the borrower's paycheck.

Cohen advises borrowers who receive a warning to immediately request a hearing on the wage garnishment. This temporarily stops the process and allows the borrower to work out an alternate payment strategy with the loan servicer.

"It's quite messy," he said. "If someone doesn't quickly get on their feet during that 30-day period, the garnishment will probably happen."

Employees who file tax returns normally look forward to getting their refunds back in the spring. But if you've defaulted on your federal student loan, don't expect to get your refund, according to Cohen.

The federal government will use the refund amount to pay down the principal and interest on student loans in default.

"My advice on that is don't file your tax return," Cohen said.

He explained that if you're due a refund, you have up to three years to file. Work on getting yourself out of default and then file the return. There's no penalty to postpone filing your refund.

If a borrower doesn't work, but collects Social Security, the federal government can garnish that money as well.

"That's really hard because you are dealing with people who are barely surviving as is, and now you're taking more money from them," Cohen explained.

He attributes this to a communication issue where not enough people know they qualify for income-driven repayment (IDR) plans.

IDR plans allow borrowers to pay a predetermined percentage of their income toward student loan bills each month. If your discretionary income isn't above 150% of the poverty line, however, your payment will be zero until you start earning more.

The government's last option for collecting on a student loan is to take legal action against you. It's the situation most self-employed individuals find themselves in, according to Cohen.

Private loan collection operates separately from federal loan collection. Unlike the federal government, private lenders can't garnish W-2 wages, tax refunds, or Social Security payments.

"The only remedy that a private lender has is to sue you, and they are suing you under state law and every state differs," Cohen said.

His advice for borrowers whether they have federal or private student loans is to pay attention to mail and to answer the phone. If a borrower ignores calls they are taking a defensive position, rather than being proactive.
The heart of a community is often reflected in the type of food it produces, and some of the world's most loved cuisines and comfort foods are best served when fuss-free and on-the-go.

An interactive guide created by online casino JohnSlots lets readers explore 30 well-known food markets from 25 countries around the world, and offers recommendations for visitors.

Demonstrating the array of spices, ingredients, and cooking methods used in street kitchens across the globe, the guide gets readers drooling over everything from candied fruits to seafood stews.

Whether you're planning a last minute holiday or just want to gaze at some droolworthy snaps, here are 30 dishes selected from the guide by Business Insider UK that represent the best things to eat at some of the most vibrant, bustling, and famous food markets the world has to offer.

AUSTRALIA: The Queen Victoria Market in Melbourne offers vendors' takes on street food from all around the globe, including Turkish borek, Dutch pancakes, and this German bratwurst with sauerkraut and mustard.

BRAZIL: Bursting with flavour, the acaraje sandwich has a spicy shrimp mix in the middle of a deep-fried bean croquette. This hot lunchtime favourite is served all across Brazil, and the Sunday Hippie Market in Rio de Janeiro is a great place to grab one while you check out the other stalls.

CANADA: As well as serving classic Canadian buckwheat crepes with pears and cheese, St Lawrence market in Toronto also offers plenty of quality seafood including artisanal smoked salmon.

CHINA: These tanghulu add plenty of colour to the street food stalls along Wangfujing Snack Street in Beijing. The skewers of fruit are candied using sugar syrup to create their characteristic high-shine glaze.

CHINA: Uyghur is a type of naan bread originating from Xinjiang in China. The heavy, oily dough is patterned with decorative stamps which help bakers to distinguish their own products from other vendors at the Kashgar Sunday Market in Xinjiang Weiwuerzizhiqu.

CHILE: If you're feeling more adventurous but still fancy seafood, Santiago's Mercado Central offers plenty of more unusual options. As well as this sea urchin stew, you can also find giant barnacles and giant sea snails.

FINLAND: Old Market Hall in Helsinki serves some of the finest street food going. As well as housing artisanal Finnish chocolate and sweets, you can also grab yourself a blini topped with either salmon or caviar.

GERMANY: Munchen's Viktualienmarkt offers plenty of one of Germany's biggest exports: beer. Paired perfectly with a baked pretzel, or one of the doughnuts and pastries also on sale, a glass of the cold stuff is perfect at any time of day here.

GREECE: The spanakopita is a savoury pastry filled with spinach, feta, onion and egg. As well as these crunchy snacks, the Plaka District in Athens is bursting with other street foods such as falafel and souvlaki  a type of kebab.

HONG KONG: These egg waffles, known locally as Gai Daan Jai, are often topped with fruit or chocolate and can be found from street vendors down Ki Lung Street.

INDIA: Paratha is a traditional Indian flatbread, and can be served on its own as a snack on-the-go, or alongside a meal, as pictured here at the Chandni Chowk market in New Delhi.

ITALY: Italy boasts some of the best food markets in the world, such as Rome's Nuovo Mercato Comunale di Testaccio. Here you can grab perfectly crafted arancini  balls of rice stuffed with cheese, vegetables, or cured meats which are then fried until crisp.

ITALY: Whilst its thinner-crusted cousin might be more widely recognised, this spongy pizza is a local delicacy. Sfincione originates from Sicily, and can be found in food markets across the Italian island, including La Vucciria in Palermo.

JAMAICA: Coronation Market in Kingston sells plenty of Jamaican delicacies, including peppered shrimp, patties, and jerk meat. Authentic jerk chicken should be grilled over a mix of charcoal and fresh green wood, and marinaded in Scotch bonnet peppers alongside other herbs and spices.

MEXICO: Although you can find them all over the world, nowhere does tacos quite like Mexico. Using meat from the leg and the liver, these tacos from Mercado le Merced are stacked with fresh authentic flavours.

MOROCCO: One of Morocco's most well-known street foods is the snail soup. The dish is known as ghoulal, and real locals use a toothpick to eat the flesh from each shell before drinking the broth.

THE NETHERLANDS: The Dutch are known for their patat fries, and there's a reason, too. Crisp and fresh from the fryer, these chips topped with lashings of mayonnaise are perfect for nibbling on while you check out the rest of Albert Cuypstraat in Amsterdam.

NORWAY: Another great market for fresh seafood is Mathallen in Oslo. As well as offering the national delicacies of pickled herring and salmon, you can grab some of these tasty garlic fried prawns.

PERU: Ceviche combines raw fish with lemon and lime juice, which breaks down the flesh and allows spices and flavours to penetrate deeper into the fish. Mercado de Surquillo in Lima partners ceviche with a second serving of lightly fried fish in order to compliment the delicate flavours and textures of the Latin American classic.

SOUTH AFRICA: Potjiekos is a one-pot dish comprising of meat and vegetables slowly cooked with a Dutch-Malay spice blend. It can be found all across South Africa, including at the Oranjezicht City Farmer's Market in Cape Town.

SPAIN: One of the nation's most famous national dishes, paella, can be found all over Spain. At La Bouqueria in Barcelona, the cooking of the rice, meat, and fish is turned into a performance with chefs theatrically stirring paella pans that are often over five feet wide.

SWEDEN: Laden with crispy roasted onions and lashings of mashed potato, this hot dog from Teatern in Stockholm is best paired with ketchup and wholegrain mustard.

THAILAND: These grilled coconut pancakes, known as khanom krok, are crisp on the outside and almost custard-like towards the centre. Although traditionally sweet, this street vendor at Or Tor Kor Market in Bangkok uses savoury toppings to create a variation of the Thai delicacy.

TURKEY: This simit from the Grand Bazaar market in Istanbul is a ring of baked dough coated in molasses then dipped in sesame seeds  the perfect snack to enjoy at any time of day.

UK: A boiled egg encased in sausage meat then rolled in breadcrumbs, the Scotch egg is a British classic. This one, found at Borough Market in London, combines black pudding with traditional sausage meat to incorporate a second British delicacy into the picnic staple.

UK: As well as serving their own national delicacies, many street vendors like to put their own take on another culture's dishes. Model Market in London offers plenty of reimagined dishes from all over the world, including this Argentinian steak with a fresh and vibrant chimichurri.

USA: Sitting on the mouth of the Patapsco River, Baltimore offers the best of the land and the sea's produce. As well as serving up golden crab cakes and corn dogs, Lexington Market is also known for its fried chicken partnered with sweet waffles and syrup.

USA: Pike Place Market in Seattle serves tonnes of beautiful, fresh, and local seafood. You can buy it fresh to take home, or made into classic dishes like this clam chowder.

USA: The Philly cheesesteak is an all-American classic, and there's no better place to sample one than the state of its origin. Reading Terminal Market in Philadelphia hosts many variations, including this one which subs out the traditional hoagie roll and adds mac and cheese.
Veselnitskaya's relationship with Fusion's cofounder, Glenn Simpson, has been scrutinized by reporters trying to understand who she is, who she works for, and who works for her. The reporters have had help from Browder, who is known both for spearheading the Magnitsky Act through Congress in 2012 and his willingness to speak to the press.

Asked about Veselnitskaya in an email earlier this month, Browder responded with a PowerPoint presentation that he said highlighted the role she

Browder's reputation has become inextricably linked to the global human-rights campaign he launched in 2009 after his tax lawyer  or accountant, depending on whom you ask  died in a Russian prison. The lawyer, Sergei Magnitsky, was thrown in jail and beaten to death after he discovered a $230 million tax fraud scheme that implicated high-level Kremlin officials, Browder says.

Others, primarily those sympathetic to Moscow, dispute Browder's story. People close to Simpson contend he is not necessarily one of them. But the two have a somewhat bitter history that has become increasingly politicized amid the intensifying probes into Russia's meddling in the presidential election and the Trump campaign's possible role in it.

Browder is set to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee on Thursday.

A smear campaign or opposition research?

In 2013, Veselnitskaya hired

To rebut that claim, BakerHostetler hired Fusion to dig up dirt on Browder, he says. The wealthy investor, who renounced his US citizenship in 1998, has since characterized Fusion's work for BakerHostetler as a "smear campaign" against him and Magnitsky carried out "in advance of congressional hearings on the Global Magnitsky Act."

Oversight of the Foreign Agents Registration Act

Browder, Trump Jr., Paul Manafort, and Glenn Simpson were all called to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee this week about t

Browder is set to testify on Thursday. But Manafort and Simpson have since worked out deals with the committee to either testify behind closed doors or submit written answers to the committee's questions. Trump Jr.'s situation is unclear.

targeting Fusion GPS because the firm was reported to be the first to raise the alarm over Trump campaign's links to Russia.

A spokesperson for Grassley, Taylor Foy, disputed that claim.

for years," Foy said in an email on Wednesday.

"

There is another player now alleging that Fusion, in a case completely unrelated to Russia or the Magnitsky Act, acted in violation of FARA.
The so-called "skinny repeal" plan, if passed,

While the text of the "skinny repeal" bill hasn't been released yet, the bill would be nowhere near as extensive as the full-repeal plan or the BCRA. But it would seek to alter the much-criticized mandates that Republicans have targeted for years.

Getting rid of the individual mandate with no other changes to the bill, according to the Congressional Budget Office, would leave 15 million more Americans without health care by 2026. The change would also lead to a 20% increase in premiums, the CBO said. It could also send the ACA marketplace into a "death spiral," health experts warn.

Why the Senate might resort to a skinny repeal

Chris Krueger, an analyst at the Washington-based Cowen and Company, compared getting every GOP senator on board with a bill to squeezing a balloon, because it's so hard to align both moderates and conservatives on a plan.

That was clear Tuesday night with the vote on a revised version of the BCRA, in which nine Republican senators voted against the bill  including both conservatives and moderates  and again on Wednesday, when seven Republican senators voted against a repeal-only bill.
WeTransfer president Damian Bradfield wrote a Medium post on Wednesday explaining how the decision came about and the logic behind it.

Bradfield initially suggested the idea to Handelsblatt journalist Alexander Demling at the Tech Open Air conference in Berlin earlier this month.

"What if each and every one of them had been offered ten thousand dollars to refrain from getting a job? To leave and start something. To leave and start working on the new future of music, whatever that might be.

"SoundCloud has always been the challenger. Look what they've achieved: they courted, vetted, groomed and trained these 173 people who specialize in music, technology and innovation. It seems sacrilegious to just let them go out and get regular jobs. We desperately need innovation. We need challengers."

At that stage it was little more than an idea. But raised the idea again two weeks later during a WeTransfer meeting in LA.

"We held a few meetings, conducted a few phone calls and had decided we'd put aside a few upcoming projects. Instead, we would back this idea.

"We'd email each of the 173 SoundCloud employees and offer them $10,000  not as a loan or an investment but a gift."

SoundCloud cut its workforce by 40% at the start of July as part of an effort to become profitable and remain independent.

Shortly after the job cuts, a Google spreadsheet was created containing the names and contact details of everyone that had been affected. The spreadsheet has been circulated around the world and other companies are using it to find new talent.
His public outcry comes after Nollywood actor and filmmaker, Aremu Afolayan, rained curses on Diezani after he learned over N27 trillion, was recovered from Diezani recently.

The movie star spared no words on the former Minister of Petroleum. Meanwhile, the United Stateshas revealed damning details of how former Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, allegedly laundered $144 million.

According to US authorities, the former minister lavished millions of her illicit wealth on landed properties, furniture and artworks.

The United States is seeking an order in court to forfeit funds and assets worth $144m that the former minister acquired as part of "an international conspiracy to obtain lucrative business opportunities in the Nigerian oil and gas sector."

Diezani looted from the country's treasury, colluding with two associates, Kolawole Aluko and Jide Omokore who helped her to launder "the proceeds of the illicit business opportunities into and through the United States."
"You came when I could hardly feed myself when I was still looking for a major breakthrough in the industry. Coincidentally, I produced my first film 20 yrs ago, just immediately after you were born. Your arrival marked the beginning of greater things in my life. A superlative birthday shout to you my darling sons, Taiwo and Kehinde Ademola Authentic," he wrote alongside the photo.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected! Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
He was convicted on three-count charge of resisting arrest, inciting disturbance and causing assault.

The Judge, Mohammed Yahaya, said the sentence would serve as deterrent to others who engaged in such acts.

Yahaya ordered the convict to also pay N10,000 compensation to the nominal complainant.

On arraignment, the accused pleaded guilty to the charges and begged the court for leniency.

Earlier, the Prosecutor, Sgt. Ibrahim Gukwat, had told the court that the accused was reported to the Laranto Police Station by one Shehu Usman for stealing a desk top charger and assaulting the owner after committing the act.

Gukwat said that the accused stole the complainants desk top charger and when he was caught with it, he was asked him to return it, but he attacked the complainant publicly.

Gukwat told the court that the complainant went to the market union office at Farin Gada Market to report the incident.

He alleged that the accused, when summoned, insulted the market union leaders, causing chaos and tension in the market.

The prosecutor said the accused resisted arrest and caused public disturbance.
Ahmad who spoke at a prayer session organized by some religious bodies to render Boko Haram spiritual base useless declared that he would take it upon himself to trek the 844-kilometer journey to celebrate the Nigerian troops if they succeed in bringing the heartless insurgent down.

His promise is coming on the heels of the recent order by the Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, to the troops fighting the Boko Haram sect in the Northeast to arrest Shekau within 40 days, either dead or alive.

The groups said they would be embarking on a 40-day prayer and fasting for God to end the reign on the insurgency in Nigeria.

Speaking at the Unity Fountain on Wednesday, July 26, 2017, Ahmad, a native of Gudumbali village in Guzamala Local Government Area of Borno State, said he lost one of his wives and two children in an attack carried out by the insurgents at Monday Market in Maiduguri in January 2015.

Speaking in Hausa, the emotion-laden cleric said he has not been able to get back on his feet since the attack which destroyed his shop and goods worth millions of naira.

I was doing fine with my family in Maiduguri until January 2015, when the Boko Haram members attacked the Monday Market and killed several people.

I was in Kano that day to buy goods when I got a call from my house that my wife, Zaina, and two sons, have been killed by the bomb blast.

I lost everything I had and I had no choice than to move my remaining family to my village in Gudumbali and from there, I moved to Abuja.

I am ready to trek from Lagos to Maiduguri if he is arrested. I dont mind my age and strength. Shekau is an evil man and deserves to die. He will not go unpunished, Ahmad added.

While acknowledging the efforts of the military in restoring peace back to the volatile community, Ahmad said the battle is now between God and evil and that is why the prayer for the soldiers is very important.

Our military deserves all the support and encouragement from the spiritual and political leadership of the country to totally wipe away their tears in the northeastern of the country. It will be everyone's joy to see Shekau in chains.
Welcome to the Pulse Community! We will now be sending you a daily newsletter on news, entertainment and more. Also join us across all of our other channels - we love to be connected!
The evil that was perpetrated against the Biafrans could be falsely justified that in war all is fair. But for the Maroko evictees, no words can give reasons for the horror they were brutally forced to experience.

Not everybody remembers Maroko today. The haughtiness of Lekki's flamboyant structures, coupled with some classified part of Victoria Island, seems to make a mockery of her memory.

Maroko was what is today known as Oniru Royal Estate; some parts of Victoria Island and Lekki Phase one.

Being a settlement of low-income earners, Maroko easily attracted a lot of migrants as it was in close proximity to economically robust areas.

They made their living by supplying the needed skills to businesses located at nearby Islands of Lagos. And with a population of over 300,000 people (out of which about 50,000 were children), and 10,000 landlords, Maroko became very popular among Lagosians.

It is important to state here that Maroko, as a community, was humble, contented, and peaceful.

However, in July 1990, a tragic event occurred. But shortly before then, they were graced with a visitation.

On November 17, 1989, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida which was the head of states, Raji Rasaki the then governor of Lagos state and the then newly created Eti-Osa Local Government boss, Olatunde Beecroft, visited Maroko.

And because almost all the languages in Nigeria were duly represented in the community, IBB, during the trip, described Maroko as 'a mini Nigeria'.

ALSO READ: The everlastingness of Biafra

In addition, he urged the residents to continue to embrace government programmes; promising that soon, he would send Rasaki to fast track the development of the community.

The ovations that followed were high and the jubilation was contagious. Little did they know it was a plot.

How could they have known?

So it happened that over the course of twelve days on July 14, 1990, the Nigerian government destroyed the entire settlement of Maroko, which includes residential houses, religious institutions, schools, businesses, medical clinics, and community spaces; just after seven days of quit notice.

There were residents who were too young, too old, too ill or too heavy with pregnancy to act swiftly. Eleven-year-old Bose Atie, a primary five student of Kuramo Primary School, Victoria Island, died when walls of her father's house, located in 20, Seriki Street, Maroko, fell on her.

She was among the many that lost their lives in the process.

It was the peak of raining season, and those that managed to survive the raid were subjected to helplessness. Words cannot possibly describe their misery.

According to the Leader of Maroko Evictees Committee, Tajudeen Jegede; Should one put all the things that happened in Maroko in mind, such a fellow would not last more than two years before he or she died of heart attack.

He reportedly went on to say: "Maroko story is really too sad to talk about. I lost a lot to the Maroko injustice. How many will I count? I lost three wives. There were a lot of atrocities; raping housewives, raping young girls. Some of the demolitions were carried out in the night."

There are thousands of similar experiences.

Sadly, the Nigerian government has failed to give a sensible reason for the forceful eviction up until this day.

They had said at a time that the residents were chased out because the land was below the sea level and all they wanted was for the people to vacate the place, sand fill it and return them there. What a story for the gods?

Yes, once in a while, its residents experienced ocean incursion but never was it recorded that the surge carried the least domestic animal.

The truth is, just like David in the scripture saw the wife of Uriah and lusted after her, so did the elites, with Rasaki as their arrow head, saw Maroko and thought it good for mega urbanization.

After all, the Island of Victoria was beginning to fall short of space and there were millionaires who wanted to let others know they have arrived.

Thus, King David had to devise a plot to get Uriah killed if Bathsheba is to become his own.

But shamelessness will not let them admit this. The disease of inhumanity has eaten deep into their souls.

Shamefully, that same reason for which they claim to have demolished Maroko still happens in the luxurious clustered phases of Lekki. Only that it has become worse than before.

As a matter of fact, the flood has not only been consistent, it has also wrecked a lot of damage; reminding them that one cannot sow thorns and expect flowers to blossom.

Why have they not come to demolish lekki, to re-sand fill, since they care more for the safety of Nigerians?

During the last flood incursion, which was July 8, 2017, the Commissioner of Environment, Dr. Babatunde Adejare was reported to have said that: "It is now of paramount importance for owners of buildings or structures impeding the free-flow of storm water, wherever they exist in the State, to voluntarily quit forthwith in the overriding public interest or risk being removed by the State Government."

Upon hearing this, one is forced to ask: Is there a structure in Lekki that was raised without an approved plan? Were surveys not carried out before their approval? Who did the approving?

Another demolition is coming, and the poor people are getting worried.

When Maroko was demolished, there were no plans by the government to relocate the evictees.

It was through endless agitations by civil society organizations, shouting to the world that made them reconsider. Prominent among the activists were Femi Falana, the Civil Liberties Organisation, and Prof. Wole Soyinka.

When the government announced that they have provided places the evictees could stay at Jakande, Epe, and Ikota, they did it to save their face.

It was an abandoned estate over-grown with elephant grass with most of the blocks wanting in roofs, windows, and doors. The ground also was filled with swampy waters and reptiles of all kinds.

There was no electricity, no roads or drinkable water. There was also no health centre and the nearest primary and secondary schools then were so far that the children stopped going to school.

For the sake of greed, the contended people of Maroko were forced to experienced separation from family members, desertion, loneliness, hopelessness and hunger.

And to survive, young girls turned prostitutes for bread and their young men got lost without focus.

The majority were allocated flats that never exist. And countless of them died struggling to survive as many got lost with the wind.

It's been twenty-seven years since the forceful eviction yet the justice of man has refused to prevail, and greed still has the upper hand over empathy.
Immediately after he graduated, he told our pastor that God wanted him to be on his own and the pastor prayed for him and gave him his blessings but he said we must get married first so that he would be focused in the vineyard.

That was how we got married when I was just 22-years-old and all through the struggle to build the church to what it is today, I have been there for him, giving support as a wife and partner in the ministry.

But a few years after we got married, the weakness that has continued to afflict Ben came to the fore when he got one of the female choristers pregnant. This caused a very big crisis in the church as many members got angry and left.

I was so angry with him that I left his house but after mediation by our families and some church elders, I went back to him.

But instead of my husband learning from his mistakes, he kept getting involved in one sex scandal or the other and instead of the church growing, we have been in the same position. If we manage to get new members, they would leave after a while when they get to know my husband's secret life.

But the one that has made me make up my mind to leave for good was when he was caught with the women's leader having sex in a hotel.

The disgrace and shame he brought to me, church members and his children were just too much as he and the woman were paraded naked in our area and when they were brought to our house, all our neighbours made a mockery of me and my kids.

I can take it no more and despite people saying as a pastor's wife I should forgive him, I don't think I can cope again.

Josephine."
The IPOB leader and his supporters were allegedly stopped and chased from the palace of Obidiegwu Onyesoh, traditional ruler of Nri, a community in Aniocha local government area of Anambra state on Thursday, July 27, 2017.

Kanu was said to have violated their tradition.

Heres what the traditional rulers personal assistant, Ifeanyi Onyesoh, told journalists.

They tried to forcefully open the entrance gate of the palace and it was this unruly conduct that made the traditional ruler to telephone the security agents who responded promptly and dispersed Kanu and his supporters, Onyesoh said.

He alleged that Kanu and his wife, Uchechi, and supporters violated the tradition of the town during their visit on July 19, 2017.

This was said to have angered the people.

Onyesoh explains further:I was the person that received them and so I told them to go and come back with a written letter so that they will get official reply from the palace since the delegation looked unusual, in that there was no titled person among them.

At this point, they all left and what we saw the next day was Kanu visiting Nri community with a huge crowd of his supporters.

Kanu went straight to the house of one , a subject of the traditional ruler of Nri.

The feelers we later got, was that the said Mbanefo claimed he handed over the `Offo Nri , (symbol of royalty) to Kanu, and even allowed Kanu to visit the historic  revered as forest of life by Igbo tradition.

This forest is believed to be the place the first burnt offering was offered by the Jewish Igbo ancestors when they migrated from Israel more than 2,000 years ago.

Nri people considered Kanus conduct as a taboo because no high profile visitor entered the community without first visiting the traditional ruler let alone a sacred place without the knowledge of the ruler.

It is a taboo in Nri and equally against the Anambra state traditional rulers council law for a high profile visitor to visit a community without first paying homage to the traditional ruler.

The people of Nri and her traditional ruler are not against Nnamdi Kanu and his agitation/aspiration but what we cannot take is for Kanu to come and mess up the Nri culture and tradition under whatever motive.

The community will drag him to customary court to ensure that nobody else gives such insult to the community and its heritage.

If Kanu wants a title, Eze Nri is not aware of such aspiration.

If Kanu indeed met with anybody and claimed he was given , it means he is seeking the title through the back door and for the title he claimed was given to him by `Adama (Mbanefo ), a servant to , is a nullity.

Nri is the ancestral home of all Igbo people and for him to visit Nri in the manner he did means he has no knowledge of Igbo tradition and culture.
The telco had been in Nigeria for a few years and was ahead of the pack with its aggressive marketing and catchy TV commercials. One of its standout ads was the famous "mama na boy" commercial.

The commercial starts with a man pacing nervously in front of a labour ward in the hospital. A female doctor comes out and gives the man the good news. His wife has just given birth.

The man is overjoyed. He calls his mum in the village and delivers the famous line "mama na boy!" The mum is elated and she gives the good news to the villagers. She starts singing a folk song and all the villagers come out for a celebration.

It was a pre-woke era back then so not many Nigerians saw anything odd with the commercial. It was just a well-produced advert that resonated with us.

Looking back at the ad in 2017, you might be thinking that it comes off as sexist. Maybe this was the man's first child and his family were simply elated that he is now a father.

There is also another narrative which is that this was his first male child. In the Nigerian society, the birth of a male child is a cause for huge celebration. The birth of a female doesn't necessarily call for dancing in the village square.
The order was given after a 35-year-old transporter, Kareem Isiaka, of No. 30, Ibese Road, Ikorodu, admitted beating up his wife over a property.

The Magistrate, Mrs O. Sule Amzat, issued the order after listening to the testimony of the prosecutor.

From the testimony, the defendant allegedly wanted to inherit his wifes eight-room self-contained building.

The prosecutor, Sgt. Lucky Ihiehie, had earlier told the court that the accused committed the offence on July 20, at Shop 261, Jakande Market, Ketu Garrage, Lagos State.

Ihiehe said that the complainant, Maryam Yekini, a trader, reported the matter at the Ketu Police Post

On the same day, Isiaka came to his wifes shop to intimidate her, by pursuing her for almost 30 minutes round the garage, threatening to kill her.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, July 26, 2017, chaired by the agency's Acting Director-General, Mrs. Yetunde Oni, in Lagos, she eased the concerns of the public, clarifying that the drugs in question were not recommended for treating malaria.

Her statement read, "It is pertinent to mention that the allegedly banned antimalarial medicines are oral monotherapies containing single Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (API).

"I wish to state categorically that these antimalarial monotherapies are not recommended for treatment of malaria in Nigeria.

"The recommended antimalarial medicines for treatment of malaria in Nigeria are ARTEMISININ COMBINATION THERAPIES (ACTs).

"The use of Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) in the treatment of malaria is in line with the Guidelines for the Treatment of Malaria, 3rd edition, World Health Organization 2015, Geneva Switzerland.

"The Nigeria National Treatment Policy, February 2005 supports the use of ARTEMISININ COMBINATION THERAPIES.

"Sulphadoxine Pyrimethamine (SP) is also a combination antimalarial medicine recommended by both the World Health Organization and the Nigeria National Anti-Malarial Treatment Policy for INTERMITTENT PREVENTIVE TREATMENT (IPT) of malaria.

"In line with the recommendation of the Nigeria National Antimalarial Treatment Policy 2005 and the WHO Guidelines for Treatment of Malaria 2015, NAFDAC stopped registration of antimalarial monotherapies.

"The Agency in collaboration with United States Pharmacopeia (USP) carried out a survey on the quality of antimalarial medicines in 2015.

"The report of the survey was presented to stakeholders on 11th August 2015 and it was revealed that 3.6% of the nine hundred (900) samples of antimalarial medicines procured from six (6) geopolitical zones of the country failed quality test while 96.4% passed.

"Antimalarial monotherapies in the distribution chain were captured during the survey to enable the Agency mop them from circulation.

"NAFDAC Zonal coordinators were directed to conduct surveillance and mop up activities. This exercise has been sustained to ensure that the incidence of oral antimalarial monotherapies is brought to the barest minimum.

"Distinguished ladies and gentlemen of the press, you may wish to know that Artemisinin Combination Therapies (ACTs) are currently used in malaria endemic countries like Nigeria.

"There are no killer antimalarial medicines in Nigeria and it is important that you convey this message to the already agitated members of the public to avoid unnecessary panic."

On Wednesday, July 20, Senate mandated its Committee on Health to investigate the circulation of the drugs following a motion by Sen. Theodore Orji (Abia - PDP) at plenary.

According to him, the drugs were banned in Europe because they were considered dangerous and have been linked to causing kidney failure.

He disclosed that the President of the Nigeria Medical Association (NMA), Prof. Mike Ogirima, had already confirmed the delisting of those drugs by the EU.

While addressing the issue, Sen. Jibrin Barau(Kano - APC) had said, "It is important that agencies like NAFDAC and experts in health sector are called upon to quickly intervene.
The minister, who made the call at a press briefing to mark World Hepatitis Day, in Abuja, said the disease had become a silent killer because much importance had not been attached to dangers it posed to health.

He said the theme for the years celebration is Eliminate Hepatitis, adding that the campaign against the disease was aimed at adding momentum to all efforts to implement the National Strategic Plan for the control of viral hepatitis.

Adewole said hepatitis condition could be self-limiting or progress to fibrosis (scarring), cirrhosis or liver cancer and listed the five main types of hepatitis viruses as, hepatitis A, B, C, D and E.

He said that types B and C hepatitis led to chronic disease in hundreds of millions of people and, together, are the most common cause of liver cirrhosis and cancer.

But, what is particularly important is that the liver is the engine room of the body."

When the engine room of the factory is faulty, the entire system will not be able to work, and hepatitis affects the liver."

Two are particularly dangerous, that is hepatitis B and C. They not only cause problem for the liver, they lead to chronic liver problem where people develop abdominal swelling."

In some, it results in liver cancer. This is why it is important for us to tackle hepatitis with seriousness."

But, the good thing about hepatitis is that it is also preventable, that is why we need to create awareness among our people, we need to let them know, he said.

Adewole said that many people contracted the disease through faecal-oral transmission, particularly A and E, which we have in some parts of Borno State.

It is transmitted through contaminated water, so, we can stay away from hepatitis by disposing faeces from the body carefully, by drinking clean and safe water, and by avoiding contact with contaminated blood, body fluid."

With that, we can stay away from hepatitis B and C, which can also be transmitted to new born."

But the beauty is that we now have vaccine against hepatitis B, and it is available during immunisation, it is free, it is part of the vaccines for the young ones."

It is available and Nigerians should take interest in getting their children routinely immunised, he said.

Adewole said that adults might not need the vaccine, but needed to get tested in order that every adult should know their status.

If you are positive, we want to know among others things whether you have the antibodies and antigens, secondly, the virus multiplies in our system."

If it is multiplying in our system, we want to know how quickly it is multiplying. If it is multiplying, we need to treat, he said.
Dr Danny Manmam, the Chairman of the association, University of Maiduguri chapter, told newsmen in Maiduguri that four lectures were still missing.

It will be recalled that the insurgents on Tuesday attacked a team of geologist who were on an oil exploration exercise in Lake Chad basin.

The team comprised staff of Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), geologists, members of Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) and military personnel.

However, the Nigerian Army, in a statement on Wednesday, said it had rescued all the victims.

The statement signed by Brig Gen Sani Kukasheka, the Director, Army Public Relations, said that eight soldiers and one other person were killed in the attack.

It added that the soldiers had recovered all the corpses in the rescue operation.

However, Mamman, who wore a mournful look, said that five staff of the institution were killed in the attack.

He explained that the deceased comprise two geologists, two technologist and a driver.

We were first elated when we heard that the military rescued the victims. But, to our dismay we discovered that they were all killed.

Our initial hope to see them alive was dashed. The soldiers brought only dead bodies.

Four other staff are still missing and we are seriously concerned about their safety, we do not know their whereabouts, he said.

The Chairman listed gave the names of two of the victims as Ibrahim Yusuf and Aji Kolo.
The Ebonyi State Governor, Dave Umahi, said Buhari was cheerful and surprisingly looking better than envisaged.

Umahi and six other Governors met with the President on Wednesday, July 26 - they were the second batch of political leaders to meet Buhari since the visitation window opened.

Some APC Governors and Chieftains were the first set to visit Buhari in London.

Speaking to Punch, Umahi said the President will return to the country as soon as his doctors clear him.

He said, "We met a cheerful President whose level of recovery is a miracle. We know he will soon return home as soon as his doctors certify him to do so. What hes treating is not mere malaria that we can say he will return today or tomorrow.

"However, we are happy and we thank God for what we saw. It is contrary to the pictures people are painting on the social media. The President we saw is recuperating well and we are happy for that.

"It is even better that, we as members of the opposition party, are among the entourage. Nigerians should continue to pray for the President."

He also commended the Acting President, Yemi Osinbajo, saying he is doing a great job in Buhari's absence.

"We dont need to panic because we have a hardworking acting President who is doing a fantastic job. All we need to do as Nigerians is to continue to pray for the President," the Governor added.
Akeredolu spoke in Akure when the General Officer Commanding, 2 Division, Nigerian Army, Ibadan, Maj. Gen. Chukwunedum Abraham, paid him a courtesy call.

According to the governor, kidnapping remains one of the greatest problems confronting Ondo State and other parts of the country.

There is insecurity in Nigeria and total breakdown of law and order. People are being kidnapped here and there, causing panic.

It is getting alarming and I am not too sure its something within the powers of the police.

 Its totally out of their hands and if we dont get the military to assist, then we will all be at the mercy of kidnappers.

This is an opportunity to re-emphasise this key issue as an area of concern to us all, an area we believe you have to deploy more men to give us security in the state, he said.

 We cannot just allow these hoodlums to operate at will. We want more effective military roadblocks, he said.

Responding, the GOC commended Akeredolu for the assistance to the army in the state.

We are here for the Warrant Officer and Sergeant competition.

 We chose 32 Brigade, Akure, as host, to use the opportunity to visit the governor personally and appreciate him for his show of love to us, he said

He said the competition was to train the warrant officers and sergeants on weapon handling, map reading, physical fitness and also to create an atmosphere for espirit-de-corps among officers in the division.
Gov. Kashim Shettima of Borno, who is the Chairman of Northern States Governors Forum, said the region is not afraid of restructuring and its position on the issue would be in the best interest of the region.

Shettima, whose address was delivered by Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State, assured that the consensus position of the region would attract popular acceptance.

He also said that the meeting would discuss farmers/herders conflict and come up with ways to tackle the problem devoid of parochial sentiments.

We, the political and traditional leaders of Northern Nigeria, are gathered here today against the backdrop of certain developments in Nigerias political landscape that we can only ignore to the detriment of the well being of our people and the development of our region."

We have witnessed in the last few months, all manner of political agitations, ranging from the sublime to the ridiculous, he said.

Shettima added:It is also expected at the end of this meeting of the Forum and our esteemed royal fathers we will adopt a consensus position."

It is of vital importance to arrive at such consensus position because it is crucial to dispel the erroneous impression created and disseminated by certain interests in this country that the North is opposed to restructuring."

It is important to do so, not only to accommodate the mainstream of Northern public opinion, our primary constituency, but also counter the specific versions of restructuring which generally seek to place the North in a position of strategic political and economic disadvantage, but portrayed as the only versions that can work for the nation.

The chairman also spoke on agitation for the creation of Biafra, saying that it was unacceptable for groups such as IPOB and MASSOB to resort to incitement under the guise of exercising right to free speech.

The exercise of such rights outside the confines of responsibility is not acceptable, he said, adding that incitement to violence by such organizations must be unconditionally condemned as they are inimical to national unity, stability, peaceful coexistence and national security.

He called on governors and responsible leaders in the South East and other parts of Nigeria to rise to the occasion and call these purveyors of hate speech and inflammatory and provocative statements to order.

The forum chairman said no Nigerian would be prevented from pursuing their agitations within processes enshrined by the Constitution.

This was precisely what we did when we acted in unison as Governors of Northern States when we recently took the responsible position of swiftly and emphatically condemning the ultimatum given by some Northern youths to people of Igbo extraction residing in the North to leave by 1st October, Shettima said.

He cautioned those stoking embers of hate to look beyond now.

There is need for statesmen to chaperone the art of governance, not politicians; for we need to look at the coming generations not the coming elections."

We need to look far into the future with the utmost sense of responsibility and not cash in on some immediate opportunities."

We need to constantly weigh the consequences of our words and actions and avoid playing to the gallery.

The northern governors chairman emphasised the need to re-invent politics, re-engineer society and redirect the energy of the youth to exploit their potentials.

He said that there was need to provide policy-framework, funding, energy and direction to set up urban and rural agro-based industries to raise productive capacity and keep the youth busy.

We have all we need to succeed, all we require now is the political will; the will to change our ways, the will to re-invent our politics, the will to re-engineer our society and focus on the next generation rather than the next elections.

Shettima said the farmers/herders conflict must be handled with care before it consumes the nation.

He said issues of grazing land in Africa including Nigeria has assumed dangerous and worrisome dimension in terms of scale, scope and ethno-religious colouration it has been so cynically given.

The chairman cautioned northern governors to set aside all sentiment-laden approaches to tackling this monstrous problem capable of consuming the very social fabric of the North and even condemning the entire country to unwarranted destruction.

It requires no knowledge of rocket science to discern that the future prosperity of the North in particular and Nigeria in general squarely rests on agriculture and the human resources and talent we can bring to bear on it.

He also said the meeting would discuss issues of insurgency, the Almajiri system and other problems confronting the region.

In his remark, the Chairman, Northern Traditional Rulers, who is also the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Saad Abubakar advised traditional rulers to avoid utterances that may cause havoc in the society.
This was disclosed in a statement issued by INEC Director of Voter Education and Publicity, Mr Oluwole Osaze-Uzzi, on Wednesday in Abuja.

Osaze-Uzzi said that the adoption was made at a workshop organised by the commission to review and adopt a `Framework on Access and Participation of PLWDs in Keffi, Nassarawa State, ahead of the 2019 general elections.

He quoted Prince Adedeji Soyebi, INEC National Commissioner and Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, while appraising the document before its adoption, as saying that the document was good enough right from the initial stage.

Soyebi said that INEC was committed to promoting the participation of all social groups in the electoral process.

He added that the document would be presented to other critical stakeholders for further scrutiny before its final adoption.

Osaze-Uzzi also quoted Dr Adekunle Ogunmola, INEC National Commissioner, while declaring open the workshop as restating the commissions commitment toward mainstreaming the PLWDs in electoral process.

Ogunmola said:the Commission aims to ensure that disability issues are mainstreamed into electoral matters.

This is against the backdrop of the fact that the 2011 World Health Organisations report on disability estimated that 15 per cent of the worlds population has one disability or the other, and 80 per cent with disabilities live in the global south.

Speaking on the experience of INEC at the development of a durable and acceptable PLWDs Framework, Ogunmola said time, knowledge, expertise and consultation were necessary.

He said that the the first input to the draft came up based on consultation with PWDs groups.

He added that nationwide consultations had taken place with principal external stakeholders in which an acceptable template was developed.

Ogunmola further said the content and direction of INEC PLWD Framework was guided by the national and international instruments on PLWDs issues.

These, according to him, include the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (1948); International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (1956).
According to a report by Sahara Reporters, the deceased include Dr Millitus Joseph from Geology Dept, Idris Abubakar Njodi and Dr Daniel Birma of Dept of Soil Science.

In a separate report by NAIJ, no less than 12 soldiers have been reportedly killed while at least four out of 12 staff members of the University of Maiduguri equally lost their lives.

In a related report, a relative of one of the deceased Dr. Joseph Millitus, Daniel Millitus reportedly said that the family was still in grief over the loss of one of its rising stars.

Another relative of one of the slain lecturers, Dr. Manaja Uba, said the family was still in shock and found it difficult to believe.

On Tuesday, July 25, 2017, the victims were abducted near a village called Jibi in Gubio local government area while moving alongside some personnel of the Civilian-JTF.
This was disclosed by his spokesperson, Laolu Akande, on his Twitter account around noon Thursday, July 27, 2017.

He tweeted, "AgP Osinbajo arrives Portharcourt on his way to Eleme to inaugurate the $1.5B Indorama Fertilizer plant."

In an earlier statement byAkande, the fertilizer plant was built by Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited.

He said: "The plant with production capacity for 1.5 million Metric Tons of Urea fertilizer is considered the worlds largest single-train Urea plant.

"The plant has a production capacity of 4000 metric tons (MT) of nitrogenous fertilizer per day or 1.5 MT per annum and was built with an investment of USD 1.5 billion.

"The fertilizer plant is supported by a Port Terminal at the nearby Onne Port Complex, and a Gas Pipeline of 83.5KM for gas supply.

"The plant will bring about a green revolution in the agriculture sector not only in Nigeria but also in other parts of Africa and beyond, in line with the economic diversification of the Buhari administration.

"Besides making fertilizer available to farmers nationwide at affordable cost, the plant will also boost crop yield for farmers and help in minimizing the food grain deficit in Nigeria."

Indorama Eleme Fertilizer and Chemicals Limited, which now known as Eleme Petrochemicals Company Ltd, was privatized in 2006 after the sale of Federal Government's 75 percent shares to a core investor through a competitive bidding process.
Others affected by the order are Inspectors and Rank and Files serving in those Police Divisions.

The Force Spokesman, CSP Jimoh Moshood, in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday, said that the measure was to ensure total success of the operations currently ongoing on the route.

It added that new personnel to replace the redeployed ones have been posted to the affected divisions.

The statement disclosed that the exercise was aimed at bringing in new experience and fresh impetus to the fight against kidnappings, armed robberies and other violent crimes on these Highways.

In another development, Idris has given posthumous promotion to late Insp Idris Musa to the rank of an Assistant Superintendent of Police.

He said that Musa would be remembered as one of the heroes of the Nigeria Police Force in the fight against Boko-Haram insurgency in Nigeria.
THE GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER

Governors silent after meeting Buhari in London

The six state governors who visited President Muhammadu Buhari yesterday at Abuja House, the official residence of the Nigerian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom, kept mum after meeting the ailing leader. The governors, who arrived around 2:50 p.m., left about an hour later, looking morose and refusing to utter a word when The Guardian asked for the outcome of their meeting with Buhari.

Senate rejects power devolution, affirmative action for women

In a dramatic voting by the Senate yesterday, the bill which sought to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow for the devolution of powers from the Federal Government to the states was thrown out by the lawmakers.

Osinbajo inaugurates, tasks new ministers on national development

Acting President Yemi Osinbajo yesterday inaugurated Stephen Ocheni (Kogi) and Suleiman Hassan (Gombe) as ministers with a task to immediately join the cabinet in the herculean task of turning around the Nigerian economy, saying theres no time to celebrate.

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VANGUARD NEWSPAPER

1999 constitution alterations: Senate votes against more powers for states

Proposals for restructuring of the country took a negative turn yesterday after the Senate rejected moves to decongest the Exclusive Legislative List and in favour of the Concurrent List in line with agitation for devolution of powers to the states.

Lagos Building Collapse Day 2: Death toll rises to 8, 16 rescued

Two more bodies were, yesterday, recovered from the debris of the collapsed building at 3, Massey Street, Lagos Island, bringing the death toll to eight.

EFCC recovers N329bn from 9 oil firms

The Kano Zonal Office of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has recovered a sum of N328,988,296,990.62 from nine major oil marketers across the country.

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THE PUNCH NEWSPAPER

Buharis recovery is a miracle, says Ebonyi gov

The Governor of Ebonyi State, Mr. Dave Umahi, has described the rate of the recovery of President Muhammadu Buhari as a miracle.

Senate seeks immunity for members, rejects power devolution

The Senate, on Wednesday, voted on the proposed amendments to the 1999 Constitution during which the lawmakers rejected devolution of power to the states.

EFCC recovers N329bn from Mobil, Oando, Conoil, others

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission says its Kano Office has recovered N328,988,296,990.62 from nine major oil marketers across the country.

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THISDAY NEWSPAPER

Restructuring Suffers Defeat in Senate

In a major upset for the clamour for restructuring, the Senate Wednesday rejected the constitution alteration bill seeking the devolution of powers that would have moved some items from the bloated Exclusive List in the 1999 Constitution to the Concurrent List, which would have given more powers to the states.

Why Osinbajo Swore in Two New Ministers Without Portfolios

More than three months after the Senate confirmed the nominations of Professor Stephen Ocheni (Kogi) and Suleiman Hassan (Gombe) as ministers-designate, Acting President Yemi Osinbajo Wednesday swore them in at the Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting chambers in the State House, Abuja, without assigning them portfolios.

FEC Caps FGs Oil Revenue Expenditure, Portion to be Moved to SWF

The Federal Executive Council (FEC) has approved a new National Petroleum Policy initiated by the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, which would place a cap on the proportion of oil revenue that can be spent by the federal government.

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THE BUSINESSDAY NEWSPAPER

Time ticks for Nigeria to diversify from oil or face bleak future

Bleaker days may be ahead for the survival of Nigerias oil-dependent economy, as the ban on petrol and diesel cars by European countries is gaining traction.

Senate rejects Land Use Act removal in a major blow to economic reforms

In a major blow to economic reforms and wealth creation in the country, the Senate on Wednesday rejected the proposal for the deletion of Land Use Act from the 1999 Constitution.

Ikoyi, VI lead commercial real estate resurgence
The House on Wednesday, July 26, said it will not consider the budget until the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole appears before it to justify the suspension of Usman.

The House Committee on Health Services had directed Adewole to reinstate Usman and summoned the Minister.

Adewole, however, neither reverse the suspension nor appear before the committee - he wrote that he would be unavailable.

Usman was suspended after several petitions of corruption against him - this was about the time the House Committee was also probing the role of Health Maintenance Organisations in the failure of the NHIS to deliver services.

The House also rejected the budget of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC).
Sagay, who is the Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), advised that the Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) in question should be barred from the court hearing of such cases.

He stated this at a media round-table held in Lagos on Wednesday, July 26, 2017.

The programme was organised by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP).

According to him, counsels, particularly SANs have "turned obstruction and frustration of proceedings on high-profile corruption cases into an art."

Sagay urged prosecuting counsels in high-profile corruption cases to always apply to reinstate any case struck out for want of prosecution.

He said, "In cases requiring appeal, the authorities must apply for leave to appeal out of time, and prepare evidence and legal arguments thoroughly, including by inviting consultants to advise.

"Prosecuting authorities must insist on full application of sections 306 and 396 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, namely: No stay of proceedings under any circumstances  S. 306. Any preliminary objection must be taken together with the substantive issue  S. 396(2), and hearings shall be on a daily basis, but in exceptional cases, adjournments not to be in excess of 14 working days, may be granted. Such adjournments not to exceed five in any proceedings  S. 396 (3) and (4).

"A high court judge who is elevated whilst presiding over a criminal case should be allowed to conclude the case without any effect on his new status.

"The heads of various courts in the country should be sensitised about the very critical nature of the fight against high-level official corruption to Nigerias development and the welfare of its peoples.

"Pending the establishment of a special crimes court for the whole country, criminal divisions should be created in the federal and state high courts. Specially vetted and selected judges, known for integrity and self-discipline should be posted to man such courts.

"All suspected proceeds of crime should be placed under temporary forfeiture during the trial of a high-profile person. Prosecuting authorities should resort to non-conviction based asset forfeiture, where proof beyond reasonable doubt is difficult to achieve because of technicalities."

ALSO READ: Sagay slams Senate for threatening Presidency

Also speaking at the event, the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami, said it will take collective efforts to achieve success in the anti-corruption war.

"I admire what SERAP is doing. It is not Buhari's work to fight corruption alone, it is all our fight. It is corruption that is fuelling this agitation by the different groups," Malami, who was representative by Okoi Obolo-Obla, said.

In his comment, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), clarified that the agency's work does not conflict with that of the Ministry of Justice.

"We are cooperating with them. We have a wide range of corruption cases in concert with state agencies. The attorney-general office has the right to initiate new high-profile corruption cases and investigate it themselves without waiting for cases initiated by the EFCC," the EFCC boss said.

Meanwhile, the fate of Magu regarding his confirmation as the substantive chairman of the Commission will be determined by the Supreme Court.

The Presidency took the case to the apex court after the Senate on two occasions rejected Magu based on a report by the Department of State Service (DSS) which declared the man unfit for the job.
The Director, Army Public Relations, Brig.-Gen. Sani Usman, who disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, also said that the corpses of an officer, eight soldiers and a civilian, who died in the incident had been recovered.

Usman said the corpses had been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.

Suspected Boko Haram terrorists ambushed the escort and team of Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) staff returning from oil exploration at Barno Yasu, Magumeri Local Government Area of Borno on Tuesday.

On receipt of the information, the Brigade mobilised and sent reinforcement, search and rescue party that included the Armed Forces Special Forces and guides that worked and pursued the terrorists throughout the night.

So far, they have rescued all the NNPC staff and recovered the corpses of the Officer, 8 soldiers and a civilian who have been evacuated to 7 Division Medical Services and Hospital.

The team recovered 4 vehicles one of which include a gun truck mounted with an Anti-Aircraft Gun,two white Hilux taken away from NNPC staff and one blue Hilux belonging to CJTF.

The team also recovered large quantities of arms and ammunition, several spare tyres, many jerry cans containing Petroleum, Oil and Lubricant, assorted drugs, Improvised Explosive Device (IED) making materials, reflective jackets and a Motorola handheld radio, among others.

The team also neutralised many of the terrorists, the army spokesman said.

According to him, the troops are not relenting in the pursuit, search and rescue effort.

It was further reported that suspected Boko Haram insurgents attacked a convoy of oil workers at a village along Gubio and Magumeri local government areas on Tuesday.

It said the attackers ambushed the oil workers, who were staff of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), who were traveling in a convoy of about 10 vehicles.

It said the oil workers were engaged in oil exploration in the Lake Chad Basin.

According to the source, some staff of the University of Maiduguri were also part of the team.
Fayose, who has religiously criticised the Buhari administration, had sworn that the President's health had deteriorated and called for his resignation.

But the round-about turn of events may have proven the Governor wrong.

As seen in photos taken from the visits of Governors to Buhari in London, the President looks rejuvenated.

In view of this, A Chieftain of the APC in Ekiti, Bamidele Faparusi, called on the Department of State Services (DSS) to investigate Fayose, adding that his comment is tantamount to treasonable felony.

In a statement issued on Wednesday, July 26, Faparusi the latest pictures have dispelled rumours that Buhari is very sick.

ALSO READ: Why Buhari is welcoming visitors now - Garba Shehu

He said the DSS should interrogate the Governor to know where he got the "devilish information from so that the country can ascertain those plotting evil against the Federal Government."

He said, "Governor Fayose must tell the country what informed his interest to persistently dig unsubstantiated information about Buharis health if not for the fact that he was one of those plotting to stage a coup against the country.

"The Presidency is the symbol of our dear nation and it needs to be shielded against debasement by desperados who can do anything to grab power.

"Recently, the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai, raised an alarm that some men of the Nigerian army were plotting to stage a coup at a time the President was out of the country. This formed the basis for why Governor Fayose must be called to question.

"I quite appreciate the fact that the governor enjoys immunity under Section 308 of the 1999 Constitution, but the constitution doesnt say he cant be investigated. The EFCC had investigated him over alleged involvement in N2.999bn arms scandal.

"The APC has it on good authority that the PDP was planning to truncate democracy under Buhari and disunite the country and Governor Fayose as the arrowhead has been intensifying efforts in this sinister scheme to the see that the President is dead.

"What marveled us was that he made the startling allegations quoting date and the location of Mr. President in London. This called for concern and should not be taken lightly."

Fayose has been vocal about his ambition to become Nigeria's President in no distant future.

A 'Fayose for President' campaign page was recently opened on Facebook ahead of the 2019 general elections.
The House, on Thursday, July 27, 2017, considered amendments to certain sections of the 1999 Constitution.

The entire process was interrupted when the members were asked to vote on the "Citizenship and Indigeneship.

This Bills seeks to alter section 25 of the Constitution to guarantee a married womans right to choosing either her indigeneship by birth or by marriage for the purposes of appointment or election.

This section requires 240 votes to be amended. However, 216 votes were realised  after which some figures displayed on the score board.

At this point, the female lawmakers lost their cool.

Speaker Yakubu Dogara had to put the amendment to vote the second time.

The votes reduced to 208.
The two politicians had been trading words after Fani-Kayode said Okorocha's meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari in London was fake.

Okorocha was among the APC Governors who recently visited the recuperating President in London.

Reacting to Fani-Kayode's latest comment that Okorocha's paternity is doubted even in his own state, the Governor said the statement is unwarranted, adding that the ex-minister lacks self-discipline and respect.

This is contained in a statement issued on Wednesday, July 26, by Okorocha's Chief Press Secretary, Sam Onwuemeodo.

The statement reads in part, "And on our part, as responsible people, we had delayed in responding to Fani-Kayodes attacks or hesitated to take issue with him because most Nigerians had, before now, doubted his intelligence quotient and have also called for certain clinical examinations.

"Again, there is obviously a very wide gulf between a man, who has succeeded in every segment of life through the dint of hard work and indeed, by Gods grace, and someone whose only claim in society or his only meal ticket is the late fathers name.

"And we also know that spoiled and over-pampered children do not know what it takes to have self-discipline and respect for others. They see everybody as ice-cream, tom-tom, yoghurt and indomie noddles. Hence they can abuse anybody not minding the gaps.

"Rochas Okorocha has succeeded in business, in politics, in education and as governor without brandishing any name except God. And he has always claimed that even his achievements as governor in six years have superseded or exceeded the achievements of all those who had governed the state before him put together; and has challenged anybody with contrary view to come forward so that they can compare notes."

The statement added that, "The problem with Nigerian politics is that everybody is equal, and that is why a man, whose story in life begins and ends with the fathers and grandfathers names, would be abusing someone, who began life as a street hawker and became a governor and a successful man both in business and in other areas of life. They are two different scenarios.

"One would have thought that the excruciating damage inflicted on Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party by this same guy would have humbled him. The Bible says, "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God that gives to all men and upbraids not and it shall be given him (James 1:5)."
Prime Now allows online shoppers in the affluent city-state of five million people to order a wide range of items from baby products to food, electronics items and beer.

It marks Amazon's entry into a region of more than 600 million people, where many countries have a growing middle class, and which is seen as the next e-commerce battleground.

"Amazon's entry augurs well for shoppers in the region who will benefit from more choice, price competition and better delivery services," said Prem Shamdasani, an associate professor for marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School.

Alibaba already has a headstart in the region with an 83-percent stake in Southeast Asia-focused online retailer Lazada.

The Chinese firm, founded by China's richest man Jack Ma, raised its stake in Lazada last month with a further $1 billion investment.

The Prime Now application was made available for download in Singapore on Google's Play store and Apple's iTunes.

By just entering their postal zip code after opening the app on their devices, online shoppers can start placing their orders.

The service promises delivery of items within two hours.

But Shamdasani warned that Southeast Asia could be a tough market. The region includes relatively wealthy countries such as Singapore, but also developing nations with poor infrastructure where it is harder to do business.

"While e-commerce is set to grow the market in Southeast Asia is relatively small and fragmented with narrow margins," he said.
China has pledged for years that it would take steps to reform the centrally-run businesses, which dominate crucial industries ranging from power and steel to aviation.

But vested interests have resisted the attempts to restructure the massive enterprises, which are among the country's largest employers and have created powerful fiefdoms for the bureaucrats that run them.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) managed by the central government should aim to become "limited companies or corporations" by the end of the year, according to a statement on the website of the State Council, China's cabinet.

The change will help "build a modern enterprise system and improve the market-oriented management mechanism", it said.

Ninety percent of China's state enterprises have already been turned into corporations, according to the statement.

It did not say whether the companies will be opened to private investment or could be listed on the country's stock markets.

The announcement follows comments earlier in the month from President Xi Jinping calling for authorities to deepen SOE reform by "focusing on the establishment of a modern corporate governance system".

He described SOEs as an "important foundation for national development" but said overhauling them was important to enhance their "vitality, competitiveness and risk resistance", according to the official Xinhua news agency.

China's lumbering state-owned giants have long been a drag on the economy, saddled with massive debts and overcapacity far exceeding domestic demand.

While the government recognises the need for restructuring, it lacks the political will to make the necessary reforms, fearing that mass lay-offs at the underperforming firms could lead to social instability.
President Andrzej Duda's unexpected vetoing of two controversial reforms, including one targeting the supreme court, had not ended the risk to the independence of the Polish judiciary, Brussels said.

"In this past week some things have changed in Poland -- and some things have not," European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told a news conference after a fresh high-level meeting on the crisis.

With the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party vowing to push ahead with the reforms, Timmermans warned in particular against the mass sacking of supreme court judges.

"If such a measure is taken the commission is ready to immediately trigger the Article 7 procedure," Timmermans said.

Article 7 is a never-before-used EU process designed to uphold the rule of law, a so-called "nuclear option" that can freeze a country's right to vote in meetings of EU ministers.

'We won't accept blackmail'

The legal reforms have triggered mass street protests in Poland and raised fears for the rule of law in one of the EU's leading eastern former communist states.

Brussels and Warsaw have been at loggerheads over the legal changes ever since the right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party took power in 2015 and announced reforms to Poland's constitutional court.

The latest threats infuriated Warsaw.

"We won't accept blackmail on the part of EU officials, especially blackmail that is not based on facts," Polish government spokesman Rafal Bochenek told the PAP news agency.

"All the laws prepared by the Polish parliament are in compliance with the constitution and democratic rules."

This month the government pushed through a bill that would have reinforced political control over the Supreme Court and another allowing parliament to choose members of a body designed to protect the independence of the courts.

Duda vetoed those two while signing into law another measure that allows the justice minister to unilaterally replace the chief justices of the common courts.

Prime Minister Beata Szydlo has insisted that PiS will press ahead with the others.

The European Commission said it will launch separate legal action against Poland over the reform targeting the common courts. That could lead to Poland being hauled before the bloc's highest court and eventually given a fine.

Hungary veto threat

The Poland crisis threatens to deepen an east-west split in the EU, with fears that authoritarian governments in eastern states are undermining the 28-nation bloc's fundamental democratic principles.

While the EU's announcement on Wednesday marks a further raising of the stakes in its confrontation with Poland, the chances are slim that its voting rights could actually be suspended.

Populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has vowed he would instantly veto any such move by the EU.

Hungary itself faces EU legal action over laws targeting education and foreign civil society groups, while Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic also face action for ignoring the bloc's migrant relocation quotas.

The EU brought in Article 7 in response to fears about the rule of law in the wave of eastern states like Poland joining after 2004, although it was mainly intended as a backstop or threat that had little chance of being used.
Some dubbed it a "wall of shame" while others argued it was the only way to force the authorities into negotiations on transforming a former budget hotel into a migrant shelter.

"This morning we tore it down,"Laurent Teixeira, a spokesman for the group behind the protest, told AFP.

"We made proposals which were accepted by Adoma (the centre's state-run operator). We're satisfied," he added.

The group had accused the authorities of failing to consult residents about accommodating up to 85 migrants in the disused Formule 1 hotel and expressed fear that schools in the town of 5,000 inhabitants would struggle to cope.

Teixeira said the shelter's managers had agreed to limit its first intake next month to "five or six families, or 25 to 30 people" and to ensure adequate staffing.

The situation would be reviewed after two months, he added.

While admitting that the wall was "a very shocking symbol" Teixeira defended it as forcing the authorities into a deal which he said would facilitate integration of the newcomers.

"We're not anti-migrant," he insisted.

Leftist politicians and trade unions had, however, sharply condemned the barrier.

"Wall of shame destroyed in Semeac this morning. The prejudice wall remains to be toppled. Solidarity with migrants!"Marie-Pierre Vieu, a Communist member of the European Parliament representing the south-west region, tweeted.

The building in Semeac is one of 62 budget hotels bought by the state to house some of the asylum-seekers currently sleeping rough on the streets of Paris or the northern port of Calais.

With the pace of migrant arrivals expected to accelerate this summer, the government has come under pressure to create more shelters.
The German Salafist convert, who had previously sparked outrage by forming a "sharia police" vigilante group, was convicted for helping to recruit for Jaish al-Muhajireen wal-Ansar (JMA) or Army of Emigrantsand Supporters.

JMA, which includes Chechens, Uzbeks and Tajiks, first emerged in Syria in 2012, is deemed a terrorist organisation by Germany.

In September 2015, the militants pledged allegiance to the Al-Nusra Front, a rival group of the Islamic State organisation.

Prosecutors said Lau was the main contact for JMA in the western city of Duesseldorf.

The 36-year-old had also travelled to Syria in September 2013 and had purchased night vision equipment for the jihadist group, prosecutors said.

Lau, a former firefighter, had denied the accusations when he was arrested in December 2015.

He argued that his trip to Syria was for humanitarian reasons, despite photos showing him carrying a kalashnikov aboard a tank.

Lau has been a controversial figure in Germany, where he sparked outrage with "sharia police" street patrols in the western city of Wuppertal in 2014, telling people to stop drinking, gambling and listening to music.

However, a German court in November ruled the vigilante group did not break the law.

The city's district court ruled that the seven accused members of the group did not breach a ban on political uniforms when they approached people while wearing orange vests bearing the words "Sharia Police".

Judges said there could only be a violation of the law -- originally aimed against street movements such as the early Nazi party -- if the uniforms were "suggestively militant or intimidating".

Separately, Germany's anti-terror prosecutors announced Wednesday the arrest of three suspected Islamists in the northeastern city of Guestrow.
The latest arrests, which include the man who allegedly committed the 'revenge rape', brings the total number detained to 18, a police source confirmed.

A jirga (village council) in a suburb of the central city of Multan had ordered the rape of the 16-year-old girl as a punishment, after her brother sexually assaulted a 12 year-old.

Family member Muhammad Bilal, 25, told AFP that after they learned of the first rape -- which was committed last week -- they went to the 12-year-old's family to seek forgiveness.

"Their women started shouting and their men asked us to first bring Umar's sister (the 16-year-old) then they will talk about it," he said.

"But when we came back with the girl, the men and the council decided that the same act would be done to the girl. What could we do, in our village disputes are settled like this."

Both the girls are now staying in a women's shelter and were due to meet the provincial chief minister Shahbaz Sharif, brother of the prime minister, later Thursday.

Pakistan's Supreme Court has also ordered an investigation into the incident.

Jirgas, or village councils formed of local elders, are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.

Such councils are illegal and have been under fire for their controversial decisions, especially regarding women.

"What we did was wrong, but this is the way things are done here. We seek pardon and we promise not to do it again," said Mohammad Amin, 45, a member of the jirga who is now in police custody.

A jirga was involved in one of South Asia's most infamous cases of sexual violence against women when, in 2002, it ordered the gang rape of a woman called Mukhtar Mai after her brother was falsely accused of rape.

Mai made the unusual decision to defy her rapists and take them to court. Her attackers walked free but she went on to become a high-profile women's rights activist.
In July, not a single aid convoy was allowed to reach civilians in the 11 besieged areas, UN deputy aid chief Ursula Mueller told the Security Council.

While the fighting has eased in Daraa governorate and other areas, "the humanitarian and protection situation remains extremely difficult for civilians in many parts of the country," Mueller said.

Military operations have restarted in rebel-held eastern Ghouta, near Damascus, and in the capital's Jobar neighbourhood, among other areas, she said.

In Idlib, infighting among opposition and rebel groups have forced some aid agencies to suspend their work.

Mueller accused the Syrian government of blocking aid convoys but said armed groups were also obstructing access, especially in Idlib and the eastern governorates of Syria.

"This means that, despite reductions in violence, we have not been able to noticeably increase our reach," said Mueller, the UN assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs.

Over the past two months, just over a third of the one million Syrians living in besieged and hard-to-reach areas received aid, Mueller said.

Britain, France and other countries that make up the international humanitarian task force for Syria have written to the Security Council to express their concern about the failure to ramp up aid deliveries.

British Ambassador Matthew Rycroft said that in the last three months only two areas besieged by Syrian forces have received aid.

"We are not asking for humanitarian access as a favour. We are asking for it, because it's a legal and moral obligation," Rycroft told reporters.

Syrian Ambassador Bashar Jaafari said Islamist armed groups were to blame for blocking aid deliveries and rejected UN accusations that the government was uncooperative.

"These reports are used to slander the Syrian government, to apply pressure on the Syrian government and its allies in the fight against terrorism," Jaafari told the council.

He charged that aid convoys "often go to armed terrorist groups instead of reaching the Syrian people who need them."

Trapped in Raqa

An estimated 20,000 to 50,000 people remain trapped in Raqa as a US-backed alliance battles to oust the Islamic State group from the northern city.

"There is no way for them to get out," said Mueller, citing the danger of mines, unexploded ordnance, shelling, snipers and airstrikes.

Dozens of civilians have been killed and injured by airstrikes and shelling in July and over 30,000 people have been displaced since July 1, she said.

Over 200,000 Syrians have fled fighting in Raqa since April 1, according to UN figures.

A polio vaccination campaign was launched this week in Raqa targeting 450,000 children in Raqa and Deir Ezzor. So far 27 polio cases have been confirmed.
But Prime Minister Stefan Lofven vowed he would be staying on despite speculation he could call a snap election.

Interior Minister Anders Ygeman, a political heavyweight previously seen as a likely future prime minister, has resigned, Lofven said at a press conference, adding that Infrastructure Minister Anna Johansson will also step down.

Ygeman reportedly knew about the leak from the national transport agency, which made the private data of millions of citizens accessible abroad, but failed to tell the prime minister.

The scandal has blown up in recent weeks after it emerged that an entire database on Swedish drivers' licences was made available to technicians in the Czech Republic and Romania, with media reporting that the identities of intelligence agents may have been jeopardised.

Lofven's Social Democrat-led minority government has been badly rattled by one of Sweden's largest data breaches in decades, and opposition parties had threatened the coalition with a vote of no confidence.

Some political commentators had expected Lofven to call an early election at Thursday's press conference -- but he insisted said he intends to serve his full term, which ends in 2018.

"I have no intention of plunging Sweden into a political crisis," he said, pointing to "formidable challenges" the country is facing including tensions in the Baltic region, Brexit as well as the government's plans for social and economic reforms.

"I looked at several alternatives, and I chose the best one for the country," Lofven said.

The data leak stems from the Swedish transport agency's hiring of IBM in 2015 to take over its IT operations.

IBM in turn used subcontractors in the Czech Republic and Romania -- making the sensitive information accessible by foreign technicians who did not have security clearance.

The Swedish military said information on its personnel, vehicles as well as defence and contingency planning could have been included in the leak, although the transport agency denied having a register on military vehicles and said there was no indication the data had been "spread in an improper way".

Defence minister next?

Swedish Defence Minister Peter Hultqvist kept his job in the reshuffle despite facing claims that, like the interior minister, he knew about the scandal but failed to tell the premier.

However, Hultqvist still faces the threat of being forced out in a censure motion launched by the opposition on Wednesday against all three ministers caught up in the scandal.

"There is no longer any confidence in the defence minister," Ebba Busch Thor, leader of the Christian Democrats, wrote on Twitter.

"The prime minister will not take responsibility, which is why we will hold him to account in parliament."

The far-right Sweden Democrats signalled they would support the censure motion, which would need a parliamentary majority to remove Hultqvist from office.

Maria Agren, head of the transport agency at the centre of the leak, quit in January for undisclosed reasons but has since confessed to violating data handling. She accepted a fine of 70,000 Swedish kronor (around 7,000 euros, $8,000).

Hultqvist and Ygeman reportedly found out about the leak last year, but the prime minister was only informed in January.
Guterres condemned the killing of two Moroccan peacekeepers who were ambushed in the southeast town of Bangassou on Tuesday, just two days after another soldier was killed in an attack on the same contingent.

The United Nations has blamed anti-Balaka Christian militias for the attack.

Guterres said he was "deeply concerned at the fighting in the southeast of the Central African Republic, heightened inter-ethnic tensions and efforts by spoilers to derail the stabilization process in the country."

"If allowed to continue, the prevailing situation risks undermining the hard-won gains achieved towards lasting peace," he said in a statement.

The UN chief called on all parties to "cease violence" and "take action to avoid a further deterioration of the fragile security situation in the country."

Among Africa's poorest countries, the Central African Republic is struggling to emerge from the bloodletting that erupted in 2013 following the overthrow of president Francois Bozize, a Christian, by Muslim rebels from the Seleka coalition.

More than one million people are displaced in the country and more than 2.3 million -- half of the population -- depend on humanitarian aid to survive, according to UN figures.

Following a visit to the Central African Republic this month, UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien also raised the alarm, calling for action to avoid a repeat of the large-scale crisis that gripped the country four years ago.
Concerns are growing however that the deal is unraveling after the head of the electoral commission said this month that the vote will likely not be held this year.

In a unanimous statement drafted by France, the council warned that "unless political actors demonstrate renewed good faith and political will to deliver on the promises they made to their people on New Year's Eve 2016, the DRC and the wider region are set to face an increased risk of insecurity and instability."

The Congolese opposition is planning a nationwide strike on August 8 and rallies on August 20 to push President Joseph Kabila, in power since 2001, to step aside and allow elections to take place.

Opposition leaders said at the weekend that Kabila must agree by the end of September to an election date or else they will no longer recognize him as president as of October 1.

In the statement, the council stressed the "urgency of swift implementation" in order to organize "peaceful, credible inclusive and timely elections, no later than December 2017" and achieve a peaceful transfer of power.

Council members also said they were ready to "act accordingly regarding all Congolese actors whose actions and statements impede the implementation of the agreement and the organization of elections."

At a council meeting earlier this month, the United States demanded that the electoral commission immediately publish an electoral calendar and specifically a date for the presidential vote.

Washington threatened unilateral sanctions and said the Security Council should consider imposing measures to pile pressure on all sides over the elections delay.
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind.  A Purdue University student is one of 10 selected nationally to participate in the U.S.-Singapore Summer Exchange Scholarship Program.

Rachel King, a junior majoring in anthropology at Purdue, will spend the summer attending Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. At NTU, King will take one course from the Success in the Globalized Marketplace track (Cultural Intelligence  How to be an Explorer of the World) and another from the Creative Design and Media track (drawing). Prior to her departure for Singapore, King and the other nine scholarship recipients from the United States traveled to Washington D.C. to meet with Singapore Minister for Foreign Affairs, Dr. Vivian Balakrishnan.

The U.S.-Singapore Summer Exchange Scholarship Program commemorates the 50th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Singapore and the United States that began in 1966. Its objective is to promote greater interaction and mutual understanding between the next generation of Singaporeans and Americans, by allowing recipients to attend a university summer exchange program in each others countries. Applicants for the scholarship had to be a full-time undergraduate student at an eligible university. The students were judged on academic performance, community involvement, essay response and resume.

King is a member of the Purdue Honors College, has a presidential scholarship, previously studied in Spain for six weeks in high school through the Indiana University Honors Program in Foreign Languages. She has tutored Hispanic students in English through a Purdue program at Harrison High School, while she also has tutored an Afghan student in English for a Purdue class last year.

Source: Rachel King, king314@purdue.edu
SEOUL, South Korea (AP)  Intel's more than two decade-long reign as the king of the silicon-based semiconductor is poised to end Thursday when South Korea's Samsung Electronics elbows the U.S. manufacturer aside to become the leading maker of computer chips.

Samsung on Thursday reported record-high quarterly profit and sales. Analysts say it likely nudged aside Intel in the April-June quarter as the leading maker of semiconductors, the computer chips that are as much a staple of the 21st century wired world as crude oil was for the 20th century.

Samsung said its semiconductor business recorded $7.2 billion in operating income on revenue of $15.8 billion during the April-June period.

Intel, which reports its quarterly earnings later Thursday, was expected to report $14.4 billion in quarterly revenue.

On an annual basis, Samsung's semiconductor division is widely expected to overtake Intel's sales this year, analysts at brokerages and market research firms say.

Mobile devices and data are the keys to understanding Samsung's ascent as the new industry leader, even as its de facto chief is jailed, battling corruption charges, and it recovers from a fiasco over Galaxy Note 7 smartphones that had to be axed last year because they were prone to catch fire.

Manufacturers are packing more and more memory storage capacity into ever smaller mobile gadgets, as increased use of mobile applications, connected devices and cloud computing services drive up demand and consequently prices for memory chips, an area dominated by Samsung.

Just as Saudi Arabia dominates in oil output, Samsung leads in manufacturing the high-tech commodity of memory chips, which enable the world to store the data that fuels the digital economy.

"Data is the new crude oil," said Marcello Ahn, a Seoul, South Korea-based fund manager at Quad Investment Management.

For over a decade, Samsung and Intel each ruled the market in its own category of semiconductor.

Intel, the dominant supplier of the processors that serve as brains for personal computers, has been the world's largest semiconductor company by revenue since 1992 when it overtook Japan's NEC.

Samsung is reaping the rewards of dominating in the memory chip market which is growing much faster than the market for computers that rely on processing units dominated by Intel, said Chung Chang Won, a senior analyst at Nomura Securities.

"Greater use of smartphones and tablet PCs instead of computers is driving the rise of companies like Samsung," Chung said.

Since 2002, Samsung Electronics has been the largest supplier of memory chips called DRAMs and NANDs. But for years demand for memory chips was vulnerable to boom and bust cycles depending on output and on demand from the consumer electronics industry. At times, competition was brutal as supply gluts arose.

That changed in 2012 when Japan's Elpida filed for bankruptcy and was sold to Micron Technology, leaving only three major suppliers of DRAM, a type of memory chip used in servers, computers and handsets: Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron.
 What: "Wait Until Dark."

 When: 7:30 p.m. Friday and Saturday; 4 p.m. Sunday.

 Where: Brunner Theatre Center, 3750 7th Ave., Rock Island.

 Tickets: $15 for adults, $12 for students, available at 309-794-7306 or Augustana.edu/tickets.

Like its lead, most sympathetic character (a blind Greenwich Village housewife) I had a hard time seeing and following plot twists in the Mississippi Bend Players' new production, the tremendously suspenseful thriller "Wait Until Dark."

But even a blind man could see how thoroughly professional and powerful this is  the second in MBP's inaugural season at Augustana's Brunner Theatre Center across from Centennial Hall. The new summer company is succeeding in its mission to strive for theatrical excellence, giving students and community members the chance to work together on professional stage productions.

Made into a 1967 film (starring Audrey Hepburn), the '66 Frederick Knott "Wait Until Dark" concerns the sinister con man Roat (John D'Aversa), with ex-cons Mike and Carlino (Mike Schulz and Jeremy Mahr), searching for a mysterious doll that has heroin hidden in it. They trace it to the basement apartment of the blind wife Susy (Kim Kurtenbach), and her photographer hubby Sam (Don Denton), who had unwittingly transported the drugs within a doll given to him on a flight from Montreal.

Mike, Carlino and Roat construct an elaborate con game  taking on different identities  to get Susy (who was blinded in a car accident) to find and turn over the doll. Gloria (Emily Gulden), a girl who lives upstairs, plays a key role in the recovery.

While Ms. Kurtenbach (an ovarian cancer survivor) was in Circa's 2015 "Sound of Music," this is her first lead, meaty part since she had surgery and treatments in early 2014. She's mesmerizing, a revelation in the challenging, tumultuous role. Ms. Kurtenbach not only triumphs in convincing us of Susy's plight, but she imbues the character with its requisite strength, courage, drive and deviousness.

Her climactic fight with Roat in the pitch blackness close to the end is intense and breathtaking.

An Augustana graduate (class of 2015), this is Mr. D'Aversa's professional stage debut, after training at the Portland Actors Conservatory in Oregon two years. He impresses in fully realizing the smooth-talking, creepy confidence of Roat, and mostly behind sunglasses yet.

Equally terrifying and thrilling as their 2014 QC Theatre Workshop turns in "True West," Mr. Schulz and Mr. Mahr deliver characteristically dominant, precise performances. They show true professionalism and range as actors by switching first from needy, cynical con men into inhabiting their pretend world (as "good guys") with Susy, calmly and frighteningly earning her trust.

Mr. Denton and Ms. Gulden are solid in their smaller roles. A co-star at the intimate 250-seat Brunner is the remarkable set by longtime design vet (and Augie class of '76) Susan Holgersson.

It meticulously reflects the era with its period furnishings, including sink, fridge, oven and staircase. Perfect use of a second-floor walkway that becomes the ground-level path where we see people coming and going behind shaded windows.

Jeff Coussens, chair of Augie's theater department and MBP academic director, does a masterful job coordinating and maximizing the tense, patiently paced action. Don't wait to see this  it ends this weekend. If you bring your significant other to Friday's show, you get two tickets for the price of one, available at the door only.
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP)  Illinois legislators have adjourned a second day of a special session on school funding after just minutes.

The House and Senate met briefly Thursday, but didn't take up any action.

Gov. Bruce Rauner summoned lawmakers with the task of resolving a fight over a new funding calculation. Both chambers have approved a plan, but the Senate has refused to send it to Rauner, who says he'll rewrite it over objections to money that Chicago will get.

Senate President John Cullerton says he'll send the bill Monday. Rauner reiterated his call at a Thursday news conference for Cullerton to send it immediately.

If lawmakers want to override, they'll need a three-fifths majority vote. If they don't have the votes, the plan dies and questions remain about when schools will get funding.
ROCK ISLAND  A National Night Out Against Crime is planned from 5:30 to 8 p.m. Aug. 1 at Long View Park's Upper Pavillion.

Free refreshments will be available. Activities will include Rock Island K9 unit demonstrations, Rock Island Fire Department presentations, and a tug-of-war between Rock Island police and the Rock Island County Sheriff's Department.

The Metropolitan Youth Program's drill team will perform. Moline Target store employees will operate games and activities, and face-painting for youth will be featured.

The Community Caring Conference also will honor Rock Island Police Lt. Rusty Hocker for his seven years of service.

The local event is part of the National Association of Town Watch designed to recognize the effectiveness of neighborhood and law enforcement cooperation in reducing and preventing crime. Residents are encouraged to return home after the celebration and turn on porch lights to symbolize connecting with neighbors.

For more details, call Ametra Carroll-Castaneda at 309-721-7849 or 309-373-1202 or email rockislandccc@gmail.com
Vossloh says that its sales were helped by the initial consolidation of Vossloh Tie Technolgies (VTT) in the United States, which contributed sales revenues of 43m in the first half of 2017. Improved margins are attributed to the performance of the Core Components division.

Orders received by Vossloh dropped 7.6m to 465m. However, the order backlog as of June 30 was 737.3m compared with the previous years 633.7m.

During the opening six months of 2017, sales from the Core Components division, which comprises the Tie Technologies business unit and the Fastening Systems (VFS) unit, amounted to 174.8m, compared with the previous years 106.1m.

VFS increased its year-on-year sales to 133m (25.3%), and the company says that this stems from high demand for rail fastening systems for the new Beijing - Sheyang line in China. Sales are expected to decrease in this area in the second half of 2017. The Ebit margin for Core Components rose to 15.3% compared with the previous years 12% with orders amounting to 148.3m, compared with the previous years 115.8m.

Due to high-speed projects in France coming to a close, sales in the Customised Modules division fell from 246.7m to 237.9m, but the Lifecycle Solutions division showed a sales increase of 7.9% compared with the previous year, with sales amounting to 42.8m.

Vossloh Locomotives reported sales of 40.2m, which is up from the previous years 34.9m. The rest of Vosslohs Transportation division is no longer part of Vosslohs core business.

The number of employees in the group has increased from 4079 to 4311 as of June 30 and the company has a sales target of between 1bn and 1.1bn in 2017.
Russian investigation into deceased ex-MP Voronenkov extended till Oct.24

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Russian investigators have extended probe into ex-communist lawmaker Denis Voronenkov, who was killed in Ukraine in March, until October 24, lawyer Andrey Grivtsov told RAPSI on Thursday.

According to Russias Investigative Committee, Voronenkov has been charged with large scale fraud and organizing falsification of the Unified State Register of Legal Entities and put on the international wanted list. On March 3, Moscows Basmanny District Court issued an arrest warrant for Voronenkov. Later, the Moscow City Court upheld the ruling.

Investigators claim that the ex-lawmaker was involved in a raid aimed at seizing a two-story building in central Moscow in 2011 owned by Otari Kobakhidze, founder of the company TOMA. The allegations were reportedly based on the testimony of a group of people who had been convicted and sentenced in the case.

After Kobakhidze delegated full control of the company to its CEO Marina Vladimirskaya, she took advantage of the situation. She reportedly decided with her acquaintance, a retired police officer, Vyacheslav Polozkov, to alter the registration documents and sell the building valued at 127 million rubles ($2.1 million). Several other persons including Voronenkov were implicated in the case, according to investigators.The building was sold for 20 million rubles ($339,200). Customer Vitaly Kachur, the owner of Chance company, illegally paid Voronenkov $1.2 million, the Investigative Committees press service reported earlier.

Kobakhidze turned to court and managed to regain control of the company and the building. Those involved in the raid pleaded guilty, agreed to cooperate with investigators and testified against Voronenkov.

Voronenkov claimed that the criminal prosecution of him had been politically motivated.

In October 2016, the former member of the Communist Party moved to Ukraine along with his wife Maria Maksakova, also an ex-lawmaker, and received Ukrainian citizenship in December 2016.

On March 23, 2017, Voronenkov was shot dead in the central part of Ukrainian capital Kiev.
Prosecutors appeal against release of Russian tycoon Polonsky

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI)  Prosecutors filed an appeal against release of Russian businessman Sergey Polonsky, who had been found guilty of large-scale embezzlement, press service of Moscows Presnensky District Court told RAPSI on Thursday.

On July 12, the court sentenced Polonsky to 5 years in prison but freed him from jail in the courtroom because the statute of limitation had expired.

Two other defendants, Alexander Paperno, Head of the Mirax Group Finance Department, and Alexey Pronyakin, CEO of Avanta company, were sentenced to 3 and 2 years behind bars respectively. They were also released from punishment.

According to investigators, Polonsky, aided by Paperno and Pronyakin, defrauded participants of shared construction apartment projects of 2.6 billion rubles ($43 million at the current exchange rate), thus committing a serious crime.

Polonsky, who is the founder of Potok (formerly Mirax Group), a diversified corporation that has been involved in several large development projects, is deemed to cause damages in amount of 2.4 billion rubles regarding Kutuzov Mile and 256 million rubles with regard to Rublyovskaya Riviera development projects.

Other projects Polonsky has been involved in include Federation Tower in the Moscow International Business Center, office buildings Mirax Plaza, Poklonnaya 11 and Admiral, condominium developments Mirax Park, Golden Keys 1 and 2, and the Well House.

In May 2015, the Cambodian authorities, where Polonsky had been avoiding Russian prosecution, extradited him to Russia.
Raoul Wallenbergs niece sues Russias FSB over information about her uncle

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Lyudmila Klenko)  Marie Dupuy, niece of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who went missing in the late 1940s, had filed a lawsuit against Russias Federal Security Service (FSB) with a Moscow court seeking to obtain information about the fate of her uncle, lawyer Ivan Pavlov representing the claimant told RAPSI on Thursday.

Pavlov reminded that Wallenberg, who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis during World War II, went missing in 1947 after being arrested by the Soviet counterespionage service. Since then, the lawyer said, Russian authorities have been repeatedly declining to provide Wallenbergs relatives documents, which could clarify his fate.

The decision to sue FSB was taken after the family received no reply to their request they sent to the agency this March, asking for access to original uncensored documents.

Wallenberg, in 1944 taking a post with the Swedish Embassy in Budapest, used his status to provide passports for Jews trying to flee the Nazis. When the capital of Hungary was liberated by the Red Army, Wallenberg was allegedly arrested by a Soviet security service and, as it is believed basing on available evidence, died in 1947 when detained in Moscow.




Potanina loses $15 bln claim against billionaire ex-husband

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI)  The Presnensky District Court of Moscow dismissed a lawsuit lodged by Natalia Potanina seeking to collect 849.2 billion rubles (about $15 billion) from her ex-husband, billionaire Vladimir Potanin, the courts representative told RAPSI Thursday.

The claim was rejected because of expiration of the limitation period.

Reportedly, Potanina asked the court to acknowledge shares of three foreign companies as the property acquired during her marriage. Potanina evaluated her share as much as nearly 850 billion rubles.

Earlier, the court dismissed another lawsuit filed by Potanina seeking to recover 215 billion rubles (about $3.8 billion at the current exchange rate) in compensation for shares of KM Invest company.

In late April 2015, Natalia Potanina filed a lawsuit for ownership of 50 percent of her ex-husbands stake in Norilsk Nickel and half of Interros International, which holds their other assets. In the fall of 2015, the Presnensky District Court of Moscow dismissed the lawsuit. Potanina has appealed the ruling, only for the Moscow District Court to uphold it on January 22, 2016.

Under the Russian Family Code, the property acquired during a marriage is considered community property and therefore should be divided into equal parts in a divorce.

The businessman was granted a divorce from his wife in February 2014.

In July 2015, the Presnensky court issued a ruling in a case on dividing the assets of the former spouses. According to a source familiar with the lawsuit, the court ruled that Vladimir Potanin keep a 406.9 square meter luxury apartment on Skatertny Pereulok (central Moscow) and a church, St. Blessed Tamara in the village of Anosino, in the Moscow Region.

Natalia Potanina received 380 million rubles ($6.4 million at the current exchange rate) in compensation for her share in the apartment as well as three plots of land in the Moscow Region.
Ukraine asks U.S. court to dismiss Tatneft claim over $112 mln award

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI)  Ukraine filed a motion with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia asking to dismiss the enforcement petition of Russian oil company Tatneft that had won $112 million in the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

As a copy of the document at RAPSI disposal reads, according to the Ukrainian party, Tatneft turned to the U.S. court relying on the provision of the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which sets a statutory exception to immunity in case foreign state agrees to submit a dispute to arbitration. However, Ukraine claims, Tatneft could not use the provision as it is not a private, but state-owned company controlled by Tatarstan, a republic within the Russian Federation, and that Ukraine is a more suitable alternative forum to examine the Russian companys claim on the enforcement of the arbitral award after the balancing of public and private interest factors.

Summarizing the matter, the Ukrainian party insists that the District of Columbia is not a convenient forum for recognition and enforcement of the Merits Award, insofar as Ukraine is an adequate alternative forum, and the public and private interest factors weigh in favor of recognition and enforcement in Ukraine The Petition should therefore be dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction and forum non conveniens.

Tatneft, based in Russias Republic of Tatarstan, claimed forcible takeover of Ukrtatnafta and seizure of its shares. In May 2008, the company took its case to a tribunal administered by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague.

In the summer of 2014, the tribunal ruled that Ukraine had broken the bilateral investment treaty with Russia and awarded compensation of $112 million plus interest over the Ukraine's Kremenchug oil refinery (Ukrtatnafta).

Ukraines authorities have challenged the ruling, but the Court of Appeal of Paris dismissed the appeal in November 2016.

In March 2017, the Russian company filed a motion with the U.S. court seeking to confirm arbitral award and enter the judgment in its favor. According to Tatneft, the amount of debt plus interest reached $144 million.

Later, Tatneft filed similar motions with the High Court in London and the Moscow Commercial Court.
Corruption in Russia down 14% in first half of 2017  Prosecutor General

MOSCOW, July 27 (RAPSI, Nikolay Merkulov)  The number of corruption-related crimes registered in Russia in the first six months of 2017 decreased by about 14 per cent, Prosecutor General Yury Chaika said addressing the Collegium of the Russian Prosecutor Generals Office on Thursday.

According to Chaika, in the first half-year there were detected 18,400 corruption-related crimes, adding that it declined by 13.9 per cent as compared with the period from January through June 2016.

The most noticeable decrease in the number of such crimes was noted in the Siberian Federal District (24.7 per cent), whereas in the North Caucasus there was registered the maximal rise by 18.1 per cent.
The U.S. Congress is close to passing a resolution increasing sanctions on Russia, along with Iran and North Korea, and it's likely that President Donald Trump will approve it. The bill passed the House of Representatives with overwhelming and bipartisan support, revised primarily to give some leeway to energy companies involved in joint ventures with Russia. The bill takes authority away from the president to suspend sanctions except in specific cases. Since any rapprochement with Russia would have to include a suspension of sanctions, this effectively takes a great deal of control over U.S.-Russian relations out of the hands of the president and shifts it to Congress. This is not unprecedented; Congress did something similar over Iran during Barack Obama's presidency.
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'Nitish Kumar has only done what any smart politician will do in his place,' says Saisuresh Sivaswamy.

Have we just witnessed the biggest political coup in independent India?

Or have we just seen the final obsequies performed on hallowed democratic tradition, the last rites that began in Goa after the February assembly elections when a government that had lost the popular mandate sneaked back into office through some nifty legislative skulduggery?

It depends really on which side of the politico-ideological divide you stand, really.

If you are one of the cheerleaders for the party in power at the Centre, this is a defining moment in our history when an arch critic has seen the error of his ways and done amends.

If you are one of those ranged against the BJP and its leadership, decency and morality have just been murdered at the altar of politics.

But this is not the first time that morality has been given the go-by in politics, nor, we can be sure, will it be the last.

Indians are everything they are described to be, but they are also, in the final analysis, realists who have no illusions about anything. Least of politics and politicians.

Even given that wide leeway, what we have just witnessed in Bihar marks a first.

The previous instances of naked power play involved politicians who wouldn't be seen next to a principled stand leave alone embrace it.

The intelligentsia and civil society usually scorned them for their disdain for fairness, and they reciprocated the sentiment.

But Nitish Kumar was always different.

So different that even his ardent detractors sneaked in a grudging admiration for the man who, it can be said with a fair degree of accuracy, changed Bihar's face and identity. At least in popular perception if not on the ground.

Because he was different, his current turnabout, where he has re-embraced a political ally who he had kicked away only for its emerging leadership, is a little hard to explain.

Or accept.

Or, perhaps, even understand.

The Bharatiya Janata Party, with who he was in a longstanding alliance before he decided to break away in 2013, has not changed. If anything, the very leadership he had scorned four years ago has cemented its position and is today the be-all and end-all of the party.

So, it is obvious that Nitish Kumar is the one who has changed.

From being the man who had made the first move on forming a Mahagatbandhan in Bihar with his political foe Lalu Yadav to keep the rampaging BJP out of power in 2015, Nitish Kumar, by inviting that very party to share in power today, has done a pirouette to do the Bolshoi Ballet proud.

So were the last four years he spent in criticising the BJP, a time when he had emerged as the key Opposition figure in the run-up to the 2019 elections, a mistake?

Or was it all along a lie, to paint an image of himself that is at variance with the truth -- which is that there is nothing he will not do, including sleeping with the enemy, if it cements his tenure of 1 Anne Marg, Patna?

It is hard to explain Nitish Kumar's politics through conventional idioms. So to see him through the prism of secularism, communalism, liberalism, fascism, even opportunism, which is what his latest manoeuvre leans to, would be inapt, and not entirely accurate.

What Nitish Kumar has shown, throughout his long political career, is that he is out there batting not for any team, but for himself.

Does it make him a mercenary, a sellsword -- to use a term from the popular show Game of Thrones whose title could well be referencing the goings-on in Bihar?

Or does it make him a pragmatist who sees that politics is not to be spent on the Opposition benches, but in the pursuit and retention of power?

If explaining Nitish Kumar's politics was hard, it is harder to accept it but only because despite his abundant hints and indications one refused to buy that he will take the final plunge.

By doing what he did, he has shown that he is not a prisoner of the past, of political paradigms or even empty shibboleths -- unlike his contemporaries who seem to be locked in a time warp.

But the questions remain.

When did it dawn on him that political untouchability, which he had himself enshrined as his key principle when he dumped the BJP in 2013, was a currency that had long been demonetised?

When did he realise that his quondam foe Lalu was a bigger liability to Brand Nitish than the BJP?

After all, the Yadav clan's accumulation of wealth was well-known, though they had been kept in line in the two years they had shared power with him.

When 'greed', to quote Nitish, didn't matter in 2015, it cannot suddenly matter now.

Which makes it obvious that the reason for the breakup lies elsewhere.

Could it be that despite his protestations Nitish Kumar harboured other, more grand ambitions than ruling a corner of India?

After all, the Bihar Mahagatbandhan fathered by him remains the only viable template to defeat a resurgent BJP, and holds the sole hope for the Opposition ahead of 2019.

Given the eclipse of other contenders to lead such a formation, and his own popularity, Nitish Kumar surely saw himself as a serious contestant for the top job.

But it's obvious that others in the emerging Opposition ranks didn't feel the same way about him.

The Congress, despite its rout in most parts of India, was not willing to sign away its future by seconding him to lead such a formation, nor were the others going out on a limb to back him.

In such a scenario, there were only two options before him.

One, to remain confined to Bihar where the Yadav clan has made no secret of its ambition to rule the state again and was constantly breathing down his neck, even while Nitish Kumar continued to lend his heft to the opposition to take on the BJP.

Two, to dump the ballast in the ocean and forge a new path, even if it involves forging friendship with foes.

Option one is restrictive for a man with ambition, as well as uncertain given that he was the junior partner in Bihar's ruling alliance, while option two merely calls for doing something he has done before -- burying old enmities to forge new politics.

Option one means forever taking his eyes of the Dilli Sultanat, while option two calls for merely suspending his 2019 dreams, while getting a better grip on Bihar, something not possible with the Yadavs.

Nitish Kumar has only done what any smart politician will do in his place.

Live to fight another day.

IMAGE: Prime Minister Narendra D Modi with Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in New Delhi, May 27, 2017.
'India is a huge market for Chinese goods. I don't think a war stands to logic when you have economic compulsions, but then Chinese are known to do illogical things.'

What is China up to? Does it really want a war with India? Can China ignore the huge Indian market for Chinese products? Is it just tough Chinese posturing?

Colonel R Hariharan (retd), a retired Military Intelligence specialist on South Asia who had served with the Indian Peace Keeping Force in Sri Lanka as head of intelligence, discusses with Rediff.com's Shobha Warrier what the standoff between India and China in the Doklam plateau means.

Is China playing a game right now? If so, what kind of game are they playing?

There are three ways to look at what is happening. One is from the perspective of the international environment.

The second is the bilateral relationship between India and China and the third angle is the changing strategic equation in South Asia.

Internationally, after Ukraine was partitioned, there is a growing sentiment in NATO against Russia supported by the US.

(US President Donald J) Trump has used this issue to suit his political agenda. There is a possibility of this confrontation going out of control and in such a scenario, Moscow needs Beijing as an ally.

China is a powerful entity, more powerful than ever before. It is competing to be the number one in the world's economic power engine.

The Belt and Road Initiative linking China with Europe, through the old Silk Route, is a success from China's point of view.

The China Pakistan Economic Corridor is also an important linkage of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Even in the South China Sea, a confrontation has been going on and China is not letting it go.

China has taken a confrontationist posture against many countries. It did not accept the judgment of the International Court of Justice when its claims to the South China Sea was turned down.

So, it is in this background that we have to look at the overall assertion of Chinese power.

Why I am mentioning all this is we should not see the India-China standoff in Doklam -- which is not even a confrontation -- as an issue that would give rise to a war or not.

We will have to look at it from a larger perspective.

The other issue is the bilateral relations between China and India.

At present, in Asia, there are three highly assertive leaders: President Xi Jinping of China, Prime Minister Narendra D Modi of India and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan.

All three harp on nationalism or national identity as a rallying call for the country. Xi came to power saying he would make the Chinese dream of making China the centre of the universe a reality.

China has been under a severe inferiority complex after the opium war and it is trying to live down the image of the sick man of Asia.

We can say it has succeeded as progressively it has upgraded the life of the common man.

Xi has cleansed the system of corruption, nepotism and cronyism and after 2012, he has established himself as the strongest man after Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping as the man who controls the government, the army and the Communist party.

Is it the desire to control the world that has given China this confrontationist attitude?

No. It is to restore Chinese pride, you can say.

Japan has amended the constitution so that it can have an army for the first time after the second World War.

Japan can now manufacture and export arms and enter into an alliance with other countries.

In India, Modi also has a vision for India with development as the key.

So, you have these three powers within Asia trying to find space beyond their domain.

The global economy which was controlled by the US and the European Union, has shifted now to Asia.

Naturally, there will be conflict among the three Asian powers.

What does China want to show India by taking control of India's neighbours like Sri Lanka, Nepal, Pakistan, etc?

It wants to reduce India's influence among its neighbours.

You saw it in Sri Lanka even though the present government is close to India.

You saw it in Nepal.

You saw it in Bangladesh.

They have already established themselves in Pakistan.

Now they are trying to do it in Bhutan.

China is wielding its economic power. It is not a direct military confrontation, but a confrontation to increase its influence.

This is what is happening in Bhutan where the borders are not properly demarcated. They have areas which are claimed by both sides and the Doklam plateau is one such area.

The Chinese have enormous patience in dealing with foreign powers and they will do it when it suits them.

So, I do not expect this to end immediately.

Why is the Chinese media aggressively attacking India all of a sudden?

You must remember that it is a State controlled media.

I would say China has won the propaganda war because as a democracy, we only reproduce the Chinese claims and counter claims; we have not contradicted the stories.

Is this a very planned strategy by China?

Of course, it is. Because of their efforts, now we are so much concerned about whether there would be a war with China or not.

The question that I encounter all the time is whether a war would break out tomorrow.

Personally, I feel China has succeeded in creating such a hysteria in India though the Government of India has been trying to negate it.

The other day, the Government of India issued a statement that there was no additional build up along the border.

Whatever the Chinese are doing, they are building up their capability.

Are we falling into the trap they are digging?

That is not possible. We know what we are.

The issue is whether we can prolong the issue.

The Doklam area is a plateau over the valley. It is essential for China as they can occupy the dominant ground.

It is a winding mountainous road and the Chinese have constructed 28 km of road and they are constructing another 22 km.

Now then they can reach the India-China-Bhutan tri-junction. This is the crux of the problem.

That is why (External Affairs Minister) Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that China is creeping into the tri-junction.

How dangerous will it be for India as the north east is connected to India through the corridor?

This tri-junction is very important for our strategic, security point of view because the closer the Chinese come, it would threaten our Siliguri corridor which is about 30 km from there.

It is the land link between north east India and the rest of the country.

But this is not the first time the Chinese are doing such things.

When Xi came here for the first time in September 2014, and while Modi and Xi were talking, Chinese troops entered Ladakh and came 1 and  kms inside.

So, at all critical points, China is trying to assert its superiority and there was some indirect pressure at the top to bring home the Chinese dispensation.

India allowing the Dalai Lama to visit Arunachal Pradesh was not well taken by them.

Do you think India is reacting the right way to Chinese aggression?

There is no right way and wrong way.

When there is confrontation at the border, it is handled in three ways.

India had signed a friendship agreement and a standard operating procedure during Manmohan Singh's time in case the troops enter into confrontation in the border areas to avoid any military conflict.

So, at the local level, it is settled between the Chinese troops and the Indian troops with restraint.

Next is at the diplomatic level.

Our national security advisor is in Beijing to attend a meeting. There, the issue will be raised.

It will be a loss of face for India to withdraw troops and China to stop them. So, we have to first defuse the tension.

Can India afford to take a tough stand against China?

We have not reached that point.

Internally, there is a political reshuffle taking place in China.

The Chinese Communist Party will decide Xi's fate. The next generation leaders will be picked up at the party congress in the autumn. In August, the top party leaders will meet at a resort (Beidaihe) near Beijing.

So, I don't expect any action be taken to upset such an important event by going on a full-scale war with India.

To have a war or not is in Chinese hands.

At the same time Xi also would like to increase his popularity when Chinese nationalism is on the rise.

And the Communist party wants to cash in on that.

But where they are occupying is not a good place to start a war; it is where India can surround them from three sides.

As a military man, my reading is that this kind of skirmishes will continue till September.

What about the Indian market for Chinese products?

China has a business of around $70 billion with India.

70% mobile phones in India are Chinese made. That is why there will be talks to ease the situation.

We heard from the Chinese side that this will not affect business. India is a huge market for Chinese goods and they know that.

So, the fact is, China would not like to have a huge confrontation with India.

Pakistan as an ally is a great asset for China. That is why it is important for India to retain friendships with Afghanistan and Iran.

I think India is acting very correctly as we do not want a war.

Do you think China would like a war with India?

I don't think so. India is a huge market for Chinese goods. I don't think it stands to logic when you have economic compulsions, but then Chinese are known to do illogical things.

India will also lose in a war as war is a very unproductive thing.

Do you think if the skirmishes continue, it will lead to a full-fledged war?

No, I don't think so.

When confrontations prolong, skirmishes take place sometimes.

The Indian Army has fought three wars, but the Chinese army has not fought any war.

Yes, the Chinese army is modernised. I am not underestimating the Chinese, but it is an untested force whereas the Indian Army does military exercises in 34 countries.

We have 50 years of experience in operating aircraft carriers. You cannot become an expert in aircraft carriers in just two years' time.

China is a toddler in international navies, but they are compensating it by missile systems.

They have developed very good missile systems and very effective submarines.

So, if there was a war, it would not be a Western style war.

Don't miss: More insights into the India-China standoff, below and alongside

IMAGE: A Border Personnel Meeting between the Indian and Chinese armies on the occasion of the 'Harvest Festival' in Chushul and Daulat Beg Oldi, Eastern Ladakh, April 14, 2016.
Nitish Kumar once again took over as chief minister of Bihar with Bharatiya Janata Partys support on Thursday, leaving the oppositions unity in tatters and raising questions over its ability to counter the saffron party in the 2019 general elections.

IMAGE: Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administers oath to Nitish Kumar as Bihar chief minister at Raj Bhavan in Patna. Photograph: PTI Photo

A little more than 12 hours after 66-year-old Kumar resigned to break ranks with his allies -- Lalu Yadavs Rashtriya Janata Dal party and the Congress -- he was back in office after being sworn in by Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at the Raj Bhawan.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also sworn in, and would be the deputy chief minister.

The deft political manoeuvres by the Janata Dal-United chief Kumar left the opposition stunned as he joined hands with friend-turned-foe-turned-friend BJP. The two parties were in alliance for 17 years until 2013, when Kumar walked out of the NDA fold after Narendra Modi was made the BJPs campaign committee chairman for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Modi was later declared the prime ministerial candidate.

However, Kumar, who was seen by the opposition as a possible answer to Modi in 2019 amid shrinking Congress clout, seemed to have accepted the popular thinking that the Modi- wave would continue even after two years.

The governor has asked Kumar to prove his majority on the floor of the House on Friday. Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice, Kumar told reporters after the swearing in.

This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar, he said.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda and BJP leader Anil Jain were present at the brief ceremony where only Kumar and Sushil Modi were sworn in.

Immediately after the swearing in, the JD-U announced that it will support the BJP-led NDA government in both the Houses of Parliament.

IMAGE: Sushil Modi is back as Nitish's deputy. Photograph: PTI Photo

The swearing in capped breathtaking political developments in the state with Kumar quitting his post Wednesday night following a fall out with the RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and his family members. Chief among them is Prasads son, Tejashwi Yadav, who was the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government.

Yadav had refused to step down after the Central Bureau of Investigation filed corruption charges against him and had also ignored Kumars advice to explain his conduct. Kumar cited this as the reason to resign and ally with the BJP to become the chief minister for the sixth time.

The sharp reactions from the opposition were predictable.

He (Nitish) had joined hands with us in the anti-communal fight, but Nitish Kumar, for his personal politics, joined hands with those against whom he had fought, said Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi.

People do anything for their selfish motives. There is no principle, no credibility. They can do anything for power, he said.

Modi congratulated Kumar and said he looked forward to working together for Bihars prosperity.

Nobody from the RJD or the Congress attended the swearing-in ceremony protesting the denial of chance to the RJD, the single-largest party in the state assembly, to form the government.

After taking oath, Sushil Modi said the development process will be back on track in the state with the return of the NDA.

The JD-U-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights. At that point of time, the people of the state used to take pride in saying I am a Bihari. But in the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD-U-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights, he said.

On the RJDs claims that it has the numbers, JD-U national spokesperson K C Tyagi said, They should stop making tall claims and if they really have the numbers, let them prove it in the floor test. We have our numbers and we will prove it.

IMAGE: Nitish and Sushil are all smiles after the swearing-in. Photograph: PTI Photo

The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs on Wednesday to the governor. These include 71 of JD-U, BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three independents.

In the 243-member Bihar assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

Tyagi said the decision of his party to form the grand alliance government in Bihar was a mistake and ruled out any possibility of a patch-up with the RJD.

It was a mistake to forge an alliance with RJD. We had information that to save themselves from CBI cases, they were in touch with the union ministers in Delhi and were planning to topple the Nitish Kumar government, Tyagi said.

We regret our decision to run the government with such a person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months. We blame ourselves for committing a mistake of taking their MLA count from 22 to 80, he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, who led a protest march to the Raj Bhawan after midnight, on Thursday threatened protests across the state against Kumar, saying he will find it difficult to move around.

My performance perturbed our ally and BJP. Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness, Yadav said in a tweet.
In the Middle East, which is already coping with the Qatar-Saudi Arabia tensions, comes another pressure point.

Aveek Sen reports.

IMAGE: A police vehicle patrols near the portraits of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, left, and Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif displayed during the former's visit to Islamabad last year. Photograph: Faisal Mahmood/Reuters

Late in April, we witnessed fresh tensions in Pakistan-Iran relations following the death of Iran's border guards by long-range weapons fired from Pakistani soil by terrorists.

The group involved was Jaish ul-Adl -- which in its earlier iteration as Jundullah -- had also been the reason for Iran's irritation with Pakistan, which is believed to aid and abet them.

Such terror attacks are common in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Terrorists and narcotics smugglers routinely attack Iran's police forces and border guards in the southeastern province of Iran, which has a significant Sunni Baluch population.

However, Iran's response in April was harsher than normal; it went into a diplomatic offensive. This could be due to the fact that it was in the run-up to the presidential election in Iran in May.

In 2009, in the run-up to the presidential election, Iran had witnessed terror attacks, one by Jundullah, and fear of terror attacks could lead to lower voter turnout in the Sistan-Baluchistan province.

Given the (large Sunni) demographics of the province, a lower voter turnout could lead to Iran getting bad press abroad regarding the election process, and Iran wanted to prevent it at any cost.

In early May, Major General Mohammad Baqeri, the head of the Iranian armed forces, said, 'If the terrorist attacks continue, we will hit their safe havens and cells, wherever they are.'

Security along the border was beefed. Training exercises of Iran's border guards were conducted near the border and publicised in its media.

However, even after the elections the tensions remain, and it could signal something bigger brewing.

Multiple terror attacks have been foiled by Iranian intelligence.

In addition to Jaish ul-Adl, there were incidents involving another terror group, Ansar al-Furqan.

In the past, Iran has often criticized Pakistan for failing to rein in Ansar al-Furqan terrorists, who roam free on Pakistani soil.

There were also clashes between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and Iran's security forces in Qasr-e Qand and Chabahar. The one in Qasr-e Qand lasted days.

Then on June 20, Pakistan shot down Iran's drone in Panjgur district accompanied by high publicity. It is worth noting that Panjgur also houses Jaish ul-Adl camps.

According to my sources, drones are often sighted in the area. So, what led Pakistan to shoot down the drone this time?

The drone's downing was reported amid an emergency flag meeting between Pakistani and Iranian officials following the firing of several mortar shells into Pakistan from Iran two days earlier.

This was followed on July 6 by the forces under Brigadier General Hossein Rahimi, the police commander of Sistan-Baluchistan, seizing a large cache of weapons and an anti-aircraft cannon belonging to Jaish ul-Adl.

General Rahimi said the terrorists intended to launch a massive ground and ground-to-air assault against Iranian border guards.

Jaish ul-Adl, the general added, planned to shoot down a helicopter carrying Iranian officials and military commanders in bordering areas in southeastern Iran, but the police discovered and foiled their plot.

Things escalated on July 15, when Iran reacted to a cross-border terror attack saying that it reserved the right to respond to the attack as it chose and warning that its patience was wearing thin with Pakistan's lack of cooperation in counter-terror measures.

Then on July 20, addressing a conference in Mashhad, Brigadier General Pakpour of the IRGC Ground Force said, 'Our strategy today is to go to the terrorist cells' strongholds and gatherings and places where they are organised.'

General Pakpour alleged that the intelligence services of some countries that support terrorist groups -- accusing Saudi Arabia and the United States -- were seeking to create insecurity in Iran by strengthening terror groups at the northwestern and southeastern borders.

With the Qatar crisis dragging on -- and Turkey and Iran rallying behind Qatar -- the Middle East is already a hotbed.

Iran has often accused Saudi Arabia, Israel and the US of supporting terror groups, but with Iran now losing patience, will Pakistan be able to play its balancing act any longer?

Aveek Sen is an independent journalist working on cyber security and the geopolitics of India's neighbourhood, focusing on Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran and Bangladesh.

He tweets @aveeksen
'She keeps asking me about the two women and child she saw before she was buried under the debris.'

Rediff.com's Prasanna D Zore meets a worried father whose daughter survived the building collapse in Mumbai which claimed 17 lives.

IMAGE: Varsha Sakpal was working on the second floor when the building collapsed. She survived the mishap. Photograph: Sahil Salvi

Varsha Sakpal keeps asking her father about Renuka, Amruta and Pramilaben.

When the Siddhi Sai Apartments began collapsing around 10.30 am on Tuesday, July 25, Varsha, who worked on the second floor of the Ghatkopar, north Mumbai, building as an accountant, saw two women with an infant rushing down the stairs from the third floor at the same time that she too was running for safety.

And then everything blacked out.

Varsha was fortunate to have been buried under the debris in such a manner that her hands and part of her face could be seen by passersby.

By the time she was pulled out of the rubble by two boys and a woman, she had already called her father and told him about the building collapse.

"When she called, I was down the hill," her father Pandurang Sakpal says outside Ward Number 14 at the Rajawadi Hospital where Varsha is recovering from a head injury.

The Sakpals live atop a hill in Ghatkopar's Ramnagar area and as soon as her father got a call he rushed to the collapse site and took Varsha to the hospital in an autorickshaw.

Though not much wounded physically, Varsha -- a commerce graduate from the K J Somaiya College of Arts and Commerce -- is unable to sleep properly, her father says.

"She is in a state of shock," he says.

"She keeps asking me about the two women and child she saw before she was buried under the debris," he adds.

On the doctors' advice the Sakpals have not informed their daughter about the deaths of the three lest it adds to her trauma.

"She is okay," her worried father says, "but we hope she recovers from her trauma soon and gets some sleep."
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with officials arrival in Islamabad)

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Two abducted diplomatic officials of Pakistans consulate in Afghanistan today arrived in Islamabad after they were rescued in an operation conducted by the Afghan security forces, the Foreign Office here said.

The officials, posted at Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad, were abducted on June 16 while travelling from Jalalabad to Torkham border crossing, the Foreign Office said.

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"The two diplomatic officials in Jalalabad, who were safely recovered, yesterday, from their abductors by Afghan security forces have arrived in Islamabad today," it said.

The officials and their families have expressed their profound gratitude to the Afghan Government for the efforts in their safe recovery.

They also thanked the Government of Pakistan for consistent efforts to seek their release. It was, however, not officially announced who had abducted them or any ransom was paid to release them.

"(Afghanistan) President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistans Charge daffaires in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation," it said.

The officials were handed over to the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua talked to Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and conveyed Pakistans deep gratitude to the Afghan Government for safe recovery of the two abducted diplomatic officials.

Jalalabad is the regional hub in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The Taliban and militants linked to the ISIS operate in eastern Afghanistan. PTI SH CPS ZH AMS

--- ENDS ---
Threats and intimidation  Mexico's weapons of mass censorship

Publisher Reporters Without Borders Publication Date 27 July 2017 Cite as Reporters Without Borders, Threats and intimidation  Mexico's weapons of mass censorship, 27 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f05b4.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the threatening messages left for four Mexican journalists in the past week that warned them to stop their outspoken reporting. This barbaric behaviour has again confirmed that Mexico's journalists are in desperate need of protection.

The four journalists targeted by the threats are based in Tabasco, Quintana Roo and Michoacan, states with particularly high levels of organized crime and corruption.





The first was Luis Ruben Lopez Dominguez, a reporter for the Tabasco Hoy newspaper in Paraiso, in the southeastern state of Tabasco. Gunmen opened fire on Lopez's car while it was parked outside his home on 19 July and left message on the windscreen warning him to stop reporting if he did not want to get killed.





Two placards with death threats were found the same day on the streets of Cancun, in the nearby southeastern state of Quintana Roo. Signed by Los Zetas, one of Mexico's most dangerous crime cartels, the placards named two journalists: Pedro Canche, the publisher of the Pedro Canche news site, and Amir Ibrahim, the editor of the El QuintanaRoo news site.









The fourth target was Jose Maldonado Sotelo, the head of the Noventa Grados news agency in Morelia, in the southwestern state of Michoacan. A mysterious email received at the news agency on 21 July warned Maldonado to stop covering the work of the Michoacan attorney-general's office.





"Whatever the origin, such attempts to intimidate and censor are intolerable and unacceptable," said Emmanuel Colombie, the head of RSF's Latin America bureau. "As well as protecting the targeted journalists, the local and federal authorities must identify and punish those responsible for these death threats. Intimidation of this kind fosters a climate of fear and self-censorship that has a terrible impact on freedom of expression in Mexico."





The uncertainty about the origin of the threats is particularly disturbing and is reinforcing the suspicions of the journalists that local officials may have been responsible.





Lopez thinks the Paraiso authorities were the source of threat against him. He says they did not appreciate his latest stories about Paraiso mayor Bernardo Barrada Ruiz's questionable activities. On the day of the shooting, the city hall's spokesman accused Lopez of staging it himself.





Canche said he thought those responsible for the Cancun placards were "not the narcos but political actors who have teamed up to spread fear and terror among the few critical journalists working in Quintana Roo." Canche was arrested in 2015 for covering a demonstration and was held unjustly for nine months (see the RSF video).







Maldonado, who was already threatened on 3 May, said he thought the threatening email received on 21 July was directly linked to his news agency's reporting about the questionable past of Rogelio Arredondo Guillen, the head of the Investigation and Analysis unit at the Michoacan attorney-general's office, who was murdered on 30 June.





Michoacan is a particularly dangerous state for the media. Michoacan-based TV journalist Salvador Adame Pardo's charred body was found in June, a month after his abduction.





Mexico is ranked 147th out of 180 countries in RSF's 2017 World Press Freedom Index.
Malnutrition and cholera 'a vicious combination' in war-torn Yemen  UN agency chiefs

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, Malnutrition and cholera 'a vicious combination' in war-torn Yemen  UN agency chiefs, 26 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f6424.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

In Yemen, the world's worst cholera outbreak is unfolding amid the world's largest humanitarian crisis, crippling health, water and sanitation facilities in the country, and creating ideal conditions for diseases to spread, according to the heads of three United Nations agencies.

The country is on the brink of famine, with over 60 per cent of the population not knowing where their next meal will come from, said UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

Wrapping up their joint visit to the crisis-torn nation, the agency chiefs pointed out that nearly two million Yemeni children are acutely malnourished, and malnutrition makes them more susceptible to cholera; diseases create more malnutrition [] a vicious combination.

Together in Yemen they witnessed the scale of the humanitarian crisis, observing that over the last three months, 400,000 cases of suspected cholera and nearly 1,900 associated deaths have been recorded.

At one hospital, we visited children who can barely gather the strength to breathe. We spoke with families overcome with sorrow for their ill loved ones and struggling to feed their families, they lamented, adding that as they drove through the city, we saw how vital infrastructure, such as health and water facilities, have been damaged or destroyed.

UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) Executive Director Anthony Lake, World Food Programme (WFP) Executive Director David Beasley and World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus visit suspected cholera patients at Alsabeen Hospital, Sana'a, Yemen. Photos: Moohialdin Fuad Alzekri

Thousands of health workers, unpaid for nearly a year, still show up for duty

Amid the chaos, some 16,000 volunteers go from house to house, educating families on how to protect themselves from diarrhoea and cholera while doctors, nurses and other health staff work around the clock to save lives.

Highlighting that in spite of not having been paid for over 10 months, many of the 30,000 health workers continue to labour, the senior UN officials said they have asked the authorities to pay them.

As for our agencies, we will do our best to support these extremely dedicated health workers with incentives and stipends, they stated.

We also saw the vital work being done by local authorities and NGOs (non-governmental organization), supported by international humanitarian agencies, including our own. We have set up more than 1,000 diarrhoea treatment centres and oral rehydration corners, they noted.

The UN agency heads underscored that the delivery of food supplements and medical supplies is ongoing, as is the rebuilding of infrastructure, including hospitals, health centres and the water- sanitation network.

We are working with the World Bank in an innovative partnership that responds to needs on the ground and helps maintain the local health institutions, they continued.

While the UN officials also offered hope  noting that more than 99 per cent of cholera-infected people with access to health services are surviving and the number of children afflicted with severe acute malnutrition this year was estimated to be 385,000  they maintained that as thousands fall sick every day, the situation remains dire.

They flagged that nearly 80 per cent of Yemen's children need immediate humanitarian assistance, underlining the importance of sustained efforts to stop the spread of disease.

Drawing attention to their meeting with Yemeni leaders in Aden and Sana'a, the UN officials pressed for humanitarian access to fighting-affected areas and urged for a peaceful political solution.

The Yemeni crisis requires an unprecedented response, they stressed, explaining that the three agencies have teamed up with the Yemeni authorities and other partners to coordinate activities in new ways of working to save lives and to prepare for future emergencies.

We now call on the international community to redouble its support for the people of Yemen. If we fail to do so, the catastrophe we have seen unfolding before our eyes will not only continue to claim lives but will scar future generations and the country for years to come, concluded the UN heads.
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Two abducted diplomatic officials of Pakistans consulate in Afghanistan have been rescued in an operation conducted by Afghan security forces, the Foreign Office has said.

The officials, posted at Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad, were abducted on June 16 while travelling from Jalalabad to Torkham border crossing, the Foreign Office said yesterday.

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"(Afghanistan) President Ashraf Ghani personally phoned Pakistans Charge d?affaires in Kabul to inform that the Afghan security forces had recovered the two Pakistani officials in a security operation," it said.

The officials were handed over to the Embassy of Pakistan in Kabul by the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

They would be flown back to Pakistan to join their families as soon as possible, the Foreign Office said.

Foreign Secretary Tehmina Janjua talked to Afghan Deputy Foreign Minister Hekmat Karzai and conveyed Pakistans deep gratitude to the Afghan Government for safe recovery of the two abducted diplomatic officials.

Jalalabad is the regional hub in eastern Afghanistan, close to the border with Pakistan.

The Taliban and militants linked to the ISIS operate in eastern Afghanistan. PTI SH CPS ZH

--- ENDS ---
UN refugee agency seeks $9.5 million to assist Nigerian returnees from Cameroon

Publisher UN News Service Publication Date 26 July 2017 Cite as UN News Service, UN refugee agency seeks $9.5 million to assist Nigerian returnees from Cameroon, 26 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f6c64.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The UN refugee agency is seeking an additional $9.5 million to scale up its activities in northeast Nigeria, as a result of an unexpected surge in self-organized returns of Nigerian refugees mainly from Cameroon since the beginning of the year.

This is a new emergency, which requires urgent attention, said Volker Turk, Assistant High Commissioner for Protection of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), in a press release.

Between January and June 2017, nearly 135,000 refugees returned to Nigeria, mainly women and children. The majority left Minawao and Kolofata refugee settlements, in the Far North Region of Cameroon.

Many of these returnees are unable to go back to their homes due to security concerns and end up being displaced again, in dire humanitarian conditions, he added.

The situation is particularly difficult in the town of Banki, where many are forced to live outdoors and have limited access to drinking water, food and medicine.

During my recent visit to the region, I was not only appalled by the scale of the humanitarian needs, but also deeply shocked at the level of trauma, social division and distrust, said Mr. Turk, who visited both Nigeria and Cameroon over the past three weeks.

We urge the international community to pay more attention to this highly complex and challenging humanitarian and security situation, he added.

As vulnerabilities increase over time, funding is, unfortunately, lagging behind needs. So far, UNHCR has received $41.1 million from donors out of a total funding requirement of $179.5 million for 2017 for Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger and Chad.

Additional funding would allow UNHCR to increase its presence in border locations and improve border and protection monitoring. The agency also plans to expand reception facilities and launch mass information campaigns to ensure that Nigerian refugees in Cameroon's Far North have accurate and updated information on the situation prevailing in areas of return in Nigeria.

Mr. Turk said that the Governments of both countries gave him assurances that action has been taken to stop involuntary returns.

The first meeting of the Tripartite Commission, comprising representatives from UNHCR, Nigeria and Cameroon, is expected to take place early August. The Commission was set up after the signature, last March, of a tripartite agreement on voluntary repatriation of Nigerian refugees.

It will be a positive step forward, Mr. Turk said.
International action needed over Burundi now

Publisher IRIN Author Dominique Fraser Publication Date 26 July 2017 Cite as IRIN, International action needed over Burundi now, 26 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f7734.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Two years ago, President Pierre Nkurunziza ignited a political crisis in Burundi when he announced that he would run for a controversial third presidential term. Thousands of people were killed, disappeared, and tortured in the violence that followed, and more than 417,000 have fled the country.

Human rights violations remain systematic and widespread. But because they today occur on a smaller scale than in late 2015 and early 2016, they largely escape the attention of the international community. That is a mistake.

The preconditions remain for mass atrocities. The trigger could be Nkurunziza's apparent willingness to amend the constitution and run for a fourth term in 2020. The African Union, the United Nations, and the East African Community should work together now to compel the president to find a political solution to the conflict.

Roots of the crisis

The current political crisis was sparked in April 2015, when the former rebel group and now ruling party CNDD-FDD announced that Nkurunziza would run for a third presidential term. Despite opposition over the constitutionality of the move, Nkurunziza's bid was confirmed in a controversial interpretation by the Constitutional Court.

Nkurunziza was re-elected in July 2015 in polls that were deemed neither free nor credible by the UN. He now appears intent on consolidating and retaining power at all cost. This includes amending the constitution's presidential term limits and the ethnic power-sharing quotas enshrined in the Arusha Peace and Reconciliation Agreement that ended the 1993-2005 civil war.

Now Nkurunziza has hinted that he may run for a fourth term in 2020, arguing that the will of the people is "above the judiciary". The government has authorised a commission to review the constitution, but none of its 15 members who were appointed in May have a background in constitutional law.

Furthermore, the commission is under the direct oversight of the president's office, raising concerns as to its independence. Its proposed draft amendments are expected by the end of the year.

To long-term observers, the decision to review the constitution does not come as a surprise. The CNDD-FDD has never been a supporter of the Arusha agreement and refused to sign. It objected, inter alia, to ethnic power-sharing quotas between Hutu and Tutsi - the two main ethnic groups in the country.

The constitution guarantees an ethnic balance of, at most, 60 percent Hutu and 40 percent Tutsi in both decision-making roles and within the public administration.

The army too has benefited from an ethnic balance following the end of the civil war and has been seen as a stabilising force in Burundi. The army's contribution to international peacekeeping missions has afforded Burundi both prestige and much-needed funds.

However, according to a recent report by the International Federation of Human Rights, the army is now slowly being purged of Nkurunziza's opponents, both real and perceived. These changes to the constitution and the army are dangerous.

Underlying risk factors

Burundi presents many underlying risk factors that, if triggered, could lead to mass atrocities. Burundi's post-independence is replete with episodes of large-scale violence, which is one of the most reliable predictors of future mass atrocities.

The state structures seem unable to counter human rights violations; the judiciary is tightly controlled by the government, and state organs - most notably the police and the National Intelligence Agency - are among the main perpetrators of violence.

The CNDD-FDD's armed youth militia, the Imbonerakure, appear to be ready and willing to escalate the violence. The Imbonerakure have already created a climate of fear and intimidation, referring to their opponents as "lice" and "dogs" and taking part in the human rights violations. Neither civil society nor a free media are able to counter these trends, suffering from severe restrictions and repression.

International response

It has become apparent that Nkurunziza has few scruples over the ethnicisation of the conflict. In the absence of his commitment to Arusha, a carrot-and-stick approach involving the African Union, the UN, and the regional East African Community may compel the president to the negotiation table to find a political solution.

The AU initially reacted strongly against the deteriorating situation in Burundi. On 17 December 2015, at the height of the violence, the AU's Peace and Security Council (PSC) recommended the deployment of 5,000 troops with or - if necessary - without the government's consent.

Many saw this as a realisation of Article 4(h) of the AU's Constitutive Act, which allows it "to intervene in a Member State in respect of grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity". The PSC had hoped to force the government to the negotiation table. However, in light of Nkurunziza's warning that any deployment would be met by force, the AU Assembly was split and ultimately did not endorse the decision.

The AU has since withdrawn from engagement on Burundi. In its stead, the UN Security Council authorised 228 police officers in July 2016 to monitor the security situation. The government again refused and the decision has not been implemented. In September of the same year, the UN Human Rights Council mandated a commission of inquiry for Burundi, but the commissioners were denied entry.

Urgent measures needed

In light of the government's refusal to cooperate with the AU and UN, when it meets to discuss Burundi this week the Security Council should impose asset freezes and travel bans against those who threaten Burundi's peace and security.

This decision would be in line with action taken by the European Union, the United States, and Switzerland, which have imposed targeted sanctions on a number of individuals. The EU has also suspended direct financial assistance to Bujumbura.

The UN must also continue its contingency planning in case the situation deteriorates. It is currently "ill-equipped to mount the type of peace enforcement operation that may be required in the event of mass atrocities in Burundi," UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres noted earlier this year.

The Human Rights Council should suspend Burundi's current membership during its next regular session in September. It is unconscionable that as a member of the council, Burundi refuses to cooperate with its mechanisms and fails to uphold the human rights of its population.

The punitive measures taken by the UN will hopefully encourage the president and his government to re-engage with an East African Community-led mediation effort, which is trying to find a political solution to the conflict.

While the talks appear to have stalled due to the government's refusal to negotiate with the political opposition, a new round has been scheduled for later this month.

Nkurunziza's visit to Tanzania last week (his first trip outside of Burundi since a failed coup attempt in May 2015) to meet with Tanzanian President John Magufuli may revive the government's commitments to the talks. Magufuli is thought to be one of the few regional actors with influence over Nkurunziza.

As the crisis is inherently political, only a political solution can end it. However, it has become clear that the international community must compel Nkurunziza to find a negotiated settlement to prevent any further deterioration.
The Eritrean children who cross borders and deserts alone

Publisher IRIN Author Eric Reidy Publication Date 27 July 2017 Cite as IRIN, The Eritrean children who cross borders and deserts alone, 27 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f8c44.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

Yobieli is 12 years old. He sits on a small leather stool and fumbles with his hands, interlocking his fingers and pulling them apart. There's a dark shadow of soft peach fuzz on his upper lip, and his cheeks are childishly smooth. But, his eyes look older. They take in the world around him with the measured calculation of an adult, not the innocent wonder of a child.

"I didn't discuss leaving with my family. I only talked about it with my friends," he tells me. "Because of the difficulties I was facing in my house, I decided to go alone."

Yobieli is Eritrean. In August 2016 he fled his home, crossing borders and the desert on foot, unaccompanied by any adult relative or caretaker, only to arrive here: a neon-lit apartment in the rundown outskirts of Cairo, Egypt.

He is one of thousands of children to have undertaken similar journeys in recent years as part of what the UN has called the largest refugee crisis in history. Last year alone, 25,000 unaccompanied children arrived in Italy.

Eritreans were the single largest nationality. But only the ones who make it are counted. An untold number of others disappear and die along the way or, like Yobieli, end up stuck somewhere they never intended to stay. Young, alone and vulnerable, they have been exploited and abused and continue to face a dangerous and uncertain future.

Leaving home

"The main reason I left was poverty," Yobieli says. But in Eritrea, poverty and politics are deeply intertwined. "My family was poor because my father was a soldier. He was taken to the army."

Like all Eritrean adults, Yobieli's father was conscripted into the country's national service. On paper, conscription is supposed to last for 18 months. In reality, it stretches on indefinitely, essentially acting as a system of forced labour for recruits who receive next-to-no pay.

"I wanted to go anywhere I could feel safe"

National service is the primary reason why nearly 400,000 people - almost nine percent of Eritrea's population - have fled in recent years, including a large number of unaccompanied children.

With Yobieli's father gone, his mother was forced to work as a maid in other people's homes. But the money was never enough. "I stopped going to school in grade four because of the difficulties with my family," Yobieli says. Instead of attending classes, he tried to find work to help support his family as their situation continued to deteriorate.

But even at such a young age, he knew that not all children faced the same struggles. "I saw young people like me on TV going to school and having a good life, enjoying life. So I asked myself and my friends, 'Why don't we have the same life? Why are we living these difficulties?'" Yobieli says.

"We deserve to also have a good life like them. We want to go to school. We want to have a normal life The only solution was to take a decision [to leave]."

Once the decision was made, the first step was fairly easy. Yobieli's village is close to Eritrea's border with Sudan, and he was able to sneak across without the help of a smuggler. On the other side he faced a choice. Most migrants and refugees go to Libya where the chaos of civil war has allowed clandestine migration to flourish. But Libya is also notoriously dangerous. Extortion, kidnapping, rapes, beatings, and detention of migrants and refugees are all commonplace. Last year, more and more Eritreans were opting to come to Egypt to avoid these abuses.

"I heard that the situation in Libya is very difficult because of IS [so-called Islamic State] and the other armed groups and gangs," says Yobieli. "For the sake of my safety, I decided to come to Egypt."

The trip across the Sahara requires a smuggler and costs somewhere between $500 and $900. "I didn't have any money," Yobieli says. But, he was able to tag along with a group headed to Egypt. Some of the people he was travelling with convinced the smuggler to let him come for free because of his age.

"The trip was difficult," Yobieli says. "We were hungry and thirsty The situation was very bad. They used to threaten us with knives. They also beat some of us." Yobieli was lucky. He wasn't beaten and even says the smuggler treated him kindly.

Solidarity

Abel, a 17-year-old Eritrean also living alone in Cairo, wasn't so fortunate. He fled Eritrea when he was 13, after receiving a draft notice for national service. "I didn't have any other option other than to leave," he says. After staying in a refugee camp in Ethiopia for almost three years without going to school, he decided to try to make it Europe.

Like Yobieli, he didn't have enough money to pay for the journey from Sudan to Egypt. "In the middle of the trip the smugglers threatened me with a knife," Abel says. "They said if I don't pay them money they will kill me."

Other Eritreans who Abel was travelling with called their relatives in Europe. They were able to gather enough money to pay the smuggler. Abel, who was 16 at the time, was able to complete the trip.

Zebib, a 16-year-old girl, broke down when I asked her about the journey from Sudan to Egypt. She left Eritrea in November last year, also to avoid national service. When I meet her in Cairo, she's wearing a pink shirt with small, white hearts on it, the red nail polish on her fingers is chipped and her curly hair is tied in a messy bun.

She has a smooth, pretty face, but her eyes are burning and her voice is choked with anger. "I wanted to go anywhere I could feel safe," she says, her voice rising and straining with emotion. "If you can help us, I will tell you everything. If you can't help us" She trails off as tears start pouring down her cheeks and she buries her face in her hands.

It's impossible to know what Zebib experienced that made her break down because she won't talk about it. But rape and sexual abuse are so common along the people smuggling routes from Sudan to Egypt and Libya that women often take injectable contraceptives before starting the journey, according to Swedish-Eritrean migration activist Meron Estefanos.

"A woman knows she will be raped at least three times before she reaches Europe," Estefanos says. Young girls travelling alone are particularly vulnerable.

Cairo is no safe haven. "We are being treated very badly. When we go out to buy something, we are attacked and beaten," Zebib says. A group of Egyptian men broke into the apartment where she stays with other Eritreans her age. "They fought with the boys and tried to rape and harass us," Zebib says. Her lip quivers and she stops talking.

Yobieli also faces problems. "When I go to the shop, they don't give me change. They beat me in the street," he says, referring to Egyptians in the neighbourhood where he lives. "They've spat on my face. I've had money taken from me."

Crackdown

The living conditions are particularly difficult to tolerate because Yobieli, Zebib, and Abel never intended to stay here. What was supposed to be a brief stop on their way to Europe has now become their reality for the foreseeable future.

After more than 10,000 people arrived in Italy from Egypt last year, Egyptian authorities cracked down on clandestine migration. Now, there is no way for the roughly 8,000 Eritreans who are stuck here to leave without going through Libya, which they were trying to avoid in the first place.

"The way to Europe is blocked," Yobieli says. "The way to Libya is very risky with IS and the armed groups. Also, living here in Egypt is very difficult I'm hoping for the UNHCR (UN refugee agency) process."

But UNHCR's resettlement programme is slow, and the number of people being sent to third countries is small compared to those in need. Last year, 7,000 people were approved for resettlement from Egypt out of a refugee population of more than 260,000.

Children like Yobieli, Zebib, and Abel are faced with an impossible choice: Endure the harassment and abuse in Egypt while waiting on the slim chances of resettlement, or go to Libya where the situation is even worse but where they might be able to cross the sea.

More and more people are taking the second option, according to Estefanos, the migration activist. "Now, everyone is leaving," she says. "They wasted nine months in Egypt."

Zebib is desperate to leave. "We want to go from this country. We want protection," she says. But she doesn't have enough money to pay for a smuggler. "I'm dependent on others I can't do anything."

While Yobieli is waiting on UNHCR's resettlement process, he is attending classes offered by an NGO. "I want to finish school and to become a professor or an engineer or a doctor," he says. "My plan was to reach Europe in order to improve my life and help my family."

Sitting in the apartment on the outskirts of Cairo, that possibility seems far, far away. Yobieli's two older siblings left Eritrea before him with the same ambitions. "My older brother is missing in Libya," he says. "And my sister drowned in the sea."
UN deplores conditions for women in prison

Publisher International Federation for Human Rights Publication Date 27 July 2017 Cite as International Federation for Human Rights, UN deplores conditions for women in prison, 27 July 2017, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979f9b64.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

The Thai government must take concrete steps to implement the recommendations made by a United Nations (UN) body in order to improve the conditions for women in prison, FIDH and its Thai member organization Union for Civil Liberty (UCL) said today.

On 24 July 2017, the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) released its Concluding Observations on Thailand following the review of the country's combined sixth and seventh periodic reports on 5 July 2017 in Geneva, Switzerland. The Committee oversees state parties' compliance with their legal obligations under the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women.

In its Concluding Observations, the Committee expressed concern over the fact that Thailand has one of the highest rates of women in detention in the world. The Committee also raised concerns about women often being incarcerated in prisons far from their families, and in overcrowded conditions that fail to meet international standards, which is particularly problematic for pregnant women and women detained with their children.

The CEDAW called on the Thai government to take urgent measures to reduce the number of women in detention and to improve the conditions in women's detention facilities in accordance with the UN Rules for the Treatment of Women Prisoners and Non-custodial Measures for Women Offenders (the 'Bangkok Rules') and the UN Standard Minimum Rules for the Treatment of Prisoners (the 'Nelson Mandela Rules'). It also recommended that Thailand prohibit invasive physical searches of women by penitentiary officers.

The concerns and recommendations expressed by the CEDAW echoed those raised by FIDH and UCL in their joint shadow report submitted ahead of the review of Thailand. The shadow report documents how women prisoners in Thailand are disproportionately affected by poor detention conditions. The CEDAW's recommendations are also consistent with those contained in the joint FIDH/UCL report "Behind the walls - A look at conditions in Thailand's prisons after the coup", which documents how conditions in Thai prisons examined by FIDH and UCL violate the country's obligations under international instruments to which Thailand is a state party.

Since 2005, the issue of poor prison conditions in Thailand has been highlighted by several UN human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Committee (CCPR), the Committee against Torture (CAT), and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR). The UN bodies have all expressed ongoing concern over the high level of overcrowding and conditions that fail to meet international standards.
Disclaimer

This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.
Afghanistan: All Sides Violating Human Rights

Publisher Institute for War and Peace Reporting Author Sediqullah Afghan Publication Date 27 July 2017 Citation / Document Symbol ARR 575 Cite as Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Afghanistan: All Sides Violating Human Rights, 27 July 2017, ARR 575, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/5979fd054.html [accessed 12 November 2022] Disclaimer This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States.

All parties to ongoing fighting in southern Afghanistan are violating the rules of war, according to speakers at an IWPR debate in Kandahar this month.

Government forces and the Taleban alike were causing civilian casualties through the use of human shields, heavy weaponry and targeted killings. An audience of more than 100 men and women also heard how the daily lives of those caught up in the fighting were being disrupted by the widespread use of roadblocks and seizure of private property.

Jawed Ahmad Tanweer, the director of the Kandahar press club, told the July 19 that journalists had reported multiple violations by both the armed forces and the insurgents in Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Helmand and other southern provinces.

He added that reporters in the south had also warned that both sides were using civilians as human shields.

"We have photos and videos documenting reports about cases in which the laws of the war have been violated," he said.

Tanweer also noted dangers to press freedom, reporting that a number of senior security officials refused to allow journalists access in the combat zone so as to hide their illegal actions.

Although he declined to provide any names, he said that certain high-ranking figures had also threatened journalists.

"Reporters have the right to accompany the security forces and report from the frontline, but the officials prevent them," he said.

Military expert Mohammad Hamdard said that both parties to the conflict were ignorant of the principles of the war and of basic human rights.

"Not only are the fighters unaware of the principles of war but also the security officials on the frontline are not professional and known nothing about such matters," he said, adding that these norms could only be maintained when perpetrators were punished. Instead, those who violated the rules of war were promoted and awarded privileges.

Hazrat Wali Hotak, the director of information and culture in Kandahar, noted that night raids and bombings carried out by the US or with American support in Kandahar, Helmand, and Uruzgan provinces were particularly egregious.

The insurgents were also guilty of flagrant abuses, he continued.

"The militants not only plant mines but also use civilian houses for their bases," Hotak said, calling for all those who committed violations to be prosecuted.

He acknowledged that the government was not without fault, too, noting that former warlords had been promoted to positions of power.

"Our government and system is made of war criminals," he said. "Those who caused a civil war here cannot be expected to respect the principles of war."

Abdul Aziz Akrami, spokesman of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) in Kandahar, also said that the government had failed to address issues of transitional justice.

"We produced two reports about transitional justice," he continued. "We identified the criminals and asked for them to be punished, but the government has taken no practical action against them. It seems that the government does not have the power to stand up to them."

Kandahar religious scholar, Mawlawi Abdul Ghani, said that Islamic provisions were explicit about the protection of civilian life during conflict.

The prophet Mohammed, he explained had acted very cautiously during wars and treated prisoners and civilians very sensitively.

"The current situation, where civilians are harmed, where mines are planted on roads, and one Muslim is killed by another in the name of jihad, is not acceptable in Islam. Allah has not given us permission to ever kill innocent people."

Copyright notice:  Institute for War & Peace Reporting
The statement given by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament about the missing Indians has rekindled the hope of family members who are not ready to believe that their kin could have been killed by ISIS.

By Manjeet Sehgal: Not ready to accept that the 39 missing Indians, most of them from Punjab could have been killed by ISIS, the family members of these youths are still hopeful that they are alive.

The statement given by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj in Parliament about the missing Indians on Wednesday has also rekindled the hope of their family members.

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India Today team met three such families in Hoshiarpur and also spoke to others on phone to gauge the impact of the statement made by Sushma Swaraj.

"This statement is very positive. My heart has been saying they are alive and safe. The Indian government should trace the construction company which employed them and find out the whereabout of our children," says Santosh Kumari, Kamaljeet's mother who have travelled to Delhi a record dozen times to put the words in the ears of the ministry to launch a manhunt for the missing Indians.

22 out of a total 39 missing youths hail from various parts of Punjab. According to their family members, the abducted youths were kept at various locations. The families are not ready to believe Harjit Masih, who feigned death and managed to escape from the captivity.

"Why should we believe Harjit who does not even remember the name of the construction company where he worked. He is not firm on his stand. At times says some of the abducted youths may be alive and sometimes says all of them were killed. Sushma Swaraj has given a true statement and we believe that the youths will return safe one day," says Surinder Kaur, mother of Gurdeep Singh who worked with Kamaljeet Singh in Mosul, Iraq before they were taken hostage.

Family members of Indians who are missing in Iraq. Family members of Indians who are missing in Iraq.

ABDUCTED INDIANS BEING EXPLOITED: FAMILIES

Trusting the last call received by Kamaljeet's family on the night of June 15, 2017, the family believes the abducted youth were moved elsewhere.

"I was in Hoshiarpur when Kamaljeet had called around midnight. This was his last call. He had informed that they have been abducted and their hands are tied and are being moved elsewhere. Their passports and mobile phones were also snatched. They were told they will get them back once the fight is over," Parminder Lucky, Kamaljeet's elder brother who is currently in Dubai told India Today.

Besides Kamaljeet's family, mother of Parvinder Kumar hailing from Balachor also hopes her son is alive and working elsewhere as a bonded labourer maybe.

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Her belief is based on Parvinder's mobile phone which was active for over 2.5 years after he along with others were taken hostage.

"Though we spoke to Parvinder on June 15 last time but his phone was active for more than 2.5 years after he was abducted. We called on his number after 1.5 years and it was active. The person who answered the call spoke in Arabic which we could not understood. We engaged him up to 1.5 hours but we did not get a clue," says Krishna Devi, Parvinder's mother.

Parvinder's mother kept on dialing the phone number. Nearly 2.5 years after abduction it was picked by by a stranger who also replied in Hindi and said he is at 'Lamba' and have a family and asked her not to call again.

Kamaljeet's father who works with BSNL says that his son often comes in his dreams and tells him that he is alive but is in captivity. Two of his sons Parwinder and Daljeet are currently in Dubai.

The families have appealed the Minister of External Affairs to trace the whereabouts of Tariq Noor al-Huda, an Iraq based construction company, which had employed them. The families say two company managers named as Abdullah and Hasan were handling them and can reveal the truth if interrogated.

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Also read:

Won't declare anybody dead without evidence: Sushma on 39 Indians missing in Iraq

India Today first to reach Mosul after ISIS fall. No sign of missing 39 Indians

Are 39 Indians missing in Mosul still alive? Iraq government has no clue

Mission Iraq Impact: Complaint lodged against Sushma for misleading info

Missing Indians in Iraq: Without proof, no country abandons its citizens, says MoS VK Singh

WATCH | Didn't mislead nation, won't declare missing Indians in Iraq dead without evidence: Sushma Swaraj

--- ENDS ---
Body cameras for the Mooresville Police Department have arrived. Find out when they will be used.

Mooresville-Decatur
Owls Head lighthouse is located in Owls Head Light State Park. It is at the eastern point of Rockland Harbor and it sits high on a cliff overlooking the harbor. When I had visited Rockland Breakwater light, I could get a glimpse of it on the hill at the far end of the harbor.





The lighthouse is a very short, stubby looking lighthouse. When we visited the lighthouse we parked in a lot just before the trail. I then walked the trail up a hill and around a bend which ended at the Coast Guard station. From there I climbed a short ramp and then the stairs up to the lighthouse.





It was a foggy day near the lighthouse so it was hard to get good views away from the cliff. The fog horn was blaring and several people on the trail told me it was too loud to stay their long, however by the time I got to the lighthouse the fog horn had stopped blaring and I was able to photograph in peace.





There was a hill full of wild flowers in front of the lighthouse, mainly daisies which were very pretty.




The Modi government submitted before the Supreme Court that right to life of millions of poor in the country through food, shelter and welfare measures was far more important than privacy concerns raised by the elite class.

AG Venugopal said biometric details for aadhaar are essential for saving people from an animal existence.

By Harish V Nair: The Aadhaar hearing in the Supreme Court is fast turning into a right to privacy raised by the "elite" class versus right to life for millions of poor in the country.

Strongly backing the Aadhaar scheme, the Modi government on Wednesday submitted before the Supreme Court that the right to life of millions of poor in the country through food, shelter and welfare measures was far more important than privacy concerns raised by the elite class.

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Controversially, Attorney General K K Venugopal arguing for the Centre also stated that privacy claims required better priority in developed countries "not in a country like India where a vast majority of citizens don't have access to basic needs".

He said right to privacy cannot be invoked to scrap the Aadhaar scheme. The government was categorical that after enrolling nearly 100 crore citizens spending an astronomical amount of Rs 6,300 crore there was no going back.

'AADHAAR ESSENTIAL FOR GOOD GOVERNANCE'

The AG attempted to drive home the point that Aadhaar was essential for good governance, transparent implementation of government programmes and to ensure that benefits reach only those who qualify to get them and not ghost beneficiaries.

"Through aadhaar, benefits of welfare schemes reaches only those who are entitled to it. Depriving large sections of people of food, shelter and welfare schemes is also depriving them of fundamental right to live. Biometric details for aadhaar is essential for saving prople from animal existence", Venugopal told a nine-judge bench which is deciding whether right to privacy should be declared a fundamental right.

At one point, Justice D Y Chandrachud, who was part of the bench, interjected the AG saying privacy is not an elitist concern and it is equally applicable to the large masses. "For example, if state wants forced sterilisation on say slum dwellers for population control among that group, perhaps only privacy claim may stand in the way", said Justice Chandrachud.

"Privacy is ingrained in right to life and liberty...each one of them cannot be and need not be elevated as a fundamental right. It has to be on a case to case basis. Privacy is just one specie like right to have passport, right not to be handcuffed they are various specie of public liberty", argued Venugopal.

He also reminded the bench that "world bank has said all countries must follow aadhaar- like model".

'TRANSGRESSION OF INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS'

The bench is hearing PILs filed by a retired Karnataka High Court judge K. Puttaswamy, and social activist Aruna Roy against making the cards mandatory for accessing government schemes and subsidies.

They argued that the manner in which biometric information is extracted violates and transgresses individual rights of citizens including privacy.

The PILs had said the manner in which biometric details are collected by private contractors and NGOs hired by UIDAI without any safeguard makes them prone to misuse.

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They claimed empirical research to show that the biometric identification denoted for UID, namely the iris scan and finger print identification, is faulty and is capable of being abused.

ALSO READ

Aadhaar vs WhatsApp: How privacy changes meaning for government in different cases

Don't get blackmailed by SMS, linking Aadhaar with bank, phone numbers before July 31 not mandatory

--- ENDS ---
Two decades after the handover of Hong Kong from British to Chinese rule, predictions and fears that Hong Kong would gradually and gently push mainland China into a more democratic direction appear to have been ill-founded, activists told RFA in recent interview.



Indeed, the ruling Chinese Communist Party appears to have successfully exported its authoritarian mode of government across the internal immigration border into Hong Kong, according Hangzhou-based rights activist Zou Wei.



"I think that we can say the status of freedom and democracy in mainland China, 20 years on, is still very, very low, and this appears to have affected Hong Kong as well," Zou said.



"Our power state has made no progress towards democracy, and indeed has even begun to wear down Hong Kong, because of its sheer size," he said. "This was once a freewheeling city that was the very soul of freedom, and look where it is ."



Zou said he doesn't expect Hong Kong to go down without a struggle.



"I don't know if the city will become subsumed under a single system," he said. "Several million Hong Kong people made this freedom, so I don't think they're going to let that spirit vanish entirely."



Just across the border from Hong Kong, which has been subjected to a number of high-level political interventions from Beijing in spite of being promised a "high degree of autonomy," Guangdong activist Ye Xiaozheng said the city's autonomy is already being fast eroded.



"There has already been a change in the one country, two systems idea," Ye said. "It is already becoming very hard to maintain, because China is doing everything it can to take control of Hong Kong."



"That's why one country, two systems is no longer sustainable."



Ye said large numbers of mainland Chinese immigrants into the city are already changing its culture.



"I don't think it will take very long before it becomes just like Shenzhen and Shanghai: just a special region of Guangdong province," he said.



Interventions draw backlash

He said a number of interventions in the internal political affairs of the city by China's National People's Congress (NPC) had prompted a backlash and widespread popular protests, however.



"I think we are going to see more and more volatility in Hong Kong's political situation," he said. "But Hong Kong independence is unlikely to succeed, because China is so powerful, and already has troops stationed there."



A mainland Chinese national and long-time Hong Kong resident surnamed Liao said the best way of defusing such tension in Hong Kong is to allow fully democratic elections to the legislature and for the city's chief executive, however.



"They should allow universal suffrage immediately for the Legislative Council, and for the chief executive, because if they don't then really you are saying that the mainland Chinese government doesn't trust the people of Hong Kong," Liao said. "If you trust the people of Hong Kong, then you should give them this power."



"That's what they promised, back before [the handover]. Even [Chinese negotiator] Chen Zuo'er said so, and it's in the Basic Law," he said, referring to Hong Kong's post-1997 mini-constitution.



Liao said the promises of one country, two systems had never been properly upheld since the handover, however.



"All the important decisions since then have been made by the mainland government, including the the choice of chief executive," he said. "Whenever they feel that the one country, two systems principle constitutes a threat to their authority, they can just cancel it."



On the eve of 20th anniversary celebrations of Hong Kong's handover on, Chinese president Xi Jinping reviewed People's Liberation Army (PLA) troops in Hong Kong, as officials in Beijing dismissed the handover treaty promising the city its freedoms as "a historical document."



In a stark contrast to U.K. Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson's description of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration as a treaty that is still binding in international law, Beijing's foreign ministry said the handover agreement "no long has any practical significance."



"Now that 20 years have passed since Hong Kong returned to the motherland's embrace, the Sino-British Joint Declaration, as a historical document, no longer has any practical significance," spokesman Lu Kang told a regular news briefing in Beijing.



"It is not at all binding for the central government's management of Hong Kong. The U.K. has no sovereignty, no power to rule, and no power to supervise Hong Kong after the handover," Lu said.



The joint declaration promised that Hong Kong would retain its traditional freedoms and way of life for "at least 50 years."



Reported by Wong Lok-to for RFA's Cantonese Service. Translated and edited by Luisetta Mudie.
Authorities in central Vietnams coastal Nghe An province have arrested a dissident writer and activist for investigation of activities aimed at overthrowing the countrys one-party state, relatives and state media reported.



Le Dinh Luong, 52, was taken into custody on July 24 in Hoang Mai town by men in plain clothes believed by family members to be police, Luongs daughter in law told RFAs Vietnamese Service.



He is now being held on suspicion of violating Article 79 of Vietnams penal code, state media said this week.



Authorities are accusing Luong of membership in the U.S.-based Vietnamese opposition party Viet Tan, which Vietnam regards as a terrorist organization, and of calling for a boycott of parliamentary and peoples council elections.



Luong, a veteran of Vietnams 1979 border war with China, has also written on Facebook calling for compensation for fishermen affected by the April 2016 waste spill by Taiwan-owned Formosa Plastics Groups steel plant.



The environmental disaster has led to ongoing protests and arrests in Nghe An and other coastal provinces.



Rights groups and Western governments say Vietnamese authorities frequently use Article 79, relating to activities aimed at overthrowing the peoples administration, to arrest and imprison democracy and human rights activists in the country.



Reported by RFAs Vietnamese Service. Translated by Emily Peyman. Written in English by Richard Finney.






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Indian Railways has launched two new trains that connect some important pilgrim destinations across the country.

By India Today Web Desk: In a country like India, which is dotted with holy shrines, religious tourism has become one of the dominant sectors of the travel and tourism industry.

With hundreds of devotees travelling long distances to pay homage to respective deities, it becomes essential for the government to provide them adequate means to travel.

Tapping the same potential, Indian Railways has launched yet another 'tirtha' special, Aastha tourist train from Bhuwaneswar, connecting the destination to various regions in South India.

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Indian Railways had earlier launched Aastha to connect Puri in Odisha to popular pilgrimage destinations in the northern parts of the country.

AasthaTirtha Special train to pilgrim destinations in South India from September 8..https://t.co/IB2xHt2JTo- Ministry of Railways (@RailMinIndia) July 27, 2017

The new Aastha train is scheduled for departure from Bhuwaneswar on September 8, to cover places like Ramanatha Swami Temple, Meenakshi Amman Temple, Padmanabhawami Temple, Vivekananda Rock Memorial, Gandhi Mandapam, Kanyakumari Temple and Lord Shree Tirupati Balaji, till September 16.

The package for nine days costs Rs 8505, which will also includes accommodation, tourist buses and meals.

Around the same time comes the announcement of yet another train--the Rameswaram-Faizabad-Ramewaram Weekly Express, via Ayodhya. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the new express train, through video conference today.

flagging off a new express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram. https://t.co/z7diuIVMku | https://t.co/aiwugwmrFN pic.twitter.com/i3cD3RZTty- Narendra Modi (@Narendramodid17) July 27, 2017

The regular service of train number 16793/16794 Rameswaram-Faizabad-Rameswaram Weekly Express via Ayodhya, will commence on August 6 from Rameswaram, and on August 9 from Faizabad. Train number 16793 will leave Rameswaram on Sundays at 11.50pm and reach Faizabad at 8.30am on Wednesdays.

Also Read:6 reasons Indians are now choosing air travel over railways

Connectivity across distant destinations through the new trains is surely a welcome news. Be it Rameswaram or Bhuwaneswar or Ayodhya, each of the places hold immense importance among pilgrims.

The only apprehension underlying these new developments is whether the railway system will be able to run the new services properly. Now that the CAG report on trains has come to the fore, we hope it is not just one of the means to overcompensate for its inadequacy.

--- ENDS ---
A Louisa County woman faces up to 230 years in prison after pleading guilty to four counts of indecent liberties with a minor while in a custodial relationship and 14 counts of computer solicitation of a minor.

Amanda Nasser, 31, of Bumpass pleaded guilty to all of the 18 charges against her in Louisa Circuit Court on Wednesday, according to a statement from the commonwealths attorneys office. She will serve at least the seven-year mandatory minimum sentence, but she could be sentenced to up to 230 years .

Nasser became acquainted with several children while working as an interpreter for a student at a local high school, according to the statement. She began exchanging sexually explicit text messages with one of those children  then a freshman at the school  and even befriended the students mother in order to gain access to him outside of a school setting, the statement says.

She later admitted to having sex with the student on four occasions.
CHESTERFIELD  A Chesterfield County grand jury last week indicted an unlicensed daycare provider on charges of involuntary manslaughter, child endangerment and other charges in relation to the death of a 3-month-old Powhatan boy who died while in her care.

On Monday, July 17, the Chesterfield grand jury indicted Carrie Persichini, 53, of Chesterfield for a total of seven charges, which were involuntary manslaughter, child abuse/neglect, two counts of child endangerment, two additional counts of child neglect and operating without a license, according to court records. All were felonies except operating without a license, which is a misdemeanor.

Persichini was caring for Peter Hitt, 3 months, of Powhatan, and as many as 15 other children, including other siblings, in her home when he died on Aug. 23, 2016.

Chesterfield County Juvenile and Domestic Relations Court Judge Jayne Ann Pemberton had ruled in a May 16 preliminary hearing that enough evidence had been presented by the commonwealths attorneys office to certify to a grand jury the charges of involuntary manslaughter and child neglect.

Deputy commonwealths attorney Frank LaRuffa said after the hearing that he expected charges of being an unlicensed operator would follow. The grand jury also direct indicted Persichini on the child endangerment and neglect charges. Some of the charges brought against Persichini related to the other children in her care the day that Peter died.

A trial has been set for 9 a.m. on Oct. 16 and 17 in Chesterfield County Circuit Court.

At the May 16 hearing, LaRuffa had called five witnesses to lay out the case against Persichini, focusing not only on how the little boy may have died but on the conditions in which he and other children were being cared for and the defendants lack of qualifications to be operating an in-home daycare at all.

Although the number of children in her care that Persichini reportedly gave investigators varied at different points in the investigation, they ultimately concluded that on the day of the incident she was caring for 16 children by herself without a license in her three-bedroom home in the 4200 block of Bridgewood Road in Chesterfield.

The maximum number allowed in a licensed family daycare is 12 children, and even that depends on zoning and the home itself, according to a state licensing inspector who testified in the case at the preliminary hearing.

Persichinis attorney, Mackenzie Clements, did not call any witnesses for the defense.

However, LaRuffa laid out a case that detailed the reported findings of Peters autopsy, the investigation that followed him being found unresponsive in a pack and play, and the conditions at the home daycare, especially the room where Peter and his twin sister were taking a nap when he was found unresponsive.

Witnesses with both the Chesterfield County Police Department and Virginia Department of Social Service also testified during the hearing that while Persichini had said her licensing had expired two years before and she was not currently certified in CPR or first aid, they never found any documentation of her ever being licensed through the department of social services. A license is required if a minimum of four children who are not the providers children or live in the home are being cared for there, and, even then, parents must be told that the provider is not certified.

Persichini was charged under a state law known as Josephs law, named for a 1-year-old boy who was fatally injured in October 2014 in an accidental fire at the home of his daycare provider, who also lived in Chesterfield County. At the time, the provider, Laurie Underwood, was charged and convicted of operating an unlicensed home daycare, a misdemeanor that was the only punishable offense at the time.

However, in 2016, the General Assembly unanimously passed legislation to invoke a Class 4 felony offense for individuals who knowingly operate a child care program without a license, which results in the death or serious injury of a child. If convicted, the offense is punishable by 2 to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000.

One of the felonies carries a sentence of one to 10 years and the other four felonies are punishable by one to five years. For a Class 1 misdemeanor, confinement in jail can be up to a year.
Two more people were arrested Thursday in connection with a July 15 homicide on Richmond's South Side.

Aaron R. Stroud, 45, of the 5200 block of Sunbeam Road in Chesterfield County, and Deneka L. Young, 34, of the 2400 block of Concord Avenue in Richmond, were found in a residence on Irvington Street, near the intersection of East Belt Boulevard and Terminal Avenue in South Richmond.

Both were taken into custody and charged with conspiracy to commit first-degree murder. Stroud was also charged with possession of a firearm by a felon.

Last week, 37-year-old James D. Faris, of the 13600 block of Quail Hollow Lane in Chesterfield, was arrested by Richmond police in connection with the incident.

On July 15, officers responded to a report of a shooting victim in the 2100 block of Brookhaven Road. Carlos Terry, 36, of the 4100 block of Norborne Road, was found in a vehicle with a gunshot wound. He was taken to a hospital, where he died.

Anyone with information about this incident is asked to call Major Crimes Detective M. Godwin at (804) 646-5533 or Crime Stoppers at (804) 780-1000.

You can also contact Crime Stoppers by going online to www.7801000.com or sending a text message to 274637, using the keyword iTip followed by the tip.
Kunal Verma and Puja Banerjee have been dating for around nine years. Picture courtesy:Instagram/banerjeepuja

By India Today Web Desk: Popular TV couple actress Puja Banerjee and actor Kunal Verma are all set to get engaged on August 16 in Mumbai.

The couple has been in a relationship for around nine years. "I am very happy. We have been in a relationship for 9 years and are finally getting engaged. I never thought that something like this would happen in the 9th year of our relationship, but ho gaya. I think 9 is a lucky number for me," Puja said to SpotBoye.com.

Tu bin bataye mujhe le chal kahin Jaha tu muskuraye meri manzil wahin A post shared by Puja Banerjee (@banerjeepuja) on May 13, 2017 at 1:33am PDT

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The beautiful actress also revealed that she was on the one to propose first. She said, "I did. Ladkon ko actually shaadi se zara darr hi lagta hai, but thankfully sab theek se ho gaya. Everyone is happy including Kunal."

? A post shared by Puja Banerjee (@banerjeepuja) on Mar 6, 2017 at 10:05am PST

The couple hasn't decided on a wedding date. "It will get decided on the day we get engaged. It should be next year but who knows, we might tie the knot this year. Let's see," said Puja to the website.

Puja Banerjee will wear Rohit Verma lehenga, while Kunal will be seen in an outfit by Archana Kochhar on their engagement day. Puja also gave the details about the engagement ceremony She said, "The engagement ceremony will be done in typical Rajasthani style since Kunal is one. The wedding, on the other hand, will take place according to Bengali customs."

The much-in-love couple met on the sets of Star Plus' Tujh Sang Preet Lagai Sajna. Puja has been a part of shows like Devon Ke Dev Mahadev and Comedy Nights Bachao while Kunal is currently seen on Colors' Dil Se Dil Tak.

the only show which will be with me forever till I die #tujh sang Preet lagai Sajna these days ??.. thanku Mam for this journey @ektaravikapoor ???????? A post shared by Kunal Verma (@kunalrverma) on Jun 6, 2017 at 7:42am PDT

Also read: Comedy queen Bharti Singh's tentative wedding date revealed; full details inside

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A Louisa County contractor was found dead in an Orange County school earlier this month, but authorities do not suspect foul play.

According to Orange County Sheriff Mark Amos, electrician Darrel E. Gillespie, 56, of Troy, was discovered dead at Prospect Heights Middle School on July 15.

Gillespie, an employee of Design Electric, had been working on a project to troubleshoot recessed lighting at the middle school, according to Orange County Schools Facilities Coordinator Doug Arnold.

Gillespie was last seen on school security camera footage at about 4:10 p.m. July 14, the sheriff said. School custodian George Ellis returned to Prospect Heights the next day and noticed Gillespies truck in the same location as the day before. He then discovered Gillespies body partially suspended from the drop ceiling, with one leg remaining on his ladder, Amos said.

Town of Orange police officers responded to the scene but then turned the investigation over to the sheriffs office.

Police said the cause of death was likely electrocution, but authorities said Gillespies body has been turned over to the medical examiners office for an autopsy.

Darrel had performed electrical maintenance and improvement projects for Design Electric at several of Orange County Public Schools facilities in the last few years, and we found him extremely pleasant to work with, as well as skillful in the work he performed, Arnold said. He will be greatly missed by all who knew and worked with him. On behalf of OCPS, we extend our deepest sympathies to his family and to his co-workers at Design Electric.
After a string of tweets from President Donald Trump on Wednesday, Virginia activist groups and political leaders had varied reactions to his decision to ban transgender people from the military.

Joseph Papa, a spokesperson for the LGBT advocacy organization Equality Virginia, called the measure unnecessarily discriminatory and ill-advised.

We believe that any individual who is willing and able to serve should be able to do so without lying about who they are, Papa said.

Victoria Cobb, president of the conservative Family Foundation of Virginia, said in a statement: Most reasonable people recognize that the military exists to defend our country. It doesnt exist to affirm the needs or emotions of those who join.

She also objected to covering the costs of gender transition surgeries.

The U.S. taxpayer shouldnt be forced to pay for someone elses elective surgery no matter what it is, whether its the military or not. Elective surgery is a personal choice and isnt medically necessary.

Diversity Richmond Executive Director Bill Harrison said the presidents announcement was an insult to the thousands of transgender people who have served and are serving.

Since the militarys dont ask, dont tell policy ended in 2011, parties arguing against allowing LGBT people to serve openly in the military have been proven wrong, said Harrison, whose organization is the largest locally based LGBT rights nonprofit.

This is very upsetting. A persons sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, race has absolutely nothing to do with their ability to serve in the military, he added.

Gov. Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, said on his monthly WTOP radio show that Trumps statement was just more sad news out of the Trump administration, trying to play to a right-wing, conservative base.

If people  want to go and serve our great nation in the military, they ought to be entitled to go out and do it.

Two of the three candidates for governor opposed Trumps announcement.

We should be honoring the tremendous courage and sacrifices of our service members, who give so much to uphold the ideals of equality and justice that are the foundation of our democracy, Lt. Gov. Ralph S. Northam, the Democratic nominee, said in a statement.

Anyone who wants to serve our country in the military should be welcomed. Theyre patriots and should be treated as such.

Libertarian nominee Cliff Hyra said in a statement that Trumps decision was contrary to Hyras vision for an inclusive Virginia.

President Trumps anti-LGBT decision to ban transgender people from the military is incredibly disappointing. It is sad and frustrating that the government is still openly discriminating on the basis of gender identity, he said.

Republican candidate Ed Gillespie took a more flexible position.

He does not agree with expelling those now serving honorably or barring them from volunteering, but knows there is a Pentagon review of the current policy to be concluded in October and if our top generals and admirals conclude such a change in policy is necessary for our national security interests, he would take their views into account, campaign spokesman David Abrams said in an email.

U.S. Rep. Donald McEachin, D-4th, issued a news release saying Trumps announcement violated the rights of patriotic Americans.

Our military has far more urgent tasks than to hunt down able, dedicated service members who are willing to risk their lives in defense of our nation. Our service members defend all Americans, equally  no one group gets special protection, McEachin said. We owe them the same courtesy: the chance to serve, and serve equally, with all of the other brave individuals who have volunteered.

When asked for the position of Rep. Dave Brat, R-7th, his press secretary issued a statement from him that read: Earlier this month, I voted to stop putting taxpayers on the hook for gender reassignment surgery in the military. I have not yet seen any specific policy related to President Trumps tweet today, so I cannot comment on what the military leaders at the Pentagon would be implementing.

In addition, Richmond Mayor Levar Stoney and state Sen. Jennifer L. McClellan of Richmond, both Democrats, denounced the presidents announcement.
Sixteen years ago a new president, George W. Bush, focused his attention on domestic issues, especially tax reduction  not on foreign policy. Bill Clinton warned him that al-Qaida planned more terrorist attacks in Afghanistan and the Middle East. Then, on September 11, New Yorks World Trade Center towers were collapsing and the Pentagon was severely damaged by an al-Qaida hijacked jet.

Now another new president, Donald Trump, focuses on health care and tax reform. But unlike in 2001, his administration is preparing for war.

Three potential flashpoints are now visible: North Korea, whose missile threats alarmed Japan, South Korea, and the U.S.; Russia, whose military incursions into eastern Ukraine and the Baltic region caused NATO to respond; and Iran, which intends to extend its influence across the Middle East by undermining Arab regimes and installing governments friendly to Tehran.

A military clash in Northeast Asia seems less imminent today than two months ago, following Pyongyangs missile threats against U.S. bases in Japan. Deployment of major U.S. naval and air power to the region and pressure on China to rein in its belligerent Korean ally has cooled tensions.

Similarly, armed conflict with Russia seems less likely than it did earlier: The U.S. and NATO deployed troops to Poland and three Baltic States to warn Moscow that the tactics it used in Crimea and eastern Ukraine would be met with force. Russian planes continue to harass NATO forces in the Baltic Sea, but Moscow recently took steps to avoid accidental clashes.

Iran is a different challenge. And unless Tehran changes course, it may trigger armed confrontation with American forces in Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

Tehrans Revolutionary Guard  paramilitary units that support Shiite forces in Lebanon, Yemen, Syria, and Iraq  work to undermine pro-American governments in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Arab Gulf States, and potentially in Jordan and Egypt. Revolutionary Guard forces are not under the authority of Irans elected government in Tehran, but instead report to the countrys top clerical leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

America maintains two important overseas air and naval bases in the strategically vital Persian Gulf: a large Navy installation at Bahrain, and a major Air Force base in Qatar. Iranian speedboats regularly challenge U.S. warships in the Gulf, and one of them may precipitate a clash that results in an armed conflict.

Neighboring Iraq, however, is the most dangerous flashpoint for conflict between Washington and Tehran. This emerges as ISIS is driven from major cities, including the newly liberated Mosul. Iraqs Shiite militias, bolstered by Iranian Special Forces, plan to fill the political vacuum left in liberated areas and push Iraq into Tehrans embrace. Baghdads moderate prime minister, Haider al-Abadi, will be powerless against this outcome unless Saudi Arabia and other Arab states fully support the U.S. actions to back his government and Iraqs new army.

Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told a congressional committee recently that Irans leadership plans to extend its hegemony in the Persian Gulf at the expense of Saudi Arabia. Our policy toward Iran, he said, is to push back on this hegemony and work toward supporting those elements inside Iran that would lead to a peaceful transition of that government. Some observers suggested this was a call for regime change in Tehran.

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, a retired Marine general with wide experience in Iraq, called Iran the most destabilizing influence in the Middle East. Most defense experts agree it was a mistake for the U.S. to withdraw its troops from Iraq in 2012. Washington decided to reverse in 2016 and now has 5,000 advisers, trainers, and intelligence specialists in Iraq. They assist Iraqs military in their drive to oust ISIS from remaining strongholds after Mosul was liberated in July. Mattis thinks more troops may be needed to stabilize Iraqs security and reduce the chances that Tehran will prevail in its quest to gain control.

Is the Trump administration preparing for military action against Iran? If diplomacy does not soon deter Tehran, armed conflict should not be ruled out.
By Robert J. Byers

I dont blame the Boy Scouts for President Donald Trumps bizarre speech at the National Jamboree in West Virginia on Monday.

The U.S. president is, after all, the honorary president of the Scouts. If he wants to speak at the National Jamboree, it would be hard to say no.

I dont blame the boys in the audience who took the bait and booed Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama or who chanted USA! USA! in response to Trumps childish cues. Theyre impressionable kids.

Im long past laying blame at the feet of the electorate. It gets us nowhere.

And, honestly, its hard to even blame Trump. Hes just being himself  inappropriate, unhinged, narcissistic.

But, as an Eagle Scout, Im still disappointed at what is yet another stain on the Boy Scouts program.

After finally pulling itself from the mire of discrimination against gay Scouts and leaders, Scouting is on a path to right the ship and lure another new generation to its ranks.

West Virginias Summit Bechtel Family National Scout Reserve, home of the National Jamboree, is proof of that.

Throughout the past week, The Charleston Gazette-Mail has had numerous stories and photos showing Scouts having fun and working in our communities. Weve also explored the economic impact that 40,000 Scouts, troop leaders and others can bring to an area.

And, unfortunately, weve also shown how quickly all of that can be tarnished for the benefit of one mans ego.

Speaking to the children as if they were voters, Trump said his election was an unbelievable tribute to you and all of the other millions and millions of people that came out and voted for Make America Great Again. 

He recounted the Electoral College breakdown, trying for the umpteenth time to relive the victory he claimed on that night in November. He revisited the Merry Christmas non-issue. He made false claims about the press. He made threats about the health care vote.

He basically defied most of the 12 points in the Scout Law  you know, the one that includes terms like trustworthy, loyal, friendly, courteous, kind.

But, then again, Trump has made his presidency about defying storied American institutions.

The free press comes to mind.

The backlash against the Boy Scouts over Trumps speech led the organization to put out a statement on Tuesday:

The Boy Scouts of America is wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate, or philosophy. The invitation for the sitting U.S. president to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies.

Of course, thats not really a response, just a reiteration of the Scouts stance on these matters.

The response has been largely panned as not being strong enough.

I cant say Im surprised the Scouts wouldnt say more. It would be a tricky move to come out and disavow some of Trumps remarks, embarrassing their honorary president and making an enemy of the nations top loose cannon.

But, just for the sake of argument, what if the statement included a few more sentences:

Furthermore, the Boy Scouts of America is first and foremost about kids, about building strong kids with a strong resolve. It is about honesty. It is about succeeding  with humility. It is about service and instilling the drive to help others. It is about encouraging our peers to rise to the challenge and offering a hand when needed. It is about civility.

Thats the Scouting that I remember.

One man playing the fool cant change that.
As Gujarat continues to reel under flood fury, Ahmedabad alone has received 200 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. The Kalol tehsil in Gandhinagar received 370 mm of precipitation, including 240 mm between 8 am and 12 noon today, according to official data.

By India Today Web Desk: As Gujarat continues to reel under flood fury, Ahmedabad and capital city Gadhinagar have witnessed 200 mm and 370 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours alone.

Over 10,000 people from rural and urban areas of the state have been displaced and forced to seek shelter in safer places after the Sabarmati river swelled.

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If official figures are to be believed, Ahmedabad alone has received 200 mm of rainfall in the last 24 hours. The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation has warned people not to venture near electricity poles and streetlights as that may prove fatal due to waterlogging.

Until Wednesday, as many as 123 people lost their lives due to the havoc wreaked by rain, officials said.

Even state capital Gandhinagar continues to be plagued due to the floods. The Kalol tehsil in Gandhinagar received 370 mm of precipitation, including 240 mm between 8 am and 12 noon today, according to official data.

SCHOOLS , COLLEGES CLOSED IN GANDHINAGAR

The Gandhinagar district administration has ordered that schools and colleges be shut down. Many private offices and shops did not open up until late in the afternoon due to heavy rains.

Following the release of water from the Dharoi Dam into the Sabarmati river, teams of the district administration and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) shifted around 10,000 people, including nearly 2,500 from 11 locations within the city, during the morning hours, collector Avantika Singh said.

"The release of water from the Vasna barrage into the river has also caused inundation of low-lying areas," she said.

Portions of at least 20 buildings collapsed due to heavy rains and water-logging. Three persons were injured when a building crumbled in Gaekwad Haveli locality in the early hours today, Ahmedabad Chief Fire Officer M Dastoor said.

Trees have been uprooted and there have also been some instances of fire breaking out due to short-circuit.

Chief Minister Vijay Rupani toured the affected areas in a boat to take stock of the situation.

(WITH INPUTS FROM PTI)

ALSO READ

PM Modi takes stock of flood-hit Gujarat, declares Rs 500 crore relief

Roads destroyed, homes inundated in massive flooding across Gujarat

ALSO WATCH VIDEO | Gujarat floods: Over 70 killed due to incessant rainfall in parts of state

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A Place for All Conservatives to Speak Their Mind.
After working briefly for the ISIS and raising the al-Qaeda flags in the Kashmir Valley, Zakir Musa on Thursday formally announced the establishment of a new Kashmir-based terror group - Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of the terror outfit al-Qaeda.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: After working briefly for the ISIS and raising the al-Qaeda flags in the Kashmir Valley, Zakir Musa on Thursday formally announced the establishment of a new Kashmir-based terror group - Ansar Ghazwat-ul-Hind, an affiliate of the terror outfit al-Qaeda. Although security forces have downplayed the role of ISIS or the al-Qaeda in Kashmir, the setting up of this group shows that the terror group has made inroads in the Valley.

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The 23-year-old from Tral is now spearheading the terror group which may change the security forces' manner of response.

Musa quit the Hizbul Mujahideen a few months ago after differences with the outfit's supreme commander Syed Salahuddin. In the past few days, he has released a series of videos with the message that the idea behind fighting the security forces in Kashmir Valley should be in the name of Islam, an idea that has been rejected by terror masterminds in PoK. These terror masterminds allege that Musa is playing into the hands of the Indian intelligence agencies.

GLOBAL ISLAMIC MEDIA FRONT ISSUES STATEMENT

A "statement" issued on social media platform by the Global Islamic Media Front, online propaganda distribution arm of the Al-Qaeda, said "After the martyrdom of heroic Mujahid Burhan Wani, the jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening as the Muslim nation of Kashmir has committed to carry the flag of jihad to repel the aggression of tyrannic Indian invaders, and through jihad, and with the aid of Allah only, we will liberate our homeland Kashmir."

Sources, however, said that there had been a rift created within terror groups - the Hizbul Mujahideen, Lashkar and the Musa group. Musa only has a handful of recruits loyal to him, but he is trying to rope in fresh recruits.

An MHA official said that "The idea of ISIS or the al-Qaeda may not stick for long." But other security experts do not subscribe to this view. Meanwhile, a source said that "With Syed Salahuddin declaring himself an agent, Musa automatically becomes the number one target. If he is not killed by the security forces, the Pakistani agents or terror group may eliminate him."

Also read |

Ex-Hizb commander Zakir Musa's new recruit was accused of unnatural sex

Zakir Musa hails Burhan Wani in new video, says slain Hizb commander wanted 'caliphate' in Valley

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: Factional fight erupts within Hizbul Mujahideen, say those who oppose Zakir Musa will meet Sabzar fate

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Its hard to imagine the way the Virginia General Assembly operated in the 1990s, but Forrest Frosty Landon  former editor of The Roanoke Times  recalls dark days when a lot of state lawmaking happened in secret.

A good bit of legislative action  particularly with state budget matters  occurred in committee and subcommittee meetings to which the public had no invitation. Such lack of access made it difficult to grasp what was occurring in Richmond, how, or why.

Thats one reason Landon founded the Virginia Coalition for Open Government in 1996.

Working closely with the late Del. Chip Woodrum, D-Roanoke, the coalition spurred the creation of the Virginia Freedom of Information Advisory Council, which is chartered in state law. And in 2000, the council hired Maria Everett as its first, and so far only, executive director.

Everetts tenure, lauded by lawmakers, lawyers and open government advocates, ends Aug. 1. Shes retiring after 17 years with the Virginia FOIA Council, and 33 years in all working in state government.

The council is part ombudsman between the public and government on the laws mechanics, and part information clearinghouse on how the law is supposed to work. It also plays a strong advisory role with the General Assembly and state and local governments. All of that suggests Everetts shoes will be difficult to fill.

Craig Merritt, a Richmond lawyer who represents the Virginia Press Association, called her one of the last of a dying breed of public servants.

Shes an honest broker, said Merritt. She has a very strong sense that people should operate, no matter what their political agenda might be, with a sense of civic duty. Those people are increasingly rare.

Megan Rhyne, executive director for the Virginia Coalition for Open Government, likened Everett to the conscience of the legislature on matters of Freedom of Information. In friendly, sometimes funny ways, Everett can make lawmakers stop and think . . . about what their responsibility is, without wagging her finger at them, without being sanctimonious, Rhyne said.

Del. Jim LeMunyon, R-Fairfax, who chairs the FOIA council, put it this way:

Some of us are involved in public policy as elected officials. Some, like Maria, are involved as career professionals. We all want to leave Virginia better because of the work we do. Maria has probably had more of an impact than anyone else I can think of in the state of Virginia, because the Freedom of Information Act has a huge impact, on all parts of state government, on all parts of local government.

Landon called Everett unmatchable. Shes a very openness person who really knows the law. She proved that when I spoke to her Wednesday, citing code subsections from memory.

Everett, 61, grew up in Alexandria, the youngest of five children of a Washington, D.C., policeman who later joined the U.S. Secret Service. She earned an undergraduate degree from Virginia Tech, a law degree at George Mason University, and is still married to her high school sweetheart  a pediatrician who hasnt retired yet.

She was working as a staff attorney for the House General Laws Committee when she got tapped to lead the coalition. Shes stayed in both roles ever since  working with the committee during the annual General Assembly session and with the coalition for the rest of the year.

The fact that she had a finger in each pie was important to the councils success, Landon said. She was there to put out fires and to make sure bad things didnt happen.

Everett said one of her proudest FOIA council accomplishments has been training citizens and officials all over the commonwealth on what the Virginia Freedom of Information Act is and how it works. Over the years, she and her assistant, Senior Attorney Alan Gernhardt, have conducted more than 1,000 training sessions. Some were in Richmond; others were in far-flung corners of the commonwealth.

The law, which dates to 1968 and has been amended many times since, broadly governs two areas, open meetings and access to government documents.

Except under narrowly defined circumstances, meetings of more than two members of a public body  such as a city council  are supposed to be advertised in advance and open to the public.

The public is also supposed to be able to get its hands on official government documents. But the statute grants officials discretion on what they may withhold under many different circumstances. There were five such exemptions in 1968 and now there are 175, Everett said.

Before the FOIA council, nobody got trained on FOIA. Yet every public official was supposed to understand how it worked, Everett told me Wednesday. There are a lot of people in government who are like, This is a nuisance. Im busy with other things. Why should I go track down documents?

One of Everetts strengths, Rhyne said, is her ability to connect to different groups of people and explain why they ought to care about the Freedom of Information Act.

Its the same message, no matter whos she talking to, Rhyne told me. But If shes talking to law enforcement, she can say, I was a cops daughter. 

Everett said when she talks to lawmakers, she tries to help them view the law from the publics perspective. As a citizen, would you be satisfied with that? she asks them. And then she adds, this is the whole backbone of the experiment we started 241 years ago.

Because of her deep background in Richmond, shes trusted by lawmakers, and many defer to her on both good and bad ideas for changes to the law, Rhyne added.

One change that was five years in the making was an amendment that required notice of meetings of House and Senate conferees on the state budget. Thats important because lots of legislative horse-trading occurs when the two chambers are trying to iron out differences on the annual spending bill.

The process changed in 2005, Everett said, with an amendment sponsored by then-Del. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem.

We started a process where [legislators] couldnt play hide-and-seek, Everett told me. We came up with a system where they would put out a notice and then you could call up their staff and find out where and when they were meeting. Is it perfect? No. Is it remarkably better? Yes.

Everett said that Gernhardt will succeed her as executive director of the Virginia. Hes been doing this almost 13 years. This man knows his stuff. Hes a very nuanced individual, she said.

Whats Everett going to do in retirement?

She sings in the Richmond Symphony chorus, and will be doing some volunteer work for them. She loves to swim  Ill spend a lot of time at the pool, she said. Then theres things around the house youd always like to do, but that never get done.

Pretty much whatever the hell I want, she told me.
By India Today Web Desk: Sony TV's The Drama Company premiered on July 16 and is trying to woo its viewers with its hilarious content. The show has a good lineup of comedians that includes names like Krushna Abhishek, Sanket Bhosale, Sugandha Mishra and Sudesh Lehri.

The newest member to join this comedy club is actor Karan V Grover. Karan was last seen in Life OK's Bahu Hamari Rajni_Kant. He has been roped in as the host of The Drama Company that also has his former co-star Ridhima Pandit.

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Karan has already starting shooting and he has been praised by Shambu Dada aka Mithun Chakraborty for his acting and comic timing in the show.

Karan has hosted many award functions in the past and his comic timing in Bahu Hamari Rajni_Kant was great. Karan is quite happy to be a part of The Drama Company. "I'm immensely happy to be a part of the show. The Drama Company has got an amazing team and they all have been nice to me. I'm so excited to act in front of Mithun Da as he has always been kind to me and is helping me out for the role too, " Karan V Grover said in a statement.

Also read: Here's why Krushna Abhishek's The Drama Company might walk away with better ratings than TKSS

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Pakistani poet Ahmed Salim has demanded trial of Pakistanis involved in the Bangladesh genocide of 1971.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Human rights activist and Pakistani poet Ahmed Salim, demanded the trial of the Pakistanis involved in the genocide in 1971.

Salim urged young people of his country to work so that the government of Pakistan could realise the atrocities committed against humanity in 1971 in Bangladesh and to apologize to Bangladeshi people.

He said the responsibility of the new generation of Pakistan is to bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice.

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Salim said that they will have to come forward to create public opinion on the issue of Pakistan government's apology to the people of Bangladesh for genocide in 1971.

He made the above statements at an event at Engineers' Institution of the capital on Wednesday at Shahidjanani Jahanara Imam Memorial Commemorative Lecture and Memorial Medal distribution program.

The program was organized by Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee.

On the occasion of Jahanara Imam's 23rd death anniversary the medal 'Jahanara Imam Smriti Padak' is being given this year to a Punjabi poem to promote the message of non-communal spirit and humanity in South Asia.

In addition to this, 'the Institute of Conflict, Law and Development', as an organization to contribute to creating awareness against militancy in the country also received the award.

Poet Ahmad Salim went to jail for writing poetry against the massacre of Pakistani soldiers in 1971.

WAR OF LIBERATION

In 2012, the Bangladesh government honored him as a foreign friend contributing to the War of Liberation.

In the address entitled 'Condemnation of Bangladesh massacre in Pakistan', Poet Ahmad Salim said that poets of Punjab in 1971, wrote poetry in the protest against massacre in Bangladesh, made statements in the newspapers, held meetings on the streets and went to jail for these reasons.

He was sentenced to six months imprisonment for writing poetry about Madhusudan Dey, owner of Madhur Kantin, and other martyrs who were killed by Pakistani army on March 25.

He remembered the time and said, "I was questioned in the military court that why I am taking sides with the Bengali people, my answer was straight. Those who kill people, they are not Panjabi or Pathan, but only killers."

Intellectuals Shami Kaiser, Dr Nuzhat Chowdhury and Tanvir Haider Chowdhury took part in the discussion.

They said that changes in Pakistan-Bangladesh relations are not possible without acknowledging the genocide of 1971 and demanding apology for the people of Bangladesh.

In this episode more Pakistani writers like Anam Zakaria and Haroon Khalid said the denial of genocide is very sad.

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PAKISTAN HISTORY SIMILAR TO BANGLADESH

"History of Pakistan is similar to Bangladesh. To build a democratic, secular country, Pakistan must take responsibility for this history. No need to apologize," he said. President of the Ghatak (killer) Dalal Nirmul Committee, writer and journalist Shahriar Kabir said in the introduction of the program that people of Bangladesh want recognition of genocide and that the time has some for Pakistan to seek state-level apology.

The program was presided over by the Standing Committee Adviser, Justice Shamsul Huda, the function was also addressed by the retired Major General Abdur Rashid, Director of the Institute of Conflict, Law and Development.

General Secretary Kazi Mukul, Shaheed Intellectual's child Asif Munir, among others were present. Towhid Reza Noor was the moderator of the program.

Also Read:

INS Ranvir in Bangladesh for goodwill visit

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Yadav Sarkar, president of Kalidaspur Temple Committee, said in the early morning, miscreants broke into the main gate of the temple and left with the Shiva Lingam stones.

By Sahidul Hasan Khokon: Miscreants have stolen two Shiva Lingam stones of Kalidaspur Kali Temple at Damurhuda Upazila in Chuadanga in Bangladesh after which the police arrested a suspect.

The suspect named Gopal Halder was caught from Damudhuda upazila.

Yadav Sarkar, president of Kalidaspur Temple Committee, said in the early morning, miscreants broke into the main gate of the temple and left with the stones.

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Chuadanga district's additional superintendent of police Abdul Momen, officer-in-charge of Damurhuda police station Abu Jihad Fakhrul Alam Khan, visited the spot.

In this incident, Bancha Sarkar, the caretaker of the Kali temple, filed a case with the Dumurhuda model police station under the name of unidentified accused.

Police superintendent Nizamuddin confirmed the incident and said police is trying to recover the two Shiva Lingam stones.

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When Ralph Northam announced his much-ballyhooed economic plan for rural Virginia last week, he said he wanted to increase access to broadband Internet.

Thats the sort of thing we hear politicians say a lot these days, so in and of itself that could be nothing more than campaign happy talk.

Tucked inside his policy paper, though, are some curious and telling details about just how Northam would do that if hes elected governor in November. If you care about the economy of rural Virginia, those details deserve closer study. We care, of course. Others, not so much. Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist A. Barton Hinkle wrote recently that maybe state government should just let rural areas fend for themselves.

Heres what Northam, the Democratic candidate for governor, had to say about how hed try to bridge the digital divide.

First, he endorsed Microsofts recent initiative to deliver broadband through unused television bandwidths, which its experimenting with in Charlotte and Halifax counties. The commonwealth should look to replicate this successful program across rural Virginia, Northams plan says. Microsofts white space technology is exciting, but its unclear how widely that can be deployed (or what it would cost). Broadcasters oppose the technology, fearing it will interfere with their transmissions. Ultimately, this may be settled by the Federal Communications Commission, which regulates broadcasting frequencies. Northams instincts here are right, but we shouldnt count on Microsoft alone. Neither does he, and thats where things start to get interesting.

My administration will look for additional ways to partner with industry through a series of requests for information to define options for broadband buildout  which will lead to a statewide plan for broadband deployment in rural Virginia, Northams plan says. He goes on to cite three different state entities that deal with broadband. He proposes to consolidate these under the direction of a single cabinet secretary who will be responsible for getting more people connected.

Now we come to the money shot: Northam calls for the state to work with telecom providers to establish a set of broadband goals. Similar to the legislation Minnesota has passed, Virginia needs a clear set of metrics to evaluate broadband access, upload and download speeds, as well as Virginias rank among our neighbors.

So just what is that Minnesota law hes referencing? A fascinating one.

In 2010, Minnesota realized that high-speed connections are as essential to the new economy as high-speed transportation links are. More importantly, it decided to do something about it. That year, the state enacted a remarkable law that set specific goals to be achieved by 2015:

n All state residents and businesses should have access to broadband.

n Minnesota should be in the top five states for both broadband speeds and broadband access.

n Minnesota should at least match the top 15 countries in the world for broadband penetration.

Toward that end, Minnesota set up an Office of Broadband Deployment in its economic development agency. More importantly, its funded grants to extend broadband to its rural communities. Things havent gone as fast as the state intended; that 2015 goal has now been revised to 2022.

Still, there are some useful lessons Virginia can learn from Minnesota.

The first is that this was a bipartisan effort. The bill passed with overwhelming support from both parties in a Democratic-controlled legislature (58-6 in the Senate, 114-16 in the House) and was signed into law by a Republican governor. Its enactment has since been championed by a Democratic governor, and funded by a Republican-controlled legislature (just not at the levels the governor wanted, but thats a more normal kind of dispute).

The lesson for us: While Northam makes his proposal in the context of a governors race, theres no reason why this plan should be partisan. It seems the sort of thing Virginia should do regardless of whether the next governor is Northam or Ed Gillespie, his Republican opponent. Its really a pretty business-like approach. We pay attention to lots of other rankings  business climate, tax burden, and so forth. This just adds broadband as another infrastructure data point.

The second important lesson from Minnesota is that the state is agnostic toward who provides broadband to rural areas. This year, the state has $35 million available for grants. Private firms are eligible for those. So are non-profits. So are local governments. Minnesota doesnt have an ideological hang-up over municipal broadband the way some in Virginia do. Earlier this year, Del. Kathy Byron, R-Bedford County, tried to push through a bill that would have effectively crippled municipal broadband in the state. The theory may be sound: Government shouldnt compete with private industry. The reality is more complicated: If private enterprise could make money on rural broadband, it would already be doing so. It cant, so its not. Minnesota understands that the practicality of rural economic development is more important than some academic philosophy.

Gillespie has signaled hes not keen on municipal broadband, which ought to be worrisome to those in rural areas. Northam, in embracing Minnesotas approach, seems more open-minded, and perhaps more practical. Minnesotas law gives a preference to public-private partnerships for rural broadband, but doesnt rule out municipal broadband if thats the only way to make it happen.

Here are the ultimate facts we need to keep in mind: Much of rural Virginia has Internet speeds that are at Third World levels and private enterprise alone cant fix that. Minnesotas goal is for all state residents to have a minimum Internet speed of 25 megabits per second. Thats pretty audacious. There are still parts of Virginias urban crescent that arent that fast, though theyre close. Roanoke is at 17.4 megabits per second, and most rural areas are still in single digits, according to the latest State of the Internet Report.

Rocky Mount is 6.5.

Bedford is 6.3.

Pearisburg is 4.3.

Floyd is 3.7.

Haysi is 2.2.

Pound is 1.7.

Thats the economic reality rural Virginia faces. If those places were in Minnesota, thered be a way to fix that. Why shouldnt both parties in Virginia endorse the Minnesota way?
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With the support of 132 MLAs in the Bihar Assembly, Nitish Kumar's floor test looks like a formality but dissidence within the party may be a headache for JD-U.

By India Today Web Desk: A day after being sworn-in as the Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar will have to prove today that he has the majority in the Assembly along with other alliance partners including the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has asked the Janata Dal (United) leader to prove his strength at a floor test at 11 AM today.

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In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the new NDA alliance claims to have 132 MLAs - 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three independents. This is comfortably above the halfway 122 mark.

The floor test may just be a formality. The RJD has 80 MLAs, Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has 3.

However the floor test may not be a cakewalk tomorrow as fissures within the party have erupted over aligning with the BJP.

JD-U DIVIDED?

The "enemy" for Nitish Kumar may lie within the party. Cracks in unity the JD-U is now open with Sharad Yadav leading the dissident camp.

A team of disgruntled JD-U leaders met Sharad Yadav in the evening. Arun Kumar Shrivastav, general secretary of the JD-U, said, "Nitish took decision without taking us into confidence". He said Sharad Yadav is worried as this was Nitish's personal decision.

However the MP, after the meeting, said, "This is not rebellion. We made this party. We spoke because we want democracy to prevail in party".

Party leader Ali Anwar said they had no idea that such a big development would happen overnight. "We are surprised," he said.

JD(U) MPs Veerendra Kumar and Ali Anwar reach Sharad Yadav's residence in Delhi. pic.twitter.com/CTnPgayIo7; ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Sharad Yadav's meeting with Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi left tongues wagging in the political circles but the JD-U leader's lips are tight.

WHAT IS RJD PLANNING?

RJD is the single-largest party in the state Assembly and has claimed that they can form the next government if given an opportunity.

Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav dared Nitish Kumar for an election while describing him as an opportunist.

JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi retorted to his claims by saying that the RJD should stop making tall claims and if they really have the numbers, let them prove it in the floor test. "We have our numbers and we will prove it."

Also read:

3 reasons why Nitish Kumar's swearing-in happened so quickly after resignation

Why Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019

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Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Also watch:

My decision is in Bihar's interest: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

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Nitish Kumar's dramatic resignation and his subsequent decision to join the BJP again has triggered a massive political storm in Bihar. Here's all the latest updates.

Nitish Kumar broke off ties with Lalu's RJD and Congress to join hands with the BJP again.

By India Today Web Desk: Less than 16 hours after he resigned from the post in a dramatic change of stance, Nitish Kumar took oath as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time today. BJP's Sushil Modi will be his deputy.

Earlier, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) hit the streets across Bihar in protest against Nitish Kumar's decision to dump Mahagathbandhan for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Nitish Kumar walked out of the 20-month-old grand alliance on Wednesday evening bringing a dramatic end to days of political uncertainty in the state.

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FROM INDIA TODAY MAGAZINE: NITISH KUMAR - GIANT SLAYER

Moments after Nitish tendered his resignation to Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi, he was once again at the Governor's House later in the night to claim support of 132 MLAs of the JD-U and the BJP. He will have to take the floor test in the Assembly on Friday (July 28).

LATEST UPDATES:

Sharad Yadav meets Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi.

Former JD-U chief Sharad Yadav calls meeting of party MPs at his house in Delhi at 5pm. MP Ali Anwar, MP Virendra Singh, who are upset with Nitish Kumar, likely to attend meeting.

Lalu treated Nitish as his younger brother. Gave him full freedom to run the government but Nitish backstabbed him: Rabri Devi

During the day Nitish Kumar used to talk to us in the night he called BJP leaders: Rabri Devi.

Nitish Kumar is a cheater. He betrayed us. People of Bihar will teach Nitish a lesson soon, says Rabri Devi.

Nitish Kumar's political career is nearing its end, says Lalu Yadav.

Opposition is united in the fight against BJP. I invite all political parties and leaders Mayawati, Akhilesh, Mamta didi for the August 27 rally in Patna.

JD-U MLAs were confined inside Nitish's residence for the whole night yesterday: Lalu.

Considering to go to Supreme Court against Governor's decision to invite Nitish Kumar first to form government: Lalu Yadav

I am ready to explain. Charges against me might be serious but Nitish Kumar is also accused in a murder case: Tejashwi

We are ready for election. Dare Nitish Kumar to go to people's court. BJP will show Nitish the mirror soon: Tejashwi Yadav.

We were used as bait to gain power, says Tejashwi Yadav.

I was ready to explain graft charges. Even asked Nitish to draft my reply, I trusted him: Tejashwi.

This was well-planned plot: Tejashwi Yadav.

It is obvious that all the drama was scripted: Tejashwi Yadav tells India Today's Rajdeep Sardesai in Patna.

Nitish Kumar is greedy for power, I am not: Lalu.

Raids were conducted at out houses but nothing was found: Lalu.

Sushil Modi was asked to malign my image, it all happened under Narendra Modi, Amit Shah's watch. Amit Shah is super editor, says Lalu Yadav.

Humne Nitish ko tilak laga ke kaha jao raaj karo, lekin wo to Bhashmashur nikla: Lalu

Lalu Nitish prohibited liquor in Bihar but it was a big sham. Liquor is being home-delivered in state: Lalu.

Nitish Kumar is an opportunist leader. His anti-BJP drive was all drama, says Lalu.

BJP is fooling people of India: Lalu.

Bihar's mandate was against Narendra Modi and BJP and now Nitish has joined hands with the BJP: Lalu.

Nitish Kumar behind my conviction by the lower court, says Lalu Prasad.

Sad that there is no Bapu in the country today. BJP worships Mahatma Gandhi's killers and now Nitish has joined hands with them: Lalu

Nitish betrayed us. Leaders do anything for power: Lalu Yadav.

Lalu Yadav addressing the media in Ranchi, where he had to appear before court in a fodder scam case.

READ: As Nitish Kumar takes oath, Tejashwi Yadav cries foul, calls ex-boss opportunist rival

The decision was taken for the development and benefit of Bihar and its people. We remain committed to region's development: Nitish Kumar.

PM Modi congratulates Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi on Twitter."Congratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress & prosperity," he said.

Congratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity.- Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 27, 2017 Nitish Kumar has betrayed us, we were knew something was going on between him and the BJP: Rahul Gandhi.

Rahul Gandhi reacts to Nitish Kumar decision to dump Bihar grand alliance.

Nitish Kumar takes oath as Bihar CM for the sixth time. Sushil Kumar Modi will be deputy CM.

Nitish Kumar, Sushil Modi reach Governor House for oath taking.

Nitish should go to people to seek support, says Digvijaya Singh.

Shame on Governor for not inviting the RJD, single largest party, first to form government: Digvijaya Singh

Scene outside Raj Bhawan in Patna; preparations underway as Nitish Kumar set to be sworn in as Bihar Chief Minister for the 6th time today pic.twitter.com/0R5knvMC0L- ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017 People gave mandate to Mahagathbandhan in Bihar. People's mandate was against the BJP and NDA: Digvijaya Singh

Senior Congress leader Digivijaya Singh slams Nitish Kumar for joining hands with BJP.

Nitish kumar has commited historical mistake: Ali Anwar.

Nitish Kumar decided to follow his inner conscience to support BJP. But my inner conscience doesn't allow me to support his decision, says Ali Anwar.

First signs of revolt in JD-U. MP Ali Anwar comes out in open criticising Nitish Kumar for dumping the grand alliance Patna: Vehicles stuck in traffic jam as RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu, connecting north Bihar with Patna #NitishKumar pic.twitter.com/euXG3ZkrLE- ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

RJD supporters block Mahatma Gandhi Setu in Patna. Heavy traffic on the bride connecting Patna with north Bihar since 4am.

TEJASHWI DECIDES TO FIGHT

In no mood to give up without a fight, Tejashwi Yadav earlier said the RJD being the single largest party in the state would stake claim to form the government.

"Have sought appointment with the governor. Will stake claim to form government as the the single largest party. Will also get the support of JD(U) MLAs who have won after defeating BJP candidates," Tejashwi tweeted.

However, the numbers are stacked against him. The JD-U, BJP, their allies and supporting independent MLAs together account for 132 seats in the 243-member Bihar Assembly, 10 more than the magic figure of 122.

RJD has 81 MLAs and even if Congress with 27 MLAs and CPI-ML (03) decide to back Tejashwi, their number would add up to 110.

Reacting sharply to the governor inviting Nitish Kumar for the swearing-in at 10 am after giving him an appointment for 11 am, Tejashwi said RJD would stage a dharna outside Raj Bhavan against it.

"Governor gv us time of 11AM and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10AM. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?" he tweeted well past midnight.

ALSO READ:

Nitish Kumar resigns, but not really: Bihar Game of Thrones starring BJP isolates Lalu Yadav?

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Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

Lalu goes for the jugular, says murder-accused Nitish is BJP's puppet

Nitish Kumar to be back as chief minister with BJP support: Bihar political drama as it unfolded

WATCH: Impossible to work under current circumstances: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after resignation

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Hours after Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar CM again, his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav dared him to fight election again and claimed that his RJD has the numbers to prove majority in Bihar Assembly.

By India Today Web Desk: Tejashwi Yadav, who was at the core of weeks-long tussle between the RJD and JD-U which ultimately saw Nitish Kumar dumping the grand alliance, has come out in open blasting the Bihar CM

In an exclusive interview with India Today's Rajdeep Sardesai , Tejashwi dared Nitish to go people's court and said that he is ready to explain corruption charges levelled against him. Tejashwi described Nitish's resignation and his subsequent decision to joins hands with the BJP again as a well-written drama scripted in Delhi by BJP chief Amit Shah and Narendra Modi.

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"It is obvious that all the drama was scripted. We trusted Nitish Kumar but he used us as bait to gain power," Tejashwi said.

"I am ready to explain allegations against me. Charges against me might be serious but Nitish Kumar is also named in a murder case," he said.

Tejashwi also claimed that his RJD has the numbers to prove majority in Bihar Assembly and would do so when given an opportunity.

Earlier, when Nitish Kumar was taking oath as Bihar CM for the sixth time at Governor's House, Lalu's son Tejashwi was busy in shooting off tweets spewing venom at Nitish.

In a series of tweets, Tejashwi described Nitish as an opportunist and said he was targeted by the Opposition after they failed to find fault with his leadership.

"I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!" he said.

I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival!- Tejashwi Yadav (@yadavtejashwi) July 27, 2017

"Vicious greed for power of opportunism will spell it's own doom. People are not fools that they digest their penchant for wicked power grab. Whenever there is change in a system, however unjust, those at vantage point were bound to get irked. Repercussions were expected & imminent," Tejashwi added.

"I delivered manifolds than wat was expected of me. My performance perturbed our ally & BJP. Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness. Past baggage, though unjustified, didn't perturb me when I was entrusted to carry the expectations of people's mandate, in the role of DyCM!" the former Bihar deputy CM went on to add.

ALSO READ:

Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition's chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019

Nitish returns as Bihar CM with BJP, look forward to work together, tweets PM Modi

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Nitish Kumar resigns, but not really: Bihar Game of Thrones starring BJP isolates Lalu Yadav?

WATCH: Dost, dost na raha: Frenemies Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav over the years

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Angela Ord training despite her broken foot.

PLUCKY Angela Ord is still carrying on training to scale Africas tallest mountain  despite breaking her foot.

She is so determined to conquer Mount Kilimanjaro and raise money for the Brain Injury Rehabilitation Trust that she is still exercising ready for her adventure in September.

Angela (45), of Maryhill Close in Treeton, has already achieved more than her original sponsorship target of 3,700  she has hit just under 8,000  but wants to raise as much money for the cause as possible.

Paramedic Angelas father died after suffering a bleed on the brain when she was eight, and she herself suffered a bleed when she was 33 although tests showed it was coincidental rather than hereditary.

The Trust will spend the cash raised by Angelas efforts helping people in Yorkshire.

The mum of ones training has included trekking on Mount Snowdon in Wales.

She said: I had a setback and broke my foot training but Im on the mend and certainly aint giving up.

I have still continued to train with my cast on and have got slowly back at it.

My determination has grown stronger because of all the people who have put their faith in me.

My family, partner, and friends have given me so much support and help, my gym and trainers have put so much time into helping me and adapting training so I didnt have to quit  the thought of giving up has never crossed my mind.

Ive had also had so many donations from generous members of the public.

That mountain isnt going to know whats hit it. I will smash it.

Angela will be flying out to Tanzania on September 16.

Mount Kilimanjaro has three volcanic cones and rises 4,900 metres (16,000 feet) from its base to 5,895 metres (19,341 feet) above sea level.

To donate to Angela, go to https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/angelaord-kilimanjaro or text ANGO71 10 (or the amount of donation you wish to give) to 70070.
POLICE are concerned for a missing man who has not been seen for over a week.

They have issued a CCTV image of Steven Jackson in a bid to find out where he is.

Mr Jackson (50), was last seen in the Wombwell area at around 9am on Sunday, July 16, but CCTV footage shows him 48 hours later in Scotland, on Tuesday, July 18, at 9.35am, leaving Haymarket station in Edinburgh.

This is the last sighting of Mr Jackson and police believe that while he still may be in Scotland, he could be attempting to make his way back to Barnsley as he has connections in the Silkstone, Penistone and Ingbirchworth areas.

Mr Jackson was last seen in Wombwell wearing cream tracksuit bottoms and a blue T-shirt, but was wearing blue bottoms in the CCTV footage.

He does use silver crutches and is known to carry a rucksack with him.

A police spokeswoman said: Officers are concerned for his health and wellbeing, and would ask anyone who believes they may have seen Steven to please call police.

If you have any information, call 101 quoting incident number 835 of July 16.
The youth wing of the party will be reaching out to war veterans to instill among the new generation a sense of nationalism.

By Rakesh Ranjan: The BJP is all set to launch a mega nationalism drive across the country in the wake of the ongoing debate over nationalism.

The youth wing of the party will be reaching out to war veterans to instill among the new generation a sense of nationalism.

The war veterans will hand over national flags to BJP presidents in all 29 states and Union territories in Delhi on August 9, who will further camp extensively in their states till August 15.

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"Carrying national flags, the state BJP presidents will tell the countrymen about the contributions of our armed forces, the wars India has fought since Independence, and the sacrifices made by the forces. All 37 state and Union territory party presidents will participate in the event," said Poonam Mahajan, president of the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM).

'FRINGE ELEMENTS ATTEMPTING TO TARNISH FORCES' IMAGE'

The programme is scheduled at a time the country is debating the issue of nationalism and controversies surrounding it. A BJP leader said deliberate attempts are being made by fringe elements to tarnish the image of the Indian forces.

Mahajan, the BJP MP from Mumbai North Central, said the programme will be launched on the occasion on 75 years of Quit India Movement in Delhi and conclude on August 15, when the country celebrates 70 years of independence.

"The country has gone through tremendous changes in these seven decades but the new generation is unaware of them. During the campaign, BJYM workers will travel across the country with national flags and talk to youngsters about the rich history of India and also the sacrifices made by our armed forces in the wars of 1962, 1965, 1971 and during the Kargil war," Mahajan said.

ALSO READ

After Doklam, Chinese war veterans planning rare 1962 commemoration

Doklam standoff: Indian Air Force chief says ready for any eventuality

--- ENDS ---
The Michael Hill Group saw a 6% sales increase over the last fiscal year as it expanded its store network, the Australia-based jeweler reported.

Revenue rose to $437.3 million (AUD 583 million) for the 12 months ending June 30, the retailer said last week. Overall same-store sales rose 1.5% to $403.9 million (AUD 538.5 million), an improvement from the 0.8% lift the company announced at the end of the third quarter.

Gross margin will be slightly down for the year, in part due to the tougher-than-expected Australasian market, and in part due to discounting of surplus inventory, the group said in a statement.

The Michael Hill brand delivered total store sales growth of 5%, bringing in $425.7 million (AUD 567.6 million). The company operated 304 stores under the brands name at the end of June  seven more than a year earlier.

Our US business continued to struggle throughout the year and finished 13.4% down for the same stores, management said.




Anirban Bhowmick the owner of Kolkata Metalheads community has been organising this niche festival since 2013. Abomination is seemingly a growing metal festival to look out for if you want to discover new music in these parts of the country.
Union Pacific Corporation elected Bhavesh "Bob" V. Patel to the company's board of directors.

Patel is chief executive officer and chairman of the management board of LyondellBasell Industries. He joined LyondellBasell in March 2010. Prior to being named CEO, Patel held a variety of senior leadership roles including senior vice president, Olefins and Polyolefins  Americas; senior vice president, Olefins and Polyolefins  Europe, Asia and International, based in the Netherlands; and executive vice president, Olefins and Polyolefins  Europe, Asia and International. Patel was named CEO and chairman of the companys management board in January 2015.

Patel is a member of the board of directors of the Greater Houston Partnership, a member of the Business Roundtable, and serves as vice chairman of the board and chairman of the executive committee of the American Chemistry Council. He is a member of the external advisory council of The Ohio State Universitys College of Engineering and a member of the deans advisory council for the Fox School of Business at Temple University. Patel earned a BS in chemical engineering from The Ohio State University and an MBA from Temple University.

Bobs dedication to safety as well as his proven track record of driving increased efficiency and operational excellence will make him a valuable contributor to the company in many aspects, said Union Pacific chairman, president and CEO Lance Fritz. With nearly 40 percent of our freight volume originating or terminating outside the U.S., Bobs significant international business experience will benefit Union Pacific. We are excited to welcome him to the board.
The U.S. Department of Transportation has released the $14 million in funds from the Transportation Investment Generating Economic Recovery (TIGER) grant the city of Springfield received for phase two of the rail improvement project.

In a release from U.S. Rep. Darin LaHood (R-IL-18), LaHood said that he along with Rep. Rodney Davis (R-IL-13) recently met with federal transportation officials urging the timely release of the grant.

Todays announcement of the released federal funding to improve the Ash and Laurel Street underpasses is welcomed news. Following last years opening of the Carpenter Street overpass, this announcement dramatically moves forward this rail improvement project for the community, said LaHood. The completion at Ash and Laurel Streets over the next three years will catapult this project forward in a positive way, improving rail service and traffic safety in Springfield. The completion of these projects will also bring further economic development in downtown Springfield and the Medical District. Needless to say, the nearly $50 million dedicated for these underpasses creates good paying construction jobs and additional opportunities for the area. Im excited to see this project come to fruition with bipartisan support and move closer to completion.
Carrier Corp., the air conditioning company, is laying off 338 employees at a factory in Indianapolis on Thursday, the six-month anniversary of President Donald Trump's inauguration.

As president-elect, Trump had boasted of having worked out a deal with the company to prevent jobs at the Carrier factory from moving to Mexico.

Carrier said Thursday that approximately 300 employees will leave the company this week as part of a previously announced plan to relocate fan coil manufacturing production lines. The positions will be shifted to Mexico.

The employees include more than 30 associates who have chosen to take advantage of the company's Employee Scholar Program and pursue degree programs, according to the company.

Carrier noted that the transition will impact approximately 600 Indianapolis jobs over the next several months, but added that the impacted employees will have an opportunity for employment across UTC's manufacturing operations.

An additional 290 employees are planned to be terminated on December 22, just three days before Christmas.

However, Carrier also said it continues to honor its 2016 commitment to employ approximately 1,100 associates in Indianapolis.

"As announced in November, this includes headquarters and engineering jobs and more than 800 employees supporting our world-class gas furnace manufacturing center."

Carrier previously announced in 2016 that it was planning to shed 2,100 jobs from its Indianapolis factory.

But in late November 2016, Carrier said it has negotiated an agreement with the incoming Trump administration. Accordingly, the company added that it will continue to manufacture gas furnaces in Indianapolis, in addition to retaining engineering and headquarters staff, preserving more than 1,000 jobs.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
Hy-Vee, Inc. based in West Des Moines, Iowa, announced voluntarily recall of eight Hy-Vee brand pizzas that were sold at its six Minneapolis-area stores citing they may contain undeclared soy. No illnesses have been reported in connection with these products to date.

People who have an allergy or severe sensitivity to soy run the risk of serious or life-threatening allergic reaction, if they consume these products.

The take-and-bake Hy-Vee brand pizzas were distributed at the Twin Cities Hy-Vee stores in New Hope, Oakdale, Lakeville, Brooklyn Park, Eagan and Savage, near the stores' Italian departments and prepared-meal areas.

The Hy-Vee pizzas are packaged in plastic wrapped pizza tins and sold out of refrigerated display cases. They are produced by Hy-Vee's wholly owned subsidiary D & D Foods, Inc., based in Omaha, Nebraska.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
A flight from New York was delayed for two hours after a fight erupted between a pilot and a flight attendant. Police officials had to embark the aircraft at LaGuardia Airport after the incident.

According to reports, the 54 year-old pilot had a dispute with the 26-year-old flight attendant prior to takeoff aboard the plane. The pilot even called the attendant "a piece of s---."

Reports say that about six Port Authority police officers, some carrying "huge" guns, interviewed flight attendants in the jet bridge. The crew were ordered to disembark the flight and the plane departed two hours late at 1:30 p.m.

A spokesman noted that the plane was operated by a subsidiary of Delta, Endeavor Air.

"Endeavor Air apologizes to the customers on board Endeavor Air flight 3925, operating as Delta Connection, from LaGuardia to Portland, Maine whose travel was inconvenienced as a result of a disagreement between two crew members. The actions of these crew members, as described, in no way reflects the respect, values and professionalism we expect from our employees," the spokesman said.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - The Brazilian government should soon enact anti-dumping measures to steel imports from China and Russia, according to the Brazilian Steel Institute (IABr), which represents steelmakers that operate in the country.

The anti-dumping measures are currently under review by the government and could be sent to Brazil's Foreign Commerce Chamber (Camex) in September to the last review and subsequent approval.

"In the coming days we should have a government decision, with the issue addressed during a Camex meeting in September," said IABr vice president and Usiminas chairman S?rgio Leite.

According to him, IABr is not in favor of protectionism in international trade, but wants isonomy regarding foreign , claiming that Brazilian companies have a larger tax burden than the Chinese and other steel exporters, which makes the Brazilian steel less competitive.

IABr also said that it intends to take measures against other countries' protectionism - a reference to a potential increase in the steel products imports tariff in the United States.

"We are planning a delegation to the United States, which, if approved by the IABr board, will be aligned with the government and ministers. The goal is to go to Washington to defend the national industry interest," said the IABr chairman, Marco Polo of Mello Lopes, at a press conference.

by Agencia CMA Latam

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Economic News

What parts of the world are seeing the best (and worst) economic performances lately? Click here to check out our Econ Scorecard and find out! See up-to-the-moment rankings for the best and worst performers in GDP, unemployment rate, inflation and much more.
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Venezuela's main association, Fedecamaras, demanded that President Nicol?s Maduro gives up his intention to hold elections for a National Constituent Assembly on Sunday. The entity rejects the Venezuelan government initiative as "unconstitutional and unnecessary."

"We can not support any constituent process that has its back to the sovereign people," Fedecamara said in a statement. The entity also supported the call for a 48-hour general strike starting today by trade unions and other civil organizations protesting Sunday's elections.

"We recognize and defend any mechanism of citizen protest as a democratic expression, as long as it remains attached to the Constitution and the laws," Fedecamaras added.

Meanwhile, the first vice-president of the National Assembly, Freddy Guevara, in a press conference, called "all Venezuelans" to move to Caracas for the so-called "Toma de Caracas."

by Agencia CMA Latam

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By PTI: (Eds: repeating with corrections)

Indore, Jul 27 (PTI) A 42-year-old woman, who was declared brain dead, has given a new lease of life to four persons here.

Archana Dosi, a homemaker from Madhya Pradeshs Mandsaur district, suffered a brain hemorrhage some days back and was admitted to a private hospital here on July 23. She was declared brain dead on July 25, Indores divisional commissioner Sanjay Dubey said.

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Dosis husband and other family members were then counselled to donate her vital organs.

After the womans family agreed, her heart, liver and the pair of kidneys were harvested and taken to three hospitals in the city through a green corridor, said Dubey, who is also the president of Indore Society For Organ Donation.

The organs were then transplanted into four patients yesterday, he said.

The deceaseds eyes and skin have also been preserved for donation, he said.

As per an official of Indore Society For Organ Donation, the organs of 23 brain dead patients have been donated by their respective families in the city in last 21 months.

These organs have been transplanted into nearly 130 patients in Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra. PTI HWP LAL ARS GK

--- ENDS ---
The US Senate has rejected a Republican proposal to repeal Obama-era care plan without replacing it.

A bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care was defeated with a 55-45 vote in the Republican-majority Upper House.

The second set back for President Donald Trump's top legislative priority in as many days was caused by a opposition from seven Republican Senators, who voted against the repeal-only plan on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the first amendment - to repeal Obamacare and replace it with the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BRCA) - failed to pass as nine moderate Republicans joined all Democrats on a 43-57 vote that effectively killed the measure.

The failure of Wednesday's bill, which called for a two-year delay on a replacement in the hope of finding agreement in the meantime, underscores sharp divisions within the Republican Party over a Trump health care plan.

Senators will now consider a so-called "skinny" repeal, which would eliminate some of the more controversial and unpopular provisions of Obama-era health care.

But the passage of that bill too is not certain as GOP centrists and conservatives are skeptical of the measure.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Political News
A bipartisan group of Senators have called on the U.S. Department of Agriculture to press the Chinese government to end its ban on import of American poultry products.

China imposed ban on import of U.S. poultry products in 2015 after the detection of a wild duck with Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI).

37 Senators have signed a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue, challenging the ban. Senators Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) and Mark Warner (D-Va.) authored the letter. The ban contradicts World Health Organization for Animal Health standards, they argue.

The letter points out that the reopening of the Chinese market would provide a huge boost for rural communities in the U.S., as poultry industry provides thousands of high quality jobs in these rural areas.

The United States is the largest poultry producer in the world and the second biggest poultry meat exporter, with nearly 18 percent of its product shipped to foreign .

The ban prevents Mississippi egg and poultry products from being exported to Chinese markets. Mississippi is the fifth-largest producer of broilers in the U.S., with 736 million chickens worth $2.82 billion produced in 2016. The state also produced more than 1.36 billion eggs last year, valued at $104 million. Mississippi's producers rely on strong export markets for its broilers and eggs produced and processed in the state.

Beijing had lifted a ban on import of beef from the United States last month after the two sides settled the conditions for American exports.

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
French building materials company Compagnie de Saint-Gobain SA Thursday reported first-half 2017 profit of 754million or 0.1.36 per share, compared to 596 million or 1.08 per share last year..

Recurring profit for the first-half rose 20.4% to 751 million from 624 million a year earlier.

Operating profit for the first-half increased 7.1% year-over-year to 1.47 billion.

First-half sales rose 4.4% to 20.41 billion from 19.55 billion in the same period last year. On a like-for-like basis, first-half sales increased 3.5% from a year earlier.

Chief Executive Pierre-Andre de Chalendar said, "The first half of 2017 confirmed the encouraging trends seen in 2016, particularly in France. Excluding the one-off impact of the cyber-attack, the Group grew at its fastest rate since the first half of 2011 translating into double-digit growth in operating income. The focus on sales prices paid off, allowing us to offset the rise in raw material and energy costs at Group level. Overall, the results were in line with our expectations, and we can therefore confirm with confidence our 2017 objectives."

For comments and feedback contact: editorial@rttnews.com

Business News
(Agencia CMA Latam) - Brazil's Ambev profit in the second quarter of 2017 decreased less than expected by analysts, but revenue was lower than anticipated, given the weakening sales of both beer and soft drinks in Brazil.

Ambev's net income in the second quarter fell by 2.2% on year, to R$ 2.124 billion. The adjusted result, which disregards positive or adverse effects from non-recurring items, fell by 2.4% to R$ 2.142 billion. Analysts had expected that the company's adjusted profit would fall by 7.1%, to R$ 2.038 billion.

However, Ambev's revenue was below the analysts' forecast, shrinking by 1.1%, to R$ 10.268 billion. According to a survey conducted by CMA, the average forecast for Ambev's revenues was at R$ 10.404 billion.

The decrease in revenues was mainly due to the company's results in Brazil, where revenue fell by 4.1%, driven by both beer (-3.3%) and soft drinks (-8.5%) segments. The volume of beer sales decreased by 1.3%, while soft drinks fell by more than 14.1%.

In Central America and the Caribbean, Ambev's revenues grew by 6.9% in organic terms - excluding effects caused by foreign exchange rate fluctuation and operation resizing - and recorded a 1.6% increase in sales volume on the same basis.

"In Dominican Republic, we further expanded the Presidente brand execution with micro events activations that more than doubled year to date when compared to the same period of 2016. In Guatemala, we continued with the Busch Light campaign and also launched the new VBI of Brahva," the company said.

In the Latin American division, revenue grew by 36.2% in organic terms, while volume rose by 12.2%. The Brazilian company highlighted the sales increase in Argentina. In Canada, volume sold fell by 0.4% in organic terms, affected by the cold climate, but revenue in these terms increased by 1.4%.

Ambev's adjusted EBITDA dropped by 6.2% in the second quarter, to R$ 3.943 billion. The total sales volume was stable compared to the same period of 2016, with 35.7 million hectoliters. Revenue per hectoliter fell by 1%, to R$ 287.90.

by Agencia CMA Latam

For comments and feedback: editorial@rttnews.com

Economic News

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By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) "Please cut my hands but pull me out of the debris," implored Pragya Jadeja in a frail voice when she spotted an NDRF jawan looking out for survivors after the collapse of a residential building in suburban Ghatkopar yesterday.

"Mere dono haath kaat do bhaiya, mujhe jaldi bahar nikaalo... nahi to main mar jaungi (cut my both the hands but please pull me out quickly otherwise I am going to die)," the 50-year-old said in a voice filled with pain and helplessness.

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Jadeja was one of the 11 survivors pulled out from under the rubble of the four-storey Siddhi Sai Cooperative Housing Society which collapsed last morning, killing 17 people.

Narrating his experience, constable Santosh Jadhav said, "We could hardly peep in to find that Jaedjas both the hands were partially crushed between two big fallen walls. But we comforted her, cut the huge RCC structure, and finally pulled her out safe."

Similarly, a 20-year-old woman was pulled out alive from under the mound by the rescuers who reached her after hearing her cries for help.

"The woman was trapped under the huge pile of the rubble and was wailing due to pains. We removed big pillars while praying that they dont fall on her and then pulled her out," another jawan said, adding that he spotted a gentleman lying in a pool of blood motionless in the rubble.

A 47-member team of NDRF (National Disaster Response Force) was pressed into the search and rescue operation immediately after the incident.

The case of Rajesh Doshi, a resident of the ill-fated building, underlines how survival instinct comes into play in such tragedies.

Doshi, whose legs got crushed under the debris, called up his son on his mobile phone around 6 pm, hours after the collapse, trying to explain his position.

"Doshi called his son at 6 pm, but it took nearly eight hours to locate and extricate him safely. He was finally pulled out of the rubble around 2.45 am," said a BMC official engaged in rescue operation.

Deputy Commandant Mahesh Nalawade, who led the NDRF (Mumbai) team, said sophisticated equipment in their arsenal came handy for the jawans in saving lives.

"Our team used sensors that could catch the heart beat of people trapped under debris. We also used trained sniffer dogs. We lowered cameras from the passages/holes to locate who is trapped under the rubble and acted accordingly. We used cutters sparingly," he said, adding that absence of rain came as a boon for the jawans.

The main impediment in such search and rescue operations is to locate people and then pull them out safely, he added. PTI APM NSK KIS

--- ENDS ---

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Three Gujarat Congress leaders, considered close to Shankersinh Vaghela, have quit the party saying the Congress leadership lacks power to control. They have joined the BJP.

By Poulomi Saha: Chips are falling around for the Congress and the Opposition. After Nitish Kumar split away from the Mahagatbandhan re-allying with the BJP to form government in Bihar, it is the Congress house in Gujarat that seems to be crumbling.

Three Congress legislators from Gujarat today tendered their resignations to the party high command and joined the BJP ahead of Assembly elections in the state.

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Balwantsinh Rajput, Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel, who are considered to be close to former chief minister Shankersinh Vaghela, wrote to Sonia Gandhi to announce resignation from the party. Later, at a public function, both leaders joined the BJP.

Balwantsinh Rajput, in his letter, said that he was being targeted by former party colleagues because of his proximity to Vaghela, who he is related to him by marriage.

"For the last few years, the Congress party has been trying to harm my reputation through my colleagues intentionally. Some party people have tried to hurt my reputation in the party due to my family relationships with Shankarsinhji Vaghela," Rajput wrote.

Rajput added that the party's alleged inability to control such persons showed "lack of power" in the Congress leadership.

Heartiest congratulations to Shri Balvantsinh Rajput on being nominated as BJP candidate for Rajya Sabha election from Gujarat.; Vijay Rupani (@vijayrupanibjp) July 27, 2017

It is to be noted that Shankersinh Vaghela, arguably the strongest leaders in Gujarat Congress, recently claimed he had been expelled from the party after the presidential election results showed there has been excessive cross-voting in favour of the NDA's nominee, Ram Nath Kovind.

Speculation is rife that Rajput, who was the Congress chief whip in the Gujarat legislative assembly, could be nominated by the BJP to contest the upcoming Rajya Sabha elections from the state. Three seats from the state go to polls on August 8.

The BJP yesterday announced the names of party president Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani to contest on a BJP ticket from two seats. The name of the third contender is yet to be announced.

ALSO READ |

Gujarat Congress leaders upbeat after meeting Rahul Gandhi in Delhi

As Gujarat Dangal nears, Shankersinh Vaghela quits Congress, may prove to be Haanikaarak Bapu for party

How Shankersinh Vaghela's expulsion spells doom for Congress ahead of Gujarat Assembly polls

ALSO WATCH | Congress president forms panel to overhaul communication strategy

--- ENDS ---
Following the Madras HC ruling on Vande Mataram, a BJP MLA has called for its implementation in Maharashtra as well.

By Kamlesh Damodar Sutar: The patriotism debate is back to haunt Maharashtra politics. The Madras High Court ruling on Vande Mataram has created ripples in Maharashtra. While a BJP leader has demanded to implement it in Maharashtra as well, Muslim leaders have once again resented the idea.

Following the Madras HC ruling on Vande Mataram, a BJP MLA has called for its implementation in Maharashtra as well.

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"It's a national song. We would like to tow the line in our state as well. I will meet the CM and request him to implement Vande Mataram in Maharashtra as well," demanded BJP MLA Raj Purohit. The BJP MLA also informed that if the need be he will raise the issue in the Assembly as well.

But the suggestion was in for a strong opposition by leaders from the AIMIM and Samajwadi Party.

MIM MLA Waaris Pathan was more vocal in his opposition. "My religion, my Constitution and my law doesn't ask me to say it. Even if someone puts a knife on my throat I will not say it," Pathan said.

Samajwadi Party leader and MLA Abu Asim Azmi too was equally vociferous. "A true Muslim will never say Vande Mataram. You cannot force us. If you want, drive us out of the country, shoot us. A true Muslim won't sing Vande Mataram," Azmi said.

With a debate raging on patriotism, the Shiv Sena was not lagging behind.

Shiv Sena leader and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote added fuel to fire. "The ones who oppose Vande Mataram are only staying in this country but their heart is in Pakistan. No need to drive them out, they themselves should go to Pakistan," Raote said.

Also read:

Madras High Court makes Vande Mataram mandatory in schools and colleges

Yogi Adityanath on Vande Mataram: Need to find out ways to deal with 'prejudiced mind'

If you want to stay in Uttarakhand, then you must sing Vande Matram, says minister

Also Watch:

Mandatory to sing Vande Mataram, if you live in Uttarakhand, says Education Minister

--- ENDS ---
BJP chief Amit Shah and Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani will contest the biennial election to the Rajya Sabha from Gujarat.

Shah, currently a legislator in Gujarat, will leave for Gujarat on Thursday to file nominations for the seat.



If elected, it will be Shah's debut in Parliament.



Union Textile Minister Smriti Irani, who is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Gujarat, has been re-nominated for the other seat.

The announcements were made by Union Minister J.P. Nadda after a meeting of the BJP Parliamentary Board in New Delhi on Wednesday evening.



However, BJP has not yet named a third candidate for the Gujarat Rajya Sabha elections.



According to the sources, the party could back Balwantsingh Rajput, a senior Congress leader who might quit the party and contest as an Independent candidate against Ahmed Patel

.


The Indian army on Thursday blocked infiltration attempt in Jammu and Kashmir and three militants have been killed.

The infiltration bid was foiled by the army in Gurez sector in Bandipora, North Kashmir.



Operation is in progress.



More details awaited.


After Nitish Kumar sworn-in as the Bihar Chief Minister for the sixth time on Thursday, his former deputy Tejashwi Yadav has slammed him for cheating the grand alliance that ruled the state.

Former Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav said Nitish Kumar is an "opportunist" who has broken ties with the RJD and shook hands with the BJP to form a new government in Bihar.

The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad, in a series of tweets, lashed out at Nitish Kumar and the Bharatiya Janata Party for a "wicked power grab" that would trigger "repercussions".

However, Tejashwi Yadav denied corruption charges against him and said he had entered politics with a clean slate and was eager to write a positive story.

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India and China are at loggerheads over Doklam plateau in Bhutan. The two sides have failed to find a solution to the ongoing military standoff. NSA Ajit Doval is in Beijing, where he is expected to discuss ways to defuse tension between the two countries.

Doklam standoff continues for over a month with both India and China sticking to their guns. (Photo: Reuters file)

By Prabhash K Dutta: National Security Advisor Ajit Doval is in China while the Indian Army and the People's Liberation Army are holding their posts 150 metres apart at Doklam in Bhutan.

Ajit Doval is expected to hold talks with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the ongoing Sikkim standoff on the sidelines of the meeting of BRICS top security officials in Beijing. Doval's visit has raised hopes that the two countries may find ways to defuse Doklam tension.

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The stakes are high at Doklam for both the countries. Neither can afford to appear succumbing to the pressure built by the other. China's domestic politics has left President Xi Jinping with little option but to prolong the standoff at Doklam.

DOMESTIC COMPULSIONS OF CHINA

The Communist Party of China (CPC) will be holding its 19th Congress later this year. An overhaul of the party structure is expected during the Congress. Xi Jinping has been pushing for greater control over the party, which is more powerful than the government in China.

The CPC directly controls the PLA through Central Military Commission (CMC). The CPC general secretary is the chairman of the CMC. The PLA will be celebrating its 90th foundation day on August 1. The foundation day celebration was supposed to be a show-off event, but under pressure from Doklam standoff.

According to Chinese state media, people are asking why Xi Jinping administration is not taking action against India if it really invaded territory of China. Given the public perception of the Doklam standoff in China, Xi Jinping administration cannot afford to look weak by pulling back PLA troops.

CHINESE INTERNAL POLITICS

Making a surprise change in the party leadership ahead of CPC Congress, Xi Jinping removed Sun Zhengcai from his post both in Chongqing - one of the four directly controlled municipalities in China - and the politburo of the CPC.

Many observers believed that Sun Zhengcai was a potential successor of Xi Jinping. Zhengcai was one the youngest members of the politburo of the Communist Party of China and very close to former premier Wen Jiabao. Zhengcai was an obstacle in the way of Xi Jinping, who wants greater control over the party.

With this objective, Xi Jinping has asked the partymen to address him as the chairman. It started with a military parade in September 2015 in Beijing, when he was called 'shouzhang'. Jinping tried to establish his status as the 'core' of the CPC.

No leader since Mao Zedong has been addressed as the chairman. Towering leaders like Deng Xiaoping, who oversaw Hong Kong handover negotiations, Jiang Zemin and Hu Jintao used the title of shouzhang when they inspected troops.

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Now, Jinping wants his partymen to address him as 'zhuxi', the chairman when he inspects troops on the PLA foundation day. With this, Jinping wants to convey the message to his countrymen that he is the most powerful leader in China after Mao.

With such an ambition, Jinping cannot order unilateral withdrawal of troops from Doklam. This is also why China has been harping on the 1962 war, which was fought when Mao was at the helm of affairs in China.

INDIA CANNOT AFFORD TO BACK OFF

There is much for India as the regional leader in the Doklam standoff. If India orders withdrawal of troops from Doklam buckling under Chinese pressure, this will diminish New Delhi's stature in the whole of South Asia.

The smaller neighbours of India will never rely on New Delhi for support while dominance of China will be paramount. In the immediate effect, Bhutan will pass on to Chinese hands and in all likelihood, become second Tibet in decades to come.

India's security concerns would be highly compromised if China had its say in Doklam. The Chicken's Neck of India will be under the direct watch of the PLA. This will also result in the decisive shift by Nepal towards China.

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Sri Lanka has only yesterday refused to allow a military base of China at Hambantota port limiting Beijing's role to commercial activities only. If India does not stand at Doklam in defence of Bhutan, it will have its bearing on Sri Lanka and other neighbouring countries as well.

LACK OF UNDERSTANDING ABOUT CHINA

Many observers believe that one of the reasons for continued standoff at Doklam is the lack of understanding between the two countries. It is said that despite being neighbours, there are not enough number of experts in India and China who understand the other countries very well.

Language is a major barrier for lack of understanding between the two countries. Writing in the Global Times, one Chinese columnist Long Xingchun - research fellow at the Charhar Charhar Institute and director of the Center for Indian Studies at China West Normal University - said, "There are no more than 200 China experts in India, of which 10 per cent, at the most, can read or speak Chinese. Most of these experts study China based on publications from the US and Europe and a few English publications published by China, but sadly they believe that they have been well informed about China."

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The same is equally true about the Chinese analysts who are said to have expertise over Indian affairs. They are not familiar with Indian languages and have limited access to English publications on India.

NEUTRAL STAND BY WORLD LEADERS

The world leaders have largely been neutral to over-a-month-long standoff between the armies of India and China at a plateau in Bhutan. Only the United States has appealed to India and China for a peaceful resolution of the standoff.

Speculations are being made about how the leading global powers, including Russia and Japan, would react should the two armies clash over Doklam. Chinese, as tactics, have tried to remind India that Russia was a mute spectator in 1962.

On the other hand, several strategic observers have pointed out that the US and Japan, which have interest in the South China Sea, would not be spectators in the event of an India-China war. They fear that if China is allowed to have its say against India and Bhutan, it will become more belligerent in the South China Sea.

INDIA-CHINA TRADE

Till the initial years of 1980s, the economies of India and China were roughly equal in size. But, China made gigantic progress in the later years. Now, the Chinese economy is five times bigger than India's.

As per the latest data released in January this year, the India-China trade volume stands at USD 71 billion. China is the net beneficiary by far in bilateral trade. India's trade deficit with China stands at USD 46.56 billion.

India exports articles of just USD 11.76 billion while its import from China stands at USD 58.33 billion. China's economy is largely export-based. It cannot afford to lose one of the biggest markets over Doklam. But, its domestic compulsions do not allow it to back off from Doklam especially after it led a propaganda accusing India of 'invading Chinese territory'.

The bone of contention - Dolam area of Doklam plateau - is a disputed territory between Bhutan and China. Bhutan sought India's help in June after China tried to alter the existing borders by carrying out road construction in the disputed area. The troops from the two sides have been in an eyeball-to-eyeball encounter ever since.

Also read | NSA Ajit Doval holds talks with China's Yang Jiechi in Beijing

Also read | Doklam standoff: Indian Air Force chief says ready for any eventuality

Also read | Five facts about 'Tiger' Yang Jiechi, China's Ajit Doval

Also read | After Doklam, Chinese war veterans planning rare 1962 commemoration

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: 'Main schemer' Chinese daily tags NSA Ajit Doval as the villain of Doklam standoff

--- ENDS ---
JDU supremo Nitish Kumar, who stepped down as Chief Minister of Bihar on Wednesday, would take oath at 10 a.m. on Thursday as the head of the government with support of BJP.

Bringing the Mahagathbandhan or the Grand Alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadav to an end, Kumar met Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday to summit his resignation.



Kumar met Tripathi with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with support of 132 MLAs.



"BJP has decided to support Nitish Kumar as chief minister. Legislators of NDA constituents and JD(U) will meet and elect Nitish Kumar as their leader; the BJP will be part of the new Bihar government," senior Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi said on Wednesday.



"We have given letters of support of 132 MLAs to the governor and also requested the trust vote should take place at the earliest," said Sushil Kumar Modi, who will take oath as the Deputy Chief Minister of the state.

Meanwhile, Keshari Nath Tripathi has also invited Tejashwi Yadav and 5 RJD MLAs for discussion at 11 a.m.



RJD, which had sought time to meet Governor to stake claim to form government, questioned the rationale of asking Nitish Kumar to take oath at 10 a.m.



"Governor gave us time of 11 a.m. and now suddenly has asked NDA for oath ceremony at 10 a.m. Why so much hurry & rush Mr. Honest & Moral?" Tejashwi Yadav tweeted.



He said the Governor had initially asked Nitish Kumar to take oath at 5 p.m. on Thursday.



"Why is the Governor changing his decision in the night. The swearing is taking place at 10 a.m. instead of 5 p.m. We are going to Raj Bhavan. We are going to Governor house to stage the dharna if not called for being the single largest party. A Governor should act as custodian of constitution, not as Centre's stooge. He can't ignore single largest party and largest pre-poll alliance," Tejashwi said.



"If Nitish Ji is proud of his moral values and honesty, he would not had been in midnight rush to stake claim for government. Honest man does not fear," the RJD leader said.



Nitish Kumar ended a 20-month-long grand alliance coalition that defeated the BJP in 2015 and gave his resignation on the issue of corruption charges against his Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav -- son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.



Tejaswi is facing a CBI probe in connection with the land-for-hotels case.
Dear Editor

Re: What dictatorship?

Samoa is a democracy!

I think the P.M and P.S. have completely lost their marbles. The history of this P.M is filled with dictatorship behavior. There are so many stories about him threatening member of his cabinet if they disagreed with a proposed new bill.

I am sure Samoa Observer has an archive full of his bullishness throughout the years whenever a member of his cabinet or any opposition party challenged him.

He claims he listens to the members of his cabinet, but as a dictator, He makes the final decision. His word is law. That is a behavior of a dictator.

How he governs is by proposing new laws to protect his position. The P.M has been in his role for so long and he continues to change his partys bylaws to keep him in his role.

I also laugh at his comparisons to N.Z and Australian government as an example of governing. Perhaps he has forgotten that Samoa is an Independent State. Both of those countries are former territories of Great Britain.

Which means its way of governing is in line with G.B. and not as independent as we are. The baseline of our constitution was written by the Brits but progression of government is solely on our government.

The P.M is a dictator. He can hide under the so-called constitution that he created to protect himself, his families and his Yes Man friends.

T. Leone
Scholarship students from Samoa were heavily represented on the list of 24 scholars from New Zealand University students, chosen to participate in the Pacific Cooperation Foundation (PCF) Summer Internship Initiative for 2017-2018.

In its third year this Summer Initiative Internship programme is facilitated by PCF and supported by the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Of the 24 scholars from seven different Pacific Nations, six of them were local Samoan students.

Samoa Observer spoke with DZIGNS Hair Salon owner, Donna Fonoti, mother of Zach Fonoti who was one of the scholars awarded the internship.

As you can imagine she was one proud mother.

For Donna, finding out that Zach was successful in the selection process was a moment of much pride, she told the Observer.

I was so excited and very proud. Its just so awesome. Its going to look great on his C.V. when he comes back knowing what he wants to do in Foreign Affairs.

Zach will be graduating with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and International Relations from Victoria University in Wellington which is conveniently based in the centre of New Zealands government and its administration allowing students easier access to politicians and law makers.

According to the P.C.F. publications, the Programme Development Manager Leaupepe Taala Ralph Elika is pleased with both the number and high calibre of applicants. The students will spend 10 weeks at host agencies where they will learn professional skills and gain practical experience to utilise within the workforce in their own country.

Donna Fonoti says she is not surprised that Zach applied for the internship. He always wanted to be a part of everything, he strives for what he wants and hes not afraid of getting out there. Zach has been such a go-getter since day one. I mean you usually ask your parents if you can have permission to do something but instead he would tell us what hes going to do. Above all though, he just puts his trust in the Lord which is really good and Im very proud of him.

When asked what drives Zach to be the person he is, she said, He has a love of people, hes always helping and being there for them. At Peace Chapel he is in the worship team and they are always out there helping the young ones.

Zach has taken this spirit of leadership and serving to Victoria University, Wellington and is a member of many collectives including the Samoan Students Association and the Pasifika Students Council at the University.

Malo lava to our other local students who were also successful in being selected: Sina Ah-Sam (Victoria University Wellington), Siaoauli Fatu (Victoria University Wellington) Ebony-Jean Taavili ( Canterbury University) Andre Westerlund (Victoria University Wellington), and Annetta Iakopo (Victoria University Wellington)

Donna is happy for her son and is extremely proud of all of the six local students who were selected and credits their achievements in part to the support group they have formed amongst themselves to help to realise their individual ambitions.

They are such a fantastic group, they stick together and they help each other out. They all study together and they are a great bunch of kids  future leaders of Samoa for sure.
God continues to provide for us each day through the outpouring of love and support from the community, says Siliniu Lina Chang, the president of the Samoa Victims Support Group (S.V.S.G.).

On Friday afternoon, the last ferry from Savaii brought over donations of food and other supplies from the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints, Tapueleele Welfare Stake.

The donation shows the heart of our people to assist with the daily caring of the children of hope, despite their own daily struggles to provide for their families. We are humbled by our peoples giving hearts and at the same time, amazed by the merciful love of God on us.

The Board of SVSG acknowledged the commitment of the leaders of the L.D.S. Church to its partnership with S.V.S.G., as the different stakes of the Church both in Upolu and Savaii, continue to donate to assist to the welfare needs of the children under S.V.S.G. care.

On behalf of the Board, thank you Bishop Avefua and President of the Aualofa - Faaiuga Salima for coordinating this donation for the children, said Siliniu Lina Chang, the S.V.S.G. President
Electronic cigarettes may be helping Americans to kick the smoking habit, according to a study released Wednesday from UC San Diego researchers.

The annual quit rate rose from its longtime average of 4.5 percent to 5.6 percent for 2014-15, the most recent period with verified data, according to a U.S. Census survey of tobacco use. It was the first recorded rise in the smoking cessation rate in 15 years.

This time period coincided with increased popularity of e-cigarettes, said Shu-Hong Zhu, an author of the new study and director of the Center for Research and Intervention in Tobacco Control at UC San Diego.

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An intensified, nationwide anti-smoking campaign likely helped as well, he said.

Overall, the higher cessation rate translated to about 350,000 more smokers who kicked the habit, according to the report, which was funded by the National Institutes of Health.

People who had tried e-cigarettes in the previous 12 months were significantly more likely to have quit smoking traditional cigarettes than in previous years. The quit rate remained virtually the same for those who didnt try e-cigarettes.

The new analysis, published in the British Medical Journal, is the largest look yet at users of electronic cigarettes. Go online to j.mp/ecigucsd for the report, which listed Gary Tedeschi of UC San Diegos Moores Cancer Center as another key author.

Zhu cautioned that the study didnt examine the long-term cessation rate. Smokers were deemed to have quit if they didnt light a traditional cigarette for three months.

About 36.5 million Americans 18 or older smoked as of 2015, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That was about 15 percent of the population at the time. In 2005, the figure was 21 percent.

For more than half a century, smoking has been scientifically known to increase the risk of many serious diseases, especially lung cancer. The connection was most famously outlined in the landmark 1964 Surgeon Generals report on smoking.

For the report issued Wednesday, researchers used data collected by the U.S. Census CPS-TUS, a national survey of adults 18 or older that was conducted to obtain information about changes in the countrys use of tobacco products.

The UC San Diego researchers said this represents the largest representative sample of smokers and e-cigarette users available. The study was observational and not a controlled clinical trial, so it didnt prove cause-and-effect relationship.

Scientists, medical professionals, advocacy groups and industry organizations are mired in debate about whether e-cigarettes are a useful means of quitting smoking or a new gateway to smoking.

Its important to remember that no e-cigarette has yet been found by the FDA to be safe and effective in helping smokers quit, said Erika Sward, the American Lung Associations assistant vice president of national advocacy.

Moreover, other methods have been found to be safe and effective smoking-cessation therapies, Sward said, and the new study should have compared e-cigarettes to those methods.

The studys large sample size is a strength, said Jennifer Unger, an e-cigarette researcher and professor of preventive medicine at the University of Southern Californias Keck School of Medicine..

Also in its favor, the study compared similar surveys over essentially the same stretch of time, starting in 2001.

They looked at surveys before e-cigarettes were available and then surveys after e-cigarettes were available, Unger said. So as far as that goes, its a really strong study.

The studys major weakness is that it examined only the rate at which people quit smoking cigarettes and changed to e-cigarettes, she said. It didnt look at the rate of quitters who later returned to smoking to cigarettes, or non-smoking teens who took up e-cigarettes.

Dr. Michael Siegel, a Boston University researcher who sees benefits in e-cigarette usage, said the new study is well-done.

Many of the previous conclusions about the effectiveness of e-cigarettes for smoking cessation have been based on studies of specific populations and are subject to serious selection bias, Siegel said. These population-level data provide a more reliable and longer-term overview of the role e-cigarettes are playing smoking cessation.

Siegel said its also important how the study found that smokers who use e-cigarettes are significantly more likely to succeed in quitting smoking than those who do not.

About two-thirds of e-cigarette users tried to quit smoking, compared with 40 percent of non-users, the new report found. E-cigarette users were more likely to succeed in quitting for at least three months than non-users  8 percent versus 5 percent.

Its absolutely clear that e-cigarettes help smokers replace cigarettes, said Peter Hajek, director of the health and lifestyle research unit at Queen Mary University in London, who wasnt part of the new analysis.

Others warned that the long-term side effects of e-cigarettes are unclear.

We just dont know if moving to e-cigarettes is good enough to reduce the harm, said Aruni Bhatnagar, director of the American Heart Associations Tobacco Research and Addiction Center.

Zhu at UC San Diego said while hes encouraged by the studys results and even if e-cigarettes are proven to help some smokers quit, theres a long way to go in minimizing the nations rates of tobacco use.

Quitting smoking is very hard, and thats why you see the quit rate hover around 4.4 percent. Zhu said. This is the first time we saw the increase. Its not huge, 1.1 percentage point.  But even with the e-cigarettes and even with the media campaign, the majority of people still have trouble quitting smoking. Were not talking about a panacea.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

For further reading

FDA gives e-cigarette makers a reprieve

President Trump just might save vaping

Smokers who become vapers drastically cut inhaled toxins, study finds

Southern California teen vaping hurts tobacco control, study finds

Vaping helps public health, study finds

To vape or not to vape? No - Risky products lure teens

To vape or not to vape? Yes - Its a safer alternative

The factual haze over vaping

UK medical group endorses vaping for smokers

Does vaping harm your heart?

Science Playlist  On Now In a first, scientists rid human embryos of a potentially fatal gene mutation by editing their DNA On Now Space station flyovers visible from San Diego this week 0:55 On Now UCSD's 'ghost drivers' begin testing people's reaction seemingly empty cars 1:29 On Now 10 interesting facts about Mars On Now Kids can add years to your life On Now LA 90: SpaceX launches recycled rocket On Now Big passions, big giving: Malin Burnham 2:30 On Now Big passions, big giving: Darlene Shiley 2:40 On Now Big passions, big giving: Joan and Irwin Jacobs 2:45 On Now Ocean temperatures warming at rapid rate, study finds

bradley.fikes@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1020

UPDATES:

9:05 a.m July 27.: This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published on July 26 at 4:45 p.m.
A transgender ban would reverse Democratic former President Barack Obama's policy and halts years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

As a presidential candidate last year, Donald Trump had vowed to fight for LGBT people. Photo: Reuters

By Reuters: President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he would ban transgender people from the US military, a move appealing to some in his conservative political base but creating uncertainty about the fate of thousands of transgender service members.

The surprise announcement by Trump, who as a presidential candidate last year vowed to fight for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people, came in a series of morning Twitter posts. It drew condemnation from rights groups and some lawmakers in both parties as politically motivated discrimination but was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.

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The administration has not determined whether transgender individuals already serving in the military would be immediately thrown out, a point the White House and Pentagon have yet to decide, Trump spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said.

A transgender ban would reverse Democratic former President Barack Obama's policy and halts years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service based on sexual orientation or gender identity.

"After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military," Trump tweeted, without naming any of the generals or experts.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," he said.

People protest Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the US military. Photo: Reuters People protest Trump's announcement that he plans to reinstate a ban on transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the US military. Photo: Reuters

Sanders said Trump had "extensive discussions with his national security team", and Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was informed after the president made the decision on Tuesday.

"This was about military readiness," Sanders told a briefing. "This was about unit cohesion. This was about resources within the military, and nothing more."

The Pentagon earlier referred questions about Trump's decision to the White House.

Critics said the health costs of caring for transgender service members were a tiny portion of the military's healthcare budget and Trump's policy change was based on prejudice.

His action unleashed a torrent of legal threats from civil liberties advocates seeking plaintiffs willing to challenge the ban in court and sparked a protest by hundreds who rallied outside an armed forces recruiting station in Manhattan's Times Square.

"We are in a crisis. This is a dark day for everyone," Brad Hoylman, New York's sole openly gay state senator, said as he addressed the crowd, which carried "Resist" signs amid chants of: "Hey-hey, ho-ho, Donald Trump has got to go."

A MATTER OF TIMING

Trump's tweet caught some White House officials by surprise.

A senior administration official said Trump had been determined to act for a while but the question was the timing, with advisers split on whether to conduct reviews before announcing the move.

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The announcement at least temporarily changed the subject in Washington, where Trump's administration faces investigations into his presidential campaign's contacts with Russia and has struggled to win major legislative victories.

It was not the first time Trump has targeted transgender people since taking office in January. In February, he rescinded protections for transgender students put in place by Obama that had let them use bathrooms corresponding with their gender identity.

Senate Armed Forces Committee Chairman John McCain - the most prominent military veteran in Congress, who was a Navy pilot and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War - called Trump's announcement unclear and inappropriate until a Pentagon study on the issue is completed and reviewed by Mattis, the military leadership and lawmakers.

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council advocacy group, was among those praising Trump, saying, "Our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically correct distractions."

A rainbow flag flies as people protest Trump's plan to ban transgenders from the US military. Photo: Reuters

Under Obama, the Pentagon last year announced it was ending its ban on transgender people serving openly, calling the prohibition outdated.

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The Defense Department had been expected to begin formally allowing transgender people to enlist this year. But Mattis on June 30 approved a six-month delay in that step.

Transgender service members already number about 2,500 active-duty personnel, with about 1,500 more in the military reserves, according to a RAND Corporation think tank study cited last year by Obama's defense secretary, Ash Carter.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Carter said on Wednesday, noting the existing ranks of transgender individuals serving "capably and honorably."

Advocacy groups said Trump's policy was open to legal challenge under the US Constitution's guarantee of equal protection under the law.

CHEAP POLITICAL POINTS

American Civil Liberties Union attorney Joshua Block said Trump had rejected the "basic humanity" of transgender service members.

"There are no cost or military readiness drawbacks associated with allowing trans people to fight for their country," Block said. "The president is trying to score cheap political points on the backs of military personnel who have put their lives on the line for their country."

The House of Representatives' top Democrat, Nancy Pelosi, noted that a Pentagon-commissioned study determined the cost of providing medically necessary transition-related care involving transgender service members would amount to about one-100th of 1 percent of the military's healthcare budget.

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The study put the cost at USD 2.4 million to USD 8.4 million a year of the more than USD 50 billion the Defense Department spends on healthcare.

"Once again, President Trump has shown his conduct is driven not by honor, decency, or national security, but by raw prejudice," Pelosi said.

Retired Colonel Sheri Swokowski, 67, the highest-ranking openly transgender veteran, joined the criticism.

"Transgender people are serving today knowing that their leader frankly doesn't trust them," she said. "The bottom line is that this does great harm to people who simply want to serve their country."

SERVING THE NATION

US Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican whose son is transgender, said on Twitter: "No American, no matter their sexual orientation or gender identity, should be prohibited from honor and privilege of serving our nation."

Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner defended "patriotic transgender Americans" in the military and asked Trump on Twitter, "What happened to your promise to fight for them?"

Canada's military also took to Twitter on Wednesday to say it welcomes citizens "of all sexual orientations and gender identities," adding the hashtag #DiversityIsOurStrength.

But Vicky Hartzler, a Republican congresswoman, praised Trump for changing Obama's "costly and damaging policy."

The US military's ban on gays serving openly in the armed forces ended under Obama in 2011 after Congress passed legislation in 2010 reversing a law dubbed "don't ask, don't tell" that had forced the ouster of thousands of service members and others to hide their sexual orientation.

The Pentagon under Obama also opened all combat roles in the military to women.

The US military at times has been in the vanguard of social progress. Trump's action came on the 69th anniversary of Democratic President Harry Truman racially integrating the armed forces, years before the 1950s and 1960s civil rights battles.

--- ENDS ---
San Diegos Qualcomm Ventures was the lead investor in a $15 million funding round for ag-tech start-up Prospera, an Israeli company that taps data analytics, computer vision and artificial intelligence to help farmers.

Prospera announced the new funding round on Monday, with Cisco Investments, ICV, and Bessemer Venture Partners, an existing investor, also participating in this latest round.

The company will use the money to expand globally and broaden its services to different crops in both indoor and outdoor farming.

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The deal brings the total amount raised by Prospera to $22 million since it was founded in 2014.

We have seen the ag-tech sector grow significantly in recent years as innovations in drone, satellite mapping, artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (technology) have greatly enhanced the ability to improve crop yield and positively impact overall farm management, said Quinn Li, head of Qualcomms corporate venture division. The primary drivers contributing to this growth include the affordability of sensors, wireless connectivity and machine learning processing both at the edge of the network and in the cloud.

Li said the technology being adopted in agriculture are complementary to Qualcomms core wireless expertise.

We are interested in investing in this market because we believe it offers a sizable global market opportunity, said Li.

Prosperas technology helps farmers collect and analyze the vast amounts of data available in todays agriculture sector, including information on plant health, pest trends, micro weather conditions, soil nutrients, labor management and so on.

Existing systems lack the capability to bring together all this data, so much of it remains under-used, according to Prospera.

While the agriculture industry has been somewhat slow to adopt information technologies, it is now closing the gap with state-of- the-art data processing tools, artificial intelligence, and machine learning, said Prospera Chief Executive Daniel Koppel in a statement. We help our customers surf the tide of digitalization and become connected, agile, and data-driven businesses.

Food and agribusiness is a $5 trillion market globally. Future crop demand is predicted to increase by at least 100 percent by 2050, according to Prospera, so the industry is adopting digital technology to boost efficiency and yields.

Prospera changes our world in the simplest terms; it transforms the way our food is grown, said Adam Fisher of Bessemer Venture Partners in a statement. Digitizing farm production will be essential to meeting the challenges of feeding a rapidly growing population, with ever increasing demands for quality and reliability.

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mike.freeman@sduniontribune.com;

Twitter:@TechDiego

760-529-4973
A key East Village block where the NewSchool of Architecture & Design has been located for nearly 20 years has been sold for $34 million with redevelopment possible in the next five years.

The CBRE brokerage said locally based Paragon Real Estate Fund bought the 132,854-square-foot, five-building complex known as the Art Center from Carleton Management and the Gordon Bishop family. It is located on the block bounded by Park Boulevard and F, G and 13th streets.

The architecture school occupies just over half the space with the rest rented out as offices.

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A spokeswoman for the school said no immediate changes are planned under the current lease that expires in 2020. The school has been scouting other sites for relocation the last few years and its officials have vowed to remain downtown.

Ricardo Jinich, a Paragon cofounder, said he will evaluate various options by the end of 2020 and may decide then what to build and how the NewSchool might be incorporated into the new development.

I think we can create some exciting creative offices, he said. It has tremendous opportunity for high-rise condos, mixed-use  We really like it because its occupied. I think its a great location, but we can wait and see how the market continues to evolve.

CBRE broker Kevin Mulhern said as Paragon mulls its plans, many blocks around it are undergoing change.

Those include the IDEA1 apartment and office complex immediately north, which is due to open in September; the Park&Market housing-office complex that includes a UC San Diego component, where a ground-breaking event is scheduled next week; and East Village Green, a two-block park planned immediately east that is expected to begin construction by the end of next year.

Theres likely to be more employment opportunities and office development and tech space developed and more creative office in East Village than on the west side (of downtown), Mulhern said. Thats just because there are more places to do it.

The Art Center buildings were erected between 1924 and 1971 and are best known historically as the site of Ratners clothing manufacturing company. The NewSchool with an enrollment of about 30 students moved from Chula Vista in 1988, shortly after the death of its founder, Dick Welch.

Bishop, a college professor and Oceanside schools superintendent, bought the school from Welchs widow and later sold it in 2000. It changed hands again when Baltimore-based Laureate International Universities bought in 2008. Enrollment has now reached 500 and the curriculum has expanded to include product and digital design.

Bishop, who continued to own one of the buildings on the block after selling the school, said the first years proved harrowing and dangerous for students. Drug and stolen-property sales took place in the open at 13th and F and student and faculty cars were regularly broken into, sometimes several times a week.

It was a scary place, he said. Architects are night owls and so all of our students first orientation included a half-hour lecture on urban behavior  walk in pairs, watch your back, dont go alone after dark.

But by the mid-1990s, things had settled down and Bishop could walk to his home on Cortez Hill without fear of being mugged. He now splits his time between Oceanside and Austin, Texas.

He calls East Villages transformation stunning, especially after Petco Park opened in 2004.

I wanted to kiss (former Padres owner) John Moores right on the lips! he said. That was probably the biggest single catalyst for East Village, no question about it.

He hopes the propertys new owners find a way to adaptively reuse part of the Art Center for NewSchools continuing use.

David Hazan, president of the East Village Association, goes back even further to 1974, when he was a Ratner sales manager, and property went for a fraction of todays cost of $500 to $700 per square foot.

Id like to see condos  we need more for-sale product  and would love to see some sort of educational component in there, Hazan said. Its very difficult because you still want to keep the personality of downtown and East Village.

Besides the Art Center, Paragon owns several other office and retail properties downtown, including the historic Louis Bank of Commerce building in the Gaslamp Quarter and the recently restored Unicorn retail space at Seventh Avenue and J Street. Outside downtown the company owns the 14,000-square-foot Torrey Highlands Plaza on Camino del Sur, the 49,322-square-foot Coronado Plaza and 9,799 square feet of retail space at the 1 Mission project on Washington Street in Mission Hills, according to CoStar Group.

If the NewSchool cannot be accommodated in any redevelopment of the block, one of its students came up with a plan last year to occupy the former Central Library, according to NewSchool professor Mike Stepner. He said the idea has been shared with East Village leaders and city officials.

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roger.showley@sduniontribune.com; (619) 293-1286; Twitter: @rogershowley
A controversial proposal to build a craft distillery and restaurant near the downtown Carlsbad Boys & Girls Club died this week after residents raised a litany of concerns about the location and questioned why city staff had recommended the plan go forward.

Encinitas resident Nicholas Hammond had requested a zone change that would allow him to open Pacific Coast Spirits and Farmhouse Kitchen in a building owned by Mayor Matt Hall on Tyler Street, in a northwest corner of the citys Barrio neighborhood.

Hall recused himself from the discussion and the vote Tuesday, and the council ultimately split 2-2 on the request, effectively killing the plan.

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The panel then voted 4-0 to ask city staff to prepare a zoning amendment that would allow restaurants  but not distilleries  in the roughly two block area, south of Oak Avenue between Tyler and the railroad tracks.

Hammond declined to say Tuesday what his next step might be.

Council members Mark Packard and Cori Schumacher voted against the distillery project..

Everybody knows I dont support alcohol use, Packard said, adding that a distillery would degrade the surrounding neighborhood over time.

Schumacher called it an amazing plan, but said a distillery is not the right fit for the area.

San Diego County has more than a dozen craft distilleries, more than half of which are in the city of San Diego. Some people say the popularity of craft spirits is rising rapidly, perhaps like the still-growing trend of craft beer in the region.

Hammonds friends, family, and some Carlsbad residents spoke highly of him and his project at Tuesdays meeting, saying the business would bring jobs, community support, and a new culinary destination to the city.

Numerous residents, however, opposed the idea, saying the street is too narrow, theres too little parking, the business would be too close to the adjacent Boys & Girls Club, and alcohol-influenced behavior would have a negative effect on the nearby residential neighborhood.

Several people said city staff members probably wouldnt have recommended approval of the project if the building  which now holds a Crossfit gym  wasnt owned by Hall, who has owned several properties on Tyler Street since the 1970s.

Packard and other council members said thats not true.

Im highly offended at the character assassination of our staff, Packard said.

Councilman Keith Blackburn said he didnt believe for one minute that anyone had been improperly influenced.

More than 40 people addressed the council on the subject, and they were about evenly split on the distillery proposal.

This is exactly the right place, said Carlsbad resident Gary Raskin, adding that the distillery and restaurant would link the old industrial neighborhood to the popular Village and its new bars and restaurants a few blocks north.

But many disagreed. Simon Angel, who lives nearby on Tyler Street, said the decision was not about Hammonds specific proposal, which uses buzz words like farm-to-table cuisine and grain-to-glass libations.

Its about a distillery, Angel said. At some other location and some other time it might be totally appropriate, but not here, not now.

Even if the zoning change had been approved, Hammond would have had to come back to the council with a separate application for his business.

His proposal said the distillery would focus on small batches of spirits, primarily whiskey, gin and vodka. To taste samples of the products, visitors would be required to first take a tour of the distillery, and then would be limited to consuming a total of 1.5 ounces of alcohol each per day. Also, after taking the tour, they could buy bottles of spirits to take home.

The project would include a restaurant to seat a maximum of 40 people. It would focus on locally produced food and would serve beer, wine and mixed drinks in a family and pet-friendly atmosphere.

Hammonds family started a winery in Northern California, and he worked in the tasting room there before moving to Southern California.

He had said his chef for the Carlsbad restaurant would be Nick Schaller, who grew up in a restaurant-owning family in the ski resort town of Mammoth Lakes and has worked in several San Diego area restaurants.

A decision to allow restaurants in Carlsbads Tyler Street district would affect at least one other existing business, the Succulent Cafe facing Oak Street, where the owner is prohibited from having a kitchen under the current zoning.

A full kitchen would allow him to greatly expand his food business, said cafe owner Peter Loyola. He now sells coffee, tea, pastries and packaged sandwiches.

philip.diehl@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @phildiehl
Carlsbads just-opened speakeasy The Charles Kenneth, has slipped back into history  at least for a while  as the now-shuttered basement bar works out permit issues with the state.

The old-fashioned, 44-seat cocktail bar held its grand opening celebration on the evening of July 7, but within hours of opening, its doors were closed again by officials with the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

Bar owner Robert Ruiz, who also owns the Land & Water Company restaurant upstairs, said the shutdown is temporary and the result of miscommunications with ABC officials in San Marcos.

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Ruiz said hes spent 13 months getting his alcohol license paperwork and city zoning issues taken care of. But the final sign-off on the property was unexpectedly delayed when an email to seal the deal was sent last month to an ABC staffer who is on a leave of absence. When he didnt hear back with any follow-up requests, Ruiz said he assumed all was approved.

They felt like Id opened it without consulting them, but we have gone to great lengths to get everything approved properly, he said. At this point Im rushing to work closely with them to get it open again as quickly as possible.

High-end liquor lines shelves behind the bar in The Charles Kenneth speakeasy bar in Carlsbad. (Charlie Neuman / San Diego Union-Tribune)

The Charles Kenneth has had a bumpy history. Ruiz first opened a rustic version of the speakeasy in November 2015, but closed it just two months later because a change in the managing partnership required a new liquor license.

Ruiz, 39, discovered the vacant basement space four years ago while remodeling the interior of the 130-year-old building at 2978 Carlsbad Boulevard for his restaurant. The ornate Queen Anne-style mansion was once known as the Twin Inns, a hotel and fried chicken restaurant owned by the Edward Kentner family.

For years before he leased the property, Ruiz said hed heard and read rumors that the basement was used as a speakeasy during Prohibition. When he found a large wooden bar in the basement, as well as a delivery button that rang a bell behind the bar, he assumed the rumors were true.

In 2012, an article in Carlsbad Magazine quoted Kentners son, Ed Jr., talking about rum runners and moonshiners making deliveries to the building during Prohibition. There was a call button on the back of the house for the bootleggers to use when they delivered. Its probably still there, he said in the article.

Ruiz found such a button during renovations and still has it.

This week, Kentner said his comments about the buzzer were mere speculation, and to his knowledge there was never an actual speakeasy on the property during the 20s and 30s.

The Land & Water Company restaurant and the Charles Kenneth speakeasy bar are located inside this historic 1887 Queen Anne-style structure at Carlsbad Boulevard and Carlsbad Village Drive. (Charlie Neuman / San Diego Union-Tribune)

Kentner believes the speakeasy rumor may have started after 1984, when his family sold the property to Robert Burke. Burke removed the lobby stairwells and sealed off access to the cellar, giving the downstairs area an air of secrecy.

Kentner, who spent 65 years living at the Carlsbad Village property, said the cellar area was used by the family over the years for slaughtering and preparing chickens, storing potatoes and wine, a gift shop and a carpentry workshop, but never a clandestine bar.

Nonetheless, Ruiz said hes had several old-time Carlsbad residents tell him stories about drinking illegal booze at the property during Prohibition.

The Charles Kenneth is named for Ruizs late grandfather, Charles Kenneth Ruiz, a decorated Navy veteran of three wars. Several portraits of the elder Ruiz decorate the walls of the retro bar.

Once it reopens, The Charles Kenneth will be accessible only via a password, which will be updated each day on the bars social media accounts and website (thecharleskenneth.com). Ruiz said the bars reopening will also be announced on the website and its Facebook page (The Captain Charles Kenneth).

pam.kragen@sduniontribune.com
Saying that privatizing the Escondido library would amount to an evasion of civic responsibility, a rising tide of Escondido residents and city employees appear to be bracing for a major fight over the idea.

Several said this week they plan to inundate local newspapers with letters to the editor, aggressively post opposition to the proposal on social media, and overwhelm future City Council meetings with speakers

City officials announced several weeks ago that theyre seriously considering outsourcing library operations to a private firm based in Maryland, as a way to save money. A study has been in the works since then, and the early numbers are encouraging, City Manager Jeff Epp said this week.

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The financial analysis is nearly done, but is not yet completed, said Epp. It is looking like the city will save somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 a year by staffing our library with employees from the private sector, and we can have the library open at least one additional day per week  9 to 11 hours more per week.

Epp said the city is also studying whether partnering with the countys library system might be feasible, but that its looking like there would be no money saved under such an arrangement.

He said he doesnt know yet what his staffs recommendation will be to the City Council, but said the council will have to look long and hard at that kind of savings.

Such privatization would likely remove a couple of dozen city employees from the citys pension payroll, something Mayor Sam Abed and the majority of the council has said is needed because of the citys rising pension liability.

Epp said Escondido is looking at other departments that could also be privatized, and said exploring such changes is the fiscally responsible thing to do.

But some library patrons and employees argue that privatization will diminish services the library offers and will hurt city residents.

The plan represents a clear and present danger to our lone remaining library, said Laura Hunter, a local activist, during a community meeting held earlier this week.

About 75 people attended the meeting, where they strategized about how to mobilize against the plan. They said they plan on flooding the City Councils Aug. 16 meeting with speakers opposed to the idea, and doing the same at the librarys board of directors meeting on Aug. 8.

Its unclear when the council will be asked to make a decision, Epp said.

Beyond a reduction in services, those against privatization also worry about the current employees and question how the city can talk about potentially asking voters to finance a $50 million bond to build a new library near Grape Day Park  yet have it run by a private company.

You want taxpayers to pay for a building that will be run by an outside profit-making organization? Not now, not ever! Virginia Abushanab, a 20-year library volunteer, recently wrote in a letter to the City Council.

Epp said there is nothing about having private employees operate the library that should prevent the construction of a new library.

He also said its a fallacy that library employees will lose their jobs if the council decides to move ahead with privatization. Senior library employees would be offered other positions within the city, he said, while others would have the option to work for the private contractor, Library Systems & Services LLC.

No one will lose jobs, Epp said. There is a variety of ways they will be taken care of. The senior employees can transition to other jobs in the city and everyone will be offered a job for a least a minimum period of time with LS&S. This idea that people will lose jobs is absurd.

He did acknowledge, however, that employees of the private company wont be eligible for city benefits.

They wold lose some of the incredible public pension benefits if they choose to stay with LS&S, he said. We will sit down with every employee and work out options.

Karen Tatget, president of Escondido City Employees union  which represents many of the library workers  also spoke at this weeks community meeting.

For them to say they will hire all the employees at their current salaries, big whoop, she said. Theyre not going to get the vacation they now get, they arent going to get the sick time they get. And they certainly arent going to get their (pensions). That is a huge loss.

Others at the meeting said LS&S  the only company in the United States that operates city libraries  cuts costs by spreading staff thin, which in turns leads to less time they can serve the public.

A late call to the company Wednesday was not returned; however, the companys website says the quality of library services LS&S provides is better than most public libraries, because the branches are run by professional staffers who know the business.

LS&S began 30 years ago and now partners with 83 public library systems in the United States including the Riverside County system, which has 36 branches. Other California communities that have the company running their libraries include Simi Valley, Upland, Santa Clarita and Moreno Valley.

A public-private partnership enables local governments to optimize delivery of library services. It often brings cost savings through volume purchasing, cloud-based technology, grant management and other best practices, a highlighted quote on the website sates.

jharry.jones@sduniontribune.com; 760/529-4931; Twitter: @jharryjones
Aiming to expand its national footprint, San Diegos Ballast Point today announced plans to open a pilot brewery, restaurant and rooftop bar in Chicago by early 2018.

Were thrilled to bring the San Diego spirit of Ballast Point to such a great beer-drinking city like Chicago, Marty Birkel, Ballast Points president, said in a prepared statement. The entire team is looking forward to sharing some of our new innovations and passion for great beer and food with Chicagoans.

The news comes as Ballast Point puts the finishing touches on a production brewery in Virginias Shenandoah Valley, which is expected to open by mid-August.

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Ballast Point is turning its brand into a mega-brand, trying to make it the craft beer standard nationally, said Gonzalo Quintero, who teaches beer marketing courses at San Diego State University.

The Chicago outpost will be relatively modest, a 12,000-square-foot space with a three-barrel brewing system that will supply fresh beer to the tasting room.

In contrast, Ballast Point opened a 259,000-square-foot property in Daleville, Va., last month. For now, the tasting rooms 128 taps dispense beer shipped from San Diego. That will change within two weeks, when the onsite brewery opens with an annual capacity in excess of 100,000 barrels of beer.

(Last year, Ballast Point sold more than 400,000 barrels of beer. Each barrel is 31 gallons.)

Its good business to have production facilities on both coasts, Quintero said. Not just for production, but especially for distribution. You can provide customers there with fresher, better beer.

New York-based Constellation Brands bought Ballast Point in 2015 for $1 billion. Other large brewing corporations  notably Anheuser-Busch InBev  have focused on buying craft breweries around the country. Quintero noted that Constellation has a different business model, stressing one brand and its San Diego roots.

Rising in Chicagos Fulton Market district, the new Ballast Point plans to serve Midwestern fare but also Baja-style fish tacos. Sculpin, the brewerys flagship tropical IPA, will also be heavily promoted alongside specialty beers exclusive to Chicago.

They are capitalizing on the world-renowned legacy of San Diego craft beer, Quintero said. Why reinvent the wheel when you can just recreate the wheel over and over, having a Ballast Point in every port?

This will be Ballast Points seventh tasting room. Besides the one in Daleville, there are four in San Diego and one in Long Beach.
After nearly 30 years running the multi-state, 15-location Sammys Woodfired Pizza empire, Sami Ladeki considers himself the grandfather of San Diego restaurateurs.

But if youre envisioning a grandpa whos slowing down, kicking back and donning comfy slippers, you dont know Sami Ladeki.

The 73-year-old has been jetting around the globe, eating at restaurants from New York to Lima, honing his palate and perspective in preparation for his latest reinvention. And today, the comfy, familiar Sammys at Liberty Station is reopening as Pisco Rotisserie & Cevicheria, a riotously colorful, 5,000-square-foot showcase for Peruvian food.

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Incorporating Japanese, Chinese, Spanish and indigenous ingredients, flavor profiles and techniques, Peruvian cuisine is among the trendiest on the planet. And yet  unlike barbecued chicken pizza and chopped salad, Sammys two most popular dishes  its also one of the least explored in San Diego.

That cuisine is amazing, you know in Peru youve got the Andes, the ocean, the Amazon. I think its going to be huge here, said Ladeki, getting increasingly animated as he described Piscos new menu.

He was most excited about his new partner, executive chef Emmanuel Piqueras, a Lima native who is internationally recognized as a master technician of authentic Peruvian cooking.

We are so blessed to have him. You should see what this guy does with his sauces, Ladeki said.

Pisco is only one of the new eateries opening at Liberty Station  both inside and out of Liberty Public Market  solidifying the former Naval Training Center as one of San Diegos most dynamic foodie zones. Among those that have just been added, or will soon be, are a ramen shop, a poke place, a retro-style cocktail bar, an Italian snack emporium, a doughnut and pizza joint, a Greek fusion counter, a high-end modern Mexican restaurant and a French cafe.

For followers of international dining trends, there should be particular interest in Pisco. In recent years, Lima has emerged a culinary capital considered on the same level as San Sebastian, Sydney or Singapore.

So its fitting that Ladeki would tap a star in the Peruvian dining scene. Piqueras cred runs deep: a walking encyclopedia of the history of his countrys food traditions, he cooked at the three-Michelin starred Arzak in San Sebastian for several years. He was also executive chef at the highly regarded Panca in New York and Andina, in Portland.

A host of the popular Latin American cooking show Sabor y Fusion, Piqueras was chosen by his native countrys national tourist board to represent Peru as a culinary ambassador in international cooking events.

His high-profile role at Pisco will make his an ambassador of sorts in San Diego. Piqueras will split his time between here and New York, where Sabor y Fusion films.

I dont have to be prepared to move to San Diego  mentally Im already there. Its on the Pacific and I grew up with the Pacific outside my window in Lima, Piqueras said recently in a phone interview from Far Rockaway, a beach community in New York, where he has a beach rental.

Im a surfer and I always thought Id end up in San Diego. It got all these different cultures, its close to Mexico and I love tacos, he said with a laugh.

Last week, at a pre-opening tasting at Pisco, Piqueras matched Ladekis excitement for the restaurant.

Peruvian food is really a natural melting pot. The Spanish conquistadors brought spices, stews, la cocina criolla, with its soffrito, he said, continuing to tick off the other influences.

The Cantonese Chinese, who came to build the railway system, left the legacy of rice and stir fry. From the late 1800s, the Japanese, taught us how to treat fish like a baby, he said, which is evident in the dishes from Piscos ceviche bar.

Ceviche is in our DNA, Piqueras said. You cant fake it, its too fresh. Ceviche is a very honest dish.

Native quinoa and potatoes  of which Peru has more than 3,500 varieties  present throughout the menu. Indigenous dishes, coming from the coastal, mountain, rural or tropical areas, are given an elevated, citified, multicultural twist when they reach Lima. Like the Aji de Gallina, a poor mans chicken thats a shredded, creamy, mildly spicy delight, served with garlic rice and choclo  Peruvian corn  and slices of sweet potato. (Aji amarillo, a mild Peruvian yellow chile pepper, is the most ubiquitous ingredient on Piscos menu.)

Longtime San Diego restaurateur Sami Ladeki was the creative force behind the re-design of the Liberty Station Sammys that became Pisco. The colorful dining room features original artwork from Peru and paintings (at left) done by Ladekis wife, Sharon. (Eduardo Contreras / San Diego Union-Tribune)

During the tasting, Ladeki was pacing around the dining room  which he helped redecorate  talking business on his cell phone, overseeing a construction crews last-minute touches, and peeking into the kitchen to watch Piqueras cook.

Ladeki said hes already planning that if the Pisco concept is successful, hell spin off fast-casual versions. So no, hes not slowing down anytime soon.

My wife keeps telling me to retire. Retire? I wouldnt know what to do, he said. Id probably open another restaurant.

Pisco Rotisserie & Cevicheria

Address: 2401 Truxton Road (near the Trader Joes), Liberty Station, Point Loma.

Online: piscorotisserie.com

5 things to try

1. Salmon tiradito: Purity on a plate, these pristine slices are lightly bathed in olive oil and emulsified scallop ceviche leche de tigre, with chalaca (Peruvian pico de gallo).

2. Ahi tuna causita: A Japanese-Peruvian mashup of hand-rolled whipped potatoes  the country features more than 3,500 types of potatoes  topped with marinated ahi, with wasabi tobiko and rocoto (pepper) cream.

3. Pollo a la Brasa: A moist, flavorful house specialty, the rotisserie chicken comes whole, or in quarter and half orders. Salt brined for a day, marinated for two in a 15-ingredient spice mix, the chicken is then slow-cooked. Served with rocoto sauce, chimichurri and aji amarillo mustard.

4. Alfajores: A sandwich cookie youll find in throughout South America, Piqueras buttery shortbread and not-too-sweet, creamy caramel filling is world-class.

5. Pisco: The Peruvian national spirit is the basis for cocktail nations current It drink, the pisco sour. Nearly two dozen cocktails feature the grape-based liquor. You can also expand your flavor adventure with Peruvian wine and beer.

Also open/opening

Liberty Public Market: Saganaki (Greek fusion); Smoothie Rider (organic smoothies); Holbrook Home & Gift (retail); Doughballs + Crackheads (wood-fired pizza, all-day breakfast); Roma Express (Italian arancini  rice balls  and cannoli); Rakiraki Ramen (Japanese ramen).

Liberty Station: The Bar at Moniker General (cocktails, all-day toast menu); Poke 1-2-3 (seafood, chicken and vegan dishes); Pigment (retail); El Jardin (modern Mexican); Chloe at Scout (French, spin-off of Cafe Chloe).

michele.parente@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @sdeditgirl
Save up plenty of room for the dozens of gourmet food trucks at this annual festival. Chefs are rolling into Del Mar with their best dishes served from the window, including pizza, tacos, burgers, lobster, barbecue, Thai food, pierogies, gelato, Greek food, waffles, rice balls and more. Settle in at the Seaside Concert Area at the fairgrounds for an afternoon filled with lots of food and cool ocean breezes.

Gourmet Food Truck Festival: Noon to 6 p.m. Saturday. Seaside Concert Area at the Del Mar Fairgrounds, 2260 Jimmy Durante Blvd., Del Mar. Admission to the racetrack is $6-$10. (858) 755-1141 or dmtc.com.
When he approached the women, Christoph Moore lied and said he was a police detective working an investigation.

He flashed a badge and, in two cases, a gun.

But really, prosecutors said, the man was a registered sex offender with a history of violence. He had prior convictions for robbery and assault with intent to commit rape.

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When two women followed his orders under his guise, authorities said, he fondled them. In a third case, he forced the woman to take off her clothes.

This week, the 41-year-old Anaheim man was sentenced to 115 years to life in prison for his crimes, according to the Los Angeles County district attorneys office.

Moore was convicted of one count each of assault with intent to commit a sexual assault, criminal threats, grand theft, second-degree burglary and two counts of false imprisonment by violence, the district attorneys office said.

He was also convicted of four misdemeanors, including three counts of unlawful use of a badge and one count of sexual battery.

The first case was reported in October 2015. A woman was working at a store downtown when Moore walked in and identified himself as a detective, flashing a police identification card and badge, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Lowrie Mendoza.

He told the woman he needed to see her business papers and instructed her to lock the doors. He then ordered her into the bathroom, where he told her to take off her clothes. She refused, after which he brandished a handgun at his hip. She then followed his order.

Soon after, the womans ex-husband arrived and knocked on the doors, prompting the man to flee.

The following month, on two occasions less than a week apart, Moore stopped women in the Hollywood area while pretending to be a police officer and touched them inappropriately.

A foreign exchange student was walking home when she gave a bag of chips to a homeless man. Shortly after, Moore approached her at her front door, flashed his badge and accused her of giving the man drugs.

He ordered her to put her hands against a wall before grabbing her breasts. She resisted, prompting him to pull out his handgun and point it at her. He threatened to shoot. The incident, Mendoza said, was captured by a surveillance camera.

A few days later, Moore approached a woman who had just parked at her home in Hollywood. He put a badge against her window and told her he was stopping her for missing registration tags.

He ordered her out of the car and told her to put her hands against a wall. He then groped her buttocks and thighs. During the interaction, he bumped into another car, Mendoza said, triggering the alarm. He fled.

Anonymous tipsters identified Moore after police released surveillance video of the second incident. He was arrested at his Anaheim home in December 2015, Mendoza said.

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek

ALSO

Two San Diego County shopping malls swarmed by thousands of street racers performing stunts

Witness in Robert Durst case says he told her he was in L.A. around the time Susan Berman was killed

USC president admits university could have done better in handling reports of medical school deans drug use

UPDATES:

10:55 p.m.: This article was updated with additional information about the crimes.

This article was originally published on July 27 at 8:35 p.m.
By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 27 (PTI) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadanvis today said that the farmers whose debts were restructured in 2016 will also be eligible for the farm loan waiver of up to Rs 1.50 lakh.

Announcing this in the state legislative assembly, he also said that the loan waiver benefit will be extended to the families of serving Army jawans who are engaged in farming.

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"The government would make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers, whose loans were restructured, and tweak the norms to make serving Army jawans eligible to avail of the scheme," he said during a discussion on loan waiver.

On June 24, the state government had announced that loans taken between April 1, 2012 and June 30, 2016 would be written off. However, it later announced that farmers who have taken loans from 2009 onwards would also be covered under the scheme.

The BJP-led state government had earlier said that 89 lakh farmers would be benefited by the scheme that would cost Maharashtra Rs 34,022 crore.

"The farmers whose loans were restructured, became eligible for fresh loans. However, they are facing financial burden. Therefore, we will make certain provisions to extend the benefits of the loan waiver scheme of Rs 1.50 lakh to farmers whose loans were restructured," Fadnavis said.

He also announced that a mobile application would be launched in a couple of days for the farmers to fill their forms to avail the loan waiver scheme.

He said if farmers do not have access to computers to fill the forms, they could use a mobile app to submit the required information.

Fadnavis also appealed to the MLAs in the state to assist local farmers to submit the information.

"The form is not difficult to fill. We have set up 26,000 centres for the farmers to fill the forms. An app will be launched so that the farmers do it from their mobiles," he added.

There are 1.36 crore account holders, of which 49 per cent possess less than one hectare of land.

According to Fadnavis, there are three lakh farmers in the state with outstanding loan between Rs 1.50 lakh and Rs two lakh; 1.50 lakh farmers with Rs two lakh to Rs 2.50 lakh outstanding debts; 37,000 farmers with loan in the range of Rs 2.50 lakh to Rs three lakh; 26,000 in the range of Rs 3.50 lakh to Rs four lakh and 35,000 farmers between outstanding loan ranging between Rs 4.50 lakh and Rs five lakh.

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"There are 46,000 farmers in Maharashtra, who have outstanding loan amount of over Rs five lakh," he said.

NCP leader Ajit Pawar had yesterday pointed out that the loan waiver scheme would be extended to the families of Army jawans engaged in farming.

Responding to it, Fadnavis said, "We will tweak the norms to make the serving Army jawans eligible for the loan waiver scheme."

Currently, Army jawans are not eligible for the waiver.

Taking a dig at the loan waiver scheme given by the erstwhile UPA government in 2008, Fadnavis said debts secured for shops, vehicles and lands were also written off that time.

"Even Mumbai got Rs 208 crore loan waiver and Vidarbha got Rs 286 crore. Many people got very little waiver, while few others got even Rs 60 lakh waived," he said.

Fadnavis also pointed out the "loopholes" in the 2008 loan waiver scheme.

"CAG officials had taken a sample for assessing the implementation of loan waiver in the state. As many as nine per cent account holders, who were non-eligible, got their loans waived. Personal loans, vehicle loans, and those for the purchase of shops, were also got waived. There were around 2,000 cases, where people not related to agriculture also got benefited. Surprisingly, no information is available with the banks about the beneficiaries across the state," he said.

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The BJP-led state government is also under criticism over the advertisements about the loan waiver scheme.

Responding to it, he said, "We are being criticised for spending money on the advertisements, but the UPA had spent Rs 1.60 crore for the loan waiver of Rs 4,000 crore. But we spent only Rs 36 lakh for Rs 34,000 crore waiver".

Advertisements are necessary to convey about the government schemes to people, he added.

The CM also slammed the Congress and NCP over their Sangharsh Yatra they had taken out over the farmers issues.

"I know the response the Sangharsh Yatra got. I have the report," he said.

He also told the House that the Centre had asked the insurance companies to submit the data about crop insurance online.

"Banks in the state failed to submit this data online effectively. Therefore, the Maharashtra government had approached the Centre with a demand that the data be allowed to be presented offline. However, the Centre turned down the demand. The Centre pointed out that if states like Bihar and Assam could shift their functioning online, Maharashtra can also follow suit," Fadnavis said. PTI ND NP SMJ

--- ENDS ---

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A 10-acre brush fire erupted in the hills above Sunset Canyon Drive in Burbank on Wednesday afternoon, triggering voluntary evacuations and a stern warning from police ordering hikers to leave the area.

Residents of up to 75 homes on Country Club Drive were asked to evacuate due to the slow-moving blaze, reported shortly before 4 p.m., said Burbank police Lt. Claudio Losacco.

About two hours later, police said evacuation orders were lifted and Country Club Drive was reopened to traffic.

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It is under control, said Burbank Fire Battalion Chief Ron Barone, adding that Los Angeles city and county firefighters responded with four water-dropping helicopters. Things are looking real good.

About 4:15 p.m., Burbank police issued an urgent message asking hikers to leave Wildwood Canyon trails.

This is an urgent message to anyone currently in or near the Wildwood Canyon area, including the Stough Nature Center, to leave the area immediately, police wrote on Twitter.

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

URGENT MESSAGE: Brush fire in Wildwood Canyon area. All hikers need to leave the area. https://t.co/5aXHIzDAXg pic.twitter.com/oUaeVdjKIT  Burbank Police (@BurbankPD) July 26, 2017

Firefighters are working to contain the brush fire. Please avoid the Wildwood Canyon area. More updates to come. pic.twitter.com/WSglHdTLU9  City of Burbank (@BurbankCA) July 26, 2017

alene.tchekmedyian@latimes.com

Follow me on Twitter @AleneTchek

UPDATES:

6:35 p.m.: This article was updated with more information about the fire.

4:50 p.m.: This article was updated with additional details about the size of the blaze and voluntary evacuations.

This article was originally published at 4:35 p.m.
It was a strange spectacle, indeed. What were three San Diego Zoo visitors doing under water with the leopard sharks and penguins in the Africa Rocks habitat Wednesday morning?

Renewing their wedding vows, of course. Doesnt everyone?

Well, no, but Timm and Sherrie Burks are certified diving instructors. They met at a La Jolla dive shop in 2012. Timm was diagnosed with throat cancer shortly after they began dating, and Sherrie stood by him during treatment.

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They opted for a quick courthouse wedding in 2014 with no family or friends present. So, after Timms health improved, it was only natural that the diving couple wanted to relive their special moment in a favorite place  under water  with friends and family present.

The penguin pool provided the perfect setting for the Tierrasanta couple because friends could witness the 10:30 a.m. ceremony through the tanks 15-foot-tall glass wall  along with zoo visitors who happened by.

They used signs to relay their vows, and guests blessed the wedding by giving the newlyweds a thumbs up.

The zoo offers many unusual wedding settings, said spokeswoman Christina Simmons, but the underwater experience was a one-time-only event due to the Burks unusual story.

We love to go to the San Diego Zoo and hone our photography skills, explained Sherrie. They had seen the penguins on the beach during a safari in South Africa last October, so to be married underwater in the African penguin pool is surreal.

Midway through, the scuba diving pastor officiating accidentally let go of his ceremony book and it floated to the surface triggering a penguin investigation.

Simmons reports that the penguins grew especially curious in the couple as they exchanged their vows and, as always, the penguins were well dressed for the occasion.

Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher, as brother and sister Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, in George Lucas Star Wars trilogy, 1977. (Terry ONeill / Getty Images)

A driving force: A postage stamp, a Pez dispenser & now  THIS? Im so honored, tweeted Star Wars actor Mark Hamill on June 20 upon learning that San Diego planned to name a street after him.

The actor didnt make it to Comic-Con last week, but Councilman Chris Cate says Hamill will be on hand at 2 p.m. Sunday when Mark Hamill Drive, an honorary designation, is unveiled at the intersection of Mount Abernathy Avenue and Castleton Drive in Clairemont.

For four years in the 1960s, Hamill lived on Castleton Drive. He attended Hale Junior High, now closed, and James Madison High School as a freshman.

Adios amigo: Salazars has been dishing up Mexican fare in East Village for 45 years.

It has long been on the eating beat for cops from the nearby San Diego police headquarters and a gathering place for generations of families.

No more. The restaurant at 1502 Market St. closed Sunday. It has been sold and will make way for a new complex as downtown redevelopment marches east.

Literally crying, posted patron Rosa Valdez on her Facebook page. She noted that throughout her childhood, and beyond, this place has been the spot to have the best Mexican food and have a great time with great people.

Salazars had the feel of an 70s-era diner with its orange tufted vinyl booths and CD-playing jukebox.

Dave Cohen and Gary Hassan, both former SDPD public information officers, stopped in for a farewell lunch there last Friday. Cohen was a regular at Frank Salazars family eatery for years along with his late SDPD colleague Bill Robinson.

My favorite menu item has been the ceviche, recalls Cohen. Salazars named the dish Dos Tostadas de Ceviche de Robinson in honor of Bill, who died in 2005. Another menu item, Chimichanga de Wolberg, was named after SDPD fcriminologist Gene Wolberg.

Joining them in their farewell lunch was Robinsons son, Scott, a City Hall information officer. For years, the restaurant had posted a magazine story about his dad by its entrance. It was like visiting family there, Scott said.

A matter of pride: One might expect to see U.S. Rep. Susan Davis quoted in the Congressional Digest or Roll Call magazine  but not in Cosmo, arbiter of style and fashion.

Davis penned an op-ed for Cosmopolitan.com. Her July 24 piece defended her right to display a rainbow-colored flag, the symbol of gay pride, outside her office door in Washington, D.C.

A lawsuit was recently filed against Davis and three of her Congress colleagues for displaying the rainbow flag by a lawyer opposed to same-sex marriage who wants the flags removed.

We reached out to Rep. Davis office after learning about the lawsuit, explained Cosmopolitan spokeswoman Liv Ren.

The lawsuit certainly shows that we still have a way to go before we reach full equality, Davis wrote. She added that the outpouring of support for flying the flag has been overwhelming  coming from Democrats and Republicans alike!

diane.bell@sduniontribune.com

(619) 293-1518

Twitter: @dianebellSD

Facebook: dianebell.news
The state Supreme Court will review San Diegos five-year-old pension cutbacks and potentially overturn them, which could require the city to spend millions creating retroactive pensions for more than 3,000 workers hired since 2012.

The court voted unanimously on Wednesday to review an April ruling by the Fourth District Court of Appeal that had vindicated the city and its pension cuts.

RELATED: Appeals court vindicates San Diegos 2012 pension cutbacks

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The case concerns whether Mayor Jerry Sanders and other city officials illegally put Proposition B, the citys pension overhaul measure, on the 2012 ballot without conferring with labor groups.

The measure replaced guaranteed pensions with 401(k)-style retirement plans for all newly-hired city employees except police officers, making San Diego the only jurisdiction in California not to offer traditional pensions to new employees.

Estimates of how much it would cost the city to reverse Proposition B have ranged from $100 million to less than $20 million, but even the people making such guesses have always qualified them based on a wide number of variables.

RELATED: Pension case could cost city millions

Its rare for the state Supreme Court to issue a notice of review, which means that the court considers some element of the appellate court ruling that vindicated the city worthy of judicial review and possible change.

If no review had been granted, which happens in more than 95 percent of cases where a review is requested, Aprils appellate ruling would have become a published precedent throughout California.

It wont be clear precisely which issues in the case the court is concerned about until the courts weekly pending issues summary is published on Friday.

Aprils appellate ruling overturned a 2015 ruling by the states Public Employment Relations Board against the citys pension cutbacks, so the scope of that boards power could be an issue the court wants to review.

RELATED: Ruling threatens San Diego pension overhaul

An attorney for the citys largest labor union hailed the Supreme Courts decision to review the case.

Review is granted, and there is no way to interpret that except as good news for the people we represent who are adversely impacted by Prop. B, said the attorney, Ann Smith. Did they agree with all the arguments that I made or PERB made? I dont know.

Smith said Thursday that the Supreme Court doesnt choose to review lower court rulings if it wants to uphold them.

If they thought the Fourth District Court of Appeal just got it right, then all they would have had to do was deny review and that would be the law of California, she said.

A spokesman for City Attorney Mara Elliott said the decision isnt a shock.

It is understandable that the Supreme Court would want to review a case where an appellate court and a state agency have such different views of the law, particularly in a matter of statewide significance, said Gerry Braun, Elliotts chief of staff.

Arguments in the case wont be heard until at least 2018, and Braun said Elliotts staff doesnt expect them to be heard until sometime in 2019.

The citys labor unions filed a petition for Supreme Court review in May, saying Aprils appellate ruling threatens to disrupt labor relations across California by creating confusion about when management must negotiate with labor.

The appeals court said city officials dont have to confer with labor groups about ballot measures if such measures are placed on the ballot by a citizens initiative, such as Proposition B.

The Supreme Court might be concerned with that part of the appellate courts ruling.

The Public Employment Relations Board also filed a petition for review raising similar issues.

Both petitions say the appellate ruling threatens 50 years of relative labor peace in California that they attribute to the Meyers-Milias-Brown Act, a set of state laws stipulating when labor negotiations are necessary.

PERBs authority to enforce the states eight labor relations laws might also be something the Supreme Court considers an issue worthy of review.

A third petition for review filed in the case is of less importance to the Supreme Court, according to its notice of review.

The petition, filed by the initial proponents of Proposition B, seeks review of Aprils appellate ruled based on the inability of the proponents to collect attorneys fees in the case.

Because PERB served as the lower court in this case instead of a local Superior Court, there was no opportunity for attorneys fees to be decided or even discussed.

The Supreme Courts notice this week said that petition is part of the review, but also said the court wont accept briefs on that issue or hear oral arguments on it.

Smith said its possible the court is deferring that issue until after it decides whether to overturn the appellate ruling, because overturning the appellate ruling would nullify the claim to attorneys fees by the Proposition B proponents.

The courts notice of review also stipulates that it wont de-publish the appellate court ruling.

Smith said thats good news. In her petition for review, she urged the court not to de-publish the ruling without also overturning it.

The court sometimes takes this route with dubious rulings to prevent them from becoming legal precedents, while also avoiding a lengthy review of the individual case.

While the court could choose a variety of remedies, overturning the appellate court ruling would likely force San Diego to create retroactive pensions for more than 3,000 workers hired since July 2012.

City officials have said that would not only be costly, but quite complicated and cumbersome.

An analysis by the citys actuarial firm last year said it would cost $20.1 million to retroactively create pensions on Dec. 31, 2015 for 1,635 employees hired since July 20, 2012.

But those costs would be significantly higher now because the number of employees hired without pensions has roughly doubled since then.

A key to the citys potential cost would be whether those employees would have to split the citys costs of retroactively creating pensions for them, and whether they could do that with money in 401(k)-style retirement plans the city created in lieu of pensions.

Other variables include whether the city would be forced to pay penalties and interest and how large those amounts would be, and what the city might owe in attorneys fees to the labor unions that filed the suit challenging the pension cutbacks.

Creating retroactive pensions might also cost the city long-term. The citys unfunded pension debt, now estimated at $2.6 billion, would have to be re-evaluated to include more than 3,000 employees newly eligible for pensions.

Smith said its important to note that the lions share of savings from Proposition B would not be affected by the Supreme Court overturning the appellate courts ruling, because those savings came from a five-year pay freeze, not the pension cutbacks.

It would be an over-dramatization to say the undoing of Prop. B is going to be financial Armageddon for the city, she said.

Smith also said some are overestimating the relative level of complexity of creating retroactive pensions.

Theres no question there are complications, but it would be wrong to say this is the first complicated scenario that comes out of litigation, she said, adding that the city sought this course by refusing to negotiate. The city decided to get on this horse and ride it no matter what anybody said. So the consequences will be what they will be.

Briefs in the case must be filed within 30 days of the Supreme Courts notice of review.

david.garrick@sduniontribune.com (619) 269-8906 Twitter:@UTDavidGarrick
A butane hash oil lab sparked a fire in a Carlsbad home, where police arrested two men and seized more than 50 marijuana plants and concentrated cannabis Wednesday night, officials said.

Residents were extinguishing the flames on a balcony about 7 p.m. as firefighters arrived at the house on Chestnut Avenue near Carlsbad High School, fire officials said. No one was hurt.

The hazardous-materials team was called after authorities noticed chemicals inside and outside the residence, fire officials said.

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Investigators found evidence of a butane hash oil lab, a process that extracts concentrated cannabis through the use of flammable solvents. Police also found psilocybin mushrooms and a short-barreled shotgun inside the home, Carlsbad officials said.

The plants were found in a greenhouse behind the home.

A 56-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of manufacturing a controlled substance, possession of a controlled substance for sale and causing a fire. A 51-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of manufacturing a controlled substance and a weapons charge.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
A woman fatally stabbed in her Clairemont home Monday night was a longtime teacher at Otay Ranch High School, district officials said Wednesday.

Angela Burks, 58, was a science teacher at the Chula Vista high school for 14 years.

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This is a tremendous loss to our school and one that will be felt by the entire community, a letter posted on the schools website reads.

Burks had been with the Sweetwater Union High School District since 1983 and previously taught at Southwest Middle, Rancho Del Rey Middle and Sweetwater High schools, district officials said.

Police said she was fatally stabbed when a dispute between her and her son turned violent inside their home on Mount Putman Avenue near Mount Laudo Drive in Clairemont Monday night.

Her son, Joseph Burks, 30, was treated at a hospital for a minor head wound, then booked into jail on a count of first-degree murder, according to jail records.

Manny Rubio, spokesman for the school district, said arrangements were being made to support students affected by Burks death.

The Sweetwater Union High School District wants to thank the entire community for their continued support of Otay Ranch High, Rubio said in a statement. Our thoughts and prayers are with her family during this very difficult time.

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Email: david.hernandez@sduniontribune.com

Phone: (619) 293-1876

Twitter: @D4VIDHernandez
A tree trimmer stuck in a 40-foot palm tree was rescued from a Rancho Bernardo backyard Thursday morning by San Diego firefighters.

The 55-year-old man got stuck in the tree in the backyard of the home on Bernardo Oaks Drive near Francisco Drive shortly before 9 a.m. after he strapped himself to the tree incorrectly, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokesman Jose Ysea said.

Firefighters worked as fast as they could to free the man because he risked serious injury from the heavy palm fronds. But the rescue was a bit tricky, Ysea said, because the trees location made it difficult to get equipment in place.

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It is basically a race against time to make sure he doesnt get trapped in there and he doesnt suffocate, Ysea said.

Firefighters parked the truck on the lawn and extended the ladder over the roof of the home to reach the man. If he had been five feet higher, the ladder wouldnt have been able to reach him, Ysea said.

After clearing away a skirt of fronds near the top of the tree, a firefighter cut the mans harness and eased him onto the ladder, which was then lowered.

The man, who was able to walk off the ladder, complained of thigh and back pain after his ordeal and was taken to a hospital to be evaluated.

karen.kucher@sduniontribune.com
A county oversight board examining the fatal shooting of an unarmed Vista man by sheriffs deputies in 2014 found the action justified, although the committee was told three different versions of what happened.

According to a report recently released by the Citizens Law Enforcement Review Board, deputies attempting to serve a warrant on convicted felon Michael Napier did not present the same set of facts to panel members.

Three of the four deputies who actually saw and heard Napiers initial response when contacted provided differing accounts of Napiers responses prior to Deputies 2 and 3 discharging their weapons, the report stated.

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Despite the discrepancies, which were not explained or detailed in the review, the board classified the incident as action justified. The classification means evidence confirmed the alleged act or conduct occurred and that it was lawful, justified and proper.

Sheriffs department spokesman Ryan Keim said witnesses even deputies  have a different focus during any event.

This varying focus and the infinite complex factors which influence memory are one of the reasons why we do a comprehensive investigation where all witness statements and physical evidence are analyzed so the clearest picture possible of what actually transpired can be understood, he said.

The oversight board report was posted on the San Diego County website after the review boards June meeting. It notes that the case was formally continued because further investigation may be conducted due to a pending lawsuit.

Immediately following the disclosure that deputies provided three different versions of events the night Napier was killed, the review board went on to say, Research shows that during critical incidents, the substantial majority of officers experience specific perceptual distortions, causing their recollection of the events of the shooting to be imperfect.

Napier was a 33-year-old convicted felon when he was killed. He had been working on a bicycle inside the garage of his parents Vista home when he was approached by four deputies on the evening of Jan. 31, 2014.

According to the review board report, Napier was a known gang member who was known to carry weapons and had a history of violent confrontations with officers. They were attempting to serve the warrant because a social media post indicated that Napier might be preparing to leave town, the report added.

When deputies arrived at the garage, they instructed Napier to show his hands. Instead, Napier reached toward his waistband and deputies opened fire, the sheriffs department said after the shooting.

Two of the deputies  Brandon Boissernac and Nicholas Danza  fired about 15 bullets. Deputies immediately handcuffed Napier and moved him outside to a parking lot, where they proceeded to attempt resuscitation. Napier was declared dead at the scene.

No weapon was found on Napier, although investigators discovered a jackknife and an ice pick-type tool stuck into the wall of the garage, not far from where Napier was first confronted. The deputies said they opened fire because they feared for their safety.

The day after the shooting, Napiers father, Charles Napier, criticized the deputies response, saying there did not appear to be reasonable cause to employ deadly force.

Come on, you dont take a knife to a gunfight, especially a small one, the elder Napier said. Theyre grasping. It just underlines the fact that he was unwarrantedly killed.

Charles and Donna Napier filed a federal lawsuit against the sheriffs department in 2015. Last week, a judge denied a motion by lawyers for San Diego County seeking to dismiss the case ahead of trial.

A genuine dispute of material fact remains as to whether Officers Boisseranc and Danza used unreasonable force, U.S. District Judge Cathy Ann Bencivengo ruled.

The lawyer representing the Napier family did not respond to requests for comment.

Watchdog Videos On Now Sexual misconduct accusers worry deputy is being protected 6:16 On Now City funded $2-million waterfront bathroom 1:26 On Now Public water district charges customer for legal work, response to records request On Now Video: Tiny homes won't be reused amid housing, homeless crisis On Now Attorney General seeks documentation for Miss Middle East On Now Rep. Hunter probe covers possible fraud On Now Video: SDG&E delaying solar credit for some low-income housing tenants On Now Video: Former San Diego Junior Theatre teacher sentenced for sex with teen girl 0:24 On Now Video: Shelter volunteers believe they were fired for finding a dog a home 0:49 On Now McKamey Manor is leaving San Diego 3:35

jeff.mcdonald@sduniontribune.com (619) 293-1708 @sdutMcDonald
A Los Angeles street vendor had his cart knocked over in a violent encounter with a man who said he didnt want the man selling food and other items on a Hollywood sidewalk.

Take a look.

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Benjamin Ramirez told KTLA that he was selling corn, shaved ice and other items last week when he was approached by a bearded man wearing a Guns N Roses T-shirt who was walking a dog.

The 24-year-old said the man told him that he did not want him or his cart on the corner near Vine Street and Santa Monica Boulevard and that if he did not move he was going to do it for him.

The man then handed the dogs leash to a woman he was walking with and began moving toward the vendor while holding what appeared to be a stun gun in one hand. As the menacing stranger got closer, Ramirez tried to defend himself by throwing a handful of chili powder in his face.

That enraged the stranger who responded by flipping the cart on its side, splattering the snacks and drinks all over the pavement. Ramirez said he then grabbed a metal bar and the woman wagged her finger at him and told him to stay the  expletive deleted  away.

Ramirez recorded the incident on his cell phone.

Im recording this because this racist  threw my things, he said.

Im not racist, the man said from a distance. Im Argentinian, you retard.

Los Angeles police said they are looking into the matter and that they have not identified the attacker.

Ramirez told KTLA that he would move to another location because he fears he will be attacked again. He said he thinks that man has a hatred for Mexican vendors.

Street vending in Los Angeles was illegal and considered a misdemeanor criminal offense but in February city officials voted unanimously to decriminalize it and to set up a system in which the sellers would obtain permits to do business. They could still face fines for not complying with municipal code but they are no longer cited criminally, according to the Los Angeles Times.

619-293-1710

debbi.baker@sduniontribune.com

twitter.com/Debbi_Baker
By PTI: employ locals

Panaji, Jul 27 (PTI) The Goa government would be adopting an `affirmative approach to encourage industries to employ local residents, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the Assembly today.

He ruled out taking the reservation route to increase representation of locals in industries.

"There can be two kinds of approach to such an issue. One is reservation and second is affirmative. We have decided to adopt affirmative approach," he told the house during his address on demands for grants.

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Parrikar was referring to the demand by the opposition and ruling members to make certain percentage of jobs for locals mandatory in the industries that come up in the state.

The state government can formulate a policy wherein subsidy and benefits would be given to industries depending on the number of Goans they employ, he said.

Parrikar attributed the current price rise in tomatoes to "rains and traffic bottlenecks". PTI RPS RSY

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Regarding San Antonio smuggling deaths: imagine the suffering (July 25): The horrific deaths of at least 10 people with many more in dire condition in attempting to cross the border into the U.S is a tragedy that most of us will never forget. The driver should be punished to the maximum extent of the law, which he deserves.

The U-T seems eager to immediately politicize this tragedy by implying the Trump administrations policy to enforce existing immigration laws is responsible for their deaths. In reality, the deaths of these victims are the results of the actions of one man, the driver of the vehicle.

Don Cihak

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Coronado

Obama-bashers forget challenges he faced

Your letter writer (Dont sugarcoat the damage done by Obama, July 21) has a funny sense of history. Concerning $10 trillion debt: Obama inherited two unfunded wars; unfunded Medicare Part D; economy in the tank due to mismanaged real estate bubble; a major recession; and the George W. Bush tax cuts. Remember Rep. John Murtha (retired Marine) complaining of no funding to replace hardware lost in Iraq?

Middle East destabilization was caused by the Bush I Kuwait adventure and the Bush II Iraq adventure. Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize for doing nothing but replacing Bush. Reagan doubled the national debt during peace time!

George Dill

Escondido

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (briefly) became the richest person in the world on Thursday when, as Bloomberg reported, after a couple years of coming fairly close, it was estimated that his fortune has finally topped that of Microsoft founder Bill Gates . Gates had held the No. 1 spot since 2013. Bezos has never held it.

Here are some answers to the questions youre thinking about the success of Bezos and his online retail giant.

What made Bezos the richest person in the world?

Bloomberg credited Amazon stock, which opened to shares up 1.3 percent to $1,065.92 on Thursday, as the determining factor that put Bezos net worth at $90.9 billion, compared to Gates $90.7 billion.

Related: Will Amazon founder Jeff Bezos be the worlds first trillionaire?

How did Bezos lay claim to the No. 1 spot?

Bezos owns about 81 million shares of Amazon stock, or about 17 percent, The New York Times reported. Behind his incremental wealth is Amazons rising stock, which Bloomberg reports has gone up 40 percent since the beginning of 2017.

To get an sense of how fast Bezos worth has risen, consider his net worth just a month ago when Amazon bought produce retailer Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. The move added $1.8 billion to Bezos net worth, increasing it to $84.6 billion in June, Business Insider reported.

Bezos has a huge business portfolio, as CNN has noted. He founded Blue Origin, a private space flight company in 2006. He bought The Washington Post in 2013. He has also been an early investor in such companies as Uber, Airbnb and Twitter.

How long could Bezos stay in the top spot?

There was and is no guarantee Bezos will be the richest person in the world forever but if Amazon stock continues to grow as it has in recent years, theres a good chance he could stay there for the foreseeable future.

Update: As believed, Bezos dominance was shot-lived by the end of Thursday when Amazon stock tumbled back down by 0.7 percent, The Seattle Times reported.

Aside from that, consider that a year ago, media-digital tycoon Barry Diller predicted that Bezos would become the richest person in the world within five to seven years. On Thursday, Bezos beat that forecast by four years.

Even a recent San Diego Union-Tribune column posed the possibility that Bezos could become the worlds first trillionaire. Trillionaire!

Who are the other billionaires in the world?

As of Thursday, Gates fell to the No. 2 spot with other billionaires close behind, including Spanish businessman Amancio Ortega ($82.7 billion), Warren Buffet ($74.5 billion) and Mark Zuckerberg ($70.5 billion), according to Bloomberg.

Exactly how much money is a billion dollars?

One billion dollars is 1,000 times one million dollars. For most of us making under $100,000 a year, thats so much money that its difficult to grasp. Take a look at this video that visualizes what a million, a billion and a trillion dollars look like.

How does 1000, 1,000,000 1,000,000,000 and 1,000,000,000,000 dollars look like visually.

Why is this such a big deal?

Bezos wealth puts everyday Americans income into perspective especially as wealth inequality becomes a major conversation today. The astronomical sum left people adding their own context to all this.

What will Bezos do with that much money?

Theres no telling what Bezos will do with all of his money, but the billionaire may do what other billionaires do and give some money away through philanthropy.

Just last month, Bezos asked Twitter for ideas for a philanthropy strategy to make a lasting impact.

Got any ideas on what Bezos should do with his billions of dollars? Tweet at him or tell us, via email or Twitter, on what you would do with that amount of money.

Have some thoughts to share?

Join me in a conversation: Shoot me a private email with your thoughts or ideas on a different approach to this story. As always, you can also send us a tweet.

Email: luis.gomez@sduniontribune.com

Twitter: @RunGomez

Read The Conversation on Flipboard.

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Nine Poway Unified School District students have returned from a trip of a lifetime to China, where they performed three concerts.

The students, from Twin Peaks Middle School and Bernardo Heights Middle School, traveled with Ulli Reiner, the orchestra teacher for both middle schools, and seven parents. This is Reiners third trip to China for performing.

The kids had a fabulous time, said Reiner. It was nothing like they expected.

Reiner and her students played three concerts in China, one at the 100-year-old Wangfujing Catholic Church in Beijing, another in at a senior center Shanghai and a third as part of a cultural exchange with the Wushi Dongin Middle School in Wushi.

The students performed a variety of American music, a Chinese folk song, and a version of the Decorah Bald Eagle violin concerto adapted for middle school musicians. Reiner was involved in the original composition of the concerto.

At the concert in Wushi, the students got the chance to perform for the Chinese students, then watch the Chinese orchestra students perform for them.

They were so gracious, said Reiner. The students exchanged gifts, she said, and played Jasmine Flower, a popular Chinese folk song, together.

Juliette Fogarthy, a violinist and incoming freshman at Rancho Bernardo High School who went on the trip, said it was really exciting to perform for the Chinese students. We got to express our different cultures for each other, she said.

Fogarthy said performing for the Chinese students was one of the things she was looking forward to when she went on the trip, as well as exploring the food and the culture of China.

When the students were not performing, they were able to go on several tours, visiting the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and the terracotta warrior museum, among others.

The terracotta warrior museum was a favorite for many, said Reiner. The kids study (the terracotta figures) in school, so the students getting to see them in person is wonderful, she said.

The students were filmed by a Chinese television crew while at the museum to get an American perspective of it. The footage was presented on the Chinese news network, though the students did not get to see themselves on television as it aired after they left the country, Reiner said.

Fogarthy said the trip to the terracotta museum was her favorite. It was spectacular, she said. It was so big.

The students did most of the major rehearsing for the concerts in America prior to traveling, so they would have more time to be tourists, said Reiner.

Reiner said she views the trip as a way to teach tolerance and acceptance through the universal language of music. If we want to teach tolerance, we have to show how other people live, not just reading about them in a book, she said. (Traveling to other places with students) opens up their world. They get to see people and life with opened eyes, and creates more connection and compassion in them.

Email: news@pomeradonews.com
Del Mars legal battle over short-term rentals (STRs) is becoming more pitched thanks to a new round of filings and accusations that have deepened the litigious divide.

The latest developments include the citys first response to the lawsuit initiated by a group of disgruntled residents nearly two months ago, and a splinter case in which that groups lawyer has accused city officials of dragging their feet in meeting a wide-ranging information request for all communications by all city councilmembers going back seven years.

The bulk of the request centers on the councils May 1 ratification of its April 17 ruling that laid the groundwork for the policy that the council has since continued to give shape to. The councils most recent move was to target May 2018 as the beginning of the new policy, which will limit full-home rentals, single-room rentals and home swaps to seven-day minimums that cannot exceed 28 days per calendar year. Rentals that last more than 30 days will not be affected.

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Years of outcry over the explosion of short-term rentals made possible by websites such as AirBnB and VRBO.com came to a head this year. The city council tackled the issue after the citys planning commission said in February that city code did not provide enough information for them to interpret whether short-term rentals are allowed in residential zones. That sent the issue back to the council on April 17. Four hours of heated testimony boiled down to a 4-1 ruling to interpret 40-year-old city codes to mean  despite a long history to the contrary  that short-term rentals were never allowed in nearly every residential part of the city.

When the council ratified that ruling on May 1, Mayor Terry Sinnott demanded that the motion stipulate his opposition, saying that the councils action lacked data and that the California Coastal Act would compel state officials to intervene.

Several of the most vocal rental supporters then created the Del Mar Alliance for the Preservation of Beach Access and Village and filed suit in San Diego Superior Court. Their June 1 lawsuit claims that the citys actions violate two state mandates: the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and the California Coastal Act.

CEQA requires lengthy review whenever a proposal would have a significant environmental impact, including changes to land-use regulations. The Coastal Act requires beach jurisdictions to guarantee access to coastal areas.

Throughout the legal proceedings, the city council has continued to hone the rentals framework despite repeated  and increasingly heated  entreaties to reverse course.

On July 20, the city responded to the Alliances lawsuit. In its response, the city rebuffs the Alliances depiction that the policy constitutes a ban, saying that they interpreted existing zoning ordinances. The response also repeats the citys position that its actions are not subject to CEQA and the Coastal Act. It further stipulates that the Alliance lacks legal standing and failed to exhaust administrative remedies prior to filing suit.

That lawsuit has now led to a new one.

Central to the Alliances case is a May 4 request for all city communications on STRs  including the emails of every city councilmember  dating back to January 2010.

The reason its expansive is because the ban is very broad, very bogus, said Alliance lawyer Cory Briggs. Theyre basically trying to rewrite history, and we wanted the full history.

On May 15, the city responded that the lone city employee available to handle the request would need 45 days to compile the 3,500 emails and 1,000 pages of other documents. Those 45 days were up June 29. That day came and went without a response.

On July 18, Briggs filed suit under the California Public Records Act. The following day, the citys attorneys countered that Briggs was reading the law incorrectly and sent him a portion of the documents. They followed up a few days later with the remaining pages.

Briggs expects to need several weeks to review the documents. He does not intend to drop the new case now that the city responded; at a minimum, he said he will petition the court for the city to cover attorney fees.

Assuming that they gave us all the documents, we will still ask the judge to rule that they waited too long, Briggs said. We have lots of reasons to be distrustful of this particular city. If we have any reason to suspect they have withheld even a single piece of paper, were going to press forward. My clients are all done being bullied.
For three consecutive days, customs officials were able to intercept and apprehend 6 people who smuggled gold into the country.

By Virendrasingh Ghunawat: During last two days, custom officials at Mumbai CSI have seized illegally smuggled gold jewellery/bars valued at more than Rs 1.30 crore in their anti-smuggling work.

For three consecutive days, customs officials were able to intercept and apprehend 6 people who smuggled gold into the country.

THE SIX CASES: On July 24 night, Deepak Kumar Sheta, who arrived from Dubai, was arrested for carrying gold jewellery weighing 722 gms and valued at Rs 21.29 lakh concealed in the front pocket of his linen pants. On July 25, Riyaj Mohammed (29) holding Indian passport, arrived from Riyadh by Air India flight and was apprehended for carrying two white coloured gold wires collectively weighing 699 grams valued at Rs 20.62 lakh. The consignment was hidden inside the inner lining of his trolley bag. He is a resident of Rajasthan and works as a driver in Saudi Arabia. On July 25, Rekha Srichanda Talreja (39), who arrived from Bangkok by Thai Airways flight, was intercepted and during a personal search, gold jewellery and one cut piece of gold bar was recovered from her rectum, total weighing 810 grams and valued at Rs 23.89 lakh. She is a resident of Ulhasnagar, Thane and works as a beautician. On the same night, Md Rishad Vannante Valappil (29), arrived from Dubai by Emirates flight with hollow cylindrical shaped gold inside a mixer, weighing 860 grams and valued at Rs 25.37 lakh. The gold was concealed in the cavity of shaft in the housing of mixer grinder of brand 'Meenimix'. He is a resident of Kannur, Kerala and works as a salesman in one electronic shop in Dubai. Similar consignment was caught from another passenger. On July 25, Abdul Majeed Pallikere Ahmed (42), holding Indian passport, arrived from Dubai by Fly Dubai Airlines with another consignment of similar hollow cylindrical shaped gold concealed inside a mixer, weighing 861 grams valued at Rs 25.39 lakh. The gold was cleverly concealed in the cavity of shaft in the housing of said mixer grinder of brand 'Clikon'. He is a resident of Kodagu, Karnataka and works as sales executive in a firm in Sharjah. Gold bars concealed in battery slot of Samsung mobile. Photo: Virendrasingh D Ghunawat During daytime of July 26, one airport staff Arif Mohamed Khan (23), working as a customer agent in Air India Air Transport Services Ltd (AIATSL), a subsidiary of Air India, was arrested by custom officials at the airport gate. The officials recovered four gold bars of ten tolas each weighing 464 grams in total and valued at Rs 13.68 lakh from Khan. The gold bars were concealed in the battery slot of the Samsung mobile he was carrying. In his statement, Khan admitted that the said mobile phone with gold bars were given to him, near aerobridge, by one passenger who arrived from Dubai by Jet Airways flight.

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By PTI: because of some sources: Swaraj

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) The sources who gave the government confidence of not abandoning the search for 39 Indians abducted in Iraq include a "head of state and a foreign minister of another country," External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha today.

She, however, refused to disclose the identity of the sources, citing "diplomatic confidentiality".

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Making a statement in response to Zero Hour mention on the issue raised by Pratap Singh Bajwa (Cong) on July 19, Swaraj vehemently denied that she ever misled Parliament or the country on the fate of the people abducted three years back. She said she has all through maintained that there is no proof of the abducted Indians being alive or dead.

And in absence of "solid proof", it is a "sin" at personal level and irresponsible act on the part of the government to declare them dead, the minister said.

She asked, "Why should I apologise? That I did not declare them dead?"

Opposition Congress, however, tried to corner her by saying the government has been changing goal posts all through and she has to give "one proof" for believing they are alive. "I have said in Parliament and outside that I have no evidence of their being alive or dead," Swaraj said, adding in absence of any solid evidence or proof she cannot presume them dead. "We are not sitting idle. All countries which can help have been asked for help," she said and added, "Why will I mislead? What will I gain? What will I gain, what will my government gain by misleading?"

Bajwa countered Swarajs assertion, asking what would Harjit Masih, one of the abducted Indians who had escaped, gain by claiming that he had witnessed the 39 being shot dead.

Responding to this, the minister said she was first to speak to Masih after he called up on but did not provide convincing reply how he was able to escape from the ISIS captivity.

Also, family of one of the abducted persons had received a call from the captors, saying the captive was alive, she said. The minister threw a challenge to the Congress leader, saying if he was convinced that the Indians are dead, he can call up the families and tell them that.

Swaraj said she had never stated that the 39 Indians are alive and that she will ensure they come back home safe.

She said she had in the past told the Parliament that in absence of a proof, the option before the government was to abandon search or continue its efforts to locate them.

"I had asked for permission of House (to continue efforts to locate them) and had not just taken it in confidence," she said, claiming the members had given their consent by thumping of desk or nodding.

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The minister said her deputy V K Singh had travelled to Iraq on the very next day ISIS was overthrown from Mosul on July 9 this year.

Senior Iraqi officials told him that they had information of the Indians being picked up from Mosul airfield three years back and after holding them in captivity for some time, they were made to work in a hospital and then in agriculture field. Thereafter they were in early 2016 shifted to the prison at Badush, some 30-km away of Mosul town, she said.

"That is the last known location," she said, adding she had informed the families of the victims about the same.

Countering the Congress charge, she said this government knows how to protect its people. "Relief for stranded person abroad is one tweet away," she said, adding 80,000 people have been helped by her ministry in last three years.

These are onces for whom the government paid air-tickets and does not include the numbers who were helped but had paid for their own ticket, she said.

"This governments credibility cannot be questioned relating to protection of its citizens," she said.

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Swaraj said the day evidence is available, she will inform Parliament without delay and if Parliament is not in session, she would take to the twitter in 10 minutes to make the news public.

"Without evidence I will not declare them dead," she asserted.

Bajwa asked why the government was not believing the version of Harjit Masih and sought to know the 5-6 sources she keeps quoting for her statement.

He said upon the fall of Mosul, it was said that the Indians are in the prison at Badush but that jail was demolished three months back.

"They have misled the Parliament. They have misled the country," he said. "Give one proof how do you say they are alive."

He said an all-party delegation should be sent to Iraq to get the first hand account.

Swaraj said he asked Masih how did he survive but he did not give a convincing answer. "He wants to mislead how he came out (of ISIS captivity)."

She said the Congress was using the issue as a political agenda.

"There is a difference between information and proof. There is no proof," she said. I have said there is no solid proof of their being alive or dead." PTI ANZ AKK

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From the WACS of World War II to the combat veterans of today, the role of women in the military continues to change, despite pockets of opposition.

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Today, the idea of women serving in the military is widely accepted, if not considered downright mundane. But attitudes toward women in the military have changed a lot in the 75 years since the Womens Army Corps was created in 1942.

Women soldiers were still a strange idea when Those Wonderful G.I. Janes was published on September 9, 1944. Ernest O. Hauser, describing members of the newly created Womens Army Corps, stressed that they had retained their femininity.

If you ask them what they want to do after the war, Hauser reassured Post readers, the majority will reply, Have a home and babies.

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By 1957, when This Ladys Army appeared, Americans were still adjusting to the idea of women in uniform. Sidney Shalett praised their contribution to the war effort, serving with distinction while enduring vicious slander. Wartime rumors had been spread of their rampant immorality, including shiploads of pregnant WACS being sent back to the state in disgrace and wolf packs of sex-hungry Wacs roaming the countrysideseducing innocent sailors.

While these libels were being broadcast, heroic women were being torpedoed en route to North Africa, undergoing the blitz in England, and hitting the ditch under Japanese strafing in Leyte, Shalett reported.

Regardless of how they felt about women in service, Americans had to acknowledge that all the WACs had freely volunteered to serve. Unlike the men, they could have sat out the war with no risk of being drafted. And while the military no longer segregates men and women (the Womens Army Corps was disbanded in 1978), women are still not required to register for the draft, as men are.

But it looks like that may change as well. A womens draft was nearly made into a law last year.

The idea began as a protest. When the National Defense Authorization Act was introduced in April 2016, it contained a provision for women to serve in combat. Opposing this idea, California Representative Duncan Hunter (R) introduced an amendment that would require women between 18 and 26 to register with the Selective Service, thinking that his progressive colleagues would oppose it.

Instead of drawing opposition to the Defense bill, the amendment gathered unexpected support from both Democrats and Republicans, men and women. The amendment passed the Senate by a vote of 85 to 13.

The amendment was struck from the bills final version before it being sent to the House, but the idea of including women in the draft continued to arouse controversy online.

Extending the Selective Service to women will probably be included  and passed  in a future Defense bill. Its uncertain how much controversy will accompany the change, but its clear that seventy-five years after the formation of the Womens Air Corps, some Americans are still adjusting to the idea of women in uniform.

Featured image: National Archives
On the anniversary of the Korean Armistice Agreement, Jeff Nilsson takes a look at the war that we never really entered, and never really left.

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The Korean War is unique: we never really entered it, and we never really left.

When President Truman sent U.S. troops into South Korea to help combat an invasion by North Koreans on June 27, 1950, he acted without a declaration of war. Instead, it was called a police action. With or without the designation of a war, the conflict involved 328,000 Americans, killing 36,000 and wounding 103,000.

The Korean Armistice Agreement was signed on July 27, 1953. But as General Maxwell Taylor reminded Americans, it was not a peace treaty, just a suspension of hostilities. It only ended the shooting as North and South Korea negotiated their differences. America wouldnt leave until peace and stability have been restored to Korea.

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When Rafael Steinberg wrote The Lonely Line of Armistice in the July 27, 1963, issue of the Post, the demilitarized border that divides North and South Korea at the 38th parallel was still, in effect, a war zone. GIs were constantly on guard against North Korean infiltrators and attackers.

In the five decades since that article, tensions have remained high. North Korean troops have repeatedly crossed the border, sometimes attacking American and South Korean troops. In 1966, with the American military focused on Vietnam, North Korea initiated a number of border confrontations. They even sent a commando team into South Korea to assassinate its president: 43 Americans and 299 South Koreans were killed in thwarting the mission.

Beginning in 1974, a series of tunnels from North Korea to South Korea was discovered. The first two were over half a mile long and were found by accident. The third tunnel, whose location was disclosed by a defector in 1978, was 5,200 feet long and 240 feet below ground. The fourth, found in 1990, was 476 feet underground.

Today, the South Korean side of the border is guarded by Swedish and Swiss guards. But the U.S. still keeps 28,000 American military personnel in the country, ready to meet any sudden action from the North.

Is the armistice still in effect? In 2013, North Korea said it was invalidating the armistice in retaliation for United Nations sanctions against it. But the UN countered that North Korea could not unilaterally abandon the agreement. Meanwhile, North Korea claims it is developing a missile system that can drop nuclear warheads on America.

Which makes the Korean armistice not only the longest in history, but also potentially the deadliest.

Featured image: Office of the Command Historian
Houston, TX -- (SBWIRE) -- 07/27/2017 -- SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d. b. a. Everybody's Phone Company is proud to announce to both future shareholders and current shareholders alike that the Company has published its second quarter 2017 unaudited results.



Norman George, President, states, "The fresh capital raised during the first six (6) months of this fiscal year has allowed the corporation to begin to move forward with our marketing plan. With the use of TROPTIONS (trade-options) the marketing plan will have extensive reach to grow our subscriber base in the Houston area."



About SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d. b. a. Everybody's Phone Company

SW Innovative Holdings, Inc. d.b.a. Everybody's Phone Company, sells prepaid, unlimited local (dial tone) telephone service to the residential market, primarily in greater Houston. The Company is fully licensed by the Texas Public Utility Commission to resell telephone services throughout the State. Once SW Innovative Holdings' achieves critical mass in Texas, the Company plans to expand its prepaid telecommunications product offerings nationwide.



For more information, visit www.everybodysphonecompany.com.



The foregoing press announcement contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by such terminology such as "believes," "expects," "potential," "plans," "suggests," "may," "should," "could," "intends," or similar expressions. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause the actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. The Company does not undertake to update forward-looking statements to reflect circumstances or events that occur after the date the forward-looking statements are made.



Contact:

SW Innovative Holdings, Inc.

d. b. a. Everybody's Phone Company

Tel: 713-268-1610

http://www.everybodysphonecompany.com

landlineswanted@gmail.com
Samsung has already said that it will reveal the official launch date of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 on August 23. However, it now looks that it's not wasting any time down under in terms of flagship's availability. According to a Samsung's official document, the Galaxy Note 8 will reach Australia soon after the US/EU reveal on August 25.

It looks like Australia will be among the lucky first adopters, with documents cited by Ausdroid suggesting that the pre-order process may start as early as the August 25. The official Samsung document also says that there will be a "Screen Assure Offer", the buyer will get one free screen substitute in the first 12 months after buying the Galaxy Note 8. This deal kicks off on Friday, August 25, which makes it the said emergence of the pre-order campaign.

On the other hand, according to NDTV, Galaxy Note 8 will feature pack 6GB of RAM, a new leak makes mention of a Galaxy Note 8 Emperor Edition. Now the name means to indicate that the smartphone will boast a whopping 8GB of RAM along with 256GB of onboard storage, with a small possibility of a Star Wars reference attached as well.

Samsung Galaxy Note 8 will boast a horizontal dual rear camera setup with two 12-megapixel sensors and independent OIS (optical image stabilization) for each lens. The device will have a fingerprint sensor next to the camera, which is one of the biggest disappointments to the fans, as mentioned by several reports and reviews. Based on previous leaks, the Galaxy Note 8 is said to feature a 3300mAh battery.

Samsung typically offers pre-orders on a roughly fortnightly basis that would suggest an actual on sale date for the Galaxy Note 8 of September 8 or around there. More concrete details on Note will be known at the time of launch.
FLORENCE, S.C.  Its been 29 years since the James family in Florence started the Come Celebrate Jamestown Reunion. The annual event is still thriving and aims to uphold the legacy of former slave Ervin James while celebrating African-American history.

Ervin James family gathers each year on land he purchased in 1870 from white landowners Eli McKissick and Mary Poston. The property is at 1114 Jamestown Road, Florence. The purchase happened during the Reconstruction era, which made it risky for both Ervin and the propertys sellers.

The land was named Jamestown and was a self-sufficient haven for African-Americans during that period.

Members of the James family are trying to preserve the history of Jamestown. The Jamestown Preservation Project has been launched to restore the remaining cabin on the property.

This years Come Celebrate Jamestown reunion is open to the public and will be held Friday through Sunday. Festivities will start Friday with a prayer breakfast at 9 a.m. at Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Florence. The church is at 1305 E. Cheves St.

According to Jamestown Foundation director Terry James, historical interpreter Dontavius Williams will present the Chronicles of Adam at 7 p.m. Friday at Francis Marion Universitys Chapman Auditorium as part of the reunion. The Chronicles of Adam is an interpretation of a slave, Adam. Driven By Dance will also perform at the event. There is an entry fee of $10.

The annual gathering on the Jamestown property will be held from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, rain or shine. The event features a variety of vendors, presentations and food for sale.

Of course weve got Arianne King Comer (indigo dyeing), Jerry Taylor sweet grass baskets. Were going to have Gilbert Walker, blacksmith, Terry James said. Were also going to have the 54th Regiment Company. Were re-enactors.

Carolyn Evans will perform a re-enactment of Harriet Tubman, and Mike Crutcher will perform the Spirit of Frederick Douglass. Other people who are scheduled to appear at the festival include Nicole Moore who will cook a traditional African-American dish with Williams, Colonial Williamsburg representative Robert Watson Jr., woodworker Jerome Bias and a Pee Dee Indian representative, among others.

A banquet will be held at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Francis Marion University Ervin Dining Hall and will feature performances by Zeb Harrison and Sounds of Praise.

Hes (Zeb Harrison) coming and they do brass horns and have a gospel group, Terry James said. A lot of them sing with John P. Kee.

On Sunday, the family and friends will worship together at Monumental Baptist Church, at 918 Oakland Ave., Florence.

Terry James said that since Come Celebrate Jamestown started, hes seen an increase in education of African-American heritage and culture.

But at the same time, Ive seen a decrease in young peoples attendance wanting to learn, Terry James said. Were trying to get the young people to understand this is an important part of their life. If you forget the past, you dont know what your future will look like.

The community should attend this years event to learn more about the Reconstruction era that many may not know about, Terry James said.

Were trying to take a step back in time so people can get a feel of how it was in that time period, Terry James said. It wasnt much time for play or pleasure. Get educated about African-American history and experience Jamestown.

To contribute to the Jamestown Preservation Project, take donations to the National Bank of South Carolina Palmetto Street location in Florence or make checks out to the Jamestown Foundation and mail them to P.O. Box 4972 Florence, S.C. 29502.
TIMMONSVILLE, S.C.  The board for Florence County School District Four voted at a called meeting Wednesday to table the search for a superintendent.

The board will continue discussion on candidates.

Chairwoman Lillie Joe said the search for a superintendent who fits the school district is a process that should not be taken lightly because it will impact children for years to come.

However, she said more discussion will be had in the coming week.

Its hard to jump and find a superintendent or superintendent-elect, Joe said. Who you deem as the right candidate, someone else may not.

After an executive session, the board voted on two candidates who were identified as Candidate A and Candidate B. Joe said the board could not identify who the candidates are.

There were three votes for the first candidate and two for the second. Board members Henry Anderson and Deidra Thomas abstained from voting for either candidate.

Both candidates can do an excellence job in this district, Joe said. We want to make sure were getting the right one.

Joe said that Molly Spearman, the South Carolina superintendent of education, was in the boards executive session.

Currently, the state gives the district funding. The state has taken over Brockington Elementary and Johnson Middle School, but not Timmonsville High School. Joe said the boards new superintendent choice could affect the funding from the state. This is a fact that the board members want time to discuss and think through as they make their decision.

Jerrod Moultrie, a Timmonsville resident and pastor, said he supports the board, not the state, as it moves forward in the search for a superintendent.

I believe we have elected a board, and we need to stand behind the boards decision, Moultrie said. We need to respect the board and respect the boards wishes.

Currently, Dr. Zona Jefferson is acting as the district's interim superintendent.
By PTI: Cuttack, Jul 27 (PTI) The Orissa High Court today adjourned to Monday the hearing on a bunch of pleas alleging discrepancies in the poll expenses of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his party BJD.

The bench of Justice S K Mishra adjourned the hearing till July 31 when the counsel for various parties, including the one for the Election Commission (EC), would resume their arguments.

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The high court earlier had issued notice to the Election Commission on a plea by Odisha native Subash Mohapatra, who has alleged gross discrepancies in sworn statements on poll expenses of Patnaik and his party.

In his plea, filed in June last year, Mohapatra has urged the EC to take action against Patnaik and his party BJD for "misleading the EC through the false affidavits."

Mohapatra, meanwhile, through his counsel Narendra Hooda, filed another application to the court seeking the deletion of the formal respondents in the original petition.

The three formal respondents are Odisha chief electoral officer, Ganjam district electoral officer and Naveen Patnaik.

Seeking a direction to the EC for early disposal of his representation to it, Mohapatra in his petition had arraigned the three as formal respondents while the EC was the main respondent. PTI COR AAM NN RAX

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: political row in Maha

Mumbai, Jul 27 (PTI) The Madras High Court ruling on singing of Vande Mataram has triggered a political slugfest in Maharashtra with a BJP MLA today demanding its implementation in schools and colleges of the state, while AIMIM and SP MLAs opposed any such move.

While AIMIM MLA from Mumbai, Waris Pathan said that he would not sing the national song "even if anyone puts revolver to my head", SPs Maharashtra unit president and MLA, Abu Asim Azmi said he would not sing Vande Mataram even if he was "thrown out of the country".

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The reaction comes in the wake of a demand raised by senior BJP MLA Raj Purohit, who, citing the HC order, said singing of Vande Mataram should be made mandatory in all schools and colleges across Maharashtra.

Speaking to reporters outside the Vidhan Bhavan, Purohit, the BJP chief whip in the Assembly, stated that he would meet Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis tomorrow and seek the latters intervention to make singing of Vande Mataram compulsory.

"I will raise the demand in the House as well. I will tell the chief minister that the government should come up with a policy which would make it compulsory for everybody to sing Vande Mataram at the beginning of an event and Jana Gana Mana at the end," Purohit said.

Reacting to Purohits demand, Pathan, who represents Byculla constituency in south Mumbai, said a particular ideology cannot be imposed on people.

"I will not sing Vande Mataram. My religion as well as law do not allow me to sing it. Even if anyone puts a revolver to my head, I will not sing it. I will oppose the demand in the House," he said.

Azmi alleged the BJP was following the instructions of the RSS, which would eventually polarise the society.

"I am a true follower of Islam. Singing Vande Mataram would be against my religion as well as Constitution. A true Muslim will never sing it. I will also not sing Vande Matram even if I am thrown out of the country," he told reporters.

However, the BJPs otherwise unpredictable ally Shiv Sena backed Purohit.

Condemning the AIMIM and the SP, senior Sena leader and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote said they are "traitors".

"They need to know that it (Vande Mataram) is a patriotic song which was sung by freedom fighters during the struggle for Independence," he said.

In its order on Tuesday, the Madras HC made singing of the national song mandatory in schools across Tamil Nadu, at least twice a week.

As per the order, private and government schools in the southern state should ensure that their students sing the national song at least twice a week preferably on Monday and Friday. The order also said the song can also be played in other government and private establishments at least once in a month.

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The high court also said that if any person or organisation has difficulty in singing or playing the song, they shall not be compelled or forced to sing it, provided there are valid reasons for not doing so. PTI ND NSK SRY

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By PTI: Shillong, Jul 27 (PTI) India and Bangladesh are expected to soon sign an MoU on elephant conservation and management as top forest and environment officials of both the countries met here today to discuss on how best to alleviate the human-elephant conflicts.

Forest officials from the states of Assam, Meghalaya, West Bengal and Tripura and an 11 member team from Bangladesh attended the 2nd Indo-Bangladesh dialogue for trans boundary conservation of elephants here and discussed at length on how best to coordinate the free movements of the pachyderms to and fro the International border and prevent their poaching.

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"It was agreed (in 2015) to develop an operational guideline to handle trans boundary movement of elephants and as a follow up action of this, dialogue is on and the protocol or else a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the two countries is expected soon," Bangladesh Chief Conservator of Forest, Md Shafiul Alam Chowdhury said.

He said the main aim of this was to ensure safe and free movement of trans boundary wild elephants across the international borders between these two countries.

As both the countries have earlier met in Kolkata and agreed on how to tackle the human-elephant conflict in their turfs, Chowdhury said Bangladesh government has planted 7 lakh seedlings of elephant fodder species in about 600 hectare area in Shepur and Chittagong districts as bio-fencing apart from putting up a 20 km-long solar powered fencing and a pilot project of early warning systems in conflict prone areas. India?s Director General of Forests, Siddhanta Das admitted the need to come up with the guidelines as human-elephant conflict is on the rise.

He said, "The human-elephant conflict is on the rise due to habitat fragmentation. Over 400 people die every year due to the conflict and it was the result of deaths of over 100 elephants."

He underlined the need to take people and the border guards of both the countries along as stakeholders in the process to help alleviate losses due to elephant movements.

Stating that even as the new elephant census will be out soon, Das said the elephant population is about 30,000 (according to 2012 census) and has been growing whereas Bangladesh has about 200 of them. In North East, there are 9000 known wild elephants out of which about 1800 are in Meghalaya alone and they sometimes cross over to Bangladesh through identified areas or corridors, he said. One of the reasons of the human-elephant conflict was because in India, only 22 per cent of migrations take place through protected forests while the rest of the time, they pass through forests, tea estates, orchards, agricultural lands, he said. Meghalaya Cabinet Minister Ronnie V Lyngdoh who replaced indisposed Forest Minister Clement Marak said over 14,700 human-elephant conflicts took place in the last seven years in the state causing deaths and injuries to 69 and 48 persons respectively. Over 118 livestocks were killed and 1325 households were damaged and 1,13,194 cases of damages to crops, he said as these elephants criss-cross the 443 km long Indo-Bangladesh boundary as well as movement inside the state. PTI JOP RG

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By PTI: to Badush

New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq governments help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy V K Singh to Badush.

She also expressed Indias support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their countrys sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said today.

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Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs.

"Swaraj reiterated Indian governments request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraqs continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken," the spokesperson said.

He also said Swaraj requested the Iraqi leader to facilitate the visit of Singh to Badush whenever there was more information, to which the visiting dignitary readily agreed.

The visit by Singh will be more meaningful if there is more information with the Iraqi government, he said when asked when will the minister travel to Iraq.

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

Swaraj also congratulated the Iraqi minister over the liberation of the strategic city of Mosul on 9 July by Iraqi forces from the control of the terrorist organisation ISIS.

She assured her Iraqi counterpart that India had always been, and remained strongly committed to a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, a ministry release said.

The minister also thanked Iraq for contributing significantly to Indias energy security, being the second- largest supplier of crude oil to us.

The visiting Minister appreciated Indias steadfast support to Iraq during its difficult times, including through capacity-building under the ITEC programme.

He highlighted that India continued to welcome Iraqi nationals, especially for higher studies and medical treatment.

The Iraqi foreign minister also invited Indian companies to participate in the reconstruction and rebuilding of Iraq, which Swaraj welcomed, the release said.

The visiting minister thanked Swaraj for her letter of congratulations and for visit of Singh, who was the first senior foreign dignitary to visit Iraq after the liberation of Mosul. PTI PYK ZMN

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You might think you've tasted the worst-food-ever on an Indian train, but there's no end to unhealthy food providers.

By Shreya Goswami: Food served on Indian trains has been in focus recently, and for all the wrong reasons. First, we had the Comptroller and Auditor General report announcing that the packaged food and water served on Indian Railways is unfit for human consumption. And then came the shocking discovery of a lizard in the food served to a passenger aboard the Poorva Express!

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Gone are the days when our parents and grandparents claimed that the food served on long-distance Indian trains like Rajdhanis and Shatabdis are way too good! The quality of food served on the Indian Railways, the fourth-largest railway network in the world, has gone down in all aspects--hygiene, quantity and flavours.

Picture for representative purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/sairajdevil

As sad as this scenario is, there are actually worse food options in this country. And, even worse, we don't have any way to live away from these either. Most of these options are cheap, which is still one of the greatest considerations for the hungry in India. A large part of our population gets its meals through these systems.

Also Read: Indian Railways' food has actually been declared unfit for your consumption

Here are a few of these services that we could do without for the sake of our health, but can't because they're cheap and easily available (unlike other options).

1. Government Hostel Mess

Ask any student staying away from home at a government hostel in India, from JNU to IIT or IIM, and they'll tell you what a punishment the food served at their hostel mess is. Of course, graduate and post-graduate students don't have the means to eat out every day.

They usually live on the food served at subsidised government canteens, which don't just serve the same-old, monotonous food (mostly consisting of potatoes, starchy dal and overcooked rice). These places have very low focus on food-safety standards, which is why finding the odd cockroach or flies in the sabji isn't an extraordinary occurence. But when you get three-meals-a-day for a month at merely rupees thousand, what else can you do?

Picture for representative purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/rakeshkr55

2. PG Tiffin Services

Now this isn't just an issue for college and university students who have to live in paying guest facilities, but also young professionals who survive on cheap accommodations and food. These PGs are not government funded, but the food served there is no better than hostel-mess food.

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There are some rather good tiffin services in metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai, but they're equally expensive. The more cost-effective ones cook food in bulk, where the food has more chances of getting contaminated with unhygienic water, and of course, insects. That's exactly why you'll find most PG residents complaining about health issues resulting from the consumption of unhygienic food.

Picture for representative purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/ratnachef

Also Read: 6 religious places in India with community kitchens that serve food to thousands every day

3. Bus Stands

Railway travel isn't the only cheap option we have in India. Road transport is as much of an option, especially because they provide more thorough communication. We're sure you've travelled to some remote and picturesque village or hill station for your vacation in buses. And we're sure you've had to avail the food services provided at bus stands.

If you have, then you know just how unhygienic the food in these places is. The bathrooms are barely ever clean, and the food vendors sit and cook quite close to these urinals. Chances are that even the tea served at these bus stands is made from the same water that's available in the bathrooms. Apart from UTIs, people travelling by buses frequently also have diarrhea, dysentry and food poisoning to reckon with.

Picture for representative purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/_discover_recover

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4. Street Vendors

Yes, we know, the food served by street vendors in India are simply delicious. Who can say no to golgappas and phuchkas, let alone the puri-sabji and dal-chawal that's served by cheap lunch stalls? Most of us are used to turning a blind eye towards the way this food is cooked,

But the fact remains that we contract a number of diseases by eating at street-food stalls. That phuchka water could easily be from the nearby urinal, and who knows what water that rajma is cooked in. Even the fried food items, like kachoris and pakoras, can be contaminated when prepared on the side of a busy and rather polluted road. And haven't you noticed the same, stale oil being used to fry at least a whole day's worth of fries?

Picture for representative purpose. Picture courtesy: Instagram/ekjotclicks

Also Read: Is liquid nitrogen even healthy for you? Here's the downside of the latest Indian food trend

5. Small-Town Hospitals

Oh, the irony of it! The food served at hospitals is supposed to be completely hygienic, and that's the case in a number of private hospitals that are well-funded. But the most easily-accessible hospitals are the government-run, underfunded ones, and the food-safety standards there are quite deplorable.

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The kitchens at these facilities are subsidised, and one never knows what sort of water goes into cooking the food. Safety standards are difficult to maintain in these hospitals, which is why even the atta can be easily contaminated with rat faeces. Instead of getting better, chances are that thousands get even more sick, or go through long-drawn recovery periods.

The trouble with food services in India is, as we have seen, twofold. It is related to underfunded government services--like in the case of the hostel mess and hospitals--as well as failing food-safety standards.

Funnily enough, religious institutions cook in bulk and cater to thousands of pilgrims, but public service is such a major concern in these places that food safety and health standards are met with meticulously. Maybe if the remaining food providers in the country take their service as seriously as those serving simple bhog, prasads, iftars in temples and mosques, cases of failing food-safety can be overcome.

The key here is negligence more than funding. Simple meals cooked with care would clearly do us a lot of good, whether it's on the Indian Railways, government-run canteens or hospitals.

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By PTI: Boston/Chennai, Jul 27 (PTI) An Indian scientist at MIT has developed a sticker-like wearable sensor that can detect sexual assault in real time and quickly alert nearby people as well as the victims friends and family to seek help.

The sensor, which can be attached to any piece of clothing like a sticker, could be trained to learn the difference between when a person is undressing themselves and when they are being forcefully disrobed, Manisha Mohan, research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the US, told PTI.

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This allows the sensor to detect signs of an assault even when the victim is unconscious or not in the position to fight against the assaulter, such as in case of minors, bed-ridden patients or intoxicated people.

An integrated bluetooth connected to a smartphone app can trigger a loud noise to alert people nearby and send out a distress signals to pre-defined family members or emergency services.

The sensor works in two modes. In passive mode, the wearer is assumed to be conscious and can set off loud alarms or distress calls on their own by touching a button when they encounter an approaching threat.

In the active mode, the sensor tries to detect signals from the external environment.

For example, if somebody is trying to remove the clothing off the victims body, a message is sent to the smartphone to confirm if the act was done with consent.

If the victim does not respond within 30 seconds, the phone begins to emit a loud noise to alert the user and nearby people.

If the victim does not stop this alarm using a predefined password within the next 20 seconds, the smartphone app can automatically send distress signals to family or friends, along with the location of the victim.

Mohans experience as an engineering student in Chennai inpired her to create the device.

"Female students on campus were not allowed to work beyond certain hours. You were expected to be back in your dorm by 6:30 pm," Mohan said.

"Instead of asking them to remain indoors I think we should provide more safety for them," she said.

The technology can seamlessly integrate with existing clothing to respond to initial signs of assault such as forced disrobing, researchers said.

"The proposed solutions aim to combat child sexual abuse, college campus assault and abuse of elderly and disabled," they said.

"We dont need body guards, I think we should have the ability to protect ourselves," said Mohan. PTI MHN SAR MHN

--- ENDS ---
The initial deal had Italys Fincantieri getting a 66.6% share in the yard following the collapse of South Korean parent STX. France kept its 33.3% and its veto right. Subsequently Fincantieri agreed to reduce its stake to 48% by selling shares to an Italian investment consortium, Fondazione CR Trieste. French state-controlled naval shipbuilder DCNS would take a 12% stake.

At MSC Meraviglias delivery in June, newly inaugurated French President Emmanuel Macron called for a revision of the terms of the STX France agreement, approved in April by the former government.

This led to the new proposal which Rome doesn't appear ready to accept, according to an Italian ministry source cited by the AFP French Press Agency.

'If our Italian friends tell us that they dont agree with our offer, using our pre-emptive rights will give us time to renegotiate a new shareholder agreement in very serene conditions,' Le Maire said Wednesday on FranceInfo radio. An STX takeover by the French state would involve a limited investment of 'tens of millions of euros' on a 'temporary' basis.

According to the Economy Ministry, the French shareholders in this new arrangement would include Naval Group (ex-DCNS), the French state (through BpiFrance) and the STX employees.

An official announcement is expected Thursday.

See update: 'France nationalizes STX yard, buying time to renegotiate sale'
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Pakistan said today that Indias restrictions on granting medical visas to Pakistani patients was "highly regrettable" and against the diplomatic norms.

Foreign Office spokesman Nafees Zakaria said the restrictions were in response to Pakistan awarding the death sentence to Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav.

A letter of recommendation by Pakistan Foreign Affairs Advisor Sartaj Aziz will enable a Pakistani national to get a medical visa for India, the External Affairs Ministry had announced in May.

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"It is highly regrettable that India has placed such restrictions on visas for patients who are suffering from serious and terminal illnesses. Asking for a letter from the Foreign affairs Adviser is against the diplomatic norms," Zakaria said.

"Such a requirement has not been prescribed for any other country. We are making suitable alternative arrangements, both within Pakistan as well as in friendly countries," he said.

Zakaria also accused India of not taking action against those involved in the Samjhauta Express attack.

He said the USD 50 million blocked by the US was not aid but reimbursement of what has actually been spent by Pakistan on counter terrorism operations.

Earlier on July 8, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj waived the condition of a letter from Aziz for an ailing PoK resident to get a visa and said he would be allowed to come to come India as Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) was an integral part of India.

Osama Ali, a 24-year old resident of Rawalkot in PoK, had been diagnosed with a tumour in his liver and wanted to seek treatment in Delhi.

"POK is an integral part of India. Pakistan has illegally occupied it. We are giving him visa. No letter required," Swaraj had tweeted.

Indias decision to impose restrictions on medical visas for Pakistani nationals came in the wake of growing tensions between the two countries. PTI SH MRJ SK MRJ

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The first of six cruises this winter aboard Victory I will depart on Feb. 8.

The 14-night itinerary features five Cuban ports and overnight calls at Havana, historic Santiago de Cuba and Trinidad, with day calls at Cienfuegos and Maria la Gorda.

Staying true to its all-inclusive philosophy, Victory bundles all beverages, including spirits, shore excursions and port experiences, into one price.

'We may not be the first cruise line to serve Cuba from the US, but we believeand travel agents have told usthat we have created the best itinerary with our multiday port experiences that will allow our guests to really explore the country and its people in a more relaxed and well-paced way,' Victory president and ceo Bruce Nierenberg said.

The 202-passenger Victory I is able to call at ports where larger ships can't and its Cuba 360 cruises will completely circle the island.

Nierenberg said Victory I is also distinguished by the classically furnished Victory I, which offers outstanding dining and service. 'Add to that our immersive shore excursions and creative port experiences and our guests will have an unmatched opportunity to really get to know the culture and people of this undiscovered region and largest country in the Caribbean,' he said.

According to Victory Cruise Lines, its sailings comply with all US regulations for Americans traveling to Cuba, including recent regulatory changes announced by the Trump administration. Shore excursions meet guidelines for Americans visiting Cuba, and the line will provide certification of compliance with US regulations for all travelers on Victory I.

The ship departs from Miami Feb. 8 and 22, March 9 and 24, and April 7 and 20, 2018. All-inclusive fares start at $8,957 per person, double occupancy.

The 2018 winter season ends with an 11-day 'Cuba and Colonial America' repositioning voyage that begins May 5 with a short flight from Miami to Havana (included) and an overnight stay at Havana. Victory I then departs Havana May 6 and will call at Jacksonville (for St. Augustine), Florida; Charleston (for Mount Pleasant), South Carolina; Norfolk (Yorktown), Virginia; Newport, Rhode Island; and Gloucester (near Boston), Massachusetts, ending in Portland, Maine. Fares start at $6,890 per person, double occupancy.

Victory I will then reposition with an 11-day voyage from Portland to Toronto, Ontario, for a summer season of 'Great Lakes Grand Discovery' cruises between Toronto and Chicago.

In recent news, Victory announced the acquisition of a second ship, Victory II, to enter service next May in Canada/New England and the Great Lakes.
The project is supported by Japanese shipowner Hisafuku Kisen KK and will involve several large bulk carriers including 2015-built 81,870-dwt Belgrano, 2017-built 81,870-dwt Nord Gemini, and 2009-built 55,486-dwt Bulk Chile.

For each ship, an estimate of the propulsive power that could be provided by EMPs array of patented technologies including the EnergySail will be prepared according to the routes the ships operate on. In addition, the solar power capacity requirement for each vessel can be determined.

Upon completion of the feasibility study, one ship will be selected for the sea trials phase. During this phase a trial configuration that will incorporate all the elements of Aquarius MRE will be installed and evaluated during a period of 12 to 18 months.

The rigid sails used by Aquarius MRE are based on EMPs EnergySail technology.

The Aquarius MRE in itself is an advanced integrated system of rigid sails, marine-grade solar panels, energy storage modules and marine computers that will enable ships to tap into renewable energy by harnessing the power provided by the wind and sun. The use of these alternative sources of power and propulsion will reduce fuel consumption, lower air pollution and cut carbon dioxide emissions.

These renewable energy devices can be used even when a ship is at anchor or in harbour.

Greg Atkinson, founder and chief technology officer of EMP, believed that the Aquarius MRE will pave the way towards the widespread adoption of renewable energy on ships.

Chikashi Yamane, president of Hisafuku Kisen, said: Our company is pleased to be part of this exciting project which is leading the way towards the use of renewable energy related technologies on ships.

A number of partners are involved in the Aquarius MRE project including KEI System, The Furukawa Battery Company and Teramoto Iron Works. EMP is also in discussions with several companies including potential investors, about their possible involvement in the project.
The regional container line recorded a second quarter net profit of $2.05m, an improvement of 8.8% from the gain of $1.89m in the same period of last year.

The quarterly revenue also rose by 7.4% year-on-year to $71.22m on the back of higher contribution from its main container shipping business segment.

The companys container shipping business saw an increase in volumes handled from 298,100 teu in the first quarter of 2016 to 306,700 teu in the second quarter of 2017.

The regional container shipping industry continues to face headwinds amid capacity and demand imbalance. Competition for cargo remains strong, resulting in intense pressure on freight rates, whilst bunker prices are expected to continue its rally in the near term, Singapore-listed Samudera Shipping said.

Revenue from its smaller bulk and tanker business segments declined on the back of a smaller tanker fleet but the decline was partially mitigated by an improvement in vessel employment days and charter rates of the bulk carrier fleet.

The group will continue to focus on maintaining its competitiveness in regional waters, while optimising asset utilisation and operational efficiency to strengthen itself for the challenge ahead, the company commented.
A standard bearer for digitalisation in shipping Maersk responded quickly but the company still needed a month to get its systems back fully functioning, highlighting not just the vulnerability of companies in global shipping to attack, but also the scale the problem that can result.

Certainly there is now awareness at all levels in the industry - from the office executive to the board member. However how to actually tackle the issue of cyber security remains rather more problematic.

Attending the business panel session at the cyber security event RSA Conference 2017 Asia Pacific and Japan this week revealed a surprising similarity in problems facing the cyber security sector and as those that face shipping. And much like maritime the difficulty it has in explaining its message to the wider world. Many of the issues discussed facing the cyber security sector could easily have been transposed to talking to about shipping  regulations that were just about ticking boxes, attracting talent to the industry  especially women, and the role of the human element in incidents.

At very basic level there is a human element to the problem of cyber security. Much as the human element is to blame for 90% of the accidents in shipping, the human actor is very much a factor in cyber security breaches.

The threats raised malicious emails and viruses on USB sticks are well known, but it does not stop these incidents from happening. Benjamin Ang, senior fellow, Centre of Excellence for National Security (CENS) at RSIS, National Technological University Singapore, noted it takes people a long time learn new procedures. Weve had centuries to learn to lock our doors when leaving the house but just a few years to learn about cyber security. Similarly health campaigns last for decades to change behaviour.

The point was made by moderator Hugh Thompson, cto of Symantec, that a lot of the early parts of a cyber attack stemmed from the social aspect where cyber criminals convinced people to do something they shouldnt.

While C-suite executives and board members may well now have cyber security as major item on their radar, both how they view tackling the issue and how IT professionals can communicate solutions to them are another issue.

Much like shipping executives happily talk to each other about the complexities industry, but find it much harder to explain the industry to the outside world - the same applies to cyber security. Ang highlighted that one of the challenges was that other profession such as for example lawyers may not be exactly tech friendly.

When it comes to talking to senior executives in other sectors he said sometimes you need someone from outside the tech sphere who has crossed over and can speak to the board of directors in their language rather than cyber security jargon.

As for solutions senior executives are often looking for single magic fix. Diana Kelley, global executive security advisor for IBM shared that as humans we like magpie things  by which she meant things that are bright and shiny and will, we believe, help fix all our problems in one go. The reality is though constant work is required rather than a quick fix, rather like maintaining personal health. We have to get the board to appreciate this going to take some good solid hygiene work, she said.

The example of a table top exercise involving ransomware was cited where while mid-level executives debated hotly how to fix the problem, the cfo came along and asked how much the ransom was. On being told it was $1m his simple response was pay it.

One potential answer to issues of cyber security could be regulation as is being seen in the EU with the NIS Directive but this solution did not get an exactly enthusiastic response from the panel.

Zulkikar Ramzan, chief technology officer for RSA, noted that, for the longest time compliance has been a dirty word in security as people just ticked the boxes, however these exercises did not necessarily ensure security.

With the explosion of digitalisation and the Internet of Things, including in the world of shipping, cyber security is an issue that is not going away and the ability for both IT and non-tech executives to understand how to handle it will be crucial to future business operations.
Two gates of Jawai Dam, which happens to be the biggest in western Rajasthan, were opened on Thursday after the level of water in the dam rose above 60 feet. Heavy rains and rise in water levels of rivers have affected many parts of Rajasthan.

Water flowing out of one gate of Jawai Dam in Rajasthan's Pali district.

By Dev Ankur Wadhawan: Two gates of Jawai Dam, which happens to be the biggest in western Rajasthan, were opened on Thursday after the level of water in the dam rose above 60 feet. Much like Gujarat and Assam, heavy rains and rise in water levels of rivers have affected several parts of Rajasthan too.

Civilians from various parts of the state have been rescued as relief and rescue operations continue in full swing.

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It was initially decided that the gates of the dam would be opened at 9 am. But due to low water flow, they were opened after 2 pm.

The Jawai Dam (also called Jawai Bandh) falls under Sumerpur tehsil of Pali district in Rajasthan.

Jawai Dam.

ALL THAT YOU NEED TO KNOW Announcements were made by the Pali district administration, alerting villagers not to venture close to the dam before the gates were opened. The flow of water will be increased slowly. Due to the opening of the gate, water level in the Jawai river is expected to rise. Water will reach the Jalore district from Pali. With rise in level of water, more gates of the Jawai dam could be opened in some time. Earlier, 41 civilians, stranded in flood-hit villages including Killua, Kilua ka Golia and Bawarla under Sanchore area of Jalore district, were rescued. Also, 29 bus passengers, including children and ladies, were rescued from flood-affected Godan-Badanwari road of Jalore. So far, more than 350 people have been rescued by the Indian Air Forced (IAF) in operations carried out in different parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. The IAF had deployed at least 20 MI-17/MI-17V5 Helicopters and 5 Chetak/ Cheetah Helicopters. More than 15.6 tonnes of food packets or relief materials have been dropped during relief efforts being carried out in various parts of Rajasthan and Gujarat. In several districts of Rajasthan, including Pali and Jalore, the Battle Axe Division of the Indian Army has rescued many people and distributed food and medicines to provide succour to flood victims. The team has so far mobilised several columns of troops along with specialised equipment. It also made use of trained manpower to boost rescue and relief efforts in several places affected by floods. The Indian Army had received a requisition from the Rajasthan government seeking aid. Additional columns of the Indian Army were also moved for deployment in Jalore to provide assistance to the administrative authorities in relief and rescue work. Heavy rains in several parts had resulted in parts of Jalore becoming inaccessible by roads. The worst-affected areas included Bhinmal, Raniwara and sub division of Jalore. Teams of the Indian Army and SDRF had reached Jalore from Barmer to carry out the rescue work. Several people, who had to climb trees for safety, were also rescued. In Pali itself, teams of NDRF, Home Guard and the local administration managed to save more than 150 people with the help of helicopters. In Sirohi, around 800 people were rescued and taken to safer places. Arrangements to provide them food were made.

Also read |

PM Modi takes stock of flood-hit Gujarat, declares Rs 500 crore relief

Heavy rains in Odisha trigger flash floods in coastal Andhra Pradesh

ALSO WATCH VIDEO | Rajasthan: Heavy rainfall triggers landslide in Mount Abu, tourists stranded

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Three terrorists were killed in the gunfight with security forces in Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

By India Today Web Desk: An infiltration bid was today foiled by the security forces, about 123 kilometers from Srinagar, in Gurez sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

Three terrorists were killed in the gunfight.

"Three terrorists have been killed by the Army on the LoC in Gurez sector where an infiltration bid by the terrorists was foiled today," Defence Ministry spokesman Colonel Rajesh Kalia said.

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"The operation against terrorists is still on," Kalia added at 11.45 am

More details awaited.

ALSO READ

India doesn't have ammunition for a long war, key concerns in CAG report explained

Wife of Army officer slaps junior officer's spouse during an event; matter reaches PMO

ALSO WATCH

As Doklam standoff continues, Pakistan turns up border heat

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Miller-Davis Company has hired three new staff members for projects throughout Michigan.Amanda Mason, Chad Kandow and Mike Hill have all joined the Miller-Davis team and are based in the Kalamazoo office.Amanda Mason has been hired as a project manager and will oversee and lead construction projects. She will serve as the primary office contact for those projects. She will be responsible for all aspects of construction, from the design phase through warranty. Mason previously served as a project construction manager with Elzinga & Volkers in Holland. She also previously was a project director for CSM Group and as a project manager for Clark Construction Group. Mason earned a Bachelor of Science in civil and environmental engineering degree from the University of Michigan.Chad Kandow will provide overall on-site management of construction projects and serve as the primary field contact for projects. Kandow previously held was a project manager and superintendent for Brayman Construction Corporation in Saxonburg, Penn. and as a quality control manager and site foreman for Nicholson Construction Company in Pittsburgh. Kandow earned a Bachelor of Science from Lake Superior State University.Mike Hill has also been hired as a project superintendent. He will provide overall on-site management of construction projects and serve as the primary field contact for projects. Hill has worked on projects with Miller-Davis Company for several years in his previous position as a carpenter foreman.Were excited to have Amanda, Chad and Mike join our team at Miller-Davis. They each bring significant experience that is critical to our continuing success, says Rex Bell, Miller-Davis Company president. Miller-Davis Company is a full-service construction company. It provides general contracting, construction management, design-build and construction consulting services. Miller-Davis, founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1909, has its headquarters in Kalamazoo and an office in South Bend, Ind.Source: Miller-Davis Company
Madhya Pradesh's Sehore and Dhar districts procured 17,837.32 and 22,104.29 metric tonne onions respectively in excess of the amount produced by the farmers, documents accessed by India Today have shown.

By Hemender Sharma: Onion procurement in Madhya Pradesh at the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 8 per kg offered by the state government is getting murkier as more alarming details have emerged.

After India Today exposed the official-trader nexus that was fixing the bidding process that ultimately led to the arrest of four people including the general manager of the civil supplies corporation, it has now been learnt that two districts procured onion much more than produced by the farmers.

A circular from Dhar district collector on production of onions.

Quantity of onion produced by different districts of Madhya Pradesh.

HERE IS ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW India Today has accessed documents that point towards a much larger scam. According to these official documents, Sehore - home district of Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan - produced 76,634.32 metric tonne onions this year. It has also been learnt that MARKFED - the agency tasked with procuring onions this year - obtained 76,634.32 metric tonne onions in 2017. This means 17,837.32 metric tonne onions, in excess of the amount produced by the farmers, was procured. So where did this excess onion come from? According to a top source in the Economic Offences Wing (EOW), the agency that has arrested four people following the India Today investigation, middlemen and traders who had fixed the bidding process in all likelihood sold the onions to the government at Rs 8 per kg, which they had bought from the government at Rs 2 per kg, thus making a profit of Rs 6 per kg. "If we translate the excess onion procured in Sehore alone into money at Rs 8 per kg, it amounts to something around Rs 20 crore. So this effectively means that the government dished our Rs 20 crore for onions that were never produced by farmers in just one district", the top source said. Similar anomalies have been reported from the Dhar district where according to official figures, 65,000 metric tonne onions were produced whereas MARKFED procured 87,104.29 metric tonne onions. In Dhar, 22,104.29 metric tonne excess onions were procured. Dhar district collector Shriman Shukla, in fact, wrote to the general manager of MARKFED on July 13 in which he expressed doubts over the procuring process, citing the excess onions that were being shown as procured in records. India Today has accessed this letter in which Shukla wrote about the negligence and discrepancies in the procuring process. The opposition Congress has alleged large-scale irregularities. "The process of onion procurement by the government started after June 6 when 6 farmers were killed in police firing in Mandsaur. By that time most farmers had sold their crops at whatever prices available. Also, we saw on TV farmers destroying their crops. So where did this onion come from? It is a huge scam that can be unearthed only after a high-level enquiry", leader of Opposition Ajay Singh said while talking to India Today.

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Also read | Madhya Pradesh Police arrest three more in connection with onion scam

Also read | India Today impact: Madhya Pradesh govt orders audit of sale and purchase of onion

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: MP govt seeks criminal case against accused in onion auction scam

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Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

A man allegedly masturbating on a BART train was placed under citizens arrest in Oakland early Thursday by a fed-up woman who caught him in the act and contacted police, officials said.

The 53-year-old Pittsburg man was allegedly masturbating on a Pittsburg-Bay Point train about 4:40 a.m. when a fellow passenger put him under citizens arrest at the 19th Street Station in Oakland, getting the attention of police and telling them she would act as a witness to the incident, according to BART police.
President Trump returned the military to the culture wars of recent decades Wednesday with a tweeted declaration that transgender people can no longer serve in any capacity in the armed forces.

Conservative allies cheered it as a step back from what they saw as an effort by the Obama administration to run a social engineering experiment in the military. Transgender people and their advocates denounced it as bigoted, and even some of Trumps fellow Republicans criticized it as shortsighted.

After a 20-year fight by LGBT activists and supporters to open the military to gays, lesbians and transgender people had seemingly been settled in their favor under former President Barack Obama, Trump returned to the battlefield with a series of early-morning tweets.

After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military, Trump tweeted. Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Transgender people have been allowed to serve openly in the military since last July, when then-Defense Secretary Ash Carter announced a policy that allowed service members to transition gender in the military, set standards for medical care, and outlined responsibilities for military services and commanders to develop and implement guidance, training and other programs.

The White House was short on details for how Trump would implement his planned ban or how the military would go about removing the thousands of transgender people who are already in the services. White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the presidents announcement is something that the Department of Defense and the White House will have to work together on as implementation takes place.

This was about military readiness; this was about unit cohesion; this was about resources within the military and nothing more, Sanders said.

LGBT activists and like-minded politicians promised to fight any ban, and said Trumps tweets sounded similar to earlier orders barring nonwhite and gay people from the military.

There is no resignation at all among us, said retired Navy Cmdr. Zoe Dunning of San Francisco, a lesbian who retired in 2007 and helped lead the fight to overturn the dont ask, dont tell policy that barred openly gay and lesbian service members. There is complete opposition. I hear nothing different in what Trump says from what was used to justify discrimination against African Americans and the LGBT community before  the same old thing about disrupting cohesion and effectiveness.

Conservatives applauded the presidents move, saying transgender politics and medical costs they can bring with them  small though they may be  have no place in the militarys ranks or budgets.

Obviously, were very happy with this decision by the president, said Brian Brown, president of the National Organization for Marriage. Like many Americans, we believe its long overdue. President Trumps tweet says the military understand that the military is for fighting and winning wars, not engaging in a massive social experiment.

Brown said he hoped Trumps pronouncement was just the beginning of a larger rollback of LGBT presence in the military. The whole subject of homosexuals in the military needs to be readdressed, he said. Unfortunately what weve been seeing on the part of some Republicans is some weak knees addressing this, but were working on that.

For Felicia Flames Alvarado Elizondo, Trumps tweets provoked two reactions. One was anger. The other was a feeling of deja vu.

Elizondo, 71, was a Navy seaman named Felipe serving in Vietnam in 1967 when she told her commanding officer she was gay. After a quick stint in the brig, she was booted out of the service. Within a few years, she had transitioned into a woman and become a gender-rights activist  but nothing, she said, made her any less proud of having served her country.

I was there to fight for my country, and it doesnt matter what your gender is as long as you believe in democracy and fighting for you country, said Elizondo, who lives in San Francisco. People join the military to defend our freedom, and what Trump is doing is horrible. He doesnt know us, or how we are.

Alexander McCoy, a Marine veteran who is now affiliated with anti-Trump, ex-service members, disputed the presidents assertion that the presence of transgender people in the ranks is disruptive. What is disruptive, he said, are military efforts to hunt down people who are in the closet because their sexual orientation  or gender identification  is banned.

The fact that Donald Trump is trying to return our military to (the dont ask, dont tell era) is disgraceful, said McCoy, spokesman for Common Defense, a national grassroots organization that has 15,000 members in California.

Reaction among politicians was quick, and not always predictable. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, called Trumps statement unclear and said the panel would hold hearings on the issue of transgender people serving in the military.

There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train, and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity, McCain said.

Sen. Joni Ernst, R-Iowa, a retired lieutenant colonel in the Iowa National Guard, said anyone who is qualified and can meet the physical training standards to serve in the military should be allowed the opportunity. However, Ernst also believes that taxpayers shouldnt cover the costs associated with a gender reassignment surgery, a spokeswoman said.

Other Republicans strongly backed Trump, including Rep. Duncan Hunter of San Diego, a member of the House Armed Services Committee. He called for a restoration of warrior culture to allow the military to get back to business.

SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

National security should trump social experimentation, always, Duncan said.

Probably the best-known transgender military veteran  Chelsea Manning, who served in the Army as a man and was court-martialed and convicted under the Espionage Act for leaking classified information to Wikileaks  tweeted that the presidents move sounds like cowardice. She said denying health care costs to transgender troops while supporting the $400 billion F-35 fighter jet program is further reason we should dismantle the bloated and dangerous military-intel-police state.

Shane Ortega, 30, of Los Angeles, is a transgender man who served in the Marine Corps from 2005 to 2009 and then in the Army from 2009 to 2016. He served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Ortega began transitioning in 2010 while in the military. On Wednesday morning, he woke up to a phone call from a transgender person currently serving in the military who feared what will come next, and now, once again, feels compelled to hide his sexual orientation as much as possible.

Disruption is not something (the president) is qualified to quantify because Donald Trump has never served in a tactical position in his life, Ortega said. Bullets dont police gender. Bullets dont care if youre fat, green, purple or pink.

Estimates of the number of transgender people in the military range from 6,000, as measured by a Rand Corp. study, to over 15,000, as tallied by the National Center for Transgender Equality.

Rand found that the cost of gender-transition procedures related to health care treatment is relatively low.

The total cost of medical care for transgender troops would increase health care costs by $2.4 million to $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04 percent to 0.13 percent increase in Pentagon health care expenditures, the nonprofit research group said.

Transgender reassignment surgery  which not every trans person chooses to undergo  can cost anywhere from a few thousand dollars to nearly $100,000, depending on how extensive it is, said Courtney DAllaird, founding coordinator for the Gender & Sexuality Resource Center at the University at Albany in New York.

Werent we just last year christening the Harvey Milk vessel in the Navy? DAllaird said, referring to the 2016 naming of a Navy supply vessel after the gay rights pioneer from San Francisco.

And now this? But I have to say that Im shocked that people are shocked. This is not a surprise, said DAllaird, who is a trans man. Its a trend of this administration to specifically attack LGBT rights, to say something to make sure its known to everyone that there will be no attention or support for trans people.

A proposal in the House to eliminate transgender surgery funding for service members was defeated last week, with dozens of Republicans joining Democrats in voting against it.

Kevin Fagan and Sarah Ravani are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. Email:KFagan@

sfchronicle.com, sravani@sfchronicle.com
For a major retail chain, letting a competitor sell its proprietary brands is tantamount to treason.

You would never see Walmart stores carry racks of Cat and Jack shirts, the childrens apparel brand from archrival Target. Or Kroger hawking Walmarts Sams Choice meats.

But as with practically everything else in retail, Amazon.com is rewriting the rules.

As Amazon continues to steal market share from rivals, some competitors are choosing what probably seems like the lesser of the two evils: joining Amazon instead of fighting it. Last week, Sears said it would sell its prized Kenmore appliances on Amazon. And in June, Nike, which operates its own stores and website, said it will offer its footwear through the Seattle online giant.

The irony is that traditional brick-and-mortar chains have long argued that proprietary brands are the ultimate weapon against Amazon. Amazon might sell commodity stuff available anywhere, but these retailers offer unique brands that people can buy only through them  online or off.

But Amazon is not just another seller. Its an enormous online marketplace that can materially shift shopping patterns in a single day. A study by research firm Sense360 estimated that 10 major retailers, including Target, Best Buy and Barnes & Noble, suffered a 24 percent decline in store traffic on July 11, when Amazon celebrated its Prime Day with sales and promotions, compared with the previous 17 Tuesdays.

Retailers just cant ignore those kinds of numbers. Thats why they should consider following Sears lead and work with Amazon, said retail consultant Brittain Ladd.

Among the biggest losers on Amazon Prime Day: Sears, which suffered a 36 percent decline in traffic.

Sears decision reflects a new reality in retail, said Ladd, a former strategist with Amazon who worked on the AmazonFresh grocery business. Amazon customers want appliances, so why not (offer Kenmore appliances) on the leading e-commerce platform?

The goal is to sell product, he said. What do they have to lose?

Other than pride? Its not like retailers like Sears are new to websites; Amazon just does it a lot better. (Sears created Sears.com in 1999.) Outsourcing online selling to Amazon is a tacit acknowledgment that a retailer failed at e-commerce.

And teaming with Amazon could just hasten a retailers demise. In addition to gaining valuable insights into selling appliances, Amazon will learn how to better fill big-ticket orders (transportation, warehousing) for cumbersome items like washing machines and dryers, said retail consultant Brian Kelly.

Amazon is building up its home-services business, too. While Sears says its Sears Home Services unit will benefit from the deal, Amazon, with control of the customer relationship, could displace Sears with its own vendors.

A study by Upstream Commerce, a retail intelligence firm that tracks pricing, suggests that Amazon will use the pricing data from outside merchants who sell through it to ultimately compete with them.

In womens apparel, 25 percent of the top products initially offered by marketplace vendors were sold by Amazon within 12 weeks, according to the report.

The possibility that Amazon is stalking its vendors for their assortment ... demonstrates a powerful practice where Amazon is yet again showing the way to the entire industry, Upstream Commerce CEO Amos Peleg said in a statement.

Kelly, a former chief marketing officer for Sears.com, doesnt think we should read too much into Sears deal with Amazon. The retailer has been struggling for quite some time, which means the partnership might be too little, too late to save Sears.

Its not going to help Sears that much, Kelly said. Amazon will probably reduce prices on Kenmore, heightening the risk of the race to the bottom for a once-profitable brand.

Other analysts believe the partnership is simply a means for Sears to quickly sell the Kenmore brand to Amazon should Sears go bankrupt, as many predict. Already, Sears has sold its Craftsman tool line to Stanley Black & Decker.

But Ladd has a valid point: Amazon has become so dominant that retailers need to rethink their business models and explore creative partnerships, even with rivals.

Everything should be up for discussion, Ladd said.

But Ladd noted that partnerships can benefit both sides.

Take Priceline.com. At first, car rental companies thought the travel site, in which people can bid for things like airline tickets, would be an existential threat to the industry.

Ultimately, these companies chose to work with Priceline, and the result has been higher revenue for everyone, Ladd said.

He also notes that Amazon is not simply selling Kenmore appliances. The company is working with Sears to integrate Amazons Alexa voice technology so customers can, for example, control air conditioners or reorder laundry detergent with verbal commands.

Amazon does not just want to enter categories, Ladd said. It wants to reimagine categories.

Pride aside, brick-and-mortar retailers might need to rethink their relationship with Amazon for this simple reason: Consumer spending has not been growing, which means there is only a limited number of dollars up for grabs. And the stronger Amazon gets, the more irrelevant traditional retailers become.

Thomas Lee is a San Francisco Chronicle columnist. He is the author of Rebuilding Empires (St. Martins Press) on the future of big-box retail in the digital age. Email: tlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ByTomLee
President Trumps newly announced ban on transgender people in the armed forces  assuming his tweets become official policy  will be promptly challenged in federal courts, which traditionally have deferred to the executive branch on questions of fitness for military service.

That deference isnt deterring advocates for transgender service members and prospective recruits.

The U.S. government cannot discriminate against anyone because of their gender identity, Shannon Minter, legal director of the National Center for Lesbian Rights in San Francisco, said Wednesday after Trumps early-morning announcement. The military has to comply with the constitutional requirements of equal protection and due process.

Lawsuits are also planned by the gay-rights group Lambda Legal.

The military has been made stronger by allowing transgender people to do their job without worrying about being discovered, said Peter Renn, a Lambda Legal attorney. The government will argue deference, but deference doesnt mean abdication, that you run roughshod over peoples rights.

But it does mean the cases will be tough to win, said Eugene Fidell, a longtime attorney and commentator on military law who teaches courses in the subject at Yale Law School.

The government has very broad discretion in this area, and federal courts are extraordinarily deferential to governmental decision-making on military policy, Fidell said. While he considers Trumps policy misguided, he said it would be hard litigation to try to overturn this.

Transgender men and women have been serving openly in the military since June 2016, when President Barack Obamas administration ordered a halt to their expulsion. The Rand Corp. has estimated that up to 6,000 active-duty members of the armed forces are transgender, while the Williams Institute at UCLA Law School has put the figure at more than 15,000.

So far, surveys commissioned by the Pentagon have found no harm to military morale or effectiveness.

The Department of Defense found minimal costs, minimal effects on readiness, which Trump is not acknowledging, said Ryan Thoreson, a researcher with the advocacy group Human Rights Watch.

Trumps Twitter proclamation that the government would no longer allow Transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military will take effect only after the Defense Department adopts a formal policy.

Trump spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said later Wednesday that the Pentagon and the White House would work to lawfully determine how to implement the ban.

At that point, the service branches would begin identifying and removing transgender service members and prohibit their enlistment. Procedures for transgender enlistment were part of the Obama administrations June 2016 order that were scheduled to take effect this month, but were postponed for six months by Trumps defense secretary, James Mattis, before Wednesdays announcement.

Fidell said current service members could try to contest their expulsions in military tribunals known as Boards of Correction, whose decisions can be appealed in federal court. But he said their most likely prospect for success in those cases would be to recoup the salaries they would lose for the time left on their enlistment contracts, or, for those nearing retirement, perhaps permission to stay long enough to qualify for a pension.

In non-military cases, an increasing number of federal courts have ruled that civil rights laws against sex discrimination apply to gender identity  an issue the Supreme Court had agreed to review this year before Trump withdrew guidelines Obama had issued supporting transgender advocates in those cases. But Fidell said those civil rights laws dont apply to uniformed military personnel.

Instead, those challenging Trumps decree will rely on constitutional rights such as equal protection and due process of law, which apply to all government institutions.

Federal courts paid little heed to those doctrines during the decades of racial segregation in the U.S. military, which was ended only by an executive order from President Harry Truman  exactly 69 years ago Wednesday. But constitutional standards in cases of alleged bias had become more robust by the time gay-rights advocates challenged dont ask, dont tell, the 1993 law barring gays and lesbians from serving openly in the military.

In a September 2010 ruling, U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips of Riverside said lesbian and gay service members had shown that the 1993 law was infringing their fundamental rights, including privacy, autonomy and freedom of expression, and was harming the armed services. She said government lawyers had failed to show that the law protected military readiness and unit cohesion, the same rationales now offered for a transgender ban.

The Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco later said Phillips had stated adequate grounds for a nationwide injunction. But by then, the Democratic-controlled Congress had voted to repeal dont ask, dont tell, and the law expired in September 2011 without a Supreme Court decision on the militarys authority to determine the sexual orientation of its service members.

The transgender military case will encounter a familiar defense, said Devin Schindler, a constitutional law professor at Western Michigan University  government officials have justified racial segregation and restrictions against women and gays and lesbians in the armed forces by arguing that inclusion would be disruptive, expensive and demoralizing.

The crucial question, he said, will be whether the court requires the Defense Department to provide a strong reason for its policy, the standard for other excluded groups, or settles for any rational justification. And even at the lowest level of scrutiny, Schindler said, there remain serious questions as to whether the increased cost and disruption cited by President Trump are in reality a problem.

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: BEgelko@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @egelko
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Several womens rights groups today sent a memorandum to Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan, reiterating their demand for the passage of the Womens Reservation Bill in Parliament.

Over a thousand women from these groups marched towards Parliament Street here to register their protest and to demand the passage of the Bill in the monsoon session of Parliament, according to a statement issued by the All India Democratic Womens Association (AIDWA).

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"Under-representation of women remains a longstanding injustice, with only 64 women MPs in the current Lok Sabha. In this context, we appeal that no move should be made to dilute the Bill in the name of a consensus. We request that the original Bill be passed immediately," the memorandum said.

It also said that the BJP has not honoured its promise on the issue, in its election manifesto.

The Womens Reservation Bill or the Constitution (108th Amendment) Bill, 2008, has sought to reserve one-third of all seats in the Lok Sabha and legislative assemblies for women.

Notable among those present at the march were CPI(M) politburo member Brinda Karat who lamented that India was behind countries such as Pakistan, Nepal, and Bangladesh in terms of womens representation, as per the press statement.

AIDWA, ANHAD, Feminist India, Leprosy Mission, Nari Shakti Manch, Shehri Mahila Mazdoor Union, Swastika Mahila Samiti, YWCA, were among those that participated in the protest march. PTI JC KUN

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The political deal that led to reauthorization of Californias cap-and-trade program to reduce carbon emissions has many pieces, but one of the strangest is Assembly Constitutional Amendment 1.

To win support from Assembly Republican leader Chad Mayes and presumably several other Republicans, Gov. Jerry Brown and his fellow Democrats agreed to place the measure, authored by Mayes, on next years statewide ballot.

ACA 1 would, if approved by voters, place in the constitution a requirement that money from the quarterly auctions of cap-and-trade emission allowances be diverted into a special reserve fund beginning in 2024 and an appropriation from the reserve would require a two-thirds legislative vote.

Mayes, et al, contend that the two-thirds vote requirement would give Republican legislators a meaningful role in deciding how the cap-and-trade funds are spent, with a subliminal corollary that it would give them a potential veto on Browns controversial bullet train project.

However, as political cover for Republican cap-and-trade votes this month  seven in the Assembly and one in the Senate  ACA 1 is thin gruel.

First of all, it would have to obtain voter approval next year, by no means a certainty. Voters tend to reject ballot measures they dont understand.

Secondly, it doesnt apply until 2024, so until then Democrats will be free to spend billions of dollars in cap-and-trade auction funds however they wish, including a mandatory 25 percent to keep the bullet train project alive.

Next, its highly unlikely that Republicans will have enough legislative members in 2024 to block an appropriation. Democrats have two-thirds supermajorities in both legislative houses now and the next round of redistricting, after the 2020 census, will likely generate even more Democratic seats and make those supermajorities permanent.

Finally, the wording of ACA 1 contains a potential escape route for Democrats. It frees up the cap-and-trade money to be spent by simple majority votes after an appropriation from the reserve fund. Thus, appropriating even one nickel removes Mayes restriction.

The real impact of ACA 1, if any, might be to make it slightly more difficult for the High-Speed Rail Authority to pledge cap-and-trade funds as repayment for a bond issue to build the second phase of the bullet train, linking the San Joaquin Valley to San Jose.

The first stretch of track running down the San Joaquin Valley from Merced to an orchard north of Bakersfield is now under construction. But to have a system that would actually be useful, it would have to be electrified, locomotives and passenger cars would have to be purchased and, most importantly, it would have to link something with something.

Bullet train promoters believe that linking Fresno with San Jose (and to faster Caltrain service from San Jose to San Francisco) would generate enough ridership to prove viability and attract outside capital, but there are no current prospects for financing the $20 billion second phase.

Pledging cap-and-trade money for a construction bond, which officials have suggested, might generate enough to make it happen. But bond buyers would have to believe that emission auctions would generate a sufficient and permanent source of revenue, and that belief could be undercut by the requirement for a two-thirds vote after 2024. Brown appears to be betting that it wont hurt his pet project.

Its one of those tangled financial and political webs that Capitol insiders savor and ordinary people despise.

Dan Walters is a columnist for CALmatters, a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how Californias state Capitol works and why it matters. For more stories by Dan Walters, go to calmatters.org/commentary
The family of a 32-year-old East Bay man who died in a scuffle with officers last year is suing the city of Pittsburg and its police department for wrongful death.

Humberto Martinez died on July 26, 2016, after police chased him into a Pittsburg home and shocked him with an electric stun gun as he resisted arrest, officials said.

Attorneys for Martinezs family said the officers used reckless tactics during the altercation, including an improper carotid hold, and other blows to the suspect, resulting in his death, according to the federal civil rights lawsuit filed Wednesday.

The lawsuit comes on the one-year anniversary of Martinezs death.

Officers said they tried to pull Martinez over around 2:30 the morning of his death, but he drove away and ran into a home on the 4200 block of Hillview Drive.

Martinez had a lengthy criminal history, involving assault and weapons and drug charges, police said. He previously lived at the home and officials said he knew the people living there.

Martinez was actively fighting with police officers on the floor of the homes kitchen, prompting the officers to use a stun gun, Pittsburg police Capt. Ron Raman said shortly after the episode.

The stun gun, though, did not have an effect, and several more officers came to the scene to help subdue Martinez, police said.

Once police handcuffed Martinez, they realized he had become unresponsive. The officers removed the handcuffs, started CPR and used an automatic external defibrillator to revive the man, Raman said. Martinez died at a nearby hospital an hour later.

Attorneys for Martinezs family, though, said the officers use of force was totally unnecessary and unreasonable under the circumstances and was done without a legitimate law enforcement purpose.

The family is suing for damages to cover costs associated with Martinezs death.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky
Three days after Bocadillos ended its 13-year run, we have word on what's taking its place at Jackson Square: Nico, the critically acclaimed modern bistro out of Presidio Heights.

The Michelin-starred restaurant will open in the former Bocadillos space by January 2018 with its same staff, same concept and a brand-new lunch service. Nico's Sacramento Street space will close Aug. 26.

"We've spent probably the last year or so mulling over the move. We just love that Jackson Square neighborhood," says Andrea Delaroque, who co-owns the restaurant with her husband, Nicolas.

Opportunities to fill other locations in Jackson Square popped up for the husband-and-wife duo over the last year, but none seemed to be a fit. And while the Presidio Heights crowd supported the bistro's dinner service over the years, Andrea and Nicolas felt the neighborhood couldn't sustain a lunch service, a component they wanted to implement in the near future.

"With the realities of doing business as a restaurant in San Francisco, and to maintain the integrity of what we do and maintain the staff we have, we have to alter our business model, and that requires lunch service," she said. "Nico is just philosophically against raising the prices really high."

Lunch at the new Nico will be a three-course affair along with an a la carte option. Andrea joked that the staff "doesn't want to keep people hostage for hours on end" in the middle of the day for Nico's five-course evening tasting menu (which runs $60-$70).

Balancing price points and service options is essentially a numbers game, one that Bocadillos co-owner Gerald Hirigoyen realized his restaurant was losing. Bocadillos had a compact list of California-inspired versions of Spanish and Basque small plates where nothing cost more than $20. Hirigoyen the low price points were untenable in today's restaurant environment.

In terms of square footage, Bocadillos space is smaller than what Andrea and Nicolas are used to on Sacramento Street (in fact, it's roughly half the size of Nico), but the idea of a more intimate kitchen and dining room appealed to the couple.

"The space also has a cool history. It was the original Black Cat Cafe, one of the first gay bars in San Francisco. And the winemaker we use a lot, it turns out her grandfather was the original owner. So many things just pulled us toward this space," Andrea said.

As for why Nico is closing in August, five months before its planned debut in Jackson Square, Andrea said the restaurant's crew needed a break. The vacation is actually going to cost Nico its Michelin star since the guidebook will be published while the the restaurant is closed. But for Andrea, that doesn't matter. She and her husband are going to travel through Europe, primarily France and England, where he'll stage at various restaurants.

"Our team works so hard. It's an opportunity to give them some time to take a minute and recharge," she said. "The remodel starts in October, and then we'll hit the ground running."

Nico: Opens at 710 Montgomery St. (at Washington) in January 2018; final service will be Aug. 26 at 3228 Sacramento St.

Justin Phillips is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jphillips@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@JustMrPhillips
Because some Muslims want to harm Americans, wouldnt banning or monitoring Muslims keep us safer? This question burns as a white-hot national controversy.

Even though President Trumps travel ban targets by country rather than religion, the question of religious screening remains open, lacking broad agreement. Many stand behind the presidents campaign pledge to ban Muslims, his support for a Muslim registry, and his consideration of Muslim internment. They believe religious identity predicts risk and reason that adopting religious equality  meaning that religion plays no part in any kind of vetting  would endanger civilians. They see such a policy as overly idealistic political correctness.

What best predicts behavior? Behavior. This stands as a core tenet in my field, predictive analytics (a.k.a. machine learning, a branch of data science), the science of learning from data to drive decisions. As its universal value solidifies, the private and public sectors are rapidly deploying this technology, propelling its market beyond a projected $6.5 billion within a few years.

What do the data tell us? Screening by a demographic category such as religion detrimentally weakens security; screening instead by behavior strengthens it. Religious screening compromises the advancements in security we stand to gain from the latest in data science.

When used most effectively, predictive analytics assesses individuals by their prior behavior. Behavioral data identifies risk more proficiently than demographic data. The reason for this is intuitive: What youve done reflects who you are, while the category in which you belong provides much less precise insight.

Religious screening operates like the bluntest of instruments. Banning an entire religious group from entry would eliminate some attacks, but so would banning, for example, all males between 18 and 35 (across religions). Such broad-stroked approaches would serve only as extremely approximate stand-ins for more revealing behavioral indicators, which can include prior online, financial, travel and criminal activities. Factors such as these present the best opportunity to improve security screening.

Predictive analytics automatically discovers effective combinations of predictive factors, i.e., patterns. Companies and governments apply these patterns to screen millions of individuals for risk on a daily basis. They predict whether you will commit fraud, miss a bill payment, default on a loan, cancel as a customer, quit your job, commit a crime, or respond poorly to a medical treatment. Across these domains, the data repeatedly show that your prior behavior provides the most powerful indicator of future behavior.

Admittedly, data analysis itself hasnt settled the debate as to whether being Muslim is intrinsically predictive of terrorism. One side claims Islamic doctrines are more susceptible to the perversions of extremism. The other, with which I agree, contends that all major religions are susceptible, and that root causes such as geopolitical and socioeconomic factors are the true catalysts, even when terrorists claim they act in the name of a religion.

Tallying up which religion generates the most terrorism has failed to resolve the dispute, because the results vary depending on which attacks are considered true terrorism, which are considered secular, and which time spans are included.

But data analysis does deliver one largely undisputed, critical insight: For no major religion do individual members present a particular danger. Even in the least favorable assessment, individual members of any one religion show an admissibly low risk level, usually below one hundredth of a percent.

As a result, religious identity fails to expose malicious intent. Like any other demographic category, religion places people into broad groups. If religions differ in their overall risk levels, this reflects only general trends rather than absolutes.

Ive found that even my more conservative colleagues, who feel Islam is culpable, understand the culprits are a minuscule minority for any religion. Those colleagues agree that there are many millions of peaceful Muslims who  at least ideally  should be free to practice their faith without being treated differently. As for the opinion of my colleagues as an overall group, the majority of data scientists polled oppose Trumps travel ban.

Ultimately, behavioral data always prevail. But only a steadfast investment in this more sophisticated, behavior-based approach delivers the goods. During development, if behavioral data fail to out-predict religious screening, that is not a sign of failure  rather, it is a signal we must continue the efforts by collecting more behavioral data.

This practice pays off handsomely. Behavioral screening built upon enriched data strengthens security. This is the very process of bringing security fully into the Information Age. Its also the antidote to religious screening, a practice that satisfies the definitions of religious intolerance, discrimination and prejudice (prejudging by religion). We can do better for both security and social justice, so we must.

Eric Siegel, Ph.D., is the founder of the Predictive Analytics World conference series, author of Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die, and a former computer science professor at Columbia University. To comment, submit your letter to the editor at www.sfchronicle.com/letters.
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Skinny was an understated adjective for a bill threatening to deny tens of millions of Americans access to health care and disrupt a sixth of the economy. The skinny repeal defeated by the Senate might be more aptly described as sneaky, scary or  as Republican Nebraska Sen. Ben Sasse put it Thursday  pretty crappy.

Having failed at every turn to undo the Affordable Care Act under pressure from President Trump, mainly because the law he derides as Obamacare is meeting crucial needs, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell devised a last desperate attempt. The idea is a bill that sustains a bare, partisan majority by claiming to repeal the most controversial provisions of the 2010 health care reform, such as the mandate to obtain medical insurance.
President Trumps wish to rid the military of transgender people is the latest indicator of his unfitness as a leader. His harsh message discriminates against a small group, diverts attention from his other failings and serves as a dog-whistle message to his conservative base.

In other words, its craven politics and disgraceful bullying, all in the name of self-preservation. Its served up Trump-style via early-morning tweets with no factual support or serious explanation. His pronouncement said he would not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in the military in any capacity.

Trump is scrambling for an issue to change the channel. Russia, multiple investigations, the health care flameout and cellar-level polling numbers all might be overlooked if the right topic can be found. Trouble is, this one comes with genuine harm and hurtfulness.

Transgender people have chosen to serve in the military, a form of sacrifice many of us including Trump dont make. They are fit and capable, admitted after training verifies their abilities. Following debate and study, the Pentagon is accepting transgender troops as it previously did with gay and lesbian members in the military.

Theres an estimated population of 2,450 transgender people in the world of 1.3 million active-duty military. This tiny slice ranges through the ranks to include the elite commando level of the Navy SEAL s . Theres no evidence of disruption, exorbitant costs or depleted morale, all worry points that critics along with the president use.

Though Trump suggests hes casting out transgender people on the advice of my generals and military experts, none is speaking up. The main reaction from the brass is a stunned silence about an issue thats far from a hot topic. The closest step that matches Trumps door-slam policy is a study authorized by Defense Secretary James Mattis to see how transgender acceptance is going.

These concerns are all within the military world. What Trump wants is a bigger splash on a hot-button question that galvanizes social conservatives. Kicking transgender troops out of their uniforms belongs in the same category as banning them from using a bathroom that fits their gender identity. In this case, invoking military preparedness adds a dose of faux patriotism to a fear-laden argument.

Trump is getting his due results. Human rights groups are promising to sue to block his ban. Hes getting a roasting on Twitter, where his past pledges to protect LGBT people are getting retweeted. A puzzled military is wondering what the president will announce next.

Lost in the aftermath is the human toll. Trumps demonizing of transgender people is a shameful act by a commander in chief whos proving unfit for office.
Just days after announcing Californias Global Climate Action Summit next year, Gov. Jerry Brown graciously invited me to participate as a co-chairman of the event. I accepted this invitation as recognition of not just my companys commitment to improving the global environment, but Indias commitment as well.

India and China have been accused of being the worlds top polluters. Certainly, the two giants of Asia, now emerging from their developing status, have some responsibility for global warming. But they have contributed less to it than the industrialized West. Today, India and China are leaders in the effort to reduce industrial pollution.

Thanks to private and public initiatives, India is on a mission  and perhaps ahead of the United States  to develop more renewable energy. It is aspiring for global leadership in climate action.

India has set an ambitious goal of receiving 40 percent of its power from renewable resources by 2030  a goal we are likely to reach eight years ahead of schedule. This compares to California, which has committed to a goal of 50 percent by 2030, and the United States, which has not committed to a goal.

Out of a planned installation of 175 gigawatts of renewable power capacity by 2022, India has, in the last five years, added almost 30 gigawatts  nearly as much solar capacity as California, Massachusetts and New Jersey combined. With 57 gigawatts of renewable power capacity, India is set to become the third-largest solar power market this year.

India has formed an alliance to expand solar power production in the developing world. The goal is to provide electricity for all people by promoting development of solar, wind, biomass and hydropower energy.

There is a concerted effort in India to shift from coal to solar. Heavy investment in solar and wind has helped drive down costs of electricity to a point where, in many places, renewable sources can generate electricity more cheaply than conventional sources such as coal.

For example, coal-based energy in a few states in India is still priced at 12 cents per kilowatt hour. This year, developers of solar farms in India offered to sell electricity to the central power grid for 4 cents per kilowatt hour. That is about 50 percent less than solar costs a year ago and about 24 percent less than the average price for energy generated by coal-fired power plants.

The shift from fossil fuels has been so much faster than predicted. Although India is permitted to build new coal plants, it has actually canceled plans to build 14 gigawatts of coal-fired power plants. We are unlikely to double our coal production, as feared.

Indias auto industry is taking note. Indias power minister directed that all cars sold in the country should be electric by 2030  no other country has yet made such a commitment. For companies like Mahindra, it represents a way to reinvent ourselves. Automobiles are one of our flagship businesses, and we already have placed our bets on electric vehicles in India (and challenged Tesla to compete with us). Mahindra Electric today boasts one of the worlds largest fleets of electric cars. We are working closely with the government of India on new policies for electric vehicles and setting up charging infrastructure.

Surya, the sun god, is a figure that looms large in Indian mythology, and India is making a valiant effort to reap his blessings.

Anand Mahindra is the chairman of Mahindra Group, a US$19 billion federation of companies with businesses in aerospace, agribusiness, automotive, energy, defense, finance, information technology, real estate and other sectors, headquartered in Mumbai. He will co-chair Californias Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco in September 2018.
Since it is the bastion of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Eddapadi Palanisamy, the police feared a clash might break out between AIADMK and DMK workers.

DMK working president MK Stalin and other party leaders were taken into preventive custody at a check post in Kaniyur in Coimbatore today, as they were heading to Salem to oversee the desilting work of a lake and also protest against the imposition of NEET exams.

Since it is the bastion of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Eddapadi Palanisamy, the police feared a clash might break out between AIADMK and DMK workers. After landing in Coimbatore, Stalin said he should not be arrested in the airport.

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He started moving towards Salem by road accompanied by hundreds of DMK workers, but he was stopped at the check post in Kaniyur where around 400 police personnel had been deployed.

DMK workers, who were with him, started protesting and demanding that he be allowed to continue his journey. The police, not wanting any trouble, consulted with Stalin and he was taken into preventive custody.

Talking to news reporters present at the spot, Stalin said, "Tamil Nadu government is giving pressure to the central government because of DMK. We planned to protest peacefully for NEET in Salem, but taking us into preventive custody is our victory. We don't know if the AIAMDK government is bending before the center or falling at their feet."

DMK is on a mission to desilt lakes across Tamil Nadu which needs to store water. Stalin said that he will soon announce the names of the corrupt ministers and officials who have pocketed money but not desilted lakes.

"Rs 300 crore is allotted for the desilting of lakes under 110 statement of tn government. But where has that money gone," he said.

"The police should arrest the DGP who is involved in the ghutka scam. They couldn't catch black money of Rs 570 crores during the elections. Why are you coming to arrest me," he demanded.

Vehicular traffic was disrupted for nearly one hour due to the detention of Stalin and workers, who were lodged in a nearby marriage hall.

Stalin had earlier appealed to the cadres not to get agitated and court arrest, since they were needed to take part in the human chain protest for the benefit of Tamil Nadu students.

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President Trumps decision to ban transgender people from the military reminds us of all the reasons his administration has gone nowhere fast in seven months.

As he has done before, the president seems to have overlooked key facts in making a decision. He tweeted his early morning edict without consulting important players, including members of his own party. He flip-flopped on a campaign promise. And it was another Trump tweet about an issue that would distract attention from a larger one, in this case Republican senators struggling to remake the nations health care system.

But most of all, it appears Trump again opted to try for a short-term political win at the expense of alienating allies he may need down the road.

Banning transgender personnel from the military was an easy way for Trump to appeal to his conservative base, which has shown signs of turning on him in recent days because of his ongoing criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions. Time will tell if Sessions remains employed, Trump said earlier this week.

Those were fighting words to the powerful conservative media whispering into the ears of the 37 percent of Americans who still support Trump. They love Sessions for his unwavering loyalty to their conservative values.

When Trump announced his candidacy, many conservatives werent sure the wealthy, thrice-married New Yorker was one of them. But they felt a lot better when Sessions became the first senator to endorse Trump in February 2016. On the campaign trail, the two men bonded over their shared desire to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. After Trump moved into the White House, they joined forces to try to ban people from certain countries from traveling to the United States.

But now Trump says hes disappointed in Sessions.

Thats why Rush Limbaugh  still the most listened to commercial broadcaster in America  called Trumps criticism of Sessions unseemly. Breitbart News, which was once led by Steve Bannon, a senior adviser to the president, said the attacks on Sessions are likely to fuel concerns from his base, who see Sessions as the best hope to fulfill Trumps immigration policies.

Former GOP House speaker and regular Fox News guest Newt Gingrich told the network this week that he urged Trump not to fire Sessions. Gingrich hopes the president was listening.

Im encouraged that we have a chance here to walk back from the brink of doing something that I think would be a very big problem, Gingrich told Fox.

For Trump, that problem would be that he would be in Republican no-mans land. Firing Sessions would leave him with fewer allies among the conservative grass roots. It would also upset moderates, who are concerned that Sessions replacement might fire Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating whether Trumps campaign worked with Russia to interfere in last years election.

So to get out of that corner Wednesday, Trump reignited the culture war. And one of the first casualties of that war is the facts.

Trumps stated reason Wednesday for issuing the transgender ban was that the military cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

Tremendous medical costs may be overstated. A 2016 study by the nonpartisan Rand Corp. found that extending gender transition-related health care would increase military costs between $2.4 million and $8.4 million annually, representing a 0.04 to 0.13 percent increase in the annual health care costs.

Even if Wednesdays order was actually about saving money, the White House  much like its botched rollout of the first travel ban  didnt do its due diligence in first consulting military or civilian leaders. That assessment comes from the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Republican Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., an influential figure with whom Trump needs to remain friendly. McCain is also a former Navy pilot and prisoner of war.

I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the secretary of defense, our military leadership and the Congress, McCain said Wednesday, referring to a Pentagon review of the costs and benefits of allowing transgender individuals to enlist. There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military  regardless of their gender identity.

Trumps contention that transgender troops would cause a tremendous disruption dusts off the same kind of fear-mongering that was used to incite angst about women or gay men or African Americans sharing foxholes with straight white men.

Concerns about disruption are overstated. The Rand Corp. studied four countries that permit transgender personnel and in no case did the RAND team find evidence of an effect on operational effectiveness, operational readiness or cohesion.

Republicans like Sen. Joni Ernst of Iowa, a military veteran from a swing state, didnt think it would cause any disruption, either. Nor did Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, one of the most conservative members of the Senate, who said that transgender people are people and deserve the best we can do for them.

Thats what Trump promised he was going to do for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community a year ago when he accepted the GOP nomination.

As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology, Trump said at the Republican convention in Cleveland  believe me.

Instead of protection, Trump opted for politics, sacrificing any potential relationship he could have built with the transgender community. He is doing the same thing Republicans did in 2004, when they stoked fears about same-sex marriage by putting anti-same-sex marriage measures on the ballots in 11 states in order to try to get more conservatives out to vote.

A Trump administration official told the Axios website Wednesday that the ban forces Democrats in Rust Belt states like Ohio, Michigan and Wisconsin to take complete ownership of this issue. How will the blue-collar voters in these states respond when their senators (are) up for re-election in 2018 and are forced to oppose the ban?

Instead of draining the swamp of old ideas, Trump appears to be siphoning from it for short-term political gains and ignoring the long-term implications.

Joe Garofoli is The San Francisco Chronicles senior political writer. Email: jgarofoli@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @joegarofoli
Irish pubs exist outside of time. Kind of like the way elderly grandparents seem to small children, they seem to have been born old: Their wrinkles, their crustiness, their slowness seem not so much acquired as intrinsic. Irish pubs all pretty much look the same, down to the fonts on their facades.

This was more or less my initial reaction to Slainte, a new Irish pub near Oaklands Jack London Square. New Irish pub  is that an oxymoron? Dont Irish pubs have to have just always  been there?

Slainte  cheers in Ireland, pronounced SLAN-chuh  comes to us from partners Jenny Schwarz and Jackie Gallanagh. Schwarz, also a co-owner of the excellent restaurant Hopscotch, is in charge of the drinks. Gallanagh is the chef and, crucially, from Ireland. Proof of authenticity: As a teenager, she worked in a chip shop.

This provenance notwithstanding, Slainte bears marks of Bay Area modern: craft cocktails, Fort Point IPA, a grilled peach salad. Of course theres fish and chips, but the malt vinegar (purists, take a deep breath here) comes in a spray bottle.

When you dump it out of a bottle, the food gets so soggy, Schwarz says of the controversial vessel. Shes quick to add: If someone really wanted to drown their fish and chips in malt vinegar, we have bottles in the kitchen.

Schwarz brings to Slainte the same smart, understated cocktail style shes perfected at Hopscotch. The truth is that cocktails just arent really an Irish thing, period, she admits. But if I was gonna do an Irish pub, I was gonna do an Irish pub with good cocktails.

Tequila may not strike you as especially Celtic, but Schwarzs Bitter Lemon drink (Tequila, cucumber, Fever Tree bitter lemon soda) nods to Schweppes Bitter Lemon, a popular mixer in Ireland. Cocktails in Ireland often consist of a shot, an ice cube and a little bottle of soda mixer passed across the bar to you. But this is Oakland; the bartender mixes it for you.

The Red OHanlon combines Irish whiskey with sweet vermouth and bitters: a manhattan in a different accent. The Spot of Tea riffs on the classic Bee Sting, with a British Isles reference of Earl Grey-steeped vodka. More tart than sweet, its lemony high note overpowers its mint and honey. (All cocktails are $11.)

Guinness is poured correctly here  two turns, first in the tap handles faster setting, then in the slower setting. The stout arrives with such a precise white head, hovering plump just above the brim, that you might mistake it for some kind of craft nitro coffee stout if you didnt know any better.

Similarly, if you didnt know any better, you might expect the house whiskey here to be Jameson, or even Bushmills. But its Powers  and Schwarz feels very strongly about that. Jameson is actually really expensive for what it is, she says. Despite the United States apparent insatiability for Jameson, Powers was the longtime bestselling whiskey in Ireland until recently. Its richer and toastier, if a little more rustic and rough-hewn than Jameson.

If its Jameson you seek, you might consider trying the Jameson Caskmates Stout ($10), finished in barrels seasoned with stout beer, or Jameson Coopers Croze ($14), aged in virgin American oak, used bourbon barrels and Sherry barrels.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

Whiskey-wise, though, youd still be better off without Jameson. Trade up for the fruity, single-pot still Green Spot ($14), or the lush, velvety Midleton Very Rare ($16). If you really want to ball out, try Redbreasts nutty, irresistible 21-year-old single pot still ($24).

Irish whiskey  like Irish pubs, perhaps  these days seems to lack the sexiness of its Scotch, Japanese and Kentuckian counterparts. But I maintain that its sex appeal is no less powerful, just more demure. Where scotch and bourbon can be loud and rowdy  smoky palate bombs, assaulting with peat or caramel  Irish whiskey is often quiet, clean, subtle. (Disclaimer: I cant stand Laphroaig.)

It makes sense that Schwarz, who offers lots of Japanese whiskeys at Hopscotch, should be drawn to these spirits. Irish and Japanese whiskeys are an interesting corollary, she says. Theres a sort of refinement to them both.

Its a great focus for a bar menu. But is Slainte, as its website suggests, an authentic Irish pub? Or are Gallanaghs Irish roots negated by the fact that the malt vinegar comes in a spray bottle?

If it offers better drinks, and cleaner floors, and a less soggy way of eating fish and chips than your average crusty pub, isnt that a good thing?

Or is that native crustiness, impossible to engineer, precisely what makes an Irish pub?

I dont know. But on a recent Sunday afternoon at Slainte, something amazing happened.

Paul Chinn/The Chronicle

Three musicians  a banjo, a fiddle and a guitar  set up in a corner of the bar and started to play Irish music, casually, as if they were sound-checking before a performance. But the performance never came. A mandolin joined a half hour later, then another guitar. A few empty-handed folks sat down and started singing. By the end of the afternoon the ensemble must have been 15 people strong, young and old, Irish and not, all crowded around a few tables in the corner. It wasnt for us. It was for them.

This was a ceili, I later learned  a jam session, a house party. It happens on Sundays and Thursdays at Slainte. It gave the impression that the bar, despite having been open only since April, was a longtime gathering spot for a community. A haunt. A place with regulars.

Maybe that makes it authentically Irish.

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicles wine, beer and spirits writer. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob

To order: Bitter Lemon ($11), Midleton Very Rare ($16)

Where: Slainte, 131 Broadway, Oakland. (510) 823-2644 www.slainteoakland.com

When: 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, until midnight Friday; 10 a.m.-midnight Saturday, and until 11 p.m. Sunday. Closed Monday.
Before the bar opens on a recent weekday morning, men congregate outside the noble white facade of Smileys Schooner Saloon in Bolinas. One brown-bags a Budweiser and eats a tamale from the coffee stand across the street. Another sketches on paper, muttering calculations, tapping his pencil against the side of his face.

One week, says an approaching gray-haired woman, twirling her hands like Stevie Nicks.

Till what, says a burly mustachioed man in a camouflage hat.

The solstice, she says, extending her arms as if proudly presenting a tray of food.

Oh, he says.

You know that whale behind my house? she says, changing the subject. When the scientists from the college got what they needed, someone came and cut it up with a chainsaw. Pushed the pieces out for the sharks.

Some fool cut up that whale with a chainsaw?

He left a piece behind, she says. And its getting skunky.

Haw, the man laughs.

If one searches for local color in misty Bolinas, where the surfboards rattling out of car trunks provide a backbeat to morning bird calls, Smileys provides.

Enjoyed between hikes, surf sessions and farm stand visits, a crawl through the dive bars of rural Marin County feels almost healthy. From Smileys to the Old Western Saloon in Point Reyes Station to the Papermill Creek Saloon near Lagunitas, these bars are monuments to the past and functional gathering places for their present-day communities. Yet a boozy romp through time and space in scenic Marin quickly becomes a meditation on whats at stake in a community that some fear may be swallowed, sharklike, by tourists and moneyed weekenders from nearby cities.

For the visitor, a bar like 166-year-old Smileys provides temporary escape. Worn, infused with the spirits of generations of carousers and dubious characters, such a bar, anchored in its legend, comforts because it feels authentic  real  and, despite changes in ownership over the years, essentially timeless.

During the week by daylight, Smileys is a quiet place for a craft beer and a few rounds of pool. The mirror behind the bar encourages a patron to stare himself down as he paws at the condensation filming his glass of Anchor. In such moments, he isnt all that different from his 19th century predecessor. At night, especially on weekends, crowds come for the music, sometimes after nearby wedding parties. A few years ago, I watched young San Franciscans do Tequila shots and dance to a two-piece band tearing through Jimi Hendrix songs, and then Hendrix-influenced versions of songs Hendrix wasnt alive to cover. On any given night, Smileys, which survived the 1906 earthquake and thrived in its aftermath, shakes with a vitality that, even when bolstered by electric guitars, exhumes its boisterous 19th century taverns soul.

Fourteen miles away, the Old Western Saloon occupies the ground floor of a building once home to a brothel. Model Conestoga wagons parade across the cabinet behind the bar. The wooden bar itself is as lined and cracked as the faces of the old dairy farmers and oystermen one imagines once bellied up to it. On weekend nights, women in designer dresses and sweaty suited men with shirttails hanging out  more wedding party survivors  cha-cha in front of the stage as a blues band plays, the dancers almost-tripping on the stove in the middle of the room. On a Wednesday morning, though, a manager-type works out the weekly schedule over a glass of wine. He makes a rich, balanced, Worcestershire-heavy Bloody Mary, a drink often ruined by too much horseradish or vodka. A young bartender with a shaved head is off to run errands, but before she leaves, he shows her video of a Roger Waters show hes just attended. Heres when the mushrooms kicked in, he cackles as the music presumably swells.

A woman wanders in and orders a Coke with Roses lime juice. She points up at a framed picture of Prince Charles petting a dog at the entrance to the bar. You know Prince Charles was here?

Yeah, growls the manager-type. Thats my dog hes petting.

Prince Charles 2005 visit is recent history at a bar that formerly served as a bootlegger stash house. Legend also has it that locals used to ride their horses into the bar. Back in Bolinas, Smileys has a vivid history, too, of course. In the 1920s the town was a playground for rum-runners, including, for a summer, as some stories go, Al Capone. One wants desperately to envision a sneering Capone chewing on a cigar and shaking his ring-laden fist at a blue whale carcass spoiling his beach view. Back then, the windows of Smileys were painted black, with a barbershop chair visible through one that was left clear. A second door led customers to clandestine drinks instead of haircuts.

After a round at each bar, on the way back to San Francisco or the East Bay, crawlers (presumably ferried by a responsible abstainer) should consider a stop at the cozy Papermill Creek Saloon.

Peter DaSilva/Special to The Chronicle

Up the road from a farm stand on Sir Francis Drake Boulevard, the Papermill was a general store in 1907, and a soda fountain during Prohibition. In the late 1930s it became a tavern, and in 1967, when Thomasina Wilson, the current owner, bought the bar  then called the Lodge  it was a hangout for Janis Joplin and her Big Brother and the Holding Company bandmates. Guitarist Elvin Bishop and members of the Grateful Dead passed through, too, a reminder (if the solstice revelers dont serve as evidence) that 1960s counterculture adds a layer of less distant history to the venues that originally popped up to serve farmers, seafarers and train travelers.

For bar owners, balancing a reverence for these histories with their business demands presents a challenge.

A manager for the past 20 years, Jared Litwin says the Papermill remains unchanged. He is talking about the interior, which is mostly original. Pictures of W.C. Fields and a cigarette-brandishing James Dean peer down at the pool table. A piano sits in the main room. At the same time, the neon signs, flat-screens and ATM machine call attention to the century. On my first visit to the cash-only bar, the ATM fizzled, which I interpreted as the buildings symbolic rejection of newfangled technology.

I always thought we could be doing better with music and social media, says Litwin, who has helped Thomasinas daughter, Rebecca Moore, revamp the bars reputation as a destination for craft beer and cover-free rock, blues and country. Its been fun, a game almost, doing that while keeping the vibe right for the locals, who sometimes like a quiet place. Its about finding the right balance.

Peter DaSilva/Special to The Chronicle

Moore points out that with the renewed focus on music, the bar is returning to its 60s heyday. She echoes Litwin: The people who grew up or gravitated here dont leave. And generations gather here for conversation.

Ive always been fascinated by old buildings, says Leila Monroe, a coastal-conservation lawyer who bought Smileys in 2015. Monroe grew up in the back of a Gold Rush-era restaurant her father owned. This place is iconic, she says of Smileys. In the early morning, when Im the first one here, cleaning, opening the bar, I love the energy reverberating off the walls, the feeling of centuries of people being in this space.

Like Moore and Litwin recasting the Papermill as a music hot spot, Monroe sees Smileys as more than a place to get a beer. She wants the bar to be a living room, a community center, which is a designation of some weight in Bolinas. Monroes nonprofit hosts a residency program for musicians. A writing workshop meets in the upstairs captains quarters.

I try to be very sensitive, says Monroe, who is happy to abide by Bolinas ban on advertising. The other weekend, thousands of cars streamed into West Marin. There was terrible congestion. They werent coming to Smileys; they were coming to surf and hang out by the ocean, and they were upset about parking. We arent contributing to the tension (when it occurs), but we look for constructive ways to alleviate it. When we have a big show, we sell half the tickets at the bar so people here have access. The bar has a strong local constituency, and we have to walk that line.

Peter DaSilva/Special to The Chronicle

For nonresidents, these Marin communities rich in natural beauty and charm can feel precious, otherworldly  like movie sets. Monroe is quick to point out that Bolinas is a working town facing a serious affordable-housing shortage, thanks in part to the many vacation homes that go unused much of the year. I struggle to find staff that can afford to live within an hour of here, she says. Thats a reality, but probably not one that weekenders contemplate when theyre on Highway 1, hoping to find a parking spot.

An hour after hearing about the whale, Im drinking my second Scrimshaw at Smileys, watching the news on the TV positioned high on the wall.

A man in motorcycle gear, shades propped up on his head crowned with gray hair, ambles into the bar and examines the TV. He is tanned and smiling.

I dont watch the news, he adds. Its always bad stuff.

And then hes gone.

Perhaps unfairly, I consider squinting like the cliche of the disgruntled local I am not.

Peter DaSilva/Special to The Chronicle

The historic dives I favor are self-contained ecosystems regularly swarmed by visitors who may appreciate their history but do not necessarily understand or respect the role these saloons play for locals. There is always some tension between the present and the past, but also tension between the local reality and those visiting to escape their own  be it on their doorsteps or in the news. The impulse to escape is natural; over the decades it has brought many people to this part of California. But one persons refuge may be anothers home, and its important to appreciate that with each cold pilsner and perfect Bloody Mary.

Andrew Simmons lives in Oakland. He writes for the Atlantic, the New York Times and other publications. Twitter: @adlsimmons Email: food@sfchronicle.com

Dive bars of West Marin

Smileys Schooner Saloon: 41 Wharf Road, Bolinas. Open daily, 11 a.m.-2 a.m., and from 10 a.m. on weekends; (415) 868-1311 or www.smileyssaloon.com

Old Western Saloon: 11201 Highway 1, Point Reyes Station. Open daily, 10 a.m.-2 a.m.; (415) 663-1661.

Papermill Creek Saloon: 1 Castro St., Forest Knolls. Open Monday 1-11 p.m., Tuesday-Wednesday 3-11 p.m., Thursday 1-11 p.m., Friday-Saturday, noon- 2.a.m., Sunday until 11 p.m. or so; (415) 488-9235 or www.papermillcreeksaloon.com
Ron Chapple/Getty Image

A burglar broke into the garage of a home near Twin Peaks in San Francisco earlier this week, stealing a mans bicycle and leaving an old bike in its place, officials said.

Police believe the thief broke into the home on Mountain Spring Avenue near Twin Peaks between 5 p.m. Monday and midnight Tuesday, according to the San Francisco Police Department.
Four San Francisco supervisors demanded Wednesday that Sutter Health keep the doors open at its Mission District facility for long-term and acutely sick patients. The nonprofit had planned to close it in October.

The request came at the end of a raucous, at times tearful meeting of the supervisors Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee, where scores of doctors, nurses and patient relatives accused Sutter of putting money ahead of the sick and dying.

We want you to go back to your executives and say, Our staff is unified, the supervisors are unified, the Department of Public Health is unified  they all want to keep this unit open, said committee chair Supervisor Hillary Ronen.

And I hope that when we call (another) hearing in September, that thats what well be hearing from your hospital, she said.

The closure of San Franciscos only subacute nursing unit is part of a plan to make way for two new hospitals in Sutters California Pacific Medical Center network  one to replace St. Lukes Hospital in the Mission, which houses the doomed subacute and skilled nursing unit, the other at Van Ness Avenue and Geary Boulevard.

The new St. Lukes campus, renamed Mission Bernal Campus, will open next year, and the building at Van Ness and Geary will follow in 2019. Once they open, Sutter will demolish the old St. Lukes Hospital, hewing to an agreement it negotiated with the city in 2013 to build the new hospital on Van Ness.

That agreement didnt require Sutter to keep any subacute beds in San Francisco.

Both new hospitals are only licensed to have regular beds, which are expected to fill up daily with surgery patients, mothers delivering babies and other people with medical emergencies, said Mary Lanier, chief administrative officer at California Pacific Medical Center.

The beds we will have in the new configuration will be full, Lanier said during Wednesdays meeting.

She said the new hospitals would not have room for subacute beds, which are reserved for people with severe conditions who need long-term care.

There appears to be little demand for those beds in San Francisco. The unit thats shuttering at St. Lukes has 79 beds, 40 of which are for subacute patients. Twenty-four of those subacute beds are filled, with one patient awaiting discharge later this week.

But as San Franciscos population ages, demand for these 24-hour care services is expected to grow. The city will likely need about 2,000 additional skilled nursing beds by 2030, said Colleen Chawla of the citys Department of Public Health.

Nurses and doctors were quick to denounce Sutters plan at the hearing Wednesday, saying it showed little compassion for the people with terminal illnesses who would be shipped off to other counties.

Ronen and fellow Supervisors Jeff Sheehy, Sandra Lee Fewer, and Ahsha Safai  who called the hearing  also had strong criticism for Sutter Health.

I feel like this is a violation of the Hippocratic oath: Do not harm, said Sheehy, who is the only HIV-positive supervisor and a fierce advocate for survivors of the AIDS epidemic.

Every doctor commits to that, Sheehy continued, but is that anywhere in the mission of Sutter?

He and the other supervisors accused the health network of basing its decisions on money. Many of the critically ill patients who need ongoing care are beneficiaries of the states Medi-Cal assistance program, which limits reimbursement rates for hospitals.

Ronen saw Sutters move as a symptom of the overall broken health care system in the U.S.

We are going to fight the efforts of individual hospitals that in name are nonprofit, but actually seem to be for-profit, she said.

Sutter spokeswoman Stacey Wells disagreed, noting that the network is the largest provider of care to Medi-Cal patients in Northern California, a fact we know the supervisors greatly appreciate.

Chawla said Sutters plan to close the facility at St. Lukes reflects a national trend, as hospitals with skilled nursing and subacute beds shut down and shift those patients to other types of facilities that are less expensive to operate.

San Francisco currently has 2,502 skilled nursing beds at various locations. If the unit at St. Lukes closes, the city will no longer have spots for subacute patients, who can still be served at 11 other locations in the Bay Area.

Rachel Swan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: rswan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @rachelswan
As California emerges as a force on climate change and a counterweight to President Donald Trump, residents of the green-minded state widely support environmental actions taken by leaders in Sacramento, according to a survey released Wednesday.

Fifty-one percent of California adults approve of the way Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature are handling environmental issues, the Public Policy Institute of California survey shows, even as state climate policies threaten to raise gasoline and electricity prices.

According to the survey, approval for Browns handling of the environment is up 16 points since he took office in 2011, while the state Senate and Assembly have seen a 20-point spike in their approval over the same period. Just 28 percent of people frown on Browns environmental performance, while only 33 percent disapprove of the Legislatures record.

The high marks come as California takes aggressive action to fight global warming. The state has committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030, one of the worlds most ambitious goals and one that wont come without sacrifice.

Utilities have been ordered to generate 50 percent of their power from clean energy sources by 2030, a level that could raise electricity prices, at least in the short term. And just this week, Browns cap-and-trade program was extended to 2030, requiring emitters of greenhouse gases, such as oil refineries, to buy permits to pollute, which will likely result in higher gas and transportation costs.

This (survey) indicates that Californians believe global warming is happening and its a threat to the future of California and they want the state to take action, said Mark Baldassare, president and chief executive of the Public Policy Institute of California.

Backing for the states environmental advances, the survey shows, is strongest among Democrats and independents, while Republicans are generally less enthusiastic.

Baldassare noted that overall support remains high even as most Californians recognize that climate action will hit them in the wallet. For example, 54 percent of survey respondents anticipate higher gas prices.

This really distinguishes them from people who may say, Yeah, thats a good idea but Im not willing to pay for it, he said.

The survey shows that Californians overwhelmingly oppose Trumps environmental agenda. Just 22 percent of adults approve of the way hes handled the issue, compared with the presidents overall approval rating in the state of 25 percent.

Just 22 percent of adults back the presidents decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris climate accord, the landmark agreement among some 175 nations to curb greenhouse gas emissions.

Support for offshore oil drilling is also low, with just 25 percent of adults in favor  the lowest the survey has recorded in its 17 years. The opposition comes as Trump seeks to open more federal waters, including the coast of California, to energy exploration.

The Public Policy Institute of California is a nonpartisan research group that regularly gauges public opinion. The survey on the environment polled 1,708 adults between July 9 and 18. The margin of error was 3.4 percentage points.

Kurtis Alexander is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: kalexander@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @kurtisalexander
NEW YORK  The bizarre case of a former hedge fund manager turned Internet punchline sped to a close Thursday with prosecutors portraying Martin Shkreli as a liar who tricked investors into forking over millions and then hid his massive losses.

Shkreli told lies upon lies, Assistant U.S. Attorney Alixandra E. Smith told a Brooklyn jury in closing statements that lasted more than two hours. He lied about the size of his hedge funds, whether they had an auditor and how they were performing. He lied about attending Columbia University, Smith said.

Smith meticulously recounted lies prosecutors say Shkreli told to investors to persuade them to give him money, including that his hedge fund was worth millions when it was actually broke. Depending on which investors he is talking to, he changes the story, she said. The defendant was making these misrepresentations because he knew by saying these things he would get people to give him money.

While Smith repeatedly called him a liar, Shkreli, 34, sat a few feet away smirking and swiveling in his chair. His father, who has attended every day of the trial, sat in the front row close by. Shkreli  who has been nicknamed Pharma Bro on social media  became infamous for raising the price of a vital drug used by AIDS patients by 5,000 percent and then publicly lamenting that he didnt raise it more.

But that is not why he is on trial. Shkreli is charged with defrauding investors at two hedge funds that he founded, MSMB Capital and MSMB Healthcare. When one of the funds collapsed, rather than tell investors, Shkreli raised more money and then used the cash to start a pharmaceutical company, Retrophin, according to prosecutors. He also used investors money to pay off personal debts. When the hedge fund investors began to ask for their money, Shkreli paid them back using Retrophin money and stock.

The arrangements were not approved by Retrophins board of directors and cost the company more than $10 million, according to prosecutors.

Retrophin was not responsible for the lies that were told to Shkrelis hedge fund investors, Smith said. He made a choice to steal that money ... and to use it to pay back the investors he defrauded.

Shkrelis defense team has sought to rebut the accusations with a simple argument: His investors were not victims but wealthy people whom Shkreli made even richer. Despite troubles with his hedge funds, Shkrelis investors walked away with a profit, defense attorneys said. During the trial, the defense team did not offer any witnesses, and Shkreli did not testify.

In closing arguments later Thursday, Shkreli defense attorney Benjamin Brafman paced in front of the jury and called his client a genius who did not intend to defraud investors.

If Martin Shkreli wanted to defraud these people, why did he sleep in his office for two years in a sleeping bag to make Retrophin a success? an animated Brafman asked. Maybe he screwed up, maybe he made mistakes, the attorney said, but Martin Shkreli was always truthful to the mission to make Retrophin a success.

If Shkreli defrauded his investors, why did they continue to say positive things about him? Brafman asked. Why didnt Retrophin require them to return the money Shkreli gave them?

This is rich-people BS, ladies and gentleman, he said.

Shkrelis fate will soon be in the hands of the jury  five men and seven women  who have sat through more than four weeks of testimony that veered between technical explanations of how hedge funds work and complicated accounting terms to riveting stories of Shkrelis interactions with investors and employees, including one he threatened to drive into homelessness. He told one investor that he wanted to be like Steve Cohen, the billionaire hedge fund investor. One of Shkrelis investors, a gay man, testified that the former hedge fund manager sometimes made him feel uncomfortable by saying he might try to have sex with a male co-worker.

Renae Merle is a Washington Post writer.
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Taking inspiration from the Romani wagons of olden days, a Dutch auto company is transforming camper vans into road trip-worthy vessels.

Tonke is a small outfit and was founded in 2005 by Maarten van Soest. To hear him tell it, at least according to his website, Soest traveled to France while towing an old "gypsy cart." Inspired by that journey and the birth of his first child, he created the first Tonke Camper vehicle.

READ ALSO: Best places to eat on a Texas road trip

The Dutch maker's lineup are all modified Volkswagen, Fiat and Mercedes vehicles. Each has a yacht-style interior with 1930s-esque trimmings and surprisingly spacious layouts.

If you're in the market for your next big road-trip vehicle, expect to spend a bit of money. Their cheapest offering is at $50,000, but more features and bigger chassis will drive that price higher.

We've compiled some sample images of their lineup in the gallery above.

(h/t Car and Driver)
Marina Ratner, an influential mathematician, professor at UC Berkeley, and Russian Jewish emigre who defied the notion that those in her field do their finest work when they are young, died July 7 at her home in El Cerrito. She was 78.

The cause was cardiac arrest, said her daughter, Anna Ratner.

Friends and colleagues have said Dr. Ratner started as a good but unexceptional mathematician. The beginning of her career was not particularly promising, said Anatole Katok of Pennsylvania State University, who met her in the early 1960s when both lived in the Soviet Union.

A common belief is that a mathematician who does not do great work by age 40 never will. But Dr. Ratner was about that age when she set off on an ambitious effort to connect the physics of the motion of objects with more abstract ideas of number theory.

She proved her most influential theorem after she turned 50.

She struggled and went unrecognized for a long time, said Artur Avila, a mathematician at the French National Center for Scientific Research in Paris and the Institute for Pure and Applied Mathematics in Rio de Janeiro. She is also one of the main examples to counter the myth that mathematics is a young persons game.

Amie Wilkinson of the University of Chicago pointed to the classic video game Asteroids to explain Dr. Ratners work.

When an object crosses the right edge of the screen, it instantaneously appears on the left edge of the screen moving in the same direction, Wilkinson said in an email. The simplest case of Ratners Theorem applies to the motion of objects in the Asteroids game. If an object moves in a straight line indefinitely without turning, there are only two possibilities: Either it will return to its initial position and repeat its path indefinitely, or it will never return to its initial position and instead will visit every possible region of the space.

Dr. Ratner showed that for a higher dimensional, more complicated video game, an equivalent statement was true.

Her dynamics research helped unravel mathematical problems that had resisted more direct, traditional approaches of attack.

Avila said Dr. Ratners work had been the basis for that of younger mathematicians like Elon Lindenstrauss and Maryam Mirzakhani, two winners of the Fields Medal, the most prestigious honor in mathematics. Mirzakhani, the first woman to win a Fields, also died this month.

What is remarkable about these results of Ratner is how many unexpected applications they had, Lindenstrauss said in an email. It is almost as if this dynamical fact was a philosophers stone that allowed many mathematicians to show quite remarkable things, in remarkably diverse situations.

Marina Ratner was born Oct. 30, 1938, in Moscow, the daughter of scientists. She graduated from Moscow State University in 1961. She then worked for four years as an assistant for Andrey Kolmogorov, a prominent Russian mathematician, before attending graduate school at Moscow State. She completed her doctorate in 1969.

When she applied for a visa to leave the Soviet Union for Israel, Dr. Ratner was pressured to leave a teaching job at the High Technical Engineering School in Moscow, Anna Ratner said.

She had a very hard time in Russia, said Alexandre Chorin, a colleague at UC Berkeley. The Russians took a variety of steps to penalize her.

Dr. Ratner and her daughter immigrated in 1971 to Israel, where she was a lecturer at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Her work caught the attention of Rufus Bowen at UC Berkeley, and he lobbied the university to hire her. It did, in 1975, initially for a temporary position, and even that, given her relatively meager record, was controversial in the department. She eventually became a tenured professor.

Dr. Ratner was a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences.

In addition to her daughter, she is survived by two grandchildren.

A marriage to Alexander Samoilov ended in divorce.

Dr. Ratners style of working may have contributed to her receiving less acclaim than some thought she deserved. She always worked alone. At Berkeley, she earned high marks as a teacher of undergraduates but taught only one graduate student.

She also did not always do the best job of promoting her achievements.

Etienne Ghys, a mathematician at Ecole Normale Superieure de Lyon in France, recalled spending six months trying to understand the results of her dynamics research to present them at a seminar. When he discussed the papers with her, he told her that he had the feeling that she had written the papers not for other mathematicians to understand but mainly to convince herself that the theorems were correct.

Ghys said Dr. Ratner replied: Yes, exactly. You understood why and how I write mathematics.

Kenneth Chang is a New York Times writer.
Both the National Investigation Agency and Enforcement Directorate are separately investigating cases of terror funding and subversive activities.

By Mail Today: Investigations into the money trail coming in from Pakistan-based terror outfits to Kashmiri separatists to fuel violence in the Valley has gone back to the 90s with over a dozen properties, over a score cross-border traders and some 50 WhatsApp and social media groups coming under the scanner of central investigating agencies.

According to a senior government official, a collective crackdown by agencies is going to have a long-term effect in the Valley in restoring peace as it has cut down the financial links of anti-social elements in Kashmir from their handlers in Pakistan.

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Both the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and Enforcement Directorate (ED) are separately investigating cases of terror funding and subversive activities.

While the NIA has arrested seven Kashmiri separatist leaders, who were sent to 10-day judicial custody, ED arrested Shabir Shah - one of the founders of Kashmiri separatism, who was remanded to ED custody for seven days.

While probing these cases, security agencies have unearthed some faces of stone-pelters, properties of separatist leaders that doesn't match with their income and dirty transactions by Indo-Pak traders.

"Kashmiri separatists have accumulated enough properties worth several crores in Kashmir and Delhi, but they will have a tough time explaining the source of their assets that is not in proportion to their income," said a senior MHA officer.

Probe by NIA reveals that prime properties were bought by them even when they were under house arrest.

MORE THAN A 100 TRADERS UNDER SCRUTINY

Investigators have also unearthed the dubious role played by some Indian businessmen involved in cross-border trade.

Over a hundred such traders are under scrutiny and NIA recently conducted raids in J&K, Haryana and Delhi, probing their role in money supply by terror organisations.

MAIL TODAY had earlier reported that traders under suspicion used to export goods by over-invoicing their bills and after receiving the money, they would route the funds to pro-freedom leaders for unrest in Kashmir.

Investigators believe the money pumped by terror outfits was used keep the Valley burning for several decades.

Sources claim to have identified several people involved in stone pelting, damaging public property and burning down schools.

Electronic evidences including chains of transaction establish links between separatist leaders and violent elements in the Valley were also uncovered.

Following detailed analysis of mobile phone locations, NIA has zeroed in on 48 youths, who orchestrated stone-pelting mobs to disrupt anti-terror operations in Kashmir.

It has also identified over 5,000 stone-pelters as part of its probe in the terror-funding case, involving Hurriyat leaders. It is now probing links between stone pelters and separatists.

According to investigators, groups of violent men were mobilised through several WhatsApp and social media groups monitored and operated from Pakistan.

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The phone analysis established that though these people lived far away, they were present in the vicinity of anti-terror operations' sites. The NIA has listed out the operations, with dates and locations, in a dossier, to establish the presence of these suspects.

ALSO READ

More separatist leaders on NIA radar after 8 arrested for fanning Kashmir unrest

India Today impact: Kashmir separatist leader Shabir Shah arrested; NIA, ED to question

ALSO WATCH

Arrested Hurriyat leaders produced in Patiala House court, NIA demands 20-day custody

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Amy's Kitchen has made its fortune as an all-organic, vegetarian food brand, and the company is now looking to add another location to its flagship restaurant.

Amy's Drive Thru has been up and running in Rohnert Park for two years, but a report Tuesday in the Marin Independent Journal stated that the company is planning to expand to Corte Madera. The group is reportedly looking at a former Denny's location on Paradise Drive, located off Highway 101.

Paul Schiefer, director of restaurant operations, confirmed via the company's publicist that Amy's Kitchen is looking to expand to the Marin County city.

"Today we are working to bring our organic, family-oriented dining experience to our neighbors in Corte Madera," said Schiefer in a released statement. "We are very early in the design process for Amy's Drive Thru on Paradise Drive, and look forward to sharing additional information as quickly as we can."

Corte Madera's planning director, Adam Wolff, told the North Bay Business Journal that the business has not filed an application for the project yet, echoing Schiefer's sentiment that it is early in the planning process.

The city is expecting to hold a "preliminary hearing" in September with the Planning Commission getting feedback from the public and to discuss design concepts for the possible restaurant.

What could stand in the restaurant's way  at least temporarily  is a city ordinance that doesn't allow for a drive-thru window, as both the Business Journal and Independent Journal point out. There is a way to change the ordinance, however, it could result in delaying the restaurant.

Amy's Drive Thru is the fast food arm of organic frozen food purveyor Amy's Kitchen, which looked to serve sustainable, organic, vegetarian and GMO-free food, quickly. The Santa Rosa-based company has been in business for close to 30 years, with facilities in the Bay Area and Oregon, and sells its line of frozen food in grocery stores.
The tomato base of the classic Bloody Mary has made it a favorite for bartenders to remix, given its savory flavor profile, and has long been a drink that begs for wild variations.

A California bar has decided to up the Bloody Mary ante in its own way, and has debuted a version that is going after the heart of alcohol- and junk food-loving patrons: they've added Flamin' Hot Cheetos.

Center Hub Bar is capitalizing on the spicy chip's fame and cult following, adding a layer of crushed Cheetos to the rim, as well as a handful of the chips to the top of it. Should you want to pretend to be healthy, a stalk of celery is included. (The strategy to this drink, another blog surmised, was to eat the Cheetos on top quickly, to avoid what one could imagine is an inevitably gross, soggy mess.)

DIREWOLF LOAVES: 'Game of Thrones' Hot Pie actor opens real-life bakery

The bar is located in a food hall in Irvine, and has gained fame for its drink given its obvious social media-friendly, nuclear red look.

The ol' throw-Flamin'-Hot-Cheetos-on-it formula has worked out for many food and bar outfits. According to a fair vendor in Orange County, the cheesy snack adds "a bit of extra crunch and heat that go well with a variety of other flavors" and makes an appearance on a number of state fair foods.

Even if you can't imagine yourself eating, much less drinking, anything with Flamin' Hot Cheetos, the story behind the snack is actually quite inspiring. A janitor at a Frito-Lay factory in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. is credited with creating the popular chip. Originally a high school dropout who took a job at the plant, Richard Montanez said he was inspired by elote, which is a corn on the cob covered in cheese, lime and chile powder, which originated in Mexico. Testing out versions of the chip at home, he later pitched the idea to the CEO and is now a PepsiCo executive.
NEW YORK  Children whose sexual characteristics dont neatly align with the norm have for decades faced surgery to rearrange their anatomy to resemble that of more typical boys and girls  long before they were old enough to have a say in the decision.

But now the practice is under assault, as never before. The American Medical Association is considering a proposal discouraging it. Three former U.S. surgeons general say its unjustified. And just this week, Human Rights Watch and InterACT  a group advocating for intersex youth  are releasing a detailed report assailing the practice and urging Congress to ban it.

The results are often catastrophic, says the report, asserting that the surgeries can inflict irreversible physical and psychological harm.

The pressure to fit in and live a normal life is real, said Kyle Knight, a Human Rights Watch researcher who wrote the report. But there is no evidence that surgery delivers on the promise of making that easier.

One of multiple reasons for the concern: Some intersex children may undergo surgery aimed at assigning them as male or female, yet grow up to identify as the other sex  a potentially traumatic situation.

Intersex is an umbrella term encompassing various conditions in which internal sex organs and external genitalia develop differently than for a typical boy or girl. Experts say roughly 1 of every 2,000 newborns has so-called differences of sex development that might prompt a doctors recommendation for surgery or other medical intervention.

At birth, Noi Liang appeared to be a normal baby girl. As she grew older, doctors discovered that she lacked a uterus, and had internal testes rather than ovaries. When she was a teenager, doctors removed the testes, telling her they were removing potentially cancerous ovaries. Not until her early 30s did she discover the truth.

As a patient advocate, the 40-year-old Liang sees parents worrying whether their children will be accepted by their peers.

Isolation is a big piece of what they struggle with  they feel like theres no one else to talk to, Liang said. They say it gives them a feeling of relief to speak with someone like me who more fully understands what they and their children are going through.

David Crary is an Associated Press writer.
By PTI: (Eds: Adding words in para 3)

Patna, Jul 27 (PTI) Nitish Kumar was today sworn as the Chief Minister of Bihar for the sixth time, a day after he resigned, dumped coalition partner Lalu Prasads RJD and joined hands with the opposition BJP to reclaim his post in fast-paced manoeuvres that redrew the political landscape of the state.

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Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi administered 66-year-old Kumar the oath of office and secrecy at the Rajendra Mandapam at the Raj Bhawan here.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also sworn in. He will be the deputy chief minister, a post he held in the previous NDA governments in the state.

The Governor has asked Kumar to prove majority on the floor of the House within two days, after the JD(U) walked out of the barely two-year-old alliance with the RJD and Congress.

Union Health minister J P Nadda and BJP leader Anil Jain were present at the brief ceremony where only Kumar and Sushil Modi were sworn in.

Kumar quit the post last night after a fall out with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the previous dispensation.

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice. It will also ensure progress. This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," Kumar told reporters after the swearing-in.

With JD(U) returning to the NDA fold, the changed political equations are likely to impact the 2019 general elections. While the BJP is buoyed by the development, there is disquiet in the Opposition camp as it has jolted the efforts to forge a unity to take on the saffron juggernaut.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Kumar and said he looked forward to working together for Bihars prosperity.

Nobody from the RJD or the Congress attended the swearing-in ceremony protesting over the "denial of chance" to the RJD, the single-largest party in the state assembly, to form government.

In Delhi, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi lashed out at Kumar accusing him of acting for "selfish political motives".

"Bihar had given an anti-communal mandate but Nitish Kumar has gone back to them (the BJP) for his personal political gains," he said.

After taking oath, Sushil Modi said the development process will be back on track in the state with return of the NDA.

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"The JD(U)-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights. At that point of time, the people of the state used to take pride in saying I am a Bihari. But in the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD(U)-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights,"

On RJDs claims that it has the numbers, JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi said, "They should stop making tall claims and if they really have the numbers, let them prove it in the floor test. We have our numbers and we will prove it."

The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs yesterday to the Governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP 2, LJP 2, HAM 1 and three Independents.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 81 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML 03.

Tyagi said the decision of his party to form the Grand Alliance government in Bihar was "a mistake" and ruled out any possibility of a patch-up with the RJD.

"It was a mistake to forge an alliance with RJD. We had information that to save themselves from CBI cases, they were in touch with the union ministers in Delhi and were planning to topple the Nitish Kumar government", Tyagi said.

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"We regret our decision to run the government with such a person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months. We blame ourselves for committing a mistake of taking their MLA count from 22 to 80," he said.

Former Bihar chief minister Jitan Ram Manjhi welcomed Kumars decision to join the NDA.

"I congratulate Nitish Kumarji for his decision to join the NDA. If someone commits a mistake and has the guts to accept and rectify it, we should also welcome it and support that person," Manjhi said.

Kumar had unexpectedly resigned yesterday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

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

Late last night, Kumar accompanied by Sushil Modi and other NDA leaders had met the Governor to stake claim to form a new coalition ministry in the state after he broke away from Grand Alliance ministry of JD(U), RJD and Congress.

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Tejashwi Yadav had led a protest march to the Raj Bhawan post-midnight and had met the Governor.

He had later told reporters that the swearing-in of NDA government was a "pre-planned conspiracy." PTI SNS PNT SUN MM TIR RT TIR

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A provocative story in the Guardian profiles a couple who work in the Facebook cafeteria and are raising their three children in a two-car garage blocks from the tech company's Menlo Park campus.

Victor and Nicole, whose last names aren't included in the story, are living in the tight space next to Victor's mother's house because they can't afford the high price of rent, even an apartment with a kitchen and a bathroom, in the Silicon Valley.

Nicole earns $19.85 an hour as a shift lead, and Victor brings in $17.85 an hour, and the Guardian offers insight into their economic struggle even though they work for a profitable Bay Area tech company and make well above California's minimum wage of $10.50 an hour.

"They earn too much to qualify for state healthcare, but not enough to afford the health insurance offered by their employer. They frequently struggle to find enough money for basics like food and clothes for their children. Victor recently borrowed money from his mother to hold a birthday party for one of his daughters, and from a friend to pay for a dentist appointment."

A Facebook spokesperson says the couple are employed by San Jose contractor Flagship Facility Services. Facebook asks its vendors to meet a set of standards of benefits for its contractors that include a $15 minimum wage and a minimum of 15 days paid leave, some of which are already mandated by state law.

"Our vendor workers are valued members of our community. We are committed to providing a safe, fair, work environment to everyone who helps Facebook bring the world closer together, including contractors," reads a statement provided by Facebook in response to the Guardian article.

In corporate America, it's unusual to require vendors to offer these benefits. But a movement for better pay for contractors is happening in Silicon Valley. Microsoft mandated a $15 minimum wage for its contractors in 2015.

However, Nicole and Victor's situation shows the perks aren't nearly enough to allow some workers to afford adequate housing.

More affordable housing in the pipeline for Menlo Park

The benefits could get better. Facebook announced plans earlier this month to turn a 56-acre plot of Menlo Park land it bought in 2015 into its own village with housing for anyone living in the community.

If the city approves the project, 1,500 housing units would be built with about 15 percent  or about 225 units  offered at below-market rates

What's more, the Menlo Park City Council approved in June moving forward with an affordable housing project with up to 141 units. It would be the largest in the city's history, according to Jim Cogan, the housing and economic development manager for the City of Menlo Park.

Council members decided apartments will be designated for families making less than 60 percent of the area median income, "which means an income maximum of $78,960 for a family of four, based on this year's San Mateo County data," the Almanac reports.

Menlo Park is a community predominantly made up of single-family homes and this complex of two- and three-bedroom apartments is a step to add more affordable apartments.

The complex will be built within a block of Facebook in the Belle Haven neighborhood where Nicole and Victor live, and Cogan says families living in this area will be given the first opportunity to rent the new units.

"The family in in the Guardian story, assuming they've lived or worked in Menlo Park, will have the top priority at the new development," Cogan says. "Unfortunately, it hasn't been built yet."

More projects like these could be in the city's future. The council also approved a general plan update to allow up to 4,500 housing units to be built in the area around Facebook between University Avenue and Marsh Road and between Highway 101 and the bay.

"The entire city recognizes that affordable housing is a big problem," Cogan says. "We have a great council and mayor who are focused on that. It's going to take time to address it unfortunately."

Affordable housing is lacking and the cost of living is soaring in the Bay Area

As Menlo Park and cities around Silicon Valley try to address the issue of affordable housing, the story of people turning to alternative forms of housing is becoming more familiar.

A single mother paid $1,000 a month to live in a garage with her new baby in San Mateo and shared her struggles with affording a more suitable living space with news media in 2015.

That same year, the San Francisco Chronicle reported on tech bus drivers living in their cars to make ends meet. There've also been stories of people living more affordably in RVs, vans, a box truck and even a wooden box. And there's the tale of a Google employee who secretly lived on the tech company's campus before moving into a truck.

None of this is surprising, with affordable housing lacking and the cost of living soaring in the Bay Area. The Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit nonpartisan think tank in Washington, D.C., has a cost of living calculator to estimate the annual income families need to live comfortably in certain cities. The amount a family of five needs in the S.F. metro area (this includes Menlo Park) is $116,485. If Nicole and Victor are working full-time, together they're bringing in $78,000 at most based on their hourly wages.

Housing is the main reason the cost of living in the Bay Area is sky-high. The median rent per month for a two-bedroom apartment in Menlo Park is around $4,000 a month, according to real estate sites Zillow and Zumper.

"We have been under-building affordable housing in the Bay Area for years," says Leslye Corsiglia, executive director of SV@Home, a nonprofit advocating for more affordable housing. "We've got a situation where people who work here have limited choices, either to pay really high rents that may take up a considerable amount of their monthly income, to overcrowd living spaces, to live in unsafe places, or to live far away and commute for work."

As more companies prosper in Silicon Valley, offering a wide variety of jobs with a range of pay scales, housing hasn't kept up with demand.

According to the 2016 Joint Venture Silicon Valley Indicators report, in 2015 Silicon Valley created more than 64,000 jobs but only 5,000 housing units.

The reasons for the lack of housing are many and complicated, and Corsiglia says Gov. Jerry Brown's elimination of redevelopment agencies (overseeing urban renewal in blighted areas and funded through property taxes) in 2011 is among them.

She adds that the state has seen a reduction in spending on affordable housing by about 60 to 80 percent over the last five to seven years due to budget cuts at both the state and federal levels.

"We have been really stymied in recent years to provide affordable housing to families like the one in the Guardian article," Corsiglia says.
Five people who went to receive a 35-year-old woman and her son died in a tragic accident on NH-24 near Kalyanpuri.

By Mail Today Bureau: After three years, Anjum Fatima Zaidi (35), along with her 13-year-old son Ali Mohamad Zaidi, had come from Tehran to Delhi to celebrate Eid-ul-Fitr.

However, a tragic accident near Kalyanpuri on NH-24 in the wee hours of Wednesday, ended what was supposed to be a happy family reunion.

All five people who went to receive the mother-son duo in a Toyota Innova SUV lost their lives.

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Four more, including three children, are seriously injured.

Anjum received multiple head injuries and she is in a coma with minimal chances of survival.

The fatal accident took place around 3am on Wednesday when the family, belonging to Meerut, were returning from IGI Airport after receiving Anjum and Ali.

After crossing Nizamudin, as they headed towards Gazipur, a dumper coming from the opposite direction lost control, broke the divider and rammed the Innova.

'INNOVA MANGLED'

R Satya Sundaram, additional DCP, East, told MAIL TODAY that the impact of the collision was such that the Innova's roof was blown away. All the victims died on the spot.

"The dumper was in high speed and the (driver) was either in an inebriated condition or fell asleep on the wheel leading to the accident. The Innova was literally mangled with all the victims trapped inside," Sundaram said.

He added that the dumper dragged the Innova for a few metres and the latter rolled over three to four times before eventually landing upside down.

The dumper driver, identified as Manoj Kumar, is absconding. The deceased have been identified as Kamar Abbas Zaidi (55), his wife Fatima Zaidi (50), son Azhar (18), daughter Juhi (14) and a neighbour, Mehrazudin (36), who was driving the Innova.

Three of the injured - Ali Mohamad Zaidi (13), Sukena Fatima Zaidi (7) and Aabas Mehandi Zaidi (16) - were seated in the rear seat and hence received lighter injuries.

They were admitted in Lal Bahadur Shastri hospital in east Delhi and Aabas was discharged.

While Ali is in critical condition, Sukena is said to be out of danger. Mohamad Shahdab, one of the relatives living in Gurugram, told MAIL TODAY that Kamar was a garment merchant and his brother Kalbe a news reader in Tehran Radio.

"As Kalbe's son Ali has a summer vacation of two months, they decided to come down for a family get-together. We want the hardest punishment for the errant driver," Shahdab said.

ALSO READ

Dying need to capture video while driving kills teen, accident gets streamed live

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WATCH: Girl falls to death during Jaipur mountaineering class, teacher was her dad

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Rahul Gandhi has slammed Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the BJP once again dumping the 20-month-old grand alliance with Lalu Yadav's RJD and the Congress.

By India Today Web Desk: Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi has reacted for the first time after Nitish Kumar dumped the grand alliance in Bihar, slamming the Janata Dal-United leader.

IN GRAPHICS: SAME CM, SAME CHALLENGES

"Nitish Kumar has betrayed us. He met me a few days ago but didn't disclose anything. We knew that he has been planning something with the BJP for the last few months," Rahul Gandhi told reporters in New Delhi moments after Nitish took oath as Bihar CM for the sixth time in Patna.

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"People of Bihar gave mandate Nitish ji for the anti-communal fight but now he has joined hands with them for his personal politics. This is the problem with country's politics," Rahul Gandhi added.

Earlier, RJD chief Lalu Yadav too accused Nitish of betrayal after the JD-U leader decided to walk out of the Mahagathbandhan and resigned as the CM on Wednesday evening.

I trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me," Lalu Prasad told India Today.

The RJD chief said Nitish Kumar went with the BJP because he was "scared" of his son, Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav's "rise in politics"

He said the corruption charges against Tejashwi were "part of the political conspiracy" in which he said Nitish and the BJP were involved in. While Governor KN Tripathi should call the RJD to form the government as it's the largest single party, this won't happen, he said.

In 2020, the RJD will form a government in Bihar and Tejashwi Yadav will be chief minister, he added.

ALSO READ:

Nitish Kumar sworn-in as Bihar CM for 6th time, BJP joins government

Nitish Kumar resigns, but not really: Bihar Game of Thrones starring BJP isolates Lalu Yadav?

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

Lalu goes for the jugular, says murder-accused Nitish is BJP's puppet

Nitish Kumar to be back as chief minister with BJP support: Bihar political drama as it unfolded

Impossible to work under current circumstances: Bihar CM Nitish Kumar after resignation

WATCH: Dost, dost na raha: Frenemies Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav over the years

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While Lalu may complain and move court against Nitish Kumar, it is not the first occasion in recent times that the single largest party was not invited to form the government.

By Kumar Shakti Shekhar: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar-led Janata Dal (United) outsmarted its just-divorced grand alliance partner Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) yesterday. Within an hour of the split, JD(U) was invited by Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi to form government despite it not being the single largest party in the state.

All this while, Lalu Prasad-led RJD too kept trying to meet the governor and stake claim to form government. RJD's confidence oozed from it being the single largest party in Bihar. After the state Assembly elections in November, RJD, JD(U) and Congress' grand alliance emerged victorious and formed government in the state.

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RJD emerged as the single largest party bagging 80 of the total 243 seats. Though JD(U) won 71 seats, nine less than RJD, Nitish Kumar was anointed as chief minister due to a prior arrangement to that effect. But Lalu succeeded in getting his two debutant sons included in Nitish's cabinet with the younger one, Tejashwi Yadav, sworn-in as the deputy chief minister.

By virtue of being the single largest party, Lalu hoped his RJD would be called by the governor to form government in the state. However, Nitish Kumar foiled Lalu's plans by staking claim and BJP following it up immediately by pledging support to him.

Lalu and Tejashwi did cry foul at the governor ignoring RJD's claims. He argued that RJD should have been invited to form the government as it was the single largest party in Bihar. "We're considering to appeal in Supreme court against the governor's decision. We are taking legal advice and will move court after that," Lalu told mediapersons after Nitish Kumar took oath as chief minister today.

While Lalu may complain and move court, it is not the first occasion in recent times that the single largest party was not invited to form the government. There are at least two such precedents.

GOA

The February elections witnessed a hung Assembly. Congress bagged 17 out of the total 40 seats and emerged as the single largest party. It fell short of three seats to form a majority government. Winning 13 seats, BJP came on the second position. However, while Congress kept dithering over deciding its legislative party leader and garnering support from other parties, BJP declared former Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar to lead the party in the Assembly and rushed to the Raj Bhavan staking claim to form government.

Union Road, Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari, in charge of BJP in Goa, proved smarter than his Congress counterpart Digvijaya Singh.

Congress moved the Supreme Court challenging the governor's decision. However, the apex court favoured a test on the floor of the House. BJP, which was the first to reach the Raj Bhavan, also won the floor test. However, it set a new precedent that the single largest party cannot take its own sweet time for staking claim to form government.

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MANIPUR

The northeastern state too threw a hung Assembly in the February elections. In the 60-membered Assembly, Congress won 28 seats, again three short of majority, followed by the BJP 21.

Unlike in Goa, Congress staked claim but could not prove majority before the then Governor Najma Heptulla. BJP claimed support from three small NDA constituents, a Congress MLA and the lone Trinamool Congress legislator, taking its tally to 32.

Hence, here too Congress lost the race. Heptulla invited the BJP-led coalition headed by N Biren Singh to form the government.

These instances go to prove a new precedent - that the single largest party may not be invited to form government if it loses the race to the Raj Bhavan with the list of the required number of MLAs.

On the other hand, the second largest party stands a bright chance to be invited by the governor provided it musters support of the stipulated number of MLAs and rushes to meet the governor with the list first.

Also read:

Why Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

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Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

ALSO WATCH: Congress slams Nitish Kumar, says Bihar's mandate was against Modi

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By Rahul Mishra: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar created ripples by dissolving his grand alliance government yesterday and within one hour became a part of the BJP-led NDA government. Today, he was again sworn-in as the chief minister.

It was not the first occasion when Nitish Kumar decided to walk away from an alliance. He did so in 2013 too. As he did not accept Narendra Modi getting projected as BJP-led NDA's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Nitish forced Janata Dal (United) to quit NDA. Later, he formed a grand alliance (Mahagathbandhan) with Lalu Prasad-led RJD and Congress to contest the 2015 Bihar Assembly election.

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Will Nitish prove to be a strong chief minister or a weak one? These factors have made the Bihar CM weak:

1. FAILURE TO LEAD GRAND ALLIANCE

Nitish's JD(U), RJD and Congress forged an alliance in July 2015. After the Bihar Assembly elections in December the same year, Nitish started leading the alliance. He also got an opportunity to lead the Opposition on the national scene. However, he failed to grab the opportunity. Instead, he joined the BJP-led NDA.

2. WEAK CM

Nitish proved himself to be a weak CM. He included Lalu's two sons in his Cabinet despite the fact that both Tej Pratap Yadav and Tejashwi Yadav were greenhorns in politics. He went a step ahead and made the younger brother the deputy chief minister. He weakened his own government by these and other such steps.

3. OPPORTUNISTIC

Nitish joined politics with the help of Lalu. However, the moment he realised that had emerged as Lalu's alternative, he parted ways with him. He joined the BJP-led NDA in the name of development. When the reins of NDA went into the hands of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Nitish walked away from it and became a part of the grand alliance. However, he again changed sides to join NDA when his government started facing allegations of corruption.

4. GOVERNANCE FAILURE

Nitish has succeeded in building an image of a 'development-oriented leader'. He has been talking of a road map of development for Bihar. However, he has failed to furnish any solid proof of development in the state.

5. GOVERNANCE IMAGE PUNCTURED

Former RJD MP Md Shahabuddin issued a damaging statement after getting bail from jail last year. He said Lalu and not Nitish was his leader. This punctured Nitish's claims of good governance.

Also read:

Bihar Assembly floor test at 11 am tomorrow. Cakewalk for Nitish Kumar, BJP?

3 reasons why Nitish Kumar's swearing-in happened so quickly after resignation

Why Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

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Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Also watch:

My decision is in Bihar's interest: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar

--- ENDS ---
The sudden political realignment in Bihar, home to more than 100 million people, means that Modi's party now rules - either alone or in coalition - in 17 of 29 states.

By Reuters: Prime Minister Narendra Modi scored a major political victory on Thursday when the chief minister of a populous northern state joined forces with his ruling party, further weakening the field of credible opposition candidates.

Nitish Kumar, once seen as a potential challenger in the 2019 general election, was sworn in as chief minister a day after quitting - ostensibly over a row with his coalition ally - and will govern with Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

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The sudden political realignment in Bihar, home to more than 100 million people, means that Modi's party now rules - either alone or in coalition - in 17 of 29 states, representing close to two thirds of India's 1.3 billion people.

Modi has led his party to a string of state election wins since he stormed to power in 2014, expanding the BJP's base across the northern heartlands and into the remote northeast, and cementing his claim to a second term.

"Modi's road to power in 2019 is smoother with Nitish on his side," said Sankarshan Thakur, an editor at The Telegraph newspaper and author of a book on Kumar.

Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition's chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019

What had been broken, he said, was not merely an alliance but an attempt at building a credible counter-narrative to Modi's "stunning grab on the national imagination" after 2014.

Bihar had been a rare blot on Modi's electoral record, after a three-party alliance led by Kumar handed the BJP a heavy defeat in late 2015.

Kumar's collapsed coalition, which included the once-mighty Congress party, held out the possibility that opposition leaders could form some sort of national bloc to fight Modi. His return to the fold, having served as a minister in the last BJP-led government, underscores Modi's political dominance and tactical acumen in either defeating or co-opting his rivals.

BACKING MODI

Kumar's abrupt resignation on Wednesday followed a row with his coalition partner, Lalu Prasad Yadav, a charismatic and colourful former chief minister of Bihar who has previously been jailed for corruption. The resignation centred on a disagreement around the role of Yadav's son as a regional minister, but some analysts said Kumar, 66, clearly saw a better political future by cutting his losses and aligning himself with Modi.

"The BJP has its strategy in place and the systematic assault on Lalu's family in corruption cases by federal agencies was not a coincidence. It was all well-timed and planned to ensure Nitish gets a smooth exit to join hands with the BJP," said Shekhar Gupta, founder and editor-in-chief of The Print.

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Nitish returns as Bihar CM with BJP, look forward to work together, tweets PM Modi

Bhupender Yadav, BJP national general secretary, denied the BJP was to blame for any fallout between Lalu and Kumar. "We are proud of the fact that the BJP has been successful in defeating the corrupt political party and will be able to serve the people of Bihar," he said.

Kumar, who broke with the BJP before the 2014 general election, had in recent months begun openly to support some of Modi's policies.

In contrast with other opponents, he had backed the prime minister's shock decision in November to ban high-denomination bank notes to fight "black money" and threw his weight behind Modi's recent choice for India's new president. Following the resignation, Modi quickly praised Kumar for fighting corruption in one of India's poorest states.

The prime minister said on Thursday that he was "looking forward to working together for Bihar's progress and prosperity".

Kumar's regional JDU party and Modi's BJP have enough seats to secure a narrow majority in the state legislature, although Yadav's party is the largest. Yadav said he had the right to form the next government and accused Kumar of "surrendering as per needs".

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The BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi will serve as Kumar's deputy in the state.

Also Read

Nitish Kumar returns as Chief Minister of Bihar with BJP as partner

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

Nitish Kumar resigns, but not really: Bihar Game of Thrones starring BJP isolates Lalu Yadav?

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: (Eds: With changes in para 1, 4, 13)

Patna, Jul 27 (PTI) Nitish Kumar once again took over as chief minister of Bihar with BJPs support today, leaving the oppositions unity in tatters and raising questions over its ability to counter the saffron party in the 2019 general elections.

A little more than 12 hours after 66-year-old Kumar resigned to break ranks with his allies -- Lalu Yadavs RJD party and the Congress -- he was back in office after being sworn in by Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at the Raj Bhawan.

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Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also sworn in, and would be the deputy chief minister.

The deft political manoeuvres by Janata Dal (United) chief Kumar left the opposition stunned as he joined hands with friend-turned-foe-turned-friend BJP. The two parties were in alliance for 17 years until 2013, when Kumar walked out of the NDA fold after Narendra Modi was made the BJPs campaign committee chairman for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Modi was later declared the prime ministerial candidate.

However, Kumar, who was seen by the opposition as a possible answer to Modi in 2019 amid shrinking Congress clout, seemed to have accepted the popular thinking that the Modi- wave would continue even after two years.

The governor has asked Kumar to prove his majority on the floor of the House tomorrow.

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice," Kumar told reporters after the swearing in.

"This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," he said.

Union Health Minister J P Nadda and BJP leader Anil Jain were present at the brief ceremony where only Kumar and Sushil Modi were sworn in.

Immediately after the swearing in, the JD(U) announced that it will support the BJP-led NDA government in both the Houses of Parliament.

The swearing in capped breathtaking political developments in the state with Kumar quitting his post last night following a fall out with the RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and his family members. Chief among them is Prasads son, Tejashwi Yadav, who was the deputy chief minister in the outgoing government.

Yadav had refused to step down after the CBI filed corruption charges against him and had also ignored Kumars advice to explain his conduct. Kumar cited this as the reason to resign and ally with the BJP to become the chief minister for the sixth time.

The sharp reactions from the opposition were predictable.

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"He (Nitish) had joined hands with us in the anti- communal fight, but Nitish Kumar, for his personal politics, joined hands with those against whom he had fought," said Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi.

"People do anything for their selfish motives. There is no principle, no credibility. They can do anything for power," he said.

Modi congratulated Kumar and said he looked forward to working together for Bihars prosperity.

Nobody from the RJD or the Congress attended the swearing-in ceremony protesting the "denial of chance" to the RJD, the single-largest party in the state Assembly, to form the government.

After taking oath, Sushil Modi said the development process will be back on track in the state with the return of the NDA.

"The JD(U)-BJP alliance had earlier taken Bihar to new heights. At that point of time, the people of the state used to take pride in saying I am a Bihari. But in the last 20 months something went wrong. But now the JD(U)-BJP alliance will again take Bihar to newer heights," he said.

On the RJDs claims that it has the numbers, JD(U) national spokesperson K C Tyagi said, "They should stop making tall claims and if they really have the numbers, let them prove it in the floor test. We have our numbers and we will prove it."

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The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs yesterday to the governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three independents.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

Tyagi said the decision of his party to form the grand alliance government in Bihar was "a mistake" and ruled out any possibility of a patch-up with the RJD.

"It was a mistake to forge an alliance with RJD. We had information that to save themselves from CBI cases, they were in touch with the union ministers in Delhi and were planning to topple the Nitish Kumar government", Tyagi said.

"We regret our decision to run the government with such a person (Lalu Prasad) for 20 months. We blame ourselves for committing a mistake of taking their MLA count from 22 to 80," he said.

Tejashwi Yadav, who led a protest march to the Raj Bhawan after midnight, today threatened protests across the state against Kumar, saying he "will find it difficult to move around".

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"My performance perturbed our ally and BJP. Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness", Yadav said in a tweet. PTI TEAM PYK VJ BSA

--- ENDS ---
At least two MPs of Nitish Kumar's JD-U are said to be upset with his decision to break the grand alliance in Bihar to join hands with the BJP. Former party chief Sharad Yadav is also said to be miffed with Nitish.

By India Today Web Desk: Nitish Kumar's decision to join hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party again in Bihar has upset his party's former boss Sharad Yadav.

Sharad Yadav, who has maintained a curious silence ever since Nitish announced he is walking out of the grand alliance in Bihar on Wednesday evening, met Congress Vice President Rahul Gandh in Delhi today. The meeting took place soon after Nitish was sworn-in as Bihar CM for the sixth time in Patna. What the two leaders discussed is yet to be known.

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Sharad Yadav has also called a meeting of JD-U leaders, including party MPs Ali Anwar and Virendra Kumar at his residence later in the evening today.

Earlier in the morning, Ali Anwar openly expressed his dissent with Nitish's dramatic decision to dump the alliance with Lalu's RJD and Congress.

"Nitish Kumar listened to his soul and made the decision to join BJP. If given a chance, I would propose my point of view to the party. I think the reasons why we separated from the BJP are very much evident in the present situation," Anwar said.

"While Nitish Kumar has been clear with his stand against corruption since the beginning but he also had another stand - to fight against communalism. If we see any agreement with that on his part, then we have to take a decision," Anwar said.

Nitish Kumar has to prove majority in Bihar Assembly on Friday (July 28). Lalu Yadav's RJD has 80 MLAs while JD-U has 71 seats in the 243-Bihar Assembly. With Nitish Kumar getting support of 58 BJP MLAs, the NDA will have 132 votes during the floor test. However, with reports of discontent within the JD-U, Nitish Kumar's task may be a bit tougher than it appears.

On the other hand, former Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, in an exclusive interview with India Today claimed he too has the numbers and will majority in the Assembly if given an opportunity. Tejashwi also dared Nitish Kumar for an election while describing him as an opportunist.

"It is obvious that all the drama was scripted. We trusted Nitish Kumar but he used us as bait to gain power," Tejashwi said.

ALSO READ:

Why Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019

As Nitish Kumar takes oath, Tejashwi Yadav cries foul, calls ex-boss opportunist rival

How Lalu Prasad pushed Nitish Kumar to Narendra Modi-led NDA fold

WATCH: Nitish used us as bait to gain power: Tejashwi Yadav to India Today

--- ENDS ---

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Nitish Kumar on Wednesday stepped down as Bihar chief minister only to later stake claim to the CM chair, banking on support from the BJP. Have the dramatic developments in Bihar isolated Lalu Prasad Yadav politically?

By Dev Goswami: On Wednesday evening, Janata Dal (United) president Nitish Kumar tendered his resignation as Bihar chief minister to acting Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi. That resignation, seemingly prompted by Lalu Prasad Yadav' s refusal to let son Tejashwi resign as Bihar deputy CM, was only in name.

For hours after announcing his decision to step down, Nitish, along with Bharatiya Janata Party leader and former Bihar deputy CM Sushil Modi, was back in Raj Bhavan staking claim to the CM's chair he had just vacated.

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Nitish claimed the support of 132 MLAs of the JD (U) and the BJP, effectively ousting Lalu Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal , the single-largest party in Bihar Assembly, from any positions of power in Patna.

Nitish looks set to remain in 1, Anne Marg, Patna, the Bihar CM's official residence, even though the RJD, which has arithmetic going against it, put up a late-night fight, with Tejashwi holding fort in Patna after father Lalu left for Ranchi to attend a court appearance scheduled for today.

CBI SETS BALL ROLLING

While Nitish has shown a tendency to side with the BJP in recent times (he backed PM Narendra Modi's demonetisation exercise and was the first Opposition leader to support Ram Nath Kovind for president), it seems that the Central Bureau of Investigation placing Lalu Prasad Yadav and his family in its crosshairs was what set the ball rolling for Wednesday's developments in Bihar.

Until the July 7 CBI raids on the Yadavs, the JD (U)-RJD 'mahagathbandhan' (grand alliance) in Bihar was able to keep away from the taint of corruption because of both, Nitish's clean image and the fact that Lalu, previously convicted for corruption, wasn't technically part of the Bihar government.

That changed on July 7, when the CBI booked Lalu Yadav, wife Rabri Devi and son Tejashwi Yadav in an alleged railway tender scam that took place during the RJD patriarch's time as Railway Minister in the Congress-led government at the Centre.

With the CBI's action, Nitish suddenly had to contend with his deputy CM facing accusations of corruption. Inadvertently or not, the CBI's raids and case against Lalu and his family provided Nitish with a way to part ways with the RJD without losing the CM's chair or his face.

QUICK-MOVING BJP

Nitish remaining CM and Lalu staying out of government required a third political party to act, and the Bharatiya Janata Party fulfilled that need. The BJP, which just so happened to be holding a parliamentary meet in New Delhi as Nitish made public his decision to quit, wasted no time in announcing support to the JD (U) chief.

Led by Sushil Modi, who has been on an offensive against the Yadavs recently, BJP MLAs met their JD (U) colleagues at a late-night gathering in Patna and signed letters backing Nitish as chief minister. Within a matter of hours, Nitish was able claim the support of 132 MLAs, ten more than the number of legislators he needed to cross the Bihar Assembly's halfway mark of 122.

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The BJP's deft movements on Wednesday were a reminder of its post-2017 state election plays in Goa and Manipur, where it was able to install governments right under the nose of the single-largest party in the respective assemblies, both Congress.

SCRIPTED?

Tejashwi Yadav, who in a post-midnight meeting with Governor Tripathi requested the chance to prove majority on the Assembly floor, questioned what political analysts had been voicing all evening - Wednesday's developments seemed "pre-decided" and, essentially, too coincidental.

Tripathi just happened to be in the governor's mansion in Patna on Wednesday. The BJP just happened to have a meeting in progress in New Delhi. And, even PM Modi seemingly played a role, congratulating Nitish on his resignation within minutes of the latter announcing that he was relinquishing the post of CM after answering the 'call of his soul'.

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Scripted or not, Wednesday's developments in Bihar seem aimed at isolating Lalu Yadav politically. Even the Congress did not say much about the happenings except to express disappointment in Nitish's resignation with a short statement that said the party would do "everything within its means" to honour the mandate of the people of Bihar that was "against the BJP and PM Narendra Modi".

The RJD does not intend to go down without a fight. The party has said that it should be called to form the next government in Bihar and Tejashwi in statements issued late Wednesday and early Thursday repeatedly criticised Nitish Kumar while threatening protests and dharnas across Bihar.

But, Lalu Yadav, who in another coincidence had to leave Patna last night to attend a court hearing in Ranchi today, admitted that his party was unlikely to be in government, at least right now. Governor Tripathi should call us to form the next government, but he is unlikely to do so, Lalu told India Today while on his way to Ranchi.

Pulling no punches, Yadav said that Nitish was "scared" of his son Terjashwi's "rise in politics". "I trusted Nitish Kumar blindly, but he betrayed me."

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ALSO READ

Nitish Kumar gives list of 132 MLAs to Governor, to be sworn in CM in Bihar at 10 am

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

Nitish Kumar, Lalu Prasad, Bihar and the perfect storm of coincidences

Call of my soul: 10 quotes of Nitish Kumar after his resignation as Bihar Chief Minister

ALSO WATCH

Dost, dost na raha: Frenemies Nitish Kumar and Lalu Yadav over the years

--- ENDS ---
On Thursday, leaders from various Opposition parties were seen on one hand slamming the JD-U chief in Parliament, and on the other reiterating that Opposition unity will continue in the future.

Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi at the Parliament house in New Delhi on July 27. Photo: PTI

By Supriya Bhardwaj: Post Nitish Kumar's exit, Opposition led by Congress is again reworking on their strategy to take on BJP led NDA.

On Thursday, leaders from various Opposition parties were seen on one hand slamming the JD-U chief in Parliament, and on the other reiterating that Opposition unity will continue in the future.

The who's who from the Opposition camp said that they are still united against BJP and knew Nitish Kumar wasn't with them from last nine months ever since demonetisation happened.

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NCP MP Majeed Menon said, "Mahagathbandhan (Grand Alliance) will be formed for 2019 Lok Sabha Poll. Only one party has left and it's good that Nitish Kumar has left else he would have been dangerous. We just have to rework our strategy."

TVKS Elangovan, Rajya Sabha MP of DMK added, "We will be forming the Opposition's Grand alliance to take on communal forces. New members might join in. There isn't much impact of Nitish Kumar leaving the Opposition."

It is RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav's rally on August 27 in Patna that the Opposition plans to turn into a show of strength.

Meanwhile, the principal opposition party Congress has also gone back to the boardroom to redraw strategy.

Lok Sabha MP of RJD Jai Prakash Narayana Yadav met Congress president Sonia Gandhi and party's vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Amethi MP too while interacting with media in Parliament hinted that he had an inkling that Nitish is drifting towards BJP and that secular forces will continue to work together in future too.

Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge said, "Those forces that believe in their ideology and secular idea of country will continue to fight on in a United manner. Now because Nitish Kumar had decided to go with BJP he came up with various excuses but we will continue our fight together."

Also Read:

Nitish Kumar has betrayed Bihar mandate which had thrown Modi-Shah out, says Lalu Prasad

Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

As Nitish Kumar takes oath, Tejashwi Yadav cries foul, calls ex-boss opportunist rival

Watch Video: This match was fixed. I have never troubled Nitish Kumar: Lalu Prasad Yadav

--- ENDS ---
Snapping ties with allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, Nitish Kumar stopped short of blaming Lalu Prasad and Rahul Gandhi for not doing enough to save the Grand Alliance.

Nitish Kumar walked out of Grand Alliance and went back to the NDA fold. Photo: PTI.

By Kritika Banerjee: Nitish Kumar, hours after resigning as the chief minister of Bihar and pulling Janata Dal (United) out of the Grand Alliance, was once again sworn-in as the chief minister today, with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) by his side.

With this, Nitish Kumar has nearly killed Opposition's chances to form a Grand Alliance, on the lines of the mahagatbandhan in Bihar, ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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Snapping ties with allies Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and Congress, Nitish Kumar stopped short of blaming Lalu Prasad and Rahul Gandhi for not doing enough to save the Grand Alliance, or mahagatbandhan, that defeated the BJP in the 2015 Assembly election in Bihar.

While tendering his resignation as the chief minister of Bihar last night, Nitish Kumar said that he had been trying his best to provide "good governance" but "the circumstances so developed that it was difficult for me to continue to be in power".

LOSING THE ANTI-CORRUPTION FACE

A fuming Lalu Prasad called the dramatic collapse of his government a "setting" between the BJP-RSS and Nitish Kumar's JD(U).

However, for the Congress-led Opposition, the reality of Nitish Kumar walking away from the Grand Alliance means that all its hopes of forging a similar alliance to challenge the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections are crushed.

Nitish Kumar, who enjoys a corruption-free and pro-development image across the country, could have been the probable face of the grand alliance that would have hoped to check the Modi tsunami in 2019.

Corruption was the plank that BJP and Narendra Modi used in 2014 to ride to power. Given the anti-corruption sentiment prevalent in the country, corruption is likely to be a major issue on which the 2019 Lok Sabha elections will be fought.

Nitish Kumar, who is known for his anti-corruption stand, could have been Opposition's ammunition to fight the Narendra Modi tsunami.

After Nitish Kumar's exit, the Grand Alliance is left with Lalu Prasad's RJD, which is fighting corruption charges in land-for-hotel scam, and the Congress, which was voted out of power in 2014 over various alleged scams.

There are talks of the Opposition also trying to bring the Samajwadi Party and Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) within the Grand Alliance fold. Both the parties, however, are not really known for their anti-corruption credentials.

A BIHAR BOOST FOR BJP BEFORE 2019

The Amit Shah-led BJP is already at work to check Opposition's plan to stitch a Grand Alliance ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

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As talks of BSP chief Mayawati being propped up as the joint Opposition candidate from Phulpur constituency started doing the rounds, the BJP leadership is now reportedly planning to ask its Phulpur MP Keshav Prasad Maurya to resign as Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister and continue as MP.

Buzz in the political corridors is that Keshav Prasad Maurya is likely to be offered a ministerial berth in the Narendra Modi government.

The Opposition is believed to be looking at testing waters in Phulpur Lok Sabha bypoll before announcing a grand alliance in Uttar Pradesh, but BJP could deny it that chance.

BJP could also derive comfort from the fact that an alliance stitched between Congress and Samajwadi Party before the recent Assembly election in the state failed to put up a challenge to Narendra Modi's popularity.

With the BJP already in a comfortable position in Uttar Pradesh, its worry was Bihar, where it was dealt a crushing defeat by the Grand Alliance in 2015 Assembly election.

Now, with JD(U) and Nitish Kumar back with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), the BJP's chances of improving its show in the 2019 elections have got a major boost.

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ALSO READ:

Selfish Nitish Kumar betrayed us, planning was on for 3-4 months: Rahul Gandhi

Will the real Nitish Kumar please stand up? On Bihar CM's penchant for keeping everyone guessing

Trusted Nitish Kumar blindly but he betrayed me, says Lalu Prasad

ALSO WATCH: Congress slams Nitish Kumar, says Bihar's mandate was against Modi

--- ENDS ---
The big question is that if Rahul Gandhi knew that Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) was in talks with the BJP to look at the possibility of rebuilding the alliance, did he do anything to put a stop to such plans.

Rahul Gandhi has been often been accused of not being proactive. Photo: PTI.

By India Today Web Desk: Hitting out at Nitish Kumar for joining hands with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Bihar, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi said that he knew that such a plan was in the making for the last three-four months.

"We knew that this (Nitish joining hands with BJP) was being planned for the last three-four months. A person can go to any limits for his own benefit," Rahul Gandhi said.

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The Congress leader said that Nitish Kumar was given the mandate for his fight against anti-communal forces but now he has joined hands with the same forces.

The big question, however, is that if Rahul Gandhi knew that Nitish Kumar-led JD(U) was in talks with the BJP to look at the possibility of rebuilding the alliance, did he do anything to put a stop to such plans.

RAHUL DID NOT ACT, SAYS NITISH

After tendering his resignation as Chief Minister of Bihar, Nitish Kumar said that in the current circumstances, where deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav was accused of corruption, he was finding it difficult to continue "to be in power".

Nitish Kumar, in an attack on Rahul Gandhi, said that while the Congress vice-president tore the ordinance exempting politicians from facing corruption charges, he did not do anything to save the Grand Alliance.

Nitish Kumar recently met Rahul Gandhi to discuss corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav. File photo: PTI.

A few days ago, Nitish Kumar had met Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi where the two reportedly talked about the corruption charges against Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad and his family members, including son and deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav.

At the meeting, Nitish Kumar was believed to have conveyed to Rahul Gandhi that under present circumstances Tejashwi Yadav could not continue in his Cabinet.

Given Congress' long association with RJD, many would argue that the former could have convinced Lalu Prasad to ask his son to quit the Cabinet for the time-being.

SOMETHING SIMILAR HAPPENED IN GOA TOO

This, however, is not the first time when Rahul Gandhi and the Congress leadership were found to be on the back foot despite having prior knowledge about the situation threatening to go out of their hands.

In the recent Assembly election in Goa, the Congress had more seats than the BJP but lost the chance of forming the government due to alleged delay in decision-making by the leadership.

As an active BJP reached out to everyone it could to get the numbers on its side, sources in the Congress said that the leadership, in particular Digvijaya Singh, was late in deciding on the leader of the legislature party.

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Disgruntled Congress MLA Vishwajit Rane put in his papers and joined the BJP, blaming the leadership for delay in decision-making.

"We waited from 11 am to 5 pm not knowing anything about what is happening but BJP swiftly acted," said Congress MLA Jennifer Monserrate.

Rahul Gandhi, while crying foul over BJP forming the governments in Goa and Manipur where Congress had more seats, accused the BJP of stealing the mandate by using "financial power".

ALSO READ:

Why Nitish Kumar has almost killed Opposition chances to challenge Modi with a Grand Alliance in 2019

As Nitish Kumar takes oath, Tejashwi Yadav cries foul, calls ex-boss opportunist rival

How Lalu Prasad pushed Nitish Kumar to Modi-led NDA fold

ALSO WATCH: Congress slams Nitish Kumar, says Bihar's mandate was against Modi

--- ENDS ---
President Donald Trump's stunning announcement Wednesday on Twitter that transgender people will be banned from serving in the U.S. military prompted a poignant response from a veteran about being discharged from the service for being gay.

Saundra Mitchell, who is now an award-winning young-adult author, told about the pain she suffered when she was outed under the former "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy. She said that until Wednesday, she had never spoken out against her unjust discharge, but hoped that transgender people who may share the same fate would find the strength to do so.
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Twice a week, The Chronicle features a home on the market that caught our eye for its architecture, history or character. More photos: www.sfgate.com/columns/walkthrough

Address: 502 Miner Road, Orinda.

Asking price: $3.225 million.

Description: Cape Cod style radiates throughout this five-bedroom south of Sleepy Hollow and Lauterwasser Creek. The home sits on an acre and includes a sport court, Forno Bravo outdoor pizza oven and multiple patios. An open floor plan offers indoor/outdoor living as a bank of windows welcomes sunlight into the remodeled kitchen. Multiple fireplaces are found throughout the design that hosts skylights and divided-light windows. A pair of decks jut out from the upper level, and the landscape includes a chicken coop.

Dont miss: The open kitchen. Home to Sub-Zero, Wolf and Miele appliances, the kitchen includes marble counters with waterfall edges, a wine refrigerator and white cabinetry.

Built: 1963.

Square feet: 4,395.

For more information: Dana Green, Pacific Union Real Estate, (925) 339-1918, dana@danagreenteam.com.

The Walk-Through is produced by Sentinel Media Services for The San Francisco Chronicle. Send submissions to realestate@sfchronicle.com.
JERUSALEM  Violence returned Thursday to a sacred site in Jerusalem as Palestinians gathering for prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound clashed with Israeli police nearly two weeks after a deadly attack there.

Earlier in the day, Palestinians had celebrated as Israel rolled back security measures and thousands of worshipers heeded a call by Muslim authorities to assemble for prayers at the mosque for the first time in 11 days.

But as crowds pushed at one of the gates to the compound in the Old City, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them, with dozens reported wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements in Jerusalem following the latest unrest, and police were weighing limiting entry of younger men in anticipation of mass protests for Friday prayers  the highlight of the Muslim religious week.

Israeli troops in the West Bank were put on high alert and prepared for more violence Friday, a military official said.

Tensions have been running high at the site sacred to both Muslims and Jews since three Israeli Arab gunmen killed two police officers on July 14, prompting Israel to install metal detectors and other security devices.

Israel said the measures were needed to prevent more attacks. Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site, which Israel denied.

The security measures outraged Muslims and triggered protests, and low-level clashes have continued in and around Jerusalem since then, highlighting the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians over the holy site.

In protest, Palestinians have prayed in Jerusalems streets outside the shrine since the July 14 attack. Israel removed the devices Thursday and the crisis appeared to be easing as Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Droves of Palestinians entered for afternoon prayers. A handful scaled the roof the mosque and planted Palestinian flags above the entrance. Police later removed them.

The fate of the shrine is an emotional issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even the smallest perceived change to delicate arrangements pertaining to the site sparks tensions.

Ilan Ben Zion and Mohammed Daraghmeh are Associated Press writers.
1 Building collapse: A four-story residential building collapsed in Nigerias largest city and killed at least eight people, including a child, emergency officials in Lagos said Wednesday. Authorities said at least 15 people had been rescued from the rubble of the building. Government officials did not immediately say what caused the collapse in a poor neighborhood of the sprawling city of about 21 million people. Building collapses are not uncommon in the West African powerhouse where corruption is rampant and infrastructure often poor.

2 Terror listing: The European Unions top court ruled Wednesday in Brussels that Islamic militant group Hamas should stay on the EU terror list, saying a lower court should not have ordered the group removed from the EUs terror list and sending the case back to the lower court for reconsideration. The EU originally listed Hamas as a terror group in 2001, a move that froze assets of the organization in the European Union. However the decision was annulled on procedural grounds by an EU court in 2014. The EU appealed, and Wednesdays ruling by the European Union Court of Justice said that the 2014 annulment was wrong and must now be reconsidered taking into account arguments not ruled upon in the original decision.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador  Though his future may be in doubt, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions forged ahead Thursday with a tough-on-crime agenda that once endeared him to President Trump, opening a mission in El Salvador to step up international cooperation against the violent street gang MS-13.

Sessions arrived in San Salvador for a series of meetings with law enforcement officials about a transnational antigang task force aimed against MS-13. He met with his Salvadoran counterpart and planned to meet with an ex-gang member and tour a prison.

Back in Washington, lawmakers sized up the fallout over a week of public scorn heaped on Sessions by his boss, Trump, even as the White House suggested the president prefers that his attorney general stay on the job. U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said Thursday that there would be holy hell to pay if Trump were to fire Sessions, a former Alabama senator and early Trump supporter.

Sessions said Thursday that hell continue to serve as long as the president wants him to.

Sessions said in El Salvador that Trump has every right to find another attorney general. He says: I serve at the pleasure of the president. Ive understood that from the day I took the job.

As the Trump administration tries to build support for its crackdown on illegal immigration, it has increasingly tried to make the gang with Central American ties the face of the problem. Recent killings tied to its members have stoked the U.S. debate on immigration.

MS-13 is an international criminal enterprise with tens of thousands of members in several Central American countries and many U.S. states. The gang originated in immigrant communities in Los Angeles in the 1980s then entrenched itself in Central America when its leaders were deported.

MS-13 is known for hacking and stabbing victims with machetes, drug dealing, prostitution and other rackets. Its recruits are middle- and high-school students predominantly in immigrant communities and those who try to leave risk violent retribution, law enforcement officials have said.

U.S. law enforcement officials believe some of the recent violence in New York has been directed by members of the gang imprisoned in El Salvador.

Sadie Gurman is an Associated Press writer.
Kiwi Property, which manages a $3 billion portfolio of shopping centres and office buildings, said chief executive Chris Gudgeon will step down on Sept. 30, 2018, ending more than 10 years with the investment group.

Chair Mark Ford said Gudgeon's advance notice will allow the Auckland-based company to manage the appointment of his successor.

Under Gudgeon's leadership, Kiwi Property's market capitalisation has grown to about $1.85 billion from $860 million in 2008, while its portfolio has increased from $2.1 billion nine years ago.

Its shares fell 0.7 percent to $1.37 and have declined about 12 percent in the past 12 months while the NZX 50 Index gained 5.7 percent.

(BusinessDesk)

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Fonterra Cooperative Group penalised South Canterbury farmers who had been supplying a failed dairy company it took over to avoid bad optics with its existing suppliers and to show there would be consequences for leaving, the farmers' lawyer has told the Supreme Court.

Last November, the Court of Appeal rejected Fonterra's application to throw out a High Court ruling that it breached the Dairy Industry Restructuring Act by imposing less favourable terms on farmers who had previously supplied the failed New Zealand Dairies. Fonterra bought the independent processor's plant out of receivership in 2012 for $48.5 million and took on the farmers, who supplied milk from farms in North Otago and South Canterbury.

Fonterra made a deal with the farmers, agreeing to buy their milk under a "growth contract", rather than a fully share-backed supply, where farmers purchase one Fonterra share for every kilogram of milk solids they supply in a season and are paid the farmgate milk price plus a dividend on each share. Under the growth contract, the farmers were entitled to 5 cents less per kilogram of milk solids than the contract milk price and bought 1,000 Fonterra shares but couldn't "share up" - become fully share-backed - in their first year of supplying Fonterra.

According to DIRA, under the legislation enabling the merger of the Dairy Board with the New Zealand Dairy Group and Kiwi Cooperative Dairies, Fonterra isn't able to give new entrants different terms from its existing shareholding farmers. The High Court ruled the farmers qualified to become fully-fledged shareholders and Fonterra misled them about their ability to buy more shares, a finding which the Appeal Court upheld.

David Goddard QC, lawyer for the farmers, said the 5 cents per share discount was "essentially arbitrary" and had been imposed by Fonterra as a small but material visible penalty on the farmers.

"One executive said of course they could avoid that by sharing up early like everyone else under a growth contract; the senior executive comes back and says we shouldn't allow that, we should prohibit sharing up for at least a year," Goddard said. "The whole point of this was that there should be a penalty, and that it should stick for at least a year."

Goddard said Fonterra hadn't sought to pay the farmers less because of the cost of acquiring NZDL's assets, as those were sunk costs, and evidence in earlier hearings was that the company doesn't seek to recover differential costs of taking milk from different farmers.

"It's not as if Fonterra said, how can we afford this price, only if we get this corresponding reduction in what we pay for the milk," Goddard said. "It was very optics-driven, not only to these farmers but to future farmers who might consider leaving Fonterra in the hope of coming back. This was a signal that there would be consequences for doing that."

Earlier in the day Fonterra's QC, Jack Hodder, said DIRA wasn't a "dairy farmer's bill of rights" but was there to regulate milk supply in a way that enhances contestability, and the South Canterbury farmers didn't count as new entrants.

"These people were not seeking to or part of the contestability processes, it wasn't an open-entry, open-exit exercise in any sense. It was a contractual arrangement," Hodder said. "Nothing in this Act abolishes the power to have a contract that isn't one of share-backed supply."

The hearing is set down for two days, with Goddard set to continue submissions tomorrow.

(BusinessDesk)

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The Labour and Green parties are embracing a recommendation from the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment recommending the creation of an independent Crown entity, the Climate Change Commission, to set a national 'carbon budget' and see to its enforcement.

But Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett isn't committing the government or the National Party to the proposal to form a UK-style climate change commission - which has been the subject of prolonged lobbying by expert climate change policy advocates and groups.

"It's quite interesting," said Bennett. "We're very different from the UK both in our emissions profile, also in what we use and how we use it and our projections further out.

"I don't think that setting up an independent climate change body would work for us at the moment but I think that it might be something worth looking at in the future."

Today's report is the last by the long-serving PCE, Dr Jan Wright, and is a call to action on climate change and appeals to emerging cross-parliamentary engagement on climate change policy to create a legal framework for achieving national carbon reduction targets.

"There has been a lot of debate about what our targets should be, but I'm much more interested in how we are actually going to achieve them," she said in a statement.

Her report recommends New Zealand adopt a modified version of the United Kingdom's approach to legislate for national carbon targets to make their achievement legally enforceable rather than simply national 'commitments' to act according to targets set out in contributions offered for the period 2021 to 2030 by signatories to the global climate change accord agreed in Paris in 2015.

An influential group of climate change experts, including former diplomat and senior global climate change negotiator Adrian Macey, the Environmental Defence Society and others lobbied in support of both new legislation to sit atop existing climate change law and an independent commission of expert advisers to direct the response to climate change against national targets.

Wright recommends establishing the climate commission on the same independent basis as the Productivity Commission or Children's Commissioner.

Commission members would be experts, but not drawn for their sectoral representation but because of their "deep understanding of the different sources of greenhouse gases in New Zealand  transport, industry, electricity, agriculture, and so on", with required expertise spelled out in legislation.

Members would be appointed by the Governor-General and the Minister for Climate Change Issues would have to consult other political party leaders in making recommendations.

The Insurance Council of New Zealand said the report failed to go far enough in its recommendations.

"It is puzzling why Dr Wright did not also recommend that legislating, as the UK does, for five-yearly adaptation assessments by an independent expert group," said the council director Tim Grafton. "Instead, she has taken the weaker stance of recommending that officials who report to Ministers carry out the work and that the current Ministers Adaptation Working group examines what the UK does.

This was in spite of her warning that destructive sea level rise is becoming inevitable.

"While the Commissioner is willing to push the boat out to recommend similar legislation to reduce New Zealands greenhouse gas emissions, she pulls up short in making a recommendation to legislate such long-term planning for how New Zealand adapts to climate change he said.

This means no matter what New Zealand does about greenhouse gas emissions, it faces inevitable challenges in adapting to climate change and sea-level rise. Adaptation means reducing and managing the risk of losses which will be essential to keep insurance available and affordable if losses become unsustainable.

Wright says in her report that New Zealand didn't need to "do everything at once, but what is urgently required is an overall plan that gets us to net zero emissions that considers evolving technologies, inter-sector equity, practicality and affordability".

If we take action too late we may not get there. Unplanned transition will likely have negative cost implications. We need a carbon budget that demonstrably works and then monitor progress against interim targets. That role is best handled by a dedicated entity overseen by experts."

Federated Farmers said it gave the proposal "qualified support", while Dairy New Zealand welcomed the fact it would bring certainty to the future for carbon targets to be met.

Meanwhile, foresters warned that Bennett's announcements yesterday on the next phase of developments for the country's emissions trading scheme could lead to less forest planting "just when it needs to increase".

Decisions on the accounting treatment for carbon locked up in forests and wood products are still up to 18 months away following yesterday's decisions.

"The government should simply say nobody is going to be disadvantaged by the outcome of the ETS review if they decide to plant now, said the chair of the pan-industry organisation WoodCo, Brian Stanley.

Carbon traders OMF noted in their daily commentary that the price of New Zealand Units of carbon had jumped 10 cents to $17.85 a tonne.

"Get used to much higher carbon prices in the coming years," OMF's Nigel Brunel said.

(BusinessDesk)

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Senior JD-U leader Sharad Yadav has said that Nitish Kumar's move to walk out of the Mahagathbandhan alliance in Bihar was his personal decision and that many party leaders were not taken into confidence on the issue.

By Poulomi Saha: While Nitish Kumar has become Bihar Chief Minister again with help from the BJP in less than 24 hours after he stepped down pulling out of the Mahagathbandhan alliance, some senior party leaders, including Sharad Yadav, are unhappy with him.

Yadav described Nitish's move to walk out of the ruling Grand Aliance in Bihar his "personal decision", adding that he allegedly didn't take several party leaders into confidence about this step, according to party general secretary Arun Srivastava.

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With Nitish's bold move having left many in the party surprised, the dissenting camp within the JD-U has decided to speak to party leaders across the country over the next two-to-three days and then come out before the media with its stand.

This decision was taken at an hour-long meeting at Sharad Yadav's residence in New Delhi on Thursday evening. It was attended by party general secretaries Arun Srivastava and Javed Raza and Rajya Sabha MPs Ali Anwar and Veerender Kumar.

Arun Srivastava said, "This is not rebellion. We made this party. We spoke up because we want democracy to prevail in the party."

JD-U MP FROM KERALA MAY QUIT

Veerender Kumar, JD-U's only MP from outside Bihar, said that the Kerala unit of the party was not happy with Nitish's tie-up with the BJP. Sources indicate Veerender Kumar could break away from the party to start his own unit or join the Left Democratic Front in Kerala.

Ali Anwar too lashed out at Nitish for betraying the secular plank on which he won the Bihar elections in 2015.

How damaging this move will prove to be for Nitish remains to be seen. Meanwhile, reports also suggest that Union Defence Minister Arun Jaitley could reach out to Sharad Yadav in order to placate him.

Also read

Nitish's 15-year-long roller-coaster relationship with PM Modi

Rift in JD-U? Sharad Yadav meets Rahul Gandhi, to meet party leaders

Nitish conspired with BJP to frame my family, says RJD chief Lalu

As Nitish takes oath, Tejashwi cries foul, calls ex-boss opportunist rival

ALSO WATCH VIDEO | Nitish's ghar wapsi: India Today's extensive coverage of Bihar politics

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: Panaji, Jul 27 (PTI) No illegal mining is taking place in Goa, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar told the legislative Assembly today.

"No sir, there are no illegal mines operating in the state," he said in a written reply to a question by Leader of Opposition Chandrakant Kavlekar (Congress).

"Forty-eight mines were in operation in the financial year 2016-17 and all of them had obtained environmental clearances," said Parrikar, who also holds the mines portfolio.

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The mines are operating as per the mining plan/scheme submitted by the lessee and duly scrutinised and approved by the Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM), a Central government agency, the chief minister said.

In 2012, the Supreme Court banned iron ore extraction in Goa after an inquiry commission stated that illegal mining to the tune of Rs 35,000 crore took place in the coastal state from 2005 to 2012. The ban was lifted in 2014 by the apex court with certain riders. PTI RPS RSY

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) North Delhi Mayor Preety Agarwal today directed the municipal commissioner for facilitating councillors with funds to undertake development works in their respective wards.

The mayor gave the direction to commissioner P K Gupta during a meeting of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC).

"She directed that each councillor be provided with Rs 25 lakh for development work in his/her respective wards," an official of the civic body said.

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The councillors are not able to take up civic and development-related work as statutory committees have not been formed, she said.

The mayor had yesterday alleged that the Delhi government was not allowing the corporation to function due to "party politics".

"For smooth functioning of the deliberative wing of corporations, it is essential to have statutory committees in place. In the absence of a Delhi government notification authenticating zone-wise details of wards, the NDMC is not in a position to proceed further," Agarwal had said. PTI VIT SRY

--- ENDS ---
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- The Department of Education's application for Universal pre-K is available in 10 languages -- as is most DOE material -- but when Holly Bonner requested a braille or large-print version of the application to enroll her 4-year-old daughter in the program, she was told there was no such thing available.

"The DOE offered to provide me with a translator," she said. " A translator? I myself don't speak any foreign languages. The fact I was even offered a translator was baffling."

That set Bonner -- a West Brighton mother of two, and a social worker with impressive credentials, who just happens to be visually impaired -- to thinking about the bigger picture.

"I thought, if my children are going to be in school for so many years, and there is no material available in braille or large print, how am I going to keep up with their progress, read their report cards, read the notes sent home, help them with their homework, and readily access all other materials related to their education? And then I thought, what about other parents in this situation?"

So Bonner, a 2017 Advance Woman of Achievement, decided to advocate for the DOE to make materials available for blind and visually impaired parents.

"Braille and large print should be made available by the DOE," she said. "These options would not just benefit the blind and visually impaired."

"If you look at the familial structure of families in New York City schools, you will see how often grandparents play an integral role in raising families. Visual acuity tends to diminish as people get older. I am certain people would select the large print option if they had older members in their families who play an active role in school communication," Bonner said.

Bonner has a website, Blind Motherhood, where she blogs and researches topics to help the blind and visually impaired all over the world. "My website is in 126 countries, and each week I speak to 10 to 15 parents about issues relating to blind parenting," she said.

She added she plans to start by raising the issue in her blog, to see if other parents are experiencing the same problem with accessing their child's school materials, and if other schools have found a solution.

She also said she e-mailed Vincent Calise, commissioner of the Mayor's Office for People with Disabilities, about the issue, but has not received a response.

"July is Americans with Disabilities Month, and this week marks the 27

th

anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act," Bonner noted. "It would be the perfect time to address and correct this issue, one that violates the right of every blind or visually impaired New York City school parent."

The DOE, meanwhile, says it has trained staff -- especially when it comes to pre-K applications -- who work closely with parents having difficulty navigating the school system because of language, disabilities, or other problems.

"Families have the option to apply for pre-K for All over the phone or in person and we have a dedicated team of trained specialist who work closely with families to help them complete the application," said DOE spokesman Michael Aciman.

"The application is available in 10 languages and the online version provides the option of adjusting the screen settings, including font and print size as needed," he added.
BY: ANNA SANDERS AND PAUL LIOTTA

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- District Attorney Michael E. McMahon has come out against the reported dismissal of more than 500,000 arrest warrants issued during the "Broken Windows" era of policing.

"These warrants are given to individuals who have failed to appear in court after being issued summonses for violating that quality of life," McMahon said in a statement.

"I believe that issuing blanket amnesty for these offenses is unfair to those citizens who responsibly appear in court and sends the wrong message about the importance of respecting our community and our laws."

New York 1 first reported Wednesday that the plan will affect outstanding warrants at least 10 years old, and has been approved by the mayor, the NYPD and they city's four other district attorneys.

The warrants were issued for individuals who failed to answer summonses for offenses like urinating or drinking in public, which were issued en masse during the city era of "broken windows" policing.

The theory behind the practice contested that the prevalence of low-level offenses would lead to more violent crimes.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, who has been a supporter of the plan, addressed the issue in her February State of the City.

"State law requires the NYPD to detain individuals with these warrants until they can be brought before a judge, a process that can take up to 24 hours, despite the fact that these cases are virtually impossible to prosecute," she said.

Robin Levine, a spokeswoman for the the Speaker, issued a statement regarding the dismissal of the 500,000 arrest warrants.

"The Speaker's plan to clear hundreds of thousands of old, low-level, non-violent summons warrants is a tremendous and necessary undertaking and we thank the NYPD, and the District Attorney's in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Manhattan for their careful and diligent partnership with the council as we work to bring more justice to New Yorkers," she said in a statement.

McMahon said he will continue to support Fresh Start events on Staten Island, which allow residents to resolve outstanding warrants for several summonses, including: Consumption of alcohol in public, disorderly conduct, unlawful possession of marijuana, trespassing, loitering, littering and making unreasonable noise.

"As a civic leader and neighborhood activist for over 30 years, I have worked tirelessly to protect the quality of life on Staten Island and I believe that part of my responsibility as district attorney is to continue to protect that quality of life," he said in a written statement.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- Police are asking for the public's help identifying a man sought for questioning in connection to the use of a stolen debit card in Port Richmond.

A 50-year-old woman from Port Richmond reported to police on July 17 that she was no longer in possession of her debit card and was informed by a bank statement that it was used to make an unauthorized transaction.

An investigation found that an unidentified individual used the card at an ATM inside a Port Richmond Avenue laundromat to make a $200 withdrawal at approximately 1:25 a.m.

Police have provided surveillance footage of the man sought for questioning, and describe him as a black man with braids. He can be seen in the footage wearing a white shirt, black shorts and black sneakers.

Anyone with information in regard to this incident is asked to call the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782). The public can also submit tips by logging onto the Crime Stoppers website at WWW.NYPDCRIMESTOPPERS.COM or by texting the tips to 274637 (CRIMES), then entering TIP577. All calls are kept strictly confidential.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- More than 100 union members and supporters rallied outside the Spectrum store in New Springville on Wednesday in support of the strike against Spectrum/Time Warner Cable.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 3 members have been striking at the store, located at 2845 Richmond Ave., since March 28, when they walked off the job after breakdowns in contract negotiations. Wednesday's rally accounted for day 121 since the strike began.

"This is considered skilled labor," said foreman Mark Dandrea of Local 3. "We're skilled labor. What they want is unskilled labor. I care about my customers. I've been here for 30 years."

Main reasons for the strike are the elimination of contributions into workers' pension, wage benefits and medical plans. Workers also claimed they were disciplined over repeated service calls from customers expecting unobtainable Wi-Fi speeds the company promotes.

"Charter is offering Local 3 a generous compensation package that includes an average 22-percent wage increase -- some employees up to a 55-percent wage increase -- and comprehensive retirement and health benefits, including a 401(k) that provides a dollar-for-dollar match up to 6 percent of eligible pay," said John Bonomo, a Charter spokesman. "This competitive offer will have a positive, lasting impact on employees' standard of living and allows us to grow a well-paid, highly skilled workforce for the benefit of our customers."

Local 3 explained that, although they are being offered higher wages, they would rather keep the benefits that were in place already instead. Many workers and their families are concerned that both parties will not reach an agreement.

Jillian Reyes, whose husband works for the union, said she is concerned every day about being able to feed her family or keep a roof over their heads.

"There's so many benefits on my life and my kids lives that they're trying to take away," Reyes said.

Council members on the technology committee and zoning and franchises subcomittee in New York City sent a letter to Hon. Kathleen H. Burgess, secretary to the commissioner, to voice concerns over the proposed settlement last month between the New York State Department of Public Service, New York State Public Service Commission and Charter.

Last month, the Council's committee on Technology, which I am a member, and subcommittee on Zoning & Franchises held a... Posted by Joe Borelli on Monday, July 24, 2017

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman filed a suit against Charter Communications and Spectrum Management Holding Company for allegedly defrauding New Yorkers over Internet speeds and performance and not providing services to all neighborhoods.

Charter Communications closed on its $67 billion acquisition of Time Warner Cable and Bright House Networks last year. The deals made Charter the second-largest home internet provider and third-largest video provider in the United States.
While officials were tight-lipped about Doval's schedule, he is likely to meet with his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor Yang Jiechi.

Doval will meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the five NSAs set to call on Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Friday afternoon.

By Ananth Krishnan: National Security Adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval will hold key meetings in Beijing on Thursday and Friday, as he attends a BRICS NSA's meet that takes place amid attention on the ongoing border standoff between India and China in Doklam.

Doval arrived in Beijing on Wednesday. While officials were tight-lipped about his schedule, he is likely to meet his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor Yang Jiechi. Doval will also hold interactions with other BRICS NSAs.

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Yang will host Doval and other officials for a banquet, while the BRICS NSA's summit will hold a formal opening on Friday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

As India Today reported, Doval will also meet Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the five NSAs set to call on Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Friday afternoon.

Yang and Doval are also Special Representatives on the India-China boundary negotiations.

"As far as we know, in previous meetings, usually it is arranged for the heads of delegations to hold meetings to exchange views on bilateral relations and other international issues," Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang said earlier this week.

Lu also stressed that in China's view, "meaningful dialogue" on the standoff at Doklam was not possible until India withdrew. "China and India have a smooth diplomatic channel," he said.

"The crux now is Indian border troops illegally stayed on China's territory. Once again we urge India to pull back to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress that this is precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides," Lu added.

ALSO READ |

NSA Ajit Doval to meet China's Xi Jinping as tension over Doklam peaks

Ahead of NSA Ajit Doval's visit, China says open to bilateral talks, but imposes a Doklam precondition

While India-China tensions simmer, NSA Ajit Doval to visit Beijing for BRICS meet

Moving a mountain easier than shaking PLA: China's army threatens India

ALSO WATCH | China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
NEW YORK -- Demonstrators have flocked to a military recruiting station in New York City to protest President Donald Trump's abrupt ban on transgender troops in the military.

A crowd of at least a couple of hundred people gathered around the U.S. Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square on Wednesday. They held signs saying "Resist!" and listened to speakers who denounced the ban, which Trump announced on Twitter.

Demonstrator Yael Leberman says transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat is "not about physical, it's about mental." She says it's unsurprising from the Republican president to say what he said or to see the pushback from a place as diverse as New York City.

It's unclear what the ban will mean for currently serving transgender soldiers.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A masked robber armed with a gun held up a New Brighton deli Thursday morning, police said.

The search continues for the suspect, who wore a gold mask and brandished a black handgun, according to a spokesman for the NYPD's Deputy Commissioner of Public Information.

The robbery occurred at about 9 a.m. inside Curtis Hill Deli and Grill at 10 Daniel Low Terrace, the police spokesman said.

A 22-year-old employee was behind the counter when the suspect allegedly said, "Give me the money," according to police.

The robber took $300 from the register and two cell phones that were on the counter, the police spokesman said.

The suspect then ran around the corner, stepped into a car and fled, the spokesman added.

No injuries were suffered in the incident, according to police.

Police did not provide a detailed description of the suspect.
Page Content

During the month of July 2017, St. Maarten joined other countries comprising the Dutch Kingdom, at the High-level Political Forum (HLPF) in New York.

This United Nations event served as a central platform for follow-up and review of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

St. Maarten formed part of the Dutch kingdom delegation, headed by the Netherlands minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation, Lilianne Ploumen.





During the forum, some forty-four UN member states presented their Voluntary National Reviews (VNRs) of the 2030 Agenda on SDGs.

It was earlier decided that the Kingdom of the Netherlands (Aruba, Curacao, the Netherlands and St. Maarten) would jointly draft a combined VNR report, wherein the state of implementation of the SDGs for the four countries are highlighted.

This VNR report of the Dutch kingdom has been presented to the UN secretary-general.

The full report is now online and can be found at https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/16109Netherlands.pdf

--

Photo caption:

Minister Ploumen holding up a copy of the VNR (Voluntary National Review) Kingdom report on Sustainable Development Goals, with members of the Dutch kingdom delegation, recently in New York at the HLPF Forum.




By Ananth Krishnan: National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi have met in Beijing for bilateral talks, coming amid the on-going border stand-off in Doklam.

Doval, who will on Friday attend a BRICS NSA's summit, and Yang met "separately" on Thursday, the official State-run Xinhua news agency reported. Xinhua said Yang also met separately with NSAs of Brazil and South Africa. China and Russia on Wednesday held a strategic dialogue.

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Discussions were held "on bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs" and Yang "set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems", Xinhua reported.

It did not say what those "major problems" were and whether the on-going stand-off figured.

Yang was quoted as saying that "it accords with the common interests of the BRICS countries to strengthen their partnership, calling for the five countries to deepen communication, strengthen strategic mutual trust, enhance cooperation on politics and security issues, safeguard international justice, and promote practical cooperation in various fields in order to benefit the peoples of all countries."

As India Today reported, Doval will also meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday, with the five NSAs set to call on Xi at the Great Hall of the People following the BRICS summit.

China had earlier this week hinted at bilateral talks with India, with the Foreign Ministry saying "usually it is arranged for the heads of delegations to hold meetings to exchange views on bilateral relations and other international issues.

At the same time, spokesperson Lu Kang also stressed that in China's view, "meaningful dialogue" on the stand-off at Doklam was not possible until India withdrew. "China and India have a smooth diplomatic channel," he said.

"The crux now is Indian border troops illegally stayed on China's territory. Once again we urge India to pull back to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress that this is precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides."

WHO IS YANG JIECHI?

Yang Jiechi, is called Tiger Yang. He is called so, because he was born in the year of Tiger (1950), and also because the last character of his name contains a part "Tiger" in Chinese. The last character Chi has two parts, a bamboo on top of a tiger. In Chinese, bamboo is symbolised by its unbreakable yet yielding character. For Yang, it translates to being humble and open-minded. The tiger, on the other hand, symbolises authority and aggression. Together they connote forcefulness with compromise.

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Yang Jiechi is one of the five State Councillors of China. Since 2013, he has moved up in political rank from Foreign Minister to State Councillor, which is at the same level as the vice president of China.

Yang is known as a top expert on US-China relations. During his time at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, he was sent to work at the Embassy of China at Washington DC, USA, three times. His diplomatic maneuver on the Hainan Island Incident in 2001 earned him high praise in China.

(Additional inputs from Jianghanhan Li)

Also Read:

Five facts about 'Tiger' Yang Jiechi, China's Ajit Doval

After Doklam, Chinese war veterans planning rare 1962 commemoration

NSA Doval to meet China's Jinping as tension over Doklam peaks

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) There can be no compromise on the issue of cross border terrorism and the onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and comprehensive bilateral dialogue, the government told the Rajya Sabha today.

In response to a question, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh said Indias consistent position has been that entire Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India and a part of the territory of the state has been under illegal occupation of Pakistan.

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"India is committed to addressing all outstanding issues, including the issue of Jammu and Kashmir, bilaterally and through peaceful means in accordance with Simla agreement and Lahore declaration," he said.

At the same time, he asserted that an environment free from terror, hostility and violence is required for a meaningful dialogue.

Singh said India has consistently called upon Pakistan to abide by its commitment of not allowing any territory under its control to be used against India in any manner and to respect the sanctity of the international border and line of control.

"The onus is on Pakistan to create a conducive atmosphere for a constructive and substantive comprehensive bilateral dialogue," he said.

The minister said it was not true that bilateral relations between the two countries have been very tense in the last three years.

He identified Pathankot terror attack, cross border terrorism, ceasefire violations by Pakistani forces and death penalty handed down to "innocent" Indian national Kulbhushan Jadhav as reasons preventing forward movement in bilateral ties.

Singh said there was considerable improvement in bilateral ties during 2014 and 2015.

To a separate question, he said more than hundred Indian fishermen along with 19 boats were apprehended by Pakistani authorities in the intervening night of March 25 and 26.

He said Pakistan had acknowledged custody of a total of 494 fishermen believed to be Indian who are in Pakistani jails, adding 77 Indian fishermen were repatriated on July 10.

Singh said 10 civilian prisoners and 9 fishermen from Pakistan were released by India in 2016 while 42 civilian prisoners and 22 fishermen were freed till July 25.

Replying to another query, Singh said the MEA has received information concerning attacks on 57 Indians in 18 countries during 2016. PTI MPB ZMN

--- ENDS ---
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By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Pakistans powerful Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan today said that he would resign and quit politics after the Supreme Court judgement on the Panamagate case in which embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family have been named for alleged corruption.

His announcement, which comes a day before the verdict in the high-profile case, stunned his supporters and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

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Khan expressed serious disappointment over the way he was kept away from Sharif by his rivals.

"I have decided to resign from the cabinet and Parliament after the (Panama) decision, whether it is in favour of the prime minister or against him," he told reporters.

Khan, who has 33 years of association with Sharif, did not target the prime minister but criticised some of the party leaders who have been speaking against him (Khan) in presence of Sharif with an objective to create differences.

"I had no one-to-one meeting with the prime minister during the last about six weeks," Khan said as he complained that he was kept out of the crucial consultations on the Panama case which now hangs over Sharifs head like a sword.

Khan, known as a hardcore ideologue within the party, rejected the impression that he may join a new party, saying he can not even think of joining any other political outfit.

Speaking on civil-military relations, Khan said he had "never compromised on civilian supremacy" even though he had strong ties with the military.

"Ask any military or intelligence leader if I have ever attempted to undermine the government for political gain," said Khan whose grandfather, father, elder brother, nephews and several other relatives have been in army.

He said that he always supported civilian supremacy over armed forces and occasionally ran into troubles for criticising senior generals.

He also ruled out speculation that he was hoping to become the prime minister in case Sharif was disqualified.

"I am not in this race," Khan said.

Khan, respected for his outspokenness, puts Sharif in an awkward situation at a time when he is passing through the toughest time of his political career.

Sharif critics are using the press conference to portray that demise of PML-N had started even before the court verdict.

"It shows the internal rift in the party," said Skeikh Rashid Ahmad, a former associate of Sharif and now his fierce critic.

Earlier, Sharifs younger brother and Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif met Khan for the second time today in as many days to win him back but failed.

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A six-member joint investigation team (JIT) set up by the court to investigate the charges the 67-year-old Sharif and his family submitted its report to the court on July 10. It has said the lifestyle of Sharif and his children were beyond their known sources of income, and recommended filing of a new corruption case against them. PTI SH CPS

--- ENDS ---
1984. Adapted and directed by Robert Icke and Duncan Macmillan. from the novel by George Orwell. The Headlong, Nottingham Playhouse and Almeida Theatre production. Associate director (Australia): Corey McMahon. State Theatre Company, South Australia and Canberra Theatre, Canberra Theatre Centre. Until July 29. canberratheatrecentre.com.au or 6275 2700.

This 1984 is a tearingly good version of George Orwell's stark vision of a future that in 2017 may almost have been reached. It's an Australian recreation of a powerful English stage adaptation and it certainly catches the terrors of the novel, from Big Brother to Newspeak to the rats.

Renato Musolino, Paul Blackwell, Ursula Mills, Tom Conroy, Guy O'Grady, Fiona Press and Yalin Ozucelik help deliver an unmissable version of 1984. Credit:Shane Reid

Orwell wrote it in 1948 and this version has a threadbare 1940s post-war English ambience but with the framing device of a book club looking at the novel a century on. That works rather better than it sounds as it enables hints at the Orwellian nature of humans carrying round their portable screens, with all the possibilities of those handheld devices being able to report and record one's doings, just as the TV screens do in Winston Smith's world.

Winston (Tom Conroy) lives in a world that is full of controls, from the Thought Police to Big Brother. His work involves airbrushing history but his dreams are of freedom. He falls in with Charrington (Yalin Ozucelik) who runs a shop devoted to unfashionably old things and there he is able to rent a room free of surveillance where he and Julia (Ursula Mills) are able to attain a rare privacy for their blossoming affair.
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Pakistans Supreme Court may not announce the verdict before August 15 in the Panamagate case against beleaguered Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption and money laundering, it emerged today after the court issued roster of cases for next two weeks.

According to the Cause List, the court has set up benches to hear all cases till August 11 and it does not include the three-member bench which reserved the judgement last week after conclusion of the hearings in the Panama Papers case.

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The roster shows that two of the three judges on the special Panama case implementation bench will be out of Islamabad from next week until August 11.

Justice Sheikh Azmat Saeed will be hearing cases in the apex courts Lahore Registry while Justice Ijazul Ahsan will be proceeding on leave, reveals the roster.

Only Justice Ejaz Afzal Khan, who heads the bench, will be available in the capital.

The court will be closed from August 12 to 14 due to the weekend, followed by the Independence Day which is observed in Pakistan on August 14.

A six-member Joint Investigation Team (JIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate charges of money laundering against 67-year-old Sharif and his family had submitted the report on July 10 to the court, which could cost him his job.

The apex court concluded hearing the case on July 21, but reserved its verdict.

The delay could be shocking to Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf party after its chief Imran Khan yesterday urged the apex court to issue the verdict without any further delay.

"The public is awaiting the Supreme Courts verdict," he had said.

Some of the PTI leaders are still hopeful for an early judgement, and Babar Awan said that the court may issue a supplementary cause list tomorrow and announce judgement. He said the court can also work and issue orders on the weekend.

But it is believed that the chances of any judgment before August 15 are slim as the judges would like to see and analyse all documents and evidence before the crucial judgment.

Last year, the Panama Papers revealed that three of Prime Minister Sharifs children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his familys wealth statement. The assets in question include four expensive flats in Park Lane, London.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami.

The Supreme Courts decision in the case is keenly awaited as it would determine the course of Pakistans polity and with it Sharifs. An adverse decision may result in Sharifs disqualification and even snap elections. PTI SH ZH

--- ENDS ---

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Canberra is better placed than most Australian cities to adapt to the changing nature of work brought about by automation, artificial intelligence and big data, a new report has shown.

A study of 25 Australian cities for so-called knowledge capital and knowledge economy found the Canberra-Queanbeyan region is one of the best prepared Australian locations for the technological revolution and knowledge transition.

Canberra has scored highly in a list of smart Australian cities.

Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra-Queanbeyan, Brisbane and Perth made up the top five rankings, while the remaining 20 cities were found to have knowledge limitations and concerns about how the changing nature of work will impacting different urban areas.

The report, by the University of Canberra's Faculty of Business, Government and Law, found cities that have traditionally relied on manufacturing and mining industries for employment now lack sufficient knowledge capital for future work, with many not developing required knowledge economy to respond successfully to the arrival of new technologies.
Could a handful of the world's richest people giving away their wealth make a real impact on climate change

Bloomberg's Robin Hood Index calculated what slice of each top billionaire's fortune would be needed to buy all the carbon credits required to offset all domestic greenhouse gas emissions in their home country over a year.

As an intellectual exercise, one can only imagine what the most affluent in 44 countries, with an estimated wealth of $US786 billion ($976 billion), or a cool 1 per cent of the world's gross domestic product, can do with their money that government and agencies can't.

The answer is quite a lot.
I've escaped the Melbourne winter by having a break in the Mediterranean, where the temperature is rarely below 26 degrees.

This morning we arrived at the island of Corsica and visited the ancient capital Ajaccio. The highlight for me was Maison Bonaparte, the three-story ancestral home of Napoleon that was in the family from 1682 to 1923.

Napoleon didn't just win battles. He was a great innovator in civic administration, military practices and even food production.

I've always been intrigued by the life of Napoleon. How could such a successful and all-powerful leader come to such a disastrous end?

Perhaps controversial British MP Enoch Powell had him in mind when he said: "All political lives, unless they are cut off in midstream at a happy juncture, end in failure, because that is the nature of politics and of human affairs."
Meat industry leaders remain hopeful of a quick resolution to a shock temporary ban on exports to China from six Australian meatworks.

The suspensions sent trade officials and industry representatives into overdrive when news of the ban, which affects five companies, emerged in Australia late on Tuesday afternoon.

In response to the bans federal Trade Minister Steven Ciobo said he was prepared to travel to China next week. Mr Ciobo also revealed that early discussions between the two nations had yielded some benefit for Australian producers and the affected meatworks.

"Chinese authorities have indicated that meat that is already in containers on the water, that was dispatched before the 24th of July, will still be accepted by China. So that's a big sigh of relief," he said.
If you have any interest in business or technology, or if you just spend too much time on Twitter, you might have stumbled across this meme last week.

Two images of Jeff Bezos, the Amazon CEO, side by side, showing a remarkable transformation from Nineties-era bookish computer nerd, to the muscular, Patagonia vest clad, aviator-wearing mogul of today.

It was an amusing little snippet of internet culture. But the meme was also a perfect illustration, not just of Amazon's astonishing corporate rise over the past two decades from online bookseller to e-commerce colossus, but also of the metamorphosis the technology industry has undergone during that period.
All buildings that have used flammable cladding will need to have it removed, an operation likely to cost billions of dollars, the head of the Victorian Building Authority says.

VBA acting chief executive Murray Smith said the authority was looking at options to "accelerate" the removal of polyethylene wall cladding, the cause of a substantial blaze on Melbourne's Lacrosse apartment and London's lethal Grenfell Tower fire.

The apartment building fire in Docklands in 2014. Credit:Gregory Badrock

Mr Smith was last week questioned at a Senate Economics References Committee inquiry into non-conforming building products over the VBA's interpretation of regulations and handling of flammable building products.

The hearing in Sydney was conducted by Senators Kim Carr, Chris Ketter and Nick Xenophon.
Federal Labor will face greater pressure to change its policy commitment from five days to 10 days of paid domestic violence leave for all workers.

NSW Labor is expected to adopt a union motion for paid domestic violence leave to be increased to 10 days at its state party conference in Sydney this weekend.

Australian Services Union NSW branch secretary Natalie Lang.

The Australian Services Union backed by Unions NSW and unions across right and left factions will put the motion to the conference and expects no opposition from NSW Labor Party delegates.

ASU NSW branch secretary Natalie Lang said NSW unions across different factions were united in supporting the motion for a minimum 10 days of paid leave to be a legislated entitlement for all workers.
For example, Shorten tries to create a divide between the "rich" and the "poor", but he ignores the really poor, those locked into the unemployment benefit and the base pension, who are, by most estimates, still well below the poverty line. If Shorten is to be believable, his policy response must include a meaningful increase in these basic benefits. He also defines "rich" as those with an income of $180,000, which most would consider as middle class. Surely he must raise this limit if he is to be credible. And then there is the taxation of trusts  easy to call for and promise reform, but I am yet to hear from anybody who claims to be able to separate the tax dodge from the protection of family assets. Unfortunately, we are now politically immersed in a world of slogans and fake short-term fixes. None of what was pledged in these speeches can be delivered in the time frames promised.

So, you might reasonably ask: "Where to from here?" Shorten now needs, as a matter of urgency, to specify the detail of his alternative. The days for political posturing are over. It is all so easy to run issues designed to "wedge" the government, but quite a different thing to identify realistic policy alternatives that voters will accept as reasonable and deliverable. Turnbull needs to take a risk. If he really believes in the benefits of his overarching strategy, then he should be out there explaining it, and selling it! The big issue for both is electricity prices. After years of neglect and short-term, opportunistic politicking, both side are to blame, and neither side has a realistic solution. Voters are all too willing to blame. Indeed, voters struggle daily with trying to get even an explanation of their power bills, suspecting full well that they are being ripped off.

Voters are cutting through the rhetoric. They seek real outcomes. If you cut through the promises of last week's speeches, by both Turnbull and Shorten, you are still left wondering just what it will mean to each of us. Voters are annoyed with the self-indulgent behaviour of the Liberal Party, seemingly more concerned about what an anachronistic Menzies might have thought of today's issues than with delivering good government. In an attempt to present as a sharp contrast, Shorten is desperate to achieve the mantle of a responsible alternative, but is seriously constrained by his union, populist roots. Neither side is prepared to concede a realistic assessment of the magnitude and severity of the risks we face as a nation, and to offer a believable policy strategy for moving forward. So we are left with the hollow rhetoric, and undeliverable promises.
Imagine that in 1972 Geoffrey Rippon and Ted Heath had been able by some miracle to persuade our friends in Paris that distance was no obstacle. Suppose that by her abundant self-evident influences from Britain, Greece, Italy and elsewhere it had been decided that Australia was really European; a great, glorious syncretic European country and therefore eligible for accession  and suppose the French had said oui, and Australia had been admitted to the common market. What would have happened? Who would have wanted Australia to join the common market by the way? Let's have a little retrospective referendum here. Well, I think you could argue that there would have been advantages and disadvantages. Australia would certainly have continued to catapult huge quantities of butter and beef to Europe  more than ever, perhaps. But other things would not have been so easy. I mean no criticism of the model and methods chosen by our EU friends, but you wouldn't be running your own competition law or your public procurement programs and you wouldn't be able to tailor your green energy programs to suit Australia's needs. You send us Patricia Hewitt and Lynton Crosby. We send you Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Boris Johnson

You would find yourselves regularly out-voted in the Council of Ministers on hours of work or the definition of chocolate. You would never have been able to come up with your own immigration policy  the fabled points-based system. And for the last 44 years you would have had to conform to the Common Agricultural Policy, and we must face the terrible probability that the EU's ruthless quota and intervention policies  designed to protect existing Mediterranean producers  would have meant that Australia's now legendary winemakers would never have got beyond the first tentative vintages because the whole lot would have been compulsorily boiled up and turned into bioethanol; and there would be nothing from the Hunter Valley on our tables tonight. And above an awful lot of your brightest diplomats would be spending their lives trying to stop things from happening, grappling in distant corridors with brilliant graduates of the Ecole Nationale d'Administration, instead of actually trying to get things done. And even if you think I am being paranoid  even if you think it might not have been as bad as all that  I think we can look at Australia today and after 26 years of continuous growth, and with per capita GDP 25 per cent higher than in the UK, I think we can say that it was not absolutely necessary for Australia to join the common market.

Indeed, it is safe to say that it was not necessary for Australia to join any bloc or grouping organised on the integrationist principles of the EU. Australia is not required to send well remunerated parliamentarians to an APEC parliament; and there isn't a single APEC court of justice or currency, called the abalone, or whatever. Australia hasn't been required in the last few decades to sign up to a series of treaties designed to create a single political unit out of a patchwork of 27 countries; and no one claims that such a process is essential for Australia's economic health and wellbeing, nor that this prevents Australia being a successful member of international economic organisations or a committed multilateral player. So when we look at the forward momentum of Australia in the last few decades you can perhaps see why we in Britain are inclined to take with a pinch of salt some of the very slight gloom and negativity that is emanating from some distinguished quarters about the decision of the British people to leave the European Union. And you can see why we might be moved to reject their notion that little old Britain is just too small, too feeble, too isolated, to cope on its own.

They say the UK is like some poor wriggling crustacean about to be deprived of its shell. I say  don't come the raw prawn with me. On the contrary, when we look at what Australia has achieved, we can see grounds for boundless excitement and optimism. It is true that we may not have all Australia's sunshine and other natural advantages; but we are the fifth-biggest economy on earth, rated number two or perhaps number one for soft power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, the second biggest contributor to NATO. We have the greatest financial capital anywhere in the world, with the biggest creative, culture and media sector anywhere in our hemisphere; and we are like Australians in that our population is possessed of the most extraordinary wanderlust  one in ten of Britons now alive is estimated to be living outside Britain, a higher proportion than any other rich country. Not just diplomats and aid workers either  though we certainly make a huge contribution to international activity. If you look at the five worst current humanitarian disasters  in Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and north-east Nigeria  you will find that the three biggest donors are the US, the UK, and the EU; and that is before you even take account of the sixth or so of the EU aid budget we also pay. We are hugely proud of that record  but of course we are not just talking of public officials. We are talking about 6 million bankers and journalists and artists and lawyers and athletes and  I kid you not  a policeman from Uxbridge who tours the world testing water slides: 6 million Brits spread out across the world in a great bright throbbing web like a scene from Avatar.

And we have the chance now as we leave the arrangements of the European Union to become even more global, and when I say more global I do not mean for a minute that we will become less European. The Channel is not about to get wider. Britain is not going to sprout funnels and steam across to the Mid Atlantic. We remain historically, culturally, intellectually, emotionally and architecturally European. Shakespeare is just as European as Michelangelo or Cervantes or Beethoven. Indeed, when you consider the range of his locations: Denmark, Austria, France, Greece, Italy, Cyprus, Croatia, Turkey, to say nothing of Lebanon, Syria and the New World  I think you could argue that he was more European in his interests than any other great artist. This European-ness is not just words: we show our commitment to Europe by our moral and military willingness to come to the defence of our friends, a commitment that we make unconditionally, irrespective of our EU negotiations. It is 100 years since British and Australian soldiers stood side by side in the Third Battle of Ypres, in what I still believe it is right to think of as a fight against tyranny.

Today there are 800 British soldiers in Estonia, almost a quarter of the NATO mission in Eastern Europe, there to give reassurance in the face of any potential provocations from the east. We will continue to stick up for the rights of Ukrainians, threatened by Russian aggression and revanchism. We will work with our friends in the western Balkans, where there is currently a political and geo-strategic arm wrestle taking place; and we will continue to help them to achieve what they see as their Euro-Atlantic destiny. We will help our Italian partners as they face the challenge of migration from North Africa  cracking down on the vile people traffickers who put their victims to sea in leaky boats. We will continue to argue for balance and moderation in our European foreign policy; and yes we join our friends in deploring the actions of the Turkish authorities in arresting and imprisoning journalists and human rights activists, including Amnesty International campaigners. We call on Turkey to release them from pre-trial detention, ensure fair and speedy trials, and to find a new way forward. But we also believe that we must engage with Turkey, and that it would be a great mistake to demonise or to push that extraordinary country away from us. That is not the right way forward, either.

And we believe that this European engagement  military, diplomatic, working together to defeat all those who would do us harm  is in our interests, in our partners' interests  in our mutual interest. And that mutual interest is nowhere more blatant than in the negotiations on trade that are about to begin. I wore this morning a sweater derived from Spanish sheep, reared in New Zealand, whose wool was shorn and shipped to Italy where it was turned into cloth that was shipped to China  imagine that vast triangle  where it was stitched together and then back to New Zealand before being exported to Britain, France, all over the world. Think of that woolly jumper as it bounds over borders and barriers and customs posts with not a bleat of effort or exertion. That is how trade works today, with standards and supply chains that are increasingly global; and with the help of the excellent negotiators on both sides I have no doubt that we will get a great deal that preserves and even enhances the frictionless movement of goods that is in the interests of both sides of the Channel. And I am sure that we will get a solution that does nothing to undermine the interests of London's financial sector, because the real rivals of the City are not in Paris or Frankfurt; they are in Hong Kong and New York and Singapore  and in the end I think everyone understands that London is an asset for the entire continent.

And when we do that deal I believe we will create a solution that has been so long in the making  a strong EU, buttressed and supported by a strong UK, with each side trading freely with the other, and with the UK able to think about new opportunities in the rest of the world. There is nowhere more exciting to do that than here in the Indo-Pacific; here where there is a third of the global economy, around two thirds of the global population  here where the growth is. And that is why we have decided once again that the UK must be more present, more active, more engaged in this region. In each of the three countries I have visited in the last week  Japan, New Zealand, here in Australia  I have heard people ask for Britain to get more involved. And we will be here as a partner and friend; aiming at good relations with all the major countries of this region  not choosing between them. Our relationship with China, the engine of global growth, will be crucial now and in the future. As will our deep and long-standing partnerships with Japan and India. And of course those with you in Australia and our friends in New Zealand. But we need to do more. So I can say tonight that after leaving the EU, we will be seeking to strengthen our own national relationship with ASEAN as an institution.

We want these partnerships because they are a big part of how we uphold the liberal international order, in Asia as elsewhere. That is why last week I stood shoulder-to-shoulder with my colleague Fumio Kishida, the Japanese Foreign Minister, in denouncing the nuclear adventurism of Kim Jong-un, a man who reportedly deals with his enemies by strapping them to the side of a mountain and shelling them with an anti-aircraft gun. That is why we stand up for the rights of the people of Hong Kong and for the "One country, two systems" principle to be upheld  and I thank Julie Bishop for making that same point when she spoke a couple of nights ago. In the South China Sea, we urge all parties to respect freedom of navigation and international law, including the ruling of the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. We are also ready once again to articulate our commitment to international order with money and a military presence.

That is why we last year sent our Typhoons for the first time to train with Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, as one of the few countries able to deploy air power 7000 miles from our shores. That is why one of the first missions of our two vast new aircraft carriers will be to sail through the Straits of Malacca, the route that currently accommodates a quarter of global trade. If you look at these vessels you will see that they are not only longer than the Palace of Westminster but more persuasive than most of the arguments you will hear in the House of Commons. Not because we have enemies in this region  on the contrary, as I have made clear, we are keen to intensify our friendships  but because we believe in upholding the rule of law. And that brings me to the final key point I want to make tonight. Winston Churchill identified what he saw as the special genius of the English-speaking peoples. For my part I think we must be careful to avoid any such conceit or complacency that English-speakers are especially blessed; but it is certainly true that there is a series of interconnected ideas that have been highly successful, and that I certainly believe in.

They are democracy, the rule of law, habeas corpus, an independent judiciary, the absolute freedom to make fun of politicians, and above all the freedom to live your life as you please provided you do not harm the interests of others. It is because they know that they can fulfil themselves in that way that people of talent are drawn to such beautiful cities as London and Sydney  and it is that very freedom that makes these cities so prosperous and so innovative. And it is to defend and expand that ideal  of freedom under the law  that Britain and Australia work hand in hand; because we know that ideal is not really the property or copyright of the English-speaking peoples  but something that belongs or can belong to all humanity. On Thursday, with Julie Bishop and our defence colleagues, we discussed every issue under the sun. I must tell you that in the course of those talks we have over the last 24 hours had an almost embarrassing failure to disagree.

We are building greater global security together, and now we look forward to intensifying the trading and commercial relationships that greater security makes possible. We both have great Commonwealth events next year  a great London Summit and I am sure a fantastic Gold Coast Commonwealth Games  and we both believe in the Commonwealth's capacity to strengthen common values among its members from here, across Asia, into the Pacific. After we leave the EU I am confident that Australia will be at, or near, the front of the queue for a new Free Trade Agreement with Britain; an agreement that could boost even further what we do together. After all we already do so much. I have just met British engineers rebuilding Sydney Opera House. And I know only too well the debt of my own city, London, to Frank Lowy  now Sir Frank  a man who kept investing even in the darkest days of the 2008 crash, and who kept building even when pretty well every other crane had been removed.

We trade so much together  you sell us skateboards; we sell you boomerangs. We sell you marmite, you sell us vegemite  and I would not like to speculate on who does better on the deal. You send us Patricia Hewitt and Lynton Crosby. We send you Julia Gillard and Tony Abbott. Never in history has there been such a happy, swollen, distance-obliterating pipeline of people and ideas and goods and services, and as that flow increases in pace and volume let us remember that our success is made possible and guaranteed by the ideals we share. They are not unchallenged. They have their enemies and their detractors. Loading But they have stood us in good stead and we can be absolutely confident that they will succeed triumphantly in the years ahead.
By PTI: (EDS: Updates SC verdict tomorrow)

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) Pakistans Supreme Court will tomorrow announce its verdict in the Panamagate case against embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family for alleged corruption, the top courts registrar said today.

According to a supplementary cause list issued this evening, the apex court will announce its verdict at 11:30 am.

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A six-member joint investigation team (JIT) set up by the Supreme Court to investigate charges of corruption and money laundering against the 67-year-old Sharif, and his family, had submitted its report to the court on July 10.

The apex court concluded hearing the case on July 21, but has reserved its verdict. PTI SH ZH ABH

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Has Peter Gaffaney, of Waitara, stumbled across the scales of injustice at the checkout? "I absent-mindedly processed a head of broccoli twice consecutively through a self-checkout at a Lindfield supermarket. It cost 2.4 per cent more the second time as the weight had increased. Why?" Veg out, Peter.

Game of Tones continues (C8). "There's 'Comin' in on a Wingham a Prayer', 'Blue Hills over the White Cliffs of Dover' and 'It's a Long way to Tiboobaburra'," suggests Harry Bell, of Bowral, adding, "but don't tell me George omitted 'Away in a Mangerton'?" Ron Besdansky, of Northbridge, offers: "'Summer Hill, and the living is easy', 'There's no place like Homebush', and 'Yass, we have no bananas'." And Peter Bower, of Naremburn, says there must be an opening for the Leeton Girls' Choir to perform 'Cry me a Riverina'.

Tern (C8) are well known for diving into the shallows and sometimes they misjudge it and hit the bottom with enough force to shorten their spines, says Bob Liddelow, of Avalon. "With multiple concussions from the impacts, the affected birds can show signs of short-tern memory loss."

On that note, Adrian Connelly, of Springwood, understands that in northern Spain, all the publicly accessible buildings must provide several doors for quick escape in case of an emergency. "Very sensible too, because you should never put all your Basques in one exit."

John Rand, of Belrose, says he has just received an email from his credit union. "They told me that my details were incomplete and that I hadn't supplied them with an email address. How does one respond to this?" Give them credit?
When I was at university, everyone had a copy of No Logo by Naomi Klein. It spoke to the times. By 2000, capitalism was victorious. Consumerism made the free market seem cool, even compassionate; Bill Clinton and Tony Blair brought the left on board. The reality, said Klein, was the stripping away of democracy, workers' rights and the environment. To beat the new influencers, you had to strip off your labels. Hence: no logo. Want to be free? Mind the gap.

Now Klein is back with No Is Not Enough, which claims that two decades have proved her argument. What is Trump if not the triumph of branding? The US version of The Apprentice, which he hosted for NBC, refashioned an over-the-hill 1980s businessman into an effective CEO surrounded by a family of go-getters  establishing the Trumps in the minds of many viewers as a potential first family. And the saddest thing of all, says Klein, is that Trump may well have sold himself as an ally of the working class and been elected on a promise of change, but his policies actually represent the turbo-charging of the neo-liberal agenda ascendant since Ronald Reagan. The rich will get a tax cut, the air will thicken with smog, more jobs will probably go overseas.

Naomi Klein denounces neo-liberal economics, which she describes as "lovelessness" in action.

The younger, socialist me admired Klein but was suspicious of her anti-materialism: what's wrong with the poor wanting to own and wear nice things? The older, more conservative me has greater sympathy for her distaste for advertising. Branding is a hyper-capitalist version of the Tudor rose or the Marxist hammer and sickle: advertising and cultural politics meet to make something we can buy in order to fit in.

Today, the internet injects capitalist and political propaganda directly into our computers, our phones and our brains, leaving us better informed yet strangely dumber than ever before. The internet promises liberation but actually assists in the destruction of traditional businesses and the atomisation of the individual, which is the wages of globalisation. The left bemoans the death of trade unions or class solidarity. The right mourns the church, national identity and family values. Trump was elected to stop the creeping crud. Conservatives turned to such a radical, unconservative-sounding leader because they concur with Klein  albeit from a vastly different cultural perspective  that things have reached crisis point. We can all agree on this: no one is happy with the status quo.
Last month I went on a mission to Australia to develop and deepen the ongoing dialogue between the Israeli Labor Party and its sister Social Democratic Party, the Australian Labor Party. I travelled for a week between Sydney, Canberra and Melbourne, and during the trip I met Labor and other lawmakers, party officials and trade unionists, with whom I held in-depth discussions about our shared values and common struggles. My visit to Australia concluded on a personal note, with a visit to the grave of my great-grandfather, Harry Kurzki, at the Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.

The friendship between the two Labor parties is longstanding. Australian Labor expresses strong support for Israel and maintains close ties with it. However, as in other sister parties around the world, there are voices in the Australian Labor Party criticising Israeli policy and expressing support for unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. I came, among other things, to present the position of the Israeli Labor Party, which views unilateral recognition as a serious mistake, and to argue for a negotiated two-state solution.

The argument that it is possible for one side only to resolve an international conflict such as that between Israel and the Palestinians is naive. Credit:AP

I can understand why many of our friends have come to the mistaken conclusion that unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state will help advance the faltering peace process in the Middle East. The failure of the previous rounds of negotiations, the prolonged political stalemate, and the ostentatious steps of the Netanyahu government  including declarations of continued construction in the settlements and the passing of legislation that expropriates private land from Palestinians (now under challenge in the Israeli Supreme Court)  are likely to bring despair to our progressive allies about the possibility of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

However, unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state will not help promote the desired just solution of two independent nation-states, but will do the exact opposite. Unilateral recognition means that only one side, the Israeli side, is held to blame for the political stalemate, a view that is far from true. Since the Oslo Accords, almost 25 years ago, Israel has consistently expressed its willingness to accept territorial compromise and the division of the land. The Palestinian leadership repeatedly rejected Israel's proposals  including Barak and Olmert's unprecedentedly compromising ones  as a basis for negotiations. Israel has even proved its sincere intentions by withdrawing from the Gaza strip, at the price of evacuating thousands of settlers from their homes. The people of Gaza reacted by electing Hamas, an extremist Islamic terror organisation openly devoted to the destruction of Israel.
Mark Kenny appears to be treating politicians like uninformed children ("Time for an audit of MPs' eligibility", July 27). To say the dual citizenship provision of section 44 is "a little-known prohibition against dual citizenship" is either an attempt to water down their offence or pure ignorance of the facts. The application form to stand as a member of parliament very clearly states you cannot be a dual citizen. It also clearly states you cannot have been found guilty of a criminal offence carrying a maximum sentence of one year or more. It is reasonable for Australians to expect our politicians are sufficiently literate and educated to understand the consequence of being dishonest or sloppy when completing their electoral application. While we continue to support letting them off lightly and not repaying salaries received through a clear fraud we are sending a message that it is all right to break the law if you are a politician. The responsibility for accuracy in the electoral process falls squarely on the politician's shoulders. They should be forced to repay all monies received in their capacity as a member of parliament and prosecuted for fraud. "Draining the swamp" is a soft-shoe approach that does not emphasise sloppiness has consequences. Gary Bigelow Oatlands Leo Sorbello's suggestion (Letters, July 27) for temporary suspension of the dual citizenship law to allow politicians a three-month reprieve to sort this out can only open a can of worms. Aspiring politicians must be aware of the law prior to entering politics, just as visitors entering Australia must be aware that they cannot work on a tourist visa, as just one simple example. Do we therefore allow these tourists a "reprieve" of three months so that they can re-apply for a work visa?

Tony Moo North Sydney Leaving aside people who are unwitting dual citizens, what's wrong with federal MPs, who represent Australian interests here and abroad, being expected to have only Australian citizenship? That doesn't mean you can't retain sentimental attachments to countries of birth or ancestry. Consider say, Matthias Cormann, until relatively recently a Belgian citizen, as a trade minister negotiating a trade agreement with Belgium. There would be, at the least, a perception of a conflict of interest, something that should always be avoided in politics. Keith Parsons Newcastle Peter Martin's view that section 44 makes no sense itself makes no sense ("We can be foreign, yet still Australian", July 27). Federal MPs are required to vote on trade agreements, massive government defence outlays overseas, even declaration of war. To allow people with allegiance to another country to exert the influence available in parliament anywhere near these matters is ludicrous. Norman Carter Roseville Chase

If one parent is Italian and the other parent is from a country that also awards citizenship by bloodline, can we have politicians with triple citizenship? ("Italians can be born or made", July 27). Wouldn't it be great if the bulk of political and media interest was devoted to matters that much more directly benefited the electors? Barry Sexton Primbee I still have the original passport on which I travelled in 1947. It was issued by the Commonwealth of Australia but states clearly and specifically that I am a "British Subject By Birth". I was born in Australia of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents also born in Australia, and have never been to the UK. Has there ever been legislation amending this practice; or am I still a British subject?

Albert Renshaw Denistone Well said, Nicholas Hodgkinson (Letters, July 27). How can the Queen be our head of state if she is not an Australian citizen? Time to end this circus  bring on the republic. Stephanie Edwards Wollstonecraft Why does anybody want dual citizenship anyway? Don't they know who they are? Richard Lynch Elizabeth Bay

Government takes easy route with terrorism scare campaign While it is true Ross Gittins may have erred in comparing the likelihood of natural events, accident or misadventure to the threat of terrorism most of the letter correspondents (Letters, July 27) miss the point. There is nothing natural or accidental about domestic violence, one-punch attacks and other forms of drug- or alcohol-fuelled violence. The fact remains the public (and a disproportionately high number of women at that) is more at risk from this than from any form or terrorism. Does our government's quietness on this issue amount to tacit approval; or as is more likely is it in the "too-hard basket"? Anthony Rassias Glebe I'm sorry, Tony Nicod (Letters, July 27)  dead is dead. Whether by car accident, cancer or a mentally ill misfit. The diversion of public investment away from hospitals to the bloated, poorly regulated "Security Industry" is a national scandal. Investing more in hospitals and mental health services is guaranteed to yield a human dividend. Michael Britt MacMasters Beach

Australia joined the Coalition of the Willing and invaded Iraq on the basis of a known lie, and every other Middle Eastern country since then, and we are now engaged in the Philippines. France and the UK have been involved too, and yet are surprised, shocked and angry when terrorists react. They will fight for their land forever, any way they can. As long as we continue in this carnage in the Middle East we will be a target. We should withdraw immediately. Jan Carroll Potts Point Can anyone in Sydney tell me what they do differently because of the terrorist threat? I have not changed one thing. Tim Schroder Gordon Disarm, don't kill a man wielding scissors

Yet another report of police killing a citizen ("Police shoot man dead at Central Station", July 27). Armed policemen cannot disarm one man holding, albeit threateningly, a pair of scissors? This is murder, or at the very least sentence without trial. Was the victim mentally ill? Was he desperate for some other reason? Why did the four policemen not disarm him? We deserve some answers and we need to see that police training and procedures are examined and revised in relation to persons exhibiting threatening and possibly disturbed behaviour. Enough is enough. This is not a police state  or is it? Jill Ellen Ashfield Are we going to have another "shoot first" force as in the US? To the best of my knowledge as far back as World War II our army Special Forces were taught how to disarm opponents who were wielding knives or bayonets. Why aren't our police officers taught this skill especially when they are supposedly armed with extendable batons? I am not anti our police. I have a number of relatives who had long careers in the force. Joe Kensell Five Dock

While I accept the police have a very difficult job, you have to question why a man wielding a pair of scissors needed to be shot dead, rather than just immobilised. Given the recent horrific killing of an Australian in America, extra caution needs to be taken, to make sure police are acting appropriately in every circumstance, to avoid tragic and maybe unnecessary outcomes. Elizabeth Kroon Randwick Are our police not trained to deal with threatened aggression in any other way than to shoot to kill?Danina Anderson Lindfield Left hand unaware of right hand infrastructure Let's get this straight: with blinding foresight our genius Premier and erstwhile Transport Minister has ensured Sydney has four incompatible rail systems ("New light rail, tram system incompatible", July 27). These are the standard heavy rail operating on major lines; the inner-west light rail on the old freight lines; the single deck new metro (operating from the north west through tunnels made too small for the heavy rail) and now the new south-east light rail is not compatible with the existing light rail. This is pure genius. Can we expect the new array of road super tollways, the West Connex, A6 and North Connex to be designed for left-hand-drive vehicles?

Don Smith Ashfield When it comes to infrastructure projects, NSW is the absolute leader in incompetence. If it's not the height of its new railway tunnels, then it's the management of its water resources and now, an incompatible light rail/tram system. Nothing in this state is ever built on time or finished within its budget and never a red face in the house. I dearly hope NSW has nothing to do with the building of our new fleet of submarines and frigates because Australia will probably end up bankrupt and defenceless for years. The sooner we merge with Queensland or Victoria the better. Frank Adshead Mona Vale Testament to modernity Michelle Lim (Letters, July 27), moving scripture (not part of the Department of Education's curriculum) out of class time is not a lack of understanding about your chosen faith, it's about fairness in public schools. It's not 1848, it's 2017.

Robyn Bernstein Annandale GPO irreplaceable The GPO is not just any piece of real estate ("Historic Sydney building sold to Singaporean billionaires", July 27). With its cargo of sculpture by Tomaso Sani, it is so much more  a unique work of art and architecture that is unique and irreplaceable. As art, its price is not calculated by the amount of sandstone it contains, any more than a painting is appraised in terms of the size of the canvas. In each, it is the object's artistic merit, uniqueness, period, and place in the artist's career which determines its price. Heritage adds considerable monetary value to any development, as much as three times, it is estimated. Why then did Australia Post not seek National Heritage listing before the sale, why wait until afterwards? Philip Drew Annandale Surely the scriptwriters for Utopia are consulting our governments. A transport system with "planned" incompatibility within the same city let alone the same nation. The replacement of universally recognisable, pictographic signs for transport options with a large single letter T, F or B. The small tunnel option. The secret sale of our GPO for less than its value. The absence of oversight on our money. The list appears endless.

Neil Craddock Wollongong Mind your queue, Boris So Australians can "just pitch up in Heathrow and get a kiss on both cheeks" says Britain's Foreign Secretary, ("Selfies and talks for Johnson and Bishop", July 27). Boris, let me assure you while that treatment applies to Australians visiting Germany, France or any number of other countries, ever since you abandoned us for the EU, economy class Australians entering Britain at Heathrow have been greeted with huge queues, long waits, insolent, often arrogant and prying questioning as to our intentions, our travel plans and our financial status. Forget the kisses Boris, just cool German efficiency or Gallic indifference at your borders will do me.

Peter Skinner Beecroft Designed by Greenway? Block that thought Hear, hear, Peter Clark (Letters, July 27). I have long been appalled by the choice of Greenway as a name for those blocks as one approaches our "iconic" Harbour Bridge. Said convict architect's buildings are elegant and have gracious designs, so what were they thinking to use his name in that way? Megwenya Matthews North Turramurra While I was teaching Australian history at a local secondary school, one bright lad proclaimed with gleeful self-satisfaction that he knew who Francis Greenway was  he designed the nearby Greenway flats.

Amanda Jordan Artarmon The many beautiful traits of Yunupingu Vale Yunupingu  beautiful man, beautiful heart, beautiful voice, beautiful words, beautiful black skin. It seems a shame, but out of respect for our Indigenous cultures we cannot show his beautiful face ("Unforgettable voice heard around the world falls silent", July 27). Meredith Williams Dee Why His passing is a reminder that the gap on Indigenous life expectancy in Australia is still far too wide.

Philip Cooney Wentworth Falls Ford can't be serious "Faults caused by driving style", Ford tells us (July 27). Are they trying to claim they can make things foolproof but not idiot-proof? Dean Hartigan Maroubra NBN whizzes past
It was always a con, and not a very good one. During his presidential tilt, Donald Trump promised to turn the page on years of Republican hostility to progress on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender rights by being an even better friend to the LGBT community than his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

He waved a rainbow flag. He denounced Clinton and her foundation for taking donations from ultra-conservative Saudi Arabia, and warned the gay community after the Orlando massacre  in which an admirer of Islamic State, Omar Mateen, slaughtered scores of people in a gay nightclub  that Clinton's immigration stance would bring "more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs".

"President Trump is most pro-LGBTQ rights POTUS in history," his new communications director Anthony Scaramucci tweeted in February.

But America's LGBT voters didn't fall for it  exit polls showed just 14 per cent voted for Trump, an even smaller percentage than supported Mitt Romney in 2012. Among other things, Trump's nomination of Mike Pence, one of the most hardline anti-gay governors in the country, to be his vice-president, was a clear tell.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce has stoked the controversy over claims of water theft in NSW aired by the ABC, dismissing the report as a ploy to strip more water off rural communities.

The comments have prompted the South Australian government to call for his removal from the post of federal water minister.

Mr Joyce told a gathering in a pub on Wednesday evening in the northern Victorian town of Shepparton, that it was important the Nationals had taken control of the Murray Darling Basin Plan.

"[We've got] $13 billion invested in it," Mr Joyce said, referring to the plan, according to a recording by the ABC. "We've taken water and put it back into agriculture [ministry] so we can look after you and make sure we don't have the greenies running the show, basically sending you out the back door."
One of Australia's top constitutional experts believes One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts may have breached the constitution by failing to properly renounce his British citizenship before nominating as a candidate.

Meanwhile, Senator Roberts' office has threatened to report Fairfax Media to Queensland police for "stalking" after reporters asked for a response to a fresh series of questions about his citizenship.

After more than a week of intense pressure to explain his citizenship status, Senator Roberts conducted a television interview late on Thursday in which he attempted to map out the timeline of his renunciation.

He revealed he did not receive confirmation from British authorities that his renunciation had been successful until December 5 - a full six months after he nominated as a candidate and five months after the election.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Turnbull government is aware of reports North Korea is planning to conduct missile tests on Thursday and repeated her calls for China to do more to pressure the regime in Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear ambitions.

North Korea has provoked increasing alarm in capitals across the Asia-Pacific in recent months by repeatedly testing ballistic missiles in the hope of being able to deliver nuclear warheads across oceans.

There are also reports the country could develop a missile with the range to reach the United States - and northern Australia - as early as next year.

When asked whether Australia had made any plans to defend northern Australia against a possible missile attack Ms Bishop said: "I can't confirm whether that assessment is accurate at this stage but I can say this - North Korea has the clear intention to develop a nuclear armed intercontinental ballistic missile capable of reaching the United States and, therefore, capable of reaching Australia.
When Labor officials eyed one of Sydney's most dedicated medicos for the marginal seat of Macarthur in the 2016 election, they faced a curious hurdle.

In their sights was the widely recognised paediatrician, Mike Freelander. Dr Freelander was candidate-gold: beloved by his patients, and able to boast real-world experience way beyond the normal political template. The 62-year-old had seen thousands of babies and their families in western Sydney, and was an outspoken advocate for public hospitals.

But therein lay the problem. Under the arcane requirements of section 44 of the constitution, his employment at Campbelltown Hospital meant he was unable to even nominate for Parliament without first severing his employment ties - effectively abandoning his patients, as he saw it. So reluctant was he that he even offered to keep seeing them unpaid, however this could be legally dubious also.

With a margin of 3.3 per cent, Liberal-held Macarthur was no certainty either, having swung with the governing party in every election since its creation in 1949, right through to 2004.
Time is money, folks. So let's see if the newly arrived District Brasserie at the foot of the Chifley tower can pull off the One Hour Business Lunch. After all, 5000 people work in this building, and they're not the sort of people who like hanging around waiting for their steak.

00.00. Ladies and gentlemen, your time starts now. I'm greeted and taken to a generously broad table by a window that looks out to gleaming escalators. Co-owners Sam Loutfi and John, Peter and Leon Vissaritis have clearly spent a mozza on the place, hiring gun designer Paul Kelly to reboot the cafe and patisserie in the lobby and create an imposing free-standing restaurant around a central island bar of green marble and brass, fringed by a contemporary open kitchen complete with Spanish Josper charcoal oven.

District Brasserie's salted caramel custard with Valhrona chocolate mousse and peanut butter ice-cream. Credit:Christopher Pearce

00.02. Water glasses land, menus are brought. So far, so good. Chef Mark Knox (BLACK, Public Dining) has put together has put together classic business lunch options that run from Sydney rock oysters to crisp pork belly, lobster spaghetti, roasted half chicken and 800-gram cotes de boeuf to share.

00.05. Orders taken. It looks as if we'll make it within the hour comfortably.
By PTI: By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) The political future of Pakistans embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be decided tomorrow by the Supreme Court when it will announce its much-awaited verdict in the Panama scandal that also involves his family.

The scandal is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s, when he twice served as prime minister, to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama Papers leak last year revealed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharifs children.

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The assets include four expensive flats in London.

Sharif, who has been the prime minister of Pakistan for a record three time, faces the risk of being disqualified if the court finds him guilty of corruption and money laundering.

He leads Pakistans most powerful political family and the ruling PML-N party.

The verdict will be announce tomorrow at 11.30 am, according to a supplementary cause list issued this evening. It is keenly awaited as both of Sharifs first two stints have ended in the third year of his tenure.

A steel tycoon cum politician, Sharif had served as the Pakistans prime minister for the first time from 1990 to 1993. His second term from 1997 was ended in 1999 by the Army chieg Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless coup.

In April, the Supreme Court set up a six-member joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the charges against the 67-year-old Sharif and his family.

The JIT submitted its report to the court on July 10.

It said the lifestyle of Sharif and his children were beyond their known sources of income, and recommended filing of a new corruption case against them.

Sharif dismissed the report as a "bundle of baseless allegations" and refused to quit, despite demands to do so from several quarters, including opposition political parties.

On July 21, the court reserved its verdict after concluding the hearing.

Its decision to issue the verdict tomorrow came as a surprise to many as it earlier announced the cause list for two weeks which had not scheduled the Panamagate case.

In the wake of the verdict tomorrow, Islamabad police have announced special security arrangements and closed the capitals central "Red Zone" area, which has important buildings including the Supreme Court, for the general public.

The entry to the court tomorrow will be restricted to only those having special passes.

The six-member JIT was set up in May by the Supreme Court with the mandate to probe the Sharif family for allegedly failing to provide the trail of money used to buy properties in London in 1990s.

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Last year, the Panama Papers revealed that three of Prime Minister Sharifs children owned offshore companies and assets not shown on his familys wealth statement. The assets in question include four expensive flats in Park Lane, London.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami and reserved the verdict in February after conducting hearings on a daily basis. PTI SH ZH ABH AKJ ABH

--- ENDS ---
Taken at face value, one could conclude that a lot more leeway was given in this scenario to Lazarus. Alcohol is not treated as a likely factor in the victim's ability to more forcefully oppose Lazarus' advances, but Lazarus' intoxication was considered a factor in his issuing of them. This is a messy and dangerous distinction to make, and it poses a great deal of risk for future sexual assault trials. How does one prove consent, particularly when the actions of the (mostly female) survivors seem to be viewed through a stricter lens of intent, while men are so frequently given the benefit of the doubt? As pointed out by Ackland: "It is not necessary for lack of consent to be established by means of the complainant's resistance." On hearing this, some people might react with astonishment and predictably exercise one of the other features of a rape culture  the insistence that most rape isn't really rape at all but a case of silly girls regretting it the next day and crying wolf. It seems the biggest fear of some people is not that their son may coerce or manipulate an unwilling or intoxicated woman into sex because he's been raised in a culture that teaches him that pushing against the "no" until you get the "yes" is okay; it's that their son may do all of that, and then have to face consequences.

This also goes to the crux of what rape culture in Australia is and how it has the potential to turn people into either victims or perpetrators. I doubt Lazarus understands that his actions amounted to rape, because our culture is very good at teaching boys that rape is something other people do. But it's also apparent that he didn't care whether or not the girl consented at all, and his concern for her wellbeing was entirely absent. Lazarus ignored all of her clear requests to return to her friends, and then dehumanised her by instructing her to first face the wall while he pulled her underwear down (underwear she had previously pulled up when he tried to remove them moments before) and then get on all fours before he anally penetrated her. And here we can also suggest that there is a cavalier disregard for the mutual pleasure and engagement of those targeted in this and similarly publicised cases. Anal sex is pleasurable for many women, but it is not pleasurable as a rule when done without due care. The woman targeted by Lazarus was a virgin, and the world's average 18-year-old virgin is not likely to choose to have her first penetrative sexual experience be in a dirty alleyway with a stranger who forces her onto the ground before forcing his unlubricated penis into her unprepared anus.

It seems likely that if Lazarus considered the issue of consent and desire at all, it was only in terms of what he was consenting to and desirous of. If people won't care about the possibility that their sons could sexually assault someone, why won't they at least care about the fact they may grossly disrespect a sexual partner and be cavalier about causing them physical pain? There is the uncomfortable reality that Lazarus and men like him are able to believe their desire and consent is the only desire and consent that counts, and that's because they keep seeing each other being given the benefit of the doubt to get away with it. Rape culture works by not only enabling the belief system that says "this isn't real rape", but supporting the other systems of oppression that exist in our society. If Lazarus hadn't been the son of the nightclub's owner with a bevy of well heeled Sydneysiders lined up to back his "good character", this case might have turned out differently. Had he been Muslim or Aboriginal, or homeless or drug-addicted, racism and classism would have kicked in.
The Coalition has defended more than $5 billion in controversial cuts to the public service and federal government programs, as new detail shows the health and social services portfolios have lost $4.7 billion through efficiency audits.

Information provided to a Senate committee this month shows the functional and efficiency reviews established in May 2014 will cut $3.2 billion from social services and $1.5 billion from health between the 2014-15 financial year and 2020-21.

Finance Minister Senator Mathias Cormann during Senate estimates. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen

Labor has expressed alarm at the figures, while the government says the savings will be achieved through streamlining programs, improving control and compliance measures and ending outdated government spending.

Education and Training is seeing $221 million in cuts from the reviews, while the foreign affairs and trade portfolio will lose $157 million.
Within hours of a scissors-wielding man being shot dead by police at Central Station on Wednesday night, the force issued the type of statement we have come to associate with what it clinically refers to as "critical incidents". The statement said that the homicide squad would "now investigate all circumstances surrounding the incident".

"That investigation will be subject to independent review and all information will be provided to the Coroner," it said.

It's early days and the details of the shooting  which reportedly saw up to four shots fired  are yet to be fully understood.

The man - Danukul Mokmool - appeared highly distressed and possibly mentally ill, but again this is pure speculation based on grainy bystander video.
Gladys Berejiklian's government will leave Sydney with a lopsided patchwork of councils, after abandoning its policy of local government amalgamations halfway through.

The Premier announced on Thursday that her government was walking away from its policy of merging Sydney councils, which have challenged their amalgamation in court.

The about-face means the state government will have created huge discrepancies in the size of councils across Sydney. The forced merger of Canterbury and Bankstown councils last year created a mega-council of 360,000 residents; after Thursday's announcement Hunters Hill Council will remain independent and serve about 14,000 residents.

Ms Berejiklian attributed the abandonment of the council merger policy to the protracted nature of legal challenges launched by local governments that had resolved to resist their merger. She said she could not in good conscience allow electors to vote in council polls in September while not knowing what would happen to their councils.
Plans are in place for Philip Ruddock, the former federal attorney-general, immigration minister and member for Berowra, to run as the Liberal candidate for Hornsby Shire mayor in the upcoming NSW local council elections, party sources say.

Mr Ruddock's candidacy will cap off more than two months of bitter in-fighting within the local party over the now confirmed backdown by the NSW government on the merger of Hornsby and Ku-ring-gai councils.

Steve Russell, the mayor of Hornsby, has been openly and publicly very critical of the proposed backdown due to Hornsby Council losing areas of Epping to Parramatta Council when it recently merged. Hornsby Council has estimated this loss could represent a shortfall of revenues of up to $200 million over 10 years.

"I have had a very difficult time in the last month. I am not flavour of the month with some people in the party due to my position on amalgamation and the loss of Epping to Parramatta," Cr Russell said.
"The department expects schools to take appropriate action if aware that students participating in RI are evangelising to students who do not participate in their RI class, given this could adversely affect the school's ability to provide a safe, supportive and inclusive environment for all students," it reads.

A review of the GodSpace religious instruction materials, completed in March 2017, said RI instructors should be reminded that students "should not be encouraged to evangelise to other students at the school".

Education Minister Kate Jones said there had been no change to religious instruction policies in schools.

Education Minister Kate Jones released a statement on Thursday insisting there was no change to religious instruction policies.

An unholy row has broken out over religious instruction in Queensland schools.

The Australian reported Christian groups were alarmed by an "unofficial policy" to ban references to Jesus in the primary school yard.

But Ms Jones said nobody was telling a child what they could and could not say in the playground.

"The policy in place in Queensland state schools today is exactly the same as the policy in place under the former Newman government and has been the same for more than 20 years," she said.

"We are an inclusive education system that aims to provide a good education for all students of all faiths.

"Our government made it very clear last year that we support religious instruction in schools where the parents and school community decide they want that for their children."
A recent break-in was the straw that broke the camel's back for cafe owner and chef Matt Wilkinson. It was the third robbery in 18 months and he was considering a cashless policy at his popular eatery Pope Joan anyway.

"It was the nail in the coffin for me," Wilkinson explains.

"I got the phone call at three o'clock in the morning, it was my day off and I was supposed to be spending the day with my family. I was like, 'that's it'.

"I just don't want to keep getting broken into."
Meanwhile, dedicated Backup software tends to offer a lot more granular control over which files you backup and how often your backups run. You can point your Backup software at any folder, rather than a special sync folder, but one trade-off is that Backup services tend to be more expensive. To further complicate things, most of the major dedicated Backup services have added Sync features in the last few years to help ward off competition from the likes of Microsoft and Google. At the same time some Sync services are fleshing out their Backup options, which brings us to the new Google Backup and Sync which is available for Windows and MacOS. Your files can stay put The biggest change with Google Backup and Sync is that you can now choose which folders on your computer to backup. By default it covers your Documents, Pictures and Desktop folders on PC or Mac, but you can add other folders. Log into Google Drive on a computer, smartphone or tablet and below My Drive you'll find a new option called Computer where you'll find the files backed up from your computers.

Straight away this makes Google Backup and Sync easier to install on the computers of less-tech-savvy friends and relatives, because you don't need to force them to change their habits and start saving their important files in a special sync folder. Sometimes it's hard enough to get them to ensure all their important files are somewhere within their My Documents folder, let alone a special sync folder. Admittedly it's possible to tinker with Windows and redirect the My Documents folder so it lives within a special sync folder, I've done that before for OneDrive, but there's no need for this hassle if you're backing up to Google. Google lets you throttle the overall upload and download speeds, to ensure your backups don't choke your broadband connection, but you'll need to keep an eye on your monthly data limit if your ISP counts uploads (which most do). It only uploads new and changed files, so after your initial backup it shouldn't chew through too much data. Unlike dedicated Backup services, Google Backup and Sync still doesn't offer the ability to restrict your backups to specific file types or sub-folders. Nor can you create multiple schedules to backup some files more often than others. Thankfully Google Drive does store previous versions of your files online for 30 days, letting you turn back time if you fall victim to a cryptolocker ransomware attack. You need to manage this on a file by file basis, you can't choose a point in time and rollback an entire folder in one go.

Storage king Google grants you 15GB worth of free storage, which will meet the needs of many basic users and is a lot more generous than OneDrive or Dropbox. You can upgrade to 100GB or 1TB for $2.49 or $12.49 per month respectively, with a discount if you pay by the year. If you want more storage space from Google you can opt to upload your photos into Google Photo in "High Quality" rather than "Original", so they don't count towards your storage limit. The trade-off is that it downscales large images to 16 megapixels. Digital SLR owners won't be happy with this, but it isn't a problem if you're only shooting happy snaps on a smartphone or compact digital camera. There's also the option to automatically backup images from USB or SD cards inserted into your computer, which makes life easier for people who don't want the hassle of manually dragging photos into their desktop My Pictures folder. Stay in sync

Google still offers the same Sync features as before, ensuring that anything in your sync folder on your computer is automatically uploaded to the cloud and downloaded to your other computers. Thankfully you can control which cloud folders are synced to which computers. You can also access these synced files via Google Drive but keep in mind that, unlike Microsoft OneDrive, Google Drive won't let you edit Office files in the cloud (it copies them as a Google Doc which you can edit). Nor will Google automatically download files you've created online and store them as Office files on your computer. So what's the verdict? Google Backup and Sync won't cut it for everyone, power users will probably still find it too basic compared to the granular control you get from dedicated backup services. Business users, even small/home office users, might also prefer more advanced restore options with the ability to easily rollback entire folders. That said, if you're responsible for looking after the computing needs of less tech-savvy friends and relatives then Google Backup and Sync provides them with a handy insurance policy should disaster strike.
New Zealanders have long scoffed at suggestions of becoming Australia's seventh state but in a major shock on both sides of the Tasman, it turns out Kiwis and Kangaroos once could have got along fine if only the terra nullius had stayed united.

But about 75 million years ago, a mass of land broke away from Australia and started drifting east before subsiding beneath the sea.

Now an expedition led by the Australian National University will make the first scientific efforts to try to solve the mysteries of the underwater continent that was believed by some to have been discovered and named Zealandia just 22 years ago.

The drill ship JOIDES Resolution leaves Townsville on Friday for a two-month research voyage with up to 55 scientists on board.
By PTI: (Eds: Updating with fresh inputs)

By Sajjad Hussain

Islamabad, Jul 27 (PTI) The political future of Pakistans embattled Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will be decided tomorrow by the Supreme Court when it will announce its much-awaited verdict in the Panamagate case in which he and his family are accused of corruption.

The scandal is about alleged money laundering by Sharif in 1990s, when he twice served as prime minister, to purchase assets in London. The assets surfaced when Panama Papers leak last year revealed that they were managed through offshore companies owned by Sharifs children.

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The assets include four expensive flats in London.

Sharif, who has been the prime minister of Pakistan for a record three time, faces the risk of being disqualified if the court finds him guilty of corruption and money laundering.

He leads Pakistans most powerful political family and the ruling PML-N party.

The verdict will be announced tomorrow at 11:30 AM (local time), according to a supplementary cause list issued this evening.

Meanwhile, Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan today said that he would resign and quit politics after the Supreme Court judgement on the Panamagate case.

His announcement, which comes a day before the verdict in the high-profile case, stunned his supporters and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party.

Khan expressed serious disappointment over the way he was kept away from Sharif by his rivals.

The verdict is keenly awaited as both of Sharifs first two stints have ended in the third year of his tenure.

A steel tycoon-cum-politician, Sharif had served as the Pakistans prime minister for the first time from 1990 to 1993. His second term from 1997 was ended in 1999 by Army chief Pervez Musharraf in a bloodless coup.

In May, the Supreme Court set up a six-member joint investigation team (JIT) to investigate the charges against the 67-year-old Sharif and his family.

The JIT submitted its report to the court on July 10.

It said the lifestyle of Sharif and his children were beyond their known sources of income, and recommended filing of a new corruption case against them.

Sharif dismissed the report as a "bundle of baseless allegations" and refused to quit, despite demands to do so from several quarters, including opposition political parties.

On July 21, the court reserved its verdict after concluding the hearing.

Its decision to issue the verdict tomorrow came as a surprise to many as it earlier announced the cause list for two weeks which had not scheduled the Panamagate case.

In the wake of the verdict tomorrow, Islamabad police have announced special security arrangements and closed the capitals central "Red Zone" area, which has important buildings including the Supreme Court, for the general public.

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The entry to the court tomorrow will be restricted to only those having special passes.

The six-member JIT was set up with a mandate to probe the Sharif family for allegedly failing to provide the trail of money used to buy properties in London in the 1990s.

The top court took up the case in October last year on petitions filed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Awami Muslim League and Jamaat-e-Islami and reserved the verdict in February after conducting hearings on a daily basis. PTI SH ZH ABH AKJ CPS

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Australian babies are being given antibiotics at rates drastically higher than those in other industrialised countries, a new study has found.

The findings suggest fearful parents and doctors are treating infants with medication they may not need and come despite warnings that the overuse of antibiotics is fuelling a "global health emergency" by creating deadly superbugs.

The Murdoch Children's Research Institute study found half of Australian babies were being exposed to antibiotics in their first year of life.

The average prescription rate is almost double that for Germany and 360 per cent higher than it is in Switzerland.
Jennifer Borchardt with her boyfriend, Richard Hansen. Ms Borchardt's boyfriend, Robert Hansen, discovered her body on Tuesday. He said she and Mr Pavlis had gotten into an argument a week ago over a consignment of muesli to China which needed to be shipped back and replaced. Robert Hansen says Jennifer Borchardt is the "most beautiful soul I've ever met". Mr Hansen said Mr Pavlis was angry and had wanted to sack the staff responsible for the costly error.

"She told him 'don't fire anyone because you've done worse, this was only a mistake'," Mr Hansen told Fairfax Media. "She became friends with the people on the floor [of the factory], she always protected them." Jennifer Borchardt was found in a pool of blood on Tuesday. Mr Hansen, 51, said he returned home from work on Tuesday to find the security door unlocked. Ms Borchardt was lying on the floor of the Westbank Terrace house. He ran to a neighbour and called triple-0. The locked gates at The Muesli Company in Thomastown after the death of a director. Credit:Jason South

"She was in the kitchen. I saw her and I left. I knew something was wrong and I freaked out," he said. "I'm wearing the same clothes I was when I walked in on her and I want to get them off." The Muesli Company factory in Thomastown. Credit:Jason South Ms Borchardt had worked with Mr Pavlis since she was 18, Mr Hansen said, and the pair had been long-time family friends, close enough that Mr Pavlis had a key to her house, he said. Ms Borchardt would drive him to work regularly, as they both lived in Richmond.

A padlock on the gates of The Muesli Factory in Thomastown. Credit:Jason South Mr Hansen said Mr Pavlis had disapproved of his relationship with Ms Borchardt, which began about six months ago. He said the couple had become close in a short space of time and liked to exercise together. They moved in together and he would cook for her every night. He said Ms Borchardt was not a reclusive person but enjoyed her privacy. "Jennifer is the most beautiful soul I've ever met," he said. "Everyone in her life, they didn't like her, they loved her." "Everyone knows it, she's got the biggest heart in the world. She would always help or do anything for anyone."

Mr Hansen said workers from The Muesli Company had called him in the aftermath of Ms Borchardt's death to ask what had happened. He said one had told him that Mr Pavlis was absent for several hours on Tuesday and had returned to work with a bleeding hand, which he blamed on a hammer. Mr Pavlis appeared in the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday with a bandage on his left thumb. He entered the dock holding his pants up with his hands and said nothing during the short administrative hearing. A prosecutor told the court police needed longer than usual to wait for the results of pathology and forensic reports, and that investigators wanted to analyse a mobile phone and a computer.

Mr Pavlis, who appeared frail, made eye contact with two women and a man in court to support him. His lawyer said Mr Pavlis had problems with sleep apnea, high blood pressure, diabetes and arthritis and was on prescribed medication. This was his first time in custody, the lawyer said. In Thomastown, a businessman who knew the pair, but did not want to be named, said Mr Pavlis had recently spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on security and lights because he was worried someone was going to steal from him. "She used to be the forklift driver, always seemed shy and quiet and kept to herself," he said. Company records show Mr Pavlis has been a director for 21 years and Ms Borchardt a director for 18 years.
A suburban Hungry Jack's might seem an odd place to resolve a multi-million dollar business dispute.

But given the colourful participants, it's not surprising the negotiation ended in a pro wrestling-style brawl with a chair used as a weapon.

Shane Charter: "If [D'Amico] wants to solve it, me and him can just get in the ring and solve it like men." Credit:Wayne Taylor

On one side of the plastic table was Shane "Dr Ageless" Charter, the former body-builder, convicted drug trafficker and biochemist who played a central role in the Essendon doping scandal.

Opposite was gangland figure Fedele D'Amico, a nightclub investor, horse racing enthusiast and feared underworld enforcer. Nicknamed "Freddie the Bear", D'Amico has twice been the suspected target of murder plots by enemies as diverse as the Calabrian mafia and a Colombian crime gang.
A Perth father who murdered his young children to make his estranged wife suffer amid a custody battle has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 31 years.

Police found the bodies of five-year-old Zaraiyah-Lily Headland and three-year- old Andreas Headland on a bed at a Yanchep home on October 20 last year.

Their father Jason Craig Headland, 36, was also found lying on the floor with self-inflicted wounds.

The WA Supreme Court heard on Thursday that the cause of death could not be ascertained but the children had been drugged with a sleeping tablet and asphyxiated.
The famous rumple, of hair and of suit, was there. The blonde thatch was mussed. The vowel sounds were straight from the Eton mess hall, and the charm was as casual as his confidence.

In the estimation of Boris Johnson, journalist, author, wit and British Foreign Secretary, who spoke on Thursday night in Sydney, Brexit is nothing to worry about.

People fussed and worried about it like they did the millennium bug, he said, but they were over-reacting.

"Yeah, there are going to be some arguments about money and the free movement of people. We'll get it done," he told the crowd of business heads, politicians and wonks who packed the Sydney Town Hall to hear him talk.
"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US military," Trump wrote. Credit:AAP "Most important of all," Baldwin wrote of Bradley's comments, "is the efficiency of the Army, of which morale is a part. This is General Bradley's particular responsibility. He knows, as nearly every Army officer knows, after long experience with the problem, that a hard, flat and inflexible rule that white and Negro manpower be completely intermingled immediately in all tactical units would be one of the surest ways to break down the morale of the Army and to destroy its efficiency". It wasn't. Umut Dursun, a Marine veteran who transitioned from female to male after his service: "I thought we were at a place of progress and it feels like we're taking ten steps back." Credit:New York Times For what it's worth, there were about 62,000 black soldiers in the Army in 1948, about a tenth of the total. Rand estimates that there are between 1000 and 7000 transgender service members on active duty today, of 1.3 million in total. (A transgender organisation puts the number at 15,000.)

In the 1990s, the argument shifted to the role of women in the military. That year, Lou Marano wrote a piece for The Washington Post arguing against allowing women to serve in combat roles. US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis had ordered a review into transgender people serving in the military. Credit:Cliff Owen "It is also said that sexual distraction in military life is an issue only for relics like me, and that today's more enlightened generation of young men develop nothing but brotherly affection for their female 'buddies'." he wrote. "Not only does this go against all experience and common sense, but I found it to be false when reporting on US forces deployed to the mountains of Honduras in 1988. . . . Human nature doesn't change, and we are asking for trouble by pretending it has." The physiology of female soldiers also played a prominent role in the debate. Newt Gingrich, splitting time between serving as Speaker of the House and teaching a history course at Reinhardt College in 1995, told his students that women wouldn't be able to handle certain combat realities. Chelsea Manning, the transgender former soldier, denounced the decision. Credit:Twitter/@xychelsea87

"Females," he said, "have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections, and they don't have upper body strength." Men, on the other hand, like to roll around in filth, he said. A 1997 bill aimed at segregating men and women in basic training was championed by members of Congress like Republican Roscoe Bartlett. Air Force Staff Sergeant Ashlee Bruce, who dresses as female at home but goes by her birth name, Matthew, at work: "I love the Air Force ... I'm going to keep coming into work every day and doing the best I can until they tell me 'Don't come to work any more'." Credit:New York Times "During the brief period of time when they're being socialised into the ethos of the military, it's counterproductive to have men and women train together," he told the Times that year. "The attraction and distraction of sexuality is detracting from the effectiveness of basic training." Others pointed out that teaching men and women how to serve together at the outset would alleviate problems later on. This point comes up over and over, even today: Men will simply be too distracted by women for them to serve alongside one another. A Google search for "women in military distraction" yields 857,000 results. Trump himself tweeted in 2013: "26,000 unreported sexual assaults in the military-only 238 convictions. What did these geniuses expect when they put men & women together?".

The 1997 bill barring boot-camp integration prompted an unusual flip side to the argument from Colonel Vincent Inghilterra, a chaplain at Fort Leonard Wood. "Because of the rigors of [basic training] and the physiological limitations of female recruits to meet the fitness demands," he wrote in a letter to lawmakers, "some may be tempted to use their sexuality to garner special favours." The boot-camp bill also had the support of then senator Daniel Coats, now serving as Trump's director of national intelligence. When Coats was put forward as a possible nominee to serve as George W. Bush's defence secretary, that history of opposition to integrating women more fully into the armed forces was raised by activists opposing his nomination. (The job eventually went to Donald Rumsfeld.) Coats' nomination was similarly opposed by those advocating for an expanded role of gays in the military, also a subject that was debated in the 1990s. Again, a similar argument emerged. "The problem of having homosexuals serve openly," a retired Army colonel said during a hearing on the issue in 1993, "is the extent to which it becomes a divisive cleavage point in small units".

Another expert testified that the "introduction of sexual attraction", in the words of Coats, "destroys" military cohesion. "I think we have seen this happen on a heterosexual basis in units in which erotic love between a leader and a soldier has been introduced," said David Marlowe, the chief of military psychology at Walter Reed. As recently as 2010, when don't-ask-don't-tell was being repealed, General James Amos, commandant of the Marine Corps, echoed a variation of the same line: Gay soldiers could lead to combat deaths. "When your life hangs on the line," he said, "you don't want anything distracting. . . . Mistakes and inattention or distractions cost Marines' lives". When the bill was passed, Republican Senator John McCain, lamented the decision, echoing Amos. "Today's a very sad day," he said. "The commandant of the United States Marine Corps says when your life hangs on the line, you don't want anything distracting. . . . I don't want to permit that opportunity to happen and I'll tell you why. You go up to Bethesda Naval Hospital, Marines are up there with no legs, none. You've got Marines at Walter Reed with no limbs." Despite all of these warnings, Trump himself has regularly weighed in on how the military has emerged from these integrations: the best. "Having the best technology and equipment is only one part of the American military dominance," he said this weekend in Norfolk.
Washington: US Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to announce soon several criminal investigations into intelligence leaks, news outlets reported Wednesday, as the country's top law enforcement official faced mounting criticism from US President Donald Trump.

The announcement has "been in the works for some time and will most likely happen sometime in the next week," Fox News reported, citing an unnamed US official. The Washington Post also reported the planned announcement, citing multiple unnamed officials.

By Wednesday afternoon local time, several officials said they thought Trump would let Sessions stay - for now. Credit:AP

The investigations will look at news stories that publicised sensitive intelligence material, according to the reports.

Officials at the US Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.
Jerusalem: Throngs of Muslims resumed praying at al-Aqsa mosque in occupied East Jerusalem on Thursday after Israel, seeking to reduce tensions in an explosive atmosphere, removed the last traces of security structures near the entrances to the holy site before dawn.

The moves came after a two-week standoff and outbursts of deadly violence that had spread to the occupied West Bank, as Palestinians in East Jerusalem boycotted the sacred compound, praying en masse in the streets to protest the installation of metal detectors and other security measures.

But emotions remained charged, and clashes broke out in and around the holy esplanade. Protesters hurled stones and were dispersed by riot police. Palestinian medics reported dozens injured by stun grenades, tear gas and rubber bullets.

Israel took down the metal detectors Tuesday amid a diplomatic showdown with Jordan, the custodian of the shrine and a crucial regional ally.
Indeed, the case was shocking. But it was not entirely unheard of  such "honour" crimes still take place in some parts of Pakistan and India. But what made this case different was that somebody spoke up, and authorities took action. The individual rapes were reported to the Violence Against Women Centre in Multan, and authorities pursued the arrests of the two men accused. But as they investigated the cases, police learned there were dozens of additional family members involved, Younis said. Authorities ordered the arrests of 29 people  all members of the extended family. Of those, 25 have already been taking into custody, including the first of the accused assailants. Family members admitted to police that the second rape was ordered as retaliation for the first one. But they asserted that the decision was a consensual one between the two families. A representative from the Violence Against Women Centre told the Pakistani newspaper Dawn that the mother of the first accused man had offered either of her two married daughters to settle the score, on the condition that the first victim's family would not take legal action against her son. But the family elders, the panchayat, demanded that she hand over her unmarried teenage daughter to be raped as punishment.

The two men accused of rape could face a maximum punishment of the death penalty, Younis said, but "that is up to the court". The "revenge rape" has spurred outrage in Pakistan and prompted the country's chief justice on Thursday to order the inspector general of Punjab police to submit a report regarding the case, according to Dawn. It has shed light on the continued prevalence of the panchayat system, an informal village governance system in which village leaders have been known to settle disputes over women with forced marriages, stonings and other punishments. This was a very distinct type of a panchayat comprised entirely of elders in the same extended family. Most panchayats take the form of a village council with leaders from different, unrelated families in the neighbourhood. Human rights lawyer and activist Asma Jahangir on Wednesday urged the government to take further action to crack down on all panchayats, which she said have no legal standing.

"Panchayats have no standing and the courts have stated the same," Jahangir told Geo News. "If they act outside of law, then the panchayat and its members should be prosecuted according to law." The horrific story also underscored the problem of violence against females in Pakistan, which has ranked as the world's third most dangerous place for women, according to a 2011 Thomson Reuters Foundation expert survey. More than 1000 women and girls are victims of "honour killings" every year, according to Pakistan's Human Rights Commission. But progress has been made. Last year, Punjab lawmakers gave unprecedented protection to female victims of violence, passing a new law that criminalises all forms of violence against women, whether domestic, psychological or sexual. It also mandated the establishment of women's shelters and of a toll-free abuse reporting hotline. Mukhtar Mai, a Pakistani woman who was gang-raped by order of tribal court in 2002, went on to become an international symbol of women's right. Credit:AP The case also had several parallels with the most high-profile case of its kind, which took place in the same district: the gang rape of a woman named Mukhtar Mai.

"Such incidents remind me of what happened with me in 2002," Jahangir told Geo News, saying she was heartbroken by the case, and encouraged the rape survivors to speak out. In 2002, Mai was allegedly dragged into a house, raped and pushed back out naked. About 200 tribal leaders reportedly watched in approval nearby. The woman's father was too afraid to save her. The gang rape had been ordered as punishment to her family after her brother was accused of a having an affair with an older woman. Mai did what many in Pakistan do not have the courage to do, due to stigmas against sexual assault: she reported the attack and challenged her assailants in court. After a lengthy, re-traumatising and humiliating investigation and court case, judges acquitted most of the 14 men accused in her gang rape.
Stochkolm: Sweden's government faces mounting political pressure over its handling of a huge leak by one of its agencies of sensitive data, including potentially the identities of covert defence and intelligence personnel on overseas missions.

What began as a scandal earlier this month over an IT outsourcing deal between the Swedish Transport Authority and IBM in 2015 has turned into a full-blown political crisis for the government as the extent of the confidential data leak has become known.

Traffic in Kungsgatan, central Stockholm. The scandal saw contractors have access to the identities of people in witness protection programs, drivers' licences and details of Sweden's roads, ports, bridges and subway systems. Credit:Bloomberg

On Wednesday, members of Sweden's centre-right opposition, the Alliance party, called for the sacking of the ministers of infrastructure, defence and the interior. There are now questions whether the government may be forced to call an early election.

The leak was revealed earlier this month after the Transport Agency"s former director general Maria Agren was fined 70,000 Swedish krona ($10,700) for mishandling confidential information. Agren had been fired in January without explanation.
After the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, Pakistan's former military dictator General Pervez Musharraf considered use of nuclear weapons against India.

By Press Trust of India: Pakistan's former military dictator Gen Pervez Musharraf says he mulled the use of nuclear weapons against India amid tensions following the 2001 terror attack on the Indian Parliament, but decided against doing so out of fear of retaliation, according to a media report.

Musharraf, 73, also recalled that he had many sleepless nights, asking himself whether he would or could deploy nuclear weapons, the Japanese daily 'Mainichi Shimbun' said.

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The former president disclosed that amid tensions between India and Pakistan following the 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament, he contemplated the use of nuclear weapons, but decided against doing so out of fear of retaliation.

When tensions were high in 2002, there was a "danger when (the) nuclear threshold could have been crossed," the paper quoted Musharraf as saying. At the time, Musharraf had publicly said that he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons.

Musharraf also said, however, that at the time, neither India nor Pakistan had nuclear warheads on their missiles, so it would have taken one to two days to make them launch-ready.

Asked whether he had ordered that missiles be equipped with nuclear warheads and put into firing position, he said, "We didn't do that and we don't think India also did that, thank God" -- pointing, perhaps, to a fear of retaliation, the paper reported.

The two countries subsequently avoided an all-out clash and tensions subsided. The then army chief Musharraf ousted the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in a coup in October 1999. The army general served as president from 2001 to 2008.

Musharraf has been living in Dubai since last year when he was allowed to leave Pakistan on pretext of medical treatment. He has been charged with involvement in the murder of the former two-time prime minister Benazir Bhutto in 2007.

Also Read:

Kargil Vijay Diwas: 3 lessons from the 1999 India-Pakistan war that are more relevant today

How 2001 Parliament attack allowed Osama bin Laden's escape from Tora Bora

Constable Santosh, who shot down three terrorists, recalls the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament

Exclusive: Afzal Guru's interview after 2001 Parliament attack

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Washington: The United States' top general told the military on Thursday there had been no change yet to Pentagon policy on transgender personnel, after President Donald Trump's announcement of his plans to ban them appeared to catch senior officers by surprise.

Marine General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the military's Joint Chiefs of Staff, began his note to service chiefs, commanders and senior enlisted leaders by acknowledging the uncertainty that followed Mr Trump's announcement.

"I know there are questions about yesterday's announcement on the transgender policy by the President," General Dunford wrote.

"There will be no modifications to the current policy until the President's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance," General Dunford said in the message, first reported by Reuters.
Ever since Kid Rock, born Robert Ritchie, debuted the website kidrockforsenate.com this month, the question has been whether the political campaign was a mere marketing ploy or something more.

And now we have the answer - sort of. Rock - OK, let's call him Ritchie, since he wants to graduate from sex-tape-boasting musician to the upper chamber of Congress, potentially seeking to unseat Michigan Democrat Senator Debbie Stabenow - posted a message on his blog early Thursday morning elaborating on the prospect of an actual campaign.

Kid Rock is teasing a senate run in Michigan. Credit:AP

He called a run "very possible" and said he was "exploring my candidacy."

Since he launched the website, "I was beyond overwhelmed with the response I received from community leaders, DC pundits, and blue-collar folks that are just simply tired of the extreme left and right bulls---," wrote the musician, who has been outspoken about his right-leaning politics. He's not wrong there: A sample Politico headline was "Senator Kid Rock. Don't Laugh" and a poll (albeit a conservative one) showed him leading against Ms Stabenow.
PHILIPSBURG:--- The Ministers of Health from the three Dutch Caribbean Islands who met in Curacao last week with their delegation signed off on a collaboration agreement. The collaboration agreement and meetings held in Curacao last week was a follow-up meeting based on the letter of Intent that was signed in Aruba on June 4th, 2017.

The collaboration agreement prioritizes strategic collaboration between the islands Aruba, Curacao, and St. Maarten.

The agreement states that the countries have agreed to collaborate in three top strategic objectives namely:-

 Collaboration with Centers of Excellence

 Quality and Safety (JCI accreditation, protocol, legislation, logistics)

 Procurement (equipment, materials, software, pharmaceuticals etc).

Further, the countries have agreed to establish a workgroup to work on the objectives and focal points per institution. Within two weeks of the signing, the workgroup will be established with Curacao holding the chairmanship.

The Ministers of Curacao and Aruba have decided to amend the public insurance entity cooperation agreement in order to include St. Maarten. That amended agreement was also signed in Curacao on July 21st, thereby allowing SZV, SVB- Curacao, and UO-AZV will cooperate in medical referrals, the agreement will allow the countries to better coordinate the inter-island referrals which will also include the exchange of and deployment of medical specialists between the countries while aligning payments to the hospitals and medical specialists.

The countries have also agreed to align their efforts when purchasing health care services outside of Aruba, St. Maarten, and Curacao. The agreements also include the exchanging of procedures on medical referrals overseas while pursuing joint contracts with healthcare institutions overseas.

The agreement also includes pharmaceutical products whereby they will share information on the policies in participating countries to better manage the cost of the pharmaceutical products. Agreement was also reached on the IT and data benchmarking, this will help in promoting the alignment of Heath Care Information Systems in the participating countries.
PHILIPSBURG:--- Sint Maarten has probably made it in the Guinness Book of world records for having four integrity reports, within a period of fifteen months, written about the rampant corruption in government. These reports led to the writing of legislation to establish an Integrity Chamber. Sadly, after three years, four reports, and aborted integrity legislation, Sint Maarten still finds itself in a quagmire of corruption. As we write, several cases of corruption are being investigated by the prosecutors office such as immigration fraud, money laundering, and tax evasion. In addition, our own General Audit Chamber has reported on the serious lack of transparency and integrity with regard to the appointments of directors and supervisory board members of government-owned companies and foundations. Furthermore, the Ombudsman in its annual reports has also referred to the lack of transparency and openness in government. And, I am certain that if the Integrity Chamber were established and functional many more corruption cases would be brought to light.

Of course, corruption is not only limited to Sint Maarten but is rampant worldwide and considered moral cancer in every society. It is, therefore, the duty of every country and the responsibility of every parliament and the obligation of every government to put mechanisms in place to root out this moral cancer in society. It goes without saying that our Parliament must set the example by, establishing a Code of Ethics for parliamentarians. Conversely, if government began to uphold its own laws and enforce existing laws, Sint Maarten would be able to reduce corruption considerably throughout the civil force and in society.

Corruption is the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. To get a clearer understanding of corruption, Transparency International, in its publication entitled Anti-Corruption Plain Language Guide, subdivided corruption into three broad categories namely grand corruption, petty corruption, and political corruption. Words that come to mind when discussing corruption are money laundering, bribery, extortion or blackmail, nepotism, cronyism, patronage, favoritism, dishonesty, unfairness, gift giving, kickbacks, lack of accountability, integrity, and transparency.

Transparency is about being open and shedding light on rules, plans, processes, and actions. According to the National Integrity Action Organization in Jamaica, transparency is knowing why, how, what, and how much. Transparency ensures that public officials, civil servants, and board members act visibly and understandably, and report on their activities. And, it means that the general public can hold them to account. It is the surest way of guarding against corruption. Based on the above explanation it is safe to conclude that there is definitely a lack of transparency in government in Sint Maarten.

In all of its reports, the General Audit Chamber has made reference to a serious lack of transparency and integrity in government. In other words, there is clear evidence of corruption in government. In its most recent report, entitled Administrative Appointments Part-2, an audit into the legitimacy and integrity of administrative appointments of directors, issued July 2017, the Chamber, once again, made mention of the lack of transparency by stating that the lack of transparency and the associated lack of integrity regarding the appointment of directors, is worrisome. The Chamber also clearly advised Parliament to call the minister, responsible for the lack of transparency, to account. In other words, Parliament is the entity that has the ultimate responsibility to deal with corruption in government.

During its first administrative audit, between 2014 - 2015, the Chamber mentioned that, of the 44 appointments to supervisory boards of government-owned companies and foundations, only 22 (50%) complied with the rule to have an advice from the Corporate Governance Council. Between 2015 and May 2017, when the Chamber checked into the appointments of directors of government-owned companies and foundations it found that, of a total of 23 appointments, only one appointment was done in accordance with the rules and in keeping with the principles of transparency. Mind you, only ONE!! This means that our honorable ministers themselves are guilty of breaking the law when it comes to the appointments of directors and supervisory board members of government-owned companies and foundations.

We still can recall a few of the controversial appointments that made headlines such as the appointment of the supervisory board members of GEBE as well the appointments of the directors of TELEM, the Tourism Department and GEBE. It is sad to note that Parliament has never raised a question concerning the various appointments mentioned in the reports issued by the Chamber. Neither has Parliament raised a single question concerning the most recent appointment of the brother of the Minister of TEATT as Director of the Princess Juliana International Airport Holding Company. We were told that because of family ties the Minister of TEATT abstained from voting on this issue in the Council of Ministers. This was done to avoid the appearance of a form of corruption called nepotism. However, this does not absolve the Minister from nepotism, because the way the relationship between government and government-owned companies is structured a Minister is a share-holder representative and as such the Minister of TEATT is responsible for the airport and her brother is accountable to her.

Regrettably, with all the evidence available of corruption in government, Parliament has remained mum on the issue, whereas it is Parliaments obligation to ensure that the various appointments occur, according to the rules and legal procedures, in an open and transparent manner.

Wycliffe Smith
PHILIPSBURG:--- Last week, the well-known Dutch Television show Bestemming was on Sint Maarten to film and document Nature Foundations activities that are funded by the Dutch National Postcode Lottery. The Dutch television episode will mainly showcase the work done by the Foundation and the Dutch Caribbean Nature Alliance in their Save our Sharks project which aims to protect and manage sharks around the Dutch Caribbean Islands as well as their coral restoration activities.

Dutch celebrity and Postcode Lottery Ambassador Winston Gerschtanowitz visited the Nature Foundation and took part in the shark project to show the public the importance of these creatures. It was unbelievable to be so surprised by the beautiful underwater world of St Maarten. I now fully understand how important, valuable and worthy the work is that environmental protectors do in the Dutch Caribbean. Their love for sharks was very impressive to see! says Winston Gerschtanowitz, presenter of the show.

On Sint Maarten the film crew from Endemol Shine Group filmed for almost three days with the Nature Foundation, following all the work they do for shark conservation and research including scuba diving and tagging sharks to find out about their movement patterns. The film crew also visited the Foundations coral nursery in an attempt to restore coral reefs. The crew also learned about St Maartens environmental issues such as the serious impact of the landfill and sewage input to our marine life and environment.

During the rough days at sea, the team successfully caught two Tiger Sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), including a 2.6m male, which was given the name Winston due to his shark tagging efforts during the day.

Winston Gerschtanowitz also scuba dived with sharks and showed the public the gentle nature showing that the animal is not to be feared: I did not scuba dive for a long time, however, I felt totally comfortable diving with St Maarten sharks, it was an awesome experience to remember for a lifetime!

The Dutch Postcode Lottery episode will be broadcasted on the Dutch Television channel RTL4 in the new season of Bestemming in September or October this year.
By PTI: Panaji, July 27 (PTI) Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will contest the Panaji by-election scheduled on August 23, state unit BJP president Vinay Tendulkar said today, hours after the Election Commission announced the poll schedule.

Though Parrikars candidature from the seat was almost certain since the time he resigned as Defence Minister to take charge of Goa in March this year, the Congress is yet to finalise its nominees for both Panaji and Valpoi seats.

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The bypolls were necessitated due to resignations given by the BJPs sitting MLA Siddharth Kuncolienkar and Congress Vishwajeet Rane, from Panaji and Valpoi seats, respectively.

Kuncolienkar had resigned apparently to vacate the seat for Parrikar.

While from Valpoi the BJP will field Rane, the son of veteran Congress leader Pratapsinh Rane, who had crossed over to the BJP soon after the trust vote held in March. He currently holds Health ministry in the BJP-led state government.

"We were expecting dates of the bypolls to be bit earlier as the state will be celebrating Ganesh festival on August 25. Nonetheless, we are well prepared to face the contests," Tendulkar told PTI.

He said Parrikar would be in fray from Panaji seat and Vishwajit Rane from Valpoi.

"Their names are already decided. BJPs Parliamentary board will make formal announcement soon," he said.

Tendulkar said the party, which has 12 MLAs in the truncated House of 38, would emerge victorious on both the seats.

Parrikar is currently a Rajya Sabha member from Uttar Pradesh. As he is not an MLA, he has to get elected on the House within six months of becoming chief minister. He took oath in March.

However, the Congress is still to find suitable candidates for both the seats.

Former Congress minister Atanasio Monserratte, whose name was believed to be in reckoning as the party nominee for Panaji constituency, recently crossed over to the Goa Forward Party (GFP) headed by Vijai Sardesai. GFP is an alliance partner of the ruling BJP.

"We are yet to decide the candidates (for the bypolls). The Congress will contest both the seats and will emerge as the winner," said Goa Pradesh Congress Committee (GPCC) president Shantaram Naik.

According to sources in the party, former Goa Home minister Ravi Naiks son Roy is emerging as a front-runner for Valpoi bypoll.

However, the Congress is yet to find a suitable candidate for the Panaji bypoll. PTI RPS NSK RCJ

--- ENDS ---
Everything you need to know about No. 20 Notre Dame's game vs. Navy Saturday in Baltimore
Uikey, the present district panchayat president in Mandla and an emerging tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh, had contested the 2013 Assembly Elections but lost.

By Rahul Noronha: By announcing Sampatiya Uikey as the party candidate against the vacant Rajya Sabha seat in Madhya Pradesh, the BJP has attempted to give representation to the tribal community.

Uikey, the present district panchayat president in Mandla and an emerging tribal leader from Madhya Pradesh, had contested the 2013 Assembly Elections but lost. The other prominent BJP tribal leader from Mahakoshal region, Faggan Singh Kulaste represents Mandla in the Lok Sabha and is a Union Minister.

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Madhya Pradesh has 11 Rajya Sabha seats of which 8 are with the BJP and 3 are with the Congress. The seat against which Sampatiya Uikey has been nominated fell vacant after the death of Union Minister Anil Dave. Sampatiya will serve the remainder of Dave's term till June 2022.

A total of 21 per cent of the population in Madhya Pradesh comprises tribals. While there are two Scheduled Caste (SC) BJP leaders from Madhya Pradesh in the Rajya Sabha, there was not a single tribal leader from the state in the Upper House. In the 230-member Madhya Pradesh Assembly, 35 seats are reserved for SC while 47 are reserved for the Scheduled Tribe (ST). Of the 35 seats for SC, the BJP holds 28 while the party has 31 ST out of the 47 seats. The BJP's decision to field Sampatiya Uikey has been taken keeping the national agenda in mind but the party wants to use it to its advantage in the upcoming Assembly Elections.

By nominating Sampatiya, the number of 'outsiders' nominated against the 11 Rajya Sabha seats has also come down to three, namely MJ Akbar, La Ganesan and Prakash Javadekar. All the 3 Congress Rajya Sabha MPs from the state, namely Satyavrat Chaturvedi, Digvijaya Singh and Vivek Tankha are 'insiders'.

ALSO READ |

Amit Shah, Smriti Irani to contest for Rajya Sabha elections from Gujarat

BJP set to increase its numbers in Rajya Sabha following big wins in Assembly elections

--- ENDS ---
According to the jail authorities, Dutt's conduct in the jail was good hence, he was given a remission of over eight months from his sentence.

By Vidya : Maharashtra Advocate General today told the Bombay High Court that no norms were flouted in granting remission to actor Sanjay Dutt but if the court felt otherwise, "it can send Dutt back to jail".

The actor had served a five year sentence for his role in the 1993 Mumbai blast case after he was convicted under the Arms Act by a special TADA court. According to the jail authorities, Dutt's conduct in the jail was good hence, he was given a remission of over eight months from his sentence and he came out of the prison earlier than stated.

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Although almost all jail inmates are given such remissions, the petitioners believed that the prison authorities had been too kind to Dutt. A public interest litigation (PIL) was then filed by a convict Pradeep Bhalekar. Bhalekar's lawyer Nitin Satpute pointed out in the Bombay High Court that there were two affidavits filed by the state in the case, one by the Yerwada Jail superintendent and the other by the Advocate General. In both the affidavits the dates on which Dutt had left the jail for his parole and furlough leaves were different.

The division bench of Justice RM Savant and Justice Sadhna Jadhav also pointed out that within two months from the date Dutt surrendered in May 2013, he had moved two applications for parole and furlough and both the applications were granted. "Did the divisional commissioner not inquire? Isn't it the practice that only one leave is granted at a time?," asked the bench.

The bench added that it was not singling out Sanjay Dutt "but the system has to be streamlined".

Dutt was first placed under arrest in 1993 when the investigative agencies realised that he had handled some of the lethal weapons that were transported to Mumbai for the blast. He was later let out on bail.

After the Supreme Court decision, Dutt surrendered and spent his time in jail during which he had taken various furlough and parole leaves. The court has granted two weeks to the Advocate General to explain what constitutes good conduct and also mention the reasons for granting the frequent paroles and furlough and remission to Dutt.

ALSO READ |

Stark discrepancies in government documents concerning Sanjay Dutt's jail stay

After 23 harrowing years, a free Dutt walks back as a potential mega force

Sanjay Dutt is out of Yerwada jail, says his father would have been happy to see him free

ALSO WATCH | Justify Sanjay Dutt's early release, Bombay High Court tells Maharashtra government

--- ENDS ---
Georgetown, SC (29440)

Today

Partly cloudy. High 77F. Winds WSW at 10 to 15 mph..

Tonight

Partly cloudy skies this evening will become overcast overnight. Low 56F. Winds WSW at 5 to 10 mph.
The congregation of St. Mary AME Church in Pawleys Island has started a campaign to raise $200,000 to replace the church's roof, which is more than 50 years old.
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STAMFORD  PDC Brands portfolio in 2012 looked much like it did when it was founded 36 years ago. The same description would not apply today.

During the past five years, the Stamford beauty and personal-care company has undergone a transformation. Partnering with Boston private-equity firm Yellow Wood Partners, it has diversified its offerings and built a worldwide consumer base, moves that have supercharged the companys returns. Taking advantage of that momentum, Yellow Wood earlier this month announced the sale of its majority stake in PDC for $1.425 billion to another private-equity firm, CVC Capital Partners  a deal PDC officials see as a foundation for even more growth.

We have partnered with world-class private-equity investors who are as aggressive as we are in continuing our goal of becoming one of the preeminent beauty and personal-care platform companies in the world, PDC Brands CEO James Stammer said in an interview.

Beyond fragrances,

beyond the U.S.

Originally known as Parfums de Coeur, the company was founded by Mark Laracy in 1981.

Stammer, a former marketing director at Diageo, succeeded Laracy as chief executive in 2005. He envisioned growing PDC into an enterprise that would cover a diverse band of the personal and beauty care market. The firm had traditionally focused on fragrances, with its mainstays in that category including Body Fantasies and BOD Man.

What we really needed was someone with the appetite to help us grow the business, Stammer said. A lot of that was through finding brands and properties that we could bring in as accretive acquisitions.

Yellow Wood, whose investments focus on consumer brands and companies, would fit the bill. It acquired its majority stake in 2012 for an undisclosed amount.

With Yellow Woods backing, PDC would make six major acquisitions that would expand its bath, hair and makeup offerings and bolster its fragrance selection: Bodycology, Calgon, Cantu, Dr. Teals, Original Additions, and, most recently, ME! Bath.

The retail business is in a state of flux, said Rosalind Looby, a visiting assistant professor of finance at Fairfield University. There are definitely a lot of new ideas and strategies being brought to bear as to what the best method of delivery is. That creates opportunities for private-equity firms who feel they can take an existing product that may have a great following and sell it through different channels.

PDCs alliance with Yellow Wood boosted the companys presence outside the U.S. International customers now account for some 25 percent of PDCs revenues, according to Stammer. The companys products are sold in about 60 countries.

The partnership with Yellow Wood would quadruple PDCs annual revenues and increase its adjusted annual earnings by more than five times, according to PDC and Yellow Wood officials. They declined to disclose specific totals.

We felt the business had a group of strong brands with strong management, said Dana Schmaltz, founding partner of Yellow Wood Partners and a Darien native. We felt we could bring our firms operating expertise to help grow the business significantly by helping to grow sales, be more efficient on the cost front and help source a number of strategic and accretive acquisitions. We were successful in doing all three of these.

While Yellow Wood played a pivotal role in PDCs growth, the firm did not meddle in the companys management, Stammer said.

They had a lot of people who worked in similar types of businesses who could give us advice when we needed it, Stammer said. But, at the end of the day, the strategy and execution of PDC are driven by the company.

Aiming for more growth

With the backing of CVC, PDC can draw on the resources of global investors. CVC manages more than $65 billion in assets, with funds managed or advised by the firm invested in about 50 companies. Los Angeles private-equity firm Leonard Green & Partners, which has made a concurrent investment to support CVC, has invested in more than 80 companies.

A message left for CVC was not returned.

PDC would aim to continue expanding in overseas markets and in the U.S., Stammer said. More brand additions to the PDC portfolio could also follow during the next few years.

If we did nothing else, we would have outstanding growth just focusing on the portfolio of brands we have today, Stammer said. But well continue to pursue accretive acquisitions if we can get into No. 1 or No. 2 leading market share positions. This is our game plan.

pschott@scni.com; 203-964-2236; Twitter: @paulschott
The Hearst movie meet-up for The Third Man in Bethel Wednesday night attracted a large and enthusiastic audience.

98 people came to see the 1949 film noir classic written by Graham Greene and starring Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles. About a third of the audience had already seen the movie at home on television but wanted to see the recent restoration on a big screen.

I moderated the discussion afterwards, with many in the audience saying the movie about a friendship gone wrong seemed as fresh as any 2017 film. Everyone agreed that the zither music on the soundtrack (by Anton Karas) is a key component. In 1950, the theme song topped the U.S. charts for 11 weeks.

Two couples from Trumbull, who are big fans of the movie and Graham Greene, drove to Bethel for the screening.

Tony Abbott, Trumbull:

Ive loved the movie for years. It was good to see it again on a movie screen. I did read the Graham Greene novella which was done in what was almost a more comic light.

John Fuller, Monroe:

I grew up in Sydney (Australia) where I would stand alongside the Regency (Theatre) listening to the wonderful music (by Anton Karas) which they would play outside the theater. Thats what got me to see the film and Ive seen it many times since then. Years later I rode on that Ferris Wheel in Vienna.

Bob Feuerberg, Newtown:

I never had the opportunity to see it on a big screen before. The black-and-white photography is incredible, especially the use of shadows.

Bryan Kysela, Danbury:

Such a great movie. I own a copy and have watched it over the years, but thats not like seeing it in a theater.

Dolores Abbott, Trumbull:

It reminds me of that other Graham Greene movie Ministry of Fear set in the rubble of London during the Blitz. Theyre both about people trying to live any way they can after World War II. Greene wrote so many good films -- Our Man in Havana is another one I love.

Tom Carruthers of the Connecticut Film Festival, which co-hosted the screening, was very happy with the turn-out and said he would like to team up with Hearst for more restored classics in the future, including Sweet Smell of Success and The Last Picture Show.

Next up for the Hearst movie meet-up group is a screening of the French thriller Moka at the Avon Theatre in Stamford on Tuesday, Aug. 8 at 7:30 p.m. and a preview of the new Channing Tatum/Daniel Craig comedy Logan Lucky Thursday, Aug. 17 at 7 p.m. at the Prospector Theatre in Ridgefield.

JMeyers@hearstmediact.com; Twitter: @joesview
Shiksha mitras in govt schools in Uttar Pradesh, who were adjusted as assistant teachers without clearing the Teachers Eligibility Test, now face an uncertain future with the Supreme Court cancelling this upgradation and making clearing the TET in 2 years a must.

Supreme Court upheld Allahabad High Court's decision, cancelling the changes introduced by the Akhilesh Yadav government in Basic Education Service rules to upgrade shiksha mitras as assistant teachers.

By Siraj Qureshi: Shiksha mitras (a common term for contractual teachers) in government schools in Uttar Pradesh, whose salaries were hiked following their upgradation as assistant teachers, could soon be struggling to find employment.

This because the Supreme Court has given them only 2 years to pass the Teachers Eligibility Act (TET) in order to continue on that upgraded payscale and cancelled their appointment as assistant teachers for now.

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The shiksha mitras were casually appointed to assist primary school teachers in cities and villages for a retainer fee of Rs 2,250 and had been upgraded to a payscale of Rs 39,000 of late.

A recent Allahabad High Court decision had questioned the premise and legality of their upgradation to the post of Assistant Teachers and the raise in their salaries. With many of them earning fairly well given their educational qualifications, the prospect of their failing to clear the TET has thrown their future into uncertainty.

SHIKSHA MITRA POOJA SEHGAL's VERSION

Pooja Sehgal, a shiksha mitra, told India Today, "In 1999, the government had decided to appoint 2 shiksha mitras to every school. The power of these appointments was vested with the gram sabha and the municipal councillors. Initially, their retainer fee had been fixed at Rs 2,250 a month and by 2010, 1.68 lakh shiksha mitras had been appointed all over Uttar Pradesh. In 2010, their retainer fee was raised to Rs 3,500 a month."

Supreme Court upheld Allahabad High Court's decision, cancelling the changes introduced by the Akhilesh Yadav government in Basic Education Service rules to upgrade shiksha mitras as assistant teachers. Supreme Court upheld Allahabad High Court's decision, cancelling the changes introduced by the Akhilesh Yadav government in Basic Education Service rules to upgrade shiksha mitras as assistant teachers.

With the Right to Education (RTE) coming into effect in the year 2010, the state government decided to upgrade these shiksha mitras to assistant teachers to address the shortfall of teachers in schools. The graduate shiksha mitras were to be given two years of special BTC (Basic Training Certificate) training (BTC is a certificate level educational course). Before they were duly appointed as assistant teachers and by 2015, 1.67 lakh shiksha mitras had been adjusted as assistant teachers in the state's educational system. However, in September 2015, the Allahabad High Court declared these 'upgraded' appointments as null and void, throwing the entire system into turmoil.

However, the Supreme Court stayed the High Court order's implementation and with the 7th Pay Commission recommendations coming into effect, the payscale of these shiksha mitras was raised to Rs 39,000. But now that the Supreme Court has also decided against the adjustment of shiksha mitras as assistant teachers, the future of over 1.67 lakh teachers hangs in balance.

WHAT DOES SHIKSHA MITRA SAMITI CHIEF SAY

Talking to India Today, Shiksha Mitra Samiti President Dushyant Sharma said that the Supreme Court had upheld the High Court's order, cancelling the adjustment of shiksha mitras as assistant teachers. He said that the Samiti fully respected the apex court's decision and would request the Yogi Adityanath government to pass a law protecting the jobs of these 1.67 lakh teachers, otherwise a lot of them would be forced to commit suicide.

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Director (Education) Sarvendra Vikram Singh said that he had not received the Supreme Court's order yet and would only be able to comment on it after he had studied the same in detail.

BJP's Agra unit President Vijay Shivhare said, "The Samajwadi Party government had violated all the laws in modifying the UP Basic Education Service Rules, 1981 to add Rule 14(6) upgrading shiksha mitras to assistant teachers, exempting them from passing the TET. A total of 1,35,826 such shiksha mitras were thus adjusted. In June 2014, the state government issued an order adjusting 58,826 shiksha mitras and in the second phase, 77,000 more were added to that number." The party praises the High Court and Supreme Court's orders that have upheld the law of the land, which had been irreverently flouted by the previous Akhilesh government.

SUICIDE IN AGRA

Meanwhile, 36-year-old Shiksha Mitra Gayatri Devi, a resident of Mathura district in Agra division, committed suicide by consuming poison after reading about the Supreme Court order.

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Social activist Vijay Upadhyay claimed that the shiksha mitras were highly agitated in Agra division and that could increase problems for the Yogi government in the future.

Most of these shiksha mitras were not too young anymore and had families to support and hence would have nowhere to go if they lost their jobs.

Also read |

Kashmiri teachers in Delhi cautiously accept Kejriwal govt's decision to regularise services

Centre, Mamata standoff might hit teachers training fund over impending reports

--- ENDS ---
If you're hitting the road for a day trip or some sightseeing around Connecticut, there's plenty of food to keep you satisfied along way.

Roadfood.com has a guide of 11 places to eat along Connecticut's Merritt Parkway. The tour lists only places within 3 minutes of the Parkway, and they offer some tasty eats.
Progress Drive was closed to traffic in both directions on Thursday morning after an 18-wheeler hit an Eversource pole pulling down power lines onto the street around 9:40 a.m., according to police.

The trucks driver was uninjured, according to police.
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STAMFORD-A chase that led from a Glenbrook bank to the Stamford train station ended in the arrest of three Bronx men trying to cash a large check with fake identification, police said.

The Church Street branch of Bank of America called 911 to report a man trying to cash a $9,500 check with what appeared to be a fake identification at about 11:30 a.m. patrol Lt. Eugene Dohmann said.

Arriving officers got to the bank seconds after the man left. But one of the officers saw him running down Church Street and tackled him.

Meanwhile two other men with the first man saw the ruckus on Church Street and fled in a white car. Police put their description over the air and moments later a police sergent working an extra duty road job spotted what he thought was the vehicle and tried to stop it on Lafayette Street.

But when the two saw the police officer they appeared nervous and crashed into another car before fleeing the scene.

Officers checking the area could find no trace of the two men or their car. Another officer took a flier and checked the large parking garage at 200 Elm Street next to the Exit 8 off ramp. On the third level they spotted the car with some front end damage and when the checked the video tape they discovered the two men had parked the car there just 11 minutes earlier, Dohmann said.

Another officer in the area working an overtime job spotted two men fitting the descriptions of those in the video and put it over the radio.

One of the men was apprehended quickly while the other made a break for it onto the tracks of the train station. He was taken into custody also, Dohman said.

Dohmann said guys like these come into Stamford all the time looking for easy cash.

Luckily, even though we had a great response, we were able to get just enough information out there to our officers working extra duty jobs, Dohmann said. It was like a domino effect. It was like we were getting closer and closer. The extra duty guys were able to keep our tracks fresh.

The man accused of going into the bank, Reginald Randolph, 50, of the Bronx, was charged with criminal impersonation. identity theft and criminal attempt at second-degree larceny.

The other two men Jamal Hermitt, 27, and Desmond Nixon, 26, both of the Bronx, were charged with conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation, interfering with police and conspiracy to commit identification theft.

All are being held in lieu of a $75,000 court appearance bond.
In the 1920s, the Hawthorne Works in Chicago commissioned a study to test the productivity of its workers on the factory floor. Would the employees work differently in more or less light?

The answer? They became productive in more light . . . and less light. Productivity, it seemed, had nothing to do with the amount of light, but the fact that someone was watching did.

Almost a century later, employees may live in fear and just do what they are told, but todays business does not work the same. The days of the business defining the individual are fading fast. Individuals -- from employees in the workplace to customers in the marketplace -- are defining how business serves them.

In other words, paying attention means something different today: Focus on the good of the entire company, or you will soon lose the ability to compete.

To do that, the best leaders have an abundance mentality. Coined by Steven Covey in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, people with an abundance mindset or mentality believe in sharing resources, credit and the success of others. Its inverse is the scarcity mentality, in which leaders believe that for them to win, someone has to lose. It is a zero sum game -- a game in which no one cares about the success of others, let alone see them as individuals.

Related: 15 Habits of Mentally Tough People

During uncertain times -- one that historically has negatively impacted businesses -- leaders usually operate with a scarcity mentality and focus on what they dont have, particularly growth. But instead of innovating their way to recreating growth, they start cutting things. And what is the first thing that gets cut or at the very least ignored with that mentality? The needs of the people who work there -- particularly those in the middle and at the bottom of the ladder. To the scarcity-minded business owner, they are only expenses to be cut.

Yet, abundance-minded people are often most in touch with the business. In times of great uncertainty, they have already been looking for opportunities to grow and have learned to be more efficient -- to do more with less. They dont have a scarcity mentality, but they know what to do when resources are scarce: they have an abundance mentality in times of scarcity. Thats what their leaders need, too. They need to understand that scarcity in business is not just lacking enough resources and money; it's about not having enough of the right talent as well.

Regardless of the environment youre leading, adopting an abundance mentality enables you to better compete and grow, as it forces you to stay focused on your people to see opportunity in everything, take on an entrepreneurial attitude and anticipate the unexpected. More often than not, when you adopt an abundance mentality, you pay more attention to the details and are always in search for ways to maximize available resources. You are more self-aware of not just yourself, but the needs of your clients and employees. You appreciate the role they play in your success and the influence you have on each others significance. As such, you not only think about the here and now, but are much more strategic in how you navigate and plot a course for recreating growth in the future.

Related: 10 Ways to Become the Most Productive Person Around

When you have an abundance mentality in a time of scarcity, the marketplace never passes you by because everyone operates as if they could lose momentum at any time and is constantly in search of the next big idea. They are hungry for more -- in their passionate pursuit for endless possibilities. Departments and teams have no time for internal politics and conflicts fueled by silos where leadership agendas abound and disengaged employees lack the right mindset to perform at their best. They are too busy trying to drive sustainable growth and innovation.

They are hungry.

We must learn to be hungry again.

This starts with adopting what I call an innovation mentality, of which an abundance mentality is a key part. The innovation mentality is about survival, renewal and reinvention -- to see opportunity and overcome adversity before circumstances force our hands. That's what the 21st century leader must embody if he or she is to transform the future of the workplace, find success in the marketplace and regain global competitiveness in a changing and uncertain world.

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There are many reasons for a man to be proud of his grandchildren, as I am of my three, who are beautiful, smart, loving and, even though the eldest is only 4 years old, more mature than their grandfather.

Now I can add one more reason: My grandson, Xavier, at the tender age of 4 months, is a Three Stooges fan.

I made this delightful discovery recently when my wife, Sue, and I took a road trip to visit Xavier, who lives with his mommy, Katie, and daddy, Dave.

The moment of revelation occurred on a sunny morning in Katie and Daves bedroom, where I was watching Xavier while everyone else got ready for a day of fun, frolic and, of course, infantile behavior. And Im not talking about Xavier.

Anyway, I was upstairs with him, cooing and babbling (so was he), when Dave entered the room and said, Having some guy time?

We sure are, I answered.

As Dave left to go back downstairs, he said, If I hear any Three Stooges noises, Im rushing right back up.

Answering the challenge, I did my award-winning Curly imitation, snapping my fingers and making funny faces as I exclaimed, Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk! and Woo, woo, woo!

Xavier smiled and started to wave his arms and kick excitedly.

I told him that many years ago I was first runner-up in the National Curly Howard Sound-Alike Contest (I won $100 and some Stooge paraphernalia in the telephone competition, whose winner was never identified and must have been an inmate somewhere).

I also told him that I once attended a Three Stooges convention in Pennsylvania and again was first runner-up, this time in the Curly Shuffle Contest, which was won by a 4-year-old girl.

Xavier furrowed his brow as if to say, Poor Poppie. What a knucklehead!

Then I imitated my favorite Stooge, Shemp. I inhaled deeply and made the famous Shemp sound: Ee-bee-bee-bee!

Xavier  this is absolutely true  laughed out loud. I did it again. He giggled uncontrollably.

I am so proud of him! I said to Dave when he rushed back upstairs. Xavier loves Shemp!

Dave, a wonderful young man with a terrific sense of humor, kindly refrained from poking his father-in-law in the eyes.

The surest sign of maturity in a man, if indeed it ever happens, is when he comes to appreciate Shemp, I told Dave. Xavier is starting at a young age.

Just as the late, great original Stooge has a new fan, so does the new fan.

Xavier is my little man, said Junior Bush, who lives across the street and is known as the mayor of the neighborhood.

Junior, 73, a retired revenue collector, doesnt have kids of his own, but he does have 10 nieces and nephews who look up to him as a father figure. Everyone on the block loves him.

I found out why when Junior knocked on Katie and Daves door to warn me that my car would get ticketed and towed if I didnt move it for the street sweeper.

Ill give you my parking space, Junior said.

I found the lone remaining spot across the street, so I didnt have to take up Junior on his nice offer, but I appreciated it.

I love Katie and Dave, Junior told me. And Xavier is just the cutest.

Ive been teaching him about the Three Stooges, I said.

Junior chuckled and replied, You have to start them early.

Despite Daves fears, I have. Every time I did my Shemp imitation, Xavier laughed. At least a dozen times over the next few days, whether he was in his car seat, on the changing table or in my arms, when I said, Ee-bee-bee-bee, he let out a baby guffaw.

The next time we get together, I am going to introduce Xavier to Moe, Larry, Curly, Shemp and the other Stooges on video. Will he love them even more?

In the immortal words of Poppie doing his Curly imitation, Soitenly! Nyuk, nyuk, nyuk!

Stamford native Jerry Zezima is the author of three books. Visit his blog at www.jerryzezima.blogspot.com. Email: JerryZ111@optonline.net.
By PTI: Phagwara(Pb), Jul 27 (PTI) An alleged bootlegger has been arrested and sixty bottles of illicit liquor were seized from his possession, police said today.

The police identified the man as Sandip Kumar, a resident of Sham Nagar area.

"We acted on a tip off that illicit liquor was being smuggled into the area from Goraya side," a police spokesman said.

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A special ?naka? (checkpost) was laid at Hargobindnagar crossing last night and when the car approached the area we stopped it before searching it thoroughly, he said.

"Sixty bottles of illicit liquor were recovered from the car and its owner Sandip was arrested under relevant sections of Excise Act," he added. PTI corr VJ SG

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GREENWICH  Theres a photo of the old house at 117 Dingletown Road from 1916, and its not a pretty picture.

The house appears to have been picked clean by scavengers and tormented by vandals. The windows are gone, and theres a gaping hole where the doorway is supposed to be. It looks like a stiff breeze could bring the whole thing down.

Fast-forward 100 years, and the house built around 1750 is inviting, cozy and as sturdy as an oak tree. Lovingly restored by a couple with a deep interest in the colonial period and early American design, the current homeowner was recently honored with the Preservation Leadership Award by the Greenwich Preservation Trust. Sen. Richard Blumenthal also bestowed a certificate of recognition this month.

Maggie Larkin restrains some laughter when she recalls how exacting the restoration process was. She and her husband, the late Sylvester Larkin Jr., hired an architect who specialized in early American homes, Herbert Lawrence Coggins, and he was a taskmaster.

He was so meticulous, Larkin recalled. We could only use timber from southern Connecticut for the paneling.

The Larkins went on regular excursions to Williamsburg, Va., to scour the antiques markets there for period pieces, and they also went to markets in Connecticut. The lintel for the fireplace came from Guilford.

Coggins also insisted on adding another element from early New England, a fire-insurance mark, to the side of the house. The iron plaque depicts a stylized firefighter blowing a horn. Subscribers paid fire-fighting companies in advance for fire protection, and they would receive a fire-mark to attach to their building to let the firefighters know they had paid for the service.

There are a number of other colonial-era touches, like a bread-baking box inside a big hearth where the cooking was done centuries ago.

An interesting group of past owners dwelt in the home. Garrett Pier, who saved the house from destruction in 1916, with his wife, Adelaide, was an Egyptologist and archaeologist. The head of the Egyptian department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, he wrote books and plays based on his expeditions. Later owners were Dr. Horatio Williams and his wife, Abbie. He was a pioneer in the field of electrocardiography.

It was the Williams family who sold the house to the Larkins  they got on the doctors good side with a favorite dessert of his, lemon meringue pie, Maggie Larkin said. He gave them the right of first refusal to buy the property after his death. The Larkins bought the place for $33,500 in 1956, and while it sounds laughably small by todays standards, it was a sizable sum for a young couple at the time, she said.

The Larkins raised three children in the home, as they modernized and upgraded the property through the years. An addition was built by architect Douglas Malcolm that closely replicated the character of the original structure. The exterior was coated in seafoam green paint that softens the boxy outline of the old house.

We both loved old homes, Maggie Larkin says of the work she and Sylvester put into the structure, which serves as one of the best examples of a colonial-era home in the region. The Greenwich Preservation Trust, in honoring the restoration work, praised the work as thoughtful and sensitive and said it would be hard to find a better specimen of its type still in use as a residence.

The accolades are nice, but to Maggie Larkin, the house is also a great place to live.

An old house has charm that you cant duplicate or build, she said. They just give you that feeling.
I nvestors took fright from AstraZeneca today as trials of a long-awaited breakthrough lung cancer treatment failed to deliver the expected benefits for patients.

The trial, known as Mystic, was supposed to set AstraZeneca on course for the next decade and analysts had been keenly awaiting the results.

Instead the results sent the shares into a tailspin, down 17% to 4263p, and forced the chief executive to insist he was not leaving the drugs giant.

The Mystic trial was crucial to Astras attempt to grab a share of the fast-growing immuno-oncology drugs market, worth $8 billion (6.3 billion) today and projected to reach $50 billion in value.

However, the results have shown that the immunotherapy drug does not stop cancer worsening in patients for any longer than existing treatments.

The share price was on course for its worst day since listing in 1993 and under-pressure boss Pascal Soriot tried to put to rest rumours he was about to jump ship to the top job at Israeli rival Teva.

I am proud to be the chief executive of this company and I look forward to continuing on the journey ahead, he told journalists.

Pushed on talk he might leave he said: I am here today. I am very committed to delivering our strategy. The board is firmly behind our strategy and is very satisfied.

Rumours that AstraZeneca could become a takeover target have resurfaced in recent months, with Novartis suggested as a potential bidder.

Asked about whether the UKs second-biggest drugs company was a takeover target, Soriot said: Theres always interest in companies with strong pipelines. If the Mystic result had been better, Im sure we would be even more attractive.

Further results from the Mystic trial, into overall survival rates, will be delivered in the first half of 2018. Despite the outcomes of the initial results we must be patient and wait for the overall survival analysis, Soriot said.

Liberum analysts said the revelation was pretty much the worst-case scenario for Mystic.

Mick Cooper, analyst at Trinity Delta, said: AstraZeneca and Pascal Soriot might both be approaching Teva quietly in light of these results.

AstraZeneca boasted of its strong drug pipeline, and, in particular, its immunotherapy drug development, when it successfully fended off a bid from US drug giant Pfizer worth $54 billion, three years ago.

Astras older blockbuster drugs are coming off patent. But growth from its new drugs has been slow. Todays results showed a 10% fall in first-quarter revenue to 3.8 billion. Analysts had been looking for revenue of $5 billion.

There was some better news elsewhere, with positive results from its lung cancer pill Tagrisso. It also revealed a strategic tie-up with rival Merck to help bring another cancer drug Lynparza to patients.
T he Government announced another shake-up of the electricity markets yesterday, to make it easier for people to generate their own power and sell it to the National Grid.

The plan is to create so-called smarter energy systems, whereby everyone can respond to the price signals in the minute-by-minute wholesale market. Instead of buying your kilowatts at the same price per unit during the whole year, why not sell a few megawatts to your supplier by turning off your fridge on a cold November evening?

There is no doubt that the technology exists to make all this possible. While telecoms companies have been able to charge by the second for decades, energy companies have been technology Neanderthals. Battery efficiency is also developing rapidly, enabling households to store power in the basement or eventually in the car.

To some extent, the Government is making a virtue of necessity with this news. With 30 per cent of the countrys electricity now coming from intermittent power generation, such as solar farms and wind generators, something flexible had to be created to manage the exacerbated peaks and troughs of the new generation mix.

It would have cost a fortune to continue managing supply centrally, sitting in a control room paying large wind farms to turn off, or building new pumped water storage in Wales. National Grid now say that between 30 and 50 per cent of fluctuations on the system could be smoothed out by homes and businesses being able to adjust their demand at peak times.

The problem for the Government is guessing which technology to back.

After 30 years of developing renewable energy, we now know that having the Government choose winners creates its own problems. When David Camerons government finally pulled the subsidies for renewable energy, there were a plethora of confusing support mechanisms and vociferous producer lobbies defending them.

It was difficult to notice what is now obvious: the solar industry was coming of age.

Pointing one of the worlds most ubiquitous substances (silicon) at the sun, a not very complicated process, had become by far the most economical and least controversial renewable technology. As the fat quickly comes out of the supply chain, large-scale wind is also now looking economical without subsidy.

So we should welcome the Governments support for the mass democratisation of energy generation.

Rather than being on the receiving end of the electricity supply industry, and often their expensive mistakes, power is now really coming to the people.

We can all become customers, generators and traders on our own.
T he discovery that some male authors are now being encouraged by their publishers to adopt gender-neutral pseudonyms in order to attract  or at least not repel  female readers has tickled the fancy of many.

Its a small moment of triumph, said Allison Pearson yesterday, speculating that up in the great library in the sky, Currer Bell and George Eliot are exchanging a wry glance of satisfaction.

For the tables have been turned. There has been such a long tradition of women writers being forced to use either male pseudonyms, like George Eliot and George Sand, or neutral signatures such as Acton, Currer and Ellis Bell (the Bronte sisters) and, most recently, JK Rowling, that it seems a reversal to celebrate.

The commercial imperative is clear enough. Women buy two-thirds of the books bought in Britain and a 2014 survey of 40,000 readers by the site Goodreads found that 46 of the 50 most-read books by women were written by women  while men choose a similar ratio of books by men (although when they do read books by women they rate them highly).

For anyone who wants to believe that we read in order to understand lives other than our own, these stats are head-claspingly awful. Is not writing fiction a rare activity in which gender can be transcended?

Charlotte Bronte believed so: To such critics I would say, To you I am neither man nor woman, I come before you as an author only  it is the sole standard by which you have a right to judge me, the sole ground on which I accept your judgment.

But we dont judge literature like that. We live in a delegate culture, not an imaginative one. This is the flip side of diversity.

Even in the supposedly sophisticated context of writers and critics choosing their favourite books for summer, its comically apparent that people persistently read within their identity group, seeking affirmation, not challenge.

Has there ever been, though, a more gender-specific form than domestic noir, that booming and degraded genre that ever more baroquely tortures women with the dread that everything they trust is a mirage, and that they have not been merely duped but are deranged, amnesiac, in a coma or already dead?

This is an arena in which male authors are, in common decency, only allowed to enter in gender-neutral disguise. Thus the bestseller The Girl Before (everything thats yours was once hers) has been profitably marketed as by the mysterious JP Delaney, not by former adman Tony Strong.

Perhaps this success is, perversely, proof that its the words on the page that matter, and that authors are not so confined by their sex? Perhaps. Even so, male writers might do better to tiptoe away from this market, just from compassion, if that at least still exists.
T he Government says its time to listen to the experts. Home Secretary Amber Rudd has asked the Migration Advisory Committee for its view of how many European citizens we need to support our economy. She is one of the sane voices in the Cabinet trying to prevent the extra damage a sudden departure from the EU will cause.

Given the impossible task of designing in just 18 months a new immigration system that satisfies the desire of most Brexiteers to see fewer foreigners on the streets while not damaging an already weak British economy, she is trying to do the only sensible thing she can: kick the issue into the long grass with lots of consultation and a lengthy transition period.

However, her promise to business in this mornings Financial Times that there would be no cliff edge was contradicted by her own Immigration Minister, Brandon Lewis, today, who said freedom of movement with the EU would end abruptly in March 2019.

Confusion over the short-term is compounded by concern about the long term. This newspaper is in favour of experts.

However, we are sceptical that any government committee can accurately assess the number of migrants we need.

It might just be able to calculate the number of nurses the NHS needs  as that is a centrally-planned public service. But how does it know how many fashion assistants, web designers, minicab drivers, derivative traders, bar staff, lawyers or yoga instructors the country needs? It doesnt.

A free-market, open, innovative economy cant have its labour supply dictated by some British Gosplan. Its the latest example of how Britain is going through the whole process of leaving the EU and then desperately trying to recreate its benefits from the outside.

You dont need an expert to tell us that: any fool can see it.

Time to close pay gap

The man who co-chairs the Governments campaign to get more female executives at the top of British business, Sir Philip Hampton, has suggested that the reason for the BBC gender pay gap is that senior women let it happen.

These ... women are ... now saying: how did we let this happen? I suspect they let it happen because they werent doing much about it.

This is, to put it mildly, an unhelpful take on the issue but it usefully expresses a number of misconceptions, the main one being that if women are underpaid by comparison with their male colleagues, then they are to blame.

Self-evidently, the blame lies squarely with a management which awards the greatest rewards to those who ask loudest and most persistently  men  and which is content to pay less to women who do the same work as men just because they can.

As former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan says, we should by now have moved beyond having to ask for fair pay. And, notwithstanding Sir Philips observation that no woman has ever asked him for a rise  it is not quite true that women ask less often for more pay; they just dont get it as often.

The mindset behind the gender pay gap may be conditioned by the assumption that men are breadwinners whereas womens income is a supplement. In London, this assumption is flawed; many women are the main or sole providers.

But this consideration should be irrelevant to the larger principle of equal work for equal pay, allowing for the variables of experience and popularity. And on this basis, the disparities exposed by the BBC audit are bizarre.

Sir Philip  who co-chairs the Hampton-Alexander review into increasing the number of women in senior roles in FTSE 350 firms with Dame Helen Alexander  does, however, deserve credit for championing the principle of transparency in the BBC.

It should not have taken this compulsory exercise to make the Corporation pay women their due, but now that it has, it must address the discrepancies that have been exposed.
S pain is a great summer getaway - and not only for it's sunshine and beautiful beaches. If youre looking to pack your holiday full of art, you can get your fix all over the country.

While Barcelona is the place to be to see Gaudis brilliant architecture, Madrid is where to go when it comes to art. Renowned across the world for its vibrant scene, boasting everything from classic galleries to contemporary hot spots, the city really is teeming with amazing art.

And, if you want the inside scoop on where to go for Madrids art gems, read on for our guide to finding galleries off the beaten track.

Mad Is Mad

Mad Is Mad prides itself on an international portfolio of artists and very affordable prices for its pieces, so you may end up trying to cram one of its works into your suitcase on your way home. As well as a space for young contemporary artists, it features an area for book editing and making bespoke design objects.

Marta Cevera Gallery

The Marta Cevera Gallery (above) was imported from New York to Madrid in 1996. Its right in the middle of Madrids cultural hub of museums and galleries, offering a prime location to see cutting edge artists among more traditional collections.

Elba Benitez Gallery

This gallery, which opened its doors in 1990, offers insights into how contemporary art feeds into other disciplines - from architecture to town planning. It houses everything from sculpture and paintings to photography and performance art. And while its white facade may not look so glam from the outside, it's one of the big hitters on the Madrid art scene.

Madrid Art Week

Plan your trip for February when Madrid Art Week (below) is on and youll be able to see the city's scene really thriving. Theres ARCO, the biggest and most famous contemporary art fair in Spain; the Just Mad art fair for emerging artists; and plenty of special events and shows across the citys galleries. Next years kicks off from 19 February, so get booking.

And if you cant resist the old classics...

The Museo del Prado is a classic, considered by many to house one of Europes best collections of European art, while the Centro de Arte Reina Sofia is home to 20th century artworks, including Picassos Guernica. The Museo Nacional de Ciencia Naturales is the citys natural history museum.
T heres been quite a spate of novels recently about people becoming severely unstuck abroad  holiday noir, a trend-spotting article called it last week.

If thats a genre, its master is Lawrence Osborne. In the past few years, he has published fine novels about Westerners losing their bearings in Morocco, Macau and Cambodia (the excellent Hunters in the Dark). Beautiful Animals is another such tale of moral disorientation, his best version of it yet.

Its set on the small Greek island of Hydra, once a boho hangout where in the Sixties Leonard Cohen bought a house for $1,500 but now a favoured retreat for the super-rich and the art world. Osborne wrote a sly, observant travel-piece about Hydra and its yacht-owning billionaires for the

New York Times in 2014  and in this novel he brings together the privileged holidaying Westerners and a stranded would-be migrant.

Naomi Codrington, 24, is spending the summer with her wealthy, autocratic, art-dealer father, Jimmie, and his second wife, a snobbish Greek, at their commanding house, high above the islands port. Resentful of her own entitlement, Naomi has recently been sacked from her law-firm in London for manipulating the evidence to acquit a Muslim defendant.

On her morning swim, she meets beautiful, naive Samantha, an American a few years younger than her, whose family are renting for the summer. They strike up a friendship and, while sailing around the island on Jimmies yacht, the pair spot a handsome, half-naked Arab migrant, Faoud, a Syrian, asleep on a remote beach, abject and abandoned, self-abandoned even.

Naomi, who already dominates her new friend, decides that although they know nothing about him hes a project: they should keep his existence secret, bring him food, find him shelter, and help him journey on.

She has her own slightly muddled reasons. She was the saviour and she relished the role. It made her vital in a new way. To save another person: it wasnt nothing. It wasnt exactly an achievement but it was a small shift in the balance of power towards the weak. Such shifts were the substance of ones moral life  they made the intolerable tolerable.

For Naomi finds her ostentatious father and stepmother intolerable, even while enjoying their hospitality. Her father has nothing but contempt for the current wave of illegal immigrants coming to Europe from safe havens. The whole thing is melodrama. Its a deliberate orchestration and were the dumb fall guys on the receiving end of it. You have to wonder whether Europeans are just too stupid to survive now.

So Naomi devises a plan whereby Faoud will be helped to steal from her sleeping father and so funded to cross over to Italy. To her, that makes perfect moral sense. For once good has been done without anyone being hurt, she says, complacently. Faoud, manipulated by Naomi almost as much as Sam, carries out her plan. But it ends in catastrophe.

In the second half of the novel, a fast-moving chase sequence through southern Italy, Osborne takes us into the mind of Faoud, until then as hidden from us as it is from the girls. His Islamic certainties are startlingly alien. God, once again, had watched over him and saved him among the Unbelievers, he thinks. As for Christians: Their world didnt matter anyway  it was nearly a ruin. He despises his pursuers. They, after all, cared about their lives: it was a tremendous, perhaps fatal disadvantage.

More book reviews 1 /24 More book reviews Recovery by Russell Brand Will Russells brand of self-help prove quite so addictive? By Nicholas Lezard. Read review A Life in Questions by Jeremy Paxman Paxo refuses to answer all the really good questions, says David Sexton. Read review Politics: Between: The Extremes by Nick Clegg The basis of this book makes it impossible not to warm to Clegg, says Melanie McDonagh. Read review Serious Sweet by A L Kennedy Thank heavens for London in this tale of self-obsessed lovers. Read review The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth by Anna Keay Born a kings b****** and destined for a traitors death. Read review Man Up: Boys, Men and Breaking the Male Rules by Rebecca Asher Getting to the bottom of why boys will be boys. Read review The Course of Love by Alain de Botton A philosophical novel that does run smooth, says Johanna Thomas-Corr. Read review The Tree Climbers Guide: Adventures in the Urban Canopy by Jack Cooke How I gave this book a proper test and ended up with a broken ankle. Read review Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre Brontes classic tale in the imaginations of other writers, says Claire Harman. Read review Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran Caitlin comes clean about politics  the world according to our funniest feminist. By Rosamund Urwin. Read review Spark Joy An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying by Marie Kondo Theres no messing wih Marie, says Katie Law. Read review Cockfosters Stories by Helen Simpson After 50, a womans life gets better not worse. By Katie Law. Read review Stalins Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie Joker in the spying pack. By Richard Bassett. Read review Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin The darkness that lies at the heart of the novel is offset by a lightness of touch, says Mark Sanderson. Read review Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello Elvis proves not quite so lyrical on the page, says Nick Curtis. Read review The Importance of Elsewhere: Philip Larkins Photographs by Richard Bradford His poetry paints better pictures than any camera, says David Sexton. Read review Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith Morality wins out over macabre murders, says Melanie McDonagh. Read review The Grownup by Gillian Flynn Calling all Flynnies: the con girl whos like gone girl. Read review

Beautiful Animals is terrifically well constructed, written with mean authority, brilliantly evocative about place, successfully engaging us with its characters without ever requiring us to like them.

Osborne repeatedly alludes to the Odyssey throughout the novel and he has said it is his inspiration here. Odysseus is not entirely a refugee  hes somebody whos blown off course. The entire book is an exploration of that theme. The entire book is also a sequence of moral disaster without the consequences the reader expects ever resulting. A summer was just a summer, and its dead bodies should remain confined to it, thinks Sam carelessly, looking to the future. A masterpiece of disaffection all round, this.
C an children be evil? Is violent or antisocial behaviour genetic, learned or both? These are just two of the questions Mel McGrath, raises in this gripping grip-lit thriller about a woman whose world starts falling apart when she discovers her husband has had a love child. Dr Cat Lupo runs a clinic specialising in child personality disorders. She is married to video games designer Tom, and they have an 11-year-old daughter, Freya. Out of the blue one night the police arrive at their house with another 11-year-old girl called Ruby, whose mother has just died. Tom, it appears, is the girls father and he must now take at least temporary custody of her.

We learn that during Cats pregnancy, achieved after two fraught rounds of IVF, she had a prenatal psychotic breakdown and was hospitalised. After one of his hospital visits Tom had stopped off in a nearby pub, accidentally got drunk, chatted up a woman at the bar and ended up in some shabby B&B around the back of Denmark Hill station, where Ruby was conceived. Tom had never confessed.

Now Cat, while trying to come to terms with her husbands infidelity and the bald fact that their failure to conceive a second time  diagnosed as biological incompatibility  was obviously her fault, does her best to make Ruby feel welcome. Could Ruby be the second child Cat has longed for? But there is something unsettling about the girls behaviour and the effect it starts having on Freya. Could Freya be in danger? There is also, Cat starts thinking, something fishy about the way Rubys mother died  in her flat on the local housing estate.

The marriage is showing signs of strain. Tom tells Cat she is being neurotic, but hes clearly also lying to her. Cat knows shes onto something but with her own dodgy mental history she has to tread carefully.

She is also having to make ethically difficult decisions at work, especially about how to treat a boy who has a tendency to flush kittens down the lavatory, as he may go on to do something worse. For all the advances weve made in understanding the human brain, there is still no scan for the human soul, Cat concludes. She is nowhere nearer the truth, either about him or her stepdaughter, in spite of all the lavishly funded research. Its not surprising then that she starts reaching, perhaps unwisely, for another glass of pinot grigio.

Set in London during the 2011 Tottenham riots, Give Me the Child ticks all the standard domestic noir boxes, with its themes of infidelity, lying, mental abuse and gaslighting. But its so much more intelligent and skilfully written than most of whats comparably in the bookshops, as you would expect from McGrath, an experienced journalist and novelist, who wrote so engagingly about her grandparents in her 2002 memoir, Silvertown. In Cat Lupo, she has created a brilliantly believable and empathetic character who, with her mental instability and unshakeable gut instinct, reminded me of Carrie Mathison from Homeland. More please.

More book reviews 1 /24 More book reviews Recovery by Russell Brand Will Russells brand of self-help prove quite so addictive? By Nicholas Lezard. Read review A Life in Questions by Jeremy Paxman Paxo refuses to answer all the really good questions, says David Sexton. Read review Politics: Between: The Extremes by Nick Clegg The basis of this book makes it impossible not to warm to Clegg, says Melanie McDonagh. Read review Serious Sweet by A L Kennedy Thank heavens for London in this tale of self-obsessed lovers. Read review The Last Royal Rebel: The Life and Death of James, Duke of Monmouth by Anna Keay Born a kings b****** and destined for a traitors death. Read review Man Up: Boys, Men and Breaking the Male Rules by Rebecca Asher Getting to the bottom of why boys will be boys. Read review The Course of Love by Alain de Botton A philosophical novel that does run smooth, says Johanna Thomas-Corr. Read review The Tree Climbers Guide: Adventures in the Urban Canopy by Jack Cooke How I gave this book a proper test and ended up with a broken ankle. Read review Reader, I Married Him: Stories Inspired by Jane Eyre Brontes classic tale in the imaginations of other writers, says Claire Harman. Read review Moranifesto by Caitlin Moran Caitlin comes clean about politics  the world according to our funniest feminist. By Rosamund Urwin. Read review Spark Joy An Illustrated Guide to the Japanese Art of Tidying by Marie Kondo Theres no messing wih Marie, says Katie Law. Read review Cockfosters Stories by Helen Simpson After 50, a womans life gets better not worse. By Katie Law. Read review Stalins Englishman: The Lives of Guy Burgess by Andrew Lownie Joker in the spying pack. By Richard Bassett. Read review Even Dogs in the Wild by Ian Rankin The darkness that lies at the heart of the novel is offset by a lightness of touch, says Mark Sanderson. Read review Unfaithful Music & Disappearing Ink by Elvis Costello Elvis proves not quite so lyrical on the page, says Nick Curtis. Read review The Importance of Elsewhere: Philip Larkins Photographs by Richard Bradford His poetry paints better pictures than any camera, says David Sexton. Read review Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith Morality wins out over macabre murders, says Melanie McDonagh. Read review The Grownup by Gillian Flynn Calling all Flynnies: the con girl whos like gone girl. Read review
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 27 (PTI) Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi today expressed their deepest condolences on the demise of veteran party leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister N Dharam Singh.

Dharam Singh held a special place in the hearts and minds of the people by his grit, determination and hardwork on the ground, Sonia said in her message.

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He will always be remembered for his work and commitment in a career spanning five decades, she said.

She also conveyed condolences and prayers to the wife and family of Dharam Singh and hoped that his legacy and goodwill shall always remain a beacon of light.

Condoling his death, Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi described him as a peoples leader.

"Former Karnataka CM Dharam Singhji was a peoples leader, with a distinguished career of over five decades. My condolences on his passing," he tweeted.

Singh (83), who was ailing for the last few months, fainted at his home in Bengaluru and was rushed to M S Ramaiah hospital where doctors declared him dead about 40 minutes later.

Singh headed the Congress-JD(S) coalition government from 2004 to 2006.A nine-time MLA and a former Member of Parliament, he had also headed the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. PTI SKC SMJ

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T heres never a better time to be gay in London.

The widespread acceptance of LGBTQ+ rights hit its peak at this years Pride celebrations, where a record one million people turned out, decked in face paints and clutching flags, in support of the gay community. For the first time, corporate brands as diverse as international banks and telephone providers scrambled not to be the last to have their Oxford Street shopfronts splashed in rainbow colours. Even the Houses of Parliament lit up in a prism of technicolour in solidarity with its openly gay MPs, of which more were voted in this year than ever before.

Today its not uncommon to see two men holding hands on the Underground, watch a TV series with gay characters in the lead or read a best-selling book by a queer author. You probably barely think twice about it. But not so long ago, displaying affection with a member of the same sex, or announcing yourself as openly gay, was a criminal offence that was often met with violence, oppression and brutality.

Throughout history, gay men have faced extreme prejudice towards their sexuality. Playwright Oscar Wilde was jailed in 1895 for love that dare not speak its name, computer genius Alan Turing was chemically castrated in 1952. Before the Sexual Offences act was passed in 1967, 50 years ago today, the penalty for engaging in anal sex as a man was life imprisonment.

Oscar Wilde was imprisoned for being gay / Shutterstock / Everett Historical

The fight for women was even more oppressive. Although they were not hunted in the same way, lebsianism was not even an option for women - the law simply did not recognise that it existed. Since then, in many ways, the rest of the LGBTQ+ community have had a larger uphill battle to fight, working to get the same recognition as gay men.

A proposal for a change in the law did not come about until the early Sixties. Leo Abse and House of Lords peer Lord Arran offered the idea in a bid make attitudes towards gay people more progressive in an increasingly liberal Britain.

The subsequent 1965 Sexual Offences Bill used findings from the 1957 Wolfenden Report, which suggested that certain homosexual offences should be decriminalised - some of these offences were as innocent as simply holding hands.

Pride over the years - In pictures 1 /93 Pride over the years - In pictures Click through our gallery to see pictures of Pride over the years... Rob Stothard/Getty Images A picnic in Victoria Gardens by the Houses of Parliament during what was then called 'Gay Pride Week', August 5, 1976 Peter Cade/Central Press/Getty Images Members of the Gay Liberation Movement protesting outside the Old Bailey over Mary Whitehouse's court action against the Gay News Magazine on July 4, 1977 Malcolm Clark/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The march goes on at Pride in 1984 Rex Revellers in fancy dress at Lesbian & Gay Pride, London 1984 Rex Lesbian & Gay Pride, London 1985 The sun shines down on Pride in 1992 Rex Men in corsets perform a dance at Pride in 1993 A lesbian couple on Horseguards Parade at Pride in July 1994 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images A man applies lipgloss during Pride in June 1995 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Men in camouflage trousers ride a pink tank and carry rainbow flags during Pride in June 1995 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images A man sashays down the street with pride in 1995 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Demonstrators dressed in hot pants and crop tops at Pride in 1995 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Two supporters of the Socialist Workers Party amongst the marchers at Pride in July 1996 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Two young men share a tender moment on the grass during a Pride in London in 1996 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Male dancers standing with their arms raised above their heads, donning black t-shirts with a heart logo, during Pride in 1996 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Comedian Rhona Cameron and political activist Peter Tatchell help to hold a banner at Pride in July 1998. The banner called for an end to Section 28 which refers to the teaching and promotion of homosexuality by local authorities Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images The London Gay Men's Chorus perform at the Pride Mardi Gras parade in London, in July 1999 Steve Eason/Getty Images Members of Outrage! carry pictures of Tony Blair with the title 'Broken Promises' at the parade in 1999 Steve Eason/Getty Images Women share the love at Pride in 1999 Steve Eason/Getty Images Two men wearing silver underpants and spiky collars take part in the London Pride march in 2000 Steve Eason/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Men share a kiss in front of spectators at Picadilly Circus in July 2002 AFP/Getty Images A man wearing leather hot pants and harness makes his way through the streets of London to a party to celebrate the Mardi Gras in 2002 Scott Barbour/Getty Images Policemen in uniform march along the Embankment at Pride in 2003 Bruno Vincent/Getty Images Marchers, alongside more than 40 floats, bands and drummers are seen during the rally for Pride in 2005 Jeremy O'Donnell/Getty Images London Mayor Ken Livingstone walks with the EuroPride parade as it makes its way down Oxford Street in July 2006 Scott Barbour/Getty Images A man poses in a white feathered neckdress during the Pride march held in central London in June 2007 Mark Wieland/Getty Images A Drag Queen poses during the Gay Pride in London, on June 30, 2007 Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images The Gay Pride parade passes down Lower Regent Street on July 5, 2008 Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Two men in drag costumes with bouffant blonde hair pose at Pride in 2008 Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Police pose for a photograph before marching on the Pride parade in 2008 in London Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images A man wears a home made costume at Pride in july 2008 Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images Actor Sir Ian McKellen (left) waves at the parade in 2008 Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, wears a pink stetson hat at Pride in 2008 A man decorated with neon face paint blows his whistle at Pride in July 2009 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Marchers in 2009, when the theme of Pride was 'Come Out and Play' Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A reveller stands proud in a Union Jack-themed outfit in 2009 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images More Union Jack-festooned outfits on show at Pride in 2009 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A man in butterfly wings at Pride in 2009 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images A canine gets in on the action at Pride in 2009 Dan Kitwood/Getty Images Revellers in hot pink dresses and blonde beehives at Pride in 2011 Warren Allott/AFP/Getty Images Members of the British Armed Forces march alongside members of the parade through London's streets to celebrate the World Pride Festival on July 7, 2012 Andrew Cowie/AFP/Getty Images A man dressed as 'Mister Universe' marches in July 2012 Andrew Cowie/AFP/Getty Images Members of the LGBT community parade through London in 2012 Andrew Cowie/AFP/Getty Images People carry 'Proud to be Trans' signs as they march in July 2012 Andrew Cowie/AFP/Getty Images The Pride parade weaves its way down Regent Street on June 29, 2013 Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images A fabulous carnival costume on display in 2013 Will Oliver/AFP/Getty Images A man dressed as a Dalmatian at Pride in 2014 Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images The rainbow gay pride flag flies on Whitehall in front of Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square in March 2014 Ben Stansall/AFP/Getty Images Leather-clad marchers at the Pride Parade in London on June 27, 2015 AFP/Getty Images Girls carrying rainbow flags at Pride in June 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images Arm in arm, people celebrate the annual parade in 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images People gather in Soho outside the Admiral Duncan following Pride in 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images The London Gay Men's Chorus take part in Pride in 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images A dog dressed in a rainbow coat as people gather to watch the parade in 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images A giant rainbow flag is carried along with the parade at Pride in 2015 Rob Stothard/Getty Images Steven Choo, aka 'Eva' walks in front of a marching band as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images Pride marchers wave American and rainbow flags from the top of a double decker bus with Parliament behind as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images Pride marchers wave American flags and dress as Hilary Clinton as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images 'Queen Alexandra' aka Stephen Stephenson-Spencer, makes his way to the march as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images London Mayor, Sadiq Khan, and his wife Saadiya Khan lead the Pride march as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images Mitzi Macintosh gets ready to march as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images Shiro, a Siberian Husky, plays with a rainbow flag as the LGBT community celebrates Pride in 2016 Getty Images Parade goers during Pride In London on July 7, 2018 Getty Images for Pride In London Parade goers on and around the statue of Eros, Piccadilly Circus, 2018 Getty Images for Pride In London A proposal of marriage is accepted during the parade, 2018 Getty Images for Pride In London Pride in London, 2018 AFP/Getty Images Parade goers at the start during Pride In London at Portland Place, 2018 REUTERS Many countries represented at Pride in London, 2018 Niklas Halle'n/AFP/Getty Images Mayor of London Sadiq Khan opens the Pride In London parade, 2018 Getty Images for Pride In London

Following the publication of this report, the government showed support for Lord Arrans forward-thinking and put the Bill through parliament. The Bill received royal assent on 27 July 1967 after a late-night debate in the House of Commons.

The milestone legislation decriminalised homosexual acts in private between men over the age of 21. It has since paved the way for steady progression for the gay community in British law. After homosexuality was decriminalised, laws have been passed to allow gay people to get married, have equal employment rights, the age of consent has been lowered and gay people can now start a family.

The previous level of repression now seems unthinkable for many people who lived to see both times. And for the younger generation, it is even more unfathomable.

Shutterstock / Shawn Goldberg

Earlier this week the Standard spoke to a 12-year-old girl on what it was like to grow up in gender liberal London. She has a male best friend who regularly wears make-up. She dyed her hair in rainbow colours for Pride.

Of her progressively liberal attitude she says: It wouldnt occur to me that my attitude is showing tolerance particularly, because its second nature. My friends and I handle gender fluidity with a shrug. I cant remember learning about the idea of someone being trans or gender-fluid. I knew it existed. It was OK.

For her and her pals, the notion of gender and sexual orientation being right or wrong is not even a question.

Pride in London 2017 1 /20 Pride in London 2017 Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Police officers at London Pride PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA Londoners join Pride in what is thought to be the biggest celebration in its 45-year history PA

Today London will celebrate the 50 year anniversary with a swathe of events that recognise the historic struggle of the community and celebrate where we are today. The Tate will host its first ever exhibition dedicated to queer British art while many of Londons gay clubs will throw open their doors for party-goers. The BBC will also mark the anniversary with a season called Gay Britannia, which will celebrate several untold stories in the LGBTQ+ community.

Whether gay or straight, today marks a moment in time that everyone should be aware of - particularly because many of the LGBTQ+ communities across the world still do not enjoy the freedoms we have here in Britain. The theme of this years London Pride march was carefully chosen to reflect the arrival of the landmark anniversary. Organisers finally settled on Love Happens Here, a phrase that was chosen in celebration of the fact that all Londoners - whatever your sexual orientation - have the right to experience love, in all of its many wonderful forms.
G rab your sunnies, stock up on factor 50, and dig out your shorts: summer is well and truly here. The sun is finally shining, and whether youre off on a beautiful beach holiday or just heading out for a day trip to Hyde Park, theres no better place to be in the coming weeks than the great outdoors.

Whatever your plans this summer, there are tons of gadgets out there to make them even more exciting and memorable. Take your music anthems out and about with you, snap a load of photos that youll treasure for years to come, and use your time off to get lost in that pile of books youve been meaning to read for ages.

Heres all the tech you need to make sure you have the most entertaining and relaxing summer possible this year.

By the pool

JBL

Theres no better place to be on a blazing hot day than by a swimming pool  from Londons famous lidos to outdoor pools on holiday. Once youve created your perfect summer playlist (our top tips: the new Calvin Harris, Mura Masa and HAIM albums), blast out some poolside tunes while you swim and sunbathe. JBLs Flip 4 (119.99, Currys) boasts major volume from its pill-shaped design  and its waterproof too, so you dont have to worry about it getting splashed. The Flip 4 connects to your phone via Bluetooth with a 12-hour battery life to last a full afternoon of tanning.

Trespass

The other must-have pool accessory this year is still any form of giant floating inflatable  the brighter and bolder the design, the better  from flamingos and swans to pineapples and pizza slices. Being out of breath is not the smoothest summer look though, so youll want a pump to blow it up with. Try the Trespass rechargeable air pump (19.99, Argos) to make sure your chosen lilo wont (literally) let you down.

On the beach

Few places are better for getting lost in a good book than at the beach, but finding a comfortable reading position on the sand is no mean feat. Audiobooks are relaxing to listen to, and they take achy arms and sun-bleached paperbacks out of the equation so youre entirely immersed in the story. Audible.co.uk has a huge library of more than 200,000 titles, which you can listen to on your smartphone, tablet or iPod. Sign up for a subscription and youre granted books to keep every month (from 7.99/month).

Beats

Whether youre catching up on the Booker Prize shortlist or the latest airport thriller, youll want quality headphones to listen through. Beats by Dres wireless BeatsX earbuds (129.95, Apple) have a neckband design so they wont get in the way of your tan, and they have super-fast charging tech which is ideal for a quick power boost before you go out.

In the park

Geneva

London is full of beautiful green spaces so heading out to your local park on the weekends is a must. The Touring S DAB radio (170, Argos) from Swiss audio company Geneva Labs is an ideal picnic partner, with a compact retro design. It has a 20-hour battery, automatically picks out digital stations, and has an FM tuner too  as well as Bluetooth for playing podcasts from your mobile phone.

Amazon

The Kindle (59, John Lewis) is also a top park companion  Amazons e-reader is still the best on the market, and the latest version has an anti-glare screen that means the sunny weather wont get in the way of you powering through another chapter. Even better, the e-ink display is easy on the eyes compared to digital pixels, so you can read for as long as you like without getting screen fatigue. Perfect for those lazy days.

At a festival

(Aukey) / AUKEY

If youre hitting up a remote field for a long weekend of revelry, pick up a portable battery to keep your phone juiced up over several days. The AUKEY 20,000mAh power bank (24.24, Amazon) can fully charge an iPhone more than four times over, meaning youll be able to stay in touch with your fellow festival-goers for the whole weekend. It also features two USB ports to charge more than one device at the same time.

(Nokia)

Otherwise, if youre too worried to take your all-singing, all-dancing smartphone with you in fear of it getting caked in mud (or worse), pick up a basic pay-as-you-go mobile thats mostly for texts and calls. Nokias recently re-launched 3310 handset (59.99, Carphone Warehouse) has a battery that lasts in stand-by for 25 days, and has basic internet connectivity if you really need to Google something. Of course, it also has the classic Snake game so you wont get bored in case a sudden downpour cancels your favourite band.

Making memories

Fujifilm

Wherever youre going this summer, make sure you keep a record of all your adventures. Your phone camera might be high-spec, but Fujifilms new Instax SQ10 (249, Jessops) is a Polaroid-style instant camera that lets you check your photos and add filters to them before printing them out immediately on classic square film. But its not all old-school. It also keeps all of your snaps as digital files so you can post them online too.

(Snapchat) / Spectacles

If retro isnt your thing, go social media savvy with Spectacles (129.99, spectacles.com/uk)  sunglasses with in-built camera lenses and wireless connectivity to upload point-of-view photos and 10-second videos to Snapchat. They come in plain black as well as vibrant coral and teal hues, with a charging case for when youre not wearing them. Theres nothing like a short film of a sun-drenched beach to annoy your left-at-home mates as they squash on the Tube after work.

With more than 250 stores youll be able to find all you need for a brilliant summer at Westfield. If youre not sure what youre looking for, browse online first
T wenty-four men have been arrested over the alleged "revenge rape" of a teenage girl in Pakistan.

The men reportedly attended a meeting on July 18 in which the head of the village council Saeed Patwari allegedly gave Mohammad Ashfaq permission to rape a 17-year-old girl to avenge the rape of his sister by another man, Omar Wadda.

Police are still searching for Ashfaq but Wadda has been detained and charged with raping Ashfaq's sister.

The girl was forced to appear before the group of men and raped in front of them and her parents, Pakistan's Dawn newspaper reported.

However, both victims mothers later filed complaints at the local police station.

Medical examinations confirmed both girls had been raped, the BBC reported.

So-called "honour" crimes are common in parts of Pakistan.

A village council in 2002 ordered the so-called "honour" gang rape of Mukhtar Mai, a young woman who took her rapists to court.
P olice have released CCTV footage of two murder suspects filling up at a petrol station minutes before they allegedly fatally shot and stabbed a father for his Rolex.

Detectives investigating the fatal stabbing of builder Danny Pearce, 31, issued new footage on Thursday showing two men in motorcycle helmets and tracksuits with a moped at the petrol station in Deptford, south London.

The CCTV footage was filmed at the Texaco Petrol Garage in Creek Road shortly after midnight on Saturday, July 15.

Just minutes later as Mr Pearce left a jazz bar in Greenwich with his girlfriend and some friends, two men riding a moped drove up towards him and demanded his watch, police said.

Danny Pearce, 31, was killed in Greenwich. / Met Police

He refused to hand it over and one of the moped riders stabbed him repeatedly in the neck with a large kitchen knife.

The second suspect produced a handgun and began shooting towards Mr Pearce as he tried to run for his life.

Detective Inspector Jo Sidaway, who is leading the investigation, said: "The sight of this large weapon and sounds of gunshots terrified not only Danny's friends but also local residents and it is only by sheer luck that those with Danny did not suffer serious injury or worse as a result of the repeated shots fired.

"Danny sought help at a nearby address but was fatally attacked by the suspects who showed no mercy and only stopped their attack when the victim's girlfriend shouted out to them that she would give them the watch if they ceased their attack.

The pair of moped riders police want to speak to. / Met Police

Without a hint of remorse they then took the watch and fled the scene.

The pair ripped the Rolex off the victims wrist during the attack in King William Walk in the early hours of Sunday. The suspects ran off in the direction of Nevada Street.

Police believe the suspects were also involved in two other robberies, one in Greenwich on July 11 and the other in Southwark on July 13.

DI Sidaway added: On both of those occasions individuals were targeted for their wristwatch and threatened with weapons which were not used.

One of the men police want to speak to. / Met Police

"It is vital that those involved are identified and brought to justice before anyone else is seriously harmed as they clearly do not hesitate to use deadly violence."

A post mortem gave Mr Pearces cause of death as multiple stab wounds.

No arrests have been made.

Anyone that can assist the investigation can contact the incident room on 020 8721 4005, or police via 101 or Twitter @MetCC or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 or visit crimestoppers-uk.org.
A 14-year-old girl was raped twice in one night by two separate attackers, one of whom she flagged down for help, police say.

Authorities in Birmingham have launched a major investigation after the girl was subjected to a horrifying ordeal on Tuesday night.

She was reportedly with a friend at Witton train station at about 7pm when a man approached her and led her to a secluded area, before raping her.

Shortly after the attack, the victim walked away from the area and flagged down a passing car to ask for help at about 2am.

Police say when she got into the vehicle she was raped for a second time by what is believed to be a second offender.

The girl then returned home and the police were called.

On Thursday, detectives from British Transport Police and West Midlands Police launched a joint investigation to help identify the offenders and witnesses to the incidents.

DCI Tony Fitzpatrick from British Transport Police, said: This was a horrifying ordeal for this young girl and we have specially trained officers supporting her.

It is now vitally important we investigate exactly what happened on Tuesday morning as well as identifying offenders for both of these awful incidents."

The first offender is described as an Asian man in his early 20s with light skin, brown eyes, a skinny build, and about 6ft. He was wearing a grey track suit top and bottoms and black trainers.

The second offender is described as an Asian man in his early 20s, 5ft 6ins to 5fit 7ins, of large build with a tight beard. He was wearing a blue jumper and black jeans.

DCI Fitzpatrick added: Whilst this incident happened during the early morning and there may not have been many people around, I would be keen to speak with anyone who may have been in the area at the time.

"If you were passing by the station and saw two girls walking with an older man, then please get in touch immediately.

Likewise, if you saw any suspicious vehicles close to Witton station close to 2am then please get in touch as soon as possible.

The age of the girl was originally believed to be 15.

Anyone with any information is asked to get in touch by sending a text to 61016 or by calling 0800 40 50 40 quoting reference 65 of 26/07/2017. Alternatively, pass information anonymously to independent charity Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
A young man collapsed in the street after being stabbed during a violent brawl in east London, witnesses said.

Police raced to the scene after three men became involved in a fight in the middle of a road in Stoke Newington on Thursday afternoon.

Witnesses said they heard lots of shouting and saw the men wrestling on the floor in Church Street shortly before 2pm.

Scotland Yard said the victim, believed to be aged in his mid-20s, was taken to an east London hospital. He is in a stable condition with injuries not believed to be life-threatening.

Police said one person has been arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm.

Police at the scene in Church Road, Stoke Newington / @DrDanielASmith

Medics from Londons Air Ambulance were also scrambled to the scene.

A witness, who dialled 999 after witnessing the fight, told the Standard passers-by rushed to help the injured victim who lay collapsed in the street.

He said: I came out of a shop, there were three men fighting in the road, blocking traffic, people shouting.

Looked like one got stabbed and the other two ran off.

Victim was lying in the road and onlookers helped him off the road.

He said he also saw the three men brawling in the middle of the road, wrestling on the floor and heard lots of shouting.

The witness said a police car and ambulance arrived at the scene in less than four minutes.

Church Street was cordoned off as police swarmed the area following the violence.

A Met Police spokesman said: Police were called at approximately 1.40pm on Thursday, July 27 to reports of a male stabbed on Church Street in Stoke Newington.

Officers, the London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance attended.

The man, believed to be aged in his mid-20s, was taken to an east London hospital.

Road closures are in place. Enquiries continue."
T he rule that patients must finish their course of antibiotics is wrong, according to experts.

Doctors have historically told patients that they must complete their course of antibiotics to lower the risk of developing a resistance to the drug.

But researchers are now saying that the "complete the course" warning is not supported by any evidence.

In an observational study published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ), experts say taking antibiotics for longer than necessary will increase the risk of resistance as opposed to stopping it early.

Martin Llewelyn, a professor at Brighton and Sussex medical school, and colleagues, say the longer bacterium is exposed to antibiotics, the more likely it is that resistance will develop.

The authors of the study said: Currently, we largely ignore this fact and instead make indication specific recommendations for antibiotic duration that are based on poor evidence.

Outside hospital, where repeated testing may not be feasible, patients might be best advised to stop treatment when they feel better, in direct contradiction of WHO (World Health Organisation) advice.

There are some diseases, such as tuberculosis, where the bug can become resistant if the drugs are not taken for long enough.

But for common bacterial infections no evidence exists that stopping antibiotic treatment early increases a patients risk of resistant infection, the experts said.

A spokesman for the Royal Pharmaceutical Society and consultant pharmacist Dr Kieran Hand, said: As researchers have pointed out, further research is needed before the finish the course mantra for antibiotics is changed and any alternative message such as stop when you feel better can be confidently advocated.

Patients should be encouraged to return unused antibiotics to a pharmacy for safe disposal rather than putting them in the bin, or even worse, saving them for future use or sharing them with friends and family as this could really contribute towards antibiotic resistance.

The Department of Health and NICE (the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) are both set to review the evidence on prescribing the drug and develop guidance for managing common infections.
A ttacks against Jewish people in the UK have reached unprecedented levels, new figures show.

A Jewish charity that monitors anti-Semitic abuse has recorded the highest level of reported hate crimes since statistics were first kept 33 years ago.

A total of 767 reports were made in the first six months of 2017, a rise of 30 per cent compared to the same period last year.

The report by the Community Security Trust (CST) showed an unprecedented amount of attacks against the Jewish community each month since April 2016.

In the first six months of this year, 80 violent assaults were reported, as well as verbal abuse, graffiti, vandalism and hate mail.

Almost a fifth of incidents were involved on social media, including targeted hate campaigns, neo-Nazi posts and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.

CST chief executive David Delew said: Anti-Semitism is having an increasing impact on British Jews and hatred and anger that lies behind it is spreading.

Seventy-four per cent of all the incidents were recorded in Greater London and Greater Manchester, which have the two largest Jewish communities in the UK.

There is no obvious single cause for the record total, according to the CST, which has recorded the data since 1984, but the rise may partly be driven by growing concern over anti-Semitism, as well as increased reports from security guards and information sharing agreements with British police forces.

The figures come after the police and CPS were accused of "betraying" British Jews as they recorded a significant increase in hate crime.

Attacks included verbal abuse at Jewish people in public, extremists attacking synagogues or doing the Heil Hitler salute or painting swastikas on community centres or places of worship.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd said the governments Hate Crime Action Plan had helped to improve reporting and that the government is providing 13.4 million to protect Jewish sites.

She said: I am clear that one such incident is one too many, and we will continue to do everything we can to stamp out the hatred and division that blights our communities.
A huge crack opened up in one of south London's busiest roads after a burst water main caused flooding.

Brixton Hill was brought to a standstill on Thursday morning as water streamed down the main road.

The street, which serves as a major link between swathes of south London and the Tube network, was cordoned off by police just before 5am.

It was still shut off at lunchtime and Transport for London said the closure was likely to last "several days".

Eyewitnesses reported that a "large crack" had opened up in the road - which joins Brixton and Streatham Hill - and pictures show a stretch of the ruptured tarmac flooded with gushing water.

Pipe: The water has caused a crack to form in the road

Thames Water have sent a team to investigate the flood, located near Brixton Prison, and police remain at the scene.

A Thames Water spokeswoman told the Standard: "We have sent a team to investigate the burst pipe. It is not currently affecting any water supplies in the area."

The road remained closed between Christchurch Road and Brixton Water Lane as engineers investigated and drivers were warned to avoid the area.

As commuters prepared to journey into work, the flood was causing disruption to bus routes 45,59,109,118,133,159,250 and 333 and queues were forming on Christchurch Road.

Disruption: The road remained closed off as rush-hour began

Passengers reported that buses were "nose to tail" along Kings Avenue and added: "If you can avoid getting the bus this morning, do."

Lambeth MPS tweeted: "#Brixton Hill is closed this morning due to a burst water main. Motorists are advised to avoid the area."
C ity Hall has rubbished proposals to destroy speed bumps as tinkering around the edges that would not work as a measure to tackle London's toxic air crisis.

It emerged on Thursday that the Government is asking councils across the country to consider scrapping road humps in a bid to optimise traffic flow.

Environment secretary Michael Gove believes introducing the measure would bring down dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide on residential roads.

It comes after the Government proposals emerged to ban all new diesel and petrol cars and vans from 2040 in an effort to tackle rising air pollution levels.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has criticised the Government's action plan as "not good enough" / Getty Images

A 255 million fund will be set up to help speed up local measures in dealing with pollution from diesel vehicles, as part of 3 billion spending on air quality.

But City Hall dismissed the Governments idea of removing speed bumps, saying that they play an important role in road safety.

Val Shawcross, the deputy mayor for transport, said: This is mainly a decision for the boroughs to take, but speed bumps play an important role in improving road safety, by preventing speeding in busy residential areas across different parts of London.

London Pollution - In pictures 1 /20 London Pollution - In pictures PA Sunrise: Pollution lingered over London on Tuesday morning Jeremy Selwyn A cyclist wearing a face mask rides between taxis taking part in a protest to highlight congestion and air pollution Getty Images A smog filled traffic rush hour in the East End of London Jeremy Selwyn Pollution detector App 'Blue Air' near the Houses of Parliament Blue air Thick smog hangs over London's Docklands PA Traffic pollution in North London Jeremy Selwyn Air pollution surrounds The Shard in London Jeremy Selwyn Getty Images Sunrise over a misty polluted London from Primrose Hill Jeremy Selwyn St. Paul's Cathedral is seen among the skyline through the smog AFP via Getty Images A thick layer of smog was visible above London William Smith/@williamsmithorg A cold layer of air can be seen trapping pollution close to the ground and across the London skyline Pete Buckney This image taken near the Royal Observatory in Greenwich shows a thick layer of fog hanging over London Anna Rolls The City of London covered in smog seen from Hampstead Heath Getty Images

Rather than tinkering around the edges trying to tackle air pollution, the Government needs to commit to a fully-funded diesel scrappage fund now to get polluting vehicles off our streets immediately.

The proposals were included in the Governments long-awaited air quality plan, which focused on targeted action for just over 80 specific pollution blackspots - around half of which are in London.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has joined environmentalists and some motoring experts in accusing the Government of falling short of what is needed to deal swiftly with toxic air.

He said: A half-hearted commitment from Government simply isnt good enough.

Environment secretary Michael Gove is asking councils to consider destroying speed bumps / Reuters

We need a fully funded diesel scrappage fund now to get polluting vehicles off our streets immediately, as well as new powers so that cities across the UK can take the action needed to clean up our air.

The Labour politician has committed to building the toughest emission standard of any world city in a bid to tackle Londons health crisis.

In 2017, City Hall was forced to issue its first ever very high toxic air alert telling millions of Londoners, including the fit and healthy, they may need to act to protect their health as pollution levels soared.

Speed bumps cause pollution through drivers constantly slowing down and accelerating between humps, releasing dangerous pollutants into the air.

When discussing the air quality plan, Mr Gove told BBC radio: As Mrs Thatcher once said, there is no alternative.

We cant carry on with diesel and petrol cars, not just because of the health problems that they cause but also because the emissions that they cause would mean that we would accelerate climate change.
If you come across a snake or any other wild animal in your vicinity, call 9871963535 for assistance!

By Baishali Adak: With the monsoon at its peak, snakes and other slithery reptiles are having a field day in the city. Wildlife SOS, Delhi's only rescue helpline of its kind, has received over 100 distress calls since this month after panicky residents spotted the creatures in their homes, parks, offices and even warm car engines.

On Wednesday, the NGO rescued a seven-foot-long Indian rock python - one of the largest witnessed in the city - at the Air Force Station in south Delhi's Tughlakabad area.

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The creature was resting in the grass outside the mess building when it was spotted by Air Force officials. It was safely extricated and put under observation, and will soon be released in the wild, said members of the NGO.

There is no need to be alarmed, say snake catchers, as most of the serpents were non-venomous: wolf snakes, red sand boas, rat snakes, kukris, royal snakes etc. A few cobras were found in some instances.

Most sightings have come from green south Delhi areas such as Sainik Farms, Chhatarpur, Vasant Kunj and Panchsheel Vihar. A few were also found nesting in other parts of Delhi like Model Town in the northwest of the city, which boasts of a lake.

'DELHI RICH IN REPTILES'

According to ecologists, not just snakes but even monitor lizards have been found roaming parts of the Capital because the rain that floods their burrow also provides an ample prey base like rats, and suits their mating habits.

Professor Sanjay K Das, a herpetologist with the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University in Dwarka said, "Delhi was a part of the Aravalli hill range and it is rich in herpeto fauna, which includes amphibians and reptiles. Particularly the lizards and snakes found in Delhi resemble Rajasthan's topography. More than 11-12 species of it are found in our campus itself."

Environmentalists say sightings of snakes will decrease after the onset of the hibernation period. It's not just the slithering serpents that may spring a surprise on you, but big lizards as well.

"I have seen Delhi's local monitor lizard (Varanus bengalensis) on big roads, slipping in and out of the storm-water drains along the pavements," Das said. "That is their favourite nesting place in urban settings like this, I believe."'

SNAKES REMOVE PESTS, ESSENTIAL FOR ECOSYSTEM

Kartick Satyanarayan, co-founder of Wildlife SOS, pointed out that snakes are middle-level predators and essential for any ecosystem as they help get rid of pests and rodents. "Without them, rats will spoil food grains and other essential items."

But growing habitat destruction and encroachment is rapidly blurring the lines between cities and forests. Consequently, the wildlife living in proximity to such expanding areas has no choice but to forage or seek shelter in urban habitats, he added.

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His NGO has most recently received calls for a five-foot-long rat snake from a Model Town house, another rat snake from a house in Talkatora, a 3.5-footlong young python coiled up next to a religious idol at a Sainik Farms residence, a five-foot cobra from an office in Vasant Kunj and another five-foot cobra from a residence in Noida, among others.

A common sand boa was also found at an office in Panchsheel Vihar.

"Our task is to make people understand that their apprehensions about reptiles are ill founded and promote compassion and kindness towards the plight of these misunderstood beings," said Geeta Seshamani, co-founder of Wildlife SOS. Kartick expressed cheer at the fact that people have become aware enough to consider calling experts instead of trying to deal with the matter themselves, or resorting to killing the snakes.

"Our team has professionals who are trained to handle such situations efficiently," he said. "In case people come across reptiles or wild animals in their vicinity, we request them to call our 24-hour rescue helpline (9871963535) for assistance."

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A personal account of a joyride to the wildlife reserves in India

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In 21st century India, crazy demands by tantriks drives up wildlife killings

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C harlie Gard will be taken to a hospice where his life support will be withdrawn, the judge in the high-profile case has confirmed.

On Thursday, High Court judge Mr Justice Francis approved a plan which will see Charlie Gard "inevitably" die shortly after being moved to a hospice and having life support treatment withdrawn.

The critically ill tot's parents, Connie Yates and Chris Gard, today ran out of time to reach an agreement with hospital doctors over their sons end-of-life care.

Although both parties had agreed Charlie should be taken to a hospice to die, Charlies parents failed to agree with Great Ormond Street Hospital medics the details of the care.

The parents wanted a private medical team to care for the baby so they can spend some final days with him. But hospital specialists said it is not in little Charlies interests to be taken to a hospice for a long period.

The parents of Charlie Gard with their son.

The judge had said that if no plan was agreed by noon on Thursday, the baby will move to a hospice and life-support treatment would end soon after.

On Thursday afternoon, he announced a plan had been approved to move the 11-month-old to a hospice.

The judge's order says it is in Charlie's best interests for life-support treatment to be withdrawn.

It says Charlie should receive palliative care.

The order says Charlie will continue to be treated at Great Ormond Street for a "period" of time before being moved to the hospice, which cannot be named for legal reasons.

It says doctors can then withdraw "artificial ventilation" after a "period" of time.

The order says everyone involved agrees that the "arrangements" will "inevitably result in Charlie's death within a short period thereafter".

Mr Justice Francis, who has analysed disputes at hearings in the Family Division of the High Court, had previously said the time had come for a decision to be made.

The parents wanted to take Charlie Gard home to spend their final moments with the terminally ill baby / PA

Ms Yates walked out of Wednesday's hearing in tears after the judge set the timetable.

She yelled: "I hope you are happy with yourselves."

Ms Yates and Mr Gard had initially pleaded to take Charlie home to die, but conceded a hospice would be a better option after doctors said dying at home was not practical.

Charlie's parents announcing they had ended their court case to take their son to the US. / Reuters

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help. They said life-support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Charlie's parents subsequently failed to overturn his ruling in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights' judges to intervene.

But the couple had recently returned to court, saying they had new evidence, and asked Mr Justice Francis to change his mind.

They abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the "point of no return".
T he City grandee leading a campaign to get more female executives into top business jobs came under fire today over the BBC gender pay gap after saying women let it happen because they werent doing much about it.

Sir Philip Hampton was also hit by a backlash after saying that despite having many women reporting to him over the years, he had never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise.

MPs expressed surprise at his comments made in an interview with the Evening Standard, with one saying that they were astonishingly ill-judged and heap insult on injustice.

It came after the pay packets of senior women at the BBC were revealed for the first time. BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg was paid between 200,000 to 249,999 and Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis did not make the corporations list of 150,000-plus earners.

Revealed: The top five highest paid BBC stars

BBC Womans Hour presenter Jane Garvey, one of the prominent campaigners at the Corporation calling for pay parity, said Sir Philip appeared peculiarly out of touch given his role heading the Government-commissioned review.

Sir Philip Hampton said: "I suspect they let it happen because they werent doing much about it."

She added: The likes of Sir Philip Hampton can never begin to understand.

He seems peculiarly out of touch given the task he has.

Gender pay row: BBC political editor Laura Kuenssberg was paid between 200,000 to 249,999 / Rex

Many women have learnt to question their position in the workplace, partly because of the dominance and success of people like him.

Sir Philip, 63, is co-chair of the Hampton-Alexander review into increasing the number of women in senior roles in FTSE 350 firms, with Dame Helen Alexander.

He is currently non-executive chairman of drugs giant GlaxoSmithKline and is paid a fee of 700,000-a-year, a quarter of which he receives in GSK shares.

Previously, he chaired the Royal Bank of Scotland and J Sainsbury, and served as group finance director at several bluechip companies.

Jane Garvey said Sir Philip appeared peculiarly out of touch / BBC

Sir Philip is seen in Whitehall as committed and enthusiastic to tackling barriers hampering women from rising to senior business posts.

However, despite his distinguished career, he expressed views likely to surprise many in the Square Mile.

On the gender pay gap at the BBC, he said: How has this situation arisen at the BBC that these intelligent, high-powered, sometimes formidable women have sat in this situation?

They [the female broadcasters] are all looking at each other now saying: how did we let this happen?

I suspect they let it happen because they werent doing much about it.

Are women less likely to ask for a pay rise? Romy Turkington, 23, a centre manager from Notting Hill Women sometimes dont give a job a go because they dont have all the qualifications whereas a man would go for it anyway. Ive never asked for a pay rise but Ive been given promotions before. In the past Ive been in retail and going up the ranks. If youre performing well you should get a raise as a reward. Isabel Grabalos, 27, a choreographer and sales assistant who lives in Kensington By definition, men are more confident and its very likely women have been trained to believe that they wont get a rise. Ive always been the one to ask for my own raise. My parents have always encouraged me to go out and work so Im confident. Vitaliy Filatov, 31, a sales director from Lewisham Theres a lot of men at the top whod like to keep it that way - you know that some careers are male driven or dominated, I genuinely think that women are not given the opportunity. I really hope it changes for the benefit of this country. Noor Al-Wattar, 19, a brand ambassador, from Earls Court Men seek jobs that pay more because its more masculine and women tend to pick professions they will enjoy more or that will fit in with having kids. A lot of high-paying jobs require you to be more masculine. You tend to be much more outgoing in the banking industry with a pushy character. If women arent asking for more money its not because they dont want it, its because theyre not as loud as men and because men are thought to be like that. Vlasia Anagnosto, 34, a software engineer from South Kensington I work for an investment bank so its very male dominated, its just a difference between men and women. Men go for promotions and leadership roles, women are less proactive in asking for more money. Theres more men in my company, so its harder for women to have that discussion and get that network. Theres a gender imbalance so there would be a good start to make pay more equal. Ashleigh Roberts, 28, a product executive from New Cross Lots of men seem more comfortable to to ask for pay rises where I work, but some of the women feel more grateful just to have a job. Its bizarre, they dont have confidence in their own skills despite being more than capable of doing the job. Richard Shaw, 32, a parenting support worker from Brockley Its a generalisation that men ask for more money than women but there might be some truth in it. My sister had a baby recently and I was saddened to hear the lack of support for her to return to work. I thought we were more progressive than that. James Ryan, 27, a manager from Kilburn It should be equal but its one of those things, it has to catch up. Women couldnt vote not that many years ago. It will be equal at some point and women should be asking for what they want. Women Theres a lot more women than men where I work and theres a lot of senior women and I think the pay there is quite equal.

Most people, he stressed, would see the pay gap between the sexes at the Corporation as unjustifiable differentials and urged it to tackle it.

He added: This BBC data has been so powerful because these are people who sit together in a radio studio and do what most listeners think is exactly the same job, and yet the bias is very clear towards the men.

However, he risked further controversy with comments on female employees not asking for pay rises.

He said: Ive had lots of women reporting to me or coming in to talk to me about their careers - either for general guidance or employees of companies where Ive been working. I have never, ever had a woman ask for a pay rise.

Jo Swinson said his remarks "heap insult on injustice" / Rex

There isnt a list long enough for all the men whove asked. Lots of men have trooped into my office saying they are under-paid but no woman has ever done that.

He added that he believes that many chief executives would tell the same story: It is far more common for men to ask for more money than it is for women.

However, former Cabinet minister Nicky Morgan, who appointed Sir Philip to do the review and is now chairwoman of the Commons Treasury committee, said: Surely we have moved beyond it being about who marches into the bosss office asking for a pay rise.

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Thats why the the gender pay gap disclosures put the burden on senior management to think about pay differentials in their organisation.

On BBC pay, she added: Presumably the presenters relied on the fact that the BBC was a world-renowned organisation and would treat people equally.

Clearly that has proven to be a mistake.

Former business minister and Liberal Democrat Deputy Leader Jo Swinson added: These (Sir Philips) comments heap insult on injustice.

At best they are astonishingly ill-judged.

His remarks that the BBC women let this happen display a worrying lack of understanding of the structural gender, race and class bias across all of society at all levels, including the BBC.

Sir Philip said it was healthy that the BBC now talked more openly about pay, having been forced by the Government to reveal salaries of its top talent paid at least 150,000-a-year, and called for greater transparency in order to tackle inequality in pay between the sexes in other organisations.

We should try to make things in most aspects of business reporting transparent if theyre important to stakeholders - and this is important, he said.

The BBC has been left reeling by the revelations that its top-paid male star in 2016/17 was on more than four times the salary of the highest-earning woman.

Chris Evans was paid between 2.2 million and 2,249,999 for his work which included Top Gear and Radio 2, compared to the 450,000 to 499,999 for Claudia Winkleman, of Strictly Come Dancing, who also works on radio.

There were only two women among the 14 highest paid top talent at the Corporation.

Last year, the Association of Accounting Technicians surveyed 2,000 finance professionals, 1,000 female and 1,000 male.

The study found that 26 per cent of men had asked for a pay rise in the previous year compared to 18 per cent of women and 47 per cent of men had received a pay rise in that time period compared to 40 per cent of women.

Sir Philips comments were made as the Hampton-Alexander review that he is chairing with Dame Helen Alexander, which extends the work of the Davies report from the boards down into the executive ranks, asked FTSE 350 companies to provide data on the gender ratio in both the executive committee and the level reporting to that committee.

"If you are going to make women on boards sustainable, you have to make sure the pipeline is coming through of senior women, he said.

Then you dont have to scramble around to find women to populate boards because therell be a natural flow through from executive positions into the boardroom.

Although this is a voluntary scheme, the names of FTSE 350 firms that do not file this data by tomorrows deadline will be published.

There are 11 FTSE 100 companies still to submit their data and the portal closes tomorrow.

While women now make up 26 per cent of FTSE 100 boards, Sir Philip said a glass ceiling still hits women at the executive committee level, where the percentage of women has stalled at between 15 and 20 per cent for the past decade.

There are no good reasons for the percentage to be so low, he said.

Executive committees are still very, very male. For example, there are very few female CFOs [chief financial officers] and theres no obvious reason for that.

Sir Philip accused male-dominated firms of living in the past and said: Women are more than 50 per cent of graduates, theyve been at senior positions in the workforce for decades. We wont optimise our workforce unless we optimise our use of women.

GSK recently appointed a female chief executive, Emma Walmsley, but only two of 11 members of its executive committee are women.
T he ex-wife of a millionaire pilot who is locked in Britains longest divorce battle has pleaded with senior judges to end the ghastly 16-year legal fight.

Viki Maughan, 50, and her former partner, Richard Wilmot, 62, have been fighting over money since they split in 2001, with Mr Wilmot claiming that her daughter had been fathered by another man.

Mr Wilmot, an ex-British Airways captain, is absolutely convinced he is not the father. He accuses his ex-wife of fabricating evidence to try to extract maintenance payments from him.

Ms Maughan says he needs to accept reality. At the Court of Appeal, she asked judges to order Mr Wilmot to honour their 2001 divorce settlement.

Her barrister, Jonathan Swift, told the court: A significant air of reality needs to descend in this case. He said his client has a sincere wish that this court should dispose of this matter with as many restraining directions as possible, so it may never be resurrected again.

Her ex-husband, Captain Richard Wilmot / Richard Gittins/Champion News

Lady Justice Black, Lord Justice Sales and Lord Justice Moylan heard the couple lived in an 800,000 country home, Hartley Oast, in Cranbrook, Kent, before they split in the late Nineties.

Mr Wilmot, who flies for Turkish Airlines, has remarried and lives in an 800,000 country house in Alcombe, Somerset. He also has a 500,000 18th-century listed house in Dunster, Somerset, and a property in Kirk Michael on the Isle of Man, the court heard.

He argues that 390,000 he has paid to Ms Maughan since their divorce was obtained by fraud, claiming that a 2000 DNA test  which concluded he was the father  is invalid and that the childs birth certificate was a forgery.

He has now gone to the Appeal Court, asking the judges to block Ms Maughans claims for more money under the 2001 settlement. As well as not paying maintenance, he has also been accused by Ms Vaughan of being evasive and trying to dodge court papers.

Pursued: Richard Wilmot says he does not want to receive court papers at his 800,000 home in Somerset to protect his new wife from the wreckage of his past

Yesterday, he said he had not properly received court documents by email as he could only access slow internet abroad. Nicholas Bowen QC, for Mr Wilmot, said: He only comes back to the UK for a few weekends a year. He is based in the air, all over the world.

He did not want to receive documents at his Somerset home because he didnt want to be pursued by this ghastly case and sought to protect his new wife from the wreckage of the past.

He therefore told his wife that if anything turns up at Alcombe, just send it back, said Mr Bowen.

At an earlier hearing, a judge told Mr Wilmot that the case could bankrupt you, as he could face years of maintenance back payments as well as a hefty costs bill if he lost. The Appeal Court judges have reserved their decision on Mr Wilmots appeal until a later date.
M uslim leaders have condemned terror attacks across London ahead of an event billed as the "largest Islamic convention in the UK".

Some 30,000 Muslims from 100 countries will gather for the three day event, known as Jalsa Salana, in Hampshire.

Caliph Hazrat Mirza Masroor Ahmad, chief of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community which has organised the event, renounced terrorists who launched atrocities on London Bridge and at Westminster.

He said attackers Khalid Masood, Khuram Butt, Rachid Redouane and Youssef Zaghba had no knowledge of Islam.

The Caliph said: Recently, terrorist organisations have started to regularly commit the most barbaric atrocities in Western countries by taking the lives of innocent people.

London Terror Attack Floral Tributes at Westminster - 27 March 2017 1 /12 London Terror Attack Floral Tributes at Westminster - 27 March 2017 Hero MP Tobias Ellwood looks over the flowers left in tribute to the victims of the attack in Westminster Jeremy Selwyn He paused at the solemn scene in Parliament Square this morning Jeremy Selwyn Flowers from Prime Minister Theresa May amongst tributes to the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster Jeremy Selwyn Two school children look at the floral tributes Jeremy Selwyn A woman observes the flowers pinned to the Carriage Gates where the attack took place Jeremy Selwyn Outpouring of support: flowers at the scene of the attack in Westminster Jeremy Selwyn Three police officers stand in front of the floral tributes Jeremy Selwyn A female police officer pays her respects at the scene Jeremy Selwyn A woman in jogging attire stops to remember the victims of the attack Jeremy Selwyn A man looks at floral tributes to the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster Lauren Hurley/PA Police officers stand in front of the floral tributes Jeremy Selwyn Labour MP Hilary Benn passes floral tributes to the victims of the Westminster terrorist attack outside the Palace of Westminster Lauren Hurley/PA

The terrorists have no knowledge of Islam because otherwise they would realise that the Holy Prophet of Islam forbade the murder of innocent people under any circumstances and even during a state of war.

The statement comes months after Masood ploughed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge before fatally stabbing PC Keith Palmer to death outside the gates of Westminster in March.

In June, Butt, Redouane and Zaghba mowed down Saturday night revellers on London Bridge before launching a knife attack on nearby Borough Market.

Vigil for London Bridge terror attack 1 /12 Vigil for London Bridge terror attack Hundreds gather during a vigil in Potters Fields for the victims of the June 3rd terror attacks Getty Images People attend a vigil for victims of Saturday's attack in London Bridge, at Potter's Field Park AP Hundreds gather during a vigil in Potters Fields for the victims of the June 3rd terror attacks Getty Images Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan and Home Secretary Amber Rudd take part in a vigil for the victims of the London Bridge terror attacks Getty Images Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, Home Secretary Amber Rudd and Shadow Home Secretary Diane Abbott with members of the public observing a minute's silence PA People gather in Potters Field Park during an event for the victims of the terror attack REUTERS People at a vigil in Potters Fields Park, central London in honour of the London Bridge terror attack victims PA People take part in a vigil for victims of the London Bridge terror attacks by the City Hall EPA Floral tributes were set down during a vigil outside City Hall EPA ople attend a vigil to remember the victims of the attack on London Bridge and Borough Market REUTERS Pupils from Eden Girls' School in Waltham Forest take part in a vigil in memory of those killed in the recent terror attacks in London Getty Images People lay flowers after a vigil for victims of Saturday's attack in London Bridge, AP

The Islamic State claimed responsibility for both atrocities which, combined, left 13 innocent victims dead.

The convention will take place across 200 acre site at a Hampshire farm between July 28 and 30.

It will see worshippers form a human chain to touch the Caliphs hand.
P rimark has been accused of sexualising young girls by selling bras for children as young as seven.

The pink polka dot bras cost 5 for two and are available in stores across the UK. People have accused the chain of making the bras "padded."

Several shocked parents have taken to social media to criticise the shop, including actress Emma Linley.

Ms Linley, 43, was shopping for her daughters in London when she saw the 'My First Bra' range for seven to 13-year-olds.

The actress told The Sun: "Do Primark sell padded pants for seven to 13-year-old boys to make their genitals seem bigger?

"So boys are OK as they are but girls need enhancement?"

Other parents waded in on social media to express their outrage with one user branding the range "inappropriate".

Twitter user MissTylerB who shared the image online wrote: Horrified that @Primark are selling padded bras to children between 7-13! #Toomuchtoyoung #Children #sexualisation"

"@Primark so you think it's ok to sell padded bras aimed at 7-13 year olds?! Do you sell matching thongs too!? Bloody sick!", said Twitter user dreadedwill.

Another wrote: I ask that @Primark would stop selling padded first bras to 9 yr old girls. Inappropriate. Dangerous. Just plain wrong.

Ms Linley said she vowed to campaign against the sale of the bras, "I have two young girls. I do not want them facing puberty with this crap to deal with."

The retail giant flatly refuted the claims and ensured the bras were not made for enhancement.

A spokesman told the Standard: This allegation is simply wrong.

We would like to be absolutely clear that these bras are moulded, not padded.

My First Bra ranges are designed and constructed purely for support, comfort and modesty and adhere to the BRCs childrenswear guidelines. There is no enhancement.

This type of moulded bra is extremely common, and selling them is entirely normal practice on the high street.

This is not the first time Primark has been embroiled in controversy.

In 2010, the store announced it would stop selling padded bikini tops for girls as young as seven, after widespread criticism that they were sexualising children. The company was slammed by children's charities and politicians over the 4 bikini sets.
T his is the face of a physics teacher who had sex with a student in a plane toilet during a school trip.

Eleanor Wilson, 28, who worked at a school in Bristol, engaged in drunken sexual activity with the pupil while returning home from a school trip to visit the Large Hadron Collider Geneva in 2015.

Miss Wilson, who had trained as a Royal Navy Reservist, engaged in oral sex with the pupil in the toilet cubicle and then had full sex with him, a disciplinary panel found.

Giving evidence, the unnamed pupil told the hearing the Miss Wilson was intoxicated during the encounter and admitted drinking five miniature bottles of wine himself on the flight.

Struck off: Eleanor Wilson / Facebook

Their relationship continued for several months and they communicated by text message and met outside school, with Pupil A, who Miss Wilson had worked with since 2013, thinking he loved her.

The tryst only came to light when another student heard about it and threatened to tell the school unless Miss Wilson engaged in sexual activity with him.

Eleanor Wilson, 28 was sacked over her sexual relationship with the boy

She was found guilty of unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute by a National College for Teaching and Leadership panel who found she had also tried to cover up the relationship.

Miss Wilson was struck off following the hearing.

"During the flight home from the trip, Pupil A gave evidence that he and Miss Wilson were flirting at the back of the plane, whilst looking after another pupil who was unwell," the panel said in its findings.

The pupils had been to visit the large hadron collider / CERN

"Pupil A gave evidence that Miss Wilson was intoxicated and that he had himself drunk approximately five miniature bottles of wine on the flight.

Pupil A gave evidence that he and Miss Wilson entered the toilet, kissed and had oral sex and intercourse without using protection.

"Miss Wilson denied this allegation in its entirety, as evidenced within the notes of the school's investigation."

Eleanor pictured in navy uniform

In its conclusions, the panel found said it was "satisfied that the conduct of Miss Wilson fell significantly short of the standards expected of the profession.

"The panel did not consider that Miss Wilson demonstrated insight into the consequences of her actions.

"Whilst she did express remorse as to the impact of her actions on Pupil A and his family, Miss Wilson demonstrated herself to be more concerned with the impact of her dismissal from the school on her own career and personal life."

An NSPCC spokesman said: As a teacher, Wilson was trusted by parents, her school and the local community to prioritise pupils welfare and wellbeing, but instead she abused this trust for her own sexual gratification.

Teachers have a key role in safeguarding, but this hearing has highlighted significant shortcomings in Wilsons approach to this over an extended period of time.

Her behaviour fell a long way short of expectations, and it is right that she has faced the consequences.

Childlines helpline is available 24-hours a day on 0808 800 5000.
P olice officers across the country are to be questioned on whether they should carry guns in day-to-day service.

In the first national police staff survey for more than a decade, 120,000 rank-and-file officers will be polled on the issue of firearms.

Britains police officers are routinely unarmed unlike several other countries in the world where it is commonplace for cops to carry large guns.

In recent months the issue has been thrust into the spotlight after a spate of terror attacks in London and Manchester.

Previous research has suggested the majority of officers are opposed to any change in approach, although surveys of the public have proved less conclusive.

An armed officer in Whitehall in August 2016. / Jack Taylor/Getty Images

Announcing the Police Federation of England and Wales survey, Che Donald said: The question of routinely arming police officers is a challenging one and one that regularly crops up, but, given the current climate, we feel it's time to seek the views of our members again.

"Policing has changed significantly over recent years, not just around the types of crime we are dealing with and greater use of technology, but also the threat, harm and risk to the public and to officers themselves.

"This survey seeks to determine our members' views to inform our position on the issue of routine arming.

"Over the last few years a handful of forces have been surveyed individually on this issue, but we are keen to establish a fresh national view."

The survey comes as Home Office figures showed the number of police firearms operations in England and Wales increased by seven per cent to 15,705 in 2016/17.

There were 10 incidents in which police firearms were discharged - up from seven in the previous year.

Mr Donald said: "Firearms discharges remain low, down to the excellent decision-making shown by our officers, demonstrating that we are still the best trained and most restrained policing service in the world."

Earlier this week separate figures showed there were six fatal police shootings in 2016/17, the highest number since the Independent Police Complaints Commission began recording the figures in 2004.

A new review of the armed response available around the country is being carried out following the atrocities in the UK this year.

It will look at whether a further increase in specialist officers working as part of armed response vehicle teams is needed.


T he parents of critically ill baby Charlie Gard have accused Great Ormond Street Hospital of denying us our final wish as doctors prepare to move their son to a hospice to die.

In a statement released on Thursday, Connie Yates and Chris Gard said they just want some peace with our son.

No hospital, no lawyers, no courts, no media, just quality time with Charlie away from everything to say goodbye to him in the most loving way, they added.

It comes after the hospital released an emotionally-charged statement on Thursday, promising doctors will make Charlies last moments as comfortable and peaceful as possible.

The 11-month-old, who has a rare genetic disorder and brain damage, is set to be transferred to a specialist childrens hospice.

Terminally-ill Charlie Gard dies

Initially parents Ms Yates and Mr Gard had wanted to take their son home to die, but doctors said it was not practical to move the life support machine.

The parents then conceded and accepted hospice care for their son, but were unable to agree with doctors over his final end-of-life care, including how long they could spend with him.

The judge in the case, Mr Justice Francis, set a deadline of noon today for the parents to reach an agreement with medics but both parties failed to do so.

Mr Justice Francis then confirmed Charlie would be taken to a hospice where life support would be withdrawn.

Connie Yates and Chris Gard with their baby son.

In their emotional statement on Thursday night, the heartbroken Ms Yates and Mr Gard said: "Most people won't ever have to go through what we have been through, we've had no control over our son's life and no control over our son's death.

"We were pleased this morning (well as happy as you can be at a time like this).

"Two doctors came forward to offer their help to grant Chris and I our final wish which was to spend a few days to make precious memories with our beloved son away from the hospital environment."

The statement continued: "These doctors were willing to share the care and to be on site 24/7.

"We also had a team of intensive care nurses who would be by Charlie's bedside 24/7 on rotation. Additionally we have been offered the use of a two-bedroom flat which is fully equipped with all the required equipment.

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"Charlie does not require this level of care currently so he would be better cared for.

"Despite us and our legal team working tirelessly to arrange this near impossible task, the judge has ordered against what we arranged and has agreed to what GOSH asked.

"This subsequently gives us very little time with our son. I'm not allowed to disclose the time or place but I'm shocked that after all we've been through they won't allow us this extra time.

"Seeing as they didn't allow us our wish, we then asked for extra time here but this has also been denied."

Tributes flow in for Charlie Gard

A Great Ormond Street Hospital spokesperson said on Thursday they deeply regret that profound and heartfelt differences between Charlies doctors and his parents have had to be played out in court over such a protracted period.

It has been a uniquely painful and distressing process for all concerned, their statement read.

Charlies parents have tirelessly advocated for what they sincerely believed was right for their son, and nobody could fault them for doing so.

All of us at Great Ormond Street Hospital get up every morning to care for sick children, not to cause further anguish to devoted parents like Chris and Connie.

The couple have been the subject of intense media coverage. / EPA

We have tried absolutely everything to accommodate their final wishes and engaged not only with those who volunteered to treat Charlie but experts from across the health service in close consultation with the NHS to make this happen.

This included exploring the unprecedented step of delivering intensive life support away from a hospital intensive care unit.

Sadly, as the judge has now ruled, there is simply no way that Charlie, a patient with such severe and complex needs, can spend any significant time outside of an intensive care environment safely.

The risk of an unplanned and chaotic end to Charlies life is an unthinkable outcome for all concerned and would rob his parents of precious last moments with him.

Charlie is now set to be transferred to a specialist childrens hospice, where remarkable and compassionate staff will support his family.

The hospital added: Every single one of us wishes there could have been a less tragic outcome.

Charlie Gard's parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard arrive at the Royal Courts of Justice in London. / PA

Our thoughts and deepest sympathies go out to Chris and Connie, and we hope that their privacy is respected at this devastating time for their family.

Mr Gard and Ms Yates, who are in their 30s and come from Bedfont, west London, had asked Mr Justice Francis to rule that Charlie should be allowed to undergo a therapy trial in New York.

Doctors at Great Ormond Street said the therapy would not help. They said life-support treatment should stop.

Mr Justice Francis in April ruled in favour of Great Ormond Street and said Charlie should be allowed to die with dignity.

Charlie's parents subsequently failed to overturn his ruling in the High Court, Court of Appeal and Supreme Court in London.

They also failed to persuade European Court of Human Rights' judges to intervene.

But the couple had recently returned to court, saying they had new evidence, and asked Mr Justice Francis to change his mind.

They abandoned their legal fight on Monday after concluding that Charlie had deteriorated to the "point of no return".
D onald Trumps new communications director has threatened to call in the FBI over a West Wing leak detailing his 64 million fortune.

Financier Anthony Scaramucci  nicknamed The Mooch  included the Twitter handle of White House chief of staff Reince Priebus in his online outburst  which some analysts interpreted as signalling who was to blame, indicating splits and unrest in the Trump administration. The angry tweet was prompted by a report on the Politico website detailing how Mr Scaramucci earned nearly 7.6 million in the first six months of the year from his investment firm SkyBridge Capital.

His financial disclosure form, filed with the Office of Government Ethics, showed his assets were worth 64 million.

In light of the leak of my financial disclosure info which is a felony I will be contacting @FBI and the @TheJusticeDept, he wrote, adding #swamp, a reference to corrupt Washington politics, and including the Twitter handle of Mr Priebus, who reportedly opposed his appointment. He later deleted the tweet and posted one insisting he only mentioned Mr Priebus as they were united in trying to stamp out leakers: Wrong! Tweet was public notice to leakers that all Sr Adm officials are helping to end illegal leaks. @Reince45.

Mr Scaramucci, 53, is a Republican donor and was on the presidents transition team. Born to an Italian-American family on Long Island, he is known for his sharp suits. Veteran Republican insider Mr Priebus chaired the partys national committee before becoming chief of staff. According to reports, he has been increasingly sidelined.

The New York Times said the incident added to the sense of foreboding ... in the White House. Analysts pointed out financial disclosures are public documents. One was filed by Sean Spicer, who quit as press secretary over Mr Scaramuccis appointment last week.

Hundreds gathered at a military recruiting station in Times Square to protest against Mr Trumps ban, announced on Twitter, on transgender people serving in the armed forces. More attended a protest in San Franciscos Harvey Milk Plaza, named after the gay rights activist. Kristin Beck, a transgender former Navy SEAL, told the president: Lets meet face to face and you tell me Im not worthy.
F oreign Secretary Boris Johnson was today branded a blond British wombat by the Australian Press during his whistle stop three-day visit to Sydney.

Media commentators and television pundits have been scrambling to give opinion on how well the politician has done Down Under, after a series of apparent gaffes in New Zealand.

Todays Australian newspaper described him as something like a blond British wombat caught in a perpetual storm of his own making.

The Sydney Morning Herald told its readers that Britains Foreign Secretary was a fan of wearing his tie long like Donald Trump, Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and hyperbole.

After losing his luggage, comparing the hongi  a traditional Maori greeting  to a headbutt and being upstaged by a rare lizard in New Zealand, Boris Johnson is pleased to be in Australia, the newspaper declared.

The Australian Financial Review suggested noted: Its been a difficult year for Britains usually ebullient Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

His reward is two days locked up with the capable duo of Julie Bishop (Australias Foreign Minister) and Marise Payne, (Minister of Defence).

Australias highly competitive commercial TV news networks focussed Foreign Secretary being buffeted by strong, easterly gusts from Sydney harbour while touring the Opera House.

Britains Foreign Secretary has admitted hes blown away by the beauty of our harbour city, Channel Seven News reported.

While Channel Nines newsreader reminded its viewers that the VIP at Sydneys Opera House was none other than Britains blond, mop-topped foreign minister.

Mr Johnson visited Australia after trips to New Zealand and Japan.
"Wish you were our prime minister. This country would have changed," the woman wrote to Sushma Swaraj.

By Press Trust of India: External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj on Thursday directed the Indian High Commission in Islamabad to issue a visa to a Pakistani national for medical treatment in India.

Swaraj's direction to India's High Commissioner in Pakistan Gautam Bambawale came after a woman -- Hijaab Asif -- sought the external affairs minister's urgent intervention.

Touched by Swaraj's prompt response, Asif praised Swaraj and even said that Pakistan would have changed had she been the prime minister of her country.

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Minutes after Swaraj's tweet to Bambawale, the Indian mission tweeted that it was in touch with the applicant.

"Ma'am, we are in touch with the applicant. Rest assured we will follow it up," the Indian High Commission said in a tweet.

'HE SAID IT'S ALL UP TO YOU'

Responding to Asif's plea, Swaraj also wondered whether Pakistan Prime Minister's Foreign Affairs Advisor Satraj Aziz had refused to issue a recommendation letter for the issuance of a visa by India to the patent.

The External Affairs minister had a few weeks back said that Pakistani nationals seeking visas for medical treatment in India must accompany their visa applications with a recommendation letter by Aziz.

"Dear maam, spoke to DHC (Deputy High Commissioner) in Islamabad, told the patients current condition and he said it's all up to you. If you allow," Asif had tweeted earlier.

The patient is suffering from serious liver ailment and needs urgent treatment in India, she said.

'CANNOT STOP PRAISING YOU'

After Swaraj's direction to grant a visa to the patient, Asif was effusive in her praise of the external affairs minister.

"@SushmaSwaraj What do I call you? Superwoman? God? No words to describe your generosity! Love you maam. Cannot stop praising you in tears!!!," she said.

In another tweet, she said "my heart belongs and beats for you", adding that "Pakistan doesn't deserve her at all".

"Lots and Lots of Love and respect from here. Wish you were our prime minister. this country would have changed," she said.

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Won't declare anybody dead without evidence: Sushma Swaraj on 39 Indians missing in Iraq

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India Today expose rocks Parliament again: Has Sushma silenced the Opposition?

--- ENDS ---
D onald Trumps decision to ban transgender people from serving in the US military has been blasted as un-American as protests in support of LGBTQ rights erupted around the country.

The President sparked outrage when he published a surprise Twitter announcement saying that transgender people could not work in the military.

Demonstrators flocked to US army bases protesting the ban and politicians from around the world condemned his comments.

Speaking on CNN Christine Quinn  the first openly gay politician to become speaker of New York City Council  said Mr Trumps decision was a goddamned disgrace.

Times Square: Protesters gathered in New York / EPA

She said Mr Trump should never be throwing entire groups of Americans under the bus and saying they're less than other people.

That is un-American, and a goddamned disgrace.

'Disgrace': Democratic politican Christine Quinn spoke out against the ban, labeling it 'un-Ameican'

The President, who is increasingly relies on Twitter to make high-profile announcements, posted the string of tweets on Wednesday.

He wrote: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.

The shock ban sparked a swarm of protesters who congregated at a military recruiting station in New York City and a plaza named after a San Francisco gay rights.

LGBTQ: A protester holds a sign saying 'Trans ppl are not a burden' / AFP/Getty Images

Those gathered around the US Armed Forces recruiting station in Times Square bore signs saying "Resist!".

One demonstrator, Yael Leberman, said transgender people "are completely adequate to serve" and combat was "not about physical, it's about mental" abilities.

Demonstrators gathered later in San Francisco's Harvey Milk Plaza waved pink and blue flags, held signs reading "Trans lives are not a burden" and chanted "Stand up! Fight back!"

A transgender woman who identified herself only as Layla told the crowd she was tired of being told who she could or could not be and asked for others in the LGBT community to support trans people as they fought for respect.

Protest: 'Trans rights are human rights' / REUTERS

And at a smaller gathering at the Los Angeles LGBT Centre in Hollywood, US Army Reserve member and transgender man Rudy Akbarian, 27, said at first he thought the news of the president's order was a joke.

The five-year military veteran said he was "heartbroken" to learn it was real.

"There are people who are retiring in the military, there are people who've done 18, 19 years and are about to retire and now it's all taken away from them," he said. "It's not fair."

Transgender military members have been able to serve openly since last year, after a move by then-defence secretary Ash Carter.
T wo suspected teenage arsonists were in custody in the south of France today as criminal activity was blamed for fires that forced the evacuation of thousands of holidaymakers.

The 16-year-old alleged arsonists, who have not been identified, were in police cells in Martigues, between Marseille and Montpellier, preparing for another day of questioning.

They are thought to have set fire to parched shrubland on Tuesday, causing one of the blazes that have engulfed more than 15 square miles of countryside.

Renaud Muselier, president of the Provence regional council, told FranceInfo radio station that many of the fires were of criminal origin and the activity of arsonists had to be stopped.

France wildfires - In pictures 1 /21 France wildfires - In pictures Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel People enjoy the beach as they look at a forest fire in La Croix-Valmer, near Saint-Tropez Valery Hache/AFP/Getty Images A fire burning the forest in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images A firefighter tries to extinguish a fire burning in Artigues, southeastern France AFP/Getty Images Firefighters spray water as they try to douse a fire near the village of Biguglia, Corsica island, Franc AP A firefighter takes a break at the site of a wildfire near the village of Ortale, Corsica island, France AP Smoke fills the sky as a Canadair firefighting plane releases water to extinguish a wildfire near Seillons, in the Var department, France REUTERS People stand outside a house in the courtyard and look at a the smoke coming from fire burning a forest in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica. AFP/Getty Images The wreckage of a burnt down car following a forest fire in Ramatuelle, southern France AFP/Getty Images Smoke fills the sky as flames from a wildfire burn trees near Seillons, in the Var department, France REUTERS Smoke rising from a fire in Ortale di Biguglia, near Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images An anti-fire Canadair airplane drops water over a forest fire near the village of Ortale in Corsica, France AP French Interior Minister Gerard Collomb (2nd right) speaks to Upper Corsica Police Chief Gerard Gavory (2nd left) after a flight in a helicopter during a visit to the firefighters working to fight the fire in Biguglia, on the French Mediterranean island of Corsica AFP/Getty Images Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel Evacutaed tourists spend the night on the beach in Bormes les Mimosas Olivier Hertel

Marion Manent, whose family trailer homes were among some 200 burned in La Londe-les-Maures, in the Var, said someone is certainly responsible, adding that she viewed the arsonists as potential killers.

It came as British tourists were among thousands who spent a second night on beaches in the Var, as fires raged in the hills above them. Actress Dame Joan Collins was among those evacuated from St Tropez on Monday night.
I vanka Trump has been slammed for failing her LGBTQ friends after Donald Trump banned transgender people from serving in the United States military.

People have flocked to social media to criticise the US Presidents daughter, who it emerged tweeted in June her pride for her LBGTQ friends and their "immense contributions" to America.

But Mr Trump caused outrage on Wednesday when he announced he would be banning all transgender individuals from serving in the military in any capacity.

In a series of tweets, he blamed disruption and tremendous medical costs for introducing the policy.

Donald Trump has banned transgender people from serving in the US military

Ivanka Trump tweeted in June: "I am proud to support my LGBTQ friends and the LGBTQ Americans who have made immense contributions to our society and economy."

Campaigners and Twitter users were quick to point to Ms Trumps past support of transgender people, and called on her to say something as anger grew over the policy.

US actor Royce Christyn tweeted: You are aware that the "T" in LGBTQ stands for trans, right? Your father is wrong. The world is looking at you now, Ivanka - say something."

Protest: A couple from San Francisco wave a rainbow flag and hold a sign against a proposed ban of transgendered people in the military / AP

He added: What 'immense contributions to our society' are more honourable than serving in the US Military - straight or trans?

Eamon Phoenix said: Support means actually standing up for them when bullies (like your father) try to beat them down. It's not just throwing around acronyms.

One Twitter user, known only as Rosalyn, simply posted: Youre not doing anything.

Protests have erupted across America over the decision to ban transgender people from serving in the military, with demonstrators criticising the policy as un-American.

Ms Trump acts as an official adviser to the US President and has been criticised in the past for being complicit with her fathers controversial policies.

Campaigners have blasted her for not being a strong enough advocate for womens rights in the White House.

The shock announcement by Mr Trump marked a sharp reversal of a policy brought in under former President Barack Obama.

During his tenure the Pentagon ended a longtime ban on transgender people serving openly in the military.

Mr Trump said in a series of tweets: After consultation with my Generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military.

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail. Thank you.
Just when you thought the Donald Trump bandwagon couldn't get more bizarre, it just did.

Newly-appointed deputy White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders marked her debut by announcing her intention to periodically read out letters of support sent to the President.

It was an initiative, she said, to honour the forgotten men, women and children the President is fighting for.

First up was an offering from nine-year-old Trump supporter Dylan, whose surname sounded like Harbin but it was deleted in a tweet later posted by Sanders.

His letter was a ringing endorsement of Trump, "his favourite president".

President: Donald Trump at a recent rally in Ohio / Getty Images

It read: "My name is Dylan but everybody calls me Pickle. I am nine years old and youre my favourite president.

I like you so much I had a birthday about you. My cake was the shape of your hat.

The letter also asked: How much money do you have? Ms Sanders laughed and responded: Dylan, Im not sure but I know its a lot.

Dylan continued: I dont know why people dont like you, to which Ms Sanders commented: Me neither, Dylan.

She then read out the boy's request to make friends with the President, adding: Im happy to say I directly spoke to the President, Dylan, he would be more than happy to be your friend.

Deputy White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders speaks to the media at an on-camera press briefing / EPA

The letter concluded: My picture is in here so if you see me you can say hi. Your friend, Dylan.

After then announcing that the president gave his second quarter salary of $100,000 to the US dept of education, she was said to have left the room to howls of protest from a bemused White House press pack.
K nown as the Mooch, the newly appointed White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci has hit the ground running as President Trumps PR man.

In a manor mirroring his new boss, the 52-year-old financier has ruffled the feathers of a BBC journalist when he accused Emily Maitlis of being elitist and caused a stir with his tweeting habits.

And his recent appointment reportedly sparked the resignation of White House press secretary Sean Spicer who reportedly disagreed with the decision.

Here is everything you need to know about 'The Mooch':

White House: Anthony Scaramucci / REUTERS

Career history:

Despite his apparent ease talking to journalists, Mr Scaramucci has no formal experience in communications.

The son of a construction worker was born in Long Island and trained at Harvard Law School.

He began his career at Goldman Sachs before founding global hedge fund SkyBridge Capital in 2005.

SkyBridge differs from usual hedge fund companies by targeting wealthy people but not the mega-rich  the mass affluent as New York magazine described it in 2012  but has been described as using dangerous techniques to attract investors.

Scaramucci: The financier has no formal communications experience / AP

He sold the company in 2017 in preparation for his new role  to ensure there were no conflict of interest issues.

In a press briefing following his appointment, Mr Scaramucci insisted he has communications experience because he was a successful entrepreneur.

I think that you will find in my background and in my career, I have a lot of communications experience and I spent a lot of time on television, he said.

Sean Spicer: The press secretary reportedly quit over Scaramucci's appointment / Getty Images

I spent a lot of time shaping the message of my old firm.

Political history:

Mr Scaramucci may be working with the President now, but he hasnt always seen eye-to-eye with him on key issues.

In the past he publicly backed more gun control in America and spoke out about the seriousness of climate change.

And in 2012 Mr Scaramucci appeared to back Hillary Clinton in a series of tweets that have since been deleted, writing: I hope she runs [in 2016], she is incredibly competent.

Tweet: He later deleted this post supporting Mrs Clinton

In the 2016 presidential campaign, he initially supported Scott Walker and then Jeb Bush, describing Mr Trump as an anti-American hack and a bully.

In 2015, he told Fox Business Network: I dont like the way he talks about women. I dont like the way he talks about our friend Megyn Kelly. And you know what?

The politicians dont want to go at Trump because hes got a big mouth and hes afraid hes going to light em up on Fox and other places, but Im not a politician. Bring it.

Following his appointment, he apologised for his comments for the 50th time and said he had been unexperienced in the world of politics.

Links with Trump:

During the election, the political donor joined the Trump Finance Committee and later served on the Presidential transition team.

He had been considered for the role as director as early as January but was blocked due to tensions within Mr Trumps White House Team.

But Mr Scaramucci impressed the President with his television and interview skills and, perhaps most significantly, his success in winning a retraction from CNN after the news network published a piece linking him to Russian banks. It has since withdrawn the story and issued an apology. Three senior reporters later resigned in connection with the incident.

On July 21 he was named director of communications.
Y ann Demange is the current frontrunner to direct the next James Bond film, according to reports.

The French director could take over the helm from Sam Mendes, who stepped down from the famous spy franchise in May 2016 after Skyfall and Spectre.

Variety reported that Demange, famed for 71 and White Boy Rick, is the favourite.

He may face competition from Denis Villeneuve, who is currently wrapping up Blade Runner 2049, and Hell Or High Water director David Mackenzie.

Pierce Brosnan: Daniel Craig's 007 can be the rock of agents

It comes days after Bond producers confirmed that the next film will be released on November 8, 2019.

James Bond will return to US cinemas on November 8, 2019 with a traditional earlier release in the UK and the rest of the world, read a tweet posted to the franchises official account.

Studio bosses went on to say that international release dates and a cast list would be announced at a later date.

Daniel Craig - In pictures 1 /62 Daniel Craig - In pictures No Time To Die (2021) PA Wire The World Premiere of No Time To Die in London REUTERS Daniel Craig emerges from the waves in Casino Royale in 2006 Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz Getty Images Footage featured during the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games starring Daniel Craig playing James Bond escorting The Queen through the corridors of Buckingham Palace An early publicity shot ahead of Casino Royale's release Lashana Lynch, Daniel Craig and LAa Seydoux attend the No Time To Die World Premiere at Royal Albert Hall in 2021 Getty Images No Time To Die AP Daniel Craig speaks onstage during The New Yorker Festival 2016 Getty Images Spectre - Royal World Premiere (2015_ Dave Benett Daniel Craig kisses his actress wife Rachel Weisz while they attend The Cinema and Television Benevolent Fund's Royal Film Performance 2015 of the 24th James Bond Adventure, "Spectre" at Royal Albert Hall Getty Images In one of Spectres (2015) set-piece action scenes, Bond chases the villains down a mountain in a plane, crashing it into their vehicle. As you would Seducing Lucia moments after saving ehr by dispatching a Spectre hit-squad Bond meets an old friend, Mr White as he pieces together Spectre's plot With Madeleine Swan (Lea Seydoux) Skyfall saw a new and younger Q (Ben Whishaw) The End? Bond at the climatic end of Spectre before he drives off with Madeleine 'Enjoying death' - Bond starts 2015's Spectre in a mask at the Day of the Dead festival in Mexico Being fitted with a tracker by Q Daniel Craig takes a selfie with fans as he attends the German premiere of the new James Bond movie 'Spectre' Getty Images Naomie Harris and Daniel Craig ose during an event to launch the 24th James Bond film Spectre at Pinewood Studios at Iver Heath AFP/Getty Images Lea Seydoux, Daniel Craig and Monica Bellucci attend the Royal Film Performance of 'Spectre' at Royal Albert Hall Getty Images With the mysterious with Severine (Berenice Marlohe) Bond went to his family home, Skyfall, in his bid to save M (Judi Dench) from Silva Daniel Craig and his wife Rachel Weisz attend "The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo" premiere in Madrid Getty Images Daniel Craig and Rachel Weisz take a romantic walk hand-in-hand to lunch in 2012 at a Japanese restaurant in NYC Splash News Bond in shadow as he stalks his prey in the opening of Skyfall in 2012 Face to face with Skyfall's villain Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) Ready to pull the trigger with Raoul Silva (Javier Bardem) watching in the background MGM Pictures/Columbia Pictures/EON Productions Fighting Patrice (Ola Rapace) on top of a moving train On the move in a motocycle chase scene Rachel Weisz and Daniel Craig in 'Dream House (2011) Daniel Craig takes a bow during opening night curtain call for the broadway production of "A Steady Rain" at the Gerald Schoenfeld Theatre on 29 September 2009 in New York Getty Images Daniel Craig in Defiance (2009) On the hunt for the organisation responsible for Vesper's death in 2008's Quantum of Solace arriving with Camille at an airfield in Bolivia Bond with Camille (Olga Kurylenko) Fighting Dominic Greene in Quantum of Solace final battle With Agent Fields (Gemma Arterton) In the opening pre-title chase scene of Casino Royale (2006) Seducing Solange (Caterina Murino) in Casino Royale Battling Le Chiffre across the card table at Casino Royale With Vesper Lynd (Eva Green) in Venice near the end of Casino Royale Daniel Craig with Sienna Miller in 'Layer Cake' (2004) Daniel Craig in 'Layer Cake' (2004) Daniel Craig in 'Layer Cake' with Colm Meaney (2004) Daniel Craig during the photocall of his film 'Road to Perdition' at the 59th International Venice Film Festival in 2002 PA

Daniel Craig is thought to be in the process of signing a contract to reprise his role as the 007 agent after reportedly being convinced by producer Barbara Broccoli.

The British actor previously joked that he would rather slash his wrists than play the secret service spy again.

Former Bond, Pierce Brosnan backed brilliant Craig to play the character into his fifties, but said there is an age where he must say enoughs enough.

Adele, who won an Oscar for her Skyfall theme song, is also reportedly being considered to record the Bond25 theme.

Craig and Adele together are the winning team, the ultimate choice, the money spinners, a source told The Mirror.


By India Today Web Desk: At least three terror attacks were reported from Jammu and Kashmir this evening. In Shopian, a constable was shot dead by militants.

Terrorists targeted Army and police personnel in separate incidents.

In Kulgam district of south Kashmir, militants shot dead constable Gowhar Ahmad when he was on his way home.

Posted in Shopian district, he was shot near the Kanjikulla bridge in Kulgam when he was riding a motorcycle to his home in Yaripora area of Kulgam.

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In another incident, militants fired upon an Army patrol party in Shopian's Mantribugh.

However, there was no casualty. The area has been cordoned off and a search operation was on, officials said.

In the third incident, a group of militants barged inside the house of SP Dawood and ransacked household goods at Khudwani area of Kulgam.

Also read:

7 Amarnath pilgrims dead, several injured in terror attack in Anantnag Amarnath Yatra terror attack: Army chief tells jawans to keep up pressure on terrorists

Amarnath attack: How the hero bus driver drove through bullets to save many lives

ALSO WATCH

Amarnath bus attack survivor narrates tale of terrorist strike

--- ENDS ---
TMS Global Leader's Move Adds to Ranks of African Americans Serving in International Cross-cultural Mission

Richard Coleman stepping down as senior director of mobilization and candidacy to serve in Ethiopia



Contact: Ty Mays,

770-256-8710



NORCROSS, Ga., July 27, 2017 /Standard Newswire/ -- A forthcoming leadership transition at missions agency TMS Global comes at a time when it is pursuing a heightened commitment to seeing more non-whites serving in world evangelization.



After more than a decade recruiting others for service with the group, the Rev. Richard Coleman is stepping down as senior director of mobilization and candidacy to prepare for a first-hand role overseas himself. Together with his wife, Amanda, and their four children, he plans to move later this year to Ethiopia, where he will support national and regional church leaders.



During his time with TMS Global, Rev. Coleman has been influential in the organization's growing commitment to seeing more African Americans like him, and other minorities, broadening the scope of the missions workforce. Believing such an emphasis is crucial in fulfilling the "Great Commission," the organization last year announced a new commitment to diversity, better reflecting the rich breadth of God's church and kingdom.



"It makes our message more authentic," said Coleman, who leaves his position at TMS Global's Norcross, Ga., headquarters in July to join the organization's almost 200-strong team of workers serving in a wide range of ministries. "There are certain parts of the world where people have said, 'We will not believe this message until we hear it from the mouths of other people of color,'" he said. "Having that same message of hope and truth coming from another person of color can be reassuring and even add credibility to our witness."



Coleman has been committed to missions since 1998, when he went on his first short-term trip to Uganda while a student at Oral Roberts University. Upon graduation he served as the director of missions at an Atlanta megachurch before joining TMS Global in 2006, initially as manager of recruitment.



In addition to helping scores of people find their place in God's global mission, both with TMS Global and other organizations, Coleman has taught the "Perspectives on the World Christian Movement" course and led short-term missions teams to various places around the globe, including Africa and Central America. Additionally, he has also been involved in global leadership in the missions community, serving on the planning team as the global selection chair for the 2016 Lausanne Younger Leaders Gathering.



Coleman's commitment to seeing more believers of color serving in missions was significant in TMS Global's own diversity push. That initiative has included the 2016 appointment of the Rev. Romal Tune as full-time senior adviser to TMS Global president and CEO the Rev. Max Wilkins, and the founding earlier this year of an African American Mobilization Advisory Board comprising influential leaders representing a broad range of African American churches.



Ordained by the Evangelical Church Alliance International in 2014,Coleman has been encouraged to see others embrace the work of diversifying the North American sending force. Knowing that others are stepping up helped him to step out into his own desire to serve abroad.



"Knowing that African Americans made up less than 0.6 percent of the full-time sending force from America, I felt like maybe my calling was to stay behind and help change that reality," he said. "But over the years I began to feel I was fulfilling a role that others could now fulfill."



Wilkins paid tribute to Coleman's contributions to TMS Global and the wider missions community:

"We're grateful for the way Richard has championed the need for greater diversity in missions, and having pointed the way for others, is now showing the way personally," he said. "We hope we can help many others follow his example, so that as a global church we more fully embody and reflect the truth of the message we proclaim -- that the good news of Jesus is for everyone, everywhere."

TMS Global (www.tms-global.org) mobilizes and equips the body of Christ to share the good news of the gospel, with an emphasis on the least-reached peoples of the world. Workers are engaged in a wide range of dynamic, culturally-sensitive ministries, from training and leadership development to literacy, medical care and relief aid.



To schedule an interview with a representative of TMS Global, contact Ty Mays at (770) 256-8710 or tmays@inchristcommunications.com.
NIA officials today confirmed that they will conduct lie detector test on seven separatist leaders in connection with the terror funding case.

By Kamaljit Kaur Sandhu: As the National Investigation Agency (NIA) probes deeper into the terror funding case, the agency is preparing to approach the NIA special Court to seek permission for a lie detector test to be conducted on the 7 arrested separatist leaders in custody of the agency.

This includes leader Nayeem Khan, Bitta Karate, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq's close aide Shahid Ul Islam, Geelani's son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah alias Altaf Fantosh, the spokesperson for Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Raja Merajuddin Kalwal who have been charged with funding terror groups in Kashmir and indulging in anti-national and subversive activities in the Kashmir Valley.

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However, the consent of the accused is mandatory for a lie detector test. In case the accused refuses to give their consent for the test, the agency cannot proceed.

NIA which has prepared an extensive dossier on conspirators has gone a step further by issuing fresh summons to 25 persons related to the case. "The arrest of second rung hurriyat leaders is only tip of the iceberg, we will be summoning 25 to 30 people in connection with this," a senior NIA official told India Today.

However the agency has not yet summoned top hurriyat hawks like Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Yasin Malik. Sources, however, said it is only matter of time.

Sources said that Geelani's son Nayeem and Naseem have both been summoned by the NIA to New Delhi next week.

In the last two weeks, NIA summoned the office bearers of the Anjuman-e-Auqaf, which runs the affairs of Jamia Masjid in Srinagar, and Anjuman-e-Nusrat-ul-Islam, an educational trust which runs religious schools and is headed by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. His two uncles and his assistant have already been questioned by the agency.

Also, Asiya Andrabi whose brother Taha Andrabi was called in for questioning to New Delhi Headquarters recently is on radar.

TERROR LINKS FROM DUBAI

NIA is also examining terror fund links from Dubai, a senior officer told India Today.

"We will be seeking details from them. As layers of conspiracy against the country is getting off, another angle of gold smuggling is also emerging. Gold smuggling from Dubai being used by terror financiers to fuel unrest in valley," he said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti who was in the national capital to meet the Finance Minister Arun Jaitley told India Today that "The state has no objection to action and arrest carried out by NIA. There is perfect coordination on the ground," she said.

Also Read:

India Today Impact: Naeem Khan, Bitta Karate, 5 other separatists arrested by NIA over Pak funding of terror

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Canada cracks down on terror NGOs funding 'Kashmir' militancy

WATCH | Arrested Hurriyat leaders produced in Patiala House court, NIA demands 20-day custody

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By PTI: Mumbai, Jul 26 (PTI) Foreign Minister of the Republic of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari today slammed terrorists killing innocent people in the name of Islam.

"There is a group of terrorists and they raise slogans in the name of Islam. But they are not Muslims as they are killing (innocent people). They kill women and children. This is not true Islam," he said here.

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The Iraqi minister is on a five-day visit to India. He was in the city for a day-long tour on the invitation of Dawoodi Bohra community.

Referring to the holy verses of Quran, al-Jaafari said, "Whatever is good for the well being of the people will stay and what is harmful to the society, will go away."

"Despite the differences that may exist between different people in the way they perceive the world with their minds, if they come together with their hearts, lasting peace and unity can be achieved.

"Muslims must look to the welfare of all people, regardless of caste or creed. That is the true meaning of being a Muslim," he said.

Earlier, the Iraqi minister visited Raudat Tahera, the Dawoodi Bohra mausoleum in Bhendi Bazaar, where he paid his respects at the graves of the 51st and 52nd leaders of the Dawoodi Bohra community.

Al-Jaafari appreciated the upliftment and welfare programmes initiated by His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin and his predecessors.

A statement issued by the Fayze Husaini Trust, which facilitates the Bohra community people for pilgrimages, said that the Iraqi foreign minister was especially impressed by the redevelopment project in Bhendi Bazaar taken up by the trust, and echoed that the project will push up the living standards of 20,000 residents.

Explaining the objective of inviting the Iraqi minister to the city, a senior executive of the Trust said, "Both the countries share an unbreakable bond with each other. Thousands of the Indian Muslims as well as Christians visit the holy city of Karbala in central Iraq. Therefore, we decided to invite and honour the Iraqi foreign minister." PTI APM RMT SRY

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A Gering woman accused of defrauding her grandfather and parents in separate cases has pleaded to charges in the cases.

Stacia Keener, 33, pleaded to one count of theft by deception, a Class IIA felony, involving the theft of more than $250,000 from her grandfather. Two other felony counts of second-degree forgery in that case were dismissed. In the case, Keeners 84-year-old grandfather reported that he had discovered his granddaughter had forged two checks on his checking account. He provided documentation showing that he had lost over $250,000 over a four-year period when the woman told her grandfather she needed to borrow funds to get monies from a retirement fund, pay the Internal Revenue Service and hire a lawyer. The woman even provided documents that she claimed were from her lawyer as part of the scam.

The man also learned that he was a primary borrower on a loan that he thought he had acted as a co-signer with Keener on.

During that investigation, allegations came forward from parents of music students who had provided funds for a Disney World vacation that Keener had told parents she was organizing. Students had been fundraising since July 2016 for the event, local restaurants had donated and parents had paid large sums of money. Checks were found to have been personally cashed by Keener in her own accounts and at a check cashing business.

Investigators making contact with Disney World officials found that Keener had never planned a trip.

On Wednesday, Keener pleaded to five misdemeanor counts of attempted theft by deception and two counts of theft by deception, a Class IIA felony.

The Class IIA felony charges are punishable by a maximum sentence of four years imprisonment, two years post-release supervision, a $25,000 fine or both. The misdemeanor charges are punishable by a maximum sentence of one year imprisonment, a $1,000 fine or both.

Sentencing in the case has been scheduled for Sept. 15.

Both cases were investigated by the Gering Police Department.
By India Today Web Desk: Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan, who has been out of action for two years now, has announced his next project, Thalaivan Irukkiraan.

In a recent interview to the Tamil magazine Vikatan, Haasan said, "We're planning to release Vishwaroopam 2 first. Then, Sabash Naidu. If I reveal the title of my next film, people may think that I'm using the current political scenario. However, I had registered the title four years back. My next film is Thalaivan Irukkiraan."

Official: Ulaganayagan @ikamalhaasan has announced the title of his new project - #ThalaivanIrukkiraan pic.twitter.com/NuNYHmvWkn- Ramesh Bala (@rameshlaus) July 27, 2017

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It must be noted that Kamal Haasan had announced Thalaivan Irukkirran as Amar Hai with Saif Ali Khan as one of the leads. It was planned to be a Tamil-Hindi bilingual. However, it isn't clear if Saif would be part of the film. Tipped to be a political thriller, Thalaivan Irukkiraan is written by Kamal Haasan and is said to revolve around politics and underworld.

Currently busy with the reality show Bigg Boss Tamil, the project is expected to go on the floors next year after he completes the remaining portions of Sabash Naidu, a spin-off of Balram Naidu from Dasavatharam.

Meanwhile, Kamal Haasan is all set to release his highly anticipated Vishwaroopam 2, a sequel to the blockbuster Tamil film. Directed by Kamal Haasan, the film also stars Andrea Jeremiah, Pooja Kumar, Rahul Bose and Shekhar Kapur in pivotal roles.

Vishwaroopam 2 is likely to release later this year.

ALSO READ: Bigg Boss Tamil | What is Save Oviya Movement?

ALSO READ: Kamal Haasan vs AIADMK | What will Bigg Boss be like in Koovathur?

ALSO READ: Kamal Haasan in trouble over Bigg Boss Tamil? Rs 100 crore defamation case to be filed against the actor

ALSO WATCH: Kamal Haasan calls for mass movement against Tamil Nadu government

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Romania's Justice Minister Tudorel Toader discussed in Brussels on Wednesday with First Vice-President of the European Commission Frans Timmermans recent developments in the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism (CVM) and its prospects, a package of justice laws, and the broader, strategic perspective of improving and adapting the Romanian legislation, pursuant to clarity and predictability.

The meeting is part of an ongoing dialogue with the European Commission for a common agreement on the most appropriate ways of meeting the recommendations contained in the latest report of 25 January 2017 on the progress made by Romania under the CVM and a successful closure of the mechanism, the Ministry of Justice (MJ) informs.

According to the Ministry of Justice, Minister Toader reaffirmed the objective of Romania fulfilling the obligations under the CVM and presented measures taken since the last verbal report of the Commission of 12 July: the drawing up and adoption of a code of conduct for members of the government, launching a transparent procedure for the selection of prosecutors in order to make the nomination for the vacant position of deputy prosecutor-in-chief of the Directorate for Investigating Organised Crime and Terrorism and the conclusion of a protocol for legal education in schools.

"The minister of justice also stressed that the reform approach is made at a certain pace, rhythm and order of precedence by measures on the short, medium and long term. They include harmonising the Criminal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedure with the rulings of the Constitutional Court, the transposition of European directives on the rights of victims and extended powers of confiscation, the modernisation of the laws of the judiciary to improve its stability, the transposition of the obligations of the ECHR pilot decision concerning conditions of detention, the legislation on the enforcement of sentences, the pardon law, the evaluation of the enforcement and operation of the new codes," reads the MJ statement.

Also presented at the meeting were items in the calendar of the Romanian Government for drawing up and passing pieces of legislation regarding these measures. "In this respect, the minister stressed the transparent approach based on consulting the institutions of the judiciary and other stakeholders through public debates. The contributions received this way will be analysed and included in draft legislation to be submitted to Parliament in ordinary legislative procedure," the MJ says.

According to MJ, First Vice-President Frans Timmermans "praised Romania for its major progress with judicial reform and the fight against corruption, with the expectation that these progress will be continued."

"He said continuity in the justice minister's office tenure is a prerequisite for the continuation of reforms. The European Commission supports Romania's efforts, as a partner, and the two officials agreed to continue the good cooperation between the commission and Romania for the common goal of meeting the CVM recommendations," MJ points out.

In the coming period, this cooperation will be materialised in regular consultations on the envisaged legislative measures, as Timmermans highlighted the need to get all stakeholders involved in the drawing up of pieces of legislation.

Also attending the meeting in Brussels were Deputy Secretary General of the European Commission in charge with the Co-operation and Verification Mechanism Paraskevi Michou, and Romanian Secretary of State Marieta Safta.

agerpres.
The Romanian Government is working hard on preparing the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, Minister-delegate for European Affairs Victor Negrescu said at a meeting of a council in charge with this subject.

According to a press statement released by the Foreign Affairs Ministry (MAE), Negrescu attended the third meeting of the Interministerial Council for the Preparation and Exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which convened at Victoria Palace under the leadership of Prime Minister Mihai Tudose.

The meeting highlighted the progress made in the last weeks, and guidelines needed to continue the organisation of the Romanian presidency of the EU Council were completed.

"Let me assure you that Romania is on schedule with all the components of the preparation of the presidency. The entire Government is hectically working on organising this important moment for our country's future path in the European Union," Negrescu said.

At the meeting, Romania's Parliament Palace was chosen as a venue for working meetings to be hosted by Romania during the first six months of 2019. The adoption of this decision was based on a proposal analysis of buildings that meet organisational criteria and have the amenities required by EU Council standards.

Also discussed were the organisation chart and the exercise by Romania of the presidency of the EU Council, a mechanism for cooperation between Parliament and the Government in the field of European affairs, a mechanism for cooperation with the European Parliament and the first version of the schedule of informal meetings to be held in Romania during its six-month presidential tenure.

"By the decisions adopted and by the constancy of its meetings, the Interministerial Council for the Preparation and Exercise of the Romanian Presidency of the Council of the European Union reconfirms its capability of ensuring the political guidance needed to manage such a strategic national project."

agerpres.
By Mail Today Bureau: A new report from RCI, the global leader in vacation, reveals that Indians are warming up towards timeshare. The concept of timesharing is thought to have came about in the early 20th century Europe when families would group together to purchase a holiday home in which they each had a share.

Those families would then be given an equal amount of time to holiday in the property each year with each contributing toward the cost of upkeep. Typically, there may have been four families with each having three months to enjoy the property every year. When it comes to their holiday, the study shows Indians are interested in escaping the daily grind and reconnecting with loved ones.

Photo: Mail Today

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Findings also revealed that consumers view vacation ownership rather favourably with seven in 10 consumers who don't currently own timeshare reporting they find the concept appealing and relevant. Conducted by Kantar IMRB for RCI, the report comprised a sample size of 2008 in depth interviews across including Delhi, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and other major cities. Out of the total sample size 31 per cent of the respondents were timeshare owners.

Photo: Mail Today

Also Read: Vacationing with your family is a great idea, even if you're an adult; here's why

The study examined Indian travellers to understand their motivations behind taking a holiday and the factors that go into deciding where to go. The top rated reason travellers take a vacation is to rejuvenate (60 per cent), followed closely by spending quality time with family (51 per cent) and taking time away from city life (36 per cent). When deciding on a destination for holiday, travellers cited scenic beauty (64 per cent), convenient place to travel to (55 per cent) and affordability (42 per cent) as their top factors. As a result, Goa, Delhi and Kerala were the most popular domestic destinations among Indian travellers. Globally, Indian travellers are most likely to travel to Dubai (20 per cent), Thailand (13 per cent) and Singapore (12 per cent).

Photo: Mail Today

When questioned about the willingness to join, overall 50 per cent of the travellers show willingness to signup for timeshare. Among the non intenders of timeshare, the top reasons for not willing to take timeshare is high cost. Non owners also find it unsuitable for their needs and find the process complicated, this could be driven by lack of clarity about the timeshare process. While those intending to join timeshare in future find it suitable for family trips, like the quality of accommodation and service.

The timeshare owner segment also had significantly less worries while on holiday. When asked about having concerns on holidays, timeshare owners were significantly less concerned about cheats and pickpockets, accommodation quality and food options. Sabina Chopra, managing director, RCI India said, "It is encouraging to observe the response to timeshare in recent times. Timeshare has redefined the satisfaction quotient for the Indian traveller by providing convenient bookings, planning efficiency to scenic destinations, five-star quality accommodation, and adventurous activities.

Ananta Resort in Udaipur operates on the concept of timeshare; Thailand, Kerala, Delhi and Singapore are all popular among timeshare owners. Photo: Mail Today

"Indian travellers have reiterated their preference for timeshare holidays as it gives them the perennial experience of enjoying a gamut of holiday benefits," she continued. "This is reflected in the results of the survey, which show that timeshare owners are much more satisfied with their vacations compared to non-owners. The findings also reveal there is a clear opportunity for the industry with nearly 3 in 4 expressing interest in a product that helps them plan a hassle-free vacation and more than half showing willingness to sign up in the future."

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KEY FEATURES

- Time share owners are typically married 45 to 65 years olds. They have kids who are more than 6 years.

- They generally have their own business , have a monthly income of more than Rs76,000 to more than 1 lakh.

- They start planning almost 1- 4 months in advance and prefer going on group tours.

- The report comprised a sample size of 2008 in depth interviews across including Delhi, Ludhiana, Kolkata, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, and other major cities.

- Out of the total sample size, 31 per cent of the respondents were timeshare owners.

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By PTI: By Lalit K Jha

Washington, Jul 27 (PTI) US President Donald Trump today announced his plans to nominate Kansas Governor Samuel Dale Brownback as his ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom.

If confirmed by the US Senate, Brownback will serve as the head of the Office of International Religious Freedom within the State Department, which is charged with promoting religious freedom as a key objective of US.

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The office monitors "religious persecution and discrimination worldwide, recommend and implement policies in respective regions or countries, and develop programs to promote religious freedom."

"Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honoured to serve such an important cause," Brownback said in a tweet.

Brownback, who has been Governor of Kansas since 2011, in his previous capacity as the United States Senator (1996 to 2011) was a key player in the Congressional passage of the India-US civil nuclear deal.

While a member of the Senate, Brownback worked actively on the issue of religious freedom in multiple countries and was a key sponsor of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. PTI LKJ NSA

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NDA vice-presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu today spoke at the inauguration of a memorial for former president APJ Abdul Kalam near Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu.

By India Today Web Desk: If there is one person who can possibly beat even Prime Minister Narendra Modi in coining acronyms, it has to be former Union minister and now vice-presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu.

Venkaiah Naidu today spoke at the inauguration of a memorial for former president APJ Abdul Kalam near Rameshwaram in Tamil Nadu. Expanding on the former president's initials (APJAK), Naidu gave it his own spin and said APJ Abdul Kalam stands for 'Anything is Possible with Just Attitude and Karma'.

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The memorial of APJ Abdul Kalam was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi who said that the missile man inspired the country's youth who want to become "job creators".

Here are some gems from vice-presidential candidate Venkaiah Naidu:

MODI: Maker of Developed India

In an interview to India Today in November last year, Venkaiah Naidu said Modi is 'Maker of Developed India'.

Reacting to Sonia Gandhi saying that there cannot be any comparisons between Narendra Modi and Indira Gandhi, Naidu said that indeed there cannot be comparisons between the two leaders, and said Modi is MODI--Maker of Developed India.

On earlier occasions, Venkaiah Naidu said that MODI is 'Making of Developed India', and 'Modifier of Developing India'.

EVM: Every Vote Modi

Venkaiah Naidu came up with this acronym while taking a dig at those who, he said, blame EVMs for their electoral defeat in the Assembly election in Uttar Pradesh. Naidu said that for such people EVM stands for 'Every Vote Modi'.

CITY: Civic Infrastructure To You

While speaking at the India Today Conclave 2017 in Mumbai, then Union Minister for Urban Development, Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Venkaiah Naidu said that CITY stands for 'Civic Infrastructure To You'.

YOUNG: You Owe U and Nation Greatness

This acronym was coined when Venkaiah Naidu was addressing youngsters at a conclave at Shri Ram College of Commerce in Delhi in February this year. He said YOUNG stands for 'You Owe U and Nation Greatness'.

APJ Abdul Kalam: Anything is Possible with Just Attitude and Karma

Venkaiah Naidu today bettered his record by coming up with an acronym for former president APJ Abdul Kalam, who is hailed as India's Missile Man.

Wonder what Kalam's reaction to this acronym would have been.

ALSO READ:

PM Modi inaugurates 'missile man' APJ Kalam's memorial on his 2nd death anniversary

APJ Abdul Kalam memorial in Rameswaram: All you need to know

Venkaiah Naidu vs Gopalkrishna Gandhi: 6 vice-presidents who went on to become presidents

ALSO WATCH: When India Today asked Venkaiah Naidu on vice-presidential aspirations: I'm Ushapati, husband of Usha

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As highlighted by the asbestos concerns that surfaced after the Clemens House fire, the demise of old buildings can trigger air quality fears in surrounding neighborhoods, whether destroyed by flames or in an official demolition.

But there will soon be closer oversight of air quality in the city of St. Louis, at least with regard to particulate matter from building demolitions. A bill signed by Mayor Lyda Krewson last week will re-establish a city air pollution control program and appoint two inspectors to regulate demolitions in the city.

As recently as 2011, the city had employed more than 20 people in such an air quality program, before it was defunded by former Gov. Jay Nixon. Enforcement of air quality issues shifted back to state officials, but some say regulation is minimal with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources staffing stretched thin.

The state of Missouri has one inspector for the entire (eastern) region, said the bills sponsor, Alderwoman Cara Spencer, whose ward includes parts of Dutchtown, Gravois Park and other south St. Louis neighborhoods. Theres not a lot of oversight.

In a statement supporting the bill during the legislative process, Melba Moore, the citys director of health, said that the issue goes beyond public health: Its a matter of environmental justice, she said, given the concentration of demolitions in low-income parts of the city.

A main priority for the St. Louis City Health Department is addressing issues of racial and health equity, Moore said. We know that asthma rates are higher in parts of the city that tend to have more demolitions and inspecting these (demolitions) locally will greater protect our residents from airborne particulate matter that causes asthma and other health issues.

Implementation of the program could prove timely, with the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District planning about 1,000 demolitions on vacant property in the city to boost green space for rain absorption and simultaneously invite redevelopment.

Spencer says that re-establishing the air quality control program will help bring the citys policies in line with St. Louis County, where stricter procedures for controlling dust from demolitions are already in place.

The amount of asbestos in the building that would trigger special action ... is the same that the county has, said Spencer, discussing the citys new plan.

The funding mechanism, she said, will also be the same as the system used in the county. Demolition permit fees that currently go to the state will be redirected to the city and are expected to cover the costs of hiring the two new air quality inspectors.

With the bill now signed, Spencer said the city aims to have the new inspectors in place by Oct. 1.
Build-A-Bear Workshop said Thursday it plans to return to Manhattan with a new store opening next to the Empire State Building, where it previously had a temporary location. The Overland-based retailer also plans to debut a new My Little Pony collection later this year in addition to a Star Wars character and a limited edition Pokemon character.

As foot traffic at malls continues to decline, Build-A-Bears recent push to add smaller format concourse locations in mall walkways is paying off with higher sales per square foot than at its traditional mall stores, CEO Sharon Price John said in an earnings call with analysts Thursday morning. The company added 17 U.S. concourse shops in the second quarter, bringing its total count to 20 concourse locations.

Clearly were excited about the potential of this new model, Price John said. Its hard to walk around a Build-A-Bear when its right in the middle of the malls walkway, she said.

The retailer said it was able to narrow its losses in the second quarter as revenue grew.

Its adjusted net loss was $2.3 million, or 15 cents per share, in the period ended July 1. That compared favorably to an adjusted net loss of $3.7 million, or 24 cents, in the year-earlier period.

Total revenue rose 2.8 percent to $77.2 million.

Same-store sales declined 0.9 percent. That reflected a 1.5 percent decrease in North America, and a 2.2 percent increase in Europe.

Build-A-Bear shares closed Thursday at $9.65, down 8.5 percent.

During the second quarter, the company said it opened 23 new stores, closed six locations and remodeled or reformatted 16 stores. As of July 1, Build-A-Bear had 353 company-owned stores, including 93 in a Discovery format, with 293 locations in North America, 59 in Europe and one in China. The companys international franchisees ended the period with 88 stores in 11 countries.
Sen. Claire McCaskill wants information and documents from more manufacturers of opioids as she continues to investigate the causes behind the nation's opioid epidemic.

The investigation has been expanded to include four more opioid manufacturers and distributors. The expanded inquiry now includes Mallinckrodt, the company said Thursday.

Her office has requested information relating to Mallinckrodt's efforts to monitor suspicious ordering and other programs the company has in place to stop opioids from being diverted to the black market.

Weve seen numerous reports that potentially hundreds of millions of opioid pills wound up on the black market, fueling a nationwide epidemicwe need a better understanding of how committed these companies are to preventing this type of drug diversion or whether they are turning a blind eye, McCaskill said.

Mallinckrodt said that it would comply with the senator's request for information. Mallinckrodt manufacturers generic painkillers and its U.S. headquarters is based in Hazelwood.

"[Mallinckrodt] will continue working with her office on the important issue of prescription drug abuse and misuse in Missouri and across the country."

McCaskills newest requests for documents were sent to Mallinckrodt, Endo, Teva, and Allergan. A similar request was sent to McKesson Corp., AmerisourceBergen Corp., and Cardinal Health, Inc., which focus on their role in the distribution of opioid products.

Earlier this year, Mallinckrodt agreed to pay a fine of $35 million for failing to report what the Drug Enforcement Agency said were suspicious orders. Although the company agreed to the fine, they admitted no wrongdoing.

McCaskill sent the letters from her position as the top Democrat on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs committee. But the committees chairman, Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., has not joined in the query.
By PTI: New Delhi, Jul 26 (PTI) A Delhi court today extended by three days the custody of a woman director of two Dubai-based firms to the Enforcement Directorate for her interrogation in a probe in the Rs 3,600 crore VVIP choppers money laundering case.

A special CBI judge Arvind Kumar extended the custody of Shivani Saxena, an "active" director of Dubai-based Ms UHY Saxena and Ms Matrix Holdings, after she was produced before the court from her earlier ED custody.

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The ED had arrested Saxena on July 17 from Chennai.

The agency had said in a statement that she was arrested under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

Saxena and her husband Rajiv are residents of Palm Jumeirah in Dubai, an archipelago which is home to the most expensive properties in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The ED had alleged that the two Dubai-based firms Saxena was involved with were those "through which the proceeds of crime had been routed and further layered and integrated in buying the immovable properties/shares among others" in this case.

The agency had said that in its probe it had found that AgustaWestland, United Kingdom "paid an amount of Euro 58 million as kickbacks" through two Tunisia-based firms.

"These companies further siphoned off the said money in the name of consultancy contracts to Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius and others which were further transferred to Ms UHY Saxena and Ms Matrix Holdings Ltd, Dubai and others," it had said.

The ED had also claimed that Saxenas husband Rajiv is the "beneficial owner of Ms Interstellar Technologies Limited, Mauritius."

It alleged that both the Dubai companies of the couple "received the proceeds of crime in their respective Dubai bank accounts" from the Mauritius-based firm.

The ED, in this case, had also arrested Delhi-based businessman Gautam Khaitan last year and he is out on bail at present.

The probe in the deal had gathered pace after a Milan (Italy) court sometime back sentenced Italian defence and aerospace major Finmeccanicas former chief Giuseppe Orsi and AgustaWestland CEO Bruno Spagnolini on corruption charges in the sale of these helicopters to India.

The Milan court order also mentions the name of former IAF chief SP Tyagi at several points.

Post this, the ED and the CBI began a fresh round of questioning of the accused in this case and collection of further evidences.

The ED had registered a PMLA case in 2014 and had named 21 people including Tyagi in its money laundering FIR.

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On January 1, 2014, India scrapped the contract with Finmeccanicas British subsidiary AgustaWestland for supplying 12 AW-101 VVIP choppers to the IAF over alleged breach of contractual obligations and charges of paying kickbacks to the tune of Rs 423 crore by it for securing the deal. PTI UK RRT SMJ

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If everything had gone according to plan, Jonathan Schoen and Brian Schmitz would have opened a downtown restaurant called Polite Society six years ago. The duo posted signs on an Olive Street storefront announcing Polite Societys imminent arrival. This restaurant critic, working then for a different publication, dutifully wrote about the news and then waited. And waited.

The restaurant industry doesnt care for your plans. The Olive Street deal fell apart, and I consigned Polite Society to the long list of never-weres.

Schoen and Schmitz didnt give up, though. Both men are industry veterans. Last decade, Schoen owned the upscale Central West End restaurant Savor. More recently, he has been the general manager at Bar Italia, the restaurants at the revamped Cheshire hotel and Scape. Schmitz owned SOL Lounge and the coffeehouse the Grind, both in the Central West End.

In early 2016, the duo took over the address in the heart of Lafayette Square that Ricardos Italian Cafe had vacated in 2015 after 26 years and began transforming it into Polite Society. This restaurant critic dutifully wrote about the news and then waited. And waited.

Finally, this March, Polite Society opened. The renovated space isnt particularly distinctive  there are hardwood floors, exposed-brick walls and, of course, Edison bulbs  but its handsome. (When busy, its also loud.)

As Schoen told me in a March phone interview, he and Schmitz want Polite Society to become a Lafayette Square fixture, a restaurant where youre comfortable with either your significant other or your co-workers.

Lafayette Square is great about supporting restaurants, Schoen said. As long as you take care of them, they take care of you.

Schoen and Schmitz have stacked the kitchen with upscale-restaurant talent. Thomas Futrell, previously of Scape, is the executive chef, while the sous chef is former Blood & Sand executive chef Chris Kryzsik. They have built a menu remarkable not for any fusion or gimmickry or avant-garde thinking, but for a seamless blend of the classic and the contemporary, where you can follow an of-the-moment (both in trendiness and in terms of the growing season) heirloom- tomato salad with a steak served with an old-school foyot sauce.

That heirloom-tomato salad ($12) is one of the few things that could make me wish for year-round summer. Its a riff on a classic caprese salad: burstingly ripe tomatoes with creamy, fresh mozzarella, Thai basil and watermelon radish, dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar and served with freshly baked bread to sop up all the juices.

Shrimp and grits ($14) brings plump, head-on Gulf white shrimp on a bed of cheese grits dotted with a lime crema. The briny, buttery sweetness of the shrimp, sharpened with blackening seasoning, is delicious by itself (especially if you suck the juices out of the head). An aromatic sofrito and the tartness of the crema make this a standout starter  and made me wish the portion were bigger so it could be a standout main course.

I suspect the confit chicken wings ($11) will be one of Polite Societys signature dishes. As the name suggests, the wings are slowly cooked in their own fat before being fried to order. The result is more luscious meat than the usual wing delivers. There are three dipping sauces: a Cajun aioli (my favorite), a hot honey mustard and Ricks Szechwan Sauce, which disappointed me only because Id girded myself for fearsome chile heat or the numbing effect of Szechuan peppercorns.

A small detail: The pickled carrot-celery slaw on which the chicken wings sit is delicious by itself. Such small, vital moments abound, including the too-often-forgotten art of serving hot food on a hot plate.

Distinct from the appetizer menu is a selection of Bites & Sides  too many for even an expansive review to cover. I did like the housemade potato chips, though I could do without the funk-squared truffled blue-cheese dipping sauce. The revelation here is the spaetzle ($5), subtly spiced with nutmeg and tossed in a Gruyere sauce. I wanted to pair them with the chicken schnitzel ($18), two broad planks of crisp, juicy chicken. The schniztel is fine as it is, though, with the simple, smart accompaniments of a warm, vinegar-kissed potato salad and baby greens in a balsamic vinegar.

Simple but smart could describe many of the entrees  or, rather, simple, smart and visually irresistible, like perfectly bronzed diver scallops ($34) on a bed of tender field peas and Swiss chard with a swirl of lemon-pepper butter as a fleeting vibrant note. Pork Osso Buco ($25) is a daunting hunk of fork-tender shank, but Futrell knows to balance its intense porkiness with sharp accents: the acid of marinated tomatoes, the bitterness of treviso (like radicchio) and the funk of polenta with goat cheese.

I would return to Polite Society for any of these dishes, but the main course that will make me a regular is the bistro steak ($25), the lately popular teres major cut seared on a plancha to exactly the medium-rare I requested and sliced against the grain so that its chew yields the maximum amount of juicy, beefy flavor. The steak is served with skinny, crisp fries and, on the side, as a luxurious accent, foyot sauce, a classic bearnaise further enriched with reduced brown stock. Dab it on your steak. Dip your fries in it. Eat it with a spoon.

The flaws are few and bookended my meals. The cocktails I tried  the gin-based Thai fighter, the tequila-grapefruit-pomegranate concoction Neither/Nor, especially  lacked balance, tending toward the sweet. The dessert selection is small, and the chocolate pretzel-bread pudding ($9) is satisfying in a blunt manner at odds with the more nuanced cooking here.

Those objections aside, Polite Society is an excellent modern bistro  welcome at any time, and especially now, when two exemplars of that species (Grapeseed and Three Flags Tavern) have recently closed. And once youve eaten here, its surviving a six-year delay wont seem as remarkable. Timeless quality tends to persevere.

Where Polite Society, 1923 Park Avenue  Three stars out of four  More info 314-325-2553; politesocietystl.com  Menu Contemporary and classic bistro fare  Hours Dinner daily, brunch Saturday-Sunday

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Christopher Stark is enjoying noteworthy success.

A composer and assistant professor of music at Washington University, Stark has been chosen for a 2017 fellowship from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation. And as if that prestigious honor wasnt enough, the Montana native has contributed the score to the upcoming film Novitiate (starring Margaret Qualley of HBOs The Leftovers).

Listening to music has always been my favorite activity, since I can remember, says Stark, who focuses on contemporary classical music but also appreciates rock and jazz. I attend every concert in St. Louis that I can possibly get to.

Stark is among 173 Guggenheim Fellows selected from nearly 3,000 applicants  artists, scholars and scientists  in the United States and Canada. The fellowship will support his work on a chamber opera inspired by Dorothea Langes Depression-era photographs. Lange was known for her penetrating images of rural poverty.

Contemporary opera has taken a lot of interesting twists and turns, as far as storytelling, Stark says. The narrative can be quite complex or more abstract. In his opera, he plans to use Langes photographs as jumping-off points.

She has such great characters in her photographs, and she captured such incredible drama, he says.

Starks music has been performed by ensembles including Alarm Will Sound, American Composers Orchestra and the Left Coast Chamber Ensemble. The New York Times praised his Montana-themed composition  and start west, which the ACO performed in 2011 at the SONiC: Sounds of a New Century festival in New York, as fetching and colorful.

With his score for Novitiate, Stark is poised to reach a wider audience. Qualley portrays a young woman struggling to become a nun in the drama set in the 1960s and directed by Margaret Betts. The film is scheduled for a fall release.
On a day when 20,000 members of the Urban League from all over the country were gathered in St. Louis for the groups annual convention, a sister civil rights organization issued a warning to African-Americans and other marginalized citizens:

Beware of traveling in Missouri.

Thats the message in an emergency resolution passed by the NAACP on Wednesday.

The resolution is signed by interim president and CEO Derrick Johnson; chairman of the national board of directors Leon Russell; and senior vice president for advocacy Hilary Shelton.

Citing the signing of Senate Bill 43 by Gov. Eric Greitens, a law that rolls back discrimination protections for employees in the state, the NAACP resolution said the organization shall warn people of the dangers of travel through the State of Missouri and nation.

The resolution is not a boycott but a travel advisory, and it cites more than the controversial legislation that will make it easier for employers to discriminate. The document is a reminder that three years after Ferguson and the death of Michael Brown, being black in Missouri can get you killed.

Thats what happened to Tory Sanders in March when he died at the hands of jailers in rural Mississippi County. His crime? Driving While Black. Sanders, who lived in Nashville, Tenn., and was mentally ill, was driving in the rural Missouri county when he ran out of gas. Stuck in Missouri, he called his mom.

If I go to the police, will they help me? he asked, according to a story by reporter Doyle Murphy in the Riverfront Times. Sure, theyll help you, she replied.

Hours later, he was dead. Sanders was pepper sprayed and hit with a Taser at least three times. Now the sheriff, Cory Hutcheson, is being investigated by Missouri Attorney General Josh Hawley. Hutcheson was already facing 18 criminal charges in two unrelated incidents.

The resolution cites two men from India who were shot near Kansas City this year because a white patron in a bar thought they were Muslim. Srinivas Kuchibhotla died from his injuries. He was 32.

Missouri fosters racial and ethnic disparities in Education, Health, Economic Empowerment, and Criminal Justice, the resolution reads.

The travel advisory is the brainchild of Jefferson City attorney Rod Chapel, president of the NAACP in Missouri.

In February, Chapel was silenced by the chairman of a Missouri House committee when he appeared to testify against a bill that was similar to the discrimination-rollback measure that became law. As Chapel recounted recent Missouri history, from Ferguson, to the University of Missouri protests, to the annual racial profiling numbers issued by the attorney general, he said the state had become a national laughingstock when it came to discrimination.

The chairman, Rep. Bill Lant, R-Pineville, cut off his microphone. He didnt want to hear what Chapel had to say.

Ive never seen anything like it, Chapel told me at the time. Its nuts. He invited me to give public testimony at his committee and then wouldnt let me talk.

Chapel and other anti-discrimination advocates urged Greitens to veto the bill. They told him there would be national consequences. Now one of the nations largest and most prominent civil rights organizations is warning its members.

Be careful in Missouri, it says.

Be aware that according to the states own numbers, if you are black, youre 75 percent more likely that a white person to be searched if you get pulled over for a driving infraction. If youre Hispanic, you are more likely to be arrested in Missouri after a traffic stop even though you are less likely to be found with contraband than a white driver.

In Missouri, a state senator whose private business was being sued by black employees for discrimination filed a bill to make such lawsuits much more difficult to file. The Missouri Legislature passed it. Greitens signed it.

The governor had been invited to speak Wednesday at the Urban Leagues conference. (His office said he declined because of a scheduling conflict.) Chapel, the NAACP leader, had a message for his colleagues in civil rights advocacy who were at the conference:

They need to get on board.
FLORISSANT  A Missouri mother's lawsuit says that a Walgreens pharmacy here gave her son five times the prescribed dose of methadone, causing him to stop breathing and sending him into intensive care.

The lawsuit, filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, says that Sara Bean picked up the prescription from the Walgreens at 460 North Highway 67 in Florissant on July 2, 2016. Her son, who is identified in the lawsuit only by initials, was prescribed the methadone for painful bed sores, but the suit says the pharmacy gave the family a dose that was five times the prescribed concentration.

The family's lawyer, Doug Dowd, said the teen has health conditions that confine him to bed. He declined further comment.

The next day, Bean gave her son the methadone. He later vomited, then turned blue and stopped breathing, the suit says.

His mother started CPR, and he started breathing again after paramedics gave him Narcan, the suit says. He spent three days in the pediatric intensive care unit of Mercy Hospital, the suit says.

The suit seeks unspecified damages for actual and punitive damages.

Dowd said the boy was 15 at the time and is now 16. Dowd said it wasn't yet clear if the teen suffered long-term effects from the overdose, given his underlying medical conditions.

A Walgreens spokesman said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
By PTI: S Singan

Rameswaram (TN), Jul 27 (PTI) Prime Minister Narendra Modi today urged the people to work together to fulfil former president A P J Abdul Kalams dream of seeing a developed India by 2022 when it celebrates its 75th Independence Day.

"There are 125 crore people and if each one takes one step, then the country would be 125 crore steps ahead," he told a public meeting near this island, the home town of the late Missle Man, after inaugurating his national memorial.

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Various schemes launched by central government whether it was "Stand up India or Start up India, Amrut cities or smart cities or Clean India projects would go a long way in realising Kalams dream of "developed India", he said.

In a reference to epic Ramayana, Modi said even a small squirrel had helped Lord Ram in constructing the Ramasethu (bridge) for him to cross over to Sri Lanka.

"If people are committed like that squirrel, the country can scale great heights," Modi said addressing a gathering at Mandapam, about 15 kms from here.

He urged the youth and pilgrims visiting this holy town to include a visit to Kalams memorial, designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) with which the former president was associated with for a long time.

Modi heaped praise on labourers involved in the construction of the memorial, saying they had not charged for the extra two hours they had put in every day.

After sweating it out from 8 AM to 5 PM, they would later take a break for one hour and put in two additional man hours.

They had refused payment for these extra two hours, saying it was their way of contributing towards the memory of Kalam, Modi said, adding this deserved a standing ovation. The audience was immediately on its feet applauding the the labourers, architects and workers who had toiled in raising the structure.

Paying rich tributes to Kalam, whose second death anniversary was observed today, Modi said the former president continues to inspire crores of countrymen. "People from every corner of the country come here (mostly on pilgrimage). I urge them, the tour operators and youth -- whenever you come here, add to your programme a visit to this memorial," Modi said. The Prime Minister pointed out that Kalam loved the youths and the students very much, and it was for their benefit that Stand Up and Start Up schemes had been launched. The Mudra bank loan scheme had been launched to provide loans for the youths without any guarantee and it had benefited over eight crore people, including one crore from Tamil Nadu, he said.

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A new India and a new Tamil Nadu could be developed with the cooperation of the central and state governments, he said.

Ten cities in the state had been chosen for the smart city project and 33 towns for development under the AMRUT (Atal Mission for Rejuvenation and Urban Transformation) scheme, he said. The central government had allocated Rs.900 crore for the Smart City and Rs.4,700 crore for the AMRUT scheme, he said the latter would ensure availability of better power, water, sanitation and other essential infrastructure.

The Prime Minister hoped that the Sagar Mala scheme, linking the coastal areas spreading through the countrys 7,500 km coastal line, would bring more investments and benefit people in a big way.

Announcing the launch of deep sea fishing to Rameswaram fishermen under hte Blue Revolution scheme, for which Rs 1,500 crore had been allocated, he said it would help fishermen to get better revenue and at the same time overcome problems relating to the fishing in the Palk Strait.

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The Prime Minister also flagged off a weekly train to Ayodhya in Uttar Pradesh from Rameswaram.

In order to help the people worship at Ramar Sethu, the mythical bridge believed to have been built by Lord Rama, the Rameswaram-Dhanushkodi road which was destroyed in the devastating cyclone decades ago had been rebuilt.

Modi also unveiled synopsis of Green Rameswaram scheme, a pet project of late Kalam, presented by the local Vivekananda Kendra.

He recalled that it was here that Swami Vivekananda placed his first step when he returned from America in 1897.

Earlier, after inaugurating the memorial, Modi paid floral tributes to Kalam at his samadhi.

Evincing keen interest in the features of the memorial, which has on display replicas of rockets and missiles on which the late scientist had worked, the Prime Minister viewed it for about 15 minutes.

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It has been built at a cost of Rs 15 crore on land alloted by the Tamil Nadu government at Kalams village Peikarambu.

On the occasion, the Prime Minister also unveiled a wooden statue of Kalam playing the veena. The former president was adept at playing the musical instrument.

The memorial also has about 900 paintings and 200 rare photographs of the late scientist, who held the office of the president from 2002 to 2007.

Modi was accompanied by Tamil Nadu Governor Ch Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Union ministers Pon Radhakrishnan, Nirmala Sitharaman and NDAs vice presidential nominee M Venakaiah Naidu.

The prime minister earlier unfurled the national flag at the entrance of the memorial. Later, he interacted with family members of Kalam.

Modi was seen affectionately holding the hands of Kalams elder brother A P J Mohamed Muthumeeran Maraikaya. PTI SSN SA VS RT

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Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi will host NSA Ajit Doval and other officials for a banquet, while the BRICS NSA's summit will hold a formal opening on Friday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

By Ananth Krishnan: As NSA Ajit Doval heads to Beijing on July 27 and 28 for the BRICS NSA's meet, here are five facts about his host and main interlocutor, the top Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi.

Yang Jiechi (pronounced yaang jeeyeh-chuh) is China's State Councillor - as its National Security Adviser is known - and couldn't be more unlike his Indian counterpart. Doval's colourful exploits as a spy are the stuff of legend. Yang, on the other hand, is a career diplomat who is known for his cautious demeanour, and whose public utterances wouldn't exactly be described as colourful. Yang started out as an interpreter in the Foreign Ministry and climbed the ranks, and early on in his career famously accompanied George HW Bush on a trip to Tibet. Since then, he has been a long-time friend of Bush Senior and Junior, who reportedly nicknamed him "Tiger Yang". Yang is rare among senior Chinese officials in spending quite a bit of time overseas, studying in Bath and at the London School of Economics. International diplomacy runs in his family. His brother Yang Jiemian is a widely respected strategic affairs scholar and former president of the Shanghai Institute of International Studies. The one time that the cautious career diplomat's mask famously slipped was at an ASEAN forum in 2010, when he reportedly thundered at other diplomats in the room: "There is one basic difference among us. China is a big state and you are smaller countries." Whether Yang and Doval will discuss the Doklam stand-off remains to be seen, but what is clear is Yang is now already a veteran on India-China border affairs. He has been the "Special Representative" on three rounds of boundary talks and engaged with two Indian SRs. His first was the 17th round in 2014 along with former NSA Shivshankar Menon, and he has since chaired two rounds of talks with Doval. They certainly know each other well.

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Yang will host Doval and other officials for a banquet, while the BRICS NSA's summit will hold a formal opening on Friday morning at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse in Beijing.

As India Today reported, Doval will also meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping, with the five NSAs set to call on Xi at the Great Hall of the People on Friday afternoon.

Yang and Doval are also Special Representatives on the India-China boundary negotiations.

Also read:

After Doklam, Chinese war veterans planning rare 1962 commemoration

NSA Doval to meet China's Jinping as tension over Doklam peaks

China praises PM Modi, courts India on trade despite Doklam standoff

Rights and wrongs clear, India must pull back to end Doklam standoff: China

ALSO WATCH VIDEO: China claims India admitted it crossed border, asks latter to withdraw from Doklam to end standoff

--- ENDS ---
July 27, 1953, is the day the killing stopped in the Korean War 64 years ago. On this anniversary occasion, it is timely to contemplate a solution to the North Korean dilemma confronting the United States and the world.

I am a 90-year-old veteran of the Korean War. I hope that someone somewhere will pay attention to what I have to say. We saved South Korea from the North Koreans at great cost all those years ago. About 36,000 American service personnel were killed, 103,000 were wounded and 7,799 are still listed as missing in action in the 37-month war. The war was intense, with an average casualty rate of 3,968 per month.

We must not save South Korea again in another bloody war.

I hope our president will make it clear to President Moon Jae-in that it is the sole responsibility of South Korea to mobilize its armed forces into an efficient and effective fighting force capable of defeating North Korea. The United States should work with President Moon to provide his country with the missiles, tanks, planes and other equipment that is needed.

We can also provide training to the South Koreans as necessary. We then should withdraw our forces now stationed in Korea to emphasize that we are not there to deter Kim Jong-un or risk American service personnel in another round of combat on the peninsula. It is unacceptably dangerous for us to have 28,000 service personnel stationed in Korea. As long as they are there, the South Koreans will lack the motivation necessary to sustain a force adequate to protect their country against Kims military.

South Korea is a prosperous nation of more than 50 million people. North Korea is a nation of about 25 million impoverished people. Those statistics alone support my opinion that my plan is doable.

In November 1950, China interceded in the Korean War and sent hundreds of thousands of troops across the Yalu River into Korea, extending the war and the massive casualties to follow. China should feel a responsibility to do more to stop Kim from developing an intercontinental missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead that can reach as far as Hawaii and the West Coast of the United States. Kim has said that he is developing his nuclear capability to protect his country from being attacked.

China can and should guarantee that it will protect North Korea from such an attack, provided North Korea dismantles and discontinues its nuclear programs. President Trump can use his new relationship with the Chinese leadership to make this happen. The history of recent decades has proven that sanctions and United Nations resolutions do not work.

If China cannot or will not cause Kim to dismantle its nuclear program now that it is evident that he will have an operable long range missile, it seems inevitable that regime change in North Korea must be achieved by decisive action from within North Korea or, alternatively, by a coalition of nations.

I am disappointed that President Trump after his meetings with President Moon only seemed to discuss improving the trade deficit with no mention of solving the imminent danger that hangs over the peninsula. My plea is that he convince President Moon to mobilize and be able and ready. He then should order all American troops withdrawn from Korea.

In 1951, I was with the First Marine Division fighting the Chinese army at the 38th Parallel in Korea. To me the war is not about the statistics noted above. I still see the fixed stare of death in the unseeing eyes of a young Marine lying in the muck on a hillside. I still taste and smell the cordite mixed with the acrid odor of blood. I hear my best friend talking about his plans for a future that was not to be.

To repeat the horrors of the Korean War must not be allowed to happen. I urge action now before it is too late.

Leonard Adreon is the author of "Hilltop Doc, A Marine Corpsman Fighting Through the Mud and Blood of the Korean War." Information on the book is available at hilltopdoc.com.
Pakistan ambassador to the United States, Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry, has said that Pakistan s growth indicators were positive and pointing in the right direction because of the Government of Pakistan s focus on economic stability and outward looking policies.

Aizaz Chaudhry stated this while addressing members of the Washington-based think tank community, local and international press, and academia, at an event organized by the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in Washington.

Read more: Pakistan firmly committed to defeat terrorism in all its forms: aizaz Chaudhry

He said that Pakistan Government s emphasis on building economic connectivity, best symbolized by the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project, had generated interest among international investors, including those from corporate America.

Aizaz Chaudhry said that this economic revival had taken place at the same time that the country had successfully turned the corner in its fight against terrorism and extremism.

Referring to the great human and material cost entailed in reversing the tide of terrorism when it was ascendant elsewhere in the region, Ambassador Chaudhry said that, "No nation has done more in the fight against terrorism."

Also read: Eliminating terror sanctuaries in Afghanistan vital to regional security: aizaz Chaudhry

Turning towards regional developments, Aizaz Chaudhry said Pakistan continued to support an inclusive political reconciliation process in Afghanistan as the only viable path towards obtaining lasting peace in the region and added that there is no military solution to the conflict in Afghanistan.

Aizaz Chaudhry also identified key steps for restoring peace and stability in Afghanistan, including intra-Afghan reconciliation, robust border management, repatriation of Afghan refugees and close cooperation between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Explore: Pakistan-US relations are of vital importance: aizaz Chaudhry

Aizaz Chaudhry stated that the tendency of blaming Pakistan for security incidents inside Afghanistan was unhelpful. There was evidence that militant groups, having fled from Pakistan s border areas as a result of Pakistan s operations, had found sanctuaries in Afghanistan s ungoverned spaces from where they planned and coordinated attacks against both countries.
Chief Justice of Pakistan Mian Saqib Nisar has taken suo motu notice of the Multan panchayat rape case on Thursday.

The Supreme Court chief justice directed the Punjab inspector general of police to submit a report in this regard.

Also on Thursday, police claimed to have arrested all the main accused in the case.

A horrific incident took place in Multans Muzaffarabad locality when members of a panchayat (council of elders) ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment for a rape allegedly committed by her brother.

According to local police, a man had complained to the panchayat that his 12-year-old sister had been raped by their cousin. The panchayat then ordered the complainant to rape the 16-year-old sister of the accused in revenge.

Read more: multan panchayat orders rape of alleged rapist's sister

"A jirga had ordered the rape of a 16-year-old girl as punishment, as her brother had raped a 12-year-old," said Allah Baksh, a local police official, while talking to AFP.

Police, upon hearing of the incident, arrested 10 members of the panchayat, including its head.

In the following days, police were able to nab all main accused, said to be around 20.

SHO Muzaffarabad Malik Rashid said the First Information Report (FIR) for both cases had been registered at the women crisis centre. The SHO also questioned the authority of the panchayat for ordering such a crime.

Punjab Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif also took notice of the incident and sought a report from the Multan city police officer (CPO).

"When the first FIR was lodged and investigated we came to know that there was more to the case which was being hidden. When we investigated further and chased the accused during the last 2-3 days, the entire incident was unearthed," said the CPO.

Panchayat's consist of local elders and are a traditional means of settling disputes in Pakistan's rural areas, where courts and lawyers are not always accessible or trusted.
Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Nafees Zakaria on Thursday expressed concern over the increase in Indian brutality in the occupied valley of Kashmir.

In his weekly media briefing at the Foreign Office, Zakaria noted that there has been a rise in atrocities by occupying Indian forces in Kashmir. He said more than 18,000 Kashmiris are missing while Indian troops are using rape as a weapon to subdue the people in the valley.

He pointed out that India is trying to scare families of Hurriyat leaders. There has also been an increase in atrocities against Muslims, Christians and Dalits in India, he added.

Zakaria urged the international community to take notice of the continuing Indian aggression.

He said Pakistan had offered to arrange medical treatment of Kashmiris injured by pellet guns but India had refused. The offer remains on the table, he added.

Recapping the major events from the week, the spokesperson said Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited Maldives on the invitation of Maldives President Abdulla Yameen.

Zakaria conveyed Pakistan's deep gratitude to the Afghan government on the safe recovery of two diplomatic officials of the Consulate General of Pakistan in Jalalabad. He said Pakistan does not believe in blame game, adding that hurling of accusations was detrimental to efforts of establishing peace in the region.
France has raised doubts about the legitimacy of new US sanctions against Iran and Russia, saying they do not conform to international law due to their extraterritorial reach.

The French foreign ministry said in a statement on Wednesday that French and European laws would need to be adjusted in response to the new sanctions, which await US President Donald Trumps approval.

The ministry also called for discussions at European Union level because of the potential impact that the bans were going to have on European citizens and firms.

On Tuesday, the US House of Representatives voted to impose new sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea. The lower chamber of the US Congress voted 419 to 3 to pass the sanctions package.

The bill includes sanctions against Iran and the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) for allegedly supporting terrorism, which Tehran vehemently denies, and North Korea, for its missile tests.

The legislation also aims to punish Moscow for its alleged meddling in the 2016 US presidential election and the reunification of Crimea with the Russian Federation.

The EU had earlier warned Washington against the new bans, out of fear that they would adversely affect its new energy deals with Russia.

In a clear message to Trump, EU President Jean-Claude Juncker said the bloc would act within days if the Trump administration failed to reassure its European allies about the potential impacts of the bans on their interests.

"America first cannot mean that Europe's interests come last," he added.

The EU fears that the new punitive measures might hit European companies involved in the Nord Stream 2 pipeline project, which will be used to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany.

Germany has also opposed the latest measures, calling them an unacceptable move that is likely to serve the interests of US industry policies.

Iran warns of reciprocal measures

Earlier in the day, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani condemned the new Congress bill and said the Iranian parliament would adopt reciprocal measures.

And we will take any step deemed necessary in line with the interests of our country, and we will continue our path without paying attention to their (Americans) sanctions and policies, he asserted.

Meanwhile, Abbas Araqchi, the Iranian deputy foreign minister for legal and international affairs, said the hostile move amounted to a breach of the 2015 nuclear deal between Iran and the six world powersthe US, the UK, France, Russia, China and Germany.
Frustrations around on-going road closures due to slips and drop-outs around the Coromandels State Highway network, has seen a public meeting being called in Coromandel Town next week.

The Coromandel Business Association has arranged the meeting, inviting New Zealand Transport Authority representatives to discuss the situation over slips along the Thames Coast Road/SH25 which has seen on-going road closures, affecting the upper Coromandel Peninsula for the past several months.

"We all want to work together, to plan the best way to resolve what is a huge issue across the Peninsula and a source of great frustration for us all," says Jan Autumn, from the Coromandel Business Association.

The meeting has the support from our Council, the Colville-Coromandel Community Board and the communities of the upper-Coromandel Peninsula and will be held Monday, July 31, 5.30pm at the Coromandel Town Citizens Hall on Kapanga Rd.

"I encourage everyone to come and fill the Hall, to hear from NZTA what action is going to be done to fix the State Highway," says Thames-Coromandel District Mayor Sandra Goudie, who will also be at the meeting.

"I am also increasingly alarmed by the compromised condition of our state highway, where we are potentially facing a district where a large proportion is isolated by the collapse of this road, with no access to the northern half of the district," says Sandra, who has written a letter to Transport Minister Simon Bridges to express her concerns.

"Ive explained in my letter that were disenfranchised by the current government funding policy, based on vehicle numbers, with no accommodation for our unique circumstance as a tourist and visitor destination.

"Ive also asked the Minister, what is the governments commitment to ensuring the State Highway remains open?"

In the past six months there have been several significant slips on the Thames Coast Rd, along with road drop outs between Thames and Coromandel Town and also on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd/SH25 at Pumpkin Hill between Tairua and Pauanui.

Meanwhile another slip on the Kopu-Hikuai Rd/SH25A between Kopu and Whangamata earlier this week resulted in the road being closed for several days.

Right now there is a road closure in place from 9am  3pm, which returns to stop/go operation overnight.

Its expected the road will be open to two lanes later this week.

To get the latest updates on the state highway road closures click here.
Tauranga lawyer Anna Pollett has been appointed Crown solicitor for Tauranga, Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson announced this week.

She takes over the role from Greg Hollister-Jones following his appointment to the District Court Bench in March 2017.

Anna says she has had a busy week leading up to the announcement, but is excited to get started in her new position.

Im delighted with the result of the process and Im very much looking forward to the future serving this community.

In terms of in the way Crown prosecutions are conducted in our region, I think it will very much be business as usual, but Im also looking forward to all of the opportunities the role provides for our community.

Anna has been in the Bay of Plenty since January 2015, and moved here for the role at Hollister-Jones Lellman, for the wonderful lifestyle that the Bay had to offer and to be closer to family.

Im very connected to the region.

Anna graduated from Victoria University with a Bachelor of Laws in 2002 and was admitted as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court in 2003.

Prior to her admission to the bar she was employed at Meredith Connell in Auckland conducting Crown and other public prosecutions.

She is an experienced criminal lawyer who has served 14 years as a Crown prosecutor, and has appeared for the Crown in a wide variety of criminal matters.

The law firm Hollister-Jones Lellman will support the delivery of Crown prosecution services to the Tauranga region.

The appointment will take effect from August 1, 2017.
Dick Tayler has had to withdraw from the annual Tauranga Gala Dinner, as he recovers from his recent heart attack suffered in Rotorua in June.

Dick was to MC the gala evening alongside Andrew Mehrtens, Scotty Stevenson and John McBeth at the ASB Arena on September 29.

Heath Ingham from Events Innovated, which produces the event, says it is with mixed emotions that the announcement is made.

Its a bit of both, because we obviously think incredibly highly of Dick Tayler and would love him to be here, but of course we also want him to fully recover and get better. His health is the priority.

Dick Tayler collapsed near to Rotorua on June 18, after following the Lions Tour with friends. Two doctors stopped to help, and he was taken to Rotorua Hospital for treatment. He is currently back in Christchurch Hospital where he is recovering.

Dick won the Gold Medal in the 1974 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres. He is also regarded as one of New Zealands top speakers, with Events Innovated saying at the events announcement they were thrilled that he had jumped on board.

Events Innovated say now is not the time to discuss any replacements for Dick in the lineup, as the main priority is to wish him all the best in his recovery.

Any further guest speaker announcements will be made at a later date.
Avocado industry export supply group AVOCO has been working with Bay of Plenty police over recent thefts in the region.

In the past few days, they have passed on reports from growers who witnessed an attempt by someone to sell suspected stolen avocados at Mount Maunganui, as well as suspicious activity near avocado orchards north of Tauranga.

AVOCO director Alistair Young says AVOCO treats reports of this nature very seriously.

Growers value the time and effort police put in to investigating these incidents. Our growers work hard in their orchards all year to produce premium quality export fruit. Its then incredibly frustrating for growers when they visit a local store to see what they suspect is stolen fruit being sold at a cut-price value.

Reports of stolen fruit being traded are a reminder for many growers to review their orchard security, says Alistair.

Efforts have been made at an industry level to heighten awareness about this issue. Now, everyone is on high alert for suspicious activity and theyre taking measures to make their crops more secure.

Western Bay of Plenty Police Sergeant Trevor Brown says if a shop owner knowingly has purchased stolen avocados, they could potentially be charged with receiving stolen property, which carries a maximum imprisonment of seven years.

By purchasing and on-selling these stolen avocados, you are encouraging these thefts to continue. I urge you to ask the hard questions. If you dont purchase from doubtful sources, these commercial thefts will stop.

Support orchardists, your fellow business owners, and dont purchase these stolen fruit. If we work together, we can combat this issue.

Police report an Auckland man jailed for avocado thefts last year has recently been found in Tauranga with more avocados in his car.

He has been processed for drunk driving and is part of the enquiry into recent thefts in the area.
From Captains, Owners, Guests and Crew, Porto Montenegro attracts superyachts looking to cruise the world in complete ease for myriad reasons. We take a look at how the small region of Montenegro became the kingpin of charter in the East Med.

Explorative Owners

With a huge investment from ICD bringing the standards of the already burgeoning marina village beyond expectations in 2016, Porto Montenegro quickly became an idyllic home-berth and investment opportunity for superyacht owners around the world. With 450 berths, including the worlds largest at 250-metres, tying the line in the Marina is just the beginning.

Recently awarded the worlds first and only Platinum award by TYHA and MIA, the yacht club, marina facilities, five-star hotel, restaurants, retail village, residential opportunities and ease of travel culminate in the East Meds best offerings for those looking to hop on, or off, a yacht in complete comfort.

Not only is this the ideal area for keeping your friends and family happy, with tax-free shopping and a Knightsbridge school, but the crew as well.

Captains & Crew

One of the major draws for Captains, as well as Owners, is the support and infrastructure of Porto Montenegro and the surrounding regional advantages of being located outside the EU. Naturally set-up with governmental support to help charter activity expand organically.

With duty free fuel, running around 45% cheaper than surrounding countries, the non-EU status of Montenegro presents a world of opportunity; including no taxes on charters, which is a huge attraction in terms of operating as a home-port.

Crew themselves can benefit from a world of activity, retail and relaxation on the very dock in which they berth, with support, equipment, activities and exploration available any time of the year.

Superyacht Industry

An additional attraction that makes this an impressive location for the summer is the MYBA Pop-up Superyacht Show, bringing the brokerage and charter community to the docks for three days of yacht hopping, seminars and socialising in order to bring the business to you.

The charter and brokerage show rose the ranks in the superyacht calendar quickly, only now preparing for the third installment in the shows career. However, the platform of the MYBA Pop-up show is unique, offering a stripped-back, organic access to the yachting world in Montenegro with a community feel creating a more effective channel for promoting yachts, and the region.

Captains signing up to the MYBA Pop-up Superyacht Charter show can also reap the rewards of 25% discount on berths rates during the event, while brokers and agents can benefit from a 50% discounted registration fee before August 3rd.

Charter Guests

"Montenegro is easily accessible" shares Captain Jean Marc of Benetti's superyacht St. David. "You can find your charter route taking you almost anywhere. From Corfu to Croatia you have quite a few places to go. It makes the perfect transition picking up charter guests for a Mediterranean cruise."

A favourite for both Captains and Guests, Boka Bay, Europes most southern fjord, is the perfect example of inland cruising in Montenegro; offering up lush mountain peaks and raw natural beauty. The heart of the region "Our Lady of the Rocks", is a small man-made islet holding a stunning 17th century church.

Just a short sail away lies Perast, where guests can moor up for water-edge dining alongside Conte restaurant before moving onward to Kotor, where the walled old town is inescapably charming.

As a haven for film stars in the 50's and 60's such as Sophia Loren and Elizabeth Taylor, it's glamorous ambience is still felt here. Kotor remains deeply treasured as a UNESCO World Heritage town with The Great Wall of Kotor an iconic feature to the region.

"The bay of Kotor is beautiful, it's really gorgeous! adds Captain Jean-Marc. There are also 5 spots that you can go by yacht [from here], one for the party animal, Budva, or sail to the southern region toward Albania, which is a stretch of 22 km white sandy beach to enjoy."

For Agents or Brokers looking to participate in the MYBA Pop-up Show in Porto Montenegro this September (8-11), enquire here and receive a 50% earlybird discount before August 3rd.
Two young Smyth County men, one a rising junior and the other a 2017 graduate, earned national recognition last month in Kentucky at the National Leadership and Skills Conference. To get there, they had to win district and state competitions.

Dylan Gobble from Chilhowie came in 15th in Electrical Construction Wiring and Gabriel Moore from Marion came in 22nd in Electronics Technology at the national event. They were accompanied by their instructor at Smyth Career & Technology Center, Andy Hunt, a Saltville native who graduated from the SCTC program and worked in industry, residential and commercial areas before returning to the classroom to teach.

Moore was a senior who graduated in May from Marion Senior High School and is planning to attend Wytheville Community College, pursuing a career in information technology. Gobble was a 10th-grader exploratory student from Chilhowie High School who will be a junior this year and a full-time student at SCTC. They competed against students from around the country at the National Leadership and Skills Conference June 17-23 in Louisville, Ky.

Both students competed against the best in the country and represented Smyth County and SCTC very well, said Rick Blevins, SCTC principal. We are proud of all three!

I had an awesome time in Louisville, said Gobble. They had so many different competitions. I got 15th place out of what I think was 40.

When I get older I want to hopefully own my own electrical business, wiring houses and other structures, he said.

Moore and Gobble competed in District 8 and took first place in their same categories. Hunt hosted a competition at SCTC for electronics and cabling in February. Virginia Highlands Community College hosted one for electricity in February. State competition in both categories was held at a Fredericksburg expo center in April. Both students earned first place in state competition.

I was proud of them, said Hunt. Competing at national is tough. Its pretty intense, part of three days of competition.

They put a lot of time in it, he said. They started practicing before school was out. At school several days a week after school practicing.

Dylan has talked about becoming an electrical engineer, Hunt said. He is already doing work on the side, wiring houses with his grandfather helping him. Gabriel enjoys computers. My class was the first opportunity he had to understand how electricity works and how its used and manipulated and how it functions with the computer.

The electricity and electronics program at SCTC is designed to provide students with the opportunity to acquire the skills, knowledge and understanding needed as an entry-level electrician. Students can earn dual-enrollment college credits in electricity fundamentals, electronics, wiring and electric power and go on to community college for an associates degree.

Hunt provides his students with lots of hands-on work, about 60 percent of the program, with classroom time devoted to learning codes, ethics and the history of electricity and electronics as well as book reports and tests. Students, he said, need good math skills, the ability to read and understand instructions, and do critical thinking, especially in troubleshooting.

Students also learn soft skills, including the importance of showing up for work on time, being professional, drug-free and possessing a good driving record.

The skills students learn can be taken anywhere and are valuable in almost every area of business and industry, including computer repair, installation and networking, consumer electronics, biomedical electronics, communications technology, engineering, aerospace technology and the ever-growing world of robotics and programmable control.

Students and parents who want to learn more about SCTC and its programs can call 276-646-8117 or 783-3791. The school is at 147 Fox Valley Road in Seven Mile Ford.
Nearly 600 people received medical care from Amanda Fleenor in the last year. That number is only expected to grow in the coming months.

Fleenor is the Mel Leaman Free Clinics physician assistant. She joined the Marion clinics staff a year ago as its first full-time staff clinician. Her position is supported by a Virginia Health Care Foundation (VHCF) grant. The VHCF announced earlier this month its second year of funding for the position, awarding the clinic $72,105.

In its announcement, the non-profit public-private VHCF celebrated the clinics partnership with Emory & Henry Colleges School of Health Sciences. The clinic makes its home on the schools campus, and patients benefit from the expertise of the E&H faculty and staff while the students learn about medicine as they help provide care for clinic patients. THE VHCF described the alliance as an innovative collaboration.

MLFCs partnership with Emory & Henry College is a creative and effective approach to increase access to needed health care for uninsured patients in Southwest Virginia, said Deborah Oswalt, VHCFs executive director.

The grant, the VHCF said, is to expand the free clinics capacity.

The award is one of $1.9 million in grants recently awarded by VHCF to 19 health safety net organizations to expand medical, dental, behavioral health and pharmacy services throughout the commonwealth, and to help identify and enroll uninsured children in the state-sponsored FAMIS health insurance programs.

The VHCF committed to fund the position for three years.

The free clinics executive director, Michael Armbrister, called the grant a blessing. He also described the impact of having a full-time clinician as incredible. During the last year, he said, she has provided health care to 587 patients through 1,651 visits.

Having her on staff and in the clinic 40 hours each week has been a cornerstone of our ongoing expansion. We would not have the capacity to provide care for the increasing number of patients without Amanda and the grant from the VHCF, Armbrister said.

Amanda fully supports our mission to make compassionate, comprehensive and high-quality health care accessible to those without insurance, said the clinic director, who noted that she also serves as the clinics laboratory coordinator and is an adjunct faculty member in the Emory & Henry College Master of Physician Assistant Studies program.

Despite a variety of offers for paid positions, Fleenor, a Southwest Virginia native, first served at the clinic as a volunteer after receiving her credentials. I went into medicine truly wanting to help people, she said, adding that at the clinic she can help people who have a great need for it.

Amandas approach to providing health care to our patients is one I know Mel Leaman would be proud of, Armbrister concluded. Leaman served as the clinics founding director and was known for his compassion and commitment to helping those in need.

The VHCFs mission is to increase access to primary health care for uninsured and medically underserved Virginians. Initiated by the General Assembly and its Joint Commission on Health Care, the foundation is observing its 25th anniversary of service to the commonwealth.

The free clinics patients are primarily the working poor, who are uninsured and living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. The clinic serves the people of Smyth, Grayson and Washington counties. Learn more about the clinic at http://melleamanfreeclinic.org.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- A federal jury in Syracuse today convicted two Los Angeles men of running a massive synthetic drug-trafficking ring that operated out of head shops across the country, including Upstate New York.

Andrew Raymond and Brian Requena were convicted of synthetic drug-trafficking and money laundering. They operated out of Los Angeles, but sold their drugs at multiple shops in the Northern District of New York, Acting U.S. Attorney Grant Jaquith said.

Raymond and Requena were each making about $100,000 worth of synthetic drugs at the height of the ring's operation, federal prosecutors said. The defendants had a large team of workers who made, shipped and sold the drugs, prosecutors said. Other members of the ring have pleaded guilty.

The convictions followed an 11-day trial before U.S. District Judge Norman Mordue. The trial evidence showed the defendants conspired to make and sell drugs known as Spice, Spike, K2 or synthetic marijuana.

In 2013, federal investigators said Syracuse was "ground zero" for sales of bath salts and other synthetic drugs. The drugs are often sold to teenagers, out in the open in stores, Jaquith said.

"Synthetic drugs are a scourge on our community and communities across the country," he said. "They masquerade as innocuous substances like potpourri and incense, but are in fact toxic and send many users to the hospital or to a worse fate."

The trial evidence showed Raymond and Requena went to great lengths to avoid police detection, including setting up shell companies and using post office boxes to divert attention from the warehouses where the drugs were made, prosecutors said.

The evidence showed Raymond and Requena laundered their illegal profits by wiring millions of dollars to China to buy the powder form of the synthetic cannabinoid that they used to make the drugs, prosecutors said.

Raymond and Requena each face up to 20 years in prison and a fine of up to $5 million, and could be ordered to forfeit more than $10 million in assets. Mordue is scheduled to sentence them Dec. 1.

The case was prosecuted by assistant U.S. attorneys Carla Freedman and Michael F. Perry.
* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati received the 2022 Adepi Award

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the World Intellectual Property Review's "Influential Women in IP" of 2020.

* PermaKat Eleonora Rosati listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2018.

* IPKat founder and Blogmeister Emeritus Jeremy Phillips listed as one of the Managing Intellectual Property magazine's "Fifty Most Influential People" of 2005, 2011, 2013, and 2014.

* Recommended by the European Patent Office as reading material for candidates for the European Qualifying Examinations, 2013.

* Listed as "Top Legal Blog" in The Times Online, March 2011.

2010 ABA Journal 100. * One of the only two non-US blogs listed in the Blawg100.

* Court Reporter Top Copyright Blog award winner, November 2010.

* Number 1 in the 2010 Top Copyright Blog list compiled by the Copyright Litigation Blog, July 2010.

* Selected by the United States Library of Congress for inclusion in its historic collections of Internet materials related to Legal Blawgs as of 2010.

* Top Patent Blog poll 2009: 3rd out of 50 in the "Favourite Patent Blog" poll and 2nd out of 50 in the "Most-read" poll.

Blog of the Year, 20 August 2008. * ComputerWeekly IT Law and Governance, 20 August 2008.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- Syracuse police have reported three times as many vehicles downtown on weekend nights since ride-booking apps like Uber and Lyft launched earlier this summer, an increase they said has slowed traffic and put pedestrians at risk.

Ride-share drivers are themselves not too happy with the downtown situation, particularly around Armory Square, according to a driver who has been speaking on drivers' behalf with police.

Police harass drivers for stopping to drop off passengers and haven't made any accommodations for the new technology, said driver Adam Labonoski. It creates a sometimes chaotic scene as buzzed pedestrians stumble between cars and out into the street.

Taxis are allowed to idle on Walton Street, which is closed to drivers between 10 p.m. and 2:30 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights to allow pedestrians to walk freely between bars and restaurants. Labonoski is asking why police won't establish a designated area there or elsewhere for Uber and Lyft drivers to pick up and drop off passengers.

"There's no place for you to pull over, so you kind of have to do it in the middle of the intersection. And that's when they come out and say you're blocking traffic. You're trying to get your passenger out as fast as they can, and they're yelling at you," he said. "I get the concerns, I really do. I don't want people to be hurt."

Labonoski wrote a letter expressing his concerns to Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner on July 20, and the police department responded July 21. Included in the correspondence, which Labonoski forwarded to Syracuse.com, is a summary of the conflict by police Sgt. William Galvin, titled, "The issue of ride-share has arisen in the Armory."

Galvin outlined the issues police have encountered since the apps launched. According to him:

The "majority" of ride-share individuals are engaged in hazardous pickups and drop-offs, with drivers stopping in the middle of South Clinton Street.

Drivers also block intersections on both ends of Walton -- "not picking up or discharging, just loitering." Verbal warnings have had no effect, he said.

Uber and Lyft drivers "have falsely represented themselves as licensed taxicabs."

The traffic flow has increased about three times since ride-booking apps launched.

The increase has meant police have also decided to close the 300 block of South Clinton Street late on weekend nights.

He acknowledged police have been aggressive, "but we are aggressive with any action that poses an unreasonable risk to the safety of Armory Square patrons," he wrote.

And Galvin said he thinks it's unwise to further open up Walton Street to ride-share drivers because the number of vehicles there could become unmanageable. He suggested ride-booking drivers might not have the same safe-driving credentials as taxis drivers.

"We have always only allowed licensed taxicabs to operate because the vehicles and drivers have been vetted and licensed by the city and the volume of vehicles has always and continues to be light and manageable," Galvin said.

Syracuse police declined to make Galvin available for an interview about the traffic issues.

Labonoski, a nurse and single father of three who drivers for both apps up to 30 hours a week, dismissed concerns that Uber drivers are not vetted by the city. Drivers also go through background checks by the state, and he said he knows plenty of drivers with professional driver's licenses.

He also said he appreciates Galvin's concern that allowing Uber and Lyft vehicles onto Walton Street could cause an unmanageable increase in traffic. But he said the city should identify an area, potentially nearby, for drivers like him.

Both police and Labonoski said they hope the number of Uber and Lyft drivers eventually decreases. Labonoski predicted it would both as the market solidifies and as the app bans bad drivers.

Drivers who receive an average rating from passengers below a threshold established in each market are no longer allowed to drive by the app.

But as the first day of fall university classes nears in Syracuse and, with it, an influx of tech-savvy downtown patrons, Labonoski said it's not clear when Armory Square traffic might clear up a bit.

The apps arrived in Syracuse and the rest of Upstate New York after state legislators created regulations allowing them to operate here -- one of the last ride-booking holdouts in the country.

"Unfortunately for the cabbies and the police, Uber is a thing of the future and it's going to be here for awhile," he said. "It seems like everywhere else embraces it and we're being left behind."
Kayla Epstein is the Social Media Editor for National at The Washington Post.

By Kayla Epstein | The Washington Post



On Wednesday morning, President Trump announced that his administration would ban transgender people from serving in the military, citing the "costs and disruption" associated with allowing them to serve.

This is not the first time that the Trump administration has rolled back protections for transgender Americans. In February, the administration pulled back Obama-era protections that allowed transgender students to use bathrooms and facilities that corresponded to their gender identity.

In June, which past presidents had recognized as LGBT Pride Month, the Trump White House declined to make such a declaration. (The president's daughter Ivanka Trump did tweet in support.)

Though these actions aren't necessarily surprising coming from a Republican administration, they are surprising coming from President Trump. At times, he has appeared to wholeheartedly support the LGBT community. But throughout his presidential campaign, the actual degree of his support was less clear.

As Trump announces new restrictions on transgender Americans serving in the military, it's worth revisiting his muddled stance on the issue of LGBT rights.

In 2000, Trump seemed to wholeheartedly support LGBT rights. In an interview with the Advocate about his presidential ambitions, he said he supported amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

"I like the idea of amending the 1964 Civil Rights Act to include a ban of discrimination based on sexual orientation. It would be simple," he said. "It would be straightforward. We don't need to rewrite the laws currently on the books, although I do think we need to address hate-crimes legislation."

He attributed his stance to the fact that he " grew up in New York City, a town with different races, religions, and peoples. It breeds tolerance."

Trump said in the same interview that if he became president, sexual orientation wouldn't be considered in hiring for his administration. " If the best person for the job happens to be gay, I would certainly appoint them," he said.

Fifteen years later, when he became a presidential candidate, his rhetoric on the LGBT community seemed to change depending on political expediency.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump made a few awkward, but direct, overtures to LGBT voters. He also made contradictory statements in front of conservative audiences.

In January 2016, Trump told Fox News anchor Chris Wallace that he would "strongly consider" appointing conservative Supreme Court justices who would overturn rulings that legalized same-sex marriage in the country.

In 2016, the debate over North Carolina's "bathroom bill" was front-page news. Part of the measure stated that individuals had to use the bathroom corresponding to the sex listed on their birth certificate in government-owned buildings, including schools. Facing political and business backlash, North Carolina eventually repealed parts of the measure. In May, the Obama administration issued protections for transgender students to use the bathroom of their choice.

Trump weighed in on the issue several times.

"It is a very, very small portion of the population, but as I said, you have to protect everybody, including small portions of the population," Trump told The Washington Post in mid-May. But he also said that the issue should be left up to the states, which he believed would "make the right decisions."

Days later, Trump appeared on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and seemed to hew to a more conservative stance on whether transgender people should be able to use the bathroom of their choice.

"Let the states decide . . . the party believes that whatever you're born, that's the bathroom you use," Trump told Kimmel, who pressed him repeatedly on the issue.

Trump also repeatedly said that he would be a better president for the LGBT community than his rival, Hillary Clinton.

Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.  Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) June 14, 2016

In the wake of the 2016 Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Trump promised to protect LGBT Americans from terrorism. The response from the LGBT community was mixed , but some gay conservatives saw his pledge as a sign of progress.

in July 2016, Trump went so far as to mention the "LGBTQ community" in his speech at the Republican National Convention.

"Only weeks ago, in Orlando, Florida, 49 wonderful Americans were savagely murdered by an Islamic terrorist," Trump said, again linking LGBT issues to security ones. "This time, the terrorist targeted our LGBTQ community. No good. And we're going to stop it. As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology," he said.

There was some applause from the crowd.

"I must say as a Republican it is so nice to hear you cheering for what I just said," he told the crowd. "Thank you."

Trump had the support of some gay conservatives, who saw him as far better on LGBT issues than past Republican candidates. Caitlyn Jenner, a high-profile transgender woman and advocate, famously voted for Trump. Trump said in April 2016 that Jenner would be able to use any bathroom she wanted at Trump Tower, and she took him up on that.

But Wednesday's decision to ban transgender people from the military seems to have raised alarm.

"This smacks of politics, pure and simple," Log Cabin Republicans' Gregory T. Angelo said in a statement. " The United States military already includes transgender individuals who protect our freedom day in and day out. Excommunicating transgender soldiers only weakens our readiness; it doesn't strengthen it.

"The president's statement this morning does a disservice to transgender military personnel and reintroduces the same hurtful stereotypes conjured when openly gay men and women were barred from service during the military's 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' era," he said.

Given how much Trump has oscillated on the issue of LGBT rights, it's difficult to pin down his true views on the matter. He may indeed be farther to the left on this than many of his fellow Republicans. True, he has stated his support for LGBT Americans in the past. But when you're president, actions speak louder than words.
What happened?

Hillary Clinton will answer that question and more in her new book, "What Happened," about the 2016 presidential election. The title and cover were revealed Thursday.

According to a press release, Clinton's memoir will chronicle mistakes in her campaign and the "devastating" loss to President Donald Trump.

"In the past, for reasons I try to explain, I've often felt I had to be careful in public, like I was up on a wire without a net," the former U.S. senator, first lady and secretary of state writes. "Now I'm letting my guard down."

Her publisher, Simon & Schuster, adds that the book will also discuss Clinton's "challenges of being a strong woman in the public eye" as the first female presidential nominee of a major U.S. political party. It'll also serve as a "cautionary tale" for other politicians, the release said.

According to NBC, Clinton previously blamed Russian meddling, former FBI director James Comey, sexism and "fake news" for her loss. An insider told The Hill that the book will also include a "bombshell" about the election.

Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said this week that she should not blame anyone but herself and poor messaging.

"When you lose to somebody who has 40 percent popularity, you don't blame other things--Comey, Russia--you blame yourself," Schumer told the Washington Post. "So what did we do wrong? People didn't know what we stood for, just that we were against Trump. And still believe that."

"What Happened" will be released on Sept. 12. Clinton's previous books include "It Takes a Village," "Dear Socks, Dear Buddy," "Living History" and "Hard Choices."

Her husband, former President Bill Clinton, is working on a thriller titled "The President is Missing" with James Patterson. The novel about "behind-the-scenes global drama from the highest corridors of power" will be released in June 2018.
Just one week after certifying Iran as being in compliance with the 2015 agreement, Trump made it clear to thousands of supporters in Youngstown, Ohio, that he is still very wary of Tehran.

Briefing reporters last week, administration officials said new economic sanctions against Iran were being prepared due to its ballistic missile program and for contributing to regional tensions.

If that deal doesnt conform to what its supposed to conform to, its going to be big, big problems for them. That I can tell you. Believe me. Trump added, You would have thought they would have said thank you United States. We really love you very much. Instead, theyve become emboldened. That wont take place much longer.

Also on Tuesday, Trump told the Wall Street Journal in an interview, Well talk about the subject in 90 days but I would be surprised if they were in compliance, he was referring to the re-certification due in three months.

Trump spoke about some of the themes that helped him to win the presidential election in November. He called out radical Islamic terrorists and vowed he wanted to keep them from entering the United States.
Earlier this year, Samsung announced the 2017 Galaxy A series including the 5.7-inch A7, 5.2-inch A5, and 4.7-inch A3. Now, it appears that Samsung has already started working on the successor to the Galaxy A7 (2017).





Spotted as SM-A730 at GFXBenchs database , the Galaxy A7 (2018) will feature a 1080p 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display, just like the current Galaxy A7.









The A7 (2018) is going to be powered by an unknown 2.1GHz octa-core processor with Mali-G71 GPU, 4GB RAM, 32GB internal storage, and Android 7.1.1 Nougat operating system.





Just like its predecessor, the Galaxy A7 (2018) will sport a 16-megapixel rear and 16-megapixel front-facing camera. That said, the device will likely feature I P68 water and dust resistance.




Adobe on Tuesday announced its decision to pull the plug on its much maligned Flash format, citing the growing use of HTML5, WebGL and Web Assembly open standards.

Helper apps have evolved over time to become plugins, which then further evolved to become open Web standards, Adobe noted. However, because gaming, education and video have come to depend heavily on Flash over the years, its phaseout will be gradual.

The company will continue to update it with any necessary patches, maintain browser and operating system compatibility, and add features as necessary until 2020.

Adobe is working with partners Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Mozilla and Apple to smooth the transition. Each of those companies posted an update on how the shift will impact its browsers or interfaces.

Partner Plans

Eighty percent of desktop Chrome users accessed a page running Flash just three years ago, but that figure has declined to 17 percent currently, according to Google.

Google changed its policies late last year, requiring permission from users to make Flash a default experience for Chrome. It plans continue to ask permission to use Flash in different situations until the phaseout is accomplished, and it will remove the plugin completely by 2020.

Mozilla updated its published road map for Flash users. Starting next month, users will have to choose which websites use the Flash plugin. Mozilla will disable Flash by default in 2019, when access will be limited to users running the Extended Support Release. They will be able to continue using Flash until the phaseout is complete in 2020.

Microsoft plans to phase out support for Flash in Edge and Internet Explorer before 2020 and completely remove Flash from Windows. It already has begun the process for Microsoft Edge, with click-to-run for Flash found in the Windows 10 Creators Update. Through the end of 2017 into 2018, Edge will ask for permission on most sites and save the user preferences. Internet Explorer will continue to run Flash.

Flash will be disabled by default in both browsers starting in 2019, but users will be able to re-enable it. By the end of 2020, all computers running Windows will remove Flash in both browsers.

The iPhone, iPod touch and iPad never have supported Flash, Apple noted. Macs stopped providing it preinstalled starting in 2010. Flash remains off by default in those products, and Safari requires explicit approval before it will run Flash on any websites.

WebKit supports the latest standards, Apple said, including HTML Video and Media Source extensions for a wide range of video; HTML Canvas and WebGL for fast, dynamic games; CSS Transitions and Animations for animations to Web interfaces; Web/RTC for peer-to-peer video; and WebAssembly for faster games and compute-intensive applications.

Flash has long been a challenged tech product with known operational issues, which is why Steve Jobs refused to allow it onto the Apple iOS hardware products, said Tim Mulligan, senior analyst at Midia Research.

Adobe is finally bowing to the inevitable and phasing out support for it in three years time, he told TechNewsWorld.

Gaming Repercussions

The move to open Web is stimulating a comeback of playing games inside the Web browser, rather than through an installed app or game. This is particularly true on mobile, said Jelle Kooistra, head of product development  mobile, at Newzoo.

For instance, were seeing the first experiments happen now with Facebook Messengers Instant Games, he told TechNewsWorld.

The advantage these games have is that the barrier to starting to play a game is much smaller: You just have to click a link, Kooistra pointed out.

We believe this area will grow heavily in the coming years, mainly in social and small experiences  e.g., playing a quick round of poker with a friend. The open Web provides an issue for Apple and Google, as it allows games to monetize outside of their closed ecosystem, in which they take 30 percent of all generated revenues, he observed.

However, it will be quite a while before experiences streamed through a Web browser can fully replace the quality and fluidity of installed games, said Kooistra. Furthermore, game developers will also have to re-invent how to monetize efficiently in these types of games.

Game developer Kongregate published data showing that it has seen minimal impact on the quality and revenue potential of games going forward, Mozilla noted.

The technology for 2D games has changed little, based on Kongregates findings; however, there is still a gap for 3D.

Kongregate ported two of its top games, Tyrant Unleashed and Spellstone, from UnityPlayer to HTML5 at the end of last year.

Security Hassles

As a security professional, I cant overstate how happy I am that Adobe is finally retiring Flash, said Mark Nunnikhoven, vice president of cloud research at Trend Micro.

Unfortunately, the actual date is still a couple of years away, he told TechNewsWorld.

When Flash debuted in 1996, it provided a fantastic way to deliver rich Web applications and video, even though it needed a privileged position as a browser plugin to make that happen, Nunnikhoven recalled.

The security community has learned a lot since then regarding browser security, he said, and the threat landscape has undergone wave after wave of change. Better tools have been developed to deliver video and rich Web applications.

Flash has become an outdated source of vulnerabilities, Nunnikhoven noted. Over the last 10 years, more than 1,064 Flash vulnerabilities have been reported  the equivalent of 2 percent of all vulnerabilities in the industry.

Most of the vulnerabilities were rated high or critical, he said, as they exposed many Web users systems to threats when they did nothing more than visit certain Web pages.
Some employees working at a Wisconsin tech company will soon have microchips embedded in their hands. This will allow them to enter the office, buy snacks and log into computers with just a swipe of their hand.

Three Square Market (32M) CEO Todd Westby said that more than 50 of the company's 80 employees agreed to have a microchip implanted into their hands. Westby, however, said that the company did not require their workers to do this.

An option is also available for those who do not want to get the implant but are interested to use the technology.

"For employees interested in the technology, but not the implant, they can place the microchip in an RFID wristband or an RFID/Near-Field Communication Smart Ring," the company said.

How The Microchip Works

The microchip, which uses radio frequency identification, or RFID technology, is about the size of a grain of rice and will be implanted between the thumb and forefinger.

"As with a proximity card, the chip implant works in a similar fashion  by holding the chip up to the device reader, the unique serial number associates the user with the software, the software then performs the requested function," the company said.

Westby made clear that the chip is not a GPS so it does not track workers nor does it require passwords. He also attested that the device is safe from hacking because it is encrypted like credit cards and does not have connection to the internet.

Westby said that the idea was initially met with reluctance but majority of the managers eventually agreed to the idea.

The company will shoulder the bill for the microchips, which costs $300 each. The implantation, which is set on Aug. 1, will be done by licensed piercers. Workers who change their minds after getting the microchip can have it removed.

Security Concerns

Critics raised concern over the potential dangers of how the company will store, use and protect their employees' information.

Security expert Adam Levin of CyberScout related his apprehensions about putting a microchip in his body citing the risks of the technology.

"How much privacy and security are they willing to trade for convenience?" Levin said.

European Company Implanting Workers Since 2015

Three Square Market is not the first company to implant chips into their employees. Swedish company Epicenter also offered its workers an option to have a microchip injected into their hands, which they can use like a swipe card to open doors and operate printers with just a wave of the hand.

Epicenter started to implant chips into its workers in 2015. As of April this year, it has 150 employees who have the implant.

 2022 TECHTIMES.com All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.
Because people panicked over reports that Microsoft will retire MS Paint, a simple art program that's also the catalyst for either amazing or truly horrifying art, the company is now trying to tell everyone to calm down.

MS Paint Isn't Going Away: Microsoft

Paint will not go away, Microsoft confirms. After an "incredible outpouring of support and nostalgia" for Paint, the company wanted to clear the tumult surrounding the alleged shutdown of Paint.

"MS Paint is here to stay, it will just have a new home soon, in the Windows Store where it will be available for free," says Microsoft in a blog post. There you go, folks. No need to saturate the web with doom-filled memes and epic freakouts. Paint isn't going anywhere, and that's directly from Microsoft itself.

Microsoft will, however, herald a newer, much sophisticated program called Paint 3D. Those with PCs currently running the Windows 10 Creators Update, or beta testers who are part of Microsoft's Windows Insider program probably already know Paint 3D  it's basically a nerfed version of Paint that can do pretty cool things, specifically with 3D illustrations. Many features on Paint are also available on Paint 3D.

Why People Freaked Out About Microsoft Removing MS Paint

The outcry, though illogical considering Paint 3D is basically the same thing but better, is understandable and not at all surprising. Many professional artists probably got started on MS Paint with crude illustrations or comics, and slowly improved from there. It served as the breeding ground for aspiring artists back in its heyday, so seeing it dead is an image many simply won't welcome.

The reversal comes after Microsoft announced earlier this week that along with other apps, MS Paint will be "deprecated" in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, out this fall. That category puts MS Paint in a list of software that while functional, would stop receiving updates and could potentially be phased out entirely.

It caused a phenomenal wave of reactions, making "RIPMSPaint" trend throughout the day. Many love MS Paint for its simplicity. Though it's nowhere near Adobe Photoshop in terms of flexibility and versatility, it stands on its own as a beginner's art software. Photoshop can be daunting for many neophytes trying to follow their inner artist, so MS Paint is a decent, perhaps even excellent, entry point. It has been a staple program since 1985. Artists use it today mostly for complex pixel art.

Other than MS Paint, Microsoft also announced that its Outlook Express and Reader app will integrate with the Edge browser, but no one complained about that, it looks like.

Thoughts? Sound off in the comments section below!

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The legal issues of Apple continue to pile up, with the latest problem being a court order to pay the University of Wisconsin-Madison $506 million due to patent infringement.

It seems that Apple just can't catch a break, as the company is still in the middle of a major legal battle with chipmaker Qualcomm that could possibly lead to an iPhone ban in the United States.

Apple To Pay $506 Million To University Of Wisconsin-Madison

U.S. District Judge William Conley in Madison ordered Apple to pay $506 million to the patent licensing arm of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, which is more than double the initial damage imposed by the jury.

The jury issued a verdict for Apple to pay $234 million to the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation as damages for the lawsuit that it won against Apple back in October 2015. However, Judge Conley decided to add $272 million in damages for a total amount of $506 million, due to interest and the fact that Apple continued to infringe the patent until it expired in December 2016

The lawsuit filed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation dates back to 2014, when it accused Apple of infringement on a patent originally granted in 1998 for improving the efficiency of processors. A jury found that Apple processors, specifically the A7, A8, and A8X processors, were in violation of the patent. Another lawsuit has been filed against Apple's A9 chips, with the result of that case still pending.

Apple stated that it will appeal the verdict, but it will do so knowing that there are other legal issues that the company needs to handle.

Apple Legal Issues Pile Up

Apple was recently the subject of a lawsuit filed by iPhone 4S owner Xai Thao and insurance company State Farm, as she claimed that the smartphone caused a fire in her home, ironically in Wisconsin.

Thao, who purchased the iPhone 4S back in 2014, is demanding damages of $75,000 from Apple. Preliminary investigations by State Farm claimed that an internal failure by the iPhone 4S started the fire in Thao's home.

The lawsuits filed by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation and Xai Thao, however, pale in comparison to the legal battle that Apple is currently fighting against Qualcomm.

The legal issues between Apple and Qualcomm stem from royalties that Qualcomm charges on all modern smartphones, as they all use technology that was developed by the chipmaker. Apple launched a $1 billion lawsuit against Qualcomm in January, alleging that the chipmaker is overcharging Apple billions of dollars, and Qualcomm responded with patent infringement lawsuits against Apple.

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Google might just follow Apple's much-criticized footsteps in terms of removing ports.

Rumors now run rampant about Google's second batch of Pixel-branded flagships, the Pixel 2 and the Pixel 2 XL. The Pixel phones, unveiled in October 2016, stood as the premium choices for anyone desiring a "vanilla" Android phone  or a device that offers an Android experience not hunkered down by bloatware or unnecessary skins.

Several artists have taken a stab at the potential Pixel 2 design, and all expect pretty much similar aspects: a sleek, thin design; a bezel-less display; some imagine dual cameras; and funky colors. Now, both phones' alleged final designs have surfaced via MySmartPrice.

The renders actually came from OnLeaks, a leaker with a pretty excellent track record in terms of accuracy. With that in mind, these new images might actually point to the final designs Google will eventually unveil.

Take a look at the alleged final designs for the Pixel 2:

Take a look at the Pixel 2 XL designs:

Crucial observations: No dual cameras for both phones, unfortunately. But even more worrying  no headphone jack. At all. On the bottom sits what looks like a USB Type-C port, with the rest of the frame clean of any other ports.

The familiar partially glass back returns, this time slightly wrapping around the edges as opposed to the Pixel's flat design. The small glass panel also only houses the camera sensor and the flash, with the fingerprint scanner now embedded on the main metal back panel.

Both phones feature considerably less bezel than their predecessors, which will definitely please ardent fans of the Samsung Galaxy S8's Infinity Display or the LG G6. The renders feature black variants of the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, though many expect that Google will release different colorways, much like the original Pixel and Pixel XL.

Google Pixel 2 Rumors

Expect both Pixel 2 phones to come with premium specs, so a Qualcomm Snapdragon 835 processor sounds pretty much like a shoo-in  in fact, the Pixel 2 could come with a slightly more powerful Snapdragon 836 chip, according to rumors.

Upon release, both devices will most definitely run Android 8.0, Google's latest mobile operating system. In terms of differences between the base Pixel 2 and the XL version, it could go mainly two ways: either Google makes the Pixel 2 XL just a larger Pixel, or place more disparity between the devices in terms of power or certain components such as the camera. Going the latter route will result in a more expensive Pixel 2 XL, though.

Thoughts? Sound off in the comments section below!

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An amazing green aurora lit up the atmosphere blanketing Earth last Sunday, and astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) share the view from space.

People have asked me what a burrito of awesomeness smothered in awesome sauce is... Well folks, it looks like thisawesome sauce is green. pic.twitter.com/rgTgbdb84f  Jack Fischer (@Astro2fish) July 23, 2017



Jack Fischer, one of the three astronauts at the space laboratory, tweeted a timelapse video of the aurora borealis or northern lights captured on June 25. It was when the orbiting space outpost was flying south of Australia to the southern Pacific Ocean.

Light Display In Full Awesomeness

The images of the phenomenon were taken as the ISS moved 250 miles above the Earths surface, at a 17,500-miles-per-hour speed. The ISS is the biggest spacecraft in low-Earth orbit (LEO), where most space exploration currently takes place.

Fischer is currently staying in the ISS along with fellow NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson and Russian commander Fyodor Yurchikhin.

The Aurora In Focus

An aurora is a natural light display resulting from charged particles, which are emitted from the suns atmosphere, colliding with particles found in Earths atmosphere. The collisions produce bright light streaks, often in colors of green, pink, yellow, violet, and blue.

If one is near the North Pole, its called an aurora borealis or northern lights. If one is near the South Pole, its dubbed an aurora australis or southern lights, NASA explained.

The sun does not emit the same amount of energy at all times, as there is a constant streaming solar wind as well as solar storms. In a solar storm known as a coronal mass ejection (CME), the sun gives off a massive bubble of electrified gas potentially traveling through space at great speeds.

Some of the energy and tiny particles from a solar storm can travel down the magnetic field lines at the north and south poles, moving into the planets atmosphere. Auroras form when the particles interact with gases in the atmosphere, leading to a gorgeous light display in the sky.

Auroras are not unique to Earth, because they are likely to also occur if a planet maintains an atmosphere and magnetic field. Auroras on Jupiter and Saturn have already been witnessed, NASA added.

Back in April, northern lights-chasing citizens came upon a new feature of the aurora borealis. Featured as a purple streak of light in the night sky, the phenomenon was given a name of its own on social media: Steve.

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[July 26, 2017] Top Security Firms at Black Hat USA Left Vulnerable to Phishing Attacks, GCA Research Finds

LAS VEGAS, July 26, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The globe's leading security firms exhibiting at Black Hat USA 2017 have a long way to go towards the adoption of DMARC  email authentication  which can greatly reduce phishing attacks and the ability for hackers to hijack domains for ransomware attack. The clear majority of exhibitors selling their cybersecurity products and expertise at Black Hat have not deployed DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) to prevent spammers and phishers from using an organization's name to conduct cyber attacks, according to new research from the Global Cyber Alliance (GCA). Just 18 of 268 Black Hat exhibitors are using the two highest levels of DMARC policies  quarantine and reject. Another 54 have begun deployment of DMARC but are at the lowest level, which only allows for monitoring of malicious emails. Questionable email is not prevented from being delivered to the Inbox. More than 73 percent of Black Hat exhibitors have not deployed DMARC at all. Studies have shown that organizations that use DMARC correctly receive just 23 percent of the email threats than those who do not use DMARC. DMARC provides insight into any attempts to spam or phish using an organization's brand or name. DMARC is supported by 85 percent of consumer email inboxes in the United States (including Gmail, Yahoo, Microsoft, etc.) and more than 2.5 billion email Inboxes worldwide. However, DMARC adoption rates among enterprises and government remains low. Just last week, Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) implored the U.S. Department of Homeland ecurity (DHS) to mandate the government-wide use of DMARC "to ensure that hackers cannot send emails that impersonate federal agencies." Last year, the United Kingdom directed all government agencies to deploy DMARC.



The latest research from GCA, an international cross-sector organization dedicated to confronting systemic cyber risk, finds that adoption remains low in the cybersecurity industry as well. Black Hat exhibitors are not alone. Only 15 percent of the 587 email domains (that were scanned) for companies exhibiting at February's RSA Conference -- one of the world's largest gatherings of cybersecurity experts -- use DMARC. Of the 111 RSA exhibiting organizations that do use DMARC, more than 70 percent use the DMARC policy of "none," which only monitors for malicious email, greatly reducing the effectiveness of DMARC.

It is time for the cybersecurity industry to lead the charge and push for DMARC use across the globe. GCA strongly advocates that organizations implement DMARC and has developed a free DMARC Setup Guide to make DMARC implementation easier (https://dmarc.globalcyberalliance.org/). Implementing DMARC can be a challenge. However, in addition to the DMARC Setup Guide, GCA has created several resources and video training materials for companies ranging in size from small startups to large multi-nationals. "The cyber industry should lead in deployment of solutions. We need to do more than talk the talk; we have to walk the walk," said Philip Reitinger, President and CEO of GCA. "DMARC works. It reinforces trusted relationships with partners, customers and employees. Collectively, we must focus on implementing solutions. If we lead the way, we know others will follow." About The Global Cyber Alliance The Global Cyber Alliance (GCA) is an international, cross-sector effort dedicated to confronting cyber risk and improving our connected world. It is a catalyst to bring communities of interest and affiliations together in an environment that sparks innovation with concrete, measurable achievements. While most efforts at addressing cyber risk have been industry, sector, or geographically specific, GCA partners across borders and sectors. GCA's mantra "Do Something. Measure It." is a direct reflection of its mission to eradicate systemic cyber risks. GCA, a 501(c)3, was founded in September 2015 by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office, the City of London Police, and the Center for Internet Security. Learn more at www.globalcyberalliance.org. View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/top-security-firms-at-black-hat-usa-left-vulnerable-to-phishing-attacks-gca-research-finds-300494642.html SOURCE Global Cyber Alliance

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"Dialogue and negotiation in Venezuela, found at the Paris Forum for Peace, three friends: the governments of France, Argentina and the Republic of Colombia," said the president... | Read More
FedEx Office Expands Presence with Third Washington University Location

FedEx Office, a world-class provider of convenient, state-of-the-art printing, packing and shipping services, celebrated the grand opening of its latest on-campus center today on the Washington University Medical Campus in St. Louis. Situated in the Clinical Sciences Research Building, this location marks the third FedEx Office center at Washington University, with two of the centers located on the Medical Campus and one center located on the university's Danforth Campus.

The new FedEx Office center features a suite of flexible and scalable printing and shipping management solutions to meet the needs of Washington University's medical staff, students and visitors.

Washington University is a participant in the FedEx OnCampus program, providing collegiate communities access to extensive printing and distribution networks. Whether needs include signs and posters, packing and shipping, or day-to-da printing, customers can count on state-of-the-art equipment and production services from the printing experts at FedEx Office. Additionally, customers may hold packages at this location for safe and reliable pickup.







Through its unique, flexible solutions, the FedEx OnCampus program serves colleges and universities, hotels, corporate campuses, and health care campuses across the United States.

The FedEx Office center is located at 4939 Children's Place, Suite 2231, St. Louis, MO, 63110. Call 314-367-8682 or go to www.fedex.com/office for specific center details.

About FedEx Office

FedEx Office has more than 1,800 stores and locations in the U.S., providing convenient access to printing and shipping expertise with reliable service. The company's network features retail stores, centralized production centers, corporate on-site print centers, and on-site business centers at hotels, convention centers and universities. Services include digital printing, professional finishing, document creation, direct mail, signs and graphics, copying, computer rental, free wi-fi and corporate print solutions. In addition, the company offers FedEx Express and FedEx Ground shipping, Hold at FedEx Location, and packing services backed by the FedEx Packing Pledge. For more information, please visit fedex.com/office.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006366/en/
[July 27, 2017] NYU Security Researchers at Black Hat Reveal How to Protect the Power Grid From Low-Budget Attacks

BROOKLYN, N.Y., July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Cyberattacks against power grids and other critical infrastructure systems have long been considered a threat limited to nation-states due to the sophistication and resources necessary to mount them. Today, at the Black Hat USA 2017 conference in Las Vegas, a team of New York University researchers will challenge that notion by disclosing vulnerabilities in a component that combined with publicly available information provide sufficient information to model an advanced, persistent threat to the electrical grid. Michail Maniatakos, a research professor at the NYU Tandon School of Engineering and an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NYU Abu Dhabi, will detail the discovery of a security flaw in the authentication mechanism of a legacy protective relay  a component that responds to changes in flow across the grid to isolate electrical faults. The vulnerability allows an attacker with local or remote access to extract and reverse-engineer the weakly encrypted and easily accessed passwords used to reprogram the relay's protective setpoints. Maniatakos and his collaborators also will demonstrate how information about network topology and grid components may allow adversaries to create a model of the power system  information that can be used to pinpoint the most critical nodes of the system. Examples: Some local energy commission meetings, disclosing critical power usage information, are available on YouTube.

Equipment suppliers market the sale of their critical equipment online, alerting potential adversaries to where their equipment is used.

The researchers were able to use Google Earth to track power lines.

The team was able to purchase the relay on eBay for about $1,000 , and other equipment critical to the grid is also publicly available. "It is essential that at each step, the energy industry considers the implications of their communication  disclosing information for the right reasons," Maniatakos said. "Some regulatory changes are clearly needed: We should never have been able to inexpensively purchase equipment critical to the power grid. But one of the most important lessons this study delivers is that cybersecurity must not be regarded as a simple issue of complying with regulations. It must be viewed as an integral element of design and operation." As utilities modernize and upgrade their systems, they need to address the security of components that were manufactured and installed years or even decades ago  a difficult challenge because bad actrs search daily for vulnerabilities, he explained.



The NYU researchers worked closely with GE, the manufacturer of the Multilin relay series, to release a patch to secure the vulnerability shortly after the NYU team disclosed the flaw to the company in 2016; they made only some of their findings public at Black Hat 2017 so that utilities and GE would have time to implement fixes. Their research is based on experiments in a laboratory setting, and their published findings neither instruct nor detail successful strategies for attacking existing infrastructure systems. Rather, the work highlights how such software vulnerabilities, along with publicly available yet sensitive information about the power grid, increases the potential for infrastructure attacks. In addition to Maniatakos, the research team contributing to the Black Hat presentation includes NYU Tandon doctoral students Anastasis Keliris and Charalambos Konstantinou. Their findings will be published by Black Hat in a paper entitled GE Multilin SR Protective Relays Passcode Vulnerability. ICS-CERT (Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team), the U.S. cyber emergency response team, published the NYU-GE coordinated disclosure in April 2017.

NYU researchers have been working with stakeholders around the world to increase the security of the power grid. In one example, Maniatakos plans to continue his research using a new smart-city testbed being developed by the Center for Cyber Security at New York University Abu Dhabi. It will provide a realistic and real-time environment for researchers to perform security evaluations on equipment. It consists of security-sensitive and potentially vulnerable devices like control systems (such as programmable logic controllers  PLCs), smart grid devices, smart sensors/actuators used in intelligent buildings and houses, environmental sensors, networking devices/gateways, and a local server that acts as an Internet-of-Things (IoT) platform. The devices are deployed in Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) simulations, using software elements and mathematical models suitable for each application. All of the devices are interconnected and exchange data through the testbed's networking infrastructure, and they are monitored and controlled by an IoT platform. The researchers are part of the small and increasingly influential group of cybersecurity researchers at NYU exploring hardware trustworthiness and educating experts worldwide about their findings. Under the aegis of the NYU Center for Cybersecurity, faculty and student researchers at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Tandon are recognized as leaders in research on secure chip design and production, microchip camouflaging, encryption, crowd sourcing and sharing of attack and defense strategies, and improving the trustworthiness of the supply chain. About the NYU Tandon School of Engineering

The NYU Tandon School of Engineering dates to 1854, the founding date for both the New York University School of Civil Engineering and Architecture and the Brooklyn Collegiate and Polytechnic Institute (widely known as Brooklyn Poly). A January 2014 merger created a comprehensive school of education and research in engineering and applied sciences, rooted in a tradition of invention and entrepreneurship and dedicated to furthering technology in service to society. In addition to its main location in Brooklyn, NYU Tandon collaborates with other schools within NYU, the country's largest private research university, and is closely connected to engineering programs at NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai. It operates Future Labs focused on start-up businesses in downtown Manhattan and Brooklyn and an award-winning online graduate program. For more information, visit http://engineering.nyu.edu. About NYU Abu Dhabi

NYU Abu Dhabi is the first comprehensive liberal arts and science campus in the Middle East to be operated abroad by a major American research university. NYU Abu Dhabi has integrated a highly-selective liberal arts, engineering and science curriculum with a world center for advanced research and scholarship enabling its students to succeed in an increasingly interdependent world and advance cooperation and progress on humanity's shared challenges. NYU Abu Dhabi's high-achieving students have come from 110 nations and speak over 100 languages. Together, NYU's campuses in New York, Abu Dhabi, and Shanghai form the backbone of a unique global university, giving faculty and students opportunities to experience varied learning environments and immersion in other cultures at one or more of the numerous study-abroad sites NYU maintains on six continents. www.facebook.com/nyutandon

@NYUTandon View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/nyu-security-researchers-at-black-hat-reveal-how-to-protect-the-power-grid-from-low-budget-attacks-300495265.html SOURCE NYU Tandon School of Engineering

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Heads up to prevent injury from falls Morning walks in my neighborhood are one of the most enjoyable parts of my day. I love the coolness of daybreak and the special sightings of the stag and two does that frequent our open space. I also enjoy my walk because each day at...

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JACKSONVILLE -- This Tuesday, Community Park will be home once again as Jacksonville joins forces with thousands of communities nationwide for the "34th Annual National Night Out" crime and drug prevention event. NNO is sponsored by National Association of Town Watch and co-sponsored locally by Crimestoppers of Morgan and Scott County and the Jacksonville Citizens Police Academy Alumni in cooperation with the Jacksonville Police Department.

This years event will feature ferris wheel rides, face painting, and childrens identification kits that include D.N.A. swabbing and are all free. Music will be performed by Isaiah Christian and D.J. Colt and will conclude with an outdoor showing of "The LEGO Batman Movie."

Elm City Center will collect paper documents to be shred and the Grotto Bus will be selling tasty treats. Roving superheroes will join true-life heroes from area law enforcement and fire departments. Kids will able to sit in police cars and fire trucks and the Jacksonville Fire Departments "Smokehouse" will be on location. Other vendors will be added as the event draws closer.

The event kicks off at 6 p.m. in Community Park with ferris wheel rides ending at 8 p.m., and "The LEGO Batman Movie" starting at dusk. The public is encouraged to use the South Main entrance into the park.

National Night out is designed to heighten crime and drug prevention awareness, generate support for local anti-crime efforts, and strengthen police community partnerships.
In what has become a regular occurrence, several people were again thrown out of a Metro Council meeting Wednesday night.
An operator at ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge refinery whose disassembly of a pipe valve triggered a fireball that severely injured four workers was following "accepted practice" in stripping down the malfunctioning valve, the Chemical Safety Board said Wednesday.

But the particular malfunctioning valve the workers were trying to open  unlike roughly 97 percent of pipe valves in the sprawling plant  was a "30-plus-year-old design," which meant pulling it apart "can have catastrophic consequences," the board, a federal agency that investigates industrial chemical accidents, says in a three-minute video detailing the fire.

Not seeing the video below? Click here.

When the operator tried to open the disassembled valve, it "immediately failed and came apart," releasing a cloud of pressurized isobutane, a highly flammable liquefied petroleum gas created during oil refining, according to the video. The cloud ignited when it reached welding equipment about 70 feet away and erupted into a large fireball that severely burned four people  one ExxonMobil employee and three contractors  working in the area.

The final report on the Nov. 22 fire is being reviewed and will be released "in the near future," Vanessa Allen Sutherland, chairwoman of the Chemical Safety Board, said during the board's meeting Wednesday.

Stephanie Cargile, a spokeswoman for ExxonMobil's Baton Rouge operations, declined to comment directly on the Chemical Safety Board's video but said an internal investigation by ExxonMobil identified the cause of the incident and the company has "taken appropriate corrective action."

"Refinery management will continue to evaluate human factors associated with equipment design to mitigate identified hazards," Cargile said in an email. "We will evaluate and update procedures and training as appropriate."

The Chemical Safety Board's video provides a detailed look at the events leading up to the blast but doesn't disclose the conclusions drawn during the agency's investigation. Sutherland, the chairwoman, said the board's recommendations will likely address equipment design and ensuring adequate operating procedures are in place.

A Chemical Safety Board official made clear during Wednesday's meeting that a worker's decision to manually open the valve wasn't the root cause of the fire, and the agency will identify a number of underlying factors in its final report.

In May, the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued ExxonMobil preliminary fines of nearly $165,000 in the explosion. Eight of the nine safety violations noted by OSHA investigators were deemed "serious" while the ninth, for failing to inspect piping in the unit, was termed a "repeat" violation because of similar lapses at an ExxonMobil facility in Texas.

ExxonMobil is contesting the proposed OSHA fines, which were first reported publicly earlier this month.

New insight into Baton Rouge Exxon plant fire that injured 4 workers in November A November fire at the ExxonMobil refinery in Baton Rouge that sent four workers to a hospit

Copies of the citations, which were obtained by The Advocate after reporting the fine, suggest federal regulators were alarmed by the lack of worker training or instructions on how to deal with a malfunctioning valve. For each of the eight "serious" violations, OSHA levied the maximum fine of $12,675. The more severe "repeat" violation, meanwhile, resulted in a larger $63,375 proposed fine, half of the maximum.

Cargile declined to specify which aspect of each citation the company is contesting.

In the moments before the explosion, workers were trying to open a plug valve in order to put a spare isobutane pump into service, but found the hand wheel and gear box used to open it weren't working, according to the Chemical Safety Board.

Taking off the gear box to open the valve with a pipe wrench was "an accepted practice in the akylation unit," the Chemical Safety Board said, and one of the workers unscrewed four bolts that connected the gearbox and its support bracket to the valve body.

"Unknown to the operators, these bolts also secured a critical pressure-containing component of the valve," the board said, something true of only some 3 percent of valves at the refinery. The other, newer valves are designed in ways that make it "less likely to remove the incorrect bolts."

Once the valve failed and isobutane began rushing out, the two workers warned other employees in the area to flee.

A February report by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality identified the disassembly of the malfunctioning valve as the trigger of the fire. But unlike the Chemical Safety Board video on Wednesday, the earlier report does not discuss whether taking apart troublesome valves is common practice.

"Hand wheels may not respond when turned, and there are several alternative ways of opening and closing a plug valve," Cargile, the ExxonMobil spokeswoman, said in an email at the time. "In this case, however, the assistant operator removed the support bracket with hand wheel and gear box still attached rather than just removing the hand wheel and gear box."

The Chemical Safety Board video and DEQ's February report include conflicting figures on just how much isobutane was released during the incident. In the hours after the fire, ExxonMobil officials told State Police as much as 2,500 pounds of butane and isobutane had been released.

But DEQ later concluded that far less  about 600 pounds  was released. The Chemical Safety Board, in the video released Wednesday, says approximately 2,000 pounds of isobutane escaped the pipe.

The Chemical Safety Board is also working on a "full safety video" addressing the Baton Rouge refinery fire that will be released shortly after the report, Sutherland said.

The board investigates accidents, and its reports highlight recommendations for safety improvements, but unlike OSHA and DEQ, it does not issue fines or craft industry regulations.
MATTOON -- The recently passed Illinois state budget means Lake Land College students who qualified for financial aid from the state will receive it for the 2017-18 school year.

This form of financial aid is called the MAP grant and it does not have to be repaid. To help students who are making higher education decisions for fall 2017, the college is applying MAP grants to accounts for students who qualify.

Students can check their MAP grant status by logging into their Laker Hub account and selecting Financial Aid under the IRIS menu on the left and then Award Letter. While in the Laker Hub, students can register for New Student Orientation or call 217-234-5301.

For many students, a MAP grant combined with a Pell grant, both of which do not have to be repaid, will cover all tuition and fees for Lake Land College for the year. Tuition and fees for one year are about $3,900, nearly a fourth of tuition and fees at the average state university.

Lake Land College assures students who qualify will receive the MAP grant financial aid for the fall 2017 semester, which starts Aug. 21. There is plenty of time for new students to get started. Visit lakelandcollege.edu and look for the Enroll Now button or call 217-234-5254.
Louisiana's U.S. Senators have toed the Republican Party line in key votes on the GOP's biggest attempts to dismantle the federal Affordable Care Act, as the health care debate stretches into Wednesday evening.

After supporting the effort to move forward on the "Obamacare" repeal and replacement effort Tuesday, U.S. Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-Baton Rouge, and John Kennedy, R-Madisonville, both voted in favor of a revised version of the Senates "Better Care Reconciliation Act," which was defeated with the help of nine Republicans who opposed the controversial proposal Tuesday evening. Cassidy and Kennedy later also both voted on an unsuccessful straight repeal proposal, with the promise of a later "replacement" plan, on Wednesday.

The also both voted against a Democratic proposal to send the legislation back to committee so that protections could be added to keep Medicaid expansion in tact in states that have approved it. Louisiana last year expanded its Medicaid program, and more than 433,000 people -- mostly the working poor -- have received health care coverage through the expanded program. Gov. John Bel Edwards, a Democrat, has repeatedly called for Medicaid expansion to be protected in any health care overhaul.

Kennedy had said he would vote in favor of a repeal-only plan, citing his promise to voters to support the repeal of the health care law and support for the revised Better Care proposal.

But Cassidy's votes came as more of a surprise and drew more attention. A physician, Cassidy has proposed his own amendment that would overhaul the health care system. He made the rounds on major television programs promoting what he called the "Kimmel Test" that he said legislation would need to pass to win his support by providing more access to health care and protecting people with pre-existing conditions.

Nonprofits advocating for health care and low income residents in Louisiana said Cassidy broke his promise with the two early votes because neither Better Care nor the repeal-only option met the threshold he had set.

"Sen. Cassidy has shown, in a way that has been refreshing and sometimes surprising, intelligence, thoughtfulness, content knowledge and compassion in his assessments of the realities of the health care bills as they've worked their way through the House and the Senate," said Broderick Bagert, a leader of Together Louisiana, a faith-based advocacy organization. "He has said in many occasions and many different forms, in small settings and large settings, including face to face interviews and to members of Together Louisiana, that he would not support the Senate bill in the current form because it was too devastating an effect on individual people and on health care markets. And yesterday he voted for that bill."

Cassidy and U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, have offered up an alternative health care plan that would essentially block grant health care funding, leaving states to decide how to dole out incentives and programs.

"I'm all about those who don't have insurance or those who are poorly insured getting better care," Cassidy said. "Ultimately, to have better care, there has to be adequate financing for that care."

Cassidy and Graham, who pitched the proposal on the Senate floor Wednesday, were expected to formally file their amendment Wednesday evening, with a vote coming sometime in the next day or two.

Kennedy, who took office in January after serving 16 years as state Treasurer, also unveiled a series of amendments that he will propose including a proposal to establish work requirements for able-bodied adults who seek health care coverage through Medicaid and a call for a national strategy to combat Medicaid fraud. Both are positions Kennedy has repeatedly pushed. Medicaid fraud currently is largely handled on a state-level. In Louisiana, the Attorney General is the primary investigator.

Other proposals that Kennedy will make to the health care legislation include an amendment to require that ER doctors and the facilities at which they treat patients to be in the same insurance networks, preventing patients from receiving surprising and often costly "balancing bills," and an amendment to require health care providers to give written explanations of the services that patients receive to provide more transparency and accuracy.

Both Kennedy and Cassidy voted in favor of beginning the debate on the attempted health care overhaul effort Tuesday after the chamber stalled for several weeks on the effort. Vice President Mike Pence cast the tie-breaking vote as two Republican senators voted against the effort.

President Donald Trump, who campaigned on the repeal and replacement of "Obamacare," has openly railed against Republicans who might block the health care overhaul.

Any senator who votes against starting debate is really telling America that youre fine with Obamacare, Trump said during a lunch with Senate Republicans last week, openly suggesting that Nevada Sen. Dean Heller would lose his reelection next year if he votes against the GOP effort. Heller eventually voted in favor of moving forward with the debate on the repeal effort.

Such election threats don't carry as much force against Louisiana's senators because of the state's current cycle.

Both of Louisiana's senators are Republicans, and the next regularly scheduled Senate election is 2020 -- the same year as the next presidential election.

Advocate reporter Rebekah Allen contributed to this story.
GREENUP (JG-TC) -- A driver was injured as the result of a collision involving four semitrailers late Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 70 in Cumberland County.

Illinois State Police reported that the collision occurred at 4:27 p.m. as the westbound semi of Juan Lazaro Naranjo Blanco, 50, of Fort Worth, Texas, was approaching a one-lane construction zone on I-70 near milepost 111. Traffic had slowed at the entrance to this zone and was merging into the right lane.

Blanco reportedly failed to slow and his semi struck the trailer of semi driver Beriz Bosnjakovic, 56, of St. Louis. Bosnjakovic's semi was then forced into the rear bumper of a trailer pulled by semi driver David Talkington, 64, of Cottonwood Falls, Kan.

Talkington's semi was in turn forced into the trailer of semi pulled by an unknown semi driver, who left the accident scene. Bosnjakovic complained of disorientation and was taken to St. Anthony's Memorial Hospital in Effingham, where he was treated and released.

I-70 westbound traffic was reduced to 15 mph around the crash and the subsequent back up delayed drivers for hours while the scene was cleared. Blanco was cited for failing to reduce speed to avoid a crash.
The annual Googfest could fast become Bluesfest as a generation of tiny blues and roots players emerges from the new suburb.

Students from Years 1 to 4 at the Googong Anglican School are studying music under the tuition of Rory Turner-Quirk, former bass player for the John Butler Trio and whose self-named band Quirk was once a one-time support act to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers.

Talented musician Rory Turner-Quirk (pictured with student Isabelle Howarth) is the Googong Anglican School's new music teacher. Credit:Karleen Minney

Mr Turner-Quirk is a Moruya boy who grew up playing in alternative and funk rock bands but recently decided to trade thousands of adoring festival fans for one-on-one time with young aspiring musicians.

He toured as bass player with the John Butler Trio for 12 months in 2001, including three trips to the US where the band was trying to grow its profile.
A freak eye injury will keep Richmond spearhead Jack Riewoldt sidelined for at least one match as the Tigers look to consolidate their top four spot.

Meanwhile Riewoldt's cousin - St Kilda great Nick - will also miss the round 19 action - having been rested for the Saints' game against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Saturday.

The Tigers said Jack suffered some bleeding behind his eye after a knock at training during the week led to a cut in the cornea of his right eye. He will miss Saturday night's game away to Gold Coast, with Richmond saying it was too early to tell whether he would return for the following Sunday's game against Hawthorn. Fellow Tiger Dion Prestia also comes out of the side that beat Greater Western Sydney at the MCG on Sunday due to a knee issue, meaning he will miss taking on his former side. Jayden Short has been dropped. Despite the absence of Riewoldt, the Tigers - already fielding a short forward line - have opted against recalling another tall forward. Instead Bachar Houli is back from suspension, while Anthony Miles and Shai Bolton have also been included.

Needing to win to stay in touch with the top eight, St Kilda will field one of their youngest teams in years, with Riewoldt - whose future beyond this year remains in doubt - joined on the outer by fellow veteran Leigh Montagna, who misses with a hamstring injury. Midfielder Koby Stevens is also out with a groin ailment. The Saints welcome back forward Tim Membrey from suspension, while Maverick Weller and Brandon White have been recalled. Port have made four changes following their loss to Melbourne last weekend.
The federal government's new banking levy will cost Macquarie Bank about $66 million in pre-tax earnings, effectively increasing its tax rate from 34 per cent to 41 per cent, chairman Peter Warne has told shareholders.

The heavy hit to Macquarie will come even though earnings from its banking business made up just one-third of its full-year earnings.

"The new tax will have a disproportionately higher impact on Macquarie Bank compared to the major Australian banks given our business mix is more heavily weighted to wholesale and international business," Mr Warne told the group's annual general meeting in Melbourne.

"Given the relatively small size of our Australian banking business, we were surprised by our inclusion in the group to pay this levy."
State Street, the $US2.6 trillion ($3.3 trillion) asset manager that installed the Fearless Girl statue on Wall Street in March, followed through on its pledge to vote against companies that don't have women on their boards of directors.

The Boston-based firm said it voted against the re-election of the chair or most senior member of a board's nominating and governance committee at 400 companies with men-only boards this year.

State Street had identified 476 mostly US-based companies that lacked board diversity, and sent letters to them in advance saying it planned to withhold votes. It didn't vote against companies that said they would address the issue, said Rakhi Kumar, who leads environmental, social and governance investment strategy at State Street.

"We contacted every company we were voting against to let them know we would be voting against either through letter or phone call -- in some cases we had to agree to disagree and in some cases we got commitments to enhance board quality by increasing diversity," Kumar said in an interview this week. "There's a lot of research out there that does show companies that have diverse boards actually do perform well."
Melbourne's Theosophical Society will need to find a new spiritual home after selling its Russell Street headquarters for about $23 million on a yield below 1 per cent, one of the lowest recorded for a fully occupied city building.

The sale of 124-130 Russell Street to an Australian-Chinese investor brings to a dozen the number of CBD freehold buildings sold below $50 million this year.

The Theosophical Society building at 124-130 Russell Street. Credit:Stephen Wood

Robust demand among smaller investors for lower-value city assets has not been met with supply, significantly boosting the city's land values.

The Theosophical Society building sold at a land rate above $40,000 a square metre, well beyond the typical rate of $20,000-$25,000 a square metre seen by investors just two to three years ago.
Birkenstock CEO David Kahan called Amazon's entreaty to retailers a "desperate act". Possible legal action He emphasised that the German shoemaker prohibits shop owners from selling, distributing or shipping its products to resellers. "I will state clearly, any authorised retailer who may do this for even a single pair will be closed FOREVER," Mr Kahan wrote. "I repeat, FOREVER." Jeff Bezos's Amazon has recently ramped up its efforts to stock its site with third-party goods. Credit:AP

Mr Kahan added that he is considering legal action against Amazon.com for "knowingly encouraging a breach of our policy". A spokeswoman for Amazon said the company bought products from third-party businesses to offer customers "a wider selection of great brands", and that those sellers coud opt out at any time. She declined to comment on Mr Kahan's complaint. Nike is among a slew of retailers that have decided to sell their products directly to Amazon. Credit:Joe Armao It was great that somebody finally put Amazon in its place. "In our mission to be earth's most customer-centric company, Amazon strives to provide our customers with the largest selection, at the lowest price, and with the fastest delivery," the spokeswoman said in an email.

'Modern day piracy' But Mr Kahan says allowing unauthorised retailers - in this case, Amazon - to sell the company's iconic cork-and-leather sandals could tarnish its brand and reputation. Also at risk, he says, is the ability of companies to control how - and where - their products are sold. "This is modern day piracy on the high seas," Mr Kahan said in an interview. "This is a middle finger to all brands, not just Birkenstock." For years, Amazon was one of the country's largest sellers of Birkenstocks. But about a year ago, Kahan announced he would be ending the partnership, after deeming that Amazon wasn't doing enough to guard against fakes. He announced his decision in an email, which was obtained by CNBC.

"BUYER BEWARE," he wrote in the letter. "The Amazon marketplace creates an environment where we experience unacceptable business practices which we believe jeopardise our brand." Partnerships Whether to do business with the online behemoth has become a fraught question for retailers big and small. Last week, Sears announced it would begin selling its Kenmore appliances directly on Amazon, following in the footsteps of others like Nike, Samsung, Microsoft and Bose. But Amazon's partnerships haven't always been successful. In 2009, the company agreed to pay $US51 million to settle a five-year battle with Toys R Us after the toy company accused Amazon of breaking their contract by allowing other companies to sell toys, games and baby items on the site. Amazon countersued Toys R Us, alleging "chronic failure" to keep products in stock.

More than half - 55 percent - of Americans now begin their online shopping trips on Amazon, according to a survey commissioned by BloomReach, a marketing research firm. Even if shoppers don't begin their search on the site, they often end up there, with roughly 90 per cent of consumers checking Amazon before they make a purchase, the survey found. Fear of retaliation The owner of a North Carolina chain that specialises in Birkenstock shoes said he has been contacted by Amazon multiple times with solicitation offers. He declined to give his name, for fear of retaliation. "Through the years, they've always tried to get our business," he said. "But I never paid much attention. It's just not something I'm going to do."

For his part, Mr Kahan says he has expressed his displeasure to Amazon. (He added that he is not anti-Amazon and that he's not trying to pick a fight.) Birkenstock, which was founded in Germany in 1774, didn't arrive in the United States until nearly two centuries later. The company's signature two-strap sandals quickly caught on during the counter-culture movement of the 1960s and 1970s, becoming synonymous with hippie fashion. Hippie fashion The brand has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years. Earlier this month, Vogue magazine compared the company's shoes to kale: "Neither glamorous nor exotic - no asparagus, no quinoa - yet it makes people feel good, almost virtuous." At Martin's Family Shoes in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, owner John Fidler says sales of Birkenstocks are up about 20 per cent this year, which he attributes at least partly to the company's split with Amazon.
Given the ease with which we pump high-definition video from the internet on to our computer screens and televisions, it is easy to forget that for a decade Netflix was a service for renting DVDs over the internet. It was not until January 2007 that the company announced that subscribers would be able to "instantly watch movies on their PCs" with a restricted catalogue of 1000 titles. Original programming: Netflix's House of Cards. At the time, Reed Hastings, its chief executive, told The New York Times that the market for on-demand streaming would at first be "microscopic" and said: "DVD is going to be a very big market for a very long time." He was partially right. Despite the reputation that Netflix has earned as a streaming pioneer, and the collapse of Blockbuster and others, its DVD delivery business is still going strong.

It seems baffling in the instant gratification culture that Netflix itself has helped to create, but around 4m people still use the website to rent DVDs online, wait a couple of days for them to arrive, then send them back when they are done. But streaming has exploded faster than anyone thought. In April, it announced that 100m people now subscribe to its video on-demand service. Around 50m of these are in the US, where its service is in more than half of all households. The company's success was never guaranteed. In Netflix's early years as a streaming service, logging-in felt like rolling the dice. Shows and films would appear and disappear on a monthly basis, depending on what licences it had signed with studios. This changed in 2013 when Netflix's first original show, House of Cards, appeared. Now, it is one of America's premier distributors of original content. Its wealth of original content has allowed it to bypass having to sign local deals in every market it enters.Subscribers now pay for Netflix's original shows, such Orange is the New Black and Stranger Things, because they can't get them anywhere else. The service is so stuffed with Netflix's own material that it is possible to watch nothing else: in less than half a decade since House of Cards was released, the company has become a content behemoth that undercuts established networks. There are still potential stumbling blocks that could put pressure on its mega valuation. Subscriber growth could slow; its parade of hits could encounter a rough spot, a big player such as Apple could finally get serious about competing with it. But it has seen off these doubts before.
Behind China's recent 6.9 per cent growth in GDP lies a bigger fact: between 2009 and 2030, the country will add 850 million to its middle class. I would call that a killer fact.

Nothing else on Canberra's agenda  talk about innovation, relations with India or tax cuts for business  competes with that statistic for its potential impact on Australian living standards. It is equivalent to a new continent emerging somewhere to Australia's north with 850 million more consumers asking Australia to fill its supermarkets, sell them places in our schools and universities, invest our expertise in aged and health care and let them come as tourists, investors and cashed-up migrants.

A killer fact that sweet deserves to be interrogated. To what extent can we trust it?

It was presented in a 2010 OECD working paper by Dr Homi Kharas, now co-director in the Global Economy and Development program at the Brookings Institution. His prediction was that by 2030 Europe would add only 16 million to its middle class. Small stuff, and North America's middle class was set to shrink by 16 million. In this context, 850 million more middle-class Chinese dominate world economic prospects. That means the Chinese middle class will grow from 12 per cent of its population in 2009 to 73 per cent in 2030. By middle class, Kharas means household income equivalent to between $US16,000 ($20,254) and $US160,000 per year, a widely used definition.
Plans to develop an open-cut coal mine in the bucolic Bylong Valley lack key information about the impacts on the landscape, water resources and the community, the state's Planning Assessment Commission has found.

The commission's review report into a proposal by South Korean-owned KEPCO utility to develop a 25-year coal mine near Mudgee, found "uncertainty and incomplete information" about the project's risks.

The concerns included "insufficient evidence" that the $1.5 billion mine needed to be an open-cut operation, while the proponent's cost-benefit arguments "lack the rigour and transparency" needed to evaluate them, the PAC said.

Air quality and noise impacts, investigation of Indigenous cultural heritage and traffic impacts from the mine all require further clarification, the commission said.
MATTOON (JG-TC) -- A driver wanted on a Coles County arrest warrant was injured Wednesday afternoon in a collision on north U.S. Route 45 in Mattoon while fleeing police officers.

A Mattoon Police Department press release reported that the incident began at approximately 12:18 p.m. Wednesday when Mattoon police officers were sent to the BP gas station in the 1200 block of Charleston Avenue regarding a male suspect wanted on a warrant being there.

The 911 caller alleged that the wanted person was Blake Bolen, 20, and that he was wanted on a Coles County warrant. The information was verified through 911 dispatch that there was an active warrant for Bolens arrest for failure to appear on a charge of possession of methamphetamine, according to police. The information on the warrant indicated that Bolen should be considered armed and dangerous.

Upon arriving at the BP gas station, an officer approached Bolens white truck as this vehicle was sitting in the parking lot. Upon seeing the officer, Bolen immediately put the truck in reverse and fled the BP gas station. Mattoon officers gave chase, which eventually led them to Route 45 northbound outside the city limits.

The chase came to an end when Bolen turned into the southbound lane of oncoming traffic and struck a Canadian National Railway 10-wheel truck on Route 45 near County Road 1000N. Both the driver and the occupant of the railway truck reported no injuries. Bolen was airlifted to Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana for treatment of his injuries.

The Illinois State Police were called in to work the accident and conduct the investigation due to Mattoon officers being involved in the chase.
Australia's top spy has warned the Solomon Islands that a planned 4000 kilometre-long internet cable connecting the tiny Pacific nation to Sydney could be torpedoed after it signed up controversial Chinese firm Huawei to lay the cable, Fairfax Media understands.

The future of the communications cable project is now uncertain because of Australia's fears about the involvement of Huawei, the communications giant that was banned from working on the National Broadband Network on the advice of security agency ASIO.

Nick Warner, the head of the foreign intelligence agency the Australian Secret Intelligence Service, is understood to have warned Solomons Prime Minister Manasseh Sogavare of Australia's concern during a visit to capital Honiara last month to mark the end of the Australian military and police assistance mission to the country.

Fairfax Media understands that while Australia strongly supports the cable project because of the economic benefits it would bring to the struggling island nation, it has become concerned since the Solomons government abruptly abandoned previous plans to sign up a US-British firm to lay the cable and instead began pursuing an opaque deal with Huawei in mid-2016. The switch by Honiara also prompted the Asian Development Bank  which would have provided concessional financing  to withdraw support because of the lack of transparency, it is understood.
Former resources minister Matt Canavan says he has not breached section 44 of the constitution, but refused to release documents relating to his mother's application for his Italian citizenship.

The LNP senator, who resigned on Tuesday from the ministry pending a ruling on his eligibility for parliament, has refused to say whether his father's fraud conviction had anything to do with his family's citizenship application at around the same time.

And a pair of experts on acquiring Italian citizenship have given different views on whether it was possible for Senator Canavan to have acquired citizenship without having signed requisite paperwork himself.

In a short press conference in his home town of Rockhampton that left a series of questions unanswered, Senator Canavan also said he had never seen copies of ballot papers that would have allowed him to vote in Italian elections, on three separate occasions, which had been sent to his mother's house.
Leading Labor figures are calling for confirmation Coalition MPs are eligible to sit in Parliament even though a number of their own MPs are refusing to provide documentary evidence they are not dual citizens.

On Thursday, Labor frontbencher Jim Chalmers slammed the government's handling of senator Matt Canavan's dual-citizenship situation, saying Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull needed to "come clean and say who else might be at risk".

Senator Canavan resigned from cabinet on Tuesday, saying he had discovered his mother had signed him up for Italian citizenship when he was 25, without his knowledge.
Walton will move a motion on the floor of the conference on Sunday that is expected to win widespread support from delegates - despite both NSW and federal Labor long-resisting calls for a reservation policy.

AWU National Secretary Daniel Walton will call on the ALP to ignore "abstract notions" of sovereign risk and adopt an immediate cap on gas exports in a bid to head off a looming crisis for Australian manufacturers and bring down prices for consumers.

Labor is heading for a showdown over energy policy at its NSW conference this weekend, with the Australian Workers Union aiming to push the party into adopting a controversial gas reservation policy.

Bill Shorten's opposition has instead adopted a "national interest test" that would see a Domestic Gas Review Board set up to scrutinise future LNG projects to determine whether they are in the interests of all Australians.

The Turnbull government has gone further with its new Australian Domestic Gas Security Mechanism, which allows the government to intervene in the market if it predicts a gas shortfall within 12 months.

But Mr Walton says that is not enough, calling the government's policy "too timid and too complex".

"They now have to decide what is more important: abstract notions about sovereign risk or Australian jobs and Australian families," he told Fairfax Media.

"A set portion of the gas we extract from Australia must stay in Australia to sell to Australians. No complex mechanisms and no 12-month evaluation periods, just a simple cap like dozens of other nations have. That's what we will be pushing both major parties to adopt as a matter of real urgency.
According to Debrett's: "Invitations to official functions are usually issued on a card, which may be engraved in script from a copper plate or printed in script or Roman type."

James Hirschfeld is disrupting this traditional etiquette guide in one fell click of a mouse.

James Hirschfeld, co-founder of the online invitation website Paperless Post, is in Sydney to present at Vogue Codes over the weekend. Credit:James Brickwood

The 32-year-old Harvard graduate is changing up the way we correspond online via his company, Paperless Post, a digital invitation service he co-founded with his sister in 2009 while he was studying.

"If people are using online communication for everything from business to casual chatting, they should be able to use digital communication for important moments in their lives," he said of the business idea, which saw him debut on the Forbes 30 under 30 list in 2014.
No sooner had Malcolm Turnbull decried the Greens' "incredible sloppiness" after senators Scott Ludlam and Larissa Waters fell victim to provisions of section 44 of the constitution, which prohibit dual citizens in Parliament, than Resources and Northern Australia Minister Matt Canavan quit cabinet.

Turns out Canavan is a dual citizen, too but he blames his mum. Yes, according to the Minister, Mama Canavan signed him up for Italian citizenship without his knowledge. A stance that has been met with some scepticism by other members of parliament.

"I am a citizen of Italy. I was not born in Italy, I have never been to Italy, and to my knowledge have never set foot in an Italian consulate or embassy," Canavan said.

"In 2006 my mother lodged documents with the Italian consulate in Brisbane to become an Italian citizen. In doing so it would appear she made an application for me to become an Italian citizen as well. I was 25 years old at the time. My mother was born in Australia but was able to obtain Italian citizenship through her parents, who were both born in Italy."
A former regional Queensland police officer accused of misappropriating money has been granted bail.

Daniel Allan Baker appeared briefly in Brisbane Magistrates Court on Thursday after he was extradited from the Northern Territory.

Daniel Baker is alleged to have misappropriated money collected by the QPS on behalf of other government agencies while he worked at the Camooweal station. Credit:AAP Image

Baker is alleged to have misappropriated money collected by the Queensland Police Service on behalf of other government agencies while he worked at the Camooweal station.

The 34-year-old former sergeant resigned in March 2017 before disciplinary action began.
"Joshua told police that his father then said 'Tia was no longer with us'," the prosecutor said Credit:Queensland Police Service On November 29, 2015, the 21-year-old dancer took part in a three-hour interview with police and gave a statement "repeating those lies", Judge Craig Chowdhury said during his sentencing remarks. "If you had have told the truth early on, many police hours and hundreds of resources could have been saved and a proper focus could have been made at an earlier time of the real killer of Tiahleigh," he said. "You had time to think about your actions ... and you chose to deliberately lie." Judge Chowdhury said Mr Thorburn told a "series of lies" during a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing on June 27, 2016.

The court heard Mr Thorburn had been driven to and picked up from the hearing by his father, which "may have added to the pressure on you", Judge Chowdhury said. "While no specific threats were made to you, I accept that you were fearful legitimately of your father," he said. The court heard electronic surveillance devices were placed in the Thorburn's home that recorded Tiahleigh's foster mother Julene encouraging the family to lie at the hearings, prosecutor David Nardone said. "She told the family (they) have to stick to the same story about her going to school the next day," Mr Nardone said. The court heard Rick Thorburn had called a family meeting on the night of October 29 and told the family about the alleged sexual intercourse between Trent and Tiahleigh and that they had to protect Trent.

"Joshua told police that his father then said "Tia was no longer with us", Mr Nardone said. He said Joshua acknowledged that no one checked to see whether Tiahleigh was still at the home. Defence barrister Jeff Hunter QC said the day of the family meeting had been "perfectly normal" for Joshua until he went home. "One can only imagine what he thought when he was told by his father that there was to be a family meeting and no one was to have a mobile phone with them and he was then told about what his father had done, told about what his brother had done," he said. "He was in a sense trapped by the lie and had to go along with it.

The court heard that Mr Thorburn senior did not directly threaten Joshua, he was was "nonetheless well and truly afraid of him", Mr Hunter said. Mr Hunter told the court Joshua was a "frightened and bewildered 20-year-old" that night. "My client instructs that immediately afterwards he was told not to go into Tiahleigh's room and so he didn't but he had to walk past her room on the way to his own," he said. "He says that once he went to his room he sat there with his phone and agonised for a long time about what he should do. "He was concerned about being heard if he called the police, he was concerned that someone else may be harmed and he was concerned about the complete destruction of his family unit.

"He wishes that he did the right thing immediately and he says that throughout the period that he gave or maintained this false account he felt dreadful about it." Judge Chowdhury said there had been an "extraordinary amount" of publicity regarding Tiahleigh's disappearance and the subsequent finding of her body. "At some point, this is what amazes me, that your client's conscience wasn't piqued to say that this is so bad I can't do this anymore," he said. The court heard Mr Thorburn had experienced "social isolation" as a result of the offences, which had caused him to lose friendships, a relationship with a woman and his employment as a dance teacher. Tiahleigh's mother Cindy Palmer told media outside court, surrounded by loved ones, the justice system had "let us down horribly today".
The man accused of the fatal Bourke Street tragedy, Dimitrious Gargasoulas, is too mentally unwell to attend court, his lawyer says.

Mr Gargasoulas, 27, was scheduled to appear before Melbourne Magistrates Court on Thursday on unrelated charges to the six murder counts he faces over the January 20 tragedy, when a car fatally hit six people and injured dozens of others.

Dimitrious Gargasoulas.

But his case went ahead without him either present in court or appearing via video link, and defence counsel Tass Antos said Mr Gargasoulas was mentally unwell.

"He is not very well," Mr Antos told magistrate Angela Bolger.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The High Court overturned Cardinal George Pell's conviction for historic child sex offences in a judgment handed down April 7, 2020. In a unanimous decision all seven High Court judges found Victoria's Court of Appeal should not have upheld Pell's conviction It found the evidence could not support a guilty verdict.

Police may escort Cardinal George Pell through an underground entrance for his next Melbourne court appearance after officers had to force their way through a 100-strong media throng.

Cardinal Pell appeared in court for the first time on Wednesday, with his barrister making it clear his client would plead not guilty to all charges.

Police officers shepherded Cardinal Pell through a crush of local and international journalists, photographers and camera operators through the main entrance to the Melbourne Magistrates Court and at one stage blocked off part of the road immediately outside the building.
CHARLESTON -- A conservation group recently acquired more land to expand what's now more than 700 acres of nature preserves in southeastern Coles County.

The 99-acre purchase by the Grand Prairie Friends organization will add to protected areas and give the preserves access to the Embarras River, GPF President Jamie Ellis said.

"It provides more habitat we can protect and steward," he said.

Since 2012, the organization has purchased various properties to develop the nature preserve, which stretches roughly from Lake Charleston south to near Fox Ridge State Park.

The newest purchase is just west of the southernmost part of the preserve. According to information from GPF, a combination of grants and other funding was used to buy the land.

Ellis said the site is mostly former farm ground. The previous owners enrolled it in a conservation program but work will have to take place to remove non-native plants and restore it to its natural condition, he said.

He also said there's interest in developing a "greenway" along the river and the newly acquired area could be part of that "if and when it comes to fruition."

The organization isn't currently looking at acquiring any additional land in the area but does have plans to expand the hiking trail it's recently completed through the preserve, Ellis said.

He said the GPF will likely work with Trails for Illinois, the organization that helped with the trail construction, to perhaps add trails and return loops on the existing one. That could take place later this year, he added.

According to the information the GPF released about the recent land purchase, the more than $700,000 effort relied on several funding sources.

Grants included one from the Mattoon-based Lumpkin Family Foundation, which also provided funding for other work related to the GPF preserve.

The grant "fits squarely in the foundation's mission of building healthy, sustainable communities," foundation Executive Director Bruce Karmazin said in the news release announcing the purchase.

There was also a third grant to the GPF from the Illinois Clean Energy Foundation, which the release said has helped with the purchase of 178 natural areas throughout the state.

Additional funding came from the Conservation Fund organization and from a mitigation program connected to a pipeline construction, according to the release.
Developer Bill McNee, the political donor at the centre of a scandal involving an aircraft given to Pauline Hanson, is embarking on a new headache: trying to build over railway lines in Melbourne.

The proposal by developer Bill McNee for Toorak Road, South Yarra, opposite the existing railway station there. Credit:Bruce Henderson Architects

Mr McNee, a major donor to the Liberal Party during Matthew Guy's time as planning minister, is relying on the goodwill of the Andrews government to help build a $25 million project over tracks next to South Yarra railway station.

The project would see a three-level office and retail centre built above train tracks on Toorak Road, directly opposite South Yarra station.
London police say they have "reasonable grounds" to charge two organisations with corporate manslaughter over the Grenfell Tower disaster in June, in which at least 80 people were killed.

On Thursday the Metropolitan Police wrote to former residents of the tower saying it had notified the council and the organisation responsible for management of the tower block that they may face charges.

The 24 storey Grenfell Tower went up in flames on June 12. Credit:AP

"The officer leading the investigation has today notified the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and the Kensington and Chelsea Tenancy Management Organisation that there are reasonable grounds to suspect that each organisation may have committed the offence of corporate manslaughter," the letter said.

Police reached this conclusion after "seizing a huge amount of material" from the two organisations, and taking a large number of witness statements.
Internal White House tensions exploded into a public spectacle on Thursday as Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci undermined Chief of Staff Reince Priebus on live television by suggesting he was behind some of the leaks that have sparked turmoil in the White House and anger from President Donald Trump.

"If Reince wants to explain that he's not a leaker, let him do that," Scaramucci told CNN during a half-hour live phone interview. "I'm a straight shooter. I'll go right to the heart of the matter."

Scaramucci's remarks laid bare a power struggle among factions within the administration as it finds itself under siege by multiple investigations and stalled on its agenda. The statements will be a test of Priebus's grip on a job that in any other White House would be one of the most powerful in Washington. It also comes as Trump has been berating his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, in public statements and on Twitter.

Scaramucci said there is an establishment element inside the White House that is trying "to save America from this president" and is interfering with the full changes Trump is trying to make to "transform" the nation and "drain the swamp."
Village elders in Pakistan ordered the rape of a 17-year-old girl after her brother was accused of raping another girl.

Twenty people have been arrested by police following the two assaults, which took place last week in the town of Muzaffarabad, close to Multan in south Pakistan, police said Thursday.

The mother of the first victim, who is aged 12, told police her daughter was cutting grass in a field when she was raped by a man.

The 12-year-old reported the rape to her mother, who then complained to village elders.

After deliberating, the elders declared one of the sisters of the first attacker would be raped in retaliation for the crime, according to the police report.

"(The second victim)'s two elder sisters were initially called, but the elders decided that (17-year-old) Victim B would be the one to take the punishment," the police report said.

"Her mothers and sisters all protested this but the elders brought out their guns and threatened to kill them."

Muzaffarabad Station House officer Rashid Faheem told CNN investigations were still underway, with more raids expected.

38 rapes in four months

Salman Sufi, director of the Violence Against Women Center in Multan, told CNN both mothers and their daughters had come to his center after the attacks took place.

He said the second victim had arrived with her mother on the July 19, three days before the 12-year-old victim and her mother also came for help.

"Medical examinations have been conducted on both of them and they have confirmed that both girls were raped," Sufi said.

Sufi said the center had only been opened in March and liaised directly with police to provide assistance to victims, including counseling.

"Since March 2017, in the four months since the center was formed, it has received and resolved 38 cases of rape in this region alone," he said.

The director asked that the victims' names not be released. "The Punjab government will make sure that this case will go to court and that justice will be done," Sufi said.

Oppression of women in Pakistan

It is not the first time a woman has been raped as a form of punishment in Pakistan.

In 2002 then-28 year old Mukhtar Mai was gang raped on the orders of a tribal court -- a jirga -- after her brother was accused of having a sexual relationship with an older woman in another tribe.

He was later found to have been wrongly accused by the Punjab governor.

"First of all, there was the rape, and afterwards when I tried to call the police, I received death threats that I would be killed if I went to a police station," Mai told CNN in 2013.

Her rapists were originally sentenced to death, but that was later overturned by Pakistan's Supreme Court.

Human rights groups have regularly accused the Pakistani government of not doing enough to protect women and girls from abuses in the country, including rape, honor killings and acid attacks.

In July 2016, Pakistani social media Qandeel Baloch was killed by her brother who believed she was "bringing dishonor to (his) family."

Strict new laws passed by the Pakistani government in October ordered harsher sentences for honor killings while also making the rape of minors punishable by death.

CNN's Shazia Bhatti in Multan contributed to this report.
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A Grand Island-based electrical distributor with an office in Lincoln has agreed to be acquired.

Border States Electric of Fargo, North Dakota, said it has reached an agreement to acquire Kriz-Davis Co. and its wholly owned subsidiary, Chapman Metering.

The deal, the terms of which were not disclosed, is expected to be finalized Aug. 28.

Kriz-Davis Co. has been in business for more than 70 years. The company has nearly $200 million in annual sales and more than 250 employees at 19 locations in six states. The Lincoln location is at 1910 S.W. Fifth St.
A pair married in Grand Island six years ago and a man married in Elmwood 20 years ago are accused of using phony marriages to evade immigration laws.

The rarely charged allegations came in unrelated indictments unsealed this week in U.S. District Court in Lincoln.

In the first, Assistant U.S. Attorney William Mickle said Steven Adams, a U.S. citizen, and Patricia Salvador-Magana, a Mexican national, got a marriage license in Grand Island on July 16, 2011, and later married but never lived together.

He said the grand jury believes they married in a scheme for her to evade immigration laws and for him to get more in veterans disability benefits by claiming her and her three children as dependents.

In August 2012, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services employees interviewed Adams and Salvador-Magana and approved her as a permanent resident.

Based on the marriage, the Department of Veterans Affairs paid out $29,144 more in veterans disability benefits between September 2011 and July 2017, court records say.

The case was unsealed Tuesday, though neither has appeared yet on the indictment accusing them of marriage fraud and theft of government services.

In a second case unsealed the same day, Eloy Nevarez Andazola is accused of two counts of making false statements in an immigration matter, making a false statement under oath and unlawfully procuring citizenship or naturalization.

In that indictment, Mickle said Nevarez Andazola entered into a fraudulent marriage in 1997 in Elmwood, just east of Lincoln.

In 2015, he is accused of using the marriage to apply for naturalization and lied on the form by answering "no" to questions asking: if he had married someone to obtain an immigration benefit; if he had committed a crime for which he had not been arrested; and if he had ever lied to a U.S. government official to gain immigration benefits.

The grand jury alleges specifically that Nevarez Andazola lied to an immigration officer when he said under oath that he lived in Lexington with the woman he had married from 1997 to 2001.

He is set to make his first appearance on the indictment next week.
Jamez Henderson pleaded no contest to manslaughter Thursday in connection to the killing of a 41-year-old man found dead in a car trunk in December.

Henderson, 33, maintained Thursday it was a matter of kill or be killed.

He said the reason he was entering a plea and not making the state prove at trial he killed Jamie Watson was because the state has enough to "whack me" on other things, presumably meaning drug crimes.

But he wasnt guilty of murder, Henderson said.

I want you to know that, he told the judge. "I want everyone to know that. It was self-defense.

Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Eric Miller described what happened as a botched drug robbery. Watson had gone to 215 Fairfield St. at about 7 p.m. Dec. 14 to buy methamphetamine from Henderson. During the deal, Watson pulled a gun and attempted to rob him.

A fight followed that ended with Henderson wearing out Watson and shooting him in the back of the head one time, Miller said.

He said witnesses told police that during the scuffle Henderson told Watson he would let him leave with his life if he stopped fighting.

At Thursday's hearing, Henderson said a lot of what Miller said was true, but said he was being robbed, Watson shot him and "beat the hell out of me.

Im really lucky being the one still here, Henderson said.

He said during a fight over the gun, he did tell Watson to just run off and leave, to quit fighting.

Henderson said when he finally got control of the gun, Watson went right for another gun. He said Watson had his finger on the trigger and was going to try to take Henderson's life. Thats why he fired.

I just wanted you to know what happened, Henderson told Lancaster County District Judge Susan Strong, who will sentence him Sept. 18.

He had been nearing a September trial on a second-degree murder charge and five other felonies before reaching the deal with the state.

Miller reduced the charges to manslaughter, a killing during the commission of another crime, and possession of 28-139 grams of methamphetamine with intent to deliver, in exchange for Hendersons no-contest pleas.

He said just before 1:30 a.m. on Dec. 15, Lincoln police were sent to Northwood Terrace apartments, 1025 N. 23rd St., to check out banging noises in the parking lot and arrived to find a red SUV backed up to a green Buick with the trunk open.

Two men fled in the SUV. Henderson walked away to another car that drove through a playground at the apartment complex until it could go no farther, then left the vehicle and ran.

Miller said on the floorboard of that car police found 261 grams, more than half a pound, of meth, and in the green Buick they found Watsons body.

He said witnesses led police to the house on Fairfield Street, where they sat and waited. When Henderson and three others left, they did a traffic stop, but Henderson maneuvered from the backseat to the drivers seat and drove away.

Police found him in a wooded area north of town and arrested him mid-afternoon on Dec. 16 with nearly $12,000 cash and 42 grams of meth, Miller said.

Asked near the start of Thursdays hearing how he wanted to plead, Henderson paused. Then his attorney, Sarah Newell of the Nebraska Commission on Public Advocacy, said he was entering an Alford plea on the manslaughter charge, meaning he maintains his innocence but was pleading to it to avoid the risk of being convicted of more serious charges.

As for the drug charge, Henderson said: Ill plead guilty to count two or no contest. It doesnt even matter.

He can get more prison time for the drug offense (five to 50 years) than for manslaughter (up to 20 years).
Hundreds gathered Wednesday night at the Brayton Fire Training Field for what the master of ceremonies called the "Disneyland for firefighters" -- the Texas A&M Engineering Extension Service municipal fire school's annual demonstration night.

One of the highlights of the demonstration -- which features students showing their skill at extinguishing massive fires on several props -- was a bulk storage tank designed and built by TEEX engineers that is similar to what's used in many towns to store fuels such as petroleum. Though the tank is relatively short in height, its 45-foot diameter makes it the largest in the United States. It premiered for student use earlier this month with the Spanish-speaking and industrial summer fire schools.

"With this -- 'Project 47' -- we always believe Texas is the biggest and the best," TEEX Director Chief Robert Moore said. "We knew the largest training storage tank prior to this was 44 feet in diameter, and we wanted our tank to be made bigger and to have the biggest and best, so we built it to 45 feet in diameter."

For Moore, one of the key reasons for demonstration night is to allow the community to see what the fire school is all about.

"We're training emergency responders for something that may happen, and we want people to know they're well trained," he said. "Also, we want people to know that we're environmentally friendly, with liquid fuel for burns that goes away quickly. Chevron designed the fuel for us without benzene, so no long term health effects on firefighters."

The demonstration night also reflects the intense hands-on training students of the summer fire schools deal with on a daily basis. TEEX employee Billy Rhoads, formerly a fire chief at Fort Hood Army base, has been teaching classes for the municipal fire school as a guest instructor for 26 years.

"I guess it's kind of an honor to meet folks doing the job I chose to do," he said as he watched the crowds gather for the first demonstration of the night. "It's a very noble profession seeing people, especially young kids, come into the fire service today. It's important train them the right way."

While many in the crowd were relatives of fire students, or volunteer firefighters from the area -- such as a group from Bremond -- who came to watch, some of the crowd watching the burns Wednesday night came for an educational opportunity. A Trail Life USA troop out of Bryan were in attendance, and troop leaders explained that the organization, a religious service group for children comparable to Boy Scouts, encourages children to learn about first responders and their roles in society.

"We try to 'hit the trail,' as they say, with a service venue as a field trip," said troop leader John Moravec.

For a fire school veteran like Rhoads, he's seen a lot of changes in 26 years. He's seen Brayton grow from a facility with dirt roads and a modest number of training props to a massive destination for fire training.

"We see a lot more women in the fire service, and I'm glad to see them," he said. "It shows that they can do the job as well. In fact, my wife is now a retired firefighter in Temple. I've also seen a lot of teens involved from some fire explorer programs. High schools are actually running firefighting technical trade classes."

Each year the work done at the summer fire schools is just as satisfying as the previous session.

"I've done this because I enjoy training firefighters," Rhoads said. "The biggest thing is teaching them everything I know so that they can be safe and go home."

The municipal fire courses will wrap up by the end of this week, and firefighters from 14 states, four countries and 193 Texas counties will return home.
February 14, 1938 - July 22, 2017

Maynard Earl Hill died on Saturday, July 22, 2017 from stroke complications. He survived his initial stroke on September 29, 2015. He was at home until recent hospitalization on July 4.

Visitation will be from 5:00 to 7:00 PM, Friday, July 28, 2017 at Memorial Funeral Chapel in College Station. A Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated 10:00 AM, Saturday, July 29, 2017 at St. Mary's Catholic Center in College Station. Interment will follow at College Station Cemetery.

Maynard Hill was born in Uvalde, Texas on Valentine's Day 1938. He attended schools in Del Rio, Texas. He graduated from Texas A&M with a Bachelor of Science. He was a member of the first graduate program in the College of Business. He earned his Master's Degree in finance. Both of his sons also graduated from Texas A&M. Mr. Hill's two sons, Casey Hill and Clifton Hill pre-deceased him in 2007 and 2010.

Maynard Earl is survived by his wife, Caroline Hill, grandson Jon Michael Hill, and great granddaughter Alissa Nicole Hill. Also surviving Maynard is his sister, Billie Ruth Hill Coleman and brother, Kenneth Roy Hill and his wife Sherri Hill. Special nieces and nephews survive. Mr. Hill is also survived by his sisters-in-law and their husbands, Leona and George B. Andel, Anna Mae Hajovsky, Gertie and Vit Janda and deceased brothers-in-law George Hajovsky and Jinks Coleman.

Maynard Earl Hill had such beautiful qualities in his life. How appropriate that he was born on Valentine's Day. He never entered a room without his great smile. He was friendly, kind, warm, thoughtful and very patient. He never, ever complained about his health situation.

He loved his family. He truly was a good man.
September 15, 1927 - July 25, 2017

Emil Eugene Ogden passed away at his home in College Station on Tuesday, July 25, 2017 at the age of 89. He was born on September 15, 1927 in Blackwell, OK, the only son of Homer E. and Mary S. Ogden. He married Clementine Theresa Lindeman on September 23, 1947, who survives him. Clementine was Emil's heart and home for over 69 years. Her support and encouragement  as well as the occasional and indispensable reality check  centered and sustained him. Emil and Clementine's love and commitment to each other, their Catholic faith, and the values on which they built their life endure in his surviving children and their spouses: Stephen and Beverly Ogden of Bryan, Mary Katherine (Kathy) and Jimmy Buttry of Colleyville, Dr. Paul and Beth Ogden of College Station, Michael and Sarah Ogden of Dallas, Joseph and Karen Ogden of Fort Worth, and Laura and Dr. Warren Young of Spring. He also leaves 23 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren to mourn his loss and cherish his memory.

Emil's childhood was marked by family instability and economic hardship. But with a good wife, fierce resolve, abiding faith, intellectual curiosity, and an engaging personality, he wrought an exceptionally full and fruitful life. He was a veteran of World War II, licensed peace officer, licensed pilot, professional ball player, professional musician, oilman, civic leader, investor, philanthropist, philosopher, and, at the young age of 60, a magna cum laude graduate of Texas A&M University, Class of '53. Emil developed a strong moral compass which was the foundation of his immaculate integrity. He knew what he believed and his actions were driven by his values. His innate fairmindedness caused him to deplore injustice and motivated his life.

Emil was a member, along with his wife, of St. Thomas Aquinas Parish in College Station and his Catholic faith was deeply rooted and intentionally lived out. He believed that each human life is sacred, formed in the image of God from conception. He devoted much of his time and treasure to the Church. Emil was a fourth degree Knight of Columbus, and served the order as Grand Knight, District Deputy, State Deputy, and Vice Supreme Master. He was a Knight Grand Cross of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulcher of Jerusalem and was awarded the Holy Trinity Medal of Honor.

Emil was an independent oilman for 28 years in Abilene, TX, where he also served on the city council. He was a real wildcatter  undeterred by his personal record of 14 consecutive dry holes  and that spirit sustained him through the boom and bust cycle of the oil patch. Emil and Clementine moved to College Station in 1979, where he was instrumental in developing the Bryan Woodbine field. John (deceased) and Anne Brown Heyburn, cherished lifelong friends and essential business partners, greatly contributed to the success of his endeavors. He earned the respect, loyalty and affection of his associates and employees, especially Mike Crocker and Liz Zemanek.

An authentic philanthropist, Emil was a compassionate and effective pillar of support for many organizations and the people they served. He gave away a large part of his fortune because he never forgot where he came from, what it was like to be without, and how his money could make a real and lasting difference in someone's life. He also gave generously of his time, serving in volunteer leadership positions including Reserve Criminal Investigations Deputy with the Brazos County Sheriff's Office, President of the West Texas Oil & Gas Association, President of the Brazos Valley Symphony Society, Chairman of the Arrow Moon District of the Boys Scouts of America, Board Member of the Brazos Valley Boys & Girls Club, Life Member and Bugler of VFW Post 4692, Vice Chairman of the Governor's Energy Advisory Council; as a member of the Texas Workers' Compensation Advisory Council, the United States Foreign Investment Advisory Committee, the Texas A&M University Health Science Center Foundation, Scott & White Board of Visitors, Director's Circle of the George H. W. Bush Presidential Library; and as a Republican Eagle.

He never really retired, though failing health recently curtailed his regular inspection of local oil and gas wells and other accustomed stops including daily lunch at Fish Daddy's. All his life, Emil sought out and thoroughly enjoyed the company of a wide variety of people, with a special affinity for Aggie students and veterans. A gentleman of the old school, always attired in shirt and tie, he particularly relished a lively discussion of politics, religion, or current events.

Emil Ogden had a remarkable determination to live, to learn, and to make a difference. While the impact of his public life is noteworthy, his most enduring legacy is his family. His influence on his children was profound and much of the success they have enjoyed is owed to his guidance, faith, love and high expectations. Emil Ogden was an honest man who made things better wherever he went. He fought the good fight, finished the course, and kept the faith. May he rest in peace.

Visitation will be at St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic Church, 2541 Earl Rudder Freeway in College Station, on Thursday, July 27th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. with the Rosary to be prayed at 7 p.m. Funeral liturgy will take place at St. Thomas at 11:00 a.m. on Friday, July 28, 2017. Committal will follow at Mount Calvary Cemetery. Those planning an expression of sympathy may wish to consider memorials to the St. Thomas Aquinas Building Fund, Bryan/College Station Habitat for Humanity (119 Lake St., Bryan TX 77801) or another of the many charitable organizations that Emil supported.
Making a return to our two favourite summer locations, Mount Maunganui and Nelson in early January 2023, we've got whiff of the first release lineup and me oh my, yes boy
RALSTON  Members of the general public looking to weigh in on the Keystone XL pipeline and its route through Nebraska got their last in-person chance Wednesday.

About 185 people crowded a ballroom at Ralston Arena for a public hearing on the project, and 99 spoke during seven hours of testimony.

Opponents of the proposed route outnumbered supporters more than 2-to-1.

Most were commenting for the first time since the five-member Public Service Commission, which is tasked with reviewing the pipeline route through Nebraska, launched its series of four public hearings in May.

And while much of the testimony from both sides centered on the pipeline's safety  including the risk and potential impact of spills and leaks  state law forbids commissioners from taking those issues into consideration as they determine whether the route is in the public interest.

"That's a feat of legislative wizardry for which the unicameral (Legislature) should not be congratulated," said Don Bass, an Omaha geologist and environmental consultant who opposes the pipeline.

Four current and former state lawmakers testified, including three who were involved in crafting Nebraska's pipeline siting law, the Major Oil Pipeline Siting Act. All spoke in support of the pipeline and route.

Most of the arguments were familiar.

Opponents raised concerns about the potential threat to the Ogallala Aquifer and other water sources should Canadian oil sands oil spill from the pipe. Supporters noted the safety features designed to halt leaks and spills.

Pipeline builder TransCanada and its backers highlighted the jobs that would be created to help build the $8 billion pipeline, which would connect Canadian oil to refiners on the U.S. Gulf Coast. Opponents challenged that those jobs would only be temporary, and the "man camps" established to house pipeline workers in other states have been magnets for human trafficking and drug abuse.

Nebraska regulators are considering the pipeline because President Donald Trump allowed TransCanada to revisit the project earlier this year, reversing a 2015 order by then-President Barack Obama's administration rejecting the pipeline.

A more-formal hearing before the Public Service Commission, which the general public may attend but not participate in, is scheduled Aug. 7-11 at the Cornhusker Marriott Hotel in Lincoln.
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Diageos North America sales were up 3 percent in the fiscal year ending in June, with a number of liquor brands driving growth and the company starting to see a bit of fizz in its new Diageo Beer Co. USA division.

Diageo has its North American headquarters in Norwalk under division President Deirdre Mahlan, with the company led by CEO Ivan Menezes in London and selling familiar brands like Baileys, Captain Morgan, Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff. On Wednesday, Diageo announced the addition of former Xerox CEO Ursula Burns to its board of directors, with Xerox and Diageos offices in close proximity in Norwalk.

We are more consumer-centric, more efficient and more agile, Menesez said in a Thursday address to investors. Innovation continues to be a key growth driver contributing 17 percent ... of sales.

North American sales contributed nearly $4.7 billion to Diageos total revenue of $15.8 billion for the 12-month period ending June 30. Net sales were up 4.3 percent globally, excluding additional revenue from new brands acquired by Diageo in the intervening 12 months.

Diageo made a big splash at the start of the summer with a deal to buy the Casamigos tequila brand created by actor George Clooney, for between $700 million and $1 billion depending on performance milestones in the next few years.

Casamigos has an authentic brand identity and is growing fast, Menezes said Thursday. We aim to sustain the momentum of the brand in partnership with the founders who will continue to promote the brand and provide their leadership and vision.

Whiskey topped all categories for Diageo in North America during the past year, with sales up 12 percent boosted by a big marketing push for Bulleit, and Crown Royal also continuing its momentum. Scotch sales surged 8 percent on Johnnie Walker Black Label and Buchanans.

That helped offset vodka sales draining 8 percent, with Ciroc and Ketel One struggling and Smirnoff sales also off from the 2016 fiscal year. In the Thursday review of Diageos results, the companys chief financial officer Kathy Mikells said the company has been working to spot successes in individual markets and export those processes to other places.

Vodka remains challenging particularly in (the United States) where competitive pressure is high, Mikells said. In liqueurs, Baileys was up 6 percent in Europe, its biggest market. We were quick to transfer the learnings on how we turned around its performance to the U.S. ... where performance has already improved (since January).

After introducing its new Diageo Beer Co. USA unit last year, Diageo reported a 3 percent increase in sales led by ready-to-drink mixes like Smirnoff Ice.

Sales of Guinness beer were up slightly globally and flat in the United States, even as Diageo continues development of a tourist brewery in Relay, Md. it hopes will draw 300,000 visitors annually and bring more beer drinkers to the Guinness brand.

Alex.Soule@scni.com; 203-842-2545; www.twitter.com/casoulman
A report filed this week by the Nebraska inspector general of corrections said the death of an inmate at Tecumseh State Correctional Institution from a drug overdose apparently was a result of his own unwise actions.

The prison staff appeared to have conducted appropriate cell checks when Daelan Lamere was found unresponsive in his cell and struggling to breathe at 6:18 a.m. on May 27, the report by Inspector General Doug Koebernick said. He could not, however, determine if staff knew response buttons had been pushed by inmates prior to that time, and whether the buttons' volumes had been turned down.

Lamere, 22, was taken that morning to Johnson County Hospital in Tecumseh, then transferred to Bryan West Campus in Lincoln. He tested positive for methamphetamines and Ecstacy. He died June 6.

The report said that on May 21, Lamere had a visitor, and afterward, a staff member did a strip search and saw a blue pouch in Lamere's mouth. He was told to spit it out, but instead appeared to swallow it. He was then taken to the prison's skilled nursing facility and observed until the next day. His visits were also suspended.

During Koebernick's investigation, Lamere's cellmate told him Lamere had vomited and became unresponsive about 3:15 a.m. on May 27. The cellmate said he and another inmate had pushed response buttons in their cells but no one came to check. A staff member came by at around 5:03 a.m., the cellmate said, but Lamere seemed to be improving so he didn't mention it.

Johnson County will convene a grand jury to review the death at a later date.

Koebernick also looked at how drugs and alcohol contraband were getting into the prisons. The Department of Correctional Services reported it opened criminal investigations on eight cases involving staff members and seven involving visitors in 2016. This year, it has opened no cases involving staff and four involving visitors.

In an informal staff survey by Koebernick on drugs and illegal liquor, employees suggested doing additional searches of staff, using drug dogs, increasing prosecution and discipline for those caught bringing in drugs, and instituting additional no-contact visits.

Koebernick made these recommendations in his report:

* Review the ability for staff to turn down the volume of response buttons;

* Initiate a drug-awareness campaign for inmates and staff on dangers of using illegal drugs;

* Increase frequency and thoroughness of staff searches and use law enforcement agencies randomly to assist;

* Use drug dogs more frequently;

* Review how staff and visitor searches are conducted at each prison.
Special Events

Thursday, Aug. 3  The Great American Songbook with a Little Broadway, 7-8 p.m. Join us for music and lyrics from the Great American Songbook and Broadway. Performed by three talented high school graduates  Will Comer, Ben Senneff and Caitlin Witty. Registration recommended. Free admission. Register online or call 203-762-6342.

Friday, Aug. 4  Cartoon Drawing Demonstration, 4-4:45 p.m. For children of all ages and their families. Come watch charming mermaids, fairies, pirates, and spacemen come to life on a sketchbook. Everyone who attends will leave with a quick sketch made on the spot. Be sure to bring your imagination and have a fun time watching the creations. This program is being offered by high school graduate Emma Keating. Emma is a graduating senior at Wilton High School. Next year she will be studying film at Purchase College. She creates her own animated movies by drawing thousands of individual pictures. These frames add up to make a full story. Her animated short Saving Me has won several awards including: Scholastic Gold Key, Juan Castillo Best Film in Connecticut, and The New Canaan New Age Film Festival Best in Animation. No registration, no fee.

Calendar

Now through July 31  JetBlue Ticket Drawing for two sets of two travel vouchers being donated by JetBlue. $20 for one chance; $50 for three chances. Drawing on July 31 at 3 p.m. Winners will be notified by phone. Vouchers must be used by March 18, 2018. Must be at least 18 years old to participate. Visit www.wiltonlibrary.org or stop by the front desk.

Monday, July 31  College Essay Workshop, 6:30-8 p.m. A great essay can push your application into the admit pile! College admissions consultant, Beth Manners, will introduce both the main and supplemental essays and discuss how to write pieces that stand out and tell your story. Bring laptops/notebooks for this working session and Beth will review your ideas, drafts or help you brainstorm and get started. For rising seniors only. Space limited. Registration required. Register online or call 203-762-6342.

More Information 137 Old Ridgefield Road 203-762-3950 www.wiltonlibrary.org See More Collapse

Tuesdays, Aug. 1 & 8  New Yorker Shorts: 5 Weeks of Short Stories from The New Yorker Magazine, 12-1:30 p.m. Professional book discussion leader Susan Boyar discusses a short story published in The New Yorker magazine from the previous week's issue. The current issue of The New Yorker is available in the Reading Room for in-library use or it can be downloaded through RBdigital. Bring lunch; beverages will be provided. Advance registration suggested. Register online or call 203-762-6334.

Tuesday, Aug. 1  Scope It Out for Children, 2-3:15 p.m. The Discovery Museum brings its expertise and learning lab to Wilton Library. Find out what happens to light as it passes through a lens then make your own telescope. For children entering grades 3-5. Registration required. Supported by the Amadeo Family. Register online or call 203-762-6336.

Tuesday, Aug. 1  Scope It Out for Teens & Tweens, 3:30-4:45 p.m. Enjoy stargazing? Want to learn a bit more? The Discovery Museum brings its expertise and learning lab to Wilton Library! Find out what happens to light as it passes through a lens. Then make your own telescope! For students entering grades 6-9. Registration required. Sponsored by the Amadeo Family.

Wednesday, Aug. 2  Light Up a T-shirt for Teens, 3-5 p.m. Use fabric markers to create a unique design on a t-shirt and then get acquainted with light-up wearables by sewing with conductive thread and using LEDs and coin cell battery holders. For teens entering grades 7-12. Registration required and space limited. Register online or call 203-762-6342. Sponsored by the Amadeo Family.

Thursday, Aug. 3  Teen Zumba, 4-4:45 p.m. Come dance to fun music, laugh and get a great workout with Zumba instructor Valerie! For students entering grades 6-12. No experience necessary! Wear exercise shoes. Limited space. Registration recommended. Register online or call 203-762-6342. Wilton Library, 137 Old Ridgefield Road, Wilton; www.wiltonlibrary.org; (203) 762-3950.

Now through Aug. 23  73rd Annual Wilton Artists Summer Show Exhibition Exhibition celebrates more than 50 Wilton artists displaying diverse styles, media, and subjects in this two-month long annual Summer Show. A majority of the works will be available for purchase with a portion of the proceeds benefiting the library.

Classes in Innovation Station this week  Friday, July 28: Personalize a Glass Water Bottle, 4-5:30 p.m. Monday, July 31: Stitch Time for Knitters and Crocheters, 1-2:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 1: Personalize a Tumbler or Glass Water Bottle, 11 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 1: Personalize a Tumbler or Glass Water Bottle, 12-1 p.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 2: Embroider or Monogram It!, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 3: Make Fun Buttons!, 2-4 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 3: Enhancing Your Pictures with Photoshop, 2-4 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 4: Embroider a BBQ Chefs Apron, 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 4: Create Cards, Gift Tags & More, 12-2 p.m.

Childrens programs this week  Monday, July 31 through Monday, Aug. 21: Drop-in Summer Crafts, 10 a.m. to 7:30 p.m.; Tuesday, Aug. 1 through Tuesday, Aug. 22: Terrific Tales for Twos and Threes, 10:15-10:45 a.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 2 through Wednesday, Aug. 23: Books for Babies, 10:15-10:45 a.m.; Wednesday, Aug. 2 through Wednesday, Aug. 23: Wonderful Ones and Twos, 11-11:30 a.m.; Thursday, July 27: Movie Theater Thursdays  Jungle Book, 10:15 a.m. to 12 p.m.; Thursday, Aug. 3: Movie Theater Thursdays  Hercules, 10:15-11:45 a.m.; Thursday, Aug. 3: Movie Theater Thursdays  Trolls, 2-3:30 p.m.; Friday, Aug. 4, 11, 18 & 25: Movement and Dance, 11-11:30 a.m.
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WILTON  A group of 14 teens and tweens shuffled around Wilton Librarys Presidents Room Tuesday afternoon, examining clues from the crime scene of Albert Einsteins stolen toothbrush.

The toothbrush was taken from the museums newest exhibit, Famous Toothbrushes, and a ransom note was left asking for $500,000 in one-dollar bills.

The group was tasked with cracking the case by examining the fingerprints of three possible suspects and performing other forensic tests with the evidence collected. They were told to analyze the evidence and think about the motive, means and opportunity to commit the crime.

Trey Harris, who signed up for the event after seeing a poster in the library hallways, said the pretend crime lab set up by the Discovery Museum was fun and interesting.

A lot of this stuff I didnt know, so Im learning a lot, the 14-year-old said.

The crime scene was closed after an hour and the group were allowed to discuss with one another about who they thought committed the crime. Several shared their reasoning for the person or people they believed were responsible for the stolen toothbrush.

However, at the end, it was revealed the crime was unsolvable  which is a possibility in real life, explained Michelle Lewis, a STEM programs educator at Discovery Museum who lives in Shelton.

So if this was an actual thing, and if the majority of us voted on one person, we couldve put the wrong person in jail, said Elizabeth Denneen, one of the programs participants.

We couldve, Lewis said.

Lewis, whos helped run programs with Discovery Museum for several years, said the crime scene was designed to be inconclusive so that children participating dont leave discouraged.

The idea wasnt to have any kids be right or wrong, it was to get them to think about the process, to put all the evidence together and come out with an argument for why they believe they were correct, Lewis said. Its more about the process than it is the end result for us.

This was true for Denneen, who found the overall process challenging and intriguing.

It made you think a lot. It was very hard, the 11-year-old said. I do a lot of crime scene solving stuff at home and I was really excited to learn more about everything that was in the scene.

Tuesdays program was sponsored by the Amadeo Family. For more information about Wilton Librarys programs, visit wiltonlibrary.org or call 203-762-3950.

skim@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2568; @stephaniehnkim
WILTON  After a failed bid to secure his partys nomination for one of two open seats on the Board of Selectmen, Republican Town Committee chairman Al Alper is exploring alternative avenues to make it to Novembers municipal ballot.

Last week, the Republican Town Committee held a ballot vote to decide whether Alper or challenger Joshua Cole, who currently serves as chairman on the towns Zoning Board of Appeals, up for Dick Dubows soon-to-be open seat on the Board of Selectmen.

In a closed executive session, the committee eventually decided to endorse Cole, in addition to re-nominating selectman Lori Bufano in the race for the seat that she currently holds.

In response, Alper, who has declined to comment on whether he intends to continue to pursue the open selectman seat, secured the paperwork necessary to circumvent the RTCs decision and push the race for the selectmans seat to a municipal primary, according to Republican Registrar of Voters Annalisa Stravato.

To qualify for a municipal primary race, Alper would need to attain signatures from 5 percent of the 4,185 registered Republican voters in town, or 210 signatures, by 4 p.m. on Aug. 9.

If successful, Alper would be the first candidate to force a municipal primary in recent memory, said Democratic Registrar of Voters Carole Young-Kleinfeld.

Ive been registrar since 2008 and the previous Republican registrar was here even before that, and she and I happened to have a little chat about this, and she couldnt remember ever having a municipal primary in a municipal election year, Young-Kleinfeld said.

The only time in recent memory that the town experienced a municipal primary, Young-Kleinfeld said, was a registrar of voters primary back in 2010. However, that was on gubernatorial ballot.

The primary, should Alper secure the signatures, is scheduled for Tuesday, Sept. 12, throughout the state.

If Alper qualifies for the primary, but fails to win, he will still have the option of filing a nominating petition with the Connecticut Secretary of the State, which would place him on the ballot as an unaffiliated petition candidate.

Petition candidacy would require Alper to secure the signatures from 1 percent of the registered voters in Wilton, regardless of party or affiliation, who voted in the last election involving the office of selectmen. This means Alper would need only 44 signatures, a much lower threshold than that required to force a municipal primary.

According to Town Clerk Lori Kaback, Alper has already obtained the paperwork necessary to apply as a petition candidate.

In a total of 23 or 24 years working in the town clerks office, this is my first potential petition candidates at the municipal level, said Kaback, who joined the town as town clerk two years ago after serving the rest of her career in the town clerks office in Danbury.

The RTC chair would need to secure the signatures by the same Aug. 9 deadline at 4 p.m. to qualify as a nominated petition candidate. From there, the nominating petition form would be relayed to the Secretary of State, who would need to verify the signatures over a two-week period.

ptomlinson@hearstmediact.com; 203-842-2570; Twitter: @Tomlinson_PE
There is no escape from historical existence. With all its contingencies, unexpected happenings, and mysteries, historical existence offers opportunities for grasping the great drama of life.

Conservative intellectuals have long been suspicious of the pressures that political ideologies place on the writing of history. Most famously, Herbert Butterfield, in his classic work, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931), warned of the tendencies of historians to divide historical figures and events in terms of friends and enemies of a present understanding of progress. Eric Voegelin, in his Walgreen Lectures at the University of Chicago in 1951, spoke of modernitys search for ideological certainty in order to overcome the anxieties of historical existence. Baldly claiming that uncertainty is the very essence of Christianity, Voegelin argued that the entire modern project was to immanentize the Christian eschaton. Christianity, properly understood, recognized the primacy of faith in a transcendent God, and did not countenance a necessarily progressive worldview. Gerhart Niemeyer, following Voegelins lead, argued that a philosophy of history presupposing an End is a response to the artifice of a system, rather than to a manifestation of reality. In his work, Enemies of the Permanent Things (1969), Russell Kirk outlined four approaches to historical understanding. First is the school of nothing ever happens, i.e., events simply happen without any discernible purpose or significance. The second school he calls the positivist, and this dimension sees history as the study of the record of progress toward some grand terrestrial culmination and perfection. The third school comes from ancient times and sees history as cyclical. The fourth school believes that history is the record of human existence under God, and that the purpose is to reveal to existing men and societies the true nature of being. For Kirk, historians are not seers who can divine the future from the past. Rather, history is a veiled reality, a reality that we can only glimpse as an intelligible order. And in a beautiful essay, Myth, History, and the Problem of Desacralized Time (1982), Stephen Tonsor warned against the modernist understanding of an immanentized historical ending this way:

With the secularization of time and history, meaning, once given to history by its eternal context, must now be discoveredif it is to be found at allas immanent in history. However, if the meaning of history lies within the processes and unfolding of history itself, in the agonized convulsions of time, then there is, indeed, no salvation from time. The central problem for mankind in our time is the break with the eternal context of time, the desacralization of history. Mankind, in spite of the inadequacy of the act of restoration through the cosmogonic myth, sees the necessity to escape from the agony of history and the decay of potency. Either individuals and human societies abandon hope and live within the negativities of the void or mankind secularizes a form of the cosmogonic myth with its periodic return to chaos and its periodic revival of the golden age through myth and ritual. Once the Judaeo-Christian conception of history has been abandoned there is no alternative to resort either to myth or to the immanentization of history.

I believe that there is great evidence in the pronouncements of our public officials in dealing with the new Russia that signify the diminishing influence of the traditional Judaeo-Christian understanding of history as put forth by imaginative conservatives, like Kirk, Tonsor, and Voegelin, and that this understanding has been replaced by the mythic and ideological understanding in order to obtain the illusion of certainty in an increasingly uncertain world. I believe that the force of ideology is kindling a resurrection of the Manichaean structure of Russian-American relations as that which had prevailed from the post-World War II years through the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s. The insistence of our leadership class that Russia be recognized as our primary enemy (even before allegations of computer hacking of our elections and of political collusion with the Trump administration), the full-throttle drive to extend provocatively the North American Treaty Organization into Eastern and South-Eastern Europe up to the Russian border, and the insistence that political organizations created in the post-war years be recognized as historically conclusive exposes a structure of thought designed to overcome the uncertainties of political change in the past twenty-five years. Incessant references and pronouncementsalmost like incantations and actions of ritualfrom numerous media outlets, political representatives, and others that Russia poses a threat not simply to existential countries, but to the very idea of liberal democracy, reveal the extent to which ideology and myth have supplanted historical understanding.

To contextualize this discussion of the immanentization of history as ideology, we need to look briefly at what is probably the most important public statement on the death of historical thinking in the previous fifty years, Francis Fukuyamas 1989 article, The End of History? and the book that followed, The End of History and the Last Man (1992). Dr. Fukuyamas questionand it was a questionasked whether or not non-liberal, non-democratic ideologies could challenge modern liberalism and not be found wanting as alternative forms of political and economic organizations to provide for the wants of human societies. Developing his argument from the writings of Georg Friedrich Hegel and Alexandre Kojeve, Dr. Fukuyama concluded that the consciousness of the principles of liberty and equality had become imminent in what he called the universal homogeneous state, and that this represented an unabashed victory of economic and political liberalism. Dr. Fukuyama was not arguing that international and political conflict would cease or that economic competition would end, rather he argued that increasingly fundamental contradictions in political societies were being resolved through a common ideological heritage of mankind. Dr. Fukuyama concluded that the spectacular abundance of advanced liberal economies and the infinitely diverse consumer culture made possible by them seem to both foster and preserve liberalism in the political sphereWe might summarize the content of the universal homogenous state as liberal democracy in the political sphere combined with easy access to VCRs and stereos in the economic.

Dr. Fukuyama, however, was not completely sanguine regarding his conclusion. He ended his discussion with a forewarning that countriesRussia and China, in particularmight be stuck in history. Specifically, he referenced Russias historic imperialist and nationalist behaviors which might reassert themselves after the fall of the Soviet ideological system:

I can feel in myself, and see in others around me, a powerful nostalgia for the time when history existed. Such nostalgia, in fact, will continue to fuel competition and conflict even in the post-historical world for some time to come. Even though I recognize its inevitability, I have the most ambivalent feelings for the civilization that has been created in Europe since 1945, with its north Atlantic and Asian offshoots.[1]

The recent troubles with Russiaespecially since the 2016 presidential electionhave, I think in very significant ways, proved Dr. Fukuyama very prescient, at least in this sense. While the consciousness of the end of ideological strife has had a great pull on the leading political thinkers of our time, recent political actionsthe election of Donald Trump in the United States, the Brexit vote in Great Britain, the first round of voting in the French Presidential election in which the National Front and the communists received about half of the votes, and the lengthy leadership of Vladimir Putin in Russiahave exposed political and social anxieties that challenge the end-of-history thesis. Members of the international leadership class, at least those who embrace liberal democracy as the end of discussion in political matters, have not been reticent about voicing their fears of political and social reaction. It is because of the inherent tendencies to escape the uncertainties of history through myth and ideology, as Kirk, Tonsor, and Voegelin outlined, that this same class of leaders paradoxically embraces the language, symbols, and the structures of the previous Cold War.

Although in the years following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the liberation of Central and Eastern Europe from Soviet domination, the optimism attending what appeared to be the victory of liberal democracy over oppressive systems, the end of history, appears to have itself collapsed. The specter of a revised Cold War has been haunting the Western world during the past few years, and with the election of Donald Trump as President, and the allegations of this administrations ties to the Russian state, the specter of a Russian menace has reached fever pitch, all of these fomenting memories of post-World War II antagonisms. One regularly reads and hears statements from political analysts, government representatives, and other officials that the world is once again in a Manichean battle between good and evil, between the free world and dictatorships, between East and West. Media people refer to Russia in the same breath as other totalitarian countries, such as North Korea. At times, politicians and journalists still use the terms Soviet Union, Communist Russia, and KGB in reference to present-day Russia, as though the Soviet Union had never collapsed. It is not the point of this essay to place blame in this recent development; rather, I would like here to suggest that what in fact we are seeing is a diminishment of the political imagination as it attempts to understand our rapidly changing world, specifically regarding Russia, a country that has marginalized its Marxist-Leninist ideology, its Communist Party, and by many measures has become a more traditional, national-oriented, pragmatic, and non-ideological, authoritarian regime. Furthermore, I maintain that our leadership class is re-establishing the Cold War in order to affect an impression of security of consciousness, or rather, to overcome the loss of certainty that Francis Fukuyamas end of history theory affirmed. It is my position in this essay that a reason why a post-ideological Russia has become the great enemy of the 21st century is a result of what Dr. Fukuyama hinted at in 1989, that history has a way of resurrecting itself, and history, understood as the unfolding of uncertainty in time, precipitates great anxiety at which point we cease to think historically and grasp either the mythic mode of understanding or the trappings of ideology. While there are many examples of public figures invoking a new Cold War with Russia, here I would like to examine three to illustrate my argument.[2]

My first example is a look at the rhetoric of Senator John McCain who has led the charge in the U.S. government to address threats from Russia. In February of this year Senator McCain gave an interview to Chuck Todd on Meet the Press, in which the Senator put forth that the new world order created after World War II was directly under assault by Russias President Putin, and also maybe even by our new President. In this interview, Senator McCain asserted repeatedly that we were living in uncertain times and that the basis for this uncertainty was the inability or the undesirability of certain forces to accept the successes of the post-war world created seventy years ago. Senator McCain was clearly looking past the significant changes that have taken place in Russia since the fall of Communism and was looking to perpetuate the ideological world order created during the first Cold War. Consciously or not, Senator McCain was asserting that the creation of a democratic order under the leadership of the United States in the late 1940s had signified, in Dr. Fukuyamas terms, the end of history and was non-negotiable. For Senator McCain, the only way to address the messy contingencies of a new Russia was to fall back on the certainties of the old Cold War.

To look at this from another angle, we need to look at a Russian response to this rhetoric. In May of this year, after Senator McCain stated that the Russian President represented a greater threat to global security than the terrorism fostered by ISIS, President Putin responded to Senator McCain by calling him old world, a phrase clearly meant to dismiss the elderly Senator as out-of-touch. Senator McCain was not a voice crying in the wilderness; other international leaders and public figures quickly echoed his alarm. However, there is a deeper significance to this than at first seems, for in the past few years President Putin has very consciously cast himself as a leader of a new world conservative movement, the purpose of which is to move the world beyond Cold War thinking, that is to say, a move to provide an alternative to the ideology of secular liberal democracy and globalization. In a recent article in the Russian language online journal, Russkaia!dea, the scholar Mikhail Remizov, stated that Moscow has begun to think of itself as the capital of a conservative international. And Professor Boris Mezhuyev of Moscow State University believes that Putin is adhering to a conservative understanding of conservatism. Whether or not the development of a conservative international is simply an opportunistic approach of a very powerful authoritarian leader, or a sincere effort to arrange non-liberal forces for political and social action, remains to be seen. But within Russia today, there is much discussion about the meaning of candid and high-principled conservatism in the development of Russian as well as in American and European thought. (It is very common to read in the Russian media about classic conservatives like Edmund Burke and Alexis de Tocqueville, Robert Nisbet, Bertrand de Jouvenal, and many others.)[3]

In my second example, I would like to look at a statement by Paul Goble, a senior analyst on Russia. In his blog, Window on Eurasia from June 3, Goble argues that Putin is a greater threat than Brezhnev ever was because he is not constrained by Marxist-Leninist ideology. Goble lists ten reasons, many of which are unassailable, why Putins Russia must be challenged by the international community, but his main point is that President Putin is dangerous because he acts pragmatically in Russias national interest, and not ideologically. We may take from Gobles piece that ideological regimes, because they are defined by an element of political and historical certainty, are therefore predictable in their actions, and predictability reduces elements of fear and danger.

The third statement that supports my thesis is by Adam Garfinkle of the American Interest. Dr. Garfinkle writes in his article, The Anti-Cold War (December 2016), that the ideological enterprise of Russian-American relations has indeed largely disappeared. Developing his argument from Daniel Bells thesis that we have reached not the end of history, but the end of ideology, Dr. Garfinkle writes:

All creedal systems, whatever they may claim about their own ontological status, are either predominantly (ideology) or entirely (religion) faith-based. And they all gain their evocative power through the language not of science but of metaphor, which is the hallmark of mythical thinkingEvery culture, every society, has its myths. Every culture and society needs myths to provide putative answers to the why questions of political life that are otherwise not explicable through empirical evidence and reasoning alone.

For America in particular, the loss of ideology has birthed an exceptionally uncertain world. Dr. Garfinkle argues that by becoming unstuck from our modern Enlightenment understanding, we have been set adrift and rudderless, the results of which may be more dangerous than the original Cold War.

What I have attempted to demonstrate here is that our leadership class has been failing to relate to a new, pragmatic and self-interested Russian regime largely because our imagination is tied to the old ideologies of the Cold War. By reviving ideological warfare (the free world vs. the totalitarian world, good vs. evil,) we are reasserting our belief in moral security, if not physical security. While fears of a hot war with Russia (as described by Stephen Cohen) might be exaggerated, the actions of NATO and of previous U.S. administrations to extend our military presence into Eastern Europe up to the Russian border, the continued efforts to spread liberal democracy throughout the world, sometimes at the end of a barrel of a gun, and the fact that the we have been at war going on thirty years, demonstrate that the stresses of an ideological battle are more soothing than the stresses of uncertainty.

So how should imaginative conservatives address the issue of Russia? We should first recognize the significant changes in Russia that have occurred since the fall of communism in the early 1990s. While there is a significant rebirth of conservative thought in the Russian polityand President Putin gives signs of wanting to be a part of thatwe should understand that a Russian conservatism will be greatly different from an Anglo-American conservatism as outlined in Kirks The Conservative Mind. We should also soundly reject the view, voiced by many, that President Trumps calls for better relations with Russia are foolish at best and maybe treasonous at worst. We need to heed the words of Americas most prudent diplomat of the Cold War era, George Kennan, who argued consistently for an historical understanding of Russia.

That Russia will ever achieve democracy, in the sense of political, social, and economic institutions similar to our own, is not to be expected. And even if Russian forms of self-government should differ significantly from our own, it is not to be postulated that this would be entirely a bad thing. Our own models, as most of us would agree are not perfect. And there will continue to be ups and downs in our relationship with Russia.

We should, as Dr. Kirk explained, pursue a politics of prudence:

A soundly conservative foreign policyshould be neither interventionist nor isolationist: it should be prudent. Its object should not be to secure the triumph everywhere of Americas name and manners, under the slogan of democratic capitalism, but acceptance of the diversity of economic and political institutions throughout the world. Soviet hegemony ought not to be succeeded by American hegemony. Our prospects in the world of the twenty-first century are brightsupposing that we Americans do not swagger about the globe, proclaiming our omniscience and our omnipotence.

With the collapse of the ideological Soviet state, contra Dr. Fukuyama, we have re-entered history, the great drama of human action. Tonsor again:

Perhaps, then, the greatest and most important function of history is to permit us to live among the noble dead. The transformation of our lives occurs not through any science but through our ability to comprehend and understand the nobility, the tragedy, and yes, the pettiness of the past. This operation cannot save us from the future or transform that future, except by indirection, but it can make us better men and deeper and more humane personsHistory will not give you power, it will not enable you to predict or manipulate the future, but at its best it will give you wisdom and understanding. We cannot escape history by a retreat into myth or by immanentizing the historical process.

Ideology is the disease, not the cure, wrote Kirk. There is no escape from historical existence. With all its contingencies, unexpected happenings, and mysteries, historical existence offers opportunities for grasping the great drama of life.

The Imaginative Conservative applies the principle of appreciation to the discussion of culture and politicswe approach dialogue with magnanimity rather than with mere civility. Will you help us remain a refreshing oasis in the increasingly contentious arena of modern discourse? Please consider donating now.

Notes:

[1] Paul Sagar, in his article, The Last Hollow Laugh https://aeon.co/essays/was-francis-fukuyama-the-first-man-to-see-trump-coming (retrieved July 10, 2017), argues that Dr. Fukuyamas thesis in the book was not triumphalist and that Dr. Fukuyama had correctly, if not consciously, predicted the rise of demagogic strongmen from the fascistic Right, cynically feeding narrow self-interest and popular discontent, preying on human impulses for mastery and domination that the hollow comforts of consumer capitalism could not hope to appease. Dr. Sagar, a Leftist, is of course referring here to Donald Trump and his supporters.

[2] On the threat of a new Cold War, watch this discussion with Professors Stephen Cohen, Fiona Hill, and Robert Legvold at the Council on Foreign Relations: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VZKGVaiWDV8

[3] On the day of this writing, Dmitri Drobnitsky, a Russian political analyst, echoing Pesident Trumps Warsaw speech, writes that the world today is witnessing a battle between two civilizations. The first, a Christian civilization which made the West the West and Russia Russia. The second, an aggressive liberal-secular anti-civilization, which today has control of the mechanisms of international relations. Mr. Drobnitskys plea is that Russians understand that we are standing against only one of these two Western civilizations, the anti-Christian and aggressive atheistic. https://www.politanalitika.ru/v-polose-mnenij/zapad-eto-dve-tsivilizatsii-a-ne-odna/ Mr. Mezhuyev, in a facebook post linking Mr. Drobnitskys article, reminds his readers that while Western and Russian conservatives have much in common, there are some deep religious beliefs that cannot be ignored and that their successes are not our successes.

The featured image is courtesy of Pixabay.
A juvenile male set fire Tuesday morning to the Little Free Library box in front of Howard Elementary School, damaging the books inside.

The arson, which was captured on video, happened at 6:41 a.m. Howard Elementary is at 502 W. Ninth St.

The juvenile deliberately put something on fire inside the repurposed newspaper machine, said Capt. Jim Duering of the Grand Island Police Department.

The school has good surveillance equipment, so we have good videos of the young man doing it, Duering said. He expressed confidence that the young man will be identified.

The box itself received little damage. Police estimated the damage at $850, but it probably was less than that, Duering said.

The free library is not one of the Little Free Libraries installed by Heartland United Way.

The Little Free Library has been removed. The Howard Student Council will decide if it will be installed again.
Fourteen students from Ozu, Japan, are learning what its like to be a Central Nebraskan.

The students are visiting Hastings, Ozus sister city, through the Hastings International Exchange Organization. This is the programs 22nd year. The students, who are high-schoolers and middle-schoolers, are in Nebraska for eight days and staying with host families in Hastings. They will leave Monday to fly out of Omaha.

During their stay, the students have a fun, educational and packed schedule daily. On Wednesday, the group visited Grand Island and went to the Stuhr Museum and the Raising Nebraska exhibit on the state fairgrounds.

Beth Janning, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension educator at Raising Nebraska, led the students on a tour of the exhibit. On Tuesday, the group had visited a farm near Blue Hill, so some things were familiar to them.

As Janning led the group outside the Nebraska Building to see the crops growing there, the students were intruigued by the green grapes growing on vines.

The students on the trip were chosen through an application process. When they return, they will do a project related to their visit in Nebraska.

Matt Seivert, who works for the town of Ozu as a coordinator for international relations, came with the students as a translator and chaperone. Originally from Colorado, Seivert took his job two years ago and also teaches English in Ozu. He graduated from Hastings College in 2014.

This is all a bunch of new experiences for them, Seivert said, noting that many of the students have never been to the United States before.

Narumi Kamoi, 16, said her favorite part of the exchange trip has been visiting the farm. While there, program activity coordinators Sharon Brooks and Jessica Henry said, the students got to feed cows and go into a soybean field. They got a close look at what some of agriculture is like in Nebraska.

Kamoi said she enjoyed feeding the cows. When she thinks of Nebraska, she thinks of the beef and corn she learned about.

Honoka Baba, 13, said her favorite food she has eaten is Nebraska beef. Hoshino Sugimizu, 17, said she liked the corn on the cob. Kamois host dad told her about corn on the cob holders, which she had never seen before. She was intruiged by them so much that her host dad bought her some to take back to Ozu.

Henry said the goal of the program is for the students to try to get a feel for Nebraska. On the weekends, the students spend more time with their host families and do whatever the families have planned. Many of them went to the Adams County Fair last weekend.

Nebraska seemed to make an impression on the students. When Sugimizu was asked what she thought of the Heartland, one word came to mind. Kindness, she said.
Border States Electric (BSE) of Fargo, N.D., has reached an agreement to acquire Kriz-Davis Co., an electrical distributor headquartered in Grand Island, both companies announced Wednesday.

Both companies are 100 percent employee-owned through employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).

Kriz-Davis Co. (www.krizdavis.com) and its wholly owned subsidiary, Chapman Metering, will join Border States on Aug. 28, 2017, pending regulatory approval.

Kriz-Davis Co. is a company we have admired for decades. They are a great cultural, geographic and market fit, said Tammy Miller, CEO at Border States. We are both 100 percent employee-owned American companies serving the construction, industrial and utility markets. We are wired the same way. As owners, we are wired to deliver solutions, value and a customer-first mindset.

Over the years, we have come to know and respect Border States and their leadership. Our two companies share the same values based on doing whats right for our customers, employee-owners, vendors and communities. Border States also maintains a strong belief in the power of employee-ownership, said Tim Berry, CEO at Kriz-Davis Co. By joining with Border States, it only adds to the opportunities for customers, vendors and our employee-owners.

Kriz-Davis Co. has been in business for more than 70 years.

With nearly 250 employee-owners, they generate $200 million in annual sales through 19 locations (including Chapman Metering) in Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas and Missouri.
OMAHA  Prosecutors say an Omaha man killed earlier this month was shot after he discovered that $11,000 in methamphetamine he intended to buy was fake.

A Douglas County prosecutor disclosed the detail Wednesday at a bond hearing for one of four people charged in the July 7 shooting death of 40-year-old Billy Walker at an apartment complex.

A prosecutor said that 37-year-old Jason Rankin and another suspect sought to sell a substance they said was meth to Walker. Police say Rankin shot Walker during a disturbance that began when Walker discovered the "meth" was fake.

Rankin, who is charged with first-degree murder, was ordered held without bond.
There was no truth to Jay E. Schmidts July 21 letter to the editor, when 17,000 of the worlds leading scientists, backed up by numerous studies, say climate change is a hoax. Mr. Schmidt is just one of thousands of individuals and government officials who are being deceived by the promoters of climate change so youll give up your freedoms.

Here is a deception that could be very costly to Grand Island as reported in The Independent and NTV channel 13 a number of years ago: Because of the threats from environmental lawsuits and EPA fines, Grand Island was being required to spend $42 million on scrubbers at the Platte Generating Station to reduce sulfur dioxide and other pollutants that environmentalists claimed could cause cancer in children as far east as Ohio.

An expert on coal-fired generating power plant emissions stated in a Fox News story that Grand Island was being forced to needlessly spend $42 million on pollution controls because any sulfur dioxide emissions wouldve dissipated before reaching the Missouri River and were already 93 percent in compliance with EPA rules. After negotiations, a less expensive, yet costly emission system was installed, but only temporarily. Environmentalists opposed this because they feared other cities the size of Grand Island would want to do the same thing.

A number of books have been written exposing the real agenda on the environmental movement going back to 1958  people control.
Nebraska's largest state agency unveiled its newest initiative Thursday to improve services for children, low-income families and residents with mental health problems and developmental disabilities.

The plan includes 20 goals for the state Department of Health and Human Services, some of which are already in progress. Gov. Pete Ricketts described it as the agency's "business plan" and said it was created to set specific, measurable goals and hold the department accountable.

The department has faced criticism in the past for its handling of some services, such as the time required to process public benefit applications. Callers to ACCESS Nebraska, the state's public benefits hotline, endured average waits of 24 minutes in August 2014, although call times have since been reduced to less than five minutes.

This year marks the second time Ricketts, a former executive at TD Ameritrade, has called for a business plan for the department.

"We want to have a culture of continuous improvement, and so that's what this second business plan is about," Ricketts said at a news conference to announce the new plan.

The goals include an expansion of "alternative response" programs designed to keep more children with their families, shortening the time in which people with developmental disabilities have to wait for benefits, and reducing the number of questionable costs identified by independent state auditors.

The plan also calls for a greater reliance on web technology for child welfare caseworkers to reduce paperwork, as well as debit cards for recipients of the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program.

Department of Health and Human Services CEO Courtney Phillips praised her staff for meeting 93 percent of its goals in the agency's first business plan last year.

The department fell short in some areas. State officials have yet to develop a job description for a geriatric support specialist for the Central Nebraska Veterans Home, which was included as part of the facility's construction and transition plans.

It also didn't meet all of its goals to improve the process that the department uses when determining whether residents are eligible for Medicaid. Department spokeswoman Kathie Osterman said the task was more complex than officials originally thought, and they wanted to ensure no data was lost or compromised when switching to the new system.

The department also faced delays for planned upgrades to the Nebraska Medicaid system and the vast amount of data it receives. Osterman said those goals weren't met because one of the potential contractors protested the decision to award the work to another firm, which created delays beyond the department's control.

Phillips said the business plan came in response to criticism from staff members and outside groups that they didn't know what was happening throughout the department.

"This is a mechanism we can share in terms of what are our core priorities for the upcoming year," Phillips said.

Phillips said the plan consisted of "stretch goals" that go beyond what most other states have attempted.

"It was a heavy lift, and we tried to push to achieve 100 percent," she said.
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Linkedin EDITORIAL (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 07:57 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa86adb 4 Editorial #Editorial,radicalism,#radicalism,radical-group,children,#children,IS,tolerance,intolerance,#IslamicState,Islamic-State Free

The issue of reintegrating children returning from Islamic State (IS) group territories is troubling for several nations, as there are no clear answers. Worse, the needs of deeply disturbed and confused children are not prioritized vis-a-vis the security of the state their parents return to, The New York Times reported Monday. The children express aggressiveness against others believed to beinfidels. One 9-year-old was suspended on the first day of school for allegedly attacking students.



Indonesians may respond similarly in trying to protect themselves from these ticking time bombs, as one French official has described the children, instead of seeking how to best help those who have been exposed to cruelty to overcome their experiences.



Stigma is a major problem. Indonesian women whose husbands are serving or have served time as convicted terrorists have reported bullying and catcalls of anak teroris(terrorists offspring) against their young. A recent congress of female ulema raised the urgency of a non-security approach to terrorism to overcome long-lasting negative impacts on the children.



Integrating former terrorists and their families into society and removing the stigma against them remains a problem here  the same issue is faced by 75 children among 161 people who the Social Affairs Ministry says have completed the governments rehabilitation and deradicalization program.



Compared to other countries, authorities report far fewer numbers of Indonesians returning from IS camps in Syria or heading there. Still, hundreds have been arrested or were imprisoned on terrorism charges in the country.



People cheer the polices counterterrorism unit when suspected terrorists are killed, despite allegations of extra-judicial killings by activists. Imagine the trauma on children who have witnessed the arrest or shooting of their father; especially when they learn later that he was a mistaken target or played a minor role in an alleged terrorist act.



Terrorism expert Sidney Jones has long raised concerns over the unwanted impact of counterterrorism measures on the children of suspects and convicts. Some young suspects and perpetrators have been identified as relatives of older actors.



Dutch counterterrorism officials recently visited the country to learn from Indonesias efforts in counterterrorism. The visit included a trip to a pesantren(Islamic boarding school) in North Sumatra that provides free education for 20 children of former convicts.



Former convict Khairul Ghazali said the pesantren he runs aimed to eradicate the stigma attached to families of terror convicts. After graduating from such institutions or rehabilitation programs, the children and families of former convicts  not just those returning from IS territories  therefore still need much support in facing the formidable challenge of integrating in schools and neighborhoods. But attitudes from which terrorism emerges remain. In a video that has recently been circulating on social media, children, referring to former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, cry death to Ahok.



Indonesia faces the simultaneous challenge of embracing children of former terrorists, a gruelling process  while dealing with adults who openly and rapidly spread hatred against infidels.
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Linkedin Cecilia Olivet (The Jakarta Post) Amsterdam  Thu, July 27, 2017 14:46 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa984b4 3 Opinion RCEP,bilateral-relations,economic-diplomacy,economy,international-trade Free

Chief negotiators from sixteen Asian countries are meeting in Hyderabad, India, since July 24 to advance negotiations of RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership). RCEP is at the moment the only mega-regional deal being negotiated worldwide.

Crucial to RCEPs investment protection chapter is the highly controversial Investor-State Dispute Settlement mechanism (ISDS). As it stands as of December 2016, RCEP would grant corporations the exclusive right to bypass domestic legal systems and sue governments at international arbitration tribunals whenever they feel government regulation can limit their profits.

But this is not unique to RCEP. RCEP countries have already signed a massive web of Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs) and other International Investment Agreements in the past, which also include the ISDS mechanism. Investors from the sixteen countries negotiating RCEP already have almost 90% ISDS coverage in RCEP countries. Only investors from Japan and India might find themselves unable to recourse to international arbitration against some RCEP countries, and vice versa.

International investment agreements coverage in RCEP countries (Transnational Institute/File)

If RCEP will not lead to a massive expansion of ISDS in the region and investors from the region are already protected, whats the added risk?

At first sight, it might seem there is no added risk and negotiating countries have nothing to lose by agreeing to an investor protection chapter in RCEP. However, RCEP will lock in place a system of privatized justice characterized by international arbitration tribunals outside of the reach of domestic legal systems.

RCEP is a mega-regional trade deal. Investment protection is only one element of many other issues included in this treaty, such as Intellectual property rights, market access, services liberalization, and regulatory cooperation.

If governments agree to grant investors rights in such a treaty, they will find it almost impossible to ever withdraw these commitments if they ever wish to do so, because they would need to put an end to the whole agreement with all sixteen parties and not just the sections on investors rights.

De facto, this type of mega-regional trade deal becomes too big to break away.

The situation is similar to those of multinational banks that during the financial crisis became too big to fail, and were bailed out during the financial crisis even when governments felt they had no choice, even knowing they were one of the sources of the crisis.

India, together with Indonesia, will experience the negative effects of an investment protection chapter in RCEP almost immediately.

Currently, all the investment protection treaties signed by India are Bilateral Investment Treaties, with the exception of India-Japan FTA. India has already indicated its intention to terminate these treaties and/or renegotiate them based on a new model BIT.

Indias new model BIT is much more restrictive in its clauses than the ones promoted under RCEP. However, by signing RCEP, India is undermining its own effort to rein in the foreign investors abilities to sue the country and to promote an alternative investment protection framework that protects the governments right to regulate.

For example, the Australia-India BIT was terminated on 23 March, 2017, but RCEP would reinstate similar investor protection as in the newly terminated BIT. Also, India has recently signed a BIT with Cambodia, the first BIT based on Indias new model. RCEP will override this BIT since investors will be able to choose the treaty with the highest level of protection.

No doubt, agreeing to an investment chapter in RCEP is more dangerous than the current 51 BITs that RCEP governments have in force among each other.

***

Cecilia is a Researcher with the international research and advocacy institute Transnational Institute (TNI) based in Amsterdam. She is the co-author of several reports on the issue, such as The Hidden Costs of RCEP and corporate trade deals in Asia and Profiting from Injustice.

---------------

We are looking for information, opinions, and in-depth analysis from experts or scholars in a variety of fields. We choose articles based on facts or opinions about general news, as well as quality analysis and commentary about Indonesia or international events. Send your piece to community@jakpost.com.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official stance of The Jakarta Post.
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Linkedin Carla Bianpoen (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 08:58 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa88cfa 4 Art & Culture art-and-culture,#art,art-fair,Art-Stage-Jakarta-2017 Free

Within a time span of less than two weeks, Jakarta is hosting two art fairs: Art Jakarta and Art Stage Jakarta.

Some galleries may find participating at two art fairs within such a short interval burdensome in terms of cost and available artists, but others find it precisely the right time to expose themselves.



Bandung-based Lawangwangi, for instance, has no fewer than three booths at Art Jakarta (formerly Art Bazaar), which runs from July 27 to July 30, while also taking part in the upcoming Art Stage Jakarta, which is scheduled to be held from Aug. 11 to Aug. 13.



Both fairs insist their ultimate goal is to make Jakarta great, a hub for art and tourism, a platform for art to attract new collectors, as Ria Lirungan of Art Jakarta said, or as a matchmaker in the words of Lorenzo Rudolf of Art Stage, who calls Indonesia the most dynamic contemporary art scene.



Art Bazaar, which goes back nine years, now for the first time runs under the name Art Jakarta, following the spirit of the time when art fairs highlight the city where they are held. At the same time they wish to make clear that they are the first and only homegrown Jakarta art fair.



Art Stage Jakarta, however, which arrived from Singapore only a year ago and is now held for the second time, has its eye on a united Southeast Asian art market, anchored in Jakarta.

Read also: Art Stage Jakarta returns with more participants, special projects



It goes without saying that the competition is tough  and sometimes even rough. But to be frank, nothing is more inspiring and adrenaline-pumping than competition.



Invoking a level of creativity that might not have been there were each the only art fair in town, the coming fairs promise an ultimate outcome. In fact, with Art Jakarta allowing newcomers and new collectors to acquire good art works at affordable prices, while Art Stage caters to the high-end segment, the notion of rivalry still pushes each beyond the usual, both providing programs that surpass commercial gains.

Top down: Artist couple Indieguerillas showcases a gigantic installation titled Me and My Monkey Mind at Pacific Place Malls Atrium in South Jakarta as part of the Art Jakarta fair, which runs from July 27 to July 30. (JP/Carla Bianpoen)

Art Jakarta

Video art, which has been slow to gain collectors appreciation, is one of the new highlights of Art Jakarta, held at the Ritz-Carlton, Pacific Place in South Jakarta, in a competition for which the jury members  curator and artistic fair director Rifky Effendy, video pioneer Krisna Murti, founder of OK Video Ade Darmawan and Wiyu Wahono, a passionate promoter of video art in Indonesia  will be deciding on the award winner.



Ceramic art, which rarely features at art fairs, will be another highlight, appearing in an auction of porcelain marked with the stamp of visual artists.



The popular charity auction program will also offer sneakers and other products also marked with signature embellishment by artists including Uji Hahan Handoko, Radi Arwinda, Kemalezedine, Aditya Novali, Nano Warsono and Indra Dodi.

Read also: Indonesian artwork featured at ASEAN exhibition in Seoul



The Creative Economy Agency (Bekraf)s booth with 45 emerging artists selected from 473 candidates is to be highlighted at a special exhibition at the fair (artjakarta.com).



Art talks will be held on July 28 and 29, with MACAN museum director Aaron Seeto and curator-museologist Annissa Gultom, among others, addressing the issue of public and private museums in Jakarta.



The art fair proper will be similarly exciting, with 54 participating galleries comprising 50/50 local and foreign galleries. Among the local enthusiasts are Vivi Yip artroom, Edwins gallery, Semarang Gallery, Zola Zulu and Lawangwangi.



In the malls Atrium, a gigantic work by the artist couple dubbed Indieguerillas and titled Me and My Monkey Mind intends to help people forget complicated concerns, to let go and just relax.



Finally, look out for the inaugural English language Art Bazaar magazine.



Parallel events and exhibitions are offered by Edwins gallery, Ruci Art Space, Art1 museum/gallery, East West Society.

Little Javanese Cosmos by Muhamad Ucup Yusuf (Art Stage Jakarta/Tomio Koyama Gallery)

Art Stage Jakarta

Art Stage Jakarta, an outflow of its Singaporean version, expresses an intent to encompass as much as possible of the art ecology in the city, with Art Stage Jakarta founder and president Lorenzo citing Indonesia as Southeast Asias most dynamic contemporary art scene and Jakarta as an art capital.Art Stage Jakarta, to be held at the Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel in South Jakarta, brings along a huge goodie bag filled with an exhibition of 60 galleries  24 Indonesian and 36 foreign, including street art from Europe juxtaposed with Southeast Asian street art in a program called Off the Wall.

Read also: Art project explores the selfie phenomenon



Art Stage reaches beyond its official venue, into the Atrium of the Gandaria City Mall, allowing the exposure of non-galleries and galleries with limited means, in what is called The Art Square. Inaugural participants include the Yogya and Jakarta Biennales, Papermoon Puppet Theatre, LOEV, Indrya Foundation, Erudio Art School.



It further wanders out to Galeries Lafayette at Pacific Place, with the ArtMosphere program, where 20 artworks will be exhibited in the windows and elsewhere on its premises.



Jakarta art week (fashioned after the Jogja art week) includes exhibitions and events in various galleries, museums and foreign cultural centers in the city.



We want to position Jakarta, Indonesia, not as one fair but as a scene, Lorenzo says.



Topping all of this off are multiple art awards  13 in number for 13 categories, including the Indonesian Award Best Artist, Best Curator, Best Young Curator as well as best Gallery in terms of dedication, Best Young Gallery, Best Exhibition and Best Collector. Two Life Achievement Awards are for a selected artist and collector, and finally a socio-politically significant award, the Bhinneka Award.



No doubt the two fairs are injecting a lot of energy into an exciting future of arts for Jakarta.
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Linkedin Ni Nyoman Wira (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 15:34 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9a1fe 1 Art & Culture Banda-The-Dark-Forgotten-Trail,Sheila-Timothy,jay-subyakto,irfan-ramli,spice-island,banda-neira Free

Since 2008, film company Lifelike Pictures has produced feature films, such as Modus Anomali, Pintu Terlarang (The Forbidden Door) and Tabula Rasa. However, this year, it decide to make a feature documentary, Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail, which will premiere on Aug. 3.

Set in the Banda Islands, Maluku, the documentary narrates the history of the islands from its days on the spice trail with nutmeg. Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail also reveals how obsessed Europeans were with spices in 15th and 16th centuries, Dutch colonization and genocide in Banda that has affected the islands social structure and nutmeg until today. The documentary also touches on the issue of religious conflict in 1999 and tells the story of Indonesias founding fathers who were exiled to the islands prior to independence.

The documentarys producer, Sheila "Lala" Timothy told The Jakarta Post that the idea came to her when she attended an exhibition about the Spice Trail in 2015, where heard the claim that the Spice Trail had helped form the Silk Road.

Those words triggered something in me, she said, adding that she went there with her husband, Luki Wanandi. Honestly, my husband and I didnt know much about the Spice Trail, Indonesian spices or Banda. We thought it was very interesting, but unfortunately, many Indonesians didnt know about this. [] So we thought that this was one fragment that should be told [to the public].

Lala said she did not want to make a fiction film from the idea. Its because we thought that there were so many facts, a history that must be shared and the most suitable form to do this was through a documentary, she explained.

Director Jay Subiyakto (L), producer Sheila Timothy and writer Irfan Ramli pose after the interview for Banda movie at Jakarta, Friday 21.2017. (JP/Wienda Parwitasari)

Read also: Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail highlights the nearly forgotten Spice Islands

Banda was selected because the islands were perceived to be representative of the long Spice Trail. When we talk about Banda, we talk about the history of an area and also the Spice Trail, said scriptwriter Irfan Ramli who acknowledged that Banda: The Dark Forgotten Trail was his first documentary. And spice isnt the only thing that is interesting in Banda because there were so many things that happened later, such as colonialism, slavery and the birth of nationalism.

Lalas choice for director was Jay Subyakto, who had never directed a documentary before. However, Jay gave 100 percent in doing it as he used six cameras to immortalize the beauty of Banda, and asked renowned names within the film industry to join the bandwagon, among them Davy Linggar, Oscar Motuloh, Ipung Rachmat Syaiful and Aline Jusria.

Jay also paid attention to sound quality of the documentary. I wanted the sound to be surrounding [] so there is intensity when people watch it, he said, adding that he wanted to proved wrong the stereotyping that documentaries are boring.

There is a belief that all of the natives of Banda had been annihilated, but Lala clarified, No, actually we also dont say that in the documentary. When Jan Pieterszoon Coen (former governor-general of the Dutch East Indies Company, VOC) committed genocide in 1621, around 14,000 people were killed, while around 400 people escaped from Banda, she explained.

Because we talk about Banda, we narrate about people after the genocide, which involved various tribes that were brought by the Dutch to the islands as slaves to work on nutmeg plantations, she continued.

Were not the experts in documentaries [...] and history, but what were trying to present is [that] we want this documentary to be a topic, meaning that people will be interested in learning about history and want to find out more about that, Lala added. Hopefully people can watch and see the situation in Banda, so they can do something for the islands. (asw)
In January 1988, in Ronald Reagan's final State of the Union address, he noisily dropped on a table next to the podium in the House chamber three recent continuing resolutions, each more than a thousand pages long. Each was evidence of Congress' disregard of the 1974 Budget Act. Reagan fumed:

" ... budget deadlines delayed or missed completely, monstrous continuing resolutions that pack hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of spending into one bill, and a federal government on the brink of default. ... In seven years, of 91 appropriations bills scheduled to arrive on my desk by a certain date, only 10 made it on time. Last year, of the 13 appropriations bills due by October first, none of them made it. Instead, we had four continuing resolutions lasting 41 days, then 36 days, and two days, and three days, respectively. And then, along came these [three] behemoths."

Reagan might have been less cross if there had not then been Democratic majorities in the House (258-177) and Senate (55-45). Today, however, Republicans have both political branches in their hands. How are they doing with the government's basic business -- budgeting and appropriating? James Arkin, a congressional reporter for Real Clear Politics, recently wrote a four-part dissection of Congress' ongoing dereliction:

Neither the House nor the Senate has passed the fiscal 2018 budget resolution that the Budget Act of 1974 stipulates should have been acted on by April 15. Neither chamber has passed any of the 12 appropriations bills that are supposed to be passed by the Oct. 1 beginning of the fiscal year. On-time passage of the appropriations bills has not happened since 1996.

Continuing resolutions involving "hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of spending" that annoyed Reagan three decades ago have become continuing resolutions involving more than a trillion -- not counting the two-thirds of government spending (e.g., entitlements, debt service) that happens without congressional involvement. As Arkin's analysis was appearing, the Social Security and Medicare trustees projected the former's insolvency in 2034 and the latter's in 2029.

Remember all this while watching Republicans fumbling with the health care sector that is approaching one-fifth of the U.S. economy and is larger than all but four of the world's national economies.

Remember, too, Republican umbrage about the Senate auction by which the Obama administration threw money at the problem of cobbling together Democratic votes to pass Obamacare. Remember the "Gatorade" for a Floridian, the "Cornhusker Kickback" for a Nebraskan, the "Louisiana Purchase" for a Louisianan.

Legislative bargaining is inherently additive: Eighteen months ago, Barack Obama proposed $1.1 billion over two years for responses to the opioid crisis; the Republican Senate leadership's initial offer -- the bidding is ongoing -- is $45 billion over 10 years, which makes Republicans about eight times more caring, so far, than Obama was, as that virtue is measured monetarily.

Legislative bargaining can be addition by delayed subtraction: The Washington Post has reported, and Wisconsin Republican Sen. Ron Johnson says other senators have "basically confirmed," that Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told Senate moderates not to fret about the Medicaid changes that Senate conservatives want to begin years hence, because (in Johnson's words summarizing reports of McConnell's words), the changes "won't take effect."

The debate that began in the Senate Tuesday afternoon will reveal whether Republicans are, in the words of Pennsylvania Republican Pat Toomey, unwilling to enact a "slight curb" in the rate of growth, "in the distant future," of Medicaid, the entitlement "that is growing most rapidly, and is equal to 70 percent of our budget deficit."

America is sleepwalking into the most predictable crisis in its history, the demographically driven crisis of the entitlement state struggling to provide health care for an aging population. And the Republican Party is led by a president who, as a candidate, pledged to guarantee the acceleration of the crisis by preserving the status quo.

Tuesday afternoon, the irascible John McCain made a plea in the Senate for that body to return to "regular order." This was a response to the institutional slovenliness that exasperated an amiable president three decades ago.

Congress' continuing self-degradation is writ large in a process that brought us to Tuesday morning, when most Republican senators knew only this: They would vote to begin consideration of a bill that they might have to pass in order to find out what is in it.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 13:25 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa91c3b 1 City Monas,Dancing-Fountain Free

Former Jakarta governor Basuki Ahok Tjahaja Purnama, who is serving a prison sentence for blasphemy, has pledged to cover half of the cost of the renovation of the National Monuments (Monas) dancing fountain.

He contributed around Rp 200 million [US$15,019]. The total [renovation budget] is around Rp 400 million, Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat said on Wednesday as quoted by kompas.com.

Ahok proposed repairs to the fountain in 2016 to lure people to Monas, but his plan was hampered by budget constraints. Ahok then offered to repair the fountain using his operational funds.

Several public figures including Djarot, Monas area management unit head Sabdo Kurnianto and renowned orchestra conductor Addie MS have contributed funds for the renovation.

The Monas dancing fountain will be inaugurated by Djarot on Aug. 12, after a 10-year hiatus.

The fountain will dance to Indonesian songs arranged by Addie MS.

Djarot personally requested a dangdut song titled Ke Monas (Go to Monas), which was arranged by Rhoma Irama.

Well see how it turns out, whether it matches the rhythm, Djarot said. (hol)
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Linkedin (Agence France-Presse) Singapore  Thu, July 27, 2017 14:15 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa96901 2 Business Singapore,technology,Amazon,e-commerce,Alibaba,competitions,Lazada Free

Amazon launched its express delivery service in Singapore on Thursday, the US online retail giant's first foray into Southeast Asia and a move that puts it in direct competition with China's Alibaba.

Prime Now allows online shoppers in the affluent city-state of five million people to order a wide range of goods from baby products to food, electronic items and beer.

It marks Amazon's entry into a region of more than 600 million people, where many countries have a growing middle class, and which is seen as the next e-commerce battleground.

"Amazon's entry augurs well for shoppers in the region who will benefit from more choice, price competition and better delivery services," said Prem Shamdasani, an associate professor for marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School.

Alibaba already has a headstart in the region with an 83-percent stake in Southeast Asia-focused online retailer Lazada.

The Chinese firm, founded by China's richest man Jack Ma, raised its stake in Lazada last month with a further $1 billion investment.

The Prime Now application was made available for download in Singapore on Google's Play store and Apple's iTunes.

By just entering their postal zip code after opening the app on their devices, online shoppers can start placing their orders.

The service promises delivery of items within two hours.

Business consultancy Frost & Sullivan projects online retail sales in Southeast Asia to more than quadruple to $71 billion by 2021 from $16 billion in 2016.

The e-commerce sector made up 4.1 percent of the total retail market for the region last year but this share is set to rise to 11.5 percent by 2021, the consultancy said.

But Shamdasani warned that it could be difficult market. Southeast Asia includes relatively wealthy countries such as Singapore, but also developing nations with poor infrastructure where it is harder to do business.
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Linkedin Daniel De Carteret (AFP) Melbourne, Australia  Thu, July 27, 2017 07:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa84bba 2 World #Australia,#Vatican,#CardinalPell Free

Vatican finance chief Cardinal George Pell, a top advisor to Pope Francis, denied all charges of historical sexual abuse Wednesday at his first appearance in an Australian court over the allegations.

The 76-year-old, the number-three figure in the Vatican, returned from Rome earlier this month to face the charges in Melbourne Magistrates Court.

Details of the charges have not been made public although police said they involved "multiple complainants". The former Sydney and Melbourne archbishop has always maintained his innocence.

Looking sombre and frail, he attended the hearing with his lawyer, top criminal barrister Robert Richter, who told the court his client was not guilty -- even though a formal plea was not required at this stage.

"For the avoidance of doubt and because of the interest, I might indicate that Cardinal Pell pleads not guilty to all charges and will maintain the presumed innocence that he has," Richter told the court, national broadcaster ABC reported.

Pell, dressed in black and wearing his clerical collar, remained silent throughout with magistrate Duncan Reynolds ruling that evidence needs to be handed to his legal team by September 8, with the next court date set for October 6.

The cleric made no comment as he was escorted by a group of police through a crush of cameras, reporters and photographers into the court, which hears hundreds of cases a week for alleged crimes ranging from theft to murder.

Several photographers were knocked over in the melee.

Similar scenes greeted his departure after the brief hearing as he was ushered around 100 metres (yards) down the road to his lawyer's offices surrounded by security, with a handful of supporters shouting "this is a show trial" and "innocent" as he walked past.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 12:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8dba7 1 City #Jakarta,#SemanggiInterChange,#sidewalks Free

The Jakarta administration plans to use money left over from the development of the Semanggi interchange to repair sidewalks.

City secretary Saefullah said that total funds for the project reached Rp 579 billion (US$43.5 million) while it cost Rp 360 billion to build the interchange.

Because efficiency measures were introduced in the building of the Simpang Susun Semanggi, we have leftover money that will be used to build sidewalks, Saefullah said Wednesday at City Hall as quoted by beritajakarta.com.

The sidewalks will be located along Jl. Jen. Sudirman, South Jakarta, up to Bendungan Hilir in Central Jakarta with a total length of 2 kilometers; and along Jl. Gatot Subroto, from Kartika Chandra Hotel to Taman Ria Senayan in South Jakarta, spanning 1.5 kilometers.

The sidewalks will have ducts to avoid damage, he added.

Bina Marga road agency head Yusmada Faizal said the sidewalks would be 9 meters wide and be built on both side of the roads.

We will start the construction soon. They are expected to be completed before the Asian Games, Yusmada said. (wnd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 16:32 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9db38 1 Politics #politics,#SBY,#Prabowo,#meeting,#coalition Free

Prior to a meeting between Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and his Gerindra counterpart Prabowo Subianto, a senior party official has indicated that it would nominate its own presidential candidate for the 2019 elections, despite Gerindras decision to nominate its patron Prabowo.

The two opposition party leaders are scheduled to hold a formal meeting on Thursday evening at Yudhoyonos private residence in Cikeas, West Java.

The deputy chairman of the Democratic Party advisory board, Agus Hermanto, said on Thursday morning that a coalition for 2019 could be one of the possible topics for discussion by the two leaders in the closed-door meeting. But he emphasized that, in the end, the party would propose its own presidential candidate, most likely selected from among its party cadres.

Dems will definitely nominate our own presidential candidate. Were now cultivating our next leader, with young Dems members pushing for Agus Harimurti [Yudhoyono], but well see, said Agus, referring to Yudhoyonos eldest son, a Kostrad infantry unit veteran and Harvard graduate.

Until now, we see that Prabowo is still firm on running in the presidential contest. So its okay for him to ask for input from Yudhoyono, who has 10 years' experience as president and won the presidential election twice, about the key to success in the election, he said.

It is likely that no single party will be able to nominate a presidential candidate in the 2019 general elections, as the recently passed 2017 Election Law stipulates that a party must have 20 percent of total seats in the House of Representatives or 25 percent of popular votes to be able to field a presidential candidate.
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Linkedin Ni Komang Erviani (The Jakarta Post) Denpasar, Bali  Thu, July 27, 2017 17:45 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9ebbb 1 National Dutch,Dutch-citizen,Dutch-national,Netherlands,drugs,hashish,Denpasar-Police Free

The Denpasar Police have arrested a Dutch citizen, Nicolas Denis Lijzaat, 46, for alleged drug possession at his house at the Puri Gading housing complex in Jimbaran, South Kuta, on Sunday.

The police seized 0.83 grams of hashish from the suspect during a raid.

Denpasar Police narcotics chief Comr. I Wayan Arta Ariawan said they had been investigating Lijzaat for several days before the arrest.

We received information that there was a Dutch national who had often used hashish. Based on that information, we opened an investigation, Arta said on Thursday.

According to the police, Lijzaat said the hashish was given to him by someone identified only as MD. The suspect claimed MD gave him the drugs for free, Arta said.

Lijzaat, who has lived in Bali for 15 years, told the police that he had never used hashish before the arrest. He faces a maximum sentence of 12 years' imprisonment if found guilty of violating the Criminal Codes (KUHP) Article 111 on drug possession. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 15:12 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa994f6 1 Business Flight-frequency-increase,Airnav,soekarno-hatta-airport,transportation-ministry Free

The Transportation Ministry has said maximum flight frequency at Soekarno-Hatta International Airport had been increased to 81 take-offs and landings per hour to accommodate increasing demand from aviation companies.

Demand has been growing. Therefore, flight frequency has had to be increased, the ministrys director general for aviation, Agus Santoso, said in a media statement on Thursday.

The Indonesian Air Traffic Controllers Association (IATCA) on Wednesday complained about the decision by state-run air navigation company AirNav.

By allowing this, the chance of an accident will increase and air traffic controllers will be the ones who are blamed, Andre Budi, the deputy chairman of IATCA Jakarta, said in Tangerang, Banten.

Read also: Flaws in air safety revealed

Agus said as the main hub of domestic flights, Soekarno-Hatta Airports capacity had to be in line with the fast growth in tourism and economic activities.

"At Heathrow Airport, runways can handle 100 aircraft per hour. As long as procedures and regulations are obeyed, it will be safe," he said, adding that AirNav had done a study on flight safety.

In 2012, when air traffic was managed by Angkasa Pura, frequency was only 52 aircraft per hour. Since the job was taken over by AirNav, the maximum flight frequency has continued to be increased. Last year, maximum flight frequency was increased to 76, and under Transportation Instruction No. 16/2017, maximal flight frequency was increased to 81 this year. (dis/bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 12:53 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8f6bf 4 Business Freeport-Indonesia,permit,extension,energy-and-mineral-resources-ministry Free

The Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry has said that gold and copper mining operator PT Freeport Indonesia had yet to obtain an extension to their operating permit.

Energy and Mineral Resources Ministry secretary general Teguh Pamudji said on Wednesday that the extension of Freeport's operating permit, which would expire in 2021, was still being negotiated by government officials and company representatives.

"The validity and legal basis of (Freeport's) mining operation after 2021 will be the IUPK, which [Freeport] has not agreed to until now," Teguh said in Jakarta as quoted by tribunnews.com on Thursday.

The IUPK, or the special mining permit, is set to replace the contract of work (CoW) scheme signed in 1991 by PT Freeport, a subsidiary of the American mining giant Freeport-McMoRan Inc.

The extension would be granted if Freeport agreed to convert its contract from a CoW into the IUPK, said Teguh, adding that the company could apply to extend its operating permit until 2041, or by two decades.

"Under Government Regulation No. 1/2017, IUPK holders are eligible for a permit extension of 2 x 10 years, he said.

Freeport Indonesia's corporate communications vice president Riza Pratama said an extension through 2041 would bee needed for the company to meet the requirements of the government regulation.

An IUPK requires the permit holder to construct a smelter, as well as to divest 51 percent of its shares to Indonesian entities. (bbn)
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 19:04 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaa093e 1 Business Perppu,bank-secrecy,AEOI,financial-disclosure-law,Sri-Mulyani-Indrawati Free

The House of Representatives approved into law on Thursday Government Regulation in Lieu of Law (Perppu) 1/2017 on financial information, which allows tax officials to access bank accounts.

The law is the legal basis for Indonesia to follow the OECD initiated Automatic Exchange of Information (AEOI) in 2018.

"The approval of the Perppu into law will give confidence to the world that Indonesia is ready to follow the AEOI in 2018," Finance Minister Sri Mulyani said during the Houses plenary meeting.

An article in the Perppu on the punishment for tax officials who leak taxpayer information was removed from the law because of disagreement in the previous deliberation by the Commission XI overseeing financial affairs.

Most lawmakers wanted the jail term to be at least five years, similar to the punishment in the Tax Amnesty Law, instead of one year as stipulated in the Perppu.

Sri Mulyani said the punishment would be discussed during the deliberation of the General Taxation Provision Law revision, which has already been included in the National Legislation Program (Prolegnas). (bbn)
Dear Amy: When I was 31, I was diagnosed with bipolar disorder. I started having symptoms when I was 11. It took me years to seek help, even after my dad was diagnosed when I was in my mid-20s.

I told my mom a few times that I thought that I had the illness. I was hoping she would help me seek treatment, since I was so afraid of the stigma, but also after having an acute episode, I would feel better and convince myself that nothing was wrong.

Every time, my mother told me that she didn't think anything was wrong with me, even when I confessed that I was contemplating suicide.

Finally, I sought help on my own. Medication and therapy has helped me tremendously, and my mom has been supportive now that she has witnessed one of my manic episodes and realized that I really do need help.

I still harbor resentment toward her for not encouraging me to seek treatment earlier. I realize that I am an adult and ultimately responsible for myself.

I want to forgive her, but I want her to apologize.

Am I wrong for wanting that? I bring up my illness with her more often than I should in the hopes that it will spur some remorse. I want recognition that I had to struggle with this, while she denied anything was wrong.

I would hate to damage our otherwise good relationship.

-- Waiting for Sorry

Dear Waiting: Your narrative brings to mind the famous quote from Maya Angelou: "I did then what I knew how to do. Now that I know better, I do better."

Parenting sometimes seems like a long string of opportunities to fail, and your mother failed you. I can think of several reasons why she didn't seek help for you earlier, including ignorance, denial, stigma, or flat-out fear. All of these reasons will seem like excuses at this point, however, and now you are owed an acknowledgment and apology.

Rather than bringing up your illness and being continually disappointed when she doesn't take the bait, I hope you will ask your mother for what you want: "Mom, it would help me a lot if you would explain to me why you didn't help me seek treatment earlier. I need an acknowledgment."

If you don't get what you seek, you will have to do the hard work of accepting your mother, despite her own failings. Forgiveness should follow.

Dear Amy: My husband passed away last fall. Because grandchildren were in college, we buried him just after Christmas.

Our daughter and her husband came from Texas. Other siblings brought their families from other parts of the country.

This summer we had a memorial brunch and celebration of their father's life. Our Texas daughter refused to come to this event because she was working 60 to 70 hours a week at a new job.

I wrote her a letter saying she owed it to the family to appear. She says I'm not being compassionate toward her for expecting this.

It has now been almost three months that she has not answered my phone calls or emails.

I need suggestions on how to deal with this.

-- Grieving

Dear Grieving: I'm sorry for this loss to your family. I assume that your daughter is grieving, too. Many people don't respond well when someone issues a basic demand that they "owe" it to others to appear.

You don't say why you didn't hold a life celebration when the entire family was gathered at Christmastime, but I wonder if there are reasons your daughter feels you accommodated others, but not her.

The tone of your communication at this point should shift from blame to reconciliation. It is vital after a death in the family that everyone should do their best to be gentle with one another. Gentleness from you should inspire the same from her.

Dear Amy: Let me add my voice to others who objected to your response to "There's No Place Like (the Beach) Home," whose sister had purchased the family's vacation house and now wanted to charge rent for visits. You thought this request for rent was a bit much. I disagree.

-- Dissatisfied

Dear Dissatisfied: As I said in my response, many families find ways to successfully share expenses for a family vacation house. This house was not a shared house, but had been purchased by an individual. I think welcoming family back for a short summertime visit should be an act of generosity -- many readers disagree.
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Linkedin Anton Hermansyah (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 08:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa878df 1 Business China,investment,first-half,BKPM,thomas-lembong Free

The Investment Coordinating Board (BKPM) has recorded that investment from China grew by 92.79 percent year-on-year (yoy) to US$1.96 billion in the first half of 2017.

Both the quantity and quality of Chinese investments has increased, said BKPM chairman Thomas Lembong on Wednesday, adding that in addition to their main investments in smelters and infrastructure, the Chinese investors had also started to invest in tourism.

He also stressed that investment from the country was not affected by anti-Chinese sentiment promulgated by certain groups of people.

"So far there has been no significant impact from the anti-Chinese sentiment. Along with investment in the smelter and infrastructure sectors, they are also entering labor intensive sectors like tourism," Thomas said during a press conference in Jakarta on Wednesday.

(Read also: Indonesia offers investment opportunities to China)

With an investment value of $1.96 billion in the first half, China was Indonesia's third biggest foreign direct investor, behind Singapore with $3.66 billion and Japan with $2.85 billion. If combined with investment from Hong Kong, Chinas total investment reached $2.79 billion.

"The participation of the government in the Belt and Road Forum in Beijing last May was very useful to boost Chinese investment in the future," Lembong said.

Reports on social media have claimed there has been a large influx of Chinese laborers into the country. However, National Intelligence Agency (BIN) chief Ins. Gen. Budi Gunawan has stressed the reports are false. He said the rumors were spread by irresponsible people. (bbn)
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Linkedin News Desk (AFP) Jerusalem  Thu, July 27, 2017 09:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa88f56 2 World #Israel,#Palestine,#Al-Aqsa Free

Israel has removed more security installations from the entrance to a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after protests and deadly unrest in recent days, prompting Palestinian celebrations early Thursday.

A tense standoff has been underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site despite the removal of metal detectors on Tuesday, with concerns of major unrest later this week if no resolution is found.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted have now also been removed from at least one main entrance to the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, an AFP journalist saw early Thursday.

It was unclear whether Muslim authorities would now grant approval for worshippers to re-enter the site, which houses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

Palestinians began to gather at the entrance to celebrate in the early hours of Thursday, with whistling and constant horns from cars.

Young men set of firecrackers as Israeli forces watched closely.

Firas Abasi said he felt like crying over the "victory".

"For 12 days no one has slept, no one has done anything except the Al-Aqsa mosque," he said.

Israel installed the new security measures after an attack nearby that killed two policemen on July 14.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures there.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control over the site.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Protests and deadly unrest have erupted in the days since the measures were installed, with clashes breaking out around the compound in Jerusalem's Old City and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three.

There have been concerns that Friday's main weekly Muslim prayers -- which typically draw thousands to Al-Aqsa -- will lead to serious clashes between protesters and Israeli security forces.

Following intensive international diplomacy and warnings of the potential of wider unrest, Israel removed the metal detectors early on Tuesday.

Cameras installed after the attack on the police were also removed.

But Israeli officials said they were to be replaced with "advanced technologies" -- widely believed to be smart cameras with facial recognition technology.

The remaining installations and suspicions over what new measures Israel is planning led Palestinian and Muslim leaders to continue to call for a boycott of the site, and worshippers have so far heeded their call.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 16:37 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9dbd2 1 City police,fine,traffic-violation Free

The Jakarta Police has said that its traffic unit collected Rp 2.3 billion (US$172,000) in fines from traffic violators in a single week.

Jakarta Police traffic unit chief Adj. Sr. Comr. Budiyanto said many of the 4,684 violators were ticketed for driving on sidewalks or against traffic, while others were caught along South Jakartas Casablanca overpass.

The fines were the maximum, Rp 500,000. All of the violators were motorcyclists, Budiyanto said Wednesday, as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

The traffic police also confiscated 2,543 drivers licenses and 2,137 vehicle registration documents (STNK), he added.

On Tuesday morning, hundreds of ojek (motorcycle taxi) drivers blocked the Casablanca elevated road to protest what they regarded as the polices unfair targeting of motorcyclists taking the overpass.

Jakarta Transportation Agency deputy head Sigit Wijatmoko had said earlier that motorcyclists should not drive on the Casablanca overpass for reasons of safety.

Motorcyclists tend to stop up there to take pictures, Sigit said, stressing that the activity was dangerous. He added that the shear winds on the overpass were too strong for motorcycles.

However, Institute for Transportation and Development Policy (ITDP) country director Yoga Adiwinarto said that the sightseeing reason did not make sense, because car users also stopped on the overpass to take pictures. The wind was also not too strong for motorcyclists, he added. (wnd)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 12:44 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8ec94 1 Business Susi-Pujiastuti,illegal-fishing,protest Free

Twelve foreign fishing vessels have been found to be operating illegally in Indonesian waters, despite the government's tough measures of sinking vessels that are caught fishing illegally.

The 115 Task Force, which monitors the illegal movement of sea vessels, detected the 12 boats when they entered the waters off Biak in Papua province, Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Minister Susi Pudjiastuti said on Wednesday in Jakarta.

The ships came from Taiwan, China and Japan, Susi told journalists at a press conference as reported by kompas.com, adding that she had sent letters of protest to the three countries.

The activities of the 12 boats that operates 80 miles into the Indonesian waters were detected through a data-sharing partnership with Global Fishing Watch.

Read also: Minister Susi rejects idea to auction off confiscated fishing boats

Apart from sending protest letters to the three countries, Susi, in her capacity as the 115 Task Force, has called on Interpol to investigate the vessels' operations.

Since Susi's ministerial appointment in 2014, Indonesia has sunk more than 300 foreign fishing vessels after they were found guilty of operating illegally in the Indonesian waters. (bbn)
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Linkedin Callistasia Anggun Wijaya (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 11:45 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8d693 1 City #Jakarta,#NewPoliceChief Free

The new Jakarta Police chief, Insp. Gen. Idham Azis, kept a low profile during his first day on the job, dodging questions about his leadership.

After his inauguration at the National Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Wednesday morning, Idham declined to speak to the media and went to the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta.

At the Jakarta Police headquarters, Idham, who replaced Insp. Gen. Mochammad Iriawan, held an internal meeting and a gathering to farewell old colleagues and greet new ones during which he did not say much to the media.

During the farewell event, which was attended by Jakarta Governor Djarot Saiful Hidayat, Jakarta Military Commander Maj. Gen. Jaswandi and high-ranking police officers, Idham stated his readiness to lead the Jakarta Police.

"I'm ready to run all programs and sacrifice my body and soul for Jakarta and the National Police. I hope for your support and prayers," Idham said.

Idham said he had been pessimistic about filling Iriawan's shoes given the high dynamics in the capital.

However, he said he had prayed for God's blessings in his new position, saying he had been inspired by former president BJ Habibie's preparedness to replace then president Soeharto.

After the event, Idham told journalists he would continue the work left by Iriawan without specifying which cases he would prioritize.

(Read also: Police postpone investigation into Rizieq)

Meanwhile, Iriawan expressed hope that Idham would continue to investigate a number of unsolved cases, including that involving Islam Defenders Front (FPI) head Rizieq Shihab.

Iriawan added that he hoped Idham could engage all parties, including the mass media, residents and military personnel, during his leadership.
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Linkedin Bambang Muryanto (The Jakarta Post) Yogyakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 18:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9f0e2 1 National Papua,ObbyKogoya,Yogyakarta,Pepera,Pepera-1969 Free

Obby Kogoya, 22, a Papuan student in Yogyakarta, has been sentenced to jail for resisting arrest by police officers during a protest in July last year.

Yogyakarta District Court sentenced Obby to four months imprisonment suspended for one year during a hearing on Thursday.

The judges said the Papuan activist was found guilty of committing violence against police officers, a violation Article 212 of the Criminal Code (KUHP).

The defendant does not need to serve his four-month imprisonment but if he breaks the law during his one-year probation, he must serve his jail sentence, presiding judge Wiwik Wisnuningdyah said.

Obby, deputy coordinator of the Tolikara Student Group in Yogyakarta, is now the first Papuan student in the City of Students to have received a prison sentence because of political activism.

Obby refused to obey police orders when they asked him to stop his motorcycle on his way to the Kamasan Papuan Student Boarding House compound on Jl. Kusumanegara, Yogyakarta, to attend a peaceful rally to celebrate the Papuan Peoples Free Choice (Pepera) anniversary on July 15, 2016.

The sentence was lower than that demanded by prosecutors, who sought a six-month sentence suspended for one year for the Respati Yogyakarta University (Unriyo) student.

Obby, via his lawyer Emanuel Gobay from the Yogyakarta Legal Aid Institute (LBH), said he would first consider the sentence before deciding whether to file an appeal. (ebf)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) j  Thu, July 27, 2017 14:25 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa97b91 1 Business redenomination,rupiah,expert,comments Free

Former finance minister Fuad Bawazier has expressed his support for Bank Indonesias intention to redenominate the rupiah, saying that it would increase the currency's prestige.

The low exchange rate of the rupiah against the US dollar, compared to the currencies of neighboring countries like Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, had caused a negative perception of the currency and the Indonesian economy, said Fuad on Wednesday at a discussion in Jakarta.

If the rupiah exchange rate is low, the country is perceived as being poorly managed, said Fuad as reported by tribunnews.com.

Earlier, Bank Indonesia governor Agus Martowardoyo had called on lawmakers to start deliberating the redenomination bill, citing the current good economic condition for redenominating the rupiah. The plan intends to issue smaller denominations of the rupiah.

The government has expressed its support of the central bank's plan, with President Joko Jokowi Widodo instructing Finance Minister Sri Mulyadi Indrawati to carry out a comprehensive study on the rupiah redenomination plan with Bank Indonesia.

Fuad said the redenomination plan would not receive public rejection, even from the business community, because it had already occurred technically: many shopping outlets, restaurants and cafes had eliminated the final three zeroes to the right of the thousands separator on their price tags and menus.

On menus, we often see @40 and @100 that indicate Rp 40,000 and Rp 100,000, he said, adding that the public would not find it difficult to adjust to the redenominated rupiah. (bbn)

Topics : redenomination rupiah expert comments
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Linkedin Fedina S. Sundaryani (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27 2017

The government has bristled at World Bank criticism that the overbearing presence of state-owned enterprises in many projects has deterred private investors.

Coordinating Economic Minister Darmin Nasution said on Wednesday that he had already explained to the Washington-based lenders president, Jim Yong-kim, that the private sector had a much bigger role in the countrys strategic projects than state-owned firms.

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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 14:00 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa958f2 1 Politics #politics,#SBY,#Prabowo,#coalition,#meeting Free

After losing last weeks legislative battle over the presidential threshold, the Democratic Party and the Gerindra Party are pondering an alliance for the 2019 presidential election.

Democratic Party spokeswoman Imelda Sari said in Jakarta on Thursday that party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would meet with his Gerindra Party counterpart Prabowo Subianto later in the evening.

"The meeting is Yudhoyono's positive response to Prabowo's request to meet in the wake of the House of Representatives' decision to pass the election bill last week," Imelda said in a statement.

Separately, Democratic Party deputy chairman Syarief Hasan revealed that the meeting would take place at Yudhoyono's residence in Cikeas, Bogor, West Java, and that it was possible they would form a coalition to contest the presidential election in 2019.

[A coalition] could be established. It could happen as we have similarities in vision, the former cooperatives, small and medium enterprises minister under Yudhoyono said as quoted by tribunnews.com

(Read also: Election bill passed, presidential threshold intact)

Earlier, the Democrats and Gerindra, along with the National Mandate Party (PAN) and the Prosperous Justice Party (PKS), lost a crucial battle on the presidential threshold for the 2019 election.

Seeking a zero threshold, they were outnumbered by the six political factions that supported retaining the threshold at 20 seats or 25 percent  meaning that only political parties that garner 20 percent of legislative seats or 25 percent of the popular vote are eligible to field a presidential candidate. (kuk/jun)
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Linkedin Nurul Fitri Ramadhani (The Jakarta Post) Cikeas, West Java  Thu, July 27, 2017 21:47 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaa31a3 1 Politics Prabowo-Subianto,SBY,Susilo-Bambang-Yudhoyono,presidential-election,coalition,political-actors Free

Gerindra Party chairman and former presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto arrived at the private residence of former president and Democratic Party chairman Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Cikeas, West Java, at 8.30 p.m. on Thursday.

The patrons of the two largest opposition parties were scheduled to have closed-door talks about the newly passed election bill, during the deliberation of which both parties opposed the government's decision to retain the 25 percent presidential threshold.

"I come here for a silaturahim [a strengthening of friendly ties]," Prabowo told reporters upon arrival.

Yudhoyono was ready to serve his guest nasi goreng (fried rice) cooked by a street food seller the former president had summoned to the house.

Read also: SBY, Prabowo meet to discuss election

Many believe the meeting was also aimed at pondering a possible alliance between the two parties ahead of the 2019 presidential election.

[A coalition] could be established. It could happen as we have similarities of vision, Dems deputy chairman Syarief Hasan said. (bbs)
RACINE COUNTY  Wisconsin clearly wins with Wednesdays White House announcement that Taiwanese electronics giant Foxconn has chosen Wisconsin as the place it will build a huge plant that will employ thousands of people.

But two state legislators think this area, specifically, will win the grand prize of having the Foxconn plant.

Its probably the most exciting thing that will happen in Racine County this century, said Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, who attended the announcement.

Although Vos said Foxconn likely wont announce an exact location for a few weeks, he fully expects the multi-billion-dollar plant to be built in Racine County or very close to it in Kenosha County.

All the indicators are that Racine County is at the top of the list for a Foxconn site, Vos said.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard also said he thinks Foxconn will likely build in this area. Im hoping its Mount Pleasant-Sturtevant, said Wanggaard, R-Racine. I believe thats what its going to be.  Its either going to be Racine or Kenosha (county).

The most likely area appears to be on Highway 11 near Interstate 94, according to media reports. Several property owners in that area have reportedly been approached about selling their land.

One resident near Highway 11 and Interstate 94 refused to comment Thursday about Foxconn, while two others said they were advised by their lawyers not to discuss it.

Vos said the purchase offers to property owners in that area have been astronomical. But even if some property owners choose not to sell their land to make way for Foxconn, Vos pointed out municipalities have the tool of eminent domain that could be used to buy them out.

Foxconn hopes to be operational in 2020, Vos said.

The company will initially employ about 3,000 people but could grow to about 13,000 employees.

Vos offered a comparison to bring home the employment number: SC Johnson employs roughly 2,000 people in the Racine area but, even at 4,000 or 5,000 jobs, Foxconn would at least double that.

During the White House announcement, Walker said the project will create about 10,000 construction jobs and another 22,000 indirect jobs will be created by Foxconns presence.

Vos said Foxconn coming to this area will be transformational. The way it operates in partnership with other companies, he said, will increase its economic impact. It will be so much more significant than one company, Vos said.

It will be so huge, it will be way beyond Racine County in its impact, he said.

Racine County Executive Jonathan Delagrave issued a written statement that said in part, While we would welcome this type of investment in Racine County, it is our policy not to comment on speculation around potential development opportunities.

We are also committed to transparency. If and when we have further information that we are able to share, we will engage in a full dialogue with the community.

Sturtevant Village President Jayme Hoffman said he didnt know where the company plans to build. Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot said, Its great news for Wisconsin, but I cant say more than that.

State Rep. Cory Mason, D-Racine, said, This is the biggest economic news in my lifetime.

Overall, he said, we cant help be really excited and enthusiastic about a project like this coming to our backyards.

Good-paying jobs

During the announcement, Walker said the Foxconn jobs will have an average salary of $53,875 plus benefits.

Most entry-level jobs will pay about $13 to $15 per hour and up, Vos said, and I think the vast majority will be more than that. For example, he said Foxconn will employ many engineers.

Wanggaard said Foxconn would create jobs of about $15 and up for entry level, with most of the jobs being mid-level of about $22 to $30 per hour.

I think they will have to talk about it in the coming weeks, Wanggaard said, as legislators will need to know. He was referring to the fact that Walker has been negotiating with Foxconn on an incentive package worth up to $3 billion over 15 years.

We have to make sure we get this right, Wanggaard said, with incentives tied to the things that Foxconn says it will do. A legislative team will put that bill together, he said.

Asked if he thought the economic incentives look appropriate, Vos noted that Wisconsin is not traditionally an incentive-heavy state. With a jobs announcement this big, he said, we need to step up our game.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 18:30 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9faa6 1 City KJP,revocation,smoking Free

Two vocational high school students were expelled and their Jakarta Smart Cards (KJP), previously issued as part of an educational assistance program, were revoked after a photo in which the students appear to be smoking in a classroom in Kelapa Gading, North Jakarta, was uploaded on Instagram.

North Jakarta Education agency head Khairul confirmed on Thursday that the students were expelled.

The school has expelled both students and the North Jakarta administration will also revoke their KJPs, Khairul said on Thursday as quoted by wartakota.tribunnews.com.

On Monday, an Instagram account, @kahfi3925, uploaded a picture of the two students wearing their white and grey high school uniforms, appearing to smoke a cigarette in the presence of a teacher in the classroom standing with his back to them. (wnd)

Topics : KJP revocation smoking
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 21:58 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aaa3ff3 1 City Transjabodetabek,operation Free

Transjabodetabek commuter buses will run under police escorts to ensure a one-hour travel time from Bekasi, West Java, to Jakarta, an official has stated.

State-run bus company Perum PPD began this operation in Bekasi on Thursday with free-of-charge morning services, company spokesperson Arga Narendra said.

The buses connect the Summarecon Bekasi complex to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle in Central Jakarta.

Arga said that currently it took two hours to drive from the Summarecon Bekasi complex to the Hotel Indonesia traffic circle.

But with a police escort, the travel time can be reduced by up to 70 percent.

In the first trial, the travel time was reduced by 50 percent. Our target is 70 percent, he said as quoted by tempo.co. (wnd)

Topics : Transjabodetabek operation
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Linkedin News Desk (AFP) Washington  Thu, July 27, 2017 10:46 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8c22f 2 Business #trump,#investment,#Apple,#Foxconn Free

President Donald Trump on Wednesday unveiled a $10 billion US investment by Apple supplier Foxconn to build a plant in Wisconsin.

The businessman-turned-president made the announcement side by side with the Taiwanese tech giant's CEO Terry Gou, as he tried to show his "America First" economic rhetoric is making a difference.

Trump said the plant -- which will make LCD panels -- will create at least 3,000 jobs in the midwestern state, and was quick to stress he played a role in making the deal happen.

"If I didn't get elected, he would not be spending $10 billion," Trump said, thanking Gou for his "faith and confidence in the future of the American economy."

Foxconn said the plant could eventually bring more than 13,000 new jobs to Wisconsin, with Gou adding it was the first in a series of facilities the company would build in several US states.

"Wisconsin offers a talented, hard-working workforce, and a long track record in advanced manufacturing, all of which presents an extraordinary opportunity," the Taiwanese tycoon said in a statement.

Manufacturing in the US would allow the company to better serve its customers, which included "iconic" American technology companies, Gou added.

Trump allies said Gou had spotted an abandoned factory and suggested it be used, and Trump personally met Gou in April to push the deal forward.

Trump has made returning manufacturing jobs to America's heartland a key plank of his domestic policy.

The investment is a double win for Trump, burnishing his reputation as a job creator and putting those jobs in a key battleground state, which he won in 2016 by a single percentage point.

It is also a victory for top Congressional Republican Paul Ryan, as the massive investment in his home state is tangible evidence that difficult relations with Trump do not preclude results.

"One thing we know about this president is how committed he is to reviving American manufacturing and bringing jobs home, this right here shows actual results, getting it done," Ryan said at the White House event.

The factory will be built in his Congressional district, which has an unemployment rate approaching 10 percent, much higher than the state-wide 3.2 percent.

The White House would not say what tax incentives were offered to entice the company, but local media reported a package of around $3 billion in tax breaks.

Foxconn, also known as Hon Hai, has been mulling moving to the US since at least the beginning of this year, hoping to have better control over distribution networks.

The firm is the world's largest contract electronics maker and is best-known for assembling products for international brands such as Apple and Sony.

It employs around a million workers at its factories across China and has operations in more than 10 countries.

In the US, it has a plant in Virginia for packaging and engineering which employs over 400 people.

It has also announced a $40 million investment in a facility in Pennsylvania to build precision tools and develop a robotics program.
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Linkedin (The Jakarta Post) Indonesia  Fri, July 28 2017

Indonesia and Laos kicked off celebrations for 60 years of diplomatic relations on Thursday with the arrival of the latters top diplomat, Saleumxay Kommasith, in Jakarta for two days, with an eye toward bringing economic cooperation on par with decades of cordial political and security ties between the two countries.

Playing host to her ASEAN brother, Foreign Minister Retno LP Marsudi welcomed Kommasith on his first visit to Indonesia as a foreign minister, staging talks on various bilateral issues including preparations for the visit of Laos Prime Minister Thongloun Sisoulith to Indonesia toward the end of this year.

In discussing the economic sector, both ministers agreed there was an opportunity to increase trade and investment cooperation.

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Linkedin Olivier Devos (Agence France-Presse) Dracy-Saint-Loup, France  Thu, July 27, 2017 10:15 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8b0ed 2 News Museum,Orient-Express,France,#museum,#France,travel,tourism,#travel Free

Visitors to a quirky rail museum in France's Burgundy region, the brainchild of US entrepreneur Gregory Marshall, will have a new opportunity to spend a night on the legendary Orient Express.

Two carriages and a locomotive from the line created in 1883 to carry the well-heeled from Paris to Constantinople, as Istanbul was then called, are the jewel of Marshall's growing collection of steam trains for a hotel-cum-museum he hopes to open next year.

The Orient Express stopped serving Istanbul in 1977 when the service was shortened and the fabled train made its last journey in December 2009.

Dating from 1948, Marshall's Orient Express carriages include a luxurious restaurant car -- which features a cylinder phonograph among its period highlights -- where guests will dine.

Read also: South Korea opens more Muslim-friendly restaurants

Marshall's "dream train" project is centred on a disused railway station nestled among century-old oaks and aspens in the village of Dracy-Saint-Loup, population 600.

Once he brings the long-deserted station, built in 1882, back to life, "it'll be great for kids," said the white-haired Marshall, who looks far younger than his 71 years.

"I've loved trains since I was a child," said Marshall, a former US Marine who remembers the first toy train set his father gave him when he was five or six years old.

"Almost everybody of my age, older, or a little bit younger, has memories of steam locomotives," Marshall said.

"But in regular museums there's no participation, people can't get on (the trains), and really enjoy them, have an adventure."

The last locomotive to arrive at the site was a Cockerill from Belgium, taking its place beside a huge steam engine dating from 1916.

Marshall's French manager, Gregory Godessart, says guests cannot expect to enjoy all the modern comforts, but just "to have fun spending the night in the Orient Express."

Read also: The best airport in the world just got better

So far one of the wagons is practically ready to take paying guests, with Marshall aiming for a spring 2018 opening.

For his own sleeping comfort, Marshall plans a "double-decker" carriage that will be his main residence at the Dracy-Saint-Loup station, which lies on a now defunct line that meanders through Burgundy's Morvan highlands and has not seen a passenger since 2011.

Marshall, who made a fortune from some telecommunications patents, bought the dilapidated building from the French state railway company SNCF in September 2016.

He knows his "dream train" project is going to bust the 200,000 euro ($230,000) budget he set.

But he doesn't mind.

Read also: Ubud listed among 'world's top 15 cities'

- Heritage -

Formerly active with American heritage groups, Marshall hopes his station and its historic rolling stock will earn a historic classification in France.

Marshall is not only about steam trains.

An avid pilot, he owns a Piper Lance six-seater, which is parked at the airport in the nearby Burgundy capital Dijon.

Before moving to France in 2003, he lived in Boston and Hawaii, as well as California where he was in the celebrated California Highway Patrol.

"Very interesting, very fun, when you're young, you chase bad guys and arrest them, it's an adventure," said Marshall, who was divorced, remarried and is now a widower.

"I'm not happy if I do the same thing for too long," he said.

Marshall has a collection of Citroen's emblematic Deux Chevaux (2CV) cars, including one that he has adapted to look like a World War II-era US army vehicle.

One day he hopes to ship over to France the last home of the pioneering aviator Charles Lindbergh, who in 1927 flew nonstop from New York to Paris, which he dismantled several years ago in order to preserve it.

Dracy-Saint-Loup residents are enthused by Marshall's project.

Godessart said "a little old lady, 95 years old, who used to take the train with her grandmother" visited the site.

While the "dream train" project slowly takes shape, weeds continue to consume the old tracks and the rickety station platform sags in places.

"There's still a lot of work to do," Marshall said.
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 14:10 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa96690 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,labuan-bajo,komodo,festival Free

Following the Komodo Festival 2017 which was held in February, West Manggarai regency is set to hold Komodo Carnival 2017 in Labuan Bajo on July 29.

The festival will feature a lot of activities that cater to general interests. Those who love doing sport activities can participate in Fun Running 5k and Beach Zumba. For culture and music enthusiasts there will be Caci Dance Festival involving a thousand dancers and Music Festival. The food scene will be represented by a culinary festival.

Read also: Four Indonesian destinations named best dive sites in Asia by CNN

In the evening, Indonesian reggae musician Tony Q Rastafara is going to perform at Batu Cermin Beach as well as DJ performance by DJ Yasmin.

Tourism Ministry's Archipelago Marketing Development deputy Esthy Reko Astuti expressed her gratitude for the regencys administration who has been consistent in preserving tourist attractions in Labuan Bajo. Moreover, Esthy said to always keep tourist attractions in Labuan Bajo clean and safe.

Tourism minister, Arief Yahya also calls for tourists to post their Labuan Bajo visit on social media, "There are already many world figures who made Labuan Bajo viral in social media. Its nature, local culture, and tradition are great to explore. There are still a lot of photo and video spots which are not explored yet. Feel free to take exclusive pictures with the amazing backdrops."

Labuan Bajo is listed in one of tourism ministrys 10 Priority Destinations program along with Lake Toba, Tanjung Kelayang, Tanjung Lesung, Thousand Islands, Borobudur Temple, Mount Bromo, Mount Semeru, Mandalika, Wakatobi and Morotai. (asw)
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 16:11 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9c50b 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,foreign-tourists,bali Free

Bali tourism agency has recorded a significant increase from European tourists from January until the early second semester of 2017.

A total of 557,423 European tourists came during the period, an increase 0f 20.8 percent from the same period last year that recorded 461,374 visits.

The head of Bali tourism agency Anak Agung Gede Yuniartha Putra, in general, the number of overseas tourists who come to the Island of the Gods is growing by 23.41 percent. From early 2017 up to this day, there are already 2.8 million overseas tourists who come to Bali. The same period last year only had 2.3 million tourists.

This is a positive development for tourism in Bali, were optimistic that we can reach beyond the end-of-the-year target, said Agung.

Read also: Bali declared world's top destination for 2017

Flying to Bali from European countries is easy because there are so many airlines that offer a direct flight from Europe to Bali, he added.

Agung also mentioned that Bali is known as a safe place for traveling.

Tourism minister Arief Yahya said that Bali is the main entrance gate to Indonesia, which is why Bali needs to be developed more, This is the best way to develop other destinations that are not in Bali, said Arief.

He also mentioned about the only airport in Bali that is getting too crowded, and the alternative solution to building a new airport in North Bali in the near future. As for the short-term plan, Lombok is going to be developed soon as well as improving the Bali  Lombok route. (asw)
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Linkedin Ganug Nugroho Adi (The Jakarta Post) Bangli, Bali  Thu, July 27, 2017 10:15 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa8b366 4 Destinations bali,ritual,tradition,Penglipuran Free

Clean and tidy houses can be found in neat rows in Penglipuran, a traditional village located at an altitude of 700 meters in Kubu sub-district in Bangli, Bali.

Penglipuran was declared one of the worlds cleanest villages in 2016 along with Giethoorn floating village in the Netherlands and Mawlynnong village in India.



Previously in 1995, the village community of Penglipuran also received the Indonesian governments Kalpataru Award for environmental sustainability for raising and maintaining 75 hectares of bamboo forest as well as preserving its traditional spatial layout and buildings based on ancestral designs.



The village has also been a tourist attraction since 1993. In the last five years, Penglipuran has been one of the most frequently visited tourist destinations in Bali alongside the regions of Ubud, Kuta and Nusa Dua.



Penglipuran is among Balis oldest villages, having existed since the 18th century, during the period of the Bangli Kingdom.



The name of the village is derived from the words pengeling or eling, which means to remember and pura, which means ancestral land.

Read also: Jomblang Cave, a vertical cave with heaven-sent view



The name Penglipuran, therefore, implies that residents keep the land of their ancestors in mind.



From the beginning, Penglipuran has been unique among villages in Bali.

Respecting the gods: A resident places offerings and prays in front of a monument by her house. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

Along with Trunyan village, Penglipuran has been designtated a Bali Aga village, or original Balinese village, for preserving its ancestral traditions.



Visiting Penglipuran is like taking a trip in a time machine back to Balis more traditional times.



Amid the intense forces of modernization, Penglipuran continues to retain its ancestral traditions. I think this has attracted many tourists to our village, chairman of the Penglipuran Village Tourism Awareness Group, I Nengah Moneng, said.



Moneng revealed that before becoming a tourist destination in 1993, the locals had conducted conservation works through the villages participation in the settlement and environment reordering project formulated by the Public Works Office in the late 1980s.



The efforts, Moneng said, were meant to preserve the villages ancestral traditions in the interests of future generations.



In 1990, villagers along with students on rural service assignments, also developed parks by utilizing portions of the village road to the front and side of house yards.

Read also: Four cities in Indonesia where you can travel by foot



Originally, there was no intention to attract tourists, only the mere purpose of conservation so that our children could be aware of their ancestral traditions and culture, Moneng said.



Unexpectedly, the conservation efforts attracted the attention of the Bangli regency administration, leading to its declaration as a tourist village.



Today the 112-hectare village is home to 985 people from 234 families.



They inhabit 76 equally divided plots, each facing the main road.



The rows of houses are separated by a stone paved main road with trimly cut grass on either side.



The village is notable for its consistent architecture, from roofing to room design. Most homes are built from brick, however some are made from woven bamboo.

Carefree life: Village residents carry offerings for a traditional ritual to be held at the local village hall. (JP/Ganug Nugroho Adi)

The village entry gate is marked by a large temple, which rises above the houses around it. The gas emission free vehicle zone starts at the main entry gate of the village.



Penglipuran residents maintain a high respect for women, with men prohibited from having more than one wife. Any violation of this law is liable to ostracism.



This village also has its own punishment for theft. Those found guilty are obligated to give five chickens as offerings to four ancestral temples. The sanction is meant to embarrass the perpetrators.



Being neat, clean, beautiful and unique has turned Penglipuran into a major tourist destination, with its number of visitors growing from 150 daily in 2014 to 250 in 2015 and to 400 in 2016. Admission is Rp15,000 for local tourists and Rp30,000 for foreigners.



Around 60 percent of the fees go to the regency administration and 40 percent to the village as the management body, said Penglipuran village treasurer I Wayan Supat.



Half of the amount for the village is spent on personnel salaries and the other half on ritual ceremonies, including Galungan to honor the Creator and ancestral spirits, which is held twice a year.



Village residents derive economic benifit from tourism as they earn incomes by selling souvenirs, opening food stalls, serving as guides and offering homestays.



Aside from Galungan, Penglipuan is also crowded during the Penglipuran Village Festival in December and Penglipuran Blooming in July.

Topics : bali ritual tradition Penglipuran
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Linkedin News Desk (The Jakarta Post) Jakarta  Thu, July 27, 2017 13:09 1934 4065a5a8898c7cc661d4adf97aa9064b 1 News Tourism-Ministry-Pesona-Indonesia,tourism-ministry-wonderful-Indonesia,Thousand-Islands-regency,Pramuka-Island,foreign-tourists Free

After visiting Lake Toba for four days from July 26 to 30, Spanish orchestra group Vinculos is planned to visit Pramuka Island on August 7.

The group was invited to come to Indonesia by the Education and Cultural Ministry with the intention to encourage cultural, social and educational exchange between the two countries.

This is our contribution to the [10 priority] destinations that have been set by President Joko Widodo and tourism minister Arief Yahya. I hope their presence can bring a lot of benefit including promoting Indonesian tourism to the world, said Education and Cultural Ministrys Culture director-general Hilmar Farid.

Some of activities in the Madrid-based group's agenda include a performance and jam session with the locals and exploring Dolphine Island, Perak Island and China Island.

Read also: Transjakarta to operate boats to Thousand Islands

Were grateful to get the honor as the first country in Asia for this project. Introducing the many cultures of the two countries, Indonesia and Spain, through attraction, interaction, art and cultural education will certainly make an impact on the tourism, Hilmar added.

Before Pramuka Island, the group will make a stop in Jakarta to perform several activities such as a music concert at Sarinah Building, performance and musical collaboration with Trust Youth Orchestra at Plasa Insan Berprestasi, flash mob in car free day area and workshop.

Jakarta was chosen because its the melting pot of so many ethnic groups in Indonesia. Through this meeting, we hope we can broaden the networking possibility for cultural communities in Jakarta, told Hilmar.

During their time in Lake Toba, Vinculos group will conduct a music workshop, donating and repairing musical instruments as well as donating books.

On July 29, the group is scheduled to perform a concert at the Amphitheater it Del, a symphony concert that showcases a collaboration between Vinculos and local artists.

Read also: Thousand Islands to develop tourism potential

Minister for education and culture Muhadjir Effendy along with the wife of coordinating minister for maritime affairs Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan are set to attend the concert. The concert will also welcome 600 students from elementary schools, middle schools and high schools in Tobasa Regency.

Apart from that, Vinculos is also planning to shoot a music video during a concert to showcase the beauty of Bakkara village.

Vinculos is an initiative made by Siero Chamber Orchestra (OCAS) Spain who champions for social and cultural integration through music. The group has performed in 12 countries, conducted more than 300 music concerts using more than 150 musical instruments and held about 100 workshops and masterclasses. (asw)
RACINE COUNTY  Racines jobless rate stood at an estimated 5.1 percent in June, according to numbers released Wednesday by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development.

That number was substantially better than the citys 7 percent unemployment rate the previous June. Racine just managed to avoid having the states highest unemployed rate among cities the DWD tracks; Beloits estimated rate was 5.2 percent last month.

The overall unemployment rate in Racine County stood at 4.2 percent in June compared to 5.5 percent a year earlier.

Other area unemployment rates for June, followed by the previous June:

Caledonia  3.4 percent, 4.8 percent.

Mount Pleasant  4.0, 5.0 percent.

Kenosha  4.5, 5.7 percent.

Oak Creek  3.4, 4.3 percent.
By Danielle Max, Under The Chuppa Magazine. Photos By CJ Studios. Choosing where to live after marriage is not easy. Jobs, finances, and family all play a part in deciding where to settle down. With property prices soaring in the New York area, couples and young families are taking the plunge by venturing further afield in their hunt for a comfortable life for their growing families.

Shifting Perceptions

Although its normal for one to have preconceived ideas about what living in a particular place might be like, setting those ideas aside can open up a plethora of opportunities. Luckily, many of those opportunities reside in Lakewood, New Jersey. While it has the reputation for being yeshivish and extremely conservative, its one of the fastest-growing Orthodox Jewish communities in the United States, attracting newcomers from all walks of observant life.

Raymond Coles, the Lakewood mayor and fellow resident of 29 years, has strongly encouraged Jewish couples to move to his town for it offers its couples a full range of amenities. These include stores, shops, and restaurants. Although Cole is not Jewish, he openly understands the needs of his constituency. You can live a frum lifestyle, if thats what you are looking for, says Coles.

Although Lakewood might not strike one as the hottest vacation spot, it has a long history of hosting Americas wealthiest tourists. In the 1890s, Lakewood was a popular vacation spot for the elite. The pine forests and proximity to New York drew illustrious families such as the Astors, Rockefellers, and Vanderbilts. Thus, they holidayed at its many hotels and resorts.

For more than 70 years, Lakewood continued to attract holidaymakers who wanted a winter getaway close to the New York City area. It was easy to get to and the weather and hotels were nice, remembers Millie Kashuk, a former tourist who spent time in Lakewood in the 1940s. The hotels catered to Jewish people and they had Jewish singing at night. There werent too many other places to go that were Jewish.

While hearing about Kashuks fond memories, its important to remember that most resort destinations were not entirely welcoming to Jews. However, multiple Rabbis recalled feeling accepted such as the Previous Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson. In 1940, Rabbi Schneerson spent his first pesach in America in this warm town, hosted by lithuanian born Rabbi Nissan Waxman, Lakewoods at-the-time stand alone Rov. An influential figure at the time, Waxman later helped arrange for the visas which would end up bringing over the Rebbes daughter and son in law, the late Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson.

Rabbi Nissan Waxman, ordained in America in 1926, spent his early years in Lithuania at the yeshiva in Slutzk. This yeshiva held classes taught by Rabbi Aaron Kotler who taught there under his esteemed father-in-law, Rabbi Isser Zalman Meltzer. When Kotler arrived in the US, he periodically met with his former acquaintance, Rabbi Nissan Waxman, who asked him to move to Lakewood and establish a new yeshiva. Lakewood being a resort town was an attractive place to begin this project.

Beth Medrash Govoha was originally established as a kollel in White Plains, New York by Rabbis Nosson Meir Wachtfogel, Shmuel Schecter, and Hershel Genauer, alumni of the Kelm Talmud Torah in Lithuania. Established in the Spring of 1942, it was the first kollel in the United States and consisted of 20 members. When Rabbi Aharon Kotler came to New York from war-torn Europe in 1943, the kollel members asked him to lead the institute. Under pressure from his close friend, Rabbi Nissan Waxman, Kotler agreed to the role on the condition that it be moved to Lakewood and expanded with a yeshiva gedola. As a result, the yeshiva opened with an initial enrollment of 14 students.

Unfortunately, Lakewood couldnt maintain its popularity and during the 1960s, the town began to decline to such an extent that slum areas cropped up. Ironically, against the backdrop, Beth Medrash Govoha (BMG), was growing. Due to the strength and pride of this yeshiva, many people became inspired and its enrollment flourished. As the yeshiva grew, so did its surrounding community.

Today, BMG has more than 6,500 students, consisting of both married and bochurim, and is the second-largest yeshiva in the world. This not only slowly encouraged Lakewoods residents to stay, but also motivated outsiders to move in. Ironically, it is no longer the only focal point of Lakewood, as many residents unaffiliated with BMG call the town home.

With the shifting demographics, including Modern Orthodox, Sephardim and other Chassidic groups (including Lubavitch, Belz and Satmar), there is also a shift in tolerance levels, affecting the businesses and social life of Lakewood. There are more and more restaurants and other establishments opening up that would have been frowned upon in the past. Of course, there are still plenty of very conservative and religiously ultra-strict groups in town.

While they are not marketed to a specific group or sect, many of the new developments being built around town are inhabited almost entirely by members of the same group. For example, Harmony Park in the southern side of the town is populated by Belz chassidim. Westgate, which marks the western edge of the town, was once very yeshivish but is becoming more modern and diverse. Although there are also more integrated neighborhoods, the lack of an eruv for the town as a whole encourages people to live close to their shuls.

The growth of different communities has also had an affect on the kosher amenities in the town. There is now an abundance of kosher restaurants, ranging from high-end gourmet to gas station sushi. Likewise, different types of family dynamics emerged. Although once men mainly learnt, there are plenty of families where both the husband and the wife work regular 9-5 jobs, shifting a once prevailing trend.

The Good News  Cheaper Property Prices

Overall, one of the larger reasons why different types of communities have flocked to Lakewood is the affordable cost of living. For instance, buying or renting a house is significantly cheaper than in other Jewish communities. Hence, the developers have the frum community in mind. Many new homes include properties with double sinks, double dishwashers, and enough bedrooms to fit larger families.

According to Lakewood Real Estate agent Efraim Feder, renting a five-bedroom townhouse averages at $1,700-$1,800 a month. At the same time, a duplex can cost $2,100-$2,200. Additionally, two-bedroom basement apartments and four-bedroom duplex basement flats are an extremely affordable option in Lakewood as they cost between $700 and $1,100. The average price for a townhouse ranges from $470,00-$510,000 with the higher-end pricing averaging at $560,000-$600,000. Additionally, the majority of Lakewoods homes only require 10% of the sold price as down payments from young couples. Thus, many Lakewood residents take full advantage of their built-in basements and rent them out in hopes of further contributing to their monthly mortgages.

Unfortunately, basement-included homes come with their own risks. As the demand for property is high, many unscrupulous agents and landlords are renting out basement apartments that are not up to code. Luckily, the mayor has recognized the issue and has warned his residents. We try to make sure if people want to do this, they know exactly what they have to do and what the requirements are. You can have a legal basement apartment if you follow the rules, explains Coles. Such rules include windows large enough to escape out of in case of emergency, safety fire ratings, sprinklers, and more.

At times, safety and the standard of the buildings going up in Lakewood is a concern as the speed at which the developments are being built could indicate compromised safety. Luckily, Feder denies that any corners are being cut and maintains that all the new builds adhere to strict safety rules. Likewise, Feder stresses that although there are some concerns regarding Lakewoods cheaper construction, Lakewoods homes should continue to look good should their tenants and/or owners take care of their properties. Should they not, however, tend to their homes issues, the homes could fall into despair despite their construction.

Lakewoods Baby Boom

Even with as many as 1,000 homes being built at one time, supply is struggling to catch up with demand. According to a recent study, Lakewoods population is around the 125,000, with the Jewish community making up well over 60 percent. Its growth is so relentless it is estimated it will be the same size as Newark or Jersey City (close to a quarter of a million inhabitants) by 2030.

One of the reasons behind Lakewoods large population would be its very high birth rate. With over 4,000 babies born each year, the town seems to be getting younger as the years go on. The latest census data put the percentage of residents under five years old at 17.4 percent, with almost half of all residents aged 18 or younger.

As of right now, the mayor estimates that at the next census, the population will hit 150,000. 75 percent of the population at that point will be from the orthodox community and the vast majority under 18. Eventually, these newborns will filter through into Lakewoods K-8 schools. [We say] we add a classroom every week just in new births, says Coles. And its a young town, which is hardly surprising giving the many large families among the Orthodox Jewish community.

A unique fact about Lakewoods education system is that more students are in private schools (approximately 30,000) rather than in public schools (6,000 respectively). Rest assured, both public and private education are taken very seriously. Over the past five years, the only land the council has released has been to build new schools rather than to allow any retail or residential development.

One of the things the committee has made a priority over the last several years is to make sure schools are developed; that they are being built properly, says Coles, remembering a time when schools were made up of five or 10 students gathering in a private home. [The] large buildings going up today, look like the public schools I grew up with several hundred kids The community is maturing into the fact the schools needs to have all the amenities

Even with new schools popping up, parents are still concerned about their children finding spots in school. As of right now, many girls are being denied spots and are forced to look elsewhere. The issue is not one of just space, however, but of communal politics and standards.

In 2016, this issue came to the fore when philanthropist Shlomo Yehuda Rechnitz spoke publicly in New York about children being rejected or ejected from schools in response to questions, concerns about their behavior or observance, or in response to other students parents unease.

Fortunately, placing each and every child into an appropriate school is becoming more of a priority. For instance, the Lakewood Vaad distributed a flyer urging parents of elementary school students who had yet to receive a place at a school for the 2017-18 academic year to be in touch. The Vaad promised to work with the relevant authorities to ensure all students a place. While there cannot be a guarantee that parents will be able to get their children into their first choice school, there is a movement to make sure the system is fair and equitable.

Infrastructure Failing to Keep up With Growth

At this point, Lakewood residents are concerned about the lagging infrastructure. The roads cannot keep up with the rapid pace of development and residents suffer traffic congestion all day, especially on Friday afternoons.

Ironically, there are no plans to halt or even slow down development. There are, however, plans to change the way that new projects are approved and developed. Were looking to make [development] smarter, says Coles. Were looking to make sure the new developments dont recreate some of the mistakes of the past.

The town is also striving to make the existing road system cope with current and growing demands. Lakewood inhabitants are especially concerned about Route 9, the main street in the town, along which traffic is often at a virtual standstill.

The township has been fighting with the state to improve Route 9 for many, many years; a lot longer than the 15 years Ive been on the committee, explains Coles. The State has acknowledged its too narrow and that it needs to be widened. Fifteen years ago when I first went on the committee, we introduced a series of ordinances that prohibited any development along Route 9 within the right of way that the proposed expansion would go to make sure that when the road was finally expanded, the State wouldnt have to spend money condemning houses built in the meantime.

According to Coles, the governor has promised a large sum of money to do some interim improvements, such as putting in traffic signs, traffic lights and so on. Ultimately, though, he says, the only thing that will solve the Route 9 problem is for the State to make it a point to widen it. Its not just Lakewood looking for that; the towns south of us are as well. In the meantime, we are looking very hard at ways to bring north/south arteries to town.

One of those arteries is Vine Avenue, providing another pathway from Route 70 to Route 88. We are pushing very hard to get the approval for Vine, its in the States hands right now, says the mayor. We are working with one of the top attorneys in the state to get the approval. We are pretty confident we will have approval in the next year or so, and construction can take place soon after that.

In the meantime, residents have learned to be savvy with side roads and back ways which assist in avoiding the busy Lakewood streets and the Brooklyn-style traffic as much as possible.

Relationships with the Neighbors  Both Positive and Negative

Many Jewish residents are concerned about tension with Lakewoods non-Jewish residents, as well as within their neighboring communities, such as Jackson and Toms River.

According to a report in Bloomberg News, Thomas Kelaher, mayor of Toms River Township, courted controversy when he said the influx of Orthodox Jews looking to buy property in the area was like an invasion.

Kelaher stridently denied that his statement was anti-Semitic as he claims he was referring to how local residents felt at the time. Since many real estate brokers were going door-to-door in hopes of buying homes for Orthodox Jews, many homeowners felt as though their privacy was violated.

When it comes to Lakewood itself, Mayor Coles maintains that such friction no longer exists and that despite tension when newcomers arrive, most of Lakewoods community gets along quite well, Years ago there was some tension when the town began to change, but thats the same in any town when two different groups come together and theres a culture clash. He attributes this more positive feeling to increased interaction, learning, and understanding. Once people get to know each other, and what their priorities and needs are, [that tension] dissipates.

Coles estimates his neighborhood is 70 percent orthodox but still feels as though its the nicest its been in almost 30 years. I look at my neighborhood now There are a lot of little kids around. Sometimes it takes me 10 minutes to walk into the house because kids are coming over to say hello or wanting to play with the dogs. Its just a nice neighborhood.

M any long-time residents, Coles included, see that the changing population helped turn Lakewoods destiny around. We were on a downward track; there were a lot of issues in town. There were a lot of areas where people didnt want to go. Today youll see young mothers pushing baby carriages in those areas. There are very few areas in town that people wouldnt feel safe going even late at night. From that standpoint, Lakewood has been a tremendous success story.

While there are still some growing pains, the growth of the Jewish community in Lakewood is something impossible to have predicted ten or twenty years ago. When BMG was established, no one could have imagined that this corner of New Jersey would see a vibrant and growing Jewish community, offering all the benefits of the city but with a slower, friendlier, and higher quality of life. Its no surprise so many people are making the move.

Lakewood Quick Facts

Location: Ocean County, New Jersey

Proximity to New York: 70 miles 1 Hour 20 Minutes  but traffic can be bad, so hit the road in the off-times or be prepared to spend up to three hours in the car

Proximity to the Ocean: 20-minute drive

Closest Airport: Newark is about a 50-minute drive. Philadelphia is about 90 minutes away

Size of Population: 125,000

Size of Jewish Population: 60,000+, and growing (second in size only to Brooklyn)

Average House Price April 2017: $304,500 (zillow.com)

Number of Shuls: Around the 120 mark (and, like everything else here, growing). Minyanim run throughout the day at some shuls, so you can daven Shacharit up to mid-morning (Belz and Satmar having minyanim past 11am) and catch you can Maariv at the end of a long day

Number of Jewish Schools: Approximately 35 boys and 25 girls K-8 schools. Countless high schools and other higher learning institutes

Education Costs: Tuition costs a reasonable $5,000 a year on average. There are very limited bursaries since cost is already low. Day care for younger kids averages $200-$300 a month.

Kosher Restaurants: Everything from fine dining to fine pizza (with prices below Brooklyn at $10 a pie). Trust us; you wont go hungry here! (You can even get kosher food  including sushi  at the7-11 in the middle of the night).

Kosher Stores: Five plus kosher megastores (think Walmart-size)

Eruv: There is no eruv for the whole town, they are constructed on a community-by-community basis, so be aware before making Shabbos plans

Healthcare: Lakewood boasts the Center for Health Education, Medicine & Dentistry (CHEMED), which provides primary health care, health education and a host of other services  including an OB/GYN Department  to Lakewood residents. It offers services to patients on Medicaid and Medicare plans, as well as private insurance. CHEMED also operates a sliding fee scale for uninsured patients.

Emergency Services: Hatzolah and Chaverim both operate in Lakewood and have hundreds of volunteers. The towns police department regularly calls on Chaverim for assistance.

Next Steps

Before choosing a community, its important to take the time to do research. While pondering whether or not Lakewood is the right place to settle, make a list of the pros and cons. Unlike previous years, Lakewood is made up of multiple communities and neighborhoods. Some are geared strictly towards a particular group or sect, while others are more diverse and open. By simply taking a tour of the neighborhood or even by spending a Shabbos or two in town, Lakewood stands a fighting chance at convincing any young couple or growing family to move into it.

You also need to consider employment, and be realistic. Some people commute to their jobs in the city, while others find work in Lakewood itself. Local resident Yosef F., who has been living in Lakewood and working in Brooklyn for years says unless a job pays more than $60,000, take a good look at whether it makes sense to commute. According to his estimates, commuting costs are probably around $10,000 a year.

(TLS  Provided by UTC.life)
RACINE COUNTY  Reaction was swift from area leaders heralding the announcement of a planned $10 billion deal to bring Taiwan-based Foxconn to southeastern Wisconsin, with potentially 13,000 jobs created.

A sampling of reaction from lawmakers and officials from the area:

House Speaker Paul Ryan said the company will benefit from Wisconsin workers, who he said are the best in the world.

This decision will create thousands of good jobs, and Im excited for all the Wisconsinites who will benefit. Im grateful that I was able to be a part of this process, working the state leaders like Governor Walker, to make it a reality. This is an exciting day for our community, and we look forward to working further with Foxconn as we begin a new era of manufacturing here in Wisconsin.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos, R-Rochester, called it a day to remember for Wisconsin and said Foxconn will impact generations of Wisconsin families.

We want our children and their children to stay and raise their families in our state. We want them to have good paying jobs and a vibrant economy. Today marks the beginning of an exciting new chapter in the future of the Badger State.

University of Wisconsin-Parkside Chancellor Debbie Ford said the availability of talent in the region will help the electronics giant. Parkside has helped train many workers in the region, she said.

The news that Foxconn will substantially invest in southeastern Wisconsin continues the recent positive trend of dynamic global companies recognizing all that this region has to offer ... UW-Parkside will continue to work closely with community and business partners to ensure that they have the necessary talent for long-term success.

State Sen. Bob Wirch, D-Somers, lauded the deal as a tremendous opportunity while noting the incentive package that still has to be approved by the Legislature.

Im hopeful that these (jobs) will be the good, family-supporting jobs that we need in our community and that the economic incentives provided by the state will be in line with the jobs created as a result.

State Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, said Foxconn did their homework and researched other options before choosing southeastern Wisconsin, which he said is key to more companies following suit.

Foxconn locating in Wisconsin is a testament to the quality of our business environment, our people and our ability to provide the high quality workforce that companies look for. This type of investment is usually a catalyst for other business to locate in the vicinity. As much as our region has gained economically, Im confident there is more to come!

State Rep. Samantha Kerkman, R-Salem, said the fact companies are investing in the area is a tribute to Republican-led reforms.
The Barbican is a leading international arts centre, and presents a diverse range of music, theatre, dance, visual arts and film. Its one of Londons best-loved venues  and, with applications for their learning programmes open now, you have the opportunity to develop your creative talents there, too.

By taking part in one of their programmes, all of which are totally free, you can receive tuition from world-class artists and musicians, be given opportunities to curate your own film festival, be published in a poetry anthology, or play with a leading jazz band.

The Barbican was opened in 1982 by The Queen, who declared it one of the modern wonders of the world. It was developed from designs that aimed to transform London after bombings during the Second World War and is one of Londons best examples of brutalist architecture.

History aside, the Barbican offers a great range of courses for students aspiring for a career in the arts. Here are eight creative courses that you can be part of this summer.

1. Barbican Young Programmers

In this programme youll get the chance to curate a film festival at the Barbicans cinemas. This will involve you researching and creating a brand new programme of films, tailored to your interests and tastes.

Nimmo Ismali, who took part in the programme this year, says: "I wanted the opportunity to work alongside other young people who share my zeal for film in my favourite arts space.

"The Barbican trusts young people. We are provided with a bevy of resources, trained in the details of development and distribution, have meetings with industry professionals, are supported by enthusiastic Barbican team members and gifted with an amazing teacher."

Applications now open

2. Barbican Young Poets

Barbican Young Poets is a poetry workshop that caters for all types of poetic expression, including spoken word, which will help you to explore diverse aspects of writing and performance.

The programme is led by Jacob Sam-La Rose, author of Breaking Silence, who has spent years working with young people in education. He and a team of professional poets and creatives will support you in responding to your passions, personal experiences, and the Barbicans rich cultural environment to create your own personal portfolio. In addition to this, youll contribute to a published poetry anthology.

Applications now open

Visit the Barbican website to read previous anthologies and watch a video of Jacob Sam-La Rose below.





3. (Im)Possibilities

The Barbican is a world-renowned music venue, which hosts a wide range of classical and contemporary performances, from leading classical orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra to Nico Muhly or Laura Mvula.

If youre an aspiring musician, (Im)Possibilities offers you the opportunity to be in a band with musicians from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama and their collaborators. You will even get the chance to perform in their famous music hall.

Applications now open

4. Young Visual Arts Group

For any aspiring visual artists, London is the place to be. The Young Visual Arts Group gives young people who are passionate about art a chance to engage with Londons best-loved galleries, as well as up-and-coming exhibitions, and the opportunity to work with professional artists.

Youll take part in a range of workshops, visit exhibitions, and receive guided tours from curators, witness talks from successful artists, and gain advice on how to build a career in the art world.

Phoebe Nightingale took part in the Young Visual Arts group from October 2016 to May 2017. She says: "I decided to take part because I am an art student at university, but I often feel a great barrier between my cosy, left wing, art school 'bubble', and the rest of the world.

"In a time when arts education is being cut, culture is becoming a luxury for the elite, and funding is at an all time low, I think that many artists and audiences are becoming disillusioned with the arts world.

"I was intrigued by the Barbican's Young Creatives programmes, because they didn't require grades, an art foundation, or money to apply. They only required an interest in the arts, which is something I definitely have!"

Phoebe adds: "My proudest moment was applauding everyone at the exhibition we put together, and looking around at our work on display, and all the people enjoying it. Not many artists can say their first exhibition was at the Barbican Centre!"

Applications now open



5. Young Jazz Big Band

For those who play trumpet, trombone, saxophone (soprano, tenor, alto, baritone), drums, piano, double bass or guitar, this band is the perfect opportunity for you to work with musicians not only from London, but from New York too.

If youre inspired by Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Billie Holiday or other sultans of Swing, Young Jazz Big Band is perfect for you.

Applications now open

6. Young Songwriters

You will work with professional musicians and songwriters from across London in order to develop your songwriting skills and further your prospects for a career in the industry. Music is a notoriously difficult industry to crack, but this programme will help to give you the confidence needed to take the next steps.

Applications now open

7. Barbican Young Reviewers

Looking to develop a confident critical voice? This programme, led by an arts journalist and a YouTuber, will help to build your reviewing skills and give you confidence to both wield a pen and sit in front of and behind a camera.

Check out the Barbican YouTube channel to see what you could be creating.

Applications are open now

8. Barbican Young Photographers

This scheme will develop both your professional camera skills and help you appreciate photography as an art form in its own right.

Barbican Young Photographers is led by professional photographers and artists and gives you the chance to shoot exhibitions and events across the Barbicans artistic programme.

Applications are open now

Barbican is currently recruiting for a number of talent development programmes, including the Young Visual Arts Group, the Barbican Young Programmers, the Barbican Young Poets, Young Jazz Big Band and Young Songwriters, and (Im)possibilities.

To learn more about the programmes on offer, visit the Barbican website.
On this day in 2007... #10years A post shared by @popculturediedin2009 on Apr 12, 2017 at 11:08am PDT

accessorizing lohan style A post shared by @popculturediedin2009 on Nov 17, 2016 at 2:11pm PST

But it was home to so much more grimacing yet addictive culture: Kate Moss dating Pete Doherty, Britney's meltdown... feeling nostalgic yet? Lucky for us, New York will be the home to an exhibition showcasing all that nostalgia from the noughties. While technically it was the worst decade, it was certainly the most entertaining. From the Brooklyn artist that brought us the Olsen twins exhibition, they are now collaborating with Instagram account @Popculturediedin2009 to bring us this throwback.Thegives us a little insight into what the expect and what they expect from us as spectators: "This exhibit will be an imaginary summit. Through the lens of Nicole Richies infamous Memorial Day BBQ, @popculturediedin2009 will provide a historians look at the many celebrities and scandals that formed a generation. The exhibit asks you to do one thing: imagine if everyone was Tyra Banks, Britney Spears, Mischa Barton, Lindsay Lohan, Janet Jackson, NOT JUSTIN TIMBERLAKE, Paris Hiltons Valtrex prescription bottle. All of the most fabulous people from the era."The exhibition will put an artistic flair on the comedic things done from the era; Lindsay Lohan's ankle monitor and Naomi Campbell's community service will both be depicted in a variety of artistic ways. Pick up your old fly-like sunglasses from 2007, because it's time to go back and do it all over again. The exhibition opens July 29th and will be open until August 11th.
July 26th will mark what would have been Stanley Kubricks 89th birthday.

The veteran director was a massive influence on the film industry; from his short films in the early fifties, right up until his death in 1999, he left behind a legacy that has left many considering him one of the greatest filmmakers to have ever lived.

Whilst Kubrick made many great films over his nearly fifty-year long career, heres a look at the director's five best-known movies that proved to all be masterpieces in their own way.

1) Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)

Theres no better place to start than with Kubricks mid-sixties satire of the nuclear age, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb. The film is centred around the order of the rogue General Ripper (Sterling Hayden) to drop a nuclear bomb on the Soviet Union and how the President of the United States (Peter Sellers) attempts to end the crisis.

The film is a hilarious take on the Cold War and is filled with jokes pointing out the barbarity of political attitudes at the time. Peter Sellers, who has three roles altogether, is excellent in the movie and his scene as President Muffley on the phone to Russian Premier Dimitri Kissov goes down as one of most iconic comedic sketches in cinematic history.

Its humour and message have held up incredibly well and it remains one of Kubricks highest rated films today.

2) 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

Arguably Kubricks most influential film, in the long run, 2001: A Space Odyssey was jaw-dropping when first released as its visual effects were like nothing seen before.

It follows astronauts Dave (Keir Dullea) and Frank (Gary Lockwood) as they battle against their ships artificial intelligence, HAL (Douglas Rain) in the year 2001. The film is far deeper than its base story suggests though. Depicting the dawn of man and covering themes that criticise humans arrogance and stagnation, the film proves to be far more rewarding on repeat viewings.

The movie beautifully blends soundtrack and visuals with Kubricks use of the classical piece Also Sprach Zarathustra in the opening titles, helping to create another iconic cinematic moment. It is a testament to Kubrick's filmmaking that 2001 holds up as well as it does with the impressive use of practical effects creating what is still a visual spectacle.

3) A Clockwork Orange (1971)

Moving on to what is by far Kubricks most controversial film, A Clockwork Orange. It follows Alex DeLarge (Malcolm McDowell), a despicable, evil, youth, whose actions lead to him being the test subject for a new kind of psycho therapy that will attempt to cure him of his urges.

The film is a disturbing and, at times, frightening piece of cinema, with Kubricks presentation of Alexs misdemeanours being brutal to watch. Likewise, the later depiction of Alexs treatment makes for some very uncomfortable viewing.

Despite all this though, A Clockwork Orange is arguably Kubricks best film. He once again blends soundtrack and visuals through classical music masterfully and the vision that he creates of the film's dystopian society is put together wonderfully.

3) The Shining (1980)

Based on Stephen Kings novel of the same name, The Shining was a critical flop at release but has gone on over the years to become a cult classic.

A psychological thriller that follows the Torrance family as father Jack, played perfectly by Jack Nicholson in one of his best roles, who begins to go mad in his role of caretaker at the sinister Overlook Hotel.

A mysterious and ambiguous film, The Shining has gone on to spawn documentaries as well as heavy analytical pieces that have attempted to figure the film out. Kubrick, whilst not staying very faithful to the original novel, created a disturbing film that showcased his ability to effectively shoot horror. He makes full use of the Overlooks creepy setting with the hotels long narrow corridors and large empty spaces fully utilised.

5) Full Metal Jacket (1987)

1987 saw Kubricks take on the Vietnam War with Full Metal Jacket. The movie is essentially split into three mini films with recurring characters in each. The first is an accurate depiction of a marine boot camp, the second shows the propaganda of the war as well as the confusion and lack of preparation many soldiers had going into Vietnam, whilst the final part focuses more on the horrors of war.

Kubrick once again includes a social commentary, this time on the Vietnam War itself, but it is arguably his storytelling talents that are best on show here. Looking at the film as three parts, much of what happens in part one is mirrored in part three with a lot of earlier set up paying off later on, which is not immediately obvious to the viewer.

Another great aspect of the film is R. Lee Ermey's mostly improvised performance as Sergeant Hartman. Full Metal Jacket shows off Kubricks excellent screenwriting ability with the boot camp portion often being highlighted as the film's best section.

Overall, it is clear that Stanley Kubrick was and will always remain, one of Hollywood's most influential and groundbreaking filmmakers. It is a shame that he is not still alive today as it would be interesting to see the modern world through his lens.

His films remain hugely influential and important to the industry today.
Warner Bros has released the latest trailer for the upcoming film adaptation of Stephen Kings IT.

The new footage shows off a lot more of Bill Skarsgard's terrifying looking Pennywise the Clown, including some new dialogue from the iconic antagonist. Through footage of Skarsgard, we also see some of the films scares, with the kid-killing clown confronting multiple members of the "Losers Club".

We also get a better look at some of ITs lead characters with Bill Denbrough and Mike Hanlon, played by Jaeden Lieberher and Chosen Jacobs respectively, giving details about how the film's setting of Derry is cursed.

The film looks to be a more faithful adaptation of the best-selling novel with the newest trailer showcasing one of Ben Hanscoms (Jeremy Ray Taylor) confrontations with bully Henry Bowers (Nicholas Hamilton) as well as previous footage showing us Richie Toziers (Finn Wolfhard) voices.

King himself has attended an early screening of the film and posted on his official website back in March that fans shouldnt worry as the producers have done a wonderful job with the production.

The film looks to be much more horrifying than the 1990 adaptation, with Pennywises new design and attitude seeming far less comical

and more sinister in comparison to Tim Currys memorable portrayal.

Anticipation for IT will continue to build up until its release in the UK on September 8th.

Until then, check out the newest trailer below.
What was once the most groundbreaking cartoon on television is decades past its sell by date. While before we had episodes like 'Marge vs The Monorail' and 'Cape Feare,' the best you can hope for now is quiet relief that those 30 precious minutes were actually worth it. Think I'm exaggerating? 18 out of the bottom 20 rated episodes on IMDb are all within its double digit seasons. The other two are clip shows. Given the show's 'golden years' are unanimously agreed to have ended around season eight, by the time the long awaited Simpsons Movie hit cinemas - ten years ago today, if you can believe it - the show was well into its downward spiral. There was thus even more pressure for the film to be a critical success, though commercial-wise there was no concern. No matter your opinion on the show's millenial state, you were still going to see it, and the producers knew that. Was this not, then, a bit of a wasted opportunity? Why not take the completion of its big screen counterpart as an opportunity for redemption, to bow out on a high? A film adaptation was always intended to be developed after the show ended anyway - although this idea was, according to creator Matt Groening, "undone by good ratings". There's your answer as to why it's about to enter its 29th season. For what it's worth, The Simpsons Movie is far from perfect. But, given the show's eventual track record, it still would have served as a fitting finale for what preceded it.Suitably, the plot is ridiculous: after Springfield becomes the most polluted city in America thanks to Homer dumping a cylo of pig faeces in its lake, it is declared an environmental hazard and placed under a giant dome. The family then become fugitives and make a run for Alaska, before deciding they must return home to save their town from impending annihilation. References to classic jokes from the series' past are thrown in with gleeful and unapologetic abandon, while celebrity cameos, rather than being merely shoehorned in, all serve a bizarre but hilarious purpose. At times it falls flat, but for the most part it works. Several critics complained at the time that it wasn't grounded enough, but, while you may be able to see their point, this was the movie. It was never going to be something so basic it could be wrapped up in typical sitcom fashion. And despite the film not even reaching 90 minutes, it still feels huge, like it really could have been the last hurrah. What truly secures it as an appropriate ending to the show, however, are the family dynamics at play. While many beloved secondary characters get their moment to shine (making it feel even more like a sendoff), this is through and through about the Simpson family. Bart's story deals with the complex relationship he has with his father and how, despite his mischievous nature, he actually longs for parental consistency. Lisa has another love interest, which isn't the most inspired, but it does supply some decent jokes and hints that she could finally be happy without having to betray her convictions. Maggie is, well, Maggie, but at least she gets a pretty great moment near the end. Then, of course, there's Homer and Marge, whose marriage has long been the emotional crux of the series. We've seen them go through it all, from first meeting to marriage, to childbirth to almost breaking up on several ocassions - including here (who doesn't get a little misty-eyed at the revelation that she taped her goodbye over their wedding video?). Imagine, then, the final image we get of them together is a ride off into the sunset, closing on the dialogue: "Best kiss of my life." "Best kiss of your life so far". It's cheesy but it's sweet, and gives closure to a roller coaster of a relationship while providing assurance that one of the most iconic fictional couples - and indeed, fictional families - are going to be okay long after the credits have rolled. It may not have been the ending we deserved, but it was the ending we needed.
Things are spinning out of control, cant you feel it?

Allie Novak isn't wrong. Everything changes this week as Franky is charged with another murder and Vera is removed from her position as governor.

Vera is placed in hot water in both her home and work life. Channing visits the prison to interrogate all members of staff after Will revealed his suspicions of the deputy governor. When Jake calls the next drug drop off, Vera is placed in even more danger when the drug dealer comes knocking at her door demanding money.

I said this last week, but Vera has come so far and even though she is stronger than ever, shes still so weak. Despite being Governor, shes not physically powerful and the drug dealer quickly gets her into a corner, leaving her powerless. Its hard not to feel for Vera, and watching her get physically torn down because of Jake is awful.

One would hope that this is the moment Vera finally realises that Jake has been lying to her the entire time, but, sadly, it looks like were going to have to continue to be frustrated and disappointed in Vera for a little longer as Jake's manipulation continues to turn her head. By convincing her that he owes money to a loan shark, her trust in her deputy and lover remains strong. I guess even when the 'truth' chokes you against the refrigerator, you still dont want to believe it.

Jake can't easily manipulate Channing however. With one phone call to the burner phone in Jake's locker, he is exposed. But any hope is futile because Channing sees an opportunity and offers to let Jake continue the drug business as long as he can cash in 20% of the profits. Whilst this is good news for Jake's career, its not so good for his bank account  with his drug dealer demanding money or his life, Im not entirely sure Jake has 20% to give to Channing.

Moving away from the drug-pushing, how is Franky doing this week? Well, after the incredible reveal that Iman has connections to Pennisi (Im still impressed with this turn of events), Franky is keen to get the lowdown on her fellow inmate and calls in Bridget to help. Despite breaking up a few weeks ago, its clear that there is still love between the two and it is so refreshing to see the two look happy in each other's company.

After investigating Imans therapist, Bridget brings back the news that Iman and Pennisi took the same PTSD therapy class together. This is the pivotal moment that leads to one of the best scenes of the series and is arguably the sole reason the episode deserves the five stars I've given it.

Confronting Iman, Franky realises that she and Pennisi were in a romantic relationship and Pennisis obsession with Franky was too much for his girlfriend to handle. Jealousy turned to murder, and Imans need for revenge led her to Wentworth to also kill Franky for taking her boyfriend away from her.

In an intense struggle, Franky literally fights for her life as the other woman tries to murder her with a shiv. As things are looking pretty bad for Franky, Ferguson comes to the rescue... Or does she?

Within thirty seconds, Ferguson turns the situation from bad to even worse as she snaps Imans neck. Whilst Franky is not dead, she looks pretty incriminating as she stands over the dead body after Ferguson quickly leaves the crime scene.

Unsurprisingly, the police officers refuse to believe that Franky is innocent and she is officially charged with Imans murder. In the matter of five minutes, I metaphorically screamed at the TV about ten times. It is so frustrating to watch Franky go down for another crime that she did not commit.

Meanwhile, Vera loses her place at the top when Channing gives himself the role. The prison arguably works better when the governor and top dog combine forces, however, this relationship probably shouldnt be used to bring drugs into the prison.

Things dont usually look good for Wentworth at the end of this episode. As we are taken to new extremes, who knows how far this will go for the inmates?

Wentworth Prison airs on Sundays at 10pm on 5Star.
MILWAUKEE  Gov. Scott Walker and state officials are welcoming Foxconn leaders to Wisconsin in an event at the Milwaukee Art Museum.

The event celebrates the company's $10 billion plan for a manufacturing campus in southeastern Wisconsin, according to the governor's office. An exact location for the Foxconn plant hasn't been determined, but Racine County is believed to be a leading contender for the facility, which could employ up to 13,000 people to manufacture liquid crystal display (LCD) screens.

6 p.m. The memorandum of understanding is released. Document is vague.

5:50 p.m. The ceremony wraps up with wings of the art museum opening and music playing as Walker and Gou hold up the Wisconsin flag.

The memorandum of understanding does not specify a location, which is still unclear. Land on Highway 11 near Interstate 94 appears to be a primary target.

5:40 p.m. The speeches are over and leaders are now preparing to sign the memorandum of understanding. Details of the MOU are not immediately available.

5:35 p.m. Gou getting laughs from the crowd and emphasizing the reasons why Foxconn is coming to the state.

"Why Wisconsin? Great people," Gou said.

5:28 p.m. Gou says Foxconn chose Wisconsin because of the people, including Walker, who flew to southeast Asia on a weekend to meet Gou. Gou jokes that nobody works on the weekends.

5:25 p.m. Gou now on stage, praising Wisconsin and noting the location of the event on the Lake Michigan shoreline.

"This is my home, our home, Wisconsin," Gou says.

5:21 p.m. Walker touting Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou, says his team is excited to invest in Wisconsin. "They could be anywhere. But they chose Wisconsin. ... they chose it because we're ready."

5:16 p.m. Walker says he teared up watching a media report from a Racine bar, where patrons cheered Wednesday's announcement at the White House.

"That's what it's all about," Walker said to applause.

5:13 p.m. Why did Foxconn pick Wisconsin? "We're ready," Walker says.

5:12 p.m. On worker training: Walker says a project this big will help draw talent to the region. "This is something we'll say to our children and their children's children ... this is the place to be now and forevermore."

5:11 p.m. Walker reiterating the job numbers announced Wednesday and hitting on a theme that Foxconn products will be "made in America." He also repeats the name of the development: WisConn Valley, saying the project will be transformational for the state.

Walker says in 15-20 years from now, public officials will look back fondly on their role in bringing the project to fruition.

5:10 p.m. Walker says the state will sign a memorandum of understanding with Foxconn underlining the company's $10 billion investment in the state that will lead to 13,000 jobs.

In return, the state will invest $3 billion, which Walker said is necessary "If you want to play in the big leagues."

5 p.m. Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett says he welcomes visitors to America's "fresh coast," a reference to the water-rich southeastern Wisconsin region and its placement on the Great Lakes.

Lake Michigan "is critical to what's happening here today," Barrett said, while also touting the "incredible workforce" in the area.

4:50 p.m. The crowd is filling up at the art museum, including a delegation from Racine County. Among local officials at the event: County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, County Board Chairman Russell Clark and Mount Pleasant Village President Dave DeGroot. Legislators including state Reps. Robin Vos and Cory Mason are also here.
A Disney-inspired cosplay is sending the internet wild.

Jose Davalos , a plastic and make-up artist, shared his incredible Ursula costume on Facebook and the video has clocked up over eight million views.

The video of a purple-hued Davalos acting as Ursula is remarkable  not only for the incredible make-up, but also his realistic impression of the cartoon villain.

It took two months to create the costume for Comic Con 2017, and it seems the time was worth it. The outfit and make-up swiped three awards, including the Most Innovative Costume and Audience Favourite Award Masquerade Winner.

Davalos has been interested in make-up from a very young age. He said: I loved arts, like drawing, painting and sculpting.

I started doing my first prosthetics out of paper mache and I always loved transforming myself into characters from movies.

I used to steal my Grandmas make-up and and I adored the way she was always glamorous with red lips and make-up. So I started doing that on my face, as well as wearing her vintage clothing to create costumes.

Eventually, his work was rewarded with a scholarship to study in Los Angeles, California.

Speaking about his new-found fame, Davalos said: Its been really amazing to me. This (sic) past few years, since social media, has been a nice way to start a career and try to get recognition.

People and other cosplayers have been so kind to me. They make me feel like I am doing things right, and also being an inspiration to them is just beautiful, because I would have never thought about being relevant to somebody.

Davalos said his favourite cosplay creation so far is Rococo Lumiere from Beauty And The Beast, because he is a huge fan of the 18th century and French history  and its easy to see why; the creation is seriously impressive.

Stay tuned for what he does next.
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MOUNT PLEASANT  A woman was taken to the hospital via Flight for Life after a motorcycle crash Tuesday, which also resulted in the arrest of the operator for drunken driving.

At 2:16 p.m. Tuesday, Mount Pleasant police officers and the South Shore Fire Department responded to a motorcycle versus truck crash at the intersection of Racine and 25th streets, according to a Mount Pleasant Police Department news release.

An initial investigation showed the motorcycle was northbound on Racine Street behind the pickup truck. The truck then slowed to make a right turn onto 25th Street and the motorcycle collided with the rear bumper of the truck, the release states.

Police identified the operator of the motorcycle as 35-year-old Lewis Johnston of Racine. An unidentified woman was riding as a passenger on the motorcycle with Johnston.

Both people on the motorcycle were ejected. Neither was wearing a helmet, according to the release.

Johnston was transported to Ascension All Saints Hospital for non life-threatening injuries. After he was released, he was taken to the Racine County Jail, where he was held on charges of operating while intoxicated (third offense) causing injury, inattentive driving and violation of a license restriction, according to the release.

The passenger sustained serious injuries and was airlifted by Flight for Life to Froedtert Hospital in Wauwatosa.

The Technical Reconstruction Unit from the Wisconsin State Patrol assisted with the crash investigation.
MOUNT PLEASANT  After being closed for several weeks due to a sexual assault charge, massage parlor Body Oasis might be back in business soon.

The villages Finance/Legal/License committee on Wednesday approved Shuling Zhaos business license after her husband, Huaying Sun, was charged with third-degree sexual assault on July 12.

The only condition of the license is Zhaos husband Sun is not allowed on the premises, located in a multi-tenant building at 5802 Washington Ave.

Zhao was present at the meeting with a lawyer who spoke for her.

Village Clerk Stephanie Kohlhagen said if Zhao paid for the license, she could use the receipt as a temporary license until the actual license arrives. She asked the establishment to list all of its state-licensed massage therapists who work at the business so the village can keep track.

We are going to be asking all of our massage businesses throughout the entire village to provide us with a list of state-licensed massage therapists that are working in their establishment, Kohlhagen said.

Zhaos lawyer said the business will do that.

Body Oasis closed when the village discovered the sexual assault charge against Sun and withdrew the business license.

In January 2011, officers reportedly spoke with Sun after a woman told police she went to a massage parlor at Regency Mall, 5538 Durand Ave., and was sexually assaulted by Sun.

According to a criminal complaint, Sun asked the woman to undress, fondled her breasts and touched her genitalia.

The business relocated to Washington Avenue several years after the incident. Its unclear why the charge came so long after the incident.

On Tuesday, Sun pleaded not guilty to third-degree sexual assault. A pre-trial conference hearing is scheduled for Sept. 1. Sun was released July 12 on a $10,000 signature bond.
Gov. Scott Walker on Thursday assured critics of his deal with Taiwanese tech giant Foxconn that the massive bundle of taxpayer-funded incentives Wisconsin has offered the company to build here will be tied to job creation.

"We tie it to performance," Walker said on a syndicated conservative talk radio show Thursday. "They're not going to get (the incentives) if they don't provide the jobs and don't provide the capital investment."

Walker said if Foxconn doesn't fulfill their promise to invest $10 billion or create 13,000 jobs, the company won't be eligible for the $3 billion in incentives the state has planned for the company to build a 20 million-square foot campus to create liquid display panels.

"It's good to have (safeguards) as protection ... it certainly is my fiduciary role to protect taxpayers in the state," Walker said.

Walker appeared on CNBC and talk radio shows Thursday a day after announcing in Washington D.C. that Wisconsin has agreed to offer Foxconn the largest incentive package in state history to build its first U.S. plant. The facility is expected to open in 2020 and sit on at least 1,000 acres -- a campus Walker has dubbed "Wisconn Valley."

He made the case for the deal and responded to critics who point to past splashy announcements Foxconn has made in the U.S. and overseas without following through on their plans.

"WI needs to take a close look at these broken promises before throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at questionable corporate subsidies," Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, tweeted on Thursday.

In 2013, the company announced plans to build a $30 million plant that would employ 500 workers in central Pennsylvania. That project never materialized.

Under the plan for Foxconn in Wisconsin, the company would be eligible to earn the $3 billion over 15 years. The Wisconsin Economic Development Corp. said the incentives are projected to cost between $200 million and $250 million annually.

The company will be eligible for $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for creating jobs, up to 1.35 billion in credits for capital investments and up to $150 million for the sales and use tax exemption for the purchase of construction materials.

Walker acknowledged the company's past broken pledges, but said the state has put in place the "safeguards" and "clawbacks" necessary to protect the state.

"Theyre just upset because they think this is a major victory for me," he said about critics of the plan.
Hamlin senior throws standout Gracelyn Leiseth headed to Florida

Hamlin's Gracelyn Leiseth to compete in women's track and field at the University of Florida.
BURLINGTON  A 25-year-old Burlington man is facing numerous charges after he and a woman allegedly threatened two people with a butchers knife last month, claiming they stole their dog.

The incident reportedly occurred sometime before 10:48 p.m. June 17 at an apartment complex in the 500 block of Edgewood Drive.

According to the criminal complaint, a man later identified as Ismet Ameti and a woman knocked on an apartment door and accused the residents of taking their dog. The residents said Ameti, also of the 500 block of Edgewood Drive, was holding a butchers knife and using it to stab the railing of the porch. The residents 5 year-old was reportedly inside the apartment at the time and the altercation woke him up.

Police tracked Ameti and the woman he was with, Alayne N. Wickert, previously of the 500 block of Edgewood Drive, to another apartment at the complex. When the officer asked Wickert what was going on, she reportedly changed her story several times, at one time saying a man had been in her apartment and ransacked it. Due to her behavior and paranoia, the officer believed Wickert was on some type of drugs, according to the complaint.

Officers later searched Wickert and Ameti. On Ameti they reportedly found a scale, a small amount of marijuana, and several small Alprazolam pills.

Searching the apartment, officers reportedly found multiple marijuana pipes, a grinder, marijuana, THC oil, and six pills containing the anti-psychotic drug Quetiapine Fumarate.

Ameti was charged Wednesday with possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance as a repeater, disorderly conduct, possession of drug paraphernalia and two counts of possession of an illegally obtained prescription.

Wickert, who was apparently was charged in connection with the incident last month, is facing charges of possession of marijuana, possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Everyone is imperfect and everyone deserves to be loved, is what the author of The Girl Who Loved a Spy, Kulpreet Yadav, believes in and surrounds his latest fictional thriller around it.

Writing a crime fiction is not everyone's cup of tea and the fundamental feature of a thrilling fictional novel is to keep the readers captivated.

The author manages to do that quite well. Published by Rumour Books India, this high-octane thriller takes the readers through the life of an undercover agent, who is engulfed in the sadness of the murder of his love interest and is on the quest to find the truth that will liberate his soul.

It all begins when Andy Karan, a young ex-Army investigative reporter, is asked by his boss, Monica, at the New Delhi Today magazine to investigate the murder of a lawyer. While investigating the murder, the protagonist wades through political twists, human redemption and tangled conspiracies. Amid all these, what comes as a grieving shock to him is the murder of his love interest, Monica.

This incident takes a toll on his life and sets him on a mission to avenge his lover's killer. Besides, with various twists and turns, Andy also finds himself pitched against a dirty bomb in the hands of the enemy. "The Girl Who Loved a Spy was a challenging book to write," the author shared.

"Andy Karan, the gritty and hardnosed spy in this novel, is, like most young Indians, a gentleman who will never bow to the evil designs of the enemies of the state. No matter what part of the world you live in, I hope this book echoes deep down."

The fastpaced narrative and exhilarating plot makes it for a good read and attempts to keep the readers engrossed till the end.
Title: Prague Nights; Author: Benjamin Black; Publisher: Viking/Penguin Random House; Pages: 331; Price: Rs 599

The past is a foreign country: They do things differently there, a British author once said  he might have been talking about historical whodunnits abroad. And at times, the murders may cover a multitude of other sins and entail serious consequences. Say, in Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II's glittering but sinister Prague as the 17th century arrives.

As a ruler, Rudolf was enigmatic, influential and a failure. Tolerant of his Protestant subjects  even as Europe was riven between competing Christian faiths and a long-running religious conflict would begin soon after his ouster  he otherwise ignored matters of state and intrigues in his court as he closetted himself with his arcane and alchemical pursuits. In the process, he may have given a fillip to the Scientific Revolution, having supported the likes of Johannes Kepler and Tycho Brahe (not to mention occultist John Dee), among others.

And it is his capital that forms the perfect setting of this novel by Benjamin Black, the nom de plume adopted by acclaimed novelist John Banville for his historical crime novels.

We see the magic, mysterious, dark, decadent  and deadly  Prague through the eyes of young but ambitious German scholar Christian Stern as he arrives there in December 1599, hoping to obtain a position in Rudolf's court.

But Stern, walking out into the snowy streets after a heavy drinking session on his first night in town, has the misfortune to come across a crime scene  the body of a woman whose throat is violently torn  below the royal Hradcany castle.

Imprudently, he brings it to the notice of a hapless guard, who finally trudges out to investigate and realises to his horror that the woman is the daughter of the Emperor's physician  and his latest mistress.

Though Stern makes a tactical withdrawal, the next morning, soldiers come to his inn and drag him to the castle. One of the first sights he sees there is the body of the guard he had alerted the previous night hanging from a gibbet before he questioned peremptorily by the Emperor's High Steward and the woman's father and cast into a dungeon.

But his wheel of fortune is on the move  soon he is freed by the Emperor's Chamberlain and after a unique set of circumstances, and is entrusted by Rudolf himself with investigating the death of the woman.

The suspicion falls on the woman's earlier lover, but when his body is discovered in the castle moat, with marks of brutal torture before his murder, Stern has to rethink his assumptions.

Coming across a spectrum of other key players, including the Emperor's favourite dwarf, the imperial concubine (with whom he has a torrid affair), the corpulent food-loving Papal legate, the English Ambassador, Rudolf's ambitious brother and nephews, apart from his earlier acquaintances, Stern must find what their games are and whom among them he can trust.

As he reports the Ambassador's interest in Dee's long-imprisoned English colleague in a nearby town to his patron and is sent to bring him to Prague but fails in his mission, can he solve  or be allowed to solve  the case before he falls out of the Emperor's favour, or faces a worse fate?

But more than the mystery, Black not only evokes the unsettling atmosphere of medieval Prague and the whirling series of political and sexual intrigues at Rudolf's court, but also of cold, hunger, fear, threat, squalor and danger.

In the process, he paints an absorbing picture of a time when intra-religious differences would outstrip those between different faiths, science and superstition contended for influence (a significant cameo by Keppler and a bit part for Brahe) and the modern world was slowly being born.
The state-owned ONGC has stepped up exploration activities in Tripura to unearth more gas to set up a fertilizer plant and to augment power generation, an official said.

"Currently total drilling rig strength has been increased to seven and one more rig will be deployed soon to step up the exploration of gas in Tripura," Oil and Natural Gas Corp's Executive Director S.C. Soni told the media here on Wednesday evening.

He said: "Until September last year, only three drilling rigs were operational in Tripura. Of the seven rigs, four are owned by ONGC and three are chartered."

Soni said the company has targeted to explore five MMSCMD (Million Metric Standard Cubic metre per day) by mid-2018 while the "Maharatna" company has the potential to produce around 4.3-4.5 MMSCMD from 76 wells.

"The exploration of additional gas is required to set up a fertilizer plant in north Tripura and to supplement generation of electricity."

The ONGC has planned to set up a Rs 5,000 crore fertilizer plant in northern Tripura in association with the state government and Chambal Fertilizers and Chemicals Ltd, a Rajasthan based company.

Soni, who is retiring on July 31 after 35 years of service, said a total of 223 wells have been drilled by ONGC in Tripura till April and 116 were found to be gas bearing.

He said the ONGC management has approved additional investment of Rs 3,104 crore for drilling of wells and creation of surface facilities to produce more gas from Tripura gas fields.

The company had earlier commissioned its first commercial power project in India, located in southern Tripura and run by ONGC Tripura Power Co (OTPC), formed by ONGC, the Tripura government and Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services Ltd (IL&FS).

The 726 MW capacity gas-based combined cycle power project (using both water and natural gas), situated at Palatana, 60 km from Agartala, has been supplying electricity to the seven northeastern states and 100 MW to Bangladesh.

"One more unit with a capacity of 363 MW can be set up at the Palatana power plant and for that 1.5 MMSCMD additional gas would be required. In the near future ONGC will be able to supply the additional gas to OTPC," Soni said.
At least 29 people, including 14 of a family, have died in the floods in Banaskantha district following torrential rains in Gujarat, officials said here on Wednesday.

The death toll in the current monsoon season in the state stood at 123, they added.

Prior to these deaths, reported from Kankrej and Dhanera talukas of Banaskantha today, 94 people had lost their lives in various rain-related reasons in the state till yesterday, said Principal Secretary, Revenue, Pankaj Kumar.

The toll now stood at 123, he added.

"The bodies of 17 people, including 14 of a family, were found at Kharia and a nearby village of the Kankrej taluka today. At Dhanera, the authorities found seven bodies in the early hours from Sihori village, while two more bodies were found later," Kumar told a press conference.

Besides, two persons lost their lives in Palanpur town of Banaskantha due to a wall collapse, while one more person died in a similar incident at a nearby village, he added.

The police found 25 bodies, while another body was found by the locals later.

"Seventeen bodies were found from Kharia village in the Kankrej tehsil and seven bodies were fished out from the neighbouring Sihori village. One more body was found from the interiors," said Assistant Superintendent of Police Akshayrajsinh Makwana.

"More bodies are likely to be found as the water recedes in over a dozen villages located along the banks of the Banas river," said A D Parmar, Inspector, Thara Police Station, under which Kharia falls.

Kharia and Sihori, both situated along the banks of the Banas, were severely inundated after water from the Dantiwada dam on the river was released on Sunday.

These two are among the worst-hit villages in the district.

Around 1.5 lakh cusecs of water was released from the dam after heavy rains in neighbouring Rajasthan, which resulted in inundation of several villages situated along the banks of the river in the district.

"Kharia is one of around 14 villages in the taluka which are badly affected due to the flood. Due to a sudden surge of water in the Banas river, those living in these villages did not get a chance to relocate to a safe place," said Parmar.

Banaskantha and Patan are among the worst-hit districts in the state due to heavy rains and flooding of the Banas and Sipu rivers.

Revenue Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the state had already received 555.02 mm of rain, which is around 68.52 per cent of the expected annual rainfall of Gujarat.

Over the last 24 hours, 12 talukas, mostly in north Gujarat, received more than 100 mm of rainfall each, while 21 talukas across the state received between 51 mm and 100 mm of rains each, said a release from the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC).

The talukas which received such a high rainfall included Himmatnagar of Sabarkantha (219 mm), Amirgadh of Banaskantha (150 mm), Dhanera of Banaskantha (139 mm), Deesa of Banaskantha (119 mm), Modasa of Aravalli (113 mm), Prantij of Sabarkantha (111 mm) and Satlasana of Mehsana (110 mm).

"In the last two days, as many as 1,930 people have been rescued by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Air Force, Army, BSF and our own administration in north Gujarat.

Over the last one week, as many as 53,004 people were also shifted to safer locations," said Chudasama.

He added that over three lakh food packets had been distributed in Banaskantha, while 18,000 were distributed in Patan.

"Rescue operations are going on, despite a rough weather.

We have deployed 18 teams of NDRF, 11 companies of SDRF and three columns of the Army. We are also taking the help of the Air Force, which has already deployed 10 helicopters for evacuation," said Chudasama.

Due to the incessant rain and resultant flood, five national highways, 153 state highways and 674 internal roads across the state were still closed, he added.

Stepping up the efforts to airlift people from the inundated villages and distribute food packets among them, the Air Force today said it had pressed 16 helicopters into service in Banaskantha and Patan districts.

Similarly, the Army also stepped up its rescue-and-relief operations by sending two additional columns in the affected region today, taking the total strength to five columns, said a statement by the Defence PRO.

The Gujarat government today announced a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the kin of the deceased, in addition to the Rs 2 lakh compensation announced by the Centre yesterday.
An Indian citizen from New Delhi has been sentenced to 30 months in prison by a federal court in Louisiana state for illegally selling gun silencers and planning to smuggle more of them disguised as auto parts.

Mohit Chauhan, 31, from Pitampura in New Delhi, who was sentenced on Tuesday, had admitted before federal Judge Elizabeth E. Foote in April that he had dealt firearms without a license.

Alexander C. Van Hook, the acting federal prosecutor for Western Louisiana, said on Wednesday that Chauhan was contacting by someone who wanted to buy silencers and he discussed by email and phone manufacturing silencers for the client.

The silencers were to be imported as "auto parts" to evade customs, Hook said.

Chauhan brought silencer parts to the Louisiana city of Shreveport in December to show the buyer, according to the prosecutor.

When they met in restaurant in Bossier City to discuss the sale, federal agents recorded their conversation, leading to his prosecution, Hook said.

Chauhan lacked a licence to deal in firearms and the parts had been brought illegally into the US.

His customer was not publicly identified.


Barely a day after stepping down as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar took oath as the head of the government yet again on Thursday after dumping the RJD, Congress alliance and joining forces with the NDA.

While BJP's Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as the new deputy chief minister, no ministers were sworn-in as the new alliance in the state braces for the floor test to prove their majority in the house on Friday.

Nitish Kumar met Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi late on Wednesday with NDA leaders and staked claim to form a new government with support of 132 MLAs.

This is his second innings in the last two years, after he snapped ties late on Wednesday with the Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress, over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.

(With inputs from agencies)
The Odisha government on Thursday issued a gazette notification renaming Wheeler Island in Bhadrak district as Abdul Kalam Island to mark the second death anniversary of the former President.

A.P.J. Abdul Kalam had died on July 27 in 2015 while delivering a lecture at the IIM-Shillong in Meghalaya.

"With the view to paying a humble tribute to the former President of India, Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the state government on obtaining no objection certificate from Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India, do hereby rename the 'Outer Wheeler' as APJ Abdul Kalam Island," read the notification.

Last year, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had announced that the island will be renamed after the Missile Man, who had worked as a scientist at the Integrated Test Range, a unit of the Defence Research and Development Organisation in Balasore.

Meanwhile, sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has created five sand sculpture of Kalam at Puri beach with the messages "Tribute to common man, Missile Man, Bharat Ratna, People's President, Students' Icon".

The artist has created five faces of Kalam with five messages using six tonnes of sand.

"It was a great honour for me when Kalam gave me a cheque of Rs 3,000 from his personal account. It was today that we lost the nation's Missile Man, People's President with a simple heart and beautiful mind and soul who was an inspiration to the nation's youth," he said.
Unraveled by allegations of betrayal by his former allies, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that he will keep working for the betterment and development of the state with his new partners in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA).

My decision is in Bihar's interest and for its development. I will keep working for the betterment of the state. Development will be a priority, will take Bihar to greater heights, Nitish Kumar told reporters after being sworn in as the CM.

Barely hours after snapping ties with partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav, Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar CM yet again as he stitched a new alliance with BJP.

Meanwhile, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi accused Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of betrayal and said that he had joined hands with communal forces.
A glance at his paintings is all it takes to identify the defining element of "Bindu" that has become synonymous with Sayed Haidar Raza's work.

Housed in the last studio Raza occupied, these paintings have been preserved and many of his works are in the process of getting digitally archived. On his first death anniversary on 23 July, Raza Foundation held a week-long workshop for students of Fine Arts from different parts of Madhya Pradesh. Founded in 2001 by Raza, the Foundation is aimed at promoting visual arts, poetry, music and other art forms.

This initiative is a part of the artistic activities in Mandla, Razas village, to commemorate his association with the place. The eminent Indian painter is venerated for his thoughtful art. Former chairman of Lalit Kala Akademi and poet Ashok Vajpeyi proudly spoke of the last studio used by Raza, with his unfinished painting and colours still untouched even a year after his death.

He shared, "He was a master colourist. The quivering of his hand while painting was incredible. He would not block out the whiteness completely, as if to remind the painting that it is on a canvas."

Initial years

It was in the small village of Mandla in Madhya Pradesh, where Raza was born in 1922. His initial years bore a deep influence on his work. Raza also harboured a deep reverence for the river Narmada, which meanders around Mandla. The central element of "Bindu" recurred in many of his paintings. He was intrigued by it when his school teacher made him concentrate on a black dot.

According to Raza, a latent energy awakened in him, then. The legendary artist made it a point to visit Mandla whenever he visited India. Raza, now lies buried next to his father in Mandla. For a creative mind, nothing is better than strong links with nature, believes Vajpeyi, as it helps sustain their innovativeness. Raza believed in multiple faiths and was also fluently trilingual.

He was awarded the Padma Shri in 1981, the Padma Bhushan in 2007 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2013. He travelled extensively through Europe, and settled in Paris for five decades, where he met his second wife, Janine Mongillat.

Helping hand

One of the highest-selling painters of India, he was known for his generosity towards other artists, helping them establish themselves through provision of showcasing opportunities and grants. He also did joint exhibitions with young artists like Sujata Bajaj, Akhilesh, Seema Ghuraiya and Manish Pushkale.

The Foundation, headquartered in Delhi, houses the letters exchanged between Raza and his progressive contemporaries. Many of these have taken the form of books.

Vajpeyi also spoke of his fascination with old French furniture. Some furniture was brought back from his French mansion to the Raza Foundation, where he lived for more than five years before he died in July 2016. The legacy of generosity and promotion of art forms is carried forward by the Raza Foundation.

This is primarily done through fellowships, awards, and grants for books, artworks and cinema. The Foundation also undertakes discussions on issues of importance in the society
This article is aimed at bringing to the fore the obstacles that the new Real Estate (Regulation and Development) Act, 2016 ("RERA") throws up for developers and the impact it could have on the real estate industry which is a key contributor to the countrys gross domestic product and is crucial employment generator.

The article also explores the role of Real Estate Investment Trusts ("REITs") and Infrastructure Investment Trusts ("InvITs") in breathing life into the real estate space. There is little argument that RERA is a landmark piece of legislation designed to protect the consumer, who has for decades been at the receiving end of a great deal of malpractices by the developer.

However, some of the provisions contained in RERA seem to have swung from being benign to developers to the other extreme, by making compliance on their part a tedious and costly affair.

The obstacles

With RERA, the initial cost of compliance has increased to quite an extent, making it difficult for developers to conform to the provisions of the RERA. The three-month time frame provided to conform to RERA is likely to see a slump in the real estate sector. The promoter, as defined under Section 2 (zk) of RERA, is required to procure all statutory clearances before he is permitted to commence with the project construction.

Further the project requires to be registered with the Real Estate Regulatory Authority ("Authority") before it can be advertised, marketed, offered for sale and/or sold. Providing data and information for numerous new requirements, payment of fees for registering the project and incurring other costs in ensuring that all disclosures required for registration of the project are made, may discourage developers from entering new projects.

Thereafter on grant of registration, the promoter is provided with a login identity and password, as per the provisions of Section 5(1) (a) of RERA, using which he must "create his webpage" under section 11(1), on the website of the Authority. On this, he must make further details available in compliance with the provisions set out in Section 11(1) of RERA. These details include updating the progress of the approvals taken and pending, along with the overall progress of the project.

This means that the promoter either must be well versed in information technology and computers to ensure timely updating and creation of the webpage or he should hire a professional to handle that part for him. Under Section 3(2) of RERA, if a project is being developed in phases, each phase will be treated as a new and separate project, and will therefore require separate registration.

This would lead to multiple registration costs. This is a major hurdle as most projects in India are developed in phases. The provisions contained in Section 3(2) of RERA leave the promoters with a Hobsons choice to either develop the project in one single phase or to churn out registrations repeatedly.

All costs associated with registration of the project and compliance of RERA provisions will ultimately be shifted to the end-user through an increase in prices. RERA also requires developers to build only when they have adequate money in hand for the project.

This means that companies with strong balance sheets and low leverage to external debt and good corporate governance will not crumble under the pressure of compliances, while weaker ones might have to initially struggle as the market adjusts itself to the new laws.

For a successful implementation of RERA and Governments low-cost housing scheme for all, the regulators require (i) streamlining and ensuring expeditious approval processes at various levels (which are required in advance); (ii) monitor the impact on the overall market; and (iii) adjust if required to ensure market growth is not adversely impacted.

How REITs and InvITs can help

The objective of introducing REITs and InvITs in India was to allow for greater investment opportunities in the real estate sector and infrastructure projects for investors. These instruments are, therefore, intricately linked with the real estate market.

Investing in REITs or InvITs or any real estate stocks should be looked at in the long term of at least 2-3 years as the real estate sector undergoes a transitional period.

REITs and InvITs might resolve a lot of issues for developers during this period in terms of liquidity to commence projects under the new real estate regime. Investing in REITs/InvITs might help the real estate and infrastructure sector to make a quicker recovery by facilitating easy entry and exit prospects for the developers, asset owners and financial investors enabling them to monetize the real estate asset/project.

Given the capitalintensive nature of the real estate sector and the limited options available to real estate developers and owners for raising funds, REITs and InviTs will provide alternative source of financing to developers and enable them to focus on their core competencies of constructing and developing the projects and infrastructure. Investment vehicles that own and operate real estate related assets permit individual investors to join in asset classes that are normally unaffordable for them.

REITs and InvITs will reduce the financing burden on banks and decreasing banks exposure to real estate/infrastructure sector thereby making available additional capital for other sectors. With banks being allowed to invest in REITs and InvITs, we are likely to see greater transparency and liquidity for cash-strapped projects. Moreover, REITs are income generating units, deriving an inherent value from their capital-intensive structure.

They tend to provide stable returns, which will attract more investors, in turn helping developers raise funds and deal with RERA regulations with higher comfort and financial flexibility.

(The author is a partner at Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. The views expressed are personal.)
The issue of whether Right of Privacy is a fundamental right under the Constitution is being heard by a nine-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court of India and has a direct bearing on the Courts mandate to examine the Constitutional validity of the Aadhaar scheme.

The definition of Right to Privacy varies according to the perceptions and contexts in which it is used; however, its simplest definition is the right to be left alone. Its diverse manifestations include protection of ones honour, reputation, not to be eavesdropped, ones home being ones castle, personal belongings and data being inviolable, personal choice in all aspects of living, a protective arc against arbitrary intrusions and so on.

Although the Right to Privacy is not explicit in the Constitution of India, it is a subject matter of judicial interpretation. In the United States, courts did not protect this right until the end of the 19th century. Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis (1890) developed the concept of privacy; and wrote that privacy is the "right to be let alone". Many cases related to right to privacy came before the Courts in the United States for adjudication and the first American Court to deal with this right was the New York Appellate Court in Roberson v. Rochester Folding Box Co. (1902).

Chief Justice Parker ruled that the defendants had invaded the Plaintiffs right coined as right to privacy. In modern India, the first time the issue of right to privacy was discussed and debated in the Constituent Assembly was by K.S. Karimuddin who moved an Amendment on the lines of the US Constitution which eventually failed. The concept of privacy can be traced back to the ancient Hindu texts.

According to Hitopadesha, certain matters like worship, sex and family matters etc. should be protected from disclosure. Ancient Indian law-givers declared Sarve sve sve grihe raja (Every man is a king in his own house). In the Mahabharata, Draupadi was the common wife of the five Pandavas and they accorded utmost priority to privacy by framing a rule to avoid embarrassment  if by chance, any of them happened to see Draupadi in company of any brother he would have to undergo banishment for 12 years in the forest as a Bramhachari.

Right to privacy is an amorphous and protean concept that emerges from values and principles evolved by the Courts in the form of case laws over so many years. The Supreme Court, through a catena of judgments, has asserted that Article 21 is the heart of the fundamental rights and is multi-dimensional.

A combined reading of the observations by Constitutional Benches of the Supreme Court in M.P. Sharma v. Satish Chandra (1954) and Kharak Singh v. State of U.P (1963) can lead to the conclusion that no fundamental right to privacy exists in our Constitution. But through later judgments in Gobind (1975) and Maneka Gandhi (seven judges, 1978), the Apex Court has enunciated that right to privacy is embedded in our jurisprudential foundation. Following these two path breaking judgments, many judicial pronouncements have iterated the existence of the right to privacy under PartIII of the Constitution.

These include Malak (1981), Rajagopal (1994), PUCL(1997), District Registrar (2005), Suchita ( 2009), Selvi (2010) and Nalsa(2014). In the year 2002, the National Commission to Review the Working of the Constitution recommended amending the Constitution to include a slew of new rights including the Right to Privacy which would be numbered Article 21-B and would read as follows: 21-B. (1) every person has a right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. (2) Nothing in clause (1) shall prevent the State from making any law imposing reasonable restrictions on the exercise of the right conferred by clause (1), in the interests of security of the State, public safety or for the prevention of disorder or crime, or for the protection of health or morals, or for the protection of the rights and freedoms of others.

Thus the Right to Privacy, although not expressly found in the Constitution, is deeply engrained in Part III of the Constitution and detraction from the same is constitutionally impermissible. Unlike the Constitution which has not expressly recognised Right to Privacy, the said right has been acknowledged in various statues, both pre- and post Constitutional, which maintain that the right to privacy is sacrosanct and special procedures have been established in such laws to create any curb or fetter on any aspect of the right to privacy.

Reference is made to the Indian Post Office Act, 1898, the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, Information Technology Act, 2005 to name a few. Presently, India does not have a sui-generis statute that safeguards privacy horizontally. In 2011, the UPA government finalised a draft Bill on privacy, and set up a Committee of Experts headed by Justice AP Shah to, among other things, study the privacy laws and related Bills promulgated by various countries and to make specific suggestions for consideration of the Government.

The panel recommended a new law to protect privacy and personal data in the private and public spheres, and the appointment of privacy commissioners at the Centre and in states. It listed nine principles of privacy, as also certain exceptions to the right to privacy  such as national security, public order, disclosure in public interest, prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of criminal offences and protection of the rights of freedom of others. The Government of India, speaking through its Attorney-General, has reiterated its position that Indian citizens have no constitutional right of privacy.

The poor, who are the beneficiaries of so many government welfare schemes including continuance of subsidy payments and other benefits, must be prepared to surrender their right of privacy, if any, in order to receive the benefits. But India needs to resolve the Aadhaar controversy by recognising the importance of Aadhaar for efficient and honest delivery of welfare schemes without compromising the right to privacy of the citizens.

Most modern democratic nations are constantly striving to strike a fine balance between personal privacy and public safety.

There is a misplaced apprehension and flawed logic in Governments position on this issue that if the right to privacy is elevated to the status of Fundamental Rights, the government will be impotent and the said right would make the citizens inviolable and invincible. India is waiting for an unequivocal and a definitive clarity on this vital aspect which is still in the legal womb.

(The writer is a Supreme Court Advocate.)
History has always been written by elements of the brighter side of the moon, who mostly were men. Women have always been considered mans possession. History has always glorified the ones who died on battlefields, won kingdoms and ruled nations.

But what about those who helped them in sustaining what they had won or those who helped them in attaining the so called martyrdom? They are lost somewhere in the tumultuous waves of time. History or biased chronology has always kept them behind the veil. Born on 23 March 1614, Jahanara was the first child of prince Khurram and Arjumand Bano, or more famously, Nur Jahan.

Textbooks tell us that Shah Jahan had four sons; what they dont tell us is that his daughter was the woman behind the golden age of the Mughals, the unsung heroine of the royal household, the first daughter Empress Mughal India ever had. Her life was a montage of emotions that had been left unexpressed. At the age of 17, when her mother passed away, she barely had the time to mourn her death when the mammoth responsibility of her siblings, her grief-stricken father and the kingdom fell on her.

Leaving her sorrows behind she had been successful in lifting the whole family out of the misery they had been delved into. Having been crowned the next Padishah Begum the Empress of India in spite of the fact that three other consorts of her father were still alive, Jahanara had faced the harsh truth of her life: Mughal princesses had to remain spinsters all lifelong.

Although love had blossomed in her heart for the European doctor Gabriel Boughton, who had cured her of fatal burn injuries, she had to surrender herself to fate: The fate of being a woman. Spending her youthful years behind the jharokas of the Mughal darbar and witnessing the historic Taj being built, she had been the most selfless Empress that India ever had.

Sacrificing her own comforts and luxuries, she chose to be imprisoned along with her aged father to comfort, console and heal his broken heart. It is said that after Shah Jahans death, Aurangzeb had begged to her for forgiveness and requested her to be the Empress again.

Jahanara had conceded to his request only on one condition, that the law prohibiting Mughal princesses to marry had to be done away with. It is surprising to know that a hard-hearted and staunch man like Aurangzeb had agreed to it. In order to comply with her demands, he had given his daughter Zubdat-un-nissas hand in marriage to Dara Shikohs (his older brother) third son Siphir Shikoh.

Standing in the 21st century, where we have entangled ourselves in several relationships and commitments, the story of Jahanara finds great relevance.

It is virtually the account of every homemaker whose efforts and sacrifices have always been overlooked. Although lost in history, we will always be inspired by that woman behind the veil.

(Coordinator, Class XI, St Joseph's Convent, Chandannagar)
Calling US President Donald Trump's policy to ban transgenders in the military a way to "erase progress", a string of Hollywood celebrities like Kim Kardashian West, Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus among many others have strongly condemned the move.

Trump announced on Wednesday on Twitter that he had decided to reverse the Obama administration's decision to allow transgenders to serve openly in the armed forces.

"Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail," Trump tweeted.

A 2016 study commissioned by the Pentagon found that Obama's decision could increase military medical spending anywhere from $2.4 million to $8.4 million annually, a 0.13 percent increase over current medical spending, reports latimes.com.

Some celebrities were incensed by Trump's decision, taking to their own social media accounts to voice both their fury and support for the trans community.

Here's what they had to say:

Lady Gaga: The message you have just sent has endangered the lives of people all over the United States and overseas bravely serving our nation POTUS. Research says at least half of High School, University Students, and Employed Young People rarely/never discuss mental issues with anyone.

Many of these young people are transgender and suffer daily from the exact types of social isolation and targeting ur message encourages. POTUS Sincerely, did you know of the group you singled out today, 45 percent of them ages (18 to 24) have attempted suicide already. Within the Trans Community are many also who are strong and brave. They should be able to serve if they wish. To have honour if they do, POTUS.

Miley Cyrus: I am heart broken today. Please don't erase our progress! We've come so far! For our transgender friends who need someone to talk to , don't hesitate to reach out to trans lifeline! They are apart of the happy hippie foundation family and will take amazing care of you!

Kim Kardashian West: Banning transgender people from serving our country is simply wrong. We should be so grateful to anybody who wants to serve!

Katy Perry: All those who defend our right to live freely should be able to serve freely! There are thousands currently serving! Protect Trans Troops.

Laverne Cox: To all the trans folks currently serving in the military thank you for your service. I am sorry your "commander in chief" doesn't value it.

George Takei: History shall record that you are not only the stupidest, most incompetent president ever, but also the cruelest and pettiest. Shame.

Dustin Lance Black: I grew up in a military with LGBT people serving in the shadows. We can't let DT turn back the clock on our brave, trans soldiers.

Best Coast: My heart breaks today for the bigotry this monster continues to put forward. Trans people are not a burden in any capacity.

Candis Cayne: As trans women and men We have never asked for anything other than to live our life as our authentic self this hate has to stop! Wow no words.

Alyssa Milano: Well, at least Trump isn't announcing major policy change on twitter. Oh, wait.

St. Vincent: "BREAKING: Trump: Transgender people will not be allowed to serve `in any capacity' in the US military." Odious Ogre.
India's National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is in Beijing to attend a BRICS security summit amid rising bilateral tensions with China over a protracted border stand-off.

Officials were tight-lipped about Doval's expected meeting with China's top diplomat Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the two-day summit which begins on Thursday.

"No idea," an Indian diplomat responded when contacted on the phone.

If the two officials meet, the stand-off between their armies in Doklam in the Sikkim sector is certain to be discussed.

Doval, who reached Beijing on Wednesday, will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping along with the NSAs of the five-member bloc that also comprises  Brazil, Russia and South Africa.

The meet, where the five-nation bloc traditionally discusses counterterrorism and security issues, assumes significance in the view of the festering border row between India and China.

Earlier this week, an editorial in the a Global Times said India should not pin hopes on Doval's visit to resolve the border stand-off.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own. New Delhi has said that troops from both sides should withdraw for a dialogue as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

In June, the Indian Army stopped road construction by Chinese troops in the area, leading to the stand-off that is now in its second month.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance for all three.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, has also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops.
Accusing Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar of betrayal, Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday said that was in the know for the last three-four months that the Janata Dal-United chief was planning to quit the Grand Alliance and join the National Democratic Alliance.

In politics, you get an idea about such things We knew for the last 3-4 months that something like this was being planned, Rahul Gandhi told reporters as he tore into the Bihar CM, accusing him of having no credibility.

The people of Bihar had given us the mandate to fight communal elements but he (Nitish Kumar) has joined hands with the same forces. This is betrayal, he said.

This is the problem with politics in India, people have no credibility and are desperate to remain in power and for that they will go to any extent. Vested interests take precedence over all other issues, he added.

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

On Thursday, barely a day after stepping down as Bihar Chief Minister, Nitish Kumar took oath as the head of the government yet again on Thursday after dumping the RJD, Congress alliance and joining forces with the NDA.
Poland has been on the turn since last weekend, close to 30 years after it jettisoned Communism. Indeed, the trend has prompted the generation that has grown up in a democratic framework to argue that while Europe stands for democracy, where does Poland stand?

Parliament has made the judiciary subordinate to the executive, and Saturdays decision to give the government in Warsaw de facto control over the Supreme Court has almost immediately caused a flutter in the European Union roost. The legislation, above all compromises with judicial independence and renders the rule of law vulnerable to political interference.

The change has undermined the post Communist democratic institutions, it flies in the face of democratic certitudes, and is an act of defiance of the EU, which has been consistently opposed to such reform.

The subordination of the judiciary has swiftly been greeted with robust demonstrations on the streets of Warsaw. The new law, proposed by the ruling rightwing Law and Justice party (PiS), empowers ministers to appoint judges and members of Polands Supreme Court. All the 83 judges face the prospect of dismissal unless they are retained by the Justice minister.

The Bill has been approved by a convincing majority ~ 235 to 192 votes. In the net, the government has ensured that the judiciary plays second fiddle to the countrys Cabinet. It would be presumptuous to claim that the change will expedite judgments and break the grip on the legal system of a privileged caste of lawyers and judges.

If the reaction across the Continent is any indication, Europe does expect President Andrzej Duda, who will have to sign the legislation into law, to have second thoughts.

Ever since it assumed power in 2015 after defeating the Civic Platform government, the PiS has posed problems for both Poland and Europe in the wider canvas. Not that it had a whopping margin of victory; it had won barely 37.6 per cent of the vote.

Nonetheless, over the past two years the PiS has betrayed a narrow nationalistic, ideological and cultural outlook. Ergo, current misgivings over a revival of nationalism are not wholly unfounded. Indeed, the PiS has been pursuing an agenda of what has been described as systematic anti-liberalism. Of course, an elected government has the prerogative to frame and implement its policies.

However, it cannot arrogate to itself the right to dismantle or neutralise the institutions that allow an informed public to make a free choice. The party has signalled its intent to dispense with the praxis of checks and balances on the executive.

The party and government are now omnipotent, and the judiciary will have to abide by its wishes. Poland is likely to pay a price for its defiance of EU.
A mobile application on the comprehensive history of the Khmer Rouge has been launched in Cambodia to ensure that Cambodian citizens, 70 per cent of whom are less than 30 years old, do not forget one of the darkest chapters in the country's history.

The free app, developed by the Bophana Audiovisual Resource Centre, was launched on Tuesday and tells the story of the Pol Pot-led regime since its inception as a Communist guerrilla group in the 1950s, Efe news reported.

Around 1.7 million people died between 1975 and 1979 during the reign of the Khmer Rouge in the country from forced labour, disease, starvation and political purges.

The Khmer Rouge disintegrated after Pol Pot died in 1998 in a jungle in northern Cambodia. The app, funded by the European Union and the Rei Foundation, will be presented in 80 schools and 20 universities in October.

The release of the app, only available on Android devices for now, comes at a time when an international court is prosecuting the last two surviving top leaders of the Khmer Rouge regime.

One is the second-in-command and chief ideologist of the regime, Nuon Chea, and the other is its former head of State, Khieu Samphan  both were sentenced to life imprisonment during the first part of the trial in 2014.

The trial was divided into two phases due to the complexity of the charges and fears that the accused, both aged over 80 years, would die before the ruling was delivered.

In June, during the second part of the trial, the Cambodia Tribunal adjourned for sentencing the two leaders, indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity.

The international court passed its first sentence in 2010 against Kaing Guek Eav, alias Duch, who managed the S-21 prison and torture site, where between 14,000-16,000 people died.

Duch was initially sentenced to 35 years in prison, but the judgement was later changed to life imprisonment.
Israeli police said on Thursday that all new security measures installed at a sensitive Jerusalem holy site after a July 14 attack and which sparked deadly unrest have been removed.

The police returned the security measures to how they were before the terrorist attack at the Haram al-Sharif, before July 14, police spokeswoman Luba Samri told AFP in a statement.

Muslim authorities were meeting on Thursday morning to decide whether to end a boycott of the site over the new security measures and re-enter for prayers.

A tense standoff has been underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site for nearly two weeks despite the removal of metal detectors on Tuesday, with concerns of major unrest surrounding Friday prayers if no resolution is found.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were also removed early on Thursday from the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount.

The compound encompasses the revered Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

The removal of the installations overnight prompted Palestinian crowds to celebrate in the streets near the site.

Israel installed the new security measures after an attack nearby that killed two policemen on July 14.

Muslims have refused to enter the site and have prayed in the streets outside for more than a week after Israel installed the new security measures.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further control.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Deadly unrest has erupted since the new measures were introduced, with clashes breaking out around the compound and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.
Foreign Minister of the Republic of Iraq, Ibrahim al-Jaafari on Wednesday slammed terrorists killing innocent people in the name of Islam.

"There is a group of terrorists and they raise slogans in the name of Islam. But they are not Muslims as they are killing (innocent people). They kill women and children. This is not true Islam," he said here.

The Iraqi minister is on a five-day visit to India. He was in the city for a day-long tour on the invitation of Dawoodi Bohra community.

Referring to the holy verses of Quran, al-Jaafari said, "Whatever is good for the well being of the people will stay and what is harmful to the society, will go away."

"Despite the differences that may exist between different people in the way they perceive the world with their minds, if they come together with their hearts, lasting peace and unity can be achieved.

"Muslims must look to the welfare of all people, regardless of caste or creed. That is the true meaning of being a Muslim," he said.

Earlier, the Iraqi minister visited Raudat Tahera, the Dawoodi Bohra mausoleum in Bhendi Bazaar, where he paid his respects at the graves of the 51st and 52nd leaders of the Dawoodi Bohra community.

Al-Jaafari appreciated the upliftment and welfare programmes initiated by His Holiness Dr Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin and his predecessors.

A statement issued by the Fayze Husaini Trust, which facilitates the Bohra community people for pilgrimages, said that the Iraqi foreign minister was especially impressed by the redevelopment project in Bhendi Bazaar taken up by the trust, and echoed that the project will push up the living standards of 20,000 residents.

Explaining the objective of inviting the Iraqi minister to the city, a senior executive of the Trust said, "Both the countries share an unbreakable bond with each other. Thousands of the Indian Muslims as well as Christians visit the holy city of Karbala in central Iraq. Therefore, we decided to invite and honour the Iraqi foreign minister." PTI APM RMT
US President Donald Trump and his administration supports the imposition of tough new sanctions against Russia, Iran and North Korea, the White House has said a day after the House of Representatives voted in favour of the move.

The White House, the president, and the entire administration strongly support sanctions against Russia, Iran, and North Korea, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders, told reporters on Thursday.

The House of Representatives on Tuesday passes legislations with an overwhelming majority of 419-3 supporting tougher sanctions against the three countries.

The bill is aimed at punishing Moscow for meddling in the US presidential election and its military aggression in Ukraine and Syria. It also seeks to make Tehran pay a price for its continued support of terrorism.

The bill now needs to be passed by the Senate before it can be sent to the White House for Trump to sign it into a law.

Congressman Ed Royce, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, yesterday urged the Senate to pass the North Korea, Russia, Iran sanctions bill.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the Senate needs to pass the bill at the earliest.

Yesterday the House of Representatives passed, nearly unanimously, a sanctions bill that was a product of bicameral, bipartisan negotiations and includes strong sanctions against Russia, Iran, North Korea.

The Senate must act quickly on the legislation from the House, he said.

Earlier, Senator and Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee Bob Corker indicated that he plans to strip out a section of this package that relates to North Korea, Schumer said.

This is yet another delay generated by Republicans to prevent this bill from landing on the president's desk before we leave for the recess, he said.

Mark Warner, vice chairman of the senate select committee on Intelligence and a member of the senate banking committee, said the strong bipartisan congressional support for increased sanctions on Russia sends a message to the Kremlin that attacks on US democracy will not be tolerated.

I expect this bill will pass the Senate in short order. At that point, it is incumbent upon President Trump to immediately sign this legislation into law, or risk endorsing Moscow's interference in future elections, he said.

We must also make clear to Iran and North Korea that they will be held accountable for their actions, including North Korea's advancement of its ballistic missile and nuclear weapons program, the detention and death of University of Virginia student Otto Warmbier, and the continued imprisonment of American citizens, Warner said.

Later, Corker announced a path forward on the legislation.

Following very productive discussions with Leader McCarthy, I am glad to announce that we have reached an agreement that will allow us to send sanctions legislation to the presidents desk, he said.

The Senate will move to approve the Iran and Russia sanctions it originally passed six weeks ago, as well as the North Korea sanctions developed by the House, he added.

Going forward, the House has committed to expeditiously consider and pass enhancements to the North Korea language, which multiple members of the Senate hope to make in the very near future, Corker said.
President Donald Trump has decided to donate his second quarter salary to the US education department to help American students get access to high quality education, the White House said Wednesday.

In this quarter, the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference yesterday.

She presented a cheque of $100,000 to the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump's salary in first quarter was donated for restoration of two projects at a national battlefield.

Other donors donors quickly stepped up to bring the total donation over $260,000 to the education department.

DeVos said Trump is committed to nation's students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education.

He and I have had many conversations about how best to put students' needs first, and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success. There's much work to be done, but we are certainly on the right track, thanks to the president's leadership, she said.

Just yesterday, Ivanka Trump and I hosted a summer reading event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the focus was on getting young girls, age six to ten, excited about learning science, technology, engineering, and maths.

It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment, DeVos said.

She said the department has decided to use Trump's second-quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education.

We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields, she said.

Trump, a real estate tycoon, had announced during his election campaign that he would not take salary if he wins the presidential elections. But under the US law, the president has to take their salary.

Hence, he decided to donate all his salary for charity purposes.
United Airlines has been sued by owners of a giant rabbit which died onboard a flight from London, with the company facing allegations of improperly treating the animal and cremating his remains to destroy evidence, according to a media report.

Simon was found dead in a kennel at O'Hare Airport in Chicago following the journey. The rabbit had been placed in a United Airlines kennel while awaiting a connecting flight to Kansas City, where his new owners were set to pick him up, CBS News reported.

The lawsuit, which was filed on Wednesday by a group of Iowa businessmen, seeks unspecified damages to cover the costs of the rabbit, the report said.

Simon's new owners had also planned to display him and sell related merchandise to raise money for the annual event.

According to the report, the owners said in May they were seeking the costs of buying and transporting the rabbit, an estimated USD 2,300, as well as future earnings.

The lawsuit claims the airlines was negligent in the care and transportation of the rabbit and that it improperly treated the animal. It also alleges the airline has a poor record of transporting animals, noting the airline accounted for a third of all animal deaths via US air travel in the last five years.

In a statement, United spokesman Charles Hobart said: We were saddened by Simon's death in April. We have received this complaint and are currently reviewing it.
The last days of the Newfie Pride

There were many nights he didnt sleep. The numbers and scenarios turned over and over in his mind, making rest impossible. Id get up two, three oclock in the morning, night after night, come out to the kitchen table and work the numbers every ...
Patnaik's close aides say that to understand him, one has to understand his empathy

By Pratul Sharma/Photos Sanjay Ahlawat
Militant commander Zakir Musa, who broke ranks with Hizbul Mujahideen to pursue jihad for Islam in Kashmir, has been named as Ameer (chief) of Al Qaeda linked new Jihadist group `Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind in Kashmir.

This is for the first time in the 27 year insurgency in Kashmir that the global jihadist group has made an indirect entry into the restive Kashmir.

Musa, an engineering college dropout, had joined Hizbul Mujahedeen when slain HM commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani was leading the group in south Kashmir.

But after Wani's killing, Musa parted ways with Hizbul to pursue jihad for establishing a caliphate in Kashmir.

A statement in English and Urdu posted on the Twitter, Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind, said a new movement of Jihad has been founded by the companions of Burhan Wani under the leadership of Zakir Musa.

After the martyrdom of heroic Mujahid Burhan Wani, the Jihad in Kashmir has entered a stage of awakening as the Muslim Nation of Kashmir is committed to carrying the flag of Jihad to repel the aggression of tyrant Indian invaders. And through Jihad and with the aid of Allah only we will liberate our homeland Kashmir, the statement said.

Official media of the 'Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind has been named Al Hurr, which will handle the media campaign of the outfit.

An important and detailed statement about Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind will be released by this media by the will of Allah, the statement said.

A senior officer from police's secret service said they have taken note of the development and will monitor the activities of the new group.

DIG of Police for North Kashmir Nitish Kumar tweeted: New franchisees, newer multinational brands...same creaking market of Kashmir.

A resident of Noorpora, Tral in Pulwama, Zakir had dropped out of the civil engineering at a Chandigarh college and joined Hizbul in 2013.

His father Abdul Rashid Bhat is a senior government engineer.

United Jihad Council (UJC), the umbrella group of over a dozen Kashmiri militant outfits based in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, distanced itself from the outfit as their struggle was limited to Kashmir.

There is neither any place nor any requirement for any global militant outfits, be it Islamic State, Al Qaeda or any other organisation,'' said UJC chairman Syed Salahuddin. ''We have reports that outfits like Islamic State are being introduced by India to counter the militants and unleash a bloodbath in Kashmir, he said.

Salahuddin who was recently designated as global terrorist by the US said the new outfit was a handiwork of Indian agencies to defame the Kashmir struggle.

Analysts believe the linking of Kashmir militancy with Al Qaeda create a negative impression about the situation in Kashmir. They believe such a move will make it difficult for the international community to sympathise with the separatist movement in Kashmir.
Amid the dragging border row, China on Thursday raised "major problems" in ties with India as its top diplomat Yang Jiechi held talks with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the sidelines of a BRICS security meet.

The two met "separately" and exchanged views on bilateral relations where Yang expressed China's view on "major problems and bilateral issues", according to China's official news agency Xinhua.

It was not known whether Doval and China's State Councillor Yang discussed the stand-off between their armies in Doklam in Sikkim sector that is in its second month, and has added to the host of disputes between the two countries that fought a war in 1962.

The meeting between the two top officials is seen as a positive sign in view of Beijing's tough public posturing on the issue.

Earlier, China had ruled out any talks over the feud until India withdraws troops from Doklam.

Beijing claims Doklam as its own territory.

India has said it is ready to pull back from the Bhutanese territory if China does so too.

Doval along with his BRICS counterparts will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday.

Some experts fear the festering situation could lead to an armed conflict.

Doklam, located at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China, is of high strategic importance to all three. It is disputed by Bhutan and China.

India says Doklam is Bhutanese territory and perceives any Chinese presence in the area as a threat to its own security.

The stand-off began over a road being built by the Chinese Army in Doklam. Indian troops halted the work in mid June, leading to the crisis.

Yang separately met South African Minister of State Security David Mahlobo, Brazilian Institutional Security Minister Sergio Etchegoyen and India's NSA Doval and exchanged views on "bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs, and set forth China's position on bilateral issues and major problems".

He met Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrusheissues on Wednesday.

 IANS
Even as several parts of Gujarat are flooded with waters, Ahmed Patel, political advisor to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, is facing troubled waters ahead of Rajya Sabha elections on August 8. Patel is seeking re-election for the fifth term as RS candidate.

Patels term is ending in August along with that of Union minister Smriti Irani and Dilip Pandya of the BJP. The saffron party has fielded its national president Amit Shah and Irani this time. Gujarat sends 11 Rajya Sabha members to the Parliament.

Congress suffered a major seback on Thursday when three of its MLAs including party whip Balwantsinh Rajput resigned from the party. The other two MLAs who quit the party are Tejashree Patel and P.I.Patel.

The BJP got a shot in the arm as all these three legislators joined the ruling party. The saffron party quickly named Rajput as its third candidate for the RS polls.

The resignations come a day after former Congress leader Shankersinh Vaghela gave conditional support to Patel providing Congress in-charge for Gujarat Ashok Ghelot withdraws allegations against him. Ghelot had alleged that Vaghela had resigned from the party due to pressure of CBI and ED probes.

Rajput is Vaghelas distant relative. Vaghelas grandson is married to Rajputs daughter.

With the BJP announcing the name of Rajput as its candidate, it is a political setback for Patel and if Rajput manages to win, it may well be beginning of the downfall of Patel's political career.

Deputy chief minister Nitin Patel said that the BJP's MLAs would support the fourth candidate if he/she was of their choice. They would support the candidate after voting for their own (BJP's) candidates.

It now appears that Patel, who is close to the Gandhis, is not the choice of partys rank and file. Nobody admits it on record, but the leaders confide that they are unhappy over the manner in which Patel functions. It is believed that Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi are not been made aware of the real ground situations and everything has to be routed through Patel.

Moreover, Congress insiders say that Patel was also instrumental in the decision of not removing state party president Bharatsinh Solanki. Vaghelas key demand was to remove Solanki.
Amid the Sikkim standoff, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval, who is in China to attend BRICS top security officials meeting, is expected to hold talks with China's State Councilor Yang Jiechi to resolve the issue.

Doval arrived here to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting in Beijing which is due to take place today and tomorrow.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over a month-long standoff at Doklam area in Sikkim sector.

As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

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

The BRICS NSAs meeting is being hosted by Yang.

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

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

Ahead of his meeting with Xi, Doval is expected to hold separate talks with Yang to discuss resolution of the standoff at Doklam in Sikkim sector.

Though China continued to maintain that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese foreign ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

Both sides acknowledged talks through diplomatic channels to ease tensions.

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

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

Ahead of Doval's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it "unconditionally" withdraws troops from the disputed Doklam area.

He also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijing's position clear on the issue.

Wang, who is the first top Chinese leader to have commented so far on the Dokalam impasse, yesterday claimed that India "admitted" to entering Chinese territory. He said that India should "conscientiously withdraw" its troops from the area.

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

Lu, however, declined to react to reports that both sides have deployed over 3,000 troops each at Dokalam, saying the question should be referred to the Chinese Defence Ministry.

He once again said China will not hold any meaningful dialogue without Indian troops' withdrawal.

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

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj had told Parliament last Thursday that both sides should first pull back their troops for any talks to take place, favouring a peaceful resolution of the border stand.
The head of New York Citys transit agency on Tuesday unveiled an $836 million plan to stabilize the beleaguered subway system, and promised that riders would see progress within the next year.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Joseph Lhota said it was the first phase of a larger subway action plan to modernize the system.

New Yorkers are rightfully frustrated with the current state of the subways, and their demands for better service have been heard, Lhota said.

The first phase will focus on signal and track maintenance, car reliability, system safety and cleanliness, customer communications and management.

The plan includes cleaning the entire underground system to remove debris and cut down on fire hazards, adding cars to some subway trains where station platforms can handle it and removing seats from others to add room to get more people inside.

It comes as riders have dealt with delays, mechanical failures, power outages and even derailments.

New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said he was encouraged by the plan unveiled by Lhota, who recently was appointed chairman of the agency. The Democratic mayor has been critical of the MTA, saying the agency allowed the system to disintegrate.

Today was a step in the right direction, de Blasio said, as he reiterated his stance that the city shouldnt be burdened with the bulk of the costs to fix the system.

Lhota said the second phase of the plan would focus on modernizing the system, a much more massive and costly undertaking, and would be outlined in the coming weeks.

The subway system dates to 1904. It operates 8,000 trains daily over 655 miles (1054 kilometers) of track. There are more than 1,600 mainline switches and 13,000 signals that control train movements.

(AP)
Speaking to Galei Tzahal (Army Radio) on Wednesday, 3 Av, HaGaon HaRav Shmuel Eliyahu Shlita, Chief Rabbi of Tzefas, addressed ongoing efforts to permit toeiva couples to adopt children, which has been prohibited by law until now.

YWN-ISRAEL reported that Welfare Minister Chaim Katz has petitioned the High Court in favor of permitting toeiva couples to adopt, and the nations social workers organization has stated if a couple meets the criteria, it too would not oppose such an arrangement RL.

Rav Eliyahu told Army Radio of the value of family life, stating To call this sick would be an understatement and it has to treated be fixed.

Responding to the rabbis statements was MK (Kulanu) Merav Ben-Ari, expressing outrage over the ravs position. She explained her daughter has a father who is a member of the toeiva community, and she is proud of who they are.

(YWN  Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
Agudath Israel of America, a national Orthodox Jewish organization, is applauding President Donald Trumps selection of Governor Sam Brownback to be the nations next Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom. It is urging the Senate to swiftly confirm his nomination.

During Governor Brownbacks tenure in the U.S. Senate, Agudath Israel had the opportunity to work closely with him on a wide range of issues of importance to its community, particularly in the realm of religious liberty. We know Sam Brownback to be a man of deep personal faith and conviction, and a champion of religious rights of Americans of all faiths, noted Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudath Israels Vice President for Federal Affairs and Washington Director. We are confident that, as Ambassador, he will effectively employ his commitment to religious freedom and diversity, and his extensive experience and talents, to help protect religious minorities around the world and the free exercise of their faiths.

Agudath Israel was one of the organizations that helped create and support the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, and closely follows its work. Governor Brownback is an excellent choice to fulfill our nations unique role of protecting religious adherents abroad from suffering, suppression and persecution, Rabbi Cohen observed.

(YWN Headquarters  NYC)
Electric cars and 3D printing helped engineer GKN increase profits 14 per cent to 393 million.

The firms automotive section, which makes equipment for more than 90 per cent of the worlds car manufacturers, saw a 7 per cent growth in profit to 207 million, with sales increasing 8 per cent to 2.6 billion.

GKN makes parts for electric cars. Its focus on that market comes as Volvo has announced plans to make only electric cars and the UK Government plans to ban new diesel and petrol cars by 2040.

GKN makes parts for electric cars. Its focus on that market comes as Volvo (a model seen above) has announced plans to make only electric cars and the UK Government plans to ban new diesel and petrol cars by 2040

GKN, which employs around 58,000 people, said it was already doing well in the market. It is already making technology for Volvo.

The Worcestershire-based companys profits were helped by the pounds fall, while its automotive and metals divisions outshone aerospace.

GKN now has a pension deficit of 1.06 billion, compared to 1.2 billion last year.

It is closing its defined benefit scheme to future accrual and paying in a lump sum of 250 million to address the deficit.

Chief executive Nigel Stein said he expected further growth this year.
A jump in delayed flights over the last quarter couldnt stop 8.6 million being added to the value of budget airline Flybe yesterday on the back of a set of stellar results.

In an update for the first quarter of its year, Flybe said it will focus on reducing its tardiness  as it reported a slight increase.

That said, this years late Easter, more routes from Heathrow, and a 50 per cent drop in flight cancellations, helped the firm book 11.7 per cent year-on-year growth in passenger revenue to 174 million.

A jump in delayed flights over the last quarter couldnt stop 8.6 million being added to the value of budget airline Flybe yesterday on the back of a set of stellar results

And in a boost for new boss Christine Ourmieres-Widener, who has embarked on an overhaul, passenger revenue per seat rose 7.9 per cent to 51.73, while seat capacity was up 3.5 per cent to 3.5 million and total passengers grew 7.1 per cent to 2.4 million.

The outlook is a stark contrast to many of its larger peers of late; on Monday, EasyJet, IAG and Ryanair fell after Ryanair warned of a fee war across the airline sector over the next few months.

Analysts at Liberum said that, unlike many of its peers, Flybes revenue per seat seems set to keep improving. It is expected to rise 12 per cent year-on-year in Q2, with 52 per cent of seats already sold.

Liberum reiterated its buy rating and 50p price target and shares rose 11.3 per cent, or 4p, to 39.5p, a two-month high.

The FTSE 100 spent the day in the black, after the pound was hit by UK GDP figures which showed economic growth edged higher in the second quarter

The FTSE 100 spent the day in the black, after the pound was hit by UK GDP figures which showed economic growth edged higher in the second quarter. It finished up 0.24 per cent, or 17.50 points, to 7452.32.

Punters piled into energy firm Tullow Oil as positive cash levels and revenues over the first half offset any doubts over its 397 million loss after tax over the period.

Cash flow at the Africa-focused firm came in at around 157 million, up from minus 534 million in the first half of 2016, while sales revenue came in at 603.9 million, up from 414 million.

STOCK WATCH: Bioquell Bug killers Bioquell hit an all-time high, finally reporting a 19 per cent jump in revenues after what it described as a number of years of little growth. Bioquell, which makes technology to kill bugs in the healthcare and food industries, put the jump down to an improvement in profit margins and cutting costs. It saw profits more than treble to 1.4 million after restructuring its US arm, and developing its bio-decontamination business. Shares rose 14.5 per cent, or 25.25p, to 199.75p.

The firm also said oil is now flowing in significant quantities at its two large West African fields. However, it suffered a near 500 million hit from weak oil prices and, despite a 770 million fund raise in April, debt is still around 2.9 billion.

Regardless, shares rose 7.9 per cent, or 12.2p, to 165.9p.

Pub operator and brewer Marstons sank as it became the latest bar chain to peg a recent jump in beer sales and pub attendance on the early heatwave.

Over the 42 weeks to July 22, like-for-like sales at its pubs rose 1.9 per cent, with growth of 2.4 per cent in the last 12 weeks, reflecting Junes warm weather. Shares fell 4.2 per cent, or 5.1p, to 116.3p.

Buy-to-let lender Paragon Group rose 4.9 per cent, or 20.1p, to 428.1p after reporting strong growth in new issued loans over the first three quarters of its financial year, despite a subdued market.

The firm has made 1 billion worth of buy-to-let loans this year  with 458 million being issued in the third quarter alone  up from 989 million over the same period in 2016.

European doorstep lender International Personal Finance soared to a five-month high after reporting that year-on-year profits rose 10 million to 43 million over the first half despite ongoing regulatory problems in Poland.

The firm had no update on the Polish legislation to cap loan charges, which caused its shares to tank last year. IPF, which does not operate in the UK but is listed here and lends to people with little or no borrowing history, saw shares rise 8 per cent, or 14p, to 189.25p.

Venture capital firm Allied Minds fell after one of its companies  Signature Medical  raised around 1.9 million to help develop wearable devices which monitor patients with heart conditions. The firm fell 5.6 per cent, or 9.25p, to 156p.
Chocolate maker Nestle is opening its first factory in Japan to meet demand for exotic KitKats.

Around 300 varieties have been introduced in Japan, with flavours such as green tea, custard pudding and ginger.

Other wacky tastes include yam and even Sake rice wine.

Chocolate maker Nestle is opening its first factory in Japan to meet demand for exotic KitKats

KitKat sales have grown by 50 per cent in Asia since 2010.

It is thought its popularity in Japan is partly down to its name  because it sounds like the phrase kitto katsu which means sure win in Japanese.

The chocolate is also a popular gift for people about to sit an exam or start a project.

Nestle said the new factory will focus on more expensive versions of the snack.
The jobs of up to 200 top executives at Britains fifth biggest company are under threat as a new boss launches her second daring shake-up in a week.

In a major overhaul of direction for GlaxoSmithKline, chief executive Emma Walmsley revealed a shift in the firms focus back towards developing blockbuster drugs.

Yesterday, Walmsley revealed plans to jettison 30 clinical trials and 130 non-core brands, move the companys attention to the US, embark on a 1 billion cost-cutting drive and plough 80 per cent of spending into four areas of research.

The jobs of up to 200 top executives at Britains fifth biggest company are under threat as a new boss launches her second daring shake-up in a week

She warned of significant job changes for the top management team.

Walmsley, 48, said: Over the next year or so, you should continue to see some quite significant evolution to the top 200 in the organisation. Some of that will be a natural cascade with new leaders coming in at the top of the house.

The comments came after GSK announced hundreds of job losses in the UK, factory closures and the sale of drinks brand Horlicks last week.

Further job cuts have not been ruled out and could be a boon for shareholders who should see coffers bolstered with cash enabling bumper dividend payouts.

Walmsley said: We need to bring more edge, more of a performance focus, more accountability, more pace into our decision making and definitely more cost and cash consciousness.

In a major overhaul of direction for GlaxoSmithKline, chief executive Emma Walmsley (pictured) revealed a shift in the firms focus back towards developing blockbuster drugs

We want to be broadly spread in discovery to see whats going to come through next.

We just need to have the right kind of discipline on whether something is truly going to be competitive and bring in a commercial voice much earlier than we have done before.

Potential blockbuster drugs including shingles vaccine Shingrix and a respiratory medicine are expected to come to market this year, in addition to two new HIV drugs.

GSK said it would now focus the lions share of its research spending on respiratory, HIV, oncology and immune-inflammation drugs. Walmsley said the firm would retain its focus on balancing its vaccines, consumer and pharmaceuticals businesses but pharma would be the first priority.

The company is considering whether to sell its rare diseases business unit and said it would not apologise for shifting its gaze towards the US. Walmsley said this was not related to Brexit.

She said: There is much room for growth for us there. It is an innovation-friendly market and it is the biggest market.

GSK yesterday posted a sales boost of 12 per cent to 7.3 billion for the second quarter.

It reported a loss of 178 million, down from 318 million in the same period last year. Shares fell 2.6 per cent, or 40.5p, to 1545.5p.

Nicholas Hyett, an equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said the sweeping changes appeared to be just the start.

He added: The group has narrowed its investment focus, with cost savings funnelled back into research and development and the potential for selective mergers and acquisitions.

The focus is firmly on improving free cash flow. Given the recent problems GSK has had in that area it is very welcome.
LOBAMBA  Matsanjeni North Member of Parliament (MP) Phila Buthelezi wishes Swazis had a way in which they could have a say in the appointment of the kingdoms prime minister.



He said it was high time that someone who cared about the people was appointed so that they could implement what was needed by the people.



MP Buthelezi said there should be a way in which the people could recall a PM, who did not have the peoples interests at heart.

The MP made these statements yesterday during the debate of a motion, which had been directed to the Minister of Public Works and Transport, Lindiwe Dlamini, on the bad state of the roads in the country, particularly on the implementation of projects such as the chemical soil stabilisation (probase), Lukhula-Big Bend road and Piggs Peak-Magoga road.



MP Buthelezi said he did not even see the point of bombarding both the Public Works minister and Finance minister Martin Dlamini, on why funds were not released for the roads.

He said the ministers were not allowed to realise their full potential.



The Finance minister is a very capable man, who was even in charge of the Central Bank of Swaziland and also has capable officers, but they are not allowed to work freely, said Buthelezi.



He likened ministers to pictures or portraits, that were just hanging on the walls of their ministries.

He said he did not understand why, for example, if an officer at Home Affairs had to undertake a trip, permission was granted by one individual.



Why arent the ministers allowed to realise their potential and at least fail on their own? he wondered.

He said if the ministers were put in a private corner and allowed to state their case, he was positive that there was a lot they could say.

He submitted that it was a pity that the PM was not in Parliament as he had a lot to say directed to the head of government.
MBABANE  The explosion at RSSC might cost around E25 million.



Barely a day after it was reported that some portions of sugar cane fields were burnt, an explosion which will cost truckers E25 million erupted at the Royal Swaziland Sugar Corporation (RSSC) in Simunye.



The incident occurred on Tuesday at around 1.15am where one of the tanks in Plant 2 exploded.

The explosion damaged distillery Plant 2, distillery offices and shattered three truck windscreens with a total cost of E25 million.

According to reports, the incident was reported by a 59-year-old man from Lusoti, who heard a loud bang from the plant. The sound was from the explosion of the PRC Column Product Tank.



The explosion was witnessed by four employees who were a short distance from the danger zone.

There were other employees of the company who inhaled the fumes from the explosion.



None of the employees were injured, but they were sent to Lusoti Clinic for check-ups as a precaution.

The distiller plant was not in operation and had been shut down for 18 hours when the incident took place. The machine was lying idle in order to carry out routine cleaning and maintenance.

RSSC Group Public Affairs Manager Sifiso Nyembe said investigations were underway, to get to the bottom of the probable cause of the explosion.



The company has not ascertained the expenses that it will personally incur in this aftermath.


Bhojpur mass murder still remains a mystery after one month

Even though one month has passed after three children were murdered in Bhojpur, police have not been able to conclude the investigation into the case.
Call for ending mutual distrust to strengthen Nepal-India ties

Political leaders, scholars and former diplomats have underscored the need of ending mutual distrust for strengthening Nepal-India relationship.
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By Gina Martinez

State Assemblyman Francisco Moya (D-Corona) joined Make the Road, Fairness Coalition of Queens and community leaders at a rally in front of Willets Point last Friday in support of his Willets Point Plan.

Moya, who is running for City Council, has proposed a plan to bring affordable housing, employment opportunities and a community market to the Willets Point site. The rally was held during Mayor de Blasios week in Queens as advocates sought to bring the mayor on board behind Moyas proposal and reject the competing plan by Moyas competitor for City Council, Hiram Monserrate.

The New York Appellate Court struck down an ambitious proposal for the site earlier this month. Queens Development Group has been fighting to build a proposed megamall and movie theater on the 30-acre site where Shea Stadium once stood. The lawsuit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court in February 2014 by state Sen. Tony Avella (D-Bayside), along with the City Club of New York, Queens Civic Congress, members of Willets Point United and nearby residents and business owners, challenged the transfer of Queens parkland worth about $1 billion.

The lawsuit focused on the proper use of the land. The megamall was slated to be built on the parking lot east of Citi Field, which is technically still parkland belonging to Flushing Meadows Corona Park and under lease to the New York Mets. Arguments centered around a 1961 law allowing the construction of Shea Stadium in Flushing Meadows Park. In a 5-1 decision, the court decided that the developers needed consent from state legislators before moving forward.

Moya said Willets Point is the peoples space, and families in Corona and surrounding neighborhoods deserve to have a say in its future.

Im pleased to see so many of our communitys leaders and advocates stand with me today to fight for the fully affordable housing, job opportunities and public space we need, Moya said. Im especially honored that Make the Road has come out in support of my plan. Our community is one of the most diverse in the entire country, and Make the Roads commitment to giving New Yorks immigrant communities a voice will help ensure that any development at Willets Point puts their needs first.

Moya had the support of Make the Road Action member Agustina Velez, who said she is proud to endorse Moya for City Council because of his extensive record of fighting for immigrant communities and working people in Queens and throughout our state.

His plan for Willets Point embraces the priorities of our community, she said. Environmental clean-up, truly affordable housing, good jobs for local residents, dedicated funding for Flushing Meadows-Corona Park, and extensive community involvement.

Moya is hoping to capture the seat currently held by Julissa Ferreras Copeland, who is not seeking re-election to spend more time with her family. Council District 21 covers areas of Elmhurst, East Elmhurst, Corona and Jackson Heights. Moya is running against Monserrate as well as fellow Democrats Christina Furlong, Erycka Montoya and Yonel Sosa.

According to Moya, his plan will include 100 percent affordable housing, with 33 percent going to families making $25,000 a year or less, guarantees for local hiring to fill both construction and permanent jobs at the site, and the creation of a Worlds Market modeled on similar community markets around the city as a way to showcase local merchants and restaurateurs.

Moya added that to ensure community input, he is also advocating the creation a local community advisory council made of up members of adjacent community boards, Business Improvement Districts, and civic associations.

Moya and his supporters urged the mayor and other city officials to reject a competing proposal by Hiram Monserrate, who Moya emphasized is a convicted felon. Moya said Monserrate had previously weighed in on the issue while a member of the City Council and Senate, but continued to be embroiled in fallout from his arrest and conviction on corruption charges and an unrelated domestic violence case.

Monserrate has called on the mayor to honor the original Willets Point Redevelopment Plan, put forward by former Mayor Michael Bloomberg in 2008.

According to Monserrate, the plan included 5,500 housing units, of which 1,925 units would be permanently affordable, an 850-seat public school, the construction of new access ramps to the Van Wyck Expressway and a project labor agreement with a relocation plan for displaced businesses and living wage protections.
By Bill Parry

The city has approved a long-term deal to keep the homeless shelter at the former Pan American hotel in Elmhurst operating for six more years. City Comptroller Scott Stringer registered the $66.2 million contract between the citys Department of Homeless Services and operator Samaritan Village to keep the Boulevard Family Residence home to 198 families.

As is the case with every contract, we do our due diligence and review it pursuant to our charter mandate. We did exactly that with the Pan Am contract, Stringer spokesman Tyrone Stevens said. Under the charter, the comptroller may only reject a contract for the following reasons: evidence of possible corruption in the contracting process or on the part of the vendor; a debarred contractor; insufficient funds to pay for the contract, or no certification from the mayor and Corp Counsel that the contract is legally and procedurally proper. We did not find cause, under our mandate, to reject this contract.

The deal drew the ire of the civic organization Elmhurst United, which released a statement saying, Under the recently expired $23.9 million Pan Am agreement, Samaritan Village was contractually obligated to install a kitchen in each unit, a daycare center and operate in accordance with New York State Tier II rules and regulations. Despite failing to meet any of these provisions, Comptroller Stringer authorized full payment of the contract.

DHS said the kitchen installation was to get underway this month with 100 units expected to be completed within a year and the remainder completed by 2019.

With the long-term contract approved, funding is now in place which will allow us to move forward with the installation of the kitchens, a Samaritan Village spokeswoman said. The child-care space will be completed by the end of September.

Nonprofit partners like Samaritan Village play a crucial role in our citywide effort to address the challenges of homelessness, which affects every community across the five boroughs, DHS spokesman Isaac McGinn said. Under this administration, Samaritan Village has successfully helped over 3,600 households transition out of shelter across the five boroughs, including nearly 400 households from this location alone. In addition to providing our homeless neighbors with the social services that will help them get back on their feet, including case management, housing placement assistance, and employment counseling, Samaritan Village is currently installing kitchens in every room and connecting families with licensed childcare opportunities in the community pending the opening of childcare at this location to ensure our clients have the on-site services they deserve as they stabilize their lives.

State Sen. Toby Ann Stavisky (D-Flushing), who represents the area of Elmhurst where the shelter is located, would prefer more transparency from the DHS and Samaritan Village.

There are many unanswered questions about the Pan Am shelter that I and the community have been asking for quite some time now, she said. This project has been handled so poorly and those who bear the brunt of it, the shelter residents and the surrounding community, have been frustrated by the process. I myself have submitted a FOIL to see why there are still no kitchens. I was promised the materials by July 12, but am still waiting. While it has always been my belief that the solution to the homeless epidemic is affordable housing, we must ensure existing shelters are up to code, the necessary services for the residents are provided and the promises that are made are kept. Unfortunately, weve seen none of that from the shelters very beginning.
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By Lenore Skenazy

Friday was a normal day for my friend Barbie Levin, an occupational therapist. She went to the modest home of a brand new patient, a baby whod had a stroke in utero. She was now a 1-year-old and still not crawling because one leg was too weak.

As the mom watched, Barbie got down on the floor and placed the baby into crawling position. Then she asked the mom to go get the babys favorite food  a veggie stick (the kind thats like a Cheeto, not a piece of celery). As the baby tried to propel herself forward but couldnt, Barbie propped the weak leg up and the baby managed a tiny scoot. Then, Barbie had the mom get on the floor, take her place, and do the same re-propping.

The baby took her first three steps ever. She reached the treat and, according to Barbie, smiling broadly, ate it with relish. The mother was stunned with joy. As she left, Barbie felt pretty good.

And also pretty bad.

Like that baby, Barbie was born with a medical problem, too. Something was wrong with her urinary tract that affected her kidneys. As a little kid in the 1950s and 60s, she was in and out of the hospital in an era when people were a lot less sensitive to what that feels like for a child.

The nurses would practice catheterizing on me, Barbie, 61, recalls.

Each stay at the hospital lasted about a week, and she never knew when another one was coming.

My mom would wake me up and say, Its a hospital week!  and Barbie would be overwhelmed with terror. Probes and pain and loneliness loomed, as did the humiliation of having interns, mostly men, coming in to examine her urinary tract and discuss it as if she wasnt there.

Thank god for the arts and crafts lady who made her daily rounds. Barbie made a set of tiny dolls. She kept them for 40 years.

By then, Barbie was a real mom, a single mom by choice.

I spent all those years working with and falling in love with other peoples children, she says. It was time to have my own.

But her kidneys, damaged since childhood, were starting to fail. A few years ago the doctors told her shed probably need a transplant  terrible words to hear in New York.

The wait for the kidney from a deceased donor in our state is seven to nine years, one of the longest waits in the country. That, by the way, is why we should have people opting out if they dont want their organs donated upon death, rather than having to opt in by checking a box on our driver licenses. In Spain, everyone is automatically registered for after-death organ donation, unless they choose to check the No box. The average wait for a kidney there is eight months.

Since the wait here is so long, and since a kidney donated by a living person tends to last up to twice as long as a cadaver kidney, as Barbies condition worsened, she started a blog, Barbi esKid neyQu est.wordp ress.com .

How do you explain to someone who you are, and why they might want to consider giving you a kidney?

Barbies now college-aged daughter, Yona, took a stab at it. She and her mom have one of those relationships, she wrote, maybe because it has always been just the two of them, where they sing together in the kitchen. They watch a lot of murder mysteries on television, the British ones. They live in Stuyvesant Town, where Yona grew up watching her mom check in on elderly neighbors (there are plenty!) and bring them soup.

As Barbies friend, I watch and marvel, too. She loves learning things like carpentry and cocktail making. She invented a grated ginger cocktail in 2012 that is still the talk of our circle. She made her own guitar, and couch, and just did a glassblowing class with her daughter. Even as a child at Jewish sleep-away camp, where one of the offerings was Yiddish class, she signed up.

I was the only one, Barbie said.

She loved it.

Like many of her friends, I did a little research and found out that giving a kidney does not shorten the donors life or compromise their health. So I got tested to see if Im a match. Im not. None of us are. Turns out I couldnt do a swap either, where Id give my kidney to a patient I matched, and their donor, a match for Barbie, would give her theirs. So instead, I am introducing you to her.

A childhood spent at the hospital. An adulthood spent making ailing kids better, and parents weep for joy. Endless curiosity. Deep friendships. And a loving daughter she loves back, more than the moon and the stars.

A life worth saving.

Thats Barbie.
Backed by planes dropping water and fire retardant, more than 1,000 firefighters battled wildfires Wednesday that billowed smoke into the sky over France\s southern Cote d\Azur coast and forced the evacuation of 12,000 people.

Large swaths of Mediterranean forest have been left bare and blackened after three days of fires. About 250 trailer homes, a hangar, an atelier and several vehicles were burned in the blazes but no one so far has been injured, according to the prefect of the Var region.

The residents and tourists were evacuated early Wednesday after a ferocious fire whipped by strong Mistral winds spread from La Londe-Les-Maures to around the picturesque hilltop town of Bormes-Les-Mimosas. About 60 people were evacuated by boat from nearby Cap Benat.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe traveled to Bormes on Wednesday night to fly over the devastated region and meet with firefighters and evacuees staying in gyms and other public spaces. Dozens spent Tuesday night on the nearby La Lavandou beach.

Further south of the French mainland, flames ate through 2,000 hectares (4,950 acres) of forest on the northern end of the French Mediterranean island of Corsica, in what was the largest blaze in France.

Tourist Francoise Roparse, who was visiting the south of France, was among the evacuees awakened in the middle of the night who found shelter in a sailing club near Bormes.

"First, it was a bit the panic," Roparse said. "We tried to gather all important things  Obviously, we forgot a lot."

The local government provided food for those forced from homes, some 2,500 sandwiches, fruit and drinks, community center director Nathalie Franche said.

Regional governments were especially challenged because their economies depend on tourism. The fires hit at the height of the summer season.

Fires were also blazing across parts of bone-dry Portugal and Italy.

As thick black smoke billowed above the crests of hills, Col. Eric Martin of the Var firefighting unit told BFM-TV that French crews were trying to contain the flames that had run through 1,300 hectares (3,210 acres) around Bormes. Four planes and a fire-fighting aircraft dropped water and retardants on the blazes.

The airport in Toulon, a city 30 kilometers (18 miles) from La Londe, was briefly closed on Wednesday, as well the Fort de Bregancon, which sits on a rock off the coast of Bormes.

The wildfires began raging along France\s Mediterranean coast on Monday, forcing smaller, scattered evacuations as flames reached a corner of Saint-Tropez. Since noon Tuesday, French firefighters had conducted about 100 operations.

Further east, another 400 firefighters were battling a blaze in Artigues that burned up to 1,700 hectares (4,200 acres) of forest. In addition, a fire that was contained Tuesday evening in La Croix Valmer after burning two homes and leaving one firefighter seriously injured restarted on Wednesday, the Var prefecture said.

Firefighters said they were exhausted and needed more manpower and equipment. Hundreds of reinforcements were sent in from around France but the president of the Provence-Alpes-Cotes d\Azur area, Renaud Muselier, said on BFM-TV that "we don\t have enough means."

France asked the European Union for more firefighting planes and Italy provided one on Tuesday. Still, a pilot of a Canadair firefighting aircraft said there were not enough planes in the sky.

Marion Manent, whose husband\s trailer homes were burned, was suspicious about the origins of the fire around La Londe.

"Someone is certainly responsible  for me, he is a killer," she told BFM-TV.

France\s Mediterranean coast is particularly vulnerable to fires, with its massive back-country forests, often dry in the summer, and hot Mistral winds blowing across the sea to fan the flames.

In central Portugal on Wednesday, billowing smoke was making visibility too poor to use water-dropping aircraft on the region\s flaming dense pine and eucalyptus forests. More than 2,300 firefighters with over 700 vehicles were battling 13 blazes, with flames driven by powerful winds.

The worst-hit areas are 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Lisbon, where the fires briefly forced the evacuation of some hamlets and the closure of a section of highway.

Portugal\s peak fire season, which usually occurs after July 1, began early this year amid a severe drought. Last month, 64 people died trying to flee a forest fire in Portugal.

In Italy, where wildfires have raged for weeks, firefighters responded to 26 requests for water and fire retardant air crops on Tuesday throughout central and southern Italy, including Calabria, Sicily, Sardinia, Lazio and Puglia.

The Coldiretti agriculture lobby said 50 million bees were destroyed along with their hives in fires on the slopes of Mount Vesuvius. Coldiretti said another 20 percent of the bee population is estimated to have become disoriented by all the smoke and died as a result.

SOURCE: Associated Press
Duo held for defaming woman on Facebook

A police team deployed from the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) of Nepal Police arrested two persons from Capital for allegedly making abusive and defamatory remarks about a woman on social site Facebook.
The European Union\s top court on Wednesday upheld the bloc\s decision to put Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas on its terrorism blacklist.

The European Court of Justice overturned a 2014 ruling by the bloc\s second highest court, saying it "should not have annulled Hamas\ retention on the European list of terrorist organisations".

Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, denounced the decision, which it said "has no bearing on politics".

"We will keep up our legal battle to have Hamas removed from the list of terrorist organisations," a statement from the Islamists said.

The lower EU court sparked outrage in Israel and Washington when it said Hamas should be dropped from the list because the bloc had made the decision based on information from the media and internet.

But the Luxembourg-based ECJ said that in doing so, the General Court had "made an error in law" and it would now have to examine the case again.

However in a related ruling, the ECJ said Wednesday that the General Court\s 2014 finding that Sri Lankan rebel group the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) should not be on the terror list was correct.

The Hamas ruling came as a surprise since one of the ECJ\s senior lawyers had said in an opinion last September that Hamas should not have been included on the terror list because procedural mistakes invalidated the EU decision.

The court rarely rules against the advice of its top lawyers and there had been concerns that if the ECJ agreed with the General Court, then already tense EU-Israel relations would have been hit again.

The European Jewish Congress (EJC) said it welcomed the outcome as "an important political message in the fight against international terror."

Israel regularly berates the European Union for being soft on terrorism and bluntly rejects EU criticism of its Jewish settlements policy.

The EU imposed travel bans and asset freezes on Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, after the September 11, 2001 Al-Qaeda terror attacks on New York and Washington.

Hamas opposed the sanctions from the start, arguing that as a legally elected government it has the right to conduct military operations against Israel.

Hamas has controlled the Gaza Strip since 2007 and fought three wars with Israel, the last in 2014, which caused massive destruction and left more than 2,000 people dead.

The original 2014 ruling by the General Court annulled the EU sanctions listing on procedural grounds.

It said that rather than establishing independently that Hamas was a terrorist organisation, the European Council of EU member states had instead relied on publicly available information.

The EU member states then appealed that decision, believing the lower court "was wrong in its assessment of the way in which the Council relied on information in the public domain".

The EU maintains an active sanctions policy, targeting individuals, groups and states, including several other Palestinian entities.

SOURCE: AFP
Populism and Industrial Policy





Amanda Janoo

Throughout the most of human evolution both progress as well as its horizontal transmission was extremely slow, occasional and tedious a process.

Well into the classic period of Alexander the Macedonian and his glorious Alexandrian library, the speed of our knowledge transfers  however moderate, analogue and conservative  was still always surpassing snaillike cycles of our breakthroughs. When our sporadic breakthroughs finally turned to be faster than the velocity of their infrequent transmissions  that very event marked a point of our departure.

Simply, our civilizations started to significantly differentiate from each other in their respective techno-agrarian, politico-military, ethno-religious and ideological, and economic setups. In the eve of grand discoveries, the faster cycles of technological breakthroughs, patents and discoveries than their own transfers, primarily occurred on the Old continent.

That occurancy, with all its reorganizational effects, radically reconfigured societies  to the point of polarizing world onto the two: leaders and followers  noted prof. Anis H. Bajrektarevic in his luminary book Europe, 100 years later.

Will we ever close our technological and spiritual gap, physically and psychologically? Following lines are an interesting take on the topic.

* * * * * *

The world is at a unique moment. People are disillusioned with the status quo. We are on the brink of a paradigm shift that could transform our political and economic realities. Industrial policy has a unique opportunity to re-assert itself as an alternative way of managing an economy that is responsive to the desires and aspirations of society. Industrial policy experts must be careful, however, not to pander to the fascist winds brewing as this could spell demise for the discipline and the world.

For decades, countries have operated under the assumption that there is no alternative to market fundamentalism. Described by many as neoliberalism, market fundamentalism calls for a one-size-fits-all approach to economic policy. All countries, but particularly developing countries, were told to abide by the three sacred tenants: liberalize, privatize and deregulate. In this context, industrial policy was actively discouraged if not straight-up prohibited. However, the tide seems to be changing.

We have recently seen populist uprisings in the two countries that were the chief architects of neoliberalism, the United States and United Kingdom, with people and politicians actively disavowing the free market consensus of the proceeding decades. This explicit flirtation with economic protectionism by these ideological giants, presents an opportunity for developing countries to openly question free trade and experiment with alternative economic policy approaches that are more in line with their societal priorities and objectives. The danger is however, that the world will emulate the scapegoating, separatist and authoritarian rhetoric being articulated by the likes of Donald Trump and Marie Le Pen to legitimize the use of more interventionalist economic policies.

Reminiscent of Karl Polanyis description of the double-movement in the inter-war period, we are witnessing a yearning for social and political instruments to temper the inequality, instability and degradation wrought by decades of market fundamentalist policies. Industrial policy experts, having a deep understanding of the failings of an unruly free market system, are in an ideal position to advice governments disillusioned with Chicago School policy prescriptions. As space opens for new economic approaches, industrial policy can position itself as a more hands on and socially-responsive form of economic management. The danger is that industrial policy inherently implies a more powerful role of government in economic affairs, and therefore can just as easily be used to support authoritarian ambitions.

At the time of writing in the post-war period, Polanyi saw the double-movement manifesting in Europe in two extreme forms: Fascism and Socialism. In looking at the recent US elections we could easily see how the two populist candidates Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders fit into these polar categorizations. Both candidates appealed to economic protectionism but for very different reasons. Trump criticized free trade in order to further an aggressive foreign policy agenda and assert US dominance. While Sanders called for protectionist measures to help reduce social inequality and re-industrialize the economy. The clear danger here is that the same protectionist policies could be employed for either political agenda but if industrial policy becomes aligned with the fascist movements underway it will ultimately be discredited forever.

At this pivotal junction in history, industrial policy experts must not become drunk with the prospect of re-legitimation and bolster political movements that propagate messages of conspiracist scapegoating and cultural superiority. We must use industrial policy to support our global community to stand together as they critically reflect on the failures of market fundamentalism. It is time to creatively envision new forms of economic organization that can deliver on societies desire for greater dignity and security. The old economic consensus is out. The question is whether industrial policy can articulate a persuasive alternative that re-empowers governments to mold and direct their economies without instigating a trade war that will bring more harm than good.

(Early version of this text appeared in the UNIDO magazine Making It )

About the author:

Amanda Janoo is an Alternative Economic Policy Adviser to governments and development organizations. Graduate from Cambridge University with an MPhil in Development Studies, Amanda worked at the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) supporting government\s with evidence-based industrial policy design for inclusive and sustainable growth. Her research focus is on the relationship between international trade and employment generation. She has worked throughout Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa promoting greater economic self-determination and empowerment.




President Donald Trump announced Wednesday that transgender people may not serve "in any capacity" in the US military, upending a key policy from Barack Obama\s administration and drawing swift condemnation.

Announcing the major policy change on Twitter, Trump said the military should be focused on "overwhelming victory," and not burdened with the "tremendous" medical costs and disruptions that transgender personnel would entail.

"After consultation with my generals and military experts, please be advised that the United States Government will not accept or allow transgender individuals to serve in any capacity in the US Military," Trump tweeted.

The announcement served as a stunning reversal for the military, which has been working with military heads to implement an Obama-era plan to start accepting transgender recruits.

The previous policy also allowed trans troops already serving to do so openly.

Pentagon officials appeared blindsided by Trump\s tweets, with spokesman Navy Captain Jeff Davis referring questions to the White House.

The president thought the previous transgender policy was "disruptive," White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders said, and decided it eroded military readiness and the camaraderie among troops.

"The decision is based on a military decision. It\s not meant to be anything more than that," Sanders said.

She did not provide additional details to Trump\s bare-bones Twitter announcement.

Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, currently on vacation, only learned of Trump\s decision Tuesday after he announced it.

When pressed on the extent to which Trump consulted with him or the Pentagon, Davis said: "This was something that was the product of consultation."

Last month, Mattis said the five armed service branches could delay accepting transgender recruits until January 1 to finalize some details.

Trump\s announcement left unanswered a slew of questions, including whether transgender personnel currently serving may soon face getting booted from the military.

Sanders said the Pentagon and the White House would work on the matter together and would "lawfully determine" next steps.

Estimates of transgender troop numbers vary widely. A much-cited Rand Corporation study in 2016 found there are between 1,320 and 6,630 among the 1.3 million active duty service members.

But rights groups say there are about 15,000 active transgender troops.

The Rand study said that only a small portion of service members would ever seek gender transition affecting their deployability or health costs, adding between $2.4 million and $8.4 million to the Pentagon\s vast budget.

Republican Congresswoman Vicky Hartzler called the study "very flawed" and said Trump\s announcement would improve military readiness.

"When you have this (gender reassignment) surgery, you can\t be deployed for almost 300 days and somebody else has to go in your place," Hartzler told CNN.

Transgender rights in America have increasingly been in the spotlight in recent months, especially over how states regulate the use of public restrooms.

The Trump administration has faced protests after it reversed Obama-era federal protections urging schools to allow transgender students to use the bathroom corresponding to their gender identity, not the gender on their birth certificate.

Trump\s announcement drew a broad backlash, with former vice president Joe Biden saying "every patriotic American who is qualified to serve in our military should be able to serve."

Ash Carter, who was Obama\s last defense secretary and oversaw the policy shift allowing transgender troops to enlist and serve openly, said the decision would send "the wrong signal" to potential new recruits.

"What matters in choosing those who serve is that they are best qualified. To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Carter said.

The American Civil Liberties Union called the move "outrageous and desperate," and Republican Senator John McCain blasted Trump for announcing the policy on Twitter.

"Any American who meets current medical and readiness standards should be allowed to continue serving," McCain said.

At least 18 countries already allow transgender personnel to serve openly in their militaries, including Britain, Israel and Australia.

Perhaps the most famous transgender US soldier is former Army intelligence analyst Chelsea Manning, who served seven years in prison for one of the largest dumps of classified documents in US history.

During her incarceration in military prison, Manning battled for  and won  the right to start hormone treatment.

Manning, who is still employed by the Army and retains its insurance coverage, has become an icon for transgender activists.

"So, biggest baddest most $$ military on earth cries about a few trans people but funds the F-35? Sounds like cowardice," Manning tweeted after Trump\s announcement, referring to the US military\s most expensive, state-of-the-art warplane.

Retired Navy SEAL Kristin Beck, who came out as transgender after spending 20 years with the elite commandos, challenged Trump.

"Let\s meet face to face and you tell me I\m not worthy," Beck told Business Insider.

SOURCE: AFP
The leader of Lebanon\s Hezbollah said on Wednesday that the group was close to defeating Nusra Front militants in the battle along the Syrian-Lebanese border.

"We are in the face of a very big military victory," Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised speech. The militants have "effectively lost" most of the land they controlled in the barren, mountainous border region of Jroud Arsal, he added.

His Shi\ite Iranian-backed group was ready to hand over any areas it captures from militants when the Lebanese army requests it, he said.

The Lebanese army has not taken part in the operation and has adopted a defensive posture guarding the town of Arsal.

Hezbollah has made rapid advances since it launched an offensive with the Syrian army on Friday to drive Sunni militants from their last foothold along the frontier.

The operation, in the outskirts of the Lebanese town of Arsal, has focused on militants from the ex-Nusra Front, al-Qaeda\s former Syria branch. The next phase is expected to target a nearby pocket of territory in the hands of Islamic State militants.

Nasrallah also said "serious negotiations" had started on Tuesday between Lebanese officials and the Nusra Front about the withdrawal of remaining militants to insurgent-held territory in Syria.

"There is seriousness, better than at any previous time," he said. But he added that militant demands were still "far from reality", and that the Lebanese state, the Syrian government, and Hezbollah must all agree to the terms.

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants in the border region during the six-year Syrian war, along with its critical military support provided to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

On the Syrian side of the border, Hezbollah had fought "shoulder to shoulder" with the Syrian army around the town of Fleita and cleared the area of insurgents, Nasrallah said.

SOURCE: REUTERS
Senadin Lavic

We live in a post-genocidal society, divided into ethnic-religious ghetto by means of war. In such broken society are continually inserted seductive and controversial concepts that serve the goals that are not realized by means of war. The terms such as federalism, unitarism and separatism come mainly as political games of political life actors in our country, but regarding the separatism of the entities RS, the Greater Serbian policy is absolutely focused on this goal. The shaping of political reality and the main ideas in it is a work of the ideology  par excellence, which then means that these terms are mostly ideologically determined and conceived in the minds of their constructors.

We should remember that M. Kasapovic (Zagreb) in 2005 imposed and installed the term of consociation as territorial separation of the people in Bosnia and as the only possible model for the organization of the political system in Bosnia, followed by an orchestrated story of federalization and electoral units. The vague concept about the "impossible state" by N. Kecmanovic (Banjaluka) is added to this in 2007 and till today, these two, assembled Serbian-Croatian projects of the dissolution of Bosnia stifled us and taken to a blind track of history. Kasapovic has already come to Cyprisation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. These two names, Kasapovic and Kecmanovic, are witnesses to the great moral problem that has dampened our present social reality! We did not forget that on the ground of Bosnia, "pure ethnic territories" were created. On the objection that separatism must be halted, separatist forces respond that separatism is a reaction to unitarism and the non-recognition of entity "RS" or the necessity of federalization because of the vulnerability of Croats by Bosniaks. Thus, the syntagm of "unitarist politics" is a good excuse to continue the policy of division, ghettoization, hatred, great Serbian policy and similar enterprises. The Dayton political system with imposed Constitution in Anex IV has brought peace to Bosnia, but, it should be emphasized, left the hope of anti-Bosnian forces to continue what they did not end in the war. This was immediately understood by the Greater Serbian policy and the entity RS was called the "Serbian state", "war booty" or "the rest of the remnants of the Serbian ethnic territory" west of the Drina River. The name of the entity itself allows this in perspective! Many people are already "trained" to speak "Serbian entity" regardless of the fact that it was made by genocide against Bosniaks. Unitarianism is falsely identified with majorization in the explanations of separatist policies that, in fact, do not want the state of Bosnia or want only the formally present state institutions that are subordinate to the entity. The unitary system of government means that there is a state power that is accomplished throughout the territory of the state. Relating to this idea, Bosnia is a highly decentralized state divided into entities and cantons, which considerably slows down its functioning. The key matter is that separatism and federalism as parts of the political ideology of anti-Bosnianism do not want strong state of Bosnia. In such divided state, there we cannot talk about unitarism. The expansionist nationalism of Serbs and Croats sees its goal in the assimilation of the Bosnian territory, then the "territorial authority" of ethnics means suppressing everything different from our "territory" and disregarding that in our territory "state power or some national (state) institution has any influence. From here to dissolution, it is just a step. This is the way that tribal games go to the extreme. Serbian and Croatian national projects are seeking a "Bosniak policy" that would agree to implementation of Bosnian state\'s dissolution in this way and end with its political and historical existence. A brave Bosnian policy should offer the concept of regionalization of the state area and constantly insist on it regardless of all Serbian-Croatian agreements against Bosnia. Bosnia has five historical regions that derive their meaningful existence from medieval times and that should not be ridden of the mind. In addition, the Bosnian ethatist political philosophy must be reaffirmed, therefore, a new development of awareness of the importance of the state. By this, it should be ended the Bosniak jeremiad in the last twenty years and defeated the anti-politics.

The ideologized vocabulary of anti-Bosnian politics

We must not agree to accept the ideologized vocabulary of anti-Bosnian politics at all. Unfortunately, we still do not have a sufficiently strong Bosnian policy that could deal with numerous subversives, simulacrums, deceptions and abuses of the system institutions, and we are all troubled by the failure of the rule of law. Parts of the law apply only to powerless or politically unbounded. It seems that the system of law in this country is the main source of corruption and manipulation of citizens, such a monstrous system that we have not even imagined. Organized groups have appropriated "right" of rights institutions and it appears as "party" and "ethnic" property, plus family clans, and the state is catastrophically damaged and turned into a "super-market" for robbery. The law system is subordinate to political groups that implement their constructions of social life. Weak state institutions open the space to all degenerative phenomena that undermine political stability. The state is vulnerable, institutionally deprived and does not breathe full of lungs. It would be good if the unitary system of government worked and organized the political life in the state through the devolution. It would be much more order, responsibility and better life. There would be no anarchy, hunting in the fog, ethnophulism in the education system, anachronistic ideologies, mythical consciousness, Chetniks and Ustasha, denying of genocide, denying the right to Bosnian language for children in schools  In post genocidal society, a strong and responsible state is needed in order to overcome war trauma and reached legal satisfaction. What we have now is a knock-together form of war achievements and fulfilled wishes of the Milosevics regime.

The bureaucrats from the so-called International community

We should not be naive and believe to bureaucrats from the so-called International community, to people like for example, B. B. Ghali, J. Akashi, J. Mayor, M. Lajcak or C. Bildt and many others, known and unknown. They consider Bosnia as a regular working task and they did not carry out anything to improve life in Bosnia. Let remember Jose Cutilliero, Lord Carrington, David Owen, Philippe Morillon and dozens of others who have done everything to carry out an anti-Bosnian idea in Bosnia and led us to the madness of the division of the country towards the ethnic-religious lines of war conquest. They were "just mediators"  that sounds innocently. They came here as maharaja with their colonial narrations. Today\s generations must not forget these people and must save a real memory about them. It is important, for example, to leave a recorded memory of F. Mitterrand and similar figures of modern cynicism that convinced us that we could walk across the city under the siege of Serbian howitzers and snipers beside the burnt City Hall or Markale. They turned our disaster into a "humanitarian issue" and shamefully closed their eyes against the genocide against Bosniaks all over the Bosnia. In addition, Bosnia is settled at the heart of the former South Slavic area and it is "ideal" as a focal point in which Western, European, Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, civilized mediators "experts" can be involved for the division of territories leaving the peoples in conflicts. When bureaucrats stop working this in the Balkans, it is absolutely certain that peace will be here  to avoid saying eternal peace, because we have never started wars. Let\s look back to the 20th century  everything was transparent. Egoistic bureaucrats do not need civil Bosnia or peace among South Slavic "tribes", because what would they do then and how they deal with their problems. European bureaucrats have been watching aggression on Bosnia for four years and wrote letters to Milosevic. They did not provide protection and defence of an independent state with the UN forces. In today\s constellation, they worry about the Bosnian and South Slavic "primitives" who do not know what "civil society" is and play the role of a civilizing factor.

The political matrix of ethnic-religious representation of people

It would be worth to express a sceptical attitude towards the "civil political option" syntagm, because it does not have clear semantic structure, as well as a "nationalist policy". Until we begin to name precisely the phenomena around us, we will not know what is happening to us! Since the 1990s in Bosnia the political matrix of ethnic-religious representation of people has been imposed, so that they have not appeared as individuals, citizens, free citizens, but only and exclusively as members of the team/collective, Serbs, Croats, Bosniaks and Others. In that wretched matrix, people of Bosnia are not autonomous and free individuals. They have to think as the "team/collective says" or the priest on behalf of the team/collective (tribe, people, nation, religion) and in such way their individuality is reduced of them, and then they are only "cannon flesh" of some great "Nacertanija" (1844) and pathological conditions of hegemonic politics. Such a collectivist spirit is controlled by religious institutions and ruling political oligarchs. Here, the religion is the basis of the nation  and it tells us where we are! It is an illusion to present the policy throughout the conceptual pair of "nationalist" and "civil" politics when we know that this is only the seductive surface of the project of tribal division of the people of the South Slavic area and the imposition of a matrix to Bosnia that opposes against its historical political philosophy. Our heroic peoples, who have neglected their production of knowledge and general culture, managed by people with suspicious projects, they will be slaves and serfs in the upcoming establishment of the world order as a system of hegemony of several powers.





The pair of terms "civil" and "nationalist" does not correspond to the essential meaning of the historical process in which we are overtaken by a sub-national political culture, a feudalized landscape in which neither citizens nor nationalists can appear. We have not yet learned to participate freely in a democratic culture as citizens with their opinions and interests. We still need tribal chiefs and priests who do not know anything about the Bosnian political future! We need to ask questions that help us to focus primarily. For example, first of all  how did it happen that we are the only ones in today\s Europe who has a "tribal political system" or a "state of tribes", such a constitutional arrangement imposed by Annex IV? Who set us this up as the Constitution of the State? Why all European diplomats are silent on this issue and say that we should "agree" when they, as the International Community, have fulfilled the wishes of the aggressors and nationalist forces in the Balkans and against Bosnia? This cynical European bureaucracy, above all, regardless of European ideals, is a self-sufficient, static and enlarging political group that accumulates great power in its hands. It pretends as awkward in front of the Balkan fascists, the Nazis, the fundamentalists, because such characters serve it as an example of the "primitive Balkans" and "wild Slavic tribes" who are slaughtered each other without mercy. This colonial background and the orientalistic image about us disable a realistic approach to solving problems in this area. There are also quite low and hypocritical moves of Croatian "European" policy that plays its petty-bourgeois super-ordination to this area and shows itself to others as an "heir of European values" while supporting the Hague convicts with Tompson\s songs and ideology. This Croatian unilateralism has led to the incomparable exodus of Bosnian Croats from their homeland  Bosnia and has torn them away from their Bosnian state. The second guidance that helps us to orient ourselves is focused on understanding the distinction between national and ethnic, civil and ethnicity. First of all, it should be reminded that in the area of South East Europe, where the South Slavic nations were located, the state structure of these nations failed because they were mostly obsessed with their own mythical, religious and ethnic constructions or fabrications that served them to represent themselves as a nation superior to others.

In Bosnia, this has been happening during the whole 20th century in big noises of the Serbian and Croatian national determinations. Thus, the national question was shaped at a very primitive level as a question of creating an ethnic-religious state from which all who are not "ours" by religion and nationality will be excluded. This incompetence for the difference led the national question under the control of religious institutions of Serbs, Croats and Bosniaks. In one-track politics, the nuances of the fascist-shape relation to the different are noticed, as R. Konstantinovic wrote about it, so knowledgeable and anticipatory, as well as Miodrag Popovic. So, it could be said that the South Slavic peoples, as well as the peoples of Bosnia, have not yet developed and tested a political culture that surpasses the "tribal image of the world" and prefers free man as the greatest value of the social life of people. We need to teach people that nationally are not a tribal, ethnic, folk, regional or ethnic-religious definition of a person, but it is meant that a free citizen belongs to a state-nation that assures him all human rights as to its citizen. Nationality is thus a civil definition, a legal-political concept of people\s life who does not exclude their cultural perceptions of themselves. So, it is time to learn to distinguish the political-legal level of human life in the community from the cultural-historical dimension through which a certain national identity is recognized as specific among others. The Bosnian Serbs were captured in the mythologist of the 19th century about the "great Serbian state" in which all Serbs will live and  only Serbs. In front of them there is a great historical task to overcome their own misconceptions, self-denial and historical blind alley. A similar process of liberation from the "Ottoman image of the world" has already begun by the Bosniaks and they are carrying it out. In the end, it should be emphasized that in our country the civil has not yet matured in citizenship awareness, but it entails historicist narratives of Tito-statehood, fraternity and unity, communism and a one-party world, the monolithic Left, existence without identity, misunderstanding of anti-Fascism, bipolar diversity of the world, unable to anticipate the new Bosnian idea of life, and so on. In fact, the civil has never come to life in this region as a political culture of respecting a man, an individual, a free citizen of the Bosnian nation. We still do not know what it means to be a citizen, free and conscious again in our own Bosnianhood? We have not considered this in the past thirty years under the siege of collective metaphysics of ethnic-religious groups. In today\s monstrous political systems, this seems to be utopian, unreal and unachievable before the dictatorship of party oligarchies, leaders and their assistants. In that danger is growing the rescue-thing  Heidegger would remind to Hoelderlin.

Senadin Lavic is a professor at the Department of the Sociology of Political Sciences Faculty Sarajevo, at University of Sarajevo, in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Prolific author of numerous books and seminal works, prof. Lavic is the Chairman of the Bosnian Cultural Union \Preporod\.

The views expressed in this article are the author\s own and do not necessarily reflect The Times Of Earth\s editorial policy.
EC to discuss use of EVMs with parties

The Election Commission (EC) is planning to hold discussions with the political parties on the possible use of Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) at least in the Federal Parliamentary elections.
Bridgewater looks to become a regional nightlife hub in western PA

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New York may have lost out to the state of Wisconsin on Wednesday in the competition to build a new $10 billion LCD panel factory for Foxconn Technology Group.

But there may also be a silver lining to the announcement, hosted by President Donald Trump at the White House, that could still benefit New York and the Capital Region.

Spotted in the back of the crowd that had been invited to the East Room event, which also included Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou and Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, was Rick Whitney.

Whitney, who works in Albany, is CEO for the Americas region for M+W Group, the company that has built many of the Capital Region's most important high tech manufacturing sites, including the GlobalFoundries Fab 8 computer chip factory in Saratoga County.

It is unclear at this point whether M+W has been selected by Foxconn to build its Wisconsin LCD factory, although M+W is one of only a few design and construction firms in the country that has the expertise needed for such a large and complex job.

M+W, which employs hundreds of engineering, design and construction management workers in the Capital Region, would only say that Whitney, who was spotted on a network TV feed, was at the White House for the Foxconn event. The company wouldn't explain who invited Whitney or if M+W is in line to build the Foxconn facility.

"I can confirm that Rick attended the Foxconn announcement at the White House," Steve Janack, a spokesman for M+W Group Americas Region, told the Times Union when contacted Thursday morning.

Janack declined to provide any other details. Foxconn officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Based in Germany, M+W has its U.S. headquarters at SUNY Polytechnic Institute in Albany.

The firm also built many of the buildings at SUNY Poly's Albany campus, and it is currently involved in another SUNY Poly project at its Utica campus.

After being offered a $6.5 million incentive package from the state, M+W moved its U.S. headquarters from Plano, Texas to the Watervliet Arsenal back in 2010 under Whitney's first tenure as CEO. Whitney left the company in 2014 but returned in February as CEO of M+W Group's Americas region, which oversees projects in the U.S., Canada and Mexico.

Whitney works out of SUNY Poly's ZEN building, where M+W moved its headquarters in 2015.

It is unclear if M+W or Whitney would move the company's U.S. headquarters to Wisconsin to be closer to the Foxconn project if indeed it did win the job.

New York state had been a finalist for the Foxconn facility, sources have told the Times Union, although several other states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania, have also been mentioned as finalists.

New York has been pushing a 400-acre site in Utica owned by SUNY Poly called the Marcy Nanocenter along with a larger, 1,250 acre site in Genesee County called the STAMP, for Science and Technology Advanced Manufacturing Park.

Back in December, an Austrian computer chip maker, ams AG, pulled out of plans to build a computer chip factory at the Marcy Nanocenter. Shortly after, New York officials began pitching Foxconn to locate its LCD factory at the site.

M+W was supposed to build the ams AG factory planned for Utica, although it is unclear if M+W and Whitney were involved at all in the state's pitch to Foxconn.

Officials with Empire State Development, the state agency that put together the state's proposal for the Marcy Nanocenter, have declined to comment on Foxconn's decision to build in Wisconsin, although it is believed that the state offered both the Marcy Nanocenter and STAMP sites since Foxconn had actually been looking to build multiple factories.

That is why New York and other states believe that they could still land Foxconn facilities in the future.

"They talked about multiple projects," Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder told the Detroit Free Press and other news outlets Wednesday.

Michigan and other swing states like Pennsylvania that went to Trump in the 2016 presidential election appear to have been on Foxconn's short list of favorite states all along in the months-long process, although it is unclear if that hurt New York state's chances.

And Trump didn't hide the fact that his surprise win of Wisconsin may have played a part in that state's selection for the project over New York, which went to his rival, Hillary Clinton.

"I would see Terry (Foxconn's chairman), and I'd say, Terry, you have to give us a couple of those massive  these are massive  places that you do such great work with. And he's going to be doing that in a state that's very close to my heart -- Wisconsin," Trump said Wednesday. "So we're very happy."
Environmental assessment being done for cross-border oil pipeline

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ALBANY  From Buffalo to Westchester, Thruway motorists will help pay off the highway system's most iconic feature: The Tappan Zee Bridge.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Thursday that after 2020, toll revenue from the Thruway system will help pay for the nearly $4 billion Tappan Zee Bridge replacement, the recently renamed Gov. Mario M. Cuomo Bridge.

But questions remain about how much will be needed and whether tolls will rise for Thruway drivers who aren't crossing the Tappan Zee on a regular basis.

Cuomo didn't provide many details at an Association for a Better New York breakfast event in Manhattan, where he was quizzed by state Republican Chairman Ed Cox about the final financial plan for the bridge.

"It's part of the Thruway Authority, all the tolls are frozen through 2020," the governor said. "We have used cash to pay for part of the bridge over the past two years and the remainder after 2020 will be paid with toll revenue from the entire system."

A Cuomo spokesman declined to elaborate. Jennifer Givner, a Thruway spokeswoman, did not immediately comment.

Information about some of the financing for the bridge was previously disclosed. The state secured a $1.6 billion federal loan, and some $2 billion in bank settlement money has been committed to the Thruway's operations, including work for the Tappan Zee project. The Thruway Authority also was authorized to issue $850 million in bonds for the bridge project last year.

For 2017, the Thruway Authority projects increased traffic that they said could boost toll revenues by more than $11 million. But without details on the full cost of the bridge-replacement project, it remains unclear whether future toll hikes could be avoided if revenues continue to increase.

Toll revenue in 2020 is projected to hit $730.4 million, according to the authority's 2017 budget plan.

Critics say Thruway drivers who aren't regularly using the bridge shouldn't be paying.

"The entire point of charging a toll for crossing the bridge itself is to recover costs from the people who benefit from it," said Ken Girardin of the fiscally conservative Empire Center think tank. "Taking more money from drivers in Amsterdam or Catskill in order to give discounted tolls to drivers in the New York City suburbs would be irresponsible public policy."

For those who do use the bridge on a regular basis, a toll increase is an impending reality.

"I couldn't tell you at this point what they would be," Thruway Authority Executive Director Bill Finch said earlier this year, according to the Journal News. "I think it's safe to say that they won't be what they are now. And that we will do everything we possibly can to keep them as affordable as possible."

Cuomo also announced Thursday that the first span of the new bridge, for traffic moving westbound, will open on Aug. 25. Eastbound traffic will be moved to that span in the fall, with a jersey barrier separating the traffic.

Both spans are on track to be open next year.

The governor's appearance in Manhattan followed his Wednesday trip to Washington, which apparently left him with an unanswered question for President Donald Trump: Where's the $1 trillion infrastructure program?

A day after meeting with Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao to discuss the Gateway Tunnel project between New York and New Jersey, Cuomo asked where is the money pledged by Trump during his campaign.

"It's clear there is no trillion dollars  that was just pulled form the sky," Cuomo said. "Forget the trillion: I don't see any budget that is going to invest in any significant public works. They're whole MO is they want to fund a tax cut. Everything is about funding the tax cut for the richest Americans. What do you think (the effort to repeal Obamacare) is? It's a way to fund a tax cut for the richest Americans."

Cuomo has been careful to push back against Washington Republicans, but not the president by name. He told the New York Times in a statement Thursday that "as a general rule, I haven't found nasty ad hominem attacks on a person whose cooperation is needed to help your state especially helpful."

But at the ABNY event, in responding to a question about Trump's ban on transgender soldiers in the military, Cuomo said he is disturbed by what he sees as the "Trump administration" pushing a dialogue that is focused on "anger and hate and division and judgmentalism."

mhamilton@timesunion.com  518-454-5449  @matt_hamilton10
ATHENS  A Greene County man is accused of breaking into a Greenport business over the weekend, Columbia County sheriff's officials said Wednesday.

Deputies, answering a 1:55 a.m. alarm, went to Pit Stop Beverage Store on Route 66 to find the front door smashed out, then searched in and around the building and determined some cash was stolen.
MILTON  A Saratoga County sheriff's sergeant was arrested on federal criminal charges Wednesday for allegedly possessing child pornography, including images depicting girls as young as seven.

Peter Farnum, 41, of Ballston Spa, faces up to 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for allegedly receiving and possessing child pornography on a home computer between October 2015 and April 2016.

According to a court affidavit, the materials were discovered by Farnum's wife, from whom he has been separated since October 2015.

"The members of the Saratoga County Sheriff's Office are shocked and saddened by the arrest of Sgt. Peter Farnum," Sheriff Michael H. Zurlo said. "Sgt. Farnum has been a member of the sheriff's office for the past seven years with an unblemished work history. At the time of his arrest he was assigned as a patrol supervisor on the midnight shift out of the Milton station."

Zurlo said the sheriff's office was made aware of the allegations against Farnum by the FBI, with whom he said they have fully cooperated.

"Although this incident reflects negatively on the members of the sheriff's office and all law enforcement officers, it is the family of Sgt. Farnum to whom we offer our condolences as they deal with the immediate and long-term fallout of his alleged actions," Zurlo said.

Farnum was suspended without pay as a result of his arrest and internal disciplinary action, as required by law. He remained in federal custody Wednesday afternoon following an appearance before a U.S. magistrate judge in Albany, officials said.

According to a court affidavit, in April 2016  and after suspecting that Farnum was using a family computer to download and view adult pornography  Farnum's wife accessed his password-protected account on the computer at their home, where he would often care for their young children.

While searching his account, the affidavit says, Farnum's wife found "numerous" folders that appeared to contain images of adult pornography, as well as what she believed was a wiping program that "was purposefully and irretrievably deleting content."

After confronting Farnum the next day, the affidavit says, his wife took the computer to her workplace, where it remained "untouched and powered down" until April 2017, when she decided to have it examined at an Albany computer-repair store "to ascertain the extent of Farnum's online viewing of pornography" as part of a divorce and custody proceeding.

There, an employee told her that the hard drive contained "thousands of images and videos depicting adult pornography," which the business copied to an external hard drive that Farnum's wife had provided. The shop then told her they did not want to be involved in the matter.

Not wanting to view the images herself, the affidavit says, Farnum's wife mailed the drive to a Montana-based computer forensics business, which later alerted her of child pornography in the hard drive's "unallocated space." She then alerted her attorney, who in turn contacted authorities. The Montana company also notified the FBI in that state about what they discovered on the computer.

A timeline included in the affidavit indicates that a person using Farnum's account imported child pornography images on December 29, 2015, then saved activity from Civilization IV, a game that Farnum apparently played. Farnum was not on duty at that time, according to the Saratoga County Sheriff's office, as cited in the affidavit.

A forensics investigator with the FBI, meanwhile, found two computer cleaning programs, both installed and last run on April 14, 2016, the day after Farnum's wife allegedly confronted him about the adult pornography she said she found.
BROOME --A Schoharie County man is charged of child endangerment, accused of removing a boy's wrist cast with a butter knife, Sheriff Anthony Desmond said.

Deputies on Monday arrested Richard J. Christian, 42, of Hauverville Road in the town of Broome for endangering the welfare of a child in connection with the case involving a 10-year old.
Downstate commuters aren't the only New Yorkers eagerly awaiting upgrades to the beleaguered transit system.

A contract for a thousand or more new subway cars for New York City's subways hasn't yet been awarded, a year after Gov. Andrew Cuomo unveiled their new design features intended to boost capacity and make the ride more comfortable. Among the bidders is the China Railway Rolling Stock Corp., or CRRC, which months ago unveiled plans to build an assembly plant in Fort Edward if it wins the contract.

While Cuomo on Thursday morning outlined ideas for improving New York City's subways, he only briefly mentioned new subway cars, focusing instead on other steps, such as establishing a public-private partnership to improve subway stations.

The new subway cars, he said, would take five years to arrive.

The governor's office didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

In May, the Beijing-based media outlet Caixin said a consortium that includes CRRC and Canada's Bombardier was the leading candidate to land the contract. CRRC already has contracts to build subway cars for the Los Angeles Metro, as well as for Boston's Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority and for the Chicago Transit Authority.

It is building assembly plants in Springfield, Mass., to produce the Boston and Los Angeles rail cars, and in Chicago for the CTA contract.

But officials have been silent on the status of the MTA contract, which would be worth well more than $1 billion. An MTA official didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

"We're waiting anxiously," said Jeff Stark, secretary-treasurer of the Capital District Area Labor Federation, in an interview earlier this week. "It would mean a lot of jobs for Fort Edward and the surrounding area."

Fort Edward in early 2016 lost its General Electric capacitor factory along with 200 jobs. The CRRC plant would be built at an industrial park that was the site of a dewatering facility for General Electric's dredging of PCBs from the Hudson River.

The $60 million CRRC plant would create an estimated 200 permanent jobs, as well as 150 construction jobs.

Cuomo has described this as a "summer of hell" for downstate rail commuters as Amtrak cuts train capacity while it replaces tracks and switches at Penn Station following two derailments there.

The city's subway system also has been troubled by power failures, a derailment, track fires and other incidents that have led to cancellations and delays.

Stark said labor unions have largely reached agreement on terms with CRRC.

"They told us of some of the concessions that have to be made. We returned the concessions we thought could be given," he said.

"If that (contract) was awarded tomorrow," Stark said, "I'm pretty confident we'd come up with an agreement pretty quickly."
Not many of us are given a chance to re-examine our lives in such explicit detail as Joseph Lindy is forced to do. He's an imaginary Hollywood film director who's the subject of a new and probing documentary. Joseph's anguish over a failed relationship is at the heart of "A Legendary Romance," a new musical that opens on Saturday, Aug. 5. and runs through Aug. 20 the Williamstown Theater Festival.

"He's in his late 60s or maybe early 70s, and we don't see much theater about people of a certain age," says stage director Lonny Price. "But we have a mature audience and I hope this is not just nostalgia for their youth but that it reflects their experience in life."

Joseph was once on top of the Hollywood game, producing a string of hit films starring the famed leading lady Billie Hathaway, who was also the love of his life. But there was one major film that never got made. The title was "A Legendary Romance." It was scrubbed because Joseph got caught up in the anti-Communist craze that swept through the arts world in the 1950s. The scandal also resulted in the breakup of his relationship with Billie, who subsequently died.

"It was a moment that's tormented him for 40 years," says director Price. "He's trying to fix the film so he can fix a memory of his life."

More Information If you go "A Legendary Romance" When: Previews start 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 3; opens 8 p.m. Saturday Aug. 5 and continues for 18 more performances through August 20. Where: Williamstown Theater Festival, 1000 Main St., Williamstown, Mass. Tickets: $63-$68. Call (413) 458-3253 See More Collapse

The show moves back and forth through time. There's the present tense, when Joseph is confronted with the documentary, and there's the past when he and Billie were happy and in love. Portions of the flashbacks will be presented on film and will be screened as excerpts of the documentary.

"It's a story of regret, redemption and forgiveness of yourself and who you were then," says Price. "It's also about morality and standing up for what you believe."

As usual, the Williamstown Theater Festival has assembled an accomplished team. The music and lyrics are by Geoff Morrow, a 75-year-old British composer best known for some of his pop songs, which were recorded by numerous stars including Elvis Presley ("Let's Be Friends"). Probably Morrow's biggest hit is "Can't Smile Without You," which was recorded by Barry Manilow. The book is by Timothy Prager, who has extensive credits writing murder mysteries for the BBC network.

As a stage director, Price is a known quantity on Broadway and also London's West End. One of his most recent projects was the Broadway revival of "Sunset Boulevard," starring Glenn Close, which closed just last month. Price also directed the New York Philharmonic's production of "Sweeney Todd," which aired on PBS's "Live from Lincoln Center" series in 2014.

Those are some legendary musicals, but Price is adept at working with new material as well.

"For a new show, I like to get the actors on their feet very quickly," he says. "It's best to get a sketch up so you see the arch of the show, and so you're not polishing things that you're going to cut."

Cuts and fixes are a natural part of mounting a new show. Speaking two weeks before opening night, Price said that rewrites were coming in via email and that the creators would rejoin the production team about a week before opening. "These men are highly collaborative," says Price. "I find most writers are open to changes, if you make a good logical case and especially if you have a solution in mind."

Price, who is 58, says it's refreshing to be working on a show where the romantic lead isn't someone in his 20s or 30s. He thinks theater's emphasis on young characters is an outgrowth of the fact that so many writers and composers are also young people.

"Musicals in general are about young people's problems, not older people's problems," he says. "They're written by younger people who if they look back 20 years they were only 5 or 10 years old. So it's not surprising there aren't roles for older people; the writers aren't that age."

According to Price, "A Legendary Romance" is in two acts with a running time of about 90 minutes. The dozen or so songs will be accompanied by an eight-piece ensemble.

"It's a romance about a man who's obsessed with a woman for 40 years," says Price. "He's grieving, but finally makes peace."

Joseph Dalton is a freelance writer based in Troy.
The following capsule reviews of recent releases, long runs and revivals come from various wire services, as noted:

RATINGS: G - Suitable for all ages. PG - Parental guidance recommended. PG-13 - Parental guidance strongly suggested. R - Restricted; anyone under 18 must be accompanied by adult. NC-17 - No children under 17.

    Excellent    Good   Fair  Poor

Baby Driver

Action. A young, hearing-damaged getaway driver (Ansel Elgort) who uses music to guide his moves is coerced into working for a crime boss (Kevin Spacey) and finds himself taking part in a heist doomed to fail, alongside a colorful clutch of underworld characters (Jon Hamm, Jamie Foxx, John Bernthal, Eiza Gonzalez, Lily James). Written and directed by Edgar Wright of the "Cornetto Trilogy" fame. "Baby Driver" feels new. Music plays a big part in this Edgar Wright film, but it also helps charge some intense scenes with an extra blast of energy. It's a wonderful thing that can't happen often enough, the realization that a director knows exactly what he's doing. (R for language throughout and violence)  1/2 (Mick LaSalle, Hearst Newspapers)

Beatriz at Dinner

Comedy. Director Miguel Arteta and screenwriter Mike White team up again for this "serious comedy" about a holistic medicine practitioner (Salma Hayek) who attends a wealthy client's dinner party after her car breaks down, leading to escalating tensions between her and one of the guests (John Lithgow). Part comedy and part melodrama, "Beatriz at Dinner" does offer a good performance by the redoubtable Hayek, but it's all so heavy-handed that it's hard to stay engaged with the movie. (R for language and a scene of violence)  (Walter Addiego, Hearst Newspapers)

The Beguiled

Drama. Sofia Coppola remakes Clint Eastwood's Western thriller about a wounded Union soldier taking refuge in a Confederate girls boarding school, leading to rivalries and sexual tension. Starring Colin Farrell, Nicole Kidman, Kirsten Dunst and Elle Fanning. The difference between this updated look and the work done by director Don Siegel in 1971 is that Coppola fails to create any of the tension that made the original so haunting. (R for some sexuality)  1/2 (Rick Bentley, Tribune News Service)

The Big Sick

Comedy. Based on the real-life courtship between Kumail Nanjiani and Emily V. Gordon, the movie tells the story of a Pakistan-born aspiring comedian (Nanjiani) and a grad student (Zoe Kazan), who connect after one of his stand-up sets, and soon confront health issues. The key thing is that "The Big Sick," with ease and seeming effortlessness, makes us care a lot of about these people, together and separately. Nanjiani is engaging throughout. As for Kazan, she spends most of the movie unconscious, but she makes a strong impression in her awake incarnation. (R for language including some sexual references)  (M.L.)

Cars 3

Animated. Pixar's least-acclaimed franchise gets a third go-round, this time with Lightning McQueen trying to prove to a new generation of racers he's still the best race car in the world. There are lots of races in "Cars 3." The races take up an enormous amount of screen time, so if you're someone who can't get enough of contests between animated automobiles, this movie is a dream come true. (G)  (M.L.)

Despicable Me 3

Animated. Gru (voice of Steve Carrell) Animated. Gru (voice of Steve Carrell) meets his long-lost, charming, cheerful and more successful twin brother Dru (voice of Steve Carrell) who wants to team up with him for one last criminal heist. "Despicable Me 3," the latest installment in the juggernaut series about an ex-villain who now chases super-villains, has a lot going for it: cute characters, some clever set pieces and of course, dazzling animation. (PG for action and rude humor)  (David Lewis, Hearst Newspapers)

Dunkirk

Drama. Christopher Nolan's World War II epic follows the Allied soldiers from Belgium, the British Empire and France who were surrounded by the German army and evacuated during a fierce battle in World War II on the beaches of France. It's not enough to say "Dunkirk" is Christopher Nolan's best film. It's one of the best war films ever made, distinct in its look, its approach and in the effect it has on viewers. There are movies  they are rare  that lift you out of your present circumstances and immerse you so fully in another experience that you watch in a state of jaw-dropped awe. "Dunkirk" is that kind of movie. (PG-13 for intense war experience and some language)  (M.L.)

Girls Trip

Comedy. Four lifelong friends (Jada Pinkett Smith, Queen Latifah, Regina Hall and Tiffany Haddish) travel to New Orleans for the Essence Festival, complete with enough dancing, drinking, brawling and romancing to make the Big Easy blush. "Girls Trip" is the comedy that has been missing all season. It's two hours long, but it maintains interest and keeps the laughs coming from beginning to end. It's a story a friendship and of dreams lost and found, but with pockets of harsh, outrageous humor. It's very much a modern comedy, though, in the coarse modern style, so if you don't like untoward language or sex jokes, don't torment yourself. (R for crude and sexual content throughout, pervasive language, brief graphic nudity and drug material)  (M.L.)

The Hero

Drama. Sam Elliott is the latest actor to get a late-career role-of-a-lifetime; he plays an ailing movie star coming to terms with his past and mortality in this comedy-drama. Just when he thinks there's nothing left to do but get high and die, a reason to live comes through the door in the form of Laura Prepon, as a lively, gorgeous woman who just happens to like old guys. To talk about the story in "The Hero" in such blunt terms makes it sound silly. But in the actual experience, it's not silly at all, which tells us something about Brett Haley as a writer-director. (R for drug use, language and some sexual content)  (M.L.)

Lost in Paris

Comedy. When librarian Fiona receives a troubling letter from her 93-year-old Aunt Martha in Paris, she rushes to France and finds that her aunt has disappeared, but a genial tramp soon insinuates himself into her life. A strenuous attempt to be serious can often lead to laughs, but a strenuous attempt to be funny leads ... nowhere. "Lost in Paris" is such a comedy. Dominique Abel and Fiona Gordon made the film themselves, with no collaborator to focus the humor and no outside director to say, "Tone it down. This is not funny." (NR)  (M.L.)

Maudie

Drama. Arthritic Maud Lewis (Sally Hawkins) works as a housekeeper for a fish peddler (Ethan Hawke) in Nova Scotia while she hones her skills as an artist and eventually becomes a beloved figure in the community. (PG-13 for some thematic content and brief sexuality)

Spider-Man: Homecoming

Action. In the third iteration of the webslinger this century, Brit Tom Holland takes over as teenaged crimefighter Peter Parker. Look for Batman/Birdman Michael Keaton to cross over as the big villain. Yes, the time has come for another Spider-Man movie. And so here we are with "Spider-Man: Homecoming," starring Tom Holland, who is not only the third Spider-Man in 15 years, but the third best. But he's not bad. No, he's pretty good. In fact, that's we have here, and that's what we celebrate today  a pretty good Spider-Man movie. (PG-13 for sci-fi action violence, some language and brief suggestive comments)  (M.L.)

Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets

Adventure. Writer-director Luc Besson ("The Fifth Element") adapts the famous French comic book series into a typically over the top space epic about special operatives and lovers Valerian and Laureline (Dane DeHaan and Cara Delevingne) racing to stop an approaching dark force and save the universe. (PG-13 for sci-fi violence and action, suggestive material and brief language)

War for the Planet of the Apes

Action. Woody Harrelson adds the villainous human element to this trilogy closer, an action drama where the apes suffer huge losses, leading chimp-in-charge Caesar to wrestle with his darker instincts and begin to avenge his kind. In the film  the best of the series, by far  the series' viewpoint comes into focus, and it's a lot more intricate and enlightened than some unthinking death wish. (PG-13 for sequences of sci-fi violence and action, thematic elements, and some disturbing images)  (M.L.)

Wish Upon

Horror. In this supernatural horror thriller from the director of "Annabelle," a teenage girl discovers a box that carries magic powers and a deadly price for using them. This is a spooky teen story that's not particularly heavy on the scares and over-delivers on the unintentional giggles, almost ensuring it a spot as a cult movie. It is an odd horror film, because the monster is also our heroine. (PG-13 for violent and disturbing images, thematic elements and language)  (Katie Walsh, Tribune News Service)

Wonder Woman

Adventure. Finally making it to the big screen in her own film after 76 years, the Amazon princess named Diana (Gal Gadot) rescues a crashed pilot (Chris Pine) and joins him in fighting in World War I, as well as becoming a timeless superhero. (PG-13 for sequences of violence and action, and some suggestive content)  1/2 (M.L.)
Albany

Drive-By Truckers has amassed a strong body of work over the past 20 years and holds a reputation as one of the best live acts in the nation. It's a well-deserved reputation, as DBT came to the Egg Tuesday night and gave one of the best live performances the Capital Region has seen so far this year.

Drawing largely on last year's phenomenal "American Band," Drive-By Truckers played a two-hour and 15-minute set that put the band's thoughtful, potent take on their experiences on their experiences as Southerners, or what frontman Patterson Hood somewhat famously called "the duality of the Southern thing," on full display.

DBT was on fire from nearly the beginning, with Hood and guitarist Mike Cooley sharing lead vocal spots and combining with Jay Gonzalez to split lead guitar duties. Once Cooley led the band through a torrid rendition of "Ramon Casiano" about three songs in, the show really took off. The aforementioned guitar triptych slayed Cooley's "Marry Me" soon after, while Hood took the reins for great takes of "Baggage" and "Dead, Drunk and Naked."

More Information Concert Review Drive-By Truckers With the Seratones When: 7:30 p.m. Tuesday Where: The Egg, 1 Empire Plaza, Albany Length: Drive-By Truckers 2 hours 15 minutes, Seratones 50 minutes Highlights: DBT's "Ramon Casiano," "Dead, Drunk and Naked," "Ronnie and Neil," "Where the Devil Don't Stay" and "Let there Be Rock"; Seratones' "Chokin' on your Spit," "Headtrip" and "Tide" Crowd: appreciative, but sadly (given the high-quality performances) only 2/3 full See More Collapse

Generally speaking, Cooley's numbers were more akin to "Sticky Fingers"-era Stones, like on "(Bleep) Shots Count" or "Surrender Under Protest," a tune inspired by the success of civil rights activists in having the Confederate flag removed in the wake of the mass murders committed by Dylann Roof. There were some outliers, like the acoustic-based "Made Up English Oceans" and a crushing version of the mid-tempo "Where the Devil Don't Stay" that was probably my favorite song of the evening.

Hood's songs varied more in range, from the manic-paced "Puttin' People on the Moon" to the big rock tracks featured on possibly the group's best album, 2001's "Southern Rock Opera," "Ronnie and Neil" and the testament to the enduring, life-changing power of rock, "Let There Be Rock."

Hood was also responsible for the evening's most pensive moments. First was "What it Means," a folky acoustic ballad about making sense of the high-profile spate of young African-American deaths that began with the killings of Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown. Hood ended the evening on a more introspective song, the swirling mid-tempo "Grand Canyon," which he dedicated to friends of the band that have passed in recent years.

The Seratones opened the night and if you ever get the chance to see the band live, you absolutely should. Led by frontwoman A.J. Haynes' huge-gospel-and-blues infused voice, they played a great set of material derived from their 2016 debut, "Get Gone." Haynes was a force of nature, her Afro bobbing back and forth as she led the Seratones through crunchy garage rockers "Chokin' on Your Spit" and "Headtrip." During the final number, she hopped offstage and into the first few rows to dance, and her way into the stands. The group's set was worthy of a full review in its own right and the people who claim there are no more quality rock bands anymore would do well to give them a listen.

Jim Shahen is a frequent contributor to the Times Union.
When the weather gets warm, it's always enjoyable to sit down in the shade, or by some water and crack open a good book to read. Here are some suggestions of books to read this summer by a few of our local authors. Some of the books are perfect for children who have more time to read, now that school is not in session.

"The Adirondack Architecture Guide: Southern-Central Region" by Janet Null (Excelsior Editions/State University of New York Press)

Null is an award-winning writer and architect, as well as the president of the Argus Architectural and Preservation Co. in Troy. In this book, she displays her exemplary knowledge of the architecture of the southern-central region of the Adirondacks. This is the first of what she expects to be three regional field guides, and this book is filled with descriptions of the ordinary and extraordinary structures in the Adirondacks. Many can be seen by car, but for some of them you need a boat or you need to hike. Null has included detailed maps and beautiful photographs. There are also 11 essays on many of the prominent designers and local residents who have built these fine structures.

"The Inner Reflection" by Severin Moro, Jr. (Next Century Press)

Private eye Frank Marino and his partner Alan Ray leave New York City when they receive a call from a resident in the Adirondacks named Loren Shriner. What they find when they show up at his house is that he has been dabbling in the paranormal. They also find no sign of what happened to Mr. Shriner. Marino and Ray follow a mysterious trail that takes them deep into the underworld. The author lives in Albany and is a retired General Electric worker.

"The Legendary Miss Lena Horne" by Carole Boston Weatherfield and illustrated by Elizabeth Zunan (Athenium)

This 48-page book, for children ages 4-8, is a lyrical biography of one of the first African-American entertainers to become a mainstream star. The book focuses not only on her fabulous singing ability, but also on her long years as a civil rights activist. She came a long way from her beginning performing in segregated clubs to being one of the most popular performers in the world. The illustrations by Elizabeth Zunan are beautiful and very colorful. Zunan, who was born in Albany and lives here now, grew up on the Ivory Coast and attended the Rhode Island School of Design.

"The Wizard's War" by Eric Luper (Scholastic)

This is the fourth book in the "Key Hunters" fantasy series for young readers ages 8-12. It's a story of a quest filled with humor, magic and adventure. The two main characters are forced to solve creative problems that will force readers to think. Luper lives in Menands and writes two series for Scholastic. He also writes for the Cartoon Network.

"Beastly Birds: Exploring How Animals Think, Talk, and Feel" by Nancy Castaldo (HMH Books for Young Readers)

This 160-page book delves into the minds of animals. It explores how animals show empathy, how they communicate, use tools and create their own society. It is filled with numerous interviews with experts, and includes research from famous scientists like Charles Darwin and Jane Goodall. Young people and their parents will enjoy reading some of the surprising research that shows how similar animals are to humans, how animals think about themselves and even help each other.

"When Music Stopped: My Battle and Victory Against Multiple Sclerosis" by Bob Cafaro (Cafaro Publications)

This is the inspirational story how the author refused to accept that multiple sclerosis was going to prevent him from ever playing his beloved cello. Cafaro is a world-renowned cellist for the Philadelphia Orchestra, who spends a month each summer in the Capital Region when the orchestra plays at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The disease had left him completely disabled and virtually blind, but he decided to undertake a unique mixture of modern medical therapies and today is symptom-free. This miraculous true life story will inspire you.

"After Our First Hello" by Barbara Fournier (Page Publishing)

For 35 years, Barbara Fournier was a hairstylist, a job that gave her the opportunity to hear many stories. (And allowed her to give advice.) This 124-page book is collection of many of the best stories she heard. As she writes in the book, hairstylists are often portrayed in films as not very smart, but in reality these are the people who make people more beautiful for big events in life: the prestigious job interviews and the weddings. Fournier has an-easy-to-read writing style, and you can't help but enjoy her bits of wisdom. This book will give you a different perspective on the people who take care of our hair.

"Pharmacy College: Crazy Daze and Hazy Nites" by Dr. I. Mayputz (Mr. Nick Productions)

The author has written a humorous semi-autobiographical account of his five years in pharmacy college. The book is filled with numerous parties, drinking, looking for girls and some of the travails of making it through school and trying to get decent grades. I enjoyed reading about some of the crazy roommates and friends he had through the years.
Editors note: During Black History Month, the Times Union is sharing stories from its archive highlighting significant people, places and events that are part of the Capital Regions Black cultural heritage. This story was first published July 26, 2017.

ALBANY  Archaeologists love trash. From the garbage heaps of centuries past comes evidence of lives lived, meals eaten, heirlooms cracked and lost.

And when the lives lived hold historic significance  when they're 19th-century Albany abolitionists who sheltered runaway slaves on the Underground Railroad  refuse can assume a weighty importance. Any tiny find pulled up and dusted off by archaeologists can illuminate workaday habits of the rescuers and the rescued both.

"With archaeology, you can understand things that you can't get from a history book," said Michael Lucas, curator of historical archaeology at the State Museum, one in a team of diggers and sifters on a midweek afternoon in the shade behind the Stephen and Harriet Myers Residence. "Especially with people who are not in power  people who, you know, generally history hasn't written about. You can really use the archaeological record to understand parts of the history that were left out of the history books."

Among the artifacts unearthed in this patch of Arbor Hill: shards of china. Chunks of ceramics. A rusty steel disc. A little white stem from a clay pipe manufactured by Peter Dorney. A swamp-root kidney cure produced by a doctor in Binghamton. Such morsels of history were exhumed from a freshly dug series of pits in a rear lot on Livingston Avenue, where instructors and students in the University at Albany Archaeology Field School worked a summer course focusing on African-American history and Albany's role in the abolitionist movement.

"It's a treasure trove of information, really  because it's concentrated," said UAlbany anthropology professor Marilyn Masson, who's co-teaching the course with Lucas.

Besides the Myers residence, the class has focused on the Ten Broeck Mansion and the home of Thomas Elkins  both east along Livingston. An open house will be held from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the Myers and Elkins property.

"All those people lived in this neighborhood  and that's one of the things that is oftentimes missed," said Paul Stewart, a co-founder of the Underground Railroad History Project, which is restoring the Myers residence (included in the National Register of Historic Places and the National Park Service's National Network to Freedom).

Also missed is the narrative behind all the slavery-era routes and safe houses: "Really great history, and really great stories" that bring to life a critical era in the history of the nation, the city and Arbor Hill, he said. Stephen and Harriet Myers lived at 194 Livingston Ave. for just a few years in the 1850s  back then, it was 198 Lumber St.  but the four-story brick town house hosted significant abolitionist gatherings, and it's the only former Myers home still standing.

The land around the house has been fertile ground for the UAlbany Field School, which wraps up Aug. 4 and has spent its time at Myers excavating a succession of outbuildings. According to Masson, "It's a little too soon" to glean any insights into the Myers household from the tidbits so far discovered.

The team is combing through dense layers of soil on a lot with a long local history. "When we leave here, we'll really understand the construction history associated with the house and the use of the rear domestic space," Masson said, "because we're going to have a long cross section of activities through space and time."

Which brings them back, as ever, to trash. As was common until the advent of indoor plumbing and garbage trucks, outhouses often served a second purpose.

"That's the thing  I mean, when nobody's coming by with a truck every week, you dump it down the privy," said Brad Russell, a sociology professor at The College of Saint Rose. "It's kind of the way it goes."

Russell, who is 6 foot 4, was standing in a pit almost as deep as his height. The team thought they'd bottomed out on artifacts and hit clear soil when  surprise, surprise  they found yet more chunks of early 19th-century detritus.

"Right before lunch," Masson said. "We thought we were there. But we went down a little lower to make sure  and now we're back maybe 50 years earlier than we had been before." That got them to 1820.

Among the students toiling in the shade that day was Emily Grant, a senior at Bethlehem High School. She sifted through soil on the west side of the lot, gently kneading through dirt nodules in search of archaeologically interesting nuggets  maybe a shard of a window or bottle, maybe ceramics or bone. She, too, was struck by the historic weightiness of simple human refuse.

"Like, you look at all the museums. ... the things that people have donated to make sure (of) their legacy  the philanthropists, what they've donated," she said. "But then we're back here, digging through someone's trash bin."

Over at another pit  or "unit," in archaeological parlance  UAlbany students Derek Healey and Lynne Merrihew discussed the bits and pieces dug up from various layers: leather shoes, Mason jars, porcelain, medicine bottles, perfume bottles. Some large rodent, probably a groundhog, complicated their work by burrowing through the strata as woodchucks are wont to do. "You've got objects that are more modern getting pushed into the older stuff. So it kind of screws up the dating," Merrihew said.

The act of unearthing and then sifting through vestiges of 19th-century lives "gives you the sense that they aren't just these abstract characters  that they were human beings that were just like you or I," Healey said. "But they were also abolitionists, you know  and I think that's really what is the coolest thing. This was it."

The history accrued in all those layers inspires a certain reverence. "It's sacred work," Healey said, acknowledging some bias as a UAlbany double major in anthropology and religious studies. But faith informed the abolitionists, after all.

"A large part of this work is faith-based  faith not just in, like, a higher power, but faith in humanity, you know? Faith in true freedom and liberation. So that's what this work is. And what's what we have to keep doing, because people still aren't very free."

Stephen and Harriet Myers "were people motivated, certainly, by their faith, by their sense of civic responsibility  as well as being African Americans  in providing a place of refuge for people who were on the run from enslavement and enabling people to go onto the next station," Stewart said.

"So there's an ordinariness about what was going on here, too  when I say 'ordinariness,' I mean it's about food, clothing, shelter, transportation assistance and legal help when that's necessary. A lot of times, people think about the exoticness of the Underground Railroad  people hiding in places."

But there at 198 Lumber St., under the radar and out on the edge of town, no one had to stay in the shadows. There they simply lived: eating, having a smoke, going to the privy. Like anyone today striving to improve the lives of the underserved and dispossessed, Stewart said, Stephen and Harriet Myers were serving a higher purpose.

"It's an ordinary heroism. Just because it's ordinary," he said, "doesn't make it less heroic."

abiancolli@timesunion.com  518-454-5439  @AmyBiancolli
Experts visit project site to finalise DPR

Experts on hydropower and water resources recently visited the project site of Pancheshwar Multipurpose Project in a bid to finalise the detailed project report (DPR) of the much awaited mega project.
When we first see Charlize Theron in "Atomic Blonde" she is emerging from a tub of ice, bloodied, bruised but still glamorous, photographed in a stylized black-and-white; then she is off to a mission debriefing.

She truly is the spy who came in from the cold. But Theron's Lorraine Broughton is a far cry from John Le Carre's Alec Leamas; her adventure into East Germany isn't about intricate plotting or cat-and-mouse spy games, but bull-in-a-china-shop, bone-crunching action. She is a female Jason Bourne, or, if you prefer, a female James Bond (the blunt, brutal Daniel Craig version), and like Bond, she can look terrific ordering a mixed drink in evening wear, and as it turns out, bedding a woman as well.

Adapted from the graphic novel series "The Coldest City" by Antony Johnston and Sam Hart, David Leitch's feature debut is a mostly fabulous, though thinly plotted, ode to the glories of hand-to-hand combat, Euro '80s music and the good/bad old days of the Cold War.

Told in flashback from the debriefing by her MI6 handler (Toby Jones) and CIA observer (John Goodman), the film is set in East and West Berlin in 1989 just before the fall of the Berlin Wall. After a British agent (Sam Hargrave) is killed, Broughton is sent by her superiors to recover a missing list of double agents from the West operating in the East. If that list falls into KGB hands, their lives are over. Broughton is to make contact with a British agent already in East Berlin, David Percival (James McAvoy), an agent her superiors describe as having "gone native."

More Information *** Review "Atomic Blonde" Rated: R Running time: 115 minutes See More Collapse

And with good reason. A hard-partying, hard-drinking playboy who hangs out at underground East Berlin clubs, Percival is, Broughton decides, not to be trusted (and not only because of his "disastrous Sinead O'Connor hair"). Nevertheless, they begin as partners to find the list, which is in control of a wanna-be East German defector nicknamed Spyglass (veteran actor Eddie Marsan, Inspector Lestrade in the Robert Downey Jr. "Sherlock Holmes" movies).

They're up against KGB agent Aleksander Bremovych (Roland Moller), who is also frantically looking to acquire the list, but has the numbers and firepower on his side. They're also looking for a double agent who might be embedded with the good guys, code-named "Satchel," who might expose them.

Broughton eventually develops her own contacts separate from Percival, including French agent Delphine Lasalle (Algerian-born actress Sofia Boutella), whom she recruits through seduction; double agent Watchmaker (Til Schweiger) and East German youth activist Merkel (Bill Skarsgard), who generously takes time away from his project to tear down the Berlin Wall to help her.

If this sounds plot-heavy, it isn't. Basically, it goes like this: Wherever Broughton shows up, a host of villains appear. She kicks ass. Next scene.

While it gets tedious at times, one has to give it to Theron. It was apparently the goal of her and Leitch, a former stuntman whose next film is "Deadpool 2," to make the toughest hand-to-hand combat movie with a female lead in movie history, and "Atomic Blonde" is in the conversation (several classic Hong Kong films would be as well).

In the bravura centerpiece of the film, an extended fight scene through the hallways and flats of an East Berlin apartment building, Theron is so beaten and bloodied she becomes about as run-through-the mill as Aileen Wuornos, her Oscar-winning, heavy makeup performance from 2003. But be it noted, she gives as good as she gets.

Leitch makes up for the thin plotting  you'll guess who Satchel is long before the movie reveals it  with a colorful re-creation of East Berlin, and there are a few pleasures: Broughton loses her pursuers by ducking into a cinema showing Soviet master Andrei Tarkovsky's "Stalker"; legendary German actress Barbara Sukowa, a discovery of director Rainer Werner Fassbinder, appears as a coroner; and the pulsing '80s soundtrack that includes Nena's anti-war protest "99 Luftballons," After the Fire's Austrian version of "Der Kommissar" and Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Cities in Dust."

But through all the noise and distractions, this is Theron's film. On the heels of her stunning performance as Imperator Furiosa in "Mad Max: Fury Road," where she basically stole the movie from Tom Hardy (hard to do), she now is the preeminent action actress in the movies. And with the ending of "Atomic Blonde" clearly hinting at a sequel(s), we probably will delve into the case files of Lorraine Broughton once again.
NEW YORK  The New York City medical examiner has concluded that a prominent judge found dead in the Hudson River committed suicide by drowning.

The medical examiner's office issued the findings Wednesday in the death of Sheila Abdus-Salaam, 65.
Michael Barone went to the police academy at the same time he was taking classes at Western New England College School of Law.

"It was a prodigious endeavor," Barone, 50, an Albany lieutenant and 20-year department veteran, told Law Beat, his accent reflecting his Brooklyn-born roots and upbringing in Valley Stream, Long Island.

Now the one-time Army paratrooper, the son of a New York City sanitation worker, is trying another difficult endeavor: Running for Albany City Court while working his familiar role with the department.

Barone is one of seven candidates running to fill three City Court vacancies in a Democratic primary  but the only one to possess a police lieutenant's badge along with a law degree.

"I've seen all sides of the judicial system and there is a need for good competent defense attorneys, there is a need obviously for competent police officers and there is a need for competent jurists," he explained in an interview inside his office on Central Avenue.

"I believe what I bring to the table is not only can I take the law and interpret the law and fairly execute the duties of my office, but I have a fundamental understanding of what it is like out there on the street," he said. "I feel that I can do an excellent job as a judge."

Police officers have made the jump to the bench before. Albany County Court Judge William Carter is a former state trooper. Carter first held several other positions as a prosecutor and defense attorney.

Barone, a father of two, went to the University at Albany and decided to stay upstate. He is one of three attorneys on the Albany police force (the other two are Lt. Josiah Jones and Lt. Paul Forkeutis). He said he always hoped to hold an attorney position within the department as an assistant chief of legal affairs. No position exists in Albany.

Barone has already been working as a law guardian since 2006. He serves on the executive committee of the criminal justice section of the state Bar Association. He certainly would not be coming in cold.

Barone is hardly hiding from his day job. All one needs to do to know that fact is look at his campaign Facebook page where the candidate is identified as "Lieutenant Barone" no less than 11 times in the biography section.

"The reality is we're one of the 15 model agencies in the country. I'm a proud member of the Albany police department," said Barone, who showed no lack of confidence for the primary. "When I end my career here it's going to be sad for me to actually leave, but I'm moving on to a new chapter in my life."

Barone said he will, if elected, absolutely be objective presiding on cases involving police. He said officers are not above the law  and noted he teaches police on issues such as search and seizure.

"It's better to lose a case than to perjure yourself on the stand," he said, "because one cop, one police officer that makes a mistake? There are mistakes of the head and mistakes of the heart and there are outright criminals. There are police officers that are criminals. There is good and bad in every profession."

If Barone was a federal law enforcement officer or his salary was funded entirely by federal funds, he would be prohibited from running. The Office of Special Counsel, a federal entity, makes that clear that under the Hatch Act. Barone faces no restriction running or from having a campaign that receives donations.

Barone's fundraising figures (made available last week when the latest state Board of Elections numbers were released) showed he has raised $14,750  all his own money but for one $250 donation.

The other candidate, meanwhile, are incumbents Helena Heath, Holly Trexler and John Reilly, county Alternate Public Defender Sherri Brooks, Assistant Public Defender LaVonda Collins and defense lawyer James Long.
The vast majority of the state's military forces are subject to federal policies, which means President Donald Trump's ban on transgender people in the military would broadly apply to transgender service members in New York.

The 16,000 members of New York's Army and Air National Guards are covered by federal policy, as well as roughly 95 percent of the 2,500-member New York Naval Militia.

The state-controlled New York Guard  which has about 500 members  would not be subject to it, according to Eric Durr, a spokesman for the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs.

On Wednesday morning, Trump announced the ban on Twitter, citing "medical costs" as the primary driver of his decision. The announcement, however, blindsided many national military leaders, including the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to published reports.

The body's chairman, General Joseph Dunford, informed military personnel in a memo there will be "no modifications to the current policy until the president's direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidelines," CNN reported. "In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect."

A 2016 Rand Corporation study found that only a small percentage of the military is transgender.

Between 1,320 and 6,630 of 1.3 million active duty service members may be transgender, the study found. The military does not maintain statistics about whether someone is transgender, simply labeling personnel as male or female.

The cost of providing gender-transition health care coverage in the military would be minimal as compared with overall spending, the study found. The report estimated active-component health care costs would rise by $2.4 and $8.4 million annually, or a .04 to .13 percent increase.

It's not clear what action New York government could take to counter Trump's decision. In 2015, Gov. Andrew Cuomo imposed regulations banning harassment and discrimination against transgender people.

Those measures are not yet permanently codified into state law, however, because the majority-controlling state Senate Republicans have refused to follow the Democratic-controlled Assembly in passing the Gender Expression Non-Discrimination Act.

In remarks before the Association for a Better New York in Manhattan on Thursday, Cuomo slammed the Trump ban as well as his immigration policies.

"It is all based on anger and hate and division and judgment," Cuomo said. "And from the very beginning, it has always been about dividing people one from the other and pitting people one against the other."

Alyssa Hackett, who has been involved in transgender rights issues in the Capital Region, identifies as gender queer, embracing both masculine and feminine attributes and not subscribing to traditional gender distinctions.

Though Trump's tweets have gotten plenty of attention, Hackett says transgender rights have gotten scant attention when it comes to discrimination in housing, education or employment.

"The majority of both the LGBT community and the population at large don't care about transgender people until the issue is raised around the U.S. military," Hackett said.

At the same time, Hackett was disturbed by Trump's policy.

"If someone is willing to go die for their country, how can we take away that individual's autonomy, take away their freedom?" Hackett said.
Labour Committee directs ambassadors to take stock of Nepali workers in Malaysia

International Relations and Labour Committee of the Legislature-Parliament on Thursday directed the ambassadors to take stock of Nepali migrant labourers working in Malaysia.
Livestock Ministry addresses cent percent plaints

Only the Ministry of Livestock Development has addressed cent percent complaints filed at Hello Sarkar by members of the public, according to programme chief Pradyumna Prasad Upadhyay.
The next Maddie Ziegler could hail from Tipperary thanks to a new dance school set to begin this September.

Tipperary Youth Dance Company is the brainchild of Katy Wallace from the Dancer's Academy of Performing Arts (DAPA) who runs weekly dance classes throughout the county across a number of disciplines.

This is an exciting new company and will become a semi professional dance troupe, Wallace explains to the Tipperary Star.

TYDC are looking for children aged 7 to 12 for Junior Company and Teens/ Young adult aged between 13 to 21. All dance styles are welcome from Lyrical, Contemporary, Ballet and Irish Dancing to Hip Hop. TYDC dancers will perform at events, show and competitions across Ireland as well as holding TYDC events throughout the year.

Pic: Left: Katy Wallace, Tipperary Youth Dance Company founder

We have been getting a lot of interest to date and have two fantastic teachers on board already but we want to get as many people as possible to try out at our auditions this September.

" I really want to encourage kids to give it a try no matter what their level. We are looking for kids who are motivated and willing to learn and want to perform," adds TYDC founder Wallace.

Joining TYDC is All Ireland Irish Dancing champion Michelle Lawrence from the Lawrence Academy Dance Company, who will bring over 20 years experience to the stage having performed extensively throughout China, Germany, France and Spain performing for stars including Liam Neeson, Bob Geldof and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Top choreographer Brendon Hansford of Pineapple Dance Studios, London will also take centre stage at TYDC having previously worked with brands including Sky, Diesel, Smirnoff, Just Dance, and Virgin Media.

Open auditions will take place on Saturday 2nd September at the Source Arts Centre, Thurles. Audition forms are available from tipperaryyouthdancecompany@gmail.com and information is also available from Tipperary Youth Dance Company - TYDC on Facebook.
A group of Tipperary fitness enthusiasts have raised almost 5,000 for mental health recovery after undertaking an operation transformation style fundraiser.

Personal trainer Matt Cooney from MCfuturefitness in Nenagh put himself and 12 volunteers through their paces as part of a great reveal challenge in aid of the mental health charity GROW.

Matt and his fellow participants unveiled the results of their endeavours in a before and after photoshoot in Galway city. The novel fundraiser, which was aimed at highlighting the link between physical health and mental wellbeing, raised almost 5,000.

Matt presented the proceeds of the fundraiser to GROW Regional Chairperson, Tommy Kennedy, and Regional Manager, James Quilligan at GROWs offices in Limerick.

Fitness Factorys Matt Cooney signed up 12 eager participants to take part in the fitness challenge to raise funds for GROW and to promote the benefits of exercise on mental health and emotional wellbeing.

Those who signed up for the challenge included Matts cousin Brian Cooney, Philip Cullen, Brendan Kelly, Sharon Nagle, Neil Kevin, Thomas OConnell, Pearse Morris, Louise Hickey, Barry Corcoran, Wayne Cawley, Daryl McGee and Edwina King.

For Matt, the challenge was an important way of raising awareness of GROW as well as opening up the conversation about mental health and the mind-body benefits of exercise.

One in four people in Ireland will experience some kind of psychological or emotional distress over the course of the coming year. That is why looking after our mental health is such an important issue. By supporting this charity we are helping people directly. I picked GROW as it's very close to home. I also know many people who have been affected by mental health and suicide, he told the Tipperary Star.

PIC: (l to r) Matts mother, Geradline; Matt Cooney of MCFuture Fitness; James Quilligan, GROW Regional Manager; Tommy Kennedy, GROW Regional Chairperson; Mary Purcell, GROW Area Coordinator, and Mackey McKenna, GROW Tipperary

Mental health is such a big issue in Ireland. It's one of those subjects that often goes unspoken, especially among younger generations. Whether people's silence comes through fear of what other people will think or how they will be looked upon, we wanted to send out a loud message that mental health issues are okay to talk about. We wanted to promote awareness of GROW and let people know that help is out there.

No matter the situation, we encourage anyone suffering with mental health problems not to suffer in silence, to speak up and get the help they need. One thing I've realised from this journey is to keep going and keep putting out positive messages to try and help people. You never know who is out there listening. We may never realise how many people have been helped throughout this whole journey, Matt added.

GROWs Regional Chairperson, Tommy Kennedy, extended the heartfelt thanks of GROW to Matt and his colleagues.

We are so grateful to you for undertaking this wonderful venture. We have 14 GROW peer-support groups in the region and we hope to develop more groups before the end of the year. I would also like to thank all those who took part in the fundraiser with you and who helped and supported you. We are extremely grateful to you all, and as Nenagh man, I can say that I am very proud of you Matt and all your colleagues. As young people, you are a shining example of what young people can do and you are leaders in our community.

His words were echoed by Regional Manager, James Quilligan, who extended his sincere thanks toall those who has taken part in the fitness challenge..

This has been our single biggest fundraiser this year. We thank you so much for your fabulous work, for promoting the important work of GROW and for highlighting the link between physical wellbeing and positive mental health, said James.

GROW is Ireland's largest community-based mental health organisation and is aimed at promoting positive mental health and recovery. GROW holds over 120 peer support group meetings in communities across Ireland each week including in Aras Follain, Nenagh; Michael Street Community Centre in Tipperary Town, the McAuley Centre, Templemore and other locations across Tipperary. GROW meetings are open to those aged over 18 and are free to attend. For more details on GROW meetings see: www.grow.ie or phone the GROW infoline on 1890 474 474.
[July 27, 2017] Avast Security Ambassador Garry Kasparov to Speak at DEF CON

Garry Kasparov, Avast security ambassador and former world chess champion, will discuss why humanity doesn't need to fear the rise of intelligent machines and should even embrace it at DEF CON 2017 in Las Vegas. Kasparov will highlight how increasingly intelligent machines can complement and change how we act and think, as well as the unchanging need for human ingenuity in fields like digital security. Rather than cutting humans out of the picture, Kasparov envisions a better path where humans and machines get the best from each other through better interfaces and processes. Kasparov has been fascinated with interactions between man and machine ever since his historic chess matches against the IBM (News - Alert) supercomputer Deep Blue in 1996 and 1997. He sees the collaboration between humans and intelligent machines at work in Avast's powerful threat detection network, and security as an increasingly critical intersection of human rights and technology. What: Presentation and discussion - The Brain's Last Stand

Presentation and discussion - The Brain's Last Stand When : Friday, July 28, 2017, 10 - 10:45 a.m. PDT

: Friday, July 28, 2017, 10 - 10:45 a.m. PDT Where : Track 3 at DEF CON 2017, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas

: Track 3 at DEF CON 2017, Caesars Palace, Las Vegas Who: Garry Kasparov, Avast Security Ambassador Kasparov's latest book is Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins. It recounts Kasparov's famous matches against Deep Blue and presents his optimistic analysis of human-machine collaboration. In prominent reviews, has been praised by DeepMind guru Demis Hassabis as well as by tech critic Nicholas Carr.



Media: Kasparov will be available for media interviews on both AI and man/machine integration at DEF CON, along with Avast Threat Intelligence Director Michal Salat. Together they will discuss how the interaction of man and machine can be implemented in digital security, how threats can be fought with AI technology and machine learning, and where security requires human intelligence.

If you are interested in an interview with Garry Kasparov and/or Michal Salat, please contact [email protected]. About Garry Kasparov: Garry Kasparov was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, in the Soviet Union in 1963. He became the youngest world chess champion in history in 1985 and was the world's top-rated player for 20 years, until he retired in 2005. His matches against arch-rival Anatoly Karpov and the IBM supercomputer Deep Blue popularized chess and machine intelligence in unprecedented ways. Kasparov became a pro-democracy leader in Russia and an outspoken defender of individual freedom around the world, a mission he continues as the chairman of the New York-based Human Rights Foundation. He is a visiting fellow at the Oxford-Martin School, where his lectures focus on human-machine collaboration. Kasparov is a provocative speaker who appears frequently before business, academic and political audiences to speak about decision-making, strategy, technology and artificial intelligence. About Avast: Avast (www.avast.com), the global leader in digital security products for businesses and consumers, protects over 400 million people online. Avast offers products under the Avast and AVG brands that protect people from threats on the internet and the evolving IoT threat landscape. The company's threat detection network is among the most advanced in the world, using machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies to detect and stop threats in real time. Avast digital security products for Mobile, PC or Mac are top-ranked and certified by VB100, AV-Comparatives, AV-Test, OPSWAT, ICSA Labs, West Coast Labs and others. Avast is backed by leading global private equity firms CVC Capital Partners and Summit Partners. ### View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005001/en/

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[July 27, 2017] Bank of Cyprus Taps IBM Technology and Expertise to Fuel and Accelerate Digital Transformation

ARMONK, N.Y. and NICOSIA, Cyprus, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) announced today that it has been selected as the strategic partner of Bank of Cyprus, the leading banking and financial services Group in Cyprus, for the implementation of the Bank's digital transformation.

Bank of Cyprus provides a wide range of financial products and services to individuals and businesses in Cyprus, holding significant market shares across all business segments. The Bank is committed to implementing a modernization agenda that is designed to transform its business model to ensure that it can compete efficiently and better serve the needs of its customers. To facilitate momentum in delivering these changes through an accelerated multi-year Digital Transformation Program, Bank of Cyprus has selected IBM as a strategic partner.

The Bank's Digital Transformation Program is designed to create a more modern and efficient IT platform, supported by streamlined processes. Improving the customer experience through visible and positive changes to how the Bank interacts with its customers is a key deliverable for this program.

Bank of Cyprus is leveraging IBM's expertise to implement an enterprise wide process re-engineering program, digitizing and automating processes with a goal to achieve significant efficiencies while direting routine customer interactions to digital channels. The Bank will utilize IBM iX capabilities to launch a large scale redesign of its digital channels, with an initial focus on mobile, enriching its technological capabilities so as to support the revamping of the physical branch network and creating at every level of interaction an omni-channel personalized experience to clients. The bank will optimize existing IT infrastructure, enhance standardization and automation, streamline its internal IT systems and Service Management processes and introduce foundational big data and analytics capabilities.





Bank of Cyprus CEO, John Hourican commented: "Embracing modern ways of working and modernizing our IT environment is a must. We are excited about this program and the opportunity to work with IBM in delivering this essential formulation in our continuing Transformation."



"With IBM's help, Bank of Cyprus will use market leading digital innovation to improve efficiency and agility across the organization in order to provide a significantly superior experience to its customers" said Likhit Wagle, General Manager, Banking and Financial Services, IBM.

As part of the Digital Transformation Program, IBM and Bank of Cyprus will also establish a joint Digital Factory that will serve as a vertical, agile delivery function, hosting emerging technology skills and leveraging DevOps tools and methodologies. Additionally, Bank of Cyprus and IBM will also establish a Joint Innovation Capability - dedicated to innovation, concept and prototype development - that will continuously fuel the Bank's Digital Transformation Program with new and emerging technology.

By partnering with IBM and leveraging IBM's proven expertise, Bank of Cyprus intends to adapt its business to emphasize an ever increasingly digital world where customer service and product excellence are essential to competitive advantage. About Bank of Cyprus

The Bank of Cyprus Group is the leading banking and financial services group in Cyprus, providing a wide range of financial products and services which include retail and commercial banking, finance, factoring, investment banking, brokerage, fund management, private banking, life and general insurance. The Bank of Cyprus Group operates through a total of 126 branches, of which 121 operate in Cyprus, 1 in Romania and 4 in the United Kingdom. Bank of Cyprus also has representative offices in Russia, Ukraine and China. About IBM

For more information on IBM iX, visit ibm.com/ibmix PR Contact

Ken Saunders

IBM Media Relations

[email protected]

+44 7887 830 036 View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/bank-of-cyprus-taps-ibm-technology-and-expertise-to-fuel-and-accelerate-digital-transformation-300495051.html SOURCE IBM

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[July 27, 2017] Cenergistic Energy Specialist for University of Kentucky Named Fulbright Scholar

Energy conservation leader Cenergistic today announced Specialist Zach Tyler of its University of Kentucky team was awarded a Fulbright Research Grant, a prestigious and highly-competitive opportunity. Tyler will study tree growth patterns in Brazil beginning February 2018. He first visited Brazil during a previous exchange program during his junior year at University of Kentucky. Tyler spent seven months studying energy policy, photo voltaic, language, reforestation and environmental issues. A Biosystems engineering graduate of University of Kentucky, Tyler joined Cenergistic in 2016 as one of eight Energy Specialists assigned to University of Kentucky. He was drawn to the position because he prioritizes sustainability, especially approached economically. He's interested in reducing waste on his home campus, and appreciated the blend of working with people and te technical work. He felt it suited him better than conventional engineering positions.



Dr. William S. Spears, Cenergistic Chairman and Founder, said he's not surprised to find he has a Fulbright Scholar on staff. "It speaks to the caliber of the people we hire," Dr. Spears said. "We look for the best person for every position and work to develop each one to fullest potential. I congratulate Zach on this outstanding accomplishment and wish him all the best. We're looking forward to his return. We couldn't be more proud of him." The Fulbright Scholar Program is the country's largest educational exchange program, offering opportunities for students and young professionals to undertake international graduate study, advanced research, university teaching, and school teaching worldwide. Fulbrighters address critical global issues in all disciplines, while building relationships, knowledge, and leadership in support of long-term interests of the United States. Fulbright alumni have achieved distinction in many fields, including 57 Nobel (News - Alert) Prize recipients, 82 Pulitzer Prize recipients, and 37 heads of state or government.

About Cenergistic Cenergistic is a technology-powered, data-driven energy conservation company. Cenergistic helps organizations reduce consumption of electricity, natural gas, fuel oil and water. Its proven approach is built on proprietary methodology, which optimizes clients' infrastructure, improves internal processes and changes behavior to ensure savings endure. This approach empowers the average client to save 20 - 30% off expected utility costs. For nine years, Cenergistic has earned United States Environmental Protection Agency national recognition, including the ENERGY STAR (News - Alert) Partner of the Year - Sustained Excellence Award 2011 through 2017. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005304/en/

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[July 27, 2017] CINDE announces: Feuji will hire 150 people to strengthen its services operations in Costa Rica

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, CINDE announced that Feuji, a services company specialized in providing technology and cloud services solutions, officially announced its establishment in Costa Rica and hiring 150 additional employees for the remainder of 2017. The company, located in Ultra Park 1, already employs 70 people and will add 150 jobs/positions. The company foresees that its operation may require up to 500 employees to meet the operational demand, in three years. Costa Rica was selected for its operation thanks to the strategic location and excellent educational level of its workforce, as well as the country's stability. Alexander Mora, Minister of Foreign Trade, commented: "Increasingly, services play a more important role in the productive chain, incorporating innovation and efficiency trends, with higher levels of sophistication. In virtue of this revolution, as a Government, we have made important efforts to transition to a knowledge based economy. As a country, we are successfully attracting projects such as Feuji; which not only generate employment opportunities for more than 150 workers, but also become platforms for knowledge transfer and training for Costa Ricans. This demonstrates our ability to adapt to the demanding needs of the market, strengthening our economy to provide sophisticated global services andcontinue to occupy increasingly higher positions in global value chains."



Juan Carlos Hidalgo, General Manager of Feuji Costa Rica, said: "Costa Rica is a beautiful country with a lot of resources. It has a skilled, multilingual and productive workforce that provides added value to the services we provide to our clients in local and international markets. The geographical and time closeness with the United States makes our clients' relationship with our team of information technology professionals even more attractive." Jorge Sequeira, Managing Director of CINDE commented: "The dynamism shown by companies in the services sector ratify the potential of Costa Rica as an investment destination. Only services exports have grown 5 times since 2000, closing 2016 at US $4.59 billion. We are sure that Feuji will grow within Costa Rica by providing quality jobs for the Costa Rican population and adding to exports of high value added services."

The company will seek personnel for areas such as: customer service, sales, technical support and IT platforms development. Those interested in applying to one of the positions within the company may do so by sending their resume to [email protected] or [email protected]. About Feuji Feuji is a global technology and cloud services company with operations across multiple geographic areas. The company believes in providing measurable solutions that will positively impact its business as well as the profitability of our customers. The focus areas of the company focus on consulting for the sales force, consulting, supply chain, outsourcing services, service management and strategic personnel. Feuji headquarters are located in Dallas, Texas and have operations in Bulgaria, India and now Costa Rica. For more press information CINDE

506-2201-2800

[email protected] View original content:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/cinde-announces-feuji-will-hire-150-people-to-strengthen-its-services-operations-in-costa-rica-300494907.html SOURCE Costa Rican Investment Promotion Agency

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[July 27, 2017] J M Smith Corporation, South Carolina's Third-Largest Privately Held Company, Names CFO, CTO

The Board of Directors of J M Smith Corporation has confirmed Philip J. Ryan, III as Chief Financial Officer and appointed Kevin Welch to the role of Chief Technology Officer. Ryan will also assume the role of Treasurer following the retirement of James C. Wilson, Jr. on October 1, 2017. Wilson has been employed with the company since 1987, serving first as controller before being elected Treasurer and then being named CFO. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005886/en/ Phil Ryan, CFO, J M Smith Corporation (Photo: Business Wire) "These appointments are significant steps on the path towards leadership excellence and operational excellence. Both Phil and Kevin are highly respected experts in their fields," said Alan Turfe, Chairman and CEO, J M Smith Corporation. "Their passion for our organization and their vision for moving it forward are impressive. I am looking forward to working with them in their expanded roles. "The Board of Directors and I also greatly appreciate the years of service Jimmy Wilson has given to the company and wish him all the best in his retirement," stated Turfe. "Jimmy will continue in his role on the J M Smith Foundation Board, and he andhis wife Judy will continue their volunteer work in the community. Not only are Judy and Jimmy pillars in our community, but they have become dear friends to me and my family. Their kind, giving spirits are an inspiration to us all."



"For the past 30 years, Jimmy Wilson has been integral to the success of J M Smith Corporation," said Paula Harper Bethea, Governance Committee Chair, J M Smith Corporation Board of Directors. "His intellect, insights and character have been invaluable to the company and to those of us who have served with him and learned from him. He is a remarkable gentleman and we shall all miss him greatly." As CFO, Ryan has direct responsibility for the finance arenas of each of our business units as well as the corporation as a whole. The Vice Presidents of Finance for each of the business units will report to him. Ryan joined J M Smith Corporation in 2011, following a successful career with Sealed Air Corporation. During his tenure at J M Smith Corporation, he has been a key member of the team that handled the acquisitions of Radiate in Charleston, SC; Integra in Anacortes, WA; and Burlington Drug Company in Milton, VT. He holds a BS from Lehigh University, an MBA from New York University and is a Certified Public Accountant.

Welch, who will maintain his role as President of Integra LTC Solutions, will also assume the role of Chief Technology Officer for all of J M Smith Corporation. In the CTO role, he will oversee the development of new technology within the J M Smith Corporation, streamlining the process of bringing technology to market. Welch became part of J M Smith Corporation with the acquisition of the company he founded in 1997, Integra. Welch holds degrees in Mathematics, Computer Science, Operations Research and Engineering Management from Stanford University and has served in senior positions at Genentech, Symantec and Microsoft (News - Alert). During his career he has designed and developed many industry leading software applications and systems. "J M Smith Corporation has a long history of providing innovative technology to the market," said Welch. "The role of a CTO is to ensure that we are positioned to continue to have a technological edge. I am looking forward to this new challenge." ABOUT J M SMITH CORPORATION J M Smith Corporation, headquartered in Spartanburg, is South Carolina's third-largest privately owned company. Today, the corporation is focused in the areas of health care and technology, and operates through multiple business units, including Smith Drug Company, QS/1, Integral Solutions Group, RxMedic Systems, Integra LTC Solutions and Burlington Drug Company. For more information, visit www.JMSmithCorp.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005886/en/

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[July 26, 2017] McMurdo Satellite Search and Rescue Technology Selected by Singapore

Latest Asia-Pacific Win Builds Regional Momentum SOPHIA-ANTIPOLIS, France, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Orolia, through its McMurdo brand, the most trusted name in emergency readiness and response, announced today that the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS) and the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) have selected McMurdo's Medium-altitude Earth Orbit Search and Rescue (MEOSAR) ground system to support Singapore search and rescue missions. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/398403/McMurdo_Logo.jpg This initiative will deliver the latest Search and Rescue Satellite-aided Tracking (SARSAT) technology to the Singapore Search and Rescue Region, providing accurate, reliable data for search and rescue crews to locate people in distress within minutes, thereby minimizing the time spent in distress conditions. As part of the MEOSAR ground system contract, McMurdo will deliver a six-channel Medium-altitude Earth Orbit LocalUser Terminal (MEOLUT) system, including hardware, installation, systems integration, testing, commissioning, training and program management services. The contract also includes delivery of McMurdo's PRISMA MCCNet, which provides a complete Cospas-Sarsat commissionable Mission Control Center; and PRISMA RCCNet, a command and control platform for SAR incidents.



"Singapore has always envisaged adopting new technologies to enhance its search and rescue system and leveraging the MEOSAR system's capability to detect beacons more quickly," said Chris Loizou, Chief Business Development Officer for Orolia. "McMurdo is proud to continue its 12-year relationship with Singapore in providing the latest search and rescue technology to help save lives." McMurdo is the global leader in MEOSAR satellite technology and the only provider of end-to-end solutions for search and rescue, from distress beacons to satellite ground infrastructure to mission control centers and rescue coordination centers. Half of the world's MEOSAR satellite ground infrastructure has been installed by McMurdo, as well as the manufacture of 25 percent of the world's 500,000 registered beacons.

About Orolia

Orolia is the world leader in resilient positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) solutions that improve the reliability, performance and safety of critical, remote or high-risk operations. Through its leading brands, McMurdo, Kannad, Sarbe, Spectracom and Spectratime, Orolia has locations in more than 100 countries worldwide. With expertise in maritime, defense and space applications, Orolia provides virtually fail-safe GPS/GNSS and PNT products and solutions for its customers' most mission-critical needs. www.orolia.com Press Contact:

Jennifer Hewitt

Boscobel Marketing Communications, Inc. on behalf of McMurdo

Mobile: +1 571-388-8671

[email protected] SOURCE McMurdo

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[July 26, 2017] Tenet Diagnostics Appoints Scott Howell, MD, MPH & TM, CPE, Expert in Clinical Outcomes, Economics and Public Health, as New Chief Medical Officer

Tenet Diagnostics (Tenet), providers of high-quality laboratory and genomic testing and evidence-based research designed to direct patient care for clinicians, employers and payers, is pleased to announce the appointment of Scott Howell, M.D., MPH &TM, CPE, as Chief Medical Officer. Dr. Howell brings extensive managed care experience with health plans, most recently as executive medical director at Heritage Provider Network, a fully delegated medical group. An acclaimed physician with over 25 years of clinical experience in medicine, public health and addiction, he continues to practice at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center's Department of Addiction Medicine. With years of business experience and recognition as a clinical thought leader, Dr. Howell will advance Tenet's goals to partner with physicians, provide prescriber education and offer accessible, reliable and rapid testing, helping to strengthen the Company's commitment to help achieve the highest quality patient care and outcomes. Prior to Heritage Provider Network, Dr. Howell served as national senior medical director and chief medcal officer, Network and Population Health, Optum Insight, regional chief medical officer, Northeast Region of Americhoice, Inc., and national medical director of the Managed Care, AIDS Healthcare Foundation, with responsibility for international consulting in Russia, Ukraine, Guatemala, Honduras and Haiti. Previously, Dr. Howell was medical director for the Broward Addiction and Recovery Center in Broward County, Florida, with oversight of a 40-bed detoxification center, 100-bed residential unit and over 5,000 outpatient visits per year in a public-funded setting.



After serving the U.S. military for 25 years, Dr. Howell is currently on military reserve assignment with the Office of Secretary of Defense at the Department of Defense Inspector General, concentrating on the Wounded Warrior Program, BioAssurity and Ebola Outbreak Assessment. He earned a Master's in Economics from the University of Miami, a Master's in Public Health and Tropical Medicine from Tulane University, a Master's in Business Administration (MBA) from California State University Fresno, and is certified by the American College of Physician Executives as a Certified Physician Executive (CPE).

Tenet is at the forefront of genomic testing, helping employers, payers and clinicians access this timely and accurate diagnostics tool to improve prescribing safety, enhance clinical outcomes and mitigate adverse drug reactions. About Tenet Diagnostics Tenet Diagnostics offers fast, accurate, high-quality laboratory and genomic testing to hospitals, clinics and physicians' offices to help them provide the best patient care. As collaborators with employers, payers and clinicians, we offer an extensive range of testing services, including specialized diagnosis, screening and evaluation for a host of conditions and diseases related to orthopedics, pain management, primary care and oncology. Tenet Diagnostics has been accredited by the College of American Pathologists (CAP) to ensure the highest standard of care for patients. Visit http://www.tenetdiagnostics.com View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726005736/en/

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Man arrested on human trafficking charge

A Nuwakot man has been arrested in a human trafficking case which took place in 2008. Man Bahadur Tamang of Ghyangfedi in Dupcheshwor-1 was arrested from his home on Monday for trafficking then 11-year-old female victim to India on a pretext of taking her to Kathmandu for a job, District Police Office said.
[July 26, 2017] ClipperData Responds To Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih's Statement On Finding "Credible Export Data" To Backstop New OPEC Export Claims

ClipperData offers its Global Crude Weekly Report to serious oil market participants wanting granular global cargo data and intelligence NEW YORK, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ClipperData LLC, the global leader in real-time tracking of crude oil and petroleum product flows, today announced a no-cost trial of its Global Crude Oil Report to help serious market participants assess crude oil supplies at what could turn out to be a turning point for the oil market. Logo - http://mma.prnewswire.com/media/511220/ClipperData_Logo.jpg At the St. Petersburg meeting of oil producers, Saudi Oil Minister Khalid Al-Falih's said: "Exports have now become the key metric for financial markets, and we need to find a way to reconcile credible export data with production data in our monitoring." "We have been almost alone in pointing to credible export data as the key metric all year, so we are happy to see the Saudi oil minister agrees," sys Matt Smith, Head of Research for ClipperData. "Our cargo tracking data is both comprehensive and accurate. If you get this wrong by relying on the wrong source, it's a big problem for traders  and the market."



For those who wish to stay abreast of OPEC and other global crude oil flows and market-moving trends, ClipperData is offering a no-cost trial of its flagship Global Crude Weekly Report. This report details current and projected cargo flows  including Middle East exports to the U.S.  along with a host of trends, from OPEC to Venezuela to China. For those participating in the Global Crude Weekly Report trial, ClipperData will make their senior analysts available to discuss current market trends and likely future U.S. imports, based on the "credible export data" Minister Falih is calling for.

Click here to request your no-cost three-week subscription to ClipperData's Global Crude Weekly Report. ABOUT CLIPPERDATA ClipperData, headquartered in New York City, holds exclusive partnerships with the U.S. Customs & Border Patrol and Inchcape Shipping Services, the world's largest port agent. ClipperData offers the industry's most comprehensive database of waterborne  oceangoing, inland barge, ship-to-ship and floating storage  flows of all crude oil and petroleum products worldwide. ClipperData delivers unrivalled real-time transparency: by ship, grade, API gravity, volume, load/discharge port and dock, along with consignee information. www.clipperdata.com PRESS INQUIRIES, PLEASE CONTACT:

David Francoeur, Chief Marketing Officer

617 852 8868  [email protected] SOURCE ClipperData LLC

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[July 26, 2017] Foxconn Selects Wisconsin with Commitment to High-Tech Manufacturing

Foxconn Technology Group (News - Alert) (Foxconn), has announced this afternoon that the company will be building a high-tech display manufacturing plant and technology campus in Southeastern Wisconsin. The 8K liquid crystal display (LCD) screens manufactured at the campus will enable new medical solutions for surgical procedures and has the potential to reduce the cost of healthcare. "BioForward and Wisconsin's biohealth community welcomes Foxconn to the state and looks forward to opportunities for collaboration," said Lisa Johnson, CEO of BioForward Wisconsin. "Attracting a technology leader such as Foxconn will benefit Wisconsin in numerous ways from high-tech job opportunities, industry collaborations, and benefiting Wisconsin's extensive state-wide supply chain." Wisconsin's biohealth industry also relies heavily on high-tech manufacturers throughout the state. Amongst several notable international investments in Wisconsin, attracting Foxconn to the state further showcases Wisconsin as a technology and manufacturing leader. Foxconn Technology Group is a multi-dimensional company with not only a focus in manufacturing, but also a large healthare division. Terry Gou, Chairman of Foxconn, has demonstrated his commitment to advancing healthcare with large investments in Taipei's Cancer Center and providing major funding to medical research.



With Foxconn's decision to invest in Wisconsin for display manufacturing comes the possibility of research partnerships, high-tech healthcare manufacturing, and employment for Wisconsin's concentration of STEM-educated workforce. Foxconn has a history of investments in high-tech healthcare and technology initiatives. The state of Wisconsin presents additional opportunities for partnership in similar initiatives such as Wisconsin's Biomanufacturing Center of Excellence. "We're thrilled Foxconn has chosen Wisconsin for the 8K display manufacturing plant and technology campus, and we're excited to develop this relationship with Foxconn to further support their interest in healthcare as part of their U.S. expansion strategy," said Lisa Johnson.

For more information and formal statements, please contact Lisa Johnson at (608)-236-4753, or email [email protected]. About BioForward Wisconsin BioForward serves as the independent voice of Wisconsin's biohealth industry, providing services and resources to support the growth of our industry throughout the U.S. and the world. BioForward is the only Wisconsin organization representing over 200 biohealth member companies including biotech, biopharma, medical device, diagnostics, digital health, as well as research institutions, and service providers. Our focus in 2017 is advocating on behalf of Wisconsin's industry strength in integrated health solutions and research. We have implemented a Strength of Wisconsin Biohealth campaign and placed emphasis that BioForward represents this impactful industry for the state of Wisconsin. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170726006467/en/

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[July 27, 2017] LVNL and Aireon Sign Agreement to Evaluate Space-Based ADS-B in Dutch Airspace

Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) will work on a concept of operations to improve efficiency in the Amsterdam Flight Information Region including the North Sea. MCLEAN, Virginia, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Aireon announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL), the Dutch Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP). LVNL operates the Amsterdam Flight Information Region (FIR), which extends above Dutch territory and a large part of the North Sea. LVNL will collaborate with Aireon to assess how space-based ADS-B can act as a more efficient and cost-effective secondary and contingency air traffic surveillance system in their terrestrial airspace. In addition, it will investigate Aireon's ability to provide real-time position updates in areas like the North Sea where LVNL has significant helicopter operations for oil and gas. Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/539586/Aireon_Logo.jpg LVNL operates in one of Europe's busiest FIRs, which includes Amsterdam Schiphol Airport, third largest airport in Europe by market share as of 2016, and features 322 direct worldwide destinations offered by 108 different airlines, including home carrier KLM. In 2016, LVNL managed approximately 590,000 aircraft movements in the Netherlands. LVNL will work with Aireon to develop a comprehensive concept of operations for the deployment of space-based ADS-B. A benefits analysis will also be created to fully understand the cost-savings LVNL can provide to stakeholders and customers. "LVNL is collaborating with Aireon to see if we can take advantage of the innovation of space-based AD-B," said Marcel Bakker, General Manager Systems and Infrastructure, LVNL. "We believe the AireonSM service will become an important augmentation to existing air traffic surveillance technologies to improve availability and efficiency to our customers. LVNL wants to ensure that all the stakeholders benefit from this best-in-class technology."



"The dense, complex Dutch airspace and high traffic volume requires LVNL to consistently focus on increasing efficiency and safety through innovation," said Cyriel Kronenburg, vice president, aviation services, Aireon. "Aireon is pleased to work with LVNL to determine the applicability of space-based ADS-B in the Amsterdam FIR and add to improving overall infrastructure efficiency in the Netherlands." Aireon announced on 25 June 2017 the successful launch and deployment of the second batch of 10 Iridium NEXT satellites, carrying its space-based ADS-B payloads. The second launch increased the total number of Aireon payloads in orbit to 20, with another 55 set for space in a series of six additional launches planned over the next twelve months.

For more information about Aireon, visit: www.aireon.com. For more information about LVNL, visit www.lvnl.nl/en. About Aireon LLC Aireon is deploying a space-based air traffic surveillance system for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast (ADS-B) equipped aircraft throughout the entire globe. Aireon will harness next-generation aviation surveillance technologies that are currently ground-based and, for the first time ever, extend their reach globally to significantly improve efficiency, enhance safety, reduce emissions and provide cost savings benefits to all stakeholders. Real-time ADS-B surveillance will cover oceanic, polar and remote regions, as well as augment existing ground-based systems that are limited to terrestrial airspace. In partnership with leading ANSPs from around the world, like NAV CANADA, the Irish Aviation Authority (IAA), ENAV and Naviair, as well as Iridium Communications, Aireon will have an operational, global, space-based air traffic surveillance system by 2018. For more information about Aireon, visit www.aireon.com. Press Office Aireon

Jessie Hillenbrand

+1 (703) 287-7452

[email protected] About Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL)

Air Traffic Control the Netherlands (LVNL) is in charge of providing air traffic control services in the civil airspace of the Netherlands. Each year we handle more than 590.000 flights safe and efficient. LVNL is integrated into the Central European Functional Airspace Block (FABEC) and employs around 900 people. LVNL provides air traffic control services for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, Rotterdam The Hague Airport, Groningen Airport Eelde, Maastricht Aachen Airport and en-route. For more information about LVNL, visit www.lvnl.nl/en. Press Office LVNL

Maj-Britt van Raalte

Tel.: +31 (0) 6 51 99 34 14

[email protected] SOURCE Aireon

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[July 27, 2017] PayPal Executive Takes the Helm of Entersekt's Central European Operation

Entersekt has welcomed Jonathan Knoll in his new role as country manager for Central Europe. Operating out of Munich, Germany, Knoll will head operations and manage business development in the region, where the global leader in push authentication and omni-channel security already counts several significant institutional customers. This Smart News Release features multimedia. View the full release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005046/en/ Jonathan Knoll - Country Manager, Central Europe (Photo: Business Wire) Knoll has over 25 years of experience in business development, marketing, strategy, and sales in the United States and Europe. As an industry expert, he has broad knowledge of the digital payments and financial services industries.



Prior to joining Entersekt, Knoll was director of financial services strategic partnerships at PayPal (News - Alert), where he was responsible for the strategic partnerships with leading financial institutions in the United States and EMEA. For PayPal, Knoll co-developed the global FI Playbook and bank partnership strategy, and negotiated contracts with leading global and regional banks and trading partners. He has also held a number of leadership positions at innovation-driven companies, such as S1 Corporation, Sun Microsystems (News - Alert), and Ziff Davis. "Digitization, more sophisticated hacking attacks, and regulations like PSD2 are forcing banks to search for new authentication solutions that are absolutely secure but at the same time offer the highest level of user-friendliness," said Knoll. "Entersekt's technology is the perfect mixture of both. It already protects millions of devices and transactions every day and meets the most stringent regulatory requirements worldwide. I am excited to support Entersekt's continued success in Europe."

"We are delighted to have won such a qualified industry expert for Entersekt, which will give new impetus to our growth specifically in the DACH region as well as the rest of Central Europe," said Schalk Nolte, CEO of Entersekt. Knoll holds a Bachelor's degree in psychology and German, as well as a Master's degree in International Management. About Entersekt

Entersekt is an innovator in push-based authentication and app security. The company's one-of-a-kind approach harnesses the power of digital certificate technology with the convenience of mobile phones to provide financial services companies and their customers with full protection from online fraud. Built on open technologies for high availability, scalability, and simple integration, Entersekt's patented security products protect millions of devices and transactions daily, while complying with the world's most stringent regulatory guidelines. Enterprises across the globe look to Entersekt to strengthen the bond of trust they share with their customers, and to build on those relationships by introducing compelling, user-friendly new mobile and online services. For more information on Entersekt, visit www.entersekt.com. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005046/en/

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[July 27, 2017] Mastercard Incorporated Second-Quarter 2017 Financial Results Available on Company's Website

Mastercard Incorporated (NYSE:MA) today announced its financial results for its second quarter of 2017 through an earnings release that is available on the company's Investor Relations website at www.mastercard.com/investor. The earnings release will be furnished with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC (News - Alert)) on a Form 8-K and available here. At 9:00 a.m. ET today, the company will host a conference call to discuss these financial results. The dial-in information for this call is 844-579-6824 (within the U.S.) and 763-488-9145 (outside the U.S.), and the passcode is 44659602. A replay of the call will be available for 30 days and can be accessed by dialing 855-859-2056 (within the U.S.) and 404-537-3406 (outside the U.S.), using passcode 44659602. This call and all related materials can also be accessed through the Mastercard Investor Relations website at http://investor.mastercard.com/investor-relations/events-and-presentations/default.aspx.



About Mastercard Incorporated Mastercard (NYSE:MA), www.mastercard.com, is a technology company in the global payments industry. We operate the world's fastest payments processing network, connecting consumers, financial institutions, merchants, governments and businesses in more than 210 countries and territories. Mastercard products and solutions make everyday commerce activities - such as shopping, traveling, running a business and managing finances - easier, more secure and more efficient for everyone. Follow us on Twitter (News - Alert) @MastercardNews, join the discussion on the Beyond the Transaction Blog and subscribe for the latest news on the Engagement Bureau.

View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727005742/en/

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[July 27, 2017] The Beyond Burger Breaks Through to the Meat Section at Kroger, the Largest U.S. Grocery Chain

Beyond Meat, a leader in plant-based protein, announces today that The Beyond Burger will be available within the meat case at more than 600 Kroger-owned stores, one of the largest grocery retailers in the world. Tapping into a growing consumer trend that has attracted the attention and support of meat industry titans like Tyson Foods, who own a 5% stake in Beyond Meat, the expansion into Kroger marks a more than tripled distribution growth of The Beyond Burger within two months' time and reflects an increased demand for plant-based protein among mainstream consumers. "At Beyond Meat, our focus is on building meat directly from plants--juicy, delicious, satiating meat that also delivers the upside of plant-based protein," said Beyond Meat's CEO Ethan Brown. "We are grateful to see Kroger place the Beyond Burger in the meat aisle, where consumers are accustomed to shopping for burgers and believe this is an important step in broadening the way people think about, and define, meat." Starting today, The Beyond Burger will begin to roll out in 605 select Kroger-owned stores across 13 states within four of Kroger's key banners: Fred Meyer, King Soopers, Kroger and Ralph's: Fred Meyer (AK, ID, OR and WA)

King Soopers (CO, UT and WY)

Kroger (AL, GA, MI, OH and SC)

Ralph's (CA (News - Alert)) The multi-state roll out will begin with Ralph's, King Soopers and Kroger stores, with Fred Meyer locations coming online in early August. The full roll-out is expected to take a few weeks' time so consumers are encouraged to call ahead to their local store to ensureThe Beyond Burger is in stock. For a full list of participating Kroger stores that will carry The Beyond Burger, visit the Beyond Meat blog.



Answering consumer's growing health and environmental concerns, the break-through Beyond Burger looks, cooks and satisfies like a traditional hamburger, but with all the upsides of plant-based protein, including nearly half the saturated fat and being naturally cholesterol free. Boasting 20g of protein, the Beyond Burger contains no GMOs, soy or gluten. Most recently, the Beyond Burger was added to the menus at BurgerFi and Epic Burger, two of the nation's leading gourmet burger concepts, as well as to the meat aisle at 23 Heinen's Fine Foods locations, a family-owned grocery chain with stores throughout Ohio and Illinois. Coupled with added expansion into Whole Food's South Region, as well as distribution at Safeway stores throughout Northern California, Northern Nevada and Hawaii, The Beyond Burger is on a sizzling streak to bring plant-based protein to the masses.

About Beyond Meat Based in Los Angeles, California, Beyond Meat is a privately held company with a mission of building meat directly from plants. Investors include Bill Gates (News - Alert), Twitter co-founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams, Kleiner Perkins, former McDonald's CEO Don Thompson, Honest Tea founder Seth Goldman, Humane Society of the United States, and Tyson Foods. To stay up to date on the latest, visit www.BeyondMeat.com and follow @BeyondMeat, #BeyondBurger and #FutureOfProtein on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20170727006117/en/

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[July 27, 2017] Jack County Upgrades to Verity Voting System

JACKSBORO, Texas, July 27, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- Election technology in Jack County is taking a giant step forward thanks to County Commissioners' approval of Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting, an all-new system designed to be flexible, easy to use and secure. Initially motivated to improve the technology and process for voter check-in at the polling place, County Clerk Vanessa James recommended a complete technology refresh. The purchase of Verity, along with new electronic poll books and Hart's innovative AutoBallot kit, will streamline check-in and automate ballot assignment. For voters, this means shorter lines and the assurance of receiving the correct ballot. "Our poll books were reaching the end of their lifetime. Using Verity with our new poll books, we can cut down on the chance of human error. As voters sign in, we'll get an individual bar code to scan and make sure they have the right ballot. What a relief," James said. "Our commissioners agreed and acted quickly." Jack County has about 5,000 registered voters and is one of the earliest Hart voting system partners in Texas. With this upgrade, they join a growing number of jurisdictions acting now to prepare for November's election by replacing aging equipment during the summer. "We have worked withJack County since 2005, and we appreciate their trust in Hart. Verity is a great solution for meeting stakeholders' needs now and in the future. We are committed to the County's successful adoption of their new system," said Phillip Braithwaite, President and CEO of Hart InterCivic, an Austin-based company with more than 100 years of election experience. "We will be in Jack County soon to help with training and installation. Voters and poll workers will love Verity's modern approach."



Looking forward to Verity's up-to-date touchscreen voting tablet, James said, "Voters expect the voting tablets to work like their iPhone or iPad. I think voting will go faster because Verity is so easy to use." The system's lightweight, removable tablet and an array of accessibility features accommodate all voters, including those with disabilities. Voters can switch between available ballot languages at any point in the voting process, adjust the font size and/or contrast on the screen, and control both the speed and the volume of the audio if they are using the headphones.

On election night, Verity allows officials to publish results faster, because poll workers close polls on all voting terminals at once and report consolidated totals in just one step; there is no need to collect votes from every device separately. This efficiency is thanks to Hart's unique "controller" model, which provides centralized management of polling place devices. The County's confidence in Hart made the decision to transition to the new system easy, James added. "Hart customer service is great. They have a reputation. When I meet other election officials, those with Hart are happy. Those without Hart, want Hart." Since the Texas Secretary of State certified the latest release of Hart InterCivic's Verity Voting system in mid-December, 16 Texas counties have purchased the state-of-the-art system. Federally certified in 2015, the secure and efficient system is also in use in numerous counties throughout the U.S. Braithwaite expects more Texas announcements in the coming weeks. Learn more about Verity in Texas: http://www.hartintercivic.com/texas4verity. About Hart InterCivic, Inc. Austin-based Hart InterCivic is a full service election solutions innovator, partnering with state and local governments to deliver secure, accurate and reliable elections. Working side-by-side with election professionals for more than 100 years, Hart is committed to helping advance democracy one election at a time. Hart's mission fuels its passionate customer focus and a continuous drive for technological innovation. The company's new Verity Voting system makes voting more straightforward, equitable and accessibleand makes managing elections more transparent, more efficient and easier. Only Hart offers a completely new, certified voting system with both electronic and paper options. View original content with multimedia:http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/jack-county-upgrades-to-verity-voting-system-300495157.html SOURCE Hart InterCivic, Inc.

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Rex Early, longtime Republican leader in Indiana, has died

Rex Early was chairman of the Indiana Republican Party and led former president Donald Trump's campaign in Indiana in 2016.
Meet the girl whose act captured our imagination

The photograph of a schoolgirl trying to pull out a wheelchair-bound man out of the waterlogged street in Bouddha, published on the front page of the Mondays edition of The Kathmandu Post, has captured the imagination of many social media users.
New Civil Aviation Bill aims to break up Caan

The Tourism Ministry has finalised a draft Civil Aviation Bill which proposes splitting the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (Caan) into two entities, regulator and service provider.
The National Weather Service issues a warning for Kansas City, Parkville and Gladstone. A flash flood warning issued for parts of the Kansas City metro area is in effect until 1:45 a.m. Thursday.





"Thunderstorms with very heavy rain are possible this evening and overnight with rainfall rates that may exceed 2 inches per hour in the heaviest storms. Total rainfall amounts of 1 to 3 inches are possible, with locally higher amounts."

More weather drama for the overnight as a few locals don't even have their power on yet.Take a look:Developing . . .
Danny Tartabull was finally arrested by police Wednesday after more than five years on the run. The former New York Yankees and Kansas City Royals outfielder was caught after he called the cops, according to TMZ. Tartabull wasn't calling police to turn himself in, though.
Like it or not, most of the Internets, social media chatter and MSM reaction to Prez Trump's reinstatement of a Trans military ban has been overwhelmingly negative and Kansas City is no exception.There might very well be a lot of people who support the ban but their support has been tacit and mostly quiet while the outrage has been put on blast . . .Take a look at some of the top local reactions:"President Donald Trump announced transgender individuals will not be allowed to serve in the military. This is a significant shift in policy from the previous administration."As we are a community center (versus an advocacy organization), we can only recommend for you to express your viewpoint on this matter to your respective US Representative, Senator, or directly to the White House. Also, if you need to talk to someone about this policy change, please reach out and we can put you in touch with local counseling services."We are strong together."#####Finally, from your social media feed andfrom all of your cool friends . . .Of course, anony comments from the shadows support the Prez on this one as well . . . The most intriguing critical comparison I've read so far compares Trans people needing hormone therapy to diabetics who require insulin - Mostly precluded from service in the military. However,You decide . . .
A Kansas City man was sentenced to life in prison plus 15 years after he was convicted of molesting and sodomizing a 9-year-old. A Jackson County jury in May convicted 45-year-old Mark A. Powell of first-degree child molestation and first-degree statutory sodomy. He was sentenced Wednesday by a Jackson County judge.
Sale Price For Kansas City Star Buildings Reflects Newspapers' Declining Fortunes When it opened in 2006, The Kansas City Star Press Pavilion was hailed as a major contribution to the revitalization of downtown and the latest technology in the newspaper industry. The striking 434,000-square-foot building clad in green glass and copper covered two city blocks, rising from four stories along 17th Street to its eight-story prow above the South Loop freeway.

Actually, this bit of propaganda blogging is only half right . . .. But here's public radio attempting to follow our lead.Meanwhile, The Star is basically the Pitch, The Pitch is nearly kaput and people stopped reading news in favor of far more entertaining social media slap fighting. #BlameZuckCheckit:
The Word From Northeast

Northeast Newscast Episode 20 - KC Museum's Anna Marie Tutera on it's temporary new space and construction planning By Paul Thompson This week on the Northeast Newscast, managing editor Paul Thompson invites Kansas City Museum Executive Director Anna Marie Tutera on to serve as the podcast's first ever two-time guest. After celebrating that great honor, Tutera talks about the Museum's new satellite space at 800 Broadway, right across the street from the Historic Garment District Museum (801 Broadway).

Dead-Tree Bunny News

United Airlines is sued over Simon the giant rabbit's death on his way to Kansas City On Wednesday, the three-man investment group in Des Moines, Iowa that owned a giant British rabbit that died on a United Airlines flight headed toward the Midwest sued the airline for unspecified damages. Simon the bunny was on track to become the largest rabbit in the world.

Powerless In KCK

KCK residents still without power worry as future storms loom KANSAS CITY, Kan. -- With more potential storms on the horizon, and some people still without power from Saturday's storm, many are worried their current situation might be prolonged. "Hell. It's been rough. It's been really tough, especially when you have kids to take care of, and there's no air.

Missouri Movie Cheapskates

Why wasn't the Netflix series 'Ozark' filmed in Missouri? - St. Louis Business Journal A state tax credit program for Hollywood expired in November 2013. The title of the Netflix drama "Ozark" is a bit of a misnomer. The show's first season was released on Friday, and takes place in the Lake Ozark region.

More Home Team Hope

Don't sleep on the Kansas City Royals just yet, or for the rest of the year A few weeks ago, I wrote about how the Kansas City Royals should be sellers, not buyers, as the trade deadline approaches. So of course, thanks to me, Kansas City was motivated to go on a winning streak and make a splash in the trade market. You're welcome, Dayton Moore.

rules the Internets and a look at some of the more important Kansas City links tonight . . .And this is thefor right now . . .
KANSAS CITY PUTS CROSSWALK PAINTING ON HOLD DESPITE DEADLY SUMMER PEDESTRIAN CRASHES!!!

Subject: Re: Request for Service to the Kansas City 311 Call Center

"Due to time and manpower constraints, Kansas City can only repaint a limited number of crosswalks per year. If the crosswalk in question is deemed to be to be high priority, it will be added to the list."





I'm curious how much time does it take to repaint a crosswalk?





If the city can find time to put paint over thermo plastic on a road to nowhere (see link below) there is no reason it can't find a couple of hours to repaint a crosswalk leading to an elementary school. Every kid deserves a safe route to shcool. Our city has major issues when we deny children safe routes to school. It is time for KCMO to do some soul searching!

A quick slice of life for the Kansas City afternoon . . .After voters approvedof cash for street and sidewalk repair . . .Here's a look at a reasonable Northland resident suggestion rejected:An example of the trend . . .You decide . . .
Board names Police Chief finalists, sets public forum

Questions must be submitted by 5 p.m. the day of the forum, July 27.



One last reminder before today'sKansas City Police public meeting where all the civic activists turn cheerleader.Take a look:Members of the Kansas City Missouri Board of Police Commissioners announced today that the finalists for the Chief of Police position are Major Rick Smith of the KCPD and Chief Keith Humphrey of the Norman, Okla., Police Department.The Board also announced the two finalists will answer questions from the public in a forum from 6 to 8 p.m. next Thursday, July 27, in the Community Room of Police Headquarters, 1125 Locust St. Community members are encouraged to attend and submit questions for the finalists.Questions may be sent via email to BOPC Secretary/Attorney David Kenner at dkenner@levycraig.com, BOPC President Leland Shurin at LShurin@sls-law.com, or to BOPC Assistant Bethany Ruoff at Bethany.Ruoff@kcpd.org.#######
An electronic platform of an out-of-court mechanism to restructure corporate debt begins operations in Greece on August 3 and the first debt restructuring deals for companies with debts up to 2.0 million euros are expected by the end of the year.

Economy and Development Minister Dimitris Papadimitriou noted that the system will perform two major upgrades in cooperation with systemic banks, government agencies and the Taxis system.

With completion of the first upgrade, by August, the system will incorporate all data of debtors from the Independent Public Revenue Authority, while new upgrades in October will enhance the system with an analytical report of debtors' debts.

The Greek minister stressed that the Labour ministry has been interconnected with the electronic platform and stressed that upgrades would not prevent companies from registering their data on an electronic form. The ministry will also launch a series of seminars and a user information desk.

Private Debt Management special secretary Fotis Kourmousis estimated that the first debt restructuring deals for companies with debts up to 2.0 million euros were expected by the end of the year. Kourmousis said procedures for this category of debt will not exceed two months, while for larger companies more time would be needed. "We say to everyone, start quickly to have a restructuring of your debt the soonest possible," Kourmousis said, adding that around 150,000 companies have debts to banks, while 400,000 companies have debts to banks and the state.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright: Europa credito urgente License: CC-BY-SA

Source: ANA-MPA
More than 1,500 business and community leaders in Australia are expected to attend the events

The Hellenic Initiative Australia has announced it will be hosting One Greece 2017, a series of events that will take place throughout October 2017 across five major cities in Australia, with an aim at harnessing the strength and resources of the Hellenic diaspora for the benefit of Greece and its people.

More than 1,500 business and community leaders in Australia are expected to attend the events, with the premiere being held at the Sydney Town Hall on Friday, 6 October 2017.

Greece is a nation that has given much to the modern world. And yet, Greece has become a country commonly defined by the economic challenges it has faced. The Greek people, and the Greek ideal, deserve better and we, as members of the Hellenic diaspora, or simply as philhellenes, can play our part, notes THI Australia.

One Greece 2017 is a call to come together to help write a new chapter for Greece. Events will feature international speakers who share these ideals and who are currently working within Greece, with the Greek people. Both Greek and philhellene, they will share their moving experiences of the work they are doing to help Greece rebuild  from within, they continue.

The events will include impressive guest speakers, including Princess Tatiana, THI International Ambassador, noted humanitarian and philanthropist, and Alexander Theodoridis, the inspirational co-founder of Boroume, an innovative food saving charity delivering outstanding results.

This is the first time a series of national events has been held in Australia in support of Greece. It is a splendid opportunity for the Greek-Australian diaspora to demonstrate its abiding concern for the people of Greece, and I encourage as many as possible to attend events in their respective cities, stresses President of The Hellenic Initiative Australia, Nicholas G Pappas AM.

With events in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Adelaide and Darwin, One Greece 2017 promises to be an engaging series of events that will boost awareness and elicit support for The Hellenic Initiative Australias efforts focused on crisis relief, entrepreneurship and economic development within Greece.

Read more here.

RELATED TOPICS: Greece, Greek tourism news, Tourism in Greece, Greek islands, Hotels in Greece, Travel to Greece, Greek destinations , Greek travel market, Greek tourism statistics, Greek tourism report

Photo Source: Wikimedia Commons Copyright:Tilemahos Efthimiadis License: CC-BY-SA

Source: greekcitytimes.com

Visit onegreece.com.au here
Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has announced the completion of the first electricity substation that serves the Qatar Rail Company in Ras Abu Fontas area.



The plant will provide the Doha Metro project with electricity.



Kahramaa, in collaboration with the entire working team and Qatar Rail, achieved operational works of the substation 132/33 kV last week. The project took 16 months to complete, it said.



The plant will be supplied power from Al Thumama Super Station and the generation plant at Ras Abu Fontas.

The substation was designed with two separate systems for operation. The first one is a 132 kV system that will be operated by Kahramaa and the second system of 33 kV will be operated by Q-Rail.



Kahramaa plans to construct four more new substations (including one 220/132/33 kV substation) and work is expected to start before the end of December 2017. - TradeArabia News Service
National Iranian Drilling Company (NIDC) drilled one exploration, 22 development and appraisal and 31 workover wells in the four-month period from mid-March to mid-July, said a top official.



"Of this figure, 40 wells were located in the operational territory of National Iranian South Oil Company, four pertained to Iranian Offshore Oil Company, nine were drilled within the framework of production projects undertaken by Petroleum Engineering and Development Company and one was drilled at the order of National Iranian Oil Company's Exploration Directorate, Hamidreza Khoshayand, deputy head of NIDC for drilling operations, was quoted as saying in an Iran Daily report, which cited ISNA.



The company has performed more than 96,000 meters of drilling operations during the four-month period, he added.



Khoshayand noted that currently, NIDC owns 74 light, heavy and ultra-heavy onshore (71) and offshore (three) drilling rigs, adding more than 15 per cent of the company's rigs are currently operating in Iranian oilfields shared with neighbouring states.
Saudia Holidays, the newly-launched holidays division of Saudi Arabian Airlines (Saudia), will be showcasing its full range of travel packages during a two-day event at the Panorama mall in Riyadh.



Taking place at Riyadhs Panorama mall from July 27 to 28 from 17:00  23:00 hrs on both days, visitors are welcome to discover the large variety of pre-packaged and customizable holidays.



Saudia Holidays representatives will be available onsite to answer any enquiries and also make bookings on the spot for families wishing to plan and reserve their summer and Eid-al Adha holiday travels.



Visitors can also avail a one-time special discount of 10 per cent on the total package price when booking holidays at the exhibition.



In addition, visitors stand a chance to win a three-night hotel stay at the LUX resort and a pair of Business Class return airfare on the airlines inaugural flight to the island destination  Mauritius. An entry ballot can be filled out when visiting the Saudia Holidays exhibition on July 27 and 28.



Through its partnership with Expedia Affiliate Network (EAN), Saudia Holidays offers guests access to more than 225,000 quality hotel accommodations in over 29,000 destinations, including Dubai, London, Paris and New York.



Saudia Holidays also offers access to 175,000 quality car rental vendors across 30,000 locations in addition to 50,000 tours and activities, enabling guests to select their ideal package of flight with hotel and/or vehicle and tours. - TradeArabia News Service
Reviving a river

Rampant population growth and urbanisation have dealt a death blow to the Bagmati
Nadova Tours had an on-air talk with The Great Destinations Radio Show about "Staying Safe In Vietnam"



(TRAVPR.COM) VIETNAM - July 27th, 2017 - In the talk, Mr Hai Nguyen  tour guide from Nadova Tours share some useful tips for travelers on avoiding rip-off taxis, how to haggle with vendors, how to behave right in religious places and how to safely cross the road without being run over by one of the huge number of motorbikes.



Hai also share the experience in shopping in Vietnam, how to bargain to get the best price. Many things in Vietnam are also handmade, so if you like an item and you can afford it, just buy it! Because you may not see the same thing again.



He also suggest tourist must try the Vietnamese food as much as they can because Vietnamese food is so delicious, especially the street food.



But overall, he remind tourist to remember that they are on holidays. Sometimes you have to throw away your trouble or forget the fixed itinerary, you will learn more about the culture by adjusting to the local pace.

Nadova Tours is the English travel brand name of Viajeindochina  a highly reputable and reliable tour operator in Vietnam and Indochina since 2009. Nadova Tours expertise in private and fully customized tour packages in Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar. Our tours are well designed to match all your travel preferences and needs. Nadova Tours aims to help people travel in a safe, easy and worry-free way, creating the best possible cultural experience for customers, whist providing this with competitive and reasonable prices.



Vietnam is a beautiful country of rice paddies, cyclos, water buffaloes and tasty food. When people first travel to the country, they know very little about it all but in a couple of days in Vietnam, people will learn quickly. However, there are few things if the tourists know about before packing their bag to travel to Vietnam will make their trip so smooth and trouble-free.

The Great Destinations Radio Show launched in May 2016. The weekly show is aimed at 35-64 year old travellers. It airs in one and two-hour versions on around sixty UK radio stations. You can hear us on FM, AM or DAB in destinations as diverse as the Scottish Highlands to the Scilly Isles and Norwich to Pembrokeshire. If you once backpacked but now expect some convenience and comfort as you learn about the history, culture, food and unique experiences around the world, this is the show for you. Affordable travel and money saving tips are a strong theme of the programme. Our listeners don't want luxury at any cost!

Please follow the link below for the full on-air talk:

https://www.nadovatours.com/blog/nadova-tours-onair-the-great-destinations-radio-show-uk.html

###
Sajha and Bibeksheel announce unification

The Sajha Party and Bibeksheel Nepali Party on Wednesday formally announced their merger and said the new unified party would be called Bibeksheel Sajha Party.
Thapa demands govt form talks team to address Dr KC's demands

Nepali Congress leader and former Health Minister Gagan Thapa has demanded the government immediately form a talks team to address the demands of fasting Dr Govinda KC.
New Delhi: The government has slapped ONGC, Reliance Industries and Royal Dutch Shell with a demand of $3.9 billion (about Rs 25,487 crore) in dues following an arbitration award in its favour, the state-owned firm said on Thursday. The demand notice pertains to interpretation of the contract for the Panna-Mukta and Tapti (PMT) oil and gas fields in the Arabian Sea. ONGC, which owns 40 per cent stake in PMT fields, said its share out of the demand notice amounts to $1.57 billion, equivalent to Rs 10,195 crore. RIL and Shell hold 30 per cent stake each. PTI

Kia Motors to set up unit in Andhra

New Delhi: South Korean car manufacturer Kia Motors, a subsidiary of Hyundai Motors (Hyundai-Kia Automotive Group), has signed a pact with the Andhra Pradesh Government to build a manufacturing facility in Anantapur district. Kias first production facility in the country represents a US $1.1 billion investment and construction is due to commence later this year. Yong S Kim, Head of Sales and Marketing, Kia Motors India, said, India ranks high in our list of priorities. As part of establishing its presence in the country, the automaker will host roadshows across major cities over the next two months to meet prospective dealers. TNS

Indus Food exports event to be held in Jan

New Delhi: The Trade Promotion Council of India (TPCI), in association with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, is organising Indias first mega global food and beverage trade show Indus Food at Greater Noida on January 18 and 19. The logo and the event website were launched by Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman at an event on Tuesday. Organisers of the trade show said Indus Food would bring together Indian exporters and global buyers to facilitate opportunities for business and mutual benefits contributing to the food industry worldwide. TNS
Nonika Singh

Nonika Singh

MUCH as there have been other bans, humour has not (yet) been banned in India. Not that it is deterring the hypersensitive from retaliating against perceived slights by firing off legal notices, police complaints, or both.

Our story starts with this year's recently concluded IIFA, which may not be one of the best-organised award shows. Most heavyweights, except Salman Khan, might have given the show a miss. But never mind the shortcomings, here is a tribe all set to give it an extra shot at fame.

Sure when Saif Ali Khan and Karan Johar took to stage as the star anchors of the much-hyped awards show at New York, no one expected the proceedings to be a dull affair. Karan Johar, his fans know all too well, is unstoppable when it comes to throwing barbs in various directions. To be fair to him, not only are his wisecracks sardonically funny, he is equally supportive when darts are aimed at him. Of course, his spite with the feisty and voluble Kangana Ranaut dates back to his hugely popular show, Koffee with Karan, which sparked the nepotism debate. Since then, the duo has been locked in a verbal duel every now and then. Johar decided to mock her during IIFA as well and alongwith with star sons Varun Dhawan and Saif Ali Khan, shouted nepotism rocks with heightened glee. Some laughed, others didn't, some called it in bad taste and others dismissed it as just another joke, neither worth a penny nor a thought. Still many took up cudgels on behalf of Kangana and the gutsy gal was not the one to remain mum. But if Kangana put the matter to an end with an open letter to Saif Ali Khan, putting things in perspective, our Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chief Pahlaj Nihalani is not the one to be hushed up so easily.

He has served a legal notice to the IIFA organisers. Ever since the director of little consequence has been elevated as the Censor Board chief, he has ruffled many feathers, courtesy his rather orthodox stance. In response, he has been called many names. Why the epithet sanskari has all but stuck to him. Every once in a while, he vents his ire against his detractors and this time he saw red in the seemingly inoffensive usage of the term "watchman". Had he been the true follower of the masters he purports to serve, he would have turned around the analogy to his advantage. But he thought it better, certainly not wiser, to cry foul. His now-public legal notice demands an unqualified apology from the organisers.

Over the years, awards functions have acquired a reputation for rubbing many (read the rich and famous) the wrong way. Back in time, it was Sanjay Leela Bhansali and his super flop Saawariya that goaded Shah Rukh Khan to take potshots at the otherwise acclaimed director. The result was an extended stalemate between the superstar Khan and the man who directed him in his magnum opus Devdas. Indeed, until the master of roasts AIB, an Indian comedy group, entered the arena, jokes targeting individuals were deemed off-colour and were all but off the radar. With the advent of irreverent AIB, jokes suddenly became personal, political and a tad tasteless and vicious too. The storm that AIB whipped up with its knockout punch featuring celebs such as Arjun Kapoor and Ranveer Singh is too well recorded. The nation knows too well what the expletives-laced funride entailed and why it outraged them. Perhaps, India is not ready for the AIB brand of humour, perhaps roast is too alien a concept for our easily irked and holier-than-thou sensibilities. So an intelligent actor like Tannishtha Chatterjee doesn't find it funny when the joke is on her dark complexion, when AIB targets icons such as Sachin Tendulkar and Lata Mangeshkar, viewers give it the thumbs down.

Clearly, it's not religion alone that is a holy cow in this country. Thin-skinned men and women of varying complexions and sizes are as easily offended, mostly without provocation, and take a high moral ground on issues which are but a laughing matter. AIB tried to rake in the trend of trading insults and make a career out of it with limited success. Ranveer and Arjun may not have taken offence but the rest of India sure does. No wonder Arunabh Kumar of The Viral Fever says, "India is a funny country without a sense of humour."

But before we lose all hope, tune in to the good-old radio where modern-day RJs such as Naved go around merrily minting fun at the expense of others, mostly ordinary mortals. Most such interactions between RJs and their unsuspecting prey (murgas and bakras or guinea pigs if you will have) end up with a hearty laugha joke is after all a joke.

Nihalani and his kind need to realise that there is a thin line between to laugh and being laughed at. Or that laughter and jokes have yet not become illegal in India where other lifestyle choices are fast becoming so. Oops, have we said it too soon? With Nihalani intimidating us with, "I know when to make others cry" who knows laughter might be on its way out too. For in the long list of his ludicrous diktats stands this latest one: a ban on smoking and drinking scenes. But then last heard he might be on his way out too. Long live laughter only if Nihalani and company would develop a funny bone. Till then humorists in India would end up learning it the hard way that the joke invariably turns out to be on them.

nonikasingh@tribunemail.com
Sunit Dhawan

Tribune News Service

Rohtak, July 27

Congress men led by the partys state unit president Ashok Tanwar started a padyatra from Rohtak to Delhi today to press for cow conservation. Cattle rights activist Sant Gopal Das, who had been fasting for the past 55 days for the release of cattle-grazing land, was taken along in a human-driven cart.

The procession, which included cows and bulls, would reach Delhi in three days, with the party men staying in cattle sheds at night. After reaching Delhi, they would stage a demonstration at Jantar Mantar from July 30.

BJP leaders claim to have deep regard and empathy for cows, but have not taken any worthwhile measures for the protection and conservation of cows upon coming to power, said Tanwar.

He stated that he had submitted a memorandum to the Governor regarding Sant Gopal Das campaign for cattle conservation and his deteriorating condition, but to no avail.

Sant Gopal Das remarked that the padyatra might mark the end of his life or of the BJP government. Former minister Subhash Batra said cows continued to be in a pitiable condition despite BJP-led governments at the Centre and in the state.

Meanwhile, Aam Aadmi Party state president Naveen Jaihind paid a visit to Sant Gopal Das this morning and extended support to his campaign. INLD leader Abhay Singh Chautala had visited the cattle rights activist during his recent visit to the town.

The cattle rights activist had been continuing his fast though Chief Minister Manohar Lal had met him in Faridabad recently and assured him of getting his concerns about cows addressed.
Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, July 27

A high incidence of whitefly attack on the cotton crop in various districts of the state has set the alarm bell ringing for farmers and agriculture experts.

A survey by the Sirsa-based Central Institute for Cotton Research (CICR) for North India has revealed that the whitefly attack has crossed the economic threshold level (ETL) in various districts. Depending on the varieties, the count of six to eight whitefly adults per leaf is considered to be the threshold level.

Our survey in Sirsa, Hisar and Fatehabad districts, besides some districts of Punjab and Rajasthan has revealed that the attack is widespread above the ETL level at several places. The count of whitefly insect has been found more than what it was during our last survey. We have alerted the Haryana Agriculture Department that it is the appropriate time to gear up and hold camps to make farmers aware about how to control the insect attack, otherwise, the situation can go out of hand,  says Dr Dilip Monga, Head of the CICR, Sirsa.

He says looking at the weather conditions, the whitefly attack is likely to increase by July 31. The CICR has provided training to agriculture development officers (ADOs) on the gravity of the situation and measures to be taken to control it. From August 6 to 8, the institute will hold training for subject matter specialists (SMSs) of the Agriculture Department, he adds.

Ram Pratap Sihag, Joint Director (Cotton) in the Agriculture Department, admits that the department has received an alert from the CICR and has launched a campaign to educate farmers.

We are telling farmers to use Neem spray on whitefly affected cotton instead of pesticides advised by dealers, says Sihag.

Whitefly damages the cotton crop in two ways: directly by sucking sap from leaves, and indirectly by infecting the crop with cotton leaf curl virus because the insect acts as vector for the virus.

A hot and humid climate, as is being witnessed in cotton producing areas of Sirsa, Hisar, Fatehabad, Jind, Bhiwani and Mahendragarh, is considered conducive for the whitefly attack, says Monga.

He adds if it rains heavily, whitefly will be washed out, but till then farmers have to keep a constant watch and do pest management.
Tribune News Service

Shimla, July 27

BJP workers today held demonstration at booth level to seek resignation of Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh for collapse of law and order situation, especially in the Kotkhai minor rape and murder case and also burnt his effigy.

The BJP has given a 48-hour ultimatum to Chief Minister to resign on moral grounds and announced to burn his effigy and hold demonstration at all the polling booths today.

The call for staging demonstrations at all 7,497 polling booths given by state BJP chief Satpal Singh Satti and former Chief Minister P K Dhumal evoked massive response and thousands of workers participated in the protest, senior BJP leaders claimed.

The BJP has been pressing for the resignation of the Chief Minister for the past few months but its campaign got impetus following rape and murder of a minor girl in Kotkhai. The party is trying to encash public sentiments as people of the area are deeply hurt by the incident. The people are angry over tardy police investigations. The demonstrations have continued even after the handing over of the case to the CBI.

As many as 123 effigies were burnt In Shimla Rural constituency out of which 119 were burnt at booth level and four at ward level while 82 effigies were burnt in Kasumpti constituency (70 at booth level and 12 at ward level. In Shimla Urban constituency 18 effigies were burnt, one in each ward.

Meanwhile, with a view to review the post Parivartan Rath Yatra scenario in the state and chalk out future strategy to intensify the campaign against the Congress government, a three-day meeting of the BJP state executive would be held in Shimla from July 28 to 30.

A meeting of state office bearers would be held on July 28 and a civic reception would be given to newly elected Mayor, Deputy Mayor and BJP counselors of Shimla Municipal Corporation.

The meeting to be chaired by state party chief Satpal Singh Satti will be attended by Union Health Minister J P Nadda, former CM P K Dhumal, former CM and Kangra MP Shanta Kumar, party MPs Virender Kashyap, Anurag Thakur and Ram Swaroop Sharma, besides in charge of party affairs Mangal Panday, organising secretary Pawan Rana and other senior leaders.

Executive meet on July 28-30

With a view to reviewing the post 'Parivartan Rath Yatra' scenario in the state and chalk out future strategy to intensify the campaign against the Congress government, a three-day meeting of the BJP state executive would be held in Shimla from July 28 to 30.
Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 27

Militants fired at an Army patrol in south Kashmir's Shopian district late on Thursday. There was, however, no report of any casualty.

The Army patrol was fired upon by militants at Mantribugh, Shopian, over 55 km from Srinagar when they were withdrawing after a cordon-and-search-operation (CASO) in the area.

After the firing, a cordon has been laid around the area and combing has started to trace the militants, an official said.
Mukesh Ranjan

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, July 27

With a local court granting the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to have seven-day custody of separatist leader Shabir Shah, the probe agency is all set register a separate case against him under the stringent provisions of the Prevention of Money laundering Act (PMLA) and will record his statements, which will stand as evidence in the court of law.

Shah was picked by the ED from Srinagar on Monday night in connection with a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror funding. His arrest assumed significance, as the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has also cracked down on seven other Hurriyat leaders in connection with its probe into terror funding.

Now we have got the permission from the court to have custodial interrogation of Shah. Following the interrogation and recording of his statement, we are planning to register a separate case against him under the stringent provisions of the PMLA. The statement under the Act will be admissible in the court of law as evidence, an ED official confirmed.

Earlier, the Delhi Polices Special Cell had registered an FIR in 2005 against Shah and an alleged hawala dealer, Mohammed Aslam Wani, who after being arrested by the police, had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to the separatist leader.

It is learnt that the enforcement agency is also contemplating to initiate proceedings to attach Shahs property. But, it will attach properties worth only the amount claimed by Wani in his interrogation to the Delhi Police, sources confirmed. So far Shah, however, denied the allegations and claimed that he was already being kept under house arrest. The court had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against Shah after the ED claimed that he was evading summons issued to him in pursuance of the August 2005 case.
Majid Jahangir

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, July 27

After arresting his son-in-law, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) has issued summons to elder son of hardline Hurriyat Conference chairman Syed Ali Shah Geelani in the terror funding case.

The agency today issued summons to Dr Syed Naeem Geelani and 29 others for questioning. Yes, summons have been issued to probe the terror funding case, an NIA officer said. However, Dr Naeem said he had only heard through the media that summons had been issued to him. Nothing officially came to me, he said. During the height of the unrest last year, the NIA had summoned Dr Naeem for questioning too.

Seven separatist leaders, including Geelanis son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah, alias Fantoosh, were arrested and taken to Delhi where they were sent on remand for 10 days.

The NIA will also conduct a lie-detector test on the arrested separatists. The NIA, which also questioned a prominent businessman, Zahoor Watali, is also investigating the Dubai link of hawala transactions.

The agency had registered the case on May 30 against the separatist and secessionist leaders, including the members and cadres of the Hurriyat Conference, who have been acting in connivance with active militants raising, receiving and collecting funds through various illegal means, including hawala, for funding separatist and terrorist activities in Jammu and Kashmir and for causing disruption in the Kashmir valley by way throwing stones on the security forces, burning schools, damaging public property and waging war against the country.
Tribune News Service

Jammu, July 27

Hundreds of employees of the Prime Ministers job package today protested in Jammu against the threat of termination issued by the Directorate of School Education, Kashmir (DSEK), in case they failed to resume their duties in Kashmir within a week.

The employees, mostly displaced Pandit youth who returned to the Valley in 2010 under the Centrally sponsored Prime Ministers package, had to flee Kashmir following attacks by stone-throwers after widespread violence erupted in July 2016 in the aftermath of killing of Hizb militant Burhan Wani.

Under the banner of the All Parties Migrants Coordination Committee (APMCC), the protesters claimed that during their meeting with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and other officials, they were promised that they wont be forced to join till their security concerns were addressed.

The order threatening termination of our services is totally unjustified. At a time when native policemen are being killed by militants, who will guarantee security to us? asked Vinod Pandit, chairman, APMCC.

The protesters also staged a demonstration outside the Relief Commissioners Office and urged him to communicate their concerns to the authorities concerned. They threatened mass resignations and street protests against the unjust order.

The committee also alleged that a majority of the employees had suffered due to stone- throwing and rather than giving a humane consideration to their issues, the employees belonging to the minority community were being harassed. Later, the Relief Commissioner met the agitating employees and promised them that their concerns would be taken up with the DSEK and other authorities.
Khamano, July 27

The Khamano police claimed to have arrested a person with 11 cartons of country-made liquor.

The accused has been identified as Raghvir Singh of Samrala. Sources said a police party, led by Taranjit Singh, intercepted an Indigo coming from the Morinda side. During search, the police recovered 11 cartons of the liquor. A case under the Excise Act has been registered.

Man commits suicide

Phillaur: One Kaka (32) reportedly committed suicide by consuming poison at his house in Phillaur on Wednesday. The deceased was reportedly humiliated after his wife had lodged a complaint with the police following a minor domestic quarrel and committed suicide. A case has been registered. OC
Maj Gen Raj Mehta (retd)

Maj Gen Raj Mehta (retd)

POSTED from the salubrious Defence Services Staff College to a Rashtriya Rifles sector in Doda district as Deputy Commander in 1997, we had just relocated the sector HQ on a rocky ledge overlooking the fast flowing Chenab at Suigwar, just outside the troublesome city. The shift was necessitated in part because our earlier location in the city centre was overlooked by a steep, spreading, bare hill from where terrorists sporadically fired at us by day and night. I wasnt complaining. I had requested for an operational posting and was learning fast.

The shift was a choice between a rock and a hard placeThe day I arrived, three terrorists had been shot above Suigwar. A few months and many encounters later, I was going to meet the SSP on operational work in my two-jeep quick reaction team (QRT), when I was suddenly stopped on the steep, ascending road in this one-street town, reminiscent of Texan wild-western badlands. In seconds, we had surrounded a phiran-clad old man with AKs drawn, expecting an encounter or IED. He was crying and distraught. You dont hug such men in Doda...They could have an AK tucked away, making your hug fatal, but much of soldiering is instinctive. I hugged him.

My son is dying, Sir, he sobbed against my chest. The civil hospital has no blood. What will I do? I put the man in my jeep and halted at the hospital. Test me and the QRT for our blood, I told the startled doctor. Three soldiers and I had the right blood match and we donated four units.

The old man had, meanwhile, slipped out and returned with two bottles of cold milk for us to regain strength. It is all that he could afford. Men dont cry, of course, but we very nearly erred. I paid for milk for all present, served in chipped, old-fashioned glass bottles that used marbles as stoppers. The old man wiped his tears as he put medicine money inside his threadbare phiran. We left feeling warm and satisfied.

On the anti-terror grid, you work 18 hours a day, forgetting yesterday. I did too. Standing one day on the HQ ledge with the Chenab frothing below, a rookie sentry rushed up: Two villagers insist on seeing you, SirThey are carrying a small container, he said, nervously fingering his AK rifle trigger-guard.

Involved with having a coffin readied for one of our soldiers shot in an encounter hours ago, I was grim and brusquely refused, but instinct made me look up. The visitors were wavingSuddenly, memory transported me to the one-street city. We hugged again, a taciturn Colonel, an old man and his young, astonished son. I have walked all the way from Dessa, Sir, said the sobbing old man. My wife has sent you a rooster, desi ghee and rajma... Nothing more was needed to be said.

Soldiers dont cry publicly. Instead, as the happy duo departed, escorted by 5/11 Gurkha lads, with mule-loads of rations, I turned to salute our brave dead soldier one last time. Salute the old man and son for returning me to the timeless hearts-and minds ethic of the Army that unforgettable day, overlooking the timeless Chenab.
Beijing, July 27

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval is in China to attend BRICS top security officials meeting beginning on Thursday during which he is expected to hold talks with Chinese State Councilor Yang Jiechi on the ongoing Sikkim standoff.

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Doval arrived here on Wednesday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a solution to the over a month-long standoff in Doklam area in the Sikkim sector.

Read: BRICS NSA summit: Doval to meet Jinping



Doval's visit key to ease Sikkim standoff: Chinese analyst



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

As per the official programme, Doval will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

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

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

Ahead of Dovals visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang on Wednesday reiterated that no meaningful dialogue can be held with India until it unconditionally withdraws troops from the Doklam area.

Lu also said Foreign Minister Wang Yi has authoritatively made Beijings position clear on the issue.

Though China continued to maintain that there wont be a meaningful dialogue without the withdrawal of Indian troops, the Chinese Foreign Ministry has hinted of a bilateral meeting between Doval and Yang which is part of the tradition of BRICS NSAs meeting.

About the BRICS NSAs meeting, Lu told media that the meeting on security issues is a major platform for BRICS countries to discuss and conduct cooperation in politics and security fields.

It bears great significance for these countries to strengthen strategic communication, enhance political mutual trust and elevate their impact on global affairs, Lu said.

He said that discussions will be held on topics, including global governance, anti-terrorism, Internet security and energy security, as well as major international and regional hotspot issues. PTI
Jitendra K Shrivastava & agencies

Tribune News Service

Patna/Delhi July 27

A day after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar resigned from his post, he was sworn in as the states CM for the sixth time here today. Union Minister JP Nadda and NDA legislators were among those who attended the ceremony.

Governor KN Tripathi also administered the oath to BJP leader and former Deputy CM Sushil Modi for the same post. Nitish said: We took the decision (to break the alliance with Lalu Prasad Yadavs RJD and the Congress) in the interest of people. We want to assure every Bihar resident that we will take the state to the path of development and ensure justice.

Edit: The drama in Bihar

(Follow The Tribune on Facebook; and Twitter @thetribunechd)

Later, a Cabinet meeting was held, where it was decided that a special session of the Legislative Assembly would be held tomorrow for a floor test at 11 am.

Congratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 27, 2017

Nitish had yesterday resigned amid mounting Opposition pressure over the continuation of RJD leader Tejaswi Prasad Yadav as Deputy CM, despite the latter facing graft charges. Within hours, Nitish met the Governor, along with NDA leaders, and submitted a list of 132 MLAs backing him as their leader, apparently to pre-empt the RJD, the single largest party with 80 MLAs, staking claim to form the government. Outwitted, the RJD today observed Vishwasghat Diwas across the state.

Congratulations to Shri @NitishKumar ji & Shri @SushilModi ji on being sworn in the CM & the Deputy CM of Bihar, respectively.  Arun Jaitley (@arunjaitley) July 27, 2017

The BJP-RSS-JD (U) was a fixed match. The Grand Alliance had received a mandate against communal forces, but Nitish ignored this mandate and joined the BJP, RJD chief Lalu Yadav said.

In Delhi, JD(U) Rajya Sabha MPs Ali Anwar and Veerendra Kumar met senior leader Sharad Yadav amid reports that the latter too was displeased with Nitish.

Meanwhile, two petitions have been filed in the Patna HC, challenging the formation of the new government.

ED case against Lalu for money-laundering

New Delhi: The Enforcement Directorate has registered a money-laundering case against Lalu Prasad Yadav and family members for alleged irregularities in the allotment of railway hotels during the UPA regime. The CBI FIR alleges that Lalu, as Railway Minister, handed over maintenance of two IRCTC hotels after receiving a bribe in the form of prime land in Patna through a benami company. TNS
New Delhi, July 27

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq governments help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy VK Singh to Badush.

She also expressed Indias support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their countrys sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said on Thursday.

Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs.

Swaraj reiterated Indian governments request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraqs continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken, the spokesperson said.

He also said Swaraj requested the Iraqi leader to facilitate the visit of VK Singh to Badush whenever there was more information, to which the visiting dignitary readily agreed.

The visit by VK Singh will be more meaningful if there is more information with the Iraqi government, he said when asked when will the minister travel to Iraq.

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

Swaraj also congratulated the Iraqi minister over the liberation of the strategic city of Mosul on 9 July by Iraqi forces from the control of the ISIS.

She assured her Iraqi counterpart that India had always been, and remained strongly committed to a stable, peaceful, united and democratic Iraq, a ministry release said.  PTI
New Delhi, July 27

Five army personnel, including two officers, will be released on bail after Armed Forces Tribunal suspended the life sentence given to them by a court martial for allegedly staging the killing of three Kashmiri men at Machil in 2010, officials said.

The tribunal suspended the life sentence awarded to Colonel Dinesh Pathania, Captain Upendra, Havildar Devinder, Lance Naik Lakhmi and Lance Naik Arun Kumar and granted them bail, they said.

The five army personnel had approached the tribunal challenging the punishment given to them following court martial proceedings in 2014.

"It is a bold order by the tribunal. I am very happy. The order has shut misrepresentation in the case to a great extent," said senior lawyer Aman Lekhi, who represented Colonel Pathania at the tribunal.

The government had strongly opposed giving bail to the five army men. They will be released on bail either tomorrow or day after, said Lekhi.

Army sources said the tribunal has only suspended the life sentence and a final order is expected by it.

The encounter of the three civilians on the intervening night of April 29 and 30 in 2010 in Macchil sector in Jammu and Kashmir had triggered widespread outrage and violence in the state.  PTI
Beijing, July 27

National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and his Chinese counterpart Yang Jiechi today discussed "major problems" in bilateral ties, the Foreign Ministry here said after the first high-level meeting between India and China since the military standoff erupted in the Sikkim sector on June 16.

The Chinese foreign ministry, in a brief readout on Doval-Yang meeting, said Yang "elaborated China's position on bilateral issues and major problems", which is being seen as an apparent reference to the standoff in the Dokalam area.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency also reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil. Though there were no direct reference to the Sikkim standoff in the Xinhua report, it said the talks between Doval and Yang included bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs. Though China had maintained that there won't be a meaningful dialogue without the unconditional withdrawal of Indian troops, India has been maintaining that the unilateral action by China to build a road in the area was altering the status quo and had serious security implications for India.

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India has also been pitching for diplomatic solution to resolve the standoff but sought simultaneous withdrawal of troops of both the sides from the tri-junction with Bhutan. However, the Chinese official media has been carrying a blistering campaign accusing India of trespassing into the Chinese territory.

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting being hosted by Yang, who, like Doval, is the Special Representative for India-China boundary talks.

His visit has raised expectations about the likelihood of India and China finding a way-out of the over the month-long standoff. While the media had no access to today's meetings, it will be allowed to cover tomorrow's joint meeting of the NSAs of the five-member bloc. Doval, along with other heads of the delegations, will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow evening.  PTI
Neena Sharma

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, July 27

The state government yesterday shifted Almora DM Savin Bansal, who had generated a lot of heat after a showdown with Rekha Arya, a cabinet minister in the TS Rawat government. Ashish Srivastav has been appointed new DM.

Though the BJP government spokesperson Madan Kaushik termed the transfer of Bansal a routine and dismissed suggestions of any political pressure at work, Mathura Dutt

Joshi, Uttarakhand Congress spokesperson, said, He has been transferred under political pressure.

It is an open secret that

a minister in the TS

Rawat government was gunning for him.

During an official visit to Almora, Arya had allegedly pressured Bansal to withdraw cases lodged against her husband.

A case against Aryas husband Girdhar Lal, a resident of Bareilly, was registered during the Assembly elections in the state.

Far from entertaining the request of the minister, Bansal is believed to have told her to recommend his transfer in case she was unhappy with his conduct.

A livid Rekha Arya had then sought an audience with Chief Minister TS Rawat and expressed her unhappiness with the DM. The countdown for the DMs transfer orders had started then.

Of late, the ministers displeasure with the manner in which she was being given a short shrift in the government again surfaced. This time, it was the transfer of eight District programme officers (DPOs), which was allegedly carried out a few days ago without taking her approval.

These transfers were carried out without seeking my approval, I have cancelled the orders and asked the officers concerned to prepare a fresh list, Arya had told reporters.

A miffed Arya had again approached the CM on the issue. What sealed matters for her was the support extended by her party colleagues in the cabinet.

What happened
New York, July 27

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos today became the world's richest person, as a jump in the share price of the US tech giant enabled him to overtake Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Forbes magazine estimated.

The magazine said its real-time tracking of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of $ 90.5 billion, ahead of the $ 90 billion for Gates.

Bezos owns around 17 per cent of the equity of Amazon, which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.

The company also recently announced plans to acquire US grocer Whole Foods, which could help Amazon expand in that sector.

Amazon shares were up 1.7 per cent at $ 1,070.72 and have risen some 24 per cent over the past four months, adding some $ 17 billion to the net worth of the 53-year-old Bezos.

According to Forbes, Gates has been the richest person in the magazine's annual rankings in March for the past four years and 18 of the past 22 years. Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim overtook Gates from 2010 to 2013.

Among the billionaires gaining ground is Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who has an estimated worth of some $ 72.9 billion.

While most of Bezos's wealth is in Amazon, he also owns the private space firm Blue Origin and the Washington Post newspaper.  AFP
Lahore, July 27

A 16-year-old girl was raped by a man in front of her family on the orders of the village council as a punishment after her brother was accused of raping the mans sister in Pakistans Punjab province, police said today.

The police have arrested 25 members of the village council, including its chief, after the incident that took place on July 18 in Rajpur village in Muzaffarabad in the province, Multan division police chief Ahsan Younis said.

Pakistan Chief Justice Mian Saqib Nisar today took suo motu notice of the rape and ordered the inspector general of Punjab police to submit a report. The panchayat comprising 20 members, including four women, had ordered Ashfaq to rape the girl in revenge for the earlier rape of his sister.

Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, younger brother of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, visited Rajpur village and met both the victims and assured that they would get justice.

He sacked all police officials of the Muzaffarabad police station for their criminal role in the incident. He also constituted a three-member team comprising senior police officer to probe the matter within three days.

According to a senior police officer, the village council ordered rape of the sister of Umer Wadda who was accused of raping the teenage sister of Ashfaq of his locality.

The matter was brought to the village council that unanimously ordered the rape of Waddas sister by Ashfaq. The Waddas family protested over the decision but it was told that justice could only be done if the same act was repeated with the accuseds sister, Multan division police chief Ahsan Younis told PTI.

We are also investigating whether the sister of Wadda was raped in front of her parents and the brother (which is the claim of the Wadda family), he said. Younis also got marching order from the chief minister.

Initial investigation has disclosed that Kaneez Mai, mother of Wadda, had offered that her son was ready to marry the victim but the village council declared that Waddas sister be raped by the brother of first victim.

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

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

It is unfortunate that the victims do not approach the police to redress the grievances, she said, adding there is a need to create awareness among the people especially of rural areas in this regard.  PTI
Dubai, July 27

Former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf has said he considered using nuclear weapons against India after a terror attack on the Indian Parliament in 2001 dramatically peaked India-Pakistan tensions.

But he decided against it out of fear of Indian retaliation, a Japanese newspaper said.

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In an interview to the Japanese daily Mainichi Shimbun, Musharraf said when tensions were high after the December 2001 attack which New Delhi blamed on Pakistani terrorists, there was a "danger when (the) nuclear threshold could have been crossed".

Musharraf recalled that he had many sleepless nights, asking himself whether he would or could deploy nuclear weapons against India, the daily said.

Then Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had ordered a major troops mobilisation along the Pakistan border after the terror attack and threatened a decisive conflict.

At that time, Musharraf had publicly said he would not rule out the possibility of using nuclear weapons. His testimony pointed to the fact that it had indeed been a realistic option, not just a diplomatic feint, the newspaper said.

Musharraf also said at the time neither India nor Pakistan had nuclear warheads on their missiles. So it would have taken one to two days to make them launch-ready.

Asked whether he had ordered that missiles be equipped with nuclear warheads and put into firing position, he said: "We didn't do that and we don't think India also did that, thank God." Subsequently, tensions subsided between the two countries.

Musharraf came to head the Pakistan Army in 1998. He staged a coup in October 1999, ousting then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, and was President from 2001 to 2008. Musharraf now lives in Dubai.  IANS
Jerusalem, July 27

Palestinians ended a boycott and entered a sensitive Jerusalem holy site for the first time in two weeks today after Israel removed controversial security measures there, potentially ending a crisis that sparked deadly unrest.

AFP journalists saw thousands of worshippers streaming into the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, for afternoon prayers. The site includes the Al-Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock.

A last-minute confrontation threatened to derail the planned end of the boycott as Israeli police were keeping one of the gates leading to the holy site closed.

The gate is where two Israeli policemen were killed on July 14, prompting the new security measures.

Police later opened the gate and Palestinians stuck to their plan to end the boycott.

A tense standoff had been underway between Israel and Muslim worshippers at the holy site despite the removal of metal detectors on Tuesday.

Newly installed railings and scaffolding where cameras were previously mounted were also cleared early Thursday, after which police said all new security measures had now been removed.

Muslims had refused to enter the compound and prayed in the streets outside after Israel installed the new security measures. Palestinians viewed the move as Israel asserting further control.

In response to the removal of the security measures, Muslim authorities called on worshippers to return.

Israeli authorities said the metal detectors were needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the compound and emerged from it to attack the officers.

Deadly unrest erupted in the days after the new measures were introduced, with clashes breaking out around the compound and in the occupied West Bank, leaving five Palestinians dead.

A Palestinian also broke into a home in a Jewish settlement in the West Bank last week and stabbed four Israelis, killing three of them.

Meanwhile, clashes erupted between the Israeli police and Palestinians at the sensitive holy site today as Muslim worshippers entered to end a boycott of the compound. The Palestinian Red Crescent reported 46 persons wounded both inside the Haram al-Sharif compound, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, and in the immediate area. The reasons for the clashes inside the compound were not immediately clear.  AFP

Fate of site an emotional issue

The fate of the site is an emotional issue at the heart of the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians. Even the smallest perceived change to delicate arrangements pertaining to the site sparks tensions

Israels decision to add security measures there outraged Muslim and triggered protests, and low-level clashes have continued in and around Jerusalem in the days since

The continued standoff highlighted the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians when it comes to the holy site

Jews revere the hilltop compound in Jerusalems Old City as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples

It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray

Muslims believe the site marks the spot from which the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven. It is Islams third- holiest site after Mecca and Medina

Prime Minister Netanyahu in tough spot
Islamabad: The Pakistan Supreme Court will announce the Panama Papers verdict involving Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his family on Friday, the courts registrar said on Thursday.

The five-judge bench headed by Justice Asif Saeed Khosa will announce the decision at 11.30 am, according to local media reports.

A three-member implementation bench of the apex court had concluded hearing the petitioners and defendants on July 21, giving them time to respond to the Supreme Court-sanctioned joint investigation team's (JIT) report on the Sharif family's financial dealings, submitted on July 10.

The original five-member bench of the Supreme Court which heard the Panama Papers case is going to issue the final verdict. Justices Asif Saeed Khosa, Ejaz Afzal Khan, Gulzar Ahmed, Sheikh Azmat Saeed, Ijazul Ahsan will be present for the hearing. The landmark verdict will be announced in Courtroom 1 of the Supreme Court building. IANS/Dawn
United Nations, July 27

An attack on a boat carrying refugees off the coast of war-torn Yemen in March was almost certainly carried out by the Saudi-led coalition, according to a confidential UN report seen by AFP.

A helicopter opened fire on the vessel carrying over 140 passengers, killing 42 civilians and wounding 34, in an attack the report said was a violation of international humanitarian law.

This civilian vessel was almost certainly attacked using a 7.62mm caliber weapon from an armed utility helicopter, said the report by the UN panel of experts presented to the council this week.

The Saudi Arabia-led coalition forces are the only parties to the conflict that have the capability to operate armed utility helicopters in the area.

The helicopter was most likely operating from a naval vessel deployed by the coalition backing Yemens government.

The coalition has denied that its forces were operating in the area of Hodeida when the vessel carrying Somali refugees in the Red Sea came under attack.

Major General Ahmed Assiri, spokesman for the coalition, dismissed the accusation and then told AFP there has been no firing by the coalition in this zone.

Despite requests from the UN panel, the coalition, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and the 31-nation Combined Maritime Forces have not shared information on the incident, the report said.

The panel finds that the attack on this civilian vessel resulted in IHL violations ... and thus constitute a threat to peace, security and stability of Yemen, the report said.

Two other attacks by helicopters or naval vessels on March 15 and 16 on fishing vessels left 11 dead and 8 injured, it added.

Saudi Arabia leads an Arab military coalition backing the Yemeni government in a violent war against Yemens Iran-allied Huthi rebels since March 2015.

The conflict has brought Yemen to its knees, with more than 60 percent of the population on the brink of famine and facing the worlds worst cholera outbreak.

UN aid chief Stephen OBrien this month blamed Yemens warring sides and their foreign backers for a cholera outbreak that he described as man-made and a direct result of the conflict.

There are now more than 400,000 suspected cases of cholera in Yemen and nearly 1,900 people have died.  AFP
Washington, July 27

The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Marine General Joseph Dunford, said in a written message on Thursday to military leaders that there has been no change yet to the militarys policy on transgender personnel, despite plans for a ban announced by President Donald Trump.

There will be no modifications to the current policy until the Presidents direction has been received by the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary has issued implementation guidance, Dunford, said in the written message to service chiefs, commanders and senior enlisted leaders, first reported by Reuters.

In the meantime, we will continue to treat all of our personnel with respect. As importantly, given the current fight and the challenges we face, we will all remain focused on accomplishing our assigned missions.

Trump issued his surprise announcement on Wednesday morning in a series of Twitter postings, saying he would ban transgender people from the US military, a move appealing to some in his conservative political base but creating vast uncertainty for thousands of transgender service members.

As a presidential candidate, Trump last year vowed to fight for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender people. His decision drew condemnation from rights groups and some lawmakers in both parties as politically motivated discrimination but was praised by conservative activists and some of his fellow Republicans.

Although the White House said Trump had extensive discussions with his national security team, his announcement appeared to catch the Pentagon off guard.

The White House said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis was informed after the president made the decision on Tuesday to go ahead.

Dunford, in his message to the US military, appeared to acknowledge uncertainty in the ranks.

He started his message by saying: I know there are questions about yesterdays announcement on the transgender policy by the President.

Trump, who cited tremendous medical costs and disruption as a justification for the ban, did not specify how it would be implemented.

It remained unclear whether the policy would apply to existing transgender service members or new transgender recruits.  Reuters
Washington, July 27

The United States Senate has rejected a Republican bill to repeal the Affordable Health Care, popularly known as Obamacare which has been relentlessly criticised by President Donald Trump.

The Bill, which would have given a two-year window to bring a replacement of Obamacare was defeated by 55-45 votes on Wednesday in the Republican-majority Senate.

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The House had earlier on Tuesday voted to start debate to replace the healthcare programme, signed into law by former President Barack Obama on March 23, 2010.

About 20 million Americans gained healthcare coverage under Obamacare, but Republicans viewed it as an overreach of the federal government and said patients had less choice and higher premiums.

Yesterday, seven Republicans, including Senator John McCain, voted no to the move to only repeal Obamacare and giving a two-year window for a new healthcare bill for its replacement.

"I have said consistently that I support repealing and replacing Obamacare, and I voted to do so last night. I'm not giving up on doing both of those things," Ohio Senator Rob Portman said.

"We need to roll up our sleeves and come up with a better healthcare system. Just kicking the can down the road adds more uncertainty to the failed status quo," he said.

Portman was one of the seven Republican senators who voted against the repeal-only Obamacare bill.

Speaking on the Senate floor, Senator Rand Paul said one has to start somewhere.

"We have to start somewhere. And where we should start is where we all promised we would be  here to repeal Obamacare, he argued in favor of the bill.

"We all ran on it. All but one of us voted for it in 2015. It is simple. If you are against the taxes and mandates of Obamacare you have an obligation to vote for this bill," he said.

Paul said being a doctor he has seen the "disaster that is Obamacare up close".

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said even though the proposal failed, it represented a number of important healthcare reform ideas developed by lawmakers.

"We'll consider many different proposals throughout this process from senators on both sides of the aisle. Ultimately, we want to get legislation to finally end the failed Obamacare status quo through Congress and to the president's desk for his signature," he said. PTI
Someone who bought a Powerball ticket in Southern California has won a record $2.04 billion Powerball jackpot. The winning numbers drawn Tuesday morning at the Florida Lottery draw studio in Tallahassee were: white balls 10, 33, 41, 47 and 56, and the red Powerball was 10. The jackpot ticket was sold at Joes Service Center in Altadena, northeast of Los Angeles. The business will receive a maximum Powerball bonus of $1 million. The Multi-State Lottery Association said Monday nights scheduled drawing was delayed by nearly 10 hours until Tuesday because a participating lottery had issues processing sales. The jackpot was by far the largest lottery jackpot ever won, topping the previous record $1.586 billion prize won by three Powerball ticketholders in 2016.
The Owasso Chamber hosted its monthly luncheon on Wednesday, where Zack Stoycoff, Vice President of Government Affairs for the Tulsa Regional Chamber (TRC), spoke as the keynote.

Stoycoff talked about TRCs OneVoice Regional Legislative Agenda, particularly as it relates to Owasso Chambers continued involvement in the annual program.

OneVoice, launched in 2007, comprises over 500 regional partners representing more than 70 chambers of commerce, municipalities, counties and economic development organizations.

Experts in a variety of fields meet June through August, and during the Legislative session, to form task forces that work to identify problems and craft solutions for the region and state.

The Owasso Chamber has been actively involved with OneVoice since its inception 10 years ago, closely partnering with other regional entities to promote needed change across Oklahoma.

I think it has really helped to put continuity and friendship among us, Owasso Chamber President Gary Akin said. Its a broad-based system for legislative advocacy that I dont think we would be able to achieve by ourselves.

Stoycoff shared how Owasso leaders have helped take on priority state issues, which include implementing a healthy and educated workforce, building infrastructure critical to business and ensuring a prosperous economy.

These priorities involve everything from addressing the teacher shortage and opposing school vouchers, to defending existing road funding and completing the Gilcrease Expressway, to seeking criminal justice reform and supporting regional air quality efforts, among others.

We couldnt have OneVoice without Owasso, Stoycoff said. We get great participation  and cant speak highly enough of Gary and others in making that happen, making sure the Owasso Chambers voice is involved.

Wednesdays event provided a platform for Stoycoff to spread the word about regional legislative advocacy and encourage Owasso leaders and businesses to continue engaging in the political process.

Owassos invaluable, Stoycoff said. The input of the Owasso community, Gary Akin and the Owasso Chamber, of course, and Warren Lehr and others in the community have been involved in OneVoice for years; (we) really appreciate their input.

For more information about the Tulsa Regional Chamber and its OneVoice Regional Legislative Agenda, visit tulsachamber.com/publicpolicy/onevoice-agenda.
OKLAHOMA CITY  An Oklahoma charter school group is suing the state Board of Education over purported inequities in how charters are funded in comparison with traditional public schools.

The Oklahoma Public Charter School Association filed a lawsuit in Oklahoma County District Court this month requesting that funding between all public schools be equalized to assure equal education opportunities.

Traditional public schools are funded through a variety of local, state and federal sources. The state issues funding to schools through a state aid formula that considers student demographics, such as poverty, language barriers and special needs.

Charter schools are primarily funded through state aid, and the OPCSA contends its member schools are receiving hundreds of dollars less in state-issued per-student funding than traditional public schools.
A convicted sex offender has been arrested on allegations he sexually abused a 15-year-old girl.

Jason Murray Nixon Sr., 39, was arrested late Wednesday for allegedly abusing the girl multiple times between August 2016 to June 2017.

The girl told investigators that Nixon tried to penetrate her several times but was unsuccessful, according to an affidavit. Tulsa County prosecutors say Nixon also touched the breasts and genitalia of the teenager.

Nixon pleaded guilty in 2009 to lewd acts with a minor, and he pleaded guilty in a 2015 case in which he was charged with failing to register as a sex offender, according to court documents.

Nixon is charged with three counts of child sexual abuse and, in a separate case, with failure to register as a sex offender.

Tulsa County sheriff's deputies booked Nixon into the Tulsa Jail, where he was being held in lieu of a $330,000 bond.
It was on a whim and out of frustration that Teresa Danks made a panhandling sign seeking school supplies  a sign now seen around the world.

After spending weeks scouring garage sales and hitting up stores for discounts on classroom supplies, the teacher and her husband were talking about the sad state of legislative affairs around Oklahoma education funding.

She has been an educator working in private and public schools, including some child-care centers, since 1996 and is currently a third-grade teacher at Grimes Elementary School at 3213 E. 56th St. State records show her gross annual salary (before taxes and withholdings) to be $33,956. She estimates that she spends about $2,000 of her own money on classroom supplies each year.

Honestly, it started with a conversation, Danks said in a telephone interview from New York City on Wednesday. We were getting stuff for my classroom, spending out of my pocket, which is something Ive done every year Ive taught; then we got back on the budget cuts and how frustrating it is  wanting legislators to get behind educators and children in the state.

My husband jokingly said the worst-case scenario is making a poster and getting on the street like panhandlers do. I thought that would make a great picture and get the conversation going. It might get people talking about it again.

They headed to a nearby intersection on July 19 with a Teacher Needs School Supplies/Anything Helps sign. A passerby handed her about $20 while they took a snapshot.

An hour after Danks posted the photo, a reporter from FOX23 News called and asked her to re-enact the panhandling so the station could get video. While filming for the news crew, more drivers pitched in another $100 in spare change and cash.

But more important were the words she heard.

It only took about six minutes, Danks said, but more people offered not only financial support but support and encouragement  Thank you for teaching, and Thank you for what you do. One woman said, Teachers like you are the reason Im alive today. That really touched my heart.

For whatever its worth, there wasnt any planning involved. It was a spur-of-the-moment thing.

Then the flame of social media ignited, and people were calling with donations.

Danks set up a GoFundMe account with a goal of $50,000. As of Wednesday afternoon, it had reached nearly $26,000. She created a Begging For Education Facebook page to post more videos, news stories and other information.

While in New York City for a segment on Good Morning America, Danks was also interviewed by Inside Edition, CNN Headline News and Fox and Friends. The segments have been picked up by international wire services and run in countries as far away as Australia.

Im putting out the message that education in Oklahoma is in a bad situation, and we definitely want it to get better, Danks said. I know we have teachers at the Capitol every week, and no one gets heard and nothing is happening.

Kids are our future. My feeling is that an educated nation is a better nation.

The amount raised has gone well beyond Danks classroom needs. She intends to give the rest to other teachers for classroom materials and plans to start a nonprofit foundation or fund.

Danks said RCB Bank has an account set up for any of its branches to take donations for the project. Details of how funds will be dispersed and whether the project will continue beyond this year will be decided later, she said.

Were going to see where this goes and make as many positive changes as we can, Danks said. We want everything going directly to the classroom. My goal has been to raise awareness and raise money for Tulsa schools and, hopefully, then go out of state. I definitely want to take care of people at home first.

When the media storm hit a week ago, Danks decided to just ride the waves, but she knows normal is soon to return.

Its been surreal and exhausting, but Im keeping my goal to do as many positive things to promote it, she said. I hope it raises awareness that education needs to come first  not for education but for children. I want for Oklahoma children to compete with children in the nation and children in the world.

Tulsa Public Schools will start classes Aug. 21, and Danks is ready to return to the classroom.

Its given me more excitement knowing that Im very prepared and able to do more hands-on projects with kids and not scrambling to find materials, she said. Ill already have them in the classroom ready to go.
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Welcome to the Aquaculture/Fisheries (AQFI) Center at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB). The Center of Excellence was created in 1988 to combine resident instruction, research, and extension responsibilities into one comprehensive unit. Our faculty, staff and students work together, across disciplines and functions to offer research-based scientific solutions to make a difference in Arkansas and throughout the U.S.The AQFI Center of Excellence at the University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff (UAPB) is recognized as a leader in aquaculture/fisheries teaching, research and extension programs. It is the only comprehensive aquaculture program within the University of Arkansas System to support the state's $61 million aquaculture industry. We have a vibrant natural fisheries component that provides scientific support to the recreational fishing industry that has an economic impact of over $740 million/yr in Arkansas.The Center currently has a total of 33 faculty, extension specialists, and staff, including 9 Ph.D. scientists and 6 M.S. scientists. The aquaculture industry in Arkansas and natural resource agencies support UAPB with in-kind contributions and through participation in workshops and conferences.We teach classes for undergraduate students majoring in Aquaculture and Fisheries Sciences (B.S.), which includes four academic concentrations: General, Aquaculture, Fisheries Science, and Aquaculture and Seafood Business. We teach graduate students pursuing M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Aquaculture/Fisheries. Our emphasis is on hands-on, innovative teaching methods designed to prepare students for exciting careers in aquaculture and natural resources-related fields. Through partial support from Title III, faculty and students have also participated in professional enrichment activities designed to enhance their preparedness for graduate school.We have a wide-ranging research program in aquaculture and natural fisheries conducted by faculty engaged with aquaculture and natural resource stakeholders to solve real-world problems. Our aquaculture research involves studies in small experimental and large commercial earthen ponds, and laboratory aquaria, larger tanks, and mesocosms. Natural fisheries research spans the entire spectrum of the states waters from small streams and lakes to large reservoirs, and rivers.We provide comprehensive extension programs and services to Arkansas and other states to transfer newly-developed techniques and research information into real-world practice. These include diagnostics services to identify fish diseases and water quality problems and, more importantly, to recommend treatments. We organize educational meetings, farm demonstrations, and field days. We also publish fact sheets on important issues and respond as quickly as we can to calls for assistance from county agents, fish farmers, farm pond owners, and natural resource managers. The UAPB Fish Health Certification laboratory located in Lonoke, Arkansas is approved by USDA Animal Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to conduct diagnostic testing in support of export health certification of aquaculture species.
A lesson in session under trees at one of the primary schools in Nduta Camp. Over 70 per cent of refugees study outdoors due to lack of enough classrooms.  UNHCR/Tanzania

NDUTA, Tanzania - Up at 4 am like clockwork, Nathan makes his way quietly around the semi-darkness of the mud-brick shelter that he shares with his younger brother, who is fast asleep. He gets ready quickly, steps out into the cold morning and starts walking briskly down a well-beaten path towards Majaliwa secondary school where he is a teacher.

The daily five-kilometer walk to and from the school in Nduta camp in northwestern Tanzanias Kibondo district is a small price to pay for the 30-year-old Burundian. I do not mind it very much, he says. Teaching my students gives me a sense of purpose to wake up every morning.

A similar sense of purpose drove Nathan to seek refuge across the border with Tanzania when he felt threatened by the escalating political tension in Burundi. With just a few semesters left before graduating from university, Nathan left his home in the central west coast area in 2015 and traveled for two days to the border.

I had to leave my parents behind as they are elderly. I am really worried about them, he says. His father, 65 and his mother, 50 now live on their own without any of their children around to care for them after Nathans brother joined him in Tanzania. I am grateful that with the little cash I have earned from teaching, I can call home once every two weeks. But it is not enough as these calls are really expensive.

Teaching my students gives me a sense of purpose to wake up every morning.

Burundian teacher Nathan sits at his desk in the staff room in Majaliwa Secondary School in Nduta camp, Tanzania.  UNHCR/Tanzania

Like many of his friends, Nathan had to drop out of university abruptly. I was majoring in English studies. I love reading English literature like Shakespeare. He has now channeled his love for reading to teach refugee children, albeit under extremely tough conditions.

Over 70 per cent of refugee students in Tanzanias three camps  Nduta, Nyarugusu and Mtendeli, have to study outdoors as there are only 193 permanent classrooms available for about 9,650 students. With the instability in Burundi now in its second year, most Burundian refugees lack safe spaces or classrooms where they can learn comfortably. The overwhelmingly high teacher to student ratio in most schools where one teacher can have up to 400 students in a classroom further complicates the challenging situation.

The impact of the lack of safe space to study is worsened during the rainy season when the average attendance rate drops significantly by about 70 per cent.

Limited funding received in 2016 meant that UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency and its partners were only able to construct 137 classrooms between 2016 and April this year. Many students have been studying for two years in open spaces under trees, says James Onyango, UNHCRs Education Officer in Nduta. About 100,000 students in pre-school, primary and secondary level are currently suffering a great deal as a result.

Things are really bad as children have to study under the trees.

About 625 additional class rooms need to be constructed across all three camps to accommodate all students but funding is a major challenge. UNHCRs appeal for USD 217 million to assist Burundian refugees in Tanzania is grossly underfunded, with only seven per cent funding received.

Some refugees in the camp with academic qualifications like Nathan were recruited as incentive workers to teach at the schools. But the situation makes it difficult for most of them to give their students proper lessons. Nathan knows only too well how challenging this is. Things are really bad as children have to study under the trees, he says. As teachers, we are unable to get the books to teach the students. We are all using outdated teaching materials here.

I love these children. They are the future generation of Burundi,

He however hasnt given up. I love these children. They are the future generation of Burundi, he says. One day when the time is right, they as future leaders will bring about positive change to our country. But to build our country back, they need access to education.

Regarding his dreams for the future, Nathan hopes to return home someday. I hope one day I can return home to a stable and peaceful Burundi and finish my education. For now, he is happy to teach Burundis future leaders, even if it means to do so under trees.

Edited by Catherine Wachiaya in Nairobi, Kenya
Last Feremenga, who received a doctorate in Physics and Applied Physics in December 2016, says he found a nurturing and supportive environment at UTA while conducting doctoral research in high energy physics. His experience in data analysis helped him land a job as a data scientist at a top technology company.

Last Feremenga, a native of Zimbabwe who received his doctoral degree in December, used skills he honed at UTA while analyzing massive quantities of data from the Large Hadron Collider high energy physics experiment in Switzerland to land a job as a data scientist.

The educational journey taken by Last Feremenga has been exciting, fascinating and has involved plenty of air travel. It began in his native Zimbabwe, continued first in Chicago and then in Arlington, and included frequent trips between Arlington, Chicago and Europe.

Feremenga, who received a doctorate in Physics and Applied Physics in December 2016, says he found a nurturing and supportive environment at UTA while conducting doctoral research in high energy physics. His experience in data analysis helped him land a job as a data scientist at a top technology company.

Born in a small town in Zimbabwe, Feremenga grew up in a large family  he was one of nine siblings  and became interested in physics while attending high school in Harare, the Zimbabwean capital. There he specialized in mathematics, physics and chemistry, and decided that he wanted to go to college to study physics.

With options limited in his home country, Feremenga applied at universities far from home. With help from the U.S. Education Assistance Center at the American Embassy in Harare, he was accepted to the University of Chicago in 2007. Feremenga  the first member of his family to attend college  says that life as a college student in a country almost halfway around the world from his home definitely took some getting used to.

"It was a big adjustment, both culturally and climatically," he said. "My first winter in Chicago was 'blessed' with a blizzard, the intensity of which the city hadn't seen in a decade. That wasn't fun. As far as adjusting to life culturally, the university offered a lot of support to foreign students, and I relied mostly on that."

While he was an undergraduate, Feremenga was introduced to experimental high-energy particle physics, which he enthusiastically pursued. His faculty advisor at the University of Chicago, Young-Kee Kim, professor and chair of the Department of Physics, was at the time serving as deputy director of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory or Fermilab, which specializes in high-energy particle physics. With her help, Feremenga began doing research at Fermilab.

In 2010 Feremenga got the opportunity to return to Africa when he was selected to be a member of the inaugural class of the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications at Stellenbosch University in South Africa, near Cape Town. The three-week intensive program, now held biannually, targets students in sub-Saharan Africa and is aimed at increasing capacity development in fundamental physics and related applications in Africa.

Feremenga knew he wanted to pursue graduate studies in physics but wasn't sure where he wanted to go. Kim suggested he talk to Jaehoon Yu, a professor of physics at UTA and a friend of hers. While at a conference in Chicago, Yu met with Feremenga and helped him arrange a visit to UTA.

When he visited the campus, Feremenga liked what he saw and was particularly excited by the fact that UTA physicists were playing a significant role with the Large Hadron Collider or LHC, the world's largest and most powerful particle collider, located at the CERN laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland.

"I thought Dr. Yu's research was very interesting, and it helped that he and Dr. Kim knew each other," he said. "My transition from undergrad to grad school was very seamless."

After receiving his bachelors degree in Physics from the University of Chicago in 2011, Feremenga headed south to Arlington. With Yu as his supervising professor, he began research on his dissertation project, which involved analyzing massive quantities of data from the ATLAS experiment. ATLAS is one of two general purpose detectors at the LHC; portions of it were constructed at UTA and shipped overseas to CERN.

In addition to UTA, Feremenga spent time at both CERN and the Argonne National Laboratory near Chicago, analyzing hundreds of terabytes of data from the ATLAS experiment.

"At CERN and Argonne, I assisted in developing a system that filters interesting events from large datasets," he said. "I also analyzed these large datasets to find interesting physics patterns."

In July 2012, scientists at CERN announced the discovery of the elusive Higgs boson, an elementary particle first theorized in the 1960s but never positively identified until experiments at the LHC. Feremenga relished the opportunity to work with brilliant physicists from around the globe.

"It was challenging yet satisfying," he said. "I worked side-by-side with scientists from diverse backgrounds and nationalities. I also had the rare opportunity to travel around every summer. Nothing could have beaten that."

Feremenga says Yu and other members of UTA's physics faculty, including Andrew Brandt, Kaushik De and Haleh Hadavand, were very supportive of him and his research during his doctoral studies.

"I found the environment here at UTA to be very nurturing," Feremenga said. "I grew a lot in my years here. And the Office of International Education worked with me hand-in-hand whenever I traveled. The people were fantastic and my experience here was everything I could have hoped for."

Yu says Feremenga's success stems largely from his own drive and determination.

"He was a very mature student from the start," Yu said. "He was thoughtful and a good scientist. He was a hard worker and put in great time and effort to accomplish his physics goals. I think he will be very successful no matter where he goes."

Feremenga, who recently got married and moved to Nashville, Tennessee to start his new job, says he hopes to see more young people in his home country of Zimbabwe and other parts of Africa receive the same opportunities in STEM education that he was provided.

"I would like to encourage young kids, especially from the most impoverished parts of Zimbabwe and Africa, to pursue studies in physics," he said. "Very accomplished physicists  case in point, our own Jae Yu  are reaching out in an effort to engage talent that would have otherwise been lost. To them I'd say, take advantage of that. Trust me, the rewards are vast!"


Las Vegas top-rated OTTO Enoteca e Pizzeria at The Venetian, welcomes the flavors of summer with new satisfying pizzas, pastas, piatti and more. The new collection of unique and traditional dishes makes for a seasonal and refreshing addition to the already diverse menu (Pictured: Corn Pizza  Photo Courtesy of Batali & Bastianich Hospitality Group).

OTTO is Mario Batalis signature pizza restaurant and known for its ever-evolving menu of thin crust Roman-style pizzas, antipasti meats and cheeses, salads, pastas and main dishes.

Fritti Romano Beans fried with aceto cavedoni.

fried with aceto cavedoni. Zucchini fried with parmigiano reggiano. Verdure Quinoa with seasonal fruit, sunflower and pumpkin seeds.

with seasonal fruit, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Zucchini Scapece with grilled onion with red wine vinaigrette. Insalate Baby Kale with nectarine, cherry tomato, pine nuts, ricotta salata, with lemon vinaigrette. Pizza Corn Pizza with fresh mozzarella, charred corn, cherry tomato and scallions.

with fresh mozzarella, charred corn, cherry tomato and scallions. Shrimp Pizza with celery leaf pesto, fresh mozzarella, bel paese and preserved lemon. Pasta Strichetti al Telefono with garlic, cherry tomato, basil and burrata.

with garlic, cherry tomato, basil and burrata. Trofie al Vongole with manila clams with house made spicy anduja and mint pesto.

with manila clams with house made spicy anduja and mint pesto. Trennette Genovese with Yukon potato, green beans and basil pesto.

with Yukon potato, green beans and basil pesto. Crab Ravioli with house made ricotta, mascarpone and corn. Piatti Steak Tagliata with grilled scallion pesto, charred Romano beans and white onion.

with grilled scallion pesto, charred Romano beans and white onion. Eggplant Lasagnette with breaded fried eggplant, zucchini, fresh mozzarella and tomato. Cortorni Corn Fregula with charred summer corn, pearl pasta and green onion. Dolci Apricot Crostata with toasted almonds, grilled apricots and vanilla gelato.

The dishes will be available through the end of September.
The Vung Ang Economic Zone Management Authority (VAEZ) recently gave an August 30 deadline for which the worlds sixth largest steel maker and its partners to re-submit completed application dossiers for an investment certificate.

Otherwise, after the deadline, the papers signed by the VAEZ in July 2009, in which the land in the economic zone given to Tata Steel-consortium steel project is agreed, will become invalid, said a VAEZ document sent to Tata Steel and its partners early this month.

The VAEZ is the licencing agency for the $5 billion Ha Tinh integrated steel project that the Indian firm proposed to develop in partnership with state-run Vietnam Steel Corporation (Vnsteel) and Vietnam Cement Industries Corporation (Vicem) in the Ha Tinh provinces Vung Ang Economic Zone.

The VAEZ document said the deadlines issuance came after the Ha Tinh Peoples Committee met Tata Steel and its partners in the middle of last month to discuss the terms of issuing an investment certificate for the project. The meeting concluded that Tata Steel and its partners were required to provide further documents to address nine outstanding issues requested by the prime minister in regard with the implementation of the Ha Tinh integrated steel complex.

The nine outstanding issues were raised following the meeting of the prime minister and relevant governmental agencies including the ministries of Planning and Investment (MPI) and Industry and Trade (MoIT) and Ha Tinh authorities in May this year to discuss the project. They relate to the projects land plot, water supply, environmental issues, the projects progress, supply of raw materials, foreign partners agreements to arrange capital for local partners, tax law application and spending on site clearance.

There was also another directive from the Government Office issued on July 10, asking the MPI to coordinate with Ha Tinh authorities and the investors to respolve the outstanding issues and report back to the prime minister.

Indronil Sengupta, chief executive of Tata Steels South East Asia projects, last week told VIR that VAEZs move was a big surprise for Tata Steel, which was currently working with the MPI, MoIT and other relevant governmental agencies to resolve the nine outstanding issues.

Sengupta said that more than half of such issues had been resolved, but the remaining was pending on the side of the relevant governmental agencies. We are really confused about whose directions to follow, he said.

Tata Steel initiated the Ha Tinh integrated steel complex with designed annual capacity of 4.6 million tonnes per year in May, 2007 when it signed a memorandum of understanding document with Vnsteel to develop the project. The document set timeline of 16 months for Tata Steel to complete a feasibility study of the complex, which would totally use domestic raw materials such as Thach Khe iron ores. The study was completed by Tata Steel in 14 months.

A year later, a joint venture agreement was signed between Tata Steel, Vnsteel and Vicem, in which the foreign partner committed to hold 65 per cent of shares, Vnsteel 30 per cent and Vicem 5 per cent. The joint ventures first application dossiers for an investment certificate were submitted to the VAEZ in August, 2008.

The project, however, was not licenced as the projects planned land had been given to Taiwans Formosa Group, which is building a 15 million tonne steel facility with an initial investment capital of $7.9 billion. The VAEZ agreed to give the joint venture another 725 hectare site in July last year. This approval allowed Tata Steel and its partners to submit investment certificate application dossiers to the VAEZ for the second time in December, 2009.

We are strongly committed to implement this project, but we expect that equal treatment will be rendered to our project as compared to others in the Vung Ang Economic Zone, Sengupta said.
Vietnamese rock band Hac San will perform along with 14 bands from ASEAN countries and Japan at Viet Nams biggest rock concert, the SoundSlam, in HCM City on August 5.

They include 10 groups from HCM City and Hanoi, such as Lolotica, Hac San, Windrunner and Proportions.

The concert will feature Nightmare AD from Cambodia, Every Rage I Seek from Singapore, Fathomless and Sinners Turned Saints from Thailand, and Earthists from Japan.

The musicians will play from 2 pm to 10:30 pm at the Pink Lotus Stage at September 23 Park in District 1.

Pre-sale tickets of VN120,000 can be purchased at www.ticketbox.vn, while tickets at the door are VN180,000.
Representatives of Vietnamese enterprises were seeking to co-operate with Indonesian firms at the conference

At the conference on promoting palm oil and paper industrial cooperation and investment ties between Vietnam and Indonesia in Hanoi on July 26, Indonesian Ambassador to Vietnam Ibnu Hadi told VIR that he expected the two countries bilateral trade turnover to raise to about $7.5 billion this year and $10 billion next year, from the $5.6 billion last year.

In order to reach these targets, the embassy is now promoting two-way co-operation in the palm oil and paper industries, among many others.

According to the embassy, the 12 largest palm oil exporters and 14 largest paper exporters of Indonesia are planning to expand their export markets to Vietnam and are looking to establish joint ventures with local partners for direct production in Vietnam.

Some 14 Vietnamese firms are also interested in co-operating with Indonesian peers.

Vietnam considers Indonesia as a great paper exporter, with annual exports of about one million tonnes, ten-fold of Vietnamese paper exports, To Toan, deputy manager of the Import and Export Department of Vietnam Paper Company, told VIR at the conference, where he, on behalf of his company, sought to meet Indonesian partners to discuss co-operation opportunities.

We hope that Indonesian firms can provide us with experience and especially opportunities to transfer paper production technologies, Toan said.

Paper was the third largest commodity in terms of value exported from Indonesia to Vietnam, with a total value of $181 million. The fourth place was the animal, vegetable fat, and oil products segment, including palm oil, with a total value of $161 million.

In 2016, Indonesia was the second largest exporter of animal and vegetable oil to Vietnam and the third largest exporter for paper, according to the embassy.

Last year, Indonesia earned $18.6 billion from exporting 27 million tonnes of palm oil, which is used for processing not only cooking oil products, but also cosmetics.

This made Indonesia the worlds top exporter of palm oil with 36 million tonnes, or 62 per cent of the total world exports of 56 million tonnes.
Photo: Francois Durand/Getty Images

Fox is speaking out about the lawsuit Olivia de Havilland has brought against the studio regarding the use of her likeness in Feud: Bette and Joan. While the legal team for the actress is requesting an expedited trial due to her advanced age, Fox says it is prepared to vigorously defend its programming against claims of unauthorized use of de Havillands name and identity. The producer of the show, Fox 21 Television Studios, has issued the following statement, via Variety:

Our project was a meticulously researched dramatization of the well-documented feud between actresses Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. The law on this is very clear: no permissions of any kind were required in order to tell the tale. Docudramas, such as this one, are original narrative works, based on real, verifiable facts and events. By the logic of Ms. de Havillands attorneys, no producer would be able to tell any stories about famous people, living or dead without their consent. We respectfully disagree with Ms. de Havillands objections to her portrayal, and we stand by the content, including her portrayal, and will vigorously defend this project.

While Ryan Murphy surely does not like being sued, or being told how to use his artistic license, it does seem like his entire life has been building up to the moment hed be in a feud of his own with a Hollywood living legend. Those days when de Havilland had never watched Feud and was unable to entertain any questions on the topic feel like so very long ago.
Robin Williams and a street performer in front of the Metropolitan Museum, New York City, September 1981. Photo: JP Laffont/JP Laffont

Jean-Pierre Laffont is not a native-born New Yorker  he was born in Algiers in 1935  but he is, in every sense, a true New Yorker. He moved to the city from Paris in 1965 and has been based here ever since. As a photojournalist, he co-founded the Sygma Photo News agency, which became one of the largest in the world. Moreover, hes been an inspired chronicler of New York street life in its many evolving forms. His latest collection, New York City Up and Down, features photos taken during his half-century here  including this serendipitous shot of Robin Williams, outside the Metropolitan Museum of Art, joining in with a street performer in 1981.

The fifth element of New York is people, writes Joan Juliet Buck in the books introduction, people as mass and people as fighters, winners, losers, stars. In this photo, its less the star who captivates us (though Williams is pretty captivating) than the crowd thats gathered to watch him in that familiar New York summer ritual of wandering the city and waiting to see what comes next. New York needs audiences who will pay to watch Broadway shows (and, in the old days, peep shows), dress up for prizefights, sit exposed to the elements on the roofs of tour buses, attend premieres, and salute heroes by raining shredded paper on their parades, Buck writes. Or catch a young star performing on the sidewalk for a fleeting moment that, thanks to the lens of an expert witness, lives eternally.

Gloria Steinem speaks at a march at Bryant Park on August 26, 1970. Photo: J P Laffont/J P Laffont

On the one-year anniversary of its Broadway debut, the cast of the rock musical Hair gave a free performance in Central Park in April 1969. Photo: JP Laffont/JP Laffont

Admirers of Louis Armstrong stand outside his funeral on the streets of Corona, Queens, 1971. Photo: J P Laffont

A disguised police officer infiltrates an uptown meat market in 1973. Photo: J P Laffont

The funeral in Brooklyn for black prisoners killed at Attica Prison in Brooklyn on September 26, 1971. Photo: J P Laffont/J P Laffont

Because of a transportation strike, the Ringling Brothers Circus was unable to move its animals from New Jersey to New York City. It was eventually determined by city authorities that the Holland Tunnel would be shut down for the night and the animals could travel through it. This unusual event inspired the annual Animal Walk, beginning in May 1971. Photo: J P Laffont/Jean Pierre Laffont

Pope John Paul IIs first visit to New York City, at St. Patricks Cathedral on October 2, 1979. Photo: J P Laffont

Salomon Brothers (shown here in January 1988) was once considered the most-profitable Wall Street company. It became part of Citigroup in the 1990s, but was finally shut down in 2003 after numerous scandals. Photo: J P Laffont

Elyzabeth and Sophie Markevitch, the daughters of famous cellist Dimitry Markevitch, take a break from playing in Riverside Park to watch the train pass underground, in summer 1965. Photo: JP Laffont/@JP Laffont

New York City Up and Down will be published on August 1 by Glitterati Incorporated.

*This article appears in the July 24, 2017, issue of New York Magazine.
I Know My Soul is an episode that provides no quick resolution or easy answers. Wounds dont heal. Insults burnish in the air. No outside threat forces the Bordelon siblings to mend their differences, at least momentarily, in order to survive. Like last weeks episode, it ends on an ellipsis. Its hard to conceive of what will happen next since everyone is spiraling in different directions.

Nevertheless, Queen Sugar has always presented a hopeful stance on family. Family comes first, Violet says. Watching this weeks episode, I began to wonder, what do children owe their parents? And, is carrying familial legacies forward a gift or a burden? I Know My Soul is the best episode of season two thus far because it provides no heartwarming response to such questions. Charley, Nova, and Ralph Angel are forced to sit with their respective hurts and find salves on their own.

The episode begins moments after Line of Our Elders left off, with Violet making an impassioned plea for a furious Nova to stay in the wake of hearing about Ernests second will. Charley refuses to believe Ralph Angel, while Nova feels he is lording the will over his sisters. Ralph Angel may have legal rights to all the land now, but he does himself no favors by needling Charley and Nova. He repeatedly tries to hurt them by reminding Nova that she moved to New Orleans and never looked back. (Does she not deserve a life of her own? What does she owe her father, especially considering she was the least interested in the land?) He remarks that if Charley actually picked up the phone, maybe Ernest wouldnt have ended up being a janitor. This is just the beginning of cruelty directed at Charley.

Meanwhile, Darla, Hollywood, Micah, and Blue play cards outside as curiosity grows about the turmoil brewing inside. (Director Kat Candler shows their Go Fish game in one of the seriess signature overhead shots.) Charley and Nova remain unmoved, so Ralph Angel goes to fetch the letter to settle matters, as if things could be that easy. While hes momentarily away, the real issues that are causing Charley and Nova to react so venomously are uncovered.

Charleys anger is easily understandable. In the wake of her issues with Davis and guilt over not coming when Ernest called, taking up this legacy is an act of penance and remembrance. Shes uprooted her life as well as her sons. Shes tied her image and money to this legacy. Thats why I find Ralph Angels decision to hold onto this for so long only to now use it against Charley somewhat cruel. I get that Ralph Angel wants to prove himself, but how hes going about that isnt brave but impetuous and short-sighted.

Meanwhile, Nova isnt angry over losing her claim over the farm itself, but what it represents. You are going to have to let me in, Violet says, recognizing that Novas reaction has roots in something she isnt admitting. Nova opens up about the expectations Ernest placed on her: to settle down, have kids, live a more traditional life. Once Ralph Angel and Charley had children, he stopped asking about those plans  and Nova interpreted that as Ernest finally coming to terms with who she truly was. In finding out about this second will, her mind has changed. Cutting me out of the farm seems like hes judging me, punishing me, Nova says.

The dynamics of legacies and the burdens upon black women who live untraditional lives is certainly fertile ground to explore. Actress Rutina Wesley carefully melds steely resolve, blistering anger, and confusion with the character of Nova. But I feel this story line could have gone a bit deeper. A parent placing weight upon their child to live a life more commonplace isnt out of the ordinary. Nova is by far the most unconventional of the Bordelon siblings. Shes bisexual, has no children, deeply devoted to activism. I kept wondering if Ernests issues had different dimensions than what weve learned. Why did Novas disinterest in having kids bother him? Did he know about her sexuality, and if so, did that rankle him?

When Ernests letter is finally read aloud by Violet, she grants his words with great weight. Everyone is silent as she reads, drinking the words in and calculating their weight upon their lives. In the letter, Ernest pointedly notes he is leaving his farm to the child of mine who needs it and loves it most. He goes on to advise Ralph Angel to never forget you are better than you think. But what did he think about the repercussions on Charley and Nova? Legacy is important to black families, so this isnt just about land and sugar cane. This is about everyones place in the world and how they believe their father conceived of them.

Charley and Nova are quick to question the letter. Through tears, they theorize that Ernest never took this letter to a lawyer for a reason, so maybe it was more a distant hope than a real will, especially since Ralph Angel had just gotten out of prison when it was written. I should admit I have complicated thoughts about Ralph Angel. I both feel for him and get annoyed by how quickly hes angered, even if I understand the impulse behind it. Did he think for a moment about how he was setting the lives of his sisters aflame in his quest to find worth? Did he consider for a moment the day-to-day realities of this decision? How can he blame Nova for living her own life in New Orleans and not being there to parent him as he felt an older sister should? Charley is quick to point out the issues with Ralph Angel striking out on his own. Youre not ready, she says bluntly. Even Violet agrees. How is Ralph Angel going to run the farm if Charley doesnt fund it? Ralph Angel doesnt have concrete answers and, like Charley, I worry that hell lose the farm despite his passion. But the real main reason I have complicated feelings toward Ralph Angel comes down to his relationship with Darla.

Darla unwittingly becomes a bit of a pawn in the argument between Charley and Ralph Angel. Charley wants her to go to the mill to get important paperwork drawn up, while Ralph Angel insists she stays by his side, even if that means undermining her work yet again. He seems controlling to a degree that is uncomfortable to watch. He even thinks Darla is taking her side, merely because she does her job as Charleys assistant. But what choice does she have? She cant afford to lose another job because she stood by Ralph Angel. You cant go, Darla, he says. He doesnt plead; he insists. He also cant see her perspective at all, instead believing shes against him like everyone else, which is a rather simplistic way to the view the world. When Ralph Angel later decides to be cold toward her so that she couldnt come inside, I realized how conditional his love is. Although Darlas history with addiction plays a part in this, I believe the real culprit is that Ralph Angel sees the world rather starkly. Youre either with him or against him.

Ralph Angels desire to better himself at the expense of others is important, but Charley once again acts as the lynchpin of the episode. Remember, Charleys interview with Ben is still ongoing. A photographer has flown in for her Galant Magazine spread. Ben is asking around about her impending divorce, which Remy takes note of. Charley admits to telling Ben about the divorce as leverage, curdling her relationships with Davis and Remy. Her scene with Remy in particular is painful to watch. When she admits to this, something changes in Remys face and he tells a story about how Ernest would always praise her as thoughtful. Now I wonder if I misunderstood your father. Maybe thoughtful meant calculating, Remy tells her. Its an anecdote designed to wound. Charley is indeed calculating, but she has to be that way to survive. The fact that Remy cant see that is troubling.

Charleys wealth and lacquered presentation often give people the idea that she doesnt need help. That she, like so many black women, can simply survive on their own with no one else to lean on. When Violet talks to Charley, she complains about how Ralph Angel is coddled. I need help, too [] I want someone to fight for me, Charley admits, crying. The Bordelon siblings are now spinning off in different directions. After Novas heart-to-heart with Violet about why she sold off her share of the farm, she decides to take Robert up on his offer and go to Atlanta. Ralph Angel remains headstrong. And Charley is clearly coming undone. When Ben asks what Ernest would think about her new career, she finally cracks. Her ability to spin things to advantage fails and all she can say is the wounding truth: I dont know.
Matthew Lillard. Photo: Getty Images

Spoilers below for episode 11 of Twin Peaks: The Return.

In Sundays episode of Twin Peaks: The Return, Buckhorns resident high-school principal, noted adulterer, and supernatural blogging enthusiast meets his brutal demise at the hands of a woodsman. The death of Bill Hastings is a bummer, to say the least: Matthew Lillard proved to be a perfect addition to David Lynchs sprawling Peaks revival, portraying a falsely accused man grieving the brutal murder of his wife and lover, as well as coming to terms with the fact that there is, indeed, an alternative dimension beyond our world. Although Bill sadly never learned the true meaning of the Major or the zone, the coordinates he obtained for Major Briggs might end up being the clue to unlocking the truth about Agent Dale Cooper and his doppelganger once and for all.

On Wednesday, Vulture called Lillard to discuss the unique experience of working with David Lynch, what Bill was like before his downward spiral, and what to expect in future episodes of Twin Peaks: The Return.

Im so sad that youre dead!

You and me both. But who knows that Im dead? Its David Lynch. You have no idea. You never know. Id be the tallest woodsman ever. I remember on the day I saw that guy walking around, I was like, What in the hell is that?! I had no idea they would be the reason of my demise.

Ive chatted with a few Twin Peaks actors, and theyve each told me different stories as to how they got involved with the revival. Some had to audition, others got handed the part no questions asked. What was the experience like for you?

I had a very down-the-middle experience. I got a phone call from someone who knew about the audition and said I should audition for Twin Peaks. I was informed that there were no sides. You just showed up and had a conversation with the casting directors. So I did, and showed up one day. Everyone that was reading in the waiting room was such a group of characters that you would expect in a David Lynch movie: People were wearing very hipster hats and had facial hair, very skinny people who had painted nails, a very, very cool group of human beings. And then there was me in a collared polo. [Laughs.] So me and the casting directors just started having a conversation and they video recorded me. And lo and behold, four weeks later I got a call that said I got the offer to play this character, Bill Hastings, and I have to get to the casting office today to get my lines. I literally stopped everything I was doing and ran over to Lynchs production office. I signed out the character book, which was a collection of sides, and I was like, Hey, can I read this in the car?! Can I take it out of the building?! They were like, Yeah, go ahead. So I took it to my car and read it there.

It was one of those things where in reading the script, you dont have any sense of whats going on. You literally just have your words and your scenes. I was reading and reading and reading, and I got to the interrogation in episode nine. You stop and wonder, Oh my God, what a crazy scene. You know its going to be hard to do. You know its going to be a challenge. Reading the scene, theres a line that only says: Breaks down hysterically sobbing. You have a sense of an expectation of a result that David Lynch wants. When youre working with someone at Davids caliber and pedigree and world-renowned legendary status, you know that people are going to be paying attention to that scene. Ill never forget shooting that scene.

Since David Lynch chose to only give actors their lines and nothing else, did you find the lack of context to be a fun challenge? Or was it difficult to adapt to?

Not only that, but Im not a Twin Peaks-er. I never watched the show! There are all of these elements of stuff that I had no connection to whatsoever. Eventually I went over to Mark Frost, and I was like, Hey, man, you have to explain this to me. And he was like, I cant really explain. And I was like, No, not spoilers, but I dont even know what Im talking about in the scene?! So he was nice and explained things like that to me. I think its somewhat liberating.

Theres two things. First of all, youre working with an artist whos in complete control of what he wants to do. So theres a liberating factor in the fact that, despite me not knowing David Lynch at the time, youre working with someone who gets it. Hes very precise and hes doing something that makes you think, Okay, Im going to release myself into this process. Youre willing to give in to your insecurities if theres a master involved. And then theres something thats naturally liberating about the fact that you dont know where it is, you dont know where its going, and you dont have to worry about the type of archetype of the character youre playing. You dont have to satisfy anything other than whats on that page. Like, if youre playing a bully in a movie, you know on page ten as to who that character is and what youre part is in the scope of that movie. In this, you dont have that information, and you have to just be in the moment as to whats happening. And its all right! Youre releasing yourself to somebody thats a master. Those are good moments.

Were you able to at least sit down with David for a bit, to learn more about what exactly he expected for Bill Hastings?

Nope, not at all. When you walk on set, and I learned this as an actor, you catch the process quickly. There was not a lot of conversation. There wasnt a dialogue or anything. Obviously if I dont do something he likes, hes going to change it. So unless that happens, Im going to do what Im going to do with whats on the script, and if he wants me to be something different, I certainly will. At some point, he came out and said something like, I want you to do it more blue. I really feel like he gave me that direction. I couldve made that up in my mind, but I really remember him saying: More blue! It was the craziest direction Ive ever gotten. So, I just say yes to him.

Being at Comic-Con and meeting all of these people that I never worked with but were on the same show, and having conversations about their experience over the course of, like, 12 hours of interviews, you realize that actors love David. They love him so much. He has a joy about him that you very rarely see in someone. He has this sense of joy, and hes loving and relishing this whole experience. When you go to work on Twin Peaks, youre working on something thats relevant. And to be led by somebody whos full of joy? Thats a good combination in our business.

I think some people would be surprised to learn that David is this super-nice, super-charming man. His delightful personality sometimes doesnt add up with his bizarre work.

Exactly. And if you talked to anyone who knew Wes Craven too, bless his soul, he was so sweet. He loved bird-watching. He was this wonderful, outspoken, gentle, charming man. And he made crazy things.

What do you think drove Bill to pursue and explore alternative dimensions?

He was doing it for the chicks. All of the chicks are into extra-dimensional studies! Looking at this character, hes fascinating to me  because of the fact there wasnt more information about him, there wasnt too much digging about him to do. It wasnt like we were doing a huge backstory for him. My job for that interrogation scene is to embody that moment and push the reality of what David and Mark wanted to hit. So when I think about, What drove him to set up the zone? I never really got that deep into it. I know its weird, but it was a small part that ended up doing big things. You dont really need to motivate anything in terms of why he did it. Does that make sense?

Certainly. Some actors love to formulate backstories for their characters, but others couldnt care less about it.

Its funny, because I understand if you have over a hundred pages and you have to figure out why your character is doing something. Sure, that helps motivate you. But with something like Twin Peaks, I didnt have much time to do that. And I didnt feel like I needed to do it. I think it goes back to just doing what the master said and doing it well. Because theres freedom within that form. And also, I think theres so many Twin Peaks fanatics who will do all of that work for me. [Laughs.] So many people love this world and have been waiting desperately for it to come back, and the amount of chewing and layers and depths in which theyre digging, theyre loving that.

Bills skull-crushing death is a violent one, and Im curious how you interpreted it. Do you see it as a man who died doing something that he ultimately loved? A man on the verge of a complete mental breakdown? Or something else entirely?

I think hes a victim. I think hes a pawn. The other thing is that, in doing the show, you have no idea what the hell is going on. But now watching the show, I can fill in the blanks a lot more clearly because Im getting a better sense of whats happening in the universe. I think that he went on a fun journey with his foxy lover, kind expecting to look for the Loch Ness Monster, and he stumbled upon this world of pain.

In both your interrogation and death scenes, those extremely dramatic moments get blended with humor. Bills repeated musings about scuba diving and Detective Mackley repeatedly yelling Oh my god! couldnt help but get a big smile from me.

I think its super, too. I shot those scenes a year ago, so I never really thought about the words again until now. When I was picking up my kids from camp, my Twitter was blowing up about scuba diving and links to the Bahamas and I was like, What is going on?! I didnt think it would be so funny and so horrific at the time, truly! It really is a weird blend of comedy and emotion. Youre watching a guy in this downward spiral. Its a weird combination. At the end of the day, that is David Lynch. Thats his tone and what he does best. Its erotic and horrific at the same time. Its funny and horrific at the same time.

Do you have any theories as to what exactly the woodsmen are, or how they were birthed into our world?

Oh lord, I have zero idea. I dont even know how to process episode eight.

Nobody does.

Nobody does! I like the whole thing with Dougie. I dont know what that is, but theres so much going on that Im not the person whos actively consuming theory and trying to wrestle it. Im the person sitting there and letting it wash over me. I feel like Im in somebody elses dream, and trying to figure it out would take the joy out of it. I just watch and absorb.

There are two things I do know: Its shot as one continuous movie thats been broken up. There are so many times where you have to remember that this plays out over 18 hours. The other thing is, as deep as you think it is, it goes deeper. Whatever peoples hypotheses are, theyre just scratching the surface. Thats a cookie that I will give to people who are curious. Trust me, its deeper than anyone can expect.

This interview has been edited and condensed.
We regret to inform you that Channing Tatums Amazon series is no longer called Iron Fisting. Despite that, the series, which features Tatum, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Nick Offerman as the poorly dubbed voices of a 1980s Romanian crime drama, still feels like something you can get behind. Comrade Detectives first season premieres August 4 on Amazon Prime. Come for the voices, stay for the indoctrination into communist ideals.
Bow down to Maggie Amato, for she is our queen. Maggie has always been a badass, but never more than while holding a switchblade with a slice of meat hanging on the end of it. Yes, thats a thing now. A glorious, glorious thing.

Let me back up: Montana is not the cutesy little coffee girl she seems to be. After serving Josh a latte with questionable foam art (its a dick, you guys), she informs him that she quit working for Maggie because she has an art show of her own coming up. So, off they go to Croton-on-Hudson to visit Montanas studio  which happens to be attached to her parents mansion. Josh is a little taken aback since he and Montana only just recently started banging, but he takes it in stride.

He does a good job keeping it all together as red flag after red flag pop up, such as the fact that Montanas real name is Amy and she only started calling herself Montana when she moved to Brooklyn. Most important, and most egregious, is Montanas art. Apparently, Montanas whole schtick is appropriation. Its what her upcoming show, titled The Gift of The Artist, is all about: She works for artists who gift her their own paintings, and then she takes those paintings and marks them with an outline of the state of Montana. This is her art. If the entire scenario sounds familiar, then you can probably guess what happens next: Josh finds the painting Maggie recently gifted Montana sitting in her studio, awaiting the Dark Mark. Josh is immediately put off. When he confronts Montana about it, she spouts off some rubbish about it being the job of the current generation to build on the work of the old generation, and also that he should be more supportive of her art and less concerned with his exs best friend. She is terrible.

You know whos not terrible? Josh. He goes to see Maggie and warn her about her art being used in Montanas show because Josh is an angel person. Of course, he has no idea what hes about to unleash.

Maggie, with Liza as backup, strolls into the art gallery, sees that her own painting (with a fresh Montana outline) is on display and being listed for $20,000. Montana patronizingly attempts to explain her work and how shes making that painting more valuable than Maggie ever could with her mark. So, Maggie decides to put her own mark on it: She whips out that aforementioned switchblade, slices the piece down the middle, and picks up a piece of charcuterie as she cooly walks out in a blaze of glory. It. Is. Awesome.

More than showcasing Maggies knife skills, the incident gets her name back in the press  New York Magazine ahem, ahem  which means now everybody is talking about her art, too. And then, the greatest thing Younger has ever done happens: Diana Trout reads about Maggie and tells Liza to arrange a meeting. You guys, Maggie Amato and Diana Trout are going to be in the same room. Will the world explode? WILL OUR BRAINS?

Meanwhile, Josh, who mercifully ends things with Montana, runs into Liza on the street. She thanks him for helping Maggie given everything thats happened. It was nothing, Josh says, since Maggie is his friend, too. BRB, have to wait until my heart stops melting. Its the first time since their breakup that Liza and Josh have been able to have a real conversation. He asks her why she had to kiss Charles, and she gives him an honest answer: Deep down, a part of her needed to blow things up in order to give Josh freedom. She doesnt want to hold him back; she wants him to have the option of having kids. But she also knows that she wants to be a part of Joshs life. Even if its as fun Aunt Liza, Blanket Fort Builder. All she knows it that this cant be how they leave things. For his part, Josh seems reluctantly onboard with having some type of relationship again.

Who knows how any of this will actually work, but just as it was a relief to see Liza and Kelsey finally choose their friendship over their issues, this moment was a breath of fresh, well-coiffed air.

Speaking of Liza and Kelseys friendship, its also nice to see theyre back to giving each other advice. Tonight, its Liza talking Kelsey off the ledge when she realizes how much she likes Zane (that cigar bar scene is steamy), while also officially stealing Lachlan Flynn from Rivington. Turns out, Zane doesnt mind Kelsey poaching Lachlan (how terrible is this author going to be?). He thinks it makes her much more interesting. They talk about it for 30 seconds, and then he goes back to cooking her dinner. With shallots, no less!

The future of Liza and Josh, in whatever capacity, will most assuredly depend on the future of Liza and Charles. How long can two people overtly flirt before finally getting it on? Sure, theyve kissed and sworn to forget about it, but lets be real: No one has forgotten about it. If The Gift of the Maggie is any indication, everyone is thinking about that kiss all day, every day.

As Liza, Charles, and Diana entertain pitches from wannabe romance writers to write under the late, great Belinda Lacroixs name, the Liza and Charles loaded publishing talk is off the charts. Romance novels have one golden rule: Deliver the H.E.A., the Happily Ever After. Liza and Charles chat about how realistic that really is, and shouldnt they give their readers something more relatable? Sometimes things just dont work out. Heartbreak is real. In the end, though, Liza comes around to the idea of keeping H.E.A.s in the Lacroix novels, and Charles is happy to hear it  since he already came to the same conclusion. He isnt going to be the one to deprive readers of happy endings. People want to believe love exists. Liza smiles at Charles and asks, A happy ending isnt the worst thing to hope for, right? YOU GUYS. Sure, that conversation with Josh took place the night before, but we have to be talking about Liza and Charles, right? Is Younger finally going to go there? Like, all the way there? I have so many questions.

Its Trout Season

 Im glad you surround yourself with older, wiser women. Were good for you. Now go. Diana and Lizas relationship in a nutshell.

 I think I am allergic  to these women. Miriam Shors line readings never cease to amaze.
The Community Race Relations Coalition will hold its quarterly meeting from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday at St. Albans Episcopal Church Parish Hall, 305 N. 30th.

The program will be Celebration of Cultures through music.

Dinner will be provided with donations accepted. This event is open to all, but a reservation is required by calling 717-7903 or emailing Jo@welterfamily.org.

Backpack giveaway

Central Texas Divas, King Ranch, Bossy Enterntainment, Texas Pryme Time Rydhas, Elite Ladies Social Club, and the Waco Knight Riders are sponsoring a Back to School Throwdown Backpack Giveaway from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at the South Waco Community Center, 2815 Speight Ave.

Students through high school are eligible to receive a backpack.

The event also will include free food, face painting, diapers and booths with information about local services and resources.

For more information, call 750-8650.

GOP campaign training

The Republican Party of McLennan County will host a Candidate Development and Campaign Management Training program from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday at the party headquarters, 539 N. Valley Mills Drive.

The event is for candidates, potential candidates, campaign managers, treasurers, or anyone interested in learning more about campaign management or becoming a candidate.The training is jointly sponsored by the Republican Party of Texas, Texas Republican County Chairmens Association, Texas Federation of Republican Women, and Abbott University. Trainers will include representatives from these organizations, as well as an election law attorney and others.

Agenda topics include finance and compliance, campaign management, communications, fundraising and more.

The event is free, and lunch will be provided. To register, visit www.mclennanrepublicans.org or call 772-6955.Cattle Barons Ball

The 25th Central Texas Cattle Barons Ball will begin at 6 p.m. Saturday at the Waco Convention Center, 100 Washington Ave.

The annual fundraiser for the American Cancer Society will feature live music from Diamond Rio, food, a silent auction and more.

Tickets cost $250. Table are available for $2,500 and up.

For more information, call 753-0807 or visit www.centraltexascattlebaronsball.org.

Donations for shoes





Financial donations for Shoes for the Homeless are now being accepted by Mission Waco.

Donations of $45 per pair provide shoes for the homeless who register and qualify at the Meyer Center. Participants will visit a local shoe store to select their shoes.

The shoes will be distributed at the beginning of the Walk for the Homeless, 8 a.m. Sept. 17. The walk will start at 1226 Washington Ave.

Give at https://secure.paperlesstrans.com/MissionWaco or by check to: Mission Waco, 1315 N. 15th, Waco, TX 76707. Please designate shoes for homeless. Call 753-4900 for more information.
Mart residents are asked to hold off another day on washing clothes as officials work to address a citywide water shortage.

A series of problems with the water system and power outages affecting pumps, compounded by high summer water demand, added up to a shortage the city is scrambling to address, officials said.

The city council unanimously agreed during a special meeting Wednesday to spend $20,000 on fixes to address the dire water shortages faced over the past week. Meanwhile, H-E-B representatives are planning a visit the town in the eastern corner of McLennan County to hand out bottled water.

Were in better shape than we were yesterday, Mayor Pro Tem Henry Witt III said Wednesday afternoon.

Mart residents will stay under a water boil notice for at least another week and the city remains under a Stage 4 water restriction until recently-approved projects are complete, Witt said.

It doesnt mean you cant flush your toilet. It doesnt mean you cant shower. It means use water only for absolute necessities: cooking, that sort of thing, after you boil it, of course, he said.

The city doesnt expect the fixes to cost the full $20,000 set allocated. The repairs will give the city three working pumps, which could potentially double the amount of water entering the treatment facility, pushing it to customers more quickly, he said.

The city has two water tanks: one serving an in-town system and one that serves the Texas Youth Commission jail and 10 residences. Part of the project will cover a bypass and control valves to connect the two systems, Witt said.

The repairs will help hold the city over until the implementation of the multimillion-dollar grant and loan package from the U.S. Department of Agriculture the city received.

The USDA project will include the repair and replacement of water distribution lines, including the transmission line that runs seven miles from the water treatment facility at Mark Lake to town. Since the citys water lines run under its streets, the streets will also be repaired through the grant.

Its not a huge expense so luckily were not burning a lot of money here that were just going to replace in a year, Witt said. The USDA project is expected to start in August 2018 and be completed in August 2019.

The recent spiral of events that have left Mart residents temporarily without water started July 18 when city crews located a major water leak on the in-town system, Witt said. Residents along the street near the leak went without water for a few hours while repairs were made to the line. Those few hours, however, backed up the system.

Two days later, Oncor started having rolling brownouts in the area, Witt said. The waterline pumps went down because of the lack of power, he said. With the system down, the tanks ran out of water.

With water pressure already low in the system as the tanks were refilled to try to catch up to demand, a storm hit the treatment plant seven miles away in Hallsburg.

While Mart didnt receive rain, its water treatment plant in Hallsburg went down for 12 hours after the storm knocked out power lines and transformers, Witt said. By 6 p.m. Sunday, the city of Mart was out of water.

Boiling is required, but most water customers in Mart had water again by lunch Monday, Witt said.

Currently, two pumps are working at full capacity and are struggling to catch up with the delivery problem, Mayor Leonard Len Williams wrote in a statement to residents on social media. Your vigilance, patience and understanding is requested to get us past this crisis.

Mart Volunteer Fire Chief Bud Pavelka made arrangements with neighboring fire departments to provide tanker water in case of a major fire, Williams wrote.

The Stage 4 water restrictions include prohibiting all outdoor water use, including filling pools and fountains, washing any type of vehicles or irrigation of landscaped areas. Violators can be fined.

H-E-B representatives will be on hand at the Mart City Hall to pass out a free case of water per household from 10 a.m. to noon and 4 to 6 p.m. Friday.
President Trump opened his speech before the National Jamboree at Summit Bechtel Reserve in West Virginia on Monday with what turned out to be a rhetorical question: Who the hell wants to speak about politics when Im in front of the Boy Scouts, right?

Trump wasnt the first president to address a crowd of tens of thousands of Scouts, brought together from all over the country. Franklin D. Roosevelt started the tradition when he wrote a message to the very first National Jamboree, held on the Mall in 1937. At that gathering, Scouts from each of the 48 states brought wood and built a collective campfire, which was lit by Dan Beard, founder of the Boy Scouts of America, using only flint and steel. Attorney General Homer Cummings delivered Roosevelts words, urging the boys to carry home with them the spirit of the Jamboree, for sooner than we who are older realize, you will assume the full responsibilities of citizenship.

Since then, six of the 10 U.S. presidents who were in office at the time of a Jamboree have come in person to address these national gatherings of Scouts. Presidents from both parties have used the opportunity to praise the service and commitment of the boys and challenged them to become young men of even greater character.

Not Trump. He talked about himself. He bragged about that famous night on television when he won the election. He complained about fake polls and fake news. Apparently still smarting from Inauguration Day, he predicted that the media would underestimate the size of the crowd at the Jamboree. He broached policy discussion by vowing to start our path toward killing this horrible thing known as Obamacare.

He even went so far as to interrupt a recitation of the Scout Law.

A Scout is trustworthy, loyal, Trump began. As the assembled Scouts continued to list the virtues to which they are all to aspire, the president interjected, We could use some more loyalty, I will tell you that  an apparent reference to Attorney General Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the Russia investigation. Or perhaps to one of the other slights ricocheting in the presidents head at any given moment. Considering Trumps past public statements, none of his remarks at the National Jamboree come as any particular surprise  but, for me, they cut especially deep.

My family has been affiliated with the Boy Scouts since 1949. Thats the year my father, then a third-grader in a one-room schoolhouse outside Bayard, Nebraska, begged my grandfather to take him to a membership meeting of the Cub Scouts. When they went, one of the den mothers told my grandfather that they needed a new Cubmaster.

I guess you would say they volunteered my services on the spot, he told the local paper years later. It was the beginning of 68 years  and counting  of Scouting for my family. Eventually, my dad completed his Eagle award, went on to receive his Silver Award in Explorers and made two trips to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. In 1957, he capped his Boy Scout career by attending the National Jamboree in Valley Forge, Pennsylvania.

And when my grandfather died in January 1980, the funeral was packed with Boy Scouts and Cub Scouts. I remember my mother pointing to one of the Cub Scouts and saying, That will be you soon. In time, I got my Eagle, too, and like my dad, I went to Philmont, and in 1989, I attended the National Jamboree at Fort A.P. Hill as a member of the post office staff.

Now my son is in Boy Scouts, probably a year or so away from completing his Eagle. He was crushed when he found hed missed the sign-up date for National Jamboree this year  but, after hearing Trumps remarks, Im glad he wasnt there. I wouldnt have wanted him to watch Trump turn the largest gathering of Boy Scouts into a political rally, as if they had come together only to see him. Its a desecration of our family tradition, of more than a century of Scouting tradition. Worst of all, Trump did it without a second thought. He made the National Jamboree about himself because he makes everything about himself.

Dont misunderstand me: The Boy Scouts of America is far from a perfect organization. It didnt require the desegregation of all troops till the 1970s. Leadership positions werent opened to women till that same time period. Starting in the 1980s, troops started denying membership to gay boys and leadership positions to gay men  a position only fully reversed in 2015.

But Trump didnt dishonor the Boy Scouts by falling short of its standards; he made a mockery of the principles themselves. Whether by design or as an act of casual selfishness, Trump enlisted 35,000 children in his political machinations. Online, people responded with jokes about the Hitler Youth and Trump looking out on a sea of brown shirts at the Jamboree. Others criticized the boys themselves for applauding. But the simple fact of the matter is: Theyre children; hes the president of the United States. The responsibility for respecting the nonpartisanship of Boy Scouts was his.

Still, the BSA is now in a position of having to disavow statements made by the president as part of an official event. Thats not easy. But the statement issued immediately after the speech  saying that the BSA is wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate or philosophy  is woefully inadequate. The organization does not need to be harsh, but it needs to be clear: Scouting is open to all boys, regardless of race, religion or political affiliation.

Trump might know that, had he been a Boy Scout  or ever supported his sons interest in the organization. Instead, the only time that Trump ever had any previous dealings with the Boy Scouts was when Don Jr. joined in 1989. The membership fee was $7 in those days  and Trump appears to have paid it from his charity rather than from his own pocket.

Im sorry the president and his sons didnt stick with Boy Scouts long enough for Trump to understand that Scouting is the vestige of an older world before everything became imbued with partisan significance. Today, your political allegiance is defined not only by how you vote but by which church you attend, where your kids go to school, which TV channels you watch, what kind of coffee you drink.

Trump told the Jamboree crowd that liberals in this country dont understand the forgotten man and now theyre going crazy trying to figure it out. But if he truly believes that bringing hate and division into our most cherished nonpartisan organizations is what America wants, then its the president who fails to understand the country he has been charged with leading.
Health care in nutshells

The real truth about the federal governments control of health insurance and health care is that once they injected themselves, your costs went up for insurance, your cost in taxes went up, the cost for providers went up, the cost for medical equipment went up, the cost of everything associated with health care went up.

When Obamacare was put in place, it was pure regulation and tax increases. It contained huge subsidies to insurance companies that at first were not authorized as funding through Congress. How did that money get paid to the insurance companies? Well, the governments right hand stole it from taxpayer funds, paid it away, then borrowed money to replenish the stolen cash  thus the huge increases in the federal debt. Finally, Congress approved funding but with a termination date attached. That date has arrived and now the insurance companies want it to continue, which would amount to more borrowing and more debt.

Certainly you recall statements that you could keep your doctor and your premiums would go down by an average $2,500. What happened is that premiums, deductibles, co-pays and, yes, taxes all went up. The cost of your health care (not just your insurance) went up due to taxing every medical device known to man. You paid for that and continue to pay for it, regardless of what anyone tells you.

Then you have the federal government telling you that you have to have maternity insurance included, even if you are 50 years old. What happened to having hospitalization insurance in the event you needed to be in the hospital? What happened to letting the doctor say to you that a checkup will cost you $30?

Its time to repeal all of this nonsense and bring sanity back to consumers, so they can purchase insurance products of their choice and go to doctors of their choice. Keep the government from screwing up the insurance market and the health-care market completely. Give states more control over Medicaid funding and let the voters hire and fire the state politicians who do things right or wrong. As a Texan, I sure dont need Chuck Schumers notion of health insurance and health care  and New Yorkers dont need Ted Cruzs notion of health insurance and health care.

Stephen Williams, Hewitt

***

If you are against government health care and are over 65, you need to know that Medicare is your choice and you do not have to take it. There are plenty of health-care plans you can get. They will cost a lot more, the co-pays are much higher and the maximum they pay is much lower, but you do not have to use government health care.

And if you cannot afford that and decide to go without health insurance, at least you will learn something that some 23 million Americans already know: They and their children cannot afford Trumpcare or any market policies. But at least you have a choice.

Jim Denton, Gatesville
Todays students face a changing landscape when it comes to education and learning. Computers and technology are only part of that shift, and local educators are being encouraged to stay up to date with the changes.

Modern classrooms are increasingly digital in response to the needs of current learners, said Dr. Jerry Maze, executive director of Education Service Center Region 12 in Waco. This a brand-new schoolhouse for most of us. The new school represents a steep learning curve for teachers and parents as we learn to deliver and understand an educational experience vastly different from the ones we remember.

Educators across the state have a long-standing support system in place to help them adjust to that ever-evolving world. Locally, teachers and administrators can tap into that support at ESC Region 12 at 2101 W. Loop 340.

From training sessions on technology to insight on changing classroom environments, ESC staff members encourage local school districts to take advantage of what they offer.

Maze said the Waco facility is part of a 20-center network celebrating 50 years of training and technical assistance to school districts statewide. In addition to helping ensure student achievement and financial efficiency as set forth by the Texas Legislature in 1967, ESC Region 12 also assists with various initiatives for the Texas Education Agency.

Our core mission is to leverage resources and support into the classrooms of 76 traditional school districts and 11 charter schools in the 12-county area surrounding Waco, Maze said.

Widespread Service

Some 200 ESC Region 12 staff members  from educators and accountants to technologists and experts in other areas  serve 23,000 educators and 180,000 students. The center also brings more than 30,000 participants to Waco annually, Maze said.

And after five decades, ESC Region 12 is focused on taking education into the future with a modern learning initiative, a process called TransformED. Specifically, this will help districts achieve digital convergence in their classrooms and curriculum, he said.

Things have changed significantly from the traditional classroom settings in the Industrial Age to the classrooms of today, Maze said. We are equipping our staff to support our schools as they work to meet the needs of modern learners.

By communicating these changes, ESC Region 12 staff can pass along cutting-edge research and information to local district administrators.

Charlene Simpson, deputy director of academic and administrative services at the center, works with Waco-area superintendents and curriculum directors. She said the TransformED initiative is timely for educators.

We all have so much technology now, she said, adding that todays learners have different needs because of the various methods available to them. It almost requires electronic tools to engage students today.

Simpson encouraged educators to keep an open mind and be willing to learn by trial and error when embracing modern learning techniques.

Not everyone is comfortable (with new approaches), Simpson said. I have to readjust, too, and try different things, knowing it may not always work. We have to take risks.

This means using iPads for more than just looking up information online.

There is a whole other set of things to let students do, like engage globally, she said. They want to sample everything.

TransformED Initiative

The TransformED initiative incorporates changes to various aspects of the educational experience, not just technology, Simpson said. This includes flexible furniture and busier, less quiet classrooms, among other differences.

Maze said the center is committed to research and professional development that will support the future of education.

ESC Region 12 is changing the nature of the training we provide teachers to reflect and model the digital convergence occurring in modern classrooms, he said. We are retraining internally and seeking to hire teacher-trainers with a modern classroom mindset.

Professional development in the TransformED initiative blends new technology into existing trainings, ESC Region 12 leaders say. This initiative created modern learning conferences aimed at elementary and secondary teachers this summer.

Andi McNair and Cory Camp, digital innovation specialists, have created training in emerging areas like coding in the classroom, as well as incorporating meaningful makerspaces and flexible learning environments.

We have developed several different sessions, more than 80 hours of professional learning experiences, for educators to choose from and customize their innovative teaching journeys, Camp said. Its all about making these trainings accessible to educators and connecting them to each other to share whats working in their classrooms.

LEx Labs

Another example of the modern learning initiative is the Learning Experience Labs (LEx Labs), developed at the Baylor Research and Innovation Collaborative.

The LEx Labs experience gives students and teachers a space to learn in a completely modern environment, Maze said. Creating this environment also allows us to conduct research with Baylor University on best practices in the modern classroom.

At almost 6,000 square feet, the research facility allows teachers and students to try out flexible learning spaces while Baylor researchers observe and gather information to evaluate new concepts.

Judy York, education specialist and coordinator for instruction at the LEx Labs, works firsthand with the facility and takes her findings to ESC Region 12.

First, I coordinate the planning of research and then participate in conducting the research in collaboration with our partners, York said. The research focuses on how the physical environment  room size, furniture, writable surfaces  affects student and teacher engagement in todays highly technical and global society.

Secondly, I use the findings from our collaborative research to develop innovative professional development for the teachers as they transition to meet the needs of todays students.

York said researchers use the term active learning to refer to all the types of instructional practices that aid the teacher in creating the modern learning environment. She said these environments are student-centered, hands-on and project-based.

Any instructional delivery platform, method or strategy that puts voice and choice into the student's classroom experience and that allows the student to be involved in driving their own learning success under the guidance and facilitation of the teacher, York explained.

She and other education specialists then deliver research-based, modern learning training and professional development to educators in Region 12 districts and around the state.

Different Approach

York explained that current research identifies the modern learner as an individual who often is impatient, easily distracted, has a thirst for learning but also can be overwhelmed and overworked.

In addition to these characteristics, she said future industry parameters require that these learners be: team-oriented; ethical and professional in both individual and group practices; able to communicate confidently and effectively in both verbal and written forms; creative problem solvers; and capable of learning and re-learning in a rapidly changing world.

Modern learning is not the conveyor belt, assembly-line learning that was necessary and appropriate for the past generations, York said. We are no longer an industrial age and the jobs that students of that age were educated for no longer exist for humans to do. Those jobs are automated now.

In the current age of information, employees of the future must be prepared to manage enormous amounts of information, use technology and applications, produce products that are applicable to a variety of media formats, and do all of this in a team setting.

Families and parents of todays students, however, should be aware that teacher instruction is still important and that classrooms are not set to operate strictly by means of technology.

York said technology will play a role whenever appropriate, but that research shows modern learning to be much more than just working with hand-held devices.

Modern learning does not mean all technology, all the time, she said. Innovative teaching is about creating an environment in which all students have the opportunity to meet their own learning needs.

In the professional development that we have developed so far, we have strived to build a very diverse teachers toolbox of delivery platforms, instructional strategies, and expectations for cognitive outcomes, York explained. This includes using whole-class and small-group interactions as well as work that directs students to use their own, share or work without devices.

Classroom Study

The LEx Labs team conducted a pilot study last school year in the Midway Independent School District to explore the impact of elementary classrooms transitioning into highly flexible environments. If successful, researchers hope to conduct a four- or five-year study.

Going forward into a changing educational setting, Maze encourages the community to stay engaged with schools and teachers.

Ask lots of questions, he said. Use parent portals, websites, links and other methods available at your school to stay informed about what and how your students are taught. This is a new and exciting time in education and one that is more conducive than ever to parental involvement. The parent is always the students first and most important teacher.

The staff at ESC Region 12 will continue toward professional development with the modern learner in mind, Maze said.

We are working with schools on these new approaches to curriculum, instruction and learning environments, and the extensive training that goes along with times of great change, Maze said.

In the end, it all comes back to increasing student achievement by impacting teacher effectiveness, he said. Its why we do what we do at ESC Region 12.
ASHLAND  Like most of us, Ethan Jones took an interest the presidential election last fall.

At the time, he was also reading books to his three young daughters every night before he went to bed.

Somehow he hit upon the idea to put the two things together and came up with a childrens bedtime book that is also a satirical look at our current president.

The Art of the Bedtime was written and illustrated by Jones, who is married to the former Kate McCoy of Ashland. He will read his book and hold a book signing at Postscript in downtown Ashland on Saturday, July 29 at 10 a.m.

Kate and Ethan Jones have three daughters, twins Bernadette and Matilda, who are 3, and 15-month-old Willa. Before they made the decision that he would stay home with the girls, he was a graphic designer and had earned a college degree to teach K-12 art.

Jones was looking for a creative outlet when he started drawing at night during his few minutes of down time when his daughters were asleep.

I started drawing more after theyd go to bed, he said.

When the presidential debates began, he taking an interest in then-candidate Donald Trump.

Hes the kind of person, pretty much everyone knows who he is, Jones said. Hes like Michael Jackson.

Jones was also familiar with Trumps book, The Art of the Deal, which is credited to Trump and Tony Schwartz. Although Jones hadnt read the entire book, he knew the main points Trump attributed to his business success.

I thought I could twist those around and make it so it has to do with bedtime, he said.

While Jones was working on the book, Trump was elected president. At first he wasnt sure if he should continue with the project

I didnt know if it was still relevant, he said.

Ultimately, he decided to finish the book. After writing a basic draft of the story, he drew the photos by hand and colorized them on the computer.

His goal was to write a non-political story that would appeal to children and adults.

Its just satire, he said. Parents will get some of it and find it funny.

Sometimes it was a struggle to take Trumps ideas and spin them to the positive side.

I really tried to stay away from anything negative, he said.

For example, the famous businessman often takes the stance in the book that one must fight back to be a success.

I dont want kids to fight back at bedtime, Jones said.

The author also had to write in terms children can comprehend.

I had to dumb down the language a little bit so kids understand it, said Jones.

Politics aside, the book is simply about one thing.

Really, it is a bedtime book to encourage kids to go to sleep, he said.

Once the book was done, Jones shared it with friends to gauge their response.

I tested it amongst friends from both extreme sides of the aisle, he said.

His liberal friends thought it was amusing. A couple of acquaintances who voted for Trump said they werent offended by it.

One far right friend bought five copies, Jones added.

A friend suggested he self-publish and sell it online. He printed a first run of 100 that went on sale June 5.

We sold out the first 100 within two weeks of printing it, Jones said.

He has ordered a second printing and is now shopping for stores across the country to sell the book.

Weve worked to get them into other places on consignment, he said.

Jones is also advertising the book with events like the one in Ashland.

Its just me trying to promote this thing on a very limited amount of free time, he said.

He held his first event in Omaha recently and it was a success he is hoping to replicate in Ashland.

We had a bunch of kids come in their pajamas, he said.

Once promotion for The Art of the Bedtime is complete, Jones plans to continue writing.

Ive written down some ideas, he said.

He also plans to teach art after Willa is in preschool or kindergarten. His father was an art teacher, so he is familiar with the career.

Up until then, Ill keep writing these childrens books, he said.

Jones was born in Albuquerque, N.M. and lived in Olathe, Kan. before moving to Belleville, Kan. where he graduated from high school in 1996.

Bucking the trend of his fellow classmates to attend the University of Kansas or Kansas State University, he headed to Nebraska.

I moved to Omaha where I didnt know anybody and went to art school, he said.

After finishing an associate degree at Creative Center, he worked as a graphic designer until 2010. He also played in several rock bands.

I had jobs that let me take a month or a couple of weeks off at a time to tour, he said.

Jones is not in a band now, but still likes to play music, he said.

He met his wife, Kate, through a mutual friend.

I never thought Id meet a girl in a bar, but it kind of ended up like that, he said.

He developed a crush, but was too shy to do anything about it.

It took me a long time to talk to her, he said.

Once he did, they had chemistry. They started dating and the rest is history.

Maybe it will make a good bedtime book someday.
WAHOO  Instead of hauling bombs, WWII Veteran Michael Kacere found a B-17 Flying Fortress carrying memories and surprises on a July 21 trip to the Columbus Municipal Airport.

Kacere visited the bomber as part of the Wings of Freedom Tour but, he was under the impression it was to be a media day and tour.

Instead, he was surprised by his son, former Navy flight surgeon Richard Kacere.

It was definitely a surprise to see my boy, Kacere said.

The surprises didnt end there.

After a look around the plane, the pair flew to Eppley Air Field in Omaha aboard the Flying Fortress

The plane was like I expected it to be. It was an old airplane, but its still a B-17, Kacere said.

Kacere said it was not as easy getting in and out of the plane at 95 years old, but was a very enjoyable flight.

Kacere was navigator on a B-17 in the 427th squadron of the 303rd Bomb Group stationed at Molesworth Airfield in the United Kingdom. Kacere enlisted at the young age of 20.

You dont think about anything like that at that age. People ask if you were afraid, but its the same danger as getting into a car nowadays, he said.

During his three years of service, Kacere was one of 10 crew members on the B-17 that flew bombing missions in France and Germany.

We flew out of England to targets in France and Germany, mostly Germany, he said. We dropped clusters of bombs in hopes of hitting what we were aiming at.

Kacere said navigating was not that arduous, as they flew in groups of 13 planes.

Usually, you just followed along in a group, he said.

But after about 15 missions, Kacere said they made him one of the lead navigators and he flew different missions with different groups.

One of the odd missions was flying the B-17 with a boat hanging underneath. They planned to drop the boat toward the channel in case other crews had abandoned their planes and needed an escape.

We never dropped any boats, but it was set up to release like a bomb, he said.

Normal missions were flown at about 30,000 feet, but the boat missions were flown at about 1,000 feet, he added.

For each mission Kacere flew on, he kept a journal, as his own artistic chronicling of what happened.

Each page kept the record of what number mission it was and included a picture of a bomb. On the bomb, Kacere inscribed the city that was their target, the weather, how much flack they took and if there was any enemy aircraft about.

The only time Kacere was impacted by flack was when his mic chord was cut and he didnt realize it.

The pilot was asking for me over the radio and couldnt hear me respond, so he had somebody come check on me, he said. A little piece of flack had come into the plane and cut my mic chord.

Kacere said he had a stencil to trace the bomb each time in the journal, but all the other inscriptions were drawn free-hand.

Hes quite artistic, said his wife, Loretta Kacere.

After an honorable discharge in 1945, Kacere and his brother, who was discharged the same year, headed west to meet their new brother-in-law.

My oldest sister married during the war and we headed west to meet the new brother-in-law, he said.

The brother-in-law was an optometrist and suggested Kacere look into the same profession.

I was selling ladies shoes before the war. I thought I would go back there and be a manager, he said.

But at the suggestion of his brother-in-law, he stayed in Gordon and became an optometrist.

Kacere and his wife lived in Gordon for 60 years, until their recent move to Wahoo to be closer to family.

Some of that family was there Friday to enjoy the moment with Kacere.

His son, wife and daughter, Judy Stukenholtz, met together in Columbus.

It was a nice little reunion. It worked out real well, he said.
Water rationing in Rome could pose public health risk.

Italian health minister Beatrice Lorenzin has warned that the prospect of water rationing in drought-hit Rome could pose a public health risk, as the capital's water emergency becomes an increasingly political issue.

Lorenzin, of the centre-right Alternativa Popolare (AP), said that a suspension of Rome's water supply could "seriously compromise the level of hygiene" in hotels, restaurants and public offices as well as affecting the provision of essential health services.

Lorenzin also said that her ministry had not been informed of the Lazio Region's order to stop water being pumped into Rome from Lake Bracciano , an important source of potable water for the capital.

The order, which takes effect from 28 July, was given by the president of the Lazio Region, Nicola Zingaretti of the centre-left Partito Democratico (PD), to avert an environmental catastrophe due to the lake's rapidly decreasing water levels.

Zingaretti's order appeared to catch Rome's water management company ACEA by surprise, forcing it to consider the prospect of turning off the water supply for eight hours a day in rotating districts of the capital, a move that could reportedly affect 1.5 million residents.

The crisis has led to a battle between the administrations of Zingaretti and Rome mayor Virginia Raggi, of the anti-establishment Movimento 5 Stelle (M5S), who through the city is major shareholder in ACEA.

Talks between both sides have so far failed to find a solution to avert water rationing in Rome which loses an estimated 40 per cent of its public water supply through leaky pipes.
When my autistic son Sam was 14 I decided to send him to Africa. The objective of the journey was to take Sam out of his comfort zone and expose him to new experiences in the hope this would provide a boost to his communication and life skills and give him a shot in the arm of independence. His dad went with him.

Most autism intervention is focussed on the early childhood years, a time of peak neuroplasticity, when it's theorised the brain is most amenable to change. Yet there is "second spring" of neuronal development during adolescence, the potential of which has largely been neglected. Our family decided to grab the opportunity and embark on an autistic gap year to see what would unfold.

Sam Best in Africa, where he became more talkative, more independent, with a greater of sense of his place in the world.

Quite a few people have asked me how, as a mother, I could let Sam go. Wasn't I worried? I mean wasn't, as someone said, Africa a big, scary, dangerous place?

My answer to the first of these: I never stop worrying about Sam. I adore my three sons equally but there's a special piquancy to my love for Sam borne of his vulnerability.
One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts received confirmation that his British citizenship had been revoked in December - a full six months after he nominated as a candidate to the Senate.

After a week of pressure over his citizenship status, Senator Roberts finally unveiled a timeline during an interview on Sky News late on Thursday night.

Senator Roberts said he wrote to the British authorities on May 1 last year to ask them whether he was a British citizen, given he was born to a Welsh father in India.

He says he got no response so he wrote again on June 6 - three days before nominations closed - saying that if he was a citizen he fully renounced. He subsequently nominated as a candidate and won a Queensland Senate seat.
The woman found dead at a bucks' party at a Melbourne hotel earlier this month has been remembered as a "beautiful bubbly girl", who became an Australian soldier just four months before her death.

Private Natasha Rowley, 20, was found dead on July 16 in the shower of a room at The Oaks on Market apartments that had been rented by a group of 11 men from the ACT and NSW on a bucks' night.

It is understood Private Rowley, affectionately known as Tash and "Tooty" to her friends and family, met the men at a nightclub in the early hours of July 16 before returning to their hotel.

After interviewing four of the men who attended the bucks' party, police said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding her death. It is believed Private Rowley's death may be a case of misadventure, but the cause of her death is yet to be revealed.
Western Australian Treasurer Ben Wyatt says a new levy on the banks would deliver about $1 billion in four years to the state, compared to only $370 million for South Australia.

The WA government is considering following South Australia's plan, although it is not expected to be introduced in its first budget on September 7.

Australian Bankers' Association chief executive Anna Bligh said such a tax would would be dangerous for Western Australia's economy. Credit:Jesse Marlow

Mr Wyatt said there was a strong case for WA introducing a bank tax, given the state's treatment by the GST distribution system that is currently delivering a 34.4-cent return for every dollar raised, multiple times less than the other states.

The states had given up the bank accounts deposits tax and financial institutions duty they used to collect revenue from before the introduction of the GST two decades ago, he said.
Mr Mattis cautioned at the time that the delay "in no way presupposes the outcome". "Since becoming the Secretary of Defence, I have emphasised that the Department of Defence must measure each policy decision against one critical standard: will the decision affect the readiness and lethality of the force?" Mr Mattis said last month in a statement. "Put another way, how will the decision affect the ability of America's military to defend the nation? It is against this standard that I provide the following guidance on the way forward in accessing transgender individuals into the military Services." The Pentagon was not immediately available to comment. It was unclear whether Mr Trump's action applied to transgender people already in the military or only new recruits. It also was unclear what legal mechanism Mr Trump could use to forcibly discharge existing transgender troops. US Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis had ordered a review into transgender people serving in the military. Credit:Cliff Owen The Senate's most prominent veteran, Armed Forces Committee Chairman John McCain, called Mr Trump's announcement "unclear", an example of why policy announcements should not be made on Twitter, and inappropriate given an ongoing Pentagon study on the issue.

"I do not believe that any new policy decision is appropriate until that study is complete and thoroughly reviewed by the Secretary of Defense, our military leadership, and the Congress," said Mr McCain, a Navy pilot and prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. John McCain was among Republicans speaking out against the president's announcement. Credit:AP The senator noted there were already transgender people serving in the US military: "There is no reason to force service members who are able to fight, train and deploy to leave the military - regardless of their gender identity." Republican Senator Orrin Hatch said "transgender people are people" and that "I don't think we should be discriminating against anyone." Chelsea Manning, the transgender former soldier, denounced the decision. Credit:Twitter/@xychelsea87

Chelsea Manning, the transgender Army soldier who served seven years in prison for leaking classified data, said Mr Trump's action "sounds like cowardice." Transgender celebrity Caitlyn Jenner defended "patriotic transgender Americans" in the military and asked the president on Twitter, "What happened to your promise to fight for them?" Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council advocacy group, was among those praising the announcement. "Our troops shouldn't be forced to endure hours of transgender 'sensitivity' classes and politically correct distractions," he said. Under the former defence secretary, Mr Carter, the military lifted the ban on transgender troops and was given one year to determine how to implement a policy that would allow transgender service members to receive medical care and would ban the services from involuntarily separating people in the military who came out as transgender. Thousands of troops currently serving in the military are transgender, and some estimates place the number as high as 11,000 in the reserves and active duty military, according to a RAND Corporation study that has been cited by the Defence Department. Following Mr Mattis' announcement last month, Aaron Belkin, the director of the Palm Centre, a think tank that has helped the Pentagon research transgender people serving in the military, released a statement condemning the move.

"For the past year, transgender troops have been serving openly and have been widely praised by their Commanders, as is the case in 18 allied militaries around the world including Israel and Britain," Mr Belkin said. "Yet members of Congress are denigrating the value of military service by transgender troops, and Service Chiefs are pressuring Secretary Mattis to continue the transgender enlistment ban despite having no new arguments or data to back up their long-discredited assertions. "In light of the success of transgender military service, the extensive research confirming that inclusive policy promotes readiness, and the sad history of 'don't ask, don't tell', loyally-serving transgender troops deserve to know whether Secretary Mattis stands by the claim he made at his confirmation hearing that LGBT troops can indeed serve in a 'lethal' military. Stonewalling on full inclusion will, just like 'don't ask, don't tell', compromise military readiness." Richard Soccarides, a longtime gay rights advocate who advised Bill Clinton on gay men and lesbians serving in uniform, called Mr Trump's decision "a tragic betrayal of all LGBT Americans and a shameful effort to win over social conservatives at the expense the vulnerable". "But, what Trump will now learn: don't mess with us," Mr Soccarides said. "This gets him a fight he will not win." Mr Carter also criticised the decision on Wednesday.

"To choose service members on other grounds than military qualifications is social policy and has no place in our military," Mr Carter said in a statement, noting there were already transgender individuals serving "capably and honorably." Gay rights and transgender organisations have long threatened legal action against the Pentagon if it decided to roll back or hinder the service of transgender troops. Their legal and political advocacy successfully convinced Congress and President Barack Obama to repeal the Clinton-era "don't ask, don't tell" ban on gay troops through legislation. Mr Trump's announcement comes two weeks after the House rejected an amendment to the annual defence policy bill that would have blocked the Pentagon from offering gender transition therapies to active duty service members. Twenty-four Republicans joined all 190 Democrats voting to reject the measure. But the issue has remained a pet cause for House conservatives, who believe the federal government should not be funding gender reassignments. Conservatives have offered several amendments to a pending appropriations bill funding the military that would target transgender service members. But not would exclude them from serving entirely. During the debate on the initial amendment, Republican Duncan Hunter, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, argued for the therapy restriction but explicitly stopped short of calling for an overall ban: "We're not stopping transgender people from joining. We're saying taxpayers in this country right now are not going to foot the bill for it."
Officials say a ride that broke apart at the Ohio State Fair, killing one man and injuring seven other people Wednesday evening, passed its inspections.

Director of Agriculture David Daniels says all of rides are checked several times when they're being set up to ensure they're set up the way the manufacturer intended.

Officials say the Fire Ball ride was inspected at a couple of different stages and was signed off Wednesday.

Daniels says they started out the day with 11 rides that didn't open because the inspection work wasn't done on them. He says there are four rides that won't be operating because they don't meet the mechanical test.

Republican Gov. John Kasich has ordered that all of the rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed.

------

Ohio's governor is calling the ride that broke apart at the Ohio State Fair, killing one man and injuring seven other people a "terrible, terrible tragedy."

Republican Gov. John Kasich made the comments at a late-night news conference.

Kasich says before this happened, he always thought of the fair, which opened Wednesday, as one of "the best things in life."

Authorities say three of the injured remain hospitalized in critical condition. They say the man who died was thrown from the ride when part of it broke off.

A company providing rides at the fair this year describes the Fire Ball as an "aggressive thrill" ride.

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A company providing rides at the Ohio State Fair this year describes the ride that malfunctioned and broke apart, killing one man and injuring seven other people, as an "aggressive thrill" ride.

Columbus Battalion Chief Steve Martin says the Fire Ball ride malfunctioned Wednesday night. One man who was thrown from the ride was killed. Five of the injured are hospitalized in critical condition and the other two are in stable condition.

On its website, Amusements of America says that since its debut in 2002, the Fire Ball has become "one of the most popular thrill rides on the AOA Midway." The company description of the ride says it swings riders 40 feet (12 meters) above the midway while spinning them at 13 revolutions per minute.

The company did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP, NBC) -- At least one person was killed Wednesday when a ride malfunctioned at the Ohio State Fair.

Some riders were thrown from the 'Fire Ball' on this opening day of the fair.

A battalion chief with the Columbus Division of Fire said a row of seats on the ride "snapped off."

Seven people are injured --- five of them critically. One of those injured is a 13-year-old boy.

'Amusements of America' -- the company providing rides for the fair describes the 'Fire Ball' as an aggressive thrill ride.

According to the company's website the 'Fire Ball' swings riders 40-feet high while spinning them at 13-revolutions per minute.

Ohio Governor John Kasich said he has ordered all fair rides to be shutdown until further inspections can take place.

He has also ordered a full investigation into the incident.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP, NBC) -- Fire officials say one man has been killed and seven others injured in a ride malfunction at the Ohio State Fair.

Columbus Battalion Chief Steve Martin says five of the injured are in critical condition and the other two are in stable condition at area hospitals.

Martin says the man who was killed was one several who were thrown from the Fire Ball ride Wednesday night.

Dramatic video captured by a bystander shows the ride swinging back and forth like a pendulum and spinning in the air when it crashes into something and part of the ride flies off, throwing riders to the ground.

The fair did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

The Ohio State Fair runs through August 6.

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) -- At least one person has been killed and several others injured in a ride malfunction on opening day of the Ohio State Fair.

Columbus Battalion Chief Steve Martin says the Fire Ball ride malfunctioned Wednesday night.

Martin says some of the victims were thrown from the ride.

Republican Gov. John Kasich says he has ordered a full investigation and ordered that all fair rides be shut down until additional safety inspections can be completed.

In a statement posted on its Twitter page, the fair says it is investigating. It did not immediately respond to a request seeking further comment.

The Ohio State Fair runs through August 6.
By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 27, 2017 | 05:57 AM | PADUCAH, KY

Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes today will recognize a Paducah small business with her office's Corporations for the Commonwealth Award. Farmer's Daughter Soap Company on Broadway is being recognized for its commitment to being a good corporate citizen and a leader in the Paducah community.

Ashley Graham, owner of Farmer's Daughter Soap Company, leads her company to help organizations like Operation Zero, Supporting Heroes, Family Service Society, Heartland Cares, and many others.

Grimes, Paducah Mayor Brandi Harless and Sandra Wilson, president of the Paducah Area Chamber of Commerce, will attend the short ceremony at 9 am.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 26, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 26, 2017 | 05:12 PM | PADUCAH, KY

A Marshall County man is facing charges related to a pickup truck reported stolen from a business.



According to the McCracken County Sheriff's Department, on July 16, someone reported a pickup truck had been taken from inside a fenced area on the property of Central Paving on Clarks River Road. Detectives say the suspect rammed the locked gate with the vehicle in order to get away.



Later that day the truck was reportedly spotted in Calvert City. Working with Calvert City Police to get surveillance video, detectives were able to identify the driver of the pickup truck as 36-year-old Austin Lockard.



Three days later, the vehicle was found on Milliken Road, and was recovered.



Detectives learned that Lockard was jailed Monday in an unrelated vehicle theft case in Obion County, Tennessee, so they traveled there Wednesday to interview him. Detectives say Lockard admitted that he stole the pickup truck, and blamed his crime on methamphetamine addiction.



The Sheriff's Department says Lockard will be charged with automobile theft and criminal mischief 1st degree. He will eventually be extradited back to McCracken County.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 27, 2017 | PADUCAH, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 27, 2017 | 05:11 PM | PADUCAH, KY

With just a few weeks to go until the Great American Eclipse of 2017 briefly turns daylight into darkness for our area, one McCracken County official says his agency will be ready to deal with whatever may arise.



McCracken County Emergency Management Director Jerome Mansfield says what concerns him most about the eclipse on August 21 is the number of visitors coming to the area to view the event. He says no one is exactly sure how many will make the trip into McCracken County, but officials are planning for a big crowd.



"We do not know exectly how many people are gonna spontaneously decide a few days before the eclipse to come to McCracken County, but we're planning for a large number. We began planning in February through the local Emergency Planning Committee. We now have a special eclipse planning group that's meeting regularly. Our main concern is anticipating a large crowd coming into western Kentucky and McCracken County." He said.



Mansfield says local agencies are planning mainly for traffic issues, and responders have extra units staged to deal with any potential problems that may arise. He says I-24 is not designed to handle the potential influx of traffic, and that could turn the highway into a parking lot.



"We anticipate I-24 traffic could be heavy. Through McCracken County on a typical day we have about 40,000 vehicles traversing I-24, according to the state highway department. Traffic moves well at 40,000 vehicles, but at 80,000 it boggs down," Mansfield said. "Mercy Regional Emergency Medical Services has been planning for several months to have all terrain vehicles and ambulances stationed throughout the area. If traffic is jammed on I-24 they can take an ATV and get up to the highway. And also they're going to station some air ambulances in the county."



Mansfield also warned eclipse viewers to use the correct equipment when looking at the sun, noting that proper gear will be clearly labeled. He said using the wrong glasses could result in eye damage.



"It's very important not to look directly at the eclipse, and to wear eye gear that has been certified by International Standards Organization. Look to make sure on the earpiece it has "ISO" on it, followed by a number." He said.



With several different agencies working to respond to potential emergencies, Mansfield stressed the importance of inter-agency communication. He said a special channel has been set up to allow responders to talk to each other should the need arise.



"The major problem to work on in any emergency or large event is communication. We're doing some planning to have an interoperability channel, meaning all the available agencies will be able to talk to one another and coordinate so we know the situation for the whole county," Mansfield said. He added that it may be necessary for emergency personnel to work extra hours on the day of the eclipse.



"We're going to activate the emergency operations center the morning of the eclipse, and be active all day to assist the Paducah 911 Center with taking calls and dispatching personnel to scenes," Mansfield said. "We'll have the usual emergencies and law enforcement activities to deal with that day, as well as a large crowd."
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By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 26, 2017 | 08:23 PM | LEXINGTON, KY

Four Kentucky State Troopers assigned to Post 1, along with two local Troopers assigned to the agencys Drug Investigation and Special Investigations (DESI) branch, received recognition from Justice Secretary John Tilley and Kentucky State Police Commissioner Richard Sanders, at a ceremony held July 21 in Lexington.

Senior Trooper Eric Fields, a Livingston County resident, received the KSP Citation for Bravery, an honor bestowed on officers of the agency who perform acts of bravery, without regard for personal risk despite clear and obvious peril, and clearly above and beyond the call or risk of ordinary duty. This citation was issued in reference to a 2015 incident in Lyon County which began as a drug investigation. During his response, Trooper Fields encountered a man pointing a handgun at him and other law enforcement officers. Trooper Fields told the man to drop the weapon before ultimately shooting the suspect. Trooper Fields actions caused the suspect to drop his weapon and neutralized the threat to himself and the other officers who were present. Trooper Fields acted swiftly and effectively, reflected professionalism and excellent training, ensuring all officers at the scene remained unharmed.

Trooper Adam Jones, DESI Detective Richie Wright, and DESI Sergeant Dean Patterson, all Graves County residents, received the Citation for Meritorious Service, bestowed on officers of the agency who distinguish themselves by an act of meritorious service of such exceptional character that it contributed to the success of a major command or endeavor. Also receiving this award in reference to the same investigation were retired DESI Detectives John Saylor, Shawn Ramage, Jason Kirk, as well as current DESI Detective Carlo Anderson. This citation was issued in reference to a two year investigation into a drug trafficking organization which was also involved in illegal firearms trafficking and other illegal activities. The investigation began in 2015 and concluded with the entry of guilty pleas in federal court for 11 co-conspirators in December of 2016. During the investigation, over 4  pounds of methamphetamine, dozens of firearms and vehicles, multiple pieces of real estate, and over $1 million in cash and other assets were seized. The investigation covered multiple western Kentucky counties as well as other states. It involved the assistance of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Department of Homeland Security, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, and local law enforcement agencies in the associated states.

Master Trooper Lewie Dodd, a Lyon County resident, was named the 2016 KSP Post 1 Trooper of the Year. Trooper Dodd is a 19 year veteran with KSP. During 2016, Master Trooper Dodd issued 673 citations, opened 32 criminal cases, and made 181 criminal arrests. Master Trooper Dodd also participates on the Post 1 Interdiction Team as time allows, and has seized over 140 pounds of marijuana and over $10,000 cash.

Detective Cory Hamby, a McCracken County resident, was named the 2016 KSP Post 1 Detective of the Year. Detective Hamby is a 7 year veteran with KSP, with two of those years as Detective. During 2016, Detective Hamby investigated three murder cases as well as numerous other death investigations, assaults, sexual assaults, and theft cases.
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By West Kentucky Star Staff

Jul. 26, 2017 | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

By West Kentucky Star Staff Jul. 26, 2017 | 06:26 PM | MARSHALL COUNTY, KY

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet's District 1 Bridge Crew has made a temporary repair to a finger joint on the I-24 Tennessee River Bridge, so the work zone lane restriction for eastbound traffic has been removed. All lanes are now open.



Engineers are continuing to evaluate the joint to determine if a more permanent repair can be made, or if it will have to be replaced.



Traffic had been restricted to one lane since Saturday on the bridge at the Marshall-Livingston County Line. Sometime during the previous night, the joint was damaged and it created a hazard for vehicles in the right-hand lane.



Some joints on the bridge were recently replaced, but this was not one of them. Just last week, engineers examined the joints as part of a detailed inspection and the joint appeared OK at that time. Engineers say it's possible the joint may have been struck by a passing truck or that recent extreme heat may have contributed to the problem.
By The Associated Press Jul. 27, 2017 | 06:30 AM | LOUISVILLE, KY

A four-star Kentucky hotel has discovered a data breach threatening guests' credit card information.

News outlets report The Galt House hotel in Louisville said Wednesday that an internal investigation found malware had been stealing information from a payment card processing system. The hotel says guests who stayed at the hotel between Dec. 21, 2016, and April 11 could be affected.

The malware copied guest payment information, including names and account numbers, as well as credit card expiration dates and verification codes.

The hotel says it has resolved the issue, and is working to strengthen its cybersecurity.
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

OTTAWA  Churchills Anglican pastor is praying Justin Trudeau changes his mind, a day after the Prime Ministers Office said he doesnt plan to visit the town.

We kind of just feel like some days, that youre abandoned at the end of the line, said Hannah Bazlik, reverend for St. Pauls Anglican Church. That doesnt do anything good for anybodys psyche.

On Monday, Churchill Mayor Mike Spence invited Trudeau in a letter that mentioned the towns issues since losing rail service on May 24. But the next day, Trudeaus office said he had no plans to head north after visiting Winnipeg for the Canada Summer Games.

Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg Prime Minister Justin Trudeau

It just boggles the mind that we seem to be so short-sighted, said Spence. Its imperative that he [Trudeau] do come to Churchill. He needs to see firsthand the issue that were faced with, but also the opportunity.

Spence says his town is a tourism hotspot with a marine observatory in the works  but that rising shipping costs could squander these opportunities. Hes part of a group affiliated with Opaskwayak Cree Nation that proposes taking over the rail line.

In late May, another First Nations group called Missinippi Rail inked a $20-million deal with Omnitrax for the port and rail line, but said it needed federal funds to follow through.

Omnitrax owns Churchills rail line and port, but says its not economically feasible to pay for the lines $20 to $60 million repairs. Premier Brian Pallister has said Ottawa must decide how to proceed.

Last week, the areas MP, Niki Ashton, started a petition, calling on the federal Liberals to seize the rail line and help local groups take it over.

Ottawa is walking away from a solution to the Churchill crisis, claims the NDP petition, which Ashton plans to table this fall in Parliament.

Bazlik saw a flurry of signatures during Tuesdays afternoon tea with seniors.

She says shes never seen so much despair in Churchill since arriving in 1971, even last year when Omnitrax laid off port workers.

Its when you dont feel good about yourself that people do the wrong things.

There are rumours of an uptick in robberies and other crimes since May, but the local RCMP detachment says it isnt laying more charges than normal.

On Facebook, dozens of town residents are debating a myriad of suggestions, from sending military engineers to repair the line, to using it for an off-road race for enticing media attention and corporate sponsorship.

Bazlik says a visit by Trudeau would bring hope to a community losing faith in politicians down south. Her Sunday service will focus on prayers that our government will take into consideration our situation, and do something so the young people can work.

She hopes people in Winnipeg join in.

Please pray for us in the north. Because everyone needs the Lords help up here, I can tell you that.

dylan.robertson@freepress.mb.ca
Opinion

Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 26/07/2017 (1935 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Federal Environment and Climate Change Minister Catherine McKenna thinks its time for Premier Brian Pallister to show everyone his carbon-taxing cards.

Sitting in the second-floor boardroom at the downtown offices of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce, McKenna said in an interview Wednesday that while she is optimistic that Pallister will ultimately reveal his long-awaited made-in-Manitoba approach to fighting climate change, she has also told the province in no uncertain terms that time is running out.

Manitoba and Saskatchewan, the only provinces to withhold their signatures from the federal governments climate-change framework agreement, have been told to deliver their own plans by the end of this year.

BORIS MINKEVICH / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Federal Environment Minister Catherine McKenna says 80 per cent of Canadians already live in a jurisdiction where there is a price on carbon.

Failure to comply will mean that, in addition to having a federal carbon tax imposed, both provinces will miss millions of dollars in federal incentives available to those provinces that meet the 2018 deadline to put a price on carbon.

My goal is that everyone has a price on pollution in 2018 and I want to work with provinces, but I do need to see (Manitobas) plan by the end of the year, McKenna said Wednesday. I think everyone wants to see the plan.

Its unclear whether the imposition of an end-of-year deadline will move a premier who has been nothing less than intransigent on the climate-change file.

Pallister has promised to deliver his own plan to fight climate change, but has refused to reveal details to the public or the federal government. He has also consistently disparaged Ottawas plan for a minimum $10-per-tonne carbon tax by next year, rising to $50 per tonne in 2022, claiming that it is unfair in a province the size and economic profile of Manitoba.

When Ottawa asked him to provide details by the end of June, Pallister responded by announcing he would not reveal his home-grown plan until he gets a legal opinion about whether the federal government has the constitutional authority to impose a tax on provinces that dont bring in their own plans by 2018.

McKenna declined to comment directly about the possibility of a legal challenge. Although Pallister has said he is not seeking a legal opinion to support specific court action, Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall has threatened to launch a lawsuit if Ottawa tries to impose a carbon tax on his province.

The federal government has the legal authority to regulate the environment, she said. We are on firm legal ground.

Right now, she added, 80 per cent of Canadians live in a jurisdiction where there is a price on carbon. We just think its fair that every jurisdiction does the same.

It may be fair, but it may also be a highly impractical notion with a premier like Pallister.

In what has to be one of the most unique approaches to a pressing national policy issue, Pallister has appeared to argue both for and against carbon pricing as a tool to fight climate change.

On the one hand, much of Pallisters rhetoric on climate change is in lock-step with premiers from provinces that have introduced some form of carbon pricing.

When the Canadian Taxpayers Federation (CTF) organized a protest two weeks ago outside the Manitoba Legislature against a carbon tax, Pallister brusquely brushed them aside. He went as far as to call the CTFs campaign misguided and insisted that there isnt an option to do nothing when it comes to fighting climate change.

However, at the same time he has supported the principle of government intervention, he has also disparaged the federal climate-change strategy and its insistence that all provinces meet a minimum threshold of $10 per tonne of carbon by 2018. He and Wall remain the only premiers not to sign on to the federal climate-change framework agreement.

Pallister has complained that the federal plan unfairly punishes Manitobans for having spent decades investing huge sums of tax dollars in renewable hydroelectricity. Whats good for St. Johns might not work for St. James, Pallister has said.

More recently, Pallister surprised many when he suggested a carbon tax isnt the only way to deal with climate change. However, he has repeatedly resisted attempts to get him to explain what that means and what he would do instead of imposing a price on carbon.

Rumours have run rampant throughout the summer that the Pallister government was on the verge of unveiling its made-in-Manitoba climate-change plan. But weeks have gone by with nary a hint of what he has in mind.

McKenna said she is in regular contact with Manitobas Sustainable Development Minister Cathy Cox. In fact, the two politicians enjoyed some paddling at Fort Whyte Centre west of Winnipeg on Tuesday. However, McKenna conceded that those discussions have not helped to flesh out the details of Manitobas position.

The basic premise of a national carbon pricing plan is to ensure everyone who is burning fossil fuels and thus contributing to climate change faces the same penalties. As a prelude to galvanizing a national benchmark for carbon pricing next year, McKenna is expected to introduce legislation this fall outlining new penalties for polluters.

To use the premiers own rhetoric, it means that someone who drives a car in St. James should pay the same environmental tax on their gasoline as someone driving a car in St. Johns, N.L. As a result, McKenna said that a price on carbon must be part of any plan devised by Manitoba.

I am mindful of (Pallisters) concerns but we have no choice, McKenna said. We all need to do our part to fight climate change.

dan.lett@freepress.mb.ca
Submit an event for Around Town by emailing calendar information to bnr-news@wiscnews.com at least three business days before the event date.

Today

Train ride: 9:30 a.m., Baraboo Public Library, Mid-Continent Railway Museum, E8948 Museum Road, North Freedom. The library will host a special train ride and behind the scenes museum tour. For children ages 11 and younger with an adult caregiver. This is a free program. For more information, call 608-356-6166 or visit baraboopubliclibrary.org.

Open house: 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Central Wisconsin Community Action Council, Inc., First United Methodist Church, 615 Broadway St., Baraboo. Project Homeless Connect-Sauk County open house will offer free of charge lunch, haircut coupons, health screening and vision checks along with information and services on housing, employment services, financial help, youth education opportunities, veteran services, domestic violence, sexual assault services and more. Everyone is welcome, including children. For more information and for transportation needs, call Wendy at 608-254-8353.

Book club: 1 p.m., Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., Sauk City. July pick: Coop by Michael Perry. All are welcome; copies of the book available for checkout. For more information, call 608-643-8346 or visit saukcitylibrary.org.

Bingo: 2-3 p.m., Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., Sauk City. Bingo every Thursday through Aug. 31. Prizes from book sale coupons to chocolate bars. Free event open to the public. For more information, call 608-643-8346 or visit saukcitylibrary.org.

Hospice training: 5-9 p.m., Agrace Hospice and Palliative Care, 1670 South Blvd., Baraboo. Volunteers are needed to visit and provide companionship to local hospice patients. For more information, an application and to schedule orientation, call 608-327-7163.

Concert: 6 p.m., Oak Park Place, 800 Waldo St., Baraboo. Patsy Cline tribute artist Karen Wickham will perform. All are welcome. Admission is $5 and includes hors doeuvres and refreshments. This event kicks off upcoming fundraisers planned to benefit the 2017 Sauk County Alzheimers walk in September. For more information on Karen Wickham, visit karenwickham.com.

Guided Hike: 6-7:30 p.m., Aldo Leopold Foundation, E13701 Levee Road, Baraboo. During the hike with the staff of the Leopold Foundation learn about the Leopold-Pine-Island Important Bird Area and the ongoing management improving breeding bird habitat along the Wisconsin River. This free program is open to all ages.

Concert: 7 p.m., Sauk County Courthouse lawn, 515 Oak St., Baraboo. Concerts on the Square concert series will present the Hert Alpert Band. The Al. Ringling Theatre will serve as the rain site. For more information, visit barabooconcertsonthesquare.com.

Friday

Brat fry: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monsignor OReilly Knights of Columbus Council 746, Festival Foods, 615 Highway 136, Baraboo. Proceeds will benefit the Backpack Project, a community project that provides school supplies and personal items to financially disadvantaged children in the Baraboo School District.

Seminar: Noon to 1 p.m., Aldo Leopold Foundation, Leopold Center, E13701 Levee Road, Baraboo. University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire English professor and author B.J. Hollars will lead a discussion on extinct birds from his book, Flock Together: A Love Affair with Extinct Birds. The seminar is free and open to the public. For more information, call 608-355-0279 or visit aldoleopold.org.

Movie: 1 p.m., Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., Sauk City. View a free family-friendly movie, rated PG; 2 hours 10 minutes; call for title. Adults must accompany children 5 and younger. Popcorn and bottled water will be served. For more information, call 608-643-8346 or visit saukcitylibrary.org.

Art Crawl: 5-9 p.m., Reedsburg Artslink, downtown Reedsburg. Reedikulus Art Crawl, free walking tour featuring local and regional fine artists exhibiting in retail spaces, vacant storefronts, back alleys, galleries and city parks. There will be live music, food, free arts activities, wine, and beer available. Visit LK Design & Photography, 170 E. Main St., Reedsburg, from 4:30 p.m. to pick up an Art Crawl Map/Passport.

Artist show: 5-9 p.m., Wormfarm Institute, Woolen Mill Gallery, 28 E Main St., second floor, Reedsburg. Resident Artist Show includes work by current or early season Artists in Residence showing weaving, book art, wearable art and installation art.

Concert: 6-10 p.m., Full Throttle Night, FloodZone Bar & Grill, 109 W. Broadway, Rock Springs. Performance is by Flip City Live. All proceeds go to the Wisconsin Big Cat Rescue to help care for the animals. In addition to live music, there will be classic cars, trucks, motorcycles, food, arts and crafts vendors, 50/50 raffles and prizes. For more information, call Jeff Kozlowski at 608-697-8643 or email jeff@wisconsinbigcats.org.

Lyme disease support group: 6:30-8 p.m. Hillsboro Public Library, 819 High Ave., Hillsboro. Monthly meeting for people afflicted with lyme borrelia burgdorferi and other tick-bourne diseases in Vernon, Monroe, Sauk and Richland counties. For more information, call Gary Cepek at 608-489-2725, email sudywessos2@mwt.net or mail Gary Cepek, S1468 Cepek Road, Elroy, WI 53929.

Live performance: 7 p.m., Reedsburg Junior Players, CAL Center, 1100 S. Albert Ave., Reedsburg. Performance of Dorothy in Wonderland The Musical. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Paint night: 7-9 p.m., River Arts Inc, River Arts on Water Gallery, 590 Water St., Prairie du Sac. Attendees will etch patterns and designs into glass water bottles. The fee is $40 and includes all necessary supplies, a class instructor, and two drink tickets. For more information, contact Kristina at kcoopman@riverartsinc.org, 608-643-5215 or visit riverartsinc.org/crafts-drafts.

Movie night: 7:30 p.m., The Village Booksmith, 526 Oak St., Baraboo. Featured movie will be the 1957, The Smallest Show on Earth with Bill Travers, Virginia McKenna and Peter Sellers. For more information, call 608-355-1001 or visit villagebooksmith.com.

Saturday

Hospice training: 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Home Health United-Hospice, training session, St. Clare Hospice House, 915 12th St., in Baraboo. Volunteers are needed in both administrative and patient-interactive areas. For more information or to register for training, call 877-356-4514 or email volunteers@hhuvns.org or visit homehealthunited.org.

Volunteer training: 9-11 a.m., Baraboo River Equine-Assisted Therapies, 12311 Highway W, Baraboo. Volunteers will learn to groom and tack horses and assist with lessons for disabled and special-needs riders. Volunteers must be at least 14 years of age. For more information, call 760-212-8021 or visit barabooriverequineassistedtherapies.org.

Festival: 9 a.m. to 7 p.m., Reedsburg Revitalization Organization, City Park, 222 N. Park St., Reedsburg. Party in the Park will feature a flea market with antiques and up-cycled wares from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.; DJ from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.; food vendors from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.; free kids crafts from 1-5 p.m.; magic show from 3-5 p.m.; artwork; live music with Jake OMcClusky Band from 5-7 p.m. For more information visit facebook.com/reedsburgrevitalizationorganization.

Brat sale: 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., People Helping People, Cell.Plus, 906 Highway 12, Baraboo. Cell.Plus  US Cellular Agent will match the funds raised, up to $1,000. The PHP brat stand will offer grilled brats for $3.50, all-beef franks for $3, as well as chips, soda and bottled water.

Brat fry: 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Monsignor OReilly Knights of Columbus Council 746, Festival Foods, 615 Highway 136, Baraboo. Proceeds will benefit the Backpack Project, a community project that provides school supplies and personal items to financially disadvantaged children in the Baraboo School District.

Art Stroll: noon to 5 p.m., Reedsburg Artslink, downtown Reedsburg. Saturdaze Art Gallery Stroll, a self-guided walking tour of established and pop-up venues, with a Party in the Park, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. in City Park; featuring a flea market, food trucks, kids crafts, and Jake OMcClusky Band from 5-7 p.m. Visit LK Design & Photography, 170 E. Main St., Reedsburg, to pick-up a map.

Live performance: 2 and 7 p.m., Reedsburg Junior Players, CAL Center, 1100 S. Albert Ave., Reedsburg. Performance of Dorothy in Wonderland The Musical. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Fashion show: 2-3 p.m., Wormfarm Institute, Avalon Ballroom, 170 East Main St., second floor above the Vault Wine Bar. Unconventional fashion show, Off the Wall.

Teen build: 4 p.m., Baraboo Public Library, Attridge Park, 900 Second Ave., Baraboo. Help to create a medieval world. This free program is for teens who have completed grades 6-12. For more information, call 608-356-6166 or visit baraboopubliclibrary.org.

Concert: 4:30 p.m., Witwen campground, S9855 Highway E, Sauk City. Outdoor concert with Harmonious Wail. Grounds and concessions open at 4:30 p.m. music starts at 6:30. Bring lawn chairs and beverage. Free to the public; goodwill offering.

Bulls & barrels: gates open 5 p.m, event 7 p.m., La Valle Team Penners Association, CC Bucking Bulls, E4320 Schultz Road, La Valle, off Highway 33 between Reedsburg and La Valle. La Valle Bulls & Barrels event for bull riding and barrel racing. DJ in concession stand to follow show. Lawn seating is available. Advance tickets $12; at the gate, $15; free for ages 6 and younger. Tickets available at Jays Power Center in Reedsburg, State Bank of Cazenovia in La Valle and Fedderly Dodge in Reedsburg. For more information, call 608-434-3518 or visit ltpa.weebly.com.

Music event: 7 p.m., Mirror Lake State Park. Earth, Music, Magic will be presented at the Ampitheater. The educational musical enrichment presentation will feature primitive musical instruments from all over the world highlighting songs, stories and humor with audience participation. The event is free, but donations would be appreciated. A current park sticker is required to enter the park. Bring a chair or blanket and flashlight. For more information, call 608-254-2333.

Dance: 7:30-10:30 p.m., Devils Lake State Park. Dance to the Big Band sounds of the Hal Edwards Orchestra at the Chateau. Cost is $10. For more information, call 608-356-8301.

Astronomy event: 8:30-10:30 p.m., Devils Lake State Park. Madison Astronomy Society will host Explore the Night Sky. Join astronomers from the University of Wisconsin Astronomy Program to explore the universe. Meet near the North Shore boat launch parking lot behind the Rock Elm Shelter. For more information, call 608-356-8301.

Sunday

Live performance: 2 p.m., Reedsburg Junior Players, CAL Center, 1100 S. Albert Ave., Reedsburg. Performance of Dorothy in Wonderland The Musical. Tickets are $5 at the door.

Ice cream social: 4-7 p.m., North Freedom Methodist Church, 301 E. Walnut St., North Freedom. Everyone is welcome for food and fellowship. Prices range from $1-$3 for barbecue, hot dog, brat, pie, cake, root beer float, drinks and ice cream with toppings.

Concert: 6-8 p.m., Devils Lake State Park. Swing Crew will perform a free concert on the north shore, just outside the Chateau. The concert is sponsored by the Friends of Devils Lake State Park. For more information, call 608-356-8301.

Monday

Senior potluck luncheon: Noon to 1 p.m., Baraboo Area Senior Center, 124 Second St., Room 24, Baraboo. Speaker will be Janet Bolling of Home Health United who will speak on Senior Bullying. He will present his extensive collection of postcards, many from Baraboo and the surrounding area. There is no cost, but bring a side dish to pass. For more information, call Diane Pillsbury at 608-356-8464.

Blood drive: 1-5 p.m., American Red Cross, Thunderbird Lanes, 1117 Eighth St., Baraboo. To make an appointment or for more information, call 800-RED-CROSS (800-733-2767) or visit redcrossblood.org.

Teen craft: 5 p.m., Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., Sauk City. Teens can make homemade fidget spinners using zip ties and ball bearings. Space is limited so sign up is required. For more information, call 608-643-8346 or visit saukcitylibrary.org.

Cookbook club: 6:30 p.m., Sauk City Public Library, 515 Water St., Sauk City. A potluck-style club that will sample new cookbooks monthly. July pick is Joy of Cooking by Irma Rombauer, Marion Rombauer Becker, and Ethan Becker. Sign up for a dish slot at the checkout counter. For more information, call 608-643-8346 or visit saukcitylibrary.org.

Presentation: 7 p.m., Vicki Braun, Reedsburg Public Library, 370 Vine St., Reedsburg. Free public presentation on Gut and Physiology/Psychology Syndrome or GAPS. For more information, call 608-495-6117. Free on-street parking is available.

Tuesday

Blood Drive: 1-6 p.m., American Red Cross, Bridges Elementary School 1200 Broadway St., Prairie du Sac. To make an appointment or for more information, call 800-RED-CROSS (800-733-2767) or visit redcrossblood.org.

Teen lock-in movie: 4 p.m., Baraboo Public Library, 230 Fourth Ave., Baraboo. Students who have completed grades 6-12 can spend the night in the library watching inspirational movies. Permission slips are required for this event. For more information, call 608-356-6166 or visit baraboopubliclibrary.org.

Club meeting: 6:30 p.m., Sauk Prairie Community Club, Junge Park pavilion, 1535 Hemlock St., Sauk City. Dinner will be catered by TJs; bring a beverage. To check availability, call 262-853-3966 or email tee.elle@sbcglobal.net. New members are welcome.

Memoir writing: 6:30 p.m., Baraboo Public Library, 230 Fourth Ave., Baraboo. Free Palm of the Hand memoir writing workshop open to the public. For more information, call 608-356-6166 or visit baraboopubliclibrary.org.

Teen Tuesday: 6:30 p.m., Ruth Culver Community Library, 540 Water St., Prairie du Sac. No-bake dessert recipes featured. Peanut butter and/or nuts may be present. Suited for grades 6-12. For more information, call 608-643-8318 or visit pdslibrary.org.

History presentation: 7 p.m., Sauk County Historical Society, Frank Fischer Center at 20 Wisconsin Dells Parkway South, Lake Delton. Presentation will focus on the 1850s city of Newport, built near what is now Lake Delton. Modern digital mapping will be used to help bring Newport back to life. Pictures of buildings that were once a part of Newport will also be presented. This presentation is free and all are welcome.

Wednesday

Coding club: 2 p.m., Ruth Culver Community Library, 540 Water St., Prairie du Sac. This new club meets Wednesdays through Aug. 23 with a different focus each week. For more information, call 608-643-8318 or visit pdslibrary.org/coding-club.

Community event: 5:30-7 p.m., Meadow Ridge Senior Living, 1700 Jefferson St., Baraboo. National Night Out event is free and open to the public designed to promote safe, strong neighborhoods and support local police and fire departments and Baraboo Community Heroes. The event will include a car show, free custard from Culvers, Joses Mexican Restaurant food cart, music by The Illusive Sounds, lawn games and a bake sale with funds going to benefit Baraboo Community Heroes.

Gamblers meeting: 6-7 p.m., Sauk County Gamblers Anonymous, SSM Health St. Clare Hospital, Crane Room A, 707 14th St., Baraboo. Ongoing meeting meets every Wednesday and Sunday.

Concert: 6:30 p.m., Reedsburg Area Chamber of Commerce, Concert in the Park series at City Park. Swing Crew will perform. Bring a lawn chair or blanket; food, refreshments and Farmers Market products will be available; no vehicles or pets allowed in park. For more information, call 608-524-2850. In case of inclement weather, signs will be posted indicating a new location.

Support group: 7:30 p.m., Al-Anon Family Group, The Comfort Zone, St. Vincent De Paul Resource Center, 1906 North St., Prairie du Sac. Support group meets every Wednesday.
Authorities say a Plain man suffered serious injuries when he was struck by a vehicle Monday night.

The Sauk County Sheriffs Department reports that 82-year-old Ralph Ruhland had parked and exited his vehicle along County Highway B near Plain.

Another vehicle driven by Tina Melvin, 47, of Lodi, was unable to avoid striking Ruhland, who was standing in the road, according to the sheriffs department.

Ruhland was transported by medical helicopter to the University of Wisconsin Hospital in Madison with serious injuries.

The sheriffs department says the accident is still under investigation, but that alcohol or drugs do not appear to have been a factor.
LAKE DELTON  A maintenance worker has been charged in connection with multiple locked car entries outside a hotel operated by his employer.

Police were called to the Hotel Rome in Lake Delton around 5 a.m. on July 23 for a report of three men going through cars in the parking lot, according to a criminal complaint. The hotel is one of several operated in connection with the Mt. Olympus Water and Theme Park.

An officer who arrived on scene reported that he stopped three men who matched the description of the alleged thieves. He spoke with one of the men, Blake R. Flowers, 19, of Lake Delton, who said he was with two friends at a party when they decided to walk to another friends house.

The officer noted that Flowers changed his story during the conversation. And during an interview with another officer, he allegedly admitted that his two friends, Christopher M. Skinner, 20, of Mauston, and Matthew L. Peterson, 19, of Wisconsin Dells, had gone through vehicles during their walk home.

Blake stated that he told Matthew and Christopher they should not be looking through vehicles at Hotel Rome because he works at Mt. Olympus as a maintenance person, the officer reported.

Peterson allegedly told an officer that all three men went to Mt. Olympus to go through vehicles. A search of a backpack in Skinners possession allegedly turned up burglary tools and stolen items.

Prosecutors charged Skinner with felony possession of burglary tools, bail jumping, entry into a locked vehicle, possession of drug paraphernalia, and misdemeanor theft. Peterson faces two felony charges of entry into a locked vehicle, possession of burglary tools, and misdemeanor theft. Flowers has been charged with misdemeanor entry into a locked vehicle.

Skinner has been jailed on a $500 cash bond. Flowers and Peterson have each been released on a $500 signature bond.
Gov. Scott Walker and the CEO of Taiwanese manufacturer Foxconn signed an agreement Thursday that they say could bring as many as 13,000 manufacturing jobs to Wisconsin, as Walker sought to sell taxpayers on an unprecedented state incentive package for the company that could reach $3 billion.

The signing, with Walker and Foxconn CEO Terry Gou, occurred in a public event at the Milwaukee Art Museum. It was billed as the first official step toward what would be the largest economic-development project in state history, if completed.

Foxconn, which makes iPhones and other electronic devices, announced with President Donald Trump at the White House Wednesday that it wants to invest $10 billion to build a 20-million-square-foot campus for making liquid crystal display, or LCD, panels in Wisconsin. It would be the first LCD manufacturing facility in the world outside Asia, state officials say.

The facility would begin operating in 2020, initially with 3,000 workers, Foxconn and state officials say. They say employment would grow to as many as 13,000 in the years following.

The site of the campus is yet to be announced; Walker said the company is eyeing multiple locations in Racine and Kenosha counties.

The agreement signed Thursday, a memorandum of understanding between the state and Foxconn, says public officials in Wisconsin will help the company assemble a construction site of more than 1,000 acres. Such documents often are legally nonbinding but can move the parties closer to a final deal.

Skeptics noted Foxconn has announced plans to build factories elsewhere that havent materialized. They also questioned if the multibilllion-dollar incentive package the state could offer the company is the best use of those dollars.

Meanwhile, Walker did a flurry of interviews Thursday to head off potential criticism of the proposed deal with the Taiwanese tech giant. The whopping bundle of taxpayer-funded incentives Wisconsin is offering the company to build here  which remain subject to final negotiation and approval by state lawmakers  will be tied to job creation, Walker vowed.

We tie it to performance, Walker said on a syndicated conservative talk radio show Thursday. Theyre not going to get (the incentives) if they dont provide the jobs and dont provide the capital investment.

Walker pledges safeguards for taxpayers

Walker said if Foxconn doesnt fulfill its promise to invest $10 billion or create 13,000 jobs, the company wont be eligible for all of the $3 billion  most of which would come through refundable state income tax credits for the company. Walkers office has said any deal with Foxconn also will include clawbacks allowing the state to recoup the credits if the jobs and investment are not kept in Wisconsin.

Its good to have (safeguards) as protection ... it certainly is my fiduciary role to protect taxpayers in the state, Walker said.

Should the project move forward, final terms of a deal between the state and Foxconn would be outlined in a contract between the company and Walkers jobs agency, Wisconsin Economic Development Corp., or WEDC. The agency then would administer the incentives.

State lawmakers, beginning as soon as next month, also are expected to take up legislation to enable the incentives.

The memorandum signed Thursday says the legislation will modify tax credit programs that will form the foundation of the multibillion-dollar incentive package.

It says the legislation also will modify state tax incremental financing guidelines for the project. State officials have said TIF will be part of the project but havent specified how or how much, beyond saying it will be used for local infrastructure.

It also says the state will expedite environmental permitting reviews of the project wherever possible and within the public interest, to align with the timeline needed to implement the project.

Multiple reports have indicated Foxconns interest in southeast Wisconsin, near Lake Michigan, may be because LCD manufacturing requires huge volumes of fresh water.

New WEDC program

in works

WEDC currently administers the Enterprise Zone tax credit program for businesses that locate or expand in Wisconsin. WEDC spokesman Mark Maley said Thursday that lawmakers and Walker are expected to create a new program for Foxconn in an upcoming special legislative session.

Its going to be up to the legislators and the governor to decide the parameters of Foxconn, Maley said.

Under a Foxconn overview document provided by Walkers office to reporters Wednesday, the company would be eligible to earn the $3 billion over 15 years.

The company will be eligible for $1.5 billion in state income tax credits for creating jobs, up to $1.35 billion in credits for capital investments and up to $150 million for the sales and use tax exemption for the purchase of construction materials.

Maley said the income tax credits would be refundable, meaning any amount by which they exceed the companys tax liability would be paid directly to the company.

Elements of the Enterprise Zone program could form the basis for the new program, Maley said. Under the existing program, businesses may claim tax credits for a percentage of wages paid on jobs created  but only for jobs paying at least $30,000 a year, Maley said.

Walker said Wednesday that Foxconn workers in Wisconsin will make an average salary of more than $53,000, plus benefits. Since that figure is an average and not a median amount, it could be significantly affected by a few workers making a very high salary.

Assembly Speaker Robin Vos told the Racine Journal-Times most entry-level jobs will pay about $13 to $15 per hour and up, adding I think the vast majority will be more than that.

Walker: Announcement

a major victory for me

Walker planned to fly around the state Friday, to places hundreds of miles away from southeast Wisconsin, to promote the project, which state officials have dubbed Wisconn Valley.

Walker appeared on CNBC and a number of conservative talk radio shows Thursday. Walker said the campus will include multiple buildings and construction will begin in 2018.

Walker used his TV and radio appearances to make a case for the deal and responded to critics who point to past splashy announcements Foxconn has made in the U.S. and overseas without following through on their plans.

WI needs to take a close look at these broken promises before throwing billions of taxpayer dollars at questionable corporate subsidies, Senate Minority Leader Jennifer Shilling, D-La Crosse, tweeted on Thursday.

In 2013, the company announced plans to build a $30 million plant that would employ 500 workers in central Pennsylvania. That project never materialized.

Walker acknowledged the companys past broken pledges but said the state has put in place the safeguards and clawbacks necessary to protect the state.
1. Yes. Taxpayers are funding its operation; they should have a voice in the naming process.

2. Yes. The city should operate with a spirit of inclusivity. Residents will be responsive.

3. No. Public input can be problematic; rejection of suggestions can be divisive for residents.

4. No. Residents elect council members to make decisions on their behalf. No input is needed.

5. Unsure. Its hard to say whether public input would be more of a benefit or a hindrance.

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Helping young people with diverse needs find their next move

Elizabeth Howley M.Ed. '10 founded the Richmond non-profit Next Move, which is designed to help young adults with special needs transition from school to the working world. Photo by Oliver Anne Photography Photo - of - Hide Caption

In Virginia, the unemployment rate for young adults with diverse needs is around 70 percent. One in four adults with a disability is living at or below the poverty level. Elizabeth Redford Howley M.Ed. 10 is working to change all that.

The Next Move Program, a non-profit she co-founded and directs, partners with businesses in Richmond, Virginia, to create guided internship experiences for young adults with disabilities.

Through education and job training, we empower these individuals to achieve their goals, said Howley. 80% of our graduates have gained employment or acceptance to post-secondary education.

Her path to non-profit work began with a serendipitous meeting, but grew from a passion for helping individuals with special needs and a degree from William & Mary that uniquely suited her for the work.

From classroom to non-profit

After graduating with her masters degree in special education in 2010, Howley jumped into teaching in central Virginia, first in a 5th grade self-contained classroom and later in collaborative classrooms for 6th and 8th graders.

I loved my students, she said. But working across several grade levels of content and with students with a large variety of labels was challenging.

In 2013, she met the director of education for a large biotech company that was looking to start an internship program to train and employ adults with disabilities. She was hired soon after as a program coordinator, running the internship program and providing case management services for employees hired through the program.

The interns performed work that had previously been done by temporary workers, which had resulted in an expensive, high turnover rate and frequent errors. After the interns began work, explained Howley, not only were these issues eliminated, but there was an unexpected positive impact on workplace culture.

Our interns were motivated and always smiling, and it inspired the best work from fellow employees, she said. The relationships that employees form with our students are transformative, opening minds and hearts to what individuals with disabilities are capable of in our community.

And while the benefits for the company were significant, the effect on interns was life-changing. In addition to the internship experience, Howley developed a curriculum which offered interns a deeper understanding of concepts required for acquiring and maintaining employment. Topics include safety training, goal setting, body language, appropriate workplace dress and conversation, resume writing and interviewing.

Our interns make tremendous gains, as they are learning concepts in the most authentic setting by training and learning in an actual business among working professionals, said Howley.

Expanding the organizations reach

In 2015, the biotech company was sold and its operations were relocated to Texas. Howley relaunched the internship program as an independent nonprofit and christened it The Next Move Program. The organization now has the flexibility to partner with a wide variety of businesses, including Quirk Hotel, Ledbury, Central Virginia Legal Aid Society, the Renaissance, the YMCA of Greater Richmond, the University of Richmond, and Wells Fargo.

Howley points to her studies at William & Mary for preparing her for success in this field. Not only did she learn strategies, such as positive behavioral supports and visual schedules, that she uses daily in her work, but she got a thorough grounding in the field of transition, an area where few other graduate programs focus.

Transition truly is the next frontier in special education and within the disability community, said Howley. My coursework at William & Mary propelled me toward this subset of the field.

Justin Feaster, now 23, became involved with Next Move the summer after he graduated from high school. The son of a local pastor, Justin was terrified to leave school because he did not know what his future would hold, said Howley.

Feaster excelled as an intern and was hired by the company where he interned. He earned admission to a competitive vocational program at J. Sargent Reynolds Community College, and is now a graduate. He continues to stay involved with Next Move by serving on the Board of Directors.

Justin and his family credit our program with fully preparing him for both employment and continuing education, said Howley.

#capABLE

Feaster is one 19 individuals with diverse needs that Next Move featured in a social media campaign this spring to generate conversation about disability outcomes in the Richmond community.

Howley partnered with six professional photographers to capture portraits of these individualseach at a different location in the city tied to their unique story.

The models that were selected have remarkable and varied stories, said Howley. They are business owners, advocates, athletes, authors, volunteers and artists. What they have in common is their engagement in the disability community.

The photographs are now on display at the Virginia Historical Society, as part of a special exhibition called Story of Virginia, through Sept. 4, 2017.

The road forward

In the early days of Next Move, the biggest challenge was finding businesses willing to host interns and programming. Now, said Howley, theyve grown to a point that businesses are reaching out to them with interest in partnering.

The next hurdle is finding the funding to sustain and widen the impact of the organizations work. They currently select six interns per 3-month session, but Howley aims to run multiple concurrent sessions, which will allow them to serve more individuals with diverse needs.

She recently launched a pilot partnership with a local baker and GrowRVA, which runs two farmers markets in the Richmond area. The program provides baking classes to a group of current and former Next Move students, as well as the opportunity to sell their baked goods at the farmers market.

In April, Howley received the ChamberRVA HYPE (Helping Young Professionals Engage) programs Change Agent Award. Every year, the award recognizes a young professional in the Richmond area who challenges the status quo and isnt afraid to start difficult conversations that address a need or opportunity.

Howley believes that conversations about the abilities and outcomes of people with diverse needs are crucial  as are the work and educational experiences they need to successfully transition out of high school into the working world.

The organizations vision is one in which all young adults are prepared for competitive employment. For Howley, its a passion that is not only transforming the lives of the young people in the program, but also changing perceptions in the wider community about the contributions of people with diverse needs.




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In no particular order, the following are some of the most powerful war memorials that the world has to offer.

10. 9/11 Memorial

This Memorial site was opened on September 11, 2011, to commemorate close to 3,000 people who were killed in the World Trade Center terrorist attacks. It is located at the World Trade Center's former location in New York. Two reflecting pools sit on this very ground where the Twin Towers once stood. These pools are surrounded by bronze panels inscribed with names of people who died in the 2001 attacks as well as the 1993 bombing.

The Memorial Plaza is made up of hundreds of trees which surround the pool. One tree was named The Survivor Tree. It was at the site before the 9/11 attacks and was nurtured back to health. It symbolizes new growth.

9. Vietnam War Memorial

The Vietnam War Memorial is located in Washington, D.C. on a 2-acre site. It was opened on November 13, 1982. The Memorial was built to honor American armed forces who took part in the Vietnam War. It consists of three parts: the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall, the Three Servicemen Memorial, and the Vietnam Womens Memorial. The Memorial Wall compriseso of two walls etched with the names of servicemen. A total of 58,318 names listed in categories of either MIA (Missing in Action) or, KIA (Killed in Action). The Servicemen Memorial is a bronze statue that depicts three soldiers of Hispanic, African and European descents. It is located next to the Memorial Wall to depict a solemn tribute to the fallen comrades. The Womens Memorial is dedicated to the 265,000 women who served in the war. It consists of three nurses in uniform attending to a wounded soldier.

8. Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial was opened on May 10, 2005 to honor the Jews who lost their lives during Hitlers regime. It is located in Berlin, Germany. It occupies an area of 19,000 sq. m. 2,711 concrete slabs of different heights are arranged in a grid pattern, over the surface of land. The Memorial Park is supplemented by an underground center known as The Information Center. This is where information and biographies of the victims can be found. It has four themed rooms - Room of Names, Room of Families, Room of Dimensions, and Room of Sites. Photographs, farewell letters, and diaries of the victims are also preserved in the Centre. The Information Center also has film footages about the persecution sites.

7. Vimy Ridge

Vimy Ridge is also known as the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. It is a war memorial site located in Vimy, Pas-de-Calais, France. It was unveiled on July 26, 1936, to honor over 10,000 Canadian Corps who were killed in the Battle of the Vimy Ridge in 1917. It consists of two pylons erected 30m above a platform. One bears the fleur-de-lis for France and the other bears the maple leaf for Canada. This symbolizes unity and strength of the two countries. Atop the pylons, you find "the Chorus". The Chorus consists of Justice, Knowledge, Truth, Humor, Faith, Hope, Peace, and Charity. At the base of the pylons, names of the Canadian corps who died are inscribed in continuous bands. The site contains other memorials dedicated to the French Moroccan Division, Lions Club and Lieutenant Mike Watkins. There are also the Commonwealth war graves on site.

6. Choeung Ek

This Memorial site is Located in Cambodia. It was unveiled in 1988 to commemorate the over one million people executed during the Khmer Rouge regime. It was initially a mass grave site but was later marked by erecting a dome shaped Buddhist monument over the site. It has acrylic glass slides filled with over five thousand human skulls. Human bones can also be seen on the site. There are also pits from which the bodies were exhumed.

5. National War Memorial

The National War Memorial was opened on May 21, 1939, to honor Canadians killed in past and future wars. It was originally built to honor Canadians who died in World War I but was later rededicated to include World War II, Korean War, 2nd Boer War, and War in Afghanistan. It serves as the site of Remembrance Day ceremonies in Ottawa.

4. Tjentiste Monument

Located in Bosnia & Herzegovina, this monument was built to honor 7,500 Yugoslavian Army members killed in the Sutjeska Battle. The Monument was officially opened in 1947. It consists of two fractal walls facing each other to symbolize two opposing armies.

3. Korean War Memorial, Arlington

The Korean War Memorial was unveiled on July 27, 1995 to commemorate over 600,000 American and UN soldiers who died during the Korean War. It consists of a wall built in form of a triangle intersecting a circle. The wall encloses 19 statues of American soldiers. The Monument opens up to the Pool of Remembrance which has the number of soldiers who were killed during the war. South of the Memorial, three bushes of Rose of Sharon hibiscus plant have been planted. This is South Koreas national flower.

2. Marine Corps War Memorial

The Marine Corps War Memorial is located in Arlington, Virginia. This Memorial was built to honor American marine corps who have died fighting since 1775. The centerpiece of the Memorial consists of a sculpture depicting the six marines who raised the American flag atop Mt. Suribachi in 1945. Other similar monuments are found at the Marine Corps Bases in Virginia and South Carolina. There are also similar monuments at Naval War College in Rhode Island and Marine Academy in Texas.

1. Memorial to the Victims of Communism

Editorial credit: struvictory / Shutterstock.com.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism is a memorial dedicated to the victims of the communist era between 1948 and 1989. It is located in Prague, Czech Republic. The memorial is an optical illusion in the sense that the sculptures appear to be more decayed the further that the viewer is. The memorial pays tribute to the political prisoners of the age of communism.
Haiti is one of the most populous nations in the Caribbean region. Haiti is situated on Hispaniola Island and shares a border with the Dominican Republic. The Taino people who emigrated from South America were the first occupants of Hispaniola Island. In December 1492, Spanish settlers arrived on the island, led by Christopher Columbus and his team of 39 sailors. Shortly after the arrival of the Spanish, the French also established settlements on Hispaniola Island. The French took the western region of the island currently known as Haiti, while the Spanish took the eastern region, referred to as the Dominican Republic. The French brought thousands of African slaves to work on the sugarcane plantations in Haiti. As more Africans were brought in, their population sharply rose and outnumbered the white population. The African slaves fought for freedom, and in 1804, Haiti gained independence. Currently, Haiti has an estimated population of 10 million people. The racial composition is 95% Sub-Saharan African, 4% European, and an insignificant number of multiracial Haitians. The official languages of Haiti are Haitian Creole and French. Other languages spoken in the country include Spanish and English.

French: An Official Language of Haiti

Haiti and Canada are the only sovereign nations in the American region to have French as an official language. In Haiti, French is used in official documents, the education system, and in the media. French is the standard written language in Haiti. Despite French being the administrative language in Haiti, only 5 percent of Haitians are fluent in the language. The few people who speak French in Haiti are the elite and well to do Haitians, mainly found in the urban centers.

Haitian Creole: The Most Popular Language of Haiti

Haitian Creole is the most popular language in Haiti. More than 95% of Haitians are fluent in the language. The language is a blend of French, Taino, and some West African languages. Haitian Creole is spoken throughout Haiti, although it differs by region. There are three dialects of the Haitian Creole, namely the Northern dialect, Central dialect, and Southern Dialect. Haitian Creole is an official language alongside French, but it is not perceived as a prestigious language and is therefore rarely used in official matters. Furthermore, there are very few texts written in Haitian Creole. The language mostly exists in spoken form.

Minority and Foreign Languages Spoken in Haiti

Spanish

Spanish is a minority language in Haiti. In the neighboring Dominican Republic, Spanish is the official language. As a result of interactions between people on the HaitiDominican Republic border, Spanish is growing in popularity in the region, particularly on the Haitian side.

English

A growing population of Haitians are adopting English as their language of communication. This includes young people who have trained abroad and the business community in Haiti. Nonetheless, English is a minority language spoken by an insignificant part of the population.

The Importance of Foreign Languages in Haiti

Haiti lacks diversity in terms of the languages spoken in the country. French and Haitian Creole are the only two languages spoken by most of the population. However, a small segment of the population is conversant with foreign languages, such as Spanish and English. This elite population drives the development of Haiti through business ties and collaborations with foreigners. It is important for more Haitians to learn foreign languages to help boost the economy.
Police & Crime Commissioner Criticised Over Funding Cut Threatening Future Of Welfare Centre

This article is old - Published: Thursday, Jul 27th, 2017

The North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner has been accused of threatening the future of a town centre welfare centre after withdrawing his funding  which makes up 23% of the overall running cost.

Hafan y Dref on Albion Street, opened in 2015 to offer treatment to people and ease demand on Wrexhams A&E department during busy evenings for the towns nighttime economy.

The welfare centre was opened after a 200,000 conversion and costs around 38,000 a year to run.

However during a Nightsafe meeting between representatives of the nighttime economy, police, the council and others earlier this week, it was announced that Police and Crime Commissioner, was withdrawing his part of the funding .

The reduction of the 9,000 from the commissioner results in a 23% funding cut  which was described this week as a threat to the future of the centre from local representatives.

After highlighting a recent award won by staff, the meeting was told over 3,200 people had been treated there to varying degrees. Statistics appear to be available in a non-public report, with some read out including that 110 people had subsequently been taken to Wrexham Maelors A&E department.

A figure of 500 per ambulance trip was attributed to costs involved in a 999 transfer, so those staff and volunteers making such trips could have saved the NHS around 55,000.

Anecdotally it was reported that ambulances are now dropping people who are drunk at the centre rather than taking them to A&E to help manage the demand at the hospital, with two such drop offs taking place at the weekend.

Various other examples of money saving for other services were cited, including that time spent by staff in the centre meant that police did not have to dedicate resources for safeguarding.

Town District Inspector Paul Wycherley attended Nightsafe and took the brunt of the complaints, being told by one representative at the meeting that: We have been told this has no benefit to North Wales Police, there is clearly benefit to all. This is one of the best initiatives in Wrexham for a very long time.

Inspector Wycherley briefly pointed out the Police and Crime Commissioners role is as an elected official rather than day to day police, and therefore it was not North Wales Police deciding on any funding change to the centre.

He said: We cant quantify how many of the 3000 who attended and were treated would have come to harm if they did not attend, we can never know that figure, but I would say possibly quite a lot.

Speaking over the figures given out, there were 72 people referred to the centre by police, he added: Right there are 72 people we would have had to safeguard.

The Inspector was clear that he could not advise the group on what to do, but did point out there was avenues for Nightsafe to discuss things with the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner if they wished and as it was not North Wales Police that could be a more appropriate route.

We asked the North Wales Police and Crime Commissioner Arfon Jones why the funding was being withdrawn, he told us: I was clear from the outset that there would be no funding from me after this year.

My predecessor agreed the first tranche of funding for 2015/16 and when I took office I sanctioned another 12 months of funding, which came to an end in March of this year, on the basis that I would not be contributing any more money to this particular project which I feel should be self-sustaining.

It was never agreed that funding would be provided indefinitely as this was seen as a pilot.

There are many competing demands for the money in my budget and my priorities are different to those of my predecessor.

My priority in Wrexham is to address problematic drug use and homelessness and I work closely with CAiS and ArchKaleidoscope to achieve positive outcomes for this marginalised group of people which includes people addicted to alcohol.

At the meeting it was revealed that the centre is one of many options being considered as a possible daytime option to help assist with various well documented issues in the town centre  a solution recently raised by Arfon Jones himself last week after a day on the streets style learning exercise.

Picture  Google Maps
Less than three weeks after US President Donald Trumps visit to Poland, the ruling Law and Justice Party (PiS) has dramatically escalated its drive toward dictatorship.

In his speech in Warsaw on July 6, Trump praised the policies of the PiS and appealed to Polish chauvinism and anti-Semitism. After his speech, Trump visited a conference of the Three Seas Initiative in Wrocaw, thus granting open support to Warsaws attempt to revive the far-right military alliance of the so-called Intermarium (Between Seas), which is directed against both Germany and Russia.

Last week, the PiS pushed through legislation that will effectively place the judicial system under its control. First, it railroaded through parliament a restructuring of the judicial system and the National Council of the Judiciary (KRS), which is responsible for nominating and promoting judges. The law gives the PiS far-reaching control over the appointment of judges.

A second bill provides for the current 83 Supreme Court judges to retire. PiS Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro will be put in a position to appoint new ones. The lower house of parliament approved the bill last Tuesday and the Senate ratified it on Saturday night. It is expected that Polish President Andrzej Duda will sign the bill soon, even though polls show that over 50 percent of Poles want him to veto it.

Given that the Supreme Court is responsible for monitoring and certifying elections, the continuation of nominally free parliamentary elections in Poland is doubtful.

Discussions of the bill in parliament last Tuesday were accompanied by shouting, vulgar insults and scuffles. The head of PiS, Jarosaw Kaczynski, openly threatened dictatorial measures against representatives of the liberal opposition and accused them of treason and murder. When an MP from the liberal opposition party Civic Platform (PO) quoted Kaczynskis brother, the former president of Poland Lech Kaczynski, who died in a plane crash in 2010, Jarosaw Kaczynski exploded, shouting: Dont befoul my dead brothers name by letting it pass through your treasonous mouth. You destroyed him, you murdered him. You are scoundrels!

For years, the PiS has been blaming the former liberal government for the plane crash, but never has a PiS politician so openly raised the accusation of murder.

Scuffles followed on the floor of the parliament. Kaczynski then summoned Witold Zembaczynski, a delegate from Nowoczesna, and threatened that all PO politicians will be sitting [in jail]. A PO delegate later retorted on Twitter that it was the members of the PiS who would end up in jail.

The next day, Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski defended Kaczynskis outburst as an honest and manly response. On her Facebook page, PiS parliamentary delegate Krystyna Pawowicz threatened opposition politicians, writing that they would sit [in jail] for the terror they were allegedly creating on the streets. In a parliamentary session, she admitted that she was dreaming of reopening the notorious Bereza Kartusa concentration camp.

The camp was set up in 1934 under the authoritarian Pisudski-regime to detain people it regarded as posing a threat to security, peace and social order. Thousands of people, including militant Ukrainian and Byelorusian nationalists, were imprisoned there and forced to perform forced labor, but the first victims were communists.

The PiSs latest measures mark a turning point in the breakdown of the limited bourgeois democratic framework that was instituted in Poland with the restoration of capitalism and the dissolution of the USSR. In the past two years that the PiS has been in power, the government has brought under its control the secret services and state-run television and radio. It has purged most of the Polish army leadership and numerous state-funded scientific institutions, passed legislation to step up police surveillance, stripped the parliament of its powers, and curtailed the already limited right to abortion.

At the same time, it has strengthened the far-right and built up paramilitary militias that are subordinate to the PiSs defense ministry. The threats by Kaczynski and other PiS representatives make clear that the government is now preparing for the violent suppression of any dissent.

In recent days, tens of thousands of people have protested daily against the bills in demonstrations organized by the liberal opposition parties PO and Nowoczesna. Protests took place not only in Warsaw and other traditional strongholds of the liberal opposition, but also in smaller towns and cities that have so far barely been touched by the opposition movement. Reports suggest that a significant layer of youth participated in the protests. Even though the judicial system is unpopular and discredited as corrupt, many view the latest bills as an assault on democratic rights and the preparation for a full-scale dictatorship.

The hostility to the governments policies is much broader than the support for the liberal opposition. According to a poll by IBRiS, a stunning 82 percent of young people aged 19 to 29 consider themselves opponents of the government. Some 52 percent of all voters see themselves as opponents of the government, significantly more than would vote for both liberal opposition parties combined. Polls taken before the bills passed parliament showed 32 percent of voters in favor of the PiS (a drop of 4 percent), and 33 percent in favor of PO and Nowoczesna combined (23 percent, an increase of 1 percent, for PO, and 10 percent, an increase of 2 percent, for Nowoczesna).

Young people and workers who are opposed to the right-wing policies of PiS must not be fooled by the phony appeals of the liberal opposition to democratic sentiments. At the center of the power struggle between PiS and the liberal opposition are questions of foreign policy, as both factions of the bourgeoisie are preparing for war.

For the past 28 years, the Polish bourgeoisie has tried to balance between a military and foreign policy orientation toward US imperialism and close economic and political collaboration with the EU, and especially Germany. The escalation of the conflict between Germany and the US is pulling the rug from under the feet of the Polish bourgeoisie.

The attack of the PiS on bourgeois democratic institutions and rights and the strengthening of the extreme right are bound up with US war preparations against Russia. The liberal opposition is not in principle opposed to preparations for war. Rather, the conflict is about with whom and against whom the fight is to be conducted. Both the PiS and the liberal opposition have supported the preparations for war against Russia. The question is whether this should be done with or against Germany.

The PiS is placing its bets on a revival of the Intermarium project, an alliance of far-right regimes in Eastern and Central Europe that is directed against not only Russia, but also Germany. Trumps appearance at the conference of Three Seas Initiative in Wrocaw earlier this month signaled that this policy now has the official blessing of Washington.

By contrast, the liberal opposition favors an orientation toward Germany and uses the assault on democratic rights by the PiS government to strengthen its cooperation with politicians in Berlin and Brussels. One of the liberal oppositions main media outlets, the weekly Polityka, published a lengthy piece in late June warning against the revival of the Intermarium.

It wrote that the invasion of Poland in 1939 by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union had proven the unviability of the project. Polityka argued that then as now Poland was essentially weak and should not count on the US and the doubtful authority of Donald Trump. Moreover, Polityka argued, most states that now form part of the Three Seas Initiative are neither willing nor capable of turning against Germany.

Hostility toward the Intermarium project is also what motivates the EUs opposition to the PiSs authoritarian measures. The European Commission has threatened to evoke Article 7 of the EUs Lisbon Treaty against Poland for undermining the rule of law. This could involve far-reaching sanctions, including the suspension of voting rights for Warsaw in the EU. German Justice Minister Heiko Maas threatened the Polish government with political isolation because of its violation of the basis of the European Union, and encouraged triggering Article 7.

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The strategy of the Intermarium

[31 May 2016]
The US House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill on Tuesday that places new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, and limits the Trump administrations ability to overturn them. The vote was 4193 on a measure that will significantly increase geopolitical conflicts between the United States and its major rivalsnot only Russia, but also the imperialist powers in Europe.

The bill will now move to the Senate, where an earlier version (without the North Korea sanctions) was approved by a similar margin, 972, in June. Trump has given mixed signals about whether he will sign the bill, but the veto-proof majorities in both houses of Congress mean that it is almost certain to be adopted into law.

The new sanctions expose the essential issues behind the election hacking campaign of the US media and political establishment, spearheaded by the intelligence agencies that are opposed to any shift away from the anti-Russia policy developed under the Obama administration. The near-unanimous vote in both houses of Congress (all no votes in the House were from Republicans) testifies to the degree to which the CIA, NSA and other spy agencies directly control the institutions of the state and the personnel that compose them.

The real issues at stake in the bitter internecine conflict within the ruling class were spelled out in a Washington Post editorial Monday (Congresss drasticbut necessaryrebuke to Trump). The Post, which along with the New York Times has been a leading media voice in the anti-Russia campaign, hailed the bill as necessary to protect the vital interests of the US.

The sanctions agreement, the Post wrote, placed Trumps policy toward the regime of Vladimir Putin in receivership, preventing him from lifting sanctions without congressional agreement. Trump has displayed an inexplicable affinity toward Russia, the newspaper wrote, and has cast doubt on Russias intervention in the US election campaign.

For the US intelligence community, the Post asserted, there is no such doubt Mr. Trumps refusal to accept those conclusions, and the possibility that he might reverse sanctions imposed on Russia for that interference and for its military invasion of Ukraine, has generated an extraordinary consensus in an otherwise polarized Congress.

None of the allegations made by the Post about Russias involvement in the election can be proven, and the declarations of the US intelligence community are no more believable than the claims that the government of Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Even if one were to accept the conclusions as true, there is no doubt that Clinton was working with all manner of governments to advance her election campaign.

The real issue is not Russian hacking, but the geostrategic interests of American imperialism. As the Post makes clear, its main concern is that Russia has obstructed the operations of US intelligence agencies and the military in Ukraine and Syria. The reference to the military invasion of Ukraine refers to Russias annexation of Crimea and the internal civil war that followed the 2014 regime-change operation organized by the US, and spearheaded by fascistic organizations, to unseat a pro-Russian government.

The editorial later complains that Trumps actions are handing Russia major concessions for nothing, including the withdrawal of US support for rebel forces in Syria. This refers to Trumps decision to end CIA support for Syrian opposition forces, dominated by Al Qaeda, who have been waging a US-backed civil war to unseat Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The editorial acknowledges that the sanctions bill could have some unintended consequences, including on US-European coordination on Russia. It is nevertheless essential because Trump cannot be trusted to protect vital US interests against persistent Russian aggression.

What are these vital US interests? They do not involve the Trump administrations assault on health care, its brutal assault on immigrant workers, or its militarist agenda. Rather they refer to the interests of the ruling class in dominating the Middle East and its vast energy resources and expanding US power in Eastern Europe. For the factions of the ruling class for which the Post speaks, moreover, US aggression against Russia is seen as essential for keeping the European powers in line and for taking on China.

The new bill will be adopted under conditions of explosive geopolitical tensions that can very rapidly escalate into a direct military conflict involving nuclear-armed powers. Within just the past 24 hours, the US fired warning shots at an Iranian vessel; the Chinese military intercepted a US aircraft; the Wall Street Journal reported on preparations by China for a US war against North Korea; and China staged joint military operations with Russia in the Baltic Sea.

The various countries affected by the bill will take it as a clear sign that the US intends to sharply pursue its economic and military confrontation with them. A leaked European Union memo reported the statements from European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker that the EU should stand ready to act within days of the bills passage, and that the sanctions could impact a potentially large number of European companies doing legitimate business under EU measures with Russian entities.

The Trump administration, increasingly embattled and isolated, could decide that the best way to resolve its internal crisis is to start a warperhaps with Iran or North Korea. And if Trumps opponents are successful in forcing a change in his policy or in removing him, it will mean a shift toward an even more aggressive policy in the Middle East and, above all, against Russia.

However bitter the divisions within the state, the American ruling class is driven by a relentless logic. The dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 brought with it not an end of history, but a quarter century of unending and expanding war, in which the ruling class has sought to reverse the decline of American capitalism and maintain its global economic position through the use of military force. This mad and reckless policy is now bringing the entire world to the brink of a Third World War.
Survivors and local residents denounced Sir Martin Moore-Bick, chair of the Tory government-commissioned inquiry into the Grenfell Tower fire, at a meeting in London Tuesday evening.

The second of a series of phony consultation meetings was presented as vital in drawing up the Terms of Reference that will be agreed between Moore-Bick and the government. It followed the pattern established by the first meeting held earlier this month.

Such consultations are an attempt to bestow much needed legitimacy on the inquiry, which has no legal powers to prosecute anybody or hold anyone to account.

Before the meeting started, residents speaking to World Socialist Web Site reporters denounced the government and the local authority.

Winston said, People have lost their children. People have lost their homes, lost their wives. Elderly people have been put into homes that are fit for pigs, not for elderly people. All this has happened and its wasnt their fault. It had nothing to do with them. They were all burnt. Who is there to speak for us?

Speaking about parliaments summer recess, Winston said of MPs, Theyve all gone on holidays, most of them. The death of these people meant so much that they couldnt forget their holiday and stay here and support the people who need to be supported. The Muslim society, the black society, the white society, they all died together. We all feel the pain together.

Asked if he thought it was a crime of capitalism, Winston said, Of course, it is a crime of capitalism. This is not a normal crime. If I went into a shop and walked out without paying, Im going to get arrested.

In the meeting, angry participants repeatedly told Moore-Bick to stand down and resign, and said his inquiry would not bring justice for the many killed in the fire, or the survivors.

Several residents insisted what took place in the tower was corporate murder and asked with incredulity why some six weeks after the fire not a single person had been arrested.

The meeting confirmed that the inquiry will produce only a rotten whitewash. Moore-Bick, in response to demands that the guilty be arrested and held accountable for the crimes that led to the incineration of the Grenfell victims, replied, An inquiry is designed to find out what happened. I have no power to do anything in relation to criminal responsibility.

Residents raised their fears that those in political and corporate circles responsible for social murder at Grenfell were continuing their criminal activity. One resident said, Weve all heard that evidence is being shredded.

One audience member told Moore-Bick that after the inquiry into the 2009 Lakanal House residential tower block fire in Camberwell, south east London, in which six people died, it was recommended that sprinkler systems be retrospectively fitted. Nothing was done, explained the resident. In response, Moore-Bick replied, What happens as a result of my report is not in my hands, Im afraid.

Even after its terms of reference are set, Moore-Bicks inquiry will not start to gather evidence until September. He refused to set a date for when the inquiry would complete its work, stating, I cant tell you how long [the inquiry] will take, but we will work as quickly as possible.

Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May chose Moore-Bick, as a tried and trusted representative of the capitalist state, to head the inquiry. Referring to the 2014 ruling the retired judge made that sanctioned Westminster Councils decision to relocate a resident 50 miles away in Milton Keynespart of the ongoing social cleansing of London of its working class populationa resident said, This is why theres a distrust in the community, because we look at your public record.

Your very presence is an affront to this community, the resident added.

Another said the survivors of the fire are suffering now. Most of them are homeless and are just living on little handouts. I dont think youre going to do us any justice. Ive just watched you here. We need someone who is real and is going to investigate this properly. My heart goes out to everyone who has passed and I wont stop until theres real justice.

He added, We need some real lawyers to get involved to take it up to corporate manslaughter. Someone interjected Murder!

He concluded, We need justice and we need it fast. Six weeks people have had to wait for this and you are only just looking into this now? What are you taking people for?

A resident spoke of the hostility of the Tory-led Kensington and Chelsea council who banned survivors and residents from entering the first council meeting after the fire. He said, When people were trying to get into the council, a Tory official was mouthing the words, Dont let them in. Its like a horror film. The people were coming from a horror and were greeted by the horror of rejection. Dont let them in! That has become a metaphor for our society. Keep them out, dont let them in, dont listen to them, dont hear their voices, shut them up. But this community will not be shut up.

And if the community was listened to, this could have been avoided. And if it could have been avoided and if the people were ignored, criminal charges need to be brought and people need to be accountable.

A teacher who lives in social housing in Camden said that her friend, Hanan, lived on the 9th floor of Grenfell and luckily managed to get out but lost her brothers family on the 21st floor.

Hanan had asked her to raise questions at the meeting including, What safety checks were completed and where is the documentation?

When [Hanan] came down the stairs there were no signs on which way to get out. Luckily, she chose the right way out. Why in buildings like these are there no fire drills? Also, she wanted to make the point that a few years before the [2016] regeneration [in which flammable cladding was put onto the exterior of Grenfell] there was a fire on her floor, which was contained.

The teacher lived near the four tower blocks that had recently been evacuated because they had the same flammable cladding on as Grenfell, but also had all sorts of gas pipes in all sorts of places, all sorts of fire doors that werent right.

She concluded, I just want to say people have raised really important issues here and this isnt just an issue for Grenfell as there are people living all over the country in tower blocks. There must be people every night terrified to go to sleep living in these tower blocks. Concluding to applause, she said, What I have to say about this inquiry, no disrespect to you, Im sure youre all well-meaning people, but this inquiry is being called by the Tory government, the same system that created this situation. If we want justice, we have to have our own inquiry, a workers inquiry.

Moore-Bick left the hall surrounded by angry residents.
Building and fire safety officials and strata unit peak bodies testifying at hearings of a Senate investigation into non-conforming building products over the past fortnight presented a damning portrait of the construction industry.

The Senate committee inquiry was initiated in June 2015, eight months after a potentially fatal apartment fire in Melbournes Docklands area. The outside of the 23-storey Lacrosse building, which was covered with flammable aluminum cladding, quickly caught fire in the early hours of November 25, 2014.

No one was killed in the Lacrosse blazeinternal sprinkler systems prevented the fire moving inside the building. Nevertheless, the Senate investigation was convened in an attempt to defuse widespread concerns.

Following the Grenfell Tower disaster on June 14 in London, the spotlight again fell on Lacrosse and Australias building industry. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull promised a national audit of aluminum-clad buildings and declared that concerns about cladding would be discussed in the current Senate inquiry. The long-running investigation has been extended five times, and is not expected to release any findings until early next year.

In hearings over the past fortnight, witnesses blamed the widespread use of dangerous materials and safety frauds on federal and state government deregulation of the industry. One witness said the question was not if there would be a serious catastrophe in Australia, but when.

Along with flammable cladding, the hearing received detailed evidence on the use of asbestos, including in at least one hospitalthe Perth Childrens Hospital in Western Australiaas well as faulty electrical cabling and exploding glass panels.

Safety and building engineers detailed the industrys free-for-all nature, with forged product safety documents, non-operating sprinkler systems and illegal techniques used to pass building safety inspections.

Government deregulation, which began in the mid-1990s, also involved the privatisation of building inspections, allowing construction companies to hire their own inspectors. This places enormous pressure on certifiers to flick and ticki.e., to turn a blind eye to obvious faults and pass unsafe buildingsor risk not getting any future work.

Other witnesses warned that non-compliant construction work is as widespread as non-compliant materials because there is no serious enforcement of building standards nationally.

Under-staffed government agencies fail to check building materials or buildings, let alone prosecute construction companies, corrupt building inspectors or anyone else for building code and safety standard violations.

Fire Protection Association Australia CEO Scott Williams told the Sydney hearing on July 19 there was a lack of enforcement. There must be surveillance, there must be auditing, there must be compliance and there must be consequences through that process for behaviours that dont support the process.

Dr Darryl OBrien from the Australian Institute of Building compared the privatisation of building safety checks with the Roman Catholic Churchs sale of papal indulgences as a confessional insurance to the faithful in the Middle Ages.

In 2017 we may be sceptical that payment to a higher authority could provide the faithful with insurance for the afterlife but in many ways our reliance on [building] certification and test reports for building materials is similarly based on faith, not evidence, OBrien said.

Engineers Australia CEO Peter McIntyre pointed to inconsistency in construction regulation and enforcement and said cost-reduction imperatives dominate the process. Although deficiencies are often noted year after year, there is no mechanism to force rectification.

Stephen Goddard from the Owners Corporation Network, which represents strata unit owners, said consumer protection for buildings had been whittled away by state governments. In New South Wales alone, two million people live in strata title dwellings.

Goddard denounced consecutive federal governments for refusing to heed the warnings of industry professionals and strata unit residents. I have more consumer protection buying a refrigerator than a $1.5 million apartment, he said.

In 2002 our parliaments were deaf to what you are hearing now because the agenda was entirely different and capital growth in our housing market wallpapered over the damage, Goddard said. Its only now, with Lacrosse and the Grenfell situation, that were pulling the skin off the custard and looking at it in the cold light of day.

Apartment owners, not builders and developers, are being forced to bear the cost of rectifying faulty buildings. Karen Stiles, also from the Owners Corporation Network, said the financial burden was intense, causing major social problems. Marriages are breaking up she said. People are bankrupted. People suicide with the stress. This is a terrible, terrible problem.

Philip Dwyer, a former Builders Collective of Australia national president, said there had been a shameful decline of construction standards. Were responsible for building peoples homes, he said. We need to be responsible and accountable, but were not. Weve got the [building] codes board, and so on, which have oversight over the whole lot, but they do nothing

Ive been building for 40-odd years, and to see the downhill slide in the last 10 or 15 years is really an affront to all of us. Talk must stop and we must do something very practical about it Were cutting corners everywhere, and were going to have a disaster.

Notwithstanding these damning exposures, the Senate inquiry is an exercise in political damage control. Its purpose is to divert the concerns about building safety voiced by fire-fighting and emergency service personnel, construction workers and safety engineers, and apartment residents, into the hands of the political establishment.

Like every other parliamentary investigation, any recommendations issued by the inquiry will be business-friendlyi.e., calculated to boost profitsand will protect those politically responsible for the unsafe homes, offices and public buildings across Australia.

Those presiding over the past fortnights hearings include Labor senators Chris Ketter and Kim Carr and the right-wing populist Nick Xenophon.

All feigned concern about the dangerous state of the construction industry, acting as if they knew nothing about the origins or consequences of free-market deregulation and the privatisation of building safety agencies. This is political theatre designed to deflect attention from the record of Liberal-National and Labor governments, state and federal.

At the Melbourne hearing, Federal Safety Commissioner Alan Edwards admitted his agency had conducted no audits of building materials in the past seven months and taken no action against construction companies violating the national building code.

Senator Carr declared that the licensing and regulatory regime was one of the great buck passing exercises in his more than 25 years in parliament.

In Sydney, Senator Ketter, who chairs the inquiry, declared: Weve got a broken system, industry standards that arent worth the paper theyre written on and copies of the standards which are too expensive and people cant afford to access them.

What a fraud! Both men are fully aware that Labor and Liberal-National governments alike are responsible for the breakdown in building standards.

Testimony from Construction Forestry Mining Energy Union (CFMEU) national policy research officer Travis Wacey was just as cynical.

The union, which maintains close working relations with building companies and product manufacturers, called for import controls on Chinese building products. Our borders are essentially out of control when it comes to quality assurance of product coming infrom consumer products to buildings products, Wacey told the Melbourne hearing.

This is a nationalist diversion, aimed at hiding the fact that the union has worked hand-in-glove with building industry bosses to cut costs and drive up productivity. It is also aimed at strengthening the unions relations with Australian manufacturers of building products.

The Senate inquiry is another attempt by the political establishment to cover up the underlying economic and political reasons for the catastrophic situation facing building workers, home and apartment owners and residentsthe reckless drive for profit at all costs.

The author also recommends:

The political implications of the Grenfell Tower fire

[27 June 2017]

Australian building experts discuss the Grenfell Tower fire

[12 July 2017]
Alongside American, Australian, Japanese and South Korean naval vessels, two Canadian warships have participated in recent months in provocative freedom of navigation exercises and wargames in the South and East China Seas.

Thanks chiefly to US imperialist machinations, the South China Sea, large parts of which are claimed by China, has become an international flashpointone that threatens to spark a direct military clash between nuclear-armed powers.

Canadas involvement in this highly-explosive region is bound up with Ottawas intimate, decades-long military-strategic partnership with Washington, and specifically a secret 2013 bilateral agreement for increased joint military activity in the Asia-Pacific region.

National Post correspondent Matthew Fisher, who enjoys close ties to the upper echelons of the Canadian Armed Forces, reported earlier this month that two Canadian ships, the HMCS Winnipeg and HMCS Ottawa, were shadowed by Chinese boats during exercises in the contested South China Sea. The two frigates were involved in a freedom of passage exercise when two Peoples Liberation Army Navy frigates came within a distance of three nautical miles. Subsequently, when the Winnipeg and Ottawa moved to the East China Sea, where they participated in maneuvers with Japanese and Australian ships, a Chinese intelligence vessel monitored their movements.

At one point during their voyage through the South China Sea, one of the Canadian ships passed within 13 miles of the Scarborough Shoals, control over which is disputed between China and the Philippines. This is just one mile outside the 12-mile radius a country is allowed to claim as its sovereign territory under international law.

Indicating the extremely tense atmosphere under which exercises in the region take place, and underscoring that even a mishap or misjudgment could lead to an open clash, Chief Petty Officer First Class Sylvain Jaquemot told Fisher, Whenever we are near an American ship, the Chinese are there. There is not an American ship in the South China Sea that does not get shadowed by a Chinese ship.

The United States has systematically stoked the territorial disputes in the South China Sea. In addition to repeatedly staging exercises that pass through airspace and waters claimed by China, it has incited Beijings regional rivals, including the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Malaysia and Taiwan, to aggressively pursue their competing territorial claims over South China Sea islets and waters. In the East China Sea, Washington has similarly stirred up frictions between China on one side, and Japan and South Korea on the other.

As part of its efforts to deepen its long-standing strategic alliance with Washington, the Trudeau government has largely fallen into line behind Washingtons anti-China stance and signaled that in the event of a military clash Canada will stand with the US. Continuing on from where the Harper Conservative government left off, Trudeaus Liberals backed the adoption of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal, part of the Obama administrations anti-China Pivot to Asia policy.

The Trump administrations abandonment of the TPP has been combined with an intensification of US imperialist provocations against Beijing, which Trump labels a currency manipulator. Trudeau, meanwhile, has made clear his determination to enhance Canadian imperialisms partnership with a Trump-led US. He has embraced the idea of a more protectionist North American trade bloc aimed at challenging China economically and signed on to the modernization of NORAD.

In a major address last month, Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland labeled China one of the principal threats to global stability. In remarks that lauded Washingtons outsized role in upholding global capitalism in the seven decades since the end of the Second World War, she stressed that it is necessary to find ways to encourage China to accept a US-led global geopolitical order.

The Trudeau government has fully embraced Washingtons hardline approach to North Koreas missile tests, which has included the renunciation of strategic patience, provocative war games aimed at testing the ability of US and South Korean forces to decapitate the North Korean leadership, and direct threats of military action.

In April, Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan declared that the Canadian Armed Forces, which remain part of the US-led UN Korean Command that waged war in Korea between 1950-53, must be ready to redeploy to the peninsula in the event war erupts anew. Such a regime-change war would endanger the lives of millions of people and would be aimed at intensifying military-strategic pressure on Beijing.

The deployment of the HMCS Winnipeg and HMCS Ottawa to the region demonstrates Canadian imperialisms determination to strengthen its presence in the Asia-Pacific. Both ships will return to their home port in British Columbia next month after a five-month mission that will have seen them travel to ports in the US, Malaysia, the Philippines, Japan, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Singapore. Two frigates will conduct a similar tour next year.

This is part of a longer-term strategy to increase Canadas naval presence in the Asia-Pacific. In June, the head of Royal Canadian Navy, Vice Admiral Ron Lloyd, said Canada is being drawn deeper into the Pacific than we would have typically in the past. He praised the Liberals decision to increase from 12 to 15 the number of news warships Canada will procure over the next decade, saying the navy must have the means to have a significant presence in both the Atlantic and Pacific simultaneously.

Chief of the Defence Staff Jonathan Vance explained that a key element of the recent Asian naval deployment was to familiarize Canadian crewmen with navigating the Malacca Strait, a critical trade route which the US and its allies would use as a chokepoint to impose an economic blockade on China in the event of a war or war-crisis. If one wants to have any respect or gravitas you have to be in that region, Vance told Fisher. The security of the Straits of Malacca are important to us because a lot of trade goes through there.

Led by the Globe and Mail, the traditional mouthpiece for Torontos Bay Street elite, much of the corporate-controlled media is urging the Trudeau government to adopt an even harder line against Beijing. While pledging enhanced military-security cooperation with the US, the Liberals have taken steps to initiate talks with Beijing on a free trade agreement, principally so as to bolster Canadian energy and raw materials exports.

For months the Globe has been mounting an increasingly shrill anti-China campaign, claiming the Trudeau government is ignoring vital national security concerns in its pursuit of closer economic ties with Beijing. This reached fever pitch last month when it denounced Ottawa for allowing a Chinese firm to purchase Vancouver-based Norsat International, a manufacturer of satellite communications equipment whose clients include the militaries of Canada, the US and NATO (see: Disputes sharpen in Canadian ruling elite over its China policy).

The conflict within ruling circles over its China policy has been sharpened by the Trump administrations protectionist America First agenda. The Canadian bourgeoisie fears that its privileged access to the US market, upon which it relies for 75 percent of its exports, could be diminished, leading important sections of corporate Canada to be all the more eager to pursue economic opportunities in China.

Following North Koreas successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) earlier this month, the Globe editorial board once again lashed out against China. It blamed Beijing for Pyongyangs actions, since it balks at completely crippling North Koreas economy, then complained that China seems to see this as another opportunity to try to diminish American influence in the region.

This could not be clearer. The Globe wants Ottawa to align itself even more fully with Washingtons reckless drive to reassert its hegemony over the Asia-Pacific region, which is the chief reason for Pyongyangs reactionary nationalist bluster. As well as pushing for an abandonment of free trade talks with Beijing, a demand now taken up by Conservative leader Andrew Scheer, the Globe is agitating for Canada to be even more emphatic in its support for Washingtons military-strategic offensive against nuclear-armed China.
Matt Tyrnauers Citizen Jane: Battle for the City is a documentary film about journalist and activist Jane Jacobs (1916-2006). Author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1960), Jacobs is also known for her crusades against several large-scale infrastructure projects in New York City in the 1960s.

Not an urban planner by training, Jacobs enjoyed her role as an iconoclastic journalist writing on urban affairs for Architectural Forum and then Fortune Magazine beginning in the 1950s. Basing herself on direct observation, particularly of her beloved Greenwich Village, in her Death and Life of Great American Cities, she drew far-ranging conclusions about what made for successful neighborhoods. Contrary to the conceptions advanced by urban planners and architects, she believed these were characterized above all by what she called a lively sidewalk culture, in which neighbors watch each others children as they play in the spray of fire-hydrants and otherwise live in an urban environment as they would in a close-knit village.

Still influential among urban planners, the book is most important for its emphasis on the human element of cities. Citing the example of grandly conceived civic centers that become wastelands, Jacobs argues that the best-laid plans of architects and planners come to naught if people are unable to satisfy the requirements of daily life within a given built environment, and that sometimes less well-planned environments prove better able to offer a diversity of housing, shopping, employment and recreation.

Citizen Jane mainly focuses on Jacobss role in the late 1950s and 1960s as an opponent of a proposal to build a four-lane highway through historic Washington Square Park in downtown Manhattan to connect traffic flow north and south of the park. The plan, first proposed in the 1940s by then-Parks Commissioner Robert Moses, had gone through several iterations but was still fiercely opposed by local Greenwich Village residents.

Jacobs, the prototype middle class grassroots activist with a flair for publicity, mobilized housewives and neighborhood kids, elicited support from former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt and eminent city planner Lewis Mumford, and bombarded city officials with petitions until the plan was finally scrapped.

The victory of Jacobs and her supporters in the campaign against the Washington Square highway proposal came at the tail end of a series of large-scale public works projects in New York, many of them under Mosess direction. Serving first as parks commissioner in the 1930s and then as head of municipal authorities under Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia, Moses organized projects that included the construction of numerous major bridges together with the citys network of expressways, highways and parkways.

Mosess earlier focus on public works that benefited broad layers of the population in their neighborhoods gave way, in the post-World War II period, to slum clearance, with often devastating consequences for many communities. The construction of the Cross-Bronx Expressway, finally completed in 1972 after 25 years, involved the razing of entire working class neighborhoods. This was the type of project that Jacobs opposed most vehemently.

The central conceit of Citizen Jane (and much of the media coverage of Jacobss life and work) is that its heroine and Moses were locked in a titanic struggle for the soul of the city, a conflict pitting the populist Jacobs, with her vision of cozy, scrambled urban areas, against a grandiose, utilitarian and sterile bureaucracy. This vast over-simplification ignores the historical and class questions involved in the transformation of New York over the course of half a century from a patchwork of self-contained neighborhoods into a modern, integrated metropolitan area.

That Mosess infrastructure projects connected the city by a network of highwaysnot surprisingly much of it federally fundedand gave pride of place to the automobile instead of public transportation was bound up with the exigencies and peculiarities of American capitalism in the post-World War II period. Mosess ego and overbearing personality had little to do with it.

Jacobs took for granted, every bit as much as Moses did, the existing social order. Her criticisms, in the end, reflected the concerns of petty bourgeois layers who desired to make life as comfortable for themselves, and for as many others as possible, while accepting the overall domination of big business over American (and Canadian) life. Frankly, as long as neighborhoods like Greenwich Village and the Annex in Toronto (where Jacobs lived from 1971 until her death) could be preserved, neighborhoods that became more and more expensive to live in as time passed, a good many of her political and urban planning goals were met.

The fate of the urban working class population was not a central issue for Jacobs, nor is it for Tyrnauer in Citizen Jane.

The film does admit, however, that overcrowding and the generally miserable conditions in stifling tenements, famously documented by photographer/reformer Jacob Riis (1849-1914) in his How the Other Half Lives (1890), might have been a reason people hung out communally on their stoops.

The interviews conducted with contemporary city planners and urbanists make up the weakest portion of Tyrnauers film. Prominent among those interviewed is architecture critic Paul Goldberger, who has written on the rebuilding of the World Trade Center in Up From Zero: Politics, Architecture, and the Rebuilding of New York (2004).

The overarching thrust of the various comments is that livable cities develop organically and that attempts at overall planning are well-intentioned and utopian at best, but authoritarian at heart. Moreover, such attempts, according to the commentators, are often misinterpretations of the principles elaborated by pioneers of modernism, such as Swiss-French architect, designer and urban planner Le Corbusier (1887-1965).

The latter designed projects like the Radiant City in Marseilles, first elaborated in 1930 in connection with the French syndicalist movement, which was as much a plan for social reform as urban design. The planned city, integrating housing, industry, civic and municipal buildings in networks of tall towers, connected by paths and multi-tiered walkways instead of streets with major traffic routed underground, was never built. It did, however, become the general model for innumerable public housing projects in Europe and the United States, as well as being the basis for the layout of newly developed megacities such as Brasilia in Brazil and Chandigarh, India.

The film recycles the notion that housing projects for the working class were doomed to become blighted areas of concentrated poverty, leaving out one small factthat modernist architects like Le Corbusier (who visited and worked in the Soviet Union between 1928 and 1934) envisaged their projects as part of the overall transformation of society and the elimination of poverty and social inequality. There are examples of successful high-rise building projects that are home to thousands of working class families, indicating that the urban blight that is often associated with modernism is rather a consequence of poverty.

Ultimately, with its unqualified admiration for Citizen Janes outlook, Tyrnauers film fails to draw out the implications of organic development under capitalism, which in effect means that corporate interests have free rein to develop real estatebe it high-rise towers or brownstonesfor the wealthy, while anything rationally planned, i.e., designed for the working class, is unprofitable and, especially in recent decades, deemed a waste of resources.

There is obviously a crying need for vast, complex, publicly organized projects to provide the high-quality housing, transportation, employment and public space, along with the power and technology grids, required by populations living in urban areas, including mega-cities such as Tokyo, Shanghai, Jakarta, Delhi, New York and Mexico City.

This will not arise spontaneously out of the existing conditions of the profit system, but will require the planned, rational mobilization of societys resources by the working class under socialism to meet the needs of globalized mass society in the twenty-first century.
On Tuesday night, the Sri Lankan government mobilised the army to take over key supply centres of the state-owned Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CPC), including at Kolonnawa, Muthurajawela and Peradeniya.

The operation, conducted under the draconian essential services law, which enables the government to ban industrial action in key sectors of the economy, was aimed at breaking an indefinite strike by oil workers.

The strike began on Tuesday morning, halting the supply and distribution of petrol, diesel and gas throughout the country. Fearing the action could become a focal point for broader social opposition, the government immediately stepped in to suppress it.

The stoppage was called by a combination of unions. They included the Sri Lanka Independent Employees Union (SLIEU), which is controlled by President Maithripala Sirisenas Sri Lanka Freedom Party, and the Lanka Petroleum Common Workers Union, led by the opposition Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). The National Workers Union, affiliated to the United National Party (UNP) that is also part of the government, did not join the strike.

The unions called the industrial action to demand the government halt the sale of Trincomalees oil tanks to India, acquire storage tanks for the CPC from Hambantota Port, which is set to be sold to China, and speed-up renovations of the main oil refinery at Sapugaskanda.

Workers joined the industrial action to express their hostility to privatisation. The unions demands, however, were aimed at channeling opposition into nationalist denunciations of China and India, in order to divide the working class, and promote the fraud that workers rights and conditions will be guaranteed if nominal state-ownership is maintained.

President Sirisena issued the gazette banning the industrial action. Employees who do not report to work 24 hours after the governments draconian anti-strike legislation is invoked are deemed to have vacated their post and will be sacked.

This is the latest in a series of military deployments directed against workers struggles. Last December, the government dispatched hundreds of navy personnel to break up a protest by contract workers demanding job permanency at Hambantota Port.

On Tuesday night, after police failed to enter the main fuel distribution centre, heavily-armed military commandos broke in through a rear gate and forcibly cleared out hundreds of workers.

Workers told the WSWS that soldiers shouted abuse and attacked them, before chasing them from the premises. Some were thrown over the parapet wall. Others were dragged outside.

Workers said the troops behaved as though they were in a war zone. Some claimed to have information that the operation was planned by former Army commander and current government minister, Field Marshal Sarath Fonseka, after a discussion on Tuesday evening at Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghes official residence.

Fonseka is notorious for overseeing the brutal communal war against the separatist Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which ended in 2009.

Once the workers were forced out, police and thugs attacked them. Hundreds of army personnel and heavily-armed Special Task Force (STF) police officers were placed in front of the main gates.

At Kolonnawa, riot police were ready with batons, tear gas and water cannons. Workers tried to block trains transporting oil and bowsers, but were attacked by the STF. Police arrested 16 people, including workers leaders, dragging them into waiting trucks. All were later released.

Speaking at a public meeting yesterday, Sirisena made it plain the military action was aimed at intimidating the entire working class. The government will not allow a small section to harass the majority, he warned.

We have already declared the oil distribution as an essential service, Sirisena said. After declaring the essential service according to powers vested in the constitution, we will not hesitate to take every step to ensure its implementation.

Referring to recent stoppages by health workers, the president said doctors regarded strikes as playthings. He menacingly recalled that under the authoritarian rule of former President Mahinda Rajapakse, even the trace of those who are shouting today could not be found. Sirisena said no one would be allowed to topple the government.

Speaking to the WSWS, workers voiced their hostility to Sirisenas strike-breaking attack. One said CPC workers had sacrificed their salaries and even donated blood to support the military in its brutal war against the LTTE. But now the security forces who attacked us are using the same methods they used in the war, he said.

The major trade unions and capitalist parties paved the way for these military attacks by backing the reactionary war and calling on workers to sacrifice for the defence of motherland.

The worker continued: In this struggle, we fought against privatisation. During the last strike in April, Wickremesinghe promised not to hand over the oil tanks in Trincomalee and Hambantota to India and China, but he cheated us.

Another striker said most of the CPC workers voted for the Sirisena government, in the hope it would block privatisation. But now this government has shown it is no different than the previous government of Rajapakse, he said.

The ongoing privatisation also underscores the bankruptcy of the unions, which have promoted the illusion that protest appeals to the government can limit the sell-off of state-owned assets, and secure decent working conditions. They have sought to obscure the fact that the privatisation agenda is being driven by the deepening crisis of Sri Lankan capitalism and the austerity dictates of the International Monetary Fund.

SLIEU secretary Jayantha Pareira said that before the strike the unions had submitted a charter of proposals to the government on how to maintain the CPC as a profitable enterprise. He claimed the prime minister was pleased with the charter.

When they called the strike on Tuesday, the unions said they had been cheated and claimed the action would last indefinitely. After the strike was suppressed by the military, however, they met with Sirisena on Wednesday, and offered to resume essential services if the government withdrew the army. Union leaders issued a statement pledging further talks with the government to reach a solution.

In April, the unions called an indefinite strike at the CPC, which they ended a day later after discussions with the prime minister. Sirisena responded to the stoppage by proposing that Fonseka take charge of the armed forces for two years to discipline the country (see: Sri Lankan president calls on former army commander to discipline the country).

In other words, the governments military attacks on workers form part of a broader move toward dictatorship.

The union leaders backroom manoeuvres with the government show that workers need new organisations of struggle, including rank-and-file committeesopposed to the unionsto defend their social and democratic rights and fight the turn to authoritarian rule.

These organisations must be based on a new political perspective aimed at establishing a workers and peasants government to implement socialist policies, including placing the ports and oil services under public ownership and workers control. To wage such a struggle requires the building of the Socialist Equality Party which is the only political party fighting for this program.
The European powers reacted sharply yesterday to the US House of Representatives passage of a bill imposing sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, indicating that it was unacceptable to European interests and that the European Union (EU) was preparing retaliatory measures.

The US bill and the EU reaction expose the fundamental conflicts behind the rapid deterioration of US-EU relations since the election of Donald Trump as US president last year. While European politicians repeatedly attacked Trump, who is widely unpopular in Europe, conflicts are erupting now over a bill supported by Trumps Democratic opponents (and adopted in a nearly-unanimous vote) as a way to block Trumps freedom of action in ties with Russia. This points to the deep financial and strategic conflicts between the European powers and the entire American ruling class.

EU, German and French officials attacked the bill, warning that its broad provisions allow Washington to impose sanctions on major European corporations working with Russia or Iran, and thus threaten basic European strategic and energy interests.

The EU Commission issued a communique yesterday expressing concerns notably because of the draft Bill's possible impact on EU energy independence. It warned that despite modifications to the bill in the House, the bill still foresees the imposition of sanctions on any company (including European) which contributes to the development, maintenance, modernisation or repair of energy export pipelines by the Russian Federation. Depending on its implementation, this could affect infrastructure transporting energy resources to Europe.

The US bill threatens to cut off an entire network of critical east-west pipelines transporting Russian gas to European markets, as well as several major European energy companies. Frances Engie (Gaz de France-Suez), UK-Dutch firm Royal Dutch Shell, Austrias OMV, and Germanys Wintershall and Uniper would all face financial penalties for their participation in the Nordstream2 Baltic pipeline project. Firms involved in transporting gas to Europe from the Shah Deniz field in Azerbaijan and the Russia-to-Turkey TurkishStream pipeline would also be threatened.

EU Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker repeated his threat from earlier this week to swiftly prepare retaliatory punitive action against US firms. Attacking the US sanctions bill as an example of Trumps America First policy, Juncker said, The Commission concluded today that if our concerns are not taken into account sufficiently, we stand ready to act appropriately within a matter of days. America first cannot mean that Europes interests come last.

Speaking to Russia Today, Volker Treier, chief economist of the German Chambers of Commerce and Industry, warned that the bill threatened to do significant damage to the German economy. If German firms are banned from participating in gas pipeline enterprises, very important projects in the energy supply security sector can be halted. In that case, the German economy will be discernibly influenced, he said.

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel had already denounced an earlier version of the bill for forcing Europe to buy more expensive US liquefied natural gas instead of Russian gas. He bluntly declared the bill was about the sale of American liquefied gas and the sidelining of Russian gas supplies in the European market, in order to secure jobs in the American oil and gas industries.

The French Foreign Ministry also issued a sharply-worded statement yesterday, attacking the sanctions bill as illegal under international law. Spokeswoman Agnes Romatet said, To protect ourselves from the extraterritorial effects of US (or other countries') legislation, we will have to work to adapt our national policies and to modernize European policy.

A list compiled by financial daily Les Echos of French firms facing US sanctions over their operations in Russia and/or Iran includes many of the countrys leading corporations.

The eruption of commercial conflict between the United States and the European Union points to the extraordinary dangers posed to the population of the world by world capitalism. Over the course of 25 years of war since the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Washington and its European imperialist allies have carried out an escalating series of wars and interventions in the Middle East and Eastern Europe.

While these were cynically packaged to the masses as wars for democracy or against terrorism or weapons of mass destruction, the underlying material interests were the same as those that twice in the 20th century led to the eruption of world war between the imperialist powers. As globalization of production inflamed the contradiction between world economy and the nation-state system, the major capitalist corporations and governments were seeking to re-divide the worlds resources between them through wars of plunder.

Now, as various factions in Washington threaten wars with major powers on the Eurasian land mass, the underlying US-EU rivalries are erupting to the surface. Three years after Germany announced the re-militarization of its foreign policy, EU countries are using Chinas launch of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the partial normalization of trade with Iran due to its nuclear deal to step up investment across Eurasia and the Middle East. The foreign policies of the United States and the major EU powers are increasingly on a collision course.

At the same time, US and European authorities no longer bother to conceal deep trade conflicts between them. After US officials imposed an $8.9 billion fine on French bank BNP Paribas over its dealings with Iran in 2014, EU officials retaliated last year by cutting off talks on a trans-Atlantic trade deal and imposing a 13 billion fine on Apple.

Angry commentary over the sanctions bill in the German press underscore that influential forces in the German ruling class see the sanctions bill as yet further evidence of hostile US intent towards Germany and Europe.

What is particularly dangerous is that supporters of Russia sanctions in Washington are not only trying to put Putin and Trump in the same bag, but also helping the US economy against foreign competition, wrote the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. Under the bill, the daily added, Europeans would be forced to burn less Russian natural gas and more American liquefied natural gas. This is an unfriendly act, especially against Germany.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote that, with all due respect for the Senate and its ambition to tie President Donald Trumps hands on Russia policy, the draft law is unacceptable from a European perspective. First, it breaks the diplomatic alliance between Europe and the United States in deciding on sanctions against Russia. ... The argument that America is promoting Europes energy security is also quite insolent. That is Europes responsibility. This is how you lose friends.

The question that is emerging is whether the US-EU military rivalry and bitter trade conflicts will now coalesce and escalate into a catastrophic breakdown in US-EU relationsin the form of a trade war that would bring the world economy to its knees, or of outright military conflict.
A federal judge in Detroit, Michigan has halted the deportation of more than 1,400 Iraqi immigrants who were slated for immediate deportation. The ruling came Monday as US District Judge Mark Goldsmith granted a preliminary injunction request by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to block the deportation of any Iraqi citizen who is under a final removal order.

Without warning, many of the Iraqi immigrants whose legal status remained in limbo for decades were picked up and scheduled for deportation in June. Protests against the deportation took place in Detroit following the raids.

While ICE claims they are only deporting dangerous criminals, relatives say that their family members were convicted of only minor crimes committed over decades ago and that they have already served out their sentences.

On June 15, the ACLU sued for the immediate stop of deportations, arguing that the immigrants, many Chaldean Catholics, Sunni Muslims, and Iraqi Kurds, could face persecution, torture, or death as these populations have been the victims of abuse and maltreatment in Iraq, a country that has been devastated by the ongoing 15-year occupation by US imperialism. Their deportations would violate US and international law.

In his July 24 opinion, Goldsmith ruled, Each Petitioner faces the risk of torture or death on the basis of residence in America and publicized criminal records; many will also face persecution as a result of a particular religious affiliation. In other words, the US government effectively sentenced the immigrants to possible death.

According to the proceedings, each detainee will now be granted a 90-day stay from the time that the government provides the detainees with two immigration records that are required to reopen their cases: Alien Files and Recording of Proceedings. Both files can only be accessed through a Freedom of Information Act request, a process that in itself can take over five months.

The injunction will provide more time for the immigrants to find lawyers and to start building a case for their release. Despite the additional time given to the detainees, they still face hurdles and unforeseeable obstacles. Since the start of the arrests in June, ICE has been transferring detainees from one detention center to the next, often in places such as Youngstown, Ohio; Louisiana, and Arizona, hundreds of miles from their loved ones and from a lawyer that may be able to assist them.

Michael J. Steinberg, legal director of the ACLU of Michigan, paints a gloomy picture for the detainees: Even under ordinary circumstances, it can take significant time for a family to retain a lawyer and for the lawyer to prove to an immigrant judge than an immigrant faces persecution, torture or death if deported. In this case, where Iraqi nationals have been detained in facilities thousands of miles from their homes, and where many families cannot afford lawyers, it takes even more time.

Since 2014 more than 150,000 families have sought asylum in immigration courts. Of that number, only 30 percent have secured legal representation. For the rest, fewer than 4 percent have been granted refugees status. 26,000 people received deportation orders without having received so much as a trial.

The sudden decision to deport over 1,000 Iraqi immigrants is part of a deal the Trump administration made with the Iraqi government in March. In exchange for removal from the Trump administrations travel ban, the Iraqi government agreed to accept deportees. Iraq was one of seven countries banned under President Trumps initial Muslim Ban executive order, but was removed from his second ban, which is in effect today.

While Trumps large scale roundups mark an escalation from the past, they are at the same time a continuation of the policies of the Obama administration. Obama deported 2.7 million people during his term in office. In 2014, The Guardian revealed that in the span of only one year, nearly 100 immigrants were murdered upon arrival in Central America.

If the Iraqis are deported, they will be sent into an active war zone. Since the invasion in 2003, the US has stoked sectarian conflicts in the region, pitting Sunnis against Shias and Muslims against Christians in order to channel popular discontent along religious and ethnic lines. This process has proven particularly disastrous in Iraqs northern region, from which many Chaldeans fled. Today, the US is supporting ultra right-wing Islamic militias in Syria which have carried out atrocities against Chaldeans in both Syria and Iraq. Mosul, Iraqs second largest city, is located in northern Iraq, a short drive from Erbil, a historic center of Chaldean Christianity. The US and its Iraqi puppet forces have spent the last months laying siege to Mosul, killing at least 40,000 people in the process and turning the ancient city to rubble.

The current halt of the 1,400 Iraqis deportations is only a temporary reprieve, and no faith should be placed in the courts. Earlier this year, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld Trumps travel ban, stranding thousands of refugees in the war-torn Middle East.
The Pink Tide period in Latin America is a central political experience of the last quarter century. After twenty years of populist bourgeois rule, the region remains the most unequal in the world. Poverty remains the dominant factor of life for most of Latin Americas 500 million residents.

American and European corporations continue to extract the regions resources and exploit its cheap labor as American imperialism expands its military footprint from Mexico to the Southern Cone. When commodity prices crashed in 2014, the base for the expansion in social spending collapsed with it. Taking advantage of growing popular dissatisfaction with the Pink Tide, right-wing parties have come to power and have begun implementing unprecedented attacks on workers wages, living conditions, and social programs. For the working class of Latin America, Pink Tide rule has been a disaster.

The US pseudo-left, whose politics express the interests of an affluent upper middle class layer, sees matters differently. Its outlook is expressed in the Spring 2017 edition of Jacobin magazine dedicated to analyzing the Pink Tide period, titled By Taking Power.

A defense of the Bolivarian bourgeoisie

This issue isnt a post-mortem on the Pink Tide, Jacobins introduction announces. The edition begins with a debate between the International Socialist Organizations Eva Maria, Venezuelaanalysis.coms Gregory Wilpert, and Brooklyn College Professor Naomi Schiller; the three contributors rain praise on the Pink Tide governments, in particular of Venezuela under the rule of Hugo Chavez and the United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV).

Chavez put socialism back on the international agenda, says Wilpert, whose web site is the primary English language defender of the Venezuelan government.

Eva Maria states, What Chavez represented was the first big fuck you to neoliberalism in the region. She adds, I mean, I wish I had met the guy. I was inspired by his government.

In the editions introduction, Jacobins editors are forced to acknowledge that the region is embroiled in a historic crisis. They explain that their goal is to determine what went wrong. Latin Americas present crisis is the product of mistakes made by Chavezs successor, Nicholas Maduro, and by other Pink Tide heads of state, who took the easier route, relying on commodities instead of confronting elites, they claim.

A July 8 article published in Jacobin and the ISOs Socialistworker.org titled Being Honest about Venezuela takes up this point. The academic Mike Gonzalez writes, the crisis in Venezuela represents a complete rejection of the Bolivarian revolution. He bemoans that the PSUV and military have become right-wing instruments of control.

The juxtaposition of Chavez as revolutionary and Maduro as rejecting the Bolivarian revolution is false.

Chavez came to power as a representative of a faction of the Venezuelan ruling class, and his government has enriched a layer of capitalists and military officers known as the boliburguesia or Bolivarian bourgeoisie. The PSUV government maintained capitalist property relations and protected the right of corporations, both foreign and domestic, to exploit Venezuelas workers and extract its resources.

If Chavez was revolutionary, where was the revolution? Chavez was not brought to power by a wave of strikes, factory occupations, and mass demonstrations. He won the 1998 election on a reformist and explicitly pro-capitalist platform with the support of Venezuelas military. The PSUV carried out a temporary expansion of social spending by increasing the countrys dependency on exporting oil to foreign governments and corporations, laying the basis for the present social catastrophe.

When the bourgeoisie deploys the coercive force of the state against the working class in order to advance the interests of the banks and corporations, it is not a mistake, as Jacobin claims, but an illustration of class rule under capitalism.

An apology for US imperialism

In another article from the spring edition, titled The Empires Amnesia, Jacobin advances the position that the US is no longer an imperialist exploiter of Latin America.

The question is posed to the articles author, NYU Professor Greg Grandin: Does it make sense to understand US-Latin American relations today as imperialist? If not, whats the best way to describe them?

Grandin replies: I try to avoid those debates. It is what it is.

A Jacobin questioner praises former US President Barack Obama, noting that he seemed to have little interest in Latin America, although at the end of his presidency he did make a move to improve relations with Cuba.

Grandin responds, noting positively that Obamas was a transitional presidency in terms of Latin America.

Jacobin dedicates another section of its spring edition to warning of the rise of China. In one section of the magazine titled Red is the new red, white, and blue, Jacobin says China has replaced the US as the regions primary exploiter and has emerged as the new superpower in the region. While the US has done bad things in the past, Jacobin argues, the US took a backseat in 2015 when China surpassed the US as the largest investor in the region. While Grandin previously refused to label the US as an imperialist power, the implication from this article is that China is imperialist.

Jacobin says, As the Pink Tide recedes, Chinese investors are starting to find friendly collaborators in Latin Americas resurgent right. To tell this story of global realignment, Jacobin cites from eight documents signed between the Chinese government and Chinese corporations and Latin America governments. The conclusion is that China is engaged in a mammoth land grab, a lurch to the right, and an escalation.

There is perhaps no region of the world whose internal politics has been so dominated by an imperialist power like Latin America by the United States. It is not possible to list here the crimes US imperialism has committed in Latin America, where the total number of people killed by US invasion or by US-backed death squads and dictators is in the millions. Since 1898, the US has launched up to 100 invasions, interventions, and coups in the region.

Today, the US military retains bases or military installations in Cuba, Colombia, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, Peru, and Puerto Rico. It also has soldiers deployed in Brazil and Mexico for training anti-drug units who routinely murder civilians. In addition, the US military has funded local government bases in Belize, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Guatemala, Uruguay, Nicaragua, Panama.

As for Obamas role, he oversaw the coup of Honduran president Manuel Zelaya in 2009 and deported roughly 2 million immigrants to Latin American countries. Not a single one of Jacobins articles in the spring edition deals with the crisis facing immigrants.

Efforts by Chinese capitalists to extract Latin Americas primary resources are not progressive, but the purpose of falsely labeling China as the main superpower in Latin America is to provide a pseudo-left justification for deepening US intervention, both economic and military, as part of the USs pivot to Latin America.

Praise for pro-austerity politicians

In the article Not going back by graduate student Hillary Goodfriend, Jacobin features the story of Lorena Pena, former president of the Salvadoran Legislative Assembly and a leader of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). The FMLN was the popular front organization that conducted the military fight of anti-government forces against the US-backed military dictatorship lasting from 1979 to 1992.

Today, the FMLN functions as a bourgeois party. It has held control of the Salvadoran executive branch since 2009 and is one of two major parties in the legislature. Goodfriend says: Lorena Pena and a generation of FMLN militants adjust to the promise and limits of state power.

The 2009 presidential victory of the FMLN was a historic, unprecedented achievement, Goodfriend writes. Pena is lauded as a feminist champion who embodies this advance.

While efforts to dismantle the neoliberal economy and redistribute wealth have been stymied, Goodfriend writes, this is not to say that the FMLN has not made gains. The article quotes Pena, who says: We have truly won so many impressive achievements in these seven years.

Pena routinely goes to bat against the IMFs demands, the article continues. Despite the hardships, Pena remains determined, optimistic even. The only match for the economic and political powers conspiring against the Left, Pena says, is the power of the people

Jacobin fails to mention that Pena is a political pawn of the IMF and is responsible for slashing social programs in El Salvador. As current president of the Economic and Budgetary Commission in the Legislative Assembly, she led the effort to pas the FMLNs 2017 budget. When foreign credit agencies demanded El Salvador speed-up payment of its foreign debt, Pena called for further cuts, which were passed in April. These cuts included millions of dollars to education and healthcare funding. The bill also cut electricity subsidies and the Environmental Ministrys budget.

Pena defended the cuts, saying they were very well thought through, and would be implemented in a very responsible way.

Jacobin has nothing but praise for this right-wing politician who is responsible for slashing social programs upon which some of the worlds poorest people rely. Their laudatory coverage provides an insight into their own political aspirations. In the US, Latin America and elsewhere, the pseudo-left see themselves playing a similar role as Pena in El Salvador, or in other countries where left-populist governments have imposed austerity, like Syriza in Greece and Podemos in Spain.

Jacobin defends the capitalist state

According to Jacobin, the conclusion activists must draw from the Pink Tide period is that the state is not an organ of class rule.

I think the example of the Bolivarian process forces us to revisit our assumptions about social movements and the state, Schiller of Brooklyn College writes. We cant just think of poor people as always necessarily up against state power and the state as always necessarily an enemy of the people.

In essays on the Movement Toward Socialism (MAS) government of Evo Morales in Bolivia and the Workers Party in Brazil, the academics Linda Farthing and Sabrina Fernandes respectively describe the two governments as contradictory. The fact that they are bourgeois and pro-capitalist does not preclude political support for these governments because they initially expanded social programs.

Jacobin employs abstract, supra-class categories of analysis that have nothing to do with Marxism. Their defense of the Pink Tide governments is a defense of bourgeois class rule. Schiller spells out Jacobins anti-socialist theory of the state in greater detail:

While capitalist interests continued to sit at the root of many Venezuelan state institutions, she writes, there was also fierce competition over what the future of those interests should be, just as there was fierce competition over the class character and leadership of those institutions. We need to understand the Venezuelan state during the Bolivarian process as a processual statenot a clear-cut entity with an obvious and unitary interest, but a terrain of struggle.

In Schillers view, a government based on capitalist property relations isnt necessarily opposed to the interests of the toiling masses. These apologetics for bourgeois rule are exploded by the objective logic of political developments.

In the nearly 20 years they have held power, the Pink Tide governments have violently broken workers strikes, forced through environmentally devastating corporate mining operations against the opposition of indigenous communities, and handed over billions of dollars to Wall Street creditors in interest payments. In country after country, police chiefs, judges, and wardens appointed by socialist and left parties attack, convict, and jail strikers and protesters who stand in the way of the corporate drive for profit.

The Marxist conception of the state

Jacobins anti-socialist portrayal of the state as an organ of class reconciliationa terrain of struggle between the classesis nothing new. In his 1917 work State and Revolution, Vladimir Lenin replied to the petty bourgeois self-proclaimed socialists of the last century who sought to correct Marx in this way.

According to Marx, Lenin wrote, the state could neither have arisen nor maintained itself had it been possible to reconcile classesAccording to Marx, the state is an organ of class rule, an organ for the oppression of one class by another; it is the creation of order, which legalizes and perpetuates this oppression by moderating the conflict between classes.

Lenin makes clear that those who view the capitalist state as a terrain of struggle are hostile to socialism. Referring to the Menshevik and Social-Revolutionary parties support for the bourgeois provisional government that rose to power after the February revolution of 1917, he wrote:

That the state is an organ of rule of a definite class which cannot be reconciled with its antipode (the class opposite to it) is something the petty-bourgeois democrats will never be able to understand. Their attitude to the state is one of the most striking manifestations of the fact that our Socialist Revolutionaries and Mensheviks are not socialists at all (a point that we Bolsheviks have maintained), but petty-bourgeois democrats using near-socialist phraseology.

Jacobins repudiation of the Marxist conception of the state as an organ of class rule is not a mistake. Rather, it reflects the class interests of the privileged upper-middle class layers on whose behalf they speak.

The reactionary political implications that flow from this perspective are expressed most clearly by the ISOs Eva Maria, who notes that Hugo Chavez was being influenced by the masses. But thats where the question of the Left comes in. The masses could influence Chavez through spontaneous, explosive actions. But there wasnt a coherent enough counterforce on the Left that could really push him forward in any sustained way. So, as a result, Chavez was able to move his ideology here and there and here again, depending on whatever suited the moment. (Emphasis added).

In Marias own words, the role of the pseudo-left is to push and influence the ruling class, directing social opposition into what Naomi Schiller called the fierce competition over the leadership of the institutions of the bourgeois state.

A central lesson workers must draw from the Pink Tide period is that the fight for socialism cannot be conducted through the bourgeois state, which is the coercive, armed body of the ruling class. The state is an instrument for the exploitation of the oppressed classes, comprised of special bodies of armed men: prosecutors, judges, prisons, police spies and intelligence agencies, military units, propaganda organs, tax collectors, etc.

Socialists do not seek to transform the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie by struggling for control of its institutions. Socialism requires the abolition of capitalist property relations and the destruction of the state apparatus used by the ruling class to prosecute its interests.

Lenin had harsh words for all these gentry who repudiate outright the dictatorship of the proletariat and pursue a policy of undisguised opportunism. He wrote: Only he is a Marxist who extends the recognition of the class struggle to the recognition of the dictatorship of the proletariat. That is what constitutes the most profound distinction between the Marxist and the ordinary petty (as well as big) bourgeois. This is the touchstone on which the real understanding and recognition of Marxism should be tested.

It is on this basis that the fight for socialism in Latin America and internationally must be carried out.
The state of Ohio on Wednesday morning carried out the execution of Ronald Phillips at Southern Ohio Correctional Facility prison in Lucasville. The execution was the first in the state since a lethal injection in January 2014 caused an inmate to gasp over a period of more than two hours before succumbing to the deadly chemicals.

Phillips, 43, was convicted and condemned to death in 1993 for the rape and murder of his girlfriends three-year-old daughter, Sheila Marie Evans. He had faced three execution dates prior to Wednesday.

In a statement before he was injected with the lethal chemicals, Phillips said in part: To the Evans family, Im sorry. You had to live so long with my evil actions.  Sheila Marie did not deserve what I did to her. Phillips was pronounced dead at 10:43 a.m., according to prison officials. According to reporters who witnessed the execution, the lethal injection was carried out without complications.

Phillips had appealed to the US Supreme Court for a last-minute stay. His defense questioned the states planned method of execution and also argued that Phillips today bears no resemblance to that teenager who committed the gruesome crime.

Fifteen pharmacology professors filed a brief at the Supreme Court on Monday, calling for a halt to Phillipss impending execution on grounds that one of the drugs used, the sedative midazolam, is incapable of inducing unconsciousness or preventing severe pain. They called the record of the use of midazolam in executions profoundly troubling and said it was unsuitable as an execution drug.

The state used a three-drug protocol of midazolam, rocuronium bromide and potassium chloride for Phillipss execution.

Earlier this year, a ruling of the full Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati overruled a panel from the same court that had delayed the execution.

Governor John Kasich, a Republican, said in a statement last year, Given the extremely brutal nature of the offense committed against an innocent 3-year-old child, I agree with the Ohio Parole Boards recommendation that clemency is not warranted in this case.

Late Tuesday, the US Supreme Court rejected Phillipss request for a stay, allowing the execution to proceed. Justice Sonia Sotomayor was joined by Ruth Bader Ginsburg in dissent, arguing that Phillips and two other inmates in his lawsuit should have gotten a chance to pursue their claim that Ohios execution protocol is a cruel and unusual punishment.

The execution that prompted Ohios more than three-year halt to executions was that of Dennis McGuire on January 16, 2014. McGuire was executed using an untested cocktail of midazolam and hydromorphone, a centrally acting medication in the opioid class used for pain.

Family members who watched McGuires execution witnessed him writhing in pain before being pronounced dead 25 minutes later by prison authorities. His son said, I watched his stomach heave.  I watched him repeatedly clench his fist, adding that it appeared to me he was fighting for his life while suffocating.

McGuires was the first of three executions that year that appeared to go horribly wrong, all utilizing midazolam. On April 29, 2014, in Oklahoma, Clayton Locketts attorney said that the prisoner was definitely writhing around, his whole upper body was lifting off the table. What we saw was somebody coming back to consciousness. The execution was called off, but his eventual death was later blamed on improper IV placement.

On July 23, 2014, in Arizona, Joseph Wood was executed using the same two-drug protocol as McGuire. The Arizona Republics Michael Keifer wrote of Woods ordeal that spanned nearly two hours, He gulped like a fish on land. The movement was like a piston: The mouth opened, the chest rose, the stomach convulsed.  It was death by apnea.

The Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction issued a report on McGuires execution, rejecting accounts of his suffering and concluding that the lethal injection drugs had their intended effect and that McGuire did not experience any pain or distress.

Then several months later, in January 2015, the state said it would switch to another drug combination. The first inmate scheduled for execution under this new protocol was Phillips, who had been set to die about a month later. However, not long after this, Ohio said it would postpone executions once again to give the state the time to obtain new lethal injection drugs.

Two other executions involving midazolam have drawn scrutiny since 2014.

Alabama inmate Ronald Smith was executed on December 8, 2016. According to numerous witness reports, it took more than 34 minutes for Smith to die. AL.com reported that Smith appeared to be struggling for breath and heaved and coughed and clenched his left fist after apparently being administered the first drug in the three-drug combination.

Earlier this year, on April 27, Kenneth Williams was the last of four men to be executed over an 11-day killing spree in Arkansas. The state had originally planned to execute eight men during this time. Witnesses to Williamss execution said that his body lurched 15 times and that he was coughing, convulsing, lurching, jerking after the first drug, midazolam, was injected.

With Ronald Phillipss execution, Ohio, like Arkansas, is ramping up its state killing machine after years of inaction. As of last October, there were 142 prisoners on Ohios death row, according to the Death Penalty Information Center (DPIC). There are three more prisoners set to die this year, and an additional 23 executions scheduled from 2018 through 2019.

Ohio has executed 53 prisoners since the turn of the century, more than any other northern US state. Ohio also ranks with Texas and Oklahoma as the only states to have executed at least one prisoner each year from 2001 to 2014.

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[25 April 2017]
Australian Labor Party opposition leader Bill Shorten last Sunday called for a pact with the Liberal-National Coalition government to ensure that whichever party wins the next election will hold a referendum to introduce fixed four-year terms in office.

Soon after Shorten put up his proposal on the Australian Broadcasting Corporations Insiders program, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull rang him to discuss it.

The prime ministers office later denied that Turnbull had given bipartisan support, but said he was interested in talking with Shorten about four-year terms, while noting there were many complications.

The proposal is a blatantly anti-democratic push to overcome widespread distrust, alienation and anger with the political elites. It is a bid to shore up the political establishment and strengthen its capacity to impose deeply unpopular policies, particularly austerity and preparations for war.

We need both Labor and Liberal to co-operate on four-year terms, Shorten said. Governments can be more daring and more determined if theyre not constantly thinking about the next election. What this country needs is long-term policymaking.

By more daring and more determined, Shorten means more ruthless in overriding working-class opposition in order to enforce the dictates of the corporate elite. Longer terms would bolster the capacity of governments to ride roughshod over popular opposition by avoiding electoral defeat for four years.

Mounting hostility toward the agenda of big business has been largely responsible for one short-lived government after another, both Labor and Coalition, over the past 10 years.

Since the landslide defeat of the decade-old Howard Coalition government in late 2007, no prime minister has lasted three years. Labors Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, and the Coalitions Tony Abbott and Malcolm Turnbull, have proven unable to carry through key cuts to education, health, welfare and other essential social programs.

At present, under the Constitution, parliaments are meant to be elected every three years, with the prime minister having the power to ask the governor-general for an early poll. On average, however, terms have lasted only two-and-a-half years.

To impose fixed four-year terms would require a referendum to amend the Constitution. To pass, a referendum would have to get a national majority, plus a majority in four of the six states. However, there is a long history of Australian referenda being defeated whenever they involved strengthening the powers of the capitalist state and its political servants.

In 1988, the Hawke Labor government, which imposed a sweeping pro-market restructuring of the economy with the backing of the trade unions, put a referendum for four-year terms for both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Its bid was overwhelmingly defeated, gaining only 32.9 percent of the national vote and losing in every state.

Over the three decades since then, the level of support for the two traditional ruling parties has crumbled as they have delivered on the requirements of the giant companies and financial markets. That support sank to new historical lows last July, when Turnbull called a rare double dissolution election of all members of both houses.

Turnbull was trying to break the political impasse produced by the ongoing blocking of some 2013 budget measures by Senate crossbenchers. These third party and independent members, mostly right-wing populists, refused to vote for the most egregious cuts to health, education and welfare, fearing to do so would be electoral suicide.

The election backfired, however, reducing the Coalition to a fragile one-seat majority in the lower house and just 29 out of 76 seats in the Senate. Together, the two major parties polled just 65 percent of the vote for the Senate, a far cry from the 80 to 90 percent support they still obtained back in the 1980s. Despite the unpopularity of Turnbulls government, Labors vote remained less then 30 percent.

Media and political commentators endorsed Shortens call for bipartisan backing for a referendum, agreeing that a common front was necessary to win a majority. In reality, a Labor-Coalition unity ticket would only intensify the widespread hostility toward them.

Equally delusional is the thought that a four-year term would resolve the underlying political crisis. Public opposition will erupt outside the parliamentary channels, aggravating the instability of the political establishment.

For this reason there is nervousness in ruling circles about the proposal. People are disenchanted with the major parties, the Australian warned in a July 25 editorial. In the present climate, voters are hardly going to support a measure that looks like making politicians less accountable to the verdict of the electorate.

Any referendum also would involve trying to reduce the capacity of the Senate to block austerity measures. Senators are currently elected for six years, with only half facing election at the end of each three-year term (except for double dissolution elections). Any proposal by Shorten and Turnbull would halve senators terms to four years, or else extend them to eight.

For years, the Business Council of Australia (BCA), representing the largest companies operating in the country, has agitated for four-year terms. Soon after Shorten made his proposal, BCA chief executive Jennifer Westacott declared the council was broadly in favour.

Westacott linked this backing directly to the demand for economic reforma euphemism for further gutting social spending, cutting taxes for companies and the wealthy, driving down wage levels and dismantling working conditions.

Although governments have undertaken serious economic reform within the constraints of a three-year political cycle, the demands of the 24/7 media cycle appear to be making this harder to achieve, Westacott said. I hope longer fixed terms would encourage governments to broaden their horizon and move away from the short-term thinking that is holding our country back.

Westacotts comments were quickly backed by a leader of Labors Left faction, Senator Doug Cameron, a former national secretary of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union. Cameron said the BCA had identified short-termism as one of the key problems facing the economy. One of the ways you get away from short-termism is to have a four-year term, he told Sky News. And that gives you the capacity to actually push good, long-term policies.

These remarks are a warning. Labor is making a pitch for the formation of a Labor government that will be pledged to emulate the Hawke and Keating governments of 1983 to 1996 in imposing the requirements of global capital.

With the assistance of the unions, the Labor leaders are seeking to channel the deepening opposition to Turnbulls crisis-wracked and unstable Coalition government behind the return of another vicious pro-business Labor government.

Shortens call for four-year terms points to this being the real agenda behind his recent populist rhetoric opposing the ever-widening social inequality. While posturing as opponents of corporate greed, Labor is declaring its intent to not just replace Turnbulls shaky government but bolster the parliamentary order itself.
On Monday, Polish President Andrzej Duda unexpectedly vetoed two key aspects of the judicial reform of the governing Law and Justice Party (PiS), which would have given the government virtually unrestricted control over the countrys judicial system.

Dudas veto has temporarily halted two bills that would have led to the immediate dismissal of 83 top judges and given Justice Minister Zbigniew Ziobro complete freedom in the appointment of judges to the Supreme Court. Both chambers of the Polish parliament had agreed to the drafts after fierce disputes.

Duda agreed another bill authorizing the justice minister to appoint judges to the district and state courts.

The two draft laws vetoed by the president must now go back to parliament, which can only overturn the veto with a three-fifths majority. Since the PiS needs the support of the right-wing Kukiz 15 party, who have welcomed Dudas veto, this is unlikely.

Hundreds of thousands of people have protested against the laws in the past days and weeks. In a survey, 55 percent of Poles declared that they wanted Duda to veto the laws. The European Union (EU) threatened to impose severe sanctions on Poland because of the judicial reform. German politicians have warned Poland of political isolation, and the US State Department also expressed concern about the so-called reform on Saturday.

Duda justified his decision by saying, I think reform in this form will not strengthen the sense of security and justice.

By claiming that a meeting with Zofia Romaszewska, one of his advisers, who had opposed granting new powers to the justice minister, had been decisive in making his decision, Duda is appealing to the ferocious anti-Communism in both the PiS and the liberal opposition. In the 1970s and 1980s, Romaszewska was one of the most important members of the Committee for the Defence of Workers (KOR) and Solidarnosc. She played a critical role in turning the trade union movement in an anti-communist and nationalist direction.

Duda announced that he would submit his own amendments in the near future. In two months, the bill will be discussed again in amended form.

The veto apparently came as a shock to the PiS. Duda himself is a member of the party and has been regarded as a puppet of PiS chief Jarosaw Kaczynski since entering office in 2015. Media reports describe the general frustration, confusion and disappointment among PiS politicians.

The liberal opposition and Western media are now praising Duda, amid hopes that his move will lead to the break-up of the government party. In last weeks protests, the opposition made the appeal to the president to exercise his veto a central issue.

Newsweek Polska, which belongs to German publisher Axel Springer, wrote triumphantly: For the first time the power of Kaczynski has been called into question. In several editorials, the newspaper explained how Dudas move could lead to a sharper division within the PiS government.

It argued that within the framework of the PiS, a competitive power camp had formed around the president. PiS politicians in parliament and in the party, for whom the authoritarian radicalism of Kaczynski and his assistants is unpalatable, can now give this courageous expression. There are such people in the government camp and perhaps their number will grow.

In another piece, Newsweek Polska asserted that PiS politicians feared President Andrzej Duda wants to found his own political movement with the support of people like Jarosaw Gowin and Mateusz Morawiecki and Kukiz 15. The veto against the reform of the Supreme Court and state court council could be the beginning of a bid for independence by the president.

Kukiz 15 is an extreme right-wing party that has supported most of the PiSs authoritarian measures over the past few years and is known to include fascist tendencies. Morawiecki, a former banker, is currently Finance Minister under the PiS. Gowin is notorious for his militant homophobia and has played a central role as Minister of Education and Science in shifting Polands cultural climate to the right.

The fact that the bourgeois opposition is now hoping to deepen a split in the government camp through pressure from the EU and Washington and to strengthen right-wing politicians like Duda, Morawiecki and the Kukiz15 party exposes once again the reactionary core of its politics.

The oppositions conflict with the PiS revolves, above all, around questions of foreign policy. The former not only rejects the orientation of the PiS toward an alliance with the US against Germany, but also fears losing political influence under an authoritarian PiS government.

For the last two years the opposition against the PiS has been dominated by the liberal opposition and largely confined to middle class layers in the big cities. The PiS has tried to appeal to social resentment in the working class and, in preparations for war and the establishment of a police-state, to neutralise it through certain social concessions, such as the introduction of a child allowance of 500 zloty per month (approximately 117 euros or US$ 137).

In a country where 43 percent of the population (about 16 million people) have less than 245 euro (1080 zloty) per month on which to live, this is a significant sum for many. On social issues, such as the introduction of the child allowance, the liberal opposition, which carried out extreme social cutbacks when in government, has repeatedly attacked the PiS from the right.

Despite these limited social concessions, the policies of the PiS are rejected by large portions of the Polish population. In a survey, 82 percent of 19-to-29-year-olds saw themselves as opponents of the government. In total, 52 percent of voters put themselves in this category. Meanwhile the two main bourgeois opposition parties, the Citizens Platform (PO) and Nowoczesna, could not command the support of a third of the electorate between them.

At the same time, Polish foreign policy is in a deep crisis. The emerging conflict between America and Germany, both key countries for Polands foreign and economic policy, presents the Polish ruling elite with a dilemma virtually impossible to resolve.

The liberal opposition rejects a break with Germany and the EU, and considers an orientation to the Trump government to be dangerous. Conservative newspapers such as Rzeszpospolita also believe that Poland cannot afford an exclusive orientation to Washington.

Under these conditions, Duda seems to have felt it too dangerous to push forward the extremely unpopular justice reform. The greatest fear of the entire Polish political establishment is intervention by the working class.
In a series of tweets Wednesday morning, President Donald Trump announced that transgender people will not be allowed to serve in any capacity in the U.S. Military. The announcement reverses moves initiated by then-Defense Secretary Ashton Carter in 2016 to allow transgender soldiers to serve openly.

The move to expel transgender soldiers from the military is anti-democratic and oriented toward stoking up the most backward and fascistic elements. Moreover, it has ominous implications for transgender people in other aspects of society, legitimizing discrimination in jobs, education and access to services.

In June, Defense Secretary James Mattis delayed by six months a decision on whether and how to accept new transgender recruits into the military. At the time, Mattis said that the delay in no way presupposes the outcome. Trumps announcement appears to preclude openly transgender people from joining at all, and puts the status of currently serving transgender soldiers in jeopardy.

Trumps tweets link the anti-democratic decision to military and bogus financial considerations: Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military [sic] would entail.

This statement contradicts the findings of a RAND Corporation study commissioned by the Department of Defense, which found that the costs of gender transition-related health care treatment are relatively low.

According to the study, there are an estimated 2,450 active-duty transgender soldiers, with another 1,510 in the reserves, a subset of whom would seek health care related to transitioning. The RAND Corporation predicted a health care increase of only $2.4-8.4 million annually, which would represent at most a 0.13-percent increase in active-component health care expenditures.

A Military Times report from 2015 notes that the Department of Defense spends some $84 million annually on drugs to treat erectile dysfunction, or 10 times the maximum expected annual expenditure on health care costs associated with transgender soldiers receiving gender transition-related medical care.

Trumps surprise announcement may reflect tensions within his administration. The Pentagon seemed blindsided by the move. Mattis is on vacation this week, and Pentagon officials are referring the press to the White House for comment. When asked during his confirmation hearing in January about LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Americans serving in the military, Mattis replied, Frankly, senator, Ive never cared much about two consenting adults and who they go to bed with.

During his presidential campaign, Trump invited prominent transgender woman Caitlyn Jenner to use the bathroom corresponding to her gender identity at Trump Tower and cynically used the Pulse nightclub shooting in Orlando, Florida to pose as a defender of gay rights against Islamic extremism. He tweeted shortly after the shooting: Thank you to the LGBT community! I will fight for you while Hillary [Clinton] brings in more people that will threaten your freedoms and beliefs.

After taking office, however, the Trump administration has stoked up the most backward sentiments, including by revoking an Obama administration guidance to allow transgender students to use the bathroom that corresponds to their gender identity. Breitbart News, the clearinghouse of the fascistic alt-right, has spearheaded the campaign against transgender ideology.

In addition to stoking up the most reactionary impulses in American society, including transphobia, Trumps tweets appear to be motivated by crass political considerations. Politico reports that House Republicans have been feuding over whether to ban the Pentagon from funding transition-related health costs for transgender military personnel. This internecine fight threatened to derail a spending bill containing many of Trumps campaign promises, including funding for the wall on the US-Mexico border.

Politico reports that House Republicans appealed to Mattis to intervene, and after he refused appealed to Trump. Trumps announcementnot allowing transgender soldiers in the military at allprecludes the military from paying for active-duty soldiers to receive health care related to transitioning. One senior House Republican aide told Politico, This is like someone told the White House to light a candle on the table and the [White House] set the whole table on fire.

LGBT rights activists condemned the decision as bigoted and anti-democratic, and vowed to challenge the decision in court. OutServe-Servicemembers Legal Defense Network, which opposed the Clinton administrations homophobic Dont Ask, Dont Tell policy, said it would tak[e] the fight to Donald Trump in the federal court.

The Democrats criticism of Trumps transphobic move is entirely hypocritical and aimed at stoking nationalism, while seeking to give the US military a progressive gloss. Representative Adam Smith of Washington, the ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, called the new policy an unwarranted and disgraceful attack on men and women who have been bravely serving their country.

In a November 2016 interview with the Council on Foreign Relations, Smith said that instead of focusing on Clintons potential mishandling of classified information via email, people should worry about whistleblowers Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning. Manning, a transgender woman, was at the time being psychologically tortured in a military prison and denied access to gender reassignment surgery for her bravery in exposing the crimes of US imperialism.

Defending the rights of transgender people and other minority groupsas well as other democratic rights such as freedom of speech and freedom from warrantless search and seizureis a class question. A genuine struggle against discrimination and in defense of democratic rights can only be conducted based on the independent political mobilization of the working class on a socialistand therefore anti-imperialistprogram.

The author also recommends:

The end of dont ask, dont tell in the US military

[20 December 2010]
Over the past several days, President Donald Trump has escalated his public attacks on Attorney General Jeff Sessions and other top Justice Department officials in what is widely seen as a prelude to an attempt to curtail or shut down the Russia probe of Special Counsel Robert Mueller.

The bizarre and unprecedented spectacle of a president publicly humiliating his hand-picked top law enforcement official is the latest expression of an intensifying political conflict within the ruling class and the state that is increasingly tearing apart Trumps own administration.

The presidents extraordinary actions are at once a defensive response to the offensive against his presidency being conducted by the intelligence agencies in league with the Democratic Party and major sections of the establishment media, and an attempt to assert quasi-dictatorial powers. They are increasingly sowing divisions within the Republican Party and assuming the dimensions of a full-blown constitutional crisis.

Trumps bashing of Sessions, Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe follows the sudden resignation last Friday of his press secretary Sean Spicer in protest against the appointment of Trump crony and fellow Wall Street speculator Anthony Scaramucci as director of White House communications.

Over the weekend, former intelligence chiefs John Brennan (CIA) and James Clapper (director of national intelligence) denounced Trump as a patsy of Russian President Vladimir Putin and openly questioned his loyalty to the United States at a national security forum in Aspen, Colorado.

And beginning with an interview last week with the New York Times, in which Trump denounced Sessions for recusing himself from the Justice Department investigation of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion by the Trump campaign, the president has attacked his attorney general virtually every day.

On Wednesday morning, Trump tweeted: Why didnt AG Sessions replace Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe, a [fired FBI Director James] Comey friend who was in charge of Clinton investigation but got big dollars ($700,000) for his wifes political run from Hillary Clinton and her representatives? Drain the Swamp! (Trump was referring to the fact that McCabes wife, Jill, ran unsuccessfully for a Virginia State Senate seat in 2015 and received campaign money from an organization headed by Terry McAuliffe, current governor of Virginia and a close associate of Bill and Hillary Clinton.)

At a press briefing later on Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders reiterated that Trump was disappointed in Sessions and acknowledged that the two have not spoken in recent days. She would not rule out Trump firing the attorney general. For his part, Sessions has let it be known that he does not intend to resign.

On Tuesday, at a joint White House press conference with Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, Trump said, in response to a reporters question: Im disappointed in the attorney general If he was going to recuse himself, he should have told me prior to taking office, and I would have, quite simply, picked somebody else.

He went on to say that he wanted Sessions to be much tougher on leaks in the intelligence agencies that are leaking like they never have before. Asked if he planned to fire Sessions, Trump replied, We will see what happens Time will tell.

Earlier in the day, Trump tweeted a complaint about Sessions failure to investigate charges that the Clinton campaign colluded with the rabidly anti-Russian Ukraine government to publish information linking then-Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort to the ousted pro-Russian government of Viktor Yanukovych. He also attacked the attorney general for not criminally investigating Clintons use of a private email server while she was secretary of state in the Obama administration.

Attorney General Jeff Sessions has taken a VERY weak position on Hillary Clinton crimes (where are E-mails & DNC server) & Intel leakers! he wrote.

These developments take place in the context of Special Counsel Muellers expansion of his Russia probe to include financial dealings by Trump and his family members, to which Trump has responded by accusing Mueller of exceeding his mandate and charging that he and his investigators have conflicts of interest.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer took to the floor of the Senate on Tuesday to warn of the political consequences of a removal of Sessions and firing of Mueller. Many Americans must be wondering, he said, if the president is trying to pry open the office of attorney general to appoint someone during the August recess who will fire special counsel Mueller and shut down the Russia investigation. Such an action, he warned, would provoke a constitutional crisis.

Trumps attacks on Sessions, a long-time senator from Alabama and extreme right-winger, have prompted protests from within the Republican Party. The Republican lawmakers who have spoken out in support of Sessions include Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell; senators Lindsey Graham, Richard Shelby and Orrin Hatch; House Deputy Majority Whip Tom Cole; and far-right members of the House such as Steve King of Iowa and the leader of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, Mark Meadows of North Carolina.

Both the nominally liberal Washington Post and the right-wing Republican Wall Street Journal ran editorials on Wednesday attacking Trump for his campaign against Sessions, singling out his revival of demands that his campaign rival Clinton be criminally prosecuted and his implied threat to fire Mueller.

Some far-right media outlets and pundits including Breitbart, Rush Limbaugh and Tucker Carlson have rebuked Trump for his attacks on Sessions, arguing that they threaten to undermine the attorney generals anti-immigrant vendetta and law-and-order campaign in support of police repression.

There are concerns in sections of the political establishment and ruling elite that Trump is proceeding too precipitously and nakedly in dispensing with traditional bourgeois democratic forms and moving toward a presidential dictatorship, under conditions of seething popular anger and alienation from the entire political system and growing anti-capitalist sentiment in the working class. There are also fears that the billionaire oligarch is subordinating the strategic interests of US imperialism to his own business interests.

But the attempt of Democratic politicians and the liberal media to present Sessions as some kind of bastion of the rule of law and basic American values, in the words of the Washington Post, only underscores the anti-democratic and reactionary character of their opposition to Trump.

Sessions is among the most bitter enemies of the democratic rights of the working class. Thirty years ago, the Senate Judiciary Committee rejected his nomination by President Ronald Reagan to a US district court judgeship because of his record as US attorney in Alabama in prosecuting civil rights lawyers and activists who sought to help African Americans register to vote.

He has placed himself at the forefront of the Trump administrations war against immigrants. Just this Tuesday, his Justice Department announced new measures to step up its attack on so-called sanctuary cities, i.e., cities and other jurisdictions that refuse to allow their police to function as auxiliaries in the Homeland Security Departments campaign of mass arrests and deportations of undocumented workers. Such localities will be denied key federal grants in the next fiscal year.

On the same day, the almost unanimous bipartisan vote (419-3) by the House of Representatives for a bill that places new sanctions on Russia, Iran and North Korea, and limits the Trump administrations ability to weaken or remove them, underscored the reactionary, warmongering foreign policy agenda at the heart of the CIA-Democratic Party campaign against Trump. This campaign is not about Trumps attacks on health care, immigrants or democratic rights. Nor is it really about the (totally unsubstantiated) allegations of Russian hacking and interference in the 2016 election.

Rather, it is about differences over US imperialist foreign policy. The anti-Trump faction of the ruling class is waging a no-holds-barred political battle to prevent any shift away from the aggressive and militaristic policy toward Russia initiated by the Obama administration. It sees Russia as an obstacle that must be removed, especially in the Middle East, where Moscow has frustrated Washingtons war for regime-change in Syria, and Eastern Europe, where it is contesting US domination of Ukraine and the Soviet-era Warsaw Pact nations.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - A woman who used a hammer to threaten both a man she had briefly lived with and "his baby mom" was arrested after she "wrecked his house."

Danielle Mitchell, 35, was videotaped by a bystander who knew the man and took the hammer away from Mitchell before the deputy arrived at the house, according to a probable cause affidavit filed by a Leon County sheriff's deputy.

When the male victim arrived home Thursday, Mitchell "walked up on his baby mom with a hammer," the document said.

Mitchell was waving her arms "in a hostile manner" and screaming at the victim and "his baby mom" when the deputy first saw her, the affidavit said.

The deputy said he arrested Mitchell after she disobeyed his order to come to his patrol car and continued walking toward the victim while screaming at him and waving her arms aggressively.

Mitchell had repeatedly resisted the deputy's attempt to handcuff her.

"Mitchell continued to try and get her arms in front of her to prevent from being handcuffed," the deputy said. He added that after he gained control of Mitchell's arms he handcuffed her and put her in the back of his patrol car.

Items found on Mitchell included a hypodermic needle, a clear liquid and a drinking straw containing a white powdery substance. She told the deputy the needle was for her dead cat, the affidavit said, and the straw was only a straw.

The victim told the deputy that Mitchell "wrecked his house and went through all of his vehicles." The affidavit said the victim and Mitchell had been living together "for about two months in an intimate relationship."

Mitchell was arrested for aggravated assault, resisting arrest without violence and possession of paraphernalia.

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Anyone who pays attention knows the sobering statistics on Yakima Countys health and welfar
First-time offenders will pay $136, and each ticket within five years after that will cost $234. Those totals, like other traffic fines, include fees for various programs, ranging from trauma care to vehicle-theft prevention.
The Temple Mount, we have been warned, is going to set the Muslim world on fire. There are already protests in different corners of the world. And here, in Israel, a Palestinian picked up a knife and went out to murder three Jews. If we had only acted a bit nicer, if we hadnt annoyed them, it wouldnt have happened.

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Dont you just love that self-deception, which repeats itself every time another wave of violence threatens to destroy them? Yes, to destroy them, not us. Because they regularly threaten us and hurt themselves. It didnt start today. Its tradition. Its history.

In the great Arab revolt of the 1930s, the Brits were the main target. The activities were directed against them. Some 200 Brits, 400 Jews and 5,000 Arabs were killed. It wasnt a religious revolt at first. But the mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, spread the rumor that British soldiers had desecrated mosques and that the Jews were about to take them over. It was a continuation of the Al-Aqsa libel, which the mufti himself had created in the 1920s.

Muslim worshippers clash with police outside Temple Mount. We are talking about a much deeper problem, a problem which the Arab world must solve with itself (Photo: AFP)

The interesting thing is that although the Brits responded with astounding brutality, with means Israel doesnt even dream of using, and just as well, the real brutality was between Muslims and Muslims. When the revolt began, the mufti was against violence. He favored the diplomatic channel. As time went by, the mufti increasingly radicalized.

At some point, most of Palestines Arabs gave up the revolt. The mufti and his supporters were furious. The result was that most Arabs who were murdered during the revolt were victims of a bloody war between the rival factions, and the mufti and his supporters were responsible for most acts of murder.

As the years went by, the format of an external enemy with self-killing exacerbated, and not just among the Palestinians. The Muslims are regularly furious with the West. In the past few decades, the forces of progress have been adding fuel to the fire. Thousands of academics, journalists and human rights activists are pointing an accusing finger at the West, at the United States, as the Great Satan, and at Israel, as the Little Satan. Everything the Islamists say the ultra-enlightened people say a bit better.

But the rage against the West, which is mostly based on lies and self-deception, is entering an improved format of an external enemy and self-killing, because in recent decades the Muslims have mainly been massacring themselves. The massacre exists wherever there are Islamists, and they always find excuses to invigorate the industry of deaththe title of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Bannas article.

From 2002 to late 2016, 202,697 people were murdered in acts of terror. Im not talking about the casualties of war in the Muslim world, where the death toll in that period almost reached one million. Im talking about the victims of terror, the absolute majority of whom are Muslim, in Muslim countries or in Muslim population centers. Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria top the list. Israel is almost at the bottom. So with all due respect to the sensitivity towards the Temple Mount, which does exist, its the Muslim worlds last problem.

Terror doesnt appear because it wants to improve something. It doesnt seek peace. And in our case, it doesnt seek two states for two people, it doesnt want an end to the occupation. Terror appears because of incitement and hatred and blood libels. It seeks destruction and ruin, and it will find any excuse to reappear.

When the Palestinians suffer because of the occupationthey have an excellent reason, and one can be confident that the representatives of the forces of progress will turn into terrorisms propaganda and justification arm. When things are good, despite the occupationand in the past two years there have been signs of prosperityit makes the jihadists blood boil even more and they rise up against the normalization. And, in the background, there are always the instigators and the agitators and the funders. The young man who went out to murder on Friday night believed that the Jews are desecrating one of Islams holiest symbols. He believed the campaign of lies, beginning with al-Jazeera and Hamas to Sheikh Raed Salah and the Palestinian media.

That doesnt mean that our decision makers did the right thing. But before pulling out knives, and before starting an argument between the Shin Bet and the police, and before pointing an accusing finger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we must remember that we are talking about a much deeper problem. A problem which the Arab world must solve with itself, because the Muslims are an absolute majority of the victims of Islamic terror. The Temple Mount, with all due respect, is not a jot of this problem.
Muslim worshipers began celebrating overnight Wednesday as Israeli security forces began dismantling all security apparatuses that were recently installed at the Temple Mount entrances following a terror attack at the site that claimed the lives of two police officers.

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Dozens of elated youngsters poured into the streets in eastern Jerusalem as Muslim residents of the area handed out candy to children and adults alike.

Camera facilities removed from Temple Mount

X

Israel not only acquiesced with demands by the Muslim worshipers and leaders of the Arab world to remove the metal detectors earlier this week, but it also removed scaffoldings designed for the installation of security cameras. The cameras themselves were taken down on Tuesday in line with a Security Cabinet decision.

Photo: AFP

Following the decision to remove the facilities, it was decided that the first early morning prayer service would still be held at the Lions Gate rather than at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Muslim leaders and Waqf leaders are set to attend a meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday morning where they will decide once again either to permit worshipers to begin praying inside the Al-Asqa mosque or call on protesters to continue the struggle.

Photo: AFP

Throughout the crisis, the Waqf and the PA have made defusing the tensions dependent upon Israels decision to reverse its decisions taken in the aftermath of the terror attack.

And despite Israels reversal, on Wednesday the Waqf announced that the worshipers would still refuse to enter Al-Aqsa even if the metal detectors were substituted for body checks at the entrance in accordance with a demand by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Photo: AFP

In the meantime, Mahmoud Abbas called Wednesday for yet another day of rage to be held Friday. Following the calls however, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that Israel needed to show restraint.

Guterres also consulted with all the main leaders involved, both Muslim and Jewish, and urged them to refrain from making inflammatory statements and engaging in provocative behavior.

"I am particularly concerned about the potential risk of escalating violence, urge all political, religious and community leaders to refrain from provocative action and rhetoric, and call on Israel to demonstrate restraint," Guterres said in a statement.
The BDS movement claims to work for freedom, justice and equality. In practice, it threatens individuals, calls for hatred of Israel, and in some places is even outlawed. Here are some more important things to know about the movement.

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What is BDS?

BDS obviously stands for "Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions." According to the movement's website, it works for freedom, justice and equality, and upholds the simple principle that the Palestinians are entitled to the same rights as the rest of humanity.

BDS in France (Photo: AP)

The goal of the movement is to put an end to international support for so-called Israeli oppression of the Palestinians and to force Israel to act in accordance with international laws. The movement also said that the Palestinians are fighting for freedom, justice and equality and need support.

It all began here

The movement marks the year 2005 as the date of its establishment, but in fact, it began with the first Durban Conference, which was originally called the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance. It was sponsored by the United Nations and took place from August 31st to September 8th, 2001, in Durban South Africa.

The conference was headed by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The conference, whose goal was to fight severe racism across the world, began in 1997 at the UN. In 2000, four regional conferences were held in Europe, America, Africa and Asia with the goal of establishing a plan of action to address and eradicate the phenomenon.

Each country addressed the issue of racism within their region. The problem however, is the Asia conference was held in Tehran with cooperation from other Muslim states and Israel was barred from attending. The document the conference produced included a number of elements, such as labeling Israel as an occupying state, accusing it of crimes against humanity and calling it a threat to world peace.

BDS founder Omar Barghouti meeting with Dr. Michael Higgins (Photo: BDS)

At the conference itself, non-governmental organizations took over the agenda leading to a palpable anti-Israeli mood to such an extent that the conference itself became a kind of Israel hate fest.

Numerous representatives, governments and NGOs threatened to boycott the conference and many recalled their representatives back to their home country.

In the end, after discussions and efforts by the Israeli delegation and other delegations, the conference refrained from making anti-Israel statements.

Peace and equality for all?

Although the BDS movement claims that it is seeking peace and equality, but its actions prove otherwise.

The movement's campaign calls for an economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel, and its activities include demonstrations, petitions and propaganda, such as the Israeli Apartheid Week held annually on many college campuses around the world.

BDS campaigns against Israel in London regularly spread false information

In the field of culture, there is a great deal of pressure on artists not to perform in Israel, to the point that some receive threats on their lives, are blackmailed and/or face harsh slander.

On numerous occasions, the personal details of Jewish students on various campuses abroad were frequently published and their lives put at risk.

Not really ready for a solution

A political solution has been discussed at length between Israelis and Palestinians. However, every entity that works with the Israelis is subject to the BDS rage, because the movement boycotts everything related to Israel, including efforts at solving the conflict.

Take for example an interview with Palestinian Ambassador to South Africa, Ali Halima.

BDS

X

Only boycotting institutions? Not really

The BDS movement claims that it is boycotting institutions, groups and organizations operating in Israel, but we have already shown that they are denigrating artists and publishing the names and personal details of Jewish students, thus endangering them.

Here is another case.

Shachar Rabinowitz, 13, wanted to do a school project on horses, a subject close to her heart. As such, she turned to Dr. Marsha Levine, a former Cambridge academic who is a specialist.

Rabinowitz mentioned that she was a student in Israel.

Needless to say, Dr. Levine's answer to Shachar did not have to do with horses.

"You might be a child, but if you are old enough to write to me, you are old enough to learn about Israeli history and how it has impacted on the lives of Palestinian people. Maybe your family has the same views as I do, but I doubt it, wrote Levine in response.

Outside the law

On October 27, 2015, the Court of Appeals in France ruled that calling for a boycott against Israel was "incitement, discrimination and hate crime" and therefore illegal.

The High Court of Appeals confirmed a lower court ruling that a group of French citizens who had promoted a boycott against Israel were guilty of incitement to hatred and discrimination. The group has been calling for a boycott against supermarkets in Mulhouse selling Israeli products.

BDS rally

The group called for the boycott of Israel and distributed leaflets claiming that "buying Israeli products means legitimizing crimes in Gaza."

A month later in Berkley, California the local welfare committee rejected a resolution to impose an economic boycott on Israel. The area has long been a bustling BDS arena. Supporters of the movement in the city are working to join the municipal committees and promote decisions against Israel.

Fighting the lies

In June 2017, a new campaign was launched called 4IL was launched to fight against BDS. As part of the campaign, the joint "Act-il" initiative was launched by the IDC Herzliya, IAC and Maccabees task force.

The application is a civic enterprise aimed at creating an online community of volunteers working for Israel on the Internet. Since then, there have been more than 800,000 hits on the main site and another 4.5 million people exposed to content on Facebook from all over the world.

Pro-Israel rally in Sweden

The goal is to create a positive and informative presentation about Israel for communities around the world and to showcase reality as it is in the face of de-legitimization carried out by organizations such as the BDS.

There is no competition or sponsorship here, the goal is to give a platform to all individuals, groups and organizations that are pro-Israel to unite and fight against those who condemn us.
Hamas described Thursday morning Israels decision to remove all recently-installed security facilities at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem as an historic victory over Israel, its army and its government, for the Palestinian people.

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Israeli security forces began dismantling all security apparatuses, including scaffoldings for security CCTV, that were recently installed at the entrances to the compound sacred to both Jews and Muslims following a terror attack earlier this month at the site that claimed the lives of two police officers

Head of Hamas Ismail Haniyeh and PA President Mahmoud Abbas

President Mahmoud Abbass Fatah movement also issued a similar statement praising what it described as a huge victory achieved by Palestinians in Jerusalem and the political ranks.

The huge victory at Al-Aqsa came thanks to the Palestinian heroes in Jerusalem and thanks to the political leadership headed by Mahmoud Abbas and the Fatah movement.

Muslim worshipers began celebrating overnight Wednesday as Israeli security forces began dismantling all security apparatuses that were recently installed at the Temple Mount entrances following a terror attack at the site that claimed the lives of two police officers.

Israel removes camera scaffoldings (Photo: AFP)

Muslim leaders and Waqf leaders are set to attend a meeting with Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas Thursday morning where they will decide once again either to permit worshipers to begin praying inside the Al-Asqa mosque or call on protesters to continue the struggle.

Throughout the crisis, the Waqf and the PA have made defusing the tensions dependent upon Israels decision to reverse its decisions taken in the aftermath of a terror attack earlier this month that claimed the lives of two police officers.
Some 10,000 residents of Umm al-Fahm took part in the funerals of the three terrorists who carried out the Temple Mount shooting attack earlier this month, with attendees greeting the bodies with shouts of joy and fireworks while praising the young men as "martyrs" and "heroes."

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On Wednesday, the High Court ruled that the bodies of Muhammad Ahmad Muhammad Jabarin, 29, Muhammad Hamed Abed al-Atif Jabarin, 19, and Muhammad Ahmad Mafdel Jabarin, 19, were to be returned to their families after they were shot dead while carrying out the attack that claimed the lives of two police officers.

Umm al-Fahm funerals

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Funerals of the terrorists in Umm al-Fahm

Relatives of the three young men received the bodies from police in the early hours of the morning.

One relative said, "We did not want to talk too much about what happened, and we did not know at all that they were planning to shoot policemen in Jerusalem. If we had known, we would have stopped them."

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However, another resident of Umm al-Fahm described the terrorists as martyrs. "Anyone who says they're terrorists supports the racist, occupying government," the resident said. "The government destroys our homes, harms the mosques and muezzin, supports 'price tag' attacks and refuses to destroy the homes of Jewish terrorists. You shouldn't be surprised; the government is the one hurting Arab citizens."
The Islamists who incited and ignited the metal detector crisis at the Temple Mount wanted an intifada. They havent given up their wish just yet. Thats the main reason the Waqf was preventing Muslim worshipers from returning to the Temple Mount until Thursday afternoon , although the Israeli government had already removed the metal detectors

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One of these famous Islamists is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan , wholike in the Marmara crisisis leading the anti-Israeli religious incitement. Hes doing it in his speeches, but also behind the scenes.

Muslim worshippers outside the Temple Mount (Photo: MCT)

Erdogan wants to be the leader of political Islam in the Middle Eastin other words, the leader of all the Muslim Brotherhood movements, which both Hamas and Sheikh Raed Salahs Islamic Movement in Israel are affiliated with. Preserving the conflict at the Temple Mount serves the Islamist-radical camp in the intra-Arab conflict between the moderate Sunni Arab states and Qatar, Turkey and the different Muslim Brotherhood movements. Hamas is one of these movements, and its supporterstogether with Raed Salahs peopleare trying to maintain and leverage the violent energy that has accumulated on the Jerusalem-Palestinian street and in the Muslim world in general. Their goal is to turn this energy into a long intifada, which will encompass not only Jerusalem but also the territories and Israels Arabs, and will echo and be imitated in the Muslim world in general.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas was also trying to leverage the negative energies and the rage that accumulated during the metal detector crisis. While the prevailing opinion is that Abbas is influenced by the masses in this crisis, there are many signs indicating that he is using the crisis for his own needs. He is trying to take advantage of the Islamist wave to advance what he refers to as a diplomatic intifada in the international arena. The goal of this intifada is to delegitimize the State of Israel, isolate it in the international arena and impose an agreement agreement which the Israeli government finds unacceptable through international pressure and sanctions.

Abbas isnt hiding it. Hes saying it openly and even shooting himself in the foot by reducing the security cooperation with Israel. He isnt cancelling it altogether because he knows that Hamas will bring him down if he doesnt have Israel to protect him, but he believes he can have it both ways.

These are the people who are interested in a continuation of the Temple Mount riots. Theyre hoping for more deaths and injuries in the clashes with the Israel Police and the IDF in the coming days, and for a local event which will inflame the Palestinian and Islamist street again.

Photo: AFP

Theyre also relying on the traditional tendency in the Arab and Muslim world to believe in mystic conspiracy theories. The facts at the Temple Mount at the moment are that the situation has returned to its original state before the murder of the Israeli police officers on July 14. The metal detectors have been removed, the cameras have been dismantled and the new smart cameras havent been installed and it will take a long time before they are installed.

Al-Jazeera, for example, which is inspired by the radical Islamist camp that Qatar is a member of, is promoting myths among the incited crowds in Jerusalem about hidden Israeli cameras allowing the Israeli security forces to see the naked body of the Muslim worshipper who innocently arrives to pray at the Temple Mount. The masses in Jerusalem and outside Jerusalem are enthusiastically buying into these theories, sticking to them and, most importantly, acting as if they were true.

All thisthe violent energy that has accumulated on the Palestinian street, Hamas and Erdogans aspiration to ignite an intifada and Abbas attempt to leverage the metal detectors crisis for diplomatic achievementsrequire the Israeli government to use force, many police officers, but to exercise maximum restraint. Erdogan, Salah and Ismail Haniyeh want deaths to inflame the intifada. We must not give them that. So we must ensure that there is a massive presence of police forces in any place where riots break out in the coming days, but there must be clear orders to avoid opening fire.

The forces on Jerusalems streets, and the roadblocks preventing the arrival of incited crowds from outside Jerusalem, should be reinforced as early as Thursday rather than on Friday morning. A massive reinforcement of the forces in Jerusalem is like throwing a blanket on a fire that has just started burning.

Another measure the Israeli government should take is to enlist the American administration and the European Union countries to pressure Erdogan, Abbas and Haniyeh. Erdogan is a NATO member, and NATO member states cant stand idly by while one of the alliances members incites against a democratic Western state in the Middle East.

Enlisting the Trump administration

Both Abbas and Haniyeh are receiving help and life thanks to the aid they get from the Americans and the Europeans. This aid is an influential leverage which could definitely restrain the Palestinian leaderships both in Ramallah and in Gaza. While Abbas is relaunching his diplomatic intifada because he is disappointed with the Trump administration, as he sees no progress in the efforts to advance peace negotiations according to his conditions, the Trump administration can still definitely make it clear to him that he must not bite the hand that feeds him.

Prime Minister Netanyahu with the Israeli security guard who returned from Jordan (Photo: Haim Zach, GPO)

As for the crisis with Jordan, the incident should be thoroughly investigated. Did the security guard have to shoot the Palestinian teen who attacked him with a screwdriver, or could the former Givati company commander have kicked and neutralized the youth? Not every incident requires shooting in order to kill. And in light of the international sensitivity, it would be advisable to look into the possibility of having Foreign Ministrys security guards undergo intensive Krav Maga courses that will prevent the need to shoot. The way the prime minister solved the crisis with Jordan proves that insufficient efforts had been made beforehand to enlist Jordan and Egypt to calm the situation down in the metal detectors affair.

Had US President Donald Trumps son-in-law, Jared Kushner, telephoned Jordans King Abdullah last Thursday, we may have been in a different situation right now. Religious crises have a tendency of escalating quickly, and as time goes by without any significant change, they become chronic and are very difficult to settle, as we are witnessing now.

Most importantly, we must not be afraid. Israel must protect its right and its duty to keep Jerusalem safe and to use force for that purpose. It must, however, avoid killing Palestinians. Experience shows its the one thing that leads to lone-wolf terror attacks and inflames the situation more than anything else.

Dialogue needed with religious leadership (Photo: AFP)

Equally important, the Israeli government and its security organizations must do everything in their power to neutralized the religious rage and the violent energies on the Muslim street:

First of all, they must avoid public statements, like the one Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu made, about individual security checks. While the statement was meant for the Israeli Rights ears, it echoes in the Muslim world and affirms the claim that the status quo has not been restored at the Temple Mount.

Second, they must avoid activities that could provoke the Muslim street and social media. They can, for example, wait a week or two before demolishing the home of the terrorist from the June 2016 shooting at Tel Avivs Sarona compound.

The Islamists should be allowed to blow off steam, but in a controlled manner which will be made clear to them in advance. A large force at the entrances to the east Jerusalem neighborhoods that are prone to violence will convey the messages to the incited Jerusalem residents as well.

Finally, there is a need for a continuous dialogue with the Waqf, and maybe even with Jerusalems mufti. Even it doesnt help, it wont hurt to try. The coordinator of the governments activities in the territories, Major-General Yoav Mordechai, can be tasked with that mission.


WASHINGTONWords have meaning, and so does the lack thereof. When an American president stands on the steps of the White House alongside the prime minister of Lebanon and cant find the words, ignorantly stuttering when he receives a simple question about Hezbollah, its not just a disgraceits an occasion that calls for scorn and pity.

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Because Donald Trump, it turns out, has no clue about Hezbollah. The man who announced with great fanfare that he is the only person who can bring a peace agreement to the Middle East has no idea whos fighting whom in the neighborhood.

On Tuesday, Trump told the nation that Lebanon was on the frontlines in the fight against the Islamic State, al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. Yes, Hezbollah. As usual, he didnt do his homework, and didnt know that Hezbollah is part of Lebanon and its politics. Its therefore no wonder that Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who was standing next to him, wiggled with discomfort.

Trump with Lebanese PM Saad Hariri. Lebanon is on the frontlines in the fight against Hezbollah (Photo: AP)

Trump added that within 24 hours, after consulting his military experts, he would make his position on sanctions against Hezbollah clear. And this is the man who promised Israel and the Palestinians the moon upon taking office. He would show everyone that he can bring, with his real estate skills, what former president Barack Obama wanted so much and failed to deliver: An end to the conflict.

When the White House was filled with chaos on the first days of his term, it seemed there was only one issue the president and his advisors were and focusing and working on in full force: Making peace between Israel and the Palestinians. And not only that, but as part of a regional agreement that would include Saudi Arabia and other Sunni states in the region. The drafts for the American initiative exchanged hands, and the aspiration was to advance the two-state solution, with clear borders and land swapsa variation of the Saudi initiative that turned into the Arab initiative, and the only solution on the ground, if the parties really want it.

And Trump really wanted it. His associates began fantasizing about hosting a conference, which would eventually lead to a Nobel Prize. The grandiose plan even managed to instill hope in the Palestinian side, which rushed to praise the new president. But high expectations lead to disappointment: The Trump-led White House started to considerably withdraw, and the passion for the issue was replaced with indifference.

Now, the US is just strengthening its relations with the parties, serving as a fire extinguishing forcefor example, by curbing the escalation around the Temple Mountrather than serving as an initiating force advancing an agreement. The special envoys, Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt, are mediating between Amman and Jerusalem to prevent an intifada. No one there expects more than that. Perhaps for the first time, or at least in a very long time, the White House issued no condemnation of a serious terror attack, like the one which took place in Halamish. It wasnt even on their agenda.

Trump and his heroes are tired, and they no longer see the Middle East as a promise but rather as a milestone. The president declared that there was only one person who could carry out such a deal: His son-in-law and senior advisor Jared Kushner. The son-in-law, however, is busy proving that he wasnt involved in a plot with Russia during the election campaign. Trump himself is busy insulting his attorney general, Jeff Sessions, trying to make him quit, and getting rid of special counsellor Robert Mueller, who is looking into his ties and his peoples ties with Russia. He isnt firing Sessions because his electoral base wants to see him in that position.

Trump is mostly concerned these days with the black Russian cloud hanging over Washington. As far as hes concerned, our region can wait. But in these troubled times, from the pools of blood and bursting rage on the mountain, the president could have actually created a different drama and launched a resonating American call to stop the violence and return to the negotiating table. Something like shock therapy, an American statement with a timetable and real teeth, like a world power should do at a time of crisis. It seems, however, that the Middle East has never been so far from the White House. Or maybe Trump thinks that things are not bad enough there to allow him to bring something good.
Jordanian media outlets reported Thursday morning that the kingdom will not allow Israeli Ambassador Einat Schlein and her staff to return to Amman until Jordanian authorities receive guarantees that the embassy guard who killed 2 Jordanians will stand trial.

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In an interview with Arabic-language Sky News, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi criticized Israel's welcoming of the embassy guard back to Israel, saying, "shameful and unacceptable way to behave diplomatically."

Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Al Safadi (Photo: Reuters)

The incident unfolded last Sunday when two Jordanian workers were installing furniture for the guard in his residence along with the guard's Jordanian landlord. At some point an argument broke out between 17-year-old Mohammed Jawawdeh and the guard.

According to the Jordanians, the argument was in connection with a delay in the work. At some point, Jawawdeh attacked the guard with a screwdriver, who in turn, drew his pistol and shot him. The landlord was struck by a stray round and later succumbed to his wounds.

Netanyahu meeting with Ambassador Schlein and the embassy guard (Photo: Haim Tzach/GPO)

Following a visit by Shin Bet director Nadav Argaman, the entire diplomatic staff returned to Israel via the Allenby Crossing.

The guard, known as 'Ziv,' was greeted by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shortly upon his return from Amman. During the meeting, Ziv said, "A weight has been lifted from my heart. Thank you from my heart. I am happy to be here. Einat and I felt that people were standing behind us and were making every effort, we felt this and I am glad that we are here."
Former Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon derided Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday for folding in his decision to remove the final remnants of recently-installed security facilities at the entrance of Temple Mount.

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Shortly after the Jerusalem Grand Mufti Mohammed Hussein and Muslim elders encouraged worshipers to return to pray at Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday after deeming that Israel acquiesced with all its demands , Yaalon unequivocally pointed the finger at his former boss.

The prime minister failed, not only with this but with other things. Its his responsibility, Yaalon said in an interview with Ynet.

Metal detectors were erected in the wake of a terror attack earlier this month involving three gunmen who killed two police officers , generating an enraged Arab and Muslim public, both in and outside Israel and sparking daily clashes with Israeli security forces.

Moshe Ya'alon (Photo: Ido Erez)

According to Yaalon, after the murders, an opportunity arose to remind Jordan of what we have demanded in the past. Also an improvement in the deployment of securityincluding metal detectors or other search methods.

Asked who bore ultimate responsibility for the crisis that ensued as a result of the beefed-up security measures, Yaalon placed the blame squarely at the prime ministers feet, insisting that he should have held serious discussions before making the decision to install the metal detectors in the first place.

To Yaalon, the entire episode concluded with a clear Israeli capitulation. You dont need to be a security expert to understand that.School children and kindergarten children recognize that.

While adding that Israel had not lost the tactical edge as a result of the latest decision to remove the security facilities, Yaalon said that the US had to be enlisted in order to put Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in his place who he said had exploited the situation for his own purposes.

He is running a campaign on the Temple Mount, which includes conferences in Istanbul titled Al-Aqsa in Danger, which includes provocations reminiscent of the Mavi Marmara. This can be called the Marmara 2.

Photo: AFP

He went on to highlight a phenomenon of Turkish tourism in Israel specifically and deliberately designed to agitate on the Temple Mount. Muslims from Turkey come here with Turkish flags and wreak havoc on the Temple Mount.

Turning back to the consequences of Netanyahus decisions throughout the crisis, Yaalon refused to say whether he thought he had harmed Israels security. I don't want to give headlines.

In stark contrast to Yaalons critical review of Netanyahus leadership performance, Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Yuval Steinitz (Likud) praised him for what he described as a courageous decision.

Yuval Steinitz (Photo: Reuters)

The prime minister and the cabinet made a brave decision that was not easy, Steinitz said in a separate interview with Ynet on Thursday. It was clear that it would be criticized, he said, adding that rather than this being an example of zigzagging or capitulation he saw brave leadership, which made a new assessment and understood the implications

He further insisted that no deterrence had been lost as a result, deriding Hamass comments that the removal constituted an historic victory against Israel, its army and the government.

Hamas always declares victories about almost every single thing that happened. We implemented a tactical-strategic withdrawal and I think it is appropriate to praise the prime minister and the cabinet, he added.
A ceasefire took effect on Thursday in a mountainous area of the Lebanese-Syrian border where Lebanon's Hezbollah says it is on the verge of defeating Nusra Front militants in their last foothold at the frontier.

The ceasefire began at 6 am (0300 GMT), halting fighting on all fronts in areas near the Lebanese frontier town of Arsal where Hezbollah launched its assault on Nusra Front jihadists on Friday, a military news service run by Hezbollah reported.

A source familiar with negotiations, brokered by a Lebanese internal security agency, said remaining Nusra Front fighters were willing to accept safe passage to Syria's rebel-held Idlib and talks were continuing to agree the route they would take.

The news service of Hezbollah, a Shi'ite Muslim group, said the ceasefire deal included the release of five of its fighters held by the Sunni Muslim Nusra Front in Syria.

The head of Lebanon's main security apparatus said the ceasefire deal would be "completed ... within days."

"The militants and those civilians who wish to will depart for Idlib in an organised fashion under the supervision of the Lebanese state," Major General Abbas Ibrahim said, quoted by Lebanon's National News Agency.

The Lebanese Red Cross will be involved in the logistics, he said.
Rival Palestinian lawmakers came together for the first time in a decade on Thursday in Gaza's parliament, the latest sign that an emerging Gaza power-sharing deal between the territory's Hamas rulers and a former Gaza strongman is moving forward.

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Mohammed Dahlan, a former Gaza security chief and Hamas rival, praised the new partnership, addressing the gathering by video conference from his exile in the United Arab Emirates.

Hamas' MP and head of parliament in Gaza Ahmad Bahar chairs Palestinian legislative Council meeting, as former senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan attends meeting via Skype call from United Arab Emirates (Photo: AFP)

"We have made mutual efforts with our brothers in Hamas to restore hope for Gaza's heroic people," Dahlan told the lawmakers.

The gathering included dozens of legislators from Hamas, several Dahlan backers from the Fatah movement of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and independents.

Fatah legislators loyal to Abbas stayed away from the meeting, underscoring the deepening rift in the movement. Dahlan fell out with Abbas in 2010.

Photo: AFP

The legislature has been idled since Hamas routed pro-Abbas forces, then under Dahlan's command, and took over Gaza in 2007.

Over the past decade, only Hamas lawmakers met in parliament to pass resolutions concerning Gaza.

The Western-backed Abbas, who administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, stayed away from Gaza.

Palestinian MP Majed Abu Shamala (R) at the meeting (Photo: AFP)

In an interview with The Associated Press over the weekend, Dahlan revealed that the power-sharing deal with Hamas aims at easing a crippling Israeli-Egyptian blockade on Gaza, help resolve acute power shortage and pay reparations for hundreds of families who lost members during Hamas-Fatah infighting.

In recent months, Abbas has taken severe measures against Gaza to squeeze Hamas and force it to cede control, slashing salaries of former Palestinian Authority public servants there, asking Israel to scale back electricity supplies and reducing other services

Palestinian Hamas MP Mahmud Zahar (R) at the meeting (Photo: AFP)

Hamas, short on options and allies, sought help from Dahlan.

Dahlan persuaded Egypt to deliver fuel shipments for Gaza's small power plant and rehabilitate Gaza's gate to the outside world, the Rafah crossing, which is to reopen by September.

Dahlan also secured funds from the ruling family in Abu Dhabi to pay compensation for families of those killed in Hamas-Fatah fighting.

Mohammed Dahlan (Photo: AP)

Khalil al-Hayeh, a senior Hamas official, said his movement supports the understandings because they will improve conditions in Gaza.

Osama Qawasmi, a Fatah spokesman and Abbas loyalist, said Thursday's meeting reflects "small, personal, temporary partisan interests and we feel pity for this level of Hamas' relations."
Jordan's king has paid a condolence visit to the family of a 16-year-old who was shot and killed by a security guard at Israel's Embassy in the kingdom earlier this week.

Authorities have said the guard was attacked by the teen with a screw driver during an argument over a furniture delivery. The guard opened fire, killing Mohammed Jawawdeh and a Jordanian man next to him.

Israel's embassy staff returned to Israel a day later. Israel's prime minister has praised the guard.

The incident has inflamed public opinion in Jordan where a peace treaty with Israel remains deeply unpopular.

King Abdullah II on Thursday visited the mourning tent of the Jawawdeh family.

Earlier, the monarch said Israel displayed "unacceptable and provocative behavior" in connection with the shooting.
Jordanian King Abdullah II issued a statement following what he described as Israel's "unacceptable and provocative behavior" in connection with the deadly shooting incident at the Israeli embassy in Jordan, last Monday.

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During Monday's incident, an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians after one of them, a 16-year-old, attacked him with a screwdriver The second Jordanian was a landlord, and it remains unclear what if any role he played in the attack.

Netanyahu (L) and Abdullah (Photo: AFP)

Israel's embassy staff, including the guard, left for Israel a day after the shooting. The incident has inflamed public opinion in Jordan where a 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains deeply unpopular.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the guard upon his return, saying he had acted "calmly." Netanyahu also took created a photo opportunity, as cameras snapped shots of him embracing the security guard pon his return to Israel.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told senior officials on Thursday that Netanyahu needs to take legal measures that "guarantee the trial of the murderer."

He said the incident "will have a direct impact on the nature of our relations."

Meanwhile, Jordanian Attorney General Akram Masa'a stated Thursday that the State Prosecutor's Office had completed its investigation into the incident at the Israeli Embassy, and that "the prosecution attributed a murderer called 'Ziv' (the Israeli security guard who shot and killed the two Jordaniansed) to the charge of killing more than one person and holding firearms without a permit."

The prosecutor added that an investigation found that the Israeli security guard receives diplomatic and legal immunity. However, "The immunity he enjoys in accordance with the Vienna Convention is only procedural immunity that does not exempt him from trials before international courts."

The prosecutor further stated that the State Attorney's Office had forwarded the investigation documents to the Israeli Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked, who was to contact the Foreign Ministry to send the documents to the relevant legal authorities in Israel: "This is to prosecute the murderer mentioned in Article 31 of the Vienna Convention," stated Masa'a.

The Jordanian incident comes following almost two weeks of rioting and protests in Israel and the Palestinian Authority, over Israel's decision to erect additional security measures at the Temple Mount site, considered to be holy to both Muslims and Jews. After Israel acquiesced and removed the security measures on Thursday, thousands of Muslims flocked to the site for the first organized prayers in almost two weeks.

King Abdullah visiting the bereaved family of the young man killed after attacking Israeli guard with screwdriver

Upon entering the Temple Mount, Palestinians mounted the roof of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, located at the compound, and waved their national flag in celebration.

Muslim officials had called for a boycott of prayers at the compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and Jews as the Temple Mount, because of the measures.

Rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah both called for mass protests Friday in east Jerusalem and the West Bank..

Israeli police remain on high alert around Jerusalem's Old City ahead of the first Muslim prayers at a contested holy site since controversial security measures were removed.

Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to praying at the site, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as the Temple Mount, after a week of protests over metal detectors and cameras put in place following a deadly attack on Israeli police officers.

Israel's police chief Roni Alsheikh told reporters that metal detectors and cameras were removed in compliance with a decision by the Israeli Cabinet, and that police have been given the necessary resources to protect all visitors and worshippers to the shrine.

Jordan has welcomed Israel's removal of security installations at a contested Jerusalem shrine, saying that as an occupying power "Israel has no right to impose" changes on the ground.

Netanyahu with the Israeli security guard upon his return (Photo: Haim Thazch/GPO)

Jordanian Government spokesman Mohammed Momani's statement Thursday came after Israel removed metal railings and scaffoldings. Jordan is the Muslim custodian of the shrinethe third holiest site of Islam and the most sacred on in Judaism.

Momani says dismantling the devices was needed to calm the situation.

Israel installed metal detectors, additional security cameras and other devices last week after Arab gunmen killed two police officers there in mid-July.

Muslims alleged the security measures were an attempt by Israel to expand control over the shrine, a claim Israel denies. The dispute sparked widespread Muslim protests.

A senior Islamic leader in Jerusalem is urging Muslims to skip prayers in neighborhood mosques on Friday and pray en masse at a major Jerusalem shrine at the center of weeks of tensions.

Abdel Azim Salhab, of the Waqf, Jordan's religious body that administers the site, said "we call on Imams to close all mosques in Jerusalem Friday in order for all worshippers to pray Friday prayer in al-Aqsa mosque only."

Friday prayers are the highlight of the Muslim religious week. Thousands of Muslims from around the country and Palestinian areas typically worship at the holy compound in Jerusalem's Old City.

Muslims have been praying in the streets outside the shrine to protest Israeli security measures outside entrances to the site that were put in place following a deadly Palestinian shooting assault there earlier this month.

The Waqf official spoke Thursday after Muslim officials told the faithful to return to pray inside the site, holy to both Muslims and Jews, after Israel removed the security devices.

A senior member of Benjamin Netanyahu's coalition government has criticized Israel's dismantling of security devices outside a major Jerusalem shrine.

Education Minister Naftali Bennett warned that Israel's capitulation could spell more violence.

He told Army Radio that "every time the state of Israel folds in a strategic way we get hit with an Intifada. You seemingly benefit in the short term but in the long term you harm deterrence."
The Arab League issued a statement at the end of the emergency meeting held in Cairo to discuss the situation in Jerusalem and the Temple Mount.

The statement said that the Israeli escalation would have dangerous implications for the future of peace and that it threatens the whole region and could lead to a religious confrontation.

The Arab League also warned in its announcement that if there is no fundamental solution to the crisis, the situation could explode at any given moment.
After returning to pray at the Temple Mount following two weeks of riots and violence, Muslim worshippers once again clashed with IDF security forces at the site on Thursday evening. "If things don't calm down, it could end in severe disaster," said protestors at the Temple Mount, as tensions continue to rise.

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During the riots that broke out inside the compound, many young people throw stones and bottles at the forces, who responded by means of dispersing disturbances, including stun grenades.

The riots in Jerusalem on Thursday (: ,  )

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An injured man is evacuated from Temple Man (Photo: AFP)





Worshippers fleeing clashes with police (Photo: Reuters)

Young Muslim protestors climb al-Aqsa in protest (Photo: Reuters)

The riots that broke out inside the Temple Mount compound included many young people throwing stones and bottles at the IDF forces, who responded by means of dispersing disturbances, including the use of stun grenades. According to the Red Crescent, at least 113 people have been injured so far. "The situation is very serious, it's war," some of the worshippers said, accusing the police of "dragging us into a war without cessation." Omar Qaswani, head of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, reiterated these sentiments, saying that "the Israeli security forces are oppressing the worshippers in order to appease the Israeli extreme right."





Photo: AFP

Photo: AFP

In the afternoon, crowds clashed with police forces inside the compound of the Temple Mount, after tens of thousands of people arrived to pray. Confrontations were also reported in the nearby Bab Huta negihborhood. The confrontations included young people climbed to the roof of the al-Aqsa Mosque and waved Palestinian flags. Hundreds gathered in the afternoon near the Lions' Gate, outside the Temple Mount, and celebrated the removal of the security measures and the renewed entrance to the holy compound. Many distributed sweets and bottles of drink while shouting cheers.





Photo: Reuters





Photo: Reuters

The police dismantled the cameras and fences at the entrances to the Temple Mount where the metal detectors stood, which were also dismantled earlier this week. The security camera stations were also dismantled after the cameras were removed on Tuesday following the Security Cabinet's decision.

Photo: Reuters





Photo: Reuters





Photo: AFP





Photo: AFP

As a result, the Mufti of Jerusalem, Muhammad Hussein, announced that Muslims could once again pray at the Temple Mount, and the Jordanian Waqf called on the masses to arrive at 16:00. "The situation has returned to what it was," said the Mufti. "We return to pray in Al-Aqsa."
Three days have passed since Abed al-Fatah Abu Halal, an Egged bus driver from Ar'ara, was stabbed in Petah Tikva by a Palestinian terrorist, and according to his family, no one from the government or the Knesset made any contact with him or came to visit him at the hospital.

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"No one spoke to us, not even once, maybe because he is an Arab," said Abu Halal's brother Thursday.

Abed al-Fatah Abu Halal (R) and his brother (Photo: Avi Hai)

Abu Halal, 32, who was moderately wounded and still hospitalized at Rabin Medical Center, away from his wife and two young children, recounted the day when the harrowing events transpired.

After stopping for his lunch break, Abu Halal decided to eat at the shawarma stand. "I usually only order the food as takeout and continue to work, but I saw that I had time and decided to sit down and eat like a human being," he said.

The shawarma stand where the he was stabbed is located near the Central Bus Station, a place frequented by Abu Halal many times.

The shawarma stand where the attack took place (Photo: Kobi Richter/TPS)

"I sat there and saw him (the terroristed) come in, but I did not expect anything," he said. "You do not look at people and wonder if they will stab you or not ... He sat behind me, ordering food.

"After about three minutes, he suddenly attacked me and I did not understand what was happening. It took me a few minutes to process what had happened."

The scene of the attack (Photo: AP)

Abu Halal was stabbed in the neck and shoulder from behind. He and the terrorist had no exchange of words before the attack.

"I sat and ate, my back was to him, and suddenly he just stabbed me. That's all. I never thought such a thing could happen," he added.

On the day of the attack, the police said that it was apparently a case of mistaken identity, since the terrorist wanted to murder a Jewish man.

Abu Halal's brother, Mahmoud, criticized the elected officials who he claims ignored his brother and did not visit him after he was stabbed.

Mahmoud Abu Halal (Photo: Avi Hai)

"I want him to receive support from public figures, I want him to be recognized," Mahmoud said. "No one, neither from the government nor from the Knesset, spoke to us, not even one conversation," the brother said angrily. "We did not get anything. We were just us alone. And my question is 'why do they not come'. Maybe because he is an Arab citizen?"

The brother asked, however, to thank the people who supported and encouraged them at these difficult times, especially the "Egged family for their support and encouragement."

"I would also like to thank Beilinson Hospital (Rabin Medical Center) for all their support and assistance from the moment they received my brother until now," Mahmoud added.
The Arab League said on Thursday Israel's removal of new security measures that sparked days of violence at Jerusalem's al-Aqsa mosque had solved the immediate crisis but urged it to learn lessons by desisting from any such steps in future.

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The dispute erupted after Israel installed metal detectors, cameras and steel barriers at Muslim entrances to the Aqsa compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary, following the July 14 killing of two Israeli policemen by Arab gunmen who had concealed weapons inside the walled plaza.

The Arab Foreign Ministers summit (Photo: EPA)

The unannounced move provoked days of unrest, with violent clashes on the streets of east Jerusalem. Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinian rioters , and a Palestinian man stabbed and killed three Israeli civilians in their home in the West Bank.

"Israel's withdrawal from its provocative and illegal actions solves the crisis they themselves created," Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit said at an emergency meeting of Arab foreign ministers on Thursday.

"Dealing with Islamic sanctities with such imprudence poses a real threat of igniting a religious war, because no Muslim in the world accepts tarnishing al-Aqsa or its closure in the face of the worshippers or placing it under Israeli control," Aboul Gheit said. The compound is Islam's third most sacred site.

"I call on the occupying state to read the lessons of this crisis and the message it carries," Aboul Gheit added.

Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit (Photo: AFP)

Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and are extremely sensitive to the presence of Israeli security forces in and around the Noble Sanctuary.

Israel's decision to withdraw the metal detectors and other security devices marked a significant climbdown by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's right-wing government. It followed days of diplomatic effort by the United Nations, the involvement of US President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and pressure from countries in the region including Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
As was promised by Israel to Jordan, the Israeli security guard Ziv, who shot and killed two Jordanians after being stabbed by one of them with a screwdriver, presented his version of the events on Thursday. According to Ziv, the attack was of nationalistic motivation. Investigators additionally began to review evidence from the scene, including photographs from security cameras that documented part of the incident.

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This affair led to great tension and the fortification of the diplomatic team with the security guards, at the end of which the security guard was returned to Israel and Israel removed the security measures it placed on the Temple Mount after the attack in which two policemen were murdered. The investigation is being conducted by a joint team of the Israel Police, the Shin Bet security service and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The investigation is personally supervised by Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit and State Prosecutor Shai Nitzan.

PM Netanyahu meets with Israeli ambassador to Jordan and the security guard (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

Contrary to the reports published in Jordan, Israel did not promise Jordan to prosecute the security guard, but the state is looking to investigate the affair in depth. Shin Bet Chief Nadav Argaman, who visited Jordan one day after the incident, has already begun an initial investigation of the incident, as well as the security department of the Foreign Ministry, which is responsible for securing the Israeli embassies abroad, and which also recruited the security guard Ziv.

A senior legal source said that since relations with Jordan are very tender at the moment, the Israeli investigation will be thorough and not cut any corners. At first, it was assumed that the Shin Bet will be heading the investigation, but in the end it was decided to hand it over to the police.

Netanyahu hugs the guard (Photo: Haim Zach/GPO)

Political sources who were privy to the initial investigation said that it appears the security guard behaved properly under the circumstances after the 17-year-old Jordanian stabber tried to stab him with a screwdriver. The security guard was stabbed three times, twice in the back and once in the chest.

Zakaria al-Jawawdeh

As for the Jordanian doctor, Bashar Al-Hamarna, who owned the apartment and was also killed in the incident, the findings of the initial investigation indicate that after the attacker crept up behind Ziv and began to stab him, he jumped back and fired his weapon. Ziv apparently tripped as he jumped back, which caused one bullet to hit the doctor, who was injured and later died of his wounds. The State of Israel apologized to the Jordanians for his death and undertook to pay the family financial compensation.

King Abdullah consoles the father of the stabber

Jordanian King Abdullah II issued a statement following what he described as Israel's "unacceptable and provocative behavior" in connection with the deadly shooting incident at the Israeli embassy in Jordan, last Monday.

During Monday's incident, an Israeli security guard shot and killed two Jordanians after one of them, 17-year-old Zakaria al-Jawawdeh, attacked him with a screwdriver The second Jordanian was a landlord, and it remains unclear what if any role he played in the attack.

Israel's embassy staff, including the guard, left for Israel a day after the shooting. The incident has inflamed public opinion in Jordan where a 1994 peace treaty with Israel remains deeply unpopular.

Mourners stepping on an Israeli flag on their way to the funeral

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised the guard upon his return, saying he had acted "calmly." Netanyahu also took created a photo opportunity, as cameras snapped shots of him embracing the security guard pon his return to Israel.

Jordan's King Abdullah II told senior officials on Thursday that Netanyahu needs to take legal measures that "guarantee the trial of the murderer."

He said the incident "will have a direct impact on the nature of our relations."
Jason Greenblatt, the envoy of US President Donald Trump to the Middle East, said that the United States "welcomes the efforts to calm the escalation in Jerusalem."

"We believe that peace and security will create the best opportunity to return to the peace talks," he added.
The City of Adelaide is future proofing itself and paving the groundwork to attracting future industries and investors by rolling out the Ten Gigabit City Network.

As part of its Smart City agenda, Adelaides Ten Gigabit City Network will provide an interconnected hub  a new global fibre network and cloud-based data centre  that will deliver lightning fast 10Gb/s internet speeds. The network will enable businesses, institutions, governments, researchers, and entrepreneurs to tap into the network, connecting them with others and exporting their services around the world.

Far from competing with the current NBN roll out and the state governments $4.7m Gig City Network, the Ten Gigabit City Network will complement these two networks, according to the City of Adelaide.

A network of this type is more than just providing ultra-fast internet, the City said. The network will enable users to connect to a growing, global interconnected optical fibre network, accessing data at phenomenal speeds and ultra-low latency, leading global business tools/services, applications, content and innovations. This is achieved through synchronous connections with global interconnects and cloud providers.

The Ten Gigabit City Network will prepare Adelaide for innovations like autonomous vehicle technology and sensory networks. In fact, some of the users of this network are in industries and jobs yet to be created, the City said.

The network will contribute to the future economic development of Adelaide, and would be instrumental to attracting skilled and talented migrants to the South Australian capital.

Sectors and businesses that can benefit from the technology include:

Health services

Large and small defence technology companies

Education services

Software development

Data storage centres

Entertainment (film, special effects, and gaming etc.)

A vibrant and cutting-edge Adelaide would also provide numerous opportunities for investors, not just in residential and commercial property, but also in infrastructure, commerce, and emerging technologies.

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Tampa: After 13 years of military service that included deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, Indiana National Guard reservist Cameron St. Andrew felt crushed on Wednesday by President Donald Trump`s decision to ban transgender soldiers.



The sergeant first class, who transitioned to living as a man while on active duty, said getting kicked out of the military two years before his planned retirement could mean losing many of his pension and healthcare benefits, and even harm his chances of being hired again.



"Why serve a country that doesn`t want me? It breaks my heart, to be honest," said St. Andrew, 37, of Indianapolis.



Despite the devastating effect Trump`s move could have on him, he said he was more concerned about younger soldiers who were earlier in their careers and transition.



"You pull that rug out from under them after they have this false sense of security, that could really throw them into a downward spiral," he said.



The Republican president`s announcement, made through a series of Twitter posts, upended years of efforts to eliminate barriers to military service on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity. Just last year, the Pentagon ended a prohibition keeping transgender people from serving openly.



Trump, who cited "tremendous medical costs and disruption" for the ban, did not specify how it would be implemented. It remained unclear whether the policy would apply to existing transgender service members or new transgender recruits.



The president`s action was condemned by rights groups and some lawmakers in both parties, who called it discrimination with purely political motives. The move was praised by conservative activists and some Republicans.



"I have a lot of service members that are scared that their careers are over with," said Navy Lieutenant Commander Blake Dremann, who leads a support organisation working with actively serving transgender military members. "Right now, they still have their jobs and we will continue to work to make sure that policy doesn`t change."



The Pentagon said only that it was working on developing guidance following Trump`s tweets.

`BREAKS YOUR SPIRIT DOWN`



St. Andrew said he did not know he was transgender when he enlisted, eager to serve his country after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. After an impoverished childhood in a small town in Michigan, he wanted to give back to the nation whose welfare system had kept him clothed and fed.



Several years into his military service, he began reflecting on his gender identity. He said he struggled with the anxiety that accompanied the fear of being outed and losing his job.



"They pound into you this thing of selfless service," he said. "So you do that for a few years, and then you come out socially or to a few close people and that gives you some relief, but you still have to hide what you are."



He said he received support from his commanders and peers through his transition and found that few accommodations were needed. He already was discreet in changing facilities and had trained for the male physical fitness requirements.



Still, anticipating changes like Trump`s ban coming, St. Andrew resigned from full-time service after the November election. He now wonders if his part-time reservist status is in jeopardy.





"I try to be tough about it," he said, but added: "It breaks your spirit down."



"Transgender people are serving today knowing that their leader frankly doesn`t trust them," said retired Colonel Sheri Swokowski, 67, of Windsor, Wisconsin, the highest-ranking openly transgender veteran. "The bottom line is that this does great harm to people who simply want to serve their country."



Sergeant Sam Hunt, an electrician serving in the Nevada Army National Guard, said people had long referred to him as a man. He thought he could serve openly as such after former Democratic President Barack Obama lifted the transgender ban.



Earlier this month, he learned that the Department of Defense had approved his transition to male from female.



"Until told otherwise, I will continue serving this nation and state, as I have since 2009," he said in a statement.
New Delhi: Land Rover launched the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic at Rs. 279 lakhs ex-showroom, India. It is created by Jaguar, Land Rover`s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) team and the design, the interior along with a powerful V8 engine claim to offer a more rewarding driving experience.

The Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic is the fourth vehicle to join the brand`s portfolio in India, after the Range Rover SVAutobiography, Range Rover Sport SVR and Jaguar F-TYPE SVR. The various features involve finest diamond quilted leathers within the cabin, The rotary shifter, unique graphite atlas accents, distinctive Red BremboTM branded brake calipers etc.

"We are excited to introduce the Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic in India. The Range Rover SVAutobiography Dynamic is designed and engineered by Jaguar Land Rover`s Special Vehicle Operations (SVO) team who are passionate in their commitment to explore new frontiers of luxury, performance and technology with the objective of delivering an unmatched experience to our discerning and equally passionate customers," said managing director of Jaguar Land Rover India Ltd (JLRIL) Rohit Suri.

Land Rover vehicles are available in India through 25 authorised outlets in Ahmedabad, Aurangabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Chennai, Coimbatore, Delhi, Gurgaon, Hyderabad, Indore, Jaipur, Kolkata, Kochi, Karnal, Lucknow, Ludhiana, Mangalore, Mumbai, Nagpur, Pune, Raipur and Noida.
Amaravati: Olympics badminton silver medallist P.V. Sindhu was on Thursday appointed a Deputy Collector by the Andhra Pradesh government.



Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu handed over the appointment letter to her at the state secretariat in the presence of her parents.



Speaking on the occasion, the shuttler said she was happy to receive the appointment letter. She, however, said badminton would remain her first priority.



Naidu hoped that she would score more victories and bring laurels to the country and the state.



The state government has asked Sindhu to join duty as deputy collector within 30 days.



In May, the state legislature had passed a Bill amending the State Public Services Act to appoint Sindhu as a Group-I officer in the government.



As any recruitment in public services has to be only through the State Public Service Commission, selection committee or employment exchange, the government had to amend the Andhra Pradesh (Regulation of Appointments to Public Services and Rationalisation of Staff Pattern and Pay Structure) Act, 1994.



Following her success in the Olympics last year, Naidu had announced a cash reward of Rs 3 crore, a residential plot in Amaravati and Group-I officer`s job.



As she was born in Hyderabad and had been living in the city, the Telangana government also presented a cash reward of Rs 5 crore and a residential plot.



Although Telangana had also offered her a job, Sindhu accepted the offer of Andhra Pradesh, the native state of her parents.
New Delhi: Senior Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav, who has remained tight-lipped on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's decision to snap ties with the mahagathbandhan and aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on Thursday met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.

Yadav's meeting with the Congress leader comes amid reports that the JD(U) leader was unhappy with Nitish Kumar breaking ties with the Rashtriya Janata Dal, Congress and forming the government in alliance with the BJP.

Interestingly, Sharad Yadav was missing at the swearing-in ceremony event, when Nitish Kumar was administered the oath of Office by the Bihar Governor.

Yadav also criticised the BJP-led Central government today morning, giving enough hint that he was unhappy with the JD(U)-BJP tie-up.

Fasal Bima Yojana is big failure as farmers are not aware about insurers but premium deducted from their loans,benefit goes to only insurers, he tweeted.

Amongst others Fasal Bima Yojana is another unsuccessful scheme of d Govt through which only private insurance companies being benefitted, his another tweet read.

Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, within hours of dumping the Grand Alliance.

This is the JD (U) president's second innings in the last two years. He snapped ties late on Wednesday with Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against RJD leader and Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav.
Ranchi: In a major blow to the RJD, the Enforcement Directorate on Thursday registered a money laundering case against its chief Lalu Yadav and his family members in a case of alleged corruption related to railway hotel allotment.

According to PTI, the case dates back to Congress-led UPA regime.

The case has been registered under sections of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).

The central probe agency has taken cognisance of a CBI FIR in this regard to initiate the move.

Earlier this month, the CBI had registered a criminal FIR and conducted multiple searches against the former Bihar chief minister and others.

The ED action comes on a day when Nitish Kumar took oath as Bihar Chief Minister, hours after he snapped with Lalu's RJD.

Venting his ire on the JD(U) chief for dumping the 'Grand Alliance', RJD chief Lalu Prasad alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had "conspired" with the BJP to get graft cases filed against his family by central investigation agencies.

"Nitish Kumar has cheated the people of Bihar. I charge that he (Nitish Kumar) colluded with BJP to file CBI cases against me and my family," Lalu Prasad told reporters after appearing before a CBI court here in a fodder scam case.

He said that Sushil Modi, who was sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister, was asked to run a campaign to damage the image of his family members.

The CBI, ED and the Income Tax department have filed cases of corruption against the family members of Lalu Prasad, including his wife Rabri Devi, his youngest son Tejashwi Yadav, who was Bihar Deputy Chief Minister until Wednesday, and daughter Misa Bharti.

Describing Nitish Kumar as 'Bhasmasur', Lalu Prasad said, "I made him the Chief Minister despite my party being the single biggest party in the state.

"I was not selfish," he said.

Lalu Prasad's remarks came soon after Nitish Kumar and Sushil Kumar Modi took oath as Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister of a JD-U-BJP government in Bihar.

"When I was facing allegations, Nitish Kumar never called me or showed any sympathy. Friends are known to be sympathetic during tough times, but Nitish Kumar never paid heed towards me," he claimed.

"Everything was fixed," Lalu Prasasd said, adding, "He is a very big opportunist. The mandate we got was against the BJP and the RSS. We jointly made them return empty handed from Bihar (during the 2015 Assembly election)."

He also claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP chief Amit Shah were "jealous" of him. "They knew that my base is unshakable. I never gave Nitish Kumar any problems," he added.
Patna: RJD supporters on Thursday took out protests and resorted to violence across Bihar after Nitish Kumar broke away from the Grand Alliance and joined hands with the BJP to form the government.

The supporters of Lalu Prasad Yadav also attacked Saran District Magistrate Harihar Prasad and Superintendent of Police Anusuya Ransingh Sahu.

The protestors attacked the DM and the SP when they came to clear the Jay Prakash Narayan over-bridge in the district.

They had burnt tyres which had resulted in a major traffic jam at around 10 am. It got cleared around 2 pm.

Deputy Inspector General of Police Ajit Kumar Rai confirmed incident and said an FIR had been registered in this connection, as per PTI.

The police chased away the protestors and restored traffic on the over-bridge, which connects Sonepur with Patna district, sub-divisional officer Sudhir Kumar said.

On the other hand, the DM was quoted as saying by The Times of India, "Three constables received injuries during the stone pelting when we had reached the spot to pacify the supporters to clear the blockade..."

Reports of road blockade and protest march by RJD supporters also poured in from Hajipur, Begusarai and Patna among others during the day.

In Lalu's native village Phulwaria in Gopalganj district also violence is said to have occurred. RJD supporters at Phulwaria reportedly brought down all banners of Nitish displaying several developmental projects and torched them.

As per media reports, the violence, which had started at 10 am, continued for almost two hours.

Protest also took place at Mania Chowk in the district.

The RJD supporters are reported to have blocked the Gandhi Setu for several hours near pillar number-1 under Ganga Bridge police station in Vaishali district.

Moreover, an overbridge in town area in Samastipur was blocked for several hours by RJD supporters.

TOI quoted Samastipur SP Naval Kishore Singh as saying that the district police was on alert given the changing political situation.

In Patna too, RJD workers staged demonstration against Nitish and burnt his effigy.

At the same time, they took out a protest march from RJD headquarters at Birchand Patel Path to Income Tax roundabout.

Nitish Kumar returns as Bihar CM for sixth time:

Meanwhile, backed by the BJP, Nitish today returned as the Bihar CM for the sixth time barely a day after his dramatic resignation that dented Opposition's unity which could have a bearing on the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

Kumar, 66, will seek a trust vote during a one-day special session of the Bihar Assembly convened at 11 am tomorrow after the Governor yesterday asked him to prove his majority on the floor of the House on July 28.

A little more than 12 hours after Kumar resigned to break ranks with his allies - Lalu Yadav's RJD party and the Congress - he was back in office after being sworn in by Bihar Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi at the Raj Bhawan.

Senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi was also sworn in, and would be the Deputy CM.

"Whatever decision we have taken will be in the interest of Bihar and of its people. It will ensure development and justice," Kumar told reporters after the swearing-in.

"This is a collective decision. I ensure that our commitment is towards the people of Bihar," he said.

Union Health Minister JP Nadda and BJP leader Anil Jain were present at the brief ceremony.

Immediately after the swearing in, the JD(U) announced that it will support the BJP-led NDA government in both the Houses of Parliament.

The swearing in capped breathtaking political developments in the state with Kumar quitting his post last night following a fall out with the RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Prasad and his family members.

Chief among them is Prasad's son, Tejashwi Yadav, who was the deputy CM in the outgoing government.

Yadav had refused to step down after the CBI filed corruption charges against him and had also ignored Kumar's advice to explain his conduct.

Kumar cited this as the reason to resign and ally with the BJP to become the chief minister for the sixth time.

The NDA alliance had submitted a list of 132 MLAs yesterday to the governor. These include 71 of JD(U), BJP 53, RLSP two, LJP two, HAM one and three independents.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, the RJD has 80 MLAs, the Congress 27 and the CPI-ML has three.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The Kerala unit of the Janata Dal (United) has decided to not be a part of the party in protest against Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar`s decision to split from the `Grand Alliance` and join hands with the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP).

The party`s state president and Rajya Sabha member M.P. Veerandra Kumar announced the decision at a news conference. He said that he expected Nitish Kumar to fight against racial tendencies in the country.

"I appeal to Sharad Yadav and all MPs of the JD-U to fight back for the minorities, Dalits, oppressed caste. Now our resolution has been thrown in the dustbin. I called upon Sharad Yadav to stand up and say I won`t accept it" he said after a meeting with Sharad Yadav.

He even lamented the Centre`s intervention in the issue. "Government interference is becoming shocking" he said.Kumar added that he will go back and call a party council to plan out the party`s future.

He said, "I will resign if I have to. But I will fight against these racist powers".This comes after Nitish Kumar was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Bihar with BJP leader Sushil Modi being sworn in as the Deputy Chief Minister.

He has formed an alliance with the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) to form the new government of Bihar.Earlier on Wednesday, Nitish Kumar resigned as the Chief Minister of Bihar and broke away from the Grand Alliance with RJD.
Patna: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav on Thursday launched a scathing attack on Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for snapping ties with the 'mahagathbandhan' and aligning with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

Addressing a press conference, visibly infuriated Lalu said, Nitish Kumar is greedy for power, he has betrayed the people of Bihar and India.

Coming down heavily on the Janata Dal (United) leader, the RJD chief said, Nitish joined hands with BJP to ensure that CBI, ED continue to raid RJD leaders in order to malign them.

Putting on a brave face, Lalu said his idea of a grand alliance to counter the resurgent BJP is still on.

So what if Nitish has gone to the BJP, we will bring in Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee together.

Further hitting out at his ex-alliance partner, the former Bihar chief minister said, what all happened on Wednesday, was pre-planned. On many occasions, Nitish Kumar met PM Narendra Modi. The timing of whatever happened was already fixed, Lalu said.

Continuing his tirade against Nitish Kumar, Lalu said, When the grand alliance won the 2015 Bihar Assembly elections, I told him (Nitish) to go and rule like Lord Shiva, but unfortunately he turned out to be 'Bhasmasur'. Bhasmasur is a mythological character known for trying to destroy his creator.

Also Read - LIVE: Nitish Kumar govt to seek trust vote on Friday

I was never greedy, even after RJD had a majority in the Assembly, I asked Nitish to become the chief minister, Lalu added.

Calling Nitish as an opportunist, the RJD chief said, The 2015 election mandate was against BJP; it was to throw out Modi-Shah out of Bihar, adding that people of Bihar are angry with JD(U)-BJP tie-up.

Nitish Kumar was on Wednesday sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar for the sixth time, a day after he resigned, dumped coalition partner Lalu Prasad's RJD and joined hands with the opposition BJP to reclaim his post in fast-paced manoeuvres that redrew the political landscape of the state.

In the 243-member Bihar Assembly, JD(U) has 71 MLAs and the BJP 53. The two parties together have 124 MLAs, marginally ahead of the half-way mark. Besides, they have the support of NDA allies LJP (02) and RLSP (02).

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

The offence was allegedly committed when Lalu was the railway minister in the UPA government. He was allegedly instrumental in handing over the maintenance of two hotels of Indian Railways-owned PSU ICRTC to two Patna businessmen in return for a prime plot of land in the Bihar capital where his family is now constructing a shopping mall.
Patna: Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday said that he will give a befitting reply to all the allegations made by Congress vice-president at the right time.

"Will give befitting answers to his allegations at the right time," Nitish told reporters after he was asked to comment on the charges made by Rahul and RJD chief Lalu Yadav.

Earlier today, Rahul, whose party was part of grand alliance in Bihar, slammed Nitish for deserting 'Mahagathbandhan' and joining hands with BJP.

"We were aware of what was going on from last three-four months. This is the problem with Indian politics. For the sake of power and personal gains, they compromise with anything," Gandhi said.

"Bihar had given an anti-communal mandate but Nitish Kumar has gone back to them (the BJP) for his personal political gains," added Gandhi.

Soon after taking oath for the sixth time as Chief Minister, Nitish said that development of Bihar and justice was his priority and asserted that his decision to join hands with the BJP was in the interest of the state.

"My commitment is for the people of Bihar and for the development of Bihar. The decision is in Bihar's interest and for its development. This is a collective decision. I will continue to serve the people of Bihar," Nitish said.

On Wednesday, after Nitish announced to move out of the Mahagathbandhan and reached the Raj Bhavan to hand over his resignation to the Governor, Lalu accused Nitish of betraying the people of the state and claimed that Kumar resigned as the CM not because of corruption allegations against Tejashwi Yadav but due to a murder case in which he is an accused.

"Nitish knew very well that he will not be able to save himself in the murder case that's why he played the resignation drama," Lalu alleged while addressing a press conference at his Patna residence yesterday.
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi on Thursday slammed Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar for snapping ties with the Grand Alliance and joining hands with the BJP.

Gandhi, whose party was part of the Grand Alliance in Bihar that was deserted by Kumar's JD(U) last evening, said that he was aware that it was being planned for the last three-four months.

"We were aware of what was going on from last three-four months. This is the problem with Indian politics. For the sake of power and personal gains, they compromise with anything," Gandhi told reporters outside Parliament.



"Bihar had given an anti-communal mandate but Nitish Kumar has gone back to them (the BJP) for his personal political gains," added Gandhi.

His remarks came soon after Nitish Kumar took oath as Chief Minister of Bihar for the sixth time.





He added there were no rules and credibility in the Indian politics.
Patna: Former Bihar deputy chief minister Tejashwi Yadav on Thursday hit out at Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and former ally Janata Dal (United), alleging they pursued a "vendetta politics" against him.

Expressing his anger on Twitter, the RJD leader and Lalu Prasad Yadav's son tweeted: "My performance perturbed our ally and BJP. Vendetta against me exposes their viciousness".

In another tweet Tejashwi wrote: "I entered in govt with a clean slate with a keen desire of writing a positive story for people of Bihar, only to find an opportunist rival.

"Past baggage, though unjustified, didn't perturb me when I was entrusted to carry the expectations of people's mandate, in the role of Dy CM".

Meanwhile, venting his ire on the JD(U) chief, Lalu alleged that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar had "conspired" with the BJP to get graft cases filed against his family by central investigation agencies.

Nitish Kumar on Thursday took oath as Bihar Chief Minister at the head of a JD-U-BJP government, within hours of dumping the Grand Alliance.

He snapped ties late on Wednesday with Grand Alliance partners Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Congress over corruption charges against Tejashwi Yadav.
Nitish Kumar, regarded as Bihar's 'Vikas Purush', is a master of political one-upmanship.

After nearly 20 months of ruling the state in alliance with RJD, Nitish Kumar finally decided to part ways with his partner, crushing the opposition's dream of forming a 'Grand Alliance' to counter 'Force Modi' in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The fast-paced dramatic developments on July 26 and 27, which saw Nitish tendering his resignation and becoming the Chief Minister of Bihar again in just a few hours, has given a big boost to the BJP which wants to continue its winning streak by clinching the maximum number of states for the big battle in 2019.

Nitish has not only dumped Lalu Prasad, the corruption-tainted RJD chief, but he has also dealt a severe body blow to Congress, which has been trying hard to stitch an alliance of like-minded secular parties to challenge an 'invincible' Narendra Modi.

From the CBI raids on Lalu's family, the Enforcement Directorate action against his daughter Misa Bharti and serious corruption allegations against his son Tejashwi - Nitish eventually snapping ties with RJD was a foregone conclusion.

The script to this effect was written much earlier, and actors like Nitish Kumar and Bihar BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who has waged a crusade to expose Lalu, were just playing their part with clinical precision.

Nitish's open praise for the Narendra Modi's government's go-ahead to the Indian Army to conduct surgical strikes along the LoC and his support to the demonetisation decision  a move which was severely criticised by RJD, Congress, SP, BSP, etc - had already reflected his 'change of heart' towards the BJP.

The veteran Janata Dal United leader further rubbed salt on the face of 'Magathbandhan' partners when he vowed to support NDA presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind against Opposition's joint candidate Meira Kumar.

Despite mounting criticism for not sacking Tejashwi as Bihar's Deputy CM, Nitish never spoke his mind since he knew that RJD will never concede to this demand, particularly at a time when Lalu is badly cornered and isolated.

While tendering his resignation as the chief minister, Nitish Kumar said that he had been trying his best to provide "good governance" but "the circumstances so developed that it was difficult for me to continue to be in power".

He knew that he could easily snap ties with Lalu in the event of RJD refusing to withdraw Tejashwi from the government, claiming that the 'corruption taint' on his alliance partner was maligning his reputation.

However, in the event of RJD sacking Tejashwi to save the Nitish government from further embarrassment, the situation would have been entirely different. Nitish Kumar, for his pro-development image, could well have been the Opposition's answer to the BJP in 2019.

Nitishs Janata Dal United, which was reduced to two MPs in the 2014 polls, had aligned with the RJD for 2015 Assembly polls and returned to power with a thumping majority, handing BJP its second crushing defeat under Modi's leadership.

JDU has 71 MLAs and BJP-led NDA 58, Nitish would still be largely comfortable in running the government.

For BJP, this is an incredible victory. With Bihar now coming in its fold, only a few big states like Punjab, Karnataka, Tripura, Kerala, West Bengal and Odisha remain outside its kitty.

The political realignment in Bihar also signals that corruption will now remain the major poll plank. Clearly, after Nitish's exit, the Mahagathbandhan is left with RJD and Congress in Bihar.

Though, Lalu has vowed to teach a lesson to Nitish by stitching an alliance with Congress, BSP and SP, it is a fact that BJP virtually has no opposition at the moment. Losing Bihar has further reduced Congress to a regional rump. The Modi-Amit Shah combine has already swung into action to 'nip in the bud' Opposition's plan to stitch a 'Grand Alliance' ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Amid murmurs of BSP chief Mayawati being propped up as the joint Opposition candidate from Phulpur constituency, the BJP is likely to ask its Phulpur MP Keshav Prasad Maurya to resign as Uttar Pradesh deputy CM and continue as MP.

BJP can take comfort from the fact that the Rahul-Akhilesh friendship in UP failed to put up a challenge to Narendra Modi. After wining UP, Bihar was a major worry for the party. With Nitish Kumar back with the National Democratic Alliance, the BJP's prospect of triumphing in the 2019 show has only gone up by several notches.
Mumbai: Actor Akshay Kumar said before coming to him, "Toilet: Ek Prem Katha" was offered to many other heroes, who rejected the movie.

Directed by Shree Narayan Singh and co-produced by Akshay and Neeraj Pandey, the film stars Akshay and Bhumi Pednekar.

"The writers brought the subject to me. Interestingly, this script was doing the rounds in the industry for over four years. It went to a lot of heroes, a lot of people but nobody picked it up," Akshay told reporters.

"I liked it and I asked Neeraj Pandey with folded hands to give it to me. Earlier, the film was named 'Sandaas: Ek Prem Katha' but later the title was changed."

The actor said the film is based on a true incident and is essentially a love story.

"This film is primarily a love story. The toilet construction just forms the backdrop. The film is about Keshav and Jaya. It is based on a true story."

When the film's trailer came out, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had praised it and called the movie a commendable effort to promote cleanliness.

When asked if he has any plans to hold a special screening for Modi, the actor said, "I would love to."

The film is scheduled to release on August 11.
Mumbai: Indo-British filmmaker Gurinder Chadha said showing the Partition story in her upcoming movie was a difficult task as she had to find the right balance.

"It is an emotional issue for a lot of people. I had to be very careful. But I did my research thoroughly and consulted a lot of people, met many historians and people who have studied this subject (of Partition)," she told PTI.

The filmmaker said she has made a 'personal film' from her perspective and understanding of the Partition.

"In the end, I took everything on board and made a very personal film from my perspective and from what I believe happened in those six months leading upto the Partition in 1947," she said.

The 'Bend It Like Beckham' director said 'Partition: 1947' is based on British documents discussed in Narendra Singh Sarila's book 'The Shadow of the Great Game', which was recommended to her by Prince Charles.

'I met Narendra ji and spent 18 months with him, discussing the subject. We had several meetings and I asked him a lot of things.'

As the film's story features key political personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Lord Mountbatten and others, Gurinder said she had to be very careful about showing them on celluloid.

"I had to be careful about how I would treat Jinnah, Nehru and Gandhi and also (Winston) Churchill. It was quite a big task."

The director said she wanted to look at the subject of Partition, which had an impact on so many lives, including her own family.

'I wanted to know why my grandmother, my uncle and aunt had to suffer. My mother, who grew up in Rawalpindi (now in Pakistan), says everyone lived very happily, everybody distributed sweets when it was Eid or Diwali and celebrated festivals together. There was respect for all. But overnight something happened and things changed.'

When asked if cinema can help mend the relationship between India and Pakistan, Gurinder said, "I think it is a much bigger issue. And I have made a small step in making the film. It is about how I feel about Partition...

'I think what we hear most of the time is the enmity but there are also many stories of people getting along well.'

The film stars Huma Qureshi, Hugh Bonneville, Gillian Anderson, Manish Dayal and is set to hit cinema houses on August 18.
New Delhi: After the Sukma massacre of 25 of its troopers in April, the paramilitary CRPF has weaved "much better coordination" with police forces across the country to take on the Maoists.



Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar, Director General of the Central Reserve Police Force, said in an interview that most anti-Maoist operations the force was now carrying out were joint campaigns with the state police.



"After the unfortunate Maoist attack in Sukma, we found certain factors which needed to be dealt with. We needed to have much better coordination with state police forces. We have been able to now work in very close conjunction with them," Bhatnagar told IANS.



"Today some of the DRG (District Reserve Group) and STF (Special Task Force) teams (of state police) are located in our camps... And most operations we conduct are joint operations, which are based on intelligence generated by central agencies, CRPF and state police."



This has helped the 3.5 lakh-strong CRPF to fight the Maoists better.



The CRPF was now better equipped vis-a-vis preparedness, briefings and actual follow-up when they go into thickly forested regions.



Over 300 armed Maoists attacked a 99-member CRPF unit providing security cover to road construction workers in Sukma district in Chhattisgarh`s Bastar region on April 24, killing 25 personnel and leaving six others injured.



The CRPF chief said new Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) had been laid regarding the movement of the troopers and their safety.



"All-round efforts have been made to make the jawan more secure in terms of his equipment, the briefing he gets, regular drills and practice he does, the official support he gets and the overall supervision. It is the duty of the officers to monitor each movement very closely and be able to bring our troops back (from the combat zone)."



He said the troopers were also trained in contingency drills.



Asked about new technology and better intelligence, Bhatnagar said: "This is an ongoing exercise. We are looking for better technology both in terms of better UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). We are also looking at ground surveillance.



"We are also looking at mobility issues... how we could have more protected and more rapid movements. We are also looking for advanced cameras so that we reach core areas of the Maoists at night. There are various aspects we are looking into."



Bhatnagar said the CRPF will soon deploy more men in the sprawling region of Bastar -- where Maoists have run a de facto state for decades -- to carry out more anti-Maoist operations.



He said the CRPF had killed 51 Maoists and nabbed 1,111 this year. Another 834 had surrendered. "A total of 562 arms have been recovered and 1,180 Improvised Explosive Devices seized."



The CRPF was recruiting a "Bastariya Battalion" of local tribals to help the force with their intimate knowledge of Bastar and language skills. "The battalion will be ready by the end of this year."



The CRPF has been deployed in 10 states to fight Maoists: Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Bihar, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.



Bhatnagar admitted that Maoism remained an area of concern but said there had been a significant improvement in the security scenario.



"The last two-and-a-half years have seen an unprecedented improvement... There has been an overall reduction in violence and increase in surrenders, arrests and neutralisation of Maoists. It is a reflection of the efficacy of our operations and capacity building measures adopted by the CRPF."
New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will be on the two-day visit to Chhattisgarh from tomorrow during which he will interact with various party leaders of the state.

He will also attend a workers' training programme in Jagdalpur in Bastar district on Saturday and address a public meeting - 'Jan Adhikar rally' at Nagarnar of Jagdalpur.

Chhattisgarh goes to polls in 2018 and the Congress is eyeing an opportunity there as the Raman Singh headed BJP government will complete 15 years in power and faces anti- incumbency.
Raipur: Six Naxals, including a section commander carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head, on Thursday surrendered in Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district, citing disappointment with the "hollow" Maoist ideology, police said.

The cadres, including a woman, turned themselves in before the senior police and administrative officials in Bijapur town, Superintendent of Police K L Dhruv told PTI.

Hapka Payku (25), one of the Naxals who surrendered, was active as the section commander of military platoon No.13 of the Maoists. He carrying a reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head, the SP said.

Besides, Madvi Sonu (27), an local organisation squad member, had a reward of Rs 1 lakh on his head, he said.

The other Naxals who surrendered were identified as Kadti Bheema (25), Raju Ram Modiyam (22), Podiyam Moti (27) and the woman rebel, Vekko Aytu (27).

While Bheema was a janmilitia commander, Aytu was operating as the head of the Janatana Sarkar group of Maoists in Bhairamgarh area, the SP said.

The police officer claimed that in their statements, all the ultras expressed disappointment over the hollow ideology of the outlawed Naxal movement and violence.

Moreover, they were impressed with the provisions of the state government's surrender and rehabilitation policy which compelled them to join the mainstream, he said.

The rebels who surrendered were given Rs 10,000 cash each as 'encouragement money', he added.
Mumbai: Country's third largest private sector lender Axis Bank on Thursday entered into an agreement to acquire payments wallet Freecharge for Rs 385 crore in an all-cash deal.

"The bank has today entered into a share purchase agreement with Jasper Infotech Private Limited ('Snapdeal'), to acquire 100 per cent equity capital of Accelyst Solutions and Freecharge Payment Technologies (Accelyst and FPTPL collectively referred to as 'Freecharge'), subject to receipt of requisite regulatory approvals, including from the RBI, for a cash consideration of Rs 385 crore," it said in a regulatory filing.

The bank's managing director and chief executive, Shikha Sharma, told reporters that the agreement was signed earlier in the day and the deal is important from a strategic perspective for the bank.

Axis Bank's chief financial officer Jairam Sridharan said the acquisition will double the customer base of the bank and leapfrog its digital journey by multiple years.

He said the bank expects regulatory clearances to the deal in two months. Following this, the bank could consider merging their wallet businesses.

Freecharge presently has a revenue of about Rs 80 crore, he added.

Snapdeal had bought Freecharge in April 2015 for an estimated USD 400 million or over Rs 2,500 crore at current rates. At that time, this was touted as the largest deal in the nascent start-up ecosystem in India.

Earlier, Freecharge was reported to be holding discussions with Paytm (One97 Communications).

However, the deal did not go through as the Alibaba-backed company was offering a much lesser price of about USD 15 million, one of sources said.

Acquiring Freecharge's business would give Axis Bank access to about 52 million mobile wallet holders of Freecharge as well as about 150 to 200 professionals.
New Delhi: In a fresh offensive against industry body COAI, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has slammed the association for airing views on call termination rates when two of its five members differed on the issue.

Jio said COAI had "no business to intervene" by writing to sector regulator Trai as two of the members, including Jio, had differed from the views of the "incumbent dominant operators" on the matter.

COAI, on its part, defended itself saying it strives to ensure facts are placed on record to inform the discourse and asserted that it captures "any minority or dissenting views", after following due process.

Jio levelling fresh allegations against the apex cellular body comes in the wake of the latter writing to Trai last week on the interconnect usage charge (IUC) issue.

Jio has now accused COAI of misleading the regulator by "twisting and giving different colours to the facts", and claimed that this was being done allegedly "at the behest of incumbent operators who are enjoying windfall gains due to continuation of high termination charges".

"COAI ought not to have espoused its views in any manner on the determination of interconnection usage charges since two of its five members, namely Aircel and Reliance Jio, have expressly differed from the views of the incumbent dominant operators (IDOs)," Jio said in a strongly-worded letter to the telecom regulator.

Jio- the most aggressive 4G operator- further alleged that "COAI had no business to intervene" when, in fact, the incumbent operators had already stated their views "individually and separately".

"COAI's letter deliberately misleads the authority to believe that their view is that of the telecom industry as a whole, while it is definitely not so, and it differs even among its own members," Jio said in a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

When contacted, Rajan Mathews, Director General of COAI, told PTI: "COAI captures any minority or dissenting views, whenever the case may be, after following due process. We continue to welcome all comments from our members to us and hope to continue to create value for all our members."

He said COAI's responsibilities included ensuring facts are placed on record to inform the discourse.

"It is the business of the day for COAI to share such germane facts, which are also a matter of public record," Mathews added.

Meanwhile, Jio has claimed that COAI was taking a series of action "to lobby for the IDOs to delay the consultation process for review of IUC charges and befuddle Trai in reaching a logical conclusion, so these operators continue to enjoy windfall subsidy through IUC at the cost of consumers and other and new operators".

Trai is reviewing call connect charges and the industry is sharply divided over whether the rates should be increased or lowered.

Telecom firms levy IUC on incoming calls from the network of the other operator and these termination charges are currently 14 paise per minute.

Any increase in termination charge would help incumbent operators as they tend to receive more incoming calls, especially from networks where voice calls are free.

The incumbents have argued that terminating incoming calls on their networks costs 30-35 paise per minute. Jio, on the other hand, has favoured levying no charge on incoming calls.

Last week, COAI alleged that operators citing Trai's 2011 affidavit in the Supreme Court to push for scrapping the termination charges are attempting to "distort facts", creating false impression among the public.

Jio, in its letter to Trai chairman on July 26, has dubbed COAI's letter as "malicious, ill-founded and unwarranted" and demanded that the association's conduct be questioned in the wake of the alleged "false and misleading statements".

"A plain reading of said letter reveals COAI's deliberate and wilful intent to subvert the IUC consultation process at the behest of the incumbent dominant operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea," Jio has alleged.

It also claimed that COAI's views on IUC are completely against the interest of consumers, anti-competitive and hinder adoption of new technology.

Jio has further claimed that repeated insistence of the association on traffic symmetry being a pre-condition to implementation of Bill and Keep (BAK) regime was completely "frivolous and misplaced".

Under the BAK regime, the operators only keep record of incoming calls on their network, but do not raise any demand from other operators.
New Delhi: A Delhi court on Thursday sentenced two rickshaw pullers to imprisonment for the remainder of their life for raping a woman in New Delhi on the pretext of taking her home.

Refusing to show leniency, the court said they committed the heinous crime on a hapless woman who had lost her way.

Additional Sessions Judge Ramesh Kumar held UP resident Ehsaan and Bihar resident Umesh Giri guilty and sentenced them to life imprisonment for remainder of their natural lives.

"Instead of helping her, Ehsaan induced her to accompany him to the place of incident on the pretext of dropping her at her destination where his associate Giri joined him and they both in furtherance of their common intention committed gang rape on her," the court said.

The court, which imposed a fine of Rs. 25,000 each on the two convicts, said the amount shall be paid to the victim.

It also took into consideration the brutality inflicted by the two men on the victim.

An FIR was registered in September last year on the allegation that the woman was raped by two rickshaw pullers at a bus stand near Mata Sundri College in Central Delhi.

The woman was living separately from her husband and two children. Following a quarrel with her brother, with whom she was residing in UP, the woman somehow managed to reach New Delhi railway station in the night.

At the station, the accused Ehsaan assured her he would drop her to her destination but took her to a deserted place where co-accused Giri joined him in raping the woman.

Another rickshaw puller, who witnessed the crime, caught hold of one of the accused and informed the police.

During the trial, the duo claimed they were falsely implicated by the eye witness as he wanted to extort money.

The court, while holding them guilty, relied on the depositions of the woman and the eye witness saying they were in full consonance with medical and scientific evidence brought on record by the prosecution.

Public prosecutor A T Ansari sought maximum punishment for the convicts saying the offence committed by them was not only diabolical, gruesome and brutal but also alarming.

He contended that the convicts took advantage of the woman's vulnerable condition and said a strong message needs to be conveyed to the society to prevent repetition of such offence.

The court also praised the prosecution for bringing overwhelming corroborative evidence in the form of deposition of eye witness, medical evidence in the form of injury sustained by the woman, and scientific evidence which established the guilt of the accused persons.
Ahmedabad: Three Congress MLAs in Gujarat, considered close to 'expelled' party leader Shankarsinh Vaghela, resigned from the party on Thursday to join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which quickly declared one of them its candidate for next month's Rajya Sabha polls against Congress veteran Ahmed Patel.

Congress Chief Whip in the Gujarat Assembly Balwantsinh Rajput and MLAs Tejashree Patel and PI Patel submitted their resignations today.

After resigning from the grand-old party, the three lawmakers arrived at BJP office in Gandhinagar where they joined the saffron party.

Gujarat Congress MLAs P I Patel,Balwantsinh Rajput and Tejashree Patel who had resigned earlier, arrive at BJP office in Gandhinagar pic.twitter.com/Uqn7ay8U3q  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

The resignation of Balwantsinh Rajput, the party's chief whip in the Assembly, Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel reduced the Congress's tally to 54 in the 182-seat assembly. Rajput, Tejashreeben Patel and Prahlad Patel resigned from the House and also all party posts. They later drove to the BJP office in Gandhinagar and joined the saffron party in the presence of its president Amit Shah.

Shah and Union minister Smriti Irani are the other two BJP candidates for the August 8 Rajya Sabha elections.

Of the total 11 Rajya Sabha members from the state, the term of three -- Irani and BJP's Dilipbhai Pandya and Ahmed is ending on August 18.

The Congress has re-nominated Ahmed Patel, political secretary to party president Sonia Gandhi. The 67-year-old Congressman filed his nomination papers yesterday.

Rajput represented Siddhapur seat in Patan district, while Tejashreeben Patel was elected from Viramgam in Ahmedabad district. Prahlad Patel was elected from Vijapur in Mehasana district. Earlier in the day, they submitted their resignation letters to Assembly Speaker Ramanlal Vora at Gandhinagar.

Within hours of Rajput's induction, the BJP, seeking to queer the pitch for Ahmed Patel, fielded Rajput as its third candidate from Gujarat, hoping to cut into the votes of the Congress nominee.

Rajput's son is the husband of Vaghela's granddaughter.



The latest setback for the Congress comes almost a week after Vaghela left the party and also resigned as the Leader of Opposition. However, he continues to be an MLA.

During his 77th birthday celebrations in Gandhinagar on July 21, Shankarsinh Vaghela announced that he was expelled from Congress. "Congress expelled me 24 hours back, fearing what I would say at the event," the former Gujarat Chief Minister said.

Interestingly, Vaghela heaped praise on Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, saying 'RSS people are good.

Vaghela is said to be unhappy with the Congress for not having been given a free hand for the party's campaign for the state Assembly Election 2017.

However, Congress rejected Vaghela's expulsion claims and said that "no action was ever taken against him'.

Party leader RS Surjewala said that his party had refused to grant Vaghela's wish to replace the current Gujarat Congress chief and hence he may have been upset.
New Delhi: All nine accused, including Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh and his wife have moved an application in a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court to seek more documents in connection with a disproportionate case.

The accused who appeared before the CBI court here on Thursday, said they are seeking documents to be filed along with the chargesheet.The CBI has agreed to provide the documents to them within a month. The next hearing will take place on August 30.

The CBI had filed a chargesheet against Singh, his wife and seven others for allegedly accumulating assets of over Rs. 10 crores disproportionate to their known sources of income in March this year.

A Delhi Court had on July 7 allowed the Enforcement Directorate more time to file a supplementary charge-sheet against Singh, his wife and other accused in the case.The court had adjourned the matter and extended the judicial custody of LIC agent Anand Chauhan till September 4.

The high court had earlier rejected a plea seeking quashing of proceedings registered by the Enforcement Directorate under Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA).
New Delhi: More than 130 officers have been given premature retirement in the past over two years, Union Minister Jitendra Singh said on Thursday.

In a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, he said service records of 11,828 Group 'A' and 19,714 Group 'B' officers have been reviewed so far.

With a view to identify officials who may not be fit to be retained in the government service, instructions have been issued to all cadre-controlling authorities to review their performance or service records at all levels, he said.

Provisions of premature retirement was invoked or recommended against 30 Group 'A' and 103 Group B' officers, the minister said.

Of these, action was taken against 77 officers during 2015-16, 44 in 2016-17 and against 12 officers during 2017-18 (till May), said the Minister of State for Personnel.

"The monitoring mechanism for reviewing the performance in conformity with the rule provisions has been strengthened and speeded up by activating review committees and representation committees for various levels and their work is now closely monitored," Singh said.

Under this continuous process of review and monitoring, those who are found to be performing well are separated from the non-performers, who are then sought to be compulsorily retired, he said.

In reply to another question, he said four IAS and three IPS officers were dismissed from service in the past three years.

An IPS officer of the Gujarat cadre was removed on the charges that he "remained absent from duties, ignored government orders, misused government vehicles, did not return government items, (indulged in) insubordination, made false entries in the movement diary and created false report, etc", according to the reply.

Besides them, penalty of removal from service on charges of prolonged unauthorised absence from duty was imposed against one Indian Forest Service officer of the Kerala cadre, it said, without revealing the name of the officer.

The penalty of dismissal from service against one IPS officer of the Jammu and Kashmir cadre was imposed as he was convicted under the Narcotics Drugs and Psychotropic Substance Act, 1985, the reply said.

Another IPS officer (the Tamil Nadu cadre) was dismissed from service on charges that he took private employment and suppressed this fact from the state government, it said.
Beijing: Amid the month-long military stand-off between India and China at Doklam, National Security Advisor on Thursday held talks with his Chinese Counterpart and State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the sidelines of the BRICS NSAs meeting here.

Yang met separately with senior security representatives from South Africa, Brazil and India, state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

There was no official statement on the Doval-Yang meet.

Doval's China visit assumes great significance as New Delhi and Beijing have been engaged in the standoff in the Dokalam area near the Bhutan tri-junction since June after a Chinese Army's construction party attempted to build a road. Doka La is the Indian name for the region which Bhutan recognises as Dokalam, while the 'Dragon' claims it as part of its Donglang region.

In the wake of an Army face-off and chill in ties with India over Dokalam stand-off, China has moved tens of thousands of tonnes of military vehicles and equipment into Tibet.

State-run China Central Television (CCTV) reported that the PLA conducted live-fire exercises in Southwest China's Tibet Autonomous Region.

China has told India repeatedly to withdraw troops from Doklam, which it calls as its own. New Delhi has said that troops from both sides should withdraw for a dialogue as Doklam belongs to its ally Bhutan.

Doklam, at the tri-junction of China, India, and Bhutan, holds strategic importance for all three.

Bhutan, a Himalayan nation that has no diplomatic ties with China, has also protested against the road construction by Chinese troops.

India has said Beijing's action to "unilaterally determine tri-junction points" violated a 2012 India-China pact which says the boundary would be decided by consulting all the concerned parties.
Beijing: China on Thursday raised "major problems" in ties with India as its top diplomat Yang Jiechi held talks with India's National Security Advisor Ajit Doval on the sidelines of a BRICS security meet.



The Chinese foreign ministry, in a brief readout on Doval-Yang meeting, said Yang "elaborated China's position on bilateral issues and major problems".

China's state-run Xinhua news agency also reported that Yang met separately with Doval and his other counterparts from South Africa and Brazil.

It said the talks between Doval and Yang included bilateral relations, international and regional issues and multilateral affairs.



It was not known whether Doval and China's State Councillor discussed the standoff between their armies in Doklam in Sikkim sector, as per IANS.



Doval, along with other heads of the delegations, will also call on Chinese President Xi Jinping tomorrow evening.

Doklam, located at the tri-junction of India, Bhutan and China, is of high strategic importance to all three.

The standoff began over a road being built by the Chinese Army in Doklam. Indian troops halted the work in mid June, leading to the crisis.

Meanwhile, the government told Rajya Sabha today that India's engagement with China was multi-faceted and issues having differences of perception by both sides are being handled with maturity.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said the two sides have agreed to continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and address outstanding issues.

Referring to talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Astana last month, he said both sides had agreed that Sino-India ties are a factor of stability at a time of global uncertainty, as per PTI.

Talking about Astana consensus, Singh said India and China must not allow differences to become disputes.

"In view of the significance of the bilateral relationship, the two sides have agreed ti continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and trust and to address outstanding issues in the spirit of showing mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests, concerns and aspirations," he said.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The corruption charges against BJP leaders in Kerala should not be seen as a state phenomenon and "it is only a matter of time before the skeletons come tumbling out of the cupboards of the Modi government", the CPI-M has said.

"It would be a mistake to consider the corruption scandals within the BJP in Kerala as a purely localised state phenomenon," said an editorial in the CPI-M journal People`s Democracy."

The allocations and permissions from central government departments require `middle-men` of the party at the Centre.

"Moreover, if the party men can go on the make (money), even when they are in the opposition (in Kerala), one can imagine the scale of bribery and corruption which is affecting the state governments and central government run by the BJP," the editorial said.

"It is only a matter of time before the skeletons come tumbling out of the cupboards of the Modi government."

The Communist Party of India-Marxist said that despite its minimal influence in Kerala, the state leaders of the BJP had utilized the opportunities presented by the BJP being the ruling party to take bribes to get work done under the purview of central institutions.

The bribery and corruption affecting the Bharatiya Janata Party erupted after the leakage of a report of an enquiry committee set up by the party regarding charges against one of its leaders, R.S. Vinod.

He was accused of taking a bribe of Rs 5.6 crore from the owner of a private medical college for getting recognition from the Medical Council of India. It was reported that the money was transferred to Delhi through a hawala transaction.

Another BJP leader in Kerala, M.T. Ramesh, was accused of taking a bribe of a similar amount from another medical college owner to get recognition. The BJP expelled Vinod from the party.

"This exposure came after the news that some BJP leaders in Thrissur had been arrested for printing of fake currency notes... A BJP leader of Malappuram was arrested on a complaint of taking a bribe of Rs 10 lakh for a bank appointment," it said.

"What all these events show is the depth of degeneration of the Hindutva party."
Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday congratulated Nitish Kumar on being sworn in as the chief minister of Bihar, saying a new era has dawned in the north Indian state.

Kumar unexpectedly resigned yesterday, but hours later joined hands with the BJP to reclaim the government in a stunning political manoeuvre that relegated his alliance partner RJD to the opposition.

"By resigning over the issue of corruption, Nitish Kumar gave a message that there won't be any compromise over the issue of corruption," Fadnavis told reporters outside the Vidhan Bhawan, where the monsoon session of the state Legislature is underway.

"Our party President Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded (to him) and as a result, an NDA government under Nitish Kumar's leadership was sworn in Bihar today," he said.

"While resigning, Nitish Kumar displayed his honesty," Fadnavis said.

"A new era has dawned in Bihar. I congratulate Nitish Kumar and Sushil Modi, the new deputy CM," he further said.

Kumar had quit the CM's post last night after a fallout with the alliance partner RJD over corruption charges against Lalu Yadav and some of his family members, including son Tejashwi, who was the deputy CM in the previous dispensation.

He was sworn-in as the chief minister of the state alongside senior BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi, who will be his deputy in the new government, at the Raj Bhawan in Patna on Thursday.
New Delhi: Today is the 86th birth anniversary of former President of India Dr APJ Abdul Kalam. A scientist, educationalist and visionary, Kalam donned several hats in his life. Fondly known as the 'missile man', he also played a crucial role in the 1998 Pokhran-II nuclear tests. Kalam passed away while delivering a lecture at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Shillong. Even in his final moments, Kalam was doing what he loved the most  teaching. Today, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu, in honour of the late scientist and 'People's President'.

As nation remembers Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on his 86th birth anniversary, here are 5 interesting facts about the beloved Indian President:

1. Kalam gave away his salary to charity

Dr Kalam donated his entire salaries and savings to a charitable trust  PURA (Providing Urban Amenities to Rural Areas)  he had founded.

His argument. After becoming the President of India, the government will take care of him till the end of his life. So why not use his salary for better things.

2. The story of his cobbler in Thiruvananthapuram

During an official Presidential visit to Thiruvananthapuram to Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Kalam took out time to meet his old cobbler, George. The two would often chat while the cobbler repaired his shoes.

3. Distributed newspapers after school

Young Kalam would distribute newspapers after his school hours, to add to his father's income and support his poor family.

4. A man of little things

Dr Kalam led a simple lifestyle. He never owned a television. His few personal possessions included books, veena, few clothes, CD player and laptop. At the time of his death, he left no will and all his possessions went to his older brother.

5. Rashtrapati Bhavan powered by solar energy

Dr Kalam tried to power the entire President's house by solar energy. Unfortunately, his proposal could not be implemented before his term ended.
New Delhi: India's engagement with China is multi-faceted and issues having differences of perception by both sides are being handled with maturity, government told Rajya Sabha on Thursday.

In a written reply, Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh said the two sides have agreed to continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and address outstanding issues.

Referring to talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the SCO Summit in Astana last month, he said both sides had agreed that Sino-India ties are a factor of stability at a time of global uncertainty.

Singh's comments came, a day after National Security Advisor Ajit Doval arrived in Beijing to attend a BRICS meeting of top security officials. Doval is expected to hold talks with Chinese State Councillor Yang Jiechi on the ongoing Sikkim standoff.

Talking about Astana consensus, Singh said India and China must not allow differences to become disputes.

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

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

"In view of the significance of the bilateral relationship, the two sides have agreed ti continue their engagement at various levels to enhance mutual understanding and trust and to address outstanding issues in the spirit of showing mutual respect and sensitivity to each other's interests, concerns and aspirations," he said.

The minister said government is committed to develop friendly and mutually beneficial relations with all its neighbours under the 'neighbourhood first' policy.

Singh was asked whether India's relations with China have gone bad during the last years and if so, whether government was reviewing its strategy towards ties with the neighbouring countries.

"India's engagement with China is multifaceted. In areas where we have commonality of views, engagement has expanded and upgraded in recent years. There are other areas where more progress can be made and cooperation expanded," he said.

To a separate question, he said the Kailash Manasarovar yatra via the Nathu La route has been deferred this year after the Chinese government cited unfavourable conditions to ensure the safe and smooth conduct of the yatra on the route.

"The government of India is engaged with the Chinese government on this matter," said Singh.
New Delhi: Rebutting charges that some schools were teaching Sanskrit but not the regional languages, HRD Minister Prakash Javedkar on Thursday said the government has not imposed any language on any student in the counrtry.

He was responding to K K Ragesh of CPI(M) in the Rajya Sabha who said some schools were not teaching the regional language, but Sanskrit.

Raising the issue during the Zero Hour, Ragesh said Sanskrit was being made compulsary in schools.

"Governemnt is trying to make Sanskrit compulsary up to Class X," the CPI(M) member said, demanding the HRD Minister's response.

To this, Javedkar replied that he has said several times that "we are not imposing any language on any student" and the schools follow the 3-Indian language formula. He also stressed that no language has been made compulsory.

Deputy Chairman P J Kurien said Sanskrit too is an Indian language.
New Delhi: There is no quid pro quo with China on the issue of "sufferings" of the Tibetan people and stapled visas being given to Arunachal Pradesh residents by Beijing, government said on Thursday.

There is no quid pro quo with China on the two issues, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told the Rajya Sabha replying to questions on the two issues.

Responding to supplementaries on the issue of stapled visa to Arunachal residents by China, she said "the issue has been raised in every bilateral meeting at various levels, be it at my level or that of the Prime Minister. The issue has been raised by us."

Asked about India's stand on Tibet, she said "we used to earlier talk of One China policy, but we used to say that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of India. And when we say that, we want that China should also recognise this. Our policy has been made very clear."

On the issue of whether India remained a mute spectator towards the alleged atrocities in Tibet, the Minister said "We are not sitting as a mute spectator. Whenever there are differences, we raise them."

She said the Dalai Lama wanted to visit Tawang and "we allowed him to do so". This is not the first time but the fifth or sixth time that he is visiting that place.

"Whatever issue that is there that goes against India's interest, we lodge our protest," Swaraj said.

To a question, she said there was no policy under which Chinese companies are denied security permission. She also objected to a member raising the issue of a particular Chinese company in the House.

She said that denial of security permission to one particular company cannot determine the relations between the two countries. She said it done under a process and if a Japanese or a Korean company applied, they get it first.

To another question on the cancellation of a visit of Indian journalists to Tibet by China, Minister of State for External Affairs M J Akbar said there is no official information from China about it.

He said Indian journalists are independent and take their decisions independently and it was between them and the Chinese authorities about the visit to Tibet.

"As far as the visit being cancelled, officially we don't have any information. It is between the journalists and the host country," he said.

Akbar said in 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi met President Xi Jinping in Astana, a close development partnership issue was raised and both countries decided to increase people-to-people and media contacts and decided to do everything to bring the two countries together.

"We will continue to make such efforts and take them forward," he said, adding that a high-level media forum has been established to further strengthen media exchanges. The last meeting of this media forum was held in Beijing in February 2015.

"Government has no details of such a visit because the government was not approached by the host agency or the journalists for assistance," he said in a written reply.
Washington: India and the US are "natural partners" on a range of political, economic and security issues and the two countries have a mutual desire for global stability, the Trump administration told the Congress on Thursday.

"We see a growing convergence with India on our strategic outlook for the region, and we view India as an increasingly important regional security partner within and beyond the Indo-Asia-Pacific region," US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said in a joint report to the US Congress as required under the National Defense Authorisation Act (NDAA)-2017.

In its brief report running into less than 10 pages, the top officials said the two countries maintained a broad-based strategic partnership, underpinned by shared democratic values and interests and strong people-to-people ties.

This is the first report of the Trump administration to the Congress on India-US defence and strategic relationship.

"The United States and India are natural partners on a range of political, economic, and security issues," the report said.

"With a mutual desire for global stability, the US and India have an increasing convergence of interests, including on maritime domain awareness, counter-piracy, counterterrorism, humanitarian assistance and coordinated response to natural disasters and transnational threats," the report said.

Noting that defence cooperation has emerged as an important pillar of the US-India partnership, the report said while America and India enjoy close defence cooperation across a range of areas, maritime security has become an important focus of their cooperation, consistent with the Joint Strategic Vision (JSV) and the defence framework.

"Both nations share a commitment to a rules-based international order, the free flow of global commerce, and the freedom of navigation. Moreover, both countries share concerns about maritime threats and a desire to respond to natural disasters and humanitarian crises," it said.

"As a result, the US and India established a Maritime Security Dialogue in 2016 to coordinate our maritime-related security and defence cooperation," the report said.

The Trump Administration said the Major Defence Partner designation reflected the US readiness to facilitate the export of goods and technologies for projects, programmes and joint ventures in support of official US-India defence cooperation.

"This designation aims to support the development of defence industries and their integration into the global supply chain and provide a way to approve and facilitate the transfer of advanced technology. In particular, two significant modifications have been made to the Export Administration Regulations (EAR)," it said.

First, the EAR establishes a presumption of approval for export licensing, which increases the efficiency and reliability of licensing decisions.

Second, the EAR includes an authorisation for India to be a Verified End User (VEU) for commercial and military exports, which negates the necessity of individually validated licenses for approved VEU applicants.

"These two modifications better enable India to cooperate with the United States on the manufacturing of large projects and enable instantaneous exports to provide a just-in-time supply chain," the report said.

In their joint report, the Defence Department and the State Department said that the US-India defence relationship has matured and strengthened significantly over the past 15 years.

"Our strategic partnership rests on our shared democratic values, security interests, and strong people-to-people ties. The myriad of defence cooperation activities and, unique to India, Defence

Technology and Trade Initiative and Major Defence Partner designation, attest to the importance both countries place on the defence relationship," it said.

"The momentum behind the relationship and converging security interests will result in a more secure Indo-Asia- Pacific region and beyond," the report said.
New Delhi / Patna: Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led central Cabinet may undergo a reshuffle in the coming weeks. Nitish Kumar's Janata Dal (United) or JD(U) could get one cabinet post and one Minister of State (MoS)  junior minister with an overseeing Cabinet Minister  portfolio, top sources in the party told Zee News.

Sources further said Sharad Pawar and Nitish Kumar could be included in the Cabinet.

Neither Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor JD(U) have confirmed the development.

Yesterday, Nitish Kumar dissolved the 20-month-old alliance between JD(U) and RJD, to form a new alliance with BJP. He swore-in as the chief minister of Bihar once again today morning, with the support of 132 MLAs.

Congratulating Nitish, Prime Minister Narendra tweeted:

ongratulations to @NitishKumar ji & @SushilModi ji. Looking forward to working together for Bihars progress & prosperity.  Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) July 27, 2017

Nitish's shocking resignation came after RJD chief Lalu Yadav said his son, Tejaswi Yadav, will not quit from the position of Deputy Chief Minister despite corruption charges levied against against the later.
New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs VK Singh is to travel to Badush near Mosul, the Ministry of External Affairs said on Thursday.

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has sought the Iraq government's help in tracing the 39 Indians, abducted in June 2014 in Mosul, as also help in facilitating the visit of her deputy to Badush.

She also expressed India's support for the people and the government of Iraq in their ongoing war against terrorism and their efforts to uphold their country's sovereignty and preserve its territorial integrity, ministry spokesperson Gopal Baglay said on Thursday.

Briefing reporters on first official India visit by Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari, Baglay said that the two ministers discussed matters of mutual interest pertaining to bilateral, regional and international affairs.

"Swaraj reiterated Indian government's request for tracing the 39 Indians who were abducted in Mosul in June 2014 and for Iraq's continued assistance in this regard. The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed her of the efforts being undertaken," the spokesperson said, as per PTI.

"The Iraqi Foreign Minister assured cooperation in all earnestness from the Iraqi side and informed the External Affairs Minister of the efforts being undertaken," the statement said.



The development comes as Sushma Swaraj told Parliament that she would not declare the 39 Indians as dead till she has concrete evidence to that effect.



"I repeat, I will not declare them (the missing Indians) dead until we have concrete evidence to that effect," she told Rajya Sabha.



The Minister said that she "never said in Parliament or outside that they are alive, as being claimed by some Congress MPs".



She said that according to the information that has been received, the group was caught at the Mosul airfield, and taken to a jail, after which they were put to construction work, and then farming, before being taken to Badush jail in 2016. But after that there has been no contact, as per IANS.



The Minister said that all the information was culled from different sources and there was no evidence to support any of the claims.



Following reports in the media that the Badush jail building had been demolished, the Minister was blamed for misleading the nation on the 39 Indians.

Singh had visited Iraq earlier this month after Iraqi forces aided by an international coalition liberated Mosul on July 9 after 266 days of fierce battles, ending three years of IS rule.



Singh first went to Erbil and then on July 12 visited the Kurdih Pershmerga frontline in Mosul area to seek information about the missing Indians.



(With Agency inputs)
Patna: Janata Dal (United) chief Nitish Kumar, who once again took oath of office as the Chief Minister of Bihar on Thursday, will undergo a floor test in the state assembly on Friday to prove majority in house.

In order to obtain the majority mark in 243-member Bihar assembly, the JD(U) -BJP alliance needs the support of 122 legislators.

In 2015 Bihar state elections, Lalu Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) emerged as the single-largest party with 80 seats. The JD(U) secured 71 seats, followed by the BJP which won 53 seats and the Congress with 27 seats.

In a special session tomorrow, the JD (U) and BJP alliance will prove their political mettle.

Going by the numbers, JD(U)  BJP alliance should have just the required number to form the government, which is 124. The NDA alliance letter submitted to Bihar governor Keshari Nath Tripathi has a list of 132 MLAs. According to reports, the alliance may have the support of three independent members, two Rashtriya Lok Samta Party, and Lok Janshakti Partyeach and one Hindustani Awam Morcha.

Over the last 24 hours, Bihar witnessed a heated political environment.

It first started with the resignation of Nitish Kumar as Bihar Chief Minister in protest against state Deputy and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) member Tejashwi Yadav's corruption charges. This was followed by Nitish pulling out of the nearly two-year-old grand alliance between JD(U) and RJD, and forming a new coalition between BJP and JD(U).

Earlier today, Nitish Kumar was back in office as the Chief Minister of Bihar, claiming support of 132 MLAs. BJP leader Sushil Kumar Modi also took oath as Bihar Deputy Chief Minister.

Keshari Nath Tripathi, the governor of Bihar, has asked Nitish Kumar to prove his majority on the floor of the House tomorrow.
New Delhi: India has no official information on Pakistan's position on providing visa to Kulbhushan Jadhav's mother, the external affairs ministry said on Thursday.

There has not been any reply from Pakistan either to the request handed over by the High Commissioner or the letter written by External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj to her Pakistani counterpart Sartaj Aziz for grant of visa to Jadhav's mother, Avantika, the ministry's spokesperson Gopal Baglay said.

"We have no official information on the change of status of the request made to grant the visa to Jadhav's mother," he said when asked if there was any formal communication from Pakistan on India's request for a visa for Avantika to meet her son.

India has moved the ICJ against Jadhav's death penalty by a Pakistan military court. The ICJ had on May 18 restrained Pakistan from executing the death sentence.

While Pakistan claims that its security forces arrested Jadhav from its restive Balochistan province on March 3, 2016 after he reportedly entered from Iran, India maintains that he was abducted from Iran where he had legitimate business interests.
Beijing: Amid a prolonged stand-off over Doklam in the Sikkim region, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval has arrived in China to attend the two-day BRICS meet beginning Thursday.

Doval arrived here yesterday to take part in the two-day Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa (BRICS) NSAs meeting.

However, with Chinese officials and their state media ratchetting up rhetoric against India, the chances of a meaningful dialogue between Doval and Chinese diplomat Yang Jiechi is highly unlikely.

Despite throwing indications that a bilateral meet could take place between Doval and Yang, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said, "We once again urge India to pull back its troops to the Indian side of the boundary. I want to stress again that this is the precondition for any meaningful talks between the two sides."

As per reports, Ajit Doval will call on Chinese President Xi Jinping on Friday. He will meet Xi along with fellow top security officials of the BRICS countries.

The BRICS meet comes at a time when the Chinese and Indian troops have been locked in a face-off in the tri-junction area for more than a month since Indian troops stopped the Chinese Army from building a road in the area.

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

As per PTI, the group of NSAs would call on the Chinese President for an interaction on security issues relating to BRICS countries.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: The Centre on Thursday told the Supreme Court since privacy was multifaceted, it could not be treated as a fundamental right.

Attorney General KK Venugopal resumed his arguments before a nine-judge bench headed by Chief Justice JS Khehar, stressing that it was not a fundamental right.

"There is no fundamental right to privacy and even if it is assumed as a fundamental right, it is multifaceted. Every facet can't be ipso facto considered a fundamental right," Venugopal told the bench, which also comprised Justices J Chelameswar, SA Bobde, RK Agrawal, Rohinton Fali Nariman, Abhay Manohar Sapre, DY Chandrachud, Sanjay Kishan Kaul and S Abdul Nazeer.

He said "informational privacy" could not be a right to privacy and it could not ever be a fundamental right.

The Attorney General had yesterday told the bench the right to privacy could be a fundamental right, but could not be "absolute".

The contentious issue of whether the right was a fundamental one was referred to a larger bench in 2015 after the Centre underlined two judgements delivered in 1950 and 1962 by the apex court that had held it was not a fundamental right.

The apex court had earlier observed the State could seek information such as details on the number of children a woman had, but at the same time could not force her to answer a question on how many abortions she'd had.

The court had asked the AG the difference between the right to privacy being considered a common law right and a fundamental right.

He had replied that the common law right could be enforced by filing a civil law suit and if it was considered a fundamental right, the court could enforce it like any other writ.

Senior advocate Kapil Sibal, while representing four non-BJP ruled states -- Karnataka, West Bengal, Punjab and Puducherry -- had yesterday argued that these states supported the contention that the right to privacy be held as fundamental in the age of technological advancements.

Giving the example of the Global Positioning System (GPS), Sibal had said the movement of person could be tracked and misused by the State as well as by non-State actors.

The apex court had on July 18 set up the Constitution bench after the matter was referred to a larger bench by a five-judge bench.

The petitions had claimed the collection and sharing of biometric information, as required under the Aadhaar scheme, was a breach of the "fundamental" right to privacy.

The Centre had on July 19 submitted in the apex court that the Right to Privacy could not fall in the bracket of fundamental rights as there were binding decisions of larger benches that it was a common law right evolved through judicial pronouncements.
Rameswaram: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday said that Rameswaram has a vital place in the Indian history and added that this "sacred" land has given India one of its most famous sons Dr. Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalam.

Addressing the gathering after inaugurating Dr. Abdul Kalam Memorial, Prime Minister Modi said it is a "great honor" for him to touch this sacred soil of Rameswaram, a center of deep spiritual knowledge."Rameswaram has a vital place in our history and it is also known as a place so closely associated with Dr Kalam. It is great honor for me to touch this sacred soil of Rameswaram, a center of deep spiritual knowledge. It is this sacred land that gave India one of its most famous sons Dr. A P J Abdul Kalam," Prime Minister Modi said.

Paying tribute to the People`s President, Prime Minister Modi said that Dr. Kalam always reflected the simplicity, depth and calmness of Rameswaram.

Giving a standing ovation to all those laborers who worked with immense dedication in building APJ Abdul Kalam memorial, Prime Minister Modi said, "the memorial for Dr. Kalam showcases his life and times in a remarkable manner." Dr. Kalam inspired the youth of India.

I can see that today`s youth wants to scale heights of progress and become job creator," he added."We have to bring a transformation in the ports and logistics sectors, which can contribute immensely to India`s growth," he said.

Remembering former Tamil Nadu chief minister J.Jayalalithaa, Prime Minister Modi described her as a leader and her soul will continue to shower blessings."Missing Amma here, can feel the void. Her soul will continue to shower blessings. If Amma was here today, in our midst, she would have been very happy and extended her good wishes. She is a leader we all remember," he added.

Talking about his "Swachh Bharat" flagship programme, Prime Minister Modi said, "I see a very healthy competition among states as far as the Swachh Bharat Mission is concerned."

The inauguration took place on the occasion of second death anniversary of the former president.

The prime minister also unveiled a statue of Dr. Kalam, offered floral tributes at his memorial and interacted with his family members. He then hoisted the national flag at the memorial designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO).

He also flagged off the `Kalam Sandesh Vahini`, an exhibition bus which would travel across the country before reaching Rashtrapati Bhavan on October 15, the birth anniversary of the former President.
Dehradun: The count of tigers in Uttarakhand has gone up to 242 with an increase of 63 big cats this year, Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat has said.

Also 11 cubs were found in the two tiger reserves, he had said on July 26 releasing the latest figures for the year 2016 -17.

Uttarakhand has two tiger reserves - the Corbett Tiger Reserve and the Rajaji Tiger Reserve.

Chief minister Rawat congratulated the forest department for the great work being done for the conservation of tigers and added that in terms of area and tiger population ratio, Uttarakhand is the number one state behind Karnataka which has 400 big cats.

According to the data, at least 208 tigers have been identified in Corbett Tiger Reserve, up from last year's 163. Also six cubs were identified there.

At least 34 tigers have been identified in Rajaji Tiger Reserve in 2016-17, up from previous year's 16, he said, adding five cubs were also found there.

Around 535 cameras were installed in Corbett Tiger Reserve, while 562 cameras were put at strategic locations in core areas of the Rajaji Tiger Reserve in collaboration with the Indian Wildlife Institute and World Nature Fund (WWF).
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court will on Thursday hear a plea by controversial Islamic scholar Zakir Naik challenging the Centre's decision to impose a ban on his organisation Islamic Research Foundation (IRF).

Naik's counsel had last week approached the Delhi High Court against the tribunal's order which had upheld the Centre's decision to ban it under Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal recused herself from hearing the matter and posted it for July 27 before another bench.

Saying there were sufficient reasons and cause to declare IRF an unlawful association, a special tribunal headed by Justice Sangita Dhingra Sehgal of Delhi High Court on May 11 had upheld the November 17, 2016 notification banning IRF for five years.

Filing an appeal against tribunal's order, the IRF sought setting aside of tribunal's May 11 order, arguing that actions done by individuals named in the FIRs - Naik and his aide Arshi Qureshi - cannot reflect on the organisation.

The ban will affect the charitable and education work being done by IRF, said the plea, adding that FIRs were based on speeches allegedly made by Naik years before the charges were raised.

On March 16, a single judge bench of the High Court had also dismissed IRF's plea against the Central government's decision to immediately ban the organisation, saying immediate action appears to have been taken in "interest of sovereignty, integrity and maintenance of public order".

On November 17, 2016, the Union Home Ministry imposed an immediate ban on the organisation under the Unlawful Activies (Prevention) Act.

The Central government had produced before the court the relevant documents, based on which the decision to ban IRF was made, and said the need for taking "urgent step" was felt in view of the apprehension that Indian youth could be "radicalised" or "motivated" to join terror groups like Islamic State by the alleged statements and speeches made by the organisation and its members, including its President, Naik.

The government had also said that as per notification, Naik was also accused of making statements which were "derogatory of other religions" and thus, "spreading communal disharmony".

With IANS inputs
New York: Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has become the worlds wealthiest man, surpassing Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates after his shares surged on Thursday.

The Forbes magazine said its real-time tracking of personal fortunes showed Bezos with a net worth of USD 90.5 billion, ahead of the USD 90 billion for Gates.

Bezos owns around 17 per cent of the equity of Amazon, which has been expanding from its original mission as an online retailer to a diversified tech firm in cloud computing, online video, computing hardware and artificial intelligence.

With PTI Inputs
New Delhi: Former Hizbul Mujahideen commander Zakir Musa, who is active in Kashmir, has been appointed as head of a newly created Al Qaeda cell, a report said on Thursday.

As per 'The Guardian' report, Musa will be heading the Qaeda's Kashmir wing 'Ansar Ghazwat-Ul-Hind'.

The announcement was made by the Global Islamic Media Front, a media wing of the global terror outfit and its allied jihadist groups across the world.

Though there have been speculations earlier that Qaeda was making inroads in Kashmir, this is the first official confirmation from the terror network about its presence in the state.

Musa was earlier heading the Hizbul Mujahideen. He, however, quit the militant outfit in May 2017 after the group refused to back his statement warning that Hurriyat leaders would be beheaded for calling the Kashmir issue 'political'.

Musa, a dreaded militant in Kashmir, has extensively used the social media to instigate the locals against the Indian security forces and called for establishing of an Islamic State in Jammu and Kashmir.

In an audio tape that was released in June, Musa said he was clear in his motives of "fighting to impose a Shariat in Kashmir and not resolving the Kashmir issue by calling it a political struggle".
Jammu: The Indian Army on Thursday foiled an infiltration bid by Pakistan-backed militants in the Gurez Sector of Jammu and Kashmir.

According to ANI, at least three militants have also been killed in the ensuing firing from the Indian side.

A massive search and combing operation has also been launched in the area.
Srinagar: In a latest development, National Investigation Agency on Thursday issued summons to at least 30 suspects, identified as close associates of Hurriyat leaders, stone pelters and instigators of violence in the Kashmir Valley.

Among the 30 suspects, two sons of top most Separatist of Jammu and Kashmir Syed Ali Shah Geelani were also served notices by the NIA in terror funding case.

Meanwhile, ANI quoted a senior NIA official saying that the agency will move a court to get permission to conduct polygraph test on the arrested Hurriyat leaders.

The NIA is also looking into the possible Dubai route in Hurriyat leaders receiving hawala money for Kashmir unrest, the official told ANI.

On July 25, the investigation agency arrested seven Hurriyat leaders on terror funding charges. The arrested Separatists were produced before the Delhi's Patiala House Court, a day later, after which they were sent to the 10-day custody of NIA.

NIA, while seeking 18-day custody of the Hurriyat leaders, told the court that the arrested Kashmiri separatists laundered money to create unrest in the Valley.

The arrested separatists included Naeem Khan, Bitta Karate, Altaf Funtus, Ayaz Akbar, T. Saifullah, Meraz Kalwal and Saheed Ul Islam. While six of them were arrested from Srinagar, Bitta Karate was arrested from New Delhi.

They have been charged under various sections of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act.

In May this year, the NIA visited Srinagar to probe the alleged funding by Pakistan for illegal activities in Kashmir and questioned several separatist leaders on the issue of raising, collecting and transferring funds via the Hawala route and other channels to fund terror activities in Kashmir.

NIA sleuths specifically questioned separatist leaders Farooq Ahmed Dar alias Bitta Karate and Gazi Javed Baba at that time.

The NIA is said to be probing all aspects of funding to separatist leaders and how they reportedly used these funds to fuel unrest in the Kashmir Valley.
New Delhi: The Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) on Tuesday said that incidents of stone pelting in the Kashmir Valley have come down to half in 2017, thanks to the "effective" action of security forces and probe against separatists and others.

As per CRPF DG RR Bhatnagar, while a total of 1,590 incidents of stone pelting were registered in 2016, this year the latest figures are 424, which is "half of what was last year".

Talking to reporters on the eve of the 78th Raising Day of the paramilitary, the CRPF DG said: Why or how has this happened? I would say it is a complex phenomenon...It is a mix of everything.

"It is a mix of what the NIA (National Investigating Agency) is doing, it is a mix of state police and security forces doing the kind of control and hence the efforts of the law breakers, stone pelters and violent mobs is effectively blocked and hence pelting has gone down," the DG said.

"Our assessment is that situation in the Kashmir Valley has improved," he said.

The CRPF was coordinating with the National Investigating Agency in its crackdown against separatists and their operatives, Bhatnagar added.

The CRPF DG said with the use of less lethal ammunition, the force which has deployed 60 battalions (about 60,000 personnel) in Jammu and Kashmir, has "effectively been able to control" mobs.

"We have not allowed violent mobs to interfere in the conduct of anti-militancy operations. There is a very close coordination between the Jammu and Kashmir Police, the CRPF and the Army," the DG said.

He added good intelligence was coming from the state police and other agencies.

The CRPF top boss said a number of steps were taken in the recent past like re-positioning of the troops, having a new strategy and standard operating procedures (SOPs), to achieve the results that are being seen now.

"With the use of less lethal weapons (like pellet guns and pump action guns) we are able to minimise injuries to our troops and also to the mob," he said.

"The number of our personnel injured has also come down to one-third of what was the picture last year. We have had good successes," the 1983-batch IPS officer of Uttar Pradesh cadre said.

Talking about terrorist incidents in the Valley, Bhatnagar said these also have "come down".

Answering a question on a recent incident where a vehicle carrying Amarnath yatris was ambushed by militants-- killing eight of them-- the DG said some changes in security drills have been effected till the remaining part of the yatra.

"This particular incident occurred because the party (the ill-fated vehicle) was travelling outside the parameters of the main security arrangements that have been made for the yatra," he said.

Then the question comes, the DG said, could the vehicle have been stopped and taken to a safer location? But there are many things involved here, he said.

"What we have done after that in collaboration with the J&K police is that we have set up more check points and efforts are being made to ensure the security is vigilant and night time 'bandobast' has also been increased," Bhatnagar said.

According to figures provided by the force, it killed 75 militants, apprehended 252 and recovered 118 arms this year in its operations in the Kashmir Valley.

The Central Reserve Police Force was raised on July 27, 1939, as Crown Representative's Police (CRP) and at present is the largest paramilitary of the world with about three lakh personnel in its strength.

(With PTI inputs)
Srinagar: NIA on Thursday issued summons to separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's elder son Nayeem, asking him to appear before it for questioning on Monday in connection with its probe in the terror funding case in the Kashmir Valley.

A surgeon by profession, Nayeem had returned from Pakistan in 2010 after spending 11 years there.

Officials privy to the developments said the summons has been issued to Nayeem to appear before the NIA on July 31 in connection with the case of terror funding in the Valley, PTI reported.

Meanwhile, Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah will be subjected to a seven-day custodial interrogation by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) with a Delhi court yesterda allowing investigators to examine him in a decade-old case of money laundering for alleged terror financing.

Additional Sessions Judge Sidharth Sharma sent Shah to ED custody after the agency submitted that he was not cooperating with the investigators.

The case assumes importance as investigating agencies have cracked down on the Hurriyat leaders and yesterday, a court had allowed the NIA to interrogate in its custody Syed Ali Shah Geelani's son-in-law - Altaf Ahmed Shah, popularly known as Altaf Fantoosh - and six other separatist leaders in a separate case of alleged terror funding in the valley to fuel unrest.

The agency told the court that a lot of money transactions were being probed in which Shah was not cooperating and despite multiple summons, he evaded the central probe agency.

Shabir Shah, however, denied the allegations and claimed that he was already being kept under house arrest.

The court had earlier issued a non-bailable warrant against Shah after the ED claimed that he was evading summons issued to him in pursuance of the August 2005 case in which the Delhi Police's Special Cell had arrested Mohammed Aslam Wani (35), an alleged hawala dealer.

Wani had claimed that he had given Rs 2.25 crore to Shah, following which the ED had registered a criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) against the duo.

Wani was arrested with a large cache of ammunition and Rs 63 lakh, allegedly received through 'hawala' channels from the Middle East, on August 26, 2005, the agency had said.

Shah's arrest came a day after Altaf and others - Ayaz Akbar, Peer Saifullah, Shahid-ul-Islam, Mehrajuddin Kalwal, Nayeem Khan and Farooq Ahmed Dar - were arrested by the NIA from the valley in a separate case of terror funding there.

The seven were later produced before a Delhi court yesterday which sent them to 10 days' NIA custody to examine their complicity in the case.

The NIA submitted that it had received information that Hafiz Saeed, head of Jamat-ul-Dawah, and separatists, including members of Hurriyat Conference, had been acting in connivance with banned outfits like Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Dukhtaran-e-Millat and others, to raise and receive funds from inside and abroad through illegal channels, including hawala.

The money was being raised to fund separatist and terrorist activities in restive Jammu and Kashmir, it said, adding that the accused were involved in creating unrest by way of anti-India demonstrations and bandhs, which were done on their and others' instructions and that the NIA had recovered account books, Rs 2 crore in cash and letterheads of banned terror groups, including of the LeT and the Hizb, during its raids.

(With Agency inputs)
Shopian: Two army personnel were injured after terrorists opened fire at an army party of 62 RR in the Shopian district of Jammu and Kashmir on Thursday.

The incident took place at Materbugh area after a joint party of Army and Jammu and Kashmir Police was returning from cordon and search operation.

Following the attack, a search operation was launched by the security personnel.

It is being reported that the terrorists managed to flee taking advantage of the darkness.

"An army patrol party was fired upon by militants at Mantribugh in Shopian. However, there was no casualty," the Army official said.

According to a report, two Army personnel received injuries in the attack. However, there has been no official confirmation on the same.

More details awaited.
New Delhi: BJP MP Meenakshi Lekhi on Thursday supported JNU Vice Chancellor's demand for placing an artillery tank on the university's campus to instill a sentiment of nationalism among students.

Lekhi even proposed that students should be made to take oath of nationalism in institutions like the Jawaharlal Nehru University.

Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Lekhi rued the fact that the Vice Chancellor's demand was turned into a controversy.

She said: "Yesterday was Kargil Divas, and we remember our martyrs on this day. In a university like JNU, where the Vice Chancellor asked for a tank to be put on display, that was made into a controversy by some people."

She said JNU students should take the following oath: "Whether we are alive or not, Mother, your glory shall live... the glory of Bharat Mata and our nationalism should always live."

She said there were old aircraft on display in the school where her children studied, and they loved playing around them.

"Even after growing up, they would go to see the aircraft on display at the Air Force bases... The sentiment of nationalism is gained only by understanding the nation," the MP said.

"These institutions are run on government money and if there are separatist sloganeering, or slogans like 'India will be broken' are raised, I think somewhere there is a problem with the administration and ideology."

"If someone tries to change that, which is the Vice Chancellor (in this case), it is converted into an issue of nationalism," she said.

Vice Chancellor M Jagadesh Kumar has proposed installing an old army tank for display on the varsity campus so that students can be reminded of the sacrifices and valour of soldiers.

Lekhi said students should remember the "culture and civilisation of this country" and the soldiers "who keep the borders safe for the universities to function".

"Disrespect of martyrs will not be tolerated by Parliament and government of this country... The symbol of nation's unity, harmony and power - our soldiers - whatever can be done in their honour should be done," she said.


New Delhi: The Maharashtra government on Thursday told Bombay High Court that Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt, who completed his term and was released in February 2016 can be sent back to jail if it's found that any rules were flouted in giving parole.

According to ANI, the state government maintained that if rules were flouted in giving parole or furlough to Sanjay Dutt then the government has no objection in sending him back to jail.

Maharashtra High Court has also asked Government to submit a fresh affidavit explaining the criteria of good behaviour applied to Sanjay Dutt, reports ANI.

The government in its previous affidavit had given a division of the duration he had served in jail, excluding the time for which he was on parole and at the end showing that he completed his five years of the term.

The total parole leave mentioned in the affidavit is four months and furlough leave is one month and 14 days.

The affidavit also mentioned that Dutt was not found guilty of all the other offences for which he was charged and, accordingly, acquitted for all the said offences.

A division bench of Justices R M Savant and Sadhana Jadhav noted that Dutt surrendered in May 2013 and in July he filed applications seeking to be released on furlough and parole.

"On July 8, 2013, he (Dutt) filed for furlough and then on July 25 he sought to be released on parole. Both the applications were allowed and that too concurrently," Justice Jadhav said.

"How did the jail authorities ascertain good behaviour and conduct within two months of the convict surrendering? Normally the superintendent of jail would not even forward the applications. The authorities would throw out the application," Justice Jadhav said.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbakoni told the court that Dutt was not given any preferential treatment, but if the court feels and comes to the conclusion that the state government has erred in granting him early remission, it can direct Dutt to go back to jail. "We do not want to set the clock back in time. We are not for a moment suggesting that he (Dutt) go back to jail. But we only want such issues to be streamlined so that in future no questions are raised," Justice Savant said.



"We only want to know on what basis and criteria he (Dutt) was granted early remission on good conduct? How is this good conduct and behaviour ascertained? Our conscience has to be satisfied that all this was done in accordance with law," the judge said. The high court said it has observed that in several cases furlough and parole are not given even when the mother or father of the convict is on death bed.

"Dutt got furlough first for his wife's illness, then parole on grounds of his daughter's illness. We have seen cases where the convict's mother is ill and on her death bed but still parole or furlough is not given," Justice Jadhav said.

The bench has directed the Maharashtra government to file a detailed affidavit within two weeks. The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by city resident Pradeep Bhalekar, questioning the regular paroles and furloughs granted to Dutt when he was serving his sentence. In his petition, Bhalekar alleged Dutt was given undue favour by the prisons department by granting him remission.

The state government had earlier this month submitted a report to the high court saying no special treatment was meted to the actor. The government had said Dutt was granted remission on account of his "good behaviour, discipline and participation in various institutional activities such as physical training, educational programmes and for performing the allotted work."

"The Maharashtra Prisons (Remission System) Rules provide for remission of up to three days per month for good behaviour, discipline and so on. In the present matter at hand, as per the rules, the accused (Dutt) is entitled to 256 days remission which comes to eight months and 16 days," the report said.

During the investigation and the marathon trial, Dutt spent 18 months in jail. On July 31, 2007, the TADA court in Mumbai sentenced him to six years rigorous imprisonment under the Arms Act and imposed a fine of Rs 25,000. In 2013, the Supreme Court upheld the ruling but reduced the sentence to five years following which he surrendered to serve the remainder of his sentence. During his imprisonment, he was granted parole of 90 days in December 2013 and again for 30 days later.

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Armed forces' officials serving in forward bases will continue to get their free ration without any change while those posted in peace stations will be provided the benefit in cash.

The clarification came amid widespread anguish among Army officials serving in peace stations against a recommendation by the seventh pay commission to scrap free rations to them.

A senior army official recently had even sent a legal notice to the defence secretary over the scrapping of free rations to those posted in peace stations.

The sources said the cash would be credited directly into the bank accounts of the officers and the decision will benefit nearly 43,000 officers.

The seventh pay commission in its recommendations on pay and allowances of the armed forces had said that the provision of free rations and the grant of ration money allowance to officers of defence forces posted in peace areas should be withdrawn.

However, the government while considering this recommendation took a different view, given the important role of the armed forces, the sources said.

"While those in forward stations, will continue to get their free ration without any change, officers posted in peace stations will be provided this benefit in cash.

There is no change in ration allowance for (JCOs) junior commissioned officers and PBORs (Personnel Below officer rank) numbering more than 9 lakh.

As far as an ongoing case in this regard in the tribunal is concerned, the government will give the rationale behind the decision, in the judicial process as and when a notice is received, said the sources.
New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Thursday expressed grief at the passing away of Mohinder Kaur, the mother of Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh, and recalled her contribution to the party and the country.

In her condolence letter to Amarinder, Gandhi described Kaur as a lady who lived her life with utmost grace and dignity, and a strong sense of service to the Congress party and the nation.

"In her years as a member of the Rajya Sabha and the Lok Sabha, she demonstrated unshakable patriotism, as well as her commitment to furthering education, and through that the values of good citizenship," Sonia said in her condolence letter, adding that the Rajmata was admired and respected across the political spectrum.

"Rajmata lived a long and fulfilled life, and your own career in public life must have been a source of great pride and joy to her," Gandhi said in her letter.
New Delhi: Three new crew members will be launched for the International Space Station (ISS) on Friday, July 28, 2017.

The trio - NASA astronaut Randy Bresnik, Sergey Ryazanskiy of Roscosmos and Paolo Nespoli of ESA (European Space Agency) will launch at 11:41 a.m. EDT (9:41 p.m. Baikonur time) from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, says NASA.

Live coverage of the launch will begin at 10:45 a.m. EDT on NASA Television and the agencys website.

After launching, the trio will travel for six hours in the Soyuz MS-05 spacecraft before docking to the space stations Rassvet module at 6 p.m. EDT - NASA TV coverage of the docking will begin at 5:15 p.m.

Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately 7:40 p.m.

Video of prelaunch activities from the crews activities in Baikonur will air July 24-27 on NASA TV.

Hatches between the Soyuz and station will open at approximately 7:40 p.m.

Expedition 52 Commander Fyodor Yurchikhin of Roscosmos and Flight Engineers Peggy Whitson and Jack Fischer of NASA will welcome the arriving crew of the Expedition 52/53 who will spend more than four months together aboard the orbital complex before returning to Earth in December.

The soon-to-be six crew members of Expedition 52 will continue work on hundreds of experiments in biology, biotechnology, physical science and Earth science aboard the space station.
New Delhi: There are a number of traditions and festivals in Hinduism that appear strange to people unfamiliar with the religion. However, these traditions have been carried out since centuries and are completely normal when looked upon from a Hindu's perspective. One such tradition is of worshipping 'Snakes' as they are believed to be the symbols of the 'Serpent Gods'. The tradition is carried out in the form of the Nag Panchami festival.

The Nag Panchami festival is a revered ritual celebrated on day five of the moonlit fortnight in the Hindu month of Shravana which falls around July/ August according to Gregorian calendar.

On this auspicious day, let's have a look at the origin of the Nag Panchami festival based on some popular beliefs.

Origin of the Festival

Even though the exact origin of the festival is not known precisely, evidence from the Indus Valey civilization of the 3000 B.C. supports the idea that the Snake- worship custom began with the 'Naga' clan which was a highly developed tribe, residing in India.

About the Nag Panchami Festival Celebrations

On the day of Nag Panchami, women worship the Nag Devta (Serpent God) by offering milk to the snakes. It is believed that the milk that you offer to the snakes would ultimately reach the serpent god and he would bless you with health and happiness.
Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugurate APJ Abdul Kalam's memorial at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu on Thursday, the second death anniversary of the former President.

Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and NDA's Vice Presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu will be among those present on the occasion.

Kalam died of cardiac arrest in Shillong on this day two years ago. He was laid to rest at Pei Karumbu in Rameswaram, around 560 km from here.

The PM will hoist the national flag at the memorial designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Pei Karumbu.

He will unveil a statue of Kalam and offer floral tributes besides interacting with his family members.

After inaugurating the memorial built at an outlay of around Rs 15 crore, Modi will also flag off the 'Kalam 2020 Science Vehicle'.

The Science Vehicle will travel to several states showcasing Kalam's achievements in the field of science and would reach Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 15, which happens to be the birth anniversary of the former president.

Modi will then proceed to Mandapam for a public meeting.

He will distribute sanction letters to the beneficiaries of long liner trawlers under 'Blue Revolution' scheme and also flag off a new express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram (via video conference).

The PM will also release a synopsis of the 'Green Rameswaram' project.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of the 9.5 km link road on NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai.

The day-long visit will conclude with an address at a public meeting.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at the coastal temple town of Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district ahead of Modi's visit.

(With Agency inputs)
Chennai: Shortly after his arrival in Madurai, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inaugurated the APJ Abdul Kalam Memorial at Rameswaram in Tamil Nadu.

PM Modi also unveiled a statue of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and paid tribute to him at the memorial in Rameswaram.

Tamil Nadu: Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurates Dr APJ Abdul Kalam memorial at Pei Karumbu in Rameswaram. pic.twitter.com/RBQLshyeFR  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

The Prime Minister also met with the family members of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam during the event in Rameswaram.

Tamil Nadu: PM Modi unveiled a statue of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and paid tribute to him at the memorial in Rameswaram pic.twitter.com/Lm6Hw8cWCX  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Today is the second death anniversary of the former president who died of cardiac arrest in Shillong on July 27, 2015.

Tamil Nadu: PM Narendra Modi met family members of Dr APJ Abdul Kalam in Rameswaram pic.twitter.com/fvCpp1hIok  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

Kalam was laid to rest at Pei Karumbu in Rameswaram.

Upon his arrival at the airport, PM Modi was welcomed by Governor C Vidyasagar Rao and Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami.

PM @narendramodi being received by the Governor C. Vidyasagar Rao & CM Edappadi K. Palaniswami of Tamil Nadu on his arrival at Madurai. pic.twitter.com/qIXixOEPav  PIB India (@PIB_India) July 27, 2017

Tamil Nadu Governor C Vidyasagar Rao, Chief Minister K Palaniswami, Union Minister Pon Radhakrishnan and NDA's Vice Presidential candidate M Venkaiah Naidu were among those present on the occasion.

The PM hoisted the national flag at the memorial designed and built by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) in Pei Karumbu.

After inaugurating the memorial built at an outlay of around Rs 15 crore, Modi also flagged off the 'Kalam 2020 Science Vehicle'.

The Science Vehicle will travel to several states showcasing Kalam's achievements in the field of science and would reach Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on October 15, which happens to be the birth anniversary of the former president.

Modi then proceeded to Mandapam for a public meeting.

He distributed sanction letters to the beneficiaries of long liner trawlers under 'Blue Revolution' scheme and also flagged off a new express train from Ayodhya to Rameswaram (via video conference).

Tamil Nadu: PM Narendra Modi flagged off a new express train from Rameswaram to Ayodhya pic.twitter.com/jVNSAa2JLv  ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2017

The PM will also release a synopsis of the 'Green Rameswaram' project.

He will unveil a plaque to mark the dedication to the nation of the 9.5 km link road on NH 87, which runs between Mukundarayar Chathiram and Arichalmunai.

The day-long visit will conclude with an address at a public meeting.

Meanwhile, security has been beefed up at the coastal temple town of Rameswaram in Ramanathapuram district ahead of Modi's visit.

(With Agency inputs)
New Delhi: Search engine giant Google is dropping its Instant Search feature that automatically prompts search results while you type in a query, as per a report in Search Engine Land.

In a statement to SearchEngineLand, a spokesperson said, We launched Google Instant back in 2010 with the goal to provide users with the information they need as quickly as possible... Since then, many more of our searches happen on mobile, with very different input and interaction and screen constraints. With this in mind, we have decided to remove Google Instant, so we can focus on ways to make Search even faster and more fluid on all devices.

As users type in a query, the Google search box would display a list of suggested terms and displays the actual results for the top suggestion.

Google Instant search was applicable on Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer 8 software for browsing the internet.

The Google Instant was launched in 2010, shortly after Microsoft's rival search engine Bing began handling online queries at Yahoo.

Henceforth, you will only see search suggestions while you type and you can click on those suggestions to see the results. It means that from now the search results will not load any result pages if you don't click on a search suggestion or press enter.
New York: A US jury indicted a Russian man on Wednesday as the operator of a digital currency exchange he allegedly used to launder more than $4 billion for people involved in crimes ranging from computer hacking to drug trafficking.

Alexander Vinnik was arrested in a small beachside village in northern Greece on Tuesday, according to local authorities, following an investigation led by the U.S. Justice Department along with several other federal agencies and task forces.

US officials described Vinnik in a Justice Department statement as the operator of BTC-e, an exchange used to trade the digital currency bitcoin since 2011.

They alleged Vinnik and his firm "received" more than $4 billion in bitcoin and did substantial business in the US without following appropriate protocols to protect against money laundering and other crimes.

US authorities also linked him to the failure of Mt. Gox, a Japan-based bitcoin exchange that collapsed in 2014 after being hacked.

Vinnik "obtained" funds from the hack of Mt. Gox and laundered them through BTC-e and Tradehill, another San Francisco-based exchange he owned, they said in the statement.

It was not possible to reach Vinnik for comment.

"Just as new computer technologies continue to change the way we engage each other and experience the world, so too will criminals subvert these new technologies to serve their own nefarious purposes," said Brian Stretch, US Attorney for the Northern District of California, where Vinnick was indicted in the statement.

Greek police described Vinnik as a "an internationally sought `mastermind` of a crime organisation."

His arrest is the latest in a series of US operations against Russian cyber criminals in Europe. Last week, the US Justice Department moved to shut down the dark web marketplace AlphaBay.

The prosecutions also coincide with intensified scrutiny of Russian hackers after US intelligence officials determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election using cyber warfare methods to help Donald Trump, something Moscow denies.

Bitcoin was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and pseudonymous, making conventional financial regulation difficult.

Over the years, law enforcement agencies around the world have been able to identify users behind pseudonymous wallets connected to illegal activities by tracking bitcoin movements, often with the help of crypto-currency experts.

While bitcoins can be bought and spent anonymously using digital wallets with unique addresses, transactions are recorded on a public ledger called blockchain, making it possible to follow the coins.

Mt. Gox was one of the most prominent examples of how the lightly regulated cybercurrency market could burn investors, after an estimated $450 million worth of bitcoin and $27 million in hard cash vanished when it collapsed.

During his time in the digital currency market, US authorities allege Vinnik faciliated crimes including hacking, fraud, identity theft, tax refund fraud, public corruption and drug trafficking.

BTC-e, which has been out of service for more than a day, attributed this to "unplanned maintenance."

In a tweet on Wednesday after the arrest of Vinnik, BTC-e said it would restore service in the next 5-10 days.

The exchange is one of the oldest virtual currency platforms.

It allows users to trade bitcoin pseudonymously against a variety of fiat and virtual currencies, and is known in crypto-currency markets as having relaxed standards for checking users` identity, and for not collaborating with law enforcement.
New Delhi: The baap of all reality shows, 'Bigg Boss' is soon going to kickstart with a brand new season 11. And the Bhaijaan of B-Town, Salman Khan will once again don the hat of an amazing bindaas host of the reality show.

According to dnaindia.com, season 11 will soon see Salman return as the successful host of the show and will be shooting the promo this Sunday. Yes! Excited much? Well, you have all the reasons to feel the same.

The superstar is currently shooting for 'Tiger Zinda Hai' in Morocco and will be flying down to Mumbai soon. The report quotes a source as saying, Salman will be shooting for the promos this Sunday. He is flying down from Morocco especially for this shoot. It will have a whole new theme, which will be unveiled with the first promo soon. This time, the channel might start with the show earlier than other years. So, it will mostly air in September, instead of October.
New Delhi: Actress Sumona Chakravarti is a popular face on televisionall thanks to her pairing with Kapil Sharma, the audience loves to watch the funny banter exchanged between the two in the show.

Sumona has always been a part of Kapil Sharma's show right from the time when ace comedian first started 'Comedy Nights With Kapil'. The journey has been immensely loved by their fan base.

At a time when Kapil's co-actors such as Sunil Grover and Ali Asgar have quit 'The Kapil Sharma Show' midway post his infamous brawl on board a flight, Krushna Abhishek's new show 'The Drama Company' has gained prominence.

In fact, Ali has joined Krushna's show and Sunil will be seen making a guest appearance on the same show. Now, Sumona was asked if she too will join Krushna, and the actress made her stand clear.

PTI quoted her as saying, I did not do it (Krushna's show) back then and I will not do it now. When asked about the constant comparisons between Kapil and Krushna, Sumona said, "I never got into back then and I will not get into it now also. So, it doesn't make difference to me."

She also refuted all the rumours about Kapil's show shutting shops. She said, "It's not true. I am busy shooting for the show."

(With PTI inputs)
New Delhi: Hours after Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar decided to part ways with his party's allies in the 'Grand Alliance', former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav took to popular networking website Twitter to share his reactions on the dramatic political developments in Bihar in pure Bollywood style.

The Samajwadi Party chief tweeted two lines of a popular Bollywood song: "Na na karte pyar tumhi se kar baithe, karna tha inkar, magar ikrar, tumhi se kar baithe".

  ,     

        

Bihar Today  Akhilesh Yadav (@yadavakhilesh) July 27, 2017

The song, which featured in the popular 1965 film 'Jab Jab Phool Khile', shows two actors saying how despite asserting that they would never fall in love with each other, they ultimately did get together.

In dramatic and fast-paced developments in Bihar, Nitish Kumar in the evening of July 26 resigned as Chief Minister dumping the RJD and Congress to stitch a new alliance with BJP, which quickly announced support to a new government under him and said it will join it too.

Nitish Kumar ended a 20-month-long grand alliance coalition that defeated the BJP in 2015 and gave his resignation claiming he can't work in the "current circumstances" following corruption charges against Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav - son of RJD chief Lalu Prasad.
Beirut: A ceasefire took effect on Thursday in a mountainous area of the Lebanese-Syrian border near the Lebanese town of Arsal, where Hezbollah has been fighting jihadist militants since last week, Hezbollah`s al-Manar TV reported on its website.

The report cited a military news service run by the group.

It said the ceasefire in the Juroud Arsal area, which was also reported by the Lebanese National News Agency, took effect at 6 am and halted fighting on all fronts.
New York: CIA Director Mike Pompeo has branded China as one of the biggest threat to America`s super power status in the world, than Russia or Iran.

Terming terrorism and North Korea as short-term threats to US security interests, the CIA head described China as mid to long term threat due to its strong economy and its military capabilities to confront the United States.

"It`s hard to pick between China, Russia and Iran to be honest with you. I guess if I had to pick one with a nose above the others, I`d probably pick China,"Russia Today quoted Pompeo as saying,"They have a real economy that they have built, unlike Russia that lives and dies on how many barrels of oil they can pluck out of the ground. And Iran that is similarly very single sector derivative and not to the scale of China population-wise," he explained.

As China is asserting dominance in the East and South China Sea, a US Navy warship has sailed close to a Chinese claimed island in the South China Sea, Pentagon officials say, marking the second such operation under Donald Trump`s presidency.

United States pointed out that China cannot "unlawfully restrict the navigation rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea as all the states are entitled to exercise under international law."

Trump signaled he could use the US-China trading relationship as to pressure China to force North Korea to act, Trump said,"Somebody said, what cards you have? I said, very simple- trade. We are being absolutely devastated by bad trade deals. We have the worst of all trade deals is with China."

"But the biggest strength we have these horrendous trade deals, like with China. That`s our strength. But we`re going to fix them. But in terms of North Korea, our strength is trade.We have to fix the trade. We have to fix the trade. But we have to fix the trade with China because it`s very, very none-reciprocal," Trump added.
Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump could veto pending legislation that would slap new sanctions on Russia in order to push for a tougher deal than the one winding through Congress, a top White House aide said on Thursday.

"He may sign the sanctions exactly the way they are or he may veto the sanctions and negotiate an even tougher deal against the Russians," White House Communications Director Anthony Scaramucci told CNN.

His comments came after U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday reached an agreement that paves the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia and bar Trump from easing sanctions on Moscow without congressional approval.

Russia has warned it could retaliate against Washington, while the European Union said the U.S. move might affect its energy security and prompt it to act, too.

The U.S. House of Representatives has already approved the sanctions. If the bill passes the Senate as expected, it would be sent to the White House for Trump to sign into law or veto.

If Trump vetos it, however, the measure is expected to garner enough bipartisan support to override it.

Scaramucci, who was appointed on Friday, cast the president`s consideration of a possible veto in light of his core supporters in an interview on CNN`s "New Day" program.

"He is a counterintuitive, counterpunching personality," citing the president`s recent "fan base" at a recent rally. "The American people get it. The American people like what he is doing. The establishment does not like what he is doing. He`s going to disrupt the establishment."
Washington: President Donald Trump has decided to donate his second quarter salary to the US education department to help American students get access to high quality education, the White House said Wednesday.

"In this quarter, the president will be donating his salary to the Department of Education," White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters at her daily news conference on July 26.

She presented a check of USD 100,000 to the Education Secretary Betsy DeVos.

Trump's salary in first quarter was donated for restoration of two projects at a national battlefield.

Other donors donors quickly stepped up to bring the total donation over USD 260,000 to the education department.

DeVos said Trump is committed to nation's students and to reforming education in America so that every child, no matter their ZIP code, has access to a high-quality education.

"He and I have had many conversations about how best to put students' needs first, and ensure we are setting them up for a lifetime of success.

There's much work to be done, but we are certainly on the right track, thanks to the president's leadership," she said.

"Just yesterday, Ivanka Trump and I hosted a summer reading event at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History, where the focus was on getting young girls, age six to ten, excited about learning science, technology, engineering, and maths.

"It was fun to see their eyes light up as they got to explore, create, and experiment in a collaborative environment," DeVos said.

She said the department has decided to use Trump's second-quarter salary to host a STEM-focused camp for students at the Department of Education.

"We want to encourage as many children as possible to explore STEM fields in the hope that many develop a passion for these fields," she said.

Trump, a real estate tycoon, had announced during his election campaign that he would not take salary if he wins the presidential elections.

But under the US law, the president has to take their salary.

Hence, he decided to donate all his salary for charity purposes.
Tokoyo: A former Japanese defence minister may be chosen to replace the embattled incumbent minister, who is under pressure due to a cover-up scandal that has reportedly also prompted the army chief to resign, media said on Thursday.

Defence Minister Tomomi Inada has launched an investigation into media reports that defence officials had tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan, where Japanese troops were taking part in a UN-led peacekeeping operation.

Inada, a protege of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, has denied reports she was directly involved in the cover-up but is expected to be replaced in a cabinet reshuffle likely to take place early next month due to the scandal, as well as a series of gaffes and missteps.

Kyodo news agency said Abe is likely to choose as her successor somebody who has already served in the post in an effort to project an image of stability as he battles a number of scandals.

Potential candidates include Itsunori Onodera, Kyodo said, who served as defence minister for nearly two years from 2012, when Abe returned to power, and is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands for the job.

The cover-up scandal has also led General Toshiya Okabe, chief of staff of the Ground Self Defence Forces, to decide to resign, media reported. A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment.

A defence ministry report on investigations into the cover-up is due out as early as Friday, media reports have said.
Tokyo: Four of six Japanese citizens detained in China since March on suspicion of "illegal activities" have been released, Japan`s top government spokesman said on Thursday.

"Four out of six Japanese nationals detained in Shandong Province and Hainan Province in March have returned to Japan," Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a news conference.

China`s foreign ministry said the six Japanese citizens were being held on suspicion of "illegal activities". Both of the provinces have big Chinese military bases.

NC Geophysical Survey Co., in Funabashi city, near Tokyo, confirmed that three of the four men returned to Japan were its employees.

The company said it dispatched four employees to China in March for geological research after receiving orders from two Chinese hot spring developers.

Its fourth employee is still being held in China. Suga declined to comment on why four had been released.

"The government`s top responsibility is to protect Japanese nationals. We continue to provide support for those who are still detained," said Suga.

A maritime territorial dispute over small islands in the East China Sea has in recent years added to the suspicion between the two sides.

In 2010, four Japanese nationals were detained in China on suspicion of entering a military zone and taking photographs without permission.

At least two Japanese citizens were arrested on suspicion of espionage in 2015.

Last year, China said it was investigating a Japanese citizen on suspicion of endangering national security.
Beirut: A ceasefire took effect on Thursday in a mountainous area of the Lebanese-Syrian border where Lebanon`s Hezbollah says it is on the verge of defeating Nusra Front militants in their last foothold at the frontier.

The ceasefire began at 6 am (0300 GMT), halting fighting on all fronts in areas near the Lebanese border town of Arsal where Hezbollah launched its assault on Nusra Front jihadists on Friday, a military news service run by Hezbollah reported.

A source familiar with negotiations, brokered by a Lebanese internal security agency, said the remaining Nusra Front fighters were willing to accept safe passage to Syria`s rebel-held Idlib and talks were continuing to agree the route they would take.

Hezbollah is demanding the release of five of its fighters held by Nusra Front in Syria as part of the deal, the source said.

In a speech late on Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah said talks had begun between Lebanese officials and the Nusra Front on Tuesday.

Nasrallah said on Wednesday his group was close to defeating Nusra Front militants, saying they had "effectively lost" most of the land they held in the barren, mountainous border region known as Jroud Arsal.

Security sources say some two dozen Hezbollah fighters have been killed overall, and nearly 150 militants.

Islamic State militants in an adjacent area of the border zone are expected to be targeted in the next phase of the operation unless they agree to withdraw.

The Nusra Front was al Qaeda`s official wing in the Syrian war until last year when it formally severed ties to the global jihadist network and rebranded itself. It now fights as part of the Tahrir al-Sham Islamist alliance, which it dominates.

Hezbollah has played a major role in fighting militants in the border region during the six-year Syrian war, part of a much bigger role it has played in the Syrian conflict in support of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Arsal region was the scene of one of the most serious spillovers of the Syrian civil war into Lebanon, when Nusra Front and Islamic State militants briefly overran the town of Arsal, abducting dozens of Lebanese soldiers and policemen.

Islamic State is still holding nine Lebanese soldiers captured at that time. Their fate is unknown.
Tehran: Iran announced on Thursday that it has "successfully" tested a satellite-launch rocket, days after warning Washington of a response to new US sanctions over the Islamic republic`s ballistic missiles programme.

State television said the launch vehicle, named Simorgh, was capable of propelling a satellite weighing 250 kilograms (550 pounds) to an altitude of 500 kilometres (300 miles) above earth.
Istanbul: Anti-terror officers in Istanbul detained 26 suspected members of the Islamic State jihadist group, Turkish media reported on Thursday.

Seventeen foreigners were among those detained, state-run Anadolu news agency said, without giving details of their nationalities.

Police seized several electronic devices and documents during the operation in nine different Istanbul districts, the agency said.

Officers suspected those detained had links to "people in conflict zones", Hurriyet daily reported, but not saying in which countries.

Turkey has been hit by a series of attacks in the last 18 months blamed on IS and Kurdish militants.

The last major IS attack was during New Year`s Eve celebrations at an elite Istanbul nightclub where a gunman killed 39 people, most of them foreigners.

There have been frequent police raids since against IS including one on July 12 in the central Turkish province of Konya when police killed five alleged IS extremists.

The Turkish border with Syria was previously a key transit point for IS recruits and supplies before Turkey tightened security and launched a military operation to clear the jihadists from the frontier last August.
Tokyo: Japan`s embattled Defence Minister Tomomi Inada will resign on Friday over the suspected cover-up of information related to a UN peacekeeping mission and a former defence minister is already lined up to take her place, media said.

A spokeswoman at Inada`s office on Thursday declined to comment on whether she would resign, which was first reported by broadcaster NHK.

Inada had launched an investigation into media reports that defence officials had tried to hide logs showing worsening security in South Sudan, where Japanese troops were taking part in a UN-led peacekeeping operation.

Inada will resign after Friday`s publication of the results of the investigation to take responsibility for the affair, according to NHK.

Inada, a protege of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, had denied reports of involvement in the cover-up but had been expected to be replaced in a cabinet reshuffle likely early next month because of the scandal, and a series of missteps that critics say contributed to a plunge in support for Abe.

Kyodo news agency said Abe was likely to choose as her successor somebody who had already served in the post, trying to project an image of stability as he battles a number of scandals.

Potential candidates include Itsunori Onodera, Kyodo said, who served as defence minister for nearly two years from 2012, when Abe returned to power, and is widely regarded as a safe pair of hands for the job.

The cover-up scandal has also led General Toshiya Okabe, chief of staff of the Ground Self Defence Forces, to decide to resign, media reported. A defence ministry spokesman declined to comment.
Amman: Jordan on Thursday welcomed Israel's removal of all new security measures from Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa mosque compound after nearly two weeks of sometimes deadly unrest.

"The ending of the Israeli measures at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound is an essential step towards calm," Information Minister Mohammad al-Momani said after Israel took away newly installed railings and scaffolding early on Thursday, following its removal of metal detectors earlier this week.

Jordan is the official custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem and is one of only two Arab governments to have signed a peace treaty with Israel.
Karachi: Law enforcement agencies in Karachi have reportedly arrested a nephew of Muttahida Qaumi Movement-London (MQM-L) founder Altaf Hussain.

The MQM-L claimed that Hussain`s 52-year-old nephew Abdul Aziz Ansari alias Chand Bhai was arrested on Tuesday.

On the other hand, Hussain`s cousin, Khalid is reportedly missing since he was arrested during a raid in Karachi on July 19.

Condemning the arrest of Ansari, the MQM-London coordination committee said in a statement that he is an employee of the District Municipal Corporation, East and has no links with the politics.

"As soon as he sat in his car after leaving his office on Tuesday, plainclothes personnel took him away with them in a SUV.

The plainclothes personnel of spy agency also covered their faces with masks," The Express Tribune quoted the MQM-London coordination committee`s statement as saying.

According to reports, Ansari used to live in Azizabad where he was previously arrested during a paramilitary raid at Nine Zero on March 11, 2015.

The coordination committee demanded an immediate release of the Altaf Hussain`s relatives.

Meanwhile, Ansari`s arrest has not been confirmed by any law enforcement agency.
Washington DC: United States Energy Secretary Rick Perry is the latest to join the list of A-listers who have fallen prey to prank calls, as he ended up reportedly speaking to Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman for 22 minutes.

The Russian prankster, pretending to be Ukrainian Prime Minister Groysman, managed to have this conversation with Perry earlier this month.

They discussed the energy policy, US sanctions on Russia, an upcoming visit by Perry to Ukraine, and what steps are being taken to counter cyber attacks -- including from Russia, CNN reported.

Energy department spokeswoman Shaylyn Hynes confirmed the call with Russian pranksters Vovan and Lexus, whose real names are Vladimir Krasnov and Aleksey Stolyarov.

"Secretary Perry is the latest target of two Russian pranksters. These individuals are known for pranking high-level officials and celebrities, particularly those who are supportive of an agenda that is not in line with their governments. In this case, the energy security of Ukraine," CNN quoted Hynes as saying.

The conversation came about a month after Perry hosted Ukranian President Petro Poroshenko and his delegation for a meeting at the US Energy Department.

According to reports, Perry received a request on July 12 for a phone call to follow up on the meeting with the Ukrainian Prime Minister and a week later, Perry spoke on the phone with the Russian pranksters.
Savonlinna: Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia was ready to cooperate with neutral countries that bordered the Baltic Sea like Finland which is not part of the NATO military alliance.

Speaking on an official visit to Finland, Putin said an ongoing joint naval exercise with China in the Baltic Sea was a threat to nobody.

Putin, speaking at a news conference with his Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto, said Moscow`s military cooperation with China was "an element of stability and security in the world".

The drill started on Tuesday. The Russian and Chinese ships, which set off from a Russian naval base near the Polish border, will practice shooting at naval and aerial targets, the defence ministry said.
San Francisco: Russian intelligence agents attempted to spy on President Emmanuel Macron`s election campaign earlier this year by creating phony Facebook personas, according to a US congressman and two other people briefed on the effort.

About two dozen Facebook accounts were created to conduct surveillance on Macron campaign officials and others close to the centrist former financier as he sought to defeat far-right nationalist Marine Le Pen and other opponents in the two-round election, the sources said. Macron won in a landslide in May.

Facebook said in April it had taken action against fake accounts that were spreading misinformation about the French election.

But the effort to infiltrate the social networks of Macron officials has not previously been reported.

Russia has repeatedly denied interfering in the French election by hacking and leaking emails and documents.

US intelligence agencies told Reuters in May that hackers with connections to the Russian government were involved, but they did not have conclusive evidence that the Kremlin ordered the hacking.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters that it had detected spying accounts in France and deactivated them. It credited a combination of improved automated detection and stepped-up human efforts to find sophisticated attacks.

Company officials briefed congressional committee members and staff, among others, about their findings.

People involved in the conversations also said the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam - much of it related to the election - had climbed to 70,000, a big jump from the 30,000 account closures the company disclosed in April.

Facebook did not dispute the figure.

Seeking Friends of Friends

The spying campaign included Russian agents posing as friends of friends of Macron associates and trying to glean personal information from them, according to the US congressman and two others briefed on the matter.

Facebook employees noticed the efforts during the first round of the presidential election and traced them to tools used in the past by Russias GRU military intelligence unit, said the people, who spoke on condition they not be named because they were discussing sensitive government and private intelligence.

Facebook told American officials that it did not believe the spies burrowed deep enough to get the targets to download malicious software or give away their login information, which they believe may have been the goal of the operation.

The same GRU unit, dubbed Fancy Bear or APT 28 in the cybersecurity industry, has been blamed for hacking the Democratic National Committee during the 2016 US presidential election and many other political targets. The GRU did not respond to a request for comment.

Email accounts belonging to Macron campaign officials were hacked and their contents dumped online in the final days of the runoff between Macron and Le Pen.

French law enforcement and intelligence officials have not publicly accused anyone of the campaign attacks.

Mounir Mahjoubi, who was digital director of Macron`s political movement, En Marche, and is now a junior minister for digital issues in his government, told Reuters in May that some security experts blamed the GRU specifically, though they had no proof.

Mahjoubi and En Marche declined to comment.

There are few publicly known examples of sophisticated social media spying efforts. In 2015, Britain`s domestic security service, MI5, warned that hostile powers were using LinkedIn to connect with and try to recruit government workers.

The social media and networking companies themselves rarely comment on such operations when discovered.

Facebook, facing mounting pressure from governments around the world to control "fake news" and propaganda on the service, took a step toward openness with a report in April on what it termed information operations.

The bulk of that document discussed so-called influence operations, which included amplifier accounts that spread links to slanted or false news stories in order to influence public opinion.
Kiev: Ex-Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said he would fight Kiev`s decision to strip him of his Ukrainian citizenship, saying it was an attempt to stifle political opposition that betrayed the aims of Ukraine`s 2013-14 pro-European uprising.

Saakashvili had been building a new political career in Ukraine after President Petro Poroshenko appointed him as Governor of the Odessa region in 2015. But relations between the two men soured and Saakashvili resigned last November, citing opposition to reform, and set up a new political party.

Poroshenko stripped Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship on Wednesday for allegedly providing false information on his citizenship registration form in 2015.

In a video posted on Facebook overnight, however, Saakashvili said the decision was politically motivated.

"As soon as those in power realised that the opposition is unifying in order to come out into the streets this fall and put an end to their oligarchic pact, their fear overcame their reason," he said.

Saakashvili is currently in the United States and the withdrawal of his Ukrainian citizenship has left him stateless. He lost his Georgian citizenship in 2015 after becoming a Ukrainian national.

"Now there is an attempt underway to force me to become a refugee. This will not happen! ... I will fight for my legal right to return to Ukraine!," he said.

One Time Ally

The ex-Georgian leader, whose country was attacked by Russian forces in 2008 and who is loathed by the Kremlin, was once a natural ally for Poroshenko after Moscow annexed Ukraine`s Crimea region in 2014.

But Saakashvili, who served as Georgian president from 2004 to 2013, has become one of Poroshenko`s most vocal critics, casting doubts on the Western-backed Kiev government`s commitment to tackling entrenched corruption.

Attacking Poroshenko`s record on reforms, Saakashvili said, "Today the entire country has understood the price of your promises `to live anew`".

Poroshenko`s administration did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Saakashvili`s accusations against the president. It has previously said that Saaskashvili had failed as Governor of Odessa to deliver change.

Saakashvili`s party, `Movement of New Forces` (MNF), called on Ukrainians to gather in central Kiev later on Thursday to protest against the abuse of authority.

Betting on early parliamentary elections, MNF has sought to unite opposition forces, but a June survey by Ukrainian group Rating gave the party only 2 percent support, while Poroshenko`s bloc was on six per cent.

Political analyst Serhiy Gaidai said Poroshenko`s decision showed he disliked political opposition.

"Every Ukrainian president has a moment when he thinks he can do whatever he wants with impunity and this becomes the start of his political downfall," Gaidai wrote on Facebook.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Armenian Prime Minister Karen Karapetyan held a meeting today with Israels minister of regional cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi, who arrived in Armenia on an official visit.

During the meeting the PM mentioned that Armenia is interested in developing cooperation with Israel, especially in boosting economic ties.

The PM found the Armenia-Israel direct flights operation to be a positive development.

The Israeli minister emphasized his countrys willingness to enhance relations with Armenia and mentioned that the purpose of his visit is to discover opportunities of mutually beneficial partnership through discussions with Armenian partners in the economic, IT, tourism, trade and agriculture branches.

The PM presented the ongoing reforms in Armenia. Karapetyan highlighted exchange of experience and implementation of investment programs with Israel in the spheres of IT, agriculture, public administration, digitization, healthcare and science.

Tzachi Hanegbi agreed that numerous opportunities exist for developing the cooperation between Israel and Armenia, and the Israeli government is ready to cooperate with the Armenian government.
YEREVAN, JULY 26, ARMENPRESS. Israels minister of regional cooperation Tzachi Hanegbi, who arrived in Armenia on an official visit on July 25, visited the Tsitsernakaberd Armenian Genocide Memorial with his delegation in Yerevan.

The Israeli high-level delegation was accompanied by Armenias deputy foreign minister Armen Papikyan, the Honorary Consul of Israel in Armenia Ashot Shahmuradyan, Israels Ambassador to Armenia Eliyahu Yerushalmi with his spouse, as well as the deputy director of the Armenian Genocide Institute Museum Suren Manukyan.

The officials laid flowers at the Eternal Flame for the memory of the Armenian Genocide victims, and toured the Museum-Institute.

The Israeli minister mentioned that he is impressed with the Memorial, which in his words will touch everybody.

Israel has always sympathized with the Armenian people, because both Armenians and Jews have survived this tragedy in their histories. The issue has been discussed for several times in the Israeli parliament, it has always been mentioned by the president, and we will always keep it in our hearts and spirits, the Israeli minister told reporters.

Visiting this museum leaves every visitor with two conclusions: Never again to allow such horrific acts to happen, and never forget the tragedy , keep it always alive in the human awareness and memory forever!, the Israeli minister wrote in the guest-book.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian president has tasked the education and science ministry to compensate the textbook fees for school-children of bordering communities and introduce a special mechanism of tuition fees for university students from those communities, defense minister Vigen Sargsyan said during todays Cabinet meeting and suggested the PM to pass government decisions in this regard.

If we dont do it very quickly, we simply wont deliver. One of the tasks relates to compensating all textbooks of school-children in bordering communities, the second task is to introduce a special mechanism of tuition fees for university students from bordering communities. The deputy minister of education and science has briefed that they are ready. But both of them require government decisions and it is desirable to do it now, until 1st of September, Vigen Sargsyan said.

Very well, PM Karapetyan said.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. No final decision exists over the meeting of the Armenian and Azerbaijani presidents, Armenian deputy foreign minister Shavarsh Kocharyan told reporters after todays Cabinet meeting, adding that the proposal regarding the meeting was brought forward by the OSCE Minsk Group Co-Chairs.

The foreign ministers are working on this proposal, there is no final decision yet, he said.

Speaking about Azerbaijans refusal to install ceasefire violation investigative mechanisms along the Armenian border and the Artsakh line of contact, Kocharyan said Whos shouting catch the thief the loudest? The thief himself. And only the thief benefits that no investigation happens.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Israel is ready to sell military equipment to Armenia also, while its arms supplies to Azerbaijan arent because of hostility towards Armenia, deputy FM Shavarsh Kocharyan said after todays Cabinet meeting, commenting on the Israeli minister of regional cooperation Tzachi Hanegbis visit to Armenia.

The deputy FM said Israel has publicly raised its stance over this matter for several times.

They are ready to sell weapons to anyone, including Armenia, Kocharyan said. Asked whether Armenia has carried out any negotiations, Kocharyan said This question must be addressed to another ministry.

Overall, there are big similarities between the Armenian and Israeli peoples, but at the same time there are also complicated issues. The important part is not to distance from them, but to solve through negotiations, the deputy FM said.

Kocharyan reminded that agreements have been signed on the sidelines of the Israeli ministers visit to Armenia, and on July 26 the 25th anniversary of establishing diplomatic ties between the countries was celebrated in Yerevan.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The military investigative committee launched criminal proceedings to uncover the circumstances surrounding the death of Junior Sergeant Vardan Melkonyan. One person has been detained in custody.

Earlier authorities reported that the body of the Junior Sergeant was discovered hanged on July 23 nearby a military base.

A criminal case was initiated.

The investigation produced evidence that the junior sergeant was subjected to physical violence in the evening of July 22.

The suspected perpetrator, a co-serviceman, has been detained.

Investigation continues.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. The Armenian government passed a decision which suggests to form a specialized commission on preferential qualification of subsidies, subventions and grant programs, define the rules of the commissions activities. Finance minister Vardan Aramyan said the functions of the commission include to provide conclusions over preferential qualification of programs in terms of VAT taxation.

According to the rules, programs in the IT, tourism, agriculture, science, education, energy and nature preservation branches can be qualified as preferential, which contribute to economic development, Aramyan said.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Today, the government passed a decision during the Cabinet meeting which will provide the normal operations and implementation of functions of the Agriculture Development Foundation.

The government allocated 202 million drams to the Agriculture Development Fund from the reserve fund.

Minister of agriculture Ignati Arakelyan mentioned that the Foundation requires staff, office property and other resources for implementing its functions and normal operations.
YEREVAN, 27 JULY, ARMENPRESS. The Central Bank of Armenia informs Armenpress that today, 27 July, USD exchange rate down by 0.03 drams to 478.73 drams. EUR exchange rate up by 4.18 drams to 561.07 drams. Russian Ruble exchange rate up by 0.07 drams to 8.06 drams. GBP exchange rate up by 5.94 drams to 629.19 drams.

The Central Bank has set the following prices for precious metals.

Gold price down by 98.18 drams to 19210.16 drams. Silver price up by 0.91 drams to 251.96 drams. Platinum price down by 93.25 drams to 14160.2 drams.
GYUMRI, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Minister of Emergency Situations Davit Tonoyan and Adjutant General of the Kansas National Guard, USA, Major-General Lee Tafanelli attended the training at the square near Akhuryan fire-rescue squad on July 27, press service of the ministry told Armenpress.

The officials were accompanied by Shirak governor Artur Khachatryan.

The event was also attended by the UK Embassys Defense Attache Lt. Col David Ethel (residence in Tbilisi).

Minister Tonoyan summarized the training results, stating: I highly appreciate the joint training. Our rescuers performed perfectly in accordance with international standards, and the experience they got from these trainings will transfer to their colleagues. We thank the representatives of the US and UK armed forces for the support and for transferring their experience to us. As for the update of technique of the fire-rescue brigads, we will try in a short period of time to fully equip them through state budget allocations and assistance of our international partners.

I highly appreciate the results of both the training and the exercise. Each exercise is a great chance to improve our knowledge and skills. I am convinced that in real emergency situation the Armenian rescuers will quickly respond and will provide highly professional assistance, and our cooperation will be continuous, Major-General Lee Tafanelli told reporters.

Shirak governor Artur Khachatryan also thanked the fire-rescuers for the dedicated service.

UK Embassys Defense Attache Lt. Col David Ethel said he frequently visits Armenia and is confident that in case of emergency situation, professional rescuers will quickly provide assistance.
YEREVAN, JULY 27, ARMENPRESS. Armenias Ambassador to Lebanon Samvel Mkrtchyan on July 27 met with the Lebanese Minister of Social Affairs Pierre Bou Assi, press service of the Armenian foreign ministry told Armenpress.

During the meeting the Lebanese Minister presented his countrys social issues, as well as the ongoing policy on solving them.

In his turn Ambassador Mkrtchyan introduced the Minister on the ongoing reforms by the Armenian Government and the expected results, talked about the recent developments in the inner-political life of Armenia and Lebanon, as well as the electoral processes.

The sides found it appropriate to examine the achievements recorded in the social spheres of the two countries and based on them to develop and implement joint programs.
PARIS, FranceA report delivered at the ninth annual International AIDS Society Conference on HIV Science claims that researchers have successfully tested a vaginal ring that protects against HIV infection, finding it to be "safe and acceptable" in a study of adolescent girls in the United States. The operative ingredient in the ring is the antiretroviral drug dapivirine, which the ring releases in measured doses over the course of a month.

"The study enrolled 96 girls ages 15 to 17 at six U.S. sites and was conducted from July 2014 to July 2016," reported Sean Duffy of CourthouseNews.com. "Participants were randomly assigned to use either the dapivirine ring or a placebo ring that felt and looked the same. Seventy-three girls were in the dapivirine group and 23 were given the placebo. The researchers asked the girls to use their assigned rings for a month at a time for six months. ... The participants found the ring highly acceptable, with 95 percent of the girls saying it was easy to use and 74 percent saying they were not aware of it during daily activities. While some worried that their partner would feel the ring during sex, 93 percent said they liked the ring overall."

In another study, this time of lactating women, conducted by the National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Microbicide Trials Network (MTN), researchers also found that very little of the drug found its way into women's breast milk. Two more studies, referred to as "Phase III trials," named ASPIRE and The Ring Study, found "that the ring was safe and helped protect against HIV among more than 4,500 women in sub-Saharan Africa."

"If the ring is approved for women older than age 18, it's imperative that we have the data in hand to show that the ring is safe to use in younger women as well," explained Sharon Hillier, Ph.D., principal investigator of the MTN, and professor and vice chair of the department of obstetrics, gynecology and reproductive sciences at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. "HIV doesn't distinguish between a 16-year-old and an 18-year-old. Access to safe and effective HIV prevention shouldn't either. Young women of all ages deserve to be protected."

More studies have been planned, some beginning later this year, and it is not known at what point the dapivirine ring will be available for use by the general public.

UPDATE: Eric Paul Leue, Executive Director of the FSC who attended the IAS2017 as an invited delegate, cautioned AVN that, "Dapivirine belongs to a class of anti-retroviral (ARV) HIV medications called Non-Nucleoside Reverse Transcriptase Inhibitors (NNRTIs). In subsequent sessions during IAS2017 a growing prevalence of drug resistance to this class of ARVs, and what efficacy this HIV prevention option may be able to achieve were discussed. For the time being, we will continue to monitor new scientific discoveries and evaluate those advances with our medical advisors as well as HIV organizations we work with. For now we encourage everyone to learn more about the already FDA approved daily HIV Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis (PrEP) regimen based on a medication called Truvada, which significantly reduces the risk of HIV infections."
LOS ANGELESTheres a newcomer in the U.S. lubricant market, and this brand is gearing up to make a big splash. SuperSlyde silicone lube, which launched North American operations this year, has been on a whirlwind event sponsorship tour around the United States. And the company also recently inked various retail ventures.

The first of these arrangements is a retail store placement with Chi Chi LaRues, located on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood, Calif.a development that SuperSlyde announced with pride this week.

Next up are placements in Bite The Fruit in Washington, D.C.; My Tropixx in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; and a second California store: Mankind, located on University Avenue in San Diego.

But though its new to the United States, that doesnt mean SuperSlyde isnt an established brand. The lube manufacturer has already won an Eros Shine Award for Best Lotion and Potion from the Eros AssociationAustralias leading adult industry organization.

SuperSlyde is also getting its name out there during Miami White Party Week, which it describes as the oldest, largest and most known HIV/AIDS fundraiser in the world. SuperSlyde has been named the 2017-2018 Care Resource and White Party Miami Sponsor.

Care Resource is a 501(c) (3) nonprofit organization and a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC). Care Resource has facilities in Miami-Dade, Little Havana, Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale that provide comprehensive health and support services to pediatric, adolescent and adult populations.
NEW YORKPleasure product brand Sola has signed on to be a sponsor of the eighth annual Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit.

The Sexual Freedom Summit hosts speakers and events that are designed to generate insightful conversations about sexual well-being and sexual rights. Attendees can expect presentations on social justice, religion, family matters and human rights as they relate to human sexuality. For details, visit SexualFreedomSummit.org.

Its rare in the world that so many sexuality thought leaders and community changers get a chance to come together, learn together, and inspire each other to see sexuality with new perspectives, said Ducky DooLittle, Solas resident sex educator. These issues matter to Sola because we are a company that is committed to sexual wellness and pleasure.

Said Mandy Farsace, director of the Woodhull Sexual Freedom Summit, "We are so excited to have Sola on board as a sponsor for our eighth annual Sexual Freedom Summit. Our sponsors allow us to host the Summit and continue in the fight for the fundamental human right to sexual freedom, and we could not pull off this amazing event without them."

Attendees can expect to see Sola products and relax in the blogger lounge with the Sola team throughout the event. Sola products will be available for purchase during the event from Sugar, the official Sexual Freedom Summit pleasure product retailer.
In regards to the Russia Election Tampering matter: Is President Trump being treated fairly by core Democrats and the Mainstream Media? Yes, the new president is guilty until proven innocent. No, President Trump's treatment is dictated by the usual Democrat double standard. Don't care; there are more important issues facing America. 103 total vote(s) What's your Opinion?



That title may need some clarification. Donald Trump and Abraham Lincoln are two vastly different characters of different upbringings and different demeanors. Lincoln was famous for his soaring rhetoric and eloquence, Trump is better known for his hard-nosed bluntness. Lincoln grew up through the rigors of hard labor and poverty, Trump was brought up in wealth. Lincoln was a voracious reader throughout his life, and Trump is more of a twitter guy. When it comes to each man's vision for America, however, there are glaring similarities.In Rich Lowry's wonderful book Lincoln Unbound, he takes a look at Lincoln's political principles and how they could be applied to the modern Republican party to widen its base. Oddly enough, Trump was the Republican who seemed to pick up on some of these Lincolnian ideas most genuinely. For example, one of Lincoln's primary focuses throughout his entire career was on building and improving infrastructure. He saw infrastructure as an essential factor in both economic and social development, as better roads and waterways allowed for both the smooth movement of goods and easier travel. Proposals for these types of improvements happen to be near the top of President Trump's agenda and were a staple in his campaign rhetoric, which is something of an oddity for Republicans. As Trump reaffirmed in his powerful joint address last week, he sees internal improvements as a necessity to improving social conditions in our major cities as well as a potential job creator. While relying on infrastructure as a jobs program often leads to unnecessary pork projects and reckless public spending, the United States is past due for some internal improvement and an initiative in this area led primarily by state governments could provide enormous benefits.Moreover, one of my favorite Lincoln quotes, and one that is often misused in the pursuit of portraying Lincoln as an early progressive, is the following: "Whatever is calculated to advance the condition of the honest, struggling laboring man, so far as my judgement will enable me to judge of a correct thing, I am for that thing." This message is identical to the one that drove Trump to the presidency. Trump made workers who had been punished by globalization and the massive influx of low-skilled immigrant laborers, as well as the small business owners struggling to cope with the onus of the regulatory state and exorbitant tax rates, the primary focus of his campaign. Similarly to Lincoln, the solutions that Trump sees as best to help these people have nothing to do with creating dependency or expanding the welfare state. Instead, the key is social mobility and fostering opportunity. As Lincoln's letters and writings show, he was a strong believer in the value of hard work and enterprise, and famously gave a young aspiring lawyer the simple advice to, "Work, work, work." As many of Trump's books on business make clear, he views the world through a similar lens.Furthermore, just as Lincoln did, Trump places a strong emphasis on technology and innovation. In Trump's joint address, he spent some time discussing the celebration of America's 100th birthday in 1876, where "the country's builders and artists and inventors showed off their wonderful creations." He spoke of Alexander Graham Bell's telephone, the Remington typewriter and Edison's "automatic telegraph and electric pen." Trump expressed his desires for something similar on America's 250th birthday, and Lincoln would have loved this. Lincoln pushed extremely hard for American industrialization, as he sought for the citizens of his country to reach the peak of human capacity. He had no use for the agrarian economics of John C. Calhoun and similar thinkers, instead his ideas were based upon technological advancement. Trump's pronouncements that, "Cures to the illnesses that have always plagued us are not too much to hope. American footprints on distant worlds are not too big a dream," may seem like fluffy rhetoric, but this sort of drive is what built America into the world's greatest power in the first place. Moreover, Trump's focus on innovation and advancement is a breath of fresh air in the Republican party, and something that should become a more consistent staple in the party's message.In a letter written roughly five years before his ascension to the presidency, Lincoln lamented, "we are not what we have been." He saw an America in decline. In Lincoln's eyes, the nation was becoming lazier, less enterprising and less devoted to the principles of liberty and democracy. The excitement of the founding generation, and to some extent the Jacksonian period, had faded. Lincoln saw the need for a national resurgence based on the principles set forth in the Declaration of Independence that he so adored, and that he often cited in his arguments against slavery. Similarly, Trump entered the Republican primary field because he saw his country falling in a downward spiral, with a dismal labor force participation rate and a weaker footing on the global stage. The point is this: Trump's brand of Republicanism is not all that different from the one espoused by our 16th president. Their ideas about the proper role of the federal government merge in many ways, including those beyond the few policy areas mentioned above. Both of these men, although polar opposites in style, entered office with some common principles and the goal of making America great again. Lincoln was able to do it through the nation's darkest hours. Trump faces a much easier task. If he is able to execute his vision half as well as Lincoln, we'll be on the right track.
A Banner Year for School Choice in North Carolina

Allow me to recommend a new state nickname for North Carolina: The School Choice State.The N.C. Division of Non-Public Education released private and home school statistics this week. As expected, home school enrollment continued to grow, while private school enrollment exceeded 100,000 students for the first time.North Carolina home schools educated an estimated 127,847 students during the 2016-17 school year. The number of home school students increased by 8 percent, and the year-to-year increase was over 9,500 students. Over the last ten school years, North Carolina's home school enrollment increased by a staggering 79 percent.A 2013 change in state law is partly responsible for the surge in home school enrollment. The N.C. General Assembly made changes to North Carolina's home school statute that offered families the option to supplement parent-led instruction with online courses and cooperative arrangements. Since then, home school growth has been phenomenal.But even more important than a change in the law is the thriving home school community itself. The N.C. Homeschooling group on Facebook, for example, has well over 4,000 members and North Carolinians for Home Education's Facebook page collected nearly 18,500 likes. Home school parents use these pages and many other web-based forums to answer questions, exchange information, and offer advice to prospective and current home school families. And they do so voluntarily, based on a shared idea - the vitality of the home school movement in North Carolina, that is, safeguarding the freedom to educate their children at home with minimal government interference, is dependent on a strong, supportive community.Home schools were not the only institutions to see enrollment gains . According to the Division of Non-Public Education, private school enrollment reached an all-time high during the 2016-17 school year - 100,585 students. That was a 2,864 student or 2.9 percent increase since the 2015-16 school year.There are multiple reasons for the boost in private school enrollment. Certainly, a strong economy and an increase in the number of private schools played a role. But I suspect that the Opportunity Scholarship and Disability Grant programs, which provide private school scholarships to low-income and special needs students respectively, are responsible for the bulk of these gains. The Republican leadership in the General Assembly created both programs and continue to support them politically and financially.Last year, the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority awarded over 5,600 Opportunity Scholarships and over 1,200 Disability Grants to families who wanted to improve the educational environment for their children. With the passage of the Personal Education Savings Account (PESA) program this year, families will have the flexibility to use a state-funded account to select any combination of qualifying expenses for their special needs children. When the program comes online in 2018-19, PESA will likely draw even more families into private institutions.The N.C. Department of Public Instruction (DPI) has not published the final average daily membership figures for the 2016-17 school year, but I estimate that around 92,000 children attended public charter schools last year. I am confident that charter school enrollment will exceed 100,000 students in the coming school year. In fact, the state has set aside initial funding for 101,689 charter school students. (That number is based on projections and will change based on fall enrollment figures.) That would be a remarkable achievement for a sector that enrolled around half of that number of students just five years ago.In the end, an estimated 17 percent of North Carolina families will select a home, private, or charter school this year. Most of them will not know the people who fueled the creation and energize the preservation of those opportunities - passionate citizens, courageous legislators, and stalwart advocates from North Carolina and beyond. The John Locke Foundation and its supporters are proud to be counted among them.
The Democrat leadership has made constant, profound and incredible pronouncements that one's supportive vote for Republicans is tantamount to surrendering Democracy forever. Understanding their sincere thinking in their extreme position: How will you still vote on this election day?

Democrat; because the continuance of this Democracy from the existential threat of extreme Republicans is paramount.

Republican; the process of having a choice is the democratic method within what so called "Democracy" does exists.
Tom Campbell

That's the opening sentence of the oath Boy Scouts take when joining. I remembered this oath as President Trump spoke to an estimated 70,000 at the Boy Scout Jamboree. Much of his address was disturbing, but on one point we should all agree: we could use a little more loyalty right now.The concept of loyalty deserves further deliberation, especially since it seems to be a major theme for this president. Trump has twisted his interpretation to mean a blind loyalty to him and his office; either ignoring or misunderstanding that everyone's primary loyalty is not to an office or officeholder but to all. The oath Trump, Congressmen and most elected and appointed government officials swear upon taking office is to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States."This language is as transparent as cellophane but is being abused by too many too often. Our duty and responsibility is to our government of laws, not just to a political party or philosophy, a caucus (or faction within that caucus), or even to a certain demographic class, race, or segment of the populous. It is a pledge that the oath taker will represent all people within the individual's purview.We see this misinterpretation in today's business world, where loyalty appears to be applied almost exclusively to shareholders and executives, minimizing or overlooking altogether the employees, customers and the communities they serve. Religious institutions too often focus on the clergy, institution or a particular congregation, not to the community at large. The same misdirection can be applied to education, healthcare, our environment and just about any topic you can name, but nowhere is this loyalty more abused than in today's political spectrum.Lawmakers, behind closed doors, craft laws and budgets with only a handful of people making critical decisions. Putting aside the reality that seldom are public hearings conducted to discuss and deliberate the issue, too frequently the collective body of legislators know little or nothing about bills until they are asked to vote. Legislative districts are drawn, again behind closed doors, without regard to all the electorate but only to the party in power to ensure they remain in control. These are just two examples that have become the norm. And let us hasten to say both political parties are (or have been) equally guilty.We owe loyalty to our families, our friends, employers, church and to all organizations to which we belong. We would go further by extending loyalty - or perhaps more aptly put, respect - to our President, our Governor or any high-ranking official, but loyalty is a two-way proposition. No cabinet official, no elected representative and no party should be totally loyal to a single person to the exclusion of the broader obligation to God and Country.Our nation's history is filled with examples of men and women who followed this loyalty oath, who not only pledged loyalty but, too often, gave their lives defending it.Let us be vigilant in ensuring ours is not a misplaced loyalty.


Students assist a volunteer as she takes an eye exam during the College of Allied Health Sciences senior fall risk assessment training exercise on July 14.(Photo by Alyssa De Santis Figiel)

Three departments within East Carolina University's College of Allied Health Sciences recently spent a day helping local seniors while teaching students the importance of collaborating with other disciplines.The unique interprofessional senior fall risk assessment training exercise took place at the Black Jack Free Will Baptist Church on July 14. Students from the Occupational Therapy (OT), Physical Therapy (PT) and Physician's Assistant (PA) programs were placed into groups composed of at least one student from each department and assigned patients. Senior citizens who volunteered to participate were evaluated to determine any unknown factors they may have that put them at a higher risk for falling.said Dr. Jennifer Radloff, an assistant professor for the Department of Occupational Therapy at ECU and one of the event organizers.Evaluations included PA students studying the seniors' medical history to look for potential fall indicators, such as medications that may cause dizziness; PT students administering a mini balance assessment and OT students doing a vision assessment. Students also analyzed the seniors' ability to use stairs, transition from sitting to standing, and turn quickly when walking. Those who were found to have greater chances of falling were provided with resources to continue their care and fall prevention.The training exercise is noteworthy as it combines community service with education and gives students an opportunity to speak with others in different professions to discuss and compare each discipline's responsibilities.said Kasey Briggs, a PA student who participated in the fall assessments.Radloff praised the event as an excellent pre-emptive learning experience before students begin their required internships. Students expressed their appreciation for being given the opportunity to work collaboratively with other professions in a non-simulated experience.said PT student Josh Schiemann.PA student Sydney Pilgrim connected the experience to her previous work in healthcare.Pilgrim said.A third-year PT student who participated last year, Amalia Kondyles, returned to observe this year's event and reflect on the value of the experience.Kondyles said.If you would like to volunteer as a patient in next year's event, please contact Dr. Jennifer Radloff at radloffj@ecu.edu or Dr. Kim Stokes at stokesc@ecu.edu.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government is prepared to walk away from the NAFTA negotiating table if the Trump administration insists on scrapping a chapter of the deal related to dispute settlement, according to a news report.

The Trump administration released its wish list for NAFTA talks last week, and among the items is a request to scrap Chapter 19 of the trade deal. The chapter creates multinational tribunals to rule on disputes when a NAFTA country wants to impose anti-dumping duties on exports from another country.

In essence, Chapter 19 prevents NAFTA countries from slapping unfair duties on products from other NAFTA countries in order to protect their home industries.

An unnamed "senior Canadian official" told the Globe and Mail that the prime minister considers NAFTA's Chapter 19 a "red line" he will not cross.

The chapter has been a trade headache for the U.S. for years. Of the 71 cases brought before tribunals under Chapter 19, the U.S. was targeted in of 43 of them.

It's a separate issue from Chapter 11, which deals with disputes between foreign investors and governments. A 2015 study from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives found that Canada is the most-sued country under this mechanism, with more than 70 per cent of all claims being brought against it.

The Trump wish list doesn't mention Chapter 11.

PEOPLE REAGAN

Derek Burney, who served as chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney during the original U.S.-Canada free trade talks in the 1980s, and is now an advisor on the NAFTA talks to the current Liberal government, explained to Bloomberg why this is such a crucial issue to Canada: "We don't trust their trade-remedy tribunals, we never have," he said.

He added: "We wouldn't have the trade agreement if we didn't get that dispute settlement."

In 1987, Mulroney walked away from trade talks at the last minute when the U.S. resisted the dispute settlement chapter. The gambit paid off, and a trade deal that included Chapter 19 was signed days later.

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Asked about Chapter 19 during a press conference Tuesday, Trudeau said only that he is "not going to negotiate in public, certainly not in advance of the negotiations actually starting."

But the prime minister added that "a fair dispute resolution system is essential for any trade deal that Canada signs on to."

What would happen if Canada walked away?

If Canada were to walk away from the talks, the NAFTA deal would stay in place, potentially pushing President Donald Trump to rip up the deal as he had promised during the election.

It's "the worst-case scenario," Robert Wolfe, professor emeritus at Queen's University's School of Policy Studies, told Bloomberg. "We don't want to have to do that, and we don't want President Trump to rip the thing up. They're a bigger boy in the schoolyard than we are, but we don't have to think we're going to get pushed around. We do have leverage."

Not everyone believes that NAFTA's cancellation would lead to economic catastrophe. Scott Sinclair, a senior research fellow with the CCPA, notes that, if NAFTA disappeared, trade between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico would be governed by WTO rules.

"We don't trust their trade-remedy tribunals, we never have."Derek Burney, ex-chief of staff to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney

"Under that scenario, Canadian exporters could face an additional US$3.5-5 billion in customs duties, equivalent to the value of 1.25 to 1.8 per cent of current exports," he wrote in a blog post.

"That's a speed bump, for sure, but would not bring trade to a screeching halt."

Wolfe believes that Chapter 19 isn't important enough for Canada to walk away from trade talks over it. He suggests Canada could see more benefit if it traded away that chapter in exchange for an end to "Buy America" rules in the U.S.

More from HuffPost Canada:



He notes that Canada has brought only three cases under Chapter 19 in the past decade.

"If you had to choose between a real restraint on Buy American and keeping Chapter 19, I'd yell and pound the table and give up Chapter 19," he told Bloomberg.

"A lot more Canadian jobs might benefit from stopping discriminatory government procurement in the U.S."

 With a file from Ryan Maloney

Also on HuffPost:
By John Davison JUROUD ARSAL, Lebanon (Reuters) - The barren, rocky hilltops that form Hezbollah's new front line with jihadists at the Syrian-Lebanese border were tough to capture and supply. Hezbollah commander Hajj Abu Ali says the experience could prove useful in future battles. Military jeeps and four-wheel-drive trucks make a slow, bruising progress up newly bulldozed dirt tracks to the mountains near the Lebanese town of Arsal to ferry food and supplies to forces there as fighting rages in the valley below. "Each battle has its own difficulties," Abu Ali said, standing on a bombed-out hilltop bunker captured from Nusra Front militants in the area known as Juroud Arsal. This is the latest front for Hezbollah in its battle with militants to secure Lebanon's Syrian border, part of the wider role the Iran-backed group has played in support of Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in the six-year-long war in Syria. Hezbollah has made rapid advances against Nusra Front since launching the offensive jointly with the Syrian army on Friday, aiming to clear jihadists out of their last border foothold. Mortar fire pounded targets in the valley and jets struck on the Syrian side of the border during a media trip to the area on Tuesday. Plumes of gray smoke towered into the sky. "What is tough in some battles is that areas are densely populated, with many civilians. Here you can shell more freely, it's open and there aren't many people. But the terrain is the difficult bit - it's hard to cover ground, and we have to open new roads as we go along," Abu Ali said. Since the operation began, Nusra Front has almost been vanquished, Hezbollah says, and the next target is a pocket of territory held by Islamic State militants. As Hezbollah battles jihadists in this latest offensive, the Lebanese army has adopted a defensive posture guarding the nearby town of Arsal. A big recipient of U.S. and British military support, it has not taken part. Hezbollah commanders believe the offensive will soon be over, and say the battle is providing valuable experience. "It could help prepare us for future battles," Abu Ali said. But the battle has been hard fought, mainly because of terrain that was long an ideal base for Nusra Front - al Qaeda's al Qaeda's former Syria branch and now leader of Islamist alliance, Tahrir al-Sham - as well as for Islamic State militants and other insurgents. On this particular hilltop, militants had barricaded themselves behind sandbags and dug trenches into the hard stone ground. "It was easy for them to dig in here and shoot at whoever raised their head coming up the hill," Abu Ali said. Hezbollah had lost fighters that way, he said. "We dealt with it using artillery and air strikes. We found eight (insurgent) bodies here. Others fled from the area, some on motorbikes." A blackened stove, an upturned coffee jar and a shredded green tarpaulin roof cover were the only signs left of the Nusra militants. EXISTENTIAL BATTLE Abu Ali said the fight to capture the surrounding hilltops began at dawn on the first day of the operation and lasted 11 hours. Ten Hezbollah fighters were killed, he said. Security sources say some two dozen Hebollah fighters have been killed overall, and nearly 150 militants. At a checkpoint further back from the front, Hezbollah fighters urgently waved through an ambulance with blacked out windows returning along the same bumpy dirt track, signposted "to Wadi al-Kheil", a valley recaptured on Monday. Tanks, tents and a field clinic sat in the shade of apricot trees nearby. Hezbollah has lost hundreds of fighters including top commanders in Syria. It says the battle there is an existential one to stop extremists spreading to Lebanon. Its Lebanese critics say it has fueled militant attacks in Lebanon. A Shi'ite cleric dressed in combat fatigues prayed next to mortar cannon emplacements overlooking the valley on Tuesday. One fighter was confident of victory soon, and dismissive of the enemy. "See that mountain? That's where they were the day before yesterday. Now look where they are," he said, pointing out several kilometers (miles) of ground Hezbollah had taken. "They are nothing." (Editing by Tom Perry and Louise Ireland)
Federal government officials promised they would reimburse public servants for out-of-pocket expenses directly caused by Phoenix payroll woes, but the government is denying much of what's being claimed by employees, documents show.

Given the magnitude of the Phoenix payroll problem, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat created a process last September to pay back workers for expenses such as interest charges on credit cards, bank penalties from insufficient funds and fees for withdrawing investments early.

Documents obtained under the Access to Information Act show that over an eight-month period between September and April, civil servants submitted more than 460 expense claims totalling more than $430,000.

Less than $44,000 had been reimbursed by the government, about 10 per cent of the amount public servants had asked for, records show.

CBC News has not been able to determine the exact reasons why the claims have been rejected.

The Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat (TBS) said some of the claims have been denied because workers wanted to be reimbursed for outstanding balances on credit cards, car payments, and medical or dental fees. Other claims were rejected because workers requested reimbursement for missing out on investment opportunities. In some cases, claims for interest on credit cards or lines of credits exceeded the net amount owed to the employee.

"For example, if an employee is owed $1,000 but submits a claim for interest on a credit card balance of $5,000, only a partial payment on that claim will be made based on the $1,000 the employee is owed," wrote the Treasury Board in a statement to CBC News.

The most common claims approved or partially reimbursed are for accrued interest charges, banking fees and accounting fees, according to TBS. Claims for late payment charges, penalty fees and private insurance premiums have also been paid, it said.

Cases vary

Emmanuelle Tremblay, president of the Canadian Association of Professional Employees, said she wants the government to fully explain why some workers are only receiving a fraction of the money they requested.

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"If the employer's basically turning around and saying, 'You know what, I'm going to be cherry picking what I reimburse and what I don't reimburse,'  it's unfathomable," she said. "Wow, what a slap in the face this represents for our members."

The record of claims obtained by CBC News reveals reimbursements varied dramatically from one case to another.

A Parks Canada worker who wasn't getting paid asked for more than $1,042 to cover interest charges. But the government only partially approved this request and paid back $6.76, according to the claims log.

In another case, an Environment and Climate Change Canada employee submitted a claim for close to $7,000. It was to cover banking fees, penalties and interest charges that resulted from not being paid properly, according to the claim. The government denied the request entirely, according to the documents.

A Health Canada worker in a similar situation was reimbursed for the full amount that was claimed, $528.

The Treasury Board said claims cannot be compared to each other, and are assessed individually on their own merits. Considerations include how much pay workers were shortchanged, whether or not they received an emergency salary advance, and whether or not their claim was based on debt exceeding what they were owed in missing pay.

Officials also try to provide the benefit of the doubt and help workers find ways to verify claims when documents are not provided, TBS added.

'It's pretty discouraging'

For public servants in the process of filing claims, it's raising concerns.

"I'm shocked," said public servant Caroline Guay who is working closely with her bank to submit a claim. "It's pretty discouraging to see that 90 per cent of this is not being addressed."

Guay has racked up "a massive amount of debt" during her 15 months dealing with Phoenix pay problems. Some months she was shortchanged up to $700 a paycheque, which forced Guay to dip into her line of credit that was supposed to be for renovations on her home. She also increased the limit on her credit cards and paid extra interest.

Today she's expecting to finally see her first accurate pay cheque. She's "delighted," but said there is still a "Phoenix cloud" hanging over her that she wants to be compensated for so she can get out of a financial hole.

"We know we're not going to get compensation for the anxiety and stress, but it would be nice if they would just cover the interest we've had to incur because of debt," said Guay.

Half of claims fully reimbursed

In response to a request for more information, the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat provided CBC News with an updated number about how many cases have been handled.

As of June 26, nearly 1,000 claims have been filed for out-of-pocket expenses as a result of the Phoenix pay system.

- Fully paid: 52 per cent.

- Partially reimbursed: 32 per cent.

- Fully denied: 12 per cent.

- In progress: 4 per cent.

'There are criteria'

Treasury Board president Scott Brison said "it is our desire and intention to help" with out-of-pocket expenses caused by Phoenix.

"There are criteria that have to be met to qualify," Brison told CBC in Nova Scotia. "We believe those criteria are fair."

The criteria include proving that Phoenix is responsible for losses. Claims before Phoenix was implemented are not eligible. Emergency salary advances also may affect cases. The department said each claim is assessed on its own merits.

"It is completely unacceptable for public servants to either be paid inaccurately or not on time," said Brison. "We are frustrated and we will fix the Phoenix pay system. It has been one of the most difficult, IT systems issues that any government has had to deal with."
Officials with the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls may have more work to do convincing families of Sagkeeng First Nation it's worth participating in the process.

On Tuesday, at the request of leadership, the inquiry held a community visit to meet with families ahead of the fall hearings.

The First Nation is home to at least 15 women and girls who have been murdered or are missing, and has the greatest number of unsolved cases in Canada, according to a CBC analysis.

Gloria Guimond attended the meeting to honour her late mother who was found dead in a Winnipeg stairwell in 1975 and her-sister-in law who went missing in the mid-'80s. However, she admits she's not optimistic about the inquiry.

"I don't think nothing will come out of it," she said. "Just something that will be written in the history book."

The morning opened with a traditional ceremony where family members were presented with dream catchers adorned with the photos of the loved ones they've lost.

Following a sharing circle, lawyers, health workers and community relations staff with the inquiry were available for one-on-one meetings.

Christa Big Canoe, with the inquiry's legal counsel, said the goal of community visits is to build relationships with families and begin collecting information ahead of the fall hearings.

In the wake of the inquiry's delays, a series of resignations and criticism over a lack of communication, multiple families at Wednesday's visit expressed frustration and said they question what the inquiry will achieve.

Tina Fontaine's great aunt remains hopeful

Thelma Favel participated for her great niece Tina Fontaine. The 15-year-old's body was pulled from the Red River in Winnipeg in 2014  a case that shocked the nation and strengthened calls for the inquiry.

Favel said it was difficult to relive Tina's murder, but she was pleased with the community visit.

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"It's sad it had to be her, to get this thing going for her to die," Favel said. "But she is helping a lot of people, I see that now. I never seen that before."

Still, she said, there was confusion about whether commissioners were going to be at the pre-inquiry visit, and she remains unsure of what to expect of the outcome.

"They're working towards something that will hopefully better all kids lives. Not just aboriginals, it's everybody's lives I hope it benefits."

Sagkeeng Chief Derrick Henderson said despite the scrutiny the inquiry has drawn he hopes families give the process a chance.

"It's better than nothing," Henderson said. "They are here today with my community members and listening, that is something we wouldn't have got if we didn't engage."

Guimond said she doesn't think she will participate, but she supports her husband and other families who plan to.

"Somebody should tell the story of how all of these women have been murdered," Guimond said.
IT Trends

Linking Data to Decision-Making

Five information technology leaders explain how they use metrics to measure the impact of IT projects or cost-justify new investments.

Pennie Turgeon, vice president for information technology and chief information officer at Clark University (MA), has a theory that CIOs are defined by the types of problems they are asked to solve. "I want to solve university problems, not IT problems. That's the lens I have on different projects when they come my way."

Whenever possible, Turgeon looks for data to support the decision-making process. When those decisions involve infrastructure, she partners with business unit leaders to get the data to justify a decision. "We have spent a lot of time looking at data and trying to decide how we can use it to make better institutional decisions and start to develop a culture that looks more at data and relies less on gut decisions," she said.

In one example, Clark participates in the TechQual+ survey to better understand what end users expect from IT organizations. "The first time we did it we got slammed on wireless. We knew we were going to be," Turgeon recalled. "We used that data to say this is where we need to make improvements if we are going to give students what they expect out of a modern university." The survey results were used to justify a four-year, multimillion-dollar upgrade project.

Benchmarking Against Peers

Leah Lang, director of analytics services for Educause, says the CIOs she works with are looking for data to help make investment arguments to other executives on campus. "That is the No. 1 use case we hear," she said. Educause has been gathering financial, staffing and service benchmarks since 2002 through its Core Data Service. CIOs look at peer organizations to assess their spending and staffing, to adjust the size of their departments and to make the case for budgeting and staffing requests. In 2016, Educause began gathering data about what campuses are spending on in-house infrastructure vs. external providers.

"We are in a data-driven decision-making culture now," Lang said. "We are no longer in an environment where you can go on instinct. So even though most of the time this data supports your instinct, unless you have the data to support your argument, you are vulnerable in that argument."

Jack Suess, vice president of information technology and CIO at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, said that he uses the Core Data Service to look at staff numbers in specific areas. "I am trying to understand if I am aligning my staff resources similarly to my peers," he said. Here is one example: UMBC has more employees in telephony than other campuses its size because it is one of the few campuses that still handles its own internal wiring. "Digging a little deeper, because we are a relatively young campus we have been doing a lot of building, so we manage to save the campus money by doing this work in house versus going outside," Suess said. "That is where the Core Data Service can be helpful. It allowed me to explore and ask good questions."

But Suess emphasized that you have to know the local context to really understand the data. He noted that UMBC has historically been underfunded for its mission in the Maryland university system. "When I look at my IT budget compared to other peers around the country, there are places we are a little lower funded," he said. "But if I looked at the registrar's office of financial services, they would look the same way. So before I run into the CFO's office with this data, I have to understand the funding context."
Funding, Grants & Awards

U North Texas Lands Funding to Launch Human Intelligence and Language Technologies Lab

The University of North Texas (UNT) recently landed funding from a private partner to develop new analytics techniques.

The funding comes from Lease Analytics and establishes the Human Intelligence and Language Technologies (HILT) Lab at the university, with the mission to develop new techniques for inferring meaning from specific images, words, phrases or sentences. Housed in the College of Engineering, HILT will study natural language processing, machine learning and cognitive science with a focus on improving machine understanding of text and spoken language.

"The algorithms produced will have potential broad application in industry and government agencies interested in the growing fields of data analytics, and could make skilled human analysts far more productive in analyzing large volumes of current and historic documents," according to a news release about the partnership.

"We will use this fund to find new ways to tag oil and gas leases and contracts with categories of interest, and improve classification, search and clustering beyond word presence," said Eduardo Blanco, assistant professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering and co-director of the HILT Lab, in a prepared statement.

"We are very excited to support the faculty and students at UNT," said President and CEO of Lease Analytics Tom Agnew in a news release. "UNT has had a preeminent position in both oil and gas accounting and information sciences. Our most capable data scientists have come from the graduate program at UNT. This research will drastically reduce back office error rates, and I look forward to seeing the results of this project."
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New York, July 27, 2017Police in the Maldives should cease detaining journalists covering events of significant public interest, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today. Police yesterday briefly detained seven journalists from the private television channels Sangu TV and Raajje TV as they covered an opposition party protest, according to police and media reports.

Police in the capital Male detained Sangu TVs Adam Janah, Ahmed Riffath, Mohamed Shanoon, and Abdullah Yameen and Raajje TV senior journalists Mohamed Wisam, Murshid Abdul-Hakeem, and Raajje TV video journalist Ahmed Mamdhooh for more than two hours last night as they attempted to cover a protest outside the opposition Maldivian Democratic Partys meeting hall to mark the countrys independence day, the Maldives Independent reported. The journalists were accused of obstructing police completing their duties, the newspaper reported.

Hussein Fiyaz Moosa, chief operations officer at Raajje TV, told the Maldives Independent that police kicked Abdul-Hakeem. He told CPJ that police damaged the reporters video equipment.

Maldives police detained seven Sangu TV and Raajje TV journalists on the accusation they were obstructing police doing their jobs, when in reality it was the police who obstructed the journalists doing their jobs, CPJ Asia Program Coordinator Steven Butler said from Washington, D.C. Authorities in the Maldives should let journalists report the news without hindrance or fear of attack.

Maldives police superintendent and spokesperson Ahmed Shifan told CPJ that the journalists did not behave in a professional manner.

We didnt arrest any journalists, Shifan told CPJ. We detained some protestors while they were on the run and unfortunately some journalists were [among] them.

Yameen is the only journalist of the group whom police called in for questioning on obstruction charges, Shifan said, though Yameen has not yet been charged with a crime. The other journalists will not face any criminal charges, Shifan said, adding that the police department will send their reports to the Maldives Media Council, which he called the parent and regulating body of the media. The council is a government-regulated body authorized to investigate complaints and impose fines for journalists and media outlets, according to the Maldives Independent.

Shifan told CPJ that the police department had started an internal inquiry into the treatment of journalists at the rally yesterday.
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New York, July 27, 2017Moroccan authorities should lift any restriction on the ability of journalists Jose Luis Navazo and Fernando Sanz to enter the country and should allow journalists to report freely on matters of public interest, including protests, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

Three plainclothes officers from the General Directorate of National Security (DGSN) arrested Navazo and Sanz, the director of the Spanish-language news website El Correo Diplomatico and a reporter for the site, respectively, from Navazos home in the northern Moroccan city of Tetouan, Sanz told CPJ today. The officers did not explain to the journalists why they were arresting them, and did not allow them to bring any personal belongings with them, Sanz said. Police held the journalists in Tetouans police headquarters for roughly an hour before escorting them to the Tarajal crossing in Ceuta (Sebta) and deporting them, without any interrogation or explanation, Sanz told CPJ. Ceuta is a Spanish enclave on the Moroccan side of the Strait of Gibraltar.

Northern Morocco has been the site of protests since October 2016, when a fishmonger was crushed to death inside a garbage truck while trying to retrieve fish police had confiscated from him, according to news reports. Sanzwho lives in Madridtold CPJ he had entered Morocco in June to report on the protests.

Moroccan authorities are trying to prevent news about protests in the northern Rif region from reaching international audiences, CPJ Middle East and North Africa Program Coordinator Sherif Mansour said from Washington, D.C. We call on Moroccan authorities to lift any restriction on Navazo and Sanz ability to enter the country, and to allow journalists to report freely, including from Rif.

Government spokesperson Moustapha Khalfi and the DGSN did not immediately respond to CPJs requests for comment, and Sanz said Moroccan Minister of Communication Mohamed Laaraj had not yet replied to an open letter that the two journalists had sent requesting information on the reason for their deportation.

Laaraj told the news website Morocco World News that the two men had entered the country as tourists, and that they had sought to shoot images and take statements from people in Tetouan, but they did not possess shooting permits.

Had they asked for a shooting permit, the Ministry of Communications could have granted them permission, Laaraj told the webiste.

Navazo, who is married to a Moroccan citizen, has lived in the country for 17 years and has previously interviewed both Prime Minister Saad al-Din al-Othmani and the opposition activist Nasser al-Zefzafi, who is now on trial on charges including undermin[ing] the internal security of Morocco, Sanz said. The journalists do not know if there are any restrictions to their ability to travel to Morocco, Sanz said.

Moroccan authorities last month deported Djamel Alilat, a reporter for the daily Algerian newspaper Al-Watan, after he covered protests in Al-Nador, also in the Rif region, according to media reports. On July 25, a Moroccan court sentenced Hamid al-Mahdaoui, editor of the news website Badil, to three months in prison and a fine of 20,000 Moroccan dirhams (roughly U.S.$2000) for breaking the law through speeches and shouting in public spaces during a protest in the city of al-Hoceima, according to news reports. Al-Mahdaoui, who denies the charges, said he did not give any speeches, and was arrested on his way to cover the protest, according to the reports.

EDITORS NOTE: This text has been corrected to reflect that Sanz lives in Madrid and entered Morocco in June.
'The only evidence linking the appellants to the murder was oral

confessions they allegedly made to police officers.'

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) has granted freedom to 2 Barbadian men who were on death row for a 2006 murder.





The Trinidad-base court quashed the convictions of Vincent Edwards and Richard Haynes, who had been in jail since their arrest in 2007, ruling that they could not be upheld because the only evidence presented by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) was insufficient.





The only evidence linking the appellants to the murder was oral confessions they allegedly made to police officers in separate interviews at a police station July 19, 2007, almost a year after Alleyne's shooting death.





Their attorney, Queen's Counsel Andrew Pilgrim, had argued that the evidence was unreliable and, as such, the judge should have dismissed the case against the appellants.





The CCJ considered whether a defendant may be convicted in circumstances where the only evidence against him is a disputed and uncorroborated oral confession allegedly made to investigating police officers whilst the accused was in police custody.





In its judgment, delivered by Justice Winston Anderson, the court acknowledged that prior to the Evidence Act which was passed in 1994, there was case law that supported the position that a man could be convicted of an offence where the sole evidence against him was an alleged oral confession, provided that the jury was warned that such a conviction may be unsafe. But it also highlighted that the purpose of the Evidence Act was "to reform the law relating to evidence in proceedings in courts" and to apply "standards that are more stringent than the common law, [compel] the judiciary to be guided by fresh approaches and [require] the executive to make available to the police new technologies".





According to the CCJ, the evidence against Edwards and Haynes therefore had to be reliable, especially given that the punishment on the statute books in Barbados for murder was death.





"Based on the spirit of the Evidence Act, alleged confessions made while in police custody could only meet this standard where it was supported by sound or video recordings of or by some other independent evidence linking the accused to the offence. For example, evidence from a witness other than another police officer or some form of forensic evidence (e.g. DNA or fingerprint). In this case, there was no other evidence and as such the judge should have dismissed the case against the appellants," the court ruled.





Justice Saunders was also of the view that even if the evidence was sufficient, the judge did not properly warn the jury in accordance with the Act.





"It was not sufficient for the judge to merely warn the jury that the confessions may have been fabricated by the police; the judge should have also advised the jury that the appellants found themselves in a vulnerable position as they were in police custody where there was no video or sound recording or some independent person present at the interview who could confirm their account of what actually took place. Additionally, the judge should have told the jury that police officers were generally "practised witnesses" and it was difficult to tell when such a witness was being dishonest," the court said.





Back in November 2015, the CCJ had rejected an earlier application filed on behalf of the 2 accused men and ordered that their case be sent back to the Barbados Court of Appeal.





At the time, Edwards and Haynes, who were convicted of murder in June 2013 and sentenced to death, were challenging the unconstitutionality of the mandatory death penalty, but the CCJ had sent the matter back to the Barbados Court of Appeal for a determination of how that issue should be resolved.





In its ruling yesterday, the CCJ again criticized the 1994 suspension of Section 72 of the Evidence Act which makes provision for the use of video and sound recordings whenever an accused wished to make a confession.





Justice Saunders contended that "such an argument is no longer sustainable in this technological era especially in light of the fact that Caribbean states with fewer resources now require police officers to record official interviews with suspects and have been making good use of such technologies".





While the CCJ allowed the appeals and quashed the convictions, it emphasized that nothing in the judgment was meant to cast a slur on the integrity or propriety of the Royal Barbados Police Force or of the police officers who served in the case. It stressed that there was no evidence that the officers involved acted in any way inconsistent with the high traditions of professionalism and probity.





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: caribbean360.com, July 27, 2017
Southern and east Africa, the Middle East and south Asia

persist with the most draconian approaches.

50 years after Britain's partial decriminalisation of homosexuality, in eight countries it can still result in death penalty





50 years after homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales, 72 other countries and territories worldwide continue to criminalise same-sex relationships, including 45 in which sexual relationships between women are outlawed.





There are 8 countries in which homosexuality can result in a death penalty, and dozens more in which homosexual acts can result in a prison sentence, according to an annual report by the International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (ILGA).





Southern and east Africa, the Middle East and south Asia persist with the most draconian approaches. Western Europe and the western hemisphere are the most tolerant.





But Britain was by no means a frontrunner when it moved 50 years ago to partly decriminalise homosexuality. Some 20 other countries had already led the way, including France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Brazil and Argentina, all of whom had legalised it well before 1900.





In Iran, Sudan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, homosexuality is still punishable by death, under sharia law. The same applies in parts of Somalia and northern Nigeria. In 2 other countries - Syria and Iraq - the death penalty is carried out by non-state actors, including Islamic State.





The report notes that, although the potential exists for a death penalty to be handed down under sharia courts in at least 5 other countries - Pakistan, Afghanistan, the UAE, Qatar and Mauritania - there is no evidence suggesting that it has been implemented for consensual same-sex acts between adults in private.





Same-sex relations - which are variously criminalised under laws covering sodomy, buggery and "acts against nature" among others - could lead to a prison sentence in 71 states in all.





However, this number excludes Egypt, where same-sex relations are technically legal but are vigorously pursued and where hundreds of people are reported to be detained on morality grounds.





Altogether, more than 120 countries have decriminalised homosexuality. But some still cannot be described as liberal. Russia, for example, has recently introduced laws banning the promotion of homosexuality. Russia was recently rebuked by the European court of human rights for a 2013 law banning the spread of "propaganda of non-traditional sexual relations" among minors.





A co-author of the ILGA report, Aengus Carroll, said it remained the case that there was "no country in the world where LGBT people are safe from discrimination, stigmatisation or violence".





"Legislative change is slow enough in coming, but societal attitudes, particularly those that may evoke taboo, are painstakingly slow," he said.





However, he pointed to some positive developments, in countries including Botswana, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Tunisia, where advocates have recently won court cases affirming the right to form organisations to lobby for rights.





There have also been "amazing strides" on sexual orientation and gender identity issues around the world.





A parliamentary vote in Germany will lead to the legalisation of same-sex marriage later this year; marriage equality in Malta will bring to 24 the number of states allowing gay marriage. A similar number of states offer civil partnership recognition.





At the time of publication of the ILGA report, there were 26 countries that allowed for joint adoption for same-sex couples and 27 in which same-sex second parent adoption - where a same-sex parent can legally become a step-parent to his or her partner's child - was in place.





A spokesman for the LGBT charity Stonewall said that, while it was important to remember how far the UK had come on LGBT rights since the 1967 Sexual Offences Act, many challenges remained.





"Same-sex relations are illegal in 72 countries, and punishable by death in 8. We all have a part to play in ensuring all LGBT people are accepted without exception and all we can hope is that, in 50 more years, we will have lots more progress to look back on," said Matt Horwood.





"Trans people still face a number of legal barriers and LGBT people as a whole continue to face discrimination in their daily lives. LGBT people can find themselves excluded, or face verbal and physical abuse, whether at work, at school, in sport, in faith or within local communities."

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: The Guardian, July 27, 2017
Halamish, Samaria, Israel

Except for the U.S., the entire Western world got rid of the death penalty 20 years ago, but the justice and education ministers are desperate to bring it to Israel





The heads of Habayit Hayehudi have launched a despicable campaign. Since the attack in Halamish they have been ranting and raving about the military justice system, trampling on the separation of powers and tweeting demands for the death penalty for the terrorist who was captured alive. The murderers of children and families deserve death, tweeted Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked. As if we werent talking about cabinet members, one the justice minister and the other the education minister, but rather a couple of unknown online commentators.





Only two people have ever been executed in Israel. The first was an Israel Defense Forces officer, Meir Tobianski, who was convicted of espionage in a drumhead trial a month after the state was declared, even though he was innocent. The second was Nazi war criminal Adolf Eichmann, one of the architects of the Holocaust. Those are the proportions.





No murderer, even in the most heinous crime, terror attack or criminal case, has ever been executed here. The claim by Naftali Bennett and Shaked that military law allows for the death penalty and all thats needed is to ask is lame disingenuousness. The death penalty is a dead letter in Israeli law, both civilian and military. Prosecutors havent asked for it in years.





The entire Western world got rid of the death penalty 20 years ago, except for the United States, and even there the number of executions has been dropping. Even international courts, in which people are prosecuted for horrific cases of genocide, dont have the death penalty. Where is it widely utilized? In Iran, China and other police states. Bennett and Shaked are well aware of this. After all, only two years ago they voted along with 92 other MKs against the death penalty for terrorists.





The death penalty is irreversible and it has already been proven the world over that there are many blunders in the process that leads to executions, including, as noted, here in Israel. In the United States, clear discrimination has also been proven against minorities and the poor in the meting out of death sentences.





But all these arguments, as important as they are, are dwarfed by the moral issue: Execution, murder by law, is one of the worst injustices in human society. I have no affection or mercy for the murderer, which is why I dont want to become one. Cries of death, death are a beastly display that leaves a bad echo. Its the same with the hateful campaign against the soldier who only neutralized the terrorist at Halamish, but didnt kill him. This has nothing to do with the war against terror. This is bloodlust, as if there isnt enough blood and death in the world. When the mother of the soldier said, We are not murderers, we are defenders, shes right. This woman and her son are role models. By contrast, Bennett and Shaked are whipping up violent feelings.





There is no point in asking whether the death penalty is a deterrent  which it isnt, by the way. Even the terrorist in this case wanted to die. But lets say it is a deterrent  so what? That means that its right? Lets say we discover that killing a persons whole family would be a deterrent, would we pass a law to kill the families of criminals? What if destroying a whole village deters? In confronting murder and killing, we must act according to a different, worthy and moral code.





We must eliminate the death penalty entirely. A religious person might say that decrees of death are in the hands of God, not in human hands. I think that its absolutely in human hands, and each person [must] choose whether to be a human being or to lose all semblance of humanity.





Those who presume to lead a party called The Jewish Home, and which talks incessantly about Judaism, ought to know that the Jews were the first in the world to do away with the death penalty.





The Sanhedrin was authorized to sentence violators to death, but rarely did so. Rabbi Tarfon and Rabbi Akiva state, If we had been on the Sanhedrin, no one would ever have been executed, (Tractate Makot). During the Second Temple era the Sanhedrin refused to hear capital cases, and since then the death penalty has effectively been abolished in Israel. Thats our heritage, thats our Jewish pride. Do they want to restore the gallows here?





Leave killing to the Angel of Death. He has his hands full. We will concentrate on life.

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The Supreme Court upheld the death sentence issued by the Specialist Criminal Court and supported by the Specialist Penal Appeals Court against 14 Saudis including a security man considered a traitor and 2 wanted militants on the "list of 23" in what is known as the Al-Awamiya cell.





The accused are facing the death penalty due to their involvement in terrorist crimes in Al-Qatif, Saihat, Al-Awamiya and Al-Jash in the Eastern Province.





They carried out over 50 armed terrorist attacks on Al-Awamiya and Al-Qatif police stations and Al-Qatif Prison.





They also targeted several checkpoints and 20 security patrols. These resulted in the martyrdom of several security men and injury to scores.





In another development, Okaz has learned that the Specialist Penal Appeals Court has upheld the verdicts issued by the Specialist Criminal Court against the members of a spy ring accused of espionage for Iranian Intelligence.





The verdicts include the death sentence for 15 Saudis and various jail terms ranging from 6 months to 25 years against 14 Saudis and Iranians. Meanwhile, a Saudi and an Afghani were acquitted.





All the sessions of the Specialist Criminal Court in Riyadh on national security-related cases are open to the local media and representatives of diplomatic and rights bodies.

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: Saudi Gazette, July 27, 2017
The United States applauds the Council of the European Unions recent decision to sanction sixteen Syrian military officials and scientists for their roles in the development and use of chemical weapons on civilian populations on behalf of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The sanctions on eight members of the Scientific Studies and Research Centre as well as eight high-ranking officials follow upon similar actions by the U.S. and other allies aimed at holding the Assad government accountable for violating the United Nations Chemical Weapons Convention by gassing its own people.

Such attacks include one on the town of Khan Shaykhun in Idlib province last April. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons has determined that sarin gas was used in the attack, which killed at least 82 civilians, including children. U.S. and other Western intelligence reports say the Assad regime was responsible. According to the United Nations, there were also three incidents in 2016 where chlorine gas was used on civilians. The sanctions will freeze the financial assets of the sixteen Syrians and restrict their ability to travel.

The United States is committed to reducing civilian suffering in Syria and recently agreed with Russia and Jordan to support a ceasefire and the delivery of humanitarian assistance in the Southwest region. Russia has backed the Assad regime in the conflict.

U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson called the agreement the first indication the U.S. and Russia can work together in Syria, and noted hopes that the progress can be replicated with further ceasefires throughout the country:

Russia, said Secretary Tillerson, has the same, I think, interest that we do in having Syria become a stable place, a unified place, but ultimately a place where we can facilitate a political discussion about their future, including the future leadership of Syria.

He made clear, however, that the Assad regime has lost credibility with the international community.

We think it will be difficult, he said, For them to attract both the humanitarian aid, as well as the reconstruction assistance that's going to be required, because there just will be such a low level of confidence in the Assad government.

How Assad leaves is yet to be determined, said Secretary Tillerson, But our view is that somewhere in that political process there will be a transition away from the Assad family.
The U.S. Department of States Rewards for Justice Program is offering a reward of up to $5 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction in any country of any individual who committed, conspired to commit, or aided or abetted in the commission of the murder of U.S. citizen Joel Shrum.

On March 18, 2012, Shrum, 29, was shot and killed on his way to work in Taizz, Yemen, by a gunman riding on the back of a motorcycle that had pulled up alongside his vehicle. At the time of his death, Shrum was an administrator and English teacher at the International Training and Development Center, one of the longest standing international development organizations in Yemen.

A few days after the attack, the terrorist organization Al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the murder.

Since its inception in 1984, the Rewards for Justice Program has paid in excess of $125 million to more than 80 people who provided actionable information that helped bring terrorists to justice or prevented acts of international terrorism worldwide. You can follow Rewards for Justice on Twitter: @Rewards4Justice.

More information about the Shrum reward offer is located on the Rewards for Justice website at www.rewardsforjustice.net. Anyone with information on this case can contact the Rewards for Justice office via the website, e-mail: info@rewardsforjustice.net, phone: 1-800-877-3927 in North America, or mail: Rewards for Justice, Washington, D.C., 20520-0303, USA.

All information will be kept strictly confidential.
DMT can be extracted from the 'Bufo alvarius' toad. getty

Behind the name of spirit molecule or escamas de sapo (toad scales) there hides a powerful drug, and it has arrived in Spain at popular vacation destinations such as Tarifa and Ibiza, where ceremonies have recently been held to smoke the drug with the solemnity of a spiritual rite. The effects of this psychoactive substance include hallucinations, visions, and fainting fits.

Its principle active ingredient is DMT, or dimethyltryptamine, belonging to the family of tryptamines. Its structure is analogous to neurotransmitters such as serotonin and it provokes an altered state of consciousness, explains Dr Jose Angel Morale, a scientist at Alberto Sols Biomedical Research Institute (IIBM) in Madrid and who has done the most research on DMT in Spain.

During tests involving DMT some people claimed they could see extraterrestrials

It can be found in small amounts naturally in many different living organisms. Even human beings produce it through the pineal gland in situations of stress. Hence, some individuals associate its effects with visions that are reported to be seen before death.

DMT can also be found in ayahuasca, a traditional drink prepared and used by the shamans of the Amazon. It is made from from the Banisteriopsis caapi vine along with leaves from plants including Pyschotria viridis or Diplopterys cabrerana, and it is used in ceremonies to reach a different state of consciousness.

According to experts, the spirit molecule has an intense but brief effect. American psychiatrist Rick Strassman demonstrated using tests with volunteers, which confirmed that effects began within a few seconds of consumption and only lasted a few minutes. After the tests, carried out between 1990 and 1995 at the University of New Mexico Hospital, some claimed they could see extraterrestrials. Other reported hallucinations included the perception that their heads were separating from their bodies or that they had the ability to speak with angels.

In Spain, there are several companies dedicated to organizing events around the consumption of DMT. With the idea of a spiritual retreat in mind, Inner Mastery holds sessions in which participants consume the drug, which has been extracted from Bufo alvarius  a toad species that contains it. The prices for these sessions, led by a facilitator, range from 195 for a one-day admission to 555 for a three-day package. The business also offers sessions with ayahuasca. Currently, DMT lacks specific regulation in Spain.

English version by Henry Hahn.
The sound of a woodwind instrument and a drum break the silence in the streets of El Carpio de Tajo on Tuesday afternoon. Two musicians, instruments in hand, lead a procession headed to the Plaza de Espana in this village in Toledo, where around 500 people are awaiting the arrival of the riders of the Brotherhood of Santiago. Among them is 53-year-old member of the military Jose Antonio Segovia, who is about to draw the applause of the crowd.

The clapping will come after he fixes his stare on the neck of a goose that is hanging from a rope by its feet, and gallops the 20 meters toward it, before stretching out his arm and trying to wrench the animals head from its body. Then he can expect cheers, kisses, and congratulations. In this municipality of 2,000 inhabitants, the yearly fiestas are underway.

The understanding was reached that it was unnecessary for the geese to suffer, and now they are killed beforehand

For us this is a tradition and we are proud of it, explains Segovia about the so-called goose races, a practice that draws the ire of animal-rights groups and is part of the annual festivities.

The geese whose heads are literally up for grabs are dead. But years back, they were strung up while still alive. The understanding was reached that it was unnecessary for them to suffer, and now they are killed beforehand, explains the horseman. My father was a racer and I hope that my son and my daughter will be too.

According to the local council, these fiestas, which celebrate the towns patron saint, Santiago, have taken place for more than 400 years. The first statutes of the Brotherhood of Santiago, from that era, mention them, although their origins could come from the Middle Ages, explains the council about the celebrations.

A rider manages to decapitate one of the animals. A. Garcia

The equestrian activities start with three races, which take place at 10am, 1pm and 7pm. The riders barrel through the streets of the village in pairs, holding on to one another. They must display their equestrian skill by holding each other by the shoulder and trying to keep the horses as close together and traveling as fast as possible.

Once the 7pm race is over, its time for the main course: the decapitation of the geese. At 7.45pm, two groups of workers raise two large wooden posts, six meters apart, and join them with a thick rope. Then they tie the first animal to the cord and raise it up into the air, where it hangs among a row of small plastic flags representing Spain, Castilla-La Mancha and the European Union. There is a murmur of expectation among the crowd, and all eyes are on the first rider, who is headed to his target. On the first attempt, he rips off the head. The rider kisses his fingers and signals toward the sky. The village band starts to play the national anthem from the town hall balcony.

Two of the riders in the Plaza de Espana. A. G.

The fiestas in El Carpio de Tajo passed off on Tuesday without incident. In this village, located 40 kilometers from Toledo, locals ignore the repeated complaints filed by animal-rights groups, who have been campaigning against the goose races for years.

Its an archaic and unnecessary activity, says Silvia Barquero, the president of Spains Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA). They kill animals with the sole aim of keeping them as trophies for the participants. No one could possibly conceive that someone could enjoy themselves like this in the 21st century, she argues.

PACMA was also behind the campaign to end the Toro de la Vega fiestas, in which locals in the Valladolid town of Tordesillas pursue a bull on horseback, finally cornering it and killing it with lances. In 2016, the hunt went ahead, but the regional government banned killing the bull.

The horseriders barrel through the streets of the village in pairs, holding on to one another

The sensitivities of people in this country is very different from the image that this absurd, violent and inexcusable tradition offers us, adds Carmen Cordoba, a woman from Alicante who is committed to stopping the fiestas in El Carpio and who has collected 135,000 signatures via the Change.org campaigning website in support of her campaign. The list of names was handed over in June to the Castilla-La Mancha regional government.

The mayor of the town, German Jimenez, describes the controversy as false, insisting that the races take place without incident and are supported by the majority of residents, who already came up against animal-rights groups three decades ago. That time, they lost.

Its an archaic and unnecessary activity

Silvia Barquero, president of Spains Animalist Party Against Mistreatment of Animals (PACMA)

The decapitation of live geese at the Santiago fiestas, which was banned by the Toledo Civil Government at the beginning of the 1970s, was reestablished, explains a book about the history of El Carpio. But this custom was vilified by the public. On the request of the Society for the Protection of Animals, there was such a fuss that the Government banned it outright in 1983.

At 8.57pm applause can be heard again in the Plaza de Espana. The spectacle is over and the riders, after having left 21 geese headless  some after as many as 20 tries  make their way to the house of the next hermano. He will be carrying the banner of the brotherhood at the fiestas in 2018. Many thanks, he says, clearly emotional. I hope that next year we will enjoy ourselves at least as much as this year.

English version by Simon Hunter.
Political reaction to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoys court statements on Wednesday was swift and scathing. Soon after the Popular Party (PP) leader walked out of the courthouse where he had testified as a witness in the long-running Gurtel trial, involving widespread political graft, all the opposition parties issued their views on this unprecedented event.

PSOE leader Pedro Sanchez at a press conference on Wednesday. Victor Lerena (EFE)

Rafael Hernando, the PP spokesman in Congress, was alone in his view that Rajoys statements had been impeccable. As for the opposition, everyone agreed that the PM had failed to provide satisfactory explanations.

Pedro Sanchez, secretary general of the Socialist Party (PSOE), the main opposition group in Congress, said that it is a dark day for democracy when a head of government has to testify in a corruption case. In a long statement that he read out at party headquarters, Sanchez concluded that Rajoy has just one way out: to tend his resignation to the king.

Rajoy on Wednesday denied any knowledge of the existence of a secret slush fund at the Popular Party

Mr Rajoy, out of democratic dignity, you must resign. I resigned to defend what I stand for. What do you stand for? said Sanchez, alluding to when he quit as PSOE leader in early October of last year, when Spain was trapped in a political stalemate following two inconclusive general elections, and his party decided to let Rajoy be reinstated by abstaining at a congressional vote. Sanchez had opposed that move. He was later re-elected to the post of secretary general.

The image of the countrys prime minister in the courts, he added, is the summary of six years of excesses and plundering by the PP.

In a similar vein, the leader of the anti-austerity party Podemos, Pablo Iglesias, said he felt embarrassed by the impertinent and cocky tone employed by Rajoy to speak in court. Either Rajoy is lying to protect the PP, or else he is a tremendously negligent man. He should not remain the head of government, he said.

It's embarrassing to see the impertinence and cockiness with which Rajoy speaks to citizens.

Joan Baldovi, the congressional speaker for the Valencia coalition Compromis, agreed that a secretary general who is completely ignorant about the economic affairs of his own party is either lying or incompetent.

On Wednesday, Rajoy had claimed that while he was party chief he had only dealt with political issues, not financial ones. I was never in charge of anything to do with accounting, he told the court, after being asked about the alleged existence of a parallel accounting system used for opaque donations and illegal party financing.

Barcelona Mayor Ada Colau also criticized Rajoys statements. All his I dont remembers are offensive, she tweeted.

All [Rajoys] I dont remembers are offensive: Barcelona mayor Ada Colau

Jose Manuel Villegas, secretary general of the protest party Ciudadanos, considered Rajoys statement not very credible and said it is deplorable for a head of government to have to testify in court over corruption in his own party.

Josu Erkoreka, the Basque government spokesman, said at a press conference that the PP owes society a credible, comprehensive and profound explanation about all the corruption cases that have emerged one after the other in recent years.

English version by Susana Urra.
The Catalan governments plans to secede from Spain took a step forward on Wednesday after the regional parliament approved reforms to its statutes that will allow laws to be approved after a single reading, meaning legislation required for the holding of the October 1 independence referendum could be fast-tracked with little or no debate.

Catalan Regional Premier Carles Puigdemont on Wednesday. Andreu Dalmau (EFE)

The reform was supported by the ruling Junts pel Si coalition and the radical left CUP, while opposition parties argued the reforms breach the Spanish Constitution.

The reform would allow the pro-independence Junts pel Si and CUP parties to request draft bills related to the independence process be given a single reading that would not require agreement by all parties for approval. This would effectively prevent the opposition from presenting amendments or exercising control over procedure. The vote on Wednesday was tense, with 72 deputies from Junts pel Si and CUP voting in favor, and 63 opposition members voting against it.

It is incoherent to defend the rights of deputies and minorities but not the right of self-determination Anna Gabriel of the CUP party

Joan Coscubiela of the left-leaning Catalunya Si que es Pot party described the reform as an attack on the essence of parliamentary democracy. Alejandro Fernandez of the Popular Party went further, accusing Catalan regional premier Carles Puigdemont and his supporters of implementing a lunatic strategy.

Anna Gabriel of CUP dismissed the criticism, saying: Cant you see that your discourse has no credibility, because it is incoherent to defend the rights of deputies and minorities but not the right of self-determination.

The assumption now is that the fast-track procedure will be used at the session scheduled for September 6 to approve the legislation required to carry out the referendum Puigdemont says will go ahead on October 1, despite the total opposition of the central government in Madrid, which argues that the proposed plebiscite breaches the Spanish Constitution. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pledged he will not allow the referendum to go ahead.

It remains to be seen whether the new law will be used to approve the so-called transition laws before October that set out the procedures for breaking away from Spain in the event of popular support for independence.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has pledged he will not allow the referendum to go ahead

Wednesdays plenary session was the last before the summer break, but deputies will return on August 16, rather than the usual date of September 1, allowing time for other initiatives to be debated ahead of the September 6 session.

Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy is expected to lodge an appeal before the Constitutional Court after the Friday Cabinet meeting, which would suspend the law approved on Wednesday for a maximum of five months. That said, Puigdemont believes that nothing can now delay the momentum of the independence referendum, which is set to be approved at the September 6 session in the Catalan regional parliament.

All legislation must be in place in Catalonia by September 15, in time for the electoral campaign in the run-up to the October 1 referendum.

It remains to be seen how the Catalan authorities will respond to Rajoys likely appeal to the Constitutional Court. Either the referendum will be called before Madrid appeals against Wednesdays new law, or Puigdemont goes ahead and approves the referendum by decree, despite the Constitutional Court having suspended the law. Puigdemont told French daily Le Figaro recently that he would not accept such a decision.

English version by Nick Lyne.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The pro-Armenian congressman Brad Sherman insists on providing the UKs HALO Trust non-governmental organization, which is training the Armenian occupiers to mine Azerbaijani territories, with funds.

During the US House of Representatives subcommittee hearing on "Examining the Presidents FY 2018 Budget Proposal for Europe and Eurasia" member of the House Committee on Foreign Relations and, of course, member of the Congressional Caucus on Armenian Issues, Congressman Brad Sherman urged the US to support the mine-clearing process in Azerbaijans Nagorno-Karabakh region occupied by Armenia.

As always, Sherman "forgot" to mention about the occupation of Nagorno-Karabakh region. He also "forgot" to mention that the assistance will be rendered to the HALO Trust organization, which manages the illegal mine clearing work. Azerbaijan, of course, has not given consent on carrying out the so-called mine clearing work, which has been going on the territory of Azerbaijan, the territory of which has been recognized by the US as well.

The pro-Armenian congressmans interest in mine clearing work in Azerbaijani territories occupied by Armenia is obvious. According to the information posted by the organization on its website, the residents of Nagorno-Karabakh region are involved in mine clearing process. The Armenian occupiers, in particular, representatives of military organizations, will obtain skills which can be and will likely to be used against Azerbaijan in the occupied territories.

A decision was made to close the OSCE Office in Yerevan in September because of this threat. As the HALO Trust, OSCE Office in Yerevan also launched mine clearing operations in the Azerbaijani territories without the mandate or consent of the Azerbaijani side.

In general, the activity of the UKs NGO raises many legitimate questions and its peaceful mission, as it says, in the occupied Azerbaijani territories is doubtful although cooperation with the occupier does not accord with the notion of a "peaceful" mission.

The way of the NGOs presenting the information about its illegitimate activity on its own website is worth noting. Nagorno-Karabakh region, occupied by Armenia, is mentioned as a separate and independent state, rather than as part of Azerbaijan, which contradicts the resolutions of the UN General Assembly and all norms of international law.

Moreover, one can see the Armenian name of the capital of the Azerbaijani district, rather than the internationally recognized geographical name of Khankendi, on the map.

Aside from that, the borders of the occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region cover, for some reason, other seven surrounding districts of Azerbaijan, which are also under the occupation of Armenia, while the Azerbaijani district centers have Armenian names (Mardakert, Martuni, Hadrut).

It is clear that Armenians actively assisted the UKs NGO in the creation of the section on illegitimate activity of the NGO in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region on www.halotrust.org. This is not the first time when they are trying to rewrite history, as well as geography in their own interests.

Baku repeatedly drew the world's attention to the illegal activity of this UKs NGO. In 2011, Baku did not give permission to transport the equipment of this NGO to Afghanistan through the Azerbaijani territory.

During that time, Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Abid Sharifov told reporters that he instructed the relevant organizations to prohibit the transfer of equipment and cars of HALO Trust through the countrys territory as the organization has been included in Azerbaijans "black list" due to its illegal activity in occupied Nagorno-Karabakh region.

This, however, didn't stop the NGO from carrying out illegal activity and did not affect the illegal activity of its sappers in the Azerbaijani territories which threatens the security.

As for Congressman Shermans request, it is strange that the representative of the authorities of the US, which is a country not only living according to the principles of international law, but also the OSCE Minsk Group co-chair, which is designed to resolve the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, rather than exacerbate it, is involved in another Armenian provocation.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Elmira Tariverdiyeva  Trend:

The Armenian National Committee of Canada (ANCC) said in a statement that it was appalled to learn that the Canadian government granted a permit for the export of modern military equipment from Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing to Azerbaijan.

In a letter to Canada's Minister of International Trade Francois-Philippe Champagne, the ANCC urged the Canadian government to immediately halt the export of weapons to Azerbaijan and take the necessary steps to cancel this decision.

The highlight of the statement by representatives of the Armenian lobby  one of the most ardent inspirers of Armenian President Serzh Sargsyans occupation regime and the Armenian diaspora that finances military crimes against Azerbaijani civilians  is the allegation that, Such transfers of dangerous weaponry to rogue states such as Azerbaijan violate the very basic norms of Canadas arms exports regulations and pose a significant danger to domestic and regional stability.

It is worth drawing special attention of representatives of the Armenian diaspora in Canada to the fact that it is Armenia that has been violating international law for more than 20 years by occupying the lands recognized by the whole world, including Canada, as Azerbaijans sovereign territory.

Perhaps, it would be useful for the Armenian diaspora in Canada to realize that Armenia, by continuing the occupation of Azerbaijani lands and thus jeopardizing the regional stability, in fact contributes to continuation of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Maybe only after this the Armenian diaspora in Canada will stop writing foolish things to the Canadian minister and calling Azerbaijan a rogue state. Armenia itself is a rogue state, because of its relations with neighbors.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

A delegation of the Azerbaijani Armed Forces left for Kazakhstan to participate in the Sniper Line and Masters of Artillery Fire competitions, to be held as part of the International Army Games 2017, Azerbaijans Defense Ministry said July 27.

The competitions will take place on August 1-9 at Kazakhstans Otar military base.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Russia plan to hold another meeting in 2017 as part of the border demarcation talks, a diplomatic source told Trend July 27.

The fifth meeting of the joint commission on demarcation of the state border between Azerbaijan and Russia is planned to be held in Moscow in autumn, according to the source.

The sides are expected to mull implementation of the work plan of the Azerbaijan-Russia demarcation commission.

The Azerbaijani delegation will be led by Khalaf Khalafov, deputy foreign minister and chair of the commission for demarcation of the Azerbaijan-Russia state border, while the Russian delegation will be led by co-chair of the joint commission, advisor to Russias Foreign Ministry, Vadim Postnov.

The previous meeting of the joint commission took place in Baku in April 2017. Following the meeting, a protocol was signed and a work plan of the Azerbaijan-Russia demarcation commission for 2017 was developed and approved.

Azerbaijan has 327.6-km land border and 22.4-km maritime border with Russia.
Pakistan on Thursday signed an agreement with Azerbaijan for sale of 10 Super Mushshak training aircraft to Azerbaijan Air Force, Pakistan Air Force (PAF) said.

The contract was signed at Azerbaijan, where Air Marshal Arshad Malik, Chairman Pakistan Aeronautical Complex at the town of Kamra represented Pakistan, whereas Azerbaijan was represented by Air Force Commander Azerbaijan Lieutenant General Ramiz Tahirov at the occasion, Xinhua reported.

This contract would also include operational training and technical support and assistance to Azerbaijan Air Force, said a PAF statement issued in Islamabad.

"This landmark agreement will further strengthen the bilateral ties between the two brotherly countries," it said.

Approximately 300 Super Mushshak aircraft are being used by PAF and Pakistan Army for military training of pilots and other defense related activities.

Pakistan has recently signed agreements to export Super Mushshak aircraft to Turkey, Nigeria and Qatar.

This contract would not only open new avenues for export of aviation equipment to foreign countries but also help in generating revenue for the country.

The aircraft is already in service with Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran and South Africa.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Bulgaria will sign an agreement on social security.

The document will regulate the right to receive pensions and unemployment benefits for citizens of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria who work or worked in one of the two countries.

The issues of cooperation in the sphere of social policy and the agreements signing were discussed by Azerbaijani Ambassador to Bulgaria Nargiz Gurbanova and Bulgarias Minister of Labor and Social Policy Biser Petkov.

During the meeting, the two sides discussed opportunities for expanding contacts between the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Labor and Social Protection of Population of Azerbaijan by holding regular bilateral meetings of experts on issues of mutual interest.

The parties also discussed the cooperation between Azerbaijan and Bulgaria in the field of labor migration.
Rector of Baku Higher Oil School (BHOS) Elmar Gasimov and specialist of SOCAR Turkeys Human Resources (HR) department Leyla Akhundzadeh met at BHOS with 25 graduates of the Higher School going to work at STAR Refinery and Petkim facilities of SOCAR Turkey company.

Having welcomed the meeting attendants, the rector Elmar Gasimov congratulated the graduates with their successful participation in the selection process for SOCAR Turkeys New Graduate Engineering program and wished them to attain new achievements in the future. He told that academic knowledge and practical skills, which they gained at BHOS, would prove useful in their future professional activity. This initiative is a perfect example of friendly ties between Azerbaijan and Turkey. I am proud that BHOS graduates will work at one of the most prestigious companies in the region, said the rector.

Speaking at the meeting, the specialist of SOCAR Turkeys HR department Leyla Akhundzadeh provided detailed information about preparation of young engineers for work at the company, working conditions at STAR Refinery, and the company policies, regulations and procedures. She also answered numerous questions from the graduates.

Selection of candidates eligible to participate in the New Graduate Engineering program initiated by SOCAR Turkey was based on a number of criteria. More than 220 students from the Higher School applied to the program, 173 of them took the test exams and 48 were invited to interviews. The rigorous and careful selection process allowed to choose the most talented and capable BHOS students to work at the company.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

A trial on a number of former high-ranking officials of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, arrested on charges of misappropriation and abuse of office, was completed July 27 at the Baku Grave Crimes Court.

Sentences were read out during the trial chaired by Judge Afgan Hajiyev.

Former chief of staff of Azerbaijans Ministry of Communications and High Technologies Vidadi Zeynalov has been sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment.

Beytulla Huseynov, former director general of Baku Telephone Communications, has also been sentenced to 13 years, Namazali Mammadov, former chief of the Optical Devices department, has been sentenced to 11 years, Emin Mammadov, former director of two companies, namely, Rabita Temir Tikinti #3 and Rabita Mulki Tikinti, has been sentenced to 10 years, and Anar Mustafayev, former chief accountant of the Baku Telephone Communications, has been sentenced to 5 years.

Also, Gambar Beybalayev, former director general of Azerpost LLC, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison, while Mahammad Mammadov, former director general of Aztelekom LLC, who received 5 years, 7 months and 19 days of suspended sentence, has been released in the courtroom.

Ogtay Rustamov, former chief accountant of Aztelekom LLC, and Sahrab Humbatov, former chief accountant of Optical Communications, Construction and Installation Ltd., received 5.5 years of suspended sentence and have been released in the courtroom.

Jalil Jafarov, former director general of AzInTelekom LLC, and Bayram Valiyev, former director of Baki Rabita Temir Tikinti LLC and Baki Temir Techizat Servis, received 5.5 years of suspended sentence and have been released in the courtroom.

The court ruled to confiscate the property of the perpetrators. The proceeds from confiscation will be used to pay for damages.

Vidadi Zeynalov, former chief of staff of the ministry, Mahammad Mammadov, former director general of Aztelekom LLC, Beytulla Huseynov, former director general of Baku Telephone Communications, Anar Mustafayev, former chief accountant of Baku Telephone Communications, Jalil Jafarov, former director general of AzInTelekom LLC, Gambar Beybalayev, former director general of Azerpost LLC, Sahrab Humbatov, former chief accountant of Optical Communications, Construction and Installation Ltd., Emin Mammadov, former director of Rabita Temir Tikinti #3 and Rabita Mulki Tikinti, and other persons were earlier arrested. The arrested persons were accused under articles 179.3.1 (misappropriation or embezzlement, committed by an organized group), 179.3.2 (large scale embezzlement), 308.2 (abuse of power) and 313 (office forgery).
Details added (first version posted on 13:44)

Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

Trend:

A trial on a number of former high-ranking officials of the Azerbaijani Ministry of Communications and High Technologies, arrested on charges of misappropriation and abuse of office, was completed July 27 at the Baku Grave Crimes Court.

Sentences were read out during the trial chaired by Judge Afgan Hajiyev.

Former chief of staff of Azerbaijans Ministry of Communications and High Technologies Vidadi Zeynalov has been sentenced to 13 years of imprisonment.

Beytulla Huseynov, former director general of Baku Telephone Communications, has also been sentenced to 13 years, Namazali Mammadov, former chief of the Optical Devices department, has been sentenced to 11 years, Emin Mammadov, former director of two companies, namely, Rabita Temir Tikinti #3 and Rabita Mulki Tikinti, has been sentenced to 10 years, and Anar Mustafayev, former chief accountant of the Baku Telephone Communications, has been sentenced to 5 years.

Also, Gambar Beybalayev, former director general of Azerpost LLC, has been sentenced to 3 years in prison, while Mahammad Mammadov, former director general of Aztelekom LLC, who received 5 years, 7 months and 19 days of suspended sentence, has been released in the courtroom.

Ogtay Rustamov, former chief accountant of Aztelekom LLC, and Sahrab Humbatov, former chief accountant of Optical Communications, Construction and Installation Ltd., received 5.5 years of suspended sentence and have been released in the courtroom.

Jalil Jafarov, former director general of AzInTelekom LLC, and Bayram Valiyev, former director of Baki Rabita Temir Tikinti LLC and Baki Temir Techizat Servis, received 5.5 years of suspended sentence and have been released in the courtroom.

The court ruled to confiscate the property of the perpetrators. The proceeds from confiscation will be used to pay for damages.

Vidadi Zeynalov, former chief of staff of the ministry, Mahammad Mammadov, former director general of Aztelekom LLC, Beytulla Huseynov, former director general of Baku Telephone Communications, Anar Mustafayev, former chief accountant of Baku Telephone Communications, Jalil Jafarov, former director general of AzInTelekom LLC, Gambar Beybalayev, former director general of Azerpost LLC, Sahrab Humbatov, former chief accountant of Optical Communications, Construction and Installation Ltd., Emin Mammadov, former director of Rabita Temir Tikinti #3 and Rabita Mulki Tikinti, and other persons were earlier arrested. The arrested persons were accused under articles 179.3.1 (misappropriation or embezzlement, committed by an organized group), 179.3.2 (large scale embezzlement), 308.2 (abuse of power) and 313 (office forgery).
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Seba Aghayeva  Trend:

The International Trade Center (ITC) has expressed support to speed up Azerbaijans accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO), ITC Executive Director Arancha Gonzalez tweeted July 27.

Discussed WTO accession with Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev and expressed ITC support to speed up process, Gonzalez tweeted.

Currently, the next round of talks on Azerbaijan's accession to the WTO is underway in Geneva. The Azerbaijani delegation led by Deputy FM Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev is participating in talks with the WTO Working Group, which will be held until July 28.

Azerbaijani government delegation is also taking part in multilateral talks to discuss issues of agricultural subsidies and bilateral talks with several WTO member countries, in particular the US, the EU, etc.

Azerbaijan launched negotiations with the WTO member states in 2004. As of today, the country has completed negotiations and signed protocols with Turkey, Oman, the UAE, Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Azerbaijan is at the stage of signing protocols with China and Moldova.

Azerbaijan has had an observer status at the WTO since 1997.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Azad Hasanli  Trend:

Azerbaijan and Pakistan will establish joint ventures in various sectors of the economy, the Azerbaijani Economy Ministry said in a message July 27.

According to the message, Azerbaijani Deputy Minister of Economy Sahil Babayev and Pakistans Commerce Secretary Mohammad Younus Dagha have discussed this issue at the first meeting of a trade cooperation working group today.

The memorandum of mutual understanding on cooperation between the Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan, signed during the meeting, also covered the issue of establishing joint ventures.

Moreover, the memorandum envisages expansion of cooperation between entrepreneurs of the two countries, exchange of information on market research and investment projects, as well as participation in exhibitions and business events.

The meeting participants also discussed the promotion of the Made in Azerbaijan brand in Pakistan, as well as the expansion of cooperation in investment-making, industry, tourism, transport, agriculture, food production, etc.

Following the meeting, a decision was made to hold the next meeting of the working group in Pakistan.

According to the Azerbaijani State Customs Committee, trade turnover between Azerbaijan and Pakistan amounted to $17.5 million in January-June 2017, with more than $16 million of that amount accounting for the import of Pakistani products.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 26

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Chinese CNPC company has started construction of Tajik section of the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan- Tajikistan Kyrgyzstan- China gas pipeline project, Tajik media outlets reported.

Tajik Minister of Energy and Water Resources Usmonali Usmonzoda said at the press-conference that the section is expected to be completed in two years.

Tajikistan will not get natural gas from this pipeline; it will just receive Chinese investments for its construction.

According to the minister, CNPC has started supplies of equipment and machinery to for the construction of tunnels for the pipeline in the mountainous regions of Tajikistan.

Tajik section of the pipeline of Turkmenistan-China pipeline will exceed 400 kilometers. The implementation of this project will attract more than $3 billion of China's direct investment in Tajikistan's economy.

The pipeline is expected to deliver 25-30 billion cubic meters of gas from Turkmenistan to China annually.

An intergovernmental agreement on the construction of a gas pipeline from Turkmenistan to China through Tajikistan was signed in September 2013.
Ashgabat, Turkmenistan, July 27

By Huseyn Hasanov  Trend:

President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov during his visit to the countrys Avaza resort on the Caspian seashore drew special attention to the importance of carefully treating the environment and maintaining a favorable ecological situation, the Neutral Turkmenistan newspaper reported July 27.

The main focus of the Avaza resort is health improvement, which is conditioned upon the unique climate of the seaside region and presence of healing hydromineral resources, according to the Neutral Turkmenistan.

In March, the International Ocean Institute (IOI) organized a regional seminar in Avaza, titled The Caspian Sea  Sustainable Development and Management. Experts from Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan were invited to take part in the seminar.

The event participants studied marine ecosystems, the impact of climate change on the marine environment, marine biodiversity, current methods for assessing the impact of human activities on the environment and marine spatial planning.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Kamila Aliyeva  Trend:

Tashkent hosted a meeting of Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkish National Defense Minister Nurettin Canikli, who arrived in Uzbekistan on an official visit.

The sides discussed prospects for cooperation in the military-technical sphere during the meeting.

The establishment of practical partnership between the defense ministries of Uzbekistan and Turkey, including the implementation of joint programs in the field of military education, has become one of the key areas of cooperation.

Following the talks, the sides have signed a set of documents aimed at strengthening experience exchange of the faculty of military educational institutions under the defense ministries and developing bilateral relations in the military sphere.

In particular, agreements on the organization of training courses in 2018 for servicemen of Uzbekistans Armed Forces in Turkish military educational institutions and centers were reached.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 25

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

The traders at the Tehran Stock Exchange (TSE) have witnessed a considerable growth in the main index over the past weeks amid the recent surge in the global prices of mining and steel products, a financial analyst told Trend.

Alireza Kadivar, a financial analyst and deputy head of Irans Novin Investment Bank, has said that the growing prices of copper, steel and iron ore in the global markets have contributed to the improving performance of the TSE.

While the main index of the TSE gained 247.8 points or 0.31 percent to end trade at 81181.7 on July 25, the main index over the past week has surged by 1313.1 points or 1.65 percent.

Steel stocks are trading at the highest since 2011 in the world as a result of the recent policies adopted by China, Kadivar added.

About 50 percent of the market cap at the TSE goes to the commodities-driven companies, therefore the surge in the global prices of the commodities have a significant impact on the Irans largest equity market.

While the base metal jumped 2.21 percent to $6,167 a ton on Tuesday, copper prices touched a five-month high on the same day amid signs of stronger Chinese demand and lingering supply-side concerns.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

The head of nuclear commission of Iran's parliament Mojtaba Zonnur has called on the government to withdraw from the nuclear deal with P5+1, called the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).

He told Mehr on July 27 that because the new US sanctions violate the nuclear deal, Iran should retaliate.

Iran should withdraw from the Additional Protocol, increase active centrifuges and uranium enrichment volume, he added.

U.S. House of Representative passed a bill to slap sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. Senate is united to pass that this week and Donald Trumps Administration has already announced that it supports the new sanctions.

Iran and P5+1 Group (including US, UK, France, Russia, China + Germany) reached a comprehensive nuclear deal in mid-2015, implemented since January 2016.

Iran agreed to pose restrictions on its nuclear activities and execute Additional Protocol, allows the International Atomic Energy Agency to carry out intrusive inspection at Irans nuclear sites.

Before, Soheila Jelodarzadeh and Iranian member of parliament told Trend July 25 that parliamentarians have set up a commission to take required measures against the fresh sanctions imposed by the US on Tehran.

She said that the Islamic Republic of Iran is not after retaliation and it merely looks for justice but if the super powers put forward excessive demands the nation would take the necessary measures by all means.

She further added that the parliamentary commission is currently planning to deal with possible situation regarding the new sanctions.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Farhad Daneshvar  Trend:

While many believe that the new US sanctions on Iran appeared at odds with international law, an Iranian expert suggests that the US is seeking to make Tehran alter its political behavior through imposing fresh sanctions.

The remarks come after the US House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea.

Hostile policies, arming militant groups

Behrooz Bayat, a former consultant at the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), told Trend that the nuclear dispute has always had two components: first preventing a putative nuclear armed Iran and second - use the dispute as a leverage to press the Islamic Republic to change its political behavior toward the West, USA and Israel.

Former President Barack Obama adopted soft policies in order to change Tehrans political behavior step-by-step through helping the Islamic Republic to integrate into the world economy. However, President Donald Trumps administration is following up on the policy of changing Irans international and regional policies more aggressively through building up pressure on Tehran  because, maybe, Trump needs a scape goat for the case when his policy within the USA dead ends, he said.

Certainly, there are many state actors in the Middle East, who instigate the chaos and give rise to the disastrous situation as it is there. Meanwhile, role of Saudi Arabia as an ally of the US is widely accepted and more over supported by the West, the more or less similar role of Iran is not tolerated, he stated.

Saying that the sanctions aim to force Iran to give up its hostile approach towards the US and Israel, he added that Washington and its regional allies plan to prevent Iran from arming militant groups such Lebanon's Hezbollah, hoping that a weakened Islamic Republic may give in their demands.

Lobbies create obstacles in the path of nuclear deal

On the other hand, those who failed to foil the efforts to conclude Irans nuclear deal with the world powers, including the US back in 2015, have set up some lobbies in the US to create difficulties for the implementation of the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA/nuclear deal), Bayat mentioned.

The expert touched upon the interests of the regional allies of the US, such as Saudi Arabia and Israel, accusing them of making efforts to escalate disputes between Tehran and Washington, which eventually leads to the White Houses stepping up pressure on Tehran.

Bayat further ruled out the possibility of slapping back nuclear sanctions on Iran and said the US itself is very unlikely to do so, and even if the US has a desire to re-impose Irans nuclear-related sanctions, it will not yield results as the Europeans appear reluctant to back such decisions.

Therefore the JCPOA will stay in place, but the lobbyists will attempt to prevent Iran from reaping the fruits of the nuclear deal through new sanctions, Bayat concluded.

Unfair sanctions

The new sanctions on Iran are unfair, given the achievements of the nuclear deal, but logical, given the [United States] new policy and new friendship with Saudi Arabia, a French lawmaker told Trend on Wednesday, asking to remain anonymous.

President Trump has obviously chosen his side, said the lawmaker.

But what is unfair is that the US policy has a lot of impact on the financial networks and it may prevent European financial institutions from having deals with Iran, the lawmaker mentioned.

The French Foreign Ministry has said that new US sanctions against Iran, Russia and North Korea appeared at odds with international law due to their extra-territorial reach, Reuters reported previously.

The Foreign Ministry said in a statement that French and European laws would need to be adjusted in response and added that discussions would be necessary at European Union level because of the potential impact on European citizens and firms.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27



By Emil Ilgar  Trend:

Iran's deputy attorney general, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi said the IS has coordinated the Iran parliament June 7 terror attack via the Telegram social media network.

He told Tasnim news agency on July 27 that terrorists not only coordinated the attack, but also published the attack live though Telegram.

He accused the Iranian government of ignorance of threats, posed by the social media.

Two separate attacks shook Tehran on June 7 and several armed people tried to break their way into the Parliament building.

The attackers managed to get inside the building and engaged in a shootout with the security forces. One terrorist committed suicide by blowing himself up.

Meanwhile, another attack took place at the Imam Khomeini Shrine. The reports said Irans security forces neutralized one terrorist, another one committed suicide there. The overall body count in the attacks reached 17.

Khoramabadi said that government should control and block illegal channels at Telegram.

He added that open social media can pave way for organized espionage from citizens by foreign countries.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Elena Kosolapova  Trend:

Iran is not likely to react dramatically to these sanctions, if they become law, because the sanctions would not be targeting Irans civilian economic sectors, Kenneth Katzman, a senior analyst at the Congressional Research Service, which conducts research and analysis for the US Congress, believes.

These sanctions are not expected to have a material effect on any of Irans major economic sectors. The bill targets entities outside its civilian economic sectors, and instead sanctions entities or persons involved in Irans missile program, its support for terrorist groups, operations of Irans its Revolutionary Guard, and Irans human rights abuses, Katzman told Trend by email.

The expert noted that all the writing about this bill suggests that it has clear majority support in the Congress. He went on to add that President Trumps press secretary had said he would likely sign it into law.

According to Katzman, Iran is likely to react, as it has a few times already to additional US sanctions  by lodging a complaint before the Iran-P5+1 Joint Commission that oversees the Iranian nuclear deal.

However, to date, the Joint Commission has not determined that any of the additional US sanctions announced have constituted violations of the agreement, he said.

The US House of Representatives voted on July 25 to slap new sanctions on Iran, Russia and North Korea. The bill should be approved by Senate and signed by president to become law.
German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen confirmed late on Wednesday that two crew members aboard the recently crashed military helicopter had died in the air accident in Mali, Sputnik reported.

The helicopter came down in the afternoon around 40 miles north of the Malian city of Gao, which hosts a UN base. The personnel were part of a UN peacekeeping mission.

"We are now unfortunately certain that two soldiers in service of our country have lost their lives. Their mission was a contribution to our security," the minister told reporters at a briefing.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Chancellor Angela Merkel have both extended their condolences to those affected.

Joachim Ruehle, deputy spokesman for the inspector general of the German armed forces, said the cause of the crash was still unclear but there was no indication that the Tiger-type combat helicopter had been shot down.

"The initial report of the crash came from a second, following helicopter. There was no distress signal from the affected crew. The crashed helicopter burned out At this time, nothing points to outside interference," he said.

A spokesman for the UN secretary general said earlier that the search for the crashed aircraft had been complicated by fighting on the ground, which it was monitoring.
U.S. lawmakers reached an agreement on Wednesday that paves the way for the U.S. Senate to pass a bill as soon as this week to impose new sanctions on Russia, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said, despite the objections of President Donald Trump's administration, Reuters reported.

Senator Bob Corker, a Republican, said the Senate would move to approve sanctions on Russia and Iran it passed six weeks ago, and North Korea sanctions added to the legislation in the House.

The sanctions package passed the House of Representatives by an overwhelming 419-3 on Wednesday and is expected to garner similar support in the Senate. That would easily overcome a veto by Trump.
Clashes between Venezuelan security forces and demonstrators have killed three people during the latest opposition-led strike to protest against an election on Sunday critics say will mark the end of democracy in the OPEC nation, Reuters reported.

Many streets remained barricaded and deserted on Thursday, as the nationwide work stoppage entered its second day.

Plenty of rural areas and working-class urban neighborhoods were bustling, however, and the strike appeared less massively supported than a one-day shutdown last week. With Venezuela already brimming with shuttered stores and factories, amid a blistering four-year recession, the effectiveness of any strike can be hard to gauge.

Both of the latest stoppages were held to heap pressure on unpopular President Nicolas Maduro to scrap his plan for Sunday's vote for a Constituent Assembly, which will have power to rewrite the constitution and shut down the existing opposition-led legislature.

At least 106 people have died in anti-government unrest convulsing the South American country since April, when the opposition launched protests demanding free and fair elections to end nearly two decades of socialist rule.

"People are working out of necessity," said coffee seller Jose Vazquez, 46, in Caracas though he had fewer customers than usual and there was little traffic on the streets around him.

In Barinas, home state of former Venezuelan leader Hugo Chavez, only about a third of businesses were closed according to a Reuters witness, as opposed to the opposition's formal estimate of 92 percent participation nationally.

"I am opposed to the government and I agree we must do everything we can to get out of this mess, but I depend on my work. If I don't work, my family does not eat," said Ramon Alvarez, a 45-year-old barber at his shop in Barinas.

Adversaries say the ruling Socialist Party wants to consolidate dictatorship with with Sunday's vote. There has been widespread international condemnation of the ballot, and the United States on Wednesday announced sanctions against 13 current and former officials for corruption, undermining democracy, and participating in repression.

Government officials and candidates for the Constituent Assembly were winding up campaigning on Thursday, with a rally in Caracas to be attended by Maduro.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish opposition, Republican Peoples Party (CHP), lawmakers refused to leave parliament early July 27, in protest of draft bylaw changes under consideration, the Turkish media outlets reported.

Changes to the parliament bylaws were proposed by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) and the opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP). Fourteen of the 18 items in the proposal were accepted by the general assembly and four are still pending.

Reportedly, the main reason for the oppositions protest was the reduction in the time for parliamentarians speeches, from ten to three minutes.

CHP regards this as limiting the opposition in expressing an opinion.

The proposed changes were accepted by parliaments Constitutional Committee last week after being tabled by the AKP and MHP in the face of criticism from the two other parliamentary parties.

One of the proposals would reduce the amount of time lawmakers can debate a parliamentary motion from 40 minutes to 14 minutes  five minutes for the MP proposing the motion and three minutes each for MP from the other three parties.

In other debates, the length of time a lawmaker speaks would also be cut from 10 minutes to three minutes. The planned changes would also impose heavy penalties on lawmakers who do not swear the correct parliamentary oath.

Those who fail to make the pledge at the beginning of a new parliament would not be recognized as a member of the Grand National Assembly.

The planned bylaws follow Aprils referendum, as the country prepares to move towards a presidential system.

Moreover, the new rules envisage penalties for incorrect statement about the 1915 events. Turkish MPs will be fined 12,000 liras in the case of making statements about the 1915 events contradicting the national interests of the country [official exchange rate is 3.5638 TRY/USD on July 27], which accounts for two-thirds of an MP salary.

It is also forbidden for the MPs to use the phrase Iraqi Kurdistan.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A meeting of foreign ministers of member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will be held in Istanbul on August 1, a diplomatic source told Trend July 27.

The OIC previously told Trend that during the meeting, the OIC foreign ministers will discuss the recent clashes in Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society earlier said that clashes took place between worshipers and the Israeli police at Bab al-Asbat near al-Aqsa Mosque.

The worshipers were attacked after performing evening prayer outside al-Aqsa Mosque in protest against the metal detectors installed by the Israeli authorities at the entrances of the Mosque.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Seventeen members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group were detained in Turkey's Istanbul, the countrys media outlets reported July 27.

All the detainees are foreigners, according to the reports. They were planning to enter Syria through the territory of Turkey.

Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has claimed more than 500,000 lives.

Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The Islamic State, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.

---

Follow the author on Twitter: @rhafizoglu
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

Turkish vehicle manufacturers Otokar and BMC as well as the Turkey-UAE joint defense company FNSS will take part in a tender for mass production of Turkeys domestic tank Altay, the Turkish media reported July 27.

The tender for the mass production of Altay tank will be held in early August.

Turkey plans to produce 250 Altay tanks initially and around 1,000 tanks in the second phase.

Earlier, the Turkish Koc Holding expressed its readiness to participate in the mass production of Altay tanks.

Turkeys first domestic tank, Altay, was tested in July 2013. According to the test results, the tank fully meets the requirements and is suitable for mass production.
Baku, Azerbaijan, July 27

By Rufiz Hafizoglu  Trend:

A strong Turkey is not in the interests of a number of countries, including the Western countries, Cengiz Er, former editor-in-chief of the Turkish news channel A Haber, told Trend July 27.

Er, who is also the founder of Superhaber.tv, a Turkish online newspaper, said that Turkey's role in the region has greatly increased over the past ten years and the Western countries are concerned about it.

He added that at present, Turkey is the most powerful country located between the Middle East and Europe.

The Western countries are displeased with Turkeys growing role and in this regard they are carrying out an active anti-Turkish propaganda, Er said.

Er said the anti-Turkish propaganda in the Western media pursues one main goal, namely, to belittle Turkey's image.

He said the strengthening of the anti-Turkish propaganda is also connected with operations conducted against the supporters of the Fethullah Gulen movement and PKK terrorists.

Er said that one more reason for the anti-Turkish propaganda is Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Today, Erdogan is one of the world's strongest leaders who has always called for reforms in the UN Security Council, he said. Meanwhile, President Erdogan has repeatedly urged to reform the UN.

There must not be permanent members in the UN Security Council, because this organization should be exemplary in terms of justice, Er added. Many countries, in particular, the Islamic countries, are not represented in the UN Security Council. How can the UN Security Council be fair?
Ann Coulter

Conservative pundit Ann Coulter has "railed" at President Donald Trump, The New York Times reports.

Coulter reportedly told Trump a few weeks ago that "he needed to focus more on his core supporters," according to The Times. Steve Bannon, Trump's chief White House strategist, brought Coulter to meet the president.

Even though the controversial commentator had been staunchly pro-Trump throughout the election, Coulter recently said that Trump needs to "be a man" by deciding whether or not to fire Attorney General Jeff Sessions.

Trump's recent public tirade against Sessions has drawn sharp criticism even among the President's core backers in conservative media circles.

"Reminder: It was Kushner's decision to fire Comey that brought the Independent Counsel, not Sessions recusing himself months earlier," Coulter tweeted on July 25.

Related:





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trump boy scout

Former Acting CIA Director John McLaughlin was apparently not a fan of President Donald Trump's Monday night speech at the Boy Scouts of America's National Jamboree in West Virginia.

"Trump's Boy Scout speech had the feel of a third world authoritarian's youth rally," McLaughlin, who was former President George W. Bush's CIA chief, tweeted Monday.

Speaking to a crowd of more than 40,000 Boy Scouts, Trump started by saying "Who the hell wants to speak about politics when Im in front of the Boy Scouts, right?"

But then he did just that, jesting that he'd fire Health and Human Services Secretary Tom Price if the Senate didn't pass healthcare legislation, and blasting Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, "fake news," and even wealthy real-estate developer William Levitt.

Trump's Boy Scout speech had the feel of a third world authoritarian's youth rally.  john mclaughlin (@jmclaughlinSAIS) July 25, 2017

"It just gave me the creeps," McLaughlin told Business Insider, adding that "it was like watching the late Venezuelan [President Hugo] Chavez."

"You want to signal to young people the concept in democracy of loyal opposition, of remaining loyal to government," which doesn't exist in third world dictatorships, McLaughlin said.

But instead, "he was attacking his predecessor for no good reason, and his competitor in the last election," the former CIA chief said. "He was showing disloyalty to his subordinates ... ranting on about financial stories in New York."

Trump basically told the Boy Scouts, "don't respect your opponents, only believe me, and cheer for me," McLaughlin said.

Trump boy scout

Story continues

"What message is this giving to young people?" McLaughlin asked rhetorically.

The former CIA official said that the power of the presidency is the power to inspire, and there was nothing inspirational about the speech.

He also said that there is an arrogant posture to Trump's body language that doesn't suggest an "openness to ideas."

McLaughlin was not the only Republican critical of Trump's speech, and even the Boy Scouts distanced themselves from it afterwards.

"The Boy Scouts of America is wholly nonpartisan and does not promote any one position, product, service, political candidate, or philosophy," the Boy Scouts said in a statement. "The invitation for the sitting US president to visit the National Jamboree is a long-standing tradition and is in no way an endorsement of any political party or specific policies."

He's so far beyond the usual bounds of even vulgar politicians' vulgarity... https://t.co/hdHYsqPYwo  Bill Kristol (@BillKristol) July 24, 2017

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Mitch McConnell

Even more key provisions of Senate Republicans' Better Care Reconciliation Act could be subjected to an obscure rule that puts the bill in peril.

The Senate parliamentarian said Tuesday that two other parts of the Republican legislation would require 60 votes to advance. That was in addition to the list the parliamentarian put out on Friday of parts of the bill that need the 60 votes.

That's because of something called the Byrd rule. The Byrd rule was passed in 1985 and says that any bill going through the budget reconciliation process  what Republicans in the Senate hope to do with their healthcare bill  can be blocked on the grounds that it contains an "extraneous matter" or something "merely incidental" to the federal budget.

The budget-reconciliation maneuver through which the GOP hopes to move the BCRA allows a bill that adjusts the federal budget to pass through the Senate with a simple 50-vote majority to avoid a filibuster. Any other legislation needs 60 votes to avoid a filibuster.

The Senate parliamentarian said Tuesday that the BCRA's age tax (which would allow insurers to charge older adults up to five times more than young, healthy adults) and the small-business provision that would allow businesses to establish plans that could be sold across state lines would both be subject to 60 votes. Republicans currently hold 52 seats in the Senate, making it nearly impossible to get to 60 votes.

That's in addition to other key parts of the bill  including a plan to defund Planned Parenthood, restricting federal tax credits from being used for abortions, and a provision that would make people wait six months for health insurance if they have a lapse in coverage  all require 60 votes, according to the Senate parliamentarian.

Story continues

"Should the Senate proceed to the bill, these provisions may be struck from the legislation absent 60 votes," the Senate budget office said.

On Tuesday, the Senate voted to open debate on legislation to overhaul the healthcare system, clearing the first major hurdle in the process.

Here are all the other parts of the BCRA that could put the bill in jeopardy

The plan to defund Planned Parenthood

A provision that would restrict the use of tax credits for abortions.

Getting rid of the essential health benefits for Medicaid in 2020.

How the bill deals with cost-sharing subsidies

The section that locks individuals out of the insurance marketplace for six months if they don't have continuous coverage.

The medical loss ratio.

The provision that allows states that haven't used all of their block grants for health coverage for non-health purposes.

Changes to the Medicaid waiver system by prioritizing HCBS waivers.

A provision that requires a report regarding CMS-64 and Transformed Medicaid Statistical Information System data.

Here's the list of the BCRA provisions that pass and don't pass the Byrd rule, as well as a few that are still under review.

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Alexander Zemlianichenko | POOL | Reuters. Russia's Putin tells his annual press conference he will run for president in early 2018 as an independent candidate.

Any Russian response to fresh sanctions from the U.S. is unlikely to cause any major harm for American investors and could merely be a symbolic gesture, according to one political analyst.

Moscow stepped up its war of words against Washington Wednesday after the U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly in favor of imposing new sanctions. A prominent member of the upper house of Russia's parliament said that the country should consider a "painful" response for the U.S.

"Judging by the unanimous vote in the U.S. House of Representatives on the sanctions package against Russia, Iran and North Korea, there will be no breakthrough (in U.S. and Russia relations)  In fact, further degradation of bilateral cooperation is becoming inevitable," Konstantin Kosachyov, chairman of the Russian Foreign Relations Committee and member of the ruling United Russia party, said on his Facebook page on Wednesday.



The planned sanctions on Russia were initiated to further punish the country for its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and alleged role in the destabilization of eastern Ukraine. The bill, which passed by 419 votes to three, proposes new restrictions on oil and gas projects.

'Moscow growing tired of showing restraint towards Washington'

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov also said Wednesday that it had repeatedly warned Washington that it was growing tired of showing restraint and would be prepared to retaliate in the event of any hostile moves towards Moscow, the Interfax news agency reported.

Ryabkov argued the proposed sanctions would leave no room for ties between the two countries to improve in the near future, before adding the vote had taken the relationship into uncharted waters.

Meanwhile, prominent Russian Senator, Franz Klintsevich told the RIA news agency that future cooperation between Moscow and Washington in fighting terrorism would be complicated if the drafted bill is signed by President Donald Trump .

Story continues

'Worrisome chance Putin will target at least one US corporate'

Analysts at Eurasia Group predicted that the U.S. legislation codifying and modestly expanding sanctions on Moscow would most likely prompt a "more symbolic than substantive" response.

"Russia is not likely to take new action against U.S. investors in the country  though there's a low but worrisome chance that (President Vladimir) Putin will feel compelled to target at least one large U.S. corporate as a show of strength," Eurasia Group analysts said in a research note Tuesday.

The White House said in a statement that it would review the bill amid speculation President Trump could attempt to veto it. The bill now needs to be passed through the Senate before it can be signed by the president.

"While the president supports tough sanctions on North Korea, Iran and Russia, the White House is reviewing the House legislation and awaits a final legislative package for the president's desk," Sarah Sanders, White House spokeswoman, said Tuesday.

The U.S. already has an array of sanctions in place against both Russian companies and individuals. In December, amid allegations of election hacking, then-President Barack Obama closed two Russian compounds and expelled 35 Russian diplomats .

Despite the sanctions already in place, trade between the countries has not stopped altogether. In May, trade between the U.S. and Russia resulted in a $934 million trade deficit for America.



In 2016, Russia was one of the countries that enjoyed a trade surplus with the U.S, according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau. This appears to suggest that, as tensions simmer between the two countries, a potential trade war would hurt Moscow more in aggregate.





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After Congressional Republicans fail to repeal the Affordable Care Act, then what?

They could continue trying to hack away at Obamacare, as the ACA is known. Or they could acknowledge the obvious: its time to find a way to extend coverage to every American, otherwise known as universal health care.

The presumption among conservatives is that universal health care is the same as socialized medicine provided exclusively by the government. This is sloppy use of language. Universal care simply means everybody has it. Coverage can come from the public or private sector, or a mix of both. Since the United States already has robust health systems in both the public and private sector, a hybrid system built on the best of both would probably work best. It would be partly socialized and partly free-market, as it is now.

A protester holds up a sign during a rally against the GOP health care plan, on Capitol Hill, July 26, 2017 in Washington, DC. Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images

But it would work better. The grueling and at times farcical effort to kill Obamacare has revealed the single-biggest problem in the US health care system: theres no safety net for people who, for whatever reason, cant afford insurance. There were nearly 50 million uninsured Americans before Obamacare went into effect in 2014, and there are still around 27 million. The GOP couldnt kill Obamacare largely because it would leave more people uninsured. Governors objected to that (including some Republicans), as did hospitals, doctors, the AARP and a strong majority of voters.

How the free market could lower health costs

Theres an obvious consensus that the more people with health coverage, the better. So why not go all the way, and cover everybody? Even President Donald Trump has said insurance for everybody is his goal.

Insurance for everybody evokes Bernie Sanders Medicare for all plan, which would basically be the socialized, government-provided universal coverage conservatives dread. But there are other ways to provide universal coverage. Way back in 2001, famed conservative economist Milton Friedman made the case for providing every family in the United States with catastrophic insurance that would alleviate fears of going broke on account of a medical emergency. Friedmans plan included other big changes such as eliminating Medicare and Medicaid, ending the tax exemption of employer-provided health insurance and establishing medical savings accountssimilar to HSAs todaythat would help everybody pay for routine medical costs. Politically impossible? Maybe. But there are certainly ways to rely more on free-market mechanisms to lower costs, making insurance more affordable for everybody.

Story continues

Milton Friedman, recipient of the 1976 Nobel Prize for economic science, speaks May 9, 2002 during a White House event in Washington, DC. Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Obamacare was meant to extend the medical safety net to more people, just as Romneycarethe plan put in place by Republican Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusettswas supposed to. The ACA has some notable glitches, however. The individual mandate requiring everybody to buy insurance is unpopular, fueling efforts to repeal the law, as misguided as those efforts are. An unintended consequence of the ACA is the middle-class cliff for people who dont have employer-provided insurance but make too much money to qualify for Medicaid or ACA subsidies. Many such peopletypically between 50 and 64have seen premiums and deductibles soar, because they suddenly belong to an out-of-whack risk pool including too many older people like themselves.

The simple-minded approach to these problems has been to repeal the law that created them. But that would also undo the good that came from the ACAsuch as extending coverage to an additional 20 million peoplewhich is why repeal efforts failed. A better approach would be fixing existing problems without making anybody worse off. Thats what universal coverage would accomplish.

It would cost moreup front. But a system that provided every American basic catastrophic coverage, at taxpayer expense, could then rely on free-market dynamics to foster competition among private-sector provides, eliminate middlemen and drive down costs. One reason the ACA is so convoluted is that it didnt provide single-payer universal coverage, which was politically unpalatable at the time. Instead, it created an elaborate carrot-and-stick system meant to mimic free-market dynamics, like some kind of capitalistic parallel universe. As were now discovering, that left it vulnerable to sabotage if the government decided to withdraw any single carrot or stick. Real markets arent that fragile.

An alternative to employer-provided coverage

As an alternative to employer-provided coveragewhich Friedman called thoroughly illogicalthe Nobel Prize-winning economist favored subsidies granted to all Americans based on income, which would phase out at a certain level. Consumers would use that money to pay for their own out-of-pocket medical costs, until insurance kicked in. Theyd have a powerful incentive to shop for the best deals and therefore save money. Providers would have to offer good value to get and retain customers. In this way, Friedman hoped private-sector efficiencies would help lower costs to levels more in line with those in other developed countries, which even in 2001 paid less for medical care per person, with better results.

House Speaker Paul Ryan favors such a plan, which Democrats generally dislike because they feel the elderly and the poor would get a raw deal, compared with the Medicare and Medicaid benefits they get now. But that depends entirely on the level of subsidies offered by Washington, which could be raised later if set too low or shown to be ineffective. Such a plan could also be phased in slowly, with current beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid keeping their benefits and only new entrants moving onto the new system.

None of this is likely to happen any time soon. But the end of Republican efforts to kill Obamacare will mark a pivot point allowing everybody along the political spectrum to move on. And eventually, ever-soaring health care costs will swamp federal budgets and force Congress to act. Taking care away from people hasnt worked, so legislators may as well try to go the distance and extend it to everybody.

Confidential tip line: rickjnewman@yahoo.com. Encrypted communication available.

Read more:

Rick Newman is the author of four books, including Rebounders: How Winners Pivot from Setback to Success. Follow him on Twitter: @rickjnewman
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Scorpio Gold Corporation (Scorpio Gold or the Company) (TSX-V:SGN) is pleased to report final results from its 2017 Phase I exploration drilling program at the Goldwedge project, located in Manhattan, Nevada.



The drill program was designed to target the extension of the favorable lithologic unit in the Goldwedge Mine, specifically the Zanzibar limestone bound within the Reliance Fault Zone. This zone plunges northward into the Manhattan caldera margin. Seven RC holes totaling 7,530 ft (2,295 m) were drilled from 5 pad locations.

Significant mineralization was encountered in 3 of the holes (GW17024, GW17026 and GW17029) that intercepted the targeted Zanzibar limestone within the Reliance Fault Zone. GW17029 targeted an area near elevated underground rib samples west of the Reliance Fault Zone, and intersected significant mineralization within 65 feet of the mineralized rib and above the lowest working underground level.

Table 1. 2017 Goldwedge Surface RC Drilling - Significant Results (>0.1 oz/t)

Hole

No. Azm

(deg) Dip

(deg) From

(ft) To

(ft) Width

(ft) From

(m) To

(m) Width

(m) Gold

(oz/t) Gold

(g/t) GW17024 192 90 725 730 5 221.00 222.50 1.52 0.274 9.39 GW17026 225 55 460 470 10 140.21 143.26 3.05 0.324 11.11 GW17029 040 55 265 280 15 80.77 85.34 4.57 0.325 11.14 620 625 5 188.98 190.50 1.52 0.157 5.38

Three of the 7 holes (GW17027, GW17028, and GW17030) deviated and stayed in the Tertiary volcanic rock and did not drill the intended target. A fourth hole (GW17025) was drilled to intercept the Zanzibar limestone outside of the Reliance Fault Zone. No significant mineralization was encountered in these four holes.

Map Links:

Drill Hole Plan

Drill Hole Cross Section

All holes presented in Table 1 were completed by reverse circulation (RC) drilling. Widths are presented as down hole lengths; true widths are unknown at this time. Analytical results were performed by ALS Minerals in Reno, Nevada, an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 accredited facility. Further details are presented in the Companys quality assurance and quality control program for the Goldwedge project available at: GW QAQC.

About Scorpio Gold



Scorpio Gold holds a 70% interest in the producing Mineral Ridge gold mining operation located in Esmeralda County, Nevada with joint venture partner Elevon, LLC (30%). Mineral Ridge is a conventional open pit mining and heap leach operation. The Mineral Ridge property is host to multiple gold-bearing structures, veins and lenses at exploration, development and production stages. Scorpio Gold also holds a 100% interest in the advanced exploration-stage Goldwedge property in Manhattan, Nevada, with a fully permitted underground mine and 400 ton per day mill facility. The Goldwedge mill facility has been placed on a care and maintenance basis and can be restarted immediately when needed.

Scorpio Golds Chairman, Peter J. Hawley, PGeo, is a Qualified Person as defined by National Instrument 43-101 and has reviewed and approved the content of this release.

ON BEHALF OF THE BOARD

SCORPIO GOLD CORPORATION

Brian Lock,

Interim CEO

Website: www.scorpiogold.com



Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

The Company relies on litigation protection for forward-looking statements. This news release contains forward-looking statements that are based on the Companys current expectations and estimates. Forward-looking statements are frequently characterized by words such as plan, expect, project, intend, believe, anticipate, estimate, suggest, indicate and other similar words or statements that certain events or conditions may or will occur, and include, without limitation, statements regarding the Companys plans with respect to the exploration, development and exploitation of its Goldwedge project. Such forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual events or results to differ materially from estimated or anticipated events or results implied or expressed in such forward-looking statements, including risks involved in mineral exploration and development programs and those risk factors outlined in the Companys Management Discussion and Analysis as filed on SEDAR. Any forward-looking statement speaks only as of the date on which it is made and, except as may be required by applicable securities laws, the Company disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or results or otherwise. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of future performance and accordingly undue reliance should not be put on such statements due to the inherent uncertainty thereof.
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cuba Ventures Corp. (TSX-V:CUV) (OTCBB:MPSFF) (the Company) is pleased to announce that it has signed an agreement for the acquisition of a 19% minority stake in International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC (IBTO), a cash-flow positive, fully licensed and bonded, Florida, USA based travel agency specializing in travel to Cuba. IBTO organizes trips for American Citizens to Cuba, in compliance with current and future US regulations. International Business & Travel Opportunities specializes in educational and cultural trips to Cuba for groups of United States citizens wishing to visit Cuba. A definitive agreement, signed July 27, 2017, ratifies the transaction with the single shareholder of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC. The acquisition was achieved through the sale of a 19% interest in IBTO to Cuba Ventures Corp, through the issuance of 500,000 common shares of Cuba Ventures priced at 0.05 cents and cash payment of CAD $10,000 for transaction costs, to certain shareholders of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC. The transaction is subject to TSX Venture Exchange acceptance.



Highlights of IBTO acquisition

Ongoing creation and sale of legal U.S compliant Cuba Travel Packages across proprietary 432 websites

Sales of U.S legal travel offers to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Sales of cruises to Cuba from U.S ports to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Sales of flights from U.S airports to over *13 million annual U.S based web visitors

Company access to a valid U.S Travel license to further sales in the USA



*U.S web visitor data calculated at 38.6% of 35 million approximate total web visitors to Cuba Ventures 432 proprietary websites



Significance of acquisition of International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC & compliance with U.S Cuba Travel policy

International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC specializes in individuals and groups traveling to Cuba. International Business & Travel Opportunities, LLC, with its exclusive itineraries, has hosted educational group trips for; Doctors, Lawyers, Accountants, Contractors, Hunting trips, fishing trips, hiking and special festivals in accordance with USA travel restrictions. Cuba Ventures Corp, through its wholly owned subsidiary Travelucion Media, owns and operates 432 Cuba-Centric websites with approximate annual visitors of over 35 million. Since 2015, website visitors originating from the United States have jumped from 6% in 2015 to the current 38.6% of all visitors, providing a solid and proprietary, highly targeted, Cuba focused consumer audience for legal travel packages to Cuba. Through this equity partnership, IBTO Cuba Travel offers for American Citizens will feature on these websites. IBTO is a fully licensed and bonded, Cuba Specialist, Florida based agency, thus in total compliance with current and upcoming U.S - Cuba travel regulations. Further, IBTO will seek, in the coming weeks, U.S compliant sales agreements with major Cruise lines currently sailing to Cuba and, a resulting booking engine will feature on all of Travelucion Media's websites, allowing immediate booking and payment of high sales volume cruise packages. Finally, a second IATA compliant flight booking engine will be sought, allowing direct sales of flight tickets to Cuba from major U.S currently operated by U.S airlines authorized to fly to major cities in the Republic of Cuba.

Steve Marshall, Cuba Ventures CEO, commented on the IBTO deal:

The acquisition of IBTO is an important milestone for the company. Current and upcoming rules pertaining to travel to Cuba for Americans clearly benefit American Licensed travel companies who offer trips to the Island nation. Allied to this fact, our market research has shown that American consumers prefer to book travel to Cuba through a licensed and bonded U.S based travel agency who are compliant with American law, therefore, our acquisition of IBTO will allow exactly that. We will be working alongside the team at IBTO to create travel experiences that allow U.S Citizens to gain profound knowledge of Cuba while experiencing the very best Cuba has to offer.

Latest 25 July US Cuba Travel  OFAC Travel rules for American Citizens: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/Documents/cuba_faqs_20170725.pdf

Cuba Ventures Launches 2 brand new websites & provides update on IT program

Cuba Ventures Corp is delighted to announce the public beta launch of the following revised websites:

www.CubaHavana.com

www.CubaHavanacity.com

Investors should note that the update of the further 93 remaining geographic city/town/province websites remains on schedule.

Finally, under redevelopment by a separate IT team, the completion of the much anticipated modernization of www.Havanatur.com and, the additional 68 multi-language e-commerce booking websites, is on schedule for early August 2017.



About Cuba Ventures Corp.:

Cuba Ventures Corp. is a publicly traded Canadian company capitalizing on the growth and unique opportunities in the USD $3.5 billion per year Cuban travel and tourism industry. Travelucion, a wholly owned subsidiary, is a digital media and marketing company which owns a vast portfolio of Cuba related websites and online portals providing Cuba travel information in up to six languages, featuring individual web assets for Cuba's popular cities and towns, online booking solutions and online reservations through proprietary software, catering to international visitors to Cuba. Travelucion's online travel division is a licensed retail travel supplier handling millions of dollars in sales annually.

For further information on Cuba Ventures Corp. (TSX-V:CUV) or Travelucion visit the Companys website at www.cubaventures.com or www.travelucion.com. The Company has 72,412,487 shares issued and outstanding.

CUBA VENTURES CORP.

STEVE MARSHALL

______________________________

Steve Marshall

CEO

For further information contact myself or:

Nick Findler

Cuba Ventures Corp.

Telephone: 604-639-3850

Toll Free: 800-567-8181

Facsimile: 604-687-3119

Email: info@cubaventures.com

NEITHER THE TSX VENTURE EXCHANGE NOR ITS REGULATION SERVICES PROVIDER ACCEPTS RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE ADEQUACY OR ACCURACY OF THE CONTENT OF THIS NEWS RELEASE.
TAMPA, Fla., July 27, 2017 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Pinnacle, one of the nations leading multifamily management firms, announces that Joe Springsteen has joined the company as a vice president in West Florida. With a primary focus in the Sarasota, Tampa Bay and Tallahassee markets, he will initially oversee 6,288 apartment homes in 27 communities and lead a team of four regional property managers. Based in Orlando, Springsteen reports to Regional Vice President David Bales.



Pinnacle needed a dynamic leader to assist with our growing West Florida operations and we unmistakably found that in Joe, said Bales. He is an excellent communicator with an impeccable work ethic who will elevate this portfolio to a new level. I think our clients and team members will be very pleased with Joe at the helm.

Springsteen comes to Pinnacle from Cortland Partners, where he was responsible for more than 7,000 units as the director of operations for the State of Florida. Prior, he was immersed in the Florida and Chicago markets as a vice president for ZRS Management.

In his new role, Springsteen will draw on over 14 years of multifamily experience to lead his regional and onsite team members, ensure the operational integrity of his portfolio and collaborate with clients on performance objectives. All those involved will benefit from his ability to accelerate property growth while improving profitability and owner satisfaction. He is a dynamic, high-energy executive with a track record for success.

Springsteens background includes hands-on experience with new construction lease-ups and major renovation projects in the Tampa Bay, Orlando and southern Florida markets.

Prior to his real estate career, he was a corporate mergers and acquisitions attorney for General Mills in Minneapolis and the Sutherland firm in Atlanta.

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/7fd1872a-9037-4538-bce9-c064f7732869

About Pinnacle Property Management Services, LLC

Pinnacle Property Management Services, LLC, (Pinnacle) is a privately held national real estate provider specializing in third party management of multifamily residential communities. As one of the nations preferred third-party managers, Pinnacles portfolio includes over 172,000 residential units and 2.75 million square feet of commercial assets. With the Corporate headquarters located in Dallas, Texas, Pinnacle has more than 4,300 employees located in 26 states. For more information, visit www.pinnacleliving.com.
bb wrote:

wipwemba wrote: bb wrote: Congrats! Great job getting admits.



Kellogg is a rare program that extends the same benefits to FEMBA students as to the full time students (including recruiting events and career services).



I feel as an international applicant you want to get as much umph as you can.



The logistics is more complicated than with LA which you could even drive if you had to. I would see how much more hardship it would be to fly to Chicago.



I vote (strongly) for Kellogg as long as you can make logistics work.





Sent from my iPhone using GMAT Club Forum



Thanks bb. Actually, Kellogg has given me full access to their student resources and I do see very active Career Management Center. They've also had two students reach out to me already to gain more insight. I just got the UCLA admit today so don't know they'll do the same or not.



My concerns with Kellogg are the private loan options for International students and commute to Chicago. I might get lower loans and not full tuition and might have to pay some of my own pocket. Like you said, it totally boils down to logistics I guess. Thanks bb. Actually, Kellogg has given me full access to their student resources and I do see very active Career Management Center. They've also had two students reach out to me already to gain more insight. I just got the UCLA admit today so don't know they'll do the same or not.My concerns with Kellogg are the private loan options for International students and commute to Chicago. I might get lower loans and not full tuition and might have to pay some of my own pocket. Like you said, it totally boils down to logistics I guess.





I think you should provide this (loan & cost of attendance) feedback to the Adcom of Kellogg as a helpful tip. I doubt they can do anything at the moment but you want them to be aware of this wrinkle. UCLA is probably doing all it can to attract students whereas Kellogg can be a bit more selective and choose where they want to focus their attention, so FinAid for international students was likely not a big priority on their radar.



P.S. We do have some financing options that you may qualify for and get $100 amazon giftcard along the way: I think you should provide this (loan & cost of attendance) feedback to the Adcom of Kellogg as a helpful tip. I doubt they can do anything at the moment but you want them to be aware of this wrinkle. UCLA is probably doing all it can to attract students whereas Kellogg can be a bit more selective and choose where they want to focus their attention, so FinAid for international students was likely not a big priority on their radar.P.S. We do have some financing options that you may qualify for and get $100 amazon giftcard along the way: https://gmatclub.com/forum/gmat-club-s- ... 45150.html

The reasons for choosing UCLA Anderson FEMBA over Kellogg PT MBA are as below.

What I am losing out.

Thanks, bb. I have decided to join the UCLA Anderson FEMBA program this Fall. I also provided the feedback on lacking financial aid options to Kellogg.I wanted to report back my decision and the factors which led to my decision. I live in SF and plan to work in Tech after my MBA.1) Location of UCLA Anderson and proximity to SF Bay area.2) Bigger Tech presence and more networking opportunities for future jobs in Tech3) Full Cohort based program (UCLA Anderson FEMBA) vs Partial Cohort program (Kellogg PT MBA). More bonding and friendships will probably happen in a full cohort program.4) Lack of no cosigner students loans at Kellogg for International students. Kellogg provides an option of but they offer loans only in second year. does give out student loans to international students but only to those who have not been in the US for more than 7 years. Both cases rule me out for a loan. UCLA Anderson, on the other hand, has two great loan options for international students with no cosigner. Elements - 7.5% and Discover ~8%.5) A better social scene at UCLA Anderson vs Kellogg in terms of Weekend MBA. Based on my interaction, I got to know Kellogg is struggling to get people to attend Happy Hours for their Evening Weekend MBA program whereas at UCLA Anderson it's more frequent.6) The culture at Kellogg seemed more formal whereas at UCLA Anderson it was more laid back. This is a personal feeling I got meeting some of the students and attending events.7) 6 hrs of time delta each weekend in terms of travel time to LA vs Chicago. I could use this time to spend it with my family, network with people, relax or do side projects.8) 15k delta in tuition (UCLA vs Kellogg) and 35k delta for travel (LA vs Chicago) - Total 50k delta in MBA costs over 3 years.1) Kellogg M7 brand. For some people, I think it makes a mountain of difference but for me, I felt that for a PT MBA this will not matter much. The positives of UCLA Anderson are just too many in my case.I'd love to hear any different insights and perspectives.
Re: The proportion of students attending community colleges has [ #permalink

The proportion of students attending community colleges has increased dramatically in the past two years. Lakemore Community College, hoping to attract some of these students, has decided to build a larger parking lot and hire several new professors, while maintaining its already excellent communication with local high school college counselors.



Which of the following, if true, provides the strongest evidence in support of the contention that Lakemore's plan to increase its enrollment is flawed?



1) Although Lakemore has recently expanded its program to include fine arts and computer science, the percentage of community college students who choose to enroll at Lakemore has decreased over the last two years... ...WE ARE TALKING OF %OF STUDENTS... NOT % OF COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS......MORE OVER WE HAVE'NT DENIED whether larger parking lot and hiring new professors, while maintaining its already excellent communication with local high school college counselors

will not make a defference....INCORRECT...

2)Students who were graduated from Lakemore in the past two years have had trouble finding jobs..... MAY BE THESE FEW NEW CHANGES WILL STALL WHAT HAS HAPPENED EARLIER......INCORRECT



3)The relationship between Lakemore and local high school counselors has been responsible for the decision of many students to attend Lakemore.... ..STRENGTHENER.....INCORRECT .



4)Other community colleges in the area have better developed remedial programs to help students graduate on time.... IMO...CORRECT ANSWER ......MAY BE THIS IS THE REASON FOR MORE SUBSCRIPTION......SINCE THIS HAS NOT BEEN ADDRESSED......COULD BE THE REASON..... .



5)Despite having better facilities than other community colleges in the area, Lakemore has had declines in enrollment in the past two years...... BUT WITH NEW PROFESSORS COMING....MAY BE THE ENROLLMENT INCREASES....







KUDOS IF YOU PLEASE....
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A Canvas-hosted certification program for UIT student interns is expected to launch in October. The course will comprise three modules: the first two will pertain to students in any IT role, and the third module will provide role-specific training.

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Illustration of obstruction of ventilation. Credit: Habib Mhenni / public domain

The number of people with obstructive sleep apnea has steadily increased over the past two decades. The disorder, which causes a person to briefly stop breathing when asleep, affects over 100 million people globally and is estimated to be undiagnosed 80-90% of the time. Obesity and advanced age, which have been reported as risk factors, are also on the rise. Scientists are concerned because sleep apnea may diminish healthspan by aggravating several cardiovascular and neurodegenerative diseases. Researchers in Portugal explore this suspected relationship in an Opinion article published July 27 in Trends in Molecular Medicine.

"In this paper, we try to put together the information that led us to the controversial hypothesis that obstructive sleep apnea accelerates age-related decline, which has promoted debate and stimulated research in the field," says co-author Claudia Cavadas of the Center for Neuroscience and Cell Biology of the University of Coimbra. "We believe that by treating or stopping obstructive sleep apnea progression, we will not only improve patients' quality of life, but also delay health issues related to aging."

Sleep apnea can strike individuals of all ages, sexes, and body types, but people who are smokers, obese, older, male, or postmenopausal are most at risk. Often mistaken for snoring, sleep apnea patients choke or gasp during sleep when the airway involuntarily tightens. Low oxygen to the brain jolts the person awake in an attempt to normalize blood oxygen levels. The episodes last from a few seconds to minutes and can occur over 30 times an hour. The disorder is commonly treated with a CPAP machine, which pushes air into the airway so that it stays open throughout the night.

Left untreated, sleep apnea can cause several problems associated with poor sleep quality. Patients with the disorder report daytime fatigue, morning headaches, and memory or concentration issues. Emerging evidence also suggests untreated sleep apnea could be connected to more serious age-related diseases such as non-alcoholic liver disease, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer's and Parkinson diseases, dementia, and type 2 diabetes. How sleep apnea is related to these conditions is debated, but Cavadas and her co-authors propose that prolonged disruptions in blood oxygen levels and sleep fragmentation can generate stem cell exhaustion, epigenetic changes, increased inflammation, and other hallmarks of aging.

"Further studies are needed to clearly distinguish between correlative and causal observations in proposed links between obstructive sleep apnea, aging, and age-related disease," they write. "Moreover, the high rates of undiagnosed cases and the low level of public awareness on this disease constitute a barrier that has been difficult to overcome."

The research team is working on the identification of biomarkers that will allow scientists to personalize diagnoses and increase treatment efficiency. "The next step in understanding sleep apnea in the future will be to dissect different subtypes of sleep apnea, likely defined by distinct pathophysiological mechanisms which may underlie different outcomes and predisposition to comorbidities," Cavadas says, "As human life expectancy increases, delaying the onset of age-related diseases becomes critical to our society."

More information: Laetitia S. Gaspar et al, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hallmarks of Aging, Trends in Molecular Medicine (2017). Laetitia S. Gaspar et al, Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Hallmarks of Aging,(2017). DOI: 10.1016/j.molmed.2017.06.006
Chromosomes (blue) have protective end caps called telomeres that help them maintain stability. In this image, the telomeres (green) are abnormally short, which leads to DNA damage that accrues over time. Using the gene editing technology CRISPR, scientists at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have shed light on a rare syndrome that causes children to lose the ability to manufacture vital blood cells. The syndrome, dyskeratosis congenita, is characterized by shortened telomeres. Credit: Marquet Minor

Using the gene editing technology CRISPR, scientists have shed light on a rare, sometimes fatal syndrome that causes children to gradually lose the ability to manufacture vital blood cells.

The research, at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, suggests new lines of investigation into how to treat this conditiondyskeratosis congenitawhich is characterized by shortened telomeres. Telomeres, the protective caps on the ends of chromosomes, help maintain DNA stability. Short telomeres lead to progressive DNA damage that accumulates over time.

The study appears July 27 in the journal Stem Cell Reports.

"Lengthening telomeres seems like a logical way to help these patients, but it could possibly come with its own set of problems," said senior author Luis F.Z. Batista, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine. "We would worry about encouraging cancer formation, for example, as high levels of the protein that lengthens telomerestelomeraseare commonly found with cancer. But if we could find a way to block the signaling pathways that short telomeres activatethat specifically lead to the problems in blood cell formationit could allow these patients to continue making blood cells."

Children with dyskeratosis congenita experience progressive bone marrow failure, eventually losing the ability to make red blood cells, white blood cells and platelets. They are also at high risk of leukemia. Severity of the condition varies widely, but those with severe forms often die of bone marrow failure in young adulthood. The damage of short telomeres is most apparent in rapidly dividing cell types, such as those in the skin, nail beds, mucous membranes and blood. Early signs of the disease include misshapen fingernails, abnormal skin pigmentation and white patches in the mouth.

Because the disease is challenging to study in miceas mice deficient in telomerase don't fully experience bone marrow failurethe researchers used CRISPR to edit into human embryonic stem cells two mutations associated with the disease. The researchers then showed that these cells reproduced the telomere-shortening defect seen in patients with the disorder. Batista and co-senior author Christopher M. Sturgeon, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine, observed that these methods represent a novel and accurate human model of the disorder.

With this model, the scientists further showed how the telomere defect leads to the gradual loss of blood cell formation from human embryonic stem cells and, importantly, how blocking the downstream effects of the defect can reverse this loss, leading to normal production of blood cells. Blocking this signaling pathway did not lengthen telomeres or stop their shortening, but allowed the manufacturing of different types of blood cells to continue, according to the study.

The researchers also teased out an important nuance in the detrimental effect of short telomeres during early development. Using an approach that mimics early embryonic development, they found that the defect did not prevent the formation and function of blood cells produced during the first month of gestation that allow an embryo to fuel its rapidly growing oxygen needs. Rather, the defect arrested the production of adult-like blood cell progenitors, such as red blood cells that carry oxygen or white blood cells that fight infection.

"This was tremendously interesting from a developmental biology perspective as well as from a disease modeling perspective," Sturgeon said. "We now have a platform to really dig deeper into understanding the mechanisms behind some forms of bone marrow failure."

Interestingly, the researchers implicated high levels of a protein called p53 as one of the signals that leads to the drop in adult-like blood cell formation. The p53 protein is usually considered protective of DNA.

"P53 is thought of as a guardian of the genome," Batista said. "Mutations that disable p53 are associated with different types of cancer. Because of this we would not consider directly trying to block p53 in these patients. But what this study provides is proof-of-concept that this pathway is involved in this response. So we now are looking for ways to block the pathway further downstream without necessarily blocking p53 directly."

Batista and Sturgeon recently received a grant from the Department of Defense to investigate these pathways. The strategy used in this study could be relevant for other bone marrow failure syndromes, such as Fanconi anemia and aplastic anemia, which also involve DNA damage accrual caused by different mutations.

More information: Fok WC, de Oliveira Niero EL, Dege C, Brenner KA, Sturgeon CM, Batista LFZ. p53 mediates failure of human definitive hematopoiesis in dyskeratosis congenita. Stem Cell Reports. July 27, 2017. Journal information: Stem Cell Reports Fok WC, de Oliveira Niero EL, Dege C, Brenner KA, Sturgeon CM, Batista LFZ. p53 mediates failure of human definitive hematopoiesis in dyskeratosis congenita.. July 27, 2017.
Large gaps remain in colorectal cancer screening rates between poorer immigrants and wealthier long-term residents, several years after the Ontario government began mailing screening notices to eligible residents, according to a new study by Dr. Tara Kiran, a researcher and family physician at St. Michael's Hospital in Toronto. Credit: St. Michael's Hospital

Large gaps remain in colorectal cancer screening rates between poorer immigrants and wealthier long-term residents, several years after the Ontario government began mailing screening notices to eligible residents, a new study found.

The gaps are being driven by the much higher number of more advantaged residents who choose to be screened by a colonoscopy rather than a non-invasive test done at home that checks stool for blood, said lead author Dr. Tara Kiran, a researcher and family physician at St. Michael's Hospital and an adjunct scientist at the Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences.

In 2008, Cancer Care Ontario, a government advisory agency, introduced a program encouraging physicians to talk with their patients ages 50 to 74 about getting a fecal occult blood test. Colorectal cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths in Canada and the FOBT can catch it early, when it's more likely to be cured.

The test requires people to smear stool samples, usually from three separate bowel movements, onto small squares of paper, which are then placed in a pre-paid envelope and sent to a lab for testing. If the test is negative, it doesn't need to be repeated for another two years. If the results are positive, the person needs to have a colonoscopy, where the doctor inserts a thin tube and camera into the colon to look for polyps.

Evidence from other countries suggests that broad-based screening programs can reduce persistent inequalities between low- and high-income groups and immigrants vs. long-term residents. Dr. Kiran wanted to see whether that also happened following the introduction of the Colon Cancer Check Program in Ontario.

Using databases housed at ICES, she found that in 2014, six years after the program began, the gap had narrowed, but still remained large. Her study found that 64 per cent of women and 61 per cent of men who had lived in Canada a long time and lived in the wealthiest neighbourhoods got screened for colorectal cancer. Yet only 40 per cent of women and 36 per cent of men who were immigrants and lived in the poorest neighbourhoods received screening.

She said the explanation for the gap may be that 44 per cent of women and 43 per cent of men who had lived in Canada a long time and lived in the wealthiest neighbourhoods had their screening done by colonoscopy. Only 13 per cent of women and 12 per cent of men who were immigrants and lived in the poorest neighbourhoods had colonoscopies.

Her findings have been published online in the journal Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention.

Dr. Kiran said that while colonoscopies are not promoted by the Cancer Care Ontario program nor recommended in Canadian practice guidelines for physicians, many Canadian physicians and patients think they are better than the fecal occult (or "hidden") blood test. Colonoscopies, however, are expensive and carry risks of complications. Both colonoscopies and fecal occult blood tests are recommended screening tests for colorectal cancer in the United States.

While a colonoscopy generally needs to be done once every 10 years, the FOBT needs to be repeated every two years, she said, "and many people are, quite frankly, squeamish about smearing their poop on a card."

"We don't fully understand why some groups of people are more likely to get colonoscopies as a screening test rather than the guideline-recommended FOBT," she said. "For some patients, it may be the message they receive from their physician or from their social network. Having a colonoscopy has become a rite of passage in some social circlessomething that everyone does when they turn 50."One solution to closing the gap might be to provide everyone with the same choices, she said.

"Right now, it seems people who have lived in Canada a long time know that colonoscopy is a choice but it's not clear new immigrants have the same information. We likely also need more targeted outreach and education to those not getting screened."
Children in Sierra Leone hunting. Credit: Jesse Bonwitt et al., PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases

Hunting and slaughtering wild animals in Western and Central Africa can put humans at risk of contracting zoonotic infections, including Ebola virus and Lassa virus. While previous studies have suggested that this risky hunting behavior is mostly limited to adult males, a new study appearing in PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases finds that women and children also participate.

Complex social and economic factors are known to influence hunting activities in sub-Saharan Africa. Since contact with animal secretions and fluids can occur through bites, scratches and handling organs during the hunting, slaughtering, and cooking of wild game, scientists have worked to understand who is involved in these behaviors and how to educate them on minimizing risks. Previous interventions have mostly focused on adult males.

In the new work, Jesse Bonwitt, of the University of Durham, United Kingdom, and colleagues from the UK and Sierra Leone, carried out a study involving 4 months of fieldwork in Sierra Leoneincluding 47 interviews, 12 focus groups, 13 school essays and ongoing participant observationto understand interactions between humans and animals in the area. Their research was carried out both in Bo Citythe second largest city in the countryas well as three rural villages outside Bo City and six more isolated villages. 70 percent of those interviewed were male and 30 percent were female. Children were involved in the study through participant observation.

The researchers found that hunting techniques used in the villages included communal and individual hunts. Hunters relied on nets, snares, traps, guns, and dogs. Descriptions of communal hunts included the ways children were involved, as well as how women played a role, for example helping to flush pray into nets, for instance. Boys often started hunting both alone and in groups from around age 7, and were motivated to do so due to pressure from their family and lack of access to other food, the researchers found. Animal carcasses were always handled with bare hands, and both men, women and children were all involved in preparing and cooking meat, over a fire. Reasons for hunting were complex, and included a need for food, crop protection, income, and social importance.

The new research "underscores the challenges of interventions, surveillance, research, and sensitization campaigns," the researchers say. "To address such complexity, intervention strategies should become more more diversified and context-specific". In particular, the role of children should be recognized; specific intervention strategies should be tailored to children's specific hunting practices."

More information: Bonwitt J, Kandeh M, Dawson M, Ansumana R, Sahr F, Kelly AH, et al. (2017) Participation of women and children in hunting activities in Sierra Leone and implications for control of zoonotic infections. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 11(7): e0005699. Journal information: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases Bonwitt J, Kandeh M, Dawson M, Ansumana R, Sahr F, Kelly AH, et al. (2017) Participation of women and children in hunting activities in Sierra Leone and implications for control of zoonotic infections.11(7): e0005699. doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0005699
Credit: CC0 Public Domain

Stanford University School of Medicine investigators have identified a cluster of nerve cells in the male mouse's brain that, when activated, triggers territorial rage in a variety of situations. Activating the same cluster has no such effect on female mice.

Moreover, whether a male mouse displays territorial aggression depends on whether it's recently been the sole occupant of a bachelor pad or living in the mouse equivalent of boarding school. The latter makes for good manners; the former, not so much.

In a study to be published online July 27 in Neuron, the researchers used sophisticated laboratory techniques to determine how much this aggressive behavior owed to environmental factors and how much was genetically hard-wired. Their findings suggest that social forces can override genetically programmed behavior. The findings also could potentially help explain the ill effects of solitary confinement on prisoners, as well as what underlies psychiatric disorders characterized by bursts of violent anger.

Male mice are naturally territorial. In the wild or in the lab, they attack other male mice even if plenty of room, food and females are available.

A typical male mouse who's been dug in for a while as the sole occupant of a chunk of turf will normally attack any other male placed into that territory, said Nirao Shah, MD, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and of neurobiology.

"But selectively activating just this tiny clusterabout 5,000 nerve cells in a brain with 80 million nerve cellsescalates the level and extent of male mice's aggressiveness dramatically," said Shah, the study's senior author. The lead author is postdoctoral scholar Taehong Yang, PhD.

The cells, designated as PR+ VMHvl nerve cells, are found in a part of a brain structure called the ventromedial hypothalamus and are distinguished by the fact that they contain receptors for sex hormones.

Turning mouse Jekyll into mouse Hyde

Stimulating PR+ VMHvl cells in a male lab mouse who's spent a week to 10 days in a cage of its own triggers fierce displays of territorial aggression even when such behavior would rarely occur, the scientists found. This mouse not only will attack a female, which male mice never do, or a member of another species, which mice also rarely do, but will threaten a mirror placed in its cage or even an inflated surgical glove. Even if neutered, the resident male will launch an attack on another mouse introduced to its cage. (Circulating testosterone is normally indispensable for displays of male territorial aggression.) In effect, stimulating these cells makes the solitary male lash out violently and indiscriminately.

In an earlier study, Shah and his colleagues showed that selectively killing PR+ VMHvl nerve cells radically reduces territorial aggression in male mice. This cluster therefore appears to be essential to a male mouse's display of territorial aggressiveness. The new study indicates that the circuitry's activation is also sufficient to trigger territorial aggression in a broad range of circumstances.

Nevertheless, this genetically hard-wired behavior seems to be subject to complex social etiquette. For one thing, the study showed, a solitary-resident male mouse wouldn't start exhibiting displays of aggression if it was all alone, regardless of how amped up its PR+ VMHvl circuitry was. But the sighting of an unfamiliar objecteven the nonreflective side of a mirrorin its cage was enough to trigger tail-rattling threats. Such a mouse would also attack when inserted into the turf of another aggressive, solitary male. On the other hand, a male mouse that had been housed with other males would not attack the aggressive solitary male on the latter's home turf, even when the researchers revved up PR+ VMHvl activity in the socially housed male. Something about social housing, Shah said, seems to powerfully temper male mice's aggressivenessso much so that even directly activating the intruders' "rage center" wasn't enough to coax it into attacking.

That something, said Shah, is likely to be related to mice's acute ability to sense pheromones, which are chemical compounds released by members of a species to signal their social and reproductive status to other members of the species.

"You can tell male and female mice apart by the way they smell," said Shah, an experienced rodent researcher. Unlike female mice, males smell "pretty offensive." Ponder the scent of moldy socks and dirty T-shirts in a teenage boy's gym locker.

Previous work showed that a solitary male hanging out on his home turf attacks a male intruder because of the intruder's pheromones. The new study showed that pheromones exuding from such a solitary male on his home turf deter aggression from a socially housed male intruder. Strikingly, if the socially housed male could no longer sense the solitary male resident's pheromones, he would attack the resident once his PR+ VMHvl cells were revved up.

'Nature versus nurture is a false dichotomy'

"Nature versus nurture is a false dichotomy," said Shah. "We've showed, on the one hand, that genetically programmed circuitry massively influences mammalian behavior. And we've seen that, under certain circumstances, nurture wins: Your social conditions can override your natural impulse to fight."

The human brain, like that of the mouse, also features a ventromedial hypothalamus. While this brain region's functions haven't been fully elucidated in humans, Shah said, case studies suggest at least a degree of similarity to those of a mouse.

The study's findings, therefore, may bear on the question of whether solitary confinement of aggressive male criminals is counterproductive. In addition, some 5 percent of adults are estimated to experience, at some time in their lives, episodes of a psychiatric condition called intermittent explosive disorderimpromptu outbursts of ferocity in the face of what would usually be considered inadequate triggers for that ferocity. It could be, Shah speculated, that the human equivalent of PR+ VMHvl nerve cells are involved, and that learning how to modulate their activity in mice could lead to treatments for this disorder in people.
When Pick n Pay unveiled self-service terminals at its Ottery store in Cape Town last year, consumers praised the excellent use of technology to make their lives easier.

Cobus Barnard, Pick n Pays group executive for retail office and supply chain, said the self-help checkout points are aimed at making shopping more convenient.

He said the checkout points will help customers who are in a hurry, letting them go through the checkout process themselves.

Not everyone was happy, however. Cosatu and its affiliates were up in arms, saying it was not consulted regarding the self-service terminals.

According to Cosatu, Pick n Pay employees were fearful the self-service tills would impact their jobs.

Cosatu said it would oppose the self-service terminals and even threatened boycotts  as the technology was anti-worker, and anti the objectives of South Africa.

The same situation is now playing out in the taxi industry, where metered taxi operators are fighting against Uber in South Africa.

Instead of embracing technological advances in the transport industry, which make consumers lives easier, metered taxi workers are attacking Uber drivers and destroying their cars.

While aggression and violence may result in small wins against Uber and self-service terminals, progress is inevitable.

To embrace new technologies which enhance consumer experiences is always better, and more profitable, as many Uber drivers found out.

And if a local industry is concerned that an international player may eat its lunch, there is always the option to develop your own technology.

Be the technological advance

If anyone thinks it is impossible to fight against global giants like Uber, think again.

Ride-sharing company Didi Chuxing crushed Uber in China, and acquired Ubers China unit in August 2016.

The argument that technological advances will cost jobs is also not informed.

The World Economic Forum said investments in technology create jobs and are an important enabler of innovation and development.

This is in addition to other benefits, such as contributing to GDP growth, creating new and sustainable industries, and business innovation.

Technological progress does not cost jobs, it creates jobs, and is necessary for South Africa to remain competitive in a global market.

The idea that technological advances are anti-worker, and anti the objectives of South Africa is misguided and should be dismissed with contempt.

Unfortunately, the ANC government continues to buckle under pressure from workers unions and other groups which are holding technological progress  and job creation  back. Lets hope this changes soon, for the sake of South Africa and its citizens.

This is an opinion piece.
Fact-checking website Snopes has reached out to its community for help to fund a legal battle against its new shareholders from Proper Media.

We had previously contracted with an outside vendor to provide certain services for Snopes.com. That contractual relationship ended earlier this year, but the vendor will not acknowledge the change and continues to essentially hold the Snopes.com website hostage, it said.

Snopes said the vendor will not hand over control of the sites hosting, and is placing its own ads on the site and withholding advertising revenue.

According to Snopes GoFundMe page, it has raised over $600,000 in two days.

Snopes founder David Mikkelson told Ars Technica that Proper Media had effectively held the site hostage for months.

Only after it launched its fundraising campaign did Proper Media release WordPress content, themes, templates, and the database to Mikkelson.

The partnership

According to Proper Media, however, the disagreement between it and Mikkelsons company Bardav is more complex.

Snopes was founded in 1994, initially run by David and his wife Barbara. They each held 50% of the company.

In 2015, Barbara and David divorced. As part of their settlement, they agreed to each retain half of Bardav with a 10-day right of first refusal should the other partner wish to sell their stake.

Barbara found buyers in five Proper Media staff members, the company Bardav contracted to help Snopes with web development, hosting, and advertising.

Mikkelson reportedly did not block the sale, but later decided to cancel the services it was receiving from Proper Media.

Ultimately, the case will come down to whether Mikkelson, as 50% owner, is allowed to cancel the contract with Proper Media without board approval.

A lawyer for 20%-owner Drew Schoentrup argues that Mikkelson was not allowed to.

Proper Medias lawsuit against Bardav also alleges that Mikkelson used company money to fund expensive non-work items, including the legal fees for his divorce and the honeymoon he went on with new wife Alyssa Young.

Now read: Google fights fake news with Fact Check label
Russian intelligence attempted to spy on the election campaign of Emmanuel Macron through fake Facebook accounts, Reuters has reported.

Agents posed as friends of friends of Macrons associates in an attempt to get private information from them.

Employees at Facebook noticed the activity in the first round of the French presidential election, tracing it to tools used by Russias GRU military intelligence unit  known as Fancy Bear.

Facebook confirmed to Reuters it detected the efforts and deactivated the accounts.

Reuters said that during the campaign, the number of Facebook accounts suspended in France for promoting propaganda or spam spiked to 70,000 from the 30,000 accounts that were closed in April.

Microsoft has also waged its own war against Fancy Bear, taking legal action against Internet domains the Russian spies registered which could masquerade as Microsoft-affiliated sites.

This included addresses like livemicrosoft[.]net or rsshotmail[.]com. Microsoft has filed legal papers to seize any domains the intelligence agency might register in this vein.

The domain list it provided contains 9,000 domains, including infomicrosoftcenter[.]com, win-newsmail[.]com, and statistic-security-microsoft[.]com.
Catholicos expresses hope that Russia efforts will contribute to ensuring free, safe life of Artsakh Armenians

More than 50 of poorest developing countries are on brink of bankruptcy, says UN official

Armenia ex-ombudsman: We are facing serious national security issues (PHOTOS)

Biden has no plans to meet with Saudi crown prince at G20 summit

EU offers natural gas price cap assurances amid disagreements with member countries

Scholz is against establishment of ceasefire in Ukraine on Kremlin's terms

Turkologist: Turkey does not support agenda of achieving peace with Armenians

Sweden to not permit deployment of nuclear weapons on its territory after joining NATO

Erdogan signs decree on appointing Turkey ambassador to Israel

Information security expert: Some Armenia officials received letter that they were victims of national hackers attack

Armenia FM meets with France minister of foreign trade

Foreign Policy: US to resume nuclear arms control talks with Russia

Armenia opposition MP: Artsakh army reduction is impermissible

Biden to warn Chinas Xi that North Korea path could lead to increase in US military presence

US Treasury chief: India can buy as much Russian oil as it wants

Newspaper: Armenia authorities trying to find legal grounds for signing peace treaty

Newspaper: People of Karabakh not going to tolerate final destruction of their army

Texas woman sentenced to death for killing pregnant woman, removing fetus from victim

Van Gogh's painting sold for a record $117 million

Gentiloni: EU countries have accumulated enough gas to get through the coming winter

Several dozen activists detained at protest rally in Baku: They chant slogans 'Freedom!', 'Resign!'

Princess Haya seeks asylum in Wales

Pashinyan: Iran is concerned about the presence of other actors in our region, which are not in the territory of Armenia

Pashinyan: Presidents of Russia and Azerbaijan listened to presented proposals

Volvo reveals its flagship EX90 electric crossover

Pashinyan: Yerevan supports Russia's proposals for Armenian-Azerbaijani settlement

Pashinyan: Russia cannot withdraw from Karabakh unless it creates additional guarantees for peacekeeping mission

Pashinyan: We will do everything to Armenia-Azerbaijan sign peace treaty by end of year

Russia bans entry of Biden's family and White House press secretary

Pashinyan: We believe there should be a dialogue between Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh

Pashinyan says positions voiced by some member countries of CSTO are unacceptable

19 countries that use euro currency will slide into recession over winter

Pashinyan to Baku: If 1991 border is mutually recognized, what are your troops doing near Jermuk?

Pashinyan: If the Karabakh issue is solved, why is Azerbaijani Armed Forces shooting at Karabakh residents?

Pashinyan: Russia should say whether their version of peace settlement is still circulating?

Pashinyan: Maybe Azerbaijan doesn't want Armenia to receive revenues?

Pashinyan: Azerbaijan must withdraw its troops from Armenia

Pashinyan: My yesterday's speech served its purpose, Azerbaijani MFA no longer uses 'corridor' term

Microsoft founder Paul Allen's collection of world masterpieces sold for $1.6 billion

Public TV of Armenia hosts Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan

China shows drone killer

Armenian FM meets his French counterpart

Rishi Sunak decides to close hole in British budget through austerity

Delegation of Russian MPs visits Jermuk resort town

Lavrov and Mirzoyan discuss regional agenda

Harut Sasunyan: The best way to achieve peace is to be prepared for war

Turkish prosecutor demands court to ban Istanbul mayor from political activities

German business leaders warn against leaving China

Sasunyan: Russia and US pursue their own interests in South Caucasus

British economy shrinks in three months, foretelling prolonged recession

Iranian Ambassador to Azerbaijan summoned to Foreign Ministry

Euro rises above dollar for first time in long time

Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister calls Council of Turkic States 'forum of peace' and praises Turkey

EU embargo on Russian oil will be a boon for OPEC

Armenia defense minister receives China ambassador, military attache

Lemkin Institute condemns Azerbaijan president's genocidal rhetoric

Dollar goes up, euro rises sharply in Armenia

U.S. warns Europe that conflict over Taiwan will cause massive global economic shock

EU calls on Armenia, Azerbaijan to moderate their rhetoric

Erdogan says Turkey has been waiting at door of EU for 52 years and will give answer when time comes

U.S. fears that European support for Ukrainian strategy will begin to weaken

Armenia, Iran emphasize need to quickly implement agreements reached (PHOTOS)

Armenia soldier wounded by Azerbaijan shooting undergoes surgery

Gas over morality: Hungary guards Azerbaijan's interests

U.S. quietly seeks concessions from Saudi Arabia after Mohammed bin Salman humiliated Biden

Italy's Ambassador to Armenia visits Gyumri

Russian Armed Forces complete redeployment of grouping from right bank of Dnieper

IRGC: Adversaries are frightened and on alert

Armenia appoints ambassador to Sri Lanka

Kremlin doesn't consider leaving Kherson 'humiliating'

Israeli president thinks the world is concerned about Netanyahu's far-right coalition partner

Chinese MFA: China is not distancing itself from Russia, as Biden believes

Ukraine will seek help from its foreign partners in financing Starlink satellite internet systems

Erdogan: Situation in South Caucasus remains fragile

Marukyan: Azerbaijans Aliyev admitted that his country started 2nd Karabakh war, despite previously insisting opposite

Azerbaijan blackmailing Armenia through Lachin corridor

Turkish-occupied northern part of Cyprus becomes observer in Organization of Turkic States

Armenia PM: In his latest speech Aliyev flagrantly violated agreement on refraining from threat or use of force

World Bank official: Armenia is one of best countries in terms of credit portfolio performance

Azerbaijan president makes repeated accusations, threats against Armenia

Iran citizens injured in Armenia road accident

China reveals new giant drone that could point to the future of air warfare

US embassy in Armenia closed today

Karabakh MOD: Defense Army did not fire at Azerbaijan positions located in occupied territories

Israel and U.S. counter threat of hypersonic missiles together

U.S. and EU plan to publish new roadmap on artificial intelligence

Armenia ombudsperson meets with Belgium colleagues

Newspaper: Armenia parliament opposition seats to no longer be empty

Newspaper: Armenia parliament committee of inquiry into 2020 war circumstances is inactive

U.S. will no longer consider Russia a country with a market economy

US intends to protect Azerbaijan from threats of Iran

Aliyev, Erdogan discuss results of tripartite meeting in Russias Sochi

Azerbaijan army fires at Armenia positions, uses mortars as well

UAE is going to launch flying cabs from airports

Volvo Cars expects to introduce electric SUV by 2024

Amazon becomes world's first public company to lose $1 trillion in market value

EU's odd couple: Ursula von der Leyen and Charles Michel can't stand each other

US, China set first benchmarks ahead of presidents' meeting

Iranian MFA summons Azerbaijani ambassador to carpet in connection with anti-Iranian propaganda

Washington to resist any attempt by new Israeli government to annex West Bank
The Armenian National Committee of Canada is appalled to learn that the Canadian government has granted an export permit for the transfer of highly sophisticated military equipment from the Toronto-based INKAS Armored Vehicle Manufacturing.

In a letter addressed to Canada's Minister of International Trade, Francois-Philippe Champagne, the ANCC urged the Canadian government to immediately halt the transfer of weapons to Azerbaijan and take the necessary steps to reverse this wrong decision.

Such transfers of dangerous weaponry to a rogue states such as Azerbaijan violate the very basic norms of Canada's arms exports regulations and pose a significant danger to domestic and regional stability, president of the ANCC, Shahen Mirakian said.

As has been demonstrated repeatedly thus far, the Azeri regime is adamant on using such equipment not only to perpetuate regional instability by threatening the peace and security of the Republic of Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh), but also to crack down on dissent at home, added Mirakian.

As a matter of fact, in April of last year, Azerbaijan, armed with then-newly acquired lethal weaponry, initiated the Four-Day War which was the deadliest clash between Armenian and Azeri forces since the 1994 ceasefire, and has been culpable of countless ceasefire violations up to that point and ever since.

By allowing this export of military goods to Azerbaijan, Canada is contributing to the hostilities among Azerbaijan, Armenia and the Republic of Artsakh. Such decisions are contrary to Canada's commitment and full support of the OSCE Minsk Group negotiation process and for a peaceful resolution to the conflict.

As for its human rights record, Azerbaijan has been repeatedly condemned by prominent rights watchdogs such as Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International for what is deemed to be a recurring suppression of fundamental freedoms, most notably its continuing assault on independent journalism and human rights advocacy in the country.
The existence of a good idea will not yet make the startup successful, startup development specialist Anil Chhikara (India) told Armenian News  NEWS.am on Thursday.

Many startuppers focus on finding good technical solutions but according to the specialist, more attention should be attached to the issues the given product can solve and how well it is made.

Even if you create an incredibly cool artificial intelligence, the investors wont invest money in it simply because it is well-made. The investors and potential clients are interested in what issues the Artificial Intelligence created by you can solve and how effective it can be, the specialist said.

Anil Chhikara pointed out to three questions, which any startupper striving for success should be able to answer:

1. What issue does your product solve?

2. How important is the solution of that issue for the client?

3. Will that product simplify the life of client?

If you cannot say what issue your product solves, it is perhaps not as successful as you think. If the issue your product can solve is not that important for the client, he may be able to do without your product. And, finally, if that product doesnt simplify the clients life but, on the contrary, creates new issues, he will most probably not need it. According to the specialist, both the potential clients and investors always pay attention to these three factors.

Apart from this, no less important is to present the potential clients and investors not only the good idea but alsoif possiblethe final product, which can be tested.

Nobody will invest in your ideas unless you are, of course, a famous person like Elon Musk. If you have already had famous and successful startups, investors will be ready to give you money for implementing new ideas. But if nobody knows you yet, you shouldnt hope to find investments easily, not having the ready product or its prototype. Some people think that if investors give money to people like Elon Musk, they will be able to find investments easily as well. Such people forget what path Elon Musk and others passed to achieve what they have now, the specialist said.

Anil Chhikara has arrived in Armenia to take part in the annual Sevan StartUp Summit, which is held on the beach of Lake Sevan from July 24 to 31. Over 1,000 participants, including 100 startups and teams of developers, investors, venture companies and mentors from over 10 countries of the world, take part in the event.

The format of the summit is unique: during seven days all the participants, including the mentors and investors, share their household, communicate and participate in different competitions and events. Consequently, new companies will be established and many projects will be able to find investors and enter the market in the near future. Moreover, there will be competitions, whose winners will get over 20 monetary and other prizes.
3D printers are actively used in the most various spheres, starting from medicine to education.

However, in Armenia such printers are not that widely-spread. Moreover, many residents of the country dont know yet why they are needed and in which spheres they can be used.

Artur Khojabaghyan, one of the founders of AugmentAr Armenia startup, which produces 3D printers, told the aforementioned to Armenian News  NEWS.am.

Currently, 3D printers can be used in jewelry (this is already done in Armenia), medicine, industry and construction. They can also play an important role in the educational process of children: if the children have an access to 3D printers, they will be able to print robots, work on interesting projects and learn 3D modeling. 3D printers may have many appliances: given the access to such a printer, one begins to think broader, come up with new ideas and experiment, Khojabaghyan noted.

The Goris-based startup is the first one in Armenia to produce 3D printers. The company has overall 12 specialists, only 4 of which work on printers: the rest are engaged in programming and web design.

Currently, the main client of AugmentAr 3D printerscalled Bzezis the UITE NGO, for which 90 items have been assembled. Another four printers were assembled upon the order of private people. This is, of course, not enough for the entire country, Khojabaghyan said.

The 3D printers produced in Armenia are, of course, cheaper than the European ones but more expensive than the Chinese printers. According to Khojabaghyan, the low price of Chinese printers is conditioned by their low quality, but not all clients understand this. Apart from this, the local producer should have guarantees and service centers, which also affects the price of the production: the majority of Chinese printers have no warranties and if they break, the client cannot apply to the producer, thus having to find other masters capable of fixing them.

Given relevant funding in the future, Artur Khojabaghyan and his friends are going to improve their printers and begin producing new ones. In particular, they want to create a printer printing by chocolate, as well as a large printer taht can print 1-1.5 meter accessories, which can be used in machine engineering and construction.

AugmentAr representatives came to attend the Sevan StartUp Summit 2017 in the hope of finding new partners and investments, which will help the project development and more active application of 3D printing in the most diverse spheres of Armenia. Apart from this, they want to collect 20-30 printers: it will be possible to use part of them for different orders, while the rest will allow to enter the market more confidently and begin looking for purchasers.

Annual Sevan StartUp Summit organized by StartUp Armenia Foundation is held on the beach of Lake Sevan from July 24 to 31. Over 1,000 participants, including 100 startups and teams of developers, investors, venture companies and mentors from over 10 countries of the world, take part in the event.

According to the organizers, the event is aimed at creating new ways of cooperation for startups and exchange of experience. The format of the summit is unique: during seven days all the participants, including the mentors and investors, share their household, communicate and participate in different competitions and events. Consequently, new companies will be established and many projects will be able to find investors and enter the market in the near future. Moreover, there will be competitions, whose winners will get over 20 monetary and other prizes.
HSE Chair Promoting Farm Safety This Week

"Farming has changed, and with new and different working practices and a transient workforce, all farmers need to constantly revisit and reconsider the risks faced by the people working on their farm," HSE Chair Martin Temple said.

With National Farm Safety Week being observed in England during July 24-28, the Health and Safety Executive's chair, Martin Temple, is urging farmers to work to promote safe practices in the industry. HSE encourages everyone involved in agriculture to join the #HelpGBWorkWell conversation to talk about how they can prevent illnesses, injuries, and deaths in the workplace.

National Farm Safety Week is organized by the Farm Safety Foundation and aims to reduce the number of incidents while offering support and guidance for those working in the industry. This year's week comes just after the release of HSE's annual fatality statistics, and figures for the agriculture sector highlight just how poor farming's record is.

"Everyone involved in improving workplace health and safety has a role to play in helping Great Britain work well," Temple said. "I personally have some experience of the challenges and risks farmers face on a day-to-day basis, having grown up on a farm. Farming has changed, and with new and different working practices and a transient workforce, all farmers need to constantly revisit and reconsider the risks faced by the people working on their farm."

Agriculture, forestry, and fishing is the riskiest industry sector in the UK, with 27 workers being killed on farms last year and three members of the public, making a total of 30 people, according to the new HSE fatality figures for the sector.

"National Farm Safety Week provides an ideal opportunity for everyone working in the agricultural industry to raise their voice, and have the conversation around how managing risk well in the workplace is good for farming and all those working in agriculture," said Temple.
Canada Encouraging Broader Livestock Traceability

CFIA is considering changes to the Health of Animals Regulations that would require all Canadian operators of premises where livestock may be loaded or unloaded from a vehicle to have a valid premises identification number for each site and to report the number when receiving livestock.

The Canada Food Inspection Agency, known as CFIA, is promoting #PremisesIDWeek during July 25-31 to encourage producers, farmers, and operators in the Canadian livestock supply chain to participate in livestock premises identification. Authorities say traceability protects Canada's livestock industry and the public's well-being by strengthening the ability to respond quickly to disease outbreaks, food safety issues, and natural disasters.

Identifying premises for livestock operations is especially beneficial during emergencies or disease outbreaks; knowing where livestock are located and how to contact owners can reduce potential impacts and can help the industry rapidly notify registered livestock stakeholders.

CFIA is considering changes to the Health of Animals Regulations that would require all Canadian operators of premises where livestock may be loaded or unloaded from a vehicle to have a valid premises identification number for each site and to report the number when receiving livestock. The country's livestock traceability system is a collaborative effort involving federal, provincial, and territorial governments and the livestock and poultry sectors.

"Being able to trace the movement history of an animal from one point to another will strengthen Canada's ability to respond quickly to health threats and other emergencies. We encourage producers and stakeholders across the supply chain to increase participation in livestock premises identification," said Lawrence MacAulay, minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food.

There are five Canadian provinces with mandatory premises identification -- Prince Edward Island, Quebec, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta -- but all provinces and territories have systems in place to issue PID numbers.
Thanks to many dedicated people and businesses, Downtown is the heart of Milwaukee and the entire state of Wisconsin. This week, OnMilwaukee presents Milwaukee Downtown Week, sponsored, aptly, by Milwaukee Downtown, BID #21. For seven days, we will share stories, videos and photography profiling some of the neighborhood's best offerings and celebrating those who make it so great. Milwaukee Downtown Employee Appreciation Week, by the way, runs July 31-Aug. 4, 2017.

Margarita Paradise

401 N. Water St. (414) 226-2422

margaritaparadisemilwaukee.com

Type of food: Mexican

Prices: $4-10.95.

Vegetarian friendly? Yes. Vegetarian tacos and burritos are on the menu.

Hours: Monday-Friday, from 10 p.m. to 6:30 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Ive never felt the name of this restaurant, located inside the Public Market, was apt because the margaritas are good, but the food is really excellent. The ingredients are always fresh, the meats are well seasoned and not greasy, and the busy "bar" atmosphere makes dining fun.

We ordered the taco plate, which comes with rice and beans, for $5. For an extra $2 we ordered a second taco. Diners choose their meat, veggies, cheese and corn or flour tortilla. We highly recommend the corn. The rice always appears white and bland, but is actually flavorful, and the beans are rich and creamy and topped with cheese shreds.

The pork tamale ($2.50) and breakfast burrito ($6.95) are also two under-$7 favorites.

Hits: The staff is incredibly motivated, attentive and kind. I brought my 13-year-old son with me for the $7 lunch challenge and the worker insisted my sons lunch was on him because he was such a polite and respectful boy. Gotta admit, food tastes even better with a side of Mom Pride.
Anticipation has been mounting for the opening of The Diplomat, the new restaurant located in the former home of Bosleys on Brady at 815 E. Brady St.

But, curious diners can get a sneak peek at the new space during a special open house during the Brady Street Festival, which takes place Saturday, July 29 from 11 a.m. to midnight.

Although the restaurant isnt slated to open until sometime in August, festival-goers are welcomed to stop by and take a tour of the restaurant, which has undergone numerous cosmetic updates, including a new mahogany bar, deep vibrant blue and rusty red walls and artwork which pays homage to both Brady Street and Jimi Hendrix, a musician whose work holds a special place for chef and owner, Dane Baldwin.

Baldwin says they will be serving up a variety of beverages at the restaurant bar, as well as a variety of simple festival foods like hot dogs, bratwurst and sweet corn.

Onlookers can also view the progress on the restaurants design. Local artist Fred Kaems will be applying some of his creative stencil-work to restaurant walls during the event, providing a live art experience.

Baldwin, whose background includes work with the Bartolotta Restaurant Group, Carnevor, Dancing Ganesha, Barossa and Gils Cafe, says hes excited to introduce the restaurant to Milwaukee during the festival.

"Its really a modest beginning," he says. "The entire restaurant tells the story of my growth as a cook. Weve been very resourceful in the way weve gone about the remodel, making use of a variety of local connections. And things are beginning to come together."

Baldwin credits his wife Anna, whose background in the arts has played a large role in the design of the restaurants decor, as well as his impressive staff which includes bar manager John Papp, former lead bartender at the Iron Horse Hotel; Executive Sous Chef Paul Taufner, who Baldwin worked with at Gils Cafe; Chef Nick Boyd of Mr. Bs Steakhouse and Eric Kaye, former general manager at Carnevor.

Although Baldwin is keeping the menu for the new restaurant under wraps, he says the restaurant will focus on shareable plates, including plays on some Wisconsin favorites.

Watch OnMilwaukee for additional details as they develop.
Amazon launched its express delivery service in Singapore on Thursday, the US online retail giant's first foray into Southeast Asia and a move that puts it in direct competition with China's Alibaba.

Prime Now allows online shoppers in the affluent city-state of five million people to order a wide range of goods from baby products to food, electronic items and beer.

It marks Amazon's entry into a region of more than 600 million people, where many countries have a growing middle class, and which is seen as the next e-commerce battleground.

"Amazon's entry augurs well for shoppers in the region who will benefit from more choice, price competition and better delivery services," said Prem Shamdasani, an associate professor for marketing at the National University of Singapore Business School.

Alibaba already has a headstart in the region with an 83-percent stake in Southeast Asia-focused online retailer Lazada.

The Chinese firm, founded by China's richest man Jack Ma, raised its stake in Lazada last month with a further $1 billion investment.

The Prime Now application was made available for download in Singapore on Google's Play store and Apple's iTunes.

By just entering their postal zip code after opening the app on their devices, online shoppers can start placing their orders.

The service promises delivery of items within two hours.

Business consultancy Frost & Sullivan projects online retail sales in Southeast Asia to more than quadruple to $71 billion by 2021 from $16 billion in 2016.

The e-commerce sector made up 4.1 percent of the total retail market for the region last year but this share is set to rise to 11.5 percent by 2021, the consultancy said.

But Shamdasani warned that it could be difficult market. Southeast Asia includes relatively wealthy countries such as Singapore, but also developing nations with poor infrastructure where it is harder to do business.

"While e-commerce is set to grow the market in Southeast Asia is relatively small and fragmented with narrow margins," he said.

He said Amazon will "face increasing competition from many established store retailers who are embracing e-commerce and providing their customers with seamless omni-channel shopping experiences".

Mei Lee Quah, an analyst for telecoms and payments strategy at business consultancy Frost & Sullivan, said that while Amazon and Alibaba are rivals, their product offers are also complementary.

"Their offerings will be slightly different because they (Amazon) bring products in the form of US inventory," Quah told AFP.

"Lazada plays in a slightly different field. They are also of quality but the range is different, it caters more for the overall Asian market," she added.

 2017 AFP
Credit: EPFL / Alain Herzog

An app developed by an EPFL doctoral student suggests outings you're sure to like  from sporting events to culture and outdoor fun. How does it work? The app is linked to a huge database of events and powered by a machine-learning algorithm that learns from your choices.

Looking for something to do this summer? You can put away the movie listings and event calendars, because there's a new app that indexes all activities in your area and highlights the ones you're most likely to enjoy.

The app  called Flyerz  was developed by Thibault Asselborn, a PhD student at EPFL, with the help of two other people. "The idea came to us when we were on vacation with friends and looking for something to do. We thought it would be good to have an app to do the legwork for us," says Asselborn. Flyerz now covers all of western Switzerland and the major French cities. It is available for both Android and iOS and has been downloaded more than 4,000 times. The activities it indexes include concerts, outdoor movies, sporting events, after-work events and public seminars.

More than 21,000 events

This pocket social coordinator has two major strengths: a very large database, and machine-learning algorithms. "It would be impossible to manually enter all the events that show up every day: there are more than 21,000 at the moment," says Asselborn. The system combs through open-access databases, like those on Facebook and Google, from which it extracts events. The events are then processed by artificial neurons, which use machine-learning technology to categorize them. Finally, the events are published on the app in the appropriate category.

But that's just half the story. A special algorithm selects events that align with the user's profile, i.e., their hobbies and interests. The more the app is used, the more it learns from the user's choices and favorites, and the more relevant the suggestions become. Although their profile contains some highly personal information, users are guaranteed total anonymity  they don't even need to provide an email address.

Flyerz is thus a simple yet exhaustive search app that lets users find something to do at the last minute. "What we have going for us is that we can offer a huge amount of content on all types of events, so users no longer need to search for  and sort through  the information themselves," say the app's creators.

Tourist offices are interested

Flyerz has a high retention rate, which refers to the proportion of people who keep using it over time. So the app's creators think it has real potential for further development. And it turns out their app is appealing to more than just people who are at a loose end. Local communities and tourist offices have shown an interest, and partnerships have already been set up with several French cities.

More information: For more information: www.flyerz.ch
Project Starshot, an initiative sponsored by the Breakthrough Foundation, is intended to be humanity's first interstellar voyage. Credit: breakthroughinitiatives.org

In 2015, Russian billionaire Yuri Milner established Breakthrough Initiatives, a non-profit organization dedicated to enhancing the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). In April of the following year, he and the organization be founded announced the creation of Breakthrough Starshot, a program to create a lightsail-driven "wafercraft" that would make the journey to the nearest star system  Alpha Centauri  within our lifetime.

This past June, the organization took a major step towards achieving this goal. After hitching a ride on some satellites being deployed to Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Breakthrough conducted a successful test flight of its first spacecraft. Known as "Sprites", these are not only the smallest spacecraft ever launched, but prototypes for the eventual wafercraft Starshot hopes to send to Alpha Centauri.

The concept for a wafercraft is simple. By leveraging recent developments in computing and miniaturization, spacecraft that are the size of a credit card could be created. These would be capable of carrying all the necessary sensors, microprocessors and microthrusters, but would be so small and light that it would take much less energy to accelerate them to relativistic speeds  in the case of Starshot, up to 20 percent the speed of light.

As Pete Worden  Breakthrough Starshot's executive director and the former director of NASA's Ames Research Center  said in an interview with Scientific American:

"This is a very early version of what we would send to interstellar distances. In addition, this is another clear demonstration that it is possible for countries to work together to do great things in space. These are European spacecraft with U.S. nanosatellite payloads launching on an Indian boosteryou can't get much more international than that."

Professor Abraham Loeb also has some choice words to mark this historic occasion. In addition to being the Frank B. Baird Jr. Professor of Science, the Chair of the Astronomy Department and the Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation at Harvard University, Prof. Loeb is also the chairman of the Breakthrough Starshot Advisory Committee. As he told Universe Today via email:

"The launch of the Sprite satellites marks the first demonstration that miniaturized electronics on small chips can be launched without damage, survive the harsh environment of space and communicate successfully with earth. The Starshot Initiative aims to launch similar chips attached to a lightweight sail that it being pushed by a laser beam to a fifth of the speed of light, so that its camera, communication and navigation devices (whose total weight is of order a gram) will reach the nearest planet outside the solar System within our generation."

Artists illustration of a light-sail powered by a laser beam (red) generated on Earths surface. Credit: M. Weiss/CfA

The craft were deployed on June 23rd, piggybacking on two satellites belonging to the multinational technology corporation OHB System AG. Much like the StarChips that Starshot is proposing, the Sprites represent a major step in the evolution of miniature spacecraft that can do the job of larger robotic explorers. They measure just 3.5 by 3.5 cm (1.378 x 1.378 inches) and weight only four grams (0.14 ounces), but still manage to pack solar panels, computers, sensors and radios into their tiny frames.

The Sprite were originally conceived by Zac Manchester, a postdoctorate researcher and aerospace engineer at Cornell University. Back in 2011, he launched a Kickstarter campaign (called "KickSat") to raise funds to develop the concept, which was his way of bringing down the associated costs of spaceflight. The campaign was a huge success, with Manchester raising a total of $74,586 of his original goal of $30,000.

Now a member of Breakthrough Starshot (where he is in charge of Wafer design and optimization), Manchester oversaw the construction of the Sprites from the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at Cornell. As Professor Loeb explained:

"The Sprites project is led by Zac Manchester, a Harvard postdoc who started working on this during his PhD at Cornell. Sprites are chip-size satellites powered by sunlight, intended to be released in space to demonstrate a new technology of lightweight (gram-scale) spacecrafts that can communicated with Earth."

The purpose of this mission was to test how well the Sprites' electronics systems and radio communications performed in orbit. Upon deployment, the Sprites remained attached to these satellites (known as "Max Valier" and "Venta") and began transmitting. Communications were then received from ground stations, which demonstrated that the Sprites' novel radio communication architecture performed exactly as it was designed to.

With this test complete, Starshot now has confirmation that a waferocraft is capable of operating in space and communicating with ground-based controllers. In the coming months and years, the many scientists and engineers that are behind this program will no doubt seek to test other essential systems (such as the craft's microthrusters and imagers) while also working on the various engineering concerns that an instellar mission would entail.

In the meantime, the Sprites are still transmitting and are in radio contact with ground stations located in California and New York (as well as radio enthusiasts around the world). For those looking to listen in on their communications, Prof. Loeb was kind enough to let us know what frequency they are transmitting on.

"The radio frequency at which the Sprites that were just launched operate is 437.24 MHz, corresponding to a wavelength of roughly 69 cm," he said. So if you've got a ham radio and feel like tuning in, this is where to set your dials.
Chariton cave photo by Amos Frumkin.

Analysis of caves in Israel deserts brings to light the ancient groundwater circulation of north-western Arabia. The cave distribution, morphology, and deposit evidence indicates that they formed through dissolution by rising groundwater. This water originated as rainwater flowing from highlands around the present Red Sea, infiltrated through sandstone, and rose again through deep faults in Israel, forming maze, or network caves.

The caves must be older than the Dead Sea rift, which breached some of the caves, disrupting the groundwater circulation. Thus the caves are tentatively attributed to the Oligocene-early Miocene periods (around 35-20 million years ago).

The suggested model of cave formation, by hypogenic (rising from depth) water, differs from classic cave formation process, which relates caves to local water, which enters the ground from above. The hypogenic flow model explains why the caves in Israel are concentrated mainly in the deserts, rather than in the more humid regions.

The study has implications on understanding underground reservoirs of water and oil, and the possible circulation of these fluids.

More information: Hypogenic karst at the Arabian platform margins: Implications for far-field groundwater systems , doi.org/10.1130/B31694.1
China's widely-used applications have given writers like Qiao Mu an outlet to self-publish and make moneyas long as their words respect the boundaries set by online censors inside the country's "Great Firewall"

When outspoken professor Qiao Mu posted his resignation letter on a popular Chinese messaging app, sympathetic readers tapped their phone screens to send him money, leaving him with a 20,000 yuan ($3,000) payday.

China's widely-used applications have given writers like Qiao an outlet to self-publish and make moneyas long as their words respect the boundaries set by online censors inside the country's "Great Firewall".

With Facebook and Twitter blocked in China, they post their works on WeChat, a messaging service with over 900 million worldwide users, or Weibo, a microblogging websiteboth monitored by the Communist authorities.

"I'm a typical Chinese person. I love my country and I want to change it. To reach the majority of the Chinese people I need to stay inside the Great Firewall and write in Chinese," Qiao told AFP.

Qiao, 47, quit his library job because he was fed up of doing dull translations after getting banned from teaching in 2014 for vague "work violations".

Growing pressure on writers and academics is part of a tightening of controls on civil society that began in 2012, when President Xi Jinping took power.

In April, the former director of the prestigious Beijing Foreign Studies University's international communication studies programme posted his resignation letter on WeChat.

"(University officials) said I wasn't being positive in my research, that I was being careless in the articles I was publishing," wrote Qiao, who made 200,000 yuan a year as a library manager.

"I'll need to get used to my new life. ... At least after I resign my speech will no longer censored by anyone but myself and the internet censors," he concluded.

Run by Chinese internet giant Tencent, WeChat allows users to post content such as articles on public accounts that have followers, who can tip whatever amount they want.

Qiao usually makes at least 1,000 yuan ($145) for each short essay. The average monthly salary in China is 6,070 yuan.

He has opened 15 public accounts on WeChat since 2012, but most were shut down by censors after he posted political commentary.

One of his three remaining accounts has 15,000 followers. If an article is blocked, he moves it to another account.

'New literary hits'

"In a way, it is a sort of democratisation of the literary world. By giving rewards to the people they like to read, netizens can create their own new literary hits, influencing the status-quo of China's literature today," said Manya Koetse, who tracks social trends in China as editor of What's on Weibo.

Qiao Mu, who has three public accounts on WeChat, usually makes at least 1,000 yuan ($145) for each short essay he posts

"There's been a rise of literary platforms that tell fresh and individual stories of ordinary people instead of high-profile names," Koetse said.

Independent writers can also earn income by accepting advertisements or sponsored content on their public accounts.

Mi Mengwhose writing style is comparable to Sex and the City's protagonist Carrie Bradshawboasts more than 10 million WeChat subscribers and posting ads on her account can cost as much as 500,000 yuan.

Others team up with fellow writers to start online publications that focus on certain topics and rely on ads for income.

In 2014, Ye Weimin left his job as senior editor at Southern Weekly in Guangzhou following crackdowns on the newspaper, which has pushed censorship boundaries with hard-hitting investigations.

Ye, who now works in finance in Beijing, charges download fees for his journalism tutorial videos.

"I didn't expect almost 3,000 people to pay for my online tutorials. This is completely accidental income," he said.

'Don't cross the line'

In 2013, Chinese authorities moved against influential online commentators, arresting some and shutting down many of their accounts.

China's top court also ruled that year that people would be charged with defamation and potentially face jail if "online rumours" they started were visited by 5,000 internet users or reposted more than 500 times.

New regulations launched in June require online platforms to get a licence to post news reports or commentary about the government and a slew of other issues.

Qiao occasionally tests the limits of censorship, writing a post commemorating the July 13 death of dissident Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo.

"I didn't criticise the government in the article. I was just paying tribute to a man and his contribution to peaceful dialogue, but it was immediately deleted," Qiao said.

"If my writing is too political, no one will read it and my account will get deleted. People like to be entertained, and they know how to read between the lines," he said.

"I self-censor to survive."

 2017 AFP
The iridescent blue male sunburst cerulean-satyr, Caeruleuptychia helios, top, was not linked with its female counterpart until DNA bar codes showed they were the same species. Credit: Florida Museum of Natural History, photo by Shinichi Nakahara

Researchers recently discovered what was thought to be a distinct species of butterfly is actually the female of a species known to science for more than a century.

An international team of nine butterfly researchers from the U.S., Brazil, the U.K., Peru and Germany used DNA sequence data to associate the female sunburst cerulean-satyr, or Caeruleuptychia helios, an Amazonian brush-footed butterfly, with its male counterpart.

Males and females of this group look dramatically different from each other, a phenomenon known as sexual dimorphism, and the species was named and described in 1911 based on the brilliantly iridescent blue males. Rarer than the male, the brown female was considered another species and was recently named and placed in a different genus, Magneuptychia keltoumae.

A study correcting the classification error was published today in Insect Systematics and Evolution.

"Our study will serve as the basis for developing a firm understanding of true species diversity of this group and of Neotropical butterflies in general," said Shinichi Nakahara, the study's lead author and a research associate at the Florida Museum of Natural History's McGuire Center for Lepidoptera and Biodiversity at the University of Florida. "These findings are extremely valuable at a time when the biodiversity of the Neotropics is threatened since it will be impossible to recognize and document the region's unique elements of biodiversity after they are gone."

As part of the project, DNA bar codesshort, diagnostic gene sequenceswere collected and analyzed for more than 300 species across the euptychiines group of butterflies.

This iridescent blue male sunburst cerulean-satyr, Caeruleuptychia helios, was found at Villa Carmen Biological Station in Peru. Researchers attracted the butterfly with fermented fish and human urine. Credit: Andrew Neild

The DNA sequences of Caeruleuptychia helios and Magneuptychia keltoumae were identical.

"None of us thought about this possibility before, and we were all surprised by this outcome of our DNA analysis," Nakahara said. "Given that males and females of most euptychiine butterflies look more or less the same, I guess no one thought that the female would be so different compared to the male."

The discovery of the female contributed to the recognition of the male and female of two other species in this group, including a new species from cloud forests in eastern Ecuador, Trembath's cerulean-satyr, or Caeruleuptychia trembathi. The different-looking males and females of the two species make this group one of the most sexually dimorphic among butterflies.

"This research increases the number of cases of euptychiine butterflies known where the males display bright colors, but the females have the dull, brown wings typical of most species in the group," said Keith Willmott, a study co-author and associate curator of Lepidoptera at the Florida Museum.

A better understanding of the species diversity and relationships among euptychiines will make it possible to think about broader questions, such as how they have diversified and the role wing patterns play in signaling between the sexes, Nakahara said.

"Fortunately, the butterflies are much better at distinguishing one another among the hundreds of other similar species than butterfly experts are," he said.

More information: Shinichi Nakahara et al, Remarkable sexual dimorphism, rarity and cryptic species: a revision of the 'aegrota species group' of the Neotropical butterfly genus CaeruleuptychiaForster, 1964 with the description of three new species (Lepidoptera, Nymphalidae, Satyrinae), Insect Systematics & Evolution (2017). DOI: 10.1163/1876312X-00002167
Credit: University of the West of England

Following the announcement yesterday that the government plans to ban petrol and diesel cars from 2040 Professor Graham Parkhurst, Director of the Centre for Transport and Society at the University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), says that this announcement is symbolically important.

Professor Parkhurst comments, "Given the severe nature of the air quality problem here and now, this announcement is largely symbolic in that respect.

"The symbolism is important, however, as it confirms that the UK Government has finally accepted the seriousness of the situation, having previously failed to meet its own statutory responsibilities and having fought the need for significant action on air quality though the courts.

"It will need to be the other measures in the air quality action plan that actually improve urban air quality.

"Electric vehicles as currently designed would make an important contribution to improving air quality, but they will not completely remove the problem, as vehicle brake linings and tyres also make a significant contribution to particulate matter pollution, which also causes health problems.

"The UK announcement only affects pure diesel and petrol internal combustion engine-vehicles. Hybrids are excluded.

"As the Swedish manufacturer Volvo has committed to produce only electric and hybrid vehicles from as soon as 2019 - the first major manufacturer to make such a commitment - then it shows that at least part of the industry could achieve such a switch for new vehicles much more quickly.

"China is considering tough limits on the share of petrol and diesel sales which could strongly promote alternative fuel cars, as happened in the past in California.

"As well as hybrid vehicles, sales of internal combustion engine vehicles using gas fuels (natural gas, hydrogen) could continue, although there are barriers to take-up of these fuels that make electric vehicles a better option.

"The main reason for the cautious approach would appear to be concern about potential increases in the consumer prices of new cars. It is true that battery electric and hybrid vehicles remain considerably more expensive than conventional vehicles. In the case of hybrids this is due to the complexities of having two power systems and the need for further technology to integrate them.

"Battery electric vehicles are actually simpler than diesel and petrol cars; it is just the battery cost and the scale of production that makes them expensive.

"With or without this announcement, the days of governments across Europe relying on Fuel Excise Duty as a key source of taxation are ending; a decline that I first observed in a publication in 2002. As electricity for domestic use is the same as for road use, it would not be straightforward to charge tax on it at different rates for different purposes. The most likely alternative is a pay-as-you-drive road user charge, not limited to cities.

"It would not make sense only to charge for road use in cities or just in places with high congestion. First, the charge would have to be very high if it were only applied in congested places. Second, road use would be so cheap given the current price of electricity that car use would increase sharply if no charge were applied to uncongested roads.

"It is most likely that road charges will be applied in the context of roads become more of a 'mobility service', with charges being made for allowing travellers to use their vehicles in 'driverless' mode on motorways, possibly in reserved lanes, and/or for charging on the move; trials are underway on the possibility for motorway lanes which allow inductive charging, such as is currently available on a much smaller scale for some battery-powered items such as smartphones and electric toothbrushes."

More information: Parkhurst, G., (2002). The top of the escalator? In Lyons, G., Chatterjee, K., (Eds). Transport Lessons from The Fuel Tax Protests of 2000. Ashgate, Aldershot, 299-321.
A beached hoodwinker sunfish, the new species described by researchers from Murdoch University. Credit: Murdoch University

, Murdoch University

Sunfish are famous for looking odd. They are the largest bony fish in the world, can grow to over 3 metres in length and weigh up to 2 tonnes, and look a little bit like a suitcase with wings.

But when I began my PhD doing population studies on sunfish off Bali in Indonesia, I didn't expect to discover an entirely new species. What began as something of a side project turned into a four-year treasure hunt, flying thousands of kilometres to track down evidence with the help of dozens of people.

As part of my PhD research, I analysed more than 150 samples of sunfish DNA. Genetic sequencing turned up four distinct species: Masturus lanceolatus, Mola mola, Mola ramsayi and a fourth that didn't fit with any known species.

A new species had been hiding in plain sight for centuries, which is why we ended up calling it Mola tecta: the hoodwinker sunfish. But back then, in 2013, we didn't even know what they looked like; all we had were skin samples containing the mysterious DNA.

Going on the hunt

The next step was trying to figure out what these fish might look like. Superficially, all sunfish look the same (that is, slightly strange). Their bodies are flat and rigid, except for their fins; they don't have a tail; and as they grow bigger they usually develop odd bumps on their head, chin and nose.

So I started looking at pictures of sunfish, especially on social media, searching for something different. I also spent a long time establishing a network of people across Australia and New Zealand who could alert me whenever a sunfish was found.

The hoodwinker sunfish grows to at least 2.4 metres long, with a distinctive backfold of smooth skin separating the back fin into two. Credit: Michelle Freeborn, Wellington Museum Te Papa Tongarewa

I finally got a break in 2014. Observers from New Zealand and Australian fisheries were sending me pictures of sunfish they found out at sea, usually just a fin in the water. But on one occasion they hauled a tiny fish on board to free it from a fishing line, and got a brilliant photo of the whole thing along with a genetic sample.

This fish had a little structure on its back fin that I'd never seen on a sunfish before. Just as I was wondering if this was a characteristic of the species, I hit the jackpot when four fish were stranded in one go on the same beach in New Zealand.

I flew down to Christchurch, landed at night and drove out on to the beach. I saw my first hoodwinker sunfish in the headlights of the car  it was incredibly exciting. This changed everything, because now we knew what we were looking for.

What is the hoodwinker?

Unravelling this mystery has been a huge puzzle. Sunfish are huge, largely solitary and fairly elusive, so you can't just go out and sample a heap of them to study. You have to fly thousands of kilometres when there's a stranding and hope it's the right puzzle piece you're looking for.

However, by looking at stranded specimens, photos and museum collections, and by verifying specimens genetically, we have been able to describe this species very accurately.

We found enough fish to describe this species on a size spectrum of 50cm to nearly 2.5m. Unlike the other species, they don't develop lumps and bumps as they grow; instead their body dimensions stay pretty much the same between juveniles and adults. Their back fin is separated into an upper and lower part, with a small flexible piece of skin, which we have termed the "back-fold", connecting the halves.

We don't know exactly what their range is, but it seems to be the colder parts of the Southern Hemisphere. We've found them all around New Zealand (mostly around the South Island), off Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and New South Wales (Australia), South Africa and southern Chile.

A hoodwinker sunfish off the coast of Chile. Credit: Cesar Villarroel, ExploraSub

Sunfish aren't particularly rare, but it's tricky to study them as they simply live in parts of the ocean most humans don't go. They dive hundreds of metres to feed, and then rise to the surface to bask in the sun on their sides (hence their name).

This habit of diving and rising throughout the day means they can be caught by a range of fishing gear, including tuna longlines or in drift gillnets and midwater trawls. Fishers have been turning them up for centuries. When we looked back through the literature to see if this species had been described before, we found sunfish in books that included mermen and unicorns, and one of the first written mentions comes from Pliny the Elder.

A sunny community

Of course, this discovery didn't happen in isolation. A group of researchers from Japan first identified the possibility of a new species from a single skin sample about 10 years ago. We were able to work with two sunfish experts from the University of Tokyo and the University of Hiroshima to describe the hoodwinker, and to compare it in detail with the other two Mola species.

We also collaborated with geneticists from the Gemmell Lab at the University of Otago and expert taxonomists from the Wellington Museum Te Papa Tongarewa, who prepared and now house the "holotype", which is the name-bearing specimen and official representative of Mola tecta.

Fisheries observers from the Australian Fisheries Management Authority and the New Zealand Ministry of Primary Industries have sent me around 120 samples from sunfish they sampled while on patrols, which was the basis for the initial study.

Finally, we've had invaluable support from the public. On one occasion, a gentleman and his young daughter even drove out on a quad bike to a remote beach just to gather samples. (I do believe sunfish bring out the best in people.)

After four years of work  and the help of many people  it's great to be able to finally share the hoodwinker sunfish with the world.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
A Russian man is escorted by police officers as he arrives at a courthouse at the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Greek authorities say they have arrested a Russian man wanted in the United States on suspicion of masterminding a money laundering operation involving at least $4 billion through bitcoin transactions. (AP Photo/Giannis Papanikos)

A cellphone seized during the arrest of a Russian man the U.S. wants extradited for allegedly laundering vast sums through bitcoin transactions should provide key data for the investigation, Greek police said Thursday.

The U.S. Department of Justice has identified the suspect as Alexander Vinnik, 37. It said he allegedly laundered more than $4 billion through BTC-e, one of the world's largest digital currency exchangeswhich he allegedly operated.

The suspect was arrested Tuesday while on holiday with his family in the Halkidiki area of northern Greece, which is popular with Russian tourists, and a prosecutor ordered his detention pending the extradition process.

Police said they seized electronic equipment, including mobile phones, two laptops and five tablets, from his hotel room.

The suspect denies wrongdoing, and said he will fight extradition to the U.S.

Thessaloniki security police chief Avraam Aivazidis told The Associated Press that officers who arrested the suspect at a hotel near Ouranoupolisnext to the all-male monastic community of Mount Athosgrabbed his cellphone before he could lock it, ensuring vital data were not lost.

"He did not have time to shut it down," Aivazidis said Thursday. "That was the important thing for us."

A police official said one officer distracted the suspect's attention during the arrest while another snatched the cellphone out of his hand. The official spoke only on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to discuss details of the case with the press.

A Department of Justice statement said Vinnik has been indicted by a grand jury in the Northern District of California, on charges including money laundering, conspiracy to commit money laundering and engaging in unlawful monetary transactions. The charges, if proved in court, carry maximum sentences of up to 20 years in prison.

The statement said Vinnik allegedly facilitated drug trafficking, helped launder criminal proceeds from syndicates around the world and stole identities. It said BTC-e allegedly developed a customer base heavily reliant on criminals, and was noted for its role in several ransomware and other cyber-crime activities.

According to the indictment, Vinnik allegedly received funds from a major hacking attack on the Mt. Gox digital currency exchange, in which hundreds of thousands of bitcoins were stolen.

Under Greek law, Vinnik can be held for up to two months until the request is examined.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Many farmers, ranchers, and landowners rely on voluntary conservation incentive programs within the Farm Bill to make improvements to their land and operations that benefit them, the environment, and society.

According to a recent study by researchers from Virginia Tech's College of Natural Resources and Environment and Point Blue Conservation Science published in the scientific journal Conservation Letters, it is necessary to find ways to sustain the benefits from these practices after the incentive program ends. This finding is crucial as Congress discusses the reauthorization of the Farm Bill.

In the United States, federal incentive programs aimed at promoting private land conservation fall under the umbrella of the Farm Bill, a package of legislation that promotes conservation efforts on farms and private lands, among other purposes. Typically taking the form of cash payments, tax credits, or cost-share agreements, these incentive programs allow landowners to participate in conservation activities while maintaining ownership of their land.

Persistence, a term introduced in this context by the authors of the study, is the continuation of a conservation practice after incentives from voluntary conservation programs end.

According to lead author Ashley Dayer, assistant professor of human dimensions in Virginia Tech's Department of Fish and Wildlife Conservation, some conservation practices like tree planting are more likely to continue providing benefits without active management by landowners, while other practices, such as conservation crop rotation, would require a more hands-on approach by landowners. In the latter cases, supporting landowners' behavioral persistence is essential to maintaining environmental benefits.

Dayer worked with Seth Lutter, a master's student in fish and wildlife conservation, and Kristin Sesser, Catherine Hickey, and Thomas Gardali from Point Blue Conservation Science, a California-based wildlife conservation and research nonprofit, to examine the existing research literature on landowner behavior after incentive programs ended to determine what factors contributed to landowners continuing conservation efforts on their own.

"We often hear assumptions about how landowners gain a stewardship ethic due to involvement in these programs that may lead them to continue conservation activities after the programs end, but there's been very little empirical research to support this assumption," explained Dayer, who is affiliated with the Global Change Center, housed in Virginia Tech's Fralin Life Science Institute.

According to Gardali, director of the Pacific Coast and Central Valley Group at Point Blue Conservation Science, understanding and promoting persistence is vital to successful conservation efforts.

"Our efforts to provide habitat for water birds in California, in partnership with conservation organizations and rice growers, illustrate the need to have better information on if, when, and why landowners continue to implement a conservation action after the payments end," Gardali said.

"We recently watched as rice growers who implemented conservation projects were unable to re-enroll for incentives due to program limitations," he continued. "Bird habitat provision became uncertain and dependent on landowner behavior persistence."

In this study, supported by the S.D. Bechtel, Jr. Foundation, the authors developed five research-based explanations for whether or not persistence outcomes could be expected. The pathways include landowners' attitudes toward the conservation practices, landowners' motivations for participating in incentive programs, habit formation, access to resources, and social influences.

The researchers offer several suggestions for improving conservation program outcomes, including:

Removing limits on the number of re-enrollments allowed for individual landowners if there are a limited number of landowners interested in the program;

Removing limits on the number of re-enrollments for programs where landowners must continually apply a practice for conservation outcomes;

Prioritizing projects where landowners enroll for the long term; and

Considering the likelihood of persistence when designing programs.

Additionally, Lutter notes, "More research is needed in this social science side of landowner conservation incentive programs. American taxpayers are investing billions in these programs, so it's essential to understand how to promote the programs' long-term effectiveness."

Ultimately, incentive programs that assist landowners with conservation efforts benefit the population as a whole.

"Private lands conservation is critical," Dayer said. "Often when we think about land for wildlife, we think about national parks or protected areas, but those are a small proportion. In the U.S., 60 percent of the land is privately owned."

"A disproportionately high amount of wildlife is found on private lands, so having landowners engaged in managing their land is critical to having benefits like wildlife habitat or water quality that all of us enjoy beyond the boundaries of that landowner's property. It's beneficial to everyone when landowners are willing to do this work," she concluded.

More information: Ashley A. Dayer et al, Private Landowner Conservation Behavior Following Participation in Voluntary Incentive Programs: Recommendations to Facilitate Behavioral Persistence, Conservation Letters (2017). DOI: 10.1111/conl.12394 Journal information: Conservation Letters
Malaria was already widespread on Sardinia by the Roman period. Credit: istockphoto

Malaria was already widespread on Sardinia by the Roman period, long before the Middle Ages, as indicated by research at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine of the University of Zurich with the help of a Roman who died 2,000 years ago.

Even today, Malaria is one of the greatest medical challenges worldwide, killing hundreds of thousands of people every year. In the past, people have adapted to the threat of malaria in various ways. These methods range from interventions in the environment like draining swamps, to genetic adaptations in the human body.

Thalassemia instead of malarial DNA

Malaria was not eradicated on Sardinia until the 1950s. Until now, it has been assumed that the disease was only endemic on the island since the Middle Ages (500-1500 CE). Researchers at the Institute for Evolutionary Medicine of the University of Zurich have now studied the history of malaria on Sardinia in greater depth. Since antique DNA (aDNA) of malaria is very difficult to extract, they studied thalassemia and other genetic adaptations in its place. Thalassemias are genetic diseases that interrupt the development of red blood cells. These diseases, however, have the advantage that many people affected lead a healthy life and are bad hosts for malaria pathogens. They are therefore partially immune against infections with malaria. Even today, such thalassemias occur relatively frequently in former malaria regions, such as the Mediterranean.

The Romans already suffered from malaria

The researchers headed up by Claudia Vigano and Abigail Bouwman of the human aDNA laboratory at the Institute of Evolutionary Medicine  the only laboratory of its kind in Switzerland  studied a thalassemia allele called cod39 b-thalassemia, which is dominant on Sardinia. They were therefore able to prove that, contrary to what has been known until now, malaria was probably already endemic on Sardinia in the Roman period, long before the Middle Ages.

The decisive evidence of this supposition has been provided by the 2,000 year old (approx. 300 BCE to 100 CE) remains of a Roman, in which the cod39 allele could be proven. "This is the very first documented case of the genetic adaptation to malaria on Sardinia," Claudia Vigano says. "We also discovered that the person was genetically a Sardinian in all probability and not an immigrant from another area."

Understanding the evolution of today's diseases

"Our study shows the importance of a multidisciplinary approach to history," says Abigail Bouwman, head of the project and the aDNA laboratory. "We are researching the evolution of today's diseases such as malaria to explain why the human body becomes sick at all and how adaptations occur."

More information: Claudia Vigano et al. 2,000 Year old -thalassemia case in Sardinia suggests malaria was endemic by the Roman period, American Journal of Physical Anthropology (2017). DOI: 10.1002/ajpa.23278 Journal information: American Journal of Physical Anthropology
Some medieval medical books had unusual advice to help improve mens fertility. Credit: University of Exeter

Men could be held responsible for the failure to produce children as far back as medieval times, a new study of medical and religious texts has shown.

The analysis of popular medical and religious books by the University of Exeter shows that from the 13th century, widely-circulated medical texts recognised the possibility of male infertility, including sterility and 'unsuitable seed'.

A urine test to determine if a husband or a wife was to blame for the absence of children in a marriage was even devised, and medical recipes drawn up as a treatment for men.

It has been widely assumed that women in medieval England were blamed for childlessness and religious discourse about infertility focused on women. If men were deemed responsible for the failure of a couple to produce children, this was in cases of sexual dysfunction where it was obvious the man was unable to have intercourse.

But Dr Catherine Rider, a historian at the University of Exeter, found doctors of the period recognised that sexually-active men might not be able to conceive a child, and evidence that medieval medics were aware of this when treating childless couples.

Dr Rider found evidence that in 13th-15th century England male infertility was viewed as a possibility, not only among those who had studied medicine at a university and could read Latin but among less-educated sections of society reading texts in English.

Learned discussion of male reproductive disorders by medical writers filtered down into a wider audience including medical practitioners. Dr Rider found texts written in the vernacular contained references to male sterility as a possible cause of a woman failing to conceive.

Learned Latin texts were translated, adapted and added to, even influencing English recipe collections which included remedies for childlessness.

For example a 12th century gynaecological treatise entitled the Trotula, by an anonymous author, was circulated widely and translated into English and French. It states that "conception is impeded as much by the fault of the man as by the fault of the women". This widely read book on women's medicine went on to describe male reproductive disorders as being about less visible forms of "sterility" as well as problems relating to erections and emission of sperm.

It quotes an earlier work: 'whether this comes about from a defect of the spirit impelling the seed, or from a defect of spermatic humidity, or from a defect of heat. If from a defect of heat, he will not desire intercourseif it happens from defect of the spirits he will have no desire and he will not be able to have an erection.if it is because of a defect of the seed, when they have intercourse they emit little or no semen." Meanwhile men with excessively cold and dry testicles had seed that was 'useless for generation. (Translation by Monica Green).

The Trotula also includes a test to see if the 'defect' lay in the man or the woman, which had also appeared in earlier medieval texts. Both should urinate into a pot of bran and the pots should be left for nine or ten days. If worms appeared in one of the pots than he or she was the infertile partner.

The same idea was also found in other medical works. John of Mirfield, a cleric associated with St Bartholomew's Hospital in London in the late 14th century warned in a medical treatise: '"It should be noted that when sterility happens between married people, the males are accused by many people of not having suitable seed".

Some medieval medical books had unusual advice to help improve men's fertility. The Liber de Diversis Medicinis (Book of Diverse Medicines), a collection of medical recipes from the 15th century, said: "If a man wishes that a woman will conceive a child soon take catmint and boil it with wine until it is reduced to a third of its original volume, and give it to him to drink on an empty stomach for three days."

Another book of recipes, now in the Wellcome Library in London, said to stop sterility a person should "Take a pig's testicles, dry and grind them, and give them to drink with wine for three days". It is not clear if the man or woman was supposed to drink the potion.

Such remedies date from 15th century texts, however Dr Rider has found evidence that earlier books recommended the same treatments.

The University of Exeter historian has uncovered a much wider concept of male infertility than was generally recognised by medieval marriage law, which allowed marriages to be annulled on grounds of sexual impotence but not infertility. She did find evidence of men being accused of 'impotence' in church courts but ideas about male reproductive disorders went beyond this.

Dr Rider said: "Although medical texts tended to devote most space to female infertility, male infertility was nonetheless regularly discussed as a possible cause of childlessness in academic texts and by educated medieval medical practitioners, and this information may have been used on occasion when treating childless couples. These books show people had accepted long ago that male reproductive disorders were not just about problems that occurred during sex. We can't fully understand what attitudes were like towards male infertility in the Middle Ages because we have so few records which describe the experiences of people who had reproductive disorders. It is hard to know whether men or women were more likely to seek treatment for infertility in practice. Most of our evidence comes from doctors who discussed what might happen and how to treat these problems."
A view of the Tiber River, whose level is low due to the drought, during a warm and sunny day in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

Rome and its water company are working hard to avoid rationing during a nationwide drought, Italy's environment minister said Thursday.

Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing.

But Environment Minister Gian Luca Galletti told reporters that while Rome's situation "worries me most" both the city and the Acea water utility are "working out a solution that can avoid having hundreds of thousands of Roman citizens go without water."

He called that scenario "unacceptable." Galletti also decried as "intolerable" chronic leaks that lose some 40 percent of the water supply before it reaches users.

Last week, the governor of Lazio, the region including Rome, ordered a halt to drawing water from the drought-suffering Lake Bracciano, which supplies 8 percent of Rome's water. Gov. Nicola Zingaretti urged Acea to find water from other reservoirs instead. Drastically decreasing water levels are posing danger to the aquatic life of the lake, 40 kilometers (25 miles) from the city.

Meteorologists say Italy experienced one of its driest springs in some 60 years and that some parts of the country had seen rainfall totals 80 percent below normal. Among the hardest-hit regions is Sardinia, which is seeking natural disaster status.

A view of the Tiber River, whose level is low due to the drought, during a warm and sunny day in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

The Farmers' lobby Coldiretti has estimated 2 billion euros ($2.3 billion) worth of damage so far to Italian agriculture. Dairy farmers are lamenting drops in milk production. Among those suffering are farmers growing tomatoes in the southeastern region of Puglia, wine grapes throughout much of Italy and those cultivating olivesall signature crops for the nation.

Another afflicted area is Parma, an area in north-central Italy renowned for Parmigiano Reggiano cheese and prized prosciutto.

Earlier this week, Vatican City turned off its fountains due to the drought.

A ferry sails on the Tiber River, whose level is low due to the drought, during a warm and sunny day in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

In Rome famed, monumental fountains beloved by tourists risk being turned off.

Rome had 26 rainy days in this year's first six months, compared to 88 in the first half of 2016, with precipitation totals in those same periods more than four times higher last year.

Making matters worse, water supply pipelines in the Rome areafamed in ancient Roman times for its aqueducts, segments of which still standare notoriously leaky.

Italian firefighters check the Tiber River, whose level is low due to the drought, during a warm and sunny day in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

A view of the Tiber River, whose level is low due to the drought, with St. Angelo Castle in background, during a warm and sunny day in Rome, Wednesday, July 26, 2017. Scarce rain and chronically leaky aqueducts have combined this summer to hurt farmers in much of Italy and put Romans at risk for drastic water rationing as soon as this week. (AP Photo/Domenico Stinellis)

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
At the instant the moon's shadow darkens the Oregon coast on the morning of Aug. 21, a scientific relay race will kick off with Bruce and Ryan Alder at the head of the pack.

From atop a peak in the Coast Range, the father and son from Corvallis will be the first in a transcontinental chain of amateur and professional astronomers to film the total solar eclipse on identical telescopes, from identical angles.

If all goes well, the result will be the longest video ever compiled of the planet's premier sky show, and a trove of data for scientists.

It's the "if" part that has Bruce, the elder Alder, on edge.

What if it's cloudy?

What if he screws up?

"We're stoked," he said. "And we're nervous."

Called Citizen CATE (Continental-America Telescope Eclipse), the project is one of more than a dozen scientific studies that will be crammed into the brief window of time when the total solar eclipse sweeps across the U.S. from coast to coast - the first such event in 99 years.

The main focus is on the corona - the faint, diaphanous atmosphere that surrounds the sun but is only visible during a total eclipse. More than a hundred times hotter than the surface of the sun, the roiling halo is of keen interest to astronomers because it spits out immense clouds of supercharged plasma called coronal mass ejections. The clouds trigger Earth's colorful auroras, but can also disrupt power grids and communication networks.

NASA will track the eclipse with satellites thatscan portions of the corona that won't be visible from the ground and measure jets of X-rays erupting from the sun. Teams of scientists will chase the eclipse in high-altitude jets equipped with instruments to measure the fluxof light and energy. Researchers on a mountain in Wyoming will map magnetic fields in the corona, while others test new tools for probing the sun.

Eclipses have been the subject of scientific fascination for centuries, but the so-called "Great American Eclipse" is likely to be the most studied in history, says Thomas Zurbuchen, of NASA's Science Mission Directorate. With more than 200 million people living within a day's drive of the swath of totality and millions more tuning in online, it could also be the most watched.

Researchers are tapping into that enthusiasm to recruit legions of citizen scientists like the Alders to gather images and data along the eclipse's 2,500-mile-long path.

"The thing that excites me most is that people can walk out on their porch in their slippers and collect world-class data using modest instruments," said Matt Penn, an astronomer at the National Solar Observatory in Tucson, Ariz., and Citizen CATE's maestro.

He's assembled more than 200 volunteers and a few professionals who will be stationed at68 locations from Oregon to South Carolina. All of the groups will set up the same type of telescope equipped with the same type of camera. The scopes will be programmed to track and snap rapid-fire images of the eclipsethroughout the roughly two minutes of totality at each spot. Then the images will be stitched together to create a 93-minute video.

Even though modern astronomers don't have to wait for an eclipse to study the corona, the natural sky show provides unique opportunities, Penn explained. Telescope attachments called coronagraphs canblock the glare of the sun and reveal the corona, but they obscure the innermost layer - where a lot of mysteries remain.

Among them is the process thataccelerates the solar wind, a stream of charged particles that roars off the corona at a million miles an hour. In order to better predict solar storms, scientists need to better understand the solar wind, Penn said.

The eclipse video will provide an unprecedented, time-lapse look at the way the inner corona morphs and moves. "No one has really looked at the corona in this way before, so there are bound to be new things that we discover," Penn said.

Volunteer David Anderson, of Bellevue, has been practicing in his backyard in preparation for the big day. A lifelong amateur astronomer who courted his wife on an eclipse-watching trip to Turkey, Anderson will be stationed at a state park near John Day in Eastern Oregon, where he will set up his gear long before dawn.

"They are relying on all of us to pull our weight," he said. "I take it very seriously."

The Alders plan to set up camp on their 2,500-foot-highmountain perch three days before the event - andkeep their fingers crossed that coastal scud won't obscure the view.

A pair of Seattle sisters are headed for Fort Laramie, Wyo., to take part in another coast-to-coast observing project using balloons.

Kimberly and Rebecca Yeung, ages 10 and 12, might be among the youngest citizen scientists studying the eclipse, but they aren't novices. Their experiments launching balloon-borne craft received wide coverage and earned the girls a trip to the White House Science Fair, where they met then-President Obama.

They call their enterprise Loki Lego Launcher, after their late cat, Loki, and the Lego figurines they fly on every mission.

On their own initiative, the girls hatched plans to launch a balloon during the eclipse. "We thought it was our original idea, and we were keeping it secret," Rebecca said. "Then we found out that NASA was doing it across the country."

Almost 500 students will help launch more than 100 high-altitude balloons as part of the Eclipse Ballooning Project, said organizer Jennifer Fowler from the University of Montana and Montana Space Grant. While most of the teams are middle-school age or older, she was thrilled to include the Yeung sisters.

"The fact that they came up with it on their own is brilliant," Fowler said.

The balloons will carry video cameras to film the moon's shadow racing across the continent and stream it live to NASA's website. Most willalsocarry small vials of bacteria to examine the effects on living cells of a trip to the stratosphere, while others collect data on shifts in temperature and cloud cover during the eclipse.

Each student team is alsocrafting individual experiments. The Yeung sisters will mount a small solar panel on their craft and monitor energy output as the sun dims and brightens.

Voting is open at the girls' website to pick the Lego figure that will make the trip skyward. The girls wanted a strong female character, so the candidates are pioneering pilot Amelia Earhart, Hermione Granger from the Harry Potter series, and Merida from the Disney movie "Brave."

So far, the real-life aviator is thrashing the fictional competition.

-

ECLIPSE CITIZEN SCIENCE

Some projects, like Citizen CATE and the Eclipse Ballooning Project, are filled. But others are open or DIY:

- How Cool is the Eclipse?

Collect air- and surface-temperature data on the GLOBE Observer App, even outside the path of totality.

- Eclipse Soundscapes

Use a mobile app to assist in this Harvard-Smithsonian project to record sound during the eclipse.

- Life Responds

Use the iNaturalist app to record animal and plant responses for the California Academy of Science

- HamSCI 2017 Solar Eclipse Experiment

Ham-radio operators can participate in a number of experiments to measure eclipse-triggered changes in the ionosphere.

- DIY Relativity Test

Uber-wonks can follow a published protocol to replicate the 1919 eclipse observations that validated Einstein's theory of relativity.

NASA; American Astronomical Society

2017 The Seattle Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
This photograph shows a large jar burial containing the remains of one of the individuals sequenced in the study. Credit: Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal - The Sidon excavation

In the most recent whole-genome study of ancient remains from the Near East, Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute scientists and their collaborators sequenced the entire genomes of 4,000-year-old Canaanite individuals who inhabited the region during the Bronze Age, and compared these to other ancient and present-day populations. The results, published today (27 July) in the American Journal of Human Genetics suggest that present-day Lebanese are direct descendants of the ancient Canaanites.

The Near East is often described as the cradle of civilisation. The Bronze Age Canaanites, later known as the Phoenicians, introduced many aspects of society that we know today - they created the first alphabet, established colonies throughout the Mediterranean and were mentioned several times in the Bible.

However, historical records of the Canaanites are limited. They were mentioned in ancient Greek and Egyptian texts, and the Bible which reports widespread destruction of Canaanite settlements and annihilation of the communities. Experts have long debated who the Canaanites were genetically, what happened to them, who their ancestors were and if they had any descendants today.

In the first study of its kind, scientists have uncovered the genetics of the Canaanite people and a firm link with people living in Lebanon today. The team discovered that more than 90 per cent of present-day Lebanese ancestry is likely to be from the Canaanites, with an additional small proportion of ancestry coming from a different Eurasian population. Researchers estimate that new Eurasian people mixed with the Canaanite population about 2,200 to 3,800 years ago at a time when there were many conquests of the region from outside.

This photograph shows the Sidon excavation site which included the burials of the studied individuals. Credit: Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal - The Sidon excavation

The analysis of ancient DNA also revealed that the Canaanites themselves were a mixture of local people who settled in farming villages during the Neolithic period and eastern migrants who arrived in the area around 5,000 years ago.

In the study, researchers sequenced whole genomes of five Canaanite individuals who lived 4,000 years ago in a city known as Sidon in present-day Lebanon. Scientists also sequenced the genomes of 99 present-day Lebanese and analysed the genetic relationship between the ancient Canaanites and modern Lebanese.

Dr Marc Haber, first author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "It was a pleasant surprise to be able to extract and analyse DNA from 4,000-year-old human remains found in a hot environment, which is not known for preserving DNA well. We overcame this challenge by taking samples from the petrous bone in the skull, which is a very tough bone with a high density of ancient DNA. This method of extraction combined with the lowering costs of whole genome sequencing made this study possible."

This photograph shows the burial of a single sub adult individual sequenced in the study. Credit: Dr. Claude Doumet-Serhal - The Sidon excavation

Dr Claude Doumet-Serhal, co-author and Director of the Sidon excavation site* in Lebanon, said: "For the first time we have genetic evidence for substantial continuity in the region, from the Bronze Age Canaanite population through to the present day. These results agree with the continuity seen by archaeologists. Collaborations between archaeologists and geneticists greatly enrich both fields of study and can answer questions about ancestry in ways that experts in neither field can answer alone."

Dr Chris Tyler-Smith, lead author from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, said: "Genetic studies using ancient DNA can expand our understanding of history, and answer questions about the likely origins and descendants of enigmatic populations like the Canaanites, who left few written records themselves. Now we would like to investigate the earlier and later genetic history of the Near East, and how it relates to the surrounding regions."

More information: Marc Haber et al. (2017) Continuity and admixture in the last five millennia of Levantine history from ancient Canaanite and present-day Lebanese genome sequences. American Journal of Human Genetics. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajhg.2017.06.013 * www.sidonexcavation.com Journal information: American Journal of Human Genetics
Credit: Wageningen University

Researchers succeeded for the first time in mapping protein-protein interactions in living developing plant roots. The findings of three international research groups led by the department of Plant Developmental Biology at Wageningen University and Research were published in Nature.

The work is considered a breakthrough in field of cell and developmental biology as interactions between proteins at physiological conditions are for the first time visualized within intact living tissue in a non-invasive manner. The results using this approach will allow a better understanding of protein-binding events which are essential for many important cellular functions as their dis-function is causal of diseases including cancer.

A joint collaboration of Wageningen University & Research, Amsterdam University and Dusseldorf University succeeded in mapping protein interactions in living plant roots at native conditions and at cellular resolution using the latest state-of-the-art functional imaging technologies. The recently published work in Nature titled "In vivo FRET-FLIM reveals cell type-specific protein interactions in Arabidopsis roots" combined FRET-FLIM (Forster Resonance Energy Transfer) Fluorescence Lifetime imaging Microscopy) technology with genetics and gene expression analysis. The work unraveled that in living tissues, protein complexes can change their conformation in a cell type dependent manner to regulate specific gene expression programs leading to precise specification and maintenance of particular cell fates within the Arabidopsis root meristem.

Understanding root growth

At the tip of a growing plant root resides a population of "stem cells" These cells divide and differentiate into different cell types generating different tissues in the plant root. The fate of each cell, hence what kind of root tissue it will generate, is determined by combinatory modules where, transcription factors play a crucial role. To understand how these proteins regulate cell fate and consequently root growth Ikram Blilou, together with her PhD student Yuchen Long, faced the challenge to visualize the interactions between a set of key transcription factors focusing on how these interactions change in time and space in different tissue types and how they regulate cell fate during root development

Technical challenge

It is technically challenging to study protein interactions in living organisms because of their low abundance, making it difficult detect these interactions by traditional biochemical methods. In this study the researchers used state-of-the-art functional imaging and molecular biology techniques to visualize specific interactions using FRET-FLIM (technique in combination with genetics and gene expression analysis. Proteins interact by direct binding, this means they come very close to each other and in in this case FRET techniques is used to detect these interactions by tagging the proteins of interest with genetically encoded fluorescent proteins.

Combined expertise

This study is the result of a successful collaboration between three international teams, in addition to Plant Developmental Biology group at Wageningen University headed by Prof Ben Scheres, the work involved Prof. Theodorus Gadella from the Van Leeuwenhoek Centre for Advanced Microscopy in Amsterdam. The team of Gadella, including Joachim Goedhart and Marten Postma, has a long standing expertise in optimization of fluorescent proteins, quantitative microscopy and advanced FRET-FLIM analysis. Together with the team of Rudiger Simon from Dusseldorf University, including Yvonne Stahl and Stephanie Stefanie-Weidtkamp-Peters with expertise on high resolution life time imaging, the FRET-FLIM technology was implemented overcoming the current limitations for studying protein complex dynamics at cellular resolution.

More information: Yuchen Long et al. In vivo FRETFLIM reveals cell-type-specific protein interactions in Arabidopsis roots, Nature (2017). DOI: 10.1038/nature23317 Journal information: Nature
Credit: Sarah Wall/Student Photographer

A few years ago, Dr. Mohammad Zia PhD'17 was checking flight prices on Expedia when he was puzzled by a section of the website that prompted him to run the same search on competing travel websites, including Priceline and Orbitz.

"Instead of Expedia trying to keep me on its website and trying to sell me something, it was encouraging me to check out prices on these other travel websites, and some of these are very tough competitors," Zia said. "I was thinking, 'What's going on? Why would a for-profit firm send its own customers, who are already in their store, to a competitor?'"

Zia, who completed his PhD in management science from the Naveen Jindal School of Management in May, decided to study this practice of in-store advertising by competitors. The resulting paper, co-authored by marketing professors Dr. Dmitri Kuksov and Dr. Ashutosh Prasad, is one chapter of Zia's dissertation on multiplatform, search-based advertising. It was published in the May-June issue of Marketing Science.

The researchers soon noticed this is a common practice across the web. For example, Walmart hosts banner ads for TVs from Sears or Fry's Electronics to customers searching for TVs on Walmart.com.

Similarly, Amazon.com shows related ads from competing retailers to a customer who is shopping for different products.

When a host store sells its in-store advertising space to a competitor, this allows uninformed customers to become aware of substitute offerings in the marketplace and possibly migrate to the competing store, Zia said. The host store may benefit from a commission for customers it sends to the competitor.

For the study, the researchers used game theory to understand the driving forces behind this phenomenon. Zia said he wanted to know under what conditions would allowing competitor advertising be a beneficial strategy.

"When some customers have search costsincluding time, energy and moneyit might be optimal for Expedia to increase its average price in order to motivate these customers to click on the link," Zia said. "Because Priceline knows these customers have already observed high prices, that website also can raise prices. So the average prices will be higher on both stores."

The study found that this kind of advertisement is not always an optimal solution for businesses. It works only if the commission rate is relatively high. Only in that case can it mitigate price competition and boost profits of both firms.

Zia, who has taken a position as an assistant professor of marketing at Chapman University in California beginning this fall, said search-based advertisement is generally a useful shopping tool that is accessible, targeted and helps customers find what they want quickly. It can also help searchers to pay less.

He said customers are wise to shop around.

"Research has shown that there is a lot of price dispersion in online stores. If customers want to save money, they should search on many different platforms, especially with travel products like flights and hotels," Zia said. "But of course there are customers who do not have time. That results in price dispersions and enables firms to increase their prices."

More information: Dmitri Kuksov et al. In-Store Advertising by Competitors, Marketing Science (2017). DOI: 10.1287/mksc.2016.1015 Journal information: Marketing Science
Eight Romanian professors of medicine are being prosecuted for allegedly taking kickbacks to help foreign students pass their exams or get a key diploma, prosecutors said on Thursday.

The eightamong 36 people under investigationare suspected of taking up to 400 euros ($467) a head for providing answers by SMS during examinations and for upgrading marks so that students got a pass.

Several students also bought theses written by their professor for 500-600 euros apiece, enabling them to get their end-of-year diploma, the prosecutors said.

The alleged scam, centered on two universities in the western city of Arad, involved a number of intermediaries, including two computer technicians.

A search of their homes yielded 350,000 euros, the investigators said.

The students were mainly from North Africa and Italy. Three of them are also being prosecuted.

 2017 AFP
In this Wednesday, July 26, 2017 photo, a visitor experiences Samsung Electronics Galaxy S8 smartphones at its shop in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics on Thursday, July 27, said its second-quarter profit surged 85 percent to record high thanks to memory chips. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

No leader and scorched Note 7 smartphones? No problem.

After a tumultuous year of surreal corruption scandals involving exotic horses and the jailed billionaire scion and one of the most embarrassing recalls in the consumer electronics history, Samsung stunned investors with another improbable record: the South Korean tech giant may have earned more than Apple and ended Intel's quarter century dominance in the semiconductor industry.

Seemingly invincible Samsung Electronics appears set to log record annual profit this year as exploding use of data in mobile devices and the "memory supercycle" help it surmount the jailing of its de facto leader and sidestep losses from its fire-prone Galaxy Note 7s.

South Korea's largest company reported Thursday record high quarterly profit and sales that likely will help it nudge aside Intel as the leading maker of semiconductors.

Samsung also likely outstripped Apple in quarterly earnings for the first time as soaring use of connected devices and mobile data fueled demand for computer chips.

Samsung's bottom line is better than ever, even with its vice chairman and de facto chief Lee Jae-yong jailed as part of a corruption scandal that unseated former South Korean president, Park Geun-hye.

In this Wednesday, July 26, 2017 photo, the corporate logo of Samsung Electronics Co. is seen at its shop in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics on Thursday, July 27, said its second-quarter profit surged 85 percent to record high thanks to memory chips. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

While Lee and Park battle allegations of bribery and other charges, Samsung is thriving thanks to tiny microchips called DRAM and NAND memory chips, which are needed to store and process data in servers and mobile devices.

Companies are adding server memory capacity to expand new server platforms and cloud services and handle artificial intelligence and other emerging services. Hardware manufacturers will likely increase orders of memory chips for smartphones as they launch new models later this year. Consumers also expect their handsets to be packed with higher memory storage, which increases memory demand.

The unprecedented boom in the memory chip industry dubbed the "memory super cycle" helped push Samsung's April-June net income to 10.8 trillion won ($9.7 billion), up 85 percent from 5.8 trillion won a year earlier.

Analysts had forecast 10.1 trillion won in net profit according to FactSet, a financial data provider.

Operating profit jumped 73 percent over a year earlier to 14.1 trillion won ($12.7 billion) while sales rose 20 percent to 61 trillion won ($54.8 billion), in line with Samsung's earlier guidance.

Despite relatively slow demand for smartphones and TVs, increased use of connected devices and mobile data is driving demand for server memory to store, analyze and process data. Memory chip prices have soared thanks to tight supply conditions, bringing unprecedented profitability to both Samsung and South Korea's No. 2 chip manufacturer, SK Hynix.

In this Wednesday, July 26, 2017 photo, people pass by Samsung Electronics shop in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics on Thursday, July 27, said its second-quarter profit surged 85 percent to record high thanks to memory chips. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Nearly 60 percent of Samsung's quarterly income was generated by its semiconductor division, which booked a record operating income of 8 trillion won ($7.2 billion) on sales of 17.6 trillion won ($15.8 billion).

Samsung's other components business, which makes high-end display panels called OLED for smartphones, also saw solid gains in earnings after this spring's launch of new Samsung Galaxy smartphones using the advanced displays.

The Galaxy S8 series of smartphones recorded higher sales than their predecessors, helping the company's mobile business rebound from last year's crisis over Galaxy Note 7s that had to be recalled and eventually discontinued because they tended to overheat or catch fire. That fiasco cost Samsung more than $5 billion last year.

Samsung said its mobile business logged 4.1 trillion won ($3.7 billion) in operating profit. That is slightly lower than its year-earlier result due to higher component prices but nearly double the previous quarter's income

The good times for Samsung appear likely to put it ahead of its rivals.

Apple is forecast to report $8.2 billion in quarterly net profit when its financial results are disclosed on Tuesday, according to FactSet. April-June is typically a slow season for Apple.

In this Wednesday, July 26, 2017 photo, a woman walks by an advertisement of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S8 smartphone at its shop in Seoul, South Korea. Samsung Electronics on Thursday, July 27, said its second-quarter profit surged 85 percent to record high thanks to memory chips. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Intel, due to report its earnings later Thursday, is expected to book $14.4 billion in quarterly revenue.

Looking ahead, Samsung said its third quarter profit may take a hit from marketing expenses from its upcoming launch in its new Galaxy Note series smartphone.

But it still has a good chance of reporting its biggest annual earnings in its history this year.

The outlook for semiconductor demand is robust and the overall profit during the second half will grow thanks to memory chips and its OLED screens, Samsung predicted.

In the meantime, Samsung has largely insulated its day-to-day operations from Lee's legal troubles, though the longer term implications for Samsung's leadership remain unclear.

Both Lee and Park have denied wrongdoing. A court ruling on Lee's case is expected before Aug. 27, when his arrest warrant expires.

 2017 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
A Lion's mane jellyfish in Dingle Harbour, Ireland. Credit: Nuala Moore

New research from NUI Galway and the University of Hawaii at Manoa has identified the best way to treat a sting from the lions mane jellyfish (Cyanea capillata). The lions mane jellyfish is the most problematic jellyfish in Ireland and the UK with 1000s of bathers being badly stung each year. With over a 1,000 tentacles that can stretch up to four or five metres in length, a bad sting from a lions mane jellyfish can cause severe local reactions and extreme pain.

The research, published in the international journal Toxins shows that the best first aid for a lions mane sting is to rinse with vinegar (or the commercial product Sting No More Spray) to remove tentacles, and then immerse in 45C (113F) hot water (or apply a heat pack) for 40 minutes. The results mirror a recent NUI Galway and University of Hawaii study on stings from the Portuguese man o war and previous work on box jellyfish stings.

Dr Tom Doyle, lead author of the study and Lecturer in Zoology from the School of Natural Sciences at NUI Galway, said: "What most people don't understand is that these jellyfishthe lions mane, the Portuguese man o war and a box jellyfish, are as different from each other as a dog and a snake.

"Therefore when developing first aid treatment for a jellyfish sting it is very important to test different treatments on these very different types of jellyfish. Now that we have shown that vinegar and hot water work on these three jellyfish species, it will be much easier to standardise and simplify first aid for jellyfish stings where many different types of jellyfish occur."

A Lions mane jellyfish in Dublin Bay, Ireland. Credit: Nigel Motyer

In Ireland and the UK, current best practices recommend using sea water and cold packs, which is not the correct action for treating these jellyfish stings as it induces significant increases in venom delivery, while rinsing with vinegar or Sting No More Spray did not.

Dr Doyle now hopes to bring together members of the Jellyfish Advisory Group in Ireland to discuss his latest findings. However, it is important to remember that most jellyfish stings in Ireland and the UK are no worse than a nettle sting.

More information: Thomas Doyle et al, Evaluation of Cyanea capillata Sting Management Protocols Using Ex Vivo and In Vitro Envenomation Models, Toxins (2017). DOI: 10.3390/toxins9070215

Provided by National University of Ireland Galway
Uber added a 24-hour phone help line and a slew of new features and policy changes Tuesday in an attempt to appease drivers, who have long complained the San Francisco ride-hailing company doesn't do enough to support them.

The move is part of what Uber is calling its "180 Days of Change" - a campaign launched after a string of scandals that led to the resignation of its chief executive, Travis Kalanick, in June.

The company kicked off the initiative last month by adding tipping to the Uber app - a feature that drivers had demanded for years.

"We've been doing a lot of listening over the past several months, whether it's riding with driver partners and talking to them, or hearing what they've had to say on social media and email, we're trying to get a sense of what the pain points are for drivers and how we can improve their experience," said Chris Ballard, general manager for Uber's southwest region.

Some of the changes announced Tuesday include:

-24/7 phone support for drivers. The feature will first be available in Los Angeles, San Diego and San Francisco before arriving in other cities by the end of 2017. The company plans to offer phone support in Spanish in September. Wait times are expected to be less than two minutes, Ballard said, and support staff will be a mix of employees and contractors located in the U.S. and abroad.

-Fare adjustment. If a driver forgets to tell the Uber app that a trip has started or ended, or if a trip destination ends up being farther than what was initially requested, drivers will be able to update the trip via the Uber website (and, soon, in the app) and change the fare. Passengers will receive updated receipts and an explanation for fare changes.

-Tweaks to make policies fairer. The company has reviewed more than 100 policies, Ballard said, and has made tweaks to ensure they're fair and driver-friendly. One such tweak is to the three-strikes policy. Drivers previously had their accounts put on hold if they received three passenger complaints about dangerous driving. This policy didn't take into account whether a driver had performed 10 rides or 10,000 rides, though. The updated policy will look at rolling averages, instead of adhering to a strict rule of three strikes and you're out.

-$15 fee for lost and found. Drivers commonly complained that if a passenger left something in their car, they would often have to drive great distances to return the item without being compensated for their time. Uber will now charge passengers a $15 fee, which will be passed along to the driver. Passengers will have an opportunity to contest the fee if they believe some kind of fraud has occurred.

-Driver ratings. If a passenger gives a driver a poor rating over something outside the driver's control - say, traffic - it will not count toward the driver's overall rating.

While many of the changes may seem "in the weeds," they can have a significant effect on driver experience, especially for those who do lots of rides, Ballard said.

Drivers welcomed the changes on online forums and in Facebook groups, saying phone support and compensation for returning lost items was long overdue. Some drivers in Los Angeles, such as Michael Goodman, 61, had access to the phone support last month and described it as a vast improvement on the email system the company previously used, which he said "typically produced nonsensical or irrelevant responses."

But drivers' biggest request - and one that shows few signs of coming - is an increase in wages from low-cost rides such as UberX and UberPool, Goodman said.

"Gas prices are likely to jump when the new gas taxes hit," he said. "Nothing affects my income more than the rates and changes in the price of gas."

While the changes don't fulfill every driver demand, they mark a shift in the company's attitude toward drivers.

Under Uber's former leadership, the company steadfastly held out against adding a tipping option and, despite having hundreds of thousands of drivers across the country, did not offer a phone number that drivers could call if they had questions. When drivers complained about passengers giving them unwarranted poor ratings, or time wasted returning items that passengers left behind, they were often met with generic email responses.

Drivers have taken their frustrations with Uber to the courts, filing lawsuits alleging that the company misclassified them as independent contractors, in effect stripping them of benefits such as expense reimbursement, wage protections and sick days. The most high profile of such cases - a class-action lawsuit being waged in California - is still unresolved.

The campaign to ingratiate itself with drivers is another sign that the war for drivers between Uber and Lyft continues to rage, with both firms trying to one-up each other as the better place for drivers to work.

"We're trying to improve all aspects of the driver experience," Ballard said. "We're putting our money where our mouth is."

2017 Los Angeles Times

Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
Allied forces wearing gas masks at Ypres, 1917. Credit: Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA

"The soldier is no longer a noble figure," observed the war poet Siegfried Sassoon while serving on the Western Front. "He is merely a writhing insect among this ghastly folly of destruction."

It is little surprise that Sassoon turned to insects to express the plight of the World War I soldier. Many did. Bugs  both real and metaphorical  came to shape the way people thought and wrote about the experience of war, and this prompted a surge of popular interest in insects more generally.

This was the first fully industrialised, long-range conflict, in which the enemy was reduced to minute specks. On the front line, soldiers wore bug-like gas masks and camouflage uniforms for the first time, were strapped into new prototypes of military body armour, and crawled through the mud in tanks. The optics of war even caused the modernist writer Wyndham Lewis, who served as an artillery officer, to remark: "These battles are more like ant fights than anything we have done in this way up to now."

The striking resemblance between humans and insects also stemmed from their close proximity on the battlefield. Lice, mosquitoes and flies thrived in the trenches, quickly becoming one of the main sources of illness and death among soldiers. Faced with the rapid spread of typhus, malaria, and trench fever (spread by lice), the War Office teamed up with entomologists to tackle this enemy within.

This led to a campaign of insect extermination, in which troops were regularly disinfected with chemicals designed to halt the spread of lice. Yet while this was going on, soldiers were also being subjected to poisonous gases from the enemy, some of which had previously been used as insecticides. One Dutch newspaper was quick to notice the parallel treatment of soldiers and insects.

In this satirical illustration from May 1915, the female embodiment of Germany, "Germania", sprinkles insect powder over a tiny group of soldiers. At first glance, she appears to be delousing them, but she is in fact exterminating them with chlorine.

Yet if the conditions of war reduced human beings to bugs, then it was to these life forms that people turned in search of ways of understanding their predicament.

Bug mania

Perhaps because people felt closer to insects than ever, in the period around World War I a craze for popular entomology developed.

Studies of insect life were in high demand, with more books devoted solely to bugs than ever before. Of particular interest to the British public was the work of French entomologist Jean-Henri Casimir Fabre, whose groundbreaking and often gruesome studies of the behaviour of wasps, beetles, mantises, and flies sold widely in the years surrounding the war. Fabre was a pioneering figure in the life sciences who demonstrated that more could be learnt about insects as living entities observed in their natural habitats than as dead specimens pinned in display cases.

The development of new film technologies also meant that the sophisticated behaviour of insects could be made visible to the human eye. In November 1908, nature documentary maker F. Percy Smith's The Acrobatic Fly caused a stir when it was screened at a London cinema. Advertised on the front page of The Daily Mirror, the short film consisted of remarkable footage of a fly juggling various miniature items with its front legs.

After the war, the public appetite for bugs on screen continued to grow. From 1922, a series of nature shorts called Secrets of Nature was screened in British cinemas. Many of the films focused on the hidden lives of ants, wasps and beetles.

Modernist insects

This popular bug interest was also seen in the more canonical cultural output of the period. The films and popular insect books mentioned above were a source of fascination for modernist writers and thinkers, including Virginia Woolf, DH Lawrence, Ezra Pound, Katherine Mansfield, and Marianne Moore, who listed Fabre's ten-volume collection, Souvenirs entomologiques (Entomological memories), in a list of "great literary works". The poet William Carlos Williams even remarked: "Henri Fabre has been one of my Gods."

Some writers were inspired by the remarkable ability of insects to thrive in inhospitable environments. Set during the war, DH Lawrence's novella The Ladybird draws on Fabre's account of the "sacred beetle" (also known as the dung beetle), which sculpts the waste products of larger animals into a home for its offspring. The text highlights the ingenuity of the dung beetle, emphasising its ability to transform death and decay into a source of new life.

Others were drawn to Fabre's account of the unique ways that insects perceive their surroundings. One of Wyndham Lewis's characters remarks enviously that "the insect sees a different world to us, and possesses other means of apprehending it", while in Virginia Woolf's novel To The Lighthouse, artist Lily Briscoe longs to experience the compound vision of ants: "One wanted fifty pairs of eyes to see with."

The turn to popular entomology in the years surrounding the war was no coincidence. While insects may have come to represent the degraded nature of human existence, studies of bug life helped writers and artists, as well as the public at large, to look beyond the wartime atmosphere of destruction, and to develop new ways of seeing themselves and the world around them.

This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.
Cherry Americas to Provide New Scoop at #RetailNow Show

Pleasant Prairie, WI  July 27, 2017  Cherry Americas LLC, part of a leading global manufacturer of reliable computer input devices, announces that they will exhibit at RetailNOW 2017, RSPAs signature annual event focused exclusively on technology providers in the POS Ecosystem.

Cherry plans to utilize RetailNOWs significant forum and audience to boldly proclaim that Everythings Better with a CHERRY on Top!, underscoring the widely-held opinion that high-performing CHERRY keyboards greatly enhance the performance of any technology solution that they are added to. Ever relentless in the lane, CHERRY POS keyboards feature error free actuation, keys that are laser etched, programmable keys, a configuration utility for custom programming, and an option for custom and relegendable keys. Each CHERRY key has been life tested to last over 25 million operations while maintaining an IP54 spill proof rating.

And while CHERRYs sleek and reliable POS keyboards have long been considered the industrys benchmark, CHERRY is equally famous for its lineup of industry leading products for Desktop, Security, Industrial and Healthcare applications.

50 years after American innovator Walter Cherry partnered with German engineering to design and develop the best key switch technology in the world, CHERRY has been making keyboards longer than any other company, and is considered by many to build the best keyboards in the world. In fact, CHERRY MX is still widely considered to be the gold standard precision technology for mechanical key switches, and CHERRYs entire product portfolio of rugged, reliable performance products continue to win awards today.

No matter what the application, industry or environment, every technology solution is better with a CHERRY keyboard on top.

Join us at RetailNow booth #835, and be sure to ask for CHERRYs New Scoop.

About CHERRY

Cherry Americas LLC, with its headquarters in Pleasant Prairie, Wisconsin, USA, is part of a global leader in manufacturing of computer input devices with a focus on POS, desktop, industrial, healthcare, and IT security markets. CHERRY leads in the manufacturing of switches used in mechanical keyboards for markets such as performance PC gaming.

Other POS News:
A child in South Africa who was born with HIV has been virtually free of the virus for nearly nine years now and didn't take anti-HIV drugs for most of that time, according to a new report of the case.

The child was treated with HIV medications early in life, but has not received anti-HIV drugs for eight and a half years, according to the researchers, who reported the case today (July 24) at an international AIDS conference in Paris.

The researchers hope that by studying this child, they may gain a better understanding of how a person's body can, in some cases, control HIV without the use of daily drugs. Such further research may potentially lead to new, long-acting treatments for the disease. [27 Devastating Infectious Diseases]

"Further study is needed to learn how to induce long-term HIV remission in infected babies," Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), said in a statement. "However, this new case strengthens our hope that by treating HIV-infected children for a brief period beginning in infancy, we may be able to spare them the burden of life-long therapy" and the health consequences of long-term HIV infection, Fauci said.

The South African child was diagnosed with HIV in 2007 at 32 days old. The child was enrolled in a study, funded by NIAID, that aimed to test the effects of early HIV treatment. Children in the study were randomly assigned to receive antiretroviral therapy (ART) drugs either immediately after their HIV diagnosis, or only once they showed symptoms of the disease.

The child in the new report received ART drugs immediately after diagnosis and continued receiving them for 40 weeks. After the treatment stopped, the researchers could no longer detect HIV in the child's blood; and follow-up tests showed that the child remained healthy and HIV-free in the years following the treatment.

When the child was nine and a half years old, the researchers conducted rigorous testing to determine if HIV was present anywhere in the child's body. They used very sensitive test, and found that a tiny proportion of the child's immune cells contained the virus, but the virus was dormant. The researchers otherwise found no evidence of HIV  standard tests could not detect the virus and the child had no symptoms.

Story continues

This isn't the first time that early HIV treatment has led to apparent remission in a child. In 2013, researchers reported the case of a baby born with HIV in Mississippi who was treated with anti-HIV drugs just 30 hours after birth. In that case, the baby remained apparently HIV-free for more than two years without drug treatment, until the virus reappeared in her blood. In 2015, researchers in France reported the case of an HIV-positive child who began treatment at 3 months of age, but later stopped treatment and remained HIV-free more than 11 years later.

It's not exactly clear why some children may be able to live so long without needing ongoing HIV treatment. It's thought that early treatment with anti-HIV drugs may prevent the virus from establishing reservoirs, or "hiding places," in the body, which allow the virus to reemerge when treatment stops.

It's also likely that the South African child has other, innate factors that contributed to that person's HIV remission, the researchers said. Among the 143 infants who received the same treatment  40 weeks of ART immediately after diagnosis  the average length of remission was about 30 weeks, according to the Washington Post. Some children in the study were in remission for more than two years, but no others went as long as the 8.5 years that was seen in the current case.

"By further studying the child, we may expand our understanding of how the immune system controls HIV replication," said study co-author Caroline Tiemessen, head of cell biology at South Africa's National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) in Johannesburg.

The U.S. National Institutes of Health is currently conducting a trial to test whether giving ART to HIV-infected babies within 48 hours of birth leads to long-term control of the virus after treatment is stopped.

Original article on Live Science.

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By Karolina Tagaris , Jack Stubbs and Anna Irrera ATHENS/MOSCOW/NEW YORK (Reuters) - A Russian man suspected of being the anonymous mastermind behind one of the world's oldest crypto-currency exchanges and of laundering at least $4 billion has been arrested in Greece, police and sources said on Wednesday. Police sources identified him as Alexander Vinnik, 38, who was arrested after a tip-off in a small beachside village in northern Greece on a U.S. warrant. Police said the United States would seek to extradite him. Two sources close to the BTC-e virtual currency exchange, who declined to be identified while the case was open, said Vinnik was a key person behind the platform, which has been offline since reporting "technical problems" late on Tuesday. "An internationally sought 'mastermind' of a crime organization has been arrested" Greek police said in a statement. "Since 2011 the 38-year-old has been running a criminal organization which administers one of the most important websites of electronic crime in the world." Police said "at least" $4 billion in cash had been laundered through a bitcoin platform since 2011 - the year BTC-e was founded - with 7 million bitcoins deposited, and 5.5 million bitcoins in withdrawals. Bitcoin was the first digital currency to successfully use cryptography to keep transactions secure and pseudonymous, making conventional financial regulation difficult. Vinnik's arrest is the latest in a series of U.S. operations against Russian cyber criminals in Europe. Last week, the U.S. Justice Department moved to shut down the dark web marketplace AlphaBay. The U.S. prosecutions coincide with intensified scrutiny of Russian hackers after U.S. intelligence officials determined that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. presidential election using cyber warfare methods to help Donald Trump, something Moscow denies. There was no indication Vinnik's case was connected to the U.S. hacking charges. The U.S. Department of Justice, the Russian Foreign Ministry and BTC-e did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Founded in 2011, BTC-e is one of the oldest and most obscure virtual currency exchanges, allowing users to trade bitcoin pseudonymously against fiat currencies, such as the U.S. dollar, and other virtual currencies. Until today, the people behind it had remained unknown. It is known in crypto-currency markets as one with the most relaxed standards for checking the identity of its users to combat money laundering, and for not collaborating with law enforcement. This helped make BTC-e "a favorite money-laundering location," said James Smith, chief executive of Elliptic, a company that works with law enforcement to track illicit bitcoin transactions. The exchange has been connected to recent ransomware attacks, he said. BTC-e has been out of service for over 24 hours for what it described as "unplanned maintenance." In a tweet on Wednesday after the arrest, BTC-e said it would restore service in the next 5-10 days. While bitcoins can be bought and spent anonymously using digital wallets with unique addresses, transactions are recorded on a public ledger called blockchain, making it possible to follow the coins. Over the years, law enforcement agencies around the world have been able to identify users behind pseudonymous wallets connected to illegal activities by tracking bitcoin movements, often with the help of exchanges and security firms like Elliptic. (Additional reporting by Michele Kambas in Athens, Dustin Volz in Las Vegas, and Steve Stecklow and Jemima Kelly in London; Writing by Michele Kambas and Jack Stubbs; Editing by Larry King and Grant McCool)
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said Thursday he has stripped former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili of his Ukrainian citizenship, paving the way for his possible extradition to Georgia. The charismatic reformer came to power in Georgia's 2003 Rose Revolution but then fell from grace and is now wanted by Georgian prosecutors on charges of abuse of office during his nine-year rule that he insists are politically motivated. In a statement sent to AFP, Saakashvili vowed: "I will fight for my legal right to return to Ukraine!" Poroshenko's administration sent AFP a statement on Thursday confirming the president had signed a decree revoking Saakashvili's citizenship, saying this was for "giving incorrect information when he submitted his application." Poroshenko "signed the relevant decree" on the recommendation of the state migration service which provided "convincing evidence," the statement said. Saakashvili does not have any other citizenship since Georgia took away his passport in December 2015, after he acquired Ukrainian citizenship to become a governor of Ukraine's Odessa region. Georgia's leadership has not yet commented publicly on Poroshenko's decision. Saakashvili, who is currently in New York, according to his representative Zoe Reyners, slammed the decision, saying in a Facebook post that "there is an attempt under way to force me to become a refugee." The decision was first announced late Wednesday in an indirectly worded statement by the Ukrainian migration service. It said Georgia had provided "materials on Mikheil Saakashvili" to Ukrainian prosecutors which the migration service then studied and passed to the presidential commission on citizenship. - 'Underhanded' - "Today I am being subjected to the same approaches that are used by Ukraine's prosecutors or bureaucrats against regular Ukrainians, whose rights are spat upon," Saakashvili said in a video posted on Facebook. "Poroshenko decided to deprive me of my citizenship in an underhanded way, while I am out of the country!" The announcement came after Poroshenko met Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili in Tbilisi last week. Saakashvili wrote on Facebook on Monday that he had information that Poroshenko had also visited billionaire ex-PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, who leads the ruling party behind the scenes. "Their secret meeting lasted more than two hours and was almost entirely about me," Saakashvili wrote. Saakashvili is now in the United States, and the decree means he will be unable to return to Ukraine, an MP from Poroshenko's bloc, Sergiy Leshchenko, wrote on Facebook. "Practically they are forcing Saakashvili to take refuge in America and forget about Ukrainian politics," Leshchenko wrote. Known for sweeping pro-Western reforms in his native Georgia which he led from 2004 to 2013, Saakashvili was a strong supporter of Ukraine's Maidan uprising and as a reward Poroshenko appointed him as governor of Ukraine's Odessa region in 2015. Saakashvili quit in November 2016, however, saying he was being held back in his efforts to fight corruption among high-ranking officials. The fluent Ukrainian speaker had repeated run-ins with some members of Poroshenko's inner circle and was frequently accused of having outsized political ambitions of his own. Saakashvili is an arch-Kremlin foe and led his country in a brief war with Russia in 2008. Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev mocked Saakashvili's on-off Ukrainian citizenship on Thursday, calling his situation a "fantastical tragicomedy" in a comment on Facebook.
On Tuesday, the Senatewith the late, dramatic arrival of Sen. John McCain, who cast a deciding voteopened the floor to Obamacare repeal. A procedural vote, it was the remarkable capstone of an unprecedented effort to pass major legislation without hearings, independent testimony, or public input. What makes it potentially history-making, and not just noteworthy, is that it also marks a milestone for our country: the beginning of what is, thus far, one of the most aggressive attempts at revoking a broad guarantee of the American welfare state. A door that, once opened, may prove difficult to close.

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Conventional wisdom says that, once passed, entitlements never go away. They may shrink and they may change, but they never quite end. That conventional wisdom is rooted in the history of the federal social policy. Since the creation of the American welfare state with Franklin Roosevelts New Deal, its broad story has been one of expansion. In the 1940s, lawmakers passed a sweeping expansion of federal support for private and public housing, to say nothing of the GI Bill, which helped create the (white) American middle class; in the 1950s, they expanded Social Security, covering millions more American workers; and in the 1960s, they guaranteed health care to both the poor and the elderly under the Great Society. Its not that these werent hard-fought battlesRonald Reagan made his first major splash in national politics as a staunch opponent of Medicare, slamming it as the harbinger of statism in Americabut that, once in place, Americans saw these benefits as tantamount to rights, entitlements of American citizenship.

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If welfare reform was a sucker punch to low-income families, then Republican Medicaid cuts constitute a crippling blow.

Major expansion ended in the 1970s and wouldnt resurface for another 40 years. But fundamental retrenchment never came, despite the rise of the conservative movement and its vocal crusade against big government. Eight years after President Ronald Reagan called government the problem of American life, and four years after his successor took the reins of government, the core programs of the New Deal and the Great Society remained intact. Republicans would strike one blow against the safety net, working with President Bill Clinton to enact welfare reform in the 1990s. Still the structure of the welfare state would endure, surviving the larger turn from state guarantees that characterized Clintons presidency. Welfare was vulnerable to cuts, but the core entitlement programsSocial Security, Medicare, and Medicaidwere popular among all Americans, left and right. They were all but untouchable, a fact made clear when President George W. Bush pushed for Social Security privatization in 2005, an initiative that promptly collapsed in the face of broad opposition. Eventually, under Barack Obama, the Democratic Party would return to a program of expansion, reinvigorating the guarantees of the safety net with the Affordable Care Act, which expanded Medicaid and put the United States on the path toward universal health coverage.

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If successful, the current Republican drive to repeal Obamacare would represent an almost revolutionary shift from the direction of American history. I say almost revolutionary because the repeal drive isnt entirely anomalous. In some respects, it is similar to the push for welfare reform. Aid to Families With Dependent Children welfare reached about 12.6 million Americans in 1996, or just less than 5 percent of the total population, before it was refigured as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, where help hinged on meeting work requirements and actual benefits were stingy. By 2012, after nearly 20 years of this reform, the number of beneficiaries was down to just 4.6 million people, or roughly 1 percent of all Americans. In percentage terms, the Republican Partys proposed cuts to Medicaid are of a similar scale. According to the Congressional Budget Office, those cuts would remove 14 million people from the program. Thats 4 percent fewer Americans who would receive Medicaid services, an impact similar to welfare reform.

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But a closer look reveals large, consequential differences that make the threat to Medicaid an order of magnitude different than the attack on welfare. To start, Medicaid services a much larger group of Americans than welfare ever did, in any form. The program, which funds nursing homes and treatment for the disabled as well as health insurance for the poor, reaches 70 million Americans1 in 5. If welfare reform was a sucker punch to low-income families, then Republican Medicaid cutswhich also enable even deeper reductions from state governmentsconstitute a crippling blow.

It matters too that welfare was never popular, in part because of American attitudes toward handouts and in part because of a racist belief that those benefits were an unfair giveaway to black Americans. The picture is different for Medicaid. Three-fourths of the public have a favorable view of the program, according to a recent survey from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And substantial majoritiesincluding 52 percent of Republicanssay it works for most low-income people. Critically, just 12 percent of Americans (including just 22 percent of Republicans) want to reduce Medicaid spending. Slashing a large, popular, and well-liked program is a far different project than doing the same to a smaller, unpopular one.

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Its not hard to imagine a future where a tightening of benefits breeds resentment between those who receive help and those who dont.

The United States isnt the only Western democracy to have pulled back on cash payments to low-income citizens. In the United Kingdom, for example, Tory governments have allowed key benefits for children and the unemployed to erode, in addition to cutting other forms of assistance. But if Republicans repeal Obamacare and slash Medicaid to a shadow of its current self, the United States would emerge as the only Western democracy to establish and then fully revoke an entitlement to government assistance for health care. In turn, that could open the door to full retrenchment of the entire safety net, including Medicare and Social Security. It is not hard to imagine a future where large-scale retrenchment and a tightening of benefits breeds resentment between those who receive help and those who dont, potentially fueling calls for fewer benefits to the allegedly undeserving. Indeed, weve seen versions of this on the state level, where conservative politicians like Scott Walker harnessed resentment toward public employees and their benefits to slash overall government spending.

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Even if those programs escape the chopping block, it is significant that this push is happening with little public support. Its not just opposition to Medicaid cuts; in a survey of Republican health care plans, just 12 percent of Americans supported the Senate proposal as Mitch McConnell was trying to shepherd it toward a July 4 vote. Indeed, Donald Trump won the White House promising the opposite of major health care cuts, and conservative rhetoric on the Affordable Care Act has never acknowledged the practical consequences of slashing subsidies and support for health insurance. Even now, Republican lawmakers deny that anyone would actually lose coverage under their health care plans, arguing instead that Americans will simply choose to forgo insurance. People will buy what they value, said Texas Sen. John Cornyn on Twitter earlier this month.

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It would be one thing if voters were clamoring for a return to preGreat Society, or even preNew Deal, America. But thats just not the case. In the abstract, at least, Americans want more assistancemore help from the federal government. Even for lawmakers on the right, that popular desire should influence their approach to public policy, as it suggests ordinary people want government to deliver (or facilitate) improvements to their daily lives.

But it doesnt. And this disregard for public opinionalong with its corresponding indifference to independent analysisaugurs something ominous for the country. The Republican governing coalition in Washingtonelected by a minority of Americansis showing its willingness to transform American society with little deliberation or consensus. It has become so polarized that it will use whatever power it has to push a maximalist agenda through Congress, its representatives tearing through any norms or procedures that stand in their way to slash public assistance to the bone, and then some. The goal, should they reach it, will be a populace left to fend for itself.

Top image: Sen. Mitch McConnell, flanked by Majority Whip John Cornyn (right) and Sen. John Barrasso, after the Tuesday vote to open debate on Obamacare repeal (Getty Images).
Biometrics and authentication are two of the most discussed topics in the world of mobile payments. This interest is due to technology like Apples Touch ID. According to research commissioned by Visa and Populas in 2016, two-thirds of Europeans are ready to use biometrics for secure payments. Business Insider predicts 99 percent of U.S. smartphones will be biometrics-enabled by 2021.

In the search for greater security, this technology has raised the excitement level about whats possible for stopping hackers in their tracks. Biometric identification and verification has created a great deal of excitement in the payments space. It offers an opportunity to streamline and improve the customer experience, said Jonathan Vaux, Executive Director of Innovation Partnerships at Visa Europe. Our research shows that biometrics is increasingly recognized as a trusted form of authentication as people become more familiar with using these capabilities on their devices.

Acceptance Challenges

Yet, challenges remain. One of these is the potential for a false positive or false negative during the authentication process. Unlike a PIN, biometrics is not a binary measurement. Instead, its based on the probability of a match. By linking it to other factors, such as the device, geolocation technologies, or another authentication method, this challenge can be overcome.

An Overview of Biometrics and Authentication

To understand the impact this technology is having, its important to first understand what it does. Biometrics is technology and scientific authentication based on biology thats used for security purposes. It can replace ID cards, PINs, passwords, or tokens. Examples include digital fingerprinting, facial identification, voice recognition, and iris technology.

For example, before a credit card transaction is authorized, biometric authentication can be used to authenticate identity. Transactions are verified by comparing an image against whats in a database. For example, fingerprint or facial recognition software can ensure that the right person is making the purchase. Online businesses can also use biometrics for their card-not-present transactions to reduce the risk of fraud.

Impact on Payments

With this type of capability, its no wonder why biometric technology is shaping the future of payments. Your body is your password. People choose convenience over security, Mikhail Gofman, Professor at California State University, Fullerton, and an expert on multimodal biometrics, told TechCrunch. People are relieved of the responsibility of designing and remembering a strong password  you dont have to remember your fingerprint, its a part of who you are.

There also appears to be a positive impact on payments outside of the U.S. and Europe. Acceptance is growing in Asia and Latin America where transaction security has been a long-standing issue. With proof that biometric technology can reduce the risk of fraudulent transactions, more global transactions are being made. This impact on payments also helps small businesses in these other countries to now compete within the global business environment and leverage online opportunities.

Measurable Benefits

The impact can also be felt in the number of benefits that biometric technology offers:

Makes transactions secure . While there are some concerns, biometrics is intrinsically secure. No one has the same fingerprint, eyes, ears, voice, heartbeat, or behaviors. The security that biometrics provides could finally give customers some peace of mind to adopt mobile payments for their transactions.

. While there are some concerns, biometrics is intrinsically secure. No one has the same fingerprint, eyes, ears, voice, heartbeat, or behaviors. The security that biometrics provides could finally give customers some peace of mind to adopt mobile payments for their transactions. Simplifies transactions. Online payments are always a big headache. You forget your password  you worry about security, said Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Alipays Smile To Payallows users to complete a transaction by just smiling or nodding. MasterCard unveiled its Selfie payment technology where customers take a selfie to verify their identity for payment. This can speed up transactions over having to enter a password or insert a chip into an EMV terminal.

Online payments are always a big headache. You forget your password  you worry about security, said Alibaba founder Jack Ma. Alipays Smile To Payallows users to complete a transaction by just smiling or nodding. MasterCard unveiled its Selfie payment technology where customers take a selfie to verify their identity for payment. This can speed up transactions over having to enter a password or insert a chip into an EMV terminal. Saves businesses time and money. The technology is less time-consuming, reliable, easy to use, difficult to forge, cost-effective, said Subhasree Banerjee, a Content Marketer with AuthenticID. Biometrics also reduces password administration costs and increases ROI in areas like loss prevention or time and attendance. There is no time spent searching for lost tokens or trying to remember passwords.

As more businesses enjoy these advantages, adoption is set to grow rapidly, especially in light of all the ongoing security breaches and fraudulent transactions that continue to plague the payments industry.

Biometrics Set to Grow Further

Biometric technology will continue to grow in use as more businesses seek additional layers of security for their online transactions.

Republished by permission. Original here.
Would you ask your employees to implant a microchip into their hands? Do you think theyd even agree to it?

One tech company in Wisconsin is taking this step. Three Square Market has offered employees the option of being microchipped, which could allow them to easily enter the office, unlock their devices and even make payments. The microchips are implanted between the thumb and forefinger and are about the size of a grain of rice.

Unlike pet microchips, these dont include GPS features. So theyre not being used to track anyone. And Three Square Market isnt the first company to take advantage of this type of technology. Other startups in countries like Sweden have tried out the technology already.

But many still have concerns about privacy and other issues. Thats likely one of the big reasons the company didnt make the program mandatory. But the company reported that more than half of its 80 employees did agree to using the microchip.

Might make life easier, but still feel little horror: Wisconsin company offers employees microchip implants https://t.co/UB2zxVEoqX  Fabian Schiffer (@fabian_schiffer) July 26, 2017

Im not comfortable with this microchip idea at all but once ID theft became a thing this was bound to happen  Et tu Brute? (@R_NCam) July 26, 2017

Am I really the only person who would agree to let my employer microchip me? I feel like I must be the only person who read the article. pic.twitter.com/MNvq2fmfQv  Tillman Lanyi (@tillmanlanyi) July 26, 2017

Are the Three Square Market Employee Microchip Benefits Worth the Downsides?

So this technology offers a unique opportunity for small businesses and employees. It could make a lot of things easier throughout the day. But is it worth it?
The opposition parties plan to initiate a no-confidence vote, the second against this minister.

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Two weeks after the rectors of several universities in Slovakia complained about the way the money from the European Unions funds allocated for long-term strategic science were distributed, Education Minister Peter Plavcan organised a press conference on July 26.

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The minister was responding to the earlier claims of the rectors and the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SAV) that they received no money from nearly 300 million allocated for long-term strategic research and development. Instead, the money went mostly to projects submitted by private companies.

Though he promised to respond to the claims and explain why the winning projects were picked, the evidence available does not back his claims, the Sme daily reported.

Moreover, he allowed the journalists to answer only two questions, and then left.

The criteria for evaluating [the projects] were approved by the Research Agency Council in 2015, Plavcan said, as quoted by Sme, adding that nobody was complaining at the time.

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Plavcans claim, however, is not supported by the available documents. The report from the meeting of the monitoring committee for the Operational Programme, Research and Innovations, from which the money was allocated, shows that the voting on criteria took place in late May 2016. Six members abstained from the vote, while one was against it, Sme wrote.

More dubious projects

Sme meanwhile reported that a further 300 million, allocated to support industrial research and development centres, appeared to have been granted to companies that have nothing to do with research. One of the conditions for receiving the money was that it must state in the business register that they are active in research and development.

Sme reported that many of the companies that received the subsidy claimed they deal with R&D only after the ministry announced the call for the submission of proposals.

Plavcan, however, does not see any reason to leave his post and claims that the redistribution of the EU money was quite proper. He also repeated that they are continuing with inspections and that scrutiny by the Supreme Audit Office was also launched, Sme wrote.

After his speech, Plavcan allowed journalists to ask two questions, and then left. His spokesperson, Ivana Skokanova, said he had other appointments but could not specify what he was supposed to be doing. She later told Sme that he was dealing with the university laws that the ministry has drafted this year.

Opposition calls for Plavcans departure

The opposition MP Veronika Remisova of Ordinary People and Independent Personalities (OLaNO) meanwhile called on the Slovak National Party (SNS), which nominated Plavcan, to give up the education ministers post.

She also announced that they will start collecting signatures to summon a special parliamentary session whose only point will be a no-confidence vote against Plavcan.

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This would be the second attempt to dismiss him from the post, as he also faced a no-confidence vote at the very beginning of his tenure.

SNS, however, does not see a reason for removing the minister from his post. It will adopt necessary steps if any failure is proven, the party told Sme.
The lake in Benatina is the most eastern travertine bearing locality in the country.

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More information about travelling in Slovakia

Please see our Please see our Spectacular Slovakia travel guide

The natural lake in the village of Benatina is one of the most visited sites in the Sobrance district (Kosice Region).

With its beautiful scenery and crystal clear, turquoise water it is reminiscent of the Plitvice Lakes in Crotia, hence the nickname Little Croatia.

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video //www.youtube.com/embed/t6etdvg6iLE

This site is quite popular among tourists, said Viktor Wurm from the Kosice Regions Tourism organisation, as quoted by the TASR newswire. Those who are less aware of the place may still be surprised that Slovakia has such natural beauty.

The lake is the most eastern travertine bearing locality in Slovakia which was used as a stone pit until recently. After the quarrying stopped, the site was filled by underground water which then created the lakes, Wurm explained

.

One of the attractions is a five-metre-high formation that some say is a print of a large prehistoric whale.

Others say it is only the play of light on the rocks colours, Wurm said, as quoted by TASR.

The lake in Benatina is part of the tourism quadrilateral that can be visited within one day. Apart from the lake, it consists of two wooden churches in Inovce and Ruska Bystra, and a guitar museum in Sobrance, Wurm added.
If the general election took place in July, the LSNS extremist party would fall in popularity and the ruling coalition would not have a majority to form the government.

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The Smer party would lead with 26.4 percent of the votes (meaning 44 MPs in parliament) showing that the two big anti-corruption marches in April and June have not been reflected in the popular support for the ruling party.

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Inside and outside parliament

This stems from the poll on a sample of 1,025 respondents conducted by the Focus agency between July 13 and 24, the Sme daily wrote on July 26. The survey further showed, according to the TASR newswire, that the opposition Freedom and Solidarity (SaS) party would have been the preferred choice of 14.2 percent of respondents (24 seats), while the coalition Slovak National Party (SNS) came third on 10.3 percent of the votes (17 seats).

Five more parties would have made it into parliament: the opposition OLaNO-NOVA (9.2 percent/15 seats), the extremist People's Party Our Slovakia/LSNS (9.1 percent/15 seats), opposition Sme Rodina / We Are Family (8.2 percent/14 seats), the non-parliamentary Christian Democratic Movement-KDH (6.3 percent/11 seats) and coalition party Most-Hid (6.2 percent/10 seats).

With the support of a mere 4 percent of voters, the ethnic-Hungarian SMK party would not have reached the 5-percent threshold necessary to gain any seats.

In total, 66.6 percent of the respondents would have gone to the polling stations, according to the poll. Around 19.2 percent of the respondents would not have voted, while 14.2 percent would not have known whom to vote for.

While the strongest opposition party SaS improved its position by one percentage point, the coalition partner SNS has been oscillating around 10 percent since the scandal surrounding its chairman, Andrej Danko.

Kotleba's position worsens

The extremist LSNS party fared worse by 1.8 percentage points compared to June. Social analyst Martin Slosiarik of Focus opined for Sme that the recent scandal concerning a dubious tender for the repair of the roads in the Banska Bystrica Region, where party chairman Marian Kotleba is regional governor, may be behind this decline. Another reason may be Kotlebas procrastination over his decision to re-run for the governorship. If the three strongest rivals joined forces against him, they would beat him in preferential votes.

The current coalition would have problems forming a government, lacking five seats in parliament, while winning only 71 out of 150.

Also, the now non-parliamentary KDH would exceed the necessary limit of 5 percent and get seats in parliament, Sme wrote.
Slovak tourist destinations will get a regular bus connection with the Polish cities of Krakow, Warsaw, and with the Hungarian capital, Budapest.

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The Czech private carrier, LeoExpress, announced the opening of the new bus line serving the eastern-Slovak cities of Kosice, Presov and Poprad and the area of the High Tatras as of August 29, the SITA newswire wrote on July 26.

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Buses will operate once a day on the international line that runs between Warsaw  Krakow  Stara Lubovna  Kezmarok  Poprad - Presov  Kosice  Budapest. The bus line will also connect to other train and bus lines owned by the Czech carrier, such as those from Prague, Zilina, Mukacevo, Katowice, Lodz, Torun and Gdansk. The new line will serve nine cities in Poland, creating transport connections all the way to the Baltic Sea.

Entrepreneurs in tourism and local self-administrations have long been asking for a connection from Poland, Leo Express informed SITA. The goal of the new line is to offer attractive connections and to bring tourists from Poland and Hungary to the High Tatras, Slovak thermal aqua-parks and to the historical centre of Kosice, Peter Jancovic, marketing manager of the carrier, said for the newswire.

Buses will stop directly at Budapest airport, with the schedule being adapted to match the arrival to the airport in the morning and departure in the evening. Thanks to a connecting mini-bus from Krakow bus station, Leo Express will also offer a connection directly to the gate of Krakow airport and to tourist attractions and hotels in the city.
Concerns over the different quality of same brand products are confirmed, but will anything change soon?

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The German producer of cookies, Bahlsen, will change its recipes for products distributed in the eastern European market. It will replace palm oil with butter, as prescribed by the original recipe.

With such a move, Bahlsen is responding to the pressure of central European countries that have been critical of the different ingredients of products supplied to the markets in the western and eastern countries under the same brand and in the same packaging.

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It is a gesture in a competitive environment, Lubomir Drahovsky, market analyst with the Terno market survey agency, told The Slovak Spectator. He hopes other companies will soon follow this example as well.

Bahlsens decision came at a time when central European countries have reopened the debate about the different quality of products, supported by results from various tests carried out in previous months. The topic was also the main point at a meeting between Slovak President Prime Minister Robert Fico and President of the European Commission Jean-Claude Juncker.

The politicians agreed that the issue is a serious problem. The EU legislation, however, will not change yet. The EC plans to issue recommendations for the member states to prevent unfair business practices in the future.

If this does not work, Fico is ready to adopt restrictions towards the imports of European products.

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Different food and washing powder too

The different quality standards in food and other products have been recently confirmed by several tests carried out by the Visegrad Group (V4) countries.

The analysis conducted by the Slovak Agriculture Ministry and the State Veterinary and Food Administration (SVPS), whose results were presented to journalists in February 2017, revealed that about half of the foodstuffs tested displayed significant differences in their ingredients.

The SVPS inspectors tested a range of 22 foodstuffs sold in retail chains in both Slovakia (specifically in Bratislava) and Austria (in the border towns of Kittsee and Hainburg) in November and December 2016.

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The tests carried out by the Czech Ministry of Agriculture also confirmed the different ingredients of some goods. Of the 21 tested products, only three were found to have the same composition in all five countries, the Sme daily reported.

Following the information, the Henkel company admitted that the Persil washing powder sold in Germany has 20 percent more active washing agents than the powder sold under the same name and same packaging in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The company explained that the differences are caused by the different preferences of customers.

It stated the different temperature used for washing as well as the different composition of stains across the EU countries as reasons, Sme reported.

Blocking imports of EU products?

For Fico, the issue of the different quality of the products sold under the same brand and same packaging is gradually growing into a considerable international scandal.

I cant accept that citizens of the Slovak Republic are being treated this way, Fico told the press conference in mid-July, as quoted by the TASR newswire.

The Slovak prime minister was assigned by his colleagues in the other V4 countries (i.e. the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland) to present the opinion to Juncker at the meeting on July 27.

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After the meeting, he welcomed the decision of the EC to issue a special recommendation, which will promote the existing tools to secure the quality and safety of food and the same labelling standards, the SITA newswire reported.

If the situation does not change, Fico is ready to introduce a couple of one-off measures. These would include restricting the imports of European products to the Slovak market and exclusively supplying Slovak public canteens with products of Slovak origin for a certain period of time, Fico said, adding that he is aware such measures would violate rules of the EUs single market.

The EC stressed in its previous statement provided to The Slovak Spectator that under the current legislation, the restrictions to the free movement of goods can be introduced only in cases where there are serious reasons for doing so, like for consumer or health protection. The EC also has to be notified about this intention in advance.

Products may be more expensive

European Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality Vera Jaurova also commented on the topic. She would like to prepare the plan with specific tasks for the EC, as well as the EU member states and national inspectorates of what should have been done in this field. One of the tasks is to summon a meeting with representatives of producers and retail chains.

It is important that both parties cooperate in this field, Jaurova stressed. We need to join forces when solving this problem, which seems to occur only in certain member states.

Fico said after meeting with Juncker that he is ready to organise a summit with Jaurova that would allow them to discuss the potential measures concerning the differing quality of products with producers, consumer associations and companies.

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For Drahovsky, it is a good signal that the V4 wants to act together in solving this problem, but he doubts that the meeting with Juncker will change the respective EU legislation anytime soon.

The EU is currently dealing with problems other than the different quality of products, he added.

Moreover, the political dialogue over this topic can only serve as an impulse for changes. It is also necessary that the producers join efforts to change the current state, Drahovsky stressed.

The change of production standards, however, may not be enough as ingredients are often not a deciding factor when shopping, the analyst warned.

Three-quarters of consumers look at the price, Drahovsky explained.
Eleven illegal migrants from Iraq, Syria and Pakistan were heading to Austria.

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A van carrying eleven people  including two minors and one child  was stopped by the Slovak police on the outskirts of Bratislava near the Austrian border.

The vehicle had Austrian licence plates and was driven by a 38-year-old Slovak, the TASR newswire wrote on July 26. They probably crossed the Hungarian-Slovak border with the intention to enter Austria, the Slovak police wrote on a social network.

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The driver attempted to flee after stopping the vehicle, but the officers caught him within a few moments. The driver could spend up to ten years in prison if convicted, and the migrants were taken by the Foreigners Police.
It was avoiding a Romanian truck in the process.

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A road accident took place on July 26 during the transfer of a US military convoy across the Slovak territory, part of the Saber Guardian 2017 exercise.

The accident occurred in the evening near the village of Giraltovce, Defence Ministry spokesperson Danka Capakova told the SITA newswire.

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The US vehicle left the road while avoiding a Romanian truck traveling in the opposite direction. Nobody was injured in the accident.

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The announced convoy has been heading to the Vysny Komarnik border crossing and is accompanied by Military Police.

A Defence Ministry spokesperson said the accident is being investigated.
Two criminal complaints against the former head of the energy regulatory office have been turned down after a pre-preparatory procedure.

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The complaints against Jozef Holjencik, the former head of the regulatory Office for Network Industries, were rejected by police, the police spokesperson Martin Waldl told the SITA newswire on July 27. The criminal complaints concerned suspicion of crimes of abuse of power by a public official.

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These were rejected following a pre-preparatory procedure, with the explanation that there was no reason to launch criminal prosecution. Waldl said that in one case the prosecutor has already rejected an appeal against a decision.

In the second case, concerning the prices of energy for 2017, the appeal of those who reported the crime has not yet been decided.

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Holjencik became the head of URSO in 2007. He announced his resignation to Prime Minister Robert Fico in February 2017, following a scandal surrounding rising energy prices that conflicted with announcements of lower prices.

Both coalition and opposition leaders dealt with the energy price situation, and the chairman of the coalition party SNS Andrej Danko insisted on Holjencik leaving the position. Chairman of Most-Hid Bela Bugar even suggested that a coalition crisis would ensue if Holjencik stayed in office.

On July 25, former economy minister and incumbent Smer MP Lubomir Jahnatek was appointed the new head of URSO.
VIENNA (Reuters) - Austrian Chancellor Christian Kern has called for an out-of-court resolution with Airbus in connection with a fraud probe over a $2 billion Eurofighter jet order placed more than a decade ago. Austrian prosecutors are investigating Airbus, its Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders and the Eurofighter consortium, including Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Leonardo , for possible deception and fraud linked to the 2003 jet order. Airbus, Enders and the consortium deny any wrongdoing. "We now have constructive elements to come into talks with Airbus," Kern told German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung in an interview published on Thursday. "We will seek an out-of-court resolution." Kern said that in his time in business he had learnt it was always better to avoid court decisions, adding that both parties would have an interest in that. Kern did not elaborate on what those elements were. His spokesman, when asked about it, declined to comment. He would also not say whether any talks had been agreed on. Airbus, which has complained that the row was politically motivated and undermining the reputation of the European aerospace industry, also declined to comment. Austrian Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil, who decided to end the Eurofighter programme early amid the row earlier this month, said: "We will not close ourselves off, should Airbus be seriously interested in providing reparations for damage caused out of court." Earlier on Thursday Airbus announced a one-third slump in operating profit in the first half of 2017 on flat revenue following delays in engine deliveries for its upgraded A320neo jetliners. It was not immediately clear why Kern made his proposal now, but a second parliamentary committee into the Eurofighter deal ended earlier this month and is expected to deliver its report in the autumn. Austria is gearing up for a parliamentary election in October and opinion polls suggest Kern, who like Doskozil belongs to the Social Democrats, could be replaced as chancellor by Sebastian Kurz of the centre-right People's Party. (Reporting by Kirsti Knolle; Editing by Gareth Jones)
By Leigh Thomas and Myriam Rivet PARIS (Reuters) - France will temporarily nationalise the STX France shipyard to prevent an Italian firm taking majority control, the economy minister said on Thursday, marking President Emmanuel Macron's first big industrial policy decision. As France's most avowedly pro-business leader in decades, few would have predicted the former investment banker's first big move in the corporate sector would be a nationalisation. However, his action fits with the interventionist style of other postwar French leaders. It also crosses into the defence sector, where many national governments prefer to wield influence over ownership. The Italian state-owned shipbuilder Fincantieri rejected a French offer this week of 50-50 ownership of the shipyard, which is being sold because of the collapse of its South Korean parent, STX. That prompted the French state, which had a minority stake, to exercise pre-emption rights to buy out other shareholders before those rights expire at the end of the month, in effect giving Paris more time to come up with another solution. "This decision is line with the economic strategy that we want to build with the president of the Republic and the prime minister," Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire told a news conference. "We want to free up France's exceptional productive capacities and protect our strategic interests," Le Maire said, adding that the 50-50 ownership offer was still on the table and that he would visit Rome early next week. Fincantieri agreed in May to pay 79.5 million euros (71.21 million pounds) for two-thirds of STX France. France's threat to nationalise the shipyard, which mainly makes huge luxury ocean liners, infuriated the Italians, with one minister and Fincantieri's CEO questioning Paris's commitment to a united Europe. The bid has raised fears in France about jobs at the Saint-Nazaire site, and the French government is also concerned about the strategic importance of the yard, the only one in France big enough to build aircraft carriers and other large warships. "The Saint-Nazaire shipyards are not destined to remain under state control," Le Maire said. "The pre-emption decision is temporary and should give us the time to negotiate in the best conditions." The decision flies in the face of any expectations that Macron, who in his former post as economy minister sought to liberalise swathes of the economy, would break with the French state's tradition of intervention in business. Even while economy minister, Macron forced through a shareholder vote that increased the government's power over carmaker Renault, falling out with its boss in the process. Since becoming president in May, he has also forced carmakers to help fund a failing parts manufacturer. Macron was elected on promises to boost growth by lifting constraints on business, and his government has flagged plans to privatise non-strategic state holdings while easing labour regulations. Lr Maire said the temporary nationalisation did not fall foul of EU regulations. (Reporting by Leigh Thomas; Additional reporting by Myriam Rivet; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
BAMAKO, July 26 (Reuters) - Randgold Resources' chief executive said on Wednesday he was hopeful of resolving an 42 billion CFA Francs ($74 million) tax dispute with Mali's government and that the company continued to invest in its two mines in the West African country.

The gold miner has already agreed to pay more than a third of the total fine to help resolve the dispute, which at one point prompted authorities to close Randgold offices in Africa's third largest gold producer.

"We're continuing our discussions with the authorities and are hopeful that we will be able to reach an amicable solution on the outstanding files instead of another round of arbitration proceedings," Mark Bristow told reporters in Bamako.

He added that fresh finds at Randgold's flagship Loulo-Gounkoto mine were adding additional reserves and that work was underway on a new "super pit" there. Annual production at the site is due to exceed 600,000 ounces over many years.

A satellite project at the Morila mine, which is approaching the end of its lifespan, is due to begin in September. Together with other nearby acquisitions, this will mean it can keep producing until at least 2019, Bristow added.

Both sites are located in Mali's gold-rich south and far from most of the recent attacks by Islamist militants on Western targets. ($1 = 569.7500 CFA francs) (Reporting by Tiemoko Diallo; Writing by Emma Farge; Editing by Susan Fenton)
BEIJING (Reuters) - China stepped up its warning to Botswana on Wednesday over a planned visit by exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama next month, demanding the African nation respect China's core interests. The Dalai Lama, reviled by Beijing as a dangerous separatist, is expected to address a human rights conference in the capital, Gaborone, on Aug. 17-19 and will also meet Botswana's president. China is a major investor in Botswana's economy. China has already "clearly" expressed its point of view about the Dalai Lama's visit, Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang told a daily news briefing. "Issues relating to Tibet concern China's sovereignty and territory integrity. We demand the relevant country earnestly respect China's core interests and make the correct political decision on this matter," Lu said, using stronger language than before on the issue. "China will not interfere in other countries' internal affairs, but will certainly not tolerate another country doing anything that harms China's core interests," he added, without elaborating. The Dalai Lama, who fled from Tibet into exile in India in 1959 following a failed uprising against Chinese rule, has long been at loggerheads with China, which sent its troops into Tibet in 1950. The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, denies he is seeking independence for his Himalayan homeland. He says he is merely seeking greater rights, including religious freedom and genuine autonomy. Visits by the Dalai Lama to foreign countries infuriate China. It often retaliates by stopping high-level meetings or taking economic steps, like last year when it imposed new border fees following a visit by the Dalai Lama to Mongolia. Botswana's neighbour, South Africa, has denied a visa to the Buddhist monk three times since 2009 in what opposition parties there, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, say shows the extent of Beijing's influence over Pretoria. China's fast-growing demand for raw materials has made it one of the biggest investors in Africa and its largest trade partner. Chinese state-owned companies have been awarded contracts to build roads, dams, power stations and airports in Botswana. (Reporting by Ben Blanchard; Editing by Nick Macfie)
By Michele Kambas and Ece Toksabay ATHENS (Reuters) - A ship an anti-migrant group planned to use as part of its campaign to protect Europe from mass migration was detained in Cyprus and then turned away with its crew, after discrepancies emerged in the status of a group of Sri Lankans on board. Members of the Identarian movement, which says it wants to protect Europe's identity from mass immigration, last week said they had chartered the C-Star which would set sail towards the Libyan coast to monitor humanitarian operations there. But the vessel was impounded en route to Italy in Cyprus, because of conflicting accounts of whether Sri Lankans were trainees or migrants, several Turkish Cypriot sources said. Its crew was later deported on board the vessel, Turkish Cypriot human rights activist Murat Kanatli said. Turkish Cypriot authorities were not immediately available for comment. Five Sri Lankans on board have since sought asylum, human rights activists said. They were granted a 10-day visa, Kanatli added. At the port of Famagusta, Turkish Cypriot authorities were told that the 20 Sri Lankans had ended their training period and would be returning to Sri Lanka via Ercan airport in northern Cyprus. But Faika Deniz Pasha, an associate of the Refugee Rights Association in Northern Cyprus told Reuters, that at the airport the Sri Lankans said they had paid money to be taken to Italy. "They said they were not seamen and had paid something like 10,000 euros," she said. Fifteen of them had left, but five said they did not wish to return to Sri Lanka and had asked for asylum, said Pasha, who said she was present at some of the encounters. The Identarian movement, which calls its project 'Defend Europe', disputed that version of accounts. It said NGOs had approached the trainees and 'offered them to stay in Europe and apply for asylum, in exchange for promises and money'. "Fifteen apprentices refused, five accepted this act of bribery and are now making false accusations against the owner of the ship," it said in a statement. The trainees were supposed to disembark in Egypt, but it was 'ultimately impossible', it said, without stating the reason. The Identarian movement is tapping into growing unease, particularly in Italy, over immigration from North Africa. Cyprus, an island about 100 km (60 miles) at its closest point from war-ravaged Syria, has barely been affected by the hundreds of thousands on the move over the past three years. (Editing by Richard Balmforth)
By Luke Baker and Ali Sawafta JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Thousands of Muslim worshippers surged into Jerusalem's Al-Aqsa Mosque on Thursday and at least 113 were hurt in scuffles with police after Israel lifted security measures imposed at the sacred site in the face of days of violent protests. Chaotic scenes unfolded as Israeli police used stun grenades to try to control crowds charging forward when the last gate Muslims use to enter Al-Aqsa was opened after a stand-off lasting several hours. "We will sacrifice ourselves for Al-Aqsa!" chanted the throng outside Islam's third holiest shrine. Several young men clambered onto the mosque's roof to affix Palestinian flags, which Israeli police soon confiscated. Israel's removal of the security devices, including metal detectors and CCTV cameras, marked a significant climbdown by right-wing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. While Palestinians celebrated, political opponents accused him of weakness. Netanyahu's decision followed days of diplomatic effort by the United Nations, the involvement of U.S. President Donald Trump's Middle East envoy and pressure from Muslim Arab powers in the region. One of these, Jordan, continued to fume at Netanyahu over the shooting deaths of two of its citizens by an Israeli Embassy guard in Amman on Sunday. Israel repatriated the guard to a hero's welcome, saying he had fired in self-defence against an attack that may have been spurred by pro-Palestinian sentiment. The Aqsa dispute erupted after Israel installed metal detectors at Muslim entrances to the compound, known to Muslims as the Noble Sanctuary and to Jews as Temple Mount, following the July 14 killing of two Israeli police guards by gunmen who had concealed weapons inside the walled plaza. The unannounced move provoked days of unrest, with violent clashes on the streets of East Jerusalem. Israeli forces shot dead four Palestinians, and a Palestinian knifed three Israelis to death in a settlement home in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. For the past two weeks, most Muslims refused to enter Al-Aqsa, instead praying in streets around Jerusalem's Old City. Earlier on Thursday, the Waqf Muslim trust that manages the mosque declared itself satisfied that Israeli authorities had scrapped all the new security measures and reverted to the set-up before July 14. The Waqf urged Muslims to return to Al-Aqsa. Palestinian political factions issued statements supporting the Waqf that looked likely to help defuse the unrest. Before the announcement, factions had been calling for a "day of rage" on Friday, raising concerns about another round of bloodshed. Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994 and has been custodian of the Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem since 1924, said Israel's removal of the extra security was an "essential step to calm the situation". But, facing domestic outrage over the Israeli Embassy deaths, Jordan's King Abdullah excoriated Netanyahu for embracing the guard involved after demanding he return without being investigated. Netanyahu's conduct had been "provocative on all fronts and enrages us, destabilises security and fuels extremism," Abdullah said in a statement, adding that bilateral relations were at risk if the guard were not brought to trial. [L5N1KI8C8] MULTI-FACETED ANCIENT DISPUTE The Aqsa compounds sits on a tree-lined marble plateau in the heart of the Old City. It is also the holiest place in Judaism - the venue of two ancient temples, the last destroyed by the Romans. Jews pray under heavy security at the Western Wall at the foot of the elevated plaza. The dispute, like many in the Holy Land, is about more than security devices, taking in issues of sovereignty, religious freedom, occupation and Palestinian nationalism. Israel captured East Jerusalem, including the Old City and the holy compound, in the 1967 Middle East war. It annexed the area and declared it part of its "indivisible capital". This has never been recognised internationally, with the United Nations and others regarding East Jerusalem as occupied by Israel and maintaining that the status of the city can only be determined through negotiations between the parties. Palestinians do not recognise Israel's authority in East Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of a future Palestinian state, and are extremely sensitive to the presence of Israeli security forces in and around the Noble Sanctuary. Palestinian political factions were quick to claim a rare victory over Israel after Netanyahu pulled the extra security measures. His aides declined to comment, but rivals in Israel's fractious right-wing camp criticised Netanyahu's decision. "Israel is emerging weakened from this crisis, to my regret," said Education Minister Naftali Bennett, whose national-religious Jewish Home party is in Netanyahu's coalition and who is a potential challenger for the leadership. "Instead of bolstering our sovereignty in Jerusalem, a message was relayed that our sovereignty can be shaken." In ordering the metal detectors and cameras, Netanyahu had said the extra security was needed to ensure safety at the site. (Additional reporting by Ori Lewis and Mustafa Abu Ghaneyeh in Jerusalem, Nidal al-Mughrabi in Gaza, Suleiman Al-Khalidi in Amman and Omar Fahmy in Cairo; Writing by Luke Baker; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
By MacDonald Dzirutwe HARARE (Reuters) - Zimbabwe's first lady, Grace Mugabe, challenged her president husband Robert on Friday to name his preferred successor, to end divisions over the future leadership of the ruling ZANU-PF party. Africa's oldest leader, Robert Mugabe, 93, has ruled the former British colony since independence in 1980 but has insisted that ZANU-PF, not himself, will choose his eventual successor. But at a meeting of ZANU-PF's women's wing in the capital Harare, Grace Mugabe - herself considered by some to be a possible future leader - contradicted her husband, who also attended the meeting, saying he should name a successor. Grace, 52, who has become a power broker in ZANU-PF since her elevation to the top echelons of the party in 2014, said Mugabe's word was "final". "There is no succession which will take place without the involvement of Mugabe. I know the president says: 'No, no, I don't want to impose a candidate.' But I have always argued with him that you have a role, you have the right to be part of that process," Grace said at the meeting attended by reporters. "Because we respect him, his word will be final. Mark my words, his word will be final. I am asking him right now in your presence ... don't be afraid, tell us which candidate we should back," Grace said, speaking in the Shona vernacular. Mugabe did not respond to his wife's comments but earlier addressed the meeting, where he repeated accusations he made in December 2015 that some in the military leadership were caught up in the succession fight. "Now you hear some of them (in the military) saying the president should leave. Leave in favour of whom? Who is that someone who has a right to succeed?" said Mugabe. Fighting over the leadership of a post-Mugabe ZANU-PF has intensified in the last three years, with two camps emerging, one supporting Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the other rooting for Grace Mugabe. Independence war veterans last year turned on Mugabe, describing him as a dictator and have been backing Mnangagwa to succeed him. The veterans say Mnangagwa has the support of the military. On Thursday, Grace repeated her previous call for ZANU-PF to change its constitution to make it mandatory for one of the president's deputies in the party and the government to be a woman. Critics say this could be a manoeuvre by the first lady to strengthen her chances of succeeding her husband. Robert Mugabe is ZANU-PF's presidential candidate for the 2018 election, his last under the constitution. He will be 99 years if he wins and completes the five-year term. (Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
TAIPEI (Reuters) - Taiwan has lodged a protest against Cambodia's decision to send suspects in a telecoms fraud scheme, including seven Taiwan nationals, to China for investigation, the self-ruled island's foreign ministry said on Thursday. Cambodia is one of China's closest allies in Southeast Asia and does not recognise the government of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a wayward province. It sent four Taiwanese suspects to China on Wednesday night, Taiwan foreign ministry spokeswoman Eleanor Wang told a regular media briefing on Thursday. Another three remain in Cambodia, Taiwan "expresses solemn concerns and deep regrets about its Taiwan nationals being sent to China", Wang said. She said Taiwan had called on Cambodia to "truly guarantee our nationals' judicial rights and interests and access to assistance" and for the Taiwanese suspects to be sent back to Taiwan for investigation. The ministry said last week there were seven Taiwanese nationals among a total of 31 suspects. Cambodia's head of police investigation, Uk Heisela, told Reuters in Phnom Penh that a group of 17 suspects were sent to China on Wednesday and another group of 14 would be sent on Saturday. "There is no Taiwanese national, they are all Chinese," he said on Thursday. "When we detained them, they didn't have any documents, China provided them with Chinese passports." Speaking in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China "highly appreciated" Cambodia's cooperation on fighting cross-border crimes involving fraud. "On this issue, both countries have always maintained close communication and cooperation," Lu told a daily news briefing. Cambodia deported 13 people from Taiwan to China, where they were wanted on suspicion of telecoms fraud, last year despite opposition from Taipei, which accused Beijing of "abducting" its citizens. China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control. China's Nationalists fled to the island after losing the Chinese civil war with the Communists in 1949. (Reporting by Jess Macy Yu in TAIPEI and Chan Thul Prak in PHNOM PENH; Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in BEIJING; Editing by Paul Tait)
This summers warm weather has seen a surge in reports of horsefly bites  and theyre very alarming.

Horseflies  also known as clegs  are a biting insect larger than midges or mosquitoes, and bites can turn very nasty indeed.

Female horseflies feed on human blood when theyre producing their eggs  and their bites can cause huge blisters and even lead to visits to A&E.

The bites are much worse than midge bites, because horseflies cut into the skin rather than piercing it  which can lead to infections.

They range from 1cm to an inch in size  and are often found near grassy areas, pools and woodlands.

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Only the females bite using their jagged, saw-like teeth  and anti-coagulant which stops the blood from clotting.

Deep joy. I've had my annual visit from a horsefly. pic.twitter.com/j34l4vifsi  Miles Wilkinson (@BarneyWilkinson) July 8, 2017

Doctors advise that if youre stung, wash the affected area with soap and water, and apply a cold compress or ice pack.

Raise the affected area if possible and avoid scratching.
NOGALES, Ariz.  Authorities say a broken pipe has resulted in untreated wastewater getting into the Nogales Wash.

Officials with the Nogales public works discovered the broken pipe on Tuesday.

They say a dislodged section of cement partially sheared the pipe below the waterline, causing the discharge of the wastewater into the wash.

The breach happened in the International Outfall Interceptor, which transports wastewater from both sides of the border to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant.

Santa Cruz County health services officials say the location of the partial breach is in a sparsely populated area of the county.

They are advising people who live in areas where there is water running in the wash to keep out of those areas.

It was unclear Wednesday when the pipe would be repaired.
SANTA FE  Saying it was acting on behalf of other non-profit groups and free speech, the Rio Grande Foundation on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against Santa Fe city government, challenging an ordinance that requires 501(c)3 organizations to disclose donors if a non-profit spends more than $250 in support of or opposition to a ballot initiative.

Earlier this year, the Rio Grande Foundation  an Albuquerque-based free market and libertarian-leaning public policy group that advocates for limited government  was reprimanded by the citys Ethics and Campaign Review Board for violating the ordinance.

The foundation had distributed an animated video over social media mocking Mayor Javier Gonzales ballot proposal to tax distributors of sugar-sweetened beverages. The proposal was soundly defeated in a May special election.

Matt Miller, senior attorney with the Goldwater Institute, a Phoenix policy group representing the foundation, said at a news conference in front of the Santa Fe federal courthouse that the lawsuit was aimed at preventing the names, addresses and occupations of donors from becoming public and potentially opening them up to harassment and intimidation from ideological opponents.

Miller said laws such as the one passed in Santa Fe in 2015 are spreading. Albuquerque and Las Cruces have similar laws, he said, and so do cities in Delaware, Missouri, Montana and South Dakota.

These laws are different from traditional campaign finance regulations where you are required to submit disclosures when you support or oppose a candidate for office, he said. These laws involve support or opposition to a municipal ballot initiative, and the (U.S.) Supreme Court has held that the donors of 501(c)3s are protected by the First Amendment.

Miller said the civil rights laws preventing such disclosure have been on the books since the 1950s, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has twice made rulings upholding the law.

Asked for comment on the lawsuit, a spokesman said the city does not comment on pending litigation.

The federal lawsuit about protecting peoples privacy, said Paul Gessing, the foundations president.

A mother or someone who is engaged in a political campaign who had nothing to do with the Rio Grande Foundation  those folks shouldnt have to deal with exposure or having their names out in a public database, he said.
The African American Performing Arts Center hosted four young musicians in the Inaugural John Lewis Youth Jazz Piano Competition on Wednesday, the winner of which gets to play with jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire at the John Lewis Celebration at the South Broadway Cultural Center tonight.

This annual event to honor Lewis, the world-famous pianist and founder of the Modern Jazz Quartet from Albuquerque, who passed away in 2001, has been taking place since 2014. Those involved with the event have since been extending its reach as part of the John Aaron Lewis Legacy Project.

One of our criteria is to make sure that we have an educational component and thats how we bring in the kids today, said Christina Houston, a cousin of Lewis who has been involved with the event for two years.

The competition was open to all middle and high school jazz pianists in Albuquerque and surrounding areas. Around eight young people applied, said Marti Wolf, a consultant to the city of Albuquerques Cultural Services Department.

Four finalists ended up performing in Wednesdays event: Ki Cooley-Winters, 16; Evan Fort, 14; Sky Hatcher, 11; and Rowan McJimsey, 12.

Although nerves were high, the young men seemed excited to be there.

I like to perform and Ive been playing piano for a long time, Rowan said. Im more excited (than nervous).

Im a little bit nervous, I guess, Ki said. But even if I dont get it, its a good experience.

Each finalist performed two pieces, one of which was required to be a Lewis composition. The other was a jazz piece of their choosing.

The parents of the boys looked on with pride as their children took the stage.

We are very proud of him for being able to do (jazz), said Parizad Hatcher, Skys mother. It was his choice, so thats the exciting part.

The event was judged by three local jazz artists: Jim Ahrend, Calvin Appleberry and John Rangel, who focused on the boys improvisational skills and creativity to determine the winner.

Evan was the winner. Evan, who played Lewis Afternoon in Paris and his own composition 7 to 2, will have the opportunity to open for jazz trumpeter Ambrose Akinmusire and his quartet, the main attraction at the event tonight.

Its such a good experience, and it would help you so much in your career to be noticed by big-name people, Evan said.

Going into the future, competition organizers hope the event will grow.

Next year will be bigger and better, said Charles W. Lowery II, the secretary of the African American Performing Arts Center Foundation. Weve got a lot of support from the community, and were ready to rock and roll.

If you go

What: John Lewis Celebration

Where: South Broadway Cultural Center, 1025 Broadway Blvd. SE

When: tonight, 7:30 p.m.

Tickets: $20 to $35 online at holdmyticket.com

An additional youth concert put on by jazz artist Ambrose Akinmusire will be held at the center at 2 p.m. today. Admission is free for those 18 and under and the adults who accompany them. He also will play during the evening event.
The editorial in (the July 8) Journal titled SOS should rethink her Election Commission fight asserts or implies several points that are not supported by historical fact.

First of all, it states Democrats are focused on the Russians and their alleged collusion with the Trump campaign and then appears to dismiss the allegations as inconsequential. Its true that Democrats are certainly focused on Russian interference in our 2016 election, and there is plenty of reason to at least suspect there had been collusion. After numerous statements by first the Trump campaign and then the administration that there had been absolutely no contact, we now know for certain that there was not only contact, but actually quite a bit of contact. Why lie about it in the first place if there was nothing to hide?

But the fact that 23 intelligence agencies have indicated they have hard evidence that Russia interfered in our election process and recent admissions by members of the Trump team that they had multiple contacts with Russian officials and/or individuals with close ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, is really beside the point of the editorial. The point was that Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver should cooperate with Trumps so-called Election Integrity Commission in its attempt to root out widespread voter fraud.

Does voter fraud exist? Absolutely! Is it widespread? Almost undoubtedly not! Here in New Mexico weve seen successful prosecutions in a handful of cases, most notably one where a man registered his dog to vote and another where a man voted in his sons name. But its not widespread, and the people involved were caught by the system, charged and convicted. But the database of Trumps Election Integrity Commission wouldnt have picked up on those problems. So, what would it actually do?

First, consider the person whom Trump chose to lead this proposed fight against voter fraud. The mans name is Kris Kobach. Hes currently Kansas secretary of state and a candidate for governor there. Hes also the creator of a program called Interstate Crosscheck and has sometimes been referred to as the King of Caging. Caging is a process of identifying and purging questionable voter registrations, which has been deemed to be illegal when its used to target specific groups  typically minorities  for disenfranchisement. And thats how its almost always used.

Records indicate the program has nationally flagged 7.2 million possible double registrants, almost all of them registered Democrats and most of them members of an ethnic minority. But, out of those 7.2 million possible fraudulent voters, a whopping total of four have actually been charged with voter fraud. Thats less than 1 in 2 million!

It needs to be remembered that voting is a right which cannot be abridged without due process. Kobachs methods for purging voters has nothing to do with due process. They simply remove large numbers of legitimate voters, along with a few rare illegitimate ones, from the rolls, forcing those legitimate voters to vote on a provisional ballot that will almost never be included in the vote tally. Kobach and Trump want to give a federal mandate to a process that is a clear violation of the Voting Rights Act.

Secretary of State Toulouse Oliver is absolutely right to withhold cooperation with a commission that is clearly intended to violate the rights of the citizens of our state.
Recently my sons asked, Daddy, when youre governor can you stop our friends from leaving?

Theyve watched too many friends from our neighborhood and school leave with their families in search of better opportunities. It hurts to think that even at a young age they are fully aware that something is wrong. My sons, Asher and Gage, are my motivation and my daily reminder of the importance of the work ahead for our state.

Yes, we are struggling. But we dont need more studies or statistics. What we need is leadership. Thats why I am running for governor. To turn New Mexico around.

For too long, we have had a governor content to make decisions for the next political cycle, not the next generation. Its time that we have leaders with imagination, creativity and the will to make serious, game-changing investments into our state.

So I ask, what if we did things a better way? Heres an example:

New Mexico is the second sunniest state, yet 48th when it comes to renewable energy production. Thats crazy. If we invest into a strength, our beautiful sunshine, we have the capability to generate enough clean energy to power other states while fueling job creation at home. We will turn New Mexico around by investing in ourselves.

Did you know New Mexico has state investment funds the size of Canada, Australia, Brazil and Mexico  COMBINED! So lets put our $21.6 billion to work for us. Instead of arguing over pennies in Santa Fe, what if we invested 5 percent of these funds back into New Mexico? That still leaves us with $20.5 billion in New Mexicos investment funds  and that doesnt even account for future performance of the funds.

Lets put New Mexicans to work repairing schools, bridges, arroyos and acequias. Lets invest in new startups that are leaving to grow elsewhere and into new technologies.

Where we dont invest, others do. Thats why were losing homegrown companies in expanding fields like cybersecurity, robotics, and 3D imaging. We must invest into 95 percent of our economy  local small businesses  to help New Mexico grow.

Were short hundreds of doctors and nurses. Lets invest in higher education, in teaching, in medical, nursing and dental schools and then follow that up with a promise to our young people:

If youre willing to fill a need in our schools or hospitals and give back where we need you most, then weve got your back with low-interest loans, tuition credits, and tools to ensure that were building communities, not only companies.

And well invest in skilled trades at every level, restore lost trade classes to our middle and high schools, and work with local labor unions to strengthen and expand successful apprenticeship programs.

Theres no reason that tens of thousands of jobs need go to out-of-state workers because we dont have the skilled workforce necessary to do the jobs. Were going to fix that.
Copyright  2017 Albuquerque Journal

In a major breakthrough, a New Mexico Tech biologist has discovered a way to use naturally occurring fungus in soil to protect plants from powdery mildew, a nasty substance that can destroy commercial crops.

The discovery can also cure plants that already have been infected.

The university is now working to patent and market the process. The discovery could improve crop quality and yields for many commercial crops, starting with chile and medical cannabis production, said Peter Anselmo, executive director of the universitys Center for Technology Commercialization.

Its a natural, organic way to address a major problem that could have an impact fairly quickly on agriculture in New Mexico and other places, Anselmo said. A lot of new technology like pharmaceuticals or robotics can take a long time to see the benefits. But with this, we could see the benefits right away.

Powdery mildew is a pervasive problem that affects most plants. To date, organic treatments have generally proved ineffective in killing it, forcing many commercial producers to use harsh chemicals to save crops.

The mildew is caused by a fungus in soil that can spread rapidly in humid conditions, said New Mexico State University vegetable specialist Stephanie Walker.

Its a very serious issue with chile in New Mexico, Walker said. The spores are everywhere. They need humid conditions to get going, but once its going, it thrives in dry conditions.

The fungus causes plants to defoliate, interrupting photosynthesis and hindering crop production. Defoliation also reduces leaf canopy. In chile plants, that opens the fruit to sunburn, reducing chile quality and often making it unmarketable, Walker said.

The fungus can also kill plants.

Its a nasty substance, Walker said. It smells bad. When youre in the field, it gets on clothes and is easily spread by people, machines and wind.

Powdery mildew is also a serious problem for medical cannabis growers, said Jacob White of Reynold Greenleaf and Associates, which assists marijuana producers in New Mexico and other states.

For medical cannabis production, its one of the top two leading problems, White said. All the solutions available to us now either sacrifice the quality of the product by using petroleum-based synthetic chemicals or bacteria-based organic spraying that doesnt work and causes the crop to fail mandated bacterial testing. A solution without harsh chemicals thats able to reduce powdery mildew is pretty intriguing.

The problems faced by medical cannabis growers inspired New Mexico Tech assistant biology professor Siv Watkins, who specializes in environmental microbiology, to begin researching soils where cannabis is grown.

Jeffrey Holland, a social worker and executive director of the nonprofit Endorphin Power Co., which offers services for homelessness and substance abuse, introduced Watkins to medical cannabis producers through his connection with two such operations, Seven Point Farms in Socorro County and another one in Albuquerque.

No one was researching the soil microbiome associated with cannabis, so I started collecting soil samples from farms, Watkins said.

She isolated the bacteria and fungus in soil at Tech to study in her lab. She developed genetic fingerprints of soils in which both cannabis and chile plants are growing, including soil from indoor and outdoor operations.

That provided a snapshot of whats happening with the plants during part of the growing season, leading to identification of one naturally occurring fungus that feeds on powdery mildew.

I was talking with growers about many of their challenges, and powdery mildew kept popping up, Watkins said. With fungus, a natural equilibrium usually exists for a biological way to deal with problems. In this case, we discovered another organism that will kill the organism in powdery mildew.

If the predator fungus is applied to soil, it can prevent the mildew, and if applied directly to infected plants, it will kill the mildew, with no damage to the plant, Watkins said.

She tested it on chile plants in her lab and on cannabis plants in fields. Results showed its effective on both crops.

Ongoing research could lead to more applications against the mildew in other crops.

Meanwhile, Watkins is working with cannabis growers through a new entity, 11 Biomics LLC, that she and Holland created to provide consulting services to growers. A portion of proceeds from 11 Biomics and other earnings Watkins may get from the university commercializing her discovery will be channeled to a new Biomics Foundation to provide services for people facing substance abuse and other problems, Holland said.

White expects medical cannabis growers in New Mexico and elsewhere to embrace the new powdery mildew remedy.

Many producers are dealing with it and are looking for solutions, White said. If it works the way it should, I believe well see a dramatic reduction in powdery mildew problems with more clean, high-quality product available for patients. It could easily mean up to 25 percent increase in production in New Mexico.
PORTALES  Maliyah Jones was only 22 months old, but shed already developed an irresistible personality.

She was the sweetest, happiest, brightest little girl, said Janet Bradley, the toddlers cousin.

She was very talkative for her age, very smart, she remembered you, just so sweet.

Maliyah died Tuesday and another young child was in critical condition Wednesday after both were left in a hot vehicle outside an in-home day care center for about 90 minutes Tuesday afternoon.

The day cares owner, Mary E. Taylor, 62, and her daughter, Sandi Taylor, 31, are charged with child abuse resulting in great bodily harm and child abuse resulting in death, police officials said. Both were being held at the Roosevelt County Detention Center on Wednesday awaiting a bond hearing scheduled for 1:30 p.m. today.

Family members said Maliyah died at Roosevelt General Hospital.

The other child, identified in court records as Aubrianna Loya, under the age of 3, was transferred to a Lubbock-area hospital. We dont know if shell make it or not, Assistant District Attorney Brian Stover said late Tuesday night. She was reported in critical condition Wednesday morning.

A Portales police news release said officers responded to the day care at 3:25 p.m. Tuesday for a report of two children having seizures. They found two children not breathing and began lifesaving attempts.

Stover said police believe Sandi Taylor took six children to a local park, while Mary Taylor stayed at the home with four other children. When Sandi Taylor returned to the Taylor Tots day care, she took four children inside and left two in the vehicle.

The worker was intending to go back and get (the two left behind), but she got distracted by something  she doesnt know what  and then began to fill out some paperwork, Stover said. They put the children down for naps and did not notice the two missing at the time. Later, they realized it and found the children and began to attempt lifesaving procedures, and called 911.

Portales temperatures were in the mid-90s on Tuesday, the National Weather Service reported.

Maliyahs cousin Bradley said Erika Tafoya, Maliyahs mother, spent several weeks researching day care facilities before deciding Taylor Tots could be trusted with her daughters well-being.

Tafoya moved to Portales from Tucumcari last fall, Bradley said, to take a job as a dental assistant.

No one expects to drop a child off and go to work and get called and told your child will be fighting for her life and then pass away  . This is heartbreaking for all of us.

Mark Jones of Canyon, the brother of Sandi Taylor, said Wednesday morning the day care is closed and will not reopen.

We feel the loss, too, he said. Were mourning, too. Its just a horrible accident and I dont know where we go from here.

Bradley, who lives in Dixon, Calif., said she saw Maliyah and Tafoya two weeks ago at a family reunion in Tucumcari.

She had a baby doll that she just loved. She was such a happy little kid.

The Associated Press reported Wednesday that the home day care had been commended in a past inspection by state officials, according to public documents.

But the state Children, Youth and Families Department has now revoked the license of the day care.

An inspection conducted in August 2016 found the day care was in compliance, with an inspector noting keep up the great work! in the written report available online. The day care has been licensed since 2013.

This is a heartbreaking tragedy and our hearts go out to the families of these children. Theres no excuse for leaving children unattended in hot cars. The providers have both been arrested and we are working closely with law enforcement on this case, Henry Varela, spokesman for the states Children, Youth and Families Department, told AP.

The Kids and Cars safety organization reports an average of 37 children die each year in hot cars in the United States. Most are age 3 and under.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.
WASHINGTON  Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will arrive in New Mexico today as part of three days of meetings and sightseeing ahead of his decision on whether to shrink the states newest national monuments or leave them as they are.

President Donald Trump directed Zinke in April to review national monuments of more than 100,000 acres designated since 1996, saying some of them amounted to a massive federal land grab. In early May, Zinke produced a list of 27 monuments for possible alteration, including the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks monument, in southern New Mexico, and the Rio Grande del Norte monument, in the northern part of the state.

During his New Mexico trip, Zinke will tour the Organ Mountains monument, near Las Cruces, but not the Rio Grande monument, near Taos.

Today, Zinke will tour the Organ Mountains monument by helicopter and then meet with elected officials, ranchers, academics, aborder security experts aand other local stakeholders who represent all sides of the issue, the department said Wednesday. On Friday, Zinke will hike with southern New Mexico veterans and then meet with representatives of the Mescalero and Fort Sill Apache tribes and Friends of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks. On Saturday, the interior secretary will hike and ride horseback in the Sabinoso Wilderness in San Miguel County in northern New Mexico with Democratic Sens. Martin Heinrich and Tom Udall of New Mexico, both of whom are opposed to shrinking either monument.

An Interior Department spokeswoman told the Journal the Sabinoso tour is not a part of the monuments review in New Mexico, but related to public access issues in wilderness areas.

Rep. Steve Pearce, a Republican who represents southern New Mexico, has urged Zinke to shrink Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks by as much as 88 percent. Democrats in New Mexicos congressional delegation strongly oppose altering the New Mexico monuments in any way, saying they protect cherished public land and spur tourism. Pearce contends the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument is too large and hampers border enforcement and economic development.

The review is rekindling a fierce debate about oversight of lands marked by prehistoric petroglyphs and towering mountain spires. Zinkes decision on the monuments is due in August.

The New Mexico Cattle Growers Association is urging Trump to eliminate certain large-scale national monuments. Meanwhile, the Las Cruces Green Chamber of Commerce is hosting a public rally tonight at the Las Cruces Convention Center at 6 p.m. in support of keeping the Organ Mountains monument as is.
SANTA FE  Influential state Sen. John Arthur Smith testified Wednesday that New Mexico lawmakers have tried to prioritize public school spending even as state revenue levels plummeted in recent years, saying per-pupil spending has remained higher than in many neighboring states.

The longtime lawmaker, a Deming Democrat who chairs the Senate Finance Committee, said any additional money spent on education could come at the expense of health care, law enforcement or other programs.

If you dont have new revenues, then its going to have to come from other existing agencies, Smith testified.

The senators comments in a Santa Fe courtroom highlighted New Mexicos recent budgetary constraints as a landmark case centered on the states education spending inched toward its scheduled end date.

District Judge Sarah Singleton will rule after the nine-week trial, which is in its seventh week.

Currently, 44 percent of the states $6.1 billion budget goes to public schools  about $2.7 billion for the current fiscal year  and Smith cited recent increases in state spending on pre-kindergarten and other early childhood programs.

However, he also expressed concern about Albuquerque Public Schools and other districts hiring lobbyists and misusing state dollars, saying, I personally believe theres adequate money for education in the state of New Mexico  my question is, how do you spend your money?

The lawsuit, filed by the New Mexico Center on Law and Poverty and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, claims that New Mexicos public education funding is inadequate and violates the state Constitution by disproportionately affecting low-income, minority and special education students.

Smith was called to testify by the state and was asked on cross-examination about roughly $3.6 million appropriated by the Legislature to the Public Education Department for non-classroom spending over the past three years  for legal expenses.

He did not dispute the appropriations, and he acknowledged that tax cuts enacted in 2003, 2004 and 2013 have led to reduced state revenue collections.

Smith sponsored a bill during this years 60-day legislative session to raise the states gas tax in an attempt to increase revenue levels, but the legislation  and other tax hike proposals  stalled due to opposition from Republican Gov. Susana Martinez.

However, Smith has also staunchly opposed efforts to take more money out of the states Land Grant Permanent Fund for early childhood programs, and he said Wednesday that he views the $16 billion fund as an endowment fund for current and future generations.

A Legislative Finance Committee study has estimated that expanding pre-kindergarten programs for all eligible 4-year-olds statewide would cost about $60 million per year.
JERUSALEM  Violence returned Thursday to a sacred site in Jerusalem as Palestinians gathering for prayers at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound clashed with Israeli police nearly two weeks after a deadly attack there.

Earlier in the day, Palestinians had celebrated as Israel rolled back security measures and thousands of worshippers heeded a call by Muslim authorities to assemble for prayers at the mosque for the first time in 11 days.

But as crowds pushed at one of the gates to the compound in the Old City, police fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse them, with dozens reported wounded.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ordered police reinforcements in Jerusalem following the latest unrest, and police were weighing limiting entry of younger men in anticipation of mass protests for Friday prayers  the highlight of the Muslim religious week.

Israeli troops in the West Bank were put on high alert and prepared for more violence Friday, a military official said.

Tensions have been running high at the site sacred to both Muslims and Jews since three Israeli Arab gunmen killed two police officers on July 14, prompting Israel to install metal detectors and other security devices.

Israel said the measures were needed to prevent more attacks. Palestinians claimed Israel was trying to expand its control over the site, which Israel denied.

The security measures outraged Muslims and triggered protests, and low-level clashes have continued in and around Jerusalem since then, highlighting the deep distrust between Israel and the Palestinians over the holy site.

In protest, Palestinians have prayed in Jerusalems streets outside the shrine since the July 14 attack. Israel removed the devices Thursday and the crisis appeared to be easing as Muslim leaders told the faithful to return to pray at the Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Droves of Palestinians entered for afternoon prayers. A handful scaled the roof the mosque and planted Palestinian flags above the entrance. Police later removed them.

Just before worship began, police shot tear gas and rubber bullets at the massing crowd. The Red Crescent said tensions rose as Israeli troops closed one of the gates to the compound as large numbers of worshippers tried to enter, and that 96 people were wounded in the melee. Police said officers were struck by stones and responded with riot dispersal methods, and a spokesman said at least two officers were wounded.

More clashes between Palestinians and Israeli security forces erupted after nightfall, with the Red Crescent saying at least eight people were hurt.

In addition, a 26-year-old Palestinian who was wounded earlier this week outside Jerusalem in a confrontation with Israeli troops has died, said Dr. Ahmad Betawi, head of a West Bank hospital. At least four other Palestinians have died in the past week in violent clashes with Israeli security forces.

Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas both issued calls earlier this week for mass protests on Friday.

The fate of the shrine is an emotional issue at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Even the smallest perceived change to delicate arrangements pertaining to the site sparks tensions.

Jews revere the hilltop compound as the Temple Mount, site of the two Jewish biblical temples. It is the holiest site in Judaism and the nearby Western Wall, a remnant of one of the temples, is the holiest place where Jews can pray.

The walled compound is home to the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock. It is Islams third-holiest site after Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Muslims believe the site marks the spot where the Prophet Muhammad ascended to heaven.

Israel had faced intense pressure over the security devices and said it plans to install sophisticated cameras instead. Palestinian leaders and Muslim clerics had insisted Israel restore the situation at the shrine to what it was before the attack.

The simmering crisis has sparked some of the worst street clashes in years and threatened to draw Israel into conflict with other Arab and Muslim nations.

King Abdullah of Jordan, which is the Muslim custodian of the shrine, urged Israel to respect the historical and legal situation in the holy shrine to prevent the recurrence of these crises.

Abdullah criticized Israels handling of a deadly altercation last weekend at its embassy in Amman involving an Israeli security guard, calling Netanyahus conduct provocative.

He blasted Netanyahu for praising an Israeli security guard who killed two Jordanians at the embassy after a 16-year-old attacked the guard with a screwdriver.

Such unacceptable and provocative behavior at all levels infuriates all of us, leads to insecurity and fuels extremism in the region, Abdullah said.

Abdullah told senior officials that Netanyahu needs to take legal measures that guarantee the trial of the murderer.

He said the incident will have a direct impact on the nature of our relations.

The Islamic militant group that rules Gaza had praised the Israeli rollback of security at the sacred site. Izzat Risheq, a senior Hamas leader, tweeted that Palestinians achieved a historic victory.

Netanyahu is trying to halt a wave of unrest while not appearing to his hard-line base as capitulating.

He sought to fend off the criticism. He took a hard line against Palestinian violence by saying Thursday the time has come for the death penalty for terrorists in extreme cases.

A senior member of Netanyahus coalition government criticized Israels dismantling of the security devices, saying it could bring more violence.

Naftali Bennett, leader of the Jewish Home party, told Army Radio that every time the state of Israel folds in a strategic way, we get hit with an Intifada. You seemingly benefit in the short term, but in the long term you harm deterrence.
PLATTSBURGH, N.Y.  Authorities say a Texas man who was in northern New York to get married set fire to eight cars after the nuptials were called off.

Police in Plattsburgh say officers responded early on July 9 to reports of several vehicles on fire in the north end of the city located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) south of the Canadian border. Officials say some vehicles sustained minor damage but at least two were totaled.

Police looked at hours of street surveillance video before focusing on 35-year-old Jimmy Williams as the suspect. He was tracked down in the Houston area and taken into custody.

Williams was brought back to Plattsburgh late Tuesday and charged with eight counts of arson. Hes being held in jail on $50,000 cash bail. A message left with his attorney wasnt immediately returned.
TUCSON, Ariz.  A suspect has been arrested in connection with a fatal shooting on Tucsons southeast side.

Tucson police say 21-year-old Jordan Ewer was taken into custody Wednesday night and booked into jail on suspicion of second-degree murder.

It was unclear Thursday if Ewer has a lawyer yet.

Police say the shooting occurred about 5:30 a.m. Wednesday after an altercation broke out in the street.

When officers arrived on the scene, they found 40-year-old Gabriel Escalante in the roadway with obvious signs of gunshot trauma and he was later pronounced dead.

Police say the suspects fled the scene in a vehicle after the shooting and it appears they knew the victim.

They say a second suspect has been interviewed but not charged yet and detectives still are searching for the third suspect.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M.  The Republican Party of New Mexico headquarters has been hit with spray paint, and officials say two protesters are responsible.

New Mexico GOP spokesman Dominic Pacheco said Thursday a receptionist saw the demonstrators paint a red A on the Albuquerque headquarters building sign before fleeing.

The protesters arrived Thursday afternoon and held signs accusing Republicans of promoting hatriotism. The two female protesters told a reporter with The Associated Press they were from the group Betsy Riot.

The groups website says members are neosuffragists and punk patriots whose mission is the rescue the country from President Donald Trump. The group says it engages in street theater, disruption, and creative acts of trumpculture sabotage.

No arrests have been made.

Betsy Riot said in a statement the protesters used red energy drink and the A stood for an expletive.
SANTA FE  Gov. Susana Martinez traveled to Salt Lake City today on an economic development fishing trip of sorts aimed at wooing businesses to New Mexico.

The two-term Republican governor took similar trips last year to Chicago and California, and the Governors Office said a 2015 trip to California helped pave the way for Facebook to pick New Mexico for the site of a massive new data center.

While in Utah, Martinez will meet with business leaders and executives with the Outdoor Industry Association, a spokesman said.

The Outdoor Retailer show, a twice-yearly expo thats tied to the Outdoor Industry Association, announced earlier this year it was leaving Utah due to disagreement over public land issues. But the shows organizers have already picked Denver as its new location.

In a statement, Martinez spokesman Joseph Cueto cited a recent increase in the number of New Mexico tourism visits and described the state as the perfect place for both adventure seekers and the industries that serve them.

However, the governor recently drew the ire of environmental groups by backing Interior Secretary Ryan Zinkes decision to review and possibly reduce the size of two national monuments in New Mexico, though she did not recommend what action, if any, should be taken.

Martinez traveled to Utah with a small delegation that includes her chief of staff Keith Gardner and Economic Development Secretary Matt Geisel.

The travel costs for Martinez and Gardner will be paid for by the New Mexico Partnership, the marketing arm of the state Economic Development Department.

The governor is scheduled to return to New Mexico tomorrow. Per the state Constitution, Lt. Gov. John Sanchez serves as acting governor while Martinez is out of state.
After 58 years, Doordarshan is going for a logo change and has invited all Indian Nationals to participate in designing a new logo for the national broadcaster.

Described as a swirling eye or nebula, DDs logo was designed by Devashis Bhattacharya, a student of National Institute of Design, way back in 1959.

According to the Government of India website, where the logo design contest has been announced, Doordarshans logo over the years has inspired deep nostalgia of an era when the public broadcaster was the only television channel of the country. With the opening up of the television market to private channels, a whole generation of youth need to connect and identify with DD. In order to engage with Indias youth and to get a mindshare for DD brand within the current generation, DD is seeking a new logo design.

The note added, The new logo, while recalling the strong nostalgia associated with the DD brand, should reflect the aspirations of new India.

Last day for submission of entries is August 13, 2017. The winning design will be awarded prize money of Rs 1 lakh.

But, while DD wants to move on from the nostalgia factor, there are many who want to hold on to their childhood memories of watching television. TV personality and quiz master Siddhartha Basu called the current DD logo a pretty evolved design in his tweet. Meanwhile, actor Ayushmann Khurrana tweeted: Please dont change the Doordarshan logo. It represents my childhood. Another Twitter user also pleaded not to change the logo as this logo is far more youthful.

Some compared the logo design change with Microsofts decision to axe its popular MS Paint program (okay, MS Paint is not being killed off but will be available for free in the Windows Store).
We can help you make sense of the agribusiness industry, extending from chemicals and fertilizers used as inputs into agriculture, to the commodities, food and by-products that are an output to farming, with policy and regulation applied at every step of the value chain.
The ASUS ZenFone AR is now available for pre-order in the United Kingdom, and can be purchased directly from ASUS online store. The worlds first smartphone to support Googles Daydream and Tango out of the box can be pre-ordered for 799 ($1049 USD). While this price is definitely more expensive than the latest flagship handset, the Taiwanese firm has decided to include some freebies with every unit pre-ordered. The free gifts consists of a 30 ($39 USD) Google Play voucher, which can be used to purchase apps from the Play Store, and also a Daydream View VR headset. The VR headset by Google retails for 69 ($90 USD) in the United Kingdom, so if you do purchase a ZenFone AR, you will be receiving up to 99 ($130 USD) worth of Google products for free which is a pretty good deal. If you would like to pre-order the ZenFone AR, you may click on the source below which will bring you to the product page.

Regarding the availability of the ZenFone AR, ASUS states on its product page that the handset will be available by 14th or 18th August, though no shipping estimate is given. The company also mentions that the device is in limited quantity, so now is the right time for those interested to pre-order one before stocks run out. In terms of specs, the ZenFone AR packs the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor which was released last year, though it has proven to be a capable chipset even by todays standards. Also included is a 5.7-inch QHD Super AMOLED display. In terms of memory configuration, the United Kingdom is receiving the variant with 6GB of RAM and 128GB of internal storage, which can be further expanded via a microSD card.

Being a Tango enabled smartphone, the ZenFone AR requires multiple cameras, so ASUS has packed three cameras on its rear. Two shooters are for Tango, whereby one is used to measure depth while the other measures motion. A 23-megapixel camera is also included on the rear and it is assisted by a dual LED flash, 4-axis OIS, EIS and 3x zoom. Keeping the lights on is a 3,300mAh non-removable battery and it comes with support for Quick Charge 3.0. This dual-SIM smartphone runs on Android 7.0 Nougat out of the box.
On Wednesday, President Trump took to Twitter to announce that the military will no longer allow transgender individuals to fight and serve the country. This has been a big topic since the news broke this morning and it has lead to a lot of people disagreeing with the president. It even led to Googles CEO, Sundar Pichai to speak out about the decision on Twitter, ironically, this morning. Pichai said that I am grateful to the transgender members of the military for their service. # LetThemServe. Which appears to be the side that most people are on, at this point.

Pichai is one of the first executives out of Silicon Valley to make his opinion on this matter known, publicly. So far none of the other CEOs have spoken out, but that likely will happen rather soon. Trump decided to make this change, after consulting with his generals and military experts, and the move comes at an interesting time. While President Obama made it so that transgender people could serve the country (openly) last year, the military wasnt able to start enlisting them until this month, due to the grace period. Which is why this has become a big topic as of late. Now, its still important to remember that just because the President tweets something, doesnt make it law. There is some paperwork that needs to be done for this to become law, so theres likely yet another executive order coming in the next few days. This whole move by the president also is a stark contrast to his position during the campaign last year. Which actually isnt surprising many people. Twi

Shortly after Pichai tweeted this, the Google Twitter account also tweeted pretty much the same thing. So its unclear if there was a staffer (maybe Pichais assistant) that tweeted this for Pichai and then was told to also put it on the Google account, or if Pichai did it himself. But it does show that Google sides with transgender individuals, and will fight with them for their rights. Which is an important thing in this day and age.
United States Republican Representative Greg Walden is leading an effort to ask key figures in the tech and telecom worlds to talk with the US government about Net Neutrality. Walden has scheduled a hearing for September 7, at which time he will assemble his House Energy and Commerce Committee, with other key Republican figures free to join in, to hear the various figureheads feelings on the issue. At this time, thats not an order; tech CEOs who would like to skip the meeting have the option to do so, though its entirely possible that the request could become an order between now and then. The list of tech companies whose CEOs have been invited to the hearing includes Facebook, Alphabet, Amazon, AT&T, Verizon, Comcast, Charter, and Netflix.

Key figures in tech and communications are invited to the hearing, but it will seemingly happen with or without them at this point. Walden heads up the House Energy and Commerce Committee, but has thus far not let his Republican leanings fully dictate his actions in that role. Part of that commitment to neutrality is this hearing. Walden says in his letter to the various tech companies that he does agree with FCC Commissioner Ajit Pais stance that the current Title II Net Neutrality regulations are heavy handed, but he wants to hold this hearing as a chance for tech companies and the government to work together toward crafting new laws.

The common sentiment across party lines is that some kind of Net Neutrality laws are needed in order to keep the internet free and open while being careful not to stifle innovation, and many both inside and outside of the political world feel that Congress and the House of Representatives may be the best equipped to draft up such a law. Many tech companies openly told the FCC in public comments on the matter that such an issue should be decided on a grander, more neutral scale. Some lawmakers have spoken out saying that they dont want to work on such important regulations in the current political climate. Still, a repeal of the Obama-era Title II rules that have governed how Net Neutrality is approached for the past few years is almost an inevitability at this point, so one way or another, lawmakers will have to address the issue.
Twitter on Thursday released its consolidated financial results for the second quarter of the year, revealing that it was unsuccessful in adding new users to the platform and also experienced a significant decline in advertising revenue in the three-month period ending June 30. The San Francisco, California-based social media giant reported 328 million monthly active users in Q2 2017, the same figure that it attached to its report for the previous quarter. The firms advertising revenue in the said period amounted to $489 million, an eight percent decline compared to $535 million posted in Q2 2016. The online platform recorded the first revenue decline in its history last quarter but managed to keep investors relatively calm by adding nine million users. With its user acquisition efforts rates stagnating in the last three months and the advertising revenue still declining, the companys shares are in a free fall, having dropped by ten percentage points immediately after its Q2 2017 report was made public.

Its currently unclear whether the decrease in advertising revenue indicates that Twitter isnt doing enough to keep advertisers happy or is simply a sign of times, with online behemoths Alphabet and Facebook seizing an increasingly large portion of the digital advertising market. Not all of the companys ad-related metrics declined in the last three months, with its ad engagement rates growing by 95 percent year-on-year. This notable increase in user engagement apparently wasnt enough to keep all of the companys advertisers on the platform as marketing budgets are now seemingly transitioning from Twitter and moving to other services.

Twitters latest financial statement indicates that the social media company is still far from bouncing back from its recent issues in terms of performance that are aggravating a number of its investors, some of whom were even pushing for the firm to sell itself in late 2016. While Twitters Board of Directors reportedly gave in to those demands, it failed to find a suitable buyer and the company continues to operate on its own. It remains to be seen whether the online platform manages to improve its performance in the upcoming quarters, having recently hired a new Chief Financial Officer for a total of $22 million.
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Wendy Jacobs

Masi Zaki

DibbsBarker has welcomed two alumni back to the firm with the appointments of partner Wendy Jacobs and senior associate Masi Zaki.Jacobs, who returns to the firms banking, insolvency and disputes team (BID), was a partner of the firm from 1997 to 2003, when she moved to Russells. She has extensive knowledge of reconstruction and insolvency and works with insolvency advisors and directors of distressed or potentially financially distressed firms.Jacobs has acted in some of the most high-profile insolvencies and reorganisations in Australia, including HIH, Lehman Brothers, Retail Adventures and the Keystone Group. She acts in the sectors of retail, insurance, financial services, and building and construction.Zaki is also a DibbsBaker alumnus. He started his law career at the firm in 2007 before moving to Baker McKenzie in 2012. He transferred to Russells in 2014, where he was also appointed as a senior associate.Jacobs said that the opportunity to work with experts in areas complimentary to her practice attracted her most to returning to the firm.Scott Guthrie, partner and head of DibbsBarkers BID team, said that the firm is pleased to welcome Jacobs back because of her expertise and her market reputation. Guthrie also said that the return of Jacobs and Zaki is part of a bigger plan for the practice.Wendys return is another large step in our strategic re-investment in the restructuring and insolvency market which commenced with John Stragalinos appointment in Melbourne last December, and which is set to continue, Guthrie said.Stragalinos leads the BID team in Melbourne, which welcomed special counsel Silvana Larobina from Corrs Chambers Westgarth in April. That month in Melbourne, the firm also added senior associate Joseph Ip from King & Wood Mallesons, senior associate Richard Fong from Hall & Wilcox, and associate John Heard from the Supreme Court of Victoria. The firms office in Melbourne opened in December.DibbsBarker has more than 200 partners and staff located in Brisbane, Melbourne, and Sydney. It specialises in the financial services, insurance, life sciences and healthcare, and real estate and construction sectors.
King & Wood Mallesons is strengthening its European platform with two new partners hired by its German arm.Hui Zhao and Daniel Ehret have been appointed partners in Frankfurt. They join partners Christian Cornett, Rudolf Haas, Rudiger Knopf, and Sandra Link, who re-established the KWM firm in Germany  KWM Europe Rechtsanwaltsgesellschaft mbH  after the collapse of KWM s Europe, UK, and Middle East (EUME) partnership. Since its establishment, the firm has also added corporate counsel Tilmann Becker to the fold.Zhao, who specialises in Chinese M&A in Germany, comes to KWM from Noerr, where he was associated partner tasked to build the firms China practices over the last decade. He is also an alumnus of Haarmann Hemmelrath and White & Case. He is a native Chinese speaker and he advises both German clients on investments in China, and Chinese clients on investments in Germany.Ehret, who comes from US BigLaw firm Latham & Watkins, is an expert in finance and restructuring. He has more than 10 years experience advising banks and debt funds as lenders, and companies as borrowers, on domestic and international deals. He also has deep knowledge of restructuring and acts for investors, lenders, and other creditors of distressed companies.Wang Junfeng, KWM global chairman, said the firm is fortunate to have retained a strong foundation in Frankfurt. The addition of the two new partners enhances the firms on-the-ground offering and is a sign it is committed to the German market, he said. Sue Kench , KWM global managing partner, said that the appointment are a significant step in the firms vision to be the leading global law firm for Asia . She said that the areas of corporate M&A, particularly for the firms Chinese clients, and banking and restructuring, are core areas of focus and strength.Xu Ping, senior M&A partner in KWMs Beijing office, said that Zhao will become a key partner in deals for Chinese clients.Chinese clients regularly require a senior Chinese speaking lawyer as a direct point of contact during a transaction, and with Hui Zhao, we can now offer such a service on the ground in Germany. As financing has become more prevalent and sophisticated, with Daniel we are able to meet these needs of our clients, he said.
With the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) investigating the recall of Takata Corp. airbags, a global law firm known for its litigation expertise is heading to the Federal Court of Australia to file an open class action. Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan is filing the suit against manufacturers, including Toyota, Honda, and Mazda, for allegedly breaching numerous provisions under the Australian Consumer Law (ACL).It is quite frankly, outrageous and almost inconceivable that there are over one million cars on Australian roads that contain a safety product that could, at any time, explode with lethal force. People who are driving these cars need to enforce their consumer rights before there are any more tragedies, said partner Damian Scattini, who has been working on the claim with litigation funder Regency Funding for more than a year.The ACCC is currently seeking information from the Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DIRD) and car manufacturers regarding Takata airbags, which are at the centre of the worlds largest vehicle recall ever. The consumer watchdog is also urging people to heed notices from manufacturers and retailers to have their cars airbags replaced.Starting 2009, more than 2.3 million vehicles in Australia alone have been subject to recalls because of the Takata-made airbags. The ACCC said that 60 models of cars sold in the country  including from Honda, Toyota, BMW, Mitsubishi, Subaru, Lexus, Jeep, Nissan, Chrysler, and Dodge  have Takata airbags.The investigation and the class action come after a man in New South Wales died on 13 July after his airbag misdeployed, the ACCC said. According to multiple reports, the 58-year-old man was driving a Honda CR-V under recall when he crashed into a Toyota vehicle in Cabramatta. The death could be the first Takata-related death in Australia.A woman in the Northern Territory was also severely injured in April.[Under the ACL], goods specifically need to be safe. It is hard to imagine something which is less safe. These airbags have killed at least 18 people and injured more than 180 worldwide, Scattini said.
It all has to do with the hue of this Rennsport Neunelfer, with the rear-engined coupe being dressed in Lava Orange.We're looking at a non-Weissach Widowmaker and you can consider this a simple configuration, if we may call it so - note the xenon headlights, for instance.The license plates and the timing make it obvious that this is a manufacturer car. The US spec Neunelfer was spotted in Pforzheim, Germany, with the town being just half an hour away from Karlsruhe, the place where the just-as-mesmerising Miami Blue example of the 991.2 GT2 RS was recently caught on camera.While this isn't the first Lava Orange incarnation of the 700 hp rear-wheel-drive beast we get to show you, we can't help but think that this shade has a special meaning.You see, Lava Orange was the launch color of the 991.1 GT3 RS , so it comes with a strong track day aroma. As such, the hue only ads fuel to the unofficial talk regarding the Nurburgring record of the Porsche 911 GT2 RS, while having also inspired the title above.We'll remind you that the clues towards the said accolade started getting serious traction when Mark Webber revealed that he had hit 208 mph on the Ring while manhandling the Porscha.Then came Nico Rosberg, with the reigning Formula One world champion dropping more than just a hint - in a YouTube clip, the racer said the Porsche 911 GT2 RS set a Green Hell record, albeit without mentioning what kind of accolade he was talking about.And, with or without an official Ring number for the 2018 Porsche 911 GT2 RS, we'll continue to keep an eye out for new examples that show up online.
SUV

Look at the full-size luxobarge doing its thing on the worlds most challenging racing circuit, then reflect on the fact its not described as a sport utility vehicle by its creator. All-terrain, high-sided vehicle is how Rolls-Royce refers to the all-wheel-drive Cullinan , and thats confusing bearing in mind the choice of tires for the pictured pre-production prototype.The backbone of the Cullinan is an all-aluminum platform shared with the Phantom VIII, and the all-wheel-drive part is taken care of by an xDrive system of the multi-plate wet clutch variety. Similar to BMW applications, the Cullinans system is connected to the anti-lock brakes and electronic stability control. To keep the Cullinan controllable during hard cornering, Dynamic Performance Control (i.e. torque vectoring) is on the menu too.A closer look at the prototype reveals Rolls-Royce has plenty of suspension adjustment to do until it can sign off the Cullinan for production. Beyond all the lurching and body roll, the latest spy photos of the SUV reveal the handles for the suicide rear doors and what appear to be LED headlights.It will be interesting to see the Cullinan trying its hand at off-roading, but then again, can you imagine the owner of such a vehicle venturing beyond where the tarmac ends? Its reassuring, however, that Rolls-Royce intends to make the luxurious colossus capable of handling its own in off-road situations. Dont expect Jeep Trail Rated levels of competence, though.Get-up-and-go comes courtesy of a twin-turbo V12 supposed to develop somewhere in the ballpark of 600 horsepower. The supremely torquey N74B66 6.6-liter powerplant in the BMW M760Li xDrive could be the engine in question, but well know for sure whats what when Rolls-Royce is ready to come clean about the Cullinan. Expect the first examples of the luxo-to hit the road in the second half of 2018 for the 2019 model year.
Image: Standard-Examiner

All four people on board were killed Wednesday afternoon when a Beech A36 Bonanza crashed on a busy highway in Utah. Nobody on the ground was hurt, but the airplane narrowly missed several cars, according to local news reports. Two married couples from Utah were on board, and had taken off from Ogden-Hinckley Airport, about a half-mile from the I-15 freeway. The airplane had climbed to only about 300 feet when the engine made a super loud sound, witness Randy Paulson told KUTV. The Bonanza then dropped rapidly toward the interstate, hit the ground and burst into flame. It was a big black solid red ball of fire, Paulson said. Theres no way you couldve survived it.

A truck driver who witnessed the crash told The Associated Press it appeared that the pilot was trying to land on the interstate. The two couples were leaving for a vacation, according to the AP. The Utah Department of Public Safety identified them as Layne Clarke, 48, the pilot; his wife, Diana Clarke, 42; Perry Huffaker, 45; and his wife, Sarah Huffaker, 42. The FAA is investigating.
Iranian state television announced Thursday that the country successfully launched a rocket carrying a satellite into space, per AP. The launch reportedly involved a "Simorgh" rocket (which means "phoenix" in Farsi) that is able to hold a 550 pound satellite.

Why it matters: Iran has been developing its satellite program for years, and denies claims that they're using the space program as a backdoor for long-range missiles. Despite their assurances, the U.S. and its allies worry the same technology could be used for more advanced weapons development.

In May, following criticism from President Trump for its ballistic missile tests, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said that his country would not wait for permission from the U.S. to continue its work on its missile program.
Russian intelligence agents from the same unit behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee in 2016 attempted to use Facebook to infiltrate French President Emmanuel Macron's election campaign earlier this year, per Reuters.

The strategy: Russian hackers pretended to be friends of friends of people in Macron's circle, ostensibly to gain personal information, plant malicious software, or gain access to their electronic accounts  an objective that seems to have failed.

Russian hackers pretended to be friends of friends of people in Macron's circle, ostensibly to gain personal information, plant malicious software, or gain access to their electronic accounts  an objective that seems to have failed. Beyond directly targeting Macron associates, Russian bots also spammed Facebook with election-related material, leading the company to shut down at least 70,000 accounts.
Dozens of residents of a village in Armenias northern Lori province blocked a local road on Wednesday to protest against an obscure private companys plans to mine gold near their community.

They fear that the project, if implemented, will wreak havoc on the local ecosystem by contaminating forests and pastures surrounding their village of Ardvi. They say that open-pit mining there will also scare away tourists visiting 10th century shrines located Ardvi.

The company in question, called Miram, has so far divulged few details of its plans to develop a gold deposit located in the mountainous area. It has yet to secure government permission for the proposed mining operation.

Armenian law requires companies seeking mining licenses, among other things, to hold public hearings in communities that would be affected by their operations. Miram planned to hold such a discussion on Wednesday.

The protesting villagers thwarted the procedure by blocking a road leading to Ardvi and defying police officers calls to unblock it. Our gold is our nature, said one of the angry protesters.

Their aim is to destroy our village. We wont allow any hearing, cried another villager.

Representatives of Miram never showed up. The companys shareholders until now included Arayik Zadoyan, the manager of a restaurant in the provincial capital Vanadzor. The restaurant belongs to Vahram Baghdasarian, the parliamentary leader of the ruling Republican Party of Armenia (HHK).

Zadoyan claimed on Wednesday that he no longer holds a stake in Miram. He said that the company is controlled by one of his friends based in Russia.
27 July 2017 13:16 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Bulgarian business community has a great interest towards Azerbaijan, which is connected with great political relations between the two countries and the favorable business environment created in Azerbaijan.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to Bulgaria Nargiz Gurbanova stressed in an interview with Trend that Azerbaijan intends to enter the Bulgarian market of agricultural products with a wide range of goods.

The Ambassador said that first of all, the sides plan to expand cooperation in the field of agriculture, which has never lost its relevance.

"Now it is very important in two aspects, both in the context of the development of new sustainable varieties and in the issue of processing agricultural products. Bulgaria has a fairly rich experience in both areas," she stressed.

The priority areas include winemaking, application of mechanisms for controlling the quality of agricultural products, participation in agricultural exhibitions, creating opportunities for companies to participate in such forums, providing support to investors, etc

The diplomat went on to say that in October-November of this year, it is planned to hold a business forum with participation of businessmen of the two countries specializing in the field of agriculture.

"We are also interested in promoting Made in Azerbaijan products in Bulgaria, and representatives of Azerbaijani business circles who are interested in promoting their products to the Bulgarian markets will be able to contact the Bulgarian entrepreneurs in the course of the business forum and find out what is interesting for the Bulgarian consumer," Gurbanova noted.

Moreover, the Azerbaijani government plans to expand cooperation with Bulgaria in such areas as trade, tourism, ICT, transport, energy and others.

"Undoubtedly, it is traditionally considered that energy is the cornerstone of our partnership and partly this is true. Starting from 2020, Azerbaijani gas in the amount of 1 billion cubic meters per year will flow to Bulgaria, which is 1/3 of the total gas consumption in Bulgaria," the diplomat emphasized.

The Shah Deniz 2 gas of Azerbaijan will be delivered to Bulgaria through the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria (IGB).

IGB is expected to be connected to the Trans Adriatic Pipeline via which gas from the Shah Deniz field will be delivered to the European markets.

The gas to be produced as part of the Stage 2 of Azerbaijan's Shah Deniz field development is considered as the main source for the Southern Gas Corridor projects at the initial stage.

She also noted cooperation in transport projects is gaining importance in bilateral economic relations, further adding that the location of both states, the infrastructure created in Azerbaijan, create favorable conditions for this, so that the European partners will use it to transport goods to China and back.

In addition, Azerbaijan and Bulgaria plan to sign an agreement on social security.

The document will regulate the right to receive pensions and unemployment benefits for citizens of Azerbaijan and Bulgaria who work or worked in one of the two countries (currently, Azerbaijan has such agreements with Turkey, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan and Georgia).

Nargiz Gurbanova and Minister of Labor and Social Policy of Bulgaria Biser Petkov recently discussed cooperation in the sphere of social policy, making a particular focus on the interaction in the field of labor migration.

The Government of the Republic of Bulgaria recognized the independence of the Republic of Azerbaijan on January 14, 1992 and the diplomatic relations between the two countries were established on June 5, 1992.

Both countries are members of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

The trade turnover between Bulgaria and Azerbaijan reached almost $6.39 million in January-June 2017, $6.3 million of which fell on imports from this country, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
27 July 2017 13:44 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Etihad Airways (the UAE), which is one of the top ten world airlines, plans to open direct flights to Azerbaijan.

The issue was discussed during the meeting of Azerbaijani Ambassador to the UAE Dashgin Shikarov with CEO of Etihad Airways Peter Baumgartner and other representatives of the company.

Shikarov stressed that in recent years, the number of tourists from the Persian Gulf countries to Azerbaijan has increased by more than 30 times.

He noted that currently more than 45 flights a week are carried out on the routes Dubai-Baku, Sharjah-Baku, Dubai-Ganja, and there is a large passenger potential for the opening of the route to Abu Dhabi-Baku.

Shikarov pointed out that the Baku-Abu Dhabi flight will be attractive for Azerbaijani passengers, adding that the two countries signing an agreement to ease visa procedures for the UAE citizens, which will make Baku even more attractive for tourists from the Emirates.

Etihad Airways, set up by Royal Decree in July 2003, commenced commercial operations in November 2003, and has gone on to become the fastest growing airline in the history of commercial aviation.

Etihads fleet of 66 aircraft operates more than 1,000 flights per week, serving an international network of 84 passenger and cargo destinations in the Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, Australia and North America. Etihad Airways also owns nearly 30 percent of Air Berlin, Europes sixth largest carrier and 40 percent of Air Seychelles.

Bilateral relations between Azerbaijan and the UAE, especially their political component, are at a high level: relations between these countries are based on multi-vector cooperation taking into account mutual interests. The two nations see rapidly increasing economic cooperation and are keen to promote tourism.

Frequent visits of the leaders of two countries significantly strengthened the political ties between the countries, at the same time stimulated the growth of economic interaction, particularly in the field of tourism.

The overall trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the UAE for the past two or three years amounted to approximately $70 million, while the export from Azerbaijan to the Emirates increased by more than twice to $11.6 million.

Mainly Azerbaijan imports goods from the UAE, which are, in fact, re-exported from other countries. It is mostly metallurgical and chemical products, textiles, building materials, tobacco products, and household equipment. Azerbaijan mainly exports to the UAE fruits, juices, nuts, metal semi-finished products and so on.

The trade turnover between Azerbaijan and the United Arab Emirates amounted to $11.9 million, according to Azerbaijans State Customs Committee.

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27 July 2017 17:50 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Next round of negotiations ongoing in Geneva, Switzerland, is expected to help Azerbaijan to realize its long intention to access the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The Azerbaijani delegation headed by Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammadguliyev is participating in talks with the WTO Working Group, which have started on July 24 and will last until July 28.

Discussed WTO accession with Azerbaijans Deputy Foreign Minister Mahmud Mammad-Guliyev and expressed ITC support to speed up process, Executive Director of the International Trade Center (ITC) Arancha Gonzalez wrote on her Twitter account.

ITC is the only development agency that is fully dedicated to supporting the internationalization of SMEs.

In early July, Azerbaijan Export and Investment Promotion Foundation (AZPROMO) and the ITC have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to boost the private sector development in the country.

Under the memorandum, the ITC will contribute to increasing of competitiveness and expansion of access of products produced by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Azerbaijan to foreign markets. In addition, the Center will support the direct access of Azerbaijani products to international electronic commercial platforms.

The governmental delegation of Azerbaijan, along with the meeting with the WTO working group, also participates in multilateral talks for subsidizing agriculture and bilateral negotiations with a number of WTO member countries, in particular, with the U.S. and the European Union (EU).

Azerbaijan launched negotiations with the WTO member states in 2004 and currently, in talks with 13 countries to finalize its accession process. .

Azerbaijan has had an observer status at the WTO since 1997.

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27 July 2017 14:40 (UTC+04:00)

By Laman Ismayilova

"Blue Bird" play by Belgian playwright and poet Maurice Maeterlinck has been staged at Nakhchivan State Music Drama Theatre.

Chairman of the Supreme Assembly of Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic Vasif Talibov was among the audience watching the performance, Azertac reported.

Following the play Vasif Talibov met with the theater's troupe to congratulate them on the successful performance.

"The Blue Bird" play has been adapted for several films and a TV series. The French composer Albert Wolff wrote an opera based on the original play.

The story is about a girl called Mytyl and her brother Tyltyl seeking happiness, represented by The Blue Bird of Happiness, aided by the good fairy Berylune.

At the end of the play, Tyltyl shows what he has learned about happiness.

Maeterlinck also wrote a relatively little known sequel to The Blue Bird, entitled The Betrothal; or, The Blue Bird Chooses.

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Laman Ismayilova is AzerNews staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @Lam_Ismayilova

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27 July 2017 17:29 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Blogger Alexander Lapshin, a holder of a citizenship of Ukraine, Russia and Israel convicted in Baku last week, may be released before the expiry of his actual term of imprisonment.

The Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced last week the blogger Lapshin to three years of imprisonment on charges of his illegal visits to the Armenia-occupied Azerbaijani lands and a criminal conspiracy with the Armenians living there.

Lawyer Eduard Chernin told Trend after a meeting with his client on July 27 that procedurally Lapshins period of detention is counted from the time of his arrest in Minsk with further extradition, because the legislation envisages that the term of imprisonment includes the time of detention of a person in custody pending trial.

In addition, he can submit an appeal and if it is granted, he may be released before the end of the three years specified in the sentence, said the lawyer.

A day earlier, blogger Lapshin met with representatives of the Israeli Embassy in Azerbaijan and requested his extradition to Israel.

Chernin said that after the verdict against Lapshin will come into force in the second decade of August, it will be possible to consider bloggers extradition to Israel.

Israel should make a relevant appeal to Azerbaijans Justice Ministry, so that to consider his extradition, said Chernin.

Lawyer also added that Lapshin has neither complaints about the content, nor health problems.

Meanwhile, the Russian Embassy in Baku refused to comment on the court decision with regard to Lapshin. "The Russian Embassy does not consider itself entitled to comment on the decision of the Azerbaijani court," press attache of the Embassy Denis Apashkin told RIA Novosti on July 25.

He said the Embassy will continue to participate in the protection of Lapshins rights within its competence.

Blogger Lapshin violated Azerbaijani laws on state border in April, 2011 and October, 2012. Helped by his accomplices in the occupied territories, Lapshin paid a number of visits to Azerbaijans occupied lands, where he voiced support for "independence" of the illegal regime, and made public calls against Azerbaijan's internationally recognized territorial integrity on April 6 and June 29, 2016.

The blogger was arrested in Minsk in late 2016 and transferred to Baku in February 2017.

By the decision of the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, Lapshin will serve his three-year sentence in a general regime colony.

Unauthorized visits to Nagorno-Karabakh and other regions of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia are considered illegal, and any individuals paying such visits are included in the Azerbaijani Foreign Ministry's black list.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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27 July 2017 10:28 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Co-rapporteurs of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) will visit in Baku in one month, PACE co-rapporteur for Azerbaijan Stefan Schennach tweeted July 26.

The co-rapporteurs will be in Baku in one month and take care of all the cases we got information in the last days, he tweeted.

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27 July 2017 10:42 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has signed an order to provide funding for the construction of a road in Barda. Under the presidential order, AZN6.8 million is allocated from the Presidential Contingency Fund for the construction of Yeni Dashkend-Umudalilar road connecting 17 residential areas with the population of 15,000 people, Azertac reported.

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27 July 2017 11:56 (UTC+04:00)

Azerbaijan and Macedonia have hailed the development of bilateral relations as Azerbaijani ambassador to Turkey and Macedonia Faig Baghirov paid a visit to Skopje to meet with Speaker of Macedonia`s Parliament Talat Djaferi and Prime Minister Zoran Zaev.

In his meeting with Talat Djaferi, Faig Baghirov handed Azerbaijani Parliament Speaker Ogtay Asadov`s congratulatory letter addressed to his Macedonian counterpart on his election as the Speaker of the Parliament, Azertac reported.

The sides praised the current level of bilateral relations, saying the friendly ties between the two countries' peoples have deep historical roots. Talat Djaferi hailed the particular role of interparliamentary ties in the development of bilateral relations.

Ambassador Baghirov provided an insight into the Armenia-Azerbaijan Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, as well as the provocations of the Armenian side, which is not interested in problem resolution through negotiations, on the contact line of the armed forces.

Talat Djaferi noted that Macedonia will continue to support Azerbaijan's territorial integrity, inviolability of its borders and sovereignty and expressed his hope that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict will be settled through negotiations.

In his meeting with the Macedonian PM Zoran Zaev, ambassador Baghirov handed Azerbaijani PM Artur Rasizade`s congratulatory letter to his Macedonian counterpart on the occasion of his election as the country's premier.

They hailed the development of relations between the two countries, noting the importance of meetings during high-level reciprocal visits and international events.

The Azerbaijani ambassador noted that his country hails Macedonia's support for Azerbaijan's fair stance on the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict.

As part of his visit to Macedonia, Ambassador Baghirov also addressed the opening ceremony of a concert of the youth chamber orchestra of TURKSOY in Skopje which was co-organized by International Organization of Turkic Culture and the Azerbaijani and Turkish embassies in Macedonia.

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27 July 2017 16:13 (UTC+04:00)

By Rashid Shirinov

Azerbaijani servicemen, participating in the International Army Games  2017 left for Kazakhstan, Azerbaijani Defense Ministry reported on July 27.

The delegation of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces will participate in the competitions "Sniper line" and "Masters of artillery fire", conducted within the Army Games. The two competitions will be held on August 1-9 at the Otar military base in Kazakhstan.

Meanwhile, military cooks of the Azerbaijan Armed Forces arrived in Moscow to participate in the international contest "Field Kitchen."

In the coming days, the teams of Azerbaijan, Belarus, Serbia, Mongolia, Russia and Israel will get instructional advise, get briefed about security measures and the procedure for operating technical equipment, as well as will undergo an in-depth medical check-up for getting access to work with food.

On July 29, military cooks will conduct master classes on preparing national foods.

Earlier, the Azerbaijani tankers took part in the draw of teams and tank crews participating in another competition within the International Army Games  Tank Biathlon. As a result of the draw, the Azerbaijani members of tank crew will perform in the first race, which will be held on July 29.

Today, the Azerbaijani Army is one of the strongest, highly-disciplined armies in the world and the leading one in the region. The Armed Forces of Azerbaijan consist of Air Force and Air Defense Forces, the Navy, and the Land Forces.

Azerbaijani Army stands at the 59th place in the world ranking on military strength compiled by a U.S.-based Global Firepower survey center. The national army is equipped with new high-quality weapons.

The army building process is of particular importance for Azerbaijan, as twenty percent of the country's territory is under Armenian occupation and the country is in a state of war with Armenia.

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Rashid Shirinov is AzerNews staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @RashidShirinov

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27 July 2017 17:00 (UTC+04:00)

By Sara Israfilbayova

Foreign ministers of member countries of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will meet in Istanbul on August 1.

During the meeting the OIC foreign ministers are expected to discuss the recent clashes in Jerusalem between Israelis and Palestinians, Trend reported.

The evening Muslim prayer at the Bab el-Asbat Gate in Jerusalem recently culminated in large-scale clashes of protesting Muslims with Israeli order-keepers. Muslim worshipers expressed dissatisfaction with the installation of metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque is located - one of the main Islamic shrines.

Dozens of people were injured during the dispersal of the demonstration. The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said that 14 people were hospitalized, one of them with a severe head injury.

Israel and Palestine are two opposite sides of an armed confrontation that has been going on for decades.

The history of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict began with the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.

Though both Jews and Arab Muslims date their claims to the land back a couple thousand years, the current political conflict began in the early 20th century.

The 1967 Six-Day-War exerted a significant effect upon Palestinian nationalism, as Israel gained military control of the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip from Egypt.

The conflict continues to the present day on various levels.

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27 July 2017 17:25 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Seventeen members of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group were detained in Turkey's Istanbul, the countrys media outlets reported July 27.

All the arrested are foreigners, according to the reports. They were planning to enter Syria through the territory of Turkey.

Syria has been suffering from an armed conflict since March 2011, which, according to the UN, has claimed more than 500,000 lives.

Militants from various armed groups are confronting the Syrian government troops. The Islamic State, the Kurdish Peoples Protection Units (YPG) and Kurdish Democratic Union Party (PYD) are the most active terrorist groups in Syria.

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27 July 2017 18:11 (UTC+04:00)

By Trend

Iran's deputy attorney general, Abdolsamad Khoramabadi said the IS has coordinated the Iran parliament June 7 terror attack via the Telegram social media network.

He told Tasnim news agency on July 27 that terrorists not only coordinated the attack, but also published the attack live though Telegram.

He accused the Iranian government of ignorance of threats, posed by the social media.

Two separate attacks shook Tehran on June 7 and several armed people tried to break their way into the Parliament building.

The attackers managed to get inside the building and engaged in a shootout with the security forces. One terrorist committed suicide by blowing himself up.

Meanwhile, another attack took place at the Imam Khomeini Shrine. The reports said Irans security forces neutralized one terrorist, another one committed suicide there. The overall body count in the attacks reached 17.

Khoramabadi said that government should control and block illegal channels at Telegram.

He added that open social media can pave way for organized espionage from citizens by foreign countries.

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Follow us on Twitter @AzerNewsAz
Travel to France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and South Africa is on the summer academic agenda for some 30 Boston College undergraduate recipients of McGillycuddy-Logue grants, which provide the opportunity for study abroad through faculty-led programs, or for professional experience via international internships.



This year's awardees, who represent the Morrissey College of Arts & Sciences, Lynch School of Education, and Carroll School of Management, are studying local language, art, history, and food writing, among other topicswhile immersed in rich cultures of their respective host countries.



Awarded through the OIPs McGillycuddy-Logue Center for Undergraduate Global Studies, the summer travel grants provide enriching experiences for academically excellent BC undergraduate students, for whom such opportunities would otherwise remain out of reach.



"Summer awards are instrumental in helping studentsregardless of background or meanstake full advantage of study, research, and internship opportunities abroad, said OIP Director Nick Gozik. Such awards would not have been possible without the generosity of donors, who recognize the value of preparing BC students for an increasingly competitive and globally-oriented workforce."



During the upcoming fall semester, the grant program will fund study-abroad opportunities for some 20 juniors, from a range of the Universitys undergraduate schools, at universities in South Korea, South Africa, the United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, New Zealand, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Norway, Ecuador, Australia, Japan, and France.



The McGillycuddy-Logue Center, established in 2008 through a generous gift from alumni Kathleen McGillycuddy and Ron Logue, fosters innovative international learning for BC undergraduates. McGillycuddyformer chair and current member of the Boston College Board of Trustees--is a 1971 graduate of Newton College of the Sacred Heart, which was acquired by BC in 1975. Logue received bachelor of science and master of business administration degrees from BC.



The McGillycuddy-Logue awardees are among many other undergraduate and graduate student scholarship recipients, whose prestigious awards support study-abroad plans during the summer as well as in the upcoming academic year. Their awards include Boren Scholarships, Gilman International Scholarships, U.S. State Department Critical Language Scholarships, and other OPI-administered fellowships. An overview of the most recent awards:



Bemnet Zewdie 19 will study in Ghana via a Fund for Education Abroad Scholarship, which provides increased access to international scholarship by supporting students from a variety of racial, ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds.



Sabrina Black 19 received a DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service) Undergraduate Scholarship to study at the Catholic University of Eichstatt in Germany.



Three undergraduates won Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarships-which enable students of limited financial means to study or intern abroad, and gain skills critical to American national security and economic competitiveness: Layla Aboukhater 18 (France), Tenzin Pelzom 20 (Ecuador), Francesca von Krauland 20 (Italy).



U.S. Department of State Critical Language Scholarships were awarded to Daniela Benitez 19 and Enise Koc 18 for study in, respectively, Oman and Russia. The CLS program is part of a government effort to expand the number of Americans studying and mastering foreign languages, to contribute to American economic competitiveness and national security.



Taylor Green JD18 received funds for a fellowship in Japan via a David L. Boren National Security Education Program Award-designed to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills.



Stephen Ferguson 15, who is pursuing a masters degree in philosophy at BC, was named a Lilly Graduate Fellow by the Lilly Foundation. The fellows program allows outstanding graduate students to explore the connections among Christianity, higher education, and the vocation of the teacher-scholar as they pursue degrees in humanities and the arts.



Omar Aggad Travel and Research Fellowshipsto expand the understanding of the Arab world, and the relationships between Arab societies and the Westwere awarded to the following students: Echo Yiyang Zhuge 20, to study Qatar through Art, internship at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha, Qatar; Sarya Baladi 19, to study Colloquial Arabic Language Acquisition to Study the Palestinian and Syrian Refugee Crisis in Lebanon in Beirut, Lebanon; Selene Campion PhD 20, for colloquial Arabic language study at the Moroccan Center for Arabic Studies in Rabat, Morocco; and Austin Bodetti 18, for Studying the Role of the Emirates in the War in Afghanistan in United Arab Emirates.



Mizna Fellowshipswhich fund research, language study, internships and service learning initiatives throughout the Islamic worldwere awarded to two rising sophomores: Echo Yiyang Zhuge, for Bridging Two Worlds: Understanding Modern Islam and Moroccan Society through a Chinese Lens in Rabat, Morocco; and Trevor R. Jones, for Religious Minorities Seeking Refuge in the Hashemite Kingdom: Investigating the Political, Economic and Social Role of Religious Minority Refugees in the Sunni-Majority Jordan in Amman, Jordan.



Lidya Mesgna 17 won a Humanity in Action Fellowship that enables her to build on her interest in issues of inclusivity and tolerance. An international studies major with a political science concentration and economics minor, she will study minority rights in a German historical context and conduct research on how and why individual and societies have resisted intolerance and protected democratic values.



Jesse Mu 17 won a Winston Churchill Scholarship for graduate study in the United Kingdom at the University of Cambridge, where he will continue to explore his research interests at the intersection of psychology, computer science, and language.

Rosanne Pellegrini | University Communications








First up, Joe Biden is thinking about dropping tariffs against China. But theres a spy in prison this morning that helps us understand why he shouldnt. Ill explain.





Your second brief, If youre looking for a good paying job, you might consider being a CEO for a health insurance company. One executive made $142M dollars last year. Let's talk about that.





And as always, Im keeping an eye out for developing stories. Put this one on your radar. Mexican cartels are grooming American kids online and paying them cash to traffic illegals or run drugs across the border. Ill share details.





If you enjoyed this episode of the President's Daily Brief, remember to subscribe and listen daily at podfollow.com/pdb.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Villagers Here Have Rs 85 Lakhs In Their Accounts! Life oi-Syeda Farah

We all dream of becoming rich and those who are already rich are blessed! Can you imagine if the government allots you a flat and gifts you a car apart from filling your bank account with 85 lakhs! Sounds impossible, right?

There is a village named Huaxi in China that offers all these facilities to the residents of this village. Each resident has over 85 lakhs or more money than this!

This village is full of world class luxuries and facilities which seem only possible in the realm of imagination.

You May Also Like To Read: Do You Know About This Village, Where The Villagers Fell Asleep?

Wondering how to get there? Read on to find out about the mysterious richest village of China and know the clause of living here!

Read on...

It Is The Richest Village In China This village was founded by a local Communist Party secretary Wu Renbao in 1951. The residents of this village are said to have approximately Rs. 85 lakhs or more in their bank accounts. They also own a bungalow and a car. Though the population of this village is just 2,000. The Deal To Get Rich It is not easy to become eligible to stay in this village as one must first hold a job in any of the firms that are present in any of the companies of this village. Once the person gets the job, their luxurious life begins. They are provided with a car and bungalow. It does not end there as the residents use the helicopters as taxis to reach their destinations! The Catch Though! Though the residents of this village are said to have been provided with all the luxuries and amenities, there is a clause to the deal of living in this village. It is: If a person residing in Huaxi plans to leave the village, then he will lose all the richness and turn poor. What Jobs Do These Villagers Have? Huaxi is one of the fast growing and a highly successful village of China which easily yields millions of annual income per year. The actual reason behind this growth of this village is due to its flourishing steel production, textile and clothing business. The Village Is Less Than A Square Kilometre! This luxurious village's total square area is a little less than one square kilometre. Can you beat that! This small village has barrack-style dormitories, factories and pagoda style buildings for the residents. The village looks similar to Dubai with respect to its luxuriousness. The International Luxury Long Wish Hotel This village has each and everything that you need to get in the current modern era. The special 'The International Luxury Long Wish Hotel', here has more than 826 rooms. Out of these 826 rooms, more than 16 are presidential suites. Hold your breathe as this unique hotel has one Gold Presidential Suite that costs around Rs 10 lakhs per night! The Hanging Village Of Huaxi Even though this village is hardly spread across a space of less than a kilometre, it has a lot of fascinating stuff which attracts tourists. Its skyscraper looks tall and strangely incongruous. This unique skyscraper is said to have 72 storeys and it is named as the Hanging Village of Huaxi. The height of this skyscraper is 328 m tall which is 4 m more than Eiffel Tower!

Images Source: Reuters

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Story first published: Thursday, July 27, 2017, 11:55 [IST]
Nag Panchami 2019: The Auspicious Festival Of Snakes Festivals oi-Lekhaka

Nag Panchami is observed on the Shukla Paksha Panchami in the Shravan month according to the Hindi calendar. This year, the day is falling on August 5 (Monday). The muhurta (timing) for the puja will be between 6:20 AM to 8:54 AM.

The month of Savan or the Shravan month is full of holy occasions and festivals. Naga Panchami is one of the most important festivals celebrated in this month. Naga Panchami or the celebration of snakes is observed on the fifth day of the shukla paksha in the month of Shravan.

India is a country where people worship every aspect of nature. It is the same culture that is followed with the celebration of the Naga Panchami.

Like many other animals, snakes too are held in high regard in the Hindu religion. It is believed that worshipping snakes will help us get rid of all the hardships in future. It is also said to help us improve our financial status.Today, we shall talk about why Naga Panchami is considered to be so auspicious. Read on to know more.

Naga Panchami Is A Day To Worship Snakes: It is said that worshipping snakes on Naga Panchami pleases the serpent Gods who are worshipped by the Hindus. This is the reason why live snakes are worshipped on this day and are fed milk. The Blessings From Nagas Or The Snake Gods: There are many snake gods who are worshipped in India. But there are twelve snake Gods who are considered the most important ones. Worshipping these snake Gods will earn us their blessings for happy and prosperous lives. The following are the twelve snake Gods: -Ananta

-Vasuki

-Padma

-Shesha

-Kambala

-Karkotaka

-Ashtavakra

-Dhritarashtra

-Shankhaphala

-Kaliya

-Takshaka

-Pingala Also Known As Garuda Panchami: Ironically, the Day of Naga Panchami is also celebrated as Garuda Panchami. Garuda, the vehicle of the Lord Maha Vishnu is the arch nemesis of the snakes. The eagle God, Garuda despises snakes and feeds on them. It is said that if a person suffers from ill effects of Naga Dosha or has other snake-related problems, he should worship Lord Garuda on the Naga Panchami day for respite. Worshipping Snakes On Naga Panchami Gives The Following Benefits: Snakes or Nagas are considered to be the jewellery that Lord Shiva decorates himself with. For the same reason, it is believed that when a snake or a Naga is worshipped, a true devotee stands to earn spiritual upliftment, magical powers and an increase in wealth and fame. The Poor And The Financially Unstable Should Worship The Snakes On Naga Panchami: It is said that the Nagas possess incredible wealth as they are the masters of all treasures that are hidden or buried. If a poor person or someone who is financially unstable prays to the Nagas on Naga Panchami day, he will be rewarded with improved financial status. Problems With Rahu And Ketu In The Birth Chart: If you have a problem with the placement of Rahu and Ketu in the birth chart, there are things that you can do to rectify it. Pray to the Nagas on the Naga Panchami day. You will gradually see that you are much happy with your life. Nightmares Of Snakes: Nightmares Of Snakes:

If you have been having recurrent dreams about snakes, you should worship the snake Gods to help you in this case. What Are The Things That Should Not Be Done On Naga Panchami? Snakes should not be disrespected, especially on the occasion of Naga Panchami.You must not dig the earth on the day of Naga Panchami. You should not kill snakes on the day of Naga Panchami.
Significance Of Celebrating Naga Panchami Festival Faith Mysticism oi-Lekhaka

The Hindu mythology is marked by many aspects of worship dedicated to the sacred cow, garud and the snakes. Indian festivals are a glorious conglomeration or boutique of colour, sentiments and honest faith.

One such festival is the worship of the snakes on the fifth day of the moonlit fortnight of the Hindu month of shravan. This day is the Naga Panchami, and India sees a plethora of faith emerging in different forms of worship of the snake.

Many Hindu Gods are adorned with snakes. Lord Vishnu reclines on a bed of snake, while Lord Shiva adorns the snake around his neck. So comes the importance of the snakes in India.

In Maharashtra this festival is celebrated for fifteen days. In North Karnataka, this festival is associated with the jokali or swing.

The young girls gather together for an intimate exchange of fun and play. The newly married women return to their birth homes and prepare the sweet undi or laddu and bring the savories with them to their in-laws' place.

The Belief Of Celebrating Naga Panchami



The celebration of Naga Panchami is akin to Lord Krishna and the Kaliya Narthana. It is believed that while playing on the banks of the river Yamuna, Lord Krishna, still a child, playfully threw his ball into the river.

While retrieving the ball, he fell into the river and was attacked by the venom spitting king of the serpents Kaliya. The entire episode of the fight is an exciting picture painted by many spiritualists as the victory of the good over the evil.

The famous Kalinga Narthana by Krishna dancing over the innumerable heads of Kalinga is personification of life weaving through its many cycles of joy and sorrow. Kaliya finally accepts that Krishna is invincible and pleads for himself and his large entourage of wives to be pardoned.

Lord Krishna spares him by a promise that Kaliya will not poison the Yamuna. Naga Panchami is celebrated as the victory of Krishna over Kaliya, the most dangerous snake.

Traditional Way Of Celebrating Naga Panchami

Naga Panchami is celebrated by worshipping live snakes in most states of India. The snakes are offered rice and milk and it is believed that snakes on this day do no harm to anybody. Snake charmers carry the snakes to central parts of temples and women offer their worship in these temples.

Why Is Naga Panchami Celebrated

Young unmarried girls believe that praying to the king of snakes on this day will bring them blessings of the lord of snakes for a good life partner. Married women worship this day with the faith and belief that evil will be warded off and their families will live in prosperity and good health.

How Is Naga Panchami Celebrated?

The houses are painted anew and the threshold is smeared with turmeric and vermilion to welcome snakes. The gaiety is instantaneous as many families get together to celebrate and worship the snakes in the compound of their homes. Many houses in rural areas make snake images from dough and offer flowers and milk to this image. The image is then drowned in water by the end of the day.

Naga Panchami Celebrated In Cities



Urbanites and city dwellers too are not very far off in their fervor of celebrating this sacred festival. Women and children wake up early in the morning and offer worship to the images of snakes, and their brothers visit the homes to exchange good wishes and blessings.

It is marked as a day of bonding between brothers and sisters. The day witnesses a spread of delectable delicacies. On this festive and sacred day city dwellers visit temples dedicated to Lord Nagaraj.

Famous Temples Dedicated To Lord Nagaraj

India is famous for its temples and famous amongst them dedicated to Lord Nagaraj are:

Mannarashala Temple in Kerala

Kukke Subramanya in Karnataka

Bhujang Naga Temple in Gujurat

Tirunageswaram Temple in Tirunageaswaram

Nagaraja Temple in Nagarcoil, Tamil Nadu

Ghatti Subramanya Temple in Karnataka

Agasanahalli Nagappa near Davangere in Karnataka

Seshnag Lake in Kashmir Valley
Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 23/02/2017 (2088 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Manitoba government is providing more assistance to refugee claimants as it continues to press the federal government to step up its response to the steady stream of asylum seekers pouring into Canada from the United States at Emerson.

At a news conference Thursday at Welcome Place, Premier Brian Pallister pledged $110,000 in additional funding to the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council to provide support services to refugee claimants including paralegal services and safe transportation to Winnipeg from the U.S. border.

The province will also provide $70,000 to the Manitoba Association of Newcomer Serving Organizations to hire a refugee response co-ordinator for a 12-month period.

And, it will immediately supply 14 new emergency housing units to meet the growing need for temporary shelter for asylum seekers. As of Wednesday, 111 refugee claimants had entered Canada illegally near Emerson since Jan. 1.

In a room packed with refugee-service providers, asylum seekers, government officials and journalists some from as far away as Japan  Pallister emphasized that Manitoba would continue to offer a warm welcome to the newcomers, but said Ottawa could be doing more to help.

This is a national issue, not solely one that we are facing here in Manitoba, he said. We must remember also that there is a need for a national and co-ordinated approach.

Pressed for specifics, the premier said the province is seeking improved information sharing from the federal government and assurances that services are effectively managed.

He suggested there must also be an acknowledgement from Ottawa that action is needed to address a situation that some would fear is getting somewhat out of hand.

I would encourage the federal government to move beyond the talking points of us having a worse problem 15 years ago and recognize there is a challenge today. We need to face the challenges of today together, the premier said.

Pallister sent a letter Tuesday to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau outlining his concerns. His staff would not divulge the contents of the letter, although Manitoba is said to be concerned about the length of time in which refugee claimants are the financial responsibility of the province  four months  before federal funding kicks in. Once it does arrive, federal settlement funding for refugee claimants lasts for only one year.

The province announced the modest new measures as it tackles a billion-dollar deficit and faces increasing costs on several fronts  from health care and education to a potentially expensive major spring flood.

Pallister has also been facing pressure for assistance from municipalities in dealing with asylum seekers. One prime concern is the stress put on local fire and paramedic services when refugee claimants cross the boundary on foot after spending hours in bone-chilling temperatures.

Greg Janzen, reeve of Emerson Franklin Municipality, said local volunteer firefighters, some of whom have first-responder training, have been answering numerous calls for help to assist the border-jumpers.

When we do get medical calls our first-responders are there before the ambulances, Janzen said Thursday.

There is also concern that the Southern Health authoritys paramedic resources are being stretched by calls at the border.

If there is a traffic accident out at Plum Coulee and all the ambulances are sitting at the border, somebody is not getting service, Janzen said.

WAYNE GLOWACKI / WINNIPEG FREE PRESS Premier Brian Pallister spoke at Welcome Place Thursday morning, where he pledged emergency funding for refugee applicants.

The reeve, who attended Thursdays news conference, said he was really happy that the premier indicated he would work with the Paramedic Association of Manitoba to station primary-care paramedics at Emerson on a temporary basis.

Eric Glass, administrative director with PAM, said his organization is interested in working with the province and Southern Health to place a paramedic in the border community to assess asylum seekers and provide any initial care required. He said such a move would not necessarily require the presence of an ambulance.

We want to make this happen because we think its something that the community will benefit from, Glass said.

Along with announcing new supports for agencies that provide services to refugee claimants, the province announced Thursday that it would introduce new programs to assist newcomers to find employment as soon as they are able to work legally in Canada.

Education and Training Minister Ian Wishart said the province will spend $1.1 million in the coming year on four pilot projects with training centres such as Red River College and the Manitoba Institute of Trades and Technology to provide job skills in such areas as construction, manufacturing and the hospitality industry.

Meanwhile, the recipients of the new funding announced Thursday were thankful for the support.

We are absolutely delighted that the premier and the government of Manitoba have made this announcement, said Rita Chahal, executive director of the Manitoba Interfaith Immigration Council. We dont have a lot of the details yet, but we look forward to working with them to ensure that this money is used effectively in the service delivery (for) refugee claimants.

Asked whether the $110,000 in extra funding would be sufficient given the likelihood of many more asylum seekers entering the province in the future, she said: Its too early to speculate, but we will monitor it (the situation).

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca
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A retired Canadian Forces soldier is accused of committing a sex assault at CFB Shilo last May.

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Hey there, time traveller!

This article was published 25/07/2017 (1936 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A decorated war veteran in Brandon said he feels let down by his country after Veterans Affairs Canada refused him funding for a much-needed hearing aid.

Richard Leslie, a 92-year-old retired master warrant officer, is deaf in his right ear and cannot converse without an outdated hearing aid in his left ear  a consequence of his exposure to heavy artillery and explosions during the Second World War, he said.

Veterans Affairs has denied both his initial request for funding and his appeal. A letter from Veterans Affairs, which Leslie shared with The Brandon Sun, states that according to our Departmental Entitlement Eligibility Guideline for Hearing Loss, there is no evidence you were exposed to enough noise during service to cause permanent decibel losses.

Tim Smith/The Brandon Sun Retired Canadian Armed Forces Master Warrant Officer Richard Leslie, seen at his home in Brandon, is appealing to Veterans Affairs to cover the cost of a new hearing aid. Leslie is hearing impaired and attributes his hearing loss to his time in the military, especially during the Second World War.

The response is something Leslie takes issue with.

Im not even a citizen anymore. Theyve wrote me off as a nut. They dont give a damn, he said. They took my blood, they took my energy, they took my life. Now when I want something back, they wont give it to me. Some days you get a little ugly.

Leslie joined the Canadian Forces in 1943, shipping off to England when he was only 19 years old.

I landed in England in a bomb raid, Leslie said, adding the experience was quite a shock.

Moving with the 1st Battalion Lincoln and Welland Regiment, Leslie was fighting along the Maas River as they attempted to cross the German lines.

Unbeknownst to us, (the Germans) were breaking through on the bulge  there were 10,000 to 20,000 Germans ready to make a move, Leslie said. Three regiments were dashed down to the river and at exactly 5 oclock in the morning every gun, artillery piece  tanks, plus all our guns fired at once. There were 10,000 shells in the air.

The memories are still raw for Leslie, who broke down sobbing while sharing his experiences of war.

We advanced and found a trench the Germans had used. We cleaned it up and put up sandbags and a machine gun, Leslie said. They were continuously shooting at us with machine guns. They brought the artillery down onto us  within 50 feet. My buddy said, I think I can get that sniper, I can see him down behind that brick building. We had a little notch  a four-inch square in the sandbags  and a bullet came through and touched him.

Leslie still remembers his friend sitting back with a gasp after being hit, leaning back in his chair to demonstrate how he fell. Leslie said he bandaged him up and checked for a pulse, but he was gone.

Two and a half days later, I still had him with me. I still hadnt got out of the trench. My hands were frozen, my feet were frozen, Leslie said.

In an effort not to freeze to death, Leslie rolled himself out of the trench and was picked up and taken to a medical tent. His shoes had to be cut off his feet.

I went through many battles, I had hearing problems (even back then), Leslie said. We had the guys running around with Red Cross patches on them. They were trained in first aid but they werent doctors  Theyd give me some cotton batten and oil so (my ears) wouldnt hurt, and Id go back to duty.

In the grand scheme of things, hearing was the last thing on anyones mind back then, Leslie said.

I would wear cotton batten in my ears for weeks at time. Theyd gradually get better, my ears would swell inside. But youre walking, youre talking, youre still healthy. Theres only three ways of getting out of the front line  bleeding that they cant stop, bones protruding or youre dead, Leslie said.

Now, the hearing loss is taking its toll.

Leslie is unable to answer or converse over the phone, as all he can hear is muffled noises. He says he often feels isolated, especially when out in public.

Its not the best. If I go out for supper and theres six people at the table, I cant understand any of them  Im totally lost. So I sit back and shut up, which is hard for me to do, Leslie said with a chuckle. It separates you from people.

When reached for comment, Veterans Affairs Canada said it could not comment on a specific veterans case, as the department is legally bound to protect client privacy and confidentiality.

The care and well-being of veterans and their families is a priority for Veterans Affairs Canada, and we are committed to ensuring veterans have access to the services and benefits to which they are entitled, a Veterans Affairs spokesperson said via email.

In 2015-16, the department made 5,247 hearing loss decisions, of which 55 per cent were favourable, the spokesperson said. Decisions are based on evidence presented and legislated eligibility requirements.

Leslie said he hasnt given up, and is looking at other options he has  including going before the Veterans Review and Appeal Board with the assistance of a lawyer. However, the board is most likely in Winnipeg, and he doesnt have approval from his doctor to travel.

Despite his disappointment with the department, Leslie said he doesnt regret his career in the military.

Youre always a proud soldier. Im proud of what Ive done, Ive done my best, Leslie said. All I want is support now  I need support.

 edebooy@brandonsun.com

 Twitter: @erindebooy
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The 2022-2024 edition of "Cancer Treatment & Survivorship Facts & Figures" is now available to help the public health community better met the unique needs of an expanding and diverse population of cancer survivors. The bottom line? The number of people living after a cancer diagnosis keeps rising, naturally due to population growth and aging, plus better treatment and early detection. And racial/ethnic disparities in cancer care persist.
Published On Jul 27, 2017 12:02 PM By Rachit Shad

This stern step is to curb the rising levels of nitrogen oxide in the air quality index

The United Kingdom (UK) has been grabbing the headlines for different reasons in the recent past. One of the biggest eye openers was when the citizens of the European country voted in favour of Brexit, supporting the countrys leaders to move out of the European Union (EU). While the transition period for Brexit will take a while to process completely, the country has now announced that it will ban the sale of all petrol, diesel and hybrid vehicles (cars and vans) from 2040. This move comes less than a month after UKs neighbouring country, France, announced that it will ban the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles from 2040.

Unsurprisingly, this decision to ban the sale of any sort of car or van which has an internal combustion engine is to curb the rising levels of nitrogen oxide in the air quality index. This, along with several other carbon-based gases, is impacting peoples health and in one recent year, it was tagged as the primary reason for the loss of productivity worth 2.7 billion GBP (Rs 2,275 crore). Ministers have been urged to introduce charges for vehicles to enter a series of clear air zones (CAZ). However, the UK government only wants taxes to be considered as a last resort, fearing a backlash against any move that penalises motorists.

Both UK and France are actually trying to catch up with another European nation, Norway. The Scandinavian country has the highest penetration of electric vehicle sales in the entire world and has set itself a target of selling 100 per cent electric or plug-in hybrids by 2025.

The central government of India got everyones attention when it announced a super-ambitious plan of 100 per cent electric transportation throughout the country by 2030. That does sound far-fetched even if we only consider the size of our country in comparison to that of France or UK. On top of that, if we are trying to improve our air quality, why are hybrids being burdened with more tax than a normal gas guzzler? It surely is a strange world we live in!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: In Atlanta, Soyia Ellison, soyia.ellison@cartercenter.org

In Nairobi, Don Bisson, don.bisson@cartercenter.org or +254 (0) 741 768 354

NAIROBI  In a pre-election statement released today, The Carter Center commended Kenyas Independent Election and Boundaries Commission on its efforts to keep the Aug. 8 election on track despite many challenges. It noted the heightened political competition in Kenya that has resulted from the devolution of power to the counties and the inclusion of many independent candidates, calling it evidence of a strengthening democratic culture.

At the same time, the Center said it remains concerned about the rising tensions witnessed in the campaigns and the level of violence that has prevailed throughout the pre-election period. Recent calls by President Uhuru Kenyatta and his main challenger, Raila Odinga, for an end to political intolerance are encouraging but insufficient. The Center urges politicians and other key stakeholders to continue to denounce all acts of violence and violations of the electoral Code of Conduct. Candidates also should refrain from using any campaign tactics or language that could incite their supporters to engage in violent or illegal behavior.

The Carter Center conducts election observation missions in accordance with the Declaration of Principles for International Election Observation and Code of Conduct that has been endorsed by 50 election observation groups. Its pre-election statement is based on the work of the Centers core team and 12 long-term observers, who have been in the country since mid-April and have visited 37 counties and 153 constituencies and attended more than 50 rallies to date.

Shortly before election day, more than 60 short-term observers  led by former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and former Prime Minister of Senegal Aminata Toure  will join the team on the ground and fan out across the country on election day to assess the voting, counting, and tabulation processes.

Among the key findings and recommendations in the Carter Centers pre-election statement are:

IEBC. The current IEBC commissioners were appointed only eight months before the general election. Since that time, they have worked to keep the election on track despite many challenges that have delayed preparations. While the IEBC has done a good job in demanding circumstances, its task has been made more difficult by a lack of communication with stakeholders and insufficient transparency about its decision-making. The IEBC should take steps to increase transparency and communication with electoral stakeholders and the general public so that they are effectively informed during the remaining electoral period. Candidates should refrain from making unsubstantiated attacks on the credibility and impartiality of the IEBC and the courts.

Code of Conduct and Election Environment. The intensity of the campaign has increased as election day draws near, bringing an increase in the number of reported violations of the electoral Code of Conduct. Carter Center observers have reported that violations of some parts of the Code of Conduct were not addressed by any of the responsible institutions. The Center encourages the IEBC to be proactive in identifying and prosecuting violations of campaign regulations in last weeks of the campaign. The Center calls on all Kenyan citizens and candidates to commit to holding competitive elections without conflict and to take all steps necessary to secure a peaceful electoral environment.

Voter Education. With less than two weeks until the election, Center observers have noted a lack of education on voting day procedures. The Center urges the IEBC, political parties, and civil society to use the available time before election day to increase voter education and outreach efforts.

Voter Registry and Identification. The IEBCs dedication to a comprehensive and independent audit of the voter register is a positive sign that it is committed to addressing shortcomings noted in prior elections. While the IEBC has taken efforts to correct inaccuracies in the voter register identified by an independent audit, there was insufficient time to act on all recommendations. As a result, inaccuracies persist, including a high number of deceased voters on the register. The IEBC has correctly argued that the biometric voter identification system is designed to prevent any malpractice on election day. However, its success is dependent on the proper functioning of the nationwide Kenya Integrated Elections Management System (KIEMS) network under full election-day strain. The IEBC should follow through on its plan for a countrywide KIEMS simulation on July 31 to ensure that the technology will function properly and that each polling station has sufficient back-up batteries.

Security Personnel. It is imperative that all security personnel deployed for election day be properly trained and prepared for all eventualities that could emerge to ensure that they respond in an appropriate and impartial manner. It is also important that security forces are not deployed in such a way as to deter voters from voting.

###

"Waging Peace. Fighting Disease. Building Hope."

A not-for-profit, nongovernmental organization, The Carter Center has helped to improve life for people in over 80 countries by resolving conflicts; advancing democracy, human rights, and economic opportunity; preventing diseases; and improving mental health care. The Carter Center was founded in 1982 by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter and former First Lady Rosalynn Carter, in partnership with Emory University, to advance peace and health worldwide.
State Street Corporation, through its subsidiaries, provides a range of financial products and services to institutional investors worldwide. The company offers investment servicing products and services, including custody; product accounting; daily pricing and administration; master trust and master custody; depotbank services; record-keeping; cash management; foreign exchange, brokerage and other trading services; securities finance and enhanced custody products; deposit and short-term investment facilities; loans and lease financing; investment manager and alternative investment manager operations outsourcing; performance, risk, and compliance analytics; and financial data management to support institutional investors. It also engages in the provision of portfolio management and risk analytics, as well as trading and post-trade settlement services with integrated compliance and managed data. In addition, the company offers investment management strategies and products, such as core and enhanced indexing, multi-asset strategies, active quantitative and fundamental active capabilities, and alternative investment strategies. Further, it provides services and solutions, including environmental, social, and governance investing; defined benefit and defined contribution; and global fiduciary solutions, as well as exchange-traded fund under the SPDR ETF brand. The company provides its products and services to mutual funds, collective investment funds and other investment pools, corporate and public retirement plans, insurance companies, foundations, endowments, and investment managers. State Street Corporation was founded in 1792 and is headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts.
Your next vacation will be a cruise, and it will be a relaxing, uninterrupted getaway to paradise, right? Wrong. If youre thinking about taking a cruise, you might want to reconsider  especially after reading this.

Although youve had idyllic visions of lounging poolside without a care in the world, your dream vacation could turn into your worst nightmare. When it comes to sailing the open seas, disaster might be on the horizon. Seasoned cruisers and first-timers alike, its time to heed caution. Heres the awful truth about cruising and why you shouldnt step foot on a cruise ship ever again.

1. Unqualified doctors

If youre ever on a cruise ship and you find yourself in the infirmary, buyer beware. Although were not suggesting all, or even most, cruise ship doctors arent held to a high standard, there have been cases where the professionalism is lacking.

According to Charles Lipcon, a cruise-line maritime attorney in Miami, health care professionals aboard cruise ships could be licensed anywhere. The cruise line is not responsible for bad medical care as long as they hire a qualified physician, Lipcon told MSN. Additionally, hes seen cases where a ships doctor was a graduate of a medical school in the Dominican Republic but didnt actually have a license. Yikes.

2. Flu outbreak

Much like a college dorm, a cruise ship full of sick people is your worst nightmare. One person catches a bug, and it spreads like wildfire. What do you do? Where do you go? Theres simply no escape. Even if you retreat to your uncomfortable quarters, youre still not out of harms way  and your small fortune spent on your dream vacation is suddenly out the window.

Still not convinced? Just check out Fortunes list of the cruise lines with the most stomach bug outbreaks  in other words, the cruise lines youd never want to step foot on.

3. Theres nowhere to turn

Remember that Carnival Cruise back in 2013 where everyone was pooping in buckets  or whatever else they could find? Yeah, well, that could happen to you should you choose to venture out onto the open seas. Due to an engine fire, passengers aboard Carnivals Triumph were stuck at sea for almost a week, proving the ship was more of a failure than a success.

Quite shockingly, though, being dubbed the poop cruise didnt seem to matter much. Business Insider reported the cruise lines been doing just fine.

4. People vanish

Although it might sound like a pirates tale, people do still disappear from cruise ships today. Turns out a suspicious amount of people leave for cruises every year, never to step on shore again. So just how many people are we talking? According to CruiseJunkie.com, a whopping 116 people went missing from 2011 to 2015 alone. It might not sound like a ton, but its about 116 more than it should be. Book a cruise, and you might be walking the plank.

5. Theres crime

Imagine yourself in a big city, walking around with your personal belongings in tow. Now, picture the same scenario, only youre trapped on a boat with no escape from predators. Lounging poolside with a cocktail in hand, thieves have open season on your personal possessions. And even scarier than that, the types of crimes reported go far beyond simple robbery.

Not only are there incidents, such as thefts, but theres no shortage of sexual assault crimes aboard large cruise ships either. Just take a look at some of the cases documented on International Cruise Victims. Safety should always be a top priority when traveling, but unfortunately being on a cruise ship might offer some passengers a false sense of security.

6. No police on board

Speaking of a lawless land  or deck, in this case  there are no official police officers on board a cruise ship, which means youll have to put your faith entirely in the hands of hired security. And as NPR reports, prosecuting crimes committed at sea is often tough for a number of reasons. For instance, crime scenes are often contaminated, and who has jurisdiction depends on where the ship happens to be located when the alleged crime is committed.

7. The laws of international waters arent crystal clear

Just because youre sailing through international waters doesnt mean youre destined for a criminal free-for-all. But it does mean prosecuting, convicting, and punishing a criminal might be more difficult than youd expect. More specifically, admiralty law applies in international waters. According to NPR, Its up to the captain of the ship, for instance, to decide whether to incarcerate someone suspected of committing a crime. The FBI will investigate if a United States citizen is involved, but its often too late at that point.

8. The buffet is far from healthy

Even if youre committed to seeking out the freshest, healthiest, very best culinary options a ship has to offer, youre probably not going to be eating as well as you normally do. Although most ships have a whole host of options, youre still stuck with what youre given. And no matter what theyre serving, anything thats whipped up for the masses isnt likely to be of super high quality. If its a top-notch culinary experience youre after, youre better off steering clear of a cruise  or at least the buffet.

9. Collisions

Youd think by now major cruise lines would have the exact routes of these mega ships pretty dialed. Youd think. Yet still, accidents happen, and the open waters can challenge even the most seasoned of captains and crews. Confident it would never happen to you? In 2012, the Costa Concordia, owned by Carnival, capsized in Italy, killing 32 passengers. And though you might be thinking the same thing about planes  a plane could crash, but you still fly  do all the other cons of cruising really outweigh the pros? Thats your call.

10. Cabin fever

You dont have to be an adrenaline junkie or claustrophobic to suffer from cabin fever on a cruise. Whether your dream vacation is not having to move a muscle or you prefer to be on the move 24/7, cruise ships are simply a disaster waiting to happen for some folks.

It might seem like youll be able to soak up the sun in peace, but think about all the other people whove paid to do the very same thing. Suddenly, youre fighting someone for a pool chair. When youre ready to leave the overcrowded areas youd hoped would be enjoyable, your last resort is to retire to your room. And if youve never experienced cabin fever before, dont worry. Youll soon figure out how it got its name.

11. Cruise ships destroy coral reefs

Environmentalist or not, theres no denying the serious threats our world is facing. Global warming has been wreaking havoc on the planet for decades, and cruise ships arent helping the problem. In fact, theyre doing quite the opposite.

With their traffic, unethical waste disposal, and their pollution of various other forms, there can be little doubt cruise ships are having a hugely negative impact on the survival of the coral reef and other ecosystems, Eluxe Magazine says. If this is the first youre hearing about the suffering of coral reefs, you can learn more about the dire state of them, and other sea life, at ChasingCoral.com.

12. Too many drunk people

So that relaxing getaway vacation you wanted? Its probably not a cruise, at least not on one of the more commercial cruise lines. The thing about cruises is they have a huge market for people who want nothing more than to party without a care in the world  spring break style. And the trouble is theres no running from your co-passengers obnoxious behaviors.

Getting drunk on a cruise is par for the course, not to mention its super easy. Bars abound, and theres nothing like getting a good day buzz on as youre baking in the sun. And why should they stop? Cruise-goers can stumble back to their rooms, without having to worry about getting in trouble. But remember that whole no police on board thing? Yeah.

13. Bedbugs

Just like any motel, hotel, hostel, or inner-city apartment building, cruise ships are susceptible to unwanted critters, too. And what are some of the worst bugs anyone could possibly ask for, especially on vacation? Bedbugs, of course. As Cruise Critic points out, infestations, though rare, can and do occur on large cruise ships. And once an outbreak hits, theres a good chance youll be returning home with more than just empty pockets (more on that in a bit).

14. Seasickness

Even if you can withstand moderate motion on land, your tolerance might be no match for a large ship sailing the open seas. Think youre not at risk? Think again. According to Medical News Today, About 33% of people are susceptible to motion sickness even in mild circumstances, such as being on a boat in calm water, although nearly 66% of people are susceptible in more severe conditions. Theres an entire song dedicated to not rocking the boat  and for good reason.

15. Expensive excursions

Major cruise lines have done a pretty bang-up job with their marketing. After all, who wouldnt be tempted to take a cruise to the Caribbean for dirt-cheap prices? But be careful what youre booking. You just might end up spending far more than you had anticipated. In most cases, everything you do that doesnt require eating at the buffet or tanning on the sun deck will cost you a pretty penny. So again, buyer beware.
Corruption and economic turmoil often go hand-in-hand. In western nations, we often see corruption come to light as the result of whistleblowers or journalistic efforts. But in many other areas of the world, corruption plays a major role in fostering staggering poverty and broken economic systems. Often, this kneecaps a nations ability to function.

In some countries, specific power structures and government architectures provide an easier means for corrupt officials to exploit the system. Many governments have their roots in constitutions written generations ago and have outgrown their current systems. Other countries simply lack a centralized power structure.

How do you quantify corruption? Transparency International has managed to do it by developing a comprehensive list of the worlds most corrupt countries. The annual report ranks countries on a scale from 0 to 100, with zero being the most corrupt, and 100 being the least.

Ranking worldwide corruption

Although not among the top fifteen, weve also included the United States to give some perspective as to where America ranks internationally. By Transparency Internationals calculations and scale, the U.S. is doing quite well  but well get to that.

Here are the most corrupt nations in the world, as ranked by Transparency Internationals 2015 report.

15. Eritrea

Corruption score: 18

18 Power structure: Single-Party Presidential Democracy

Corruption in Eritrea is getting worse. The country vaulted from No. 25 in 2013 to No. 10 in 2014, for example. Eritrea is located in Africa, bordering the Red Sea directly across from Saudi Arabia, bordering Djibouti to the south and Sudan to the north. Eritrea is a small and relatively poor country, with a GDP of only $3.44 billion, and a population of 6.3 million. Most of its issues stem from the recent influx of foreign investment and its single-party government.

14. Syria

Corruption score: 18

18 Power structure: Presidential Republic

There isnt a country on Earth that is in worse shape than Syria right now. Syria has been in a state of civil war since the Arab Spring, and theres no end in sight. Its caused mass migrations to Europe and created issues in the United States as well. Russia and ISIS are involved, too. Needless to say, its a mess. President Bashar al-Assad is still holding on to power, and theres really no indication as to how the country can get back on track.

13. Turkmenistan

Corruption score: 18

18 Power structure: Presidential Democracy/Authoritarian

Bordered by Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, and Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan lies in a virtual hotbed of corrupt states. With the constant turmoil all over the Middle East, its been very easy for the country to fall into corrupt affairs. Many concern the authoritarian presidential figure, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow.

The CIAs file says the country is a secular democracy and presidential republic. But in practice, its government more closely resembles an authoritarian dictatorship. The country itself was founded as a result of the Soviet Unions collapse and the resulting power struggle has left the nation highly corrupt and vulnerable to tomfoolery.

12. Yemen

Corruption score: 18

18 Power structure: Constitutional Republic

Yemen, like many other Middle Eastern countries, is muddled in conflict. Its adjacent to Oman and Saudia Arabia and borders the Persian Gulf to the west. Given its location, its been swept up in many of the issues plaguing the Middle East. Its undergoing its own civil war, as Syria is, with rival factions vying for control of the government.

11. Haiti

Corruption score: 17

17 Power structure: Presidential Republic

The problems in Haiti became quite clear in the wake of the devastating earthquake in 2010. The quake killed more than 300,000 people, and the governments inability to handle the aftermath became clear. Much of the corruption in the country stems from collusion among the rich and politicians. Corruption is still a serious issue, but things continue to improve.

10. Guinea-Bissau

Corruption score: 17

17 Power structure: Semi-Presidential Republic

If youve never heard of Guinea-Bissau, youre not alone. The country is located in western Africa, between Guinea and Senegal. Guinea-Bissau is home to 1.7 million people, the vast majority of whom are relatively poor. Corruption is something of a national pastime, too. Since being founded in the early 1970s, no president has ever finished a term in office. The country is also a major hub for trafficking and organized crime.

9. Venezuela

Corruption score: 17

17 Power structure: Federal Republic

Venezuela is a mess. Hugo Chavez, elected in 1998, caused a number of issues, and the nationalization of the countrys rich oil reserves created more. Money that was supposed to go to the people was instead being funneled to high-ranking government officials. Since then, things have deteriorated even more. The countrys currency is nearly worthless, and its economy is in serious trouble.

8. Iraq

Corruption score: 16

16 Power structure: Federal Parliamentary Constitutional Republic

The current state of affairs in Iraq is fairly messy. After the second American invasion in 15 years, the pullout of U.S. forces has left Iraq a virtual power vacuum, with several different sects fighting for power over the embattled nation. Fighting is mostly concentrated between the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis, but the arrival of ISIS from Syria is adding to the issues.

Iraqs vast wealth and natural resources have made it a target for all kinds of industry and war profiteers. And, unsurprisingly, corruption. Iraq has actually seen some economic growth as the country rebuilds itself, but there is also a lot of outside interference from American and European contracting companies, hired to rebuild infrastructure and tap into the countrys oil reserves.

7. Libya

Corruption score: 16

16 Power structure: Transitional

Few nations have experienced as much turmoil over the past few years as Libya. The countrys government saw its downfall during a mass uprising and protest. That ultimately led to protestors parading around with the body of former president Muammar Gaddafi on the streets. The countrys fall was a part of the Arab Spring.

Libya is still in a state of turmoil. No formal government has taken root, and fighting between rebels and those loyal to the old administration is still taking place. Due to the high levels of uncertainty, the countrys GDP contracted 9.4% during 2013, according to The World Bank. The power vacuum has left open a great opportunity for arms dealers and corrupt military higher-ups to take charge and profit.

6. Angola

Corruption score: 15

15 Power structure: Republic

Angola, located along southern Africas western coast, has jumped several spots on the Corruption Index in recent years. There are many forms that it takes, from the looting of state assets by government officials to widespread money laundering and embezzlement. Angola is rich with oil reserves, which attract a lot of attention. That makes it a corruption magnet. Also, its the worst place in the world to be a child.

5. South Sudan

Corruption score: 15

15 Power structure: Republic

South Sudan officially declared independence in 2011. That, following long-standing conflicts with its parent country, Sudan, which gained its independence in 1956. Between the mid-1950s and now, conflicts in the region have resulted in the deaths of as many as 2.5 million people, or so the CIA contends. South Sudan now stands as an independent republic, composed of 10 states.

A nation still in its infancy, South Sudan does not have the traditional long-standing government structures in place that many others do. This has led to ripe opportunities for corrupt politicians to step in. The country remains mostly undeveloped, and its citizens participate in a largely subsistence-based economic system. One other issue is the lack of a sense of nationhood among the 200 or so distinct ethnic groups occupying the country.

4. Sudan

Corruption score: 12

12 Power structure: Federal Republic

Long-standing conflicts between competing factions and ethnic groups have destabilized Sudans ability to efficiently operate from an economic standpoint. The result has been devastating to many of the countrys citizens. South Sudan has also recently broken off from the rest of the country, taking with it vast oil reserves. CNN reports that Sudans GDP is expected to continue to contract due to South Sudans departure.

According to the CIA, the country is ruled by the National Congress Party. The NCP came to power after a coup detat in 1989, and has not been able to successfully repair the nations issues. As a result of the prolonged instability, Sudans GDP has tanked since spiking in 2006.

3. Afghanistan

Corruption score: 11

11 Power structure: Islamic Republic

Afghanistans nickname is the graveyard of empires, and for good reason.

The country has been loosely held together by a central government that largely lacks power, and has been carved up by numerous local tribal leaders and warlords. The countrys now-former president Hamid Karzai was notoriously corrupt  hes been recently busted for taking bagfuls of money from the American military, among other things. Afghanistan is also home to an enormous amount of the worlds heroin production, which has brought lots of wealth to a lucky few.

Tie  1. North Korea

Corruption score: 8

8 Power structure: Dictatorship

The CIA lists North Koreas government as a communist state one-man dictatorship, with an estimated GDP of $28 billion as of 2009.

The inner workings of the North Korean government and economy are quite mysterious. While it does receive aid from countries like China, North Korea has had problems producing enough fuel and food to properly care for its citizens. Military spending far outweighs spending on social programs and aid, mostly to put on appearances for the rest of the world in their famous outbursts of saber-rattling.

The countrys major issues can be traced back to a number of natural disasters and the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the land, people and equipment have all been worn out over the years, according to a CNN report. With little hope for change in the near future, North Korea is destined to remain one of the planets most corrupt and destitute nations.

Tie  1. Somalia

Corruption score: 8

8 Power structure: Almost none; in the process of building a federal parliamentary republic  CIA

Somalia may just be the most unstable country on the entire planet. The country has become infamous in the United States for piracy, and the Blackhawk Down incident. Somalia is being loosely held together by a central government. The reality, however, is that its being run by a number of competing clans and warlords.

Life in Somalia is notoriously tough. On the economic front, many people make a living from raising livestock or farming, and others from fishing. Of course, with things remaining such a mess at the top of the power structure, any long-term planning for social programs and infrastructure is difficult. According to The World Bank, only 29% of the countrys population has been enrolled in school, and life expectancy is only 55 years. Both of these numbers rank well below most other countries and provide some insight into the internal strife the country is experiencing.

Beyond these things, information on the inner workings of Somalias government and its economic system are scarce. That alone is rather telling, as corrupt officials may not want outsiders seeing the true picture of whats going on inside the countrys borders.

What about the United States?

Corruption score: 76

76 Power structure: Democratic Republic

Many Americans think that our government is plenty corrupt. But in comparison to the rest of the world? Were a role model. Overall, the U.S. ranks as the 17th-least corrupt country in the world.

We have a great deal of corruption in many forms, like lobbying, bribery, and gerrymandering. But according to the corruption index, the U.S. pales in comparison to countries in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The U.S. clearly has issues to work out. With the status quo firmly set in place, however, there isnt much indication that citizens should expect changes in the near term.

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700 child refugees from South Sudan every week: 700 World Vision bears on St Paul's stairs

Seven hundred teddy bears were placed on the steps of London's St Paul's Cathedral today as part of a campaign by the international children's charity World Vision to highlight the plight of child refugees, 700 of whom are crossing the border from South Sudan into Uganda every week.

The colourful stunt highlights the growing refugee crisis in Uganda where nearly a million South Sudanese people have taken refuge in settlements, including the world's largest, Bidi Bidi.

World Vison says more than 150,000 child refugees in mass settlements in northern Uganda require therapy after fleeing the violence in neighbouring South Sudan.

World Vision's media officer Carey Lodge said: 'The campaign is called Bears on the Stairs and it's to highlight the growing refugee crisis in South Sudan, where almost a million South Sudanese people have fled across the border and now live in Uganda.

'More than half of those are children  more than half a million in total  and this campaign in particular is about the fact that every single week around 700 children flee either unaccompanied, are separated from their parents or at risk, so lots of these children are coming without their parents, having seen them killed or lost them along the way. Lots of children have had really traumatic experiences.

'The aim of the campaign is to highlight the plight of the children  particularly those who come unaccompanied and have no adult to turn to for help.'

Psychologists and child welfare experts working in the Imvepi and Bidi Bidi refugee settlements of Uganda say nearly all children arriving in the country require psychosocial first aid. Most have suffered and witnessed terrible brutality as the civil war intensifies in South Sudan. Some 60 per cent need urgent specialist therapy to treat the effects of conflict-related stress disorders.

Lodge said World Vision has been working in the refugee settlements, including on the foster programme for unaccompanied children who have fled, providing books, schooling, and meeting basic needs.

'What's so incredible about it, is it is refugee families who are taking in the refugee children  taking in more children on top of their biological kids,' she said.

Another area in which World Vision is helping is 'child friendly spaces', which Lodge says are 'safe spaces for children to come and play and just be kids again, with lots of swing sets and playground equipment'.

There are also 'peace clubs' for children who have only known violence since the civil war in 2013, with South Sudan only having become a country in 2011.

'In peace clubs we teach them about love and forgiveness  how to love and care for one another and not respond with violence to any difficulties,' Lodge explained.

'Our team in the settlements shows the way the community really shifts as a result of the peace clubs and the children learning about love and forgiveness and taking it back to their parents.'

Finally, there is psycho-social counselling to address what Lodge describes as the 'significant mental health crisis'. She continued: 'When the children first come, they don't know how to be normal, can't speak or play. The programmes we put them through help them to reintegrate back into normal society, to deal with those traumatic instances.'

Official figures show that around 100 new children arrive at the settlements every day alone, sick or separated from their parents, with many of the children showing symptoms including insomnia, regressive behaviour, social withdrawal and violent or self-destructive outbursts.

Almost one million refugees have fled South Sudan into Uganda. The neighbouring refugee settlements of Bidi Bidi and Imvepi in Uganda are now home to over 397,000 South Sudanese people who have fled to safety. Among them are over 238,000 children. In June 2017, World Vision reached 285,963 refugees living in Uganda with assistance. Some 62 per cent of South Sudanese refugees in Uganda are children  86 per cent are women and children.

Support has come from the Game of Thrones actor Liam Cunningham who recently visited Uganda with World Vision. He said: 'I have watched the war weary and hungry from South Sudan arrive into a welcoming Uganda. They are images I won't soon forget. I urge the international community to move quickly to share responsibility for this crisis. Those that say it's not our problem, are the problem.'

World Vision has set up child friendly spaces in five of Uganda's 14 refugee settlements and has supported more than 40,000 children with child protection projects and education.

The charity has been collaborating with the Transcultural Psychosocial Organisation (TPO) to ensure children suffering from high levels of trauma get the specialist support they need. Children in these child friendly spaces are assessed for their psychosocial needs and referred to TPO specialists if they need advanced intervention.

A clinical psychologist at TPO, Dorothy Namara, says: 'Most of the children suffer nightmares, inability to sleep, and are withdrawn. Some have hallucinations  believing that people who attacked them in South Sudan have found them in Uganda.

'"Trauma is like a wound  a silent wound. When a silent wound is not treated, it keeps eating slowly. When trauma is not treated in early childhood, then it manifests in adulthood.'

The Ugandan government, TPO, World Vision and other agencies working in the settlements say they lack the resources to cope with the psychological demands, not least because according to experts, most aid has been channelled towards other humanitarian aid and relief efforts.
Missionary held captive with ISIS jihadis begged God to free him - until he brought cellmates to Jesus and realized his suffering had a purpose

The Bible tells us the Lord will be with us when we go through deep waters. But when it comes to it, we often forget or just don't believe it because the suffering is too great.

That was the experience of one missionary who was serving in Sudan when he found himself thrown into prison on espionage charges.

Sudan is largely Muslim but became extremely hostile to Christians after splitting from South Sudan in 2011, with many Christians being forced to leave the country.

Voice of the Martyrs missionary Petr Jasek, from the Czech Republic, travelled to Sudan to visit Christian leaders there but when agents found some video recordings they accused him of spying on the government and he was sentenced to 20 years in prison. Thankfully, the Czech Republic was able to negotiate his release and he was freed after 14 months behind bars.

It's 14 months he'll never forget.

Sharing his horrifying ordeal to CBN News, he described how one of the people he shared the cell with was a man from Libya who said he had been a personal guard for Osama Bin Laden at just 12-years-old and was one of the jihadis who mercilessly murdered 20 Egyptian Christians on a Libyan beach in 2015.

In one particularly frightening situation, the jihadi threatened to kill Jasek with a fishing string.

'He took out a fishing string, quite a strong fishing string from his pocket and he was showing how he could kill a person within a few seconds with this fishing string. He told me if I was an American or Russian that he would break my neck immediately and kill me,' he recalls.

To his horror he discovered that the other men in the cell were just as extreme in their views. When they asked him to share some news from the outside world, he told them that 129 people had been killed in a terrorist attack in Paris. Instead of being dismayed, they celebrated.

'They interrupted me and they started to shout, 'Allahu Akbar' for several minutes. So, immediately I knew the company that I was in and I stopped telling them anymore news,' he said.

Jasek described being called a 'filthy pig' or filthy rat', beaten, slapped, punched and hit with a wooden stick on a regular basis.

As a result of the mistreatment, he says spent the first four months of his captivity praying to God to free him. But that changed when he was able to lead some Eritrean prisoners to Christ. When that miracle happened, it gave him the courage to be a witness for Christ right there in the prison cell instead of trying to escape from the situation.

'And I suddenly started to realize that there is a purpose, the Lord has a purpose for me to be in prison to share the Gospel with those people,' he shared.

'And I started to be even more courageous to open my mouth and share the Gospel also with the Muslims who were in the previous cell with me.'
No Jesus and no Christmas cards could soon be a reality in Australian school campuses under new proposals

School kids who talk about Jesus or exchange Christmas cards with classmates could find themselves penalized under new proposals that would clamp down on references to Christianity on school campuses.

The Australian reports that an unofficial policy is being floated among Queensland education officials to ban references to Jesus in primary school yards.

The proposals come off the back of a review into religious instruction by the state's education department that could see the end of primary school kids being able to talk about Jesus with their peers or give them Christmas cards with Christian references.

According to the report in The Australian, young students may face consequences if they break the rules.

It quotes an advisory note from the education department that says, 'While not explicitly prohibited by the (legislation), nor referenced in the Religious Instruction (RI) policy, the department expects schools to take appropriate action if aware that students participating in RI are evangelising to students who do not.'

The report adds, 'This could adversely affect the school's ability to provide a safe, supportive and inclusive environment.'

Specific actions of concern to education officials include sharing Christmas cards that reference the birth of Jesus and giving home-made beaded bracelets to friends 'as a way of sharing the good news about Jesus.'

Not everyone agrees with the proposals, with Newcastle University's religion and law professor Neil Foster saying they were 'possibly illegal.'

Centre for Independent Studies senior research fellow Peter Kurti said it was a 'massive assault on freedom of speech and freedom of religion.'

'I don't think people are on the whole affronted by the handing out of Christmas cards,' he said.

It's not only in the school grounds that expressing faith is at risk in Australia. One teacher last year found himself facing disciplinary action after voicing opposition to same-sex marriage on a Facebook forum outside of school hours.

According to The Australian, Ian Shepherd, a teacher in Alice Springs, was presented with a notice to show cause over his comments. However, the Northern Territory Education Department decided later that it wouldn't take any action.
Schoolgirl describes trauma of being raped every day by ISIS 'beast' who chose her from 150 girls 'by drawing lots'

A Yazidi girl who was 14-years-old when she was kidnapped by the Islamic State terror group in northern Iraq has said she was raped every day for six months by a radical she described as a "beast."

The girl, identified as Ekhlas, told the BBC's Victoria Derbyshire show in an interview published on Monday that she tried to kill herself during the ordeal.

"He picked me out of 150 girls by drawing lots. He was so ugly, like a beast, with his long hair. He smelt so bad, I was so frightened I couldn't look at him," Ekhlas said of the man who abused her.

The girl was captured along with thousands of others in 2014 when close to 40,000 Yazidis took refuge at Mount Sinjar, looking to escape the radical Islamists.

Eventually she managed to escape while her captor was away and made it to the safety of a refugee camp.

"How am I telling you this without crying? I tell you I ran out of tears," she said in the interview.

Ekhlas is now receiving therapy and education in a psychiatric hospital in Germany, where she lives, and has been raising awareness about the atrocities carried out by the terror group.

Several other Yazidi activists have also spoken out about the horrors women and children are subjected to under IS' captivity.

Nadia Murad, who has shared her story in conferences around the world, returned in June to the liberated Yazidi village of Kojo in Iraq where she was taken and where her family was killed.

"We hoped our fate would be to be killed like the men instead of being sold and raped by Syrians, Iraqis ... Tunisians and Europeans," Murad said of the women and girls who were kidnapped by IS and sold into sex slavery.

She explained how an IS commander demanded the Yazidis convert to Islam, but the captives refused.

"He demanded we change our religion but nobody agreed."

"We heard the sound of shots. At first, we believed people had come to help us, but when we looked out of the windows ... we saw them killing the men," Murad continued.

"We cried to the U.N., Europe, Kurdistan and Iraq but nobody came to help us. Today, the village is surrounded by mass graves."

A separate report published by The Guardian on Tuesday shared the stories of several other women who had fled from the Islamic radicals.

Human rights lawyer and gender justice advocate Sherizaan Minwalla said, "Some of these women and girls resisted forced conversion, protected themselves against violence, or at least tried to, and protected their children. How they resisted really shows incredible intelligence, courage and strength,"

The report noted that it's difficult to estimate the precise number of Yazidis who are still being held by IS, though activists are urging for more action to rescue them.

"Sometimes I watch the TV and I see the news of the army taking more land and villages, but it's not this that we are worried about  it is our people who are still imprisoned," said Leila, one of the women who was sold as a sex slave.

"We know most of them are in Raqqa, so why are [the army] not going to save them there?" she asked.

This article was originally published in The Christian Post.
US evangelicals rally around new religious freedom ambassador Sam Brownback, while others go on the attack

Evangelicals have rallied around Donald Trump over his appointment of Sam Brownback as ambassador at large for religious freedom, while there has been sharp criticism from others including moderate Republicans.

The White House announced yesterday the nomination of the controversial governor of Kansas whose aggressively conservative fiscal and social polices turned some fellow Republicans as well as LGBT campaigners against him.

Brownback, 60, represented his home state in Congress before being elected to two terms as governor beginning in 2011.

On Twitter, he wrote yesterday: 'Religious Freedom is the first freedom. The choice of what you do with your own soul. I am honored to serve such an important cause.'

Evangelicals were quick to lavish praise on Brownback. David Jeremiah, the senior pastor at Shadow Mountain Community Church, said:'Once again the president has made a decision that I not only can applaud, but that I can celebrate with exuberance! Governor Sam Brownback is a known conservative, a tireless fighter for religious liberty, and he is a longtime friend to many of us. Well done, Mr President.'

Johnnie Moore, the founder and CEO of the KAIROS Company, said: 'There's no issue in the world I care more about than religious liberty. There is no person in the world that I know cares more about these issues than Governor Sam Brownback. The decision to take someone of his stature  a sitting governor  and put him in a position of this importance is hugely encouraging. I commend the president for making a brilliant decision and I call upon Congress to expedite this, and all of the president's outstanding appointments.'

And Samuel Rodriguez, the president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, who has at times been critical of Trump, said: 'The nomination of my dear friend [Brownback]...is a significant and very positive step in the right direction for our country and the world. In the case of the IRF Ambassador, the Trump Administration is ahead of the pace set by President Obama, who left the position vacant for over two years after his inauguration  and the faith community has taken note.'

The role was first filled by Suzan Johnson Cook, who served from May 2011 to October 2013. In 2014, President Barack Obama nominated Rabbi David Saperstein for the position. On December 15, 2014 the Senate confirmed him to the office, making him the first non-Christian to hold this post.

The position was created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. The first ambassador-at-large was Bob Seiple] who served from 1999 to 2001. He was succeeded by John Hanford who served from May 2002 until January 2009.

Rodriguez added: 'By appointing a sitting governor, this administration has elevated the importance of the position within the Department of State and has sent a powerful signal to the world that the United States is serious about preserving and defending the religious liberties of all believers. Religious liberty is the number one human rights issue of our day and is currently under siege in so many corners of the globe. In...Brownback I am confident the United States will once again assume its rightful place as the world's leader in preserving and expanding this most precious of all human liberties.'

The New York Times reported that Brownback's popularity has plummeted in recent years as the state slashed services and struggled to meet its revenue projections, thanks to 'Brownback's signature tax-cutting doctrine'. Despite the Republicans' dominance in Kansas, the party suffered losses in last year's legislative elections.

'He leaves behind a legacy of failed leadership,' said State Representative Melissa Rooker, a moderate Republican who has frequently opposed Brownback's policies.

Meanwhile Tom Witt, the executive director of the LGBT-rights group Equality Kansas, condemned Brownback's nomination because of his conservative views on issues such as same-sex marriage. 'He has caused enough damage here in Kansas,' Witt said in a statement. 'We do not wish him upon the world.'